Episode 8 – The Grass is Greener at the Zoo

Now the round, friends, let me tell you a tale of three heroes noble and bold A brute, a druid, and a thief who is but nine years old You know them by name, you know them by deed Their quests are famously daring So here I sit, singing to you an adventure that is worth sharing Tuck is the brute, he knows not his home, he loves to sing and fight Figures have health, he shifts his shape, and wields his spear with great might Bill is a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart Best and brightest they may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts So gather round, friends, and listen close For the tale's about to start Hello, everybody, and welcome to Spout Lore!

I'm your Game Master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the Barbarian, Abdul Aziz. Hello, everybody! Playing Ving, the Half-Elf Druid, Paul Oppers. Hello! And playing Fat Billy, the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tye. Hello! When last we left our heroes, they had convened the Oval Council and immediately been captured and tied to a tree. We convened the shit out of it. Absolutely. Being bound to the Knowledge Tree in the center of Council Rock.

And Tuck being bound towards the tree, face to tree. Yeah. Big spooning the tree. Yeah, big spooning. Cock to the wood. Yeah, just the way it's always been. A few things took place. The party attempted to entreat the Council to aid them in their fight against Thronebreaker and his Thunderbird flock. Before it was revealed that Aldous of the Empty Sky and Hadara Maneater, members of the Oval Council, had betrayed the people of Hibernia.

Attempting to dispatch of several members of the Council as quickly as possible. Valari, the Willow's Daughter, almost tossed off a cliff before being saved by Billy in his winter form. Noreen of the Quiet Step, almost killed by Hadara Maneater before being saved by a combination of Stone Eye and Tuck. But not before Tuck whipped Larry, Terry, and Shad right off a cliff. Vysara of the Greenspeakers escaped, as did Noreen.

Aldous, his plans foiled, took off into the skies, heading for, the party thought, the well at the center of Hibernia, containing the piece of Lillian's moon. As the storm approached. A lot was going on. There was a lot happening all at once. It was pretty cool. It was quite a scene. Meers took Valari to a safe place, most likely Hither and Yon, as the rest of the party continued on towards the well, minus Ving, who dove over the edge of the cliff in order to recollect Larry, Terry, and Shad.

Sinking to the bottom- Abdullah's absolutely covered himself in NRC powder in the middle of my recap. You smell delicious. I got another one. It's really nice and citrusy. Ooh! You- you- you- It looks like you tried to eat Fun Dip. I want one. On a bike ride, you know what I mean? That would ward off the Haunted Virus. The Haunted Virus. Sorry. He's doing my recap, guys. I am sorry.

No, no, no, no, it's- It was just funny, because I could hear- And then he got covered in powder and was trying to wipe it off surreptitiously. Okay, where was I? Sorry. Axe off the cliff. Ving captured the axe. While Ving dove off into the water, grabbed Larry, Terry, and Shad, was dragged down to the bottom of the ocean, where he received a vision that the cracks we have seen forming in the base of the pillars in the Sea of Graves are now forming in Lillian's tomb. And she stirs. That's sick.

Back on the island, Tuck and Billy ran through the- the forest, following Stone Eye towards the well at the center, Billy, sensing danger at the well, called upon the fairies to create a fairy ring, a fairy fort surrounding the well, in order to maintain that protection. Meanwhile, Ving was coming up onto the beach in order to reconnect with the party.

As the storm got stronger and stronger, lightning lashing down, rain sheeting, winds galing, tops of trees being torn off and blown away in the winds. And as Ving ran up the beach, he saw his mother's cabin, her old hut from her days, as Illyana, a member of Hibernia's druid community, and saw, out on the waves, a woman walking atop the water. Wow.

The party arrived at the well, as Billy, in his shadow dance form, saw Aldous and Hedara attacking the animal spirits overlaid on top of them, attempting to rend Billy's fairy fort and get at the moonpiece inside the well. Sick. Billy attacked Aldous, defending the well, and causing a number of shadowy, void-colored wounds in his spiritual form, revealing beneath the outer dark.

Tuck called upon the powers of Blackspire and performed the chest beam attack that he has been attempting for easily two calendar years, which will be on every page of next year's calendar. He dealt a devastating amount of damage to himself. Third-degree burns. Right inside of my body. Inside your body. Smelled like a TGI Friday's. Yeah, absolutely just cooking himself like a pizza pocket. A 7-Eleven hot dog. Yeah.

But also, obliterating Hedara Maneater, who he had dealt serious damage to on Council Rock before they escaped. Yeah, cracked her jaw open. Yeah, and the final blow, brrrrk, just deleted a huge chunk of her body, killing a member of the Oval Council. Sick. Black smoke pouring out of Hedara in their spiritual form, being sucked into the wounds in Aldous's spiritual body and back to the outer dark. Back to the outer dark. What's going on over there? What's going on with these folks, you know?

Back on the waves. Ving. You said that like you were, like, an uncle. What's going on over there, you know? What's going on with these folks? That wasn't for us. That was for the listeners. You know, you can take any of these empties back and they'll give you five cents. Yeah. But not my empties. No, these ones are mine. I actually need these for gas. My best friend is black, but I have a problem with immigrants. Real uncle energy.

The courts will not accept bags of Miller Lite empties as an alimony payment, which I think is… I'm going to say racist. I don't know what I mean by that, though. Classic racism. Yeah, classic racism, a.k.a. classism. That's what that means. Meanwhile, Ving, out in the waves, has decided not to follow up with the party, but to go see who this mysterious woman on the waves was.

Very dramatically wading out into the water as she stood above him, lightning flashed and he saw the visage of his mother, Adernach Allwater, and empty, cold eyes. He attempted to reconnect with her, saying his name, saying his father's name, saying her name. Her Druidic name. Her Druidic name. Her struggling against these recollections until she placed a hand on Ving's face and began drawing the life force out of his body.

Instead of resisting, Ving gave in and offered more of his life force, eventually creating enough of a recollection that she finally made eye contact with Ving and said, my boy, you've done it. Mm-hmm. And then he said, I said, and I quote, Go on. No, don't. You love me. Bringing the recollection full circle. Nope. God damn it. Don't, stop. Stop. Stop, don't. Don't, you love me. Stop. Don't. I love you. God damn it. You guys heard the episode. You know what he said. Damn it. It was so cool.

Yeah. But the recollection was completed. And just know that there's an hour of editing around that 0.7 seconds in that episode. There are a handful of moments in the series that like easily, I think like an hour and a half of attempts boiled down into maybe 30 seconds. Maybe. God. Maybe. 30 seconds is a long time. I'd be surprised. We're trying to improvise a story here. It's tough.

The end of season six, the thing with like the thing turning into the lightning bird and then you directing it, it took 90 minutes to get the order. No. Don't tell them that. I remember it as cool as the episode. Smooth. Just like it did. It was so sick. It was still good. Yeah, yeah. It all worked out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was, yeah. It's never an issue at the end. I always enjoy it all the way through. It's part of the process. 100%. I'll enjoy every part of the process.

I will never complain about it. It's just really funny. It is funny. That's why I bring up how long it takes. And that is where we find our heroes now. Let's go back to the well, I think. Hidara Maneater still smoking, giant wolf body, the last fragments of life kicking out. And the smoke is only seeable by Billy, right? Yes. In the bay? Yes. Which is where we are. Before you, a massive eagle spirit, wings spread wide, shrieking, pecking, talons lashing.

Billy is a blustering flurry of icy wind and snowflakes right now? Yeah. All right, what do you do? I would like to Maybe parlay with them To go back to the spirit realm. I want to tell them it's not safe here and to abandon their master So, what are you offering in parlay? Oh, right, I have to offer Because all this is like flapping and pecking and doing doing villain stuff. That's like step aside We will take the piece of the moon for the gibbous, man Is this eagle that he's attached to?

How dare you speak to me like that on my lands. Be gone young lad. No, you be gone I will vanquish you. I will cast you away. Haha. I'd like to see you try Down Okay, you're gonna you're gonna use your I'm going to widen that hole to outer dark, okay So you're using one of your defend hold that you have. Yes to deal damage equal to your equal to my Oat my level.

Yes so you see like the tears it to the outer dark are almost like Bigger than the part of the spiritual body that it's on like the tear starts before and then moves through That's what Billy's using to slash at yeah, it's my flurries So like the ice I guess and eagle is reeling back like oh And you can see sort of the double image of the Eagle spirit with these Void wounds all over its body and all this in his like physical eagle form trying to get back up And you can see that.

Yeah all this sees the shape of things as well, and they're both considering whether they flee and try again Yeah, Billy's getting almost like angry like he's just like I'm doing this for you And so he like lunges over all this and like pins him to the ground It's just like this enormous flurry of ice envelops Cool your pride is your weakness right now You're not seeing things right if you were to succeed the spirit realm would collapse upon itself and you would be gone So 2d 6 plus charisma, and you're just telling eagle to go back, okay?

So I don't have charisma right now, so that's it eight, okay? Oh, I imagine like as he jumps over He's like like rises up this wave of icicles and as he pins them just like ting ting ting ting ting Exactly an eagle like looks it looks up at you with hate in its eyes. I Remember you you travel with that cur the spirit Walker.

I do I Renounced him years ago As I renounce you now fairy be gone from my world, I will be gone I Will leave this place that I will take wolf with me, and I will take of your material world as well The days of the spirit world are coming to an end as the spheres collide I will return and wreak my vengeance upon all of you. We'll see about that And he Eagle lifts its mighty wings and boof out of your grip.

Yeah up into the air and Tuck as you're like pulling yourself up out of hurling all over the ground and dealing with your third-degree burns Yes, Victoria goes oh What is that and the absolutely like basically?

Mortally wounded nearly unconscious all this is eagle form is dragged up into the air well, and you see like kind of being pulled back and forth under this flurry of wind and then just disappears into the sky like literally pulled into a Part of the sky and is gone from the material plague all this is body Oh, this is physical body has been sucked into the spirit is dragged like you can feel the rent You feel almost Billy you see this happen as well in a spiritual sense You see the voided wounds in his body kind of shift and change and you see spiritual energy interacting with the the wounds from the outer dark and All this is physically taken from the material plague pulled through the holes in reality there be a Fragment that doesn't make it through as yeah all this is pulled through out of the material plane Into the grasslands a black obsidian coin we and as he got pulled through reality we heard all of his bones break And There is the the fairy fort is still falling it's starting to like crumble and melt as the fairies have fled from this place, but Hadara's wolf body is Still in the grass and all that's left is is the wind and the rain and the thunder in the distance And we'll cut back to the beach She's standing above me on the waves Yeah, I think is the recognition forms in her eyes She starts to sink through the water slowly down to my level and we're standing mm-hmm in the water Take me to the take me to the hut I pick her up and I walk out of the onto the shore Where are you coming from?

I don't I don't know what do you know my contingency must have worked after I was killed I was reborn this was always part of what I thought would happen and You reach the hut this like simple hut of Natural construction and open it to a temporary shelter from the wind and the rain the shutters are rattling under the gale force winds and this very simple one-room hut that you spent a small amount of time in and she goes to the Hearth where next to is a chair covered in in old dusty furs And she kind of flops into it thing Calls upon the wood in all the shutters and the door in the roof to grow very dense leaves He shelters it in he creates a huge Buffett er leaves and new growth and the storm Quitin's around them and the wind stops blowing through all the cracks in the hut you'll be safe here I have to go where are you going the gibbous man?

Has sent his agents here to steal a piece of the moon that lies at the bottom of the well you say The gibbous man and her eyes widen and she stands up and kind of like stumbles to the side But catches herself, so it's happening the spider has begun to weave his web I will come with you quickly, and she like really I'm I'm weak.

Please take me I grab her and fly like she's dangling behind me the storm is getting stronger and stronger the the wings that you felt flapping You can almost feel like a heartbeat in the in the storm now as the the absolute force From throne breakers wings tonight as we're running can I reach out to cloud pierce absolutely yeah, I want to discern realities Yeah, it's what cloud piercer is up to all right 2d6 plus wisdom 12 that's three questions off the list What ha what's about to happen?

What's about to happen you connect with cloud piercer, and you are seeing through his eyes Rolling dark gray clouds flashes of lightning and you can see cloud piercers fighting like a running battle basically that he's dive bombing Thunderbirds that are twisting and and fighting him off as the Forces that he is attacking are attempting to get away from his flock Throne breaker you see off in the distance colossal wings flapping Massive twisting clouds every beat of his wings is creating like a tornado basically Oh cool, and in the very near distance you see an island that you know to be hibernate hibernia And it's the kind of thing we're like you see this through cloud piercers eyes And then you turn with your real human eyes, and you see the same thing from the other direction Yeah, what is about to happen is throne breaker is about to attack, okay?

What should I be on the lookout for? you See through cloud piercers eyes in the woodlands of hibernia and like the places where people are gathering You see animals winged animals taking flight from the villages and attempting to join the battle Mmm, and you're seeing a you're seeing vultures owls all of a size and Vital potency that tells you that these are druids in their shapeshifted forms whoa Yeah, the druids of hibernia are attempting to defend the island That's sick. They're heading up.

They're like they're kettling into the sky. Yeah bird tornado What here's not what it appears to be um you come back to? Your own body and as you are continuing with Adernach your mother into the woods the the land heaves underneath you well a great rumbling and Though you weren't there for the conversation your mind is brought back to the enormous slumbering bear She stops me grabs my hand and says he stares. Oh, yeah Yeah, the bear the bit.

This is what I was trying to avoid the bear is waking. We have to be quick I run as Wise as I can Absolutely you do not I Use all my strength to get there as fast as I can okay strength makes sense 2d6 plus strength nice 12 12 11 11 That's better. Okay. And you take off into the woods. The trees, the trunks of the trees are like bending in the wind towards the center of the island. Whoa, like the earth is like, because the land is moving? I was going to say it was because of the wind.

But I do like the idea that the land is shifting underneath you. Underneath it's like the weight of the bear waking up is like making a huge pit. Circling the island in on itself. Like as you're running, there are some trees that are like falling directly down into sinkholes. Oh, cool. Back at the well. Yes. You've seen all this of the empty skies get yanked through reality. Gone. Smushed. Clink. You see a flurry that you know to be Billy blowing on the grass, the trees.

Billy, you're still in the ferry. I am, yeah. You're kind of the only ferry in the center of the island now. They have fled. They can feel the power coming up from the well and they are afraid of it. I want to use my anger to command the ferry's return. Okay. We have to protect this. Yeah. This is 2D6 plus charisma for sure. Okay. Nine. Nine? Holy shit. Can I help? How would you help? I am there and I come. I'm finished. Tuck passes out from the pain and goes to his pizza palace. Yeah.

Ding, ding. He puked up so much blood. Yeah. And then tried to push himself up but the exertion of pushing up made him pass out. Yeah. And then he arrived in the stall of the pizza hut. Bathroom? In his head. Also puking but he was puking up a bunch of macaroni salad. Yeah. So you're in a pizza hut bathroom hurling up a bunch of macaroni salad. Loyalty. And loyalty takes the form of lots of people. Yeah. So who is it this time? A janitor. A janitor. Just waiting for me to finish barfing.

Hey, are you done in there? Yes, I am. Can you please help me? Yeah, absolutely. And he opens the door and he's got like a dark mustache and a wrinkled face and a janitor's outfit. I'm a guy that used to run a shoe store in McCall. You might kind of remember me. Okay. Okay. How's it going? Okay. Yeah. Some kids were trying to break into my store and you asked them not to and you actually took a bit of a beating and I thought that was a really nice thing.

The day that I realized I should be a hero. Yeah, that's definitely what you think happened. And he's rubbing your back. He's rubbing your back. Get it all out, big guy. Okay. And then he, Tuck remembers back to it. It's that scene from Captain America where he's like, I could do this all day. Yeah, you often think in terms of fiction, don't you, little guy? You remember your life based on stories that brought you joy and comfort at the time. Okay. Tuck is like, Letty, I need your help.

Yeah, what can I do for you? I can feel my boy out there. My baby boy. Uh-huh. I can feel him. He's trying to do something. Can you help him for me? I just realized this whole scene is so you can roll an aid on this check. Jessica's the one that set it up. It's a good idea. I knew you would say that because Jessica's the one. No, it was going to happen no matter what. No one gets any special treatment on this show no matter how long they've been married to me.

But you guys got a lot to catch up on. Okay, I'll suck your dick after this. We've been basically all married equal. We've been married, yeah. To you. To me. Yeah. All right. I'll fuck you after this, okay? Whoa, hey, man. Hey, whoa, hey. No, fuck him. Whoa, hey, oh. All right, now you're speaking my language. Triangle. I've been wondering if this would work. It won't. Full triangle. It's not going to work. Do you guys understand what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We all lay down kind of like an overlapping triangle. It probably would work. I sussle won't. But it's called a right triangle, Paul. It's got to work right. Someone's going to have to bend real far. Yeah, that's true. Somebody's spraining something. Okay, yeah, let me go see what I can do. I'll go out back and see what we got. Please help me. 2D6 plus aid. What? What were you going to say? I was just going to say there's a huge snowstorm outside. Oh, yeah, you're snowed in.

Yeah, you can see the snow piling up on the glass doors. Oh, my God. The aid to my boy. So that's 4 plus 1 is 5 plus 1 is 6. So I failed. Yeah. Yeah. I'm stuck here. Oh, yeah. You get an experience. You get an experience for it. And as you're like, all right, great. Thanks a lot. I'm going to leave now. You see the snow is piled up high on the glass doors. Oh, I see loyalty. Try and leave. And he's like, well, we're fucked. We're stuck. No bad news. Tacoma Dome. Oh, my God. We're trapped.

My son is out there. He's out there with my ex-wife. And we cut back to the well, and Victoria just slaps Tuck full on in the face. Get up, you fool. Get up. And she's looking at Billy. You see her looking around as you are commanding the fairies with this partial success. What do you say to the fairies to command them back? Yeah, I guess Billy reaches out with his storm, pulling them back. And he just like so angrily is like, we had a deal. Oh, yeah, totally.

And you feel the energy of the fairies being pulled back to the well. And you see the first of the fairies start to straggle back. Little like blackberries and ferns. They're so small. The smallest and most frightened of them. And they kind of look at each other, and they kind of flinch away from the storm a little bit and begin to work on the fort that surrounds the well. Billy has a lot of regret.

Like under all the ice, he feels a huge heartbreak because he's never ordered the fairies around like this before. Yeah. With the partial success, you feel like there is something that is returning too eagerly. And it's not here yet. But then you arrive to a scene that is troubling. The fairy fort is like crumbled, but seems to be like the ice crystals are crackling back up into shape. Tuck is passed out on the ground. Victoria is smacking him in the face over and over. Tuck!

There's a big dead wolf, and Billy's nowhere to be seen. Well, his unconscious body is attached to Victoria. What's happening? Victoria? He's taking some sort of horrible burns, and then he fell over. And the boy is passed out. I don't know what to do. Everyone passed out around her. I'm a warrior, not a fucking nurse. I'm a doctor, Jim. I'm not a doctor. Wait, hold on. Let me see what I can do. So I want to run to their aid and see if I can wake them up.

Then you're going to tell me who that woman is. I don't have to tell you shit. Just do as I say. Okay. I need Tuck. I can't do this alone. Okay. How are you getting in there? So I would like to put on the ring. Yep. Go into the ring thing. Victoria sees me like, don't worry, we'll handle this. Put the ring on. The ring passes out. Face first on the ground. And then there's like a beat. Here, hold my mom. You give her an old woman. And then the ring passes.

And then there's a beat where Victoria and Ileana are just there. And then it's like… Just kind of nodding and looking at each other. I'm Ileana. So I want to arrive at the Pete's Palace and try and dig him out of the snow. 256 plus wisdom. Okay. Ooh, eight. Okay, seven to nine. So you arrive. You get off the bus outside the dominoes. It's a plow. Oh, there's a bus with a plow on it. I'm driving a plow. You're driving a snow plow. And you get outside into the parking lot of the Pizza Hut.

And you see the snow is piled high over the doors and windows. I start pushing one of those giant snow shovels back and forth. The big old buckets. Tuck, you hear a honk, honk. And I go, ugh. My other ex-wife. Someone's here. And I start slamming on the windows. And I go, somebody help me. Get me out of here. I go up to the window. Squeak, squeak, squeak. And through the little fogged out area of the window, you see Tuck's face. Wide-eyed. Terrified. I don't have my axe. I can't.

And I say, looking for this. And I hold up his axe. Oh. And I gesture for you to crack through the window. Two to six plus strength. Stand back. Where's loyalty? He's, hello. Seven. Smash. Crack, crack, crack, crack. Not quite through. The trees are constructing the thing. The ground, you see, is starting to heave underneath. Victoria and a woman that you're not familiar with stumble to the side as the ground starts to pitch. You can feel a power waking beneath you.

Here in the fairy, you can feel this enormous spiritual potency deep beneath the earth. And above, you see the clouds begin to swirl. This break in the trees above the well. There's like a whirlwind forming in the clouds above. Can I? This is like a big move. I don't even know if it's doable. I mean, Billy's in the spirit realm, so he can kind of move however he wants. Is there a way he can, like, leap? Like, ping, ping, ping, ping.

Up to the storm and try to, like, damage the stone on Thronebreaker? Yeah. travel that quickly and that far in this form, no problem. Because we've talked about how even like in the ferry, distance is not a concern. Yeah. That totally makes sense. Yeah. It'll just be very dangerous. Yeah. I let the storm pick me up. Yeah. Cool. And you are carried into the sky in this like tunnel of wind.

You're flurrying snowflakes and ice crystals whipping around you and you emerge into the stormy skies above Hibernia. Yeah. And I'm looking for Thronebreaker. And you don't have to look far. Beneath you stretches the islands, the chain of islands covered in pine trees and other furs. And above you, a sheet of roiling dark clouds laced through with lightning. And in front of you, the largest bird you've ever seen in your life, Thronebreaker, King of the Thunderbirds. World bird.

World bird, usurper of the skies, tyrant of the storm. And in the center of his head, a glinting black bezoar. Yeah. I aim all of my anger into the center of that stone. We're going to roll some Defy Danger for you to even get close. Probably dexterity to sort of dip and dodge through the skies. Do I have? Yes, I have dexterity. Oh, wait. No, I don't. You don't have dexterity? Oh. Not four. I'm going to use my last fairy child to turn that to a seven to nine. Okay.

So on a seven to nine, you are not obliterated. No. But as you see, Thronebreaker, it's kind of like, you know, when you look at the ground and you and then you're like, oh, there's an ant. And as you're looking at the ant, you realize there's like dozens of other ants. Oh, yeah. You're looking at Thronebreaker. And as you're sort of settling on him, you see the flocks of Thunderbirds around him.

And as you are like flying through the clouds, the war around him comes into focus and you are suddenly in the center of a melee. Birds are wheeling and screaming. Birds are getting struck by lightning and falling out of the sky. And you are not destroyed, but you're going to have to work a little bit harder to get closer to Thronebreaker as he continues toward the island. We will cut back to the Pizza Hut. Tuck.

You see Ving kind of baseball swing Larry and Terry and Chad into the window and cracks begin to form. But you see, like as the cracks are forming, ice is sheeting up and trying to seal them. Fuck. OK, I'm going to try and help. All right. Well, that doesn't count, but it was OK. All right. That's what I was going to ask is what it was. What are you doing to help? I go when it cracks, but the ice sheet like starts forming back over it. I go, get out of the way. Get out of the way.

And he's like, what? You're right to the window. Huh? He's trying to say something. Yeah. He kind of like goes to the back of the pizza hut into the end of the stall. He was puking again. He goes to the side of the stall. Yeah. He's like hands are gripped on either side like a slingshot. He's taking a huge shit. Like, yeah, loyalty is like, I guess clean should be clean. And he wants to like rocket himself out and push push push. All right. First through the window.

So, yeah, that's a two and a one now. Fuck. So what strength? So I got five. Oh, three. No, five or six. So I got a four or five. All right. Yeah. Roll. Go ahead and roll. Roll a d10. Shit. So you do yourself six mental damage. Thing you're like, huh? You put your ear to it and you feel a thump as you're thrown to the ground. Tuck has slammed into the side of the pizza hut, nearly knocking himself out cold. Oh, my God. In a mental state where he has already knocked himself out cold.

Tuck's basically given himself a double coma right now. The inception of concussion. Yeah. You're two levels deep in a concussion. But you pick yourself up. The wind's starting to get pretty bad. The snow's getting pretty high being on the outside of the pizza hut. What do you do? I got to get in there. I'm going to use elemental mastery in this palace to just just melt the ice. All right. Two to six plus con plus constitution. Enough is enough. I got ten. Okay.

So on a ten year only choosing or you're choosing two from the list. I will avoid paying nature's price and the effect I desire comes to pass. Okay. So you do not retain control. I do not retain control. It's a gas station. A lot of fire. I'm sorry about your palace. Oh, it's not a gas station. It's a pizza palace. Maybe there's a gas station next to it. It is. Yeah. Oh, it's a husky now. Not a pizza hut. Yeah. I've been saying it wrong the whole time. It shifts back and forth between the two.

It's a husky truck stop. It's a funnier to be a pizza hut, which is why it's usually we usually say it's a pizza. So it's a pizza truck stop. So then you start what? Summoning fire to try and melt the. Yeah. Yeah. Just so you're kind of just like do it like pulling in licks of flame from the spirit world into Tuck's brain and the ice and snow begin to melt and recede and and cower away. And we see the door is cleared.

The snow melts away and we see on the ground the camera sees a little a little line of flame going towards the gas station in the distance. And then I say, stand back. It's like, what? It's loosely walking to the front door, some giant flames and then just gets to the door. Yeah. Thrown back into a big pile of hash browns. The only thing cushioning your fall is these hash browns. But you are freed from the husky. OK, we got to go.

And as you're walking out into the parking lot of the husky, you see flames licking at the gas station next door. You got to go. What do you do? I get on the bus. As you're getting on the bus, you see slow motion. Is the gas station next door blows up? Eyes on me, pal. Eyes on me. Part of the huskies destroy in the real world. Tuck's just noses start. He's like, what? Yeah.

But on the ground of the well, you both wake up rain pouring into your eyes and mouth and Victoria and talk a woman that you're not familiar with standing above you. Rain sizzling on his chest still. Oh, yeah. Steam coming up from your burns. Billy, where's Billy? And you see this whirlwind and a winter gale inside it. Billy, back up in the skies. Yes. You're in the middle of this wheeling war. Yeah, I'm dodging the lightning strikes. OK. Two to six plus dexterity. Nine. Sick. Yeah. Nine. How?

I see him from a distance and I ask a cloud piercer. Oh, that's give him an aid to come and get on Billy. The form of Billy. Yeah. Two to six plus bond. Nine. Nine. So that makes it a ten. So with a seven to nine, you reach out to cloud piercer and say, what the boy? He is all that matters. Get him the gale. It must be him. The winter winds to the eye of the storm. My word. And you see that there's a lightning bolt lashing down and cloud piercer throws himself in front of it.

Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack. And you see that the power is drawn towards his bezoar and lashes through his body and out the tips of his wings. Oh, through the through skeleton armor. We may have the bone on the cage of armor. Yeah. And he tosses the bolts to either side. Two birds drop on either side towards the ground. Wow. He's like, sick. And he just kind of he whirl. And yeah, it's close to jail. That is what happens when goes to jail.

But Billy, he kind of just gives you like a top gun buzz, like he just flies right past you and back into the fight. But you are protected from that. So you got a ten. I got a ten. Which means you negated that harm. Thronebreaker appears to be turning so slowly, like whenever he maneuvers, it's like it's like watching a bomber move where it's just like our wings tipping. But it looks like he's circling the island now trying to zero in on the well. He's surrounded by this phalanx of Thunderbirds.

He's creating like a super cell around the island, like a soul. That's why he's circling it to like pull more and more wind around. The clouds are trailing behind him in the storm is picking up in this whirlwind. All the trees that he's picked off are like adding to to the swirl. Yeah. Oh, cool. And a flock of druids is coming up out of the trees towards him. What do you do? I still want to do as much damage possible to his easel. Yeah, totally. How are you approaching him?

I want to muscle through the storm and just go straight for him. OK, great. So you're going to roll to six plus your constitution to kind of bowl through the storm. Eleven. OK, so, yeah, with an eleven, you're still going to take some damage, but I'm not going to make you roll twice and take the higher one. OK, but you are going to take a D12 of damage. Five. OK, five. Not too bad. Not too bad. Not too bad. So you take five damage as in your fairy form.

You are approaching this huge nimbus of energy, electrical, spiritual and otherwise. And you feel your your fairy form almost being torn apart just by the sheer pressure of the energy. Yeah, it's like the the. Lighting is like dispersing his energy.

Yeah, I like that and now that you've approached the sheer scale of Thronebreaker is truly astounding But you pull up in front of him his massive eagle Thunderbird, they're cut because we've talked about how they're kind of like they're crow like raven like raven like crow like but just enormous beak huge full dark black eyes Twisting and turning in all directions trying to keep an eye on everything But it is left eye, which is the side that the island is on it is narrowed in Right on the well and there in the center of his forehead a huge obsidian bezoar Which looks like you can see around the edges is like raw and whoa looks painful like it was shoved in there Yeah, I like that Billy can see some black smoke riling around it and pouring out of there Yeah, out of the out of the wounds on the edge of the obsidian.

Yeah, so there it is nostrils are like black. Yeah And there is so you are able to Attempt to attack the bezoar. I'm going to I'm going to lash all the rage I've had pent up over the seasons. Is this a hack and slash? Yes. Okay hack and slash man 2d 6 plus strength 11 11. Okay, so you are going to avoid the damage from this.

Okay, but you're going to deal your damage Is a way is it when I in my winter form when I deal damage I deal an additional d6 you are dealing 2d 6 damage Okay 6 okay 6 damage Didn't Billy also defend cuz he's defending right now. It is in defense of the well. Yeah, technically So what do I do with that so you could spend your final hold to deal damage equal to your I will do it Okay, awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Oh to describe what this looks like.

Okay, so Billy I don't know if it's like being dispersed around but him pulling himself back trying to pull himself back together into this like Concentrated storm is pulling in all these memories as well of all his previous seasons and he thinks about all these times where he's been hurt and Thinking back on all the hurt that's been done to the people he loves and the people that he just like has wandered by that He doesn't really know.

Yeah, he thinks about Lillian in her tomb He thinks about like vings hurt like with Nathaniel and Ileana and he thinks about tuck Not remembering anything. He just gets so angry Yeah He's going to unleash it all it just a concentrated like blast of winter Absolutely, like the sharpest blade and for a second He also thinks about Thronebreaker and the pain from wearing the stone Free him of it.

Yeah, and with So that comes down to a 15 15 damage yeah with the defend and the and the the 2d6 and you lash into this massive piece of volcanic obsidian a piece fallen from the sky itself millennia ago and you pour this anger and hate and pain into it through the this blade of winter ice and the stone begins to crack and As it cracks Thronebreaker lets out a ear splitting cry You can see like the shockwave from the sound of the cry ripple through the clouds Sick, and he throws his massive head and even in your fairy form you are tossed aside But you have dealt him a grievous wound And he pulls off temporarily from his super cell flight and tries to regroup in the clouds He rises up into the storm and disappears into the darkness Billy feels himself falling for a while back into his body.

Oh and you wake up in your in your body Ving and tuck you Almost involuntarily clap your hands over your ears as this massive shriek cuts through the night. Yeah shrieking a thunder roll Yeah, like a bunch of the trees on the island like flatten as a result of the shockwave Yeah, and you you feel in the air the beat of colossal wings as Thronebreaker pulls back But his his flocks continue to wheel through the skies. What do you do?

We're back on the ground wind rain I check on Billy and did the purpose. What is Billy in the caboose Billy? Yeah, did you go to the fairy realm or were you in a diabetic coma? I was in the fairy The moon piece is safe for now And I really hurt Thronebreaker. I think fuck. Yeah. Whoa I got his stone and you look over in the the ice of the the wall is like growing and and Solidifying as the fairies continue their work.

All right And tuck points at the old lady that's like standing next to Victoria. I'm like, who's your friend ask Victoria? My friend. I thought she was your friend and she points at Ving. That's My mom. Oh This is out of neck all water and she she kind of bows her head it took goes to it goes to me He goes my queen.

Yeah, Billy does too in the pooh pooh Just Boom ground heaves underneath you what the fuck the bear the bear stirring we need to put it back to sleep Okay, do you guys remember how you got? Oh, it was like a cave on the other side of the island or something, right? Yeah, yeah down by the water. I think we can also just go down the well Oh, we could go down. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and because it's my fairy ring. We can go down safely.

Yeah Yeah, yeah, yep, so you're just going straight down a well is the idea yeah, okay. Yep. Well, I tell Victoria go Victoria Can you wait here for Snow Knight to come back and tell him to defend the well at all costs? I really don't want to do this Well, you have to Please yeah. Yeah.

I probably I was like, let me let me sweeten the deal for you I'll follow through this idea and then tech goes if I survive I'll Wind rain lightning we're all like things things moving in the trees Somehow I'm cricket is heard Tuck is in this situation where Wile E. Coyote has run too far out. Yeah He's about to look down yeah, it's just like I've never done this And he goes she's like, yeah She's kind of giving that okay He's like, maybe I'll give you a fight in a dinner when I get back.

I wink and I jump into the water I Didn't even wait to hear what she says what times right in okay, so the the character Least equipped to survive a fall into a well. I start swimming so hard to the bottom You're assuming there's water right at the top. Oh shit.

There is this is a well homeboy Oh We've never we've never once described the well Oh, I was really thought there would be water right away Oh long long ago a piece of Lillian's moon fell from the skies like a meteorite yeah, and Smashed a hole through the center of this island of Hibernia. Yep creating sort of like a jagged twisting Cavern that connected to a body of water under the island.

Okay, it's less of like a Center of well town put down a bucket scoop up some water and more like a place that you go to collect spiritually potent water Okay, so tuck jumps falls nine feet Slams into a rock it's falling into a cave 26 plus like you're defying danger. How are you trying to survive this? Constitution 2d6 plus con So that's I rolled a four my constitution is a two and that's a six Wait, can I use some bad on better broken?

Technically no plus God, so I still got a six I'll aid yeah, yeah, somebody aided things says I'll aid Backwards down the hole and tries to calm his dissent 2d6 plus dexterity Seven okay, so seven and seven you're both gonna take a d6 of damage. Oh Three five Anything left? I have four hit points left. You have four you have four hit boys Christ, dude Yeah, you got to do something about that. All right, stop giving us so much stuff to do.

Hey, sorry guys You think it's gonna be a cakewalk to defeat an enemy that's existed for three years. Stop jumping down a wells Look where you're going you guys. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

Unfortunately Thronebreaker exists as a consequence of your actions from season six, so Say lovey Yeah, you tumble slam and like roll down some rocks in this subterranean cavern And then I scraped I started I slide backwards on my belly I Grab a rock I grab a shrubbery And adder knack kind of steps down Yeah, I will need to go slowly this my body and my mind are still Reconnecting I want to use all the vines that are sticking out to kind of make a ladder for us down.

Oh, yes great Elemental mastery. Can I just use my spirit tongue or world talker to you have to insta? Yeah, you could try and convince the vines. Okay. I want to try and convince the vines aid us the Bear is about to wake and the Druids will leave this place and Along with them, they'll take all of the spiritual energy that feeds you and your kind here. What do vines sound like? They're Russian. I can't, I can't. Hello, I am a vine. My vine!

What, my vine, what do you mean the bear is about to wake? We have to quiet the bear that sleeps at the bottom of the well. I can feel it in my roots in my vines. Yeah. I grow throughout this cavern, I grow throughout the bones of the island, I have been here since time immemorial. You have been feeding on the waters that keep it asleep. I sup deeply on their sweet crystal clearness. That's right. What is it you ask of me? Aid us and lowering us to, safely, to the den of the bear.

You wish to traverse my caverns? Please. What do you offer in kind? Or are you just rolling straight up defy danger charisma? Yeah, charisma. All right, 2d6+, cha! Our battle is yours. 7-9, huh? What makes you think that I want the druids here? I have watched over this island for many, many ages. And above, they cloak themselves, they hide from the world, they concern themselves with their bickering and their politics. And the natural world is not just this place, it is the whole planet.

And they have deceived themselves, fooled themselves. Perhaps this is a consequence of their vanity and their pride. Perhaps. Maybe I'll let the bear wake, maybe I'll wake it myself. And you see, like, the vines start to, like, creep and move. And you all hear this as well, of course, with the rings. Oh, okay. Can we talk to it? Yeah, you're able to communicate with these things. Yeah, I talk to it. And I say, oh, supple vine.

I fear that an island without the druids is an island not worth growing on. You have the opportunity to feed on their mulch and their stuff. Shit. They create. Their shit and their piss. And what a varied menagerie of shit and piss they create. Yeah, this is the thing. They get so much different types of manure from all the animals that they change into. There is no place like this. There is no buffet of fertilizer on anywhere.

This is the most fertile ground in all the world because it is nothing. It's all the animals. There is no place like Hibernia. We know the grass grows greener at the zoo. The kelp that they eat as they are in spirit form. And the worms that they eat as they're in bird form. And the deer that they eat in wolf form. The spaghetti they eat in Italian form. Yes. All making a rich loam of which you will never sup again if their civilization does end here tonight. All right. Two to six plus charisma.

Okay. Does this one count? Yeah. Yeah, okay. Uh, so it's seven plus two is nine. Oh, all right. Oh, what do you have? No, what do you have? Oh, I was just going to add also. Yeah. Uh, like, uh, yeah, I like, I implore the fairies, you know, try to convince them who are connected to the ones who are connected to the vine. Oh, the mushroom fairy. Yeah. Oh, yeah. The little cave fairies. That's fine. Yeah. All right. Two to six plus bond. Yep. Eight, nine. Okay.

So that makes it a 10 because, yeah, the cave fairies are like, yeah, the shit and piss. Think about all the shit you get to eat. That's my favorite part about being a little mushroom fairies. All the different kinds of poo. Oh, there's so much poo. They're bringing poo from all, from all places, the land and the sky and the air. Wow. Surf poo, turf poo, all the poo. It's just so amazing. This is. All the shit that you can eat. Our show. This is our show. So that makes it a 10 and the vines go.

Oh my God. I never thought about having grown in the poo so long. I take it for granted, I think. You have. And the vines reach up and they, and they grasp your hands and they begin to shake your hands. They move us like an elevator down. Yeah. Oh yeah. You have convinced me of all the different kinds of poops and peeps that I would be denying myself. Should I wake this bear? And that says nothing of the bear poop and peep.

So I will keep everybody as safe as possible so that I'm a feast up on their faces. Thank you for your aid and getting us there quietly. I am quiet as the vine. That's my main frame of reference. Everybody hop on. Next up, bear poo town. Okay. And in the back, you hear Ileana going, what the fuck is going on? Why does that vine sound like I did? This is what I, is this what I sound like to people?

And yeah, Ileana is just watching, um, bemused, I guess would be the word, as you are, uh, guided down the cave by this vine. So you go down deeper and deeper and it's interesting because there's like raw like cavern that you're kind of twisting and turning down, but you see the path of the moon piece as you're going through the twisting caverns. There's like a channel that has been cut through millennia ago. It looks like mother of pearl almost. Like the edges of the stone are iridescent. Yeah.

Melted and iridescent. Yeah. So you see this channel going down and then you hear like dripping water and you feel the moisture in the air and the vines guide you to the edge of a pool that has formed. And you see the channel cut by the falling moon piece ends at this body of water that looks like it's kind of filled from the bottom over the ages. What if there's like, it's just because I watched like a documentary on those like cave paintings in France. Oh yeah.

There's like, you know, old paintings and stuff like that down here. Totally. Yeah. Bear prints. Yeah. Like paint around it. Yeah. Totally. You see on the walls of the cavern old, uh, paintings depicting human hand prints, bear paw prints, calcified bear skulls. Yeah. Uh, and the water here lit by your various, uh, light sources, the, the amethyst crystal on Tuck's axe and also- That thing still has? Do you want this back? Yeah. Okay. That was not as ceremonious as I wanted it to be. Yeah.

I'll take that. Sick. Thanks dude. Yeah. I got your axe. You found it. Yeah. Went to the- Looking for this? Went to the bottom of the ocean to get it. Uh, had to go all the way- Nebuchadnezzar, whatever. Nebuchadnezzar had to go all the way down there. Had to go break you out of your own mind palace. I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it personally. Um, uh, and you see down at the very bottom, a glint of pale light. Is the bear in this chamber too? The bear is not in this chamber.

The chamber and the well are separate chambers, but you do, um, imagine that there's probably a connection here somewhere. Can I discern realities? Yeah, absolutely. Seven. One question off the list. What should I be on the lookout for? Ah, great. So, um, you look down into the light and the, the axe is glowing in the cavern as well. I have the, the waning knife. You have the waning knife? Right. Oh, cool. Yeah.

And also with your ability to, um, kind of naturally cut out the glare from these light sources with your, with your elven eyes, you see deep in the pool, there's a few mouths of tunnels, uh, and you would, you would imagine that those connect to different parts of the island. But it's, if you wanted to go through this way instead of finding the cavern that you went down the first time, it's going to be a bit challenging to get to the bear. But that is a way that you can do it.

Guys, what do you think? Should I just go get the moon? We don't want to leave it here. That is the option. You could grab the piece of the moon, protect it for yourself. Take it into the fanny pack. But will that hurt the island? It will wake up the bear. It would wake up the bear, but it would keep the piece of the moon away from Thronebreaker and the Gibbous Man. Yeah. Which you know to be very important. Or you could try and go through the challenge of getting to the bear to calm it. Yes.

Which would save the island, but leave the moon piece vulnerable. I mean, the fairies are still protecting the moon piece. For now. For now. And the druids. And the druids. Yeah, they're working together. There is a war going on above. We do have a buffer there, but I feel like we need to get to the bear. What do you guys think? Yeah. What's the deal with the bear? Should we druidic lore about it? Or should we? Yeah. You can roll druidic lore. Yeah, do druidic lore.

I want to do a druidic lore about the bear. Your mom is here. My mom is here. 2d6 plus. Wisdom. Wisdom. I got 13. Holy shit. Yeah. So then that is, I ask you a question and whatever you say is true. Yeah. So what are you, what is it that you're trying to figure out about the bear here? How do we put it back to sleep? What is it? How do we, what do we? I guess what is the function of the bear was sort of it. Like, why does, why does the bear even exist down here?

Like in actuality, because there's like the myth that it'll eat the moon. Yeah. But like, is the bear useful to us in this fight? Can we get the bear to fight the bird? Does bear fight bird? Jack says this so concussed. Can bear fight bird maybe? Or like could, could bear like jump? Jump. Can't bird fight bird maybe or something? Bird's so big. Bird carry rock? Bear carry rock somewhere deep and safe or somewhere up above? Yeah. Or we take rock, rock goes in bar, bear fight bird.

We go somewhere else. Or at least learning by example. This is a good, he's also forgetting math. So yeah, with the way the druidic lore works, I am, you are telling me. How big bear. No, that's not what we're talking about. How big bear. I think a good place to start is how to put the bear back to sleep. How bear sleep? Why bear wake. Oh. Where bear? Where bear? You know where bear. I use our final… Bear there. There bear. There bear. There bear. There bear. There bear. There bear.

There bear. So we're going to talk about what we know about the bear. Is that what we're doing here? We're talking about what we know about the bear. Yeah, we're making… Because you're wondering what the function of the bear is. Yes. I ask you the other. I feel like that's the wrong question. Because what is the function of a bear? To bear, bro. To share, dude. Share. Don't make me feel like this is a… Bear likes to sit and watch the sunset. Yeah. Bear likes to eat berries. Yeah.

And salmons. And grow… It's young. Okay. Bear like to sleep, hibernate. Eat. Yeah. Billy winter right now. Billy winter. Billy winter winter's here. Winter make bear sleep. Oh. We can re-winter bear. Yeah. With Billy. Yeah. If you convince the bear it's winter, it might go back to sleep. Why bear stir, though, initially, we say? Because of thunderbirds. Thunderbird rumble. Yeah. Yeah. Thunderbird come. A bear go, huh? Yeah. Bear starts awake. Not good. Bear here because why? Fog lifted.

Fog lifted. Bear starts awake. The blanket upon the bear. The blanket has been lifted. Sleepy time, bear. Maybe gray, initially fog, make bear sleep. Maybe stars too bright for bear. I think bear live in cave. Accident, maybe? Or prison? Or prison? Bear prison. There's… Yeah. Tuck, he's watching this conversation happening and he's like, I am brain damaged for sure. This is what Tuck is hearing. This is what Tuck has been hearing. I have a concussion. I need to… I need help.

I need to talk to somebody. He's like, oh, dude, I need help. This is really bad. And we hear, Tuck, brain bear broke. You just hear Tuck go, uh… I have seven hit points, by the way. I have four. Wow. This is crazy. Yeah, can we heal up? Can I do some helping hands while we're here? You can try to heal, yeah. Remember… That one of them is minus. That if you, seven to nine, you take the damage. Right. Do you have any winewood on you? I do have winewood. You do? I have two winewoods.

Yeah, you can take two doses of winewood. Can we split a bottle? Okay, yeah, so we have said that you can share amounts of a bottle and get those hit points back. Do you want to just get five each? You need more than nine hit points, so you drink one and then heal me, because if you roll a ten, he doesn't lose those hit points, right? So you drink one yourself, and then you heal me, because that will bring me up by seven and then we'll be about equal.

And then we'll be about equivalent to Billy, too, because he's like at a fourteen or something. Yeah. What's yours? I'm at sixteen right now. Yeah, so do that. Alright, I'll drink one winewood each. I mean, one, just me. Yeah. Alright, got it, glug glug glug. So you've got fourteen hit points now. Fourteen. And then healing hands, right? And then you're going to try and heal Tuck. Okay. And you're going to help him while drinking a bottle of wine. Yeah. I got it, give me a sec. Boop.

Glug glug glug. It's like a doctor smoking while he operates. Yeah. The good old days, we call it. Just ashing into the wound. It's fine, that's the pancreas, it'll be fine. Plus charisma. Oh, nice, eleven. Nice. Okay, so you heal a D8 hit points. Fuck yes. Nice. Roll a D8. Eight. Two. That's good enough. Two will do it. Two will do. I have so much armor, that's like pretty much like I got ten back. Okay, so what is the plan now?

Okay, so we're going to use, Billy, we're going to use your winter form to convince the bear to continue to Hibernate. And then we're going to use that deep sleep that you put him into, to try and take the stone and put it somewhere safe. Is that what we were thinking? An alternative is to try and convince the bear to fight on our behalf, to not like kind of come out of the island in the way that fucks it up, and to try and kill it.

Because we have a huge bear, we can try and get it to fight a huge bird. Yeah. Plus, that would look really cool if somebody would draw that. It would look really cool if someone drew that. And if it doesn't work, then we could try to put the bear to sleep. I think, I like trying to get it to help. We can try and pull back. And I will say something, as a GM, we're coming up on the end here, failure is an option.

You might fuck this up, and there is a point where you will have to accept that you fucked it up. Right. And you'll just have to get out of here or whatever. The consequences will happen. Maybe Hibernia gets destroyed, maybe it doesn't. Okay. You know what I mean? Yes. We're in the final act. But I do think we do better when we try to approach people in this way. Absolutely. And I think we should try and commit. Yeah.

So Ileana cannot come with you in her state, especially if you're going through the well. Sorry, did we finish the Druidic lore? No, we didn't. Because we couldn't, we were trying to figure out what you guys wanted to ask. No, we want to, yeah. Yeah, but you're telling me something, basically. So what we were trying to figure out was what the bear is, kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Which we have not, as of yet, figured out.

Well, if it is the collective matriarch figure of all the spirits that the Druids have been using. Oh, sure. It's like a matriarchal spirit figure. Yeah. It is capital B Bear. Well, that wasn't determined, but it could absolutely be capital B Bear. This is the bear. Whoa, from the spirit world. Yeah. Like, incarnate in our world. The spirit bear came over from the spirit world thousands of years ago and rested in Hibernia to watch over the Druids and watch over the island.

And that's why it's been a safe place of spiritual practice for the Druids. Like the mother of spirits. The mother of spirits. And they pulled the gray over themselves to allow the bear to sleep because it was time for it to hibernate? That makes sense to me, that it's like, we thought that it was because they were hiding from the Gibbous Man or something like that, but it was to let the bear sleep.

It wasn't an act of fear, it was an act of compassion to allow the spirit to continue to exist in this world. What drove it to Hibernia? It was brought here, I think, by the early Druids, like when they settled in Hibernia. Because only recently have the spirits kind of been commanded to work for us, but maybe it was a trade. The Druids wanted to use the spirits, and so for the spirits to come, they needed a protector to make sure that they were kept safe. Oh, cool. Oh, yeah. Oh, there's a…

I just had another, like, just a… In their process of covering over the night sky to protect the bear from the Gibbous Man, it was like them then protecting the protector. Yeah, totally. I like that. Great. So yeah, this is all stuff that Illyana explains to you. In the cave paintings she shows them. Oh, she shows you the cave paintings that explain the story.

Part of the cooperation between the spirits and the Druids demanded that they have a protector, so they contacted the spirit of bear and brought her here to watch over them, and she has rested in this cavern for millennia. While they watch over her. Yes, and now the grey has receded, and the moon piece is under threat. She will wake, and when she does, her wrath will be incomparable. When she sees what they've done to the spirits. Perhaps we can entreat her to fight on their side. On our side.

Unfortunately, I cannot join you. I am still too weak, but you must go soon. Okay. The quickest way may be through the well, unfortunately. Let's go. Okay. Billy, do you remember how to swim? Kind of. Yep. Keep head above water. Okay. Do we have to go down? Yeah. That's just not going to work exactly here. Okay. That is the goal. Typically. All right. Do we have to go down to get to the bear? Yeah. Okay. Can I… Keep head above water. That's not going to work now. Ah, no. What's the other one?

How long can you hold your breath? Oh, a long time. Watch. Longer than that. I just wanted to show you I can do it. Okay. Okay. Doug is like… Doug is like… Doug is like… Doug is like… Doug is like… Doug is like… Doug is like… Doug is like… Doug is like… Doug is like… Doug as a parent is like… Doug as a parent is like… I can do it. Watch me. No, no, no. Don't try to… He just jumps in. Okay. There he goes. Billy jumps into the water and starts swimming.

I jump in after him. All right. I feel like I can elemental mastery here. I can try to. Absolutely you can. I feel like I can elemental mastery here. I can try to. Absolutely you can. To get us into the bear's cave because this is not going… It's so far away, isn't it? It is a twisting cavern full of water. It's going to be really tough. But that's where we're at. Heroic challenges require heroic efforts. This is like… Imagine you guys wading into this dark subterranean pool.

Such a classic myth image, diving into this unknown… Yeah, it looks like Beowulf. Yeah. But reverse Beowulf. Yeah. Can I do an elemental form to make us a little submarine? Yeah. That's kind of fun. Yeah, dude. That's cool. Do it. Hey, Vine. What is up? You want to come with us? We'll see how your roll goes. Oh, nice. Spock's go. Oh, whoa. Holy shit. Nice. Hell yeah, brother. I want to go as well. Here I come. And Vines start descending from the cavern ceiling.

We walk in like a bell jar and then as we lower ourselves it, you know, it fills up with water But then it leaves our head like a diving bell Great with air.

Yeah, now really keep your head above the water His face like lips were blue He held his breath until we got into the diving belt and then immediately sucked in a shitload of the air that was You can see coming up You can see coming up out of the like from the surface of the water contained within the bell jar a little like As the vines are creating fresh And as you descend into the pool That's where we're gonna leave it for this week.

Oh, I'm your game master O'Hara joining me as always Tacoma Dome the barbarian Abdul Aziz. So long everybody being the half-elf druid Paul opers Bye. Bye that Billy the halfling thief Jessica tie.

Hi everyone Thank you to all of our patreon supporters around the world without you This show simply would not be possible If you'd like to support the show, you can join us at patreon.com slash spout lore and spell or comm slash money, please Thank you to Aaron Reed for our intro and outro music You can listen to all of Aaron's original music at bandcamp.com and all the music produced for the show by Aaron Reed and Taylor swindles everywhere except band camp And thank you finally and most of all it's all of you for listening.

I'll see you next time And so ends the tale of adventures three who tried the best they can The dumb and scared and lost maybe but times abreast in And though our journey may be We will not leave Turn next week to hear some more whilst you commute or do your chores You