May 15, 2024 • 26 mins
In the heart of the coliseum, Volke’s plea to Niro for his brother’s life falls on deaf ears. Niro, unmoved by emotion, prioritizes victory over compassion. Volke’s sacrifice in the arena sets a dangerous precedent, and a cryptic reminder hangs over Niro’s head. Meanwhile, Zaxis dances with agility, not brawn, against the stone golem. Volke secures the elusive “medicine” for Adelgis, but his thoughts drift to Karna and Lyvia. As Adelgis awakens, secrets unravel, and Karna’s return heralds a new quest—to locate the ghoul arcanist. Nicholin shadows Volke, while cryptic letters hint at deeper mysteries. 🌟🗡️🌙
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome all of you fellow Arcanist 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 Wharamand they'll be your guides along this
journey through death and dragons.
So grab your Eldrin 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
(00:24):
today, we urge you to hit the pausebutton, grab a copy of this wonderful book
and catch up.
We'll be here when you get back.
The semi -finals of the ApprenticeTournament are here!
Time to split the final two pairs intoindividual competitions.
We have Niro Venrover, the Acidic StoorWorm Arcanist, Graham Topmore, the Titanic
(00:45):
Stone Golem Arcanist, Zaxis Wren, theFiery's Phoenix Arcanist, and Volke Savan
the Knightmare Arcanist destined to winbecause, well, he's our prodigas, right?
Except, at the last minute, Niro asksVolke to throw the fight and Volke agrees.
Welcome back to the Frith Guild Podcast.
(01:27):
I'm your host Eric.
And I'm co-host Scott.
And today we'll be diving into chapters 46through 50 of the Coliseum Arcanist.
And before we get started into today'spodcast, I want to thank everyone for
listening.
And we do ask that you like share,subscribe, comment, all that good stuff,
just to show us some love here to let usknow we're doing well.
(01:49):
And we also wanted to mention that theFirth Chronicles Wiki link is in the
description below.
Along with the link for the capitalstation discord servers.
So that way you can go on over and join inon the conversation.
And today we'll get into chapters 46, theThrown fight.
To give some background into this, Volkeis talking to Niro before their fight in
(02:12):
the crown tournament.
Niro mentioned that Theasin does havesomething that could save Adelgis and heal
him, but he only will give it to Volke ifVolke agrees to throw the fight.
Volke realizes that Adelgis' life is worthmore than the star shards that he would
earn by winning the tournament and agreesto throw the fight.
(02:34):
Niro's plan is for Volke to create anEclipse aura, but Volke mentions that he
doesn't really know how to do this.
So they're kind of left to fake fight eachother a little bit until Niro can can
knock him out.
And Niro was definitely not the crowdfavorite by any means going into this
fight.
No, he wasn't ex -
(02:54):
supposed to have the skill that Volke has.
He wasn't winning matches as excitingly asVolke was.
So very exciting match to come though.
And Niro's common tactic was really to usespeed and to use the corrosive touch of
the stoor worm But Volke's armor, whenhe's merged with Luthair really defends
(03:15):
against a lot of this.
So it slows down the poison and a lot ofthe attacks just don't do very much
damage.
And Volke quickly realizes that Niro is avery weak sword fighter.
He really just relies on the strength ofhis Eldran.
Instead of just trying to take Volke out,Niro is really making a show of the event,
(03:38):
trying to drag the show out, drag it out,so his father will be more proud of his
victory.
And Volke decides that if this is going tobe the case, he can retaliate some, so he
unleashes terrors on him.
He ends up throwing the stoor worm out ofthe ring and then just barely allows Niro
to push him out.
Once he falls out, he is succumbing tosome of the poison.
(04:02):
So Zelfree runs into the Rena.
He mimics a unicorn or canist and then usetheir powers to heal the poison.
And at this point, Volke does tell Zelfreewho is very confused by what just went on
about the deal that he made.
We just talk about how Volke would haveabsolutely destroyed Niro.
And even the, just a few moments of kindof fighting back and trying to give
(04:26):
everybody a good show.
He would have absolutely destroyed Niro.
And then Volke does also remind Niro thatif Niro reneges on this, that Volke will
follow through with, with the beating thathe's about to get.
And he will make sure that Niro doesfulfill his end of the bargain.
Very, very intense.
(04:47):
And it is not only.
the two of them that realized thedifference.
Even the announcer was making commentsabout confusion on how the fight was
going.
So everyone's well aware that Volke is thebetter fighter.
That brings us to chapter 47, which isrecovery.
So Volke goes up to the sky platform.
(05:08):
He shadow steps up there to watch Zaxisfight.
And Zaxis is fighting with Stone Golem.
And as soon as the fight begins,
He goes straight for the Arcanist andknocks him out of the ring.
Volke realizes that Zaxis' strategy isthat he knows he can't knock the Golem out
of the ring.
(05:28):
But as long as both he and Forsythe are inthe ring at the end of five minutes,
they'll win by decision.
So he is running around trying to dodgehits.
He does end up getting hit pretty bad, buthe does last the Golem and it does end up
winning the match.
This is one of those times where it'sactually surprising that Zaxis was able to
(05:51):
come up with a strategy because this is100 % not Zaxis strategy with just trying
to outlast the opponent.
And there's definitely some like momentsthat we thought Zaxis was going to go down
completely.
Yeah.
It takes a lot of recognition for him tosay, I'm not going to win this fight by
fighting it, which is his normal, hisnormal MO.
(06:13):
So after the match, Volke walks to Theasenlab, Niro ends up giving him two vials of
sand, one is tan and one is pink.
And the tan one is supposed to healinjuries, the pink one will heal the soul,
but if you take the pink one and youaren't hurt, it's going to end up killing
you.
And this is where Niro kind of threatensVolke back and says that if you do try to
(06:37):
sell these, you know, they are extremelyvaluable, I will find out and extract my
revenge on you.
Volke asks him about them and Niro doesn'treally know exactly what they are.
Doesn't know what they come from.
He just knows that he's seen them usedbefore and that they are effective.
And he ends up admitting to Volke thatessentially he's only Adelgis' half
brother and cares a little bit forAdelgis, but not very much.
(07:01):
I don't care if Niro's a half brother toAdelgis.
Brother's a brother, Rio.
Blood blood.
You would think.
Right.
Like, I mean...
Niro does also come back and say, Hey,like at least somebody cares about that,
Adelgis So he does say that he is slightlyhappy about that.
(07:21):
But he could be the one caring and hechooses not to.
Unfortunately, it's not him, but somebody,you know, somebody could.
Somebody.
So Volke goes straight to Adelgis He mixessome water into the pink sand, gives it to
Adelgis.
And Volke's sitting there thinking about.
Karna and Lyvia while he's waiting for thepink stuff to work.
(07:43):
So what about Atty Is she not good enough?
Like you liked her first.
Starting to get some, uh, you know,starting to get some feelings here about,
about these three.
Too many options.
Adelgis does end up waking up.
So the elixir does cure him.
And we find out that one of the magicpowers of the ethereal walk is that they
(08:08):
can hear.
people's thoughts, but this is more of anactive magic that they elect to use.
And Adelgis can't turn it off now.
So he is constantly hearing everyone'sthoughts all the time.
His magic was essentially warped by theleech.
Well, and Adelgis could even hear thesethoughts while they were asleep.
(08:29):
And Adelgis did say that there were peoplethat just wanted him to die.
And I'll just, all I want to say to thatis who Adelgis, Mama Volke will take care
of them.
He'll make sure that they freaking gettheir just rewards.
Yes.
You know, you know who your real ones are.
Yeah.
And part of hearing these thoughts is hedoes also know that Karna has actually
(08:51):
been tailing Volke.
She takes on the likeness of someoneworking in the hospital or other places
that he's around and she can hear himwhenever he's nearby.
Chapter 48 is the ghoul piece.
And again,
Adelgis is just talking through with Volkeand essentially warning him, be like, Hey,
Karnas kind of tailing you.
You should really get that figured out.
(09:14):
Adelgis also says that Volke has met herEldrin previously.
And I'm fairly certain, it may not be asuper sleuth Sherlock Holmes here, but
fairly certain guy outside that was tryingto convince Volke to go and watch her show
to begin with was her Eldrin.
That was my thought as well though.
coat too small and hat too big.
(09:36):
He just, he fits.
He's drawing too much attention.
He's gotta be the one.
So Zelfree does join them.
He brings Zaxis from the arena.
Zaxis has been getting drunk with Zelfreebecause Zelfree knows that it will numb
the pain.
So even though he's been healed, there'sstill some lasting effects.
(09:59):
And Gilly joins them as well.
She's also very excited to see Volke, tosee that Adelgis was healed.
She also does poke a little fun atZelfree, of course, gotta poke the bear.
Zaxis confronts Volke about his fight andis essentially angry at him for throwing
the fight because Illia is now more proudof Volke because he is a martyr for
(10:23):
Adelgis and now Zaxis won't have thechance to fight him in the arena and won't
get to prove that he's the superiorfighter.
Adelgis gets kind of fed up with this andtouches Zaxis and puts him to sleep and
doesn't want them to fight.
Let him sleep it off a little bit.
Volke also ends up falling asleep and he'swoken up by Atty who gives him a tender
(10:47):
touch and a little kiss.
And again, Volke realizes that it's Karna.
He tells her not to take Atty's form andshe teases Volke with the opportunities of
a doppleganger.
What's even better than this is this is inthe same room Adelgis has been in so not
(11:07):
only did he get to hear all the thoughtshe also got to watch it take place and in
all reality Fain is probably there as wellso he probably also got to watch and
listen in.
Like I don't know what it is abouteverybody wanting to watch Volke I guess
everybody likes to watch it.
Somebody some sort he's some type of studthere.
(11:28):
Karna does have the ghoul trinket and
Before she gives it to Volke, she does askhim who the most attractive woman is.
And Volke very honestly says that she is.
She is happy with this answer and shewants to leave right away.
And Adelgis since he's now feeling better,decides that he wants to come as well.
And this is where chapter 49 starts up asthe Occult Compass.
(11:50):
Adeglis does know that Karna has a lot ofdeep secrets and has agreed with her to
not divulge any of them so long as shedoesn't lie to Volke.
And Adelgis is seeming rather cold toVolke lately.
And some of that might be, Adelgismentions that he can essentially hear
everyone's thoughts and this includes alltheir petty thoughts and some of the noise
(12:15):
that comes through with them.
So it could very well be impacting hismood just because he hears the negatives
that you don't usually hear.
But I mean, Volke even made a commentabout him looking like a vagabond like
five minutes after Adelgis...
is resurrected essentially.
Volke goes to Illia's room back at the endto get the Occult Compass and Illia has
(12:37):
taken a rather aggressive attitude towardshim.
Granted, Volke hasn't really had a chanceto mention why he threw the fight, but
Volke does want to borrow the compass.
So kind of like how do we get this thefastest?
Now, one thing I did think about was wouldthe compass work on a doppelganger since
the doppelgangers can hide their magicfrom Mimics?
(12:58):
Or is this something that like, doesn'tmatter what you are?
Cause it said they can find anything orany eldrin Again, it's just one of those
inner workings of how the magic works andhow the doppelganger specifically can hide
their magic.
It is a good question.
And the one thing I think is the occultcompass isn't based on mimic magic.
(13:20):
It's based on like the all seeing Sphinx.
So.
It would really depend if the Sphinx canidentify the doppelganger or not.
And I'm, I'm curious as well.
It's also a curious one because there justaren't very many doppelgangers.
Like it's a tough one to test out.
Right.
Hmm.
We'll have to have to think about thatone.
(13:43):
Anybody else wants to put their input onthat?
Please let us know.
What'd you think?
So Illia does decide that she wants tosend Nicholin with Volke.
Just to make sure that Volke doesn't getin any trouble.
Because Nicholin is so great at keepingpeople out of trouble.
Just try not to like have them getswallowed and then teleporting out of the
(14:04):
person.
Falling into mugs of ale.
Right.
So Nicholin is kind of feeling like aforgotten child between Illia and Zaxis
since they became an item.
And Nicholin has decided that he's goingto be extra sneaky when he's tricking
Zaxis because he said that.
He can trick Zaxis whenever he wantswithout Zaxis actually knowing that it
(14:27):
was, was Nichoin that did it.
Volke gets out of the inn and all of asudden now he's got this new posse.
He's got Adelgis, he's got Fain and Karnawith them.
And then they all got their Eldrin.
All's I can think about is them walkingdown the middle of the street, the four of
them like shoulder to shoulder early hoursin the morning.
These people are merchants are trying toget their carts packed up so they can get
(14:50):
the hell out of there before the end ofthe tournament.
And just seeing all of them walking downlike, Oh gosh, what crap are they about to
start?
This is where Volke actually realizes heprobably hasn't seen Karna's Eldritch.
But Adela just does say that he has been,but Volke has never recognized him.
And another curious thought about those isthe doppelganger has always taken on
(15:13):
someone else's look.
I'm always curious what they look likewhen they aren't taking on an appearance.
Do they have like a default like?
me character that they that's kind of whatI picture happens when they're not
transformed just a little like the the mecentral or whatever it's called that music
(15:34):
instantly popped in my head bopping up anddown a little bit doppelgangers are
scarecrow looking beasts with hay bodiesthat are stained with blood they are
formed by the mother of shapeshifters tobe the size of a fully grown human adult
And just like knightmares and Reapers, theolder a doppelganger gets, the more
clothing they sprout.
(15:56):
Since doppelgangers shape shift to looklike other humans, few have ever seen
their base scarecrow form.
If a doppelganger shifts into a largerhuman or smaller one, the hay of their
body fluffs out or condenses as needed.
When untransformed, they smell of gore.
And then Volke is probably also realizingthat it would be really annoying to be
(16:18):
able to hear everybody's thoughts at alltimes.
And I feel bad enough that people have tohear what comes out of my mouth that
doesn't get filtered from my brain to mymouth at work.
And I've apologized for that.
And my wife is apologized for that aswell.
So I can only imagine the sheer amount ofrandom thoughts that he hears.
(16:38):
And also just the noise of it.
If you're in a crowded person, you'rehearing everybody's thoughts all the time.
I don't know how you would filter.
anything in and out or make any, it seemslike it'd be a constant white noise going
on.
So Volke is continuing to follow thecompass and ends up at an old woodworking
shop.
Volke does offer to go in to investigateand gather information only.
(17:01):
So he's not going to fight anybody.
And maybe we should have told somebodythat Volke is going to look for this ghoul
arcanist.
Like.
Maybe there's somebody in particular thathe is an apprentice to or a mentor that he
has.
Really worried about his safety.
Right.
(17:22):
Is worried about his safety.
Maybe like, I don't know, master Zelfree.
Nope.
He's good.
So Volke sees this as his duty as beingpart of the member of the frith guild.
And before he goes in there, he just tellsNichoin like, Hey, if anything happens, go
tell Zelfree.
Instead of telling him beforehand, tellhim after the fact.
(17:46):
And when they're going in, Karna alsowants to go in, but Volke doesn't trust
her.
And also she doesn't have a very goodescape path where Nicholin can always
teleport out.
He can always shadow step away.
So there is some reason to his madnessthat, you know, it's a lot easier for them
(18:06):
to get out if it does turn into a nastysituation.
And here starts chapter 50, the ghoulletter.
Now Luthair does ask to merge with Volkeas soon as they get inside of the
woodworking shop.
Volke has to go like up the stairs andVolke mentions that he didn't want to
shadow step because he didn't want to likeend up in somewhere where he didn't know
(18:27):
where he was and possibly giving away theelement of surprise.
I'm sure with the amount of creakingboards that he steps on, on the stairs,
probably gave away that a long time ago.
who there wants to be merged with Volkeand he's like, no, you're going to make
too much noise if, if we're mergedtogether.
He wants to be all secret stealthy, go,yo, seal teams, it's going dark.
(18:50):
And he realized that he needs to startprioritizing information like Zelfree
would.
So he finds that this place that they'reat is basically like the epitome of
creepy.
Like it kind of reminds me of theShrieking Shack from Harry Potter, like
boards everywhere, everything's torn up.
There's nothing that's.
intact, it's all covered in dust andcobwebs.
(19:11):
And then Volke's got his sword in his handand he just drops it into the shadows.
Like, does he have to like consciouslythink to put it through the shadows or
would it fall on the ground if he didn't?
It's a curious question.
So yeah, like does he have to physicallyput it in the ground?
Like questions, all the questions.
So Volke finds coded letters sitting onthe table and Luthair wants to leave
(19:36):
immediately because.
Coded letters means there's more than oneperson involved.
And this is probably an organizationrather than just the individual.
So Luthair is just like, Hey, let's grabthese and get the hell out.
So as Volke is gathering these letters,the Ghoul Arcanist happens to just stumble
in and not notice Volke and Luthair andNicholin in there.
(19:58):
And out of nowhere, Nicholin is just like,Hey, like, why, why would you give up your
element of surprise?
And so much for keeping him out oftrouble.
Let's just alert, alert the enemy.
Come on.
Volke, as he's talking to the ghoulArcanist, he does suspect that it's
Callisto by the, but the ghoul Arcanistactually confirms that it was not.
(20:22):
And that this is way above Callisto'slevel of thought processing.
So he basically calling Callisto stupid,not being able to come up with a kind of a
plan.
He's a pawn.
Right.
And the ghoul wants to kill Volke, but thearcanist is actually holding him back and
the fight kind of ensues, but Volke'sphysical sword attacks aren't really doing
(20:45):
any kind of damage to the actual ghoulitself.
We do notice that with the ghoul arcanistthat he has a crack mark, just like with
the, like with Volke and Luthairindicating that he did.
And thankfully Nicholin thinking about it.
He.
pops out of the house, grabs Fain, popshim back in and gets Fain into the fight.
(21:10):
And then he started blasting.
Started blasting ice everywhere and endsup scaring off the pair of them.
Which the ice probably impacts Volke.
This is really organized chaos at best.
This is not any sort of planned outencounter.
At least Fain was sensible enough to seethe bag of money that was just sitting on
(21:30):
the couch and take it.
And Volke kind of just ignores this and ashe keeps grabbing all these letters that
he found and to be honest, Fain deservesit.
Hey, the ghoul left it.
I mean, it's, it's fair game now, but Idon't care whether you're a past pirate or
not.
That's fair game.
(21:50):
Okay.
So Volke takes all these lettersdownstairs and Volke's like, what, what
the hell is this kind of gibberish?
And Adelgis takes a look at him.
He's like, oh, this is exactly what theysay.
He says the first letter says to get thenumber of Knights to Kona that are in the
dragon district.
There's also a lot of questions abouttrinkets.
(22:11):
We saw some of the ones Karna had broughtup and they're mentioned in the letter.
So something going on with trinkets inthis organization.
This is definitely that, that all thisinformation is that little bit here and
there that they can piece together to getthe whole picture.
So that way, whatever their plan is thatthey can, uh,
(22:32):
put it together does make a very largenote to point out the very last letter
that is written reads that the plan is tosteal the rune stones after the sovereign
dragon tournament bonding ceremony duringthat night.
And thankfully we found this letterbecause that's kind of an important thing
to know.
And this is where chapter 50 ends andwe'll jump into our bestiary where we have
(22:57):
the stoor worm and the ghoul.
So the stoor worm is a long sea serpentwith black scales, gold eyes, and scarlet
fins.
And it's about 30 feet long from the headto the tip of the tail.
So absolutely massive.
Mythology is this does come from agigantic evil sea serpent of Orchidian
(23:20):
folklore, capable of contaminating plants,destroying animals, homes, merely with its
putrid breath.
It's a very gross creature.
So Trial of Worth is surviving an oceanstorm without assistance.
It is tier three and its reproduction isthrough progeny, commonly found with
(23:40):
nesting grounds near shipwrecks.
Evocation, they are able to evoke poison.
We saw that with the Stoor Worm but wedon't have much information on their other
magical abilities.
And the second mystical creature we'regoing to go over today is the ghoul.
And this is described as a half decayingcorpse that feeds on children and whose
(24:03):
skin is said to cause sickness.
So keep this one away from the children'sward in the hospitals.
The mythology is from, for a ghoul comesfrom Arabic, which is a demon -like being
or monstrous humanoid, often associatedwith graveyards and the consumption of
human flesh.
A trial of worth requires the potentialarchanist to eat the flesh of someone they
(24:26):
just murdered.
They are a tier two mystical creature andtheir reproduction is that they are
created from dead bodies by the keeper ofcorpses.
And that is the keeper of corpses issomething we're going to kind of go over
later on in the series.
As far as the magic itself goes, it's ableto become invisible.
(24:46):
We know that we also know that it's ableto extend its fingernails and use its
fingernails as basically like daggers.
So.
I would say probably it's evocation.
It would be something of that sort for,uh, it's fingernails growing into daggers.
And it looks like that's about all we knowabout the ghoul from the series.
(25:07):
And we do want to thank everybody forlistening today.
We want to remind everybody that we dopost new episodes every Wednesday morning
around 11 Eastern, 10 Central and 8Pacific standard.
We're on all podcasting platforms and weare also on YouTube for videos as well.
We want to thank our editor, Dan Mackesonfor including pictures and links to
(25:29):
everything.
And if you want to reach out to us, we areon gmail at frithguildpod at gmail .com or
on Facebook or other social medias atfrith guild podcast.
Do you want to thank the frith ChroniclesWiki and do you remind everybody that is a
great resource to use in the next fewweeks?
(25:49):
I do also want to mention that.
Our interview for between books three andfour is going to be John Stovall, Shami's
uh, Shami's husband, as he is also anauthor and we just wanted to sit down and
talk with him.
So we're definitely excited to talk withhim.
Scott, did you have anything else you'dlike to add today?
Like, share, subscribe, feel the love.
(26:09):
Thank you.
All right.
We'll talk to you everybody next week.
Welcome all of you fellow Arcanist 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 Wharamand they'll be your guides along this
journey through death and dragons.
So grab your Eldrin 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
(00:24):
today, we urge you to hit the pausebutton, grab a copy of this wonderful book
and catch up.
We'll be here when you get back.
The semi -finals of the ApprenticeTournament are here!
Time to split the final two pairs intoindividual competitions.
We have Niro Venrover, the Acidic StoorWorm Arcanist, Graham Topmore, the Titanic
(00:45):
Stone Golem Arcanist, Zaxis Wren, theFiery's Phoenix Arcanist, and Volke Savan
the Knightmare Arcanist destined to winbecause, well, he's our prodigas, right?
Except, at the last minute, Niro asksVolke to throw the fight and Volke agrees.
Welcome back to the Frith Guild Podcast.
(01:27):
I'm your host Eric.
And I'm co-host Scott.
And today we'll be diving into chapters 46through 50 of the Coliseum Arcanist.
And before we get started into today'spodcast, I want to thank everyone for
listening.
And we do ask that you like share,subscribe, comment, all that good stuff,
just to show us some love here to let usknow we're doing well.
(01:49):
And we also wanted to mention that theFirth Chronicles Wiki link is in the
description below.
Along with the link for the capitalstation discord servers.
So that way you can go on over and join inon the conversation.
And today we'll get into chapters 46, theThrown fight.
To give some background into this, Volkeis talking to Niro before their fight in
(02:12):
the crown tournament.
Niro mentioned that Theasin does havesomething that could save Adelgis and heal
him, but he only will give it to Volke ifVolke agrees to throw the fight.
Volke realizes that Adelgis' life is worthmore than the star shards that he would
earn by winning the tournament and agreesto throw the fight.
(02:34):
Niro's plan is for Volke to create anEclipse aura, but Volke mentions that he
doesn't really know how to do this.
So they're kind of left to fake fight eachother a little bit until Niro can can
knock him out.
And Niro was definitely not the crowdfavorite by any means going into this
fight.
No, he wasn't ex -
(02:54):
supposed to have the skill that Volke has.
He wasn't winning matches as excitingly asVolke was.
So very exciting match to come though.
And Niro's common tactic was really to usespeed and to use the corrosive touch of
the stoor worm But Volke's armor, whenhe's merged with Luthair really defends
(03:15):
against a lot of this.
So it slows down the poison and a lot ofthe attacks just don't do very much
damage.
And Volke quickly realizes that Niro is avery weak sword fighter.
He really just relies on the strength ofhis Eldran.
Instead of just trying to take Volke out,Niro is really making a show of the event,
(03:38):
trying to drag the show out, drag it out,so his father will be more proud of his
victory.
And Volke decides that if this is going tobe the case, he can retaliate some, so he
unleashes terrors on him.
He ends up throwing the stoor worm out ofthe ring and then just barely allows Niro
to push him out.
Once he falls out, he is succumbing tosome of the poison.
(04:02):
So Zelfree runs into the Rena.
He mimics a unicorn or canist and then usetheir powers to heal the poison.
And at this point, Volke does tell Zelfreewho is very confused by what just went on
about the deal that he made.
We just talk about how Volke would haveabsolutely destroyed Niro.
And even the, just a few moments of kindof fighting back and trying to give
(04:26):
everybody a good show.
He would have absolutely destroyed Niro.
And then Volke does also remind Niro thatif Niro reneges on this, that Volke will
follow through with, with the beating thathe's about to get.
And he will make sure that Niro doesfulfill his end of the bargain.
Very, very intense.
(04:47):
And it is not only.
the two of them that realized thedifference.
Even the announcer was making commentsabout confusion on how the fight was
going.
So everyone's well aware that Volke is thebetter fighter.
That brings us to chapter 47, which isrecovery.
So Volke goes up to the sky platform.
(05:08):
He shadow steps up there to watch Zaxisfight.
And Zaxis is fighting with Stone Golem.
And as soon as the fight begins,
He goes straight for the Arcanist andknocks him out of the ring.
Volke realizes that Zaxis' strategy isthat he knows he can't knock the Golem out
of the ring.
(05:28):
But as long as both he and Forsythe are inthe ring at the end of five minutes,
they'll win by decision.
So he is running around trying to dodgehits.
He does end up getting hit pretty bad, buthe does last the Golem and it does end up
winning the match.
This is one of those times where it'sactually surprising that Zaxis was able to
(05:51):
come up with a strategy because this is100 % not Zaxis strategy with just trying
to outlast the opponent.
And there's definitely some like momentsthat we thought Zaxis was going to go down
completely.
Yeah.
It takes a lot of recognition for him tosay, I'm not going to win this fight by
fighting it, which is his normal, hisnormal MO.
(06:13):
So after the match, Volke walks to Theasenlab, Niro ends up giving him two vials of
sand, one is tan and one is pink.
And the tan one is supposed to healinjuries, the pink one will heal the soul,
but if you take the pink one and youaren't hurt, it's going to end up killing
you.
And this is where Niro kind of threatensVolke back and says that if you do try to
(06:37):
sell these, you know, they are extremelyvaluable, I will find out and extract my
revenge on you.
Volke asks him about them and Niro doesn'treally know exactly what they are.
Doesn't know what they come from.
He just knows that he's seen them usedbefore and that they are effective.
And he ends up admitting to Volke thatessentially he's only Adelgis' half
brother and cares a little bit forAdelgis, but not very much.
(07:01):
I don't care if Niro's a half brother toAdelgis.
Brother's a brother, Rio.
Blood blood.
You would think.
Right.
Like, I mean...
Niro does also come back and say, Hey,like at least somebody cares about that,
Adelgis So he does say that he is slightlyhappy about that.
(07:21):
But he could be the one caring and hechooses not to.
Unfortunately, it's not him, but somebody,you know, somebody could.
Somebody.
So Volke goes straight to Adelgis He mixessome water into the pink sand, gives it to
Adelgis.
And Volke's sitting there thinking about.
Karna and Lyvia while he's waiting for thepink stuff to work.
(07:43):
So what about Atty Is she not good enough?
Like you liked her first.
Starting to get some, uh, you know,starting to get some feelings here about,
about these three.
Too many options.
Adelgis does end up waking up.
So the elixir does cure him.
And we find out that one of the magicpowers of the ethereal walk is that they
(08:08):
can hear.
people's thoughts, but this is more of anactive magic that they elect to use.
And Adelgis can't turn it off now.
So he is constantly hearing everyone'sthoughts all the time.
His magic was essentially warped by theleech.
Well, and Adelgis could even hear thesethoughts while they were asleep.
(08:29):
And Adelgis did say that there were peoplethat just wanted him to die.
And I'll just, all I want to say to thatis who Adelgis, Mama Volke will take care
of them.
He'll make sure that they freaking gettheir just rewards.
Yes.
You know, you know who your real ones are.
Yeah.
And part of hearing these thoughts is hedoes also know that Karna has actually
(08:51):
been tailing Volke.
She takes on the likeness of someoneworking in the hospital or other places
that he's around and she can hear himwhenever he's nearby.
Chapter 48 is the ghoul piece.
And again,
Adelgis is just talking through with Volkeand essentially warning him, be like, Hey,
Karnas kind of tailing you.
You should really get that figured out.
(09:14):
Adelgis also says that Volke has met herEldrin previously.
And I'm fairly certain, it may not be asuper sleuth Sherlock Holmes here, but
fairly certain guy outside that was tryingto convince Volke to go and watch her show
to begin with was her Eldrin.
That was my thought as well though.
coat too small and hat too big.
(09:36):
He just, he fits.
He's drawing too much attention.
He's gotta be the one.
So Zelfree does join them.
He brings Zaxis from the arena.
Zaxis has been getting drunk with Zelfreebecause Zelfree knows that it will numb
the pain.
So even though he's been healed, there'sstill some lasting effects.
(09:59):
And Gilly joins them as well.
She's also very excited to see Volke, tosee that Adelgis was healed.
She also does poke a little fun atZelfree, of course, gotta poke the bear.
Zaxis confronts Volke about his fight andis essentially angry at him for throwing
the fight because Illia is now more proudof Volke because he is a martyr for
(10:23):
Adelgis and now Zaxis won't have thechance to fight him in the arena and won't
get to prove that he's the superiorfighter.
Adelgis gets kind of fed up with this andtouches Zaxis and puts him to sleep and
doesn't want them to fight.
Let him sleep it off a little bit.
Volke also ends up falling asleep and he'swoken up by Atty who gives him a tender
(10:47):
touch and a little kiss.
And again, Volke realizes that it's Karna.
He tells her not to take Atty's form andshe teases Volke with the opportunities of
a doppleganger.
What's even better than this is this is inthe same room Adelgis has been in so not
(11:07):
only did he get to hear all the thoughtshe also got to watch it take place and in
all reality Fain is probably there as wellso he probably also got to watch and
listen in.
Like I don't know what it is abouteverybody wanting to watch Volke I guess
everybody likes to watch it.
Somebody some sort he's some type of studthere.
(11:28):
Karna does have the ghoul trinket and
Before she gives it to Volke, she does askhim who the most attractive woman is.
And Volke very honestly says that she is.
She is happy with this answer and shewants to leave right away.
And Adelgis since he's now feeling better,decides that he wants to come as well.
And this is where chapter 49 starts up asthe Occult Compass.
(11:50):
Adeglis does know that Karna has a lot ofdeep secrets and has agreed with her to
not divulge any of them so long as shedoesn't lie to Volke.
And Adelgis is seeming rather cold toVolke lately.
And some of that might be, Adelgismentions that he can essentially hear
everyone's thoughts and this includes alltheir petty thoughts and some of the noise
(12:15):
that comes through with them.
So it could very well be impacting hismood just because he hears the negatives
that you don't usually hear.
But I mean, Volke even made a commentabout him looking like a vagabond like
five minutes after Adelgis...
is resurrected essentially.
Volke goes to Illia's room back at the endto get the Occult Compass and Illia has
(12:37):
taken a rather aggressive attitude towardshim.
Granted, Volke hasn't really had a chanceto mention why he threw the fight, but
Volke does want to borrow the compass.
So kind of like how do we get this thefastest?
Now, one thing I did think about was wouldthe compass work on a doppelganger since
the doppelgangers can hide their magicfrom Mimics?
(12:58):
Or is this something that like, doesn'tmatter what you are?
Cause it said they can find anything orany eldrin Again, it's just one of those
inner workings of how the magic works andhow the doppelganger specifically can hide
their magic.
It is a good question.
And the one thing I think is the occultcompass isn't based on mimic magic.
(13:20):
It's based on like the all seeing Sphinx.
So.
It would really depend if the Sphinx canidentify the doppelganger or not.
And I'm, I'm curious as well.
It's also a curious one because there justaren't very many doppelgangers.
Like it's a tough one to test out.
Right.
Hmm.
We'll have to have to think about thatone.
(13:43):
Anybody else wants to put their input onthat?
Please let us know.
What'd you think?
So Illia does decide that she wants tosend Nicholin with Volke.
Just to make sure that Volke doesn't getin any trouble.
Because Nicholin is so great at keepingpeople out of trouble.
Just try not to like have them getswallowed and then teleporting out of the
(14:04):
person.
Falling into mugs of ale.
Right.
So Nicholin is kind of feeling like aforgotten child between Illia and Zaxis
since they became an item.
And Nicholin has decided that he's goingto be extra sneaky when he's tricking
Zaxis because he said that.
He can trick Zaxis whenever he wantswithout Zaxis actually knowing that it
(14:27):
was, was Nichoin that did it.
Volke gets out of the inn and all of asudden now he's got this new posse.
He's got Adelgis, he's got Fain and Karnawith them.
And then they all got their Eldrin.
All's I can think about is them walkingdown the middle of the street, the four of
them like shoulder to shoulder early hoursin the morning.
These people are merchants are trying toget their carts packed up so they can get
(14:50):
the hell out of there before the end ofthe tournament.
And just seeing all of them walking downlike, Oh gosh, what crap are they about to
start?
This is where Volke actually realizes heprobably hasn't seen Karna's Eldritch.
But Adela just does say that he has been,but Volke has never recognized him.
And another curious thought about those isthe doppelganger has always taken on
(15:13):
someone else's look.
I'm always curious what they look likewhen they aren't taking on an appearance.
Do they have like a default like?
me character that they that's kind of whatI picture happens when they're not
transformed just a little like the the mecentral or whatever it's called that music
(15:34):
instantly popped in my head bopping up anddown a little bit doppelgangers are
scarecrow looking beasts with hay bodiesthat are stained with blood they are
formed by the mother of shapeshifters tobe the size of a fully grown human adult
And just like knightmares and Reapers, theolder a doppelganger gets, the more
clothing they sprout.
(15:56):
Since doppelgangers shape shift to looklike other humans, few have ever seen
their base scarecrow form.
If a doppelganger shifts into a largerhuman or smaller one, the hay of their
body fluffs out or condenses as needed.
When untransformed, they smell of gore.
And then Volke is probably also realizingthat it would be really annoying to be
(16:18):
able to hear everybody's thoughts at alltimes.
And I feel bad enough that people have tohear what comes out of my mouth that
doesn't get filtered from my brain to mymouth at work.
And I've apologized for that.
And my wife is apologized for that aswell.
So I can only imagine the sheer amount ofrandom thoughts that he hears.
(16:38):
And also just the noise of it.
If you're in a crowded person, you'rehearing everybody's thoughts all the time.
I don't know how you would filter.
anything in and out or make any, it seemslike it'd be a constant white noise going
on.
So Volke is continuing to follow thecompass and ends up at an old woodworking
shop.
Volke does offer to go in to investigateand gather information only.
(17:01):
So he's not going to fight anybody.
And maybe we should have told somebodythat Volke is going to look for this ghoul
arcanist.
Like.
Maybe there's somebody in particular thathe is an apprentice to or a mentor that he
has.
Really worried about his safety.
Right.
(17:22):
Is worried about his safety.
Maybe like, I don't know, master Zelfree.
Nope.
He's good.
So Volke sees this as his duty as beingpart of the member of the frith guild.
And before he goes in there, he just tellsNichoin like, Hey, if anything happens, go
tell Zelfree.
Instead of telling him beforehand, tellhim after the fact.
(17:46):
And when they're going in, Karna alsowants to go in, but Volke doesn't trust
her.
And also she doesn't have a very goodescape path where Nicholin can always
teleport out.
He can always shadow step away.
So there is some reason to his madnessthat, you know, it's a lot easier for them
(18:06):
to get out if it does turn into a nastysituation.
And here starts chapter 50, the ghoulletter.
Now Luthair does ask to merge with Volkeas soon as they get inside of the
woodworking shop.
Volke has to go like up the stairs andVolke mentions that he didn't want to
shadow step because he didn't want to likeend up in somewhere where he didn't know
(18:27):
where he was and possibly giving away theelement of surprise.
I'm sure with the amount of creakingboards that he steps on, on the stairs,
probably gave away that a long time ago.
who there wants to be merged with Volkeand he's like, no, you're going to make
too much noise if, if we're mergedtogether.
He wants to be all secret stealthy, go,yo, seal teams, it's going dark.
(18:50):
And he realized that he needs to startprioritizing information like Zelfree
would.
So he finds that this place that they'reat is basically like the epitome of
creepy.
Like it kind of reminds me of theShrieking Shack from Harry Potter, like
boards everywhere, everything's torn up.
There's nothing that's.
intact, it's all covered in dust andcobwebs.
(19:11):
And then Volke's got his sword in his handand he just drops it into the shadows.
Like, does he have to like consciouslythink to put it through the shadows or
would it fall on the ground if he didn't?
It's a curious question.
So yeah, like does he have to physicallyput it in the ground?
Like questions, all the questions.
So Volke finds coded letters sitting onthe table and Luthair wants to leave
(19:36):
immediately because.
Coded letters means there's more than oneperson involved.
And this is probably an organizationrather than just the individual.
So Luthair is just like, Hey, let's grabthese and get the hell out.
So as Volke is gathering these letters,the Ghoul Arcanist happens to just stumble
in and not notice Volke and Luthair andNicholin in there.
(19:58):
And out of nowhere, Nicholin is just like,Hey, like, why, why would you give up your
element of surprise?
And so much for keeping him out oftrouble.
Let's just alert, alert the enemy.
Come on.
Volke, as he's talking to the ghoulArcanist, he does suspect that it's
Callisto by the, but the ghoul Arcanistactually confirms that it was not.
(20:22):
And that this is way above Callisto'slevel of thought processing.
So he basically calling Callisto stupid,not being able to come up with a kind of a
plan.
He's a pawn.
Right.
And the ghoul wants to kill Volke, but thearcanist is actually holding him back and
the fight kind of ensues, but Volke'sphysical sword attacks aren't really doing
(20:45):
any kind of damage to the actual ghoulitself.
We do notice that with the ghoul arcanistthat he has a crack mark, just like with
the, like with Volke and Luthairindicating that he did.
And thankfully Nicholin thinking about it.
He.
pops out of the house, grabs Fain, popshim back in and gets Fain into the fight.
(21:10):
And then he started blasting.
Started blasting ice everywhere and endsup scaring off the pair of them.
Which the ice probably impacts Volke.
This is really organized chaos at best.
This is not any sort of planned outencounter.
At least Fain was sensible enough to seethe bag of money that was just sitting on
(21:30):
the couch and take it.
And Volke kind of just ignores this and ashe keeps grabbing all these letters that
he found and to be honest, Fain deservesit.
Hey, the ghoul left it.
I mean, it's, it's fair game now, but Idon't care whether you're a past pirate or
not.
That's fair game.
(21:50):
Okay.
So Volke takes all these lettersdownstairs and Volke's like, what, what
the hell is this kind of gibberish?
And Adelgis takes a look at him.
He's like, oh, this is exactly what theysay.
He says the first letter says to get thenumber of Knights to Kona that are in the
dragon district.
There's also a lot of questions abouttrinkets.
(22:11):
We saw some of the ones Karna had broughtup and they're mentioned in the letter.
So something going on with trinkets inthis organization.
This is definitely that, that all thisinformation is that little bit here and
there that they can piece together to getthe whole picture.
So that way, whatever their plan is thatthey can, uh,
(22:32):
put it together does make a very largenote to point out the very last letter
that is written reads that the plan is tosteal the rune stones after the sovereign
dragon tournament bonding ceremony duringthat night.
And thankfully we found this letterbecause that's kind of an important thing
to know.
And this is where chapter 50 ends andwe'll jump into our bestiary where we have
(22:57):
the stoor worm and the ghoul.
So the stoor worm is a long sea serpentwith black scales, gold eyes, and scarlet
fins.
And it's about 30 feet long from the headto the tip of the tail.
So absolutely massive.
Mythology is this does come from agigantic evil sea serpent of Orchidian
(23:20):
folklore, capable of contaminating plants,destroying animals, homes, merely with its
putrid breath.
It's a very gross creature.
So Trial of Worth is surviving an oceanstorm without assistance.
It is tier three and its reproduction isthrough progeny, commonly found with
(23:40):
nesting grounds near shipwrecks.
Evocation, they are able to evoke poison.
We saw that with the Stoor Worm but wedon't have much information on their other
magical abilities.
And the second mystical creature we'regoing to go over today is the ghoul.
And this is described as a half decayingcorpse that feeds on children and whose
(24:03):
skin is said to cause sickness.
So keep this one away from the children'sward in the hospitals.
The mythology is from, for a ghoul comesfrom Arabic, which is a demon -like being
or monstrous humanoid, often associatedwith graveyards and the consumption of
human flesh.
A trial of worth requires the potentialarchanist to eat the flesh of someone they
(24:26):
just murdered.
They are a tier two mystical creature andtheir reproduction is that they are
created from dead bodies by the keeper ofcorpses.
And that is the keeper of corpses issomething we're going to kind of go over
later on in the series.
As far as the magic itself goes, it's ableto become invisible.
(24:46):
We know that we also know that it's ableto extend its fingernails and use its
fingernails as basically like daggers.
So.
I would say probably it's evocation.
It would be something of that sort for,uh, it's fingernails growing into daggers.
And it looks like that's about all we knowabout the ghoul from the series.
(25:07):
And we do want to thank everybody forlistening today.
We want to remind everybody that we dopost new episodes every Wednesday morning
around 11 Eastern, 10 Central and 8Pacific standard.
We're on all podcasting platforms and weare also on YouTube for videos as well.
We want to thank our editor, Dan Mackesonfor including pictures and links to
(25:29):
everything.
And if you want to reach out to us, we areon gmail at frithguildpod at gmail .com or
on Facebook or other social medias atfrith guild podcast.
Do you want to thank the frith ChroniclesWiki and do you remind everybody that is a
great resource to use in the next fewweeks?
(25:49):
I do also want to mention that.
Our interview for between books three andfour is going to be John Stovall, Shami's
uh, Shami's husband, as he is also anauthor and we just wanted to sit down and
talk with him.
So we're definitely excited to talk withhim.
Scott, did you have anything else you'dlike to add today?
Like, share, subscribe, feel the love.
(26:09):
Thank you.
All right.
We'll talk to you everybody next week.
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