Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #30: The Snake

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

Aren't you thirsty, brother? Here is the well of stars. Here, the dark waters of the river. There, a bubbling spring. Drink deeply, and consider what swims and writhes beneath. For like a forked tongue flicks back and forth, like the great claw taps against the glass (To be let in? To be let out?) a clock, somewhere, tiks and toks unceasing, making what will be what is. And we are all full of snakes.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. Salty blood splashes across the edge. Limbs tighten over your shoulders and hips. You feel Ursulaan behind you. Badese's chest begins to open as her fractured ribs scratch the skin of your back, opening wide, as though a massive Venus fly trap was trying to open its maw. In front of you, a...

wet choking wine of an attempted howl coming out of the bloody neck stump of Heinruil. The severed wolfhead, the eyes go immediately bloodshot, the tongue lolls out as the jaws snap wildly without consciousness over and over again. Socorro leaps back, kicks the head into the bubbling pool, and the headless wolf body. and the headless wolf body staggers to its feet as blood gushes out of the open hole in the severed stump.

Ursula, roll initiative. 13. Ursula, you are first to act. Go ahead and give me a strength saving throw. The difficulty is 17. That's a four. Badezay, who,

wears her human glamour in this moment, but her human glamour is quite inhuman. As her chest spreads, her arms pin you down, rows of razor-sharp teeth, her glowing bioluminescent eyes, sort of like inky skin that is modeled, purple, deep gray, dark black, like a sort of like almost just at the point past twilight where fireflies first come to life. She pulls you down into her chest and can feel her chest opening up, and you feel cool mist pouring out of the cavern of her open torso. She goes, we do not mean you harm, as she restrains you. It is your turn.

Can I make an insight check? With regard to that, the specific we do not mean you harm. Give me an insight check. This will be with disadvantage. You are drunk as hell. Fifteen. it's a crazy thing to whisper in your head as this is happening. But what you can see is she's pinning you down,

but doesn't look like she could be biting you or doing something else in this moment that she's not doing. Socorro just chopped Heinruel's head off and gingerly stepped out of the way to kick the head into the bubbling hot spring as this massive dire wolf body. It's quite a bit larger than Socorro. suddenly gets up onto its feet. Socorro, his muscles tighten and expand.

He almost, because he is made of wood, the muscle groups of his body are his skin. It almost looks like those deskinned anatomical things where it's just muscle groups, but made of like moss-covered bark and wood. And you see his roots sink into the plant life here, sink into like the dirt as he attempts to sort of like enchant himself to be even stronger and more potent.

in this moment. So it looks like chopping Heinrull's head off was the start of something and not the end of something. Got it. In that case, I think Ursulaan has been in this situation before, not this exact one, but essentially people imposing violence on him when he is too drunk.

And so I think in this moment, kind of smelling Stahl's feeling of just kind of becoming very present, knowing that his body is not where he wants it to be, but that he just needs to focus on breathing and movement. So he is going to attempt to become untangled from the vines of Badezak. Okay, it's the exact same role on a success. You will free yourself. Oh, a five.

You struggle, and she goes, do not struggle. There is a worry we are. trying to help you. You see, now it's going to be Sikoro's turn. He goes next in initiative. You see Sikoro lean forward, massive wooden warrior pointed ears. He opens his mouth and a cloud of gas and spores comes out of his mouth, enveloping the werewolf's body or enveloping the dire wolf body.

of Hein rule. As it does so, he leans his shoulder in and tries to knock the form back onto its side. In the pool, you hear muffled howling that is not traveling from inside the pool of water going

sort of bubbling up from the water. Socorro gets under the dire wolf body, like fully cleans and presses it over his head and dives into the water. with the wolf body. I'm going to need a wisdom saving throw as it goes to Badesay's turn.

12. Badesay's ribs finally spread enough that they come across the wide of your back and you feel the bones, the shattered sternum, suddenly you sink into them and they come across the front of your chest. And she goes, and begins to swallow you with her torso. You feel ribs closing.

You fold at the waist so that suddenly your face is like in your own crotch. Your arms and legs are intermingled all pointing in the same direction. As you see her smile and relax and hear her exhale calmly. As her chest and stomach swallow you. And the last thing you see is the light fading as the ribs close up just beyond your fingertips and the souls of your feet, and the light disappears as the seam in her torso closes. An icy hallway lit by ice-blue torches and the of the fox's little feet on the floor beside you as you wend your way from the Skybridge where you met with Injri.

And presumably, where are you going? Where is Ami heading after her meeting with Inri? I think I want to go find other spirits in her. in the castle. I think I want to talk to them and find out about them and I think I also want to talk to Neif. Hell yeah,

give me an investigation check. That's nothing. Six. You do not find Neif and you do not find many spirits. The Fox looks around sort of following you and goes,

boy, that lady was I don't know how to put it. She like, how is it, what does someone do where they say words? Mm-hmm. Talk. Talk. They talk. And they're not saying, the words don't mean anything that I don't like, but I still get a bad feeling after they're done saying things.

What is that? Well, when someone says something that on the surface seems nice but has a deeper hidden meaning, it could be that they are being manipulative or they are being passive aggressive or lying. I get that. So lying, okay, I understand lying. Yeah, you know lying. So this is manipulation is something. So was she lying to us? subtler. She was lying by not saying the whole truth, and she was saying things that make us feel bad.

Okay, so like a river has a surface, and it's deep. And sometimes there's like snakes in there, but other times there's not snakes in there. So it's sort of like someone's talking and there's snakes and what they're saying, but you can't be sure. Yes, exactly. And you have to, the problem is that witches are really, really good at making a nice, crisp-looking, inviting river of words. And then there's a lot of big fucking snakes in there. Snakes are scary. Yeah, but sometimes snakes can be friendly.

So, you know, sometimes you can, what do you let? Ooh, something smells good. He takes off, he says, you want to come with me? Yeah, sure. And he takes off down a hall. He turns a little corner, and you see that this is another nondescript kind of hall. This one is a little bit interior. And you realize that you, in getting back, in just sort of like searching the palace,

you've gone deep into the central keep. This is sort of like the Witch of Wind and Stars keep. And this is where the meeting hall is, and it's where the great sort of, you know, the conclave meeting is. But you're up on a higher floor, and you're way. out of the way. You even have been like, huh, as you were just like searching for spirits and looking for Neef, you don't know how you would get here if you weren't kind of, there would be no reason to pass by here. This is a place you only get to by aimlessly meandering. And you see the fox runs up and turns a corner of the hallway and there's a few nondescript kind of smaller icy doors in this place. And outside of one of the doors is a mostly full. plate of food from dinner and a sort of half drunk glass of juice or something. But it looks like mostly the food's all there.

And it's placed right outside the door to the right, kind of like you would do with like room service in a hotel. And you see that the fox goes up and goes and runs up and just grabs a thing of sort of like the roasted pork and begins to. Why? There's not even anyone around. We're not even at a table. How can it be rude? I pull him up. I'm holding him by his middle.

I tuck him under my arm like a little football. And I pick up the plate. And I look around. And I knock on the door. You hear a voice inside saying, Hello? Hello? Oh, hello? I have dinner. And I'm so sorry.

my fox here was trying to get at it, and so I think maybe it might be safer inside with you. Oh, yeah. Uh, what's that good place? The door opens a crack, and you see one of the most beautiful people you've ever seen in your life. They are of a comparable height to Suvi. they are a robed figure. They have a beautiful face, long pronounced aquiline nose, a little bit of some kind of ruby rouge on their lips and what looks like a simple black kind of eyeliner or mascara,

but broad-shouldered, long arms, long, delicate fingers like a musician or a painter. They have some wisps of wavy black hair, kind of where like the sideburns would be, but are otherwise no other hair on their head or face. They have a kind of like white and black checkered covering on a shaven head and then are wearing their garment looks like an extremely beautifully wrapped single piece of fabric, like either a robe or a toga or something like that. And it has some geometrical patterns and some tassels that kind of go at diagonals. They're really wrapped in it and then have what looked like some kind of fluffy polar bear-looking slippers that are clearly given to them. But you could tell immediately on looking at this person

that they are deeply sick, like stuffed up nose, a little bit of mucus running, look like they're freezing cold. And inside of their room, you see that they have a number of large pieces of junk, like a section of warped metal fence, just some giant masonry stones. There's many bags of scrolls. There's about 30 books piled up on a desk. And you see that they have... They're not heavily tattooed, but there are some little, their hands have a couple little decorations.

The wrist have a couple little decorations that mostly seem like geometrical little bands and lines that are punctuated by very small, simple glyphs. But it's not choked with text. It's more like a banded line with a single glyph in the middle. They look down at you and sort of towering over you. And immediately upon seeing you, you can tell that they reflexively hunched shoulders bring their head down a little bit to be a little bit less than the very tall they already are. And you see also that they're holding on their sort of like, on their head covering. They put a hot water bottle on their head and are holding it there with one hand. No, the, sorry, the dinner I've had as much as my appetite has left me.

So thank you very much, but that could go back. Oh, hello. I, um, he's kind of looking, uh, like mouth was just open a tiny bit. Uh, uh, hello. Um, I, I'm so sorry to bother you. Um, oh, I, I see, I'll, I'll take it. Sorry, this little guy is just always causing trouble. This is the fox. Hello?

This fox looks up and says, hello, I'm the fox. And you see that this person looks down and says, uh, hello. Uh, are you one of the, are you one of, um, the Witch of Winded Stars, uh, retinue or? Oh, I am. Oh, I'm sorry. Um, I put down the plate of food and I, and I do a little curtsy.

What? Oh, sorry, I'm sorry. Uh, uh, I'm Ame, the Witch of the World's Heart. Uh, this is I'm here. Uh, yes. Oh, I'm so, uh, um, yes. Oh, I'm so, uh. Give me an inside check.

That's a nine. Yeah, you look and, and, I think you just see startlement, befuddlement. Oh, I'm so sorry. I did. Sorry, you're the witch of, the witch of, the witch of the world's heart. The new, I'm new. You're one of the four great witches. The four great witch.

are the number of our conclave. I'm so sorry. Can I assist you in any way? Are you magical? I don't want to get it. I was told to remain in my quarters until such time as I. I'm so sorry. And you see that they turned to go around and go take a seat.

They say, I'm so sorry for interrupting. My name is Tephmet. And you see pointedly, they say, my name is Teffmet. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Teffmet. Can I do a quick little medicine check or sort of a survival check? Yeah, go ahead and give me medicine. 16. 16.

Oh, they have a cold. They have a cold. They just have a cold? Oh, do you have a, you just have a cold? What? A cold, you know, like this simple sniff. It's not a magical ailment or would you mind? Can I have some remedies here.

I'm quite used to tending to those with common colds and flus in back in my village. Are you certain that that would be advisable? The mistress of this palace bade me remained in my quarters until such time as the conclave was prepared to meet. And she bet. We are. We have already met. So you've fulfilled your promise to the mistress of this place. And also, I'm fairly certain that it would be easy for me to help you out here. All right.

Well, I don't want to, if the conclave has already started and you are a member of the conclave, that I don't wish to cause any fuss. But please do understand that I was bade by the mistress of this place to. Well, you can stay here. I can be here, too, and stay if you don't mind. Well, that, that satisfies the conditions of what I was bade, do. If you, if you wish, but it's really not, I'm not that I... No, please, I insist.

This is my happy place. Okay, I, uh, I closed it up behind me. Um, I start fussing around in the herbalism kit. Uh, the fox jumps up on Tephmet's lap and Tephmet goes, oh, and you see the fox goes, uh, this is, I'm, uh, assisting. The Witch of the World's Heart, and we need to warm you up. And you see the Fox looks over at you for backing up on that. Yes, Nurse Fox on the job.

I'm Nurse Fox. And you see the Fox circles up and just becomes a warm little animal on Tethmet's lap. Go ahead and give me an herbalism check. The Fox actually will also help you here being Nurse Fox. Yeah, nice fox. But this is, we'll call it a DC-12. That's a, yeah, that's 14. You get a little remedy and poultice together.

You know that this cold will run its course in some time. And it's really just about alleviating the symptoms while, but you also see that, like, this room is made of ice. And Tafmet has clearly come from a place where, like, they do not have the cold weather gear that all of you have traveling here. I mean, if I want to, can I immediately, like, healing word or would that? Yeah, you want to do a little bit of, Yeah, do a little bit of magic about it.

Oh my God, we have smells. Yeah, exactly. So as I am making some herbs, the poultices. Go ahead and describe it. I think it's all, so we won't even use the D&D terminology. Just talk it to me about how you create the remedy and what kind of magic goes into it. From a tiny kit in my pack, I pull it out and it has different unlabeled vials and pockets. that have warming spices and things like elm bark and a loquat syrup that I drip into it.

And I make a mug of steaming, hot, warm in both the temperature and sort of emotional measure of warmth. and it's in a lovely little mug that I had packed away safely in my bag. And so everything about it feels like truly the kind of medicine, quote unquote, that you'd get from your parents when you're sick, and they just are trying to help you feel better about it. But in this case, it is imbued with a little bit of magic. and I speak over it and I say, drink up. Tephmet takes the mug from you.

It immediately warms their hands. And you see they do a little kind of holding it with both hands and steepling the fingers to have like the most skin contact on the warm mug. They take a sip. Oh, God. Oh, oh my. Wow. that is the finest cup of tea I've ever had. My voice. My head. Oh, my goodness, I can think again. Oh, my goodness. Thank you so much. That is absolutely delightful. One of the best joys in life is sharing tea with a friend and making them feel better in the process.

Um, are you from, I assume that you're not accustomed to the cold weather here. No, no, no. We must be very far north. Yes, yes, in the North Pole. How did you... Sorry? Yes, we were in the North Pole. How did you arrive here? A gate was opened for me, and it was the exact geographical location. Wow, the north... You see that they stand up and go,

I don't wish to be rude, but can I... And they walk over to their... To a small mobile of hanging sort of stars, moons, planets on a little sort of brass whirligig and begin to adjust a couple things. And there are some little sort of depressions in the base of the mobile that have red wax in there. them and you see that they that tefmet sort of rubs the runes off the wax and rewrites them

slightly and the mobiles start spinning and you see little magical protections start to go over the room and you see tefmet goes the exact north pole well you couldn't yeah you can't how would you you wouldn't be able to do the longitude and latitude latitude it's a unique location on the planet okay uh thank you so much of course I'm very happy to be of service, and frankly, it's nice to have another friendly face in the castle here. I feel a little bit lost, to be honest with you. Really? You're one of the great witches. Well, I'm a pretty okay witch, and also I'm new to this.

My mentor, Grandma Wren, she passed recently, and it's only recently that I was able to recover all my memories and my training, enough in time to show up at the conclave and have them vote on my destruction. I'm sorry, that was a lot. You're ill and... Sorry, what? Yes, it's witches, you know.

You're not a witch. You seem more in line with, you know, maybe a wizard of some sort. Give me an insight check. Okay, there it is. 19. Tafmet looks utterly horrified. Did not hear a word you said after vote on my destruction. And he goes, sorry.

The, did, when you say destruction, do you mean destruction as in destruction being a metaphor for change? Oh, oh, boy. I wish, I wish. No, it's sort of my death and the ending of my station of the world's heart. Oh, all right. Yeah, I'm so sorry. I really truly feel like I just emotionally dumped on you in a big way. Well, I appreciate the tea.

And you see, Tepmet just sort of goes thousand yards staring. and they are like staring out in the middle of their room. And of course, I don't wish to be rude to my host, but based on our short interaction, I don't see what I would term cause for destruction in any of the things you've done or said, which has been making me a lovely tea. Which of the world's heart, you said?

Yeah, my realm touches upon humanity and connection and its relationship to the spirit world. And I feel that, well, it's not anything personal. I think it's just they needed, for political reasons, perhaps, to eliminate my station. So how about you? Where are you from? I like your tattoos. Oh, thank you.

Well, yes, sorry. As you said, I am the wizard Tephmet. And I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I. You don't have an S name. You don't have an S name. Give me an insight check. 18. Taffmet looks at you and says,

what would indicate to you that I should have an S name? Um, well, I believe it is traditional when a wizard takes a name cloak to have an S name, yes? So, so this T is, is so wonderful. And you and you're trying, and the nurse, uh-huh, the fox. It's all been so charming and so wonderful. And I'm so sorry about what's been, uh, you know, not sorry. because I disagree with that. I don't know what I disagree with. I don't have any real obligation or

direct loyalties to the Citadel if that's what you're concerned about. Give me another insight check. That's only an 11. You see, Tafmet looks at you and goes, well, it's been a pledge to do with you. It says, I ate my studies.

Because obviously, my wish for the world is that everyone be well. And I want everyone to be well and I don't want anything to happen that shouldn't happen. And so my wish for you

which of the world's heart and your wonderful familiar is that nothing that shouldn't happen happens and everything that should happen happens. Good day. I let myself be pushed out of the room and the door closed behind me. And then I sort of I knock on the door

and I say very quietly, I have friends who are antivolists too. Give me a deception check. It's a 23. Or opens a tiny crack and a wide, horrified eye looks out. Society of Whispers and Wizard intrigue. I'm not, I don't only carry good drinking. You see, the eye blinks a couple times, and Tephmet just looks out and goes, well, congratulations on knowing antivolists. I've, the, uh, you have, and I just hope the best. And actually my studies, my studies. And you see, closes the door and you hear suddenly like a loud tinkling of music and furious scribbling. And, and, you see, closes the door and you hear suddenly like a loud tinkling of music and furious scribbling. And,

And a voice go, Time for bed and a long deep sleep. The fox looks up and goes, Did that go well? You know, I don't think there's snakes in that pool, but I sure don't know what's under there. And we move from Amay and the Fox to the library of stars.

No, we can go back. A gleam in a far tower that fades suddenly as this earliest memory of the beginning of the Coven of Elders, a young Hakea in a massive tree in a forest primeval. The image fades, the spider recollects this. This mirrored spider has now captured all of the star's memory of the one known as Yorin, and this now important memory of Hakea. The language that is captured is her speaking to the tree in a tongue you cannot comprehend.

But you can give me an archana check, if you would like. We'll call it honestly just a DC-10 archana check. 21. Your understanding is that from what you know of your protector, the strongest man in Silbury, he could understand this. This sounds similar to when you have seen him speak to horses. or speak to those, like, this is a speech that he as a wild one is capable of. Would I have the ability to try to, like, even if I don't understand what's being said,

can I try to remember wrote, just like how it sounds, to try to attempt to replicate some fraction of it for Ursula in the future? Okay, as a 21 on the Arcana check, the memory is captured, the stars are still hanging here in the air, And what you see as you attempt to recreate it is the spider having captured itself. It moves to go back to the music box to spin up more scorpions. But instead, hearing you vocalize turns to face you, lifts up a shard of mirror from its abdomen. And the mirror flickers and replays the moment from Hakea. I'm going to give it like two or three playthrus just to get the like to try to get it like syllable, syllable for syllable, close enough to like, at least at least like

the most passionate moment in that to like get a little break in a phrase to see if I can pass that on. And then I like allow the spider to go back and continue its work. The spider goes back to continue its work. Now you are standing here in the library. The spider creates a few more scorpions and seems to have run out of mirror in the box. Those scorpions go and you see these last couple that it makes do not go down the wells where the first ones went. They instead quickly run from shelf to shelf, just collecting and mirroring light from all of the stars on these shelves. They complete their circuit and those handful of mirrored scorpions come back and you see that the mirrored spider wraps them up in threads of silver and devours them. As it does so,

it turns to look to you and waits. The point of this music box to simply like record what was going on so that conclusions about the magic and point of this can be. divined later. As you look at this and have this moment of being like, what am I witnessing? Why does this feel so right? What am I doing

in this space? You see that in your moment of search and confusion, the spider regards you and taps the music box

and it begins to play. the rain road in reverse, which is a little bit haunting, and you begin to hear chittering, and scorpions pour out of the wells. Rushing back to the music box, the spider consumes them and begins to spin up and replace the mirror in the back of the music box, making the music box hold once again,

and in a few moments, you see that all of them have come, except for the one scorpion by the door, projecting that knock spell, and it and the spider both turned to you with a crouched, pensive waiting. You sense that this is almost done, but that the last thing to be recalled

will be the scorpion that is projecting an illusion on the door. I'm going to go and get the music box, holding it open and move back towards the door. And there is something, like, her left hand can't stop. It almost feels like arthritis or an old injury. Like the need to like shake something out of feeling. And if she was paying a little more attention,

she would be like moving her hands in a very specific pattern that doesn't mean anything to her. But then is going to like getting back up to the door, scoop up the last mirrored scorpion. The spider consumes it, spins it back into the music box and deconstruct itself falling into a spider emblem welded of mirror. So it's like a plane of mirror in the back of the box with then the sort of lines of welding,

creating a spider also of raised mirror in that mirrored plane. The figurine stops spinning. The music stops and the box snaps shut. Yeah. and you are looking at an unlocked door that you are standing in front of that leads back to the hallway. Give me an archa check.

This one is we're going to call it DC-15. Wait, plus eight. Exactly 15. All of the lights have been returned to the condition that you found this in. You have one sudden moment of spellcasting memory, which as the box closes, you feel an incredible sense of emotional achievement.

and then whatever, you know, that you cannot describe. You're like, I've done something that I was supposed to do that I don't remember. And there might be some part of that that feels haunting to Suvi because of the degree to which it's outside of your own conscious memory. But there's something that you are aware that a, there is something you are aware of that a clandestine business here has been concluded. And you are free in a way that you weren't in your first days here at. the palace of the Witch of the Wind and Stars. The only thing that is not a crossed tea and a dotted eye that remains in front of you, that you are suddenly now wondering if this is actually a hole in the plan.

Like, whatever this was, the Citadel's plans are vast and incredible, but not always perfect, is suddenly that arcane lock on the door is just dispelled and gone. Yeah. And if you leave here, that is the one piece of. business left, that will be some indication that something occurred here. Suvi pulls out her spellbook. It just keeps flipping through pages. I don't know something that replicates this.

I can't fix it. I can't make it a sealed unit. And then as she's kind of replacing her book, she brushes one of the like little bottles of her ink demons. and goes, okay. Might be time to throw someone under the bus. And she picks up. Like she knows them by cork now and grabs Vandal.

A angry red ink swirling in this glass bottle. You look at Vandall's little stopper. What do you do? And they get to the other side of the door. An unstopper vandal. We're going to have fun, but we're going to be quiet about it. How good are you at magic, little guy? It is given to me the magic.

Hurses, swears, vulgarity, profanity. There is no sacred thing I cannot make it dirty. I feel like we got off on sort of a rough foot, and that's on me. I'm going to let you out, and you're going to, see this room and I point at like the library behind me. Mm-hmm. Go absolutely fucking wild. Break nothing.

But nothing's left sacred. Go ahead. Give me Arcana with advantage. 23. Oh! Vandal does somersaults backwards in the air and does great wizard sky. Your wish is my command. And you see that he swells up his belly really full and begins to squeeze it like he's popping a zit and just blast red ink over every corner.

It begins to, and starts to like scramble with his claws and write words. You see, one of the words he writes is like, he literally writes, like, he writes the witch of wind and stars and then begins to write things that I don't even care to. Repeat on this podcast. Cube takes notes. Like, ooh, those are worse cusses than even I think of. That one's just a combination of all of them. Super cuss. References,

references both scatological and profane begin to pepper throughout the library. And you see he comes over to the door and with his mouth begins to do something very vulgar to the lock on the door. And you're like, ah, and just starts to go nuts.

Sweet. And as he's, like, going off, I'm like, when you're done here and you're doing a great job, I need you to work your way down the hallway and make your way back to my room. Oh,

and you get to do this one time. And I, like, spread out my arms and, like, lean my face forward. I'm like, you get to write, three awful things on me. You see he goes, and gets very solemn

and salutes. A number of curse words in Imperial are written over your face. You're, you're, like, you are soaked with ink as you walk through the halls from this place. Here, Vandal cackling.

Where do you walk from this space? Do you go back to your quarters? Yeah, I'm going to make my way back with Vandal towards my quarter. and then once we get outside the door, restop our vandal, and start slowly presidigitating all of his work in the hallways away. Like I'm in the middle of fixing a problem.

And I don't know where he headed. We're going to roll a very momentous luck check right now. Just to see how much time you have available to you. one through five is going to be very bad. Six through 15 is going to mean that there's not quite enough time, but there's mostly enough time. And then 16 and higher means you have all the time in the world. Okay. 19.

Oh, my God. Wizard shit! Vandal roars back once you're back in your room. And you see, he hits, he comes back. You stop her him again, and as you are cleaning once more, so you're now presiditating all of the vandalizing, sort of like things away, wheeling around the corner following Costa is Injury,

who barrels down on you and says, Wizard Sky? I'm, I'm, uh, your witchiness. I'm so sorry, Andrew, I'm so sorry. Amay, you turned the corner. and join Suvi in this moment. You are outside of sort of a crossroads where three different sky bridges

meet in a conical tower that has some columns, but it's mostly like open to the sky. It looks honestly like a landing eerie where like a flying mount could land. And Injri wheels on you as another bridge, you come down and Suvie is following this like vandalizing of the palace.

Injury says, what is the main? meaning of this. So sorry. It's, uh, um, uh, things kind of went sideways. Uh, your sister, Cremor, and I had to send the other wizards back to the, and Wizard Sky! What have you done?

I'm sorry, I will clean it. I will... What happened here? We're a guest in this, in a palace? Uh, you see that injury says, describe to me the nature of what has occurred. I'm in possession of a demon made of ink and in my rush to send off missives

about the death of one of my comrades. They were unstoppered, and I am just trying to clean up the men. They are harmless. Having chosen your words very carefully to paint a picture, but not quite telling a full direct lie. I'm going to give you advantage on the deception role here.

And what I'm going to do here, too, though, is you're rolling against the insight of a witch, which is a mighty, mighty thing. You see that the fox looks up at you, Ame, and I'm going to roll the insight for the witch. I go to CV and I grab her by the sleeves and I say, this is a colossal embarrassment to the station of the world's heart and cast guidance. Okay. So a little bit of the world's heart magic floods into you. Indry didn't roll great, but she adds a plus 12 to her insight checks. Yeah, okay.

Yeah, fair. So she, so you're still trying to beat a 20 is a flawless victory. Cool. You need to at least clear a 15. Okay. Go ahead and roll guidance first, which is a D4. Three. Okay.

So now you're going for 12 and 17 and you're rolling your deception with advantage. What do you add to deception? Two. We're not big liars. here. So it's a 10 or 15. Okay. Doable. I'm so good at lying, actually. With an 18 on the die.

Yay! Thank you, new dice. Thank you, new dice. Clever. Clever. Wizard. Standing here, you see, injury, looks at you, and you know that you do not

have the control of the timber of your voice or the ability to bluff in the way that a gambler has. That's not the life that you were born from. What you do have is brilliance. You chose your words to commit no open lie. You just simply constructed half scraps of truth in a way that painted a picture for a woman that you know above all else is proud. Would a proud witch believe? Would a proud witch believe, that her, in this moment, nemesis would allow her face to be mocked and covered in profanity. She looks at you and finds you so buffoonish in this moment that she cannot countenance your ability to do exactly as you have done, which is outwit her.

and she turns and says, it need not be fixed by you. You have done quite enough, Wizard Sky. Thank you for your service. The rest will be cleaned by me. Neif! And you see that Neif rushes up with a scrub brush and says, I look after it.

And you see she says, the creature that did this, it has been captured? Yes. See that it remains so. and she wheels away with Costa who growls and moves after her as Neif goes and you see that Neve starts scrubbing right here and you see that the Witch of Wind and Star says don't start here Neif and Neif runs down to start where you know the terminus of this string of vulgarity is. I don't normally do this but I do need to tell you what your exceptional roles have done here which is if you had had a partial success,

you would have survived and she would have destroyed Vandal. I knew it. I knew it. But she turns... I knew it. She turns into parts of this place as Neif runs off with Costa and out in the open air, the Fox and Ame and you, with all three of your ink demons

and your music box hidden away, stand here completely triumphant in this moment. Which of the world's heart? I am so sorry. Can I offer you a cup of tea? And she's going to keep this up for them. Doesn't happen again. There was such words as I have never even conceived of.

What could? And then we hit the inside of the door and the door snap shut and Cudy like moves back up. Oh my God, thank you so much. See, the fox looks up at you, Amman, goes, the fox looks at you, Amman, goes, why are you laughing? Why were you so weird to the wizard's sky? I'm full of snakes. Hey, real quick, what did you write on my face? I, oh boy, that one is, oh my goodness.

Yeah, he did a lot of work, and then he spent too much time on my forehead. And honestly, part of the, like, fear and embarrassment when injury came by was I genuinely don't know what's on here. What's a squound bucket? And a fart burser? There's an illustration. There's a very drawing. Oh, of course. There is.

It's like a really graph. I don't even know what's. It says, I'm pretty sure a cumquot is a fruit and not a bad word. Right? Okay. I can't tell if you're all so fucking with me. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Here, here, let me.

Let me get. Here, here. This time I hand you, the handker to. And then this point, Suvie leans in. And she's like, get it, get it, get it. You feel a radiating joy from the red bottle of ink. You're just, what a day for Vandal today. Honestly, MVP, what a guy.

I was like, kind of fuck that ink bottle. Favorite. Incredible. I love it. Super cuss. I'll tell you later. Are you in the Crescent Moon or the Keep of the World's Heart right now? I would have worked back towards the Crescent Moon.

Yeah, I sent me. So you're in Suvies quarters right now. And you're, you guys, you still have that, it's under a bunch of stuff, but that scarf is still in this room. Yes. But you haven't seen Ame since essentially dinner. Yeah. A lot has happened. Uh-huh.

So I, I fill Suvie in about everything about injury. My discussion with injury is just a whole lot of nothing. and um she's so hot and such a bitch no she smells so good and it's just like her hair is so just

but she was gonna get your mug back god before killing you in your station yeah how sweet a nice little oh speaking of mugs uh I met a wizard they're really

they're beautiful The antivolus? Yeah, that's my guess. We're acting very strange about it. But they were told that I might be... They hazarded a guess that I was one of the four great witches. But there's five... That's what I said.

So it's like a different thing. Yeah, exactly. Of course you're a great witch. What does that mean? You. Didn't you... Is it in your like, you know, your little coma, your little coma memories? Is it in there?

I think back to, there's nothing about Great Witches. No, I mean, the Covenant of Elders is, the Covenant of Elders. Yeah, but like there's nothing about... Give me an insight check. We'll call it a DC-15. 13. Yeah, I don't think you pull anything. They seem horrified at the notion that my station and I would be destroyed.

No, that's the... Wait, so they knew? Yes. Did they know that it was... I kind of emotionally dumped on them. It's kind of in the forefront. of my brain right now, so. We didn't, no, no, hold on, four great witches and your coven's of five.

Did they know that you were going to, that your station was going to be dispelled, and they're already talking about only having four left in your coven? Uh, yes, I suppose it was that injury said four great witches, perhaps already presupposing my destruction. Gross, gross. I don't, hey, maybe that, or could mean, I really would love to have some follow-up questions. Yeah. I did say that I was friend with Antiphyllus, though, so I don't know.

Okay, interesting. Was that a super fun lie? Or? I, you know, I'm sure that somebody I met at the Citadel was probably sympathetic to that he was. No? No. No? No.

No. No? kind of the wrong side of the Civil War, you know what I mean? Right. But I'm sure that after they lost the Civil War, that all of that ideology just went away. Well, you would think, like, if sort of the crux of their argument is to Citadel or not to Citadel, it would be incredibly fucking crazy to then rock up to said Citadel. And partake of the resources and work within the system. Yeah, their whole thing was like, fiercely independent.

and absolutely bug-fuck nuts and paranoid. Like, I don't think them sort of entering into the system would be big for that. The person didn't seem especially paranoid, but, you know, well, we can... Fox sort of chimes in and says, I don't know, they had a whole interaction with you where it was just a giant eye in the doorway. That's a little paranoid. Well... What happened with you? Yeah.

Oh, I went in the room. What did you get? I found... And I describe, I very specifically describe the like search for coven information and the wildness with Hecaya and the wand and the wand in the tower. And I try to like, I make a little map on like a piece of paper to draw from what I remember of like the map of where we've been. If I can make like little blueprints and be like, I think it's this tower. And at the top of it, there was that wand. But I don't know.

is that tower, ooh, yeah, putting stuff together. Can I, do I know what that tower was? No, that tower, you know that it's a tower off of the main keep. Okay, but, like, is there a world where it's one of the towers of the other witches? Because I don't know where Ursula went to go hang out and do, like, hakea stuff. You don't think it's in one of the guest witches towers. It seems to be in private quarters of injuries herself. But you do, you see that the Fox,

As you relate this, says, I know where Hakeas place is. Oh, is it a little tower? No, it's a copse of trees. Of course it is. Oh. Okay, so why would the tower, why does Inri have Hakea's little wand? What do I know about wands?

Uh, powerful. You know, there are a lot. It's, I don't think there's a tried and true. there is not a single truth about wands in this world. They are an old, they are an old, like the Citadel doesn't tend to use them. Citadel tends to use staves because they're a little bit easier to enchant. They're bigger.

You can put more, like, you can inlay more stuff into them. They're a better receptacle for magical ingredients. Wands tend to be a little bit older in meaning that, like, there's a lot of ancient wands that are very powerful, but they're not in vogue anymore. Huh. I don't know why she would have it. You know, I have a meaning to speak with Hecaya myself

because she is the oldest member of the Coven. I think the only one that's been here the whole time. Yeah. She's like as old as the world. And she was the only one who defended me and whose absence in the vote was, key to my destruction not happening in that moment. We should go talk to Hecaya and then we find the wand. Isn't that where Ursulans? Oh yeah, we can pick up his drunk ass. You make that juice.

You made that one time. I did. I actually did give him a little vial of, you know, the electrolyte powder, but I think we need to, like, gum go and fully just make sure he's okay. Yeah. I hope he's having a good time. All right. Fox, can you take us to the little copse of trees?

You see that the fox looks up and says, all right, cops of trees. Next stop, Ursula. And the fox pitter-patters down the hall as we look out at stars and snow. Darkness, the tightness and constriction

of your muscles gives way, Ursula, and you feel suddenly that you are not being met with active resistance, but merely the pressure of being underweight, under some force that can be pushed against. Go ahead and give me a strength saving throw. Seven. You struggle here under the weight and struggle for quite some time long enough to eventually become somewhat sober. Once the feeling the pallor of the liquor has left and made your mind less foggy, you find that one of the sides is softer and you push and tumble out of rich. lone and you are standing in a cool

grove of trees. The bark is bone white, ribbed with black in segmented ridges encircling the tall trees. Their crowns of leaves sway and rustle so

softly. The light of the moon illuminates a grassy meadow at the center of the grove with an old stone well in the middle, a thatched roof suspended on wooden beams, and leaning against that thatch is a long walking staff, and laying over the stones a black cloak and a wide-brimmed black hat. A figure in shadow under the roof pulls a creaking rope and up from the darkness comes a humble bucket of water. And a voice echoes from under the roof covering the well. First, like, perceiving that, Ursula is going to try in getting a sense of where he is.

Do I feel like we, I have been teleported or am I within? Like, I think Ercelon, even as that, even as he hears the man in Black speak to him, is going to take a second to try and understand where he has arrived. Give me an Arcana check. Four. You are disoriented and I think, honestly, your most intuitive assumption is you have died. Like, it's like, well, I remember I got eaten by a woman's chest and now I'm a dead. Now I'm dead. Have I returned to the realm of spirits?

The man in black is, you still can't see he's covered in shadow from the roof. Like the moonlight, the brightness of the grass under the full moonlight is making it so that. you still can't see him under the sort of roof of the well. You look and see that there is a small dirt path that approaches the well, and off in the trees outside the grove, you see a road, that it looks like the man has come off of to this well to stop his walking and take a drink. But you are, you leave this, you are deeply confused. The man in black speaks.

I would not drag you across the... Yet. Her salon's going to slowly start to approach the... Well, then let's have a drink. He takes a small tin can off his belt and pours a ladle, it's like wooden ladle in the bucket of water and passes it to you.

Here close, you can only see... The front of him is still in shadow, but you see the light along Ravenblank. hair, a bit of his neck. You see that he wears a long shirt buckled with silver at the wrist, and a dark patterned vest, and long black trousers, and tall leather boots. And he hands the tin cup of water to you and says, drink deep, brother. I do. Was that grandmother Wren? Reaches under his cloak and takes a sword from under the cloak. Wrapped in black leather on a belt, you see the hilt is black leather, the crossguard, silver moonlight, the pommel white stone, a sword of night itself.

Would you hold this for a spell, brother, or someone? This is your sword. It's sharper than a skull. Binster's tongue and harder than a miser's heart. Man step in the apple from his eye, thunder, and skin a man's shadow off his boot. Ursula's going to extend his hand. The left of this sword, even in its scabbard, feels mighty. First, and resonates with the reasons that I came here.

Does that balance require the death of those under my protection? Ursulaan is going to drop the sword on the ground. There's a dull thud in the grass. You drop my blade, Brother Ursula. If this sword's aims are what you claim they are, then I will have no more to do with it. I do not mean to, as I believe the things we want are aligned.

But if the way you see to achieve them is through those things I care most about, then we cannot stand together. any more, brother. He goes through the sky. This will be the last kindness I do for you, brother. He raises his arms to either side as though in anticipation of an embrace that you both know will not come.

You see his belt, and you see where it would clasp to the scabbard of the sword on the ground. Ursula picks the sword out, steps toward the men in black, and clasp, uh, attaches the sword. this close to the man in black give me perception with advantage. 19.

Near the vest of the man in black, you're looking and see the pattern on his vest. It's almost like a hound's tooth or something like that. But you actually see it's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of chalices. It's cups over and over and over again, all along the pattern of his vest. and you recognize this pattern. It's the symbol you saw on the back of Captain Emliss's neck. On that 19, you buckle the sword, and the man in black looks at you and says,

as foes, but always as brothers. Suffer you to leave while I am in your debt. I'll have a gift, something to remember you by. He reaches into the coat of his vest, pulls out a silver pocket watch, flicks it like a coin through the air, lands in front of you. Never walking down the road, brother Ursula.

That was Lou Wilson as Ursuland, Erica Ishii as Amay, Abrea Ayangar 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 Gelfi Studios. For even more like this, join us on our Patreon.

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