Episode 13 – I Wish She Cared More

So let's listen to that theme music. Here's the theme tune. Gather 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. Here's the thing that I don't appreciate is nobody's making eye contact with me right now. I'm sorry. I demand that everyone make eye contact. You stink.

Somebody's burp. Probably all of ours burped. It's probably mine. It's a perfect belt. Oh yeah, you had that fish burger. I had that fish burger. But we all kind of burped in like a cross shape. We all burped in the middle. It's like a Union Jack. Yeah. A little green bit in the middle. I was sorry. Sorry. It represents colonialism. But seriously, everyone make eye contact. Was it fun for you to stop at halfway through the theme music to totally kill that momentum?

And just totally derail the fucking podcast. Actually, it kind of sets us up perfect for the podcast. So welcome to Spout Lore, everybody. We're not done the fucking theme music. Well, then fucking play the shit. Fingers up, healthy shifts in shape and yields a spirit with great heart. So what? I don't deserve eye contact? The fuck? Oh my God. We're never going to get this episode recorded. All right. Everybody make eye contact. Rewind it to Vings Park. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

Sean, why is no one making eye contact with me? Everybody make eye contact with everybody. Sean. Thank you. Fingers up, healthy shifts in shape and yields a spirit with great heart. Billy's a thief. His tiny size does mask the largest heart. Best in bread. His name may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts. So gather around friends and listen close. For the tale is about to start. Welcome to Spout Lore, everybody. My name is Sean O'Hara and I am your game master.

And I am just furious. I'm so mad at everybody at this table, but in a friendship way. What a wild way to derail. The episode right out of the game. Just unbelievable. Yeah, you're welcome. That was not since here. We're coming to you from Tofino, British Columbia. Joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the barbarian, Abdulaziz. Hello. Playing Fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica Tai. Yes. Playing Ving, the half-elf druid, Paul Oppers. Gosh darn right.

And when we last left our heroes, they were having a less wonderful day due to revelations. Of Allison. Yes. So last session, while hiding in the tent in the DeSomme Creek Theater Society's camp, you observed Jaunter, leader of the DeSomme Creek Theater Society, conversing with Torch of McCall, the leader of the Lightguard, or at least the most revered hero. And they talked about how, according to Jaunter, there's nothing wrong in the principalities.

The reports of the magical or supernatural threats have been greatly exaggerated, which you know, basically. Everything Jaunter said about how there's no flooding, about how there's no dangers, there's no reports of any sort of monsters, are all untrue, because you've experienced these things personally. He did say, however, that the three of you are wanted, along with Perel, in connection to the loss or compromising of one of the vaults and an item from the vault.

Billy went to go get some information about where Allison might be, ran into Fadum, warrior of the… Lightguard. Right. Yes. And former bully of Tacoma Dome, the Barbarian, in his childhood days. Ving saved the day by saying, that's my baby boy. Give me that baby. Tuck was dressed as a belly dancer. Yeah, he's still dressed as a belly dancer. Painted bone white with a belly dancer's outfit. And then you met Nimble, an elfin boy of some regard. 1920s Brooklyn news boy kind of situation. Yeah.

He and I are best buds now, in my heart and in my mind. And he gave us some, the lowdown on where he saw Allison. Who told you that Allison was meeting people in the alleyway by the fish guts. What a weird town that the fish gut pile is like a landmark. You know where the guts go. When you met to, when you spied Allison behind the fish guts, she was meeting with a scholar of the Lightguard. She saw you. She saw you seeing her and she ran.

And you have, you captured her, brought her back to the hotel and questioned her. And she told you that she has been in the employ of the Lightguard for who knows how long under threat of banishment back to the outer dark immediately. Oh, right. She's been bound by them. Yeah. She basically said that. Okay. But you're not sure what that means. Like binding a demon. What does it do? Who knows? Yeah. If it's a thing, who can say? Well, according to the supernatural television series. Uh-huh.

Mm-hmm. I'm not going to do the rest of this. I feel embarrassed. It's usually a circle of salt of some kind. Yeah. A demon trap. You can trap the devil if you use oil from Babylon. Ooh. I am so embarrassed. I know this information. You watched the whole series. Why did you get embarrassed? I watched all of it because I was depressed. What do you get? Which is the only context that anyone watches supernatural. That is absolutely true.

And in an attempt to figure out what's going on, Billy racked through his memories of the, uh, the interactions between jaunter and the torch of McCall and realized that the things that Billy learned were that the menders were founded by the light guard. Uh, the traveling bards of the disarm Creek theater society are used to gather information. The torch of McCall is able to summon a kind of flame from his very body as a weapon of sorts.

And the last thing that Billy realized is that something is up with jaunter. He does not appear to be who he is. He is supposed to be. Something is wrong. And when he opened his eyes, you had all been experiencing the same visions through your mind's eye. And Billy had been gripping the blue glass ring from Chamberlain in his hand. And that's where we are now. Uh, so yeah, let's talk about that vision for a second. Do we think that that was related to the rings that you guys have?

Yeah, I think so. Okay. So it was just Ving and Tuck that saw it as well. I thought so. Is this something that the rings do? Do we think? Maybe. Yeah. Are you able to share minds? Or maybe just Billy? Because it's like the crystals. They give them the power. Yeah. That the crystals used to give. Yeah. We're not magic. Billy's magic. And well, the rings are magic. And the rings are magic. So Billy's the only one that's able to actually like use them.

That's what I kind of think of Billy as like similar to a Wi-Fi hotspot. Like he he he kind of projects out all this energy. And he can take it. He can take it in. Or he at least like generates it himself. I think. Yeah. I think about Billy as a little battery pack. Yeah. Like every once in a while he interacts with something and charges it up. And it's just like, okay, this is magic again. Now for some reason. Because he's not of this world. He originates from somewhere else. Right? Yeah.

So it would make sense if I emit just like. Like a latent magical field. Totally. Cool. So when Billy interacts with magical items, he like activates them somehow. Yeah. Just like amplifies whatever he's doing. And I don't know. I don't know yet why that ring made it possible for you guys to all see what's going on. But good to know. Yeah, totally. Keep that ring safe, Billy. Okay. I'm put back on. And Perel is sitting there in his Regency era ball gown with his fan and his beehive wig.

Standing next to Allison tied to the chair like, what? What's going on? What are we supposed to? What should we do? You don't believe her, do you? I don't know who to believe. Yeah. What I do believe is that. I don't know. Everybody's lying to us. It sucks because everyone is lying. We just want to trust people. Yeah. And Allison says, I'm not lying. That is the truth. I was lying. And now I'm not. How about I don't care? Yeah. How about fuck off, Allison? What? Fuck off. What do you mean?

Fuck off. I mean, why can't you do it yourself if you're clearly like doing your own thing on your own? Why don't you just do it? Dick hypnotize a bunch of mercenaries to kill the light guard for you. Why? Why? It doesn't work like that. I understand that you're maybe not the most like experienced people when it comes to succubi, but that is not how my abilities work. Why wouldn't you just be honest with us right away? Why would you lie to us? Why did you tell me that story?

I got so emotional about the food, you know, and how you're so hungry and you can't help yourself. Okay. Maybe I manipulated you. Maybe that is true. But if I told you that I was working for the light guard, how was that going to make it better? I wanted you to kill them. Why would I just come up and say, hey, could you kill my boss for me? Yeah, that makes way more sense. Yeah, that would have made more sense to us. We'd do that. Yeah. Well, now I know that. Can you kill my boss for me, please?

No. She sighs and sinks down into her chair. So what are you going to do now? I want to take these guys into the other room. Yeah. Where Mears is sleeping. Yeah. Mears is there wrapped in a fuzzy robe with two empty bottles of wine next to him. And we close the door and we tell Perot, hey, Perot, keep an eye on her. Will do. And he closes his fan and he points it at her. And Mears is like. I got to get him a CPAP machine. Oh, God. Billy cleans up the bottles and dumps the rest of it out.

I can't believe this. He doesn't need any more of this. So what do you guys think? I don't know. We can't trust her, right? So far. No, I don't think so. No, I feel hurt. And we could have died like a lot. Yeah. And we got these stupid cuts. And now we have to go be pirates because of her. That's something to consider is the deal is, as far as you know, still on with Ruby. Yeah. Ruby's agreed to get Allison out of town.

But she said it was going to take a couple of days to get the ship ready, which might be more of a problem now, because you did also hear from Perot that there was a huge amount of money in the ship. There was a huge amount of damage done to all the ships in the harbor. And there was like a lockdown. Yeah. They're basically like, no one's leaving until we figure out what's going on here. Well, I think that's a good advice for us, too. We can't leave until we figure out what's going on here.

Okay. Well, we're going to starve in this room if we can't leave. Okay. So, guys, what are we going to do about Allison? We already have a way for her to get out of town. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She wants the light guard dead. We'll just tell her we'll deal with the light guard and we'll get her out of town. I mean, we got to get out of here too. Should we? What are the things that we need to do? We have to clear our names.

Or escape. Figure out what's going on with Jaunter because it has something to do with the Menders and all the stuff going on right now. Maybe that'll show us who's been keeping tabs on us. Yeah. And we need to get this guy some food. We got to get Billy some food. Me and Mears. Mears needs something greasy. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, at this point, Mears, like… And his eyes flutter open. Mears! Oh, my God. How long have you been asleep? Oh, about two bottles of wine worth. Okay.

Hold on one second. And then I grab him by his shirt. Uh-huh. And I punch through the window with him. Wow. Why? Because I'm interrogating him. Mears? Yes. Whoa. Okay. Yeah. All right. He's a bundle of sticks. That's, I guess, easy enough. But he's like… He starts freaking out. Quick question. Have you been telling the menders what we've been doing? No. Well, I mean, I guess. Wait. What do you mean you guess? I'm a mender.

But have you been, like, telling them where we are and what we've been doing? Well, no. I have no way of doing that. I've been taking notes, though. Okay. But when's the last time you talked to someone about us? At the vault. We were all there. All right. Sounds good. I bring him back and I drop. And he's like, what's happening? The menders are hunting us. They know everything about us. What? Yeah. We have no fucking clue how they got all this information. We just had to make sure it wasn't you.

Jaunter's one of them. Jaunter? Yeah. He's been spreading all this information. He's been talking about Maggie Cole, how she's not a respected mender and stuff like that. What? He's been spreading lies about all the weird flooding in the principalities, all the weird stuff going on with the moon. Have you ever heard of… Have you ever heard of traveling actors being in the employ of the menders? He's thoughtful for a second. Well, kind of the way that menders work is it's pretty decentralized.

Not everyone knows everything. But that sounds plausible. Did he have a pin? Yes. Then he's a mender. That's sort of how it works. No one really outside of the organization knows that that's the signifying mark of a mender. Except for us. Except for you, because you're kind of menders. And everyone. We've told. What? Everyone that we've showed off our pins to. Okay. That's a problem. Flashback. Flashback to all of the times you've just thrown a pin in someone's face.

Or used a pin to pick a lock. Or used a pin to spear a piece of meat. Yeah. One time we were in a bar and we ran out of darts for the dartboard. And we all pulled out our pins and we're like, it's cool. We're menders. We have pins. Magic copper pins. They can track us with these. Somehow. Announcing it to the bar. Back to the present. So he was disrespecting Maggie Cole. She's a legend. Well, not according to Jaunter. But he's a mender. I don't know. There's something weird going on with him.

Do you know if the light guard are in charge of the menders? Have you ever heard of menders reporting back to the light guard? His eyes widen a little bit. Like, I didn't hear about the light guard until two days ago. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Person in the menders I report to maggie and that's all you know that's all I know all right she's never said anything of her superiors she's she's not the top I know that much but she didn't say who I got the idea that she was sort of in charge of operations in that sort of you know in that principality okay so I get down on one knee and I'm like mares he kind of flinches away I put my I put my my hand on his arm he flinches away from your touch I'm like I know that I just pushed me through a plate glass window I know and it's six stories in the air kind of fucked up to do you can say that again but you know what we've been in a weird headspace because we've been lied to a bunch allison was manipulating us she's working for the light guard I wish I could be surprised by that I don't have enough pieces to really and you're still kind of drunk aren't you I'm a little bit I sobered up after I got pushed through a plate glass window but here's the thing maggie cole is a stand-up lady you're goddamn right she is and this piece of shit jaunter doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about he's spreading rumors about her the problem is I think he does know what he's talking about we need to figure out why he's manipulating the torch of mccall to put down maggie and to try and catch us our faces are all over this town and I look into mirrors his eyes and I'm like mirrors stop looking away make eye contact with me he's yeah he's looking all over the room look at me he stares you right in the look at him you're a mender and of all the menders in the principalities you're the only one that can figure out what's going on here and you're the only one that could save maggie's reputation you with us I'm with you it's up to me I can do it he flattens out his clothes okay he picks up his sword straps it on I'm gonna try and meet with jaunter I'm gonna find out what's going on oh my god I bring I grab his face well I try to come here he kneels down further so you can touch his face look me in the eyes he's looking you in the eyes his eyes are so wide I squish his cheeks together I say you are a stand-up dude you are a stand-up dude you are a stand-up dude you are a stand-up dude you are a stand-up dude are a hero amongst all of us and we love you.

I don't know why I'm doing this actually. You say like you're a stand-up dude and he kind of goes hmm and then you say you're a hero amongst all of us and he kind of goes huh and you say and we love you and he tears up a little bit. And then I tell him be careful out there and I kiss him. And he pats your cheek with his not metal hand. He goes I'll be careful Billy. Okay. Don't worry. Wait. Should I be meeting him alone? No. Absolutely not. Can you guys come with me please? A hundred percent.

We're going to come with you. Did he see you? No he didn't. I mean Fathom saw us. Jaunter did not see us. We are okay. We are so bad at getting stories straight. We've had a long day guys. And there's a lot of stuff we're knitting together right now. It's pretty sick actually. What are we going to do about Allison? I think that we, I don't think she can say anything that would make us feel better. That's the situation. It's sort of like do you trust her? Do you not? Yeah.

There are roles that you can make. You can probably do like a discern realities or something. Oh yeah. Rolling might help a lot. Yeah. Yeah. This is a game in which you have tools at your disposal. Right. Should we roll a discern realities? Yeah. We should. Absolutely. Kicks the door open. Allison! She jumps. What? What? What? What? So who's rolling it? I want to say that it's probably Tuck. Because you're like kind of leading this interrogation with your past experience. Okay. Yeah.

I'll roll a discern realities. Okay. So 2d6 plus wisdom. Okay. Oh. Fuck me. I rolled two ones. Take some experience. Two. Oh boy. So you're talking to Allison and Perel's like looking around like he's basically trying to make sure that everything's secure in the room and in the room next door. Like so he opens the door and he goes into the room next door and you hear him go and he comes back and he's like I'd come in here if I were you. So we go in there. Yeah. What's going on?

Laid out on the bed is Rebecca and he's dead. What the fuck? I am fucking pissed now. I walk through the door and I grab Allison's chair and I drag it into the room and I like slam it into a wall and I'm like what the fuck is this? And her eyes are like bugging out of her head. She's like that. I didn't do that. I did not do this. This was not me. Who could it have been? I don't know. Why would I kill? I already told you I don't want to discern the realities of the dead body. Okay. Eleven.

Holy shit. There we go. That's a hundred percent better than what I did. So you get three questions from the discern realities list. Who killed this person? Why are they dead? Read the list. What happened here recently? Allison is like we spent some time like basically 24 hours. Having dinner. I got a little bit of what I needed out of him just from our, you know, kind of flirting and hand touches and stuff like that. And then I left that. That was it. Where did you leave him?

I left him as far as I can remember downstairs in the lobby. I said I was going to come up here. Yeah. So that's what she says. And that you get from this is that's true. She doesn't seem to be lying to you. Well, I was wondering about if there's any telltale signs. I'm CSI in the body here. Yeah, totally. So the CSI in you is that Bing walks up and he like takes off his sunglasses and he does a shitty pun about the body. This body is stiffer than when you left him. Pretty good.

And then in the background you hear CSI. Yeah, it's a dance party that's happening in the square outside. Yeah, here we live. And then he's like, oh, I'm going to jump over his glass is crystal hands into a black light. There's like there's semen all over the place. Talk. It's all over your body, your belly. Shut up. Oh, it's his. Oh, that makes more sense. So then you're like poking Rebecca's body and you see a couple things is that the eyes are bugged out in a weird way in a bulgy kind of way.

And, um, just underneath his collar. It's a little damp. Yeah. What here is useful or valuable to me? You do some more poking and prodding. You've seen some dead bodies in your time as a man of the land, animal, human, etc. He was drowned. Like he wasn't whatever succubi do, however they kill people. You don't know. You've never encountered one. Really. He was drowned and then he was brought here. Yeah. What he was not appears to be maybe. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

So what here is not what it appears to be. You look at his how he like where his body is and you look at the rest of the room. He was drowned in this room. Fuck. I go in the bathroom. Does it look like wet or anything like there was like a bunch of splash splash was anyone splish splash and take in a bath or anything? It looks like maybe the bath was used a couple like a couple nights ago and Allison was like I took a bath. I was sleeping in this room. Remember the sheets? What about the floor?

Nothing. What the fuck would kill someone like this? Something's weird. That guy had control over fire. Maybe somebody has control over water and drowned Rebecca. I don't know. I'm shooting from the hip. This is what are we going to do with this body to somebody comes in here? We're wanted people. We need to get rid of his body. Yeah, but no one knows we're staying here. So that's fine. I think I just remember the ducks just as a belly dancer.

Yeah, he's still dressed as a belly dancer every time he motions. It's just like shake shake shake shake I think like our path forward is the same. We got to figure out what's going on with jaunter. We got to clear our names. We got to get out of town if we can't and Mears is like, okay, should I try and meet up with jaunter? There are some ways that menders can make themselves known. Yeah, yeah, sure. Okay, great. All right. I'm going to go.

I'll be back and then I'll let you know when I'm supposed to meet jaunter bring back potato wedges. Oh yeah, please. Oh, yeah, potato wedges would be great actually. Oh and some of those ice ice cream cones. Uh-huh. Pearl's like I could take a iced tea and then he's like, okay. All right, fine. I'll be I'll be back soon.

So Allison we're just going to put you away for a while because I don't trust you and I have to go have a nap because this has been stressful and pearls like actually yeah, who this has been a long few days. Do you guys need to rest a little bit? Maybe I think we should yeah, well Mears will be back. I'll stay up and I'll watch Allison and I'll I'll deal with the body. Okay. I'm just going to hide it. I'm just going to hide it.

I'm not going to do anything weird with it hide it as a frog or as a none of this frog stuff. You're not turning it into anything else. No, if we come back and there's a dead frog in that room. No, no, not at all. I just transmute things. That's all you guys aren't going to want to watch what I do, but I'll do it and it'll be fine. Okay. Thanks man. Go get some sleep. I'll wake you up when Mears gets back. Okay. Okay. I climb into a cupboard and I close the door.

I climb into a cupboard and I close the door. What is how is Billy sleeping? He makes a nest of his blue blanket and he's like comforting himself and he's like realizing how serious the world is right now and he's like, I don't like this and so he really nestles in and then he's playing with Chamberlain's ring. Ooh. Yeah. So what happens when Billy plays with Chamberlain's ring? This is actually something that I've wanted to talk to Jessica tie the player. Yeah. How is Billy feeling about magic?

How's he feeling about whether or not he wants to play with the ring? How's he feeling about whether or not he wants to play with the ring? I think he's feeling about whether or not he wants to learn to harness magic in a more significant way. I think to learn magic. He has to access his memories. He has to access his memories. Because it's not that he doesn't know how to do it. Because it's not that he doesn't know how to do it.

Well, he kind of doesn't but it's more just like it's instinctual and it's kind of like relearning a language that you spoke when you were young that you've forgotten in adulthood. Totally. Totally. Totally. Totally. Yeah. So I think it's just it's almost like he's evolving yet both reverting back to his originals. So I think it's just it's almost like he's evolving yet both reverting back to his originals. Yeah. Dreaming about the things that have happened to him. Tell me one.

Tell me one dream that we don't, that we have no idea what it is. Like one thing Billy remembers that we've never heard. Okay. There's a dream memory that Billy's having. And in the background, like in the distant background, you hear the halfling singing this song as the sun is setting and the night is coming. And Billy is like hunched over in a meadow between the rivers and he's knitting together the water so that the rivers touch because he knows that the lake is drying up. Whoa.

I got goosebumps. That's really cool. I got goosebumps in my butt. Nice. Butt bumps. So Billy may have something to do with the Sunwise and the Wittershins because he was afraid that the halflings were going to die out. Yeah. Because their water source was going away. Yeah. Whoa. That's huge. That's massive. Maybe the flooding of the principalities is related to Billy. Oh, maybe. Then. Fuck me. That's great. As he's starting to gain in magical powers.

Or like the fix that he did is like now that like magic is seeping back in, it's like actually fucking things up. Oh, maybe. Like maybe, like now that magic is coming back into the world, maybe that knit is going to tear. Oh, it's true. I just love the idea that this potentially massively powerful, at one time at least, like force of nature. Is cuddled up in a cupboard on a blanket, like fretfully snoozing away. Yeah. And just hoping that things get better.

And there's all these fly fireflies that were like hovering around him. Wow. Yeah. I, my guts have goosebumps. Wow. This is awesome. Yeah. Wow. And I know that you have a specific mechanical thing that you want to do, Paul. So maybe we'll go to tuck first. Tuck only snooze for like 20 minutes and then he woke up. Uh huh. Because he was like. He had a nightmare and he was also like, I don't trust Alison to like not kill Perel.

So he just like goes into the room and he hangs out there while she's sitting there. And when you come back into the room 20 minutes later, um, do you come in while Perel's doing the thing that he was doing? Sure. So it's not like horrific, but it's unusual to watch. He's standing over the bed and he's got his hands on the body of Rebecca. And he's focusing his body's clenching. You see his muscles. When Perel does magic, his muscles move in unnatural ways.

Like he's flexing strange parts of his physiology. Because he's not real. He's not really a person. Yeah. Like he's, he's human looking, but he might not be. We haven't really talked about that. I don't think that wizards are fully people. I think they look like people because that's easier. Um, but he's basically like a living node. Of the magical world. So he's got this weird thing going on and he's got his hands on the body of Rebecca, but it's like two thirds into the bed. Whoa.

Like he's moving the body. Like, uh, like the last scene of Nightmare on Elm Street. Yeah. Kind of. I'm thinking of. Yeah. Yeah. We're like Freddie Prince Jr. Pulls her mom into the bed. Freddie Prince Jr. What? You mean the murder? Freddie Krueger. Freddie. We were doing a bit. I was like. Kiss me beneath the starry twilight. And he's just ripping into people with his claw. Beneath the green, green grass. So beautiful.

But yeah, so his body is moving into the mattress and the mattress is moving up around him and he's silent. He's focusing. And Allison's just sitting there. She's not looking. She's pointedly looking away from the bed. Yeah. She looks at you and goes, Hey, what's up? Well, you know, questioning everything. Yeah. You made a bunch of fucked up choices there. I'm a demon tuck. Like, I don't know what to tell you anymore. You knew this when we met up, right? Like I'll say it. I'm hot, right?

Like I'm a hot lady. I'm not a lady. And I only look like this because it's easier to get people to get close to me. Well. You hurt my feelings. And when you say you hurt, you hurt my feelings. She doesn't say anything. Like she's just silent. And I'm like, I was going to help you because you're my friend. And then you lied to me. And I think I'm still going to help you, but I don't like you anymore. And I don't want to talk to you after I get you out of Crystal Bay. You know what?

The worst part of this is. For me personally. Is I know that that should upset me. What? After she says, you know what the worst part of this is? What? There's a farting noise that happens. From Perel pushing the body into the pan. You see Perel's eyes. Perel's eyes open for a second and dart over and he goes, sorry. And keeps working. And she waits for that to end and says, you know what? The worst part of this is for me personally. Was it that noise?

It's that I know that it should upset me that I hurt you. But it doesn't. Cool. It's the way I am Tacoma. And I go up to her and I lean in. And then I pull the two obsidian coins out of her dress. And I like, I'm like. I don't think you need these anymore. And then I just like walk back to the other side of the room. I like do the thing where I like, you know, you're like rolling coins on your finger. I'm just practicing that for the rest of the night. Cool. Cool. Oh.

Can I take a second and ask you a question? Did Tuck feel anything when he touched her? What do you mean? Did he feel anything? Like aroused? Yeah. Did he feel that pull? Oh, no. Yeah. Well, because I mean, that's the question, right? It's like. Feelings are so hurt. I know. Has this broken him so much that he can't even be affected by her anymore? I guess so. Anus bumps. Yeah. Same. Feel them all the way up to my armpits. I know. I'm feeling it in my scrote, guys. My neck hairs are all woogly.

Okay. Now, what's Ving been up to? Because I want to know. Because. Okay. So, yeah. Tell me. Because I know what you were thinking about. Because we talked about it. Yeah. Which is a mechanical thing about weapons. Because he's not weapon dependent. And I just thought that he could study the essence of the crystals of his hands and use those to make weapons and stabbing things. So, the move is called studied essence, right? And in the past.

Because the only other time we've seen studied essence was in Lerm's shack seasons ago when you studied the essence of the huge crocodiles that you fought in Bull Rush. I thought he also did it with Gary. Oh, of Gary Oak. Right. Yeah. So, you did do that. So, you can turn into a tree. You can turn into a tree. Any other time you've done it. Well, when you did it with Gary, you were literally in the spirit world.

But when you've done it in the material plane, you've dipped spiritually into the spirit world. So, is Ving doing that again? Yeah. I guess so. Because these crystals originate from the spirit world. Yeah. Yeah. And the spirit is Larry, Terry, or Chad. Oh, my God. Is it not? It's so cool. Yeah. It is. Yeah. So, it's one of them. It's Terry. Terry is Amethyst. Terry. Oh, sick. Yeah. Just Terry. So, I guess I'm. I'm. Yeah. Communing with Terry. Mm-hmm.

And maybe having a pep talk with him and asserting his, Terry's independence as that further becoming separate from the other rocks. Yeah. Great. So, Ving is sitting there with his hands up. Is he in the hotel room? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, just sitting on like the carpet. He's using water. He has them pooled in basins. Mm-hmm. They, uh, they energize more in water. They're conductive. Conductive. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Through the spirit world. Cool. Oh, he has to submerge his head in the gills. Oh.

With the crystals in there. So, you're in the bathtub? Yes. Yeah. He's submerged in the bath. So, yeah. Ving is under the surface of the water. Mm-hmm. And closes his eyes and his third eye opens. Mm-hmm. And you're sitting on a patch of bare dirt. But in front of you, bursting up out of the ground, is about a four foot high pillar of the water. A four foot high pillar of amethyst. And it goes, What's up, man? What's cracking? God, I feel like I haven't talked to you forever, bro.

Terry, I just want to thank you for welcoming me back. It's been a long time since I've been in the spirit world. And it is good to see you, bro. I'm so just glad to talk. Like, how's everybody been? I've been talking to Tacoma sometimes. But, like, not that much, you know? Yeah. How's the little guy? Everybody's doing great. Shit's a little fucked up right now. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah? We're working through it. Yeah, man. And we need help. Okay. So, you want to, what?

Be able to, like, further integrate this form? I want to be able to welcome you to help me out. I'm, like, I'm here for it. What you got to realize, man, is that, like, those crystals are just as much a part of you as your breath, as your heart, as your blood. Like, the crystal's not in your body. It is your body. It is your body. And one day, who knows? You might just be crystal. You might just be like me. I mean, I like you, Terry. But there's some pleasures of the… It's not important.

Thank you. Hey, I'm here to help. Feel free to come back anytime, man. It's just nice to chat. High five. Clink. Yeah, you just slap the front of this M at this pillar. Yeah. How does Terry react to the high five? Yeah, he just goes, slap. And Ving wakes up, and the crystals are going up his body, and they're going up. They're traveling up both of his arms. His heart is beating out of his chest. His eyes are wild.

His gills are flaring, and they're gathering up, and just as they meet, they're going to meet in between his pecs over his chest. He's feeling wild, trying to take control of it. And feeling it take over him. And just as they're about to meet in the middle, he remembers what Terry says and feels control. And it comes up, and it meets in the middle of his body and sinks into a hollow in his chest and creates a small amethyst cave in the middle of his chest.

Like when you cut a geode in half, and he has a little hollow of a beating, glowing purple amethyst. And he has now finished the study of the crystal. And they are one of him, and he is one of them. I have goosebumps for sure. That's fucking wild. So we'll say that this is now studied essence. You have full control over the shape of those crystals. Cool. So are we waking up from our naps? Yeah, Billy wakes up about 30, 40 minutes later.

And Mears comes into the room, and he's invigorated a little bit, because it seems like he's been doing some dope secret society mender shit. And he's like, all right. The meeting's on. I burst from the cupboard. I heard you. Billy just bursts out of an armoire. I'm here. With knives out. What's going on? Yeah, where's John Ter? Okay, I'm meeting with him in a library at the edge of town in about two, two and a half hours. He seemed normal to me. He seemed fine.

But based on what you told me about the shit that he was talking about Maggie Cole, I want to get to the bottom of this. Yeah, we're going to figure it out. Okay. Now, you said that he knows about all of you, right? Yeah, he seems to. It would appear. So I don't want to just be throwing you all into a trap, but I do want you to come. I just want you to be surreptitious about it. Well, I'm already in disguise. Great point. And the scholar from the light guard saw you in that disguise? Fuck.

Okay, yeah. Okay, we'll think of something else. Figure it out. Yeah. See you there. Pal. Pal's partners. He walks backwards and finger guns at us, but he misjudges how far he is away from the door. So he finger guns. He's like, and then he opens the door. He's like, it's locked. And then you hear him go down the hall. I wonder where he's going. Yeah, you hear him as he's going down the hall. I'll go. Mears is back. And then I turn to these guys. I'm like, genuinely fucking love that kid.

And Perel comes back into the room sweating. It's like, okay, body's dealt with. Should we take Allison to the ship before we like, what are we doing with her in the meantime? We don't have time to take her. You probably could. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Let's go drop her off. Should I go to this meeting, too? What do you think? Oh, can you? Yeah. Can you go with Mears just to make sure no one fucks with him until like. Yeah, totally. We get there for sure. And he runs back into the room.

You hear a flap, flap, flap, flap, flap, flap, flap. And he runs back in and he's made a cloak out of blankets. Okay. He's like, I'm starting to think that these flashy disguises aren't really doing the trick. Yeah. You should buy clothes. Yep. I would really love to wear my robes. Fine. Get him some nice robes. No, my robes. I shouldn't wear them now. I want to wear them. Just you wear them. I don't want to wear them. Are you going to spend or something? I'm literally looking for a wizard.

Okay. All right. Fair. Can I have some money, please? How much do we. How fancy do we want this fucker? Look. Just give him 20 coins. 20 coins. I thought that was. Do with 15. 16. 15. All right. 15. And he takes it and he bails. And for God's sake, get some other fucking shoes. What? You don't like these? I made them. They're made of iron. They're made of a porous, semi-flexible. It's actually coral. It's breathable. You look like an ant on a cruise. I thought they were comfortable. Fine.

I'll go find mirrors. I'll see you in two and a half hours. Okay. And he heads out of the room. And you guys go to meet Ruby. Yeah. I tell Allison. I'm like, look, you fucked me over so many times, but I can't let you die. So we're going to take you. To some people that are going to fucking get you out of town. After that, we never want to see you again. You're going to deal with a lifeguard though, right? You're going to kill them. You're going to. We'll do whatever the fuck we want. Okay.

If you don't kill them, they're going to follow me. They're going to find me. Allison, this is your only chance to get away. I swear to fucking God, if I ever see you again, I'm going to fucking kill you. All right. And. Oh, yeah. Is Billy uncomfortable? Yeah. It's like watching your parents fight. Yeah. It's like watching your dad fight with his new girlfriend. Like, why don't you just break up with her? She sucks. Yeah. Stop yelling at her.

I take a leash that sometimes they put on my wrist when we're going on outings. And I put it on her wrist. I'm like, we got to make sure you don't run away. Yeah. It's like it's one of those fluorescent green like springy goes on your wrist. And it's just, you know. Yeah. Oh, I. I wore one of those in the 90s. Who didn't? She goes, I'm not going to run, Billy. I mean, all I ever do is run. So I'm sorry. Hey, you did everything you could for me. Well, let's go then. Okay.

Ving fashions a blade under his sleeve. Oh, yeah. And puts it at her back and said, if you do anything to endanger my family, I will put my hand through your heart. Understood. And yeah, I get we can cut right to the Crystal Bay Pirates lair. Yeah. The usual thing happens. There's some. We don't get distracted. No. Yeah. For the first time in a long time. Yeah. There's amazing shit happening in the square, too. There's some kind of animal doing magic tricks. It feels like being sad at the zoo.

You know? Yeah. Like Billy has silent tears streaming down his face because he's come to like Allison and he feels so betrayed. Yeah. And he's holding her hand like a kid would hold. Her mom's hand on the last weekend that he'll ever see her again. Yeah. As you walk past a stand where a guy's just saying free horses, horses for free. Just come over this way and get a free horse. That's a trap for sure.

And you walk right past and about five, ten minutes later, you're outside the Crystal Bay Pirates lair. Same situation. Some dipshit from the shadows like who goes there? Milton, is that you? Yeah, it's me. What's up? We need to talk. That's a Ruby. Yeah. Okay. You guys are cool. Hey, Billy. Yeah. Thanks for saving my life. Oh, you're welcome. You're so welcome. Billy's crying about Allison. Yeah. Okay. And he furrows his brow a little bit and is like, I'm not going to get involved.

You guys head on in. Bye, Milton. And you head down and they direct you through the cavern. And you're seeing parts of the complex that you haven't seen because you realize. Holy shit. This cave network is fucking huge. You come into a cavern that's lit through a series of crystal mirrors in the roof. And it uses the sunlight from the sunset to make the room have this kind of beautiful orange purple glow. Wow.

And all around the room, there are tons and tons of what look like spa technicians making different onions and creams and powders and salves. And they're just. Like working away. And Rucolangela. Exactly. There's all these amazing. Thing is going nuts. There's so many herbs and poultices happening. He's just dipping his fingers in all of them and rubbing on his crow's feet. Is this working? Is this doing anything? And Ruby's walking up and down, like inspecting the work that's happening.

They're being packed into bottles and jars and into huge crates for shipping. And I go over to Ruby and I bring Allison with me. Ah. Ah. Hey. Hello. Tacoma. Hey. Uh. Uh. What? What's. Don't. Don't do this. What's the weather? How's the weather up there? You came inside from the outdoors, Tacoma. It's good outside. It's real nice. You look good. We don't have to do this. Sorry. I'm technically your captain. Yeah. You are. Well, you look. Your boots are. So shiny. I shine them. Thanks.

Well, I have somebody doing that. Is there something I can help you with? Allison's like, wait, did you guys fuck? Yeah. Allison is kind of bemusedly looking at the two of you. Like, so, uh, something happened here? No, shut up, Allison. This is my ex, Allison. And this is a captain, my captain and nothing else. Nothing happened. Yeah. Nothing. Nothing happened. Exactly. Do you think something happened? Shut up. Being high fives. Don't high five. Nothing happened.

I want it to be clear to everyone in this room. And she turns around and starts talking to the spa tax as well. I want it to be clear to everyone in this room that nothing happened between me and this. Oh, and the spot texts are like, why would she say that if nothing happened? Yeah. They're kind of laughing to each other. Like, yeah. Okay. Okay. I've heard. I've heard that one before. Uh, she says, what do you want? This is, uh, this is the job. This is Allison.

Ah, she puts the persona back on when she realizes that there's work to be done. She's like, ah, this is the charge that we shall be transporting across the open seas. Yeah. You need to get her out of town. Uh, there's some people looking for her, but she's fucking dangerous. Very well. You can't touch her. You can't touch her. You can't let anybody near her. But be nice to her. Like, don't be mean. She's a, and I, I'm like conflicted now. I'm like.

She, and Ruby realizes, oh, he's being serious about something, which is unusual in itself. Yeah. So she points you over to a small mouth in the side of the cave and you go through and you hear. And she leads you out into a cavern that is open to the sea. Like they have their own port. They're small vessels. She says, what, what's going on? She's a fucking succubus. A succubus. I know this was the deal. We got the ship back for you. You're going to get her out.

I didn't realize it was going to be such a dangerous mission. Look, the light guard are going to kill her. If you leave her, that's why we didn't. We had an accord this in exchange for two weeks service. Yes. And also. The ship that we already got you. I put out my hand. She shakes it. Did she have anything to say about what we changed it to? Less dander. Yeah. She's like. And we also got rid of this fucking set. Yeah. Just probably still in the water. Yeah.

Like as you were walking up the beach, you saw a bunch of like skids with ropes, like dragging it out of the water. Like we're going to be rich. And she says, less dander. Good choice. Considering we sell cosmetic products. Thanks. That was intentional. All right. We'll keep her here until a vessel is ready. It's going to be tough. Yeah. Ports are locked down. But thankfully, we have a means of egress of our own. We should be able to evade the customs officials. Great. All right.

This will be done. And when your time in Crystal Bay is through. You will return to me and you will take to the waves under my orders. Okay. Platonically. And I touch her shoulder. I won't be going with you. Okay. Great. Yeah, that's good. We'll keep her safe. Let's go. Okay. She takes you back into the main room where Bing and Billy have been watching Allison. Yeah. And I have a face mask on. And so does Bing. And I'm like, this one. And what does this one do? This one takes away freckles.

Oh, no. I wipe it off my face. Yeah. He got it just in time. There's maybe one of Billy's favorite freckles might be missing. Oh, my God. It's okay. I'll have it in my memories. Ruby comes in and says, all right, our accord stands. We will transport your prisoner to safety. Come along. And she points her sword, the point of her sword at Allison and kind of nudges her along. It's very clear. Ruby does not want to touch her. Yeah. And Allison is like, well, I guess this is it.

I run up and leap into Allison's arms to hug her. And I get a lot of face cream on her. And she holds you very tenderly. Very like genuinely. Yeah. Just be safe out there, Billy. You too, Allison. Thank you for everything. Thank you. Thanks for trying. You're welcome. She puts you down. I walk away. I don't even say anything. Thank you for being good to Billy. He's a good kid. You and Tuck, you're doing it. You're doing a good job. It's nice to see that he's grown a little bit. It is.

But that's the last you'll see him. I know. Good luck. And you. Allison turns away and Ruby leads her at sword point deeper into the cavern. Mm hmm. Hmm. I hate to see her leave, but I love to watch her go. I hate to. I hate to. I love. I love to watch her go. But I like to also watch her leave. One more. One more time. I don't mind seeing her go, but I love watching her leave. I hate to see her go, but I love to watch her leave. One more time. He said it. This many times.

Everyone's just standing around. He's trying to high five. Tuck is gone. Yeah. He's trying to. He's high fiving. Nobody. Like he's high. He's trying to high. But every time he does, he tries to high five a different like cosmetics manufacturing. And they're doing it. Work, work, work, work. Five. Yeah. Ever since he got his like human hands back, he's just been high fiving way, way more. He can't help it. Yeah. And you are free to leave. Yeah. Really?

I'm like, yeah, I'm at the mouth of the cave watching the ocean. How are you doing, Tuck? I'm fine. What do you mean? I don't know. It's weird to like feel ambivalent, you know, where it's like a breakup happens and then you see the person again and then they're a succubus and they fuck you over and they try and sell you out to a religious organization. I mean, it's tales all this time. But like when it happens. It happens to you. Man, I just. I wish she cared more. Yeah. Yeah.

She didn't have it in her. And that's the scene we end on is the sunset over Crystal Bay. Tuck and Ving having this heartfelt conversation. This has been Spout Lore. I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara with me as always playing Tacoma Dome, the Barbarian Abdul. I'm Sean O'Hara. I'm Sean O'Hara. I'm Sean O'Hara. So long. Playing Fat Billy, the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai. Goodbye. Playing Ving, the Half-Elf Druid, Paul Oppers. Bye-bye. Thanks to Aaron Reed for our intro and outro music.

Thanks to Westlord for all the technical work. Thanks to Abdul for all the editing. And thanks to Adam Kobel and Sage Latoura for the creation of Dungeon World, which can be found at Google.com. And thanks to our Patreon supporters for supporting us on Patreon. If you want to support us on Patreon, you can hear a shit ton of bonus content, including our Blades in the Dark.

Campaign spout more Mall Brats which takes place in the high spear mall and features the cool treat kids as of this recording we played the first session last night and it was pretty fun so we'll probably have a little preview of that on the main feed so check that out and we will see you next time bye everybody so long bye bye join the fan club bye bye and so ends the tale of adventures three who tried the best they can though dumb and scared and lost they be for times of breast in revelry and though our journey may be a conclusion we will not leave you without a resolution a next week to hear some more whilst you commute or do your chores and for you I'd gladly spout more.