Worlds Beyond Number - The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One #1: The Open Door

Episode Date: March 2, 2023

After a lifetime apart, three childhood friends are drawn back together by circumstance, by command, and by a danger that no one can yet begin to comprehend.Welcome, to the world of Umora. Welcome, to The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One.Worlds Beyond Number isBrennan Lee MulliganErika IshiiAabria IyengarLou Wilson and is produced, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate HorseWe have so much more to show you. An entire campaign about Suvi, Ame, and Eursulon meeting for the first time as children, for instance. And would you believe, even more? Please, join us at Patreon.com/worldsbeyondnumberAlbum art by the great Corey BrickleyTranscript of this episode available here.Gustav Holst's Holst The Planets Op.32 VII: Neptune The Mystic, appears courtesy of Bright Cloud Media Limited. 

This is the sound of worlds beyond number. Beautiful stars hang in the nighttime sky, celebrating the near full moon that shines light over a vast and endless rippling sea of tree tops, whose leaves are cast in indigo by the pale moonlight. Wind moves over them, feeling of brisk, chill air. the coming of winter.

And in all of this silver and violet, there is one cradled point of warm and orange light emanating from the cross-hatched and little dust-covered windows of a humble country tavern. Gotta start at a tavern. I mean, are we playing D&D?

Are we playing D&D? How you know? Quite heavily. I know. You got to understand the forms so you can subvert them. There you go. Exactly. You get it.

The tavern rests on the bend of a dirt road with comfortable wheel ruts alongside it. The road hugs the edge of a not too steep ridge that goes down into the series of orchards and vineyards. Small farmhouses now sleepy and quiet. as the nighttime has come with beautiful little lined and stone-walled fields of vines and peppers and grapes and tomatoes all hanging there with harvest right around the corner. The noise from the tavern is one of merry conversation as the travelers who just reached this remote village need to stop here for the night because the next tavern would be too far off on their journeys,

along with plenty of the villagers and farmers here who have come to share a drink and a meal among friends in this public house. Off in this far-flung pastoral place, there is no need to differentiate oneself from competition of other taverns, so the tavern bears no name or sign. It's the only tavern in town. But for those that need specify, it is often called the tavern by the well. A beautiful stone well rests off sort of partially in the road near the stable and is covered by the boughs of a very bold magnolia tree that is now in full blossom. And its white and pink petals sway in the wind over the well.

And looking in through the window, we see Mary Villagers, some travelers, a bar with a warm, lacquered wooden railing, and a figure behind the bar pretty effortlessly hoisting barrels up onto the back wall. Lou, could you describe your... Yes! Yeah, I'm happy to. Oh, my God. Do you want name or you just want description? Give me the name as well, although it's quite possible that you're the only person in the tavern who knows it. Oh, look at that.

Well, the person I'm describing is my character, Ursula Toma. I am a large, probably about six foot five, large, dark-skinned man, muscular, but not in like a, like a large, like I work out kind of way, just like a, you know, in a very attractive sort of way. Black stubble kind of a bit unkempt, but in that kind of, you know, rugged, kind of attractive way. But then bright red hair braided back behind his head very cleanly. And then Rich Hazel eyes. Ursulaan, most of the people here at the tavern by the well refer you simply as Toma, and probably a few have heard of that village,

even though you're many miles from it now. But those that don't, it's common enough as a given name that it certainly brooks less attention than Ursulaan. As you are lifting barrels up, You look out at the chamber here, and this is sort of the work that you have been hired to do here at the tavern. There's plenty of physical labor here to be done that you are more than equipped to be able to do. You look out into the common room with the sort of rich, pungent smell of pipe smoke that hangs and diffuses the light in this space, the candles that are lit and hanging from chandeliers, and there's a big roaring fire in the fireplace.

It's a very smoke-filled room, although it's a sweet wood smoke mixed with tobacco. And you see that there is an old man wearing brown traveler's clothes. He's got some sort of loose breeches, his boots sort of tied up with lace and cloth around his shins. And he has a vest with many trinkets and ornaments hanging from it, probably a traveling peddler of some kind, selling sort of wares and charms and things like that. He's got a couple days stubble, a little bit of sallow skin, and he is being fed by some of the villagers here, you can see, because he's a storyteller. And in this part of the world, that's close enough to some kind of priest or holy man that the folk of the village are sort of plying him with some belongings. A heel of bread and a little bit of soup is put in front of him by the innkeeper's daughter, who you know here, her name is Rosalind. And she puts it in front of him, and he says, oh, don't you kindly love, I appreciate it.

Well, no children, you gather, and saps up soup with the bread and eats it. You see this guy is hungry. And he looks at them, and he says, oh, have I seen the sea? I've seen the wide oceans and I've seen the far-off seas of Gouthmay and Rove. I've seen the inner seas beyond the ally, the islands around, the great city of Cairo, if you can believe that. And the kids look, a person coming from even four villages away. That is a huge, huge deal. And he looks out and one of the little children pipes up and says,

You've seen the whole world? And he goes, the whole world. Well, I've seen all of this world, certainly. And the kids all kind of grow hush. Oh, no. You certainly didn't think that this was the only world there was, did you? No, no. This is not the only world.

It's not even the first. There was a world before this one, children. And he leans in. I think at this point also, Ursula, starts putting the barrels, away just slower and quieter as he you know kind of turns part of his attention

to whatever this man is about to say you see one little precocious kid says not the first world what do you mean and in a sort of accusatory disbelieving tone and he says well you'll believe it or not but them's that's learning no

that the first world there was was the world of spirits great and powerful some were the sun and moon themselves and their king and queen the great storms beings high above and deep below

in that first world it was them that live there that made our world you know children sort of shudder and look at the storyteller as he then says, But you need not worry, children. For sure, there's them spirits

Great and mighty as the dawn. But there's spirits small and humble As a blade of grass, with stations no greater than a humble acorn or a seed of the field. The world of spirits is great. All around us, above, beneath, beyond, below.

You see that, the old man smiles at this point. Ursula, give me a perception check. You got us. First roll. First roll. First roll. Thirteen? Yeah.

You see that later than usual, three guys come into the tavern. And you see they have a couple horses outside and begin to speak to Rosalind who nods and goes out, to sort of, you know, stable their horses.

But they come in and go sit off at a table by the side. Looking at the three men, I think you notice that they're wearing villagers' clothes, but you don't recognize them. So they, like from the farming communities or the just regulars, dressed like them, but not of them. Yeah, you've been working here since midsummer, or not even midsum. You've been working here since the first leaf changed. So probably like a couple weeks now.

and you kind of clocked every recurring face in the crowd at like the end of the first week. And these guys, they aren't dressed like travelers, but they're not from here. Boots muddy, do they seem of the field? Boots not muddy. Their business is their own. Turning back to see the peddler finish his story. You see, he says, by these first ones spirits

You might know them by many names Our honored friends They are called And especially children You see he wags his finger To their face they are called this There is another title they wear One that reminds us

That their world was first And ours was made by theirs the wild one and the kids jump up and you see the kids sort of laugh and he laughs as well

and sort of pops a little bit of like a confetti thing some little trick up his like magicians pick up his food you see this like small very precocious little girl speaks up and says

is that is there anything like spirits here or like us could be spirits? He's like, well, I don't know if it's likely that you could be a spirit, little one. But it's not like we don't have tricks of our own. And you see the kids pay a little bit more attention. He says, for long turnings of the seasons, there were many things we learned from the spirits.

There were some that learned the ways of magic. Because some spirit was indeed their father. a mother and flowed through them. And there were others that bargained and bargained dearly for the secret that the spirits held. But it's true now that there are some out there in the wide, wide world that learned a different path. And you see that in this moment, he like sort of takes out a little deck of playing cards

and flips some cards through his fingers and says, in the hidden places of the world there have always been those who spoke with kindness and respect for those of the world unseen and hidden has anyone here ever had the fortune or misfortune of meeting a witch and you see the kids all sort of

and he says oh don't be alarmed don't be alarmed you need only be respectful little ones which is to an important job of speaking to that hidden world on our behalf. And sometimes when we've lost our way, speaking to us on its behalf. And then, of course, I'm sure you've all heard of a wizard. And here he gets a little bit bigger and broader. He says, for indeed, it was not too long ago that the first wizard found the secret.

And you see the little kid says, What secret? The secret of where those spirits found their secrets from. And the kids get fully lost on this one. They usually go look up and the peddler goes like, that you'll understand when you're older. Ursula, you hear from the door, Toma? Yes.

Rosalind looks at you. and says, the horses are, they're a little bit bigger than most ponies around here. If you could... I will tend to them. Thank you. And you see that she walks out with you to the stables. You walk around an approach, and you see these are the guys' horses that they came in on with three kind of big challenger-looking type horses. you see that Roslyn has clearly had a hard time

like tying them up in this like the guys maybe asked for like a full like can you check their shoes and can you feed them and water them and they seem like not willing to go into the stalls of the stable essentially. I think Ursula is going to walk up and grab the reins of the three horses

look to Rosalind and say I will take care of of them. She looks at you and says, oh, all right. And you see she sort of walks back towards the tavern for a moment. What does Ressalon do? I think once he feels like her eyes aren't on him anymore, is there one that is larger of the three?

Yes, there is. I'm going to push my face closer to him, speak softly, saying, My friend, I will make sure you have feed. Please, follow. This enormous muscular charger, beautiful, like, glossy black mare with a white diamond in the middle of her forehead and white socks, sort of the sort of like longer hair around her hooves,

hears you and walks completely calm back and the two other horses. I think I let go of the... I hold the reins only as long as Rosalind is there and then let go. Give me a perception check. 18. You did not feel Rosalind's eyes on you, but you now sense that she stopped halfway to the door.

Ursulaan is going to want to continue for things to seem normal. and just walk with the horses. After, you know, 30 seconds a minute of doing that, Rosalind walks back in with just like a bucket of oats to sort of place by the door. And you see she turns up and says, you have such a way with the horses. It's, I, I am comfortable with them.

I spent much time with beasts growing up. Oh, that's, I've always wanted to ask, actually, do you, so you grew up on a farm or? Yes. I don't, I don't mean to pry. I'm sorry, I, the, it's just your name, you know, Toma, I, I, I, um, so travel, some travelers came in coming in, and they came through Toma, you know, earlier before the summer before you were working. here. And I just wondered if you grew up there or not, or... I spent some time there and my family is up there. Oh.

But it has been some time since I returned. Well, that's wonderful. So your mother and father are there? Yes. I don't, again, I don't, I don't mean to pry. You're very, I have to confess something. I stumbled upon some of your things in the stable. And I, I, I, and you see that she looks, and you can see where you keep your stuff kind of hidden.

It's like more hidden than the last time you left it there. Like there's more like hay and straw on top of it. She clearly tried to like hide it again. she was like, I just, I can't, I'm really sorry. I know that you like your privacy. My father was very clear about the nature of the deal you struck with him for working here. But I just, we have beds in the inn and you sleep in the stables and I just, I thought I'd bring out some, a bed roll or some blankets or something like that. And I, I saw the sort of little indentation of where you sleep and I just saw something glinting under the hay and you have a,

There's a sword under there. Yes. It was given to me by old friends. Rosalind, I, you show me great kindness. But the reasons, I use my money for other things. There are more times of the year. I travel often and there are times of the year where I cannot work. And I, as I said, I grew up around beasts.

and I'm comfortable here. Thank you for your kindness, but it is not necessary, and I would much prefer if you were to not go through my things. I am truly sorry. It was terribly rude. And give me an insight check. 15. I think you see it.

This Inkeeper's daughter is hopelessly in love with you. And you can tell that she just feels like she, there was a version of this in her head when she discovered this, like, your belongings, that she was like, this is how we finally connect. And it's like not going to plan for her. So you just see her go, I've been terribly rude. And the sword is so your sword,

and there's a small shield in there, some sort of strange round, just like a small round shield as well. If you ever need me to care for them or to... Rosalind, this is very kind, and I do appreciate it, but it is not necessary. I understand.

I'm very glad to hear that you had family, and friends somewhere because you're all unfailingly kind and courteous, but I know that you've been here for over a month, and there are none in the village that can truly call you a friend, and I just wanted to make sure you knew that you could feel at home here. And before you can speak or slant, you hear another voice from the doorway say,

well, of course, he's not at home here. And you see the old peddler step into the doorway. He is framed by the falling magnolia petals as he smiles and flips a card through his fingers. Not at home, I would imagine, most places here. Do I get any, do any of my heckles go up about impending violence, or does this just feel... Give me perception. Let's go. another 15.

Because of the slope of the ridge, the back of the stables, its second story where you keep the hay. The sort of like attic window is actually at ground level for the slope of the ridge behind it, because the slope sort of goes up. You smell flower petals and hay through that window.

That window is open, and there are figures that you have not noticed until you thought to become aware waiting up above in the rafters directly above you. Oh, okay. I think I'm going to roll a dice for myself. We're going to see what it is. Okay. Erslan is going to, how far is my sword from me

and how far is Rosalind from me? Rosalind was gesturing to it. It's five feet away from you. How far is Rosalind for me? What is the exact amount of feet for someone that is really attracted to you, but also feels bashful? I'll say five feet.

Yeah. That's right. Enough to like, touch if any sort of thing happens. If a hand goes out, it could be met. It could be met, but we're not in the bubble. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I'm going to

quickly dart back, grab my things. Yeah. And move so that where those guys would jump would be in front of me, not behind me. But keep my eyes on just the man coming up the hill, as if I have not

known that they are there. Cool. What's wrong initiative? Great. Oh my God. 19. You are going to act first. Something deep, primal, wild within you goes, okay, I know where the things that want to hurt me are, and you leap to the hay and a sword wrapped in blue silk

and a gleaming golden paldron, a broad shoulder paltron, like a plate of armor made, to wrap around the shoulder and protect the neck and shoulder come up out of the hay. Quick question, is there also a music box with those things? There is also a music box with those things.

Ursulaan is hopeful and is going to look at the man. You do not understand that which you speak of. You, I beg of you. I beg of you. Leave me be. Leave you be.

And he a clever man? in this world who would pay a mighty fine price. I end like you. I know instead need answering for why I have found you in this place. Great. I'm gonna drop glamour. Here's who Ursula actually is. Yes!

Seven foot six feet tall, truly grow another foot. Large, furry, kind of bear-like body. kind of built more animalistically, kind of have large, like massive hind feet, almost like a rabbit. The, you know, hands that go out into, massive hands that go out into, like, clawed hands with thumbs. His head has the same plumage as a horned owl, but his face is more feline. It has the philtrum, learned that's what it's called, has the philtrum, the kind of split lip, going down into a mouth from which two tusks.

kind of jut up from the jaw, angular face, but the same rich hazel eyes. I am stand it out like a fur bowl, so I have Hidden Step. And with a moment of sadness looking at Rosalind, I am going to use my bonus action to use Hidden Step to become invisible. And I am going to run. As the menacing travelers, these sort of brute force men, drop from the ceiling, you have already vanished in a twinkling of starlight. I would like to use my speech of beast and leaf, which allows me charisma on influence. Offers me advantage of charisma checks to influence animals.

I would like to turn to the mayor, who I led into the stable and say, run. And I will chase after them and I would like them to my hope is that they will charge through their masters and I will follow. That is a Nat 20 on the horses initiative.

Let's go. Let's go horses. Let's give me persuasion with advantage. I think we'll call this just a DC. I think DC 10 you can get them to freak out. DC 15 they will do exactly as you say. That is only going to be a 12. The horses scatter out into the stable. as they do so, give me one last stealth check

as you try to rush past the peddler in the doorway without alerting him to your presence. That's going to be a 13. All right, this guy's got a plus five. It gets an 18. You make it past him out the doorway, and he whips around. You hear the men drop from the rafters.

You see they're carrying clubs, blackjacks, and the man, the peddler, turns around to you, and you see he flips a card around in his hand that does not have the face of a playing card. Instead, inscribed on it in small writing, is something in imperial. And you see he blows on the royal blue ink written on the blank playing card,

and moats of scintillating gem-like blue sparks fly out as he feels you brush past him, and you are hit with a fairy fire spell. Blowing on the surface of the card, the peddler, who now you see does have a kind of hungry, sallow look that is the first time you will recognize in your life that a thing that you were born to the magic that flows through you,

for indeed you are a spirit of the hidden world. That gift and the hunger hollows them out from within. Dust of a long shattered sapphire spread on a quick wind from his mouth and scatter illuminating an edge of the magnolia tree, the surface of the well, the dust of the road, and outline your body. Invisible though it is in sparkling light as his spell clings to you, a tracking spell from this hedge mage.

He bellows out to the men inside. After the wild one, he's making for the ones! I'm going to make an athletics roll for these men versus the horses that have scattered within the stable. That is a three for the men. Yeah. Come on, horses. And that is a 15 for the horse. Let's go horses.

Struggling to get past their own steeds, the men within push and pull, and you can hear them sort of fighting and jostling with the steeds out there. You see the peddler standing out there. Rosalind just runs out of the door and throws a bucket of water over the peddler's head. Let's go, Ross.

Why'd just be crazy? I love her. And he spits up, swats. And you see that. Rosalind looks at you and begins to flee down the road to where you know one of the town elders is, one of the village elders. She's just running to go basically get help that these strange men have started to cause trouble in the village. That is your turn.

I think the belt, the sword is getting tucked into the belt. The music boxes are getting thrown into a pocket. And I think that's all Ursula has in the world that he carries with him. and he will take it with him into the night. Full dash, full movement. You take off as fast as you can, dropping essentially to all fours as you charge forward into the woods.

Given partial cover by the trees, the peddler reaches for a spell, one that he knows will work, even given the cover of the tree line, reaches, pulls up another card, and flicks it with an old, dirty, partially broken fingernail. Pha!

And as he hits it, you see some symbols on the card, float off the card. A couple of sickly green crosshatched runes that float out, and as he again flicks his hand towards you, the runes fire off, swirling and corkscrewing with trails of green fire behind them, and two of them slam into you for 11 points of damage. I have two hit points remaining.

Guys, so nice of you guys to meet my character. I'm going to go work on my secondary character. Yes, down to two. On your next turn, you leave the range of his spell. Blood gushes from you hitting the ground. At the end of this fall, moss and flowers will grow from where that blood touched the earth, but you will not be here to see them.

Out through the night, you hear the bellow. After him, you fools! After him! I know you're a friend! What are you doing in our world? ...to rustle the tops of the trees. And as quickly as it pierced the nighttime sky, the howl of the angry hedgemage, fades as we fade from this place.

and also fade from this time five years later. Oh, what? You little sneak, you can't do anything on the radio. Endless desert of white sand that seems at first to invite confusion by the presence of strange pools and lakes

that one quickly realizes are not water at all, but simply glass. Sometimes uncovered by the ceaseless wind that moves the dunes in their endless dance, the sun above beats down with such ferocity that the sky around it seems to fade from pale and powder blue to something almost approaching white, for there is not a cloud anywhere to be seen. This stark and alien landscape is as beautiful as it is deeply. However, in this land that seems to show no indication of life, that would seem to preclude any possibility, let alone thriving, perhaps for this very reason, or perhaps the causer of this state of affairs, is the impossible made manifest, the gleaming spire of the citadel. We see a tower of glass, and as we approach that

tower, we see that tower is something of an understatement. rising more than a mile into the sky is a magical beacon of the impossible wrought by will and understanding into existence. The citadel stands here at the center of this desert. Jagged, crystalline structures at its base move out in diagonal. slants to the ground like the base of a massive naturally forming crystal. And within these massive prisms and geometric spires are the glimmering shapes of themselves platforms that float. And within these platforms, there are buildings. The building's made of white marble or of bricks, some with gardens. And we see

flowers and irrigation, fountains in the middle of this desert and flowing water irrigated, the various floating campuses within these crystal structures. And at the center, at the very opposite of a diagonal, the most proud and vertical gleaming spire referred to here as the Irian, which is the central tower of the citadel. This erupts past the structures of the base, and within that are gleaming prisms, light reflected, this glass enclosure, this mighty tower, that from certain angles casts the sunlight in searing sheets of blinding radiance throughout the desert. At the base of the iran, a gate of gliding. opens as an entire, let's say, quarter mile wide platform with a campus of buildings and beautiful red brick pathways and green grass, lowers down, strikes up to welcome home

the returning heroes. The chariots pulled by massive beasts conjured by magic itself. You see that there are proud triple horned. Rams that pull chariots, their white fur marked by silver brands that empower them with spells, pull wide war wagons. Marching between the wagons and beyond them, we see white uniforms with blue brocade and instruments of brass. Bhaba, bha, huge drums. and the band strikes up as the assembled junior students of the Citadel erupt with cheers.

Some of them so moved by patriotic zeal that they weep throwing petals into the air. A group of wizards returns home from war. More than half are here, but not all. And those that have returned bear their uniforms clean and bright, but faces and hands marred by what they have seen. Some faces hold endless pride and celebration, having risen with glee to what they met on the far edges of the empire. Other faces turn inwards, accepting this celebration in a way. quiet and doing yet again what they must.

As they march and the band plays, these returning wizards move towards a dais where their instructors, leaders, advisors, and a strange mixture of their academic and military superiors. await them with medals, brocades, designations, promotions, and couragements, titles, all manner of scrolls and emblems await them on a vast table. And above and to the side, a great box. Bannisters, rose petals blooming, all throughout the citadel.

The existence of plant life is central. and roses and grass and trees can be seen everywhere. And though the glass of the Eeriean itself takes the deadly light of the desert outside and makes it instead just really goddamn bright, cuts that by about 25%. The plant life here with its conjured water and filtered sunlight thrives,

and the smell here is rich, with honey and rose and flowers and jasmine, the thrones assembled within the viewing days, surrounded as they are by roses, look down to give homage and praise to the returning heroes to show that the mission of the Citadel not only lives but prospers. Dressed in deep blue with white brocade,

a deep navy undershirt, and then a white, bright royal blue robe with a white V tabard over it. Partially military linings is an ancient archmage. It's an ancient archmage with curly white, long beard, bald head, little round nose, who is fast asleep. The archmage silence is flanked. by his apprentice. Abria, could you describe your character for us?

Yes. You see Suverin Cadberkats. She's six foot tall, live, and almost painfully rigid in her posture, like a dancer or a fencer. She's got medium brown skin with golden undertones that are contrasted by the, like, deep navy blues and greens

of her, like, incredibly well-tailored wool coat and silk trousers, tucked into boots with like silvery white detail. She's got high cheekbones that are almost lost in soft features, just sort of leaving childhood and adolescence coming into adulthood. Her hair is actually bright teal and braided and bound upward and ornately decorated with little silvery white clips and chains. one of which terminates kind of off of her bun with like a little censor with a single drop of amber resin that's burning, this like kind of woodsy, spicy scent that you don't find anywhere else here in the Citadel. She has large brown eyes with just an almost strange teal cast over the pupils.

And she's scanning the room with the bearing of a person that, that sees profoundly and is perpetually perceived. And she'll just gently reach out with a hand, like delicate long fingers. And on her right thumb, a big silver ring with like an emerald in it and just gently tap the arch, Archmaiden, trying to wake him up. Sir. Sir.

Mm-hmm. Oh, it's over? No, we're still going. Oh, very well. Yeah. Good, good. Heroes of the war, they have come. I'm not speaking at this one, am I?

Not today, sir. Not today, good, good, good. I just kind of pick a little falling rose pedal off of his shirt and flick it. Good. Well, do you think they want me to wave? Oh, yeah, we should, we should wave. All right. Hello.

Yeah. Hello. Good job, heroes. What's that? Nothing, nothing. They did a good job. They did. Oh, this, I heard about that one.

You look down and see, again, you see a very beautiful man, shaved head, deep brown skin, sort of noble features that sort of like proud bearing. A scar that you can tell has been altered. to look glorious by being partially healed from how mangled and bad it would have been. A lot of wizards that come back from the front line will have their scars partially reduced rather than fully healed.

And he's gotten, you can tell he's gotten, like the beauty scar treatment. And has come... So I was going to say, Suvi shifts in her chair as she clocks him. Yeah. You recognize this guy. You were in the upper school with this guy.

he speaks with this big booming voice as he gets up onto the stage, deep forest green robes. He has the bracers of an evoker. He's called silver. He's called silver. And he proudly stands, as you hear, sort of bellowing out with a minor cantrip, making their voice boom out from their throat. For services rendered in defense,

of the imperial. The Honorable Wizard, Silver, is granted station and title dwelling in the villa in the Hall of Heroes. Big boom! It goes up with applause. Flowers rain and you see Silver smiles,

salutes the box, and you see it makes direct eye contact with you having been some while since you were students together. C.V.'s going to try to, one, she shifts to try to cover the very obvious blush on her cheeks, but then it's going to give him just a little nod and a smirk.

She's trying to play it cool. He smiles down there and moves off into sort of the people that have already been decorated. You know Silver was part of a group of wizards that it was always either going to be he came back to be fast-tracked to like the upper great warriors of, you know, the great war wizards of the Citadel, or he was not going to come back. And it was a coin flip, and he got the right side of that coin. You view the rest of this ceremony. How is Suvi feeling in this moment as you watch this ceremony of the returning heroes? At some point, she's grabbed just a little paper banner that's got the list of ceremonies and awards.

And the back half, she's just been subtly tearing it apart, trying to look impassive and formal. But all of this is so deeply frustrating because he's out there. He went and saw war and returned a hero. And I've spent the last two years keeping an old man awake when he needs to be awake. I let him sleep. After the ceremony, you are once again surrounded by other archmages. And silence is sort of speaking with some of the other wizards who are here. And a few, probably out of the like 60 wizards that came home, probably only five of the

them are highly decorated enough now to be here in this private luncheon. The room you are in is actually in a dome of water. So you see that there is a hovering lapis lazuli disc, probably about 90 feet in the air, that is a small conjured portal that is connected to some kind of ocean or some source of water and is summoning water into the citadel that comes down in a large dome, almost like a glass cover for a cake. And so it is cool and misty in here, and the sunlight's just coming in through the glass of the exterior, and then through this water dome. You're in this garden, and you see that there are a number of servants moving throughout the space that are handing out food and refreshments. And looking at the archmages, there's, again, probably like five or so

of these returning heroes, one of whom is silver. But you also see a surprising figure here, which walking in as the water sort of parts, is steel. We see an older woman. She wears brilliant golden armor, filigreed, embossed, covered with many arcane ruins within the lingua arcana that you recognize. Normally this kind of armor historically would have been completely useless, but of course this armor is for all of its decoration, incredibly practical. She has a high collar on a white cloak, a jewel-hilted sword at her side, and a iron and silver-bound black spellbook attached and holstered at her hip. Her skin is a ruddy pink that's still a little bit, a little, with some crow's feet and some

age here. Her bright red hair has started to gray a little bit, but it's kind of hard to see because, of course, she has a strange kind of marking of long streaks of white through her red hair and four wavy, tapering white streaks across her face, one of which covers an eye, and that eye is white in the iris, which, gives her a little bit of a striking and kind of unsettling vibe, which is not a bad vibe for someone who is ultimately the sword of the citadel. She walks in. In this moment, what do you think Suvi is up to in this luncheon celebrating these return in heroes?

Suvies forgoing food and trying to cut a fine and deeply unapproachable figure in the corner, hoping that silver would come by and they could speak. but then the moment Steele walks through, she like hustles over with the same like speed, an excited child would be to go see someone and immediately rushes over and stops short of embracing her. Steele turns to look at you and says, Suvie, I hope that you were not too burdened this morning

with your exhausting responsibilities. and she darts her eyes over to the Archmaid silence. Rude. I have done my duty to keep an old man awake while watching heroes return, so I'm having a great day. How are you doing? I'm doing fine.

I relish my ability that my station is high enough that I don't have to go to those. It's rude. Well, hey, I love when these. the heroes return, and I'm glad that they return, and I'll go tell them that I'm glad that they returned, but ultimately, they're going to be going back out again very shortly. Yeah. At least they get a little bit of time here to remember what we're fighting for, and what's way? Sorry. Well, I don't want to take you away from your duties unless you...

There are no duties. You know there's no duties. You know there's no duties. duties. There are so... I know there's no duties. I'm going to go back and do his paperwork while he takes a nap or eats a very soft cookie. Suvi, you... Suvi, you know how enormous of an opportunity it was, that you're the first wizard in the history of the citadel that was moved into a leadership track upon entering the citadel. Right, so why does it feel like they're locking me in a little room? And forgetting about me. You're not forgotten. Look at the other apprentices of the archmaeages.

And you do look out and see, there are other apprentices here. All of those apprentices either came from the war wizard track or from the researcher track. And are all, the next youngest one is like 40. They treat me like a child. You're very young. Okay. They treat me like a child. And yet, I know that if I had one chance, they would know how incredible of a talent I am.

But I am wasted, wasted, sitting in a room, reading books. I'm dying. We make jokes. She smiles and looks at you and goes, you have endless potential. And I know that tending to the... administrations of a tired old man does not utilize your gifts to the best of their ability. I'm one of the best wizards that have ever come through the Citadel, and I'm a nurse. I'm a nurse, but go on. Your mother and father were each recognized in time for their talents.

your father became a provost of the eighth, one of the most gifted tactical geniuses the citadels ever produced. Your mother was the sage of the fundament. And when they were your age, they were still grinding away as a junior, junior apprentice buried in a library. What they would have done to be the apprentice

of an archmage at your age, I can't even imagine. They got a chance to prove themselves. A chance that you were so recognized for your gifts that you were able to bypass. We recognized your talents immediately. Yeah, yeah.

It's all very honorable, and I am very proud. Let's take a walk. Thank you. The sun begins to set, and boy, does the energy in the citadel change as the sun begins to set. The stars will come out,

and all of a sudden, you know, know, with that ceaseless beating of the sun, a night that will suddenly, you'll be floating, you know, a half a mile up within the Eerie and surrounded by beautiful buildings and flowers. And it has the buzzing feel of an academy brought to life of people talking about important things and all these brilliant minds brought to this one place. As the sun sets and golden light filters in through the glass, you, room after room of either a small cafe where, you know, students on breaks sit and sip small coffee from little brilliant blue and white cups that some foamy, caffeinated drink passes their

lips and they talk excitedly about some fiddly magical problems, some minor bit of the lingua arcana, a new symbol, a new word discovered. You walk past a massive hangar building. like big silvery ribs of a white arcane canvas. And within it, you can see artificers working alongside wizards, these powerful, wrapped white gloves with chain mail on the inside if they built some massive structural automaton, some strange silvery chrome centipede, that with some, you know, insectoid mechanical structure.

Who knows what it will do? And you begin to walk through the big doors of the building that has these brilliant, ever-burning torches that are completely cool to the touch, no risk of fire breaking out within the Citadel. You walk past and hear a lecture going on as evening classes begin, and you see a group of younger, like, 16-year-old wizards that have not yet taken their test to formally enter the Citadel as an old droning lecturer wizard points and says,

we understand within the formal taxonomy of the world of spirits the delineation between certain classifications of spiritual entity vis-a-vis the axis of celestial to fiend but wherein within that delineation do we find form for those spirits of nature best known the lecture drones on you see half the class wide awake and riveted by this and the kids that you cannot

help but somewhat relate to in this moment that are either falling asleep because they don't have what it takes or are falling asleep because they already know this. I just want to make eye contact with any of the ones whose eyes are wandering and just give a little like I know man. I know.

As you move through Steele speaks to you and says I can try to talk to... Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. What do you want me to say? I mean, you can't ask to be moved out of the apprentice position. No, what an honor.

What a gift. What a joy. Sufi, it is an honor. Yeah, I know. You're a step away from being in the leadership of the citadel. Okay, okay, okay, that, that. So, this is the most beautiful, incredible place in the world, and I don't know anything but this. How are you supposed to lead when your entire world was libraries and lecture halls and papers for 10 years?

Ten years. All I've done is study. I'm so tired of just knowing. What if, is there like a, can you go just do like a walkabout? Can I just go? do anything? My heart rate jumped up today for the first time in a month.

Please let me go outside, please. Give me a perception check. And natural one. Perfect. Hot damn, there it is. The first one. The first one. You'll have to see it. Oh, no. At least it's on a perception check. You don't even know, you're so

tunnel vision. You don't even notice that you are now on a balcony, On a sort of third story of this building, there are beautiful hyacinth-like flowers around. You see there's a couple, like, there's an arch and a balcony, so you're sort of held in this little cradle. There's some bird baths around here. And you see a couple of birds come into the bird baths. It doesn't bother you that these birds are partially fixed illusions. The ecosystem here is hard to manage, and people didn't.

So these birds are fabricated, but that's okay. They're very pretty. Um, steel looks at you and says, well, uh, you're about to get your wish. What? Oh, what? And she immediately, like, tries to regain some sort of posture and bearing. Um, it's, it's, there's a, oh, Suvie, I'm, I'm very sorry. Um, there's, um, there's been too many times in my life that I've had to give you bad news. news, and I'm doing it yet again. Grandmother Wren is very ill.

Grandmother Wren is very ill. I'm not sure how much. But I've spoken to the Archmages and given everything that you have given for the Citadel, given what your parents gave for the Citadel, An allowance is going to be made. We have license to open a traveling door to allow you to return. We can place you at Silbury, and then it's a short ride to Toma.

Thank you. I don't know what you had to trade or... Thank you. How long do I get? There's not a hard and fast on it. I mean, I would assume, you know, I would love for you to be there. I would love for you to be there for as long as it takes, if you understand.

I think the important thing is just to stay in touch with us. We can send, you know, we'll send a speaking mirror through with you, and you can stay in touch with us. And actually speaking of, you see the stuff that you're rolled a net one perception on. She hands you a speaking mirror, which is just a way to sort of stay in touch as a communication device.

She hands you a book and a scroll case. She says, these are four grandmother Wren, if you would be kind enough to give them to her. Of course. You see, the book has a title on it that says

Stars of the Southern skies and then a sealed scrollcase. she then looks and says and reaches into the ivy and pulls a tall, rot-class staff. I'm sorry, sorry. I'm very normal about this.

In the light of day, the glass of the body of the staff will seem sort of clear and radiant, reflecting sunlight from many angles. At night, a small helix of starlight, as though a small patch of the nighttime sky was encased within it, circles up to the top of the staff, which spreads into a pair of crystal wings containing a rounded sigil of the citadel.

Give it, give it. You're not really supposed to say give it when presented with a staff of the... Look, there's... No one here. It's just you and me. Gremlin? Yes.

Yes. Look at me. Look at my look. I look dope. This is cool and I'm, thank you. And she looks around one more time and then just absolutely like tackle steel with a hug. Steel laughs and embraces you. And immediately starts crying.

She just goes. Don't cry. I'll cry. What do you do? Crying because you're. It's very meaningful. soft and stone. I made so many promises to her that I would take care of her.

And getting to look after you makes up for the fact that I didn't get to keep those promises. You told me years ago putting your magic in stays. A little bit of you stays there. She put her magic in the world and you've been protecting it. So you've been keeping your promise. I don't know if I've ever said it. And I know I wasn't maybe the easiest kid, but thank you. You didn't have to take care of me, but you did.

She wipes tears from her eyes and goes, You believe in a cause like your mother and father did. I don't know that there's much of a difference between the things you have to do and the things you choose to do. Maybe that's what peace is, is when your heart unites the things that you choose to do and the things that you have to do.

so that duty becomes a choice and one that you are glad for. No. It's really deep for a person that hits stuff with a sword for a living. You are going to see what I do one day, and you're going to be so sorry for all the times. You made fun of me. Everyone just, here's what I understand. I also have a book. Yeah.

And you, I have a book and a sword. You just have a book. Someone explains. Excuse me, I have a book and this dope-ass staff. Don't take the things I gave you as points against me. It's my name. I gave you that staff. I put your father's ring on your finger.

And I... Looks good on me. I look great right now. She scowls and says, you are a piece of work. Honestly, I don't know why it took us so long to get you the hell out of here. That's your fault. Speaking of which, uh... When do I get to go?

You make your way to one of the many halls of teleportation. You see Runex Circle in the ground, and nearby there is a teleportation specialist, deep blue robes. You see their eyes are already sort of rolling back in their head as they begin to sort of calculate the different symbols. Up above, you see there are moving constellations painted against the run. roof that as the teleportation specialist below begins to chart the trajectory of where you're going, the projected sky in the dome moves to reflect the sky of where you will be going. You arrive, your teal hair in a sunny different configuration the last time you saw you. Steele stands there and says, when you arrive there, she hands you a purse of

40 gold pieces, 40 like imperial gold coins. It says, you're going into a land that is, I know you remember from when you were young, but as an adult, you should know that while this is technically under the sphere of the empire, this is very far from Kamsarza's shores. And so normally, if you were in the heart of the empire, you would, would be able to go up and just ask for a horse and get one, it will probably be better if you ask to buy one rather than simply get one.

Gross. Yes, and there's a good reason for that. I can't promise you that there will not be agents of the Dominion or the protectorate there. This is at the far edges of the empire. And so I would say, and here she moves a hand over your glass staff, and a small cantrip goes into effect, a little minor spell, and it looks like a sort of brass banded

wooden walking stick. She says, so when you need it, use it, and if you don't need it, a little bit of a glamour just to be aware of the situations where it is important to let people know who you are and be aware of the ones where maybe it's important that they not know who you are. This is what you asked for. Yeah, yeah.

No, I want. This is great. I want, this is what. I'm a proud daughter of the Citadel, and I will make you and everyone proud. I could do this. I could do this. It's going to be fine. The traveling door begins to open.

Give me an insight to check. Please, please, dice. Oh! Natural 20. There it is. Ooh, wow, big spread. Big spread. What is the story we're trying to tell?

Who could say? You see Steele looking, you clock it really, like right as the traveling doors getting open for you to step through. Steel goes sort of like, has a moment of lost focus where she's like lost in memory. And you can see her face goes into that neutral where you're not even putting a facial expression. You're so replaying a memory that there's not even a sort of emotion on your, face and she's just staring at your forehead. And I just want to squeeze her hand the same way I do to bring

Archmage silence kind of back to the world and say, it's going to be okay. I just, young wizards love to talk and hear in the center of the desert we made, who could question the might of wizards? And she squeezes your hand this time and gets in really close. and you realize that your mother's greatest friend and a woman who raised you after the unthinkable happened is a very intense woman. And she gets close and says,

the fraternizing of patriotic students blind you to how much there is in the world that is not us. And I think Suvie's face goes completely, she's been straddling that line of like adulthood and childhood, and she's just lost momentarily in that child, like open, a little afraid, a little pensive expression before she re-schools herself and gives a little nod. One of the smartest things your father ever said that snapped me out of a trance when I first met him. And admittedly, when I first met,

I grew to love your father very, very much, but I knew his and your mother, reputations and I was very protective of my friend as I had every right to be. And one of the first things your father said that charmed me due to its insight, which your father had in great quantity, the entire world of wizardcraft from the first elders that reached into the shadow and wrought the first secrets of the lingua arcana from the depths of ignorance into the sudden light of insight and realization. The most common of their downfalls, humility and serenity of witches and underestimating it. I'm no stranger to witches. Suvi, standing in the

center of the stone's circle, the wizard to your right finally finds the constellation of stars to arrest with points of light at the end of each of their fingers and materializing from motes of light that begin as nothing more than specks of dust a rose and purple doorway of light that begins only as the faintest halo

and begins to spool across a doorway iridescent film of magical energy the path navigated by the stars moves forward. This road, door of light, surrounds, envelopes, and closes upon you, and as it constricts you are already gone, such that the collapsing nexus of light vanishes in a burst, and nothing of the door, nor the wizard that it carries, is left, except for a tiny spiral of vapor. Steel regards it,

and then it is gone. And we move with, but also past Suvi, not to where she is headed in the moment of this magic, but further still past the Stoneport town of Silbury, up the winding roads through familiar trees that we have seen their type before. In the pastoral rolling hills, farmlands and cottages, deep, thick forests with moss-covered stone walls, patches of sunflower and corn, little hamlets gathered around a blacksmith shop, or a little maypole in a dancing hall. This is a place where the people have been living in this way of life for uncounted years.

And we find a village, a village named Tony. In this village, know that they are fortunate to live so near the cottage of a witch. Though they know not the story of how this witch came to live here, nor how this witch came to find her apprentice. Nighttime fades. The sun rises as it does every day. Up the road, perhaps only about an hour's walk from the village of Toma, winding hard-packed earth through the deep roots and moss and ferns of the forest, we see a cottage. And welcoming the deep, rich brown of its high-thatched roof that slopes down to hang over white plaster walls and welcoming wooden beams. Garden, rich flowers, the buzzing of bees, and the corner of a shrine up on top of the hill past the cottage.

We see an old goat pen and a garden shed and a little footpath down to the stream that flows down past the hill, and a small footbridge over the stream that leads off into the deeper woods where many adventures were once had by the children who called this place home. And as always when the sun rises, we hear, as we have heard every morning, as a proud veteran ancient rooster, crows the morning. Within the cottage, it's familiar, kiddies. and fireplace, the workshop that faces the road built up and around an old enclosure at the edge of the house. Large spinning wheel and bottles of tinctures and ointments and hanging from the slightly sloped roof are

bundled and dried flowers and herbs and glass ornaments. Diamond-patterned windows. some of them slightly colored a little amber or a little blue as the light comes in. Seated in the workshop a young and newly married couple

from the village of Toma. The young woman with her hair tied up in a small bandana with a worker's apron tied on and the man with a sword. small and short-brimmed little cap who sits next to his new wife holding her hands in his hands. This couple has come from Toma, Aran and Melia, to seek the counsel of which my wife and I have been

trying for some time. And our parents said that sometimes it takes longer, but I think we are just very eager and we wished to seek the council of grandmother Wren. And you see Melia speaks up and says, Aran grew up all the way in Port Talon, and I only met him at a summer fair. He couldn't believe.

I mean, you see, Arden says, well, the legends of Grandmother Wren reached from one side of a calm to the other. She is, I mean, I didn't know. And you see that Melia Smiles and says, I never knew that we grew up next to, I mean, it's grandmother Ren's just, she's been at the spring fair every year. She's all our grandmother. I didn't think, you see, Arn kind of shakes his head and disbelief and says, well, not everyone is lucky enough, my darling, to live under their protection of a witch, let alone one that seems to have given as much love and joy as grandmother Wren. And you see Mellia shrugs and says, well, I guess that's the way it's blessings, is we always have a hard time counting them. That's true. I feel like it's easy to take for granted

the abilities and the care of witches. Grandma Wren has spent her entire life looking over this little town and and now it's my turn. And unfortunately, Grandma Ren is indisposed at the moment, but is there anything that I can help you with? They both look at each other.

You see Melia squeezes Aran's hand because you know, Melia's grown up her entire life seeing Grandma Wren and has also grown up her entire life knowing her young apprentice. Melia, you've like, you were kids together. She grew up

the village near you. Not that you necessarily got to be that close to any of the kids that grew up in Toma, but you see she squeezes Aran's hand almost to counsel him through a little disappointment as though he missed grandmother Wren's ability to minister to the town by only a year or two. I'm sure that she'll be up and about and helping to administer to all of the town's needs before we know it. But in the meantime, Melia can attest to my abilities in terms of helping with all manners, both root in regards to healing or marital. You see that Melia smiles and Arryn kind of blushes.

Yeah. Give me an insight check. Absolutely roasting Aran right now. Oh, wow. Okay, that will be 25. Aran is uncomfortable with how attractive you are. Oh, damn. Like, he was one thing for him to come talk to like a sweet old grandma about him and his wife trying to have a baby. And now he's here talking to like, hello, like I will be the young witch helping you with whatever it seems to be going on.

And he's just sort of, it's like, man, I wanted to meet. a legendary witch. And also now, I'm talking to the apprentice. But you see it, Mali squeezes and says, says, my darling husband, Amé is a wonderful witch. I've seen, Ami has been tending to those pieces of business that Grandmother Wren needed help with for years and years and years. There's nothing that I wouldn't trust Ami to be able to help us with,

unless perhaps we were going to ask for a love charm, in which case I would say maybe let's hold off. Okay. You do one spring festival of love charms, and you never hear the end of it. No, no, no, no. It did work. It worked.

Some would say, too well. Too well, yes, too well, yes. Mellie is sort of speaks. up and says, we know that sometimes it takes longer for some people than others. And both of, you know, our parents, you know, both Arons and mine said that it was too early to come and see you and that we should give it more of a chance. But I mean, how much of a chance have you been giving it? You see that, uh, my meaning. Um, uh, Aran looks over at Melia and she speaks and says,

Well, we wed about five months ago and have been trying since then. Um, wow. Arme nods impressed. Let me ask what kind of divinatory tool do you think Amé would use? Oh, no. A decision. A decision? Oh, I did not expect to be making those in this game.

Oh, no, a decision. It's so real. I would say, Hmm. You know, why don't you step outside with me for a moment? Both of them look at each other, and both of them go and step outside with you. Late morning, it's going to probably be noon in another hour or so, and you can see that there's, like, beautiful kind of, like, pollen on the air a little bit that's sort of, like, in the morning light,

enough humidity to kind of cast some rays, over the stream and the grass. Arn and Melia step out aren't still holding Melia's hands, and she smiles and looks at you. Close my eyes. I can hear the bees and the apiary, not too far from the cottage, buzzing.

I can hear birds, flocks of them, passing overhead or nesting in the trees. And I listen to the people. Birds and the bees. And I ask them in perhaps not a verbal language and certainly one that the young couple wouldn't recognize, I ask. So what's the diagnosis here?

Maybe a survival check. Or actually insight is fine too. Those would both be a 23. Double 23s. A morning J takes off. over the tree line, swooping and disappearing back into the foliage. You hear the buzzing of the bees, some of them finding a fresh bank of flowers hanging over the edge of the stream, their little bumbling bodies landing and dipping the flower down

with their weight till it almost touches the babbling water of the stream. You hear the shifting of a branch far off in the woods as something steps gingerly through, the leafs or through the leaf cover. Two crows, a light far off over the hill. You look up and your eyes, go into a softer focus. This couple will bear a child. The child will, the dearest heart and center of the world for Melia, it will be a child that will care for her when she is old and will make

sure that the last years of her life are lived in comfort and joy and a feeling of habit. Since the chirping of songbirds nearby and a chirping goes silent as a bird moves into the hollow of a tree to go into a nest with three eggs, Arn will not stay faithful to Melia and will break her heart. I return to the moment and I look at this young, happy, happy, vibrant couple and one of whom has been a lifelong if not friend, community member. I pull out a ring from one of my many pouches and I hand it over to Oren and I say, you must wear this and you will have a child. A child that will be your joy, your treasure.

They smile and you watch both of them begin to weep. Give me an insight check. 13. 13. Having come back to this present moment, you see that Arrin weeps as well as Melia. And knowing what you have seen, I think you cannot tell whether he knows or not what you have seen. So for that, and soon you will have your desire.

Melia wraps her arms around you in a hug and cries. Aran leaves a hand on her shoulder smiling. He puts the ring on his finger. Oh, oh no. That's not where you put the ring. No. He looks and says, I'm sorry? That is not where you place the ring.

Should this charm work? You see Melia and Aran both look at each other. Arn goes, that can't be. And Melia goes, you heard the witch. And Arn says, well, that makes me a little. I don't know. And Melia says, she said we will have a child

who will be the joy of our lives. So we're going to... Just... If I... You see, she says, one moment, Amé. And she gets up in his grill. She's a little bit shorter than him,

so she's got a point... And she gets up in his reel and says, so let me understand this. I am to carry this child, and I'm going to... With the threat of maybe dying one day, and I'm going to carry that and go through all the pain of labor. And you're not willing to put a ring where the witch told you to put the ring.

You're going to put the ring where she said. And he goes, okay, all right. Okay. And you see he sort of holds it and stands there sort of looking dumbly for a moment and then says, he just starts sweating. Not during. Did I stutter? He goes, okay.

And you see, Melia says, thank you. Thank you. All the best, you Melia. And good luck. If you need any help with the pregnancy, you know, I have the right potions. and she says, of course, she says, I'll send, yes, of course, I'll come myself for as long as I can, and then I'll send Aran or someone else, but thank you for everything. Aran looks, fucking pales a ghost.

He sort of turns to walk away, he puts his hand on Amelia's back. She has, like, taken the ring and is now holding on to it. And it just looks beyond happy. and as they walk away, they head up towards the road, back towards Toma, and you see a moment of Aran looking back over his shoulder at you. I put my two fingers up. I point to my eyes, and I point to him, and I smile. I'm going to make an insight check for him. Give me a, like, charisma check just to see if...

He can pick up what you're communicating. 17. As you look at him and point towards him, what is it you are communicating in your witches glare to him? Oh, it is. I am watching you. Aron is able to clock that. And whatever, I think you see in that look, a moment of him just being as terrified as he is, somewhat enchanted in his first interaction with a witch.

And when he meets that enchanting visage of the incredible magic woman he met and sees what you have described coming back at him, he whips his head around and hustles his darling wife down the road as fast as he can. He's delighted it a little bit, though. You like that. You can be terrified and still develop a new tank. Yeah, for sure. Of course.

Incredible. Amay, you watch them depart, and once again, see two people for whom the story of life continues, having come to a witch to get what they need, and now with them gone, you are once again in the cottage, waiting for the next people who need. As I turn around and pass back over the threshold, I mutter to myself, well, that prophecy better not come true,

or he's going to have a hard time getting that thing off. Incredible. You walk back in. The morning chores are as easy and comforting, as a thread-worn piece of clothing. You've been in this house and done these chores so many times

and as lunchtime comes around, the meals get smaller and smaller with each day because she has a harder time eating. But with time passing, you walk upstairs

and describe to me what you are bringing to grandmother Wren in her bed. There's a little tray. The tray is a little blue bowl of juk rice porridge, just like that she used to make it for me. And on the juk, there is, optimistically perhaps, an egg, runny the way she likes it, bright and yellow, some chives, a little bit of,

the Shizo leaves from the garden. Grandmother Wren's bedroom, which she has been in for past eight days. This is the longest she's gone without coming downstairs. Her bedroom is like the inside of a beautiful old velvet jewelry box. It is very, somehow both dim and bright. There are two windows that face the outside, but they are quite small with thick, rich, gold and forest green curtains

like gilded and forest green velvet curtains and a diaphanous kind of white lace that the sunlight comes a little bit through. But they're very small. It's a bedroom. It's best to keep it a little bit dim so that one can be restful in here. The walls and ceiling are painted. deep, splotchy green, a mixture of the bright green of spring leaves and the deep green of a late summer all around. But of course, the walls and ceiling can hardly be seen for all of the

riches herein. Many things of tinkling metal chimes and little diamond emblems as well as dried herbs. There are by the window fresh flowers that, of course, Amé you mostly bring in. And You see, the room, Grandmother Wren took rest very seriously. So within here you see there is no trace of work to be found. There is a broad and mighty closet filled with all manner of robes and shawls and scarves and warm blankets, filled with many pillows and cushions and things of that nature. And the room is very much dominated by the most comfortable bed you've ever seen.

And there have been some nights that you've been able to to sort of snuggle up in it from time to time. The bed has a broad, great wooden frame, deep red and gold comforters and quilts that have some little gold tassels on it. And at the head of the bed, maybe like 10 pillows, you know, huge amount of pillows. The headboard is like some incredible thing

from like a ship of myth and legend. It's like a carved woodland with a giant face of a green man. There's a, the face of like a spirit, of a wild one, of this leafy bearded, twig-haired, smiling spirit, some forest spirit in the headboard,

and boar's heads and stag heads, kind of from a wave of leaves carved, rampant, almost like, almost like a crest work, like a family crest along the headboard of the bed. And under the comforters, you know the mattress just sinks deep, down in and just held in warm blankets.

Her long gray and white hair, kind of in a mane around her with just the little lace cuffs of her sleeves as she sort of clutches the edge of the bed is a sleepy, rosy-cheeked grandmother Wren who looks up buried in her pillows and goes, is it lunchtime already? Before I had stepped into the room, I had taken a deep breath studying the tray. This time going into the room, I have to steal myself these days to go in.

And it's not because of the spooky man, as I called him, on the headboard that always terrified me when I was a child. But because I don't know how many times more I'll get to. go in and hear her greeting. So I take my breath, and I bust in lunchtime. Oh, hooray. I stuck, and I think Henrietta laid a very special egg for you. It's extra yokey and golden. Oh, lovely. I'm glad.

Oh, you see that as you put it in front of her, she looks at the sort of golden egg and smiles and looks up at you with a look of just asking for a little bit of help to, you know, it's the last day or two she's not really been like getting the fork herself. I pick up the utensil from the tray and I poke the yolk so that it spills out. and glorious yellow rivulets over the porridge. I stir it up a little, and I get a spoonful for her. I go, open up. She opens her mouth. Very, very glad to have you here, all me. Oh, I mean, where else would I be, Grandma Wren?

I continue to spoon the porridge into her. mouth. She gets two more bites and then the fourth one comes up and she shakes her head, no. Just one more. One more. Come on. You can do it. All right. And takes another bite. And you can see it kind of stays in her mouth a little bit longer. And then she breathes out and leans back after that bite and smiles at you. When you first came here, you were. a little bit too old to be spoon-fed, so... But I did do my share of wiping off the corners of your mouth. Good grief you were like a little animal when you first got here.

Yeah. More of lunch would end up on the sides of your cheeks than actually in your stomach. You know, Grandma Run, sometimes I was saving those pieces for later. That was the case I wish you would have let me know. No, I would have put it under a little jar. It kept it somewhere cold in the water for you. I like easy access to my snacks. I suppose so.

Did I hear some guests downstairs? Yes, yes. Melia and Orrin came by. They wanted help conceiving a child. It's good. Were they... Did they have... They were having trouble or they just want to...

some assurance? You know, they were, they've been, they're pretty eager to get things started and seems like by now they should have gotten things started. So, you know, I just gave them a little assistance on their way. It makes sense. They're both Aran is Miller and Melia. I grew up the daughter of farmers, and you need children around if you're going to have comfort in your old age.

So I certainly would never blame anyone for their eagerness. That's for certain. I can blame someone for their eagerness sometimes. Oh, that's a very knowing thing to say. Yes, cryptic, I know. No, no, no. Don't explain anything cryptic to me. I know.

There's nothing. more important skill for a witch than muttering little cryptic things. It's true. I feel like you spent most of my childhood doing that, and I still feel like I don't always have all the answers. I understand. Well, it's important that you know. It's important that you know as much as you can. So I don't know what will happen when I'm gone.

Sort of the last one. The last one. Well, you know what I mean. I give me an insight check. Got it. Ooh. So 23. Hot dice tray over there.

There's a hot dice tray over there. Right now, in the beginning, while it matters. When we need it. When we need it. That hot, hot exposition is. is needed. I think you're a little bit confused by that statement. I think you're a little bit confused by that statement.

I'm going to ask a question now, actually, if I can. Yes. Do you need the Wi-Fi password? Yeah, I need the Wi-Fi password. Yeah, okay, so it's... Actually, we can share it. You see that... Mother Wren looks up at you in this moment of sort of, like, you're wondering if she's confused or if you're confused.

She looks up at you and goes, is, uh, is Suvee still in the library? Oh, uh, no, she's, um, I think she's done studying for today. Oh, oh, good. She'll make sure that she gets to eat too. She'll study right through lunch, if you let her. Oh, she's so scatterbrained. And I pick up the tray and turn around to put it onto the table behind me.

And so that Grandma Ryan can't see my face. She looks up and says, and do you make sure she gets lunch to and set aside some extra for our honored friend? Of course, of course. he uh he helped me with the with porridge he still reaches things that i'm too short to reach he's a tall lad that's for certain it's nice i didn't i've i've never doubted my own competence for a moment until someone tall moved in and then i said this is better this is this is this is better than it was before it's true yeah being independent definitely does

have its perks, but the top shelf where the cookie jar is kept is just always there taunting you. It's true. I'm going to ask a question now because in this long story together, I feel more freedom

to put some choices in the hands of my wonderful players. Abria, do you think Suvi makes it to Grandmother Wren's cottage in time.

No! Are you sure you don't need the Wi-Fi password? Could you just take the Wi-Fi password? There is nothing. Suvi has such a small world that

the prospect of getting back to Grandmother Wren sends her flying towards past Toma, which didn't care about. God, I want her to be there in time. She gets there in time. Oh. Oh. She landed in Silbury and had weird thoughts about tearing and looking around and trying to remember the last time in this place and forge some new understanding and context over it.

but she remembers why she's sort of been let out of the citadel. And every... She just keeps vacillating between wanting to take everything in and know it and understand it and unpack the trauma of Silbury and then try to get to Toma and explore the place where she was never allowed to be seen. But everything pulls her towards the cottage. You barely see the familiar trees of a landscape that you knew so well. Silbury was jarring.

The Silbury that you arrived in, teleporting into the middle of a plaza, mist rising from the ground, some surprised noises of people seeing a wizard of the citadel suddenly appear in the middle of the town square. When you arrived there, you realize it was the exact same spot. And Silbury was illuminated by a clear nighttime sky with a beautiful crescent moon and stars. The crescent moon made that little glittering streak across the bay, which you couldn't even see the first time you were there because of the total cloud cover. And to see that town illuminated by moon and star, rather than covered in the dead of night by clouds and only illuminated in moments by fire.

It's very different. And the striking image of a restored mural with a beautiful family drinking tea. I turn away from it immediately. You turn away from the mural of the... You turn away from the mural of the Nlosan Daughter's Tea Company, the beautiful handlebar moustachio, the wide-brimmed hat covered in flowers of the mother,

and their two adorable children. Out of sight, out of mind. You didn't get to see it the first time, and so you're not going to see it the second. That she has no idea how much time there is, or she gets before something new happens. I don't think her thoughts are of grandmother Wrens failing health, but just something new will call her home,

so she wants to get to a place that, for, even for a short time she thought of as home. And if you were watching her over time on the road, you would see a very nice horse frothing slightly, going from like a trot to a gallop as she, like, rides waves of panic of how much time she'll get. You ride, suddenly there it is. The first thing you see is the little white,

painted stones of the chimney and its little gray stone top, some smoke pouring out of it, and the thatched roof kind of appears, and you get closer, and you see the white walls and everything like that, and there it is again. It shrunk while you were away. Yeah. Things that were tall are now short, and it looks like it settled in even more. It was already magical the last time you were here, but now vines are even vinyer, and you know, moss got mossier and there's even more. It's, it looks like the house, if anything, is like tired. Like when you first came, the house was sitting and now the house is lying down.

Oh, it's so small. This was my whole world while I waited. I immediately jump off the horse. And that first moment where you realize everything has been taking care of for you, for the majority of your life and Suvie stands and spins not knowing what to do with the horse

for too long until a wave of panic hits that she has to make a choice and do something just ties it to some little bit of the fence that Nicholas used to inhabit and then she runs inside how close

do you get to the house when you dismount your horse? Oh, respectful. She's probably 50 or 60 feet away. Okay. Do you get off while you're still on the road an approach, or do you ride it into the little, like, opening, like, the area in front of the house? She would have enough, like, common sense and grace to dismount, like, just kind of exiting the road, so she's not, like, rushing in what is, like, someone's kind of front yard. So she'll walk the horse in. Right. Give me a, let's roll a luck check. Just roll a D20 for me. Brennan's taking back what he said earlier.

Boer. Cool. You want a respectful distance, so you get off the horse and your foot touches the ground right on the road before you walk in. But it's been many, many years. You, uh... Oh, crap. You step on the road, take the horse down to the fence, tie up the horse. You see the old stone bench where Steele sat you down many, many years ago and told you that you had seen your parents for the last time.

And you tie up the horse, and as you walk inside, I'll tell you what you don't see. Nice. You don't see the sun cast a shadow from the trees along the road and you close the door and the old sign pointing to Silbury falls off a tree and it takes two iron nails out with it. Amai, as you're upstairs, the moment just occurred like 20, seconds ago with that little moment of confusion of like her saying, I've told you everything. And you hear a noise downstairs in the kitchen.

Someone's moving in the cottage. Oh, hold on a moment. I flustered from this moment. I reached and pick up the tray with the remnants of lunch. And I head to the landing to head down the stairs. You get to the landing of the stairs and walking through the kitchen, you see a woman that you could never in a million years possibly mistake each other. Though you have both become adults, you instantly recognize the person standing in front of you. I dropped the tray.

A bowl of porridge shatters and splats onto the floor. There's little rivulets of egg everywhere, splashing. up onto my boots. Suvi, you came back. You dropped her tray. And I run to her and I throw my arms around her. Why are you the same height?

You are so tiny. I reach up to, my arms reach up to me, maybe just, just her armpits. Oh my God. I didn't know you would be here. You're... Suvie!

Hi. You're here. I'm so glad. Hi. I pull back. She's been waiting for you. She, she... I think she still thinks that you and Ursulaan live here.

She's... Hercelon. She's really not for doing very well. Oh, God. And I take you by the hand and I pull you up the stairs. But I stop before we get to the door. Oh, I'm going to stop you the moment we pass the tray. There is just a...

an anal retentive sense of like, that's a mess, hold on. And I reach out and just with cantrips that are careless at this point, little streaks of teal magic shoot out to mend anything that's broken and to clean the mess of egg and porridge with presidigitation. And it's all sort of just resettled on the tray. Oh. Are you okay? Yeah, thank you.

And I pull you up towards the stairs and rapidly try to explain. I mean, you know, she's very powerful witch, but, you know, we're still humans and then, our lives are a little longer, but... And she was so old even when we were... I know. She was like a million. Yeah. Well, steal yourself, I guess, for her.

Harder to be a million and 13, million 14. Is there anything? I mean, I can go into town if there's anything I can buy or get to ease. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be re-you're a witch now, like a full one? Yeah, I'm, I'm witch. No magic. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I do know.

A flicker of... No. You know what? You can inside check me if you want to? Yeah, I want an inside checker. Oh, go, go, go. I have the passive inside of 13, Brennan? Oh, okay.

All right. All right. Okay. Oh, your girl's gotten good. 21. 11. Oh, how the turns of table. Oh.

Oh, and you can see a flicker of fear, an uncertainty, and something perhaps approaching wistfulness, flicker across Amay's face for just a moment, and then it's gone. I really do have to prepare you, though. It's going to be hard, and I know with everything that you've lost before, that this might be tough, but just know, that she's going to be so happy to see you. Okay?

And there's a moment where Suvie sags a little bit. And there's something about, like, being in a place where you've been young and vulnerable that makes you want to sort of retreat into that, but you watch her fight it and regain that almost painful, like, posture. I'm ready. I'm ready. Would you like to go in alone first? To go.

It's good. Okay. And I grab your hand. We hold hands. And I open the door. Let Suvee in. You see the sight before you. And sadly, the first look that creates you is one of confusion.

Gramer Wren, it's Suvie. She looks and says Oh A big tear forms of coroner of rye She says I thought I thought I was looking at stone Oh Oh

Please come here Come here And she just holds up her She can't if she just makes no attempt to sit Yeah But just holds her arms out and Waits for you to bend over the bed Yeah

CV will do the opportunity bend and then kind of gives up on it pretty quickly and just hikes up that very well-tailored outfit and it just kind of crawls a little bit on the bed to give her

like a good hug. You see that she buries her it's like as always it's the smell. It's like the familiar smell of Grandma Wren

and you can see that she buries her face in your neck and just holds you You feel this really long, relaxed exhalation. She goes, oh, good, you're both here. Is Ursula coming? You know how our honored friends are. You know, he comes and goes as he pleases, but he sends his love, of course.

Oh, I'm so very glad. The good reminder. the presence of a wild one is a gift no matter how short or long. Sevi's going to do the kind of like turning her head because Grandmother Wren is so small now that she can kind of just look out over her white hair and just give Amé a look

of just, do you still see him? And Suvie will turn back and just take another big sniff of that sense and you, Amé, you can see like, See these hands working again, tapping, committing this to memory. I, um, bustle around the bed close, tucking, tucking it in, and, you know, smoothing the bed covers. What are you doing? Be here also.

Okay. Okay. Be here. Um, you see, when the run looks up and says, oh, my, my house was never so far as that summer. Oh. You see she looks up at Suvi and says, You are here, my, my granddaughter. She touches your face and says,

Suvi, it is good you are here. Ami, I have prepared you with the things I think you should tell. Suvi, but you must know that you should ask Suvi's permission because there are some secrets that are going to be hard, I think, for her to hear. Mommy, you don't know what Grandmother Wren is talking about. Grandma Wren, you said that you would, you know, do a little investigating to see if some of the things that you thought were true are still true, and the people that I might still trust and the things. But you never gave those names to me or that information.

Her eyes go wide. Yes, I did, huh, me? No, no. I told you. And I have. Both of you make perception checks. What? For what?

14. Brendan, my passive perception is 18. My passive perception is 21, but I rolled a 23. Let's go. That's so many. As grandmother Wren's eyes go wide, a little gesture of her mouth. I didn't see it.

I'm not that out. She says, I did tell you. A curse. It's like the curse. Do you remember that supper when she came back with the arm? Yes.

You see what you understand to be a portion of a curse, and the thought, you know that curses affect the mind and memory, and in a moment, suddenly Grandmother Wren's confusion, you wonder how much of this confusion has been the confusion of someone who is preparing to say goodbye, and you realize that

some of this confusion is not of this world. She looks at you and says, I'ma, you're seeing something. I need you to tell me what it is you're seeing. A little bit of smoke out of the corner of your mouth. I believe it to be a curse. All right.

All right. We need to carefully. And you see her body shudders a little bit. She says, if someone's managed to put a curse on me, and I have memory of telling you many times of who it was you could trust. And I think something has moved here in this place and on this time.

Suvie, give me a perception role at disadvantage. It's 13. Where are you looking at? in this moment. Immediately looking out to the hall to see, I want to get back to the attic to grab another sensor. Okay. I've turned and looked away.

The sun is lower in the sky than it should be. It has become later in the day than when you arrived here. What? What's happening here? I need you. It's all right. I grip her hand. Girls come close. All right.

And smoke comes out of her mouth and says, not that. All right. I am smell comes out She says Clever, clever, clever All right Yeah

And you see she gets strong For a moment And I Am the last She grips Your hand Amma and says Suvi

Witness this What You house is your house It is your after me The moment this happens, I cast it, identify on the house. The house is holding something incredibly important.

Grandma Wren has been sitting on a source of power that rivals anything you have ever seen in the citadel. Which, if any, of the talismans you carry are involved in the casting of that spell? Suvie mentally reaches towards the, her mother's pendant, which she keeps by her heart, stones. amulet and the little sensor that hangs from the back of her hair that's been burning a version of the resin that was a gift from Amé. But she realizes now after smelling a grandmother Ren, that she had changed over time to include the smell of Grandmother Ren in it. So she's been carrying that with her for 10 years and just realized now. You also carried a lot of stuff into the home. And I'm wondering what if any of that got like left downstairs or any of it that's with you,

just in terms of like where your, your, the instruments of your power are within the house at this moment. Yeah, I think she would have put the staff down stupidly because she couldn't carry it all, but she still has like the arm full of the cases and scrolls. Okay. And the book. So you go to your mother's pendant as you cast identify. There is something deep and profound and powerful within this house. Ah, me. And that's all right. We have them exactly where we want them, because they have trifled with us. Now listen to me, this house is your house. You are my granddaughter.

I do not know how many more witches of our kind are left in the world, but I know that if you are all that is left, the strength of your heart is enough to carry the world. And know this, and she looks to Suvi and her eyes. eyes will up with tears. Even when I am gone, you are not alone. Mind Taro. Each of you can see out the window. The sun has fully set, and there is a little bit of purple.

Something... What is happening? Give me an archa check. 19. You understand enough about temporal fields, about the nature of time. You know that magic associated with the spirits and anything to do with the world of spirits. You remember what happens? to Ursula. You know that when the spirit world draws near, that time can flow differently.

You don't think this is anything imperial. If the Wizards of the Citadel had this kind of control over the passage of time reliably, but you know that time moves more slowly in the house than it does outside, because that is why the sun is setting faster. So great magic is unfolding in front of you. As it does so, both of you look out and see. see Taro on top of the garden shed, turn and begin to go from being modeled green and yellow and red to becoming pearly white and translucent. But throw open the window, Taro, get your ass feathers in here.

And a pearly ghostly rooster flies inside. Grandmother Wren's familiar. Her rooster familiar rushes to her side. And you see Taro stands at the corner of a bedpost, the one facing towards the setting sun and looks down at Grandmother Wren, whose breath has become ragged. You see, Grandmother Wren can no longer speak as she concentrates on this magic, but she smiles and looks at Tarot. Smoke billows from her mouth. She has not fought off this curse, but she looks and smiles a close. of her smile. Taro speaks. Granddaughters of Wren, the curse is powerful. The secrets that Ren

shared still live. You have been cursed, too. In that perception check that you've rolled a 13 on before, you see a little bit of smoke from Amé's mouth. For all her sight, Grandmother Wren cannot see where the secrets are being kept But there is a key A key to find where they are being kept And a key to cut them free when found There is a source with the power to disenchant and scry She has kept it many long years

And thankfully it is a mere stone throw away up in the attic In the bathtub up above She knows that you both played with it as children There is a suit of armor Ask the suit to hand you wave breaker The sword up above It had a cross-hilt Styled in waves

And a pommel with a fist with too many fingers Exactly Run upstairs and fetch it now You may still have time to find it We gave it to Ursulaan What? To Ursulaan, the wild one I'm sorry

I'm sorry No You are You see grandmother the Wren looks and wintzes her eyes in a moment of she should have known. And you see for all of the tensity of this moment, for all of the tension of this moment, for all these wide things, this wise old witch probably had too many powerful artifacts of great importance in her ancient cottage to keep track of. And for all of the wonder of the world, you see her look and go,

Just like this to happen. Fold this way, don't they? Ataro goes, Ursulun has the sword. Wild one, wherever in the world he may be. Retrieve the sword from him. It will help you find whatever is keeping these secrets and perhaps whoever.

It will fix it. Atara looks and says to be sorry for. All the widecomings and goings of the world, perhaps there is some cause. for a spirit to have been given the sword that could cut these things free. It is not always for us to know why the workings of the spirit world

have come upon us in this way. And you see here that Grandmother Wren goes and coughs and a pure lump of black bile comes up. Oh, no. Taro diminishes a little bit and looks out. Grandmother Wren holds her hands out to the both of you. I take her hand.

This is your house when I am gone. But I ask, Ami, will you honor the invitations I extended once the house is yours? Always. I love you both. And she winks at you and squeezes your hand. I love you so much, Grandma, Ren. She holding both of your hands moves those hands together so that you are holding each other. mother's hand. The ones who leave Suvi. I'm so glad.

And her eyes close for a final time. Taro looks down, tears roll down his little beak, fade into starlight and twinkle away before they touch the bedclothes. As he begins to fade, the starlight outside is almost carrying little pieces of him away into the nighttime sky, and he looks as though Those streams of light are beckoning him. Peace by piece, constellations of him are borne away into the nighttime sky. You will find Ursula and the sword. Tarah fades away. Suvi, you think of Ursulaan, of the wild boy you found in the forest so long ago,

and you look out of the window, wondering where in all the wild woods of the world, your dear beloved Ursulaan might be. You don't see Ursulaan. You see a figure walking up the road.