Episode 3 – Never Stop, Never Stopping

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 Peely'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 Spelter's Outlawr I'm your game master Sean O'Hara, joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome the Barbarian of Duel Aziz Hi Jess, that was a nice yawn It felt good It was huge You specifically requested slow and steady, and then yawned through the intro I figured the camera would be on Sean, no one's looking at me With that kind of movement, the camera's gonna be right on you Yeah the software that we use to edit whenever you yawn automatically comes on Playing Ving the Half-Elf Druid Paul Hoppers Oh my god, that got me God dammit, I'm sorry Yes, take that And playing Fat Billy the Halfling Thief Jessica Tai Yep I'm here In body When last we left our heroes, they had discovered that a massive, massive bounty was out on their heads For the murder of Colm Blackhammer, information traveling quickly in the Firefields Principality Billy returned to Hither and Yawn, describing such bounty available, and the various evil types Or you know, pragmatic types looking to collect, including One Wind River, who knew exactly where you were Treacherous boy Treacherous Treacherous as all the masterlies combined, that one And uh…

And uh… They very easily escaped the situation by hopping in their magical chain restaurant I know they're gonna come after us somehow 100,000 coins?

Oh yeah I'm looking all high and low People want that money Yeah Returning magically to Highspear City and above the Highspear To meet up with their friends Morris and Perel and get some insight into where they should be traveling next A4 arrived in the city, perched above on a cliffside With the barbecue sauce note from a gift from Tuck, Billy, and Ving And then flames and angel wings on the back Angel wings made out of flames Made out of flames A la 2002 Out of barbecue sauce that is probably rapidly flaking off at this point, so he just looks like shit Ving put a little barbecue sauce dolphin on his ankle A la 2003 I think that's actually when my dad got his dolphin tattoo on his calf, yeah Your dad has a dolphin?

Your dad has a dolphin tattoo? He does So cringe Yeah Pat, so cringe It is cringe What are you doing, man? He got it after the boat that he served on won a sailing race and was like, I'll get my first tattoo And he came back and I was like, the fuck? Why didn't you get a boat, dad? Why'd you get a dolphin on your calf? You're 45 years old Wow Dolphin's the fastest animal That's not true, dad The fastest animal The… The…

The party ran into the mayoral procession of Highspear City going to meet A4 Led by a one Etienne Boggins, aka Colonel Dan Derglot Had a quick meeting describing their goals and the goals of A4 The party left the city of Highspear under the watchful gaze of a giant colossal state-of-the-art war machine The party headed back into the Highspear, met up with Morrison Perel and did some explorin' Finding an elevator, which terrified them initially Before Billy pressed every button available to him, as all young children do Discovering the lower levels, including a small archive and a locked door that required a password that you could not figure out Billy activated the forgotten password contingency The party was asked a series of security questions Ving being asked, what is your mother's maiden name?

Billy asked, what is the… What is the name of your first pet? And Tuck asked, what street did you grow up on? Uh, so we did a little travel through the archives You realized, oh there's transcriptions of all conversations Meeting a glass golem that helped you travel around the archive Which you realized, hopping on a moving walkway, was the entirety of the mountain itself So cool Allowed out to contain hundreds of years of transcriptions of all conversations Billy went to the section of the…

Uh, archive that contained stories about him Because the fairy archives are slightly different And also Billy is so old that he predates the construction of the tower Uh, Billy met the fairy archivist An old winter form fairy Walking around with his little push cart of information And asked the old man to tell him a story about his first pet And we got a nice little tale of a hummingbird named Many wings buffet the petals of the magnolia Beautiful A hummingbird that Billy watched as a tree Uh, and the first time that he ever It feels like the first time that he kind of connected with a mortal thing In that sort of caring way that would come to later typify his life as the boy Uh, we went to Ving's place The place of Ving Uh, and Ving used communion of whispers to sort of narrow down Uh, the information to help his search And heard a variety of conversations through the glass of the archive Um, conversations with his mother Where he asked about her past And she kind of cagely avoided the questions A conversation with Dathaniel and his mother In which Dathaniel directly called his mother Adernack Ohhhhh Confirming that Ving's mother is Adernack Allwater It was a big reveal It was a big reveal Yeah Uh, then we heard another conversation between Dathaniel and Ileana Or Dathaniel and Adernack Uh-huh Where, um, Solara Van Ciren ratted out Then known as Ileana as being Adernack Allwater Or no, uh, that She was a wizard And that Adernack was hiding out on the island of Hibernia Uh-huh, under the name Yes, and that Dathaniel and Adernack had planned, uh, her death Because she had some sort of contingency in place Uh, and at the last moment Dathaniel tried to call it off And, well, we pause it that Dathaniel tried to call it off That that's what was happening in that scene?

Yes, the stop, don't you look at me Yes, the stop, don't you love me Was, uh, Dathaniel attempting to call off their plan That's Before Adernack went through with it Such a brutally sad scene Yeah The more you learn about it, the sadder it gets Sad indeed It's really great Uh, and then we went to Tuck Where Tuck found his location in the archives Uh, much smaller than the others, I believe A shorter stack of glass Even just by virtue of the fact that Tuck is a human Uh-huh And with a shorter lifespan He, however, discovered that any transcription containing Tacoma Dome Started with his first memory in the Iconographer's Lab Yeah, I think he was Ooh He was low-key hoping that it was just like an amnesia thing And that there would be more there But there's nothing So sad That is the first recorded conversation That the Tower is aware of me having In the last thousand years Yeah Or so And, uh In an act of dejection, depression, and ennui Tuck destroyed every record of his Of his existence In the Highspear Archive Uh-huh And that is where we find our heroes now I imagine you've all met up back at the The lobby Of the archive Yeah, we all had it We all had it back Are your balls okay?

They do not look okay Tuck is walking so bow-legged He's got them coiled up in his hand like an extension cord Yeah, yeah Tuck's like, yeah, Billy, they're fine You really stretched out when I saw you pass by In the overhead Yeah, he's holding onto them He's gonna put some ice on those things Yeah, Ben, can you rub some poultice on my balls?

I can give you some poultice to rub on your balls, yes Yes, you can take this somewhere else, for sure Sick I can't wait I can't wait to get back to Hither and Yon and put poultice on my balls Uh, yeah, so You're gonna have to go back to the The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The doesn't have an answer. So he's just like, oh no, you didn't know? I kind of figured we all knew. And Billy's embarrassed because he is like the only one who didn't know.

And so he's like, yeah, that's weird that you didn't know that. Thanks for pretending, both of you. I'm as shocked as you are. I don't know what to do with this information right now, but well, it kind of makes it makes sense, right? Like when we were in the tower, it reacted to you. Yeah. Yeah. Does that mean she's still around? I don't know. It feels like it does. What do you guys remember from the tower? Is there anything you're perhaps forgetting? The footprints. Oh, the footprints.

Vestibule footprints. She had some kind of clone in there. That was her. Or maybe. Or it was just her. Or maybe it was you, Ving. Maybe it was me. Like Ving went in there and didn't, and like forgot he was in there? Yeah, that's actually a good point. That's a hole in the thing that I just I mean, I had a thought earlier that she may be possessing me somehow. Oh. Whoa. Shit. Using me as a living vehicle. Or she's alive. Yeah. She might be alive. She seems like she was a chill lady.

I guess this could be a Spout Lore potentially. Mm-hmm. Good. I'm gonna Spout Lore. 2d6 plus intelligence. Oh. Ooh. Oh, nine. Nine. Oh, I help. Eight. Eight. And I mentioned the footprints. Maybe she ran away. Maybe she saw us coming or maybe she went to hide somewhere else. Mm-hmm. Why is she avoiding contact? Maybe she's protecting you. Well, what you do know is that Adonak Allwater's supposed specialty as a wizard was life magic. Oh.

Which is reinforced, you believe, by the fact that a lot of what her tower did in defense was brought things to life. It created clones in the ballroom to defend or to, uh, convince whether or not you were welcome in the tower. Remember you had your dance partners? Yeah. My dance brothers. Which it built from the ground up like out of meat. Like it made people. Yeah. Uh, and then like it brought objects to life. There were like the books, I think, that came alive. The books. Yeah. And.

Oh, there was a wizard in there. Oh, no, it was Morris. That was Morris. Yeah, Morris was just hiding out. Took his nut on the ball. Oh, my God. Morris was made by my mom. Morris, do you remember? There was a wizard in the tower. Did you see him? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Tuck's realization that he has no history has absolutely fucked him up. Uh, and he was also almost murdered like, you know, 12 hours ago. That's true. Yeah. Plus the ball thing. Right.

It's mostly his balls. It's mostly his balls being absolutely shattered by a moving walkway. Yeah. And the life magic thing also, uh, reinforced by the fact that Ving was created. Yeah. Physically. Yes. As a living thing. So you would assume that the footsteps leading from the vestibule like ice coffin in the base of the tower and the sort of the fact that it was kind of like the power was at a focal point underneath that coffin.

That seemed to be like the focus of what the energy of the tower is being used for. Uh, suggests that she may have made a body for herself or had a contingency in place where once she died, a body would be made. Whoa. Um, and that she might that very well could have been her leaving. Holy shit. And if you almost that's so sick. And if you had to guess, if we all had to guess why she has not tried to find you or tried to reach out or whatever, you have no idea what resurrecting would do to her.

Right. Or it's because she knows that the gibbous man always has eyes on us. That's also an idea too. She might know that. Or he knows she knows that he has eyes. On her and that Ving is like a wandering like he's basically was created as a wandering sort of like idiot kind of thing. Sorry. That's the thing you said last season. Abdul, you cannot say that. Paul, you fucking smacked me on the ass so hard during a live stream. I'll do it again. I'm gonna do it every time now.

Look man, you dragging a trunk like that around. You expect to walk away from that. Brothers caked up sweet. Yeah. Ving may have well been created as sort of like you know, trying to stop someone for breaking into your house by tying your car keys to a bird. Right. And like well, no one's gonna get him now. Yeah. He's like the most kind of like yes. Maybe she's waiting until it's absolutely necessary. To return. Yeah, because she knows as soon as that happens, he'll zero in on you.

She's completely caught up in that web. Yeah. She's totally part of the story. Yeah. So she has to wait till the end to reveal her cool like something she did made her like embedded in his like web. So she he can always track her. Yeah. Sick. Yeah. I wonder what's got so many ex-wife lawyers out there. Oh God. So many women in this so many powerful women fucking hate the. Yes. Sounds like a lot of people. Good turn. Yeah.

The Gibbous man would need would need Addernack for or how she interesting. Something to think about. She's working against him. Yeah, but how you know much to think about much to think about who can say we posited that she's trying to find all the pieces of the moon. Yeah. And protect them either way. What we do know is Ving says the name all water and you hear ding and the second question. What is the name of your first pet? It's many wings. Let me. Billy pulls a piece of paper.

Yeah, looking at his hand. He's giving a lot of goes. And it's like it's like first attempt. He's like, oh, yeah, it's just going down. The quick red fox jumps over the lazy brown dog. Oh, darn. Many wings glide across a big blue sky. Billy. Billy, why didn't you write it down? Yeah, don't lock it up. Okay. He goes back to his memory palace to bowl a soup and drifts around the alphabet soup soup until the letters drift into place and he his eyes go ding.

They open up ding and he says many wings buffet the petals of the Magnolia. Ding. Yay. There was like a thing where underneath it said one attempt. Well, I don't know. I can't read it. I can't read it. I can't read it. I can't read it. I can't read it. I can't read it. I can't read it. I can't read it. Just the attempts go down like, oh, my God. I can't read. So he doesn't no more attempts. Please try again in 300 years. Oh, fuck. Contact system administrator. He said he's so dead.

If system administrator is in a pocket universe, wait for system administrator to come back online. Name of current administrator deceased. All right. And the one last question remains. Right. What street did you grow up on? Fuck. Information Tuck Shirley has readily available. I'm really glad that's the easiest question to answer. Yeah. Punch it in, buddy. Let's get in that room. We don't have all day. So Tuck, he is he goes into his memory palace. This is the sit down pizza hut. Yeah.

He's full of tucks. He's talking to himself. Yeah. He's talking to eight year old him. Oh, yes. Playing foosball. Yes. Little little eight year old Tuck standing on a stool on the other side. He's like, do you remember ball? Oh, right. I'll take a peg tetherball. It's like it's it's like one of those hockey. Yeah. Yeah. That's like hockey foosball things. Love that swing back and forth. Yeah, that's great. That's really cool. Yeah.

So we're playing and I'm like, do you remember the street that that weird iconographers like shop was on and I guess what was it? I yeah, it was a tallow road. Ew. It's a road. Ew. Okay, cool. And then I slam his guy really hard. I'm eight years old. Yeah, and you'll stay eight years old unless you get good at this. You little bitch. Go get me a fucking root beer. No, whatever. And he hops down off his stool and I come back and then I go. Give me a fucking room here. I go. Okay.

Well, I'm pretty sure it's this because the name of the streets have changed since I was a kid. So might not be right but the tallow road. Okay, two attempts left to billion. So many eat them all up. Okay, maybe I'll roll for it to see if that was can I rolls Carol spelt roller or try and remember the road. I think if you think that tuck has an idea that he is not saying which is the idea that I'm getting. Yeah, the vibe I'm getting is that tuck. Has a thought that he does not want to share.

Yes, you are empowered to just say that thing. Yeah, tuck. Tuck talks to billion Ving and he's like, yeah, it's really the cities changed so much like the only really constant about McCall is like the hearth like the kind of the Chandler's District. There's Broken Shores like I was the challenge District. That was what it was. You grew up on the Broken Shores. This is Jessica. That's so that yes. Yeah, if you guys hadn't caught it, I wouldn't have caught it. I caught it.

The yes, so Billy stupid and he's like and so then Ving caught it. Yeah. Okay, you guys as characters can catch it because it's like it we get into a weird zone of like the characters try to keep stuff from each other which fucking sucks. I think I don't think that Billy got hundred percent can catch that. Yes, it did very clearly ding after the Broken Shores and then Billy like is looking at tuck. As you walk in the doors. I'm like, is he a zombie?

Well, what it does it with this this conversation is punctuated by the writing on the doors melts away and is replaced with enter new password. Oh, oh, I thought this was the path. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no. We got to make it funny. Suck my suck my nuts. Billy, we got to talk about what's funny. But I'm sorry. Doug is laughing. I'm not 69. It's funny. Suck my nuts. 69 is so funny. What are you talking about? It's I feel like our sex suck my nuts.

69 is just it was funny for the first couple of years, right? I mean we named that lizard that that was hilarious. Our first boat. Yes, I suck my nuts. 69 when when we changed cashes bank account password to suck my nuts. 69. That was really funny. We broke into that orphanage. We named all those kids. That's all happened during the time. I'm going to remember it. I'm just saying okay. No, it's fine. You know what? Fine. You come up with a new one. You don't like my name so much.

I think it's fine. No, it's not funny anymore. No one laughed. I laughed. I laughed Billy. I was just wondering if like we want to like put more gravitas in this moment, but I'm I'm I'm totally down suck my nuts. Here and here's 69. Here's the bonus thing is if the wizard ever comes back and asks us for the password. We get to tell him the password suck my nuts 69 now and he won't believe us. There's no way. Yeah, all you have to do is say suck my nuts 69. We just said like 18 times.

Yeah password accepted and the door previously invisible seam in the door. Here's in the center as it slides gracefully into the walls on either side revealing a chamber within there is an immense amount of magical energy emanating from inside this chamber, which is heralded by an extremely bright light. Whoa, like we're like blinded. Yeah, you like you have to close your eyes against this massive light light side. Okay.

Yeah, so you do you have lights I let me discern realities discern realities to six plus wisdom. 13. Holy shit handy three questions off the list. What here is not what appears to be this bright bright light with your Elvin far north light site. You you filter out the highest bands of light the most damaging frequencies of the visual spectrum to see it's weird because it looks like there's a hole or a tear in the air at the center of this chamber.

You see a machine looking thing on the bottom made of the same kind of brass. And steel of the tower and the machine at the top is if it's like funneling off of this tear, but the tear itself is like almost impossible to see. Is it like a wormhole kind of thing like a singularity looks like a hole. Is that where the lights and that's the light is emitting from this hole or maybe from the machinery.

It's hard to tell exactly but like there's a machine above it and a machine below it kind of like keeping it contained of stable sort of thing. Maybe yeah, maybe it's hard. It's hard to tell exactly what the function. Is yeah, but in the center is this tiny little infinitesimally small hole who's really in control here. Oh, that's a good question. You would come up with it. So you would say that it looks like whatever this tear is would be in control.

Were it not for the the skill of the one who made this machine and as you're looking at like the plinth below and the conduit above you realize that like this whole chamber. Which is probably I'm so bad at distances fairly fairly large circular chamber. It looks like the whole bottom floor of the tower. If you were to think about like the the layout of the chamber above is one component of a machine that probably makes up the entirety of the high spear. This might be powering the whole thing.

Do you think I think probably yeah, it looks yeah, you ask us that in a very calm voice. It's like really powerful. Is it making a loud noise? It is not our eyes or our ears not like ringing or something. Oh, yeah. It's so bright that it is loud. But you tuck you like yell out and Ving you hear tux words at a perfectly serviceable level inside your head. Oh, whoa. It's the spell. Oh trap expert. Yes. I would like to call it. Oh dexterity. Okay. So nine nine.

So that makes it a 10 which gives you several points which you can use to determine if there are traps here. Yeah, is there is there a trap here? There is in a sense that there is a threat. Oh, well, what activates it simply being too close? Oh, what can I ask? What does the trap do when activated? Yeah, absolutely. If you were to get too close to this this tear.

If it were uncontained you think Billy as one that crosses barriers as a fairy that is your whole thing is getting into places and getting out of them. You would be lost forever. Oh, it's like a little black hole like it would turn a white hole into like a string of atoms and send you across everything. Oh my gosh. What here is useful or valuable to us? Yeah, what here is useful or valuable? Yeah, there's probably like levers and switches at certain.

Certain points in the room in a configuration that makes no sense to any of you. I mean we want to get in this door. We just want to get in the door because it was locked and that's the kind of shitheads. We are you guys kind of just wanted to see what was behind the door. Was there a purpose of Morrison Perel said that there was one door downstairs that we can't get into. We're like we'll get it up. I was thinking we should reach out to them and get him get them here. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, you can bring Morrison Perel down and somebody runs up and gets Morrison Perel. Yeah, and they come down and. The elevator door opens. Sorry Ving left it to get them and they didn't know. Because I'm like what's going on now? We're all around the room. Bella can you see? I can't see anything but all I know is we can't go close. Don't get too close Tuck. And you guys hear again. You hear each other's voices perfectly clearly in your own heads. Where are you? I'm right here.

It sounds like we're so close but because it's translated so clearly. So far away opposite sides of the this like Olympic. Size swimming pool. Both like facing a wall. Just am I dead? Am I if you're dead? Am I dead? Nobody's dead. Things right in front of you. The elevator doors open Morris sees the chamber beyond and Ving because of your light site like Perel puts his hands up Morris's eyes widen in terror and he yells like get them. I grab them and he like.

Like emotions for you to drag them back into the elevator. I like them. I could bring them in the elevator. Wait, what else is hidden here? As you're being dragged in the elevator. What else is hidden here? What else would be hidden here? Oh, I have an offer. Yeah, because of because we're being like exposed to the raw translation spell the a bunch of like Tuck's memories just shoot directly into like Billy's head. Oh, yeah, vice versa. Oh, that would be cool. Okay. So what do you guys see?

I think you see the the outer dark. Oh, can it be to everyone because you're wearing the rings? Oh, yeah, totally. Yeah, it doesn't just have to be belly. Yeah. Yes. So everyone is given this image of love that that it's just like a bomb goes off of like get them back go go. And also I'm like ringing in the ear like yeah, we get too close. Like we pot pass some threshold that like breaks the barrier of like containment. Yeah, that it creates between mines. Yeah, we couldn't see anything.

So we wandered into the room. Yeah. Yeah, horizon. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's a bomb of a memory. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like all that bright light is replaced for me with like the darkness of the horizon of the outer dark. Yeah, it's a double horizon. Yeah, like where you're mirrored mirrored and it's mirrored by design because every concept has like an opposite. So they're represented in like opposition to one another. Yeah. Oh and Billy.

Has like full body like feels his whole body freeze because he recognizes all these like very old Constellation. Yeah, these Constellation or in the runic. Yeah, and it's like he's seeing it like uncovered for the first time. Oh, it's like it is the core information that like built the unit. It's like the instructions for the universe. That also drive the druidic lore and being like maybe he comes out of this with some more runes on his body because being exposed to such ancient.

Druidic knowledge. Yeah, just ruins but Constellation Constellation. Yeah, like the icon icon. Yeah, that's cool. That's really cool. And the thing that you feel in your body is that you're not standing between the planes. You're embedded in one of them. Oof. But yeah, you kind of like put together at this point that that's why Tuck said the broken Shores because it was the only place in the real world where you can get to the outer dark or at least. Yeah, that story is sick. That's true.

Yeah, it's the place that McCall it is the transgression point to the outer dark. From McCall. For McCall. Yeah, I'm going to go back and listen to that episode. I'm so excited. Also, Abdul and I talked about this just briefly for a sec because like the broken Shore is a salt flat. Yeah, like it's perfectly flat. So it would reflect the sky. So whenever it rains, it creates that like mirrored surface that perfectly reflects the sky. That makes so much sense. Wow. That's very good. Cool dudes.

And did you say that? He receives images from Billy as well. Yeah. Yeah, I guess it makes sense. Yeah. So what image does Tuck receive from Billy's ancient past? Nothing is cool. Show me the eternal bows. Show me the endless bows. I think we get a little taste of the endless bows. Okay, fine. We get a little taste of the endless bows. Okay. So Billy, I think this feeling of like him being like embedded in the outer dark. Rooted if you will. Yeah, rooted in it. Actually, that is what it is.

It's like these roots of light that come from this like one constellation that he feels he's like bound to currently. Whoa. And that's like kind of like the first plane of like the existence in the fairy realm. Ooh. Yeah. You see like these roots almost like umbilical cords. Are they going to certain points of light? Yeah. So each point of light is like a new fairy being born. New fairy. Where are they stemming from? Like a star. A star. So there is like- There's one star. Like the proto fairy.

Yeah. So is there an icon that the fairies are like descended from basically? Like maybe there's a concept that was- That kind of not infected but affected the- Yeah. Like the spirits that became fairies? Yeah. Mischief? Yeah. Something like that. Or like freedom? Question. To question. To question? Yeah. Oh, nice. That's beautiful. I like that. Whoa. Curiosity. Yeah. Yeah. Because that is what happened. That's what happened to TLC when they kind of became fairies. Yeah.

Because they started questioning their environment and who they are. What it is. Yeah. It's almost like every question is like a little to another fairy. Oh, so the- The Endless Boughs, it's not like a forest. No. But it is that like metaphysical connection between all fairies. And in a way, it's like the root of a- The root of a tree. The beginning of a forest. Yeah. Beautiful. Oh, cool. Yeah. And that's why it's this memory because it's the only thing that's sort of shared between us? Yeah.

Cool. Whoa. That's so sick. So when Billy goes to this fairy realm, when you see like all- Like when he's like- It's light. It's not really- It's like shapes and light kind of thing. It's not like outline like material realm. This is kind of where he goes to the very developed- Version. Version of what that was. So you're seeing sort of like- The beginning of it. The beginning, like sort of the big bang of the fairy realm. Yeah. Cool.

When he's walking in the fairy realm, he's walking within the root system too. It could be like along those channels. Yeah. It's why your memories are sort of like all root shaped too. Like your brain is the same kind of shape as the Endless Boughs. Sick. Sweet. Endless Boughs. Wow. Answered well. Pretty cool. I like a lot. It's awesome. Yeah. This is so sick. Yeah. Great show everyone. Yeah. Great job. Yeah. I like- I was just trying to also think of something cool.

Oh, that's shared from Ving's mind? Yeah. Yeah. In this space, just I was saying because there's the opportunity for this druidic- Right. Knowledge. You would get hit by the wave, so there might be backlash. Yeah. What if inside you feel the knowledge seed begin to sprout? Oh yeah. Yes. Oh, sick. Cool. That makes sense. Yes. I've been wanting to spread this. This is perfect timing for it. Yes. Whoa. The knowledge seed cracks and then starts to- Yeah. Constellations appear on your skin. Sick.

I'm befreckled. I have been freckled. Befractled, dude. Befractled. So sick. And you are all like the doors close and the light drains out of the chamber. Chuck pukes. And you're brought back. Yeah. And Morris is standing like in front of the door, like his hands on it. We can't go back in there. What was that? That's a hotspot. That's- That's a hotspot? That's a hotspot? That's a hotspot? That's what Wi-Fi looks like. And there's more? Oh my God. From episode one?

That's a raw- That's a raw- Wi-Fi hotspot. Oh my God. Wow. Seven years ago, we totally undercut this moment. You guys have seen a hotspot before, remember? Long time ago. Where? In the- It was in the forest with like the waterfall that ran backwards and suddenly it was a blizzard and suddenly the blizzard was gone. Oh, the pool. Yeah. The pool. Yeah. The pool, right. Where the- where the- where Pellar came to be was a hotspot deep, deep, deep in the water. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

And it was like, oh, I'm going to go to the pool. I'm going to go to the pool. I'm going to go to the pool. I'm going to go to the pool. I'm going to go to the pool. Do they all look like that? I mean, I only saw my own from the other side, but when I felt that power, I knew that's raw Thaumic energy. It must be powering the tower, which means that whoever- I need a name for this wizard. I had a name a while ago.

It was like something the Speaker was the one who constructed the Hightower was the Speaker. Mm-hmm. And my concern was language and communication on a instinctual metaphysical level. Oh, if you don't have one, I have one in mind. Okay. Yeah. What do you have? Waleed the Speaker. Oh, cool. Waleed? Yeah. Yeah. I like it. Yeah. Waleed the Speaker. So Waleed the Speaker constructed the Hightower. Where does that name come from? The Middle East. I've heard of it.

The vast tapestry of the Arabic world. Yeah. The Arabic speaking world, because Arabic's the language. Yes. Yeah. Arab is the people. Yeah. I know, man. Dude, there have been- White people get uppity about this, okay? I got to say it right. They've been mish-mashing together for years. Good thing white people don't listen to this podcast. Yeah. It's where people start growing food, so they've been there a while. Yeah. They've been there so long, fucking and sucking their way across the region.

It's the only way that the human people are here, is fucking and sucking. Well, more of the fucking than the sucking, I'll add. Well, yeah, you can't have one without the other. Oh, Sean has a thing. When the recent study came out that- Yeah. That discovered what happened to the Neanderthals, and it was literally just that we fucked them to death. Yes. We fucked them into ourselves. We integrated the population. Yeah. We just were so horny- Just so much sex.

That we fucked them, and then just the two populations merged. The idea that we have of Neanderthals in our head is kind of wrong, because they were tall and muscular and had crazy brow ridges, but besides that, they weren't like- Oh, so they were more like me. Yeah. So tall and strong. Look at these brow ridges. I mean, that's where we got into the sick-ass brow. Wait. Netherlands? Neanderthal? Oh, Neanderlands. It was staring us in the face the whole time.

This whole time we've had Neanderthal- On the podcast. A Neander-paw. It was staring us in the face the whole time. Oh my God. Neander-paw. Which actually, if you say it like that makes you sound like a Neanderthal. Neander-paw. Neander-paw. Neander-paw are going to the mall. Okay. So, raw WiFi hotspot. You asked, did they all look like this? Yeah. So, he said he didn't know. Yeah. Morris says, I only saw my own from the other side. What does that mean?

When I left this plane of existence, I created my own pocket universe, which means I left a hotspot on the other end. Does that mean that this wizard is on the other side of that singularity? It must. This would connect to Waleed the Speaker's personal universe, but if he created the tower and also went through. Yeah. And left his hotspot there to power it. Assuming he would never come back, he wanted to ensure there was a Thaumic energy source in perpetuity.

Because he didn't want to fuck everyone in the world. Oh, I wonder if he was one of the first to go through. And you know, I actually, I didn't speak to Waleed much in those days. There was a point where wizards first had to, I don't want to get into it. We were a bunch of dickheads. There's like an icy energy starts emanating off of Perel. He's just like goddess. He's crossing his arms, like looking at that. Like I can't believe you're even talking about this right now. Oh my God.

Check yourself. No, I have come to learn that we were all of us deceived. So I don't even really. Waleed though, if he did this knowingly, he must've known that perhaps something was up. What if this wifi was the FIY? Could you elaborate on what you mean by that thing that sounds like a convenient term phrase? First wizard. I mean, the wizard first hotspot was the first wizard to pass through. Oh, I see. I see. That's all. That may have been it. Maybe that's why Waleed wasn't around much.

Maybe he did leave first. Can we send him a message through the hotspot? I wouldn't risk it. We can look at the tower more and we can do some research, but that hotspot is extremely dangerous. What happens if we write a note on a piece of paper, put it up, throw it in? I don't know. I don't. It's not, it's not a mail slot. Well, what if we put it in an envelope first? And just- Yeah. Put the return address on it. Yeah. Proper postage. Stuff always comes back if we do that.

So a couple of things to consider here. One, it's not, again, not really a postage kind of situation. It's a tear in the very fabric of the material realm. And two, if anything were to go wrong with that power source, it could either destroy the city. Or at the very least, it could destroy the city. Or at the very least, bring the high spear offline, which gives the gibbous man exactly what he wants. So it's saying it's a near impossible feat that could be made possible. Oh yeah.

I have that move. Well, what if, okay, so if we can't send something material through it, what if we just yell really loud all together at once towards the rip? Yes. Sound is not material, you idiot. Wow. I can't believe I didn't think about that. Wait, there's gotta be a different way. I think we can. I like the idea of just screaming it. Yeah. What if we could communally, cut this down to make me sound smart, communally commune with the whispers.

Morris is like leaning around you guys while you're talking. And he presses that button on the elevator. So you guys wanted to know what's powering the tower, now you know. How's this gonna help you? Well, now, instead of trying to theoretically determine how we can use the hotspots to contact the people, we can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't.

We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. Next to the door. Next to the door. Yeah. Come on, get in there, figure it out. What are you trying to push him in? Do the science fast. He's telling you that he's like holding his arms up on either side of the door. Oh, God, you're strong.

We're going to do the research, but we can't do it down here. This is field work. You've got to get in there. We have the whole of the tower. We don't have to do it next to the raw thermic energy source. It's okay. Be brave. Be brave. You're not understanding what I'm saying. And then Tech goes, Waleed, help us. Help us. What are you rolling? Can I roll breaking the law to scream into it so that Waleed hears me? I guess so. I don't believe it's a rolling move, though, is it? Yes.

Oh, it's rolling. You have to spend a debility or something. The roll is to see if it's possible, and then you do something else to see if you do it. Oh, no, the debility is to determine that it is possible, and then you roll to do it. To see to do it. Take a debility. Take a debility to one stat to make the impossible thing possible. So I'll take it to intelligence. That feels right. Because it would be an extremely traumatic thing. And then I will roll, I guess, charisma to try and like.

I guess it would be charisma. Because it's my ideas are trying to get through. Yes. So the door opens. There is a blinding light. An extreme amount of power. I forgot. I forgot how bright it was. Tuck barfs again. Ving holds his beard back. You see. He's separate. There you go. That's right. Yeah, boy. So gross. All right. So you've taken a debility to intelligence. You feel the power of this thalmic field permeating and penetrating your mind. Does the barf like fly towards the tear? Sure.

It gets sucked out of Tuck's mouth. Wait a second. Is this the podcast we want to make? This is what I'm saying. Sorry. And then Tuck goes, Ving, put me at the tear. I put him at the tear. And then I want to roll to just scream, Waleed, I don't know if you can hear me, but I'm your biggest fan. Not true. And not helpful. The world's about to end. And we need you. That you're the only one who can save us. Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're our only hope, Waleed. So wait, hold up.

So what information are you actually trying to present to Waleed? Because if you are not clear about it, all that's getting through is the words that you will speak. But what do we want him to know? Yeah. What is he? What are you trying to impart to the speaker? What does I give him the goods? I tell him everything. I say Wizards first was a lie. The Gibbous Man tricked everyone. He's ending the world. We need you back. We need Wizards back. Find a way out. Okay.

And then I go, Morris and Perel are here, but they've been cool recently. They're not as lame as they used to be. Please don't hold that against us. I've taken the stunned-ability to intelligence. Amazing. Oh, but there's something about him being rooted in the outer dark that can penetrate the light. Yeah. Potentially. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's something that Tuck's voice actually does get through. Yeah. It kind of gets mediated through the iconic realm. Right. Yeah. The scream, potentially.

That's maybe what's happening. Totally. Because we talked about in and outlands that will release at some point that the Domic Realm may act as like a filtering between the realms. And I think there is a void in Tuck's head. So that maybe is like sort of acts as a transgression point. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Could do. So yeah. Shuttle it through the void. Everything goes into the void. All right, roll it. Two to six plus charisma. Wow. 14. Oh, Jesus Christ. Hell yeah. Okay.

So you are screaming at the door of this elevator into a blinding light. Yeah. You give him all the information. The Gibbous Man, or the God of the Sky tricked wizards first. You were manipulated. The world is ending. We need the wizards back. Try and find a way to get out of there. Yeah. Yeah. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard.

There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard. There's a wizard.

Books yeah uh he's smoking a pipe he's just having a good time yeah very wizardly uh he's just like a portly man nice gray beard nice uh bald hardened face hardened face because he's reading a scary book it says goosebumps yeah let's choose your own adventure he's like what which which one do I want to choose he's sweating taking a drink okay I mean if I choose this one I mean it's only gonna go this way I kind of want to know what the other way is like why did I decide to choose my own scare they tried to warn me yeah so that's uh what he's doing he's in sweatpants and sweatshirt um and then through his window or just echoing in the room he hears talks voice yeah he hears about wizards first and that and that the gibbous man blah blah blah spills tea all over himself yeah he fully jumps and the tea goes everywhere and uh as tuck screams or like as his screams kind of finish he kind of signs off by being like love tuck billy and ving p.s we changed the passwords to your wi-fi hotspot to sick nuts wait suck my nuts suck my nuts 69 69 oh wait we're arguing back on our life oh yeah is it nuts or balls it's nuts it's always nuts it's all and all that comes all that comes through and we swore it was balls we see in this library the endless library of waleed the speaker uh like it I imagine that it's like impossibly tall and like there's arcing passages covered in books racks and racks of bottles that will be music bottles and bottles containing language because he's the speaker held by the the cap yeah like a kind of sunlight and sunlight coming through it's like a glass ceiling of glass bottles of information and he's got kind of like a collector his favorite languages sort of like arrayed on a shelf kind of thing but we see next to him a small small like finely wrought wooden table that was next to his chair an open journal with a quill above it rapidly writing oh cool and we're saying and it says suck my nuts 69 and then I thought it was balls and I say no balls doesn't have the same ring to it and tuck says 69 69 and I'm like no it's only 169 waleed it's it's just 169 the journals the pages are flipping and writing the journal the quill is also making mistakes because when you say 169 it writes 169 and then crosses it crosses it out it's like freaking out and then it makes it makes a tear in the page and out of the tear pops that little battery gemstone that tuck shoved through the walls the world yes it's just like on his table yeah and he just with the last image we see of waleed the speaker is looking down and he's like oh my god I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry picking it up yeah picking up the crystal and then we're back in the elevator did it work elevator doors closed morrison perel are uh crushed under the weight of tacoma dome as he falls backwards collapses yeah it totally collapses I puke on morrison bro and we we cut to hither and yawn so tuck is laid out in front of the fireplace they tried to put him they tried to put you in an armchair but you were too big so they just dragged you and laid you out in front of the fire I put him in the recovery position with a bucket beside him yeah we're all sponge bathing him yeah I'm so covered in my own oh god yeah and for the listeners convenience all of our favorite npcs are in the room fun nears is behind the bar uh francis and victor are curled up near the fire but on the other side of tuck morrison perello crocheting a napkin in the corner of the room she can't see me like this I can't see how I am about to kill her you're seeing her I've lost so much electrolytes yeah I love that every time we bring this as a joke I'm like oh my god I'm joking she's actually there for tuck yeah okay you can't let her see me like this you called me it's okay ving please I'll take care of it please you're hallucinating a a woman in a beautiful red dress uh long hair dark skin and I grab ving and I pull him so close to me it's close to my mouth it smells so much like barf please don't let ving fuck her don't let ving fuck her whatever you do I would never let ving hits him in the head with a frying pan and you do that because he starts crawling towards the fire with a huge erection is like as he rolls over it is like not it's breaking it takes him out of recovery position he can't lay flat all the way like he starts rolling over and then he raises whoa whoa he just puts him into a headlock okay we're going to sleep here and then he's knocked out unconscious and morris is sitting in one of the armchairs staring into the fire with his fingers steepled looking pensive there's no way to know if that worked yeah well I guess I mean like billy's sitting by the fire and he's like I'm gonna take care of you the mailbox now and he's like well we'll hear back if it worked oh you're sitting near the mailbox yeah bill you see a envelope that was not there before please I grab it I run over to ving is this it what does it say what does it say read it now read it now please please please read it I'll read it hand me the letter oh sorry thank you is a uh it is a one of those you know how you know like old-timey letters where it's like there isn't an envelope but like the letter is folded up and the wax is sealed it's that it is a very fine even just holding it the quality of the parchment is very fine it's linen paper linen paper with a black wax seal pressed with the sigil of a hammer oh whoa shit um okay they found us I cracked the seal yeah and you unfold it and very beautiful handwriting sort of an illuminated script it says you are cordially invited to a masquerade ball held at the black hammer palace in the city of black glass oh I mean it's obviously a trap obviously a trap I know but tuck is passed out but he hears us talking and he's like yes but then he hears that allison might be there also masquerade yeah and then now he's imagining allison in a gown he's going oh my sweatshirt uh and is there anything else I'd like to discern realities about the masquerade ball held at the black hammer palace in the city of black glass oh yeah 2d6 plus wisdom uh 10 what here is not what it appears to be what here is not what it appears to be you are looking at this and you're like this has got to be a fucking trap we're being welcomed to this masquerade ball but at the bottom of the invitation which looks like this must have been machine written it's like so nicely printed is what is very clearly handwriting at the very bottom in a flowing casual script that says safety guaranteed who's really in control here this was sent by callum blackhammer in fact the invitation names only princep callum blackhammer as the host of the masquerade ball oh not the princeps of the firefields okay okay but I'm feeling suspicious about the safety guaranteed oh yeah definitely that means that means for sure a trap what's about to happen what would be about to happen because you are currently still on the oh no you're in high spear city oh what if it's like the door opens and you hear basically like the door opens and you hear like not actually but this the equivalent of like spurs oh as someone walks into the bar so a figure walks in the door wrapped in bandages a strange mechanical device slung over his shoulder and sits at the bar it's the gun guy from port four frost moves a set of very complicated looking goggles onto his forehead covered in blue lenses we're both like gun guys do you remember the assassin who was like shooting us with a gun and he was like oh my god I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm the gun that like was powered by magic he was this is him but I thought heather nyan keeps out bad intent but maybe he has no I'll intent he's just here for a soup he's here he's here for a conversation and we're all like huddled around the fire like and he sits at the bar can I get a drink and mirrors turns around grabs a bottle pours a shot glass slides it across the bar what brings me to the bar and he's like oh my god I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry take the shot pops it back on the bar what do we see of his mouth how full are his lips uh you don't see anything because you're he's facing away from you I guess um and he's facing away so billy is like trying to creep to hide behind a chair 2d6 plus dexterity for defy danger yeah like billy at first is like who's this but then he sees those blue glasses he's like oh I better hide with what sorry uh dexterity okay eight eight seven to nine so that's a partial success bill you notice like um you don't know why you notice it it doesn't seem like the kind of thing that you would be worried about but slung at his belt on like his right side is a small wineskin with like a cork in it like you know a kind of teardrop shaped bag of leather with a cork in the top tied to his belt and as you're looking at it it moves a little bit and uh so yeah he he puts his puts the glass down on the table and kind of turns around gestures to the invitation I'm here to collect your rsvp tech has he he did when the guy walked in he did like come back into consciousness and uh I'm looking at you from like around francis and we're trying to like come up with a plan oh yeah yeah just pretend you're dead you!

Yeah yeah like like someone already killed you so he he like why would he kill you you're already dead yes yeah yeah and tuck lets out a huge fart that's what dead people do it's just gas escaping yeah that's your soul and billy tries not to laugh and then I go billy pretend to be sad that your dad just died say that we can't go to the thing because we're too sad yes but billy starts crying like clutching onto francis like I can't believe he's gone I I know I could never do anything fun again like go to a ball or dance around he wouldn't want that for me the only mask I can wear is a mask of sadness this is your plan is to try and act like tuck is dead so we can't go to the ball because we think it's a trap yeah totally yeah wow I can't believe that he was killed so shortly after killing colin blackhammer I can't believe it either BILLY!

WHAT?! DON'T FUCKING CONFESS TO KILLING A GANG CHILD! I can't I can't believe that rumor he would never have done such a thing we were we were here the whole time and it was just an accident it was just a sad accident that he he tripped really hard over a horse and he bonked his head and it never got up again tell him that a bunch of used carts fell on him that's the best lie for why someone died it works every time!

And I I thought maybe he's alive but then a cart drove by a bunch of carts that it was carrying fell onto him and it bonked his head even more I thought oh for sure he's gone now no one could survive that HE UH THE BOUNTY HUNTER IS JUST JUST KIND OF LIKE RESTING HIS HIS BANDAGED FACE ON A BANDAGED HAND And he reaches up and he pulls his goggles down over his eyes and he flips a lens down. Goes, his heart's beating pretty fast for a dead man. Bing stands up. Nudges Tuck.

Fuck, fine, fine, fuck, fine. I'm not dead. Yeah. What a surprise. I stand up. There's so much puke all over me. I come out from behind Francis. I go, what are you doing here? I've come to collect you. You've been cordially invited. It'd be rude of you to turn down a direct invitation from the princeps. It would be insane of us to go. You know that they're just going to kill us, right? There's zero assurances you can give us that we'll be safe.

If Callum Blackhammer promised your safety, your safety is guaranteed. If I came here to take you to your death, I wouldn't have been able to walk through those doors. And mirrors like his eyes kind of widen. He knows the rules of the bar. What? Who told him? That's true. With his glasses, he can see. That's true. He wouldn't have been able to come in here if he wanted to hurt you. Okay. Ving sits at the bar with him and takes a drink.

Uh, so do we go through the whole hullabaloo of walking or can we, uh, and he knocks on the bar. Cut the trip a little short. What's your name, friend? We're not going anywhere until you give us at least that. We don't travel with. And then Tuck gets a little melodramatic and he like looks into the fire. Strangers. But then he looks into the fire again. He gets even more melodramatic. And he goes, smart person once said, stranger, it's just a friend you haven't met yet.

Uh, time makes fools of us all and makes friends of strangers. Uh, someone's gonna have to roll a charisma to try and get him to reveal anything. It's clearly not going to be Tuck. I'll roll it. T-D-6 plus charisma. Tuck just throws his dice into the fire. Okay. Yeah. I got 10. 10? Yeah. I'm drinking with the guy. I'm on his level at least. Tuck's just whispering under his breath. Did you say that Tuck threw his die in the fire? I missed it. And he is like leaning against the bar, arms crossed.

He goes, you don't remember me. Port four for us. Yeah, we do. Yeah. No. You almost killed us. Yeah. I might've almost killed you in port four frost, but before that you almost killed me. Oh God. You might not remember me, but I remember you. Cause Lionel McKenzie King never forgets. Overseas? Oh my God. And he pulls his bandage down off his face and you see a man who many years ago, you almost had trampled to death in Crystal Bay calling a fire sale on pomegranates. I'll buy him a drink.

Can we end it there? Do we have enough time to end it? I have a feeling we do. I think we do. I think we do. That's where we're going to end it for this week. I'm your Game Master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always, Tacoma Dome, the Barber Shop. I'm Sean O'Hara. The Barber of Abdulaziz. So long everybody. Ving the Half-Elf, Drew and Paul Oppers. Take care. Fat Billy, the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai. Bye everyone. Thank you so much to all of our supporters around the world.

If you would like to support the show and gain access to bonus content, the up-to-date Mall Brats feed, and a whole bunch of other stuff, you can check us out at patreon.com slash speltlore or speltlore.com slash money please. Thank you so much to Aaron Reed for our intro and outro music. Check out all the original music produced for the show on Spotify. And Aaron's original music at aaronreed.bandcamp.com. Thank you finally and most of all to all of you for listening. We'll see you next time.

Wow. That was great. That was funny. Holy shit. That was such a fucking satisfying reveal. Did we like, when he got trampled, is it like, did we call a sale? Yeah. Because we wanted a diversion? Yeah. Yes. Okay. And as part of a seven to nine, a guy got knocked over and went, I'll never forget this. I'm like, yo, you'll see me again. You'll see me again. Lionel McKenzie King, never forget. So is he like wearing bandages because he needs to or because he wants to?

Because he wanted to hide his identity. Oh, that's so funny. Oh, nobody knows who a money is. So discreet. The easiest way to hide one's identity is pretend to be a mummy. Well, actually the car next door had a fire sale on bandages. The man was absolutely trampled. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I cannot fucking wait to get his fucking dumb as shit Batman 60s villain origin story. This absolute dog shit Dick Tracy bad guy. Wait, that's what happened?

Yeah, you pushed me over and I never forgot. I never forgot. Nobody pushes me over anymore. Amazing. I trained for years to never get pushed over. That's so funny. That's so good. And so ends the tale of adventures three who tried the best they can though dumb and scared and lost they be for times of rest in revelry. And though our journey may be like a conclusion.

Conclusion We will not leave you without a resolution Return next week to hear some more Whilst you commute or do your chores And for you I'd gladly spout more