Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #43: Speak With Animals

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

The road is a door, and it beckons wide and open. Turns out, you can, in fact, get there from here. If there is a town, a bag, the throat of the ravening beast, the back room of a humble butcher's shop, your end at the bottom of the mighty Lydwyn. Towns are like Empires, they are made of people and promises. Roads are like graves, they are made of dirt and the space you fill. And along the road, like pallbearers: wild, wild things.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. Thundering hoves. Gallop down the road from the eastern edge of the city of Bracken. The horizon, a sliver of dull gray, the clouds still hanging low over the shroud mountains. Three true friends, three horses. Ride east, turning suddenly south, down the road. You make for 12 brooks.

some 70 miles southeast of here. Riding on open road, pushing your horses as fast as you can, you'll be able to make it there in a day and a half, but you will need to stop for rest somewhere along the path before you can get there. The question is, how do you choose to approach? How do you choose to get there? The River Lithewin curves west

at the southeastern edge of Hallacher Forest before eventually some 40 miles. south, turning back towards 12 Brooks. Riding on this current road, you will meet the curve of the river and join it, heading to 12 Brooks, sometime around nightfall, riding straight to it. As you depart that morning, the first time that you take a break to water the horses, what is your plan? How do you wish to approach?

City happily defers all of the planning to her. friends. Like, looks very specifically at Ursulaan. Ursulaan welcomes it. Has Amay showed Ursula on the map yet, as we kind of make this first stop? Absolutely. I've spread it out and asked for input. How far does it extend? Because I know above the table you've been talking about it being more than just 12 Brooks, but how much of the area does it show? Because 12 Brooks is a large enough town, it shows about a mile in all directions because it charts the waterways into the city, right?

So you have about, you know, the map is probably three or depicting on this sheet of paper about four miles wide and about four miles tall, depicting this, you know, three mile diameter city in the middle of the map. Ursulaan looks to Sufi I have two questions do you have an understanding of where the line between the empire and Gouthmi forces begins and then how close

would Gouthmi be to a city they are sieging? Suvee pulls out her map where she was sort of marking and updating information about troop movement and like enemy, like, territory. What do I know?

Give me a history check with advantage. With advantage? I feel like you've just been in a city with access to all of this information. 26. The lines of the empire meet the lines of Gouthmi about halfway between Bracken and 12 Brooks. Suvie communicates that as best she can

as she is sort of updating her map and to the sort of later question about like how how close they would be uh i think suvi just sort of shrugs and says if it's a siege then they are right outside the gates understood and i may this language um what is it called To Roy. And so this indicates different paths to enter the subsystem. Well, these ones over here do. These ones over here, you don't have to worry about. Oh, understood.

What do they say? I whisper in Suvizier. Some real, juicy, real explicit. Okay, now, now I need to know. Any other day, Suvi would look scandalized and so happy to, like, fall into this. You see Suvie go cold with this, and then nod and say, it's unimportant. Understood. You said that based on what you heard, Armée, the garrison is in the center. That's right.

So what is the furthest entry point that reaches, to that central place. Looking at the map, there's an interesting thing here because you're passing some waterways, like on your way. There's a lot of, you're entering sort of closer to the river Lithewind,

so there's a lot more streams and rivers, a lot of stone bridges, big arching bridges that tend to have, like, low railings, like little pedestrian kind of bridges. You know, the horses have to go single file to, like, ride over them. You're noticing that the water is lower,

but there's still streams and rivers here. You think that whatever this plan was, it's not an immediate effect. Like, as powerful as the magic of spirits is, Umura is still a landscape with an ecosystem, with a water table, with all these other things, and that the rivers will lessen over time. But looking at this map,

up the river Litheman before it hits the castle, because the castle is really where the falls start. There is an, an early smugglers cave, of which there are many up and down the breadth of the lithuan, that is set there, that, look, it's close. It's like maybe about three quarters of a mile away from the castle. So it's not going to be necessarily where the clashing of troops is happening, but that'll be enemy encampment, for sure. You'll be in the thick of it there, but there is a smuggler's cave that has a passage that gets,

down to the dungeons underneath the castle. Once we reach the city, I believe we should aim for one of the outer lying smugglers' caves and use that to enter. With regard to moving closer to 12 brooks, I do wonder if it might be better to leave the horses and go by boat. Looking at your map of the Shrave Mountain Suvi, there's a town that is not even like named on the map, but you know it because a lot of troops have moved from there. It is not on lines, but it is the last big supply depot before Imperial Line. So it's close to enemy territory.

But it's a big river town called Reedport. Readport is like the biggest settlement up river from 12 Brooks. Big lazy curve in the lithuan, a sort of lowland, as far as lowland, as far as lowland, get in the mountains, but like kind of a lowland little sweet, you know, merchant town on the river, a little clock tower across the river from the main town. That, Reedport is where, is your most direct line getting to where you need to go, and there's going to be boats aplenty there, even in wartime. Readport, I think that's a good idea, and that's our best avenue. I also ought to say that we should keep an eye on the skies.

And if we see imperial ships overhead, or even if we don't. Looking up, is this super cloudy? Yes, very cloudy. It might be up there anyway. And Suvie gives as clinical a retelling of her conversation with Silver as she can. so he knows there's a non-zero chance that he's alerted them and there might be eyes out for our approach. Ursula's going to put out a hand on Suvi's shoulder.

Okay. If it's all right with everyone, I believe, Reedport should be our destination. Agreed. Let's go. You take to the road as fast as you can. You know that where... a heavy mobilization that morning that Bracken will be the opposite of chaos but hectic, right?

It'll be gearing up, heading out wagons, supplies, sky ships. You know, they're about to make a long march with, you know, 90 plus percent of their troops on foot down the roads, headed for the front line to make a push on 12 Brooks. So on horseback, you're going to be able to put miles behind to you and them. But as you've said, the question is, who knows what. And regardless of whether Silver told anybody or not, you're certainly not in Bracken. Yeah. So, I will ask, taking off on the road, you said keeping an eye on the sky, are there any actions you are taking in your travels with the understanding that stealth is going to slow you down, that going off the road is going to slow you down, that like getting to Reedport before nightfall is only happening on horseback full gallop riding on roads.

Suvi will use a consistent, like, recharging of disguised self. And the form is feminine, but an attempt at a, like, average across the people from this area that she's seen. So she's not averaging off of like obvious citadel people. But like anyone that she thinks is from this area, she's going to try to look like one of them in the least ostentatious way possible. Hell yeah. What is the duration time on disguise self? An hour.

An hour. Okay, cool. How many times can you cast it? Four on my own. Three if I use the ring. Three more if I use the ring. That's fascinating. Okay, cool.

I am going to need the first thing we're going to do is we're going to go hour by hour, and I'm just going to roll some luck checks in front of the board. The first thing. Real good. Man, I was feeling so good at the beginning of this episode. And right now, my stomach is doing fucking backflips. Join me here, brother. I was just like, yeah, we're doing it.

And now it's like, okay, luck check every hour to see if our favorite gal is. Captain descends from the sky. So we are going to roll. And I'm going to say, for our purposes, it's a one through four that's bad news for us. But a one is really bad news. You don't have to say it like that. You're not going to roll a one.

Roll number one. What is it? What is it? That's a 13th. Oh my God. Dude, it really is intensity here. I'm trying to read more rules

to see if there's anything else I can do. I'm like losing, I heard that drop and I went, oh shit. You sent Lou to like rules lawyer law school. I'm just checking it. I'm just going over the books one more time. Riding through Riverlands, you see meadows, trees,

the sort of coming over low mountains with long, shallow slopes. You know, a lot of following rivers. At this point, there's lots of following streams and creeks and things like that headed towards the lithuine. The tributaries are coming to the Great River together, and that's largely what you're following at this point. And that first hour, it is still early, early morning, and you've got the cloud cover as well.

So it is, like, missed and due, even a low-hanging sky ship, probably not going to catch you, and plenty of tree cover on the roads, right? Something's got to be right. If something's flying way off in the sky at an angle, not great odds it sees you with the tree cover. But terrain's going to open up the closer you get. I think Ursulaan is feeling some of me, Lou Wilson's anxiety. I'm going to cast heroism on my horse. Hell yes.

What does heroism do again? It's just imbues the creature with bravery. It's immune to being frightened. and has, I think, four temporary hit ports. Hell yeah. I think Ursulaan just kind of leans down into his horse. Ride hard, brother. You keep us safe.

A horse continues galloping forward. Next roll? That's a nine. You fucker. Stab you. I'll provide Lou Wilson the help action. Oh, what's happening, dude? Hour three of seven.

Hour three of what? hour three of seven hours. Oh, my God. I have to poop. Funily enough. Seven. Stop. I'm having fun.

Are you having fun? I'm having a ball. For all the GMs at home, just a little clickety clack of a plastic polyhedron. Can get a reaction like you wouldn't get anywhere else in your life? All right. Will you describe the environment just to make me feel better? Can you say we have tree cover again or something?

At this point now, you are riding as all. often as not through towns. And with the sun firmly up in the sky, you actually see that you're deep enough behind, again, like imperial lines, that they're just like farmers working in the fields. And you get some polite waves from people, a lot of townsfolk otherwise,

people with like bushels and bulls. And you actually even pass some other imperial soldiers who don't even really regard you. Just see three travelers on their way somewhere within enemy lines and go about their business, collecting supplies, shipping, uh, food off to the front lines.

The moment Suvi was like, I gotta disguise myself. She is gonna look at Amay and be like, I never want you to put your light under a barrel. Can you look 30% less like a witch? Yes, Ami, I must ask,

do you have a second hat? Maybe no hat. Maybe no hat. Maybe no hats for anyone. What hat am I wear? Who else has a hat? Oh, wait, here, you wear my hat. No, no one should wear a hat that looks like a witch.

All right. Just slapping all the onesicle things you pull out of your bag. Not that. I pull out a cloak that has a little bells on it. No. I pull out a small hat. It looks like a miniature version of the... Katie Tunstall suddenly I see is playing and I'm like, not that.

Okay. Um, how about... And I have a... A shawl that has butterflies on it. I think we can work with that. Inside out, at least. Okay. I turned it inside out, and it looks fairly normal.

It's cotton, and on the inside, it is not dyed any ostentious colors. That's my win. Hour four. Stop! This is your... your last hour of casting under your own power? Yeah. 11.

This is not okay. You're sick. No dramatic pausing. You're sick. All right. No more dramatic pauses. Great. So the disguise is continuing. You're feeding energy into this disguise so that you do not look like yourself.

The end of this last hour is the last of your natural magical potency, unless you're upcasting, right? Yeah. No, I want those. Yes. So what are you going to? do after that fourth hour. Just a heads-up, everyone.

I've kind of burnt through my ability to do this without. And you can see that she's just fussing with her ring, like, on her thumb. I can help. And, like, a short little, like, I think Suvee landed on, like, kind of ruddy, a little short and little soft. and sort of like dark, curly, but like short, like a little fuck-ass-bub hair. Just like, yeah, what's you got? Because this is about to go away.

Amé gathers a handful of petals from the nearby bush and some grass and starts to festoon suvi with it, whimsically throwing up handfuls of Plant material. Okay. And holds up a tiny still mirror, and you do not see yourself. Have you cast invisibility on me? Yes. Okay.

Well, I guess sort of just pull my horse behind the other horses. So you hold up that mirror, and you are completely unseen. C.V. nods. Yeah. No one sees it. Yeah. So a third horse is just traveling alongside. I'll attach a rope from my horse to that horse.

Perfect. Hour five. Oh, I said I wasn't going to pause. Ten. Oh. Yeah. No, you can pause. I want you to have your fun.

Now that Amay's pulling out stops, we're back. Hold on. Hold on. You're about to say something about it being an hour. Yeah. The hour rolls over and you still don't see Suvie. I also have invisibility. Cast without a spell slot because of my shadow-touched feet.

Oh, shit. Oh snap Alme Alme comes up to Stevie with the handfuls of grass and dust No No Boo I'm a ghost

Don't put trash on me The fox goes This spellcasting is rough boss Well it's okay They're not actually components of the spell Anyway and I go What Hour 6

The River Lithewin comes into view Far distant You see it's massive banks. A little bit of mud on the side the river has partially lowered already, but still a full and mighty river. A sky ship descends from the clouds, gets menacingly low until its shadow falls over you. As its shadow falls over you, what, if anything, do you all do? Ursulaan is doing his best to just stay the course. The fact that Suvi is hidden and also isn't...

Like, Ersan looks back at Suvi's horse to make sure it seems... It's remade. It's... That she is still invisible. Looks to Amé, nods, and then just looks ahead. What's the speed we're moving at? You're at a nice canter. You're cantering.

Oh, do we have tree? cover at all? No, this thing is right on top of you. It has spotted you. I would like a group deception check from everybody. Because Sufi is hidden, you can roll, but you will automatically succeed and have the potential to use a good role to replace somebody else's role. Amazing.

So let's go ahead and get this deception roll. With a seven, I don't contribute. 12. 16. Okay. The fox is also going to give you the help action, Ame. 19 on to die. That's 25.

Hell yeah. Remember, those familiars are always here ready to help out. So that's a 16 and a 25. Ursula, you stay the course. Amay, you feel your hands reflexively go to cast, and then recognize that you're just a man and a woman in a kerchief, taking a horse to market.

So there's no need to panic. Probably slow down because an Imperial sky ship is scary, but you know, you're just slow. They're not hailing you. The ship menacingly hangs over you for longer than you would like, probably two minutes, three minutes, and then

almost there. Almost there. Almost there. Afternoon sunlight is starting to stream, and you've been riding since the crack of dawn. It is your last hour. You have used your secret, or you have used your feet, shadow-touched. Ami, do you have another invisibility left? I do.

Yes. I can also cast it. Okay. The feet does allow you to cast it if you have spell slots. Oh, great. Okay, copy that. Cool. Which of you is casting it?

I will do it. Okay. I can feel as the magic starts to lesson. Suvie will actually, like, you feel the horse she's sitting on, hesitate and pull back on the rope as Suvie, like, Suvie like actually like kind of gets it to like rain so it looks a little natural and Suvie's going to slip off of the horse. Recast just in case there's a flash of it and there's someone watching.

She's fully paranoid now and then is going to like remount with one more hour of invisibility. One more hour to report. That's another four. Once again, we're going to do the exact same thing. This is a group deception roll. That's another 19 on the die for 26. Okay. I help with four.

This is why it's good. You're invisible. Yes, sir. I love it. Okay. Another ship lowers. Buzzing over you and fully docking. The rope ladder spiral staircase emerges from it, and you see an imperial sky ship dock in Reaport. You approach the town.

You know that it must have spotted you, but also now there are enough people. It's mid-afternoon. The town seems busy. You see there's a couple big barges being loaded up here, and you can already see that there are barracks. There's a lot of imperial soldiers here. This is going to be the gathering point for the push. Reedport is eight miles from the front lines. This is where they are going to gather to make the push through Gouthmine to get to 12 Brooks. It happens here. And you can already see that effectively the red carpet is being rolled out, right? You hear construction, you hear shouting, people are getting things ready. You can see one or two constructs, like, at the edge of the town. And again, it's like a sleepy little river town that hugs this sort of double S curve as the river takes a wider, bigger curve around. You see that there are some algae on the large, like, river harbor pier

points where the water has receded and show some of, like, the algae down at the base. And Across the river, there's a little clock tower. There are a number, it looks like there's a sort of like promenade by the waterfront. So there's like open seating restaurants and these cute little like slate roof things. There's a lot of little steeples and there's some bell towers on like a little city civic building. And you see that there are a couple little shrines throughout this place. And you see that the shrines, there's one sort of central shrine close to the water that has a large, large tarp over it, just cleaning sort of like waxy canvas tarp over the shrine.

As you approach the town, what do you do? Suvi is going to dismount the horse. She's going to try to like get as far away from anyone near that ship as she can while still keeping her friends in range. Do you say anything? I will whisper low enough that I hope the fox and then if you have very good hearing can pick it up, but I don't want a person hearing anything. I've got eyes on you. I'm hanging back. My eyes land on the tarp covering the shrine. I look over at Ursula and I say, uh, brother, perhaps you should see about finding a boat.

I shall go look to the town center and I indicate the shrine. Of course, sister, I may wait to, I'm not sure procuring a boat will be as simple as

asking for services, so I may just keep an eye on things. I understand. Thank you. Perhaps I will do these hardworking soldiers the service of returning some horses that found their way to our farm.

That's very kind of you. Yes. Is it clear where Amé is headed? Like, do I see a beeline towards the tarp? I think so, yes. And Suve's going to do our best to intercept and if Amme dismounts or gets close enough that Suvie can get like

low words to her and just be like, are you sure you want to look under the tarp and alert everyone here that you're looking under the tarp? Well, uh, what plan of action would you suggest? Not making waves. We need a boat and we need to not be noticed. I'm invisible. Please carry that energy to the boat we need.

I can find a way to unobtrusively get under that tarp. Why do you need to get under the tarp? Because I have a feeling that you might be able to enlist some help. Just the way that we did at Abyssen. That help was beautiful and not discreet. And you are now very aware of what the Imperium can. do two spirits even when they're trying to help. Please, if there is anything else you can do,

beg you to do it. Suvie, you also begin to feel that you're a few minutes out from this last casting of the spell fading away. See you at the docks. And Suvie's going to back off and then try to get to a low corner. Suvi will let it fade somewhere discreet and upcast, disguised self. You upcast, disguised self,

you are now free to walk about the town. Where are you headed to? Towards the docks? Yes. Okay, you head towards the docks with your passive investigation, you see that there are a number of different craft here, almost all of them requisitioned by the empire.

But anything that's not suitable for military use is, of course, not commandeered or requisitioned. So rowboats, you know, you see one or two canoes pulled up onto the banks somewhere else. Smaller craft appears to be available around here. And by available, I don't mean for sale, but I mean available. Yeah. Ursula, with the horses, where are you headed? Also to the docks. Okay.

Slowing to like a gentle walking pace, trying to match the energy. of what I would identify as just citizens. Okay. You continue to move. Amé, what are you doing? Box, I say in my head. Mm-hmm. I told Suvie we would keep a low profile,

but we do need to find out what is under that tarp. Can you go for it? Yeah, I got you, boss. Okay, but stay out of sight. Lean carefully, please. Go ahead. and give me a stealth check for the fox. Dirty 20.

You beautiful man. Woo-hoo. You beautiful little man. The fox gets under the tarp. Looks up, goes, Big stone frog. Big stone frog. Blink.

And come up in the fox's eyes. What do I see? It appears to be a statue to the great bullfrog. Here at the water's edge. You see that there's, some clay bowls that are empty, but, you know, it's a shrine to the spirit. You see that there are places where some offerings were made a long time ago. You see that there are a number of small little wooden picks that have fallen into,

like the cracks around here, like people leave their guitar picks or have they have, like, fallen in. All right, Fox, favorite song that you know? A wandering, we will go. Okay. A wandering we will go. Do you want me to really sing it? Yeah. Okay.

A wandering we will go. A wandering we will go. Hi-ho the Dario. In the fox's head, I try to open up my senses the way that I do when I'm contacting the spirits. Your senses are no longer in the world. the fox. You're on the street. What do I? I sprint towards the town square.

You rush to the shrine, arrive there. I think Ursula and Suvi, you can both see this. As you arrive at the tarp, what do you do? Is he under there? Can I see anything? Is there anything surrounding the tarp? He snuck in under the edge of the fabric, but you can lift it up if you'd like. Okay, look around. Are there many people nearby? Oh, yeah. Busy waterfront, people work in, yeah. But no one's like looking at you in particular that you can see.

Actually, give me a perception check. 25. 25 is very high. As you go to wonder about holding, pulling up the tarp, turn around and see the smile of the approaching wizard keen. Amé, greetings. Oh, hello. I love your shawl. Oh, thank you.

I'm sorry, I don't believe that we've formally been introduced. I'm a wizard keen. It's a pleasure and an honor. Lovely to meet you. And you as well. Are you admiring the shrine here? It's a shame that they've covered it. Is that what it is?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, certainly. May I see it? Of course. Guards, and you see he claps and a group of imperial soldiers come out. and remove the tarp and you see the bullfrog there. Townsville look around like something's happening. There's about eight soldiers gathered around right now.

And you see that as they approach about another six start walking down the harbor from one direction, another six start walking from the other. And you see as he pulls it up, the fox, who was in his little, like, seated posture with his butt on the ground and his four paws extended, is perfectly paralyzed. and you see that the wizard Keane reaches down, grabs him by the throat, holds him up, he's solid as a brick. You see, he goes, is this yours? I believe I saw this little chap speaking last night.

You've ridden quite fast and hard from Bracken to hear. Where is Sky, Amé? I know he seems perfectly rigid, but trust me, I can break his neck. Why would you do that? You've absconded with a member of the Citadel. I've absconded. Are you accusing me of kidnapping? a full-grown wizard?

Oh, or did she leave under her own volition? Choose which fate you think is worse. Suvi and Ursula, you see the rigid body of the fox. You see Keane's soft, bejeweled hand wrapped tightly around the fox's throat as he stares forward and surprise just a rictus of unmoving facial expression on this animal. Can I make a perception check for Sufi?

Yes, give me perception. I mean, I guess I also, there's a chance I'm looking for an invisible thing. Yeah, but yeah, give me your perception. Yeah, Sufi's invisible. It's an eight. Or I guess a Suvi was invisible and now has taken a new form, so I don't think I see. I'm going to, are people gathering at this site, or is there still the same kind of movement? Give me an insight with advantage.

I got it. Fifteen. This is bad, obviously. And the way in which it's bad is that the shrine was a complete trap. Any other path to 12 Brooks would have taken you guys three days. Think about three days of those checks. So the trap was set here. You don't know how Keene got here so fast.

possibly one of the airships, but you don't recognize, you're like looking up and on that 15, you're like not seeing any airships that were from Bracken, possible that he just teleported here, hard to say. And you see him holding the fox. I think that you can just tell this is really bad. This is a time to not act carelessly. You see that Keene looks at you and says, Amen, we are not here for you. We are here for the Wizard's Sky. Be best for you to produce her. If you cannot produce her,

then these fine soldiers are going to raise the butt of their war staves, and they're going to club you into death or unconsciousness here in front of all these people. Wizard Keane, I apologize. There must be a misunderstanding. but if you are acting on behalf of the citadel or the imperium, I implore you please not to do this. And I say this not on behalf of myself or my friends,

but on behalf of the coven of elders and of the station of which I am a representative. I, of course, do not wish any harm to befall myself. Or am I familiar? Should any harm come to us, I cannot be responsible for the things that happen. This is not a threat. I do not say this in an effort to coerce or intimidate you. I say this because I do not want the people of this town and the soldiers surrounding us to come to harm.

So please, can we go somewhere that we can have a civil conversation? You do not need to threaten me like this. I don't like how you don't give me what I want. Everyone roll initiative. 12 for CIPA. 22. 19 for Ame and 15 for the Fox, if that's anything. I think we'll have the Fox go on your initiative.

Gotcha. Ursula, you are first to act. You are about, I'm going to say you're about 80 feet away. To get enough distance that you were not like clockable with her, you're a good distance way. You're about 80 feet away. 80 feet. Can I make another perception check?

This time on threats and foes. Just, I know that he's, it's him with six soldiers. But also I'm worried about the sky ship. And does it feel like there are more soldiers? in other places that we don't or that aren't, that isn't immediately in the area. Yes. I mean, truly the, this is happening in the worst place for it to happen.

You are at the harbor in front of a shrine on the steps. You see that as he's giving the order that these men are raising their weapons, they're going to, you know, people are going to scream. They're going to club a woman down in front of a shrine. And it is the most obscene sacrilegious thing you've ever seen. and probably anyone that screams or joins or does anything is going to get attacked, injured, or killed as well. And there are two skyships over the city.

That feeling of care thought, I brought us here. I'm, as Sufi, that responsibility that Sufi put onto me is resonating deeply within Ursula. I'm going to move directly toward this situation without revealing myself, without drawing wavebreaker, without kind of making it apparent that I'm present. Yeah.

Move 60 feet closer and bonus action cast shield of faith on Amme. Go ahead and give me stealth. 20. In the crowd, moving, shadows, glamour up. You are on the other side of the shrine. So you're like listening to what's happening. You have full cover from from keen, no one can get eyes on you,

but you are listening with your ears and have a full understanding of what's happening in this moment. Ami, it is your turn. I'm going to attempt to grab hold of the fox. Great, make an opposed athletics check. You are trying to beat a 17. Sex.

You grab it. He chuckles as you attempt to rest it from his hand. And you are both holding on to the animal as he squeezes down harder on the fox's neck, you hear a pained wine come from its closed mouth. Any bonus action? Can I hold bonus action until Fox goes? Yeah, and the Fox is going to get a roll at the end of the turn to try and come out of the paralyzed condition.

All right. I'm going to hold my bonus action until Fox goes. Okay. Go ahead and give me a roll. The fox needs to roll a 16 or higher on the die. Nine. The spell stays on the fox As Keene sneers back a lip You want your little pet back? You are still both gripping the animal And he has failed his save the magic that is paralyzing in place

You realize that as he raised his voice in song Keen put a spell on him In this moment I know I can run And I can get away clean and safe But I cannot leave the fox In that case I think you are frozen in this moment, and it is Kean's turn. Yes.

How many hit points does Ahme have? 23. Two, okay. Keen looks at you and says, No, no, no, we don't draw blood from witches, little demons. Good night, Hamey. Jasmine Sand emerges from his lips. You are so tired, and you collapse to the ground asleep.

No save. Beats your hip, point total, you drop. Mechanically, does a retributive curse need me conscious to be activated? Well, so as a

reaction, you should be able to still do a retributive you can still put a curse on this guy. It won't affect the spell working on you, but you can absolutely yeah, for sure. So is there a retributive curse in this moment? Yes. The moment that Amey

touches the ground, a rip escapes her body, and he feels shared suffering. So the first time he deals damage to another creature he takes, 1B6 plus proficiency, psychic damage. As you fall to the ground, you place this retributive curse on Keene, who feels that he can feel that power of when, you know, when Suvee put a hand on you, when other people have done this, and he has transgressed,

and he feels this curse take effect that if he harms anything, great harm will come to him. He goes, my hands will remain clean. Guards, please bind and gag this creature, pointing to Amé, and you see the guards' manacle bind up.

One of them takes a rag, shoves it into Amé's mouth, and ties it around the back of her head. Suvi, you are next to go. Suvi is going to look around her and find a little building. And from it, she's going to point, like, she will put herself behind a wall so she is not seen from a window or a doorway, but points exactly where she knows he is in the town square and casts message. She knows the recipient so she doesn't have to see him.

and just sends, Do you need to have a conversation with me, Wizard Keane? Most direly, Wizard Sky. Your presence is requested back at headquarters. And Suvie will, like, then spend her movement coming out of the door, like opening the door in this, like, very calm, like, too slow, too calculated method makes direct eye contact with him and gives him. and gives a little nod.

Keen smiles, the guards are holding on to Amé, and he, with a flank of about eight guards with him, is going to just walk and approach you. Reedport, dangerous town, within ten miles of enemy lines. Glad we were able to catch you here, Wizard's Guy. What are you catching? The prince has requested your presence back in the city of Bracken. Why is the witch of Toma bound and manacled?

It was believed you were kidnapped. You vanished without a trace. I suppose I should have left a note. I was under the false impression I could come and go as I fucking pleased. Apologies. The vision you are operating under is a sad artifact of the insane pampering you have received your entire life, princess. He leans in. He leans in and says,

Or do you think that the Wizard Silver did not divulge every one of your inane chatterings to his superiors as his training demanded? The Wizard Silver is a love-struck puppy and perhaps embellished what was meant to be used as a cover story so that I could slip away and follow an honored friend. and a witch on whatever they deemed necessary. We can have this conversation on the way back. Can you please allow my people to go about their way? My orders, as one that does receive and must follow orders, are to hold the witch and spirit here at Reedport, not to escort them back to Bracken where they may so further discord or cause.

further harm. However, they will be kept safely here and you will be able to plead a case for them in front of the prince. My friends here will be more than happy to escort you, as will I. You see that a group of horses are led over, and these are not the horses you rode in on, but a group of horses are led over Imperial infantry saddle up, a couple other guild mages of the glass coronet are with them. These look like sort of more powerful wizards, and they begin to saddle up and a horse is led over to you. The wizard Keen says, I am going to keep your friends on ice until such time as you and the empire can arrive at what should be done with them. Understood.

You are helped up into the saddle, and the horses gallop forward from this point. I watch Suvi leave. You are watching. What is Suvi? Suvi will drop her disguise, so it is very clear as she was moving out into the open that she's like, cool, jig is up. The last thing I'll say is Suve would have let Vandal out of the bottle. So when it is safe enough, Vandal will be there to have a conversation with you. Hell yeah.

Vandal is waiting in the wings. the fox is still with the wizard Keene. As Sufi and her accompaniment ride out of the harbor area or ride out of the promenadeade from Reedport, Keen turns around, looks at you, and strokes your cheek and says, I can't wait to dangle you out in the shop window until that bear shows his face and I can put him on a leash. We're going to make one last roll for the fox.

Dad. The fox is shoved into a bag. The bag is tied shut. And Ursula, you watch them walk away, but feel a sudden. Motherfucking fucker, cuckers, as Vandal lands on your shoulders, swearing as you see Ame carted off. Suvi, the world reining down. You've made it so far.

You're only eight miles from enemy lines. These horses charging off Imperial Infantry Wizards right back up the road. You came. You passed through a line of trees. You've come so far. You see a massive watery tributes here. This is like Reedport has left sight already. Trees obscuring from all sides.

The sun is set. It is like twilight right now. It's that liminal space where all hope is lost. The sun has vanished into the west. and you see the soldiers sort of riding hard beside you. Give me a perception check. 15. There is a long stone bridge in the style of this area of the Shroud Mountains.

Low railings, sort of yellow sandy gravel over the top of the bridge, and you see a massive river tributary underneath it with deep banks on either side. are tall around here. You're kind of in orchard land at this point, far enough away from Reaport, and it is that weird twilight that almost sometimes has worse visibility than deep night.

You know that twilight dusk time where it's like even harder to see at a distance? On that 15, the horses are picking up pace. And you see that the soldiers look sort of uncomfortable around you as the horses are picking up pace. Why did the soldiers look uncomfortable?

Oh, oh! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Horses speeding up! The two horses in the front with glass coronet, dive over the side of the bridge into the water. Two after them! Stop! Stop! Soldiers pulling back on Reins!

And you are over the fucking bridge! Into the water, soo, uh, and suddenly, a soldier's body in the bubbles and water around you, a tentacle wraps around his neck, strings it crushes his spine, dead, a shark's mouth, blood, arms moving all throughout. You see another alligator rolling, and the alligator is wearing a saddle

with reins and a bridle in its mouth. A massive clawed hand races through the water towards you. Claws outstretched to slit your throat and suddenly purple light surrounds you. Scream underwater in the bubbles and suddenly a massive constrictor snake

moves, wraps around you vanish deep into the darkness of the water and vanish. Ursula. Suvi has ridden away and you see that the wizard keen, his forces take Amé and the fox in a bag

deeper into Reedport. Closer to the town center. What are you doing? Turn to Vandal. Vandal. Are you in contact with your mistress? Yeah. She's riding off with those horses and those asshole pieces of shit. That

Captured her. God, I hate them. I hate them as well. You can be quiet, yes? Yeah. Great. Do that. All right. Follow me. Less of that. What?

I would like to follow Keene. I don't know how the town is laid out, but in my dreams. It's a like one block over or one building over moving along them. alongside them versus behind them. Yes, absolutely. Go ahead, give me another stealth check. They're easy to tail. You don't have to make a roll about that. And Keen is walking with the swagger of a man in charge, so he's not even making a point to disguise himself. Dirty 20.

You follow them and see that there's actually a moment where Keene addresses a group of soldiers who are heading 20. where the airships are docked, and you see that he takes Amé and the Fox in a group of about six other soldiers and one other glass coronet wizard, a member of his guild, and walks into a butcher shop. So there's two soldiers at the door, there's two more inside.

You see the other glass coronet wizard go and from the corner where you're watching, he heads up a staircase, sort of towards the second story of this little shop to sit and look out a window. So it's keen and the other two soldiers take Amé and the Fox into the back of this butcher's shop. Can I do a perception check on the building?

Does it feel like they have looked at every entrance and exit? Is there a chance there's one behind? Just general, any more information I can glean. Give me a perception, and Vandal can give you the help, action. 18 perception. Okay. And then I'm also wondering if I can do insight on just the energy. Is the energy this is temporary?

Is the energy we're settling in? Just anything I might be able to gleam off of how the visible guards are. Settled in. On an 18, there is a slanted cellar door in the door. the back of this building. You can see it sort of around a little alleyway. You think that there's probably like a cool seller for meat at the bottom of this busher's shop, and there is an entrance that doesn't appear to be watched or guarded right now back there. Ursulaun's going to wait just a few minutes, just in case, just because he feels, the settled in kind of attitude of

the guards makes him feel... He doesn't, if he heard what was being said earlier, Amé is not going to come to harm. It doesn't feel like they are eager to injure or maim, Amé. And the fact that they cast like the sleep spell, I think is taking pressure off of Ursula to like charge in and draw sword and try and kill everybody. Give me an insight check with advantage. 21. Yeah.

This is another trap. And you've got this guy dead to rights. the tarp over the bullfrog was a trap for Arnley. This is a trap for you. It is a butcher shop. It's meant to give you every indication that he's going to take her back there and torture her. And if that was the case, what was that sleep spell? And you know that there is a degree that you are being expected to act on instinct and impulse here.

And, you know, we've talked about the wizards relying on wisdom, and we've talked about the witches relying on charisma, these sort of secondary spellcasting, and this is intelligence. There's a moment here where you go, no, it doesn't add up. And so you know that you're meant to act fast, that there's something here that you're supposed to go charging in. And sitting here, you realize that maybe time is actually your friend.

Sufi, water everywhere. I'm going to need a constitution saving throw. You begin to drown. Suck water deep into your lungs and cannot help but hack and cough and spurt under the water. You are moving so fast. There is a massive constrictor that has wrapped you up in its coils and swims through the water. You feel shapes around you. Some kind of massive octopus or squid, some shark.

There are huge things in the river basin. And suddenly you feel darkness, scratch, a little bit of scratching on your face, bleeding of moving. This is just you being dragged through. root, dirt, river, mud, and suddenly, Poffing, sputtering, air. What do I see when I look around? There's two little oil lamps. There's a wooden table that has some papers rolled out on it.

You're in a smuggler's cave. There's a series of chests up against a wall. You see some provisions. No weapons or armaments, because the people that populate this, can grow those themselves. and you look and see a crocodile about 25 feet long, pull itself up, spit a bridle out of its mouth as it turns into a man.

And you see these horses may not have been horses after all. Ten miles is pretty close for comfort, enemy lines and all. And you see a massive, shape emerge from the water. A hyena primate, and a shape looks at you, moves its claw, purple light surrounds you, and urine says,

the other shape changers look completely assured of your instant death if they want it, and nakedly walk out of the water. You see there's a couple saddles and bridles that they sort of toss off to the side. they walk up and begin to eat and sit down to watch the boss work. You're sort of surrounded by this glowering crew of incredibly dangerous men and women

who watch you naked, covered in blood. One of them licks in their cheek and pulls out a finger from an imperial soldier and throws it on the ground. And urine's hulking shape larger than you saw him that night in Silbury the last time you saw him. Iron tusks and blood spills out of his open mouth.

Yorin. He doubles back. To be coughing and sputtering, pushes herself to standing. And before she steps fully into the light, she goes back and tries to remember the bearing of her mother. I thought she told you not to fright you. not to frighten her child, and Suvie steps into the light. The shape changers around you furrow their brow at this indecipherable statement,

and Yorin falls back on his haunches, absolutely flabbergasted, the shape of a massive Garon, a monster of the spirit world, as he crouches. I am the wizard's guy, daughter of soft and stone. And he stalks past you and shifts down. Walks over to a pair of trousers, pulls them up, turns around, looks at you, and you see salt and pepper hair, older man. Tense face. He stares at you with a look of confusion and curiosity. Suvi is still in that.

place of I'm already dead because if you figure out how to kill me he just will. So that like takes away any sense of like self-preservation in this interaction. And so she just kind of shrugs. I guess that makes us even since you killed my parents, doesn't it? You deny it. I deny it. What are you talking about killed your parents? I didn't kill your parents?

Last time I saw you, they sent me away. You went off to do whatever you do. And then a six-year-old girl was picked up by steel and told that her parents died at your hands. And I've been waiting to see you ever since. We would settle it here and know. You'd have every right to seek your vengeance. I betrayed your parents. but I didn't slay them.

I don't know how they died. Why did I betray them? Why did I? Because they had lost their minds. Why were you under Imperial Guard? Where were you being escorted? I'd have a towel at least. Thought you were an Empire Wizard.

Can't she do some magic about being wet? I figured if I did some magic, one of you would kill me. We would. Okay, calm down, you. Eat your finger. You see. Yoran laughs at that he goes

Ha! Tosses a towel Processes his arms and cocks his head and looks at you Says Steele told you Point Blank that I

Killed Soft and Stone. Yep. And Covey's just drying her hair. And if you need to know I was being escorted sort of half arrested Back to

Give an account for why I fled from Brow You are half arrested. Yeah, it was sort of a soft arrest. Apple doesn't fall far. On your passive investigation, this cave is wild. There's supplies and provisions and things like that here. You also see there are some chests of what look like stolen imperial goods.

And there's a map of the Shroud Mountains that has a couple of sites that have been Xed out on it. And it doesn't look like anything that corresponds to what the empire is dealing. dealing with. It seems like Yorans fighting a secret war in these mountains under the cover of the bigger war between Gouthmi and the Empire. Mm. Sivi trying to like through her, she's still doing the like, I'm dead. You might as well just say what's in your heart,

like sort of false bravado, seize that information and attempts to commit it to memory, but there's a lot going on and she's overwhelmed and she will start like tapping her fingers just like she did when she was a little kid trying to commit it to memory. Yorin goes over and tosses just a hunk of bread to you. She catches it. Goes and says, so half arrested by the empire. They're still pretending to be nice to me.

I'm very useful. big, like too big a bite of how crusty is this bread? Because Suvi's going to overbite and maybe lose what little dignity she has, sort of gnawing on it. I think at this point you have moved through such a liminal space. Like, you died in that river. Is this a dream? Have some bread.

Yeah. Great. And urine just sits on the ground. And you see that the other shape changers seeing this change in energy kind of go off on they're on. Some of them go to sleep. Others are busy prepping or planning something else. You see a few of them take some of the wet things out of the riverbag

like spellbooks of fallen soldiers, things like that, start to review and go through them. And Yoran just sits on the cold, damp, muddy dirt of this smuggler's cave, cross-legged opposite you and chewing on some bread

goes, you killed some good people in Amison. of mine. For what it's worth. I'm kind of sorry. You are going to kill my boyfriend. This bread is thick.

You see? You see? Yorin nods. It says, I don't know who your boyfriend is, but yes, I was probably going to kill him. It's okay. We broke up. And I want to turn and point to the people kind of going through effects. And if I see any like embossing or insignia for, or the coronet.

I'll point out and be like, prioritize that. That's going to be better stuff. Don't worry about the soldiers. You see, they look around, Yorin is just fully, his wrinkled forehead, eyes so wide and a kind of amused wonder. And he turns and nods to the shape changers here,

nods to his soldiers. You see, he goes, I never knew how softened stone. We went to Silbury to drop you off with Wren because she had already bowed out at that point. And you needed to be safe. Bowed out?

Do you know? I mean, what would you know? Okay, okay. I understand that you're trying to re-contextualize because I was a little kid. I don't love that tone. You are Stone's daughter. I cannot believe. Uh, all right. I see we're just going to sit down, uh, cross-legged in front of him. Just get comfortable, post up. I'm dead, so why not have a fun conversation as my brain fires every neuron simultaneously as I drown in a river.

I knew that Soft and Stone were sent to spy on me, but I knew that they were more sent to spy on the houses of Gouthmi. When I first met them, this was early days' citadel. Soft was exploring the near spirit, and Gouthmi was experimenting with ways to get around teleportation wards. In any case, I knew that. They were Citadel rats, but fuck the houses of Gouthmi and fuck the sorcerers. And so I said, let's work together.

But I got to know them, and I just, well, everyone's a bastard in this line of work, but they were all right. We started working together, and it started to run parallel for me with the help they were giving me and Gouthmi to help them out with this thing called the League of Whispers. You've heard that term. I don't know much, but yes. The League was, to their understanding, a rot, a cabal, a conspiracy within the Citadel. And a group forum called the Akadur, which mostly was Wizards of the Citadel,

but some allies outside myself and grandmother Wren included. Amongst various and sundry of their tasks, the Akadur worked outside of the chain of command of the Citadel, which is not very legal. They don't like it when you don't do what they say. No. But steel, soft, stone, friends in the artificers Guild and Haverward and other places they... They wanted to save the Citadel. They thought that this League of Whispers had taken over and was... There were a number of pieces of important research that they believed the League was involved in,

that we were going to warp the mission of the Citadel and change, I don't know, in their wizards. No offense. And taken. We had been working for years. and the day before Roof attacked, the Acadator had its breakthrough and caught what they believed to be leaders of the League of Whispers, brought them to justice,

enormous victory, and learned that the League of Whispers was acknowledged and accommodated by the leadership of the Citadel. no rot no cabal just another name

for another compartment for another task can I insight check him I need this to be a lie real real bad give me an insight to check natural 20

I cannot believe that fuck look at it look at it look at it I'm not going to touch it damn on a nat 20 Yorin believes every word he is saying. Fully, truthfully. One sec. And Suve's going to push herself up to standing and vomit.

Yorin, his steely, dangerous, feral composure completely subsides and he goes, whoa! And gets up and rushes over and grabs you and you see, help. you down to the floor, rushes over to a canteen, and gets water. And you see he opens it, whispers something into the neck, and you just smell sweet honeysuckle. You've never seen urine cast a nice spell before. And he hands the canteen to you. She was going to look down at it, pray that he has just made poison very sweet. And I know it's very dramatic, but Suvie feels like she is dying, Right, and then it's going to sip it.

And it tastes so good. Thank you. I'm sorry. And I'm going to prostitititate the sort of river water, little bit of bread, barf. Can I have a new bread? Yeah. Hey, toss me a new bread. You see someone tosses it over and he hands it to you.

Okay, let's keep going. So the jig was up, and we walked out of this. They're feeling like our guts had been hollowed out and up was down and black was white and like the sky and the sand couldn't tell wondering. You don't have to do all those metaphors. I get it. I just threw up. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I'm feeling it. In this moment. There were some loose threads left. There was this last mission that was part of my thing, which was going after the sorceress Nahani in Gouthmite. that she was preparing a ritual at the tomb of Urshana the 8th. It's one of the sun kings of old Gouthmi. So that was the plan.

That's what we were going to do because there was still a possibility that would worry about mind control, and maybe there had been an enchantment placed on some of the Arkmagy of the Citadel and the roof attacked the very next day. And so we had to get out. And the only safe place to stow you if the Citadel wasn't going to be safe was Grandmother Wrens. So to Silbury we went, and there were attack ships waiting for us in Silbury. So the jig was up.

And by the time that was done, and we got all the way to Gouthmi, Soft and Stone looked at me and they said, we're going to split up. We have to run down these leads over here that you are going to be Citadel top secret, and you're not going to be able to accompany us there. So we will see you at the, we will rendezvous outside of the tomb of the sun king. We'll meet up at our waypoint and we'll take the tomb and try to stop this ritual. And I separated from them and realized that my friends had lost their mind. We had been made and that I had said over and over again, this is pointless.

There's nothing left for us to do here. And they couldn't or wouldn't give up. But you don't live doing what I do for as long as I've lived, making bad bets. We lost time to stand up from the table and walk away, and they didn't have that in them. What did you do? Went to ground, got back in touch with some of my old friends, other people working against Gouthmi. And I said, I've spent enough time on the empire, time to focus my efforts. back on my homeland.

And I did that for 10 or so years, and then realized that pretty soon the empire's going to be all of our business. Maybe I was foolish to walk away. Formation, you, this won't mean anything because I'm dead at the bottom of a river. I'm sorry for spending the lion's share of my life, hating you. I don't know that I deserve kind thoughts or feelings. That's what this all is.

A giant churning machine. Monsters out of men. Had to be a monster just to try to stop it. And don't think it's lost on me that that means the machine worked. And in common. Reaches out and puts a hand on you. You're not dead at the bottom of a river. there's a

frightening, violent, unhappy world waiting out there. But you're not dead and every morning that there's blood pumping in your body

you get to decide what to do about that big, bad world waiting for you out there. Yeah. Where are you trying to get to? Oh, God.

I kind of hope I'm dead. Okay. And Suey's just going to like, kind of push back from his hand and like post up takes another bite of the bread and is going to explain

the rough game plan of herself, Ursulaan, and Amme trying to slip past Galfmei's like siege in order to get into 12 Brooks to stop the empire. As you lay out this plan, you see Yoran's eyes go wide

and his jaw opens. You see the other shape changers who've kind of been like playing cards and fucking around. You started talking about this plan, they can't help but be interested and start to turn around and look. You're in, look, at the end of your story

looks over and says, why? Why get to the middle of 12 books? What's the plan you're trying to stop? There's a bunch of children. They're keeping children. The Grinot. That's where they are.

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