Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #21: The Taboo of Passage

Episode Date: January 30, 2024

Mom's home.Worlds Beyond Number is:Brennan Lee MulliganErika IshiiAabria IyengarLou Wilson and is produced, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate Horse with exquisite design and editing help from Jared OlsonSPECIAL THANKS TO: Tazer Army, Shannon, and Amanda Freberg!Transcript of this episode coming soon! You can find transcripts of all our episodes here, for free, on our Patreon.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. Endless desert of white sand. Under cloudless starry skies, a tower of glass rises to impossible heights, a lone mountain touching the sky in the center of the desert. Platforms, some a quarter of a mile wide, stone and gardens, buildings, and courtyards, floating through the air in an endless dance. Half of them spiraling up, half spiraling.

Clockwork, the magic of levitation, of summoning, of binding. The wonders worked by the Citadel itself. Endless beating of this watch. of a city, a university and academy, a place of war, a place of study, a place of wonders worked, and of things hidden deep in shadow, is disrupted by the arrival of 40 or more sky ships of the Saraz Imperium, massive red dirigible of the sword of the tower, steel skyship, the one that you flew here to the Citadel originally over a month ago has arrived, but you see others. Their dirigible balloon criss-crossed by enormous gilded rows.

Ships cables painted with thick metallic gold paint and their balloons jet black, the black and gold of the Imperium itself. You see that the Empire's ships descend. Eight of the sky ships fly straight for how. And as Malacanth rises slowly, you see each of those sky ships illuminates enormous blinding yellow spotlights that swivel underneath it, like the searching of some deep sea predator blinding its prey as they move through Haverward. You hear shouts some loud bangs of spellwans as Imperium soldiers rush into Haverward. Some headed directly for the bloody carnival, others for the night market. You see the police force of the empire rushing into the base of the citadel.

What? What's happening? I don't know. Is it revelry or is it terror? Hard to say. You see Imperium skyships. You see no wizards flying towards those ships. You see no one firing on them.

And you see that the ships that are moving throughout Haverward, searching for something, if you stay at the edge of Malacan's platform on your way back to Suve's tower, you look down and see some shapes of people being dragged off by Imperium soldiers out of Haverwood towards the skyships. Is this normal? Sufi is this just part of the Empire's thing? This is normal, right? No, no, of course not. As you look to me, as you look to me, Briya, to ask, is this normal?

I have to ask what you mean by normal. Are you asking, has this happened before? Is this an occurrence that has happened with enough frequency that Suvi would not be aghast at being close to it. Once again, towards the end of one of our arcs, you are asking me what you can accommodate and reconcile with what you have seen before. The citadel is a part of the empire,

and these are empire soldiers. And to make it through the glass of the Aryan, they followed Steele's ship here. And you see that, A number of the sky ships here are Citadel ships as well. There are balloons red and blue, brighter colors indicating perhaps the wizard who actually owns that ship and oversees its crew. Empire soldiers come to the Citadel. Ministers of the Crown walk Malacanth Court from time to time.

They do not busy themselves greatly. It's easier for the Wizards of the Citadel to visit the Crown. itself and, you know, vice versa. And the crown tends to like the Wizards of the Citadel coming to them rather than the other way around. But you've seen arrests before. Hoverwood has a police force. That police force is of the empire in the same way that in a town totally dominated by a university, the police force would still theoretically answer to the state, even if the university had tremendous sway and power and providence over how and where they were policed. This is not normal.

This is very much not normal. This is a huge deviation from the norm. But if you are asking yourself what in principle is different here, then once again, the word principle goes to work in your mind. You've seen arrests before. You've seen Empire soldiers before. Those Empire soldiers often arrive here by skyship. What is happening now other than Empire soldiers arriving at a place of and within the Empire on sky ships that they use to travel? And a voice in your head is able to talk you down from the horror you are seeing. It's definitely the difference between looking up and seeing helicopters and being in proximity to a raid. So I think, yeah, there is that initial burst of panic and confusion on Suv's face as this happens. And then, yeah, the justification machine goes into effect. This is a raid.

of course that would be like Haverward would be where the raid takes place it's just a weird coincidence that we happen to be this close and whatever is happening needed to happen has been signed off on by people

I respect and trust steal at the literal forefront and it's a little a little gosh but fine is where she lands like oh okay is something

going on? They must be looking for something. They'll find it. There's a lot of people in Haverward. Some sort of enemy of the empire? That's the best I can imagine. Maybe what's something they learned at Fort Kieran.

But they're going into the carnival. Yeah, well. Amé, on your passive perception, which I believe is high, higher than a 20. Yes. You look and see the massive gates that always radiate a little bit of orange light, the ones that go to Cairo and to other cities of the empire beyond where the vast majority of like, that basically makes the citadel within the boundaries of like arable farmland and water and things like that.

You watch skyships descend near those gates and the orange light fades. as the gates are shut. Why are the gates being shut? A lockdown. If they're looking for someone, they have to make sure that person can't leave easily. Oh, I see. Why are there so many of them, though?

Is it a whole bunch of people? What are they looking for? Where's steel? And I'm just going to point up to the big red dirigible. That dirigible, you see, heads to and is docking at the far. So you guys are at Malacanth quite close to Sufi's tower. There's the tower of the sword, but you also see that some of the lights of buildings that by this point, midnight, would already have closed for the night. You see that at the Perian dome, there's like a couple of lights still lit.

It looks like the empire's work will not sleep tonight. Sufi, do we believe this will impact Ame's ability to travel? Back to Tomo. Uh, possibly, but no, we can leave. We'll have whatever needs to be. Actually, let's go find out. Come on. Walking swiftly from this place, you, Ursula, I think you look over as well and see the

skyships. Two other imperial skieships accompany steals headed for Malacanth. Some of the courts are not getting any skyship action. Two imperial skyscips go straight for Gavril. You see there are two, there's a couple other courts. Every court we have described you guys going to gets at least one sky ship. So you see that one of them goes to Zhao and two more go to Kobani. Close as you are to the Tower of the Glove, do you go there first or do you go elsewhere in Maliketh?

There was nothing important we needed from my tower, right? You had asked for a number of things. You had asked for Pomeroy to send a list of the paintings that Grandmother Wren had taken. That was to be brought to the Tower of the Glove. Suvi, you had asked for books on the Accordatian Antivoli, books about the stranger. And you had also asked for news of ghost and flicker, all of which you gave to the page, Yulia. Ursula, you had asked for a similar shirt. All of that feels like it can keep for a second, right?

Uh. Or do you want to go grab it now? I think the opportunity to speak to Steele feels more pressing. I agree. There's something in me that wants to completely be prepared for anything, to grab anything that might be needed. I don't know what's going on, and frankly, I'm a little nervous about it. But I think we should go talk to Steele.

Yes. Uh, you arrive at the time. of the sword. Can I stop everyone before we go inside? Yeah. Oh, we making mention of our intentions to go to Toma? We know that they will not allow you, based on what the wizard's lie said. Oh, uh, well, I'm a fully named mage, so I'm pretty sure I can do what I want.

Okay. Yeah, so no need to, uh, tell them, yes. It's more for me. I just want to make sure I don't say that. Oh, no, you're good. Okay. Okay, yeah. I'm bad at lying, so I'm just going to...

Abstain from telling the truth. Yeah. You approach the Tower of the Sword. Massive white stone crawling vines. At the top of the Tower of the Sword, you see two massive balconies that raise out to either side, much like the crossguard of a blade itself. A long rope bridge descends sloping down, anchored to one of those cross-guard half bridges from the sky ship itself. And at the very top of the tower, Steele's offices are alight and busy with activity.

You see at the top there are not only soldiers with war staves up at those balconies. You see several wizards just flying and hovering over the top of the tower who have clocked your approach and see you at the base of the tower. there is a ton of activity. The front door is open with soldiers sort of coming out of Steele's Tower headed about beginning patrols throughout Malacanth. As they do so, what do you say on your approach? Suvi. I'm just going to try to flack down a soldier to get an early warning on what's happening.

Like, hey, hey, hey, what is happening? You speak to an imperial soldier. and you see he says, there has been a discovery of several malfactors hidden within the Citadel. None of them are expected to live or be within the clearance of Malacanth itself. However, many of them have had access

to some wizards within this place are more importantly their research. So patrols are going out to warn those wizards that there may have been a contamination or compromise. I hope that helps, Wizards Guy. Yes, thank you. You notice that he's not said to, it's a vague, there's no like mission compromising stuff. He's basically like, you see a perfect answer for don't be worried.

All the wizards should feel very special and respected, but we're not really going to tell you what we're doing. Like, if you're important, you'll be safe. You're important. Pat, pat, pat. Not that he's giving that, not that he decided to get that answer, but you can see communicated through him a very carefully crafted answer. Yeah. Given to you to assuage what they think wizards would be worried about,

which is what's going to happen to them. Wow. Really bad that all of these thoughts are, well, the nice thing is that soldier knew who I was and didn't have any extra information for me, so I'm okay. Oh, shit. It's the right message. This is how we are.

Does, am I aware of like any like page, like page or pages, like people, small runners and gophers for steel? There is a mage night down at the base of the tower. You can see in the front room talking to Sonder kind of calmly. She is six foot eight, this enormous kind of, she has, her skin has kind of, a slate mineral gray tint to it from years of enchantment to make herself more stony. She has basically a permanent stone skin spell on her. She's got thick, square jaw, like a kind of very feminine, like, smile for having such

like a wide set jaw, like long eyelashes, but a big, shaven head with a couple scars and Knicks on it. She's got golden armor similar to steel that has a helmet in her hand. But she's just enormous burly. This is the wizard slate. As you approach, you see two soldiers, they aren't barring your path, but they are standing to bar the path. And as you approach, they say, Wizard Sky, I'm afraid at the moment. And you see that the wizard slate says, one moment, gentlemen, and beckons you to come into the room. Uh, Wizard Sky. Hello. Congratulations on your name cloaking. I'm sorry that the night finds things so, uh, heavily in turmoil. You see Sonder puts a little hand on your arm and says, Sky, good to see ya. Hi. Hi. Things are a little crazy right now. Are you dropping by just to see what's going on? Yes.

Uh, everything's going to be okay. Uh, you should probably head on back to the tower because steel's going to be pretty busy for, until, uh, everything's going to be okay. Uh, you should probably head on back to the tower because she, steel's going to be pretty busy for, until, uh, until, everything's taking care of. You see Slate looks and says, if you'd like a, you see, turns to Sondra and kind of corrects the civilian talking. And it was like, you shouldn't head back. I'd be happy to escort you back right now to your tower. Are you coming in just to check on what's going on or did you have any updates? Update? No.

I just wanted to check. What are they looking for? Oh, that. Give me an insight check. That's a 23. The wizard slate turns to you and you immediately are kicked into like which training overdrive you've stepped in it. Not your question to ask. And you know that the wizard slate looks at you and immediately you know that she's going to have a conversation with someone else about you after this interaction that will make your life harder because you asked who are you looking for.

Hmm This seems This is I've never seen so many soldiers and everything's So many noises and it's very much Yes you have to please forgive the Witch of Toma She very much needs to return home So my questions were more for If we are locking down in order to find whatever's

Here how will that affect travel for the next 12 hours You asked Sky for updates Should she have any updates? We did just come from Haverward. You did? Yes. Ah. And you, sir, what is your name?

She points to her salon. Bear. I'm the protector for the wizard's guy. Ah. Cvianns. Understood. She looks down at the fox, looks down at you're familiar and says,

and this is a summoned beast? Well, a witch is familiar. He comes and goes as he pleases, really. Not a summon. You see that, yeah. Ami, you watch as Suvi saves you again having stepped in it. You watch comes and goes as he pleases and a bunch of other soldiers turn their heads to look at you. Just the implication that you can do what you want in this moment is making people halfway closer to violence.

She says, stay here one moment and walks out of the room. I am going to do my best to interpret. pose. Like if Bear is sort of on one side of us, I want to sandwich Amme and just sort of turn in and just go, hey, radical candor is not for right now. They are worried and you are different. And I don't mean that in any way other than I just don't want any extra heat on you while you're trying to leave. Copy that. Thank you. Yeah. You're doing great. Okay. Sandra comes over and just goes, it's going to be one of those days. Yeah. But she's okay? Oh, she's okay.

Yeah. It's just, you know, she doesn't tell me everything, but the, you know, she carries a lot on her shoulders. I think that she was very upset not to be able to share the names with you herself. Um, do you guys want anything? Do you guys want some fruit salad? We have some, I have some, uh, I got some of that mint tea and I iced it and there's some nice little, there's like a rosemary. I'll take some fruit salad as long as it's not too melon heavy. Okay, so it is melon heavy. Oh.

You see that, uh, I think I'm just putting my hand kind of on Saunders, like, arm in like a comforting gesture. Like, I, we've both been very worried about steel before. So this is a normal vibe of he is going into comfort mode. I'm just kind of surprised because they just all came back from the war for a manhunt. I mean, sounds like whatever triggered Fort Kieran might have its roots here. Give me an insight check with advantage, Sufi, real quick. 12. I think you just clock Amé saying they all came back and you just know that 48 ships is not

all and it's not close to all. Yeah. Oh. Enough came back. But not all. Remember, the war's been in the lull, so the first time something kicks up, they're going to send a lot of their preparations.

But did they not come back because they didn't need everybody to come back? They just needed 48 whole ships for some sort of manhunt, or did they send back that number of ships because that's all they could send. I don't know which. And I think it's very obvious that, like, Suvi is swallowing down panic

at the realization of your second option. Slate reenters the room. Would you all come upstairs with me? Oh, yes. Thank you. She falls in behind you. Four other soldiers fall in as well as you all walk up.

Um, Ursulaan, give me an insight check. 19. Ooh! Let's go. You just get a bad feeling, man. I'm going to slow my steps and so that there's, so that it's Suvi, Amé, a couple of paces, myself. Kind of so that those guys are right up against my back. You, you, every part of your adolescence in the years you spent away from Suve and Amme,

comes back to you. You watch your two best friends, one of whom is the heir ascendant of the citadel and its majesty, the other of which has just joined the coven of elders, walk with their connection of twin purpose and invitations to the world and the stewarding of the world. And you are flashing back to getting jumped and clubbed over the head, beaten pun, and just this world of the real and of people putting hands on you. And just feel these soldiers behind you. On a night team, just a really good insight check, you don't feel that smelling salts, wake up,

feeling of hands are about to be put on you, but you feel the dull, sinister smell of people who are ready for that to be an option. Who do I get it most from? The Wizard Slate. Shit. Who's behind the four soldiers. So you're at the front.

There's two soldiers up ahead that are leading the way. There's the four behind you, and then Slate is at the rear. I think I perceive the rigidness in Ursulon's back. There's something about his posture-like animals that are ready. to bolt. But I follow him up the stairs. Up the interior spiral staircase of the tower. You go many times up, up, up through the central staircase,

until finally a door opens into a chamber that occupies the entire top of the tower. And the spiral staircase in the center means there's this big sort of central, it's almost like being in a carousel where there's a stone wall, circular wall in the middle, that covers the top of the staircase. And then Steele's office is this sort of donut-shaped room at the top that has multiple desks in it, swords, armories. You see, you're, you've walked into an area of the Pentagon. You can look around and see maps and wildly powerful suits of armor.

It looks like Steele has more than just her gold suit of armor up here. There are spellbooks lining the walls. This is a very intense wizard's sanctum. It has the feeling of almost a reflection of Grandmother Wren's bedroom in terms of how cluttered it is. But whereas Grandmother Wren's bedroom had poultices and trinkets and memories of adventures long ago, everything here is polished, kept safe, bound in a wardrobe or hanging from a mannequin or put to the side, well-ordered, except for those things which are taken out because they are in or expected to be immediately of use.

A map unfurled with little brass chess pieces holding down the corner, an area where a sieve has been filled with water in preparation of scrying spells cast by war wizards. Things are out and about, and this place is cluttered with people. You can immediately see Steele standing in this room

looking uncomfortable with the amount of people that are in this room, and you can see that people are quickly being filed downstairs. The people in charge are steel's, warriors, these golden, armored, white-caped sort of sword wizards of the Citadel. They are directing soldiers down the staircase. You pass a bunch on the way up, dragging people down the staircase. But you see, she's standing in a corner over a map, heatedly talking with a couple of people.

Give me a history check. Suvie, you can make it with advantage. All of us? Actually, just Suvie give me a history check without advantage. I would love to create. And be like, I know. All these guys. Yeah. Oh, these dudes.

15. You do not recognize any of the individuals here, but you recognize elements of their station by what they are wearing. So their uniforms are doing their job, essentially. There is a much older woman, a deep brown skin, a forest metallic green, eye shadow around, wearing white perlessent robes with high shoulders carrying a staff. If you recognize her as a, first you're like, oh, this is a powerful, like a high status guild mage. And then you see that she is wearing an amulet of the Saraz Imperium,

marking her as the grand vizier of the empire, the court mage of the Saras royal family. You would know her name. She is the wizard gray. There is a robed automaton made of brass, clicking, whirring gear, in the side of his head. You see that there is just,

you just, Amé and Ursula, you watch a brass man, like a wind-up brass man wearing red robes, and you can hear ticking in him, like of clockwork. How much attention does he pay to us? None. There are then two people dressed in black and gold that you recognize as being of the Imperium.

You see that there is some member of the Ministry of War here, a bureaucrat, but an important one. Like, if not the Minister of War, then like a deputy minister of war. And you see covered in metals, tall, broad-chested, is an old salt and pepper-bearded general. Suvi will not say or do anything to disrupt the chaos in the middle and instead if they are murmuring and talking amongst each other observant gives me the ability to read lips if I can see them so I just want to watch whatever conversation is happening likewise with Amme and in my just passive sweep around the room

I would like to clock who is paying attention to us. Everyone's paying attention to you. Everyone has clocked you and no one's paying attention to you. Sure. Does that make sense? Yes. Like, you walk in, like, Steele is so,

and I think also, Suvie, you just know, you know Steele. She is nervous. There's a deep, number one nervousness is just a deep animal nervousness of any wizard being like, I don't like all these people in my sanctum. Yeah. Number one, doesn't feel good. And you can tell from her energy she's trying to end this interaction.

And right as you walk in, she says, she says, the council will have assembled in the Pyrion Dome in a matter of minutes. We should head there now to not keep them waiting. Like right away, she's trying to end this weird interaction in her sanctum that she doesn't like. And I think you can clock to that the Imperium people are what is making this happen in literally the first room that was available to them in the Citadel. Where someone's like, we got to pull over to this gas station

and do this right here. And someone's like, and Steele's like, we're fucking, we're down the road from the place where this is easier and better to do, right? You see her talking and you see, she says, she says, we can go over. As you see her like reading lips,

you catch your mid sentence going all day, if we want, we can go over these maps and show it to you. Or we can go to the Purian Dome and scry there and see it for ourselves. These maps won't have any of the information you need. And you can see on your past investigation, she is pointing to an area that is a hotly contested area

of shifting borders between Gouthmi and Rove. You see that as you guys come in, you see that she says, Slate, thank you very much. Please roll up these maps and bring them with us so that the head diviner can scry on specific locations. Thank you. The maps get rolled up,

and you see that some pieces get cleared off of it as well. You see that the pieces that are getting cleared off of it are in that place. Give me a history check. 11. You see the pieces getting cleared off? It doesn't strike you that that many pieces were on the board on an 11. Got it. You see that the attention turns to all of you in this space.

As you look, Slate steps up. Lord of the Citadel. I present to you the wizard's sky and her retinue. You see that even for you to see that is formal. You guys got company. You look over and see the rest of these people here turn to behold you. Steele looks at the rest and says, thank you everyone.

Prepare whatever you need, prepare for this moment. We'll be moving to the dome in a second. and Steele moves over to the rest of you. Anyone who wants to can make an insight check, and you can tell me if you are focusing on any individual of this number, and you will have a slightly easier time doing insight on them. 14. And I'm only concerned with Slate and the four soldiers.

I'm staring down the Grand Vizier. 17. And, Amé, who are you focused on? Steel. 15. Steele moves over to you quickly. You see that the rest of the group is the vizier keeps her eyes on all of you as you've entered. You see that she is a very powerful wizard.

It looks like the general is speaking to the deputy minister of war, but the minister is also looking over at you as well. Mostly you would guess for benefit of seeing why Steele, cares or what this is about, right? Yeah. And then you see that the brass wizard keeps his eyes on the rest of the group around

him. So he's looking at the vizier, who is looking at all of you, and the two members of the Imperium that are also gathered here. Steel walks over and says, did you get the names? I did. Thank you very much.

I would love to have more of a conversation, but it seems like you are pressed. No, no, no, no, it's all right. This is going to be a scary time for a little while to let you know how scary it is. This is one of the few investigations I've gone on where I don't know what I'm going to find ahead of time. So we just need to be really careful and really safe. This is, you have your name cloak. You're not a kid anymore.

Normally, I would give you a softer version of it in order to, soothe your fears and anxieties. I'm going to tell you the truth. This is very bad. The war is either going to start again slowly or quickly. Those are our options. That's both of the ways that could go. Yes.

There's no backing down from where we are right now. You mentioned that Ame needs to travel. Yes. Okay. And it's incredibly urgent. Okay. Where are you trying to travel to? Are you trying to return to?

Back to Toma. Okay. At the present moment, it is not going to be possible for us to get you back to Toma. If there's some other way you have of getting back there that is open or available only to you, then that's perfectly fine. But I cannot guarantee the safety of any of our means of transport right now. and I can't, for reasons of the safety of the Citadel, allow you to have harm befall you on the behalf of the Citadel. This matter should be resolved hopefully swiftly. How great is your urgency?

I have three days to decide the fate of relations with witches and humans. What? So pretty big. Yeah. Okay. You see Steele make a face like, the world needs to take this back. Like the emotion on her face is like, we'll take it back

because I have too much to worry about. Yes, yes. Sorry, I know this is a terribly inconvenient time for it. But I am at risk of being destroyed if I do not leave imminently. What do you describe, describe the risk for, first. Tell me the danger you're in and then the conditions that trigger it. I have to speak with my sisters, the coven. The coven?

I realize in this moment that she doesn't know about the Coven of Elders. I am a representative for human and witch relations, I suppose you could call it. And I need to speak with the other most powerful witches in the world. I have inherited Grandmother Wren's responsibilities, and now it is incumbent upon me to represent her and the station of the witch of the world's heart, and I have to do it in three days. Okay.

Amme, I, I, I, you see that people are getting ready to go to the Purian dome behind her. You see, she says, I'm going to need you to, We need to be able to talk tactically here. So have tos and musts, there's a huge spectrum of what those words mean we're talking about magic. You could be saying must as in you are magically compelled to. You could be saying must as in there is a bad situation that happens if you don't. So we need to be as clear as crystal right now. When you say that you have to, what does that mean?

I am not magically compelled to do so. If I do not, I am the station of the witch of the world's heart will be destroyed within three days. What gives you that certainty? Have you been threatened? It has been promised and foreseen. It has been promised and foreseen? By whom? By these witches?

Suvie will just give you a look of a nod to say, that mentioning a wizard is probably a good idea in this. This is the knowledge that comes to me via divination that I cannot fathom, but that I know to be true. I, okay, okay. And you see that the vizier comes over and says, sword of the citadel, I'm given to understand that time is of the essence.

Should we not make, and you see Steele says, Ame, can we talk about this tomorrow? I know that time is of the essence, but can we please confer tomorrow? Yes, we can. Everyone give me one last insight to check. Eight. Sixteen. Fourteen.

Okay. As the group leaves, Steele looks at you and says, Amé, you are the new witch of Toma. Far be it from me to denigrate your. craft or to suggest that there may be wisdom that you do not seek. I know a dozen ways to make a young witch see a vision, and it can be anything I want it to be. So we've got to be really careful, and we've got to work as a team, and we're going to figure this out. And I'm sure there is some spirit or wish.

or warlock or sorcerer out there that would have a lot to gain by scaring you. And I'm going to tell you this right now. The heavens and the earth could have put all their power into hurting you, and we'd stop them. You see, she leans, gives you a kiss on the cheek and says, we're going to talk tomorrow. Nothing's going to happen to you. Not on my watch, not on Sky's watch. and she walks out of the tower. As she does, you all, you see that the vizier nods to you, Wizard Sky.

The brass wizard nods to you as well. The general kind of regards all of you. And I think you see that the deputy minister of war almost like rudely does not make eye contact with Suvi as you all walk out of there. Interesting. Slate says, in the absence of the wizard's steel, this room must be vacated. Please, downstairs. Understood. Is there any chance I could have made an insight check as the vizier and those two Imperium officials were leaving?

Just to clock for recognition. Like, were the nods, like, fellow, fellow magic? Or was there any sense of, like, recognition, especially because, the bureaucrat did not make eye contact. The vizier making eye contact is an acknowledgement of your lineage, you feel like. The general making eye contact is a knowledge of your station.

You're an archmaid apprentice. The brass wizard, you've heard of this guy. He's a guildmage construct. So he's outside of the citadel. But, you know, some of those wizards do cool shit from time to time, and they made this guy. And the deputy not looking at you, you don't know, that is a true question mark to you.

You're like, why didn't that guy, the general acknowledged you, right? Weird. Okay. Anything else? No, I think we should return to the Tower of the Glove. Okay. Escorted out of the Tower of the Sword, you walk back through Malacanth Court. small patrols usually of three soldiers each

passed by nodding respectfully to the wizard skies you hold the staff of the Citadel once or twice you are stopped and asked briefly usually respectfully to be like hello Wizard of the Citadel have you seen any non-wisards walking here in Malacanth Court not unattended no very well thank you and what may what might we call you

The wizard's guy. And this is your retinue? Yes. What may we call you? Bear. And you? Amé. And you see, sometimes they look down at the fox, and the fox just, and you guys continue walking.

Very respectful, very short. You are all asked your names in a very respectful way. You move through this place and arrive back at the Tower of the Glove. The Arkmage Silences Tower has guardians out in front of it, but you see these guardians are the Archmage silences. You see, there are two 12-foot-tall giants, beautiful marble statues that you recognized from a back portion of the tower

that have left their posts and come here to massive wizard statues. Each of them turns to look and says, and open the gates of the tower as you walk in. I think you can see that Suvee has a little a little bit of a grin that maybe there would be a different lighter interaction that she's probably

seen these constructs before and has had other had a more lighthearted vibe but schools it very quickly and just walk straight forward. I'm Amé hello. Oh.

The constructs turn to regard you. What may we call you? You stand in the threshold of the door and they cannot close the doors because you are standing here. Oh, sorry. Okay. Come on. Doors shot behind you and you hear powerful, abjurative spells. Take their place once more over the sealed doors. I normally give them new names every time. That's fun? Yeah. What's happening? We're in lockdown. Yes, but why? How is that connected with the war and who are they looking for?

In the tower, all the way inside, all the way inside. You get to the Tower of the Glove and arrive. You see that there are lights on in the Archmaid. Silence's Tower. You can hear that there are staff assembled here that are very busy with their own affairs. And you look out and see now that all the lights of the Perian Dome are lit. It seems that Steele has arrived there with the Empire's entourage as the other Arkmagi had been woken from their slumber to appear.

at the meeting place of the Citadel. I'd like to catch a staffer, if there's any one of them within my AOE before we get to my place, just to let one know that I'm available to silence, if needed. Amazing. You catch one in this. Very well, Wizard Sky. We shall let the Archmaid Silence know at once

that you are standing by in the Tower of the Glove. Thank you very much. Page takes off. You arrive back at your sanctum in your smaller sort of sub-tower where waiting on your table are a big number of books and items that you all requisitioned earlier in the day. Your page Yuli has been very busy. I am going to ask for – so the things for Ursulaan and Ame are simply here. Ursulaan, you see that there is a folded up bit of green wax paper with a small note in it that has the – address of a tailor down in Havard.

But within that, you see a beautiful, long, white shirt that as you remove it where your fingers touch, blue seeps into the shirt, and you realize that the white are clouds. And that as they move, it is a very cloudy sky that is being depicted by the shirt right now as little seams of blue open up behind it. Blow on it real quick. The clouds are banished away, and you have a blue sky shirt that has been created with an illusory image

of depicting the sky. You can see that it has been made to fit your glamour. There is a small note that has been delivered, you see on stationary from Zhao court. There is no other information attached to it. It simply says, Kashali dash Lamassu, Ranbu dash frog spirit,

totam dash forge spirit. And this was a list of the spirits who had been, grandmother Wren had taken. And you see a, in parentheses next to these names and sort of categories, there are dates next to it. So one of them says 1663, another one says 1657, and then another one says 1652. For the many things that the Wizard Sky asked for, I'm going to ask for some investigation checks.

Ulya only has a plus one proficiency bonus. She's still a kid, but she has a plus three to her intelligence, so she rolls a plus four. I want you to roll a D20 three times, and I'll let you assign them to three different categories, which were the books about the accordati and the antivoli, books about the stranger, and information about ghost and flicker. Cool. Okay. Do I have to decide which is which before or after I roll? After you roll. Okay.

Be kind. Yay. All together. Oh, my God. So nasty. Two threes and a five on the dice. Can I also help, since I was the one that requested the stranger information, can I give guidance or advantage? Oh, that's actually, that is correct.

I will allow you to give a guidance D4 on the, on whatever you assigned to the stranger. Terrified. Plus one. Abria. Ah, okay, so with a plus four, what are your, how are you assigning your roles? Let's give a total of eight to looking for the stranger. It's so sad. The nine is for the accordati, and the other seven was,

for the third thing I've heard. Ghost and Flickr? Ghost and Flickr. Yikes. Oh. I'm sorry I've made your very cool NBC incompetent. She's a page plus four, you know?

Yeah, it's really good. What you see is the stuff she could get from Malacanth, which is one of 24 courts. Yeah. So it's like, it's like, I want you to find me books about advanced physics and get every book from the White House Library.

on advanced physics. And you're like, uh, okay, we have encyclopedia Britannica. We have, so it's sort of like Malacant has what it has and that was the stuff that was easiest for her to get.

But it was more time. This was just what she got to the first day, right? For the stranger, you have titles and honors, volumes seven, eight, and nine, which are huge encyclopedic lists of honorifics and titles for different spirits.

And there's a little note from Yulia in there saying some of the titles appear in entries about other spirits in these encyclopedias. Oh, she's so great. You get a book called An Account of the Cataclysm of Caro from the Wizard Throne, which is sort of a middle grade history book about the cataclysm of Caro that sort of covers a lot of what I already described. Yeah, 100%. But there might be some more details in there. You might get a name. It's a little bit more in depth.

It talks about the, you know, the differences. Stop telling me I'm going to get information out of a social studies book. I asked for a history thing, and I was given a social studies book. It's like a big illustration on the front. You're like, I need to know a lot. I need to go deep into the history of fucking this thing. And it's like, it's like, changes, a story of the past. Like, thank God I got my shirt before Yulia gets fired.

You got an 11 on the information about ghost and flicker, correct? No, no, it's low. It's a 7. Oh, Ghost and Flickr's only a 7. Yeah, I didn't get double digits anywhere. Anyway. Wow, Brenda was really excited there for a second. You were so excited.

The highest one was social studies book. There's a note saying there is no record of a ghost or flicker at the Citadel. I will flip that note over and write out. Just thank you very much. You can return all of this. I'm going to hand off the names books. Titles and honors. Titles and honors,

7, 8, 9 to you? Are there any sort of bookmarks as to where some of the names might appear? No. I'm seeing a no face. I would find that condescending. Okay. Okay. Fine.

Do you want... Is this use? Let me just open up the book really quickly. Is this at all a useful book? The interior of the book is a massive, well-kept grimoire that begins to go through all the various spirits of different realms. The way it's organized is each massive page has like three columns of text on it. So it's very like textbook style. The pages are not, it's like written more like an encyclopedia.

you see that there are a number of entries on individual spirits and different titles that they have had. And this appears to be a reference summary of a lot of other knowledge elsewhere. So the hard thing I think for you as a witch looking at this is that there's a tremendous amount of information here without context. So you know what the Elm Lord was called by the five different clans of the Great Grey Forest during antiquity by these different groups. But you're like, and there's no name associated with Elm Lord. And then you go to the next page. And it's like the King of Elm was referenced in a marriage between great spirits. And you're like, is the King of Elm the Elm Lord?

or is this a different guy? Like, there's, it's just very much like, it's almost like looking at fucking coding. Like, you're looking at, like, you're looking at a spreadsheet for something that to you would be best, most useful in, like, a letter. Right. I look at it, like, I open it up, and I flip through it, immediately close and being like,

thank you. I'm done. Great. Okay. Well, yeah, I will literally line up everything of, like, all of the books with the thank you, you can return these note on the top. Go ahead and give me an insight check, Suvi.

13. You are watching, there is just a panic attack on this desk. You cannot imagine the stress that you, Leah was under today. As someone was, as the first day of her new job, her boss was like, can you get secret information about the most powerful spirit in the world?

And she was like running around. It's like someone being like, there's a tiger on the loose somewhere in our city. And someone's like, I have copies of Ranger Rick from 1988. Does this help? And like navigating the libraries of the Citadel requires tremendous skill. You know, Yulia is a page. She did her best job. I think you would also see there is a note left here as well from Yulia.

that as you go to flip something over that says thank you, the note from Yulia says, I can follow up with other librarians and other courts later. There were a lot of slips about the stranger and the names you gave me that look like they were already taken out. Okay, then I'm going to write a much longer note, thanking her, asking her to return them, and just giving some

just some she isn't just my page this is like a mentor situation and just some advice on how to use tomes that are essentially indices and indexes and how to cross-reference them and get better information

later like great volume 7, 8 and 9 are a good launching off point if you see crossover in places you make a note of that and then go and you would want to go over to Zhao, they're very good with turning rows of names into usable information and turning these into living useful docs. Never, never go to Malacanth for this kind of information. Amazing. You leave this note, it's like, the criticism can be it within it is probably nicer than

like anything you got growing up of like, you know, it's a very helpful set of information for Yulia. With all of that done, with these books sitting here on the counter, you also hear a little chirping of the little jewel hopper cricket in Amay's cage. You see the fox looks at it and goes, hello, little friend. And she's like, what's up with you? Can't be sure, but probably not for eating, considering that it will degrade magical effects. It, Graves, I don't know what would happen to you if you ate it. It probably wouldn't taste good and it might kill you.

No. Okay. Well, dang. And you see he walks out. You see your little ink demons displayed over here, these books in front of you, but all of you are standing in here as you hear the sort of humming and distance of sky ships in this place. You are going higher and higher the noise. is sort of faded below, but distantly, you do think you might hear some noises down from

Hoverwood below. Okay. Time to have a conversation. It's bad. It's locked down. We're not going to get help. What do you want to do? Steel will throw all of the bandwidth she has left over, which I will be very honest, doesn't

seem like a lot, but she does more with a half of a thought than half of the people in. It's true, but I don't think that she has the bandwidth or the resources to be able to get me where I'm going right now. So we have to go. How do you want to go? We have the platform to go straight to the North Pole. But you want to go to Tom. I would like to go to Toma. Is there a way to do that?

Bypass all of this. What is this? How many days is it by Sky Ship? Like how far truly are we from Toma when not traveling in a by portal or teleport? Three over three days, right? Yeah, it took steel three days, like three or four days to get here from, to get to Port Talon. So you can assume about three or four days to get across the ocean. So there's, I mean, it took us several days to get here.

I'm not sure how we might travel to Toma, if not by gate. All of the gates are sealed. All of them. She didn't say sealed. She said she could not be responsible. She would feel bad if anything untoward happened if we tried to travel through compromised gates. To me, that wasn't closed. That was dangerous.

When you say compromised. This is a thing that happens a lot. In times of war, travel and then abjuration. It becomes a race because the more you can move. soldiers, the easier it is to win wars. So it sounds like if everything is spinning up again, then the first thing you're going to do is make sure you can hinder the movement of your enemies. So there's a chance that if we use the gate, we may not end up where we want to go? Absolutely.

But we always have the fallback of using the gift that Selya gave to Amé. we can get to the North Pole. It feels crazy when I say it. It does. I mean, it's funny, I had never even considered the poles of our world. Right? Until... A witch is most powerful in her sanctum.

I have not been back to mine for months. I've not been back to it since before I understood my role as the Witch of the World heart. I would dearly love to get back to it, even for a chance to peruse items and tomes that would be useful in this interaction. But if we have no choice but to go directly to the North Pole, then that is what we must do. Do you want to stay long enough to have a conversation with steel. I would love for that to happen, but I know full well that I cannot compel a witch nor an honored friend. I don't think that we have the time or the ability to convince her of the urgency of this. Well, let's run it down. You have three days. We lose 12 hours if we wait to speak to

steal. If we speak to her and use the gate, that eats up one entire day because then it's a half a day's ride to get to Toma. If we speak to her, then try a gate. Beyond that, we don't have other recourse. So what the difference between daring to try a gate now and in 12 hours does not run us against a deadline? Do we know how dangerous it might be? What is the risk? Also, truly, what is happening? Amé. The war is restarting. But what does that have to do with a manhunt in the Citadel?

What are they looking for? Who are they looking for? Why are there so many people being dragged out of their homes by law enforcement? There are double agents everywhere, spies everywhere. The best you can hope to do to attack the imbeats. is to attack the place that creates its weaponry and some of its strongest soldiers. So, of course, if things are spinning up again, you look in your own house while you prepare to walk outward. I don't have more information than you, and I don't know how dangerous a gate is.

We have to talk to someone else. I don't know. Know that I am your advisor in this, and whatever you want to do, I will follow. but I beg you to look or wait for more information. We have to try tonight. Why? There is no time to waste. And I don't think Steele can get us where we need to go. Ursula?

I'm torn, but more of me stands with Suvi. I think that there is information that Steele might be able to provide us. that could help that could I what we are doing is very dangerous and I

can't help but feel like we should go into it with everything we could possibly have at our disposal I do not I do not believe if we wait 12 hours that our situation will be so drastically different all right all right

We shall wait to talk to Steele. I'm going to spend tonight packing and preparing in any way that I can. And I head to my room to pack. You need time to pack. I'll be ready. I'm going to. I think I need to find out if there's any update on Silver before we leave. Would you like me to accompany?

Would you mind? I will come. A suvi. And Ursulon head out. Ursulan, you have finally gotten these shields back to the tower. You have this enormous tower shield and this unmarked, kind of a little bit tarnished golden shield, sort of archaic. Do you take one or both with you or do you leave them here at the tower? I'll take the tower shield with me.

Huge tower shield comes with you. You head out into the night. Amme, you are in your room packing up. It is just as chaotic a process as it was leaving Toma. I am just truly like I take a knapsack and like stick it on the ground and clear all of the things on the desk into it. I pull cloth and pouches off of the dummy. I start pulling herbs and flowers and bunches of dry leaves off of the walls and rafters.

Again, I've been in this tower for maybe 48 hours. Wild. You have a little cage with the jewel hopper in it. You have the little poems written by the ink demons. You've already collected so many special little things from your time here in the Citadel. And you begin to understand that you've been here for less than 48 hours and your witchy instincts already have so many treasures to your name. Given 40 years, what will your cottage look like?

And so much of grandmother Wren begins to make sense. And you're like, look at all the treasures the world has to offer. And what if in many decades from now a little child runs through your attic with their friends and finds a serious. of strange little poems and a strange gem-like bug in a cage in an attic somewhere, and will they know this story? Oh. You made Eric a try, you fucking monster. It's beautiful.

You see the fox was sort of with his ears back on his head, picks up some trash from a waste basket and begins to put it in your pack. Thank you, Fox. Hey, you got it. How you doing? How you feeling? Time to go. All the answers.

animals here are fake and I've gotten fat and fluffy on all this food I didn't have to catch. Yes, you have. Yes, you have. He looks up and says, it's good. The whole life I had in the

forest, I just thought, ah, I gotta get food. Then I came to this place and no one here has to get food. The food's just around. It's just everywhere. It's always within arm's reach it's good. I don't want to go back to the forest and hunt.

It's happy here, but there's no play here? I don't know how to describe it. I got all these tricks to get food, and I can't use any of them. Well, I think when you have the stability of being able to just live and survive and even live well, sometimes that helps you turn your pursuits to hire things like for those wizards it's learning or in some cases making their own fun

what do you think you'd do if you knew for a fact that you could have the food any time you want what would you do either tricks then would you just do them for fun to play yeah The fox looks over at you, Ome.

You're feeling something, aren't you? I feel a lot of things all the time. Yeah, I can tell. We can speak to each other. Like this, he says in your mind. Oh, spooky head voice. You see, he stops speaking with his mouth and just speaks telepathically. You're scared of something, and it's making me scared.

I'm sorry. No, no, no, it's good. I can smell things you can't smell, and you can too, in a weird way, right? Mm-hmm. I can smell what you smell. No, no, you can smell things I can't smell. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's a smelling sometimes without your nose.

It's a sensing or a intuiting. Yes. I'm scared. You look like someone who's just stepped into leaves that are a little bit. bit too dry and a little bit too perfectly scattered. A trap? I wouldn't know. I'd never been caught. But I've seen foxes that were.

They all had the same expression on their face. Is it like what I've got on now? A little bit. Doesn't make me feel happy. Makes me feel pretty scared. Yeah, it's okay to feel scared. No, it's not. Really? I mean, that's how you stay alive.

No, but it's... Oh. Mm-hmm. It's good to have a feeling that you want to avoid? Mm-hmm. It's good to have a feeling. Yeah. You see, his eyes bug out, and he goes,

it's good to have a feeling that you want to avoid. I'm going to lie down. Got him. You got him, I got him. Got him. Honestly, maybe the first time. Straight up. Straight up.

Hey, the people are on the board now. People on the board. It's kind of like Rocky. You know, it's a victory. Just the fact that we fucking got there. Well, I think to myself about how, yeah, I have been caught. There's a lot of things that hold me here, not all of them are bad. Sometimes some of them are good, and that's the really scary part, I think.

But I continue packing feverishly. And I try to think if there's anything else here in the citadel I need to do before I leave, or any other scrap of information, any loose ends that need tying up or that it can tie up. A jewel hopper, a massive platform of tiles set in clay, clear blue glass, cream white stone, orange clay, all set in a pattern, a platform to transport you to where you need to go? Questions, looking for books that didn't arrive, people that are not here, friends below and a haverward, a note Suve's parents' names and a journal, Battle of Starlings Ford, the word

badger crossed over, Grandmother Wren, let a spirit see. stay in the citadel with its true name and told none of her wizard allies so that she could come on three separate occasions to take three separate spirits from this place and a wizard named Sly who can see the future and works in a tiny office in a back corner of the citadel. You look down a perfect sapphire, the taboo of passage. Give me an Arcona check. That's 19. Nice.

You've heard the term taboo in reference to Ursulaan before, the taboo of slumber. Think about the taboo of passage. You hear Grandmother Wren's voice. Do not set foot upon the road. Something looms out there in the dark, crunch of leaves underfoot. Some foxes only realize they've been. stepped in a snare once they're already in it. Ursulaan and Suvi, you move away from the tower of the glove,

walking together towards the Purian dome. As you arrive at the dome, there are many soldiers gathered here. How do you address them as you lock up, Suv? I need to speak to the most important person here that isn't in that room, and I want to point at the like locked room where everything's going down. Yeah. You see that Slate once again walks up. Oh, hey.

Sky, hello. Hi, sorry. You're having a big night. Do we, where can I find any sort of list of who came back and what's happening at Fort Kieran? Fort Kieran? You see, as Slate says that, it sounds like Fort Kieran isn't even on. her mind anymore. Oh.

She looks and says, the sword's plan was to return to her. She's been awake for some time, was to return home at once after business was concluded here. But she has an office within the Pyrion Dome.

I can bring you to her office and tell her once her business is concluded inside. We'll be speaking tomorrow morning. This was just something I thought I could run down quickly. I know that the wizard's deal does know of the events of Fort Kieran would be able to tell you. It's up to you if you want to wait or not.

You see she leans in and smiles and says, I doubt the constitution of the Ark Magi will see this meeting going much longer. Very fair. I'm, what's, what relationship have I had with the Wizard's slate? your Steele's surrogate daughter, you're her kid, you're like, you know, I think that the warrior wizards that follow Steele stay close to you. I mean, I think they all treat you with respect and some degree of kindness, right? Slate probably started work, like came into Steele's employ when you were probably like 13. Okay, cool.

Ursula, you see with your golden shield on your back, that Slate... Tower. Oh, sorry. With your tower shield on your back, that Slate, the moment has become a little bit less tense and sort of sizes you up a little bit and clocks the Citadel pin on you.

And looks over at you, Suvie, and says, if you want to wait in her office, you can. I think she'll probably be done in another... I don't hold me to this, but probably another half hour. And I think Suvie, like, kind of lets go. of a lot of rigidity and it's just going to lean in with sort of an embarrassed air. I was like, okay, I was just, look, I just wanted to check

and see if a friend came back in this grouping. I don't want to ask Steele. See, she looks at you and goes, Aha. Yeah, yeah. Please don't make me ask her. Um, the, the humor of the moment mixes with some unfortunately unhumorous trepidation on Slate's face.

My understanding is everyone that was at Fort Kieran. Forkirin sustained tremendous losses in the initial attack and that the forces that went to liberate it have sustained minor losses. I don't have individual information. Understood. They're being careful. They're doing this the right way. They know Fort Kieran's defenses.

They know that it can't be breached easily. And if it's who I think it is, where he gets the ground. Yeah, everyone saw me hit him before. Yes, yes, yes. Listen, I'm a married woman, so I don't, you know, I'm not interested in. That makes you more nosy probably. I got nothing going on.

Yeah. Me and my, you see, she says, me and my wife. It's, you know, we, all we do is just try to keep there. You're in that age of right around when people get their name cloaks and go berserk. And it's hard to keep up with, but we've got a lovely sofa and a crystal ball. And we try to scope out the parties and see who's leaving together. And, you know, come to us for the tea if you want it. Yeah, look, I'm here for that smoke.

Okay, this made me feel better. Thank you for doing the nice thing of trying to make me feel better. while also treating me like an adult with a name. That's a very nice vibe. You are an adult with a name. I understand that things went a little sideways in Port Talon, but I also know how much worse it would have been if the Citadel did not have a presence there.

I don't know everything and how it went down. I know that Galani was a huge help there, but I also know that Galani spoke of your help and excellence in that moment. So, Sky, the Citadel is lucky to have you. I think you will hopefully put another huge banner underneath a very important name. Thank you. Stay safe and get some rest. You look like shit.

Oh. You see, she slaps you on the back. She's so strong. Lesser Constitution. Suvi, are you all right? No, I'm dying. Kill her. Avenge me.

You see Slate says, come on, bear, kill me. Another time. You see that she looks at you. Give me an archa check. Please, please dice. Natural 20. You see your cast detect magic. Very subtly.

Looks. And you see a reckoning. On a Nat 20, you even see a little run of illusion flash over her eyes. where she has clocked that there's an illusion on bear. You see, she goes, all right, stay safe. Are you going to wait in the office for steal? You're going to head back? No, got a head back.

Cool, go, cool, cool. Did you hear what you wanted to hear? No, but if he's there, he's probably still there. God, fuck. It's impressive the way you charm people. They have known me my whole life. You return to the Tower of the Glove. Whatever fitful sleep you can acquire, you do, a bear.

Where do you, Ursula, where do you sleep that night? I mean, I think I kind of descend the Tower of the Glove, like to maybe some of the more empty rooms that haven't been as filled in yet. And I'm going to train just with my... my shield now. He's so cool. Trying to do the same forms that I was working on with steel, but now with the weight of the tower shield.

You attempt to get that tower shield up, fight with it as best you can. It's really more, you see the use of the tower shield. Give me a athletics or acrobatics check. Modified 20 athletics. You can muscle this tower shield around. that you can see at the bottom, the bottom lip of it, has a little thing for being inserted into soft soil. So there's an element where you're not supposed to be

swinging this thing to and fro. And you also look and see a little element of like a lip on the right edge of the tower shield, where you see that there's like a mirror to either side of it, Or when I say a mirror, there's a reflection on either side of it of other tower shields where you see this locks into place with other tower shields. And you see that this is really supposed to, like, you understand tower. This is a mobile wall. This is for you to come up and use other tower shields to create a standing wall in like a phalanx of soldiers and see that this is like, it's a beast to get this thing up and run around with it.

And it's awesome. You're like, oh, if I was fighting in like a very narrow passage or something else like that, this could be incredibly helpful. But you do, you get the sensation as you're fighting with this, that you're like, this is architecture I'm fighting with. This is like, this is to like control the shape of a battlefield, essentially. Then probably halfway through this period, I think he's going to put it down and try the shield that Ame found. You put it down, you leave a little training area. you go out, there is not a big martial training area in this Wizards Tower. Like, I think I've definitely pushed a bunch of chairs up against a wall.

You go to get the golden chair. And this is the area where the fox found the sausages earlier. You see a small, as you pick up the golden shield, you see that there is a small little produce basket. There's like some zucchini, some squash. And up above it, you see, there's a few small cream white mushrooms. you look and see a little basket of mushrooms there as you hold this golden shield. You look down and the shield is undecorated. It's a prototype.

You even see that it has a piece of warm brown leather bolted to the back, but that the leather isn't even secured. It hasn't even been like formed or fastened to an arm yet. They didn't know the size or the height of whoever would be wielding this. So it's just straps of leather bolted to undecorated golden shield. You look down in the soft starlight just coming in through the window. You don't have like a light on down here and just see your face. It looks so much like Suvys reflected in a golden shield.

I think Ursula is going to take a break from training to snack on one of the mushrooms and see if he can find some, I guess, a paint. just straight up paint. You look around, absolutely. There's a ton. Well, like, there's so many ink demons and shit running around in here that finding paint is sort of no problem at all.

You find that there's a small area. You don't find, unfortunately, any big bottles of paint, but there are many, many small bottles of ink. And you see that they are organized by color in rows and rows. There's like a small art desk. It's almost like one of those writing desks.

writing desk that has like the flat panel that you fold down to create a surface. And then within that are tiny little wooden drawers of so many different bottles and pots of paint and ink. You can see this is for sort of intense scroll work to create like illuminated diagrams and things like that. But you find it and, you know, there's lots of brushes that go with it. You don't find anything. The broadest brush you can find is like, you know, a 16th of an inch across.

I guess Ursula will take an extended break from training to just slowly but surely draw a red tree with blue fruit kind of along over the kind of front of the shield. I'm going to say go ahead and give me a – I'm going to call this performance. Okay. Give me a performance check with advantage. And I'll also say that something nearby lends you a D-10 of inspiration. Oh, wow. All right. Performance?

Performance. 31. Oh, my God. That's the highest role of the campaign. Oh, yeah. And it's not close. Well, it's, you know, well, I'll tell you, we'll make. We're making like 10th level character moves with second level character stats out here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I only know one way to tell a story. There it is. As you begin to paint this tree here, you go into a flow state of like creativity, artistic expression, that your breathing just becomes measured. measured, steady, focused. You are creating something.

It's similar to the flow state you achieve in training. As you find the different pieces of paint and begin to decorate the shield, what does this tree mean to you? Where is it from? Or what is it trying to express as you create it on the surface of the shield? And Ursulans been trapped in his own head so much today, given the experiences they had in the Kassov collection. And the difficulties he's had kind of expressing and dealing with what he has witnessed as kind of they got into the darker elements of, or the more conflicted. As they got into the more conflicted elements of the citadel.

And I think in this moment, Ursulaan just returns... Erslan's feeling so much about this world of humans. And I think in this moment kind of just returns to those things that brought him here. And I think in the drawing, in choosing to draw the tree and its fruit returns to Succurin and that idea of honor and a quest, but chooses red to remind him of the kindness and generosity of Amé and blue for Sufi to remind him of her charm and courage and skill. Envision any heraldric symbols behind the shield.

Is there like a chevron pointed upwards? Are there bars on it? Or is it of a single solid color, like a field behind the tree? I think a single solid. I almost think Ursula doesn't fill any of that in. I think it's just... Gold. It's just gold.

You create the tree illuminating it here. And I think if you're avoiding heraldic symbols and symbolism, I think that the tree is rich in detail. It looks like the illumination of like a children's fable. There is something to it that it is like rich and almost shifts in the light. It looks, do you make any attempt to disguise it as being magical? Or does it look like otherworldly? I, uh, you mean in terms of like the details of the tree.

Is it like a tree of the spirit world of a tree of the human world? Yeah, yeah. You know, I think it is a tree of this world. Yeah. But with a little mushroom at its base. So this shield stands out. The painting on it is beautiful and textured, but does not immediately draw the eye as being magical.

Instead, in a way almost hearkening back to your time, like as the ogre of the actors' company of J.P. Adelaide, there is something to it that's like, oh, that is as beautiful as it can be just before crossing into the supernatural. But then also there's an element of looking at it that you, that it's so much more beautiful than a historical Knight's Shield would be.

It is illuminated as if a painting, like rich in texture and detail and a little mushroom at its base. Ursula puts one of the mushrooms that he's looking at, just staring at it. You create this tree and you can feel magic flowing from you. That so far you've only been able to harness your breath in divine smites. You've been able to harness your breath to fight powerfully.

But you feel this place, the room filled with the sweet smell of honey, the sharp Christmas of rosemary and pine, and a sweet, earthy smell of mushrooms as you create this work of rice. art. In so doing, you have lain some spell into this. You don't know what it is, but there is a spell waiting. The shield is enchanted. And in so doing, you feel that inspiration. You look out through the window outside of the kitchen. You smell mushrooms. You feel like maybe she's about to walk down that path where I can see her through the window. And then you realize, No, no, no.

It's not that she's about to. It's that she did. At one point under these stars, your sister found her way to this world and walked through here. And some piece of magic was left here all these long years to find you.

That was Lou Wilson as Ursulon, Erica Ishii, as Amé, Abria Aingar, as Suvi, and Brennan Lee Mulligan as everyone and everything else. Worlds Beyond Number is edited, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate Horse, with additional sound designed from Michael Gelfy Studios. For even more like this, join us on our Patreon. We'll see you there.