Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #14: There is an Ocean Vaster Than This One

Episode Date: August 31, 2023

Nothing ends. Everything begins.Thus concludes chapter  one (1) of The Wizard, The Witch, and the Wild One. The  world of Umora will see you in October!  But WE're not going ANYWHERE. If you are not already a member of the patreon you are going to tremendously regret that over the next few weeks. Don't be a "Regretful Jeb", come join us! And follow us on "social" (yikes) to get updates and calendars and schedules for everything coming out over the break. So much stuff, we probably shouldn't even call it a break. I need a vacation from this vacation!This episode featured a song called The Rain Road, with music by Taylor Moore and lyrics by Taylor Moore and Brennan Mulligan. Look at us, like Hall and Oates over here! We had wonderful help with the choral arrangement from composer and choir director Héctor Muñoz (available for hire!) and the Macraphona Choir: Camila Chaij (solo), Micaela Roldán Juan Leoni, and Nahuel CamargoWorlds 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 coming soon! You can find transcripts of all our episodes here, for free, on our Patreon.THERE IS A WORLD OF WONDER COMING TO OUR PATREON OVER THE BREAK BEFORE THE NEXT CHAPTER STARTS. GET THEE TO IT.Our 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. Chaos reigns in Port Talon. Rolling thunder from distant storm clouds paints the sky a deep, bleak gray as Port Talon wails and screams in the coming of chaos. The glow of the witch fires is gone, and vines stretch over the ramps. parts as the Azure Battalion opens fire on the screeching undre, stranglers on the spirit

world, plant creatures intent on the destruction of Port Talon, the reaching arms of Orima beyond the veil of the spirit world, reaching for her husband. In the harbor, ships begin to sink their masts at strange upsetting diagonals as they begin to disappear under the waves. And we see a massive whirlpool suddenly slam shut. Walls of water tearing the bodies apart of wizards suddenly caught in the closing mouth of the sea. Ursula, you plunge with Morrow into the water. We pick up right where we left off last episode in initiative. Zoufi, that is your turn.

you see an equation laid out in front of you. Orima is not in this world, and it's a good thing. Who knows what fate would befall Port Talon if she were here in person? But she is blindly reaching from across worlds with the arm of magic that she can, sending the vast and roiling green here to destroy whatever is in its path until it finds her husband. Some part of the magic here believes you to be that. The spell of protection cast up standing in this way, in this moment here, there is a momentary ability for you to push this energy in one way or another.

And the equation you see in front of you is this force is profound, and as it meets resistance, it will break it. The empire does not have the ability with the resources available in this moment to resist this. So you see, for lack of a better metaphor, the empire's arm is going up to resist this blow, and the bone of the empire's arm will break. Where does it break to do the least harm? and you see the walls, the Azure Battalion, the Undre streaming in, and far away from you, the harbor and all of the chaos reigning there.

In this moment, what do you do? I'm going to start by yelling a, like, halt order to the battalion and to the Undre that's got its arm tendrils wrapped around my neck. I want to speak through it to Orima to give her something to follow. She will strike blindly. But if I can give her a better cut, I just want to lean in and say, follow me and only me. And then make my way back to the harbor if I can to put her in the path of the wizards that did this.

You give your command to the Azure Battalion and you give your statement to Orima to follow you. let's settle this piece by piece. Number one, you're telling the Azure Battalion to stand down. You're shouting that command out. They have followed you here. You're going to roll this with advantage. But I'm going to say that in the midst of pitched chaos and combat while they're actively fighting, this is going to be a higher DC.

So we're going to say this is a DC-20, but you're rolling with advantage. Okay. Now, Brennan, have you met my dice? 12. Okay. One of them was a natural one. You call out asking for them to lay down their weapons, and over the noise and screaming, your voice just doesn't care.

You're not on the command of Deus anymore. You just hear on the wall. In your speech to Orima, saying basically follow me. Give me another persuasion check, but also give me an insight check. Persuasion is 18. and insight, 11. On an 18 persuasion,

the Undre relaxes its grip. On an 11 insight, you know that you want Orima to follow you, and I don't think you can tell exactly how that's going to happen. But the grip is released in this moment. What do you do as the grip releases?

I think I'm going to reach out for it because to me, especially because she wasn't listening to me when we were all together in her shrine, I need to keep a speaker close. So I'll reach back out to it by whatever appendage looks the most like a hand and pull it behind me onto the horse. I will sacrifice a finger to spare the rest of the arm. As you pull this undre, it screams out and you see other undre along the wall. Turn and begin to convent. verge, rushing towards you.

As they do so, you hear the whining of the stone grow more pronounced. Right. The Eindrako next. I'm going to roll a saving throw for the wall.

Yeah. That's where we're at. With a six on the die, you get to your horse and begin to flee, and you hear, and the wall behind you splits and cracks a fissure.

no wider than like your smallest finger on your hand cracks open in the wall and that's all the goods who needs. And the roots and leaves and vines come through and through that one crack in the wall, enter the city. And you can see in the cracks of the cobblestones behind you, the green racing, shattering the geometric angles of the cobblestones and rendering them fractured broken earth as it chases on your horse. With the undre, you're dragging behind you. Last one I'm going to ask for on your turn, because you can see that the green has, is like growing undre behind you as it chases you. What path do you attempt to take through the city to the harbor?

If there is a main, like, thoroughfare, I would assume, like, the biggest, widest road in this city wouldn't be residential. It would be, like, a big thoroughfare for people moving. through the city that have to like make their way to like take things to the harbor. So we are sparing civilians and ripping up the center thoroughfare. Give me, I'll say go ahead and give me one last investigation check.

Okay, 24. 24, hell yes. With a 24, you steer your horse going in the direction where you know most people have already evacuated. You see the map of the city in your mind and go to the places that you know people would not be in an emergency like this. And as you do, grows behind you, reaching frantically, someone wearing the shape of its husband. In the water, having lost concentration, the breath leaving his body, looks at you, Ursula, wearing your true form and not the form of bear of the strongest man in Silbury to cast disintegrate. It is countered with a ninth level spell slot by Naram.

Yeah, you watch, there's no, you know, there was a path that Ame could have chosen where Naram paid the ultimate price to save you and you were facing Mara by yourself. That's not the path that was chosen. The path that was chosen is Naram breaks the tower, breaks the wizards, and saves you. and he sees a spell that can only is just a pure act of magical destruction and unmaking

where your name would be rent from your memory and you would be sent back through time through the realms until there was nothing left of you. And there is a, you can feel, it's a type of casting. Naram, basically, there is a movement as of currents in the sea where Naram revokes permission for a spell to even be cast here. And the spell is gone. That's Maro's turn.

And, yeah, tough break, buddy. Dunked up. L's on, L's on, L's for the wizard. He's in our house now, all right? We're beneath the waves. And I'm the damn sea bear. Let's go for me. about here being a whole ass tardigrade.

I love it. As you are racing through the streets, Suvi, Galani flies overhead and looks up after you. And you see, as she's flying, is like looking at the walls kind of being overtaken, calls down to you and says, Suvie, what's the plan? Where are you headed? Get out of the way.

Okay. Okay. Well, I'm taking a bad thing to her baby daddy. You got to just move. Go ahead and give me persuasion. Natural 20. Taking a bad thing to her baby daddy. Yeah, come up, my guys. Get out the damn way, my guys.

He's normal bad. I'm not cool. You see that Galani hears you say that. She rises up overhead, looks at the wall, looks at the chaos at the wall, lowers her staff, fires a blast of blue

rippling light that hits the crack in the wall and further widens it. And as it does, a bigger mass of plants breaks through and you watch the chaos along other parts of the parapet lesson.

In other words, it's like, as you choose your break point, she goes, great, and the plants race through coming just after you. Amé, that is your turn again. You are building your shrine here on the docks. People are terrified and nervous.

You smell the incense burning, but you also can feel the jostle of people trying to get to you to understand what is happening. I climb up to the highest point that I can see in that town square. And facing towards the harbor, I place my hand.

to my brow, and I shout, Naram! You called Naram's name. I'll ask for one last survival check as you attempt to basically invoke his name early for this offering. So give me one last survival check. The Fox is going to give you the help action on this role.

That one's advantage? I need a 14 or higher on the die. And that's a 19-9. on the die. You call out to Naram. The voices of the people here fade away. Do you hear their fear, their emotions, their concern, their frustration?

It's okay. They can be afraid right now. You find something in yourself that needs the people around you to not be afraid. and suddenly accept that you're afraid of them being afraid. And that's the one thing you do have control over. It's okay for people to be afraid.

Their life has been disrupted and they don't understand what's happening. Say his name, under the sea, Ursula. Hear Amé's voice as clear as day, but moving through the water like whale song. Nauram, thank you for saving my friend. Your wife is seeking you. It's time to go for your guidance. Just watch in the harbor as Naram hears you and prepares. As he does so, Ursula, that's going to be your turn.

We're going 30 feet to the bottom of the ocean. My goal, my hope is to pin this motherfucker. But I'm going to go 30 feet down and I'll swipe at him with Wavebreaker. Hell yes. Go ahead and give me an attack rule. 21. Ooh, baby. And with this attack, are you seeking to...

I think I just want to pin him to the bottom. Hell yeah. So, you swim down to the bottom. You raise Wavebreaker overhead. You see, he throws his hands up to, throws his hands up. He casts a shield spell that, like, protects his vital organs, his throat, ruins glitter over him. And Wavebreaker strikes true driving straight through the belts of his robe, through his cloak, through all of that fabric. And as you avoid his body entirely, you slam Wavebreaker into the stone.

And as you draw it out a plume. of coral follows behind it, growing through the tears of his clothing, through his robes around his belt, and is left in a shape like a bear's claw of coral holding him down to the bottom of the sea. Now you know how it will feel. He goes through and you can see, like, you see his mind being racked with. what he can possibly cast in this moment. No harm has been done to him. He is simply trapped at the bottom of the sea,

exactly as Naram was. You watch his face as he looks for the spell somewhere. What spell could he have prepared, thinking that he would be trapped by Coral at the bottom of his own bay in the rubble and boulders, surrounded by the limp bodies of the wizards he had tasked with keeping Naram, here. There is no spell. He has to break free from this moment. Fly, though, he might. He is

restrained, and you can see the fear. Touch. He looks. Ram decide, knowing that there is some part of him, even looking at someone that wanted to enslave and torture him for his eternal life to the whims of empire. There is still some part of him that does not wish to see a man drown. Does he in this moment, what does he feel empathically sharing this telepathy with Ursulaan in this moment? You can feel his rage. You can feel his sense of poetic justice to believe this man. He's not killing him. He's just believing him exactly where he was.

But you also feel already from Naram this sense of sorrow at having hurt people. this sense of sorrow at, like, the decision to save you and the decision to, you know, destroy this apparatus that shouldn't exist and was going to kill you. What is he feeling emotionally from Ursulaun in this moment? Ursulaan knows and thinks back to the moments that brought him here. And he knows that this sword is not, it's not what it means to be a knight, to be honorable,

to fight for a quest. It is the violent action of killing Morrow is not what he desires. I think the anger and rage is the desire for Morrow to know what it feels like to be trapped and to understand that. And I think there's a part of Ursulaan that wants Morrow to die, feeling like the world would be the world being rid of a man with the intentions of morrow would likely be a good thing

but I think even in this moment Naram would sense conflicted feelings of how does one would sense conflicted feelings in Ursula of how does one rid the world of evil and deal with evil without becoming it

themselves feeling like I've done what I wanted but now it is like you know Ursuline even now is watching this guy die and like standing over him being like do I just watch do I just stare do I just stand here until he's dead I think like it is the the it is that conflict of how you know we can't we can't talk our way through everything. At some point, things will require action. You feel Naram's ageless and eternal heart feel the same conflict as you. And you hear his voice, do you brother that it.

You look at Naram, who hovers over Maro, exactly placed by you in the exact position he first showed you, Naram. You feel Naram's conflict comes from the 100 dead soldiers in the plain of witch fire and all of the Scepter's chorus mages falling to their death, nameless and anonymous and far more innocent than this man, who after all commanded them here. If those are, there's a part of Naram that says, if I made those mages pay with their lives, what justice could it be to let you still live? But then there's another part of Naram that knows that those mages didn't pay with their life for some abstract point of justice.

They pay with their life because he had to get the fucking Derek off of you. And that urgency is gone in this moment. And what does that mean to take Maro's life when there is no urgency left? Not exactly yet. A truce sees this massive spear and you recognize the spear in for a second the glamour glimmers over it, and it is sea-calmer. And then it once again is a tendril of this mighty ocean god scratches along Maro's forehead, the blood intermingling with light.

And you see a set of gills opens on Morro's neck. There you are, and treasures of your cleverness brought you here. One gift is enough. Let your cleverness do the rest. And Naram gives him the ability to breathe underwater and leaves him pinned to the seafloor where he was and seems to say that for this moment, that is justice to him,

he swims to you and you feel his heart. And I, with no, I'm going to start to swim to shore. Suvi, that is you, once again, as the plants are coming after you, Do you concentrate more on keeping your speed up in order to outpace the greenery behind you so it doesn't catch you? Or are you focusing more on like choosing the best possible like course to get through? Definitely best possible course. Okay.

I don't really care if it catches me. That's not the point. Right now, I understand that it's following me and if I can keep it out of a civilian's way, then we're doing her job. You lead it the best possible routes. As you approach some places that have people in them, what do you do as if you, like, see civilians or people as you begin to, like, ride down the thoroughfare? I definitely think it is Glass Staff out, and I'm sending out Erulian bolts in front of me.

Like, just it's bursts of light and sound and damage to keep the way clear. Bolts of blinding white desert magic flash in front of you, and you see up above you, Galani raises her staff against her flying overhead and mutters a couple quick words to herself and begins to fracture parts of the sky to be partially reflective, almost in that colorless way that like seeing a reflection in a clear glass mirror is. Just to show you reflections of other streets and places where civilians are so that you can best guide your course away from anybody,

saving as many people as possible. Prioritizing that over your own safety, I will need a dexterity saving throw. DC 13. The undre behind you, looking at you firing those bolts off, the one that you have dragged with you, finally breaks out of your grip

long enough to drag a hand onto the cobblestone and throw up entangling around you. and you are pulled off your horse into the greenery with the undre on top of you. As your speed is suddenly stopped here in this moment, and you see the kuzu beginning to expand outwards. You sort of created this node, and you can see it's about to break in multiple directions. What do you do in this moment as your horse gallops away without you, and this strangler is standing here, holding you and kind of believing in a way that you

And so it's like, you can feel the plants are like, we have him, but we don't have him. Like your distraction, your disguise is working, but it's also confusing them because you're not coming home. The first thought is up to Galani. Keep pointing them forward. And then to these vines to the closest I can get to Arima. We're so close. Give me a perception check and a persuasion check. A terrible perception is an eight, which makes sense.

Persuasion is an eight. We're doing bad. You say we're so close. Galani leads them forward. And you see multiple Drey begin to crawl from the ground. and stand around you. You hear finally Orima's voice. And you feel the Andres begin to grab you,

Suey, what do you do in this moment? It's the shrine again. And you realize it's not her. She didn't mute you. She can't hear you. I have to figure out why, what's going on, what is different. I think in that sort of fallen from the horse,

choked and bloodied, Like, I just look down at myself. Like, why am I not enough? What am I not seeing? What don't I understand in this moment? Give me whatever skill check would be associated with that to you, whether it's investigation, arcana, insight. It's got to be investigation.

Okay. 17. You look down. It's a discoloration on the front of your blue robes. It's like a darker patch. What? I dig under them. You see, your sapphire pendant,

drinking in light. Never told me. And I am just going to pull it off and snap it. You pull it off. And you hear Orima's voice scream liar. She's going to, yeah, she effortlessly dispels your illusion. And you are right in front of her and the undre all. Step back.

Amé, that is you. You hear Orima's screamed in your mind's eye. You can see the crest of a wave building as it heads to shore. You can tell that Naram is coming. He has heard your word. And now it's Orima, and you hear Orima's rage. You can feel it. It smells like the thickness, the kind of green,

where the forest is almost choking you with its oppressiveness. And you can tell that she is about to kill Suvie. From high atop my perch, I raise a hand. And I say, stop. There is magic behind my command. Not the kind of magic that worldly spellcasters

would be using. It is a word that has behind it a promise. My promise to do right by the spirits, the promise that was renewed when I mended the temple. It's less of a command and more of an entreaty.

As the magic flows from you, imploring this spirit to stop, she's going to be used one of her legendary resistances to avoid the spell. You call stop, feel all of Orima's wrath turned to you. Suvi, in the calm before destruction, the Undre snap their attention away from you

and sprint past you towards the harbor. Faster than at any point you've seen it growing, to the point where you cannot even with your eye sort of follow the speed of growth of vines and plants that race through the cobblestones. You hear, now not even in your mind, just out loud, the distant shriek of a spirit whose voice covers the entire landscape.

Some wail as though of a ghost this voice streaks at the top of its length. The vines move. I would like a constitution saving throw from Ame. The 19. Hell yeah. See the green racing towards you as fast as possible. You see the intent of this thing is to destroy you.

And with a burst of water, this shape is standing in front. of you and you see a thorn of poison holly, a sprig of some plant meant to touch you. And in a moment stop the beating of your heart with deadly venom, strikes Naram in the chest. You see him standing there. The height of a man, long green hair, long pointed ears standing with his spear and robe. Ursula, you erupt out of the water with him as he. helps you aloft to land on the harbor. You watch the poison spread across his chest.

No! He turns to you and smiles. My wife has poisoned me many times, my darling. And you see, he plucks from his chest. And you see that the wave comes and crashes into the offering just as the green vines reach it, wrap around. And you are frozen. in this moment, you watch the droplets of the wave

are moving slowly through the air. As Naram smiles and you see the vines growing up and touching his face so softly, the vines reach and touch the wound and you see begin to drink the poison back up out of it. My wife can become always right away. And you see he smiles at the green.

He looks, to Ursulaan and Amé here in this moment, holds his hand out and puts it on your shoulder, Ursulaan. Bull spirit, you will forever be welcome. I'm sure we will, brother. There is an ocean faster than this one. The sun is ever shining. It calls you home and turns to you, Ami.

This task was too great to call kind to set before a witch as young as you. We all have to learn sometime. You have and far more than learn. These people are safe and I am free. The world's heart is in good hands. I still don't know what that means. You don't know? We got Wavebreaker to break the curse on me

so that I could remember, so that I could inherit my duties. I am woefully underprepared. There is a curse placed on you. Wavebreaker can break it, but there is a, and you see that as he says that, you see that the green touches him, and Galani overhead. You see the wizard sort of appears, lowering her staff.

Naram looks up to see her in this moment of, like, slowed time. The green grows all around him and is almost now totally encompassing him. He sees the wizard overhead. He makes a decision about how much time is left here in this moment. He turns to Ursulaan and says, The sword. The sword can break the curse. You have precious little time, brother.

He looks to you and says, the mask covers his face. As a bolt of abjuration is just about to strike, he vanishes. wave crashes, scatters the offering, puts out the incense. Naram is gone. Returned and you see all of the undre collapse of rotting moss and wood on the ground and a long path of kudzu leading back up to the broken wall,

swaying lightly and Erspawn. See the scattered offerings? You see the plants. the very edge of the kudzu hanging through the planks of the dock, lightly touching the crests of waves laughing against the shore. Are you okay? I am fine. Are you okay?

And I'm going to come seeing the injuries around your neck and cast lay on hands and give you five HP back. Thanks. Put my hand on your shoulder. and I think where I touch you, you feel the warmth of a great hearth, kind of course through your body, that comfort and ease, and the creek of wooden floorboards and walls as the warmth from a fire kind of causes that kind of temperature change that makes a house, make all of those rich and comforting sounds,

that we know from the dead of winter. I think you kind of hear those lightly on the wind as the injuries around your neck heal a bit. Sivi instinctively, especially feeling all of that, throws her arms around you and just sort of sags into you. Oh, sorry. It has been... And I think looking around the crowd that is here...

Yeah. is going to go, I think we should go somewhere more private. Amme leaps over, or takes a running leap and tosses herself around their middle. You touch yourself. You see, by the way, without you even having to have done it, as you emerged from the water, you see that one of the last things Nauram did was he wrapped you in your own glamour. Oh, okay, great. As you came out of the water, you look, I think even find yourself surprised and didn't know that, like, great spirits.

could like do that of like sort of like putting on your kids' shoes before leaving the house you know you're like oh like he did a like I got you bud like yeah um so yeah Amé comes and flings her arms around you the people look and see

like the storm clouds sort of on the horizon that were sort of menacing begin to sort of disperse and the Derek is gone you see that as people look you know that the racing green and the monster out in the waves, they see all of this sort of fade and look around,

and all of them saw this like meeting of the vine and this, and look to Ame as kind of the one leading this shrine building or offering and look to you for any possible, like, answers, or they just look like... I extract myself from the hug. The ocean spirit, Naram, taught... All of you, your ancestors to fish. Orima has protected these walls for generations,

and we've forgotten the ways we have not tended to their shrines and given them the praise and respect that they deserve. It is a dangerous thing to think that we can control the same. spirits. We can only ever try and work with them. Give me a persuasion check as you speak to the crowd here. Can I give her advantage by kind of moving to

her side in full citadel regalia just to give like the arm of the empire a little more weight to it? Ooh, that's an 18 on the day which makes for a 24. Um, you see. the Galani landing.

And you see she looks as though she's about to interrupt Ame and sees you Suvi kind of standing there and keeps silent for a moment. And you see Ame, the people of Port Talon gathered here at the harbor, remove their hats and hold them to their chests and bow their heads. in respect. As they do so, you see a very old woman steps out from the crowd.

She's got a wide dress that has very small little sort of shells woven into the fabric of this white dress. And she's got a warm shawl, warm wool shawl over her shoulders, steps out of the crowd, puts a last little like offering on the scattered offerings that were knocked over by the way. wave, touches your hand and begins to sing. And as she does, you see a few of the older folks in the crowd, look and start to sing as well. I don't know the song or the lyrics, but I can pick out a harmony to join in on the chorus.

The breach of cream and the wood by gentle sea The tide by a love as old as time of crap You look and see Galani looking at this song that people sing as they look And you see that it's gotten late enough in the day That even with the storm clouds The sun gets low enough that it comes in under the storm clouds and there's a deep golden light filling the harbor. People sing this song.

You see Galani stroking her chin. It's a very beautiful song. Danger is gone. She can appreciate that it's a beautiful song. But you just see a look, I think, Suvie, you understand the most because it's just the look of, this song is totally out of our control.

Galani walks over to you as the song ends, And you see people, you know, the Galani goes over, like the Azure Battalion shows up, other people. Morrow is, she's talking, she's like, I have no idea where the guild mage Morrow is. He disobeyed a direct order from the Citadel to venture out and try to kill a honored friend, tried to kill a wild one. And it just starts going back. She turns over to you says, Sufi, are you all right? Yes. Okay.

Are you? As all right as can be, I thought that I create spirit. was going to kill me in the middle of the harbor. Honestly, same. Yes, absolutely. And instead, that didn't happen. But many are dead, and that wild one could be anywhere. My best understanding is that he is gone.

That Arema of the Reaching Green reclaimed him and took him hence, which is good for us. All right. Where's Morrow? Morrow is presumed dead. Oh, okay. He opened that whirlpool and the whirlpool shut, which is what would have happened if he had been immediately killed by the great one that he was flying after. Weird.

Okay, okay. Galani turns to both of you. She looks at you, Amé, and says, thank you very much for attending to the citizenry of Port Town. I understand that you were able to calm them with some ritual as they were panicking. Um, yes and no. Uh, it's a little... You're welcome.

I'm glad I could do what I... It's something that we too often forget about, uh, in moments of crisis, and it's wonderful to have a witch to attend to those interpersonal leads during, uh, a catastrophic event such as this. Uh, that that spirit, um, was, I've, I've rarely seen a destructive force like that. That was horrifying to behold. I'm gonna just shoot Amé a little look. That is just, you gotta let it go.

I open up my mouth. Nope. Um, just a little head shake. Well, it just goes to show that forces like that should be respected. I think you're exactly right. We need to have more respect for these sorts of forces that we're just. dealing with. And there used to be more oversight on idiots like Morrow who tangle with things they don't

understand. RIP. Yeah. And you see. Thoughts and praise. And you see, she says, let's get your things moved to the governor's mansion. I don't think that the Calabelle Chantry is going to be a wise place for you to remain. When Steele arrives, do you want to take?

point explaining what wonderful wonderful thank you um you see galani gets your get your so he tried to be as cool about the but yeah i get it she's so fucking scary so should you talk to your mom or should i ask of her look she made you cry last time so i got it i say that that's so mean um um uh your things are moved over to the governor's mansion again much more austin lots of like lapis lazuli and gilded, you know, plant. Like, like, everything is, like, framed and, like, big gilded leaves wrapping around murals of, like, imperial victories. And you see that there's already folks getting to work, like, you know,

pulling up Kuzu out of the city. As we go or make our way there, you know, I speak with, especially the elders in the city. and you can overhear snatches of Amay saying, oh, well, I mean, anything, really, just animal feed. And, oh, there's this great tea you can use, and the flowers can have this nature to them almost grape-like. And I have a lot of, we had a hanging back at the cottage

that I think was made from the fibers. incredibly useful stuff. Yeah, the elders of Port Town. And it's hard because you can see that a lot of the Port Talon's gotten really big. It's a big city. So there's sort of this thing. I think you're spending your first time in a city like this and seeing that the communities here are partially estranged from one another.

There's just so many people. And because the systems of government within the city are themselves so imperial and bureaucratic, and kind of opaque to a lot of the people that live here. It's not like Toma, where you go and find the elders. And it's like, oh, yeah, it's these group of families that, like, know each other. And, like, of course, we're, like, going to respect our elders because that's literally, like, my grandma and your grandma. You know, it's like, oh, there are communities here, but the communities feel that they've had, like, walls built up around them. The people that you do talk to are very grateful for your insight and very grateful for your health.

The more that it sort of happens and the more that I encounter that I just end up going over to some of the sailors and saying, you can make rope with it. You can make rope with it. It's cheap. Free rope. And you say, go, ah, free rope. All right, free rope. Yeah, free rope. Free rope.

Free rope. As the sun finishes setting, Ursula, you... are protected by your glamour, but feel yourself connected to the spirit. You're, you know, you are here in the mortal world. That is your curse. That is, you know, but the first time that joy that was in your fingers, that feeling of being alive, feel alive, feel a source of, like you would never have called it this in the spirit world, but here it is magic.

It's a magic that is It's not right to say it's yours It's you The magic that is you Is here with you How are you feeling this moment? What are you doing? As Ami is like tending to the citizenry

And you're like having your stuff moved over To this new place I think Ursulaan is quiet I think Ursulaan is sitting With this feeling he knew for so long That he then lost and his reconnected with I think Ursulaan especially as Amé and Suvi kind of busy themselves

find somewhere to just sit and I think listen to and like to really just sit with this feeling I think there's almost a part of him that is looking down at his now human hands and human form and trying to remind himself that this is not that this is just for protection that this is the thing he wears, that the thing he is is the quiet thing inside himself.

Oh, really good. As Amé is sort of running around the city, I think back at the doing your thing, where is the fox? Is the fox with you as you're going and traveling around? Yeah, there's so many fish just flopping around in the streets. Yeah, and the fox is like, I know that everyone was really scared. This was a great day. This was a great day.

Look at all these fish. Yes. You know how hard it is to catch these? Because they were in the water. And they go faster, you know? But up here. This is your house now, huh? Well, this is a city.

Yes, that's it. I don't have a house. Home. You're home. This is where you're most comfortable. With fish flopping around right in front of you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I hear it.

It'd be great if there was more grass because these rocks hurt my feet. But it's okay. Don't eat. Okay, I know I'm going to introduce you to a word that's going to be very useful for you in this situation. Moderation. Moderation. It means not too much of something.

Okay. And when does that happen? That happens when, huh. When you choose for it to happen. and I can see I've lost you there. Yeah, I'm going to eat as much fish as I can. Yeah, yeah, okay. Suvi, you arrive back at the governor's mansion as well

and see that your belongings have been brought over here to this new place. And you see the book that you were reading before is sitting on your bedside table now. Yeah, make my way over and sit down. Before I open it, I'm going to play. pull the necklace from my mother out, cast a quick mending on it to repair the chain. And I think she realizes that after casting mending a hundred times to fix that bed, that she finally figured out the exact version of mending that her mother used on her glasses

the last time she saw her. It's just a little, it's not quite a shortcut. There's a contraction in the words that makes it a lot. little faster. She does that and smiles and opens the book. Give me an investigation check and give me an Arcana check. Investigation check is a 12 natural one for the Arcana because I can't roll well. Oh, no.

Womp-womp. Womp. You spend your evening reading this book and seeing just words that you know were scribed by the hands of your mother and father. What's the difference in your mother and your father's handwriting? My mother's handwriting, I think, because she has a slightly higher status, so she writes in a way that is more legible. It feels like my dad is writing notes to himself,

and my mother is writing towards posterity. I love that. you take a long time going over the notes. You've been looking at the book for a while, and there's something in your, the notes are incomplete, right, this is sort of like scavenged writings of your, it's sort of like how artists work and it's scattering all over the world after their passing.

Your mother and father, their work is sort of, whoever got their hands on any of it, like held on to it because it's so significant and important. So you're looking at it, And you're thinking about the mending can't trip and how you finally feel like something locked into place about how your mom used to cast it. And as you're sort of thinking about that, Ursula,

you arrive with this sort of brand new feeling of yours. But you are led up as the Archmage Apprentices Protector. Sufi. Oh. Hi. Hi. You're looking in good sorts? Good, yes.

It has been a good day. Is it too soon for me to ask what happened? No, I, um, I, there was a moment when I returned to my room that I wanted to just, I wanted to destroy the ring of coral made from Naram's blood. And I, when I struck it, it turned back into a more viscous form. And I destroyed the bed, which I saw somebody put back together. And the blood entered me in some. way and I was reminded me of a time when I was very young that Naram actually saved me.

And I was taken over by a feeling that I could not wait for steel and that something had to be done. I understand. And there's definitely a moment where Suvi wants to explain her. or the way she feels or the way she thinks the world works. And then that new paradigm locks into place again. That a wild one will do what they will. So you like watch her put it away and just kind of nod and smile. Okay, but you did it. I did do it.

How? That was a very well-built, like it was bad. The Derek was bad. We can all agree, like not defending it. Yes, Derek not great. Right, but how did you get... Well, actually, it's funny, I thought of you because they had some sort of sensor of some kind

and I was trying to figure out what to do with it and I was like, well, what would Sufi do? And at that point I decided that it was actually, if it couldn't see me, then I could get through so I turned invisible and... Brilliant! Got in and then they had him held by a spear and I took wavebreaker to it.

You, that's incredibly cool. It was, uh, quite. You enter it this time. I am all muddy. Mm-hmm. Did you just hear? Why? Prestigitation.

What do you, why? How long have you? Mm-hmm. I was helping with the town. There's a lot still to do with the cleanup. But I think, I think that the town's folk are, are really, up to the challenge. Oh, my stomach.

Oh. What was that word I taught you again? Oh, fish. No, no, no. It started with an M. Mitigate. No, no, that was, well. Masticate.

You did? You taught me mitigate. I did. I did. Why didn't you mitigate me eating too much fish? I did. I tried to teach you moderation. Those words are too close.

Oh, buddy. You see, the fox's stomach is so. full and he sort of flops over on his side and just just, I need to focus on breathing. Oh. A little boost. I'll go over and pick up the box. Got you, buddy. You see, he's completely

slack in your hands. Yeah. I'm dying. Yeah. Oh. I'm dead. You're not dying. I died. No, he's done. You are dead. Yeah. It's not funny. It is quite funny,

Fox. Okay, please. Ursula, you smell different. What? Do you smell different? Do I smell different? You can still smell the rosemary, but there's also just a faintest scent of honey.

Why? Okay, it's weird because I do feel like I can't tell if I'm making it up. Like I smell, it kind of smells sweet. Wheat, right? That's not, I'm not making... I do believe, while with Naram, I do believe while with Naram,

I was able to reconnect with my breath. I am still wayshadowed, but... Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh, Aris. Oh, my God. It does feel good, yes. Yeah. Anyway, I

What are we going to do About the curse I mean We have to break it Did Naran Did you how did break it Perhaps Oh yeah you

You were talking to him Under the water And he explained it No no That he did not to He just He said the sword Could break the curse

I'm gonna Let's But let's see. I'm going to wave the sword around Ame, just kind of catching a sense if it does anything. I close my eyes and I outstretched my hand. And I will be kind of keeping the tip from cutting Ame's face open as it's waggle. I don't have to use this. Okay, okay.

Okay. As you do this, I love it. I love it. And I'll say this too in this moment. Ame's conversation with Steele had to do with Steele basically mentioning the possibility of like studying the curse before it was broken. That was not a conversation that I believe occurred between anyone else.

But it certainly seems like Ame is not bringing that up in this moment. Rood. Incredible. Arms outstretched in sort of a T pose. Amazing. So, Ursula, as you are waving it, is there any kind of intention that you are bringing to that? I don't think there's much intention. I think I am, if anything, it would be more perception trying to sense if the sword is closed.

Or if it lights up or something. I mean, if it lights or like, you know, I think there's, I'm much more sensory than like me going, I want to break the curse. I think it's me. This is testing the worst. water. Give me a, well, in that case, if you're rolling perception, just give me a perception check. 19. Woo!

You are waving the sword. The sword feels very, you know, as you're waving it, you know, feels good in your hand. You feel a connection to the sword. I think that there is some connection to that feeling you had in your face. and you called and you felt the note of song and honey in your strike. So I think the hard thing for you here is a little bit. You're trying to perceive like, is the sword lighting up? Is the sword doing anything?

And I think there's a little bit of awareness on a 19 that your expectant attitude is very different from the state of mind you were in when you cast divine smite. So you become, the sword doesn't glow. It's not like, or like hotter and warmer. You're just like, oh, nothing's happening. And I'm not aware that the sword's doing anything wrong. But on a 19, it's a high enough role that you're like,

oh, my state of mind is totally different than the one I was in when I did magic with the sword earlier. Mm-hmm. You know. Anything? Um, no. I believe maybe I need to, uh, touch that same spiritness in order to activate it.

But I also don't want to just... So I turn around? No, turn around. Oh, no, no, it's not, no, it's not a performance thing. I can do this. I can do this. I just don't want to, I don't want to swing the sword at Amme. I don't feel bad.

I'm sure a lot of spirits have issues with the using the sword. It's a touch of spirit. Stop, stop, stop. I know what you're doing. I know what you're doing. Do you? Yes, I know.

You're comparing this. You're talking about the sword like it's my penis. Oh, what? Hold on. Now we have to talk about it. You used your penis since you've been out. I am. Of course I, you've done.

I mean, we don't have, I shouldn't be talking about this with you. Wait, why not with me? Well, I don't know. Yeah, why not with you? All right. I don't like that face. Oh, spirits do just be walking around and banging it out. Stop.

What? We don't just be walking. around and banging it out, all right? I've heard stories about your dad. And I think maybe it's... Well, he was special. You got it honest. What?

What did you say? That you got it honest. Like, it's the thing you got from your dad. Okay. You don't need to turn around. Watching this part of it. Ursula is going to... Do his best.

And not well to put the thoughts and the fact that he, you know, there's just that weird moment of like talking to your friends about how and who you have sex with. Yeah. So you're coming into this first act of sword magic with thoughts about you, your penis, your dad, your dad's penis. It's bad. Hold on. I would like to make a case that that is extremely cogent because vagina just means she's. So it's always penis stuff.

I'm helping. Wow. That was the nerdy. I'm a wizard. Wow. Yeah, for sure. What I think is, I can make anything unsexy. Exactly how I want to talk about.

The etymology. Yeah. Go ahead and give me a, you're going to add just your charisma modifier to this. But you are going to roll with disadvantage. Got it. Because of all the penis stuff? Because of all the penis stuff.

Oh, no. Really? Yeah. Oh, Contents. Yeah. 15. Even with the penis stuff.

Even with the penis stuff, we get a 15. I also really like there was like penis and not, like it's, we're using. Yeah. Very medical. Very medical. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. Go ahead on a 15.

Do you think, what do you think, what do you think, Ursulaan starts to connect with in the sort. It feels like it's working. It feels like there's something going on here that is working. Putting the conversations aside, I think Ursulaan looks at Ambe and knows that there is. And it is connected back to the thing that brought his friends together in the first place. and that moment in the tent several weeks ago when Amay told him that he had a quest. And he, Ursulaan reconnects with those feelings and that sense of honor as he brings the sword toward Amme slowly, but seeks to write that.

There's a moment of connection here. There was a deep moment of joy when you were with Naram freeing him in the sea. There was constant joy amongst the steps of your father when you were a cub in the world of spirits. And in that summer you shared with Suvi and Ami, even in the wake of your life's greatest sorrow that you had ever known, there was so much joy, the weight of honor and the weight of a quest, and the ever-present specter of shame and of failure, these curses that have haunted you since your first day in the realm of mortals, you realize that one of the greatest powers of shame and failure

is that they insist that they are constantly, constant companions of honor. But the first time you met honor, there was no shame. The first time you met honor, it was as joyful as any other moment of playing amongst the steps of your father. When you first met Sir Curran in the nights on the road, all there was was joy and kindness and love in that moment. There is no contradiction here.

And when you suddenly start to put the silly conversation, the laughter of Amé and Suve, for all of its glibness, and maybe there's something that it's not weighty enough, it's not solemn enough. And I think there's a moment where you connect because you are a wild one, and there is something that can only ever be joy and being fully alive in you. Maybe your honor doesn't have to be solemn. And the laughter ringing off the walls of your friends alights on the sword. and you feel a connection to joy and life,

there become two sort of instincts within you. There's a shorter breath here. There's something that's almost like a relieved exhale. There's a deeper magic within the sword as well that is more like a prolonged exhalation, like over the teeth almost of like a controlled, longer, deeper breath. out as you bring the sword to trace a path across Ame. One of them feels like a lighter form of magic,

feels like a deeper, more profound form of magic. What instinct do you think you would follow in the moment? We go deeper, Bruce. Yeah. We go deeper. I am going to need a constitution and a wisdom saving throw from Amme. That is a 20 on the dog. That 20!

Yeah. Hell of you. Is that for wisdom or constitution? Constitution. Okay. And I'll let, I actually roll both of these for me, and I'll let you assign them where you want them. Nine.

Gotcha. The sword passes over you. You feel it, Ursula. Wavebreaker, like, you realize the name Wavebreaker comes from waves being like spells and this idea of a sword that could cut a path through a wave, break it and leave something open and calm for, like, a young neuram to pass through in the early days of the world of spirits. You have that long exhale and cut something.

Give me perception, Ursula, and give me Arcana Sufi. So sorry, Suev. It's a natural one. Okay. Yikes, dude. What a fuck. Yikes. What did I tell you about?

We're out of your breaking curses before your mom could get here and you're ruling that once. Come on. It's a total of seven. I had six star. Here we go. We get a perception number here. Dirty 20. Dirty 20.

You immediately can tell the spell has worked. You have successfully removed this curse. Ame is no longer cursed. However, what happens next, you will also be able to perceive. There is something here. This is, like you've said, spirit and body are one for you. You are a creature of both combined. So your, for lack of a better word, like your knowledge of these things is so deeply internal.

When you know magical things, you know it like it's been in your body your whole life. Amme, as the curse comes undone, feel something sliding and clicking, something like a liquid poison. filled with a puzzle, turning from the inside, made of shadow, something that twists and rotates and expands and pierces. I'm going to let you assign those saves where you want them. And based on hitting a Nat 20, I'll even tell you what's at stake. failing the wisdom saving throw means that the curse is being cut out but it's going to take something with it on its way out.

If you put your 20 into wisdom, it means you keep everything and lose nothing. However, you'll fail the Constitution save, which means that something will happen to your body. Essentially, it's do you want to pay this toll with your mind or with your body? Can I ask, are we whatever choice Ame makes, we are seeing the results of it? Yeah, there's no intercession.

So Ame is responding to a magical effect. And essentially what's happening here is you have perfectly guided through and removed that first effect. Whatever entity placed this curse on Grandmother Wren and on Ame put a spell so nasty that it was standing. standing in front of successive contingent effects. That there's like a nested series of spells within Ame and you're excising all of them, but the big one that Ame was aware of was hiding some others. I grew up on a farm,

slinging bails of hay, wrestling with goats. I'm fairly strong. But all of that is nothing. compared to how I have been honing my mind and the way that I connect with people, the way that I understand the world of spirits and of humans. That, that knowledge is what makes me a witch, so it only makes sense that that would remain untouched. That is strong, strong, strong,

the generations of witches that came before me. But my body, though newly muscled with my stewards ring, is not as protected. You watch, Ami, and the way this feels in your mind is you feel the curse leaving. And it's almost like Ursulaan has come and taken an unwanted guest within the house of your spirit and has told it that the time has come for it to leave. And you can feel the curse leaving, but as it does, you see it holding something. And the curse is very, it's a feeling of some malevolent thing

that nevertheless is sort of saying, I'll see myself out. But as it's doing so, it's taking something of yours. And you realize you have the power to just grab it and rest it out of that curse's hands, as it sees itself on the way out the door. You reach, take hold of that knowledge that it is tempted to steal from you,

and as you tear it from its grasp, the tearing between the curse and what it had grabbed shudders your body with physical pain. This is what you become aware of. Amé collapses to the ground and begins, like, expectorating blackbiles. You see the fox, screams out loud

and leaps to Amé's side as its paws shudder and it slips on the ground writhing in seizure on the floor. Each of you, Suvi and Ursulaan, as Amay is convulsing, may take an action in this moment. Ami, you feel yourself, it's one of these things where it's like,

you have to choose, are you guarding your face or your stomach, you chose face, and now you're paying the problem, your stomach is, you just feel yourself totally having lost control of your physical body while putting all of your wishes training into protecting your mind. I'd like to run over and if you'll allow it, cast a paladin spell, that of protection from evil and good.

Hell yes. Incredible. You run over to cast that, Suvi. What are you doing? You know what? It's funny because I think Suvie's instincts were the same. But if she sees you act first because you're a little quicker on the draw, then she'll turn her attention from protecting Ame to understanding what it is.

And I'm going to cast Identify on the Bile and figure out what's happening. You begin to cast Identify. The casting time on that is one minute. One minute. All right. You begin to cast Identify on the Bile. You cast protection. from evil and good.

What does it look like as Ursulaun cast that spell? I think similarly to Divine Smite, it is not a visual, there's not like an intense visual golden aura. I think there is a moment of putting his hands on Amme, Amé, Amé, and the kind of the deep and ferocious grr of the great bear that he would, When those other wild ones were kind of moving toward his host, the sounds he would admit to let them know that they were not welcome and should take no step further to interrupt his great parade.

Those kind of sounds are carried kind of very crystalline and clear for me, perhaps more effervescent for others. Spell protects you. Ahme, give me another constitution saving throw. The difficulty is 20, but you are rolling with advantage. That's 19, 17 on the die. Amme, convulsing. You feel the power of the spell protecting you. Shudder and fall deep into unconsciousness.

You see that the fox next to you similarly, goes slack. Fox's eyes stare straight ahead. Black bile emerging from the fox's mountain as well. Amé goes slack. Ursula and Suvi, you look down at this

place and see that Amé has fallen into some kind of rictus. She is alive, but she is in the depths of unconsciousness. As you see

that there is, she's, her, her breathing, steadies, but she is sweating a deep, cold sweat.

Her familiar has also passed into unconsciousness. You see that her fingers and limbs twitch. There is some sort of spasm in her

foot as her toes like overextend and sort of like, you hear like the tendons of her feet hurting. She has lost control.

over her own body. However, the breathing remains strong. It does not feel ragged. Her heartbeat feels like it actually moves towards resting, like someone powering through a fever.

A minute passes very quickly. Ursula, you stay sort of embracing her and holding her. After a minute, you cast to identify on the bile here. What sort of information are you looking for? So as a, this spell effect is unfortunately not an enchanted object, but it is a spell effect.

Is there, what would you be looking for in this moment, most of all? I suppose her instinct is just towards the last time I saw a curse being lifted, it always has some manner of like it being expect, like there's expectorant to it. So it was breath before. If it's bile now, I think she is just running through everything in the lingua archana to codify and like categorize whatever this is.

Something's coming out and it needs to be explained. If this isn't the curse itself, then it is a symptom of it. Like you can understand a disease by what it like, brings up in people. So she's just trying to get closer to the truth of it without pressing into whatever Fama is going through right now. What you see is the bile, in the past,

you've seen that sort of like wisp of smoke coming out of the mouth. You think this bile is actually not the curse. If anything actually, you may have even, on that identify, you may have seen a little puff of that mist or smoke, as Ursulaan removed the curse. The curse went. This is whatever was behind the curse. It's something that was hidden there.

That was effective. Essentially, this was, if the curse goes, I kill you. Got it. And Amé has surpassed it, but not without tremendous effort. So Amet's unconsciousness is her witch's body doing what it's supposed to do. Like she's basically shut down to, in other words, if she had retained consciousness, this black bile would likely have killed her. And instead, it was just like the things bodies often do in tremendous sickness of just like shut it all down, put all resources into not dying. Gotcha.

Then if I can ask for a specific kind of information, it's who did this come from? Give me an arcana check. There we go. There we go. 22. You touch a finger down to the bile. Minor cantrip protects your hand as you touch it. It's already evaporating.

This blood will be gone in a moment. It smells like deep iron. You go to an old fear. You remember being a little girl, a village on fire, and a man who wore the form of a beast. Oh, blood but where? Fire. Blood.

Iron. A man with sharp fangs that looked at you without kindness. You remember him. Yoran, his smell is on this bile. Eastern edge of the sky just starting to turn a lighter shade of indigo. A massive red dirigible with gold brocade. flying more swiftly than a falcon descends from the clouds and docks above the governor's mansion. A staircase descends. That's wild to think about. Continue.

A little cylinder of ropes with rope steps in a spiral down descends. And the pre-dawn light, sword of the citadel, steel, enters suvies chambers. and I assume at this point that sheep sees Ame in Suve's bed. The fox tucked under the blanket by her side, still unconscious and still dreaming. In the intervening hours, as you've awaited through the night for Steele to arrive, how have Ursula and Suve been tending to Ame? I think there was definitely a cool two minutes where we just kind of stood over the body and we're like, do we,

do we touch it? I don't know. Can you make her relax? The grippies on her feet right now are kind of wild. Just like holding onto the toes being like, oh, come on, stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Please stop it.

Yeah. She is all right. Her heart is resting. You, I saw a way. You got the curse. You did it. Yes. I did it.

Yeah. I think it was supposed to kill her. Removing this was supposed to kill her. So I don't know if there's anything we can do, but wait and hope that she's strong enough to wake up. Yes. Well, it's a bit draught in here. Why don't we get a fire going?

I can do a fire. I can make a fire. I walk over to the hilariously giant mantle. Like, there's no wood. Where the fuck is wood? I leave the room. and go find wood in another ornamental room. And I'm going to take Amay's body and the fox as well.

And I think take them over to Sufi's bit. Tuck them into bed. I think we've got like a basin with like hot, like hot water and cold water to like keep her, like filling up bags to keep her warm in the bed. And like to to mop her brow is she sort of feverish. The breathing is a little bit shallow, but the heart rate is down. the fox is tucked up under her arm as well, also unconscious. And pre-dawn light steel enters the chamber. How caught up are you?

Pretty caught up. Okay. Do you want more or should we start with what you've got? Let me see if I understand. Okay. After we spoke, you went to the chantry. I was told that our honored friend escaped. that more spirits attacked the city

and that you rode to the walls and tried to draw the other spirit of the forest down to meet our honored friend in the harbor and that upon meeting they vanished. Yes. Oh, do I throw Ursula under the bus? Yeah. Ursula's standing over by the fire,

I think just trying, being quiet. are honored the the creature it was yes there was an assist but he was he escaped and then

so you said there was a what a bit of an assist there was a bit of an assist yeah we we don't tell our honored friends what to do because they don't necessarily always super listen

and you're the one that told me not to underestimate witches. I cannot control their actions. So. Steel glances at Amman conscious in the bed, glances over to you by the fire. Am I to understand that your friend Ursulaan released Nauram. Yeah. I did. even though I told you I was coming to do exactly that

yes was there any reason that you saw fit to do this on your own did not feel right for 150 soldiers of the empire are dead it did everything I could to save as many as I could in the future Ursula if you feel a sudden urge to act

you are not under my command and I cannot stop you. If you have the urge to act without alerting me that my soldiers may be in grave danger, I will consider that the act of an enemy, that honored French should have been free. And if we had worked together, many might still live that are now dead. I hold her days. This is very disappointing.

Where is Mara? I do not know. She turns to Ursula. Taken by the sea. Well, I suppose we have saved the cost of a trial for treason. She walks over to the bed with Amé. What happened here? You don't want like a little break before we get into the new bad stuff.

I don't know why I would expect anything other than bad stuff at this point, but please tell me. If we removed the curse. And I see that that went extremely well with no complications. It worked. I'm just so glad that the endless resources of the Citadel are so constantly being utilized by those who would benefit from its aid. Yeah. But it makes sense that this help would be cast aside because of all of the harm the Citadel has constantly done to you. Why?

No, I'm glad that our. Our knowledge and resources are of no consequence or interest. Absolutely. Can we do my stuff now? Yes. Where the fuck is urine? Yorin. What makes you bring that up?

Ursulaan removed the curse from Ame. She spit up bile that smelled exactly like get that smell. Dangerous. We have a long overdue conversation. You and I. She looks at Amé. You see she casts a divination spell. A set of glowing eyes appear over her own for a moment.

This is extremely dangerous magic. We should get Amé to help as fast as possible. The longer she remains in a state like this, the more those who created this spell will be able to track her. Wait, what? God, we have, I get it, I get it. We have to wait for you. Shit.

The stranger that showed up at the cottage, this curse, this is not accidental. None of this is an accident. Okay. We have the resources to heal Ame and undo the tangle of this spellcraft at the Citadel. You can keep an eye on her there, which is what, that is the task that you are going to be appointed when we return. be tending to ame. Understood. All right. Ursulaan, you are an honored friend. You are granted welcome to the Citadel if you would wish it, but I'm not going to command you to do anything you do not wish. If I came with you, would I be under your command? No, you'd be a guest of the Citadel. You would be

beholden to our rules, but you would not be under our command. We'll make ready to leave. I have some business to attend to in Port Talon, but it looks like a tremendous amount of people were saved. Is there anything I can help with? I don't know. I would tell you some tasks for you to carry out, but it seems almost more likely that you'll do them if I don't ask for them. Take care of your friend. She's fighting a battle harder than I think any of us can realize. Tend to her and you'll be doing what is of the most significance to the Citadel. Steele turns around, looks at you, Suvi. With a look at just exhaustion.

She's really tired. She just looks really tired. And she looks over at you. You see her gaze moves over to Amme in the bed, and she sort of shakes her head a little bit, I think. You can make an insight check if you want to see what she's thinking in that moment. I do. Yeah, go for it.

You just see her looking at Amme and just, It's sort of like just the look of more stuff being out of her grasp. And I think she looks, and you can almost see a look on her face of when she came to get you from grandmother Wrens a long time ago. And I think you can see her thinking about grandmother Wren. She turns back to you, Ursula. I cannot blame you for seeking to free our honored friend. What happened to him was a travesty, atrocity, in the truest sense of the world. I just hope for the sake of those that are lost, that the weight of these actions, that the burden of great magic is not lost on you.

Every one of the wizards who died had a name, a story, a life. Perhaps their service to the empire renders that immaterial. Perhaps the story of what happened yesterday is simply that the guildmage morrow was mad with power and ambition. And he meddled with the forces of the spirit world and those that died were the price that he forced them to pay. Or maybe it is the fault of Orima or Naram or Port Talon or. or myself, I don't know. I just... And you see her voice for the first time

that you've heard in years? Suvi just goes soft. I just hope everybody's thinking careful. And she massages the bridge of her nose where it meets her brow and a tear comes at the corner of her eye and falls down her cheek. Whatever it's worth.

This exemplary throughout the crisis. More lives would be lost without her. My life would be lost without her. Steele looks at you and you just watch her reappraise you with her eyes. Speaking with praise about someone within the Citadel. Yeah, give me one more insight check, actually, as you say that. Say it, 17.

You watch her look at you and she nods. And there's a type of pride here in this moment. It's not like a smiling, warm, like, wow, good job. But you see that you're telling her that part of this thing that she's devoted her life to building is working. You're giving her the knowledge that there's someone she can trust. You're doing it in a way. There's nothing that you gain from it. And I think you think back to the first conversation when you were about to leave the citadel of saying,

I need to get out of here. I'm trapped. Da-da-da-da-da. And you realize that telling her about Galani's exemplary. service is not only a kindness to someone that did save your life, but actually it's how any of this has to work, to know when something is working, to know that there's someone she can trust. And on your part, because this is so selfless, and it's you just making sure that someone gets their credit, you realize that the look steel is giving you as one of acknowledging that

you saying this is leadership. Suvi doesn't react outwardly, but has learned another thing about herself and what she's capable of in this moment. Later that day, steals Diorigible, headed east. You get a stateroom for Ame and the fox. Ors salon, you board this flying ship, this massive wooden, gondola of almost like a tall ship with a giant dirigible against like a bright red oblong balloon with gold brocade and big diamond shapes all over it little fins coming off the side and a massive spell engine on the back the sort of purple hue of like the four shield protecting

the uppermost deck and you begin to fly east from this place. In this room, you fly so quickly the sea whipping away underneath you as you leave Port Talon. There's always one of you by Amay's side as she rests to receive the care and attention that she needs at the Citadel. And as you were traveling, give me one last Arcana check with advantage. Let's go. 22.

Hell yeah. after about like three days of travel over the wide sea one morning you awaken ursulaan ame is still breathing has started to deteriorate a little bit she can't really eat in this form and it's just sort of struggling with this unconsciousness which is why she's getting moved to the citadel as quickly as possible You see the fox's breathing is a little ragged underneath. You're sleeping off in a corner somewhere. You can't sleep in a bed. And you look up and see Suvi.

And in this first morning light, you look out and don't see ocean. You see endless white sand. Suvi will reach the citadel again. Your home are able to witness your long-lost brother, Ursula. Behold it. This desert. Blue sky and white sand. The force of magic.

And the hospital. You're reading the notes, Suvi, of Soft and Stone. You come across a little interesting margin thing. It's a small sort of like spell. It's like a little bit of just like housekeeping in an early spellbook journal. And it's a note in your mother's handwriting. Sorry, you said your mother had like always for posterity and your dads were a little bit more informal. So this is actually in softs handwriting.

It's chicken scratch. In the semantic component of a spell, the body of which you can't find, so you're not sure which spell it was, but you know it's a very low level spell. It's not a powerful, you know, Duy Homer. There's just a corner of something because this is just scraps. And you notice a strange bit of. note keeping in your father's handwriting. In the spell, in transcription of the somatic components, of the, basically, the hand gestures, individual units of somatic spell components, the hand gestures you make to cast a spell

are referred to in the citadel as notes. So a note is a single discrete hand movement in the casting of a spell. And there's a note that appears in almost, you've, you say almost, and then you're like, no, it appears in like every single spell. You can't cast a spell without it. It's the reflexive indicative, which is the name of this note that is cast in almost every single spell. And you see that in your father's handwriting on this spell. And this is like very, it looks like early, like the parchment this is on is like the kind of spell. You recognize it. Like this is like a black and white like journal notebook you'd have in school. It's like a composition notebook. your father has put a null clef which is this is like the most jargony wizard stuff ever but this is this is how technical it is for suvi too a null clef is a symbol that you basically put on a piece of spell casting when you're working out something from scratch and you put a null clef on it to say oh this is done or like this is not necessary uh you basically put it on like a dead end where you're where you're where the null clef cancels it out and makes it so you don't like accidentally make a scroll of a bad spell. So when you can't delete something because it's written in magical ink, you just put a null clef over it and it goes like, this is not part of the spell I'm working on. I've canceled out this chunk of the shit I was writing in this magical spell book. And he's put a null clef over the reflexive indicative.

And I think it's absolutely that moment of when you read something. something that's so sort of outrageous that you like respond out loud to it and it feels like she's trying to have a conversation with her dad and it's like that doesn't make any no you you need that you have to a dumb little cantrip do I have a ready that requires the reflexive indicative that I can just I mean you realize you already cast it you just cast it mending, the contraction your mother put in the mending cantrum. Oh, oh. Sufi, who are you talking to?

My dad. As you look at how it could be or come to pass that this all suddenly comes to make a sort of perfect sense to you. And as it does, there is a gentle knock at the door and you hear Steele's voice. Suvie? You awake? I... Um, yeah, yes. I'm sorry. Oh. And instead of putting the book down, she just pushes it into her chest, so it's open and flat on her body as she goes to open the door.

Um, you open the door, steel, leads you. We arrive at the citadel within the hour. We should talk. Oh. Oh. Yeah. It's, it has been a long time coming, and there has never been what felt like the right moment, but the time has come to speak of soft and stone of the last night that you saw them. And I need to tell you, Yorin.

And that's where we're going to, and that's where we're going to conclude, arc one of the Wizard of the Witch and the Wild One. You nasty little man. You're a bad man. And we'll pick back up in the citadel. That was Lou Wilson as Ursulon, Erica Ishii as Amay, Abria Ayangar 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 Gelfy Studios.

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