Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #47: The Battle of Twelve Brooks Part 1

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

In the sky, war. On the ground, blood. There goes the neighborhood.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: Shannon and Amanda Freberg! And YOU, the listener, for your patience. You are braver than a troops.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. The epiphany completed after five years of construction in 1662 was the largest imperial skycraft ever built at the time of its construction and was never matched in its age in terms of its overall combat capability, nor a number of battles seen. The fastest capital ship in the Kemsarazan fleet, the epiphany was originally constructed by high shipwright Augustus Herministrix in conjunction with Spellcraft

by the wizard's swift sort of the citadel. for whom the ship was requisitioned. Inherited by the wizard's steel and her ascension to the Tower of the Sword in 1664, the Epiphany boasted 144 guns across six gun decks and was crewed by no less than 500 sailors of the Azure Battalion, 200 named-cloaked Wizards of the Citadel, 80 to 100 war mages,

and a support crew of between 30 to 50 Tomori-bound spirits and imperial constructs, along with the staff of 90 pilots and artificers to serve the Epiphany's three dozen single-fighter Gallopter support craft. Using over 20,000 yards of arcane ruby weave in the construction of its original, with the working of over a ton and a half of gold bullion in the threading of its spell rope warding, the epiphany marked the single greatest expenditure of material resources in the citadel's history to that point.

The smallest of its arcane cannon contained in its onyx basin over 1,200 unique phrases in the lingua arcana in molten platinum script. Designated by the Archmage Sabre as the single greatest instance of sky crafting of its age, the epiphany was so named for the hope that its mere appearance on the battlefield would be sufficient to inspire compliance and camaraderie in those yet to offer their full loyalty to the Kemsar as an empire. And this loyalty, it so inspires in the beleaguered imperial source. soldiers of 12 Brooks as it descends from a fiery sky.

Cheers erupt from the last soldiers of the garrison of 12 Brooks, looking up not in reaction to a trap that had been set. No, a miracle. The cavalry has arrived. And all hope for the glorious empire is. not lost. Soldiers, spellworkers, Timori constructs raised their fists from the crumbling walls of 12 brooks beyond the flickering spellcraft warding illuminated from the high gemstones of the old castle. An imperial soldier raises a fist. The sword is here! The sword is here!

Hooting and hollering at the approaching fleshcraft dreadnots. that have inspired shuddering nightmares in every night previous to this one for that soldier. Crawling up through the rubble of the collapsed smugglers tunnel, you are still well outside the outskirts of 12 brooks, no longer measured in quarters of a mile, but you are probably, you know, more than 100 yards from the edge of the city. So the tunnel is your life's blood here, and you will need to try and seek it. Describe the landscape to you once more.

The imperial garrison behind that shimmering, diamond-fractured shield of warding magic around 12brucks. A vast army of Gouthmi, the houses Rwanda, Bahavi, and Kashif. enormous fleshcraft dreadnots, multiple spindly legs, long tentacles from the front of a featureless face. You see countless uniformed soldiers of Gautamai. You see tall fleshcraft sorcerers. You see moats of light on the horizon, which you take to be other sorcerers. You see that books that battle is about to... be pitched and commence.

And coming from the sky at the outer edge of that wave of fire burning underneath a stretch of the orange clouds, sky ships drop down several dozen imperial skyships. And at the front, the epiphany. You are currently in range of hundreds and hundreds of opponents. It would be impossible to run this combat. that as a normal D&D encounter. So we are going to abstract this because it's about to get as bad as any of you have ever seen. So what I would like is for a luck check.

This luck check is an abstraction of the horror that is less than a second away from unfolding. This luck check will determine the highest possible value that you can roll on any check you make. What? So if I get a 17. It means that you can roll any die on your turn that you want, and the highest value it can get is a 17. But if I were to roll a six.

If you were to roll a six, it would mean that the amount of horror visited upon your exact location makes competence impossible. Cool, cool, cool. Lou, pick a die. Don't fucking. Together. We died together. That one.

Okay. 16. 16. Thank you. Thank you. There is a moment where the perspective of the task you have come here to accomplish to its importance puts you at the center of your own story. And suddenly you realize you are bugs that have crawled out of some rubble at the edge

of one of the continent's largest events in its history. At an outcropping of rubble, you look around you and see combat commence. The front sky ships of the Imperial Fleet. Galathopters, hundreds take to the sky. As they do so, you hear in Galath, a mighty voice. Antari tracts of lightning mixed with pure force begin to scour the earth.

You see that there is about a 40-foot line of that for which it would be impossible for a mortal being to survive as it scours across the earth. As you are standing here, I need everyone here to make a dexterity savings throne. And remember, you cannot roll a 17 or higher. So if I roll over 17, I just have to say 16?

Oh, 16, yeah. What did you get? You get to that 20? I got 19. I got an 18. So 16. 11. 11.

As you charge forward, Ursula, you go prone farther out, as you're leading the charge up out of the tunnel. The impact with which these arcane beams of lightning and force are hitting the ground, even farther away than puts you in any danger of being vaporized, is shaking the ground so hard that the top two feet of soil and the first three or four feet of air that is above the ground are mixing with the impact, like standing in front of a speaker. Just ground and air are mixing such that you are wading and fall prone and suck in lungfuls of dirt and rubble as you hit the deck. Ame and Suvi leaping in front of you, Yorin surrounds you with his body.

as you see just light and fire rain down in area of effect over you. Rings and discs of some green light move out in flat plains. About maybe, you know, 60 yards away, a front line of Antari, which is the goutth word for cousins, which is also the word they use for foot soldiers. The front line of them are decapitated. As behind them, you see several of them hit their chest, and their foot soldiers grow to be about 12 feet tall. Just about 300 men become 12 feet tall as they start running. Up above you, you see one of the Kashifi Dreadnoughts lumbers forward as a ship goes to give it the side of its gun deck.

It fires out no effect on the dreadnought whatsoever. And as the ship peels away, the dreadnoughts. tentacles wrap around the back of the ship, it hits its engines to see a blast of blue arcing fires, it tries to pull away. The Dreadnought pulls it closer. You hear a maddening, whispered screech from the opening of an orifice in between its tentacles. And those Shohoran, the 20-foot-tall-cloded sorcerer monsters, leap from the orifice from the carrier dreadnought. and just start slaughtering imperial wizards, Imperial Guild wizards, by the bushel.

One of them decapitate someone who spent 20 years unraveling the mysteries of the universe in a movement so fast it can't be perceived by your eyes. Look up and see in this moment that from the back ranks of the Gouth Army, several shadows begin to appear in space, It's almost like vapory shrouds. Under the orange clouds,

these feel almost like two-dimensional flickering, tattered blankets of a dark charcoal smoke. And as they do, you begin to see the flicker of spirits of a nightmare just pour out of them. Holes in the sky, partially translucent demons begin to pour out of them. You see them as faint, vapor, but you see that on one of the imperial sky ships, they do not see vapor. Their nightmares have been called here to this place, and to them they will be more real than any other part of this battlefield. The epiphany drops down and begins to charge directly towards the lead

dreadnop that is leading the charge that you can see has its massive sort of fleshy and yet somehow insectoid body towering over the battlefield is swollen. It's massive fleshy pouches full of gouth kashifi soldiers, ready to break through the wards of 12 o'us. It is far in the lead and raises its tentacles up at the approach of the Epiphany. The Epiphany's front-eight arcane cannon converge. fire and seem to miss for a moment until you realize that all eight are firing at a point in space, about 60 feet in front of the ship. Thin green lines of light converge to a single point, swell in a sphere of bright green light,

and fire forward and hit the dreadnought in the center, pushing its fleshy corpus like a massive finger being dug into the sun. stomach of an unsuspecting opponent, and yet it does not die. Instead, the green boom hits it. A shimmer goes over its skin

as something very important is dispelled. The voice of the wizard steel calls out over the battlefield. 1,600 irulian bolts emerge from the epiphany. Each of these

bolts, on average, does three and a half points of damage. With the almost 1,000 person crew of the Epiphany, all of whom are capable of casting this spell, 5,000 points of damage are dealt to the dreadnought, immediately vaporizing it, and unmaking every single soldier and sorcerer aboard. You are first to act as hell breaks loose, And reality itself buckles under the weight of too many mortals who wield the power of the spirit,

Umura, and the dance between them. Fuck. Okay. Uh, looking around really quick. My eyes are on Ursula on, but we popped up to like overshed. You are up and out. You are the farthest out in front of the goutth army. Uh, go ahead and give me a perception check.

Nine. Okay. So urine's on top of you. You're looking out from underneath the bulk of his body through his limbs. You can see some of the sky. The light coming is messing with your ability to see. Because it is dark clouds, dark everywhere, dim, orange glow. And then it'll be a blast of lightning that will fry your retinas for a second.

On a nine, you know the direction you are supposed to be heading in because you can feel the other shape changers coming out of the opening behind you. And you know from the map, it's supposed to be straight. The only issue is on a nine, you don't know how much collapse there is. You don't know, like, if the whole rest of the tunnel collapsed, this opening could be all the way through a distant field towards, like, 12 Brooks itself. Yeah. With that, then, I'm going to point at Ursula on and cast message.

Because now I know, shut up. Too many people are yelling orders, and they'll start to hear things that don't sound like orders soon. So point, send message. Do you need help getting up? We have to get back into the tunnel. We're not safe up here. I'm fine. The opening should be forward.

Cool. In the casting of that, I will bust out my first secret of the day, secret of the twilight crown. Too much light play. I'm going to call the darkness from those clouds and reject the brightness of that light. and give us, like, dim cover. You look up, and as you call them, you have that last moment of looking all the way up to the top of 12 Brooks, see the gleaming purple and green gemlight of the old castle,

the central garrison, where the great bullfrog looked some few days ago and attempted to do what you now hope you might do in his stead. The children of the Grinot, if they are anywhere, are there. And it is your task to save them. Ursulaan, what do you do? I assume that Suvi is charging forward. Ursulaan, you're doing the same, any action or bonus action.

I will make the same check that Suvi attempted to make. I'm also looking for where on the battlefield is that. How great was the collapse? I'll go ahead and give me perception. And that one will do. It is taking every bit of your concentration to try to find places to put your feet as the earth separates from itself. Look around you and see the impact of these arcane cannon on the ground. Boulders are being lifted from the air by the impact of these.

At any given moment, there are probably two or three score arcane cannon on the landscape around you, pummeling the hillsides, scorching the earth. You look behind you, Ursuline, and see a squadron of gout soldiers running. A cannon moves in front of them, and you see doesn't even hit them to vaporize them. Its impact on the ground buries 20 men alive. They are running. The beam hits the earth, mixes earth and air with the power of its thunderous impact, and when it leaves, they are underground suffocating and dying.

Ame. Amé charges forward following hot on the heels of her friends. At any moment, she is ready to deploy a sound, a smell, a texture, anything to calm them should more horrors burst up right in front of them, ready in action. Incredible. I'm going to need an athletics or acrobatics check from everybody. You are running across difficult terrain so you only have half your movement. available to you, and it's going to be a DC-10 to stay headed in the right direction. That's a 16 total from Amay. 13 total from Ersson.

Seven. You rush through the dark. Suvi, you call the darkness to yourself. You're moving through a road. You have dark vision when this is all, correct? So you are rushing forward as fast as you can. As you do, Ursulaan, you are following Suva. You are protected by her magic in this moment.

you are right behind her, but you can see as Suvi is charging forward, that the natural slope of the hill is causing her to bear off right. You have spent around moving not away from your goal, but not in the correct direction for it. You are slightly off course in this moment. I'm going to need another luck check at the top of this next round. Lou, you do the honors. What's that? Ooh, a Nat three.

Oh, yeah. Charging forward. Suvi, your ears are ringing with the noise of shattering stone, shrieking lightning, the explosions of flame. The shadows are protecting you in this moment. As they do so, you hear from behind you horns blowing until you realize it is the muffled roar of a dreadnought that still has voice somewhere in its body. no mouth, roaring of a monster crafted for the express purpose of war. As it sees a moving shadow, you are protected, but the spell has called the shadow down to it. You look through your own

shadow protecting you, and one of the Zatzara, which are the openings into nightmare created by House Baha'i, opens overhead. and shines shadow down on you as well. You feel bathed in the meeting of these shades called to this place. You see, the dreadnought begins to barrel after you. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go. As this thing begins to roar and pursue you. And you see an imperial skyship, a royal skyship,

begins to move down as it pursues you, and you see, ringed by arcane light, pierce the darkness and the periphery of your darkness, so you have a 60-foot radius. These 10-foot radius spotlights cut through it like lights in the deep ocean. I'm going to roll a check here. What's happening?

You hug a tight circle in the center of this, As the light cuts through and narrowly misses you, they are searching through your patch of darkness, and you hear a voice in Imperial call out and say, Darkness, not sorcery. As though that is significant to them for some reason. See the Dreadnought barrels down. This Imperial Skyship is charging for the Dreadnought, and then you realize, no, it's charging for your darkness. On an 18 initiative, you see, Yorin goes.

run bounds away from you and he charges the dreadnought he reaches the dreadnought leaps halfway up to the first articulated knee joint of its many jointed leg climbing up like some great ape

he leaps to the top of its body raises a claw as though he was going to strike it dead and instead grabs its flesh faults into the air for all his strength, he need not even fly. He can leap anywhere on this battlefield he wishes to, and he calls down to the shape changers back to them.

Get them forward at any cost! He leaps through the air, claws up, grabs the prow of the imperial ship coming for you, rips its front cannons off, and begins to smash. the deck of the ship apart with a massive bald fist. You see the deck of that ship opens on him. Rays of fire, the Rulian bolts hit him to no effect. Suvian's moment you realize spells of third level and lower cannot affect Yorne.

A guild archmaid, one of the advisors to the court of the Saraz Imperium, comes out and levels a ray at his head, some powerful spell. You see Yorin begins to move across the deck. He sees the ray coming. And as the ray is about to hit him in the head, it is what you believe to be a ninth-level necromanic effect. It is the highest possible killing spell that there is. He goes dead in his eyes,

dies before the ray touches him. It blasts his head apart as he is throwing a punch. And you see that the punch, his tall and fist, turns into the head of a snake. and the snake moves. Another spell comes down on him trying to cut the snake in half, and he is a swarm of carrion birds,

of vultures that surround that mage, pick him apart in a moment, scatter his bones to the deck, and suddenly he has vanished, something the size of a beetle or a bug, goes between the planks of the ship, and moments later, the Garin reappears at the bottom of the ship,

hurling the arcane engine of the ship out into space as he rips it, from the deck. I'm dead. Okay, we're on the right team. Oh, God. I'm feeling really good about... Wow.

Honestly, three, three's not that bad. Three's not that bad when you got urine, you know. But I think you see in this moment that you no longer have urine. Yorin is gone from your company. He is now clinging to a crashing sky ship, probably now hundreds of feet away from you. But has called to his other shapeshifters to get you to the tunnel. as fast as they can. Sufi just watches that and then turns and tries to reorient herself and does like a little

look to Ursula on because I think he was the one that like claw, like, did you signal at all when you realized I was off course? I don't think so given the chaos. But if we are able to make eye contact, I think I will just kind of swing my arm. This, no, no. And it's just kind of pointing, just gesticulating to the right to kind of get us back on the straight path from earlier. All CIV needs is the no. That means that she needs to like recheck herself.

Can I make another check? Yes, give me another check. You are going to be rolling with disadvantage, but with the correction that Ursulaan is making here, you are only going to need a 10 to get back on course. So you're rolling investigation with disadvantage. Okay. The four on the die, we get there. What are the skill checks or anything else that Ursulaan and Amay are doing in this moment?

Or you just moving. Survive. Survive. Can I also, in that realization, like, I can't do anything. Everything's being deleted. And there's that moment where Suvi realizes that in all of her prep, she assumed we would still be like sneaking through the tunnels and there would be more time. And she hasn't cast mage armor on herself.

Yeah. And it's the most like, she casts it and it gives like a weird reflection of the sky before disappearing and it looks like she has her clothes on again but there's something in that like

urine's gone she feels exposed she casts mage armor she still feels exposed because this will mitigate damage but things aren't getting damaged they're getting deleted so she cast it and Paul's ass as we conclude your rent you guys get back on track but

have not made progress and the dreadnought is still barreling death. We're gonna roll another luck check on a one through five. It gets within its reach of you. Anything else and you are gonna be able to keep some distance ahead. A 16 or higher on this next luck check immediately finds the opening to the tunnel again.

Okay? Erica, you're gonna roll this luck check for us. And the dread not I wanna be clear is, it's a total party kill. It is of a challenge rating beyond... One through six. One through five. One through five.

Dreadnought catches up. And dreadnought is a total party kill. Unless we can befriend it. I'll make it ready. 16 or higher means you find the tunnel. Anything else means you continue to make progress through the darkness and the ash. It's a five. I'd like each of you to pick a discrete number between one and ten.

Don't... Five. Four. Lou, would you roll 2D10 for me? Four and three. Four and three. Who picked four? I did. One of the shapeshifters in the form of a wolf next to you, rushing towards the darkness,

as you guys stumble, the ground gives way. Now the problem is that a landslide is starting of shale and rubble and the ruined landscape, just from the beating of the Dreadnought's massive legs. So as chasing you, the tremors in the ground are causing you to slip and stumble. Next to you, one of the shapechangers, a very sure-footed panther, leaps forward, scrambles for a second, a tentacle whips from the sky, grabs it, strangle, cracks the neck, gone. Shape Changer dead. It's going to attack Ursula.

Hurslun was your honor class? Nighteen. As the shape changer vanishes, you wheel around. shield up and you are knocked back, stuck easily sliding 10 feet across the rubble as the shield rings, as a tentacle is thick as an ancient tree, lashes out from the sky at you. Honestly, I'm kinda up right now, you know?

That went as good as it good. If I had rolled either of your numbers, you'd be dead. Yeah, you're right. It like worked, I'm right now, I'm up. I'm waiting for more description, but I'm up right now. Ursula, of your many achievements as a warrior, you have survived the blow of a Kashifi Dreadnought.

Wild. Unbelievable. Brennan? Yeah. How would you classify a Dreadnought? In terms of its creature type? Yes. Aberration.

Okay. Yeah, that feels appropriate. But you'd say it was a creature? Yes. And it just attacked Ursula. Yes, correct. Well, Ursulaan carrying the little doodle of the fox on his shield as my token, being attacked by this creature,

means that light would probably wreathe the tentacle that struck him and curse it. Oh, shit! Let's go! Retribute of curse! The activation is harm. The creature attacks or deals damage to you, you're familiar, or a creature holding a token or talism. created. You tell me which

of these curses you want to use. Let in shoes. Unbelievable. And also, because it has transgressed against a witch of Umura, you have offered no harm or insult to this beast. It has lashed out at one who

carries your token. There is no saving throw. The curse simply takes effect. As the tentacle whips forth to strike at Ursula it is met with that same glowing fox fire from basement. It breathes the tentacle.

It shoots upwards, coating the entire dreadnought. And suddenly it feels heavy. It's so, so very heavy. It slows to crawling molasses. And it has leaden shoes. It cannot move faster than five feet, and it cannot take opportunity attacks. Opportunity attacks for a group of people,

in its 50 foot tentacle reach is pretty huge. Amazing. Ah, I'm standing in. Let's go. Yes. Witchcraft, you stand, and you see this creature suddenly hobbles. Buckle under its own weight as a massive, you can feel the atmosphere from directly over it to the top of the sky.

compress with a burden of responsibility for the wrong it has committed in this place. I would like you immediately, Erica, with that dope-ass move to roll and luck check with advantage. Let's go! We'll take it. Twelve.

Okay, 12. 12 means you could potentially... So 12 opens up a range of possibilities depending on the skills you are using. You guys are going to surge forward from here to think how to take opportunities. has to put distance in between you and the dreadnought here. Behind it running up, seeing it hobble, you see the Antari charging,

the foot soldiers of the Army of Gouthmi, 12 feet tall, and they just look so small. You see them charging, and in the front, with a beautiful polished helm and a long nose guard, padded armor of purple and indigo with gold brocade. You see a 12-foot-tall sorceress foot soldier, a double-bladed staff, a staff that ends in two curving blades on each end, is running long strides. And as he looks up at the hobbling dreadnought,

you see in a flash of fire, and you get a good look at his face. this giant who is under the effects of a first level spell, an enlarge spell, is probably about 17 years old. And as the dreadnought hobbles, you see true fear strike his face and realize that much like you, this is the first time this soldier has ever seen combat. In this moment, there may be no lesson here for Amei. but it is a moment of your station

and for a moment across this blasted wasteland you see that a 17-year-old is probably about to meet his death having traveled across the world from some homeland that you and your friends may never see I'm going to need everybody here to tell me what they're doing with their turn Suvie is absolutely gripped in the that animal fear, but she's a pack animal. And the moment something in the herd looks weaker,

she knows to throw up signals for it. The moment Ame makes that reaction happen, and this dreadnought is letting and pointed out, Sufi points up to the sky and fires off just a burst of white, hot fire that's so deeply flavored like the sun and the sun and the sun. sand of the Aurelian desert that anyone looking will know that this is an imperial, a citadel, like, mark. And I want to try to mark that dreadnought for everyone looking up to go, this one's week aim for it as we run. Hell yeah. Go ahead and give me an arcana check, not in order to cast the spell, but in order to cast the spell persuasively and clearly. 21. In the far distance, you see the epiphany slow and begin to turn.

Ursulaan and Ami. Ursulaan on the ground alive feels hope. Feels like bringing himself here. He has purpose and he will not die here. And I think it's instinctively going to cast

bless as he thinks and looks at the shield and its tree and its fruit. and I think the wind kicks up. Looking up to the clouds overhead, an imperial craft that does not appear to have the long-keeled, aft and stern hull of a normal, dirigible, or sky vessel. It is instead under the sphere of a hot air balloon with four quadrants and sort of helicopter blades,

a kind of stationary hub craft, but absolutely enormous in size behind the swiftly maneuvering capital ships and battleships and frigates of the fleet. A platform that you can see, smaller than grains of sand, seven figures standing on a platform at the top of that station. In a massive crystal disk set into a marble stone platform, each raised their staves, point it at a single point. point in the sky, and you watch as a 200 foot by 200 foot, golden square of light appears at the bottom of the clouds. It's almost like a gilded picture frame. Emerging from that golden square, a dragon lowers its head and as it pushes through the

pushes through the threshold of the frame, you see golden chains stretch along its cheeks, find itself in its jaws, wrap around its horns and eyes, and keep it partially in that golden frame, its body turning into vapor and mist, as though that golden frame were just some portal from somewhere else, perhaps somewhere else familiar. And a line of steaming of steaming. arcan acid, bilious yellow, stretches across the wasteland and obliterates a battalion of gout soldiers as this dragon vomits forth its terrifying breath, ruining the land here for living life for generations to come.

I love the Cassov Collection. Fuck you guys. Fuck you guys. I quit. I'm going home. That's dope. That's dope, but I like it. I don't care.

I don't care. I especially love the chains and the cheeks part. You know, it's not even like a manacle around the neck. No, no. We have to get him to do this part as well. It is the next turn. I would love a luck check from Suvie here. Reminder, Nat 20s are going to break through the difficulty of finding the entrance is lowered to a 15.

But this is just a luck check for the round. 16 on the dice. 16 on the die Okay, as you are charging forward Go ahead and give me any checks you're making To find the entrance back to the smuggler's tunnel 21 Rushing forward through the rubble

You suddenly soon Feel yourself And slide hitting on your back And suddenly vanish for a moment Thinking death and ruin awaits you And instead slide into the darkness Of an open hole Into the far end of the tunnel

Where it picks up again after the collapse You have found it, you have made it. We leave initiative as you surge into the darkness. Rubble, ash, noise, violence, and suddenly, the welcoming cool of tunnel reopening with each footstep farther and farther from the chaos and nightmare of the battle unfolding outside. The cool stone, the falling earth from the impacts up above,

dust and debris roots growing in through the tunnel, still ushers you forward into darkness and safety. Moving forward as fast as you can, there is a moment where you feel far enough that there is a moment to stop and catch your breath and check in on one another. The wolf beside you turns to face the other shape changers, of which there are now only two.

Yihanna and one other. She looks back out and barks at the beginning of the tunnel, turning back, she says, Separated. Do you see them fall? And you see that next to her that a mountain lion shakes its head back and forth. All right. They may have joined Yoran. And turns to face you.

You see the fox looking around. You are back in the tunnel. Do you continue forward? Ursuline looks to his true friends, just gauging harm. Yeah. I'm okay. Are you okay?

I'm fine. I'm fine. Okay. Pull out the map. Double check. This tunnel will lead you into the western part of 12 Brooks, the sort of western ward of the city. You don't know exactly where it will end up. The map was drawn, again, over dinner on a piece of butcher's paper and does not have a block-by-block depiction of the city.

But you know it will let out somewhere on. the western half of the city, which is the half facing combat. It will continue probably to another sluice. There will be another great. Past that great will be the end of the smugglers' map. It will be you in the city together. All right. So we'll emerge somewhere in the city. We'll make our way to the central garrison, find the children. And in terms of escaping. I have a knife that might be able to point our way, but... Oh, you were the sea glass that you took off of Keene. Yes.

It's a teleport spell. Oh. There are usually limits to how many people it is. I don't know how many kids are going to be there. I don't know if it's more than a... We can't take more than a dozen. But an unlimited number of people can go through a door. And I hold up one of the doorknoms. All right.

Okay, so we find a door Get the kids through They wait at your house We'll stay behind Pin a note to the front child You see the fox goes There she is Close the doors

We stay behind Take out the door knobs Take out the door knob Teleport and catch up Yeah I like it It's a very good escape plan Okay

Now we just have to deal with the fact that I think there is a new version of the Calabell automatic apparatus sort of sitting on top of the garrison. The lights were the same. Yeah. I do want to point out that the two remaining of the three here that hold power as great spirits are the Queen of Coins and the stranger, the one that came to the cottage.

Your point? Just that one of those two could show up. I'm going to ask a question, and I understand that comes with a sort of loaded energy from me. If one of them shows up, do you want that to happen? No. Because now the arch-mages know how to capture them. Exactly.

Or destroy them. I also feel, amen. When we arrived here, the spirit is gone there is something this place is a wasteland but what do you mean there is no song

the great bullfrog is gone he's gone not captured the way naram was I think he's truly gone Ursula is going to look to Sufi and would like to make an insight check Ursulaan recognizes the ship. We've traveled on it before.

I think Ursulaan is going to give you, it's just a once-over, but it is trying to see if there is a part of you that is. I think also with the spell, the white, the marking spell that didn't feel like it was for our benefit. I think it's just going to glance over at you

an insight check with regard to Suvi's feelings about the possibility that steel is here. Give me an insight check and persuasion or deception your call. 15. What does Ursulaan read on Suvi? What you clock off of her words and why they are so careful is not that she's trying to, like, the carefulness is not about placating you or convincing you of her affiliation. she is trying to mentally step around the problem she hasn't solved yet, which is my mother is here and she knows that I'm here and she will find me.

I don't know how to get. I don't know. Like that's the variable she can't deal with yet. And because she doesn't have a solve for it, she's trying to step around it. But like you know Suey well enough to know that like that is a thing of concern, not her like not trying to play her hand. Got it. But it doesn't feel like there's a part of you that's not here focusing on it. She's thinking about it, but it's very much in the like, I'm trying to grab variables and solve them.

Okay, I'm thinking about this. Walk around the thing. Steel is so big in her mind that you are watching her try to circumnavigate a thing that she doesn't even know how to begin to tackle. Move forward through the tunnel and arrive at an iron sluice. You once again hear more crisply the distant sounds of, combat and war, only because you are nearer to fresh air once again after being deep underground. Looking out through the sluice under the dim orange light, you see a curving street of cobblestones moving down. This great is supposed to dump floodwater or rainwater out onto the street,

which itself has more storm drains underneath it. You think this is like a foundation or buttress wall of a neighborhood above you. So like a big curving wall that follows a road with houses and shops on top of it, sort of raised up in a raised neighborhood. Looking at the sluice, you think this sluice is probably about not an easily jumpable distance, but probably about four or six feet up on the side of the wall. So you're kind of looking down at the road curving away. Anyone who wants to can make a perception check for me. What's our upper limiter again? We are out of luck checks. This area. Now that we're back, now that you have found a little bit of quiet and have moved away from combat, your actions are your on again.

Copy. We are not at the vagaries of insane luck right now. Eight for Ursula. 23 for Amé. 18 for Suvi. Great. Amé, walking up towards the sluice, you notice that in between the slats of the great. There is small sort of metal tin mesh, like of a screen,

like the you see on a screen door or something like that, that appears to be added here. Recently? Yes, it is not of the making of 12 brooks. You can see that these grates have been uniform. The one back in the smugglers cave did not have it. this mesh would be to like keep mice or insects from traveling through, but that's sort of a, there's a degree of that why would 12 Brooks care that like as floodwater gushed out into a storm drain that like there's a bug in there.

And I'll ask for a luck check from Lou here. Different kind of luck check. Different kind of luck check. Different kind of luck check. Six. You are quite near the harbor with the entire length of the city up to the garrison, which is you think probably why it's your so. There was probably not a world where 12 Brooks designed a floodwater sort of like escape route

to come to the top of their town. It was probably always going to be like this, that it was going to come down here and be near the harbor. And looking at the great, there's a new part. that has been added that is not for the purpose of what 12 Brooks would need. I pointed out, this mesh has been added recently. Can I give it another look, but use investigation instead?

Yeah, go for it. 25. Without even needing to cast detect magic, you become aware of an alarm spell. This is magically trapped. Can we use the agent? Yes, we can. And I've got three vials, so I'll use...

Separate from R2? Yes. I got two from... She got three. From my guys. We got two. Two from my guys, and I had one from earlier in the ark. Okay, incredible.

So, yeah, I'll use the oldest stuff. Great, you get the oldest stuff, pop the cork, pour it out, and watch as the dispelling agent. It's only a first-level spell. Completely erases the match, and the mesh actually just... dissolves like sugar and water. I will need everyone here to give me a perception check. And what I would like is for Ursulaan to do that with advantage.

I'd like you to roll separately for the Fox and roll with advantage for him. Ah, fun. 16 on the dive for the Fox. Okay. 11 for Ursula. 16 for Sui. 22 for Amme. Amé.

As Sufi uncorks the bottle and the mesh disappears, smell beeswax, abric, and you smell, you smell ghost. Do I smell it? No! From the dispelling agent? Yes. Hursalon, you see some of the agent dripping down the steel grate in front of you, a single drop. modified alchemically

this is blood oh in Losson we have to go to Carrow they have her in their court the glass cornet yes

we'll save her we have to save the children first we will it's okay I don't need to be comforted that was for me forward then

And I'm gonna open the sluice out. You push the sluice out. It hits the ground in front of you as you leap out to the street. Remembering a young girl and a stone construct carrying the blood of spirits, an artificer with a talent for dispelling an innate gift. Arriving out on the street, Lihanna and her wolf form the panther beside her. She turns up to you and says, Do you want us to scout ahead if we can't?

Or do you want us to, is it more important for you to be stealthy? Or is it more important for you to have a fighting force with you? I would lean stealth. We are few. We are strong. But if we can avoid, if we can avoid combat, I believe we should as long as we can. We'll provide you cover.

Laada turns over to her companion And each of them turns into a small winged bird One of them, a crow And you see another one turns it into a dove Flies off We are going to be making checks To get up through 12 Brooks I'd like each of you to roll a D4 for me

Four Two Three We rolled a four A two and a three for a total of nine. Nine checks. There are going to be nine checks to get through here.

Is there anything you do out on the street as you look up at the shattered ruins? Most buildings in this part, in the wide western ward of 12 Brooks, most buildings have between one and two walls left standing. It is skeletal, rubble-filled waste with enough gasps of buildings left to obscure visibility, to stand in the way to, as you move through these winding cobblestone streets,

in a city that came up very organically on a hillside, this is probably one of the last good views you'll get of the garrison before you have to dive into the destroyed honeycomb of 12 bruce. I'd like to make a check on the garrison looking at it from a distance. Okay. Is there anything else of architectural or landscape significance or some sort of a hidden path?

There is nearer to the water torrent where the empty crater of Lake Padstone begins. You see that there is a cracked or a sort of amphitheater down near the base of the city with its stone benches largely cracked in some impede. impact of Arcane Cannon. And you see that there are waterways going up. The waterways are not smooth. They are rock-filled and filled with boulders, that any moss or plant vegetation has died under the ash and ruin here. But there's a decision that I will allow you to make here in this moment. The waterways are, go unfailingly to the old castle, but they are the most exposed to the sky. They're the most exposed to those who would watch and see them as pathways.

I will allow you to cut the number of checks you need to make in half by going up the waterways, and you will roll all of them with disadvantage. Amai peers up at the garrison at the top of what seems to be an insurmountable hill and notices that the pathways that lead down to it, though dry, are direct. Can we get up there? without being seen. It can be invisible for an hour. I think we shouldn't. And the shadows will guide us.

All right. Up the waterways then. What is the shadows will... Okay. Ursula is going to follow the path that Amé has laid out. And I think open up his divine sense. And call on the promise that was made the previous night. The spirit of be free is to be unimpeded, and the shadows will not betray you.

Each step of yours, guarded by the power of night and the promise of unfettered travel, not only for yourself, but in the spirit of true liberation for those under your protection. Hame and Suvi, you watch the shadows of the waterways of 12 Brooks. stretch, not at the command of Ursula. But simply in deference to who and what he is. As though the very force of nature itself knew in its heart that this was simply. We are going to begin. We are going to cut down to five checks from nine. You're going to make them with disadvantage. They are group, stealth checks. Additionally, your two shape changers that are running interference for you

are going to give you two re-rolls. All right, for an individual. A Nat 1, should it be rolled, is an immediate encounter with the garrisoned forces here within 12 Brooks. Additionally, for each of the five rolls, we are going to roll a luck check as well. and on a one through four, you will encounter a group. It does not mean that you will be spotted,

but there will be an encountered group there, all right? Let's get our first stealth check. Ursulon's rolling straight because of your boots. Suvi and Ame are rolling with disadvantage, but you are now adding plus 13 to your check. Do I still have disadvantage if I cast invisibility on myself? Oh, if you cast invisibility, I will say you will roll with advantage if you have invisibility in yourself. I've come upon a second problem.

Suvi goes to cast invisibility as she did for the first time when they were making their way through the Shroud Mountains. And she reaches for her ring and it's not there anymore. I don't have an arcane focus anymore. Asked magic since then. I just don't know how I did it now that I'm thinking about it. You need to get a war staff somewhere in the city. Okay. I need.

It'll be fine. What do you need? I don't have my ring anymore. I don't know how to cast without it. We'll find you what you need. Okay. let's go ahead you'll be rolling with disadvantage Ami will be rolling with disadvantage

Roll for the fox as well with disadvantage You'll add a 15 Ursulaan you're rolling straight It's a natural one Natural one Ursula 29 Amme

16 And then for the fox Nine on the die Plus 15 is 24 The Nat one is going to Trigger in this moment Unless you use one of your shape danger re-rolls.

I personally would like to. Yeah, yeah, 100%. Okay. Just laughing and I'm trying not to like say things and sound gleeful. Amay, leading up through the waterway that you found that goes to the garrison, give me our luck check for this first of five checks. 12. Okay.

Now when we're going to re-roll that? Yeah. Great. 22. You see, winding your way out through the waterway, there is a slip on stone and a loud noise. However, nearby you, you see that the guard tower overlooking this section, you look up waiting to have been spotted from that loud noise you've just made, and look up and see a dark red trickle from the watchtower and an imperial guard's lind. and then paned hanging over the side. I think it's very clear to both of you that Suvi's bell looks rung now.

I'm sorry, I'm here for you. And I tap you, hold your hand again. Guidance. At my fingers in your hand, in a little rhythm. To your breath. And she taps back, matching it. Thank you.

There is going to be another check. Go ahead and give me stealth. 26. 30-20. 23 for Amay and the fox. Incredible. Abrea, would you give me the lock check? I'm going to throw up.

14. Okay. You make your way through a long, straighter, broader area of the waterway. You look out into a small square. You see what looks like a strange stone, and then it's actually just an enormous mold-covered wheel of cheese. broken on the ground nearby. Moving through along straightaway,

we're going to make our third of five checks as you get into the heart of the city up near its academic center. Go ahead and... Roll anywhere. Go ahead and give me another stealth check. 21 for CIV. 19 for her salon.

21 for Ame? 24 for Fox. Okay. Lou, go ahead. Give me our luck check. 17, motherfucker. Who! Fuck you! Moving up through the academic section of town, you see the ruins of a library and an academy.

You see amongst the rubble sticking out the shape of those that stood at the door of the academy, begging that the building be left to stand. Go ahead and give me another stealth check. This is going to be our fourth of five. 22 for Suvi. 19 again. 21 for the fox. 15 for Amé.

Amé, you look, and for the first time in the ruins of this place, you see what feels like a warm and inviting splash of color. There is the remains of an archway, and you see streaking color across the ground. in front of it. There is something up ahead that looks like, it's hard to tell if it's magic right now at this distance or there's ash and debris around, but there just seems like a splash of color on the street that catches your eye. You stop for a moment, unfortunately you are a little bit short, so you're going to have to hoist yourself up to get a better look at it.

As you clamber up, the archway leads to the ruins of a Weaver's Guild, and there is a a shattered amphora of dye, clay on the ground. What looked from a distance like magic is simply the ruins of the beautiful workings of this place of artistry and wonder. As you clamber to the boulder, there is a slip of a stone, and you are hit with a fairy fire spell roll initiative. 16 for Alme. 16 for Ursula. Nine for Suvi. Okay.

Weiling around, you see them immediately. immediately. Amit, as you come up across the surface, you see that there is a wizard of the citadel standing, a blue-robed wizard holding a staff of the Citadel who has just cast fairy fire at you from an open window in basically a freestanding section of wall. And so it has partial cover and running around the corner, you see two imperial infantry with matchsticks running forward. You see this small area here. Behind the wall here, you can see that there is a tarp over two or three boxes of munitions with a broken wheelbarrow. It looks like this group was accompanying a wizard up to a gunning station up towards the garrison, bringing supplies from

down below, and this wheelbarrow broke and pinned them down here in the middle of the city. And just has the look on the wizard's face, having cast very fire, is that he has, he has been chattering his teeth, feeling that some bird or insect or invisible thing was about to crawl over the wall and kill him maybe for the past day or week. Amme, pushing yourself over. You hear Kazas. As a spell illuminates you in glittering citadel light. You are now a beacon down here, even though the shadows no longer betray you, the part of you up over the riverbank is covered in this blinding light. You take ten. points of damage from a bolt of flame.

First to act as these sleep-deprived, exhausted, malnourished soldiers leap into action is going to be Ursulaan and Amme sharing an initiative of 16. I think Ursulaan continuing to move with Shadow is going to pop out and move swiftly and directly toward the imperialist who just hit Amme. Okay, so you staying in the gulch, rush in the opposite direction from the charging Imperial infantry, leap up behind them and close around the side of the wall before the wizard knows anything is going on. Hewist around to see a spirit barreling down on him. Go ahead and take your action.

I will be attacking. And for the first time in this campaign, you will be attacking twice in one action. Oh! Do I have advantage? Yes, you do. and 18 on the die, hits? Yes, it does.

Seven points of damage. You give seven points of damage to this wizard. He looks injured and cries out. You see, in reaction, he casts a shield on himself that your sword breaks through. You have your second attack. 14. 14 does not hit.

You slashed him for seven points of damage. As he moves back, trying to get away from you as fast as possible. Amé, that is your turn. Amay snaps her fingers and sparks ignite into a flame in her hands.

She hurls it at the cart of munitions. I also had explosive ordinance, question mark. Yes. Hell yes. Give me an attack roll. You are trying to overcome eight

points of damage to ignite the cart. 23. That is a hit, go ahead and roll damage. Five. The ammunition card catches fire behind you, and the fire takes. You will be able to roll that damage again on the next turn, and if you do the last three points of damage, it's going to go up. Ursulaan, you see this.

Great. Suvi, that is going to be your turn. Suvi, still bell rung, feeling weird about her magic, but there are easier spells, things that don't require focus and concentration, that she has practiced so many times that she doesn't need. need to think about them to cast them. I reach to that, and even though this spell will come off with all of the heat of the Erulyan desert, because that's the way she was trained to cast it, I will growl in gout, light of the tower, and hit that same conflagration again. Great.

If you hit, you just need to do three points of damage to it. 19 plus 7. 26. 26. Go ahead and roll damage. Nine points of damage. I'm gonna need dexterity saving throw from Ursula, and I'm gonna need one from this Wizard of the Citadel as well.

Nine for Ursula. Oh, no. Ursula, you take 15 points of fire damage, as does the wizard, and he is torn to shreds. Ursula, you watch as his body breaks, buffeted more by the wind from the explosion. It's more that his spine snaps from just the concussive force,

though the flame does push him almost on top of you badly singe, you for 15 points of damage. I want to turn to the two infantry men and do my best approximation of speaking Imperial with a goutth accent. Okay. You don't have to die here. Run away. Go tell them.

The munitions blew up. Go ahead and give me intimidate. We're going to call this a difficulty of 17. 14. Okay. Hearing the goutth, the words in goutth, you see that the infantry, the infantry, are shaking, malnourished, and have completely ejected

from their conscious minds. They are pure training. The imagery fire twice and both miss. And are going to rush down the street, not taking their full movement because they're firing their opening actions, but looking for cover once again

to continue to fire on you. Ursulaan and Ami, that is your turn. Ursulans going to chase them down. Okay. They are within range for you. You barreled forward. Go ahead and take your attack on the first one. 27.

On the first attack. Hits. Go ahead and roll damage. 14 points of damage. Dead. Second one. 20. Hit.

Not net. 7 points of damage. Badly injured but still standing. Ercelon rushes forward, slashes across the chest, instantly killing one. and the other drops his staff to the ground and stabs him straight through the shoulder, the point of your blade exiting out through his back.

Amé. There's one soldier left with a very small amount of hit points left. Once again, Amay snaps her fingers. A ball of flame appears in it and she hurls it at the soldier. 18. That's a hit. Six points. You saw it the first time in Port Talon, burning the fields outside the city.

summoned to your hand. It launches forward as the infantryman raises his staff, lowering it point-blank at Erslan's chest. The sword pulled from his shoulder. The fire finds the wound and spreads through his body. His eyes glow with flame before erupting and he falls to the ground dead. The noise of the explosion has attracted attention, and you can see lights beginning to move towards this ward of the city. Minor illusion, I make it look as if somebody has run down another alley in the opposite direction. A figure disappears into the shadow. Lights begin to follow behind it.

We are going to have to re-roll our fourth stealth check with the attention that has been brought here in this moment. 21. 23. 23 for Amme? 22 for Fox. Incredible. As you see lights follow that shape, Ursula, you are standing in between two fallen infantry

soldiers. Suvi, you are standing in the bank here as well. What do you do? moment as attention comes to this area. Ursulaan just looks to his friends quickly and is going to kind of motion and begin to move in the same direction they were moving earlier. Okay, Suvi, what do you do? Suvi's eyes are locked on the staff where that wizard fell, but she's like, she isn't moving yet.

I'm better in a fight if I have, I don't have anything. We don't all know each other, but Suvie is cursed with an incredibly good. good memory. Yeah. Do I know the wizard I killed? Do I recognize the wizard I killed? Give me a history check. DC-10.

The wizard shilling. I think you see the, like, whatever. Civi's been circling the drain for a while. If there is light behind her eyes, it's out now. The wizard shilling was a, uh, understood to be one of those that barely clears the bar. An example of some older Archmagai who talk about the needs of empire

needing a flourishing citadel has hurt the standard to which a name cloak used to be held. But he's dead now, so he won't be spoken up in that way anymore. Let's go. Then I run. Final stealth check.

19 for Fox. 22 for Amay. 25. 15. Sube, would you go ahead and roll our luck check here as well? 15. Okay. And we have a...

This is our last roll. This is your last roll. And we have one re-roll left, and I'm going to ask, Suvie, do you want to keep that 15 stealth check? No. Okay. Re-roll your stealth. 21. Okay.

You make it? up the waterways, which is the best move you could have made, because every gate and every drawbridge into the old castle is crawling not only with infantry, but with constructs to Mori, and the heart of the last standing garrison of the empire here in 12 Brooks, sneaking in between now massive boulders, for indeed this moat around the castle must be mighty. You are 30 feet down in what could end up being 30 feet of water

if the bullfrog had not been destroyed. You look up and can see crackling up above on a bridge almost out of sight through the ash and debris of war. The menacing visage of a fiery tamori with numbers ready to spell out his version of a name. his eyes glance and before he alights on you and casts himself

draws his attention instead you look and here at the bottom of the moat you see up amongst the now dried slime and algae that once accompanied it ledges where frogs once sang and an iron gate that leads into dungeons in the bottom of the castle out of sight of the garrison above

What does the map show about this part? Old Castle was a haunt of run runners and smugglers that came here. There were gates under the surface of the water, but they got sealed up with iron, but they lead to subaquatic. There are some sort of water docks in the dungeon at the castle for rowboats and things like that. There's a little sea cave, river sea cave here at the bottom of the castle, but it'll be completely dry now.

And perhaps the old catacombs under the castle that were sealed up might be accessible from this point. You think that this door is not uncommon. And you also see that the spell energy being projected from the castle around the city means that this castle is not being guarded, like the city is being guarded. Does that make sense?

They're keeping the outer wall, so the inner wall is not where their focus is. right now. What's the space between us and is it a matter of climbing? It's about a 20 foot climb. Okay. Ursulaan is going to step up to Suvi. Would you like to stay here?

Why? What? What are you saying? You seem distracted. You don't seem present. You've been through so much. And I understand that. Do you?

I understand that you have been through a great deal. I do not feel. the way that you do. I could not understand that, but I understand that there is immense weight on you. However, the weight that carries me pushes me forward. If the weight that you carry holds you down and in this moment, I would leave you here and come back for you when there is time. Sivie's face moves from shock, the beginning of a snarl. You don't make it out of here without me. We'll see about that. Or someone's going to turn, cast jump on himself, jump 18 feet straight up into the air, and reach the Great.

You reach the Great land in front of it. As you do, you look in and see cool, damp, masonry, walls, the beginnings of catacombs under the castle. Tiny, cramped hallways, aqueducts, places where water is supposed to move. through and maybe even some old, drowned chambers sealed up in some ancient history of the castle here. It looks like a honeycomb in this place. What do you do as you reach the grate? Amé, do you have rope? I always have rope. And I toss it up to you.

I attach it to the grate so that they have an easier time. You attach it to the grate and drop the rope behind you. Ah, and I proceed it? You get to the Great... Pull it open, attach the rope. Move into the catacombs. Amé and Sufi. The rope lands in front of you.

What do you do? I grab the rope, but I look back at Sufi. He is driven by something I cannot even begin to feel. And I cannot even begin to understand everything that you have gone through. In the last couple of days, you are so... brave. You are so clever. And I would not leave you. I could not make it out of here without you because I would not, Suvi. Suvi gives a little nod. She's nodding along with Amay's words to not seem unaffected by them. She's wrung, but trying to be present. I think she just gives a little

tilt of her chin and goes, go. Ameng wants to go and knows she has to go to help, but I think she wants to give Suvi the choice, to feel like she has a choice, because right now, Suvi is being forced once again to choose between everything she has grown with and everything she has ever loved and been loved by and her true friends and the things that she knows she wants now. and to be pushed into a corner like that and forced in that way is not something that Amme wants to see her do.

The bridge between the spirit and the mortal stands holding a rope to follow her true friend the spirit into the darkness of an old castle. And a wizard who gazes upon the fruits of empire, the light of the tower, life, and the unfair things that have been asked of her. is a choice that should not be asked of her. You have told Suvie that you do not wish to leave her here. The rope can be left here for her. But your presence by it is a demand. You make upon her. He knows you are with her.

The choice to follow must be hers and hers alone. And I start to climb the rope. Suvie steps up to the rope. Oh, much easier. Up here, so tough. Wizards are known by their secrets. I've learned too much truth. It's worse than I ever expected.

It's bad all the way down, and I don't even know how to help anymore. I have no focus. I can't focus, and if I'm not my best for them, they can't fail because I can't focus. I know how long it's been, but I hold the rope. And I wait. The western sky is hell itself. You see, glimmering for a moment of green light, concentric circles lined with ruins,

stretching some 120 feet in all directions, begin to spin in the manner of a gyroscope of light and figures, arithmetic in language arcane, around the figure of the wizard's lane. who appears in the sky. Lowering a staff of the leader of the Citadel's war mages, he carves a line into the heart of one of the Shohoran, raising up his staff.

He begins to abjor protecting the war mages around him as best he can. The sun rises in the west, so radiant as to blind you even see. some miles away, hangs in the air and extends a finger. Towards the wizard's lane, towards the light. And the wizard's lane is unmade. You look in light and 40 feet in length, twisting nobly in the wind behind him.

The first one set of arms, a second and a third. as Harmas Ranzah, leader of House Ranzah, appears in visage over the battlefield, as he appears points of light begin teleporting. And some hundred nobles of the House of Rousa appear on the battlefield from across the wide world of Amora. He points forward towards 12 Brooks. The dreadnots converge, and as he raises his hand, he opens a door in space. Hundreds of spirit, the house of Ronsa, the Bashal. The spirits of those of his house that failed the trial of their ordeal to enter into sorceress covenant with their noble lineage,

who now bear the heads and wings of white eagles. made of blinding light, wielding, broad swords, double-handed, curved at the end, fly forward, gushing onto the battlefield. A cheer goes up from the forces of Gouthmi. Ah! For the Kantaraana! Ronsa holds. We make an end to their tower!

The sky from the epiphany surround the leader of House Roundsa. and a white-cloaked woman with Auburn hair who hangs in the ear before him. I am slows. She twists her wrist, turning her sword 90 degrees to the right. All of the world is mapped out like a map of the stars. Your own body is simply lines and the names of your joints and blood vessels. She twists to the left, raising the sword up in front of her. in guard position, vertical matching her straight spine. All the world is rendered in black and white,

as though drawn in charcoal on fresh paper. She levels it before her, the symbol of House Roundsa. With her offhand, she touches that symbol, undoing his true name in front of her. Image fades. It never happened. It was just a dream. How could she have changed? the nature of the world itself, the point of her sword, at his heart. So many of your grandchildren, old man, pushes the sword through his heart. Blood bursts like a wave from his back, killing not only him, but each and every one of his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren on this battlefield, who fall like rain from the sky, their light extinguished. The sword of The citadel hangs in the air as the leader of a great house falls before her blade.

The cheer from Gothmai dies as quickly as I was born. Suvi, what do you do?