Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #10: Of the Reaching Green

Episode Date: July 4, 2023

Into the woods, to find the fox, to save the friend, to break the rules. Over the wall and into the woods, to Grandmother's House we go.Worlds Beyond Number is:Brennan Lee MulliganErika IshiiAabria IyengarLou Wilson and is produced, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate Horse.Transcript of this episode available on our Patreon.[BREAKING NEWS: Our first mini-campaign HAS DROPPED ! Erika has now run their first game ever! Episode 1 of "A County Affair" is available on the Patreon, and  the final chapter drops next week! See* you there!]We 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/worldsbeyondnumberOur album art is by the great Corey BrickleySome additional ambient sound design comes from Michael Ghelfi Studios. You can get their sounds and music for your home games and VTT as well, which we enthusiastically recommend. .

This is the sound of worlds beyond number. Previously on, The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One, Naram, Spirit of the Gentle Sea, lies bound at the base of the Calabelle Nautomantic apparatus by Guildmaid Morrow of the Scepter's chorus. Our heroes stand divided. Having re-established contact with the citadel, a castigated suvi now has direct orders to do nothing

until steel arrives in Port Talon three days hence. Ursulon, having returned to the ace of wands alone, once again wields wavebreaker, the sword that legend says belonged to Naram himself, with the power to break the spells and curses of his foes. And Amé, with just such a curse still clouding her mind and concealing crucial memories of Grandmother Wren and her most important lessons, now rushes forth to find her fox familiar, chasing him beyond the walls of Port Talon, into the wasteland of witch-fire and ash that stand between the city and the wrath of creeping kudzu

beyond. We now return to Port Talon in the wee hours as a tall and tipsy traveler ambles contentedly down a cobblestone street, a gleaming sword swinging at his side. Ursulaan, sort of winding

your way back, and you've had a long walk to sober up, you know, e-ish, you know, we're buzzed still. Yeah. You, approach the chantry with wavebreaker in your hand. The attendant guard mages smile and open the door,

wages of the Azur Battalion. What do you do as you enter? I think what time is it? It's like 3 o'clock in the morning. Okay. It's 3 o'clock in the morning. I think in that case, Ursula is excited about showing his friends that he got the sword back.

but isn't thinking about them isn't like he's gonna wait until morning like it's not like they can head out now anyway so I think he is kind of just meandering back to his room in part because he knows there's a little bit of wine left that he left

before he headed off to the ace of wands you see your warped sword clattered by the door your former sword you see the coral ring still sitting there on the sort of bedside, or probably a more sturdy surface, like the floor that you put it on.

And then you see your wine. Right where I left you. It is going to go. I think take the sword out of the scapper at this point. Yeah. Take the wine bottle and hoist them both aloft in just a moment of quiet victory. Yes. Yes.

And then I think back to a, written Baker and Toma and the forms that he once learned. Yeah, the sword feels, it's good to have it in your hand again after all these long years. Familiar weight and heft. The wine tastes good. And I think you're having a pleasant time finishing the bottle, probably before the siren song of slumber pulls you off to sleep. Yes.

Where are you going to sleep in this room, by the way? I think probably wherever I was sitting. So I think he sits down and it's that kind of head against the wall, sword in his lap, whine in his hand as he just kind of drifts off. Incredible. It's not sad. This is a moment of quiet victory for him. I got the sword back.

No ooze, no Oz. Suvie. Sure, buddy. You arrive back shortly thereafter. It was absolutely Suvi's intention to spend the night at the governor's manner and just get a little bit of a break. But I think sleep just couldn't find her after everything that they've been through in the last day and the half and how badly she feels about how she handled steel and the way she sort of casually treated her while she's been gone these last few weeks. And being surrounded by like the trappings of empire and the manner, like all of this great glory. But all of it like devoid of the like noble like magicness and arcaneness that comes with the citadel.

Like it kind of sickened her. And yeah, probably she would just leave and slowly stroll back. Deeply uncomfortable with the way her glass staff glows at night. That's just this ever-present reminder. of the empire and she doesn't really want to deal with it right now, but it's lighting her way home. You arrive back at the chantry. It's avoiding the ostentatious, something tacky about that governor's mansion. You arrive back at your room to see that A, the door is no longer locked.

Splinters on the hand. Yeah, oh, sorry. It is a splintered, shattered, wide open entry into your suite. The fuck? I just bust. There's not anything to bust in. I guess I just delicately tiptoe over what my door was and look for my stuff being rifled through.

You find a note, and the note reads as follows. Hey, my butthole of a fox is on the other side of the wall, binding Orima, gone to get him. Love, Ame. There are rough coordinates of what I would have been able to piece together by looking through his vision. And the note is tucked on top of a book. And on that page, you can see about the gifts that Naram received from his father.

Her eyes like, look, she's been a strong reader for longer than most kids have been able to read. Her eyes immediately like scan down and hit Wavebreaker. and she yelps and immediately goes to go find her a salon. You find... Doors wide open. Up, get up. Fully asleep.

Up, get up. Up, now, up. What? Up now. Where? And I'm waggling this note in your face. That sword belongs to Neuro. Well, it's yours.

You got the sword. Hold on. I did it. I did it. And I want to get up to my feet. I did it. I got the sword back. Okay.

You don't have to wag. See, he was just kind of bobbing and weaving. I got it back. Okay. And from... Will Gallows. He likes me. That's...

I told him I don't like his city, and he liked me for it. Oh. Okay. Nothing else... Ames on the other side of the wall. What? She's apparently following the fox, but I think that just means she's doing whatever the fuck she wanted to do anyway,

and that's fine, but now we have to go. So instead of the thing we agreed on, we're going to go do her thing. Oh, am I being too loud for you right now? No, it's not. I just, fine, fine, fine, let's go. Her thing is... I know. I don't...

Yeah, uh... Thank you. Thank you for getting the sword. I thought we'd be leaving. I thought we were done. We need to hold it down here. Does the sword do? Does it feel?

Like, what's it? It feels like it... It's magic. So does it feel like you're doing magic? It feels the same as always. That is disappointing. Okay. You know what?

More conversations for after. Yes, we should... Offer a forearm to help you up with my strength of 10. I take it and pull you immediately down. Sorry, she is. No, it's okay. All right. Do we need anything before we go?

We're heading into the heart of an angry spirit's plants. So no, I think we're good? I think we're good. Amay, what do you do as you head towards the wall? The whole time, while I'm sprinting in my head, I am calling to the fox and saying, please at least just slow down and give me coordinates so that I can find you. I'm on my way. Oh, you want some coordinates?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Grab the old rabbit trail, not the new one. Take that past, like, mildew at the end. edge of like crater that used to be a pond. You'll be able to smell it a mile away. Obviously, you got to get your nose really download because everything's mostly soot. So dig through the soot a little bit. You'll be able to smell the actual soil.

That is incredibly unhelpful and I think you know it, but you know what? I'm going to call your bluff here. And I'm going to do, you know, as I near the wall, I'm going to do a survival check. 18. Hey. Yeah. As you approach the wall, you realize you're approaching a job. giant barrier that mostly prevents people from crossing it. You, on an 18, I don't think you're going to be able to find this incredibly stealthy little

animals trail, but you definitely can potentially like find some hint, right? Effectively, your best bet is just going in the same direction as this creature. What do you try to do in order to get through the wall? You know, obviously, that there's work happening on the other side of it. But you also know that it's kind of being treated like a war zone in terms of people coming and going. How does Ame intend to cross? Quick question. How did you cross the wall? I didn't cross the wall.

What do you mean you didn't cross the wall? Well, I didn't know how to cross the wall, so I waited for one of those big old boxes that goes along the roads, and I jumped in the back. All right. I go to where any one of the gates is. Yeah, you see there's a gate posted up. a little luck check here. And you do see a wagon kind of trundling up with a sort of

load of like barrels of sort of witch's salt in the back. I wait for a good opportunity and then I jump in. Give me a stealth check. Natural twin bag. Incredible.

You jump in the back of it. It's almost too serendipitous, right? Like right as you get to a smaller gate, you see a little carriage, there's a narrow path that it turns a corner, that there's some barrels catching rainwater outside, you hide behind them. Right as the carriage passes, it like basically brushes the barrels, so you have an easy place where no one can see you to just vault yourself into the back and hide. Here conversation. The driver and the soldiers of the gate. I log back and forth. Creek of gates opening. Even through the fabric.

brick of the covered wagon. It's salt fire, this acrid burning smell. I pull out one of the witchfire veils, and I tie it around my nose and mouth. Resting over your face, you have this heavy film on your tongue as you continue to breathe, but you're not racked with coughs. It feels like the veil over your face captures the majority. of whatever the noxious fumes are doing, and the carriage trundles along. As you are moving, you begin to see these sort of eerie glow of these green fires and sort of scorched wasteland.

There's about a full mile outside the wall of just ruined earth, dug trenches, blasted ground. There used to be buildings out here. Those are all gone now. Usually the building, were already torn apart by the kudzu and then beaten back in the fires. So everything that used to be the suburbs and outlying places of Port Talon are just destroyed now. Just the eerieness of bright green glows fading once again into thick night, the smoke turning even regular night times darkness into something even more obscuring. When do you choose to make...

your move because you know that this wagon will come to a stop and the salt that it is carrying will be handed off to something or someone. I wait until we clear the wall and the light of the torches by the gate. Then I jump out and I switch to familiar vision again to see where the fox is. You see the fox no longer can see fire and you see that the fox is. moving through cool earth surrounded by Kudzu on all sides. Hey, hey, okay, you got me out here. Just stop and be here with me, okay?

You be here with me. I am. Okay, just stop, and I will go to you easier. Do you see what I'm saying? Right, but here's the issue is that if you get to me, then you're going to try to convince me that we've got to turn around and go back to be with... No, no, no, I won't.

I wanted to be out here and you knew I wanted to be out here. And so you made the decision for me. We're going to have words about communication and trust. But at the same time, thank you. Okay. Promise me that you're not going to make me turn around. I promise you that I will not make you turn around. If you break a promise to me,

I'll never take a promise from you again. I understand. Okay. I'll wait. Okay. I'm going to move around a little bit, try to find some bugs or like mice. Oh, nice. Okay. Yeah. And you take off.

As you've jumped out, you see the wagon trundling away. Did you jump out in a place nearer to a fire or farther away from a fire? Farther away from a fire. So you are surrounded just by darkness. Give me a perception check. With advantage. You have the scouts ring. 24.

You hear the noise of the wagon trundling away. and though you are outside the reach of their light, the fires still roar in the distance. Their sound muffled by the thick blanket of smoke everywhere. The magic cloth on your face prevents you from succumbing to the noxious fumes, but this little village witch is standing in an ash-covered wasteland with no one around, you are totally alone. And this is the first time, I think, in years, that Ame has been an unfamiliar, unkind place with no one around to care for and no one around to care for her.

I'm so scared and unsure. But I know I have my friends at my back and a part of me, a part of me, a part of. part of my heart ahead of me. I have to find him. The rest will take care of itself. Journey forward into the darkness. We're going to cut back to Suvi and Ursula. Same question.

What do you do as you approach the wall? Are we just going to, are we trying to sneak? I'm assuming you can just tell them what to do. No, we're done telling. I need to be discreet. Oh, I'm sorry, remind me, are we not just allowed to walk through? I can't imagine they, no, I can absolutely imagine that they wouldn't want to let us through to whatever this is. I can't throw my weight around right now.

I'm supposed to be keeping it cool. All right. Gate situation with this wall, are there big ones, small ones, a bunch of, of them? Yeah, give me a perception. 18. There are some, there is one enormous gate that basically is the highway gate leading out.

But there are a couple, you can see like three from right where you are right now, of smaller doorways into the wall that are basically large enough for like a single file procession of like people to go through. And you see there's one door that's just like a single carriage lane through that's for like nearby

farmland. I think Ursula is going to point at that one and say, well, let's just ask, and I'll do the talking. Perfect. Suvi's going to, like, stamp her staff on the ground, and it goes from that big, like, glowing glass to the, like, wood and banded iron that it was before, and I'm going to cast a disguise self on myself. And all of the color drains from her outfit and her hair and goes to, like, sooty, dark black,

just to look like a normal person walking with none of the blues and. whites of the empire. You approach, you see that gate has two guards standing at it. What do you do as you approach them? Give a wave. Hello! My sister and I have hoping to reach home by first light and thus making our way out early. Would it be possible for us to pass?

go ahead and give me a persuasion check with disadvantage. Okay. Happily. Hold on. Can I help in my disguise self? I want to look like five months pregnant. Cool. So you're just rolling straight.

Okay. All right. Me and this pregnant woman want to leave at 3 a.m. Get home. 17. You see the guard and looks at your pregnant partner and says, A strange hour of the night, indeed, to be making your way. Where is your home?

Where do you dwell? Eyes are going to flash. Does Suvi have enough of like... Or when I know a next... Yeah, what's close. What's close? I've been to Port Town before. So what's one...

One town over? What's one or two towns over? Yeah, you remember drinking at a place in a village that was less than a day's walk from here called Lamry. Yeah. We're headed back to Lamry. Sire, Lammerie is completely overtaken. Fuck you, I knew you were going to do that. If there's any...

Lamory is far too close. The Khadzu's been fully evacuated. Well, that's why we want to get there by first light. There's a few things we need to get out of... Stop making that face, Bernard. There's a few things we need to... You all can't see it, but Brendan's making a... I don't believe...

Single word of this face. There's just a few... You think we need to get out of the home. Things for the babe. Please. I don't want to do this without my mother's blanket. Sire, I can tell you for certain anything that was left in Lamry is long since gone. I'm going to step up to him.

Soon. I know. I think I said sister earlier, right? Yeah. My poor, poor sister. I would at least have her believe there is a chance. She is with child. And it has been a hard...

She's been trying for a very long time. You see that they... Let her at least see with her own eyes that this thing is impossible. All right. The fumes alone... You should not even be in this part of town if you are with child. The smoke of the witch fires is not safe. I told you.

I will be fine. Who are you going... No, this isn't hormones. Don't look at me like this is hormones. I want to go, no. Give me an intimidate, Jack. 18. You see that, you see the guard says,

miss, miss. Tell me to calm down. I dare you. Please don't tell her to call him down. I do it every day and I regret it every time. We will open the gate to show you how much the way is barred. Yes. See, they open the gate.

You see a waste land dotted by roaring green bonfires, uh, choked with smoke and ash. And I, I, I walk her forward through the gate. Don't you see, sister? There is no hope. No.

I will not bring these twins into a world with no hope. Sister, do not run for the country. I will. Don't tell me what to do. Don't run. Don't run. Sister, I chased after her. All right, let's go. Stop. Come back. Sister. All right.

Give me some kind of, give me an athletics check to try to, like, haul ass away. 17. 17. 12. So they sort of peel back as they begin to run. Wait, don't go out. Don't touch me. Don't touch me.

Just hold the gate for a moment. I'm not going to get it. Why did you want to do this at three o'clock in the morning? I do what I want. Amay, what are the means by which you're using to traverse the ash and sort of, you know, this area of ash and witch fire? Well, first of all, how far away am I from the wall and from the fires? I think you probably got like a quarter of a mile out before you jumped out. Okay. In that case, I will just use one of the torches that I have with me, and I will use it.

for tracking. And based on what the fox has told me and what I can see, what I've seen through his eyes, I will follow him. Go ahead and give me a survival check and a stealth check. You may only do one of them with advantage. Well, first of all, I'm going to do a stealth check with no advantage. 12. Okay. This is survival with advantage.

22. You find your little fox's footprints in the soft ash. At this point, I'm feeling desperate. I go as fast as I can, almost jogging along as I follow the footprints. Eventually arrive on the other side of the ash and fire. As cool green kudzu awaits you. bones of kudzu rising up 40, 60 feet tall and realized that they have swallowed entire trees under their mass. A blanket of green over a landscape that was once pastoral and is now wild.

How are you guys getting through the ash and wasteland as well? You just rushing through? The moment we got like a couple feet off of the gate, I pass you one of the witch fire veils. Great. You giving your advantage to your stealth? giving you advantage to your survival. Survival as well. Oh, God.

Yikes. Five for stealth, 14 for survival. Pretty drunk. It's going to be eight for survival, five for stealth. Awesome. You both sort of stumble and pick your way through the ash and wasteland here. A couple times, in order just to see where you're going, you stay within some firelight. And a couple times are spotted by people out here working through the night and have to duck off into the shadows again. So you know that you've been spotted out here. You finally arrive at the kudzu, the edge.

Once we've gotten like out of the shadow of the, like once we can't see the fire anymore, I would like to lay down amongst the kutsu and take some of it into my hands. and speak to it and say Sister My name is Ursula I am the son of the great bear

I understand you are hurting and our friend Amé seeks to She comes for you now and we follow her There is If you would

aid us in finding her and her in finding you. It would mean a great deal to me. And I, if you would allow me to make a persuasion check, I do it with advantage. You absolutely may. And I'm going to say also you can add a D4 to this as something casts guidance on you. 12 total. 12 total. You cast speak with plants on the kudzu.

You lean down and whisper those words. The kudzu shakes as you hold it. A little lost cub, a way-shadowed stranger, trapped on the threshold between worlds. If you will not aid my strike, then remove yourself from my line of sight. It's just I understand. I understand that you are upset. We have seen what these people have done to your beloved, Nauram, the Bay. Exteriority saving throw. Oh, I am absolutely still shit-faced.

That's a six. What has Suvi been seeing this entire time as you speak to the Kudzu? I think you see me kneeling down, holding it. And I think I actually am going to, I think she slowly watches as the glamour fate. Would she hear words or is the language that is spoken between spirits, something else? I think you're whispering. I think you're not speaking a language that Subi can understand. So I think you just see some real spiritual shit.

Yeah. As like we get kind of to the fresh kudzu and I lean down and begin whispering and the glamour I've been wearing the entire time we've been in Port Talon. I think for the first time you see the kind of feathered my feathering kind of. And then the snout and the talons and. Ursulaan, in his true form, is whispering to this kudzu. Suvi, you only notice too late as, because, you know, Ursulaan has made himself sort of holding away to this kudzu. He was standing amongst the plants, right? Yeah.

And the plants come up, like, as he crouches down, they're like up to his butt, basically, with his, like, legs folded. It's a As you hear The venom in your head And say I've seen I've seen Naram in the bay You suddenly realize

You can't stand up And that the vines Have circled around your legs And have rooted you To the spot And Suvie, you watch As vines reach up And grasp around Ursulaan's throat

What kinship do we have You and I You have seen my husband What action did you take Ertholene, are you okay? Don't, don't, don't strike. I, I, there was none I could take. They are very powerful.

These, these, those. You feel suddenly around your ribs. How powerful am I, do you think? You are great and wondrous, but they're magic. It is unlike ours. It is, it is something else. It, it, it has struck me. I have felt its pain.

It is, it is beyond us. So, Suvee, what are you doing in this? this moment. Because I see Ursula holding up a hand to stop me, I am clutching my normal, not wizard staff, and waiting, but the moment

he looks like he is being struck, I will strike. Scattered amongst the roots, the day you wandered out from under the lumbering shadow of your oath of a father, you're far from the brave little one. Very far indeed! And your elbows are,

you are dragged to the ground as she pushes you down even further and she says you came here to tell me witch you ask me for favors when you watch my husband in their clutches

why don't I simply drink your blood and add it to my leaves if you must you may just leave Amé leave the witch the witch's name is Amé little Amme

As you arrive at the kudzu, which you saw your fox rushing through, what do you do as you arrive there? I would have definitely tried to open my vision to it. Give me

an insight to check. 18. You touch the kudzu. Nothing happens to it as you first touch it. You look and see that there are some paths. Like, you see that there are some flagstones or boulders that you could like jump across to kind of avoid some of the kudzu

um but also you could probably just start to walk through it i mean this stuff grows lightning fast but it's not growing you know at the speed of like a hand reaching out and dragging sure sure um well and then i start i i continue to move through the kudzu and finding my fox uh give me um one last survival check. You can do it with advantage because you're trying to find your familiar. 14. You cannot find your fox. You're looking, you think you've come the right direction. And as you turn to wonder if you should retrace your steps,

the small sort of like passage you just came through, like a small canyon between like maybe what was two collapsed houses or something like that is filled with plants. It's filled with finds walking your retreat. I spin back around to go forward. I reach with my mind. Fox, are you there? Nothing comes back to you. Mm. Fox?

Of dull green light. And a figure rises from the plants, maybe about 40 feet ahead of you. Feel snapping noises of its own body breaking as it stands up. There's another one in the shadows around a corner. You could hear the noise somewhere else. Shape in the darkness. If you held your torch up higher, you could probably see what it is.

Without the torch, the eyes adjust as I walk towards the bigger. Fire goes out. You hear them start to run. These beings are made of wood and vine that hold the shapes of people. As you realize, the bodies that fell here in this place were taken over, and the plants that most ate and drank of their life's nectar, when called to awaken, bear a form of similar size and shape to that which nurtured their roots, fearing nothing more than fire

as your torch extinguishes the shapes no longer being worded off rush towards you wooden hands stronger than a steel vise wrap around your throat in a movement faster than you've ever seen a human

I struggle my fingers go to my temple and I say they're wrong Grab your wrists and forearms. They wrap around your fingers. Give me a Constitution saving three. He not on the die.

Beings do not know how to hold your body in a way that would not cause it harm. There is no malice nor gentleness in the movements of these beings. As they wrap around your quick thinking, straightens your fingers out so that as they grab, them, they do not break the bones in your hands. Grabbed by these beings, they turn no longer menacing you and drag you by your arms

deeper to the Kudso. Ursula. Suvi. Tell me this. Ursula, I know the stink of human wine on your breath. Now, and think very carefully. Give you something of his I have his sword.

Yes, it is on my, it's on the belt around my waist. Father's name, throw up your hands, but there is nothing you can. If you would debase yourself in this way, of war to those willing to wield them. Bring the sword to me now. And the vines proceed. Erzlan. I'm all right.

I attempted to, you know, honored friend to honored friend, but it doesn't. doesn't work like that What do you mean? We are not all. It was the foolish Ames. That's right. You couldn't understand any of that. I

attempted to invoke my father and suggest that there was... On your second stupid, Suvi's going to rush up and attempt to reach up and grab your face. You can. You are not. You are not.

You are not. Seema was stupid enough to try hurt you. I would personally make sure that every place on this island was burned to ash. Right. Sufi. No. One thank you. Two, we're a little too close

to the cuts to be talking like that. I think she should respect someone with resolve. Yes. Well, then I believe you've, when you speak to her, you, I believe you will have, she will have met her match in you.

But she does have Amé. Oh. And she is demanding wavebreaker. We'll give it to her one way or another. Sufi. What? It's been a long day and I'm very tired. As am I.

I'm going to give you a deep hug. Yeah. Do we have any sense of which way we should go? West. Shall we? Okay. You head off. What I will now need,

is Constitution saving throws without advantage just to avoid exhaustion. You are missing a night's sleep and marching through the night. Ame is being dragged. 17. Only a nine. So, Ame, you are dragged through the night. The sort of, the fabric over your knees has shredded. They are now just bloody, torn kneecaps as you are dragged through this place.

Your head lolling as these monsters drag you further inland. Ursula, you are like stumbling as the drunkenness fades into immediate hangover, nausea, exhaustion, sickness. Suvi, you feel fine. Yeah. Yeah. Fury feels correct. It's the espresso. Yeah, no, she has so much coffee.

It's good for like two, three days. Let's go. You guys are wizards, but you do have military training. Yeah. It's like, there's marching. Yep. So at this point in time, because it's a day and a half travel under like the best of circumstances.

Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah. So what I'm going to need is. This fox fucking sucks. All right. That's what I was saying. Remember the good old days of classic corn?

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as fast as your legs will carry you. You have wavebreaker at your side. For Sufi and Ursula, as you travel, it's a long, long journey to this shrine. What is your,

what are you doing in terms of your journey? Are there any actions you're taking or are you just blindly stumbling for as long as it takes to arrive there? I mean, I'm not talking to no plant, no more. Yeah, I mean, I don't, I guess I'm, I will use lay on hands on, I guess my, I can't use it

on myself. I'll use lay on hands on Sufi, but you don't look like you're running. I think if anything I ask. You can use lay on hands on yourself? Okay, great. I suck from my own lay on hands. I nurse at my own hands to give myself the strength to keep going. And then I think I also, at some point, I'm going to ask to use your staff. and walk.

Ooh, shit. Yeah, Suvi will reluctantly hand it to you. I think just honestly to support myself. Yeah. But Suvi absolutely reaches into a pack. I think when you see her like really lock into like a marching pace and like a fine cadence,

she reaches into like a pack on her hip and takes a bite of some kind of like little leafy moss that is like a mixture between like eucalyptus and what's, Sabby, like her sinus is clear. And it's something that just after years and years of training gives, like, at the very least the placebo effect of like you are in your military bag and you have to be up and alert.

What is that? Oh, oh. I guess you can try it. Will it help? Maybe. Yes. Okay. Don't swallow it.

Yeah, you kind of breathe through your nose. Ow! Yeah. Kind of. It doesn't really hurt, but... Yeah. We use... Okay.

Well, that's all I had. We use it so that we can march. Well, soldiers, are you okay? I'll be fine. It's just my brain. I can feel my brain, you know? Fair.

Is there anything I can do? I think we just have to keep going. Give me a survival check. We can do a group survival check, so we'll take. the higher of each of your rolls. Oh, it's bad. Eight.

16. 16. So, Ursula does a good job of finding places. So the roads are overtaken by Kudzu. It just grew up through the roads. But there are mountains of Kudzu, because this place was pastoral, so there were woods here, and the woods have trees that are 40 or 50 feet tall. So there are places that if you walk through, you'd be at the bottom of a 50-foot-tall

Kudzu ocean, right? And with no light getting through to you. But you're able to basically, knowing that shrines wouldn't be somewhere that you couldn't get to by paths and roads, you're able to, on a 16th survival, mostly get towards pathways, mostly get to like, okay, here's like, yeah, there's like three feet of Kudzu here, but it's only three feet. It doesn't even get to our, it's like just around our waist, and I can feel the loose gravel of broken cobblestones or whatever, under the, you know,

underneath me as we walk. So you're able to avoid the worst of a wilderness disaster. I'm going to need one last constitution save that he will make not with advantage, just straight. Okay. Modified 20. Yeah. 15 on the die.

Amé, is there anything you want to do as you are being dragged by these beings? They immediately take you into one of those kudzu dungeons. of just like going into what used to be forest and is now just an endless tangle of vines that just parts in front of them as they walk. I toss up a minor illusion. Any spell you are casting that uses semantic components.

Right, yes. Your hands are not at your service at them. With my hands unavailable to me, I can't do anything. At the moment only have your voice. Your hands are grasped and bound by these creatures that are dragging you into deeper darkness and tangles of vines, moving forward at an unrelenting pace for creatures that do not need to breathe and do not have blood flowing in their veins. As you are going, you hear a voice in your head.

Go. Because are you okay? Oh, someone stepped on me. Someone stepped on you Yeah The thing made a squeaky noise And stepped on me A squeaky noise

Like a Like a Or like a Yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah Yeah Did this person happen to be made of plants

I didn't get a good look All right Are you okay Are you safe? I'm okay My back hurts Oh Where are you?

I'm waiting for you Are you almost here? I am That's a long story, but the, uh, plants came alive and are dragging me somewhere. I seem to meet orima. They're dragging you? Yeah. I don't want to alarm you.

Motherfuckers! And you see, uh, you just, uh, baby. Uh, and, uh, uh, you, the, anytime you check in with your fox, you just hear him sprinting. Ursula and Suvi. The sun comes up. You are still marching. Do you have any water with you? Great question.

We got wasabi. No water or anything. Do you have any rations with you? No. Starving, hungry, no water, delirious. You get to a place where you feel like, you know, I think Suvie, you're okay. You're not feeling, but Ursula, you're like in that place of dehydration, exhaustion, and hunger where you kind of can't make good decisions. You know, your first level of exhaustion means you have disadvantage on ability checks, right?

It's like that place of tiredness you get to where you're like, oh, I'm making stupid choices, right? Yeah. Do you want to roll for my pack integrity? Yeah, give me a little roll for your pack integrity. Oh, wow. Do I want a high or low on this? Probably want a low on this. Okay.

Well, that's a seven. I'm going to die. I think something falls out of your pack. Okay. Let's see what it is. I'm going to... Oh, wait, you know what it would probably be... You know what it might be?

Because there's some of it in almost every one of my pouches. Shells. Some shells. Some shells that I had collected back when we were in that first port. town. I love that. The two of you get to a place that suddenly stumps you for a moment because it's clearly a crossroads. You stand with these four giant hills of Kudzu on either side. And now the sun is out. It's hot and there's bugs everywhere. They're biting you. They're flying around. The air is just thick with buzzing. There's like these sort of hot daytime cricket. It's the smell of chlorophyll. It's like overpowering. It's almost like heady, intoxicating.

And as you look around you, you hear a noise of something rustling in the rush nearby. Make a perception, sir? Ooh. That's six. You look out and don't see through the plants until at the last moment. You see the fox comes out. of the brush with a

dead rabbit that you can see immediately has been rotting for a little bit of time, and you can see that vines have partially grown through its neck and eyes. It's not a fresh catch. Suvi, it's a fox. Ours? What, yeah?

Oh, could it be you? Oh, God. Hey, just post up. Fox! Sorry, it's not fresh. I wish it was fresh. Where is Amme? This way. I found shells. She dropped them.

Or she didn't drop them, but they fell. Okay. Okay. Well. It's our fox? Yeah, that's... Have some rabbit. I already ate as much as I could. There's a bunch of dead animals all in the plants everywhere. Hey, don't.

Are you sure? I'm so hungry. You're hungry? I just need something to soak up all the alcohol. How about you try soaking? Better choices. Maybe if we... I'm fucked. You know what? I'm fine, but I'm very bad.

I'm going to eat it. No. You eat it. What? Oh, that's not bad. No, it's not bad. It's definitely missing. It's a little dry.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The blood all drained out. There are some streams nearby that are still flowing through here, by the way. You got to go through the kudzu to find him. We need to find Amé. Yeah. How badly do you need water?

I guess, how badly do I need water? You could keep pushing if you needed to. The rabbit will hold me for a bit. Okay. All right. She's this way. Stevie follows? Following a little bit of shells,

you see the fox takes off into the brush, you will now have to enter one of these Khazoo forests. The path becomes so narrow that the vines can actually connect across what used to be a flagstone pathway through the edge of a little village, and now you're just pushing through vines.

As you push through, it's challenging to describe because, of course, you can't see more than three feet in front of your face. Everything is pushing through thicket and briar, the little fox. For the fox, everything's laid out. Him moving through the brush, it's second nature. Suddenly realized that you are at a shrine only when Ursula, your hand, through open space to which there is no kutsu.

So there's no approaching it. You're just going up steps of what used to be a pine needle-covered hill. and suddenly a hand goes through what you wouldn't have known two seconds before was a doorway. You see the interior of an old stone shrine. Image of a woman with wild hair and vines and leaves growing throughout it.

It's emblazoned on a stone behind an altar. The altar has a small block of incense and a little bowl of some, very stale looking bread. Laid in front of the altar is Ame's unconscious body. The fox goes and leaps forward and just circles up in a little fox puddle on Ame's chest. And licks at your face to wake you up, Amé. And your unconsciousness was only due to the exhaustion level.

So you've just had a long rest here, essentially. Yes. Okay, jealous. You enter. You see the emblem of Orima, sort of the sacred carving of the goddess there. You see that there is an altar with a small offering on it. And you see Amé here, and you don't see anything else. But, of course, the one entrance to this shrine, and the shrine is only like 15 feet by

15 feet. It's a small little room. But the entrance is totally obscured by a wall of Kuzu that has only the barest bit of sunlight. You're in like effectively darker than twilight in here because of all the plant matter obscuring the sunlight far ahead.

Are you okay? Yeah. Oh, you found me. What? Thank you. Happened. Oh. Um. I think

Agents of Orima found me Oh, Fox, don't run away again And I pick them up And I scoop them up And I hug them real tight I'm glad you're not dead Oh

You little shit While this beautiful reunion's happening Sovi's gonna curve away from Ame and the fox and move over to the incense. And it's just a little, like, she cannot keep the petulance out of her, any of her energy. I'm going to use prostitution to light it, but I want the flame I conjure to be the green of the witchfire. Copy that. Bitch.

The incense lights. As the incense lights, I think Ursula, you hear. voice. And I will allow Ursulaan to determine here because you can hear it and can tell

at the moment that your friends and allies cannot. But you feel almost a sense of like if you could draw their attention to it somehow, maybe they could hear it. Yeah, I would do that. I think I would

as as Suvi is being petty and Amay is shaking the fox I think I like inhale deeply to get their attention and listen she speaks to us

listen listen both of you begin to hear the instance swirls and you see that there is some sort of moss or lichen on the emblem of Orima. When I dragged here was not the one that was dragged here by me. Something tells me that the one whose knees are bloody came here of her own volition,

that the one who walked here freely was compelled against his desires to do so. Orima, I'm sorry for what has been done to you and to your husband. I am a witch, and that means that while I am still a young acolyte, it is my duty to try and speak with you and on your behalf to the world of humans. Will you accept me as your messenger? I will. Can I insight check her? Is there anything to check in her tone or?

This is nothing you learned in the citadel. Amé, in a very formal way, has asked, permission to even be able to talk to this person. And there is a script here that you would not have known to anticipate and have a sudden close-up moment of realizing that Ame has not been twiddling her thumbs in the long years since you last were with her. I know you seek to be reunited with him. You see the kudzu swarming towards the city.

and while I do not excuse his pain and his suffering, please understand that there are many of my people that don't understand what is happening, that we're not even aware of the old ways. And so that I ask your aid in freeing him and in protecting him, but that in return, please spare the city, I will teach them and they will learn the old ways. They will learn to keep your shrine clean, to prepare the offerings.

They will learn to revere the one who taught them to fish. He said that he loves your fury, but you admired his gentleness. He's not in a position to show it now, but I'm certain that he would want that. Yes, and I hold it up. While he is pinned. your people fed and you would ask this of me

you wish what to run away have lost your breath sun cured hay and the wine of their glass bottles basots have lost the sharpness of your fangs

and you are now one of theirs but of course you can never truly be one of theirs can you? And yet so desperately do you cling to their world? You do not walk the path of the spirit. You have forgotten us.

Forgotten the world of your birth. Where did you put your breath? There is something here. This world precious to your way. Show it to me. I think Ursulaan then shrugs his shoulder, brushing away the cloak and revealing the paltrow. It is this orima.

The inter of the two eyes of the stone. carving between the spirit and the waking. In the reflection of the paltren, a line of knights riding down a road, approach of a young cub Ursulaan like you remember from that first summer. Mighty hawthorne, golden-armed falcon on his shoulder, who notices the young cub, stealthy as he is a creature of the wild places. The knight removes his sword and dagger, his halberd, even his boots, to walk barefoot in the forest, to pay his respects to this honored friend,

Sir Curran of the Hawthorne, kneeling down. In the reflection, you cannot hear his words, you see him speak to a young Ursula. But what he was, I stumbled into this world and saw him, saw what he possessed. He told me that he was. was a knight that he had, he had honor. The thing that brought me to him was the shine, the way that light played on him, but the thing that, the thing I hid my breath away in was the way that others looked at him. It was the way, was what I saw in him. This, this thing, invisible yet so real.

Spirit of the wild, its breath, very essence inside of a concept, so of the mortal world that even most mortals cannot achieve it. Towards one, dewgros top, towards the other, and the second titans as shadowed spirits in my time. But I've never seen one tie themselves in my mind. There is no tension between, his two worlds, where he comes from and treating the world of spirits with respect and having honor.

Because honor isn't something that you just have, or you earn once. It's something that you maintain with your actions and with the way that you treat others throughout your life. So he can still walk the path of the spirits while doing it honorably. Of choices, of consequence. This cub has woven a great spell. And though it may not strike your kind heart as just woven it is all the same, it is my husband's blade.

Whatever binds him, it can be wielded in this way by a spirit. Its magic will only be given to one who draws on the power of their breath. Suvie bites down on her tongue. It can taste blood. She is holding it together because if she speaks, it will be bad. Ursulaan produces the sword and places it on the altar. Then have it done. You are a spirit.

Free your husband and let us go. No. We work too hard to get that back. We need to break the curse on Amé. And then we will return the sword to Arima and she can do Suvi, as you are speaking, you see Orima starts speaking as well. Make a perception check for me. Okay.

22. Oremas starts speaking, but doesn't have the inflection of someone who's interrupting something. Like, as she starts to speak, she doesn't, like, cut into your words. She just hears the pause of, like, the last thing Ursulaan said. And in the middle of your words, you just hear her go. On the altar, walk outside the shrine and scatter it there. If I bring you into our realm, will you have mercy?

Give me an insight check. And Suvie, give me another perception check. I only rolled in 11, but my passive is 18. Gotcha. I think that on that perception roll, you're just something, the way in which Arima started speaking while you were speaking, and the fact that you,

spoke up in like a sort of disrespect you were sort of like hey we can't do this now and ame and ursula both heard you just fine but but you are literally like you're literally like what's you're like what's going on like i like did this bitch put me on mute i'm gonna burn the i'm gonna burn the kuzu down excuse me i only got an eight for insight that's right you see she says what's those people or do i bear them in me for general as my husband's bed full flourishing and they muddle through their dull and mundane lives as he believes. They have forgotten the old ways, but we will prove that I must. For even as I advocate for you and your husband to them, I have to advocate for them for them to you.

We will help you for your husband. but you I beg that you show care to these people. Arts desire deserved enough what they let before my husband for as you cannot seem to find it in your heart to let me free them certain then from the shrine alive.

That was Lou Wilson as Ursulaan, Erica Ishii as Amé, Abrea Aungar as Suvi and Brennan Lee Mulligan as everyone and everything else. World's Beyond Number is edited, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate Horse, with additional sound designed from Michael Delphi Studios. For even more like this, join us on our Patreon.

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