Episode 18 – And The Eyes Walked Like Men

Spout Lore is made possible by contributions from our listeners. If you'd like to support us, go to patreon.com slash Spout Lore. Gather round, friends, let me tell you a tale of three heroes, noble and bold. A brute, a druid, and a thief who is but nine years old. You know them by name, you know them by deed. Their quests are famously daring. So here I sit, singing to you an adventure that is worth sharing. Tuck is the brute, he knows not his home, he loves to sing and fight.

Fingers half-elf, he shifts his shape and wields a spear with great might. Billy's a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart. Best 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. Aged in the garden surrounding the heart tree. Deep beneath said tree, Billy, the halfling thief, and Elman, young gardener, were looking for a place to plant this new sapling.

Finding, with the help of Elman, a wonderful place, just beneath the roots where the soil had been soaked with the wisdom of ages. Above, Tuck wrestled with Taurus, strapping elf of Dathaniel's Talon, in a fight that did not last very long. Tuck knocked him out with a powerful headbutt, and then tried a few one-liners to see what stuck. It was kind of just the same one-liner over and over in different variations. He was working really hard in his head.

He was, and it showed, honestly, the quality of it showed. It really, yeah, yeah, it seemed really effortful, I think. Ving lost sight of his combatant, the elderly elf Lysander, before Tuck was accosted, set upon by a large group of elven soldiers. Mm-hmm. Ving and Tuck fought this group together, until Billy, down below, attempted to calm a threat that appeared. The tree itself began to resist the planting of the new sapling, the force of greed overtaking it. Ugh.

Reaching out to Billy, and attempting to give the fairy within what it wanted, which was sleep, rest, and the turning of the wheel. Billy began to enter his winter form as Icefall. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Play they did winter chasing Ving around the chamber in a delightfully childish but also sinister yeah and somewhat malevolent yeah game of tag Ving using his elemental form to endure the bitter cold and trade winter a little bit more time with Billy up above Tuck was just beating ass wholesale asshole asshole sale sale on assholes yeah contact us for ass wholesale yeah ass wholesale coming at you okay what happened next Tuck was just beating the shit out of every guard that he could get his hands on was a full-on Donnybrook teeth flying blood spilling bones breaking at the end Tuck stood triumphant as he did a WWE style Irish bare knuckle boxer call out to the gibbous man into the face of his remaining foe before kicking his head off that was such an extreme thing that was the most extreme thing Tuck's ever done I would say so below Ving gave Elman the ring the Chamberlain ring so that he could communicate with Ollie and find out exactly what the sapling needed to survive as it had begun to wilt and die under the power of the archery using well water from Hibernia a sunstone torch and a little bit of fairy magic the crew put the sapling in a stronger place siphoning the knowledge from the archery into the new sapling preparing it for its life as a brand new knowledge tree that was so sick such a good idea yeah Ving gave the tree a bit of his blood to aid and comfort and strengthen it using blood that reminded it of Ileana and Nathaniel the wound in his hand healed over in the shape of a rune the name Ileana the tree was calling disgusting dead horrible things from across the wood to aid it to protect it which led to Tuck standing in the garden above guards splayed around him in various states of dead and dying as imps began to climb over the walls here to protect the corruption at the very heart of the wood Tuck in a last ditch effort attempted to smash a coin using Larry Terry and Chad as he has those times before to dispel or cut off the tree from its iconic influence instead the temporary disturbance in the spiritual safeguard of the great forest gave way to the arrival of the gibbous man and that is where we find our heroes now he stands there in the aspect that you're most familiar with at this point long black traveling cloak a walking stick and a wide brimmed hat his face is shadowed a bit by the wide hat that he wears but you see glinting in the light of the lamplighter flies one black eye and one blue oh I bet the night comes with him yeah that's why dust came earlier than we thought he was traveling so the skies darkened rider on the dusk yeah I've been waiting to talk to you cool good to see you got my message bold very bold I just wanted to say hello meet you now that we're sort of on the path that we're on I just want you to understand what you're up against what am I up against I'm pretty fucking dumb dude so maybe you should explain it to me because I I don't mind a little direction every once in a while and the gibbous man laughs you're everything that I thought you would be he kind of holds his hands out a little bit as if to draw your attention to him I'm a god I heard you weren't really a god anymore whoo you see his eyes narrow a little bit almost imperceptibly people like you have tried time and time again to beat me to outthink me to trick me I promise you I will not try to outthink you and that's a promise you can take to the bank and I will not try to beat you off does stalling make you feel better no it's meaningless here we've got all the time we need do we notice anything I don't think so you guys are like I think all focused on the tree yeah it also might be a thing where like time is frozen a little bit like there are leaves like hanging in the air like drop of blood is hanging off of Ving's hand oh yeah like the flames that Tuck saw around the tree are still around it like in his perspective but they're like frozen they're frozen yeah yeah so I think like as soon as the Gibbous man showed up like everything stopped for Tuck at least ooh I do like that yeah and it makes it almost unclear to Tuck in that moment is the Gibbous man really here or is he just in my head or is it in your mind yeah and you can see he kind of tilts his head a little bit we're almost out of time already it's disappointing wait what do you what does that mean I only had a short window to come and say hello I just wanted to see if you knew knew what do they know what you are and he tilts his head and his head tilts a little too far on his neck do you Tuck feels the hackles on the back of his neck go up I'm no one and the Gibbous man stands a bit taller and he's like smiles says oh this is gonna be fun be seeing ya Tuck rushes him go ahead and roll 2d6 plus dexterity 8 8 as you're rushing at him you see this shit eating grin on his face and your hand lashes out and grabs him right on the front of his cloak as he winks out of sight and something comes loose as he disappears he disappears winding out from underneath the cloak and in your hand is a red silk scarf its Alison's scarf the one you lost fuck you get the message I've been watching you for a while I know its important to you and shes mine the tree resumes its burning the leaves resume their falling the imps resume their approach And the night that the gibbous man brought with him recedes.

Beneath the tree, it feels like both an instant and a moment have passed. But you're back to your work. The tree is gladly taking in the knowledge from its progenitor. And as it grows and as the sunstone torch continues its work, you feel a renewed safety sort of in this place. The feeling of greed has receded. Billy, you're like, you know, still shaking off icicles here and there. But the tree is rooted and the knowledge filled water continues to run up the trunk.

Well, the stem and then the newly forming trunk as it grows of Ollie, the knowledge tree. And the tree is beginning to rapidly grow much faster than it should. But it still seems like it needs a little more help to get where it's going. What do you do? Should we? Should we focus on destroying the bigger tree? That's what I was. That's kind of what I'm thinking. Oh, yeah. Remove the negative influence because this thing is weak and small and it's doing a really good job of growing on its own.

Yeah, that's absolutely a route to go. You could just destroy it. So just to cover the bases, the tree is filled with the demon of greed. Yes. Basically. Yeah. The tree has become an icon. A demon in a sense. Yeah. It's like the icon or whatever it is. It's like. Engraved into the tree now. Yeah. So it's going to like hold on to it. Right. The engine is gone. Yeah. That's what I mean. I see what you mean. Yeah. Because the knowledge tree, they take on patterns. Right.

And an icon is just like information. Yeah. So it was infected for long enough that enough of the icon got into it. It's sharing that knowledge now across the forest. The taint has spread so wide open. Yeah. The taint. Across all the land. The taint is endless and permanent. The blood of the taint is pumping from. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So far out from the core of where it originally was that now it doesn't matter that the engine is missing, which was the arrow in Nathaniel's heart. Yeah.

So we have to untaint the OG tree. Yeah. By removing it. Yeah. Well, I wonder. Okay. Because we've already taken like the physical like demon out of the tree. So I guess I'm wondering like, is it, would it function the same? Like it's more like a memory of it. That's what I was trying to say with like the Billy. Like it's not a demon in the classic sense. Like you can think of things.

There are options that will be unusual to how you have dealt with demons in the past because it's technically a tree that is steeped in iconic energy. Maybe it needs help too. Right. Like it's like Malgath, right? Like she was influenced, but she wasn't possessed, possessed. She was just soaked in it. So if Billy can find a way to like get in there and like pull all of the taint out of the tree. Yeah. Then taint is a good word for what this is. Oh, nobody's arguing that taint is an amazing word.

I love taint. We've used it an adequate amount of time. Yes. Just a normal amount of time. So frustrating. That also means the puss between your dick and your balls because it's a great word. No, I mean, you're digging your balls. Hey, it's also between the vulva and the asshole. Yeah. It's just not a lot of space. Speak for yourself. I'm all taint, baby. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I think we can think outside the box here. Ving. Yeah. Let's work together. Yeah, right? Okay. So we can talk to this tree.

We could convince it of something. Why don't we can, can we therapize this tree? I don't want to do that. Can we. Can we talk to. Ving talker to the demon. Can we talk to the spirit of the tree? Like we could do shadow dance now or midnight waltz where I could take Ving into the fairy world. That's pretty epic. What if? Oh. What if? Okay. If we go into the spirit world or the, or the fairy realm and we talk to like the, the pure spirit of the knowledge tree untainted. Oh.

Cause the tree will know. Yeah. But the demon is talking over it. Yeah. Right. Cause if you go to shadow dance, you go into the fairy realm. Yeah. So the iconic cannot go there. So that means if you're in shadow world, then all that's left there is the part of the tree that is allowed in the fairy realm, which is the spirit part of the tree. Oh, I could. Right. We could go. Do that. But don't you need fairy child to use? I do. Shadow dance. But can I force it?

Unfortunately, I think you need the time. The time. The time thing. I have an idea. The time thing. Well, there was just a sunset and a sunrise because the fucking God of the night sky showed up for two seconds. So can we say it's a new day? Can we argue for fairy child? Can we argue that fairy child should happen? We must. We must. We must. Huh. So the night left when the gibbous man disappeared. So it's a new day, technically.

I mean, I did say that I feel like I'm being bamboozled a little bit, but I'm into it. It's very, very cool. Yeah. It is a cool idea. Yeah. How do you guys feel about this? Does this feel like the right thing to do? Does this feel like it makes sense? Yeah, I do. I want to roll fairy child. Okay. So go ahead. You said night came. I did. I said. And now it's day. I talked about how night got dark. We talked about how it was earlier than it should be. Yeah. Billy has been waiting very patiently.

Yeah. It makes perfect sense. He doesn't know that night was short. I don't know. Also, you've literally been trying to do fairy childs for like three episodes. Yeah, totally. This makes sense. Okay. So 2d6 plus charisma. I need it. Please. Fuck. Okay. What is it? Plus charisma. Six plus. I think I have two. Eight. Oh, great. Fuck. That's three. That's three. Isn't it? It's three, but. That's huge. That's not bad. That's not nothing. It's doable. Okay.

So how does shadow dance work and how does midnight waltz work? Okay. So shadow dance, I spend a roll of fairy child, a hold of fairy child and I roll wisdom to enter the fairy slash shadow world. And if I use midnight waltz to bring someone or something with me, I use an extra fairy child hold. Okay. So it would be two hold. Yeah. Contingent on a successful roll. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So a 10 plus, I can remain out of body for three holds on a seven to nine, only one hold. Okay. Great.

Then yeah, roll it. When we go into the fairy realm. Yeah. We don't have any of our things. No. No. We go in naked as the day we were born. Wait, what? Huh? And here we go. Hold on. Oh no. Six. Eight. Can you eight? Oh yeah. Okay. Four. Sure. Okay. Oh God. Big aid. Take your hand. How is it? Yeah. Oh yeah. You're just kind of holding hands. I failed. Oh no. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Oh, you have one more fairy to turn a failed roll into success. Yeah. Oh, but it's only for me.

Oh wait. That's great. You can do it. I just failed. Yes. Okay. So that's all three fairy child. So are all my fairy childs. Okay. Holy shit. All that time, all that waiting and they're gone. I knew it. Like dust in the wind. So I got one, one hold. Okay. Okay. How does this look? So Billy takes things hands and he's like, walk with me. And like our bodies fall, but we keep our spirits walk. Cool. That's very cool.

And the shadow world or the fairy world is, I don't know, like kind of gauzy, like water color. Not super like definitive, like the physical world or the shadow or the spirit world. I mean, there's a cute vibe here too, where it's like a kid taking his dad to his like kindergarten class. Yeah. For the first time. Yeah. And it's all like the paper decorations and stuff. Yeah. Thanksgiving. Yeah. Hands. Yeah. And you're showing me things like, and this is where I killed a king. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Oh, nice. Oh, that's sort of like, you're not stepping like step for step through this place. You're like passing through a lot of like immaterial parts of the world though. You're still, of course, getting back to the tree, but you're like, oh, if we come over here, which is 500 kilometers away, this is where I used to sleep. And this is where I also used to sleep. I slept a lot of places. You're tired boy. But you're here in front of the tree.

It's got this painterly sort of swimming ethereal quality to it. Ving feels at home here. Yeah. What is Ving's fairy form look like? Oh. Oh. Oh, right. Cause yeah, Billy is in bloom. And Perel, oh, Perel was here, but he like glowed. Yeah. Cause he has, he's full of magic energy. So it reacted weird. Well, Ving, as we know, was made. With magic. Oh, so maybe you glow. And he has the Moonstone cave in his chest. He's connected to a billion elements, like. Spirits too.

You must look like a jar of water that like a painter is dipping their brush into, you know? I remember Ving looking like a chimera. Like a shifting being. Right. Like you have no static form in the fairy. Like it's constantly moving. And I like that when Ving passes through, there's. Many spirits keeping pace with him and Billy behind them. Oh yeah. Because there's so many spirits that not only he is embodied, but they're walking with him. Oh yeah. It's a great idea. That's really good.

That's very cool. Um, maybe we cut back up to talk for a sec. Sure. In this place. Nice. Uh, the imps are coming over the wall. Fuck. Just keep doing shit in the spirit realm and leaving you to fight all the battles. We're so fucked up. And you see, as they start like landing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a ton of overexcited. There is no grace in how they're coming over the wall.

Like they're slamming into the dirt, breaking apart and reforming immediately. Exactly. Like you can hear like joints popping as they realign themselves. They start to approach. They're skittering across the ground through bushes. What do you do? Okay. Uh, I'm going to defend this fucking tree piece of shit. Fuck. And Tuck is, as he's posting up to fight these stupid fucking things, he's so mad that he's alone. Of course. Yeah.

Oh, he's just like, fuck Billy and Ving better be doing something fucking useful. Damn it. We're gallivanting. Yeah, we are. While he's posting up, what does he do with the scarf? He like wraps it around the wrist that always holds TLC kind of like right above his like leather bracer. Cool. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead and roll. Defend 2d6 plus constitution. Okay, here we go. 10. Okay. So you get three hold. Oh shit. Oh, I have a negative one constitution. Okay. So you get one hold. Yeah, that's fine.

I have to staunch defender, but that just gives me a plus one hold even on a miss. Oh wait. So you have to hold. Wait, does it give me a plus one to what I got? No, it gives you a plus one hold even on a miss. Yeah, you didn't miss. You got a seven to nine. So you get one hold. So that gives you two. Defender gives you two. Oh yeah. Cool. And even if you fail, you always get another hold. Sick. Yeah. I get two. Yeah. Hell yes.

That's great because you notice as they start rushing towards you, they're not rushing towards you. They're rushing towards the chasm behind you. Okay, here we go. I am going to deal damage to the attacker equal to my level. Okay. Here's where we run into like an interesting, I would say in my mind, limitation and how Dungeon World is laid out. I think that this is not a clear number of foes. Yeah. It feels like a situation just mechanically.

That's like when we were dealing with those mermaids where it's like, they're a horde. So there's like a points, a points total. Yeah. Across all of them. Yeah. Yeah. Which I think, yeah, I am, I am forming a number in my head. Is it doable? For tuck? Yeah, I think so, but it's going to be tough. Can I use my two holds then? Oh, you're going to use two of them. I'm going to use all two of my defend holds. To deal 20 damage. Yeah. Is that okay? Yeah, that's pretty fucking funny. Cool. Yeah.

Cause that number in my head just got obliterated. Not obliterated. There's still quite a bit, but you did a significant chunk. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just going to be so funny. I can just blast the shit out of these guys. Yeah. So as this horde of chittering, rotting animal corpses rushes towards this chasm behind you, what do you do?

Tuck, like he reaches up and he grabs one of the like dead stiff branches of the tree and he uses TLC to like smash it off. So he's like wielding two handed right now. Yeah. And he like runs to the hole that they're trying to get into. And just like, you know, like Thor in the beginning of the Ragnarok movie where he's just like smashing shit like crazy. It's that kind of thing where it's just like cutting through like imps left, right and center. Yeah.

Every swing is just like felling creatures. Yeah. Totally bashing the shit out of everything. Great. And 20 damage is more than enough to stem the tide for you to have some time to think. I don't even know the meaning of the word as they figuratively and literally regret. Group. You're just like waiting through this horde of monsters, sick bones and rotted flesh and fur flying everywhere. They're like picking up the dead guys that I killed too. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's actually, that is something real discern realities. Okay. This is a tense situation for you to be in 11. Fuck me. That was too much. Okay. You get three questions. What here is not what it appears to be. I think there's a, I think there's a bush far off to like your left hand side. As you're smashing through these imps, you see a face poke through it's Nash, the Ranger, and he looks terrified. What should I be on the lookout for?

There are some of the imps that are hanging back, almost showing like a weird animal kind of intelligence and gathering bodies. Oh shit. What's about to happen? Nash from where you're standing is either about to bolt or is about to be found. And both of those would potentially spell his death. Okay. But with the right encouragement, he might be convinced to help and potentially help both of you survive. Okay. As a bunch of monsters rush up towards you. We'll cut back to the fairy. I like that.

We tune back to the fairy realm and Billy's like still showing Ving around. And I think Billy, he warned thing early on as he usually does. He'll warn anyone. Like last time he warned for all, he's like, I might lose myself. Right. So I need you to help guide as well. Yeah. Ving sees Billy like wandering out into like the edge of a, of a wood and like going into a stream and bobbing for apples and having all this fun stuff. And he's like, all right, that's having fun. This is great.

Why don't you grab an apple hop on my shoulders. We're going to go. So he's never really, so we picks Billy up in the federal realm, puts them on his shoulders. Yeah. And Billy is like, all right, elf let's ride. And the fur of his neck is changing from all different furs of all different animals. Let's go. Then he starts like, it's just, it's riding him. Yeah. Slapping on his leg.

And with this galloping, I like to think that he was like, I like to think that Ving's form does, does shift into like a quadrupedal, like spiritual kind of Mount for a second, like in it's shifting. Oh, there's many different shapes that he deals. Yeah. It's kind of touching on his old spirit days. And across the leagues of the ferry, you reach the tree and it's in the ferry. So does it have a different form or is it a tree? It's very bright. And it's like many constellations through.

Oh, I like that. Yeah. But Billy can read it. And so he starts like telling stories from the tree. Would Ving also be able to read it because of his druid acknowledge of the constellations? Yeah, probably. Yeah. We've talked about how the runic language was from the, from the stars. So like the constellations are basically the old, oldest form of that kind of language. Yeah.

So Billy starts spouting off like tails from the tree and he's like, so one time there was a wolf who grew from the longest night of winter. Ooh. And he, he ran chasing the sun, but he could never catch it. And so night spouted so many wolves and the pack grew until they were able to catch the sun and bring it down. Whoa. Wow. That's sick. What'd they do with it? Oh, they threw it around until the sun got angry and it said, I'm leaving now. And the wolves howled and they're like, no, come back.

This story is fucking rad. What the fuck, Jessica? Is this coming from me? Is this coming from me? Is this coming from me? Yeah. And so the wolves howled a bunch, like so annoying. Right. And then. And being howls and a bunch of howls come up from behind. Oh, it's just like the tail is old as time. And then, so the sun gets tired of all the howling and he comes back, but he's like, you can't, you'll never touch me. And the wolves were like, oh, we'll chase you.

And the wolves keep chasing and the sun, uh, it always gets away now because it knows. Oh my God. That's the mythic explanation of why wolves howl at night. Holy shit. They're stuck on the other side. They're stuck on the other side of the world from the sun. They want the sun to come back. Oh my God. What the fuck? That's beautiful, Billy. What the fuck, bro? Thank you, elf. What are we here for? Well, we're just here to, to get to the tree. We want to talk to the tree. Oh yeah. Hello tree.

It's been so long since I've seen you. Yeah. You finished this story and the tree kind of, I mean, doesn't turn, but you can feel its attention turning to you. Like what the constellations shut, kind of shift and it refocuses your perspective and you see there's a face in it. Oh cool. Yeah. Yes. I like that a lot. And it, it sighs kind of contentedly, nostalgically. I was there when that first sun rose. I know. That's why it's on you. That's why you know the story.

I have known the first rays and I thank you for reminding me of that time. Can Ving flash him a little bit of that light? Oh yeah. The tree gladly welcomes the sun. You telling the stories in the tree seem to be having a positive effect on it. So it might be a thing where it's reminding him of himself. Oh yeah. Reminding the tree of what it was. Yeah. Asking an old person about their life. Yeah. Tell me about the war. But don't talk about black people. Just tell me about the war.

Oh I shouldn't have said anything. Now that's all they can talk about. Oh. Oh. Oh. Now that you mention it. No, no, no, no, no. Grandpa, shut up. But yeah, that's a good point. It seemed to like that story. Elf. I'm so racist. Oh, is it mean? No, it makes perfect sense. It makes total sense, but it's so funny to me. The fairy doesn't necessarily remember who Ving is. Ving goes, Faye. And Billy's like, okay. I feel like we came here together for a reason.

We're here to ask the tree how to get rid of a demon. Have they ever run into a demon before? And Billy starts spouting a story from the tree about demons. And that story goes. Okay, so Billy gets all excited and his eyes bloom crazy. And he's like. Holy shit. They're like sunflowers. Yeah. Whoa. I know. Billy went like all out. Oh, I have a demon story. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Billy puts his like hands on his hips. He's like, watch me do this. Watch me do this. Oh.

That's just so funny. No, it's so funny for a kid telling a story. Ving lies down on the ground and puts his hand on his elbow. Everyone get comfy. Yeah. So the first demon came long ago back when Spider wove its web. Spider wove its web really far and wide and it couldn't see every corner of the web, but it had to keep its eye out because it was the creator of its web.

Nothing could hurt it so spider went and put its eye in the 40 corners of its of its web and and the the web was so soft and cozy things started coming to it and it was very plush and thick and cozy for spider and his friend hummingbird was away and hadn't returned to visit for a while so spider kept busy and he kept weaving his web and one day hummingbird came back and hummingbird was very full and kind of sick and the spider thought what's wrong hummingbird and hummingbird said I need to land I can't fly anymore and the spider was like that's not the nature of you bird you always fly and the hummingbird landed and um that made spider sad because because the web wasn't meant for hummingbird to land it was sticky and and tacky and and hummingbird was too light and so hummingbird was trapped and the sickness grew and spider tried to help it but it didn't know how to do anything except weave the web tighter around hummingbird and so he wove his web around her thinking it would comfort her because it comforted him and she said no I'm too sick I'm too sick and he says hummingbird what did you do what what got you and she said I thought I thought they were seeds I thought you gave me seeds spider and spider said no hummingbird those were my eyes and hummingbird had eaten his eyes and it was making her sick I don't like this story anymore I don't want to tell it you don't have to tell it tree will you tell my story hummingbird died and what rose from her corpse were eyes and the eyes walked like men thank you for the story it was a darker time tree yes I think the eyes still walk the earth they do what do we do about them do we give the eyes back to the spider no you cannot there is no mending this web it must be destroyed has it ever happened before when the moon dimmed and the sea found its bride moon cast off her yoke and chained father night and the dark fell from the sky across the land you've seen the sickness that surrounds you I have but this sickness is not for the spirit but for men without my spirit it would hold no purchase I would wander a while if you would help me of course what do you need from us I think this is where the tree doesn't know I'll Spout Lore wait what if you spell or then you can add and give her a plus two right I forgot the stupid way I made this yeah two to six plus intelligence sweet ten so this is a kind of a this is a nice combo because this is billy trying to remember periods of history which is exceptionally difficult in the fairy because the fairy is not a place of memory well especially in the spring form because they're not meant to really like hold on to that stuff exactly at least not for a while I feel like also but because we're walking through this place hand in hand that is part of why you bring it to me bring ving here yes to talk to the tree but then also to tell you to the material exactly boy and keep physical contact with that memory yeah yeah so ving is creating like a temporal context yeah so that's that's why billy can focus yeah exactly um so billy you remember a story or actually you remember a time and ving you remember a story referenced about a thousand years ago ving you would know this and billy you remember this is a thing that happened while you were alive uh well!

As a fairy so you're not really sure exactly when it happened but the moon dimmed for a time and the fairies were aghast what has happened to the moon where has she gone it was quite a hubbub in the fairy there was a lot of like there were a lot of councils at that time a lot of parties a lot of gatherings a lot of gatherings yeah that turned into parties and then became pointless why were we here why were we here you guys want to dance yeah yeah I fucking love a scuttlebutt um but I'm gonna I'm gonna try and bounce back and forth in a way that makes the most sense the moon disappeared the fairies were concerned you ving know that about a thousand years ago in what's known as the age of grieving the moon disappeared and night was basically pitch black and then very suddenly the story goes the moon returned full force and under the power of its light the night sky felt to the earth billy you remember this as a thing that happened literally uh-huh the moon returned and the night sky shattered and pieces of it fell to the land oh this is referenced in those tales ving that you that you have read as the reign of night billy this was a hard time the sky fell and for a time the things of the night and the beings of shadow and darkness were stronger than ever before uh-huh but the fairies eventually learned to adapt because those things were stuck in the material plane and over time that changed as these pieces of night disappeared were destroyed some say were gathered secreted away and that ving you know in the the annals of history basically immediately precedes the first age of grieving so that's sort of that's sort of the story so cool yeah um when you say um the fairies remember it was a hard time like what happened mainly it was dangerous for fairies to leave the fairy oh because the land was overrun with dangerous things yeah that makes sense okay so fairies there was a time like obviously before that fairies could like occupy anything yeah come and go freely yeah but there were stories of fairies that didn't return which had never happened yeah the fairies remember this as the age of invasions oh yeah and there were a lot of things attempting to come through to the fairy from the material plane there was yeah there were like fairies that came back wrong and they had to be banished and that's why we call it the shadow world sometimes oh because these demons that would try to infiltrate it was like it wasn't like a full force demon but it was like shadows that would invade like our world oh maybe this was a war and the fairy was different before this that's what I mean by that that's what I mean by that that's what I mean by that that's what I'm thinking so I think the things like the oath the pinky promises the trade and stuff like that that was our weapons of defense and so like the fairies became tricksters in a way because it was the only way to tell each other apart yeah and so to trust people and humans like yeah we had those built in I guess to protect the fairy realm that's wow fucking rad man so what if it's called yeah what if it's called the shadow world yeah we had this idea when you were talking like that before the fairies were fairies they thought of themselves as the free folk yeah like they broke off from the spirit plane and they had like freedom to roam wherever and do whatever through all the different realms yeah and then when this happened they became something different to different worlds they became something different to different worlds almost like a frightened people yeah which would make them tricksters too they impose these limitations and rules on themselves to keep themselves safe yeah and and it also imposes those limitations on other beings because it like not only did fairies used to be able to roam freely but other beings could interact with us freely because we didn't know a time of betrayal like that whoa ving you would you would realize this isn't even allegory this is a real thing that happened this is when the fairies were free this is when the gibbous man was chained to the material plane obsidian came from the sky that is where it was formed and it fell to the earth and that is what has trapped the gibbous man here remember you said there's one ring in the tree that's a black ring that's the reign of night that's so sick I forgot about that yeah it was the year of obsidian exactly yeah I'm basically thinking about it as that one real life year that happened where it was night for a year like the sun was obscured completely it was dark for a full year because of the volcanic eruption it was a volcanic eruption that just like blanketed the world in ash that could be the cause of all this obsidian too yeah totally oh it could have been a volcanic eruption of course that's what makes sense in a physical way that's interesting I like that a lot I like to tether my brain around those moments no that's such a great idea so sorry that is probably more part of the interesting thing I think the really useful thing here if I shone the gym had to say it was billy's remembrance of the invasions and the reign of night that the fairies were safer in the fairy and that if you were to figure out a way to get the spirit of the tree into the fairy as it said the demon would have nothing to hold on to and that might burn it out right because demons need like a nervous system essentially to persist in like they need a medium to exist a spirit some sort of life-giving thing are we not talking to the spirit of the tree right now you are but like you know it's not in the fairy the knowledge tree is like three parts though yeah because it's nature and um like magic in a way like druid magic so that's why we can talk to it here so could you do you think you could facilitate it transitioning entirely into the fairy realm to protect itself from demonic influence we'd have to lose something lose the null a lot of the knowledge yes so maybe that's the price you could use your hold to do this okay but the facilitation of the knowledge from the old tree to the new isn't complete you could wait and risk everything or you could accept that some of that knowledge will be kept with this spirit while you think about this let's cut back to tuck you are being swarmed nesh is in a bush there are about a gajillion imps up here it's such a hard fight for tuck to do because they're not really trying to fight you they're trying to get past you which makes it so much more annoying because you're like come here and then they just run past I use what are you waiting for to get them all to attack me fuck how do you keep figuring out my secrets 2d6 plus con fuck me seven okay so that works a good number of the weaker shittier ones turn their attention towards you and the larger ones that are making the difference in themselves larger behind them have a bit more time to do so okay but nothing is trying to get through the hole at this moment okay so nesh is still in that bush probably pissing himself okay tuck picks up a dead fox and he throws it at nesh he's like hey help me roll 2d6 plus charisma that's a really charismatic thing to do yeah useless you stupid asshole do something with this dead fox instead of just doing nothing okay so seven to nine the fox lands near nesh and he like flinches away from it for a second and then he sees you like you know just pick up an imp and crush it in your hand like you're being overwhelmed and you see him in front of his brow steals his look reaches in pulls a bandage on him pulls a bandage on him pulls a bandage on him pulls a bandage on him over his forehead tightens it oh my god and he nods to himself one more time goes and then runs out of the bush you're the best around not a little girl to get you down and he's immediately whacked to the side by a huge imp so he's kind of separated from you but it looks like he is trying to he's getting up he's like pulling out the two blades that he has at his belt great what do you do now?

You are being absolutely hoarded by these things can I just defend again? Yeah totally yeah wow what the fuck is wrong with these dice? Six ass fuck shit so that's a failure huh but I get a one I still get a hold okay yeah so you do get a hold yeah because of staunch defender yeah and I guess you're getting chomped on great what?

He doesn't have tons uh you don't have tons what if instead of him getting chomped on like you're getting chomped on like some get through no actually maybe that's the idea those are the choices do you get chomped on or do a couple get through because if they chomp on you it's gonna fucking hurt dude I dude I look down and I see Billy and Vink sleeping and I'm like fuck and you see Elman like Elman is like rushing around the tree back and forth like with the wand like oh Tuck looks down and he's like why is everybody useless right now?

He sees Billy and Vink sleeping he sees Elman waving a fucking flashlight around and then next to him is Elman and then next to him is fucking dude Tyquan and then he gives me I was just here and he said some fucked up stuff to me I'm having a terrible day I kicked that guy's head off I'm starting to feel pretty guilty about that but yeah he just wants to uh get chomped on d6 plus four all right cool three so I could use bloody Aegis yep to not take the damage or you can just take it I'll just take it okay great oh my god so you still have that hold so do you have that hold?

So tell me what's attacking it's like a deer it's oh it's like a fucking it's a buck but it has one of those it has another buck head with like the antlers locked that has come off and it's just got it's yeah it's you know really gnarly and it's pawing at you and there's like a raccoon with fucking porcupine quills you know it's just a mess of like four or five of these things are crawling all over you okay yeah I can see that they're about to go into the hole so I kind of get in the way and one of them bites me I guess and I use the hold from defend to deal the amount of damage equal to my level yeah with TLC you just shred them yeah the ones that are on you just get shredded like a blender wow and the hole is defended for a moment and you see Nesh has gotten up and he's got his knives in his hands and he's fucking finally do something he's running towards the the group like the larger group of bigger imps yeah okay are you okay?

Yeah I'm just really stressed out I'm not gonna die I promise okay the tree does seem to be on fire Tuck Tuck is ignoring that things could still go terribly yeah don't say that I have still so many hit points yeah like seven oh yeah six dude fuck what? You have six hit points left?

I'll be fine I have bloody ages I could take so many debilities anyway cut back to the fairy okay so our options are basically to take the tree to the top of the hill and then we're gonna go to the top of the hill and then we're gonna take the tree into the fairy world and then leave its form behind yeah you would basically remove the spirit of the tree I was thinking I would have to do lightning in a bottle yeah that's a good way to do it yes and this would basically be you creating a fairy right you are giving birth to a new fairy it's a rare thing yeah yeah I think it is a very rare thing okay so 2d6 plus dexterity or though it would necessitate you leaving immediately I would allow the use of a hold if I use a hold I use the hold could I have the 10?

I think if you use the hold yeah you would just succeed you would bring the spirit into the fairy but you would have no idea what happens to it after Sean yes can I use wild wanderer here in the shadow realms? Oh that's interesting somewhere I've never been before what does that do again? It's basically like bardic lore like he just gets a question about like what's the deal here yeah yeah yeah and you have to tell me honestly yeah so I guess what does that do?

Yeah so I guess I guess I want to know what you want to know yeah yeah I mean I want to know if this is going to work I think the big thing here is that if Billy just does this and you bounce right away the concern was what happens to that knowledge? What happens to that fairy once he is here? And if you leave right away you won't know is there any way that Ving can interact with that? Can I give of myself and mark my body with some of these constellations to take them into the world?

Oh like could I mark Ving? Can I use elemental forms and transbute my body into made from the raw elements which is the raw spirit of this tree which is an element of wood does that make sense?

That's an interesting idea to take the knowledge into you and kind of become like a knowledge tree yourself a little bit sort of like speeding up what Chimes did to himself oh yeah I was thinking that too really that would have all these constellations constellations slash runes slash scars which is already happening with my hand and my mother oh yeah oh yeah Ving like looks down at me and says I'm gonna run down at his hand and seize the constellation scar oh that makes sense and looks up and knows and the blood is glowing because it's magical blood like say bro yeah interesting very interesting I like that a lot okay so lightning in a bottle hide and seek is the more advanced move of lightning in a bottle which is where I can pull the immaterial and make a material and it says store one item in the fairy world but I wonder if I could attach it to Ving oh right so that he carries it so it's anchored to him but it lives in the fairy yeah so in a way it's like I'm like will you carry this fairy oh when the fairy is this tree yeah huh I mean and this kind of makes sense that they've been playing these games back and forth with in the shadow realm and when Ving took the fey out of Billy before yeah this is another game and Billy the fairy likes that I think the tree would like that too because I'm talking the tree in the fairy realm and the fairy realm is like a tree and the fairy realm like the whole thing is to play I could offer that to the tree yeah you guys have nailed it these are great options okay well I would like to call upon the primal spirits of the tree to perform a task for me and that the task is to bestow its knowledge on me to carry into the actual world in the material realm pretty sick I hope this works are we doing this together or are you doing it separate I think it makes sense that we would like we could do it together yeah okay so Billy is going to use the tree to carry the tree to the material realm and I'm going to use hide and seek which is like the more advanced move of lightning in a bottle okay great and Ving is going to use elemental mastery okay I um I mean we can roll them together yeah yeah let's roll them both so it's 2d6 plus charisma for lightning or 2d6 plus dexterity well I was going to just use my hold for it oh yeah he doesn't have to roll shit that's sick so then we should see how Ving does first okay 2d6 plus constitution thank you yes which makes sense because like your physical body is going to be the one taking on this yeah!

Yeah Eliana oh my god I rolled a 3 fuck no my constitution is 2 that's a 5 fuck so what is a failure can I use my hold to resist the failure or you could use the hold to help like facilitate this connection yeah and roll for the lightning in a bottle potentially failing I trust your die do it do it do it holy shit yes are you kidding me fuck scars fuck yeah 2d6s plus my dexterity is 14 oh my god okay I fucking nailed this yeah so what well rub it in I know I'm sorry no this makes perfect sense this is Billy's realm he's like at home here he sees Ving who is a master of the spirit but you're like you're trying to connect in the way that a spiritualist would that the spirit walker would and the energy is so strong that you can't and the energy is so different and so tumultuous and chaotic that like all the noises of all the animals and spirits behind me and you see it starting to overwhelm Ving oh no and I'm getting the scars on my body and in the real world Ving is twitching on the ground oh shit and there's being marked up bleeding oh my god his body is being affected in this place holy shit it's a way too violent acceptance of the thing yeah this was not meant for mortals yeah like this is oh shit this is something else uh tree yes would you come with me would you leave your physical being and let us carry you with us until it's time to bring you back I would love nothing more and it steps through into the ferry and it rolls like a little seed oh so just like a little seed yeah rolls into the ferry right into Billy's hands into my hands and that's when Billy and Ving win the game and they wake up oh yes whoa Billy's holding a seed in his hands and sees Ving on the ground next to him twitching being marked up by these runes and constellations on his body and I say I'm sorry Ving and I put it in your chest and my chest cavity closes over and the scarring of my skin calms slows leaving behind these marks and runes and constellations and stories all over my body I'm so sorry it's okay thank you um!

It's a L.A. Young and experienced. He's like a Power Ranger. He is like a Power Ranger. The red one. Yeah. Yeah, he's young and inexperienced, but he was recruited for a reason to the talon of the Ranger King. Like a Power Ranger. Yeah, totally. He received a coin while he was in high school and he went to talk to a head in a tube and his little robot. Wow. What do you do? You hear commotion below you. Well, describe the fight a little bit. Give it some flavor, Sean. Yeah, come on.

We've been talking for days here. Oh my God. You expected so many deets from us and you're gonna give us, oh, Nesh is like rolling around like that. You're just gonna give us Nesh is good at karate. Okay, maybe describe it. Yeah, describe all the moves in detail accurately. The energy in this room is incredibly hostile. Do you realize you put us in this scenario? That's so hard. You walked up to me at that Christmas party oh so, so many years ago.

Okay, so Nesh is facing down one of the larger imps that has been like collecting bodies. It's got a head of a bear on one side. It's got the head of a mountain lion on the other side. It's made up of not just one body, but many bodies. Dozens of legs. It looks almost like a millipede. It's so many corpses lashed together. Nice. And you see even at the bottom, you see elven arms and legs pulling it along the ground. And Nesh wades in and becomes like a flurry of blades.

Limbs are flying off in every direction and he's staying just out of reach. He's like basically dancing backwards out of range of these snapping, slavering jaws. And he removes all of the closest grasping limbs and then kind of does one big jump backwards. And as he does, he throws both of his blades out and cuts the spinal columns at the base of both heads. Fucking sick. For a second, if you were in his head, he was like fuck my knives. I can't believe I threw those.

And then he does a cool like run run jump and grabs them and flips over and he makes eye contact with you, Tuck. And he's like, pretty cool, huh? Gets punched in the head. He's just laid out. But below, you hear a commotion as Billy pops out of the hole. I'm so sorry. For what? For laying around and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and! I would like to defend Tuck. Ooh, okay. 2d6 plus constitution. Yes. I got a three. Yeah.

Billy pops out of the hole and is like, I'll defend you. And I, Billy didn't know what was up there and he sees the imps and he's like, holy shit. And he slips backwards into the hole. Slides backwards. Yeah, he slips. He's like, oh! Oh! Boing, boing, boing, boing, boing. You're down at the bottom of the hole. He's like, oh, I'm gonna roll defend again. So it's gonna take another, it's gonna take a roll for you to get back up.

But Tuck, Nesh has been laid out by an imp and the horde still swarms around you. I'm gonna roll defend again. Okay. 2d6 plus constitution. Fuck you. Six. Uh-huh. I'll aid. Okay, how do you aid? I'm gonna aid by trying to get up there and help them defend. Yeah, that's, yeah. I got eight. Okay, so eight makes that a seven to nine, which gives you one hold. Two hold. So I use both holds to deal my level. My level of damage to the horde. Fucking ridiculous. Yes, that's 20 damage. What, it's legal.

It's legal, dude. This is not against the law. Yeah. Ving, you basically, you see Tuck like falling backwards down the hole as he's being overwhelmed by these imps. And you like just pop up and kind of help him back up. I say, mind if I join in? And Tech goes, yes, join in, you fuck. Yeah. As just like two huge swings just cleaving through these creeps. These creatures. Yeah. Clearing a little space for you to act and think. Okay, I grab my bandolier of sand. Oh, sand.

Oh, I have the bow as well. You do have a bow now. I take off the bow that I stole from Nyesender and I smash one of my bandoliers and they're full of sand and I make a bunch of glass arrows. Oh, cool. That's pretty sick. I'm gonna shoot them into the big guy. Yeah, totally. So yeah, 2d6 plus. Con. Con. Get a six. I will aid. Yeah. You almost fall in the hole and I help you. Everybody keeps falling in this fucking hole. It's such an uneven hole. Yeah. The cavern is like crumbling beneath us.

It's like falling, shit's falling in. Yeah. Eight. Eight, okay. So that makes it a seven to nine. As you almost fall in the hole, like Tuck takes his ax, buries it in the head of like an owl, elk, bear thing. And then he reaches back and grabs you, but cups your buttock. So you're just like, sitting in his hand. And then Ving instinctually clenches his butt to show off. I'm not going anywhere. He's going to show up to be like, I've been working out. Yeah, but it does like clench onto my fingers.

So like it makes it easier for me. I grab his fingers. And then Tuck goes, I missed you so much, buddy. And Ving moves his mouth. Like he's a puppet on Tuck's hand. I missed you, man. Oh yeah. And then Tuck wants to just throw Ving over the horde that's in front of us so he can attack from behind. That's cool. That's cool. And these glass arrows form in your hand. And while I'm in the air, Yeah. I'm doing a somersault and I want to Ving, Ving, Ving, Ving, Ving. Shoot as many as I can.

That's pretty sick. Is that what you're using your elemental form hold for? Yeah, I get two hold. So I want to use both of those. Okay. So that's deal your damage twice, I guess. Okay. And it's a D10 with the elements? Yes. Nine. Okay. So 12 damage. Fuck. This thing's taken like 50 damage so far. Yeah, this is wild. It's a horde of monsters. Remember what I said? Yeah. Okay. You're, yeah, you're, you're. You're like, it's doable. Jessica just went into the matrix.

She rolled her eyes so hard she ascended. Because you were like, it's doable, like just for Tuck. And you're like level 1000 basically. It is very, look at you still fucking kicking ass. I'm still kicking ass. I'm still totally fine. But yeah, you release these glass arrows. Oh, they fire, you fire the arrow and they like air burst basically. Like they fire. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.! Oh. But yeah, you release these glass arrows.

Oh, you fire the arrow and they like air burst basically. Like they shoot down towards the horde and then shatter in the air and like shred them. Sick. That's awesome. That's so cool. Thanks, guys. The number is approaching. Okay. And you can tell that because the horde is thinning out. Nash took down one of the larger ones, but there's like one more that just keeps like greedily reaching out and just like shoving corpses into its form. Oh, it's huge now. Yeah. Yeah.

There's so many corpses around. Yeah. I like that. There's guards. The guards who are usually in the garden. Yeah. There's some of those like poking out with spears like and it's like killing them and then murdering people and mashing it into itself. Spooky. It's gross. Yeah. You yell at them like, no, you have to leave. Fucking get out of here. Get out of here. Yeah. You like land on this place. Land on the ground. Get out. Yeah. Shooting to the crowd. Yeah.

It's just like bleeding from head to toe covered in scars. And a couple of them are just like throw down spears run. Yeah. I'm fucking gone then. Billy, you're at the bottom of the hole. As you like pick yourself up and start climbing, the roots are like coming away in your hand. Fucking hell. But then you realize the roots are coming away in my hand like they're rotting. Oh, good. What does Billy do? Billy is furious because he's like, I never wanted to see those imps again.

So he rips open the tent bag and he goes inside storming. Uh-huh. Hi, Perel. Hi. And he grabs like a candlestick off the table where they're having a nice dinner again. They're just eating dinner? They're doing fucking nothing. You know, if you want to help, there's like a bunch of stuff that needs killing. So you. Okay. So here's a. So. So Morris is like, what needs killing? The stepdad mode? Oh, yeah. You come in and you're fucking bloody and like filthy. And he's like, what happened?

You've activated something in Morris. Yeah, I like that. And then we cut to outside the tent and you walk towards like the roots you've been climbing up to the hole as Morris is like striding alongside you. And as you step towards the first of the roots, you're on the surface. How? Morris looks down, winks. And turns towards. The cool sick. And Perel is like, guys, he's climbing up the roots behind. Graveling so hard. What does Billy do? He's got a candlestick, a lit candlestick in his hand.

And he takes a huge chunk of the rotting wood and he lights it on fire. And it starts to burn. Can I volley this torch I'm holding? Yeah, totally. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. Two to six plus dexterity. I'm going to throw the big greedy imp. Yeah. Eleven. Okay. So you do your damage. Four. Four. So it strikes the large imp. And while it doesn't do a colossal amount of damage, you see some of the desiccated flesh start to burn. And it feels cheap, but there are two fucking wizards on the field now.

Uh-huh. Oh, and you know what else? Perel gets to the top of the hole and he's like. Transmuted beings. He's like stretching. He's like, wow. He's like cracking his knuckles. Like, here we go. And then he's immediately. Bold over as a massive lupine form leaps out of the hole. Oh, you're pathetic beasts. And he lands in the middle and goes to town. His huge head is like chomping onto bodies and throwing them to the side.

And as the horde kind of realizes this is the last push, things get hairy for a bit. What do you guys do? I light a second light because there's wood everywhere. I light a second piece on fire. Okay. I'm going to roll five. With honor. Okay. Yeah. 2d6 plus constitution. Eight. Okay, cool. So you get two. Yep. Tuck, what do you do? Tuck just straight up hack and slashes. Okay. 2d6 plus strength. Fuck you. Nine. Ooh, can I aid? Yes, please. Uh, Billy. I don't know. Like, oh yeah.

No, Billy just whips it. Just his strong arm. Straight and true. Yeah. 2d6 plus bond. Straight and true. Straight and true. Uh, five. Fuck. Okay. Well, you know, still seven to nine. So you do your damage and you throw fire at me. Oh, I'm sorry. And Billy. What the fuck? Billy falls down the hole again. No, he does. Honestly, it's kind of funny. I think there's, there's one that's like a beaver, a beaver with like a bunch of like bird legs. I hear it behind me and then I turn around like you.

It's as you were throwing it, you get like nudged and you turn around. There's a little bit of a bird. There's a little bit of a bird. There's a little bit of a bird. There's a little bit of a bird. There's a little shitty beaver behind you. Like I go, and it's going to, it's going to snap at you. So it was, it was a hard fail. So roll a d6. No, I shoot first, please. Okay. 2d6. Well, how are you shooting first? Just punch it. 2d6 plus strength. So shitty. Five. Yeah.

So go ahead and roll that d6 again. Yeah. Great. Four. Four. Four damage. Yeah. This thing chomps onto you. Yeah. I punch it right in the teeth. In the mouth. That's biting you. Yeah. It's like on your fist. Yeah. Fucking brutal. Break your hand. Yeah. Chomps on you bad. How does Tuck do this? Oh, wait, no. Tuck. Sorry. Roll your damage. Oh, okay. Fucking two. Not so good. Yeah. And then since it was a seven to nine, you also take damage. So it was a d6 plus two. Okay. All right. Seven. Seven.

But bloody ages. When you take damage, you can grit your teeth and accept the blow. If you do, you take no damage, but instead you suffer a debility of your choice. Absolutely can do that. Yeah. Whoa. So that means I can take a debility to my worst stat and that I never use, which is intelligence. And then. Jesus fucking Christ. And then I will not take damage on this. Totally. Yeah. Okay. Except to your intelligence. Yeah. Because he's like only a dumb person. Yeah. No one would do this.

And I'm a genius. I'm so smart. I don't even notice how much I'm losing intelligence. Okay. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. So you go ahead and suffer that debility as it bites you on the brain, I guess. I think it bites me in the arm, but like I'm fucking tired now. Yeah. Like Tuck has been fighting literally in the mouth of hell. For like hours. For like 45 minutes at least. It feels like for a while. Like this is the longest fight Tuck has ever been a part of. Yeah, totally.

And he squared up against a fucking God right before it. You tried to fight the God. Yeah. Yeah. Didn't work. Bing Clark said that Tuck is so done and that he's getting stupider the more he's getting attacked. Oh no. I want to use one of my hold to deal a damage within sight. Whatever is closest to Tuck. Yeah, totally. It is the group of three chittering things that are climbing all over him. One looks like a pig that you don't even know where this pig would have come from. And then it's.

Oh, it came from. The. The. The dungaree. The dungaree. Oh, it's. The rhinoceros. The rhinocerise. Oh. Yeah. I snosser is. Oh, it looks like a rock steady or bebop. Can't remember which one. Yeah. It looks like rock steady and bebop mashed together. A pig and a rhino. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to use my band leader again and use elemental form. So I jump over Nesh who's battling somebody and I'm like, holy shit. She's got some fucking moves. Yeah. Yeah. Land behind the group.

That's up against Tuck with the one that's on fire. It grabs one of his band leader that has a little bit of the gun powder that he got a long time ago. Oh, yeah. Pours it all over his head and jumps onto the guy. Wait. What? Exploding, engulfing in flames and everyone around him. Whoa. Wait. What? Why do you have to kill yourself? I don't need to. So now I'm like a fireman. Oh. And are you like impervious? I'm impervious to fire. Yeah. He's impervious to fire. Sick. Okay. Cool.

So I want to get close to him. I get him. I grab the. I grab the guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I kiss the monster on the mouth and I pour the fire over top of my head and lighting me and him on fire. Yeah. And then I punch. Boom. So go ahead and deal your damage. Okay. Wow. To D10. Seven. Yeah. That immolates the one you're holding in one next to you.

Morris steps up to like one of the imps, which, you know, they've never seen monsters like this before, but Morris holds out his hand in front of one of them. And you see like the weird wizard muscularity, like flex in his arm as a space inside of the imp blooms into negative space. And it just like, oh, just bursts into a bunch of chunks of flesh and bone. That's sick. And Perel next to him, just next. These two dudes next to each other. Fucking power couple of the century.

Like his Perel reaches his hand out. And you remember Perel's a wizard. I forgot as one of the imps just melts in front of him. Whoa. Just turns to goo. And they both already look pretty tired. And this is. Oh, right. They haven't done this. That's the state of the world. But they are. They're holding their own next to one another. Cool. And Nesh is climbing up the pig rhinoceros thing with his knives. And this seems to be the final. You've sliced through a good chunk of these things.

This is the last thing that needs to be overcome. No, Billy is spinning around with the beaver attached to his hand. And he sees like the one fire. He's like, help me. And he's like spinning it towards. Somebody. You see before you a towering monstrosity of flesh and bone. And you know, this is your last enemy. Help me. Anybody. With a beaver on his arm. It's got my arm. It's so gross. Get off me.

Can I use my last fight with honor hold to block a blow meant for someone else and take half the damage? Yeah, totally. So you rip it off Billy's arm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I said on fire. Oh, yeah. You grab it by like the head. And as it's burning, you're able to like peel it off of Billy. But it like with its remaining bottom half of a jaw lacerates the hand that you grab it with. So roll it. Roll it. Six. One. Well, it tries. At least it definitely tries.

As Billy, your hand is freed from the slapping jaws. Billy stops, drops and rolls because it's just he he's just like, it's so gross. I don't know what to do. Yeah. And as you're on your back rolling, you look up and you see chunks of branches falling to the ground. But underneath those branches, you see new growth and then realize, well, that's nice. But there's a huge branch falling towards me. What do you do? Roll out of the way. All right. Two to six plus dexterity. Yeah. Eleven.

Jesus Christ. Yeah. You roll out of the way just in time for a boom. A big branch hits the ground and just like mulches. Yeah. Tuck. Boom. A huge pile of rotten wood falls to the ground next to you. In your mind, it is fucking immolated. It is burning. Okay. And this towering, fleshy monstrosity stands before you. Get over here, you fucking fleshlight. So tired. Yeah. It's stupid now. Uh-huh. It's stupid now. I wouldn't mind if. I wouldn't mind a little bit of that.

I wouldn't mind a little bit of that. I wouldn't mind a little bit of that. I wouldn't mind a little bit of that. There's a ton of flesh over in this corner of the stadium. And Tuck takes TLC. And it's literally the last bit of strength he has left. Uh-huh. And he's like, all right, buddies. Fly true. Find the flesh. He kisses them. Uh-huh. And then he overhand whips the ax at the thing. Hell yeah. At the giant thing. Yeah. All right. Let's see it. 2d6 plus. Dexterity, I guess. I guess.

I don't have a debility and that's good. Seven. Seven to nine. So that is a volley. So it is you place yourself in danger or you take what you can get. So it's your damage minus 1d6. Take what you can get. There's so many help here. So yeah, I'll take what I can get. I guess I'll take what I can get. So you roll a d10. Yeah. And then roll another d6. Or should I put myself in it? No. Because I can take, damn it. Look how sad my eyebrows are. Jessica. I'm sorry. I still have six HP.

But Peril's literally turning them to goo. I know. So he can just turn it to goo. He's hogging all the cool stuff. Yeah. This is a thing. These are my murders. As he's deciding in the split second before he lets go of the axe, he's like, should I recover? There's a fucking weird thing over here. Which way should I fall? An angel and a demon appear on his shoulders. And one is Ving and one is Billy. All right, let's go. Dude, this is you've been fucking slaughtering this. You got this.

You're the coolest. That's right. I'm so fucking cool. Yeah. And you're like pretty cool. But think about this. You're also so tired. And think about where you go, which is Pizza Palace. Pizza Palace. Pizza Palace. Pizza Palace. Pizza Palace. Pizza Palace. Pizza Palace. Think about Pizza Palace covering you up in his nice, warm, greasy pizza blanket. I'm sorry. Pizza Palace is a guy. That's so funny. And then Tuck, like, he looks at the shoulder with Billy on it.

And then there's a sit down pizza hut that's just like, get over here, big boy. I got a warm spaghetti for you. Spaghetti. Every part of Tuck's psyche is exhausted. Broken. And he's like, are you going to let these guys just waltz in here and take over the fight? You had it from the beginning. It's my fight. Yeah. But you also know what? Pizza Palace is only open for five more minutes. So you got to come in here, buddy. You own the Pizza Palace, man. Those doors are never locked.

If you have you walk up to a Pizza Palace and it's closed, you just unlock the door from the inside because you also clean the Pizza Palace. Listen, buddy. We just pulled out a pipe. And hot fresh calzone. Stuffed. Double stuffed. With victory. Throw your axe. Hot mozzarella sticks. Now we, Billy and Bing Angels, go for a bite. They're both kind of on each other's side now. They're just arguing in favor of pizza. Do you want to go to my mind KFC with me? Hell yeah, I do. All right.

And Tuck is alone again. This is where we finally find out. Oh, my God. We find out that Bing has a mind palace as a sit down. It's a sit down KFC. That's Taco Bell. That's hilarious because Bing is like, no, I eat healthy. Oh, yeah. In front of you guys. You see a real clover about it. Grass. You guys believe this the whole time. Bing was like, yum, yum. I love grass. But every time he goes for a night jog, he's actually going to Taco Bell. I pound crunch supreme until it's 5 a.m.

And then he's like, what do I get back? Well, I really worked up a in McCall when you're doing your nighttime or like rooftop workouts and you're so sweaty. No, exactly. You know, with whispers, the Taco Bell slash KFC in my mind. She's a gordita crunch. I will take the family pack. Thank you. He's so sweaty whenever we go up there and out of breath because he's like furiously hiding the rappers and stuff. Speedy. A family bucket of chicken. Yeah. Secret eating.

But an amazing and all the women who are watching from the other balconies were just watching because they're like, look at this sad man. Oh, my God. What is going on? Just pounding macaroni in the pot. Yeah. Anyway, I deal my full damage. I do not take what I can get. Oh, no. Eight. Okay. Eight is enough that the damage that the axe digs deep into this monstrosity. Basically, right. I'm going to take the whole thing. I'm going to take the whole thing. I'm going to take the whole thing.

I'm going to take the whole thing. I'm going to take the whole thing. I'm going to take the whole thing. I'm going to take the whole thing. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work.

There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. On one side as Morris is using his magic to extend that barrier around it. Sick. It is teetering. It is on its last legs. You have put yourself in danger. You look up. There is a massive piece of tree falling towards you. What do you do? Defy danger. I just try and dodge out of the way.

Defy danger dexterity. Here we go. Fuck. That's a three. So no, I do not dodge out of the way. Can I? Oh, can I do something? Yeah. Yeah. What do you want to do? Am I allowed to defend Abdul? Yeah. Let's roll it. So it's 2d6 plus constitution. 11. Whoa. You get three hold. Sweet. So you can redirect an attack from the thing you defend to yourself, have the attacks affect or damage or deal damage to the attacker equal to your level. Yeah. I'll redirect the attack to myself. Okay.

So you just fully push tuck out of the way. I just push him away. Yeah. And I roll up into like a roly poly to protect myself. Uh-huh. Nice. So what kind of damage do we think this falling tree does? I mean, it's mush. I want to say it's a 12. D12? Okay. Okay. But I kind of want, because it's not going to just be like, the chances of it just being one are low. That's fine. So I would say you're going to be rolling 2d12 and taking the highest. Two is the biggest. Wow. You rolled a one and a two.

Oh my God. Are you fucking kidding? Yes. Luck of the Jessica. What the fudge? You roll into the roly poly, like you said. Yeah. And this huge chunk of wood just slams down around you. You did say it earlier. Like, oh, that wouldn't even hurt me. Yeah. See? It didn't. I poke up my finger. I'm like, I got a sliver. Yeah. There was like a huge crack in it that just landed around you. Exactly. Yeah. And it jumps in like a mother, like, oh my God, a sliver. Honey, no. So I'm just biting at it.

Before you pop out, there's like a moment of silence when everyone on the field is like, Billy, just die. Yeah. Totally. And it just like. No. Avenge you. You see Billy. His splinter does not need attention. He's absolutely fine. Yeah. You can tell because he's going, owie. You know what? He's fine. Whenever he makes that noise, he's not hurt at all. Yeah. And this beast is tottering, being hemmed in by Morris and Perel. It's got Tuck's axe hanging out of it.

I run up and you said the axe went into his chest. I dive into his chest on fire to go get the axe. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. And then you come out the back with his axe. Whoa. You go through it? Whoa. Like, so you grab the axe, then use the momentum of the dive? Use the axe and swing through, cut through it, and come out the back on fire with the TLC. Yeah, totally. And that's an elemental form hold? Oh, yeah. That's my last hold. Okay.

So you come out the other side as the flames like extinguish around you as you like slide I leave them behind in the animal to burn. Yeah. And it's like crackling as the fire begins to engulf it. And roll your damage. Okay. Okay. Five. The fire crackles up in this dead flesh. This thing is burning and screeching and bellowing. And Tuck, you're standing in front of this burning creature as it shrieks and bellows.

Just as you think it is about to take one last swipe at you, a spear arcs over your head and slams into the chest of this thing. What's left of its chest? Whoa. And it totters and falls. And Ving, on the other side of this body, past the head that you see of your spear, which you lost in the hole beneath the tree, standing at the mouth of the chasm, bleeding and exhausted, is your father. And he looks at you and says, Ving. Dead. What took you so long?

Your rope is coming to an end, said the serpent to the king. The steps you take are numbered now. What will those footfalls bring? Walk with me and let me tell of what will come to pass. Of stone and salt and broken bell and what of this will last? The serpent's hand. And listen to her story. For in her venom, prophecies were tales of coming glory. The serpent spoke of many things that were yet to come to pass. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Oh, Oh,. Oh,.

Kings of copper and of glass These things I say The serpent warm Will come to happen soon And though you see your place here It also means you're doomed Time now comes The serpent set To finish off our war And in the ending of your road We hear It also means It also means We hear her aeronauts. The archer sets her sights on you. Her arrow will fly true. For time must march and sun must set. For day to dawn anew. The serpent then embraced the king. As time's arrow took its course.

And though she led him down his path. She did so. With remorse. Then in parting with the king. She told him one last tale. Of the oaths and promises he kept. Of the friends he didn't fail. You're right. The road has ended now. My love. The steps have all run out. The time for plans has come and gone. It's time for dreaming now. Now. It's time. It's time. © transcript Emily Beynon