March 20, 2024 • 28 mins
“Uncover the veiled truths as ‘Coliseum Arcanist’ delves into the power of secrets and the strength of wisdom. Witness a journey where strategic minds triumph over sheer force, and diverse perspectives unlock the toughest challenges. Join the quest where Master Zelfree must face someone almost worse than the Dread Pirate Calisto, Adelgis' mother.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome all you fellow Arcanists out thereto 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 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
(00:23):
today, we urge you to hit the pausebutton, grab your copy abyss wonderful
book and catch up.
We'll be here when you get back.
Guildmaster Eventide, Zelfree, Volke andthe other members of the Frith Guild
prepare to accompany Gillie and awagonload of plague -infested arcane
beasts to Thronehold, capital of the ArgoEmpire.
Their arrival should coincide with theSovereign Dragon Tourney and all of the
(00:45):
apprentices are excited to participate.
But before we get into the book, let'slook at a piece of advice from the series.
Step 34 on the Pillar of Ruma saysmoderation.
Without it, our vices destroy all else.
With that,
Let's join Eric and Scott for chapter 6through 10 of Coliseum Arcanist.
Welcome back everybody to the Frith Guildpodcast.
(01:07):
I'm your host Eric.
I'm cohost Scott.
And today we're going to be going overchapters 6 through 10 of the Coliseum
Arcanist book.
This is the third book in the series byShami Stovall.
And before we get into the details today,we also want to remind you, please like,
share, subscribe.
All that good stuff.
Leave us a review wherever you'relistening on, whether it's podcast or
(01:30):
YouTube.
And with that, we'll dive on in.
Starting off with chapter 6 under theskin, Volke tells Illia that Fain is there
with the convoy.
Volke pitches this very well by startingthat the trinkets he made are actually
what Wraith gave up his antlers for.
And Fain is there not, not just as abecause moment.
(01:53):
Illia.
She just doesn't want him there at all.
And he, she really just wants him dead.
Zaxis gives Illia the Refraction Spyglassthat sees through the invisibility.
And we can see that Zaxis obviously caresbecause he's given her this invisibility
Spyglass.
So she can actually know where Wraith isat all times or Fain.
Volke's actually fairly confident thatFain is doing is going to be a good
(02:15):
person.
And so far he's been a fairly good judgeof character.
And it seems like Fain has...
reason he's always kind of wanted tochange his ways and just never been able
to, he's always been stuck in the piraterole.
So you get a feeling that Fain has nevertruly seen himself as a pirate.
Right.
He may have been on the third abyss he mayhave gotten the tattoo and done all the
(02:37):
initiation and all that, but it kind offeels like he's never really committed to
it.
It's not his life strength.
Right.
He's got something else he wants to do.
So Adelgis, Volke, and Zaxis are kind ofall stuck in one cart and Adelgis kind of
like dived off as soon as he could to getinto the carriage.
(03:00):
As he said, he's very tired and sleepy.
Zaxis is actually reading like he shouldbe.
He's reading about metallurgy andrealizing that he can use different metals
to heat up faster like copper so that hecan use less magic and less energy to
produce a stronger, hotter flame.
(03:21):
Adelgis does kind of remain very silentthis whole trip as far as we're at at this
point.
And he only really talks in small littlespurts and it kind of leads us to believe
something's going on with him.
He's mentioned some previous injuriesbefore along with whatever's going on
under his ribs.
Something's definitely affecting him now.
(03:41):
Volke does also notice that Adelgis iskeeping his hair in a very particular
fashion and he believes it's something,it's to hide something.
And Volke actually goes to check to seewhat it is and moves his hair out of the
way and it's covering this huge bruise.
And it's going all the way from hisjawline to below his collar.
Zaxis says that he's attempted to healAdelgis and Adelgis has refused.
(04:05):
So again, we're kind of curious as to whyAdelgis is so adamant about not being
healed, not being looked at, not beingtouched, that kind of thing.
So we're really getting to a point ofconcern because.
This isn't normal behavior.
Thankfully Adelgis does agree to let Volketake a look at everything once they get to
the inn But that's still a little bit ofways away.
(04:27):
And I think a couple interesting points ofthis is one, Volke's recognition is from
Illia.
Illia does the same thing and he noticesthis behavior, which is why it stands out
to him.
And then also, like you mentioned, Adelgisdoesn't want to be healed.
And there's the question of, is thissomething that can't be healed?
for whatever reason, something that wouldbe beyond Zaxis' power, or is this
(04:50):
something that for whatever reason,Adelgis is truly refusing to have Zaxis
help?
Right.
And again, this is all that like, what'sso wrong that you don't want anybody
looking or touching.
So they finally get to the first innthey're meant to be at and Volke rushes
inside with Zaxis and Adelgis.
(05:10):
And the innkeeper gives...
Volke the keys for all the rooms that werepreviously rented out by the guild.
Volke gives the keys to Luthair to give toZelfree because they got to get Adelgis
into a room.
I can only imagine just once Luthairappears out of the void, all the music
just stops in this inn.
(05:31):
The bad person walking in or the wrongperson walking in and just everything
stops.
Everybody stops and look, gives them theside eye, makes it very obvious that
they're not supposed to be there.
Volke is really confused as to why.
Everybody just kind of stops and looks.
I think Luthair is the one that statesthat everybody there just assumes that
(05:52):
Volke and Luthair are part of the SteelThorn Inquisitors.
But he's not sure why they kind of assumethis.
Luthair does kind of give them a quickrundown of like what the Steel Thorn
Inquisitors are.
And they essentially, they investigatecult matters.
They do also take care of misdeeds ofother Arcanists who are abusing their
magic.
And realistically they're...
They're more after anyone with a bountyand especially with magic at their
(06:15):
disposal.
They're used to level the playing fieldfor magic users to keep them in check.
So we finally get up to the room thatAdelgis's Zaxis and Volke are supposed to
be in, getting everything off his chest.
We learned that Adelgis's father actuallyput a rare mystical creature under his
skin.
In chapter seven, a simple problem.
(06:36):
We find out that there is an eel or
worm or something under his skin.
And it's protruding about a half an inch.
And then at its thickest is about a thumband it zigzags all the way from his rib
cage past the belt of his pants.
Adelgis starts to tell us what's going onand that Adelgis is actually incubating
(06:57):
something for his father and it needs tofeed on magic.
Zaxis' first response is, let's cut itout.
Give me your sword.
Let's cut this thing out right now.
I've seen some horror movies.
Zaxis has a point.
Incubating some sort of mythical creatureunderneath our skin.
(07:17):
I wouldn't be against cutting it out.
It's not supposed to be there, but Adelgisis really, really adamant that he is doing
this for his father and he's going to seeit through and his father's going to be
impressed with him at the end of it fortearing out this whole incubation period.
I don't think there's ever a good moviewhere something that's growing under your
(07:40):
skin ever turns out in a good manner.
So the type of creatures that would growunderneath skin just lends itself to be
something disgusting.
Exactly.
Adelgis does mention that he is veryhungry.
He needs to eat.
And that's more likely what the problemwith him is.
Volke runs downstairs to get Adelgissomething to eat.
(08:01):
And he runs into Atty and she actuallykind of upset with him because he just,
they, they all just took off and didn'thelp guild out to get the horses put away,
the carriage put away, all that stuff thatthey just ran into the inn.
Atty does mention that she, she's actuallytrying to talk with Volke because she
(08:22):
wants to get help with her sorcery becauseshe can't do any kind of healing magic.
And Volke is turning into like anapprentice.
Teacher, I guess.
I don't know if that's the thing, butteacher of some sort.
Yeah.
He's gotten good at analyzing things andkind of helping them towards it.
(08:43):
You know, we'll take Hexa as a goodexample of, hey, how about you use daggers
with your poison rather than just tryingto waft your poison to your enemy.
Atty does want to speak to him in privatenext.
Flertacious.
Aww.
Look at you, Volke The young teens juststarting out.
(09:07):
So then Zaxis interrupts because they'rebasically right outside of the in room
that they've got and Zaxis interrupts byshouting in the room to Adelgis, take off
your pants.
I want to see how long it is.
And as Atty's stated out there, like I canonly imagine what she's thinking about,
(09:28):
what they're talking about.
The secondhand embarrassment of Volke juststanding there.
You know what he's actually going for, butyou can't explain it.
So you just have to hope she doesn't takeit wrong.
There's no way of coming back from that.
You know what?
At least he can shadow step and justshadow steps into the room with the bowl
of stew.
(09:49):
And here's another little win for Volkethat he can bring the stew with him while
he shadow steps back into the room.
Cause that would have been kind of sad tolose the stew.
With this new adult just kind of downs it.
So this is definitely not Eowyn's stewfrom Lord of the Rings.
This is actually edible And Zaxis asks howlong it's been since he last ate and adult
(10:13):
just says it's been over a day and I'malways curious with this is He forgetting
to eat.
Is he just so preoccupied that he forgetsto eat or you know, does the mythical
creature?
prevent him from feeling hunger, it seemsto want to feed on something.
So it's a curious situation.
It's very, you know, parasite -like oftrying to feed off of his nourishment.
(10:37):
At that point, you would think if it'strying to feed off of his nourishment, I'd
want to keep him fed because the betterhe's fed, the better he is, I guess.
Yeah, it's strange.
Uh, Zaxis does quip at Adelgis as far aseating and he's, that he's eating for two
and Felicity actually kind of gets upsetwith his comments.
And she blinds everyone, which is a fairreaction.
(11:00):
There's not really as much she can do.
So you use what you've got at that point.
And kind of kudos to her because she'strying to defend her arcanist He's kind of
down on the ground right now.
So she's trying to make sure that they're,uh.
They're not kicking them too much.
Standing up to the bullies.
Yep.
So from here, we move into chapter eightof the augmenting magic.
(11:22):
Adelgis was actually extremely hungry forwhat was going on and he ended up eating
three bowls of this stew.
Mind you, Volke had to pay for this stewout of pocket.
This wasn't something that the guild wascovering for them, or at least as far as
we know.
Volke and Adelgis are actually supposed tobe on evening guard duty that night
together.
(11:43):
They're actually out in detecting thecarriage from the plague -ridden
creatures.
And they can hear manic laughter comingfrom the carriage and manic laughter
during the day is offsetting as it is, butI can only imagine at night.
It's dark.
Everything is just a little scarier.
That's laughter has got to be nerve-racking.
(12:03):
Especially with one person that's barelyconscious.
I can barely like stay upright at thispoint because of how weak Adelgis is.
Even after eating, you know, he's stillvery highly affected by this creature
thing that's under his skin.
There's gotta be that extra level thatVolke's like, oh my gosh, like I'm,
there's no way I'm going to be able tomake it through watching this carriage
(12:27):
plus taking care of Adelgis.
And heaven forbid anything happens whilehe's watching it.
Volke does.
make a really good decision.
He uses this time to train with his swordand shield because he's getting more
comfortable with the sword, but having theshield cost him for some adjustments with
the new style of fighting that Volke'sgoing to have to do.
(12:47):
So while he's practicing with sword andshield, he kind of goes like full squirrel
moment, like completely off track.
And then he's like, you know what?
I'm going to figure out how we're going totransfer this night vision to Adelgis.
So Lutheir is actually giving guidance toVolke.
on this, he knows that Volke's veryfrustrated with not being able to just
give his augmentation magic to poorAdelgis And this is where Luthair kind of
(13:12):
steps in and was like, Hey, I just wantedto let you know that Mathis actually did
struggle with this for a bit as well.
Luthair kind of gives Volke that, I don'twant say the key to figuring it out, but
gives him that different angle to help himfigure it out.
Again, Luthair is trying to let Volkedrown.
Keep trying, you know, just keep at it andyou know, maybe I'll eventually give you
(13:36):
kind of that, you know, a little bit of ananswer, but he does again, give Volke that
different angle, different perspective tolook at and, and it kind of clicks with
the Volke at that point.
So thankfully he's able to figure out howto pass augmentation magic on.
Now, as much as we always joke aboutLuthair constantly like waiting for Volke
to be drowning before he helps, this is areally good thing for Luthair to do
(13:59):
because realistically.
If he didn't and didn't have Volke try tocritically think about things, this could
be a very bad thing and the wrongencounter because Volke could be just
completely unable to think without Luthairand Luthair may not have the solution or
the answer to the problem.
I mean, shoot, look, look back at DreadPirate arcanist when Volke's like, hey,
(14:21):
how do I take down a Dread Pirate?
And Luthair's like, I don't know, man.
We weren't stupid enough to get in thissituation before.
There is some benefit of going throughsome trials of, you know, earning your
stripes a little bit.
Exactly.
So Adelgis is kind of not really sure whyhe's even on guard duty with Volt, because
(14:42):
Adelgis is like, I mean, I can createlight.
Cool.
Here, it's all bright now.
Yay.
It's not all dark.
So, you know, he's looking at it as hereally can't do, he doesn't really have
any offensive magic.
Or even really defensive magic.
He's kind of down in the dumps a littlebit, especially with everything that's
(15:05):
going on.
Adelgis does kind of tell Volke finallythat he's supposed to be incubating
whatever is under him, under his skin fora total of four years.
And this one put roughly in his earlyteens, maybe kind of mid teens when he got
(15:26):
this.
So very, very.
impressionable age and definitely an agewhen, you know, wanting to impress your
father would be a big factor in decision-making.
Well, and especially because we've beentold that his father has forgotten him at
the lab.
He's that, unfortunately, he's the, sincehe's kind of that middle kid, he doesn't
(15:46):
always get remembered about.
So he wants to be able to impress hisfather.
So I imagine that a lot of what wentbehind the decision -making that Adelgis
did.
It is probably because of that.
I will 100 % agree.
I, as much as I don't like the incubatingmythical creature, I can't fault his
(16:08):
decision making and how he got there.
It makes sense.
Right.
Especially looking back at everything.
It is what it is, I guess.
We'll chalk it up as that for Adelgis.
As they're on their guard duty, GuildMaster Eventide actually comes in and she
starts petting the horses and basicallyshe's just like.
I'm going to help you watch the mobileinsane assylum Like, well, you can train
(16:32):
and you're going to watch this too, butyou're going to watch it every other night
rather than just every night.
I'm going to take some of the load off ofyou so you're not as exhausted so you can
still train.
I have to admit, when I read this, I'mlike, is this really Guild Master Eventide
or is this like an imposter?
Like, I don't know if there's somebodyelse, a different Eldrin or something that
(16:53):
could make her or impersonate her likethat, but.
I was kind of like, this, this, this seemslike it's a bad thing.
It's going to about to happen.
Volke very intelligently, very committeddecides rather than going to bed, he
actually uses the rest of the time he hasin the night to go train and get some
discipline.
(17:13):
As the sun's coming up, he sees Zelfreeand Hexa training together.
Now Hexa did take Volke's advice on usingthe throwing knives.
Zelfree kind of just.
I don't want to say embarrasses her,especially cause she's just learning to
use throwing knives.
She can at least throw them accurately,but not with a lot of power.
(17:35):
So Zelfree does give her a lot ofhomework.
Hey, you know, first you gotta get fasterat throwing these things.
Don't, don't ever throw your last knife.
You always keep one to one.
So that at least you have something todefend yourself with or something to
attack with.
So he, you're going to get, you need toget faster.
You need to get stronger.
You need to, here's a list of things Ineed you to work on.
(17:56):
And one of the fun ones that he mentionsis to study anatomy, mostly because if you
can hit a important artery, the poisonwill get through the bloodstream faster
and you could take down your opponentfaster.
So a very, very technical approach to someof the tactics that we see, you know,
Zaxis approaching the different.
(18:17):
heat capacity, studying anatomy.
It is a very, very technical and researchdriven process.
I imagine this is one of those things thatZelfree's kind of kicking himself in the
butt for, cause he's like, I should havehad them started on this a lot sooner.
I should have made them at least lookthings up a little bit earlier so that way
they could get that processing rather thanjust, okay, let's train your magic.
(18:42):
And we also find out as they are wrappingup, uh,
Adelgis is helping Zelfree to sleep and weknow that Adelgis has helped Volke with
sleeping before so he's continuing toimprove his magic in that way and just
making sure that Zelfree doesn't havenightmares and that he's able to you know
get the most out of the night.
(19:05):
And we finally find out that the thingthat's living under Adelgis' skin is
called an abyssal leech.
Sounds terrifying.
It's got leech in it.
All right, moving into chapter nine, thecity of religious Ellios So the guild is
actually traveling through where Adelgisgrew up.
(19:28):
We know they went to the Isle of Ruma atone point and the apprentices were able to
see their families.
And now we're able to kind of get aglimpse into Adelgis his childhood.
And surprise, surprise, it is a very, veryscholarly city.
It has a university and it is.
well known for its research capacity.
(19:49):
Zaxis has taken on his motherly role ofchecking in on Adelgis, making sure he's
eating.
Atty continues to make sassy commentsabout their relationship and how they're
interacting.
And Zaxis is powering through them andreally taking it to heart to make sure
that Adelgis is doing well.
(20:09):
He's covering his shifts, really justlooking out for him all around.
When did Zaxis get so nice?
He's reading books, he's caring for hisfriends.
A changed man.
Shoot.
Like this is one of those other ones like,is this an imposter?
Because he's doing nice things.
He's not just being Mr.
(20:30):
Hothead.
So Zaxis actually also shows us that thecarriage that's holding the plague -ridden
creatures is impervious to magic.
And we find out that the word is cured andstained in Nullstone.
which is a type of rock that actuallynullifies magic.
And this is where Zaxis is like, Hey,look, I'm going to use my fire against it
(20:52):
and show you that nothing's going tohappen.
And this is extremely helpful and good toknow just because if the plague -ridden
monsters are getting stronger andstronger, you want to have some way to
prevent them from using their magic toescape.
So very cool and interesting facet to thecarriage.
And even more than that, it's kind of thatlike what other practices, what other
(21:15):
things can it be used for?
Potentially very, very useful, not only inprisons, but I could also seeing it being
used as military tactics somehow as well.
So something definitely to see more intoin the future.
And at this point, Fain shows up and Zaxisis ready to fight him right away.
(21:35):
We are back to the original Zaxis.
His good days are over.
He's back to his normal man.
Volke breaks up the confrontation andreally orders Zaxis to stand down.
After the situation deescalates a little,Fain actually goes to Volke and asks him
if he can tail him, almost to understandhow he interacts with people, get a better
(21:59):
understanding almost of how to be afriend.
Fain kind of wants to be like Baymax, youknow, learn how to be a good healthcare
provider.
Yes, he really does.
He wants to be better.
And this points again to Volke's goodjudgment and faith in people as a whole.
As they make it into the town, we come toknow that Zelfree is going to go and
(22:20):
actually confront Adalgis' dad.
We know they had a bad history before andZelfree is not a fan of him and he's less
a fan of incubating the Bissell leech.
Chapter 10 opens up and...
Zaxis and Adelgis have this moment whereZaxis doesn't really know what Adelgis'
(22:41):
last name even is.
As they're walking up to Adelgis' house,his last name is written all over, like on
the property.
And he's like, Venrover, who's Venrover?
And it's like, how do you not know hislast name?
Come on.
You've been trading with each other forover a year.
Like a year and a half at this point,probably closer to two.
(23:02):
And you don't know his last name?
Like...
I'm sure there's people you work with thatyou know their last name within the first
like 10 days.
It's baffling to say the least.
And Zaxis quotes that he, Adelgis doesn'teven know his name and Adelgis is a
scholar and is readily available toprovide the answer.
(23:23):
So Zaxis is left sitting in his own puddleof mud there.
We come to find out that Zelfree actuallyused to work with Thiessen, who's Adelgis'
dad and...
That's really the reason that Adelgiswanted to study under Zelfrey is because
of the relationship that they had.
This is kind of disturbing that Adele isjust so afraid to disturb his father while
(23:46):
he's working.
Like he is dead set.
Like, please, if there's anything you do,can you please not disturb him while he's
working?
Instead of that, they end up disturbinghis mom and his mom is a Minerva Owl
Arcanist and their relationship.
is almost confrontational.
(24:06):
There's no affection between them.
Adelgis asks about his sister and this isreally the only time that he seems to have
a true interest in the well -being of hisfamily is being concerned with what is
going on with his sister.
And it turns out that Zelfree also knowsAdelgis's mom and surprise surprise is not
a fan of her either.
They get into their own confrontation andZelfree brings up the leech and the
(24:31):
incubation and she responds that it's
has nothing to do with him and isn't ofhis concern, even though it's having an
impact on Adalgis.
And we find out that Zelfree actuallykilled the other leech arcanist because of
the negative impact that they were havingand that the leech that Adalgis is
(24:53):
incubating is the last remaining one andone that was supposed to have been killed
but was somehow saved.
The confrontation between Zelfree and
Adelgis' mom escalates, he ends upgrabbing her.
She uses her magic and creates a gust ofwind and then kicks them out.
And Zelfree has lost any kindheartednessthat she ever had for him again.
(25:17):
So a very, very confrontational chapter.
And there's a lot of insight into theworkings of Adelgis' family and the
upbringing and connection that they havewith each other.
I want to say though, this is a veryabrupt ending to this chapter.
Even when I was reading through thechapter, I kept reading.
(25:38):
I flipped immediately to chapter 11 and Iwas like, oh, wait a minute.
I got to stop.
Can't add that into this.
This is not the right chapter now.
Stay tuned.
And then moving into our bestiary section.
There are two creatures that get broughtup.
One is the Minerva owl that we see withAdelgis' mom.
(26:00):
And the other is the enbarr which isleading the horses.
The Minerva Owl is associated with wisdomand the wind magic that she has.
And the enbarr is associated with beingable to increase the stamina, endurance,
and speed of horses.
But outside of this, there's not reallyanything known to them.
We don't have any info on their magic ortheir reproduction much otherwise, or the
(26:26):
passive abilities that they give.
So.
Not too much to dive into, but someinteresting creatures that are popping up
on some of the other characters.
I actually did a lot of research trying tofind out more about Enbar, just as far as
like mythology goes, where else it's beenfound.
And there's really only been like oneplace that I found that there was any kind
(26:48):
of mention of it was, it was really justIrish mythology that had mention of it.
And it was, it was actually the name of ahorse.
that could run on water and on land atextremely fast speeds.
So that was really like the only otherplace I could find anything on the inn
bar.
And I know Minerva is a Roman god, Ibelieve it's the Roman version of Athena.
(27:13):
So a goddess of wisdom and fits very wellwith the scholarly studying and research
of the family.
All right.
And with that concludes this week'sepisode.
You can find us on Podbean, Googlepodcasts, Apple podcasts, basically
anywhere that you can listen to podcasts.
We are also on YouTube.
(27:36):
And if you want to join in on the fun, youcan find us on the Facebook group at Firth
Guild Podcast.
And if you want to reach out to us, youcan contact us at firthguildpod at gmail
.com.
Of course, send us a message on Facebookor comment on Facebook.
In addition to all of that, we're going toalso put all of the links to everything
(27:58):
down below, including the Firth ChroniclesFando.
And we want to give a huge shout out tothem.
as we do look up a lot of our informationfor mystical creatures in there.
And I know here with the soon release ofKickstarter for the BC area that Shaming
Stonewall is putting out, I know someinformation will be updated shortly.
(28:19):
So we just got to keep an eye on that.
Thank you for listening.
Did you have anything else to add?
Excited to get to the tourney.
We're making our way to the tourney.
I'm very excited for it.
All right.
Thank you all for listening.
We'll see you next time.
Welcome all you fellow Arcanists out thereto 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 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
(00:23):
today, we urge you to hit the pausebutton, grab your copy abyss wonderful
book and catch up.
We'll be here when you get back.
Guildmaster Eventide, Zelfree, Volke andthe other members of the Frith Guild
prepare to accompany Gillie and awagonload of plague -infested arcane
beasts to Thronehold, capital of the ArgoEmpire.
Their arrival should coincide with theSovereign Dragon Tourney and all of the
(00:45):
apprentices are excited to participate.
But before we get into the book, let'slook at a piece of advice from the series.
Step 34 on the Pillar of Ruma saysmoderation.
Without it, our vices destroy all else.
With that,
Let's join Eric and Scott for chapter 6through 10 of Coliseum Arcanist.
Welcome back everybody to the Frith Guildpodcast.
(01:07):
I'm your host Eric.
I'm cohost Scott.
And today we're going to be going overchapters 6 through 10 of the Coliseum
Arcanist book.
This is the third book in the series byShami Stovall.
And before we get into the details today,we also want to remind you, please like,
share, subscribe.
All that good stuff.
Leave us a review wherever you'relistening on, whether it's podcast or
(01:30):
YouTube.
And with that, we'll dive on in.
Starting off with chapter 6 under theskin, Volke tells Illia that Fain is there
with the convoy.
Volke pitches this very well by startingthat the trinkets he made are actually
what Wraith gave up his antlers for.
And Fain is there not, not just as abecause moment.
(01:53):
Illia.
She just doesn't want him there at all.
And he, she really just wants him dead.
Zaxis gives Illia the Refraction Spyglassthat sees through the invisibility.
And we can see that Zaxis obviously caresbecause he's given her this invisibility
Spyglass.
So she can actually know where Wraith isat all times or Fain.
Volke's actually fairly confident thatFain is doing is going to be a good
(02:15):
person.
And so far he's been a fairly good judgeof character.
And it seems like Fain has...
reason he's always kind of wanted tochange his ways and just never been able
to, he's always been stuck in the piraterole.
So you get a feeling that Fain has nevertruly seen himself as a pirate.
Right.
He may have been on the third abyss he mayhave gotten the tattoo and done all the
(02:37):
initiation and all that, but it kind offeels like he's never really committed to
it.
It's not his life strength.
Right.
He's got something else he wants to do.
So Adelgis, Volke, and Zaxis are kind ofall stuck in one cart and Adelgis kind of
like dived off as soon as he could to getinto the carriage.
(03:00):
As he said, he's very tired and sleepy.
Zaxis is actually reading like he shouldbe.
He's reading about metallurgy andrealizing that he can use different metals
to heat up faster like copper so that hecan use less magic and less energy to
produce a stronger, hotter flame.
(03:21):
Adelgis does kind of remain very silentthis whole trip as far as we're at at this
point.
And he only really talks in small littlespurts and it kind of leads us to believe
something's going on with him.
He's mentioned some previous injuriesbefore along with whatever's going on
under his ribs.
Something's definitely affecting him now.
(03:41):
Volke does also notice that Adelgis iskeeping his hair in a very particular
fashion and he believes it's something,it's to hide something.
And Volke actually goes to check to seewhat it is and moves his hair out of the
way and it's covering this huge bruise.
And it's going all the way from hisjawline to below his collar.
Zaxis says that he's attempted to healAdelgis and Adelgis has refused.
(04:05):
So again, we're kind of curious as to whyAdelgis is so adamant about not being
healed, not being looked at, not beingtouched, that kind of thing.
So we're really getting to a point ofconcern because.
This isn't normal behavior.
Thankfully Adelgis does agree to let Volketake a look at everything once they get to
the inn But that's still a little bit ofways away.
(04:27):
And I think a couple interesting points ofthis is one, Volke's recognition is from
Illia.
Illia does the same thing and he noticesthis behavior, which is why it stands out
to him.
And then also, like you mentioned, Adelgisdoesn't want to be healed.
And there's the question of, is thissomething that can't be healed?
for whatever reason, something that wouldbe beyond Zaxis' power, or is this
(04:50):
something that for whatever reason,Adelgis is truly refusing to have Zaxis
help?
Right.
And again, this is all that like, what'sso wrong that you don't want anybody
looking or touching.
So they finally get to the first innthey're meant to be at and Volke rushes
inside with Zaxis and Adelgis.
(05:10):
And the innkeeper gives...
Volke the keys for all the rooms that werepreviously rented out by the guild.
Volke gives the keys to Luthair to give toZelfree because they got to get Adelgis
into a room.
I can only imagine just once Luthairappears out of the void, all the music
just stops in this inn.
(05:31):
The bad person walking in or the wrongperson walking in and just everything
stops.
Everybody stops and look, gives them theside eye, makes it very obvious that
they're not supposed to be there.
Volke is really confused as to why.
Everybody just kind of stops and looks.
I think Luthair is the one that statesthat everybody there just assumes that
(05:52):
Volke and Luthair are part of the SteelThorn Inquisitors.
But he's not sure why they kind of assumethis.
Luthair does kind of give them a quickrundown of like what the Steel Thorn
Inquisitors are.
And they essentially, they investigatecult matters.
They do also take care of misdeeds ofother Arcanists who are abusing their
magic.
And realistically they're...
They're more after anyone with a bountyand especially with magic at their
(06:15):
disposal.
They're used to level the playing fieldfor magic users to keep them in check.
So we finally get up to the room thatAdelgis's Zaxis and Volke are supposed to
be in, getting everything off his chest.
We learned that Adelgis's father actuallyput a rare mystical creature under his
skin.
In chapter seven, a simple problem.
(06:36):
We find out that there is an eel or
worm or something under his skin.
And it's protruding about a half an inch.
And then at its thickest is about a thumband it zigzags all the way from his rib
cage past the belt of his pants.
Adelgis starts to tell us what's going onand that Adelgis is actually incubating
(06:57):
something for his father and it needs tofeed on magic.
Zaxis' first response is, let's cut itout.
Give me your sword.
Let's cut this thing out right now.
I've seen some horror movies.
Zaxis has a point.
Incubating some sort of mythical creatureunderneath our skin.
(07:17):
I wouldn't be against cutting it out.
It's not supposed to be there, but Adelgisis really, really adamant that he is doing
this for his father and he's going to seeit through and his father's going to be
impressed with him at the end of it fortearing out this whole incubation period.
I don't think there's ever a good moviewhere something that's growing under your
(07:40):
skin ever turns out in a good manner.
So the type of creatures that would growunderneath skin just lends itself to be
something disgusting.
Exactly.
Adelgis does mention that he is veryhungry.
He needs to eat.
And that's more likely what the problemwith him is.
Volke runs downstairs to get Adelgissomething to eat.
(08:01):
And he runs into Atty and she actuallykind of upset with him because he just,
they, they all just took off and didn'thelp guild out to get the horses put away,
the carriage put away, all that stuff thatthey just ran into the inn.
Atty does mention that she, she's actuallytrying to talk with Volke because she
(08:22):
wants to get help with her sorcery becauseshe can't do any kind of healing magic.
And Volke is turning into like anapprentice.
Teacher, I guess.
I don't know if that's the thing, butteacher of some sort.
Yeah.
He's gotten good at analyzing things andkind of helping them towards it.
(08:43):
You know, we'll take Hexa as a goodexample of, hey, how about you use daggers
with your poison rather than just tryingto waft your poison to your enemy.
Atty does want to speak to him in privatenext.
Flertacious.
Aww.
Look at you, Volke The young teens juststarting out.
(09:07):
So then Zaxis interrupts because they'rebasically right outside of the in room
that they've got and Zaxis interrupts byshouting in the room to Adelgis, take off
your pants.
I want to see how long it is.
And as Atty's stated out there, like I canonly imagine what she's thinking about,
(09:28):
what they're talking about.
The secondhand embarrassment of Volke juststanding there.
You know what he's actually going for, butyou can't explain it.
So you just have to hope she doesn't takeit wrong.
There's no way of coming back from that.
You know what?
At least he can shadow step and justshadow steps into the room with the bowl
of stew.
(09:49):
And here's another little win for Volkethat he can bring the stew with him while
he shadow steps back into the room.
Cause that would have been kind of sad tolose the stew.
With this new adult just kind of downs it.
So this is definitely not Eowyn's stewfrom Lord of the Rings.
This is actually edible And Zaxis asks howlong it's been since he last ate and adult
(10:13):
just says it's been over a day and I'malways curious with this is He forgetting
to eat.
Is he just so preoccupied that he forgetsto eat or you know, does the mythical
creature?
prevent him from feeling hunger, it seemsto want to feed on something.
So it's a curious situation.
It's very, you know, parasite -like oftrying to feed off of his nourishment.
(10:37):
At that point, you would think if it'strying to feed off of his nourishment, I'd
want to keep him fed because the betterhe's fed, the better he is, I guess.
Yeah, it's strange.
Uh, Zaxis does quip at Adelgis as far aseating and he's, that he's eating for two
and Felicity actually kind of gets upsetwith his comments.
And she blinds everyone, which is a fairreaction.
(11:00):
There's not really as much she can do.
So you use what you've got at that point.
And kind of kudos to her because she'strying to defend her arcanist He's kind of
down on the ground right now.
So she's trying to make sure that they're,uh.
They're not kicking them too much.
Standing up to the bullies.
Yep.
So from here, we move into chapter eightof the augmenting magic.
(11:22):
Adelgis was actually extremely hungry forwhat was going on and he ended up eating
three bowls of this stew.
Mind you, Volke had to pay for this stewout of pocket.
This wasn't something that the guild wascovering for them, or at least as far as
we know.
Volke and Adelgis are actually supposed tobe on evening guard duty that night
together.
(11:43):
They're actually out in detecting thecarriage from the plague -ridden
creatures.
And they can hear manic laughter comingfrom the carriage and manic laughter
during the day is offsetting as it is, butI can only imagine at night.
It's dark.
Everything is just a little scarier.
That's laughter has got to be nerve-racking.
(12:03):
Especially with one person that's barelyconscious.
I can barely like stay upright at thispoint because of how weak Adelgis is.
Even after eating, you know, he's stillvery highly affected by this creature
thing that's under his skin.
There's gotta be that extra level thatVolke's like, oh my gosh, like I'm,
there's no way I'm going to be able tomake it through watching this carriage
(12:27):
plus taking care of Adelgis.
And heaven forbid anything happens whilehe's watching it.
Volke does.
make a really good decision.
He uses this time to train with his swordand shield because he's getting more
comfortable with the sword, but having theshield cost him for some adjustments with
the new style of fighting that Volke'sgoing to have to do.
(12:47):
So while he's practicing with sword andshield, he kind of goes like full squirrel
moment, like completely off track.
And then he's like, you know what?
I'm going to figure out how we're going totransfer this night vision to Adelgis.
So Lutheir is actually giving guidance toVolke.
on this, he knows that Volke's veryfrustrated with not being able to just
give his augmentation magic to poorAdelgis And this is where Luthair kind of
(13:12):
steps in and was like, Hey, I just wantedto let you know that Mathis actually did
struggle with this for a bit as well.
Luthair kind of gives Volke that, I don'twant say the key to figuring it out, but
gives him that different angle to help himfigure it out.
Again, Luthair is trying to let Volkedrown.
Keep trying, you know, just keep at it andyou know, maybe I'll eventually give you
(13:36):
kind of that, you know, a little bit of ananswer, but he does again, give Volke that
different angle, different perspective tolook at and, and it kind of clicks with
the Volke at that point.
So thankfully he's able to figure out howto pass augmentation magic on.
Now, as much as we always joke aboutLuthair constantly like waiting for Volke
to be drowning before he helps, this is areally good thing for Luthair to do
(13:59):
because realistically.
If he didn't and didn't have Volke try tocritically think about things, this could
be a very bad thing and the wrongencounter because Volke could be just
completely unable to think without Luthairand Luthair may not have the solution or
the answer to the problem.
I mean, shoot, look, look back at DreadPirate arcanist when Volke's like, hey,
(14:21):
how do I take down a Dread Pirate?
And Luthair's like, I don't know, man.
We weren't stupid enough to get in thissituation before.
There is some benefit of going throughsome trials of, you know, earning your
stripes a little bit.
Exactly.
So Adelgis is kind of not really sure whyhe's even on guard duty with Volt, because
(14:42):
Adelgis is like, I mean, I can createlight.
Cool.
Here, it's all bright now.
Yay.
It's not all dark.
So, you know, he's looking at it as hereally can't do, he doesn't really have
any offensive magic.
Or even really defensive magic.
He's kind of down in the dumps a littlebit, especially with everything that's
(15:05):
going on.
Adelgis does kind of tell Volke finallythat he's supposed to be incubating
whatever is under him, under his skin fora total of four years.
And this one put roughly in his earlyteens, maybe kind of mid teens when he got
(15:26):
this.
So very, very.
impressionable age and definitely an agewhen, you know, wanting to impress your
father would be a big factor in decision-making.
Well, and especially because we've beentold that his father has forgotten him at
the lab.
He's that, unfortunately, he's the, sincehe's kind of that middle kid, he doesn't
(15:46):
always get remembered about.
So he wants to be able to impress hisfather.
So I imagine that a lot of what wentbehind the decision -making that Adelgis
did.
It is probably because of that.
I will 100 % agree.
I, as much as I don't like the incubatingmythical creature, I can't fault his
(16:08):
decision making and how he got there.
It makes sense.
Right.
Especially looking back at everything.
It is what it is, I guess.
We'll chalk it up as that for Adelgis.
As they're on their guard duty, GuildMaster Eventide actually comes in and she
starts petting the horses and basicallyshe's just like.
I'm going to help you watch the mobileinsane assylum Like, well, you can train
(16:32):
and you're going to watch this too, butyou're going to watch it every other night
rather than just every night.
I'm going to take some of the load off ofyou so you're not as exhausted so you can
still train.
I have to admit, when I read this, I'mlike, is this really Guild Master Eventide
or is this like an imposter?
Like, I don't know if there's somebodyelse, a different Eldrin or something that
(16:53):
could make her or impersonate her likethat, but.
I was kind of like, this, this, this seemslike it's a bad thing.
It's going to about to happen.
Volke very intelligently, very committeddecides rather than going to bed, he
actually uses the rest of the time he hasin the night to go train and get some
discipline.
(17:13):
As the sun's coming up, he sees Zelfreeand Hexa training together.
Now Hexa did take Volke's advice on usingthe throwing knives.
Zelfree kind of just.
I don't want to say embarrasses her,especially cause she's just learning to
use throwing knives.
She can at least throw them accurately,but not with a lot of power.
(17:35):
So Zelfree does give her a lot ofhomework.
Hey, you know, first you gotta get fasterat throwing these things.
Don't, don't ever throw your last knife.
You always keep one to one.
So that at least you have something todefend yourself with or something to
attack with.
So he, you're going to get, you need toget faster.
You need to get stronger.
You need to, here's a list of things Ineed you to work on.
(17:56):
And one of the fun ones that he mentionsis to study anatomy, mostly because if you
can hit a important artery, the poisonwill get through the bloodstream faster
and you could take down your opponentfaster.
So a very, very technical approach to someof the tactics that we see, you know,
Zaxis approaching the different.
(18:17):
heat capacity, studying anatomy.
It is a very, very technical and researchdriven process.
I imagine this is one of those things thatZelfree's kind of kicking himself in the
butt for, cause he's like, I should havehad them started on this a lot sooner.
I should have made them at least lookthings up a little bit earlier so that way
they could get that processing rather thanjust, okay, let's train your magic.
(18:42):
And we also find out as they are wrappingup, uh,
Adelgis is helping Zelfree to sleep and weknow that Adelgis has helped Volke with
sleeping before so he's continuing toimprove his magic in that way and just
making sure that Zelfree doesn't havenightmares and that he's able to you know
get the most out of the night.
(19:05):
And we finally find out that the thingthat's living under Adelgis' skin is
called an abyssal leech.
Sounds terrifying.
It's got leech in it.
All right, moving into chapter nine, thecity of religious Ellios So the guild is
actually traveling through where Adelgisgrew up.
(19:28):
We know they went to the Isle of Ruma atone point and the apprentices were able to
see their families.
And now we're able to kind of get aglimpse into Adelgis his childhood.
And surprise, surprise, it is a very, veryscholarly city.
It has a university and it is.
well known for its research capacity.
(19:49):
Zaxis has taken on his motherly role ofchecking in on Adelgis, making sure he's
eating.
Atty continues to make sassy commentsabout their relationship and how they're
interacting.
And Zaxis is powering through them andreally taking it to heart to make sure
that Adelgis is doing well.
(20:09):
He's covering his shifts, really justlooking out for him all around.
When did Zaxis get so nice?
He's reading books, he's caring for hisfriends.
A changed man.
Shoot.
Like this is one of those other ones like,is this an imposter?
Because he's doing nice things.
He's not just being Mr.
(20:30):
Hothead.
So Zaxis actually also shows us that thecarriage that's holding the plague -ridden
creatures is impervious to magic.
And we find out that the word is cured andstained in Nullstone.
which is a type of rock that actuallynullifies magic.
And this is where Zaxis is like, Hey,look, I'm going to use my fire against it
(20:52):
and show you that nothing's going tohappen.
And this is extremely helpful and good toknow just because if the plague -ridden
monsters are getting stronger andstronger, you want to have some way to
prevent them from using their magic toescape.
So very cool and interesting facet to thecarriage.
And even more than that, it's kind of thatlike what other practices, what other
(21:15):
things can it be used for?
Potentially very, very useful, not only inprisons, but I could also seeing it being
used as military tactics somehow as well.
So something definitely to see more intoin the future.
And at this point, Fain shows up and Zaxisis ready to fight him right away.
(21:35):
We are back to the original Zaxis.
His good days are over.
He's back to his normal man.
Volke breaks up the confrontation andreally orders Zaxis to stand down.
After the situation deescalates a little,Fain actually goes to Volke and asks him
if he can tail him, almost to understandhow he interacts with people, get a better
(21:59):
understanding almost of how to be afriend.
Fain kind of wants to be like Baymax, youknow, learn how to be a good healthcare
provider.
Yes, he really does.
He wants to be better.
And this points again to Volke's goodjudgment and faith in people as a whole.
As they make it into the town, we come toknow that Zelfree is going to go and
(22:20):
actually confront Adalgis' dad.
We know they had a bad history before andZelfree is not a fan of him and he's less
a fan of incubating the Bissell leech.
Chapter 10 opens up and...
Zaxis and Adelgis have this moment whereZaxis doesn't really know what Adelgis'
(22:41):
last name even is.
As they're walking up to Adelgis' house,his last name is written all over, like on
the property.
And he's like, Venrover, who's Venrover?
And it's like, how do you not know hislast name?
Come on.
You've been trading with each other forover a year.
Like a year and a half at this point,probably closer to two.
(23:02):
And you don't know his last name?
Like...
I'm sure there's people you work with thatyou know their last name within the first
like 10 days.
It's baffling to say the least.
And Zaxis quotes that he, Adelgis doesn'teven know his name and Adelgis is a
scholar and is readily available toprovide the answer.
(23:23):
So Zaxis is left sitting in his own puddleof mud there.
We come to find out that Zelfree actuallyused to work with Thiessen, who's Adelgis'
dad and...
That's really the reason that Adelgiswanted to study under Zelfrey is because
of the relationship that they had.
This is kind of disturbing that Adele isjust so afraid to disturb his father while
(23:46):
he's working.
Like he is dead set.
Like, please, if there's anything you do,can you please not disturb him while he's
working?
Instead of that, they end up disturbinghis mom and his mom is a Minerva Owl
Arcanist and their relationship.
is almost confrontational.
(24:06):
There's no affection between them.
Adelgis asks about his sister and this isreally the only time that he seems to have
a true interest in the well -being of hisfamily is being concerned with what is
going on with his sister.
And it turns out that Zelfree also knowsAdelgis's mom and surprise surprise is not
a fan of her either.
They get into their own confrontation andZelfree brings up the leech and the
(24:31):
incubation and she responds that it's
has nothing to do with him and isn't ofhis concern, even though it's having an
impact on Adalgis.
And we find out that Zelfree actuallykilled the other leech arcanist because of
the negative impact that they were havingand that the leech that Adalgis is
(24:53):
incubating is the last remaining one andone that was supposed to have been killed
but was somehow saved.
The confrontation between Zelfree and
Adelgis' mom escalates, he ends upgrabbing her.
She uses her magic and creates a gust ofwind and then kicks them out.
And Zelfree has lost any kindheartednessthat she ever had for him again.
(25:17):
So a very, very confrontational chapter.
And there's a lot of insight into theworkings of Adelgis' family and the
upbringing and connection that they havewith each other.
I want to say though, this is a veryabrupt ending to this chapter.
Even when I was reading through thechapter, I kept reading.
(25:38):
I flipped immediately to chapter 11 and Iwas like, oh, wait a minute.
I got to stop.
Can't add that into this.
This is not the right chapter now.
Stay tuned.
And then moving into our bestiary section.
There are two creatures that get broughtup.
One is the Minerva owl that we see withAdelgis' mom.
(26:00):
And the other is the enbarr which isleading the horses.
The Minerva Owl is associated with wisdomand the wind magic that she has.
And the enbarr is associated with beingable to increase the stamina, endurance,
and speed of horses.
But outside of this, there's not reallyanything known to them.
We don't have any info on their magic ortheir reproduction much otherwise, or the
(26:26):
passive abilities that they give.
So.
Not too much to dive into, but someinteresting creatures that are popping up
on some of the other characters.
I actually did a lot of research trying tofind out more about Enbar, just as far as
like mythology goes, where else it's beenfound.
And there's really only been like oneplace that I found that there was any kind
(26:48):
of mention of it was, it was really justIrish mythology that had mention of it.
And it was, it was actually the name of ahorse.
that could run on water and on land atextremely fast speeds.
So that was really like the only otherplace I could find anything on the inn
bar.
And I know Minerva is a Roman god, Ibelieve it's the Roman version of Athena.
(27:13):
So a goddess of wisdom and fits very wellwith the scholarly studying and research
of the family.
All right.
And with that concludes this week'sepisode.
You can find us on Podbean, Googlepodcasts, Apple podcasts, basically
anywhere that you can listen to podcasts.
We are also on YouTube.
(27:36):
And if you want to join in on the fun, youcan find us on the Facebook group at Firth
Guild Podcast.
And if you want to reach out to us, youcan contact us at firthguildpod at gmail
.com.
Of course, send us a message on Facebookor comment on Facebook.
In addition to all of that, we're going toalso put all of the links to everything
(27:58):
down below, including the Firth ChroniclesFando.
And we want to give a huge shout out tothem.
as we do look up a lot of our informationfor mystical creatures in there.
And I know here with the soon release ofKickstarter for the BC area that Shaming
Stonewall is putting out, I know someinformation will be updated shortly.
(28:19):
So we just got to keep an eye on that.
Thank you for listening.
Did you have anything else to add?
Excited to get to the tourney.
We're making our way to the tourney.
I'm very excited for it.
All right.
Thank you all for listening.
We'll see you next time.
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