WWW #43: Speak With Animals

This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number. In the hooves galloped down the road from the eastern edge of the city of Bracken. The horizon, a sliver of dull grey, the clouds still hanging low over the shroud mountains. Three true friends, three horses, ride east, turning suddenly south down the road. You make for 12 brooks, some 70 miles southeast of here. Riding on open road, pushing your horses as fast as you can, you'll be able to make it there in a day and a half, but you will need to stop for rest somewhere along the path before you can get there. The question is, how do you choose to approach? How do you choose to get there? The river Lithewin curves west at the southeastern edge of Hallecker Forest, before eventually some 40 miles south turning back towards 12 brooks. Riding on this current road, you will meet the curve of the river and join it, heading to 12 brooks, sometime around nightfall, riding straight to it. As you depart that morning, the first time that you take a break to water the horses, what is your plan? How do you wish to approach? The city happily defers all of the planning to her friends. Looks very specifically at Ursulon. Ursulon welcomes it. Has Amme showed Ursulon the map yet as we kind of make this first stop? Absolutely. I've spread it out and asked for input. How far does it extend? I know above the table you've been talking about it being more than just 12 brooks, but how much of the area does it show? Because 12 brooks is a large enough town, it shows about a mile in all directions because it charts the waterways into the city. The map is probably three or four miles wide and about three miles tall, depicting this three mile diameter city in the middle of the map. Ursulon looks to Sufi. I have two questions. Do you have an understanding of where the line between the empire and Gauthmai forces begins and then how close would Gauthmai be to a city they are sieging? Sufi pulls out her map where she was sort of marking and updating information about troop movements and like enemy territory. What do I know? Give me a history check with advantage. With advantage? I feel like you've just been in a city with access to all of this information. 26. The lines of the empire meet the lines of Gauthmai about halfway between Bracken and 12 brooks. Sufi communicates that as best she can as she is sort of updating her map and to the sort of later question about like how close they would be. I think Sufi just sort of shrugs and says if it's a siege then they are right outside the gates. I understood. And I made this language what is it called? Teroy. And so this indicates different paths to enter the subsystem? Well these ones over here do. These ones over here you don't have to worry about. Oh understood. What did they say? I whisper in Sufi's ear some real juicy real explicit. Okay now I need to know. Any other day Sufi would look scandalized and so happy to like fall into this. You see Sufi go cold with this and then nod and say it's unimportant. Understood. You said that based on what you heard Armey the garrison is in the center. That's right. So what is the furthest entry point that reaches to that central place? Looking at the map there's an interesting thing here because you're passing some waterways like on your way. There's a lot of you're entering sort of closer to the River Lithewind so there's a lot more streams and rivers a lot of stone bridges big arching bridges that tend to have like low railings like little pedestrian kind of bridges for you know the horses have to go single file like ride over them. You're noticing that the water is lower but there's still streams and rivers here. You think that whatever this plan was it's not an immediate effect like as powerful as the magic of spirits is Umora is still a landscape with an ecosystem with a water table with all these other things and that the rivers will lessen over time. Looking at this map up the River Lithewind before it hits the castle because the castle is really where the falls start. There is an early smugglers cave of which there are many up and down the breadth of the Lithewind that is set there that look it's close it's like maybe about three quarters of a mile away from the castle. So it's not going to be necessarily where the clashing of troops is happening but that'll be enemy encampment for sure. You'll be in the thick of it there but there is a smugglers cave that has a passage that gets down to the dungeons underneath the castle. Once we reach the city I believe we should aim for one of the out of the lying smugglers caves and use that to enter. With regard to moving closer to 12 brooks I do wonder if it might be better to leave the horses and go by boat. Looking at your map of the Shrav Mountain Suvi there is a town that is not even like named on the map but you know it because a lot of troops have moved from there. It is not on lines but it is the last big supply depot before Imperial lines so it's close to enemy territory but it's a big river town called Reedport. Reedport is like the biggest settlement up river from 12 brooks. Big lazy curve in the Lithewind a sort of lowland as far as lowlands get in the mountains but like kind of a lowland little sweet you know merchant town on the river a little clock tower across the river from the main town. That Reedport is where is your most direct line getting to where you need to go and there's going to be boats aplenty there even in wartime. Reedport I think that's a good idea and that's our best avenue. I also ought to say that we should keep an eye on the skies and if we see Imperial ships overhead or even if we don't. Looking up is this super cloudy? Yes very cloudy. They might be up there anyway. And Suvi gives as clinical a retelling of her conversation with Silver as she can. So he knows and there's a non-zero chance that he's alerted them and there might be eyes out for our approach. Where's the lawns going to put out a hand on Suvi's shoulder? Okay. Thank you. If it's all right with everyone I believe Reedport should be our destination. Agreed. Let's go. You take to the road as fast as you can. You know that with a heavy mobilization that morning that Bracken will be the opposite of chaos but hectic right? It'll be gearing up, heading out, wagons, supplies, sky ships. They're about to make a long march with 90 plus percent of their troops on foot down the roads headed for the front line to make a push on 12 Brooks. So on horseback you're going to be able to put miles behind you in them. But as you've said the question is who knows what and regardless of whether Silver told anybody or not you're certainly not in Bracken. Yeah. So I will ask taking off on the road you said keeping an eye on the sky. Are there any actions you are taking in your travels with the understanding that stealth is going to slow you down, that going off the road is going to slow you down, that like getting to Reedport before nightfall is only happening on horseback full gallop riding on roads? Suvi will use a consistent like recharging of disguised self and the form is feminine but an attempt at a like average across the people from this area that she's seen. So she's not averaging off of like obvious Citadel people but like anyone that she thinks is from this area she's going to try to look like one of them in the least ostentatious way possible. Hell yeah. What is the duration time on disguised self? An hour. An hour. Okay, cool. What time can you cast it? Four on my own, three if I use the ring, three more if I use the ring. That's fascinating. Okay, cool. I am going to need the first thing we're going to do is we're going to go hour by hour and I'm just going to roll some luck checks in front of the board. The first thing. The first thing. Man, I was feeling so good at the beginning of this episode and right now my stomach is doing fucking back flips. I was just like, yeah, we're doing it and now it's like, okay, luck check every hour to see if our favorite captain fucking descends from the sky. So we are going to roll and I'm going to say for our purposes it's a one through four that's bad news for us. But a one is really bad news. You don't have to say it like that. You're not going to roll a one. Roll number one. What is it? What is it? What is it? That's a 13. Oh, dude, it really is intense in here. I'm trying to read more rules to see if there's anything else I can do and I'm like losing I'm I heard that drop and I went, oh shit. You sent Luton like rules lawyer law school. I'm just checking it out. I'm just going over the books one more time. Riding through Riverlands you see meadows, trees, coming over low mountains with long shallow slopes, you know, a lot of following rivers at this point, lots of following streams and creeks and things like that headed towards the Lithe Wind. The tributaries are coming to the Great River together and that's largely what you're following at this point. And that first hour it is still early, early morning and you've got the cloud cover as well. So it is like mist and dew, even a low hanging sky ship, probably not going to catch you and plenty of tree cover on the roads, right? Something's got to be right. If something's flying way off in the sky at an angle, not great odds it sees you with the tree cover. But Torian's going to open up the closer you get. I think Ursulon is feeling some of me, Lou Wilson's anxiety. I'm going to cast Heroism on my horse. Hell yes. What does Heroism do again? It just imbues the creature with bravery. It's immune to being frightened and has, I think, four temporary hit ports. I think Ursulon just kind of leans down into his hordes. Ride hard brother. You keep us safe. The horse continues galloping forward. Next roll. That's a nine. You fucker. I'll stab you. I'll provide Lou Wilson the help action. What's happening, dude? Hour three of seven. Hour three of what? Hour three of seven. Oh my god. You have to poop. Funnily enough, seven. Stop. Are you having fun? I'm having fun. Are you having fun? I'm having a ball. For all the GMs at home, just a little clickety-clack of a plastic polyhedron can get a reaction like you wouldn't get anywhere else in your life. Will you describe the environment just to make me feel better? Can you say we have tree cover again or something? At this point now, you are riding as often as not through towns. With the sun firmly up in the sky, you actually see that you're deep enough behind, again, imperial lines that they're just farmers working in the fields. You get some polite waves from people, a lot of townsfolk otherwise, people with bushels and bells, and you actually even pass some other imperial soldiers who don't even really regard you. You just see three travelers on their way somewhere within enemy lines and go about their business collecting supplies, shipping food off to the front lines. The moment Suvi was like, I got to disguise myself, she is going to look at Amme and be like, I never want you to put your light under a barrel. Can you look 30% less like a witch? Amme, I must ask, do you have a second hat? Maybe no hat. Maybe no hat. Maybe no hats for anyone. What hat am I wearing? Who else has a hat? Oh, wait, here, you wear my hat. No, no, no one should wear a hat that looks like a witch. All right. Just slapping all the whimsical things you pull out of your bag, like not that. I pull out a cloak that has a little bells on it. No, I pull out a small hat. It looks like a miniature version of the hat. Hadeshunstall suddenly I see is playing and I'm like, not that. Okay. How about they have a shawl that has butterflies on it. I think we can work with that. Inside out at least. Okay. I turn it inside out and it looks fairly normal. It's cotton and on the inside it is not dyed any ostentatious colors. That's my win. Hour four. Stop! This is your last hour of casting under your own power. Yeah. Eleven. This is not okay. No, you're sick. No dramatic pauses. You're sick. No more dramatic pauses. The disguises continue. You're feeding energy into this disguise so that you do not look like yourself. The end of this last hour is the last of your natural magical potency unless you're upcasting. Right? No, I want those. So what are you going to do after that fourth hour? Just a heads up everyone. I've kind of burnt through my ability to do this without and you can see that she's just fussing with her ring like on her thumb. I can help. Okay. And like a short little like I think Suvi landed on like kind of ruddy, a little short and a little soft and sort of like dark, curly, but like short like a little fuck ass bob hair. Just like, yeah, what you got? Because this is about to go away. Ame gathers a handful of petals from the nearby bush and some grass and starts to festoon Suvi with it whimsically throwing up handfuls of plant material. Okay. And holds up a tiny still mirror and you do not see yourself. Have you cast invisibility on me? Yes. Okay. Well, I guess sort of just pull my horse behind the other horses. So you hold up that mirror and you are completely unseen. Suvi nods. No one sees it. Yeah. So a third horse is just traveling alongside you. I'll attach a rope from my horse to that horse. Perfect. Hour five. Oh, I said I wasn't going to pause. Ten. Oh, you can pause. I must have had your five. Now that Ame's pulling out stops, we're back. Hold on. You're about to say something about it being an hour. The hour rolls over and you still don't see Suvi. I also have invisibility. Cast without a spell slot because of my shadow touched feet. Oh, shit. Oh snap. Ame comes up to Suvi with the handfuls of grass and dust. No. No. Boo, I'm a ghost. Don't put trash on me. The fox goes. This spell casting is rough, boss. Well, it's okay. They're not actually components of the spell anyway. And I go, what? Hour six. The river Lithewin comes into view far distant. You see its massive banks. A little bit of mud on the side. The river has partially lowered already, but still a full and mighty river. That's a four. A sky ship descends from the clouds. It gets menacingly low until its shadow falls over you. As its shadow falls over you, what, if anything, do you all do? Oursalon is doing his best to just stay the course. The fact that Suvi is hidden and also isn't, like, Oursalon looks back at Suvi's horse to make sure it seems, it's roommate, it's, that she is still invisible, looks to Ame, nods, and then just looks ahead. What's the speed we're moving at? You're at a nice canter. You're cantering. Or do we have tree cover at all? No, this thing is right on top of you. It has spotted you. I would like a group deception check from everybody. Because Suvi is hidden, you can roll, but you will automatically succeed and have the potential to use a good roll to replace somebody else's roll. Oh, thank god. Amazing. So let's go ahead and get this deception roll. With a seven, I don't contribute. 12. 16. Okay. The fox is also going to give you the help action, Ame. 19 on the die. That's 25. Hell yeah. Remember, those familiars are always here ready to help out. So that's a 16 and a 25. Oursalon, you stay the course. Ame, you feel your hands reflexively go to cast and then recognize that you're just a man and a woman in a kerchief taking a horse to market. So there's no need to panic. Probably slow down because an imperial sky ship is scary. But you know, you just slow. They're not hailing you. The ship menacingly hangs over you for longer than you would like. Probably two minutes, three minutes, and then lives back into the clouds and leaves. Almost there. Almost there. Almost there. Afternoon sunlight is starting to stream and you've been riding since the crack of dawn. It is your last hour. You have used your secret or you have used your feet shadow touched. Ame, do you have another invisibility left? I do. Yes. I can also cast it. Okay. The feet does a lot of light. I do. Yes. I can also cast it. Okay. The feet does allow you to cast it if you have spell slots. Oh, great. Okay. Copy that. Cool. Which of you is casting it? I will do it. Okay. I can feel as the magic starts to lessen. Suvi will actually like, you feel the horse she's sitting on, hesitate and pull back on the rope as Suvi like actually like kind of gets it to like rain. So it looks a little natural and Suvi is going to slip off of the horse. Recast just in case there's a flash of it and there's someone watching. She's fully paranoid now and then is going to like remount with one more hour of invisibility. One more hour to report. That's another four. Once again, we're going to do the exact same thing. This is a group deception. That's another 19 on the die for 26. Okay. I help with four. This is why it's good you're invisible. Yes, sir. 11. Okay. Another ship lowers. Buzzing over you and fully docking. The rope ladder spiral staircase emerges from it and you see an imperial sky ship. Dock and report. You approach the town. You know that it must have spotted you, but also now there are enough people. It's mid afternoon. The town seems busy. You see there's a couple big barges being loaded up here and you can already see that there are barracks. There's a lot of imperial soldiers here. This is going to be the gathering point for the push. Readport is eight miles from the front lines. This is where they are going to gather to make the push through Gouthmine to get to 12 Brooks. It happens here and you can already see that effectively the red carpet is being rolled out, right? You hear construction, you're shouting, people are getting things ready. You can see one or two constructs like at the edge of the town. It's like a sleepy little river town that hugs this sort of double S curve as the river takes a wider, bigger curve around. You see that there are some algae on the large river harbor pier points where the water has receded and show some of the algae down at the base. Across the river there's a little clock tower. There are a number. It looks like there's a promenade by the waterfront. There's open seating restaurants and these cute little slate roof things. There's a lot of little steeples and there's some bell towers on a little city-civic building. You see that there are a couple little shrines throughout this place. You see that there's one central shrine close to the water that has a large tarp over it. Just clean sort of like waxy canvas tarp over the shrine. As you approach the town, what do you do? Suvi is going to dismount the horse. She's going to try to like get as far away from anyone near that ship as she can while still keeping her friends in range. Do you say anything? I will whisper low enough that I hope the fox and then if you have very good hearing can pick it up, but I don't want a person hearing anything. I've got eyes on you. I'm hanging back. My eyes land on the tarp covering the shrine. I look over at Ursulat and I say, Brother, perhaps you should see about finding a boat. I shall go look to the town center and I indicate the shrine. Of course, sister. I may wait to, I'm not sure, procuring a boat will be as simple as asking for services. So I may just keep an eye on things. I understand. Thank you. Perhaps I will do these hardworking soldiers the service of returning some horses that found their way to our farm. That's very kind of you. Yes. Is it clear where Amé is headed? Do I see a beeline towards the tarp? I think so, yes. And Siwi's going to do her best to intercept and if Amé dismounds or gets close enough that Siwi can get like low words to her. I just feel like, are you sure you want to look under the tarp and alert everyone here that you're looking under the tarp? Well, what plan of action would you suggest? Not making waves. We need a boat and we need to not be noticed. I'm invisible. Please carry that energy to the boat we need. If I can find a way to unintrusively get under that tarp. Why do you need to get under the tarp? Because I have a feeling that you might be able to enlist some help. Just the way that we did at Abyssin. That help was beautiful and not discreet. And you are now very aware of what the Imperium can do to spirits even when they're trying to help. I trust you. Please. Please, if there is anything else you can do. I beg you to do it. Siwi, you also begin to feel that you're a few minutes out from this last casting of the spell fading away. I will see you at the docks. And Siwi's going to back off and then try to get to a low corner. Siwi will let it fade somewhere discreet and cast, upcast disguise self. Okay. You upcast disguise self. You are now free to walk about the town. Where are you headed to? Towards the docks? Yes. Okay. You head towards the docks with your passive investigation. You see that there are a number of different craft here. Almost all of them requisitioned by the Empire. But there anything that's not suitable for military use is of course not commandeered or requisitioned. So row boats, you know, you see one or two canoes pulled up onto the banks somewhere else. Smaller craft appears to be available around here. And by available I don't mean for sale, but I mean available. Yeah. First along with the horses, where are you headed? Also to the docks. Slowing to like a gentle walking pace, trying to match the energy of what I would identify as just citizens. Okay. You continue to move. Aume, what are you doing? Box. I say in my head. I told Siwi we would keep a low profile, but we do need to find out what is under that tarp. Can you go for it? Yeah. I got you, boss. Okay. But stay out of sight. Do it quietly and carefully, please. Go ahead and give me a stealth check for the fox. Dirty 20. You're a beautiful man. You're a beautiful little man. The fox gets under the tarp, looks up, goes, big stone frog, big stone frog. I blink and come up in the fox's eyes. What do I see? It appears to be a statue to the Great Bull Frog, here at the water's edge. You see that there's some clay bowls that are empty, but you know, it's a shrine to the spirit. You see that there are places where some offerings were made a long time ago. You see that there are a number of small little wooden picks that have fallen into like the cracks around here, like people leave their guitar picks or have they have like fallen in. Alright, fox. What's your favorite song that you know? A Wandering We Will Go. Okay. A Wandering We Will Go. A Wandering We Will Go. A Wandering We Will Go. Do you want me to really sing it? Yeah. Okay. A Wandering We Will Go. A Wandering We Will Go. I hold the Dario. In the fox's head, I try to open up my senses the way that I do when I'm contacting the spirits. Your senses are no longer in the fox. You're on the street. What do I... I sprint towards the town square. You rush to the shrine. Arrive there. I think Ursulon and Suvi, you can both see this. As you arrive at the tarp, what do you do? Is he under there? Can I see anything? Is there anything surrounding the tarp? He snuck in under the edge of the fabric. You can lift it up if you'd like. Okay, look around. Aren't there many people nearby? Oh yeah. Busy waterfront people working. But no one's looking at you in particular that you can see. Actually, give me a perception check. 25. 25 is very high. As you go to wonder about holding, pulling up the tarp, you turn around and see the smile of the approaching wizard Keen. Arme. Greetings. Oh, hello. I love your shawl. Oh, thank you. I'm sorry, I don't believe that we've... Formally been introduced. I'm the wizard Keen. It's pleasure and an honor. Lovely to meet you. And you as well. Are you admiring the shrine here? It's a shame that they've covered it. Is that what it is? Yes, yes, yes, certainly. May I see it? Of course. Gods. And you see he claps and a group of Imperial soldiers come out and remove the tarp and you see the bullfrog. There are townsfolk look around like something's happening. There's about eight soldiers gathered around right now. And you see that as they approach about another six start walking down the harbor from one direction, another six start walking from the other. And you see as he pulls it up, the fox who was in his little exceeded posture with his butt on the ground and his fore paws extended is perfectly paralyzed. And you see that the wizard Keen reaches down, grabs him by the throat, holds him up. He's solid as a brick. You see he goes, is this yours? I believe I saw this little chap speaking last night. You've ridden quite fast and hard from bracken to here. Where is Skye, army? I know he seems perfectly rigid, but trust me, I can break his neck. Why would you do that? You've absconded with a member of the Citadel. I've absconded? Are you accusing me of kidnapping a full grown wizard? Oh, or did she leave under her own volition? Choose which fate you think is worse. Suvi and Ursulon, you see the rigid body of the fox. You see Keen's soft, bejeweled hand wrapped tightly around the fox's throat as he stares forward in surprise. Just a rictus of unmoving facial expression on this animal. Can I make a perception check for Suvi? Yes, give me perception. I mean, I guess I also, there's a chance I'm looking for an invisible thing. Yeah, give me your perception. Yeah, Suvi's invisible. It's an ape. Or I guess Suvi was invisible and now has taken a new form, so I don't think I see. Are people gathering at this site or is there still the same kind of movement? Give me an insight with advantage. Fifteen. This is bad, obviously. And the way in which it's bad is that the shrine was a complete trap. Any other path to 12 Brooks would have taken you guys three days. Think about three days of those checks. So the trap was set here. You don't know how Keen got here so fast, possibly one of the airships, but you don't reckon... You're like looking up and on that 15 you're like not seeing any airships that were from Bracken, possible that he just teleported here, hard to say, and you see him holding the fox. I think that you can just tell this is really bad. This is a time to not act carelessly. You see that Keen looks at you and says, Amé, we are not here for you. We are here for the Wizards' guy. And it would be best for you to produce her. If you cannot produce her, then these fine soldiers are going to raise the butt of their war staves, and they're going to club you into death or unconsciousness here in front of all these people. The Wizards are keen. I apologize. There must be a misunderstanding. But if you're acting on behalf of the Citadel or the Imperium, I implore you please... not to do this. I say this not on behalf of myself or my friends, but on behalf of the Coven of Elders and of the station of which I am a representative. I, of course, do not wish any harm to befall myself or my familiar. Should any harm come to us, I cannot be responsible for the things that happen. This is not a threat. I do not say this in an effort to coerce or intimidate you. I say this because I do not want the people of this town and the soldiers surrounding us to come to harm. So please, can we go somewhere that we can have a civil conversation? You do not need to threaten me like this. I don't like how you don't give me what I want. Everyone roll initiative. 12 for C. 22. 19 for Abe and 15 for the Fox, if that's anything. I think we'll have the Fox go on your initiative. Gotcha. Ursulon, you are first to act. I'm going to say you're about 80 feet away from... to get enough distance that you were not like clockable with her. You're a good distance away. You're about 80 feet away. Can I make another perception check? This time on threats and foes, just I know that he's... it's him with six soldiers, but also I'm worried about the skyship and does it feel like there are more soldiers in other places that we don't... or that aren't... that isn't immediately in the area? Yes. I mean, I mean, truly the... the... this is happening in the worst place for it to happen. You are at the harbor in front of a shrine on the steps. You see that as he's giving the order that these men are raising their weapons, they're going to, you know, people are going to scream. They're going to club a woman down in front of a shrine and the... it is the most obscene, sacrilegious thing you've ever seen. And probably anyone that screams or joins or does anything is going to get attacked, injured or killed as well. And there are two skyships over the city. That feeling of care, thought. I brought us here. I'm... I'm... Suvi, that responsibility that Suvi put on to me is resonating deeply within Ursulon. I'm going to move directly toward this situation without revealing myself. Great. Without drawing wave breaker. Great. Without kind of making it apparent that I'm present. Yeah. Move 60 feet closer and bonus action cast Shield of Faith on Amne. Go ahead and give me stealth. 20. In the crowd, moving shadows, glamour up. You are on the other side of the shrine. So you're like listening to what's happening. You are... you have full cover from... from Keen. No one can get eyes on you, but you are listening with your ears and have a full understanding of what's happening in this moment. Amne, it is your turn. I'm going to attempt to grab hold of the fox. Great. Make an opposed athletics check. You are trying to beat a 17. Sex. You grab it. He chuckles as you attempt to rest it from his hand. And you are both holding on to the animal as he squeezes down harder on the fox's neck and you hear a pained whine come from its closed mouth. Any bonus action? Can I hold bonus action until fox goes? Yeah, and the fox is going to get a roll at the end of the turn to try and come out of the paralyzed condition. All right, I'm going to hold my bonus action until fox goes. Okay. Go ahead and give me a roll. The fox needs to roll a 16 or higher on the die. Nine. The spell stays on the fox as Keen sneers back a lip. You want your little pet back? You are still both gripping the animal and he has failed his save the magic that is paralyzing in place. You realize that as he raised his voice and song, Keen put a spell on him. In this moment, I know I can run and I can get away clean and safe, but I cannot leave the fox. In that case, I think you are frozen in this moment and it is Keen's turn. Yes. How many hit points does Ami have? Oh, God. 23. Okay. Nine, ten, 22. Okay. Keen looks at you and says, No, no, no. We don't draw blood from witches, little demons. Good night, Ami. Sweet jasmine sand emerges from his lips. You are so tired and you collapsed to the ground asleep. No save. Beats your hit point total. You drop. Mechanically. Does a retributive curse need me conscious to be activated? Well, so as a reaction, you should be able to still do a retributive curse. You can still put a curse on this guy. It won't affect the spell working on you, but you can absolutely, yeah, for sure. So is there a retributive curse in this moment? Yes. The moment that Ami touches the ground, a ripple escapes her body. And he feels shared suffering. So the first time he deals damage to another creature he takes, 1d6 plus proficiency psychic damage. As you fall to the ground, you place this retributive curse on Keen, who feels that he can feel that power of when, you know, when Suvi put a hand on him, when other people have done this. And he has transgressed and he feels this curse take effect that if he harms anything, great harm will come to him. He goes, blah. My hands will remain clean. Gods, please bind and gag this creature, pointing to Ami. And you see the guards, manacle, bind up. One of them takes a rag, shoves it into Ami's mouth and ties it around the back of her head. Suvi, you are next to go. Suvi is going to look around her and find a little building. And from it, she's going to point. Like, she will put herself behind a wall so she is not seen from a window or a doorway, but points exactly where she knows he is in the town square and cast message. She knows the recipient so she doesn't have to see him and just sends, Do you need to have a conversation with me, Wizard Keen? Most direly, Wizard Sky, your presence is requested back at headquarters. And Suvi will, like, then spend her movement coming out of the door, like, opening the door in this, like, very calm, like, too slow, too calculated method makes direct eye contact with him and gives a little nod. Keen smiles. The guards are holding on to Ami and he, with a flank of about eight guards with him, is going to just walk and approach you. Reaport, dangerous town, within ten miles of enemy lines. Glad we were able to catch you here, Wizard Sky. Your... What are you catching? The Prince has requested your presence back in the city of Racken. Okay, that's fine. Why is the Witch of Toma bound and manacled? It was believed you were kidnapped. You vanished without a trace. I suppose I should have left a note. I was under the false impression I could come and go as I fucking pleased. Apologies. Ah, I understand. The delusion you are operating under is a sad artifact of the insane pampering you have received your entire life, Princess. He leans in. He leans in and says, Or do you think that the Wizard Silver did not default every one of your inane chatterings to his superiors as his training demanded? The Wizard Silver is a love-struck puppy and perhaps... embellished what was meant to be used as a cover story so that I could slip away and follow an honored friend and a witch on whatever they deemed necessary. We can have this conversation on the way back. Can you please allow my people to go as... to go about their way? My orders, as one that does receive and must follow orders, are to hold the Witch and Spirit here at Reedport, not to escort them back to Bracken where they may so further discord or cause further harm. However, they will be kept safely here and you will be able to plead a case for them in front of the Prince. My friends here will be more than happy to escort you, as will I. You see that a group of horses are led over and these are not the horses you wrote in on, but a group of horses are led over. Imperial infantry saddle up. A couple other guild mages of the glass coronet are with them. These look like sort of more powerful wizards and they begin to saddle up and a horse is led over to you. The wizard keen says, I am going to keep your friends on ice until such time as you and the Empire can arrive at what should be done with them. Understood. You are helped up into the saddle and the horses gallop forward from this place. I watch Suvi leap. You are watching? What is Suvi? Suvi will drop her disguise so it is very clear as she was moving out into the open that she's like, cool, jig is up. The last thing I'll say is Suvi would have let Vandal out of the bottle so when it is safe enough Vandal will be there to have a conversation with you. Hell yeah. Vandal is waiting in the wings. The fox is still with the wizard keen. As Suvi and her accompaniment ride out of the harbour area or ride out of the promenade from Reedport keen turns around, looks at you and strokes your cheek and says, I can't wait to dangle you out in the shop window until that bear shows his face and I can put him on a leash. We're going to make one last roll for the fox. Dad. The fox is shoved into a bag. The bag is tied shut. And Ursuland you watch them walk away but feel a sudden. Motherfucker, fucker, fuck suckers as Vandal lands on your shoulder swearing as you see Ameh cart it off. Suvi, the world raining down. You've made it so far. You're only eight miles from enemy lines. These horses. Charging off Imperial Infantry wizards right back up the road. You came. You passed through a line of trees. You've come so far. You see a massive watery tribute here. This is like Reedport has left site already. Trees obscuring from all sides. The sun is set. It is like a twilight right now. It's that liminal space where all hope is lost. The sun has vanished into the west. And you see the soldiers sort of riding hard beside you. Give me a perception check. 15. There is a long stone bridge in the style of this area of the shroud mountains. Low railings. Sort of yellow sandy gravel over the top of the bridge. And you see a massive river tributary underneath it with deep banks on either side. The trees are tall around here. You're kind of in orchard land at this point far enough away from Reedport. And it is that weird twilight that almost sometimes has worse visibility than deep night. You know that twilight dusk time where it's like even harder to see at a distance. When that 15, the horses are picking up pace. And you see that the soldiers look sort of uncomfortable around you as the horses are picking up pace. Why did the soldiers look uncomfortable? Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! Horses speeding up. The two horses in the front with the glass coronet dive over the side of the bridge into the water. Two after then. Stop, stop! Soldiers pulling back on rays. And you are over the fucking bridge into the water. And suddenly, a soldier's body in the bubbles and water around you, a tentacle wraps around his neck. Turns it, crushes his spine, dead. A shark's mouth. Wow! Blood, arms moving all throughout. You see another alligator rolling and the alligator is wearing a saddle with reins and a bridle in its mouth. A massive clawed hand races through the water towards you. This claw has stretched to slit your throat and suddenly purple light surrounds you. And you hear scream underwater in the bubbles as suddenly a massive constrictor snake moves, wraps around you. You vanish deep into the darkness of the water and vanish under the river. First one. Suvi has ridden away and you see that the wizard keen, his forces, take Aume and the fox in a bag deeper into Reedport, closer to the town center. What are you doing? I turned to Vandal. Vandal, are you in contact with your mistress? Yeah, she's riding off with those horses and those asshole pieces of shit that captured her. God, I hate them! I hate them as well. You can be quiet, yes? Yeah. Great. Do that. All right. Follow me. Ah. Less of that. What? I would like to follow keen. I don't know how the town is laid out, but in my dreams, it's a like one block over or one building over moving along with them, alongside them versus behind them. Yes, absolutely. Go ahead, give me another stealth check. They're easy to tail. You don't have to make a roll about that. And keen is walking with the swagger of a man in charge. So he's not even making a point to disguise himself. Dirty 20. You follow them and see that there's actually a moment where keen addresses a group of soldiers who are heading towards where the airships are docked. And you see that he takes Amin the Fox and a group of about six other soldiers and one other glass cornet wizard, a member of his guild, and walks into a butcher shop. So there's two soldiers at the door. There's two more inside. You see the other glass cornet wizard go and from the corner where you're watching, he heads up a staircase sort of towards the second story of this little shop to sit and look out a window. So it's keen and the other two soldiers take Amin the Fox into the back of this butcher shop. Can I do a perception check on the building? Does it feel like they have looked at every entrance and exit? Is there a chance there's one behind? Just general, any more information I can glean. Give me a perception and Vandal can give you the help action. 18 perception. Okay. And then I'm also wondering if I can do insight on just the energy is the energy. This is temporary is the energy we're settling in just anything I might be able to gleam off of how the visible guards are acting. Settled in. Okay. On an 18. There is a slanted cellar door in the back of this building. You can see it's around a little alleyway. You think that there's probably like a cool cellar for meat at the bottom of this butcher shop. And there is an entrance that doesn't appear to be watched or guarded right now back there. Okay. Rosalind's going to wait just a few minutes just in case just because he feel the settled in kind of attitude of the guards makes him feel like he doesn't if he heard what was being said earlier. Amme is not going to come to harm doesn't feel like they are eager to injure or may maame and the fact that they cast like the sleep spell I think is taking pressure off of Ursuline to like charge in and draw sword and try and kill everybody. Give me an insight check with advantage. 21. Yeah. This is another trap. And you've got this guy dead to rights. The tarp over the bullfrog was a trap for only this is a trap for you. It is a butcher shop. It's meant to give you every indication that he's going to take her back there and torture her. And if that was the case what was that sleep spell. And you know. That there is a degree that you are being expected to act on instinct and impulse here. And you know we've talked about the wizards relying on wisdom and we talked about the witches relying on charisma the sort of secondary spell casting. And this is intelligence. There's a moment here where you go no doesn't add up. And so you know that you are that you're meant to act fast that there's something here that you're supposed to go charging in. And sitting here you realize that maybe time is actually your friend. Sufi. Water everywhere. I'm going to need a constitution saving throw. Yeah. Nine. You begin to drown. You suck water deep into your lungs and cannot help but hack and cough and spurt under the water. You are moving so fast there is a massive constrictor that has wrapped you up in its coils and swims through the water. It feels shapes around you. Some kind of massive octopus or squid some shark. There are huge things in the river basin and suddenly you feel darkness scratch a little bit of scratching on your face bleeding of moving. Just this is just you being dragged through root dirt river mud and suddenly coughing sputtering air. What do I see when I look around? There's a two little oil lamps. There's a wooden table that has some papers rolled out on it. You're in a smugglers cave. There's a series of chests up against a wall. You see some provisions. No weapons or armaments because the people that populate this can grow those themselves. And you look and see a crocodile about 25 long pull itself up. Spit a bridle out of its mouth as it turns into a man. And you see these horses may not have been horses after all. Ten miles is pretty close for comfort, enemy lines and all. And you see a massive shape emerge from the water. Like a green beast gill, like a gorilla hyena primate. And a shape looks at you, moves its claw, purple light surrounds you and Jorin says, Why can't I hurt you? The other shape changers look completely assured of your instant death if they want it. And nakedly walk out of the water. You see there's a couple saddles and bridles that they sort of toss off to the side. They walk up and begin to eat and sit down to watch the boss work. You sort of surrounded by this glowering crew of incredibly dangerous men and women who watch you naked, covered in blood. One of them licks in their cheek and pulls out a finger from an imperial soldier, throws it on the ground. And Jorin's hulking shape larger than you saw him that night in Silbury the last time you saw him. Why can't I hurt you? Iron tusks and blood spills out of his open mouth. Jorin. He doubles back. Who do you know my name? Stand up in the white! Suvi coughing and sputtering pushes herself to standing. And before she steps fully into the light, she goes back and tries to remember the bearing of her mother. I thought she told you not to frighten her child and Suvi steps into the light. The shape changes around you furrow their brow at this indecipherable statement. And Jorin falls back on his haunches, absolutely flabbergasted. The shape of a massive garen, a monster of the spirit world as he crouches. What? You. I cannot believe it. I don't know your name anymore. I am the wizard Skye, daughter of Softenstone. Skye is your cloak. Well, took a few lives of mine at Abyssin, didn't you? And he stalks past you and shifts down into the shape of a man. Walks over to a pair of trousers, pulls them up, turns around, looks at you, and you see salt and pepper hair, older man. Tense face, he stares at you with a look of confusion and curiosity. Suvi is still in that place of, I'm already dead, because if you figure out how to kill me, he just will. So that like takes away any sense of like self-preservation in this interaction. And so she just kind of shrugs. I guess that makes us even, since you killed my parents, doesn't it? What are you talking about? You deny it. I deny it. What are you talking about? Killed your parents? I didn't kill your parents. The last time I saw you, they sent me away. You went off to do whatever you do, and then a six-year-old girl was picked up by Steele and told that her parents died at your hands. And I've been waiting to see you ever since. If I had, we would settle it here and now. You'd have every right to seek your vengeance. I betrayed your parents, but I didn't slay them. I don't know how they died. Why? Why did I betray them? Why did I? Because they had lost their minds. Why were you under Imperial Guard? Where were you being escorted? Okay, this is... I... Can I have a towel at least? Thought you were an Empire wizard. Can't you do some magic about being wet? I figured if I did some magic, one of you would kill me. We would. Okay, calm down, you. Eat your finger. You see, you're in laughs at that. Tosses a towel, processes arms and cocks his head and looks at you. Steele told you point blank that I killed Soft and Stone. Yep. And see, he's just drying her hair. And if you need to know, I was being escorted, sort of half arrested, back to give an account for why I fled from Bracken. You were half arrested? Yeah, it was sort of a soft arrest. Apple doesn't fall far. On your passive investigation, this cave is wild. There's supplies and provisions and things like that here. You also see there are some chests of what look like stolen Imperial goods. And there's a map of the shroud mountains that has a couple of sites that have been x'd out on it. And it doesn't look like anything that corresponds to what the Empire is dealing with. It seems like Joryn's fighting a secret war in these mountains under the cover of the bigger war between Gauth Mai and the Empire. Suvi trying to like through her, she's still doing the like, I'm dead. You might as well just say what's in your heart, like sort of false bravado. Seize that information and attempts to commit it to memory, but there's a lot going on and she's overwhelmed. And she will start like tapping her fingers just like she did when she was a little kid, trying to commit it to memory. Joryn goes over and tosses just a hunk of bread to you. She catches it? She says, so half arrested by the Empire. They're still pretending to be nice to me. I'm very useful. Big, like too big a bite of how crusty is this bread? Because Suvi's gonna overbite and maybe lose what little dignity she has sort of gnawing on it. I think at this point you have moved through such a liminal space, like you died in that river. Is this a dream? Have some bread. Yeah. Great. And Joryn just sits on the ground and you see that the other shape-changers seeing this change in energy kind of go off on their own. Some of them go to sleep, others are like busy prepping or planning something else. You see a few of them take some of the wet things out of the river bag like spell books have fallen soldiers, things like that start to review and go through them. And Joryn just sits on the cold, damp, muddy dirt of this smugglers cave, cross-legged opposite you, and chewing on some bread goes, you killed some good people in Ameson, of mine. So what if you're kind of sorry you're going to kill my boyfriend? Bread is thick. You see? You see Joryn nods and says, I don't know who your boyfriend is, but yes, I was probably gonna kill him. It's okay, we broke up. And I want to turn and point to the people kind of going through effects. And if I see any like embossing or insignia for the coronet, I'll point out and be like, prioritize that. That's going to be better stuff. Don't worry about the soldiers. You see they look around. Joryn is just fully his wrinkled forehead eyes so wide and a kind of amused wonder. And he turns and nods to the shape changers here, nods to his soldiers. You see he goes, I never knew how Soft and Stone died. We went to Silbury to drop you off with Ren because she had already bowed out at that point. And you needed to be safe. Bowed out? Do you know, I mean, what would you know? Okay, okay. I understand that you're trying to recontextualize because I was a little kid. I don't love that tone. You are Stone's daughter. I cannot believe. All right. It seems just going to sit down, cross-legged in front of him. Just get comfortable, post up. I'm dead, so why not have a fun conversation as my brain fires every neuron simultaneously as I drown in a river? I knew that Soft and Stone were sent to spy on me. But I knew that they were more sent to spy on the houses of Gautamai when I first met them. This was early days Citadel. Soft was exploring the near spirit and Gautamai was experimenting with ways to get around teleportation wards. In any case, I knew that they were Citadel rats, but fuck the houses of Gautamai and fuck the sorcerers. And so I said, let's work together. But I got to know them and I just, well, everyone's a bastard in this line of work, but they were all right. We started working together and it started to run parallel for me. They were giving me and Gautamai to help them out with this thing called the League of Whispers. You've heard that term. I don't know much, but yes. The League was, to their understanding, a rot, a cabal, a conspiracy within the Citadel. And a group forum called the Acadeter, which mostly was Wizards of the Citadel, but some allies outside myself and Grandmother Ren included. Amongst various and some other tasks, the Acadeter worked outside of the chain of command of the Citadel, which is not very legal. So. Yeah. They don't like it when you don't do what they say. No. But steel, soft, stone, friends in the Artificers Guild and Haverward and other places, they wanted to save the Citadel. They thought that this League of Whispers had taken over and was... There were a number of pieces of important research that they believed the League was involved in that were going to warp the mission of the Citadel and change, I don't know, in their Wizards. No offense. And take it. We had been working for years and the day before Roof attacked, the Acadeter had its breakthrough and caught what they believed to be the leaders of the League of Whispers, brought them to justice, enormous victory, and learned that the League of Whispers was acknowledged and accommodated by the leadership of the Citadel. No rot, no cabal, just another name for another compartment for another task. Can I insight check him? I need this to be a lie. Real, real bad. Give me an insight to check. Natural 20. I cannot believe that. Fuck. Look at it, look at it, look at it. I'm not going to touch it. Damn. On a nat 20, Joran believes every word he is saying, fully, truthfully, powerfully. One sec. And Suvi's going to push herself up to standing and vomit. Joran, his steely, dangerous, feral composure, completely subsides and he goes, whoa, and gets up and rushes over and grabs you and you see, helps you down to the floor, rushes over to a canteen and gets water. And you see he opens it, whispers something into the neck and you just smell sweet honey. I've never seen Joran cast a nice spell before and he hands the canteen to you. Suvi's going to look down at it and pray that he has just made poison very sweet. And I know it's very dramatic, but Suvi feels like she is dying right now. And then it's going to sip it. And it tastes so good. Thank you. I'm sorry. And I'm going to prestitate, to take the sort of river water, little bit of bread, barf. Can I have a new bread? Hey, toss me a new bread. See someone tosses it over and he hands it to you. Okay, let's keep going. So the jig was up and we walked out of there feeling like our guts had been hollowed out and up was down and black was white and like the sky and the sand couldn't tell one thing. You don't have to do all those metaphors. I get it. I just threw up. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm feeling it in this moment. There were some loose threads left. This last mission that was part of my thing, which was going after this sorceress Nahani in Gauthmi. She was preparing a ritual at the tomb of Urshana VIII. It's one of the Sun Kings of Old Gauthmi. So that was the plan. That's what we were going to do because there was still a possibility that there was worry about mind control and maybe there had been an enchantment placed on some of the Arch Magi of the Citadel and the Rooftak the very next day. And so we had to get out and the only safe place to stow you if the Citadel wasn't going to be safe was grandmother Rens. So to Silbury we went and there were attack ships waiting for us in Silbury. So the jig was up and by the time that was done and we got all the way to Gauthmi Soft and Stone looked at me and they said, we're going to split up. We have to run down these leads over here that you're going to be Citadel top secret and you're not going to be able to accompany us there. So we will rendezvous outside of the tomb of the Sun King. We'll meet up at our waypoint and we'll take the tomb and try to stop this ritual. And I separated from them and realized that my friends had lost their mind. We had been made and that I had said over and over again, this is pointless. There's nothing left for us to do here and they couldn't or wouldn't give up. But you have to, you don't live doing what I do for as long as I've lived making bad bets. We lost time to stand up from the table and walk away and they didn't have that in them. So what did you do? Went to ground, got back in touch with some of my old friends, other people working against Gauthmi and I said I've spent enough time on the Empire, time to focus my efforts back on my homeland. And I did that for ten or so years and then realized that pretty soon the Empire is going to be all of our business. Maybe I was foolish to walk away, I don't know. I think you made the best choice you could with the information you had. This won't mean anything because I'm dead at the bottom of a river. But I'm sorry for spending the lion's share of my life hating you. I don't know that I deserve kind thoughts or feelings, Skye. I'd hate me too. That's what this all is. It's a giant churning machine and it makes monsters out of men. And I've had to be a monster just to try to stop it and don't think it's lost on me that that means the machine worked. We have that in common. He reaches out and puts a hand on you. You're not dead at the bottom of a river. There's a frightening, violent, unhappy world waiting out there. But you're not dead. And every morning that there's blood pumping in your body you get to decide what to do about that big bad world waiting for you out there. Yeah. Where are you trying to get to? Oh god. I kind of hope I'm dead. Okay. And Subi's just going to push back from his hand and post up, takes another bite of the bread, and is going to explain the rough game plan of herself, Ursulon and Ame, trying to slip past Gathmai's siege in order to get into 12 Brooks to stop the Empire. As you lay out this plan, you see Yoren's eyes go wide and his jaw opens. You see the other shape-changers who kind of like playing cards and fucking around. As you start talking about this plan, they can't help but be interested and start to turn around and look. Yoren, look at the end of your story, looks over, Yuen says, Why? Why get to the middle of 12 Brooks? What's the plan you're trying to stop? There's a bunch of children. They're keeping children! The Grinneau. That's where they are? Yes. You want some help? Yes. That was Lou Wilson as Ursulon, Erika Ishii as Ame, Abrea Aingar 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 design from Michael Gelfie Studios. For even more like this, join us on our Patreon. We'll see you there.