Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #22: Bring Them to Me

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

When there is no path, you make a path by walking. The rest of us are just following orders. Slow down, you're moving too fast, you got to make the moment last. Is a trap a trap if you like it? Bad news kiddo, wherever you go, there you are.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. Bright morning light cascades through the windows of the tower of the glove. The number of sky ships has decreased slightly. Some half dozen have taken off from the citadel during the hours of your rest, leaving still roughly 40 sky ships. Some remain within the Aryan docked at various courts. You see others. And this is the first time, Suvi, I think you've seen this since childhood,

patrolling the desert out beyond the Arian. As you awaken, I think you awaken quite early. So it's not the sort of burning hot, bright desert day yet. There's still a little bit of that crispness or newness of a sun that is low in the sky at the beginning of the day. It is coming up and casting long shadows in that dawn light. You see groups of wizards, even here in Malacanth, marching. You see that there are noises of shouts from other areas as people are getting saddled up.

It looks like the citadel is being very activated. Down below, you still see that there are a number of skyships docked in Hoverward. You do not see a glow. And by the way, at the beginning of the day, you're like halfway up the area, and so Havoward is far, far below, but there is no gleam of orange in the gates. As you awaken, Yulia the page knocks on the door of your bedroom, Suvie. Immediately open, she's been up. Wizard Sky, you are summoned to the Tower of the Sword.

Noted. Thank you. I'm going to go run and find the squad. The Ursulaan is in the kitchen and ready. It takes me a long time. I keep forgetting I have a kitchen. So there's a, you hear steps downward, then steps upward. And then back downward again. Ursula's just sipping in espresso. Like his eyes looking up as you're above, down, just, but knowing you're on the way.

Yeah. You hear, kitchen right before. I'm like, hey. Hi. We've been summoned by steel. All right. Ercelon is going to saddle the shield on his back. Wavebreaker at his hip and is ready to go.

I bust down the stairs you hear. Really quick. Hold on. Are you going like fully packed and ready to leave? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Hey, do you, real quick. Do you want to telegraph that you're about to leave right now? No.

We can always come back here. Can we? To my tower? Yes. I do believe Amé may have a point in terms of the amount of eyes that will be on us coming and going from... I mean, we do have to pass through the Arkmaid silences tower. Fair. Could we... And I know this may seem strange.

What if we asked Mr. Callum to hold on to her things? That's a great idea. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You guys swing by Candle Street Bakery. I'm also very hungry. You see, Mr. Callan looks up and says, Oh, are they? Welcome back to Kendall Street Bakery.

Could we have six zucchini sandwiches? And could we leave this here? I've been more than happy to look after it for you. Just I'll store it here behind the bar. You see, grabs the bags and stows them off in a corner. Thank you so much. Please ensure that nothing happens to it. Mr. Callum, do you know anything about the taboo?

of passage. Not rightly, I don't think, no. Okay. Do you have any taboos as a spirit that you must abide by? Am I a spirit? Oh, uh, I think so. Uh, you can't look at me. I have a strong sense of, uh, in my mentalists, I do not qualify this as a spirit and more of just like a supercharged spell. Oh, but that's on me.

Okay. Uh, what do you consider yourself? A biker. Oh. Oh. Hmm. How long do you keep your marings in the oven for? You see that he has become very quiet.

Sort of looks at you. Damn it, she broke my favorite baker. Mr. Callum says, uh, well, it depends on the sauce of the meringue and the tight. Oh, okay. Uh, a goth mom. meringue and a kamsara's on meringue, bake for different amounts of time,

different qualities of sugar in them. And you see he goes and sort of softly sort of starts speaking to himself as he wanders back into the kitchen to sort of look at the various baked goods back here. Six zucchini sandwiches coming right up. Amay, did you break my baker? I don't know.

Why? I will say, Amai, if you've prevented us from receiving any more marshmallow and chocolate croissants, I will be angry. I'm sorry! Mr. Callum walks back out and says, uh, it says, all right, uh, sandwiches are here

ready to go. If you want any croissants or any of the bait goods here, uh, the tart of citron have just come fresh out of the oven. Break me off a piece of that. Please, sir. Uh, he cuts you a little slice of this massive tart of citron. Uh. I don't rightly think I am a spirit. Oh.

Spirits. I've always existed, huh, had they? Sure. Yes, their world has always been there. Well, then that can't be me, can it? Well, I don't know. Do you want to be a spirit? What would you like me to call you?

If it's a baker, then that's what you can be. Well, my name is Mr. Callum. Mm-hmm. He looks at you and screams his eyes and says, If I know the time of day and the place of my birth, and I know why I was made, then I can't rightly be a spirit, can I? More a spell than a spirit.

Oh. I'm sorry if I've upset you. I'm not cross. I can't be cross. I don't want to be cross. Can I get you anything else? I'm going to do an insight check on him. Just to see if there's anything that I can do or say that might...

that might sort of ameliorate what seems to have been a misstep on my part. 24. I think on a 24 insight check, you remember conversations that Grandmother Wren would have with different members of the community in Toma. And there were some people that would come up and talk to Grandmother Wren about her adventures and the wide goings-on of the world because they were curious. And with some people, she would share that she knew much. And other people only knew her as the witch of Toma.

And there were people once or twice that would enter a conversation that was at a different depth than they were used to seeing Grandmother Wren in. a county fair where someone who was a little bit more traveled or a little bit more wise would be speaking to grandmother, Ren, about matters of the empire's presence in a calm or what was happening at Port Talon or at Joris. And you would watch the discomfort when someone who knew Grandma Wren from the shallow end of the pool suddenly discovered that she was actually standing in the deep end the whole time and was just. just taller than they thought. And talking to Mr. Callum in this way, Amme, you realize you're a creature of the deep end of the pool and you are constantly starting deep conversations in a way that to lots of people will be really distressing.

Your glib invitation for this to Mori to have a a panic attack existential crisis is because there's no part of the universe you don't feel interested in looking at. And that suddenly you realize is an immense gift. It's a superpower. You're tough and your heart is strong. And there's lots and lots of people who will never want to join you there. Is that good for a 24?

Mulligan. That was for my character. That 24. I need to sit. Yeah. With this. A minute. Mr. Callum, have you ever, and I'm just trying to like,

ha ha, a thing has happened, and I think the witch has temporarily gone offline, let me try to save this. Mr. Callum, have you ever met another tamori of a, like, more concentrated airth than yourself? I have, yes, that's true. Okay. Adina, Adina's come by everyone soon,

well, sometimes when wizards come and Adina is escorting them, she is of a more concentrated eryth than I. And there's others too, so maybe whatever you are and however you see yourself, you are a part

of a type of thing that exists and it exists in a broader way than maybe you were given to know before. And I think all things that live hope mostly for community and worry little about taxonomy, unless you're a wizard. That's kind of our weird thing. Community. Yeah, that's it. And has done something simple in his mind that's allowed him to feel good. Yes, yes. That's it. Community.

and... He was like, I got him. The feeling of belonging. Yeah, a little high-fi. You see, he shrugs and says, Spirits and Birits, all hibbledy-hopble-dy. The important thing is everyone loves a good sandwich. And Mr. Callum, I must say,

these are some of your best yet. Oh, thank you kindly, Bear, the strongest man in Silbury. That's me. Bear, you have to try this tart. It's so good. Oh, just a bite. Yeah, there you go. Hmm.

Uh, you guys leave from this extraordinary. Extremely charged bakery interaction. How's Amé looking at this? You know, this is helpful. I think Ami is thinking, as her processing this as she goes along and she thinks, oh, I just can't start out with deep stuff with people all the time.

I have to learn small talk. Ah, okay. I think, um, helpful, helpful. helpful, helpful. You suddenly, now that you have recovered your memories, you remember Grandma Wren, who occasionally would come back and be like, I was flung into an endless pit. And then the next day would be like, these goats are more rambunctious than the older goats.

Like, you realize like, oh, a huge skill, a huge part of the job. I have fucking vastly overlooked. Because you were always just flanking her and she would take the charge on small talk and then would talk to you later about the heavy stuff. Like, do you remember, Amé, how I went in there and sutured that wound? There was an infection that was spreading more than just the flesh, but in the spirit as well. So she was always, it's honestly, as perfect as Grandma Wren was, just maybe actually a small oversight on her part, that she was very good about giving you the heavy stuff, and then actually was not great at clocking her own skills like bedside manner.

easing people in, being different people for different people in an interaction. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, you don't know what you don't know. And it's hard to teach something that you have acquired, not through learning necessarily, but through experience. Oh, boy, oh boy. Okay, okay, okay, okay. I'm excited. I'm going to learn to talk about the weather.

See, the fox looks up at you and goes, am I a spirit? Uh-huh. Okay. And you see you guys, you guys, you know. You arrive at the Tower of the Sword. Up on the balcony where, Suvie, you first spoke with Steele upon arriving back at the Citadel this time. You see Steele looking tired but not haggard.

She does okay on like three hours of sleep. You see that she's awake and she's got her golden armor on. has some sort of schematics and stuff out that she closes up in a book as you all arrive. She looks and says, Ah, Suvi, good to see you. How are you holding up? Hey, been better. I don't care for these, you know, gold threads running all over the Citadel like this.

But ultimately, it is what it is. Oh, Slate mentioned that you came by. Snitch. Mm-hmm. Did you... You wanted to know about Fort Kieran. I did. She wants to know about Silver.

Oh, great. So we're just going to blow up all of our fucking spots right now. Cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. She looks at you and says, we don't have reports back yet. Suvie, I don't know. But losses suffered by the reinforcements have been minimal.

I'll take that. I just kick on my shoe a little bit. Yoran was there. What? What? At Fort Kieran. Oh. It's being held by sorcerers of the Red Fleet right now,

but the beasts that attacked, they weren't beasts. Do you have any sense of what they're, There was this a purely military move to reactivate? Why? Why are they doing? Why now? Why him? I don't know.

What I know is that Fort Kieran is where I would attack if I wanted to get a foothold in a part of the empire where I could attack a lot of different places next. So Fort Kieran doesn't, it's not in a part of the empire that produces a lot of our wealth or a lot of our resources, but it is a strategically significant place for them to cloak where they are next. So if you think about it like a boxing match, it's not a blow that's going to send us to our knees, but it does mean that they've got a lot of choices about the next punch they throw. Copy. Okay. So we're trying to figure out what the ultimate ambition is, but it's a good first move for keeping us in the dark about what their ambition is. I apologize for my ignorance, but you said they were not beasts. Do you mean that they were men who could turn into beasts?

Shape changers. In the information we got back, you know, I don't have definitive proof, but one of the beasts that attacked smelled of iron. and was able to overcome some resistances on some summoned creatures. There were a lot of conjuration specialists at Fort Keirin who summoned some spirits to the aid of Fort Keirin, and one of the beasts went through them like tissue paper. And moreover, took a familiar form based on reports. There was no, you know, there were limited survivors. And the visuals that we got, you know, they attacked at night.

Visibility was low, but I'm certain. Or if it's not Yorin, it's someone that had that exact. It was Yorin. It was Yorin. I'm going to look over at Ursula. And I think the look on Suv's face has everything to do with, like, do we tell her what we've talked about over the diagrams? I think Ursulaan will nod to Suvi.

I do not know if you already know this, but I have seen beasts like urine from my time in the spirit world. He takes the form of something known as a garan. You know this creature? I do. You have not seen these creatures in the forests or fields of Umor. I take it. No.

Okay. Where did you acquire the charts of those creatures? Well, we didn't know that they were... The chart was based on Yorin. The chart was based on shape changers from Gouthmi. And did you make the page artificially smell as he does? She looks at you here and narrows her eyes. You're tampering with the page is what allowed you to come into that knowledge.

that knowledge. And she goes, yes, the smell of the bile and the iron and everything else like that was a part of alerting any possible soldiers to those ends. And ultimately, I wanted grandmother Wren to remember because grandmother Wren's associations with Yoran had been very limited. Yoran had never worn that form in front of grandmother Wren. But they'd met. It's a shape changer. Had I known that grandmother run had had meetings with Yoran?

No. She mentioned, I mean, she mentioned in talking about the Akadotaur and stuff like that, she never said that Yorne was in the Akadotaur, but she mentioned, when she talked about the night Suvi came, she would have said that Yoran was there. You know, she knew that much. She knew that the night Suvi first came to the cottage, that it had been Yoran, Steele, soft and stone, altogether. And you see that she looks up and says, thank you for telling me this, Ursula. I appreciate it. Of course. Steele, I did not know about Grandmother Wren's dealings with Yorin, but it seems that that's

smell is specific to him and not to other shapeshifters of his kind. Also, his name means son of Garin and his iron, the iron smell about him. Traditionally, iron is used to ward against spirits or bind them in some way. Well, that holds out. There's plenty of us have fought other shapeshifters before, but that iron smell I've only ever smelled on one man. I appreciate your counsel in this regard on me. Suvi, you see she turns to you and says, so Fort Kieran is one element of what's going on. The more harrowing element, the citadel has to be very careful right now.

This is the opening of a new gambit. And where and how we commit ourselves will define the next five years, 10 futures of the empire. So we need to make choices and we need to make them swiftly. But for the moment, we're fighting in the dark. You said that we are at the precipice of either a slow or quick ramp up. In your estimation, what is better for us? We're wizards. Given time, we win.

Slow is better. Fast is bad. Is there anything that we can do to stall them out and get more information? That's what we're looking into. But it's right now what's happening is we're just trying to suck up as much information from every part of the empire as we can. And what's happening right now over in the dome is everyone is attempting as fast as possible to separate truth from fact. What is essential? What matters?

And within all of that intelligence, knowing that there is shifting ground, what you saw occurring here, Citadel is following the attack on Fort Kirin, we were able to isolate three possibilities of how the fort fell so swiftly. So even in defeat, there is opportunity, always. The only way we were able to isolate how the fort could have been taken, followed those avenues, and discovered a thread of espionage and betrayal in one of them, and pulling at it led us not only to the citadel, but to many other places as well, but to the citadel one thread led. Hence the raids in Haverward.

Correct. Well, let's get to the hard part. Amme has to leave. We have to go with her. What's the best way out? Steele sits back. As of this morning, you have two days before disaster falls. And it's not just to get to Toma.

From Toma, I must go to a very far away location. You are moving with a certainty that doom will befall you. Doom will befall you if you do not join a meeting of, you said, this coven of witches to which you belong presumably against your will. A counsel, and it's a role I have inherited. That I am magically compelled to do. That I understand. You were contacted by this coven and threatened with destruction if you were not able to make this meeting.

No, they would never be so crass as to do that. We were contacted and told a no uncertain terms that I was to meet with them. A diviner from the court of Kobani was the one to tell me that certain destruction would fall. follow if I were not to go in three days. Do you have, which diviner of the court of Kabani? A trusted friend of Grandmother Wrenz. A trusted friend of Grandmother Wrenz as I was? Do we?

Yes. Okay. And we're saying a trusted friend of Grandmother Wrens rather than what they are called. I'm so tired. I'm so sorry. I will do. You know what we consider a great diviner? Someone whose prophecies are true 51% of the time.

That's a diviner that is of an incredible use to the empire. Now, I don't know who this friend of grandmother Wrenz is whose name you don't wish to divulge here. But I will say I would love. love to go and speak to the diviners of the court of Kabani to see if there is any evidence of this coming to pass. Again, you must know, even as a young witch, how trivially easy it is to fool anybody with an illusion, especially those wizards so fond of peering out unguardedly into the endless expanse of creation. I heard once it was a mistake to see the serenity of witches

and mistake that for inexperience. It sounds like we're not doubting the serenity of witches. It sounds like we're doubting wizardcraft, which as the sword of the citadel, I maintain the authority to do. Right, yeah, okay. Diviners can be wrong. Right.

And they can especially be wrong if they are being fed information, perhaps by powerful witches with an agenda, to see certain things that are to their advantage. Let me be clear. I'm talking about taking an hour or two to go get a second opinion. On my looks to Suvi. Look, you heard it here. More information, the ability to prepare to know is how we feel.

find victory. You are quick to act and we are quick to check and check again. Thank you for trusting and waiting for this conversation. And I'm saying that with a bit of like a emotional lean lean towards steel to be like, she wanted to dip yesterday. Take the dub. You've given me what I've asked for. Anything more I leave at your feet. I can wait two hours at most. Let's go discuss this with the Wizards of Kobani. Perfect. You see that she gets up. Before we go, Suvi.

Yes? Suvi? What is the? Oh, oh, okay. So you left, thank you for the names. You did leave them in a book with other pages in it. What can you tell us of the wizard stripe? Okay, I thought, if you can't say Suvie and then not wait for me to take too long to explain.

What do you know about the wizard's stripe? You had Badger written in there, too. Snooping in my journal that I left with a note for you in the middle of it and a ribbon. She smiles and looks at you, Ursuline, and says, not my most protected spellbook of all. all time, more of a to-do list. The notes I was looking for were based on the favor I offered to do for you or to attempt to do for you or someone. I, knowing your name very carefully and guardedly and through back channels such as not

to tip off anybody that otherwise would be tipped off, looked for any instances of your name in the record of the Citadel. There was no recording of it. My understanding is that you came to this world as a child and didn't, we're not, you know, did not have great writings of your name and the world of spirits prior to your adolescence here in Umura. So I didn't find any wizards having previously bound you.

I didn't find a diagram with any of your information in it. You can hear a tone and Steele's voice here, by the way, that, like, Ursulaan is a minor spirit. You know, he's not like, you know, There's not big treatises being written. Primate, rude. It is what it is, man. Started first level like everybody else.

But you see, she says, so I found no evidence, I found no primary sources concerning your name. What I did find were records of other wizards making the same search I was making. The wizard's stripe

spent many years searching for a spirit called Ursula. Really? Yes. The Wizard Stripe came here and joined as a young person in a far off, you know, the history of the Citadel when it was very different than it is today. But joined the Citadel when it was much younger and became a diviner and was searching for you know, I mean, no one knew it at the time. She, business was her own.

But she trained in the art of finding spirits and became very adept at piercing abjurations. She, a lot of her research was concerned with the fact that sorcerers or other, you know, agents and the magical agents in the world could hide spirits and sequester them away somewhere. She was really good at, for lack of a better word, knowing what eventually... Do you know of... How much do you know of the Wizard Stripe? She is my sister. You see, you watched Steel in an instant put it all together. We shared a father and grew up together.

Then you know of the Kassoff Collection. And she was released during an oversight? The, yes, a young friend of mine almost got drummed out of the Citadel for his recklessness. And here she winks at Sufi, his recklessness in that moment. Sloppy. Incredibly sloppy. Careless. Incredibly sloppy how he sloppily slopped up during the hours where the collection was closed and there were no bystanders and et cetera, et cetera.

In any case, the point being, the wizard's stripe, I did not, there was no record of her being your sister. That I would have brought to you immediately. There was merely a record of her being a spirit disguised as a wizard who spent long years learning how to search for hidden and captured spirits. One of her appellations was the borrower. She went to many deep places of the earth believing that something very precious had been hidden away in there. But she was released.

You know, aging is a very complicated thing, and over time, her glamour moved farther and farther away from the fact that she was not actually aging at the same rate as everybody else. So in searching for you, I found out other people who had searched for you, and I now discovered that one of them was your sister. She herself was a badger spirit.

She had searched for other badger spirits. She had searched for bear and owl. She had searched for panther. She searched for fire and leaf. A number of different spirits she had searched for. Wait, why would she search for other? Other siblings, I'm assuming. Did others come through?

Not that I don't believe so. Steel shrugs as well. It says, I just started to make a note of everything of interest that she had searched for that felt outside the purview of spellcraft. I mean, obviously 80% of her research was just learning how to be better at spellcasting. But for our purposes, the one other thing I'll say that she looked for was, you know, many, many years before my time was heraldric histories. histories of different battles that occurred within a calm. One of them, the Battle of Starlings Ford.

She made a lot of searches in the armories of the citadel, specifically looking for a golden paldron. Ursula feels the paltron, but makes no move to indicate it. So I am very sorry that you discovered my, It's a wizardly habit to hold on to secrets. And obviously, that's very much concerned with your business, Ursula. But also it was a favor that you had, for the moment, refused. And so I was sort of just sitting on it anyway because giving you not knowing that she was your sister,

a ancient wizard who ended up being a spirit searching feverishly for you didn't seem like a comforting bit of news to give, nor one that is relevant given that that was more than two decades ago. Of course. I'm assuming there is no indication of where she went when released. If there was, the Citadel would have used it to track her down. Well, then good. I am going to head to Kobani and talk to the diviners there. and I will see you at the Tower of the Glove

and we'll hopefully have an answer for you as soon as possible. She stands up, clas the shoulder on you, says, much appreciated. And we are going to take care of this, I swear. She, dimension doors out. Gotta learn that someday. Hey, Amay, how you doing? I'm in the middle of having a conversation telepathically with the Fox.

I don't say that out loud. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just am. This feels like Port Tallinn, we want to go, we need to go, and we are waiting. And to be honest, it might have been better if we waited while we were at Port Talon. Steele would have helped take care of that. But I just can't shake the feeling that, We're wasting time

that we have to get back to take action. Trust your brain. Trust your gut. If I still have a vote, which is unclear, you... Not fair.

My vote's always going to be to follow your gut. We didn't listen to steal import talent. And as a result, we freed a really big, great spirit. Ursulaan learned magic. And you,

brought a song back to all the people there who started singing it to reconnect to the spirits. And a lot of people died, but that's okay. Well, I was going to add that. That's kind of important. Well, I literally don't see a way that we can physically run away from this one, though, unless you know of some way back to Silbury. You telling me, you think I can't find a way out of a place? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I bet you couldn't do it, even if we wanted to.

The fox is gone. Ducks down beneath the table, skitters away, and you don't know if he, like, ran around the other side of the balcony or went back inside or whatever, but the fox is gone. I switched to familiar vision. You see he's in the bottom of the Tower of the Sword, and you see that he starts scratching at the door. You see Sonder walks up with a sort of little bronze goblet

with some kind of thick smoothie in it, and you see he goes, Hey there, little guy. Oh, you need to go outside, pee-pee. And you see, he opens the door and the fox takes off onto the street. All right. What do the rest of you do after Steele's departure here in the Tower of the Sword? So we're just watching Amme Warg?

Yeah. Or like, Amé has sort of like warged out and is looking to the fox's eyes. I'm going to tap Ambe on the shoulder. Ami, you come too out of your Fox Vision. Where did the fox go? I don't know. I think he's going out for a peepie. Oh.

Well, is it time to go? This is on you. Is it time to go? Yeah. Yeah, it's time to go. Are we going to wait for Steele's return? No. Is that what the fox is doing?

Yes. Okay. I need a minute. And I'm just going to leave a note for Steele, thanking her for all of the care and time that she allocated in the midst of a crisis to look into this for us. But as ever, the comings and goings of witches cannot be predicted or controlled. and I'll return as soon as I can. Give me a performance check. 12. You write the note, you place on the desk,

you hear the noise of Kadela and Isha, you hear the running little stumps of Ovi, the, you know, Steele and Sondra's nine-year-old son. You leave the note on Steele's desk by the journal, where you found it, in her study in her residence, not at the sanctum upstairs, which is locked and guarded. As you rejoin your friends, where do you go and what do you do? I'm going to go back to the tower to get my pack.

Or you go back to the bakery again. Yes, yes. You go back to the bakery and approach and you see Mr. Callum smiling and talking to two young wizards. You see the two young wizards. have their arms around each other, clearly in love, as they order from the bakery together. See Mr. Callum's smile as he sort of raises an eyebrow and gives a little heart-shaped tray of bonbons.

You look at Mr. Callum's smile, and I think go back to your earlier question of asking him if he was a spirit. And I think there's something interesting that you sort of swirl around in that moment of whether he ever could have been a true spirit or what a true spirit is, what the Tamori are, what people are. There's these deep sort of questions hanging in the air around you.

But ultimately, Mr. Callum is friendly, smiled at you. He was a part of your world. And extending that honor to him is just something that I think is very instinctive. to Amme. The door jingles with the little bell. You walk in through the candles that are flickering even in the daylight. They sort of stay here and flicker. You can see the flame in the broad daylight.

As you walk in, you see Mr. Callum looks up and says, Oh, young Amai, here you are. Goes and grabs the packs from behind it. Here you go. And, uh, wishing you all the best. Not sure where you're off to in such a hurry, but

hope you, uh, hope you don't mind. I've snuck a few scons. some marshmallow and chocolate croissants into the bag. Oh, thank you so much, sir. Good on you, Mr. Callum. An honor and a pleasure, as always. Suvie is just staring at the wizard couple. You see the wizard couple takes the bonbons

and goes to sit at one of the little tables outside, two little cups of lattes and little chocolates between them. You see that one of them out by their chair has a pack as well and is getting ready to head out. You leave the Candle Street Bakery. Where do you head to now? I check where the fox is.

Fox is slinking around the part of Zhao Court with the traveling doors in it, seeing soldiers everywhere. You see he's looking out underneath some fabric that you realize is clearly a tablecloth at some sort of restaurant or eatery

where he has eyes to the traveling doors but sees soldiers everywhere. As you warg into his eyes, you hear his voice. Grounds full of snares over here, boss. I don't know. And here I thought that you never got caught, that you were always able to avoid the snares

and that you could find a way out of anything. Why don't you stay out of my eyes and watch this? and he takes off down the street. He says, you want to see a great escape? Here's a great escape. And begins to tear off through Zhao Court. Both of you see, Ame has taken a moment to pause outside of the Canal Street Bakery

and look through the fox's eyes. But time is sort of moving along. As it gets to the end, you see the fox just goes, better head to Zhao Court. I'm going to be done soon. Zhao Court. That's where all the gates are. I set off towards there.

Yeah, I would have taken the time to head towards the like Gallathopter request kiosk. You head to the galathopter request kiosk. All of you go to sit in the little gondola of the galathor. It is probably now 11 o'clock in the morning. Hot daylight here in the Citadel. A little bit oppressive. Strange.

could be cooler. Citadel doesn't like to let it get this hot. You go to the kiosk, you put in Zhao Court, and you see, the arcane mark of the citadel appears over the kiosk. And you see, it says, please announce your title and business. This is not normal.

Yeah. See if he's going to pause and go, The wizard's guy with an appointment at the Cassov collection. I like it. On my nods encouragingly. Yeah. I'm going to need a deception check. I'm going to let you know right now the numbers ahead of time.

Yeah. So that you do not call me cruel when consequence comes to visit. All right. settle down. 15 avoids dire catastrophe. Jesus. 20 avoids what we will just call disaster. A 25 deception succeed.

So interesting. What's your bonus to deception? I know the number, but I checked again. It's a plus two. It's a plus two. Plus two to deception. Okay. Oh, he said that in a way.

That made me so sad. It's okay. I'm just going to quit. You want to roll guidance first? Yes. Roll the guidance. A one? I'm going to die.

Somebody called night. You want to give the help action? Will you let me? I'll let you do that. Okay, great. Okay. So you got two chances, Sufi. So you're adding three.

You need at least a, you need at least a 12. to avoid dire catastrophe. And 17 gets us to avoiding disaster. Delightful. But you're going to need a Nat 20 to actually fool. Yeah, sure. Sure, sure, sure, sure. She did not make it, ladies and gentlemen, with a seven higher.

Galfactor takes wing, begins to head for Zhao court. Lying through the air, you see the red and white approaching. Halfway to Zhao Court, you hear ascending in your mind, Suvi. Suvi, this is Steele. Finishing up at Kobani now, should meet you at the Tower of the Glove? Change of plans. Amay needs to leave now, so we're headed to Zhao. What?

Remain in Zhao Court at the Galifactor Station. Do not leave from the station. That is an order. I think you all see that some... something in Suvie goes dark. Give me insight checks. Amay and Ursula. Ten. Sixteen.

Give me a deception check. Uh, Suvie. Ah! Natural one. Each of you watches Suvie's countenance fall, and you can tell that she is being spoken to by Steele in her mind. What did she say? We have to stay at the Galathopter station until Steele shows up. What did she find out?

We'll find out when she meets us in Zhao. You were told that you would not be allowed to go. Do you think that was for the witches, or do you think it was from steel? I have no way of knowing because Sly was not more specific. I am very infrequently given a direct order. And you have to do what you have to do. Galathor descends and lands at one of eight peers in Zhao court. the most that any platform of the Citadel has.

You land and can see that two imperial skieships are headed towards Zhao court. One up from Hoverward, one down from one of the other courts. This is an addition to the two that are already here. Ursula, the hair stands up on the back of your neck. Moore the Gallifopter and an attendant helps you step up onto the platform. You see off in the distance Gossamer Plaza and those butterflies moving around. And off towards the corner, you see maybe like the next pier over has all of the traveling doors on it. All of these big, they're like large hangers that you know will have the major traveling door to Silbury that is inside,

this massive rotating circles and dials of stone within the ground, the constellations of the stars overhead that can send you anywhere in the world that they have built a traveling door. You, Ame, on your passive perception, can see soldiers closing in on the area of Zhao that holds the traveling door gateways.

An area that you know your fox has run away from. You disembark and stand here at the platform. Dutch. I'm going to lean over to Abe. Where is the fox? I close my eyes. Fox, where are you? The fox is somewhere dark, and you see

he is straining with all his might. It has a little bit of light, and you hear... And then... The falling barrels. He's like, I'm doing my part. Get back to the station near Gossamer Plaza,

the cookout area. I start power walking over. I grab Amme. I keep going. That's an athletics check. 4.22. As you grab Amme, Suvi, give me a perception check. I just don't trust hanging in my dice.

You really shouldn't. Your dice are turning me into the people who yell at me about my dice. And it's like unsettling. Seven. Suvi, you get a hand on Amé. As your skin touches her arm of the palm of your hand, you feel cold, afraid, and naked. As Amé quickly just shoulders past you,

but in that touch of your hand on her skin, you become magically aware that Ami can choose to punish you for that in a hundred years from now. Amé, as you push past, and again, Suvi loves you. The effort of this is not destructive, but in that effort to control you, the name Suvi flashes over your eyes, and there are a number of the protections

you've cast over her, any times you've healed her or cast guidance on her. Basically, in the moment that her hand touches your arm and she attempts to control you, the weight of every kindness you have done for her settles into your hand like the heft of a sword. I shoulder past, but as I feel that I spin around and my eyes flash at her, and you see for a second something terrible and much greater and older than Amay.

And then it's gone and I also look scared and frightened and I start running. Ursula, we need an action from you unless you're not acting. I look at Sufi. She looks startled and terrified and is a little too frozen to react as Ami begins to sprint. I put a hand on you. We knew it would be this way and I'm going to take off after Amme. Okay, I'm going to ask just for these purposes because actions are so tight and narrow to roll initiative. Fucking 10.

Dirty 20. 20 as well. Oh, God, no. Amé and Ursula, you're taking off in the direction of the Fox, yes? I need to ask you, is your consideration right now, speed or stealth? Stealth. I go as fast as I can, but it's, but it's, It is a run, but in that way that it looks like you're just kind of jogging along to get to something.

You know, you furrow your brow and you look like you have business. You're not, this is nothing out of the ordinary, but we're moving quickly. I will actually allow for it's either stealth if you're using structures and obstacles or it's deception. Okay. If you are trying to move normally and look like you're supposed to be here. But you have to tell me, are you relying on shadows movement obstacle secrecy? Or are you trying to walk openly and deceive anyone looking for you that you are supposed to be here? I would be using deception.

We are supposed to be here and that we are walking with the energy that's currently in the citadel toward business that needs to be taken care of. there's no way that I'm never, that I'm going to look normal. I'm a witch. I have a traveling pack on. I use obstacles and alleyways. So you're going to split up. This is between deceiving people by looking like walking in broad daylight, stealthing, like getting to where the fox is by secret ways, or sprinting.

So stealth is not sprinting. Stealth is not tearing ass down. middle of the road. Stealth is getting out of the way and finding some other way to get there to avoid soldiers. Of those, what are you choosing? And you can choose different. I'm actually going to count down from three, and I want each of you to tell me what it is you're going to do.

There's no, if you're booking ass from the galapter, you might just split up by accident if you're trying to do two different things. So go ahead and three, two, one. Decealph. You guys separate. Amme, I'm going to need you to pick your lucky number on a D4. Three. Two.

Great. I'm going to need a stealth check from Amme, and I'm going to need a deception check from Ursula. We're going to call this a DC-12. Oh, God. 13. 23. Woo-wee. Beating the roll by.

but more than 10. Ursula, I'm going to allow you to roll a D4 twice. Amet, you're going to roll it once. That's a two. Okay. That's a three. A second three. Each guy has each other's lucky numbers.

Ursula, you separate from Amé quickly. Stop sprinting once you're out of sight of the Galathopter's place and just begin to walk like you are supposed to be here. Like this is normal. Ami, you quickly with your large pack, knowing, how easy it will be to find you. Stick to the shadows. You hear the fox's voice in your heart

moving through the shadows of Zhao court. Suvi, we come back to you, standing here by the galathopters. You see your friends run off. They split after they round a corner. So you assume that they're together still, wherever. But leave you here in the magical aftermath of the thundering of that witch's magic.

But you are standing. here. I don't understand that that had anything to do with what I did. I don't understand how Amay's magic works. I do understand that I was given a direct order and they never respect when I am at my wits end. They don't listen. They love being on my tab. They love having fun. They love being protected by me, but they never listen to me. And they don't care. But I am the wizard's sky. So as they sprint away, I turn and get the eyes of a soldier of the citadel point behind them and say, bring them to me. And I wait.

Give me persuasion with advantage. 18 and 19 on the die. 21. I'm going to need Ame and Ursulaan to pick an unlucky number of D4. Four. Four as well. Give me another stealth check and another deception check. 16.

18. The DC for that role had moved up to a 15. You both succeed yet again. Amet, you stay in the shadows. Ursula, you move with a quiet grace, belying that there is nothing out of the ordinary here. I am going to need D4 rolls from you both. Neither of you beat the roll by 10 or more.

So you're going to roll one time. Ursulan looking for a two and Ami looking for a three. But we also have an unlucky number now? Which is four. Three! Three as well. Ursulaan, slow pace keeps eyes off of you. Before that, you realize that there are certain ways that you're trying to get to where you're going,

but also only Ame can feel the fox. And it's off, so you're trying to get back to where you went before, but you're taking the same route. So you're going to be going by the Kassov collection to get to where you were before. You stay walking. It's a farther trip for you. Amay is able to find a shortcut by just following the sense. of the Fox directly. Ame, you succeed on your stealth

and you get to your lucky number. You roll up and see that really short-range teleportation. It was the thing that opened up the place for you to get to Kabani from Zhao Korn, if you remember. There's the sort of shirtless apron-wearing wizards. They have like headbands on, long, heavy iron staves that are lit with fires at the end. They're pouring colored sand

into these charred, like half a foot down, pits opening up this wet, humid, colorful fire that people walk through to get, it's a dimension door spell. It's exclusively to other parts of the citadel. What do you do as you approach this place? Fox. Where are you? I'm kind of tied up in this right now, boss. So you just got to get ready to jump and you tell me and we'll make it happen. Sufian and Arsala, aren't with me. They're not here yet. We got one shot. You got one shot. You got to tell me whether to go or not. Go.

Yep. And you hear, boom, boom, boom. All of the guys working at this say, oh, no, no! As barrels begin to fall, stacked up off of a roof, bouncing off of a cloth awning, rolling, scattering,

huge barrels of magical sand. I'll roll a dexterity. Oh, God. That's a natural one. Whoa! One of the guys, has his iron staff out, he goes to interpose it so that he is not struck by a barrel rolling towards him. The fox is up on the roof having kicked the barrels over.

You remember him like pushing in that like attic to get these barrels to fall down? And boom, boom, the guy puts the staff. And as he puts the staff in front of him to interpose and defend himself, the staff cracks the barrel and the sand alight. Boom! Four of these wizards are flung somewhere in Umura. It alights the other barrels. Sand erupt. A bonfire taller than the tallest building in this court sends a signal flare up into the sky

as purple, green, silver, iridescent, shimmering flame. You look around and you can feel it on your face. You look around and see people are sweating, purple, green, and gold. As just beads of the stuff appear on their face, the fox leaps off into your arms and says, Here we go. Amay, what do you do? So these are two places in Amora. You have no idea where those other wizards just went.

This is a short-range teleportation that these guys do to ferry people off of Zhao Court. And you can see that your little familiar has done some quick little fuzzy math. and gone, more sand equals more magic equals go farther. A skyscraper, iridescent rainbow bonfire rockets into the sky, almost scorching like the platform above it in line. And you have to make the call of whether you will jump through this fire, which you, again, you entrust. your fox, you said, find a way out. The fox, in all of his wilyness, has found a way out.

He has found how a wild animal would escape from a trap. And it is a fire flinging you elsewhere in the world. Perhaps by some wicked witchcraft you would find a way to orient yourself and get back to Toma. Perhaps there is some way to wield this wild magic, but it is wild magic. And it would require your focus and concentration to wield it right. I open that third eye. I look in the chaos around me, and I count down the senses, the smells. I think of Toma. I think of home.

I think of my sanctum and my cottage in which I am not just safe emotionally, but, or physically, but magically. And I step forward with my fox. surrounded, credible heat, potent magic. You feel that you are drowning, that your soul might sweat out through your pores, and you might simply wither and vanish. I am going to need an insight check,

and if you'd like to double down and be a little extra dangerous, you can throw a wisdom-saving throw on there for me. Your fox will help you with one of those roles, either Insight or the saving throw. Insight. 15, the two. On the die. For a total of eight.

Insight. Reaching out. Understanding. Are you thinking of the cottage? Are you thinking of Silbury? What is the clearest vision in your mind as you step into the flame? I step forward. And in my mind's eye is the perfect picture of the cottage in summer.

The hearth is quiet because it's far too hot for a fire. The sound of the cicadas in the evening. The smell of the wildflowers. A cottage in Toma. My home. Ursula, I'm going to need one last deception. The difficulty has gone up to 18 and you need to roll a default. you're looking for a two as your lucky number and a four as your unlucky number.

23, deception. Unbelievable. It's another three on the die. Okay. You get to Gossamer Plaza. You see the bulwark of the Kassauv collection. You are still several blocks away as fire roars up and you see it. This, you hear screams,

wizards go running, this is impossible, but you know that this is what it is. Potentially it will still be going by the time you get there, but you know that Ame has gotten there and had to do something. Then I'll break into a sprint. Hell yeah. Sufi, the soldiers take off into Zhao court. As they do, you see.

A single team. here, rolls down her cheek. They have never cared about the cost of their will. They didn't notice the heat in this place, resources being reallocated to war. Something terrible is happening, and they don't care. I've been pushed twice in two days. And of course there is an inferno, because

that follows where they lead. And I stand and I wait. Ursula, the fire roars. You break into a sprint. I need you to pick another unlucky number. One. Go ahead and give me an athletics or acrobatics role. The DC is now 21.

17 on athletics. Okay. you run and you feel your body covered by butterflies as you run through Gossamer Plaza and you can feel them clinging to your body as you move. You feel as you attempt to spring as fast as possible, but feel somehow that your power is being drained as you run. Spirits running through the streets of Zhao Court is exactly what the magic of this place has been designed to prevent.

You wonder if Kalaya ran just like this through these same streets. You wonder if her escape is why they thought to bring the butterflies here at all. Beryling down, make me a final luck check. You have two unlucky numbers, one and four. You have a single lucky number that means you will close before soldiers of the Citadel arrive. Go ahead. That's it too. In defiance of this place, I think Ursulaun drops his glamour.

And knowing that either this insane plan that concocted works, or like his sister, he may be trapped here. Ursula, you hear voices behind you saying, Lose spirit! You hear soldiers barreling down. wavebreaker, a shield, blue fruit, red leaves, a mushroom at its base. You arrive at the fire as it still roars. Ame is vanished.

Do you leap into it? This torrent of flame, I'm assuming, is the result of Ame's and the Fox's plan. Is there any indication that Ame would have jumped? Like, I guess there is something, Ursula, I think, sprinting toward this thing. I think as he gets closer, is trying to make sense of what it is he's looking at. You can give me insight, you can give me perception, you can give me arcana. Go for it. You can give me both.

Give me a perception and an archa. You know what? Why not? Nine insight. Six arcana. Erselaun, for another time in a line of times in this world, you look at something strange and horrifying and are faced with one more impossible choice.

I sprint right into it. Leaping in, you hear the sound of cantrip's being cast behind you. As voices of soldiers say, Stop! Hold! I'm going to need... Once again, as you dive into the fire, an insight and a wisdom. To one of these, you may add a D-10 of inspiration. So I have a 16 and a 19 on the die.

Oh my God. The wisdom saving throw is going to stay a flat 20. Okay. The insight check becomes another 31. Ursula, you long wayshadowed, trapped in this world. leap into the flame, not knowing if you will survive or if you will be punished by a punishing and cruel world. But you do know what you have always known when you have chosen to face the impossible. You cannot remain where you have been. Danger always lies ahead when where you are

has always been laid as a trap. Surging into the fire, doubt, fear, uncertainty vanishes from you in an instant. Flames roaring around you in all sides, purple, green, silver, mist. You are for a moment shaken, and then on those incredible rolls,

on a 20 wisdom saving throw, and on a 31, insight as you feel a spiritual energy you realize that you can't see because flames are blasting into your face they're moist and hot and choking you're breathing them in and suddenly you your breath it's just that it's ragged it's not fire it's wind it's just too much for you and your shield comes up in front of your face and suddenly as you fall through flame you can breathe and as you can breathe what is the danger You've hurled yourself into magic? You've hurled yourself into what these people wield?

Magic is what you are. Is what you have always been. The most worried would harm you is home and more than home. It is you and you are it. Your body is flame. Purple, green, iridescent silver. Shield close brightly. wavebreaker leaps with giddy eagerness to your hand.

You feel the power in this moment to dispel a nearby tether of magic. There is a magic near here that is attempting to take beings that are scared and afraid and make them lost forever. Confidently, Ursulaan holds Wavebreaker out. and cuts the tether. Leather aprons, sweaty headbands, and the wizards reappear on the platform of Zhao as you cut loose the magic that was casting them away

and send them back safely to their home. Ursula, like only the sound of his heart pumping in his ears, now just turns to find Amé. On a 31, this fire had to be. to be kept small for these wizards to wield it. How many beings of this world will they attempt to keep small to make them useful? Let this fire grow as large as the wide forests of your birth. You are home here and may go wherever you wish. You do not even sense urgency, the pounding of your heart centered on your breath. You move with utter confidence in this moment.

On a 31, the fire flickers into the shape of a forest made of wreathing flame. You know the way to Ames Cottage. You know the way to Port Talon. You know the way to Chura's Chowder. All ways are open to you here within the world of Umorea. The fire will die soon. But your clarity of movement, The evenness and steady rhythm of your breath lets you know that a moment is an hour and an hour infinity in the breadth and span of the world of spirits.

On a 31, you sense behind you, being created by your steps is a road in the flame or behind you on the road is a shadow that can. can see you now, turning to see the shadow, oh, so distant on the road behind you, like a traveler at the far edge of a horizon, but whose steady footsteps never falter. You see, something not of witches or of wizards, nor the stranger on the road behind, but something as small and clever and funny as a mushroom painted on a shield in the fire near the base of a flaming, whispering trunk of raging inferno. There is a hole, what some might call a burrow, who can say how long it's been there in the flame, but small and humble you notice it all the same.

Amay ahead, stranger behind, and off the path, something that you haven't seen in a long, long time. But no, you've seen before. It's the honor of a dungeon master to ask this question, and I can't think of a more important time I've ever asked it. Ursulaan, what do you want to do?