Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #37: Who Goes There

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

[Whoa, check it out: The New WITCH CLASS is OUT and is ready for you over on our Patreon. AND, oh wow again,  you can now give a subscription to our Patreon as a gift! Can't imagine a better thing for this holiday season. Treat yourself or treat  that  elf on the shelf, either way, somebody's gettin' TREATED.]The fog of war floats in the valleys and ravines of the Shroud Mountains like a ghost. It erases. It confuses. It hides. It lies. And through the veil, those unlucky few soldier on, to take in the view, and plan their attack, above a place so many will never leave. Anyone can turn around, but thresholds were made for crossing, and we've got business with the butcher.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. For a brief moment illuminated in blinding light diffused through the red clouds. The silhouette of a bird of prey with wings wide as castle walls appears and is suddenly gone. As your party hides amongst the shadows at the edge of the gray pines here in the shroud mountains. moments after the figure who has made some great working of magic that you do not recognize as lingua arcana watching from miles away, moments after they are gone, streaking across the sky, as several airships momentarily descend from the clouds

and quickly raise back up again. imperial airships that were hiding in the clouds patrolling around Mount Cori. You watch the interaction of this powerful sorcerer appearing long enough to do something to Firebringer and then quickly getting away, but you see, yes, this perimeter is guarded. The war is raging. You're sneaking through the forest is exactly what is keeping you alive, because don't let the early morning silence confuse you. You are in war. The ships are already gone,

but you can see the scores of rubble across where whatever strange arcane light was loosed from cannons aboard those vessels has marred the landscape here. Do we all see it, or was that initial, like... You all saw it. You all saw a streak of light. This thing, this disruption of, essentially the shapes and the violence and the strangest and the magic of it all was so disruptive.

But moments after it happens, it's just very clear. A line of engagement that has rested for a moment to the east and west of Mount Corhai was suddenly disrupted as a powerful spirit was seen on the mountaintop. And action was taken as soon as the sun rose and the creature became visible. An archa check to try to figure out what just happened. Yeah, go for it. Dirty-20. The creature was banished. Firebringer?

Is that what you said? Was banished? Not killed. By whom? The sorcerer of Gouthbai. The head of a noble house. The most powerful caster's here. Where did he get banished to?

Can he come back? I don't know. The magic here. is of people with connections to the spirits on a sort of blood level. Like urine. Like urine. So my guess would be they wouldn't want to hurt a spirit unnecessarily if they are constantly in community with them. so maybe back where he came from.

I think on that modified 20, what you would have seen, it's so far away to see, you couldn't see what the somatic of verbal components were, but you saw a, like, what looked like an arm outstretched, banishment is an abjuration.

It looked like a lot of the way that sorcery works is not only about the bloodline, but the things that have been promised to the bloodline, things where people are represented of their family and that their family has allegiances and ties to things like that. So it looked like just from this body language of this brilliant figure on the edge of the horizon, it looked like something was being abjured rather than condemned, like something was dismissed back. Yeah.

It was giving go on get if that makes you feel any better. Oh, yes, it very much does. It does. Thank you. It seems like a very powerful entity that did that. Yeah. You see that Sworn kind of smiles looking at how, not in the evil way, but just the degree of rattled that Amé is, Sworn is like, okay, these are like, he slotted you in. He slotted you in as like, these are our translators and guides.

They are not civilians, but they are not in the military. You know, like, where he sort of smiles and goes like, very, very frightening. To be clear, the thing that I'm the most concerned about if we were to run into that person was how they quickly left. Everything before that is impressive. That leaving is the thing that lets me know that they're not to be trifled with. Sorcercerers like that are not what you need to worry about here in this place. Gouthmi is forever made strong by their noble houses, but I'll be frank.

Those to the manner born are sometimes loathe to lead from the front. Yeah. And so they are deployed carefully and infrequently in the manner you have seen just there. Moments like that where something new and strange develops and represents an opportunity for a shift in the tide of battle. That is when you tend to see them deployed. They are not keen to use their nobility, those high sorcerers of the noble houses of Gouthmi.

They do not like to use them as blunt force instruments because there are often any gestures to the clouds airships in waiting, and that's how bloodlines end. So the airships, they're, here, could they potentially... If they dip below the cloud line, there'll be easy open targets. In my time running down whatever's happened with Silver and his contingent, I've not been given any news to think that it's gone well here.

I left with eight in hopes of finding whatever remnants remain to extract them. Or to figure out what happened to them if they're gone. How much further? We'll be there by nightfall. The rest of the day. You look and see that these wizards are haggard. There has been no rest this evening. You see, he says,

Oh, Archmaid's Apprentice. We can push through and get there as soon as possible. on arriving there, we may not be battle ready. We need to rest. I dip closer to Suvi and I lower my voice. Suvi, are the contingent that you bring with you, are they experienced in this area or in this kind of warfare? One of them, yes.

Perhaps we should send the rest home. Suvi will switch here. to the message cantrip. I think you think of kindness. The reason we are as injured as we are now is because we were met with forces immediately entering here. And they're alive

because sworn in myself were with them. Our mission is stealth and precision well suited to that the rest might prove a liability. Part to the best of my understanding, not a liability. Are you okay? Of course. Are you okay? Look at Suvie as I say that.

And you know I'm not really truly asking you. Of course. With any expectation. And I think that's why Suvie just in her head, she's looking down. Like she's trying not to look like they're having a conversation in their head. No. We buried just a few hours ago. I'm so sorry, Suvie.

I'm also sorry about how things I'm. but I do hope you know. I always will. Carcelan is disappointed. We were going to go see his family. Oh, God. Perhaps give him some sort of opportunity to sit with this and assure him that he also cares very much about you and is always going to be here. You managed to get a sort of place of long rest.

Amme and Ursula, you actually don't need to. rest at this point in time. But is there anything that you do in terms of, like, taking watch or guard, like, basically, you see Sworn even asks, like, should we post a guard or post-watch? I'll take watch. And then also, um, if there's, do any of your retinue need assistance or healing? Yes, please. And he will not admit it.

Please start with sworn. I'm a rounds on swore. Like, like, like, you. You just got to let it happen. Wounds. I am trained in medicine and also it feels like you could probably use some tea. I won't say no to a tea. You're not going to say no to either.

I mean, immediately busies herself patching and prodding and bandaging and steeping. Sworn gets very, he treats himself like a patient. So he's just neutral face letting you work on his body. All this is happening, I'm going to step over to Ursula. They need to rest. You can do that? Like me to sit with you? You're more than welcome to.

You see that also Corporal Laham, the Azure Battalion, she has no spell slots to regain. So she is just going to keep guard looking sort of off the other direction. Partway through the day, people are coming up on, like, having been resting for about five hours. Sworn is healed. He says thank you, and he passes out. He goes to sleep. I'm a little saltwatered have you, please. Is this medicinal?

Oh, no, it's just a nice thing because you did such a good job as a patient. I'm being patronized, but I used to have this all the time when I was a kid, and I really appreciate it. Hmm. I'm poor your teeth out. If Suvie hadn't sort of dope. immediately she would have enjoyed that moment. But she's like, I'm going to keep such a good... Watch, watch, I'm watching.

So, Ursulant, it's pretty much just you and this other woman, La Houn, who's the Azure Battalion. You just look and watch someone who's part of the battalion that was the Imperial Battalion that you snuck past in Port Talon to get out here. But you see that about like five hours in as the day is getting a little bit later, you watch a flock of... of birds, go off way over the forest, kind of flying and synchronized patterns, move over in another direction, take off somewhere else.

It just looks very coordinated. They fly. They don't appear to notice you. About 45 minutes or so after that, three large eagles fly and bank around a mountain in the direction the birds went. way down river from here, you see shortly after the Eagles land, just some, you can't hear anything. It's so far away, but you just see some light from the tree, some unnatural, magical light.

Sufi. Watching, watching. It's all right. It seems the birds have not discovered us here, but I just see something. I'd like to do my best to describe it to Suvie. Yeah. Give me a history check, Zubi. 25.

Further south from here, having nothing to do with you, a imperial foray has likely just failed to push the line further forward. And those three eagles, your feeling, what Ursula describes is that that first flock of birds were birds and the three eagles were not. Do you want to know what I think happened? It is important to you, yes. If it is to the citadel, no.

It had nothing to do with us. And Suvie, like, you just see something like fold in on her. Because, again, it doesn't have anything to do with us. But it is indicative of, like, Suvie is starting to catastrophize in her own head about what she might be walking toward. Like, that's what you see. Your guy's rest actually ends before the sky is fully dark. So there's probably a few hours of ruddy daylight left.

but it's like mid-afternoon. And with the cloud cover, unless it's like high noon, it's still low visibility. You get up. The day is there's still some day left. You are within striking distance of Abison. You will not have to rest before you arrive there. Sworn looks over and says, might as well lead the horses. It'll take longer, but these horses can't gallop in the forest anyway.

Might as well try to be as safe as possible. That makes sense. Okay. All right. We'll lead the steeds through the pines and just make as much headway as we can. We'll probably arrive wee hours of the morning. Can I ask, in case there is any interruption or disruption, is there our intention to defeat the foes guarding this fort or simply to extract Silver and his friends and be on our way? The speaking mirror broke when the Wizard's Silver spoke to you, Archmaid Apprentice.

Yes. There is simply no telling bear what situation awaits us there. In my advisement to my commanding officer, I would suggest that we make a decision when we know what the lay of the land is. In an ideal world, we will be able to complete the Wizard Silver's request, and hopefully others did as a way. well. It was a bulletin to as many speaking mirrors as he could reach. I do not imagine that the wizard sky is the only one who answered. And here, Suvie, I don't know what Suvie believes. Oh, my, does look at Suvie at this point. Deception check. Fourteen. Yeah, you know, it's like, I think Suvie, there's a thing of like, well, the wizard silver is a name, he has a

name clock. He's a wizard of the Citadel. And then another of you is just thinking of someone on the ground screaming medic. And maybe a medic comes or maybe they don't. That's a dirty 20. I swing my head over to Suvi. My face is sort of looking like, does she really, truly think that there are other people coming? Suvi doesn't think anyone else is coming. Suvi doesn't think they are alive.

Moving through the forest, I assume you are moving stealthily. Let me get a group stealth check again. 18 for Ursula. Five for Sui. Five for Sui. Five for Sui. Five for seven. For Army.

I have a bunch of like Samwise Gamji style like pots and pans in my, on my pack. Wait, wait, wait. Does Vandal give me the help action? Yes, Mandel can give you the help action. I think Vandal just writes on like, Like as Vandall slips, because Vandals, eight inches tall and is, like, scurrying out as kind of a little bit of a scout, will occasionally write just deeply ignorant things in languages over places where, like, heavier footfalls would be noticeable. So he's, like, dumbass.

Like, over a pile of sticks that Suis will absolutely walk through. Not here, you morrow. Yeah. moving through the space, you guys are heading through the ridge and about halfway. Now you can actually see you're like, okay, I think there's a moment Sufi where you're like, it's so fucking grim, but after several hours of travel, you realize you actually are going to get close to Abbasin. It's deep night now. And you see that there are, in a way it's like, well, I,

I am doing it. I have crossed enemy lines. I am moving unseen through territory they control. I have my allies here. And soon I will be there. And then that's the testing moment. That is the moment of truth, as they say. Part of the ways you're going,

with that high stealth role, you avoid it largely. But you can see it in the night that as you're moving, there is a source of light on the, ridge as you're coming down to the great pine, slowly descending from the heights of Mount Corahe to get to what will be the rim of a valley that you know Abison to be in. Abison is a fortification, but it's also just a larger logging town in the forest here. They build like the airships, like the gondolas, the mass of these ships. A lot of the timber for them is harvested in this

part of the world. You are moving down the ridge and instead of sort of stumbling on it, you see in the distance there is a small stone crofters cottage. You're getting to the point where you're close enough to Abbasin that you're going to start seeing little stone cottages and outlying people you're getting towards a population center. You may even see little paths or the things like that where you may be able to mount up on horses again. But of course, the closer you get to Abison, the higher the population center, the more likely you'll run across friend or foe or something like that. in the distance with a small candle in the window that is sputtering some dim light from this cottage. You see that there is a Crofter's cottage through the pines that has three white horses stabled at it with Azure Battalion saddles on them.

And that the door is partially open. It's like a little Crofter's cottage. doors partially open, candle in the window, and it looks like some soldiers have either barracked in this place, unclear if the people who were in this home are still here anymore or not. Corporal LaHoun. Wizard's Guy. A candle in the window makes it hard to see out, but is a signal. Do you know what that is?

It's not a signal of the Azure Battalion, but it's certainly a, perhaps this area has been cleared. I mean, those are Azure Battalion horses. Well, if somebody, you know, happened upon the battalion, they still keep the horses. Yeah. I'm like to check it out. Alone?

I'm pretty sneaky when I need to be, unless you want to join me. I will come with you. Suvi's going to give a little nod to Sworn. Sworn goes, Wizard, you're going to go investing? Just want to see what's inside the house. Maybe give us a better sense of what's ahead of us.

He's like, sure you don't want us to go clear it before you enter? That's noisy. And we don't have time to stop and rest more. All right. I'll be right back. Fox, can you also maybe go around and ensure that nobody sneaks up on them and see what we can see what we can see? Sure, yeah, I can do that. Yeah, you want me to go sneak around?

Yeah. Okay. And he begins to tip-t-t-t-tip, sort of take the long way around and head over to the house. While he's doing that, is there anything that you guys want to do from a distance as you're looking at the house? One, got a re-up break mage armor like you do. I've learned from the last time. You and your fellow wizards, mage armor up. C.V. grabs her arcane focus, her ring, and turns the gem in on itself.

And as it does so, the gem disappears. And then the ring disappears. And then the hand disappears. And then she disappears as she casts invisibility on herself. Sufi? Sufi, are you approaching the house invisibly? Yeah, I'm going to try to go the opposite direction as the fox and try to get around and away from that light so I can see in and figure out who's inside. I'm going to do a little quick survival check and just look at the grounds around the cottage. You know, footprints or signs.

Like, has this been lived in recently? I need everyone here to roll initiative. Welcome to my part of this beautiful campaign. There's no pancakes here. This is not a place of breakfast. That's a 23, natural 20, 23 initiatives for Ame. 13 for O'Sullon. 19 for Suvi.

Ami, you are first to act. Go ahead and give me your survival check. 15. On a 15, there's something really strange. The cottage has a little area in front of it with some flagstones, a little water well, and where the light of the candle kind of fades

sort of past the well, past the horses, where the gray pines start up again. And there's gray pines all around the cottage, but it's these ones, you kind of see some ones that look a little bit scraggling. like the cottage is sort of facing ones that look a little bit less healthy, if that makes sense. On the ground and the roots of, like near the roots, there's like a little sort of rock, rocky promontory. And in the middle of that is a hawk's nest on the ground.

It has one or two eggs in it. And you're just, you've never seen a hawk built its nest on the ground like that before. Wordlessly hold up a hand, point to the hawk nest on the ground. Suvi, it is your turn. Do you, what is your reaction to Ame pointing that out to you as you begin to walk around the cottage? I mean, immediate reaction is eyes up and like trying to cue in for whatever that's about. Oh, I don't know if I want to get closer to it. I think there is like an immediate hold there.

Like, that's not azerb battalion anything. I don't trust this building at all anymore. So you stop walking? Yes. Ursula, your turn. I'm just going to open my divine sense. Give me a perception check. Five.

You divine sense registers everything past the hawk's nest as being of the world of spirits. You are looking at the cottage, the horses, all of it, and suddenly this emanation of, and you see that emblem of Bahadhi for a moment floating in front of you, and you see the fox getting closer to the cottage. I may stop the fox. Fox, stop, I say in his head. Roll me a dexterity.

Because of this divine sense, you can roll this with advantage, but you're going to roll me a dexterity saving forever. the fox. 19 plus his dexterity. That's a dirty 20. The fox pulls up and stops suddenly, and as he does, his back feet slip and kick for a second, and he catches onto and hops back and looks around unsure what he just slipped on.

The fox and the three of you give me a stealth check right now. 13. 9. 18. Plus how much for Fox, and then 15 for me. The Fox stops, skirts back to you for a brief moment that candle. You know like when you lose focus looking at something, and it kind of shifts into two things for a second?

Almost like your eyes unfocused, there's suddenly two candles, side by side that flicker and look and then are gone. There's something very wrong with this house. those two moats of light flicker and move. And as they move forward, the house is suddenly gone. And the two motes of light, twin candles, in the face of a spectral and translucent being, long arms wearing rags of floating smoke.

A spirit of the dead been called to atone for some ancient wrongdoing, the symbol of a sorceress house on her head. And as she hovers in space, you see the forest behind it. Our sky, Suvi, you stand two inches from the edge of a cliff. You look down and see hundreds of feet below and all across dozens of imperial scouts that have fallen to their death coming to this house.

The hawk's nest Built on the edge of the cliff face The trees along its edge exposed to the wind and storm The fox having almost fallen to his doom The spirit hangs in the air searching In her eyes zooms her trap And you see a cozy little cottage in the mountains We backs up

Hulled out my arms for the fox The fox You're arms and says Hey boss I got it as bad Let's go Let's go Oh my God

Oh my God you did so good Yeah Regroup With the group You skirt back And now that you've come The house is sort of Well through the trees

At this point Sworn says What did you What did you see Nothing That's a cliff It's a spirit It's a cliff

There's so many dead It's bad It was a trap Do you know what that was? Do you know? I'm not trying to ask you. Like, do you, either of you? No, what the fuck?

That was so fucked up. There were so many bodies. It seemed to be a spirit with a symbol. I do not recognize it. What was that symbol? I'm going to immediately make the symbol of the Bahadhi. Like, I already know that that is. Yeah.

This? Give me an arcana check anyone who wants to. 25. 13. 11. Suvi, you're, you're searching back through that symbol. You recall in learning, you may spend your whole life learning about what your enemies can do. It didn't occur to you until you saw that spectral form floating there.

The candles specifically make it come back to you. You didn't know that this was a thing that House Bahadi specifically could do, but you make the connection in this moment. There are sub-houses of all the great houses. And when nobles of those houses break their bonds of fealty or loyalty to one of the great houses, they can be bound in servitude after their death. So you think that is a traitor to the house of Bahadi who now, who in her life was a sorcerer gifted with the power of illusion. And now she sits here as an eternal trap and was probably put here. There's something that is like a talisman or artifact or something that is like buried into the cliff somewhere, and they just created a trap for imperial soldiers. But this is just one of however many spirits over centuries that owes its eternal and undying loyalty to House Bahadhi.

So far. Do I know is there any way to set spirits that have been bound to rest? Yes, theoretically. It may not be at your disposal. Sure. But, uh, you, this is, this is a knot that you know grandmother Wren would have had a way to untie, but this may be beyond you in the moment. I'm not that advanced yet.

Advance for what? Oh, for, for helping to usher the spirit into beyond. For once in our friendship, I think we're in alignment here. I would love nothing more than to aid the spirit into not. killing people. And being free and moving on, all of those things. If you don't have a way off the top of your head to free this, I have something and I pull out this vial.

It's got like a dispelling agent in it. A dispelling or perhaps wavebreaker, if it broke a binding on me, could do that as well. My best guess is there is something here physically tethering. That guy, this place. So if I give you something to swing at, would you like to try to swing? Suva, you have incredibly limited resources. Yeah, it hurts when you say it, but you're not wrong.

I'm just worried what this could cost. Sworn nods and looks at Ursulaun and says, we will make note. When this land is liberated and returns to the stewardship of the empire, will be able to come and remove this and certainly the many other traps like it that dot this landscape. All right. Hey, Vandal. I need you to make sure that no wizards walk off the cliff they don't see right there.

Come on me, old soldiers. It begins to just write that. You hear the bottles in your bag, you see Cyril's like, I could put it in poem form. Can I let out Cyril? He starts to dart around. You get four verses. There's so many. You got to give him a thing to do

where they become quite unbearable. You see, he starts flitting around going, there once was a spirit from Galthmy, who lived in a cottage quite so high. It wasn't quite there, and you'll fall through the air. That's more! It's a limerick.

A limerick is a verse. A single verse, that's what I'm saying. Four verses was a lot. I did get four limerick. Oh, no. Your ink demons, is this the levity you were looking for, Lou? Yes, this is what I want. The ink demons mark this place as being dangerous and returned.

And I'll have Enzo. We're going to test out Enzo's sort of note-taking ability, and I'm going to have, since everyone's getting out, Enzo's going to add this one to our map. Gotcha. So we're going to try to keep track of any traps that we pass by. Enzo is like, I would be more than happy to act as cartographer for our journeys here. And you see that he takes an arm and begins to... Bud, I give him a little compass.

And he does make a topographical map of the foothills you've been traveling through, marking the watcher stone, marking the cottage that you found and everything else like that. You see, he's having a... Doing a good job? He's doing a good job. You see that as he gets to the end of it, he's like, Maybe some improvements. And we're good.

Back to the bottle. No. From this space, traveling further west, you arrive at an outcropping of cliff that is not traversable. You can't come down from here. But it allows you to look at the valley below. There is so little light with the cloud cover here. And it's a blessed thing because it means that you've been able to move largely unspola. You've been keeping your magic down, staying hidden.

But at around what is either, you know, the witching hour or an hour or two after that, you can see Abison in faint outline, like deep, dark night under cloud. Strain in your eyes, you see the little whites of buildings of a logging town built around a waterway where the wheels can turn in the water and run the mills, a lumber yard up at the top, you smell rank, acrid smoke. There are several, suddenly, like, moving along the cliff, you see them come into view one and then several,

and then perhaps more than a dozen, bright green witch fires burning in a devastated town. Abison is all but destroyed. You see that nestled at the top of the town, the highest altitude, there is a massive imperial lumber mill, and you can see in the sickly green glow of witchfire, an imperial banner, tattered, still flying. Standing at the outside of that mill, that lumber mill,

are two 18-foot-tall constructs. The constructs have had ad hoc drearigged repairs made to them. So they are partially stone, but one has an enormous circular steel saw in one hand, like lumber equipment has been replaced with something that was lost or destroyed in combat and has been basically upgraded with this more fragile but also more deadly thing. You see that another one no longer has an articulated arm. arm on one side, but instead just has a massive timber log like a ship's mast. And you see that it comes at the elbow so that it juts partially out so that it could swing

and hit something behind it and come back around. You see the windows of the lumber mills in the safely green fire have been smashed out. And there is a pulsating beam of lights, purple and green like you saw a long time ago. But similarly artificial wizard lights of staves and imperial cannon lining the windows pointing out. You can see from the raised buildings and destroyed wreckage and burnt tree matter in the plane of, I say plain, it's at quite a slope, the sort of like downhill rubble-strewn mountainside. Tons of scores, burns, and pockmarks of common. constant fire from these cannons. It is quiet right now, but it looks like there have been many

attempts up the mountainside from Abbasin below towards this lumber mill. The lumber mill has just to one side of it, to the right, there is a massive, like, you know, 80-foot waterfall that begins the river coming down from up above and a rocky overhang above it. So it looks like it's the last place they could back up into where they couldn't be surrounded, because it's just rocky crag above them and everything else down below. The roof of the lumber mill is covered in arcane sigils, all of which are set to detonate explosively on contact, specifically a meaning that things can't land on the roof

because everyone they're fighting can fly if they want to. In the town below, the river wends its way through it, You know, so the buildings sort of hugging this alpine stream. There are the destroyed buildings up closer to the mill. Down below it, you see there's a small little alpine town square, a statue of an imperial hero from this town. That statue has been pulled down and destroyed, and there are massive, shaggy beasts,

sort of ambling in the night snoring. and budding each other's heads, bucking. You recognize these as aurochs, these sort of prehistoric horned, massive ungulate beasts. Around Abison, you see that there is a lake at the base of the town where logs would collect. You can see that they can send logs down these watershoots

to go down to the lake below where they could get bundled. There's a small like airship port there where airship could come and collect the massive logs and carry them off. But that lake has been fully taken. You see that there is a, there's like encampments and bivouacs around it. And you see there are probably a couple dozen tents of Gouthmi. So there's a full Gouthmi military encampment. By the lake and that encampment, you see the symbols of House Baha'i flying over that encampment.

The lake sort of ripples. You wonder if there are creatures within the lake as well as something ripples across the surface of it. There may be townsfolk still in the town. You don't know. Like, even though, like, a quarter of it is fully destroyed up by that, like, witchfire, sort of, like, barricade defense of the lumber mill. There's still a lot of buildings left. There's signs of skirmish and combat and destruction.

everywhere, but there are many buildings still standing. You don't know if there's townsfolk here or not, but you know that there is a gout of my military encampment at the base. That you would need to explore further to see what all was there, but that's by the lake at the base of the town. Who knows what's in the town itself? At the very top of the promontory, like the thing where the waterfall is actually coming from,

incredibly high and craggy, sort of inaccessible. You see that there are. are some, there's some rubble scattered over the lumber mill, like maybe some boulders were pushed off of the promontory onto the lumber mill and like destroyed by cannons on their way down or abjured. It seemed like someone was like, you know, that some shape changers got up, you know what I mean? Yeah, smash them with rock. You see, in other words, you see, you see a situation stable in its instability. You know, Silver reached out to you a little bit less than two days ago, but full stalemate, but not a stalemate like the battle lines you saw by Mount Corrhai,

where it's like we're testing each other, we're pushing. This is ravenous, violent clashing stalemate of like they keep coming up that fucking hill and keep getting pushed back and it's costing them more and more. In fact, you can see area of like other buildings that maybe they were defending, that they've had to retreat from and are now in one building. Okay, okay. Lessons Suvi has learned in the last two days. We don't trust animals.

We don't trust birds. We don't trust things we see that give us hope. Ah, CVC's all of this, begins to put it together. I think I would have remembered and would have spent a spell slot out of my ring to make sure

Corporal La Hound was covered with mage armor. Okay. But I'm gonna like give a little like nod over to Ame and I'm gonna put my hand on her shoulder and cast mage armor on you. Oh, thank you.

And that clears out. My rings slots. Suvie gives a quick rundown like not in a way to be condescending but she just gives you that download. as what she thinks is happening. Like, they're pinned in this one building.

They've thrown everything they have at, like, keeping this one spot. They are functionally surrounded. That's House Bahadhi. Like, that's the symbol down there. My question is, why couldn't they get out if they wanted to leave? They can, I mean, right? They can, most of these wizards can fly. Why haven't that?

Sworn leans in and goes And just Points down at the beasts down below And says It's a stamina question Yeah Silver could make it a long way But getting torn apart by eagles

As you fly away is not a death That any soldier wants Yeah Okay We need to try to make contact See what's going on in there without throwing the heat of all of this on them or us. Ideas?

Ursulant's going to look to Suvian sworn. Do we believe once there is light again, the fighting will continue? Huh. Can I make an investigation check to see, like, the recent sea of what? like churned earth or signs of battle. Does it look like this has been a stalemate for a hot second or that like this is a sort of evening lull and like all the zaniness of them trying to get in or out kicks up a new every day?

Give me investigation. Natural 20. Hoo, baby. You're like a full day's ride behind enemies. lines. You're looking at this and saying, what is the nature of this? Like, is this about to kick off again, uh, tomorrow? Like, what, like, is this, is this like a significant thing? And then you think about that sorcerer that you saw kill the, or you saw the searcher you saw ban it. Watch it. Watch it. Watch it. Watch it. Uh, uh, the first thing you saw banish.

Watcher. That sorcerer that you saw could like wrap this up. You know what I mean? Like, for sure. But what you recognize. I think on that Nat 20 investigation, you look, there's an area of, there's a logged area on the other side of the lake with tremendous huge wagon ruts and a place and a road that leads off. And you see that there was a much larger Gouthmi encampment. These people are not getting reinforcements. The Gouthmi forces that are here have been reduced since this started. Like, you don't think there's like a high-ranking sorcerer here. You think, and this is sad because silver is someone that is very dear to you and you think very highly of him, this is the mop-up crew.

There's a hold-up group of wizards in a lumber mill that are not a threat, not a strategic operational threat. If silver were to get out, he would be a stranded wizard with his soldiers behind enemy lines with no supplies. They're just waiting for them to starve. It's just a group of people waiting for them to starve. They're attacking every day to keep them harried, probably to keep them being able to sleep. Yeah. And this is literally a cleanup operation. It's a foregone conclusion, Silver can't win. And Silver so cannot win that the important people have already left to go to higher strategic objectives elsewhere in the region.

I think for the first time in a couple days, All of that, like, arrogance and indignation, like, there's just a little, like, shiver of it as her hackles get raised at the implication as she puts it together. And that's actually a, like, safer emotion that is less scared and less defeated. And Ceevie stands a little straighter. They'll attack again tomorrow.

But they're not trying to win. They're trying to wait them out. Can we use that to our advantage? Absolutely. They don't think anything but a bunch of starving remnant wizards is in there. We are already more competent than they expect and can probably handle. Do we try to get them out by stealth, or do we try to help them fight their way out? When Amay says fight their way out, Suvi's going to actually look at Ursulaan to like check for micro expressions.

Because Ursulans already thrown up just a little bit of dirt around like the nature of what this is. And Suve's trying to like be careful about that. I don't think you see, you don't see an aversion to fighting. If you're fighting, Ursulaan will be fighting. Ursulon won't be sent on a mission. Yeah. But if you are battle ready or speaking about yourself fighting, Ursulon's not like wincing or kind of hemming in, like,

there's none of that kind of, oh, is there another way? It's... Oh, yeah. It's less of a like, Ursulon's aversion to fighting writ large and more of a like, would Ursulaan see a, like, decision to fight? our way out versus sneak and retrieve as a violation of like, you're making me fight in your war. That's what, like, that's a very specific thing that Sube's like, just sort of checking on. Give me an inside check.

Oh, God. 15. I think Ursula is, I think you hear, you heard it a little bit in discussing the trap. I think part of Ursulaan has accepted that to save someone you care about, he has to put things that he cares about and wants to the side. And I think that there is an acceptance around saving silver being something you are willing to put yourself in harm's way for. that means that this, that violence will likely occur, and that that is inevitable. Okay, we'll try for still.

Sworn looks and says, so we're attempting extraction and extraction alone here. The goal is not to retake Abison. No, I think if we attempted to retake Abison, more than a mop-up crew would be sent. And we would just put future. forces into the same scenario. You see he nods.

And you know, like you think about going over the supplies for the meridian with him. And that's just what you're realizing is like you guys showing up is six more or eight more mouths to feed. You know, like the problem's not even solved. Even if you fight well, the problem's not solved. Yeah. So looking at this, he looks and says, all right, getting them out. They haven't been able to fly out.

likely be, and silver may be the only wizard there powerful enough to fly under his own power. He may not, he may just want to not abandon his people. People. They have the two constructs there. And these woods are deeply dangerous. I don't see any horses stable there. So they would be escaping on foot in a likelihood. There's the problem of how to get them out of the back.

how to get to them unseen, and then the problem of how we get them out. Yes. We can get to them. That I have confidence in it. I think we'd be able to get to them. The issue is, is there some, if we get physically to them, then we may be under whatever conditions are pinning them down there. So the question is, is there some advantage we have to be outside of enemy lines right now

that we could bring to them? Is there something that we could do that would open up and out? Is there some way to talk to them before we're pinned down in their same location? We can get a message there and back, I'm certain, but I think that the advantage of us being on the outside is drawing away the forces pinning them down, yes? Potentially, again, we don't have a strong sense of what they're daily, like, the duress that they're under. The fox. You're the sneakiest guy I know.

do you think you can get inside that building and find my friend silver? Yeah. Yeah, no problem. Easy. Too easy. Fair enough. It's almost like we're putting too good of a, man, is there something? Do you want to go?

Is that actually something we should be worried about that we're putting too good at someone who will be too easy? That honestly might be our problem. And you know what? If you can handle that, if you don't mind us over committing your talents to this, we'll spend our time while you're doing this. that trying to figure out how to not disrespect you with such an easy ask in the future. Great. Done deal. I got it. I'm going to do it. Okay. Please be careful, okay?

I know how to make it a little harder. Can you take this? And I'm going to unpack Enzo, or at least Enzo's bottle. Can you take this into? Because I want Enzo to communicate everything Enzo knows about what we've been doing and, like, updating maps and, like, just give a big download. Yes. I actually would like also in terms of an in, let me get an insight check from everybody here too. Eight. Fourteen. Okay, that's a really... I know. 21. I'm rolling so well. Ursula, the plan that is forming right now is to send an animal towards the encampment of wizards who are defending against shape changers.

Suvi, I'm worried. Yeah. The wizards may not welcome. An animal that they may believe, that can talk. Yeah. That they may believe is in some way. So unless there was a way to make the fox clearly an ally. I'm a little Citadel Kirchiff or something. Now, what is to make them not think that the agents of Gouthmai gave them a Citadel Curchief?

With a little seal? You've got a, I think you have a... Oh yes, is there something of you, Suvie? Suvie's going to cut a lock of her hair. Mm-hmm. and form it into like, and just kind of braid it, form it into like a little band that she puts around the fox and we'll seal it with her seal as the wizard's guy. Incredible.

The fox takes the little bottle of doing Cyril or you're doing Enzo. Enzo. Grab's Enzo's bottle. Wait, hold on. Is that right? Please, please. Hold on. With the map? Yeah. Yeah.

Looks up at you, Amé, and says, boss? I'm on it. Okay. Be safe and I'll be checking in with you in three years for occasionally. Great. You got it. The fox takes off as he does so. Sworn looks and says, is there a position we should move into, I mean, the fox may take a while.

Is there a position that we should move into? Do we want to leave horses here? Do we want to ride further down towards the lake? Do we want to make it by foot higher up on the promontory to be clear? closer to the lumber mill. I think getting higher on the promontory feels like the call. Let's keep the horse. We are going to have to be on foot because I don't think they have horses regardless.

So let's leave the horses here. You see that one of the horses looks over to you, Ursula, and just goes, Is everything all right? Oh, buddy. I'm going to cast heroism on the horse. Have hope, friend. Everything will be well. You see, he puts his sort of nose in your chest

and rubs her chest with the front of his face. I pull a bunch of little crab apples from my pack and I pass them around everybody. They nuzzle you. Rations. Rations are a whole thing. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. And you see sworn nods. The imperial contingent, along with Amé and Ursula,

heads further up under cover of night on this rocky, promontory, the fox takes off. Give me a group stealth check. And because you're only trying to, like, kill time while the fox moves, do it with advantage. You're like putting everything into being stealthy in the movie. It's 19 and a one on the dice. That's great.

Thank you for the advantage. 12. 22. Only six. You guys head off up in the sort of rock and rubble and get to another Alpine cop. you are at this point after like an hour of moving you are closing distance through forest to the beginning of the witch fire area so you're almost like a short run to where the battle is going to happen is going to pick up again in the morning and it is about like three or four a m still dark Amay, checking with the fox

Someone told me a luck check In front of the board I got it Eight I would say maybe that's cocked Amay, Erica Oh yeah, that's way cough All right, roll again

Ten's better than eight Ten is better than eight Also a nice shot The Fox takes off He like scampers down a small cliff Jumping from rock to rock He's got your lock of hair and a little bottle of the ink demon Enzo. He goes through woods.

Oh, a little like outhouse, small cottage. Ooh, another house. Okay, a little path, a gravel path between houses. Still mostly woody, getting closer to the town. Okay, stops. Little way station. Here's actually a small public house where they serve breakfast to the loggers that are coming out here for a day's work. And suddenly, you...

And the fox turns up to see the shape of a massive... Snorting out from around another building is a giant boar. Amit, you see this through the fox's eyes. The fox speaking in your mind goes, boss, heads up. The bear looks down and goes, you see the fox? Amit, do you say anything in the fox's mind? Okay, looking through his eyes and looking at the bear, does it look like can I, I guess, uh, uh, insight?

Yeah, can me answer? Get insights up the bear? The bear wants to... That's a Nat 20! Yeah! Nat 20! On a Nat 20, you sense a statement for a password,

which is something that it seems that the fox is speaking to a shape-changer. It's frightening, but the fact that the Fox has been asked to give a password already indicates what the assumption of these guardians is. The Fox isn't in danger

as long as he plays along. But though you feel the fox freeze up hearing you in his mind, what do you do? It's okay, you're doing fine. They don't, this is a shapeshifter, and they think that you're another shapeshifter. You don't know the password, but just play along and let them think that you're a shape shifter. With that help action, could you kindly roll for the fox's deception check. With advantage, 17 on the die

Amazing! You see, he says, They think I'm a shape changer already. It's hardly even a lie in your mind. And you see he spits the little ink bottle and says, Password, password! You want a password?

Like, I haven't seen four of our men die getting this to you. You think I'd be find myself dead, stationed in this backwater heap? Fuck you and fuck your password. Get me to the man in charge. There's nothing worse than not being able to know that that happens He starts crying like the fox in the fucking silver tongue

What happened? No, no, no, it's good Is he dead? He met a shapeshifter who's a bear and they asked him for a password And he's like, fuck you and your passwords Oh, thank God Don't tell him I said that, but he's my favorite My whole body unclenches You see he goes

Hey, don't try that with me And you see he said he looks and goes bear, bore nice first tries get a real shape and you see he picks up the bottle and scurries past them

and goes this way or this way and they go we'll speak to the leader he uses I don't have time and he just takes off and as he goes up off the path you just hear mentally

in your mind on me that sounded like the kind of stuff Suvi would say did that work it was anytime You encounter any of these times, you just tell them what Suvi, you think, what would Suvi do? Okay.

You see, he goes through the town, slinks into the shadows. You see, he stops for a second. You see there's two crows, sort of perched on a well. You see that he stops for a second, puts the bottle down, looks up and says, Hey there, fellas, which way do we head to, I have something that needs to be deposited up near those fires to help us. with the battle effort. Do you know which way we're going? See one of the crows just goes,

and he goes, regular crows, picks up the bottle, takes off through the town again. He arrives in a sort of shadowy area, and you see that there is a owl perched on a barrel looking off towards the fire. As he approaches the owl,

turns around and looks, see the fox, drops the stuff, nods to the owl, and just kind of slinks alongside looking out towards it. He says, boss, can you give me just one thing somebody who's in this place might know? Maybe if Suvee knows anything about this place or something else, this owl won't stop looking at me. Fox needs intel.

He needs to fool an owl of some sort. What do we know about this place and about the location? Does he need to weigh in? What am I? Yeah, some sort of location. Something that lets me buddy up with this guy. I just won't stop looking at me. Oh, what a fun question that's actually stumped me.

You see that the owl turns to the fox and goes, Are you replacing me? And you see the fox goes, not an owl, not an owl, a guy. Oh, it's a guy. I'm sorry. Tell me yes. You're the next shift. What language did the owl speak?

Wait, yeah, what language is the owl speaking in? Gellth. Yeah, then I'll give that, like, if we get the, like, the owl has asked for a replacement. Actually, the fox only speaks Imperial, right? Yes. So the fox says, I don't know how to say this. I'll give him back, yes, you're the replacement in Goweth. Noble high, like, high diction, gouth.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And then the name, Bahadhi, if he needs to drop a name. Yes. And you see that he goes, speaks in Gouth, says that, and you see that the owl turns, go ahead and give me a persuasion check for the fox. That's an 18. on the die. Go off, Fox.

See, the Fox looks up and just says what to him is pure gibberish. And you see the owl goes to fly away and says something that the fox doesn't understand, but you understand Ame that you can sort of translate back. It basically says like,

like, as the fox says, Bahadi says, fuck the Bahadhi. And takes off. And you see, the fox goes, you're telling me. The owl turns around as he hears Imperial, and the fox goes, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you see, he goes, a lot of witch fire between here and there.

Boss, I made my way past all the shape changers and everything. Can I just let this little guy out? Enzo can take it from here. You did so good, Fox. Enzo would have never made it this far. Only you could do that. Yeah. I'm great.

I will kill as many snitch birds as you want. Bitch, I will give you spy chickens forever. The fox sort of pulls the, like, gets his paws on the ball, gets his mouth on the cork, and pulls it open. You see, and so it goes, hmm. Oh, a new location. Fascinating. Oh, he picks up a lock of the wizard's hair intended for the wizard's silver. Well, as in all things,

treasured artifacts must be stored correctly. And you see, he zips off through the witch fire. There is, and suddenly, through whispering wind. Sufi, you hear Silver's voice. That was Lou Wilson as Ursulaan, Erica Ishii, as Amay, Abria Ayangar as Suvi, and Brennan Lee Mulligan, as everyone and everything else. number is edited, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate Horse, with additional

sound designed from Michael Gelfy Studios. For even more like this, join us on our Patreon. We'll see you there.