WWW #39: Into the Woods

This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number.

The thundering of feet and hoofs

sprinting at breakneck pace, surrounded by arcane mist with slanting early morning sunlight shafting through as scrambling soldiers make their way to the base of the ridge in the far distance the roaring of waters fades away shouts and horns of the forces of gauthmai as those soldiers here make at breakneck pace

and advance deeper into the forest, having escaped certain death.

We leave the combat of Abyssin and Ursulan with Rahon at the front of this group, Ahme and Suvi bringing up the rear.

You travel now with a few dozen soldiers, Imperial Infantry, Azure Battalion, fellow wizards of the citadel, two artificers, all assembled here, mortal, save your one spirit in the lead.

What are you doing in this moment as you flee into the forest?

Ursulan at the front

has stopped shouting into the woods

as to not give away, as to, I think, with the sound of the horns and the marshalling of the enemy, is like now just still banging the shield, but moving forward

trying to navigate routes and kind of a pet the best path forward

but also kind of is having that like adrenaline rush is kind of replaying see seeing the moment with the shape changer and the description of him as eternal and the kind of shock and surprise of that moment of the shape changer describing him as

as fighting with them

and I think just in hitting his shield sees his

hand start to change

his glamour emerge kind of peak just almost just like a touch just his fingertips and

decides that's a good idea and is going to allow and change his shape to be his human form

flying past and sort of getting down lower to the ground and tucking his legs slightly so that his feet don't touch, but he stays eye level.

You see, Silver flies next to you and suddenly narrows his eyes and looks and goes, Bear?

Yes.

And looks back to regard Suvi some two feet and just sort of looks with wide-eyed amazement that

your

what was rumored to be a long-lost brother or half-brother is in fact an honored friend and a wild one.

He goes, Wonders never cease.

And sort of surging forward into this place, you see he calls back at the gathered sort of wizards here.

Sudden, do I have anything, anything left?

And you see that there is someone reaching through a bag of sort of spell components and a citadel wizard,

ruddy face, sort of warped scar in between the nose and the cheek, reaches in and says,

this is the best I can do, Silver, and

casts a major image illusion and creates a mob of 30 people running through the woods in another direction as best he can and says, that's what I can do right now.

And you see that Silver begins to bark some other orders and the Arulean bolts stop streaking behind you, and this begins to become all magical effort put into covering a trail.

Suvi, along with that,

pops a detect magic just to keep eyes on anything behind, and is just doing

countless pressed digitations to scrub the

runnings of damn near 40 people and they're like magic sprinting off in different directions.

So she's like healing scars from where the Aerylian bolts hit plants and trying to like churn earth so it doesn't look like foot and hoof prints everywhere and just trying to cover tracks from the back.

Seeing the efforts of everyone to create the illusion of

second escape,

Ame

uses prestigitation to create more tracks, to scar up the trees, to create as many

hoof prints and footprints as possible leading off in the direction of the illusory image.

Go ahead and what kind of role would you like to make for that?

Um, survival.

Let's do it.

14.

You begin to create those imprints in the landscape as best as you can and

Silver flies back to you, Suvi, and he goes, Skye.

He stands in front of you, very clearly, just wanting to be close to you in this moment.

And then reading the panicked energy, you can smell sweat and blood on people.

You see that everything that wants to be an embrace, a kiss, a moment is instead a

almost vice-like but adoring squeeze on your arm as he keeps directing people down the hillside as though the only part of his heart that he's letting be in this moment is just in his hand on your arm to let you know that he's here, but stays with his face pointed to these troops, saying, down the hillside, follow Bear, follow the commander at the front with the white horse.

And you see he looks and goes,

you saved us.

Hey, you run a slouch.

We needed something.

We needed everything to change.

We needed

big chaos.

And that's what we got.

That saved everything.

My friends and I are very good at chaos.

And Subi can like feel the part where he's like gripping her arm.

Like when you, like, someone squeezes you tight enough that you're aware of your own heartbeat.

And she can feel it slowing down just being in physical contact with him.

And I think it's just going to.

I think she just sighs, goes, fuck it, and just grabs him and pulls him behind a tree.

And it's just going to throw her arms around him.

He pulls you close, buries his face in your neck, and

just breathes.

And just you can feel that what could have been this moment of like in his head, he was like,

She's here, she saved me.

There's something like passion and romance and a kiss.

Instead, just becomes two people feeling their heartbeats and breath in this moment where adrenaline is being commanded to subside because now really rational, important decisions need to get made.

And for a moment, your presence and the safety of your embrace serves to calm one another.

Rushing past,

you see there is a much older, sort of stout-looking artificer at the back who's clearly having trouble and is limping down the hillside, seems to have some kind of sustained injury.

But you can see gets down to where

you're steep enough in the ridge to create shadows and just takes reaches into a bag places a couple mines and like scoops dust and things over them you see these sort of like glyph-centric spinning silver discs and he just goes

and compresses them into the ground and you see that silver looks over at him and says rust you need anything are you good and he goes

And silver says what more than that more than that and he says yeah let's hope they let's hope they fall let's hope they aren't flying they'll probably be flying These are, well, these are going to go bad soon anyway.

And you see he gets up and

just continues to hobble after the group.

Ame, you see the fox rushes up, leaps into your arms,

and goes, whoo!

We had to get away.

And we did.

Are we, did we, or are we doing?

We are doing it.

We are doing.

Let's turn this doing into a did.

And you see that he sort of like scampers off to go give the help action to Ursula up in the front.

A couple of the Imperial infantry around you, you see, they have matchsticks on their back, but unlike the Azure Battalion, the Imperial Infantry never were selected for the Citadel.

They didn't bomb out.

So, this all of their training is just how to use the war staves.

There is no like, there is no spell casting they can test outside of the use of these war staves.

And you see, they sort of look agog at you as the fox speaks and have this sort of wide-eyed look of whatever,

like the sort of calm emotions you cast.

Give me an insight check as you're sprinting through the woods with them.

10.

You're being regarded in a way

that

is pretty.

You don't think it's hostile, but it is certainly othering.

It is very alienating how you're being looked at.

I look back and I smile real big and I nod.

Give me persuasion with disadvantage.

That's a 12.

Okay.

You look and you don't, none of them seem to be mortified by your smile as you are sprinting, but you see that one of them sort of looks and smiles back and just goes,

you did something.

I heard you speaking in our hearts.

Uh, yes.

I'm Ame, the Witch of the World's Heart.

I am

a true friend of the Wizard Sky.

What may I call you?

Worth.

Worth.

Are you injured, Worth?

Uh, no.

Okay,

then we should we should keep going.

Uh, if any of your fellows are injured or need assistance,

please

let them know they should tell me.

You see that they fall behind as they continue to run.

And you see Worth looks over to two of his companions and you see one of them sort of playfully shoves him.

And they continue running behind you.

Damn it, if I wasn't distracted.

Ursuline in the front, you are searching for a place to get to as fast as you can.

You get to to the bottom of the ridge and there's a moment where the noise has faded away the most it's going to there has to now be a

you need to know where you're going yeah um so there's a momentary stop and i think the three of you come together again

thank you of course which way are we headed uh uh

Now you're in a position where you are definitely behind enemy lines with a troop of soldiers.

You have no supply lines, no food, and are totally unsure about,

you know, whatever Silver's orders were.

You know, Silver actually turns at this point to speak to you and says, my,

we have to, uh,

I, I've, my mirror was shattered, so I don't have any intel about where it's safe or where to go to.

And I stopped receiving orders.

I was told to hold the garrison at Abison.

Oh,

God.

It's fun being the bearer of last good news.

Fort Kieran was retaken by gauthmai

are we headed back we can't go back that way we need to go in and through and find a new way out but right now we just need to rest

we can't we can't we can't rest here and

i'm assuming they will follow us yes absolutely we need to push

sky the where were where were the lines where where were the closest lines where how did you approach

i'm gonna reach into my bag and get the map that Sworn gave me way back when we were like first headed in this direction.

So I came in with my ship from the east, Fort Marlin.

But that's not an option now.

And Amay and Ursulan came from the north.

Mount Kor.

Alright.

Well.

If we can't go east,

we could try to go southeast to Fort Kieran.

Or

we could try to just head for Mimerajas.

Just get as south as we can.

The Halaker Forest is thick enough that even Gauthmai is not going to be able to run supply lines through there.

If we can get to Halaker Forest, that will be largely deserted.

Moving through there with 30 people will be hell, but it'll be hell for larger groups than that as well.

Okay.

Let's do that.

Silver turns out to the assembled group here and says,

all right, soldiers, we've made our escape from Abyssin.

We are out of the frying pan and there is fire as far as the eye can see.

There is a long way to go,

but

we are free once again for as long as we can fight for it.

Thanks to the wizard's guy.

And you see he takes a knee.

And the soldiers here take a knee as well.

Those on horseback bow their heads.

Thank you.

CV just gets a little overwhelmed and actually doesn't know how to respond.

And just nods.

Sworn looks up from the bowing as the moment of silence, like and reverence extends to its utmost and you see sworn looks up clearly very tickled and goes

commander you should say something

speech speech

ame looks over at sworn

nods i mean hell

uh

thank you all for holding on for as long as you did i know i did did what any of us would do.

And

thank you.

Ame, Witch of the World's Heart.

And I look over.

Are you fully glamored again?

Fully glamoured.

And Bear,

my protector,

for joining us and helping.

The easy part's over.

We're gonna make it out.

We're gonna be safe.

We've done it.

Light at the tower.

And CV just stat, like, taps her staff and like the very tip of the glass.

Like, not enough to glow and throw light, but just like it caught a ray of sun that wasn't there.

Like, lights from the very tip of it for just a moment.

And then she kind of makes a weird grimace face, like, please let that have been enough.

I'm so tired.

I'm a

little bit more.

A nice little applause.

Amen.

Give me an insight.

22.

Your friend, the Wizard Skye's lack of theatrics

is not the first time that Imperial soldiers have witnessed a Wizard of the Citadel work wonders and follow it up with

some,

let's call them terse and academic follow-ups.

But you see that it doesn't really, the glimmer of light and Skye's words of

acknowledging the trials to come.

The eyes of all those around gaze at the woman who came to their rescue and who called up the mist around them to obscure their escape, firing Irulean bolts and look at your friend Suvi, who began this adventure

wondering if she would ever have a chance to prove herself and see a hero.

You

also look and see some of the soldiers here.

As she remarks at both of you, some on that 22 insight check have it confirmed for them that you are a witch and look at you with some strange

sort of fascination and wondering about how their panic was calmed almost supernaturally.

You see that one Worth, Corporal Wirth, who spoke to you, looks at you with, you realize

a strange look of

the beginnings of something like fascination or obsession that you have made him you have used magic to make him feel away and now he's sort of looking at you as you like smiled at him and he's like she smiled at me please let me see this

give me inside check

sorry i want it to keep happening

17 you noticed this yeah you and you see this is the first time your magic is the magic that all of these soldiers have been trained to know about.

Mist, light, fire, called by the brilliant minds of the Citadel.

But no one's ever had someone reach into their heart and whisper that everything is going to be okay and have their soul know that it's true.

And you see these Imperial soldiers are

not handling it professionally necessarily.

And you also see that as you speak about Bear,

though Ursulan is wearing his glamour once again, you see that the Citadel wizards from your coterie

are, as you guys get up and get ready to move, are already fielding questions from people that believe they saw him on the ridge in a different form.

And those wizards, not being sure what to say, you can see that people are beginning to speak and wonder if there's like a spirit in their midst.

Leaving Abison as fast as you can,

we're gonna make some rolls here to see how dire this gets.

I'm gonna need a survival check.

17 for Subi.

14 for Ursula.

22 for Ana.

Nice.

So,

three days traveling from Abbason south to try and reach the edge of Hallaker Forest.

Over those days, long hours of marching, multiple rests, scrabbling up ridges through thick roots, trees, branches, parts of the forest that again are not pleasant.

It's not like, oh, a hiking trail.

This is like thick, poisonous ivies and plants, moving through underbrush, having areas where the rot or detritus of trees is so thick and deep that you can't even see as you're moving through.

And of course, this is the safest route that Ursulan, as a wild one, has discovered to go through the forest primeval.

If you don't want to be spotted, don't go go where other people are walking so you've spent days feeling the claustrophobia of not only the trees but underbrush thorns briars moving through this place which has slowed your pace to a crawl even though howacher forest is only about 40 miles from abasson it takes multiple days of just hacking through underbrush to get there

at night sleeping as you must at least the soldiers are able to overcome some of their exhaustion so you can re-memorize spells Your wizards are back to where they need to be, though the artificers and some of the wizards that are working off of material components are woefully, you know, unequipped.

They don't have the supplies they need to be able to do some of the effects of their magic.

The exhaustion now is coming from hunger.

And you can tell that your soldiers are at the precipice of a level of hunger that their ability to march will be impacted.

And that's where the death spiral really starts.

Where in D ⁇ D terms, if they have that second level of exhaustion and their speed is halved,

that suddenly means you're traveling like six miles a day.

Looking at this assembled group, there are certain social realities

that are

seeping in.

The only people that really seem to socialize at night openly are the Citadel Wizards.

Silver and Sworn, you see, are starting to get along.

The Imperial infantry largely keep to themselves and

salute and have their respect commanded by the Citadel Wizards who are here.

The Artificers sort of stay largely to themselves as well, camp together at night.

Anyone that wants to can make an insight check for me

as these nights of travel approach, where you can't even really have a fire.

17.

7.

10.

Sky, I think to you, things, you know, you're focused on the mission.

You're not focused on the social reality of this group of survivors that you are trying desperately to get to where you need to go.

And on a 10, Ursulan, I think you're largely focused on...

The voices you hear everywhere are the voices of the forest, which are all around you.

Ame, I think that you

are aware

that

though all these soldiers serve together and sleep together, the chasms between these groups feel enormous.

The deference and respect that the Citadel Wizards command

from the Imperial Infantry isolates them.

You see the Azure Battalion, who mostly don't speak when Citadel Wizards around,

will

come and take things from the Imperial Infantry sort of without thinking about it.

Like if they need a tool that one of the Imperial Infantry is using, the Azure Battalion will just come and take it and it will be offered up freely by the Imperial Infantry.

You see that on a 17, the Azure Battalion look at Citadel Wizards with a sort of mix of wonder, but a little bit of that curtness of like, oh, that, like, could that have been me one day?

Whereas the Imperial Infantry look at the Azure Battalion with a little bit more familiarity and look at the Citadel Wizards as being effectively spirits themselves, things that are like past or beyond their understanding of the things they are able to do.

And you can see that

all of this

admiration, common cause, a devotion to service is very different.

The the Citadel Wizards here, Sworn, Silver, even though they're very different one from the other,

have a level of adoration for each other and for sky because of their pride in the citadel and their pride in the empire

the imperial infantry kind of gaze at ursalon

at you

kind of stunned to be here this was not promised for them to see this much magic There was a version of their lives where they fought

in a part of the war where the most magic magic they saw was fire shooting out of war staves and fire shooting out of the war staves of people they were fighting, and that would be that.

Looking at Worth as he sort of chuckles with some of the other soldiers that he's with, looking over at some of the Citadel Wizards, some of whom are

not particularly, let's put it,

physically imposing.

There's a sort of chuckle from them about that.

That you can tell they find it all

simultaneously are grateful for the magic that has saved their lives, but find it all somehow so alien and strange.

The bridge of shared cause spans chasms deeper and darker than I think any of the people here can articulate or vocalize.

We're all busy surviving.

There's not much time to examine or much less

work

on bridging this gap.

I know that it would be distracting and possibly detrimental to

expend energy on that.

But at the same time,

I try to think of things

that

unite us

other than our sheer need to survive and scrabble, hard scrabble for survival.

At night,

I do little prestidigitations and minor illusions and entertainment, things that can help bolster spirits and remind them of home.

If they're willing to talk to me, I ask about

where they come from

and things that they're looking forward to.

Give me a persuasion check.

12.

Those that were already warm to you are very delighted by it.

And you see that one of the Citadel wizards that you've saved,

the Wizard Shelter,

speaks and says,

those are marvelous, marvelous tricks.

I can't thank you enough for whatever it was that you did when

you and the wizard sky descended from on high.

And

we turned to start fighting because I think we were worried.

We didn't want to leave anyone behind.

But of course, as we started to turn so that we didn't leave anyone behind, the people that were turning were now themselves at risk of being left behind.

It just was.

I've never been in a potential route before, and that was about to become that.

Well, I think

this is putting it a bit crudely, but I would say that if the types of magic that I think we're all very adept at,

the Wizard Sky is a sword, a bright, shining, and

incisive magic.

And

Bear of Toma, his is a mighty shield behind which we can all rally.

And mine, I think, is, I like to imagine, maybe

like the music of the pipe and the drum and

something that can bring everybody together and gives them courage in times when

it is hard to find such a thing.

You see that as you sort of have this conversation, some of the other soldiers have gathered around on this last night before getting to Halaker, and you see that, you know, one of the Imperial soldiers says, You said, Bear has magic?

Yes, uh,

much in the way that my magic is a little different than yours.

Mine,

all my magic came in this stick.

Well,

I feel that magic is mostly just a tool.

It can be used for many things.

Is the bear, is he, is he...

Sorry, is the bear yours or is he a childhood or a childhood friend of the Wizard Sky and myself?

You were friends with the.

I don't mean to

pry or speak out of station, but

are you both spirits?

And you see that he gets elbowed by Worth, who steps up and says, she's not a spirit, she's a witch.

And you see that Lant goes, how would you know the difference?

And you see, he says, your mother told me.

And you see, he shoves him in the chest and he laughs.

And you see, Worth says, don't pay any attention to Lant.

Ame, he's a moron.

Is his mother a witch?

Usually witches don't

raise morons.

You see that Lant gets up and says, call my mother a witch one more time and find out what happens.

And you see that Worth says, oh, I'll be happy.

And you see that Shelter gets up and says, that's enough.

We're conversing, but we are still very much hiding from the enemy.

We are behind lines.

Go get your tent fastened.

This conversation isn't for you.

And you see that the two Imperial infantry salute crisply, walk away, and you see that Shelter turns back and says, I wouldn't waste your time on Imperial Infantry.

They've got sand for brains.

They are.

That's.

Why would you say that?

Well, they.

They're not.

Look, I have respect for people that engage in staff fighting.

The Azure Battalion, you know, are

the decision was made by the Citadel for those that enter the Azure Battalion that they would be most effective as combatants.

But Imperial Infantry, they

mean half of those men, if they hadn't enlisted or been drafted, they'd be convicts.

Ame um

starts to tear up a little.

I

don't Ame doesn't know where to start with with this, I think.

Ame has never

encountered

this line of thinking in somebody saying

something out loud before quite so straightforward.

And she knows she can't say any one thing in this moment to change a mind or a heart.

But she's trying to imagine how

she can

make somebody see

what she sees.

Shelter?

Was it?

Yes, the wizard's shelter.

Where did you come from before the citadel?

Before the citadel?

Oh,

a no-account village called Afmi.

Afmi?

Do I know anything about Offme?

Give me a history check.

21.

Uh, Uh, you've been to Afmi on a on a trip with Grandmother Wren.

Uh, Afmi is a beautiful little fishing village with like white limestone cliffs that have, you remember, like running your hand over the cliffs, hanging off of Grandmother Wren's broom, and the cliffs have little nautilus shells and fossils and other kind of sediment underneath them.

Like they, like, when the ocean used to be higher, there was more, there was like things left in the cliffs there.

And the fishers, uh, there's a lot of cliff fishers there, and they have long poles that drop nets into the reefs.

And then there's divers that dive for urchins and clams and other things like that.

Oh, off me,

the white cliffs, the fishing.

Do you remember much of your time there?

There's an incredible

sort of a seafood dish that

does a mix of

rice and.

Give me an insight check

seventeen

uh golly

golly is the name of the um the dish the dish yes

well i don't yeah the yeah i've had it it's uh

i i think my mother or my aunt maybe made it i don't you know i was five so i don't uh

have you gotten back and gotten the recipe

no i haven't uh

I haven't made time.

As someone who spent a little time in the Citadel, I

was so impressed by its wonders and its

letters, obviously.

Oh, sure.

So we've correspond, and I know that she's healthy.

Mm-hmm.

But you should really go visit sometime.

Maybe you could

share

the recipe or the dish with your friends in the Citadel.

I think that it's important that

I don't cook.

Well, I'm sure somebody here cooks.

One of your friends in the Citadel.

Well, in any case,

I appreciate your magic.

It was very instructive to see up close.

And you see, she looks really rattled and kind of upset and gets up and walks away.

I think Suvi was sort of on this, like, off doing tasks, but was able to kind of like watch the flow of the conversation and with observant was reading lips and was going to originally interject when it looked like Ahme was about to cry

and then hung back and then almost interjected when it looked like like shelter was on the ropes and then hung back and is now going to kind of come over and be like, hey, hey, bud, how you doing?

I'm okay.

you know as much as okay as we can be behind enemy lines

I think that some of the

folks in the camp are are are having a having a tough time with each other

okay

I think that there's

tensions between the infantry and the wizards

something's something's happening is there no well

nothing really dangerous, but

in a time in which I think we really all should be united and invested in each other's safety, I think it's hard for them to

care about each other

just due to

what I what I suppose might be the dynamics of what they believe.

Are you worried about the sort of dynamics in the group, or are you concerned that

these 35 people in the middle of enemy territory do not have each other's backs yes

both yes

i think that i mean

within your unit usually there's there's got to be an amount of trust

who doesn't okay

Steve's like yeah doing a lot of like working into like a like very authoritative clip into Ahme and like it is an active like you're watching her like walk it back and wait for a full thought.

Give me an insight check and you can do with advantage, Sufi.

Thank you for the flat roll.

10.

Yeah.

Oh I said with advantage.

Oh flat roll.

Exactly.

I still sleepy.

I think out of 10 you look around everything looks fucking fine.

Yeah.

Everything looks fucking fine.

Listen, you haven't spent a ton of time around Imperial Infantry.

Like, especially being leadership track at at the Citadel, you're like right in the pocket.

Mostly what you're doing is just focusing on the Citadel's tasks, requirements, objectives, aims.

You know, you know that Silver has spent a lot of time.

Silver, as a war wizard, is stationed with Imperial forces constantly.

But it's like, you're looking around.

It seems fucking fine.

And also, like,

it's,

I think you can see even on a 10 that Ahme is like talking about a lack of cohesion or camaraderie and you who have shit to talk about every designation of the Citadel.

Like you're you're here like, you know, like, are you Azure or Citadel?

Are you Banners or Demings?

Are you Kabani or Zhao?

Fuck you.

And I think there is a level of that degree of...

cohesion created through competition and rivalry that is just not being

beheld in this moment.

Yeah, Suvi

has all of those thoughts and is trying not to jump in with them immediately and is waiting to see if Ahme has like

sort of presaged something in the group that is deeply concerning.

But you can kind of see Suvi's like rapid decay of like, oh,

I think you're sad we're not hugging.

Yeah.

I just worry because I think that

those who

are trained in magic see the infantry soldiers as disposable, but

the more worrisome part is I think they see themselves sometimes as disposable and that they are being treated as such.

Okay.

I value your insight

and your understanding of community.

I

do not

necessarily believe

that this is a problem for right now.

I think.

And again, it's just a lot of CB like,

do not say the thing you're thinking first.

Find it.

Sworn steps up behind you and goes, um,

just wanted to come and talk about the last push tomorrow, because I think if we, if we really go for it, we can get into Hallaker before nightfall.

Okay, uh, everything I'm saying, sorry, Ame, can we put a pin in this?

And can you do me a favor and maybe not try to emotionally rock my wizards with uh things left undone and uh emotional vulnerabilities until we're out of the Shroud Mountains?

Okay, thank you.

Okay,

sworn.

Yeah,

everyone's beginning to flag a little bit.

I'd like to make that last push.

I'm circling an idea of perhaps taking

one of the horses with which we've arrived and contributing it to the cause to make sure these people have enough calories in them to push a little harder tomorrow.

Sworn nods and says, a hero's sacrifice.

I'd rather do it now before everyone gets desperate and it goes from sacrificing one horse to slaughtering them all.

Yeah, no, it's the right choice.

I'm happy to avail myself of that responsibility if you'd like.

Oh,

I can help.

Um, let's use mine.

And you just see across Sufi's face, like, again, the thwarted horse girl in her is like, this sucks.

We should probably, the second we get somewhere reliable, we should probably ditch the horses anyway.

I mean, going over foot on high elevation changes with horses, it's been one of the main things slowing us down, even if we weren't trying to be stealthy.

All right, I'll give you a hand.

Uh, Swarn turns to you, Ame, too, and says,

Everything all right?

Yes, just I worry about troop morale and all.

What do you usually do to keep folks' spirits up and keep the camp

keep them them fed remind them who's in charge well we can't do the first thing um we're working on it and that's when susie storms off yeah

swarin turns around to you and says

you want me to talk to shelter did she say something that bothered you no no not at all it's it's not her fault

did worth say something to you i can go straighten him out no

I think that this is not something that can really be solved by Chaino Command, sir.

I think this is something deeper.

The way that I was raised.

When you're in community with other members, you value them at

not necessarily what they can do, but who they are.

And

I think it's new to me to have to think of certain people in different

classes.

Oh.

Do you feel that the Wizard Shelter may have been somewhat dismissive of the contributions of our Imperial brethren?

Well yes.

And I didn't know if it's specific to Shelter or if it's more of a.

That's uh part of the training.

Yeah.

Shelter's a citadel wizard.

To the manor born.

We are the few and the proud.

She's a bit of a snob.

And if she she talked down to some of those Imperial Infantry, then maybe it was a bad look.

I wonder if, after sharing a meal with the Imperial Infantry, you would feel as warm and cozy.

Well,

what's not to like about them?

If you want to find out, you could overhear some of their conversations.

I would just advise you that when the time comes to haul off and slap Corporal Worth straight across the face, make sure you have some backup.

Respectfully, sir, I think I could do all right just by myself.

You got it.

See if he's going to swerve out to find Ursulon.

I think you find Ursulon kind of

standing at the edge of the firelight, closest to

kind of in the direction that we'll be traveling the next day.

Hey, Bear.

Rahu?

What was his name?

Ames Horse, Rahon.

So, I'm about to make a bit of a tough call.

Would you like to send Rahon on his way before I make dinner?

Um, what do you mean?

We don't have any food, and we have to make a big push.

The horses are slowing us down.

And if the if where we're headed is older growth, they won't be useful.

Horses are for roads, and we're staying off of those.

We need meat, not horses.

Please don't make me say I'm about to go kill the horses.

You're about to go kill all the horses?

Not, I mean, not all of them.

If it's all right with you, I would prefer not to be involved oh uh yeah that's that's fine um

i don't

i don't want to do it

but

i don't know how to feed this many people

without doing it i understand

were any of them that you talked to kind of dicks

Sorry, I'm trying to make this not super sad.

Um, I sadly do not not believe that any of the horses were ruder or more deserving than the others.

You okay?

I do not want to be here, Suvi.

There are other places that call to me.

But we are close.

At least

to what I believe will be a safer space.

Thank you for coming.

I know this isn't easy,

and I'm sure you'd rather be with your family.

Your sister looks really nice.

She is.

Um, if you hear crying in the woods,

no, you don't.

See, we're gonna roll up her sleeve.

I

sworn, Sworn and Silver both a company here.

Yeah, I would like to, after I left Sworn, uh, go talk to the horses.

Okay.

You go see see that the horses are gathered here.

Rahon

takes off.

There's another five horses

that are all sort of like, yeah, tethered up and around.

And yeah, you approach them.

You speak with animals.

Rahon is there as well?

Or I guess Rahon is with Ursulan, right?

Or no, they got to go.

Yeah, they're all together.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Good evening, Rahon.

And good evening,

fellows.

As I'm sure you've seen, our group is much the worst for Roy.

Thank you so much for all that you have done to help us on our way.

What I am about to ask of you is something that I do not ask lightly.

My people need food.

And

like you, we cannot graze on the grass or

go for as many leagues as you can without eating, and

I think

that there is

talk of the need for

meat from one of you.

I'll say, give me insight.

22 race.

You see

that one of them, this beautiful chestnut mare, speaks up and goes,

All we have ever wanted was to be a hero

Thank you

Give me a luck check in this moment

The beautiful chestnut mare kicks you in the face and runs away

17 on the die 17 on the die

She looks up and says I have fought in many battles

By all rights, I have been more lucky than most

It should be me.

And you see that Rahon looks and says, No, and like

nuzzles against her.

And you see that suddenly, because speak with animals allows you to understand all animals and verbally communicate with beasts for the duration,

you hear up in the tree branches over you,

is there food?

Is that what you're talking about?

And you look up and see two squirrels in the branch of this pine tree overhead.

Hello?

Huh!

You can help us get food.

Well,

yes.

Yes, I can.

I'm Ahme.

Would you

come

down?

You see, the fox says, yeah, come down.

What?

Quiet!

What?

Okay, fine.

And you see that the squirrel looks down and says, okay.

And leaps down and lands on your shoulder and sniffles his little buttony nose on your cheek and says, Are you asking these horses about where food is?

Yes.

Oh!

Wait a minute.

You got hands.

I do have hands.

You could open the big barn where they keep the food.

The what?

The big barn where they keep the food.

We know they got seeds in there.

I could get you so many seeds.

I bet they even got nuts.

Full nuts.

Come with us to the to the town.

Oh my god.

There's a town?

Yeah, that's where they hide the barn, and that's where they hide the seeds.

Okay, all right.

Okay, um...

Sufi is making her way over at this point.

Huh?

Uh, you see, Sworn is rolling his sleeves up.

Sufi's just tears fully streaming down her face.

No, like, racking sobs.

Just full horse girl.

I see you.

Are you approaching?

Yeah.

Nobody has to die.

What?

Nobody has to die.

Barn, food, town.

Squirrel friend.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Who are are all these new people?

They want seeds?

They have hands.

Strong, dexterous hands.

Yeah, it only takes one hand to open the barn, but it takes four mouths to eat four times as many seeds as one mouth.

I know, but listen to me.

How are you gonna get those nuts open?

Hmm?

Getting...

You...

I...

What?

You think I don't know how to get a nut open?

I'm just watching my friend chitter at a rat on her shoulder.

You see, the fox looks up at you, Suvi, and goes.

On three,

you grab the squirrel's tail.

I'll jump up and eat the front half of the squirrel.

Okay, so all seeds will go to you.

We will take things that you do not want to eat.

All right, that's true.

There's a lot of things there we don't want to eat.

And how do you know that this is not defended by other squirrels?

Many squirrels.

Squirrels defending the barn?

I don't know.

Who can say?

No, I don't think so.

Hey, Aumi.

I hate to cut you off.

What?

There is apparently a barn full of food and supplies.

Guard it?

Where?

I'm trying to get some of the details, but I say that you, me, and Ursulan go.

We bring back enough supplies and we can push on tomorrow.

Are we taking food from enemy soldier supplies?

Are we looting the town's stores?

Are we causing a bigger problem?

At the very least, we need to go and see.

Do we?

Because

perhaps that will alert the people of the town or enemy soldiers to our presence here.

I don't want

to do what I have committed myself to doing here.

But are we creating the potential for a bigger problem?

Whose food is it and and how mad will they be that we took it?

I love you so much.

If you tell me that this is a good idea, I'll go do it.

I am asking you to consider.

Is this actually solving our problem or are you sparing temporary discomfort in not just taking out?

Silver Ferrosis Brown looks at you, Suvi, and says,

Am I to understand that there's a possible store of food that is just being kept by townspeople here in the Shroud Mountains, by civilians?

With respect, Wizard Sky,

food can be reallocated.

We don't need to eat anybody out of house and home.

We're talking about a small group of 30 people.

If these people are loyal to the Empire, as they should be, then they should be glad of the opportunity to help save these soldiers who have been fighting to liberate them from the forces that are in these mountains.

And if they're not?

What do you mean if they're not?

If they're under Gauthmai's control,

then we'll either have to make an assessment to avoid the village and keep marching until we find ourselves behind our own lines, or if it's possible that with the forces we have here, we can engage in combat, free the town, liberate the people inside, and find a way to feed and water ourselves, then yes,

that's the best possible outcome.

This would be a much needed boon.

But you're right, we don't have all the information.

But I will say

the horses were meant for war, and they would not be averse

to helping provide what is needed for the troops.

You talked to the horses.

I did, yes.

Can you give me like a pair of them that maybe want to stay together wherever they go next?

Can we please just- Can you answer my question and just trust me for two seconds?

I relay the question to the horses.

Yeah, two of them step forward.

Worst case scenario, we trade two extremely good horses for enough food for our troops and move on.

Ah, you're so smart.

That's that's brilliant.

Okay.

I just like information.

Subi says to know

Okay

With soldiers collapsing having just made your way to the very edge of the Hallaker forest you see these two farmers gathered together and step forward taking off their hats to approach the band of soldiers here

and shepherding you forward I can now describe for you the haven you have found here in the Shroud Mountains as they lead you to the village of Stone Rill.

Walking through the beginnings of the forest, massive trees, the temperature drops by eight degrees just moving forward through this space.

Cool, deep, dark shadows as you and the soldiers move forward, and you begin to approach a village that is hidden in the overhang of a massive waterfall.

Where the water would normally come over the ledge of a cliff, the cliff drops and then scales back

into a sort of cavern or opening so that behind this curtain of a waterfall, the interior of this mountain face actually opens opens up creating a large cavernous opening partially behind the waterfall and it is up high high high in that cavernous area behind the waterfall that as you approach with these farmers you see

buildings suspended from the ceiling of that cavern

in this little hidden village in this place and you can see of the buildings that are suspended from it that they are largely built into the side, but there are some like rope bridges and planks kind of suspended on rope or vine leading from one to the other.

So, most of the larger structures are built into the rock wall itself.

And you see this

strange, hidden little village up here in the Shroud Mountains.

And you see, indeed, that some chirping, sort of chittering squirrels rush up, and that one of the stone buildings, moss-covered with the damp of the waterfall nearby it, does have a large pair of closed doors, like a barn.

Clearly, whatever this place is, it is like a hidden sanctum deep in the mountains.

And you can see right away that these buildings are old, old, old.

One of the older farmers leading you up through this place says,

We made our way to Stone Rill once

once the violence broke out.

This place here has been hidden up in this part of the mountains for a long, long time.

My name is Yule.

Oh, uh, hello, I'm Skye.

Wizard Skye, we...

I can tell you this for certain.

We are glad to see you.

Beastmen and strange folk from faraway shores have been here in these mountains, but we are true.

We are loyal and true to the flag of the Kemsara as an empire, where everyone and all of us praise for the Emperor.

Can I insight check him?

Yeah, get me an insight check.

I don't trust it.

I continue to trust it within the living.

Can I?

Yeah.

25.

Only 14.

On a 25, Ame, I think that the words of the farmer strike you as true.

I think that you have failed your stealth check in the most opportune place to do that.

And if you'll allow, on the 25,

do they seem to be, although frightened,

in healthy spirits?

I think that they don't seem to be in healthy spirits.

I think that as you walk up, a long switchback stone staircase with these sort of wooden railings that have been like varnished with pine resin over and over again until they gleam.

So there's like shiny, varnished, raw pine wood railings because the steps themselves are like slippery and mossy, so close to the waterfall.

Goes up and down the cavern, and you see that there is what appears to be like a little hidden village, but it's wildly

impractical.

And what you really see is there looks like it is this place, as you see multiple lights and people shouting up from the village as you approach.

This appears to be a place of safety and security that is very far away from anywhere that would be like arable or whatever.

This appears to be like

a place of safety to retreat to when things are bad.

And looking by the stones that are built here, this place looks very, very old.

This doesn't seem like it's a new thing that the people of this land have built.

More like an old, ancient settlement that nearby farmers know about, that's nowhere near land that they can work or live off of, but a place to come to if, say, a massive war breaks out.

Kind of eyeing the layout of the sanctum,

what threat would warrant living on the ceiling?

Give me a history check.

16.

You can't say.

I mean, this place is unassailable,

but you know, that wouldn't do you any good unless you had stores.

But then you look at those big stone doors and you go, well, there's the stores.

You know that the Shroud Mountains in times long ago had,

you know, feudal lords and wars that broke out.

There were different castles, like the original castle of Twelve Brooks was like a place that was defensible, that those streams could be flooded.

So, this was, you know, there was a period of history here where something like this might have happened.

You don't know exactly what they're defending against, but I don't know.

You'd have a hard time attacking this place.

Yule, we are so very, very grateful that we happened upon you and that you are giving us such a friendly welcome.

As you can see, our friends here are much the worse for wear.

Oh, I understand.

Have you come here from Fort Kieran?

I look to Suvi.

A little farther north.

Do you have news from there?

Or Fort Kieran?

No, I think it's back in the hands of the enemy.

But the last we heard,

the soldiers that were

came by about five days ago were headed for allies in Bracken.

That's where they said forces were gathering.

Bracken?

Thank you so much.

Did you say soldiers came through here five days ago?

Yeah.

Of the Empire.

Yes, of the Empire.

They were too frightened to go through Halaker, so they went around the long way.

But

Halaker is a haunted forest, so.

oh what haunts it?

Spirits yeah dangerous ones they're old runestones that you know only

kooks and fools go out and run their strange little nighttime pilgrimage out to the standing stones up on the cliff's edge.

Nighttime pilgrimages, you say?

There's uh some holy sites out there that they uh you know journey to by night, but they're you know uh fiddle-faddle.

Well, I I'm a collector of uh folklore, and I would love to hear anything you have to say, uh, should time allow.

Unfortunately, we don't have much, but uh how many of you are there here?

About

three score of us here right now.

Okay,

I'm going to cut straight to it.

Do you have any provisions that you could see your way to parting with?

To the Empire?

Yes.

Yes.

Oh, yes, absolutely.

We'd be more than happy to.

We can offer you.

Okay, it's high up.

Down there are a pair of very good horses that you could use not here when you leave.

This felt like a better idea until we got to this place.

And now I feel like the horses are a bad gift.

Well,

I mean,

with any luck, the folks here won't have to be holed up here for very long, and they can go back to their homes and their

places that would need horses.

Sis,

you require rations and feeding.

Yes, please.

Well,

let's get everyone up the stairs and

we have a stables up here.

We'll have to...

Yeah, Gimura!

Lower the ropes!

And you see these big sort of woven hammock underbelly saddles come in, and some of the farmers come out and begin to affix them under the bellies of the horses and just start to hoist them skyward.

Well, one of you two, please apologize to the horses for me.

Keep your core tight.

Rahon goes,

keep my core tight.

And you guys enter the village of Stone Rill, this hidden sanctum.

At the top of the staircases, you see a number of planks and bridges.

There are some like stone balconies that seem to hug almost like a little street going through a town, but just stay on the outside of the many sort of buildings built into the cliff face.

And you see, as one opens up,

you see that there is a bright fire lit and

warm stone benches carved that have blankets placed out on them.

And you see that this appears to be like a small gathering hall.

And you see, as the soldiers come in, sort of beds are laid out for them.

And you see that the farmers start to gather.

And you see an older woman comes out and says, Hello, I am Dimura.

I am the Matriarch of Stone Rail.

Welcome, all of you.

How have you gathered your way here?

Are you part of the Advance Guard?

And you see, Silver turns and says,

Our squadron was rescued by the Wizard Sky of the Citadel, and we are currently falling back to regroup and rejoin our number with our companions on the other sides of our lines.

Well,

a rescue mission, a success?

Well, I

we have precious little to go around, but some libations, then, yes, and some food and drink, and and a celebration for you heroes.

You can be you can make a racket here.

The waterfall is hard to hear anything.

and uh you see that they light some little lanterns and you see they have some little like sort of fireflies floating around in these glass bulbs that have some like sugar water in the base and

they begin to sort of cart out food

in this moment what are you all feeling looking around and doing you've just been through i think all of you feel like acetone on the back of your tongue and stress in your blood and a certainty that these farmers are going to murder you if you sleep.

And there's a feeling of

what is going on physically and emotionally for you guys in this moment.

I am trying to introduce myself to as many people as possible and to

somewhat smooth the way.

I tried to introduce some of different representatives from the groups as well.

I'm hoping that

while we are here, that everyone will be on best behavior.

And I tried to find ways of ascertaining that without outright saying it.

I'll lean over at some point and be like, you can just say that.

Oh, do you want me to say it?

Yes, can you say it, Venom?

Eyes turn to the group.

If any of you fucks up, you'll be at the bottom of this cavern.

Uh, give me intimidate with advantage.

Seeks.

Oh,

uh, the words, the words are hurt, and she says that, but I'm like, well, but uh, also, if you'd like, uh, just but please try to be polite um uh the best behavior everyone

Subi just gives you a look and is nodding and I think she's already lost inside of the actual thing she's feeling right now which is struggling physically with a setting that keeps it like insisting that you can relax here and her like inability to coach her brain into relaxing that she just looks really uncomfortable and almost like hunched over.

It's that like it's not just like the ass to him in the back of your throat.

You're like, I could throw up from how like hard it is to stop being

this stressed out for this long.

Ame, you see two expectant little squirrels on the windowsill.

I wink at them and I make sure on on the carts of food, I assume that there have to be some sort of grains or oh yes, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

See, there's a little a little assortment of like tree nuts, and there's some other like loaves of bread that have seeds and grains on them and things like that.

But uh, so what do you do as you see the squirrels there?

You see, the fox goes,

this is our last chance.

We got provisions here, and you'll have them, and you'll be grateful for them.

And I take a little attractive arrangement of the nuts and the seeds.

I put it on on a little leaf

and I set it by the window and I bow.

Squirrels

and take the seeds.

We're good.

And they scamper off with the seeds.

Some of the farmers come with some folk instruments.

Looks like one of them has like a simple like flute and another one has a little stringed instrument and they come together and begin to play some music and share some libations here.

You can tell that there is a degree of generosity in this space.

Yule, the older farmer, is sitting down and talking with Sworn, and Sworn is sort of smiling at him politely.

It looks like she should be doing an okay job, you know, chatting with him.

And Silver, at a certain point, as the soldiers look around and kind of cannot believe their turn of fortune over the last five days, from being trapped in a lumber mill where they thought for sure they were going to die, to now being here in this space with music playing, being waited on by farmers who

appear to be grateful that soldiers of the empire have shown up.

And

there's this feeling of like, oh my God, maybe we're going to be okay.

And you see that Silver stands up and raises a glass as the music sort of comes to a pause for a moment.

And you see, he says,

To those who fought bravely and who with their lives bought our freedom.

To those that paved the way here.

To the bravery of those who risked everything to see us saved.

He drains it and everyone cheers.

And I think that there's just, you know, a little party breaks out in this place celebrating the successful rescue, this mission.

And you see that it begins to look...

You also notice that the imperial soldiers are laughing and smiling.

They appear to be a little more

comfortable around the farmers here that are in this space, and there's a lot more gregariousness and camaraderie.

Um, a couple people come up and look what, like, look to be like making offerings to the citadel wizards that are here.

Of just being like, you see, like a young woman approaches you and is like,

We don't have

very much stored, but we do have some cured meat.

Um, do wizards eat meat?

Oh,

uh, Jenny, it very, yes, thank you.

You see, she bows very deeply and holds it up like an offering.

Oh, um, what's her name?

Adore.

Adore.

Oh, that's...

That's a beautiful name.

You don't have to.

And I just kind of like pat her on the hand, like, Biscuit.

Thank you.

I will take this like a person to a person.

You're good.

I...

Is there anything we can do for you while we're here?

Um, Um, we just know that

we know that they eat people.

And

I know that you're here to stop them and that they've eaten everybody in the land that they come from.

Oh, oh, oh, I'm gonna grab a door and just pat her on the back and be like, hey, please don't let them eat us.

I won't.

And I...

I don't.

Can I make a history check?

Like, that's crazy.

That is straight.

No check required.

That is not the case.

Yeah.

Hey, uh,

you want to take me on a tour of this place?

And I, I want to explain to her that that's not necessarily true.

Like, there's got to be a way to talk about sort of wartime propaganda in a way that isn't in front of everyone to be like, hey, they don't need people.

But fear is understandable.

And I just want you to be able to walk this off a little bit.

Great.

Yeah, you walk off with her and she starts to show you around Stonewill a little bit.

Ursulan, what are you up to?

I think Ursulan's having that energy of like an

upset kid at his favorite restaurant.

Yeah.

Where there's just this desire to dislike a thing you know you enjoy.

Like there's something to this moment that as like libations are poured and music is playing,

I think the reason Ursulan can't shake the reason that he's here

and doesn't want to

like like it really the voice even like in my own head is like very childish of like I don't wanna I don't wanna have the wine I don't wanna embrace the food and the and the community uh I want to be mad I want to be mad that I'm here and I want to be mad that I'm not with

Kaliah and that I'm not back at the borough

And so I think as kind of the music kicks up, I think Ursulan excuses himself and takes a bit of drink outside and is just going to stand and listen to the waterfall.

And I think at some point, open up his divine sense and try and hear more of that music from Halliker Forest.

Give me a perception check.

Only a four.

Smell of wine and human grain.

And there's a familiar scent in this space that they've made ready for the soldiers here.

Your nostrils are filled with the smell of soap.

And I don't think you can focus on anything else.

Beautiful.

Waterfall, these gorgeous buildings, the moss everywhere.

Shroud Mountains are an old place.

But there's something

here.

There's something that is like a cord apple or the honey taken out of a beehive.

It's hard to put your finger on.

Ahme,

you see, Silver approaches you and puts a drink in your hand and puts a hand on your shoulder.

Exceptional.

Thank you so much.

I know that Sky would do whatever it takes to see these soldiers saved, and it's incredible that we didn't lose anybody getting out of Abyssin.

She played it smart and safe.

Yes, but I know it would have broken her heart to, especially those horses that she'd taken all the way from Marlon to here.

And you've found

you have tremendous skills.

We're very lucky to have a witch of your caliber serving our cause.

Well, I'm here to

rescue

Suvi and to rescue

those that Suvi loves.

You see, he blushes.

He goes,

Those that Sky loves.

Well, well, well.

He smiles and says,

your service is deeply appreciated.

And

I do want to offer something to you.

Just in a brief moment as we arrived and the wizard Skye made a request for behavior.

of the soldiers here.

I know that you also made a request of their behavior, and I just want to

acknowledge that we are very grateful for your service, but in order to not confuse the men, it is not your place to offer command or orders to them.

And I just want that to be very clear.

Yes, that makes sense.

I am not in your chain of command, but my request comes from a place where it would be safer for your men

were they to heed my warning.

Let's call it, let's call it advice.

Understood.

I think in service of clarity, which is

clarity, chain of command, these are not ephemera.

These are the

arteries and veins of the body of our military.

The clarity provided by these chains of command is how we survive, how we stay alive when circumstances are ordered against us in so doing.

I would just say that your advice is best offered to the one you serve.

I do not intend to overstep my boundaries.

That being said,

your modes of survival are highly effective in battle, in the citadel, in the lands of civilization, where your systems are accustomed to being.

But out here

is more where I'm accustomed to being.

And I think perhaps that there are things that

you and the Wizard Sky and the rest of your compatriots do not see.

But I shall take care to relay that just to the Wizard Sky in future.

Much appreciated.

You see Silver looks around.

You see that Sworn has gotten into a little bit more of a serious conversation with Yule the farmer over in the corner.

And Silver looks out, and you see just like he does a quick head count,

and he turns to leave.

Ursulan, closer to where you're sort of trying to hear the forest, you hear the noise of some boots approaching behind you.

You turn around.

You smell alcohol pretty strongly.

You know the smell of alcohol pretty well.

Two of the Imperial soldiers are behind you.

And there is a sort of shy looking.

The other artificer, not rusty, is behind them,

looking a little bit meek or shy.

And you see that one of the soldiers is swaying really drunk.

You know, that this guy had like lost a lot of blood.

He was one of the ones that had been riding a horse for a while and looks pretty fucked up, like he's been drinking pretty heavily.

And just sort of sways on his feet, looking at you.

I

hold his gaze.

What

do you

feel in this moment or is there anything you want him to feel as you hold his gaze?

I think that

as

the tension draws out

Ursulon is conveying more and more

fury and anger

as he looks at you and looks at your eyes

Give me a

intelligence saving throw.

Eight

You feel your glamour slip just from your eyes a little bit as the fury intensifies.

The soldier you're not looking at turns around and sort of playfully shoves the artificer and goes, told you, told you, told you, and looks up and says, can you fly?

The one you're looking at who you've not broken eye contact with,

urine spreads in a giant patch down his leg as he can't break his eye contact from you, looking into the eyes of a predator, of a spirit.

And you see he's sweating and looks on the verge of vomiting and passing out.

And you realize that

he is like

he's sort of in a paralysis and on the verge of having a seizure.

I

blink and sh uh shake.

I think the smell of the the urine and the

hint of a seizure, I think, kind of make Ursulan blink out of, and I'm now actually trying to understand the fact that maybe feeling a little bit that his glamour faded and being surprised and sh uh confused by that.

The other guy who you're not looking at takes a sort of drunken step towards you and says, Can you fly?

What?

Can you f uh this guy says you're spirit.

What'd you say?

Caderza, you said spirit.

And you see the artificer, who's a kind of wiry young kid,

dark skin, dark hair.

He has sort of a silver cap on one of his teeth.

He goes, honored friend, honored friend.

Didn't say other words, said honored friend.

And you see that the soldier turns around and says, Yes, they saw you on the river, the citadel, the citadel wizards.

They said you.

And you see that the wizard who's sort of soiled himself grabs the other one and pulls him back

and turns around back to look at you.

And you can see is in a state of extreme emotional duress now that you've broken eye contact.

He's clearly drunk, but he's sobered up with this fear.

So it's a mixture of cortisol and panic and alcohol and humiliation.

And he grabs his friend.

You can tell that he is about to surge out in some kind of violent emotional direction that you can't anticipate in this moment.

Ursulan, what do you do?

As it looks like one of the soldiers has come here just to gawk at you.

Maybe the other one did too, but instead, feeling your fury has entered into like a place of emotional panic.

And do you think that you are you're saying that the one who's about to enact some kind of violent

is about to do that onto the gawker?

or you, or something else.

You can just tell that that person's in a peak of emotion where he's like, you know what I mean?

Like, like you see someone drunk in a bar and you're like, I don't know who they're going to try to hit.

Yeah.

Right?

Like, it's a, it's, but it's a moment of peak.

Feeling the energy rising in this moment,

Ursulan is going to

raise his voice.

You all need to go back inside.

Go ahead and give me Intimidate.

10.

You see, drawing the attention back onto yourself, this Imperial soldier whips around, cocks a fist back, and takes a swing.

And with disadvantage, misses.

Pretty effortly.

Like, you just step back and he can't connect.

You know, it's not.

But just takes a swing and says,

put the evil eye on me.

What?

You're not.

I'm going to grapple this person.

Okay, give me.

He's rolling disadvantage.

Give me athletics.

He got a 12.

I got a 13.

Okay.

You pin him, and he goes,

You see the other guy, the guard goes, whoa, whoa, and begins to go get his like matchstick off his back, get his staff off his back.

And you see that the guy you're pinning goes,

you shape changer?

You don't know a thing about me.

And I'm going to.

Ozlant's realizing that this isn't.

There's nothing here.

And it's just going to get up.

Get up.

And start walking.

Give me one last charisma check as you attempt to defuse this situation.

11.

Okay.

You walk away.

The guy gets up off the ground as you attempt to start walking away.

It tries to get to his feet.

The other guy going for his matchstick sees that this is over.

And though you're not able to calm down the guy you were grappling, you see that he goes and gets his drunk friend and sees that this is over.

The drunk soldier on the ground calling out after you says,

If you're spirit, why aren't you bound?

If you're spirit, why aren't you bound?

Shape changer.

Ursulan keeps walking down the stairs out of the village.

Suvi, you are out to get a tour of the town with Adore.

What are you explaining to her as you begin to walk with her?

So,

war is hard and bad, obviously.

But it's important to remember that the reasons that we fight

at the end of the day, we are people

fighting other people.

And

Wizards of the Citadel, despite the way most of us act, are not particularly special.

And the shape changers

don't eat people

in my experience.

So

we don't have to make monsters

out of men

or myths

or just people

fighting for our homes

but we will protect our homes and you i promise i promise uh give me a persuasion check

and you can couple that with an insight check

natural one for the persuasion

and a seven for the insight

you just can tell on a seven that nothing you have said connects with this young woman.

Yeah.

If anything, she is more distrustful of you because of how much,

how many bitter tears and deep nightmares have been devoted to knowing that shape changers eat people.

You advocating for them doesn't change her opinion of shape changers.

It changes her opinion of you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think there's something that's very obvious to Suvi in that moment that she's like, oh, this was never about allaying Adore's fears.

I'm just pulling a scared young woman into like my own storm of stuff.

And like, is also like very sort of self-chastened in that too.

I'm sorry.

Can you do me a favor?

Uh, yeah.

I'm very tired.

Uh, and my friend and I would love a place to rest for just a little while is there an empty room

yeah yeah i i i can i can find you an empty room uh give me a perception check

second natural one oh my god the other yeah the other die is great so the sound of the waterfall obscures the shouts of the soldier shouting after ursulan and you are led to a bed where you can receive blessed sleep

ame Ame,

as Suvi disappears with the young woman and Ursulan heads out, you see Silver walks around, you see inquiring after where Sky may have gone to.

You look over and see Sworn speaking, sort of heartfelt with the farmer, Yule, who appear to be having a serious conversation.

And you see, he sort of nods and says, Oh, understood.

All right, thank you.

He looks up at you,

stands, and offers one of the sort of little pockets of looks like a little dough and some rusty cooked potatoes and stew in it.

Ame has already stuffed herself.

And oh no, I couldn't possibly thank you.

But you and your people deserve this rest.

Sorin looks at you and says, we wouldn't have it without you.

There's

nothing more dangerous than panic and a lack of clarity.

That spell that you cast was remarkable.

And finding this village, I

many things speak highly of the Wizard Sky's character, and there's no one that I have been more honored to serve in my time at the Citadel.

But of the thing that speaks highest to her character is the respect she commands, even from those that do not owe it to her as a mark of their station.

Respect.

Yes.

I.

I would not have described it that way, I suppose.

Thinking of...

I would have said

our love, our love for the Wizard Sky will always

bring us to her side.

It's similar.

It's the same.

I think sometimes people give a different poetry to these words.

I think there's a marked difference.

Oh.

Well, if you're talking about what I feel, it's not respect or love.

Duty?

Loyalty.

Loyalty.

Is there a scoff in your voice at the thought of loyalty?

No, not at all.

But

I.

Are you loyal to a person or to the ideals or to the people around you that uphold those ideals?

I don't think it matters as long as you just pick one.

I think when you pick more than one thing to be loyal to,

you can trick yourself into thinking that you're giving the world nuance, but what you're really doing is giving yourself a way out.

So you just pick one and you stay with it,

no matter what.

I got my name cloak about four years after you're supposed to.

I

passed into the Citadel.

I was very talented

and

squandered any possibility I had of of

meaningful contribution.

I thought maybe I'd do this, maybe I'd enter this school, maybe I'd do that.

And the only mentor I ever had that really meant anything to me

died with me being a

fly at the bottom of a bottle and unworthy of the care and attention that they had given to me.

And they never got to see me take my name cloak.

You can waste a lot of time

weighing things in the balance.

My judgment has only ever thwarted me and led me astray.

So I know

that the best thing for me to do is to find someone who gets it right more often than me and follow them.

Nobody can be right all the time.

And there's nothing wrong with having a curious mind.

I'm glad you found purpose.

But I think that

as for me, I hope to continue to find purpose, many of them

different ones,

and just continue on that way.

I'm not afraid to have picked wrong.

Well,

then it's very good that you are you and I am me.

Thank you for taking care of the Wizard Sky and for your loyalty to her.

I do appreciate that.

Independence

is a lovely thing for a small number.

The world doesn't work unless most people get in line.

You see, Sworn walks off to go look for silver, and you see that now it's just there's a couple other city elevations around.

Fox is sort of chewing.

See, Fox looks up at you and says,

Seems like everything is going great.

Oh, because your belly's full?

Yes.

Oh, yeah, that's true.

Things are going better than they were before.

I'm just so in my head here.

And not in a good way, like the kind where we can talk way.

Yeah.

I think it's.

I still don't know what to say.

So, give me a perception check.

12.

You hear some shouting outside.

You don't hear exactly what's said, but you hear some shouting.

What's the tenor of it?

Aggressive.

Violent.

Dang it, do you hear that?

Come with me.

Come with me.

I see Scoots out.

You arrive.

You see two soldiers and an artificer heading back from the entrance to the village.

And you don't see Ursulan anywhere.

There

see the fox looks up and says,

Not this again,

and begins to sort of scatter off forward.

Suvi

room acquired.

I'm gonna like pull out just the sort of like whatever candles and like lamp, and just try to make it a little nice.

Uh, and then I'm gonna go find silver.

Silver finds you.

Oh, okay.

I think she's still a little shook from how badly the conversation with Adore went.

So I'm going to use my last second level spell slot to just cast detect thoughts.

Just to get a little running vibe of, I got to know if I'm doing a bad job or if I'm swinging wide.

Is this for Silver as he approaches?

Not the, like, just the glancing thought.

She's not going to force a save on anything.

You cast detect thoughts, Silver walks in, and all you sense coming from him is

I wish I still knew her name.

Suvi

is going to immediately end the spell.

And there's parts of her that are like, I should go let Ami and Ursulan know that I'm going to sleep here.

I should go check on the other soldiers.

I should check in with Sworn.

I can't keep doing this.

I'm so tired and he's right there.

And all he wants from me is to know my name.

And she's gonna pull a little scrap of paper out

and sit on the bed and pat the space next to it.

This

doesn't have any expectation attached to it.

We can just rest.

But I need you to know that my name is Sufi.

Because I

really liked the way you said my name.

And I put it on the sheet of paper so he has it.

He takes it,

looks at it.

His hands are wreathed in light as he smushes the paper between his palms and burns it in between two coal-hot exteriors of his hands as he calls a little flame spell.

And he goes, Suferin,

lie down.

I love you.

And he takes a blanket and folds it over you and then curls you up in an embrace and lies behind you with his arms around you.

You can feel his nose on the back of your neck as he matches his breathing to yours.

Ursulan, at the base of the steps, cool, dark forest in all directions.

What do you do?

Ursulan is desperate to stop spinning on the thoughts and fears that are filling his head and is going to open his divine sense.

Give me perception with advantage.

19

peepers, There's frogs down here below the waterfall.

They're telling a story.

This is an old forest.

The stones hold stories here.

The frogs sing songs.

There's fairies in the woods.

And deeper in here,

there's an old, old hum.

They used to worship night in this place.

That was Lou Wilson as Ursulan, Erika Ishii as Ahme, Abria Iyengar as Suvi, and Brennan Lee Mulligan as everyone and everything

else.

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

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