Masks off. The world blooms anew with purpose, as our trio take the first few proper steps of their quest. The band is back together, the open road of blue water calls, but what else lies in wait between here and there? Only everything.
Masks off. The world blooms anew with purpose, as our trio take the first few proper steps of their quest. The band is back together, the open road of blue water calls, but what else lies in wait between here and there? Only everything.
Worlds Beyond Number is:
and is produced, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate Horse.
Transcript of this episode available here.
We have so much more to show you. An entire campaign about Suvi, Ame, and Eursulon meeting for the first time as children, for instance. And would you believe, even more? Please, join us at Patreon.com/worldsbeyondnumber
Our album art is by the great Corey Brickley
Some additional ambient sound design comes from Michael Ghelfi Studios. You can get their sounds and music for your home games and VTT as well, which we enthusiastically recommend. .
The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One: Episode 03
Final Version
[World’s Beyond Number intro music rises urgently with orchestral strings and flute]
Erika Ishii:
This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number.
[The other instruments fade into a lone flute and violin pluck]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Last we left, here in the world of Umora, we had our incredible heroes once again rejoined, after many long years from the childhood they shared together, in the cottage of Grandmother Wren. Suvi and Ame reconnected with a stranger at the door.
Aabria Iyengar
[Whispered] Oh god.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
A wanderer. The Man in Black, the King of Night, as some call him, who has held his breath since the dawning of the world. That figure shook the foundations of the house, shattered Suvi's sending mirror, and when he asked if he could enter, Ame told him to return. And when he asked her to name a day, she said in one year's time. And he vanished, and night left with him.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Quickly realizing that you needed to find Wavebreaker, the sword last left in the care of Eursulon, the Spirit that you had befriended in childhood and grew up alongside, you rushed to the shrine, where you found—
Erika Ishii
Mr. Soup!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You found Mr. Soup, aka Daomei, the Spirit of the Stream, that helped you find a familiar, and a fox that had been waiting for the death of the rooster Taro for so long to get him some chickens! The Fox showed up, and in being seized by the Witch Ame, was granted the power of speech, and made her familiar.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Every witch has a different process of binding a familiar to their service. And a deal was struck! A promise of magic. And seeing that magic was the ability to do all kinds of nonsense, essentially, the Fox said, "Sign me up," and was able to track the scent of your long lost true friend, Eursulon. You arrived at—god, I want to call it the Hay Festival.
Aabria Iyengar
[Laughs]
Erika Ishii
Hey.
Aabria Iyengar
Yeah.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You arrived at a fair.
Aabria Iyengar
Got him.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You arrived at a fair in the city of Joras, where the play of Sir Gallant and the Princess Bryony was being held. And of course, knowing the secret origins of Eursulon, that many may not yet know, perhaps some part of you expected to see him in the role of the wonderful Sir Gallant, to only have your hearts broken, when, wearing his true form, in a mockery of costume, Eursulon walked on stage, to play the part of the ogre.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Rushing backstage, you found your friend changed into his human glamour. You recovered Ame's music box, a gift to him in childhood that was kept in the wagon of Professor Adelaide, the magician ringmaster of this troupe of performers. Shattered his little false magical bric-a-brac.
Aabria Iyengar
Buh.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And Ame talking to Eursulon in the tent. Suvi returned, you discovered that Eursulon had parted, in the many years since you last saw him, with Wavebreaker. But in that moment of sharing the shame that had prevented him from returning home, you reminded him, that with the sword missing, and having been reunited, your friend had a quest!
[Musical break]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And we start with those words, and the significance of them that may still somewhat elude us, as the thought of a quest weighs heavy on the mind of Eursulon. Where do we see Eursulon, thinking on a quest, as we come back to the festival.
Lou Wilson
Eursulon has kind of, in the same place that all of the horses and mules that drag the carts along the fairs, like general travel route—where they sleep, he does as well. And so he has come back to his little area in that space, and is kind of picking through what little he brings with him from town to town.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Suvi and Ame, go ahead and give me a Perception Check.
Aabria Iyengar
15.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
15.
Erika Ishii
21.
Aabria Iyengar
Oooh!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
What sort of items, if any, litter the area around this nest?
Lou Wilson
I think they're probably several empty bottles of alcohol, or like, quarter left bottles of drink. I think maybe several flyers, or different trinkets. I've got maybe another change of clothes, but they're not like—they're just thrown. You see, like, another pair of pants, another shirt, my fake sword that I use for the show, and then a few different trinkets, and tokens, and things that are clearly from, like "Oh, in this town, something—" like little—what do you call those?
Aabria Iyengar
Tchotchkes?
Lou Wilson
Tchotchkes—
Erika Ishii
Knick-knacks.
Lou Wilson
Knick-knack.
Erika Ishii
Bric-a-brac
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Souvenir.
Lou Wilson
Souvenir.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Yeah.
Lou Wilson
All of these.
Aabria Iyengar
[Laughing]
Lou Wilson
I'll take 'em all!
Erika Ishii
Whatchamacallits!
Lou Wilson
I got one-a each. I got a tchotchke! I got a souvenir!
[The cast laughs]
Lou Wilson
I think Eursulon looks through the clothes that he could bring, but I think he's so thrilled to have the music box back, that I think he kind of takes a look around the area, and I think is moving hay around.
Eursulon [Lou]
Mm. No. No. No need for that.
Lou Wilson
Just like, picking up different things, and throwing them back down.
Aabria Iyengar
I am, throughout this staring at Ame, like
Suvi [Aabria]
See, it can be done. Cuts can be made.
[Brennan and Erika laugh]
Ame [Erika]
[Aside] Yeah well, when he needs another pair of pants on the town, where's that going to be? Here.
Aabria Iyengar
That is a glamour.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
As you say "that is a glamour," You hear a voice behind you say
Oscar [Brennan]
A what?
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And you look up and see Oscar, without his shiny fake armor on, walk up and say
Oscar [Brennan]
A glamour? What's a glamour?
Suvi [Aabria]
Wuh. How—
Eursulon [Lou]
It is a form, that I use.
Suvi [Aabria]
What.
Oscar [Brennan]
Eursulon wow! You're out of your makeup fast. Wow!
Eursulon [Lou]
Yes. Oscar—
Lou Wilson
I come and I put a hand on his shoulder.
Oscar [Brennan]
Hey, is everything alright? I hope—I don't think I messed up any of my lines.
Lou Wilson
No, Oscar, you were fine.
Oscar [Brennan]
Oh, good.
Erika Ishii
Suvi and Ame look at each other.
[Ame and Suvi groan uncertainly]
Oscar [Brennan]
The show—
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see that Oscar—you're looking at the guy, Oscar. He's sort of a little bit like, wiry. The armor kind of makes him look a little bit bigger, but he's like a handsome guy, he's just like an actor, who seems like someone at least who, out of all the people at this fair, was the one person who came looking for his friend who ran off. So he goes,
Oscar [Brennan]
The show ended, I actually think pretty okay. Agnes... sort of vamped for a while.
Eursulon [Lou]
How did she do?
Oscar [Brennan]
Agh.
Eursulon [Lou]
The times she has tried before have been poor.
Oscar [Brennan]
Yeah. She probably should have gone to look for you. I don't know. There was someone heckling from the audience I couldn't see, and I just tried to sort of... agree with whatever they were saying and then took off backstage. But it ended up going okay. We had the kids just throw the tomatoes at a tree, and they seemed, you know, new kids, they didn't know that they were missing anything, so they just got to throw tomatoes. They were happy about that.
Aabria Iyengar
[Chuckles]
Eursulon [Lou]
That is good.
Oscar [Brennan]
Are you... are you okay?
Eursulon [Lou]
I am fine. In fact, I'm better for my friends being here, and I believe I will be leaving with them now.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Oscar looks at you and remembers the the energy you came backstage with, and you see he sort of squares up a little bit and goes
Oscar [Brennan]
Um. You uh—yeah. Well, if you're—if you're going out drinking with your friends, that's fine, and you can let me—
Eursulon [Lou]
Your assumption is incorrect, I will be going out for some time. A long time. I will not be playing the Ogre in the production anymore.
Oscar [Brennan]
If you're worried about the role—
Eursulon [Lou]
Glamour comes off.
Suvi [Aabria]
Oh!
[The sound of a magical transformation, light and flittering]
Oscar [Brennan]
[Panicked screaming]
Suvi [Aabria]
No!
Aabria Iyengar
I immediately lunge for him and cover—
Oscar [Brennan]
[More screaming]
Ame [Erika]
Hey, look at us. Look at us. It's okay. This is all perfectly normal.
Eursulon [Lou]
This is who I am.
Oscar [Brennan]
[Panting, confused] Uh, uhhhh. Uhhhh?
Ame [Erika]
[Calmly] He's not a monster.
Aabria Iyengar
[Coldly] If you're not quiet, I will make you quiet.
Eursulon [Lou]
[Chastizing] Suvi.
Suvi [Aabria]
What?
Ame [Erika]
This is an Honored Friend.
Eursulon [Lou]
I am a Spirit, Oscar.
Suvi [Aabria]
[Enraged, simmering] And you let people throw vegetables at him.
Eursulon [Lou]
I had agency in the matter.
Suvi [Aabria]
[Unconvinced groan]
Eursulon [Lou]
Oscar, and J.B. to an extent, have shown me a kindness, a form of kindness.
Oscar [Brennan]
Oh my—I'm the stupidest man in the world.
Aabria Iyengar
Suvi's nodding.
Ame [Erika]
No.
Oscar [Brennan]
You are a Spirit. Oh, my god. You're a Spirit. You're a Spirit. I can't believe it, I can't believe it. I used to sit at my window when I was a kid, and hope one day that a Spirit would come out of the forest, and I would see one [Gasping laughter] And I've been performing with one for almost two years?
Eursulon [Lou]
Yes, you've been hitting one with a sword especially hard in fight three for two years.
Oscar [Brennan]
Well, that's the big finale. You have to sell the—
Eursulon [Lou]
Yes, but the jump attack is not necessary.
Suvi [Aabria]
The what?
Eursulon [Lou]
Here, demonstrate.
Suvi [Aabria]
No. Don't.
Oscar [Brennan]
Okay.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And you see, he looks, because the glamour has gone away, but he's still looking at kind of, the dirty nest of hay around mules with bottles and stuff, and he goes
Oscar [Brennan]
So how much—if you've been the Ogre the whole time—
Eursulon [Lou]
Mhm.
Oscar [Brennan]
—then. How much else is—is anything else? Wait, is your name Bear, or no.
Suvi [Aabria]
Ugh.
Eursulon [Lou]
[Chuckling] Here, Oscar, come—I need help finding something in the hay.
Lou Wilson
I start to plod around in it.
Eursulon [Lou]
When I was young, for you, for people like you, a child in my world, but not of an age that would be childlike in yours. I, through play with my siblings, stumbled into this mortal world. And in that time met a man, who was a knight, much like the one you play.
Oscar [Brennan]
You met—but—
Ame [Erika]
A real knight. This was a long time ago. Time works differently for them.
Oscar [Brennan]
Okay, so—real knights, I mean. That's, you know, the, the world—so this, this was ages ago. Ages and ages ago.
Eursulon [Lou]
Mm. Yes.
Oscar [Brennan]
Okay.
Eursulon [Lou]
And after meeting this knight, was gifted, this.
Lou Wilson
And I hold out the pauldron, that I wear during the show.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
He extends a hand to it, and then almost like withdraws his hand, like it's disrespectful to even touch it. He looks at it and just goes
Oscar [Brennan]
[Thoughtfully] That did always look a little bit too good for J. B.
Aabria Iyengar
[Stifled laughter]
Eursulon [Lou]
Yes. But he gave me this and I returned to my world, and showed it to my many siblings. And their reactions to this gift I had received from the knight, whose name was Curran, were such that I realized that my world was not enough, at least at that moment, for me. And that the things I sought, things that I saw in this knight, were what I desired. And so I came back. And in the coming back was trapped here.
Oscar [Brennan]
Trapped here by who?
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And you see here he like, looks at the two magical people that are standing near him, wondering if they are—you can see him wondering if you are really like his friends or not, and if the trapping is happening—he's looking at a witch and a wizard and is like, well, trapping Spirits, uhh.
Ame [Erika]
We tried to help him return to his home, but the doorways between the realms don't quite work the way we want them to. In fact, we don't know how they work.
Oscar [Brennan]
This is all so much. Well, did you try to find Sir Curran or..?
Eursulon [Lou]
I did. But time had shifted in such a way that, I did not find Sir Curran.
Oscar [Brennan]
[Sadly] Oh.
Eursulon [Lou]
But, instead I found them.
Oscar [Brennan]
Oh.
Eursulon [Lou]
I came back seeking the things I had thought most represented knighthood. Honor, a quest. And, foolishly, left the comforts of a home I shared with Ame, and another family figure to me, Grandmother Wren. And in that leaving, have come to learn that those things are much harder to come by.
Oscar [Brennan]
I suppose I understand, but I sorta don't. Kids are supposed to wander off to Faerie, where they find wine, and dances, and things like that. What's so special about comin' here? I mean, I just can't imagine—I don't know. I just can't imagine there being somethin' that a great and powerful Spirit like you would find worthwhile in a place like this.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And he gestures at the hay, and the mules, and the barn, and the wagons all clustered around.
Eursulon [Lou]
Indeed, there are many things that this realm lacks, but, amongst the disappointments, there are a couple bright spots.
Erika Ishii
Ame puts her small hand in Eursulon's big one, if he allows it.
Lou Wilson
Yes.
Oscar [Brennan]
Well... Be awful sad to see you go, pal. But knowing what you are, I couldn't rightly ask you to stay. It's a strange thing to even have a wizard or a witch come to the show at all, let alone to find out that you've been playing foils with a Spirit, a Wild One, straight out of stories.
Eursulon [Lou]
Well, perhaps it'll be the next show you do. It's likely the company will fall to you. J.B. has taken off into the night.
Oscar [Brennan]
[Abruptly] What? How do we all get paid?
Suvi [Aabria]
Wait, who's J.B.?
Oscar [Brennan]
Professor Adelaide!
Suvi [Aabria]
Oh? [With dawning realization] Oh. Ohhh.
Oscar [Brennan]
We gotta find Professor Adelaide. Oh I'm—okay. I can—
Suvi [Aabria]
[Awkwardly] Heh.
Oscar [Brennan]
Chasing down a manager, I do know how to handle, I am an actor, I can find out how to do that.
[Aabria and Erika chuckle]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see, he says
Oscar [Brennan]
I don't rightly know what it is you're looking for, but I sure hope you find it. And if you've got a wizard and a witch helping you, hopefully it won't take that long.
Eursulon [Lou]
Indeed, I'm in good company.
Oscar [Brennan]
Well, this has been a strange day.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And you see the Fox goes
The Fox [Brennan]
You're tellin' me.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And the guy goes,
Oscar [Brennan]
[Screams]
[Aabria and Erika giggling]
Lou Wilson
I think as Oscar, perhaps turns to leave, I think Eursulon does eventually find what he is looking for. And it's a pair of women's underwear.
Erika Ishii
[Belting laughter]
Lou Wilson
That he holds up and looks at his friends.
Suvi [Aabria]
Uh.
Eursulon [Lou]
These were left here, and I have no use for them. But would you? Would either of you.
Aabria Iyengar
[Laughing, slapping her knee]
Ame [Erika]
I mean, you never know when they could come in handy.
Suvi [Aabria]
Suvi is doubled over laughing. [Laughing]
Eursulon [Lou]
What is—
Aabria Iyengar
So good.
Eursulon [Lou]
Would you like them?
Suvi [Aabria]
[Dying laughing] No, thank you.
Lou Wilson
It seems—
Suvi [Aabria]
[Still dying] What!
Eursulon [Lou]
I have had them for some time.
Aabria Iyengar
[Laugh]
Ame [Erika]
Who left—you know what? Yeah. Here.
Ame [Erika]
[Laughing] Ame takes it in tucks it in a bag.
Suvi [Aabria]
[Shocked] No-uh! Why!?
Eursulon [Lou]
Good.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
[Resigned] Ame's bags are so full.
Aabria Iyengar
They're so full!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Ame's bags are so full. Oscar turns to leave. Nods good luck to you one last time.
Eursulon [Lou]
Thank you for your kindness.
Ame [Erika]
Thank you for taking care of our Honored Friend.
Erika Ishii
And Ame pulls out, from her satchel, a little—a pin. A little metal pin, in the shape of a diamond, and hands it to Oscar and says
Ame [Erika]
Wear that for your next performance, and if there's ever a time that you feel that you need a little extra boost, or a little extra inspiration, just touch it and think of us.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see, he grasps it and you watch some childhood wish come true on his face, as he's received a gift from a witch. He goes,
Oscar [Brennan]
I'll treasure it and hold on to it always. Thank you.
Suvi [Aabria]
Your manager took off that way.
Aabria Iyengar
And I point to the field.
Oscar [Brennan]
It's not even where there's any town centers in that direction.
Suvi [Aabria]
Yeah...
Oscar [Brennan]
Alright, well, he can't have gotten far.
Suvi [Aabria]
Disagree.
[The cast laughs]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
He puts the pin on and he runs back and you hear him just shouting amongst the tents and he's like
Brennan Lee Mulligan
[Echoing from afar] Alright, team, troupe, gather together. We're going to have to fan out to find J.B.
[Aabria and Erika break down laughing]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
In the silence of night, the fox looks up at you, in your now true form and goes
The Fox [Brennan]
Hey there.
Eursulon [Lou]
Hello.
The Fox [Brennan]
Nice to meet ya.
Lou Wilson
Nice to meet you. Do you have something I might call you by?
Ame [Erika]
I still think that the best shot so far was Cinnamon.
Suvi [Aabria]
Wuh?
The Fox [Brennan]
But that's a word. Cinnamon's a thing.
Suvi [Aabria]
[Laughs]
Eursulon [Lou]
Are you... spicy?
The Fox [Brennan]
I just—by the way, I've been tracking your scent for a long time.
Eursulon [Lou]
Oh!
The Fox [Brennan]
Congratulations on a very pleasant scent to track.
Lou Wilson
Oh, thank you.
The Fox [Brennan]
I'm still—I learned to talk instantly, and there's a lot of it that just sort of, seems to be me getting most of it right. But there's some other stuff that I really don't catch on to. I don't know why I NEED—it hasn't been impressed upon me why I need something to be called by.
Ame [Erika]
How bout Pip?
Suvi [Aabria]
How do we get your attention?
The Fox [Brennan]
You have it right now.
Eursulon [Lou]
If we did not have it. Like, if you had your back to us.
The Fox [Brennan]
Okay.
Eursulon [Lou]
How would you know that we were speaking to you, Fox, and not one of the people standing beside you?
The Fox [Brennan]
Wouldn't you just call me The Fox or a Fox?
Ame [Erika]
What if there's a bunch of other foxes that you're hanging out with?
Oscar [Brennan]
Okay, so we're going to go to all this trouble, in case we're in a place with tons of foxes, and you're JUST trying to talk to me.
Ame [Erika]
It could happen.
Eursulon [Lou]
[Imperiously] I have run with thousands of foxes before!
The Fox [Brennan]
Thousands of foxes?
Eursulon [Lou]
Thousands of foxes! In the summer months.
[Everyone is laughing]
Ame [Erika]
Ya see?
The Fox [Brennan]
Wow. Wait in the sea?
Ame [Erika]
No I said ya see?
Eursulon [Lou]
It looked like a sea. Of foxes! That I ran alongside! So I will not have you besmirch my friends for suggesting this simple possibility!
The Fox [Brennan]
[On the back foot] Alright!
Eursulon [Lou]
—that there would be... A couple more foxes!
The Fox [Brennan]
Great, okay, alright, if you—
Eursulon [Lou]
HEY! [Snarling] Watch it.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
The Fox sinks down, stomach on the ground, ears flat on his head, and rolls over and shows his stomach to Eursulon.
Ame [Erika]
[Gasp]
Eursulon [Lou]
Alright, you can flip back over.
The Fox [Brennan]
Thank you.
Eursulon [Lou]
I'm sorry.
The Fox [Brennan]
Thank you for letting me flip back over.
Aabria Iyengar
[Giggling]
Ame [Erika]
I have never heard him shut up for that long.
Suvi [Aabria]
That's true.
Eursulon [Lou]
I don't like talking that way, it's just, it was a great summer. The one we spent with—it was THOUSANDS of foxes. I mean, it was annoying because it was hard to get any food into your mouth. By the time it even got close, there were two foxes on you ripping—anyway.
Lou Wilson
I'm going to grab a foil off a practice—like the stage foil, break off the safety tip, and look to my friends.
Eursulon [Lou]
I'm ready to go. Our journey will take us to Port Talon.
Suvi [Aabria]
Port Talon?
Brennan Lee Mulligan
As both of you understand, Port Talon is a couple hundred miles up the coast. I think Suvi, this is the kind of logistical thing—like, Ame is not a traveler, but you would immediately know that there's two sort of realities that face you. Port Talon is on the same coast, but it's on the far end of the island, right? Akham is a long bar of an island, sort of. And Port Talon is facing the same direction on the same coast.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
So you're in a port town right now, so there's a possibility of traveling by ship, finding passage on a ship headed there, which is gonna definitely be way faster. But then you're trying to find passage on a ship, and that's always a little bit troubling, because you're on someone else's turf. And I think even though you know more about logistics—
Aabria Iyengar
Mm.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
—than other folks here, potentially, there's like you're on someone else's turf and suddenly you're at sea. Or there's traveling up the length of the island, like going through the roads and fields, and you can hug the coast where there'll be more cities and towns, or you can take like an inland road that's maybe more of like, a straight shot but'll go through some more thicker forests. But this being your sort of only lead to follow, to try to recover the sword, you're faced with sort of, an interesting set of choices.
Suvi [Aabria]
Everything in me wants to suggest that we take a boat.
Ame [Erika]
[Gasps, excitedly] Yes!
Suvi [Aabria]
Oh. That was easier than I thought.
Erika Ishii
I have NEVER—I mean this is my first time seeing the ocean! And to be on it, that would be—I—I—Yes. Lets take a boat.
Suvi [Aabria]
Is that okay with you?
Eursulon [Lou]
I'm open to a boat. Yes.
Suvi [Aabria]
Okay.
The Fox [Brennan]
Do I get a vote?
Suvi [Aabria]
No.
The Fox [Brennan]
Okay.
Suvi [Aabria]
Do you know what a boat is?
The Fox [Brennan]
No. Wait. Boat. Boat. Boat.
Suvi [Aabria]
Yeah.
The Fox [Brennan]
So it's sort of like a—sort of like when a leaf's floating on a stream, but it's big, and so big you can stand on it?
Suvi [Aabria]
[In quiet awe] huh, yeah.
The Fox [Brennan]
I don't know why I know what these things mean either.
Suvi [Aabria]
I am fascinated by the magic that makes you understand things.
Ame [Erika]
The important part is that he does, and he's got a mouth on him.
The Fox [Brennan]
Got a mouth—mouth on him? Mouth on him?
Ame [Erika]
You know idioms. You know them. Don't pretend that you don't.
The Fox [Brennan]
[Wryly] Yeah I do have a mouth on me. Heh heh heh.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Licks his fangs. You stand here at the festival and look out at Joras, and the harbor down below. Probably the work will be mostly stopped here, in the dead of night, but there will be some late night people, either loading or unloading ships down there, maybe some ships that have to get ready to sail very early with the tide. What would you like to do in this moment? Also, being probably somewhat tired yourselves, having journeyed long to find Eursulon here.
Erika Ishii
I'm sure there'd be a place that would be willing to show hospitality to a witch.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Absolutely! Go ahead and give me an Investigation Check with Advantage, if you'd be so kind.
Erika Ishii
14, but I do have the Feature Rustic Hospitality.
Aabria Iyengar
Oooh!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Incredible! So I think that like, before going to the big city, you walk out a little bit from the festival. Eursulon, so you've sort of dropped your glamour. But as you walk off, you see that there's a small farmhouse that has a little candle lit in the window. And you see that they have a small child, there's like a little baby in a crib, and the candle is lit because the baby is sort of crying throughout the night.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And you approach sort of, later in the night as a sort of lovely looking mother wearing like, a thick gown, and a thick sort of rustic robe, holds a child and looks out through the window of the farmhouse to see you, at the end of this small, dusty drive. There are a bunch of sunflowers around here, and a little sort of rickety brown fence, and she looks and beholds you. What do you do as you catch the eye of this farmer?
Erika Ishii
I wave to her, and I give a little short bow of my head, and I suppose that she can't read lips, but I make gestures as if to show her "do you need help?"
Brennan Lee Mulligan
The farm door opens. Where are Suvi and Eursulon, as this is happening?
Lou Wilson
I step to the side and kind of get low.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Cool. You see, she opens the door, and you're standing at the edge of the little path, so probably only about like 30ft away. And you see, the farm wife looks up and goes
Farm Wife [Brennan]
[Northern English Accent] Hello there, miss. You're, um...
Ame [Erika]
A witch, yes.
Farm Wife [Brennan]
[Gasps] Oh!
Ame [Erika]
And my friends and I are traveling far, and we have an awfully long way to go, but we would ask if we could impose upon you for some bedding for the night, even if you have a stable. Anything, and in return, I would love to be able to help you, perhaps with your child. Quiet her and make her feel safe.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
The babe picks up a little bit, and you see that the woman steps down the steps and says
Farm Wife [Brennan]
Of course, miss, I wouldn't dream to turn a witch away in an hour of need.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And she steps down, invites both of you up into the house, and you see, looks up at you, and you're sort of farther away from the city at this point, and she looks at you and says
Farm Wife [Brennan]
Oh! My goodness, are you a queen?
Suvi [Aabria]
[Soft chuckle] Uh. No.
Ame [Erika]
[Giggle]
Suvi [Aabria]
Thank you. Just a wizard.
Aabria Iyengar
And I give a deep and formal bow
Farm Wife [Brennan]
[Laughing, stunned] A wizard and a witch?
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see she goes into the farmhouse. She says
Farm Wife [Brennan]
The stable or the house, you can stay wherever you like, and, um. If it should please you—
Brennan Lee Mulligan
She points up to a sort of small room in the farmhouse. There's not like a living room here, it's sort of, you know.
Erika Ishii
I look back at you, Eursulon.
Lou Wilson
Eursulon motions, like he'll go around the house.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You go look around the house, and you see that there is a small garden with a lot of like, radishes, and root vegetables, and things like that. And at the back of the house, there is an overhang of the roof, that covers a nice collection of firewood. And behind that stack of firewood, there's a nice little layer of like, moss and wood chips.
Lou Wilson
I make a weird pillow out of moss and wood chips, like I've done many times before.
[Aabria and Brennan laugh brightly]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And you go curl up and snooze out there.
Ame [Erika]
If it please you, we would love to stay in your lovely home.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see, she smiles, and as you approach, you see that the small child in her arms looks up at you, and stops crying. Its eyes just sorta go wide, It's little baby face, very neutral, and looking with, kind of, the wonder and amazement that babies regard a lot of things with. And she says
Farm Wife [Brennan]
Oh, she stopped crying!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Go ahead and give me a medicine check.
Erika Ishii
May I also use my Herbalism Kit?
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Oh, actually, yes., Go ahead and give me an Herbalism Kit Check.
Aabria Iyengar
Ooh!
Erika Ishii
17.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Yeah, you look at the baby. She's just teething. And it's a pretty simple thing. You can make a little—it's probably just like a couple of little cloves, or something else that you make a little tincture out of. And yeah, it's just a little teething baby. The mother looks up at you and says
Farm Wife [Brennan]
Oh do you—
Brennan Lee Mulligan
and offers for you to hold the child if you want.
Ame [Erika]
[Gasp, softly] Yeah!
Erika Ishii
I tentatively hold out my hands, and take the baby in my arms, and I rock her and coo a little bit.
Suvi [Aabria]
Do people just offer you babies all the time?
Ame [Erika]
Yeah, I'm pretty good with babies.
Suvi [Aabria]
Wow.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see, the woman sort of touches her cheeks, looking like, for all the world, [Triumphantly] "I got a witch to touch my baby!"
[Aabria and Erika giggle]
Lou Wilson
Talk of the town.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
[Ame humming to baby throughout] Talk of the town. And she rushes off, and gets some clothes, gets some bed clothes to dress and a couple of little rolls to roll out on the ground. This will be some uhh "rustic living" that Suvi has not encountered in a minute.
Aabria Iyengar
Ahhh! Interesting, interesting.
Suvi [Aabria]
We were in a city with—
Suvi [Aabria]
Like, while she's gone, she's like
Suvi [Aabria]
We were in a city with inns. We could pay money, and then sleep... not on the ground, is the thing.
Ame [Erika]
Yeah, but then I wouldn't have gotten to meet this baby! [Cutely, to baby] Hello. Aww.
Suvi [Aabria]
[Uncomfortable groan]
Ame [Erika]
[Humming to baby]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see the farm wife—and you see there, she's like
Farm Wife [Brennan]
We don't have much, but what little we have, you're welcome to.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And puts two little heels of bread on plates in front of you.
Suvi [Aabria]
[Barely audible] Oh.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And I think prepares you for a night of sleep. A little tincture helps the baby with the pain, it goes to sleep. And outside, I think Eursulon looking up at the nighttime sky, the wind blows. And, I think you feel something in the air you haven't felt in a long time.
Lou Wilson
Mm.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Of just a feeling of—when you first left Grandmother Wren's house, you were looking for something, and you've encountered failure, and shame, and now you're trying to right that. And I think I'm interested in what that feels like for Eursulon.
Lou Wilson
Definitely, I think there's a—he's held onto these things for so long, that they've now become a part of him. And I think in this moment, there is the feeling of—that they don't—there is the chance for them not to be, as they were not the summer he spent—to be with his true friends again is a reminder that there is a time, and there is a place, in which he did not hold these things as close as he does.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
The following day, leaving from the happy little farmhouse that you stay in—
Aabria Iyengar
I leave a gold piece, on the counter.
Erika Ishii
Do you do it so that I see it, or so that I don't?
Aabria Iyengar
[Resolutely] Absolutely not.
Erika Ishii
[Cackles]
Aabria Iyengar
Absolutely not.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You leave what is truly like, you know—a significant fraction of the yearly income of this house, sitting on the mantle before you leave.
Aabria Iyengar
Suvi also woke up early and was just kind of prestidigitating a pile of dirty laundry like—
[Brennan and Erika burst out laughing]
Aabria Iyengar
I have to have a task. I'm better with a task. It helps. This is good.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Yeah. The farm wife fully can't believe it, everything is clean, it's like—whatever sort of customs and traditions allow you to invite a witch into the house are going to be supercharged in this neck of the woods for a while. Like
Farm Wife [Brennan]
They took care of my crying baby, and I woke up and all the linens was done this morning!
[Aabria and Erika giggle]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
The next morning, it is a busy day down at the harbor. Bells ring, and gulls caw. Down here, this close to the water, there is a briny rich smell. A lot of—not just the wide sea itself, but also a lot of other adventuresome, but less than flattering smells. The smells of sort of, the slurry of foam under the—the industry of the different tanneries, and fisheries that come in. The smell of fish, up in the market stalls around this part of the docks.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see that there are broad sheets of laundry over the alleyways, from people that live up things. It's sort of this part of the harbor—everything on the ground floor is a storefront, and then people are just PACKED into the upper stories of these houses, like multiple families living in the same row home apartment kind of thing.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
It is just jammed up here. You're here in the midmorning of a fish market, lots of people coming down. And the city is large enough, too, that you see a lot of people that are down here are probably, like shopping for bigger houses. There's people that are like, servants, and staff, that have come down to buy something for some of the other people around here. And you see that there are a number of ships in the harbor.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You look and see that there are no official Imperial ships—
Aabria Iyengar
Nope!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
But there are many ships that have the flags of Empire, the ability to sail into Imperial ports, which is a nice way in, in terms of, like, someone to talk to. But no military ships are here.
Aabria Iyengar
Okay.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see there are a number of smaller fishing vessels, and off the top of your head, you would guess that there are probably two paths available to you here, of going to the Imperial ships that will probably be favorable to you, but may not be headed from here to another local port, may be headed from here farther afield, right? And then there are smaller vessels that you can see are native.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
They have sort of the wide, more circular prows of the boats that they build here on Akham, that they have the sort of curlicue of the figurehead on the mast, and usually like a single square sail, or like a couple—one or two smaller sails. Not these Imperial tall ships, with rows and rows and rows of sails and minor sails and things like that.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
So there might be some ships that are more quickly on their way to Port Talon with less of a conversation or it's less of an ask, but they would not be the Imperial ships.
Aabria Iyengar
Yeah, I think all of her—there's just a very weird and bratty countenance.
Suvi [Aabria]
Okay, so I think the plan here is I will move to one of these Imperial ships, and command it to drop us off at Port Talon on its way to, wherever it's going, I don't super care. Sound good?
Ame [Erika]
[Amazed] They sell so many different kinds of fish here that I have NEVER seen in my life before!
Suvi [Aabria]
Interesting.
Eursulon [Lou]
So you can simply command ships to take you where you want to go.
Suvi [Aabria]
[Thoughtfully] That SHOULD be how that works. I haven't actually done it, but it should be how it works.
Ame [Erika]
I wonder what kind of things seagulls say?
Suvi [Aabria]
What are—? Okay, I'm just going to talk over her head to you.
Eursulon [Lou]
Great.
Suvi [Aabria]
How are we feeling?
Eursulon [Lou]
Good. I'm happy to watch you command.
Suvi [Aabria]
Hmm! Okay!
Aabria Iyengar
Get a little puffy, a little huffy, and start marching off towards the biggest Imperial coded ship.
Erika Ishii
[Gremlinesque giggling]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Hell yeah.
Suvi [Aabria]
This can only go well.
Eursulon [Lou]
I'm assuming it CAN only go well.
Ame [Erika]
There's a man doing a shell game in a corner booth. I am intrigued.
Suvi [Aabria]
Please no!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You head off towards one of the Imperial tall ships, and you see this MASSIVE ship in the deepest water part of the harbor, many large tall sails atop it. And you see that this has about two rows of cannon ports on it. And you see each of the cannon ports has a small blue disc, with a silver drake outlined on it. And you recognize these as being spell caps for the cannons behind them. You think this vessel might be like a merchant marine or some sort of, like, privateer sort of thing, where, it was a merchant vessel that has maybe been deputized, or gang pressed, into some wartime service.
Suvi [Aabria]
Perfect. They're good at listening to directions.
Aabria Iyengar
And I'm just going to march up the gang-plank and look for anyone that makes eye contact with me.
Lou Wilson
Eursulon is right behind you, but even Eursulon at this point is looking left, looking right, being like
Eursulon [Lou]
Do we just walk on? We're just walking on. Alright.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see that a quartermaster is calling out. You see sailors, men and women, moving crates up the gang-plank. And you see there is a dark skinned, gray bearded, sneering, barking kind of sea captain up there. See sort of white breeches, long gray coat, silver buttons, a sort of golden shirt underneath it, and a sort of maritime cap on, barking out and saying, like,
Salty Captain [Brennan]
[Gruff voice] Time and tide! Time and tide, come on, let's see some movement!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And whips around to see you. Clocks the staff immediately, and says
Suvi [Aabria]
Mhm.
Salty Captain [Brennan]
[Subdued] Greetings. Greetings, Your Excellency.
Eursulon [Lou]
[Impressed] Your Excellency.
Suvi [Aabria]
You can call me Suvi.
Salty Captain [Brennan]
Uh. Suvi. I'm Captain Karkoth, the Captain of the Capria.
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
Is there uh... We weren't expecting any—We weren't expecting anything.
Suvi [Aabria]
[Imperiously] Sir. Captain. Where are you headed?
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
Well, we're making back for Carrow in the Empire.
Suvi [Aabria]
I have a favor to ask.
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
Well! If you seek for passage to Carrow, then by all means, we can provide it, no questions asked. A friend of the Citadel is a friend—I would love to be a friend of the Citadel.
Aabria Iyengar
And, god, the smug look she has shot over her shoulder to her friends. This is perfect. Okay, on the map, where is Carrow in relation to Port Talon, please?
Brennan Lee Mulligan
To our listeners, I'm holding a piece of paper with a world map drawn on. There's Joras, where you are now. Port Talon is directly northwest up the coast. Carrow is right there.
Aabria Iyengar
That's on the way, my brain feels like that's on the way.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
In the way that moving along the circumference of a circle is like moving closer to the center, sure.
Aabria Iyengar
Aaagh!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
So Joras and Port Talon are very close together. Port Talon is directly northwest, and Carrow is directly northeast. It is—to give our listeners an idea, if you drew a straight line from Carrow all the way across the ocean to Port Talon, it would be like moving along the circumference of a circle to get to Joras. It is—
Aabria Iyengar
But you did say north BOTH times, so that does feel better than it—it could be worse!
Lou Wilson
Ey, for all of you at home. It ain't even close.
Aabria Iyengar
Ugh! Agh!
Lou Wilson
There's a lot of talk going on. It ain't even close.
Aabria Iyengar
Yeah. It's not good.
Eursulon [Lou]
They don't feel like they're the same direction.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You had a really long, skinny Isosceles triangle.
Aabria Iyengar
Yeah, that's exactly what it is
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You had a really long, skinny Isosceles triangle. It would be like—
Erika Ishii
That's acute!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
It would be—an acute triangle! It would be like "well, getting from one of the little short, stubby corners to the other little short, stubby corner. That's not out of the way." And it's like, no, that's out of the way.
Aabria Iyengar
Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah.
Erika Ishii
Acute!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
But the captain looks and says
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
Passage for you and your companions to Carrow, we'll manage it. I'll kick some of these layabouts out of their hammocks. [Yelling at his crew] I'll kick them off the ship! If they can't! Get a move on!
Suvi [Aabria]
Captain.
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
Sorry.
Suvi [Aabria]
Heh. I am doing critical business for the Empire, but that takes me to Port Talon. And I know the Citadel would be deeply grateful, if the imposition my destination provides, would be overlooked.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
This is going to come to Persuasion, and the staff in your hand is going to give you advantage. But because this guy is fundamentally a Captain working for a merchant company, and you're asking him to do something that will put him behind in a big way, the DC is going to be 20.
Aabria Iyengar
Oop!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
So you're rolling with advantage. DC is 20.
Aabria Iyengar
Okay okay. Okay.
Lou Wilson
What do you have.
Aabria Iyengar
Persuasion. I got a plus 2. This is doable. We could do this!
Lou Wilson
You got this.
Aabria Iyengar
I got this!
Lou Wilson
You've already had this.
Aabria Iyengar
I do not do it. Got a 13.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
13. So you see, he looks at you and says,
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
Uh. To Port Talon? Your Excellency—Suvi, as you asked me to call you, instead—I uh—as someone who wishes more than anything to be a friend of the Citadel, I would be happy to refer you to one of the local captains here that may well already be on their way. Unless the Citadel—can you write a note of exchange or exchequer for me to potentially—because we will be fined for being late to the dock. But if you could simply—
Suvi [Aabria]
[Groaning uncomfortably]
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
—maybe something, 2500 Imperial marks.
Suvi [Aabria]
Oh! Ooh. Buh. Hah. You know what? I appreciate you fielding this conversation, and I would love a recommendation.
Lou Wilson
Eursulon's fully put his stuff down.
Aabria Iyengar
[Cackles]
Erika Ishii
At this—
Lou Wilson
Like, looking over, being like
Eursulon [Lou]
Wow, it's quite large, this ship. Where will we stay? Will we be down here?
Erika Ishii
And at this exact moment, Ame actually walks up the gang-plank with her arms full of shells. And is like
Ame [Erika]
Look what I got! Oh uh, hello, is this our ship?
Eursulon [Lou]
You can put those down over there.
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
[Being talked over] Uh, no! Sorry!
Eursulon [Lou]
He said they'll be clearing out several hammocks for us.
Suvi [Aabria]
Ughhh.
Ame [Erika]
Oh! Lovely!
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
Sorry, sorry sorry—
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see he says
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
What'd you get those shells from down in the harbor??
Ame [Erika]
Uh huh!
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
Get—the—
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see he looks down at like, all the flotsam and weird gross harbor water and is like
Brennan Lee Mulligan
[Tensely] Alright, well. Ah. Yeah, I see you're on important Empire business.
Suvi [Aabria]
[Dubiously] Yeah.
Eursulon [Lou]
Critical.
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
Critical. So.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see, he looks over, and give me an insight check, if you would be so kind.
Aabria Iyengar
17.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
The dough is getting thin—
Aabria Iyengar
AGH! Yeah yeah yeah.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Because you're wielding a ton of status, but also you're like, walkin' up out of the fish market as an important wizard?
Aabria Iyengar
Yeah.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And there's a certain degree of him going like, "now, is this what would happen?"
Ame [Erika]
[Calling] Fox? [Patting to call fox over] Fox?
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Fox is almost breaking his neck, dragging a grouper sized fish along the street.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
[Pantied, frenzied] I'm gonna eat for weeks. I'm gonna eat for weeks. Can you believe this? This was lying around! Just lyin' there!
Ame [Erika]
Oh, wow. The smell is potent.
The Fox [Brennan]
[Maniacally] I gotta eat this whole thing before anyone finds it.
Eursulon [Lou]
Suvi, where can we put our—
Suvi [Aabria]
Nope! No, we're not gonna we—ugh. The good captain—we have to go. He will recommend us to a different boat, but we cannot disrupt the Wheels of Industry for the Empire.
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
No, the Wheels, they gotta go.
Aabria Iyengar
They gotta go.
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
I know 2500's a steep price, but! There's a ship down the harbor that you should be able to—that is definitely headed on its way to Port Talon.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And he points to a local sort of Akhami ship and says
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
That's the Roan down at the end of the harbor and that'll be able to take you to Port Talon, and for chump change, for nothing at all.
Eursulon [Lou]
Well, it was nice to meet you, Captain.
Ame [Erika]
This is the first boat that I have ever been on!
Eursulon [Lou]
Same!
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
And you weren't actually allowed to be on it, but you got up there, and I commend you, friends of the Citadel.
Suvi [Aabria]
Yeah. Yeah, thank you.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see, he bows very deeply to you, and says
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Wizard of the Citadel. And my name again is Captain Karkoth. And please—
Aabria Iyengar
Yeah. I will remember you fondly to the archmages of whom—to whom I apprentice. Directly
Erika Ishii
Thank you very much, Captain.
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
Ah. Appren—okay. Yep.
Suvi [Aabria]
What was that?
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
[Awkwardly] Appraising. The merit of. The cargo. We—
Suvi [Aabria]
Yeah, we gotta go!
Aabria Iyengar
I'm just going to grab the other end of the grouper and kind of huck the fox and the grouper behind me.
Erika Ishii
[Cackles]
Suvi [Aabria]
Come on.
The Fox [Brennan]
You didn't find it! I found it!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Is what the fox says
The Fox [Brennan]
You did not find, I found it. Okay?
Suvi [Aabria]
Shush.
Erika Ishii
I keep dropping one shell, and then having to stoop to pick it up.
Ame [Erika]
Oop!
Erika Ishii
And then another one will pop off.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see, the captain looks down at the screaming fox and does have a moment of going.
Captain Karkoth [Brennan]
[Frightened] Huh? Hah, what??
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And you see, the fox looks up and goes
The Fox [Brennan]
Should I not be—should i not be doing—
Suvi [Aabria]
[Whispering] Stop!
The Fox [Brennan]
Sorry.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Stop it!
The Fox [Brennan]
Okay.
Suvi [Aabria]
You're the only one, you know, like you that can talk, right?
The Fox [Brennan]
Yeah.
Suvi [Aabria]
Imagine how weird that is for every other being you meet.
The Fox [Brennan]
[Long pause] Yeah, but everything's so weird.
Suvi [Aabria]
Damn, that's too deep. Come on.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You head off to the Roan, a smaller vessel. It's now sort of bright midday, and you go to the ship, where a local Akhami woman, dark brown hair tied back in sort of a tight, short ponytail. Sort of warm, tan skin, green eyes and a stern countenance. You look at the vessel here, and see that this is a local merchant vessel. Something that sort of makes runs around the island, essentially. And the crew is incredibly small.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
As an Imperial, you would see that this is the only way the ship can make money, is to have too little people doing too much work. Crates of goods that have reason to move around the island, but are nonetheless not that valuable. Big things of like, wool and lumber, and things that are just going from one place to another that are hefty, and bulky, and need to get from one place to another. But nonetheless, you see the captain of the Roan looks up, and the name was given to you as Captain Emliss.
Aabria Iyengar
Captain Emliss.
Suvi [Aabria]
Are you Captain Emliss?
Captain Emliss [Brennan]
That I am, I ask who is asking, hello.
Suvi [Aabria]
Hi.
Aabria Iyengar
I just give a curt little nod.
Captain Emliss [Brennan]
Well met.
Suvi [Aabria]
It's been a long day.
Captain Emliss [Brennan]
I can't imagine you've come seeking wool.
Suvi [Aabria]
Nah. Just passage. Are you going to Port Talon?
Captain Emliss [Brennan]
It's our next port of call.
Suvi [Aabria]
How much is it going to take to get on the boat, please? It's been so—
Ame [Erika]
It's 11:00 a.m.
Suvi [Aabria]
And I'm exhausted.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
She looks at all of you and says
Captain Emliss [Brennan]
there's three of you? We'll say the fox is free, pets allowed. That'll be three gold pieces.
Suvi [Aabria]
[Frustrated groan] Fine. The Empire is generous and thanks you for your service. Can you go quickly?
Brennan Lee Mulligan
She looks and says she looks over and looks at Eursulon and goes
Captain Emliss [Brennan]
We can go whenever the ship is loaded.
Suvi [Aabria]
Two marks, and we help.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
She holds out her hand.
Aabria Iyengar
Okay, put the money in.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Two Imperial marks go in her hand, and you see that the sort of exhausted dogged crew of this ship looks out.
Eursulon [Lou]
Why is the entire crew looking at me?
Suvi [Aabria]
Ooh. Okay—
Ame [Erika]
We're going to help load the ship?
Suvi [Aabria]
Yes, all of us together. Is that okay?
Lou Wilson
I look down at Ame.
Eursulon [Lou]
We're all going to help?
Ame [Erika]
Yes!
Eursulon [Lou]
Are you—?
[A puppy dog eyes situation is happening here. Brennan starts laughing.]
Eursulon [Lou]
[Vexed] Oh. Look at that.
Suvi [Aabria]
Please.
Eursulon [Lou]
Three true friends back together.
Suvi [Aabria]
[Begging] Eursulon.
Eursulon [Lou]
And not a damn thing has changed. Aight.
Suvi [Aabria]
Eursulon.
Eursulon [Lou]
Alright.
Aabria Iyengar
Suvi looks like she wants to cry.
Suvi [Aabria]
Eursulon, please help.
Eursulon [Lou]
[Conceding] Yes, of course.
Suvi [Aabria]
Thank you.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see, the fox looks at you and says,
The Fox [Brennan]
You wanna get the front, or the back?
Suvi [Aabria]
Stop talking!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Oh, sorry. [Fox noises] Is that better?
Lou Wilson
I take the fox's grouper and I rip it in half
The Fox [Brennan]
Ohhh!
Lou Wilson
And I toss him half and I say
Eursulon [Lou]
This is for me.
Aabria Iyengar
[Cackles]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see, a part of the fox looks so mad, and another part of him is like, "he's a Wild One. I gotta respect it. I gotta respect it."
Eursulon [Lou]
Unless you'd like to get the back, as you said.
The Fox [Brennan]
No, if there was—
Eursulon [Lou]
Hey, you know what? Would you like to get the front—
Lou Wilson
I hold up the front half of the grouper
Eursulon [Lou]
—or the back, fox.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
[Castigated] I get whatever one you don't want. I get whatever one you don't want.
Eursulon [Lou]
Uh huh.
Lou Wilson
I toss the back.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
The fox looks up at you and says
The Fox [Brennan]
Honestly, I do like it. I like being treated this way. If there was a fox half my size, I'd push him around. I get it.
[Aabria and Erika have lost their minds laughing]
Lou Wilson
And I head off the boat and I say
Eursulon [Lou]
Gentlem—sirs, madam, how can I help?
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see, they look and say
Crewmate [Brennan]
There's some lumber over here that's very heavy. If you can just get one side, and the two of us can get on the other side and try to—
Eursulon [Lou]
Great.
Lou Wilson
I have Powerful Build, so I can push like I'm large.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
So effectively, you are a Giant for like, lifting and pushing and carrying. So one of the things that they're like, "we'll get two on one side and you get on the other." You can just one it. It just goes up in your arms.
Eursulon [Lou]
You should get the next one.
Crewmate [Brennan]
Uhhh.
Aabria Iyengar
Ahh!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see Eursulon take a bunch of these thick caber—they're actually called a pallet of cants—which are these long beams for making ships—goes up over his shoulder and goes up the gang-plank and you're out of there in about another—what was going to take like, more than an hour of work from the crew? 15 minutes. It's done.
Suvi [Aabria]
[Pathetically] Is there coffee? Does this boat have coffee?
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see, Emliss looks at you and says
Captain Emliss [Brennan]
Coffee? We're carrying wool and lumber. Why would—you think we would have coffee in the cargo?
Suvi [Aabria]
So it's a no?
Captain Emliss [Brennan]
No, we don't have coffee.
Lou Wilson
[Snorts, stifling a laugh]
Captain Emliss [Brennan]
Do you want a lime.
Erika Ishii
[Belts out laughing]
Lou Wilson
[Still trying to stifle his laughter]
Suvi [Aabria]
One li—you're going to offer me—
Captain Emliss [Brennan]
I'm offering you what we have, which is limes.
Suvi [Aabria]
What are you eat—how long is this—I will take the lime.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You see, she tosses a lime to you.
Aabria Iyengar
I just hold it.
[Everyone starts snickering quietly]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And the Roan makes ready to sail!
Lou Wilson
I think I gather—whatever, wherever we gather—I say
Eursulon [Lou]
When we get to Talon, we will be looking for a mage of similar stature as—
Lou Wilson
Was J.B. Also a hedge mage?
Aabria Iyengar
Ew!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Yes, but J.—Hedge mage just refers to any occult practitioner, who basically is like working with trash? You know like—actually, no, hedge mage is a broader term than that. In a world with like, Sorcerers of the Dominion of Rhuv, and these Imperial Wizards, hedge mage TECHNICALLY refers to anyone outside of one of the great schools or, like, traditions of magic.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
If people wanted to be really hateful, they could theoretically refer to a witch as a hedge mage? Though doing that would be the fuckin' dumbest mistake you could make.
Aabria Iyengar
[Laughs]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
But more colloquially, it means like, someone who's scraped together a practice of magic from odds and ends.
Lou Wilson
Right. So I say to them
Eursulon [Lou]
When we arrive in Port Talon, we'll be looking for a hedge mage. One a bit more, uh... Substantial than the ringmaster of the carnival.
Suvi [Aabria]
J.B.?
Eursulon [Lou]
Yes, like him, but a bit more—
Suvi [Aabria]
Any amount of magic is more than what he could do.
Eursulon [Lou]
Alright! Well, then, above that.
Suvi [Aabria]
I'm sorry, I'm in a bad moo—do you want this lime? It's not that good. It's just the clothes. And the staff. And it's not—not everything's good. And I'm sorry.
Erika Ishii
I hand you a hot, steaming cup of chicory. Ground chicory.
Ame [Erika]
Well—
Eursulon [Lou]
Would you like it if we called you Your Excellency?
Suvi [Aabria]
[Sadly] No.
Lou Wilson
We could do it just for the trip.
Suvi [Aabria]
No, thank you.
Eursulon [Lou]
Alright.
Ame [Erika]
Are you sure?
Eursulon [Lou]
Your Excellency?
Suvi [Aabria]
[Crying] I do like it a little. But don't!
Eursulon [Lou]
[Chuckling] Okay.
Aabria Iyengar
[Laughing] Suvi just cuddles in between her friends, and sips her chicory.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
By the way, the passage you guys booked on this ship—Eursulon, for you, this is like par for the course. You're gonna be sleeping on bags of potatoes.
Suvi [Aabria]
I hate this.
Eursulon [Lou]
It's not that bad.
Suvi [Aabria]
You're not. Right.
Eursulon [Lou]
I've yet to be able to overcome the—
Lou Wilson
[Trying to remember] What was it, it's not a curse.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
The term that you would use for it, that a Spirit would use for it, is a taboo.
Lou Wilson
Taboo.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
A taboo.
Eursulon [Lou]
I've yet to overcome the taboo of being able to sleep in a bed—
Suvi [Aabria]
Oh.
Eursulon [Lou]
—and the same as when we spent the summer together, I still cannot sleep in a bed of any kind, and feel rest.
Ame [Erika]
You know what? Honestly? Sleeping in beds. Overrated.
Suvi [Aabria]
No, it's not. No it's not. I didn't bring a bedroll because I thought I was going to be staying at the cottage, and then [sounding on the verge of tears] we've been walking for so long, and I'm so sad. I love beds. We have to fix your taboo, and you just have to be different, Ame. It's bad. This is bad.
Ame [Erika]
Oh, I don't have a taboo, I am fully cursed [sigh] I'm sure it'll work out.
Suvi [Aabria]
Oh, God.
The Fox [Brennan]
You're cursed?
Eursulon [Lou]
You're cursed?
Ame [Erika]
Oh, uh? Yeah?
Suvi [Aabria]
Oh, yeah, we gotta catch everyone up.
Ame [Erika]
Yeah!
Suvi [Aabria]
There's a reason we need the sword. [Quieter] The sword. [Scoffs] I need to talk quieter, god, this boat is so small. It doesn't matter. It carries on the ocean. Please. You tell. I'm emotionally compromised.
Ame [Erika]
I actually don't know a whole lot more than Suvi does. Grandmother Wren was—something was let in, and she was supposed to tell me about who we can trust, and important secrets that were her own, and something to do with the Spirits. But, either she told me, and both of us were cursed, and I forgot, or she never did get to tell,or no. The information was stolen. It is stolen, and is stored someplace. And we need Wavebreaker to cut the curse from me.
Eursulon [Lou]
That's the name of the sword?
Ame [Erika]
Yes.
Eursulon [Lou]
Mm.
Suvi [Aabria]
The sword has a name. Your sword has a name.
Ame [Erika]
Remember how we used to use it for things like scratching your back?
Suvi [Aabria]
Ahh!
Eursulon [Lou]
Yes.
Ame [Erika]
Or like drawing designs on the floor? Well, turns out it is a deeply important artifact.
Suvi [Aabria]
I was walking around your cottage. Everything in there is deeply important, and we were just running around it!
Ame [Erika]
It something's only really important if it has significance to you, and it didn't really have significance to us.
Suvi [Aabria]
The thing you said is not profound, it's just incorrect.
Ame [Erika]
[Sighs]
The Fox [Brennan]
I could give or take beds. Honestly. Beds, nice patch of grass.
Suvi [Aabria]
[Incredulously] What? Have you ever slept in a bed?
The Fox [Brennan]
No.
Suvi [Aabria]
So you don't know.
The Fox [Brennan]
Yeah, I like to have an opinion.
[Everyone cracks up]
Eursulon [Lou]
I swear to god, Fox.
[Everyone laughs even harder]
Eursulon [Lou]
The man I gave the sword to, his name is Finley.
Suvi [Aabria]
Finley.
Eursulon [Lou]
That's who we'll be looking for in Port Talon.
Suvi [Aabria]
A hedge mage named Finley.
Eursulon [Lou]
Yes.
Ame [Erika]
Well...
Eursulon [Lou]
Is that—is there something—?
Suvi [Aabria]
No. No, I'm just going to remember.
Aabria Iyengar
And Suvi's kind of working her fingers, committing it to somewhere deep.
Suvi [Aabria]
We'll get it back. We'll get your sword back.
Ame [Erika]
And now we have a lot of time to catch each other up on what we've been up to.
Eursulon [Lou]
Who wants to go first?
Suvi [Aabria]
[Excitedly] I will!
Aabria Iyengar
And Suvi launches into—
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Just like a tale of like—
Aabria Iyengar
100%
Brennan Lee Mulligan
So you guys hear about a life that is impossible to fucking imagine, at the Citadel just a—
Eursulon [Lou]
Hold on, let's go over "desert" one more time. So, no—just, just earth?
Suvi [Aabria]
Okay. It was a beautiful, wooded forest, and then wizards got feisty. And, have you ever been—what's the hottest you've ever been?
Eursulon [Lou]
I guess one time I stood in the sun, for too long—well I fell asleep in the sun. And when I woke up, I was quite hot. But there was a lake nearby, and I jumped in, so I guess "warm?"
Suvi [Aabria]
Okay.
Ame [Erika]
I've had to do training where I stood in the fireplace to see how hot the temperatures would be that I could withstand. Grandmother Wren said that it was very important to remember past history. Anyway—
Aabria Iyengar
Let me be super clear, that's actually crazy, and I want to halt my story, and talk about how Ame had to stand in a fire.
Erika Ishii
No, please continue.
Aabria Iyengar
Nope! No, we're coming back to that. What?
Ame [Erika]
[Dodging the subject] So... But wait, there's just a lot of sand.
Suvi [Aabria]
It's more glass.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
The potatoes are warmed, by the light of your friendship, as you begin to catch up. Even Ame and Suvi, in your bonding—in the days you spent searching for Eursulon—still was like sort of a panic, and a long day of tracking. And this is the first time that you've been traveling without having to actually move. It's hard to really converse while, you know, hiking 20 or 30 miles every day. And you truly catch up, here amongst the potatoes. Everyone give me a constitution like, check to weather the potato sleeping with aplomb.
Aabria Iyengar
Can I roll with Disadvantage?
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You may abso—
Erika Ishii
[Cackles]
Lou Wilson
May I roll with advantage.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You roll with advantage for sure.
Aabria Iyengar
Perfect. Natural 1!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Natural 1.
Erika Ishii
Oh, my God!
Aabria Iyengar
Perfect-uh.
Erika Ishii
15.
Lou Wilson
Natural 19 plus 3 for 22.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
22. And sorry, what did Ame—
Erika Ishii
15.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
15.
Erika Ishii
[Laughing] This is perfect!
Aabria Iyengar
Yeah!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
So, Suvi, you awaken in the middle of the night to—describe what like, the ideal sleep constellation—because you're both out like fuckin' logs. What's the sleep constellation?
Lou Wilson
I think it's like, we've got—Eursulon's got like, a three potato headboard—
Erika Ishii
[Sudden barking laughter]
Lou Wilson
—that then goes into like, two potatoes he's got for lumbar support. And then he likes to have his—sleep with his feet up, so there's another bag of potatoes underneath them. And it's just taking up, truly so much room. Sleeps, like, almost like a T.
[Everyone laughs]
Lou Wilson
And is like constantly moving through the night, and just kind of dragging his limbs across the floor. It's not pretty.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Yeah. Incredible.
Erika Ishii
[Laughing] I think—and tell me if this is okay with you—Ame had fallen asleep like, sort of foregone all potatoes, and was on the floor, and sort of had snuggled up against Eursulon. But as the night wore on and he's like shifting around, she's gone full Totoro on top of him, and just like fully her whole body is like, on his stomach. And just—
Ame [Erika]
[Loud Snoring and Mumbling]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You have fully—and also, you sort of curlicue around your fox, who is in a little ball sleeping.
Lou Wilson
We're just like a weird like, one of those child toys.
Aabria Iyengar
Yes!
Lou Wilson
A big green ring, then a smaller blue ring.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Sort of stacked. And Suvi—
Lou Wilson
[Raucous laugh]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
—you awaken, as one of Eursulon's arm movements just sends a little cascade of russet potatoes over your face.
Aabria Iyengar
Suvi looks over, and sees this beautiful stack. I think she gets really small on herself, because she doesn't know how long you two stayed together once she was gone, and feels like she missed something.
Erika Ishii
So with the cascade of potatoes, and I got a 23 for Perception, I go
Ame [Erika]
[Gasps awake, grumbles something groggily] Mmm-hm, the monkey
Suvi [Aabria]
Did you say money?
Erika Ishii
And I look over—
Ame [Erika]
[Grumbles something]
Erika Ishii
I look over and I see Suvi.
Ame [Erika]
[Mumbling] Come here.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
I think, having gotten up in the middle of the night, Suvi, you also feel probably like, a need to go find a privy somewhere, or like—
Aabria Iyengar
She's doing the like, "how do you pee on a boat?"
Erika Ishii
[Laughing]
Ame [Erika]
[Barely awake] come here.
Erika Ishii
Ame pulls out from her satchel the blue cloak lining, that Suvi gave her when they were children, and they had to say goodbye.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Sorry, I think you got the outer part of the cloak, right?
Erika Ishii
I got the—oh, yeah.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Yeah yeah.
Erika Ishii
And Ame pulls out from her satchel, the blue outer lining of the cloak, that Suvi gave her when they were children, this prized possession, the last thing that her mother gave her, and that Ame has slept with, as a security blanket, all these years, and fluffs it into a little, tiny bit of a pallet, and gestures for her to come over.
Suvi [Aabria]
Okay, but I'm like a very important wizard.
Ame [Erika]
Mhm. Yes, very important.
Suvi [Aabria]
[Crying] Okay.
Aabria Iyengar
And I'm just scrabbling awkwardly across.
Ame [Erika]
Yes, Your Excellency.
Suvi [Aabria]
I know you're making fun of me, but I do like it.
Aabria Iyengar
And Suvi will fall asleep, and she will grab a tuft of Eursulon's fur, like she used to when she was little, and immediately pass out.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Incredible. Fully, fully asleep.
Aabria Iyengar
[Laughs]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Amazing! You guys snooze through the night, and the next day passes without incident. It's basically like two quick days—you've saved a lot of time. It's like two quick days sailing up to Port Talon. The next day, there's not that much work. It's a long, lazy day of getting passage on a ship. The next night rolls around, and there's a couple of hours of night, probably, before it's like, actually time to go to sleep.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
What do you think you guys would be doing on the ship? It's one of those things where there's like, thick cloud cover overhead, so the ocean is quite dark. You see the dark coastline of Akham to the south—or, sorry, to the west and to the south of you. And looking out over the starboard—starboard is right, right?
Aabria Iyengar
Mhm.
Erika Ishii
Yes, correct.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Looking out over the starboard bow, you see the ocean—thick clouds overhead—and the moon is low enough in the sky that it gets to sort of peek in under the clouds, and cast some light across the ocean. Where do you think you guys find yourselves in those early evening hours, before heading to bed?
Lou Wilson
Eursulon has definitely found a moment of solitude, and is quietly—as to not be noticed, or found, or seen, OR heard. Is just quietly brandishing his sword. Just,
Eursulon [Lou]
[Whispering] Alright, form one. Guard. Ah shit no, it's—guard. Arm high, and stab! How did fight two go again?
Brennan Lee Mulligan
[Laughs]
Eursulon [Lou]
Jump attack! Agh.
Lou Wilson
And is just desperately trying to remember the moves from the show, and then things he learned in his childhood, from people in Toma. Just trying to recount any sort of like—because I think it's been quite a while, at least since he joined the troupe two years ago, has done no sword fighting outside of—or, any sort of having to defend himself outside of the show.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
So you sort of found a little place, like off on an upper deck somewhere, that you're not in line of sight. Ame, where do you think you find yourself?
Erika Ishii
Oh. Uh, if I don't have any other work that I can help with, I will just sort of be—if I don't have any work to do, I will have emptied out some of the contents of my pouches, and my satchels, and be working on little enchantments, or tokens, or experimenting, or pressing flowers that I brought with me.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
A witch's work is never done.
Erika Ishii
Mhm.
Lou Wilson
Mm.
Erika Ishii
Just a little a this, a little bit of that tchotchkes, and whosamacallits, and whatchadoogirs.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
So you're down in your little area of the hole, that you kind of squirreled up on.
Erika Ishii
Well, I'd be up on deck.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Oh! Up on deck. Cool!
Erika Ishii
Kind of near the prow of the ship, if I can.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Oh, you go find a little—near the bowsprit. Yeah, up there. Getting to feel the rise and fall. The ship in the water. It's very—
Ame [Erika]
[Relaxed sigh]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
One of these people is literally from The World of Spirits, and the other is from The Citadel. Being on the front of a big ol' boat going up and down on the sea, this is a lot of adventure for Ame.
Ame [Erika]
This is so neat.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And you see that your fox is sort of snoozing his little sort of tummy rising and falling, like a little sleeping furry critter.
Erika Ishii
Occasionally I'll be like
Ame [Erika]
Charlie. What about Charlie? Do you like that one?
The Fox [Brennan]
What happens if I'm in a room with a thousand Charlies?
Aabria Iyengar
[Burst of laughter]
Ame [Erika]
Ya got me there.
The Fox [Brennan]
Yeah, I do got you there. Alright? The lady here, and the guy on the other ship had the same name. And no one seemed bothered about that.
Ame [Erika]
No, the—Captain is like a title.
The Fox [Brennan]
[Bemused] Like a book?
Ame [Erika]
[Frustrated] No! Not like a book! Unless the book is about the people that direct a ship!
The Fox [Brennan]
[Yelling back] Why are you yelling at me?
Ame [Erika]
I don't know! You just frustrate me for some reason, and I can't quite put my hand on it!
The Fox [Brennan]
Yeah, yeah yeah yeah.
Eursulon [Lou]
[Yelling from afar] Fox!
The Fox [Brennan]
[Panicked] Sorry! I wasn't saying anything!
[Everyone laughs]
The Fox [Brennan]
God I'm so scared of that guy. He's so big, he's like a lion or a bear or something huge! He's like like an owl, cat, bear, lion, dog, everything and all of it in one animal. Bobcat!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And where is Suvi?
Aabria Iyengar
I think at some point Suvi might sort of shyly move over to Eursulon. Just
Suvi [Aabria]
Hey, whatcha doing?
Eursulon [Lou]
Um. Uh.
Lou Wilson
I think Eursulon like does a—gently puts the sword behind his back.
Eursulon [Lou]
[Uncomfortably] I was—I was—um. I was looking over the sword, to make sure it would be effective. If it was necessary.
Suvi [Aabria]
I didn't do a lot of training, but I had to practice a lot, too, if you want to practice together.
Eursulon [Lou]
Oh, is—I wouldn't—uh, sure, sure. Here, you take mine and I'll find—
Lou Wilson
is there a broom nearby?
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Yeah, you can find—there's a mop nearby for the deck.
Lou Wilson
I take the mop, and I look around for any crew members.
Brennan Lee Mulligan
You don't see any crew members—
Lou Wilson
[Suddenly] Snap.
[Everyone starts laughing]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And the two of you begin to spar a little bit here on the—
Lou Wilson
Can we just see how—
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Yeah! Yeah, take a roll!
Lou Wilson
Are you proficient in swords at all?
Aabria Iyengar
I am.
Lou Wilson
Fuck. Okay.
[Aabria and Erika cackle]
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Go for it, let's see it.
Erika Ishii
Alright.
Lou Wilson
I just want to see. I just want to see.
Aabria Iyengar
Twelve.
Lou Wilson
I got a 19.
Aabria Iyengar
Yeah!
Lou Wilson
I do think Eursulon, there's a couple of moments where Eursulon gets one over on you, and there's a genuine glee that he can't—he can't hold.
Eursulon [Lou]
Hah!
Suvi [Aabria]
Ow!
Eursulon [Lou]
Sorry, sorry. Sorry!
Suvi [Aabria]
[Laughing] No it's okay it's okay it's okay!
Eursulon [Lou]
It just would have been a kill stroke if—
Suvi [Aabria]
Yeah! I know!
Eursulon [Lou]
—it were actual combat.
Suvi [Aabria]
[Playfully] Thank you for using the mop, and not the thing that would have killed me!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
As you guys are—it's like, it's a real joy. And I think Eursulon—obviously, you guys are feeling it and creating it in this moment, but, for both—I think. We know it's been a long time for Eursulon, we've just seen Eursulon in a very sad chapter of his life. I think Suvi, for you too, there's an element of, like—everything in the Cita—you have had so much fun, in the Citadel, but I don't know if you've had that much joy in the citadel.
Aabria Iyengar
Yeah.
Suvi [Aabria]
[Sadly] This is just—I remember I used to watch you and Lohan, the baker, practicing, and every time I had to practice forms at the Citadel, I would think of how fun it would be to show you, that maybe I could practice with you, too. So this—this is really good for me. So thank you. Even though you're poking the absolute shit out of me.
Eursulon [Lou]
Yes, you'll want to keep your guard up a little bit more, but I—
Suvi [Aabria]
Okay.
Eursulon [Lou]
—I feel similarly. The only opportunities I've had to use a sword at all, have been in defense of my life. But it is—those times with Lohan, just playing, is fun.
Suvi [Aabria]
I haven't played, since I left that summer.
Eursulon [Lou]
Well, [energetically] raise your guard! Because we're about to play now! Hah!
Suvi [Aabria]
[Desperately] Oh god! Raise it!
Brennan Lee Mulligan
At the front of the ship, again in the night [sound of an ocean breeze] the clouds kind of stretch a little bit, and the moon dips behind them, and just another little band of stars. You see the little lantern of the bowsprit. The candle sort of sputters, and goes out and Ame. You hear a voice saying,
Captain Emliss [Brennan]
[Respectfully] Begging your pardon, ma'am, I need to replace the—
Brennan Lee Mulligan
And you see Captain Emliss look at you and say
Captain Emliss [Brennan]
Feel free to continue your craft, but do you mind if I scoot past?
Ame [Erika]
Oh, yes. Of course. Excuse me.
Captain Emliss [Brennan]
If you don't mind my asking, what are—what are you working on up here?
Ame [Erika]
Oh! Well, I always like to have little tokens on hand. you know. To give out to people. They have little special properties, or make them feel a certain way. You seem interested.
Captain Emliss [Brennan]
Of course. It's hard not to be. I know you're a companion of the Wizard of the Citadel, but this seems to be a sort of strange craft all its own.
Ame [Erika]
Oh, yes. I'm a Witch.
Captain Emliss [Brennan]
[Delightedly] Oh, my goodness! Well, I hope you're the kind that will have our ship make it safely to shore rather than the other way around.
Ame [Erika]
[Laughs] Yes, of course.
Captain Emliss [Brennan]
I've known [chuckles] I've known plenty of witches who... Would not be so kind as you.
Ame [Erika]
You've known plenty of witches?
Brennan Lee Mulligan
The moon comes back into the sky sailing, and it casts the light on one side of her face, and the shadow that it casts from the other side stretches endlessly into the night, all the way to the shore. She says, yeah, you seem like a small and sweet little witch. The captain opens her mouth, and darkness slithers out.
[A horrifying cacophony of noise breaks out]
[A waltz of strings, bowed and pluck underscore the credits]
Taylor Moore
That was Lou Wilson as Eursulon, Erika Ishii as Ame, Aabria Iyengar as Suvi, and Brennan Lee Mulligan as Everyone and Everything Else. Worlds Beyond Number is edited, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate Horse, with additional sound design by Michael Ghelfi Studios. For even more like this, join us on our Patreon. We'll see you there.
[Waltz fades out]