Episode 14 – The Heart

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 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 Good afternoon And playing Fat Billy the Halfling Thief Jusketai Hello! When last we left our heroes, they emerged from the mine deep in the firefields Under the ownership of Sir Lee Master Lee Right? That guy?

Yeah That's so funny I don't know what happened to him Surprisingly not Sir Lee His investments were destroyed He ran away, we heard him in the distance He was so excited when the last of the distillation columns came out Another 2%! No! My investments! This accounts for 5% of my family's wealth! My dad's gonna be so mad at me!

Once he realizes that the money's not coming in, which will take several years Emerging from the mouth of this tunnel, hearing screams The party saw pandemonium unfolding below The price that nature exacted after Ving helped M4 make his modifications Was creating a sort of living parasitic iron that flowed over scrap in the mechanics bay And brought itself to life Rampaging through the facility and attempting to just cause carnage for reasons unknown The party We did figure out why You did figure out why later on in the episode The party realized the adulterated, infected, laced coal at the base of this mine Mixed together as it was with obsidian May have been causing some sort of spiritual, demonic infection And the smoke from the burning of the coal that the firefield's military has been basing almost their entire industry off of Is maybe helping reconstitute or repair The gibbous man's connection to the material plane and the iconic realm at the same time And disperses him all over it Exactly And gets into the lungs of the people And soaks into the environment It's sort of like a rehashing of his strategy with the druids we said Where he's like covering the night sky Making it black Very strong theory This brought them to the decision that no one could ever get their hands on this coal And Ving summoned forth a snake spirit Composed of living molten rock To seal the mines forever Which it did And then released it as the spiritual infection began to take hold of the snake itself Freeing it from its corporeal form and sending it back to the spirit world Meanwhile, Billy and Tuck attempted to protect Ving from the horrible iron rust monsters as they charged up the hill Yeah And what followed was a pretty tough fight It was really bad Pretty difficult A lot of bad things happened there Yeah, I know A lot of bad things happened I failed every roll Yeah Brutal A lot of stuff happened Billy killed one of the creatures at least by himself Fully on his own Yeah, totally alone Yep Tuck had a harder time taking wound after wound His flesh being covered in this strange rust that caused his flesh itself to rust The fight got worse as a In a lot of ways You tried to put it in a better way, thank you for that I tried to think of a different way to say it, but it got worse Tuck attempted a couple times to use his sort of waking connection to the void inside his mind To commune with Black Spire Working on a theory that he kind of put together himself Yeah, put together himself while he was like in the middle of being attacked Yeah, yeah, yeah And also like so insecure about how bad the fight had been going already His idea was kind of based He wanted to create some sort of Iron Man style chest beam Using the coin fragments in his body And Black Spire's growing Sunstone Sunstone connection Yeah It didn't unfortunately work all that well at all Um, uninfected Wormack smashed its way out of the mechanics bay Which M4 went to go deal with And Tuck went to go try one more time to connect to Black Spire To try and redeem myself Oh yeah, I forgot He tried to redeem himself He got backhanded across the yard Yeah, oh I got hit by that I got hit so hard Basically passed out Yeah Uh, meanwhile Ving was brought down to one hit point Billy tried to build a fairy ring around Ving Failed Failed hard Failed super hard Got snake eyes There were so many snake eyes There was a lot of snake eyes Yeah And then uh, that failure led to a rock slide As the carved out lava tunnels from the snake spirit caused the hillside above you to collapse Mm-hmm Sending a torrent of crushing stone down on everyone and the refinery yard Ving was able to at the last second use elemental mastery to save Billy and himself It was clutch Everything you did was so fucking cool There was some cool stuff There was some cool things It was pretty sweet Wasn't that why you wanted to do the sunstone kind of thing in the first place?

Cause you saw Ving looking so cool while he's like fighting and doing cool stuff And you're like I also have to look cool Ving looked so cool Tuck was on his back for most of the fight Yeah Billy had to save him multiple times Uh huh He was so emasculated And at one point one of the centipedes crawled over him to get to someone who it perceived as a bigger threat Very hard to handle Very damaging to touch And then my son had to come here and he saved me more Stabbed a bunch of times, yeah The rock slide, due to the elemental mastery choices that remained before us Uh huh Threatened to destroy everything It did destroy the refinery and the buildings around it But it also coursed down towards a defenseless, helpless, vulnerable Tacoma dome M4 did some calculations, realized that he couldn't get to Ving and Billy So he chose to save Tuck And he said before he did that he said He pulled the iron giant thing The iron giant thing, yeah yeah Which is so sad because I am metal as fuck Yeah And then he dove over me And then disappeared under the stone Oh man, so it's like that's the saddest moment in that movie And I would like to say that is where we find our heroes now But where do we find our heroes now?

Is this immediately after or is it some time past? I don't know, I feel like we still have to resolve what's happening in this scene Yeah we come in on like a silent scene Just the winds Death, destruction, the sun is coming up What are the river ways people call it, the Harriers?

The Harriers, yeah I think there's maybe some We see like Harriers picking their way through the yard Yeah in the far distance Yeah like people in grass cloaks like coming down from the hill And walking towards the sort of shattered stone field I kind of want to go beneath like the rubble Okay yeah If that's cool I like that it shows the scene and then it like fades under Yeah Like the camera strips across all of the Harriers trying to like find us And then goes into the ground Yeah And I think it's like, I think the scene, I think it's like Tuck, eyes closed And then like And I look up and I see like M4's head Yeah And it's like And it's like his chest and his arms are kind of holding up a wall of stone around you Over top of me And I'm like M4?

It's totally still Oh no And I smack his face Bong, bong, bong Can I hear anything inside of him? Roll a discern realities Okay 2d6 plus wisdom Oh, eight Okay so you get one question What Harrier is useful or valuable to me? I think you hear, you would, you know what these Macs sound like It's like a lot of chugging and like pistons But all you can hear is like a quiet ticking Seems like deep inside there's like a Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick Okay Can I open his chest?

Oh you can try How are you opening it? Are you just ripping it open? Or are you trying to like engage and open it?

You said he moved the opening to like his insides Yeah he's got like a chute on the front basically So I want to open that Oh yeah if you're just trying to open it you can just reach up and pull it open You don't have to like Okay Roll or force it or anything like that I want to open it up and find out what's ticking It's kind of hard to tell I think if you do want to get inside you're gonna have to destroy some of his body basically Cause this chute wasn't designed to get to whatever is making that sound Right cause the chute is more for like consuming Cool It's like a fuel chute And you also do see your bear experience with Macs Like you see that this flowing like living iron has flowed through a lot of his insides and moved stuff around Fuck So it even it looks very strange in here And like as Tuck is doing this he's like trying to find anything inside like a switch Yeah He's like trying to turn him back on Oh yeah this is that's beyond your ken I have two ideas I can try and use TLC to talk to him Hmm Maybe Potentially I can get them to like create a spirit connection with him If he's aware like if his spiritual essence is still Is still there Or I could try and get the demon of servitude to make a connection with him But I don't trust it That's probably smart Yeah And it's also like everything that went wrong was because this place is basically salted by like the iconic realm Mmhmm Yeah I wanna use TLC then to try and get a boon from them Yeah To try and make a connection with him to like boot him back up basically Okay so that is that is an interesting thing to try in here Cause the thing that TLC requires is that like Yeah Yeah The thing that TLC requires to sort of wake is destruction Yeah Which how how do you see yourself doing this under a rock slide Uh so Tuck just to give you a sense of what the so like M4 is over Tuck Yeah Tuck is like moving very little Mmhmm Cause every time he shifts like rocks fall Yeah Mmhmm And he doesn't wanna like trigger anything to like fill the space that he's in Mmhmm And his axe is on his back so he's still kinda pinned a little bit Mmhmm Um what can I sacrifice what do I have Yeah let's while Tuck ponders this let's cut up to Ving and Billy Yeah How have you been under this rock pile Billy is conscious and he's I think rifling through Ving's pockets for poultices Mmhmm Ving is not conscious Ah Okay Okay so Billy is thinking okay this is what Ving does he chews for a while And then Billy starts gently applying all this chewed poultices Okay so Billy is thinking okay this is what Ving does he chews for a while And then Billy starts gently applying all this chewed poultices Mmhmm Ving's injuries He accidentally ate two of them He ate two of them They are molasses based Yeah Uh huh He wasn't thinking clearly and he went oh no it's just so good you know It's like a nip job Yeah Oh my god it's fucking delicious When you eat a little caramel you just gulp it down so fast Uh huh Yeah Yeah you can definitely apply at least one Once enough Yeah Okay I've done one So that's seven hit points I believe Yeah Yeah Which brings you up to eight which isn't a ton but I'd say yeah I'd say that's a good number Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah But I'd say yeah the night is enough for especially someone as not exactly skilled in healing as Billy to apply like seven points worth of healing Uh so that's what Billy's doing Cool Ving is trying to wake him up Does Ving wake up Ving Yeah he wakes up slowly Mm Billy Oh I'm glad you're okay Where are we I think we're safe but we're under the ground Oh what's in my body oh my god is that a lawn chair I think so I didn't want to try to get it out yet Is that a Zeller's cart Yes Oh my god He looks at his chest and notices Paul puts oh you actually did a really good job buddy Thank you I chewed it the way you chew it Thank you Billy You notice that there are more missing than Billy ate I ate two You got a little something right there Yeah fair enough I know I was having fun too We really got to come up with some way of masticating that isn't putting in our mouth because this stuff's delicious Thank you very much Billy have you seen Tuck have you heard anything from him Have you heard anything from out there Can Billy listen Oh my god someone's up there Oh my god it's biller time One of the it cuts to above and one of the guys are like does anyone else want a beer I only have two more Yeah you can roll discern realities if you're trying to hear what's going on Okay Plus whiz Six Eight I'm here Okay Yeah you're listening to 2d6 plus bond Seven Okay Two Two Two Two Two Two Two Two Two Two Two Two Two Two Oh Oh a a a!

A a lower than that. Lower, you hear a very quiet ticking. Something's there. And shifting. And like grunting. Yeah. Shit. Tuck's okay. He's alive. You hear someone fart really loud. Oh my god. Thank god he's alive. Who did that? Oh, that's for sure Tuck. Yeah, I mean, I'd like to… I mean, pretty weak. I can move the rocks. I can just start moving the rocks too. Yeah, you could just physically be moving rocks. And I think you could…

I think this is the kind of thing where if you did it slow and careful, it will just take time. We're climbing our way out. We'll cut back to Tuck. Under the stone. Yeah. So Tuck's kind of like shimmied TLC over top of him. And he's like basically in a coffin right now. And he keeps kind of yelling at M4 to try and wake him up. It has not had an effect. Yeah.

You're not sure why you could potentially roll like a Spout Lore or a discern realities to learn more about the situation or try and glean more about what might be happening. But if you're yelling, you're starting to hear shifting above. Okay. Not directly above you, but you're hearing people talking. I'm kind of most concerned with M4 because Tuck feels really guilty about sacrificing himself. Yeah. So he has 12 music bottles.

So he's going to take TLC and in the very small amount of space he has, use it to crush all of them in his backpack against the front of M4. So it's like a sacrifice of TLC for the blood gods. TLC has to destroy stuff to make that connection. Yeah. They're like glowing. So there's this purple light. I like pile all of the music bottles inside of M4's chest cavity and I just smash like the whole thing with the axe. It's so loud. It's so loud. It's like if you played the Frost CDs all at once.

Yeah. But like really like cranked it. No headphones. All big shenny tunes. 1 to 14. All at once. Brown pop noise. Yeah. And they like explode. Yeah. 2d6 plus wisdom. 8. So 7 to 9. They take of your flesh as well. Glass breaking. There's like shards slashing into you. Yeah. It like fully explodes. Yeah. The sound is like wrecking your eardrums. Right. Yeah. So a d10. 5. So 2 damage but it's loud. Yep. My ears are bleeding. Yeah. But you still get the boon. So you connect the crystals glowing.

Yeah. And you're like, oh, man, what the fuck's going on? What song is that? Dude, what? That sucks. I know. It was all the metal music all at once. You know what? I don't want to say it. I don't think I like metal anymore. No. I think I heard all of it at once and I'm tired of it now. So what do you need? Oh, you need to. Oh, whoa. Look at this big boy. And you can see they like walk along the blade of the axe. They're little fairy bodies and they're like pressing. Their ears against his chest.

I like push the axe up further just so that they can kind of like get in there. Like I make it make contact with M4's body. Yeah. And yeah, they're little fairy forms. You see walk up the blade and they hop onto M4. Oh, shit. Is this Ving's work? He's a fucking robot. And he's like as they crawl down inside. Oh, this guy's metal as fuck. This is fucking sick, bro. This dude's fucked up, man. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's bad in here, dude. How bad? Can we? Is it possible to get him going?

I don't know. But wait, hold on. And they took. OK, we found something. Is it ticking? It's ticking. Is it going to explode? It's a bomb. No, no, no, Terry. Calm down. It's not a bomb. We've seen a share of bombs in our time. Like what Tuck has asked me by that launcher. Fuck you, dude. Tuck has fucked you. And you hear like high fiving deep inside. Tuck punches a bunch of rocks. Rocks fall down. And then it falls in.

Do you know that shot from Aladdin where like Jasmine's the sand is filling up? Oh, yeah. It's like kind of that where he's like now only his like lips are above a bunch of dirt that's all shimming. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. Oh, my God. I take it back. I take it back. I take it back. Oh, my God. I got a bunch of dirt in my mouth. Oh, my God. This dirt's the gibbous man's body. I can't get it out of my mouth. It tastes so bad. So dusty. So burnt. It tastes like the gibbous man.

This is what my enemy tastes like. Know your enemy's taste. Is that like Sun Tzu says? Sun Tzu said taste your enemy. Taste your enemy. Taste your friends. Taste your enemies closer. There we go. Okay. Yeah, I know. He's pretty fucked up. I don't think this thing's getting started again, but hold on.

And you hear a bunch of like creaking and like snapping and like grinding metal on metal and then popping out of the top of the chute is Larry, Terry, and Chad and between them they're carrying like it's kind of the size of like a ham, but it's made out of gears and pistons and then there's the flowing organic iron surrounding it and it's ticking loudly. What is it? What the fuck does that… That mean? It's the only thing that was in there. This…

It's the only thing that was even close to like working. Can you describe it one more time? The way I'm thinking about it is like it almost looks like a stylized pineapple. Okay. Like it's like a metal kind of you know? Okay. Yeah. Okay, like a coconut. Like a heart, but with the veins poking out of the top. Yeah, but then like the tips are kind of like flared almost like, yeah. Like a metal heart. It looks like a metal heart. Okay, so Tuck takes that. Yeah. And he shifts over.

He like flips over and holds it like underneath him to protect it. And then he like slams his back up against the like M4's chest. And he starts like pushing. Oh my god, leg day. Basically do a leg burst. Yeah, totally. Alright. Try and get him and whatever this fucking thing is out. 2d6 plus strength? Okay. God damn it, I'm rolling with shit. Ten. Yeah. That was great. Wait, what? I was like, that was good. That was an old switcheroo. Oh my god, I'm rolling like dog shit. I succeed flawlessly.

Last session, it was all ones. It was all ones. I got that too that one time. So, Billy and Ving, you've extricated yourself from this like dome of rock. And as you push yourself out, it like collapses underneath you. Yeah, you're breathing fresh air. You see… I'm bleeding from so many spots. It's bad. You're both bloody and scraped and covered in dust. Yeah, pulling dust and dirt out of my mouth. Yeah. But I'm scanning the field for any weird rubble. Yeah.

I mean, I like the idea because there was so much noise. Yeah, so… That there was a bunch of people trying to rescue Tark out of it and then all of a sudden just like… They go flying. You scare a rescue dog. Exactly, yeah. You're scanning the field and you see the Harriers have like made their way over to where they heard this huge explosion. And you hear, River and Reed. And then Pan is like picking his way down the rock towards you and like, what hap… And you hear…

The rocks further down in the field are thrown aside. A massive metal back emerges and getting kind of tossed to the side, Tuck emerges, covered in blood and dust. Tuck! Ving wraps his arms around Tuck. You got a huge hug. Oh my god. It's okay, there, there, there. Get it out, get it out. Did that look cool? Did that look okay? That looked so cool. That was rock as fuck. Okay, cool. Ving goes over to M4.

Yeah, he's kind of like flopped over onto his back and his lenses are just staring up at the sky. I reach out with my spirit tongue to try and hear something. You feel a spiritual presence that you felt when you like first made M4 the way that you felt. You feel a spiritual presence that you felt when you like first made M4 the way that you felt. You feel a spiritual presence that you felt when you like first made M4 the way that you felt.

That's the way that he ended up being with the spirit water, but not from the husk of his body, but from something being held in Tuck's arms. He has his hand on his chest and he's like reaching out and then he like turns and looks over at Tuck. I'm really sorry, Ving. This thing was the only thing that was still working inside him. And I give the metal heart to Ving. And he takes it and he holds it. I think I might have accidentally killed M4.

And he closes his eyes and he feels that feeling that he was feeling across. And then he looks at Tuck and says, you didn't kill him. It's not your fault. I don't know what to do with this right now, guys. Can we put it in one of the other mechs that's still like in here? I think the ones that were like everything was destroyed in the rock slide. Like you would have to pull a mech out of the rubble and try and fix it up, which is far beyond what you're capable of. You could roll a Spout Lore.

Can I use a druidic lore? An argument can be made for that. This is spiritual stuff. Nine. Oh. Can I aid? Sure. Yeah. 2d6 plus one. I asked TLC to like tell them the things that they know about what they found. Because Tuck doesn't know anything. 13. The dice giveth and the dice taketh away. 13. So on a 10 plus with druidic lore. On a hit to GM, we'll ask you a question about the subject. Whatever you say is true. Okay. So. M.

M4 like this mechanism probably exists in all max and is sort of like a central processor, but you altered M4 pretty significantly with the spirit water and then with the living iron. Do you think that there's a precedent for like what is being know about permanent bodies that have been made for spiritual essences? Clearly this thing is still working. What do you think that means in a spiritual sense? Well, the axe is basically a permanent body for TLC. Yeah.

Which is a collection of spiritual bodies. Yeah. I think that's the important thing to remember that Ving is learning that being somebody who can talk to the elements, he's talking to the constituent parts of the elements, right? Like he's breaking down the elements, getting even more lost in the weeds of all things. Does Ving think that M4 may still exist in this thing? Yes, he does. Yeah. It feels like it. It feels like him. I can, when I hold it, I can hear the song in my head. Yeah.

And I think that you would connect the dot that if you were to get this heart into another form of some kind that M4 is not gone. M4 is just currently in a different form. Yeah. Also, we only have one more Hibernia water use. So I could do this again, but it would be the last of my Hibernia water. Anyways, don't need to do it right now. And there's no other mechs around here. No, this place is toast. So mission accomplished. Yeah. You did it. You destroyed the refinery.

Congratulations, everybody. That's what Pan says. Pan's like, wow. We're so, so sad standing around the body of M4. He cracks another beer. Way to go, everybody. Mission accomplished as far as I'm concerned. Am I able to roll fairy child? Absolutely. Yeah. Billy is staring at the body of M4 feeling very sad about many other bodies he's seen in the past. And the light of the sun is shining. Nine. Okay. So you get three fairy child hold. Well, can I just really quickly roll what the bones know?

Yeah, absolutely. A four. Great. So you can replace one of your die with a four. So Pan's sort of like, I have to say, this was a resounding success. This refinery is offline completely. If you are interested, we could really use some people like you. Where are you going? You know, we honestly, we thought that this was going to be a bit of a longer operation. So we need to link up with command before we can get our next assignment. So what do you think? I think we go with the Harriers.

Yeah, I don't really know what to do right now. And we're all like blasted. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You guys need time to recuperate before you do anything. Yeah. It's really hard to leave M4 here. Yeah. In this place in this battlefield. We have what matters of him. Yeah. You're kind of, you're bringing M4 with you. It's sad to leave that body behind, but yeah, at least he persists. His sacrifice noble, the cost great. Hope, etc. There's a little poem that pan just freestyled for you.

It's like, I know times are tough, but I sort of an amateur poet. If you want to read my stuff later, I'd love to get some opinions, but we should head out. Yeah. So is there anything you want to do before you leave? Try and pick through the rubble or gain and get any information. Was there anything here? No. I feel like we learned what we had to and now we have to think about this. Yeah. Tuck just scratches metal as fuck. Until like M4's chest. Before we leave. Very nice.

I want to pile a bunch of stones on him. Yeah. Finish burying him. Yeah. So he's not exposed. I don't want him to rust anymore. Very beautiful. So yeah, we see this. The scene as you're walking away is like a cairn of stones and then the one like gap left is a piece of metal that says metal as fuck. Yeah. As you walk through the gate and a couple hours later, I think you're just backtracking. It's fairly safe. On the way back, you return to the Harrier's temporary bivouac.

Camp at the old logging settlement. And there's the vibe of everyone starting to pack up, but someone starts making food. People are resting, recuperating and Pan comes and sits on a log next to you and is like, so 24 seven with the pan flute. I'm sorry. Fucking get a different hobby. Really language. Sorry. We know you're in your winter form, but you cannot talk. Like that. Sorry. It's just such a headache. Such a headache from all those rocks.

Oh, does Billy have the opportunity to shift seasons? No, he's forced into this right other night. And that's partially also why he's so mad. Oh, he's locked into the winter. It's like he's like tensed up like and pan like holds up his hands like, oh, sorry. Sorry. And puts the flute like in an inside pocket on his vest. Do you have a medic here? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Crandall come on over here and someone comes and starts applying bandages and salves to you.

And in a while you, you all heal seven points if you so choose. Seven more? Yeah. Awesome. Great. Thank you. Crandall, what have you, while this guy's working on me, I just go, what have you heard of what's going on in the war? Uh, just like in general? Yeah. Like how are the high spear forces doing holding off the firefields forces? It's, uh, it's not going so good from what I hear, but I know, you know, we've been out in the field for a while, so we haven't gotten any new information.

But when we, uh, got the army deployed, most recently it was going pretty bad. Have they pushed into the city at all? No, no. Thank God. But, uh, they just were outgunned. We really are. I mean, they've got guns. Yeah. They've got literal guns. Yeah. Actual guns. You guys are all fucking spears and reed capes, dude. Yeah, the riverways are not a wealthy principality, but what we lack in money and arms we more than make up for in a willingness to die for what we believe in.

I was hoping you were gonna say grit. Something cool over that. Something good, not just your willingness to die. Maybe you're too willing to die. Everyone in the riverways wants to die. And the swords of their oppressors. Then he grabs his bag and walks away. I was just making sure that Perel and Morris were still okay. Oh, yeah. Totally. No, if they get to the city, then something, everything has gone bad terribly. Um, so yeah, I guess this is Sean now asking what next?

So we have done one thing, which is like destroy their ability to field mechs in this area. Yeah. And destroy their ability to produce this coal. And we also took away one of the gibbous man's ways to like get his body back. I feel like the next big steps is now that we know about the obsidian in the mines, like to shut down the other coal mines to stop like any more of that from being released into the air. Totally. Yeah.

We might need to tell like whoever's like coordinating the riverways resistance so that they can also do that. Turn their forces towards the factories. I feel like either it would be up to us to like go to the Blackhammer twins and like, I'll kill them or force them to shut it down. That was our original plan is to go find them and kill them. So like we snuck into the army so we could get access to them. We ended up there. We destroyed that. Let's get back on our mission of finding them.

How do we find them? We talked to high command. To the firefield high command? Or? No, I was thinking, I mean we were with the riverways resistance. Yeah. Who's, yeah. Probably have information, spies and stuff. Yeah. Go with the Harriers to wherever they're going to get information. They must have a way of transferring information from different sites. Thinking, yeah. And different fronts. Oh, it's a bunch of archers, right? Yeah. What if they attach their messages to arrows?

And they shoot them across distances to different camps. Oh, yeah. That's cool. Oh, and there's different routes that they shoot them. So then you walk along the route and you find an arrow. Yeah. It's going to be like a kilometer at the most. Yeah. But that'd be cool. So we're thinking that's what they would do instead of like going to meet somebody. They would go to these places where the arrows would be with information. Oh, I like that because there's people spread out throughout that track.

Yeah. The other messenger archers would find them and be like, oh, and they'd like shoot it along. Like the torches of Gondor. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's really cool. That's cool. Yeah. Cool. Okay. Yeah. I like that a lot. So we think like you are basically explaining this to Pan what you want to do next. Yeah. And then getting him to send a message of where you would be able to find the Black Hammers potentially. There must be a way that we can just have an idea of an area where they are. Yeah.

I don't really feel like the Black Hammer twins are like hiding. They're out and about. Yeah. One's on the war front. The other one's running the country. Cool. Okay. Then who's going to be rolling this discern realities? Who knows how to write? I do. I pretended to be a librarian for a while. Holy sh… Okie dokie. Oh my God. He puts on his glasses like sage. He just flicks his head and his glasses were hiding in his hair and they come down on his nose. Little half-moon glasses.

I got two sixes. Yeah, I got 12. Pretty amazing. So you get three questions off the list. Is it plus anything? Just in case. Wisdom. I got 15. Oh my God. You read and write so well. Huge roll. Oh my God. So you're like, you sit down with, uh, Pan goes and gets, I think they call it something like the Bowstring Express or something like that. Oh, sick. To share information between camps. Because it's just like on the deer track that they kind of like run on, right? Exactly, yeah.

But it can cross like huge areas of land because there's scouts posted all over the place. And there's special arrows. And then like little wings maybe pop up the side. Yeah. Cute. They have like little springs. And you sit down with one of their archers, their designated messenger, and they teach you the, with your 15, they teach you like the shorthand that they use to transmit as much information as possible. Maybe the shorthand is like derived from druidic runes.

So like Ving picks it up so fast. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah. There's a very like Ogham ancient language kind of pictograph. Style to it. I love that. And they send off the message. And you're all able to relax and get some food in you. Can I get rid of the stability? No, no, no, no. That takes days. Okay, I guess I'm going to keep this. What a bummer. Yeah. Can I get three more hit points from somewhere? Like eat a good stew? I was going to look up a move. One sec. That's what Billy does.

He, you know when kids make like mud pies. Yeah. Or whatever. Make mud soup. Yeah, mud soup. He gets to that. But with like regular food. Make soup? Yeah. But in a tree trunk. In a gross way. In a stump. Yeah, he's grabbing sticks and stirring it up like, nope, I think we need a bit more of this. He grabs like some gravel off the ground. He's like, yum, yum, yum. Come on everybody, grab a bowl. Slop is ready. Yeah, we're like, grab a bowl. Yeah. So we go and, is it, it's real food, right?

Yeah, isn't it? It is. Tuck says that to Billy. This is real food, right, Billy? Yeah. Okay. I just, sometimes you'd feel it feed us dirt. What? No, I made chicken gumbo. Okay. Thank you. And Tuck goes up to the stump and he laid all the soup. He's like, gumbo into a bowl. Oh. Yeah. It's actually delicious. Uh, you, do we want this? This could be the manage provisions move for sure. Yes. Okay. So Billy's rolling 2d6 plus wisdom to make his tree stump stew. 11. 11. Two sixes. No, 13. 13.

Good lord. We're rolling so well. This is insane. We're rolling so well. It's from the lights. Yeah. Charge it up. Yeah. So you choose one from the list below. I know exactly which one you're going to pick, so I'm just going to say it. The party consumes the expected amount of food. It is prepared excellently. Describe it and everyone who licks their lips takes plus one forward.

Yeah, it looks like a bunch of like red mud and stones and sticks, but it's actually chicken gumbo with, you know, well sauteed onions and garlic and peppers. The good old mirepoix. And there's andouille sausage in there. Oh my god, saffron. Saffron, you know. When Billy says mirepoix, Vig and Tuck look at each other like, where did he learn that? I heard mirrors say it. I don't know what it means. Oh yeah, he thought it was his name. Yeah. Uh, and rice. Oh, you're still thinking of saffron.

Okay, yeah. Delicious. Sounds great. Oh yeah. Mmm. Thank you, everyone. Yum. Awesome. Why did you do it like that? Just the smallest possible amount of tongue emerging. Because now we're on camera. I know, I know what everyone's see. Uh, okay, so everybody rests and recuperates. If you get a few hours at least of uninterrupted sleep, you can heal up to half your total hit points. Yeah, I'm gonna do that. Okay, so we're saying that you're sticking around for a couple hours at least.

We're waiting for the message to come back. Yeah, totally. And it would take a while because they're shooting arrows back and forth. Uh, but one day, it does arrive. I wanna grab it. Out of the air. Yeah, because Billy's actually, I'm fully healed up, so Billy doesn't sleep. He's like, I'll stand guard. Oh, you hear the arrow arriving. Yeah. And you're trying to catch it. Yeah, and I'm running into the field. 2d6 plus dexterity. Fun. Five. You get fully shot by this arrow. Yeah.

I'm really embarrassed, though. I'm really embarrassed. Um, so I'm like… It hits you, like, in the thigh. Like, wonk. No, right in the butt. Oh, right in the butt. You overshoot it, and you're facing away as it shoots you in the butt. Don't panic, Billy. It's okay. It's just the butt. We don't really need that. We can get it out. That's why I pull it out. Okay, yeah, I roll a d6. Holy fucking shit. That was a six. Six damage. Billy's all healed up. He'll stay up all night. Billy!

He's too confident. Um, yeah, so there's a lot of blood coming out of him, but he can't see it, because it's his butt. Yeah. So Billy walks into camp with an arrow. Trying to keep a secret, like, trying not to limp, and he's like, I got the message. I found it in a stump in the field. I found it. I was going for a walk, and I came upon it. So I brought it to you guys. You hold up the arrow, and it's covered in your blood. 100%. Yeah. It's not blood, though.

I know you're going to think this is blood, but it's not. It's not. It hit a cherry tree. Billy, did you get hit with the arrow? No. It's okay. I didn't get, nothing happened to me. Just gotta put a band-aid on it. Don't worry about it. Show me your buns. Bleeding so much. No, that's my private area. Billy, you can't have two buttholes. Your pants are so wet. I peed myself. You peed blood, Billy? That's worse. What's worse? I got bit by a snake. That's worse, Billy. That's worse.

That means you have venom in you. No, I sucked it out. You sucked it out? Of your own butt. Yep. I'm going to go to Crandall for unrelated reasons. Okay. And then we hear Billy go, Crandall, tell me about your kids. You gotta help me. I got an arrow in my butt. That's all the way I did. Oh my god, I'm bleeding so much. Give me a fairy oath that you're not going to tell anybody. You can barely handle one butthole. Great. A fairy curse you if you tell anybody, Crandall.

Tell anybody else to slit your throat. And you have this note. It's got three discern reality questions worth of information on it. It's densely packed with druidic runes. Okay. What here is valuable to us? So what here is valuable to you? You are specifically looking for the locations of the Blackhammer. Twins. Exactly where they are. You don't have an exact, well, I mean, one of them is fairly exact.

Callum Blackhammer has returned to Blackglass City because there is some sort of diplomatic event going on. And he was required to return to deal with it personally. Like a ceremony kind of thing? It's some kind of diplomatic event. That specifically is like we don't know exactly what it is, but there is something political happening. I don't like that. Okay. And then Colm Blackhammer is, I think he would be like directly on the front. Yeah.

He is directly on the front trying to push into Highspear, the province itself. I also thought that he might have heard about the factory getting hit. And so he's going to other factories to disperse, to fortify their factories. That is interesting. It might be too soon for that information to have gotten to anybody. Okay. So like, I think currently, I think the Firefields is unaware that their factory has been destroyed. Oh, that's interesting.

Sir Lee Masterly is probably, we cut to Sir Lee Masterly running, jogging, covered in sweat, like Oh, daddy, daddy. I fucked it up, oh daddy. He pans down and he's on the shoulders of someone else running. Go, go, Jeffrey, go! But he's all sweaty from you. I'm sweaty from moving my arms back and forth. His legs are kicking out. Yeah. Run smoother, Jeffrey. Jeffrey, my scrotum. Jeffrey! My name's Scott. Jeffrey, lean your your neck. Back forward. My scrotum keeps smashing into it.

I'm thinking that Scott is fed up and he throws Sir Lee off. Just walk, man. Fucking sick of this. My older brother, Jared's gonna make so much fun of me at the Christmas party this year. And we cut back. You got two more questions. What should I be on the lookout for? So, the note says that the resistance on the border of Highspear, though the Firefields has pushed in a little bit, the resistance was stronger than they anticipated.

So, the Firefields is requiring, like, reinforcement at a rate higher than they expected. So, they're, like, waiting on more people. So, they can't actively be assaulting. And do you think less than usual are showing up? Yeah. They're kind of getting desperate for manpower. Right. The people that they draw on now are gonna be less likely to fight for them. Yeah. And once they find out that they're gonna have a lot fewer Macs soon, that's gonna hurt them for sure. Man, we've kind of fucked up.

This war for the Firefields so far. So fun. And we're in a very advantageous position having this knowledge that they're not aware of yet. And we're pretty deep behind enemy lines right now, which is also dangerous, but sick as fuck. One more question. What here is not what it appears to be? So, the note says that different crews of Harriers have been specifically trying to capture officers and logistics people to figure out what their supply line is looking like.

And they discovered different shipments and things in, like, ledgers that initially seemed like semi-mundane logistics reports, but they've connected through interrogation and information that the Firefields is preparing to field a secret project. Does it say where? They, it's very, there's like a lot of underlining and, like, exclamation and, like, frowny faces that they're like, we wish we knew more. They're just like, so much wasted space. So many frowny faces.

The shorthand uses a lot of emojis. Uh-huh. But it's sort of like, that's the scuttlebutt in the Riverways and Highspear, like, intelligence community right now, is everyone's really worried about this secret project. They don't know what it is, and they don't know when it's going to appear. But if it was going to appear anywhere, you would guess it would be the front, if it was, like, some big, like, gotcha. Right.

Do they have a term that they use to refer to the secret project, or they call it the secret project? Oh, um, it would be reflective of the twins, for sure, the Blackhammer twins. It would Anvil? Project Anvil? Oh, yeah. That's not bad. So, yeah, they are referencing something called Project Anvil, a secret project by the Firefields military that they know frighteningly little about. Just that it's apparently going to be fielded soon, and likely near the front, is what they think.

The bare information they were able to get is, like, this is going to get us high spear, is what everyone in the Firefields believes. A couple of the people they've interrogated, when they ask them about the project, have, like, killed themselves. Like, rather than give them information. Yeah, they do, like, this cyanide capsule thing, or just, like, grab a knife and fucking… Yeah. I'd like to have, like, a ball of ferrous. Or what is that? Magnesium nitrate?

What's the thing that burns so white hot? Thermite? Thermite. That they have some sort of, like, metallic compound? A necklace? That they can smash and then just, like, burns them? Oh, it emulates them? It takes out anybody that's in the room? For the Firefields, that's sort of how they would go. That's brutal. Yeah. Where it's like, I'm going to take myself out, and hopefully two or three people around me. Yeah. Okay. I think those are the two paths that are before you.

Blacklass City, and whatever Callum's doing, or Colm and Project Anvil on the front. Or, actually, the third path is, like you were saying, going around and continuing this sort of, like, partisan work of going behind their lines and destroying their facilities. Yeah. Tuck wants to go to Colm, but Abdul wants to go to Callum. That's how I feel, too. I want to go to Callum, because I know he's in, like… Do they live in, like, an old palace?

They live in, like, the Princeps Palace in Blacklass City. Because I feel like something about, like, the Gibbous Man might be at Blacklass. Yeah. We still haven't gotten to the bottom of, like, the Gibbous Man's plans here. We've uncovered layers of it. I think this is a great idea, because we've encountered Colm on the front, but we've on the field, defeated him, fucked up this factory, devastated the troops on the ground.

Now let's get behind the lines and see what the rest of the force is looking at and try and get more connection to them. Yeah. And to be the shit-dick GM and dangle this in front of you, you didn't really defeat Colm Blackhammer. You got away from Colm Blackhammer. Yes. We fucked him up pretty bad. By defeating him. You specifically used the move that is you throwing sand in someone's eyes and running away. He's really scared of us now. Really cool guy. Fucked him up.

He was laughing so hard to cry. He was laughing so hard he was crying. He was laughing to cover up the fear and the crying that he's gonna do later. We'll never forget our cowardice again. No. Tug says no. He grabs Vig's wrist really hard. He's gonna remember the back of my head for the rest of his life. He was so scared of us, we had to run away from him, because he was so cringe at how fucking scared he was. We didn't want to look that cringe.

Who's gonna beat up a guy who's looking that cringe? I know. Not us. They're in a circle talking to each other. The areas are just like, what the fuck is wrong with these people? Billy's been stitched up. He's sitting on an ice pack. Yeah. That's embarrassing. He, no wonder he ran away laughing. He was laughing because he was like, I've never been so embarrassed in my life. You better be laughing. What a fucking cringe. Yeah, he looked like shit in that battle.

He's wearing armor because he's like afraid of us. Yeah. We are not wearing anything because we're not afraid of any of them. One man cringe festival. Pan's kind of standing there like, What do you have to say about it? Yeah, nothing. Agree with us. Okay. Why are you in such a foul mood? Oh, I'm not in a foul mood. It just seemed like you were all working through some things together. And I didn't want to interrupt. And he like slowly pulls the pan flute out of his vest. What do you got? No.

So as am I, Sean, to understand that this is you guys are parting ways. So the thing to consider now is you are quite far away from Black Glass. How would you be getting there? And then Tuck holds up the keys to the… I was just gonna say. Yeah. The keys to the what? The back door of Heather and Yard. Great. Yeah. We just need to find a door. One of the tent flaps. Is that enough? Billy smashes the key against the tent flap. It's not working. Come on. I'll hold it shut.

Shove it through this little gap. Tuck's doing it. Is it doing anything? It's not working. Come on, Billy. Hold it tighter. I'm doing it. Can we build a door? Can I discern realities for a door nearby? Can I discern a door? I mean, yeah, you're absolutely honestly… We're in the middle of a fucking bog. No, you're in the middle of an old logging camp. Oh. Yeah. So maybe there is a door here. There's a door here. It's embarrassing you didn't think there was a door nearby.

And I lean in close to Billy and say, shut the fuck up, Billy. Oh, language. That was cringe. Everybody's getting so tense with each other. I love it. We're all in so much pain. Yeah, yeah. We're all recovering so much. You've been fighting for days, basically. And all we've had is soup. Mud soup. Mud soup. Yeah. Soup. Shut the fuck up, Billy, or I'll take away that pillow you're sitting on. Just tuck. You want this pillow, don't you? Yeah. For your soft little butt and your soft muscles.

Shut up. My muscles are hard. They're such small muscles. They're not even that big. Billy, they're so big. No. And tuck does this. Oh, look at all that soft, like my pillow I pinch. When you pinch the love handles. Oh, yeah. Little tough. Can you flex these massive biceps? I can see pitches to your love handles. Fuck. And then tuck. Tuck giggles. Because it's… Oh, and Vingan's in there. Stop it. There's a door. You don't even have to roll. He's like, oh, there's a door. Tuck smashes the door.

Fuck. Fuck your door. Right off the hinges. Roll for door. Whoa, that's cringe. Embarrassing that you had a tantrum at a door. Yeah, tuck pokes Billy in the butt. Hey. Hey. That's… That's… That's for me. Let it heal. All right. 2D6 was wisdom because tuck destroyed the door that you found. Oh, damn it. So what you recall is that the keys require a lock. Do I have to roll for destroying the door? No. Wait. I roll. Come on. Why are you rolling? I guess I succeeded.

Did you just want experience? I want experience, yeah. You gotta stop doing that, man. This is a dried out, rotten door. Yeah, it just obliterated under the barest touch. Incredible. Yeah, so discern realities if you want to find more in this logging camp. You haven't done any digging around in here. Okay. Yeah, we'll look around. Mm-hmm. Plus wisdom. Ten. All right. Three questions. What here is useful or valuable to me? A door. Yes! There's like a… It looks like basically it was a shed.

And it's one of the… The door is barely hanging onto the hinges. Mm-hmm. And it looks quite aged. You're not sure if it is a… A camp that was abandoned because like the logging was no good, which would be weird because there's trees everywhere. Or if people left during the war. Well, we will know soon what happened here recently. Ah. Oh. So you look around. So smug. I know. Well, we will know soon. I'm sorry. Soon. I guess we're going to know in just a moment. I'm sorry. Perhaps we'll learn.

I'm such an ass. No, it is. I agree. Yes. I'm an evil queen today. Perhaps we will learn of your downfall. Momentarily. And Billy… Sir Gringlewald. Sir Gringlewald. Sir Gringus. Bringeth it here. Bring the box of pain. This is the Gom-Jabbar. Put your hand in here. It's going to hurt. Ooh, look out. Gom-Jabbar. That was my favorite scene. That was my favorite scene in Dune. When he goes, ooh. Ooh. Ooh, look out. Ooh, that's spicy. Look out, Timothy. Going to hell. They use the actor's name.

So, Billy, you're like looking around the logging camp. You're like, oh, a door. Cool. But you're just like, dude, dude. You're like, oh, I found the door. Okay. And you start wandering around. And you're looking at like the trees and the logs. And for the most part, it's a grim but seemingly fairly healthy forest. But having been where you just were and like, you know, the smog in the sky from the coal, the coal smoke that the firefields has been burning. You get a very similar vibe.

Like this place is just sick. Oh, the trees stopped growing. And like the door that Tuck tried to punch and like just completely pulped under his fist. Yeah. There's like a degrading effect to this place. Yeah. I'm touching the trees and like the bark is coming off so easily. Yeah. It's separate from the phloem. Yeah. The inner layer. Yeah. Everything here just feels I'll. What here is not what it appears to be. Ah. What here? What here is not what it appears to be.

What would be an exciting thing to find in this logging camp? Obsidian. I just had an, I had an image of like Billy scrabbling around and like pushing away like moss and stuff. Revealing like a giant eye. Oh. Like in the stone. Like revealing black obsidian. And then like there's like a huge version. Like a carved eye. Of like the eye that's on the obsidian coins. That's pretty cool. It's a door. Oh. Yeah. Like a door into the earth. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah.

Billy, you're scrabbling around in the moss, which is like coming away in like dry flaky clumps. Yeah. It's so dry. It's easy. Jeez. Guys, look. And we come over. Yeah. There's, it's almost like a. Like a hatch almost. It's so cold. Yeah. Hmm. I try and reach out to this door and talk to it. Oh, you try to talk to the obsidian. Well, I just want to hear what it's saying or feel if it has a voice. Have you talked to obsidian before? No, never.

Well, I mean, if the obsidian is the gibbous man's body. And the coins are his eyes. I think it's literally just like, I see you. Whoa. I come out. It's him. I cover the, I cover it again with the moss. We have to leave now. We have to leave. We got to go right now. Use the key. Should I try and smash this thing before I go? Yes. Use TLC. Like he pulls out TLC and he does like the, like across his body, like whipping. It. And he wants to use for the blood God again. Yep.

To smash whatever the fuck this is open. Like it's like, like as he like spins the ax. Yeah. Yeah. After he hears him go, I see you. And he's like, not for long, bitch. Son of a bitch. Why can't I look cool ever? Six. Wait, do I have a plus one from the certain realities? So seven. Yeah. So seven. So seven to nine. I get what I want, but I take damage or something. Yes, you do. It takes of your flesh. So that's going to be your, your damage for sure.

As there's just like a, the obsidian like explodes up out of the ground. Yeah. Slices into your flesh. Weird. Yeah. It is weird. It comes up and out too. And you're standing there in front of the shattered stone as it falls away. And before you was like a hole yawning into the earth and carved into the stone steps leading down. Fuck. This is so tempting. What's down there? Guys, the fire fields are his place. We can't do this. Can I quickly do a trap expert on it or no?

I mean, trap expert is Billy like assessing a dangerous situation. So you could totally do it. Okay. Yeah. Do it. I'm just so curious. Like, why would this be here? Okay. I'm going to try it. Nine. Nine. So I believe you get one hold. Oh, actually I'm going to use my plus one forward. Oh, yes. Okay. So we go. Yeah. So is there a trap here? Yes. What activates it? Entering the portal. Oh, portal. Well, portal in the general sense. So what does it do when activated?

And portal in almost a literal sense. You're not Billy. You can feel as someone who was made for the walking of ways, the crossing of barriers. You aren't sure that if you went down these steps when you came out, you would be in the same place. Okay. Okay. And what else is hidden? Here. Hmm. You see carved into the stone of the tunnel leading down very angular animalistic designs that set off like a deep fear in you. Ooh. What?

What was the name of that church that took away your shape shifting ability? Oh, yeah. Church of the Black Flame. Yeah. I think it was the Church of the Black Flame. Yeah. Things. Hair on his arm stands on end. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, like a tunnel going down. Like little alcoves with candles and stuff in them.

I can use demon eyes to try and get more information. Because it's trap expert, but for demon stuff. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Seven. So you get one question. Can I see the list? So is there an icon here? And if so, what icon is it? So the Church of the Black Flame, we've kind of suggested, was like a druidic sect that was corrupted by the Gibbous Man. And has like an affinity with the iconic realm and demons. Right.

Because they had the tattoos that they used as anchors to trap spirits within their bodies. Yeah. I like that it was like pulverized and in some sort of solution obsidian. Oh, yeah. Because it was like black tattoos. Yeah, it was black ink. Yeah, it was spirit ink and like blood that they used to make their tattoos. So there's an iconic presence. There's an iconic presence that you feel at the base of this tunnel. And it's the icon. You feel that it is reminiscent of judgment. Okay.

I tell these guys that. There's a demon down there. It's a demon of judgment. I don't want to go down there. I don't know if you guys do to investigate. I don't think I need to know what's down there. Yeah, Tuck takes a step back. He's like, feels like a bad place. I'm so curious. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

This thing that is, you know it's a trap. You know, the gibbous man literally talked to us and said, I see. What could we gain from going down there? You don't know. The odds of it being something that is like directly and extremely relevant to your quest and situation is not high. You just stumbled upon this thing. But there could be interesting or revelatory information down there, but there could also be extreme danger. There could be extreme danger. Lore stuff.

We could use in the end game against him. Because one thing that we did ask Morrison Perel to like keep an eye out for is like if there's anything that they know that would like kill the gibbous man. Mm-hmm. Yeah. What if I did a shadow dance and went down there? Like Billy's little fairy bit self went down there. Mm-hmm. It would have less purchase on you for sure. Yeah. You would also be slightly less aware of your surroundings. Mm-hmm.

But like if I'm less aware of it, it'd probably be less aware of me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. As far as we know, the fairy is distinct and safe from the iconic realm. Billy. Yeah. If you feel like you can go down there safely, then we trust you to do it. But how many hit points do you have? I have 15. Just keep that in mind. Okay. Yeah. Wait, hold on. Did you just ask Billy how many hit points he has? Sometimes he forgets. Keep in mind that you just got shot in the ass. Okay. With an arrow.

No, we didn't. No, we didn't. No, we didn't. No, we didn't. No, we didn't. No, we didn't. No, we didn't. No, we didn't. No, we didn't. No, we didn't. I'm not going to do anything to my ass. My ass will be up here with you guys. Yeah, I'm going to roll shadow dance to go in. Okay. Okay. And I know they can't come with me. Yeah. 2d6 plus. Wisdom. Wisdom. So a seven, which means I get one hold. You guys are like, I don't know if we should go down there. I don't think we should.

And then Billy just falls over. Okay. Yeah. He went down there. He went down there, didn't he? Okay. That's him going down there. Okay. Okay. Well, Doug picks up Billy. He's like, is there anything you could do to monitor him while he's down there? Here, spit on him. Yeah. Can I eye the tiger him? You can eye the tiger, his physical body, but not his spirit. Why not? Spit on his body. See if that helps. It's like, Billy. Billy. I just hear woo.

But we see Billy like stepping down the path, like into the tunnel very steeply. This sort of like half light of the ferry. When you're this far. From like the deep wells of the like transgression points into that realm. But you see carved in the wall in this twilight, the animal pictograms. But there's like a almost like a life in a movement to them as they're like writhing and braying and fighting on the walls. Oh, yeah. There there's so much discomfort here. Can I Spout Lore? Yeah, totally.

Yeah. 2d6 plus intelligence. Six. Okay. Oh, yeah. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. This might be limiting our exploration of the whole. Billy, do you have fair share? I do, but I have to spend a hold to use shadow dance. Yeah. So you'd be spending. You'd have one left for the day. I'd have one left. I'll have one left. Okay. You're looking at these symbols and sort of like in the way that they are animals and scenes of predation and hunger and the transfer of power from predator to prey. Yeah.

And prey to predator. You're reading in it an ancient language. The information is flowing from these images to you in a way that the thinking peoples, the speaking races have conveyed information in, you know, grunts and songs for thousands of years. And you think of this old, the church of the black flame that you have experienced before the dark guard. You see the symbols and the beliefs of all of these groups woven into the image of the dark guard.

You see the symbols and the beliefs of all of these groups woven into the wall under a single belief. And these animal images crawl along the wall on both sides of the tunnel to a bend in the stone at the base around the symbol of an eye. All of these groups, you believe the dark guard, the church of the black flame are in fact the same group. They are the eye and that they have, of course, for all time, worship the sky and the gibbous man in that way. When you reach the bottom of the stairs.

I think I want to ask the table what Billy finds. Like I thought that maybe that like you were showing like the animal carvings or whatever. So I thought it was sort of like this is what the land used to be or something. And then they took us all away. Like they consumed us all. And the people who were here took our bodies into their bodies, like into their skin. Yeah. I think that makes sense that like if this was one of the original places, yeah, the people that didn't have.

Power that wanted it and like found ways to give it to themselves. But in like this destructive way. Ooh, that is a good idea. I have an idea to build on that. Okay. So like if this was the first place where the original practices of the Magi were like perpetrated, we're like the first of the spirits that like walk this land were like chained and bound to people's bodies. There's like maybe like in the first peoples that settled here. In the fire fields.

Like maybe there's been like a consistent tradition potentially within the Royal family of like this practice where it's like passed down from monarch to monarch, prince up to Prince. I think that is a good idea. I think that's what it is. Yeah. The blood of all the spirits that they've consumed is manifest, like represented in the fire. Yeah. Blood red hair. Yeah. Like it's a. It's a mark of their. Like. Their blood letting. Yeah. They're containing the blood of the spirit walkers.

Like it's the blood of shape shifters and druids that could do it. That was the activating element in the, in the ink. Yeah. What they were using. It's almost like a thing where it's like you go down and you see the story of it and you see like the first deal that like the first of the monarchs of the fire fields made. And the succession thereof. I was thinking like on the other side.

All the animals are feeding into the eye and then men and power and buildings and weapons are coming out on the other side of the eye. Yeah. And I don't think that there's anything like physically really like Billy feels like, I mean, you can't see properly, but it feels like it ends here. Like there's a blockage.

And you feel like, uh, as you're like descending this tunnel and learning this story, you feel that like the iconic, like presence kind of pushing on the outside of the ferry and on the outside of yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And found unworthy to enter. Right, yeah. And then I'm being, it's like I'm being pushed back. I'm tripping back up the stairs. That's so cool.

The demon of judgment is the door to this place. I guess so, yeah. You feel like basically in a mechanical sense, you feel that fairy child hold be spent against your will. Yeah. And you are ejected from this place. Yeah. Bailey. Holy shit. What did you see? So much, you guys. Language. Sorry. No, I mean, sorry. I tell them what I saw. I think under the armor, we would find these tattoos. Like Colm and Callum are like members of the Magi? I think so. Okay.

That's something where we should let Farrah know. Yes. Right now. Yeah. Reach out to Black Spire. Should I do that now or should we? You can do that. We should go somewhere safe. We should go somewhere safe. We gotta get the fuck out of here. Yeah. I feel like he saw too much. Yeah. He knows we're here. We hear like in the distance. Like crashing through the trees? Crashing. We hear like a mech running. Yeah. Yeah. Holy shit. Don't, don't, don't. Yeah. Like bashing trees out of the way.

Get the key, get the key. We gotta go. We gotta go. Grabbing the key, jamming it in the hole. Yeah. You don't have to roll for this, thankfully. You get it. You can put a key in a hole. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the door opens. Tuck takes Ving's key that he's been holding because Ving keeps losing it. And he jams it in the keyhole and like. Hey, we have the same key chain. Opens it. Yeah. Tuck goes, yeah, totally. And he whips the door off like the, that still works, right?

Yes, you can now get in, but now you can't close the door. I'm gonna smash it back in. Stop breaking metaphysics. Get in the door, get in the door. And as you, you, you step through the hallway into like the back area of Hither and Yon. Yeah. Before the door closes, I just want to look out and see the mech coming around the corner and Ving just kind of feels like this like guilt and like a longing for this type of thing.

And he feels for this, this creature that is singing the song of woe that he can't help. And you see the Harriers scattering. Yeah. As this mech comes crashing through the trees. The Harriers like spreading out and starting to draw bows and arrows and then plinking off the armor of this mech as it comes exploding into the camp. Quickly, I want to, I want to use a Bill of the Wisps and the new move Who Goes There. Oh, yeah. I want to try to lure away the mech from the Riverways people. Oh, smart.

Billy has a new move for listeners called Who Goes There. Can you read that? Yeah. So it's basically like a Bill of the Wisps except with a little wisp I can roll plus wisdom to lure, trick, or distract an opponent. On a seven to nine, I can distract one person. On a 10 plus, more people for longer. If I fail, it confuses the people on my side. 2d6 plus wisdom. Eee! Come on, come on, come on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Book six, I will use my last fairy child to change it to a seven to nine.

Okay, so describe this and how Billy gets the Harriers to take advantage of this. It's like a gleaming arrow that I shoot out almost. Mm, cool. And the mech sees it as it like goes basically the opposite direction of the Riverways people. Yeah. And yeah, so this, the mech skids to a halt as the arrow whips back the way that it came and it turns and starts trundling back into the woods. Its head turns before its body turns. Yeah. Yeah.

And Pan looks to you like entering the shed and the door closed. And that's where we're going to end it for this week. I've been your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always playing Tacoma Dome, the barbarian, Abdulaziz. So long. Playing Ving, the half-elf druid, Paul Oppers. Take care. Playing Fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica Tai. Goodbye, everyone. This show wouldn't be possible without our Patreon supporters all around the world.

If you would like to support the show, join us at patreon.com slash spoutlore or spoutlore.com slash money, please. And you'll get access to a bunch of cool stuff like the up-to-date Mall Brats feed, playtests for our post-spoutlore campaign up all night, full video episodes starting now. That's pretty sick. They look great. We all look amazing. Looks pretty good. Yeah, yeah. You all finally get to see how hot we are. Yeah. Boy, oh boy. Do I ever have the biggest lip fillers in there?

Such a problem. I got so thick and glossy. I got most of the bones from my shins removed and put into my cheeks. So I've got the sharpest cheekbones in the biz, baby. So sharp, they're piercing my skin. I got muscles bigger than tubs. Jess is actually nine feet tall. And nine feet wide. 450 pounds. You won't believe it. My chin is in a cut phase, finally. All four of us. Great. Hey, Canadian. Bacon. Bacon. Oh. Canadian bacon. Bacon. Triple food. Yeah. Oink, oink, audience.

Who's a little piggy who you could absolutely jack off to? Are we snackable finally? Okay, all right. Get on Patreon and fap to your hearts. I'm putting an end to this now. Putting an end to this. Thanks to Aaron Reid for our intro and outro music. If you want more of Aaron's music, check it out at aaronreid.bandcamp.com and thankfully, thank you, finally, and most of all, to all of you for listening. We'll see you next time. Ooh. Oh, God. Did you just come? He saw a reflection of himself. Ooh.

Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. And so ends the tale of Adventures 3 who tried their best they can.

The The There's a woman and lost they be for times of rest and 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 spell here Sean and Jared check this out and look at my lips whoa let me see whoa you're looking all of them beautiful lips yeah look at all of it wow that top lip is like a model's lip yeah how much do you think you would have to get paid to go clean shaven yeah I would never do it not even for one million dollars did you just watch Austin Powers no I was just trying to think of a big amount of money I was like a million is a big you said that like Dr.

Evil one million million dollars do you guys remember do you guys remember Austin Powers it's so good what did you do for two hundred thousand dollars two hundy thousand it would grow right back oh my god I guess I guess I'd do it for two hundred thousand dollars you heard that patrons time to get to yeah we're gonna start a Kickstarter oh yeah we'll shave our beards see Abdul's face yeah we'll all shave our beards yeah for money there you go haha haha haha haha