WWW #51: The Endeavor

This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number. Early morning, orange light stepping through. In a second, the color of light changes. The smell is different. Surging past you, donkeys pulling carts, oxen with wagons. Army, you step through two Citadel wizards. Step up. Very well. Continue. Move through the gate here. Follow through. Yes, you two, you're together. Very good. This way. Follow through. And you see Army, you Enzo and Cyril. You pass through the gate, your passes are scanned, and you see an enormous ox to mourn. Scans over with a divination spell and catches nothing protected by Enzo's non-detections. I fidget with the hem of my cloak where there's some smears of calligraphy. You move 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. There's 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 glamours, as Malachanth is ascending high, high, high overhead to arrive at the very top of the Irian at midday. So the court that they are looking at is far, far from here. However, all of you walk and suddenly you're 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 gentlemen. Are the target of your letters up in Malachanth? No, but they soon will be when the epiphany arrives at Ruldak at the Tower of the Sword. I see. Do you have leave to get there? I believe so. Now that we've arrived here, perhaps best to shed our glamours. Ink demons with misives on behalf of a wizard of the Citadel, meaning not say who, will certainly be allowed passage. You see that Enzo turns to Cyril and they nod and they say, perhaps best for us to alight to Malachanth as quickly as possible. Do you require anything from us before we go? If I'm to be there when Suvi arrives at Malachanth, how difficult would it be for me to follow you up, Enzo? Hmm. Flying by broom, I think you will likely be spotted. Yes. And the Gallifopters require scanning and identification. Well, 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, one last thing. Cyril, I had to compose this for you upon your freeing, but I don't know if you... Please recite it for me. Loudly so people know you wrote it. To whomever it may concern, Mark Well, the Cyrillian urn. He has a literary bent to be time quite well spent. To listen to his words that so yarn. My words do yarn. A perfect poem. You're perfect. Goodbye, gentlemen. Goodbye, army. You're the most important person in the world, and he flies away. And I would like to strike out for a televermille. Walking through the streets of Haverward, you arrive back at televermille. The 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 ream in the little cage on your hip. It sort of lights up again. And you see that ream looks over at task. 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 ream realizes the place where you first got ream. Don't even think about it. I slip a little rhinestone in there. Keep em... I think disguised, I would like to go and try to track down Golt, the artifice her. Great. You approach televermille. 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 you 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 Golt, but you see that there is a delivery of raw materials. It looks like big bags of some kind of arcane salt that arrive being moved on a pair of hand trucks by these two sort of dock workers that come over. They sort of like, almost like sky dock workers. Move this salt in. As they do so, you see that Hannah 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 courier. I've seen some around in Haverward. There's just so much coming and going. So I wanted to appear as if I've come from Carol. 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 check inside the satchel. Is there a Hannah? Hannah, yes, she's in the main office. Thank you. You walk down the familiar hallway leading away from the hot workshop to the office across from the storeroom where you found Ursuline's shield. Give me a little perception check as you're walking through here. Natural 20. Holy shit! The work has drastically diminished in Tellover Mill. There are piles and piles of half-completed projects, components. There are like panes of glass that almost look like elements of Guderic 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. Oh no. I quicken my pace to the office. You walk in 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. Golt? Yes, Golt 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 Golt is, so he's not here anymore. I see. So what is it you have to deliver to him? What's your name? Oh, Lila. Eat something from someone who says they're a friend of his? An Amé? You're bringing a message from Kero from Amé? 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 prestigitate it to be addressed and sealed, labeled to Golt. 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 Golt 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. 19. Hannah is on the verge of tears. She is terrified, panicked. Something terrible has happened to Golt. 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... 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 a difficulty 20. That's a 19. God damn it! On that 19, you say you are a friend of Amé's. The fox can also give you a help action here. That's another 19. Oh, brutal. Uh, you know what? Mm-hmm. I open up this actual for the fox to poke his head out. The fox pokes his head out. You see Hannah goes, And you see the fox goes, Be calm. Don't do anything rash. 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. Seems like things aren't going good here. All right, that's enough. Thank you. Hannah 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. He was taken? She just starts weeping. 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 and free him. Please. Tell me everything you know. Tell me everything. I, I, I, the last, this was a while ago that the friends of, my friend, um, Skye, the wizard Skye, she's an archmage apprentice in the city. 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 history that he'd had. He'd known her mother and he'd worked with a woman that I think was the mentor of, of the witch of, uh, Yes, 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'd 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. Okay. We will find him. Okay. If the witch's boon can be to free him, then I will, I, I, I, 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, 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. All right. Uh, Fox? Fox is. Got it. All right. I'm 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 that the witch of Tommel will make things right. Thank you. We're likely going to be shut down in a little while. We, we, we have had a work stoppage because of a materials problem and the, 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. I guess 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, rainbow-y 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 use them before. Was Colt using them the day that we came and visited? Colt was wearing them the day that you came and visited. May I borrow these as well? Well, the artificers' gloves? Yes. Yes, but 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 their own supplies, is there any way that I can redirect resources to the mill for the time being? This is outlawed verbally as this person, right? Yes. You see, Hannah says, well, our issue is a city-wide issue. The reserves of quicksilver have just dried up. We're just not getting deliveries anymore. Quicksilver? 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 are areas that Joran was hitting in the war. What you see here until ever mill is the result of Joran's efforts, a secret war within the Shroud Mountains to do what? To stop the citadel. Cut off the supply chains. All right. 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. 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 Galt's home, which is not too far from Teller of the Mill, and follow a scent that the fox admits is a couple, like maybe like a week or two old at this point. Oh, fear sweat. They got him here right outside his house. Who was it? Beats me. Incents and nice places. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, marshmallow. Someone, someone that arrested him ate marshmallow. Oh, my goodness. Okay, here, hold on. I'm going to mal again. 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 Gallifopter 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 Gallifopters. 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 and 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. Task, give me a little brief on anything you have about artificers. Task scans a series of codes from the wall of Hannah's office about activating Gallifopters 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 have a work and 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. Alright. I put on the gloves using whatever mending or precedent digitization 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. I head towards the Gallifopter. Striding aboard an unclaimed Gallifopter, you put out your hand to speak the command keys as projected by Task. Little Fox has crept into this hen house of mighty magic and ame, which of Toma, cunning and kind, takes to the sky. The first thing you see is the golden light. Illuminated in a ghostly golden light, hair swaying above his head as though underwater. 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, not far off. What you saw as a mortal man was always a young warrior riding on his way to die. Curran approaches, standing at the ditch by the side of the road. Bare feet in moss, golden greaves and shining plate, or as long as you see yourself reflected in that armor. At his hip is the sword of night, his shield is on his back. He smiles at you in recognition. A haunted look of sorrow on his face. What is Ursulon feeling in this moment? Ursulon feels himself rigid, tense, confused, scared. And then in hearing his voice, there is a coldness in the pit of his stomach. A sense of hopelessness. So Curran, so Curran of the Hawthorn, Ursulon takes a step back and trips a little bit. As you stumble, you see reflexively Curran 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 onto the road, restless spirit of the dead. 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. The road will not be kind to this spirit, brother Ursulon. I believe his boots he once removed to walk with respect on the forest floor. He is without them now because as he lay dead at the bottom of the river, the scavengers of war came and picked him clean. And while his armor they could not remove for the ferocity of the water or its golden weight. They got those boots off of him real quick. Why have you done this? I needed a champion and you refused. Why him? The son of a great bear, a tree astride his shield. It is not for me to question prophecy brother Ursulon, but I will see my purpose in that. This spirit of the dead was not my first choice. I would not have entertained to bring so close to my company. The spirit of one who had lived a mortal life, such as he. But we make do. You were free to make the choice you did and from that choice rippled out many others. Like the splashing of waters in a great stream. I played the hand I was dealt. And this is he. Corrin stands shaking under 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. Brother. The souls of his feet won't wear the sting of the road well. Roads of a magic all their own. This one in particular I frequented often. I sought the soul of a mortal girl on this road. And a very clever witch kept me trapped here for a time. Until I felt it. Her boot touching the road. And once again I was free. I waited too long, Brother Ursula. I had a long time to dwell on the mistakes I made and I will not make them again. This one made some mistakes as well. Didn't you? He told this young spirit a tale of honor. Saw my brother trapped and wayshadowed in this road. You see current looks forward it meets your eyes Ursula. Shakes his head side to side. That was not my intention. Tell Ursula how you died. He looks at you. I came here to fight for honor Ursula. And a quest. I came here because I served my father. My father sent us here and held back and reserve his forces other than me. To betray his king. He sent me here knowing I would die. To position himself for greater land and title in the aftermath of his betrayal. I didn't know, I thought. Tell Ursula what you thought. I thought I would die. I thought tell Ursula what you thought. I thought there was honor here. My champion stands before you the sword of night at his side. Great purpose have I, you know it's feeling well. Great bullfrog lies dead and that glass tower as I have said and meant. Is plunged into the heart of this world. I will see those children delivered to their home. I will see the great spirits of the world beyond. Reckon with their own eyes what fate has befallen one of our own. And I will see them stride with me towards the retribution that is coming to the world of mortals. I cannot let you do that. Curran. Get the children. Ursula moves quickly to place himself between Sir Curran and the children. Holding his shield aloft in one hand and his sword in the other. Brother please. Curran weeps. But at the come end of the man in black he draws the sword of night. Brother you should run. Roll initiative. Roll initiative. Four 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. Eleven. An 11 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. Wavebreaker severed magically. As though a song has been forgotten. Wavebreaker flies out of your hand. Thunk into the road beside you. That is your turn. You look having deferred their initiative to see what you are going to do. Terrified neef bellowing elk. All of these children look and see Curran advancing on you. The road pitch black behind them. Wavebreaker standing there. Neef looks to you with horror of what she should do. Not knowing what you've never seen. You haven't seen her cast a spell. Herzlund 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 in this moment. What do you do? Looking back at Wavebreaker. Herzlund looks to Neef. Through the woods now. Neef 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. Curran will hunt them down. Herzlund is going to turn back to Curran. Leaving Wavebreaker for now. He's 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 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 nine 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 pauldron into the golden shield. Any bonus action from you? Herzlund understands this is not a moment to hide. So he's going to forgo using his hidden staff or turning invisible. And just continue 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 the Herzlund. 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. Herzlund puts everything he has into holding Curran. You leap. 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 night. With a three on the die that's a miss. With a seven on the die that's a miss. Clang, clang. Twice off your pauldron. It 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. Herzlund it is your turn. I think Herzlund 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. Duty 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. You hear 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 Akang. The gentle rain sent by Naran to his lady wife Orema. Who something told you last night to speak to. Even when a plan had been laid before your feet. The chances you see here. Naran's fist in the hilt of that sword. The river rushing down from here. The road. The road of the man in black and the road the rain rides to the sea. Naran wrestling underneath you in this moment. And you feel in yourself as well. The children crying out for some gift. Some presence there. 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. And even though in this moment you do not see. Ame or Suvi waiting for you there. Or some other symbol of hope or promise the fact. That you can see that road at all. It gives some strange semblance of hope in this moment. There must be a way out. As Ursuline struggles. Fights against the feelings of hopelessness. His mind is drawn to his friends. And the songs they sang together. And the place that they found him in. The place that he stands now. Terrified and desperate. Ursuline lets go of Curran. Knowing that if this does not work. He will reach those children. He's going to rush to grab Wavebreaker. And make for the water. You leave the night. His hands and face bleeding from their contact with the road. You grab Wavebreaker in your hand. And in a single mighty bound. Roaring through the air. You land in the water. And submerged. Far distant you hear. Ursuline. Are you alright? No brother. I need help. Those under my charge. Are in danger. You feel a hand on the back of your cloak. As Curran peels you out of the water. Raises his sword. Preparing to strike deep into your back. His eyes in a rictus of horror. At what he must not do but is compelled to. A man in black as still as ever. You see Neef upriver some small ways at the river's bank. Pleading with the spirit of this river. With both hands clasped and 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. The man in black turns. Facing downstream. As mountains of water come crashing up the river. As the sea rides up the road. And Neuron. His long flowing hair and long ears robe. The spear sea-comer 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 in black. 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 current. What would please you? Wave Lord. Neuron turns to look at you, Ursulon. Whatsoever my brother wishes would please me. Pilgrim under stars. Man in black turns to regard you, Ursulon, 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 Neuron. This spirit of freedom and of the wild. The young bear who smells of rosemary and pine. Way shadow wanderer and night errant. His wish is yours. Oh, that lord of the gentle sea. Neuron smiles. Winks down at you, Ursulon. He seems so sad. His wish is mine. King of Night. And what of my wish, Neuron? Granted, and I will walk by your side, King of Night. It's done. The man in black is gone. Current vanishes 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 Neuron is still standing, diminishing and diminishing, 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? King 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, Ursulon. But you can see it. You can hear it in his voice. 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 to check, Ursulon, if you would be so kind, you can do so with advantage. Fifteen. Neuron 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. I love them so much. There is so much good in this world. And if it is to stand, it will not be me who 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. You are of our world a spirit true, and you lived in their world alongside them. If Emmy can speak to the world of spirits on the hearts of mortals, and why they may earn a new day in a bright sun with gentle seas, I believe as young as you are that it is you who are on that path to speak that truth. I will do as I must, but keep the hope of your quest in my heart. He looks up the river at the children gathered there. Do you wish her son in my last night before I joined 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 Varric on Rhymer's Bay? I will. Is there anywhere you need tread that you wish for me to take you? The gout mine 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 gout mine, my brother. Business will call me elsewhere before then. I am glad to have saved you from the wrath and power of the King of Night. I have bought it dearly. I have dreaded long to say it, but when next we meet, we may meet as foes. In that battle, I hope that my sword and not my spear strikes true. Thank you, brother. Water surrounding the children, floating and bubbling in the nighttime river. The spirit of the river acknowledges the spirit of the gentle sea, and in a chariot of waves and foam, Neath, her familiar, and the children wave to the night who bought their freedom and fought for a world that they could call home. Following the parade, witnessing that strange little trophy through the Dosset, the Dosset Girl's 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 morning in the Aurelian Desert, white sands blowing throughout and the massive tower of the Arian approaching. You, 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. Oh. You're wanted on the deck. Okay. He turns and begins 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. Suvi. 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 stop himself, his chin turns to the side and he goes, it's because the second one worked. And... I'll go ahead and cough on my way. You walk up and there is a small ceremony gathered here. For what? Drummers. Spectral, summoned sort of magical drummers, just drum kits in the air and smiling in her armor, still injured and with a visible level of exhaustion is the sort of the Citadel. Wizard Sky, Archmage apprentice of the Wizard 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 this Medal of Valor and with promotion in the field of duty to your new role as Sage of the Prenumbra. Oh, this is the coolest thing that I hate with every fiber of my being. Fuck. Sage of the Prenumbra is so tight. Oh, Suvi, everything is being like, whatever, like, 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 shot. Dirty 20 on the Constitution, Sage. 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 two for 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 crews senior officerships, 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 slain circle of war mages. This is a guy you save from a lumber mill like a week and a half ago. Yeah. Well, cool. Here's hoping he earned his at least. You see steel smiles and pins to your imperial wizards jacket, a beautiful emblem of a crescent moon with several stars hanging from them and 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. 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 have a word 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. Steel looks at you and says, hey, hey, you want to stay with me and see the, see the sights you 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. I have it in me. I don't know. I think you did the coolest thing you'll ever do already. Now I got it. That's so mean that I don't have a retort. How dare you? How dare you suggest I won't do something cooler? And she puts in her armored hand over your shoulder. You feel the weight of the golden armor as the epiphany sails through. And there's Malachanth and there's Candlestre Bakery. And there's the Tower of the Glove. There's your tower. And Steel looks and says, Tower of the Glove can stay yours. You don't lose your apprentice position just because of a promotion. So, but the Sage's towers are nice. It basically, it 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. I think that's the shrewd move. She wakes you up. 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 timing is pretty good actually. We have an appointment at noon. No more secrets. No more secrets other than the ones that you, 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 call in 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 as any private conversations you want. Look, 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, What is that? It's a station for you. Cool. Penumbra. Oh, it matches my vibe. I wasn't looking when you put it on. As the wizard Skye, 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 Suvi 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. 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, uh, 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 Malachanth. There are covered walkways everywhere. You look out and you see that people are 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. For night walks. We stay undercover at night. You just see dealing with injuries, Star Library, the wizards were happy to steal it and then immediately try to make it not as useful anymore. Yeah, oh yeah. It seems like it's gonna 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, we gotta get rid of that. Call your niece, make it stop. And actually, as the epiphany pulls up to the tower of the sword and you see Steele's home, you see Saundra and Kadila and their siblings waving down from below. Yulia is waiting for you at the dock in her vest 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 info 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, Suvi'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 cornet. Yes. Okay, good to know. So that's the last place that we were able to trace that. But I sent out some miscivites asking for information, I haven't received anything back but I'm happy to follow up. Oh, 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 preparing this. And it is a list of, I went through every single library in all 12 courts and the big ones in Haverward as well, the public one and the ones, Citadel ones in Haverward. Yeah. And I've read 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. There's one, immediately you see that there's one missing. Stars of the Southern Sky? Missing, not 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, 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 stars. So that's what she went off of. This list is exhaustive. 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 Amé 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 Suvi needs. Okay. Is everything all right? Yes. Is there anything wrong with the list? No, we'll, 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 have a word, 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 area. And she looks at you and goes, whoo. Oh, I'm sleepy. Is there, what can I do? The last time I tried to help you, you did counter spell 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 for good judgment all the time, Suvi. 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, let's head to the, to the Skybridge. Okay. You walk out to the Skybridge where the, the epiphany just docked and it, you know, juts out a good 50 feet from the, 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, I don't get to do this stuff. I read about this in stories and it seems like spirits get to do this all the time. Okay, okay. Don't believe in the power of magic. I do. I truly do. There's a momentary pause as Malakant settles. She says, step forward with me. Okay. You step in your feet to 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 aren't 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 top most position. Shut up. And begin to ascend into the place where the sort of geode prism crystal of the Arian 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! This rocks! Sorry, invisible, invisible, discreet, discreet. This again rocks. The secret is time, young penumbra sage, sage of the penumbra. It is time that you be held. 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. A 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 Arian. So it is a labyrinth of strange sky glass and sand mirror hanging at the very top of Arian. I lied, I lied, I lied, I live here now. Yo, you don't want to live in Lucent. Lucent is... And you see you hear a voice go... 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 a fully transmuted... You first you think you're looking at a spirit. This is a transmuted human. Steel nods and says, Wizard F. Shess. It is a pleasure to see you. How is it steel it is a pleasure. The newly promoted sage of the penumbra. 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 oily to me. Oh I'm sorry. Fear not, not at all, not at all. A pleasure to meet you, wizard. Steel turns to you and says, Abjurrers all of them. Understood. We are deep within the magic of the magic of the magic of magic here. Where is it steel? Might I have a moment of your time before we are commenced to duel? Actually F. Shess, 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. Very well. The depletion of the Aerith resources has come at a most unfortunate time for our workings here in Lucent. I understand F. Shess. I'm sorry to hear that. The battles were necessary both for military and political reasons. So the work, I know, will have to be delayed for a day and you see F. Shess 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 steel nods this, yeah, okay, I'm aware, I'm aware. F. Shess says, when can we expect resupply of these necessary materials? Steel says, I don't know. The Peridic 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. It cannot be overstated how critical the need for resupply is. Even the 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 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. Arcana check is a 21. History is 14. On 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 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... 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 Tamori, but that last 1% is the thing that brings them to life. Quicksilver is what you need for that. Okay. On that History check, you just connect the dots between what Steel is saying about narrow range of procurement and that map of your ins and 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 Sky would be wonderful. Of course, little me. 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, Suvi's. That's a full body shutter. This is as close as I think Suvi's felt to that awful twin repulsion and fascination when she first beheld the Calabelle non-amantic apparatus of 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 sky glass 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 Suraz. 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 vensing. You see images over and over again in another area of the gates of the sun. Yeah. Okay, okay. But, 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 ledger book. Steel turns to you saying, this is something else, isn't it? Yeah. What? No, 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. Suvi'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. And, 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 pass this hall again later. And remember everything she's overstimulated 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 like whatever Tefmet 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, started 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 Archmage I 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. In this case, someone thought that spells were of the spirit and if spells are of the spirit, then in some ways are spells spirits. Well, let's find out what would happen if I took a little quick silver, 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, and 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, we, the things that detected spirits didn't detect the Tamori as spirits, and they're not spirits, but they kind of are, because what is a spell? 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 from, and she looks and says, we keep the resource back down on Malachan, though. It's military usage is much greater than its theoretical usage. 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 Suvi's a little blanked out and still looking at the like, Star images and thinking about. She's just lost in thought and they think she just kind of mutters under her breath. This world has a hard time remembering what's true. Huh? Huh? Huh? You said this world has a hard time remembering what's true. Yeah, sorry. Weird things you hear in the woods. Give me an insight check. Ten. Steel knots. 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.S. smiles and gestures and says, the magic here is of a rare designation. The utmost point between the schools of abduration and conjuration. Yeah. Steel squeezes your arm here knowing what those two schools mean to you. Yeah. Okay. So that's what this is. No. 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, F.S. is there an actual, it's hard to tell, but is there an actual balcony with like some fresh air? And F.S. says, of course, of course right this way. Is there a water or no consumables? Right. Right. Right. We'll get you some water when we get back down. You are let out to a glassy, translucent balcony overlooking and you see Malachanth starting to descend back down to the ground. You look down and see the miles down below to have a word far beneath and sort of the tunnel, like the irises of your eyes closing as you look from a perspective of seeing the irion as a cylinder that you are seeing the whole of, just sort of narrow down to have a word 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, but war, no article, no the war, no a war. We're very close, Suvi. The bullfrog, the granade, that was a, that was a stupid trick. The emperor and mostly the wizard Grey 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 immortal had the power to kill the Great Spirit and so prove it we did. Okay. Suvi just bites her lip. I'm just gonna let it bleed. But that's not, that's not what 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 to 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 and in some ways you make its 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 spirit of a well. 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. Yeah. When we make our own great spirits, we make the new world. That's the world I want for you. That was Lou Wilson as Ursulon, Erika Ishii as Aame, Abrea Aingar as Suvi, and Brennan Lee Mulligan as everyone and everything else. World's Beyond Number is edited, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate Horse with additional sound design from Michael Delphi Studios. For even more like this, join us on our Patreon. We'll see you there. .