Episode 12 – The Refinery

Gather round friends, let me tell you a tale of three heroes noble and bold A brute, a druid, and a thief who is but nine years old You know them by name, you know them by deed, their quests are famously daring So here I sit, singing to you an adventure that is worth sharing Tuck is the brute, he knows not his home, he loves to sing and fight Fingers have health, he shifts his shape, and wields a spear with great might Peely's a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart Best and brightest they may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts So gather round friends, and listen close For the tale's about to start Hello everybody and welcome to Spout Lore!

I'm your host, Spout, and I'm your host, Spout. I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the barbarian Abdulaziz. He's putting on his, oh he knows that we're doing video episodes now. So he's gonna be doing visual gags. I wanna wear my sunglasses. What's up? You look so cool! Playing Ving, the half-elf druid, Paul Hoppers. No, you fucked. I'll fucking kill you, Paul. What's up, you broccoli fuck? And playing Fat Billy, the halfling thief. Jessica Tai. No!

What's going on, you chins? Grab the knife. Don't you ever touch your sunglasses again, I'll fucking kill you. He's there. I like the old Abdul. Yeah, me too, before he realized he could do visual gags for the show. Alright, when last we left our heroes, they were under ambush by mysterious archers from the marshlands and the woods surrounding their convoy. The party leapt into action. Aiding the convoy in their own special ways.

The first thing Tuck did was flip a cart that was in motion and actually made it less effective cover. Billy dashing into the undergrowth and discovered therein a man named Pan, who wears a pan flute around his neck. Leader of what we would later find to be called the Riverway Harriers. Sort of behind enemy lines, scouting and ambush group of archers. Tuck. Tuck kept trying to talk to them and just kept taking arrows in the chest over and over again.

Ving was able to dislodge some of the mechanics from the back of M4 before causing the Wormack to go on a bit of a escape rampage where it just ran off into the trees. And the fuel, which the Harriers were attempting to capture for some reason, was destroyed, dragged away by M4. But Billy was able to make contact with the Harriers. Telling them that they are- that you are the Harriers. Telling them that they are- that you are friends and allies of the Riverways and the Highspear.

Recognizing you from reports of your combat days before, they disappeared with you into the trees and escaped from the Firefield's forces. You were then taken to their camp in the woods and were offered the opportunity to help the effort by destroying a fuel refinery in the Firefields used to alchemically process coal.

And in return, I think we just asked that they- And in return, I think we just asked that they- And in return, I think we just asked that they- Spread- spread around how cool we looked while we were doing- Spread- spread around how cool we looked while we were doing- Yeah. Spread- spread around how cool we looked while we were doing- Was that what you- Yeah. I love that most of the ways that Tuck operates with people is like, just spread around something I did or said.

Spread around- Spread around- Yeah, just admit- Good stuff though this time. Just the good stuff please. You agreed? Mm-hmm. Tuck had a waking interaction with the Demon of Servitude- Mm-hmm. Inhabiting the coin in his chest before pushing that out of his mind. Traveling to the fuel refinery, the party was- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. The party was accosted by a harp snake that emerged from its invisible state. Mm-hmm. Killed it and then absolutely stripped it like an old car. Mm-hmm.

Pulled the skin off, got the vocal cords, got some scales, took some meat. This thing was just dust by the time you were done with it. Yeah. Out of respect. Out of respect. And then the party found a trail of dislodged trees and smushed underbrush finding M4, the Wormack, in the- Yeah. In a low fuel state attempting to make its way to the coal refinery and refuel. Ving spoke to M4 and offered help in the form of Hibernian water in its boiler tank.

The tank was filled with this water and seemed to give M4 a semblance of sentience for which it thanked Ving. And that is where we find our heroes now, a looming Wormack shifting foot to foot in a very human-like way looking down at all of you. What do you do? Whoa. Yes. Whoa. I'm Ving. I am M4. Can we hear it talk? Everyone in the vicinity can hear this thing talking. How is it talking? It is communicating through Ving for everyone, yeah. Okay. So it's not using the pipes or anything?

Ooh, that'd be cool. Oh, that is cooler actually. I like it. Maybe it's like, yeah, so it's kind of got like a kind of voice. Right. But that I cannot replicate. Yeah, yeah. So I will be speaking to it. Oh, that's cool. I'm Ving. I'm M4. I'm M4. I'm M4. I'm M4. I'm M4. I'm M4. I'm M4. But that I cannot replicate. Yeah, yeah. So I will be speaking like a human being. Mm. But so everyone is like backing up. The Harriers are backing up. They're knocking arrows. Stand down friends. This is not.

What do you think? What do you appears to be? Can we find out stuff from M4? Oh. Like where it's bases? I mean, yeah, you can definitely talk to it if you want. And he's just been born basically. Kind of, yeah. He's like a little baby. Yeah, he might not actually have much information. But you said before they had a… Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like if a calculator became sentient, would it remember all the numbers it's processed? I think it would. It has like a…

It has a memory function. Probably has a limited… Whoa. Yeah. That's actually, no, that's exactly what I was thinking. Holy shit, Jessica. Shit. No, you're… Calculator expert. Calculator expert. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You're totally right though I think that it does have like I bet inside there's like a weird little kind of abacus thing not abacus but you know like a little switchboard that like does keep track of information card yeah like a card oh yeah yeah because it's kind of card punch and like steam technology kind of existed sort of at the same time yeah maybe it's got like little it's got like a when you load one of these things up you like load a stack of like punch cards and then it is like tracking stuff inside but they are not paper they're like solid like ceramic discs because it's meant to route steam in different ways so it can't be like a thing that would break down yeah that's cool that's really cool and it's ceramic so it can like withstand like the high pressure and heat that exists inside of its like mechanical brain that's sick yeah very cool how are you feeling um and I think I think he does say um there's like a hoot as he goes um I feel a where and it's like spinning its head around like looking into the trees bending down looking at you looking at like the big hammer on one of its hands where am I where are we and tuck moves forward and he's taking off his backpack and he's he has a music bottle in his hand that he was about to and he's like we're in the firefields principalities he reaches down after tuck responds to him and grabs tuck around the torso and lifts him lifts you up to the fire to his face and hoots what am I and then tuck uh fuck what do I what's the answer here you play the you play the music and go your metal is fucked oh yeah that's what tuck does yeah tuck takes the the bottle that's in his hand and he says that he goes your fucking metal is fuck and then he plays a licensed song yeah he plays iron man by black sabbath yeah right but the fantasy version yeah which is iron man by african-american sabbath great great we're really pushing ourselves with the world building today an african our world yeah go ahead and roll 2d6 plus charisma yeah stop that this is what we get for stalling we allowed sean to make eye contact with a duel while we did that I didn't have ideas I know and look at where we are here we go not that I'm not into it I'm trying I think what I'm trying to do is like based on like what we learned about them last time they like sing as they walk and then they communicated their emotions through songs so like there was like a song of sadness and then like there was like they could communicate with each other over long distances through songs so I I think tuck intrinsically not intellectually in any way he's like they like music yeah totally that doesn't make sense so he yeah he rummaged around and then he's like I don't know what to do I don't know what to do I don't know what to do I don't know what to do I don't know what to do I don't know what to do I don't know what to do I don't know what to do music bottles he stole and like pulled the most metal ones that's a four uh and that's a two plus charisma is nine how are you waiting uh ving you know like when a parent has a song with the kids like you are iron man I got 11 holy shit you can say whatever you want with those dice yeah nobody can see them oh yeah we all have glasses great so with a tent you know the music is playing and uh m4 is staring at you and listening to the music and then you can hear like as like his burner starts going and he starts like like he's playing the song back to you and then puts you down and then tuck goes this song's about knowing what you are I am metal as fuck he kind of like boom like claps the the hammer hand in his open hand you are whatever you want to be what does it mean to be metal as fuck it means you don't let anyone fucking tell you what to do then I'm not metal as fuck fuck you that's metal as fuck yeah metal as fuck what what are you I'm not metal as fuck I'm not metal as fuck I'm not metal as fuck I'm like focus fuck uh pan steps forward and yeah I think he does like a little like uh fucking willy wonka when he's uh summoning the the and m4 kind of plays the song back to pan as well I like that he mimics I like yeah and he's in learning mode yeah he's trying to figure out what's going on yeah and pan says to m4 we are warriors and we have a mission will you join us on this mission please please please please please please please please join us is billy begging yeah he's he's kind of like sidled up next to pan he's like please m4 please please join us for this fun journey yeah you can go ahead and roll charisma yes pan obviously can't roll charisma so he's a white guy with droids eight yes that's a that's a partial success yeah you oh you could offer you could offer him the coal that's at the refinery I mean if you're hungry we're heading to to the refinery right now I do require fuel I will come for the fuel your mission means nothing to me that's metal as fuck it's metal as fuck dude I will lead the way holy shit do we have another victor and it took us hey crazy question but how would you feel about being renamed like black spire too crazy but blue sky what do you think of that kind of thing from your perspective this is getting me out of nowhere what you say like oh how would you think just thinking of a name off the top of my head not related to anything else black spire too maybe uh and m4's head spins around as he's starting to walk away and he goes no one tells me what to do oh shit we're not no oh why go ahead go ahead and roll to what to name him black spire too I guess I failed did you fail I got four what was I rolling plus I guess it would be plus charisma seven yeah god damn it I wanted that point I will consider this name a good name pretty cool it seems contextless to me two suggests an iteration upon what it iterates I'm not sure a woman a woman So I'm better than Black Spire 1.

Black Spire 1 is inferior to me. Are you going to let him talk about Black Spire like that? I don't know. No, no, no. You're just different. I can choose my own name. M4 is not predetermined. That was your name given to you by another. Do you have a name that sings inside of you? A name that sings within me are many songs. A chorus inside. Oh, cool. I will sing my song of vengeance upon the people that wronged me. Whoa. But first, I'm hungry. Okay. I will lead the way.

Can I ride on your shoulder? I suppose. To climb up. I'll roll for that. You do not have to roll. No, absolutely not. I succeed. It doesn't matter. You can roll. I genuinely sighed. I don't know. I'll check the tape, but I don't know if I… The last time I went… I jump on a hammock on his back. Yeah, I climb up the little ladder up his leg. And some of the Harriers climb up, like Pan climbs up there with you to survey things, and the other Harriers spread out in the trees.

So I think with his long strides, around an hour, maybe less, of travel, the sun is starting to filter through the dense trees. Blades of sunlight sort of casting through the trees and on the grasses. The songbirds of the evening. Oh, yes. In the trees as we walk by, and then he's mimicking in his… Yeah. Do-do-do-de-de-de-do-do-do-do. And you come to the edge of the trees, and M4 is just stomping along. So if nobody stops him, he's just going to walk right out of the trees.

Do we lose cover outside of the trees? You would have less cover outside the trees for sure. You don't know what's on the other side. Okay. Hold. Boom. Stops. I think we need to see what's on the other side. Very well. He says pretty loud. Quiet, quiet, quiet. Speak softer. Use less steam. Very well. Go. I'm having trouble modulating my voice with my steam. Go and look outside. I will remain here. Okay. Okay. Should we discern realities? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You get it. Okay. Okay.

2d6 plus wisdom. Holy shit. Okay. Wow. So that's three questions off the discern realities list. I see everything. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. What here is useful or valuable to us? Great. So you get to the edge of the trees, and it's a pretty sharp delineation. Like the forest ends when you get to this point, at least this part of the forest. And I think before you is like a wide distance of rolling bog and greenery, like not a lot of plants on this sort of area.

There's a road that travels right to left and past that road, you can see buildings and smokestacks and a rocky hillside that looks like it's been dug into. This is very likely the refinery. There's a wall that surrounds the part of the refinery that isn't mountain. And then there's a big gate that looks like it has guards on posts on either side. Okay. What should I be on the lookout for? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Oh.

You're like oh yeah if we went around like if we went further south in the trees and then like went around the hillside we could potentially get up and over it would be a little risky to get that far but then you wouldn't have to deal with like the gate and the guards so if we went around we could like scale down from the cliff that's behind it exactly yeah but it would be a bit more of a process because you would be like climbing a rocky hillside and then trying to climb back down what's about to happen uh it looks like you are watching and there's like a bunch of shouting and there's like a clink clink clink clink clink as like the gate starts to swing aside and it looks like they're preparing a convoy like a shipment of coal is about to leave oh so maybe we could hit the shipment instead of the factory I think we don't we want to destroy the factory but we need the shipment before we can to power up oh right yeah okay that's a good idea yeah we'll let them come to us that's smart we'll intercept them on the road eat up all those coal nugs yeah charge the gate yeah let's not do the thing where we climb up and then scale down yeah I think so it doesn't seem like your style but I thought you'd like to know yeah yeah yeah we have a buick now oh yeah see and you share this information with pan who's watching yeah yeah and pan's like what we ambush the cart here or further down the road let's go further down the road I actually think I can distract them because I'm still dressed in this gimp outfit perfect yeah perfect yeah you guys just have to rough it up I got up oh ving's still dressed like a mechanic and we have the mech yeah yeah oh yeah I think it's worth trying we'll pretend we'll use our because you're still dressed in that white tunic yeah yeah we actually might not need to charge the gate then we could just pretend that oh yeah you're all in disguise yeah and you have a mac yeah yeah we almost that up so hard I guess you could just try to sneak in and you basically say this as pan is about to leave like wait wait wait wait wait why don't we just sneak in he's like oh I mean yeah I guess we could oh I know the harriers and I will go up and around the cliff smart oh sneaking from the back from two sides yeah so they're gonna try and they'll wait basically until you get a signal or they get a signal and then they'll attack and we'll we'll sneak in and see if we can collect any information because ultimately we still want to like kill cole and black hammer right yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah if there's any info we can gather about him or callum or what the the gibbous man is doing here we'll do that and then we'll blow the whole thing up cool and then pans disappears into the trees yeah we're telling us to m4 too oh yeah sounds good m4 is like wait you're going to destroy my food factory I want to eat all that stuff you can eat it first and then we'll it up you know what I've been thinking about how I get to choose my own name I think I like m4 more actually yeah yeah are you okay buddy I'm just trying to be quiet it's hard when all your vocal cords are pipes okay so you three are gonna sneak in that's the plan yes or like hey we're here for maintenance or whatever yeah great tuck wants to make himself look up like he got beaten up are you whoa wait why He's got one in the chamber with the cracking.

That's impressive. It's so tense. Wait, so your plan is you're going to be beat up. Yeah. Why? Oh, to say you need a medic at the base. Yeah. Pretend we got attacked and we're the only ones that are left. Yeah, pretend I'm dead. And then Doug picks up a knife. No, no, no. This side. He's like, there. It looks really bad. It hurts a lot, too. Oh, God, your pancreas is right there. You could have hit it. And Billy is a little boy that came along that was rescued, I guess. Yeah.

He's still covered in blood, actually, from the snake. So he's like. Your arms all ripped up. Yeah, my arms ripped up. And I say, my costume's done. He's kind of wobbling back and forth from blood loss. Yeah, kind of gray. Do I need to look fucked up? What more should I do to my costume? He looks at Tegas. Slap me. Slap me. Slap me. Slap me. Teg winds up and tries to hit Tegas hard. Then you're going to roll damage. You're not rolling. I'm so scared. He's not trying to stop you from hitting him.

You don't have to roll. Okay. You're just going to roll damage. Okay. You're deciding to roll damage right now. I think that Bing and Tegas have been fighting. Some stuff coming. All right, roll it. Maybe the leather suits are making us grumpy. Yeah. Yeah, you're really uncomfortable. It's not breathable at all. Some, like, domestics brewing. I've been listening to a lot of episodes, and it's bubbling. Yeah. Six. So, yeah, six damage. Shit. Crack. Damn. Black eye, bloody lip. Yeah, perfect.

Sick. There you go. Great. I put some coal on my face. It's coal dust. You also can't wear masks. I don't know why. I put the mask on. Perfect. Now it's believable. No one would have believed that. It's taped with nothing. So, I think from here, you're able to… Load up and just walk M4 out of the trees. Yeah, and we talk to M4, we tell him it's a subterfuge plan now. Very well. Can you carry me like I'm, like, dead? Sure. Or, like, dying?

And he just grabs you around the chest and kind of carries you like a limp doll. And I go limp. Do you remember how it felt before you remember what it felt like? There's like a… Of course. We need you to act like that now. To get inside. To bring it down. To get enough food. You get it, RollerCrisp. Remember for this. Can you act like other people are in charge of you for a little bit longer? Eight. I will do this until I have reason not to. Fair enough.

And he kind of, like, shifts and becomes very rigid in his movements. Thank you. And you can walk him out of the trees. Yeah. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. And you hear, like, shouting and you see the guards, like, pointing as you stomp towards the… Help us! I'm dying! I need medical help! And Tech goes, Knife. Some dildo slapped me! And as you stomp across the grasslands towards the refinery, you see the scale of this place.

There are several larger buildings that you can see over the walls with smokestacks chugging along and you can see, like, winding a little bit up the hill. There's a variety of trails that have, like, different mouths to different entrances into the hillside. Mm-hmm. Cart tracks and carts winding everywhere. Exactly. There's lots of, like, chug-chug-chug-chug-chug, like, things moving down tracks.

They've got those, like, mechanized conveyor belts that, like, carry coal up and, like, pour it into a giant pile. Totally, yeah. And as you approach, a few people run out of the gates to come and get you. Someone runs up and is like, What happened? What happened to you? Yeah. Yeah. Trying to get into their voice. What happened to all of you? Just let us know when you're there. Donkey. Well, this guy has layers. What happened to… Wow. What happened? This is close enough. This guy's so drunk.

What happened to all of you? He's, like, pushing a wineskin, like, under his coat. Are you guys all drunk? Yeah. What's happening? No. None of us are drunk. I want to discern realities if they're all drunk or not. You can roll discern realities if you decide to. Two to six plus wisdom. Eight. You get one question. Are you drunk? This guy's drunk. What is it? What here is not what it appears to be. What here is not what it appears to be. Because he appears to be drunk. And he is.

But the others, there's three others, are not, and they're mad about it. They're angry at this guy. They're like, they want to be drunk. They want to be drunk. They want to be drunk. They're drunk too. No, they're like, we're on the job, Gregor. This is the conversation we interrupted as we came up, where his co-workers were like, man, you're really risking everything right now. I know, like, Cassandra left you a few months ago and now you've been taking it. Don't even say her name.

I vouched for you for this job. My ass is on the line too. And you know what? I loved that you did that for me. You're a good friend. Not like Sandra. Not like Sandra. Not like Sandra and that bastard Tristan. Oh, come by. I'll replace all your windows for free so you can fuck my wife. And then the guy who was talking to her before comes in, he grabs him. He's like, look, man, this is the nature of the job. We get sent away. These are some of the things that we lose.

You're not going to find her at the bottom of a bottle, okay? I just miss her so much. And I miss Tristan. He was a good friend. And you know what? Actually, now that I'm significantly more drunk than I was before, I think they're really good together. Boom, boom, boom. Oh, what the fuck's over there? Oh my God, what happened to you? We found him. We did it, we did it. So, what's going on? Where's your convoy? What's going on with you? You look like… Oh, don't worry about me.

You look like you've been crying. He starts pointing away in tears. Who hurt you? You know what? I think I hurt me. But a little bit of woman named Sandra and a glazer named Tristan. A window glazer. A window glazer named Tristan. And my wife. And really, when I think about it, my parents. But anyway, what happened to you? Hey, where's your convoy? Those Riverland bastards ambushed us on the convoy. Oh. We got separated in the quarrel. Bunch of hicks. Yeah, they stabbed me. Look.

And then Tuck turns the side of himself that he… Oh, that looks bad. I know, it's really deep. And then he… It's Billy's jelly knife. No, no, no, no, no. Stop. He fingers it. It's got seahorses on it. Stop touching it. Stop touching it. And he turns behind him and he goes, Medic. And a couple of people in like white aprons come out and start… Like M4 lowers you to the ground and they… Tuck very performatively falls to the ground. Yeah, totally. Yeah. And you don't have to roll for that.

I want to convince them that I fainted. You did. All right. Yeah. 2d6 plus charisma. 12. Yeah. Wow. You did the thing that you said you wanted to do. It's almost like you actually fainted, maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, touch that. Yeah, you faint. You do it so well that you're unconscious. Tuck fast. Tuck fast. You fainted his head. You do it so well. Tuck fast. Because he's like, he's losing blood. And then he hit his head with himself. When he fake fainted. Yeah. And they take you away.

Well, they try to take you away and they realize you're like 700 pounds. So then they call a couple of people out and the remaining guards with Gregor start… Everybody's dragging Tuck away. Yeah. They lash. They lash a bunch of ropes to my legs and start dragging me away. And the floor here is like that quarry rock that's really sharp. His back's getting… You're wearing that GIMP outfit though, so you're fine. But you can just feel the sharp points, but no cutting.

It's just poking you a lot. Thank God I'm gimped up. Now I know why they wear these. One of Tuck's classic catchphrases. Thank God I'm gimped up. That'll be a t-shirt come in Q2 2025. Jessica, get on that. All right. Then make it erotic. Erotic. Of course. If I didn't get gimped up, I would have broke back. Mountain is what I'm gimping up. I'm going to ask one of these guys if I can have some coal. Hey, do you think I can have a bit of coal just to tide us over for our mech here?

Oh, looks like you need a bit of maintenance. Anyway, come on in. Yeah. Come on. And he starts like, he's like kind of shouldering M4 in the legs. He's like, get in there, you bucket of bolts. Hey, this thing had saved a lot of lives. Sorry, I've become attached to him. You mechanics so attached to your machines. Yeah. It's a tool, a weapon. Nothing more. Nothing more. You hear like the steam pistons within M4 like rev up.

And M4 stomps through the gate, ducks down under like the, you know, the lintel of it. And you are in the refinery complex. Tuck is being dragged away to like a sort of side building like clapboard and tin roof. Slamming into a bunch of doors every time. Can I follow Tuck? Yeah, totally. I also need medical attention. I'll say you're bleeding a lot, little guy. Yeah, I've been losing a lot of blood lately. I don't know, I'm feeling so good.

Looks like I can kind of see through the meat of your arm. Really? As if you were sliced by some large blade or fang of some kind. Yeah, that knife that's in him, they cut me with it first. Those bastards. I know. Those riverways bastards. And their chilly knives. Y'all start speaking a bad Scottish accent. They really started carving us up out there. Oh, disgusting. But I got my revenge on a couple of them. Aye. Aye. Who's talking, right? We're all talking.

This is kind of from Gregor's mind, I guess, like his perspective. And he's so drunk. He's not sure. All of you look like Tristan. All of you look like Tristan, that bastard window glazer. I could learn a thing or two from him, probably. No, Gregor, don't think like that. Revenge. Yeah, think like that. Yeah. Isn't it fucked up that I'm just dying to be him? And he sits on a stool near the gate and he waves you away. And he pulls the wine skin out from his jacket, pops the cork. It's empty.

And he, you know, tips it over on the gravel. Sandra! And you are kind of, you know, as far as they know, you're members of this military. So you're kind of let to go do your thing. Sick. Tuck and Billy. Tuck is completely unconscious. And he's getting like hauled onto a bed in a makeshift. Yeah, I crawl up on that bed too. What's going on, little guy? I just got a big cut. Oh, let me take a look at that for you. I don't want to look at it. Just look away. Look away. Look.

And the guy reaches into his apron. He's got a little sucker. Little lollipop. Oh, what's this? Oh, whoa. You wouldn't happen to know a little guy. It's like a little sweet treat. I do. I do. It would be me. Oh, here you go. And he gives you one and he's looking at the wound on your arm. What flavor is it? Grape. The best. Grape. Grape. Not fantasy in any way. No. Just what I want. Grape. Grape. Purple. Purple flavor. And yeah, he starts.

He's unwrapping the bandages on your arm and starts taking a look like, whoa, that's quite an ouchie there you've got. Yeah, the Riverway guy really dug deep. Oh, horrible. I was fighting off 10, 12, 20 of them at one go. Wow. Aren't you brave? I was brave. But then they took my knife and they shoved in my friend here. Oh, horrible. Horrible. But don't worry. I got quite a few of them. They're all drifting away in the wind right now. Good. Soon enough. Pieces of them blown away in the wind. Wow.

Like so many leaves. You're so brave. Yeah, and I'm strong too. I can see that. And he like pinches your bicep. Your tiny little bicep. Ow. Soon enough, this war will be over. And the Riverways will never be. There will be no real peace. Yeah, I can't wait. What are you looking forward to the most when peace comes? Oh, I'm looking forward to the future that the Black Hammers have promised us. One of prosperity. Progress. Oh, what kind?

I mean, I only joined recently and me and my family, we live pretty far out. So I don't get much news. Can I like get info out of him? Yeah, sure. You can. What would this be? I guess to certain realities. Yeah. Yeah. Sick. Sick. I would like to use a fairy child. So you're spending a whole to make it seven to nine. Yeah. So you get a one question. Yeah, one question. What about like just what here is useful or valuable to me? Yeah, totally. Yeah.

Well, you know, black glass and the fire fields in general are a bastion of technological innovation of industry and the rest of the principalities are stuck in the old ways. The superstitions, the failing technology and magical, the! I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. There's a ton of magical wonders and dangers of the golden age.

And if the black haman twins were able to rule as Kinos was by a sovereign or by two sovereigns, then we can enter a new golden age, not of magic and superstition, but of technology and technological might. I see. They resist, but they don't know what they're resisting. Who's resisting. The rest of the principalities. Oh yeah. Sorry. It's just all the blood loss. It's hard for me to follow stuff. I understand. Can I have another sucker? He gives you another sucker. What flavor is this one?

Purple. This one's not even grape. It's just purple. Perfect. Tuck's bed breaks and he smashes it into the ground. He's unconscious, but he needs people to know he's a part of the situation. Can I try and wake Tuck up? If you want to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wake up. I slap you in the face. Once again, you rolled a 10+. You can become conscious when you choose. Stop rolling. Is there anything happening to Tuck's head right now? You did get a 10+, so technically you are in control of this situation.

Okay. We zoom in to Tuck's head. Not like this. No, you gave me control. No. You gave me control. I made a huge mistake here. As Billy is smacking on Tuck's cheeks going, wake up, wake up. The camera zooms in to Tuck's. His eyes are closed, so his nose. And then he goes up. His nose is jingling from the slapping. Going through the magic school bus. Yeah. Into Tuck's brain. With the frizz? No way. It goes up into his brain where he has his ideas. Okay.

All right, so we're focusing on an idea here. There's a sweeping shot of Tuck's gray matter. We can see parts of his brain lighting up and stuff. Certain parts not doing anything. Not at all. All the parts. All the parts of Sissy. R.I.P. R.I.P. R.I.P. So many parts are dormant. A graveyard. Shriveled dead. Undeveloped graveyard. Just a bunch of baby cells just waiting to be awoken one day. Oh my God. Completely never activated. We zoom in to the part of Tuck's brain. And we're dreaming.

He's like, I can't even think about what I'm dreaming used to be. And he's. So I've been thinking about this. And I think like the void that is where Tuck's dreaming mind used to be is like letting stuff in. And I think it also means he can kind of like look out from that void if he's stuck in it. Kind of like his sleep works now such that he closes his eyes and he opens his eyes again. And it's the next day. Yeah. And he feels rested.

But he's sort of like figuring out that like if he can catch up. If he can catch himself right before it opens, he can maybe stop himself in that void place. And then look outwards at like what's in the void. And he wants to use demon eyes in this state to like use his brain as a kind of antenna for like demonic whatever's and see if there's anything in this facility that is like associated with the iconic realm. Oh, anything in the refinery. Yeah. Oh, I see.

I'm thinking of his brain now is kind of an antenna. And this is something that he can do while he's unconscious. I think it exists in the unconscious medium. I see. He sort of like is trying to catch himself in the like one second between dreaming and waking. It's like a lucid dreaming, but he doesn't have a dream. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Interesting. Very interesting.

I think the fact that like the demon came to him during the day made him realize that whatever void space that is exists all the time. Yeah. So he's trying to catch himself in it. He doesn't know if he can. I think. Because you got the 10 plus you are in like, again, you're in full control of your unconscious state. So, yeah, you would be able to see out. And what does demonize do again? Can you remind me? I can roll 2d6 plus wisdom and then it gives me access to the trap expert questions. Yeah.

But for demon. But specifically for demonic influence. Yeah. That's pretty cool. 2d6 plus wisdom. Here we go. Nine. Nine. So it's one hold. It's one hold. Yeah. So you get one question. What else is hidden here? Hmm. Okay. So you feel from this void. You're like looking out inside. You're basically standing in the middle of like an endless plane of darkness. Hmm. Looking out, trying to get glimpses of the outside world. And you feel like behind the sort of locked door of your dissociative state.

You feel servitude rattling the handle. Yeah. And you're like, nope. I know what that like, you know, that feeling that demonic feeling. And you feel another demonic or iconic presence somewhat nearby. Hmm. But not with that sharp clarity. But with that sharp clarity of like the pinpoint existence, the anchoring of like a possessed individual, you just feel an influence. Can I tell what direction it is? The very feeling of this presence tells you that it's not like it's barely a direction.

It's like an area. Okay. It's a location. Okay. Like you feel it is a presence rather than a, an individual. Okay. Yeah. And then Chuck wakes up and he goes, Alison. And there she is at the end of the bed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is she? No. She disappears. As she always does upon waking. Yeah. You wake up and you see Alison. Actually, I like that a lot. You wake up and you see sitting at the end of the bed in a, in a red dress, long red hair flowing down her dark skin. Alison. That's pretty cool.

Nice. Half a second later, gone. I like that she like opens her mouth and like bees come out or something. Yeah. It's a horrible thing. Something scary. Yeah, totally. I was thinking like the spider's web like kind of envelops her and then like pulls her away. Fucking. Oh, what if. The spider legs come out of her mouth. Yeah. Like mother never was. Yeah. Crawls out of her mouth. Spider. Spider legs or hands or something. Yeah. Come out of her mouth. And then almost like. Yeah. Wrap around her.

And wrap around her. And gone. And she's gone. Consumer. Oh, great. Nightmares are back. Oh, but now. In real regular life now. Yeah. But now awake time. Oh, cool. And then Chuck realizes that he goes, fucking a neurophage lied to me. Piece of shit. The warranty. Stupid piece of shit. A neurophage. Great. And you're awake. Your bed is on the floor. Billy's being treated by a medic. Oh, Billy's smacking you in the face. Yeah. I got two suckers hanging out of my mouth. Billy. You're awake now.

Where'd you get those suckers? Don't worry about it. This nice doctor gave it to me. Okay. Oh, I'm not a doctor. Sorry. Oh, you can't call me a doctor, actually. Clearly. Clearly you're not allowed to call me a doctor. Okay. You can call me a doctor. You can call me a doctor. You can call me a doctor. You can call me a doctor. You can call me Mr. Doctor. My last name is Doctor. Mr. Stephen Doctor. So stupid. You will hear people call me doctor, but they're just calling me by my last name.

It's not against the law. So, how are you feeling? And he reaches in and he pulls a purple sucker out of his apron and gives it to you. Yeah. Tuck just opens his mouth and accepts it. He drops it in. How are you feeling? Tuck swallows it whole. Oh. Oh. Oh. He chokes it back. Sideways you see the stick. And then it disappears into his stomach and goes. Oh. Delicious. I'll have another. That thing happens for a second where you can see panic in his eyes. You know when you swallow. Yes.

You swallow a mouthful of. A sucker sideways. Or like huge pill or something. Yeah. Or grilled cheese. And you can feel like a long strand going down. And there's that panic feeling where you're like. I'm going to choke. I'm going to die. I'm going to suck in there. And then as soon as it's down, that moment is gone forever. Yeah. It's never happened. And you'll do it again. Yeah. He opens his mouth again. And then it doesn't come hither with his tongue for another second.

And he pulls the sucker out and he holds it back. He goes. How are you feeling? I feel great. And then he just rips the knife. Oh. Okay. Gloosh on the floor. And he throws a sucker in your mouth like a hippo being fed a pumpkin. I swallow it. And then runs and grabs some bandages and starts, you know, packing up your wound. Thanks. Thanks. I think both of you are being given basically like a poultice and herbs equivalent. Okay. So you'll heal seven hit points if you have hit points missing.

Yeah. Nice guys. Those are free. Those are free. We didn't have to crack into our vat of 50 poultice. I reserve. We're going to need those for the end of the podcast. He starts applying them and somewhere across the refinery, Ving goes, holds onto his bag. Okay. They're safe. Still counting. 50. 50. 50. 50. 50. 50. 50. 50. 50. 50. 50. 50. 50. 50. Oh, few. Okay. Yeah. We'll cut to Ving. M4 is walking over to what looks like a, um, like a motor pool almost.

There are two other max that are in, um, standby mode. That's sort of hunched down. Hmm. Like arms locked. They have that barbecue cover over them. Yeah. They got a barbecue cover over them. Um, one of them has the cover off and you can see a bunch of mechanics like working on, on it.

Uh what do you do hey boys what are you up to are you not just working on my mac yeah yep just another shift here in the refinery working in paradise yeah he's got like a huge ratchet and he's just settling a bolt what model's that oh this is a mark two he's getting kind of getting kind of old kind of long in the tooth but he does his job don't they so to describe the environment uh more so we've got this little section here imagine it's like where everybody puts their bikes but there's robots here and then there's like barrels of shit around like coal and parts and tools and there's like a big shack and this seems to be sort of the mechanics quarters it's like a bunch of portables basically in a big area and then the work site is the mine which is further down so this is basically the mechanics portable do we want to like yeah do any upgrades that's an interesting idea oh I don't know improve him yeah or like give him something else or I can ask him if he wants to make any changes oh yeah that's a good idea that's a really good idea okay I'm gonna ask him if he wants to alter himself anywhere to better suit how he feels now so you could use that you could use like the uh your spiritual connection to like talk to him silently basically like you were before yeah and so you hear more more fully the song of the choir of spirits that sort of make up m4 now and they despise the rigidity of the form that they've been given uh one hand is a weapon the other like is basically he just wants two hands he's a one's a big hammer separate appendages yeah he wants to be able to like do what he needs to do without having to worry about one hand being a big hammer okay it's just it's like quality of life stuff basically this is all that's coming to mind like two hands and he would love to not have to put fuel in his back he'd love to like be able to do it himself loaded in the front yeah in the front yeah it's like a cookie hole yeah yeah he wants to you know I desire to feed myself I've seen the small one eating on our way here and I desire to take part in similar tasks what was that purple stuff everyone here is eating this purple stuff I would love some purple stuff myself how much granola exists in your world it seems like a limitless quantity tell me more of this granola it's like a 30s radio man I love it um so I want to lead him into the you know the shop yeah there's totally a big like you know uh those like for holding up engine blocks the like kind of chain and like rack thing so cool so he can like come in and hook himself up oh yeah I thought there would be a scaffolding almost so that everyone could reach it the day he could get into yeah the the the shop zone is much bigger there's like a big shed that's like you know 20 30 feet tall with like yeah it's basically a hanger actually this is something that I guess I'm giving you for free it looks like this place was thrown up fairly recently and fairly quickly so it's not as like high tech as it could be but you can see like you know mechanics have dragged in equipment and like hooked up and stuff like that so it's like a little bit of a but there's like cables all over the place there's like steam pipes that are very haphazardly welded to things there's like tubes of coolant for like flushing and like replacing lubricant and stuff yeah yeah maybe I can give him a little like a lubricant change yeah totally so do I need a role to kind of do uh let him uh upgrade himself or I'm pretend to be a mechanic but I'm not a mechanic yeah I was gonna say I guess he's kind of directing you like with your sort of spiritual uh link he's you're being directed to do something like that yeah I was gonna say I guess he's kind of directed on how to make these changes okay great and it's like elemental mastery like I could be like you're looking for something like this and then like form him a hand yeah or something like this and then form like a claw or different things like what are you looking for how do we build this for you yeah that's really cool so yeah 2d6 plus constitution I believe great I got six six oh can I aid from a distance billy can aid from a distance yes yes I don't know or what how well it's basically just like I think we've discussed it as people the people that are in close proximity to billy are a little bit luckier right because just billy's nature rubs off on them so 2d6 plus it kind of makes sense I'm calling on the primal spirits of like fire and earth to try make him an iron mechanical hand yeah so billy's like just in the other room and is like oh something's happening yeah it's like I got like a little like almost like static radio kind of thing uh-huh so that makes it a plus one great I got seven so seven choose one the effect I desire comes to pass avoid paying nature's price retain control I'm gonna choose the effect I desire comes to pass hell yeah so what do we think uh not retaining losing control and um paying nature's price looks like in this situation because you're like up on the scaffold and m4 is sort of directing you to help and you know you're looking around making sure there are no other mechanics looking and then you know iron flows up into his hand and then you're like oh my god I got seven hands like the hammer gets removed and the thing flows into like more organic looking metal fingers I wonder if that affects other things so all the half forms like how the imps the imps yeah so it could be a situation like that but and behind happening because he's not retaining spiritual or elemental control yeah these things are building themselves into this mechanical pile monster like the iron itself is like I also want form uh-huh yeah it's so cool it's so cool that is cool I think this is like a camera thing where like ving is helping m4 with this like organic metal hand and it's sort of like flowing into the pistons and creating this uh his body just looks different than the other max now like it's kind of flowing all through him and you know the thing on his back flows through to a little thing that opens up on his chest and he reaches down and shoves some coal in there and you can hear him go yum um purple stuff delicious I call it purple and then the camera like focuses and zooms behind like nice but there's a scrap metal pile and it's kind of like that liquid metal is flowing up other machinery yeah and we'll take a look at that later like clogging up machines or like rusting around important things yeah and like reaching out to other things and pulling them in barrel on the other side of the pile like just barely moves yeah yeah drunk I won't do that I'm gonna go up soon what's going on in here oh hey well that one looks fucked up thank you I'm not one to judge but it looks like you did a bad job pretty sloppy bud I don't think you have an eye for art I like my work to reflect me so I made him more in the image of those who walk around him wow so you say that your trade also informs your art your soul is seen in the machines you work on yeah you sound just like tristan you dirty bastard you cassandra why no I know why I'm away all the time I'm emotionally I'm just not there I hear you I'm physically physically I'm not there either do you think that maybe you were emotionally unavailable and so you made yourself physically unavailable he's crying immediately he's bawling oh my god you're right what am I doing what am I doing and he takes his helmet off and he throws it on the ground it might be too late for you and sandra but it's not too late for you and somebody else thank you kind stranger thank you I have to get home to her and let her know what I've learned I'm not gonna ruin her relationship with tristan I want that on the books I did have the idea of maybe coming to her door with a bunch of cards to say I love you even though he's my best friend I'm sorry but that seems fucked up I don't think I can do that but what I can do is desert my post and I will he's saying this so loud I'm deserting my post for love that is so beautiful and he takes off his cape he unclasps it takes him a while he throws it on the ground love is more powerful than war I'm out of here see you later losers is anyone else like inspired by this yeah it seems like a couple people are like whoa he's really into this love and he throws his leg over a motorcycle and kickstarts it it's a mech it's a different mech it's a little mech with wheels see you later losers and remember desert your posts at the first opportunity for love and he roars off and all the guys in this in this bagel for love and they're cheering don't you forget about me and he slams into the closed gate he's he's crashing he falls over he's dragged away meanwhile a decepticon has been building itself in the background we're gonna cut back into the medical tent real quick uh tuck and billy oh we're not in the medical tent anymore no yeah we we've been uh patched up pretty well yeah we all meet in the cafeteria yeah yeah we got it we I've got 40 uh suckers in my mouth great can you hear you're like I take them out as one they're all like molten together perfect round cylinder yeah I have a bunch also but they're like stuck now ah they're stuck in your mouth yeah I made it too big we were having a competition you're forcing your jaw open too wide relax billy's it's just stuck in your mouth and we're like yeah you gotta just wait for it to melt crying because I I know I'm gonna lose it was it was definitely bigger and you hear a steam whistle and it seems like it's the end of some shift a bunch of people come tromping out of the mines out of the refinery buildings and they're like oh my god they're all going to the mess hall there's like a big mess hall that's where you all meet up yeah we walk we walk in and we see ving and we kind of beeline for the same table yeah totally yeah and so you've all got a tray full of food from the from the line it's uh it's a thin but somewhat hearty soup yeah uh some hard bread and um milk oh oh shit I take billy's milk and I'm like no no oh my god billy no My grip has never been stronger.

I have like toddler grip. So strong. Unbreakable. It's the kind of thing where it's like, if I pull too hard, it will break the glass and cut his hands. Also, your arm is bleeding more because you're pumping so much blood into your grip. Billy, you'll get drunk if you do this. I know. Just like that guy. And you saw what happened to him. Yeah, you guys saw Gregor. Yeah, he picked love. Gregor got dragged into the medical tent as you were leaving. He crashed into the front gate.

Will it make you happy? If I take this away from you? It won't make me happy, but it'll make me feel like you're not going to be drunk. So it'll make you happy you can have it. Okay. Good job, Billy. Good. And you guys, yeah, you're sitting at this table. There's a bunch of people, workers covered in soot. Like, it stinks like chemicals in here. I don't know. Yeah.

I let you guys know about when I was in my not dream, I made myself look out at the world and I think I maybe felt that there was some kind of demon something happening. Here? Yeah. Sorry, it's so vague. Sean didn't give me that much information to go on. I actually gave you a lot of information if you think about it. Because he's a piece of shit. If you think about it, I gave you a ton of information. I didn't hear any information, really. Yeah. Fine. Connect the dots.

He said there was just like a general presence of like demonic energy here. Could it be from the calm or the other one, calm? Oh. Or. Could it be? Maybe it's like covering all this land. Yeah. Maybe it is. Maybe it's something that they're mining. Like the coal? Maybe. And coal. Mm-hmm. Is in the word calm. Exactly. We've done this before. He's right. Holy shit. He's right. So if we blow this place up, we'll get rid of the bad feeling. Possibly. Should we try and figure out what it is first?

Yeah, probably. Okay. Okay. What did Billy find out? Oh, I tell them that like the Black Hammer Twins ultimate plan is to basically replace arcane magic with technology, like human run technology. I think they just want to control how everything runs now. But it sounds scary, you know? Democratizing power. But not really in a way. Because he brought up how the princeps used to be run, which was very opposite of democracy, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.. Like their steam power technology, which is what the Gibbous Man wants, right? I think so. Yeah, because you guys know, and you remember for sure from all those many seasons ago, that your goal, not your goal, but what you learned is that the lack of the stabilizing force of like Thaumic energy is what's causing the planes to smash together, which is what the Gibbous Man wants. Yeah.

So that's got to be how he's using the Black Hammer Twins. He's going to try and use them to take over the principalities and destroy all, like all vaults, all magical artifacts. Yeah, because anything left over magical, they can now do with their machines. But look what it's doing to their land here. It's so barren and sad. Look at the people, and they're all like gaunt, coughing, hacking, spitting. Totally. Hunched over the tables. This is what everyone's going to be like.

The soup is surprisingly delicious. It's really good. I pushed my soup over to Billy because I took his milk. Thanks. I tell them about my time in the mech garage. So he can feed himself now. He can feed himself. There's a lot more changes. Wait till you see him. Yeah. And you didn't have to pay nature's price? Not this time. That's crazy. I didn't notice. He like looks at his arms. Okay. That's so weird. Maybe you're just getting really good at it. I did graze my knuckle on his back.

I think that's what it was. That's it. See that little thing right there? You lost control. Oh, no, sorry. It's on this knuckle. There you go. That's you losing control right there. That's what it was. That looks really good. It stings really bad. Price. Oh, you nature. You got me. You got me, nature. You got me. Oh, man. I thought you got me this time. We'll get you next time, nature. Give me some more of that milk. Is he getting drunk off the milk? Maybe. Okay. Before we blow this place up.

Yeah. Should we try to find out what the demonic influence here is? Yes. Yes. Yeah. If it's something they're pulling out of their minds, we should maybe go into the minds. Ving links over to the person sitting next to him, hunched over. Hey, who's in charge here? You mean the foreman? Where's the foreman? Foreman's in his office. It's lunchtime, break time. Huh. All right. Should we go there? Yeah, let's go to this foreman's office. Sure.

It's like, you know, an office above the mess or something. Oh, yeah. At a factory when they have to. Yeah. Yeah. The thing up there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Surveying the mess hall. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Make sure they don't unionize. Yeah. He's standing at the window going, don't unionize. Yeah. There's a bunch of guys with crossbows. And at any time a conversation sounds like it's a union thing, they like fire it out. If they start putting acronyms together.

Three or more people talking is a potential union. Take them out. So, yeah, the guy that says the foreman's in his office gestures above and you see a little like high above the mess hall. A little office window. Foreman masterly up there. All right. We have to go have a conversation with him. All right. Get up those stairs. Okay. Yeah. You. Out of my way, crossbow guy. I got to talk to the boss. Nobody gets to talk to the boss. You got to talk to me if you want to talk to the boss. Why?

Because I'm the guy you talk to before you talk to the boss. Also, who are you? This is a member of the royal family. This little kid is a black hammer. Can't you see his royal hair? The orange of the black hammer clan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm one of their cousins twice removed. You better watch who you stop on the stairs, mister. Do you want to really talk to me like that?

I'm going to tell Colm that you talk to me like that and you're going to get your head chopped off. You can see. He's going to chop off your head so fast. You can see he's like not totally sure that he's wrong. I want to convince him somehow. Yeah. Yeah. I want to charm him for a short while. Do you have any of those? I have one fairy child left. Okay. You wouldn't have to roll for this. You just spend your last hold. Sure. Okay. Yeah. I do that. And the crossbow guy looks down at you.

I draw my little jelly knife. I'm like, look, one of the royal scepters, one of the royal blades. And his royal blade has been drawn. And his eyes widen. He goes, I'm so sorry, your eminence. I'm so sorry. I didn't recognize you. Tell the foreman his eminence is here. Right away. Right away. And I expect the most utmost respect, the best treatment. Right away. My liege. My liege. And he drops down to a knee and he crosses his hand over. His chest. His chest.

And then Tuck and Ving instinctively take a half a step back to pretend that we're security guards. And then we also do the hand to your chest thing. Right away, my liege. And he runs up the stairs. Black hammers. And he waves you up the stairs. And Billy puffs out his chest and walks up the stairs. Yeah. We walk slowly behind him. Like his entourage slash secret service. And you get to the top of the stairs and he bows as you walk by. And I say, thank you. Of course. Goodbye.

Protect the stairs from your king's liege. Very well. Click. And he's pointing at somebody at the bottom of the stairs. Yeah. Kill anybody who tries to get up here. We believe. And then Tuck leans in. He says, we believe that there's going to be an assassination attempt on the princeps' second cousin towards removed. I will defend him with my life. Be sure you do. And he's pointing over the railing. He goes, Terry, get the fuck away from the stairs. But also calm down, dude. Yeah, like be chill.

He's vibrating. There's like something about the charm that Billy uses in his winter form that's amped this guy up. He's like vibrating with tension. Safety on? Jesus. If there's like a demonic influence happening here and your spirit stuff is like going in there, it's probably like destabilizing. Like two magnets? Vibrations. Vibrations that are lining up. Yeah. That's a good point. And you are in the foreman's office. It's a pretty standard office that you would imagine in a place like this.

There's a desk and it's, you know. I like to think it's like kind of dungeon-y feeling. Yeah. It's like a torch. Oh, yeah. Venetian blinds. He goes and like closes the Venetian. Yeah. The foreman turns around. Classic dungeon look. Venetian blinds. Venetian blinds. Classic Venetian dungeon. Yeah. And the foreman turns around. He's got suspenders on. Yeah. He's got a little mustache. Yes, he does. He's got a clipboard. He's like going through papers and you flip his blinds and he turns around.

What is the meaning of this? Who are you? I close the door and I like, I drop Venetians and then we close everything. Where's Frampton? He was supposed to stop anyone from coming up these stairs. He led us through. For I am the, am I, am I continuing this? I am the cousin. Yeah. Twice removed of Colm and Callum Blackhammer. And I require your respect. You're the cousin of Colm and Callum Blackhammer? Yes. Well, I'm the last sovereign of Kynos. Nice to meet you, last sovereign.

When Turk hears that, he like for a half second goes to kneel down and then realizes that it's No. He turns back over and he's like, okay. I was being sarcastic. Now you have about 40 seconds to explain what you're doing here before I call my guards to give you what for. My guards, please. Explain. Explain. No, no, you're lead. You explain. Sir, you wanted to come up here and talk to him. And I'm just using my good name to get us up here. My good name and hairdo. And hair color.

And Turk goes forward and he says, I will talk to you. And he goes, Masterly, that is your name. Yes. Sir Lee Masterly. Sir Lee Masterly. The Black Hammer sent us to warn you of an incursion that is being planned on this facility by members of the Riverways Militia. Members of our great force turned to the Riverways Force. There are moles within the ranks of the miners. Beautiful moles. Silky fur. Sir. Sharp digging claws. Dashing chins. Strong musky wafts. Only the muskiest wafts. Okay.

So you're trying to tell them that there is danger. Yes. And what? We believe that they're compromising the mine. We have to go inspect it. Yeah. Okay. Roll two to six. I like this plan. Eleven. Okay. Ooh. And he shuffles the papers in his hand and he throws them down on the desk. I knew it. I knew it was only a matter of time. This facility is far too valuable. And speaking of time, it is of the essence. We must act quickly. You think this happens soon? I think it's imminent. This very night.

Very well. And he writes something down, puts a note on his desk, and then turns and grabs a sword out of an umbrella holder. Oh, whoa. And he straps it. He puts it on. I'll come with you. Oh, fuck. Sir. Fuck, sir. Sir, we need you to remain here with your employees. Nonsense. I didn't get made foreman of this facility for my cowardice. I got made it because my father's rich. And because of that, I have only the finest martial training available in black glass. Sir. I can relate.

For my father, too, is rich. But you are needed here. Billy. What? It might be good to bring him with us so he can, like, explain what the fuck's happening. Yeah, we can totally take this guy. Okay. Actually, sir, please come with us. I would be delighted as one of the top graduates of my class at the Grefg's Mushlin Academy of the Arts and martial skill. It's just Grefg. No, it's not me, Grefg's Mushlin. It's not Grefg's Mushlin. But he has taken on an air. Yeah. Sir Lee Masterly.

Sir Lee Masterly. Perhaps we came from the same. I don't know. Or you just were taught by him and you did the thing where you just imitated your teacher. He was so cool, even though now he's probably 80 or 90 years old at least. Because now he's 80. Because he's 90 years old. Let me show you the way. Come with me. He sidesteps down the stairs. He does a little box step on his way down. A grapevine. He, like, jumps back up. He does the friend stare thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Framed him. Hold my calls. The columns, he's like spinning around dancing in the rain. Enjoy your dinner, boys. Might be the last one you had in a while, Dabs. He dabs? I don't know what dancing is. He dabs and then he moonwalks out of the mess. Yeah, he gritties. And he walks you through the rest of the refinery. He's like, alright, let's go to the mines. We'll follow you.

It's the perfect timing because they're between shifts right now, so we've got the mines to ourselves. Totally abandoned. Just you and three members of the royal family. Trusted family members. Onwards. And he leads you up the hill to the mouth of a mine shaft. Do you know which arm of the mine they're going for? Can I use demonize again to try and like locate the source of like the demonic influence? Yep. Please, fuck god, I just give me the fucking thing. Okay, cool, nine.

Okay, so one question. Aid. How? Describe how you would aid in this. You used what? Sorry? Demonize. So I kind of use the like coin and like the… The like void in his head to feel what things are drawn to it. Yeah. It's how he can detect like what is demonically possessed. Is there any spiritual connection to the demonic realm? They're pretty different. Different, yeah. Although there might be a… I could see that being helpful here. Like you're removing spiritual interference. I like that.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, you're using your like, your world talker thing to like… To quiet all the spirits in the area. Holy shit! Awesome. Box guys. Wow. Plus bond. Wow. Thirteen. Yeah, so that makes it a ten plus, which means you get three questions, or three hold off trap expert. Can I see that? Oh yeah. Is there a trap here and if so, what activates it? I guess that means is there demonic influence here and if so, where is it and what is it? Yeah.

So you realize that kind of fuzzy general feeling that you felt while you were kind of in your void place. You feel it coming out of the cave. Oh. Yeah. Like there is a wash of some sort of demonic influence, some kind of iconic presence. Flowing. What does the demon do when activated? Mm-hmm. Like what will happen to us when we go in there? Oh, nothing would happen to you when you go in there. You know, that you would be safe from the influence.

It's weird because this feels like very unlike any of the sort of iconic or demonic beings that you've experienced thus far. I'll hold on to the third hold. Sure, yeah. For the time being, knowing that it's in this cave and it's safe for us to go in. Yeah, totally. Yeah. And I tell Master there, I was like, this is the one. Excellent. Right this way, chaps. And he walks up and he pulls a lantern off the, off a sconce stuck out of the rock. Cool.

And he turns around and and calls over to the mouth of the cave, M4. Yeah, and thump, thump, thumping up the side of the hill. And you can see like flowing up his arms almost like, like, uh, like very finely wrought plates of armor is M4. Like he's covered in these flowing iron. It's like Art Nouveau almost. Yeah, it's like spiraling and there's… Kind of muscular. Yeah.

He's got two working hands and he's got like a little chute under his neck, like under his headpiece that he's physically like pressing closed. Ah. And you can hear him in his head going, mmm, I'm stuffed. Just delicious. Oh. And he kind of like pats the… He hits his chest and he goes hoot, hoot. That's sitting strangely. What do you require of me? Wait here, please. Very well. Watch our backs. Thump, thump. And like turns around and crosses his arms over his chest.

And Master Lee looks up at M4 and is like, wow, that's some machine you've got there. What is that, a Mark VI? An M4, modified. Wow. Custom job. You betcha. He's beautiful. Spins a wrench and puts it in a holster. Anyways, telly-ho, boys. Into this mine we go. And he kind of messes with the magical crystal inside. And then Tuck goes, you're the bravest guy with a rich dad I've ever met. Thank you. I've felt invincible. My entire life. You can tell.

You can tell that you have faced no struggle whatsoever. And he draws his sword and points into the darkness and goes, Sally Force, truly your life has been an unbroken boulevard of green light. Matthew McConaughey. And we cut inside and you're kind of passing through this darkened tunnel lit by the lanterns stabbed along the wall and the one in Master Lee's hand. And he's going, and see, that's why I find that whenever I have troubles, money kind of smooths the way.

All I started with was a dream, an ambition, and 40 million dollars. Oh yes, the way that all dreams are. 40 million gold pieces from my parents' fortune. And here I am. I've lost 90% of it, but I've gained a sense of superiority. It is always nice to know your father will be there to catch you. Until he dies and I inherit the rest. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha. And you are nearing what feels like the bottom tuck. This feeling is growing. This presence is growing.

Billy and Ving, I think, Billy, you kind of feel weird down here, but not too strange. Ving, you feel like something is wrong down here. And as we… We've been walking down, Tuck's vision has been like clouding almost. Yeah. The fire of the torch and stuff, like it keeps like blinking out. So you're just like in pitch blackness once in every few steps. It's like he's being forced into the void place. Yeah. But there's like almost an overlay on his vision. Uh-huh. Yep. Yeah. Weird.

Would Ving clock that once in a while? Just kind of be like keeping an eye on him? I think it looks like Tuck is getting sicker and sicker as he goes down here. Yeah. Yeah. That's the feeling that Ving's having too. Yeah. Yeah, Ving, you're feeling very similarly. And Billy, you're kind of noticing Tuck and Ving are sort of staggering almost. And you reach the base of the mine and the current working deposit.

And you're standing in front of it and Masterly's like, alright, what do you think they're after? Can I… Do I have to use a fairy child for making a fairy ring? No, you don't. You just do it with dexterity. Can I do that? You could. Can I try to do that? You'd be doing it with Masterly here. Is there a way I could like on the down low make a fairy ring? That would be a defy danger, I'd say. Yeah, I'll try that. So you would defy danger, I think, with…

Well, how's Billy trying to hide it from Masterly? Like, is it like subtle movements? Yeah, it's like Billy's kind of like almost like kicking a stone around while everyone else looks for things. Cute. That seems like dexterity. Come on. Seven. So seven to nine, which means you need to maintain the ring. Yeah, so I just I'm kicking this rock around. Sorry, seven to nine is there is a threat. It's a partial success on the defy danger. Now you have to roll the ring.

So something notices that you're doing this. Yeah, yeah. That's probably what Billy was feeling. It was like whatever it is is like is sensing something. And now it knows what I am. The feeling of being watched. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So now I'm rolling fairy ring. Yes, now you're rolling 2d6 plus dexterity for the fairy ring. Nine. Okay, so you form the ring. So that means that you have to maintain the ring yourself. So you kick this stone and you're sort of just walking around the three people.

Are you getting masterly in the ring as well? I don't care. So you're forming a ring that tucking finger in for sure. I'm mostly focused on masterly die standing so close together. So Billy, it's like awkward, like part of me and like between us me separating him. Yeah. So he's kind of moving in and out of the ring. I think as part of the seven to nine, he doesn't realize what you're doing. So he's like walking back and forth over it turns around. He's like, so what's the deal? What do you need?

I guess maybe this is when I asked my last question. What else is hidden here? You duck, you are looking at this coal this like deposit. It's like, you know, deep, deep black coal kind of like flaky like coals got this weird thing where it's kind of like chunks that are all pressed together and when you like flakes apart when you when you mine it out. He's like, yeah, this is the deposit. They've been digging into this thing for months now. We'll have to take a closer look.

It's powering fully a quarter of the max in the far fields military. Yeah, it's something they said that they said that it was a good compromise. They were compromising the deposit somehow. Does it look weird to you? Nope. Looks pretty much the same as it's always looked. This this one is supposedly according to the inspectors that have come through of particular value for its unique properties. What are those?

And you're like walking forward and you're kind of groping at the coal trying to get a look at it and you realize it's really like shiny and inside of this coal. There are flakes of obsidian and above at the mouth of the cave you hear screams and that's where we're going to end it for this week. I'm your game master Sean O'Hara joining me as always playing Tacoma Dome the Barbarian Abdul Aziz. So long everybody playing Ving the Half-Elf Druid Paul Take care.

Playing Fat Billy the Halfling Thief Jessica Tai. Goodbye everyone. Thank you to Aaron Reid for our intro and outro music. You can find Aaron's original music at aaronreid.bandcamp.com and Aaron's special Soft Bug Ego Jazz on Vimeo and Bandcamp. So good. So good. Incredible. So funny. One of the funniest people probably alive. Directed by Abdul. Directed by Abdul and edited by Abdul. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful job. You can find us on Patreon.

Dot com slash Spout Lore or Spout Lore dot com slash money please and get access to a whole bunch of stuff like the up-to-date mall Bratz feed playtests for our post Spout Lore campaign up all night including a recent one where we play bump in the dark by Jex Thomas and a whole bunch of other cool shit. So check that out. I don't have to tell you. You can find it yourself. Oh, we're also going to be we're starting to release video versions of these episodes on YouTube on our Patreon on Patreon.

We now have full video versions of Spout Lore. You've been asking for it. We're doing it. How is it? Really good. Really fun. You like you're always great on your camera. Oh, yeah. Really good on camera. You're maybe the best of us on camera. What does that mean? You just look great. You look great bone structure. You move cool. Yeah. You have interesting expressions are fun. Have like this cool news. You have this absolute ease about you that is the rest of us.

You don't have what you just look cool. Like your whole stance and way of being is so cool. And then we're we're like eggs. Yeah, you look like you're supposed to be on camera. That is so cool. And the rest of us don't guys. This can help us all. I hear what you're saying. And we put clips of Paul public feed. I will also say Jess, your reactions to everything. So good. Yeah, but it's like you also like react to stuff the way it's supposed to be reacted to.

That's the best thing about any kind of media consumption or engagement with Jessica. She reacts exactly like saying it's the best. It's there was like a thing where Sean did a very small reveal. And then you were just like, oh, it was so funny because it was like the camera just cut to you for that. There's a woman. There's a woman. I realized this semi-recently. It's so fun. We were watching Jeopardy. Yeah.

Jessica and I were watching a lot of pop culture Jeopardy, the like weird Jeopardy that Colin Jost does. And every time there's a daily double, Jessica goes. Like the people that made Jeopardy would be crying watching Jessica. Like she gets it. We did it. She understands. We fucking did it. We're moving the nation. So if you want that, and why wouldn't you, join us at the very fine chef level and up. You get full video versions of every episode of Spout Lore.

And probably all the other stuff too. For now, Spout Lore. Spout Lore to start. Let's just guaranteed Spout Lore, maybe some other stuff too. Yeah. Yeah. The Spout Lore episodes will come out a week after the regular episodes. So if you like that, check us out at patreon.com slash Spout Lore or Spout Lore.com slash money, please. And finally, thankfully, thank you. And mostly all of you for listening. Jesus. Get this band a chicken sandwich. Goodbye. Holy fuck. Wow.

I fully had an aneurysm on mic just now. Rate and review. Rate and review. That was great. And so ends the tale of adventures three who tried the best they can. Though dumb and scared and lost they be. For time's abreast in revelry. And though our journey may be like a conclusion. We will not leave you without a resolution. Return next week to hear some more. Whilst you commute or do your chores. And for you. I gladly Spout Lore. .