Episode 3 – The End of the Dream

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 Spellbound. I'm your game master Sean O'Hara, joining me as always playing Tacoma Dome the Barbarian Abdulaziz. Hello everybody. Playing Ving the Half-Elf Druid Paul Oppers. Hello there. And playing Fat Billy the Halfling Thief Jessica Tai. Hello.

When last we left our heroes, they settled in for a relatively safe day of rest, research, and recuperation. Having revealed to them by Perel, through his research, that the figure he previously described as being the only person not to be punished, in a deal with Mother Never Was, was their old friend, the patron of sailors, Chimes. Chimes. Chimes.

In an attempt to get more information about this situation, Ving used his jar of grave water from the Sea of Graves itself to attempt to commune with Chimes, receiving a murky vision in the form of a flash of images held within the jar. Mm-hmm. Including a young Chimes making a deal of some sort with her mother. A deal of some sort with Mother Never Was. Learning from her the secret of the runes and his method of tattoo making that gave him the power that we know him for today.

Stealing from her a magic ink that she used to make her deals and going to face off against the Gibbous Man to release Lillian from her ancient detainment. Mm-hmm. We saw a battle between the Gibbous Man and Chimes in which we saw him make his famous deal with the Sea of Graves, as depicted in The Thief and the Maid. Mm-hmm. Where he gave his breath to the wind, his blood to the sea, and his bones to the graves, rising them from the very deep. Cool.

Meaning our old friend Chimes created the Sea of Graves. So sick. All those many millennia ago. So sick. Mm-hmm. From there, the glass shattered and we were left without the jar, without the grave water. Next, the party decided that they wanted to spend this time resting. Resting, regaining some hit points, maybe healing a debility or two. And Tuck asked Morris and Perel if they could help him not remember his horrible cataclysmic dream anymore. They said, oh, maybe.

Let me just check this cabinet. And the first vial that Perel touched, Tuck just drank, passing out moments later. Then Billy and Ving attempted to help Tuck in some way. Billy by tasting some of the potion and then passing out. And Ving by accidentally getting some in his eye and also passing out.

Finding ourselves in some sort of three-way dreamscape containing the dreams of each of our three heroes, including a sunny day by the Wittershins or the Sunwise, one of the two rivers that long ago Billy knit into one. The party investigated this strange frozen dream a little bit, descending into the river. In this frozen in time image of the river, they traveled down finding the three-way dream.

They traveled down finding the mouth of cave systems that they determined through the creatures coming out and the objects coming out must connect all across the continent or at least along the massive peninsula that is the principalities. And in their last moments of observing, Billy felt a presence in the dream take notice and approach. And that is where we find our heroes now. What do you do? I think we were swimming up to the surface. Oh, yeah. Oh, water. The water started moving.

The water began to fill your lungs. Yeah. You are drowning. What do you do? I will gather the mud from the bottom and create a free Willy and get us out of here. Oh, like you're just going to shoot you guys out of the bottom of the river? Yeah. I'm using elemental form. Okay. I'm going to create a big creature to get us out of here. I'm going to make a mud orca. So, elemental form is your shape shift move, basically. You're creating a body for yourself. That's what you want to do? Yeah. Okay.

Great. So, I got 12. Which means you get three hold. Great. And you form this orca mud body around yourself. Yeah. At first, you attempt to connect with the spirit of this mud and you remember, I'm in a dream. This isn't real mud, but- But if he wills it so, maybe. Exactly. You kind of impart your will on this dreamscape and create this mud body around yourself. And I grab them and head to the surface as fast as we can. Bust out the surface. Perfect. So, you can do that by spending two holds.

Great. Yes. One for each billion tuck. I'll use the last one to do a flip in the air. Okay. And land on the bags? Yeah. This looks so cool. Pretty sweet. Gracefully breaking the surface of the water. Water spray glittering in the air, doing a cool flip. Yeah. He does a sploosh? Sploosh. Mid-circle. Oh, that's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one.

Sploosh, mid-circle. Oh, and the sploosh like pinwheels through the air and the mud falls away. You land lightly on the bank of the river. Tuck slams into the bank next to you. I set Billy down. Billy, what do you do? This scary thing is still in the river, you think? And the water is flowing. The river is now moving. What is regular Billy doing? I think, so if we remember- Like dream Billy, I guess. Yeah, dream Billy.

So, I think we discussed how this is the most- It's the memory of Billy creating the Wittershins and the Sunwise and knitting the rivers. So I think he is beginning that process. The waters are beginning to rise and the river is twisting and turning. But it's also starting to lap over the banks and become a bit turbulent. I'm gonna do what dream Billy is doing. Oh, cool. Or at least what he was doing before where he plunges his hands into the silt of the river. Oh, cool. 2d6 plus wisdom. Eight.

So yeah, you plunge your hands into the clay and try and feel what you felt on that day to remember what did happen. And you know that in a few moments, the river is going to flood. In its attempt to connect with the other one, it is going to flood these banks completely. And that you know was not a danger for you at the time. But now that you are like visitors in this place at this time, it could be very dangerous for you and extremely dangerous for Tuck and Ving.

And then you also know that whatever is in the river that is coming was not a part of that day. This is a new thing. And you see the water start to like course. You look further up and you see like a swell coming down the course of the river. Guys, we got to move. Let's get out of here. I just have to do one last thing. Okay. I'm going to make a fairy ring around Dream Billy. Oh, interesting. To protect him. Okay. Just in case. Like I don't know how this works.

Strange that there's something new in this memory. Mm-hmm. Cool. Plus dexterity, 11. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So what kind of fairy ring do you make around Dream Billy? I sprint around him a few times and the weeds around the river kind of just like braid together around him. Nice. Cool. Is this a massive flood? Like, what? Is this a massive flood? It's a pretty sizable flood. Like the course of the river is being changed. Is it like the, if like a dam opens kind of flood? A little bit. Yeah. Okay.

Not quite as destructive, but destructive enough for the people standing right next to the river. Okay. Like Billy. Like Billy. But he's got this protective ring around him now. You can see he like settles into his task a little bit more comfortably almost. Like he is reacting to the ring around him. But the waters are coming and you feel Billy, whatever is in the river is also moving towards you. So you have to go. All right. Let's bolt. Okay. Defy danger however you're getting out.

Unless you have another move that'll help you escape. I might do escape route. Oh, smart. Ooh. Yeah. Yeah. When I'm in too deep and need a way out, I name my escape route and I roll plus dex. Sick. Like Billy's just like, this is weird. It's like lucid dreaming. So Billy starts going to like play land in his head or whatever. And he's like, I mean, I could turn this into a hill. Oh yeah. And just pour us out. Seven. So what's the seven to nine?

I can stay or go, but if I go, it costs me something. I have to leave something behind or take something with me and GM decides. Oh, or take something with you. So obviously I'll go. Okay. So you create this, that you, you just turn where you are into a hill. That's like rolling you basically towards where you came in. Yeah. Okay. I think that tuck and Vings, uh, defy danger situation is that now the environment around you is a hill. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you are like tumbling down this hill as Billy seems to just be gliding towards the edge of the dream. Okay. Yeah. I am going to try to maneuver so that I don't land on Billy, but to follow the lead that he's creating. So two D six plus, I guess, sounds like dexterity. Yeah. So that's six. I got six. I'll eight cause I got, I have a negative one next turn. I hate him by giving him a good push. Right.

Yeah 2d6 plus bond great I got eight okay cool okay so you just nudge tuck along and how are you getting out I'm also just gonna use dexterity and okay yeah he gets out he gets out by pushing me to the ground and riding me I wanted to do that earlier this is perfect tuck is like all right I'm gonna go into seal mode and then he tries to slide to the hill that really created it and he just went so I was like no no no no no it's a run and jump on his back and just blijow he has a looshing yeah yeah tucks a real looser I got 10 great the biggest looser so ving uh tuck runs and slides and just grinds to a halt on this hill like a penguin four feet ahead but ving leaps onto his back and the extra strength and weight helps tuck he's got one foot on his back and one foot on the mud the seven to nine tuck behind you you look you hear like a you think you you remember you could swear you remember hearing water pushed aside as something comes out of the river can I try and look back at what it is oh no you look back he rolls over yeah you roll over while Ving is riding you and now you're facing upwards I wish I had guns I mean it's a dream could like real bullets come out of your fingers yeah dream bullets yeah as like Ving is riding me it's like on my chest riding me down I want to look backwards and do and that's the sound Tuck makes because he's bad at sound effects it's like that assassin guy we met that one time so you swear you could remember the sound of the water then you swear you could see something coming out of it and you could swear you saw something come over the hill but it's like every time you see it you forget what you saw oh like a real dream like when you wake up from it yeah it's like you are only aware of where it is because you have realized you've forgotten seeing it can I use West Pennized Dissociation when you are subject to mind control you may choose to take 1d4 damage ignores armor and ignore the consequence you are also I want I want you to understand this you are currently fully under the control of a mind affecting potion okay if you are choosing to shake your mind free of an enchantment you could potentially shake your mind free of this entire situation and leave Ving and Billy behind I feel like I want to push and try and see what this thing is okay so you're taking 1d4 okay oh nope one one damage so I think what you see is very upsetting in that it is a long malleable looking being of some kind like a long central body of like an amorphous semi-solid looking fluid almost with a big mouth on the end of it no eyes and then a series of long arms on either side with like very human looking hands in spirited away that's exactly what I'm thinking about it's kind of like no eyes but like a long slug with like arms and legs weird that is weird crawling towards you very quickly with its mouth wide open Tuck freaks out and starts like scrabbling his legs to go faster yeah totally yeah and you have a distinct impression Tuck that as you try and break free of this obscuring effect that it has that it recognizes that you've done that Billy you're pushing everybody towards a new dream which dream are you picking things because I want a mom to protect us and Tuck's is really scary yeah totally mine is bad mine is really bad okay so you cross this like barrier there's the weird little like backstage area that you can see that's just like the black space there's people like craft service table yeah yeah yeah there's like a PA with a little headset and a clipboard that's like come on gesturing you towards the next dream these glasses or these glasses which one pick one we're already late we're already late we're behind there's a proper angler in there exactly no logos no get those you gotta get that polo shirt off we got a greek to the set and you get dumped from Billy's dream into this backstage space and then like tumble basically into Ving's dream for some reason as we go through the backstage area you hear Tuck's back squeak really loud against the floor yeah mud sounds into squeaking ah ooh oh you've got a little like uh like floor burn yeah I've got rug burn all down my back that's the one damage I do yeah rug burn yeah!

Um we discussed Ving that it is from the perspective of your mom but we didn't discuss what situation it was no so it's pre Ving Ving has not been born yet yeah and it is a dream that he's had many times that he thought maybe was from his perspective and so describe the scene she's in the canopy of a tree and she's studying this gigantic web and it looks like it goes on for acres oh massive web series of webs throughout the tree and she's taking parts of it and putting it into like a little satchel taking a sample and um she doesn't see it but there is a gigantic looming figure parting the branches behind her and approaching across the webs in the treetops like a giant spider maybe uh uh uh uh uh uh uh like a giant spider maybe you just see the rumblings and the web shaking and leaves parting and the sound of breaking branches and she's she's um just realizing that this thing is coming towards her out of the treetops oh right because this is a dream that your mom had oh right yes it is a dream not a not a historic event like like Billy's situation the ground is getting further and further away so this we come into in this frozen tableau and in the dream um she's trying to focus in on which direction the broken branches are coming from yeah and they're coming from they're like broken branches and wrestling over here over here from underneath from up above and there's a hummingbird flitting around her face oh in circles just buzzing around she can't get a bead on it's like distracting her or whatever it is busying her mind interesting so you come into this frozen tableau of Liliana and the web and these like broken branches leaves beginning to fall in the canopy and the hummingbird frozen in place like right in front of her face it's the only thing that's not frozen are its wings because they beat so fast oh so it's very slowly moving its wings cool but that means that all three of you are dumped into a canopy yeah tuck falls directly to the ground yeah I was gonna say what this tree is really high up you get dumped into this new dream and all of a sudden it is like you're surrounded by forest oh boy like Billy's dream where you were suddenly in a nice spring day you are suddenly in a forest in a tree top with no solid ground beneath you what do you do tuck immediately just tries to grasp for something yeah yeah 2d6 plus strength okay 12 12 perfect yeah you grab onto a branch yeah and you just hold yourself in place yeah it is ving is on top of me right yes where's Billy uh I think I'll I think oh I was ahead of you guys yeah um I'm gonna try to grab on to okay 2d6 plus strength I guess okay 10 oh wow holy shit I rolled 10 yeah wow sick so Billy shoots his little hand out yeah grabs onto tuck's love handles ah so fleshy we gotta clip your nails I'm sorry thank god you're in a bulk phase it's yeah it's so sharp yeah my back is red rash yeah my claws well not my claws your claws your little boy little boy claws my little uh baby face yes yes yes spear.

2d6 plus will wisdom, I guess. Nice. To summon your spear. What is that? 11. Okay, yeah. All of a sudden in your mind, your spear is in your hand. Land lightly on the haft of the spear. Cool. Wow. I think the fact that you all so incredibly succeeded is as you get dumped in whatever this fucking thing is, Tuck, you see it just like tumble through the treetops. It's like reaching out all its many hands to try and grab on, but it falls quite a distance.

You're not sure if it grabs on, but it is momentarily away. Yeah, and can I tell these guys what it was? Yeah, you can definitely try and describe it. There's like a big fat slug dick thing coming for us. The whole front of it is just a mouth and it looks like it wants to eat us or something. What? Yeah, and it looks long. Sorry. You have to have a better way to describe it. That's not that long. Can we just like step on it then or something? That seems really little. No, dude, it was huge.

It was huge. I don't know. I didn't see anything. Yeah, I've known you for years and I haven't seen anything. No, the thing was huge. Sorry, I just couldn't find a good metaphor, but it's really big. You're all safe for the moment. You can haul yourselves back up on the tree, branches. Can we bolt out of here using the canopy? Yeah, where are you trying to go? Can I go? I want to discern realities and see what my dream mom is doing. Cast around. Ten. Okay, three questions off the list.

What's valuable? So you're basically all three of you are kind of under this web. You've latched on. You're like underneath Ileana frozen in this dream that she's having. Oh, so we're like looking up through the canopy at the tableau? Up through the canopy at the web. The web like extends through the trees. Oh, okay. And you can see it hanging above you and Ving, you immediately recognize.

And Billy, you moments later recognize as you are done squeezing Tuck's love handle because it's safe and fun. Yeah. Ah, stop. Oh, sorry. I hold on to his loincloth instead. Oh, God. Oh, God. It's slippy, slippy, slippy. I just take you over and I put you on my shoulder. I'm sorry. That's definitely going to get infected. And you look up at the web and you can see the connections of the strands and they form constellations. Whoa. Holy shit. What's about to happen?

You've had this dream a million times. Like, you know, she is wondering where this thing is coming from. You look at all the broken branches and all the falling leaves that could be where it is approaching. And you realize the reason she's having such trouble determining the direction it's coming from is because it's coming from all of those directions. And through the canopy, massive midnight black spider legs are closing in through the canopy around her. Whoa. Holy shit. So cool.

Who's really in control here? Your mother had dreams about the Gibbous Man. What does that mean? Does that mean he's in control? Is that the answer to who's really in control? I think that is the answer to who's really in control. In terms of Ileana's dreams, she had dreams about the Gibbous Man. About spiders. Were they ported? Tentus dreams? Or was he in her head? You cannot determine that from this tableau. Someone gotta figure this out right now. I gotta do it. How? Let me roll something.

I mean, you can make intimations. Like, you can determine things. I intimate that I want to know. Tell me, dream. Dream, tell me what is real. What are you rolling here? Seven. But you didn't say what move you were rolling. I already told you that you wouldn't do anything. You rolled the dice anyway. I need to know so bad! Hey, you can, like, Tuck, you've seen this thing. You can make guesses. As to what, like, this dream is? Like, what this dream must be? Yeah. Hmm. Can I use druidic lore?

Yeah, you absolutely can. I want to be clear about something. There's the thing coming for us? There's a thing coming that you guys know is here and is after you. Okay. So you can spend time here and try and glean more information. But you are at risk. Tuck leans over to Ving and he's like, Ving, this thing, whatever is here is really important. You gotta figure it out. I'm gonna go down and fight that huge dick thing, okay? Okay, I mean, here, take this. He's sailing through the air.

He's already gone. Is Billy going with Tuck? Because Billy was on Tuck's shoulder. Oh, I'm coming with you. I'm fucking coming with you. Okay, cool. So we jump down to find this tree monster. And I would like to shoot first. As you're falling down on top of it? You stab Tuck. He's just not thinking. Actually, that bringing Billy with you actually makes a lot of sense because it means that this thing can't get the jump on you because Billy will know it's about to attack.

I say throw me like the good old days. Throw me. Okay, I'll throw you later, but I don't want to throw you at the forest floor from 200 feet up. You got it. We're having this fight as Tuck is shimmying down and his front now is getting a bunch of bark rash because he's trying to shimmy really fast and then he keeps falling a bit. Yeah. We're all getting slivers. I'm going, ah!

Every once in a while, like a knot from the tree catches on one of the obsidian chunks in your chest and just like tugs it. It's like getting a nipple ring pulled. Bing's looking down like, this mystery better be worth it. There's a lot of pressure on this moment in and out of the game. We're making so much noise as we crash. So not stealth. This sounds like a defy danger of some kind to get from up here to the forest floor without dying. Like constitution or something? I can do constitution.

Constitution if you're just taking the pain. Strength if you're trying to muscle your way down. No, I think it's grabbing and letting go, grabbing and letting go. I think I'm just taking it. That sounds like constitution. So, I got 14. Great. I got pretty bad. I rolled a two and a one. Four. Okay. Yeah, you're going to take some damage for sure. I think because you're like, you're holding on to tuck. So you're more getting battered around like a little backpack.

Like you're just slamming back and forth. Yeah. When he like hits a branch, you know how they kind of spread apart? Yeah. They flip back on Billy every time. Keep whacking. Yeah. Roll a d6. Three. Three. Three damage. Yeah. And you got some scrapes and some bloody cheeks as you… I think so many black eyes. Yeah. I guess I only have two eyes. So many though. Yeah, but this is a dream. Tuck lands on a low branch and you know, hangs onto the trunk and you just wait. Yeah, go into predator mode.

Yeah. I grab some of this dark sap spilling from the trees. I wipe it on my face to blend in. It's my blood. It's Tuck's blood. I found this dark, dark sap. Oh, okay, whatever. You should have some too. Oh, gross. Nope. Cool. Okay, so you are standing here predator mode on the branch. I'm a posed like a crouching cat with its back all arched and stuff. And this is an interesting combo because Tuck can see this thing. Billy can't see this thing, but he has like a danger sense. Oh, yeah.

As you're waiting, you're standing here for a few seconds and Billy, you could swear you remember and have just forgotten the sound of something up and behind you. So I'd like to shoot first. I would like to use my fairy dust so that it kind of covers it and then we can track it. Oh, I see. Okay, so you're just trying to make it visible. Yeah. You could use a fairy hold for this, like an illusion. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I'll do an illusion.

You could just like create a bunch of glittery dust. Yeah. And have it like move through that. Sure. So you could just bend a hold on that. Oh, sure. Yeah. So you throw your hand out and there's like glittery dust kind of in this dream in front of you. Yeah, it's dark. And then just off to the right, you swear you remember there being fairy dust there. And now there's just a hole. Over there, Tuck. Do you see it? Yeah. Oh, wait. You can already see it. I guess this is just for me.

Yeah, it is helping Billy. That's pretty much it. That's so dumb. That was a good thing though that now we can both see it. Yeah. And Tuck, you see this thing creeping through the trees all its many two human hands with two long fingers pulling itself over a branch. I think I just want to like throw the axe at it. Try and like fucking slice it hard. Very cool. Slice hard. Yeah. Gotta slice it hard, man. Yeah. Tuck wants to say something cool. So like as he spins, he like goes, thanks, Billy.

And he spins around. He throws the axe and he's like, eat axe, bitch. Cut or uncut, bro. Oh, right. Yeah. You look like an uncircumcised dick. Got him. God, yeah. Billy looks way embarrassed. I can't believe you said dick around me. Hack and sledge? Uh, sounds like volley because you're throwing it. Okay, 2d6 plus dexterity? Yep. Five. Yeah. Oh no. So you hurl the axe forward. It glows with the light of a million crystals as it spins through the air towards this horrible beast.

And we're gonna cut up to Ving. Ving, you're below this spiderweb of constellations above you. You see your mother. Can I discern the realities to read the constellations? Consult my druidic lord to know what the constellations say? You can certainly try to your semi-trained druidic eye. It seems like this is a reflection of the sky. Like this is a reflection of the night sky. So you're saying I could use night moves when I spend time contemplating the movement of the stars in the night.

Roll plus wisdom. On the 10 plus, the GM will answer one question. And then what's on the 7 to 9? You'll ask me. A question in return. I think before we roll, this is a move where before we roll this, I want to know what you're trying to determine. Yeah, I don't know. No idea. What am I trying to determine here? She had this dream where she was like trying to do stuff tree related or like gather information. She's in over her head. She's already caught in the web. So maybe she's involved.

Well, there's like a lot of questions around what your parents had to do with like the gibbous. Yeah. Is this like because your mom was a wizard, right? Yes. But she became a wizard, right? Because she was definitely a druid. I thought she was pretending to be a druid. Yeah, she was a wizard who was pretending to be a druid. Yeah. To hide out. And then I think she like just became culturally a druid as she was hiding in Hibernia.

Because like I imagine there's at some point she's like studying all this. And maybe this is like when she uncovers like the gibbous band stuff. Oh, because she's a wizard. And if she was getting interested in druidic stuff, that's what the constellations represent. Yeah. And this could be like her figuring out how to read these stars before they were obscured, like properly obscured. And seeing in that the story of the gibbous band and the obscuring.

And learning something she shouldn't have known. Because her druid eyes only. Yes. And she loved trees. And she was like a studier of the trees. And her wizardry maybe was that of growth because she grew somebody and growth of trees like she grew a person. That she early detected the gibbous man's influence in the tree of knowledge. And did she go searching then in the stars for like more of that story? Well, I think she ended up finding it maybe. Yeah. Through her dream. Right.

Because the fact that this dream exists means that your mom knew about spider and hummingbird. Which are like deep foundational like cosmic entities. She could have purposely like bequeathed this dream to you. It's part of the gift she gave in my creation. And part of the reason why she made him in the first place to be this moving target for the gibbous man.

She found out the gibbous man is trying to destroy all druidic knowledge and obscure the minds of everyone by getting the knowledge tree which is a central thing where everybody knows where it is. But by making that separate and putting it in a person, a wandering idiot, then she might have created Ving as a way to like protect knowledge. Yeah. Because she knew it was being destroyed by the gibbous man. Yeah. Yeah. It's a very interesting idea. She needed something to wander. To keep it safe.

Yeah, keep it moving. Because it's like too vulnerable if it's planted in the ground. Yeah. Where like some people see Ving as a weapon. She saw you as like. A vault. A vault. Yeah. Yeah. And I like that she made him a shapeshifter or the ability to change because of whatever she put in him so that he would constantly be moving and changing and like the gibbous man wouldn't be able to get a bead idea. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. I really like it. Yeah. Yeah. That's very, very cool.

So now let's roll and see how much of this actually takes. Yeah. Is this the druidic lore? It's either druidic lore or you were talking about night moves like reading the constellation in the webs. Oh yeah. I like using the consult the trove of ancient knowledge within me because it's what she put in me. Yeah. This is her experiences and her dream that she put in me. Okay. So 2d6 plus wisdom. Yeah. And I got a 10. Okay. Holy shit. Fuck. Yeah. Yeah.

So what is a 10 on 10 plus on druidic lore on a hit? The GM will ask you a question about the subject. So is the question basically just making everything that we just talked about like true in some way? You betcha. Okay. So you're looking at your mother and as you perceive her in this dream, that's when she's sort of comes to life and you see the dream as she dreamt it and you can see her looking out over this web and you can see her reading the constellation.

One eyes or look at the horizon or other hand is reading the constellations almost like Braille. She's like, yeah, moving her hand along the web like she's being vigilant of like the danger that she knows is coming. But as she is reading the constellations, her hand brushing over the webs so desperate to glean the knowledge that they contain. She is alerting the spider. She can't help herself. She needs to know. Oh, cool. Cool metaphor. I like that. There's a great metaphor. Thanks, man.

Thank you. And that's when you can see the legs closing in around her as hummingbird seems to attempt to warn her away. She brushes hummingbird out of her face. Oh, shit. And the legs close around her and Ving falls. Yeah. Whoa. Because the legs take over and snap his spear, his dream spear. Oh, yeah. And you are falling through the trees far below. Tuck your axe as it sails towards this thing.

It opens its mouth wide and the axe lands like hits it right in the like soft its mouth is really weird in that there's no throat. It's just an opening and it hits the mouth and disappears. Okay. All right. Avoid mouth. Billy, do you still want me to throw you? Throw me. Are you fucking serious? Okay. Okay. Do this thing. Okay. Pretend to throw me, but don't actually throw me. I need you to throw, you know, to pretend to throw. Okay. Aim it at it. Okay. Yeah.

So I go and I pretend I go no, my and it's like it's like moving back and forth, like up the tree kind of positioning itself. Well, you're not going to be able. To swallow my son like what am I doing? And then he goes to pretend to throw Billy, but he does the thing where you when you wheel back, you let go and then I throw an empty hand. Billy's out of sight behind you.

I've dropped Billy behind me and then I've I've just like pretended to throw like when you trick a stupid dog like banjo stupid idiot banjo boy banjo. He's over here. He's asleep here or dead. There's no way to tell his eyes are open. He's crying. I think this is going to be for context audience banjos. My wife's dog and he's got the soul of a murderer in him. That's how much you love Aaron. I love my wife so much. Marry her despite her dog murderous dog reference listeners.

That's my wife's dog. Not my dog. My dog. My dog's over here. Her name is Kaylee and she never fart. Her shit doesn't stink. You've said it several times today. So I think this is charisma to fight in your charisma because you're trying to trick this thing. Oh, right. Okay. Sorry. You're talking to me. Yeah, I'm talking to you. The game we're playing. Yeah, six plus three is nine. Okay, nine. So it will not be tricked for long, but for a second like a stupid dog. Can I aid as Ving is falling?

He says he sees what he sees Billy go behind him. He goes. No, don't throw our son. Yeah, duty six plus bond. Oh, I failed. Okay, I got five. No, don't help our son. He just falls straight down to the canopy floor. He gets the wind knocked out of him as he hits the forest floor. Just lying on your back. Oh my God. I would like to do shadow dance. Oh, interesting. That's why I wanted him to throw me. Yeah, it's just when you drop me Billy is lifeless. I killed him. Oh, you threw spirit Billy.

Yeah. Oh, that's kind of cool. That is cool. Okay. So read out shadow dance. It's been a while. Oh, yeah. When you attempt to enter the ferry, spend a hold and roll plus wisdom on a seven to nine. You leave your body and enter the fairy world as your pure essence and take one hold on a 10 plus take three holds. You may spend a hold one for one to move and act in the way only fairies can. When you spend your final hold, you return to your body immediately. All right, cool.

So go ahead and roll it. Oh, fucking hell for I would like to use another fairy child to turn a failed roll to a seven to nine. Oh, yes. Okay. Great. So it's a seven to nine. So you get one hold. Yeah. And your lifeless body drops behind tuck onto the branch that he's standing on and he whips your fairy form through the air. What do I see? What does this monster look like in the fairy world? Oh, the dream fairy. World. Yeah, that's the thing, right? Because we're in the dream.

I think this is a very unusual feeling like you expect like, oh, I've been to the fairy a million times. I know what it feels like, but you're like static right now. It's almost like if you're in the material and you go to the fairy, which is like the world behind the world, you are leaving the dream and going to like the subtext. You know what I mean? Like it's like just raw meaning behind the dream. It's raw meaning. That's where I'm going. Yeah. Oh, my God. Oh, cool.

What do you see was a monster? So the monster, I think very upsettingly is the only thing in sharp focus here. That makes sense. It is the form that Tuck saw this long slug like creature with like an inconsistent amount of too long, too skinny human looking arms and then a wide open mouth. But everything around you, you see this forest is not a forest. This is the feeling of being lost, being unsure, like searching for something.

And then right in the center of it is this horrible HD fucking 4K slug monster. But it seems like it is less subtextual than everything here. Like it is real almost. And also you see the subtext around it fading as if it's being eaten away. Whoa. The worm thing is being eaten away? No, the subtext around the worm thing is being eaten away. It is eroding the dream. Okay, I will Spout Lore then. Okay, 2d6 plus intelligence. Five. Fuck. That's a failure. You know what?

I'm using my last fairy childhood. Okay, seven to nine. Okay, so interesting but not useful. What is this thing? Interestingly, you suddenly you remember, unfortunately, a lecture that Perel was forcing you to be a part of. Oh yeah, I'm back in the Margani library. Oh yeah, you're back in the Margani library. It is when Perel was trying to get his magic back and he was going through every possible option. And Billy was basically like a dictaphone that didn't take any notes. Yeah.

Where Perel just felt like he was doing more if he was telling you what he was thinking. And I've been sitting here for 45 full minutes. And I think you were helping him because you can read runes. Yeah. Like you can read old fairy runes.

And you remember him talking about oh well maybe I can't Oh well maybe I can't Oh well maybe I can't Oh well maybe I can't Oh well maybe I can't Oh well maybe I can't Oh well maybe I can't Oh well maybe I can just ingest an anerophage and that will clear out whatever mental block I'm having that's stopping me from accessing my magic. Oh. So it's a dream eater? Hmm. What if I offered it like Tuck's dream? Oh. How would you feel about that? Yeah. I think this is a great idea.

Can I approach this gross worm? Uh-huh.

So you kind of float towards it and you're very shadow form yeah yeah it snaps out at you it can't quite come off the branch but it's like biting up at you what are you following us for it does not speak but you swear you could remember it saying I'm hungry for something that we have or for us you are fresh okay so I'd like to barter with it Billy knows that we haven't visited Tuck's dream yet and he knows that that's the one that like plagues Tuck and wants to be rid of it so I'd like to offer if the gross worm leaves us alone I will lead it to that dream fuck yeah hell yeah that's great there's something more delicious than us yeah okay yeah roll 2d6 plus charisma for what to convince it oh because it does want to eat you okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay!

Yes yes um I agree and it some of its legs like pull back into it and it just has it just has four now and it sort of lowers itself out of this predatory pose creepy so you tuck and ving as you'll ving from the forest floor where you're like is everyone okay yeah I did the throw and then I saw it start to like do weird dance things as it was talking to billy and I was like I'm just sitting on the branch I was like something's happening now I don't know what it is to talk beside the branch like holding his chest like is he in there oh yeah because billy's like laying right there like yeah just mouth wide open totally passed out brain like wipes a bit of spit off of his chin yeah he's doing something I don't know man put some wool under his head he's doing something then billy does the dog thing where his his arms and legs start going a little bit yeah he goes oh he's running oh he's running oh god he's running this is a nightmare oh it's bad is billy going back to his body at all or is he staying in the ferry um maybe I will go back to my body because it'll be then you guys can talk to me okay billy returns to his body and the anero fade settles like on the on the trunk of the tree like like a gecko and it bends its weird head back and says uh we have reached an agreement whoa you talk whoa holy shit what agreement have you made billy okay well I talk I don't know how you feel about this but he promised it would leave us alone if I let it if I took it to your dream so that I could eat it oh yeah that's yeah that's a good that's great okay I wasn't sure you know I didn't want it to eat ving's dream it seemed pretty important so this thing just eats dreams I think so and he said something gross like we are fresh or whatever I think he meant like we like there's fresh stuff in our brain in our minds I don't know I will stop what becomes of the dreams you eat they are made nothing yeah that's perfect I don't see any downsides to this let's do it night echoes the day it's perfect yeah if you guy and he points at the monster if you guy want to get rid of the dream that I keep having every night that would be great because then I don't have to think about it anymore all right do you can I ride on your back I got really bad carpet rash on my back sliding through the liminal space between our dreams and I'm really cut up on my front uh billy you are reminded of the fact that anything that was in like contact with this thing in the subtextual realm was being eroded tuck I don't think you should touch it honestly it's pretty fucked up tuck takes some granola and throws it at the side of the thing so you throw some granola and it's gross like boneless body like nose by neck like spins around and snaps the granola okay and it disappears okay yeah I won't touch it fresh all right yeah fresh fresh is best come on always fresh that's us come on with us you start climbing out of the trees yeah yeah that's funny that like the level of how you got in perceptively is now way above you yeah you kind of fell down in the dream there's like a door like 10 feet above the canopy that is the liminal yeah totally we have to get on each other's shoulders to get up uh vings on tuck and billy's on ving and tucks on billy oh yeah and then and then gross dick worms on ving and then we're we're just like don't think about it if we don't think about it then it doesn't fail just don't think about it cartoon rules yeah you just have to just know that makes sense yeah you know just don't make sense until we get out and then we can think about how it doesn't make sense looney tune style that's all that matters yep yeah and you climb up the tree now that you aren't like at desperate risk of uh your mental lives you're able to reach the backstage space and you see before you the uh gray and black smoking expanse of tuck's recurring nightmare this fucking thing and you see the anirophage like lift its head like it's a little things yeah yeah smell the the yellow sulfuric sulfuric smoke that you talked about like goes into like where nostrils maybe yeah totally it swells yeah so what do you do I talked to the thing to the anirophage the thing the monster and yeah can you hold off on eating it like fully until I go figure something out it's probably gonna be a roll okay 26 plus charisma I'll give you this granola that you seem to like because it was so so then this is a parlay okay 2d6 plus charisma for parlay oh oh shit dude that sucks oh okay so I get so that's three and I have plus three so I get six I'll aid oh how are you aiding uh ving has a three egg omelet from the station that he's gonna offer up yeah one of the omelets yeah from the dreams uh the from the this morning you brought an omelet into the dream yeah I went to sleep I fell asleep with an omelet in my pocket because I always keep omelets around for billy because he gets hungry on the go get a pocket full of omelets 2d6 plus yeah plus bond they're just quail egg omelets they're really small really little it's a three egg omelet but it's so tiny tiny oh nice I got 10 nice all right seven to nine you say I'll give you some of that granola and it looks towards the dream and it looks back towards you and nods its giant sluggy head and says on a moose boosh then cool and it kind of settles down on its it's really okay you know like how dogs sit on their back legs where like their knees their back knees are bent and the legs are straight it looks like a person doing that oh is how it sits oh great the limbs are just like a hand out towards you oh tucks already poured it on the ground of the liminal space and it's like a way too big pile because he dumped his backpack out and it just went dumped for so long and it's a thing puts a tiny omelet on top and it's long slug and it goes quails a delicacy quails do not dream what and its head reaches up and it till it just like it doesn't move its body but its head keeps moving like a slinky yeah and as its mouth touches the pile it doesn't chew it just like the shit disappears as it touches the mouth you better do what you need to do quick okay yeah I go into the dream all right I go with you should I go or should I stay with this thing uh maybe don't stay with no billy get away from the game come with us billy's like trying to be brave but he's like shaking like do I stay he's shaking so hard he's like sliding across the ground so you step into tux dream yeah all three of you leaving the narrowfage behind backstage and um just like every other dream the second you step into it you are surrounded by it you are now on a vast and blasted plane of gray stone and black sand and the other ones like whether details were fuzzy or weird this one is not like it's sharp yeah painful hot smelly yeah you can feel the jagged rocks like cutting through your boots and it's not like still oh yeah everything is moving immediately the sky is boiling yeah smoke is pouring out of the earth and at the top of the hill the tree burns it's like a destroyed castle kind of thing like sort of in the middle distance cool like halfway up the hill oh yeah neat okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay keep having this dream over and over again and then tuck looks to the top of the hill at the burning tree and he sees like the figure that's like standing underneath it and he's like also who the fuck is that and this is the figure that uh has newly begun well relatively newly yeah begun appearing in the dream yeah so how do I figure this out it's a good question I mean you know you see yourself because this is a non-static dream you see of an image of yourself trudging up the hill yeah you know the only way to get to the top is to get to the top okay so tuck starts to run okay uh duty six plus constitution uh to just take the I'll just take the pain yeah 2d6 plus con and can I use it unbound I'm bent I'm broken when you prepare yourself to endure some hardship without fighting back roll plus con on a hit you can either take half damage or you can completely ignore one other I'll effect on a 10 plus you also defeat expose or frustrate your oppressor with your stubbornness yeah you could use it potentially to take less damage okay I'm not sure unless like how would you envision you uh defeating exposing or frustrating this situation I guess like if I get a 10 plus I was like I want to use like the level to which I'm just letting it batter me to like learn something about it.

Oh, I see. Yeah. Interesting. Because it's exposed. I want it to expose itself to me. Alright. Wow. Expose. Expose it. Expose yourself to me, dream. Give it to me. Expose yourself first. Do you guys wait at the bottom? I want to follow behind but not as close. I want to give you space. Yeah, give you some distance. But we need to like keep up just in case because things were popping off on ours. Yeah.

I think by going slow behind him, you are not exposing yourself to the same level of harm currently. Yeah. You're like picking your way through. So yeah, Tuck takes a breath and starts to run. And as it gets steeper and steeper it just becomes like scrambling. Okay, that's bad. Okay, so one and three plus constitution is seven. Okay. Not bad. So you can take half damage or ignore another I'll effect. Okay, I'll ignore one other I'll effect. Okay, then let's talk about it.

What is usually the effect of Tuck being like lacerated by this hill in his dream? Like what is it obscure? I think in this place I can't ignore the pain as well. And I also like it makes it hard for me to think. I guess that's one thing that happens like this perspective on the dream is more information than he's ever gotten about it because he's like it's like kind of like he has blinders on when he's in it. Totally.

So I think if you ignore the I'll effect of that like overwhelming nature of the dream that makes analyzing it difficult. I think like you're using this pain that you're feeling to sharpen your focus. Do I have to take damage? You have to take a D10. Okay. 10. Holy shit. Do you die? No, no, no. I have 16. Oh my God. Do I have armor? Not in your dream. Holy shit. Tuck is thrashing around on the floor. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Burning out of his mouth. Like like the matrix.

Yeah, I imagine he like yeah, he's clenches his teeth and just like blood comes out of his lips. Yeah, like the other two dreams are so fine. Like Morris and Pearl are like just having tea like we cut back and they put us in beds. They're drinking. How are they? Oh, they're still tripping. They're fine. Yeah. And then immediately tuck pukes a bunch of like to roll him over. So he doesn't ask for it. Oh my God. They put him in a recovery position. It's like so chill till that point.

Yeah, totally. So you're just a triage situation. Morris came in like a big cookie cookies in the air. They jump off the sheet. Holy shit. Nurse page nurse page and then you hear code blue code blue in the observation area. A bunch of pages running with a crash made out of paper clear so tuck you are like hand over hand scrambling up this hill. Yeah, that it feels like you've scrambled up countless times before, but now it feels really real.

Yeah, and you can feel the stone biting into your flesh and the sand grating against the cuts. And by the time you get to the top, you're feeling layer after layer of your fogged perception be lathed away by this pain and you reach the mount. I've never been up here before. You've never made it this far, right? Because you see your family and your friends all tumble into a crevasse on your way up and it's like that's where the dream ends is everything cracks and shatters and like sinks.

So he's actually never made it to the top. Whoa. Yeah. Okay. And at the top, the pain has made all things clear. Billy and Bing, what are you doing down? You see Tuck scrambling up this hill and you see that he is wounding himself in the climb. And he's got to, he's reached the top. He eventually pulls himself over the edge. He's following the image of himself over the top. Oh, crazy. Yeah. Like Billy wants to go after him, but he gets this feeling like, oh no, he does need to do this alone.

But I want to let him know that we're behind him, but without distracting him. Maybe it could send up a signal somehow. Get hit in the back with a rock? No. So funny. Looks at it, gets ready to throw. No. It could send some below the wisps. Oh, that's so cute. I mean, I did mine already. Yeah. Bing throws a rock in my back and then I hear a little like cat. Yeah. You see a little cat light follow you? Do I need to roll to see if I don't hit him? I'm trying to get close with it.

I think it's enough to know that you're there. You know, the rock sails up. Bing has good enough aim that he's not just going to kill Tuck. Picks up the softest rock. It's very sharp. Kisses it and throws it right at Tuck. Yeah. And it like hits the top like the ridge just as Tuck is climbing over and he sees it tumble back down. And then he hears the jingling bell sound. It's kind of heart shape. You know, you find a rock. Oh, yeah. Tuck puts it in his pocket.

And he hears the jingling bell sound. And you see the end of the bill of the wisp padding up beside him. And you reach the top. And you see the burning tree smoldering, towering, but somehow smaller than you expected. You see yourself approaching a figure at the base of the tree. The figure is just standing in front of the trunk like looking up at the burning branches. Does the figure have detail? What is it? Just a silhouette?

It was a silhouette in every other instance of Tuck observing it, but because of the focus he feels right now, he sees it clear. He sees a red tracksuit, a broad muscular back, long black hair, and at his side, a chain with a stone ball on the end. Holy shit! Whoa! What a stupid thing to find at the time. It's just a big muscular guy I love that. Your frenemy? Yeah. And you see, Tuck, this is the thing. Is this dream has, you've never reached this point in the dream.

I've never gotten to the top. So you watch yourself approach, and you haven't seen him in a while. You know it's him. His hair's different. He's dressed differently. He looks totally different. But it's Fatim. Yeah. As Dream U approaches this figure, he turns and you see dark skin and the glint of a sunstone eye in the side of his head. And then they begin to fight. Whoa. What? Why? Why? Dream Tuck and Fatim, make eye contact, and it's like they agreed to meet here.

You swing the axe a couple times in front of you, roll your shoulders, you know, crack your neck, and Fatim starts spinning his tetherball. Whoop. Whoop. Whoop. And you make the first move. You rush forward. Fatim swings his ball in a huge meteor arc at you. You, like, dodge out of the way at the last second. It still clips you in the shoulder. You drop to a knee almost for a second, and you turn that momentum into a bull rush. You slam into his chest.

His heels slide back in the sand, and then he stops your charge. He throws you back, brings the ball behind him, and up, down, over his head like a comet. The Dream Tuck tries to, like, deflect it with the axe, but he doesn't move fast enough, and you hear it crunch against his arm. Oh, yeah. Like, breaking it. And he's swinging. He's trying to keep his arm out of the way now. Your broken arm, you're trying to keep it out of the way. And you've got the axe in a close grip under the head.

You're using it like a punching weapon now. You're trying to get inside Fatim's range. He's got range on you with the ball chain. So you come in, and he doesn't expect you to get in this close this quickly. It's like you're faster than he remembers. And you punch towards his chest, and he tries to, like, pull the chain taut in front of him. He tries to wrap it around the haft of Larry Terry and Chad. Uh-huh.

And it's like he stops it for a second, and you lean into the axe, and the amethyst spike digs into his chest. You're pushing Fatim back, like, a step by a step towards the burning tree. Like, I pin him against the trunk. Like a smoldering tree? Yeah. And Tuck, you, separated from this fight, can see something that you can't in the dream. Uh-huh. Fatim drops the ball into his right hand. Oh. And brings it up. Uh-huh. Oh! Towards the side of your head. And you are laid out on the ground.

Your only working arm reaching out towards Larry Terry and Chad, where it's been knocked from your grip. How does this end? Uh, okay. Tuck is, like, dazed. He's, like, trying he's, like, scrambling to, like, grab TLC. What is Fatim doing? Yeah, he's still got the ball in his hand, but he's pressed his other hand against the massive wound in his lung. It's spurting a little bit, like coughing. Yeah.

Yeah, every every breath, every cough, every beat of his heart, there's more blood pouring out of him. And he's stumbling towards you with a rock in his hand. You see him drop the ball thunk! Into the sand. Uh-huh. The chain still in his grip. Tuck, like, he's dazed. He's reaching for the axe and he, like, finally makes contact with it, grabs the haft and goes to swing it at Fatim and then Fatim uses the ball, swings it at the axe, and it connects with the handle and cracks it in half. Whoa.

The head of the axe, like, falls in the rock and Fatim picks it up and slices across Tuck's face. Oh my god. And Tuck loses the other eye from Fatim. And then Fatim reaches into his pocket and he pulls out an obsidian coin and he flicks it and takes the axe and shatters the coin in front of Tuck. And the coin, as it shatters, freezes in place. And the dream with it. This seems to be, to Tuck's knowing, the end of the dream.

And as the coin pulls back into reform in the way that we've seen before, strands of the dream go with it. The tree, the blasted landscape, the rocks, the smoke, everything sucked into this coin until we're left with nothing but blackness and a single white coin hanging in the air. And then it drops to the ground with a heavy clink. It does not bounce. And you're all back. Suddenly, in this backstage space, a black expanse behind knowing, behind dreams, behind thought.

And the anerophage pads forward, gives the coin a and consumes it. And as the anerophage lifts its horrid mouth off the floor of this backstage space, it looks to the three of you and says, Our deal is done. And you wake. Covered in blood. Like, what do I see? Bing wakes up screaming. I have so many tubes in my mouth. Yeah, Bing wakes up. We wake up like we're inside the Matrix. And I think that's where we're going to end the episode for this week. I'm your Game Master, Sean O'Hara.

Perel is like crying. They're praying over us and weeping. They're gone. Morris is screaming at him to do some medical procedure and Perel's crying. Victor's like, they were that stupid. They were actually pretty cool. Eight pages gathered around your bodies holding little paper flowers. They're feeding us into an incinerator. Whoa, whoa, whoa. These guys were fine. They were fine. They were just like, they would want to go together. Oh, man. All right. I've been your Game Master, Sean O'Hara.

Joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the Barbarian, Abdul Aziz. So long. Playing Ving, the Half-Elf Druid, Paul Hoppers. Take care. Playing Fat Billy, the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai. Bye, everyone. Thank you to all of our supporters around the world. If you would like to support the show and get access to a bonus campaign set in the High Spear Mall, merch, gift boxes, maybe even a game, run by Abdul or myself. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

You can check us out at speltlor.com slash money, please, or patreon.com slash speltlor. Thank you to Aaron Reed for our intro and outro music. You can find Aaron Reed's original music on bandcamp.com and all of the music produced for Speltlor 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 to find their way and the bottom of the mountain and the bottom of the mountain and the bottom of the mountain and the bottom of the mountain and the bottom of the mountain 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 to your home or do your chores And for you I'd gladly Speltlor