Episode 15 – You Guys Going On A Side Quest?

If you like our show and you want to hear some more of our show, or similar shows, or content that didn't get into the show, go to the Patreon and there will be some of that over there. Oh, that was good. You fucking flubbed it. You bailed on yourself. 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 half-elf, he shifts his shape and wields a spear with great might. Billy's a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart. Best in bread. They may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts. So gather round, friends, and listen close. For the tale's about to start. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Spout Lore.

I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me, as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the barbarian, Abdul Aziz. Hello, everybody. Playing Ving, the half-elf druid, Paul Oppers. Hello, every… Guys. Playing Fat Billy. Playing Fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica Tai. Hi, everyone. When last we left our heroes, they had come upon the revelation that Ving's mother, name previously thought to be Ileana, was likely killed during or as a result of a battle between the rangers and the druids of Hibernia.

We were then collected by Savarna, a member of the Greenspeakers' clade, and a deer from the waist down. She was a great help to the! Who took you all up to see the council, the Oval Council, leaders of the clades of Hibernia. We met a whole bunch of wacky characters.

Stoneeye, King of the Selkies, Bessara, leader of the Greenspeakers, Grimshay of the Deepstriders, Velary, aka the Willow's Daughter of the Sungazers, Aldous of the Empty Sky of the Windwalkers, Hedara Maneater of the Hunters, and Nareen of the Quiet Step. Nareen of Toronto. Nareen of Toronto. Nareen of Thunder Bay, Ontario. I got lost. I got off the wrong bus and now I'm just here. They won't let me leave. Because they figured out I could turn into animals.

Which is a thing that's always been true about me. Yep. Ving was questioned before the council. They explained that the blood oath had to be paid, blood debt rather, for transgressions by the Ileana family. There was a whole lot of back and forth. Yeah. There was a whole lot of back and forth. Them saying words like blasphemy, defiling, defilement, etc. And Tuck decided that this was time for his big play. It was a pretty cool play.

Which was challenging Stone Eye, King of the Selkies, to single combat. Yeah. I was going for a trial by combat kind of thing. Yeah. Did not work out. They said that that was not how they do things. No. Aldous of the Empty Sky, a young man that can turn into an eagle, thought it was hilarious. Uh. Until Tuck continued goading Stone Eye and then getting into a big old bust up. It was a bench clear. Like the whole council came down. Yeah. It was a whole scrap.

Everyone got down on the ice and started fighting. Scrapping gloves off. Gloves everywhere. Until Billy called upon the fairies for aid, requesting of a humble strawberry spirit that he help him. And the strawberry agreed, as long as Billy accepted a price, helping the strawberry with some task unnamed. Vines sprouted from everywhere. The rocks, the forest, the cliffside, tearing the combatants and the council apart.

So Billy could thunderously proclaim himself having returned to the home of his people and his endless eternal knowledge and self. Stake a claim with a tree planted. Yeah. Oh yeah. It was cool. Going through the forms that he's taken in the past during the summers, autumns, and winters of his life.

And then as a warrior made of ice and stone plunged his fist into the cliffside with the tree of knowledge seed inside, plucking time itself from the very air to speed its growth, leaving a full grown Arbutus knowledge tree on this cliffside, which was enough, surprisingly enough to get the council to stop fighting and just pay attention for a second. God, adults. Yeah.

So the council, uh, led by grim Shay asked for some time to deliberate very respectfully asked Billy for some time to deliberate on their decision, headed back down to the town, met shadow snout, uh, a raccoon line cook. Oh yeah. Yeah. Had some fish and then went down to the boats to talk to Perel about the revelation that Vings mother whose name now I realize we just don't know at all. Yeah. She adopted it. She adopted the name. Ileana, uh, was a wizard who was sheltered by the Ileana family.

Yeah. Yeah. She was a great help to Ving helping her survive the Exodus while she completed her work of perfectly replicating a human life in the form of her son thing. We don't even know if that was her work. That could have been a byproduct of what she was trying to do. Yeah, exactly. We also don't know if Vings dad is his dad or what the relationship there is now. Yeah. Just my mom's boyfriend. Yeah.

We just know that Ving was born of simply his mother, uh, and was created whole cloth out of the, the Sansa. Oh, yes. There's a lot of work. There's a lot of work. There's a lot of work. There's a lot of work. He's such a nerd. He's like, I'm going to go away and really try and remember that. Think so hard. Come back in a month. And Billy, who at some point felt like he wasn't welcome in the conversation, decided to go kick rocks on the beach. Well, they critique my grammar. Right.

I mean, I can't even read or write. So I'm doing my best. You can talk, though. Right. That was the conversation. Oh, because you were writing back to Farah to let her know the deal. Give her an update on all of this. Because these were some pretty big revelations. Yeah. You're telling me. How am I supposed to know that writing is just talking? Wait, you have to spell every word you talk? Yeah, it seems really tiresome. You know what? That's fair. It is very tiresome.

And during his rock kicking introspection, Billy heard a voice from a tuft of grass and found the strawberry spirit. Or strawberry. Fairy. Who has come to collect on his deal. And that is where we find our heroes now. Billy's got a strawberry fairy in his hands. I think he's a strawberry with arms and legs. That's all it is. I mean, I really could just eat you. Oh, I dare you. Well, I'm kind of scared of what would happen if I do. So just tell me what you want. I dare you. I want a flower.

Oh, what kind? I want a moon glow orchid. From the deepest cave on this island. Are you serious? I am serious. And that is our deal. You know those only bloom like. Tonight. I have so much to do. You must. I bring the strawberry up to eye level. I'm like, you, you know how important all this stuff is, right? We're watching him just talk to a strawberry. I still could just eat you. I dare you. I want you to. Do it. And he grabs like your eyelids and he pulls himself in close with your eyelids.

He goes, I dare you. Oh, I'm not going to because that's another stupid trap. That's what I thought. And he tosses your eyelids back and they go. All right. Guess I'm backed up into a corner. Crosses his little strawberry arms. Well, you're coming with me then because I have to tell my friends I'm going to go into a cave and you're not going anywhere. We didn't say that. Strawberry. Strawberry. Strawberry. Strawberry. Strawberry. Strawberry. Strawberry. Strawberry. Strawberry. Strawberry.

Strawberry. Strawberry. And the vine shot out. Oh, yeah. Well, I had to make a promise that I would do something for the fairy. But he didn't tell me what he wanted at the time. Anyway, he wants one of the moon orchids and they only bloom in the deepest cave. A moon orchid? Yeah. Do you know how hard those are to find? Yeah. So, Billy, are you telling us that you made a deal with Strawberry to help us when we were talking to the council and now we have to go get a flower for it? Yeah.

Was the flower dead to a strawberry fairy in the deepest cave? This is just how stuff works here. Okay. Do you hear Oleander snort to life? Hey. Hi. You guys going on a side quest? Yeah. Cool. Okay. He's back asleep. Should we tell Perel? Actually, you see Perel sitting cross-legged on a rock facing the water with his eyes closed and he's got his hands on his knees and he's kind of like twisting his torso. Like he's kind of gyrating his torso and he's breathing in this weird way.

Like he's sucking in and he's closing his eyes and he's like rubbing his forehead. It looks like he's trying to do something. Yeah. Bing, do you do stuff like that? Oh my God, no. Okay. If you ever see me doing that, call for help. If you ever see me doing that, fucking shoot me. Yeah. We should probably leave him alone. Yeah. Oh yeah. I'm comfortable with that. Yeah. I would be embarrassed if someone saw me doing that. Yeah.

It would be almost as embarrassing as if someone opened the door and you taking a shit consistently. That's not embarrassing. I'm just looking out for you. No, you're looking at me. There's a difference. And as you guys are walking away, you look back at Perel and it looks like he's lit that ion candle. Oh. He's got it in front of him on the rock. Oh, cool. All right. Terry the Strawberry Fairy. No, not Terry. Barry. Ted. Barry the Strawberry Fairy. Barry. Yeah. Where's this cave?

Wait, you can't talk to me. Hey, kid. What does your friend want? He wants to know where the cave is. Oh, well, it's through the woods, other side of the island, down by the water. Okay. The only thing is this part of the forest is a cave. Okay. Okay. This is dangerous. No, it's not. What do you mean? Yes, it is. You don't know. You don't live here. Well, I don't live here right now, but I used to. Well, this part of the forest is dangerous. He crosses his arms and goes, it's dangerous.

With what? Monsters. You wouldn't know because you don't live here. I do. How do I tell if Barry's lying to me? 2d6 plus wisdom. Nine. Nine. Oh, can we aid? Yeah, totally. Oh, wait. No, you can't. How would you be able to aid? Hey, can you threaten him with your muscles? I can threaten him with the spirit axe. Oh, yeah. And then I, like to talk, it just looks like Billy's talking to an actual strawberry. Yeah.

So he just takes TLC and he like takes the spike and he puts it really close to the strawberry. And he's like, if you don't fucking start talking straight and Tuck doesn't know if Billy is playing or if this is real. Yeah. Yeah. But he knows enough about Billy's life. He knows enough about Billy that he'll just play along just either to be a good dad or to like smooth over whatever Eldritch deal Billy made. Totally.

So he's like, I don't know what you're fucking playing at, but if you don't want to get spiked and then dipped in chocolate, then you're going to fucking start talking straight. You little bitch. You little Barry bitch. You guys are both just crouched down. I got my spear up in his business. He's just away from this. Strawberry screaming at him. Yeah. Do you know peanut butter? Because you're going to be jammed, mister. Yeah. All right. Somebody roll 2D6 post bond.

Have you ever had fucking ice cream? You would look good between chocolate and vanilla. Neapolitan, my friend, that is an unpopular flavor. Get ready to sit on a shelf for six weeks. Today is Monday, but one of us might be having a Sunday. Wow. This is a one. And that's a two. So I got four. So Tuck fails But Billy still gets a 7 to 9 And Barry goes He's just looking at the spike And Do TLC talk to him at all?

Yeah he doesn't like TLC TLC's like hey Billy you see TLC like Strut down the spike of the axe To try and get in Barry's face And they're just like what's up bro Fuck off They're dressed like the guys from Grease Just leather jackets Hey bro you better fuck off You better stop fucking with our bro You better tell us what's going on man Don't make us get off this axe I don't know what's going to happen to us if we get off this axe We're going to make sure that we fucking beat your ass first Dare me bro Dare me I dare you to dare me And Barry is just not impressed He's like yeah yeah fuck off you nerds Get out of here And then TLC get their feelings That's why it doesn't help I don't even I don't even want to talk to fucking Barry Anyways This is lame You're a nerd And Terry puts his hand on Chad's back And goes it's okay He was so dismissive And they Wink from sight as they pop back into their axe So you were trying to find out if Barry was lying Yeah He's like no it's really dangerous Over there And you can tell that he definitely thinks it's dangerous But he's hiding something Okay then well I guess I'll keep an eye out Stupid Let's go Alright We're gonna We're gonna undertake a perilous journey Okay Into the woods So remember there is a scout ahead and navigate I'll navigate the woods So it's 256 plus and 106 Intelligence It makes sense that Billy would scout ahead Yeah So 26 plus wisdom to scout ahead I got 9 Excellent 7 Okay So on the 7 to 9 choose one from the list below You get the drop on whatever lies ahead You discern a beneficial aspect of the terrain Make a capital D discovery Notice sign of a capital D danger The first one You get the drop on whatever lies ahead Perfect Ving you got a 9 Yeah So I choose one from the list below Okay so Billy is scouting ahead He's got Terry Or he's got Barry The strawberry fairy In his fanny pack And he's like yeah you gotta go this way Oh it's so scary out here Look out It's just dark Barry Oh but isn't the dark scary Not really What is the deal with this guy Pwning strawberry I think you're Barry I think you're just mad Because you picked a strawberry to inhabit When you could have been in it Yeah I like being a strawberry Are you sure Because you're acting really weird About this forest Yeah because it's scary Do you just want Are you just playing with me And then ahead in the forest You hear Who's there And you see Billy It's kind of dark But you can like squint Through the beams of light And you see what looks like A blackberry vine Is strung across the trail Ahead of you Oh no Okay so you're like So I tell I turn around like There's a trap And it's just The blackberry vine We have to just pretend To be surprised by it Wait what So The strawberry told you this Or the blackberry told you this I can just see it So I take a few steps And I go Oh no And you Do you deliberately trip over The blackberry vine Yeah Oh no I have fallen And I can't get up And a bunch of people Have blackberry vines Like wrap around Your legs and body Oh shit And a big group Of little blackberry fairies Run out of the woods And they go We got you We got you Tuck just slices Through the vines With his axe They go Ving forages the berries He thinks they're just berries Rolling into the path Whoa whoa whoa You don't want to eat those ones I won't eat them I was going to put them in a jar They won't like that Are these fairies Yeah Oh no Monsters And Billy you see them With their little blackberry hands They go like Ah And they're doing like Little claw hands And like growling at things We should probably run away From these big scary monsters Oh no Oh no Whoa And you guys start running Through the trail like Oh no Blackberries And you feel Barry Like chortling with laughter Yeah In your fanny pack You should have seen your face You guys are so scared But you realize As you're like running Through the forest Like oh no To really sell it You're like zigging and zagging Yeah And then Whoops You're lost Ah shit Ah shit Fuck Yeah What Where Where are we Well we're lost Because you wanted to play A stupid prank on us A prank Look we all love pranks Barry Okay It was pretty Good though right It was pretty cute You can see It's cute No sorry I meant it's It was really Overwhelming And shocking Yeah There we go Yeah Nice I look at Tuck like Oh my god And then Tuck goes Yeah totally And he doesn't know What the fuck he's talking to So he's like Yeah totally It's overwhelming and shocking I'm so scared Of those blackberries And Barry goes like Yeah Like he pumps his fist We did it But We are Lost for real So Yeah Whoopsies Can I discern realities To try and find a way To get back to the path Yeah totally 2d6 plus wisdom Here we go Let's look around 10 Okay Three questions Off the discern realities list What here is useful Or valuable to me You Are like Kicking around At the ground Like where the fuck Are we And you find Fairly quickly A pile of Like sliced Blackberry vines Oh okay Like oh we just went Fully in a circle Yep And here we are Oh And there's a pile of blackberries Near the base of a tree That Billy can hear laughing Uproariously Oh my gosh Yeah These berries are real Cut ups huh It's been a long time Since I've been here And I forgot how many Games they like to play Look at how annoying All the things are Are these all summer fairies These are spring fairies These are spring fairies Yeah The mischievous Trickster ones Those two are summer fairies And these two berries Just bumping up And rolling around There's two There's two kiwis Just smashing Yeah and then it goes To like Do do do do do Like slow motion Them rolling together Down a hill Man Billy I thought you were like Kind of like Immature sometimes But seeing you next To these guys Like holy shit You're You're doing great You've got your shit together Thank you I work really hard To be a grown up That's kind of sad Cause you shouldn't Have to be a grown up Well what do you want Oh god And his shit Is not together Barry is hanging Out of the fanny pack He's like It's hey It's okay Billy No I just Try to help my friends And I'm like I'd actually get you A flower before midnight I Look I don't make the rules I know Wait what Yes you did Well no It's the law This is the law Of the land Do these guys Know anything about fairies You know when I make A pinky promise Yeah That's the same thing Wait What Like when I ask Can you tell us What's happening Oh sorry Billy did you make A promise like You made Irk promise you Yeah Are you gonna die If we don't get you This orchid Yeah Oh my Okay Before midnight One time Oh my god Whoa whoa whoa Tuck starts Freaking out Hold on Really you cannot Make those haphazardly Barry's waving His little strawberry arms No no no no no And Tuck Tuck can't see Barry But he leans Into the Strawberry And he goes If my kid fucking dies Because of this flower thing I am going to Put you Up my butt Dude No no no no You're not gonna die If you break The promise You're just gonna have To serve as my valet For two thousand years I will die Anyway so You can come with me Or not We're going Okay You have to find This fucking flower Like Tuck is sweating now No no no It's not that big a deal I'll find it I wanted you Spirit tongue to Talk to Creatures Animals of the night And see if they can Know where this cave is We've still got two more Questions on that Oh great Use them Do that first And then I'll ask My two questions I'm gonna go talk to These Moths over here That was so loud So loud That was like a goofy Like loony tune Style swallow Yep Yeah so you walk up To this moth Who's like chilling On the side of a tree It's wings open And it looks like two Like bright blue eyes Oh they're called Mimic moths And they mimic your face Oh yeah So it just Kind of has like a weird Moth pattern version Of my goofy face Yeah Like when it's closed When its wings are open Initially it looks like The tree bark And then it closes And opens And it looks like your face Yeah Cool I've heard of these Hi Hi Oh What Do you know of a cave Around here Oh sure Lots of caves What's the coldest Updraft you've felt On the other side Of the woods By the ocean Oh well you're gonna Have to roll For that one sailor Roll What are you What are you just asking Or are you offering Me something I'll give you This chunk Of gold What What is it I'll give you this Sea of graves Jar It closes Its wings close And open And then it looks like Raucous waves Cool Not interested What about this Earring I have It closes And opens And looks like A man being eaten By a golden crocodile Oh my god Not interested You have Endless Knowledge of the things In my backpack Can it like connect To like the spiritual essence Of these objects And see its history I don't know Okay Never really thought about it Okay 2d6 plus Intelligence to Spout Lore About mimic moths Okay Dear lord of flame Please help me As I try to Spout Lore With intelligence Eight So Interesting but not useful You have heard stories Of these moths People used to Come to them For glimpses of their future Whoa Whoa But they don't Appear to be Like from what you From what the stories tell They're not like Intelligent Or magical Well I mean like People consider them Kind of magical But They're sort of a mystery Oh In terms of what they do Cool Yeah And then Tuck takes out The puzzle box That he's been carrying around For five seasons And he like holds it up And he's like So how do I do this?

It closes and opens And looks exactly like The puzzle box you're holding And Tuck's like Fuck And he throws it In his backpack I'll never figure This thing out What's his problem? Uh he wants to figure A thing out Oh yeah? What Do you desire? I don't know What you got Like something sticky Do you like honey? What Yeah Oh You got honey? This whole time You've had honey? Yeah I've got some In my poultice kit I use it As a salve 2d6 plus Uh Parley?

Charisma to parley Okay Four Give me All the honey you have And I will tell you Of this cave Oh what? Three poultices?

Yeah Let Just hand it over bro Give me that Sweet sticky honey Okay Here you are Great creature of the night It extends its little Moth proboscis Delicious All right So the moth closes its wings And opens And shows you like A cliffside With like A sea spray Crashing up the rocks And then Uh closes And opens again And like pulls back And it starts to show you Like A path Through the forest Basically With this like Open and close Kind of flip book Style of travel Cool If you go that way To the cave You shall be Led To The cave Cool This guy's getting drunk Of this honey For sure This shit is so good You brought me The best Oh my god I gave him milk Of the poppy instead Man you got any more of that?

Like pop Poppy honey Yeah So yeah That's what I'm gonna And then it closes And opens again And it looks like Two closed eyes And then it closes And it looks like There's a snot bubble Coming out of the nose And it starts to just Sleep And then it closes And it opens up And it's a blinking 12 And then it closes And it's a blinking 12 Yeah Yeah Let's go I think I got it Yeah You kind of got like An idea of the path You're supposed to take Okay So as we're following This path I'm gonna ask my last Two distant realities questions What Should I be on the lookout for?

You are walking And keeping an eye on the path Trying to make sure You don't get lost again Or that any other Fruit doesn't try and Stray you from the path Yeah And you see In the mud What looks like Half a track Of some kind And Tuck goes Shh Stop What?

Abdul's holding up his fist And his arm at a right angle I skid in the mud And fall on my back I walk into his fist Breaking your own nose Alright let's Just roll Two damage You take seven damage Okay Two Two armors So I took five You're You're willingly Taking five damage For a bit Well I mean I walked into his fist Tuck Tuck breaks your nose No that's my fault I should have been looking out Blood pouring down your face Tuck drops down to one leg And he looks He's like There's a track here It's a half a track Yeah And then he Puts two fingers in it And he tastes it It's wide And deep A giant padded Foot of some kind Let me look Is it a cougar?

It tastes like a cougar It's bigger than a cougar Can I discern the realities Of it? It's no labber Well we're still We're still doing this We're still doing this We're still doing Discern realities We got one more question Yeah Whoops We're in the middle of it So that was What should I be on the lookout for? So this is like Some kind of big cat It's what's It's wide Wide wide And like Deep claw marks Like a bear?

A bear sounds like A wide claw mark one Deep claw marks Cougars don't Cats don't walk With their claws out What is about to happen? So Ving You look closer Knowing more about The natural world And you're like Yeah that looks like A big fat paw Um The claws Something's off About the claws Though And you realize They don't look like claws They look like talons Oh And in the trees You hear What is There's something Moving through the trees Uh We should get off this path Yeah Oh A big owl?

Is it a griffin? Owl griffin Owl griffin Whoa Maybe it's some kind of like Dinosaur of some kind Owl griffin What is that? Oh my god It could be part stegosaurus Or part pterodactyl Maybe it's like Like a big woolly mammoth No they don't have talons You guys are making So many wild Leaps of logic While they do that Can I Um Can I See what it is?

Yeah somebody Yeah you can Spout Lore Yeah I'll Spout Lore 2d6 plus intelligence Seven Seven So Uh Billy you've heard Stories Uh huh On the island When you were Much much younger And also much much older Of The varying beasts That exist in Places like this With wild connections To the natural world And the fairy And the spirit realm There's only one animal That this could be The fearsome Owl bear Oh no Crash crash crash And then right behind you Like out of the trees This huge Bear like body Plumed in like Dark brown feathers With the head Of a Screech owl A huge sharp beak And massive claws Is it on all fours Or up on its hind legs?

It's up on its hind legs Right now And it makes a crazy Like screeching Growling roar Shit My hair's Blown back By the sound Yeah I don't even know How to make the noise Besides like Roar Woo Um And it's It's getting ready To attack What do you do? Well now I will not be surprised Oh yeah Yeah I will shoot first I always forget about that Yeah So what does Billy do?

I will roll fairy dust 2d6 plus charisma 10 Fuck Holy shit So you choose two Uh It affects A group of people They stay asleep For a good amount of time And you can do it From a distance Uh They stay asleep For a good amount of time Yeah And I Like I scream Uh huh And it kind of Explodes out of me Whoa Like a big puff Like I'm a A mushroom Like a mushroom's force It's like A shockwave Yeah Yeah Yeah So the owl bear Is up on its hind legs And goes like Oh Woo And then the Dust hits it And it goes Shockwave Oh Oh You know Wobbles back and forth And then Goes down on all fours And starts to snore Huh Well Good work Billy Thanks I did Pee myself Yeah Tuck's like Yeah that must be embarrassing For you That you did that Why would you say that to me?

You know how sensitive I am But When I have Pee pee pants And then Tuck's like I pissed myself too Billy Well you should have told me that first I said I pissed myself too But I'm wearing a kimono And a loincloth underneath So it just went straight down Okay You're wearing a kimono Underneath your loincloth?

Yeah I'm wearing Oh the kimono over Over the loincloth You're still wearing the kimono Yeah it looks good Yeah it does Silky Excellent Yeah Um Barry As you're walking away Now that you've put this Massive owl bear to sleep Goes What'd you do? I don't know I just made it go to sleep Cause I got scared That's Is Is that something that you do normally? Who do you normally do that to? Like anyone Who's threatening Like people?

Yeah That might not last very long On this thing I know That's why we have to go Yeah no I'm just I just wanted to make sure That that was on the table Sort of like a Chekhov's gun Kind of thing Let's go You guys head off Into the forest Yeah Yeah Tuck Picks up Billy And Ving I guess And starts running Cause he's getting Stressed That his kid is gonna Fucking die I'm running in the air Yeah Um We are You don't have to roll Navigate But we're in kind of The last Like another leg Before you get to The cliff side So we're gonna At least need to roll A scout ahead Tuck's gonna scout ahead Cause he's the one That's carrying everyone And running Perfect And he's trying He's opening his eyes So wide And his nose To try and smell And see all of the things He's just opened his mouth And he opens his ears Really wide You can feel them open All your senses Are on high alert Yeah All your orifices Gaped Gaping My Your dick hole My dick hole is huge Huge My My!

My butthole is huge Is gulping air No!

Your pores are wide Like a bottle That's all I'm saying Alright Roll Two six plus Two six plus wisdom For scout ahead Ten Oh wow Wow So you get two from this list I wanna get a shortcut And I wanna get the drop On whatever the fuck's coming up Okay Cool And Tuck's pounding Through the woods right now Like running so fast and hard Yeah totally You are running so fast And so hard That it's so fast and hard But Tuck as you sprint Through the woods You see in the path Directly in the path A bush And Billy you hear From the bush Raucous laughter Is it the blackberries again?

No Tuck there's a bush In front of you I jump it Okay Do I have to stop Billy?

No you can just keep going Yeah I'm gonna jump it Just the blackberries Two d six plus strength Twelve Okay Yeah just amazing hurdle Yeah Tuck is running Thumping through the woods Jumps over this bush Like a hurdle And you hear the laughter As he's running up And then as you jump over You see a bunch of raspberries In the bush And they go Oh man Try harder next time You hit the dirt And keep running And you know Thirty seconds later You come out Onto the cliff side Ah this is the spot And here's the shortcut Tuck jumps Laughter Laughter Laughter Laughter Laughter Laughter Laughter Laughter Laughter Laughter Laughter Laughter Laughter Laughter L Well, that's good that it was plus strength because this is four, so I got seven.

Wow. Okay. Lucky, lucky. If you hadn't said the axe thing, that would have been fucked. Well, that would have been just me jumping off a cliff with my two best friends. That would have been all of us, all your friends jumping off the bridge. And that would have been the last episode. Okay. So clue me into the logistics of this. So Ving is on my shoulder, like chicken fight style. He's like clambered up. Okay. And he's like, his legs are like dangling down next to me. And I put Billy in my beard.

So I have both hands free. Great. And then it's like I swan dive out over the edge. And as like I just clear the edge, I grab the axe, chop backwards and cut into like the edge of the top of the cliff. Yeah. And then that flips me down and I hit with my feet on the side of the wall and then just start like walk repelling that. Not even just like skidding. Like, like I'm going down the side of a, like a railing with my feet. Yeah. It's sliding. It's like an anime slide. It's a real anime move.

That's so cool. And you're sliding so cool. The only problem is that it's not a flat cliff side. It's like a tumble of rocks. So every once in a while you go like seven extra feet so fast. Okay. But no, you're fine. Oh, wait, no, you got a seven to nine. Yeah. Should I roll for damage? Yeah. Go ahead and roll a D six. Four. Four. Okay. Yeah. So you land on your knees and they hurt really bad. Oh, did you land on your knees? Don't say anything. Oh, not his knees.

It's the kind of pain that like tuck just like gets really quiet and presses his face into the ground like this. Like an ostrich hiding from the pain. Face first into the ground. The kind of pain where if anybody says a word to you, you're going to lose it. Oh, things like. Oh man. Those honey. Eight, five, three fives would really come in handy right now. Yeah. And you feel a cold cave air wafting up from this yawning portal in front of you. I can smell the sap and the orchids. Yeah.

We're so close. Barry's like, I can already taste it. Why do you make such gross sounds about this flower? Because it's going to be delicious. Oh, I thought you just like wanted it to bring home. Oh no, I'm going to eat it. Okay. Well, I'm going to light a little willow the wisp. Sweet. Is it the wicker cat? Yeah. Yeah. You don't have to roll. Remember for bill of the wisp. Right. So, uh, meow. Little like cat jingle jingle fades into view. All right.

Ving has a silver gauntlet that I took from Lillian's tomb. Yeah. And, uh, it glows like the knife. And now that he's like the moon, the moon thing. So cool. Guys, check this out. I found out. That my, uh, old gauntlet glows now. Oh, cool. Right. Look at this. Woo. Woo. Uh, yeah. And there, it's a, a cave goes down pretty sharply. Um. Yeah. I skid a lot. It's kind of icy down here. Yeah. Oh. Oh yeah. I mean, it's cold. It makes sense, I guess. Hopefully there's no cave bears, guys.

I would like to roll, uh, crap expert. Nice. Nice. Yeah. I would just take case. Yeah. Well, seven, seven. So you get one question. Okay. Um, is there a trap here? And if so, what activates it? Yes. And entering the cave. What? No. Sorry. Yeah. We're in it. Well, basically the trap is not a trap trap. Um, it is that something definitely lives here. Ving like smelling the air. You can smell over the like cold salt sea air that yeah, there's definitely like animal smells in this cave.

It smells like a pollution has been living in here for a long time. Really? Yeah. Well, that sort of smell. Oh my God. Uh, so yeah, you, you know that there's something alive in this cave. And Billy thinks it's the pollution for sure. Can we maybe like trick it into coming out? Yeah. Bait it out. I bait it out. What do we have? Spirit tongue. Oh yeah.

Um, for the purposes of spirit tongue, it might be kind of broad because I think for Ving to talk to something like that, he has to know what he's talking to. Can he do a discern realities to figure out? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Yeah. Perfect. Okay. Two D six plus wisdom. Nice. I got eight. All right. One question. Who's really in control here. So you, uh, walk down the cave mouth a little bit more and, uh, you see ahead of you like light.

And as you get closer and you realize that, uh, whatever light is outside combined with the light that is on you guys is like illuminating ice that's in the walls that is carrying the light further into the cave. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So pretty yeah it's very it's a beautiful like ice cave which is when you see leavings of the beast that lives in here poop yeah or like you know bones or whatever kind of detritus what animal is it like a what animal is the bone the bones no beyond what kind of bien animal is here you guys tell me you guys a tip actually that I'm asking yeah ving like based on what you find what animal lives in this cave maybe it's a lunar bear oh lunar bear that makes sense it would be they guard they find the caves that makes so much sense because it's a moon flower right yeah yeah they grow out of their dung oh yeah that makes sense that does make sense okay so yeah this is definitely a lunar bear cave haunt okay so yeah this is definitely a lunar bear cave haunt of some kind and what is a lunar bear again it is a large I was gonna say it's like like a sun bear who has like the orange triangle I was gonna say it's a white triangle but I think it's a white bear with a black triangle like a crescent maybe on his chest yeah I thought a crescent either like a black bear with a white crescent or something yeah there's like a new moon bear yeah cool yeah oh they they can come in like different phases of the moon yeah maybe depending on the season their fur changes yeah or something and they mean different things when you see them according to the alienas and down here they're all synced up yeah fuck me but yeah you know that um especially on the new moon which is tonight um moon bears are particularly uh territorial so whatever is in here might be dangerous yeah unless I can trick them yep because I have the light of the moon oh yeah I can bring the light of the moon and keep them calm because I'm I'm not going to be able to do that I'm not going to be able to do that I'm not going to be able to do that the full moon nights lunar bears are docile like that makes sense they soak it up it's like a lizard on a hot rock that's sick yeah that's great so I'm gonna uh roll 2d6 plus wisdom for full moon powers you're making that up what is your elementalist move oh yeah elemental mastery elemental form right oh yeah I'll transfer my body into a form made from the raw elements sweet roll con nice eight to hold and what is your moon form um my moon form is my self it's thing but just bathed in moonlight yeah super moony it's cool yeah little craters wait highlighting all of his old acne scars yeah I guess so yeah um and like it looks like yeah he's slightly bigger he's just like fluffy because it's like blurry with moonlight yeah and billy you hear sparkling you hear barry and your fanny pack go wow he's the spirit walker wow stay behind me let's go yeah and you carry on down the cave there's a crazy amount of elevation in here you know there's like an elevated uh walkway that like sinks down into like a huge depression and then arcs up and around to a totally different like cave section cool and there's a lot of like like like like like like like like like like there's just this brilliant blue ice carrying this light now brighter than ever with the living moon man inside oh oh man really cool because you know typically if you're hiding from a creature scary animal you'd want to hide in the dark but if you're hiding from a lunar bear you hide in the light yeah it's pretty cool oh yeah ving has light sight so I can it's like yeah makes tracks with his light sight yeah that's sweet that's cool and also it makes sense that the lunar bear would be down there and then you'd be like oh yeah I'm gonna go down there and then because then on nights where the full moon is is happening he's like getting the full dose yeah yeah oh that's great um yeah and you carry on down this cave um it's not terribly perilous uh the steps are pretty easy to navigate especially since there's more light than you could ever fucking hope for in this cave now nice you've basically figured out the perfect way to complete this part of the journey yeah I'm scouring the ground looking at any poop piles for the for the orchid and there are a ton a ton of orchids ton of poop piles okay oh don't do that tuck yeah this is poop yeah I mean ving already told us what else could it be tuck said leavings I didn't know exactly what it meant but it's for sure shit yeah so you are bathing this cave in moonlight checking these poop piles as you walk by um and you're noticing they're pretty big this is a lot of pretty big sizable poop piles and as you get to the end of the cave you're like oh my god I'm getting tired of this this is a lot of poop piles and as you get further into the cave they get bigger whoa oh must be a big bear I guess how big like man's size oh my god sean's putting his arms out like a like a volkswagen beetle is this bear okay there's like a bunch of burger king rappers all over the place oh my god I think he's got ibs and you uh you're you're getting close to some sort of uh some sort of opening in the bottom of this deep deep cave as you go down and down far past the water level you start to feel air rush past you and then rush back into the cave and then rush past you oh wait rush back into the cave in there they're breathing oh no that's the breath of the bear that's incredible you walk through into this massive cave like a hundred foot high ceiling this huge dome and an absolutely colossal bear like I know that I'm an animal but big guy but this bear is fucking huge like a hundred feet tall kind of thing yeah like a like a kaiju bear and it's all curled up and it's snoring away uh you see the crescent moon on its back um it's like brilliant white fur with this like midnight black crescent moon on its back and it seems to be dead asleep and far on the other side of the cave on a huge pile of shit you see a single bright white orchid wow okay how big is the orchid the orchid's fairly small yeah orchid sized for sure it it grows in like a spiral of circles that are slightly translucent whoa like the petals are slightly translucent but they do glow bright nice cool yeah you can see it it's like kind of like bing bing like it's a little light bulb on the other end of the cave okay we just got to get around this giant bear I guess and your hair's like ruffling in the wind as it breathes in and out yeah I'm just gonna hold my breath and like keep keep my will-o-the-wisp really close to me so roll defy danger dexterity everybody all of us anybody that's trying to get to the other side of the cave okay and we're all going together 10 10 8 okay you're walking along the edge of this cave over the bear who's still quite close to you in this deep deep cave and uh you're walking along breath billy and tuck having a grand old time somehow billy is at in his element tuck is uh pressed as close to the wall as possible knowing if he gets even a little bit closer to the edge he's gonna fall yeah tuck his uh is facing into the wall pretending he's the wall and ving he remembers that his mom's cloak she had a cloak of like polar bear that there was a uh a little crescent moon shape oh on her sometimes and you're overcome with that memory of your mother uh when you step just a little bit too close to the edge and a rock gives way and you stumble and you start to fall over the cliff side what do you do okay 2d6 plus dexterity uh six I aid yeah and yeah billy's got shoot first so he's like not surprised yeah nine nice okay that makes it a seven which means that um yeah you snap your hand out grab on to ving billy grabs onto ving's shoe yeah and you are hanging out over this yawning chasm with this enormous bear underneath you look back and you see that it's like head is right underneath where you are it's huge like like fortress sized head and uh you're looking at your backpack as you see a little vial of uh healing herbs start to slide out of the pocket my backpacks are so big I'm so scared of them I'm so scared of them I'm so scared of them I'm so scared of them Backpack?

Of Ving's backpack. You can see it's sliding out of his bag. Actually, I don't have any poultices left. Good point. That's a great point. Okay, so you're leaning back and you see your spear starts to slide. Or the child's nightmare. It goes into the bear's mouth. You see a vial start to slide out of your backpack and the label reveals itself slowly as it says, a child's nightmare. The doll is pushing it out. Up her back. This is not. You cut inside the backpack.

You guys can't see it, but the doll is like, he, he, he, he, he. That's so funny. So it's a seven to nine. So you can still roll to catch it. Huh? Yeah. Okay. And then he lightens a feather. I'm going to, it's too late. The liquid's dropping. I'm going to use my light of the feather to go under and catch the liquid. I'll take the nightmare. Okay. Sounds good. So I got 10. Oh, okay. So you, you like swing. Underneath the nightmare as it's falling. Being held by your pants and shoes.

Like your toes are gripping onto the cliff above you. Basically. Catching the child's nightmare in your mouth. Just in time. Oh, and it tastes like a big dog that chased you up the stairs of your house. One time. Yeah. He knocked open the door. He chased me outside. Yeah. Bit me in the butt. Oh my God. I thought I was going to die until that next door lady picked me up. But yeah, the nightmare has been averted momentarily. As tuck. And. Billy haul you back up to the cliffside. Thanks guys.

I want my mom. And he starts sucking his thing. What is happening to me? Billy pulls the little blue blanket out from under his shirt and offers it to Bing. Thank you. Can we please turn the light on? He's glowing. Here, why don't you take Wicker the light. Oh, thank you. Oh god, I'm sorry. Irrationally terrified right now. Irrationally terrified. 100 foot bear. This one's from the inside out. I can't rationalize this part. You're being so brave. Thank you.

Anyway, I hurry over to the poo pile and I pick that orchid. The thing with moon orchids, moon glow orchids is if you want the glow to remain, you have to really dig the roots out. So your hand is going far in this poo. I'm doing this for you, Barry. And I hate it. Oh man, I can already taste it. You're not going to get that smell out for a week. Yeah. And you pluck the orchid. And he reaches out his little strawberry hands and he's like, gimme, gimme, gimme. Okay, hold on. Here you go.

And he takes it and he rips the roots off and he throws them and he just Like, you just strawberry down this flower? He eats it so fast. He eats it so fast. Thanks. You're welcome. Let's go back. Yeah, let's get out of here. He's like rubbing his like strawberry gut now that he's got this like big belly. He's got his legs kicked over the side of the fanny pack and he's just like, hmm. Thank you, friends, for risking your life for me. No problem, buddy. Yeah, Billy.

Next time, don't make one of these promises that will kill you. Okay. Don't promise. Strawberry that you're going to be a slave for 2,000 years or whatever. I didn't know. I didn't know. Are you sure this curse is gone? Yeah, it's gone. Yeah, no, our deal has been completed. And I want to say, not slave, valet. Just getting that out there. It's the same thing. Yeah, it was kind of involuntary servitude for sure. You make it up pretty easily back to the cave and you're standing at the water side.

Are you just heading back up? Yeah. I don't want to go through the forest though. I'd rather just walk along the cliffs. Maybe we'll see some runes. Why don't you want to go through the forest? Well, because you put all those traps in there and the owl bears in there. Oh, but you put it to sleep. What if they're, what if they're, Billy? What? And he kind of gestures you down. Yeah. So you're basically just bending at the waist so you get closer to the fanny pack. I can't bend that far.

What if there are owl bear eggs in there? In the forest? In the forest. In the forest. In the forest. In the forest. In the forest. In the forest. In the forest. In the forest. In the forest. It's asleep. You could take one. If you keep talking to me about this, I'm going to leave you on the cliff. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. I was just trying to, just trying to let you know about an opportunity. You do it your way. Actually, you know what?

And he gets out of the fanny pack and he walks on his little strawberry legs and he goes, you have completed our bargain. He's got his arms up in the air. Do you really want to stay here or are you just going to make your way back on your own? Oh, I'll be fine. And you see, a strawberry vine, like wending its way down the rock and he goes, I'm good. And he grabs onto it and he starts getting pulled back up the cliff side. So you could have done this yourself the whole time. Oh yeah.

But this way is more fun. See you later. Piece of shit. Barry, the strawberry fairy is gone. I'm going to get him back someday. And now you guys are at the water side. So your plan is to go along the shore instead of back through the woods. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. We're going to try and read some of the ruins and see what we can glean from the history of this island. Yeah. If we can, if we can find a knowledge tree, we can maybe, that'd be good. Yeah. Check out some of the ruins. Okay.

I think, you know, the coast is a little bit, you know, sort of where on the island you are. So you're not going to have to do like a, undertake a perilous journey again, especially if you're just looking for one of the trees that are on the forest, but you're going to have to do that. You're going to have to do it to find a true wisdom. Okay. Do we all roll? No, it just would be like the, the, the person that's leading this hunt. Basically. I'll leave the hunt. Cool. Duty six plus whiz. Okay.

I got an eight. All right. Partial success. So you're walking along, um, you know, on the breakwater. Yeah. When you're walking down on the bricks closest to the sea, it's like that. You're like stepping over huge gaps. There's, there's water spray, uh, coming up at you from the cold ocean. Underneath. It's not a very comfortable walk. There's nowhere where you can just stride at your comfortable pace.

Night weasels, like ducking in and out of rocks, fucking night weasels, just peeking in and darting. You can hear them chittering away in the, in the cliffs, tuck your walking. And, uh, you realize that you've been walking for a while and there's been a, you thought it was Billy, like messing around in your bag. And then you re you hear Billy, uh, shift in your beard and you go, Oh, Billy's in my beard. What the fuck's back here? What the fuck's back here?

And you turn and there's a night weasel on your backpack. Holy shit. And it's got something in its little mouth and it starts to dart away. What did it steal from you? Alison scarf. Oh, it's got Alison scarf and it's running off into a cliff. What do you do? I chased it. Okay. Defy danger. Dexterity. Come back here. You Weasley. Fuck shit. Three. No. Plus what? Plus zero. Oh my God. So it darts off into the, into the rocks with Alison scarf. No. Bring that back. I yell at him and weasel.

It says no. And it's gone. It talks like digging around in the lake rocks that it kind of like went into. Yeah. It's a, it gets like these burrows are a lot deeper than you think. They go into the hillside. Basically. Fucking son of a bitch. It's gone. I'm sorry, man. It's okay. Maybe we'll find another scarf. Whatever. It doesn't matter. I mean, she left one. I'm sure there's another one. No, it doesn't matter. She left scarves everywhere. It doesn't. I don't care. It doesn't matter.

Somebody's birthday is coming up. It's fine. She, I don't care. So I look at, I look at being, he cares a lot. Yeah. You really like that scarf. Chuck runs down the beach. Arms at the side. Yeah. He did. He did spend like 250 coins on this scarf. Basically. Oh yeah. Fuck. Yeah. That's why Bing's upset. Cause it's like a nest egg scarf. Yeah. That was her retirement. That was her retirement scarf. Yeah. When Tuck hears Billy say he cares a lot. He's like, no, I don't. He runs away.

But about, you know, um, I'd say 45 minutes later, you guys catch up with Tuck. He's just running away. He's just moping now next to you, but you find kind of growing on the cliffside, gripping onto the rocks, but towering into the sky, a knowledge tree that looks like, um, a Douglas fir, a pine of some kind. Sure. Pine. Sure. Pine. Oh, it's hanging. Is it like curving off the cliff? Yeah. It's like curving off and up. Wind wisped. Yeah.

But you see like a language, not even carved, but like grown into the bark. Can we read it? We can read it. Yeah. This is the kind of thing where with like the help of Bing and Billy, uh, I'd let you all roll the spell or if you want. Yeah. Cool. Fun. Nice job Tuck on finding this tree. Tuck is, uh, his face is really puffy for no reason. For no reason. And he's just like, yeah, I totally, totally found it and it's great. And I'm proud of myself. Uh, let's read it. Do you want a second?

Uh, so yeah. What is something Druidic that you are, uh, looking for? So let's start with, uh, Jessica. I see her rolling. What is something you're trying to learn? I guess like specifically I'm looking for the name Ileana or, um, something like that. Totally. Uh, Billy doesn't really know what else to look for. Oh, four, four. Okay. Mark an experience there. Uh, so you're looking for the name Ileana, uh, but you get distracted. Yeah. Because you find the word chocolate.

I mean, maybe you do find references to like a food. Yeah. I find the word bread and then the word butter. So I, at first I was going to move on to the word bread, but then I saw butter. And so I was like, I have to know what comes next. I will, I will find the stuff about Ileana, but this seems important too. So you find references to, um, uh, a cooking practice. That's also combined with like kind of a folk magic thing called star butter.

And it's the idea of you make butter and then you set it outside on a clear starry night. And, uh, supposedly the pure light of the moon and stars, uh, purifies the butter and makes it taste even more delicious. Oh, and it's also a way to preserve the butter. So it lasts longer. This is fascinating. Wow. And they even give you the recipe for it and the recipe for the bread takes like, there's this version that takes a long time to make. So you have to like need it for a long time and ferment it.

There's a, there's also a kind of, there's a specific kind of bread they make using starlight butter. That's traditionally for a festival held at like the height of winter. Uh, that's called, um, turnover. Cause it's the turning over of the year. Oh, when the light starts changing. Yeah. And there's so many fillings you can have in the turnover. You can have an apple turnover. You can make savory turnovers with salmon and trout. That's yummy. That actually sounds great. Wow.

And this one, you can make a custard turnover. I love custard. We're all on this. Yeah. I love this tree. The gravy. They have a gravy turnover. I'll be here for a bit. I hope we all fail. Um, this recipe tree. All right. Uh, so you get a point of experience for that. Weirdly enough. Uh, okay. Ving, what's being looking for? Uh, he's looking for mentions of the Ranger King. Oh yeah. Ooh. Uh, plus intelligence. I got a six. Okay. So I also get an experience. Yeah.

So you're looking for the Ranger King, but instead you find information on lunar bears, lunar bears. Uh, so yeah, you find references to, to lunar bears, which apparently used to be, uh, quite prominent in the world. Like it was, they're not just a hibernia thing, but there are stories of the great bear, uh, somewhere in this island chain that represents kind of a God of the land. Uh, and was like an old, like minor deity basically. Oh, cool. And it said, does it speak of its name?

The great bear. Um, which actually, interestingly enough, you realize, uh, phonetically translated from the Druidic language sounds a lot like Ileana. Cool. Um, but you do find that, uh, you know, stories like, Oh, one day this bear is going to grow so large that it's going to eat the moon and it's going to replace the moon. This bear will be the moon one day. Cool. Huh? Yeah. But I'm the moon right now. Oh no. That bear got so much closer to its goal than it even thought. Cool. Yeah.

Uh, what else about lunar bears? Gotta be something else in there. Ooh, they were hunted pretty extensively because their pelts were thought to have a magic abilities. Oh yeah. Um, there were people that weren't druids or shape shifters that sought them because they thought they would help them take the form of the bear and fight with their ferocity. Oh, cool. Yeah. So they were hunted to near extinction by a group of people called berserkers. Wow. That's sad. Yeah.

There's a lot of like a very floral language. Uh, imbued in the tree, decrying the loss of the bear lamenting, uh, their absence on the, on the planet. It's really, really rare to get them to mate in captivity. Yeah. They mostly, it's really hard. You gotta like dress like a lunar bear and like slowly introduce them to other lunar bears. You gotta show them videos of lunar bears mating and be like, look, don't you want to do that? Doesn't this look awesome? Uh, yeah.

So you, that's, that's what you learn about lunar bears. Okay. Can't find any references to the Ranger King for some reason. Tuck, what's Tuck looking for? Um, he's sort of just actually looking for information about chimes and Lillian. Oh, interesting. He's, uh, guess chimes has been on his mind a lot since like, we kind of like found that like chamber in the, in the fort in the four frost aisles.

And since we found that beach with like, maybe he was on with his kid and his wife and like everything about being becoming like, I don't know, Lillian's chosen one or like connecting with, like her energy somehow. He's just like, well, I don't know anything about magic and I don't know anything about Rangers and I don't know anything about Lilliana, but I know chimes kind of, so I'm kind of interested in what's going on there. Okay, cool. Uh, then yeah, roll two D six plus intelligence. Seven.

Okay, nice. Oh shit. Six. Oh, wait, but don't I have that thing that if I, I roll about something that nobody knows about, I get a plus one. You're literally reading from a repository of stuff that other people know about, but the people aren't alive. Come on, man. Only the tree knows about this. Are you telling me trees? A book? Are you telling the worst argument I've ever heard?

Are you telling me that if you went to the library and you found a book full of information and you learn something, you'd be like, I discovered this. If you killed everyone in that lot, I thought it was like no one here present right now knows. I mean, I guess if, yeah, all right, I'll, I'll let you do it if you want to. I just want more info about chimes, so I'll push for this. I'll tell you this. You're not going to find info about chimes on this tree.

References to him will be scant because he's not somebody that the druids really were concerned with. Oh, right. That makes sense. Um, but you do find references to like, um, you know, the moon's lover, that kind of stuff. Okay. Um, vague references to a relationship that, you know, the man who, the man who married the moon, that kind of shit. But, uh, you do find, basically a record of a druid, much like the lunar bear lamenting the death of the moon.

The drew, there is a druid who references an event that is taking place during their lifetime that you realize through the things that you've learned, uh, is likely the grieving. Whoa. The druids were not involved. They chose not to be involved. Whoa. It was almost like a Jedi thing where they were like shaken by the amount of people that were involved. The amount of destruction and death like that they felt through the earth and through nature as the moon shattered and went mad. Whoa.

Um, and truly, truly thought that the end of the world had come, that this would, this would end everything, but somehow they protected themselves from the worst of it. Um, it sounds like they were able to make a pact of some kind. Um, it sounds like they were able to make a pact of some kind. With a powerful spirit. They're, they use words like veil. Oh, it's the gray. This is what, this is what happened. This is how they did the gray.

When the, when the grieving happened, they caused the fog wall to hide themselves and to shy away from the grief because they thought the world was ending. So they hid themselves away in hibernia and pulled the gray over the whole like Northern part of the world. That makes sense.

And then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, and then they, off from the moon oh right failing themselves from night like to do it used to be really into the stars yeah the references to star butter yeah those are those probably predate yeah the grieving it's something that they can't really make anymore sick all right cuz like the druids first language was written from the stars and the magic and that's extra sad cuz that cut themselves off from like the source of their knowledge for the night sky their culture yeah and that's probably around the time they became very like we have to protect our practices and wizards are evil and blah blah blah yeah they're getting more magi mm-hmm yeah so that's what you learn and as you're all standing like I think Billy is kind of on tuck shoulder like helping him read the parts about the the gray and the veil and then you hear footsteps in the trees behind you breaking twigs yeah breaking twigs rustling leaves but Russell is nowhere to be found Russell's on you pal and almost in response a black snout emerges from the underbrush revealing a hulking nightmarish blackford wolf with a dead snow owl clenched in his jaws rows of iron gray teeth black malicious eyes deepest pools of night row after row of arrows puncturing its bloody hide the sound of tucking Billy's laughter fades to silence and you are utterly alone and that's where we're gonna end it whoa what the dude pretty good good good stuff that was scary yeah I'm ready for a horror movie Halloween we're doing it just wrap it up already oh yeah I guess that's where we're gonna 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 playing Ving the half-elf Druid Paul Loppers take care playing fat Billy the halfling thief Jessica tie hi everyone thank you to Aaron Reed for our intro and outro music incredible as always that you can listen to all of the music played on the show uh at just just Google Sound Cloud and Spout Lore that's the easiest way we've figured right now uh thank you to our patreon supporters supporting us around the world you can support us at patreon.com speltlord or speltlord.com money please or find us on the internet at Spout Lore most places and thank you finally to you for listening we'll see you next time and so ends the tale of adventures three who tried the best they can though dumb and scared and lost they be for times of rest in the 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 be a part of a dream