WWW #47: The Battle of Twelve Brooks Part 1

This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number.

The Epiphany, completed after five years of construction in 1662, was the largest Imperial skycraft ever built at the time of its construction and was never matched in its age in terms of its overall combat capability nor number of battles seen.

The fastest capital ship in the Kemsarazan fleet, the Epiphany was originally constructed by high shipwright Augustus Herministrix in conjunction with spellcraft by the wizard Swift, Sword of the Citadel, for whom the ship was requisitioned.

Inherited by the Wizard Steel and her ascension to the Tower of the Sword in 1664, the Epiphany boasted 144 guns across six gun decks and was crewed by no less than 500 sailors of the Azure Battalion, 200 name-cloaked wizards of the Citadel, 80 to 100 war mages, and a support crew of between 30 to 50 Tamori-bound spirits and Imperial constructs, along with a staff of 90 pilots and artificers to serve the Epiphany's three dozen single-fighter Galathopter support craft.

Using over 20,000 yards of arcane ruby weave in the construction of its dirigible, with the working of over a ton and a half of gold bullion in the threading of its spell rope warding, the Epiphany marked the single greatest expenditure of material resources in the Citadel's history to that point.

The smallest of its arcane cannon contained in its Onyx Basin over 1,200 unique phrases in the lingua arcana in molten platinum script.

Designated by the Archmage Sabre as the single greatest instance of skycrafting of its age, the Epiphany was so named for the hope that its mere appearance on the battlefield would be sufficient to inspire compliance and camaraderie in those yet to offer their full loyalty to the Khem Sarazan Empire.

And this loyalty it so inspires in the beleaguered Imperial soldiers of 12 Brooks as it descends from a fiery sky.

Cheers erupt

from the last soldiers of the garrison of Twelve Brooks, looking up, not in reaction to a trap that had been set, no,

a miracle.

The cavalry has arrived, and all hope for the glorious empire is not lost.

Soldiers, spell workers, Tamori constructs raise their fists from the crumbling walls of Twelve Brooks.

Beyond the flickering spellcraft warding, illuminated from the high gemstones of the old castle, an imperial soldier raises a fist.

The sword is here!

The sword is here!

Hooting and hollering at the approaching fleshcraft dreadnoughts that have inspired shuddering nightmares in every night previous to this one for that soldier.

Crawling up through the rubble of the collapsed smuggler's tunnel, you are still well outside the outskirts of Twelve Brooks.

No longer measured in quarters of a mile, but you are probably, you know,

more than a hundred yards from the edge of the city.

So the tunnel is

your life's blood here, and you will need to try and seek it.

To describe the landscape to you once more,

the Imperial garrison behind that shimmering diamond-fractured

shield of warding magic around Twelve Brooks.

A vast army of Gauthmai.

The houses Rounza, Bahavi, and Kashif.

Enormous fleshcraft dreadnoughts, multiple spindly legs, long tentacles from the front of a featureless face.

You see

countless uniformed soldiers of Gautamite.

You see tall fleshcraft sorcerers.

You see moats of light on the horizon which you take to be other sorcerers.

You see

that it looks that battle is about to

be pitched and commence.

And coming from the sky

at the outer edge of that wave of fire burning underneath a stretch of the orange clouds.

Skyships drop down, several dozen Imperial skyships, and at the front, the Epiphany.

For this combat, you are currently in range of hundreds and hundreds of opponents.

It would be impossible to run this combat as a normal D ⁇ D encounter.

So we are going to abstract this because it's about to get as bad as any of you have ever seen.

So what I would like is for a luck check.

This luck check is an abstraction of the horror that is less than a second away from unfolding.

This luck check will determine the highest possible value that you can roll on any check you make.

What?

So if I get a 17,

it means that you can roll any die on your turn that you want, and the highest value it can get is a 17.

But if I were to roll a six, if you were to roll a six, it would mean that the amount of horror visited upon your exact location makes competence impossible.

We will pick a die.

Don't fucking

together.

We die together.

Okay.

16.

16.

Thank you.

Thank you.

There is a moment where the perspective of the task you have come here to accomplish and its importance puts you at the center of your own story.

And suddenly you realize you are bugs that have crawled out of some rubble at the edge of one of the continent's largest events in its history.

You

are at an outcropping of rubble.

You look around you and see combat commence.

The front skyships of the Imperial fleet.

Gallithopters.

Hundreds take to the sky.

As they do so, you hear

in Gauth, a mighty voice, Antari!

Charge!

Bolts of lightning mixed with pure force begin to scour the earth.

You see that there is about a 40-foot line

for which it would be impossible for a mortal being to survive as it scours across the earth.

As you are standing here, I need everyone here to make a dexterity savings from.

And remember, you cannot roll a 17 or higher.

Fuck.

So if I roll over 17, I just have to say I have to say 16.

Oh, 16, yeah.

What'd you get?

You get an Net 20?

I got an 19.

You got a 19.

I also got an 18, so 16.

Oh, plus.

11.

11.

As you charge forward, Ursulan, you go prone farther out as you're leading the charge up out of the tunnel.

The impact with which these arcane beams of lightning and force are hitting the ground, even

farther away than puts you in any danger of being vaporized, is shaking the ground so hard that the top two feet of soil and the first three or four feet of air that is above the ground are mixing with the impact, like standing in front of a speaker.

Just ground and air are mixing such that you are

waiting and fall prone and suck in lung fulls of dirt and rubble as you hit the deck.

Aame and Suvi leaping in front of you.

Yorin surrounds you with his body

as you see just light

and fire rain down in area of effect over you.

Rings and discs of some green light move out in flat planes about maybe you know 60 yards away.

A front line of Antari, which is the Gauth word for cousins, which is also the word they use for foot soldiers.

The front line of them are decapitated.

As behind them, you see several of them hit their chest and their foot soldiers grow to be about 12 feet tall.

Just about 300 men become 12 feet tall as they start running.

Up above you, you see one of the Kashifi dreadnoughts

lumbers forward as a ship goes to give it the side of its gun deck.

It fires out

no effect on the dreadnought whatsoever.

And as the ship peels away, the dreadnought's tentacles wrap around the back of the ship.

It hits its engines.

You see a blast of blue arcane fire as it tries to pull away.

The dreadnought pulls it closer.

You hear a a maddening whispered screech from the opening of an orifice in between its tentacles.

And those Shohoran, the 20-foot-tall clawed sorcerer monsters, leap from the orifice, from the carrier dreadnought, and just start slaughtering Imperial wizards, Imperial Guild Wizards by the bushel.

One of them decapitates someone who spent 20 years unraveling the mysteries of the universe in a movement so fast it can't be perceived by your eyes.

You look up and see in this moment that from the back ranks of the Gauth army, several shadows begin to appear in space.

Almost like

vapory

shrouds.

Under the orange clouds, these feel almost like two-dimensional, flickering, tattered blankets of a dark charcoal smoke.

And as they do, you begin to see the flicker of spirits of nightmare just pour out of them.

Holes in the sky, partially translucent demons begin to pour out of them.

You see them as faint vapor, but you see that

on one of the Imperial sky ships, they do not see vapor.

Their nightmares have been called here to this place, and to them they will be more real than any other part of this battlefield.

The Epiphany drops down and begins to charge directly towards the lead dreadnought that is leading the charge that you can see has its massive, sort of fleshy and yet somehow insectoid body towering over the battlefield, is swollen, its massive, fleshy pouches full of Gauth Kashifi soldiers ready to break through the wards of Twelve Books.

It is far in the lead and raises its tentacles up at the approach of the Epiphany.

The Epiphany's front eight arcane cannon converge,

fire,

and seem to miss for a moment until you realize that all eight are firing at a point in space about 60 feet in front of the ship.

Thin green lines of light converge to a single point,

swell in a sphere of bright green light, and

fire forward and hit the dreadnought in the center, pushing its fleshy corpus like a massive finger being dug into the stomach of an unsuspecting opponent.

And yet it does not die.

Instead, the green boom hits it.

A shimmer goes over its skin

as something very important is dispelled.

The voice of the Wizard Steel calls out over the battlefield,

Volley!

1,600 Irulean bolts emerge from the Epiphany.

Each of these bolts, on average, does three and a half points of damage.

With the almost 1,000-person crew of the Epiphany, all of whom are capable of casting this spell,

5,000 points of damage are dealt to the dreadnought,

immediately vaporizing it

and unmaking every single soldier and sorcerer aboard.

Zuvi, you are first to act as hell breaks loose and reality itself buckles under the weight of two many mortals who wield the power of the spirit, Umora, and the dance between them.

Okay, uh, looking around really quick, my eyes are on Ursulon, but we popped up to

like

you are up.

You are up and out.

You are the farthest out in front of the Gauth army.

Uh, go ahead and give me a perception check.

Nine.

Okay.

It's so Jorin's on top of you.

You're looking out from underneath the buckler's body through his limbs.

You can see some of the sky.

Uh, the light coming is messing with your ability to see because it is dark, it is dark clouds, dark everywhere, dim orange glow, and then it'll be a blast of lightning that will fry your retinas for a second.

Uh, you on a nine, you know the direction you are supposed to be heading in because you can feel the other shape changers coming out of the opening behind you, and you know from the map it's supposed to be straight.

The only issue is on a nine, nine, you don't know how much collapse there is.

You don't know it like if the whole rest of the tunnel collapsed, this opening could be all the way through a distant field towards like 12 Brooks itself.

Yeah.

With that then I'm going to point at Ursulon

and cast message because now I know shut up.

Too many people are yelling orders and they'll start to hear things that don't sound like orders soon.

So point, send message.

Do you need help getting up?

We have to get back into the tunnel.

We're not safe up here.

I'm fine.

The opening should be forward.

Cool.

In the casting of that, I will bust out my first secret of the day, Secret of the Twilight Crown.

Too much light play.

I'm going to call the darkness from those clouds and reject the brightness of that light and give us like dim cover.

You look up and as you call them, you have that last moment of looking all the way up to the top of 12 Brooks.

See the gleaming purple and green gem light of the old castle, the central garrison, where the great bullfrog looked some few days ago and attempted to do what you now hope you might do in his stead.

The children of the Grineau,

if they are anywhere, are there.

And it is your task to save them.

Ursulan.

what do you do?

I assume that Suvi is charging forward.

Ursulan, you're doing the same.

Any action or a bonus action?

I will make the same check that Suvi attempted to make.

I'm also looking for where on the battlefield is that.

How great was the collapse?

Go ahead and give me perception.

Well,

anat one will do.

Oh, no.

It is taking every bit of your concentration to try to find places to put your feet as the earth separates from itself.

You look around you and see the impact of these arcane cannon on the ground.

Boulders are being lifted from the air by the impact of these.

At any given moment, there are probably two or three score arcane cannon on the landscape around you, pummeling the hillsides, scorching the earth.

You look behind you, Ursulan, and see a squadron of Gauth soldiers running.

A cannon moves in front of them and you see, doesn't even hit them to vaporize them.

Its impact on the ground buries 20 men alive.

They are running, the beam hits the earth,

mixes earth and air with the power of its thunderous impact, and when it leaves, they are underground, suffocating and dying.

Aame.

Ame.

Ame charges forward, following hot on the heels of her friends.

At any moment, she is ready to deploy a sound, a smell, a texture, anything to calm them should more horrors burst up right in front of them, ready in action.

Incredible.

I'm going to need

an athletics or acrobatics check from everybody.

You are running across difficult terrain, so you only have half your movement available to you

and it's going to be a dc 10

to stay headed in the right direction

that's a 16 total for ame

13 total from urce alone

seven

you rush through the dark Suvi you called the darkness to yourself you're moving forward you have dark vision when this is on correct so you are rushing forward as fast as you can uh as you do ursulan you are following suvy you are protected by her magic in this moment.

Amir, you are right behind her, but you can see as Suvi is charging forward that the natural slope of the hill is causing her to bear off right.

You have spent a round moving not away from your goal, but not in the correct direction for it.

You are slightly off course in this moment.

I'm going to need another luck check at the top of this next round.

Lou, you do the honors.

What's that?

Ooh, and that three.

Oh, yeah.

Charging forward.

Suvi, your ears are ringing with the noise of shattering stone, shrieking lightning, the explosions of flame.

The shadows are protecting you in this moment.

As they do so,

you hear from behind you horns blowing until you realize it is the muffled roar of a dreadnought

that still has

voice somewhere in its body and no mouth

the

deep bass roaring of a monster crafted for the express purpose of war as it sees a moving shadow.

You are protected, but the spell has called the shadow down to it.

You look through your own shadow protecting you, and one of the Zatzara, which are the openings into nightmare created by House Bahavi,

opens overhead and shines shadow down on you as well.

You feel bathed in the meeting of these shades called to this place.

You see, the dreadnought begins to barrel after you

as this thing begins to roar

and pursue you

and you see an imperial skyship a royal skyship begins to move down as it pursues you

and you see

huge lamps ringed by arcane light

pierce the darkness and the periphery of your darkness so you have a 60 foot radius these

10 foot radius spotlights cut through it like lights in the deep ocean so um I'm gonna roll a check here what's happening you hug a tight circle in the center of this as the light cuts through and narrowly misses you they are searching through your patch of darkness and you hear a voice in Imperial call out and say

darkness not sorcery

as though that is significant to them for some reason

You see the dreadnought barrels down.

This Imperial Skyship is charging for the Dreadnought.

And then you realize, no, it's charging for your darkness.

On an 18 initiative, you see Yorin goes,

run,

bounds away from you,

and he charges the Dreadnought.

He reaches the dreadnought, leaps halfway up to the first articulated knee joint of its many jointed leg.

Climbing up,

like some great ape, he leaps to the top of its body, raises a claw as though he was going to strike it dead, and instead grabs its flesh, vaults into the air.

For all his strength, he need not even fly.

He can leap anywhere on this battlefield he wishes to.

And he calls down to the shape changers back to them.

Get them forward at any cost!

He leaps through the air, claws up, grabs the prow of the Imperial ship coming for you, rips its front cannons off,

and begins to smash the deck of the ship apart with a massive bald fist.

You see, the deck of that ship opens on him,

rays of fire, the Rulean bolts hit him to no effect.

Suvi in this moment, you realize spells spells of third level and lower cannot affect Jorin.

A guild archmage, one of the advisors to the court of the Syrah's Imperium, comes out and levels a ray at his head, some powerful spell.

You see, Jorin begins to move across the deck.

He sees the ray coming, and as the ray is about to hit him in the head, it is what you believe to be a ninth level necromantic effect.

It is the highest possible killing spell that there is.

He goes dead in his eyes, dies before the ray touches him.

It blasts his head apart as he is throwing a punch, and you see that the punch, his taloned fist, turns into the head of a snake, and the snake moves.

Another spell comes down on him, trying to cut the snake in half, and he is a swarm of carrion birds, of vultures that surround that mage, pick him apart in a moment, scatter his bones to the deck, and suddenly he has vanished.

Something the size of a beetle or a bug goes between the planks of the ship, and moments later,

Garin reappears at the bottom of the ship, hurling the arcane engine of the ship out into space as he rips it from the deck.

Oh, God.

Wow.

I'm dead.

Oh, God.

I'm feeling really good about

honestly, three's not that bad.

Three's not that bad when you got Yorin, you know.

But I think you see in this moment that you no longer have Yorin.

Yorin is gone from your company.

He is now clinging to a crashing skyship, probably now hundreds of feet away from you.

But has called to his other shapeshifters to get you to the tunnel as fast as they can.

Fuck.

Sufi just watches that and then turns and tries to reorient herself and does like a little look to Ursulan because I think he was the one that like claw like did you signal at all when you realized I was off course I don't think so given the chaos but if we are able to make eye contact I think I

will just kind of swing my arm

this no no uh and is just kind of pointing just gesticulating to the right to kind of get us back on the straight

uh path from earlier.

All Suvi needs is the no.

That means that she needs to like recheck herself.

Can I make another check?

Yes, give me another check.

You are going to be rolling with disadvantage, but with the correction that Ursulan is making here, you are only going to need a 10 to get back on course.

So you're rolling investigation with disadvantage.

Okay.

With a four on the die, we get there.

What are the skill checks or anything else that Ursulan and Amay are doing at this moment?

Or are you just moving?

Survive.

Survive.

Can I also,

in that realization, like, I can't do anything.

Everything's being deleted.

And there's that moment where Suvi realizes that in all of her prep, she assumed we would still be like sneaking through the tunnels and there would be more time.

And she hasn't cast mage armor on herself.

Yeah.

And it's the most like...

She casts it and it gives like a weird like reflection of the sky before disappearing and it looks like she just has her clothes on again.

But there's something in that like yorin's gone she feels exposed she casts mage armor she still feels exposed because this will mitigate damage but things aren't getting damaged they're getting deleted so she casts it and paul's ass

as we conclude your rant you guys get back on track but have not made progress and the dreadnought is still barreling down

We're gonna roll another luck check on a one through five.

It gets within its reach of you.

Anything else, and you are going to be able to keep some distance ahead.

A 16 or higher on this next luck check immediately finds the opening to the tunnel again.

Okay?

Erica, you're going to roll this luck check for us.

And the dreadnought, I want to be clear, is it's a total party kill.

It is of a challenge rating beyond one through six.

One through five.

One through five.

dreadnought catches up and dreadnought is a total party kill

unless we can befriend it amend get ready

sixteen or higher means you find the tunnel anything else means you continue to make progress through the darkness and the ash

it's a five

oh

no

I'd like each of you to pick a discrete discrete number between one and ten.

Okay.

Two.

Five.

Four.

Lou, would you roll two D10 for me?

Okay.

Four and three.

Four and three.

Who picked four?

I did.

One of the shapeshifters in the form of a wolf next to you rushing towards the darkness.

As you guys stumble, the ground gives way.

Now the problem is that a landslide is starting of shale and rubble and ruined landscape just from the beating of the dreadnought's massive legs.

So as it's chasing you, the tremors in the ground are causing you to slip and stumble.

Next to you, one of the shape changers, a very sure-footed panther, leaps forward, scrambles for a second.

A tentacle whips from the sky, grabs it, strangle, cracks the net, gone.

Shape changer dead.

It's going to attack Ursula.

Ursula with your armor class.

Right, D.

As the Shape Changer vanishes, you wheel around, shield up, and boom!

You are knocked back, stunned, easily sliding 10 feet across the rubble as the shield rings, as a tentacle as thick as an ancient tree lashes out from the sky at you.

Honestly,

I'm kind of up right now.

You know,

that went as good as it could.

Shit, if I had rolled either of your numbers, you'd be dead.

I have, yeah, you're right.

It like worked.

I'm right now, I'm up.

I'm waiting for more description, but I'm up right now.

Ursuline, of your many achievements as a warrior, you have survived the blow of a Kashifi dreadnought.

And

wild.

Unbelievable.

Brennan?

Yeah.

How would you classify a dreadnought?

In terms of its creature type?

Yes.

Aberration.

Okay.

Yeah, that feels appropriate.

But you'd say it was a creature?

Yes.

And it just attacked Ursulon.

Yes, correct.

Well, Ursulon, carrying the little doodle of the fox on his shield shield as my token, being attacked by this creature means that light

would probably wreathe the tentacle that struck him and curse it.

Oh, shit!

Let's go!

Retributive curse!

The activation is harm.

Yes.

A creature attacks or deals damage to you, your familiar, or a creature holding a token or talisman you created.

You tell me which of these curses you want to use.

Leaden shoes.

Unbelievable.

And also, because it has transgressed against a witch of Umora, you have offered no harm or insult to this beast.

It has lashed out at one who carries your token.

There is no saving throw.

The curse simply takes effect.

As the tentacle whips forth to strike at Ursalon,

it is met with that same glowing fox fire from the basement.

It wreaths the tentacle, it shoots upwards, coating the entire dreadnought.

And suddenly, it feels heavy.

It's so,

so very heavy.

It slows to crawling molasses.

And it has leaden shoes.

It cannot move faster than five feet, and it cannot take opportunity attacks.

Opportunity attacks for a group of people in its 50-foot tentacle reach is pretty huge.

Ah, Ame, standing in...

Yes.

Witchcraft.

You stand

and you see this creature suddenly hobbles.

Its knees buckle under its own weight as a massive...

You can feel the atmosphere from directly over it to the top of the sky compress with a burden of responsibility for the the wrong it has committed in this place

i would like you immediately uh erica with that dope ass move to roll a uh luck check with advantage

12.

Okay, 12.

12 means you could potentially, uh, uh, there's so 12 opens up a range of possibilities depending on the skill you are using.

Uh, you guys are going to surge forward from here.

This thing cannot take opportunity to actually put distance in between you and the dreadnought here.

Behind it, running up, seeing it hobble, you see

the Antari charging.

The foot soldiers of the Army of Gauthmai, 12 feet tall, and they just look so small.

You see them charging, and in the front,

with a beautiful polished helm and a long nose guard,

padded armor of purple and indigo with gold brocade.

You see a 12-foot-tall sorceress foot soldier, a double-bladed staff, a staff that ends in two curving blades on each end, is running

long strides.

And as he looks up at the hobbling dreadnought,

you see in a flash of fire, you get a good look at his face.

This giant who is under the effects of a first-level spell, an enlarged spell,

is probably about 17 years old.

And as the dreadnought hobbles, you see true fear strike his face and realize that much like you, this is the first time this soldier has ever seen combat.

In this moment, There may be no lesson here for Ahme,

but it is a moment of your station.

And for a moment, across this blasted wasteland, you see

that a 17-year-old is

probably about to meet his death, having traveled across the world from some homeland that you and your friends may never see.

I'm going to need everybody here to tell me what they're doing with their turn.

Suvi

is absolutely gripped in that animal fear, but she's a pack animal.

And the moment something in the herd looks weaker, she knows to throw up signals for it.

The moment Ahme makes that reaction happen and this dreadnought is led in and pointed out, Suvi points up to the sky and fires off just a burst of white, hot

fire.

that's so deeply flavored like the sun and sand of the Aerulean Desert that anyone looking will know that this is an Imperial, a citadel, like mark.

And I want to try to mark that dreadnought for everyone looking up to go, This one's weak, aim for it as we run.

Hell yeah.

Go ahead and give me an Arcana check, not in order to cast the spell, but in order to cast the spell persuasively and clearly.

21.

In the far distance, you see the epiphany slow and begin to turn.

Ursulan and Ami.

Ursulan,

on the ground, alive,

feels hope,

feels like bringing himself here.

He has purpose, and he will not die here.

And I think he's instinctively going to cast bless

as he thinks and looks at the shield and its tree and its fruit

and i think the wind kicks up

looking up to the clouds overhead an imperial craft that does not appear to have the long keeled aft and stern hull of a normal dirigible or sky vessel it is instead under the sphere of a hot air balloon with four quadrants of sort of helicopter blades, a kind of stationary hub craft, but absolutely enormous in size behind the swiftly maneuvering capital ships and battleships and frigates of the fleet.

A platform that you can see

smaller than grains of sand.

Seven figures standing on a platform at the top of that station

in a massive crystal disc set into a marble stone platform, each raise their staves, point it at a single point in the sky,

and you watch as a 200-foot by 200-foot

golden square of light appears at the bottom of the clouds

and shimmers almost like a gilded picture frame.

Emerging from that golden square, a

dragon lowers its head

and as it pushes through the threshold of the frame, you see golden chains stretch along its cheeks, find itself in its jaws, wrap around its horns and eyes, and keep it partially

within that golden frame, its body turning into vapor and mist, as though that golden frame were just some portal from somewhere else, perhaps somewhere else familiar.

And a line of steaming arcane acid, bilious yellow, stretches across the wasteland and obliterates a battalion battalion of Gaut soldiers as this dragon vomits forth its terrifying breath, ruining the land here for living life for generations to come.

I love the Cassoff collection.

Fuck you guys.

Fuck you guys.

I quit.

I'm going home.

That's dope.

That's dope and I like it.

I don't care.

I don't care.

I especially love the chains and the cheeks part.

You know, it's not even like a manacle around the neck.

No, no.

we have to get him to do this part as well

it is the next turn i would love a luck check

from uh suvy here um reminder nat 20s are gonna break through the difficulty of finding the entrance has lowered to a 15 but this is just a luck check for the round

16 on the dice 16 on the die okay as you are charging forward go ahead and give me any checks you're making to find the entrance back to the smuggler's tunnel.

21.

Rushing forward through the rubble, you suddenly

feel yourself

and slide hitting on your back and suddenly vanish for a moment, thinking death and ruin awaits you, and instead slide into the darkness of an open hole into the far end of the tunnel where it picks up again after the collapse.

You have found it, you have made it.

We leave initiative as you surge into the darkness.

Rubble, ash, noise, violence, and suddenly

the welcoming cool of tunnel reopening with each footstep farther and farther from the chaos and nightmare of the battle unfolding outside.

The cool stone

The falling earth from the impacts up above, dust and debris, roots growing in through the tunnel, still ushers you forward into darkness and safety.

Moving forward as fast as you can, there is a moment where you feel far enough that there is a moment to stop and catch your breath and check in on one another.

The wolf beside you turns to face the other shape changers,

of which there are now only two, Liana and one other.

She looks back out and barks at the beginning of the tunnel.

Turning back, she says,

Separated.

Do you see them fall?

And you see that next to her, a mountain lion shakes its head back and forth.

All right, they may have joined Yorin

and turns to face you.

You see the fox looking around.

You are back in the tunnel.

Do you continue forward?

Erskalin looks to his true friends, just gauging harm.

Yeah, I'm okay.

Are you okay?

I'm fine.

I'm fine.

Okay.

Pull out the map.

Double check.

This tunnel will lead you into

the western part of 12 Brooks,

the sort of western ward of the city.

You don't know exactly where it will end up.

The map was drawn, again, over dinner on a piece of butcher's paper and does not have a block-by-block depiction of the city, But you know it will let out somewhere on the western half of the city, which is the half facing combat.

It will

continue probably to another sluice.

There will be another great.

Past that grate will be the end of the smuggler's map.

It will be you in the city together.

Alright, so we'll emerge somewhere in the city.

We'll make our way to the central garrison,

find the children,

and in terms of escaping, I have a knife that might be able to point our way, but

I'm oh oh, you were uh the sea glass that you took off of Keen.

Yes, it's a teleport spell.

There are usually limits to how many people it is.

I don't know how many kids are gonna be there.

I don't know if it's more than a we can't take more than a dozen,

but an unlimited number of people can go through a door.

And I hold up one of the doorknobs.

All right.

Okay, so we find a door, get the kids through.

They wait at your house.

We stay behind.

Pin a note to the front child.

You see, the fox goes, there she is.

Close the doors.

We stay behind.

Take out the doorknob.

Take out the doorknob, teleport, and catch up.

Yeah.

I like it.

That's a very good escape plan.

Okay.

Now we just have to deal with the fact that

I think there is

a new version of the Calibel Nautomatic Apparatus sort of sitting on top of the garrison.

The lights were the same.

Yeah.

I do want to point out that the two remaining of the three here that hold power as great spirits are the Queen of Coins and the stranger,

the one that came to the cottage.

Your point

just that

one of those two could show up.

I'm going to ask a question, and I understand that comes with a sort of loaded energy from me.

If one of them shows up, do you want that to happen?

No, because now the arc the Arkmages know how to capture them

or destroy them.

I also feel Ame

when we arrived here,

the spirit is gone.

There is something.

This place is a wasteland.

What do you mean?

There is no song.

The great bullfrog is gone.

He's gone.

Not captured the way Naram was.

I think he's truly gone.

Ursulan is going to look to Suvi

and would like to make an inside check.

Ursulan recognizes the ship.

We've traveled on it before.

I think Ursulan is going to give you...

It's just a once-over, but it is trying to see if there is a part of you that is.

I think also with the spell, the white, the marking spell that didn't feel like it it was for our benefit.

I think it's just going to glance over at you and an insight check with regard to Suvi's feelings about the possibility that Steele is here.

Give me an insight check and persuasion or deception, your call.

6.

15.

What does Ursulan read on Suvi?

What you clock off of her words and why they are so careful is not that she's trying to like the carefulness is not about placating you or convincing you of her affiliation.

She is trying to mentally step around the problem she hasn't solved yet, which is, my mother is here and she knows that I'm here and she will find me.

I don't know how to get, I don't know, like that's the variable she can't deal with yet.

And because she doesn't have a solve for it, she's trying to step around it.

But at like, you know Suvi well enough to know that like that is a thing of concern, not her like not trying to play her hand.

Got it.

But it doesn't feel like there's a part of you that's not here focusing on it.

She's thinking about it, but it's very much in the like, I'm trying to grab variables and solve them.

Okay, I'm thinking about this.

Walk around the thing.

Steel is so big in her mind that you are watching her try to circumnavigate a thing that she doesn't even know how to begin to tackle.

You move forward through the tunnel and arrive at an iron sluice.

You once again hear more crisply the distant sounds of combat and war, only because you are nearer to fresh air once again after being deep underground.

Looking out through the sluice under the dim orange light, you see a curving street of cobblestones moving down.

This

grate is supposed to dump flood water or rainwater out onto the street, which itself has more storm drains underneath it.

You think this is like a foundation or buttress wall of a neighborhood above you.

So like a big curving wall that follows a road with houses and shops on top of it, sort of raised up in a raised neighborhood.

Looking at the sluice, you think this sluice is probably about not an easily jumpable distance, but probably about four or six feet up on the side of the wall.

So you're kind of looking down at the road curving away.

Anyone who wants to can make a perception check for me.

What's our upper limiter again?

We are out of luck checks.

This area, now that we're back, now that you have found a little bit of quiet and have moved away from combat, your actions are your own again.

Copy.

We are not at the vagaries of insane luck right now.

Eight for Ursula.

23 for Ahme.

18 for Subi.

Great.

Ah,

walking up towards the sluice, you notice that in between the slats of the grate, there is small

sort of metal tin mesh, like of a screen, like that you see on a screen door or something like that,

that appears to be

added here.

Recently?

Yes, it is not of the making of Twelve Brooks.

You can see that these grates grades have been uniform.

The one back in the Smuggler's Cave did not have it.

This mesh would be to

keep

mice or insects from

traveling through, but that's sort of a.

There's a degree of that.

Why would 12 Brooks care?

That like as flood water gushed out into a storm drain, that like there's a bug in there.

And I'll ask for a luck check from Lou here.

Different kind of luck check

different kind of luck check different kind of luck check

six

you are quite near the harbor with the entire length of the city up to the garrison which is you think probably why it's you're so

there was probably not a world where 12 Brooks designed a floodwater sort of like escape route to come to the top of their town.

It was probably always going to be like this: that it was going to come down here and be near the harbor.

And looking at

the gray, this there's a new part that has been added that is not for the purpose of what 12 Brooks would need.

I pointed out

this mesh has been added recently.

Can I give it another look, but use investigation instead?

Yeah, go for it.

25

Without even needing to cast detect magic, you become aware of an alarm spell.

This is magically trapped.

Can we use

the agent?

Yes, we can.

And I've got three vials, so I'll use

separate from our two?

Yes.

I got two from

my guys.

We got

two.

Two from my guys, and I had one from earlier in the arc.

Okay, incredible.

So yeah, I'll use the oldest stuff.

Great.

You get the oldest stuff, pop the cork,

pour it out, and watch as the dispelling agent.

It's only a first level spell, completely erases the match, and the mesh actually just dissolves like sugar and water.

I will need everyone here to give me a

perception check.

And what I would like is for Ursulon to do that with advantage.

I'd like you to roll separately for the fox and roll with advantage for him.

Ah, fun

16 on the dive for the fox.

Okay, eleven for Ursula,

sixteen for Subi,

twenty-two for Ahme.

Ame

as Subi uncorks the bottle and the mesh disappears,

you smell

beeswax

fabric

and you smell

you smell ghost

do I smell it no from the dispelling agent?

Yes

The little girl the little girl from

Hercelon you see some of the agent

dripping down the steel grate in front of you.

A single drop

modified alchemically.

This is blood.

We never found her.

We sent her and lost track of her.

We have to go to Caro.

They have her

in their court.

The glass cornet.

Yes.

We'll save her.

We have to save the children first.

We will.

It's okay.

I don't need to be comforted.

That was for me.

Forward then.

I'm gonna open the sluice.

You push the sluice out,

and it hits the ground in front of you

as you leap out to the street.

Remembering a young girl in a stone construct carrying the blood of spirits,

an artificer with a talent for dispelling and innate gift.

Arriving out on the street, The Hana and her wolf form, the panther, beside her.

She turns up to you and says,

Do you want us to scout ahead if we can or do you want us to is it more important for you to be stealthy or is it more important for you to

have a fighting force with you

I would lean stealth

we are few we are strong but if we can avoid

if we can avoid combat I believe we should as long as we can

We'll provide you cover.

Lana turns over to her companion and each of them turns into a small winged bird, one of them a crow, and you see another one turns it into a dove.

Flies off.

We are going to be making checks to get up through

12 Brooks.

I'd like each of you to roll a D4 for me.

Four.

Two.

Three.

We rolled a four, a two, and a three for a total of nine.

Nine checks.

There are going to be nine checks to get through here.

Is there anything you do out on the street as you look up at the shattered ruins?

Most buildings in this part, in the wide western ward of Twelve Brooks, most buildings have between one and two walls left standing.

It is skeletal, rubble-filled waste with enough

gasps of buildings left to obscure visibility, to stand in the way to, as you move through these winding cobblestone streets in a city that came up very organically on a hillside.

This is probably one of the last good views you'll get of the garrison before you have to dive into the destroyed honeycomb of Twelfth Bridge.

I'd like to make a check on the garrison, looking at it from a distance.

Okay.

Is there anything else of architectural or landscape significance or

some sort of a

hidden path?

There is nearer to the water where the empty crater of Lake Padstone begins.

You see that there is a cracked, a sort of amphitheater down near the base of the city with its stone benches largely cracked in some impact of arcane cannon.

And And you see that there are waterways going up.

The waterways are not smooth.

They are rock-filled and filled with boulders.

That any moss or plant vegetation has died under the ash and ruin here.

But

there's a decision that I will allow you to make here in this moment.

The waterways are

go unfailingly to the old castle, but they are the most exposed to the sky.

They are the most exposed to those who would watch and see them as pathways.

I will allow you to cut the number of checks you need to make in half by going up the waterways, and you will roll all of them with disadvantage.

Ame peers up at the garrison at the top of what seems to be an insurmountable hill and notices that the pathways that lead down to it, though dry, are direct.

Can we get up there without being seen?

I can be invisible for an hour.

I think we should.

And the shadows will guide us.

All right.

Up the waterways then.

What is the shadows?

Will okay.

Ursulan is going to follow the path that Ame has laid out

and I think open up his divine sense

and

call on the on the promise that was made the previous night

promise of the man in black

to a spirit of freedom

to be free is to be unimpeded

and the shadows will not betray you

each step of yours

guarded by the power of night and the promise of unfettered travel, not only for yourself, but in the spirit of true liberation for those under your protection.

Amay and Suvi,

you watch the shadows of the waterways of Twelfth Brooks

stretch,

not at the command of Ursulan,

but simply in deference to who and what he is.

As though the very force of nature itself knew in its heart that this was simply the way of things.

We are going to begin.

We are going to cut down to five checks from nine.

You're going to make them with disadvantage.

They are group stealth checks.

Additionally, your two shape changers that are running interference for you are going to give you

two re-rolls.

All right, for an individual.

A gnat one, should it be rolled, is an immediate encounter with the garrisoned forces here within 12 Brooks.

Additionally, for each of the five rolls, we are going to roll a luck check as well.

And on a one through four,

you will encounter a group.

It does not mean that you will be spotted, but there will be an encountered group there.

All right?

Toppy.

Let's get our first stealth check.

Ursulan's rolling straight because of your boots.

Suvi and Ame are rolling with disadvantage, but you are now adding plus 13 to your check.

Do I still have disadvantage if I cast invisibility on myself?

Oh, if you cast invisibility.

No, I will say you will roll with advantage if you have invisibility on yourself.

I have come upon a second problem.

Subi goes to cast invisibility as she did for the first time when they were making their way through the Shroud Mountains.

And she reaches for her ring, and it's not there anymore.

I don't have an arcane focus anymore.

No,

I've cast magic since then.

I just don't know how I did it now that I'm thinking about it.

You need to get a war staff somewhere in the city.

Okay.

Uh,

I

need

it'll be fine.

What do you need?

I don't have my

ring anymore.

I don't know how to cast without it.

We'll find you what you need.

Okay.

Let's go ahead.

You'll be rolling with disadvantage.

Ame will be rolling with disadvantage.

Roll for the fox as well with disadvantage.

We'll add a 15.

Ursulan, you're rolling straight.

It's a natural one.

Natural one.

Ursulan.

29.

Ame.

16.

And then for the fox?

9 on the die.

Plus 15 is 24.

The Nat 1 is going to

trigger in this moment unless you use one of your shape shape changer rerolls.

I personally would like to.

Yeah, yeah, 100%.

Give me just laughing and I'm trying not to like say things and sound gleeful.

Ame, leading up through the waterway that you've found that goes to the garrison.

Give me our luck check for this first of five checks.

12.

Okay.

Okay.

Nat one, we're gonna reroll that.

Yeah.

Great.

22.

You see,

wending your way out through the waterway, there is a slip on stone and a loud noise.

However, nearby you, you see that the guard tower overlooking this section,

you look up, waiting to have been spotted from that loud noise you've just made, and look up and see a dark red trickle from the watchtower and an Imperial guard's limp hand hanging over the side.

I think it's very clear to both of you that See V's bell looks rung now.

It's okay.

I'm sorry.

It's I'm sorry.

It's not okay.

I'm here for you.

And I tap you, hold your hand again.

Guidance.

Breathe.

And I tap my fingers in your hand in a little rhythm

to your breath,

and she taps back, matching it.

Thank you.

There is going to be another check.

Go ahead and give me stealth

26

30-20

23 for Amay and the fox.

Incredible.

Uh, Abria, would you give me the luck check?

I'm gonna throw up

14.

Okay.

You make your way through a long, straighter, broader area of the waterway.

You look out into a small square.

You see what looks like a strange stone, and then you realize it's actually just an enormous mold-covered wheel of cheese broken on the ground nearby.

Moving through a long straightaway, we're going to make our third of five checks as you get into the heart of the city up near its academic center.

Go ahead and

go ahead and give me another stealth check.

21 for CV.

19 for Ursulan.

21 for Ahme.

24 for Fox.

Okay.

Lou, go ahead and give me our luck check.

17, motherfucker.

Fuck you.

17.

Moving up through

the academic section of town,

you see the ruins of a library and an academy.

You see amongst the rubble sticking out

the shape of those that stood at the door of the academy, begging that the building be left to stand.

Go ahead and give me another stealth check.

This is going to be our fourth of five.

22 for Subi, 19 again.

21 for the fox.

15 for Ame.

Aame, you look, and for the first time in the ruins of this place,

you see what feels like a warm and inviting splash of color.

There is the remains of an archway,

and you see streaking color across the ground in front of it.

There is something

up ahead that looks like

it's hard to tell if it's magic right now at this distance or there's ash and debris around, but there just seems like a splash of color on the street that catches your eye.

You stop for a moment.

Unfortunately, you are a little bit short, so you're gonna have to like hoist yourself up to get a better look at it.

I have to look.

I look

As you clamber up, the archway leads to the ruins of a weaver's guild, and there is a shattered amphora of dye

clay on the ground.

What looked from a distance like magic is simply the ruins of

the beautiful workings of this place of artistry and wonder.

As you clamber to the boulder, there is a slip of a stone, and you are hit with a fairy fire spell roll initiative.

16 for ame 16 for urslan

nine for suvi okay

wheeling around you see them immediately uh ame as you come up across the surface you see that there is a wizard of the citadel standing a blue robed wizard holding a staff of the citadel who has just cast fairy fire at you from an open window in basically a freestanding section of wall and so it has partial cover and running around the corner you see two imperial infantry with uh with matchsticks uh running forward you see this small area here

behind the wall here you can see that there is a tarp over two or three boxes of munitions with a broken wheelbarrow it looks like this group was accompanying a wizard up to a gunning station up towards the garrison bringing supplies from down below And this wheelbarrow broke and pinned them down here in the middle of the city.

And just as the look on the wizard's face, having cast fairy fire, is that he has been chattering his teeth, feeling that some bird or insect or invisible thing was about to crawl over the wall and kill him, maybe for the past day or week.

Ame, pushing yourself over, you hear.

Kasasha!

As a spell illuminates you in glittering citadel light, you are now a beacon down here.

Even though the shadows no longer betray you, the part of you up over the riverbank is covered in this blinding light.

You take 10 points of damage from a bolt of flame.

First to act as these sleep-deprived, exhausted, malnourished soldiers leap into action is going to be Ursulan and Ahme sharing an initiative of 16.

I think Ursulan

continuing to move with Shadow, is going to pop out and move swiftly and directly toward the Imperialist who just hit Ame.

Okay, so you, staying in the gulch, rush in the opposite direction from the charging Imperial infantry, leap up behind them, and close around the side of the wall.

Before the wizard knows anything is going on, he whiffs around to see a spirit barreling down on him.

Go ahead and take your action.

I will be attacking.

And for the first time in this campaign, you will be attacking twice in one action.

Do I have advantage?

Yes, you do.

An 18 on the diamond hits.

Yes, it does.

Seven points of damage.

You deal seven points of damage to this wizard.

He looks injured and cries out.

You see, in reaction, he casts a shield on himself that your sword breaks through.

You have your second attack?

14.

14 does not hit.

You slash at him for seven points of damage.

Yeah!

As he moves back, trying to get away from you as fast as possible.

Ame, that is your turn.

Ahme

snaps her fingers and sparks ignite into a flame in her hands.

She hurls it at the cart of munitions.

I also had like explosive ordnance question marks.

Yes, yeah.

Hell yes.

Give me an attack attack roll um you are trying to overcome eight points of damage to ignite the cart

23 that is a hit go ahead and roll damage

five

oh the munition cart catches fire behind you and the fire takes uh you will be able to roll that damage again on the next turn and if you do the last three points of damage it's gonna go up Ursulon, you see this.

Great.

Suvi, that's gonna be your turn.

Suvi, still bell-rung, feeling weird about her magic, but there are easier spells, things that don't require focus and concentration, that she has practiced so many times that she doesn't need to think about them to cast them.

I reach to that, and even though this spell will come off with all of the heat of the Arulean Desert, because that's the way she was trained to cast it, I will growl in Gauth,

Light of the Tower,

and hit that same conflagration again.

Great.

If you hit, you just need to do three points of damage to it.

Sweet.

19 plus 7.

26.

26.

Go ahead and roll damage.

9 points of damage.

I'm going to need a dexterity saving throw from Ursulon, and I'm going to need one from this Wizard of the Citadel as well.

Nine for Ursula.

Oh, no!

Ursulan, you take 15 points of fire damage, as does the wizard, and he is torn to shreds.

Ursulan, you watch as his body breaks, buffeted more by the wind from the explosion.

It's more that his spine snaps from just the concussive force, though the flame does push him almost on top of you, badly singeing you for 15 points of damage.

I want to turn to the two infantrymen and do my best approximation of speaking Imperial with a Gauth accent.

Okay.

You don't have to die here.

Run away.

Go tell them the munitions blew up.

Go ahead and give me Intimidate.

We're going to call this a difficulty of 17.

14.

Okay.

Hearing the Gauth, the words in Gauth, you see that the infantry are shaking, malnourished, and have completely ejected from their conscious minds.

They are pure training.

The infantry fire twice

and both miss.

And are going to rush down the street,

not taking their full movement because they're firing, they're opening actions, but looking for cover once again to continue to fire on you.

Ursulan and Amy, that is your turn.

Ursulan's going to chase them down.

Okay.

They are within range for you.

You barrel forward.

Go ahead and take your attack on the first one.

27 on the first attack.

Hits, go ahead and roll damage.

14 points of damage.

Dead.

Second one.

20.

Hit.

None that.

7 points of damage.

Badly injured, but still standing.

Ursulan rushes forward, slashes across the chest, instantly killing one, and the other drops his staff to the ground and stabs him straight through the shoulder, the point of your blade exiting out through his back.

Amen.

There is one soldier left with a very small amount of hit points left.

Once again,

Aame

snaps her fingers.

A ball of flame appears in it, and she hurls it at the soldier.

Go ahead and make your attack roll with advantage.

18.

That's a hit.

Six points.

Witchfire.

You saw it the first time in Port Talon, burning the fields outside the city.

Summoned to your hand, it launches forward.

As the infantryman raises his staff,

lowering it point blank at Ursulan's chest.

The sword pulled from his shoulder.

The fire finds the wound and spreads through his body.

His eyes glow with flame before erupting, and he falls to the ground dead.

The noise of the explosion has attracted attention, and you can see lights beginning to move towards this ward of of the city.

Minor illusion.

I make it look as if somebody has run down another alley in the opposite direction.

A figure disappears into the shadow.

Lights begin to follow behind it.

We are going to have to re-roll our fourth stealth check with the attention that has been brought here in this moment.

21.

23.

23 for Ahme.

22 for Fox.

Incredible.

As you see lights follow that shape, Ursulan.

You are standing in between two fallen infantry soldiers.

Suvi, you are standing in the bank here as well.

What do you do in this moment as attention comes to this area?

Ursulan just looks to his friends quickly and is going to kind of motion and begin to move in the same direction they were moving earlier.

Okay.

Suvi, what do you do?

Suvi's eyes are locked on the staff where that wizard fell.

But she's like.

she isn't moving yet.

Suvi,

I'm better in a fight if I have

anything.

I killed

we don't all know each other,

but Suvi is cursed with an incredibly good memory.

Yeah.

Do I know the wizard I killed?

Do I recognize the wizard I killed?

Give me a history check, DC10.

16.

Uh, the wizard shilling.

Yeah, okay.

I think you see the like, whatever.

See if he's been circling the drain for a while.

If there is light behind her eyes, it's out now.

The wizard shilling was a

understood to be one of those

that

barely clears the bar.

An example of

some older Ark Magi who talk about the needs of Empire needing a flourishing citadel has

hurt the standard to which a name cloak used to be held.

But he's dead now, so he won't be spoken of in that way anymore.

Let's go.

Then I run.

Final stealth check.

19 for Fox.

22 for Ahme.

25.

15.

Subi, would you go ahead and roll our luck check here as well?

15!

Okay.

And we have this our last roll?

This is your last roll.

And we have one re-roll.

You have one re-roll left, and I'm going to ask Subi, do you want to keep that 15-stealth check?

No,

okay, re-roll your stealth

21.

Okay,

you make it up the waterways,

which is the best move you could have made, because every gate and every drawbridge into the old castle is crawling not only with infantry, but with constructs, Tamori, and the heart of the last standing garrison of the Empire here in Twelve Brooks.

Sneaking in between now massive boulders, for indeed this moat around the castle must be mighty.

You are 30 feet down in what could end up being 30 feet of water if the bullfrog had not been destroyed.

You look up and can see crackling up above on a bridge almost out of sight through the ash and debris of war

the menacing visage of a fiery Tamori

with numbers

ready

to spell out

his version of a name.

His eyes glance

and before he alights on you and casts himself

the distant howl of a wolf draws his attention instead

You look and here at the bottom of the moat you see see up amongst the now dried slime and algae that once accompanied it ledges where frogs once sang

and an iron gate that leads into dungeons in the bottom of the castle out of sight of the garrison above

What does the map show about this part?

The old castle was a haunt of run runners and smugglers that came here.

There were gates under the surface of the water, but they got sealed up with iron, but they lead to

sub-aquatic.

There are

some sort of water docks in the dungeons of the castle for rowboats and things like that.

Like there's a little sea cave, river sea cave here at the bottom of the castle, but it'll be completely dry now.

And perhaps the old catacombs under the castle that were sealed up might be accessible from this point.

You think that this door is not

uncommon.

And you also see that the spell energy being projected from the castle around the city means that this castle is not being guarded like the city is being guarded.

Does that make sense?

Yes.

They're keeping the outer wall.

So the inner wall is not where their focus is right now.

What's the space between us and the?

Is it a matter of climbing?

It's about across the street.

It's about a 20-foot climb.

Okay.

Ursulan is going to step up to Suvi.

Would you like to stay here?

What?

Why?

What?

What?

You say that.

What are you saying?

You seem distracted.

You don't seem present.

You've been through so much.

And I understand that.

Do you?

I understand that you have been through a great deal.

I do not feel the way that you do.

I could not understand that.

But I understand that there is immense weight on you.

However, the weight that carries me pushes me forward.

If the weight that you carry holds you down, and in this moment, I would leave you here and come back for you when there is time.

Sudden's face moves

from shock

to like the beginning of a snarl.

You don't make it out of here without me.

We'll see about that.

Ursula's going to turn, cast jump on himself,

jump 18 feet straight up into the air, and reach the great.

You reach the great

effortlessly, boom, land in front of it.

As you do, you look in and see

cool, damp masonry, walls, the beginnings of catacombs under the castle.

Tiny, cramped hallways, aqueducts, places where water is supposed to move through, and maybe even some old drowned chambers sealed up in some ancient history of the castle here.

It looks like a honeycomb in this place.

What do you do as you reach the grate?

Amy, do you have rope?

I always have rope.

And I

toss it up to

I attach it to the grate

so that they have an easier time

you attach it to the grate

and drop the rope behind you

and I proceed to

you get to the grate

pull it open attach the rope move into the catacombs Ame and Sufi the rope lands in front of you what do you do

I grab the rope but I look back at Sufi

He is driven by something I cannot even begin to feel

and I cannot even begin to understand everything that you have gone through in the last couple of days.

You are so brave.

You are so clever.

And I would not leave you.

I could not make it out of here without you because I would not, Suvi.

Suvi gives a little nod.

She's nodding along with Ame's words to not seem unaffected by them.

She's wrung, but

trying to be present.

I think she just gives a little tilt of her chin and goes, go.

Ame wants to go and know she has to go to help, but

I think she wants to give Suvi the choice to feel like she has a choice because right now

Suvi is being forced once again to choose between everything she has grown with and everything she has ever loved and been loved by and her true friends and the things that she knows she wants now.

And to be pushed into a corner like that and forced in that way is not something that Ame wants to see her do.

The bridge between the spirit and the mortal

stands holding a a rope to follow her true friend the spirit into the darkness of an old castle.

And a wizard who gazes upon the fruits of empire, the light of the tower.

The horror of Suvi's life

and the unfair things that have been asked of her is a choice that should not be asked of her.

You have told Suvi that you do not wish to leave her here.

The rope can be left here for her,

but your presence by it is a demand

you make upon her.

She knows you are with her.

The choice to follow must be hers and hers alone.

I love you.

And I start to climb the rope.

I watch them go.

TV steps up to the rope.

It would be so much easier if I could just stop here.

I'm so tired.

Wizards are known by their secrets.

I've learned too much truth.

It's worse than I ever expected.

It's bad all the way down.

And I don't even know how to help anymore.

I have no focus.

I can't focus.

And if I'm not my best for them,

they can't fail because I can't focus.

I don't know how long it's been, but

I hold the rope and I wait.

Long moments pass.

The western sky is hell itself.

You see,

glimmering for a moment,

a point of green light appears.

Concentric circles lined with runes, stretching some hundred and twenty feet in all directions, begin to spin in the manner of a gyroscope of light and figures, arithmetic and language arcane, around the figure of the wizard slain who appears in the sky.

Lowering a staff of the leader of the Citadel's war mages,

he carves a line into the heart of one of the Shohoran,

destroying one of the sorcerers below.

Raising up his staff,

he begins to absorb

protecting the war mages around him as best he can.

And the sun rises in the west.

A sorcerer so radiant as to blind you even some miles away

hangs in the air and extends a finger

towards the wizard slain.

beckoning him towards the light

and the wizard's lane is unmade.

You look

and see

crowned in light and gold,

a robe and cloak some 40 feet in length

twisting nobly in the wind behind him.

First one set of arms, a second and a third.

As Harmas Ramza, leader of House Ramza, appears in visage over the battlefield.

As he appears, points of light begin teleporting

and some hundred nobles of the House of Rounza appear on the battlefield from across the wide world of Umora.

He points forward towards Twelve Brooks.

The dreadnoughts converge and as he raises his hand he opens a door in space.

Hundreds of spirits bound to the house of Ramza, the Bashal.

The spirits of those of his house that failed the trial of their ordeal to enter into sorceress covenant with their noble lineage, who now bear the heads and wings of white eagles made of blinding light, wielding broad swords, double-handed, curved at the end, fly forward, gushing onto the battlefield.

A cheer goes up from the forces of Gauthmai.

For the Konteranaut!

For Rounza!

As the Lord of House Rounza holds his hands wide,

it is here

we make an end to their tower!

A white cape streaking through the sky from the epiphany.

A flash of steel.

A glint of a sword.

A bubble forms around the leader of House Rounza and a white-cloaked woman with auburn hair who hangs in the air before him.

Time slows.

She twists her wrist, turning her sword 90 degrees to the right.

All of the world is mapped out like a map of the stars.

Your own body is simply lines and the names of your joints and blood vessels.

She twists to the left, raising the sword

up in front of her in guard position, vertical matching her straight spine.

All the world is rendered in black and white,

as though drawn in charcoal on fresh paper.

She levels it.

Straight out, floating in air, written in the lingual arcana is simply her name cloak, the wizard steel, and before her the symbol of House Ramza.

With her off hand, she touches that symbol, undoing his true name in front of her.

She points, draws her sword back.

The image fades.

It never happened.

It was just a dream.

How could she have changed the nature of the world itself?

The point of her sword at his heart.

You shouldn't have brought so many of your grandchildren, old man.

Pushes the sword through his heart.

Blood bursts like a wave from his back,

killing not only him,

but each and every one of his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren on this battlefield, who fall like rain from the sky, their light extinguished.

The sword of the citadel hangs in the air as the leader of a great house falls before her blade.

The cheer from Gauthmai dies

as quickly as it was born.

Suvi,

what do you do?