Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #36: Sending

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

The mountains want blood. The birds are in on it. The only way out is up. Or down so deep your friends forget your face. Just when everyone finally came together, so many people have to go. Worlds Beyond Number is:Brennan Lee MulliganErika IshiiAabria IyengarLou Wilsonand 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. Within the confines of this story, it becomes necessary from time to time to take extra care in describing the physical environs that our brave heroes find themselves in. Zuberin Kedberichet, Arkmage apprentice of the Citadel,

stands in a small, clearing, only several paces wide. A small divot dug into the earth, sometimes referred to as a foxhole, although the fox is nowhere in sight. This divot has a few pieces of debris within it, a discarded packaging of some rations for imperial soldiers that ate here, a broken haft of some kind of pole, arm or perhaps the pole of a imperial standard, something within this place. But at some point, this little divot in the earth was dug big enough for two imperial scouts to watch this area of the forest. You are at the base of Mount Corhigh, the tallest peak within the Shroud Mountains. This mountain serves as the delineation, west and east, of where the lines of imperial forces to the east and the lines of the forces of Gouthmi to the west have taken root in the shroud mountain.

You see sworn looking downhill to see what looks like at the base of the sort of through the trees and forest, there's just perceptible a stream at the base of this little. ridge. This divot sort of is at the beginning of a crest of one of the long roots of the mountain. The mountain kind of has different ridges that descend slowly from it. And at the crest of one of those nestled in the pine trees, this

little foxhole has just enough line of sight to watch a stream at the base of this mountain. Perhaps the farthest flung point at which scouts could keep an eye on the

comings and goings of this contested area. Red clouds, birdsong, no noise of insects. The only noise you can hear are the stamps and snuffles of horses, and your traveling group of eight is large enough that the jingling of saddles and, you know, tack and bridle and things of that nature. There's just enough noise that you're creating, that's sort of all you can hear. here until in your earliest moments of investigation of this place as you look for a passage through to the west to move forward to Abison, you hear, as things begin to charge through the

brush, I'm going to need you to roll initiative. Fuck, 11. Beings are charging in from the woodline as they announce their presence in this place. They are so close to you. You cannot imagine how you did not notice beings this large, moving this fast, until they were right on top of you. Mained, broad-shouldered, their monkeys or their cat-like as the sort of like skin peels back from their face, these elongated jaws. We have seen these before in this story. These are the beings that attacked Ursulaan when he first arrived in Gautamai.

I'm going to say that two of them descend on one of the two Azure Patalayan. Scouts that was at the outside of the group, another one on one of the name-cloaked wizards who now travels with you. Can you give me a name-cloak for the wizard that is being attacked? Sully. As the first noise is heard and everyone turns to react, everyone looks in the direction of where the attack is coming from. One of the beasts leaps into the clearing grabs Sully's jaw and pulls it off his head. Sully steps back, already in shock, reeling as he tries to summon magic, he's going to try to do something with his hands. He's not dead.

I won't lie he is at one hit point. The Azure Battalion Scout has two descend on him. One of them catches him across the head with a rock in its hand as the other sinks, feline-type fangs deep into his throat, pulls it out of his body to be as dead on contact. That is their turn. The other scout is going to do, in the absence of orders, is reflexively spends his turn casting mage armor on himself. Suvi, that is your turn. Delightful.

How far apart are these three nasty guys? All within 10 feet of each other. Okay, copy that. Uh, shatter. We're going to throw a shatter under their feet. I'm sorry to the guy whose jaw is gone. Good luck. If you want to catch all three, you will kill.

Sully. If you want to just catch the two that have already killed one of your companions, you can isolate just them. This sucks so much, ears ringing. Hard choice. I know what I would expect someone to do for me. I catch Sully in it. Go ahead. What is the difficulty on the saving throw here? DC-16 con save. Two succeed, one fails. That shatter badly injures the two other and kills one of the three. Sully drops to the ground. I'm going to reach to my belt, and I know my vials by feel. And I'm going to reach for Vandal and release Vandal onto the battle. Sworn reaches over, is going to cast mage armor on you.

I'm going to make a perception check for him. Nat 20 for Sworn's perception check. He's the coolest. Sworn leaps to the front of the clearing right where the shatter just happened. the two injured apes next to him as he goes, massive spiked golden bands on its wrist, one around its collar, with a symbol of House Bahavi carved in between the eyes on its head,

roars into the clearing, and is going to attempt to kill Sworn right now. What? What? No, no. What? No. Fuck! As this creature rears up, pulls a fistbag, and goes to just gray,

it looks like what it wants. to do is just grab the top half of Sworn's body and squeeze. He leaps up, puts his hands together, and creates a helmet of glowing sigils as he casts the shield spell. And boom, boom, both attacks of this massive ape are repelled by Sworn's shield. That is now going to be the remaining Citadel wizards, who all cast me. The two other apes are going to rush and attack you, Suvie.

Sure. Oh! Okay, one of them is going to hit. This is your first... Shield. Okay, what is your armor class with shield? 21. 21 still hits.

Fuck! You put up your shield and you watch as it just waits for two of the lines of roons to intersect and leap through them. And as it begins attacking you and biting, half of this ape is gone in smoke in the air as it falls off your body. You have, which is the Citadel here who are trained to fight, the Azure Battalion soldier has been fighting,

kills the ape on you, as fire. You can just suddenly smell is the number one sense you have of just reeking burning flesh and unnatural flame. It is your turn once again. Suvi, in her panic, she just took, More damage, that would have killed her in Port Talon. And she's still here and she's singed and all of a sudden, all of the training goes away in that moment of realizing that you could die here.

And for what and why and what's the point? And she reaches for a different kind of magic. Something that she saw in the coven and the way that they call out with the lingua arcana. It's not regimented. it's primal and that's how Suvi feels right now that's what she's facing and for the first time I'm going to cast

inflict wounds a spell that does not exist for wizards but Suvie has it and I'm going to deliver it via Vandal so I'm going to like Vandal as his reaction in this moment is going to run over and deliver the touch spell

slinky sucking scum fuck and rushes forward go ahead make your touch attack With the spell. Natural 20. Natural 20. 39 on the bigger one.

23 on the smaller one. Vandal surges forth and has this your interpretation through the lingua arcana of a thing that was not meant for wizards to know. But hey, what does that even mean?

A thing that is not for wizards to know. You, and Vandle's claws elongate, slide into the thing and he explodes briefly while. maintaining his body within the explosion. And a shard of red ink

races out, like, boiling blood and lances through the head of the wounded lesser ape in front of you. All three of them are defeated. The massive ape in front of you goes from uninjured to... You can see it contort and take one of its massive hands

to cover an injury in its torso. A thing that a wild animal, you don't think, even necessarily do. It's been badly hurt, but it is still up. Okay. Sworn is going to go next. Give me an Arcana check. 26. Sworn knows something you don't. He's seen something on his Nat 20 perception. He raises up to this behemoth silverback and casts hold person on it. Oh. Sworn reaches up with three words of power in the lingua arcana meant to hold. hold and bind fellow mortals,

fellow humans of the world of Uymorea. And you see that the words, reach out, turning from sound into wisps of rippling air that hit the behemoth in front of you as it snorts and rebuffs them with a primal, just pure willpower. Nothing magical, there is no spellcasting,

there is no finesse, pure primal will, echoes out from this ape as it denies the spell. It is now going to act. Sworn casts a shield again. And takes 28 points of damage as the behemoth grappled through his shield and picks him up in a hand as he...

You can see he is still alive. The thing that is crushing him is his own spell energy coming down on him as he is trying to rest it with his pure will back, but you can see blood gushing down through his robes. He is not dead, but he is looking close to it. Emerald rings glowing. Three name-cloaked wizards behind you.

No small achievement. Unleash. You have not been in the midst of a volley of Erulyan bolts. And the thing that you have cast many times before, nine of them surge past you. It falls back. And the massive claw that is killing sworn in its hand turns to leaves and twigs as the shape of the beast changes and a humanoid man backward somersaults away

as the behemoth shape vanishes. And you are looking at a man of Gouthmi in a leather jerkin, a belt of knives with bestial tattoos. He has tattoos of fangs coming from his lips. change his shape in front of you completely unharmed. Whatever shape he was wearing was destroyed. But his shape is completely fine. Sufi, it is your turn.

Suvi, like, sees that it is a man and has all of the wizard arrogance of trying to target, like, their higher mind and reaches out. And as he casts, there's like a little green flash of her. her own, like, ring that, like, glimmers behind his eye as she tries to, like, glance into it. Hell, yes.

How does this spell work? In save of 16. He succeeds. You see that this shape-changer, as you glance at his mind, just he has, even in his humanoid form, a flexibility to his hips and shoulders and hands, he springs off of one hand grabs onto a tree branch with his legs and vanishes to one side as he, you see that it's pure luck. He sees the spell coming. It's a well-selected spell, and he just gets out of the way of it as fast as he can. He's still going to take four points of psychic damage. Oh, you hear a grunt

as the spell hits him. Um, sworn goes after. Oh, I'm in a full sprint after him, by the way. Okay. Oh, you're like out of the fossil. Yeah, 100%. Your pen, look at. What feels like, oh, maybe we're not going to all die and watch you sprint into the darkening woods and go, ah! Sworn as you go past him, it's like, ah! And one more time goes like, and you watch this guy paralyzed and stumble out of the trees.

That's Swarren's turn, and he is sprinting and right by your side as you run towards him. It is your turn first. You arrive at him. See, he's paralyzed and badly bleeding. Badly injured. Suvi wanted to interrogate him, but I can't risk it. One more inflict wounds.

Give me your attack roll. 21. 21 hits, roll damage. 22. Describe for me the end of this man's life. Suvi is shaking and furious, and there's something in her that... She just wants him gone. And there's a bit of her that thinks about urine,

another shape-changer, and Gouthmi, and the thing. Like, he's going to catch all of the fade for all of her bad feelings, and that's what she pushes into him, like a poison that moves from her hand into his neck as his vans go black. And she will poison and kill him. him with all of her like misery and anxiety and fear. You're looking at the dead body of a tattooed man on the side of a mountain. Of his tattoos.

Look up at sworn. Are you okay? You see one of the Citadel wizards behind you kneels down to Sully's body. They attempt to hold and are sort of like panicking, looking down at him. and sworn looks around night fully falls in this moment. Birds start chirping again. The forest is watching us. He looks over to the Azure Battalion soldier and says,

take care of the enemy bodies. And you see go over to the Citadel soldiers who begin to use Mageeant to scoop the earth in the foxhole. The one Citadel Wizard with Sully's body, she's called score. She does not begin digging but just stays with the body for a second. The other two and sworn begin to cleave furrows in the earth with concentrated magic. And as these graves are dug in this place, two of them,

You see that the other battalion soldier makes sure that the horses have not fled too far and goes and gathers them before piling the ape's bodies on top of the shape changer, kneeling down, and the bottom of his hand turns to coal and ember as he just brooded them away and reduces them to ash. Sworn looks over, and you see creates a little unseen servant of wind and just whisper something to it, and you see it goes and begins to, swallow the smoke from the burning bodies to not let dissent spread. Sworn turns to you. The coterie of beasts, this advanced scout, he didn't make it away. So this is our path through. This territory he will have been responsible for. We need a safe place to rest.

And then through. Give me an insight check. 18. You look up at sworn looking at you as you say that we need a safe place to rest, and he looks at you with a face that that does not exist. The birds were silent because the shape changer asked them to be silent, and when he died, they started singing again. We should expect that type of magic traveling through here.

We're going to be dealing with plants that don't want us to be here, beasts that will be working for the enemy. That's the reality of moving. through these mountains. Sworn would see Suvie go away behind her eyes. And she thinks of Amme, Mother Wren, and how often, how good they are, at avoiding a fight. Because this is Suvie's first real fight.

And she left with eight and she's already down to six. And if there's anything, she can do. No pride. No feeling. that she might have unsettled with those people. For the ones she's responsible for, she has to put that away. And Suvie reaches into her bag and pulls out the scroll ascending. God, I hope they're together.

And she's going to send ascending to Amen. You take the scroll and there is a space within the scroll that once you write the message, the scroll will vanish. As you do so, you see sworn looking at the scroll in front of you and seeing that you are not using this to ask for an extraction, but that you are requesting aids to complete the mission. And you see that he lowers his head in deference. There is a recognition here. You won this fight, but you lost two. Gouthmy lost one and a handful of beasts.

And will be harder than this. As the graves are dug, the evidence of the fight that took place here gone, you begin to inscribe your message to your friends to make sure that this mission will be a success. Things outstretched high above the ocean, the rock that bears you now aloft has not flapped its wings in an hour. riding thermals, this happy, happy bird has very recently eaten a whale. One of the more upsetting things you've ever had to physically experience was a bird the size of a castle descending to the ocean, grabbing a whale and eating it. And it happened also fast, and you are still in its neck feathers.

The wind whips overhead. duck your head down, you can actually get under the outer layer of feathers. You're small enough in relation to this bird. You can kind of hive them over your head and be kind of in and amongst them. And, Amé, these words appear within you. The way we left things was, I don't have time for apologies yet. But for the love, you bear me or any sense of duty. need you both at the base of Mount Corhigh.

The spell transmits pure meaning along with the language of the spell, and you can respond in a like manner. But how does Ame feel as this message first unfurls? Ursulaan? Yes, Hame. I think Suvi's in trouble. She reached out to me with ascending, and I don't think she'd have done this.

unless she really needed our help. I relay the message to him. That's near Fort Kieran, where I'm steel went. Oh. That night, Suvi's name cloak. Why would she be going to the front? She needs us. We have to go.

Can we go visit your family afterwards? Ursulaan is going to keep his face from Amé. I think because he's feeling disappointment for one of the first times in his life, but start to climb out of the space that they were speaking. I'll tell the bird. Climbing up handhold to handful on the base of these massive feathers, you get further up from the neck across the head of the massive rock. You crawling, are you safe?

I'm well. And you are fed? Yes, well. fed, great seas are my hunting ground. It is an honor to watch you hunt, brother. I would ask, we will no longer be returning to my family's home in Gouthmi. We need to be delivered elsewhere. Mount Corai.

Go ahead and give me animal handling or persuasion. You can do so with advantage. Only a 13. Is there a Kate? I would not know. I think at some point, at least in the first voyage, I would have asked if I could call him by any name. He would have, I think, responded to that.

I would respond to any name. Amai pulls out the list of names that she had been thinking about. It seems that, like, from the way he says it, he knows that he has names, but he is a spirit. And I think that he's interested in getting more names, if he can. Oh, bro, free name. Free name.

If it please you, I would have, I would call you a firebringer because you melted and brought us to warmer climates and warmer temperaments. Firebringer. And can I also call you Fifi sometimes, maybe? Give me a persuasion check. With advantage because Fifi's very cute. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Dirty-twenty.

I am called Firebringer, and each of the world's hurt as Fifi. Brother Ursulaan tells that our port of call has changed. Do you swear to me that if I bring you to this new place, you will find me away home? Yes, of course. Also, I don't know how close you can even get us to the port safely, so we shall find you a safe passage home as we go. Brother Ercelon, the mountain Koi. In what rains would I find her?

The shroud mountains. Right back where we came from. He goes north, and as he does, the tip of a wing passes. through a cloud and streaks it across a corner of the sky as begins to sail north. Suvi, we are flying to you. Expect us in hours. Love, amen. Doing her best to bandage her wounds in this little break, there was just enough time between the response that Suvee, who's still like coming out of the bullet time of the fight is not given up hope

but has just put that away as a well that's another thing that was tried in the heat of battle that probably didn't work and has sort of like moved down the list into like what is next and then here's it and winces

not from the pain in her shoulder but in the like effortless affection of her friend. Sworn walks up to you who you see also is, you see he's sort of got like his robe has been taken off and his tunic is partially done because his torso has been like bandaged up. Although you see the main thing is sort of like he has a quick splint made

like his leg or hip got badly hurt. So he's got that in a splint as well. It was like weird crushing force from his own spell coming down on him. So it looks like. like things got broken or hurt internally more than any, like, puncture wound. There's, like, one exception, which is, like, a big laceration on his, on his, like, ribcage. But he walks up to you and says, Archimacripprinus, are you reaching out to your allies from...

Yes. The witch of the world's heart and a spirit are on their way. A spirit? Yes. he smiles and goes All right He turns And as you finish Banaging your wounds

The sort of soldiers here In the clearing gather around And Sworn looks to you As the graves are completed And says Is there anything that Would you like to speak?

Yeah I've been trained To find comfort In long proud words to seek solace in the nobility of a well-earned death. I barely knew

the ones that laid down their lives for us. That does not mar their sacrifice. It adds nothing detracts nothing. They lived and fought and died. It is on us. That, remain to give meaning, to find meaning in their works, continue forward in the hopes that our

actions save lives now or later. Because all of us, we all put one foot in front of the other in the belief that what we are fighting for, what we are protecting, what we are bringing forth to the future will flourish because of our care and effort and blood. For what you have given, I look up at the group, for what you are giving, and Suvie hesitates. To say to stir blood, to make it feel like this is noble or mighty, and for all of her believe in her own mind, she has nothing, but she doesn't want to look to sworn or look for help.

In this moment, she does not feel like enough. And she's just going to sit with it for a second longer and nod and shift a little bit of that turned earth under her foot and do her best to believe what she's said. You see your three Citadel Wizards look at Sully's grave and nod you see sworn sort of mutters under his breath, light of the tower. you see that the remaining as your battalion soldier, she leans down and takes a little something from her bag, that she needs to be like two small pewter charms and just buries them in the soft earth of her companion's grave. Kind of furrowed brow like she doesn't even believe in what she's doing, but just does it to do it and then sort of stares at the grave. Do I recognize? It looks like a little, something that probably Amme would know what it was.

A little folk tradition. But when you look at it, you see that she took the charm from like a bag. And I think maybe you have some understanding that it's a charm that the now gone Asher Battalion soldier gave to her. And she is returning it to the earth with him. Sworn looks to you and gets back to business and goes, the enchantments of our armor, we should take advantage of it. The spell will wear off by Dawn,

and I think that we should make the most of it. You're right? Is there a way I can, like, scan medicine check him? I don't want to disrespect him by asking if he's okay. Give me a medicine check. 21. He's fucked up, but it's a lot of bleeding.

and he hurt his hip, but it doesn't look like a bone broke. So you think that he's taken care of it. He's bandaged his shit. He's taken care of his own mobility and not straining anything. So hopefully by dawn, he should be right as rain. You see that the Azure Battalion soldier comes over. She salutes to you and says, when I was disposing of the shape changer's body, I found this. You see that it is two small stones with a runic script on them that you recognize as an indigenous language to Gothamai has its own alphabet.

It's some sort of like shape, specific. It's not the language that the high houses of Gothamite use. But you recognize it as a little keyed magical talisman. There's something to it that it's like this is part of a larger magical effect. but she hands it to you. Give me an Arcana check. Natural 20. On a Nat 20, you know exactly what this is.

Somewhere in the valley underneath here, this guy was an advanced scout. You believe that the fact that you had a small group, he probably mistook you for a scouting party and saw all white horses and went, this is eight Azure Battalion soldiers, of which he would have very easily come through and killed with those apes. But your, like, shatter and these higher-level spells and sworn casting hold person, all this other stuff, was very quickly like, oh, you missed, like, you saw eight white horses and called a big shot. This was the wrong call.

Now this territory is down its scout, but you think that there are a line of watcher stones, and that this key allows him to pass through that. line without disrupting it. Somewhere in the valley underneath here is a stone that is magically policing a border or a front line. This key is attached to it. You can either try, two things would work here, which would either be to destroy or unmake the stone in the basin of the valley. If you did that, the line would potentially be disrupted for a moment and then reconnect between whatever the other stones and the line were, so you'd have a period of time to pass through it.

That's if you wanted to just disconnect to that stone. Or if you figure out how to key to or attune to this key that you have, then you could pass through, but you're not sure how that would work for everybody else that you're traveling with. Oh, so it's literally like one person. It's like one person. Can we like do the like MTA thing of like, can I toss the person, like the stones to the person behind?

On that 20, I think actually I would allow you, if you want to try to figure out some. some funny way of doing that, then absolutely. Sweet. If you have any suggestions of what spells or magic you would try to do to think, like, how do I leave the turn style? Open with this. I don't have to, like, disrupt the line of watcher stones.

You can do that. Then, yeah, I'm going to hold onto this and cast identify. I think you feel also one of those, you have one of those vials of dispelling. Yeah. Like, ointment that was basically, given to you from the lieutenant back at Fort Marlon. I think if you use one of those, massaging that dispelling thing into the key,

you are able to break the key into six parts, each with a kind of fractal portion of the run. And realize also that the key, that the watcher stones are only alerting them to humanoid. So your horses will pass just fine. Amazing. So you are able to get like six key fragments that you think everyone here can attune to and move through. Okay.

Everyone, please keep this on you. It will allow us to pass through whatever magics they are setting up to keep perimeters here and only allow their people through. You guide your horses down the step into the valley. There's a small stream. You see a moss-covered stone at the stream. that has the ruins carved into it facing out in this way. And see the line. As you approach it, magic begins to visibly appear,

which you understand to be a good thing. You would trip this silently if it was working. You approach it, you see sort of a sussarisk of like water sounds, and as you cross the stream, you actually feel water flowing over your body like you are submerged. though you do not become wet. It is just the sensation of water moving over you as you move past the stone and bypass this magical perimeter

that you have successfully hacked and broken into, defeated the guardian of this small territory, and feel that you have broken through the perimeter of this place. As you get to the other side, you see further along, through the dead of night, you see Vandal is still here like... Speaking of which... I'm going to have Vandal at sort of arbitrary points. He's going to blaze a trail of stupid cusses.

Just in case we need, I need them to, like, follow where we landed because I gave a very vague. I was like, oh, God, I didn't say what side of the mountain. Oh, no. You see, Vandal looks at the ruin on this, like, perimeter guardian stone, and it's like, please. Yeah, of course. Ah! And just messes it up. you cross an encamp, or you cross away from the waterstone, away from the river,

leaving some clues here and there that Vandal can leave so that you can be found, and get over a small ridge and arrive. You see that there is a deer path in the woods that is steady enough to ride horses through, or you can keep to the woods and try to be as stealthy as possible. You'll move more slowly, but you'll move more slowly. but you are wondering whether the paths this close to the perimeter are being watched or not. I prefer stealth over speed, especially if it's like, yeah, there's not an advantage right now into getting a place quickly other than my own panic

at whatever's happening at Abison. Yeah. Go ahead and give me a stealth check if you would be so good. 16. You guys. Obviously, moving with a large amount of horses, you are not not making noise. It is more choosing a route effectively. You are picking places that you can travel through with these steeds, but you're not going to paths.

You are traveling at night, and you are basically staying away from vantage points, if that makes sense. You're like, okay, where would someone pick to see as much land as possible up on a high mountain? How do we stay away from there? It slows you way, way down. But pre-dawn light, all you have managed to do is take the most circuitous and snaky route through the roots of Mount Corhai, which is where you needed to be anyway in order for your companions to find you. Amé and Ursula. High over thick storm clouds, you begin to descend towards a patch of clouds that are a strange dull red. as you descend, you alight on the mountain top of Mount Corrine.

As Firebringer lands on this mountain top, you are sort of encased in fog. You can see some scrubby little pines, the things that would grow on the top of a mountain. So like, they're a little bit far down, but this is mostly just rock and granite, this old, old ancient mountain worn down over time and still the highest of its range. as you descend carefully from Firebringer, Firebringer goes, my clouds on the offside. I'm not going to fly in this.

I don't want to fly into a mountain and hurt myself. I'll wait here. Thank you so much. I wanted to go home. Finish your business quickly and come back. I think we all wanted to go home. And I look at Ursula on a little bit. Sheepishly.

Avoid your gaze slides off of the rock. Descending from the mountain, slowly and carefully. Amme, you discover a marking of red ink on a tree. I squint at the red mark. Budass. Vandal. Suvi's ink demon. Mm-hmm.

I follow the trail. You follow the trail. and you see white horses in a clearing as a group of Citadel wizards who have not yet seen you, look at the dark pre-dawn forest, staves outstretched. You can just see little glimmers of magic, like their eyes do that thing the cat's eyes do, where they, like, catch a little bit of light in a strange way, their enchantments trying to help them see in the dark. And you can see white horses, you know, like a pure white thing in the dark sometimes has that little bit of luminescence that you can just sort of see the shape of them.

But they are well-trained, silent, huddled together. And I think Ursula, you can smell or somehow sense. And you see two figures in the small glade looking at a series of maps as sworn and Suvi. Speak to one another about where they're going to head from here. You should announce yourself. Wizard's guy. CV, like, wheels and begins to cast an irulian bolt. And then all of that, like, oh, you've pushed through a knight, and you're tired, like her brain registers.

You called she came. This is hopefully not a trick. Tommy? We're here. And I'm going to like hand signal to the group, like, chill out. The moment that you announced yourself, said the Wizard's Sky, all of them moved to get half cover behind trees, dropped to one knee, staves pointed.

We're here to assist our friend, the Wizard Sky. This is Ame, the Witch of the World's Heart. And Suvie gives just a little look to Ursula on before. Like, just for a little signal on how she would want him introduced. Bear. Sworn nods and says, These allies of our commander are expected. Wizard Sky.

Without giving insult or disrespect to a witch and an ally of yours, may we scan our new companions to assure they are who they say they are. Suvi nods immediately and then looks at Amay and Ursula to see if there's any consternation. And she knows this has to happen. So the energy is, do I need to make you too comfortable with what needs to happen? You may ascertain my identity. Yes, my companion speaks for himself.

I think Ursula is just very still and kind of unsure of what is about to happen based on previous experiences. Suvie's going to, like, gesticulate lightly with her hand, and she's much. muttering under her breath. It is going to send a message, cantrip, to Ursulaan specifically. We've seen a lot, and it's been bad. But you can say no at any point. No one here will hurt you.

I swear. Does Ursulaan respond? No. Sworn moves in with the Citadel Wizards. You can see Sworn, looking tired, starts to call on his ring of Ereth, his emerald ring of the Citadel. He actually is going to call up a third level, like, arcane site.

He's going to do a deep scan. Ame, he dwells on all of your magical items. He says the sword and shields are enchanted. Yes. Looks through, looks at your belongings, Ame. Do you have any magic gear on? Oh, I mean, I have, you know, the knocker and the bulb and my little ring, the, uh, the jewel hopper. I have...

You see, yeah, he's just asking, he's asking for like small explanations of what everything is. He says, sword and children enchanted, yes? Okay. He moves through, says, honored friend.

Thank you for aiding us. I'm here for the wizard sky. Understood. You see that, that entire interaction scans to sworn and the other wizard's here is perfectly normal.

They know that spirits don't use They usually swear themselves to causes of the mortal world. And normally it is a relationship to a wizard. You see that, this can you, one of the, you see he looks at the fox, you see, and gets a bead on him and goes, problem. Who is this? He certainly is a problem. This is my familiar, the fox.

The fox. Hey. Hi. Are you doing? Doing okay. It's, um, it's new forest. Yeah. Yeah.

How are you doing? Oh, terrible. I'll tell you about it. You see that he walks up to you and jumps into your arms? Yeah. So be, like, this is the most, like, and there is a very strong sense of, like, this is a display to make the rest of the group comfortable. Yeah. But she genuinely is happening.

He licks the blood off of your neck. Oh. Thanks. Sworn looks at you and says, we need to, we're still much closer close to. the perimeter and it's about to be morning. There's going to be higher visibility and the cloud's going to rise as the sun comes up. We should move. Yeah.

You see that he looks at the Citadel Wizards and says, about that time, Wizards of the Citadel. And you see they all reach to their rings, recast, mage, armor. See, he does listen. And you see that the, um, as your battalion warrior cannot cast that spell again and just sort of looks nervous. Then I'm going to take another of my, like, spell slots. off of my reign to give it to you. As you give mage armor to this other, you see that she looks at you and goes,

uh, thank you, Wizard's Guy. Of course. And I pause. What the fuck is this person's name? Sworn leans over to you and says, that's, uh, corporal Lahoun. Lahom? La Hound. Sworn looks and says, the beasts and plants of this place, given no other indication,

will likely work for our enemies. We are looking for a way to travel through these lands towards Abison, which is probably another 10, 15 hours away. We'll probably arrive by nightfall tomorrow. But Abbasin, our understanding is our hope is that there is a Citadel Garrison still there, but we are behind enemy lines. If we have allies in Abison, they are surrounded. Convince the forest do not aid our enemies.

Silver's there. So those are our aims to rescue silver. Those are our orders. Ursulan's going to step forward and try and find the oldest tree nearest to them. Give me a nature check. You can do it with advantage. Modified 20. You go and find this deep, moist, mossy, wrinkled black bark old.

oak tree that is sinking its roots deep into the mountainside. And some time. What would you have me call you? I travel with humans, opposed to those who have maybe spoken to you and your kin. And I would ask that you help me in avoiding bringing more harm to this forest. My aim is not to aid these humans in defeating their opponents. but in finding their friends, and to do that without bringing more conflict to you and those who reside here. I wish them no ill, but they are strangers to me.

As you asked the birds, they would have betrayed you. I would not trust the beast folk of this place they are spoken for, but I know you to be a spirit true and free. To the high places up amongst you. the gray pine. The birds that now serve those strangers in this land, they do not nest there.

It is possible that they will see you nonetheless, but they will not be there in great number. If you travel by those high places and stay amongst the gray pine, you will have the highest chance of not being seen, brother. Thank you, old wallow root. I hope one day

that your leaves are able to touch fresher. hair. These shake and all of you watch Ursula on touching the tree as moss kind of grows around the edges of your hand to leave a warm handprint there in honor of the wish you have made. Thank you for your wish, brother. Travel safe. Drink deep. Be strong. Ursulaan will rejoin the group.

The trees say that the beasts of this land aid your enemy. The birds especially. He suggests we stick to the high places, gray pines. The birds are in lesser number there. Understood. Sworn looks and says, all right, high places, gray pines. We should move quickly if we can. I don't think we're terribly safe here,

but there's a ridge up at the top. If we can get up there fast, we can hopefully get to the gray pine, but there'll be a small period where we're exposed if there's anything airborne, like an airship or anything else. I'll give our group our best chance then when we hit the perimeter of where we would be exposed. The secret of the Twilight Crown just requires

casting a spell while I'm in bright, light, or darkness. So I'm going to step forward and just cast a cantrip. Prestigitation that would almost give like a little burst of light and use that to swallow the emergent daylight in this area to call like that like dim, crepuscular darkness into this area around me to try to give a little cover for the group to like move through and expose space. Awesome. In that case, we're going to do a group stealth check and I'm going to say that any one's, can be re-rolled with that little extra how big is that shadow

by the way? Oh, not very. Yeah. Oh, wait, hold on. A radius of 60 feet around me. I think 60 feet of darkness we don't even need to roll

about stealth, but it's about how fast you can get up this dangerous hillside before people start to notice that there is like a clinging shadow to it. So what I'm going to need

is a pure sort of mount check, like a riding check. So this is just going to be your animal handling. So this is animal handling to get up the... May I use speak with animals? And when I mount my horse and I pet their sides and I say, Hello, I am Amay, the witch of Toma. What may I call you?

I am Rahoan. Rojoan. Thank you so much for allowing me to ride you. Everyone, all the soldiers watch as you. You're, like, making this little, like, sort of, like, sweet cooing and clicking horse noises. And you see that Sworn looks over to you, Sky, with... But honestly, not even as, like, an eye-rolling. It's like, oh, God, boss got the exact people here that we needed.

There is a look that, like, Sky will give back to Sworn, like, yeah. Yeah, man. Yeah, dude. Yeah, Rohan looks at you, and the other horse has turned to look at you as well. We follow orders as best we can. We do not know why we are not. on a road. My friend, the wizard's guy and the rest of the party, they are trying to rescue a friend, a group of

soldiers. We ride to Abison. Do they want us to go up this steep place? Yes. They want us to go up the steep place, and we must do it quietly and very carefully, but swiftly as we can. Oh, it is not easy to do this. something swiftly and carefully. I know.

All right. We will ride straight up as fast as we can. And you see, they look like like they're going to go up the dumb way. They look like they're about to charge straight up the thing rather than cutting at a diagonal.

Suey feels her horse realigning and it's going to give me a look like... Yes, swiftly being carefully and in a way that is sustainable for a hard day's journey. So perhaps more this way. As you gesture, and are able to verbally communicate to the horses

where they're trying to run to. They get up side by side and 60 feet radius? Yeah. Oh, you're fine. They can go in single file and all move swiftly. So you call the shadows to you.

You communicate to the horses. Like Ursula has gotten the information from the force about which path is safest. And you charge up the ridge. Gallupy. Very noisy, but you can tell this is almost the point of the night where guards watching through the night would be at their most exhausted and maybe have dozed off, you get up the ridge as fast as you can and get to the safety of the gray pine.

As the sky lightens and moves from pitch black to dull red, the sun beating down on the top of these storm clouds, giving you only diffuse and ruddy light blow. You look, you've reached safety. A path now unfolds. You are simply a day's ride along this ridge amongst the gray pines. To Avison, knowing that before you can reach silver, whatever forces beset silver will still be there.

You look back at the peak of Mount Corhigh, the sun in fog and mist. Ursula, you can see the shape of Firebringer on top of the mountain. He's enormous. He's a beast of legend. And as the mist begins to recede, this massive shape on this mountain that marks the delineation of the lines of battle now holds this massive bird of prey. From the southwest, a point of light appears in the sky and streaks across it. A figure that is now miles away, almost too small to sea, but so far. radiant that it cannot be believed appears before Firebringer. You see hanging in the air, distant to the point that you cannot see a face, a robed figure, brighter than the sun.

Raise a hand, and for the first time you in your life, you see a sorcerer of the high houses of Gouthmine. Raise a hand. Firebringer stretches his wings, shrieks. is illuminated in light. That was Lou Wilson as Ursuland, Erica Ishii as Amay, Abrea Ayngar 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. We'll see you there.