April 3, 2024 • 32 mins
Embark on a riveting journey through Chapters 16-20 of ‘Coliseum Arcanist’, where Volke Savan confronts a series of daunting challenges. From sizing up future competition to a fierce confrontation within the castle walls, these chapters are fraught with tension and intrigue. Witness Volke’s encounter with the majestic Queen and her formidable dragon, and feel the claustrophobia of the dungeons where he finds himself imprisoned. A formal meeting with Princess Lyvia unveils new layers of courtly politics, while a discovery near Thronehold leads to a sinister source of the spreading plague. Amidst this chaos, a menacing Reaper Arcanist emerges, intent on ensnaring Master Zelfree in his deadly Eldrin’s Chain. These chapters are a whirlwind of action, emotion, and peril that will leave readers on the edge of their seats.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome all of you fellow Arcanists outthere to the Frith Guild Podcast where we
explore an amazing world full of mysticalcreatures and their partners.
Our hosts are Eric Smith and Scott Warehamand they'll be your guides along this
journey through death and dragons.
So grab your Eldrins, strap on your swordsand get ready to defend the Argo Empire
from evil.
Throughout this series, if you have notcaught up to the chapters being discussed
(00:21):
today, we urge you to hit the pausebutting, grab your copy of this wonderful
book and catch up.
We'll be here wind you get back.
After Volke rescues the purplish white-haired girl Evianna from the river and
meets her lovely older sister, the FrithGuild arrives in Thronehold, meets Sax's
brother Lyell and trains for the SovereignDragon Tournament.
All of that is interrupted wind they'vereceived their invitation to meet with the
(00:45):
ruler of the Argo Empire, Queen ValettaBut before we get into the book, let's
look at some advice from the series.
Luthair the knightmare Eldrin, says,greatness is forged in the flames of
adversity.
With that, let's join Eric and Scott forchapters 16 through 20 of Coliseum
Arcanist.
(01:05):
Hello and welcome back to the Frith Guildpodcast.
I'm your host Eric.
And I'm co -host Scott.
And today we'll be diving into chapters 16through 20 of Coliseum Arcanist.
Before we dive on in, we do also want toremind you to be on the lookout for the
release date for Time Marked Warlockcoming out by Shami Stovall.
(01:27):
one of her new urban fantasy books.
Again, this should be out in April.
So hopefully by the time that thisrecording comes out, it is out and
available for everybody to read.
And as well, we also want to thank you forlistening.
We want you to like, share, subscribe, andgive us a review on any kind of platform
that you're listening to.
It definitely does help us.
(01:47):
So we just want to know that we're doinggood and keep up the good work.
So a little bit of feedback is greatlyappreciated.
And with that, we'll get into chapter 16,the Knights Draconic The dragon district
didn't actually have dragons in it, exceptfor maybe just one.
So there are actually two types of courtguards.
There are the Knights Draconic who are allunicorn arcanists And then there's the Sky
(02:11):
Legionnaires, which are all Pegasiarcanists.
And I think this is awesome that there arethese two specific ones.
Volke does mention specifically that thePegasi come in various colors and wing
types.
Specifically, black Pegasi have crow wingsand the golden Pegasi have eagle wings.
(02:31):
And as fitting with his character, Zaxisjust thinks he can fight everybody.
So he is convinced that his Phoenix is ahigher tier.
He's good to go.
He could take them all.
Imagine if he actually read that book thatVolke was reading and it was like...
I have the higher tier, I know I can beathim.
(02:52):
Straight to his head.
So Lyell is actually the one escortingthem to the castle and Lyell wants to show
Volke all of his friends that he's made inthe Lamplighters guild later on in
Thronehold.
It is kind of interesting though that hedoesn't, he doesn't ask Zaxis to come with
him.
He asks Volke.
So they finally enter King Drake castle.
And this castle is so massive that Volkeis pretty certain that.
(03:16):
The whole Isle of Ruma could actually fitwithin just the castle itself.
We get another very clear illustration ofhow Arcanists treat or are treated by
other regular Denzines or mortals as Shamicalls them.
This is actually kind of weird becauseVolke bumps into one and they kind of like
freak out.
They think they're about to get whipped orsomething the way they act to it.
(03:39):
And you see a little bit from the otherside as well.
Some of the guilds.
are making negative comments and at firstVolke thinks it's about him, but then he
realizes, oh, they're scolding the waiteras well.
So a little bit of guilds have gottenpower drunk, it seems in some sense, and
do see themselves above citizens thatthey're likely supposed to be protecting.
(04:02):
Right.
And I'm interested to see how this kind ofkeeps panning out.
Maybe, maybe this is just the castle andthey're on edge because there's all these
Arcanists from all over the world and.
They want to make a good impression, buttwo specific Arcanist from the Huntsman
Guild actually start to go over and startpestering Atty and I think Volke's really
going to have any much of this.
No, they're pretty much catcalling her.
(04:22):
It's, it's a weird method of doing it, butthey are shouting names at her.
Yeah.
And then they look at Hexa because Hexa islike, screw you guys.
You know, she's, she doesn't care.
And they end up calling Hexa a Scrag,which is actually worse than, I think,
than calling somebody a Mudblood to behonest.
It feels like it.
And based on everyone's reaction, Nicholintries to jump in, Illia has to grab him.
(04:47):
There's a very, very strong reaction tobeing called a scrag Well, then Volke is
about to lay down the hammer and out ofnowhere, like, Zaxis is just comes in and
lays him out.
And then, of course, come to try and cleaneverything up.
Zelfree coming in ready to smooth thingsover and try and make sure nobody gets
hurt.
Now, this is where I really enjoyedbecause...
(05:08):
We have Zaxis comment earlier about how hecould take them on.
Well, just one of the Pegasi Arcanist comein and just put an end to it by gusting
wind through the entryway of this castle.
The Knight Captain mentions that Arcanistshould have restraint and patience.
And the Knight Captain is actuallyrecognized by Volke.
It's the famed Captain Randall.
(05:31):
So there are a bunch of stories around himand a lot of lore that Volke is familiar
with.
I can imagine at this point in time.
Volke is like one, this is pretty muchquoting the pillar and two, he's a famous
Arcanist that I know I've read about.
So like, OMG, like total school girl, likemeeting the, you know, the boy band.
(05:53):
Little high shrieks, fangirling to themax.
And this is where actually chapter 16 endsand 17 begins with the Wendigo Hunt And so
all of this is happening.
The captain's probably about to be like,okay, no harm done, get everything
straightened out.
And lo and behold, Evianna is a princess.
(06:13):
Go freaking figure, Volke.
Has to go and piss off the princess.
It does mean though, that her sister isalso a princess.
So Volke's got a little flirty actiongoing with, with the royalty.
Ooh, he got slid in their DMs without eventrying there.
Evianna comes like hauling up and waslike.
(06:35):
The Frith guild.
Oh, they're the ones that manhandled me.
And at the peak of this, Zaxis is the onejust head tuck, you know, tail tuck
between his legs because he's the one thatstarted the fight.
So then everybody looks at Zaxis like, howdid you just, how did you not only start a
fight, but manhandle a princess?
Like, where the hell?
And are they wrong to assume it's Zaxis?
(06:56):
That would be my guess as well, withoutknowing the story.
Right.
You know, I would believe it a lot morecoming from Zaxis than Volke, to be
honest.
Like, if I didn't read it myself, I woulddefinitely have believed that Zaxis was
the one that did that.
Now, because Evianna, and she actuallylike points Volke out and says, no, he's
(07:17):
the one, Zelfree just straights, laughsout loud, like good belly laugh.
And then wind he realizes that she's notjoking, the Knight Captain is even like,
well, all right, well, I guess we're notgoing to wait your turn anymore because
we're going to take you straight up to theQueen and have this taken care of.
Instantly Evianna kind of turns heels andwhoa, don't tell Oma she doesn't need to
know the details.
(07:39):
And just for.
Anybody that didn't know, Oma is actuallyGerman for grandmother.
So that had to be one hell of a climb tothe queen's chamber because it takes them
a few minutes.
It takes a long time and high enough thatthey can get to a dragon as well.
The dragon has to be able to sit in onthis.
So it's, it's a long trek there.
(08:00):
Shoot, I'd be winded myself just for someclimbing the stairs.
And they get to the top of the stairs.
And of course, right outside of the throneroom where she's going to be seeing
everybody, she has.
All 12 of the runestones displayed outsideof her throne room.
Like, I guess that's one less thing forthem to figure out where they are.
Definitely helps out a lot.
(08:21):
And the decor also, besides therunestones, everything is covered in
nullstone as well.
So there's a lot of effort and majesty putinto this castle.
So we get into the throne room and thedragon is just chilling behind the throne,
behind the queen.
Volke estimates that this dragon has toweigh at least 500 tons.
(08:43):
Like this thing is massive.
Captain Rendell goes up to the queen andlets her know as to why he's there.
And she wants to know what the heckhappened.
And Evianna is put on the spot because shedoesn't want to tell her her oma.
She was playing by the river.
And just as I think Evianna was about tosay what really happened, Volke comes out
and was like, no, no, I slipped and fellin the river and she came in to get me
(09:07):
and.
I pat her on the back instead to say,thank you.
And I didn't realize she was a princessand that I, you know, I grew up from the
Island nations.
So I don't know your guys customs thatwell.
So I'm sorry.
So the Queen's basically like, okay,we'll, we'll deal with your punishment in
a minute.
Um, make, you know, Charles make note ofmy next decree that any and all Wendigos
(09:28):
antlers are going to be taken and madeinto plague trinkets.
And the Queen in this moment.
her harshness and instinct to go towardseverything is mine and we're gonna
complete the hunt all these windegos downis very very trying to prove something i
don't know if she's power drunk as wellbut she definitely has something to prove
(09:49):
wind you think about how old she is shewouldn't need to be that crazy but you
wouldn't think so but you just get that
feeling from her that she wants everybodyto know that she's the queen and she's not
to be challenged.
And maybe she's afraid that people arestarting to doubt her because she's been
there for so long or whatever the reasonis.
She's got some bite to her.
Right.
Yeah, definitely.
(10:10):
Especially with a giant 500 ton Dragon'ssitting behind her Could just decide to
have you as a snack without even thinkingabout it.
The captain did bring up a really goodpoint, I believe.
I believe it was the captain and hebasically like, Hey, what about all these
other
Windego Arcanist that came to Throneholdfor the tournament.
And she's like, well, what we'll do iswe'll give them three months to get the
(10:33):
hell out of our area.
And if they're still here and we catchthem, then we're going to kill them.
So generous.
You got three months.
Give up your antlers or die.
Thank you.
Uh, and the other one she brings up thatis, is very interesting is she also brings
up bringing in Adelgis's dad.
(10:54):
He's a famed artifacer.
He's well known in the magical community.
So it's a nice little tie in there as wellthat she places a lot of trust in him.
And obviously he, he must know something.
He must be pretty good at his job.
If the queen knows him personally likethat and is willing to just call him in on
a whim.
So we finally get Volke's verdict asthey're about to walk out and Volke's
(11:16):
almost like.
Like, I'm getting away with this andgetting away with this.
Like, no one's going to see me.
And she's like, okay, the person thatmanhandled her, you're going to spend a
full day in the castle dungeon.
That's your punishment.
So Volke feels pretty dang embarrassedbecause this is all happening right in
front of the guild, the whole guild that'sthere.
And everybody's kind of like, okay, Iguess that's the punishment.
(11:37):
That's the punishment.
And we'll, we'll just leave it be.
So Volke ends up in the prison or thecastle dungeon, and he actually says to
Luthair
that he feels terrible that, you know,especially because Mathis has never ended
up in a dungeon before.
Luthair comes back with, even though Volkeis spending the day, he's very thankful
for meeting and bonding with Volke.
It's a really sweet moment between them.
(12:00):
I know Volke wasn't necessarily lookingfor it to be emotional, but Luthair said
what needed to be said and reallyproviding a lot of comfort.
And the other piece that Luthair mentions,you know, we saw it in previous chapters
as well, is he brings up again that hewants to go back.
And then we see the people from theSteelthorn Inquisitors that he knew from
before.
(12:20):
And that's a pretty solid understanding onthat because that's where he spent most of
his time with, all of his time withMathis, I assume.
Going back to see familiar faces, it wasalways probably nice.
Before the captain walked away afterslamming the door on, you know, Volke in
the dungeon, he did state that the captainreally collected a lot of more information
(12:41):
from Evianna that she let on.
And the captain knows that she lied to thequeen.
So you can see that he's kind of thatlike, I don't want to do this to you, but
she's the queen.
I have to do what I'm told.
I'm her captain.
Yeah.
Again, I hate doing this, but just know I,I know that you weren't completely a
(13:01):
horrible person.
Yeah.
He, he feels bad for him because he'sstuck in this situation.
There's nothing you can do to help, but hedoes want him to know that it didn't go
unnoticed that he was looking out for.
So as Volke sitting in his cell, he'strying to debate what he's going to do
with his time.
Cause he's got 24 hours in the clink.
I feel like he needs one of those cups,just sit there rattle back and forth on
(13:24):
the bars and sing a little jiggy.
Yeah.
But he does actually start singing alittle jiggy.
Tries to pass the time and then he's like,well, wait a minute.
I could just use my magic while I'm downhere and you know, train.
That's, that's been great for real use ofmy time.
And Volke finds out that.
It's made of nullstone.
(13:44):
So can't, can't use any of his magic whilehe's down there.
But it shouldn't be a surprise.
Right.
You're going to a dungeon.
What else would you expect?
They're just going to let all theArcanists use their magic.
If they can get out fine, it's whatever.
I mean, they have to come out like up thestairs still.
So like, we'll find, we'll see him.
(14:05):
So Volke was actually asking Luthair aboutwhy all this nullstone is there.
Like how does nobody else going to be ableto use magic in there?
And.
Luthair just talks about how dragons as atear, like all dragons are not affected by
null stone.
And specifically sovereign dragons areactually able to activate and deactivate
(14:27):
the null stone effects.
So they, they can turn all the magic offand they can turn it back on like a, like
a light switch.
Little Harry Potter light.
Yeah.
lumos and knox So after spending a couplehours down there, Lyvia finally comes
down, which is the princess.
And she comes down to rescue the damsel indistress who is Volke.
(14:49):
And Volke is very cordial at this pointbecause he knows that she's a princess
now.
And he addresses her as your highness.
And she's actually disappointed at that.
And she brings up a fact that she isn'treally a ruler until she bonds with the
sovereign dragon.
And that requires going through a trial ofworth where she will have to fight
(15:11):
somebody.
So it's.
a little early to be called your highness.
Right.
And that gives an interesting twist to howthis whole royalty works with this.
So we find out the queen's first name, herfull title is Queen shayll -Valetta, which
is Evianna and Lyvia's great -great -great-great -grandma.
(15:34):
So five greats in there.
Don't know how many generations, and a lotof generations.
Lyvia
looks at Luthair and she's like, Oh, waita minute.
Aren't you King Raulith which is who youwere before you turned into the
knightmare.
The significance to this is theknightmare's names are an anagram of the
(15:55):
ruler that they were before they died.
So Raulith, R -A -U -L -I -T -H is how weget Luthair.
It's a good thing they don't have any likebobs.
Oob Oob.
You're one option.
Ooh, got two.
So, Lyvia compares Volke with Clark theGallant.
(16:17):
And she wanted to tell Volke about what'sto come, but holds back.
And again, I can only imagine that Volkeis just, again, mind explodes.
Like, this entire book is just mindexplosion with all of the things.
He's got people quoting pillars that don'tactually, like, quote the pillar.
(16:37):
He's got people...
that are famous that he's read all thesestories about, and he has somebody to nerd
out with.
Like he's in heaven here.
In a dungeon But in heaven.
It's just a couple hours.
It wasn't that bad.
Like, I can only imagine she, the Queenprobably would have forgotten him, but the
(17:01):
minute he left the room, you know, sheprobably didn't notice anything
afterwards.
But Lyvia does thank Volke for savingEvianna, even if she didn't deserve it.
Because again, Lyvia knew the true story.
And I'm sure Evianna ran straight to Lyviaonce everything happened.
And they have a nice moment together.
I think Volke is happy to know that Lyviaknows the true story.
(17:23):
His, his little crush.
knows the truth about him being a hero.
But she ends up releasing him from theprison, like you said, because the queen
won't notice or remember that she evensentenced him.
So as long as he leaves the castle, heshould be good to go.
And him and Luthair go out in chapter 19,the spider in the alley.
(17:45):
They go out on the town to go walk arounda little bit.
And it is night outside.
There's a new moon.
which is important because that's windZaxis has said that he was going to
confess his love for Illia.
And this feels very fairy tale -esque,waiting on the new moon.
It's a boat of love.
(18:06):
And as he's making his way, as Volke andLuthair are making their way back, they
hear that a thief is being chased down thestreet.
It's a plague -ridden, a Anansi arcanistwho is stealing a moon rabbit to give to
his Eldrin so that his Eldrin can...
consume the magic.
(18:26):
So Anansi is a spider, a giant spider,which we'll see a little bit later.
And in addition to Volke, the knightsDraconic also show up and they assume
again that Volke is an inquisitor and saythat he's going to be able to take care of
it and allowing him do his work.
As the man's running it down, we do seethe Anansi actually show up.
(18:51):
It comes kind of from the nearby
Rooftops and rains down a pothole So I sayhow is it always Volke getting into
trouble walking around not supposed?
He's so concerned about everybody elsewalking around and by themselves and here
he is getting into trouble Yes, he'scoming from prison, too He just got out on
(19:12):
bail and he's already getting back intotrouble, but he is happy to save the day
So he ends up using the shadows to grabthe rabbit and is actually able to
successfully target his terrors
at the Arcanist and the eldrin.
So he's able to do it without affectingthe Knights's Draconic or any of the other
people that are in the area.
(19:33):
He ends up killing the eldrin which isimportant because the plague is actually
tied to magic.
And since the man no longer is tied to theeldrin's magic, he is no longer infected
by the plague.
So they're able to almost question him andrealize that he was infected near...
the mines so the guards can go andinvestigate and try and figure out what
(19:55):
caused it.
Luthair was actually telling Volke stayyour blade.
Do not kill the guy after the Anansi wasdead.
And this is kind of showing us thatLuthair, although he wants to be
protective and you know, looking back atit with Fain in Dread Pirate Arcanist, he
wanted to kill Fain because Fain was a badperson.
(20:17):
This guy was not, I mean, yeah, he wasdoing bad things, but more so because he
was infected with the plague.
And as soon as he was no longer infected,Luthair was like, okay, he's, he's
harmless.
Don't, you don't have to kill him anymore.
It is a very, very interesting point andshows one that there's understanding of
the magic that how it works.
But also, like you said, understandingsome of the good person in a bad place
(20:42):
versus a bad person who's trying to hurtyou.
After this nice little.
Escapade Volke ends up returning to theguild and he finds out that they are going
to be competing in the tournament, but dueto the number of participants, they're
actually going to be partnered up.
So he and Zaxis are going to be togetherand then Illia and Hexa are going to be
(21:02):
able to enter.
And Zaxis is actually happy that Volke'son his team because that means at the end,
once they split up for the semifinals andthe finals, they'll be able to fight each
other and he can prove he's better.
And.
win Illia's love essentially.
That's all he cares about.
I swear these two are like Guy Lee andKakashi from Naruto.
(21:26):
Just the way how competitive they are andalways butting heads and I feel like one
person, Volke, is kind of the like, Idon't want to constantly be competing with
you, Zaxis.
And Zaxis is Guy Lee just like, I don'tcare, I'm gonna show that I can beat you.
Yes, they're constantly going at eachother.
(21:47):
And that brings us to chapter 20, which isa challenge.
And Volke is even more determined afterZaxis's comments to be able to beat him.
And Luthair sees this.
And again, Luthair quote, and I alwayslove Luthair quotes.
He says, greatness is forged in the flamesof adversity.
I can see the blaze in your eyes now.
It's always been there, but the lightburns with an intensity I've yet to
(22:11):
experience from you.
very, very intense.
Volke wants to bring home the bacon.
He's ready for it.
He is motivated.
He is ready.
He's got his book.
He's prepared.
He's putting in the work.
They also find out that Theasin is intown, but Adelgis is essentially not going
to go see him for a few days because heknows he's busy and he doesn't want to
(22:33):
bother him.
And it just kind of another glimpse intothe relationship and the no love between
the two.
Volke is...
training and again, is getting some waterand has this very awkward moment with the
attendance.
And then you can really tell that he'sstruggling to embrace being a class above
as an archainist.
Well, shoot.
(22:53):
I mean, the attendant was about to likewet himself because Volke decided to grab
the pitcher of water and just chug it likea barbarian then to use a glass and yeah,
I get it.
He's thirsty.
I ain't blaming the guy, but again, likeyou see that these, and this is at the
hotel.
This isn't at the.
the castle.
So you can see that these mortals are god-awful afraid of these Arcanists and it's
(23:19):
not just trying to put their best footforward and, you know, bring honor to
whoever.
They seem like they have literally beenbeaten because of this.
And based on the other guilds makingcomments and blaming the waiter at the
palace for tripping and falling andcolliding with Volke
(23:40):
You can tell that almost anything bad thathappens, the guilds are just going to
almost blame it on them.
So they are constantly on the lookout,trying to avoid something because even if
it's not their fault, they're going to bethe ones that have to deal with the
repercussions from it.
I mean, shoot the waiter from the castlethat bumped into Volke.
Volke offered to pay for it and he's, ohno, no, I'll pay for it.
(24:02):
It was my mistake.
I messed up.
Like that's not normal.
No.
And it's, it's very different because insome of the.
Earlier books, we saw that they weregetting free passage on a ship, which you
think, okay, ship might not be at fullcapacity.
They could probably handle that.
So it's not a ton of gold loss, but itseems to have escalated to another level
(24:26):
in Thronehold.
I mean, on the Isle of Landon, theyrespected the arcanists.
They bowed, they showed their respect.
Like you said, they offered free passage,free cart ride, but they weren't walking
on eggshells around them.
And I think this is kind of...
showing how I guess the Northern parts ofthis world don't fear them because
(24:46):
especially because like I imagine livingin a city like Thronehold the aristocrats
are going to be aristocats.
And yeah.
And it's, it's a whole lot different onsome of the other cases.
You know, you think the Isle of Ruma, theyhave every 10 years, they have a couple of
Arcanists.
You know, they're not frequentlyinteracting with them or dealing with them
(25:07):
on a day to day.
So it's very different wind you're.
job is dependent on them not getting upsetat you essentially.
Right.
Yeah.
So I mean, shoot, even the Isle of Ruma,they may see an arcanists every here and
there with a ship or a boat that's passingthrough, but that's probably the extent of
it.
I imagine they don't call for arcanistsvery often because it's such a long trip
(25:30):
to get there for them.
Yeah.
So moving on.
We digress.
Yes.
So Volke is training with Zelfree andZelfree is helping him to understand
essentially that Volke needs to one, knowwhat his strengths are, but to also use
any information that he can get from anenemy to their disadvantage.
(25:55):
And he also kind of chides Volke Singhwith what the Luthair said.
You need to know your strengths.
because you're right now afraid to use anystrength at all.
And that's going to result in you gettingkilled.
As they're going through this trainingsession, we get a Reaper Arcanist that
shows up and he just wants to fightZelfree.
I feel like you could have just been like,all right, on the count of three, just
(26:17):
whip it out.
All right.
One, two, three.
That's what it felt like.
That's what it felt like.
And Zelfree does not want to partake inthis.
He only wants to train his apprentices.
And we learned that the Reaper...
has chains along with his scythe andactually has the names of the people that
(26:37):
he's killed are bested in battle.
And the Reaper really, really wantsZelfree's name on the chain.
Zelfree keeps pushing back.
So the Reaper pushes and says, you know,his apprentices are better than Zelfree's.
He had two apprentices that we met earlierin the Thronehold but he also has two
other ones, which he feels will be abigger challenge and be able to best any
(27:00):
of Zelfree's apprentices.
And Zelfree's low key like, well, I knowthese two apprentices, they've barely been
on any hunts.
They've been on offensive positions andstuff like that.
So like just rattles off all of thisinformation.
Like he's reading it from a stats card,allowing the back of the baseball card.
(27:20):
Yeah.
He did his research and we don't, we don'tknow why, but he's, he's out there
obviously researching the other guilds,everyone else in the tournament.
So he's very well informed.
To Volke's dismay, he actually won't giveVolke any of this information.
He wants Volke to learn to do the researchon his own and to prepare for a battle on
his own because Zelfree won't always bethere to help him out.
(27:44):
I like this because it had been so easyfor Zelfree to be like, screw that.
I want you to win for sure now.
I'm going to give you all the tricks andsecrets, but he, he lets him try to figure
it out on his own.
And as much as Volke struggles sometimes,I think that's just how Volke learns and.
retains so much and so well.
(28:04):
So yeah, it definitely hits close to homefor it.
And that wraps up chapter 20.
Shoot.
And we're almost to the tourney.
Yes.
All right.
For for the bestiary, there are a ton ofnew ones that have come up and there are a
ton that are going to continue to come upas we get into the tournament.
So in an effort not to bombard everyonewith a second podcast just about mythical
(28:29):
creatures, we're going to pick a couple.
each week and kind of add to them as wego.
So some of them may not be from thesection that we just read, but are from,
you know, a prior section that we weren'table to get to.
Starting off with the unicorn, lookingback at the mythology, it began around the
1400 BC area by the Greeks having seen onein the area of India.
(28:53):
And this is probably like my favorite partabout the unicorn is it's actually
Scotland's national animal.
And if you don't believe me, Google itbecause it legitimately is.
And like, just makes me want to go toScotland that much more now.
So with unicorns trial of worth, it'stypically athleticism based or a race.
(29:14):
They prefer to bond with royalty or peopleof knightly hood.
This is a tier two mystical creature.
So below the Phoenix's and the nightmares,but still up there.
Uh, it is a progeny born.
Now it.
It does have some interesting abilitieswith its magic.
The evocation is kind of like atelekinetic shove or force to separate
(29:35):
people away.
The manipulation can actually influencefeelings over people or crowds to increase
their courage or give them a good mood.
And I can only imagine how much they usethat while trying to deal with crowd
control or whatever is going on.
They can just be like, oh, you're, you'reanger at each other.
(29:57):
Not anymore.
Great for parents.
And then finally their augmentation, theyhave increased stamina, which pretty much
is going to let them run full force allday long.
So they definitely will not be beatenafter they become a Arcanist with the
Unicorn.
And then finally, they do have some prettyimpressive passive abilities that we've
(30:18):
seen in the past, mainly with Callisto.
They are immune to poisons, diseases.
So Clisto, again, remember he got hit withthe King Basilis venom, but because he had
his unicorn horn trinket, he is unable tobe killed using poison or disease.
But the bane of it is, it is not going toprevent blood disease.
(30:41):
They are not immune to the arcane plague.
They have to be just as scared and awareas everybody else.
The other one we'll bring up is thecounterpart to that, the Pegasus.
So in mythology, the winged horse.
Pegasus sprang out of Medusa's head windPerseus killed her, and Pegasus is
considered to be the offspring ofPoseidon.
(31:02):
There are also a Tier 2 progeny -borncreature, and their trial worth is also
physical prowess, though in this case it'susually acrobatic rather than a race.
And as we saw, evocation manipulation iswind force able to...
clear out the entryway, make everybodystop fighting, throw everyone against the
(31:23):
wall.
So very, very powerful.
And then not too much is said aboutaugmentation or passive abilities that
they have.
Right.
And before we wrap everything up, we alsowant to again, remind everybody to keep an
eye out on a solid release date for thetime marked Warlock as this is going to be
coming out sometime in April.
And again, this is Shami's new urbanfantasy book.
(31:45):
So keep an eye on Amazon for them.
That's available.
And we, like always, we'd like to thankDan Mackison our editor, and you can find
us on Podbean, Google podcasts, whichactually will be transitioning to YouTube
music.
So if you haven't switched everything overto there yet, you might want to get, get
doing that soon.
If you listen to Google podcasts, we'realso on Apple podcasts and we have our
(32:09):
Facebook group and we are on YouTube.
So if you want to see us as we're talking.
And Dan does a great job at putting inimages from the awesome source, frith
Chronicles fandom Wiki.
Uh, he, he does a great job getting thatpushed over to us as well.
And if you want to get ahold of us, we canget us at frithguildpod@gmail.com or send
(32:32):
a message to us on Facebook or comment onthe page.
You're also on discord.
Scott, are you on discord yourself?
I am.
For the capital station lounge.
Capital station lounge.
Yep.
So Scott, do you have anything else to addtoday?
Get ready for the tournament.
Coming.
Thank you for listening.
Stay tuned.
Welcome all of you fellow Arcanists outthere to the Frith Guild Podcast where we
explore an amazing world full of mysticalcreatures and their partners.
Our hosts are Eric Smith and Scott Warehamand they'll be your guides along this
journey through death and dragons.
So grab your Eldrins, strap on your swordsand get ready to defend the Argo Empire
from evil.
Throughout this series, if you have notcaught up to the chapters being discussed
(00:21):
today, we urge you to hit the pausebutting, grab your copy of this wonderful
book and catch up.
We'll be here wind you get back.
After Volke rescues the purplish white-haired girl Evianna from the river and
meets her lovely older sister, the FrithGuild arrives in Thronehold, meets Sax's
brother Lyell and trains for the SovereignDragon Tournament.
All of that is interrupted wind they'vereceived their invitation to meet with the
(00:45):
ruler of the Argo Empire, Queen ValettaBut before we get into the book, let's
look at some advice from the series.
Luthair the knightmare Eldrin, says,greatness is forged in the flames of
adversity.
With that, let's join Eric and Scott forchapters 16 through 20 of Coliseum
Arcanist.
(01:05):
Hello and welcome back to the Frith Guildpodcast.
I'm your host Eric.
And I'm co -host Scott.
And today we'll be diving into chapters 16through 20 of Coliseum Arcanist.
Before we dive on in, we do also want toremind you to be on the lookout for the
release date for Time Marked Warlockcoming out by Shami Stovall.
(01:27):
one of her new urban fantasy books.
Again, this should be out in April.
So hopefully by the time that thisrecording comes out, it is out and
available for everybody to read.
And as well, we also want to thank you forlistening.
We want you to like, share, subscribe, andgive us a review on any kind of platform
that you're listening to.
It definitely does help us.
(01:47):
So we just want to know that we're doinggood and keep up the good work.
So a little bit of feedback is greatlyappreciated.
And with that, we'll get into chapter 16,the Knights Draconic The dragon district
didn't actually have dragons in it, exceptfor maybe just one.
So there are actually two types of courtguards.
There are the Knights Draconic who are allunicorn arcanists And then there's the Sky
(02:11):
Legionnaires, which are all Pegasiarcanists.
And I think this is awesome that there arethese two specific ones.
Volke does mention specifically that thePegasi come in various colors and wing
types.
Specifically, black Pegasi have crow wingsand the golden Pegasi have eagle wings.
(02:31):
And as fitting with his character, Zaxisjust thinks he can fight everybody.
So he is convinced that his Phoenix is ahigher tier.
He's good to go.
He could take them all.
Imagine if he actually read that book thatVolke was reading and it was like...
I have the higher tier, I know I can beathim.
(02:52):
Straight to his head.
So Lyell is actually the one escortingthem to the castle and Lyell wants to show
Volke all of his friends that he's made inthe Lamplighters guild later on in
Thronehold.
It is kind of interesting though that hedoesn't, he doesn't ask Zaxis to come with
him.
He asks Volke.
So they finally enter King Drake castle.
And this castle is so massive that Volkeis pretty certain that.
(03:16):
The whole Isle of Ruma could actually fitwithin just the castle itself.
We get another very clear illustration ofhow Arcanists treat or are treated by
other regular Denzines or mortals as Shamicalls them.
This is actually kind of weird becauseVolke bumps into one and they kind of like
freak out.
They think they're about to get whipped orsomething the way they act to it.
(03:39):
And you see a little bit from the otherside as well.
Some of the guilds.
are making negative comments and at firstVolke thinks it's about him, but then he
realizes, oh, they're scolding the waiteras well.
So a little bit of guilds have gottenpower drunk, it seems in some sense, and
do see themselves above citizens thatthey're likely supposed to be protecting.
(04:02):
Right.
And I'm interested to see how this kind ofkeeps panning out.
Maybe, maybe this is just the castle andthey're on edge because there's all these
Arcanists from all over the world and.
They want to make a good impression, buttwo specific Arcanist from the Huntsman
Guild actually start to go over and startpestering Atty and I think Volke's really
going to have any much of this.
No, they're pretty much catcalling her.
(04:22):
It's, it's a weird method of doing it, butthey are shouting names at her.
Yeah.
And then they look at Hexa because Hexa islike, screw you guys.
You know, she's, she doesn't care.
And they end up calling Hexa a Scrag,which is actually worse than, I think,
than calling somebody a Mudblood to behonest.
It feels like it.
And based on everyone's reaction, Nicholintries to jump in, Illia has to grab him.
(04:47):
There's a very, very strong reaction tobeing called a scrag Well, then Volke is
about to lay down the hammer and out ofnowhere, like, Zaxis is just comes in and
lays him out.
And then, of course, come to try and cleaneverything up.
Zelfree coming in ready to smooth thingsover and try and make sure nobody gets
hurt.
Now, this is where I really enjoyedbecause...
(05:08):
We have Zaxis comment earlier about how hecould take them on.
Well, just one of the Pegasi Arcanist comein and just put an end to it by gusting
wind through the entryway of this castle.
The Knight Captain mentions that Arcanistshould have restraint and patience.
And the Knight Captain is actuallyrecognized by Volke.
It's the famed Captain Randall.
(05:31):
So there are a bunch of stories around himand a lot of lore that Volke is familiar
with.
I can imagine at this point in time.
Volke is like one, this is pretty muchquoting the pillar and two, he's a famous
Arcanist that I know I've read about.
So like, OMG, like total school girl, likemeeting the, you know, the boy band.
(05:53):
Little high shrieks, fangirling to themax.
And this is where actually chapter 16 endsand 17 begins with the Wendigo Hunt And so
all of this is happening.
The captain's probably about to be like,okay, no harm done, get everything
straightened out.
And lo and behold, Evianna is a princess.
(06:13):
Go freaking figure, Volke.
Has to go and piss off the princess.
It does mean though, that her sister isalso a princess.
So Volke's got a little flirty actiongoing with, with the royalty.
Ooh, he got slid in their DMs without eventrying there.
Evianna comes like hauling up and waslike.
(06:35):
The Frith guild.
Oh, they're the ones that manhandled me.
And at the peak of this, Zaxis is the onejust head tuck, you know, tail tuck
between his legs because he's the one thatstarted the fight.
So then everybody looks at Zaxis like, howdid you just, how did you not only start a
fight, but manhandle a princess?
Like, where the hell?
And are they wrong to assume it's Zaxis?
(06:56):
That would be my guess as well, withoutknowing the story.
Right.
You know, I would believe it a lot morecoming from Zaxis than Volke, to be
honest.
Like, if I didn't read it myself, I woulddefinitely have believed that Zaxis was
the one that did that.
Now, because Evianna, and she actuallylike points Volke out and says, no, he's
(07:17):
the one, Zelfree just straights, laughsout loud, like good belly laugh.
And then wind he realizes that she's notjoking, the Knight Captain is even like,
well, all right, well, I guess we're notgoing to wait your turn anymore because
we're going to take you straight up to theQueen and have this taken care of.
Instantly Evianna kind of turns heels andwhoa, don't tell Oma she doesn't need to
know the details.
(07:39):
And just for.
Anybody that didn't know, Oma is actuallyGerman for grandmother.
So that had to be one hell of a climb tothe queen's chamber because it takes them
a few minutes.
It takes a long time and high enough thatthey can get to a dragon as well.
The dragon has to be able to sit in onthis.
So it's, it's a long trek there.
(08:00):
Shoot, I'd be winded myself just for someclimbing the stairs.
And they get to the top of the stairs.
And of course, right outside of the throneroom where she's going to be seeing
everybody, she has.
All 12 of the runestones displayed outsideof her throne room.
Like, I guess that's one less thing forthem to figure out where they are.
Definitely helps out a lot.
(08:21):
And the decor also, besides therunestones, everything is covered in
nullstone as well.
So there's a lot of effort and majesty putinto this castle.
So we get into the throne room and thedragon is just chilling behind the throne,
behind the queen.
Volke estimates that this dragon has toweigh at least 500 tons.
(08:43):
Like this thing is massive.
Captain Rendell goes up to the queen andlets her know as to why he's there.
And she wants to know what the heckhappened.
And Evianna is put on the spot because shedoesn't want to tell her her oma.
She was playing by the river.
And just as I think Evianna was about tosay what really happened, Volke comes out
and was like, no, no, I slipped and fellin the river and she came in to get me
(09:07):
and.
I pat her on the back instead to say,thank you.
And I didn't realize she was a princessand that I, you know, I grew up from the
Island nations.
So I don't know your guys customs thatwell.
So I'm sorry.
So the Queen's basically like, okay,we'll, we'll deal with your punishment in
a minute.
Um, make, you know, Charles make note ofmy next decree that any and all Wendigos
(09:28):
antlers are going to be taken and madeinto plague trinkets.
And the Queen in this moment.
her harshness and instinct to go towardseverything is mine and we're gonna
complete the hunt all these windegos downis very very trying to prove something i
don't know if she's power drunk as wellbut she definitely has something to prove
(09:49):
wind you think about how old she is shewouldn't need to be that crazy but you
wouldn't think so but you just get that
feeling from her that she wants everybodyto know that she's the queen and she's not
to be challenged.
And maybe she's afraid that people arestarting to doubt her because she's been
there for so long or whatever the reasonis.
She's got some bite to her.
Right.
Yeah, definitely.
(10:10):
Especially with a giant 500 ton Dragon'ssitting behind her Could just decide to
have you as a snack without even thinkingabout it.
The captain did bring up a really goodpoint, I believe.
I believe it was the captain and hebasically like, Hey, what about all these
other
Windego Arcanist that came to Throneholdfor the tournament.
And she's like, well, what we'll do iswe'll give them three months to get the
(10:33):
hell out of our area.
And if they're still here and we catchthem, then we're going to kill them.
So generous.
You got three months.
Give up your antlers or die.
Thank you.
Uh, and the other one she brings up thatis, is very interesting is she also brings
up bringing in Adelgis's dad.
(10:54):
He's a famed artifacer.
He's well known in the magical community.
So it's a nice little tie in there as wellthat she places a lot of trust in him.
And obviously he, he must know something.
He must be pretty good at his job.
If the queen knows him personally likethat and is willing to just call him in on
a whim.
So we finally get Volke's verdict asthey're about to walk out and Volke's
(11:16):
almost like.
Like, I'm getting away with this andgetting away with this.
Like, no one's going to see me.
And she's like, okay, the person thatmanhandled her, you're going to spend a
full day in the castle dungeon.
That's your punishment.
So Volke feels pretty dang embarrassedbecause this is all happening right in
front of the guild, the whole guild that'sthere.
And everybody's kind of like, okay, Iguess that's the punishment.
(11:37):
That's the punishment.
And we'll, we'll just leave it be.
So Volke ends up in the prison or thecastle dungeon, and he actually says to
Luthair
that he feels terrible that, you know,especially because Mathis has never ended
up in a dungeon before.
Luthair comes back with, even though Volkeis spending the day, he's very thankful
for meeting and bonding with Volke.
It's a really sweet moment between them.
(12:00):
I know Volke wasn't necessarily lookingfor it to be emotional, but Luthair said
what needed to be said and reallyproviding a lot of comfort.
And the other piece that Luthair mentions,you know, we saw it in previous chapters
as well, is he brings up again that hewants to go back.
And then we see the people from theSteelthorn Inquisitors that he knew from
before.
(12:20):
And that's a pretty solid understanding onthat because that's where he spent most of
his time with, all of his time withMathis, I assume.
Going back to see familiar faces, it wasalways probably nice.
Before the captain walked away afterslamming the door on, you know, Volke in
the dungeon, he did state that the captainreally collected a lot of more information
(12:41):
from Evianna that she let on.
And the captain knows that she lied to thequeen.
So you can see that he's kind of thatlike, I don't want to do this to you, but
she's the queen.
I have to do what I'm told.
I'm her captain.
Yeah.
Again, I hate doing this, but just know I,I know that you weren't completely a
(13:01):
horrible person.
Yeah.
He, he feels bad for him because he'sstuck in this situation.
There's nothing you can do to help, but hedoes want him to know that it didn't go
unnoticed that he was looking out for.
So as Volke sitting in his cell, he'strying to debate what he's going to do
with his time.
Cause he's got 24 hours in the clink.
I feel like he needs one of those cups,just sit there rattle back and forth on
(13:24):
the bars and sing a little jiggy.
Yeah.
But he does actually start singing alittle jiggy.
Tries to pass the time and then he's like,well, wait a minute.
I could just use my magic while I'm downhere and you know, train.
That's, that's been great for real use ofmy time.
And Volke finds out that.
It's made of nullstone.
(13:44):
So can't, can't use any of his magic whilehe's down there.
But it shouldn't be a surprise.
Right.
You're going to a dungeon.
What else would you expect?
They're just going to let all theArcanists use their magic.
If they can get out fine, it's whatever.
I mean, they have to come out like up thestairs still.
So like, we'll find, we'll see him.
(14:05):
So Volke was actually asking Luthair aboutwhy all this nullstone is there.
Like how does nobody else going to be ableto use magic in there?
And.
Luthair just talks about how dragons as atear, like all dragons are not affected by
null stone.
And specifically sovereign dragons areactually able to activate and deactivate
(14:27):
the null stone effects.
So they, they can turn all the magic offand they can turn it back on like a, like
a light switch.
Little Harry Potter light.
Yeah.
lumos and knox So after spending a couplehours down there, Lyvia finally comes
down, which is the princess.
And she comes down to rescue the damsel indistress who is Volke.
(14:49):
And Volke is very cordial at this pointbecause he knows that she's a princess
now.
And he addresses her as your highness.
And she's actually disappointed at that.
And she brings up a fact that she isn'treally a ruler until she bonds with the
sovereign dragon.
And that requires going through a trial ofworth where she will have to fight
(15:11):
somebody.
So it's.
a little early to be called your highness.
Right.
And that gives an interesting twist to howthis whole royalty works with this.
So we find out the queen's first name, herfull title is Queen shayll -Valetta, which
is Evianna and Lyvia's great -great -great-great -grandma.
(15:34):
So five greats in there.
Don't know how many generations, and a lotof generations.
Lyvia
looks at Luthair and she's like, Oh, waita minute.
Aren't you King Raulith which is who youwere before you turned into the
knightmare.
The significance to this is theknightmare's names are an anagram of the
(15:55):
ruler that they were before they died.
So Raulith, R -A -U -L -I -T -H is how weget Luthair.
It's a good thing they don't have any likebobs.
Oob Oob.
You're one option.
Ooh, got two.
So, Lyvia compares Volke with Clark theGallant.
(16:17):
And she wanted to tell Volke about what'sto come, but holds back.
And again, I can only imagine that Volkeis just, again, mind explodes.
Like, this entire book is just mindexplosion with all of the things.
He's got people quoting pillars that don'tactually, like, quote the pillar.
(16:37):
He's got people...
that are famous that he's read all thesestories about, and he has somebody to nerd
out with.
Like he's in heaven here.
In a dungeon But in heaven.
It's just a couple hours.
It wasn't that bad.
Like, I can only imagine she, the Queenprobably would have forgotten him, but the
(17:01):
minute he left the room, you know, sheprobably didn't notice anything
afterwards.
But Lyvia does thank Volke for savingEvianna, even if she didn't deserve it.
Because again, Lyvia knew the true story.
And I'm sure Evianna ran straight to Lyviaonce everything happened.
And they have a nice moment together.
I think Volke is happy to know that Lyviaknows the true story.
(17:23):
His, his little crush.
knows the truth about him being a hero.
But she ends up releasing him from theprison, like you said, because the queen
won't notice or remember that she evensentenced him.
So as long as he leaves the castle, heshould be good to go.
And him and Luthair go out in chapter 19,the spider in the alley.
(17:45):
They go out on the town to go walk arounda little bit.
And it is night outside.
There's a new moon.
which is important because that's windZaxis has said that he was going to
confess his love for Illia.
And this feels very fairy tale -esque,waiting on the new moon.
It's a boat of love.
(18:06):
And as he's making his way, as Volke andLuthair are making their way back, they
hear that a thief is being chased down thestreet.
It's a plague -ridden, a Anansi arcanistwho is stealing a moon rabbit to give to
his Eldrin so that his Eldrin can...
consume the magic.
(18:26):
So Anansi is a spider, a giant spider,which we'll see a little bit later.
And in addition to Volke, the knightsDraconic also show up and they assume
again that Volke is an inquisitor and saythat he's going to be able to take care of
it and allowing him do his work.
As the man's running it down, we do seethe Anansi actually show up.
(18:51):
It comes kind of from the nearby
Rooftops and rains down a pothole So I sayhow is it always Volke getting into
trouble walking around not supposed?
He's so concerned about everybody elsewalking around and by themselves and here
he is getting into trouble Yes, he'scoming from prison, too He just got out on
(19:12):
bail and he's already getting back intotrouble, but he is happy to save the day
So he ends up using the shadows to grabthe rabbit and is actually able to
successfully target his terrors
at the Arcanist and the eldrin.
So he's able to do it without affectingthe Knights's Draconic or any of the other
people that are in the area.
(19:33):
He ends up killing the eldrin which isimportant because the plague is actually
tied to magic.
And since the man no longer is tied to theeldrin's magic, he is no longer infected
by the plague.
So they're able to almost question him andrealize that he was infected near...
the mines so the guards can go andinvestigate and try and figure out what
(19:55):
caused it.
Luthair was actually telling Volke stayyour blade.
Do not kill the guy after the Anansi wasdead.
And this is kind of showing us thatLuthair, although he wants to be
protective and you know, looking back atit with Fain in Dread Pirate Arcanist, he
wanted to kill Fain because Fain was a badperson.
(20:17):
This guy was not, I mean, yeah, he wasdoing bad things, but more so because he
was infected with the plague.
And as soon as he was no longer infected,Luthair was like, okay, he's, he's
harmless.
Don't, you don't have to kill him anymore.
It is a very, very interesting point andshows one that there's understanding of
the magic that how it works.
But also, like you said, understandingsome of the good person in a bad place
(20:42):
versus a bad person who's trying to hurtyou.
After this nice little.
Escapade Volke ends up returning to theguild and he finds out that they are going
to be competing in the tournament, but dueto the number of participants, they're
actually going to be partnered up.
So he and Zaxis are going to be togetherand then Illia and Hexa are going to be
(21:02):
able to enter.
And Zaxis is actually happy that Volke'son his team because that means at the end,
once they split up for the semifinals andthe finals, they'll be able to fight each
other and he can prove he's better.
And.
win Illia's love essentially.
That's all he cares about.
I swear these two are like Guy Lee andKakashi from Naruto.
(21:26):
Just the way how competitive they are andalways butting heads and I feel like one
person, Volke, is kind of the like, Idon't want to constantly be competing with
you, Zaxis.
And Zaxis is Guy Lee just like, I don'tcare, I'm gonna show that I can beat you.
Yes, they're constantly going at eachother.
(21:47):
And that brings us to chapter 20, which isa challenge.
And Volke is even more determined afterZaxis's comments to be able to beat him.
And Luthair sees this.
And again, Luthair quote, and I alwayslove Luthair quotes.
He says, greatness is forged in the flamesof adversity.
I can see the blaze in your eyes now.
It's always been there, but the lightburns with an intensity I've yet to
(22:11):
experience from you.
very, very intense.
Volke wants to bring home the bacon.
He's ready for it.
He is motivated.
He is ready.
He's got his book.
He's prepared.
He's putting in the work.
They also find out that Theasin is intown, but Adelgis is essentially not going
to go see him for a few days because heknows he's busy and he doesn't want to
(22:33):
bother him.
And it just kind of another glimpse intothe relationship and the no love between
the two.
Volke is...
training and again, is getting some waterand has this very awkward moment with the
attendance.
And then you can really tell that he'sstruggling to embrace being a class above
as an archainist.
Well, shoot.
(22:53):
I mean, the attendant was about to likewet himself because Volke decided to grab
the pitcher of water and just chug it likea barbarian then to use a glass and yeah,
I get it.
He's thirsty.
I ain't blaming the guy, but again, likeyou see that these, and this is at the
hotel.
This isn't at the.
the castle.
So you can see that these mortals are god-awful afraid of these Arcanists and it's
(23:19):
not just trying to put their best footforward and, you know, bring honor to
whoever.
They seem like they have literally beenbeaten because of this.
And based on the other guilds makingcomments and blaming the waiter at the
palace for tripping and falling andcolliding with Volke
(23:40):
You can tell that almost anything bad thathappens, the guilds are just going to
almost blame it on them.
So they are constantly on the lookout,trying to avoid something because even if
it's not their fault, they're going to bethe ones that have to deal with the
repercussions from it.
I mean, shoot the waiter from the castlethat bumped into Volke.
Volke offered to pay for it and he's, ohno, no, I'll pay for it.
(24:02):
It was my mistake.
I messed up.
Like that's not normal.
No.
And it's, it's very different because insome of the.
Earlier books, we saw that they weregetting free passage on a ship, which you
think, okay, ship might not be at fullcapacity.
They could probably handle that.
So it's not a ton of gold loss, but itseems to have escalated to another level
(24:26):
in Thronehold.
I mean, on the Isle of Landon, theyrespected the arcanists.
They bowed, they showed their respect.
Like you said, they offered free passage,free cart ride, but they weren't walking
on eggshells around them.
And I think this is kind of...
showing how I guess the Northern parts ofthis world don't fear them because
(24:46):
especially because like I imagine livingin a city like Thronehold the aristocrats
are going to be aristocats.
And yeah.
And it's, it's a whole lot different onsome of the other cases.
You know, you think the Isle of Ruma, theyhave every 10 years, they have a couple of
Arcanists.
You know, they're not frequentlyinteracting with them or dealing with them
(25:07):
on a day to day.
So it's very different wind you're.
job is dependent on them not getting upsetat you essentially.
Right.
Yeah.
So I mean, shoot, even the Isle of Ruma,they may see an arcanists every here and
there with a ship or a boat that's passingthrough, but that's probably the extent of
it.
I imagine they don't call for arcanistsvery often because it's such a long trip
(25:30):
to get there for them.
Yeah.
So moving on.
We digress.
Yes.
So Volke is training with Zelfree andZelfree is helping him to understand
essentially that Volke needs to one, knowwhat his strengths are, but to also use
any information that he can get from anenemy to their disadvantage.
(25:55):
And he also kind of chides Volke Singhwith what the Luthair said.
You need to know your strengths.
because you're right now afraid to use anystrength at all.
And that's going to result in you gettingkilled.
As they're going through this trainingsession, we get a Reaper Arcanist that
shows up and he just wants to fightZelfree.
I feel like you could have just been like,all right, on the count of three, just
(26:17):
whip it out.
All right.
One, two, three.
That's what it felt like.
That's what it felt like.
And Zelfree does not want to partake inthis.
He only wants to train his apprentices.
And we learned that the Reaper...
has chains along with his scythe andactually has the names of the people that
(26:37):
he's killed are bested in battle.
And the Reaper really, really wantsZelfree's name on the chain.
Zelfree keeps pushing back.
So the Reaper pushes and says, you know,his apprentices are better than Zelfree's.
He had two apprentices that we met earlierin the Thronehold but he also has two
other ones, which he feels will be abigger challenge and be able to best any
(27:00):
of Zelfree's apprentices.
And Zelfree's low key like, well, I knowthese two apprentices, they've barely been
on any hunts.
They've been on offensive positions andstuff like that.
So like just rattles off all of thisinformation.
Like he's reading it from a stats card,allowing the back of the baseball card.
(27:20):
Yeah.
He did his research and we don't, we don'tknow why, but he's, he's out there
obviously researching the other guilds,everyone else in the tournament.
So he's very well informed.
To Volke's dismay, he actually won't giveVolke any of this information.
He wants Volke to learn to do the researchon his own and to prepare for a battle on
his own because Zelfree won't always bethere to help him out.
(27:44):
I like this because it had been so easyfor Zelfree to be like, screw that.
I want you to win for sure now.
I'm going to give you all the tricks andsecrets, but he, he lets him try to figure
it out on his own.
And as much as Volke struggles sometimes,I think that's just how Volke learns and.
retains so much and so well.
(28:04):
So yeah, it definitely hits close to homefor it.
And that wraps up chapter 20.
Shoot.
And we're almost to the tourney.
Yes.
All right.
For for the bestiary, there are a ton ofnew ones that have come up and there are a
ton that are going to continue to come upas we get into the tournament.
So in an effort not to bombard everyonewith a second podcast just about mythical
(28:29):
creatures, we're going to pick a couple.
each week and kind of add to them as wego.
So some of them may not be from thesection that we just read, but are from,
you know, a prior section that we weren'table to get to.
Starting off with the unicorn, lookingback at the mythology, it began around the
1400 BC area by the Greeks having seen onein the area of India.
(28:53):
And this is probably like my favorite partabout the unicorn is it's actually
Scotland's national animal.
And if you don't believe me, Google itbecause it legitimately is.
And like, just makes me want to go toScotland that much more now.
So with unicorns trial of worth, it'stypically athleticism based or a race.
(29:14):
They prefer to bond with royalty or peopleof knightly hood.
This is a tier two mystical creature.
So below the Phoenix's and the nightmares,but still up there.
Uh, it is a progeny born.
Now it.
It does have some interesting abilitieswith its magic.
The evocation is kind of like atelekinetic shove or force to separate
(29:35):
people away.
The manipulation can actually influencefeelings over people or crowds to increase
their courage or give them a good mood.
And I can only imagine how much they usethat while trying to deal with crowd
control or whatever is going on.
They can just be like, oh, you're, you'reanger at each other.
(29:57):
Not anymore.
Great for parents.
And then finally their augmentation, theyhave increased stamina, which pretty much
is going to let them run full force allday long.
So they definitely will not be beatenafter they become a Arcanist with the
Unicorn.
And then finally, they do have some prettyimpressive passive abilities that we've
(30:18):
seen in the past, mainly with Callisto.
They are immune to poisons, diseases.
So Clisto, again, remember he got hit withthe King Basilis venom, but because he had
his unicorn horn trinket, he is unable tobe killed using poison or disease.
But the bane of it is, it is not going toprevent blood disease.
(30:41):
They are not immune to the arcane plague.
They have to be just as scared and awareas everybody else.
The other one we'll bring up is thecounterpart to that, the Pegasus.
So in mythology, the winged horse.
Pegasus sprang out of Medusa's head windPerseus killed her, and Pegasus is
considered to be the offspring ofPoseidon.
(31:02):
There are also a Tier 2 progeny -borncreature, and their trial worth is also
physical prowess, though in this case it'susually acrobatic rather than a race.
And as we saw, evocation manipulation iswind force able to...
clear out the entryway, make everybodystop fighting, throw everyone against the
(31:23):
wall.
So very, very powerful.
And then not too much is said aboutaugmentation or passive abilities that
they have.
Right.
And before we wrap everything up, we alsowant to again, remind everybody to keep an
eye out on a solid release date for thetime marked Warlock as this is going to be
coming out sometime in April.
And again, this is Shami's new urbanfantasy book.
(31:45):
So keep an eye on Amazon for them.
That's available.
And we, like always, we'd like to thankDan Mackison our editor, and you can find
us on Podbean, Google podcasts, whichactually will be transitioning to YouTube
music.
So if you haven't switched everything overto there yet, you might want to get, get
doing that soon.
If you listen to Google podcasts, we'realso on Apple podcasts and we have our
(32:09):
Facebook group and we are on YouTube.
So if you want to see us as we're talking.
And Dan does a great job at putting inimages from the awesome source, frith
Chronicles fandom Wiki.
Uh, he, he does a great job getting thatpushed over to us as well.
And if you want to get ahold of us, we canget us at frithguildpod@gmail.com or send
(32:32):
a message to us on Facebook or comment onthe page.
You're also on discord.
Scott, are you on discord yourself?
I am.
For the capital station lounge.
Capital station lounge.
Yep.
So Scott, do you have anything else to addtoday?
Get ready for the tournament.
Coming.
Thank you for listening.
Stay tuned.
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