Episode 16 – Nightmares

Spout Lore is publicly funded by listeners like you go to spoutlord.com for more quality family programming like arthur and mr rogers neighborhood and get special limited edition pbs tote bags you hear that fred rogers we ripped off your shit and we put it on our patreon I we look we should talk a lot of people I will not stand for any mr rogers slander on this on this podcast 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 mind billy's a thief his tiny size does mask the largest heart best and brightest they may not be but their friendship outweighs their smarts so gather round friends and listen close for the tale's about to start you welcome to Spout Lore I'm your game master Sean O'Hara joining me as always playing tacoma dome the barbarian abdulaziz hello everybody if anyone copies my cadence I'll fucking slit your throats he has a knife in front of him I believe him playing being the half elf druid Paul Oppers hi I'm playing fat billy the halfling thief jessica tie hi everyone it's myself oh there's a vein popping out of abdul's forehead and he's holding the knife jessica's vein is popping too she's copying when last we left our heroes they had gone on a strawberry adventure their their new friend uh slash antagonist minor antagonist bury the strawberry fairy led them on a merry whirlwind quest to the forests of hibernia uh there were tricks and traps aplenty as some blackberry bushes attempted to get one over on you and as far as you can tell that was the entirety of their plan you were of course on this quest to recover a moon glow orchid for berry who wanted it for some mysterious purpose he ate it he just ate it he gobbled it I was building up to something because we're doing a recap oh sorry I don't know what's such a mystery you're the one who said it anyone that cuts off my recap I'm gonna cut your fucking throat this is what happens when we don't let sean finish his dinner this is what happens when I have two-thirds of a coke zero zero tolerance right now and okay sure maybe half a liter of coffee earlier in the day not that much earlier not that much earlier uh your quest took you through the wooded sections of the main island in the chain known as hibernia uh and you were playing along with the blackberries and the strawberries as they attempted to hoodwink you uh these being fairies of course spring fae tricksters as we all know uh until you came upon the very real threat of an owlbear a fight which was initially very threatening and then billy put it to sleep and the fight was over yeah did we get any of those eggs no you never went back for the eggs we didn't get them yeah albert eggs wildly valuable also you know what I can tell that you guys are separated from the traditional rpg fantasy party because classic dnd adventurers would never be able to resist an owlbear egg there's just no way but you did and I respect you for that what is the thing that it does yeah what do they do usually people want an owlbear egg so they can hatch it and have a pet owlbear so oh yeah hold on so you wouldn't let us have black spire as a pet but we have an owlbear well I mean how I mean just because you have the egg doesn't mean you're going to be able to get a live owlbear off the island um also you went to a pirate port he would have been stolen from you post haste yeah um what next we entered the seaside cave that barry had led you to which was a beautifully like reflective crystalline ice cave beneath the island a pretty simple trek downwards to a cave that got brighter and brighter the further down you went eventually revealing the massive form absolutely colossal of an animal but big a lunar bear pretty cool a minor god of the land uh we soon learned and perhaps the last of its kind so lumbering peacefully beneath the island destined some stories have said to replace the moon one day whoa really I said that in the episode cool yeah the the legend surrounding lunar bears is that one day a lunar bear would get so big that it would eat the moon cool yeah yeah that's really cool pretty sweet uh but you know what hasn't happened yet and he's asleep so maybe it'll never happen uh and then bury the strawberry fair oh in an attempt to retrieve the orchid creeping around the moon and then bury the strawberry fair oh in an attempt to retrieve the cliff surrounding the lunar bear thing almost dropped a vial of a child's nightmare deciding instead to gulp down the nightmare to save the day my hands were busy yeah so you used your mouth that's what I love about thing yeah uh the day was saved the orchid was retrieved and barry ate it you uh emerged from the cave carried along the coastline hoping to find some ruins in the rocks and stumbled upon a new one and it was a very good day for me and I'm very happy to be here with you we learned about lunar bears and references to the man that married the moon and all that kind of stuff oh yeah um we learned that lunar bears have been hunted to near extinction by people known as berserkers and we learned about the moon and all that kind of stuff and we learned about the moon and all that kind of stuff and we learned about the moon and all that kind of stuff oh right yeah and we learned that during the grieving the druids of hibernia believed the world was ending and so made a pact with a powerful spirit to uh read the island in fog and hide themselves away from the apocalypse pretty cool and just as things were looking like a a peaceful night on the shore side reading books from a tree ving heard footsteps go and ruin it some serious scary seeing a night black wolf emerged from the forest a dead snow owl in its teeth and the sound deadening around him as he finds himself utterly alone and that is where we find ourselves now ving what do you do uh getting fun between tuck and billy and the wolf and brennish my spear uh you try and get between tuck and billy and you realize they are not there what and in fact the shore is not there you're surrounded by snowy forest oh it's the nightmare there we go in a nightmare do I know this no uh I don't know actually you know what defy danger wisdom okay I'm gonna roll these bone camel bone die that we got hell yeah that's too many from jesse there you go 2d6 plus wisdom okay yeah from a listener sent us uh carved camel bone dice thank you they're very nice 12 total wow damn uh yeah so a couple things lead you to this conclusion um oh yeah I drank a child's nightmare earlier today and also this is a nightmare you have had before I'm in my own child nightmare yeah this is a nightmare you remember having as a child oh my god is being being hunted by this nightmarish wolf but it's one of those nightmares and you're not sure if some of it is real yeah like was I maybe chased by a wolf at some point does this wolf represent something there's like muddled memories in your head that led to very real fears I'm sure we've all had that you have nightmares that you remember for the rest of your life and you don't remember if they actually happened to you or not how old was ving when he was having these nightmares as a kid I imagine quite young but I don't know for sure yeah I think like four or five what I I had a thought uh-huh knowing what we know about ving now and how he came to be um perhaps some of these images are preving are influenced by uh iliana's memories and thoughts and perceptions of say your father who was a blood-soaked warrior oh my god and I've had images of my mother as a snow owl because she yeah she recalls being a snow owl right in the in in season two and you had that dream where your dad killed your mom uh yeah ving had a nightmare long long ago yeah of his father murdering his mother but he saw it from his mother's perspective yeah and she was a snow owl then right yeah well yeah that makes actually yeah that makes a lot of sense makes a lot of sense ving has had dreams and nightmares that were recurring nightmares for his mom he always thought that he was experiencing them like she must have been pregnant or something maybe had some sort of sense beyond her body but no that he was now imbued with some of her memories pre himself because of how he was created yeah I tell the wolf he's not gonna hurt me it growls and hunches low and prepares to do just that I stand my ground it lunges I uh put a foot on my spear and lean back into it on the ground 2d6 plus constitution okay 10 so the wolf lunges towards you and your spear planted in the dirt which is this is my dream spear yeah so it is perfectly it's exactly as it was in my dreams my spear is unbreakable yeah so it's exactly as it was when you received it from your mother it's like it's still carved with like a dozen lives worth of names and memories but like it is not that like half material snapped different it's got the original head it's got the like um original body like it's just this beautiful old spear there's no duct tape on it yeah and um the wolf lunges towards you and your spear planted in the dirt is it just the right angle that it pierces itself through blood falling from its jaws and this gaping wound in its chest as it slavers in your face and then turns to smoke on the spear and disappears you hear howling in the woods and where's the owl the owl falls to the snow in front of you I grab it I cradle it lifeless my clutch I clutch it howling in the trees I push it up against my chest spread its wings around my neck you hear footsteps in the snow I turn slowly towards the footsteps jaws I let them take me all is black I hear weeping you wake up in the forest emerging from the underbrush a nightmarish black wolf iron gray teeth a dead snow owl locked in its jaws oh shit oh you are utterly alone I'm trapped with this wolf I tell it that it won't hurt me it hunches low and prepares to do just that I charge oh there's a moment when I my foot pivots the snow yeah slow motion all the snow fuck yeah moves so slowly I'm weaving in between the snowflakes for some reason hack and slash I break my spear on the way in there and come in on both sides I got five fuck you pivot the snow slows in the air you break your staff and prepare to come in on both sides the wolf lunges jaws all is black you wake in the forest emerging from the underbrush a nightmarish black wolf I yell for attack and billy give me a defy danger because you've realized this is a dream yeah so you're very aware you are out of control like you are not in control of the situation at all but you're aware that it's a dream so let's say 2d6 plus wisdom 10 the wolf hunches low emerging dead snow owl in its teeth row after row of bloody arrows in its pelt and you feel a familiar presence to your left and right tuck billy snowy forest nightmarish wolf thing holding his spear aloft tuck lunges and like grabs the wolf around its neck yeah like does a bear hug you know that thing where you like kill a dog by squeezing its neck oh yeah that thing from uh omega man or whatever oh uh I am legend I am legend yeah where he has to kill his dog so sad yeah uh 2d6 plus strength here we go shit nightmare five wow go ahead and roll um a d12 12 oh wow jesus fucking christ oh no 12 fucking hell so holy shit in the dream is it dream us or is it real us uh billy that's a great question go ahead and roll 2d6 plus wisdom oh those are cute I'm using the pretty dice that jesse sent us eight eight okay so billy you do realize that you are in a dream but um as far as you're concerned if this wolf kills tuck tuck is dead in real life that's what you're thinking right now is like yes 12 12 is a dream but also holy shit giant wolf attacking tuck as you see this wolf's jaws like clamp onto tuck's bicep and like rip back and forth tearing a bloody hole in his arm which arm uh his left one so he's fine don't worry you mean like I can still choke on which arm has the tree tattoo on it you tell me bro I think it's the right one I think it is yeah I seem to remember you always gesturing to your right arm yeah can I go in like into like instinctive billy like with that thought uh what do you mean like um because I'm on like hibernia I can change into different forms if I need to interesting this is dream space too so billy's like why can't I just do that give me a defy danger wisdom again okay huge humongous 12 oh shit okay what are you trying to do billy needs to like close that distance between himself and the wolf so he turns into like tree warrior billy oh shit are we talking like the winter yeah his winter form yeah so tuck you see a like a six six man of wood and ice with a giant axe of clear blue ice standing before you striding through the trees sick holy shit and what is billy doing I'm going to take my axe and swing it at the head of the wolf hell yeah hack and slash eight eight okay so um in your winter warrior form roll a d12 seven seven and then roll a d12 again two two okay so uh your axe cleaves down the light glittering off its ice and stone as it hammers into the back of this wolf's neck and poof it becomes ashes but as its ashes drift away they swarm around the wolf and it's like oh my god it's like a cloud of flies and you feel them going into your eyes nose mouth and you're just like choking on this burning ash for two damage and for a moment the wolf is gone you hear howling in the trees I'm so sorry I brought you here is this my nightmare are you guys here are you actually here we're here yeah I'm here I think you all feel the warmth and like gentle sonic ringing of the chamberlain rings on your hands oh fuck I'm so I love wearing this ring it just really goes with my coloring I should take it off when I sleep for this exact reason ving where are we I don't know what it looks like the shores of old sheer and I believe this might be a memory or a nightmare or my mother's memory or nightmare this wolf is death coming my father and the owl is my mother and he's gonna keep coming wow classic edible shit your dad's gonna keep coming I have to have sex with the owl I don't know if I can do this ving I'm willing to do anything for you buddy I'm gonna try and fuck that wolf I'm gonna break the cycle this nightmare is gonna give me nightmares yeah how do I face this that's a great question what usually happens in the dream I get killed do you usually wake up when you die uh yeah usually we're caught in a cycle I've died twice already it almost killed you your bicep yeah this is uh I'm bleeding a lot yeah this usually doesn't happen in dreams uh-huh well I mean I assume usually dreams are about the one thing right yeah usually dreams are about a giant cataclysm that destroys an island nation for me yeah quiet everyone billy's listening and you both look over and oh my god I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die oh yeah who the fuck is this holy shit billy whoa don't talk bill are you okay billy's listening yeah billy's listening uh and also this isn't really like young billy right now yeah this is like warrior billy yeah roll a 2d6 plus wisdom for uh discern realities five ah shit all you can hear in the trees is footsteps panting breath like dozens and dozens of forms moving through the woods stop at you too there are too many footsteps I'd run into the woods okay where are you trying to go to the footsteps they're all around you'd it'd be harder for you not to go to the footsteps right now oh okay so you charge out into the trees if that is what you so choose to do yeah I charge into the middle and uh light myself up in the light of the full moon um he's my moonlight as a beacon to try and draw them in yeah or to communicate I don't know what to do I don't know what uh because we're doing dream stuff 2d6 plus wisdom 11 okay great nice yeah you start running into the trees uh you know row after row of nearly identical forest until things darken around you as the light reflecting off the snow fades away and you come into a clearing with just the pure pitch black of the night sky above you the trees are silent the footsteps still approaching and a woman runs towards a woman's house a woman runs towards a woman's house a woman runs towards a woman runs towards a woman's house a woman runs towards a woman's house a woman runs towards a woman runs towards a woman's house a woman runs towards a woman's house a woman runs towards a woman runs towards a woman's house a woman runs towards a woman's house a woman runs towards a woman runs towards a woman's house a woman runs towards a woman's house a woman runs towards a woman runs towards a woman's house a woman runs towards a woman runs towards a woman runs towards a oh 12 okay he's bone dice hell yeah uh what's the 12 with that again choose two from the list below the effect I desire comes to pass avoid paying nature's price to retain control so I will retain control and the effect I desire comes to pass I'll pay nature's price okay with the night void black above you the light of the moon comes from within as you glow with the brilliant beams of the full moon they dance all over your body lighting you up like a beacon and the light becomes so brilliant blinding white that you cannot see even with my light yeah no not this these aren't biological eyes these are uh moon eyes moon dream eyes moon dream eyes um you the name of the druid that taught your mother long ago moon dream actually he just sold weed and mushrooms when he had them oh my god just realized that that guy was fucking my mom oh no whoa this is a nightmare he had black hair like a wolf and you hear coming through the trees sup little guy me and your mom are just gonna hang out you here's five bucks go to the corner store but you hear the footsteps approaching in the tree slow as they enter the clearing and you hear only one set approach you stopping an indeterminate distance away there's only two footprints instead of four because jesus was carrying you because jesus was carrying the back side of his wolf like a whale's wheel bearing his wolf a whole time jesus was running jesus was running behind the wolf holding his back legs like a lawnmower go little guy go man part of me thought like for a little bit I was like whoa we're gonna do like a serious scary dream episode we're doing both it's not possible for us to maintain a tone like that so yeah you hear the footsteps approach and you know in the snow you only hear two feet and you hear a voice then you know I have to kill you you're my dream my nightmare and you are mine I take my spear and slam it into the moonstone cave in my chest in my dream whoa whoa yeah go ahead roll uh 2d6 plus what's the score wisdom nine I think you feel you feel the moon glow overtake you as this radiance bursts forth in a corona of uh no I guess I can't use that word anymore because people think about in a in a covet 19 as this radiance so good at similes as this radiance bursts forth in a almost supernova of light a black Right.

Darkness shoots out of the hole. Darkness emerges from the moonstone cave in your chest. The shadow of the dark side of the moon overtakes you. Led Zeppelin playing in the distance. Yeah, fucking give me a little bit. That's enough. Is that Led Zeppelin? I don't know. And the forest is plunged into darkness. Oh my god. Billy, tuck. The forest is plunged into darkness. Whoa, what the fuck? The footsteps around you have quieted. You hear a howl and a scream. What do you do? I follow the sound.

Yeah, I run towards the scream as well. Okay, roll 2d6 plus wisdom. Eleven. Nine. Okay, you start running into the woods, just following the sound of the scream and the howl. Tuck, you're barreling through pretty well. Something about this place, it feels like you're slipping, like it's slipping over you like a stone in the stream. Yeah, kind of feels like when I was in the spirit world and I was like floating. Yeah, like even when I hit a tree, I kind of like pass through it.

Like you're just cutting through it in some strange way, but something about Billy's countenance and Billy's place in the cosmos, he's being held back in a way and you feel him falling behind. Billy, you're being like, it feels like the trees are catching you as you're running past. Yeah, I feel my roots almost like trying to grow into the ground as I step. Yeah. 2d6 plus wisdom to remember who you were. Okay. Four. Oh, fuck. I can't remember. Oh, shit.

And that's the downfall of being like in a in like kind of like a stronger winter form. And you're in like that way of thinking, so you can't change. Oh, yes. Because it's like more rigid. Yeah, you have to like shut down yourself. Yeah. So you feel the roots dig into the earth and the ice starts to grow over your joints and then you're just still and you are one amongst hundreds of trees.

Tuck, you're running alone, but you come to a place that you feel is open and dark, just endless shadow, but you feel a presence at the center of it. I run to that. Okay. Yeah. Give me wisdom again. It's like a black hole in the middle of a forest clearing. Yeah, I'm picturing and light swirling. Around it. Eleven again. Nice. Eleven. You continue through the darkness towards the light at the center. Yeah. Oh, is it light or is it blackness? It is a it's yes. Okay. You know what I mean?

Yeah, it's like you can't see it, but you know that it's there. Yeah, but it's not what it looks like, but it's what it feels like. I had an image of like tuck like running to the middle of this and it's like the light has like formed this tar in the middle of the clearing. Oh, yeah. And he starts like digging through the tar to like look for the thing that he knows is there. Mm-hmm. Two to six plus wisdom for discern realities. Oh, yeah. Nine. Okay. So you get one question.

What should I be on the lookout for? Right. You're digging through this like tar made of moonlight the dark side of the moon. Oh, yeah. And you're digging through and you see fingers emerge. And I go, whoa. Oh, my God. Holy shit. It's good. This shit out of top two. And yeah, there are there's a hand sticking out of this goo and I pull I grab it and I pull. Yeah, and an arm follows in a shoulder. I keep pulling. There's a head to pull and I pull other shoulder and an arm. Is it Vang? It's Vang.

Okay. You noticed when the face came out that it was Vang Vang. Oh, my God. You scared the shit out of me. You scared the shit out of me, dude. I know. I'm sorry. And then tuck looks up to this guy is like Jessica. I'm sorry if I scared you. I feel like I could feel the air being displaced by Jessica's heartbeat after you did that. I feel fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. And yeah, you pull Vang out of this mire. And I say, where is he? Is he gone? Is he here? You're dead? Where's Billy? Billy?

What was the worst day Billy can remember from the Winter War? I guess like this war feels like it went on for a really long time and it was all where Billy fought was all across kind of the icy tundra and what was once like a white landscape was now like dark red and brown and the blood had frozen into a thick layer of ice all across as far as he could see. And there were like bodies layered under this all this blood and ice frozen. Yeah. Wow.

And he just he just remembers thinking like what's the point of all of this when we all came from the same place and then he goes back to fighting and it's like the people keep coming and he you know, break he like looks around the swirling snow and he's like he remembers what it was once like to be like that. Have we talked about how long ago the Winter War was never?

I don't think then you know what maybe we just won't maybe it is one of those things that is a lost to time, but Billy steps forward into the battlefield preparing to rejoin the battle as a vicious looking elf on a battle cat comes tearing out of the trees right towards you. Mm-hmm midnight black fur arrows piercing its pelt iron gray teeth and it charges towards you and I shoot my limbs out like of ice and stone to pierce it. I think we're just going to cut back to tucking bang.

I don't even I don't even need that's just hardcore. Yeah, darkness all around you. The trees begin to resolve at the edge of the darkness, but you still feel lost and tuck. Yeah, tuck realizes when being asked. Where's Billy? He looks around. He realizes that Billy didn't keep up, which is rare. Usually tuck is the slowest so little. I mean Billy never stops running even if you slow. Yeah, so tuck starts screaming into the black or he's just like Billy Billy 2d 6 plus wisdom 5 okay, you scream.

Shout for Billy and the earth begins to shake beneath you fissures form in the ground as the earth's very breath courses up in burning plumes. The sky reddens the spheres fall and all is doomed shit. Is this my dream? You tell me buddy. Yeah catastrophe. This is and it's like an alien landscape like it looks like no landscape in our world like plantless. It's mostly gray rock when Sean said the spheres start to fall like it's not just moons in the sky.

It's planets too and the sky is on fire and you can like see in the distance like islands in a chain of islands on the ocean like one by one being taken like falling into the sea. Wow. What do you do? What do I usually do? Wait, he I usually go for higher ground. This is what I usually do. Yeah, this is like the dream like the dream from here. Season two. Yeah, this is the only dream that tuck has the cataclysm. Yeah, that destroys an island nation.

Yeah, so behind you there's the shattered hill. Yeah, there's the ridge. There's the like falling tower. There's the maybe like a remnants of a tree sticking at the one thing the one dead version of something that used to be alive. Yeah, like a branch sticking out of a cliff. It's the only thing that is biological and it's like in the distance you can hear screaming and people moving. So there is also like life here and there's one thing that is different than all the other times before.

You are not alone. Thing is here with you and I go this is this is my nightmare. I mean, this is my nightmare, but you seeing it also is my nightmare because I don't like being this vulnerable in front of people being witnessed as your nightmare. Yeah, what do you do? I just I go we got to get to higher ground, but we also need to find Billy. I go to scream Billy's name. My mouth is full of owl feathers. Oh yeah. Yeah, you're you're choked with feathers and down. I can't scream bloody meat.

So yeah, what do you what do you guys do? I want to try the storm see if it works in this nightmare. Interesting. Cool. So I can calm a space around us. Hopefully. Yeah, it's time to go look for Billy. Okay, exert my will in a circle around me. We're all con on a hit the world calm seven to nine effects only what you touch as long as you're touching it. All right. Five. Okay, you extend your will around you and you Vang the lucid dreamer knowing that you are in a dreamscape.

You're not sure if it's because this is Tuck's dream or the nature of what's happening to you, but you have no control in this place. But up the hill you do see snow blowing and weapons clashing you hear on the on the wind Billy. You are locked in battle with this Ranger and his war cat. What is happening? It's basically a trap is what it is, right? So the Rangers using the cat distract me another Ranger sets fire to me. And there hasn't been much fire up here because of the wind.

It's just hard to keep a flame lit. Oh shit. This one. Yeah. Oh maybe maybe this is like emulator flame. Yeah, maybe it's like when the torch of McCall or the thing. That became the torch of McCall enters the battle. Maybe because you'd fought him before. Yeah. Yeah, perfect. Yeah, Billy had fought the demon of zealotry. So this must be him or or something like him. Yeah. Yeah, and you burn a blue flame.

Yeah and you die and then you are atop this hill again and you see the cat coming out of the forest and you you prepare to die once more Ving and tuck you see snow blowing at the top of this Ridge get to the top of the Ridge. Yeah, we head up for higher ground.

Yeah, and you get to the top and you look over the shattered towers to your left the dead tree sticking out of the foundations and in the distance you see a figure that looks much like Billy's winter form locked in battle with something and dying over and over in a burst of blue flame. What do you do? I want to charge forward and use my elemental form and transmute into a bear. The lunar bear. Yeah, so I'm channeling my mother 2d6 plus con 13. Okay. Yeah, so you like pool moonlight around you.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, and snow we gather snow ice blood snow is coming up and making this monster bear with a red crescent moon. It has all the phases of the moon across its chest. Cool. And what do you do? I attack the cat. Yeah, you can go ahead and spend one of your hold if you want to just deal your damage to it. Yep, Billy, you're prepared to do battle with this cat and this ranger and then an enormous bear made of blood and moonlight charges into sight and you know that that is your friend.

Yeah, and what am I doing? I think to myself what am I doing locked inside of this piece of wood and ice? So I abandoned it. Hell yeah. Yeah. Do you want to give me a defy danger wisdom? Yeah. Eight eight. Okay, so this enormous bear begins to do battle with the ranger that had killed you a thousand times in your mind and in abandoning this form the ice and wood falls away in a pile and blossoms burst forth as Billy the spring fairy is born from that pile of wood confetti cannon.

Boom flowers all pop out and Billy comes up on it's amazing and yeah, it's the only color in the landscape. Yeah, I always like cherry blossoms and tuck. You see this thing charges forward in this body of a bloody moon bear tuck attacks the black cat to two d six plus strength. What the fuck? It's four plus three seven. Okay, well, you still got a seven on a hack and slash with a four. Okay, roll your damage. Oh, and Ving roll your damage to. Thank you. Three one not great.

Yeah, but the two of you working in concert are able to hold this cat back as Billy fully blooms on the battlefield. The bright little child that you have come to know and love fully present in this horrific landscape and go ahead and roll a d twelve again. Shit eight fuck you are a my! Oh my God. What do you add a am a six now Jesus. You're just shredded.

Billy's looking out of this like what's the problem here discern realities okay eight okay so you get one one question maybe who's really in control here oh yeah nice good question who's this child whose nightmare I drank it um there's a point where you're fighting and Billy's looking around trying to solve this and with that and the Chamberlain rings you all kind of connect for a second in a space outside this space in just like pure sleep no where you're all you don't see each other but you feel each other and if you had to guess you would say now that it wasn't a specific child whose nightmare you drank it was the nightmare of children what makes children afraid is what you consumed and spread somehow metaphysically to your friends the thing that you always forget when you're in a nightmare the person that is in control here is you three you've just lost sight of that so if you were able to strip that away somehow and remember that this is your mind these are your memories you may be able to pull yourselves out yeah I don't have to be here and I'm back on that battlefield and I just like melted away because I'm like I can be anywhere I want to be so 2d6 plus wisdom and you get a plus one from the discerned realities okay 11 12 yeah and all of a sudden thing and tuck you're like holding back this vicious cat yeah and it's gone oh you don't even see it go it's just gone we're in pinewood you're in the fir forests of pinewood a fire crackling in the distance music laughing and the big buffet table yeah big buffet table some kids are getting ready to put on a production of something the writhing cat disappears and I'm looking into the eyes of how can you never remember wrong yeah and you're standing in this place of light and laughter and friendship and camaraderie and I feel like we're standing on the edge of the woods looking at ourselves in the revel this is like a dream of a better time yeah yeah and I can feel like the cold at my back and I'm just like just don't pay attention to it don't look at it and you feel looking towards the village you feel the welcoming energy come sit eat drink be merry that's not real either though I want to turn back into a man yeah you're back you're ving I want to take the ring off 2d6 plus wisdom 9 um!

Maybe it takes all of us to aid yeah yeah oh yeah so if you take it off I have to take it off then too okay and I'll take mine off too 8 5 oh no so um tugs fingers swell when he fights this is a little bit editorializing on my part maybe um billy rolled to take his ring off you rolled to help ving so you failed at that but ving still got a 9 nice so ving and billy take their rings off and for a moment you're there alone and you're watching this village that you loved for a short time with you and your family just enjoying themselves you see the apparition of perel before he got his body back oh yeah and then the ground begins to shake god again the earth opens up okay we fall in it yeah the village is swallowed screams fire the spheres fall I start running up the hill again run run run Kate Bush is there it's a bush named Kate and you waken on the shores of hibernia under the branches of a knowledge tree ving and billy stand over top of you and I go hey guys um I had a weird dream and it was fine and unless you guys also had a weird dream yeah I had a weird dream too laughter guys it's okay to be afraid it's just a dream I'm not afraid but I also had a really fucking weird dream do we all have the same dream I think we might have all had the same dream and billy you the seven to nine that you got with the ring yeah you um clench your hands to like try and remember the warmth of before you were in that place and you feel like ice crack and fall away on your hands I don't show them yeah oh what and tuck you're gonna take a debility to wisdom oh no going forward what happened you had an absolutely horrible cataclysmic dream in which for the first time ever you watched your friends and family die oh okay yeah fair yeah fair enough and you know from here on out that will be a part of the dream every night fuck um you vang you feel in your chest another cave is opened oh a moonstone cave is there there's a moonstone cave in the center of your chest and some of the moonstone is black as darkest night sick and just then from amongst the bushes a wolf a wolf nightmare coal black belt yeah tuck picks up a rock and throws it he's like get out of here wolf stab himself in the chest and you hear somebody go oh and savannah comes out of the trees oh my god savannah you throw a fucking rock at me I thought you were a wolf you can't just walk up on people like that like all sneaky who's sneaking you are walking around in the dark in a bunch of trees it's daylight and she points barely she gestures towards the horizon as the sun begins to rise over the over the sea and in the in the dappled like morning gray the gray gray morning I forgot dappled gray morning light like you look at tuck and he's fucking covered in blood oh god oh my god yeah you have a ragged you have a ragged bite in your arm all of the bites and shit from the dream I think so because I took real damage six hell right I guess so do I have any poultices I think I gave them all to that stupid strawberry yeah so does this often happen when you read under a tree we've never read before really I believe that 100% and then tux is like so weak but he's like no I'm I am literate I don't know how many times I have to say this you should probably come back to the village hey man I'll come with you wherever you don't make me read let's let's go come on the council is reaching an accord soon you really should be back in the village doesn't accord me in a positive outcome for us let's go back to the village say do you think that they'll maybe take pity on me because I'm so fucked up right now well it has happened before but we'll see and Savarna leads you back to the village and you get patched up by one of the healers there who described as healer the healer is a fifty five year old man short very portly like rounded shoulders like a big thick guy and his tell is unfortunately a pair of tusks that come right out of his mouth cool like an orc he's a boar he turns into a boar and he uh is like slathering poultices all over tucks arms and chest just everywhere I like that he's not like most healers are like very common this is often like he's like that the henchman from Harry Potter you always like slamming throws around the pose the chair like slams food down this this guy's very rough he's healing you like he's fixing a washing machine like he's just slapping the shit out of you it's got a bunch of buckets of different types of goo for different types of injuries yeah well I shall do it all right thanks I got no problem just if it starts to sting a lot just come back okay quickly why what happens well just come back what is that stuff and he pushes you out of his tent can I taste it can I have some you don't want to consume that orally can I get a jar maybe what do you offer in trade some of the silver rotten lemon smelling liquid dee lee lee lee lee lee lign oh no idea what it does where did that come from better I think I've had it for eight years and he takes it and he opens the jar no no no he sticks his nose right in and goes like oh this will do all right this will do nicely nice hand him an empty mason jar and he had yeah like a bulk barn he just like slops it into your mason jar with it wasn't like some sort of health resin yeah just marked it and then you go and pour it into a bucket and pour it into a bucket and pour it into a I know.

What's your name? Oh, what's my name? Yeah, I'm Ving. Hi. I thought I was going to get out of here without having to tell you my name. And my name is Or… Fuck, no. That's not my name. Don't tell anyone I said that. What? Nothing. What? My name is Tromlin. Cool name. Tromlin. Tromlin with a T. Oh, Tromlin. Tromlin. Call me Lin. Just call me Lin. Lin. Lin. I appreciate this. No problem. You smeared me with a bunch of fish goo. And it was my absolute pleasure. Thanks.

Now, if you don't mind, get the fuck out of my tent. Okay. Bye-bye. Bye. I like that guy. I do too. I like him a lot. I think I'm going to visit him tomorrow. Yeah, me too. Don't. I'll see you tomorrow. No, you won't. Yes, I will. And Savarna is standing just outside the tent, like kind of leaned up against a post eating something. Do you know Tromlin? Yeah, it's not a big village. I know all the people that live on these islands. That's how it goes. He's a cool dude. He is. Bit of a boor.

Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Sorry, dude. We would have laughed at that, but we had a pretty fucking rough night. Well, it's because he turns into a boor and I was also doing his. No, no, it makes sense. I was doing his accent as well. It's the joke that I have and will make again. Savarna, it was a good joke. It was a good joke. We're just really run ragged.

You know what's like the worst feeling in the world is when someone tells you it's a good joke, despite the fact that they didn't laugh at all. Oh my God. Anyway, and you hear some as Grim Shay approaches you. Oh. Come. And we all actively don't make a comment on the fact that he just said the word come. Oh, man. I was trying so hard to let it go. I do. He closes his eyes because he can see you all holding back laughter. Oh my God, we're back. Took a semen chunk.

And yet you smash cut to we're back on the cliff. The council rock, the massive canopy of the Arbutus knowledge tree sits above you. You can tell that the members of the council are still discomfited by the presence of the tree. Like they don't know what to do. They're just standing. And they. They're all look at it and grim shape. Now you're all standing around the trunk because it was right where the judged once stood. Oh, yeah. So you kind of have to stand in front of the tree.

It really fucks up the feng shui. We're kind of too close to Grim Shay. Yeah, you can tell he wants to step back and all the members whose names we all remember. Yeah. Are here. Yeah, we've got grombly. We've got shockable. Yeah. Salty Pete. Tilda Swinton. What? The dog one. Yeah, the wasabi twins. And we got rounding out the pack. Little peep. He turns into a chicken. He's tiny. So the little chicken.

This is a situation where then we got network notes after the last episode where they're like, you have to change all these counts. The council members are too intense. You need to make them more tick tocky. Yeah. Also, yeah, some of them are just going to be young celebrities. Is that okay? Yeah. No, I remember all the names. We just don't need to. Yeah, totally. But one thing that you notice is that all of them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Some of them seem trepidatious, whereas Stoneye is looking Tuck dead in the face and he looks fucking furious. And Tuck's like, I know, dude, I know. I'll fight you once I'm not dying. Billy is going to climb up the tree. Grimshay's like, get down. Get down. Can you tell me what to do? Good luck. It's my tree. This is a council. It's my tree. And I start peeling the bark. Whoa. What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? Child. Child. It's fine. It grows back. Legions of knowledge. Yeah. Ages.

Yeah. Gone. When Billy starts peeling the bark off the Arbita tree, Valari, the willow's daughter goes, oh. It grows back. It's fine. It does, but it's very uncomfortable. And then I start sprinkling the bark onto Stoneye so that it gets in his eyes a bit. And like. Eye. And it gets into his one eye. He's got two eyes. They're just both stones. It gets into both his eyes. Both his eyes. Both his eyes. But he called him Stoneye. He calls himself. And this is a conversation we're actually having.

He calls himself Stoneye, even though there's two stone eyes, which is what's confusing about it. Well, maybe someone during my introduction forgot that I was originally only supposed to have one eye. But that's none of your fucking business, is it? But no, Billy, he's not reacting to Billy sprinkling. He's trying really hard not to react. I'm blowing the. The bark bits at him, and I'm making sure I have a lost bit while I'm blowing. So there's just like a paste of Arbutus sprinkles on him.

He's just like. The growl is rising. I try to be so annoying. Yeah, I like it. Is this okay? Yes, it's great. And I'm going. Oh, I'm Stoneye. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Grim Shay raises his hand. Enough. Tuck is like so tired and exhausted. He's leaning his face against the tree. Could you please at least wake up? No. Shut the fuck up. Grim Shay. Holy shit. Language. Language. Sorry. This is a council and you're a boy. Sorry, thing. It's okay.

And Grim Shay raises his hands as if like not going to apologize to me. Okay. We have reached a decision. The history of the Illyana's cannot be ignored, nor can you the effect that you personally have had upon the spiritual realms and the beings that live there in. But tales of you three have preceded you and your use to this council cannot be ignored. Okay. And so we have determined that the only thing that can pay back blood is blood. Your blood.

You will kill the man known as the Ranger King. And that's where we're going to end it for this week. I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always playing Tacoma Dome, the Barbarian, Abdulaziz. So long, everybody. Playing Ving, the Half-Elf Druid, Paul Oppers. Take care. Playing Fat Billy, the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai. Bye, everyone. And sorry, I made a bunch of farting noises. Don't be. That's Billy's brand. Never apologize for your brand. Okay.

Thank you to Aaron Reed of Vancouver Sunday Service for the intro and outro music and composing and performing all of the music that you hear on the show written by Abdulaziz and occasionally myself. And thank you to our supporters supporting us all around the world. If you want us to support the show, you can find us at patreon.com slash Spout Lore or Spout Lore.com slash money, please. For a whole whack of bonus shit.

But including an entire bonus campaign called spout more Mall Brats taking place in the high spear mall. Things are really fucking picking up in Mall Brats. So if there was a time to get on board, it's now it's chilling. It's sick. There's merch. There's games. There's lots of cool stuff. So come check us out. And you know what? Catch you next time. Bye bye. And so ends the tale of adventures three who tried the best they can. Though dumb and scared. And lost they be.

For times of rest in revelry. And though our journey may be like a conclusion. We will not leave you without a resolution. Return next week to hear some more. Whilst you commute. Or do your job. It's yours. And for you I gladly Spout Lore.