Episode 11 – The Grey

Spout Lore is made possible by contributions from our listeners if you would like to support us go to patreon.com Spout Lore where you can get extra bonus special content gather round friends let me tell you a tale of three heroes noble and bold a brute a druid and a thief who is but nine years old you know them by name you know them by deed their quests are famously daring so here I sit singing to you an adventure that is worth sharing tuck is the brute he knows not his home he loves to sing and fight fingers have health he shifts his shape and wields a spear with great might billy's a thief his tiny size does max the largest heart best and brightest they may not be but their friendship outweighs their smarts so gather round friends and listen you for the tales 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 abdulaziz hello everybody playing ving the half elf druid Paul Oppers hello there and playing fat billy the halfling thief jessica tie hi everyone when last we left our heroes they experienced the final moments of the magi as the power of the spirit walker overcame his physical form uh pushing him closer and closer to death ving gave roth the opportunity to have the power removed from him and roth chose to die instead billy helped make roth's final moments a little bit more pleasant a little bit more comfortable as ving bid the animal spirits to leave roth as he passed from this world and then was cremated on the top of the mountain and he was killed by the power of the spirit walker and then was cremated on the top of the tower of the light guard fort I assume by ving uh in some fashion or just somebody lit him on fire that's a little bit less uh ceremonious ceremonious somebody just with a lighter like click click click it's not I feel like it was more that it took 45 minutes to even get him up against the side of his shoe it's someone just goes up as like uh you did a little bit of look at the light guard fort and you're like oh my god I'm so scared around in the tower but I'm really proud of you guys because you didn't really steal anything from this place you just kind of left except for the mirror except for the mirror shard which you found which was a secret room yeah like you found us yeah and you went through like the chambers of what looked to be the captain's council and didn't take a thing except for norman's legs except for norman's legs you took two things uh that were mismatched wooden appendages which you returned to storm and norman on your unceremonious retreat from the fort uh you informed norman that his life's work had been completed and he went off for new adventures in lands unknown maggie and kareen met back up at a vertog umberath's clinic and had a moment alone as they discussed uh what their relationship and partnership was going to look like going forward or if kareen just wanted to leave awkward it probably kind of really was probably a very uncomfortable conversation probably still is kind of weird yeah between them yeah you went and found captain oleander dreyfus to ask him if you could charter his boat uh to the frozen north found him getting thrown through a window at the hound uh you sat down at the hound and did a little bit of planning billy gave perel or showed perel the bag of magic crystals that he recovered from the mysterious assassin and told everybody that uh he was experiencing some unusual emotions when in contact with the crystals perel explained that the goggles and the weapon that the assassin carried um are part of a discipline that existed pre-exodus that I have changed the name to it's now called arcanics cool and that the knowledge for this should be if not totally lost very hard to find and probably uh very difficult to work with but someone is doing it somehow pretty fucking sick you met gull a stressed out 17 year old uh waiter at the hound and we left a huge tip for him oh massive it was he quit the next day yeah it's just like oh my god I'm rich forever ving left him uh one of the sunstone pieces that he has he's living like a king I'll go ahead and race that off thank you bill uh and then you headed down to the dock to prepare to cast off on oleander ship the sun runner uh and met up with maggie and kareen who has decided to come with you the journey began billy regaled a group of uh hardened sailors with a delicious meal idea that he had it was sort of halfway between a puppet show and a menu yeah this world's example uh analog to like food blog posts yeah I guess so yeah uh while tuck and ving had a very uh uh uh!

Difficult conversation below decks about um ving's recent healing of his body and his acceptance of uh the light of the moon into his spiritual essence yeah I guess you could call that acceptance still wondering what the heck yeah like no one's really sure what it means just that ving has been healed of his uh nature's price and tuck chose that moment to let ving in on the uh prophecy that he was delivered by uh amamargani back in mccall about uh how tuck believes I can't stress this enough tuck believes that he is going to die he's gonna die for sure I'm dead I'm fucking living on borrowed time this is him in the mirror every morning you're a dead man in like the mirror shard yeah oh man he stopped brushing his teeth like a month ago yeah that's a shaved sense I gotta save every second of time I have left yeah that's why he's doing such intense intermittent fast so he doesn't shit or eat he doesn't waste time on shitting or eating yeah he's sleeping so much less because he's like I I don't have time for this I don't have time for eight hours a night yeah he always has a little bucket of water with him just in case he sees a bush on fire you're not gonna get me like that uh and he told ving that uh tuck knows he's gonna die first and when he does uh he knows that billy will eventually forget about it and he's gonna die first and when he does uh he knows that him and tuck asked ving when billy forgets me let him forget me oh my god so sad uh and then spotted on the horizon billy saw smoke rising into the air and we came upon a ruined and smoldering collection of wooden buildings village is maybe a strong word for what you found on a little rock in the ocean oleander said hey maybe we should stop they might have useful supplies that we could scavenge and went ashore with maggie corrine and ving ving found uh bodies under the snow evidence of a battle and human bodies holding weapons that seem to die in defense of whatever this little outpost is and the bodies of two seals one leopard seal and one sea lion and the tracks of one gigantic sea mammalian of some kind descending towards the water uh transitioning into human footsteps and as billy and tuck were watching from the vessel horns sounded in the fog and that is where we find our heroes now and then tuck yells from the from the vessel to the shore did you did you guys hear the horns that came out of the fog uh yeah ollie like everybody on this island heard it too they all look towards the fog and then tuck yells from the from the vessel to the shore and then billy and tuck were watching from the north and ollie's like oh we should go we should get out of here okay uh uh see if you can grab anything grab it but we we got to go now I grabbed some weapons a spear uh yeah you found whatever weapons the the uh the animals are holding uh the animals aren't holding any weapons the humans have like swords and hatchets ving is trying to saw off a tusk as fast as you can go anywhere go anywhere go anywhere!

Go anywhere We are talking about a leopard seal and a sea lion, so they don't have any tusks. Hey, these ones do. Oh, yeah. A lot of marine mammals have, because remember the orcas? They had tusks. Because we said they were like orcs. Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah. Let's say the sea lion does have bottom jaw tusks. Oh, yeah. Two jutting tusks. Okay. But yeah, they kind of hurry back to the boat.

And Ollie's like, yeah, I don't know if whoever did this is going to come back, but we should probably just get on the boat and figure out what we're going to do. Okay. And yeah, a few minutes later, you climb back up on the deck of the Sunrunner. What do you find? Just this. I hold the tusk to Billy. And some footprints. I don't know. It looks like a druid attack. There's a bunch of dead people, some dead animals. It's horrible.

I mean, and then he looks at Tuck and he's like, no, we didn't really find anything. He accidentally told Billy the traumatic thing. Yeah, it was mostly that they were having a meeting. Tuck's like, what the fuck are you doing? What are you doing, dude? Oh, fuck. I did it again, didn't I? So what were the horns? Does anybody, has anyone heard that before? Olyander, what was that? Oh, I've heard. I've heard. I've heard those horns before. What are they?

I've never seen what actually makes the sound. Can we Spout Lore for it or anything? 2d6 plus intelligence. Oh, Jesus. 11. Just saw us on. Whoa. Astounding. Zero intelligence. And you keep trying to get us to level up. Oh, my God. You are intelligent. Like, clearly, I don't need it. Yeah, you guys, currently, you already succeed at an average of at least one Spout Lore per season. So why would you update your intelligence at all? Okay, so interesting and useful.

So Olyander says, yeah, I mean, I've heard that the horns have been heard in relation to attacks like this. You know, the sinking of ships, the attacking of outposts. There seems to be, from what I understand, some kind of line in the area that people don't cross. If there are vessels that are found past that line, they might get attacked. If there are outposts or villages that are built above that line, they might get attacked.

It just seems that something or someone doesn't want people living or traveling through this area. Where's the line? I guess it's there. He points at the smoldering village. And Maggie. Maggie. Maggie says, I have heard stories of people, beings, creatures living in the fog. I mean, people call them selkies. Some kind of melding of human and sea life. And they're vicious. They're fishes? They're fishes? Vicious. Oh, vicious. Sorry, I can't understand your accent sometimes.

Well, we better not take any of these selfies then. How many keys do they sell on an average day? I'm going to go look and see. Sorry. If I can see anything. Maggie, no way. I'm sorry. We use humor as a form of diffusing tense situations. I understand. I understand. Yeah. So Maggie tells you, yeah, that there are stories about people called selkies living in the gray, which is what I've decided to call this area of fog. So sick. And that they are known for being pretty vicious. Hmm.

And Oleander adds, yeah. And I mean, it sounds like, like you've heard of the black ships, right? No. Black long ships in the fog. Yeah. Stories. Anybody that's ever seen them. Few people have survived. I, you maybe catch a glimpse. I caught a glimpse of one once, but I was able to outrun it. Thankfully. What? How? Well, and he kind of pats the wheel of the sun runner. He goes, I don't envy anyone in a slower boat, which is most people. You know what I mean? Can I Spout Lore on the black ships?

Yeah. Or the selkies? Yeah. Yeah. Use one black ships. Okay. I think I would know more about the black ships. You actually, uh, created them. Hmm. You Abdul came up with this idea. What a talented man. I am 26 plus intelligence. Talented amnesiac. I appear to be, and that's a force. So I want it. I can't wait to hear. Yeah. Tell me about these boats. Also mark some experience. Oh, yeah. Point of experience. And tell us what Tuck knows about the boats. Don't make it.

I make it a thing that he, he thinks is true. Uh, talk. Thinks that these boats are commercial cruise liners. Okay. Comedians in McCall go and work on. Yeah. I was thinking something more like he thinks they're ghost ships or, uh, Oh, or does he think they're commercial cruise line? No. Okay. So like the stories that he's been told about them or like, or the, the albums that he's listened to that have like references to the black ships in the gray is an album called the black ships in the gray.

Uh, I realized as you said that the sentence you said was really cool. Yeah. That's what the, that's the title. Uh, but it says that they are, that they're giants, like that they're the remnants of the giants, the ones that escaped the transformation into the Orica and kind of like left the nation of McCall. They moved to where the divine flame of the Lord of the flame couldn't touch them. And they stayed kind of on the water. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

They stayed on the water forever because the Lord of the flame couldn't kind of reach them there in the fog because there's like water in the air. So they kind of mitigated the transformation by staying in, in the gray. Um, and that the ships are like their nation essentially. Uh, and Kareem, uh, nods cause that's a story that she's been told as well. She's like, yeah, that's, that's what I've heard of them.

Uh, yeah, she's, she's, she's been very quiet, uh, during this journey, but she co-signs this story that tuck tells tuck fist bumps her. She thinks about it. She starts to put her fist out and then she pulls it back and then tuck goes, his fingers around, wiggles his fingers. Like he didn't do anything. He didn't mean to. Uh, yeah. So that's what you learn. I'm sorry. Are we in danger now? These horns getting closer to us. Should we set sail? Yeah. Can we just like go really fast?

Like rip ass through the gray. All right. And he rubs his hands together. Let's, uh, set sail. Let's do it. I'll keep an eye out for the pretty fishes. Keep an eye out for threats, Billy. Okay. Uh, and we're going to, uh, undertake a perilous journey. Okay. Ving's going to start stockpiling arrowheads along the sides. Oh, smart. Oh my gosh. And arrow shafts and bows. The whole thing. After like an hour. Shit. Okay. Uh, okay. So somebody, he's got to scout ahead and someone's got to navigate.

I'll help navigate. Okay. This time. Who's going to scout? I could scout. Okay. Can we change the quarter master role to like Ving getting weapons ready just in case there is an invade, an incursion? Yeah, sure. Armor master. There's a move called stay sharp. That is like when you're on watch and something approaches, uh, so that we could use that as kind of like how prepared you are for something to happen. Great. So stay sharp is, uh, two D six plus wisdom.

We'll do scout ahead first cause we might have to roll a bunch of shit. Yeah. Ooh, uh, eight. Okay. So you get one from the list below, get the drop on whatever lies ahead. Discern a beneficial aspect of the terrain. Make a capital D discovery. Notice sign of a capital D danger. Uh, get the drop on what's ahead. Okay, cool. So we'll figure out what might be ahead after we roll navigate. So that's two D six plus intelligence. Yeah. So tuck is helping Oleander with the maps. Five.

Uh, uh, excellent. And text job was to just like hold the map down. Well, cause the sun runner is going fast. The wind is blowing really hard and his job was to hold the map down while Oleander looked at it. Uh, uh, okay. And the map just like flies off. Uh, okay. Yeah. So you, yeah, go ahead and roll two D six plus wisdom for stay sharp. Okay. Uh, uh, uh, uh, eight, eight. Uh, so on a seven to nine, you managed to sound the alarm, but no one has time to prepare.

So that is, if something approaches, uh, which it very well may, you won't have time to prepare for it. Okay. Um, so yeah, you set sail and pick up speed as you approach the like towering wall of fog that marks the edge of the gray. Uh, and you know, when you're walking through mist and it's not like you see a wall and you walk into the wall, it just kind of becomes misty around you. Uh, the gray is different. You pass through a wall, like a veil of fog and then it's just gray and cold inside.

Cool. Immediately feel chilly. Yeah. And you make pretty good time for a while, but eventually you notice that the sails start like billowing and flapping and the wind starts to die down. And then eventually it's totally still. No. And the boat, the sun runner just kind of drifts to a halt and starts kind of bobbing in the water. Can we row? Do you have oars? Uh, yeah, we got oars below deck. We could try and row. Row. Row. To the oars. I, I scurry down the steps to the deck below. Yeah.

To the row deck. I, I scurry behind Billy. And Billy, you see rows and rows of oars that are so much bigger than you for sure. Oh boy. All right. I will take the smallest one. A ladle. Yeah. Just a little ladle that you poke out the window. I'm helping. I, my rowing tactic is Billy's like jumping up and down sort of like a seesaw. Oh, cool. That's pretty good. Great. It's kind of helping. I'm just slapping the water. Yeah.

And tuck sits kind of in the middle of the vessel and grabs an oar on either side of him and just starts hammering it. Yeah. Yeah. Jolts the boat forward. Every time he rows it like, it's like, like a cartoon character. Uh, okay, great. So, so Ollie gets you guys to the rowers to make a steady, like, this is not a time to, you would never be able to row fast enough to outrun anything. So it's just about being able to move for as long as possible right now.

But everyone above deck is just looking out into the fog. It's weirdly quiet. Yeah. Even the sound, even the sound of the oars touching the water, the sounds muffled and something begins to take shape. And the fog and drifting closer to you resolving into a clear image is what looks to be a small two seater dinghy with no one in it. And then another one and then a slightly larger vessel. And there's just dozens and dozens of empty boats drifting out of the fog. Whoa. There's too many of them.

And they just begin to float past you. Float past you. Completely devoid of life. Oh, that's so eerie. Yeah. I'm going to jump down into one overboard into a boat. Okay. Yeah, you absolutely can. I'm going to check it out. Yeah. Defy danger dexterity. Seven. So yeah, you jump down into one of these boats. Vings says, I'll be right back. And then steps up on the thing and jumps without looking down. The boat rocks pretty hard. No oars or anything in here.

No real damage that you can see, but certainly a significant amount of dried blood. Oh, yikes. Fuck. Hmm. Yeah, it's blood. I think comes up on deck looking off. That's definitely blood. Uh, yeah. So these boats just sail by like a black parade. Is there, is there more and more of them as we go further and further in? I think there is enough that you lose count, but you do eventually come to like the edge of this fleet, this barren fleet.

As it drifts back into the fog behind you and disappears from view. Oh, okay. Totally normal. All he says, nothing to worry about. Billy's back up on the top deck after hearing all the ruckus. Um, can I use trap expert? Oh, oh yeah. Good idea. Okay. Sick. 12. Fuck. So on a 10 plus, I get three questions. All three. Okay. So if, is there a trap? And if so, what activates it? Yes, there is. Certainly. There is a trap in the sense of danger, uh, that you might not be able to recognize.

Billy, you are feeling a lot of sensations that other people don't usually pick up. And you're realizing that this fog is not ordinary fog. Something about this fog shifts and moves the place around you in an unnatural way. Like the landscape? Yeah. Like this, like going forward in this fog might not be the same as going forward on the open sea. The fog itself is dangerous. What does the trap do when activated? You think that if you were to get sufficiently lost in here, you would stay lost.

What else is hidden here? Just as the, like you're following the boats as they're starting to drift by, like Billy's walking down the deck and you see just as the, uh, as they're about to get into the fog proper behind you, you see one of them rock, uh, as a person like grips to the side and like hoists themselves up out of the bottom of one of the smaller boats. Look, look, look, Bing, Oleander. They start to wave their arm. Um, can I like use my Bill noculars to look closer? Yeah.

It looks like a, like a young, like maybe teenage girl, like a teen really like emaciated looks really, uh, pale kind of grayish complexion, almost long stringy blonde hair, just exhausted sunken eyes. Looks very weak. Like she's been without food or nourishment or medical care for a long time. Do I roll or anything to look close? Yeah, you can roll to certain realities if you want. Sure. Yeah. 10. Billy's knocking it out of the park right now. Yeah. Billy's on high alert. Yeah.

I think because like, so I think because we're so close to hibernia and like this area, Billy's getting a lot of like, it's almost like he's in a different, you know, like a radio station. Like you're almost like tuned in differently. So that's why he like feels the fog different. Like he, he feels like a buzzy electric feeling of sort of ringing. Everything's clear and crisper. Yeah. Yeah. Closer to the homeland. Yeah, totally. The fairy blood is strong here.

He's got a bag of those crystals too. Yeah. He's got the crystal bagels. What's wrong with me? Where did that even come from? I think I was thinking about Billy looking at the menu. I was like at the bottom of the burger is the bagel. Crystal bagels. Okay. He's got the bag of crystals. There we go. I see. Okay. You get three questions off to certain realities. What here is not what it appears to be. Hmm.

I think the way that she is waving at you is vigorous in a way that you would not expect somebody that looks that unhealthy to be able to wave. Okay. But maybe it's just a, I'm on my last legs. I need to give everything I can to try and get to try and get somebody's attention sort of thing. Who is really in control here?

So you're looking closer at her as she bobs around this boat and then you see another boat a little further away rock and a pair of eyes peek up over the side of that boat as well. Like a similar human, not an identical one, but another like young lean human form. Yikes. Okay. What happened here recently? Pure massacre. Okay. So the, the girl that you were watching wave at you seems to notice that the waving is not the same as the one that you were watching. Okay.

So you're looking at her and you're like, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Oh, Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh god like an old man and a younger man sit up in another boat what is are these zombies and they're just drifting more and more people appear in the boats as they continue to drift off into the fog all of them begin waving at you trying to get your attention gesturing you closer don't look at them don't look at them I wave no don't thing stop and the the woman holding the baby sees ving waving and beckons him closer I want to go no I grab things uh legs roll a defy danger wisdom thing eight yeah you really these people need help billy grabs a rope from the deck and he's he's tying it around things legs okay trying to tie him up basically yeah defy danger dexterity seven thing billy starts wrapping you up in a rope first you're like legs and then you know once he gets a hand he's trying to like get your hand attached to your leg yeah they'll need a rope to help get the boats back to this boat that's a good idea billy thank you tuck billy's trying to stop ving from seemingly jumping overboard yeah I've been rowing this whole time right and I hear I hear them struggling on the top deck you hear maggie going like what are you doing I'm like every ollie's like no get back get away from the side so I kind of I let the oars go and we slow down a little bit because I've been doing I've been doing yeah I look back and everyone is the dog behind me just talking they left you're the only ruler and uh I run upstairs and I see billy and and like basically fighting ving on the deck and you see other crew people along the sides like looking at these people that are gesturing them forward one person full-on goes over the side of the boat splashes into the water and starts swimming towards and tuck knows exactly what's going on he takes two of ving's flaps rips them off and then stuffs them in his ears and starts doing the wink blink uh can I roll for that uh yeah roll a defy danger wisdom okay zero wisdom seven seven nice uh whatever you're doing it's working it's definitely the wink blink that's helping you right now for sure and but and the kind of the the partial successes that I've had in the past is that I've been doing a lot of the work that I've been doing and I've have limited visibility half of the time and ollie sees you doing that he's like what are you doing and I'm like you too ollie billy's like yelling at tuck like grab everyone else off the deck take them down and tuck starts like anyone that's like gonna jump off the boat he's like smack him in the face really hard okay defy danger strength for that yeah 12 yeah you're in the middle of the boat and you're like oh my god I'm gonna jump off the boat you're able to grab like a bunch of people that are trying to dive over the side to go help these people something that you real that you notice as people uh are being pulled away they don't seem to be reacting the way that you recall reacting to the mermaids so they're not getting hard there's almost no they're not getting hard there's like nobody getting hard or wet on this deck at all right now um but billy thing is uh really like starting to gather up the rope and it's like thanks a lot oh no um ving what are you doing billy is trying to give you a rope so you can get something to help these people yeah I'm saying I'm laying I know it's okay I'm reaching for there's my harpoons nearby I'm gonna harpoon the lead boat and then start drawing it back in all right uh give me a defy danger dexterity for that throw I got 10 holy shit so you're still kind of tied up around your leg you're still kind of tied up around your leg I'm tying I'm tying the rope to the end of the harpoon yeah you're not able to get all of the rope for sure like billy still has you kind of restrained at least around the leg zone uh and you whip your harpoon out as hard as you can and it sails through the air above the water as the boats are drifting away I should say you're at the back of the boat and they're drifting past you so this is more of a back boat than lead boat and you hit the wood of a small rowboat without oars and a middle-aged man who is uh seems to be missing like a chunk of his side is like oh and he grabs the rope and he starts oh man pulling in towards the boat I've got the waning knife on me and I cut the rope yeah snaps right through it what are you doing I'm I'm helping uh vings harpoon begins to drift away on the boat uh the rope hits the water and starts trailing through oh shit is that a spear that's on that yeah that's his that's the spear yeah that's his harpoon fuck oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ving jumps in the water swims for the end of the rope and I'm just gonna go get that lead rope and bring it back to the ship with my speed belly uh yeah I know you're trying to help but that's not helping defy danger dexterity for this dive uh nine so you dive off the back of the sun runner a beautiful swan dive your arms thrown out to the side uh peeking as you hit the water and just before I go into the water they go back to my side and I'm like oh my god I'm so scared I'm so scared I'm so scared I'm so scared I'm so scared and I land face first first right a big mouthful of uh ice cold seawater and something about the like bracing shocking abrupt cold of the water shakes your mind loose for a moment oh yeah it doesn't work underwater and underneath the water just below the surface kind of drifting down into the dark you see hundreds of bodies whoa and they're all like following the boats as they drift away what the heck and then goes he realizes what's going on yeah so you you break the surface and the ropes right there your harpoon is attached to the boat but um I grab it you could probably like with the rope you could probably yank it loose if you wanted to you think so I'm gonna try and yank it loose then yeah you grab the rope and just defy danger strength oh my god rip it out okay six six um I I I throw the rope overboard for ving 2d6 plus bond 12 great yeah so um you grab onto the rope and you can't quite get like the purchase kind of just floating in the water and the other end of the rope lands next to you and with that like against the weight of the boat yeah you're able to pop it loose and it comes flying at my face yeah roll a defy danger dexterity to not get smoked by your own harpoon uh seven okay um you can yank it really fast and get hit but get your harpoon or you can yank it a little bit slower and give whatever's on that boat the opportunity to grab on as well I'm gonna get hit okay roll your damage die so a d6 two yeah your harpoon comes back and nicks your cheek but it's not enough to seriously wound you just to kind of freak you out and now you're being pulled behind the sunrunner as this thing reaches out to you uh maggie and I are hauling the rope up trying to pull ving back on board yeah maggie's got it like billy you're helping for sure helping she's doing this beside her yeah hand over hand but uh yeah maggie's like corded shoulders you could just she's reeling it in like a fishing rod um ving as you're being pulled you're like watching the boats drift away and you see one of the crewmen that swam towards the dock get like helped up into one of the boats and like a woman in her early 20s in a in a bonnet and a dress like really weird old clothing uh sits him down in the boat and pats his shoulder and he's like oh my god I'm so scared I'm so scared I'm so shoulders and he like just sits there placidly as the boat drifts away whoa can I Spout Lore about what's going on here yeah totally here we go wink blink do not fail so I got six so I could use an eight I'll eight I'm in the water I saw everything underneath the water I saw a bunch yeah nice nine sick so that makes it a seven uh you've heard stories thing you've heard them too about lost fleets for lack of a better like the boats are definitely not fleet worthy necessarily but people that have gotten lost in the fog and are spotted by sailors decades later or people that go missing and then stories about them are told by people way older that match descriptions or people that have ships that have been sunk in their crew have been seen drifting through the the water the prevailing theory is that they're the souls of people that have died but haven't been able to pass on because they remain lost in the gray whoa what what that means actually metaphysically in our world who knows if people have souls but uh the yeah the idea is that they're ghosts for lack of a better term this is a ghost fleet maybe ving was like subject to it because he's kind of like finding himself again hmm feeling a little unmoored yeah who he is well in the the pull of the moon too like that out of body yeah essence so the idea is that they just want help finding their way home so they try and attract people that might be able to get them there are they like evil or harmful uh harmful but not evil okay like that guy will probably be fine right they're not gonna eat his brains or anything right I don't know no yeah they're that is one thing is they're definitely not known to physically attack or kill people they just try and like lure them in and ask their help and most people that get that close agree and they're never seen again because no one can actually help yeah they're just gonna be lost forever is this related at all to mother never was in her army of has-beens and like could bees and stuff I would say not necessarily I think this is kind of a new sort of thing okay we're seeing like I think this is these are ghosts whoa yeah that's what tux says he's like guys I think these are ghosts you can stop doing that now so yeah so maggie reaches up and pulls one of your plugs out of your ear I said I think they're ghosts yeah what are you doing with these I was doing the wink blink what's the wink blink it's a way to keep mermaids from like getting you so horny that you jump into the water with them it actually works I believe it honestly if you only open one eye at a time and you block your ears you can't hear their beautiful song and you can't see their beautiful tits that much uh ollie's like great well now that we've got that out of the way I'm like you're you're treating me like I'm some kind of idiot but one day the wink blink will save your life yeah okay mermaids yeah sure if I ever see a mermaid I'll let you know he's also writing it down yeah wink blink don't look at it um yeah so all that is really well all that really remains is to continue I'd say it's getting kind of late so we might want to do like the camp moves basically okay make camp you know set a watch that kind of thing make camp when you settle into rest choose one member of the party to manage provisions which is the food thing that we're going to do then if you eat and drink you and you have enough xp you can leave the room and you can go to bed and you can go to bed and you can go to bed and level up and then I'll choose one person to roll a flat roll and that will determine how this evening goes so who's going to manage provisions I mean narratively billy's all over the food okay so manage provisions is 2d6 plus wisdom okay 12 of course I did a really good job I even organized all the food in like kind of a sandwich form like themes of food are all stacked up nicely okay well on a 10 plus you choose one from the list below careful management reduces the amount of rations consumed or the party consumes the expected amount of food you prepare and it is excellent describe it and everyone who licks their lips takes plus one forward okay so the food I I choose the second one obviously and everyone eats a regular amount I billy makes like pirate food which is just like a lot of beef jerky and lime wedges bread of sorts that he smeared with cheese of sorts some cheese um and and he decorated it with a bunch of clam shells that he still had and yeah um billy opened up one of the jars of wapple jelly whoa oh okay I need people lick their lips I billy says this yeah it's like you don't even appreciate what I mean he has to reveal his lips this is entrancing this looks like the sea singer like I know we should be taking a picture of this or something for content but I can't look away all right okay all right so you get plus one forward and you get plus one back so you get plus one back so you get plus one back so you get plus unfortunately I wish I could take it away it looks so disgusting uh paul how did how what does ving feel about this food oh ving loves it the jelly is such a perfect sweetness after that smeared hard cheese and the hard tack yep I don't think it was supposed to be hard but great job saving some stale bread beautiful and there we go and uh the cheese that he he put he smeared on the bread while delicious and soft and extremely aged uh tuck is looking at a pile of uh mouse traps that billy emptied in the bottle and he's like where do all these mouse traps come from we don't have any mice so like they're not gonna eat it his fingers have bandages on them dangerous there has to be a better way he was just triggering didn't even consider trying to get it off without setting it off yeah his fingers are so swollen like sausages yeah yeah added respect for louise how does billy feel about this food billy feels great he's been looking at his lips the whole time you got to do it audibly the people can't see there we go so you get a plus one forward so everyone's gonna add a plus one to their next roll uh then somebody's gonna roll plus nothing who has the worst luck I think vang has the worst luck right now yeah jesus roll 2d6 and don't add anything going pretty good for me guys you just jumped into the water to try and give yourself over to a ghost fleet okay it's just when you said paul I thought it was outside of the game okay yeah 2d6 plus nothing boom nine so on a seven to nine I choose one from the list below the first one is the person on watch notices the nearby capital d discovery one party member of the gm's choice suffers a restless night one or more followers causes trouble a capital d danger approaches it's not immediately hostile but whoever's on watch it better stay sharp anyways so who is on watch right now do we think middle of the night no I I would take watch because I don't trust vang to be alone right yeah why because of the the people in the boat because you jumped in the water no I'm fine now man he's just saying looking off the back of the boat squinting I think you should go maybe like below jackson like rest how would I rest up you can rest up here okay okay tuck you're standing on watch the night is gray the sea is gray yeah the moon is a lighter gray you're standing on the deck just keeping watch normal walking around you know some people have gone to sleep they're sleeping on the deck a lot of the times um so many couches on the deck yeah one the sunrunner is quite a lot smaller than the uh than me what sorry I just had an image of like billy like the sunrunner and I'm like oh my god I'm so sorry like like burrito dub and like him rolling around on the deck as he's back and forth yeah gentle rocking it was every couple seconds he rolls through the frame uh yeah there are people sleeping on on couches on pullout couches on the top of the deck and some people blow and you see through the fog illuminated by the faint diffused moonlight uh what looks like a like a sandbar or like a bunch of like rocks coming out of the water and you look a little bit they kind of wind through the waves to your to the right hand side of the ship and you kind of follow it with your eyes and you realize there's like an island island uh over to the right in that direction oh shit yeah there's land over there ollie uh-huh there's land over there what do I say ho there's a hoe over there we should go land we should go land ho oh uh no oh is that a good idea I mean I don't know I mean maybe there's something valuable on that island billy rolls by and he's like maybe there's treasure and then rolls away or snack being standing beside you what if there's someone who needs help we're out of apple jelly this keeps rolling by and we need more bread and cheese to come to think about it you know what you guys are right what if there is something valuable on that island waffles okay we're gonna make landfall but only until things get really weird we can tolerate a little bit of weird in search of uh profit but if it gets really weird we're leaving okay we establish a marker of what really weird is out okay so like up higher in this marker if a uh an endless parade of empty boats float by with the souls of the damned inside we're gonna go all right does everybody agree with that yeah yeah okay we put our hands and then we say all this is handed one two three agree okay you guys are learning how we do it on the sun runner all right so okay how about we do it on the sun runner all right voice oh yeah yeah I'd go to pick the flower but it starts bleeding and screaming uh-huh I've been there what do you think about that is that too weird or do we still stick around my question to you is there any boats floating by with zombie people not at all my friend not that weird of a situation not that weird not that weird so we stick around if we if we come to a flower with our father's voice that screams and bleeds yeah yeah yeah okay everybody your hands in okay one two three agree okay into the sidebar what I come up to this island there is normal looking sand I step on it starts spiraling sucking me under but there's a bottom limit to which I am taller than okay a parrot comes out of my mouth speaking with my voice telling me to go in back down to the dirt where there is some pineapple jelly uh what weird or not weird uh well I mean your head is above the level of the sand right you said so you're not in mortal peril also let me ask you a question is there a parade of ghost ships floating by there is not okay I don't think that's weird okay everybody put your hands in one two three all right I mean what if we land on on the island and I'm brought back into time uh back to the the eldridge years of no longer in the sand and we're not in the sand anymore there's no land or space and my body is not my body but I am one with everything and everything speaks to me and I hear everything all at once but also never at all is that weird okay so you're you're part of everything you're seeing everything you're hearing everything but are you seeing the ghost an endless parade of souls of the damned yeah no no not that weird I don't think that's okay everybody hands in one two three agreed okay and this has been a series of scenes where I was like the first one we were on the deck and talking and the second one we were in a little dinghy going to the island and then the last one we're like on the shore just talking about and there's in the background as billy is describing being one with the universe one of the pirates is just like what the fuck he's got a hell of imagination uh it was one of the fat skinny guys yeah totally yeah the two fat and skinny yeah they're the two guys you always see yeah short and mcguire uh okay so I think maggie and kareen and perel all agree to come on the island as well so they'll be around if you need their help with anything and we literally have a single data point for what is too weird which is an empty vessel uh filled with the souls of the damned yeah black parade floating by yeah totally uh so I'm gonna be this is I'll part the veil a little bit no idea what this island's about you can explore to your heart's content uh we don't know what's on here maybe we'll find something cool maybe we decide to leave oleander wants to look around and see if there's at least uh if there is anything super valuable that they could grab okay or maybe some food the island I'm imagining is a real like gray stony island kind of covered in evergreen trees uh there are sheer rock cliffs on some sides the side that you're on is the lowest but there's probably another beach or shoreline on the other side of the island it's kind of cramped in a way there are forested areas of a rocky hill but a lot of like nooks and crannies that you could poke around in cool yeah does it seem inhabited at all any signs of other people being here let's roll it to certain realities all right does that guys you can you can re-roll re-roll the brown one that was that'd be considered a jack die snake eyes god wanted it to happen like this excellent so you plus what sorry plus intelligence plus wisdom three cool uh so ving is wandering or what was that face I had an idea for what the the consequence was but no I want to hear it uh because he you made that promise to the snakes the promise to the snakes I don't remember that when we were when we were all high on ghost route they made you promise to help them get through to this side that promise might be coming due oh whoa interesting release them on the island um!

I that's what that's why I thought of it because it was a snake oh yeah uh well I mean I kind of like the idea maybe ving you're wandering around like everybody's just kind of spreading out on the island basically to see what they can find and um you feel a concentration of spiritual energy nearby something similar to sort of the conflicts that happened on the boat but more similar to sites of significance to the druids that you felt like in the principalities like in the north or in the great forest oh shit and you follow this feeling through a copes cops whatever of fir trees and you find nestled in um like a tumble of rocks at the base of like a stony hill what looks to be a fountainhead like a spring of crystal clear water kind of bubbly up from the ground forming this like natural well in the rocks cool I want to take some put a mason jar yeah it's ice cold and feels so nice so refreshing I'm I'm very tempted to have a drink but I'm not going to oh but you should I know think of how refreshing it would be that would be great think about hydrating you know I'm gonna make billy and tuck drink some first but uh yeah there's something about this the feeling of this place that's very familiar to you and you hear in your head in your soul like kind of a hissing and then remember you promised us mufasa remember yeah you promised a promise is a promise and talk what are you up to uh I walked down to like one of the shorelines right like one of the kind of like rockier beaches on the the island and I'm looking around and uh I recognize it from the vision of lillian and chimes and rian on like a young rian on a beach oh interesting yeah from that like little secret room in the light guard fort and I recognize it because the beach looks exactly the same but like on one of the sort of like rock faces that like the beach backs onto there's like a carving that a child made with a knife of like a small like one person dinghy like it's like a kid's drawing of a boat with like the triangle sail and I remember that from the division and yeah so this something about this beach does seem very familiar and this extremely faded keep that in mind you think that this might resemble kind of the design of like how a kid would draw a boat but it might also just be cracks and worn um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um like investigate and look for like good foods and stuff in this area oh okay 11 wow okay so billy knows that you can eat these flowers because they also grow uh in the in the everwood valley they're more they grow bigger and more lush out there but they have little ones here and they kind of taste like little strawberries cool yeah very sweet um and the herbs uh it's just like an oniony kind of herb that mirrors taught him that you can eat so he's gathering those um and he's really like rummaging around the roots of these trees and it's like he hears stuff oh like it's almost like the trees are like trying to like talk to him whoa interesting cool so you do get questions from the discern realities list oh I do yeah you get three because you got an 11 wow!

Fuck yeah what here is useful or valuable to me yeah you uh it does seem like the trees are trying to speak to you this tree that you're near is trying to communicate something to you in some way you think yeah billy's not sure what it's trying to say but he does feel a weird like kind of like familiar sense um what here is not what it appears to be um you are looking around the bases of these trees you're just like oh something you this feels familiar in some way still continuing to gather your little berries and herbs and then you notice at the base of this tree it looks like something was carved into it uh and you follow that carving up and there's more carvings and more carvings and you realize that most of the trees in this little grove uh have words and runes carved into them can I read them yeah I think you can yeah so billy like find some stuff and then you're like oh my god I'm gonna go to the tree and go to the tree and go to the tree and go to the tree and go to the tree and go to the tree and go to the tree high up actually in these this tree and he realizes he's been reading like seeing so much of it he sees like tall figures like weird robes and like loose clothing and a lot of clothing that's just made from the plants here he sees like that certain plants have like uprooted themselves and and and learned to like I don't want to say like walk but like move yeah like they move and then like through their life cycles like become more humanoid oh that's really cool interesting so that's what the runes are saying to you yeah it's kind of drawing that history about it cool is this the the origins of like humanoid fairies maybe maybe like there were pieces of the land that decided to become more maybe yeah there's a part of the tree part of the tree talks of boats that arrived here carrying these taller humans oh oh taller isn't like taller than average like people now like ving size yeah like taller than billy oh interesting hmm what should I be on the lookout for now that I'm up in this tree yeah totally yeah um you are up in the tree and you get a pretty good look at the island uh and on the other side the far side of the island is a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of where everybody is like it kind of the island goes up to a peak and then drops back down to the water you see on a jutting rock over the water on the other side of the island a rough old looking uh stone tower small like a squat ish kind of round watchtower looking structure yeah crumbled like part of the top of the tower is crumbled away looks like the elements have gotten to it but there's an old structure billy feels pretty safe on this island actually um so I think he's gonna go there nice sweet cool ving these voices in your head are getting pretty insistent that you help them yeah it's the snakes isn't it he says to the voices very good thank you so how are you going to get us out of here out of my head into the world into the world baby where are you now snake babies we're in the spirit world we're nearby but we could be closer can you show yourself uh you see shimmering in the surface of the well a reflection of like two snakes coiling around each other ving puts his head down into the pool submerging his gills entering the spirit water oh it gulps into fresh air spirit air you feel uh yourself pass through the veil between the material and the spirit whoa whoa and this appears to be yeah some sort of extreme thinning and this and the snakes are like swimming around each other in the water underneath you like circling what do you want of the real world and they're like you want to know the weird thing don't even know we don't know what it's like over there we want to we want to find out we want to experience the material we want to experience real solid earth beneath our scales I mean ving's not he knows it's not a great idea these spirit snakes into the world yeah certainly not what can I give of you I can give you a taste of the real world into yours I can bring something here I can't bring you back that was not the deal yeah well it's what I got for you uh what are you offering them specifically the moon what do you mean a part of the moon spirit I can bring you part of the full moon I can bring you moon juice you looking for moon stuff I got plenty because I think I might have some of that deep inside of me a well of moon juice ving is still figuring out his new powers yeah totally he's looking at them like maybe they know about the moon juice one of them is like bro are you offering us drugs because I don't want to dmt what are you looking for you were looking for moon juice I got Moon juice, bro.

Interesting. So I guess what are you offering to do for them? Like imbue them with this moon light? Give them something of the spirit of the moon here to take back to be part of their dominion. Interesting. They can become celestial moon snakes. Holy shit. You want to be forever? Become part of the sky. Okay. Roll a 2d6 plus charisma for a parlay. Okay. 10. Whoa. Interesting. They say to each other. You were my eyes. Now see with thine own eyes. The moon juice. Okay.

You can stop trying to sell us on it. We've been sold. Okay. Okay. Cool. So you're going to make us one with the moon spirit. I guess so. What? What would that do at this point? I mean, no idea what it did do. It could be like, you know how like some animals respond to the moon, like, but snakes don't like it could like fuck with their like circadian rhythm. Makes snakes nocturnal. Yeah. Or something. Maybe it'll give them more night sight. Yeah.

It's probably going to have some interesting ramifications. There's like, it's sort of like Chinese mythology with dragons, but like there's a whole thing where it's like, you know, in architecture. They've got all these circles for the dragons to like be able to travel through. It could be a thing where it's like maybe when the moon is full, that's when the snakes can come visit like the real plane. Whoa. Yeah. And then as it like wanes, then they're sent back to the spirit world. Yeah.

I can't give you this world all the time, but when the moon is full, you can come and visit. That's fucking rad. Really sick. Yeah. Very cool. The idea that, cause we've been talking about how like the moon is different in this world. The idea that it like mediates the distance between the, like the spirit realm and the material in the material realm also like lines up with the historical precedent that like the shattering happened and then stuff collapsed. Yeah.

When I like that, it means that the light, the physical light parts of the moon are different than the dark parts of the moon too. Yeah. Different chunks falling. Mm-hmm. That's cool. Yeah, that's sweet. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. Yes. We accept. Okay. How do we do this? It's gonna get weird, bro. No. Come at me, bro. They just, you feel yourself compelled to plunge your hands into the pool as well.

Your arms getting, going deep into the, this reserve, this well of water as the two snakes coil up each of your arms basically, and just kind of spin. And then as they uncoil, they head back down your arms and they begin to glow with this like bright white brilliance. Yeah. Of the moonlight that you've come to know. Mm-hmm. The well is glowing with the light of the moon. Mm-hmm. Ooh. And they begin to swim in a circle in the well following one another, forming this like brilliant white circle.

And they carry on back down the well and disappear from sight, this light following them. Our deal is done. Thank you. He puts his hand out for a fist bump. They swim back up and they- They bop your face. Yeah. They bob your head with a fist and then they swim back down and they disappear from sight back into the spirit world. Okay. Ving just stands up, his head's like dripping, his hair just looks around. Okay, nobody saw that. There might be no ramifications.

Let's see how long I can keep this under wraps. The shot shifts to a wide of Ving just starting to run away from the beach that he's on. Two gigantic moonlit snakes chase him down the island. Tuck. What are you doing? Yeah, it cuts back to Tuck and he took the waning knife from Billy before he left the ship and you can see he went to where the carving of that little dinghy was and he retraces it and carves it back in from what he remembers from the vision in the keep.

And then next to it he carves the runic symbols of Tuck, Billy, and Ving which… Which are like an X, a Y, and an M. Just like… I don't know, he's been thinking about impermanence a lot so he's like, I'll just make this drawing last a little longer and then I'll leave a piece of myself here. Yeah. And then I guess that's it. I like it as you run your hand down the rock to kind of clear away the dust and the pebbles that got cut loose. You hear on the wind a faint chiming.

I look out to the ocean. It's clear. It's a clear, gray, dreary night. And I yell, Chimes! Chimes, is that you? No. I hear that on the wind. Chimes, who? Billy. Yeah, Billy is singing to himself. Really like jovial. Yeah. Really happy mood. Feeling energized. As he like traipses through the forest towards the tower. Mm-hmm. Did you tell anybody about the tower? Or are you just going by yourself? Nope. I just went by myself. Jesus fucking Christ. Excellent. Yeah.

And it's the closer you get, I'm going to retcon the image that how it looks a little bit. It's more, it's a lot of stacked flat stones and it's still quite tall, but it kind of forms this like beehive shape. Like it's wide at the bottom and then arcs up to like a, Oh, cool. Thinner domed top. And there's a wooden old door pressed into one side and windows, three windows kind of like this side, the back and the other side. Yeah. Pretty. Yeah.

And a little worn trail in the grass that leads from the forest up to the rock and to the tower. Um, I just walk into it. Yeah. You come inside and it is a spare and dusty old living space. Like there's a wooden table that looks like it's seen better days. A couple shelves set into the stone stacked walls with like knickknacks here and there, but it's covered in a pretty significant layer of dust. Okay. Uh, discern realities. The shelves. Yeah. Wisdom. Eight. Eight. Okay.

So you get one question. Um, what here is useful or valuable to me? You are kind of just poking around doing your usual blind kid, like fumbling around, like what's this, what's that, what's this over here. And I'm on the shelf above what looks to be like an old destroyed, like bedroll or bed, something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.. Yeah.

Corner you see a a circlet of woven sticks like small probably green branches when they were young were used to like form this kind of uh it looks like it was maybe big enough to be worn on someone's brow you're looking at it like oh cool a little little headband and then you notice in the whorls and twists and twigs and leaves uh long gone now of these uh woven branches are words in the ancient druid fairy language like the orientation of the sticks is used to write a word and it writes a name that you've seen before what is it iliana oh whoa holy fucking shit what and that's where we're gonna go next for this week I'm your game master Sean O'Hara joining me as always playing tacoma dome the barbarian abdulaziz that's fucking wild playing ving the half elf druid Paul Oppers I'm stunned playing fat billy the halfling thief jessica tie this is exciting uh thank you to uh aaron reed for our intro and outro music stuns every time thank you to all of our patreon supporters around the world supporting us on patreon at patreon.com Spout Lore or Spout Lore.com money please uh where they get access to a whole bonus rpg campaign uh monthly streams we just recently did a stream where the four of us wandered around in the woods for an hour it was a blast uh we also play fiasco every other month a good five minutes of that stream was us struggling our way up a muddy slope so donate at the ten dollar level you can see you can see it all you can see it all donated to twenty dollar levels to help us get some real hiking shoes you can get art you can get merch you can get a whole bunch of fun shit so check that out and finally thank you to you all for listening we'll see you next time and so ends the tale of adventures three who tried the best they can though dumb and scared and lost they be for times of rest in revelry and though our journey may be like a conclusion we will not leave you without a resolution return next week to hear some more whilst you commute or do your chores and for you I'd gladly spout more you