Episode 17 – The Hammer Falls

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

I'm your Game Master, Sean O'Hara Joining me as always, Tacoma Dome the Barbarian, Abdul Aziz Hello everybody! Ving the Half-Elf Druid, Paul Oppers Hey, how's it going? And Fat Billy the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai Hello!

When last we left our heroes, they were gearing up for an infiltration of the Project Anvil facility, wherever that may be Using the information of their new friend, Euphigenia, they infiltrated, attempted to subtly infiltrate the Project Anvil facility in some manner, maybe getting dropped off like outside the gates and sneaking in, or like in an off corridor and creeping about Instead, they ended up directly in the War Council of Colm Blackhammer, one of the two princeps of the Firefields Principality Whoopsies Deep in conversation with a number of noble members of Firefields gentry, discussing logistics and timelines, and the continuing demand for their allegiance to the Blackhammer Twins and their plans, the party lay in wait for him to be left alone with his thoughts Billy almost gave us away immediately, because his belly bumped the door Almost opened it too far And then Jess angrily had to burn a fairy child to keep him There's so few left!

I think you only have one! I only have one! That's the way to do it! Oh man… Watch your tum tums! And you know what? Billy made up for it, just moments later, leaning around the door with a blow dart, coated in Harpsnake Venom, paralyzing Colm Blackhammer Not such a stupid gift anymore, huh?

Yeah, you're all welcome everyone, ungrateful I cannot believe how quickly the tables turned on me and my plans By just Billy going like Colm stood there, paralyzed, as the party rifled through his shit Including a bunch of war plans and maps that they did not have the time or inclination to go through Really paralyzed more people Yeah This is a good lesson we're all learning Yeah It is a pretty good move Yeah, maybe we should visit some markets or whatever, wherever they sell this stuff Yeah Yeah, if you could find someone that sold Harpsnake Venom, that'd be great, but it's probably fairly uncommon Unless you go to the Highspear Mall and Dwat's still alive Oh…

Oh yeah Me and you later, still together Still together? Harpsnakes, blow your voice Listen for the music of the Harpsnakes Is it legal to sell Harpsnakes in this mall?

I win Whink I wouldn't know anything about that, I'm just a humble regular snake-thailtment Wink But if you come to the Jazz Festival happening later today, maybe someone there might know something For our listeners that don't, haven't heard Mall Brats, this means nothing to them But go listen to Mall Brats, you're gonna love it I'm just imagining Dwat lifting up a bunch of regular snakes to reveal a Harpsnake underneath Come here close, children Look at what I got here A different snake I love Dwat You can't flush it down the toilet though, everybody does that and it really fucks up the surrounding area And that's why we…

You have to snake your snake out That's why we have giant Harpsnakes in the firefields Yup!

They are not indigenous to this area That's true It is from a character who we introduced in the Big Market episode of Mall Brats He was in two episodes He's in one Three episodes Three, right All three of which he was fucking someone in a tent that we built Excuse you, he was making love Yeah, that's true After he was paralyzed, Colm Blackhammer then had his armor Uh The engine was destroyed Followed by Tuck peeling Colm out of his armor like a banana Ripping the front off, destroying it, opening up the chest completely Revealing underneath his armor, Medjay-style tattoos Having been used to, in his youth, chain a number of icons to his being Including the icons of honor and discipline, ones he took on as a young man Followed by, much more recently, the icon of slaughter Oh yeah, and that tattoo is so rough Yeah And like scarring and just like an ugly ugly rotten tattoo Oh totally, yeah Oh and I was thinking about this, the one that we talked about the Medjay having like the mandala The anchor The anchor one For this one it is an eye He has an eye tattoo in the middle of his chest Sick!

We totally didn't notice that Yeah, nobody noticed that before because somebody hadn't thought about it Man, that was a very exciting drive home for you Yeah It was more me going, oh you fucking idiot, damn it, you son of a bitch Get out of my way That's most of what the post session thoughts for me are Like, I could have done this, that would have been so cool Um, they took his sword, tossed it into Hither and Yon Which was still connected to the closet And closed the door, locking Colm in his, uh, in his, in his room Uh, they then tried to sneak through the facility finding their way to Project Anvil itself Discovering that every level of the subterranean facility had access to the project Before being accosted by a number of guards A fight scene broke out They started charging their way through the facility Uh, they arrived at Project Anvil discovering The reason that it is accessible from every level is because it is on every level It's about a 120 foot tall war mech Sick A thought that I had that I didn't bring up was that there's parts of this like legs and arms Maybe we talked a little bit like Voltron But where other mechs come in and can come on this So it can also act as a carrier of other mechs Oh, that it can like drop war mechs into the future?

Yeah Oh, poofs them out Yeah, poofs them out Blum blum blum, get em boys Yeah, their, it, it's legs go very wide, it squats all the way down Lays them like an egg And it has to do this with its face Eughhh Aaaaaah Ohhhhh And then the guy on the hairier side is just like What the It looks like, uh, it's taking a big shit It's poopin' It's poopin' boys! It's poopin' boys! E-Ella Key, it's poopin' out there! Get ready, it's poopin'!

Uh Looks like it's really trying to bear down and bite it off It just grabs onto like the top of a hill Grrrr We could get the newspaper Grrrr Pretty cool how quickly we undermine that scary thing Hey, you know what? I'm alr- I'm always ready for that I had a really cool bike ride home after last session How many more poop jokes could I get in there?

Those weren't my poop jokes by the way That was a duel, that was a duel I did quickly jump on board Yeah, you got it I got on deck if you will Yeah Yeah Uh, Euphigenia went to go disable the alarms, hopefully to stop, um, an incredible amount of security and soldiers from showing up While Ving ran around to the back of the ship To try and get across on a gantry platform there Billy and Tuck decided to just fucking go for it Did a big ol' jump right across the gap, latching onto the front Uh, Tuck gave Billy the mechanical heart of M4 which he then wheedled his way inside And the axe And the axe with Larry, Terry, and Chad to help do some, uh, magical mechanic work inside And as things were just starting to look like maybe progress was being made Who should arrive?

Who should arrive? But Colm Blackhammer In his shattered armor The gaping wounds from his previous battles So fucking gross And in his hand, his obsidian sword Nooo And that is where we find our heroes now Colm Blackhammer, eyes ablaze Fury in his eyes that are ablaze He's got a sword in his hand He's standing there staring at you, Tuck What do you do?

Tuck jumps And you see Colm brings his sword in front of him and he goes like Like grits his teeth and he's ready to fight When I see him bring the sword in front of him, I'm like, shit!

And then he, you said that there was like chains hanging, that's how Billy got across Yeah So Crash Bandicoot style, I'm gonna try and grab the chain And then like, uh, you know that thing where it's like, I swing on it and then pull up to give myself more air so I'm not on the same trajectory And then I'm gonna try and come down on top of him like, WWE style elbow on his head Yeah Cool Yeah All of that seems like something, like the leap across seems like it would be well within Tuck's capabilities So I won't make you roll for that Okay But you will be rolling hack and slash Yes So 2d6 plus strength, oh actually no, he is ready to go You are defenseless, not defenseless but you have no weapons No weapons So you will have to roll a defy danger to even get in close to him Okay, that makes sense So how are you getting around it?

I'm just trying to, I'm yanking as hard as I can, I'm yanking on it bro What do you mean yanking? On the chain Okay so that's He's yanking his chain Gotcha, so you're trying to say that that's a strength instead of a dexterity basically? Are you like whipping the chain around or something?

No, Tuck's trying to like get over it He's trying to like get over it So he's just like grabs the chain and goes like Yeah Yeah, like an athletics thing, yeah I'll call it strength, 2d6 plus strength Okay, here we go Big strength boy Okay, so 13 13 Yes!

You uh, yeah you yank on this chain as you leap across and throw yourself above at an angle that Colm was not expecting Yeah, kind of above and behind And he looks up, yeah alright And then I wanted people to elbow the fuck out of the back of his head Hack and slash Here we go 2d6 plus strength Fuck yes! Oh no! So that's a 4 on the die and then I got a 7 Okay so you're gonna deal your damage and he's gonna deal his damage Okay Ugh Tuck, fuck, what? 1! Fuck my damage is 1! Your damage is 1?

Yeah Okay, yeah So you like, he I think even in his slowed state he moves faster than you expect him to You roll his damage real quick so it's 2d10 and then you'll take the higher Oh my fuck We're all gonna die aren't we? Fuck! So yeah that's a 10 is the highest That's 10, yeah for sure that's 10 highest one Shit dude And I believe we discussed that last time that his sword bypasses your armor Yes, but yes We did save that Sean So yeah that's 6, he's at 6 Can I try You're at 6 hit points?

Yep Can I try and weaponize dissociation to resist that aspect of the sword? Oh no Yes you can Okay That is a very interesting idea Okay please be only one So that's 4, I took 4 hit I took 4 damage to save 3 so I actually take 11 Oh no! That should count, that's crazy No that 100% counts Yeah I made a bad move He's making choices and he's facing the consequences of them Fuck!

That shouldn't count, I do like that But so you do, you feel, okay so how this happens is you come down with this people's elbow Yeah And he moves again quicker than you expect and you slam your elbow into his like seemingly very lean shoulder Uh huh It just like stabs you through like the torso Okay Good god And this damage that you tried to do like you thought you hit him pretty hard Yeah And he stumbles in his heavy armor, grabs, like pulls you in close with the sword Uh huh Says, is this wise?

And then Tuck goes, I'm not wise And then he kicks his feet back against the wall behind him, tries to take both of them over the edge of the gantry Oh yeah Six damage This, uh, I want you to understand the consequences potentially of what you're doing here Yeah you're dying here I know Yeah I know I understand that? I only have five hit points Do you understand the stakes?

I know We just started the episode I know Moments ago Uh Billy, you see that you are inside the, you're crawling inside M4 This has been like the last 15 seconds Yeah This has not been a long amount of time No I know but TLC has been whispering to me the, like where to go Yeah Basically Man this thing's fucking huge, this is way bigger than the last one There's so many places this thing could go Uh, uh, yeah okay so this kinda looks like a Okay so this kinda looks like how it was connected the other time, uh pull out that little thing again Okay And he sho- you pull out like the mechanical heart of M4 that's like dripping with this spiritual metal creating like weird Art Nouveau kind of spirals on it Do these little tubes have to hook up to something?

I don't know last time it's- we pulled it out and it just kinda like detached, almost by itself Yeah I guess I'll discern reality Yeah so 2d6 plus wisdom Okay seven Oh seven, beautiful Yeah Okay so you get one question off the list Sigh I guess what here is useful or valuable to me?

Hmm So you're deep inside holding this big mechanical heart that's like almost as big as your torso And um, you see that the, the spirit iron that Ving summoned back at the refinery is almost still flowing in its solid state And it looks like it's like reaching out to different components Ooh Cool Okay I wanna let it guide me Yeah Yeah Ooh Yeah So you're getting a plus one from the discern reality series Nice Ooh Five Five?

Nooo Okay holy shit You do have a fairy child I do but I need this stuff Okay you know what I'll use it, yeah turn a failed roll into a seven to nine, I need it So it is like uh the metal is flowing off this heart reaching out and it like the weight of it shifts suddenly as it feels like it grabs out quickly Yeah And you can drop it Yeah Into this like huge complex nest of metal Does it like latch on almost and like kinda weave around?

Yeah it grabs onto some components and holds itself in place just before its lost in the machinery Okay Ooh you can hear the ticking in the heart Uh huh And it kind of goes metal as fuck Haha yeah Save us M4 and I wanna run off with the axe Okay great and you start hustling back outside Uh Ving you hear a Okay, great. And you start hustling back outside. Ving, you hear Tuck scream, I'm not wise. I look at, I see him with sword coming through body. Yeah.

I want to get down there as fast as I can and defend. Yeah, so it'll be a defy danger of some kind to get there. Okay, I'm going to defy danger to get down to the game plank so I can try and defend. I like how you used the GM camera cut to keep me from absolutely killing myself. We just swear. Other people are doing stuff in this situation. You have time to think. Yeah. Okay, so defy danger is what? It is whatever stat that you are using that describes the action you're taking.

I was thinking backwards swan dive from the boiler where I am. Yeah. Sounds like dexterity. Yeah. So I got seven. Seven. I'm going to swing down trying to grab the chains and get down to the level. Yeah, on a seven to nine. And I think you can grab the chain, but you kind of like misjudge the angle and you hear some doors slam upstairs. Yeah. And here people go down there and then as crossbow bolts start to shoot down towards you. He does a very cool elaborate jump. Amazing. Almost slow motion.

Wow. Lance superhero landing. Looks up. Crossbows. Pepper is back. Ah. Roll a D6. Damn it. Three. You take three damage as a bunch of bolts clatter off the ground, but one hits you in the cap. My armor is two, so I take one. He only takes one. Yep. Nice. We're in a high risk situation here. We're in the middle of an enemy army. Against this like injured king. Connected to several demonic forces. A broken suit. An entire line of magi. Unimpressive. Yeah. Descended from.

Turns out the suit doesn't make the man. Yeah. Good. Ving. So you wanted to roll defend. So we'll let you do that. Okay. That's two D6. Yeah. Plus constitution. I believe. Oh, a four and con is seven. It's three. So seven. Okay. So seven. So you get one hold off the defend list that you can use in this situation. Maybe I'll like to open the attacker to an ally. Giving that ally plus one moving forward. Yeah. I like that. Yep. For this situation. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. So you're there. You land next to him and you distract Coleman some way. Yeah. I pulled up crossbow out of my back and I stab into his foot. Oh, yeah. Nice. Yeah. And he just yells into the air. Yeah. First Ving goes, I'm not wise too. Absolutely. Mangled grammar. Yeah. Tuck Ving is here. Okay. He is distracted. Cole momentarily with a crossbow bolt in the foot. What do you do? Can I do that?

Can I try and like do one of those like karate moves where you disarm someone holding a sword? Cause I want to kind of just like step back from him. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That feels like a defy danger strength. Okay. Yeah. Cool. I'm going to do that. Here we go. All right. Snake eyes. Oh no. Okay. Okay. So what happens here? Sounds like a trip to the spirit realm. Sounds like we got to save. Back to season three. Three? Time to save. Tuck from hell. Uh, what, but what do we think?

This failure is here. It doesn't have to be damage. We know that it's not always straight up damage. Yeah. Maybe like something in the sword like stops you. Yeah. Like, like, I don't know. The demonic part of it like overcomes your will. Right. To actually hurt Cole. Yeah. Interacts with your chest fragments. Oh. Oh. Huh? The demon of servitude. Yes. Oh, fuck. It like commands you like stop and you freeze up or something. I don't know. That's cool. That's cool. You turn from that to a defensive.

Oh, you don't. Ending Cole? No. No. That's what I was going to say. Wouldn't that be so sick? That's so fucking sick. That'd be so cool if he, if you were like ready to fight. It would make sense. And then Ving sees Tuck like pull the sword out of his, out of his fucking chest and then like wield it against Ving. No, dude. That's pretty sick. Fuck. Sorry, man. That's really cool. You're out. No. Jess, you fucking betrayed me. This is a betrayal. You betrayed us. You betrayed us.

So you feel calm. Like he's got the sword by its hilt. He's holding you fast. Yeah. This in your eyes, scrawny man. Yeah. Has got you pinned. I go, I'm not wise. Yeah. And then you try and rip the sword out of his grip. Yeah. And you feel the light that you feel like you have been experiencing from the white coins in your chest. Seems like it dims and you hear in your head that voice that you've been ignoring punch back. Through the void that you've put up between it. Uh huh.

And it says just like, no, no, this is your role now. And you hear in your eyes go white. Oh, Tuck's eyes go white. Yeah. Oh yeah. The pupils disappear. And Ving sees the coins like fill with black. Oh, the coins start to turn black again. Yeah. Or just in the middle. So they almost look like a bunch of little eyes in his chest. Oh. Which is so weird and very Gibbous Manny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. All the pupils look at you. Yeah. They kind of focus in on you. Yeah. Yeah.

Now hold on here. And Ving, you see Tuck make eye contact with Colm and Colm releases the handle of the sword. I stand up. And says to Tuck, kill him. Whoa. And Tuck pulls the sword. Tuck, you're watching this happen as well. Uh huh. You see yourself pull the sword out of your gut, blood slicking this, this night black blade. He like grins. He grins. Savagely. And there's like blood in his teeth. Yeah. Real quick. I'm going to roll a fight with honor.

Oh, my husband pulls a knife out of his chest to stab me with it. I knew this would happen. Hold on, honey. Let me just. Hold on, honey. Honey. Oh, let's talk about this, honey. Put the keys down. It's an absolute domestic. We can work this out. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You don't want to go do that. Think about the children. Think about the Billy. Look at Billy. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Go ahead and roll a fight with honor. Fight with husband. Oh, nice. Okay. I got nine plus. I got 12. Okay.

Great. Great. So that's three. Three chi. Three chi. So yeah, I would like to use one chi to use weaponized association to figure out his next move. See. Okay. So I'm imagining you guys are like squaring up. Yes. Yeah. This is like the side to side like street fighter. A thing blows across the bottom of the screen. Yeah. There's a chicken in a crate behind us. Yeah. So you're using weaponized association to see what his next move is. His next move will be. Yeah.

Which means that you get to tell me what his next move is. I mean, I think it's just tuck run. It's charge, right? Knife smash. Yeah. Oh, and this is not a knife. Keep in mind. Sword. This is a big old sword. Yeah. Yeah. I think that makes sense that Tuck's next move would just be reckless charge. Oh, yeah. And I can't push you off. Yeah. Because you have no hit points. I can't kill you. And from Tuck's perspective, he's in the void now. Yeah.

And he could hear that one line from the tolling like echoing around him. Which is in dark of night. I have been lost. Yeah. And he hears it in the voices of all the children of McCall, which is a bad song. Because he's like, that's a song for the ones that are taken. I was taken. Yeah. Far away choir. Yeah. You know what? Let's cut back to Billy for a sec. Because Billy, you like wheedle your way out of the machinery. Yeah. And you see Tuck with the sword in his hand charging thing. Yeah.

And while I'm weaving out, I'm trying to do it quickly because I sense bad stuff is happening. I can tell demonic forces are nearby. It's like I feel like the darkness swallowing up. But I also hear the clicking go into place around me as I roll. Yeah. And I hear the fluid weaving through all these little tubes. Yeah. The seven to nine that you rolled is just that you don't know how long it's going to take. Yeah. Yeah. I know he's. I know. Yeah. Yeah. I was waking up. It's under. It's under.

Underway. There's a discordance of the sound of the machinery that starts to turn to a harmony. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. As M4 starts to take over. Sounds like an orchestra tuning. Yeah. Yeah. From mechanic to melodic. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. I would. I grip TLC firmly in my hands and I would like to roll. I'm a bad guy now. Oh. Yeah. Sick. Cool. So I'll call upon my winter form to fight in a fury. Yeah. Guess what? Wisdom. Wisdom. Oh, no. Still get it. A four. No, I don't get it. Oh, no.

Oh, wait. Actually, I do. Yeah. I get one hold, but I'm forced into my winter form until the next sunrise. Oh, okay. So that's fine. So you feel the change undertake you and you are now in your winter form. I am. Which changes all your bonuses and shit. Yeah. I think your wisdom returns to normal, but your charisma is at zero. Yeah. When I deal damage, I deal an additional D. Yes. Okay. Great. Are you going for tuck or are you going for comb? Comb. Comb. Yeah.

But I want to make it look like a comb. It'll look like I'm going for tuck. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Okay, cool. Also, this is, I know the answer's no, but can she use the TLC move? Absolutely not. What the fuck? No, that's not how that works at all. No way. Like when Captain America grabs the hammer? Yeah. Yeah, that'd be cool. Okay. I mean, I'm a bad guy now while wielding TLC is basically the cat picking up Mjolnir situation. So sick. Okay. It was really cool. Let's do it. Let's get 12, you guys.

Okay, wait. Hold on. You are on the chest. And there is a big gap. And then they are on the walkway. Like how you go. Remember how you jumped across to get here? So you can roll a defy danger. Probably dexterity to leap across and like you did to get here. Yeah. So 2d6 plus dexterity. Okay. Plus dexterity. Fuck yeah. Yeah. Pretty good. I'm good. Yeah. Not a problem. Yeah. Yeah. Billy like just fucking powers across TLC. I think you've done it before with you.

You swing it and then like carries you. I use the inertia of the axe to carry me. Excellent. Yeah. Um, and then I want to, yeah. Charge at calm. Yeah. I want it like, yeah. I want it to look like I'm going for tuck, but I'm going for calm. Yeah. I'm a bad guy now has happened. So you're rolling your damage here. Hell yeah. Yeah. Oh, 10 damage. Okay. So you hit him pretty hard. He's got a big old chest. I get him in there. Open it for you. Just hack him right in the guts. Yeah. Fuck yeah.

So you land on the, on the walkway. And with the momentum kind of like spin like a top for a second and then walk that like meaty thunk is it slams right into his gut. Yeah. And he backs away like steps back. Thunk thunk in the armored legs that are still attached with this like gushing wound from his gut. And he like holds his hand up, looks at the blood and looks down at his tattoos says like tougher beings have tried to kill me and failed. And he like gestures to the wounds on his body.

And his gut is like pouring blood. And then you see like a wound on his chest begin to bleed. And like his arm wounds begin to bleed as you feel this like iconic demonic presence start pouring off of him as all the wounds on his body begin to bleed at once. Yeah. And you feel tuck even from deep inside the void. You feel that the demon of slaughter taking the like forefront in Colm's body. Okay. He steps out of the armor and like the leg armor thunks.

He steps to the ground and you see this like he straightens up and hunches a bit like an animal. Whoa. Is he naked? He's got like very loose like breech cloth underneath. He's basically nude. He's not wearing, you know, his legs and feet are bare. His chest and arms are bare except for tattoos and blood and old wounds. He's full golem-ing guys. Whoa. He's going full golem. Yeah. The little undies are definitely giving golem vibes. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Are you wearing a diaper? Yeah.

I'm wearing a diaper. Is that because you can't like go to the bathroom very often? Oh, this is so gross. He's basically turning into like a chupacabra. He's just full slaughter right now. Yeah. He wants to kill. And the demon inside him wants to kill as well. Ving, what do you, you had some, you had some moves. Yeah. I'm just going to continue to use my weaponized association to anticipate Tuck's moves to draw him away from the fight, but avoid him. Great. So that'll, we'll say that's one hold.

Okay. As you just like take off down the catwalk. Yeah. And Tuck comes barreling after you. Kind of backwards running and like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, we're here. Yeah. Yeah. And just brutal, vicious swings coming from Tuck as he's whipping this obsidian blade at you. Yeah. Coming within inches of cleaving you in twain. Yeah. Tuck, inside this void, you hear a chorus of voices. Children, maybe you recognize a lot of the voices from your time on the streets of McCall.

It's the kind of thing where you're in a dream and you know, there's like fucked up, stuff out in your periphery. You're trying not to look at it. And you feel just like you are trying to ignore the horrible things happening in the periphery of your mind. On the periphery of your perception, you feel a terrible battle taking place. Your body is currently not your own and it is trying to slay your closest friend. Okay. What do you do? I'm going to try to break the iconic control over my body.

Mm-hmm. Okay. I could try. I can use breaking the law or I could just do a defy danger wisdom. I think it could be wisdom. I think it could also be charisma. You're trying to reassert your personality. Well, that's better. Are you excited about that? Yes. So you're trying to reassert yourself as a person in your body. Yeah. Here we go. Let's see if this works. That's nine. What do we think?

What if like, because you recognize those voices, it kind of pulls you back a little bit and just that one second of you like, oh, well, hold on looking back. Yeah. It's hard for you to get out of it. Yeah. Totally. Oh, you're being distracted by the voices of the kids that like were lost. Well, that's the thing is the tolling is a song that like it. Everyone who sings it, sings it and feels guilty. It's like kind of like the Catholic guilt when they sing. We could have done more kind of stuff.

Yeah. So it's, it is a thing where he feels guilty leaving them here. Uh-huh. What's a glimpse that Tuck catches from his past? Uh, he can see. He can see a door. Like the place we're in shifts to be the, you remember how Tuck kind of was abducted by a weird iconographer? It's where he got his wrist straps. Yes. All of the like wounds on his, on his arms. Yes. And in reality, it is the first real. What's. Yeah. How are you going to tease this? Sean was freaking out. I'm trying. I got to resist.

I got to resist. I got to resist my urge to hold too much close to the chest. You're flirting. Look at you guys. You guys know what's going on. Tension. No, I just, I do. We're just like, the fuck? Every subsequent word in that line. I was like, he's going to, he's going to say it. Wait, hold on. Hold on. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. No, no, no. It was so funny. Cause every word I said, Sean. My eyes were like, why did Sean do this? He went. Every time he said it, I was like.

That's why I stopped. Cause I was like. You're like a something. Is something going to happen? I am revealing something. It's, I am revealing something. Okay. So let's, we'll drop back into that moment. You see a door, a door from Tuck's childhood. So yeah. The story that I told like everyone was that there was like a guy who they would say like left coins out and you could kind of like go and steal them.

Cause he was like pretty forgetful, but like it was actually just traps for street kids and Tuck did that. And then like lost two weeks. How old was Tuck? In this? Uh, he was eight. Oh yeah. Yeah. And like he went back and then the building was empty. It was burned down. Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't there anymore. Cause Tuck lies to himself all the time.

So like he forgets what happened actually most of the time, but in the void, like with the kids singing at him, like the, he, like the real memory comes back and he remembers the door and he remembers leaving this place. But he. He had no memories before this. This is the first thing he remembers. Whoa. That is the beginning of Tuck's living memory. Oh no. So everything before that is a lie, including like all the Bruce stuff. I knew the Bruce stuff was fake. Yeah.

Cause that came out on a live stream. Yeah. Yeah. Someone. Someone. No, no one asked it. You asked it. I asked it. But you were like, I promise I'll answer one question truthfully. And so I asked that cause I was like. As the most intimate. Yeah. I was like, I gotta know. Yeah. The Bruce stuff. The reason why it doesn't make sense and why it's so weird. Yeah. And why it's like a story about a used cart salesman who adopted this kid and like lived like a three men and a baby sitcom style life.

And then was killed by a chicken. By a chicken who toppled a bunch of used carts. Yeah. That were on top of each other. It's a story that kid makes up. Yeah. It's like he's like writing a little comic. He's like, whoa, crazy stuff. Crazy stuff. I just learned how to draw a chicken. Yeah. A chicken is going to be in this comic. Yeah. And like Tuck forgets sometimes that he made it up and he believes it sometimes.

But the real thing comes back, which was that Tuck doesn't remember anything before leaving that building. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is like his like dream state like morphs into like the iconographer's workshop that he was leaving. And it's like it's the same again where he's he's got like he's like old style like wrist cuffs on and he's eight again.

And he can see the door and hear the kids and he knows he has to leave. Oh, man. And as you think about walking through that door back to the life that you've built for yourself since that moment, you flash back to the present as the sword that you're holding like clangs into a railing just as Ving is dodged out of the way. And you think, what the fuck am I doing? And Ving, you see Tuck pause for just a second in the swing. The light is the darkness. His pupils return.

Yeah, his eyes roll back down and then back up and emotionless face as a mechanical swing comes for your neck. Billy, you are standing in front of calm black hammer unarmored, covered in blood and wounds of battles past unarmed, unarmed, totally weaponless, except for the powerful demonic forces flowing through his body. And you have TLC. And you see him there standing on top of that. They're like rolling up their sleeves. I think I just fuck this dude up.

I feel bad because Billy wouldn't want to like kill an unarmed person, but his winter form will. Has? Has. Let's, can we get a little memory from Billy? Like this winter form flashing back to a battle of the past. Okay. So it's not like during like some huge battle, but it is part of like this like prolonged war that's been happening. We're in the north, kind of like in the mountains and it's cold. I'm with a small group camping or like we have a camp and Billy had left to get more firewood.

When he came back, the three people he was with are dead. And there are, there's a small group who had come in hungry and they killed everyone to get like the last bit of soup that was over the fire. And Billy loses his mind. And these people are really frail. Everyone's hungry. There's like famine happening, but Billy kills him anyway. Oh my God. Just this towering winter fairy. Yeah. Oh man. And Colm sees this memory with you. And you like in your memory turn and Colm is standing there.

Like, drenched in blood, head to toe. And he looks at you and goes, yes, violence begets violence. Yeah. And I swing again. Go ahead. Hack and slash 2d6 plus strength. Not good. Four. Yeah. That's not good. That's a failure on a hack and slash. That means that he is dealing his damage to you. Oh no. So 2d10 and you take the highest. Fuck dude. Well, those are the two that dealt me the 10 damage. Maybe they'll deal me small damage. They might. Maybe. Three. What? That's so funny. Three.

Is that the highest? Yeah. Cause there's one. It's a one and a three. That's hilarious. Oh my God. That's so fucking funny. Jess, your luck is fucking crazy. So good. The moon is with me. Power of the moon. Yeah. The moon is inside you. Absolutely blending up your guts. She wants to come out so bad and there's nothing, nowhere for her to go. And she's just like, I gotta get out. Just getting shredded in there. Yeah. Kind of one of the best explanations of the female menstrual cycle.

She's just like, whoa, I got nowhere to go. I'm going to snake my way through all the other stuff in here. And hold on to you really tight. I'm sorry, listeners. You don't need to hear this shit. No. They should hear this. They should. It's important for people to know. Men. Listen. Listen to women sometimes. Ask about their sex. That's a cycle once. A lot of people think that the best thing that you can be, if you can't be a man, be a woman. And if you can't be a woman, be a male ally.

That's the most important thing that you can be, is a male ally of, a man ally of women. And if a single one of you agrees with us in any way right now, you can go fuck yourself and stop listening to the five gats. Yeah, this is not the show for you. I was going to say, I think the best thing you could be is a dog, a domesticated dog. A domesticated dog. A domesticated dog. And you live with a dink couple. What's a dink couple? Like dual income, no kids. Oh, nice. They're buying you raw food.

Love the fuck out of you. They're putting you on Instagram. You get pop cups every day. Sorry. No. I rolled three damage. What does he do to me? Three damage. So he's this like bloodied naked, basically naked form. His hair, like there's seems like he has cuts on his scalp that are like pasting his red hair to his flesh with blood. And he unarmed and unarmored just lashes out at you with hands and teeth. He jumps on you. Fingernails that he didn't have before. Start growing.

Like it's like his flesh is receding from the tips of his hands. Oh God, that's disgusting. Raw bone. And he just lunges at you and starts tearing at your flesh. But you have a big old axe and you are, despite your small, innocent self, an experienced warrior. Am I wearing the gimp mask? You do have one armor, yeah. So I only have to take away two. Two damage. Oh yeah, there it is, my armor. And the mask comes in handy because he goes for your eyes. Yeah, he does.

He goes right for the most vulnerable part that he can see. It's a good thing I'm wearing this incredible gimp mask. Well, to be totally honest, you're wearing the gimp mask as a suit. Oh right. Your arms are everywhere. Eye holes. You do put it on like a shirt. You step into it. And he, if your eyes were open, which they're not, you'd see on his face a joyous grin. And we'll cut back to Ving as Tuck. And this emotionless mechanical state is swinging at you with a cold precision. What do you do?

I want to block a blow meant for me and take half the damage and use that opportunity to jam some saffron into Tuck. Okay. So you're blocking a blow. So you're taking the damage. Half of the damage. Half of the damage. Yeah. In order to- Get in close. And now with that disruption, get some saffron into him to see if it lessens the influence over him. All right. Great. Abdul. Yes. Roll your damage. I'm so sorry. Four. Okay. Four. Okay. Armor of two. Bypassing armor because the sword- Okay. Fuck.

Bypasses armor. Oh, bypasses armor? I take half. Yeah. I take half. So I only take two. Yeah. I think you were just able to like pull yourself back at the last second and like you just get nicked. How do you get the saffron in there? He does have a number of cuts from his fight with Colm. He's also got a big wide open mouth. Yeah. I like that. I know. So got a butt. Yeah. I want that on the table. Okay. Wait. Here we go, everyone. As an original storyteller, I shove it in his pee hole. Oh, no.

No, I don't. He snows it up like a little pony. Yeah. Hold on. Hold on. Wait, wait, wait. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Tax on circumcised so you could like put it into his foreskin. Yeah. His foreskin pinch of clothes. Yeah. It's amazing. Like buttering a turkey. And I sew it shut. Holy shit. Really? That was the most foul thing you've ever said. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm squiggling it around. I'm sorry. Like cheeking a mouthful of tobacco. He's wiggling it in there. The opposite of chew.

It is. There is a mucus membrane down there, so you can't get a lot of stuff. I know, but I don't think you can go that far down. That's how I use tobacco. Yeah. Pack it in my foreskin. So Ving slows down time. Yeah. It's real close. I'm just going to jump over and smear it across his chest where there's a cut and try and flip some in his mouth. I was like, oh, my God. As I head over. Okay, great.

So I think that you blocking that blow, like taking that hit, means that you don't have to roll the defy danger because the danger was getting in close enough. Okay, great. So you smear a handful of saffron. Yeah. Mark off a use of the saffron that you took. Will do. And you just hope and pray that it takes effect. Tuck. Yes. Back in the void. That door. You've got these heavy links around your wrist. This door is so tall and you're so small. Mm-hmm.

You have no idea where you are and you hear familiar voices outside. Are the familiar voices? Who are they? From a time that has not yet passed for this young boy, but they sound like they could be friends. Okay. I got to get to the door. Okay. I'm in this memory. This memory is a trap. It's a brain trap that the demon of servitude. This is what Tuck is saying to himself. He's like reminding himself of who he actually is. He's like, there's a demon. There's a demon in here with me.

It's making a trap out of my memories. And you feel a hand on your shoulder. And Tuck whips around. And if you were to describe what you think a demon of servitude would look like to Tuck, what does it look like? It looks like the iconographer. So it looks like an older man. Yeah. Robe. Robe. Long beard. Beard. Like a hood or a hat of some kind. Yeah. Yeah. Like a dark leathery skin. This was the thing that was like, that sort of. Like confused him a lot. Not unkind. Like seemed nice.

Eyes without malice. Like a softer voice. And the thing that happened, like the way that Tuck got out was the iconographer let him go. Oh. Yeah. Oh no. Released him on the world. Yeah. I don't like that at all. And this kindly man. Just. Bing's trying to read. I'm just going to read the whole line. I was trying to read the redacted move. I'm pretty sure. And my sheet. He put it in there. Put it in the right. Put it in the right. It was red. Oh my God. There's nothing there. It's fully redacted.

I take my secrets seriously. I sent that to the CIA. They redacted it professionally. So this kindly man, the iconographer, demon of servitude. Uh-huh. Like kneels down next to you with his hand on your shoulder. You see this kindly man. Kindly face. You were so lost before you came here. No, I knew where I was. I was with my family. Where did that get you? It got me an anchor. It got me purpose. It gave me a place to stand. And now you're back here with me. I'll get out again.

Just let me kill him. And then you can have purpose again. Uh, and then when he says that, Tuck, and he does feel bad about this because the actual guy was a nice guy. Yeah. Takes the chains around his arms that are linking his like wrists together and like whips the chain like over the guy's head and around his neck and starts choking him. Oh my God. 2d6 plus wisdom. Wisdom? Wisdom? Not charisma? This is not a physical space. Oh, charisma. Right. You're into your, you're re. Yeah.

Asserting yourself as who you are right now. Yes. Yes. Charisma. 2d6 plus charisma. Great. Nice save. I'm not the scared eight year old I was. I'm a fucking. Metal is fuck. Warrior. Uh, 13. Oh, okay. Huge roll. Yes. So, okay. So how does this resolve? Tuck starts choking this kindly old man. Yeah. I think it is rough at first, but it's the kind of thing where like the demon of servitude starts shifting through all of the people who had like control over Tuck in various forms.

Like either like physical control or he worked for them. Allison, like, so like he lusted after them even bit Ving and Billy very briefly to like where it's like the control is like familial duty. And, and then it, uh, it like shifts through all of them and Tuck just steals his mind against like the effect it's trying to have until it settles on what he would interpret as like the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, It's last true form. Yeah. It's true.

On a romantic form. Like the way it emerges in the human mind basically. And what does that look like? You tell me. I had, I had an image. Yeah. So Tuck is in his eight year old form, like choking this man as it filters through these people and his perspective shifts as he rises to his full adult height. Yeah. And it's like, you see like the strength in your arms return. Yeah. Yeah. You've got the chains. Yeah.

And it is now like the demon of servitude, a kneeling form with its head downcast and its hands holding the axe in front of you. Oh, sick. The like mental image of Larry, Terry, and Chad. That's rad. And it's holding this weapon for you. And the place that it is happening is an eternal plane of darkness. And both above and below them is like constellations upon constellations. Oh, I like that. Like every representation of every icon burning cold in a night sky that extends forever. Beautiful.

And Tuck recognizes this as a place he has seen before as the representation of the iconic realm itself. This is the outer dark. Yeah. Oh, sick. Didn't know if we'd ever see it. Yeah. And you pick up the… I… You lift up the… The axe? I lift the… I let go of the chains. I lift the axe and I like flip it in the air and like hold the chains taut as it flips. So it slices through the chains itself. Nice. Yeah. And I imagine you take…

You turn towards the door and you pull the axe back, Larry, Terry, and Chad, and you cleave through the door. Yeah. And as you come back to the present, you stop yourself with the sword an inch from the door. And you take the sword from Ving's neck. Sick. So cool. And you're… Ving, you see Tuck's eyes. He basically caught you on like a bad misstep. Yeah. And he was about to take your head off. Yeah. And the blade stops. Tuck's eyes roll back down. Tuck, don't.

When you say that, he looks you in the face and he goes, I would never. And then he puckers his lips for a second. Damn it. And his eyes go… His eyes go… His eyes go… His eyes go… His eyes go… His eyes go… Ving kisses Tuck on the lips. Just a nice little, how's your father? But as Ving goes for that, Tuck turns and steps away from it. Ving kisses his ear. And then Ving kisses Tuck in the ear hole. So it's really loud for Tuck for a second. Holy misses.

And then he overhand throws the sword like end over end to try and get him to stop. And then he overhand throws the sword like end over end to try and get him to stop.

Itself into combs okay uh like form yeah uh we'll cut well let's cut back to billy for one sec billy you've got calm on top of you he is bloody and grinning what do you do uh I bite back okay fuck yes hack and slash he's right here in biting distance 2d6 plus strength gross oh my god 12 12 yes dirty right uh hack and slash with strength oh with strength okay 10 10 still that is a full hit so that's his your damage and then the d6 from your winter form all right let's go do it do it do it do it do it five five five it's acceptable it's a taller it's enough that like you bite him really bad you feel like like there you feel a chunk come off of him yeah and it's almost yeah and he kind of like he's still smiling as you like take this chunk out of him and he pulls away like he's elating in this slaughter that is being done to him and in that way makes himself wide open for a big old sword uh from down the catwalk okay please please please oh fuck seven seven yes okay seven to nine choose one you have to move to get your shot placing you in danger of the gm's choice you have to take what you can get so you roll your damage and then you roll a d6 and reduce it by that much or you have to take several shots reducing your ammo by one that's not allowed you've only got one thing I I will will move to get my shot I want to fucking end him so you're gonna put yourself in danger uh so go ahead and roll your damage yes is is a d10 and can I roll two d10 and take the highest because I'm using the sword oh that's his thing damage is not determined by the weapons it is determined by the wielder son of a bitch I know it's actually it is a cool ask but it's also something that I really like about Dungeon World because it's something I hate in dnd is like I'm the best fighter in the world I'm level 20 I'm a god my dagger does d6 yeah no you should be much better than that okay okay okay okay okay the fuck is that who am I talking to okay so he tuck was aiming right for his head he wanted it to like cleave it in half basically yeah I wanted to give the demon like basically no flesh to have purchase in yeah because something that I think well I mean is uh billy you you felt this as you bit that chunk out and he enjoyed it basically it was like part of what he's doing uh this doesn't seem like a man that could be killed by traditional means no yeah yeah so I need it to like foul the host to a degree that the infection no longer can continue yeah please for the love of fucking god three eight oh eight oh yes that's pretty big yeah that's pretty big uh I think that uh yeah billy bites him he reels up yeah like uh looking skyward as if accepting the gracious gift of a benevolent god yeah this pain and slaughter and catches a sword going a fucking 150 kilometers an hour where do we think it hits him eight damage he's not killed what do we think because I was aiming for his head but maybe like maybe here yeah I think they're like kind of boom clavicle across the chest and it actually cuts the tattoo in half yeah interesting yeah very interesting so he takes this huge hit and he's like thrown off billy yeah with the force of the throw and he skids a little bit with the momentum and leaves like a streak of blood and gore from where he lands and he's still but that he's still like twitch and get his purchase oh fuck billy smash him I'm sprinting I'm gonna sprint at him ving yeah ving I imagine full-on yeah I'm following I love that he would using his swiftness follows the sword yeah oh yeah totally he's just a couple steps behind yeah jumping across the gap like touching chains light as a feather yeah bolts are coming down whizzing through the air jumping off of arrows we're in a silo so we can like oh yeah run along the wall of the silo hell yeah um and I want to uh land sort of swing around land on the the hilt of the of the sword and then shove it in his back okay yeah to cut fully cut him in half gnarly yeah I mean that's gonna be a defy danger to get there probably right in that way plus dexterity for sure you fucking got this buddy oh wow five five oh no uh oh no I think do you have a plus one forward uh no and I don't think I have I already used my what the bones know from last episode okay so you're definitely gonna take some shots so roll a d6 one oh wow yeah you dodge the worst of those right you you fly through a hail of arrows that are coming down from the top level that's fun at least and you see people like um like a jackie chan movie you see them like moving along the outside going to like stairways trying to like come down to your level right um because there are other people here there's a lot of other people yeah there's a lot of other people fighting a lot yeah she I think effie's been like detained basically oh no she's got like somebody's got like a like a stick like a club kind of around her back and holding her face yeah exactly and you get snagged and as you're coming down colm is able to like drag himself just out of your reach as you land like disarticulated arms that like are crunched backwards he's like not using the like flat of his hand he's using the back and like the back of his hand and he's like like he's like dragging himself yeah an elbow and he's starting to pick himself up uh in a very bad for him yeah he's not having a great time oh fuck this guy and you see he's grabbed the sword and he's starting to pull it out of his own torso like up and out at an angle billy you still hear the ticking the harmonious ticking behind you and you uh if you were to look take give it a take a glance yeah you see the the spiritual iron is like working its way through the mechanisms and it's now moving outside of the interior pieces yep starting to flow across the armor plates won't be long I hack and slash I just go yeah I'm like in feral mode 2d6 plus strength um yep five not good not good at all and uh he finishes with a wet squelch like ripping the sword out of his torso yeah I will say you do notice he is avoiding going further into the cut now okay he is like pulling it up and out instead of through so he doesn't cut the tattoo uh it's hard to say but um he gets the sword out as you're rushing at him and he like kicks you back out of range and comes down with a huge overhand chop and sorry 210 2d10 how much how many points do you have left I have 11 I I have good luck yes I have great yes please oh no 10 and 10 that's 10 and 6 it's a 10 I have one armor so I have two left it bypasses armor it ignores it bypasses armor you have one hit point left oh I didn't expect it to go this badly holy shit he's rolled 10 on us so many times that's wild I'm so fucking stressed now uh you're the one who said he has 20 hit points or whatever 20 dice or whatever this bullshit you guys knew this when you came here remember all the conversations we had about how the last time you guys fought he almost killed you well guess what he's gonna do now he was so easy to fight last time he actually beat the brakes off all of you that was the last time you had only one hit point it was this exact same situation can't believe you guys never think about healing items you never do I mean I have poultices that takes time yeah you guys also do know that healing potions are real store when are you like okay you guys are walking around and there's a super store right there there's a little market you gotta go to a liquor store and get winewood next 100 this is on you don't blame me I would never blame myself I'm a servant to the narrative uh fuck nearly mortal wound to billy okay I mean I'm right there yeah you're right here you're right there close yeah man when's m4 helping us out hey that seven to nine unfortunately meant that this was gonna take a while but you can see that it does appear to be start it's starting to take effect yeah as the harmonious pipes begin to play yeah um I was wondering if I could use a life symphony but that's um captivating those around me in the spiritual bliss and togetherness of the natural world I mean that's a good question I think it's a good question I think it's a good question I think it's a good question I think it's a good question I think it's a good question that is what life symphony symphony we said is basically like eye of the storm but you can stop fights yeah I do want to try it and also seeing billy get slashed I guess you got slashed stabbed really bad like he's bleeding all over the place yeah it's just kind of like a uh uh no moment it's like a parrot moment where you're like no we're done yeah yeah we're done 100 like you see someone's dog like get really close to your kid and bark and you're like we're out of here yeah yeah uh okay I think we said this uses wisdom on a hit the world calms around you so this would be like people are temporarily calmed on a seven to nine it only affects what you touch and only as long as you are touching it so on a 10 plus it would be like you're able to bring this whole fight to a halt momentarily yeah uh but on the seven to nine it would just be like if you could get your hands on calm okay come on duty six plus wisdom this is a key role I feel you gotta do it buddy right now yes nice I got 12 okay so describe this you see billy dealt this blow and colm is like lifted the sword to end billy's life and you bring this situation to a stop yeah he just says wait and everything the arrows slow down oh oh we're doing full matrix yeah like the like you are slowing the world yeah the everything how do we originally say it was like the I think it's more like reaching out to the spirit the spiritual essence of people and calming them because you've tried to stop fights before with eye of the storm so I think even if you said like wait like a few more bolts would like clang off the walkway yeah but no more would come okay I like that for a period of time when when you say wait it like echoes out of everything like every element like also says wait in its own voice and then because I'm it's the move is to captivate the spiritual bliss and togetherness of the natural world around me can I say this goes towards waking up m4 faster sure yeah oh yeah I think it's almost like the influence of uh of the demons in this place was like slowing down yeah the flow of the spiritual metal but now this harmonious nature it flows over m4 not m4 it flows over project anvil now becoming n4 like water just connects all of the armor and armor and armor and armor and armor and armor plates in this spirally art nouveau style that he was and out of out of the pipes that are on m4 you hear this oh sure yeah I like the beginning yeah the beginning is really good so he's got this sword lifted high yeah and I a thing raises his hand up above his head and then uh it doesn't look like you know this doesn't look like a defensive move or an offensive thing and then he quickly brings his hand down and as he does from behind him you see a4 the anvil turned m4 bring a giant hand I want to bring his hand down onto colm oh so sick yes a deep breath harmonious breath escapes the pipes on this massive machine yeah this gigantic metal hand slams down on the catwalk crushing colm blackhammer beneath it uh the sword is like sent skittering across the floor colm's arm and head like his shoulder sticks out from underneath a4's hand but he is defeated what do you do we walk we go up to him I crouch it's over and he looks at the three of you you won't be able to stop him why he's a god can I oh would it make sense to give him a little bit of saffron would that do anything would that quiet the demon enough to get to the man oh like to like as like a bomb for like a dying man his way to like yeah him like I sure to to to to to help him not die as this yeah um I want to take out the saffron and offer it to him and tell him this is your chance to to leave this world as you came into it as a human and I hope you enjoyed this video if you did please like and subscribe and I'll see you in the next one bye bye I offer it to him I don't want to force it on him he closes his eyes and he nods do it and I gather it up a pinch of it and place it in his mouth and you see him like sigh and then the weight of his wounds begin to take hold uh and you see the demonic influence like the the wounds on his body stop bleeding you see a sort of orange saffron luminance clear the infection in his blood and his body breathes a sigh of relief you can see this man is not long for this world we saw your tattoos man honor do something honorable before you go give us something anything that'll help us um you all receive uh images connected as you are through ving's spiritual field that he's put out to sort of calm this situation uh you see what they were promised before they were fully brought into the manipulation of the gibbous man how do we see it uh in images in your head I think because his body is shattered he's not he can't really speak right now he is giving you like through this connection the spiritual thing that ving has used okay he is life symphony the life symphony which has calmed this situation and connected all of you in the the calmness of the spiritual realm yeah the sounds of birds from outside of the silo are filtering down into the middle oh yeah of nature coming into the space yeah calming the area the hum of m4 underneath is like is offering like a bass tone to the whole thing yeah yeah the music of this gigantic machine yeah and you see two brothers coleman callum blackhammer riding on the high spear principality in the city of high spear uh victorious resplendent in their in their finery as they ride through the city gates and then you see their armies marching on to kinos victorious and taking their seat in the old royal capital and leading as the the twin monarchs that they so desperately wanted to be and then you see an image of coleman callum blackhammer as children uh running through the hills outside black glass running through the royal palace young idealistic children looking down from atop their favorite viewpoint at the city of black glass the place they grew up in the city that they love and will one day rule as the princeps of the fire fields um you see them a few years older taking on their first tattoos and clearly like this image is of a secret right small unadorned ancient looking temples where they undergo these rites of passage that have been brought from where their parents came from uh they take on their own icons calm honor later discipline callum shrewdness and their father this towering man forges for them out of his own colossal armor two suits one a a suit of warriors armor the other the chain of a diplomat you see them skipping stones on a lake as young men becoming ready to take their father's place discussing the future that they see for themselves and for their people and for the principality you see them now the princeps young rulers um a with a man in a traveler's cloak with a wide-brimmed hat who offers them aid and counsel.

And you see them trying to embody the icons that they have undertaken, living with honor and with cunning, but over time being twisted and taking these ideals to their extremes, taking on new tattoos. Colm, the icon of slaughter. Callum, the icon of tyranny. And you see what they wanted out of this.

You see them older than you see the man before you, a hoped-for future as they march on the old capital of Kynos and take it for themselves so they can fully protect and control this country that they love, refounding Rion's kingdom of night. And he brings you back to the present. And you can see he's got like a little bit of, like his eyes are a little watery. Is there anything that you can tell us about the Gibbous Man? Anything that'll help us? He's looking at you in the face.

He takes an unsteady breath through his shattered body and says, with his final breath, Save my brother. And you see a memory of Colm from long ago when he was a child visiting the palace of Rion, son of Chimes and Lillian, demigod and founder of the kingdom of Kynos. And he's standing in… The treasury in front of a glass case.

And inside the glass case is a hand held on a plinth, a beam of light shining through, hitting the hand, illuminating a hole in the palm where a blade, the waning knife, pierced through and killed the demigod Rion. And his mother is standing next to him. You see, what does his mother look like? Long, red hair. Yeah. Dark skin. Big fat braid. Yeah. A big braid. A large braid. A large braid. A large braid. A large braid. Big fat braid, baby. Yeah. A braid hanging down over her shoulder. Fatass.

Yeah. Big fat ass. Heavy pit. One thick chick. And she is kneeling next to Colm and saying, That was the only thing that could kill one as powerful as Rion, was his own weapon, the waning knife. A weapon forged for him by his father from his mother's form, drenched in his own blood. He was slain by his closest friend, or so he thought his closest friend. Your brother and you will be powerful. You will lead your people and betrayal will attempt to seek you out. You have to watch over each other.

And in this memory, you feel Colm start to feel fear that there are enemies lurking around every corner and that he must remain vigilant for himself and for his brother. And you feel that fear leak through all of the other memories that he shared with you. And we come back to Colm lying shattered under the hand. Dead.! There's a woman. There's a woman. ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ © transcript Emily Beynon