Episode 6 – Ambition Guaranteed

Uh if you like spout more no wait is this me or if you like Spout Lore and you want to hear more of it go to patreon.com Spout Lore and maybe if you give them enough money they'll release me and we can see each other again I've been in this bar for years save me gather around 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 tucker's the brute he knows not his home he loves to sing and fight they'll be a great fun time together and a great time together Hello everybody and welcome to Spout Lore.

I'm your game master Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always playing Ving the half-elf druid Paul Oppers. Hello there. Playing Tacoma Dome the barbarian Abdul Aziz. Hello. And playing Fat Billy the halfling thief Jessica Tai. Hello. When last we left our heroes they returned to the library. How did they get a dragon to the library? From a deep cave underground? We hand waved it. It just happened. And after securing housing for their friend from Night's Embrace of Black Spire.

Rises in the shit mine behind the Margani library. They returned to the city of McCall on the trail of the Magi of McCall who the belief is are connected to the bringers of the black flame and then traveled to the territory of the jackals the street gang that you'd had run-ins with in the past and met up with their leader Jake who told you that things are going okay. They've got control of the sticks though. The light guard is stretched.

Pretty thin and are aggressively trying to take control of the city and after questioning a man you saved from a shakedown by some light guard soldiers. You have reason to believe that the gin third has been taking out criminals with an aggressive ferocity deadly force. Yeah, receiving some information from the ragamuffin crew about some people matching the description of the Magi questioned Jake about this who said that maybe he does know.

Something and maybe he'll tell you if you do a little something for him which is clearing out an upstart gang called the daydreamers from the northern part of Jackal territory out of an old bakery. They're doing fucked up drugs. Yeah, they've got some sort of weird spiritual substance thing going on and Jake doesn't want any part of it in his neighborhood and you headed out to go find the daydreamers and once you reached that part of town you were bowled over by none other than Colonel. Dan.

Fosse also Billy was drunk for the last three fifths of the episode and really got some shit done. Yeah, he certainly did Billy ate a spicy pepper and was given heavy cream to put out the spice in his now absolutely wasted Dan. It's been so long. Yeah, Billy. It has been a long time. He like picks himself up off the ground. He also pick me up off the ground. Yeah. Okay. He goes into a deep. What grabs you under the armpits and goes go to the gym. No, I haven't. Okay.

Could you guys come over here real quick and he like goes around a corner into an alley. Come here. Just come here. Just come here. He's for sure going to ambush us in the alley, right? Tuck takes out his ex and follows everybody. Keep going. You know what? Talk good instincts. Just keep that out and just stand right here, please. And he gets you to stand in front of the alley and as you're standing there a group of people like hustle around the corner and run right behind you. Tuck.

Classic Dan. So how are you all doing? Who were? No. Who are those people? Oh, just some business associates of mine. What did you convince them to buy or sell? I might have convinced them to buy to buy a little bit of a legendary wine that's been going around that maybe has a little bit less of the qualities they were looking for. You've been watering down the wine wood wine. Watering down is strong. It's just water.

They do have a very dark bottle, but you know, that's not really my it's not really my problem. I've just, you know, I got, you know, I'm in the new city. I got to do a little bit of this a little bit of that. Now, why are you just like get a job or something? Billy put me down. I like a bunch of scoundrels like you. You guys are calling. Well, you Billy are calling me a scoundrel. I'm a professional. I never get caught. That's actually totally fair. Actually, how did you get to the city? Me?

Yeah. Oh, it's quite a tale. I don't remember. Start at the end and go to the beginning. Okay, so we were on the boat. Yes, Crystal Bay boat crash. Remember that? Yes, barely. And then I was on the beach here. Yeah. Wow. I guess I just kind of floated through kind of bobbed through the sea of graves, I guess. Wow. Holy shit. That's and you are fine. I mean, look at me and you look at Dan and he looks a little different than he did.

He actually does look a lot more scoundrel than he did when he last saw him. He's cut his hair short like he used to have long kind of shoulder length, dark hair, and he's cut it really short and he's wearing like, you know, like kind of a desert scoundrel. He's got like a vest with like flowing pants and like a jacket like Aladdin. Not like Aladdin. I am imagining also the vest in the flowing pants. Hold on. Hold on. And he's kind of a desert scoundrel, which is a racist term. That's not.

Give me two seconds. One time during sex, John called me a desert scoundrel. Wow. He thinks I was totally unaware. Yeah, you just gave a lot away in a brief, short amount of time. I'm realizing the way that I'm describing him is he's dressed like Merlin from BBC's Merlin. And you get mad at me for my accent. Esoteric television references. So he's got like a light like linen jacket, like just like flowing clothes underneath. White person. Aladdin. This is not white person. A thousand.

Aladdin doesn't even have a scarf and he doesn't wear a shirt. He's got like the waist like. He's got a waist sash. He's got flowing pants. I feel like I'm getting ganged up on here. I mean, it's really easy to jump on this bandwagon. Aladdin's not good enough for my reference. I need Merlin, the whitest of all legends. Okay. Produced by the BBC, the whitest of all broadcast. All right, fine. You know what? He's not. He doesn't look like that at all.

Paul, give me one thing about Dan's appearance. He's got this little vest, a scarf around his neck. Oh no. He's whiter than ever. He shouldn't be this white in the desert. What do you got whiter? Uh, he's got a faux Hawk. Oh no. Jessica. He has a, I don't know, pants. He's got pants on. All right. Flowy pants. We just read, we just said to Sean, the description. Now that's better. Now. That's better. That's a description. That's how you describe somebody. You absolute bastards. Uh, yeah.

So he looks a little different, but the face a hundred percent. Dan, does he have any like new scars or anything? Um, he, I mean, he's missing a tooth. Yeah, he is. He has a gold tooth now. Oh wow. Whoa. Yeah. This is kind of the big thing. I, I, when I woke up, I was missing a tooth. So I just got a new one when I got to town. Who'd you steal that from? A goldsmith. You, oh man. Man. What do you want from me? Well, man, like healthcare is free here. You could just go to a dentist.

Healthcare is free here. Yeah. That's why it's so great. Where? Yeah. The deep ward, the dwarves do everything for free. There are dwarves here. What are you doing? How long have you been in the city for? That's a good question. Like a long, like a while. Like, I don't know, seven, seven months. That's longer than we've been here. What? What? That doesn't. That doesn't make sense. Does it? We were only here for like four months before the events of the library.

And then that, and then now it's been five months. What the fuck? Like he's looking like, yeah, whatever. See a graves. I'm assuming it's magic bullshit. Anyways. So do you, are you guys like in town for like work or something? I guess you could say that. Yeah. I guess you could say that. Why are you all being shifty? I'm going to tell you. Yeah. Yeah. And all the gold and, and the water.

Dan, you don't have a good reputation for not fucking people over as evidenced by the group full of people who you sold fake medicine to. Okay. Well, clearly not your tooth in your mouth. Let me ask you this. How many times have I fucked you three over? Countless. So many. Count them. I can't. One, four. Now, hold on. You're just saying numbers. Doing my best, Dan. Wait. I'm just saying numbers. I'm just saying numbers. Is Perel with us? Oh yeah. I guess he is. Yeah.

Maybe Perel is shy and he is kind of window shopping a hat store nearby and it's, and he's, he's just so awkward. He doesn't want to like make eye contact. Yeah. It's that thing. Like when you're, when your mom sees a friend of hers in the grocery store and you just have to stand there while they talk, he just looks over every once in a while. Like still talking. Yeah. This is our earlier Perel. Oh, hi. Hi. I'm Perel. I'm Perel. I'm Perel. And they shake hands. Hey, I'm Dan.

Dan, what, what, what, what do you want to hang out with us? Exactly. I'm like, what do we hire him? What do we, I mean, I mean, you guys might be able to help me out. You might be able to help us out actually. Uh huh. Um, do you know anything about the daydreamers? Uh, um, I do. Yes. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I know quite a lot about them. How much do you know?

I, we might've had some dealings here and there. Are they friends of yours? No. Are they the people who are chasing you? Yes. Well, that's narratively convenient for us. Yeah, it is, isn't it? Yeah. Um, yeah, I, uh, might've helped them with some supply issues they were having and they, you know, skimped on our deal a little bit. They decided that maybe it wasn't worth paying me.

So I just, just now tried to, uh, uh robbed them and it didn't go well hmm where's their headquarters you need to show us where they hang out yeah yeah oh yeah totally it's just down the block let's go okay we gotta stay out of sight though should we sneak over there yeah let's sneak let's do it and uh he starts leading you down the alley and you know for all of his like dan's a fucking scumbag he's surprisingly good at acting stealthy like he you're watching him and he's totally just blending into the environment even in this dark alley he's just like everywhere he is it looks like he's supposed to be there whoa and he takes you just across the block to the other street on the side of this alley and then turns right and takes you to the next intersection and points across at a building that's boarded up some of the windows are boarded up but some of them are open and you can see figures kind of moving behind them and he's like yeah that's uh that's the place right there what kind of stuff are these daydreamers up to uh I mean just like usually like normal gang stuff really they uh they're more on the recreational substances side of things than a lot of other gangs in this area and a lot of their stuff from what I hear has kind of spooky qualities spooky how uh I went in there one time for a meeting and there were a lot of people just kind of laying around it looked like they were asleep but they were moving a lot and I just got a weird vibe in there like it didn't seem like anything I'd ever seen before who went over Spout Lore about the drug that they're using maybe totally do you want to do it since you're the spirit guy oh yeah yeah you could 2d6 plus intelligence Spout Lore all right I got eight plus intelligence is zero okay so something interesting but not useful you tell me tell me about a story that ving has heard about people without spiritual ability finding a way to connect to the spirit plane um that it takes a critical mass of people to do so oh okay explain a bit more about that they like they have to do it in groups or uh they're called choirs whoa that's cool people get together in choirs and do this so they they see themselves as like more more of a church but yeah they have to rally around a central figure who is usually more connected to the spirit realm they need a leader to take them through this trip oh and dan's like yeah that actually that tracks their leader is this sort of like weird cultish they they really really revere this dude seems like they're maybe using I mean the supply issue I helped them with was ghost root I know a guy who just like has a little farm and uh they're grinding that up and inhaling the smoke or eating it or drinking it and that seems to give them kind of some weird little push I've only seen stuff like this in the forest like when I was younger but I haven't seen anything like that in human lands in a long time yeah not in the human realms and usually it's done for like ceremonial purposes yeah right like this seems like a weird they're playing with stuff they shouldn't be playing with and being criminals yeah sketchy don't like it but you know they pay well they did pay do they have like security or whatever yeah usual gang stuff like just lookouts do you think it'd be easy for us to like scare them away intimidate them would it be like scaring away a dog where you're just like get out of here dog or is it more like would we have to like do fighty fighty stuff I mean it's you know it kind of depends on how you all play it I could probably if you wanted to go quiet I could probably get you in a back door uh but what I would want is for you to grab my money for me when you sneak in because I can't get it you want us to steal from these people for you I do I would love that it seems like you're all pretty good at uh what you do thank you Yeah, but stealing from a gang is kind of like…

Of drug addicts? Yeah, it's sort of… We're already doing this for another gang. This just seems so much work. I don't even want to be here that long. I don't want to go rifling around for this. Okay. Yeah, that's all right. I understand. Well, I'll be in town. So if you need me, you can come find me. Okay, yeah. Yeah. Thanks for the info, though. Hey. It's actually good to see you. It's nice to see a familiar face. You know, it is actually good to see you all, too.

I don't know anybody in this town, so it's nice to see a few familiar faces, even if they were kind of unhappy to see me to begin with. Anyways, I'm living above a place called Maureen's in Stepside. Just come find me if you need me. Okay. All right. Thanks, Dan. Yeah. Good luck. Stay out of trouble, man. We'll see. And he turns and steps into a crowd. And, like, basically blends into them instantly. Whoa. And he's gone. So you're standing in front of the bakery.

That guy's really good at blending in. Chuck says it's with people walking all around him, like a foot and a half above the crowd. What's your plan? Okay. So ways to kick him out. What do churches hate the most? States. Yeah, we could pretend to be city workers. We do have practice at that. We do. Yeah. I mean. We broke into the fucking council building. We could definitely convince a bunch of drug addicts that we're city workers. But then what do we do once we're in there?

We help them with their addiction. They spend time as an addiction counselor. You used to do these clubs called Intervention. And you never let me go. No. So maybe we could try that. And you said it was always a lot of, like, a lot of fun. Well, it's fun for the people. Yeah. Because they get to talk about their stuff. Billy's referencing a thing. Where Ving had to have an intervention for Tuck because he was eating too much protein powder. And Billy wanted to join.

But Ving said that this is adult time. And this is just adult talk. And that it doesn't concern me. And it really stung. So Billy's, like, kind of sobering up now. And he's really excited for this intervention. And also he's drunk enough to be hurt slightly more than usual. Yeah. Totally. All right. I would love to be an intervention. So the current tentative plan is to pretend to be social workers. From the city. From the city. Go in there and start to conduct an intervention.

Well, we could just do an intervention with the leader of the choir. Mm-hmm. I'm not saying… I know it sounds like I'm saying this with incredulity. It sounds like it in my voice. But I am saying it. The tone is tentative excitement. I don't know. I mean, I'm not in a fit state to have a fight. But, like, maybe I am. Who knows? I don't know if this is a group of people that we need to fight. Yeah, we might be able to just, like, I guess, talk them into leaving.

And going back to their families or whatever. Maybe. Maybe we offer them some housing in a different part of the town that's not occupied by the jackals. And I, like, another just something that occurred to me. You could also just be like, hey, why don't you just start kicking up to the jackals? What is that? Just, like, make it worth their while that you're here. Instead of just trying to encroach on their territory. Like, that's one potential angle, too. Yeah, Perel says this.

Yeah, Perel's like, I don't know. Criminals love just being safe and paying people off. Maybe they'll do that. That's boring, Perel. Okay. I'm going to go. Go sit outside this bar. You all do your thing. What? Why are you abandoning us? Well, I mean, honestly, am I going to be much help in this? Yeah, probably not. Honestly. Yeah, I'll. I'm going to go back to the stray dog, maybe. Okay, yeah. Yeah, I'll see you all later. Bye. Be safe. Here, does somebody want my hat? It's pretty good.

No, buddy wants your hat. I want it. No, fuck. Yeah, I want. Fuck. I want it. I said first. Billy, no. I want it. Can I roll to get it first? Okay. Two to six plus dexterity. Whoever gets highest wins. Fuck. Fuck. Yes. Nine. Huge hat win. Two. Eleven. I get the hat. Fuck. Oh, my God. It's so big. I got four. Billy just snatches it out of Perel's hands. What does the hat look like? It's a really wide brim. Perfect. Like black leather, like gardening hat. Oh, my gosh. Oh, wow.

I'm going to have personal space for once in my life. No one touch me. Billy looks like a little mushroom. He looks like a Goomba from. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So Perel heads off. Son of a bitch. I wanted the hat. You can borrow it later. You can borrow it. Okay. Fine. So, yeah, you're going to. What are you going to go knock on the door? What? Yeah. I'm just thinking of like what Mormons do. Like, you know, you like go knock on the door and you're like, you have your own religion.

Have you heard the good word? Yeah. We come up with our own religion. Yeah. We try and convert them. Oh, yeah. Well, Ving also. These are people that want a connection to the spirit world. And Ving is an actual elementalist. Oh. We can wow them. What if Billy could do tricks too with spirits? Yeah. And I'm like big. Yeah. Uh-huh. So if that doesn't work, I can beat the shit out of them. Yeah, we could do that. I was going to offer to do the like. Uh, connections to see if I could. Yeah.

Cause there's a gang. Yeah. If the leader has like, if he's really interested in something, if he really likes something, cause then we could win him, him over. Oh, yeah. Cool. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Yeah. That's a great idea. That's your thinking hat, Billy. That's what that is. Here's my thinking hat. So I like waddle off and there's some kids hanging around. I don't know them by name, but I recognize them. Yeah. Yeah. Two D six plus charisma. Nine. Hell yeah. Anybody want to aid? Can we do that?

Uh, yeah. Come with me. Cause I'm nervous. Yeah. I'll pretend to be your bodyguard. Yeah. Oh, that looks legit. Two D six plus bond. Six. Oh shit. They've seen tuck before. They know. Yeah. Get this fuck out of here. Yeah. They've wrecked. They recognize this whole situation as you're walking up. Hey, it's me, Billy. Hey, Billy. And it's trusty bodyguard. Bruce. Bruce. Bruce. Bruce. Bruce. Bruce. Bruce. Bruce. Bruce. Bruce. Bruce. Bruce. Bruce. Bruce. Bruce. Bruce. Bruce. Bruce. Bruce.

They roll their eyes. Hi, tuck. Oh, dang it. Fuck. Have we tried this before? Yeah. Like a lot. Sorry. I can't always recognize you guys when you're all like in disguise. Yeah. They're all wearing fake mustaches. Hey, listen, I need a favor. Do you know about the leader of the daydreamers? Who guaranteed? That's their name? Yeah. Yeah. Guaranteed? Guaranteed. First name, last name? No, no, no, no. The first name is, their name is, they're like thinking really hard, Pell Corbin.

Nickname is guaranteed. Oh. All right. Pell Corbin. Yeah. Do you know if they like, what are they like? What are some interests or things that they really want? What's their perfect Sunday afternoon? Yeah. What's something that they would want so badly? What's something that they would want so bad that they would want to like talk to us face to face? Are they a dog person or a cat person? Do they like the stones or the beetles? They don't like rocks or bugs. Okay. No rocks or bugs.

Do they like nap time? Do they like, uh, uh, like soup? Why are those competing options in Billy's brain? Nap time or soup. Try to figure out if this is like a cozy person. Uh, hmm. Actually. So the kids do tell you that. Yeah. Yeah. Guaranteed. Corbin was just like a regular criminal for a while and then got involved in the spirit stuff and something, I don't know.

They tried some sort of ritual a long time ago to like connect to the spirit world, like put their spirit in the spirit world, which is like not good. And it really messed them up. Like, are they sick now? Yeah. Like it, they're, they're just like their body seems okay. But something about the energy that like their vibe is just like bad white hair, like always seems so tired. Seems like they're, they're looking around a lot. Like they're hearing things like it's weird. Whoa. Hmm.

They're in between. But I do know that they're absolutely whatever happened. They are terrified of spirits. They're terrified of spirits. Terrified. But they want to go to the spirit world. Well, they're terrified. They want to go to the spirit world, but they don't want to attract the attention of a vengeful spirit. Huh? Huh. Hmm. All right. Well, thank you. Does that help? Oh, wait. No, sorry. There were strings attached. You have to pay us. What? We want money. Okay. Okay. Kid, we'll pay you.

Okay. We're not going to stiff a bunch of kids. Hey, we'll throw in three extra coins if you give us three mustaches. Yeah. No problem. Three of your fake mustaches. They rip them right off. Here you go. Thank you. We all put fake mustaches. I'm not going to make choices for your characters, but Tuck puts a fake mustache. Oh, yeah. Oh, I'm putting it in my gear. Fake mustache. I'm going to draw it. Sure. They hold out their hands. Okay. How many? I can't do the math. A goatee attached.

Each of us just wants two coins. So how many of them are there? There's three. It's just six coins. Six coins plus an extra three. So nine coins. Wow. Money, please. This is steep. Let's round it up to 10. They're kids. Okay. Here's a bonus. Your rates have gone up. Yeah. It's tough out here. Business is tough. But you all pay great. If you want any more info, you come find us. Oh, yeah. Anytime. Or mustaches. Yeah. We got a ton. We found an old crate in a dumpster. Dumpster?

Might not be mustaches. We pulled them off and they're like small caterpillars. I put it back on. It's just crawling back and forth on Billy's face. Yeah. So that's what you know. Guaranteed Corbin is I'll with some sort of spirit energy disease and is terrified of attracting the attention of a vengeful spirit. Okay. Are we still sticking to intervention or do we want to tell him that we have some kind of cure for his disease? I mean, the intervention could be.

It's kind of like a like multi-level marketing. Like. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Jessica, here. I would just point out the fact that you are the queen of being like, this is maybe an overly complicated plan. And what I just did was, should we stick to intervention or should we offer some kind of help medically? And you said, maybe we can incorporate both of those in a multi-level marketing scheme. I'm so sorry. Rewind. No, no. No. I feel like what you meant is that the plan has multiple things in it.

I know I was going for a thing. No, I want to know what this was. It was literally just like, I was just thinking about like the weird people, like from the south, like, you know, in the states who are like, just like, really like intense about the religion. They sell it almost. Oh, like evangelists. Yes. Thank you. That's a word. Yeah. Like trying to get tithes to help with like spiritual problems. Yeah. That kind of feeling. Anyway. We could do that. We could. Yeah.

Instead of pretending to be city workers, we could pretend that we're like spirit evangelists. Yeah. Yeah. We're spirit people. That's how we could use. Yeah. We're spirit guides. And again, you're saying pretend. Ving actually is. I'm more of a walker than a guide. I do the walking, not the guiding. Tuck in his mind. He's like, how are we going to pretend to be spirit guides? Ving's just floating. Floating two rocks above his hand. I don't know. You figure it out. I look at Ving.

I look at Tuck. I look back at Ving like, oh, Ving. Smash cut to Billy pretending to be a televangelist. A little seersucker suit. His hair slicked back. Hello, gentlemen. A perfect mustache. Yeah. He's got the hat, which gives him a plus one forward on charisma. And he's got the mustache, which gives him a plus one forward on dexterity. What? Wow. All right. Are we actually doing this? So the plan is we pretend to be spirit walkers. Who's taking point? Is it Billy or is it Ving?

I think it's Billy. I mean, I could be the one who displays it. Who's like, you know, sort of in the spirit realm and comes in with like showing that we are spirit walkers. But Billy's the one that's selling it. We need a seller. I'm not a seller. Yeah. Billy, we need you to become the mayor again. Really? Is it time? It's time, Billy. This is it. Okay. I can do it. I'm still a little bit drunk. Perfect. Use it. I'm going to.

So I grab a bunch of like loose papers in the like trash and on the street nearby. I make them look like business folders. I'm like. Folding some garbage. And I'm like, okay. Okay. Let's walk on up then. All right. I guess. We walk in formation behind Billy. Uh-huh. And what is like the building look like? Can we Spout Lore about the building? You could discern realities. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. That. Yeah. Two to six plus wisdom. Minus one because of your thing. Oh, man. Are you serious? Ah. Fuck.

Just five. Okay. Fuck. Well, you get another experience. You get another experience point, which is nice. The building looks normal. Just looks like a boarded up bakery. There's smoke coming out of one of the many chimneys on top of the building. For some reason, it's just out of one.

There are lights on inside that you can see through the windows that aren't boarded up and shadows moving behind like just people walking around and a not very sturdy wooden door set into the wall facing the street. I'm going to loudly knock on that wooden door. And after a few seconds, the door opens and there's a very tall, thin youth wearing like a white shirt. Yeah. Yeah. A white cloth robe with the hair shaved off the top of their head, but a ring of hair around like a friar, like a friar.

And they're wearing like a wooden carved medallion of a confusing shape. And they're like, hello. Good evening. I would like to introduce myself. My name is Billiam and I am here to offer a gift. A gift or something to your leader, Pell Corbin. Hello, Billiam. They dip their head low. I also dip my head low. The hat touches the ground. The hat brushes the dirt in front of him. I am Brother Dubert.

Unfortunately, Brother Corbin is unavailable, but I would be happy to pass any knowledge along to him. Would you just tell him that we have… A spirit guide here to see him? And if he should love to meet us, then give… Send word. Post. Hence. Roll 2d6 plus charisma. Nine. Oh, shit. Yeah, nine. Oh, eight. Maybe I can do a cool little trick. And if he will not listen to the word, maybe he'll listen to this. Poof. Little spirit. Poof. Poof. Damn it. Wow. No, he farts. He farts loudly.

Incredible. I got three. I farted three times. When you say you have a spirit guide and Brother Dubert sees Ving standing behind you looking like a spiritual weirdo, his eyes widen. And he goes, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. And he goes, one moment. And the door slams. And you hear, flap, flap, flap, flap, flap, flap. Great job, Ving. I think it worked. Yes. Flap, flap, flap, flap, flap, flap, flap. Door swings open. Brother Corbin will see you now.

Excellent. Cool. Lead the way. And he does. He leads you in. Tuck, you got to duck a little bit because this door is not big enough for people your size. Yeah. And Tuck's taking the ax off his back. He kind of has to do that in regular size buildings so he doesn't fucking destroy walls and stuff. Actually, when you take the ax off your back. Zuber puts his hands up and he says, please, no weapons. Oh. We are. It's more of a pet than a weapon. It's medicinal. I need to keep this with me.

It's integral. It's integral to the spirit work that we do. This is a tool of spiritual energy forged in the spirit realm itself. He's going to want to see it. Is that true? Forged in the spirit realm. It is actually true. It was forged in the spirit realm. I wish I didn't say, is it true? You forged it. Yeah. Yeah. In the spirit realm, you say? Yes. Very well. But if blood is spilled under this roof, there will be dire consequences for all under this roof. Yes. For sure. Totally.

And Tuck is, he's like, he wants to play the character of the bodyguard. So he goes, of course, my lord. In true bodyguard fashion. And then he bows. He bows. So. And he goes deep that his forehead touches the ground. And when he lifts up, you see the word Tuck on the ground. He's still got all that shit all over his face. Yeah. But now Tuck is gone and it's just dirt. Wow. Just the dirt floor of this bakery. And yeah. Tuck is falling into a Frankenstein type character. Totally.

And Dubert leads you inside and you see sort of what the daydreamers are living in. And it's a very odd. It's a very odd sight. A wide open chamber, like just inside the door. You can see the old mechanisms of a mill disused. There's like clothes hanging on them and stuff like that. The whole building is a wash with like a blue glow. And in the middle of the room is a piece of worm glass.

That's basically a single tube that was like wrapped around itself a bunch of times to create this like big droplet looking thing. And that's hanging from, from the ceiling, like on a rope. Is it like the shape of a fluorescent bulb? Or yeah, it's like a raindrop. But if the raindrop was like curled in on itself, you know what I mean? So it's raindrop shape, but it's made of a tube. That's like, yeah, that's curled up. And is that the shape that's on his medallion? You know what is now? Yeah.

It's like a very complicated raindrop looking shape. And as you come in another figure in a white robe and the haircut identical to Dubert walks up and it has like a little wooden mallet in their hands that they're holding very ceremonially. And they walk up to the droplet of worm glass and they bang it and it glows brighter. Yeah. It's pretty chill vibes in here. We are a house of learning and a place of spiritual connection and growth and union and spiritual union.

And our spirits are united in this choir union. He's repeating himself a lot. Yeah. It seems like whoever's writing copy for their propaganda material. Has gone on vacation or something. And you see there's three groups kind of spread out this in this room of like six people sitting in a circle. And in the middle of the circle is a brazier with like a smoldering pile of herbs and they're inhaling the smoke deeply, like rhythmically inhaling it. And all of their eyes are closed. Does it smell?

Does Tuck recognize the smell from when he ate ghost root that one time? Yeah. Smells pungently of ghost root. And then Tuck's out and under his breath. He's like, maybe breathe shallow. Don't breathe too much. I don't know what advice this is. Don't breathe a lot. Everybody try to hold your breath. I think Tuck's the goatee up over his mouth. Yeah. It pushed the mustache up further. And Tuck also pushes the mustache into his nose. Yeah.

So you got your, your noses are now blocked, causing you to breathe deeply through your mouth. Tuck is going to try and hold his breath for as long as possible. Can I roll for that? Sure. Yeah. Two to six plus constitution. That is ten. Wow. Yeah. Tuck, you start holding your breath and you're honestly fine. I'm going to say you don't need to hold your breath for like 20 minutes, but you're able to breathe in a way that makes it so you're not going to huff up too much of this ghost root smoke.

Okay, cool. Yeah. Is anybody else going to roll or are you just going to take your chances? Undiscerning some realities. Okay. Two to six plus wisdom. Ooh, seven. Yeah. So you get one question. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing. What should we be on the lookout for? Okay, cool.

So something that you are struck with as you come in here is Jake was saying and Dan was telling you these dudes are gangsters. This is like they're selling illicit substances. And in here you're like this feels like a fucking temple. So what you are seeing is not all that is going on for sure. There has to be maybe a storeroom, maybe an armory. Oh, yeah. Quarter store.

For their soldiers like a classic when you break down a wall in a movie and there's a bunch of people in there like hazmats yeah counting money and making drugs and beakers and stuff yeah so you're loading guns you're like where the fuck is all their stuff like this is just like a monastery is the vibe in here like are there strung out people lying around I think I missed that or is it just like strung out is strong like it's just like dan was describing it in terms that he understands but there are people that are like ving you recognize this they're in deep spiritual meditation like and they are uniting yeah exactly they're communing in a way but you even like your supernatural connection to the spiritual realm you can tell that these people don't have a natural connection so the vibe in here is very weird it feels very strained forced yeah yeah I gave you guys so much information on that one question but yeah so that's kind of the situation that you're experiencing right now as dubert is leading you through the uh through the room so this way please and uh brother corbin will see you uh sounds very good thank you now before you go in I would caution you to know what you offer and to offer it quickly brother corbin is not one to mince words and is in a dire state so please do not attempt to be duplicitous or there will be complications billy doesn't understand most of those words so he's like certainly absolutely absolutely yes get for the voice absolutely yes so he leads you through this chamber uh down a corridor to like tuck you know this is where the um the oven would usually be like these huge clay ovens that just have like big wide openings they put the bread blah blah blah uh and he opens the chamber there's no light in here except for like a dull red smolder in the shadows and you can see the cavernous opening of the chamber and you can see the cavernous opening of the chamber and you can see the cavernous opening of the oven and you can see a figure sitting in a chair inside the oven with a ring of braziers burning ghost root oh whoa man he's got a bad and dubert stays outside and you hear close the door close the door door closes behind you heavy thunk it's dark in here the only light is like the smoldering of the braziers the axe too would be glowing right oh yeah I guess the axe is glowing okay so it casts like the vibrant light and it's like a light that's like a light that's like a purple amethyst energy across the room and you see a very unwell looking dwarf kind of lounging in the chair long light colored hair it looks like if you had to guess in the purple light that it would be like bone white looks very brittle a scraggly white beard long fingernails maybe yeah totally long fingernails big dark bags under the eyes and is just staring at you with a little bit of hope when he sees vignes he's just like oh my god I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I understand that you can help me what do you need my spirit is unwell what happened I attempted to make contact with the other side and I angered something you don't know what I was cast back before I got a clear look but it was old and it was ancient those are the same thing but I hope it imparts on you how old it was taku has been holding his breath starts laughing uncontrollably inside of his mouth you see the like once you start laughing you see the like hands grip the sides of the chairs this is no time for jests please forgive my bodyguard he is not the most smartest of the bulbs I am stupid my lord a joke I was told three weeks ago what was that what was that joke uh did big actually just fucking ask uh it was um a man walks into a bar with a horse and the horse turns to the man and says I have a long face ving points him to see how stupid he is that's how stupid he is you can hear you can hear corbin go like very well can you help me I feel my spirit being rent from my body each day is there anything that you can tell us about this ancient thing what you didn't say anything about this ancient thing what you didn't say anything about this ancient thing what you didn't say anything about this ancient thing what you didn't say anything about this ancient thing what makes you think it's after you I'll gaze upon me I went in a hail young man of merely three centuries and I came out this I am dying and the ghost roots keeping you alive you think it keeps the connection open long enough for my spirit to remain tethered to my body if it were not for this root it would be removed entirely I fear his spirit is leaking out that's what he that's what he thinks oh it's like being pulled back into the spirit realm yeah kind of so he went to the spirit realm something ancient saw him and basically grabbed him as he was trying to escape and he's been using ghost root to maintain a hold on his spirit ever since yeah that's his prevailing theory yeah I mean like if you have anything that you think would help you get more information then that would be a good place to start I feel like Spout Lore might be our best move yeah I should not roll it though with a minus one no I'll roll it 2d6 plus intelligence uh-oh fuck fuck fuck what is it I got a five wait you do have the hold that lets you turn a failure into a success do we think that billy can do it for other people yeah yeah that'd be sick is this worth turning a failed roll into a seven to nine yes I've got the ring on so I can feel what what thing is doing I feel it's like it's really hard in this room I think because of all the drugs in the air yeah all the ghost that's what I was thinking earlier too yeah ving can't actually get a hold of spirit yeah so I give like I give him like a little like soulful nudge uh-huh the right way like no you're that's not you're kind of entering the shadow world like get out there okay yeah totally um cool so ving you are just like trying to drop into that spirit site to gain a connection on this and um maybe it's the ghost route maybe it's sort of just everything that you've been dealing with over the last little while maybe it's very out of practice totally and what you feel instead of that familiar spirit energy is that horrific void that you felt like a year ago in the fanny pack when you were attempting to commune with what's on the other side of the danger room this does not feel like spiritual energy to you whoa this is something bigger the demon billy conducted demons oh yeah um and yeah billy you feel a presence in this room hello so you you like speak out I guess do they hear it no tucking vinger just standing there ving is trying to connect but feeling this like cold void rolling over him tuck is just hanging out tuck's been holding his breath since we walked in yeah even when he was talking he wasn't breathing in somehow wow you look up at tuck and his eyes are bloodshot from holding his breath he's doing the like let's wrap this up but billy also like feels kind of far away right now and he feels that like kind of cold wash over him hello you could be so much more better than you are where are you think of all the things you could achieve if you would just try what there is nothing that you cannot do if you put your mind to your goals you can overcome anything is this ambition just allow yourself free yourself from the expectations of those around you what do you want from pell I want what everyone wants more he is so much more than his circumstance you are so much more than your circumstance do you wish to have more do you wish to fulfill your potential I don't do I have to like resist this or something I honestly don't think billy does like I don't if I had to guess I don't think that billy is a subject possession in the same way that a person is so this demon's probably just like come on just let me in and you can just be like no dice you're wasting your time I just need to know how long have you been here he has not accepted me yet but he will and I will help him the ghost route is starting to affect all of you by the way like you you you're all breathing in a lot of it and it's starting to fuck with your perceptions how do I shake out of this how do we get out of here um oh yeah good question uh I just like I'm going for the door uh okay defy danger constitution to like move basically oh seven yeah so you're able to just force your way towards the door and you're shaking yourself out of this like connection to whatever this thing is yeah and just banging on the door hey do do dirt dubert let me out let me out and dubert opens the door and a bunch of the ghosts are just whoops out of the room and it's a little bit easier to breathe now thing stayed in the room yeah he wants to try and commune okay cool oh tuck left tuck followed billy out because he's not gonna let his kid just walk around a fucking drug den on his own yeah what what what is what is wrong with him can you help him let me talk to tuck first very well and he steps away from you to give you a moment he talk and then tuck like leans down in front of billy like you do with like a little kid and he's like hey buddy what's up what was happening in there oh there's a lot of smoke in the ground I breathe in a lot of it because I forgot to hold my breath but I think there's like a demon in there I think that's what's bothering pell and I was trying to figure out like who it was and it kept saying things like you could be more I I want more uh you could do so much more with who you are okay I want to use bardic lore now gods and their servants I want to know what fucking demon this is okay I think that tuck has heard a story because demon possession is very common in mccall it happens all the time yeah but tuck remembers hearing a story about a shoemaker who lived in the upper ward a woman named mccall and a woman named mccall and a woman named mccall and a woman named mccall and a woman named mccall and a woman named mccall and a woman named mccall and a woman named a couple hundred years ago who became like the shoe baron of mccall like one day they were working just a humble shoemaker with their own cobbler and the next week he had a discount shoe warehouse his name was of all kinds discounted to below market prices his name was reebok payless but yeah it was the kind of thing like sooner or later every cobbler in the city was owned by this shoemaker and then they had cobblers everywhere and eventually spread themselves so thin and made so many enemies that they were like stabbed to death at like 55 wow what a low stakes version of like that narcos show yeah totally like exactly but uh it's high-profile hypothesized by the church and by demonologists that he was a vessel for the icon of ambition oh I knew it you got it you got it right on the nose and then tug high fives billy good job billy thanks figuring it out I know you didn't even need any help I guess not but you know what it's good to have help yeah good it took hugs I don't know why I made this so emotional because I would nab the room like oh god it's fucking stinking oh my god they're hugging what I miss it's the demon of ambition ving it was talking to me it was saying like you could be you could be more than what you are weird stuff like that uh duber like rushes up when you're all done like you're all talking and he's like oh excuse me did I hear you say a demon yeah yeah a demon is attempting to possess brother corbin that's what it looks like like it's not quite in him yet but it's it's trying it's it's trying to consume him so I don't know do you guys have any saffron I say to duber uh perhaps some in the in the kitchens but it's it's very expensive I have some in my bandolier oh you have saffron I got pure saffron fucking sick can you make a tea out of this I suppose yes I could go put a kettle on is there a specific recipe and you realize you don't know the fucking recipe you know that you could make you could make a saffron tea which is just steeping saffron in hot water but it might be a good idea to make a saffron tea but I don't know if you guys have any saffron tea I do the same thing but it might be good for now we could try it yeah like considering the fact that corbin hasn't been fully possessed it might be enough to like shunt it out yeah okay very well I'll uh I'll go put a kettle on does anybody want anything while I'm in the kitchens oh I would love a hot chocolate if you have anything I would I can mix you up a hot chocolate that'll knock your fucking socks off I would love a hot dog if you have one I can see what I can do uh damn it I was going to say hot dog too yeah make that two yeah and he rushes off and you you can take him you know if he takes he comes back with a teapot after a few minutes uh with a steaming teapot holding it over uh with a with a wicker handle I'll put the saffron inside all right and just um so um does this gonna he's just holding a teapot in front of his face I mean like you gotta let it steep and then when it's done you give him the tea to drink okay how how I don't know like 5-10 minutes for an herbal tea Yeah Okay so he just stands there for 10 minutes with the teapot in front of him I'm gonna try and make small talk With him So where are you from I'm from McCall Cool cool Where are you from The principalities The Everwood Alley Yeah I knew a halfling His name was Jeb Greenleaf Did you know him Yeah actually I did Fuck really Wow How is Jeb I haven't seen him in a while I think he still runs that store Wow Small world huh Is it funny when that happens I know it's amazing That's crazy one time I ran into a guy Right outside of the store Named Dan Derglot Who I used to work for in the principalities Wow Cool Colonel Dan Is what people call them Do you know him Name doesn't ring a bell That would have been crazy though right guys Yeah if we all knew Dan That would have been crazy I can't get over your new Jeb That's amazing Anyways I think the tea's done Great So here you go And he gives you like a cup and pours some tea in it Yes I'll bring this to pal Hopefully this works We pick below up I pick him up Where the smoke isn't quite so dense Thank you And you go in and guaranteed Is like What have you learned Um well There may or may not be a demon In this room In this room A demon Trying to possess you My lord You don't have to do that I How did this happen I think it's the ghost root That you were messing with Kind of like You know You know You know You know You know You know You know You know You really shouldn't be doing that The spirit realm And the other realms You don't want to mix them up too much I think whatever you were doing Was probably Opened you up to possession More than most And it's also Pal Not to freak you out But it's that shoe demon Probably I am unfamiliar It's the demon That makes you feel Like a demon That's the demon of shoes This is how Tuck interpreted the thing Yeah It's you know Not the scariest one But They sensed that you were looking for something else By going into the spirit realm I was Yeah You gave up a part of yourself And they're trying to fill it Is this Punishment For reaching too high Maybe by doing it By trying to take a shortcut Walking in the spirit world Takes a lot more than Huffing this shit And kicks over a brazier And he coughs a bunch What have I done?

Can you help me?

Yeah Um Here Drink this tea And his uh His fingernails like Clack against the ceramic As he takes the cup in his hand I wanna kinda just like Wrap the The saffron rope around him gently Around his shoulders And his waist He like shivers And he convulses a little bit Okay No I'm sorry I feel It's hold Is tightening This might hurt A lot He sips the tea No You gotta chug it Chug it He chugs it Chug Chug Chug Chug Chug Chug Chug Chug Chug Chug And he chugs it You do that thing Where he's sipping it Like dumb and dumber When uh He's trying to give him The laxative And he tips it back Further Here you go buddy And then we put the teapot In his mouth And we just He's like I I don't know if it Worked And then he starts convulsing Flapping back and forth In his chair He falls on the ground And he's like Kicking his legs He kicks over a brazier Oh I make sure there's no dangers around And you feel like The air Is vibrating Basically Like you can feel The The Atmosphere in the room Changing Be gone Shoe spirit I think someone's gonna have to Roll something To find Like Finalize it Getting out of here How would you do this Yeah I could do For the blood god Yeah To get TLC To try and like Push whatever it is Out of here Cool Alright Uh You are Initiated in the old ways The ways of sacrifice Choose something Your gods Or the ancestors Spirits Or totem Value Blood Gold Bones Or the like When you sacrifice Those things As per your rights And rituals Roll plus wisdom On a ten plus The GM will grant you Insight Or a boon To help you On a seven to nine The sacrifice Will not be enough And the gods Will take of your flesh As well Okay So Tuck He pulls one of the Obsidian coins Out of his backpack The dark guard Coins And he like Flicks it Into the air Then he takes TLC And goes to like Smash it As it's spinning Yeah totally Cool Just try to look Cool as fuck Cause he feels like Looking cool Is a good way To push demons away Uh huh Oh Holy shit Wow Is that two sixes It's a Five and a six Hell yeah Uh plus My wisdom Is A zero So Lucky Lucky I got a living Hell yeah Okay Um I would like you To describe How this What this looks like When the demon Is like cast out For good Um So it's like Whenever Tuck uses For the blood god The amethyst Kind of glows a bit In the axe And like You can hear TLC Uh So what do they say Uh It's like You flick the coin Up in the air And you Goes to slow motion Yeah You And you baseball Swing at the coin As it's like Woof Woof Woof Spinning through the air And uh You hear Yeah And on the spike You can see Tuck You can see Three small figures Riding it Like a cowboy Hanging onto the spike Like one's hanging onto the spike Then one's hanging onto That one's feet And the other one's Holding onto that one's feet And it's like Yeah Amethyst Stone Copper And they're like Yeah Can they be riding Like three dudes On a motorcycle Like holding each other's waist Totally Yeah Yeah Gripping each other Around the waist And they just have like Their hair is streaming Yeah Devil horns Holding up the horns They're just like Fuck yeah bro And the The blade connects With the obsidian coin And I feel them Cause Tuck isn't Vast dexterous But I feel them Kind of like Guide the axe Yeah Like we're doing it together And then the coin shatters When you shatter the coin That energy that you feel In the atmosphere For just a second Spikes Whoa And you get to the point Where you get this feeling Of intense dread That thing is described For just a second Everybody feels it And you feel Almost a second Where you feel like You lost something Whoa Like some deep loss Happened inside you Whoa And then Everything in the room That you're like Wearing and holding Gets sucked towards the oven The door shatters Off of its hinges And like the pieces Of the door Move towards the chimney And everything just gets Sucked up And out of the room And as like The wind is sort of Blowing up Like Kind of like The door Smashes off its hinges Pieces of Like the braziers Like kind of Explode upwards Uh The coin itself Like It's shattered It's like And then it kind of Sucks back in And reforms Whoa And then drops To the ground It's like the only thing That's not sucked up And Interesting As it drops To the ground It's bone white now Whoa Whoa That's so cool I don't know any Of what that means I don't know But maybe it trapped A demon inside of it You just gave me So much fucking homework Cool That's fucking cool Yeah That's man That's so cool Uh Yeah And it's Quiet now And the air is like Clear And Corbin Pell is lying On the fucking ground Mm-hmm Groaning Eyes closed And uh Dubert Pokes his head in Through the shattered door What What happened Is everyone okay He seems Okay He's still alive And he rushes up Brother Corbin And he rushes up And kneels next to him And like You know Checks his vitals basically Checks that he's still breathing Opens one of his eyes Peeks at the pupil He's gonna need a lot of care And Food He will No ghost root No more Yeah no You guys fucking clear Out of this building And you get him To the deep ward He needs medical care Very well We You have You have done a great service To a good man I'm so thankful And he gets up And he uh Rushes out of the room And you hear him go like Alright everybody Pack it up He's like Shaking people He was doing a voice The whole time He's shaking people out Of their like reveries And stuff like that And going You hear him open a door And you hear a bunch of coins Clanging And he's like We're done We're not drug dealers anymore And you hear A whisper From Corbin on the ground He's like shifting a little bit Groaning What is it You get close And he just says I'm not a drug dealer Thank you And that's where we're gonna end it for this week I'm your game master Sean O'Hara With me as always 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 Tai Bye Thanks to Erin Reid For our amazing intro and outro music As always Thank you to our incredible Patreon supporters All around the world For supporting us However they do And thank you to Meme Friend on Discord For the name Pellin Guaranteed Corbin Sick Wow If you want to give us some names for the show You know Become a patron at the $10 level And hop in Hither and Yawn On our Discord And drop some names If you want to help the show out Check us out on Patreon Patreon.com Slash Spout Lore Or at Spout Lore Most places And maybe shoot us a review on iTunes We would really appreciate it Catch you next time And so ends the tale of Adventures 3 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 Return next week To hear some more Whilst you commute Or do your chores And for you I gladly Spout Lore