0:06

This is the sound of worlds beyond number.

0:21

In a rose quartz corridor

0:24

lined by red

0:26

polished wooden doors outside

0:29

the small yet stately office

0:32

of the bursar of this sanctum

0:35

of the Scepter's Chorus, Wizards of

0:38

the Khem Sarazan Empire,

0:42

we see one Guildmage

0:44

Payne, a tall,

0:47

sorrowful-faced man,

0:50

leaning forward with a slashed arm,

0:53

having just simulated an attack

0:56

on himself, with his right

0:59

hand now filled with

1:01

crackling lightning,

1:03

his eyes luminescent

1:06

white as he lunges towards

1:09

Ursulon, unaware

1:12

that there is a fox in his

1:14

office or a wizard and a witch at

1:16

the end of the hall that know what is happening. I

1:19

am going to need everybody here to roll initiative.

1:21

Oh god! Son

1:23

of a gun! Suvi,

1:26

you are a hundred feet

1:29

away, but you are first to act knowing

1:31

that something is wrong. You hear a clattering

1:34

of steel and your citadel training

1:36

kicks in. You are first to act.

1:38

I don't know what's happening yet. Can

1:40

I move down the hallway but hold an action? Yes,

1:42

you can. You just start sprinting and

1:44

it takes your entire turn to sprint

1:47

around the corner and you see another 50 feet

1:49

off the scene unfolding

1:52

before you. Ursulon, I'm going to need a

1:54

dexterity saving throw. Lightning

1:59

crackles.

1:59

but you pull back at

2:02

the last possible second so that only

2:04

some raking edges of

2:07

the crackling static in this wizard's

2:09

hand touches you. You will

2:11

take half damage, nine

2:14

damage halved to four. The

2:19

spell that this wizard is wielding is

2:21

not

2:22

mighty. There is a reason this

2:24

wizard has been shunted into the administrative

2:27

corner of a far-flung chantry at the

2:29

edge of the empire's reach. However,

2:32

this is the first time that wizard's

2:34

magic has touched Ursulon

2:37

in this way. There is something

2:39

crisp,

2:40

otherworldly, and

2:44

yet not of your other world.

2:47

There is something

2:49

beautiful, symmetrical, yet

2:51

static and sterile about

2:54

this magic that unfolds. What's

2:56

going through Ursulon's mind as you feel, even

2:59

this diminished result of this spell?

3:02

I mean, I think Ursulon

3:04

already wasn't in the best place walking

3:07

into this situation. There really was

3:09

no plan that was going according, like, and he was just improvising. I

3:12

think as Ursulon feels

3:14

the magic, he's just immediately

3:17

wanting help or to flee.

3:20

I think there's just a desire to not be

3:22

in this interaction. It already didn't go according, and

3:26

it doesn't feel like there's anything to it. I think there's a desire

3:28

to salvage here.

3:29

And with that confusion

3:32

and horror, it

3:34

is your turn. I will use a bonus

3:36

action hidden step to turn invisible.

3:39

As I go invisible, my

3:42

eyes start to the end of the hallway where

3:45

I see Suvi. I

3:47

think I'm gonna start taking steps

3:49

toward moving towards Suvi. You

3:51

are able to join Suvi so much. Okay, great. You

3:54

feel

3:55

Ursulon's presence, but

3:57

I don't speak. There's just a little bit of

3:59

that, like... the mom hand that slides

4:01

over as she feels you pass by

4:04

her, and she's like, all right, done.

4:06

And it just rounds, and you see it, you

4:08

saw it as she was rolling up. Suvi is furious

4:11

at this fucking hedge mage that

4:13

touched her friends. There is a look

4:16

of panic in the

4:18

guild mage's eyes as you suddenly vanish, and

4:21

he realizes that you are more than you seem.

4:24

I am still with the

4:26

other acolytes, yes? Yes,

4:29

that's correct. I wait the situation, and I say,

4:32

must move quickly, get somebody in authority, get

4:34

Moro. There has been an attack

4:36

on our party.

4:37

Go ahead and give me a persuasion check. Two

4:40

of the acolytes, hearing the sternness in

4:42

your voice, bow almost

4:44

reflexively and sprint down the

4:46

hallway.

4:47

I use my movement to

4:50

get to where my friends are. Suvi, it is your

4:52

turn. Mage. And I'm going to

4:55

send. Jesus. I'm

4:57

gonna close to 30 and cast Witch Bolt. Ooh.

5:00

Roll an attack roll for me if you

5:02

would be so kind. You

5:06

throw a Witch Bolt at this guild

5:09

mage. You

5:11

see that Pain throws an arcane

5:14

shield. The Witch Bolt interacting

5:19

with swirling, intersecting,

5:21

overlapping circles of runic

5:24

language. And you can see something

5:27

vile, which is a sneer

5:30

of contemptuous joy as

5:33

the guild mage Pain successfully resists

5:36

the spell craft of a Citadel mage.

5:38

You will explain yourself now.

5:42

Pain sees you, leaps

5:45

into his office, slams

5:47

the door shut, and

5:49

uses his action to lock it. What?

5:53

It is now Ursulon's

5:54

turn. The invisibility and

5:57

the power of the

5:58

And

6:01

I think Suvi and Abe regard a

6:03

very sheepish Ursulan is,

6:06

um, things to

6:08

start to go according to plan. I,

6:12

it was my mistake. Do we need to? Are

6:14

you okay? I'm, yeah, I'm fine. I

6:17

just, I messed up. No,

6:20

that's okay. No, I

6:22

did mess up. He messed up. No, I messed

6:24

up. I said Will Gallows. Oh,

6:27

well, yes. But no,

6:29

he messed up. He deigned to hurt

6:31

a companion of a mage of the Citadel.

6:35

You're fine. You hear

6:38

in your mind, Ame, the

6:40

fox speaking to you and saying, uh,

6:42

the guy is doing something in

6:45

here. What is he doing? He's,

6:47

uh,

6:47

he's, uh, okay. His

6:50

one hand's going up and his other hand's going

6:53

down. Uh,

6:55

now they're together again. Thumbs up.

6:58

Fox

6:58

is on there. Fox

7:00

is feeling hot. I'd

7:03

like to run back down the hallway.

7:05

You're right at the hallway. You get to the door. Ame,

7:08

it is your turn.

7:10

Fox, are you okay? What's happening? It's

7:12

hot in here. It's hot. It is hot in

7:14

there or are you hot specifically? I

7:17

don't, I feel hot. How

7:19

do you tell? Okay. Uh,

7:23

it's not hot anymore. Oh,

7:25

oh, he was definitely burning. Some

7:28

incriminating documents. Okay. You

7:30

should

7:30

attack him. Okay. He's on the

7:32

throat. Uh, the fox is going to attack. Go

7:34

ahead and give me an attack roll for the fox. Ooh,

7:37

that's a natural 20.

7:40

Yeah. Ursuline, you're

7:42

right outside the door. You hear a sort

7:44

of conflagration

7:47

that you can smell almost like

7:49

smoke and flame from the other side of

7:52

the door. And you suddenly hear a, Anna.

7:56

Oh my God. Uh, as the guild

7:58

mage takes two.

7:59

Two points of damage. Suvi.

8:03

Now I'm going to hold my action as I like

8:05

catch up to Ursuline. Oh, there's

8:07

a bloody dagger on the ground.

8:10

Yes. Right? I'm gonna go ahead and pick that up

8:12

and pocket it. And then I turn to you and say, I'm

8:14

getting the door. Yeah, yeah,

8:16

happily. And I'm gonna hold my action

8:18

to attack when I have line of sight on him again.

8:21

Great. He's going to go

8:23

now and trapped

8:26

on the other side of the door as he is with the fox,

8:28

I'm afraid to say he's

8:31

going to attack the fox.

8:34

This is Brennan, we're only seven episodes.

8:38

And you're already attacking familiars? People

8:41

love to pop off and then they

8:43

end up finding out about what

8:45

bad people do when you pop

8:48

off around them. Oh, he's so bad he'd

8:50

attack a fox.

8:51

A fox just bit the

8:53

hell out of him. So I said go for the

8:55

throat. Is he still attached

8:58

to him? Yes, he is

9:00

still attached. Okay, good to

9:02

know. The

9:03

fox's hit points are two. Let

9:07

me double check that. Oh my God, it was two. The

9:10

fox is. Can we lock this back? Hold on. Can

9:12

we wait? Can we wait? We need to go back.

9:15

Yeah. Can we go back? Two

9:17

HP. Everybody's made

9:19

a lot of choices in quick succession.

9:21

Is it? Two HP. Let

9:24

me double check here. I'm

9:26

gonna roll this in front of the board. On

9:29

a nine or higher. Oh, you gotta

9:31

be kidding me. Hits the fox.

9:39

That is a two.

9:45

Wow, we fully tried to kill our, wow.

9:49

Hey, Erika's gone. You

9:51

guys, everyone's gotta protect your little fuzzy guys.

9:54

Cause if you send them into the room with the bad man, then

9:56

the bad man's in the room with your little. My

9:58

fuzzy guy.

9:59

Everyone always. who just wants to put it on me, you're

10:01

attacking foxes out here. If you are in

10:03

your home D&D group, I'm gonna say something very clearly

10:05

right now. I'm gonna say something very clearly right now.

10:08

If you go in the kitchen, you might get

10:10

burnt.

10:11

And if you're sending

10:13

your familiars and your companions

10:16

and your various little animals and constructs

10:18

and buddies, if you're sending them to get up in

10:20

the mix, they're gonna get got. Hey, they went

10:22

in the kitchen. Look, I know that, but Alme

10:25

doesn't know that.

10:26

There you go. I went in the kitchen to get cookies,

10:28

all right? I can go anywhere

10:31

near the storm, all right? If

10:33

you walk in the part of the kitchen that

10:36

just has the pantry, you're

10:37

gonna get burned. When

10:41

I sent that fox in there earlier, that was never my

10:43

intention. So

10:47

you hear from inside and Alme, you can still

10:50

feel telepathically, the fox has latched

10:52

onto his leg. The guild mage has tried

10:55

to like rake down with lightning

10:57

in his hand again. And

11:00

miss the fox has like wriggled on the other

11:02

side of his leg, still sinking his fangs

11:04

into this wizard. Poor

11:08

showing from our wizard friend here.

11:11

That is now going to go to be Ursulon's

11:13

turn. The strong man of Silsbury

11:16

will take the door. Here we go.

11:18

Go ahead, give me an athletics check.

11:23

It's a DC 15. Oh God.

11:27

Damn. Level

11:30

one is hard. I really don't

11:32

like it down here. Ah. This

11:37

is an eight. This is a straight

11:39

up eight. Copy

11:42

that. Ursulon, you

11:45

lean back, get

11:47

your shoulder in front of you and slam

11:50

into the door and hear it shutter against

11:52

the door frame remaining

11:55

closed and locked. Uh, Ursulon,

11:57

any bonus.

11:59

Can I try again? Go ahead and

12:02

I'll say on a bonus action, give

12:05

me one with disadvantage. Okay. Two

12:10

11s plus four, 15.

12:12

Yay!

12:15

Oh my God. There

12:17

we go. So you go and back up

12:19

all the way against

12:22

the edge of the hallway and run. And

12:24

finally this time, slam

12:27

the door wide open into the room. Wait,

12:32

can I use my held action? Oh yes.

12:34

Now that's open. Suvi's

12:35

going to wrap her hand around

12:38

her staff, the staff of the Citadel of a true wizard

12:41

and her father's ring,

12:44

her ring glows green as I

12:46

summon one of the level spell slots that

12:48

I keep inside it to cast magic missile as magic.

12:50

I summon

12:52

one of the level spell slots that I keep inside

12:55

it to cast magic missile as my darts bend

12:58

around Ursulon

13:00

and light him

13:02

up. Go

13:04

ahead and roll damage for magic missile.

13:06

12 plus three is 15. Woo!

13:10

That would kill me. The darts springing

13:13

forth from Suvi, race

13:16

through the air and impact the

13:19

chuttering explosive force

13:22

on the body of Guildmage

13:25

Payne. The

13:27

pure destructive energy

13:30

radiates first through his ribs,

13:33

his shoulder, in through his lower back

13:35

and along the sort of side of his

13:38

abdomen. He falls to the ground

13:40

bleeding from three enormous injuries

13:41

on his body and you can

13:44

tell is holding on to, he's

13:46

immediately unconscious, dropped to

13:48

the ground holding on to the last tethers

13:50

of life.

13:55

And we are out of combat. Ursulon

13:59

doesn't like it. how this happened, doesn't

14:02

like how much blood

14:05

he's gushing out of this man, and

14:07

he's going to lean down

14:10

and

14:11

without making eye contact with Suvi, cast

14:14

Lee on hands and give him one

14:16

hit point. You lean down, you

14:19

give him one hit point, which will

14:22

raise him from unconsciousness,

14:24

he will not be making death saves. He

14:28

comes to on the ground

14:31

looking at the three of you, I

14:33

am going to need some kind of charisma based

14:36

roles to

14:38

not have him spring into,

14:41

you know, like survival mode essentially.

14:45

It's not gonna be for me, Suvi is just, she's

14:47

about to like, I think Suvi has reached

14:49

into the pocket and has pulled out the bloody

14:51

dagger and is attempting to finish

14:53

a kill in the same way that she finished

14:56

Captain Emmless on the ship. That's 19

14:59

from Ame. 14 from Ursuline.

15:02

Ame, you can perceive

15:04

that he is probably going to,

15:07

he cannot

15:10

accept the situation, there is no surrender

15:12

in his eyes as he comes back to one hit point. It's

15:15

over, there is no escape

15:18

from this. If you talk with us

15:20

and tell us what is going on, you may

15:22

yet have a chance to escape the clutches

15:25

of Gallo.

15:26

I don't know what

15:28

any of you are talking about. There

15:32

is no proof of anything. There

15:34

is no, and what even thing

15:36

would there be?

15:37

Do you think that will Gallo's will wait

15:40

for proof? You hear a noise

15:42

of approaching footsteps rapidly and you

15:44

see Maro and several of the

15:47

attendant mages come in. Ursuline

15:49

is injured, he doesn't see a knife on the floor,

15:51

he does see a lot of blood on the floor. And

15:53

he sees all of you standing over, he

15:57

sees all of you standing over pain on the ground in his

15:59

office with all.

15:59

also just like a bunch of ash around

16:02

in there. Maro

16:04

goes, good heavens,

16:06

what is the meaning of this?

16:08

What is happening? I'm not quite sure. Perhaps

16:10

this was some big misunderstanding. And

16:14

I look at pain. Pain

16:19

looks, what?

16:20

What? The

16:29

craziest flex I've ever heard in my life.

16:31

He looks at Ame and looks up at Maro and

16:33

says, a little bit of

16:35

horse play.

16:38

Gone out of hand, guild

16:41

mage Maro. I'm afraid

16:45

you see Bear and I.

16:51

He is covered in blood, blood is running out of

16:53

his mouth. Blood

16:55

is running out of his mouth. He's covered in ash.

16:58

There is a fox with its fangs sunk into

17:00

his leg, still going. And

17:03

he's like, we realized that

17:07

we had summered he

17:11

and I on the same beach

17:14

village outside of Silbray and

17:18

we're engaging

17:19

in a rustic bout of indoor croquet,

17:22

which

17:26

they play there. Something we

17:28

often did. Something we often did. But

17:32

outdoors because of the beach, but we were

17:34

doing it indoors.

17:35

That's silly, that's so silly.

17:38

We were so silly, yes, we were silly.

17:41

So realizing we were silly, I

17:46

burnt all of the mallets

17:48

and croquet balls with magic. And

17:53

then we

17:55

were putting the rest of the gear

17:58

away and Ursula on.

17:59

that Bear was admiring

18:02

my knife, and in admiring it, he turned

18:04

around, and I accidentally

18:08

walked into it.

18:11

And then... Suvi

18:13

is disgusted and walks away.

18:19

And then I cast Magic

18:21

Missile on myself because

18:23

I was frightened. And

18:27

that spell never misses. So

18:32

that was the type of horse play.

18:36

Fox, you

18:39

can probably stop playing

18:42

with him.

18:42

Yes, Fox, we have finished. We

18:45

have finished. You did so good, buddy.

18:48

Fox, let's go. Licks

18:51

the blood off his fangs, and

18:53

he looks around, he loves a good lie,

18:56

but he

18:57

looks over and you see he pads over to

18:59

Payne's head, who is still lying

19:01

on his back, and you see just whispers in his ear,

19:05

I'm gonna eat you one day. Ha ha

19:07

ha!

19:08

Here, Fox, I have

19:10

a vote for you, and I take out a little treat from my

19:12

pack. My vote! He

19:16

leaps up and eats

19:19

it, gobbles it up. Um,

19:21

uh, so Maro goes,

19:25

I'm going to be very honest. All

19:28

of this behavior is the most

19:30

outrageous tomfoolery I've

19:33

ever heard of, to think that

19:35

you were

19:36

playing croquet inside

19:39

this chantry. And roughhousing

19:42

with knives and casting powerful,

19:46

offensive magic on yourselves

19:49

is completely uncalled for. And with

19:52

your earlier rudeness to our honored

19:54

guest, the archmage

19:56

apprentice

19:56

Suvi, I must say, Gildmage

19:59

Payne. I am going to be writing a report,

20:02

and I will be submitting it, encouraging

20:05

my superiors to relocate you

20:07

to a diminished office, somewhere

20:11

of less significance than Port

20:13

Talon. Oh,

20:14

well that's such a shame.

20:16

Please don't, please don't. Our

20:19

silliness, they should not reflect

20:22

back on him, but

20:24

if you must, I understand. No,

20:27

no, I must. And you see he says, I

20:29

must cease to the apprentice archmage. And you

20:31

see Moro leaves this open

20:33

crime scene and just sprints after

20:36

Suvi down the hallway. Killmage

20:40

Payne looks up and goes,

20:45

what

20:49

do you know about Will Gallows? We

20:52

know that he has something that

20:55

we want, and in return he

20:57

wanted you.

20:59

So how do we give

21:01

him you and still

21:04

let you live? The

21:06

choice is yours because we are not leaving

21:08

here without what we came for.

21:14

You promised me to Will Gallows in

21:16

exchange for something of

21:19

his that you desire. Yes.

21:21

It's possible that

21:24

I might be able to keep my life,

21:30

but find a way to make sure that you get what you

21:32

want as well. There

21:35

is some very critical research

21:38

up in the library

21:40

that may

21:42

have some indication of the

21:44

source of things that Will Gallows is interested

21:46

in me for. It's

21:48

possible that given just a minute or two, I might be able

21:51

to root around and

21:54

find something of value to him. Do

21:56

you want to make it

21:57

inside Chey? Yeah. Yeah, we're off. I

22:03

rolled a natural one. This guy

22:05

is flop-sweating,

22:07

his

22:10

eyes are flicking back and forth. He

22:13

is trying to be helpful to you.

22:16

And I think sweet little

22:18

village witch, Ame, and deeply dreams in his fairy heart of

22:23

being a Knight Ursulan, are watching

22:25

a guy that you have approached only with honesty

22:28

and forthrightness, who

22:30

is a nasty gambling

22:32

debt wizard motherfucker, who

22:36

is

22:37

only in this moment trying to

22:39

lie to you to get far enough away to flee forever.

22:42

So here's what we

22:44

must do. We will split up into-

22:47

Don't lie to us. Do

22:50

you think just because you're a wizard with training

22:52

from the Citadel, you can fool us?

22:55

We have been nothing

22:57

but open and honest and kind.

23:01

And if you give us no other choice, we're

23:03

going to give you over to Gallows.

23:06

I understand. What

23:10

ideas do you have about how my

23:13

life might be saved?

23:15

Here's what I will tell you. We

23:17

were instructed to cut your ties

23:20

with the Empire, and

23:22

that Gallows would take it from there.

23:23

So that is what

23:25

we're going to do. And

23:28

now you knowing this means that you have a

23:30

headstart, and that is

23:32

as much as we are willing to give you. You

23:36

will let me flee.

23:38

Yes, because we will still be fulfilling

23:40

our end of the bargain. But

23:44

it's up to you not to get caught by Gallows.

23:49

Give me a persuasion check

23:51

with advantage. That's

23:53

a 17. He

23:56

stands up. Looks

24:00

at you.

24:05

You have destroyed my life.

24:10

Please stall for as long as you can.

24:13

And he sprints down the hallway. We

24:23

have to stop doing this. The

24:26

amount of times we've interacted

24:28

with a mage, and then watch them

24:30

run away,

24:32

fearing for their life. Is

24:34

not a great pattern.

24:45

Suvi, as you've marched

24:47

away, you hear Maro rounding

24:50

the corner. Apprentice

24:52

Hawk Mage.

24:56

Suvi turns around and as she rounds on him,

24:58

it's that, I

25:01

mean, he would understand it too. Everyone

25:03

that came through the Citadel, children were

25:05

trained to be soldiers first. And

25:08

the more tests you pass, the

25:10

longer you got to stay, the more you had a dream

25:12

of not simply being a frontline fighter,

25:14

but all of that training was still there. And

25:17

Suvi is trying to

25:19

calm down the adrenaline of a

25:22

child raised for battle and is

25:24

trying to put it away. And that's what he sees when she

25:27

turns around. Apprentice

25:30

Hawk Mage. I

25:33

am so very sorry. I

25:36

understand how upsetting it can be when

25:39

servants

25:41

act outrageously. Your manate arms should

25:44

not have been played. No,

25:47

stop.

25:50

I told you I had no intention of

25:52

speaking to you about what

25:55

some of my work entailed. But part of it involves it. And

26:02

I think there's this pause where

26:04

Suvi has fully

26:07

committed, she has committed herself

26:09

to the death of this man and is going to give

26:11

the game away.

26:13

We I had

26:17

intel that there

26:19

was some embezzlement

26:21

from this chantry at

26:24

the hands of Guild Mage

26:26

Pain. And

26:28

when I sent my man to go speak

26:31

to him of it, Pain

26:33

attacked, confirming

26:36

my suspicions. You

26:39

know as well as I do, embezzlement

26:42

that is treason to the Empire with

26:45

a death sentence. Give

26:48

you any proof

26:51

of this crime.

26:54

Attacking your servant is by

26:57

itself enough

27:01

for us to... So the

27:03

croquet, that didn't happen or...

27:08

I'm just trying to... No. Okay

27:10

so... No, the croquet did not happen. So he

27:13

just burned those mallets and balls

27:15

for no reason. He burned the

27:18

evidence of his malfeasance and

27:20

I'm going to pull the knife out and kind

27:22

of throw it at Maro's

27:25

feet. That's Guild Mage Pain's

27:27

knife. You

27:29

see he picks it up very

27:33

well. Effective

27:37

immediately. Guild

27:40

Mage Pain is stripped of all rank

27:42

and title within this chantry.

27:47

He looks at his attendance and says, please go

27:49

see to the Guild Mage's prompt arrest.

27:53

And the mages sort of flank out and begin

27:55

moving through the space.

27:59

I am...

28:00

I'm grievously sorry that,

28:04

first of all, why

28:06

was I not told directly that

28:08

one of my subordinates was

28:11

a thief in stealing from the Empire?

28:14

My hope was to collect

28:16

evidence to present you with.

28:19

Out of respect for you and the work you

28:21

do here, I wanted to come

28:24

to you with an

28:27

easy solution and an understandable

28:30

set of circumstances. Thank

28:32

you. Thank you both for... But

28:36

why did he cast Magic

28:39

Missile on himself? That

28:42

was me. I did that. I cast the

28:44

Magic Missile when he attacked Bear.

28:46

Oh my God. It all checks

28:48

out. No, it's fine. You have an answer for everything.

28:51

Okay. Thank you.

28:53

I...indoor croquet? I

28:56

was wondering...the thing that got me was the wickets.

28:59

How do you get the wickets in the stone

29:01

floor? Like, I understand. We're kind of here

29:03

on the fringes of the Empire and they get fucking weird,

29:05

but like, no, no indoor croquet. That's

29:08

nothing. I won't lie to you. I know that...I

29:11

know in my role as administrator,

29:14

I have been failing. It

29:16

is because I have given everything

29:18

to my role as lead researcher. When

29:21

you see the Derek tonight, you will understand

29:24

why I have

29:27

been lacking

29:31

in my

29:33

diligence and observation of the

29:36

minutia of the Chantry. And

29:39

I think in this moment, C.V. realizes

29:41

an opportunity to like, consolidate

29:44

a bond. And she just reaches

29:47

out very simply and touches Maro's

29:50

like, elbow and just gives a little nod. He

29:54

looks up at you and you see these sort of big

29:57

watery blue eyes well up

29:59

with tears.

30:04

I was not given much, but I

30:06

was given enough, and I knew that if I could

30:09

stay focused, I would

30:11

be able to contribute something.

30:15

And you see his lip quivers here. I

30:17

would be able to contribute something that mattered,

30:20

something that other mages

30:22

greater than myself would

30:25

see some merit in.

30:28

I wish that

30:31

my work might be a simple

30:36

stepping stone to achieve

30:38

things greater and more glorious

30:41

in the direction of what I have started.

30:46

I will see, my

30:48

attendants are,

30:50

I'm sure, arresting Gilmesh Payne right now. Let

30:52

me, for once, turn my attention

30:54

to the mundane, the material, and the imperial,

30:57

and see to the effecting of this arrest. This

30:59

will be handled, the ship will be ready tonight. You

31:02

have your leave of this place here,

31:04

of the city itself, the

31:07

research library, or if you wish as well,

31:09

your man-at-arms who I

31:11

saw was injured. We

31:16

have an armory, if there's anything

31:18

that... Thank you. Yes.

31:20

I will avail myself to that. Yes,

31:22

of course. And

31:25

the ships will be ready tonight at half

31:28

past ten. I very much look forward

31:30

to seeing

31:31

it.

31:34

Ame and Ursulon, you

31:36

look through ash, ash

31:40

and books and ledgers. It looks like he was

31:42

pretty, you know, someone

31:46

said the magic word that told him his life

31:48

was about to be in shambles. And

31:51

he did the first thing he could think to do as

31:53

an archmage apprentice of the Citadel rounded

31:55

the corner, which was jump into

31:58

my office and burn all this shit.

31:59

You see the fox looks

32:03

up and goes, that

32:05

guy tried to kill me. Yeah,

32:07

he did.

32:08

And I'm sorry that

32:11

I put you in harm's way.

32:12

I'm sorry I put you in harm's way. What? You

32:15

know, you were around.

32:18

Something could have happened.

32:20

Well, yeah, but I mean, like I told you

32:22

to attack him, and if he was

32:24

gonna... I was in harm's way before

32:26

I attacked him. You don't have to

32:28

worry about harm's way. I'm from the forest. You're

32:31

in harm's way all the time.

32:33

Fall down a hill, break your leg, get

32:35

caught in a trap, drown, storm, freeze

32:37

to death, starve, not get enough food.

32:40

Easy, harm's all around.

32:43

Yeah, well, not

32:46

in the forest when you care about someone,

32:49

you try to mitigate that harm, and so this

32:51

is my promise to you to always try

32:53

and make it so that there's less harm around

32:55

you.

32:56

If I see any harm coming for you, I'll make

32:59

it did it. You'll

33:01

what? I'll get it.

33:03

What did you say?

33:04

I said mitigate.

33:08

That means make it go away? Make

33:10

it less, yes. Yeah.

33:14

Okay. If harm comes for you, I'll

33:16

mitigate it. Yeah. Thanks.

33:22

You know what we really shouldn't mitigate

33:24

is all this ash

33:28

and blood everywhere. This place is bad now, huh? Yeah.

33:31

Yes, this place is bad now. Let's

33:35

go find some of that fish slurry

33:37

and mitigate that. Am I using

33:40

it right? You

33:42

know what? I'm proud of you. You're

33:44

using a new word in a sentence. There

33:46

you go. That's how you mitigate it. That

33:49

one was left. No, that doesn't work. That doesn't work.

33:52

Okay, all right. Well, you keep trying

33:54

until you get it right. And, you know,

33:56

if you do that, you will mitigate.

34:00

I'm gonna write, mistakes.

34:04

Yay, and we're back. And we're back, okay,

34:06

I got that one. I can't get what it means. We

34:09

go to find Suvi. Yeah,

34:11

I'm gonna pull up alongside Ame while

34:14

we're walking. Yeah, I think it was

34:16

just quietly following the fox,

34:19

standing next to you. It

34:22

was, I had

34:25

no idea what I was doing. You're

34:28

not used to planning, is that okay? To

34:31

be honest with you, spirits

34:34

and wherever

34:37

witches lie, I never

34:39

big on plans and following

34:41

them.

34:42

No, but I feel like if we

34:44

keep doing this, it's going to keep happening the same

34:46

way. Yeah, that's true. Suvi's going to step

34:48

in and

34:50

handle it. And it's

34:53

impressive. And I

34:55

just, I don't like being carried.

34:59

I don't like you carrying me. I

35:03

should be able to handle myself.

35:06

That's not really how it

35:08

works with us. Just like

35:10

I told the fox, you know? You

35:12

mitigate harm around you

35:14

as much as you can. You're

35:16

not a burden on anybody, okay? And

35:19

look, I'm still getting

35:21

used to this too. I don't, there's

35:24

just things here in the city that don't

35:26

make sense to me. And

35:29

if I am being honest with

35:31

myself, I don't want Suvi

35:33

to see that.

35:35

This is, this

35:37

is different. She went off and she

35:39

became this big, fancy city wizard.

35:42

And I, you know,

35:44

this

35:45

is really different than that somewhere on the farm

35:47

where I got to show her the ropes and

35:50

looked like I knew what I was doing. But I'm really out of my

35:52

element here. And I think you're feeling a little

35:54

of that too, but. Okay,

35:58

here's the deal. We're gonna do our best.

35:59

to learn and observe

36:02

and not make more wizards run

36:04

away, fearing

36:07

for their lives.

36:12

And maybe it's okay if we ask Suvi

36:15

for some pointers sometimes. Yeah.

36:18

We gotta make it clear, cause it's not that we're

36:20

dumb. We're not dumb. We're not dumb.

36:23

We're capable. Yes, we are very capable. We're just capable

36:25

in other ways. Yeah, everybody's got

36:27

their strengths. Yes. I mean, I'm

36:29

the strong man of film. Yes. I

36:32

have to stop saying it. You took down

36:34

that door like it was nothing. The

36:36

second time. Well,

36:38

we got there. We got there.

36:42

All right, we'll do better. We'll do better. You

36:48

round the corner, Suvi. I think

36:50

Maro has already gone off to sea towards

36:52

pain. Probably you're actually

36:54

back in your quarters at this point. Yeah. You

36:58

all reconvene.

37:00

And you see the sort of

37:02

running into the room already come, you

37:04

see that like, no matter how kind of frightening

37:06

and traumatic things are that the Fox

37:08

is already completely back to neutral. He's

37:11

great. Yeah. He's-

37:13

He's brilliant. He walks up, he looks up at you Suvi and he

37:15

goes, oh, I

37:17

don't know how the hell you bit that guy standing

37:20

so far away. But I'll tell you this, I

37:22

set him up, you knock him down.

37:24

I just wanna offer him a little bitty fist bump. You

37:27

pause. You have a little

37:29

loving paw on your fist. I kiss it, I don't know. Thank

37:32

you. Weird.

37:35

Are you okay? I'm

37:38

fine. Yeah, how about you? I'm

37:42

fine. You

37:45

brought him back. I

37:48

couldn't, it just felt

37:50

like it didn't have to go that way. And

37:53

it was my folly that it did. What

37:55

do you mean? I just, I

37:58

wanted, I- It felt good

38:01

that I thought that I

38:04

could be the person who would

38:07

help, you know, that I

38:09

could sneak in. And so I said, I do

38:11

it. And then the opportunity availed itself

38:13

to and I did. And then things

38:15

didn't go well and everything

38:19

went sideways and he ended

38:21

up

38:22

bleeding out. And so

38:24

I took that apart

38:26

myself. It did not have to go sideways

38:28

in that way. Ursulan, he's

38:31

going to die. If

38:35

not in his office, we'll

38:38

gallows will kill him. We

38:41

consigned him to death the moment we told

38:43

him why we were here.

38:46

What do you think you did? Well,

38:49

I'm sorry Suvi. I'm not as good

38:52

at this as you are. I…

38:55

No, I…

38:56

I'm sorry.

39:00

Things are different in the Citadel.

39:04

It's hard here. But

39:09

the law is clear. Treason

39:12

is met with death. At

39:15

our hands or in outlaws, doesn't

39:18

really matter. But

39:21

I appreciate your penchant for mercy.

39:25

I… I

39:27

don't know. I mean,

39:30

I was performing a circus two

39:33

or three weeks ago.

39:35

Now I'm deciding if…

39:40

If wizards should live or

39:42

die here or die there, it's just…

39:47

It's a lot.

39:50

I haven't really ever traveled much outside

39:52

of the village. And this

39:55

is all

39:56

bad. It feels bad.

40:01

It's like the rules that

40:03

I spent my whole life learning

40:05

are just not applicable here. And

40:08

so I'm sorry if I seem like I'm trying

40:11

to question you or anything.

40:13

I just don't know. Please

40:17

help us, Suvi.

40:18

I guess that's really what we're asking for.

40:21

Yeah. No, no. Oh,

40:24

God. And Suvi just goes over and makes sure the

40:26

door is closed and locked. Kind

40:28

of brings everyone as far away from where

40:30

anyone could overhear. You're

40:33

fine.

40:34

I'm sorry.

40:37

This is the thing they train us for. It's

40:39

not good, but... But

40:42

how do you know? Like, how do you know that that

40:44

man should have

40:46

died or what to do? Like,

40:49

you always know what to do.

40:50

I mean, that's... You spent

40:53

the last 15 years training

40:56

with Grandmother Ren. I

40:58

went to the desert and

41:01

survived it. All

41:04

I know is how to make hard choices. But

41:08

it's

41:08

the first time in my life I actually have to make

41:10

them, and it's not easy. For

41:13

whatever that's worth. I'm

41:15

sorry. No,

41:18

don't. No

41:20

one should be apologizing. Yeah. And

41:23

when those kinds of decisions become easy, I think

41:25

is when we have a real problem. Oh. Yeah,

41:29

maybe. Okay,

41:31

well, we've fulfilled our end of the bargain.

41:33

Yes, I mean, we

41:36

can go get Wavebreaker now. I

41:39

mean, it's... I can. I

41:42

kind of want to see whatever

41:44

Mara was working on. There's something deeply

41:47

wrong with that Derek

41:49

out there. I mean, you guys

41:52

saw that they're...

41:56

The wands? They're

41:58

large tanks. Yeah, it

42:01

feels like they're preparing for war. The,

42:05

the, the Azure Battalion

42:07

you mean? Yeah. They're going

42:09

to fight. I mean, you saw those big barrels

42:12

and I saw wizards

42:15

earlier in the research library

42:17

bandaged. All of this feels

42:20

wrong. It doesn't feel peaceful or calm

42:23

at all. And maybe if we spend

42:25

just a couple more hours, we

42:27

can have a better insight

42:30

on whatever's happening. I agree. And

42:33

I taste the

42:34

salt water in my mouth

42:37

and a knot in my stomach.

42:40

It isn't magical or

42:42

anything like the tangled roots that were there before,

42:44

but is deeply

42:47

connected to this place and whatever is happening.

42:49

So we'll

42:53

see the Derek and then, then

42:56

treat with gallows. Yes. Also,

43:00

do you want some armor? Look, look,

43:02

I kind of run this joint now. We

43:05

can go and go get some stuff. You want any

43:06

stuff? I mean, you did say there's

43:08

a war on, on, you know,

43:11

coming and I would like to be better

43:13

prepared. I mean, I think I

43:16

have this, I have this cheap sword that I got

43:18

from Finley that I didn't even have. I

43:20

had room. So yeah, I would, I would

43:22

take something, uh, something better.

43:25

Let's

43:25

go out fit our little guardian. Little,

43:28

just staring at you like

43:30

a little guy. All right. All

43:33

right. Uh,

43:35

hell yeah. So you

43:38

have a couple hours until you head over to the armory.

43:39

Yeah. Yeah.

43:42

Shopping.

43:58

Um, so you have a couple hours. You

44:00

head over to the Armory? Yeah. Yeah. Shopping.

44:04

Shopping. Incredible.

44:07

So what I'll say is this, anyone

44:11

who wants to can give me an investigation

44:14

or an arcana. Oh, shit. Those

44:16

are things I like and I'm good at. Can I have help

44:18

from the fox? Yes, the fox will help. Shit. And

44:21

I will do guidance for

44:24

anybody who needs it. Oh, can I have it? Yeah,

44:27

I'll take it. Take that guidance.

44:28

Do you mind if I take your familiar and... Yeah,

44:31

yeah, I can help you out. All right, thanks, fox.

44:35

So I'll be honest with you.

44:38

We got some really good roles

44:40

in here. We got a Dirty 20

44:43

from Ursulon. We got

44:45

a 17 over here. What did we get over here? We got 23.

44:49

So the three of you having

44:51

had this quite

44:52

harrowing afternoon,

44:55

violence in the halls of the Kalabel

44:57

Chantry of

45:01

the Septress Chorus with Guildmage Payne, who

45:03

is apparently sprinted out of here, unclear whether he's

45:05

been captured by the attendant mages and

45:09

Guildmage Moro, the head of the Sanctum. You had came to

45:12

blows.

45:16

Ursulon was injured by wizard's magic for

45:18

the first time. Oh. Not

45:21

grievously so, but nonetheless injured. And you find yourselves

45:24

walking down one of the court's hallways

45:27

on the ground floor as sort of a

45:29

warehouse and

45:33

more kind of technological

45:35

industrial holding areas of

45:38

the Sanctum give out and

45:40

flare out from the tower's bay. So

45:43

you're sort of no longer in the Sanctum proper anymore. You've

45:46

walked down a kind of interior passage. You see that there's windows

45:48

on either side that face out to these like white gravel

45:50

court courtyards

45:54

and walk

45:55

into an armory as it is so called.

45:59

Armory is sort of a

46:02

immediately, I think, for Aime and Ursulon.

46:05

Your idea of what will be awaiting you is instantly

46:08

dispelled as a very quiet

46:11

meditative wooden room

46:13

unveils itself, something like being in

46:18

a well-appointed study. There are

46:20

small blue fabric

46:23

chairs. The things here are a little bit less

46:25

ostentatious than in the Sanctum, no

46:27

one's trying to be impressed. But even so, it gives

46:30

way more of the feeling of a drawing

46:32

room in a private manner than it does

46:35

when you think of an armory.

46:38

Large wardrobes are filled

46:41

with azure coats,

46:43

sort of military coats. You see that the

46:45

only things that are visible at the moment are the

46:48

coats in the open wardrobes, and

46:50

there is an entire wall lined

46:53

with these imperial war staves.

46:57

There are sort of, there's one

46:59

little section open that you see is, it first

47:02

looks like a bench, but you realize that

47:04

the front of it can be sort of lifted up,

47:06

and at this moment, it is slightly ajar, and

47:09

there are just a lot of boots underneath

47:11

there. Your

47:13

investigation checks were quite high.

47:16

So for our purposes, this is almost a combination

47:18

investigation check and luck check. What

47:21

you would realize, Suvi

47:23

in this moment as well, is

47:26

there's a lot of stuff in here. There's

47:28

no one in here taking care of it right now. You're

47:31

in the sanctum, all the people that would stop you

47:33

from getting, the point of this place is

47:35

that it's available to the soldiers who need

47:37

it, so there's not someone here sort

47:39

of guarding it. But normally,

47:41

you know there would be a process of checking

47:43

this stuff out. You

47:45

probably don't need to do that, but

47:47

it's rude not to do it, because someone will get in

47:49

a lot of trouble if something just goes missing. I

47:52

think that you know that your station

47:54

here affords you the license to do whatever the hell

47:56

you want with consequences.

47:59

Right?

48:01

But I think the important thing is the big

48:04

set piece is sort of these staves. There's

48:07

an entire wall that should be full of them, but

48:09

of course many of the Azure Battalion have

48:11

there. So there's space for about 60 and

48:14

there's probably 14 left up on the wall. So

48:16

much like being in a pool hall where all the queues

48:19

have been taken off because they're being used, there's just a

48:21

couple of them left.

48:24

That being said, there are drawers

48:27

set into the wall, cabinets that are all

48:29

closed. And looking at them,

48:31

you're sort of going, where would big

48:33

pole arms and swords and axes be? But of

48:36

course this is a wizard's armory. So

48:38

it's a lot more genteel

48:41

and sedate than that. Ursulon

48:43

is immediately crestfallen. Oh no!

48:50

Immediately on your investigation, I will tell you that

48:52

more than half the room, you're able to quickly rule

48:54

out. The boots, they're magical,

48:57

they will not fit Ursulon. The

48:59

jackets, they're magical, they will not fit Ursulon. Okay.

49:02

Come

49:04

on, Ursulon is looking at a rack

49:07

at the gap and being like, if I go more

49:09

to the right, do we get larger? Do

49:12

we get larger? No. Or

49:14

try on the inside. A medium?

49:15

I'm trying to sort

49:18

of. Yes, could you stitch it, is that

49:20

possible? A dress in front of men to stitch

49:22

it. And of course you're looking. Slumpy. And

49:24

of course you're looking at Ursulon's

49:27

glamored self holding a jacket

49:30

that absolutely. I'm five feet, I'm

49:32

five inches taller than I, like

49:34

even my seven foot one is not my

49:37

full size. Yes, exactly. So

49:40

funny. I definitely

49:42

rip two or three robes to start. Just,

49:45

oh, I'm sorry.

49:49

I thought maybe it would, I thought

49:51

it would stretch magically or something. Nothing.

49:54

Great.

49:54

Thank you, just pass that over here. Suvi

49:57

is sitting with the ledger, kind of keeping track

49:59

of what we're grabbing. She'll just start passively

50:01

mending everything. Go ahead, take

50:03

your time. I'm pulling things

50:05

off the rack and as if

50:07

a fashion montage is happening.

50:10

Ooh, try this one. Suddenly,

50:11

I see. Of course. Oh, no, Suvi.

50:14

Here we go. I'm

50:17

ending, I'm ending. Maybe just a hat here.

50:18

Okay. I think Suvi. Oh,

50:21

maybe you're not a hat guy. No, Suvi, please. I

50:23

think you got it. You get a hat that can perch.

50:27

You get a hat that can perch on your head, but

50:29

it's one of those sort of cavalry officers' hat that

50:31

has a chin strap and it won't not even

50:33

close. Just fully blocking my eyes. Do

50:36

we think, do we think this, could

50:38

I just, oh, no, sorry, sorry,

50:40

sorry.

50:41

It's a look. Can you just remember

50:44

what this looks like and use your magic to replicate

50:46

it? Yeah, but that's, come on, Suvi.

50:48

Okay, I'm sorry. Come on, Suvi. I'm sorry.

50:51

Happy that hat. I think also, Suvi, you'd be aware that

50:53

some of this stuff, the jackets and hats and boots, for example,

50:56

bear the crest of the Azure Battalion.

50:58

So it's not wrong for you to, I mean,

51:00

it does magical stuff. I wouldn't fault you for taking

51:02

it, but it will lead to interesting social

51:04

interactions, as opposed to some of the stuff in

51:06

the armory that's a little bit left. So

51:09

the number one thing that I actually want to even make you roll for,

51:12

I'm handing a little index card. Ah! The

51:15

first thing you see are the Imperial Wars,

51:17

Dave's, but I'll let Suvi describe to you

51:19

because you can see what they do and what they're called. I'll

51:21

let Suvi take it away and explain whether Ursulan wants

51:23

that or not.

51:24

Suvi watches. After

51:27

you've grabbed a couple, I was like, can

51:29

you just, hey, go grab a matchstick.

51:32

Oh, all right. I guess

51:34

I'll take one of those staves down. Yeah. So

51:39

there, look,

51:41

the Azure Battalion and any

51:44

sort of war mage, all of this

51:46

is, yeah, you can hit it with the pointy end,

51:48

but it helps you cast magic more effectively.

51:51

Cantrips mostly, because these are all

51:53

shit wizards, but they're good at hitting stuff. We

51:56

love cannon fodder. So

51:58

it's like a straight line.

51:59

like Suvi's staff?

52:02

Oh, Suvi's staff is meant to wield

52:05

status and respect. These staves are

52:07

all bound on either end with brass

52:09

studs into a leather sort

52:12

of harness or sash that

52:14

allows you to shoulder these staves. So

52:18

you can carry them over one shoulder when you're marching,

52:21

they come off, they're wielded in two hands, but you

52:23

see that the way they're wielded, they're not like

52:25

quarter staves you've seen. Like, yes, you can

52:27

hit people with them, but fundamentally

52:29

you see that there is an end and

52:32

because these have seen some use, you see where

52:34

the slang term matchstick comes

52:36

from, which is that one of the

52:38

banded ends is covered in a little bit of soot

52:41

and that these are basically for firing

52:43

fire bolts, cantrips, things

52:46

of that nature.

52:47

They need help to cast cantrips. Gross.

52:52

Is this like the things that I make?

52:55

Oh. You know,

52:58

how I put magic into little things and

53:01

then I'll give them to people. Do you like that? Kind

53:04

of, but yours are... And

53:08

I think you see Suvi kind of just

53:10

like shakes her wrist a little bit and she's

53:13

still wearing the like sort

53:15

of no longer charged charm

53:17

bracelet. No,

53:20

because the magic on these

53:23

is sort of permanent. I think yours are

53:25

sort of one and done, right?

53:27

Yeah, it's permanent. Oh

53:30

yeah. Yeah, I pick one up

53:32

and I inspect it. Go ahead and give

53:34

me an arcana check.

53:37

Nine. Oh no. You

53:40

really don't understand

53:43

some elements of this. It has

53:45

a permanent magical effect

53:47

on it and it's up on the wall like candy

53:50

in a candy shop.

53:51

The full weight

53:53

of the Imperium,

53:55

the Citadel,

53:57

what it means to have something

53:59

like this. these staves

54:01

were made by people

54:04

who didn't know the names or

54:06

faces of who would end up using them.

54:09

But

54:09

then what if they're used for bad things? What

54:13

do you mean? I mean... These

54:16

are all used by soldiers of the Imperium. I

54:19

mean, I don't mean to sound naive here. But

54:22

people are people, and this is a lot

54:25

of power for just a person

54:28

to have

54:29

in their pocket. Aime

54:31

is probably reacting to the mass

54:33

production of magical objects. But

54:36

you're also aware of how not powerful these magical

54:38

items are. One of the things about these staves

54:40

is they don't have any spells in them. They literally

54:42

don't... A normal person picking this up

54:44

would not be able to do anything with it. It relies

54:47

on the wielder already being able to cast

54:49

a cantrip. All they serve to do

54:51

is take a spell you can already cast at

54:53

will and make it a little bit more accurate.

54:56

Yeah, and thinking back to the

54:58

actual systems inside of the

55:01

Citadel. The pooling of magic.

55:04

We have whole systems where low-level

55:06

wizards dump their spell slots into pools

55:09

for better wizards to use. Suvi's

55:11

mind kind of... I think Aime

55:14

would see Suvi go away

55:16

a little bit in her own head. As

55:18

she imagines the more impressive

55:20

versions of all

55:22

of the magical items she's seen and all of the

55:25

incredible industry

55:28

around magic. Instead

55:31

of speaking to any of that, Suvi just kind of nods

55:34

and tries to... Oh, look at

55:36

what Ursulon's found. Ursulon

55:39

is definitely like having a real kid

55:42

with a present he didn't want energy at

55:44

this point. Which is like he's holding

55:46

the matchstick and being like... This

55:48

is... Yeah. I

55:52

bet. But kind of leaning over

55:54

to the drawers and kind of looking

55:56

for Suvi's permission to start opening more stuff

55:59

to find any...

55:59

anything else. Yeah. I'm

56:02

just really fascinated by this because

56:04

I just I don't understand quite

56:06

the it all is very technical,

56:09

I guess, but I would really

56:11

love to have a chance at some

56:13

point to study these and to see if there's

56:15

a way to do something

56:18

like this again. What

56:20

do you mean? Yeah, you can have one. Yeah,

56:23

take one. Okay. I'll

56:25

go out the ledger and put two matchsticks and then

56:28

cross it out and write imperial

56:30

wars tapes. All right, Ursulon's done.

56:32

Ursulon's opening other stuff. Yeah, open. Go,

56:35

go, go. So I'll go ahead. We'll resolve

56:37

this initial investigation check. I'll say

56:39

on a 17, on a 17, Ame opens a cabinet

56:41

next to or actually

56:44

at the edge of the line of

56:51

jackets, you see that on a little

56:53

stool wrapped up in wax paper

56:56

is a

56:56

stack of fabric that

56:58

you realize it's like a thick stack of fabric

57:01

that are all in squares and you realize they're little

57:03

kind of diaphanous bandanas. They

57:06

have there's a wavy cream

57:08

and green pattern to them

57:11

and they are there. They're in a stack like

57:13

sort of like freshly laundered napkins and there's

57:15

a ton of them.

57:17

I keep saying that I don't need more

57:19

fabrics and things, but I

57:21

always think that there's just a little project that I

57:23

can use it for the future.

57:24

It's like when we were leaving the cottage. You

57:27

recognize these because these appear to be more like

57:30

of a texture that doesn't

57:33

seem, it seems that this has been like requisitioned

57:36

from a local more than it has

57:38

like come from the empire. You

57:40

find a stack of magical. You

57:44

find a stack of these.

57:46

So,

57:48

and you recognize why this like local

57:50

chapter of the Azure battalion has needed them. This

57:53

is a little stack of which fire

57:55

veils. They're just for

57:57

wrapping around your nose and mouth while you're.

57:59

you're out dealing with like dangerous magical

58:02

smoke. So actually. Oh.

58:05

So Ami finds that, off in a corner,

58:07

you find the good stuff that actually probably Ursuline

58:09

could wear without clocking too much social

58:11

heat because they're pretty, they don't have any crests

58:14

or symbols on them, which are just

58:17

golden

58:18

bracers that

58:21

go on the forearm. They

58:24

are of like sort of a hardened

58:26

leather, essentially very light, good

58:28

for spell work, not very heavy, but

58:31

they're, you know, they're like handy. They have

58:33

a minor abjuration on them. See,

58:36

we've got big mom energy wherever you are. Like try

58:38

these on, sweetie. Okay. All

58:41

right, yes. Oh, these fit.

58:45

And the last thing, Ursuline, you

58:47

open a, you're looking at a bunch

58:48

of empty drawers and you open a

58:50

big wide drawer. The drawer's almost like

58:53

four and a half feet wide, but very

58:55

shallow. It's only like a few inches tall. And

58:57

as you open it, you see these

59:00

lovely certain, like black velvet

59:02

surfaces with all these little slits in them.

59:05

And then you see that while

59:07

it is mostly empty, there are rows

59:09

and rows of rings, like

59:12

a jeweler's shop. You

59:14

see that there are several,

59:16

there are bronze

59:18

rings, copper rings,

59:21

and coral rings.

59:23

Mm. Suvi, you would know off the

59:25

top

59:26

that it's only safe to wear two magical rings at

59:28

once. Also, these are

59:30

not marked with the Azure Batalia. These are way wider

59:32

use within the empire in general. These

59:36

are sort of citadel made, mass

59:38

produced magical rings.

59:41

Go

59:44

ahead and you can give me a,

59:47

give me an arcana check. And

59:50

what'd you get? What'd you get?

59:51

What'd you get?

59:54

I was gonna say 15 gets you

59:57

one, 10, 20 gets you two. You're able to instantly

59:59

identify.

59:59

all three of these types of rings,

1:00:02

because the Azure Battalion are

1:00:05

all kids, they are all usually

1:00:07

people that were at least assigned to be wizards

1:00:09

going forward and they fight magically,

1:00:13

there are a lot of rings that are made

1:00:15

to basically bolster their innate abilities

1:00:18

for non-combat purposes.

1:00:21

So these rings are all basically like

1:00:23

non-combat, for

1:00:25

non-combat jobs. You know that

1:00:27

the bronze rings are called stewards

1:00:30

rings, which is basically to give to wizards that

1:00:32

have to do cargo,

1:00:35

longshoremen, porter, kind of carrying

1:00:37

and unloading stuff. The copper rings are

1:00:39

scouts rings, which are for

1:00:42

watchmen, scouts, people that are in guard

1:00:44

duty. And then there are

1:00:46

these coral rings, which you

1:00:49

actually haven't seen these before, but

1:00:51

you just look at the little, you

1:00:53

can see an arcane mark in the velvet that

1:00:56

you can just speak the sort of irulian, you

1:00:58

know, and you guys have been called sailors

1:01:01

rings.

1:01:02

So stewards rings, scouts rings and sailors

1:01:04

rings. And I'll give them to you and let you

1:01:06

interpret the game abilities into what

1:01:08

Suvi would be able to say. I think Ursuline

1:01:11

just kind of grabs a handful of

1:01:13

them. It's

1:01:16

like, Suvi I found these. What

1:01:18

do they do? And

1:01:20

would they fit on my fingers? These

1:01:22

magical rings, you know, are a

1:01:25

little bit less shoddy than the Azure battalion

1:01:27

stuff their Citadel made. They will resize.

1:01:30

Where's

1:01:34

the coral from? What kind of coral

1:01:36

is it? I don't know.

1:01:39

And I just hand you a ring so you can stare at it.

1:01:41

While Suvi just sort of contemplates all

1:01:43

three. Okay, we're gonna put the bronze

1:01:46

rings away cause that's for, you

1:01:48

know, like someone

1:01:50

that would be carrying bags and I don't want

1:01:53

that on you, but the copper.

1:01:56

Okay. Copper is good. This

1:01:58

is a scouts ring. Okay.

1:01:59

It will help with

1:02:03

perception. And I think

1:02:06

since you are not only the strongest man in

1:02:08

Silbray, but our protector, it'll

1:02:12

help you get the drop on whatever

1:02:14

we come up against.

1:02:16

That sounds right. Yes.

1:02:21

Yeah, I immediately put the bronze rings back. I don't like

1:02:23

them. I

1:02:26

think there's something, there's enough, like Suvi

1:02:28

has enough internal bias, that

1:02:31

like, oh, when you see that, you're like, ooh, gosh.

1:02:33

Give me an insight check, Ame.

1:02:35

I

1:02:37

think that you can see,

1:02:41

as Suvi sort of discards the

1:02:43

bronze ring,

1:02:45

there's an element of judgment in Suvi about

1:02:48

what the bronze ring signifies, that

1:02:51

you would clock, I think, a little

1:02:53

bit along the same vibe with

1:02:56

this whole chantry in general of the kind

1:02:59

of things wizards look down

1:03:02

on.

1:03:02

I mean, if it's about carrying

1:03:04

things, I carry a lot of things.

1:03:07

Can I, can I, can I look up that one?

1:03:11

Yeah, I guess it helps with your strength.

1:03:13

I think I handed you the card back. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:03:16

Yeah. It makes you, if you

1:03:18

want to be a little pack mule, go ahead,

1:03:21

maybe put a glove on over it though. But

1:03:24

why? That's

1:03:27

right as heck.

1:03:29

I mean, we get the, yeah.

1:03:32

Yeah, I guess. You don't want to be strong?

1:03:35

I am strong. Yes,

1:03:39

ma'am. And I like that.

1:03:43

Oh, wow. These sailor

1:03:45

rings though.

1:03:47

This allows you to breathe underwater. What?

1:03:51

I mean, yeah, I'm

1:03:54

going back to the, get my own.

1:03:57

Remember, you can only wear two. So

1:04:01

pick your two. Is it a style thing? Oh,

1:04:03

it's a magical load thing. Oh,

1:04:06

okay. Got it. It wouldn't be. It's

1:04:08

not just like you would look weird having a bunch of... Oh,

1:04:10

no. No, not at all. Okay. I will

1:04:12

be taking Suvi's suggestion. So

1:04:15

on his left middle finger, he'll

1:04:18

wear the sailor's ring. And

1:04:20

on his right index finger, he'll wear the copper

1:04:22

ring. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. The scouts ring. The

1:04:25

scouts ring. Incredible. This

1:04:27

is fascinating. The amount of power

1:04:29

that is in these permanently?

1:04:32

Mm-hmm. Incredible. I

1:04:34

would love to take one of the bronze rings,

1:04:37

so I can carry a lot of different

1:04:39

things. I could

1:04:41

wrestle so

1:04:42

many goats with this ring.

1:04:45

I would also like to get a scouts ring, because

1:04:47

I could do with a little more vigilance. Do

1:04:51

these rings feel any sort of way, putting

1:04:53

them on? What I would actually love for you to

1:04:55

do is to give me a constitution saving throw. Okay.

1:04:58

Why did I ask?

1:05:00

That's a seven. You

1:05:03

put the copper ring

1:05:05

on, and the

1:05:09

sensation is not

1:05:11

actually a terrible one as you put it on. I think

1:05:13

that constitution save means you're just very...

1:05:17

You feel the stimulation of

1:05:19

the magical effects taking over you very

1:05:21

palpably. You're not guarded

1:05:23

to the change in your physiology.

1:05:26

However, you put on the scouts ring, and

1:05:29

immediately the way you feel is just a

1:05:31

little bit

1:05:34

buzzed in a kind of caffeinated

1:05:37

way. You find yourself with

1:05:39

an abundance of focus

1:05:43

that doesn't feel unpleasant,

1:05:46

but you find yourself noting

1:05:49

more things. You're not getting

1:05:51

distracted very easily

1:05:54

as you wear this ring. So, whereas

1:05:57

before putting all your focus into a

1:05:59

ring,

1:05:59

You notice the ring, but you also notice

1:06:02

the two soldiers walking by and in a courtyard

1:06:04

you notice Sort of Creek

1:06:07

in a hallway outside. It's it

1:06:10

is a little bit I think Arson takes the ring

1:06:12

off like it for a second just like and

1:06:14

you see him like shaking his hand. It's

1:06:18

it is

1:06:19

It is palpable the

1:06:21

difference And

1:06:25

then I'm gonna try

1:06:26

to yawn if you can pop your ears

1:06:28

kind of helps oh Okay, yes Specific

1:06:42

physiology as a spirit

1:06:44

maybe

1:06:48

I'm not getting the popping

1:06:51

you were talking about Some

1:06:53

gum here hold on. I'm a do you have any gum

1:06:55

like a chewy food? Yeah, yeah, oh I

1:06:57

also have fruit

1:07:00

Making

1:07:12

Papa's ears, but it is just nice to focus on something

1:07:14

else

1:07:15

I I was like I also

1:07:17

I take a bronze ring and a copper ring

1:07:19

I take

1:07:22

an extra bronze

1:07:24

ring and I-I

1:07:27

check it is it Would

1:07:29

it be okay for non humans to wear

1:07:31

it? I? Don't know if you

1:07:34

know I don't know if you know offhand

1:07:36

you can give me an arcana check if you want Oh boy,

1:07:39

that's a one. Do you slide

1:07:41

a bronze ring onto

1:07:44

your finger before

1:07:45

Sort of questioning what it would do

1:07:47

to something. Yes. Yes. I

1:07:49

poke a I poke a digit into

1:07:51

it tentatively It feels

1:07:54

like touching a source of electricity if and

1:07:56

it's in that way that it numbs. It's

1:07:58

not pain, but boy

1:07:59

Boy is it an unpleasant sensation. And

1:08:03

you start to sweat

1:08:05

profusely and feel sick to

1:08:07

your stomach.

1:08:08

Whoa. Okay.

1:08:15

She wants my spearmint and fruit to tell.

1:08:18

Okay. No, why are you all? Go

1:08:22

ahead and give me a history check.

1:08:26

Oh, Suvi, go ahead and give me a history check.

1:08:28

Oh, me, okay, sorry. 20, 30, 20.

1:08:30

You

1:08:33

recognize that one

1:08:36

of the pieces of advice they give to soldiers in the Azure Battalion

1:08:38

is not to take these rings off lightly. And

1:08:41

you also remember that on the first day they

1:08:43

get them, they're not assigned anything. You think that

1:08:45

the first day of wearing these, you

1:08:48

are pretty, it's a

1:08:50

pretty intense process of like

1:08:53

accepting and assimilating and

1:08:56

dealing with the effect of the ring.

1:08:58

There's a bit of a... Okay.

1:09:02

Good. It's kind of a curve. I

1:09:06

rummage through my pouches and pull out my herbalism

1:09:08

kit and I pop some ginger into my

1:09:11

mouth and start chewing it up.

1:09:12

Oh. Okay.

1:09:16

I'm fine. This is fine, it'll be fine.

1:09:18

Hey, Fox. What?

1:09:21

Um,

1:09:24

how would you like to

1:09:26

mitigate some harm with

1:09:29

a little experiment that might make you a little

1:09:31

uncomfortable?

1:09:34

No.

1:09:36

That's fair. I

1:09:39

respect your bodily autonomy.

1:09:42

Great, because I can smell you sweating and I

1:09:45

don't want to do whatever it is. Okay. Okay.

1:09:48

Um, yes, yes. Are you going to put

1:09:51

one of the rings on the fox? Only

1:09:53

if he wanted it. How

1:09:57

cool would it be if

1:09:59

we had a... strong-ass Fox. That's

1:10:02

a good point. Hey Fox. Yeah.

1:10:05

Please let me put one of these rings on

1:10:07

you. What do I get in return? You

1:10:10

want some more of that fish slurry from earlier? Give me a persuasion

1:10:12

check. We're

1:10:15

both looking at him. Seven.

1:10:19

Let me be clear. I don't,

1:10:21

I'm never putting, I

1:10:23

should have made this clear the moment we met.

1:10:26

I'm never putting clothes on. And

1:10:28

that's clothes.

1:10:28

Look,

1:10:31

I'm just gonna say, I'm so glad

1:10:34

you're here with me, but if I had

1:10:36

known that going into this, it might

1:10:38

have turned out a little different.

1:10:39

Tough break. Tough

1:10:42

break, bus. I can't choose your family.

1:10:45

Yeah. You

1:10:49

put on the coral ring as well, or something. Yes. You

1:10:52

put on the coral ring and do not have any such reaction

1:10:54

to it. It feels, you don't feel any change

1:10:56

on your body as you put the coral ring on.

1:10:58

I want to say very specifically, Suvi didn't take

1:11:00

anything because of the

1:11:03

ledger optics of if it looked

1:11:05

like she took something too and

1:11:08

that somehow a wizard of the Citadel

1:11:11

was ill-equipped. Yes. Which

1:11:13

is obnoxious. Copy that. I hear

1:11:15

you. Suvi and Ursula

1:11:17

both see

1:11:19

Ami stealing something

1:11:21

from the room. Erika

1:11:24

just passed me a little note, but the role was not high

1:11:26

enough. What do you steal with an emblem on

1:11:28

it? Do you steal one of the boots or do you steal a

1:11:30

jacket or something? Just a jacket, I think. Yeah,

1:11:32

steal a little jacket.

1:11:33

Shove it into my back. Suvi

1:11:36

marks something down into the ledger,

1:11:38

but does not say anything. Ursula

1:11:42

looks to see it, Suvi sees that

1:11:44

she doesn't mind it and thinks. Oh,

1:11:47

Suvi minds. You can see it in her face. She's pissed

1:11:49

off at this, but she's not gonna say anything. So

1:11:52

all of you leave this area, you

1:11:54

have a little while before the boat.

1:12:00

What do you do in

1:12:01

the intervening? Aimee, you feel sick as

1:12:03

hell. I'm gonna take a

1:12:06

little nappy nap. Cool. Aimee

1:12:09

goes to take a nap, and just double checking again one time.

1:12:11

Two copper rings, one coral ring, one

1:12:13

bronze ring, and a jacket and a pair of bracers.

1:12:16

Did we not take any

1:12:16

of the witchfire veils? Did you explain the witchfire?

1:12:19

I took four, the witchfire veils, and

1:12:21

then you said one matchstick.

1:12:24

And a matchstick, if you want

1:12:26

it. Okay. I said the matchstick. I

1:12:28

said the matchstick. Cool. Well,

1:12:32

our first big getting of cool

1:12:34

magical gear. Yay! There it is. There it is. Yay! Give

1:12:36

me some water, bro. Now I need water.

1:12:38

Ha ha ha ha.

1:12:41

You spent some time, and actually, you

1:12:43

all do take an hour to attune

1:12:46

to your magical gear, which

1:12:50

is sort of what this process is. Your

1:12:52

attunement, Ursulon, is just getting used to

1:12:54

the new sort of amount of like sensory

1:12:57

information. Oh, and I was just gonna say that

1:12:59

Ursulon spends the time drinking wine,

1:13:01

trying to like meet in some kind

1:13:03

of middle of like, I don't want to be

1:13:05

able to hear everything.

1:13:07

But

1:13:10

you can also feel the coral ring. You do

1:13:12

sort of feel a,

1:13:16

there's something sort of like interesting

1:13:18

in this. I think you feel the quality, like

1:13:21

inside of your glamor, you feel the quality

1:13:24

of your fur change a little

1:13:26

bit. There's something to your plumage in your fur where

1:13:29

it becomes

1:13:31

not in an unpleasant way. It

1:13:34

shines

1:13:34

a little more as you realize that there's kind

1:13:37

of a healthy natural

1:13:39

oil on it. There's something that like makes

1:13:42

it a little bit more, almost like a polar

1:13:44

bear or an otter's fur or something like that, that

1:13:46

if you were to suddenly submerge, you would

1:13:48

not soak. Instead, it would sleeken.

1:13:51

It would become like, although it would be very

1:13:53

easy to become a chronic. There's water. There's

1:13:57

water.

1:13:57

Like water off under Solon's

1:13:59

back. I

1:14:02

want to say during that time, I absolutely

1:14:05

attempted to fully

1:14:07

pack the whatever that like

1:14:11

flower pressed book that Maro

1:14:13

gave me. I'm trying to keep it. So I'm

1:14:15

like packing it into my stuff. It's mine now.

1:14:18

Gotcha. So you had to not open it. You're

1:14:20

just packing it away. Yeah. That hour

1:14:22

wasn't enough time. I think she's got other stuff on her mind and

1:14:24

she didn't want to get lost in this

1:14:26

before going and doing something else. Incredible.

1:14:29

So you didn't give me either stealth or sleight of hand as

1:14:31

you attempt to like conceal it in your belongings.

1:14:34

Thirteen. Thirteen. Okay.

1:14:37

Copy that. You go ahead and conceal this sort

1:14:39

of pressed tome inside. Ame,

1:14:43

the fox is right on your bed looking

1:14:45

at you with this really concerned thing. You

1:14:47

are sweating. You feel nauseous because

1:14:51

you also, I believe, put on a copper ring as

1:14:53

well, right? Yeah. Okay. You

1:14:56

get this sensory stuff as you get advantage on

1:14:58

perception and initiative and

1:15:00

you have this bronze ring on.

1:15:04

So I don't know

1:15:05

how to tell you this, Erika. After

1:15:08

an hour's nap, you do get up and

1:15:10

actually give me a constitution saving throw.

1:15:12

That's

1:15:14

a 13. Okay. On

1:15:16

a 13, you

1:15:18

miraculously do not have

1:15:20

to get up and go to the privy to

1:15:23

expel what you ate or drank,

1:15:25

but it's close. There's a couple of times where you're

1:15:28

like holding your stomach and you're like, do I get up and make

1:15:30

a run for it? Just

1:15:31

try hitting a little rally. You

1:15:35

can rally. And

1:15:39

Ame,

1:15:41

after about an hour, and you realize

1:15:43

like 45 minutes into it, you have a full fever.

1:15:46

I'm going to sip some wizard Gatorade.

1:15:49

Yeah. Oh, you have your little ginger

1:15:51

wick drink. Ginger

1:15:54

shots and a little wizard Gatorade.

1:15:56

Yeah.

1:15:56

By the way, I'll say this when

1:15:58

they give these rings out.

1:15:59

They tell you not to put both on in the

1:16:02

same day, for sure. So

1:16:05

you get up, once

1:16:07

again, more things in focus, more

1:16:09

things aligned, you're way more perceptive, and

1:16:11

you look in a mirror after an hour,

1:16:14

as you get up and are changing out of your

1:16:16

truly soiled, sweat-soaked

1:16:19

clothing, you have

1:16:22

lats. You just fully

1:16:24

have lats. You turn your

1:16:26

arm and have a

1:16:28

shredded fucking tricep. As

1:16:32

you bend down to get more clothes, there's definition

1:16:35

in your quads.

1:16:36

You are, there is nothing.

1:16:40

Aime now has a strength score of 19.

1:16:43

What? No! Bam!

1:16:46

Let's go! That's

1:16:48

higher than Ursula. No! Yeah,

1:16:53

you have a storage ring on, and it's

1:16:55

fucked up. You are jacked as hell. Let's

1:17:00

go.

1:17:04

I spend a little bit of time

1:17:06

flexing in the mirror. This

1:17:09

feels real good. Incredible.

1:17:12

I grew up my whole life on a farm, wrangling

1:17:15

animals and chopping wood, but

1:17:18

now it's aesthetic. Oh!

1:17:21

Oh, your muscles.

1:17:25

Yeah, I mean, your biggest impediment has always

1:17:27

been your actual physical stature.

1:17:30

And it doesn't

1:17:31

seem to be a problem anymore. Small, let's go.

1:17:33

Now I am a five foot shit

1:17:35

brick house. Oh my god. Shit

1:17:38

brick house.

1:17:38

Incredible.

1:17:43

Night falls, and all

1:17:45

of you have dinner brought to your rooms.

1:17:49

And as you sort

1:17:51

of,

1:17:52

you know, ready yourselves,

1:17:55

a carriage pulls up outside. Do

1:17:57

you all enter and head to the harbor?

1:18:00

Are we feeling good? You look like shit. Does

1:18:06

this look shitty to you? And

1:18:08

I pull back a sleeve and

1:18:11

flex. I go to grab your

1:18:13

muscle, but you're still fever sweating in a

1:18:15

like kind of a mixed bag. Agreed.

1:18:19

Is that the ring?

1:18:20

I guess. Ah.

1:18:24

Cool. Fox,

1:18:28

that could be you.

1:18:29

Honestly, I think

1:18:32

in this moment, I'm very glad we did

1:18:34

not give the fox a ring. But

1:18:36

I want one. No, no,

1:18:38

you don't. I give me one. He

1:18:40

said he wants a ring. Do

1:18:43

you all want to see a fox with abdominal

1:18:45

muscles? Is that what you want? I

1:18:48

do not. Why is that even a question? Absolutely

1:18:51

don't. Absolutely. It was bad enough when

1:18:53

we gave him a vote. He

1:18:55

ate his vote and he doesn't have it anymore. You

1:18:57

can eat your vote and have it too. I

1:19:00

don't like the fox telling me I'm wrong. I

1:19:02

think we should get on the carriage. All

1:19:05

of you get on the carriage and proceed

1:19:08

through Port Talon at night. A

1:19:10

cool mist sort of rises up from

1:19:13

the water of the harbor. You're going

1:19:15

towards the interior harbor, the

1:19:18

one on sort of the inside of the curve of

1:19:20

the Talon of Port Talon. And

1:19:23

you move through cobblestone

1:19:26

streets and beautiful,

1:19:28

more like civic imperial buildings

1:19:31

that have been built more recently. And

1:19:34

you see a ship awaiting you out of the end

1:19:36

of a long pier that goes all the

1:19:38

way out towards like a tall ship that can

1:19:40

take you all the way out towards the derrick. The

1:19:45

ship waiting for you is not some massive

1:19:47

war galley. It is a tall ship, but it is a

1:19:50

sort of frigate. It's one made for speed and

1:19:52

for a smaller crew. As

1:19:55

you travel past in the carriage, I

1:19:57

would ask for...

1:19:59

Suvi

1:20:02

to give me a perception check. Okay,

1:20:04

30-20. You

1:20:06

look at the governor's manner, and it is night, but

1:20:09

you see that there are still some rooms that are alight

1:20:12

with citadel magic within the

1:20:14

governor's manner. You

1:20:17

see a citadel carriage

1:20:20

outside of the governor's manner.

1:20:23

And on a dirty 20, I think

1:20:25

you can see that the coachman

1:20:28

of that citadel carriage

1:20:29

is leaning in and speaking to someone inside

1:20:32

of the carriage. I

1:20:34

gotta say it. I have the observant feet.

1:20:37

If I can see someone's mouth moving, can I read

1:20:39

his lips? Read

1:20:41

their lips? Are you far away? You absolutely can. Yeah! That's

1:20:44

the first time I've ever seen that come up. Yay! I've

1:20:49

never been more excited to remember how my feet work.

1:20:52

You see that the coachman is saying, as

1:20:54

you wish, Abjura Galani, I believe

1:20:56

that they should be outside sooner

1:20:58

rather than later.

1:21:01

I heard word from someone

1:21:03

at the

1:21:05

Septus Chorus Chantry

1:21:07

that there was some—and at that point you're pulling around

1:21:09

the corner. God, what was his?

1:21:12

Hey, y'all?

1:21:15

Yes. Do you remember the three

1:21:18

wizards that were mentioned in— The

1:21:21

Ace of Wands? Yeah. Not really,

1:21:23

but— Uh, Laurel and Hain

1:21:26

and Galani. And

1:21:29

I point back towards the governor's manner. Is

1:21:32

there? I don't know if that's important, but that's

1:21:34

a citadel wizard. Well, Yura— It's

1:21:38

gonna be nothing. Yura's a citadel wizard.

1:21:41

And it's very weird that I'm here. Ee. Galani

1:21:44

is someone you've met before. Ooh. And

1:21:48

I've—I know them. They're— Is

1:21:51

it bad that—I mean, we already

1:21:54

flubbed Ark of a Story one time? It's true. Is

1:21:57

it bad if we— No, they—

1:21:58

I think Galani

1:22:01

knows I'm here. I

1:22:04

saw something that the

1:22:06

coachman mentioned, our

1:22:08

Chantry and something that

1:22:10

went down. So I think word of the unpleasantness

1:22:14

is already at the Governor's mansion. The

1:22:17

unpleasantness.

1:22:19

That's a duty. Should

1:22:23

we be on guard with this person? With

1:22:27

everyone. Always. Okay,

1:22:29

yeah, yeah, of course. Wizards are defined

1:22:32

by their secrets. You

1:22:36

continue along, waiting,

1:22:40

avoiding the eyes

1:22:43

of the Citadel. You

1:22:45

arrive at the harbor, walk along

1:22:47

the pier and see out in the distance

1:22:49

now. Much more

1:22:51

dramatic in the nighttime sea, purple

1:22:55

and green. Lights

1:22:59

pulsing out in

1:23:00

the distance. Up

1:23:03

on the deck of the ship, Guildmage Moro clasps his hands. Ah, welcome,

1:23:05

welcome. Lovely

1:23:08

sea-tied excursion. Obviously,

1:23:11

I know you've had your dinner already, but we do have

1:23:13

some amenities and some crudite

1:23:15

waiting for us. It's so

1:23:17

kind of you, no thank you.

1:23:18

Oh, quite all right.

1:23:22

Very well. You see that

1:23:24

he invites you onto the deck of the ship.

1:23:28

And you hear the ropes

1:23:31

unwinding with some careful mage hand spells

1:23:34

from the sailors around. And

1:23:37

as you take off, the ship begins sailing.

1:23:40

Moro stands near the prowl looking excitedly,

1:23:43

walks over to you, Suvi. I

1:23:45

wished to let you know

1:23:48

that we were unable

1:23:50

to apprehend the Guildmage Payne.

1:23:54

He was

1:23:56

alerted to sex.

1:23:59

status somehow and. I'll

1:24:04

make each other. However,

1:24:08

we've taken the liberty and you see he holds up a

1:24:10

small parchment that has a

1:24:13

magically conjured sort of etching

1:24:16

of Payne's face. And it says wanted

1:24:19

for crimes against the Imperium for

1:24:22

the bounty of 750 Imperial marks. We've

1:24:25

taken the liberty of putting these up across

1:24:27

town. Wonderful.

1:24:29

Without a traveling door, he won't be able

1:24:32

to get far. I consider this

1:24:34

handled. He smiles and says, wonderful.

1:24:37

Now, to the main event.

1:24:40

Oh, I'm so excited. I

1:24:42

have longed to be

1:24:44

in the company of a true wizard.

1:24:47

And though I

1:24:49

know of course that you

1:24:51

are still in

1:24:54

your apprenticeship, I think the

1:24:56

writing is on the wall that you will be

1:24:59

a great wizard of this age.

1:25:01

And I am so excited

1:25:03

to see

1:25:05

what is to come. CB

1:25:07

nods graciously. Just

1:25:10

a little animal.

1:25:13

The ship arrives at the derrick

1:25:15

and as you come closer, you see

1:25:17

a structure that has

1:25:21

four inclined, massive steel beams

1:25:23

that all come to a central point.

1:25:27

It is effectively the shape of a pyramid, but

1:25:30

in an incredibly acute isosceles formation.

1:25:33

So a tall and narrow pyramid of

1:25:35

steel, except hollow. So

1:25:39

only the corners are these like four

1:25:42

steel beams that come down and set between them,

1:25:46

you see that they are the same size. Set

1:25:50

between them, you see that they are

1:25:52

platforms ascending up, covered

1:25:55

in lights. The platforms appear to be both

1:25:58

structural, like helping hold. and secure

1:26:00

this magical

1:26:03

Derek. And you also notice that there's

1:26:05

not anything ostentatious going on here.

1:26:07

Like the platforms are secured structurally

1:26:10

to the outer beams. There

1:26:12

are some railings for safety when there's

1:26:14

the platform. But within them, you

1:26:17

see that there are the

1:26:19

basics of rune work within platforms

1:26:22

going up. And each of the platforms holds,

1:26:27

as you arrive up on the outside,

1:26:29

there's a staircase

1:26:29

going up, like a zigzagging up

1:26:32

across from platform to platform, going way,

1:26:34

way up high. In the center of

1:26:36

each steel platform is

1:26:38

a circular disk of

1:26:42

glass, or if it's crystal, it's perfectly

1:26:45

transparent crystal. But it basically

1:26:47

creates the circumstance of that

1:26:49

whatever floor you're on, you can walk

1:26:51

out into that disk of glass and look straight up

1:26:54

and see all the way up to the central

1:26:57

lights at the top. And you see are these massive

1:27:00

stacked purple and green that

1:27:02

you can now see are perfect octagonal

1:27:07

prisms. So like an

1:27:09

octagon cylinder into

1:27:12

octagonal points that flows, it's like

1:27:14

a little prism, right? They

1:27:18

hover up at the top of this Derek

1:27:20

shape. And the light

1:27:22

from them cascades down through all

1:27:24

of those lenses. And you see the sort of strange

1:27:28

effect all through all these

1:27:29

lenses is that the actual

1:27:32

water as the beams go into

1:27:34

the sea itself, that there is

1:27:36

this incredibly bright

1:27:39

green and purple light illuminating

1:27:41

the gentle waves rolling

1:27:44

underneath the Derek, really like illuminating

1:27:46

the sea, which also has the effect of making

1:27:48

all the sea around it incredibly

1:27:50

dark, that you kind of like that light is so powerful

1:27:53

that it's blinding what you'd normally be able to see.

1:27:56

As you arrive and the ship is anchored,

1:27:59

Moro says, ah,

1:28:03

welcome, welcome

1:28:06

to the Calabell Nottomantic

1:28:09

Apparatus. It

1:28:15

is a pleasure and honor and a privilege.

1:28:18

Which I know I have said altogether too many

1:28:20

times, but you can see here he trembles

1:28:22

with emotion. He says, right

1:28:24

this way, takes

1:28:27

you to the staircase, and

1:28:29

you can see uses for the first time his own

1:28:31

magic. He casts a spell that

1:28:34

kind of creates a floating platform

1:28:36

of force underneath you so that you don't have to ascend

1:28:38

this like long staircase yourselves. As

1:28:42

you begin to float up the staircase

1:28:44

on this

1:28:44

platform of force, he

1:28:47

just begins to point things out to you. He's like, and

1:28:50

as you get up, the wind kind of kicks up

1:28:52

going higher and higher, the sea wind really starts to

1:28:55

get more intense. So sort of speaking

1:28:58

over the wind, he starts to go like, the construction

1:29:00

of the actual apparatus took

1:29:03

approximately three and a half years.

1:29:06

The enchanting could begin within the

1:29:08

last year, but we needed to wait until it was fully

1:29:12

stable and operational before the real enchantments,

1:29:14

the prisms you

1:29:14

see up above, could actually be called

1:29:17

into effect. It's an incredible

1:29:20

testament to the work of the engineers and the various

1:29:23

mage rights that were able to come in and build

1:29:26

this here. I really

1:29:28

can't wait to show you. You

1:29:32

arrive at the uppermost

1:29:33

platform.

1:29:44

Which at this point is

1:29:47

about,

1:29:47

you know, still 80 or

1:29:50

so feet underneath the top.

1:29:52

You're probably like 160 feet up

1:29:55

above the ocean you're

1:29:58

high, high, high up. And

1:30:02

as you are up in this, this last platform

1:30:06

is probably like 30 feet

1:30:09

by 30 feet. Like it is narrow

1:30:11

up here, right? So it's pretty cozy.

1:30:14

And you see this big disc

1:30:17

of crystal, pure,

1:30:19

like flawless, completely translucent

1:30:22

in the center of the steel platform. The platforms

1:30:24

of course are, what's

1:30:27

the word I'm looking for? Not corrugated. The

1:30:29

platforms

1:30:29

have lots of slots

1:30:32

in them, like almost like a chain link fence.

1:30:34

What was I looking for? Like a grate. Yeah,

1:30:37

the steel platforms are graded to A, make them

1:30:39

easier to lift, they're lighter, but

1:30:41

B also for water and things like that. So you're

1:30:43

on this graded steel platform that goes out to this

1:30:45

disc in the middle. And you

1:30:48

see Mauro looks at

1:30:50

you and says, and

1:30:52

of course we built the derrick,

1:30:55

enchanted it, and then it was just a matter

1:30:57

of time before we could

1:30:59

set into motion what

1:31:08

we knew was possible given studies

1:31:13

of the opportunity given to us

1:31:15

by Port Talon

1:31:18

and what the locals

1:31:20

had often spoken about.

1:31:23

They only knew a fraction of, there

1:31:26

is something truly worthwhile,

1:31:29

but

1:31:30

explaining it to you would rob you of the wonder

1:31:33

of what we first found when we came out here.

1:31:35

So without further ado, if you would

1:31:37

step onto the disc, we will go

1:31:40

ahead and let the show

1:31:42

begin.

1:31:43

I don't hesitate. I'm

1:31:46

locked up. I

1:31:49

pause for a moment. This is all

1:31:52

so fascinating and impressive, but there's

1:31:54

just something in my stomach

1:31:57

that feels bad. not

1:32:00

the result of the rings. You

1:32:06

feel that weirdness. You see

1:32:08

Maro looks at you and says, if

1:32:11

you're not feeling well, you

1:32:14

don't need to participate.

1:32:15

Oh, no, no, that's all right.

1:32:18

Sorry, it's a little nausea.

1:32:23

Understood. Um, well,

1:32:28

he claps and you see

1:32:30

that a

1:32:32

number of other attendant mages down

1:32:34

below begin to swirl their hands

1:32:37

and chant. Whispers

1:32:44

begin to echo out from

1:32:47

the derrick. See kicks up a little

1:32:49

bit as you see a group of wizards working in unison.

1:32:52

Maro looks up,

1:32:54

touches his lower lip, speaks silently

1:32:57

to himself. And

1:33:01

you see the prisms begin to

1:33:03

rotate overhead, causing

1:33:05

the purple and green light to rotate

1:33:07

on the sea floor underneath. You look

1:33:10

and see the lenses shifting as

1:33:12

the mages below begin to chant

1:33:14

in unison and the light intensifies.

1:33:19

Purple and green light mixing,

1:33:23

swirling, becoming one blinding

1:33:26

image. The waves kick up, the

1:33:28

wind kicks up. You

1:33:30

see white foam coming off the sea caps of the waves

1:33:32

beneath you. The

1:33:35

light is obscuring it, but you see that the foam

1:33:37

is building and building and building. Suddenly

1:33:39

you realize the light itself is swirling

1:33:42

and creating a whirlpool underneath

1:33:45

the derrick.

1:33:46

But

1:33:51

it's not a whirlpool of space, but

1:33:53

one of light itself. The sea

1:33:56

is flattened and illuminated as

1:33:58

something neither watered nor dried. nor air

1:34:00

is created. It is simply solid

1:34:03

light itself taking the place

1:34:06

of any other element and whoa,

1:34:09

zooms down.

1:34:15

Deep to the bottom of the ocean underneath, illuminating

1:34:18

something deeper, deeper, deeper.

1:34:21

You see moving the light through.

1:34:23

And now even the brightness of the gold light

1:34:25

clears to actually pure crystal

1:34:28

clarity. You

1:34:31

can see exactly

1:34:34

what you are meant to see standing here on the glass.

1:34:38

Endless water parting

1:34:41

and down another 80 or 100

1:34:45

feet beneath the surface.

1:34:49

You see something enormous

1:34:52

at first. You

1:35:00

wonder what it could be. A

1:35:02

ship wrecked and scuttled

1:35:05

on the bottom of the sea out

1:35:07

beyond the bay. No,

1:35:10

it's bigger than a ship. It's some

1:35:14

kind of whale, some

1:35:16

leviathan of the ancient sea.

1:35:19

And then you see it moves

1:35:21

in something like a breath or a palpitation.

1:35:30

There is a coloring to it. You're

1:35:40

looking at red and

1:35:43

cream stripes like

1:35:47

waves and hundreds

1:35:49

of tendrils. You look to find

1:35:51

a face, but you can't see one.

1:35:54

There is some massive

1:35:58

monster at the bottom of the sea. of

1:36:00

the sea, surrounded by

1:36:02

tall, dark ocean rocks in

1:36:04

the depths. You

1:36:07

see its tendrils. It is something like

1:36:09

a

1:36:11

lionfish, faceless,

1:36:14

and oblong as a sea cucumber,

1:36:17

larger than an ocean galley.

1:36:20

At the front of its body,

1:36:22

there is a series

1:36:25

of glowing, bioluminescent

1:36:27

lights, each

1:36:29

larger than the wheel of a carriage,

1:36:31

but on its massive frame, somehow

1:36:33

small in comparison,

1:36:35

that stretch

1:36:38

back. You

1:36:40

see its long body curls

1:36:43

almost like a nautilus, a tail

1:36:45

that narrows, tucked in underneath

1:36:48

itself, even though all of it is

1:36:50

soft and writhing and palpitating

1:36:53

in its massiveness. The

1:36:55

lights,

1:36:58

light crystal blue and then deep

1:37:01

green and then bright red, scintillating

1:37:06

along its body, a

1:37:08

massive ocean

1:37:11

creature unlike any you have ever

1:37:13

seen before. You

1:37:18

see, from underneath its

1:37:20

massive frame, coral

1:37:25

growing up from where

1:37:27

its body touches

1:37:32

underneath, and the source

1:37:34

of the coral is

1:37:38

some glimmering

1:37:42

blue-white liquid

1:37:45

that appears to shimmer

1:37:47

iridescently like oil on

1:37:50

the surface of water that

1:37:54

soaks out from where its body

1:37:56

touches the stone and as it

1:37:59

leaves, coral

1:38:01

grows, spiking out in

1:38:04

all directions, spiring

1:38:07

up as though to reach

1:38:09

out and rise up

1:38:11

and in cover or in case

1:38:14

or in close. And you see

1:38:16

down there, the

1:38:18

base of the steel structure of the derrick.

1:38:21

And clearly the coral is

1:38:23

being carved off. You

1:38:25

see

1:38:27

structures and tools and implements at

1:38:29

the base of the tower for carving the

1:38:31

coral away.

1:38:33

And you see the light.

1:38:38

As the light touches the creature, you

1:38:41

see reverberating like

1:38:43

sonic waves. The creature pushed

1:38:46

down.

1:38:53

This tower, reverberating

1:38:56

with energy.

1:38:58

It's for posts on either

1:39:01

side of the creature at the bottom

1:39:03

of the sea. You

1:39:05

see, Maro

1:39:08

smiles weeping. What

1:39:12

have you done? We

1:39:14

got it. We

1:39:18

got it. We got it.

1:39:28

We got it. That

1:39:44

was Lou Wilson as Ursulan,

1:39:46

Erika Ishii as Ame, Abria

1:39:49

Iyengar as Suvi and Brennan

1:39:51

Lee Mulligan as everyone and

1:39:53

everything else. Worlds

1:39:56

Beyond Number is edited, designed, and

1:39:58

scored by Taylor

1:39:59

Moore. at Fortunate Horse with

1:40:01

additional sound designed from Michael Gelfie

1:40:04

Studios. For even more like

1:40:06

this, join us on our Patreon.

1:40:09

We'll see you there.

1:40:30

you