June 12, 2024 • 24 mins
In the opening chapters of ‘Plague Arcanist,’ Adelgis, Fain, and Volke find themselves standing outside the walls of Thronehold, faced with a life-altering decision: join the crew of the Sun Chaser to track down a man seeking an antidote for the plague. Volke, shedding his guild pendant, climbs the rope ladder onto the airship, where Captain Devlin and Karna welcome him. But danger lurks aboard—the infected wyvern and a murder of grifter crows threaten their journey. As Volke battles to protect the crew, he discovers the infected can sense each other’s presence, and their desire to spread the plague grows stronger. Dive into this gripping fantasy adventure filled with magic, mystery, and peril!” 📖✨
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:31):
Welcome back to the Firth Guild podcast.
I'm your host Eric.
I'm co -host Scott.
And today we are getting into chapters onethrough five of Plague Arcanist, book
four, number four in Shami's FirthChronicles series.
Before we get started today, we also dowant to thank everybody for listening and
we would like everyone to show us somelove by liking, commenting, sharing,
(01:54):
rating, and on whatever platform you'relistening to or watching on.
And we also like to want to make.
mentioned that the Firth Chronicles Wikilink is in the description along with the
link for the Capital Station Discordserver to go over and join on there.
Before we get to Chapter 1, I just got tosay that Volke must have been getting
really bored with the main questline anddecided to just start doing some
(02:14):
sidequesting.
That's really what it felt like, just alittle like one -off, I'm going to go
adventure with the airship for a while.
We do get started with Chapter 1, theArcane Plague, and open up to Volke
dropping his guild pendant realizing...
He's not really part of the guild anymore,so he's going to get rid of it, even
though he just got it back from Karna.
(02:35):
So he's never really valued it too much, Iguess.
Darn apprentices and loosing stuff.
Yeah.
He's going to have to pay for that too.
Get that from his pay.
Him, Adelgis, Fain and their Eldrin areboarding the airship and Wraith is
definitely not a fan of the airship.
So fine when ships are on sea, but notwhen they're in the air.
(02:57):
And the ship itself is crafted out ofdragon and griffin bones.
It's got giant wings and a spinal cordgoing along it.
And I just pictured Jim Carrey comingthrough with this.
It's alive They do end up climbing theladder up to the ship.
Volke ends up bleeding a little on theladder and ends up realizing it's going to
(03:21):
soak into the ladder.
And it's OK in the end.
So he.
makes his way up to the ship.
And Volke seems a little tired and maybehe shouldn't have stayed up so late
playing video games so many nights in arow.
Yeah, he really he really hurt himself,you know, partying too hard with the them
and the in and to end the chapter, we doend up meeting Captain Delvin, who is the
(03:45):
captain of the airship and also the rocarcanist.
And leading in chapter two, the sun chaser
Talk about political powder keg when otherterritories find out that oma has died and
Rishan took over the empire at thecapital.
Like, everybody's gonna be vying for thisnow.
Yeah, he's one day into his crown.
(04:05):
Well, you also gotta remember that hedoesn't know how to use an aura.
Even Zelfree doesn't know how to use anaura.
So how is he gonna use this prosperityaura?
Yeah, it's really gonna hurt the nation.
So, Fain takes the clothes away.
as Volke is taken to the washroom and Fainis going to be seen as the, the cleaning
(04:28):
cleaner or the maid of Volke for the timebeing because Fain and Wraith are immune
to the plague.
So Fain gets the lovely job of takingVolke's dirty, bloody clothes and keeping
track of all that.
Luthair hates to see Volke despondent.
And I actually had to look this one up.
I wasn't really sure what that meant, butessentially it's just.
(04:50):
low, like without hope, low spirits, thatkind of thing.
Volke has to be seen by the ship's surgeonbefore he can get dressed.
So Volke's just sitting in the washroom,completely naked, with his thing sitting
over him, and Fain is just sitting in thewashroom with Volke.
And this has got to be this tiny littlewashroom, so I can't imagine they have
(05:14):
much room to begin with.
They can't even open the door fully to thewashroom.
That's how small this area is.
Fain just wants Volke to train himformally while they're side questing.
As Volke's getting seen by the surgeon, Idon't know if it's explicitly mentioned or
not, but I'm assuming the surgeon is notan Arcanist and therefore can't contract
(05:34):
the plague as well.
I want to say so because I know that theother, the other two women that came in
after the surgeon, they were not Arcanisteither.
So I think.
There's quite a few mortals on the shipthat are basically immune to the plague
because they're not arcanists
(05:54):
Works out for them.
Great.
So Volke has to really be trying to notdownward spiral right now.
And I completely understand that.
Fain is going to be there for Volke nowthough, in the washroom while he's naked.
So Volke is given bandages in case hebleeds so that he can be wrapped up at all
(06:14):
times in case he does get cut.
And that way it can absorb into thebandage and not anywhere else.
And we find out that only two years havepassed since Knightmare Arcanist and Z
tried the trial of worth for thephoenixes.
And like, holy crap, Volke is 17.
(06:37):
Just like, what a mind blown there.
I know, it's a lot of adventuring for a 17year old.
I mean, shoot, how much has he beenthrough already?
Like crap.
No wonder he doesn't know how to figureout a relationship or romance yet.
Definitely not at 17.
So we find out that Karna is actually thequartermaster on the ship and she is
(07:00):
responsible for recruiting the suppliesand training of everybody on the ship.
And she is essentially the only personbelow Captain Delvin as far as like the
hierarchy goes.
She only answers to him.
She does not have anybody else.
We get some more information about CaptainDelvin as we see that.
(07:22):
We see the captain's rock, which is Mesos.
And she is described as being the size ofa small whale.
And I do like the reminder going into thisbook specifically.
I like the reminder of all the differentparts of the ship and all the different
terminologies and talking about the steelrings on the barrels being liquid, not the
(07:43):
other stuff.
We forget a lot of this because we were onland through the whole third book.
So.
There's a lot of good refresherinformation about ships and that kind of
thing.
Starting this book, Karna does tease Volkeabout meeting the blacksmith of the ship
and Karna really does want Volke to stay.
And you get the feeling that it's like,stay long -term with her, not just on the
(08:09):
ship.
So Volke's still working his littleromances on the side.
I mean, there was one option taken off theplate and then the second one's kind of at
a pause.
So.
And honestly, he's got the plague, so itfeels like this one should be on a pause
as well.
Got to play your cards here when you can,okay?
And that brings us into chapter three,which is the airship crew.
(08:30):
They are staying essentially in a storageroom.
There are still supplies being stored intheir bedroom.
They just have a few hammocks that werethrown up in there as well.
Fain immediately being used to the boatlife, hops on the hammock instantly at
home.
Adelgis comes in, ends up putting Volke -
sleep and Volke has these dreams of beingon the island of Ruma.
(08:54):
Gravekeeper Williams there essentiallygiving him a pep talk for how to handle
the plague.
Volke mentions that Gravekeeper William issix inches taller than Volke.
We know Volke is about six feet tall.
Volke is considered tall to begin with.
And then we see Gravekeeper William at sixfoot six.
So this guy must be an absolute giant incomparison to everybody else.
(09:17):
I imagine Gravekeeper Williams probablythe first one picked for the basketball
team.
I imagine when he was a naval officer, heprobably had a hard time getting around
the ship because that's all he was.
Yeah, it's not built for people that a lotof bending over for most of the people
that Volke has seen their role has meantfor them to die with the plague.
(09:39):
So when we think of people protecting thethrone room, you know, they are going to
stay at their post and live and die bythat, regardless of plague.
Volke's in a unique situation where he.
He actually could survive the plague.
He's not infecting anyone right now.
They're on their way for a cure, so.
The big thing that he struggles with is,you know, am I being selfish looking for a
(10:00):
cure?
Grave Keeper William gives him the pointof, you know, what if you find it?
What if you survive?
You've done so much already and there's somuch good that could actually come of
this.
So that conversation is really helpful forVolke.
It gives him a lot of the kind of back andforth that I think he needed with the
arcane plague that he wasn't really ableto open up with anyone else about.
(10:23):
When he does wake up though, there is avery sneaky person holding a knife to his
throat.
So Luthair is luckily out getting food,which is fun for something that doesn't
need to eat.
Adelgis actually arranged for this tohappen.
So he heard the thoughts of the womenstocking the cabin, essentially arranged
(10:44):
for this threatening to happen so that shecould get her words out to Volke and
essentially tell him, you know, if.
Anyone on the airship crew gets hurt.
If anything sketchy happens, she's comingstraight for him.
So Adelgis being the real good friendthere and helping him out.
They do make their way up to the deck.
(11:04):
They get to see kind of the world from theairship, which has to be just an amazing
view.
And a young child appears.
This child is Biyu and she also does havean eye patch similar to Illia And as they
go through their conversation, she.
essentially taking notes, keeping recordsfor the ship.
And thing that comes up is that she knowsVolke's real last name.
(11:27):
So even when he tells her Volke's Savanshe goes, that's not your name.
So she is obviously more familiar withVolke than she probably should be.
The final piece of.
Fun information that we get in this isjust from listening to thoughts.
Adelgis has pretty much figured out thatit is a ragtag bunch for a crew.
Everyone who comes from a questionablebackground has gone through some sort of
(11:51):
hardships and struggling to get back from,but the airship is pretty much giving them
a chance at a better life.
Coming into chapter four, plan of action.
Volke requests something new and not fromhis memories for sleep.
I imagine he's probably like, we're notgoing to gamble anymore and just give me
something different.
Okay.
Don't want it.
(12:11):
I don't want to be familiar with it.
Just give me something different.
Volke does try to have some of the breadand the jerky that he got from Biyu that
Biyu refused to let anybody else hand toVolke.
And he says that it tastes of sawdust.
And I know Fain kind of like noms noms onit pretty, pretty quickly.
And so does Wraith, but I imagine it'sjust their use of the ship life and the
(12:32):
ship food.
So.
Not living the best life.
It's not first class flying, that's forsure.
Nope.
No Michelin stars in this galley.
No.
So Adelgis does mention that most of thecrew is made up of women and Fain does
kind of infer that that's why they're setnext to the captain, because they are men
and they want to be kept as far away fromthe women as possible.
(12:54):
And then he's like, meh, probably it'sbecause we're a renegade pirate, a plague
infected person.
And then there's Adelgis.
who will automatically read the thoughtsand probably say something very awkward in
every conversation he's in.
So.
Right.
Not to mention talking about wonder whathappens if the whole crew of the airship
(13:15):
dies of asphyxiation.
Yeah, but we get a new mythical creature?
But he doesn't elaborate on that part ofit.
So it just sounds like he just wants tokill everybody by stealing all the air out
of their lungs.
Adelgis does start to pull out a map andtake a look at essentially Vardin and
(13:37):
Adelgis suspects that Theasin is travelingto New Norra in the far south.
And he does mention that there is a timecrunch because Theasin generally doesn't
stay there long.
So if they do want to catch up to them,they really got to go quick or they're
going to lose the trail fairly quick.
Yeah, imagine it's probably their onlychance to find them.
(13:57):
If there's no clues there, then theyprobably have no idea where to go after.
Adelgis gets a nickname and I honestlylove this nickname.
He is now called Moonbeam and this comesfrom the reflection coming off of his
glasses.
At least this is what I'm inferring fromeverything else.
And he gets a really cool nickname.
So Fain calls himself Fain when he was apirate on the third abyss.
(14:21):
So that's his nickname.
But what would Volke's nickname be?
I just feel like it's got to be somethinglike shadow related.
So my first thought is he like going to belike the eclipse or, you know, something
cool like that.
The eclipse aura.
It felt like it'd be a threatening name tobe known by.
Sadly, my mind went to Shadow Daddy.
Probably what he'd be more likely to endup with.
(14:44):
I mean, I imagine Karna wouldn't wouldn'tmind calling him that.
No, Eclipse is pretty BA though.
So we'll call Eclipse on the DL.
Put a little pull out there.
Let's see what the preferred name is.
Yes.
Volke should keep his plague on the downlow, at least for the time being since he
(15:08):
could be hunted by the Huntsman Guild,which we know aren't necessarily fans of
him.
And Adelgis explains that Ninora isessentially like Port Crown, but with less
pirates.
It is a free place, I guess, free city.
So...
Doesn't matter who you are, what you are,everybody's welcome, that kind of thing.
(15:29):
You can buy whatever and trade whatever,sell whatever.
So any kind of mystical creatures ormystical creature parts that would be
considered illegal or something like that.
Like, I don't know, sovereign dragonheart.
I imagine somebody would, I wouldn't seewhy they wouldn't.
So they've got enough star shards and it'senough money.
Why not?
(15:50):
So Adelgis also kind of drops anotherbombshell on Volke about.
who the blacksmith really is.
And at the very end of this chapter, wefind out that the blacksmith is none other
than Volke's biological father.
The big reveal.
And that takes us into chapter five, whereVolke is going to go talk to his father.
(16:11):
And just as kind of a reminder, Volke'sfather was a convicted murderer, exiled
from the island and has never really beenin contact with Volke prior to this.
So.
Volke is extremely nervous about how toapproach this.
On one hand, you have your actual fatherand grave keeper William, who's, you know,
(16:31):
taking care of you throughout your life.
But then this is your biological father.
This would probably be an extremelydifficult challenge to process because
like you said, on one hand, you have yourbio dad that you haven't seen in 17, 12
years, Holy Grail Math.
And I mean, Volke's pretty.
neutral about the situation in general.
(16:55):
He's nervous, but he's not sure.
Doesn't hate the guy.
Doesn't like the guy.
Doesn't doesn't really have any opinion.
So so Volke is on his way to his father'scabin.
But before he can actually.
Not and have a conversation, the shipshutters.
Volke ends up reaching for his sword.
(17:15):
He can tell there's a battle approaching.
Realizes that his sword was broken.
So he doesn't really have a weapon at thispoint He had given the shield to the frith
guild so that they could use the compassfor it So no sword no shield when he gets
up to the deck He realizes that they'rebeing attacked by grifter crows who have
been deformed with the plague I thoughtthis was strange just because crows are
(17:37):
carrying birds to some extent they prettymuch eat whatever but apparently they
don't eat men, so they are able to beinfected by the plague and
They seem to be able to tell who alreadyhas the plague.
They're almost specifically targetingLuthair and, you know, they can tell he's
not infected and so are trying to spreadthe love a little bit.
(17:59):
So they just love their they want to.
Volke and Luthair, they can merge, but theissue is, you know, if they are merged and
their Volke were to bleed at all, he wouldpretty much instantly infect Luthair.
So Volke does not want to.
merge with Luthair but they can stillprotect the crew.
Fain and Wraith also also come up to help.
(18:21):
Again they're immune to the plague so Fainis able to freeze the deck essentially
prevent any blood that had spilled fromthe birds from seeping into the deck from
dripping below deck.
And in addition to that there's a fewothers that that come up to help so
Delvin, Karna and then there's anotherlady and a man that come up as well.
(18:43):
And they do get the big backup of Meso Soso the roc coming in and blasting away at
the crows with gusts of wind blowing themback and really providing some much needed
support.
The final boss to this level is a wyverwho ends up falling on the deck again,
very infected by the plague.
(19:03):
So a lot of crazy laughing, the usual sideeffects.
And this is a side note of something fromrealizing.
Delvin is very nervous in this, but rocsare immune to the plague.
So Delvin should be immune to the plague.
But in this book specifically, he's verynervous about catching it, which I thought
(19:26):
was like really strange because in laterones, he almost seems to know that he's
immune.
So just something I found, I was like, asI was reading back, I was like, I'm pretty
sure they were immune in like the laterbooks.
Yeah, they're considered maniators.
I mean.
Maybe he doesn't know that he's immunebecause he's a man eater.
(19:46):
That's possible as well.
He just doesn't doesn't realize it.
But something I found interesting in thesecond time through.
So both the women and Delvin go to thesituation to try and help.
And then the one woman pulls out thezigzag dagger that happens to look awfully
familiar.
(20:07):
But for real though, I want a zigzagdagger that can shoot lightning because
that would be cool AF.
Okay.
It sounds straight out of like every magicRPG game.
Right?
Like Zeus himself almost.
Yes.
And the other weapons that come out arepretty cool as well.
So the man ends up throwing Volke a firesword.
(20:31):
Also, I'll take that one.
Shoot.
I forgot about that.
So he but Volke is able to take it intothe void.
So that's pretty cool.
Is it still on fire though when it's inthe void?
How does the void work?
Does the void he can't breathe in thevoid.
So the void might not have oxygen, whichcould prevent the sword from being on fire
(20:51):
in the void.
But it's magic.
It doesn't need oxygen.
That's true as well.
So if Shami, these are the questions wewant to answer.
Karna also comes sliding in and shedoesn't have a weapon, but she is able to
touch the Arcanist and instantly takecontrol of him, essentially sending him to
(21:17):
his death over the edge of the ship.
Don't make her mad again.
Yeah, she has to touch you and you are youare in for it.
I wonder who could act faster, Adelgis orKarna?
Could he put her to sleep faster than shecould take control?
Another great question.
Got to start making polls left and righthere about things here.
(21:41):
Who's fastest?
Another thing we want to note is theWyvern before it was killed was wanting
Volke to help infect other people with theplague.
Cause again, you said it with the, thegrifter crows they kind of seem like they
knew Volke already had the plague andpurposely avoided him because they know
(22:02):
that.
He was already infected and they werewasting their time and otherwise.
Yeah, it's it's very interesting.
So it seems like there's some sort ofadded bonus with the plague that you can
tell when others are infected as well atsome point.
So very interesting.
I don't know if I want that as a bonus.
I don't either.
It's not a good bonus.
It doesn't sound like a good one.
(22:23):
It's a very low trade roll.
But this is where chapter five does endfor this week.
We don't really have any new.
Bestiaries are in new mystical creaturesat the time of the recording.
We're in basically the last week of Mayand talking with Shami her bestiary is in
(22:45):
printing at the moment.
So it will be coming out and is probablygoing to be out around the time this
episode airs.
However, she has asked that we refrainfrom adding any additional information
that's in the bestiary.
until it is officially out into the handsof those that paid for with the
(23:06):
Kickstarter.
So respecting her wishes, we will keepsome information in our back pocket until
it is available to everybody else.
But I rest assured we will be getting thatinformation out once we are available to.
So we'll be going kind of going backthrough each section of chapters that
doesn't have a new mystical creature.
(23:28):
We will be updating some information alongthe way as, or after the bestiary is
released and everybody has it available toread.
And yes, we do want to name drop thatShammi is a friend of the pod.
So we do want to thank everybody forlistening today.
we do want to remind everybody that wehave a new, new episode every Wednesday
morning around 11 Eastern, 10 Central,eight Pacific and whatever Mountain Time
(23:53):
does.
We are on all podcasting platforms and.
We are also on the YouTube as well forvideo.
So if you would like to see Scott and Italking rather than just listening, if you
want to reach out to us, you can get us atgmail at frithgildpod at gmail .com or on
Facebook or other social media platforms,pretty much anything that any social media
(24:17):
type at frithgildpodcast and you will findus.
We do want to thank frith Chronicles Wikias it is a great resource and
that there is a link to everything down inthe description below for both podcasts
and YouTube.
So we will be doing an interview in themiddle of this book to break it up a
little bit.
So that way we also have a break, a littlebit of a break in it as well.
(24:41):
So Scott, do you have anything else you'dlike to add today?
No, excited for this newest adventure.
So excited.
Side questing.
Side questing.
Yes.
All right.
Thanks everybody.
Welcome back to the Firth Guild podcast.
I'm your host Eric.
I'm co -host Scott.
And today we are getting into chapters onethrough five of Plague Arcanist, book
four, number four in Shami's FirthChronicles series.
Before we get started today, we also dowant to thank everybody for listening and
we would like everyone to show us somelove by liking, commenting, sharing,
(01:54):
rating, and on whatever platform you'relistening to or watching on.
And we also like to want to make.
mentioned that the Firth Chronicles Wikilink is in the description along with the
link for the Capital Station Discordserver to go over and join on there.
Before we get to Chapter 1, I just got tosay that Volke must have been getting
really bored with the main questline anddecided to just start doing some
(02:14):
sidequesting.
That's really what it felt like, just alittle like one -off, I'm going to go
adventure with the airship for a while.
We do get started with Chapter 1, theArcane Plague, and open up to Volke
dropping his guild pendant realizing...
He's not really part of the guild anymore,so he's going to get rid of it, even
though he just got it back from Karna.
(02:35):
So he's never really valued it too much, Iguess.
Darn apprentices and loosing stuff.
Yeah.
He's going to have to pay for that too.
Get that from his pay.
Him, Adelgis, Fain and their Eldrin areboarding the airship and Wraith is
definitely not a fan of the airship.
So fine when ships are on sea, but notwhen they're in the air.
(02:57):
And the ship itself is crafted out ofdragon and griffin bones.
It's got giant wings and a spinal cordgoing along it.
And I just pictured Jim Carrey comingthrough with this.
It's alive They do end up climbing theladder up to the ship.
Volke ends up bleeding a little on theladder and ends up realizing it's going to
(03:21):
soak into the ladder.
And it's OK in the end.
So he.
makes his way up to the ship.
And Volke seems a little tired and maybehe shouldn't have stayed up so late
playing video games so many nights in arow.
Yeah, he really he really hurt himself,you know, partying too hard with the them
and the in and to end the chapter, we doend up meeting Captain Delvin, who is the
(03:45):
captain of the airship and also the rocarcanist.
And leading in chapter two, the sun chaser
Talk about political powder keg when otherterritories find out that oma has died and
Rishan took over the empire at thecapital.
Like, everybody's gonna be vying for thisnow.
Yeah, he's one day into his crown.
(04:05):
Well, you also gotta remember that hedoesn't know how to use an aura.
Even Zelfree doesn't know how to use anaura.
So how is he gonna use this prosperityaura?
Yeah, it's really gonna hurt the nation.
So, Fain takes the clothes away.
as Volke is taken to the washroom and Fainis going to be seen as the, the cleaning
(04:28):
cleaner or the maid of Volke for the timebeing because Fain and Wraith are immune
to the plague.
So Fain gets the lovely job of takingVolke's dirty, bloody clothes and keeping
track of all that.
Luthair hates to see Volke despondent.
And I actually had to look this one up.
I wasn't really sure what that meant, butessentially it's just.
(04:50):
low, like without hope, low spirits, thatkind of thing.
Volke has to be seen by the ship's surgeonbefore he can get dressed.
So Volke's just sitting in the washroom,completely naked, with his thing sitting
over him, and Fain is just sitting in thewashroom with Volke.
And this has got to be this tiny littlewashroom, so I can't imagine they have
(05:14):
much room to begin with.
They can't even open the door fully to thewashroom.
That's how small this area is.
Fain just wants Volke to train himformally while they're side questing.
As Volke's getting seen by the surgeon, Idon't know if it's explicitly mentioned or
not, but I'm assuming the surgeon is notan Arcanist and therefore can't contract
(05:34):
the plague as well.
I want to say so because I know that theother, the other two women that came in
after the surgeon, they were not Arcanisteither.
So I think.
There's quite a few mortals on the shipthat are basically immune to the plague
because they're not arcanists
(05:54):
Works out for them.
Great.
So Volke has to really be trying to notdownward spiral right now.
And I completely understand that.
Fain is going to be there for Volke nowthough, in the washroom while he's naked.
So Volke is given bandages in case hebleeds so that he can be wrapped up at all
(06:14):
times in case he does get cut.
And that way it can absorb into thebandage and not anywhere else.
And we find out that only two years havepassed since Knightmare Arcanist and Z
tried the trial of worth for thephoenixes.
And like, holy crap, Volke is 17.
(06:37):
Just like, what a mind blown there.
I know, it's a lot of adventuring for a 17year old.
I mean, shoot, how much has he beenthrough already?
Like crap.
No wonder he doesn't know how to figureout a relationship or romance yet.
Definitely not at 17.
So we find out that Karna is actually thequartermaster on the ship and she is
(07:00):
responsible for recruiting the suppliesand training of everybody on the ship.
And she is essentially the only personbelow Captain Delvin as far as like the
hierarchy goes.
She only answers to him.
She does not have anybody else.
We get some more information about CaptainDelvin as we see that.
(07:22):
We see the captain's rock, which is Mesos.
And she is described as being the size ofa small whale.
And I do like the reminder going into thisbook specifically.
I like the reminder of all the differentparts of the ship and all the different
terminologies and talking about the steelrings on the barrels being liquid, not the
(07:43):
other stuff.
We forget a lot of this because we were onland through the whole third book.
So.
There's a lot of good refresherinformation about ships and that kind of
thing.
Starting this book, Karna does tease Volkeabout meeting the blacksmith of the ship
and Karna really does want Volke to stay.
And you get the feeling that it's like,stay long -term with her, not just on the
(08:09):
ship.
So Volke's still working his littleromances on the side.
I mean, there was one option taken off theplate and then the second one's kind of at
a pause.
So.
And honestly, he's got the plague, so itfeels like this one should be on a pause
as well.
Got to play your cards here when you can,okay?
And that brings us into chapter three,which is the airship crew.
(08:30):
They are staying essentially in a storageroom.
There are still supplies being stored intheir bedroom.
They just have a few hammocks that werethrown up in there as well.
Fain immediately being used to the boatlife, hops on the hammock instantly at
home.
Adelgis comes in, ends up putting Volke -
sleep and Volke has these dreams of beingon the island of Ruma.
(08:54):
Gravekeeper Williams there essentiallygiving him a pep talk for how to handle
the plague.
Volke mentions that Gravekeeper William issix inches taller than Volke.
We know Volke is about six feet tall.
Volke is considered tall to begin with.
And then we see Gravekeeper William at sixfoot six.
So this guy must be an absolute giant incomparison to everybody else.
(09:17):
I imagine Gravekeeper Williams probablythe first one picked for the basketball
team.
I imagine when he was a naval officer, heprobably had a hard time getting around
the ship because that's all he was.
Yeah, it's not built for people that a lotof bending over for most of the people
that Volke has seen their role has meantfor them to die with the plague.
(09:39):
So when we think of people protecting thethrone room, you know, they are going to
stay at their post and live and die bythat, regardless of plague.
Volke's in a unique situation where he.
He actually could survive the plague.
He's not infecting anyone right now.
They're on their way for a cure, so.
The big thing that he struggles with is,you know, am I being selfish looking for a
(10:00):
cure?
Grave Keeper William gives him the pointof, you know, what if you find it?
What if you survive?
You've done so much already and there's somuch good that could actually come of
this.
So that conversation is really helpful forVolke.
It gives him a lot of the kind of back andforth that I think he needed with the
arcane plague that he wasn't really ableto open up with anyone else about.
(10:23):
When he does wake up though, there is avery sneaky person holding a knife to his
throat.
So Luthair is luckily out getting food,which is fun for something that doesn't
need to eat.
Adelgis actually arranged for this tohappen.
So he heard the thoughts of the womenstocking the cabin, essentially arranged
(10:44):
for this threatening to happen so that shecould get her words out to Volke and
essentially tell him, you know, if.
Anyone on the airship crew gets hurt.
If anything sketchy happens, she's comingstraight for him.
So Adelgis being the real good friendthere and helping him out.
They do make their way up to the deck.
(11:04):
They get to see kind of the world from theairship, which has to be just an amazing
view.
And a young child appears.
This child is Biyu and she also does havean eye patch similar to Illia And as they
go through their conversation, she.
essentially taking notes, keeping recordsfor the ship.
And thing that comes up is that she knowsVolke's real last name.
(11:27):
So even when he tells her Volke's Savanshe goes, that's not your name.
So she is obviously more familiar withVolke than she probably should be.
The final piece of.
Fun information that we get in this isjust from listening to thoughts.
Adelgis has pretty much figured out thatit is a ragtag bunch for a crew.
Everyone who comes from a questionablebackground has gone through some sort of
(11:51):
hardships and struggling to get back from,but the airship is pretty much giving them
a chance at a better life.
Coming into chapter four, plan of action.
Volke requests something new and not fromhis memories for sleep.
I imagine he's probably like, we're notgoing to gamble anymore and just give me
something different.
Okay.
Don't want it.
(12:11):
I don't want to be familiar with it.
Just give me something different.
Volke does try to have some of the breadand the jerky that he got from Biyu that
Biyu refused to let anybody else hand toVolke.
And he says that it tastes of sawdust.
And I know Fain kind of like noms noms onit pretty, pretty quickly.
And so does Wraith, but I imagine it'sjust their use of the ship life and the
(12:32):
ship food.
So.
Not living the best life.
It's not first class flying, that's forsure.
Nope.
No Michelin stars in this galley.
No.
So Adelgis does mention that most of thecrew is made up of women and Fain does
kind of infer that that's why they're setnext to the captain, because they are men
and they want to be kept as far away fromthe women as possible.
(12:54):
And then he's like, meh, probably it'sbecause we're a renegade pirate, a plague
infected person.
And then there's Adelgis.
who will automatically read the thoughtsand probably say something very awkward in
every conversation he's in.
So.
Right.
Not to mention talking about wonder whathappens if the whole crew of the airship
(13:15):
dies of asphyxiation.
Yeah, but we get a new mythical creature?
But he doesn't elaborate on that part ofit.
So it just sounds like he just wants tokill everybody by stealing all the air out
of their lungs.
Adelgis does start to pull out a map andtake a look at essentially Vardin and
(13:37):
Adelgis suspects that Theasin is travelingto New Norra in the far south.
And he does mention that there is a timecrunch because Theasin generally doesn't
stay there long.
So if they do want to catch up to them,they really got to go quick or they're
going to lose the trail fairly quick.
Yeah, imagine it's probably their onlychance to find them.
(13:57):
If there's no clues there, then theyprobably have no idea where to go after.
Adelgis gets a nickname and I honestlylove this nickname.
He is now called Moonbeam and this comesfrom the reflection coming off of his
glasses.
At least this is what I'm inferring fromeverything else.
And he gets a really cool nickname.
So Fain calls himself Fain when he was apirate on the third abyss.
(14:21):
So that's his nickname.
But what would Volke's nickname be?
I just feel like it's got to be somethinglike shadow related.
So my first thought is he like going to belike the eclipse or, you know, something
cool like that.
The eclipse aura.
It felt like it'd be a threatening name tobe known by.
Sadly, my mind went to Shadow Daddy.
Probably what he'd be more likely to endup with.
(14:44):
I mean, I imagine Karna wouldn't wouldn'tmind calling him that.
No, Eclipse is pretty BA though.
So we'll call Eclipse on the DL.
Put a little pull out there.
Let's see what the preferred name is.
Yes.
Volke should keep his plague on the downlow, at least for the time being since he
(15:08):
could be hunted by the Huntsman Guild,which we know aren't necessarily fans of
him.
And Adelgis explains that Ninora isessentially like Port Crown, but with less
pirates.
It is a free place, I guess, free city.
So...
Doesn't matter who you are, what you are,everybody's welcome, that kind of thing.
(15:29):
You can buy whatever and trade whatever,sell whatever.
So any kind of mystical creatures ormystical creature parts that would be
considered illegal or something like that.
Like, I don't know, sovereign dragonheart.
I imagine somebody would, I wouldn't seewhy they wouldn't.
So they've got enough star shards and it'senough money.
Why not?
(15:50):
So Adelgis also kind of drops anotherbombshell on Volke about.
who the blacksmith really is.
And at the very end of this chapter, wefind out that the blacksmith is none other
than Volke's biological father.
The big reveal.
And that takes us into chapter five, whereVolke is going to go talk to his father.
(16:11):
And just as kind of a reminder, Volke'sfather was a convicted murderer, exiled
from the island and has never really beenin contact with Volke prior to this.
So.
Volke is extremely nervous about how toapproach this.
On one hand, you have your actual fatherand grave keeper William, who's, you know,
(16:31):
taking care of you throughout your life.
But then this is your biological father.
This would probably be an extremelydifficult challenge to process because
like you said, on one hand, you have yourbio dad that you haven't seen in 17, 12
years, Holy Grail Math.
And I mean, Volke's pretty.
neutral about the situation in general.
(16:55):
He's nervous, but he's not sure.
Doesn't hate the guy.
Doesn't like the guy.
Doesn't doesn't really have any opinion.
So so Volke is on his way to his father'scabin.
But before he can actually.
Not and have a conversation, the shipshutters.
Volke ends up reaching for his sword.
(17:15):
He can tell there's a battle approaching.
Realizes that his sword was broken.
So he doesn't really have a weapon at thispoint He had given the shield to the frith
guild so that they could use the compassfor it So no sword no shield when he gets
up to the deck He realizes that they'rebeing attacked by grifter crows who have
been deformed with the plague I thoughtthis was strange just because crows are
(17:37):
carrying birds to some extent they prettymuch eat whatever but apparently they
don't eat men, so they are able to beinfected by the plague and
They seem to be able to tell who alreadyhas the plague.
They're almost specifically targetingLuthair and, you know, they can tell he's
not infected and so are trying to spreadthe love a little bit.
(17:59):
So they just love their they want to.
Volke and Luthair, they can merge, but theissue is, you know, if they are merged and
their Volke were to bleed at all, he wouldpretty much instantly infect Luthair.
So Volke does not want to.
merge with Luthair but they can stillprotect the crew.
Fain and Wraith also also come up to help.
(18:21):
Again they're immune to the plague so Fainis able to freeze the deck essentially
prevent any blood that had spilled fromthe birds from seeping into the deck from
dripping below deck.
And in addition to that there's a fewothers that that come up to help so
Delvin, Karna and then there's anotherlady and a man that come up as well.
(18:43):
And they do get the big backup of Meso Soso the roc coming in and blasting away at
the crows with gusts of wind blowing themback and really providing some much needed
support.
The final boss to this level is a wyverwho ends up falling on the deck again,
very infected by the plague.
(19:03):
So a lot of crazy laughing, the usual sideeffects.
And this is a side note of something fromrealizing.
Delvin is very nervous in this, but rocsare immune to the plague.
So Delvin should be immune to the plague.
But in this book specifically, he's verynervous about catching it, which I thought
(19:26):
was like really strange because in laterones, he almost seems to know that he's
immune.
So just something I found, I was like, asI was reading back, I was like, I'm pretty
sure they were immune in like the laterbooks.
Yeah, they're considered maniators.
I mean.
Maybe he doesn't know that he's immunebecause he's a man eater.
(19:46):
That's possible as well.
He just doesn't doesn't realize it.
But something I found interesting in thesecond time through.
So both the women and Delvin go to thesituation to try and help.
And then the one woman pulls out thezigzag dagger that happens to look awfully
familiar.
(20:07):
But for real though, I want a zigzagdagger that can shoot lightning because
that would be cool AF.
Okay.
It sounds straight out of like every magicRPG game.
Right?
Like Zeus himself almost.
Yes.
And the other weapons that come out arepretty cool as well.
So the man ends up throwing Volke a firesword.
(20:31):
Also, I'll take that one.
Shoot.
I forgot about that.
So he but Volke is able to take it intothe void.
So that's pretty cool.
Is it still on fire though when it's inthe void?
How does the void work?
Does the void he can't breathe in thevoid.
So the void might not have oxygen, whichcould prevent the sword from being on fire
(20:51):
in the void.
But it's magic.
It doesn't need oxygen.
That's true as well.
So if Shami, these are the questions wewant to answer.
Karna also comes sliding in and shedoesn't have a weapon, but she is able to
touch the Arcanist and instantly takecontrol of him, essentially sending him to
(21:17):
his death over the edge of the ship.
Don't make her mad again.
Yeah, she has to touch you and you are youare in for it.
I wonder who could act faster, Adelgis orKarna?
Could he put her to sleep faster than shecould take control?
Another great question.
Got to start making polls left and righthere about things here.
(21:41):
Who's fastest?
Another thing we want to note is theWyvern before it was killed was wanting
Volke to help infect other people with theplague.
Cause again, you said it with the, thegrifter crows they kind of seem like they
knew Volke already had the plague andpurposely avoided him because they know
(22:02):
that.
He was already infected and they werewasting their time and otherwise.
Yeah, it's it's very interesting.
So it seems like there's some sort ofadded bonus with the plague that you can
tell when others are infected as well atsome point.
So very interesting.
I don't know if I want that as a bonus.
I don't either.
It's not a good bonus.
It doesn't sound like a good one.
(22:23):
It's a very low trade roll.
But this is where chapter five does endfor this week.
We don't really have any new.
Bestiaries are in new mystical creaturesat the time of the recording.
We're in basically the last week of Mayand talking with Shami her bestiary is in
(22:45):
printing at the moment.
So it will be coming out and is probablygoing to be out around the time this
episode airs.
However, she has asked that we refrainfrom adding any additional information
that's in the bestiary.
until it is officially out into the handsof those that paid for with the
(23:06):
Kickstarter.
So respecting her wishes, we will keepsome information in our back pocket until
it is available to everybody else.
But I rest assured we will be getting thatinformation out once we are available to.
So we'll be going kind of going backthrough each section of chapters that
doesn't have a new mystical creature.
(23:28):
We will be updating some information alongthe way as, or after the bestiary is
released and everybody has it available toread.
And yes, we do want to name drop thatShammi is a friend of the pod.
So we do want to thank everybody forlistening today.
we do want to remind everybody that wehave a new, new episode every Wednesday
morning around 11 Eastern, 10 Central,eight Pacific and whatever Mountain Time
(23:53):
does.
We are on all podcasting platforms and.
We are also on the YouTube as well forvideo.
So if you would like to see Scott and Italking rather than just listening, if you
want to reach out to us, you can get us atgmail at frithgildpod at gmail .com or on
Facebook or other social media platforms,pretty much anything that any social media
(24:17):
type at frithgildpodcast and you will findus.
We do want to thank frith Chronicles Wikias it is a great resource and
that there is a link to everything down inthe description below for both podcasts
and YouTube.
So we will be doing an interview in themiddle of this book to break it up a
little bit.
So that way we also have a break, a littlebit of a break in it as well.
(24:41):
So Scott, do you have anything else you'dlike to add today?
No, excited for this newest adventure.
So excited.
Side questing.
Side questing.
Yes.
All right.
Thanks everybody.
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