Episode 10 – The Cloister

Spout Lore is made possible by contributions from our listeners. If you'd like to support us, go to patreon.com slash Spout Lore. Tuck is the brute who knows not his home, he loves to sing and fight. Fingers half-elf, he shifts his shape and wields a spear with great might. Billy's a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart. Best and brightest they may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts. So gather round, friends, and listen close, for the tale's about to start.

Hello everybody and welcome to Spout Lore. I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always playing Tacoma Dome, the barbarian, Abdul Aziz. Hello everybody. Playing Ving, the half-elf druid, Paul Oppers. Hello everybody. And playing Fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica Tai. Hello everybody. I quit, I quit the podcast. Oh, that podcast is over. When last we left our heroes, they had been suddenly found in the presence of Finn and Fanny.

Finn, noble mother and son, and rivals of Billy specifically and exclusively. Rivals of Billy and I think Nathaniel's house probably as well. Probably in general, yeah, absolutely. Finn is Billy's rival for sure. And not even rival, but like has been bullied by Billy. Whoa, that's enough like I started it. No, of course you did not, no, but you did end it. Yeah, I think Finn's crime was throwing a pine cone at you and having a… Stupid haircut. Yeah.

And having more food than you had at the time. 100% and gloating about it too. That's pretty bad. You know what? He deserved it. That's true. He does. But he's slowly like not deserving it. Yeah, exactly. Like every act that we go further into it. No, it's hard to disagree right now. Okay, okay. Hard to disagree. Jessica's just built a dice tower that's 20 tall right now.

Through some kitchen restaurant spell or shenanigans, the party escaped via a combination of disguise, and Ving attempting to engage with his newfound passion of the service industry. I thought my mother was a server. I thought I was a server too.

After jumping out of a plate glass window, Tuck led the party to the third floor of the Doubletree Hotel where they regained their equipment and spoke with Wendy and Lysander, rangers of Dathaniel's Talon, to discuss the plan in rooting out and curing the corruption in the Heart Tree. Yeah. At the center of the wood. We told them that it was the Gibbous Man that was doing it. Yes, and Lysander made clear that he was aware of the Gibbous Man.

Ving communed with the spirits to receive a vision of a gardener in the cloister who is unhappy with the way things have been going in the Church of the Wood, and then the party split up to do a Stormin Norman-style stakeout of the cloister in which Billy met a young ragamuffin named Biff. And tracked down the… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The ferry and following from his spiritual ferry.

Oh, shit. So Billy's still in the ferry. You're still in the ferry zones. Yeah. Next, we saw Tacoma Dome, who climbed the wall of the cloister without consulting anybody. It was just like, I'm getting in there. I was so embarrassed. I had to climb something. You gotta use arm when arm present. It's like when you're at a barbecue and a kid gets… Gets reprimanded by their parents and then climbs a tree and refuses to come down. Oh my god, yes. And at the top of this wall…

It takes a playboy up there and starts ripping pieces off and throwing it down at everyone at the barbecue. And goes, ooh, I know what this is. And throws it down at people. Tuck saw the bulk of the body of the heart tree for the first time in a clearer respect. Feeling the coins in his chest pull towards the tree. Learning for true that there is a demon lurking in the heart of the tree. So sick.

Then we went to Ving, who was communing with the tree itself via forgotten roots in the alleyways of the city. Learning that there is a feeling of hunger and need in the tree that was not present when he was a youth. That the piece of obsidian that Billy spotted in the heart of the tree is not a coin, but something else. That was a huge revelation for me. Gonna be totally honest. Yeah.

And the final question in his discerned realities, who's really in control here, cut back to Tuck, found on the wall by Wendy, the ranger Wendelliarie. Yeah. Who revealed that she would rather side with the bitter wind and pushed Tuck over the edge into the armed guard area of the cloister before disappearing. And Tuck fell through the air, looking up. So loud, so many barrels. Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck.

But from Tuck's perspective, looking up, falling towards the ground, looking up and seeing a burning tree. Before slamming into the ground, his vision going black. You spend a long time in this void. And Tuck, you're pretty sure it's Tuck. Yeah, it's Tuck. You're pretty sure. Tuck. It feels kind of familiar. The void? The name, right? Tuck. I yell into the void. It feels a little more familiar. Tuck. You're sure you know him. And I yell again.

And you are suddenly, your vision is filled with liquid. Your lungs are filled with liquid. And then your eyes shoot open. And you are lying on the ground. Underneath the boughs of a great tree. Oh, shit! And you hear clank, clank, clank, clank, clank. As a bunch of men and women with weapons approach. And Tuck doesn't know where anyone is. So he's just like, Windy Matrinus! Oh my god. You know what? Roll a Defy Danger Constitution to get that out.

Yeah, because it's the thing where he landed on his back so all the wind got knocked out of him. Okay, well, Defy Danger Constitution, I got 13. Okay. So roll a d10. Two. You take two damage. I have like three armor. Yeah. So you hit really hard and all the air is forced out of your lungs. But as that air is forced out, you force with it the words, Wendy betrayed us, which echo through the air. I hear it. Ving hears it. Yeah. Billy does not. No. Because Billy is in the ferry.

I'm in the ferry zone. Billy, you are following behind these two gardeners and they're walking through the cloister. You pass through the gates of the temple itself. What does the inside of this temple look like? I imagine there are structures. But I think a lot of it is dedicated to the tree. I think the roots lift out a lot and create big arches that they've sort of like maneuvered like other plants around to like make shelters and stuff like that and make like hallways and connected rooms.

Oh, so the cloister itself is made out of the roots of the tree. Well, the roots of the tree are basically like the frame and then other plants they've like tended to to grow into this like chapel around it. Oh, sick. Oh, cool. That's like attached. Yeah. So like the tree is basically like the central pillar of the of the chapel that is dedicated to its existence. So cool. Fuck, that's so sick. So yeah, they go back into the hallways of the cloister.

They're wandering these these boughs and these vines. This is the part that Billy can still kind of see. Is this like the life in the trees and the plants? Yeah, I can see like the like almost like the lattice work of life like light, you know, in little rivers. Cool. The two murky outlines of the people that you're following turn to each other. They nod. They go their separate ways.

Are you planning to just continue to follow Elman until something presents itself or now that you're like in the cloister, you're kind of free to move about. I mean, I kind of want to stick to him because that's the familiar face, but I want to pay attention to to like any like any roots I can see. Yeah, totally not like tree roots are like roots inside. Okay, great. So yeah, you're following under these like archways of verdant plant life.

He goes to what if Billy was not in the ferry, he would recognize as his room and you through the like the life that like excitement and chaos of life. You see that he is troubled and he opens a little like chest that he has. He pops it open and he pulls out like a potted sapling of some kind like a shoot and he pulls it out and puts it back down and looks around very furtively.

And kind of hustles past you in the ferry passing right through you unknowingly of course and closes the door and seals it and then comes back to his sapling and pulls it out and begins to water it very delicately and like prune off this little leaf and this little leaf and it looks like in the in the ferry. It looks like a young imperfect copy of the tree outside cutting. Yeah, what do you do? I mean, I can't really do anything. I can't touch it. Are there any runes on it?

I think they naturally have runes on them. Don't they? I think it's a property of the tree. They all have runes. So maybe this one has like because this is the first one. So it could be so old that they've all been gnarled and grown over to Oh, maybe. Okay, so I think the runes are on the new sapling. Yes. This tree is so old and has been like through so much that the runes are obscured. But this one he's growing and you can see small delicate runes on the on the young bark. Can I read it? Yes.

Let's roll something to determine this Spout Lore probably so I got eight. Okay, so interesting but not useful. I think it is. I think this tree is so young that it's not talking about like the runes and it's bark aren't about like specific pieces of knowledge, but it's about like the basis of the knowledge trees structure. And I think because there's only a few runes on this tiny little tree like I should say the you know, the trunk is it's basically a bonsai tree right now.

The runes that Billy can see say something along the lines of nature's law unchanging nature's law. You know what I so I see that but then I also see like past like further down is that like black spot. Oh in that like through the walls you can see like the the the black spot in the tree. Mm-hmm. Okay. I want to try to get there. Okay, so I will say that this is the hold. Okay.

Well because we already know that like as Billy tried to exit his body and enter the ferry he felt a resistance already. Yeah, and the closer you get to the heart of the tree the actual trunk itself you feel that resistance again. The trunk as we said is the size of a large. It's like fucking a big house. However far wide that is like it's like the home alone house. Yeah to size of the home alone house. How big would we say the diameter of that house is 100 feet. Yeah, 100 feet.

So it's about 100 feet across. It is a big ass tree, but it is gnarled and twisted. You can see there are like gaps in the bark gaps in the trunk and you're really forcing yourself forward because that that inky sludgy feeling is starting to assail your fairy form. Oh, it's creeping up your body. Yeah, and you're spending your hold. Uh-huh. So you really focus. Your fairy energy. I am Billy. I want out of this goo play is the thing Billy said a lot.

I want out of this goo cut to all the other times. He said I want out of this to bath time get me out of this goo. It's just soapy water. Anytime you have soap time there's soap the time he fell in a vat at a maple syrup festival. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah, that was a real fuck up on our part as parents taking him to a maple syrup festival. That one that one is him chanting. Get me back in that goo as we're pulling him out. No, let me back in the goo.

So you spend your fairy hold which I envision is you like like really powering up your fairy body. I'm just flinging it off of me like get me out of this goo. Yeah, do not play. I am Billy and you drive yourself towards the inky corruption at the heart of the tree and you see just for like a second before you get pulled back into your physical body. Another body curled wounded in pain like seemingly catatonic and then you're back in your body and you suddenly wake next to Biff.

Oh, you were you went out that long. That's a quick nap. Oh, I you know, I'm just all about power naps efficiency. I still get the I still get the coins though, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thanks for looking after me. Hey happy to do you need that sign? I don't think so. Okay, great. And he starts trying to spin both of them on his fingers. I'll see you later Biff. Okay. Dang it. And Billy goes running off trying to look for for Ving and Tuck. Yeah, Ving. I heard the call and chimed into the ring.

Oh, yeah. I heard Tuck yell. So I want to somehow get within range because yeah, how could how what is our limits and what is our parameters on these rings? So the limit that is a limit. We hit last episode was Billy tried to contact you on the rings and it didn't work. Yeah, I mean, I like the way that we have figured like it allows you all to communicate with animals. It allows you to like share visions and dreams when that comes up, but it's not like they're not like two-way radio.

We can't talk to each other through our heads. I just I heard you yell and I'm running over to it and running along the top of the wall. Yeah, light as a feather sounds like light as a feather stiff as a board. You got to roll that eight eight. So on a seven to nine, I believe you leave something behind. Something goes wrong. Something goes wrong. GM tells you what I think it is just like Billy starts running along the wall like outside. Oh trying to go back to like oh, we're tucking Ving.

I have to find them and you see Ving like like running along the rooftops of the buildings and leaping onto the wall into the cloister. Okay better go after him then Billy is on the outside of the wall. Okay. Yeah tuck you are on your back. Are you just like unable to get up? No, I can get up. I only took two points of damage, right? Yeah, which means zero points of damage, which means zero points of damage. But do you I hear I heard clanks.

Yeah, there's like guards running towards your location. All right, I go into fight mode. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you see a cadre of guards approaching you. Let's say for what's around me. So you're kind of in between the two walls one new one very very old and there's just like usual military guard post to like barrels crates. Yeah, it's just like sundry crap.

So the wall is to the side any gate that you would have into the inner temple is too far away and the gate into the inner wall is like quite a distance from you as well. Okay, sounds good. So the guards are coming at me. Yeah. All right. I pick up two barrels one in each hand and I whip both of them at the group of guards that are coming at me and then I sprint at them immediately. Okay. Okay, this will do it. This is a volley. Because you're throwing barrels at people. Yeah.

Yeah, let's call it a barrel volley. So it's 2d6 plus dexterity. Okay. Five. So you are like, all right, here we go. My patented barrel throw move. Donkey Kong. Yeah. And you try and throw both barrels at the same time and you just smash two barrels right in front of you. Okay. Then I do a war cry to freak them out. Yeah, go ahead. Hey, my enemies feel fear and act accordingly. Okay, so you smash these two barrels in front of you and just like scream at them.

Yeah, and I scream in anger because the barrel thing was so cool in my head. Yeah, but it just looked like shit. Yeah. Yeah. I just scream the word fuck and as we have determined screaming fuck at a bunch of elves actually really freaks them out. So the four guards don't swear. Yeah, no, they are. They do not flee but they like stop and they start to spread out. Yeah, and they're freaked out. You can see their hands are like shaking holding their spears sick.

So the failure from your previous move is you realize as you're screaming at them and they're backing up. They seem extra scared. You're used to people being afraid of you, but it's you realize it's because you're now glowing the barrels that you smashed were full of lamplighter oil and you are now covered in this brilliant. Yeah. Bioluminescent substance. So sick.

Not sick if you're trying to not be noticed, but if you're trying to be scary, pretty sick, but tuck realizes how fucking badass he looks. He strikes a pose with TLC. Your muscles are like oiled up with glowing liquid. Oh my God. I look like a bodybuilder. So it looks extra fucked up. Guess is what that means. You're still wearing your steed bonnet outfit. Has that been destroyed in any way? Yeah, I think when I hit the ground because it was too tight, it shredded immediately. Yeah.

So it's basically shredded on the back, but you do that cool fighter thing where you just grab the front and rip the rest of it off. Yeah. Sick, which means just your arms are covered in oil. Yeah. Then you like land skidding to a halt. There is. Yeah. See him right away screaming at a group of people and Billy, you hear the word fuck and you're like tuck is in there. So I try to climb faster, which is pretty slow. Still we'll just come. Back to Billy.

I'm not going to make you roll for climbing. I want to roll for climbing. Okay. 2d. Oh, 2d. 6 plus dexterity. Sweet shit. Fuck. Yeah. 12. Oh my God. I what I did was I unraveled to my ladder outfit. Yeah. Caught on to like a branch. I'm like, fuck yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. So you're all kind of arriving at the same time. Like tuck is screaming covered in glowing oil. Ving hits the top of the wall alighting like a professional as Billy tumbles over the top.

Pulling up his yarn scarf behind him and you see. Yeah. I didn't get the yarn scarf unraveled in time. We have to run away without it. It's too bad. I rip off what I can. Yeah, totally. So you leave a good length of your massive yarn scarf behind and you look over and you see, I don't know 100 feet down the wall. Oh, there's Ving. Oh, there's tuck. Yay. We're all together again. And then you see like throw someone into a pile of boxes. You're like, oh, we're fighting. Yeah. Okay.

So Ving you see with honor. Okay. As he jumps up, he sees him glowing and does some flips in the air and roll. I'll roll fight with honor. All right. Eight. Eight. Okay. So you get two cheap points. And so tuck, you're screaming doing this is like as barbarian as tuck gets. Yeah. Just a group of adversaries afraid to approach you and you're just bellowing. Yeah. As he's been really scary to think about. Just a seven foot tall man screaming at you with an axe in his hand.

Yeah, I wanted to being wanted to like do flips over behind tuck land right behind him and slap down on his traps as hard as he can. Splashing, glowing oil. Oh, yeah. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Eight again. Okay. You are now also covered in lamp lighter oil, but you do manage to scoot like slap a bunch off with.

Like maybe a little puff of wind from your elemental list abilities and they are kind of like like squinting a little bit because it's kind of glowing too bright in their faces. And as being arrives tuck you see pattering along the top of the wall towards you, Billy. I'm coming. So how does Billy enter this con? He jumps in off the room. Oh, no. And I I've got my like scarf outfit unraveled. Like almost like a net and I'm going to jump on the guards. Try to tangle them up. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

We'll call this defied injured dexterity as well. Eight. Eight. Okay. So here's the thing. You can wrap all four of them up, but you are also wrapped up with them or you can get to and still be able to move. I'll get to. So you land on two of them and they get all wound up and you release and I guess join tucking being on their side. I'm just in my bloomers. Just in his bloomies. High five Billy and then accidentally covers them in lamp. Oh, geez. All three of you are covered in lamplighter.

It's okay because I just put on my face. Yeah, my tummy. Yeah. Okay. So that's where we're that is the current state to elves trying to extricate themselves from a wool blanket that was suddenly wrapped around their heads and two more preparing to charge tuck. What do you do? How many are there total? There are four, but you would assume that more are coming. Okay, tuck just wants to like step forward and kick one of them in the chest so hard. Yeah, hack and slash. Yeah, 10 10 deal your damage.

Here we go. Eight. So you kick one right in the chest and they fly backwards through the air into a crate and they clang are knocked out sick, but you have come quite close to the other one that is not wrapped up good who begins to make a strike towards you. I take it because I want him to get close. Okay, so that is unbowed, unbent unbroken. Oh, right.

When you prepare yourself to endure some hardship without fighting back role plus constitution on a hit, you can either take half the damage or you can completely ignore one other I'll effect. Yeah. Okay. Eight. Eight. Okay. Yeah. So roll a d8 if you want to take damage. Okay. Six. So you can either take six damage or you can half it. I'll take six damage because I already have three armor. Okay. So what is the other I'll effect that you would like to ignore? What weapons do they have?

They all have spears. Okay. He kind of he jabs me with the spear and it goes through my side to the other to the other side. I'm like good hit and then I grab him by his shirt and then slam him into the door where other people would come from. Yeah. Yeah. That leads like yeah into the milk like the guard structure of the wall. Yeah. Yeah. I like that so that his body becomes a doorstop basically. Yeah.

Immediately as his body hits the door, you can hear like people slamming on the other side trying to open it. The door is rattling in its hinges and he's like stop it. Oh, stop. You just hit me Ving. What do you do? There is one guard with the spear that is not wrapped up in Billy scarf. Yeah, I can cross a distance between myself and a foe. You absolutely can and then deal my damage within reach. Perfect. Yeah. So you duck under his spear and you get in close. How do you take him out?

I get like I do a little splits down and it leaves us like this neon streak and then Johnny Cage style punch in the nuts. Great. So no, you just deal your damage three three. So not quite enough to take him out, but enough that you hit him in the nuts and he stumbles backwards ripping his nuts. I can't ripping his nuts gripping. Oh my God. I totally rip my nuts. My nose. My nuts are ripped, but he stumbles backwards. Going.

Oh, my nuts as the other two guards wrapped up in the wool scarf start cutting themselves free. Billy, what do you do? We steal the knife. They're not just going to steal their blade so they can't cut themselves free. Let's say defy danger. Dexterity. So good. Thirteen. Yeah, you get their knives because their arms are kind of like caught up as well and they can't really use their spears effectively. How does Billy get their knives away? They don't even see it happen.

They're going to take a swipe and then it's gone. I'm so fast. And then while they're like laying there like, where'd my knife go? Billy went and tied their ankles and their hands together. Jesus Christ. Yeah, that sounds like another move. Perhaps defy danger. Dexterity. Nine. Nine. Shit. Yeah. Hell yeah. I don't do a very good knot. Okay. Ving swips over and does a little dance in front of them and distracts them while he can get the thing. He's doing like. Stop paying yourself. 2d6 plus bond.

Eleven. Eleven. So that makes it a ten. Which means Billy does tie up these remaining two guards. Sick. They're not tied up forever. This isn't hitman. You can't just throw someone in a garbage can and have them never wake up in their lives. Well, then I'll push them into a hiding spot. No. She is doing the hitman. Actually, no. I'll shove them against the door too. Oh, perfect. Yeah. We put them in the pile. Yeah. Great. So nuts guy. He's still here and he's like going hero mode in his head.

He like picks himself up with this spear and he spits on the ground and he goes you think you can hit my nuts and I won't fight back headbutt to the face back and slash seven. Okay. Roll your damage to. Yeah. That was what you needed is all he had left. All he had left in him. Just spinning. Blood already. Yeah. So it was a seven to nine. So you roll your damage. Okay. You roll his damage, which was a D eight. I think it was. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Two. Yeah.

So you headbutt him and he clangs to the ground, but you do hurt your nose on his helmet. I have three armors. He's got now, but his heroic moment has been cut short. The door is starting to like their stop. They're not rattling it anymore. They're like heaving against it. So you can see the bodies are starting to move. So I want to go. Take the spear and put it through the door like all the spears together. Excellent. Two D six plus strength. Okay. Six. Oh, I'll help you. Oh, shit. Pass me.

I put one in and they like break it. Pass me the other spears. Yeah. Pass it to you. Two D six. I can say shit. I'm never fast enough. I'll aid Billy. I'll help Billy. This is perfect. I see Billy struggling with a huge. I'm sorry. I could never do it myself. No, Billy. This is really big for you. Can you hand me this beer already? I got 10. All right. So that makes that a seven and that makes that a seven. Nice. So this is again.

It's not going to hold him forever, but it's going to hold him for now. Okay. Tuck throws him just holds the door shut. Yeah. Ving puts the spears in. I'm imagining Billy has like little knives or caltrops that he's like stabbing into the bottoms of the door. Yeah, I'm stabbing it. So that's like, like angled. So it's like stuck into like the frame. Yeah, exactly. Nice. Great. So the door is sealed for the moment. You do have a second to think to certain realities about the area. Yeah, right.

Where are we? I have no idea about the layout of this two to six plus wisdom nine. Oh, can I aid by describing what I saw when I was in the hall? Yeah, absolutely. Nine. Perfect. So you get three questions and Tuck also gives you guys a heads up. He's like, Wendy fucking raid us. She found me on the top of the wall and she pushed me off. She called the guards. Wendy, your girlfriend sucks, dude. Not my girlfriend. We told her all our secrets. We're just friends with benefits.

That's how you guys find out that they've been fucking. You guys have been fucking this whole time. You guys have been fucking this whole case. Two missed high fives. It's a real whiff of a high five. You're both left. You both leave each other hanging somehow. Yes, that's awful. Thinking about Wendy. Oh, God, dude, you pick terrible women. That's not my fault. You feel the spirit of everyone that's ever known the two of you going. He picks terrible women.

The calendar flips to January where they're all on there. He does. Uh, what should we be on the lookout for? I mean, I think the easy answer is a way into like the garden without going anywhere near anyone else that works here. Yeah. What here is not what it appears to be. I guess what here is not what it appears to be. The wall is not me. Oh, maybe it's even like classic D&D like being like your perceptions like you're looking at the wall. You're like, this is an ancient wall.

This wall has been here since elves. Have been here and you're like a secret door. Oh, like one of those like an old ancient door. Yeah, through the wall into the garden, but you see like the way. Okay, so I until Jessica mentioned it as like the roots of the tree being used as like the infrastructure points for the thing. I was imagining a stone wall, but is the wall would like is it a grown wooden wall around the garden?

Oh, that would be cool if it was actually part of the roots that they coaxed up. And out you like shield it to protect it. Oh, maybe this was like the first shelter of the elves where the elves originated. It's like the incubation for the civilization. Exactly. Yeah. And you find a little gap that has not a mechanism, but you see sort of in the way it grows. You're like this is meant for something.

This isn't just an idle part of this plant and you approach and it's like younger, lighter colored. So yeah, it's like growing and regrowing and you're able to move aside a section of the wood. It just kind of like bends but moves and there's a gap through the wall on the other side plant life. Quiet silence. Tuck wedges it open and he holds it open for everyone to go in. Yeah. And you all sneak through and you are within the door closes behind you. Tuck it's a little bit of a tight squeeze.

Yeah. Yeah. I like thinking it kind of moves on its own like seals back up. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. The roots move back in place. Yeah. Cool. Do you still have one more question? I sure do. Oh, you do. You do. So now you're inside the garden. What's about to happen? What is about to happen? I think what you hear, you do hear like a voice. Inside? Inside the garden that just says, what are you doing here? We have come to help the blight. What does he look like? Or they? Or she?

It is he and it is Elman. In his green robes, quite young for an elf, younger than Ving probably. Pretty elf-y looking. Long, straight blonde hair. Green robes, pale, sharp ears. Elman? What? How did you know that? I followed you and the old lady when you came back in. Sorry. I just needed to know how to get in here because we have some stuff to do. You shouldn't be here. No one can be here. That's okay. We're not like everyone else. And Elman like squints. Swipes off the neon.

The spirit walker. That would mean Tacoma Dome. The tear bringer. And Fat Billy. Yes. The fat one. That's me. I've heard of your exploits. You've come to me. I'm here to help the tree. Yeah. Yeah. We're in service of the tree. It's really fucked up, dude. I've guessed. I've only guessed. And he's like, you see that he's been holding something like kind of hiding, like turning away from you a little bit. And he starts to turn back to, he turns back towards you and he pulls his hand down.

Is it the tree? It's the tree. It's the sapling. Did you take a cutting? I did. From the healthiest part of the tree. I've been worried that something's been wrong. And I thought that this was the only way to save the knowledge within. It's to start again. There is something wrong in the tree. And I saw it. There's someone in there. What did you see? It was a dark figure. Yeah. I could tell that there was like a demon in there. Like an icon.

Ving tells him about the hunger that he felt for the tree. It's insatiable. That explains so much. Says Elman, gripping his gripping his little sapling tight. The forest. Has been wanting. It's been twisted. Been sickened. I didn't know what from, but it must be the tree. The tree is at the heart of the forest. And everything lived in harmony. But if the tree needs or wants more, it would take from everywhere else. Oh, shit. The hunger is pulling from everywhere else.

It's killing the whole forest because the tree was providing for the whole forest. But now, because it's drawing from the whole forest. It's pulling everything from the whole forest. We got to figure out what the fuck's inside of that thing. Swearing so much. He's had a hard day. We need to also lay low and we need to get away from the guards. Yes, absolutely. The cloister, the temple, the city is in absolute panic. What's been going on out there?

Well, there was some sort of kerfuffle, I suppose, at the Doubletree Inn that has put the guards on alert. There was… There was some sort of fight in the fortress. They're not sure if it's connected. But someone in the Doubletree, some sort of waiter is thought to have, I don't know, attacked or kidnapped a wealthy family that they were waiting on. That seems like not what we would have done.

I can't promise that if you were to attempt to heal the tree now that you would be able to do so unassailed. How much can you keep secret from the guards of the garden? I have kept, and he hugs his plant tightly. I've kept much secret. Okay, you need to keep us as secret as your sapling. Okay, I can do this. What do you need? Shower. Robes? Something to wipe his stuff off? Oh, yeah. You guys are thinking we, like, stay inside and then try and… Wait for things to cool down a little bit? Yeah.

And then sneak back into the garden? Yeah. And, like, investigate the tree? We're nuns on the run. Nuns on the run. Yeah. I think he says, I have… He looks a little bashful. He's like, I have secret ways in and out of my quarters. So I can get you inside, hide you, find you disguises, and keep you secret. Is there anyone you trust? The first gardener, Malgath. She is kind. She's wise. She holds to the old ways. She can be trusted. Okay. Does Billy not believe him? I don't fully believe him.

Well, it's not that I don't believe him. I just don't know if I trust anyone else. I can keep it to myself. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Come with me. And he, like, takes you through a bunch of, like, oh my god, beautiful plants, rare plants, vital plants, but, of course… What's this? Actually, what is one plant that Ving sees that he runs by that he's like, what the fuck? No way! It's a autumn paper lily. Amazing. Yeah. And they've… Been extinct for generations. Whoa.

And they have a very, very potent toxin that elves used to tip their war arrows with. Whoa. That's very cool. Okay. So, good to remember. Autumn paper lily. Very potent poison available in this garden. Yeah. Okay, great. Elmin rushes you through the garden. As we're walking through, Tuck's like, what's this one? And it's just like an apple tree. Whoa. Bet you this is some kind of, like, rare fruit. Not having grown up with apples, he's like, what? Never seen this fucking thing before.

And he takes you through the cloister into the temple itself. You flit through the service hallways and servant entrances into his little quarters, which is quite cramped with the four of you in here. And he hides you in here and he goes, I'll be right back. And he runs off and comes back with an armful of linens. And he's like, I had to concoct quite the tale for why I needed so many extra robes. What'd you tell them? I told them that I had spilled on my other ones. Whoa, crazy.

That's a crazy lie, dude. I am not one for spinning falsehoods, but I feel I was quite effective. And he hands out the robes. Thank you. Such a fucking nerd. I love plant nerds. I really like him. And yeah, you all get little robes and they fit. Little robes? Do you have other short gardeners here? Oh, no. The robes themselves. And it's like, it's basically as you're putting them on, you're like, oh, shit. This fits perfectly. And he's like, it's the robes. They're made of vestment vines.

They grow to the wearer. What? It's quite ingenious. So comfortable. So soft. I've never worn one of these. They fit perfectly. They regulate temperature using sort of a symbiotic property. And they're grown right here in the garden. I heard that you can use them. You can even pee into them and they clean your pee into drinking water, Ving says. Tuck immediately pisses. You know how hard it is to piss your pants deliberately? Tuck is an expert. It's actually so easy. That's desert power.

Tuck doesn't tell you that he's doing it, but he's like staring into the middle distance and then he just shakes for a second. He does one of those like shoulder shivers and he's like, I don't believe it. And I'm eye level, so I see the like, dark. Yeah. And it's awkward, kind of, because after a few moments, the leaves begin to do like they're covered in like a clear like crystal clear do goes up and sucks one of the balls back. It's just water. It's quite astonishing, isn't it? Amazing.

It makes it makes those nighttime drinks quite easy to achieve. You don't have to get out of bed quite so often, but we must we must be quiet now. Oh, yeah, we have to should whisper. Yes, I must say I'm I'm quite thrilled to meet three of you. I've been hearing of your stories. As you might understand, travelers in and out of the forest have not been very common lately, but I have been most attentive to news of the outside world and your exploits are quite thrilling.

What are people saying about us? Because we don't really get that much insight into that. Oh, stories of you traveling in the companionship of a dragon. Stories of you facing down an army in a desert village headed up by some sort of dark warrior traveling across the sea of graves to and fro. It's quite amazing. I guess when you put it that way, it sounds like pretty cool. Yeah, I guess we have done some pretty cool things.

There is an upper limit on how much urine the plants can absorb before they need recuperation. So I would like an over water tomato. It's starting to split down the middle. Yes, I would pace yourself. How do you still have water in your body? It was a very short period of time between the two times you pissed. All he's had for four days is chicken. I don't know where he's getting all this liquid from. Jessica laughing in the mic.

Just hearing So I believe that the best way is for me to see how things are progressing in the temple. But is there anyone nearby that might wish to do you harm? Yes. Yes. Yes. Ranger Corps. Ranger Corps. Ranger Corps. Specifically, Nathaniel's Rangers. They were betrayed by Wendy specifically. Yeah, so we don't know that all the Rangers. Yeah, but we can't trust them now. Yeah. And she said that there was somebody on the inside. They were working on it. Right.

Do you have any inkling as to whom she might have spoke? No, we took in a newer grouping of initiates just last week. Do any of them look like this? And Ving takes a stick and draws, draws in the sand a picture of Nesh, the young man. But this is Aelmar. Aelmar. Aelmar is lying to you. His real name is Nesh, and he loves doing moves. Tug's not good at being famous, I think. It's really getting to his head. Yeah, he's trying to sound important. Oh, by the leaf and bow. Infiltrators in our temple.

Mm-hmm. There's more than that infiltrating your temple. There's a big old fat piece of shit inside that tree. We're here to suck it out. A bad, bad gibbous man came into this temple one time and took a shit in your big shiny tree. Put a big old hard obsidian shit inside of that tree. That shit's grown into a man, and we're here to kill him. Yeah, we're here to take that little piece of shit out of that tree. Flush him from your city, for good. Uh-huh. Wow. And now you just piss on the ground.

Really steps back. Yeah. Because I was in the pee zone. It does get soaked up by the sand that Ving dumped on the floor of Elman's room to draw in. Tug, why are you doing all the things that you say I can't do? Pee as I say, not as I pee. Very well. Then what will you do? These disguises, I should say, are quite fetching, and you should be able to move about the cloister unobstructed if you so choose. I mean, I can hardly recognize you. I don't know if I believe his judgment.

I don't know if anyone's quite as short as me. I feel like my stature gives it away. I feel like same with me, yes. I've been thinking about this, says Sean, the game master. I think that especially considering the reality of Billy's play versus reality and his now, especially with Luck of the Fair Folk, the fact that him just knowing you two sort of bends luck in your favor from time to time. I think that your disguise, because we've talked about how your disguises should not work.

I think that they kind of do. I remember when we were I think it was Tuck and Billy were dressed as like the horse. Oh yeah, Billy can also cast illusions. Maybe that's what I'll do. Oh shit, you don't have any fairy child left, right? Well, if we wait till morning, it's night right now. Right, so if we do wait until morning, you can use your fairy illusion magic to disguise us. At least tonight, Tuck probably won't wet the bed. Yeah, that's good this time. I don't wet the bed.

It's obvious that it's you now. I wet the bed all the time, but my vestment vine filters it for me. That's awesome. It's quite amazing. It's a really weird quirk of your order that none of you are pottying. I'm potty trained. He says drinking a droplet off his shoulder. I think it's like it's almost like a still suit from Dune where there's like a stem that comes out of the sleeve that if you know how to use it, he can just sip off like the stem. His own piss. That's amazing.

These piss monks are at the center of Elven civilization. That's the world we just created. It's just kind of cool that they always have water on them and in them. They're a constant supply of food for the plants. Nature is about harmony. I live in harmony with my vestment vine. They provide for me. I provide for them. That is one of the first things that you learn as a young gardener is techniques for peeing freely. I pee freely? Oh my god. This is the best sleepover I've ever been to.

Everybody gets to pee. Everybody's just pissing. They're pissing their pants constantly. So much fun. I believe that the next best course of action would be to get a little shut eye, as they say in the outside world, I believe. So I will… And he stands up to his full five, six. Ooh, really little guy. I will take the first watch. Of what? Just in case anyone comes in, I guess. Oh, okay. Yeah. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on. And he walks to the door and he locks it. Ah, there we go. That's it?

No one will come in? I mean, I hope not. Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. Um, just a moment. I'm peeing. Hide. Oh, shit. Why do you have more furniture? Um, um, um, can we all fit under the bed? You could try, for sure. Alright. So Tuck lifts the bed up. Tuck lifts the bed up and you guys get under it? Yeah, and I kind of pull the covers a little more on the side that is facing the door so that they can't see. And Tuck goes and stands behind the door with his axe out. Oh, shit.

Yeah, if this goes bad, I'm just gonna kill whoever's on the other side of the door. Yeah, exactly. So he's just, he like silently stands on the other side of the door. Oh, that's so spooky to think about. A seven foot tall man standing behind the door with an axe. Yeah. And click. Hello, Herman. I'm sure you heard that there was quite a commotion outside. Yes, yes, first gardener. It was quite quite thrilling, I'm sure, but everything is good here. Everything's fine in here.

And Ving and I are under the bed like, fuck, he's so bad playing it cool. Oh, God, he's gonna get us fucking killed. Can Ving take some of his, um, piss do and flick it on the feet of the first gardener? Yes. Oh. I have the tiger. Oh, smart. Okay. Say 2d6 plus dexterity to get her with it. Oh, no. Plus dexterity is two. I got eight. Oh, shit. So Paul just did a jizz motion. He did kind of like, what's that called? The Spider-Man? No, I was rolling dice, playing craps. Got ten.

So what's the seven to nine here? So you whip out a little bit of your piss do. The drops soar through the air and patter onto the floor. Oh, yeah. Oh, no. What's that elf song from Lord of the Rings? Oh, uh. May it be the evening star that's done upon me. And we see echo. We see. Oh, sorry. We see reflected in the droplet, distended in the water, Billy and Ving underneath the bed, wide-eyed. We see behind the door, Tuck towering over. May it be. May it be. May it be.

We see almonds shaking knees as the drop passes by before they patter onto just a little bit of exposed ankle between the vestment vine and the vegan leather shoes of the first gardener. There was so much arrogance in your tone. That's amazing. And you feel that connection take hold. Nice. Yes. And the door closes. And Elman drops to his knees and starts panting. Pukes. Just a little bit. I don't know. I don't know how you all do this. This life of deceit and falsehood. Wow, dude.

You've had it pretty easy, hey? Well, I mean, I've had quite an academic and spiritual upbringing and I have spent many, many years in deep contemplation of my role in the wild places of the world. Well, here's the thing. You might be the only person in this entire forest who is capable of saving that tree. And Tuck points out the window at the heart tree. And Elman throws up a little bit more. So we'll jump forward to the morning. You all sleep just, I guess, in under on the bed.

Elman lets one of you take the bed. I'm under the bed because honestly it's like pretty nice in here, like a little cave. Uh-huh. Pretty good. Tuck took the bed. Tuck took the bed. Elman's curled up in a corner. I imagined him in the bed too, like it's kind of a bigger bed. Elman is also in the bed. Just spooned by Tuck. But he's in the corner of the bed and the wall. And he wakes up. You hear an emerald forest rooster caw, waking. And it sounds like … … … … … … … … … … …

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Oh, his eyes flutter open with the call of the emerald forest rooster. And he takes a long, deep sip from his vestment. Good morning. Oh! I forgot! Our deceits. Our quest. I had the most wonderful dream. None of this happened. But I'm ready. What do you need from me this morning? Fair jump. Oh yeah. Billy crawls out under the bed like a dead man.

Like a cat or something. I don't know. Like a sleepy spider. And he lays in the sunbeam and he's like, I just need a second. And I roll 2d6. Yeah, plus charisma. Eight. Eight, which I believe means three. Yeah, so I get three holds for today. Not too bad. Not bad at all. Not too bad. So Ving, as Billy's lying in the sun, he slowly comes out of his, and he's been doing a commune of whispers all night. Excellent. In the place with all the different plants, the exotic plants.

He doesn't get to know one. Maybe his mom knew some of them. So he's communing with her ancient knowledge of all the other trees and the sapling. Cool. To figure out what's different about the tree to try and make this dark figure inside of it stand out. Yeah. Have you ever communed with the spirit of your mom? I don't think so. That's why I brought it up like half-assed. Because that's the thing is like, Ileana knew, what was happening here.

She knew and she called it out and they push her out for it and commanded Dathaniel to kill her. I think that's a good, yeah. I'm going to commune with the whispers of the echoes of my mother in this place and anywhere that she touched, if there's maybe a way that I can, that she left a message. Yeah. Okay. So cool. It's pretty hardcore. I don't think we've ever used communion of whispers this way. To like contact a dead person? Yeah.

Because we haven't really talked about like people spirits being the same as like spirit spirits. You know what I mean? She's a druid. So maybe something that she imbued. Yeah. Right. Or something that she did while she was here that was very spirited. It's like when a tree grows, you've got the rings, right? Yeah. And the rings record history. Yeah. At a certain part of going into the middle of the tree towards that black withered being, I would reach a ring. In there. I love that. Yeah.

That's really cool. Roll plus wisdom. Nine. Nine. So still unclear, meaning murky. Ooh. Yeah. So I think it is that you reach out into the tree, into the building, into the temple, into the land. And in communicating with the tree in this way, yeah, you're sort of reaching backwards through time, going like ring by ring into the tree, searching for something that reminds you of the woman that rings you. Raised you. And you are suddenly given a vision of a time long since past.

Ileana in the green vestments of a gardener, but different. Yeah. She's sipping from the stem. I didn't need to see that. But they are altered in some way, I think, to denote that she is not of this place originally. Like she is not, strictly an Elvin gardener. She's not wearing the green. She's wearing like an autumn colored one. Ooh. I like that. Then it's like, yeah, like the Russet Browns. Mm-hmm.

And she is speaking to a handsome young elf, short, straight hair, dark, dark, dark black, no facial hair, striking features. And he is wearing the green gherkin of a ranger. And it takes you almost too long to be like, oh my God, that's my dad. Whoa. Um, but as like a younger man, it looks a lot like being, yes, you see yourself a lot in him. And it really drives home the, the, the idea that no matter how you were born into this world, your father is your father. You know what I mean?

Like, it's like, he still shaped you in a lot of ways, just as much as Ileana did. Um, and she seems, and we see her with Elvin ears, maybe. Oh, Oh, I like that. Like in this place, she's made herself, like an elf. And she doesn't have the like polar bear for a mantle that she had, unless that is over top of her, um, her gardener robe that she has like, yeah, a mantle of, yeah, it definitely looks like a flight, like a pilot's jacket. Yeah, it does. Yeah. It looks fucking sick.

It was so fucking sick. Your mom looks so sick and hot. So she said she was sick. And then you said something else. There was a thing that you said after that. After that, something, that I didn't like, they won't listen to me. They won't listen to me. The Daniel, no matter what I do, they are blind to what is happening in these woods. And, uh, Nathaniel was sitting on like a bench and he stands and he comes over to her Aragorn style, puts his hands on her shoulders from the back.

And Laura, the ring. And, uh, he says, you can make them, see Ileana. They're just, they're stuck in their ways. You can turn them, but there's no time to Daniel. If they don't see the error of their way soon, they are opening themselves up to forces. They do not understand. Then we will make them understand. And he turns her around. So he's facing her under the blooming light of the tree. Almost like fireflies falling. Yeah. No.

And the, yeah, the lamp lighters, begin to flit to the ground, creating this like glowing rain. But in your vision, as they fall, their light dims and becomes like a creeping shadow. As the light fades from the tree itself and from your parents. And then all this darkness. And you hear Tuck is taking a huge drink. He's like the whole suit. It's huge on him. And he, when he's moving around with it, it like slosh. You hear it sloshing. It's like a sumo suit at a party. I don't know. Staff party.

It's so awful. So the aura Boris has awakened. That's just, for his eye, the aura Boris. I drink my own piss and that piss becomes me again. The snake that drinks his own tail forever and ever. Just the worst. Hmm. Hmm. My mother saw something that she knew it was coming. Do you tell us what you saw? Yeah. I mean, I think we sometimes have a practice when important things happen. Yeah. It sounds like the Elven people chose something. They opted into something. Yeah.

Like they made a deal or something. Hmm. Do you think they made a deal with the Gibbous man? Yeah, probably. That sounds about right. Like he came and offered them something. Or someone. Oh shit. I don't know. Yeah. Oh, like what if they sacrificed like a Druid or Gardener, an elf or something as like overseer or like protector of the tree and like buried them in the tree or something. I don't know. Place them in there. Place them in there. It's so dark.

But like had them take like the obsidian coin. Uh huh. The thing that Nathaniel told us was that like the nobility wanted more control. Like, I guess we have established it, that they're like Elven society has like two voices that dictate. There's the voice of the trees, the Vox Silvi and the voice of the people. And I think the voice of the people didn't like how powerful the voice of the trees was and the influence that it had. Yeah. They're trying to silence the trees. Yeah.

So maybe it was a deal along those lines. I mean, we know that the, uh, the Rangers were really active during the wizard war. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And thereby the events that led to the Exodus. So like the forest was very involved in the, in the conflict, in the conflict and the, and the, the events of the outside world in a way that they probably didn't want to be. So maybe that prompted the accepting of some sort of deal. Could have something to do with that.

It could be the tree could be a tomb for a wizard. Oh, could shit. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. A ward stone tree almost. Whoa. Hmm. And what do we know about? Nah, I feel like I'm trying to lead you guys too much. No, I want to hear it. What do we, what do we know about possession? Oh, uh, that it's when a person is open to it. Yeah. They gotta be open to it and they gotta need something or want something like they have to be somehow aligned with the icon that's trying to gain purchase in them.

And then it comes in. And it like kind of takes over their like decision making, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty much it. Also keeps them alive like forever basically. Yeah. It grants them powers. Yeah. So that is what we know. Okay. Yeah. Okay. What you want us to come to the conclusion? Not, I mean, there's some stuff I want to reveal, but like, I don't think we're there yet. Yeah. We're stupid. It's all good. Is there, do we have all the pieces that we could figure it out now?

I think there's some things you could figure out, but not like it. Okay. Yeah. Fuck. We're so close to getting some reveal. Yeah. It feels like we want it. Yeah. Oh, and then he was like, we will teach them. We will show them what it is. It's so depressing. Like the young unjaded like version of Nathaniel. Yeah. But he's also jading somebody else who's bent on like, you know, avoiding the dark side. The darkness, but he's like, no, we will show them to darkness. Yeah.

That's a, that's an interesting way to look at it. That she's like, they're going to fuck it up. I don't think it's my problem. I got to get out of here. And Nathaniel being like, no, we're going to get, we're going to get involved. Yeah. Yeah. Cause Nathaniel has always been the, like I know best. Right. Or at least when he was younger, he is clearly, well, even now, even now he's like, I don't think there should be any monarchs. I don't think there should be any monarchs.

I don't think there should be any monarchs. There should be no leaders. Yeah. Because I know that that's the best course. Well, his man, he's kind of a ding dong. His world view is infallible to him. Yeah, that's true. Even his worldview that he is a bad person. You know what I mean? Like he, he is like, I am always right. Even in that I am wrong sometimes. Yeah. Oh man. Nathaniel's cool. Yeah. Cool in, in an interesting way. Yeah. Not cool in a like, what a cool dude.

He's an interesting character. I think so. Okay. So what's next? Billy, I did. If we have to go out. Yeah. Yeah. We, I think we need to get close to the tree. So we gotta be disguised as regular size people. You take half of me and put it on most of him. Yeah. I'll, I guess I could create a, is it like a creative convincing illusion basically? Yeah. And you just spend a point for it. Okay. Yeah. So I'll do that for, for tuck and I. So what does this look like? What do you look like?

I look like a tall teenage ginger boy. I look like a tall teenage ginger boy. I look like a tall teenage ginger boy. I look like a tall teenage ginger boy. I look like a tall teenage ginger boy. Do you make yourself look like an elf? I do. Okay. But he's still got curly hair. And I'm so tall, but not too tall. Just like tall. Yeah. Not like Conan O'Brien tall. No. Yeah. Just like five, like five, 10. Yeah. Which to me is like so. Massive.

And then I made tuck look basically the same, except his hair is longer. Oh. And he's got point ears. So you made him your twin, but with long hair. Yeah. We look the same. And no, because he's got point ears. Yeah. And he's got point ears. Yeah. And he's got a weird beard. Cause I was like, Hey, so he's just got weak little chin. Yeah. I've got the weakest chin. I don't tell talk that it's just for me. Yeah. Yeah. You gave me really long black hair. It's like blowing in the wind. Yeah.

Elegantly. It's like dead to my feet. It looks so weird. It's too long. Can you do anything about this? No. Okay. It's illusory. Fuck. Okay. Fuck. Like, and I realized what's on the line. So I'm like, Oh, I gotta make it less weird. So I do shorten it. But just, so it's down to his butt. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. To the bottom of the shoulders. And Elman is just like, Oh, astonishing. Text. Look at you. The Mary's like, I look like I was fucking homeschooled. That's perfect.

That's what I was going for. Then I, I think you hear like against elements window, like don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't. What's that bonking? It's my, it's my window. And he goes and opens the window and tuck is standing behind it with the ax ready to kill whoever's on the other side. I'm behind talk. I'm so scared. And flapping through the window is a bookworm. And that's where we're going to end it for this week. I'm your game master.

Sean O'Hara. He is always playing Tacoma dome. The barbarian Abdul Aziz playing being the half elf druid. Paul offers playing fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica tie. I want to read it. Thank you to Aaron Reed for our intro and outro music. You could find all of Aaron Reed's original music at Aaron, read.bandcamp.com and all of the music that has been produced for the show at soundcloud.com. Thank you to all of our supporters around the world without hoops. This show would not be possible.

If you would like to support the show and get access to a whack, a bonus content, including a full campaign set in the high spear mall, which we have just started, like book two of check that out at patrion.com slash spelt Laura spiller.com slash money, please. And thank you most of all to all of you for listening. See you next time. And so ends the tale of adventures three who tried the best they can. Dumb and scared and lost. Maybe for times of breast in. And though.

Oh, our journey may be like a conclusion. We will not leave you without a resolution. Return next week to hear some more whilst you commute or do your chores. And for you, I gladly spelt.! . . . .