Episode 2 – We See The Moment He Made The Deal

Gather round friends, let me tell you a tale of three heroes, noble and bold. A brute, a druid, and a thief who is but nine years old. You know them by name, you know them by deed, their quests are famously daring. So here I sit, singing to you an adventure that is worth sharing. Tuck is the brute, he knows not his home, he loves to sing and fight. Fingers have health, he shifts his shape and wields a spear with great might. Billy's a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart.

Best and brightest they may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts. So gather round friends and listen close, for the tale's about to start. Hello everybody and welcome to Spout Lore! I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the barbarian, Abdul Aziz. Hello everybody! Playing Ving, the half-elf druid, Paul Oppers. Hey, how's it going? And playing Fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica Tai. Hi everyone!

When last we left our heroes, they attended a funeral for the brave halfling souls which perished in the end of the Hogpocalypse. A feast was held after the funeral, as is tradition, during which Billy realized that he still did not feel like a member of the community. So he decided to leave. And the party packed up and we made our way to the Everwood Forest. Ooh, the Everwood itself.

To speak to the old halfling Nana, who supposedly is an expert in the Wittershins and the Sunwise and the things that get lost and the things that appear in its waters. We found Nana's cottage and after a bit of a get-off-my-land conversation, discovered that Billy was remembering a different kind old halfling woman. Hahaha! And that this Nana was actually quite mean. Hahaha! Quite mean! Turns out that Billy stole some herbs from her a very long time ago and she has not forgotten that.

She tossed out some sort of elixir of her own make to attempt to scare off the party, which Tuck countered with a bottle full of nightmares. Hahaha! It's okay though, she was very mean. She was quite mean. She was quite mean. Uh, Ving and Billy were also very mean. Ving and Billy were overcome with terror at their nightmares while Tuck just fully dissociated and chose not to be afraid. Hell yeah, I did. Nana herself was overcome with terror to see a robed figure with a shifting face.

A figure that the party determined or guessed to be Mother Never Was herself. Nana was incapacitated and the party joined her in her cottage for some tea. There was a conversation about Nana's experience with Mother Never Was. In which she described a time where her son became I'll and she made a deal with Mother Never Was to learn skills in herbalism and alchemy to aid him.

But Mother Never Was turned that deal back on Nana by teasing her these ways but then having so much time pass that it was too late to save her family. Asking how they could find Mother Never Was or perhaps avoid Mother Never Was, they were informed by Nana that you don't find her, she finds you. And she was coming. Soon. Coming, coming, coming, coming, coming, coming. God, I love, I love you guys so much. I love how much you guys say come. I always want that on mic.

We're all on the same page with everything and I love it. The party, in their sort of experienced adventure danger sense way, realized that things were not safe here. Tuck smashed through the wall grabbing Billy and they made their escape as Nana was hurled back to the house. And then Tuck was back to the house. Was hurled into the river by Tuck.

His move was to just bodily grab an old woman and throw her like a softball into the river, which she emerged from, cackling wildly, and gave chase through the Everwood as the sun began to set in the darkened ancient primordial forest. Ving attempted to use his mastery and command over the spirits to cage Nana, entreating the spirits to wrap her in a container of vines. Which she started squeezing through with her weird spooky body before being set on fire, I believe. Yeah. She don't like fire.

She doesn't like fire. That is actually probably true. She doesn't like being set on fire. Her weakness. Her one weakness, being set on fire. I never would have considered this. Set on fire. Ving's writing it down. Weaknesses to test. Set on fire. Shoot with gun. Check yes or no. Yes. Explosives? Question mark. It's a short list. No blood. No blood. No blood. No blood equals remove.

You came to a clearing, a beautiful, tranquil, moon-dappled clearing with a single deer in the very center and Tuck snapped its neck just to be safe. Billy then made what Jessica described as a McDouble of fairy rings. Uh-huh. A small and semi-secure one surrounding the fairies. A fanny pack and then a larger one surrounding the clearing creating a double layer of protection. Setting precedent for endless fairy rings, really. Yeah, I could just multiply. Yeah. Well, we'll see.

We're going to have to codify that at some point. Sean explicitly said, I might never let this happen again. You know what? But you might. Because I might do it. There's no way to know. Argue for either way. Yeah. Look, guys, I'm just going to say it. Jessica gets special treatment because she's my wife. Yeah, we've known. We've known that for a long time. I've tried really hard to fight against it. It's true. No, it's true. And I am. I come from an honorable line of honorable people. Yeah.

All of the white people you're descended from is what you're talking about. The other side. The party explained to Morris and Perel what the situation was and how they wanted, desperately wanted more information on Mother Never Was. They agreed to help with the research on this creature and her various dealings throughout history. In the morning, a, another breakfast buffet and another presentation by Morris and Perel. Yeah. We start every season like this now. Yeah.

We shoehorn a breakfast buffet. Uh-huh. There's always like a hotel banquet hall dissertation. One of those ones with the wall in the middle of the room that could be pulled to the side to make the room bigger. Yeah. And you can hear that there's something else going on over there, like a Tupperware selling thing. Yeah. It's a lead gen event. There's an MLM annual general meeting going on over there.

And Morris and Perel explained that creatures like Mother Never Was appear in various mythologies around the world and are described as bargainers. And a key part of bargainer mythology is that they always offer you something you want, but there is a catch. And it would appear that Mother Never Was has always gotten the upper hand on the people that she has bargained with, except for once. And that is where we find our heroes now. Perel has had his finger in the air for, pregnant paws. Who?

He just looks to see, to hear you guys gasp. Okay, thank you, thank you. Who was it? So a long time ago, a man in an attempt to save the woman he loved made a deal with Mother Never Was to learn the ways of the runes. And he used that power to entreat the spirit of the ocean itself. Your dad! Well now, hold on. My dad. No, I'm looking at Vance. Morris, was it your dad? It wasn't my dad. Whose dad was it?

But a long time ago, a man learned from Mother Never Was the ways of the ancient runes, which he used to then modify his own body to withstand a deal made with the spirit of the ocean, of the sea, of graves. I thought you would have figured it out. Yeah? No. Man of the sea. Yeah? Chimes. Chimes. Oh my God. And as far as I can tell, this is the only time that Mother Never Was did not take something punishing in return. Why? The book incredibly does not say.

The man imbued with runes was able to use those to his advantage. Ving holds out his arms. Yes, he points. That, those are, and he grabs your arms. Hey. And he's, looking at them, he's like, I don't. Your hands are so soft. Oh, thank you. You go to potions and lotions. All the time. I've got a lotions and potions subscription. They just show up in the fanny pack. I thought you tried to cancel that. I tried, but the app is so confusing.

And he looks and he goes, well, these are, and he's kind of turning your arms over. These are kind of, these are a little different because these are like druidic runes, right? Not like magical runes in the same way. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. But this is something to remember. This is something to think about. But if I guess. Why do. OK. Why do we think that mother never was.

Didn't punish who we assume is chimes. Yeah. Was it that. I mean, the song says that he was a thief to start. Right. Yeah. So he was already kind of shifty. Like, is it that he was. He just tricked her. I was going to say, I think he just tricked her. Is it like a Prometheus? You know, Maybe that's why she punishes now. Oh. Oh. Like, my punishments are so harsh, she's like, I'll never let that happen again. Yeah. Maybe he was the first. Maybe. Okay. Well. Maybe Chimes is. Like, she was.

Oh, sorry. We're all having revelations. Yeah, we are all having revelations now. This is the revelations part of the podcast. Welcome to Spout Lore Revelations. Part all of us. Yeah. So the thing that I was thinking was, what if Chimes is not the patron of one thing? What if he is the patron of sailors, but is also the patron of liars? I like that a lot. He's the first one who ever tricked Mother Never Was, but he's like, he is, he's the first of the liars.

I think that we know based on what is established in the thing is, if that is true, which would be really cool, it would be merely symbolic. It's a symbolic. Totally. Because it was like. Oh, yeah, they're always symbolic. Yes. But Chimes just happens to be the only living patron because of his long-livedness. Yeah. Yeah. But that is a cool idea. Where he was the first, like Jessica said, he was the first one to trick her. And then she was just like, never again. Yeah.

But because it is like a foundational event in history, like it made Mother Never Was what she is. It also solidified him as like, the totem of lying. Yeah. So whatever she is, she's able to grant wishes in a way. That is the main thing that we know about her. And over time, the way that she grants wishes is by changing people, not by giving them what they want. And I think that when Chimes tricked her, this was my revelation that he took something from her. Yes. Oh. I think so too.

Something that made like the runes actually have an impact when he took it. Like he tattooed himself. Yeah. Like maybe it was like. The ink. The ink. Oh yeah. Maybe it was like some special ink or something. What's the ink? Boda? So it was Wally Boda is the origin of like the druidic tattooing tradition. And he got ink from a spiritual octopus named Lakshmi. Oh right. Who lives in the deep, deep ocean. Okay. Yes.

But yeah, maybe there was some kind of like magic ink that Mother Never Was had that he stole. What if the way that she makes her bargains is, she writes them in a book. Oh. And that is the ink that she like, the ink that she had was. It's a binding ink. Mm-hmm. So she was able to like write in this book and make these things come to pass. Mm-hmm. And Chimes stole, yeah, that magic, or stole that ink from her.

So then she was forced to learn other ways, which then like over time twisted her and trapped her in the marshes. Uh-huh. And now she can't leave. And Perel, after you guys speculate all of this stuff, Perel's like looking at his books in his notes and he goes, the timeline might. Match up. I don't know for sure, but unfortunately, I think if we really want to know more, we got to talk to Chimes. Is there a way we can get in touch with Chimes? You're so far away from the ocean.

And as far as you can tell, Chimes can only be on the ocean. Right. I have a jar of Sea of Graves with me. Do you? Yeah. Oh, could you commune with it? Yeah. Oh. Is there a way to commune with it? We've never done it before, but there are Sea of Graves. It could work. That would be sick. Well, while we're having breakfast, I want to commune with the whispers of the Sea of Graves. All right. While we're having breakfast. Yeah. Tuck went back and he got a big bowl.

He just took the top off of one of those cereal columns and then just dumped it into a mixing bowl with a bunch of heavy cream. Oh, delicious. A breve cereal. Breve cereal. Just a straight shot to diarrhea. Yeah. Express. Okay. So we're going to do communion of whispers? Yep. All right. Here we go. Roll plus whiz. Nice. I got four plus my whiz is two as a five. You got four plus two. So that's six. You have a debil. Oh, yeah. Could I help? Sorry. Yeah. Potentially. How would you help?

Billy's just talking through a bunch of food in his mouth. He's just like, why are you? Why are you holding up against the moon or something? I might help. Thanks, Billy. Just an unqualified. Unqualified opinion from a child. Yeah. And the annoying part is it's going to work. Two to six plus bond. 13. Holy shit. Seven to nine. Vision's unclear. It's meaning murky. Meaning murky. The water gets cloudy. What the fuck? So yeah, I think. Yeah.

Billy goes, why don't you just hold it up against the moon? And you remember that it's morning, it's daylight, but you summon some moonlight in yourself. Oh yeah. I shine. I love this. My hand on the other side of the screen. I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm going to shine on the other side. Oh yeah. Right? Cause you have like the veins of Moonstone in your body still thought you, yeah.

And the light glimmers in the jar of water from the sea of graves, which starts to Royal as if a storm at sea, the water grays and becomes murky and you begin to see images within the water. You feel the presence before you see it, but then you see a, a leathery skinned, long braided, long braided beard, long gray hair rings. You see the image of chimes his face, like the braids floating in the water. And then his image becomes smoother, younger.

His countenance changes, his hair shortens, his beard shortens. Some of his tattoos begin to disappear. You see a young chimes tech puts the mixing bowl over his life. Is there anyone that tuck is not sexually attracted to? It's like shapes, triangles and thin rectangles. And we see him in sort of a, uh, we get a flash of images. Basically see him in like a darkened city street, uh, stealing through windows and emerging with sacks of I'll gotten goods.

We see him, the moon lighting his way, like lighting the streets. There's like constant, like an ally in his like thieving. And then we see him standing on the shore of the sea with a beautiful, beautiful woman wreathed in moonlight. They embrace. We see the images of the thief in the maid, basically a tower waves crashing against it, lightning in the sky and chimes throwing his fists in the air in anger. The black headed man is there. Yeah. And like in the distance watching chimes, uh, cry out.

Yeah. And then we see him trudging through the wilderness, traveling far and wide to a horrible twisted marshy place where he speaks to a woman. What does the woman look like in this scenario? Oh, what does she look like? What does mother never was look like before she's mother never was. She looks kind of like she's not old. She looks like she's in her late thirties, early forties. Did she, what kind of, you just make us sound right. Women in there. Abdul's favorite age range. Yeah.

Women, women in their forties, his weakness. Oh no. You said thirties, not into it. Forty. She is really like, like floor length, black hair. Oh, cool. And, uh, um, robe that is like a lot of flaps, like maybe of like, uh, animal hides and, and woven reeds and things like that. She's like a earth warrior. Uh huh. Oh, so she was like very connected to the land. Hmm. Cool. And, uh, like a true hedge, which kind of thing we can see kind of girl. You'd meet at a music festival. Yes. All right.

Keep us together, buddy. Reel it in, reel it in. It's too late. He already saw the side boob. Oh yeah. She's other side boob for sure. Cause of summer. It's summertime. Yeah. She was, she was bathing. Yeah. Was it in a stream? It was. Oh yeah. He's in the, in a fountain. And Abdul's trying, he's trying to snap that giant pencil. Oh wow. I wonder if he can. He's trying to twist it. Yeah. I don't understand. Keep describing. And? She's barefoot. She has a little gold tattoos on her face. Oh, cool.

Yeah. Keep that. Oh, like geometrical, but like, geometrical. Rounded. I don't know. Lots of shapes. So many shapes tattooed on her face. Of gold. She's eating a grapefruit. What? Wow. I've never met anything you haven't. That's a tough pencil. You couldn't break. It'd be so funny if Jess just did it. No, but like, you can't even like, it's, there's no flexibility in this. That's awesome. It's just a piece of wood. Yeah. Did you twist all the bark off it though?

No, that Paul did that forever ago. And I got really mad at him that day. But, I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. That's a big part. This is my favorite pencil. Oh, cause there's stuff everywhere. It was a thing where we were trying to do a finale and there was like a tablecloth we had put down that was white from the Airbnb that we were in. Right. And then I looked over and there was just dirt all over it. But now this is our studio.

You can put bark. It's like you go to a nice restaurant with your kid and you're like, just be cool. And then you look over and- And they're peeling bark off a stick. Sauce is all over. It's the same thing. Where'd you get that stick? I brought it from home. Home. From home. Home. You have to stop doing that, Billy. I brought it from home. Okay, so is the things that you guys described while Abdul was trying to break that stick true? She has geometric tattoos as well? Yeah, like shape.

Not just square, but like, you know, swirls. Circles with triangles in them. Yeah. But like legit. But like cool. Yeah. They're like doing like a caricature version of it. Okay, we see young Chimes speaking to Mother Never Was. Hides, woven reeds, geometric tattoos, long, long, long black hair dragging in the mud around her. And she's writing in a book, nodding. And we see, like, it seems like the face that you see in this Mother Never Was seems happy with this arrangement. Okay. In some way.

Okay. And then we see this story that we know. This story from the thief and the maid. Chimes tattooing himself, covering himself in runes, building his skiff, the weather eye. Mm-hmm. Taking to the waves to rescue Lillian from the chains of the Gibbous Man from his tower. Can we see like a full-on fight between like, it's like storm, rain. And we see like young Chimes, but with tattoos. Mm-hmm. And like the Gibbous Man full like slugfest. Yeah, totally. Chains wrapped around his fist. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Like lashed around his arms. Yeah. Like hitting like a fucking storm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Every time Chimes lands a blow, there's lightning in the sky. Yeah. And every time the Gibbous Man lands a blow, there's a huge gale of wind. Uh-huh. And. And it's. No. The Sea of Graves existed before this, right? So this is what I was. Oh, shit. This is what I was wondering. But then I realized. Because the timeline doesn't quite make sense. Just do it. Just do it. Just give us the goods, Sean.

You gotta stop edging us like this. Let me think about it for a sec. What if like the graves were there, but they were like. Underwater? Underwater. Oh. Because they were graves. They were buried in the earth. Yeah. Yeah. I think we see. Yeah. Yeah. Chimes and the Gibbous Man laying into each other. A battle. A titanic clash. Between two. Not people. Uh-huh. Chimes as human as he could be. But something else at this point. Yeah. And just as he's like. It looks like he's losing.

Lillian's bindings are secure. She's like. I imagine her as kind of like. In chains of dark. Like the night sky. Uh-huh. Like just over the surface of the water. Obsidian black. Yeah. Obsidian black chains. She's hanging just above the surface of the waves. There's waves lapping about her, but she's not being pulled under. Exactly. And. The sky. Is Chimes's enemy itself. The very sky. Is the like arena of the fight. Like it's sort of the ocean, but like. You know, like the.

That scene from Pirates of the Caribbean where it's like the night sky and is reflected in the ocean and they're kind of. One entity. It's like one domain kind of thing. Uh-huh. The wind and the waves. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. It's like you're far enough away from land that you're somewhere else. Yeah. They're on the edge of like. Reality. Yeah. Yeah. And we see. We see. What might be the moment where Chimes made the deal with the sea. Oh. And he like plunges his hands into the water. Whoa.

His eyes close and his head is thrown back. The breath is pulled from him. Whoa. The chains wrapped around his arms dive down deep into the ocean. Yeah. Deep into the water. Uh-huh. And his breath is pulled from him and given to the wind. Mm-hmm. And we see the chains lash onto something beneath the surface. We see the gibbous man's like. Hold on the wind like. Fritter away. Fritter away. As it gets its own agency. Yeah. And we see the muscles in Chimes' shoulders and arms tense. Mm-hmm.

As he begins to pull on the chains. Uh-huh. And all around him erupting from the water. Massive stone pillars. Shit. Holy fuck. Oh. That's so cool. Oh. And. He pauses to like re-grip the chains and they stop growing and then he continues and they continue to grow. Yeah. Yeah. He. He. Yeah. He pulls up like straight up and then he turns and like grabs the chains. Mm-hmm. And lifts them over his head. Yeah. Whoa.

And the pillars erupt from the ocean around him and we see the gibbous man temporarily just long enough robbed of his power in this place. Uh-huh. And that's when Lillian breaks free. Like you see like moonlight like beams of intense moonlight start to form in cracks. Yeah. In like the cage around her. And then the image that you see in a mason jar. Yeah. The water turns bright blinding white. Whoa. And the jar shatters. Whoa. And the water pours across the surface of the table.

And the glass that shattered is black obsidian like across the ground. Mm-hmm. It turned into like the same. You want more obsidian? Is that what you're trying to do here? Oh no. I didn't want more obsidian. I just thought it was cool. It's cool. There's like veins of obsidian running through the broken glass. Like every broken edge is rimmed with black. Yeah. And yeah, Perel and Morris like both step back as the glass shatters and the water pours over the table and the vision ends.

Then you hear Tuck crunch a big spoonful of. Whoa. Of Cheerios. And he goes. Like milk coming out of your mouth like whoa. Whoa. Just watching Stoudy Martin. 40 cartoons. Whoa. With a Froot Loop in it. Yeah, it was Froot Loops, not Cheerios. Uh, and now we can either. With that vision ending, what I'm imagining is we can either discuss what, what that means, or we can jump forward to what we think the party does with this information.

The fairy ring will stay up for another 24 hours or another 12 hours. Yeah. Billy builds another one. Okay. So at this point we are going to say that to, to build another ring, you're going to have to like two rings is lots, but it's a new day. So I'm building a fresh one. So roll. Dexterity. Oh, so I roll fair. I'll roll fairy child. Yeah. Two to six plus charisma. Uh, eight. Okay. So you get two, I believe, or three, three, three, three hold. And now am I allowed to roll fairy ring? You are.

I think you, I think the way that you have saturated this clearing with fairy energy means that you will have to bring down your previous rings. This will be a new ring. No, I'm building around my ultra fortress. Sean, this is what I'm doing. I understand. I understand that this is what you're doing. Jessica slamming the dice down like they're a gavel. You're just, you're, you're just going to be overwriting your previous rings. 10. There you go. So that'll last for 24 hours. Oh yeah. Wow.

One full cycle of the sun. Fuck yeah. That was great. She's psyched because now this means that you guys can hang out in the fanny pack and be totally safe and hang out in these rings. We have like our yard just got way bigger. That's true. Oh yeah. We have so much. It sounds like Billy made the whole clearing within the fairy ring. So now you've got like green space. You can vibe out. You guys are dead deer in here. And Billy doesn't even, he doesn't even fully understand fairy rings himself.

So he's like three layers of protection. I should be able to go inside now. That's a double big bag. Yeah. Triple layer. Oh yeah. Triple layer. Did the Billy's talking about it? Like it's a, like it's a man's razor commercial. Yeah. Yeah. Three layers of moisturizing protection. We're just fine in here. Yeah. Billy comes back covered in dirt. Yeah. Yeah. Very sweaty. Are you okay, Billy? I'm great. Never been better. Amazing. Yeah. Marble. Thank you for the fairy ring. We do appreciate it.

No problem. What does this ring look like? I know that Billy kind of does them different every time. Um, this one is, uh, he dug a trench. It's just a hole. That's great. Bent over walking backwards. Like, yeah, he, uh, he took one of the really nice dinner plates and he started, he was dragging, like digging, dirt out. And it's, you cut to us watching it for a bit. And we're, and we're like, he's going to be so fucking dirty after this.

You know, also he's going to be so fucking tired after this. That is true. Okay. And then Tuck's like, good job, Billy. And Billy is thumbs up. Yay. Looking good. It's working. Super deep. Yeah, we can, and then Tuck leads back. He's like, yeah, we can give him a bath tomorrow. We don't have to worry about it now. It's fine. He can do a sponge bath when he's asleep. He's going to be out. The dirt, the dirt will dry and cross. It's fine. Yeah.

And honestly, he'll probably just fall asleep in Perel and Morris's bed. So it's not really our thing that we have to figure out. Billy walks back in with the filthy plate and you hear as the, the page is like gesturing wildly. That's what that is. It walks up. It grabs the plate away from Billy. Oh, it completes the set. Oh, the seats. And it just hustles like through the double doors into the kitchen. Okay.

And now you have a, if you choose, if you're choosing to rest here, you have a full day to just rest and recuperate and study and talk. And if we take two days, I can, I can clear this stability. So, okay. So recover when you do nothing but rest and comfort and safety. That is something to consider. After a day of rest, you recover all of your hit points. After three days of rest, you remove one debility of your choice.

If you are under the care of a healer, magical or otherwise, you heal a debility every two days. Instead. Great. So can I try to get Morris and Perel to fix my dream? So it doesn't give me a wisdom debility every time. You definitely can. These might be the wrong guys to ask about that. I trust them. Cause the, there are only hope right now. Perel is like a, a frog wizard. Well, he's, well, he's a transmuter.

So he's like, so technically what I could do is kind of transmute your brain a little bit. Uh huh. To maybe try and work out whatever physical mechanical brain problem you're having is. Could you transmute my brain so I don't remember my dreams anymore? And then I don't, I won't be freaked out about this every day. I could absolutely take away your ability to dream forever. If that's what you're asking me. Side question. Do frogs dream? Do frogs dream?

Boy, you better believe frogs dream and they are disgusting. What do they dream about? Uh, uh,! Oh, I can't even say it. It's just, he spits on the ground. Ew. That's why I had to turn them into people. So they knew that what they were dreaming about was wrong. That was the motivation? No, I was really bored out there. Actually. It was just cool to have guys to like, go get me drinks and stuff. So that's most. Servitude? No, no, no, no. Okay. Wait, sorry. This is sounding crazy.

This sounds crazy. It's getting so weird. I wanted. You didn't like their dreams and you wanted slaves? No, no, no, no. I didn't want to. I just, I created Ascension Species to see if I could. Why don't you just make normal friends? Just such a pregnant pause. So long story short, yes, I could. I could take away your ability to dream forever. Okay. I think. It would take some time. It would take some doing, but I could probably do it. What can Morris do? Morris, can you do something?

Well, I'm more of a, um, spatial thaumaturge, so I could take, technically, with much precision and skill, which is not a problem for me, physically remove a part of your brain. Okay. We're doing a lobotomy? I feel like there's a lot of extra stuff in there already. I just want to be clear. That I'm not using. Neither of us is particularly trained in the healing arts. You just remove his dexterity part of his brain. Yeah.

Perel is either going to transmute your brain chemistry, which he offered to do with Mears a long time ago in Crystal Bay, so he wouldn't betray. You or Morris can physically alter your brain. What's Aquarius thing? Moss. Is there a mass that does this? Is there a sleep? There might be. I mean, this could be a Spout Lore. Yeah. Is there some kind of drug I can take that stops me from dreaming? Three. Whoa. Um, what is the failure here? What? I don't know.

They like, they're like, let me look in my medicine cabinet and they just, they're just like rummaging around. There's like some old faded medicine bottles and they're like, maybe, maybe. Yeah. The failure is that I think that they found something like there's a thing where Morris and Perel are like, Oh maybe, maybe. And then like one of them walks to like a cabinet and like grabs a bottle of clear liquid. That's unlabeled. Tuck just drinks, grabs it out of his hand. I'll take that. Sick.

You guys are the best. Thanks. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I've already drank the whole thing. Yeah. What was it? I don't know. Tuck passes out. He just faints. Hopefully that was a natural faint. Yeah. Morris like just puts a mirror up against my mouth to see if I'm even breathing. Don't worry everyone. He's alive. Score another one for Morrison Perel. He's getting, this is a win. He didn't die. Can I use a druidic lore to consult the trove of ancient knowledge within me?

Examine the events of the world. Roll plus wisdom. I'm just wondering if there's a thing that we can find out what this liquid is. That's all. Oh, you want to know what the liquid is? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tuck just passed out. Yep. He's a close personal friend of mine, Sean. It is close personal friend. It's probably, I feel like this is a personal friend of mine. I think this is more in the realm of like, uh, magic stuff.

So the druidic knowledge might not be within the realm, but I mean like you could Spout Lore, you could do other stuff. I'll Spout Lore about clear liquids that magicians will keep. Yeah. I got seven plus my intelligence. Six. Shit. Beautiful. Shit. Um, can I help? Yep. Okay. Try. How? I taste it. Okay. Just, there's a little bit of red Tuck's lip. He starts licking it off Tuck's beard. Like a dog. Uh, five. Okay. Failure. Failure. Dang it. Uh, okay. You know, wait, can I aid his aid?

You were passed out by just having, having a bunch on my beard. You aid somebody who's trying to aid you. Huh? Full circle. Huh? Yeah. Okay. So here's what we're going to do to get over this. You're going to get on my shoulders. Then I'm going to get on your shoulders. You're going to get on my shoulders and then we're going to be on the top. We'll be 50 feet tall at this point. Oh my God. Okay. And it's just, it cuts to your, you're in a 69. Yeah. Cause that's, that's, that's standing 69.

Well, try to flip. This isn't exactly how I thought this was going to go, but it's happening now. Um, okay. So I think this is actually, what are you doing? I'm aiding Billy. You're not aiding Billy. Put those down. What did you get? I got five. Oh, it doesn't, I can't help it. You're unconscious. Yeah. You can't do it anyways. But I have so much still around my, this is what I'm saying. This is actually kind of perfect. Okay. These two failures.

Cause I think that you drink all of this stuff and Billy's like, I'll help. I know what it is. And he starts licking it off. Tuck's beard. Or he's like touching his beard and putting it in his mouth. He's using his hands. He's going, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't put it in your mouth. And then Ving tries to Billy Ving grabs Billy and it like gets on his hands. And Billy passes out and Tuck's like, or Ving rubs his eyes like, well, wait a second. No, he's like, this, this move. Sorry.

I just pictured being like, if he had glasses, he'd be under, you know, like, Oh my God, we're also stuck. Why are they so, why is my family so stupid? Like he was cutting, he was cutting peppers and he accidentally rubbed his eye. He's like, Oh, I'm unconscious now. And then we descend into the dreamscape. Sick. So you awake.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, I think the nature of whatever it is that you've consumed means that all three of you come to together. Oh, cool. Whoa. I think that tuck like you, you open your eyes, you see the cataclysm and the cataclysm. What, as I recall, is there is a, a hillside that tuck is walking up. Yeah.

And the landscape is made out of like kind of blasted gray rock. Like it almost looks like an alien landscape. Kind of like when you see pictures of Iceland and you're like, what the fuck planet is that? Yeah, totally. It's just Iceland. Yeah. It's like blacking. It's like black or gray rock, black sand. Yeah. The fissures in the earth. And then there's like smoke, like yellow, acrid smoke pouring out of the fissures. Yeah. Yeah.

And as of several months ago, there is also a tree at the top of the hill. Yeah. And it's like a steep, like you, like tuck is always barefoot in his dream and it hurts to walk up the hill. Yeah. Cause it's like just so sharp. And that's sort of what this landscape is, is like, if you walk, you're getting cut up bad. Yeah, totally. But it's like 200 feet up and then there's a tree right at the top. Yeah.

And then like the tree is on fire and the, and the sky is like this, like angry red, yellow kind of thing. Cool. Yeah. We're seeing tuck, like begin to struggle up this hill feet, like bloodied ground smoking. And by we, I also mean tuck because tuck is viewing this along with Billy and Ving from about 50 feet back. Whoa. And it cuts off in like, as you turn, uh, cause you hear like movement to either side of you and they're Billy and Ving.

But, and as you turn to view them, you see like the image is kind of shifting almost until it disappears and becomes, uh, a different image depending on the direction that each of you are facing. Oh, our individual dreams. Yes. You are sort of in a, it seems like you're in a nexus between all three of your dreams. So if we look towards Billy, what does Billy see? Billy is, uh, he's in the river before he knitted it. Cool.

So, so Billy is watching Billy, I guess like, uh, cause remember we're all like, like, like, like tuck. Like we see Billy frozen next to, the river before it was the sun wise in the winter shins. Yeah. And what is Billy doing in this frozen moment? He's got his like fingers kind of in the clay on the river bed. Um, and it's like a fine spring day. The sun is dappling down from like the shade of the trees above. It just looks like a kid playing just sort of an idyllic spring day. Nice.

And Billy, you're watching yourself from this removed view play in the, in the clay. Does Billy remember this? He's watching. He's like, Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And he starts like picking his nose. He's like, Oh, I remember that. Your finger out of your nose, Billy. What? Oh my gosh. That moment you're like, Oh shit, Tuck's here. And you turn to the other side and Ving is here too. What, what do we see? Yeah. If we look towards Ving, what do we see?

Uh, Ving is seeing a vision of his mother, but before he was created. So it's from the vision of Ving. Of his mother. Oh, does that make sense? Yeah, that does make sense. It's your mom's dream. It's my mom's dream before she had me. Yeah. Cool. That's sick. Interestingly, I think because this is the first time you're seeing this, this dream from outside the actual perspective of the dream. I can understand a bit. You're like, Oh fuck, that's my mom. I thought that was me this whole time.

Oh, that's sick. And to you here, get your finger out of your nose, Billy, realize that Tuck is next to you. And so is Billy. And the three of you turn around and look at each other. And our dreams mash together as we see each other. Oh, I'm looking at Tuck and in behind Tuck is my dream. He's pushed into my dreamscape and likewise with each of us. Like it moves relative to us. Yeah. That's perspective. Yeah. What do you guys, what is, what do you guys do? Is the plan to go?

Into the dreams to figure them out? I step forward into one of them. Absolutely. Okay. I step into my dream. Yeah. And then I go far enough that I'm in the water now. Yeah. Oh, it's nice in here. Oh, follow Billy. Yep. And you walk into this, uh, where before you were in sort of a blank space in the corner of all three of your minds. It's kind of, it was kind of looked in my mind. Like you remember the interface as we entered the spirit realm? Oh, yeah.

Where it's just like pieces of reality floating in blackness. Yeah. Yeah, totally. And you step forward following Billy and suddenly birds. Well, you mostly feel the sun. It is warm here. You feel like there would be, you're like walking through a frozen breeze. So like as you pass the breeze, you feel it on your skin, but it does not blow. You see birds frozen in the sky, fish frozen in the stream. Oh, it's like they're frozen moments. This is like, everything is still. Okay.

At least at this time. And Billy is in the water. Is the other Billy here too? The dream. Yeah. There's a, there's a Billy crouched on the, on the shore, like playing with the clay thing. Wants to walk up to the clay, Billy. Just go observe him. Yeah. Do I see anything? Uh, roll a discern realities. 12. Oh, you get three questions. Hmm. What? Here's not what it appears to be.

As you get closer to the Billy and like really, really fix your attention and your perception on him, you see him start to move and he's like moving the clay and kind of piling it up and measuring. It looks like he's, he's doing like some sort of kid, like, okay, it's this big.

And then he like moves a bunch of clay and he's like, at one point he puts his figure up his nose and like coats his nose with mud and being like, goes to put his hand down, but like moves through his body, you know, like, yeah, totally. But you do see this.

Billy begins to move and around him, sort of, it seems like in an area almost like some of the water is flowing, but some of it's not like this is a, this is a dreamscape that you can, I won't give you more information, but that is what you get is you really focus on this aspect of the dream and it begins. Who's really in control here. It does feel like to you, it is a mixture of, well, this is Billy's mind, but also I am here so I can affect this. Okay. Weird. Yeah. It's a con.

It's like, it is a dream for sure, but you are acting upon the dream yourself. We are incepting. Yeah. And so in that way you think it's probably whatever the potion, whatever the potion was. Sorry. I just, in my mind we see Leonardo DiCaprio running through the halfling doing his own thing. Oh no, that's Jordan. Let's have go of it. Jordan, let's have go of it. Just, just falls out of his chair. I rub my eyes. Jordan, let's have it. I didn't, you know who I mean. Yes.

And then we see three syllable name, three names. Oh Jesus. God damn it. It's okay. We're almost at lunchtime. Paul's in a full cascade right now. He only had one boiled veggie dog. I think it's the veggie dog that brought me here. No, I think the veggie dog carried you until here. Yeah. If you leave this in, I'm quitting the podcast forever. If you look back in the sand, you'll see the moments that the veggie dog carried you. Yeah. I think the veggie dog carried you until here. Yeah. Yeah.

If you leave this in, I'm quitting the podcast forever. If you look back in the sand, I think the veggie dog carried you. There's only one set of footprints. There was footprints. And then just a round peg hole. One sliding trough as the hot dog slid across the ground. Yeah. So the answer you think is somewhat complicated, but overall it's probably whatever the potion was has created this very strange situation. What should I be on the lookout for?

You recall as you were kind of looking around at each of your family members and their respective dreams, that they were doing this sort of like, you know, like mashing thing where like aspects of the dream to either side would sort of flow in. And you're like, well, that can't be good for anybody. Okay. If someone else's psyche creeps into theirs, that's not going to feel good. So you want to, you think you want to be very watchful for instability in whatever this is. Okay.

So Tuck kind of like, when Ving tells us that he sort of like moves his dream in the like, landscape of their minds. Like, so it's not mashing with everyone else's basically wink blinks his way out of this. Yeah. Roll a two to six plus wisdom. Okay. And it's a 10. Yes. So Tuck is very skilled at compartmentalizing after all these years. That makes sense. So he, you just like you being is like, Oh yeah, our dreams might mash. And you were like, there's no fucking way.

I'm letting Billy see this dream. Oh yeah. And you just, so you put up what you feel is a pretty firm barrier between it. Doesn't lock you out. That's what the 10 is. You haven't locked yourself out of your dream. I feel like it just locks it in place on the other side of our dreams. Cause we're saying, yeah, frozen and out of like, yeah. So you could still probably enter it as you have entered Billy's dream, but it will not leak in. Okay. Which is great. Cause that's the scariest one for sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Cause you're standing in this, uh, partially frozen, partially not river. And took us Billy. What is your dream about? What? Uh, I don't know. I'm making the river. This is you making the Sunwise and the Wittershins. Why? Oh, well, I mean, there, the war was coming and I, I didn't really know what else to do. Can Billy go up to Billy? Absolutely. Yeah. What are you trying to do when you walk up to dream Billy? What are you doing?

Well, I kind of want to go up to Billy and see if I can talk to him. Oh yeah. But if not, I want to, I want to follow the river. I want to go under the water and follow it. Oh, interesting. Cause if it's not running, if like, if the water's not flowing, I'm not really in any danger. Oh yeah, no, definitely not. Yeah. That's cool. Which one should I do? Those are both pretty cool. I think going under the water is what I would choose. Okay. I'll go under the water.

So you, uh, briefly consider attempting to converse with your dream self, but decide against it. Yeah. I think there's something wrong with that. Oh, there's something about where I, it stops me. I say, no, that breaks the law. Whoa. And then I am like, I will look around myself. That's cool. Yeah. That there's fairy laws about how you interact with your own memories. Yeah. Because fairies are really powerful and they can break rules all the time. Cause I'm like, how would I respond?

And I'm like, Oh, I don't know about that. Yeah. Very cool. Okay. So I'm going to go under the water and have a look around. So Billy just starts, Billy just turns and walks into the water and disappears under the surface. Um, Ving goes in the water. Yeah. Tuck seal slides underneath. You slide right past Billy, like on this angled bank and Ving, you just walk in and both of you are struck by the realization that you're not drowning. You're just walking. You're just walking through this water.

Okay. Like you feel yourself interacting with it, but you're just here. Your vision is filled with blue, dark blue, but you see beneath your feet, soil rocks. You see fish, river grasses, and Billy just continues down to the bottom. Yeah. Yeah. And just follow him before you know it. There's like 40, 50 feet of water above your head. That's a deep river. Holy shit. Yeah. You're absolutely able to go ahead and roll certain realities. Okay. Beauty six plus wisdom. 10. Holy shit. Yes.

But here's not what it appears to be. I think that like, um, sort of the diorama museum display nature of when you entered the dream made you feel like you were kind of confined to the area you remember in the dream, but you're walking along and you feel the edge of this dream fragment. Stretching out in front of you as you walk. You think that this isn't just like a piece of a memory. Like you are able to fully explore this environment.

You don't know what the bounds of that are, but as you can, as far as you can tell right now, you are walking through a place as Billy remembers it to its full extent. That was not helpful. Okay. What here is useful or valuable to me? Whoa. Yeah. So much shade is thrown at you. I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, Oh, a shade. It's a great answer. Where the mood with that question.

I think as you continue to walk down the river passing these fish and water bugs and plants, you're seeing like through the grasses on the banks openings of various sizes, especially the closer you get to the everwood itself. And you're seeing more openings as you carry on down the bank. Like caveman. Like.

You would assume cave mouths I think it's maybe a thing where it's like You know how in dream distance is like Fucked I think it's like we're just at The Everwood you know like we don't have to walk Yeah totally it's not an hour of Walking it's like oh I want to go to the Ever Oh here it is What should I be on the lookout For I guess As you're walking down the Riverbank in this dreamy way kind of like Flowing from one spot of interest to the Next You were following behind Oh yeah yeah just Yeah and you're being like taken along As Billy like flits from spot To spot in this dream and Billy at the mouth of one Of these caves that seems like Large enough for you To pass through you see a glint At the mouth as something frozen is like Emerging from the cave mouth What is it?

An eel And you see this eel As it like swims out of the cave mouth And you know these don't Live in this part of the world Like this part of the river does not have eels Like this and you see like A cup floating Out of one of the other cave mouths Can I take the cup? Can I touch the cup?

I'm going to try and touch the cup 2d6 plus wisdom 10 Oh shit You reach out to the cup And you begin to close your little hands around it And you feel yourself start to like Pass through it And you just like focus And you close your hand around it It looks like it is made of like Pewter like it's a silver Hammered like pewter cup And it's set with blue stones Kind of around The not the blip But like the bottom area The bottom has like blue stones set around it Cool Can I Spout Lore about this cup?

You absolutely can 2d6 plus intelligence Where's this kind of cup?

Come from 7 plus minus 1 I got a 6 I need assistance I can help I've seen cups before 8 So that makes it a 7 to 9 This is a style That both of you because you've all traveled lots before You're like oh I haven't seen this cup It's really fancy haven't seen one like this But I think that this style Of cup reminds you of A time that you were trying to Rob the Vert University With Dan a long time ago It was like the first job before Before we went to the hot dog festival Oh yeah And you're like oh this is definitely From like the southeastern principalities This cup which is Hundreds of kilometers away So the riverways connect all over The principalities It seems like there is something There's some sort of subterranean Network of rivers and tunnels That connects fast Tracks of the principalities So if we wanted to move To like other areas We could find a way to traverse it And navigate it we could potentially get Wherever Are they connected Is it physically or magically Or both I think that is beyond the scope of what you're able to determine From this but you just know that Like well this eel's not from here And this cup's not from here And the Experience that all of you have mostly Ving I guess is that you're not from here And you're not from here I guess with the eels with animals The cup and the eel are definitely from Different parts of the principalities So for some reason This river Area seems to be A convergence of different like Underwater paths So I wonder if we could Ving maybe talk to like An animal in the river Like an eel or something And then be like hey can you take this fanny pack To X place Oh Oh!!

The river grass starts moving of its own accord. The dream is waking up. Yeah, and the water. You feel the water start to flow. Our hair is moving. Tuck's beard is moving. Billy, you feel something become aware of you in this dream. Whoa. The river grass starts to move and the rocks on the bank start to roll and shift with the waves and the water starts to fill your lungs. In your perception of this dreamscape, Billy, you can feel that something is coming.

That's where we're going to end the episode. What? No, I wanted that one. That was sick. That's a great cliffhanger. I've been your Game Master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the Barbarian, Abdul Aziz. Playing Ving, the Half-Elf Druid, Paul Oppers. Take care. Playing Fat Billy, the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai. Bye, everyone. Thank you to all of our susporters around the world for susporting the show.

If you would like to susport the show and get access to a bonus campaign set in the High Spear Mall, art, merch, and a whole whack of other stuff, check us out at patreon.com slash speltlore or speltlore.com slash moneyplease. Thank you to Aaron Reid for our intro and outro music. You can find all of Aaron's music at bandcamp.com and you can find all the music produced for the show on Spotify. Thank you, finally and most of all, to all of you for listening. We'll see you next time.

And so ends the tale of Adventures Three Who tried the best they can Though dumb and scared and lost they be For time's a breast in revelry And though our journey may be like a conclusion It's a struggle to overcome It's a struggle to overcome It's a struggle to overcome 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'd gladly spout more.