Episode 18 – The Battle for Alain Springs

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Spout Lore Spout Lore Spout Lore Spout Lore Spout Lore Spout Lore Spout Lore Spout Lore Spout Lore Spout Lore Spout Lore and we laughed and laughed including fathom who laughed smiling through bloody teeth and pointed up past you oh no yeah the balls revealing in the sky three arcing balls of flame oh god and that is where we find ourselves now tuck you're looking up into the blue sky of the of the dawn day moon sun the days the day moon of the day the sky you're looking into the sky yeah and three balls of flame are arcing over the town what do you do uh I'm like bing water oh oh yeah cool so bing looks sees the the balls coming over the hill fireballs and uh elemental masteries the pond I'm assuming they're full of like explosives or oil or something yeah based on what far I told you in your head you can assume that yeah those are full of like flammable oil yeah it's not baked bread like we hoped yeah and you're probably not yeah oh my god it's rolls uh so you're probably not going to be able to like bullseye three two one knock them all out with water but what I'm hoping to do is uh build a wall of water to pass them through it to at least put them out so that if they land okay oil goes on the ground you know what I mean this is a less destructive all right 2d6 plus con great wall of water nice 10 oh shit okay so on a 10 plus choose two uh the fact you desire to comes to pass and avoid paying nature's price or retain control so I won't retain control it's just water I want the effect to come to pass and I won't pay nature's price all right describe this he sees the flame balls coming and he's like I've got a couple balls of my own and then he grabs the water up and then throws up and circles the barrels and water and um puts out the fire okay yeah so the torch is right in front of you tuck yells bing water you look up and then you go up and You tuck yells, Ving water.

You look up. You reach out towards the pond. Well, the oasis, the spring. And you pull up a huge wall of water. But because you chose not to retain control, so much more water comes out of the oasis than you expected to. It becomes a wall that the three barrels crash through. And then this huge wave slams down, hitting everybody. All of you are battered by this thing of water. Nice. And water continues to pour out of the oasis. I'm really loving it. Yeah, I'm wet as fuck, guys. Ving made me wet.

A bunch of the people fighting, the librarians and the like, a bunch of them are knocked down. They're struggling to their feet. The torch of McCall is unsteady. Billy, you're swiftly… I'm just river rafting. Yeah. That's what I'm doing. You see Billy get carried away on this… I'm fine. He's fine. He's tubing. He goes by like this. I want to be clear to Billy. Yeah. You're like ping-ponging off people that are fighting and trying to struggle up. You're out of control. I'm doing totally fine.

Billy, what are you doing? You're being carried away. I was honestly just going to vibe. I can't just do that. No, you can totally just be like, I'm just going to let the water take me where I'm going. Oh, I don't want to do that. I really… I'm going to try to come back to the middle because I actually feel safer in there. Yes. Where all the killing's being done. Because I'm like, I can fight close up, but those sandworms have big mouths. And I'm a small boy. Oh, no. What am I rolling with?

Well, so what are you trying to do? I was trying to swerve my body with my dexterity. My dexterity. So 2D6 plus dexterity is what I'm hearing. It's 4D6 anyway. This is what Billy is saying in his head. And his mispronunciation is why he fucks. Yeah. I'm just trying to use my dexterity. Dexterity. Dexterity. Dexterity. Slam. Slam. Slam. Slam. Yeah. It's like I'm trying to take a turn in a water slide and I go off the edge. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's terrifying. Yeah.

So you hit a bunch of legs on the way through. You run into like a box that's floating by and you're carried out of the main square like down a side street. You're totally separated now. Oh, shit. Oh, no. Ving. Ving. The Torch of McCall is still trying to fight you. He's soaked. He's like steaming. Cool. That is fucking hot. Shit. I don't know. This is Tuck's internal model. Because the Torch of McCall is also ripped off his shirt and he's got those like old ass like pecs and big abs. Fuck.

Yeah. Look up. If you guys want to look up a picture of J.K. Simmons exercising, it's that but like a Middle Eastern guy. With really nice hair. Yeah. With that like. Yeah. Something that like dark salt and pepper. Yeah, totally. It's not ripped off completely, but it's getting pretty torn. It is drenched. Wow. And he's wading through the water as it's rushing out of the oasis.

You realize that, yeah, there was a underwater river that was feeding this spring and you might have redirected the entire river. Oh, geez. So now there's just a river trying to rush through town. Oh, man. A river runs through it now. No. This is going to get so boring. Oh, God. Anthony Hopkins is going to have a stroke at the end of the day. At the end of this episode. Spoilers. God. For a 1992 movie. Honestly, I've barely even heard of this movie.

I'm surprised that you of all people have seen it. I'm going to go at him with my spear. Oh, yeah. The spear that you finally remember that you have. I have a spear, everybody. Yeah. So, yeah, he was pretty close when you decided to do your elemental mastery. So he's right up on you. Okay. I'm going to leap back, flip back and then lunge forward spear. All right. Defy danger dexterity to get out of his range. Yeah. Great. Oh, yeah. So I have 12. Yeah. You fucking like you barely move.

It's that like anime jump back. You know, just. Oh, yeah. It looks like I operated backwards. Yeah. Yeah. It's that like blur in the air. And then you're just like 12 feet back. So cool. Oh, and there's like the splash is still settling from where I just was. Yeah. All the water on the foot. Now my attack. Yeah. I can slash strength. Great. So I got an eight. Okay. Roll your damage. Five. Yeah. Nice. He's I mean, he's very tough.

It's that same sort of you hit him and it's it sounds like it clacks off like a stone countertop. Oh, God. But he makes that like, oh, and I push I push him back from where tech is. You hear. Oh, you don't see what's going on over there. You do yourself. Yeah. Yeah. You deal him a pretty good hit. He also does damage to you. So roll. So two D 10. Nine. Okay. So he does nine damage. Oh, damn it. Okay. So I think the forceful thing is that you spear him.

He takes the hit and he slides back in the water. The water like parts behind him and he does this like spin where he spins himself along the length of the spear to get in close to you and his elbow swings around and he clocks you right in the jaw. Oh, God. Elbow. Sick. But you take nine damage. Holy. Tuck. This is all happened in the last like four seconds. Basically. Yeah. The water hit. Billy got carried away. You heard him go. Whoa. And Ving and the torch are brawling. What's that?

I'm doing. He's like struggling up out of the water. Oh, I push him back down to the ground pretty hard. You know, bully style. Two D six plus strength. Nine. Nine. Okay. He's trying to get up and you just reach down to push him back into the water. Okay. Okay. And he grabs onto you and drags you down into the water with him. So we're grappling. You're grappling. You feel his like fucking iron python arms start wrapping around like under your armpit and across your neck.

And he's trying to get you in a chokehold. Can I do unbowed and Brent unbroken? Yeah. Brent. Yeah. Dr. Falcon. Dark edge. Appears in the air where I floating above with with wings of blood dragon. Magic. I use the power of Brent Constantine to infuriate my enemies. Is that what Constantine was about? Keanu Reeves with Brent Constantine's face. Do you know this is actually based on me? This is about when I died of lung cancer and went to hell to fight the devil. Yeah. So I'm bound.

I'm bent on broken. Keep in mind. Suggest that you're not fighting back. Yeah. Okay. I get pulled down into the water and then tuck. Instead of fighting back goes with him and pulls fat under the water as well. It's kind of a gamble to be like whichever of us drowns first. Oh my God. I'm drowning both of us. Oh no. My move is to drown myself and my enemy and then hope I can stay conscious longer than them because I have always known that like strength wise we're on equal footing.

Like if we take each other to the ground, it's basically like we're hugging each other until we're both tired. Yeah. And then we fall asleep and then one of us wakes up first, pisses on the other one's head and then walks away. 2d6 plus constitution, I guess. Okay. Here we go. Fuck. Oh. Five, six, seven, eight. Eight. Oh. Plus constitution. Roll a 2d10s for me. Eight. Eight. So you're struggling under the water. There's like sand and silt and stuff like clouding your vision. Mm-hmm.

And you're getting like mouthfuls of dirt and water. Mm-hmm. And you feel at Fatim's arms wrapping around you. You're wrapping around him. And then just a fucking sledgehammer fist pounds you in the side of the face like over and over and over. And you take eight damage as he just goes crazy on whatever he can find. I have one armor. Yeah. So you take seven. Okay. Yeah. What are you guys at? I'm at 10. Whoa. Damn. Damn. Damn. That's like two more hits. Billy, you're careening down alleys.

You don't even really know where you are. You're just trying to stay above the waterline. I'm doing okay. And as you're carried through town, you see a group of light guard sort of reforming. They all look like they're just trying to get each other on their feet and ready to go. And you're heading right for them. What do you do? I just go underwater. Nice. They're probably not going to notice me. Okay. Great. Defy danger dexterity. Eight. Okay. Cool. So they do notice you. Okay.

They see a bunch of stuff bobbing through the water. It's just my little middle finger. It's like two little bird sharks. Somehow they go on either side of them. And you hear them start shouting after you and McCollin. Follow me, boys and ladies. You had an idea. So what's your plan? What I wanted. To do was I want to make basically a second thing to use the torch. Oh, with your fucking create a convincing illusion. Yes. That's an interesting idea. Can I offer my two cents on this?

So you've got this like group of light guard running after you. I wonder if you could use your convincing illusion to make like them look like things to like really like how some merit like draw them back to the square and be like, there's more elementalist. Yeah, that's a good idea. So like really cool. Make them look like Ving and then try and get back to the square. Yeah. And lead them in with you. That's awesome.

Yeah, that's kind of what I want to do because I want to confuse all the fighters and especially the torch. That's awesome. I really like that. The first order of business would be try and get back to the square. Billy's feeling surprisingly good and chill like this whole fight. He's really just been like carrying around an axe and then like floating around. So I'm just going to trust that. The water knows what to do and I'm just going to wait for it to carry me back. I like it.

I give me a 2d6 plus charisma. Oh, no. Thank God. I got four. Wow. That's not good. Very sad. Can I spend one of my holds to resist a failure? Yeah, because I have three holds for today and one of them I can turn a failed roll into a seven to nine. Oh, that's just part of. A fairy child. I thought I changed that. Cool move, John. All right. So I think, yeah, that totally works.

So and this makes perfect sense with the charisma because you're just like you tap into this like however the luck of fairies works. You just tap into the nature of chaos and change and the water starts to carry you in the direction. Like I knew it would. Like you knew it would. I think the seven to nine is that you. Twiddle your fingers and now chasing you is a group of things that all look identical. Tuck. Holy shit. Oh, my God. Pethouse forum. Dear Pethouse. Dear Pethouse.

And then there were six to nine of them. And I think as you're floating down the water, you're looking at your own body and you realize that your arms and legs look a lot longer than they usually do. What? Yeah. You look at your at your body and you're like wearing the same clothes that Ving was wearing when you get here. Oh, my God. And yeah, you've made yourself look like Ving. Oh, no. But like also I'm like so tall. Yeah.

That's the thing is the illusion is convincing enough that you're like, is this my actual body now? So Ving, you're fighting the torch of McCall. You like are, you know, jumping around each other, trading blows and you get turned around. To the point where you're looking at a side street and like seven copies of you run into the alley at the same time. One floating on a current that is separate from all other currents in this river going. Whoa. Going like this. Yeah. Two middle fingers up.

Backwards. Yeah. To provoke the light guard. Yeah. And yeah, there's just like a bunch of copies of you in this area. The water level has seemed to like. Stabilized at around knee height for you. So Billy, it's like it might as well be an actual pool. Yes. There's a thrashing in the water. And every once in a while you see a brown arm or legs stick up out of the foam. Great.

I would like to use my light as a feather to jump back and run across the top of the water and get into the middle of all the things. Nice. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Ooh. Nice. Six plus what? Dexterity. Yep. 11. Beautiful. Great. So he runs, he steps like, you know, it's like up to his knees, the water. So he takes a step like in the middle of the water and then like close to the top. He's like running up like there's stairs built inside the water. Ding, ding, ding, ding.

Till he reaches the top. And then you're just like darting across the surface of this water. Like one of those water lizards. Yeah. He looks like a fucking idiot. Like behind him. Yeah. His hair is splayed out. Like it's like. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. And you're. Bleeding from my nose. And you rush towards this. Group of yous. Yeah. Including one that's like sitting in this water floating down. Something. Billy, is that you? You know it.

Oh, the rest of them are speaking McCollin. Yeah. Right. Can I go for the torch? Yeah, totally. Okay. Because he's like, yeah, he's moving forward. He sees this happening. Ving jumps in the group. And I start speaking my best, worst McCollin. Yeah. What? Dundas to a bibliotheca. That's what we're all trying to find, man. We're all trying to find the fucking library. We're all trying to find the bibliotheca. So the torch runs forward towards the group waiting through the water.

Although it's like steaming up in front of him. Like he's evaporating a significant amount of the water around him at any one time. So he's just becoming this like cloud of fog as time passes. But now he does not sure which Ving it is. So yeah, Billy, what do you do? I'm just going to throw a dagger. Yeah. I don't know. Unless you guys, I can't think of anything. Actually, I think that's sick.

Like where it's like Ving disappears into the crowd and then a fucking dagger like just whips out of there. From a different Ving. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. From its belly a little bit. Yeah. Way lower than you would have expected. So yeah. Wait, actually. So I know. What do we think? Because what I was thinking is that because it's not, it did what Billy did, but maybe a little bit better than he thought it would. I think that this is Billy's actual. Yeah. Physicality. Physicality.

So like you're. As tall as Ving. Oh. Like you have his reach. You're bigger than you've ever been in your life. I'm a giant. Everybody get out of the way. I'm going to crush you. It feels awesome. Like the wave carries me and like drops me on my feet and I go into this like loping run. It's so graceful. I've never been so fit and fast in my life. But it reminds you of a physicality that you feel like is a little familiar from eons. Ago. Oh shit. Moving with a grace that you haven't felt in ages.

Oh my God. I do remember and I grabbed my knife like an ancient memory and I know exactly what to do. I aim it at the torch and I chuck it. Beautiful. Cool. Two to six plus dexterity. Oh, so beautiful. It is an 11. Sick. Fucking tight. I aimed it right for his throat. Roll. Roll your dice. I'm going to do damage. Ooh.

Um, the torch is like running through your, you're trying to see him through this cloud of steam that he's creating and you see it below apart and you see his furious face, the fire burning behind his eyes becoming almost like a visible flame. Your knife shoots out and it streaks right for him and you hear him cry out and just and pull back into the fog. This is getting fucked. So there's like fog all over the place. Yeah. I can't even see his face now. But you know what?

Billy doesn't see the fog. Oh. He sees the like the rushing snow, the blizzard. Ooh. The winter warm. Different face. Whoa. What face? It's a, it's a, uh, uh, a Dark Elf King. Whoa. Yeah. So sick. He sees the same dark burning in those eyes and he knows he's fought this before. So sick. Fuckin' sick. So cool. Oh my God. The Dark Elf might've been the demon of zealotry. That's an interesting answer. I think it's a good answer. I think it's a good answer. I think it's a good answer.

I think it's a good answer. I think it's a good answer. The Dark Elf might've been the demon of zealotry. That's an interesting idea too. Oh my God. You could have fought the same demon years and years ago. Oh my God. So sick. But yeah, I like the idea that instead of this like billowing white fog, it's whipping snow. Yeah. There's like whistling wind, like whipping through your hair. So sick. As you descend into this like past memory. Oh, that's fucking cool. Yeah. Tuck, you're drowning.

No, I'm sorry. You feel like teeth bite into you. Like he's going crazy. He's very mad. Yeah. And you actually see like lights like flashing under the water. Oh. As his face like comes in and out of you, you see this pinpoint of light. Oh, okay. Yeah. So Tuck is like, he usually tries to not mortally wound people while he's fighting, but like he's like dying basically. He's been underwater for a long time.

So he, uh, he grabs his ax close to like the ax head and then he like punches the amethyst stick. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh my god yeah okay hack and slash eight roll your damage ten whoa damn yeah you just punch forward you wait until you see this light get closer to you and you just punch forward you feel it connect with something and then you just see through the light like red cloud around you but then you also feel that fist come back in so roll d10 seven yeah and he just fucking hammers away at you again it's like in like your ribs you feel one hit you in the groin like he's just punching whatever he can find yeah he's not dead I just like no name but he said he lets go like after he hits you a few times he lets go okay and now you have the opportunity to write yourself and maybe stand back up yeah I push it when he when I feel his grip slackening I push him away and I go to the surface for like a breath of air yeah you're I'm gonna say you're able to like stand back up fully okay so you just like breach yeah like a whale oh my god Ving you're in the middle of this group of copies of you and where there was just like turbulence in the water next to you this massive form stands up and just yells this huge breath of air being drawn in I'm bleeding so much are you okay no like one at one of your eyes is starting to swell shut oh yeah yeah it's fucking intense yeah but Ving you're in this the middle of this group of you and they're all trying to figure out what's going on there's like a bunch of jostling because they're not sure if one of them is an enemy or not Ving's going yeah what is going on jostle jostle what the heck jostle is this your plan to just confuse them no I take this this moment of jostling to grab a flag and down a bit of my the wine give me a defy danger charisma okay do it slyly yeah pretty much why because I'm just like just be like oh man yeah what's going on just give me a second glug glug glug glug what a crazy day right water water everywhere but not a wine to drink you know what I mean nice I love it Ving is way too good at drinking on the sly yeah oh it's like a fucking like Jackie Chan and drunken master like you're spinning behind people's backs like pulling the wine out yeah like when they're not looking you like get behind them drink some wine get behind them drink some wine I duck underwater drink some wine somehow hand it to somebody they look at it in confusion you punch them in the stomach take the wine I poured in the guy's mouth and then I make out with him suck it out of his mouth clock set for a second he sees being kissing himself and he's like dear house so yeah so I think you heal for 10 hit points great great you guys have magic healing potions right FYI totally we're gonna cut back to Billy's like cat and mouse in the whipping snow so Billy you're stalking through this like whipping snow storm it's flashing in and out of like the hot day in McCall the rushing water and then freezing cold whipping snow and you're trying to track down your your quarry your adversary what do you do okay so Billy would have stalked like the physical torch like the being because he would have to kill him as like the demons vessel but he's also going to like basically commune or like um like basically like corner the demon as well like using his like fairy power because like they are in some ways like sort of like how he can talk to the spirit world there's like a way where they can talk yeah because the way that we've talked about it is it's all connected like yeah!!

And making like clicking sounds and stuff like that to confuse him, like sharpening the knife and stuff like that. Sick. So sick. Okay. So what does Billy say? Like in this language? Don Diaz, the biblioteca. Did you say Don Diaz, the biblioteca? Hi, I'm Don Diaz. The library. I guess Billy is going to say like, I know what you want. You will never win. You will always be searching. 2d6 plus charisma. Nine. Yeah. So Billy, you're stalking through this snowstorm slash knee high water.

And all you can see around you is this billowing white steam and this whipping snowstorm, the wind creating eddies in the, in the air that suggests a shape there. Are they there? Are they ahead of you? Are they behind you? And you hear in response over the wind and over the billowing fog ahead of you. There is no victory. There is only pursuit. This will never end. I will not win, but I will not lose. And then a darting figure comes out of the fog and rushes right at you. What do you do?

Grab a knife. Grab my little like paralyzing knife. Oh yeah. I jam it in their gut. Ooh. You take the hit. Yeah. If this, this is the thing is they're coming right for you. So if you're, if you're letting them get close, he's going to hit you. That's fine. Yeah. Fuck. Hack and slash. Or I guess it's, I guess it would be since it's a, like you're letting him hit you think that he surprised you. You're it's a backstab. Probably. Okay. Um, so it's dexterity. So it's seven.

So it's a seven to nine on backstab. Um, choose one. So you don't get into melee with them. You create an advantage towards you are an ally acting on it. Ooh. Can I create an advantage for Ving? Yeah, totally. Like it's basically like whoever does something next, we'll get a plus one. Cool. Yeah. That work. Yeah. Okay. Cause you're in the spirit area, right? Like this, this zone in between. Yeah. I'm letting out a lot. Cool. Okay. Billy roll a 2d 10. Okay. Okay. Not six and nine.

So you take nine. That's our Billy. You take nine damage. Oh man. We all got walloped. Yeah. This dude's fucking brutal. Um, but yeah, this figure comes rushing out of the fog slash snow. You see flashes of the grizzled face, of the torch of McCall interspersed with images of this dark elf King that was killed thousands of years ago. And he rushes forward and a hand locks around your neck and crushes down on your windpipe.

You feel something break in there, but you jam your dagger up into his chest and the victory in his eyes turns to panic as he feels this venom coursing through his flesh and he lets go and stumbles back through the fog, bringing this, this billowing cloud with him as the image of this white steam and the snow storm starts to recede in your memory. What do you do? Um, I don't try to catch it. I'm just standing there. Something happened in my neck. It was really bad. Vang.

Are you, you were heading over there too? Yeah. I mean, uh, with the, the connection feeling with the spear, you know, and seeing Billy go in and out of this, getting these little flashes of him, I mean, between clouds and snow. So I enter into the cloud. Let me, let me just give you an image. Cause I'm curious about this. As Billy's Ving body leaves the cloud, you see a flash of what Billy was all those eons ago. What does he see for just a moment? What do you see?

Oh, I see, um, what looks like a man made of wood. Ooh. And then it's just Ving. Tuck. You've breached the surface of this water. There's a, a group of Ving, Ving's everywhere. Have I seen the conflict between Billy and the torch? You see this huge cloud and you saw Ving run into it. Oh. And me, I yell Billy as I go in. So, you know, the Billy's in there. Okay. Uh, so I'm like, well, everyone's in that cloud. Party time. Let's hot box this book. Yes.

The more time you take, the more time you're giving Fadim to jump out of this, this water. So he, uh, he sees like two things go in and like, he knows that Billy's in there. So he's like, I have to fucking get in there and find the torch. And he's had this like plan kind of percolating in his head ever since he read that demon book and talk to Alma. So he communes with his acts using for the blood God to try to do the same thing that he did on the purifier when he saw the, the true form of Alma.

Where he sees the true form of the torch. Right. Because Alma told you that whatever you did with Terry, Larry and Chad separated the human and the iconic form. Yeah. He said it was like painful. Like it was ripping a shell off of a crap kind of thing. Yeah. It separated the demon from the human form for a second. Right. Okay. This makes sense. Yeah. What a nice payoff for a thing that happened like two seasons ago. Oh yeah.

So that's what's going on is tuck is running into the cloud and trying to use Terry layer and Chad to disrupt. Yeah. He's trying to separate the demon from the man. Okay. So for the blood God, you are initiated in the old ways, the ways of sacrifice, choose something, your gods or ancestor spirits value. When you sacrifice those things as per your rights and rituals, role plus wisdom on a 10 plus the GM will grant you insight into your current life.

And then you can, your current trouble or a boon to help you on a seven to nine. The sacrifice is not enough and the gods will take of your flesh as well. Keep in mind that the sacrifice is usually destruction. Yeah. Yeah. What can I totally destroy in this cloud area? So yeah, tuck stands up from his like brawl with VATM. He rips his amulet off and crushes it. This is the sacrifice. Cause it's like, he's, he's kind of overpowered FATM and it was FATM that like threw away his amulet.

Originally it's sort of like letting go of like the lie that he was still connected to his past and he like tosses the bits down at FATM and he starts running at the bank of bug. And like it's that Hulk run where it's like slow at first and then he picks up speed and then he starts to commune with TLC and here's the role. Oh God. Uh, six plus wisdom. Oh, Holy shit. Whoa. Uh, plus wisdom is zero. So that's 11 still. Yeah.

And it's like, as like literally the second he hits the bank of fog, his vision changes to like that, like spirit vision that like TLC gave him on the deck of the purifier. Yeah. Sick. So you can still feel and see the fog as you run into it, but it doesn't obscure your vision, which is a very strange feeling because you're looking through it, but you're looking through it and you see the torch tattered robe struggling back body, like locking up in this paralytic poison.

He's like almost thrashing his body's like intermittently lighting on fire. He's coughing up flame as his body tries to purge it of this venom. So I forced the spirit energy into the torch and I want to see, uh, like do the same thing where I want to see the man inside. Mm. Hmm. You see the thing that you see before you, this thrashing man covered in flame, but no fire. He's just a old man and he is in extreme pain.

The bursts of flame that he was letting off, uh, have started to burn away the fog and you see on either side of you, Ving and thing, but, but we high five above your head, but through your spirit site, lent to you by Larry, Terry and Chad, you see little Billy inside this Ving body to your left pillow and your friend Ving on the right. And I see like burns on Billy's neck. Yeah. You see like a, like seared handprint around his little throat. Like in home alone one. Yeah.

He's got the, he's got the M of the McAllister doorknob burned his throat chakra. McCall. Exactly. Um, yeah. And you see this old man thrashing in front of you. Yeah. In extreme pain. Oh wait, do I see the demon? Oh yeah. Sorry. I'm trying to figure, okay, what does a demon of zealotry look like? The two demonic forms that we've seen are the truth demon, which reflects your own personal truth. And then mercy. Yeah. Who was also a, like a humanoid form.

I don't know if zealotry is going to necessarily have a humanoid representation. It's a fire. I was thinking, or something flame like. Yep. Fire, like clouds of words. Like music. Like it's, it's like sensations. Like you can hear hymns and chance, like overlapping tiny tasteless cakes. Little crackers. Maybe like, it's like, it's picking up the beliefs of everyone in the area. And like you're hearing and seeing and tasting representations of them.

It's like, like you said, this floating cloud, but like very similar to the truth demon where it was like your personal truth. Hmm. Has an influence on it. Like the people that are seeing it have an effect. So Tuck has a different idea. Yeah. Billy sees a different thing. Yeah. That would make a lot. Yeah. Can we maybe do a quick sort of truth demon thing where you each say what you see? Yeah, sure. Okay. So Tuck, I see Billy and Bing. Oh, interesting.

I see the scene in hither and yon where it was chimes, Billy, Ving and mirrors and tuck. Oh, cool. Like eating stew and joking around. That's the thing that he sees. Is this the thing that would whip up a fervent zealotry in him? Yeah. It's this thing that he would tear the world down for. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. What does Ving see? Hmm. Ving sees a multifaceted chimera. Ooh. Like just almost like every living creature together in one being. Cool. And there's some little sprigs of it. Yeah.

And there's some little sprigs of trees and moss and things, flowers, lily pad feet. Wow. What does Billy see? Billy's kind of like somewhat close to nature dim. So I don't know if he'd really see anything. Yeah. I see fire, I guess. Like kind of like where is all the tree might have come from. Like one of its like more earlier forms. Oh, like primordial religion where people like in the early days they worshiped the fire.

They worship fire and eventually like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, and eventually like consuming what was given to it or what it could find wasn't enough. So it began hunting. Totally. That's awesome. And under, underneath all these overlays of the iconic form that you're seeing. Yeah. It's a struggling old man. He's been separated from this iconic form and his body is in shock. Is there a way that I can. Grab the demon with the rope.

Oh yeah. Yeah. I think so. Ash four with my saffron rope and try and at least tie the chimera down. Yeah. So 2d6 plus dexterity, I guess. Should I elementary master a horse out of steam and then go in like a cowboy? I mean, yeah, that's an option. Oh, there's a firebird. Yeah. I was wondering. I was thinking that, yeah, the bird goes up in the… I mean, I can't tell you what this bird does because you have control of it. No, no, no. Dude, describe it. Yeah.

I mean, I just wanted Cloudpiercer to come back in this moment, but he's not there physically because I don't have control over him, but I'm still connected to him spirit wise. Yeah. I don't think that you… I don't think it's a… Him. You don't have the animal companion move or whatever. It's still functionally the same thing. Cool. He's coming to you because he considers you as having called him. So I even like the idea of you're in this cloud of fog.

I'm in this cloud of fog and I'm running towards this chimera as much as I can, fast as I can. It seems to be getting… Like… I'm not getting any closer. Yeah. I feel this rush of wind pushing from behind me as I'm lifted off the ground and there's Cloudpiercer spiritual embodiment underneath me, picking me up and zooming me towards him as I lasso cowboy style this chimera demon. Fuck yeah. Great. What would you say lasso is? Dexterity? Yeah. Ten. There we go. Ten. Yahoo! And what is…

What does Cloudpiercer's spirit form look like? Is it the firebird? Yeah. It's a firebird. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Fire and lightning. You know, like when a horrible volcano goes off and then there's lightning coming out of fire? Yeah. It is terrifyingly that. Fucking sick. Fucking cool. So yeah, this like firebird that you summoned earlier is melding with the spiritual essence of your thunderbird friend. Yeah. My spirit animal. Cool. Cool.

And the saffron rubbed rope whips out in front of you, wraps around the body. You have this old man and latches tight. So would this keep the demon from getting back in? That's what I was thinking. Yeah. I think it might be because he was separated since the influence was disrupted. I think it locks it in that disrupted form. Okay. Oh, that would make sense. Sick. Like it's not fully latched on to this man's body anymore. Being tied up the man. Yeah. So the demon can't get back in there now.

Right. But it's not like out yet. It's kind of like wavering. It's like hanging on the edge, right? Like it's just outside. So yeah, the rope cinches tight around this man's arms. Yes. And then Ving jumps off and stabs the spear in the ground behind him. Like he's holding him like tethered to the ground. Yeah. Stuck in the ground. Cool. He is wavering there on his own two feet for a second. And then he just falls to his knees in the water and the fog dissipates.

And you just see the town square of Elaine Springs clearly. Water still rushing. But this old man defeated in the currents. Billy, do you think your illusion is still holding? No, I'm done. Okay. So are the light guard warriors just looking like themselves again? Yeah. Because I think commuting with the demon took a lot of below and he just can't hold both illusions. Yeah, that totally makes sense.

So what you see if you glance behind you to where the other warriors were like, oh, I wonder if they're still doing it. Is you see them all splayed out in the water like somehow. Half up, half out, some fully underneath. And Fatim pouring blood from his face like panting over top of them. Oh, wow. He fucking killed them because they look like Vang. He came out of the water. He didn't see Tuck, but he saw a bunch of things. Oh, my God. You don't know if they're dead because he's unarmed.

Oh, right. But they're fucked up. Whoa. Mangled. And Fatim's on his last legs, too. Like he looks like he's barely standing. I think I would like. To go up to Fatim. And I guess I'm just going to like take his hand and put him to sleep. I'm going to use my fairy dust. Yeah. To make him fall asleep. Because I feel. Yeah. Billy feels really bad for Fatim. Yeah. I think he's in like fight or flight mode, which for him is fight mode. But as you approach him, he's doing that.

Like his breathing picks up and he looks like he's not sure what to do. And he's not speaking. He's just like deliriously angry. So fairy dust. Roll plus charisma. To put people to sleep on a 10 plus. Choose two on a seven to nine. Choose one. Please. Oh, so that's nine plus two is 11. Okay. Amazing. So on a 10 plus. Choose two of these three. It affects a group of people. They stay asleep for a good amount of time. Or you can do it from a distance. Oh, I. Well, I've already walked up to him.

So yeah. Choose the first two. So he stays asleep for a while. What if there is a group of the emulator still fighting? If you have the power to just shut the war down. This battle. Yeah. I think I might try that. Yeah. I mean, not all of them. Yeah. We said it was like six-ish people was a group. But if it was. Shut down six emulators? Emulators. Shut down all your Game Boy emulators, everybody. Super Nintendo emulators. We can't play Paperboy right now. So yeah.

This little boy is bobbing along in the water. Kind of moon hopping with the depth of the water around you. And yeah. You take Fatim's hand and he flinches for a second. When you grab him. And then he just huffs out this huge breath and sits down on a box and leans against the wall of the building that he's next to and falls asleep. I pat his hair. And you see like an emulator at the mouth of some alley fighting somebody. You raise your hand up to them.

They fall asleep and you put out the most dangerous people that you can see in this group. And the fighting is starting to quiet down, at least in the town proper. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. You've got this old man. Yeah. You've got this old man. Yeah. You've got this old man. Yeah. You've got this old man. Yeah. You've got this old man. Yeah. You've got this old man. Yeah. You've got this old man. On his knees. Tied up. What do you do? We don't. This is kind of above our pay grade. Yeah. What to do?

Do we take them back to the library? I think we have to. I think we should see if we can take the injured too. If like the librarians can help carry people. Yeah. So Tuck picks up Fatim to take him back to the library. He feels pretty bad about what he did. Ving, something I will say is the town is still kind of flooding. Like this spring is overflowing. It's still overflowing. Yeah. Like it's a river that's been rerouted. Yeah. Okay. I would like to try to commune with the water to go back.

All right. Elemental mastery. Is 10. Oh, fuck. Okay. Sick. On a 10 plus you choose two. So I will choose the effect comes to pass and I retain control. Which means that you pay nature's price. I pay nature's price. Okay. What does this look like? It's like Billy puts everyone to sleep and starts shutting it down. And there's men like struggling who can't stand up and they're gurgling and drowning and all this water and being just quietly like, let's have a big, huge breath.

And then breathe in really deep. And all the water starts flooding in from the sides of town and going back into the oasis. Wow. And leaves behind muck and people. Yeah. They're dead soldiers are on the surface. And they're like, settling onto the, under the, into the mud. Yeah. Yeah. There's definitely some dead bodies revealed by the, the water receding into the oasis. Jesus. And you hear like a whispered muttering coming from the torch McCall. Uh, I get close.

It's in, it's in like old McCallan. Wow. I listen. I think I can use Bart, Bartek expert. Oh, that would apply. I think. Uh, well, okay. So there are two things. And I'll say, as you're picking up dice, it's not a movie that you need to roll for. And it's the thing where you just ask questions when presented with a thing that is connected to your topics. Okay. So you can just listen with your ears. Okay. I use Bartek expert to listen with my Bartek ears. I use Bartek ears. Can I use Bartek ears?

Um, and you listen close and you hear this like breath rattle out of him. And he says, help me. And I think that's where we're going to end it for this week. I'm your game master. Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always has been playing Ving, the half elf druid, Paul Oppers. Take care. Playing Tacoma dome, the barbarian, Abdul Aziz. So long. And playing fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica tie. Bye everyone. Thanks to Aaron Reed for our incredible intro and outro music.

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