Episode 17 – Judgement

For more of the gooey goodness that you love from Spout Lore, come on down to speltlore.com slash money please where we'll redirect you to the Patreon and then donate there for the more of the thing that you like. Did you say gooey? Yeah. That's not bad. That breath was worse than anything else you said actually. 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 max the largest heart. Best in business. And raddest they may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts.

So gather round friends and listen close, for the tale's about to start. Billy the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai. Hello everyone. When last we left our heroes, they were dragged, kicking and screaming into a hellscape of Ving's creation. What? Sorry. The gang was transferred unconsciously to the dream place. Ving was accosted by a nightmarish representation of his father Dathaniel in the form of a great black wolf with iron gray teeth. A snow owl in its mouth. Arrows piercing its hide.

And after attempting to kill this wolf several times, darted into the woods of his nightmares to confront the beast. Tuck and Billy following closely behind. Grappling with their own dream selves. Billy turning into a tree and becoming trapped in an endless dream forest. Tuck encountering the nightmarish cataclysm that he has experienced over and over and over every night for his entire life. Yeah, totally normal for me.

And no reason to be concerned or no reason to speculate from a fan perspective to. Your chin's doing the waggle thing. Your eyes are watering again. Stop it. Your eyes are spinning around in your head like a Muppet. What's going on? Ving confronted the wolf dad at the last moment, saving himself by plunging his unbreakable spear into a brand new gemstone cave. Opal Moonstone. A beautiful, brilliant white light plunging his spear into it and being consumed by an inky. Okay. Darkness.

Tuck hauling Ving out of this darkness into his own nightmare. Ving joining him in the cataclysm. Thank you. Yeah. And Tuck realized that more terrifying than the nightmare of this island being destroyed is having someone see what's going on in his head. Does not like that. The ultimate vulnerability. He's a string of dead therapists behind him. Billy, meanwhile, became lost.

And a memory of the winter war totes engaging in an unending battle with a vicious Elven warrior top a mighty battle cat being killed over and over as well. Yeah. Tuck and Ving progressed through the cataclysmic nightmare, finding Billy on this battlefield, doing their absolute damnedest to get him out. Ving took on the form of a bear of bloody ice and moonlight. Tuck mixed it up with a cat man. Yeah. I got fucked up. I got fucked up a lot. Yeah. Pretty bad. Yeah.

But eventually, through the power of friendship, overcame their troubles, removing their Chamberlain rings after they found themselves in a vision of Pinewood, a happier time, a better time. And the gang escaped from the nightmare realm. But not before Tuck watched the village of Pinewood destroyed in a cataclysm. All of his friends and loved ones being burned to death by a fissure of lava. I knew that this would be his dream. From here on out. Yeah.

Tuck is like, what the fuck is going on in my head? It doesn't sound or feel good. Yeah. To even think about. So he doesn't think about it. And that's a pretty good way to deal with it, in his opinion. And upon returning to the waking world, they were collected by Savarna, who said that the council had reached their decision. And then they returned to the council to hear their judgment. Billy acted like a fucking animal and climbed around in the knowledge tree, spitting on the tree.

And then he was looking on people and telling them to shut the fuck up, showing once and for all the reason that you shouldn't bring your kid to small claims court. Yeah, this is what happens when they take me somewhere I don't want to go. Custody battle. Fuck you. My custody is nuts. Great. And they received the judgment from Grim Shay, leader of the Oval Council, early speaker for the Oval Council, that this debt of blood can only be paid with blood. And that you must kill.

The ranger king ah geez and that is where we find ourselves now it's probably gonna have no ramification psychologically the judgment hangs in the air they look at you expectantly well our rate is five gold coins a day plus per diem plus expenses yeah um each shit good call great grim grim shay looks baffled absolutely flabbergasted this is not a request this is a judgment what have we deny if you refuse this judgment deny what is required of you I would recommend leaving this island by sundown you will have a day and a night and then the judgment of hibernia be on you and at that you see stoneye who you see stoneye who is a man of justice and he's going to take you to a place where you has his arms crossed over his barrel chest smile grimly.

Fuck. Billy farts while looking at Stonai. He plops the ground. It's like, well, I guess we best be off. We shall collect our things. Yeah. Tuck. Yes, I will go now. And Tuck is like Stonai and he like reaches for it touches Stonai on the arm. He doesn't move, but his whole body tenses. I would like to say I will see you on the morrow, my friend. And then Tuck, who is really suffering the effects of blood loss, does a flourishing bow and almost passes over all the blood rushes to his head.

He's a head rush and Savarna is at the edge of the cliff and she starts walking back with you. What happened? We have to kill my father? Oh. Or they're going to kill us. Ah, yeah. Well, you know, that's the way. Do you know how they'll kill us? How do they usually kill people who won't kill their dad? Well, that actually has only come up a handful of times, I'd say.

But, um, if I had to guess based on a sort of your current situation and everything that has happened between your discovery and your arrival on Hibernia, I would guess the Selkies will have something to do with it. Oh, no. The water dogs. And then Tuck goes, Savarna, I picked these for you. And he gives her a handful of grass. Oh. Like, not long grass. Like little blades of grass. It's a little clutch of grass. Oh, thank you. That's very sweet of you.

And she kind of takes it from you and puts it in her mouth. Right, because she's a deer. She is. Oh, my God. Does she eat the grass? She eats it. She puts it right in her mouth and chews it. Like gum. So, yeah, I mean, you can go back to the hut. You could probably go back to your ship as well. I mean, I assume they gave you the usual spiel. Be gone by sundown and then a day and a night. Yeah. So, what do you plan on doing? I think we have to talk to our friends to figure out what's going on.

Okay, so you're going down on the ship? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, you head down to the Sunrunner and it is beached exactly where you found it. And before we leave Savarna, I go, yeah, so like, I got like my own like hammock in there if you ever want to come by. It's pretty cool. So, you're kind of casually looking about trying to act like disconnected and cool and you turn back and she's gone. And then I grab Ving's arm and I lean in and I was like, do you see that? That was amazing.

We were both like looking at you really like wide-eyed like I was. I was like, yeah. Oh, she's gone. She already left. She left a while ago. So quiet into his disappeared. You miss a hundred percent of the shots. You don't take buddy. Yeah, I miss a hundred percent of my shots. I need my shots.

I need to get my shots and there are, you know, a couple selkies on the beach that are asleep some in human form, some in seal form and you see all the under is standing kind of on the top deck of the Sunrunner from where it's beach and he sees you. He's got a beer in his hand. He's like, oh, hey, hey, sup, Ollie. I thought you were any runs his hand across his neck. No, we got a day and a half. What do you mean? And then it's as you put it. Oh, yeah. Is Maggie around? I could go find her.

Yeah, I think we need to tell her and Perel what happened. We go down to Pearl's room like last time. He wakes up and he's like well, just standing over his hammock. What's going on? Is that your sleeping robe? Yeah, it's really nice. It's for airflow. Is that a feather boa? This hammock's uncomfortable. I like the way it feels against my skin. Is that silk? Yeah, it's silk. Is this part wool? I mean, yeah, it's got like different like panels. No, the slippers. Oh, yeah, those these are wool.

I made these actually. Billy crawls into the hammock as well. Trying to steal a slipper. No kidding. And he kind of shifts. Make room. Yeah, then lets Billy lay down. Oh, God. Okay, what's going on? All right, so I'm snuggling Perel. And you're trying to steal a slipper? Yeah, I got a slipper in my, I'm hugging the slipper. I'm like, Perel, we got so much to tell you. Okay, what's going on? We gotta kill my dad in a day and a half or they're gonna kill all of us. Hold on.

And he like slaps himself in the cheek a couple times. Did you say you have to kill your dad in a day and a half or they're going to kill you? I think we have to agree to kill his dad or we just run and if we do that, they'll try and come and kill us in a day and a half. Oh, shit. Bing, how do you feel about that? Well, yeah, pretty conflicted thing. Good morning. Yeah, good morning. That's a lot. Yeah, that is a lot. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

I mean, mostly like where are we going to find this guy? He's, you know, he's not going to go down easy. No, probably not. But also, did you want to kill your dad? Really? I mean, I did. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah. Not really. You want to kill? Yeah, I did. For sure. I did. Have you ever met a dad you didn't want to kill? We could always just run and then choose along the way. And then if we get in trouble, we're just like, oh, well, you didn't make the terms clear enough.

We thought we just had to get out of here. Here's the question. Should we just tell them that we're going to kill Bing's dad and then decide later? I mean, druids do have a… Do you have a pinky promise too? Yeah. No! I was trying to think of the word for it. There's an old Irish mythological term. A gash? A gash. Yeah. Which is like, it's a thing that you have to abide by or it brings you like misfortune, basically.

So you think that they'll try and like bind us with a gash to like force us to do this if we say yes? I mean, I assume that's what they're going to do. That's like, you know, that's how you make people do it. You do what you're bidding. And it is very much like Billy's oath Bing, you remember. It's like you agree to terms of some kind and it is set out that if you break the terms, then yeah, something terrible happens to you.

Can I spell it, Lauren, if it's possible to break a gash after it's been administered? Totally. Great. Because if we can, if we become, if we, if you just gash yourself. Tuck has learned a new word. I'm using it all the time. I do not know how it's worked. If we do the gash work. Let me take a gash. If you get drenched in the gash. We can't let them get us in the gash. Yeah, but if we do that and then figure out a way to break it, then maybe we can get out of here scot-fucking-free. Here we go.

2d6+. Intelligence for Spout Lore. Oh. Minus one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is eight. Interesting, but not useful. Guys, aid me. I'll aid. Well, it's only. We're all both gonna aid. You can't. No. Sean, you gotta aid too. Can I roll my fairy moves? Go to www.patreon.com to aid Abdul in this rule right now. That's aid us by subscribing to our Patreon. Aid us right now by subscribing to www.spellordtreon.com. Okay, I'm just registering that domain. Do it now.

Text 2d6 plus bond to 5555 if you're a team tuck. Klondike 5. No, unfortunately, you know, you can't really aid that far. Fuck. Fuck. Wait. Bardic lore. Yeah. Does that mean two of us can aid? No. He doesn't bardic lore? No, but bardic lore. Choose an area of expertise. Legends of guitar heroes past gods and their servants and histories. I feel like this is gods and their servants. I don't know about that. Like the ocean? Yeah. This is more like magic. The ocean is a minor god, basically.

Well, if the moon is a god, then the ocean's a god. No, guys. Yeah. Stop. Gods and their servants. They made a deal with this huge spirit. Oh, stop world building, Sean. All of a sudden. I thought this was a collaboration. No, but we're not talking about a god or their servants. We're talking about a specific magical practice. But it's not. I think it's spiritual if it's druids are doing it. Okay, but that doesn't mean that Okay. Yeah. Like, what are the other? What are the other legends?

Not legends. No, and unfortunately not a god or their servants. What about histories? Okay. But you did get a seven, remember? Give me a seven. Yeah. So interesting, but not useful. You know that there are stories you've heard and read stories of people. What if you ask thing? I was literally in the middle of a sentence. Yeah. I'm doing my thing. Why interrupt you with my sounding board on a spell or get plus two. Oh shit. Oh my god. Yeah. Sorry.

See what happens when you read your character sheets. I forgot I had these. Okay. So what's the what's another PC comes to you for advice about something important. You tell them what you honestly think is best and get plus two forward on spell or discern realities. Okay. Yeah. Then yeah. So is that how do we do this? Is that all I made? That is just Ving has to be involved. Yeah. You got to just ask him. I'm so stupid because he's like a riff kind of guy is what we said. Yeah.

He's riffing on it. This makes sense because it's all juridic stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And I have the memory of an old druid stuck within me and a wizard. Yeah. And I'm kind of like a egg. Jesus. Egg person. Yeah. You're a Jesus egg. We all know what that means. Let's move on and not ask Paul about his weird history. Grow up in the Ontario North. So that makes it a 10 because I'm a moron. Interesting and useful. Interesting.

We all grab our hands and jump up and down in a circle and turn slowly around and around until Sean tells us what we want to know. And so what I'm going to tell you is there are stories Ving, you know this and Billy, you've heard it. You talk. You've probably heard songs or read books that have all probably songs that there are stories of people overcoming their Gesha or having their own Gesha broken against their will by like technicalities Achilles heel. Yeah, exactly.

So there are there is probably a way if you could find a really tricky little technicality that could get you out of the Gesha. But the thing is is that you have to kill the Ranger King. That's what we have to try to do until we figure out how to break this Gesha exactly. Yeah, so that's the thing is if you could find a way to make that technically true or impossible or something like that, then you might be able to get out of it. He does hook a lot of halfling pipe we might be dead already.

I have an idea. What if you take over you take his crown, you become king and then kill yourself. No, wait. No, this could work. This is us brainstorming. No, that is good. Bing and Tuck both scream at the same time. You kill yourself because then my dad would be alive and you'd be dead and we would fulfill the wait, that's the same outcome as if we just said no. What if we don't give any timeline and then they don't know because they're still trying.

Remember when Urk was getting the book that took months. It took so many months. What if we try and, and make your dad super unhealthy. Yes, like a bunch of burgers. Yeah, by becoming his chefs. This is great clog his arteries over many years for a long time and kill him that way. Perel holds up a hand. I'm not a druid, but my guess is they're going to put a timeline on it. Okay, I don't think they're going to give you like free rain. So it's our calendar people.

Yeah, what if we use the calendar of the sky? And eternal. Yeah, and then when Billy says we use the calendar of the sky, we go what the fuck you talking about? Like it's eternal. Assumed they can't see the stars and they haven't been able to see them for so long, right? So we can just switch her up a little bit. We agree to our terms. Yeah, and we just make up a certain time when we know the stars aligned and it's really a long time from now.

So we got loads of time and then tuck is like, all right, here we go. I have an idea and then he leans into oleander. Yeah, oleander here. Yeah, I'm here. Okay, he's drinking. He's drinking a beer. He's just watching. You gotta stop drink your even drinking constantly since we got here. I'm stressed out. That's a bad reaction to no shit. Did I tell you I'm divorced? Oh my God. Oh, no, we took you from your counselor to that's fine. That wasn't working out anyway.

She was leaving me all the women in my life. Leave me eventually. So except for any pads, the Sun runner, this old beauty here and then tuck goes. Okay, here we go. I'm going to lean in to grab your hand. You're going to your hands so big. I know dude. It's stop squeezing so hard. I'm pulling you in out and then I get close to his face. I'm like, do you have a lawyer on board? Did you bring a divorce lawyer to help us draft this this gash this deal?

Can I roll it spelt or on if there's a real see if there's a lawyer on board? Yeah, sure. Go for it. Discern eternities to 26 plus wisdom nine. Yes, of course I have a I have a barrister all ship captains travel with a barrister. Let me go get him. What's the barristers name? Follow me. Yeah, Bartholomew Theodore tiddlywinks the second. Wow, okay. Yeah, Bartholomew Theodore tiddlywinks the second attorney at law Squire.

I was I wasn't sure what voice I was going to do, but now I'm going to do this one Bartholomew Theodore tiddlywinks the second attorney at law before he even like yeah, let me go look for him. They use stomps and then Boingy jumps out of a deck hole either. He's got like a long robe on he's got he's all he's got a big gray beard long gray hair. He's got a clipboard a tie for some reason tie under on his robe. I thought you're the janitor.

Oh, no, a lot of people make that misconception little boy. Don't worry, but I'm mopping the deck. I was yes with your rights and responsibilities. Maybe most of the time I am what some could call a swabby, but did I pass the bar exam? Maybe prove that I didn't Oh, yeah, he's our guy. All right. Yeah, you know come in and out of port.

It's always good to have somebody familiar with international law to sort of you know get us out of legal jams as my captain all the under here is a smuggler and criminal. It's important that we know we are operating just at the legal limit most of the time. So what do you need? We got a situation where a bunch of druids. I don't know if you've seen this before stop me as if you've heard this one. Okay. All right, our trying to put a gash. Oh, huh on my friend here thing.

Have you ever dealt with a gash before? No, never. This is an isolated druidic community. All right, but I think I'm familiar with the idea. Well, it's a contract that is enforced by the spirit realm sort of boy. Okay, and depending on the terms of that contract thing may or may not have to kill his dad who is the Ranger King to thank Daniel van Zumba bloody Warrior King of the frozen north very fucking hard to kill.

So we're trying to find a way to word this gash so that we don't have to do that. Okay, we're hoping to work into the eternity timeline of the stars if that means anything to you or become his chefs. You know what kids? I've got great news for you. I've dealt with this exact thing before you see in black glass. I was part of a negotiation between two competing discount thrift shops who were having a conflict over Brandon.

They both said that they came up with a mascot that was a lamp with eyes and legs and I was able to determine that the lamp was actually an ancient sigil within the free copyright domain. So what they were actually doing was infringing upon the copyright of the ancient kingdom of kinos so you'll see that this is actually now that I'm thinking about it not similar in any way, but I think I can do it now. Do we know for sure that the terms of the gash are set by the recipient or the declarer?

Can I spout Laura on that? Yeah, absolutely 26 plus intelligence. Okay, nine can someone yeah, I will because it's on druidic olden days. Yes. Okay. I think that Ving still has to aid on a spout Lord that makes sense, right? Well, we didn't get anything that useful. What I'm saying is that like just you keep just him being able to give you a two. I feel like that doesn't make sense. It says sounding board on an aid. You're right on an aid. Okay. Okay fucking God. Okay. Thank you.

Okay Sean, you were right. We were wrong. We bullied you into letting that thing happen. Oh, I see. So we got three I got a nine beautiful. So that makes it a ten the terms of a gash are absolutely not set by the recipient. Why would they be he like what Bartholomew might be able to help you with is laterally thinking your way out of the gash or around it, but he's not going to be able to help you set the terms of it. So we need him to come and listen to it and write it down for us.

Exactly exactly. He's been taking notes this whole time and we look at his clipboard. He's got crazy shorthand like it looks unintelligible. Whoa so my so I just want to make sure I know what's going on here is your goal to like get out of this entirely or to figure out a way out of it after it's been set. I think we're trying to subvert it enough that we can agree to the gash, but don't have to kill Dathaniel right away and could potentially break it at some point.

Okay, it's kind of open-ended. Yeah, just like the hate for my father. Perfect. It's super complicated sounding Tuck says as he passes out. Yeah Tuck Oleander snaps over the ship's healer. Who just starts working on Tuck putting bandages on him. Maggie comes up with Kareen is like hey, what's going on? We fill her in on everything. Well, goddamn that's a whole thing and you want to get out of this. You don't want to kill your dad. I'm not I'm not sure I don't have the same drive to kill.

Maybe he needs to die. I don't but I don't want to kill him for them. It's not every day you get legally empowered to kill your own dad saying. It's a big choice to make in a few hours though, and it just puts all of us in great grave danger, which I'm not willing to do when he throws a rock at one of the Selkies fuck you too and all he says I feel like the part that you're not really thinking about is that we could just fucking whoop. We could just bail right now.

Mm-hmm, and then what we got a day and a half head start then we got the Selkies on our ass until we hit the frozen north and then I feel like they would still come after us. Sorry fuck. I'm not in the scene. Well, you just he's delirious. He's talking in his sleep, but he's shockingly perceptive while he's unconscious Maggie says so what you're going to accept them and then just kind of see what happens.

I mean as long as it doesn't I can't if we're all involved in the get you is it just going to be on me problem. I don't know is it painful does it hurt? I've never actually seen one set or a scene one take place, but I can't imagine it's going to be comfortable. I did see somebody spontaneously combust one time and I assumed it was a guest. I don't know if that is related, but it was fucking cool. This lawyer is weird at but I wouldn't call me a lawyer. Oh, you cannot call me a lawyer.

I'm begging you not to call me a lawyer. Actually, if you look at my card and barrister is spelt like B a R E hyphen I S T E R. I mean either way it's putting us in danger and I have been pointing towards confronting him. I'm going to take the gish okay, so I just walk towards the council where the council was on the cliff. Okay. Yeah, just alone. Yeah, I'm going to do this really actually can you come with me? Yeah, I can come. Yeah, I'm going to take the slipper to I put your gun for comfort.

Okay, we cut to you at the council. They're gathered there. It seems like they haven't left like they've just been standing here deliberating, but they see that you've returned and grim Shay sees you approaching and he turns to you and says being spirit Walker. What is your decision? Do you accept judgment or do you accept death? I accept gish. I'm not accepting your judgment, but I will confront the man that has been plaguing us both.

I will go to my dad very well then my stepdad for I have learned I come from no man very long to go kill my mom's boyfriend ex-boyfriend my mom's ex-boyfriend wait a second. This got way easier to do. Yeah, Billy's nodding solemnly yes at as thing as you say this going. Oh, yeah, it's way easier now if I'm going to kill my mom's ex-boyfriend unbidden memories come to your mind of many years raised at the Daniel side.

Yeah genuine affection you feel shown for you under the hardness of a warrior King, but oh yeah him teaching you to shoot a bow in like a sideways glance just eye contact and like a little bit of a nod. Yeah, and then the flush of warmth and weird acceptance. Uh-huh. Oh, and they're all there's a image where he's trying to raise you as like a like a fighter like a warrior. So you have a bow and he's got an arrow drawn pointed at you.

He's like I will shoot you like you have this is this is what it looks like to stare death in the face. Yeah, it's it was a lot of that kind of teaching right where he was like you got to be hard. You got to mean a boy named suit training exactly things actually a girl's name Oh, really it's usually in the in the you got teased for the name thing a lot when you're younger.

Yeah, then Grim Shay nods and goes all right, then the Gash will be applied and you will be sent on your way and you can tell Billy because you're just looking at everybody stone. I looks furious like he was waiting for the opportunity to kill all of you and it's been taken from him and the council joins you at the water's edge. It's a very awkward walk. I'm trying to conversation because it's silent. Uh-huh.

Yeah, and it is like nobody is talking because like people from the villager joining the procession is like I'm gonna come watch. Yeah, but Billy keeps talking to people. What do you do with all the strawberries that grow here? Like do you make jam? What kind of stuff do you make? I like to make jam sometimes, but my favorite is pies. How long does a Gash take? Is it a like do you get snacks? I don't really see any snacks being brought. Is it usually a snack event or no?

Did you just is it just because it's short notice like we didn't plan it very well? I could get some snacks. Um, what do you think? Whatever your name is? Grimbus? Grimbus 2000? Grimoire? You know when I lived here things sure were a lot different. I walked by myself a lot. Um, I didn't usually get carried or hurt around. Why are you all so quiet? We're here. That was a nice walk. Sure I'm tired though. I'm glad I have this slipper to mop up my sweat. Bing's carrying Billy.

He's been carrying the slipper the whole time. Just walking with a man's slipper in his hand. What an insane thing this is. It's a procession of the elders of Hibernia. An elf carrying a boy holding a fuzzy slipper who won't shut the fuck up about dinner. And then you arrive at the beach and you can feel some of the elders of Hibernia like sigh in relief that they've arrived. You know at my Gesh there was a platter. There were several platters at my Gesh but whatever.

I actually do like the idea that uh Hibernians at a certain age take Geshes to like just determine sort of the direction of their lives. Maybe that's when they choose a clade. They choose a clade and then the Gesh like solidifies their form. Oh I really like that. That makes so much sense. That's very cool. And I like the idea that it's like um you do it pretty young. Like 11 or 12. It also kind of makes sense with how feudal Hibernian society is.

Like Geshes like kind of keep people like swimming in the same lane despite how like like bestial their interactions are. Yeah you'd think it'd be a more like natural kind of anarchy rather than like strict hierarchies. Yeah. Uh and the elders of Hibernia join you at the water's edge. Along with dozens of villagers who have come to observe. Uh the sun is getting pretty high. It's like well I mean the light is getting pretty bright. You can't really see much of the sun.

But a uniform gray hangs over the water. And Ving they lead you out into the sea. Stoneye notably not present actually. You're standing in the water about you know chest high. Uh looking out at the waves. The members of the council are standing around you. Kind of up to their chests as well. And um it's a fairly silent uh affair. There's not a lot of speaking but there is for the people that can perceive the movements of the spiritual energies.

There's like a symphony of like spiritual energy moving as the water interacts with the druids and the druids interact with the water. The water interacts with you. Kind of sounds like when you run your finger around a wine glass with water or different. Oh yeah. Totally. There's like a harmonic vibration uh that echoes off the cliffs of this fjord as well. Oh yeah. Yeah as like the resonant frequency of the stone is hit and the whole thing rings like a bell.

Is are the elders the ones that are administering the gash? It appears that way. Okay. Tataku is barely able to keep one eye open. And the energy rises to a crescendo. Your ears ring with the power of the spiritual forces flowing through this place and flowing through you. The water dances in waves like the waves around in a circle around Vang are kind of like going up like zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom in this thin circle around them. Mm-hmm.

And uh to finish it it seems almost unceremonious but also like deeply ritual. A wave crests right over your head and just like the water washes your hair back. It gets in your nose and your mouth and your ears, but like flopping fish on the top of my head. There's like kelp hanging from your hair, but it feels like that was sort of the stamp on the whole thing. Let me guess that was the gash you now are bound by ritual to see this vow and oath to its end in two moons time.

You will end the life of the man known as the Ranger King or your life will be the one offered and the barrister is there and he's like your honor my clients I object and all he puts his hand on his shoulder goes man right now. You got to read the room here, but but he had but but Bartholomew has been taking notes this whole time. He's just been like writing on his clip or like okay. Yeah, do this do that now you are free to go from this place. But no these waters are not your home.

You will find no safe harbor here until your gash is complete. All right and grim Shay nods and the rest of the council walks back up out of the water and the hibernians for the most part follow them back up the path to the village and Billy like kind of trails after them a little bit. He's like is that it are you guys coming back? Is there are we going to have like a dinner so far? So far? I'm like, oh, Barna is there. Are you are you all leaving now? She kneels down.

Yeah, that's that's it Billy. So now I have to go. It appears. I mean, so I have to go now. Well, Bing Bing has to go but I mean my house. Oh my God. This can be too easily crying. I just got here. I know one. No one can take it home from you. Billy. This is where this is where can I come back? Yes. Yes, of course. This is your home. Okay, I'll go with Bing. Okay. All right. It'll be okay. It'll be all right. I didn't know I would be so sad. And she like reaches out and she hugs you.

Bing can you pick me up? Yeah, I was gonna Hey Billy. I made something for you. What is it? He's woven Billy a little tiara that says Billow. Oh, Billy. Thank you. Out of the woods. A little billow for me. This is the crown of the people who live in this island. This is for you. Okay. And look at this. I got a jar. Oh. Of the moon druid water from the well. Okay. And I've heard that you drink some of this before bed. It puts you in a very deep sleep and you dream of this place and being here.

Okay. Okay. You may be able to visit. Okay. I I mean if you have any questions about the Gesh I can attempt to help but I just want you to know that the coming of the Ranger King is not as simple and as black and white as the council seems to believe and we, many of us on these islands know that. That is why I think I have to go to him. She nods. Thank you. Thank you. And she runs a thumb along Billy's cheek and turns to walk back up the path. I'll do my best. We'll do our best.

She turns and says, I know you will. But if in six months time this isn't done and you come for us you better bring more than you think you need. She nods and she walks back up to the path and disappears into the trees. Okay. I want to get some poultices. Can I run quickly? Yeah. Yeah, you can gather some stuff. Can you leave me here for a bit? Yeah, of course. Okay. You want to hang on the shore? Yeah. So you're just going into the like the underbrush to gather some herbs or whatever?

Yeah, hold on. I run on the boat. I come back with Perel's other slipper. He's yelling. I don't know where I put my other shoes. Now I'm just barefoot. We need them. To carry stuff. We don't have a lot of baskets on here. They make great baskets. Yeah. So Ving, you can replenish your poultices and herbs. Thank you. If you take some time to just kind of dig around in the underbrush and grab what looks like useful leaves. Oh great. I'm foraging. Yeah. Delicious foraging. Oh man.

There's so many things that I know here because it's Druid Island. Yeah. Actually, you know what? I like that. There's I think Hibernian herbs. This one like basically of herbs and poultices will give you five uses. But anywhere else you would only get three. Great. Thank you. And I found some druid pipeweed, which is different than halfling pipeweed. We'll figure out what that means later. Excellent. Two uses. Fuck yeah. And what's Billy doing down on the shore?

Billy's like there's like the cliffs along the shore. So he's run down the shoreline to a cave around the corner. Ooh. And he's gonna, he grabbed a rock on the way. And in that cave is a cave he's visited before in his past. And he like has a little rock pile in there. It's kinda like a little, what do you call it? A cairn. Yeah. And he adds another rock to it. And he wants to like leave a little part of himself. Oh he buries some of his, he cuts off some of his hair.

And he buries that in the cairn. Whoa. How big is this cairn? It's really small. Like maybe a loaf of bread. Uh huh. Is it like every time Billy comes back to Hibernia? Yeah. Like every time he like has gone through all the cycles, he like leaves a symbol of like this version of him. Yeah. Whoa. That's really nice. And he just visits it. Yeah. And yeah, like as you enter this to anyone else what would seem like an ancient little sea cave.

You feel this warmth of like opening the door to your home after having been away for years. Yeah. What are some of the other things that are there? Oh uh an acorn. Uh pfff what else? Oh a chip of, off his axe. Mmm. Um rose petals. Well dried. Basically dust now. Um A bear claw? A bear claw. Ooh. Why not? Like a donut? Yeah an old donut. A crawler. He picks it up and he munches it as he wants. He takes one bite every time he comes back to this cave. Yeah he takes one bite of the bear, oh.

Of the donut, wait of the bear claw. Gotta save this. Gotta save it. There's still a bit left. Next time. This is like two thousand year old donut. Yeah. Is there anything in this cave that Billy takes with him? He doesn't take anything with him. Oh. No. Nice. Um But I don't tell anyone about it. Yeah no I imagine that it's actually kind of like you kind of had to squeeze yourself in here. Yeah it's very small. Like it's not a place that anyone could go. Um it's covered in like vines and moss.

Um you would just assume it's a it's um just stone. Yeah. Where it is. The opening is really small. It's really dark in there except Billy uses his little willow the wisp to see. But he like knows all the foot paths and everything. Yeah. Like and they're like worn in different places from all the times that he's stepped this way. Yeah. There's like drawings in there that he's done before. Ooh. Fuck. Do you do any drawings before you go? Not this time. Okay. Yeah. Oh wait. Yeah he does.

He goes back. I can't forget. So he draws a shitty drawing of like Perel and Tuck and Ving and Mears and Francis. So basically the first postcard that he sent out. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah it's on the inside of the wall. He's like oh I forgot and he does some croissants. Oh I forgot and he does wicker. Wow. Yeah. I actually love that that postcard was a. That postcard is a drawing that Billy did on his cave. Yeah. That's so cool. Yeah. He's got like old crayons in there. Really old. Yeah. Anyway.

It's like tree pitch with like different dyes and stuff in it. Uh huh. Uh anyway he runs back out like uh waits for Ving at the shore. Tuck is waking up and he's like Billy what are you chewing? What? What's in your mouth? Nothing. I left him for four seconds. I'm so sorry. No you can't have it. He chews like harder. Tuck tries to put his fingers in there cause he doesn't know anything. No he doesn't. It's gone. He bit me. Well you put your fingers in my mouth. I miss with the kitchen. Yeah.

Uh and Ollie and the crew of the Sunrunner have gotten the boat back into the water. It's not beached anymore. Uh the Selkies that were here guarding you have left. Ving comes back with a bag full of herbs. Uh huh. And some weed. Uh huh. What'd you get? Uh mostly poultices and some druid pipe weed. Oh. How's it different from halfling pipe weed? I don't know yet. Okay. We'll find out later. Also a bunch of berries and um nuts. Pine nuts. Cool. And a sword of impenetrable matter. Alright. Okay.

The bill hook. Did you find it? Cloak of invisibility. And a gun. Off a gun book. Uh you know what I actually don't not a gun bush, but I don't hate the idea that there's like a type of plant that the fruiting body is produced in such a way that there's a bunch of like biomechanical tension inside of it, so it can shoot just one thorn. Like if you just pick this thing, yeah, it's like um you know those exploding cucumbers. Yeah, yeah. So there's just like all this you know enough.

There's exploding. Cucumbers and they shoot seeds all over the place like once they reach certain. There's a bunch of plants to do that. Yeah, they pop in all their seeds shoot out. Oh cool. I think it there's there's one bush like that. I grab one of those bush quickly pair. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a little spiky fruit. Yeah, quickly a grenade. It's a grenade that shoots thorns um and in French pair means father that is true. This is going to become the check check ofs kind of no jack ofs gun.

Yeah, the jerk off is gone. Yeah, the boat is in the bay like in the water of the fjord and the crew has started to drop sale. All the Anders ready to go. What do we do? What are we doing? You know what I feel fine thing says I feel unprompted. Yeah, he's on the bow. Yeah, okay, do the gray. Uh, why did you yell that at us? I don't know. I don't maybe I wasn't talking to you. I'm sorry. I'm talking this feels weird.

I feel strange and I hope that it doesn't bring us and knee harm, but it makes sense, right? We're going there. Anyways. Yeah, right. We gotta go talk to Adonack, right? We do and this is just kind of like another chore on the road. Yeah, sometimes you have to go to the grocery store, but on the way you have to kill your father. Yeah, exactly. All happens all the time. It's happened to all of us. Yeah, also, I just want to Peral sticks his head in. I just want to clarify.

We're all on the same page. We're not going to talk to Adonack all water. We don't know that she's alive and we're going to where her tower used to be because apparently there's a box there, right? There's a vault. Yes, with a box just want to be clear and we break that box. We get another wizard out of there. Maybe collect the whole set. High five maybe it's going to be a wizard. Maybe it'll be Adonack, but it could be anyone or anything. Oh just want to set up those terms. Okay.

Yeah, do you guys are just talking pretty casually about going to see Adonack all water a wizard who's most certainly dead just we're not casual anything. We're about to do. Yeah to any of our parents. Okay. All right, cool. Oh, I didn't I didn't learn anything by the way. Oh, I remember anything about Adonack. Yeah, sorry, nothing. Oh during your meditation. Yeah, I was trying to do a thing that I haven't been able to do in a long time be useful. It's for this guy here go fuck yourself.

No, I was trying to do an old thing Wizards. It's a it's a pretty common technique. It's called the boundless thought diagram. It's kind of a way of like folding your brain, and I haven't been able to do it since I don't have my magic, but the ion candle kind of helped me give it a shot. So I really thought hard with many brains over a long period of time, but yeah, no one knew what Adonack was working on. So nothing similar to kind of your whole situation being unfortunately.

Yeah, I don't know. I wish I could be more helpful on that front, but do you think would help just getting your magic back? Is there anything else? I mean ideally we would talk to another wizard, you know well, I mean we're going to go to this vote. We're going to break open this box.

Can we remind ourselves of what the point of that is is to well, why did we want to another wizard again to figure out like what if there's a process for getting your magic back for pearl, okay, and also if there's a process for reintroducing magic into the world in general to stop whatever's happening right planes because they're grinding against each other planer conjunction. That is the thing that we are we go everybody with we got we got back to the story quest.

Yeah, murdering one man seems a lot less important. Yeah, then all of reality collapsing it on itself endlessly and maybe it'll happen in the next two months and you won't even have to kill your dad. That's a very optimistic. It looks like this was this was the equivalent of the party pressing start to open up their quest journal and going back to the main quest that they'd on track a long time ago. Oh, yeah. What were we doing?

We've been doing side quest for a while, but all he's standing at the wheel. What's this? So what do we were just heading north my man north to the tower the glacier that our neck lives in. Okay, frozen North lived in sorry Perel. It's fine. You guys just whatever you don't remember details at the best of times. So I just assume you don't know who's alive or dead sometimes Perel. It helps us to talk about things in an optimistic way.

So it makes us feel like we are being useful and our dumb journeys have a purpose. You know, Billy, I never really thought about it that way. Because it's a stupid way to think about it, but I'm going to go back down below. Is this because I took your slipper? Maybe I brought one of them back. All you hear is he's going downstairs as as is one on slipper foot hits the deck. You see the other slipper float by the water gulp. That's not my fault. So are we are undertaking perilous journeys?

I suppose. Yes, but before we go tuck goes to the back of the ship. Oh to say one final goodbye to this land and to one half dear woman in particular. Can't even see her. She's out of sight for sure. He looks he look he looks off the back deck trees just trees Billy offers the bill knock. I look through the bell noculars. Yeah trees fill the gaps in the trees and then I yell to being it just moves his voice along the wind this role. I'm at the best right now. Don't tell him to roll stuff.

What are you talking about? Roll elemental mystery to the six plus Constitution twelve. My God, sorry fourteen. Wow, so what are you? There's no way she doesn't hear it. What are your two choices? Because remember you still have to pay. You have to choose one. I do not retain control so so far the word so Varna explodes over the entire island leveling trees and branches fall off trees rocks tumble down into the sea and eventually you see movement in the trees at the at the head of the path.

Who is it some guy and then another guy and then a group of people and then so Varna beat red in the face. She comes down to the water the beach and goes. What and then tuck he leans. Oh, he leans down. He like he leans down and pick something up and then with all his mights. He throws it to the shore to her. Uh huh. Why are you rolling for it? Just tell you I want I want to get it to the shore. Oh, you're kind of getting far away. Also. I don't remember.

What are the things she's throwing something from his inventory. Is it like a Titanic heart of the ocean sort of thing? I think so. Are you? What's his kind of goal is to try and make it like that. Okay, so you didn't even figure out what it was. This is how talk operates. This is how improv goes. Um, so he throws a bale of hay. Okay, uh-huh, because she ate the grass that he gave her. Where did you get this hay from? I did go and collect some grass.

Uh-huh, so it's a really little bail, I guess and it just plops into the sand in front of her and I go may all of your morrows be filled with grass. May you graze into eternity and the boat begins sailing away and she picks up the bale and you hear gently on the wind. Thank you good bye goodbye, and she turns away and pushes through the crowd of druids who are laughing with the bale of hay with the bale of hay. She does take it with her no poem. This time I can't.

I feel like all of my poems are the same poem. I don't think so. I wrote it on the grass. Don't eat that. You see her eating it like an apple as she walks away and all of the druids that came to the beach wave and laugh as you sail away. She's like, I'm out of the fjord and into the gray text like I feel like we ingratiated ourselves to some of them. Exactly. You look at them all. Yeah, they're all standing there. They're waving at a time.

Now you are undertaking your perilous journey out through the gray into the frozen north who is going to roll what we've got navigate and scout ahead. I'll navigate I can scout and check just up in the crow's nest. Yeah, because I just woke up Billy's hanging out the back of the boat looking out at the island all like morose looking for Lauren like a little emo. Yeah, Korean comes and sits down next to you. What's going on? Nothing. You sure? Yeah, I'm totally feeling great.

I know what it feels like to have to leave a home that you feel like you haven't spent enough time in. I saw how I feel at all. Billy turns around. He's like I just have allergies. She puts a hand on your back. Her hand is of course as big as your entire back. Thank you. She rubs it a little bit. Hands you a hanky. Yeah, I put it on me like a blanket. Thank you. You know, if I was more sentimental, I'd say something like home isn't a place. It's a feeling blah blah blah.

I have to barf for the side of the boat. She just sits there with you. Okay, two to six plus. I believe it's intelligence for navigate and wisdom for let's go to head 10 plus. Scout ahead is wisdom. So minus one because I have that ability now nine. Okay, how long does that hang out for until he gets it taken care of? So I'm I think like because this is part of the dream forever. I'm sort of making bad calls because I'm constantly worried that you guys are going to die.

So second guessing your judgments. Yeah, because we got a nine for scout ahead and two to six plus intelligence for navigate tip five shit boy. Okay, so with Scout ahead and seven to nine you choose one from the list below you get the drop on whatever lies ahead you discern a beneficial aspect of the terrain such as a shortcut shelter or tactical advantage. You make a capital D discovery or notice sign of a capital D danger. I think I would like to get the jump on whatever lies ahead.

Okay, so something that is different as you're leaving the gray is that you don't have guides. So it's pretty slow going initially like as Ali and the crew are trying to get a handle of sailing through the gray again with no one helping them. So it feels like you're just crawling along you're sailing through this like interminable wall of mist and fog and a rock appears out of the gloom jutting out of the water this like harsh gray spike of stone.

Whoa and standing at the very top of the stone is stone. I what the fuck he's got his arms crossed over his chest duck is just like what are you doing just because the council has laid their judgment doesn't mean I have to agree. I act by my will alone. I don't think the council would like to hear that I spit on the council. Oh shit. You any points at Ving your line your blood has broken the accords of this island and I will not stand for it. What are you going to do?

You will know in time and he leaps into the air and takes his elephant seal form and disappears beneath the waves belly flops hard he should have waited change that was not lean forward next time lean forward a little bit before of a dive and he hits the kind of way that the there's like silence for a second and the whole crew goes. Oh oh but he disappears under the water and tries to play it off, but you can tell underneath he's going.

Oh fuck fuck my stick so bad his real voice is coming through how he took on a Batman voice when he became a man. Yeah, so coming for us now or eventually I think eventually he said in time. So so within space and within time. Okay, all right grown-ups always mean later on when they say that yeah, yeah, yeah, who knows might be rogue might be that he is going to wait to see even this the barest inkling that you don't plan on fulfilling your oath. Oh strike like could be anything.

Okay seemed like he definitely didn't want to give up any information besides I'm here. Yeah and Ollie is pisses into the ocean. Yeah, for a good measure here dig be come and hold the wheel for a second and he runs over to the side and he runs up and pisses in the ocean Billy runs up to a little like one of those where they called the port holes. Yeah, yeah, I points into the bottom of the boat. I didn't know that told me before I start and tucks like come on everybody.

Let's all piss into the most of the crew except for the guy holding the wheel. They all run to the sides of the boat and they're all like yeah fuck you in a final show of rebellion as you leave hibernia and tuck sniffs and he's like whoa someone needs to drink more water. This fucking suck. It's like it's you just accurate like, you know, like coffee piss when you haven't had enough water after you drank a bunch of coffee.

This is orange, but yeah, it's I'm in ketosis pretty hard happens in ketosis and your piss gets like super intense. Yeah, well, I'm gonna make sure it's not brown. That's when it's dangerous around this is that when there's like blood in there and no, it's just like your body's breaking down. It's going out of your dick. Yeah, sounds kind of like you know, you're pissing out your organs and stuff. Yeah, this is the conversation liver. Tuck and Billy are having because Billy's low enough.

He saw the whole stream. Yeah. Oh, and he got all the whiff of smells like motor oil sludgy. What the fuck and he's all bitter again. He's like I left hibernia for this. Oh man, that's true. That's going to be I bet a bit of these people peeing off a boat. So excited. Yeah, just standing back like God fuck bit of a transition back to road life. Whereas before Billy was like I love being on the road. Everything's so interesting and now he's thinking about like the fish guy.

He's like he made such good fish shadow snow. Yeah, because so like yeah tuck kind of hears Billy grumbling impudently like a surly little kid. I'm back at the back of the boat again like you leave the porthole goes in the bottom of the boat outside into the ocean like I'm supposed to know that doing that little kid like throwing stuff overboard with that little kid throw where like they don't know how to throw stuff properly. So it's just like really important things for the boat.

I don't get it over as bounces off and hits me. Yeah. Oh yeah, I get angrier. It hits the ground hits the banister and hits you so stupid came throw anything right. I start scratching at the wood just with one finger. Yeah, it so then tuck walks over to Billy and he kind of leans down. He puts his hand on his back and he starts rubbing his back. He's like I know it's hard to leave. No, I feel fine.

No, I don't feel anything and tuck is like it's okay if you don't feel anything, but it's also fine to not feel fine. It's hard to miss the places that you feel at home. You know how I feel all I'm just alone here because everything is stinky over there not because I have feelings and that I'm sad and tuck from like in his little backpack.

He he pulls out like a little wooden cage and in it is like one of the mimic moths and he's like I caught this guy before we left and Ving talked to him and then like the wings open and it's like a picture of Hibernia and then they close and they open again and it's like different parts of the island. Every time it closes and opens it's like a storybook of your home. Wow, thanks you guys. It's not like being there, but it it's not nothing. It's pretty close.

Is the moth going to get cold up here? Yeah, it'll die in a couple weeks. It's not. No, it's going to. Everything dies, Billy. Right. Yeah, most things. Oh, I forgot about that part. I'm just going to like take the moth downstairs and go sleep in Pearl's hammock. Okay, buddy. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. And we see this shot of below decks Billy laying on his side in the hammock watching the mimic moth open on the island of Hibernia.

The trees the ocean very very he's reclined and draw me like one of your French girls. Spoken a pipe. Yeah and a rock face behind which Billy knows lies a very familiar cave. Oh, 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 to come to him the Barbarian Abdul Aziz so long everybody playing being the half-elf druid Paul offers take care playing happily the halfling thief Jessica tie by everyone. Thank you to our to Aaron read.

Thank you to our Aaron read for his incredible artist or and if anybody tries to get him to make music for your podcast, I'll come your house. I'll shit out of you. Yeah, we'll fucking rock bottom you in your mom's kitchen rock bottom. That's a finisher and we're going to finish you in your mom's house. Yeah I'm going to finish your mom.

Yeah, I'm going to finish your mom with my two fifths Aaron makes our intro and outro music that you're well familiar with by this point, but we love it so much. You can find all of the music composed and performed by Aaron read and written by Abdul and I at just Google spell or SoundCloud that'll probably do it also Aaron had an album come out recently. Oh yeah, talk about that. Yeah, if you go to band camp and search ACR that is the name of his one man musical group.

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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 it's we will not leave you without a resolution return next week to hear some more whilst you commute or do your chores and for you I'd gladly Spout Lore