Episode 7 – Study Group

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 Tuck is the brute, he knows not his home, he loves to sing and fight Fingers have health, he shifts his shape, and wields a spear with great might Billy's 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 Speltman's Spout Lore!

I'm your Game Master Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always playing Tacoma Dome the Barbarian Abdulaziz. Hello everybody. Playing Ving the Half-Elf Druid, Paul Offers. Hey there. And playing Fat Billy the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai. Hello. When last we left our heroes, they had infiltrated the world renowned and mysterious Margani Library. Ooh. The episode before that.

And when last we left our heroes, they had been infiltrating the infamous and world renowned and mysterious Margani Library, attempting to capture a small worm. Who was about to tell on them. These stakes are low. So wildly low. You guys were level 10 last season. And you did that stuff. You infiltrated the library. Ving choked out an intern with sloth style. You found some books on cooking that you all know about. You found some books on cooking that you all insisted on taking.

Well, you suggested it. And this one had a picture of a mushroom on it. Yeah. That looked like a cock. I mean, he probably, Tuck probably thinks most mushrooms look like penises. I mean, yeah. Because they come in all shapes and sizes. And he thinks they're all beautiful. To be fair, they are penises. Yeah. They are the penises of the earth. That's true. Okay. What else happened? Oh, Billy found a secret service ladder. Man, he's good at stuff. Yeah. Thanks. Behind shelves. Yeah.

Secret corridor. A piece of the wall slid away, revealing a ladder on the fifth level that only Perel was able to use to get to the third level where the thaumaturgical history and philosophy section is said to be. Tuck couldn't fit. So Ving and Billy stayed behind. And you did a little bit of infiltrating again, sneaking around and stumbled upon a lecture upon the outer dark and the beings, forces which inhabit it. And the ways in which they inhabit the earth.

And a little crossover, which was fun. And a little crossover. Mall Brats. Mall Brats. Join the Patreon to figure out what those characters are. Yeah. Why you would give a shit at all. Why you care about a bunch of 50 and 60 year olds with weird names. Yeah. But that lecture was being given by whomst you later discovered to be Farah Margani, master librarian, the head of the Margani library, who asked him to give a lecture on the! The!! The! The! The! The! The! The! The! The! The! The! The! The!

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Light guard and she put a chair down in front of the door and said you have 10 minutes and we cut back we cut back at the end of the 10 minutes where we've been acting it out with like explosions and using like chairs in the room as props and stuff yeah davin has cut a table in half to symbolize the the purifier and he set the table on fire to be like this is where the torch of mccall was standing and it ends with you all throwing your hands in the air and panting and then clasping hands and that's how that's how we got here and that's why so much cardio 10 minutes long time sorry I can't believe we pulled off that dance that's why we have to be here in right now get to do some reading so your friend this is in the library right now yes yeah I see that's going to be a problem for him but he's a good he's good he's a good guy he's a good wizard guy yeah yeah he's a good guy you're good guys you guys are best friends already basically yeah we're good guys we could be best friends we're good I will admit that I'm interested in the theory behind a wizard for one still walking this planet terribly interesting and also losing his connection to the thaumic realm absolutely fascinating uh we should probably find him as quickly as possible yeah um so that we can all reunite and learn about uh help him read the books right yeah that's a great idea billy yeah I will be frank in the past when individuals such as yourselves have infiltrated the hallowed halls of this institution please don't say was murdered there have been some who have met the end at the hands of a librarian within these halls and I would like you to explain to me why you three should not be one of those individuals billy puts up his hand right away I'm nine ah yes okay why one of you two should not be one of those individuals when he says that we whisper to each other he's like now he's nine now he's not a thousand all the other times when you're trying to get him to go to bed he's like I am ageless yeah the immortal do not have bedtime he's like kicking so hard as we're trying to swaddle him I am as the seasons I'm nine oh now I imagine last night's bedtime was really difficult yes it's because we had let him have baklava too late okay she turns to you and she's not I am not going to kill you it has been many years since one has met their end in the library under my tenure I prefer that blood not be shed in these halls so I can promise that you will leave here alive whether on your feet or on your back depends upon your next sentence you know what not our worst sentence not what I meant to say not our worst sentence we've ever spoke yeah she looks at her watch not the worst date I've ever been on and I'm not going to kill you and I wink at her and then I start making my pecs do a little dance for her she taps her wrist I am like this is the sentence was that the right sentence so you come here with these fascinating but outlandish stories all true and you expect me to believe you but considering that no one has even attempted to roll anything oh I am reticent to believe you I'm gonna sing a song to the to the nipple dance okay what's going on what are you trying to do you're basically are you trying to be like hey we just need a book and we're gonna get out of your hair or what well we just want to peruse the books yeah and potentially borrow them for a long time yeah just we wanted to like kind of just be chill with what we're doing right now yeah all right she is she's basically like if it is true that amma margani my most revered many great times grandfather and founder of this library is alive and is the vessel of the icon of truth and a truth demon as you have stated I would very much like to have those chains broken it might be unwise for the library to wage open war with the light guard and if you three effective though foolish you seem we bow again you're madam my middle name is foolish my middle name is madam uh if you three were to agree to work on behalf of the library in an attempt to gain further information into the existence and servitude of amma margani I would perhaps be willing to overlook your transgressions here today do you guys have benefits for you absolutely not what I have to go to the dentist well the library cannot be seen to be directly aiding individuals that would be working against the light guard I'm sure you understand sure that makes sense do we get per diem it's five coins a day standard yeah it's our standard rate how is this rate not increased so far last year I know what you're talking about it's not a good thing inflation bitch yeah it's been a year and a half and you've always said uh five coins and you've gotten it once yeah and it's because you literally had to kick in a motel door yeah so she basically says no absolutely not I'm not paying you you can't stay here I can't be seen to be in contact with you in the slightest well then how will we know how to do our jobs how will we get here ah yes no I understand we should have a method by which we are able to communicate and she leans in her chair over to like the wall next to her where there's another one of those little bookworm holes and she taps on it and a little bookworm crawls out of the hole onto her finger and uh she holds it out in front of you and says should we agree that you will do my work in the city this will be how we communicate how your messages are sent back to me how is it gonna walk fast enough she whispers she pulls it up to her mouth and whispers very quietly to it and from around like around its body kind of unfurl two very papery wings and it goes like you're beautiful flies around the room and lands back on her finger and wraps the wings back up oh my god you're so precious what are those these are bookworms they've existed in this library for probably over a thousand years bookworms are of course so a sort of a nomenclature but they're sort of a mixture between a caterpillar and a moth they're incredibly intelligent able to uh weave quite incredible garments out of their silk and able to transmit information and collect information and codify information in a way that allows us to keep up with the organization of the library complex though it may be being asked do you have a name oh great bookworm oh man oh man yeah wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful wonderful awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome Beautiful to meet you.

Oman. Oman. Oman. Okay, yeah, Oman. His name's Oman. Yeah. Oman. And it brings its front two little tiny legs up, and you see it kind of bow. Oh! Its tiny little legs. That's adorable. We bow. Yeah, we all bow. Yeah. It's incredible that you're able to speak to these creatures. Wow, these are incredible creatures. He sticks his finger out. Oman crawls over onto your hand. Beautiful. Now, please convince me. Yeah, do I have to roll these things? No, you still have to roll.

She's saying, here's all the things that might happen. Also, she's kind of saying, you're going to help me, and maybe I'll help your friend. Okay. Maybe we're asking for reassurance or something? Yeah. Well, I guess we're asking for access to the book that Perel needs, and also for them to not kill Perel, because they've certainly already caught him. Oh, absolutely. And we cut to Perel being, dragged through a hallway by two burly librarians. And his wraps wrapped around his neck.

What's Perel saying? He's like, no, I love books. I'm here for the books. I love to, I've lived here forever for books. It's dead weight. He just says, dead weight. And he goes limp. And they keep dragging him. One of them's actually a guy that I wrote down. He's just like a really stocky dwarf, and he's just dragging Perel's ass down a hallway. Okay. Okay. So, Tuck's gonna roll charisma to try and ingratiate us with everything that we've told her to help us. Yeah. And I guess this is a parlay.

Yeah. She's like, you'll help me and I'll help you. Okay, cool. Or I won't help you and you'll still help me. Or I'll throw you in a big, deep, dark hole somewhere. Yikes. We were just in one. We're fine with that. Fine. We love holes. Yeah. Give us the deepest, darkest hole you got, lady. Yeah. Deepest, darkest hole you got is the name of a band that is blah, blah, blah. Wow. Wow. You are not okay. I've never seen Abdul's joke-telling style break down in his own mouth before. Fuck.

Fucking fuck. Three, four. Plus charisma. Plus charisma. Five, six. Oh! Billy. Billy, help. Plus bond. Still six. Oh, why'd you only have one bond? Wait. Can we do an aid to an aid? Oh, we've done this before. Aid to an aid. Aid to an aid. Because we were all doing the aid. Yeah, we have to gratiate, of course. Yeah. Okay, so 2D6 plus bond. I've already bonded with Oman. There it is. Yes! Fuck. I got a nine plus my aid to Billy is a two, so 11. Okay, so that makes Billy's aid a seven.

How is Billy aiding? Which makes… Oh, Billy's like… He's doing like the big baby eyes at her. Like, please, I'm just a little poor boy. Nobody loves me. Just a poor boy. From a poor family. Poor family. Spare him his life from this monstrosity. Easy come, easy go. Will you let us go? Bismillah! No! Will you not let us go? I'll let you go. Let us go! Never, never, never. So that's a seven, which means that she needs concrete assurance of your agreement right now. We have that water journal.

That was written by Aquarian Perel and them. Oh, as an addition to… Yeah, bartering knowledge they don't have is genius. Okay, so Billy pulls out the old journal and he's like, Okay, if you help us, I'll give you this book. It was written by three wizards. And it's just like their notes and stuff. And it's really important. And this is the original copy. And there's only one. And you can have… You can have it. Only if we can read all the magic books and you don't imprison us.

And you don't kill Perel. And you let us stay for a while to read all the books. Also lunch. We want lunch. Also, we're really hungry. We need lunch too. We literally just ate potato salad. Yeah. It's just a tiny potato salad. I'm sure you understand, Billy, that you are not offering me this book. You are giving me this book. I'm… Offering it. She takes the book out of your hand. She takes it right out of your hand. No. No problem. Just…

When you try and pull back, you're basically just being dragged across the floor. No. And she kind of picks it up and shakes you off like a little bug. Fine. But I tore out a good chunk of it. I'm lying. If you want these pages. Yeah. She flips through the book and she finds herself drawn into a few pages, really getting into this book, flipping a couple more pages. That's a good one. Isn't it? Yes. It's fascinating. An original copy.

One of the magicians upstairs is one of the magicians from this book. Sure are a lot of frog drawings in here. Yes. Yeah. That's… Yeah. That's his work. Fascinating. I am willing to accept this book as a token of your servitude to me. I bow. And I would also be willing to accept consultation on occasion by Perel. Is that the name of your friend? Yes. Yes. He would be honored. I would love a second set of eyes.

One of the original authors to walk me through this text on some of the more complicated topics. And as part of our agreement, I will now release you into the custody of the library temporarily so that we may find your friend and you may peruse the thaumaturgic history and philosophy section. And the sandwiches. And the sandwich section. I'm sure we can find you something to eat, but you must understand you are not staying on the premises. Yes, we are. No, you are not.

You mentioned that you have an apartment in the upper ward. Yeah. That is where you will remain. She knows all about cats. That is where you will remain. You will not be staying on the premises. You are not librarians. You are merely deniable assets of a type. But we can come and go as we please. Absolutely not. That sounds great. When you have information from me, you will speak to… Oman. Oman. The worm said its name was Oman, correct?

And Oman will return to me, relay that information to the hive. And the hive will relay it to the librarians and we will communicate that way. Cool. Now, let us go find your friend. She walks you out and through the sections of the library. She takes you up to the fourth floor, finds the room where Perel is being kept and interrogated almost. Or they're like getting ready to interrogate him. And spilling his guts. Okay. I'm a wizard. My friends are Tuck, Billy and Ving. Tuck is huge.

He's really dumb though. That's his weakness. Ving is almost seven. He's really tall. He's really skinny. If you hit him in the… If you hit him in the leg though, he's got a trick knee. If you put Billy in a burlap sack, that would do it. And we come around the corner. Oh, hi everybody. You'll never get a word out of me. We heard you. Burlap sack. I thought you knew me better. Burlap sack. I told you that in confidence. Yeah.

And Farah comes in and puts her hand on the shoulder of the dwarf librarian and says, Burke, this man… Is to be released. Yes. Very well. I was just about ready to get it out of him. I was going to crack him like an egg. And Burlap is like… Burlap is like sweating, staring at this guy like, looks like nobody's eggs are getting cracked today.

And he stands up and he brushes himself off and he picks up the fake mustache that fell off of his lip, slaps it back on his face and says, I believe that I shall be going now. And I assume you just fill him in on the deal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We let him know. Farah said that we could go look at her magic books as long as you helped her figure out what's going on with this notebook that you wrote in. And also as long as we, I don't know, steal her dad back from the light guard. Yeah.

Seems pretty simple. And Burke, the dwarven librarian, looks at all of you. And… And Farah's like, I will, I'll fill you in. I should make it abundantly clear that Ammar Margani is not my father. What was it? Grandfather? Great. Many times great. Ammar Margani died or supposedly disappeared over a thousand years ago. Whoa. Wait, how old are you? I am 102 years old. Whoa. What? Is she human? Oh, yeah. What? She looks 70. How? She's 102. And she's a fucking snack for a 70 year old. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know why Tux is sexually attracted to her. Physical prowess. That's all he cares about apparently. Yeah, I guess so. She says, I exercise a lot. It shows. I eat well. I take care of my body. My body is a temple and a weapon. Huh. Cool. I can relate. Fist pump. Same. And then I put my fist in there too. And it's got a Twinkie in it. Billy's clutching potato salad. Yeah. She smiles to herself and puts her hand in for the fist bump.

Now, I will allow you to go to the third level to the Thaumaturgic History and Philosophy section to find what you require. I will be expecting regular updates in the form of Oman returning to the library. But understand, if it is at all possible, I would like you to both locate and release Amar Margani from the service of the Lightguard. Okay. Okay. We'll do what we can. Yeah. I expect nothing less. Okay. And she bows and she turns and starts walking down a corridor. Okay. Off to her work.

Bye, Farah. Bye. Wow. What a head. What a head of the library. What a lady. Wow. What a woman. That was Perel. Okay. Did she say she was 102? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm 110, but I'm… Magic. Yeah. And also, you look like shit most of the time. I look like I'm 130. Trust me. I mean, I should make it clear, but for a wizard, I have aged poorly. I spent a lot of time in swamps. I know. Yeah. That shit does not do good. It's very corrosive some of the time. I was 109 when I went into the box.

Then I spent almost 100 years in the box. And now it's been about a year since I've come out. So, yeah, that makes sense. I'm 110. Technically 210. So, I'm looking pretty slick for 210. God. I guess so. Thank you. And he turns away. He just starts walking. Nope. Thank you. You said I look good. You said I look good. Thank you. Everybody agrees. Goodbye. I turn to these guys and I'm like, I think being stuck in that box maybe is what made his skin so ashy. Oh, probably.

He wasn't getting enough vitamin D. Yeah. It explains why his fashion sense is so out of date too. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, yeah. I mean, all that there is really left to do in the library right now is to go check out some books. Great. Sweet. When we get up to the third floor, can we all like Spout Lore about like some books we're flipping through? Yeah. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll do like a Spout Lore per person. Yeah. Okay. Cool.

So, yeah, you're on the third floor in the Thaumaturgical History and Philosophy section, which is the whole chamber. That's what this is. It's all books on magical philosophy, theory, history. And Perel is like… He's like agape. He's so excited. He's like running his hands along the bookshelves, like running down the aisles like Belle in Beauty and the Beast. He's having just a ball of a time. He's singing that song. I can't remember the library. There must be more than this provincial life.

Just watch, I'm going to make Belle my wife. There goes the baker with his tray like always. The same old bread and apples to serve. He's like singing to himself. But you've read it three times already. He's doing all the voices. He's spinning and stuff. Yeah. And that's the thing is he's singing it all in his head. So when you see him, he's just silently spinning in a circle with his arms outstretched. The ladder on rollers. Yeah. Yeah. So Perel's going crazy in here. He's having so much fun.

And you're all just kind of walking around grabbing books off shelves. Yeah. The vibe is our parents took us to Sears and we have to kill time. Yeah. Somebody. I mean, what we're going to do is we'll go. I mean, I always do left to right. So we'll start with Abdul. Think of a topic and then Spout Lore. And if you get a partial success, you learn something interesting. And if you get a 10 plus, you can tell me how it is useful to you. So this is a magic theories. Theory. History. History.

History practices like accounts of the lives of famous magicians. Warlocks. Oh, cool. Yeah. Oh, no. Yes. All right. So warlocks. Two to six plus intelligence. Oh, fuck. Oh, man. Well, plus my intelligence is 12. Sick. Wow. Wow. How many spelt lores has it been that you succeeded at? This is number two. Oh, man. Okay. Okay. So tell me something. Interesting and useful about warlocks. Oh, I'm flipping through the book and there's like an accounting of like all references to warlocks in literature.

It's like all the different times we've seen warlocks referenced in plays, poetry, music, and it's like organized by date. Like I kind of just flip to the first section, which is labeled prehistory. The first piece in there is the Sea of Graves poem from the end of season five. Uh huh. Wow. Wow. In between the wicked waves, there is an ocean full of graves. I'm not going to read the whole thing. Yeah, please. But the go to the end of season five if you want to hear that poem.

Jessica does an amazing reading of it. Thanks. Underneath, it's like an annotation that it's like, this is a children's nursery rhyme known the world over. Like principalities, McCall, Panuja, everyone knows this, implying that it is, its origin is in the prehistory from like whatever event created the Sea of Graves. Mm-hmm. And then there's like… Yeah. And then there's like a, like it indicates the line, a door beneath the ocean floor, it needs a lock and nothing more.

And it's like, it does not make sense that to open a door, you have to put a lock into it. The hypothesis is that because the poem has probably changed so much over time, that was originally referring to warlocks. Mm-hmm. And that warlocks are the only people who can open the door beneath the ocean floor. Whoa. Cool. Fuck, that's so sick. Which is most likely Lillian's tomb. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I mean, yeah, Tuck having been there connects those dots.

The only thing that I will, I think, because I think, yes, that is the reference is it means warlock. Like reading it and having been there and seen things and learned what you learned, the thing that you think about is that, yes, it's probably a warlock that would be required to open the door, but also probably a warlock that closed it in the first place. I thought Chimes closed it. Chimes said he helped build the tomb. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. So a warlock is the one who trapped Lillian here.

He just said that he was part of the construction of the tomb. He didn't say who else was. But the thing that you for sure are guessing is that Chimes knew or knows a warlock. Oh. And I think that it is. Yeah. Because I was saying that it doesn't mean this in earth languages, but I think the word warlock is a form of a word that means to bind or be bound. Oh. Cool. So like that is what they're, they either bind.

They're really good at binding things like demon, other demons, other warlocks or their, and it also considers the fact that they are bound by whatever icon they are inhabited by. Yeah. So you learned that a warlock was involved in the construction of the tomb of Lillian and that Chimes probably knew them personally. Cool. Yeah. Sick. Cool. Is that, is that useful information? Yes. Okay. Great. It's useful in that. It probably, it probably will give some of our listeners a fucking hard.

It's given me listeners. Yeah. I mean, I listened. Okay. Paul, what, uh, what book is being found? It's a book on when the sect of the Druids left the, the magistrate of magicians, the history of the, the division between the Druid magic and, and, um, the Druid magic. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Okay. Roll it. 2d six plus, uh, intelligence. Uh, I get to use wisdom because of my, yes, you do shit. Yeah. No, thank God I got seven, seven. Okay. So, um, lay some world building on us.

What, what ha how did that happen? What did it do? But you're not unfortunately going to get anything that's like actionable information. That's fine. I think it was that they, the Druids weren't. They weren't tied to the land. And so they, they had more of a, a spiritual nature to that.

And because that conflicted with magicians, they're more hands on, they're more construction and they're more like they build things with the magic and they do things with the magic with the spiritual, uh, realm is, is interacting with the spiritual realm is already there. You're feeling the force part of the flow. So they were more part of that scene. And like, you don't have to be so destructive in the spiritual. The magicians were way more. More destructive.

And, you know, uh, part of that was, uh, part of the wars, right? Like there was part of the way back when. Yeah. Right. Yeah, totally. I just had a eyes, a gape revelation. Yeah. Well, cause something that we've revealed that we talked about in, uh, spout Lorigin's for cruel runnings was that traditionally Druids of the shape-shifting variety have been half elves. But. Yeah. And now we're talking about. Connecting dots that we have laid out considering things.

Mother Iliana was a shape-shifter and a human. Yeah. And now considering that you're reading this book, that's like, oh shit, Druids and magicians were like connected. Either they work together or they're cut from the same cloth, but there was just like a philosophical division and how they worked their magic. I think Ving is asking himself some questions like, was my mom a fucking wizard? Well, everyone called her a witch. Yeah. Yeah.

And because of, you know, of her, her potions and her, that sort of stuff and shape-shifting, I guess. Yeah. Because everything that you were taught was that it's only possible for Druids to shape-shift if you have both human and elf blood. And your mom never really got into why she could shape-shift. But now that you're thinking about it, she never really aged all that much when you were young. Your dad was afraid of her. My dad was afraid, very afraid.

And also now you're like, okay, well, why was I able to. To take so many forms. What's the spirit Walker thing? Cause you're still trying to grapple with that. Like your total is whatever the spirit Walker is. The fact that you could take whatever form you chose to take. Yeah. I think that Ving is having some, like, is trying not to do that thing where you're like, oh my God, you know, like you kind of start spiraling with all the possibilities.

So, yeah, that is something that I think Ving learns. That's pretty huge. Because Druids and magicians kind of came from the same starting point. But became very. Very different over time. Oh. Damn. Cool. Family mysteries. They're deep. He's going to take that to his counselor. He has a counselor as part of his work, I guess, because you work for the city. Yeah. Yeah. It's a free employee program, though. So it's really only eight sessions.

He's saying, he's saying that I'm going to take this back to my counselor. Only got a few sessions. This is going to be really handy for my counselor. Wow. I'm excited. I'm excited by that revelation. Pretty sick. Okay, Jessica. Yeah, that's really cool. What book has Billy brought to someone to read to him? Well, Billy can't really read. So he went on a little wander by himself and he did spy a book that he could read. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it's in fairy language, like the ancient runic language.

Whoa. Yeah. So he picks that up and it's like really old. Super old. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like ancient, like the most ancient runs. That's why, like Billy could kind of like some of it was familiar.

Runes yeah is it slightly hieroglyphic um they're more abstract and cruder for sure uh like penises and boobs uh definitely no well it's like I think about it like um like cuneiform right where it was just like we have a triangular stick we poke it into this clay yeah and that's how we make all our letters very like specific like it doesn't look like much if you can't read it hell yeah so what's the book about so it's written by a winter fairy yeah yeah yeah that's awesome and billy knows that's like well it's obviously a really old book and that like to become a winter fairy that's a really old spirit and the book it's a first person account and it talks about the splitting of like the fairies from the spirit world because originally that's what a fairy is is it's a spirit that like rejected natural laws of the spirit world whoa and so they were ejected from the spirit world and they just kind of exist between the spirit world and like the outer dark which makes sense why billy can kind of manipulate magic yeah and interact with demons yeah yeah holy shit so cool so the fey is the space between the outer dark the thalmic realm the spirit world in the material plane it's sort of that in-between spot uh-huh yeah their nature is chaotic but not evil yeah and they can move within things like fluidly like that so they can move between all the different realms sort of like billy could go to the spirit world you know he's but he's not a spirit so he couldn't like he didn't transform into anything yeah okay all right cool cool cool cool you gotta roll time to roll to learn because I want you to tell me about this this fairy like if depending on what you got plus intelligence fuck are you kidding me god snake eyes holy shit one two oh no can we do it I wanted to know this so bad oh wait no no no no no wait no what we said was that failure oh you're still gonna learn things but I'm gonna keep that failure for later okay so you're not getting unfortunately you're not gonna get any like actionable information out of it like billy's not gonna learn a new power or whatever yeah um but we are gonna hear the story about this fairy and hear about like how it came here what it did oh yeah it's just that like it talks about the breaking like the exile of the fairies and they are cast away nowhere to go and so they lived in this like kind of like a shadow world of the spirit world like it was almost like a memory of like the landscape and in that world the fairies like built it up themselves like you know I I miss I miss the trees I miss the flowers so they made their own versions of trees yeah that are kind of like it's kind of like a wapple tree but it's like the like like the insights are silver or something like it's like different and things could change when they like wanted it to like when you were when you first met perel and the birds were singing backwards oh yeah they were yeah yeah and over time the fairies became like better at that like at shedding their the natural laws that bound them and so they learned to play and like in that play like transform stuff just naturally like you know whatever they wanted or needed it could be anything yeah you don't have to bend the rules you can just do whatever you want to do it's just like it's rules there are no rules yeah and in and over time from that they were able to slip into the physical world and play there but they still because I mean we've talked about how they're like billy was bound to a tree or whatever so but they still need that like anchor point yeah so they can't like exist on their own as themselves they have to like inhabit something like it could be like a house or a shoe it could be a living plant or an animal it could be ephemeral things um but once that object is gone uh then they would be like they would be like they would be brought back to like the fairy realm or they would have to find something else to inhabit but billy's able to stay permanently because he inhabited this child that was dying at the time yeah so cool fucking cool all right what's perel doing right now uh he's going systematically from shelf to shelf pulling volumes off and throwing them into his arms and perel is like I've just been having the best time here I've okay but here okay I found something this is an accounting of another wizard named bradley who had their connection to their thalmic power severed not in the same way not by their friend cutting through their neck with a shadow axe hey I saved your fucking life I don't want to talk about it right now you keep I don't want to talk you said you were fine with it when we got here you said we worked through it and then you keep opening this thing back up I'm working through a pretty devastating change in my life I don't blame you but you were certainly a key part of it you that's fair no it's not fair because yesterday when we all went out for ice cream I asked for tiger tail and you brought me back an empty cone and said this is how I feel all the time I do and now that you have felt the cone that does not hold the cream you know what it is like to be a wizard that does not hold their power pearl do you need to see a counselor yes absolutely I know one you can come see mine she's great uh I do not get mental health benefits through my job what is your job what is his job it's a dishwasher at the cafe I actually I bet he does work at the cafe that he lives over yeah he's yeah he's like a prep guy he just cuts vegetables just a line cook and he hates it because he has to do everything with his hands like physically it's infuriating bad at it yeah you know I could just turn this carrot into a sandwich if this was a year ago and then janet's like listen I'm tired of listening to this stuff you gotta just do your job man cut it that's what I'm paying you for uh yeah so he's talking about like okay here's a book that I found about another wizard who lost connection to their power here's a book that contains a passage that I found about someone who was not a wizard who was imbued with thalmic energy pretty incredible what was their name gradly you know what it's pretty wild that the two books had such similar names that's cool I wonder if I need to change my name to an ad sounding name and this he found a third book and this this book is about uh someone who was able to develop thalmic energy develop the power cultivate it from nothing so I think I've got three pretty good directions that I can go in yeah um I think I'm gonna stay for a little bit longer and read the books more oh yeah that's fine for sure so I'll see you all later sounds good okay yeah thank you thank you and he gets like he's so excited but is that's dying away a little bit as he's thinking and he's like thank you so much for thank you oh it's no big deal we just had to swim through some poop yes broadly you did have to swimsuit through some poop but there was a lot of risk involved I know that you are putting your lives on the line for me that's what friendship's like you know sometimes you have to wade through shit my friends in the past have traditionally not been the kinds to wade through shit for me and I just wanted to tell you how much I love you I appreciate it tuck grabs him by the shoulder and he puts his hand in his pocket and he pulls out the crumbled remains of the cone that he gave him and he gives it to him in his hand and he's like I wish that that was a more fulfilling gesture than it was and it's not even in his hand it's on top of the three books that he's holding I hope you can fill this up get some cream in this should have said that that's what I thought you were that's what I was thinking you were saying that's so funny but you didn't yeah tuck didn't clue that in honestly billy said it but billy said it yeah billy I don't know puts his hand on top on top because he thinks we're doing like a friendship hand thing and billy's standing on a shelf that's at shoulder level with perel he sereno de bergerac's the the correct line into tuck's head which is like just say this I hope you can fill that up the cone that is such an incredible thing to say billy such a thing that just cut to the heart of the issue yeah I wish someone else had said that I'm just you know they probably have an ice cream machine here so oh he means actual ice cream you mean actual ice cream yeah what else would I mean don't worry about it billy okay ding do you have anything heartfelt no I don't have anything heartfelt about it that you'd like to share with me I mean no I mean the cream thing I was gonna say yeah cream but I hope your cream fits in this cone but that sounded gross billy said it better even though he meant ice cream you know I'm sure we didn't even really have to do this I'm sure you guys know that I appreciate no we had to do it okay all right well I'm gonna go read some books and take some notes I'm gonna do some homework thing reaches forward and pulls the mustache off you don't need this anymore pal I guess I don't have to hide anymore he puts it on billy thank you I'm gonna need this because I'm stealing this book because I'm stealing this book are you actually stealing the book yeah all right tricks of the trade yes oh holy shit eight plus dexterity is ten and what does ten plus say on tricks of the trade uh ten plus I do it no problem yeah damn okay so it's not a huge book because it was written by a fairy yeah um I guess you just slip it in your pack yep oman definitely knows that you took it but he won't say a thing will you oman it is my duty thing shoots out of his face and he zips away into the cupboards oh maybe use your last hold oh my last hold oh to charm yeah an individual for a short time whoa whoa whoa wait oman I'm just gonna say this book is a good book I'm just borrowing it and he doesn't say anything you ving you hear him just kind of or you watch him uh curl up he crawls into billy's hair okay and there's just a bookworm in billy's hair now but it doesn't fly away yeah it's nice in there isn't it it smells like cheese you don't have to leave it was all a dream uh and yeah billy billy gets away with this fairy book cool yes this is gonna come back to bite you I can only assume I don't know if it's gonna come back to bite you I don't care it's the book of my people yeah he deserves it that's true it belongs in a library it's in a library put it back uh okay so well and you guys are just heading back to your apartment I guess ooh from the margani library it probably takes a while to get back to your apartment they actually do the blindfold thing too oh right they just dump us on the street I imagine it was sort of like the crowd from the lecture hall is heading back on the same bus too and we're just like oh my god we get dropped off at like other buses so that people don't know and then we're dropped off in like the center of the city totally yeah so it's a couple hours of them transferring you to different carts there's one that's pulled by a centaur who seems like a pretty chill dude he drags you around for a little bit you get into separate carts all the carts scatter all over the place there's a lot of shell game shenanigans tuck's trying to sherlock holmes like figure out what is how to how what the path is by smelling the bus with a pen and paper and then he's like oh my god it smells and tastes and stuff we passed by this one place it uses a specific kind of beer in the bathroom can I you're gonna actually try yeah oh yeah I guess so yeah I guess it would be I hope lauren smells I guess it would no I guess it would be discern realities yeah wisdom to use your fucking brains to figure out where the library is okay here we go fuck four plus five okay five shit you think there's without a doubt without a shadow of a doubt that the library is beneath the biggest tetherball stadium in all of mccall because they're all jacked they must play tetherball totally yeah there's no way that they don't they run the tetherball league and he's smelling the air and he's like yeah I can smell tetherballs yeah I can smell balls he showed that to everyone and he's trying to be kind of a dick to the guy that's driving the cart where he's like oh you're not gonna tell me where we're going to go well I'll tell everyone where we are and I'm like I smell balls we're near the tetherball court we're near the fig martha memorial tetherball stadium and you got and like the driver looks around and it's just bear desert you're just in the alcoholy desert right now he just went around the city yeah and every once in a while he's like croissants we're in the bakery district now and the library everything smells like shit to him though he's coated in shit he's covered in shit he's covered in shit he's covered in shit he's covered in shit the smell does not work that's why you're only smelling food because there's remnants of food in the town's shit and yeah you get dropped off and they take your hood gets taken off and you were just in a regular ass looking rickshaw with like a regular blindfold on totally normal person pulling it and you're just in the middle of the city what wait where did the centaur go what centaur I'm taking you out for a drink on the town people don't have accents like that here but this guy does who are you my name's gibby I came all the way from the principalities I did I had a dream to be a rickshawman just like my grandfather before me wow he tips his cap and he runs away oh I wanted more information he leaves you in the rickshaw the rickshaw tips backwards and you all fall out oh shit and you're just in the middle of the city and it's nighttime and you can tell you're in cliffside because of the the nighttime glow of all the neon signs oh what should we do guys I mean get cleaned up get a rest have some tea go talk to a thing let's go to a bathhouse oh yeah good idea yeah let's go to a bathhouse we look like shit I feel like cash is gonna get really mad if it's two nights in a row that we're covered in shit okay that was what I was gonna ask why not just go home and shower but it's because you don't want to make cash mad uh okay so you're going to a bathhouse is there a particular bathhouse that the crew goes to I guess we're going to kind of a nicer one because we're treating ourselves because we actually did a good job for once yeah we're like high-fiving on the way yeah great job you said you were going to a good job you stole that book bill bill that was amazing and I and I tore this page out of the book I was looking at oh what does it say it's about how warlocks are in the thing it's a table of contents unfortunately you just ripped out the table of contents what the fuck that's not useful I put the table of contents back in my bag it'll help us find it next time we go to the library but it won't help you find the chapter because tuckled's definitely going to lose that table of contents uh yeah so you go to the library you go to a um place that is called the the summer flower bathhouse holy shit and spa and that one is in the lower ward the lower ward what it's the nicer one we want to go to the nicer one wow okay so you're taking uh various forms of transport you actually go down into the deep ward you catch a tram that takes you all the way out of the cliff cool into the lower ward uh-huh and this it's cool because the lower ward has its own tram station like it's above ground it's very fancy lots of cool like wrought metal uh things with like flower designs they have roofs with like flowers like grown into it and the roofs all have um windows like windows in the top that have very elaborate sun designs and like fire motifs and all that yeah with sunglass sunstone oh yeah beautiful sunstone shit many small things like that are like sunstones smaller pieces yeah yeah like the one in the lighthouse is gigantor but there's like fancy little like lamps and stuff made of out of sunstone down here I think the uh like it's fire is like high class sunstone super high class totally yeah and so those are the two light sources down here but you're you're you're um struck by the number of open flames that you see there's like braziers torches lamps and it's all just fire oh my god with the occasional sunstone thing like the here and there and there's salt statues oh yeah yeah!

Yes okay so I was actually thinking they might ring the bay mm-hmm like they're along the inside of the bay wall huge statues yeah how big is it yeah uh oh like so how tall is the the cliff again like 90 feet yeah let's say 90 100 feet yeah so the statu- the statues are about that big like I think the heads of some of the statues almost reach the top of the cliff to cliffside yeah whoa they're gigantic they're monolithic they're enormous and they depict the various prophets of fire that have lived throughout the years does the torch of mccall count as a prophet of fire no he is a different entity altogether okay so actually that was a question that I had because we've talked about the- we talked about the prophet of fire a million years ago mm-hmm I figure there have been a bunch since then mm-hmm like maybe six or seven sure and they- they're the prophet like from childhood to their death mm-hmm how do people know that they're the prophet of fire has something happened to them I think it's like some dalai lama stuff like there are tests that they administer to them to see if they're a prophet or not like there are tests that they administer to them to see if they're a prophet or not mm-hmm mm-hmm administer to potential children and if the children make the right random choices they're like ah yes this is the next prophet of fire like if some kids mobile burns down like oh yeah a lot of arsonists I guess okay how about this so since so much of the religion of the flame is about enduring hardship most of the prophets of fire have been from poor working-class families but the most recent one is from the lower ward oh and it's considered like strange like the like the really pious that aren't wealthy people are like that's kind of fucked I don't know about this but they're not open about that because of course it's the prophet you don't say that kind of stuff and that came kind of about the time that like the political shift yeah I've been the torch took over and he was given a mandate to like exterminate demons yeah find the next prophet and the torch found this child the torch is the one that found this kid no that's right so the torch it again it is not an unusual thing because it's usually the like it's usually the jinn that find him what are you sorry oh so I've have I talked about gin yet no okay so gin were an idea that I had for like a cool kind of priest cast I guess so a long time ago the story goes that the God of the flame bound the jinn to be like his emissaries and priests so jin traditionally in mythology have like bodies of smokeless they're just like beings made of fire which the God of the flame was like hell yeah hum all about that so they could interact with humanity the God of the flame created for them bodies of fired clay so they have these very elaborate bodies that look like ornate suits of armor but made out of like ceramic not glazed pretty rough but like earthenware earthenware but the designs are very intense and elaborate but they look like um walking suits of clay armor with fire flickering inside them okay yeah so usually the jinn identify the new prophet yeah but this time the torch did whoa oh man it's just wrought with power and balances yeah cool so the the summer flower bath house you arrive at its beautiful tiled front gate and you just walk in what's your usual uh order when you go to a bath house oh we've never been to one this fancy but I would like hello hello uh madam hello hello us three would like to order a bath we have many packages that involve bathing oh packages okay I've never been to one with choices please gaze ye upon our menu posted here on the wall what would be you what would be the best one for like uh a night spent in and around a sewer you would be looking for one which draws upon the toxins of the body pulling them out of the flesh and skin and so and for that I could only recommend our finest herbal mud soaks okay yeah sure sure do you guys do laundry it peels off shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit!

Of beautiful and seemingly very old baths carved out of the finest sandstones glazed with the most beautiful glazes and bubbling with the richest most earthy muds with which to soak your tired bones and just at the very end of the chamber is Cash Cash is at the bathhouse yeah he's just like he's getting his nails he's getting a mani pedi and he hears the doors open and he briefly lifts a cucumber off his eye and looks to see who it is what's up we're like we came here to give you a night away from us and he sinks below the surface of the mud oh he looks relaxed and I think that's where we're gonna end it for this week I've been your game master Sean O'Hara joining me as always playing Tacoma Dome the Barbarian Abdulaziz playing Ving the Half-Elf Druid Paul Oppers and playing Fat Billy the Halfling Thief Jessica Tai thanks to Aaron Reed for our intro and outro music which thrills chills and spills the great feelings every time spills spills feelings and thank you to all of our amazing supporters the world round you can find us at Spout Lore most places on the internet including patreon.com slash Spout Lore or Spout Lore.com slash money please we'll see you next time bye bye so long and so ends the tale of adventure three who tried the best they can though dumb and scared and lost they be for time's abreast in revelry and though our journey may be like a conclusion we will not leave you without a resolution resolution returning next week to hear some more whilst you commute or do your chores and for you I gladly Spout Lore