Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #51: The Endeavor

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

This is our endeavor. To blade! To tongue! To plow! To grind our name into the bones of tomorrow, until the horizon is lucid smooth as liquid mirror, sharp as cut glass, clear as cool water rising, Irrigating in our throats the dry river bed of ambition. A witch in the gut of the tower. A wild one embraced by blood. A wizard in the court of the sword. All days divided into the days before and the days after, like the two sides of a shut window of black glass. We are: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! Transcript of this episode coming soon! You can find transcripts of all our episodes here, for free, on our Patreon. We're a little behind, but we're gonna catch up!Our album art is by the great Corey BrickleySome additional environmental 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. Second, the color of light changes. The smell is different. Surging past you, donkeys pulling carts, oxing with wagons. Amé, you step through. Two Citadel wizards step up. Very well. Continue.

Oh, pretty well. Continue. Move through the gate here. Follow through. Yes, you two, you're together? Very good. This way. Follow through.

and you see amay you enzo and Cyril you pass through the gate your passes are scanned and you see an enormous ox to moorne scans over with a divination spell and catches nothing protected by Enzo's non-detections

I fidget it with the hem of my cloak where there's some smears of calligraphy through and are once again in the busy streets of Haverward, looking at a massive highway. This is sort of a huge two-part. There's a sort of divider perimeter with these crystalline twinkling. They're sculptures almost like trees, but they're actually just floating pieces of crystal like telekinetic mobiles through this central promenade, big highway,

moving right through Haverward in a straight line, going to another massive orange gate on the far side of the neighborhood. Far up ahead, your eyes follow the eyes of Enzo and Cyril in their glimmers as Malacanth is ascending high, high, high overhead to arrive at the very top of the Aryan at midday. So the court that they are looking at is far, far from here. However, all of you walk and suddenly are just in Haverward past the guards at the gate, Your passes have worked, and you are free to do what you will as Enzo and Cyril look to you. I look at the gentleman.

Are the target of your letters up in Malacanth? Um, no, but they soon will be, when the epiphany arrives at Rul Dock at the Tower of the Sword? I see. Do you have leave to get there? I believe so. Now that we have arrived here, perhaps best to shed our glimmers, Ink demons with missives on behalf of a wizard of the citadel, we need not say who, will certainly be a loud passage. You see that Enzo turns to Cyril and they nod and they say, perhaps best for us to alight to Malacanth as quickly as possible, do you require anything from us before we go? If I'm to be there when Suvi arrives at Malacanth, how difficult would it be for me to follow you up, Enzo? Flying by broom, I think you will likely be spotted.

Yes. And the galathopters require scanning and perhaps best to send you on your way to deliver your messages. Thank you so much for all your help so far. Keep an eye out for us. If we can, we will be at your service. And you see that both of them step around a corner and the two, you see that Enzo... Oh, uh, one last. Hmm?

Uh, uh, Cyril, this is, I, I had composed this for you upon your, uh, freeing, but, but I don't know if you... Please recite it for me. Oh. Loudly so people know you wrote it. Oh. To whomever it may concern, mark well the Surulian urn. He has a literary bent to be time quite well spent. To listen to a...

his words that so yearn. My words do yearn. Yes. A perfect poem. Goodbye, gentlemen. Goodbye, army. You're the most important person in the world. He flies away.

I would like to strike out for a Tulliver Mill. Walking through the streets of Havreward, you arrive back at Tulliver Mill. Familiar scent of hot metal and smoke. You see the door lies before you. and you see that opens as some people cart in and out. You see Rien in the little cage on your hip.

It sort of lights up again and you see that Rhin looks over at TASC, both of these little, a little gem bug and a little mirror arachnid, both kind of regard each other and turn around and look as Rinn realizes the place where you first got Rhin.

Don't even think about it. I slip a little rhinestone in there. I think disguised, would like to go and try to track down Golt, the art of his heart. Great. You approach Tulliver Mill. Do you announce yourself? Do you enter? Or do you wait outside?

I think I'll wait for lunch and hope that enough of them are able to take a lunch break in order to slip in unnoticed. Waiting for a lunch break, you hear a whistle blow and can hear the noise of people inside breaking to eat. But it sounds like they're going to be eating mostly indoors. You also, I think, see, if you're waiting a little while for that, go ahead and roll me a perception check. And we'll also kind of treat this as a luck check.

16. On a 16, you don't see Galt, but you see that there is a delivery of raw materials. It looks like big bags of something. kind of arcane salt that arrive being moved on a pair of hand trucks by these two sort of dock workers that come over, sort of like, almost like sky dock workers. Move this salt in. As they do so, you see that Hana comes to the door. It's partially injured, blonde hair wrapped up in a bandana, and begins to talk, and you see that one of them asks for someone and points inside.

she shakes her head no and signs for it and begins to move it indoors. I wait until the deliverers have stepped away and I'd like to try and slip in behind her. Great. The door is unlocked. It's during business hours. So you open it up. Go ahead and give me a stealth check. Only a 10. You walk into the mill and see faces look up at you. You said you're disguised. Yes. What are you disguised as? I wear the costume of a career.

I've seen some around in Havard. There's just so much coming and going. So I wanted to appear as if I've come from Caro. I'm just here to deliver something, and I walk purposefully and with my brow furrowed. And I have a satchel in my hands. when you walk holding something and you look worried and walk with purpose, people tend not to question it. On a 10 stealth check as you enter, someone looks up from their workstation and says,

afternoon, can I help you? I have a, I check inside the satchel. Is there a Hannah? Hannah, yes, she's in the main office. Ah, thank you. You walk down the familiar hall. way leading away from the hot workshop to the office across from the storeroom where you found Ursulon's shield.

Give me a little perception check as you're walking through here. Natural 20. Holy shit! The work has drastically diminished in Tulliver Mill. There are piles and piles of half-completed projects, components. There are like panes of glass that almost look like elements of the Derek from Port Talon, but they're sitting there in these sort of like triangle blocks, not having anything done to them. You see there are half-inscribed ceramic discs like the one that Sly had that got you to the North Pole,

but the inlays that's supposed to be filled with some kind of metal have nothing in them. And it's kind of cluttered in the workshop. It looks like something, there's a bunch of half-completed work here. I quicken my pace to the office. You walk you and you see Hannah inside of the office. She looks up and says, Hello, can I help you? Yes, I have something here for Mr. Golt.

Yes, Galt is not available. I can take it. I'm in charge of the mill. Oh, I'm supposed to deliver this personally. I don't know where Gult is, so he's not here anymore. So what is it you have to deliver to him? What's your name? Oh, Lila, it's something from someone who says they're a friend of his, an Ame?

You're bringing a message from Caro from Ame? Yes. Very well, let me see it. I pull out from my bag, just a piece of the stationery. And I would like to try and prestigititate it to be addressed and sealed labeled to gold. Okay. she takes the letter magically that appears written in your hand, takes it, and says, very well, did the woman who give this to you give you any other instructions?

She said to deliver it to Galt directly? Yes, it's supposed to be for him, very urgent. Okay, I'll see that it gets to him. Give me an insight check. Hannah is on the verge of tears. She is terrified, panicked, something terrible has happened to Galt. Hey, miss, are you all right? I'm sorry, I didn't mean, is perhaps the person who I'm supposed to be delivering this to?

I'm sorry, I don't know you. So, thank you for delivering the letter. Have a nice day. I lean in a little closer and I say, Amé is a friend of mine. Maybe if you're in need of some sort of help, I know that she promised you all a boon. And then it seems like maybe from the state of the work here,

you could use some help. Give me a persuasion check. Call it difficulty 20. Damn it! On that 19, you say you are a friend of Ame's. The fox can also give you help action here. You know what? I open up the satchel for the fox to poke his head up.

The fox pokes his head out. You see Hana goes, and you see the fox goes, you see the fox gets up and kicks the door shut and jumps back up on the desk and says, look here. My friend is a friend of the witch of Toma. He's trying to help you out. You could ask for a boon for the witch of the world's heart. If you wanted to, seems like a good idea. It seems like things aren't going good here. All right. That's enough. Thank you. Hanna whips around and looks at you and says, I don't know anything. I don't know where he is. I don't know where he was taken. I... He was taken? She just starts weeping. Hey, hey, hey, hey, I'm sorry. Listen, you were promised a boon from a witch.

That is no small thing. Witches always fulfill their promises. Is there anything that I can pass on to the witch of the world's heart? Please. So she can help to find your father. Please, please find him. Tell me everything you know. Tell me everything.

I, I, I, the last, the, this was a while ago that the, the friends of, my friend, um, Sky, the Wizard's Sky, she's a, she's an Archmaids apprentice in the city. Right. Yes. She came by with the witch and this fox and, and a man named Bear of Silbury. And they were looking for a shield. And we, we gifted a shield to them. And, and he talked a little bit about a history that he, you. He'd had, he'd known her mother and he'd worked with a woman that I think was the mentor of the witch.

Yes, yes, I'm familiar with her history. He had worked for that, and then people came asking about a sapphire. They came asking about a perfect sapphire. And after that, they said that he needed to tell them where he had gotten it from. And he didn't have the records left. He didn't have the archives left. And the next day, he was gone. He was just gone.

Where did they take him from? He, I said goodbye to him at home. I came into work early, and he never showed up, and he wasn't at the house. All right. Speak of this to no one. I was never here. We will find him. Okay.

If the witch's boon can be to free him, then I will... I... Just carry on with the business. Don't worry. Is there anything I can do for you that would make this easier? That would make the witch's boon more likely to... come true. Do you have something of his?

Something perhaps that he would carry with him. Something personal. She opens the desk and takes out a small clay pipe. Uh, Fox? Fox goes, Got it. Oh, deeply, deeply sorry for this. Let's hope it's just an inconvenience, but be strong.

Continue on with your work. I swear to you. you that the Witch of Toma will make things right. Thank you. Likely going to be shut down in a little while. We have had a work stoppage because of a materials problem. And so if there's anything that we're about to lose it all anyway. So if there's any materials you need, let me know.

And anything that can help get my father back. All right. Fox, please help me search the room. Oh, yes, you do go ahead. 15. On a 15, you see a large pair of artificers gloves, heavy leather gloves, but with a kind of iridescent, rainbowy silver in little panels on the inside of the fingers in the palm. You see that there is a small citadel symbol on the back of them with a,

sort of wrench underneath it. There's some kind of connection here that you feel like you've seen them before or seen someone used them before. Using them the day that we came and visited? Galt was wearing them the day that you came in visit. May I bar these as well? Was the artificers gloves? Yes.

Yes, by all means, yes, you may borrow them. Thinking about the different, the ways that resources are allocated in the Citadel and how normally artificers are asked to pay for those supplies. Is there any way that I can redirect resources to the mill for the time being? This is out loud verbally as this person, right?

Yes. You see, Hannah says, well, our issue is a citywide issue. The reserves of Quicksilver have just dried up. We're just not getting deliveries anymore. Quick, Silver, what do I know about that? Give me history.

Dirty 20. On a dirty 20, task shows you the inside of a smuggler's cave and a map sitting on a table. There were areas that Yorin was hitting in the war. What you see here in Tulliver Mill is the result of Yorin's efforts. A secret war with the war. within the Shroud Mountains. To do what? To stop the citadel. Cut off the supply chains. Thank you very much. We all have a lot of work ahead of us.

Thank you. Is there any way for me to know that I'll hear from you again? Well, with any luck, the Witch of Toma will work fast and you'll have word directly from your father. Thank you so much. Don't thank me yet. and I head out. The fox walks out with you to the street, and you have this pair of gloves on you. I'm going to examine the gloves a little bit, but I want the fox to pick up the scent.

Go ahead and give me survival with advantage. Dirty 20. On a dirty 20, you follow the scent back to Gult's home. which is not too far from Teller of the Mill, and follow a scent that the Fox admits is a couple, like a maybe like a week or two old at this point. Fear sweat.

They got him here right outside his house. Who was it? Beats me. Incense and nice places. Ooh. Oh, oh, oh, marshmallow. Someone that arrested him ate marshmallow. Oh, my goodness.

Okay, here, hold. Hold on. I'm a maligan. And you see he wanders over. As he does so, he arrives closer to the inner ring of security where the courts actually land. But before you get to the landing pad of the Great Courts, there are several gallopter stations. There are the big sort of regal ones with the broad wings and everything else like that.

And you see wizards putting their hands on that little orb in the center. to head up and off in their galath doctors, you also see off to one side, some that are a little bit stouter and a little bit clumsier that have wrenches on their sides. The artificers, all of the things in all of those courts that might break or need repair, and those wizards are not going to want to wait long

for their things to be fixed. Give me a little brief on anything you have about artificers. Task scans a series of codes from the wall of Hana's office about activating galathopters and gives you like one or two command keys. You see, the way these gloves work essentially is the wizards don't actually want to know the inner workings of what the artificers have to deal with. They just want whatever gear monkey down and hoverwork can come up and fix what they have to fix right away.

So they print the codes out, put them down there. someone puts on the gloves and they get to work fixing it. All right. I put on the gloves using whatever mending or prescindigitation I can to make them look like they fit me. I think I duck around a corner momentarily to take on the guise of a repair workman. A little bit of fox magic covers you

and you look like a gruff and surly citadel artificer striding aboard an unclaimed galithopter. you put out your hand, speak the command keys as projected by task, and the house of mighty magic, and Amé, which of Toma, cunning and kind, takes to the sky. His visage captured at the moment of his death. This is not the body, hail, and hearty that you saw. It is his spirit, his soul, something of the dead summoned forth to walk the world.

He was human and now. He is spirit. He is young. Your age, what you saw as a mortal man was always a young warrior, riding on his way to die by the side of the road. Bare feet in moss, golden grieves and shining plate. Ursula, you see yourself reflected in the road. that armor. At his hip is the sword of night. His shield is on his back. He smiles at you in

recognition, haunted look of sorrow on his face. What is Ursulaan feeling in this moment? Gerselon feels himself rigid, scared, and then in hearing his voice, there's a coldness in the pit of his stomach, a sense of hopelessness. Sercurne, Sir Curran of the Hawthorne? Ursulant takes a step back and trips a little bit. As you stumble, you see reflexively, reaches out as though to catch your stumbling and stops at the ditch at the edge of the road.

You hear the voice from the man in black. Step. You see, Curran lowers his head in shame and sorrow. Steps across the ditch, puts a foot on the road and winces in pain as blood begins to spill from the bottom of his feet. As he lay dead at the bottom of the river, the scavengers of war came. And while his armor, they could not remove for the ferocity of the water or its golden weight. They got those boots off of them real quick. Why have you done this?

I needed a champion and you. Why him? Estride his shield. You need to question prophecy, brother Ursula. But I will see my purport of the dead was not my first choice. The splashing of waters in a great stream. I played the hangar. His power as blood seeps into the road from his feet.

His, again, almost illuminated. It's not that translucent ghostliness. It's not white or smoky. It is illuminated as if giving off. light like the golden light of that distant day. He seems almost out of place, like the quality of light that he casts, is though even here in the dark of night, some unseen sun is shining on him. But that light falls on the blood seeping from under his feet as his toes curl, hurting at the touch of the road. He looks up at you, tears streaming down his face. Roads of a man.

This one, I saw, shakes his head side to side. forces in the aftermath of his betrayal. But you do that. Salon moves quickly to place himself between Sir Curran and the children holding his shield aloft

in one hand and his sword and the other. Please. Curran, Anna and Black, he draws the sword of knight. Should run. Roll initiative. Stepping forward, Sir Curran lunges with the sword of night. Sweeping towards your midsection.

at top speed, at the last possible moment, the sword hidden by Sir Curran's body from the man in black astride his raft. He twists the wrist, striking you instead with the flat of the blade. Even the flat of that blade connects with your body for 16 points of damage, and I'm going to need a strength saving throw.

11. And 11 in strength saving throw. pick your shield or your sword, one of them is flying out of your hands. My sword. Even as Sir Curran pulls the blow to keep it from being truly lethal, the magic of this blade, wrought of night and shadow, thunders into your stomach with a sickening ripple of force, and you feel your connection to your blade wave. breaker severed magically as though a song has been forgotten.

Flies out of your hand. Thunk into the road beside you. Your turn, you look, having deferred their initiative to see what you are going to do. Terrified Neif, bellowing elk. All of these children look and see current advancing on you. The road pitch black behind them, Wavebreaker standing there with horror of what she should do. not knowing what to do you. You haven't seen her cast a spell.

Ursulaan, this situation is in all of the adventures you have had in the mortal world. The darkest and most dangerous you have ever faced. You cannot see hope. What do you? Looking back at Wavebreaker, Ursulaan looks to Neif. Through the woods. Now! Neif, her turn, deferred, calls to the children. and pours into the woods with them led by the elk on the other side from where Curran came.

You see the man in black says, A waste of time alone. Ursula is going to turn back to Curran, leaving Wavebreaker for now, and is just going to make a shove attack on Sir Curran, push him back five feet. Go ahead and make a shove attack. You are standing, I believe you were standing quite close to the water, correct? Yes. Okay. That is an 18 on the die for a 26. Roll your first attack.

It's a 9 on the die for a 17. Okay. Second attack? 16 for 24. Nine again for 17. You go twice with the shield, clang, clang against him. Each time he sets himself against it, leaning with his right shoulder, the still armored paldron into the golden shield. Any bonus action from you? Ersselaun understands this is not a moment to hide.

So he was going to forego using his hidden stamp or turning invisible. He just continued to put himself between Sir Curran and the fleeing children. You put yourself between Sir Curran and them, and you see the man in black from the river calls to Curran. The children. Your task is the children. In Oursalon. It comes back to Curran's turn.

He is going to turn to bolt into the woods after the kids. It's going to be an attack of opportunity from you. Can I use it to grapple? In this instance, I will allow you to grapple because you are unarmed. You have your hands free. With a roll of a six on the die, you are trying to beat a 14, 14 or higher. With a 19 on the die, Ursulaan puts everything he has into holding Curran. You grab Curran, slam him to the ground of the road, holding on to him with all of your might.

You feel him whip around and lashing out. He is going to attack you twice with his sword, the sword of knight. With a three on the die, that's a miss. With a seven on the die, that's a miss. Clang! Clang! Twice off of your paltrow and rings the sound. of steel, looking into the gleaming eyes of this luminescent ghost of a long dead night before you.

The sword of night flashing forward faster and faster. His face set in sorrow and determination. His expression reaching out to you and telling you that he does not want to do this, but he will. Ursula, it is your turn. I think Ursulaan holding Curran. His muscles tense. His mind terrified.

It's going to make a perception check for the environment. It's looking for this. What he has. Available to him. Game of perception. Dirty 20. Curran is struggling against you mightily. Your sword wave breaker is

behind you, there on the road. You see the pommel in the moonlight, a seven-fingered fist. The rushing of the river behind you, coming from the green forest, headed to the sea. This is the road by which the rain rides to the sea. The song of the people of Akam. The gentle rains sent by Naram to his ladywife Orima. who something told you last night, even when man had been laid before your feet. The chances you see here, Naram's fist and the hilt of that sword, the river rushing down from here, the road, and in black, and the road the rain rides to the sea. Curran wrestling underneath you in this moment, and you feel, in yourself as well, the children crying out for some gift, some presence. The bullfrog is dead,

gone from this world, and they cannot find their gift. And the last thing I will say, looking across the river past the man in black, this impossible figure of night and dread. the road on the other side is not darkened. Even though in this moment you do not see Amé or Suvi waiting for you there or some other symbol of hope or promise the fact that you can see that road at all gives some strange semblance of hope in this moment. There must be a way out. As Ursulaan struggles and fights against the feelings of hope,

His mind is drawn to his friends and the songs they sang together and the place that they found him in And the place that he stands now terrified and desperate Ursulaan let's go of Curran knowing that if this does not work He will reach those children is going to rush to grab wave breaker and then make for the water. It's in face bleeding from their contact with the road. You grab wavebreaker in your hand

and in a single mighty bound roaring through the air. Word submerged or distant. I need help. Those under my charge are in danger. The back of your clothes. It kills you out of the water to strike but is combatants clasped in the children behind. her. She pleads with it, and you can see some small and gentle river spirit looking up at her,

explaining, I cannot treat with you. One much greater comes. I cannot, sir! Ah! The man in black turns, facing downstream as mountains of water come crashing up the river. As the sea rides up the road, He calmer at his side stands some 200 feet tall, waves cresting about his waist, galloping like a chariot up the river deep inland, towering over the man. King of night, my brother has called me here. Your servant does him harm. This does not please me. The man in black is silent, raises one hand to stay curran. turns to look at you, Ursula. Whatsoever my brother wishes would please me, Pilgrim under stars.

Man in black turns to regard you, Ursulaan, in this moment, and waits for you to speak your heart's desire. You will depart from this place. You will not harm these children. The man in black turns to Naram. Naram smiles. I'm so sad. This wish is mine.

with a gasp of pain, and there is mist only, and you see his face for a moment drowning in blood under the water before he is gone, and Naram is still standing until he is your height, and lifts you up and embraces you standing here in the stream. Thank you, brother, though I do not understand. What is it he wishes of you? of night wishes for all of the great spirits to march to war, to march to war against the world of mortals. The citadel is his aim, Ursula. But you can see it. You can hear it in his voice.

The gifts of man. They stirred in the hearts of mortals long before that tower was built. and it is not that tower alone that he seeks to undo, but the strength to ever build one such as that again. Give me an insight check. Ursula, if you would be so kind, and you can do so with advantage. 15. Ram is weeping in this moment,

and you see that he has held off for as long as he can. There is some part of him, that felt that perhaps this could not be avoided. He looks to you, finds the way. I am not given to great tellings of prophecy, nor do I see the fate of men and spirits written in the stars. But I know this. He grasps your face in his hand

and regards you with all of the love that a brother and fellow spirit can muster of our world, a spirit true alongside them, on the hearts of mortals, and why they may earn bright sun with gentle seas. Young as you are, is you who are on that path to speak that truth. Do as I must quest in my river. Children gathered there, do you wish her son, in my last night. night before I join my wife and father for some aid with those young ones in your charge. You have done so much for me, brother, and that would be my final request. Could you deliver

them to Verrick on Rhymer's Bay? I will. Is there anywhere you need tread that you wish for me to take you? Dig out my mind to see my sister once more before I set off on my path. These children I will take across the sea, wait for the coming of one who bears my cloak at the cottage of the witch of the world's heart, and they will shepherd you to goutthmi, my brother. Business will call me elsewhere before then. I'm glad to have saved you. Wrath and power of the king of night. I have bought it dearly. I have dreaded and long to say it, but when next we meet, we may meet as foes. In that battle, I hope that my sword and my sword and And not my spirit strikes true.

In the children, floating and bubbling, in the nighttime river, the spirit of the river, knowledge is the spirit of the gentle sea, and in a chariot of waves and foam. Neif are familiar. And the children wave to the night who bought their freedom and fought for a world that they could call home. the parade, witnessing that strange little trophy through the Dosset, the Dosset girls' window. It is, sadly, only three hours, so not enough to do anything useful like get your spells back.

As the epiphany clears over a beautiful dawn, white sands blowing throughout, and the massive tower of the Eryan approaching. exhausted with a very tired crew and a ship whose illusions of being whole are no longer there, sort of some light smoke still skimming off of an area of damage. I hear a knock at the door. I couldn't stop you from coming in. The door opens and you see sworn at the door. You're wanted on the deck. Okay.

He turns and be. against to escort you down the hall. Inside check? What is the energy? I'm only getting bad energy. I don't know why I keep checking, but... Come inside check. Yeah.

That's a dirty 20. Bad energy. Yeah. A man who arrested you back in 12 Brooks, and on a dirty 20, you see a man who believes that your relationship has concluded. Yeah. But on a dirty 20, I'll also say that... That he looks disappointed in that, that he looks hurt by that.

Suvie, yeah, well, just risk sort of whispering. It's like, okay, I didn't like the second hold. It wasn't as useful to me as the first. It just tries to crack a little joke. Second hold person. It's a long, uncomfortable silence. And as you get towards the stairs up out of here, complete unwillingness, but also an inability to stob himself.

His chin turns to the side, and he goes, it's because the second one worked. And, uh... I'll go ahead and cough on my way. You walk up, and there is a small ceremony gathered here. Four? For what? Drummers. Spectral. Summoned sort of magical drummers, just drum kits in the air, and smiling in her armor, still injuring. and with a visible level of exhaustion is the sort of the Citadel.

Wizard Sky, Archmaidge apprentice of the Wizard's silence. For bravery in the face of battle, cleverness deep behind enemy lines, for covert accomplishment embedded with the enemy to secure a critical intelligence victory for the citadel. I hereby commend you with you. this Medal of Valor and with promotion in the field of duty to your new role as sage of the penumbra. Oh, this is the coolest thing that I hate with Enumbra is so tight. Oh, Suvi, everything is being like whatever, like, something like, something.

cylinders are being fired are all just for not looking surprised, confused, and then, like, contemptful and disappointed with what's happening in that order. Give me a Constitution saving throw, and then give me a deception check. Dirty 20 on the Constitution save. Cool. You've been up for more than a day, but there's no exhaustion level. Honestly, practice makes perfect. There you go.

She has one actual skill, and it's be awake right in the sweet spot before you have a full meltdown. And deception? 13 plus 2 for a 15. Your face is a confused one that is visible and legible, but the confusion doesn't register as inappropriate. It actually kind of registers as grateful and amazed, even though there is some derivative that you're like, huh? I know this is not true. We're doing a fun, flirty little lie. Okay.

Yeah, Suvi's going to look around. Who else is here and witnessing this? Most of the crew's senior officer ship, Slate is here, Sworn is here. You see a fixed visage is a badly injured silver who is here. Who you see also has been field promoted. It looks like someone above him got promoted with the death of slain. and he is now, two days after joining, is a junior officer in the former Slane Circle of War Mages.

Wild. This is a guy you saved from a lumber mill like a week and a half ago. Well, cool. Here's hoping he earned his at least. You see Steele smiles and pins to your Imperial Wizard's jacket, It a beautiful emblem of a crescent moon with several stars hanging from them in tiny silver chains. This crest of the seventh star denotes your valor and bravery in the line of duty. And to you, Wizard Sky, we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude.

The assembled soldiers will grant a moment of impropriety. And you see that she gives you a big hug. I hug her back. All right. That's our last field promotion. you're all dismissed. Look alive. We need to bring this to the Tower of the Sword,

and then after that, bring it down to Haverwood for some pretty extensive repairs. I'll just stand back, and if it looks like everyone's clearing the deck, I'll head back to the room. Steele looks at you and says, Hey, hey,

you want to stay with me and see the site, see home again? Yeah, I really would. Let's do it. I'm very capable, even though I'm quite sleepy. I can keep you under arrest. Don't worry. I have it in me.

I don't know. I think you did the coolest thing you'll ever do already. Yeah, I got it. That's so mean that I don't have a rhetor. How dare you suggest I won't do something cooler? And she puts in her armored hand over your shoulder, and you feel the weight of the golden armor. Yeah.

As the epiphany sails through. The tower of the glove, there's your tower. And Steele looks and says, Tower of the glove can stay yours. You don't lose your apprentice position just because of a promotion. But the Sage's towers are nice. It basically depends on if you want to keep an eye on silence or not

to a certain degree. He killed the Great Bullfrog. He can get his own fucking cookies, I think. See, when you kill the Great Bullfrog, you don't have to get your own cookies. Okay. Well, you know what? I'll stay on Cookie Duty.

All right. I like it. I think that's the shrewd move. Yeah. It's always good to keep an eye on your mentors. Yeah. And I do think that, like, Suvi is not weeping,

but there are tears going down her cheeks. Like, this is, there's so much complicated feeling around what home means as a place. and as like an actor on the world, but you can't help being so happy to be home again. And she's just going to not bury the complicated feelings and just let it read however it reads. And it's good to be home.

Steel rubs your back. Your effects are being delivered to the Tower of the Glove. And we're not going to stop there first. We're actually going to the... The timing is pretty good, actually. We have an appointment at noon. No more secrets. No more secrets other than the ones that you and I keep together.

I want to bring you in. Trust has been broken, and she whispers here, but not beyond repair. Okay? Okay. So there are things I need to show you, because I think once you know what all of this is, it will help explain some of the things that don't sit easily in the stomach. Okay? Okay.

Is this like you and me talking in too big of a room or we kind of calling all the corners on this one? Well, I have some people I want to introduce you to and I have some places I want to show you, but it's going to be, we can have us any private conversations. you want. Look, you know, you saw me talking to the Wizard Gray. Look. Actually, I would love to call all of the Ark Magi together. I have something I can say. No more secrets except for ours. Great. Actually, as Sage of the Penumbra, which, by the way, a new station for you. Cool. Oh, it matches my vibe. I wasn't looking when you put it on.

as the Wizard's Sky, specifically, we're fighting a war against the most powerful witches in the world while we're fighting all the other wars that we're fighting. So you're going to be in charge of that war. Oh, this is great. I have thought. Oh, yeah, great, great. And Suvie, like, does the thing where, like,

she gets a little too expansive, like elbows out. And there has been a lot of things, like, turning in her for the last few weeks. that, like, despite all of the strange feelings and divided loyalties she has, at the end of the day, she does not and will not see this tower fall from the hands of the witches or the man in black. Absolutely not. So, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, great, great, great.

You are of any wizard in the citadel. after the adventures you've just had on our behalf, one of the most well-versed in theory and the most well-versed in practice at handling witchcraft. So... Huh. That, okay.

That feels like it should make me feel good, but it should make everyone else in this tower feel terrible. Don't I know it? As you fly in, the epiphany begins to dock and you see tons of new construction in malacanth there are covered walkways everywhere you look out and you see that people aren't walking under them it looks like the covered walkways are there's a lot of them around but you don't see anyone the people are sort of out and about enjoying the day oh for night walks we stay under cover at night when you stay

you just see dealing with injuries star library yeah the wizards were happy to steal it and then immediately tried to make it not as useful anymore yeah oh yeah see he was gonna like snap and point to the top of her tower and be like oh i did an illusion to see this guy i don't want up we got to get rid of that call call your niece make it make it make it stop uh and actually as the epiphany pulls up to the tower of the sword and you see steals home you see sonder and cadilla and your siblings waving down from below uh uh julia is waiting for you at the dock in her vest. Oh.

And you see, says, congratulations! And pops a little thing of, it's a champagne bottle, but just confetti comes out of it. Oh, that's great. Thank you. And you see, she says, I'd be so delighted to give you a hand.

Steele comes out and says, hang here for one second. Stay in the tower. And goes off to handle people coming to and fro from the epiphany. But Yulia comes and says, I've been so excited to be in touch. You got the information about I haven't been able to track down past Caro

anything about a ghost or a flicker. Wait. What do you? Okay, okay. Oh, God. And again, Sufi's doing the, like, moving through a lot of emotions and trying to, like, eat them quickly.

Understood. Yeah. And it's on. Caro, Glass Coronet. Yes. Okay. Good to know.

So that's the last place that we were able to trace that. But I sent out some missives asking for information. I haven't received anything back, but I'm happy to follow up. All good. You can let that one go. I got that. And then I was thinking about ways to show more initiative as your apprentice and as Sage of the Penumbra.

And I know that we're dealing with stars and star magic. So I took liberty of preparing this. And it is a list of I went through every single library in all 12 courts and the big ones in Hoverwood as well, the public one and the Citadel ones in Hoverwood. Yeah. This is every book on Starlight, stars, constellations, star magic, cross-indexed for your review. Oh, how good of a job did she do? Give me investigation with advantage. 22.

Oh, she didn't do a good job. Immediately you see that there's one missing. Stars of the southern sky. Missing. Not out of there. Yeah, okay. Something is not right here. Because this list is so thorough.

There's libraries you haven't heard of here. She's had the weeks that you've been gone in the Shrad Mountains to make up a job for her to do so she's not spinning out and going insane in the Tower of the Glove. And the one thing she knew from the witch war was the, the stars. So that's what she went off of. This list is exhausted. It's not only stars in the title. It's any books that tangentially reference stars.

Jesus. It's like, but you're looking at the top sheet of them, which is the ones that reference them in the title. It goes for pages and pages and pages. And that would be a book that's basic enough that there would be several copies floating around. You don't know that it's that basic. You hadn't seen it before it was given to you. You knew it's like an intermediate astronomy book, but you hadn't seen it before it was handed to you.

Okay. Just trying to figure out why is it missing beyond, I know the copy of it is with Ame, because I'm the one that transported it. Like, why wouldn't it be referenced or if there was another copy? That's exactly the thing that Suvee needs. Okay. Is everything all right?

Yes. Is something wrong with the list? No. We'll talk. That's not in a, like, scary way for later, but exhausted. It's been a big day. Okay. I appreciate the diligence of your work.

Okay. If there's a mistake, I will amend it. I know. You're great. Okay. I'm sorry. Okay. No.

You're, oh, God. Yeah. I know that energy. You're good. Thank you. Okay. I'll be waiting at the Tower of the Glove if you need me. Great.

Thanks. You turn around. You know, business. concludes people leave you don't see it looks like sworn and silver actually took off flying under their own power sure

and you see slate walk off into the tower of the sword steel turns around and as the epiphany heads down to Haverward she sits in her chair and her sanctum in the top story

and it's like just a few short minutes till high noon where you will have that momentary pause at the top of the of the irian she looks at you and goes who oh i'm sleepy is there what can i do the last time i tried to help you you did counterspell it i did because i thought you might be a traitor and so i and you thought you thought me with all of my big cool magic was going to flick whatever i've got in the chamber at you with all the love i've got i don't count on you you for good judgment all the time, Suvie.

Okay, let's be clear. I make very good calls. They're just not predictable. Boy, that ain't that the truth. Oh, you must be tired. You are not fighting back like I need. Can I get you some coffee? No, I hate Saunders coffee.

Just... Here, let's head to the Skybridge. Okay. You walk out to the Skybridge where the Epiphany just docked And it, you know, juts out a good 50 feet from the top of the tower of the sword. She waits and she says, this is going to be really fun. Do you believe in the power of magic, Wizard Sky? What are you saying?

Do you believe? I don't get to do this stuff. I read about this in stories. It seems like spirits get to do this all the time. Okay, okay. I believe in the power of magic. I do. Very well.

I truly do. There's a momentary pause as Malacanth settles. She says, Step forward with me. Okay. You step in your feet touch solid air underneath you. She holds out an elbow for you to link arms. Yeah, immediately.

You look and see that both of you are invisible on exiting from this thing and begin to ascend a force staircase invisible in the sky that perfectly aligns with where her balcony rests at the topmost position. and begin to ascend into the place where the sort of geode prism crystal of the Erian inflects at an angle and converges to a single point and begin to walk up an invisible staircase in the sky towards the very top. Shut up! Sorry, invisible, invisible, invisible, discreet, discreet.

This. No more secrets is time young. Penoomers. Sage of the penumbra. It is time that you beheld the endeavor. The great endeavor. Which we don't leave lying around just anywhere. We keep that for last but not least.

Welcome to the court of Lucent and a 25th court of the citadel. Shut the fuck up! Appears before you. You step onto a balustrade, and as you step forward, shimmering like the heat over a hot stove on a summer's day, shimmering force, reflecting sky and crystal, begins to come into shape like an optical illusion, suddenly realizing that you are seeing walls of glass and a glass court with walls all around you, and a wide swinging set of glass doors opens up to reveal the openings of a hall made of reflected glassy sky.

But there is a carpet laid out and some side tables made of wood that appear to just be hanging in open sky. But what you see is there are rooms beyond this room, but walls are not invisible in such a way that you can see the rooms past them. they are invisible in such a way that you see all the way out of the Erian. So it is a labyrinth of strange skyglass and sand mirror hanging at the very top of Erian. I lied, I lied, I live here now. Oh, you don't want to live in Lucent. Lucent is, and you see, you hear a voice go, With a steel.

And you turn and see a nine-foot-tall glass person with a bald head and white, very comfortable-looking robes with fine chains of floating glass around them, turn around. They are fully transmuted. First you think you're looking at a spirit. This is a transmuted human. Steele nods and says,

Wizard F. Chess. It is a pleasure to see you. Ah, Wizard, steel, it is a pleasure. The newly promoted siege of the Britain of the... And a glassy hand extends to grasp yours. Oh, no hesitation. A nice, firm handshake with a glass hand that is as cool and clean to the touch. You can feel your fingerprints, like, peel off the oil of your hand.

I'm sorry about that. I should have wiped my hands off first. Every hand is somewhat. Oh, I'm sorry. Fear not, not at all. A pleasure to meet you, wizard. Steele turns to you and says, abjurers all of them.

Understood. We are deep within the magic of the magic, of the magic of magic here. Actually, Fesh, anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of the sage of the penumbra. And that's so sweet because Suvi had immediately gone into, like, got it, step away, and then kind of stops.

Yes, sage. Kings here in Lucent. I understand. and Feshis, I'm sorry to hear that. The battles were necessary, both for military and political reasons. So the work, I know, we'll have to be delayed for a day. And you see, Feschis says, Not a day.

The repairs needed were of an urgent nature. We will have our abilities here diminished for quite some time. You see, she says, really? That was, things deteriorated just in that short amount of time. well, our safeguards against them depended on supplies that have not come up from the ground. See, Steele nods, this, yeah, okay, I'm aware, I'm aware. Fshed says, of, steel says,

I don't know, Faridi Consortium did not make clear to me how extremely narrow their abilities to procure quicksilver were. It was a military failure due to their guild secrecy. He overstated how critical the need for resupply. Simple magic of the Archmage silences spell cannot be recreated without... You see, she raises a hand and says, I understand. It has been made clear to the emperor, to the Imperium, to the consortium, most of all, that no expense is too great to ensure that the procurement of this resource not be spread out militarily in the future.

In the middle of this, like the moment I hear Quicksilver, what do I know the like applications of that to be? Quicksilver is a pretty rare mineral. It's incredibly magically potent. You know, it's useful in some. Give me an Arcana check. Fuck it. Give me Arcana and history. Arcona check is a 21. History is 14. On an Arcana 21, Quicksilver is used in a variety of things, but it is really what it is is it's alive, it's malleable. The quick and

Quicksilver doesn't mean fast, it means alive. And what you do know actually right away is you can't make Tamori without it. Okay, cool. Yeah, it's just the like, where would I immediately go? Like, great. It's inside like three thermometers, mostly what kind of, like just trying to triangulate off of like what kind of magic takes,

like has a high frequency of that. You can't, yeah, you can make 99% of a Tamari, but that last one percent is the thing that brings them to life. Copy. Quick silver is what you need for that. On that history check, you just connect the dots between what Steele is saying about narrow range of procurement and that map of urans in that smuggler's cave.

Yeah. Okay. Steel turns and says, but I think showing some of the amazing work that we're doing here in Lucent to the Wizard's Sky would be wonderful. Of course. Moving through arcane workshops, some of which, are like tranquil meditation rooms where like a single glass wizard will be focusing on space and creating shapes of illusion in front of them over and over again.

You see another room where a wizard takes a tapestry, unravels all the strings, and remakes it into abstract so that it is visual gibberish, but attempts to summon what was. the spirit of that small piece of carpet? In other words, can you undo a tapestry and still summon the spirit of it? Oh. Yeah, Suvies, that's a full body shudder. This is as close as I think Suvies felt to that awful twin repulsion and fascination when she first beheld the Calabelle, non-amantic apparatus.

I'm just, oh, no, but also, oh, shit. You walk through a chamber. There's a long hallway where you see there are hanging schematics on the skyglass with these glass wizards moving throughout it, all of whom are looking. And you see representations of a double-headed phoenix, which is a symbol of the house of Saraz. And you see that it is depicted over and over, and there are anatomical drawings, but they're all different over and over and over again. You walk through another room. They are constructing long pieces of wire, this beautiful sort of copper wire and barbing it with spell energy,

like warping it with their fingers. And you recognize a little piece of metal fencing. You see images over and over again in another area of the gates of the sun. Yeah, okay, okay. And you see a wizard lying very still as their temples are rubbed by two other glass wizards just over and over. As the wizard is attempting to lucid dream a chunk of stone in front of them. And you see that there is another non-glass wizard, but a conjuration specialist, who you see looks very kind of pale and hungry,

who is holding up a hand and attempting to hit the illusory dream of the sleeping glass wizard with a conjuration spell. And every time he fails to do so, writing something down in a leisure book, Steele turns to you saying, this is something else, isn't it? Sorry, I'm good. Sage.

So sage-like. Well, you don't have to be a sage about this. I'm not a sage about this. This is fucking crazy. I don't think anyone's a sage about this, except F.S. That person is trying to imagine something and then affect magic on the imagining? That is correct. CIV's hands are, by the way, behind her back, clasped at the elbow, and she's trying to hide in the fabric.

like her fingers are just working to recall all of this. Oh, God, yeah. And just like one hand is working to like somatically like lock all of this in her memory so she can walk past like past this hall again later and remember everything she's over-stimulated about right now. And the other is truly grabbing like the skin of her elbow and her nails have pierced through and she is just bleeding a little bit in one arm. The realization that.

that, like, whatever Tephmet was talking about, even the, like, shoddy, like, second, third degree version of the story is born out here. Steele smiles and says, all of this, this whole thing, if you can believe it, start it with Mr. Callum.

My sandwich guy? The sandwich guy, one and the same. Well, you'll have to keep. explaining. Well, I don't know how to. We, you pour endless resources and finance into the areas of deepest interest for archmages, but the arch magi got good at mastering a kind of magic that exists. The magics that don't exist tend to come from places you don't expect. And in this case, someone thought that spells were of the spirit, and if spells are of the spirit, then In some ways, our spells spirits.

Well, let's find out. What would happen if I took a little quicksilver, made a little diagram, burned a couple gems to make smoke, turned that smoke into spells, gathered the spells around at seven torches, and boom, a living Mr. Callum, a spell that helps. Every wizard knows how to perform minor telekinesis, but to give it agency of some kind. It seemed like a trick.

At first, the things that detected spirits didn't detect the Timori as spirits, and they're not spirits, but they kind of are, because what is a spell? And these categories are, sometimes the spells confirm a category because that's how the spell was crafted to confirm a category. And sometimes you're not getting the best data that you can get back regardless. And you see that she walks out. and you can see that there are images in this room floating all reproduced from starlight. You see this is like images taken from the music box. And she looks and says, we keep the resource back down on Malacanth, though. Its military usage is much greater than its theoretical usage.

Sure. You see that she looks looking at all these images of starlight that these wizards are working on. She just looks and says, any questions? For me, Wizard Sky? I think Suvie's a little blanked out and still looking at the, like, star images and thinking about... She's just lost some thought,

and I think she just kind of mutters under her breath. This world has a hard time remembering what's true. Huh? You said this world has a hard time remembering what's true. Yeah, sorry. Sorry, weird things you hear in the woods.

Give me an inside check. Ten. Steel nods. So, this is the great work of what I mistakenly once upon a time believed to be a thing called the League of Whispers. F. Schatz smiles and gestures and says, Steele squeezes your arm here knowing what those two. Okay. So that's what this is.

I know. I'm going to be quiet and continue to listen. I'm okay. Keep going. Yes. Well, you've seen some of the incredible work in magic happening here. And here she can see that you're like a little sickly. And you see that her eyes near a little bit and says,

Fshed, is there an actual, it's hard to tell, but is there an actual balcony with like some fresh air? Oh, yeah. And Fshah says, ah, of course. Can we, is there a water or? No, can you? consumables. Right? Right, right. We'll get you some water when we get back down. Okay. You are led out to a glassy, translucent balcony overlooking and you see Malacanth

starting to descend back down to the ground. You look down and see the miles down below to Hoverward far beneath and sort of the tunnel, like the iris of your eyes closing as you look from a perspective of seeing the Urian as a cylinder that you are seeing the whole of just sort of narrow down to everward beneath you. Oh, God. This has made me somehow way more nauseous, but okay, okay, okay. Just try to breathe. We are very close to winning not only this war.

No article, no the war, no A war. We're very close. Suvi, the bullfrog, the Grinot, that was a stupid, the emperor and mostly the wizard gray wanted to see a return on an investment from a lot of theoretical work. So they wanted to see a field test and the emperor's mind is very fixated on destructive capabilities. So we wanted to prove that a mortal had the power to kill a great spirit and so prove it we did. See if he just bites her lip. I'm just going to let it bleed. But that's not. That's not what that's not.

this is, you know, that... If you can make a spell and then make a spirit from the spell, no need for a collection when you have a factory. Am I close? Kid, you're right on target. This is a riddle as old as time. Back at the first college of Summoners before they even all called themselves wizards, you make a well in a field, and one day you come out.

And you talk to the spirit of the well. Was that spirit always there? Did it come to be when the well was built? Was it waiting out there far past the near spirit? Even the great spirits who live in palaces of the sun and deep ocean kingdoms, none of them have seen the end of spirit. Maybe it's endless. And maybe all the things that there could ever be are out there.

You make a well. in some ways you make it spirit. That's why they're afraid of us. Because what we make real, they must become. And all you have to do is speak the language of the interplay. The language of magic itself. And all of a sudden, you can make a spirit of a well. And you can make a well that makes a certain kind of spirit.

And you can make a thing that's only the idea of a well that makes the idea of a spirit. That was Lou Wilson as Ursuland, Erica Ishii as Amay, Abria Ayangar as Suvi, and Brennan Lee Mulligan, as everyone and everything else. Worlds Beyond Number is edited, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate Horse with additional sound designed from Michael Gelfy Studios. For even more like this, join us on our Patreon.

We'll see you there.