Live at the Table: Fall of Magic Pt. 2

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This episode was originally released as a Patreon Exclusive Live at the Table but was re-released on to the main feed in September of 2018.

Episode description[edit | edit source]

Hey everyone! Here's the second part of Fall of Magic!

We open again the scroll, return to the side of the Magus, and watch as the world enters the Fall of Magic. Join Piccolo the swineherd of Barley Town (Dre), Harp the beautiful Golem of Ravenhall (Jack), Fawn the Vinegar Fox of Mistwood (Janine), and Caspian the Kind Crabsinger of Istalia (Austin) as they journey eastward as companions to the Magus.)

Plot[edit | edit source]

Piccolo explores the freight car of the train and trips over an anchor being delivered to Istallia for magical purposes. Harp goes to check on him, and after a conversation Piccolo leaves some chalk in the freight room as his own 'goods' for the trip. The train collides with what appears to be a huge snowdrift but is actually a train station in a cavern of ice. A group of grumpy ice trolls boards. Fawn watches the snowy landscape outside as the train moves on. In the evening, Caspian tries to sneak off the train with his glider, but is caught by Piccolo. Caspian explains that crab singers can't return to Istallia without giving up their kites; he is going to do it, because he cares about this journey, but wants to fly the rest of the way to the city. Piccolo tries to get Caspian to let him come too, but Caspian gently refuses and slips into the night.

Upon arriving in Istallia, the Magus (who had disappeared from the train) meets with the ruler of Istallia, the Gilded One, a huge golem made of magical anchors. The Gilded One remembers the last time that magic started going away, and reminds the Magus of the cost she may pay to maintain the world.

Harp is stopped in the city by a student who needs a golem to help deal with a (real) star that has fallen from its place embedded in the ceiling of Starfall Academy. The star is very heavy, and Harp is the only one strong enough to return it to the ceiling. Despite / because of the help of several upset students, Harp climbs a table and bookshelf and returns the star to its place in the ceiling. It fell partly because the magic keeping it in place is weakening.

Fawn goes shopping in the Gilded District and spots some gorgeous shirts. Since she's a bush dog, she asks Piccolo to pretend to want to wear them. Piccolo quickly gets over his head as the shopkeeper insists on tailoring the shirt and watching the vinegar fox while he changes. Fawn slips past into the changing room anyway and Piccolo helps her into the shirt; they both think she looks great but it's much too big for her to actually wear and buy.

Caspian visits the Marketplace of Magic at the edge of the city. He brings his glider to the tent of the crab singers. Caspian starts to age in appearance from his early twenties to his late thirties, and his beard fully grows in. He is no longer a crab singer. Piccolo goes to the shore and sees the sea for the time. He stands in the surf and tries to turn what Caspian told him earlier into a song. While checking out of an inn, Caspian walks by the place where his orphanage once was. Fawn exits a cobbler with a coin pouch fastened to the clasp of her cloak. Piccolo stayed at an inn near the docks.

The Sea Wing[edit | edit source]

They meet back up with the Magus, who introduces them to the ship called the Sea Wing, which used to be a bird before transforming into a ship, and is captained by the pirate Grandmother Black. Caspian, Piccolo and Fawn are concerned about whether she's a good or bad pirate; the Magus insists this is their only way to make the crossing. Fawn judges Grandmother Black's hat and is neither impressed nor unimpressed.

Fawn tries to sleep below decks in an unhung hammock, but the sound of the gulls agitates her and she ends up running back and forth barking at them. Caspian, Piccolo and Fawn investigate the spices onboard, meant to enliven meals made mostly of seaweed. Flavors include paprika, salt, cylinder, coriander, celery seed, peppermint, "It's a volcano", and musk. Piccolo accidentally puts a lot of "It's a volcano" on his seaweed salad; he claims it's made of volcanic ash when Caspian tries to stop him from eating it, but reveals to Fawn it really is spicy.

Piccolo throws himself into work on the ship and speaks to Grandmother Black. She asks him if he's seen her first mate, who drowned years ago, and who she's been trying to haul back up so he can get back to work. After instructing him on how to take the helm and watch the horizon, she agrees to make Piccolo part of the crew. Excited, Piccolo shows the hat off to Harp. Harp climbs the crow's nest and encounters the watchperson, Carol Ann, sleeping. The subject turns to a great fish lord nearby, the captain's wife Grandfather Gray. Carol Ann returns to sleep after Harp offers to keep watch instead.

The ship stops at their first island, the Mirror. A golem is working a garden, who resembles Harp but is carrying a rake and a spade. Harp is disturbed by them and questions why they were built to carrying a rake and a sword. The small village is setting up for the Festival of Lights, which is supposed to involve all those who left the village returning for the occasion. Piccolo and Caspian speak to the Mayor, one of maybe two people hanging lanterns; they recommend the local meat fudge and offer their memories of the festival.

While aboard the Sea Wing, Piccolo encounters Grandfather Gray, a kraken the size of an island with buildings on his back. He compliments Piccolo's work and tells him about how the drowned first mate now captains a ship in his underwater fleet. Piccolo agrees to pass on the message that Grandfather Gray loves the captain with all his heart and carefully writes it on the deck in chalk before the kraken descends.

As the festival begins, seafolk in the water gather and the people of the town walk to the underside of the island. Harp goes with them. Later, the seafolk will emerge and celebrate on the surface in their twin town. Fawn leaves the gathering for a tower on the far side of the island and meets a melted candle person. They've been here a long time, and like just watching the people down below. Fawn sits with them in the quiet.

Mid-festival, Grandmother Black catches the trace of smoke and calls everyone back to the ship. They head for Sleeping Cinder Cone, where the waters are so hot they steam, and the Magus is carried by smoke up to the top of a smoking volcano. Piccolo takes a rowboat out to a small waterfall and writes a letter home explaining how much he loves the sea; he is no longer a swineherd of Barley Town but the first mate of the Sea Wing.

Harp sits in the hot springs alongside a grumpy pipe-smoking ice troll from the train. They explain that they are on a journey likely to lead to a bad end. After disagreeing about whether hot or cold are better, the conversation ends in silence with neither willing to get up from the water first.

Fawn visits an obsidian statue depicting a bird perched on a hand, a second hand (one of its fingers tied with string) gently pointing to the bird; it is a "Statue of Fawn". As she heads for it, Caspian follows her and asks what kind of statue it is and what she knows about it, but she refuses to answer. He remembers a reference of some kind to it in a song, but doesn't push the question. He leaves for a crater on the island and Fawn follows a few minutes later. Caspian helps the people living there pull up buckets from their wells, seemingly unaware that each bucket is full of smoke.

The Sea Wing arrives at the next island, and as the group comes over the hill of the island, they see a painter absolutely covered in paint. The Painter is painting an image of the Magus, and with the picture comes the feeling of magic returning.

Cast[edit | edit source]