Fireside Chat for Chapter 1 of The Wizard the Witch and the Wild One

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the fireside chat for

the Wizard of the Witch and the Wild One, Arc 1.

That's right, we are going to be covering everything, everything in the first 14 episodes.

Wait, Erica, what the heck is a fireside chat?

Well, I'm glad you asked, Brennan, because a fireside chat is what we call the little episodes that we record after our show airs and put onto our fireside, which is what we call the Patreon, so that the algorithms on social media don't kick us off.

A little peek behind the curtain.

That's very funny.

Gosh, didn't emphasize that.

Is that that?

And because it's a lot cuter.

Come on, come on, come on.

How to use branding to trick the machine over mind.

Brought to you by Erica Ishi E.

All these little tips.

If you would like to talk about your only fins,

that's what you call it.

Or you put a little at symbol or something instead of the A.

What if I want an actual spicy accountant?

I mean,

you can do that, but just know that the algorithm might bury your request for one.

Just go to H ⁇ R Block and just rub pure capsaicin all over.

Yeah, I want a guy who's like, your 1099s are all over the place.

For your OnlyFans?

For oh, you want what?

What?

There's a, there's a term that is used by some OnlyFans creators where they call themselves a spicy accountant.

Oh, spicy accountant.

Yes, that's right.

And that's what I was saying.

I want a literal version.

I mean, you say accountant is like definitely been a term for.

Anyway, I'm Erica Ishii.

I'm here today, joined by Abria Iingar.

Hoo-hoo and crackle crackle to you all.

Now, what is a hoo-hoo and crackle-crackle?

If you were a part of this beautiful fireside, you would know that we have a bunch, honestly, too many sign-ons.

These are some of them.

And now you can say them and act like you've been in the know the whole time.

Brennan.

That's me.

I'm Brennan.

Hi, gang.

Thanks so much for coming by the fireside.

We're so happy to have you

and so excited to jump a big old breakdown recap, answer some awesome questions from fans over by the fireside for chapter one, the first 14 episodes of The Wizard of the Witch and the Wild One.

And the last person on mic here in the room with us is.

So, something you have to understand is that the actor and voice actor Lou Wilson, who normally voices Ursulan during the podcast, does not attend most of the firesides because he is walking, he is circumventing the Americas.

He's currently circumnavigating, perhaps?

He's circumventing

a baby.

He's dodging

left and right.

He is circumnavigating the Americas.

So I am here in his stead.

I will be chatting.

I understand a lot of what he was going through while playing Ursula.

So I will be

explaining that and speaking on his behalf.

And my name is Jonathan Venus.

Yeah, Jonathan Venus might sound a lot like Lou Williams.

I sound a lot like it, which is part of the reason.

But I want you guys to know that this, that, that you are hearing Mr.

Venus.

Friend and Lee Mulligan has his hands.

You can just call me John.

He's massaging

the orbitals of his eye sockets.

And is there a hefty chance that after listening to the preludes in the first 14 episodes, this is the first time you're hearing an episode of just the four of us talking about the four of us?

I, of course, meet Abria, Erica, myself, and John.

Jonathan Venus.

Yeah.

Not Lou Wilson?

Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

It's probably your first time doing that.

But the important thing is Jonathan is here in Lou's stead.

And if it feels confusing, you got to get by that fire.

Let me tell you, for $5, this all makes a lot of sense.

But we're excited to come out here and introduce the public to what it's like to be by the fireside.

I mean, this plus even more unhinged nonsense.

Yes.

We stay on our bullshit on the Patreon.

Oh, it's so good.

It's good.

But this is, we're doing, we're here for more than just an advertisement for our incredible deal of a Patreon.

It only costs you $5 a month to be by the fireside.

I think we've, we've crossed it off.

All right, we'll cross that off.

All right,

put it on the board.

You can't see this.

We are all wearing houndstooth jackets like 1980s car dealership, like being like, crazy Eddie's, come on down right now.

Everything's gotta go.

The room is filled with those inflatable arms.

Wacky, wacky, inflatable arm guys.

Yeah.

If you listen, you can hear them.

There they go.

There they go.

It's a beautiful sound.

My mom said she wants to have one of those at her funeral.

Amazing.

To point

people to the venue.

Does she want it like a jet black one?

Like in mourning?

Like a saddest of five.

I think she just wants one to point people to her funeral.

Also, a sad one is just one that's not as flated, right?

It's just one that is laying.

Yeah.

You could do one that kind of is like puffs, so it sort of like flails and flops and like someone like wailing and mourning.

Oh, that's pretty good.

Save that for your independent film.

I want one just in case, like, so I can know when an alien gets close.

Oh, nope is so good.

It's so good.

I had a full moment of being like, what the fuck do you mean?

Kiki Palmer.

Kiki.

But on this fireside episode, it's just completely on the rails.

We're going to answer all of the questions that that you asked us.

All of them.

All of them.

Yeah.

That looks good.

Well,

actually,

first of all, how we doing, gang?

Hi.

Hey, how are we doing?

After our first arc, and actually we have completed the second arc and are planning on our third.

But now that we've actually heard, because we don't hear all of the episodes much more than

maybe a day before.

Seconds.

Yeah.

A day, two seconds before you all get it.

And it's our first time sometimes hearing the full mix and the sounds and the songs.

Now that we've heard and revisited Umora and these characters in our first arc,

how are we feeling, Abria?

I just, I'm so deeply in love with this world and like our little troika of troublemakers and the ways in which it doesn't quite feel right to call them a party yet but there are people that are like tied together by something that and they're like discovering what they love and who they are to each other and to the world in real time it's just such a beautiful way to start a story that feels like we're gonna be here and we're gonna see so much from these people so like let's see a good and uh exciting beginning.

I'm just feeling really grateful.

And I think you guys are just the absolute best.

Oh, here's a really good question from Zach Turner.

Thank you so much, Zach.

What is your favorite moment of someone else's from Arc One?

Ooh.

Ooh.

They provided, he provided examples.

Example, Abria, what's your favorite Lou moment?

Oh my gosh.

Well, it feels really easy to say that the level up

of like Ursulan embracing himself and his power and like the thing that he knows in his heart that he has to do.

It was just the coolest thing.

And I think I was actually like a little misty in the studio.

Like, please, just, this is so good.

And it was so powerful.

And

to praise Lou specifically, Jonathan, please pass this on.

Of course.

I am.

Hey, I take copious notes.

Thank you.

I just, there's just a moment after everything begins with his level up where you hear what this deeply internal character, like what all of this means to him.

And it's just one of my favorite like monologues I've ever heard in a story, period, not actual play or narrative play.

It was just gorgeous.

Wow.

I can't wait to tell Lou that.

Yeah.

And Mr.

Venus, did you, you got a chance to listen.

Oh, I've, I'm, uh, I'm, I'm by the fireside.

I listen to every episode.

I'm all the way in.

Lovely.

Um, so, uh, how are you feeling about the conclusion conclusion of this arc?

Good.

I think this, I mean, it was, I, you, I, you, it's, uh,

it's one of those things where when you start something,

you can't, you can have a bunch of thoughts about what it'll be, and you can have a bunch of thoughts about what it'll feel like.

And I think when it asks as much of you, and you are excited to give as much of yourself, and the people who are participating in it are excited to give as much of themselves as was given in this space, in this setting.

I think it like really went above and beyond in terms of like depth and breadth

from like what I ever expected this to be.

I think it was way,

you know, I think there's a big part of me that's like, oh, I thought we were just going to play DD.

We did something else.

Like, it just

undeniably we did something

just

that I don't have a precedent for in my head.

I know, I never, you know, 14 episodes in, it's like, I'm sorry, this is how we start.

Yeah, it took us 14 episodes to get to level one.

I mean, that alone,

you know, I think there's just so much, there's so much here

that

I can't wait to continue to dig into.

Or go ahead.

I was going to say, and Arc Two feels like that's the funny thing: is we're doing this Arc 1

wrap up with the second chapter right around the corner, and we know the exponential amount of how the world grows and expands.

So it's like we did that.

Oh, yeah, it's like a whole we go full tesseract, yes,

four-dimensional cube, baby.

Let's go.

And I think, uh, just to throw it back to you, Abria, real quick, when I think one of those moments, those touchstone moments when I realized how deep we were going to go is when you killed Captain Emlus.

I think it's it's to the, it's like, there was a full, like, uh, I don't know.

We like had the campaign had been so fun and at times like sad, but then everyone was supported.

And that was just a cutthroat, dirty, nasty moment that was like, oh, okay.

So we're in the mud.

Like, there's no, we are, we are not afraid to have our characters be, to experience everything.

And I think Brendan has said it many times.

Like, it's, we're not afraid to like do something nasty and then figure out how we're gonna clean it up and put it all back together.

Ham, how are we gonna clean up all this?

Ham, exactly.

Bit janitor, help, help.

There you go.

The bit janitor is something that you can find on our

box.

Yeah, Brennan, there are a lot of questions here for you.

Including from May,

what were your favorite things to plan for in this arc?

Because Lou is talking about how we planned for things and how man plans and God laughs.

And you're in many worlds, Umora's God.

Yeah.

What made you laugh?

Yeah.

What did you, yeah, what made you, what were you excited to plan?

And then what were you excited to laugh at?

I don't know.

I don't know if that expression means that God is the man laughing at his own plants where he's like, God, you're crazy for this.

God, you're wild.

Damn, God.

I'll tell you what.

They can only see a little bit of the light of

I'm going to give the rest of the spectrum to shrimp.

Shrimp.

You

that's how God says shrimp.

Yeah.

Shrimp.

Shrimp.

God

in his infiniteness.

You crawl down these also, so no.

Dang, y'all.

He's the lion.

No.

Look at that.

We made God Creole.

All this and more.

You know, when there was only one set of footprints, that's because I'd gotten in my fan mode.

I'm God.

By you Christ.

By you, Christ.

You gotta listen here, Shaq.

The father, the son, and a big plate of gumbo.

I just, now I'm on this.

This is just.

I mean, that's you get, I tell you,

when you find a lane so beautiful,

it's the clarity of it, right?

It's just like, by you, Christ is like, oh,

there you go.

There you go.

That's what the BC in dates means.

Yeah, I immediately just started thinking about, okay, so 25 by you, Christ.

25 by you Christ.

Well, gang, laissez le Bon Tom Roulette.

Hey, hey, now.

My favorite thing to plan

in Arc One.

Well, I think that there is a

coming together of the group at Ursulan's

fair.

Don't start this because we will fight again.

It's the

funny.

It was going to be funny.

When we talked about it in the supermarket at our first camp, it was going to be funny.

This is an amazing part of the process where it really is like,

to discover after the fact that you were like, this is going to be hilarious.

When you pitched the character, I was like, wow, the most tragic man of all.

We're just, this is, we're now rehashing things.

Now you're watching a married couple fight yet again.

I paid $5 for it.

Daddy and Daddy are fighting at the table.

What does someone think of us?

Well, I think the thing to, the favorite part of sort of

my favorite thing to plan

is probably, number one, knowing that we were going to see our three heroes in their disparities and watching them come back together and rejoin.

That was very fun to plan.

And then I think also a lot, basically, you know, chapter one is sort of going to be carved into two halves.

The first half of which is an introduction, I think, to the deeply personal worlds of the main three characters.

And then there's sort of the first place they adventure to, which is the second half of the camp of that chapter, revolves around Port Talon.

Planning Port Talon was very, very fun.

And kind of being like,

what is...

our

landing pad for an area of the world

that has witchcraft, wizardry, and the world of spirits commingling and touching, and then an indication of what normalcy is and also how things are changing.

So you have Port Talon, you have Will Gallows, you have the crime, you have what's going on with the wizards and the Imperium, and then also

seeing a world that exists in time.

Like

there's a...

A world building thing that I love is always to come to a place where something something is different than it used to be.

I feel like you get more texture when you get to Port Talon with the wizard walls and the kudzu and the witch fires.

And you go, like, yeah, we're going through something right now.

Like, you didn't, you didn't arrive in our neutral state.

You can infer our neutral state by how we're reacting to the presence of something new.

And I think it's also a good thing for PCs and storytelling in general for PCs to,

I think it feels a little bit weird when I'm playing a game and the world, especially when I'm playing a low-level character.

If the world is like, oh my God, well, you're the biggest deal thing happening here.

It's like being at a party where everyone turns to look at you and you don't know anyone there.

You're like, this is not a good feeling.

I don't want the whole, I'm first level.

I don't want the whole town to look at me.

It should be normal for someone with a cloak to walk into a tavern.

Please don't all stare at me.

So the idea of getting to Port Talon and having big things happening with the Derrick in the harbor, the broken stone face, the Ace of Wands, Finley's Shop, the Witch Fires.

There's something that I think is what I look for in those fantasy worlds that was fun to plan for of

you get to a place and you are the agency and the point of view rather than the focus of all these NPCs.

You get to go exploring.

It's not the setting exploring you.

Everyone wasn't waiting for you to show up in town and go, oh, shit, shit.

Wait, this could be different?

Yeah.

I mean, we talked about it a lot in the formation of the world and the stories we wanted to tell about how do you prevent an adventuring party from feeling like colonizers.

Yes, pretty much like to put a kind of fine point on it.

Yeah, because the idea that you come in and suddenly you can be the hero that will save this town, like, well, why wouldn't wouldn't they, the people who live here, know best?

Yes.

You know, and I think you did an incredible job of giving us each little anchor points that gave us either history in the town like with ursalon or you know status in the town like with suvy or just like a reason to be there and like a unique skill that is useful in ex in just exactly this instant with ame yeah

that's a very like just shout out to you that's a really hard like needle to thread of having world

care a little bit that you're there.

Like, it's important that this group was here at exactly this time.

Like, the events unfolded the way they were because we were the exact like catalyst for a lot of things popping off.

But yeah, that's just, it's very hard to do.

Like,

it's, it's easy to say this world exists for you and therefore will care about you above everything else.

But to make a world that's like,

it's very much that feeling of like you arrive arrive as an adventurer and the entire setting is just like, uh-huh, you're here.

Great.

File in.

We're doing shit.

Like you're a part of what's happening.

And we kind of do have Steele as the universe telling us that of being like, why did you go run off on your own?

Like, this is a supremely stupid thing that you did.

Like, we, you, I told you like not to, yeah, just truly being the voice of reason against adventuring in general.

Vampire hates adventuring.

Like, honestly, yeah.

Steele hates that she's in a D and D game, and that's the funniest thing in the world.

She's the only one that sort of knows it sometimes.

It's like, you know, just sometimes I feel like people are acting in their own self-interest, not because they're selfish, but because they, they,

there's some sort of story they want to be telling.

Yeah.

There's, well, I think that there's like, I, first of all, I deeply appreciate that.

And I think, too, that there's something that I always

think about of like the stories that really matter to me that

are from

this fantasy kind of genre.

It is that, like,

there are elements of gaming that create the groove that the marble is supposed to go down.

So, you play a video game or you run a D ⁇ D module and there is a slot left for adventurers.

Like, here's a tavern that has a table open for people that we don't know who they are, but they're going to come in, they're going to be violent, they're going to have weapons, and they're going to have magic, and there's a problem that nobody here can solve.

And it's like no one's responsible for it, and no one's solving it, but ambiguous X-shaped strangers will show up and solve it.

And you can feel the absence of that, but when you're consuming a story, like a movie or a book or something like that,

often the world is represented as like, you know, you watch

old Ghibli Miyazaki things, and it's like, you know, before Sen shows up and spirited away, the bathhouse is working fine.

She shows up and her problems are her own.

And it's not, it's like, hey, you feel.

She just happens to be there.

You happen to be there.

So the idea of if you three

were not there, what would have happened, right?

Morrow would have Naram under the Derek.

Orima would continue to try to break down the walls.

The Empire would find out or not find out, right?

Like, Moro would get attention or not get attention.

Or, you know, Naram, also, we discover, has the ability to break out, but not without hurting the people of port talent.

And you, like, in all of this stuff, it's like, if you don't arrive, it's like, like, something, like,

the steam would break out of a valve, maybe, maybe a year later, or 10 years, or something else, you know, like something would happen, right?

Arthur's moving out for sure.

Arthur's artwork.

Ghost,

stay chilling.

Yeah, but oh, Arthur, the innkeeper.

I love him.

I think he's doing great.

I think the gold pieces were huge.

And because you, one byproduct of the actions you took is that they don't have to put the witch fighters back because Orima retreats because Naram is free, which means that they can reopen the gate and they, those villages can, you know, there's a big public works project of getting the kudzu out of those villages and

rope.

Make rope.

But I think that the

looking at all of that, the world building there, it's like the empire does its thing without you guys there.

The spirits do their thing without you guys there.

And from what we've seen of witches, you know, we have Ame, who basically the only, like, like we see Grandmother Wren, and it's like this one person who seems to be dedicated to almost like a form of heroism, an interesting, like a sort of witchy form of it of like, we speak for both worlds and we try to mediate and bridge the gap.

And

so like you doing your thing is like going to the city and being like, oh, there's conflict here.

Let's see if we can ameliorate it.

Yeah.

It was beautiful.

I loved it so much.

It's just so fun because I think the big power fantasy in D ⁇ D for me and for all of us, you know, I mean, we're.

here to tell a story.

We're here to sort of have fun with our friends, but

it feels good to have agency in a world and to be able to affect it in positive ways and happen to feel that weight.

And it's really hard to do that without being like, well, the world is the cent, you are the center of the world.

Because then it just,

it's a different power fantasy when it's that, I think.

There is that like, and there's a lot of great tropes and genre things that do express the kind of like, oh, here's your connection to the core problem of the world and why you're supposed to solve it.

And what I love about a lot of

the

media that we used as the inspiration for this world and story is specifically that it can start.

reasonable and small where it's like, well, you solved the problem.

Like, like you're saying, it's like, what was the problem that Ahme was trying to solve?

It's like, you discovered that there was a problem with the spirit.

You had the vision in front of the Ace of Wands.

Something was wrong.

There was, you learned about Naram and Orima, and Wavebreaker was the sword, and you found that in the library.

And so you go, it's, in other words, it's not like the fucking, it's not like the never-ending story where someone's like, the boy, the boy, the boy to save our world.

You're like, I'm the only witch I see here.

And I, and I found out that this is going on.

So I guess it's on me.

And every character had those moments of like, for Suvi, it's very much like.

Like, what was Suvi's?

Suvi's arc was, I needed to say goodbye to Grandmother Wren.

When I got there, her passing had this incredible magic ramification.

My method of communication broke.

We needed to find this sword.

And the first chance I get, I'm like finding these guild mages.

And that could have been where I could have rested, except that I saw a fucking wild one pinned to the bottom of the ocean.

And then my friends ran into the kudzu.

It's like,

Susie's just like, can we just check things off on like a list?

I feel like you're starting a new thing, but we haven't finished the other thing.

And maybe this is, I think I need to go therapy.

And then,

and then for Ursulan, too, like the quest fever of it all is fun to, like, to me, there's something about the idea of

telling an epic story.

Like,

you know, to go, I know I always go back to it, but like, Frodo is supposed to bring the ring to Rivendy.

I don't understand what you're saying what is any of okay okay all right you've seen the first half have i yet i don't remember anymore i love that frodo is not a chosen one i love that frodo is the ring your uncle found the ring and then he retired and left and a wizard told you hang on to this i don't know exactly what it is and then the fate of the world popped off and it wasn't that you have the secret shard of whatever in your chest and you're the golden boy It's just like, shit, man, it's you or it's nobody.

Yeah.

And I think that that is a beautiful thing that all of you have done expertly well of having heroics and not just choosing to do heroic things, but choosing to resist doing heroic things, which has made this first arc so relatable and human and awesome.

Well, thanks.

What about you, Amy?

Erica?

Wow.

Dang it.

Oh, gosh.

I, I mean, this character is something that has been knocking around in my head, I guess, and just sort of like percolating for so long, I think.

Not specifically Ame and how she is, but just, I mean, the whole reason that Brennan, you know, built.

this class with

the designers and sort of collaborating was I kind of made a wish list of things that that I wanted.

And I, at first, I was like, I want to be able to do this.

Oh my God.

Yeah.

There was like the Shaherazad thing where I was like, the idea of telling stories,

like, and that sort of like has a magical effect, maybe.

And then we thought that would be too self-congratulatory, unlike this podcast, where we're talking about storytelling.

It's true, but, but, you know, the idea of a witch

crafting and consequences is the thing that I always said that I have written in the front of my notebook and I loved the idea because I love D and D.

I've been playing it since I was 14, I want to say and

I have always wanted to play with a group that is just completely storyforward and

not

about

that sort of power fantasy because that's that's well and good and I love home games with that.

But I wanted to tell this story where,

you know,

it's so easy to

become a murder hobo.

We talked about this in one episode about being a murder hobo, and that's because you don't have an attachment to the world and you don't feel like there are consequences, and you don't have to live with them.

And I think there are some other characters that have played in other worlds where

having to balance all of those idea of consequences and care for community was like, well, that's a difficult thing.

And that's something that I struggle with in real life.

So what, how can I explore that?

And it just was like, oh, witches are about consequences.

You do not want to cross a witch.

Otherwise, you will be cursed in

ironic and sometimes funny punishment commensurate to your wrongdoing.

And they are part of a community.

And we said that witches don't, witches live in a little village, you know, and they're, it's like, oh, the witch, she lives in that cottage and, or she lives in that tower.

And they have these, what became sanctums.

She's there and she's part of the community.

What would make, that's why you don't see witches adventuring, really.

They're not very mobile, most of them.

Yeah.

I think it's very like, yeah, the sanctums thing is really fun.

It was very fun to explain how witches are geared towards being an NPC class.

Yeah.

That you want to see them.

They're not the like, and again, to me, adventure means the most in a world that's not made for it.

It's the idea, like, like the greatest hero is the one that is not walking down the paved highway to adventure, right?

It's like, no, this, the Brambles in this forest do not want me to venture here, and yet here I venture.

Wait, I want to answer Zach's question because I have favorite moments for all of you.

I'll whip through it.

I'll whip through it really quick.

Okay.

Abria, it's really, it's really easy.

Lightning fucking speed, heartbreaking, heart-shattering.

My dad.

Yeah.

My dad was so, so good.

It's a...

It was so fitting that it was one of Subi's last moments, given where she starts in the preludes.

Because so much of the arc was this incredible lift from a Bria of

the kid we saw in the preludes and who exists, by the way, in the children's adventure, which we have an eight-episode character creation mini-series that exists on the Patreon.

So you can hear, and we actually recorded it chronologically first.

You can go hear us make up these characters as little kids.

I love them as kids.

I still like to think about like Tiny Subie.

So seeing Tiny Subie in the preludes and then seeing the person that fucking merks Captain Emless and keeps the crew safe and scares off Adelaide and whips out the staff and calls to order, gets people into the chantry, finds you all safety, and that, you know, gets the innkeeper.

And then at the very end, it just ends on this very soft, like, who are you talking to?

My dad.

And it is heartbreaking.

It's Subie, adult Subi doesn't show you that soft nougaty center a lot.

And it's very meaningful in that moment that it came so quickly.

That's the

soft nougaty center.

So have something about it.

Yeah.

I'm the Milky Way.

Ursulan.

Hilarious Carnival.

What's that?

Hilarious.

Wait, I didn't like

that sentence or something.

Hilarious Carnival.

Yeah, the carnival where your dream of being a knight sees you opposite some actor playing a knight while you play the monster while wearing your true form.

See, but you're saying it in a way that's not as hilarious as it could have been.

Anyway, what were you going to say?

We'll fight about this off-mic.

The best part was, I think the reaction

that Ursulan had to seeing Ame and Suvi was actually like Lou seeing Erica and Abria and you're like, what?

That was just one-to-one.

Is this your thing?

Jesus.

That's actually also a brilliant move from Erica and Abria as the two of them, because there's a little like min-maxer brain where you know you, the part of you is like, oh, I know that if my character is judging Ursuline, because I'm also, I'm reading the story.

Like, that's the weirdest thing about actual play, right?

Yeah,

all of us, we're all

just like you listening right now, every time we sit down to play, I'm excited to hear another chapter of my favorite story.

I don't know what's going to happen.

Sit and listen to the rest of you guys.

Oh, yeah, I got the best seat in the fucking house watching the three of you.

So it's a the but that moment where you couldn't, because there's a part of you that goes, if I am judgmental of Ursulan in this moment, it's going to hurt him.

But then both of you go, no, no, this is my character.

You set them up, too.

It's

absolutely vicious.

You go, what does Ursulan see on Abe and Subi's faces?

And then you both proceed to say

the worst possible scenario.

Pity and contempt.

Yeah.

It's wanted.

It's literally, it's like, that's the two flavors of the energy drink of these two.

Of the pity from the witch and contempt.

The wizard is like, what the fuck is this?

And the witch is like, oh, no.

Oh, Ursula.

No, you're being taken advantage of.

You're not big and strong.

You're the victim.

It's like, oh, God, hell.

Fucking hell.

Bottled, concentrated hell.

Oh, I think it was.

And it was too, it was like, we were supposed to be just watching.

And you said if you had completed the rest of the play, it would be funny.

Of course, we interrupted where like the kids are booing, like in a pantomime, the kids are booing Ursulan, and Amazon, like, boo yourself.

Yeah, you yell, oh, a guy thinks you're heckling, he doesn't like understand the

picture.

The learned Yokel, the learned Yokel, strongest NPC, strongest NPC.

We'll find that learned Yokel.

Yeah,

he's coming back.

That learned Yokel is actually Arthur's nephew, and he helps him run the inn because there's so much business.

My favorite Lou moment is

post Derek.

Favorite Ursula moment is post-Derek where

Suvi has started to compartmentalize and rationalize.

Ahme has arrived at this is what's got to happen next and totally shocked me.

But in the best way of shocking where I'm like, oh, that's inevitable, right?

Like a shock that you go, of course,

which was Ursulan being like, what the fuck can we do?

Yeah.

What can we do?

And

seeing the difference that as different as Ahme and Suvi are, each of them had the benefit of an institution.

Ahme's institution was a single grandma, but what a grandma.

Yeah.

A brick shithouse.

An absolute unit.

The plateau

of a grandma.

And then Suvi has the citadel, the most institution-y institution that ever institutions.

And

you see Ursulan being like, that's the moment where all the things Ursulan has said.

Like they talk about show, don't tell, right?

Like we have the inferred characteristic that Ursulans had a hard time.

That's showing us that Ursula had a hard time.

Because if you actually had a hard time, you don't go, yeah, let's take a huge risk that we have no idea if we're even capable of.

Well, and it's crazy because he even says, like, I'm scared.

I'm scared of losing the little bit of happiness that I have.

And that's the thing that in real life, nobody is willing to admit to themselves when they get angry.

And also the idea, too, of like, there's a certain moment where

if you're being heroic and

you're like, wait, like we're talking about saving people from Godzilla.

I'm one of the people running and screaming on the street.

Like I am very much the kind of people that need saving.

So this idea of like the life I've led and I've been like hiding in barns and fucking hedge mages are trying to run down and capture me in like, you know, Pete's dragon style, find out what of my organs are magical.

Like this is a fucking nightmare out here like I don't want it like I need help and the idea of that coming from someone who then has that moment under the derrick with the sword like that moment hits so much harder from a guy who said I don't think I can do this it's like oof hey that's because we got time baby you know

it's crazy

And then my AME moment that I truly love so much is the entire scene with Orima in the chapel.

Oh my God.

Which I think is one of the most

expert, clever,

like

every step on a two-inch ledge, 40 stories up, choosing your words carefully without any hesitation.

Like, because in that scene, I was trying as hard as I could to find a reason to come down like a ton of bricks.

And really, as Brennan was like, if you say anything that provokes me or insults me, I am

like, I'm like hanging by a thread.

And you gave me no surface.

There was no surface area I could touch.

It was a perfect Nausicaa Ghibli heroin fucking beat for beat scene.

of the kind of victory that you had said mattered to you in this story of we are going to avoid destruction, understand

everybody.

And even the moment, especially that moment where you're talking to her, and you are like, I am here to represent you and help you, and I cannot abandon the people of Port Talon who I also represent.

And you're like, oh, that's the character.

And you walking out of that being a true witch and no longer an apprentice.

It was like, that fucking is incredible.

Also, everyone, Eric is crying and should because you fucking killed it.

That was so great.

So good.

I really like storytelling you guys so much.

It's just so fun.

And like, cannot belabor at this point enough that for $5

some

weeping Patreon pitch.

He

never stops.

Experience so much of magic that we talk about.

I promise you, there is a visible tear on Erica's face.

I'm not fucking with you.

It's not a bit.

For $5, you can't see a bad picture of Erica crying.

Oh, God.

It's just such a privilege.

Can I just say too, the fox was one of the fox

one of the most surprising things.

Originally, I thought that the fox would be, you know, a silent, a silent familiar, you know, and that it was going to be like an excuse to talk out loud, and I would be piloting him in combat and such.

And instead,

he's the little guy of all fucking time.

The little guy.

I love him so

much.

I love him so much.

And it's so uncanny to me how, Brendan, you just, you just play him.

He's so perfect.

Like, he's so perfect.

Like, he's just a little guy.

And he cares so much, but he just doesn't understand.

And also.

Originally, the original concept for Ahmed too was like, oh, she's a trickster.

Oh, she's fun.

And you see that a little bit more in the kids campaign because like, immediately, right off the bat,

when you meet Ame, she's

okay.

Well, like 10 minutes after you meet Ame,

she

is burdened with great responsibility and having to like show up.

But, you know, in the children's adventure, you see how sort of wild and mischievous she is.

We were like, oh, well, we need, we need that to counteract the sad boy.

Damn, the fox exists just for you.

Yeah, no, it was originally supposed to be Ame, but then like Ame in some ways, the fox coming in and being the mischief of Ame

was incredible because sometimes the fox will say things where it's like, oh, I mean, even the part in Port Talon where the fox runs away, because that's what Aame wanted to do.

The fox is, we said, witches' familiars, turns out, are the thing that they need to work on.

Yeah, well, it feels like there's something sort of fascinating about the idea of like, I knew that I wanted witches familiars to be more

than like, you have a mechanical animal that helps you, right?

Like, like, like, hey, check it out.

I have a help action with two hits.

You know, like, I didn't want that.

Like, to me, the idea of like, what is the actual narrative of this in the world?

And my favorite types of familiars have been those that have a very delineated relationship where, for example, like in his dark materials, it's literally like understood that the demons

are your soul that's that is your soul and it takes a certain form like after you hit puberty you it fixes in a in a static form there's something about witches familiars in this world as

an element of your personality that you put into an external thing

based on some kind of relationship.

It's like a type of compartmentalization, almost like a handing, you're carrying too many bags and you're like, here, you carry this.

Yeah.

Right.

So you're like, you're like, I don't, because, you know, Ahm is the little girl who put be kind on her wall.

And so it feels like there's a mission.

She, like, her version of like Ursulan's quest or like Suvi's citadel legacy, like her parents, is this little thing of be kind on the wall.

And that's what Ahme has sort of given herself.

And it feels like which is whole deal is this liminal space being between two worlds.

so you're like i am gonna take be kind

onto myself and that's my project and here's this other thing that i'm giving away to make room for be kind

and the fox

and the fox is gonna carry all of the mischief which is a cool way of thinking of like a dual purpose soul of the relationship you have to your familiar and it begs the question what the fuck was taro and the idea of like grandmother wren's miss like mischief and her playfulness yeah like the thing she had had to put away when she's so many things for so many people and stressed so thin.

And that's why Taro like runs around and lets us try to catch him and then shows up somewhere else and fucks up, like fucks around with Ahme in the morning.

Like

all the ways in which like Grandmother Wren wished she could be more playful with Ame.

Yeah.

And it's just so sweet.

I love it.

I love it.

It's so important to have a nemesis.

Oh my god.

It's just so important to have a nemesis.

That's so cute.

The kids say things.

The kids say things.

So

cute.

Just a shout out to the children's adventure because it becomes this beautiful well of like, here's a thing that I can reference in my character later that like people can point at.

That's like, uh-oh, this is a thing that like stuck a little too hard.

Like, did Suvi remember it's important to have a nemesis a little too hard for the rest of her life?

That's a thing we might find out later and be like, I learned a lesson and I don't remember where I learned it, but I'm just walking around with a paradigm in my head that I don't remember how I got.

Oh my God.

Right.

Of the, you know, if you cry, you know, you,

it'll.

What was it?

When.

Oh, if you're good, the adults will treat you more kindly.

Yeah.

No, no, no.

But there's also from like when she's crying with Ursula and

Grandma Ryan is like, oh, don't, don't, you, you couldn't, you shouldn't cry on him or something.

Oh,

yeah, was that what?

Like, was that like not trying to wash you?

I don't remember.

Then I also feel like I have

thoughts.

Like, I remember, I like, I have a memory of that moment.

Don't cry on Ursula.

Yeah, that's the thing.

I was like, I'm sorry.

Don't get eye stuff on you.

I don't know why.

Maybe you'll die.

I don't know.

Somebody will let us know.

But in any event, yeah, there's still so many more questions.

So many more questions.

to

respond to.

We don't necessarily all have all the time for

what are we looking forward to

in Arc II without giving anything away?

What are we looking forward to for our characters or for the world or for, you know, what are our hopes and dreams for the future?

I just don't want anything bad to happen to Suvi ever again.

Oh,

yeah, I think we, I'm hoping we kind of wrap this all up in Arc II, you know?

Oh, yeah.

Like everyone just gets like a

like a two-bedroom condo,

like a fun dog and or you know obviously got the fox and we got a cool and like a middle class job and we just we all just kind of make our fix it i still want a hundred more episodes but i want them to be utterly conflict flick yeah we ever that's the funniest thing i've honestly thought you and the whole internet you know what i'm saying yeah yeah all of you

please do not challenge me wizard the witch of the wild one the farming sim

you're not gonna be out here mining bells or whatever the hell you people do

I am clicking sep 10 decillion cookies right now.

Are you still doing it?

Let me just open up.

No.

Sep 10 decile.

Hold on.

Right now, I am currently baking

22.991 sex decillion cookies per second.

That's very fun.

That's very fun.

I never got a cookie clicker.

Adventure Capitalist was always mine.

Adventure Capitalist?

Yeah, it's just lemonades.

It's the same thing, but dollars.

And you're just clicking and then you buy things that make more money.

And then you reset.

It just feels good to watch a thing happen.

Yeah.

And you're like, I'll be part of that kind of.

Run around in Ghost of Tsushima.

Like sometimes, if there's a thing that needs doing, I'll do it.

But mostly just me running through fields.

Yeah, just vibes.

Yeah.

Just vibes.

Blood Moon, cooking sim.

Yeah.

Zelda experience everything.

Yeah, that was that.

Yeah, I spent like 40 hours cooking.

Anyway, Anyway, anyway, like I

actually,

this does bring me to the point of like, it is nice just to have cozy moments.

And I think that's a thing that I enjoy the most in this and look forward.

I do look forward to in the future, like the little moments, you know, yeah.

All of the burning questions we have about the curse on Ame and on about, you know, Suvi's parents and about will Ursula never get a chance to return home?

Oh gosh.

Will the fox get a good rubbish heap?

All these good questions, but then also it's just the little moments like of like a little guest sleeping on the potatoes,

like folding laundry in the little peasant's cottage.

I'm just better with the task.

I have a question I want to pose here.

We were talking a little bit about the children's adventure,

which again,

no, no.

Jules asks, thanks, Jules, for the question.

If the young versions of our heroes from the children's adventure met their adult selves at the end of chapter one, what would they think of them?

Someone else go first.

Gosh.

I mean, Ursulan, I think, would be,

I mean, now at the end of chapter one, at the end, right, with Wavebreaker, with his friends.

I mean, I think that there's a lot that young Ursulan would admire about current Ursulan.

Uh, I do think mine would be mostly positive.

Like, there is something to,

I mean, I'm not a knight, I'm, I don't have a horse, I'm not Sir Curran, but I have a six sword, and I'm still with my best friends.

So, I do think young Ursulan would be like pretty tight, dude.

Oh, that's really cute.

I love that.

I love that.

I also think Ursulan has pretty low expectations.

I guess maybe, if anything, there's like, whoa, we're still here?

Maybe there's a little bit of that.

But I think like

coming to accept that we are still here,

then it's like, oh, okay, well, we have a sword.

We're with our friends.

Not bad.

I think this question would be, yeah, this is the operative point here is comparing like the Children's Adventure, or like, as Jules, the way the question is actually worded, at the end of Arc One.

End of Arc One, beginning of Arc One.

He'd think he's hilarious.

That performance is incredible.

It's funny.

I think Aame, Little Ame, and Ame currently

would just be two absolute

firecrackers.

Like, it would be bad and explosive.

Like,

they would cost so much mayhem.

Like, if Lil Ame had the fox,

like, I just, like, can you imagine?

Because little Abe has the time and the wherewithal to have as much mischief in her body as the fox has.

And so, if the two of them get together, oh, double barrel shenanigans.

Yeah, and then, um, because, like, you still see it in Arc One, One, even at especially, well,

Arc One.

Yeah.

At the end, it's just like, oh no,

I'm asleep.

That's really funny.

That's actually really funny.

Damn, wake up, Amey.

I'm trying to see what's going on.

Oh, God.

Okay, you go next.

That's really funny.

I'm, I'll throw, I'll throw.

This is like my little, like,

uh,

my, my, this is me, like, doing my, like, like, I'm trying to insight check your guys' characters.

I think

Ursulan meeting end of Arc Ursulon, exactly as Lou described it.

I think little Ursulan meeting beginning of Arc Ursulon, really rough for little Ursulan.

Terrifying.

Terrifying.

I think Ame, beginning or end of, no, not end, she is asleep.

Like end or beginning of Arc 1, Ame, I think is rough for adult

I think that I think adult Ame

is because I think I think looking and seeing

precocious

firecracker little like, yeah, I'm running around.

I made a friend.

Here we go.

And then you have adult Ame that's like,

I'm taking care of the world.

Like,

I think.

I think there's a, I think it's true.

It's true.

I was, yeah, that's true because I feel like little Ahme would be like, oh my my God, we're taking care of the whole world.

We're a full witch.

Like, we've got a little fox guy and he's the best.

And we eat raw fish together.

Like, we just be very cute.

But yeah, adult Ahmed is like, damn.

Why can't I go run around in the woods with those two?

But also, like, what a little, what a traumatized little girl.

Yeah,

I think looking and being like, oh, this kid, I don't know, like, the idea of like looking back at your past self and being like, hey, there are some haymakers on your way.

Look, look out.

Like, like, aha, some stuff's coming.

Like, that idea of

Suvie pointing out.

I like this pointing in both directions.

I think Lil Suvi looks at adult Suvi,

learns in that moment, hey, your parents died, the Citadel and Steel raised you.

You found your friends again, and they led you in an adventure that's leading to your court-martial.

You're going back under bad terms.

I think little Suvi would be like, This all went wrong, and that's crazy.

And then I think adult Suvi would look back at little Suvi and go, I do not recognize you.

I think there's something really important in the things you have to put away in order to be who you need to be.

And she'd be like, That's just a small child.

Like, I think she would treat that the same way you meet like your cousin's kid that you're like,

I guess I know you.

We have a passing resemblance, but I don't feel anything

important about that.

Yeah, got him, got him, got him.

Hey, Lou, is that funny or sad?

Now that's hilarious.

Capital H, hilarious.

I'm glad the spirit of Lou has possessed

our friend, Jonathan.

Also, I am.

My name is Jonathan Bemis.

I'll respond to Lou to keep up with everything.

That's okay.

I understand.

All the acting.

I understand.

I don't want to ruin the flow.

So, you know.

Oh, sorry, Mr.

Bemis.

Again, you can call me John.

John

JB.

Absolutely fucking not.

Okay.

Okay.

Fair enough.

Okay.

So I think we got to wrap it up.

But

wait, there's one question that we really got to.

I would really feel sad if we told you.

This one's from Ogre Salad.

Thank you.

Yeah, that's what that was.

Oh, sorry.

Go for it.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

I want to hear you say it.

Ogre salad.

Asked.

Thank you, Ogre Salad.

So far in all of ARC one, which character or NPC canonically has the juiciest dumper, the fattest booty, the widest trunk, which may or may not be full of junk.

Incredible.

I was, I, here's the thing.

So, so, which character or NPC canonically has the juiciest dumper?

Do you, I know who it is.

Do you guys know who it is?

Do you actually, you and Moro, it's a hunter.

Obviously.

Who has the juiciest dumper?

Moro?

Wearing robes, you can see

double fucking caked off.

Yeah.

Just fucking all, just on the sides.

Bro, when Morrow bops up and down with excitement, you're just here.

Oh, my God.

It's great.

Now, I feel like,

now that you've gotten to Euro before Arc 2 comes out, go home, go home, re-listen to the Morrow episodes, and just listen.

Because Taylor has, they're in there.

Taylor put those little claps in there.

You just missed it.

Yeah, 100%.

Wait, why is the answer not like human glamour neurom?

Because he hates us.

Yeah, because he hates fucked up.

Because he is against the monster fucker agenda.

wait who are the top three dumpers yeah

also I fucking hate the word dumpers

I do too what uh what are the top three boutes

top three boutes that we've seen thus far yeah

okay

okay we haven't seen you know like you know what I'm saying it's like clock we haven't seen

yeah um

okay

top three morrow number one yeah

steals tight she keeps it tight I don't know how caked up we are in this citadel.

Yeah, I think she's just got a good shape, a well-shaped

gun.

But not a

bounce.

No, it's not a boutique.

Yeah, it's not a bounce a morrow.

It's not a bouteta.

I'm going to say Morrow number one.

Number two.

Come on, cudgel.

Come on, cudgel.

Willie Gallows.

Willie Gallows.

Willie Gallows is a sickly.

See, now I'm actually, now I'm really, I'm like spinning out, putting too much thought into it.

Okay, here's it.

Here's the, here's the top

here are the top four.

Okay.

I'm going to let you put them in our order.

Got it.

In the order you want.

But unequivocally, number one is Morrow.

Morrow.

Yeah.

Morrow is number one.

So basically,

we're going two, three, four.

Yes.

And it is

Galani.

Oh!

Oh!

I think, so I think it goes like this.

I think it's

Galani.

And then I think up there is also

the mustachioed bartender from the Ace of Wales.

Yes!

Ursula Lynn!

He's got ass.

And then I think

stealth, stealth, Arlie Price.

Arlie!

Okay.

Now let me just make a quick brief request for anyone who's an animator out there.

If you could draw Morrow or animate Morrow just twerking on top of the Derrick,

I don't think anything would make me happier.

100%.

Just a full, like, you know, feet on the wall, just twerk over

Naram tracks.

Plus,

exactly.

That's all I want.

Yes.

All wizards do that.

It's our excessive display.

We're just like, yeah, this is how you establish on it.

Exactly.

Yes.

That really threw me off.

I really had never thought about Morrow's, but I did.

I think that there's a thing where people go, like, because

the question presupposes

this, like, oh,

who's got the thickest rear end?

And you're thinking of attractiveness, but it's like, well, if you're compartmentalizing to these individual body, like, you don't conceptualize of Morrow as an attractive character, but that's not the question.

The question, you, you pinpointed it, and it's a roll of the dice.

And Morrow Mauro's got some shorts that say juicy on the back.

That's fucking girl.

It must be your ass because it's not your face.

There it is.

Brendan, who's got the biggest ass?

The juiciest dumper.

The juiciest dumper in Arc II.

In Arc II.

Okay,

this is a little flash forward.

Wow.

This is the best slimmest tease.

Nobody talks about what they're excited about in Arc II, but who's got a good ass?

Yeah.

In ARC II.

Oh, oh, I know exactly who it is.

Really?

Mr.

Rakamante.

Wow.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Can't wait.

Yeah.

Can't wait for you all to meet that ass.

All right, everybody, for this and more asses,

please continue to listen to Worlds Beyond Number or join us on the fireside.

Thank you.

I love you all so much.

And

folks at the table, an absolute honor, an absolute honor.

I'm Erica Iji E.

Crackle, Crackle, and a hoohoo.

Hey, it's your boy JV.

It's been a pleasure meeting you guys on the public.

I hope to see more of you by the fireside.

Crackle, crackle, is that what we've seen?

Yeah, it's crackle crackle.

Crackle, crackle, and a hoohoo.

I'm Abria Iyengar.

This is just my favorite thing in the whole world.

Thank you all so much.

Crackle, crackle.

Hey, it's Brennan.

What a joy, an honor, and a privilege to be by the fireside with you all.

Thank you so much for listening.

Thank you for enjoying the pod.

And coming up very shortly, chapter two of The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One.

Only here on Worlds Beyond Number.

Crackle, Crackle.