Worlds Beyond Number: WWW #008 Recap and Review

Author's Note: This article contains spoilers for Worlds Beyond Number's WWW campaign episode 8.

Welcome to another WBN recap and review. I hope you're enjoying these as much as I love writing them.

WWW episode 8 shows us how our heroes can clean up a mess swiftly just as they dive into another one.

Let's get into it!

The Showdown with Guild Mage Pain

The conflict with Guild Mage Pain was resolved very creatively. Publicly, it was a game of Croquet that almost killed Pain, burned his office, and hurt Eursolon. And Morrow is so focused on his stuff that he doesn't care.

Ame and Eursolon say they must "stop doing this" after letting Pain run with a head start. Suvi seals the task by talking to Morrow and explaining that she knew Pain was embezzling money from the empire. An act punishable by death anyway.

This is the second time they seal someone's faith and help them by letting them know. The first one was the Hedge mage who took Wave Breaker from Eursolon.

Once that issue is resolved, Morrow reminds the group that they have two hours before their journey to the Derrick so they can check out the armory during that time.

Gearing Up at The Armory

In the armory, we get some fun bits as Eursolon tries to open anything and everything in the room, with Suvi showing Mom vibes. "Try this on, sweetie" was such a vibe change for Suvi, and I laughed so hard!

The armory shows us some interesting bits. Suvi took nothing afraid someone would say a "citadel wizard was ill-equipped," which sounds like a fair argument in a world of politics and secrets.

On the other hand, we have Ame and Eursolon, who took various equipment things alongside rings with permanent magical powers. Ame buffing her strength score to 19 to look like a ripped witch is such a cool moment. Why do witches need to look all fragile? They can be weight lifters, too! And Ame is packing a lot of things in her bags.

After resting up, our heroes meet back up and travel to the Derrick in a carriage.

Citadel Ties On The Way to The Harbor

In the dead of night, Suvi notices another carriage and, using her observant feat reads the lips of a soldier talking to Wizard Galani using her observant feat. This woman was mentioned in the Ace of Wands - the luxury gaming house.

Finally, the Citadel is catching up to Suvi. She tells her friends that the Citadel is now involved with these guild mages. And when asked who they should trust, she answers no one.

"Wizards are defined by their secrets" is a powerful sentence.

I have been saying that Suvi needed to update Steel on what's been going on with her since Grandmother Ren died. It's now been weeks. Suvi has found all sorts of distractions from doing her duty to the Citadel and also to the one person who is as close to her as a mother.

After that fun little chat in the carriage, we arrive at the harbor and meet Morrow, who takes us to the Derrick out at sea.

Meeting Up at The Derrick

The Derrick is an ominous structure that hides a secret down at the ocean. As Morrow uses his magic to take our heroes to a vantage point where they can look down, he briefly explains the structure.

Ame is sensing that something is wrong. What could it be? The wind doesn't feel right, and the vibe of this whole operation is not positive.

It's way worse than I thought it would be. At first, when the Derrick was introduced, I believed it was creating some kind of weapon of mass destruction. Granted, my Hebrew-speaking brain did not know what Derrick meant. I thought it was a name given to this structure. However, after learning that it is a word that represents a tower over an oil structure, I realized it could have a different purpose. It was still not clear to me. If this was an oil-gathering structure, are we now dealing with environmental or industrial issues? Do our heroes need to be involved in this?

As Morrow activates his magic to reveal the ocean floor, we are greeted with what is described as a giant Lionfish.

This Lionfish seems trapped by the light of the Derrick keeping it down, and also four corners keeping it caged.

This creature is leaking some liquid that transforms into coral that machines are harvesting down there. We've seen something similar, but we'll talk about that in my predictions. There's no better way to end this episode with Suvi's "What did you do?"

Predictions For The Next Episode

I predict that the massive Lionfish creature at the bottom of the ocean is a spirit, not an animal. We've seen something similar to the coral blooming happen in the very first episode when Eursolon was being chased, and his blood touching the earth meant that flowers would bloom there.

Obviously, the group is not obligated to interfere with what Morrow is doing. But is it right to just go away from such an injustice to an honored friend?

I believe some kind of insight check from Eursolon or Ame would reveal the identity of the spirit, or at least it is a spirit, and Eursolon wouldn't be okay with just leaving to get Wave Breaker. That would obviously result in a fight, but I could be totally wrong.

Suvi seemed pissed at the end of the episode. She could be seeing this as an atrocity. However, I believe the Citadel would have done much worse to advance in knowledge and power, and Suvi is not naive to believe otherwise.

What did you think would happen? Comment below!

Read the next episode's recap and review right here.