WWW #43: Speak With Animals

This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number.

Thundering hooves

gallop down the road from the eastern edge of the city of Bracken.

The horizon a sliver of dull gray, 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 Twelfth 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 Lithwyn curves west at the southeastern edge of Hallaker Forest, before eventually some 40 miles south, turning back towards 12th Brooks.

Riding on this current road, you will meet the curve of the river and join it, heading to 12th 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?

Siddhi happily defers all of the planning to her friends, like looks very specifically at Ursulan.

Ursulan welcomes it.

Has Amay showed Ursulan the map yet as we kind of make this first stop?

Absolutely.

I've spread it out and you know asked for input.

How far does it extend?

Because 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, right?

So you have about, you know, a the map is probably

three or depicting on this sheet of paper about four miles wide and about four miles tall, depicting this, you know, three mile diameter city in the middle of the map.

Ursulan looks to Sufi.

I have two questions.

Do you have an understanding of where the line between

the Empire and Gautmai forces begins?

And then how close would Gauthmai be to a city they are sieging?

Suvi pulls out her map where she was sort of marking and updating information about troop movements and like enemies enemy like 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.

Suvi communicates that as best she can as she is sort of updating her

map

and

to the sort of later question about like how

how close they would be

uh I think Subi just sort of shrugs and says

if it's a siege then they are right outside the gates

understood and I'm a this language um

what is it called uh Teroy

and so it this indicates different

paths to enter the subsystem subsystem.

Well, so uh uh these ones over here do.

Yeah, these ones over here, you don't have to worry about.

Oh, understood.

Um, what do they say?

I whisper in Suvi's ear

some

real

juicy, real explicit.

Okay, now I need to know

any other day, Suvi would look scandalized and so happy to like fall into this.

You see Suvi go cold with this and then nod and say, it's unimportant.

Understood.

You said that based on what you heard, Arme,

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 lithwin 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 to 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.

But

looking at this map

up the river Lithwin before it hits the castle, because the castle is really where the falls start.

There is an early smuggler's cave, of which there are many up and down the breadth of the Lithwin,

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 gonna 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 smuggler's cave that has a passage that gets down to the dungeons underneath the castle.

Understood.

Once we reach the city, I believe we should aim for one of the outerlying smugglers' caves and use that to enter.

With regard to moving closer to Twelfth Brooks, I do wonder if it might be better to leave the horses and go by boat.

Looking at your map of the Shroud Mountains, Suvi, there's 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 upriver from 12 Brooks.

Big, lazy curve in the Lithwyn, 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 of plenty 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 uh looking up is this super cloudy yes very cloudy it might be up there anyway

and Suvi gives as clinical a retelling of uh 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.

Ursulan's going to put a hand on Subi'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, skyships.

You know, they're about to make a long march with, you know, 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 going to be able to put miles behind you and 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

suvy 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 Cell?

An hour.

An hour.

Okay, cool.

How many times 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

man, I was feeling so good at the beginning of this episode.

And right now, my stomach is doing fucking backflips.

Doing it.

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 13th.

Oh, my God.

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 heard that drop and I went, oh, shit.

You sent Lou to like rules lawyer law school.

I'm just checking up.

I'm just going over the books one more time.

Riding through riverlands, you see meadows, trees, sort of 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 Lithuan.

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 skyship, 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

terrain's going to open up the closer you get.

I think Ursulan 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 points.

Hell yeah.

I think Ursulan just kind of leans down into his horse.

Ride hard, brother.

You keep us safe.

The horse continues galloping forward.

Next roll.

That's a nine.

You fucker.

Stab you.

I'll provide Lou Wilson the help out.

Oh, what's happening, dude?

Hour three of seven.

Hour three of what?

Hour three of seven goals.

Oh my god, God.

I have to poop.

Funnily enough, seven.

Stop.

Are you having fun?

I'm having a ball for all the GMs at home.

Just a little clickety clack of a plastic polyhedron get a reaction like you wouldn't get anywhere else in your life all right will you describe the environment just to make me feel better

did you say em tree cover again or something

uh at this point now you are riding as often as not through towns and with the sun firmly up in the sky you actually see that you're deep enough behind again like imperial lines that they're just like farmers working in the fields and you get some polite waves from people a lot of uh townsfolk otherwise uh people with like bushels and bills.

And you actually even pass some other Imperial soldiers who don't even really regard 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 Suvie was like, I gotta disguise myself, she is gonna look at Ame and be like,

I never want you to put your light under a barrel.

Can you look

30% less like a witch?

Yes, Amay, 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.

Not that.

I've not that.

Like a cloak that has little bells on it.

I pull out

a small hat.

It looks like a miniature.

Haiti tunnel suddenly I see is playing and I'm like, not about that.

Okay.

How about...

And I 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.

11.

This is not okay.

No.

You're sick.

No dramatic pauses.

You're sick.

All right.

Hands are hot.

No more dramatic pauses.

Great.

So now,

so the disguise is continuing.

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?

Yeah, no, I want those.

Yes.

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 She's like, yeah, what you got?

Because this is about to go away.

Ame uh 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 steel 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.

Sub nods.

Yeah, 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 gonna pause.

Ten.

No, you can pause.

Now that Arme's.

Now that Army's pulling out stops, we're back.

Hold on.

Hold on.

You're about to say something about it being an hour.

Yeah.

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!

Oh, shit!

Oh, snap.

Aleme 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 spellcasting is rough, boss.

Well, it's okay.

They're not actually components of the spell anyway.

And I go, what?

Hour six.

The river Lithwin 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 skyship 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?

Ursulan is doing his best to

just

stay the course.

The fact that Suvi is hidden

and also isn't it like Ursulan looks back at Suvi's horse to make sure it seems it's remaining that she is still invisible.

Looks to Ame,

nods, and then just looks ahead.

What's the speed we're moving at?

You're in like a you're at a nice canter.

You're cantering.

Oh, 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

Sufi is hidden, you can roll, but you will automatically succeed and have the potential to use a good roll to replace somebody else.

Amazing.

So let's go ahead and get this deception roll.

With a seven, I don't contribute.

12.

Sixteen.

Okay.

The fox is also going to give you the help action, Ame.

19 of 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.

Ursula, 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 skyship 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

lifts 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.

Amend, do you have another invisibility left?

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, Subi will actually like...

You the horse she's sitting on hesitate and pull back on the rope as Suvi like actually like kind of gets it to like rein so it looks a little natural.

And Suvi's 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 gonna do the exact same thing.

This is a group deception role.

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 skyship dock in Reedport.

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.

Reedport is eight miles from the front lines.

This is where they are going to gather to make the push through Gauthmai 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 hear shouting, people are getting things ready.

You can see one or two constructs like at the edge of the town.

And again, 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 like river harbor pier points where the water has receded and show some of like the algae down at the base and across the river there's a little clock tower uh there are a number it looks like there's a sort of like promenade by the waterfront so there's like open seating restaurants and these cute little like slate roof things there's a lot of little steeples and there's some bell towers on like a little city civic building.

And you see that there are a couple little shrines throughout this place.

And you see that the shrines, there's a one sort of 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 gonna 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 Ursulan and I say, Uh

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

hard-working 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 Ahme is headed?

Like do I see a beeline towards the tarp?

I think so, yes.

And Subi's gonna do her best to intercept.

And if Ame dismounts

or gets close enough that Subi can get like

low words to her and just be like,

Are you sure you want to

look under the tarp and alert everyone here that you're looking under the tarp?

Well, uh,

what uh 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 unobtrusively 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.

Subi, 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 Suvi's going to back off and then try to get to a low corner.

Subi will let it fade

somewhere discreet

and cast upcast disguised self

okay

you upcast disguised 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

anything that's not suitable for military use is, of course, not commandeered or requisitioned.

So, rowboats, 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.

Ursulan 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.

Ame, what are you doing?

Box, I say in my head.

I told Suvi 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 out of sight

do it quietly and carefully please

go ahead and give me a stealth check for the fox

dirty 20.

you beautiful man

you beautiful little man

the fox gets under the tarp looks up and 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 bullfrog 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.

All right, right, Fox?

What's your favorite song that you know?

Uh, a wandering wee will go.

Okay,

a wandering we will go.

A wandering we will go,

a wandering we will go.

Do you want me to want me to really sing it?

Yeah,

okay.

A wandering we will go, a wandering wee will go, go.

Hi-ho, the derio.

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 we.

I sprint towards the town square.

You rush to

the shrine,

arrive there.

I think Ursulan 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, but you can lift it up if you'd like.

Okay, look around.

Are there many people nearby?

Oh, yeah, busy waterfront, people working, yeah.

But no one's like 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.

Ame, 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 a 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, yes, certainly.

May I see it?

Of course.

Guards?

And you see he claps, and a group of Imperial soldiers come out and remove the tarp, and you see the Bulfruk there.

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 like seated posture with his butt on the ground and his forepaws 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, Armé?

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 Ursulan, 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

Sufi?

Yes, give me perception.

I mean, I guess I also...

There's a chance I'm looking for an invisible thing.

Yeah.

But yeah, give me your perception.

Yeah, Sufi's invisible.

It's innate.

Or I guess a Suvi was invisible and now has taken a new form, so I don't think I see.

I'm going to...

Are people gathering

up this site or is there still the same kind of movement?

Give me an insight with advantage.

15.

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 recognize.

You're like looking up, and on that 15, you're like not seeing any airships that were from Brackett.

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,

Arme,

we are not here for you.

We are here for the wizard sky.

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

wizard 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

and 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 CP.

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.

Ursulan, you are first to act.

You are about...

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.

80 feet.

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,

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 gonna, you know, people are gonna scream.

They're gonna club a woman down in front of a shrine, and it is the most obscene,

sacrilegious thing you've ever seen.

And probably anyone that screams, or joins, or does anything is gonna 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 at Suvi.

That responsibility that Suvi put onto me is resonating deeply within Ursulon.

I'm going to

move directly toward this situation without revealing myself,

without drawing Wavebreaker, without kind of making it apparent that I'm present.

Move 60 feet closer and bonus action cast shield of faith on Ahmed.

Go ahead and give me stealth.

20.

In the crowd, moving shadows clamour 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

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.

Ame, 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 wrest 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 him in place.

You realize that as he raised his voice and song, Keene 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 Amy have?

Oh god.

23.

Okay.

9, 10, 22.

Okay.

Keen looks at you and says,

No, no, no, we don't draw blood from witches that are demons.

Good night, Ame.

Sweet jasmine sand

emerges from his lips.

You are so tired.

And you collapse 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 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 Aame 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 1v6 plus proficiency psychic damage.

As you fall to the ground, you place this retributive curse on Keen, who feels that he has, he can feel that power of when

Subi put a hand on you, when other people done this, and he has transgressed, and he feels

this curse takes effect that if he harms anything, great harm will come to him.

He goes,

My hands will remain clean.

Guards, please bind and gag this creature, pointing to Ahmed.

And you see the guards manacle bind up.

One of them takes a rag, shoves it into Ahm'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 casts a 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 King?

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 Ame,

and he, with a flank of of about eight guards with him, is going to just walk and approach you.

Readport, 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 Bracken.

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 divulge 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 sow 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 rode 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 leave.

You are watching.

What is Suvi issues?

Suvi will drop her disguise, so it is very clear as she was moving out into the open that she's like, cool, Jake 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 Keene.

As Suvi and her accompaniment ride out of the harbor area or ride out of the promenade from Reedport, Keene 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 gonna make one last roll for the fox.

The fox is shoved into a bag.

The bag is tied shut.

And Ursulan, you watch them walk away, but feel a sudden

motherfucker, fucker, fuck suckers.

as Vandal lands on your shoulder swearing as you see Ahme carted off

Suvi the world raining down on you 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 pass through a line of trees you've come so far you see a massive watery tributary this is like reedport has left sight already trees obscuring from all sides.

The sun is set.

It is like 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 rioting 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.

On 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, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!

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 them.

Stop!

Stop!

Soldiers pulling back on reins.

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.

Straight as it crushes his spine dead.

A shark's mouth.

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.

Its claws outstretched to 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 Ahme and the Fox in a bag deeper into Reedport, closer to the town center.

What are you doing?

I turned to Vandal.

Um, Vandal, are you.

Are you in contact with your mistress?

Yeah, she's uh

riding off with those horses and those asshole pieces of shit that captured her.

God, I hate them.

I hate them as well.

Um,

you can be quiet, yes.

Yeah,

great,

do that.

All right, follow me.

Uh,

less of that.

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 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 Amen the Fox and a group of about

six other soldiers and one other glass coronet wizard 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 coronet 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 Ahme and the fox into the back of this butcher's shop.

Can I do a perception check on the building?

Does it feel like every 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 Vandel can give give you the help, actually.

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 sort of around a little alleyway.

You think that there's probably like a cool cellar for meat at the bottom of this butcher's shop, and there is an entrance that doesn't appear to be watched or guarded right now back there.

Okay.

Ursulant's gonna wait

just

a few minutes

just in case.

Just because he feels the settled in

kind of attitude of the guards

makes him feel like he doesn't, if he heard what was being said earlier, Ahme is not going to come to harm.

Doesn't feel like they are eager to injure or maim Ahme.

And the fact that they cast like the sleep spell, I think, is taking pressure off of Ursulan to like charge in and draw a sword and try and kill everybody.

Give me an insight to 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 Onley.

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've talked about the witches relying on charisma, these sort of secondary spellcasting.

And this is intelligence.

There's a moment here where you go, no, it doesn't add up.

And so you know 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.

You feel 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.

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 two little oil lamps.

There's a wooden table that has some papers rolled out on it.

You're in a smuggler's 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 feet 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.

10 miles is pretty close for comfort, enemy lines and all.

And you see a massive shape emerge from the water.

Hulking and bestial,

like a gorilla hyena primate.

And a shape looks at you,

moves its claw, purple light surrounds you, and Yorin 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're 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 Silbri, the last time you saw him.

Why

can't I hurt you?

Iron tusks and blood spills out of his open mouth.

Yorin.

He doubles back.

How do you know my name?

Stand up in the light.

Subi,

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 changers around you furrow their brow at this indecipherable statement, and Yorin

falls back on his haunches,

absolutely flabbergasted.

The shape of a massive Garin, 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 soft endstone.

Sky is your cloak.

Well,

took a few lives of mine at Avison, 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 he could 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.

Well, 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 steel 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 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?

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.

Can I have a towel at least?

Thought you were an Empire wizard.

Can't you do some magic about being wizard?

I figured if I did some magic, one of you would kill me.

We would.

Okay, calm down, you.

Eat your finger.

You see, Yorin laughs at that.

tosses a towel, crosses his arms, and cocks his head and looks at you.

Says,

Steele told you point blank that I killed Soft and Stone.

Yep.

And Subi'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 Jorin's fighting a secret war in these mountains under the cover of the bigger war between Gauthmai 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.

sees 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 me.

Jorin goes over and

tosses just a hunk of bread to you.

She catches it.

Goes and 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 Sevi's going to 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 Yorin 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 riverbag, like spell books of fallen soldiers, things like that, start to review and go through them.

And

Jorin just sits on the cold, damp, muddy dirt of this smuggler's cave, cross-legged opposite you, and chewing on some bread, goes,

You killed some good people in Amazon of mine.

So you're a worth.

I'm kind of sorry.

You're going to kill my boyfriend.

This bread is thick.

You see?

You see?

Yorin nods and says, I don't know who your boyfriend is, but yes, I was probably going to 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 gonna be better stuff.

Don't worry about the soldiers.

You see, they look around.

Jorin is just fully, his

wrinkled forehead, eyes so wide in 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 Softenstone died.

We went to Silbree to drop you off with Wren 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.

Uh, all right.

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 Gauthnite when I first met them.

This was early days, Citadel.

Soft was exploring the near spirit and

Gauthmai was experimenting with ways to get around teleportation wards.

In any case, I knew that they were Citadel rats, but fuck the houses of Gauthmai 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

with the help they were giving me and Gauthmai 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 form called the Akadator,

which mostly was Wizards of the Citadel, but some allies outside myself and Grandmother Wren included.

Amongst various and sundry other tasks, the Akadator 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 and

change, I don't know, in their wizards.

No offense.

Yeah, and take it.

We had been working for years,

and

the day before Ruve attacked,

the Academy 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 check.

Natural 20.

I cannot believe that.

Fuck.

Look at it.

Look at it.

Look at it.

I'm not gonna touch it.

On a Nat 20,

Yorin believes every word he is saying.

Fully, truthfully, powerfully.

One sec.

And Suvi's going to push herself up to standing

and vomit.

Yorin,

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, neck, and you just smell sweet honeysuckle.

You've never seen Yorin cast a nice spell before, and he hands the canteen to you.

Suvi's gonna 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 gonna sip sip it.

And it tastes so good.

Thank you.

I'm sorry.

And I'm gonna press to take the sort of river water little bit of bread, Barf.

Can I have a new bread?

Yeah.

Hey, toss me a new bread.

And you 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 together.

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.

There was this last mission that was part of my thing, which was going after this sorceress Nahani in Gauthmai.

That she was preparing a ritual at the tomb of Urshana the 8th.

It's one of the sun kings of old Gauthmai.

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 Ark Magi of the the Citadel and

Ruve attacked 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 Wren's.

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 Gautmai

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 are going to be Citadel top secret and you're not going to be able to accompany us there.

So we will see you at the...

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 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 Galthmai,

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.

Sky.

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 were you trying to get to?

Oh, God.

I kind of hope I'm dead.

Okay.

And Subi's just gonna like kind of push back from his hand and like post up,

takes another bite of the bread, and is going to explain

the rough game plan of

herself, Ursulan, and Ahme trying to like slip past Gauthmai's like siege in order to get into 12 Brooks to stop the Empire.

As you lay out this plan, you see Jorin's eyes go wide and his jaw opens.

You see the other shape changers who've been 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.

Jorn looks at the end of your story, looks over at you, and says,

Why?

Why get to the middle of 12th Brooks?

What's the plan you're trying to stop?

There's a bunch of children,

they're keeping children.

The Granot,

that's where they are.

Yes.

You want some help?

Yes.

That was Lou Wilson as Ursulan, Erika Ishi-e as Ahme, Abria Iyengar as Suvi, and Brennan Lee Mulligan as Everyone and Everything Else.

Worlds Beyond Numbered is edited, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate Horse with additional sound design from Michael Gelfie Studios.

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