[PUBLIC EPISODE] The Wizard, the Witch and the Wild One: ep030 "The Snake"
🕑 Added 2024-07-02 09:01:00 +0000 UTC
Aren't you thirsty, brother? Here is the well of stars. Here, the dark waters of the river. There, a bubbling spring. Drink deeply, and consider what swims and writhes beneath. For like a forked tongue flicks back and forth, like the great claw taps against the glass (To be let in? To be let out?) a clock, somewhere, tiks and toks unceasing, making what will be what is. And we are all full of snakes.
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Produced, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate Horse with exquisite design and editing help from Jared Olson.
SPECIAL THANKS TO: Tazer Army, Shannon, and Amanda Freberg.
Album art by the great Corey Brickley
Comments
Alyssa
I forgot that the chalice thing was connected to the MiB in this episode!!! I cannot wait to see how it connects in Book 2 🏆
OneGirlPainting
DAmmmmmn
OneGirlPainting
Soooo does the watch bend time like mirara bends light? It’s got to, right?!??!! Because how else could the man in black be walking steadily and catch up to everyone.?!? 😱 I love this plot line!
OneGirlPainting
It’s SO freaking great!
1man2hands
I'm still confused as to when someone danced... I thought I was paying enough attention to be able to catch it so I'd know when the music box was good to go
Liuba M
Ame’s conversation with Tefmet made me imagine her as a child actively approaching strange men and asking to hang out in their nondescript white vans :D
Worlds Beyond Number
Hey there, it seems you might be confused about how podcasts work. You can actually add the RSS yourself. The RSS address for the public feed is public, freely available, and very easy to find. I’d post it for you here but Patreon is not allowing me to post a full url, probably to stop spam posting. But if you google “worlds beyond number rss” it’s literally the first result. Hope this helps!
Thisjus10
I'd really like for you guys to upload the podcast to YouTube music (It supports RSS feeds. Been really frustrating since they absorbed Google podcasts to not be able to listen for sometimes a week or more. This episode still isn't up)
The Wizard Sparrow
I am right there with you. The last 24 hours have been a whirlwind of emotional highs and lows. I still have the fireside chats to listen too
Tiffany Burnett
I have spent the last three to four weeks engulfed in this podcast and the last 24 hours on the last three episodes (a.k.a. 1:30am 7/10) on a constant alert of OMG. My neighbors probably think I’m crazy. I keep trying to get my family/friends to join me on my roller coaster of emotions for this podcast but they won’t. So I am here sharing my intense love for this amazing podcast.
Lotta Andersson
Wow. Both this and last week's episode had me on tenterhooks by the end. I was on the bus as Bodse (sp?) ate Ersulon last week and felt myself coming back as the theme music started. Complete transportation. I love this so much.
Sil
Ame/Tefmet giving "You want to build a snowman? 👁🗝" But replace snowman with "... incite a rebellion?"
Paige Bowen
So I found WBN maybe 2 weeks ago and boy were these last weeks the best I've had in a while, making art while listening to the flip flopping of the hyper produced, beautifully and intricately told stories of WWW contrasred by the wild and unruley playback podcasts and I couldn't think of a better way to spend my time. And then, like the dropping of a guillotuine, the story was over. Hours and hours of content flooded away leaving only the last minute for me to realize. Oh. There is no more. And I low key wanna cry. Anyways great episode catch me in listen through #2
Samwise_the_G
I thought he for a second that Eursulon was going to ask The Man in Black for his name. Brennan for sure has plans for that pocket watch, though. Remember Lou, the most powerful form of magic is chronomancy.
Saleibriel
AT LAST, THE CURSE UPON AABRIA'S LUCK IS BROKEN
Blake Vaught
Brennan, have you and Lou taken that red eye to JFK to ray Artichoke pizza? I'm currently going back to listen to Unsleeping City season 2 (&accompanying AP) and need an update on this amazing sounding pizza!! 💙
Adarsh Nednur
Aabria's move with using Vandal to shimmy her way out of that sticky situation was one of the most brilliant and badass things I've ever seen, and Ame's conversation with Tefmet was simultaneously so warm and so thrilling, and Eursulon talking to the Man in Black was straight out of a Western in the best way, and Brennan is a freaking madlad across the board, and we already know Taylor's a genius, holy cow, one of the best episodes yet
Shannon
this is beautiful
Ted Meredith
Can we confirm my head cannon that one of the things Vandal writes in the library is akin to "The Bitch of Breaking Wind & Sharts," please and thank you?
Whyse Wytch
I get Dark Tower vibes from King of Night. Almost like he's someone who has a six-shooter on his hip. The more we learn, the more questions we have, and I think that is a fantastic build up for a villain.
Alec Simkiss
Heavy Tarot imagery. The art is gonna be so sick.
Alec Simkiss
That set of dice was fucking cursed
Alec Simkiss
It's interesting how southern the Man in Black feels to me. Like, he feels like a Working Man™️ in his vibe. Long well made leather boots, old hat, sitting in shadows, I forget the rest of his clothing but I wouldn't put it past him to wear overalls or some kind of jump suit, plus him wearing a belt that a massive sword could be strapped to? Weirdly, the Man in Black does feel in the shape of a man. I do not believe he is human, but his imagery...there's something more to him. It's as if the working man got turned classic southern and potentially Eldritch. He's so cordial, too, and polite. What is his fucking deal???
Matt Kilsby
“With it I can cut the spring from a man’s step and the apple from his eye.” Holy shit.
Joanne Moody
My jaw fell open several times this episode, in delight and in awe. I was so wrapped up in the story my boss found me standing stock still on the street outside instead of entering the hostel building and laughed at me for a full five minutes. 😂. Wonderful collaborative storytelling.
Ashley Teatum
I got, "Time for bed and a long deep sleep"??
Rain
Same, but I feel like there's no way you could have done that without it being disrespectful 😂
ROBiN
Hey y'all I NEED to know for some reason what the antivallist Tefmet (?idk spelling or even the word lol?) said in a muffled voice behind the door, like the very last thing the character said ?
bloops
Our man’s trying to break his “Headfirst-into-Unknown-Holes” addiction, we have to support him
bloops
After the stunt with the table, the world said he better work for his title
Haley Nicholson
When the stranger asked item or question I was SCREAMING Eursulon pick question and ask what his true name is!!!!!!!!! I love what he picked though and I'm so excited to learn about that pocket watch
Esper Rivers
FUCKING FINALLY Aabria got some new dice and Rolls well!!!
I cast Vicious Inspiration
if I had a nickel for every time Eursulon had an unbearable weight/pressure pushing down upon him I’d have 2 nickels (inside Badze & under the sea after freeing Naram) which isn’t a lot but hilarious that the Strongest Man in Silbri keeps having that happen to him 😄
Sydney Jay
"I'm Nurse Fox!" HE'S SO ADORABLE, I LOVE HIM 😭🦊❤️
Aubrae C
Drop. The. Ink demon. Art.
Sean Boyce
Brennan. How dare you make a fae aphorism out of country idioms. Cut the apple from his eye. Skin the shadow from his boot. It's all great plains ass country energy, but it has this fey insistence with all sorts of double entendre. Every act is separating light from dark; the shadow from its source, the pupil (apple) from its eye, the dark clouds of thunder from the visible burst of bright lightning. But every act also takes away something of beauty: the apple of your eye, that which you cherish most or your literal ability to see, either way leaving you blind to beauty; the shadow from your boot, would leave unable to touch the ground, untethered, maybe even lost in darkness, leaving you blind; to split the lightning from the thunder leaves only the ominous toiling of a dark storm, again leaving you in darkness and taking away moments of terrible beauty. Even having lightning and thunder lets you know how close the storm is by the distance of its separation. Without it, with only thunder, you can't tell how far away the storm really is. If it's getting closer or moving away. YIKES my guy. That fuckin SLAPS.
Sean Boyce
Cut the apple from his eye literally made me gulp with nerves. It sounds like a cute expression, but the apple of your eye is either the thing you most love to look upon or literally the darkness at the center of your eyeball, the pupil. Either way, yipes. The latter is literal blindness. The former is taking from you either the thing your cherish most *or* your ability to cherish things, cutting away that part of your essence which can do so. Yipes.
Adam Curtis
I mean I get it, though I did really want Ursulon to take that free level in Warlock.
annemjw
Wands and staves, swords, cups, and a coin of a watch…
John Lancaster
Hey brennan, what was your inspiration for the stranger in black?
John Lancaster
The stranger in black might be my favorite character.
Megs
Idk how he did it but Brennan somehow made me forget Lou had been SWALLOWED BY A TORSO for most of this episode
Dandley
Amazing ep, just wanted to say Brennan you're the kind of GM I aspire to be. Question for Lou, Erika and Aabria: How do you guys deal with bad situations so well?
The Wizard Spicy 🌶️
I think I’m gonna say it. Best ep so far.
larkermouse
Yes!! I did not make that connection, but damn I can't unhear it now
Koi Boi Tracy
You wrong for that. However, you are right.
Brandon Carbaugh
House-style diagnostic procedural where it's the Fox just being like "The patient has a big stick through his torso. And that's...bad for humans. They do not enjoy that."
Faith Price
Literally relistening to that one rn
Esotericrow
THE KING OF CUPS, PEOPLE
The Wizard Saison
Incredible episode. So many big moments. Can't wait for the talk back. Was Eursulon's conversation with our favorite antagonist spirit just between him and the DM again?
Raine
AMAZING show and AMAZING sound design and music as always omg!!
Jordan T. Maxwell
Ready for the Nurse Fox spinoff!
Krusty Bo Busty
Big day for vore enthusiasts
Witch of the Whirling Storm
God this ep was great. From Aabria covering her tracks with Vandal and the amazing rolls (I was 40% certain that the Glass Spider was gonna be Suvi's wizard familiar), Ame *immediately* jumping in to help without any context, Eursulon having such a time of it but having such an impactful conversation. The reveal of the Chalice and the description of the sword was so incredible and has locked me in for the interest of this fuckin antagonist. Gah, incredible work
Sil
MIB just be handing off a what sounds like a talisman to a party with a Witch in it 😏
Witch of the Whirling Storm
TAYLOR! TAYLOR! The fuckin, brass when Tefmet appeared! The way that it was slow and swooping and very counter to the very imperial bursts that we hear usually from the Citadel. AND THE FEW LITTLE NOTES ON THE PIANO HIDDEN IN THERE??? SUVI'S INSTRUMENT? WHAT ARE YOU DOING? *I SEE YOU*
Sil
I have several comments, but most importantly, IF YOU TURN THE TAROT SUIT OF CUPS/CHALICES INTO SOME KIND OF BBEG MOTIF (I think that's the right phrase) I'MA BE REAL MAD FAM. Cups are my favourite of the four 😭
Sil
Give the people what they want. RELEASE THE CUSS-CUT
Leo
Holy shit y‘all. Unparalleled as always
Krystine W.
Living for this Dead Eye AU in which his spirit becomes the Man in Black...
Brandon Scott Robertson
"Well I appreciate the tea and the 𝓽͟𝓮͟𝓪͟"
bails 🌀 witch of the what the fuck
YOOOOOOOO 🔥
The Wizard S_
Man in black had real "saint of killers" energy from preacher. Even a slight southern drawl (to my English ears anyway!). Brennan is king of a 🔥 monologue
d2k
O B S E S S E D with the Man in Black. Such big Stephen King vibes. "It's sharper than a spinster's tongue and harder than a miser's heart. With it I can cut the spring from a man's step and the apple from his eye. I can part the lightning from the thunder and skin a man's shadow from his boot with this blade." Like was this improvised???? hnnnng absolutely feral
LuChiChi4
Uggghhhhh….. it’s never enough!!! I need more!! Well done team! I don’t think I could ever pick a favorite episode.
Carla D.
BRO GOT VORED
lilgreenghoulie e
ooh really thought Eursolon may jump in the well with the sword instead of attaching it to the Man in Black's belt. That probs would've opened a bit of a can of worms 🪱
Fxd Gear Queer
Soo, any bets that the consequence for the MIB drawing his sword is Morning Wren Song's retributive witch curse?
Katie Butler
also the quickest the blood has ever drained from my face in the first minute and thirty seconds (wild)
Katie Butler
Ame: "I'm full of snakes!" XD
Care Bear
I too was really keyed in on that and the potential sumbologuu
Will H.
What is a chalice but a vessel for water? What is water but a vessel for snakes? It's snakes all the way down I tell ya, always has been!
meesanime
That last line! "Next we meet as adverseries, but always brothers." "I choose a gift, to rememeber you by" Just 1000% FIRE
Barron Botts
Holy crumbs, gang. That was epic.
bitterbaldguy
Every blade is gory, if wielded with intent! Love the catch, I don't know if the Man in Black has any true physical power or if he must manipulate others
bitterbaldguy
So good!!!
Joshua rassier
Love the fact that the description of what the Man in Black's sword can do did not include any "physical" harm. Skin a shadow, remove the apple from a man's eye, sharp as a spinster's tongue. All just metaphors. It's a metasword. Or a bladegory.
Lilith Evenstar
That reverse rain road was creepy as hell!
Molly Gould
My brain cannot put any of the clues together but boy I’m loving the fucking mystery
TheloniousPunkyBrewster
Truly one word. Confidence. The confidence to be honest "I do plan to kill your friends", the confidence to be amicable to a foe "whatever choice you make is yours alone, I will not harm you here", and just... fucking confidence, "Do not feel compelled brother, know that whatever you choose, I WILL succeed". 🪭🥵
TheloniousPunkyBrewster
I saw it as implying that the Man in Black is who taught Ruve to create such entities , maybe?
TheloniousPunkyBrewster
My eyes got wide at that point too, having just re-listened to episode 2 and being struck by how much of the shadows power was described as VERY Mirara
TheloniousPunkyBrewster
For the unnamed run of slurs I immediately jumped to "SuperCuntAFuckYouBitchYourAssIsQuiteAtrocious"
Worlds Beyond Number
It was off the dome. The boy is a FREAK. -t
Bean Planter
Oh man, Hakea's aging makes more sense to me now. And Aabria's got one hell of a good memory. (And the BEST ink demon.) And and I also used that fruit in a chain of insults recently. ^_^
Jack Jones
Also the ending of this ep gives new meaning to the episode titled "King of Cups"
Brandon Carbaugh
That description of the stuff the Man in Black can do with his sword was an incredibly sick bit of prose. I don't know if that was jotted down or just completely off the dome, but goddamn.
Jack Jones
To skin the shadow from a mans boot is such a raw line man holy moly
Jack Jones
Same here!
McKenna
I agree that it would've been interesting, but I don't think he's ready for a move like that. Not to say that *not* taking it isn't a big move in and of itself. That is him denying his fae "family" (faemily, if you will) for Ame and Suvi, which will definitely have consequences, it'll just take longer for those to appear. The stakes of being potential enemies with The Man in Black is a braaave move
Chappy Hall
The Stranger is my muse
Agiddysea
Danielle St John
We love some solid shenaniganery. Making the most satisfying use of Vandal ever is just [chef's kiss] perfection. I was SO WORRIED about Eursalon getting potentially *digested* by Badze, but WOW what a chat with The Man in Black. I'm really hoping that "chalice" thing was just confirming that he was the one possessing the captain and not an omen of some even-greater entity holding sway over them both.
lunarsummer
WH AT IS THE TAROT IMAGERY ABOUT the ace of wands?? The king of cups??? Now a vest of cups WHAT WHAT WHAT DOES IT MEAN
The Overthinker
The Man in Balck describing his sword was poetic, profound, and beautiful.
Dream Wizard Kyle Arca
Yuuuuuup!
Makenzie
Gods I’m so stressed about Ame and Suvi debriefing in the room with the scarf 😭
Jasmine A Golphin
So that's how we're just going to start the episode huh?
Michelle Spurgeon
Are we sure Lou is rolling the right die???
I Davis
"IM FULL OF SNAKES" lol
Ashley Teatum
The way I FIST PUMPED at that ROLL 🤌🤌🤌
Dominic Corbin
Thank you for pointing this out. Details like this are are hard for me to pick out. i will have to go back and pay special attention to the music in the Tephmet's intro!
Fxd Gear Queer
I believe in you! You can fix him 🙃
Bree Manahan
How does Brennen describe such hot people? How is The Stranger so hot?
BingusBongos
That wizard roll!! That ending!! The last 10ish minutes gave me actual goosebumps!!
Whyse Wytch
Yeeeeeeeeeeah, I was super worried about them basically spilling ALL THE TEA right after Brennan mentioned the scarf. It felt like a huge flag being waved and ignored. It could be that they'd both forgotten (I mean, who among us, right?) or they were playing like Ame and Suvi forgot. Either way, I really feel like, if Indri heard that, shit might go down sooner rather than later. That being said, confronting the World's Heart Retinue publicly would be admission of a mistake-- what will her pride allow her to do next? This WitchCon has already been a murderfest-- it may end up becoming a bloodbath. Also, yes, I had to stop myself from cheering out loud with Aabria's rolls. I couldn't stop myself from applauding, though! LMAO @ the Mean Girls quote 😂
Aussie Griffin
Nice challenge to Eursulon's honour: Not to choose to engage in it or not, yet to examine what and whom to honour. A.G.
robo
Suvi really bugs bunny’d her way past the ice queen!! dat oughta hold her awight…
Sarah
TAYLOR!!! The French horn and piano during Tephmet’s introduction worked so well! The horn is perfect to give us tones of citadel brass with the warmth of Ame’s themes. I listened to that introduction three times 📯
VeritaAmore87
I have never just fist pumped so hard as when Aabria rolled well on important and badass wizard shit. Damn what an episode.
Dominic Corbin
I was fearing that when they were talking by the well, but it doesn't fit with what else we know about the Man In Black. Anyone catch the significance of the cloth pattern?
Emily C
Man I need like 30 more minutes of this episode. Aabria is rolling so well and Lou is just biffing it left and right LOL, poor Eurselon. I'm glad he's not dead, and it seems like Heinrule might not actually be dead either??? Who knows. Every interaction with The Man in Black I just have goosebumps the whole time. And now I gotta relisten to the EP with Emless, truly a lifetime ago. But she was a vessel, he's got cups, get it? If this is a long con Monty Python joke I will be a little mad but mostly impressed. Your mother was an Antivellist and your father smelt of kudzu kind of a thing. Ame clearly has no chill with just straight up asking Why doesn't your name start with an S? Like, you can't just ask people why they're white, Gretchen!!! So much for her wading into a shallow end first vs deep end whenever she meets a new person OMG. She even told this person she recovered memories recently??? Like just truly spilling all her guts, she is so stressed out. THE WIZARD SKY IS TRULY EATING IT UP, dang those rolls are superb. I love the mode of distraction, but I am slightly worried that the scarf is still in her rooms even if it's under stuff. Do we know that muffling it even helps??? Time to listen again and again.
lunarsummer
The first 3 minutes of description were SO GOOD, the horror fan inside me is CHEERING.
Miriam Meeks
CRAZY BONKERS THEORY: what if the Man in Black is a corrupted sprit of Sir Curran?
Casey Furtado
I haven’t even listened to the ep yet but that description gave me SHIVERS! Also anyone else reminded of “This is the water, and this is the well. Drink full, and descend.” ? 🫢😏
Patrick
Absolutely pounding my desk with my hands after every roll by our Wizard. Amazing ep.
James O'Dwyer
The Man In Black is such a compelling entity. I really hope we get to learn more about them in the future. Excellent episode, and I am glad Vandal survived his magnum opus
TheloniousPunkyBrewster
I find myself really liking that The Stranger consistently returns to the theme of autonomy- which feels very Wild-One; a Cowboy code to match his appearance one might say. "Your will is your own", "I will not compel you", "You make your own choices"; he also seems to bear no ill will against those choices "We will take the field of battle as friends or foes, but we will always be brothers." Maybe I'm just easy to manipulate, but, then again he also seems relatively honest with Eursalon "I tried to kill Wren here / I do seek to destroy your friends." I love a great opposing force / 'bad guy' with a Code. You've got me Hook Line & Sinker With this character Brennan! Hmmmm *remembering how all of my other mysterious misunderstood noble bad-boy crushes ended* NAHHHHH, this time it'll be different, he's different! You just don't understand him like I do!😋
Michael Mills
Allow me to repeat the sentiments of other commenters... Brennan, what the fuck? 😱 Damn, that was such an epic episode. Aabria had such epic rolls for once. Out of celebration I found myself fist pumping the air more intensely than a Rocky montage.
Sam Thomas
Is the wolf man alive still? Getting flashbacks to the guardian ape from Sekiro
Miriam Meeks
hey brennan what the fuck
John
The description of the sword gave me chills, Brennan what the fuck!?
Sil
Spill 👏🏻 the 👏🏻 tea
Shannon Leimbach
Ame out here quoting Uncle Iroh 😭
Glen Petrofski
Me too! Just around dinner time
Glen Petrofski
"I don't only carry good drinking tea" Ame?!?!?!
Whyse Wytch
Exact same thought LOL
Lojaan
This is a life saver ❤️
SvenTS
Vore fans rejoice(?)
Fxd Gear Queer
Here we go, I love my time zone (CET) 😋
Magnolia Eve
Nom nom nom
TheloniousPunkyBrewster
In think my brain unconsciously saw the ' brother' at the end of the sentence and read the first part in the Strangers voice - We are all full of snakes sounds like Hakea wisdom? WEEEEE!
Sam A.
My body is ready and I am ensnared
Whyse Wytch
Here we go!
Glen Petrofski
I know!!!! It is too long a wait
Ellen Wrathall
Ahh I’ve been waiting all week for this!!!! Thank you Brennan, Erika, Aabria, Lou and Taylor for making my day 🙈