Episode 17 – The Wheel is Turning Now

Spout Lore is made possible by contributions from our listeners if you would like to support us go to patreon.com Spout Lore where you can get extra bonus special content 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 pride billy's a thief his tiny size does max the largest heart best and brightest they may not be but their friendship outweighs their smarts so gather round friends and listen you for the tales about to start hello everybody and welcome to Spout Lore I'm your game master Sean O'Hara joining me as always playing tacoma dome the barbarian Abdul Aziz hello everybody playing ving the half-elf druid Paul Oppers hi there and playing fat billy the halfling thief jessica tie hello when last we left our heroes they confronted malgath first gardener and current holder of the cutting of the heart tree and kicked her ass and it ended with the party realizing that malgath had been corrupted in some way by the icon of greed that was coursing through the tree for who knows how long billy put her to sleep with some oil of tagget some might say too much oil of tagget putting an old woman into a coma I don't I don't regret it fucking deserved yeah totally but it is very funny to just think about like a little kid just like pouring the oil of tagget into a coma and pouring a bunch of liquid on a on a passed out elderly woman especially because I know in billy's head he was like I don't know if I put enough so he's really like saucing her up and we're just watching like I oh I don't know I think that's probably oh god boy oh could she still good job buddy let's go you want to watch a video watch this video of cats on surfboards for a while the cutting was retrieved by ving and spoken to by ving given the name ollie uh standing for all names cool and asked if the tree knew where elman was uh the tree had not seen elman since it saw you so billy went on a stealth mission again to track down elman who is being held for questioning in some sort of manure laboratory I call it the dunnery the dungaree oh yeah like the shorts billy hid out in a trough of hay while the guards questioned elman mostly showing off a billowy cape that one of them was very proud of and he was like oh my god I'm so before ving used his animal speaking skills to foster a rebellion amongst animal farm yeah an animal farm style rebellion amongst the animals who were being harvested for their dung it worked wonderfully tuck through a warthog at the guards knocking elman unconscious yeah immediately after slipping in some shit and the party escaped using some disguises of questionable quality they escaped into the garden and then faced off with members of dathaniel's talon taurus and lysander tuck and ving taking one each as billy was tossed into the hole in the earth to plant ollie underneath the heart tree billy and elman arrived in the chamber where the heart tree is to be planted only to find that hiddleston the elf agent of the sun peaks and recent loser of an arm was gone and that is where we find our heroes now deep beneath the earth yes where this man hiddleston once was yes and is no longer and now there is like a pool of kind of like dark blood soaked earth that drips off into the shadows yeah billy walks up to the blood pool and he's like he looks at elman he's like that's blood pretty cool huh elman nods excitedly well he's like yes please I I'm excited to watch you in your natural adventures he's a fan of you guys he's going a little bit white like a little pale he's never seen so much blood I bet the trees I mean people are buried down here I feel like the blood is a good fertilizer for these trees it is the fertile yeah like they are given bodies so elman kind of looks up at the branches and the roots and looks around it's like we're beneath the tree we are and uh billy pulls out the little sapling from the fanny pack and he says I think we know how to fix this we have to plant this little guy in place of the knowledge tree I think it's the only way to heal the forest he nods he looks at his cutting proudly I think you're right he reads the rune on it that says my name is ollie and taint and also the word wait is his name taint did you name my cutting taint oh no um that came up after and he nods to himself and he looks around and goes yes I think this is what it was meant for and in several hundred if not thousand years it will be ready to take its place as a true knowledge tree oh no this is gonna happen fast huh ving and I have special abilities I like that as a cut to the top and uh torres and tuck are struggling with each other wrestling on the ground and tucks like your breast smells like shit your breast smells like fucking shit he's just glaring at you I guess I tuckled his head but this guy again as hard as he can try and make him pass out yeah hack and slash uh it's 10 okay you can deal your damage and can I take more damage to deal even more you absolutely can so it's a d10 and a d6 oh my god let's do this 11 oh my god does he die I gave his head if you want to it sounds like you might be able to kill him his head pops off of him and rolls as far away uses and kicks it into the other guy a bunch of pads spill out as always you do not have to kill him oh yeah tuck doesn't want to kill him but you'll take him out with this yeah okay sick tug just a one inch punch but with your head yeah you can hear your neck muscles like straining back yeah there's like a thing where like tuck is grappling with him and they're like going back and forth and he like remembers back to like in the library and it's like an introductory lecture for new librarians when they were trying to get us to actually take classes and pharaoh was like the mind is the most powerful weapon of all and then tuck is like of course I must use my mind gong and he his eyes cross little birds twiddle around his head and he passes out and tuck goes welcome to the library and he's like oh my god I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry welcome to welcome to my mind bitch and he looks around to see if anybody heard that ving quickly turns and pretends he didn't hear that and speaking of we'll cut to ving uh yeah he he just uh I hope you don't mind yeah that I did that I hope you don't mind would have been a good line but of course tuck had to put a little bit extra on the end of it so tuck tuck knows that he's a good guy and he's like I'm gonna kill you that didn't hit exactly so he tries again I look around nobody nobody seems to have done so I go oh it seems like the mind is mightier than the pen ving comes up and says looks like you're the head of the class uh cutting over to ving he had just shot previously before uh tuck uh grappled you shot at taurus taurus uh shot with an arrow so you shoot at taurus I did you snatch the bow lysander says you're your father's boy and you turn around shoot at taurus turn back lysander gone fuck cool I was like his mother's son but now now all you have to deal with is the other guards that are like kind of hustling over like the normal elf guards normal regular heartwood city militia I want to I haven't used this in a while what are you waiting for there was one where I could scare the shit out of war cry yeah it's right underneath what are you waiting for great well I hope you don't mind that I didn't see that god damn it don't make this a catchphrase please uh war cry when you enter a battle with a show of force a shout a rallying cry or a battle dance roll plus charisma on a 10 plus your enemies feel fear and act accordingly and you what's the other uh oh your allies are rallied and take plus one forward okay that's what it is is it's not you it's everybody else okay which is ving yes and then also potentially billy if you scream loud enough yeah billy can hear you through the dirt absolutely there's a hole there's a hole you said that there were holes in the bottom of the tree yeah all right all right all right I've been cowed yeah you still roll it oh shit uh yeah that's a four that I wrote fuck but it's all together yeah oh my god it's plus charisma so it's a three so I got seven oh very nice yeah so your allies are rallied and take plus one forward or your enemies feel fear and act accordingly enemies feel fear okay so acting accordingly in the case of trained soldiers it's the avoiding you like they are kind of circling around you but they're all keeping their distance so what is your war cry here I think I like tuck at like after he gets up and he like looks around looks around to see if anybody heard him yeah doing his lines yeah he gets so mad that nobody heard his sick lines he's like fuck so he wants to get everyone's attention so he picks up torus by the front of his tunic and he like whips him at a giant group of guards oh god yeah and the ones that don't get hit by this massive elf that got tossed through the air like a sack of rice hold out their spears and sort of like spread out in front of you and I do what are you waiting for okay when you cry out a challenge to your enemies rule plus constitution on a 10 plus they treat you as the most obvious threat to be dealt with and ignore your companions take plus two damage ongoing all right okay that's 13 14 okay I look insane because I just threw a giant elf at them and then I have a huge axe and then there's just an axe in my arm so what is your what are you he goes hope you didn't mind the extra company yeah and then they all billy laughs from and they all rush you and what are you skulking for wait nice circle skull king yeah I hate it okay fuck that feels really good it's such a funny reaction that's a that's a cool combo of of move uses though like scaring them off by throwing tourists so they all kind of spread out around you like it's a bruce lee movie yeah and then going come on and they all rush in on you sean can I quickly roll um because the fight's about to pop off another fight with honor yeah this is something I've always wondered with fight with honor does it count if you're like running up behind somebody or is it like you're facing down people I mean samurais uh ran up behind people and they fought with lots of honor yeah and if you if you're running up behind somebody if you try and make an argument that they didn't fight with honor oh my god you are a racist yeah you're not japanese whoa I can't believe you would say that I'm only like at least say the whole word japanese next time that's what I said I can't believe you would tell a half chinese woman that she's not japanese that's crazy that's like if we said that you're not even a little bit scottish we're we're not even sure where my chinese grandpa came from he could come from japan that's true I don't know that's true you're not wrong oh my god you deleted her history paul deleted my scottish history I am kind of scottish well there was once a man in 1943 who said the same thing yeah and that man was schindler's list yeah thanks a lot schindler's list oh I guess somebody wants to live in a world without color I gotta be honest with you guys I don't even remember what I said I don't remember I'm so sorry so roll your fight with honor great I got 11 3g yeah so um in my head there's like I just also realized they don't have the context for why the mind pun is funny of course they don't only taurus would know that yeah no he wouldn't know it either because you knocked him unconscious and then said it only that guy knows ask him wake him oh never mind uh okay so they're rushing in and what ving appears behind them no no no they're just rushing into him so he's using their distracted their focus on tuck to take out a couple guys yeah totally I'd like to uh deal damage to a foe within sight as they're running into tuck I without looking grab the axe out of tuck's arm and uh huck it at the leader of the charging group yeah totally so you only gotta roll yeah you only have to roll your damage three three it digs deep into one of them yeah hits him in the leg and he like stumbles as the rest of them rush ahead of him but that guy's he's not dead but he's he's wounded and slowed the other guys down absolutely nice tuck what do you do so they're all running at me yes lead guys down yeah one is like stumbled and fallen behind so when they start running at me I start running at them too and then uh the warthog is crossing my path oh my god pick him back up I forgot the animals are everywhere there's animals I am paging I pick him up and he looks like a teacup pig in my arms because of the relative sizes and then I'm like you failed me once before warthog not again and then I kiss it on the lips and then I go fly true my friend your breath smells like shit I as I'm running at them throw the warthog and then I'm still running so I can like meet them chariots of fire uh okay yeah roll a volley I guess oh fuck this is what it always is when you throw stuff man uh nine yeah uh so a volley on a seven to nine okay yes yes how are you eating this talk to the pig yeah I was like um arms up superman you can do this your freedom 26 plus bond I failed that I'm sorry you felt that pretty bad I failed that really bad a volley on a seven to nine choose one you have to move to get a shot placing you in danger you have to take what you can get minus 1d6 damage or you have to take several shots which you can't do because it's one pig I'll move myself into danger obviously yeah that's great you're basically already running into a group of people yeah so roll your damage plus two yes it's right throws a pig pigs up uh for yeah you absolutely annihilate one guy with a warthog like you throw it and you run so the pig is like a warthog and you're like oh my god I'm gonna die I'm gonna die basically above you just above you your whole arc you you know you plant a fist in the face of the guy that gets hit by the pig yeah making sure he stays down and now you are mobbed by the rest of the guards except for the guy that ving hit with the axe who yanks it out of his leg and throws it at ving uh roll a d6 me from your failure uh-oh two two so you take two damage from this axe I have armor of two yeah yeah you just dodge it oh my god cool like oh you see some chest hair like gently razor sharp axe my two chest hairs you just had the two I was growing those and the chest hairs float down to the ground and are caught on an underground eddie going down a hole in the earth to a chamber beneath the heart tree oh my god fine billy and elman what do you need for me to make this plan a success I guess I mean I don't know where this where is the best spot because we have to make sure that this like we only have one chance hmm uh roll a discern realities eight okay so you get one question what here is useful or valuable to me elman paces around uh it's hard for him to see because you know there's a little bit of light filtering from above but it's not terribly bright can I create a little will of the wisp oh yeah absolutely okay the light cat appears and paces around the chamber with elman as he looks and is like touching roots and as he like places a hand on sort of one of the thicker roots of the tree you can see him wince a little bit oh this tree is sick but the soil is good he like kneels down and sort of swirls a hand on the soil like he pulls up a handful of earth and a little bit of rotted root crumbles in his hand so that's supposed to happen the tree rotting not at this pace but this soil is going to be a little bit of a problem I don't know if it's going to be a problem but it's going to be a problem I don't know if it's going to be a problem but it's going to still contains the remains the memories the work of hundreds of gardeners I think we can do it here okay so billy starts digging next to where elman cut the hole billy's just like yeah he uses his small hands yeah totally um I've built many sandcastles so I'm really good at digging I would like to I would like to see one of these sandcastles one day well I can do one right now where's my bucket I wish I had my bucket and uh elman takes ollie from you and gently so gently removes like the pot okay billy it stops building because he's like oh it's a big deal and also he's like there's my bucket and he places the pot on the ground next to billy billy takes it literally like an era defining moment in the history of the civilization and you're just like and there's gonna be a little flag on top brain is split two ways he's like immense powerful moment and he's like but sandcastle yeah totally phenomenal cosmic power and he lowers the cutting with its root ball into the earth and you can see the tendrils already like reaching into the soil as he mounds the soil back in place vin can feel it up top whoa yeah yeah and as you feel this like connection with the soil that the cutting is in place you can feel the soil in place and you can feel the soil in place and you can feel the soil in place and you can feel the soil in place this new knowledge tree taking root in this ancient place you suddenly feel like a spike of anxiety in your chest you feel the earth rumble a little bit and you hear a groaning and you realize it's the tree is resisting oh no oh shit what do you do billy could defend whoa defend ollie that's sick that's so cool yeah let's let's do it so what is defend okay yeah defend when you stand in defense of a person item or location role plus constitution yes okay 2d6 plus con fuck I got six oh this is bad okay I can aid being we already established as a connection as well he's feeling it too oh yes yes okay yes how do you aid I hear ollie call out oh yeah I hear ollie call out nice does he say something I think he says something like it might be kind of cliched but I think he says something like it's too strong you know like that kind of shit where he's like I can't I'm just a little guy yeah I'm only small and you also hear like from the other tree this like massive chittering sound like not even words like it's almost like it's almost like the sound of creatures coming yeah yeah their claws yeah oh so even the creatures evil from the reaches of this rotten tree are echoed through the wood to ving he hears the echoes of the chirps the rotten chirps of the forest gone bad because they would sense something new and pure and maybe like consume yeah totally and like we established last episode that like at the edges of the woods all the rotten things that the tree is supporting like are starting to like wither I feel like some of the really evil things the more sentient things would be dashing towards the heart too oh totally to protect it yeah protected there could be a gathering of awful things right yeah it's like wasps returning to the hive gross 2d6 plus bond yeah oh fudge oh no damn what did you get I got a four plus my bond is five fuck ah this is not okay this is not how it's supposed to be well you know what it is a big fucking tree yeah that's true sorry for cursing everyone it's okay okay so I think that billy you're like out against like greed like this field of greed that is washing over you the tree is resisting this place is like soaked in this iconic influence yeah the greed it's reaching out to you but more specifically it's reaching out to the fairy oh and it's and what does the fairy want to sleep it wants to change to sleep yeah so it's like do you think the fairy in billy is trying to shift because after spring of course comes summer or is it trying to jump right to winter because it's been so long oh that's a good that's a good question um oh you know what I was saying this to sean earlier billy has held out for so long because he felt the child like deserves a family and like that's what he like kept him alive for and he went a really long time without it but billy's had that family now yeah the kid or whatever the deal is fulfilled it's like yeah it's almost like pinky promises yeah the oath has been fulfilled yeah yeah it I don't know how to explain it the wheel wants to turn now yeah like the you lock the wheel like the wheel of like the seasons yeah because you were like I you made the deal you made the fairy deal with the kid where you're like I'll get you a family and that's what was locking the wheel for you yeah and now you have to yeah yeah so it's like billy has put his his own stopper into it yeah and so it's yeah it's like a water wheel and you're not pouring the water on it but there's the water is now flowing yeah without your control I like that a lot yeah okay so yeah I think this this force is like reaching out to you as this you feel this wheel turning inside you as the fairy is like the stopper like I think it pops out and you breathe out and your breath mists in front of you oh no and you see frost creeping out around your feet oh shit your eyelids feel heavy what oh my god um I'm fine I'm fine come near me or whatever I don't know just stand over there element just stand with the tree I'll I'll back up I'll back I'll back up yeah and you step behind and you feel the the ground like crisp and crunch underneath you I mean is did ving go down there was that oh um right because you were trying to get down there so then I guess you wouldn't be able to yeah you felt something happening I was gonna reach out reached out to try and stop it okay yeah but you weren't able to and now you know billy's down there something's wrong he's going to reach out and you're like alone I could use both of my holds to cross a distance between me and a foe I still have two holds from my fight with honor yeah so you feel billy beneath you in danger and you just like slam into the ground gotta go yeah oh that's so cool looking in my head yeah where you're just like superman like superhero lander kind of thing like just shatter the ground beneath you tuck billy boom through the ground yeah yeah and I think where we were saying that you're spending those are your holds my two holds I spent yeah cross a distance and break through a physical obstacle yes yeah and the ceiling of the chamber opens above you billy your eyes are like because of honestly mainly because of what billy said when greed asked what he wanted I feel like your eyelids are like yeah getting I know he's definitely like doing the sleepy thing like where he's like whoa yeah it's fine and this feels nice feels good but he's got his eyelids he's like got constant vigil yeah he's like propping his own eyelids open where your eyes are too open we were just like I'm not sleeping I'm not I'm not tired so unfocused you're not focused on anything a little kid saying that he's not tired yeah as the ceiling like you hear a crash above you and sunlight like fills the chamber as ving plummets from above ving you land on the ground underneath and you see billy like frosting over like a car in a parking lot don't worry about it I just wouldn't touch me right now because I don't know if it's contagious I think I just have a cold like literal ice pouring just have a little cold yeah is the boy shivering at this point he is shivering but not because he's cold oh all right I'd like to use eye of the storm to exert my will in a circle around me roll plus con on a hit the world calms seven to nine the effect only it affects only what I touch as long as I'm touching it can you use it to still the that's what I'm wondering yeah I have the storm okay okay so I got 10 okay so you exert your will around you yes and the world calms I would say you can either use it to halt the tree in its resistance or you can stop what's going on with billy yeah I'm gonna choose billy okay so so what does this look like I I mean I in this very like spiritually loud and tumultuous moment with the tree screaming and that he's in his home world and the stuff with his dad I kind of want to land in this weird superhero move and somehow I would like to walk up to billy and pick up his fairy child like from the body from the shadow dance oh that makes sense somehow in this calming of this world and take him just aside and just let him go and I'm like oh my god I'm gonna be like oh my god I'm gonna be like oh my god I'm gonna be like oh my god I'm gonna be like oh my god I'm gonna be like oh my god I'm gonna and try to calm him and warm him and comfort him and let the boy billy not freeze to death yeah uh just to put some distance between you and the fae I think I think you I think you were bang on like I think that billy's I think the body the physical body is maybe reacting poorly to this situation so removing the fairy from the body saves both in this moment yeah and then holding the fairy and calming it to like get the wheel to stop turning before you put it back because like the body can survive without the fairy in it that's what shadow dance is yeah so what does the fairy look like when at this point when the wheel is like turning inside it what does it look like when ving removes it um this is like the it looks like the first snow oh yeah really just like sparkly soft cool quiet so what does ving do he's got this fairy in his hands I I bing asks it if he wants to play a game of hide and seek I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know a game a game yeah what do you want to do you want to play some catch you want to hide and seek what are you looking for I like to chase oh yeah yeah and then ving starts kind of jointly running backwards I bet you can't catch me I bet I can catch you I bet you can't I bet I can I turn and the snow follows and the winds pick up and I'm running around being chased and picked up by the wind yeah put back down and the flurries like grow I love to chase my hair is blowing all over the place I bet you're cold right now I'm pretty cold I'm actually really really cold the wind picks up more the snow gets thicker and it's like you have to let me catch you okay and ving stops and then the fairy swirls around you and ice starts to form around you in this realm can I you transmute my body into a form made from the raw elements in the spiritual realm I want to turn into the ice bear whoa okay yeah 2d6 plus constitution I think for elemental form I got a nine to hold uh yeah I um gather the wind it's like not a solid bear it's kind of like a misty uh wind and frosty the winter likes this so he helps and he's uh just keeps starts frolicking more just to get him play trying to play him out a little bit and one of those hold will definitely go towards enduring this bitter cold very cold that winter is is bringing to you and winter says I know what you're doing you can't distract me I I don't want to distract you um a a I want Billy to be safe.

And I wanted a chance to thank you. For what? For giving me the chance to get to know him and you. For being our friend and our family for all these years. It might not mean to you what it means to me, but it's important for me to say it to you. Thank you. And Winter like bristles at that. I don't do well with feelings. If you want me to go, you have to trade. What would you like? What would you like? I know you want something from me. Do you want time? I would like some time.

But I can come back, right? I don't think there's anything in this world or any other that's going to stop you. Thing takes a bit of his arm and throws it at the fairy. A snowball. It catches it. We're playing catch. So yeah, Winter throws the snowball back. Okay. I'll leave for now. You know where to find us. Yeah, it just dissipates. And the snow bear falls to the ground. Does Billy wake? Yeah, and he's like… Billy is like… Bing, close the window. It's fucking freezing in here.

Why is it so cold? I'm literally freezing. It's so cold. Why am I sitting in so much water? It's so bright. You're waking up like an angry kid that pissed the bed. Who did this? I didn't pee my pants. I might have peed my pants. What'd you do to me? Can I ask you a question? Yes. Did you give him time? The fairy gifted him time. Yeah, but was it time for Billy to continue to be Billy? Time with Billy. But it wasn't. It wasn't crystallized time.

No, Billy's still required for that, but he gave Bing the gift of more time with Billy. Which he added to the body, yeah. The promise of time. Yeah, so the fairy basically traded the game for time. Okay, cool. And as Billy and Bing, as you sort of reconnect, you hear Elman go, Help! It's dying! The tree! And you turn and you see the sapling has begun to wither. Ollie! We'll cut back up to Tuck. We'll cut back up to Tuck. We'll cut back up to Tuck. We'll cut back up to Tuck.

We'll cut back up to Tuck. We'll cut back up to Tuck. We'll cut back up to Tuck. Fists. Just fists and boots. They're fighting you with fear-driven abandon, so a lot of them have, like, cast away their weapons and are just wailing on you. Yeah. What do you do? Do I feel anything that happened is going on below? You don't feel a fucking thing. Fucking stupid idiot. Just so left out. Okay. I mean, what you do feel is about half a dozen pairs of fists and boots wailing into your body. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's probably good. He doesn't know what's happening. He loses fucking mind. Yeah. He would have chopped down this tree already. Yeah. That's something we never considered. It was just chopping the tree down. Tuck just chops the whole thing down. It's the size of the house from home. The house from home. Yeah. I know. It's so much chopping. It's not that big. That wouldn't take that long. Okay. What is Tuck? Yeah. What do you do?

I think Tuck just, like, goes into, like, full-on, like, close quarters fight mode. Right. He threw the pig at one of them. They all, like, tackled him. And it's just, like, a full-on. Like, Donnybrook. Like, where it's just, like, everyone. A fucking bench-clearer. Yeah. Everyone just dropped their gloves and started, like, fucking wailing. And they kind of start fighting each other, too. Right. Yeah. Yeah. This is, like, street kid Tuck. Yeah. This is, like, fighting in an alley.

Life or death. Totally. But, yeah. He just, like. It's, like, punch, block, punch, kick a guy into the tree. He leaves a pretty bloody imprint. Yeah. Totally. Grab one guy. Throw him into another guy. This is hack and slash straight up. Stomp. Break a guy's leg. Jesus Christ. Just, like, really close. It's just close quarters fast fight. Yeah. It's 10. Okay. So, you deal your damage. And then I also do want to take more damage. Okay. Because he's in the mosh now. How much? How much?

How many points do you have left? I have 13 left. Okay. So. So. It's going to be a long day. What did I say earlier? It was a D6 for one of these guys. Yeah. So, it's a D6. But there's a ton of them. It usually adds, like, guaranteed damage, basically. When you're being piled on. Okay. And it's usually for each one. Do it. Guaranteed damage to the tuck? It would be, like, you know, D6 plus guaranteed damage. Do it. This makes sense. Okay. What did I say? Oh, I did say half a dozen, didn't I?

Okay. There's six left. So, I guess it would be plus five. Okay. Great. So, one D6 plus five damage. Okay. Can I roll my damage first? Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. 11. Okie doke. Yeah. Wow. So. So, D6 plus five. D6. Six. And then I have three armor, so I only take three. Holy fuck. That's unreal. Oof. So, this is, like, it's exactly like you described. Three of them are just, like, you just snap a leg. You kick a dude into the tree. He crumples to the ground. Yeah.

You reach out and you grab and crush something. Mm-hmm. Oof. This is kind of like a, this is a pure situation for tuck. Because no matter where you swing, it's a bad guy. Yeah. Yeah. So, you just go fucking buck wild. Yeah. Berserk mode, basically. Totally. Yeah. I'm in berserker mode. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's the kind of thing where TLC are sort of, like, guiding me, where it's, like, no matter where I hit, I hit something. Yeah. Totally. Great.

So, yeah, you deal with three of these dudes. Yeah. Just rip them apart. And they're, some of them are stabbing me and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Three of them. With, like, tiny knives. Yeah. Yeah. Three of them you don't feel. Yeah. Great. So, yeah, you've dealt with three of these, like, there are three of these guys left. They're terrified. Yeah. Some of them are starting to consider, you can see in their eyes, the animal fear of, like, run, run, run.

So, some of them are starting to consider running away. Tuck's just like, let's finish this. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. 2d6 plus strength. So, Tuck's, like, thing now is he's, like, they're, the smart people are downstairs trying to figure out what's. Yeah. I'm going to keep the dumb ones up here. Yeah. I was thinking, also, it'll make sense, like, you know, overall, because with the spiritual stuff, and then Tuck is, like, the mortal man. Like, you're, like, the dad having to do this shit. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, you do a lot of the emotional. You do a lot of the emotional heavy lifting as well. He's the stepdad's running out of the house with the baseball bat across the street. Playing for dad mode right now. Yeah. Whereas I'm beating them up. I'm like, I'm not a stepdad. I'm the dad that stepped up. Oh, my God. Can you tell me what marker that's at? Stepdad's everywhere crying. They lift up their shirts. It says Tuck on it. There's only three of them. Yeah. There's one guy. It says TU.

Yeah. There's only three of them. K's late. K's late. K's late. K's late. He's on the bus. He got a DUI. He got a DUI. He can't drive. He lifts up his shirt. It says DUI on it. It's a T-U-D. Tadui. I don't get it. Tadui. All right. 2D6 plus strength. But, yeah, he's… The goal here is to clear the garden so that no more guards are left over so that Billy and Ving can finish this. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. That's 15. Whoa. Oh, wait. Yep. 15. Oh, my God. That's a lot.

Oh, they're dead. That's boxcars. That's boxcars. And then plus three. Yeah. Wowzers. Fudge. Okay. Go ahead and roll your damage. I assume you're going to take more damage. Yeah. Yeah. That's 10 plus two is 12. 12. Yeah. And then you're going to roll D6 plus two, I guess. I only take one damage. All right. So you take care of the remaining three. What does this look like? This is amazing. Tuck is so deadly. Like, he just… He really… Oh, my God.

He just cruises around making dick jokes half the time. He might be one of the greatest living warriors, but he's just like, fucking look at my balls, bro. Yeah. He mooned the Elven court literally like a week ago. That was a week ago. Just amazing. All right. Yeah. He like punches one guy out, like just straight lays him out. Yeah. Yeah. Another guy he grabs and throws into the tree. And then the last guy before Tuck like kills.

He's just like, hey, not sure if you're possessed or not, but if your demon goes back to the iconic realm, tell the gibbous man I'm coming for him. Whoa. And then he kicks his head off. What? What? What? What? Holy shit. What? Holy fuck. Tuck is very strong. And yeah, you're just standing there surrounded by bodies. Oh, my God. Catch the head. It goes over him. It goes over him. Over the wall of the cloister. Yeah. And then Finn is driving by in a carriage outside. Nice. It smashes through.

And lands on his lap. And lands on his lap. Mommy! We like harmonized that. That was good. And back below the earth, under the tree, Elman is like basically moving his hands around the tree. He doesn't know what to do. He's panicking. There's a woman. His arm. It's dying. Here. Pulls out the sunstone torch and the well water from Hibernia. Nice. And he reaches out and grasps those things. Bing takes the ring off and puts it on Elmond so he can talk to Ollie. Oh. Here. Talk to him. This is Ollie.

Ollie. Elmond. Elmond. Ollie. Have a conversation with yourself, Sean. Um. I think all Elmond says, because he understands in the moment what he is able to do now. Yeah. All he says is, tell me what you need. And Ollie does. He delicately pours the water from Hibernia in a circle around where Ollie has been planted. Smeared on the sack is a bunch of the shit from the shit shack. Huh? Smeared on the sack that he tumbled down the hole from. Right. Smeared on the sack is manure. Yeah.

The highest quality manure that the garden. What did I say? I just, you just said smeared on the sack is shit from the shit shack. I thought it was a really cool sentence also. I thought you were doing like a tongue twister. Yeah. All of my twisters are tongue twisters. Smeared on the sack is shit from the shit shack.

And he, yeah, he works some of the manure into the soil using his gardener experience to pick out, you know, he like is smelling it basically and rubbing it between his fingers to find the highest quality stuff. And then he's using the sunstone torch almost like a, it looks like he's like wanding the plant at the airport. Like he's kind of like passing it over the plant, which is helping.

You can see some of the leaves are returning to a somewhat more vibrant life with the protection of the sunstone, but it's not enough. Can Billy come in and try lightning in a bottle, which I think is what I did in the spirit world. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. And it's what you've done on Hibernia. This is a, this is a thing that Billy has done before. Okay. Um, I roll plus dexterity. And you're doing this to push time into the tree? Yes. Yeah. I, well I think so.

But what if it pushes if he's not doing it and we push time, then it could die faster. Right. If I push, oh right, cause it's like. Right. There's something that's not, it's not thriving. So yeah. Knowledge. Oh. Yeah. I'm going to transfer the ancient knowledge of the original knowledge tree to Ollie. Would that work? Yeah. I guess you could pull the knowledge. You do that all the time. Memories, like out of the soil. Yeah. And feed it to Ollie. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Plus dexterity. Yes. Eleven.

Okay. So, um, is there any water left? Yeah. Uh, yeah, there's a little bit in the, in the container. Yeah. Billy takes that and sort of like how he, he knit the winter shins and the sun wise. He, he does that between Ollie and the original tree. Oh, cool. So it creates this, like you can see like a pattern. Yeah. Yeah. Flowing like an infinite pattern flowing. Yeah. And what does it look like once the knowledge begins entering the water? What is like the physical manifestation of the knowledge?

The tree is like sucking up the water and the runes are coming up in like little like, um, what do you call it? Like, like columns? Yeah. Like columns, like little rivers that go up and it's like writing itself up the tree. Oh, that's really cool. So like as the water passes over the sapling, like the runes are forming behind the water. Oh, that's really cool. That's so cool. That's really cool. And the tree is growing like faster.

It feels like then it should be even though you haven't like put time into it yet. It's like you can see like the layers, the rings forming like runes will go up and then like it's like writing a book. Super speed, right? Yeah. The bark grows over and over. It's pressing the knowledge into itself. That's really cool. Yeah. So the knowledge begins pouring into the sapling. Yeah.

And the water like gets pulled into the earth and then like comes out in other parts and the river grows bigger, I guess, around it as the roots start to spread out. That's sick. That's really cool. Yeah. Elman from where he was on his knees next to the sapling like gets up and starts to move away. As the water courses stronger around the sapling. Is it working? It seems to be. Yeah. Something about like having this connection to the ancient knowledge of this place is strengthening the sapling.

And Billy runs his fingers through the water kind of still guiding it, but then he'll flick out sometimes like his hand as if he's like removing the impure stuff. Oh, cool. That's pretty cool. That's sick. So yeah, Billy, he weaves this infinite current from the old knowledge tree to the sapling. Elman gets up from his place next to the cutting as the water starts to flow stronger and stronger, drawing the old knowledge from the tree to the new growth.

And Billy is like hunched over the water sort of removing impurities and debris. And Billy beckons Elman to come back and he's like, it needs the sunstone. Oh, so Elman crouches down next to Billy and continues this sort of wanding. I just wanted Ving to add because he knows that gardeners are so anchoring part of this tree. He takes one of the arrows that he has and cuts his palm and he knows that he's got his mother's blood as part of him. It would recognize you then.

And she would recognize and it would, yeah, it would recognize me and her through me. And he gives some drops of his blood and Eliana's blood. I know that he's something else. No, but I think, I think that this works. This tracks for sure. Yeah. Cause she did tend the tree for a while. Yeah. So it would reckon, yeah. The memory of him and his father. Yeah. Yeah. He's, he's all of it. I do think I want like a wisdom, like a 2d6 plus wisdom. Great. To see sort of what this means. Yeah, I got six.

Oh, I will aid. Thank you. You're welcome. 2d6 plus bond. Nine. Thank you. Okay. All right. Yeah. The drops hit the water and are carried away and it's flowing. They joined the current. They do. And so that has this red yeah. This is amongst the water ribbons. Yeah. Red ribbons. You see like a, like a red streak start forming through the tree. Yes. Cool. Sick. Where Ving has cut himself on the hand. Ving doesn't know why, but his hand heals in the rune that says his mother's name. Whoa. Whoa.

Sick. And you feel whatever like tenuous connection you felt to the old tree. You feel a stronger connection to the young one. And Elman looks up. His eyes are glittering. It's like it's working. It's working. And we cut above tuck. You have a sea of corpses around you. This hole in the earth yawns up. Before you, you know, Ving went down there. You can assume. Yeah. Is the earth still crumbling where Ving entered? Oh, still crumbling.

Oh, because the tree is still attempting to resist because like the tree is still fighting. Tree is still resisting. Right. So I think as you're standing up there, the hole that Ving created begins to form a chasm like chunks of earth are falling in. Yeah. In front of you. As tuck is watching this, he can feel sort of like the resistive effects of the ghost roots starting to wear off. Oh, yeah. And like his like iron will or whatever. Yeah. Sorry. So excited.

The table just lifted by seven to eight inches. You feel the effects of the ghost root begin to leave you. And as the lamplight hour arrives in your mind. Oh, dusk now? Oh, yeah. Time has passed. Yeah. And time is being wended in some way around you. As the lamplight hour begins in your mind's eye, flames begin to lick up the tree in front of you. Engulfing the branches above. So tuck takes this as like, you know, he still knows he's fucked, right? Like he basically hasn't slept in weeks. Yes.

He's got a minus one constitution and he knows that like this is like the effect of the coin in his chest in the tree. He knows the tree is doing something. Mm hmm. Oh, and now that you said, I think you hear. Sounds in the earth and on top of the walls around you. Imps. Imps. Oh, are you fucking kidding me? Begin crawling over the wall. Whoa. One of them has the head of the guy. Oh, yeah. One of them has this guard's head like in place of where like a wolf's head should be. Oh, geez.

And they're hauling themselves over the wall. And then tuck goes, I hope you don't mind. I'll give you. I'm happy. He stumbles this much and he goes, I'm glad I got to give you a little peace of mind. And then he looks around to see if anybody heard that. And the only people that heard it are dead things. What do you do? Uh, tuck. I will add. No, wait, I won't add. I want to hear. No, you're going to have to do it to certain realities. If you want to hear what I was going to say. But wow.

Talk to the discern realities to hear what Sean was about to say. That's not what I mean. No, that's what we're going to do now. No, I want to hear it. So that's a five plus wisdom. This is five. You don't see you. There's nothing unusual about this situation. Fuck. You love this. I do. Yeah. And it's not a ton. It is a good like hand, like a good amount of. Imps, but not like an overwhelming force yet. Okay. Well, they're also not very fast, right? They actually are quite fast.

And I think depending on their configuration, they can be faster. Okay. And what? Sorry, what do you do? So there's a few things I can do. I can defend. I can use staunch defender and defend. Yeah. The other thing I can do is TLC where I do a sacrifice in an effort to, like, fight back against the tree. Okay. To what end? He wants to, like, cut the tree off. He wants to silence the tree. Interesting. And then if he does that, it might, like, make the imps, like, just not alive anymore.

Yeah, totally. Yeah. Interesting. Yep. I think TLC will do that. Yeah. It's almost like him removing the head of the shadow. Perel. Yes. In a sense. Yeah. Kind of precedent for it. Yeah. He he wants to use the axe to, like, sever the connection that the tree has with, like, I guess the metaphysical forces. Cool. Yeah. That's really cool. So, Terry, Larry, and Chad, you are initiated in the old ways, the ways of sacrifice.

Choose something your gods or the ancestor spirits value, blood, gold, bones, or the like. When you sacrifice those things as per your rights and rituals, role plus wisdom. Fuck. On a 10 plus, the GM will grant you insight into your current trouble or a boon to help you. On a seven to nine, the sacrifice is not enough and they take up your flesh as well, but you still get the boon. On a miss, you earn the ire of the fickle spirits. Mm hmm. Okay. Dd6 plus wisdom. Fuck. Four. Four. Oh, boy.

Then, yeah, tell me what Tuck does. It just doesn't do what you want it to do. Uh oh. So, Tuck, we put the obsidian coins, like, in the all save, but then Tuck had taken one from Elf Hiddleston that he found. Oh, shit. Which he forgot about. Oh. Oh, shit. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So, he's gonna smash that. Oh, cool. Yeah. Except. Except it doesn't fucking work. Okay. So, Tuck, you have this coin in your hand that you stole from Hiddleston. Mm-hmm. You just kind of softball it like you've done in the past.

You toss it in the air in front of you. Yeah. I flick it. You swing Terry, Larry, and Chad in a practiced arc in front of you. Mm-hmm. And the coin shatters into a million pieces. And as it does, the realm rends in front of you for a moment. And stepping through that void, the Gibbous Man. Well, well, well. Kind of blew it, huh? And I think that's where we're gonna end it for this week. I've been your Game Master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the Barbarian, Abdul Aziz.

So long. And Felf Druid, Paul Oppers. Take care. Playing Fat Billy, the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai. Bye, everyone. Thank you to Aaron Reid for our intro and outro music. If you want to hear the music that Aaron has made, check him out at aaronreid.bandcamp.com. And if you want to hear all the music that he's produced for the show, check us out at soundcloud.com. Thank you to all of our susporters around the world for susporting the show. Without you, this wouldn't be possible.

If you would like to susport us and get access to a bunch of cool bonus stuff, check us out at patreon.com slash speltlore or speltlore.com slash bandcamp. And if you want to hear all the music that Aaron has made, check him out at aaronreid.bandcamp.com. Thank you to all of our susporters around the world for susporting the show. Without you, this wouldn't be possible.

If you would like to susport us and get access to a bunch of cool bonus stuff, check us out at patreon.com slash speltlore or speltlore.com slash moneyplease. Thank you, most of all, to you for listening. We'll see you next time. And so ends the tale of adventures three, who tried the best they can. Though dumb and scared and lost they be, for time's abreast in revelry. And though our journey may be like a conclusion, we will not leave you without a resolution.

Return next week to hear some more, whilst you commute or do your chores. And for you I'd gladly spout more.