Episode 3 – Cerulean Depths Seen From a Great Height

Gather round friends, let me tell you a tale of three heroes noble and bold A brute, a druid, and a thief who is but nine years old You know them by name, you know them by deed, their quests are famously daring So here I sit, singing to you an adventure that is worth sharing Tuck is the brute, he knows not his home, he loves to sing and fight Fingers have health, he shifts his shape, and wields a spear with great might Peely's a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart Best and bravest they may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts So gather round friends, and listen close For the tale's about to start Welcome everybody to Spout Lore I'm your Game Master Sean I'm Sean O'Hara Joining me as always playing Tacoma Dome the Barbarian Abdul Aziz Hello everybody Playing Ving the Half-Elf Druid Paul Oppers Hey, how's it going?

Playing Fat Billy the Halfling Thief Jessica Tai Hello When last we left our heroes, they were enjoying a nice, calm night In the Hither and Yon, a pub located in a pillar in the Sea of Graves And it's got like a Room of Requirement vibe to it Yes, Billy remembers having heard stories from travelers and other halflings about the Hither and Yon And how Billy grew up in a different city every time somebody brought it up One person probably was like, yeah, it was just a door in a tree Or like, I found it underground And this is before franchises, everybody Yeah, exactly Yeah, I went to a place that was in a bunch of different cities too McDonald's What did we learn during our time at Hither and Yon?

Fucking that chowder's good Yep, Mears made a great chowder that Billy got absolutely tanked off We learned that Billy was a tree Yes, the revelation My spring fey roots have been uncovered And we know the origins of Billy What else did we learn?

Chimes explained to us that since Perella is a wizard, he's probably being dragged to the Nexus of Magical Energy Right In the Sea of Graves Yes Which is called the Eye of the Storm So if we want him, we have to go there Mm-hmm And we can also illustrate it by pulling one of the rings out of his beard Yeah And putting it on the bar, and then it like, rolled towards where the Nexus would be Mm-hmm And the Nexus we have discussed is also the roosting point of the King of the Thunderbirds Rumored to be Rumored to be, who is said to have made a roost out of the halls of smashed ships So sad So cool His shit can feed a family of four Ugh, gross Why?

Because it's so big His penis I think we've used a different way of saying that Think of all the worms it needs to eat to sustain itself Worms I don't know what Thunderbirds eat Yeah, worms Fish?

Yeah They are also by nature sustained Oh yeah Mm-hmm I imagine that it was storms that sustained them They feed off the storms Like the electrical energy Oh yeah, that makes sense actually Yeah And yeah, after dinner, everybody just went to sleep, fell asleep in some chairs And you wake up Feeling so uncomfortable Why?

Because you're all crammed up on t- Well, I mean like, Billy is probably fine They were sleeping on furs Well, I woke up in the soup And it's cold now Objectively slept in the worst place Right, I forgot Billy slept in soup So yeah, Billy wakes up eventually covered in wet, cold soup With a yeast infection Ugh You don't have a yeast infection I just have to shit a lot Not that I'm a shit person I'm a shit person I'm a shit person I'm a shit person I'm a shit person I'm a shit person I'm a shit person I'm a shit person I'm a shit person I'm a shit person I'm a shit person I'm a shit person Not in the soup, Billy So I go to the bathroom And then I'm going to go bathe in the sink for once in my life Because even my standards, like, I'm dirty Yeah, totally And everybody sort of slowly comes awake Chimes wakes up and you hear his bones creaking From every part of the room So many pops It's like Oh, boy, okay, yeah He's doing calisthenics He's already awake Yeah He's like, he's like spitting on and rubbing off a room Yeah rune, like slapping it.

Come on, come on. He's like those old dudes that you see at the swimming pool that are just like next to the kids pool, like smacking their legs. I went to the pool with Abdul and there was an old man just slapping the absolute shit out of himself for like half an hour. Everyone in the pool was watching. It was just like what is happening? Just slapping his stomach and his chest and his legs. I don't. I'm Chinese. I feel like there's some Chinese old people who do this. I don't know why.

Is it like to get blood flowing? Probably. Or to move lactic acid out of there? Oh yeah. So that is what Chimes is doing. He's slapping the shit out of his body. That's what we wake up to. Yeah, it's just like God damn. See that red sky last night? Sailor's delight, baby. Jesus Christ. And I like I stand up and you can hear the leather couch peel off my back. Oh my God. Oh gross chimes goes and starts kind of mixing up a pretty simple breakfast for everybody.

Just, you know, slabs are real thick, hearty, old school bacon, eggs, bread, bread, some kind of spiced potato coffee. Yeah, he makes he makes coffee like he makes really good rich coffee. Billy comes down feeling like garbage, I assume. Yeah, I'm naked and I'm dragging my like wet clothes. He's got a towel around his belly. No, I have nothing. Yeah, I go and I lay my clothes in front of the fire and stand in front of the fire. I'm like, how'd you guys sleep? I don't think I slept at all.

The fur from in front of the fire wrapped around him. I was trying to study the essence of and I just was up. Distracted all night. What was being trying to study the essence of the bar and the bottle of Crown Royal? Okay, here I studied like eight bottles of essence last night. Oh, no. Are you hung over? I'm hammered. Oh, no. So chime sees how total thing is and goes, I got just the thing for this and he comes back with a glass and an egg.

And he just throws the egg the whole thing in with the shell and everything shakes it back and forth in the glass. So it shatters pours some kind of brown sauce in there. What's that? You don't want to know and it's but it's got a shitload of MSG and he goes through a couple jars that you've been leaving all over the place in your drunken view. I put all the jars in my room. Oh, yeah, he goes back upstairs comes back down with the one full of what was it a yellow powder? Yeah, and goes.

Pinch of this. What is that? Smells it and he says it's powdered. It was alive. Is it nutritional yeast? He's like, I don't fucking know. Grabs a big pinch, throws it in the cup, mixes it all up and says, drink this. Absolutely not drink it. Okay. Down in one down in one. It's crunch. Oh, it's crunch. This crunch. The shells are a lot. That's the eggshells. Do you have a muddler? No, eggshells are key. Oh, God, it's the fiber. Holy shit. I feel so much better already. Yeah. Holy fucking shit.

You're gonna start slapping his arms in his thighs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mixed that one up in Panusia back in my younger days. You're all sitting at the table. Francis is sitting near the table hoping someone will throw him some food. I throw him food. He happily gobbles up whatever bacon gets tossed his way and chime says, so you know where you're going now, but I'm thinking if you're gonna go, you might want to go alone. You can't take us there. Chimes, we need you.

Yeah, man, we don't even have a boat. You could use my boat. Why can't you come with us? See, your graves and I aren't on the best of terms. I don't think it likes us very much either. Please. Yeah, this might be sit trying to convince him. I was doing it to D6 plus charisma. Fuck three. He says, I'm sorry, but no. If I came with you, it just be putting a bullseye on your back. See, bluntly hates me. Why? We've had words in the past.

I'm not going to come with you, but what I will do is try and keep the storm off your back for a little bit. Okay, and how are we going to do this? And he thinks for a second and then he reaches under the counter and pulls out a little knife and reaches into his beard and sniffs off a braid with a brass ring hanging on the end of it. It says, tie this on the sail. Can we braid it into? Tuck's beard? Yeah, that'd be cool. Cool little bead. He holds it out to tuck and says, get that in there.

Bing braids it in there. There's this one like gray braid. Yeah. You look awesome. That's very distinguished. Thank you. That's a beautiful bit of flair. Thanks, man. I start to feel it like weight in like an unseen wind, basically. Tickles. Weird. Tugs on your chin a little bit. Yeah. That should take you the way you need to go. It's going to take some doing. It's going to be a bit of a trip. Okay. What do we need? What do we need to make sure we bring? Billy is rubbing his belly.

I'm still naked, but my clothes are almost dry. You'll need, you know, the usual food, weapons. Can you get us a bunch of supplies from the kitchen? Yeah, yeah. I'll look around. And he goes into the kitchen. And Chimes does say something to consider. Boat's not that big. So if the four of you go and you're going to grab a fifth, that's going to be too many. Boat can hold a lot, but can't hold that many. And it certainly can't hold the pig. Francis is in the corner trying to eat like a rug.

Yeah. So then as Mears comes back in, we're like, Mears, we can't take you. Okay. I thought you'd be a lot sadder. I am going to be absolutely terrified for the three of you. But I am going to be in a nice, safe, comfortable pub in the meantime. Don't say that, Mears. You're going to be okay. I could not be more relieved to not have to go into a magical storm to fight a bunch of maybe giant birds. You're being really brave about this. But you can speak honestly to us.

You can tell us your true feelings. Billy, this is the happiest I've been in months. You're so strong. It's so hard to be left behind, buddy. Tuck, I hope that you're safe, but if you're gone for a while, I'll be okay with that. The sacrifice that you're making is overwhelming. I think I'm going to take a nap. You know what, Mears? Get in the boat. You're coming with us, buddy. We're going to risk it. It's not worth leaving you behind. And he waves at you like, okay, have fun.

And he goes back into the kitchen. Be safe. Don't drown. It's going to be tough on Mears, but we'll be okay. We won't forget about Mears. Mears is just singing that song to himself. Walking backwards doing guns. And you hear the clanging of pots and pans as he continues the song. Hey, Chimes. Take care of him, okay? Oh, I will. He's our best friend. I can see that. Yeah. Learn a lot from you. Yeah, I suppose he could.

Hither and yon has kept a lot of people safe, and he won't be the first one, and he's not going to be the last one, so you can rest assured. Good luck with the pig. That pig's going to be a real problem. Francis loves alfalfa. If you can get him some of that, he'll calm down a lot. Okay, I'll do what I can. As we're having this conversation, Francis is straining to wedge himself up the stairs, and he keeps backsliding down it. Okay. And, Ving, you can hear him going, My word.

I find this staircase to be too narrow for my massive countenance. I must find a way to convey my form upon these steps into the comforts of the higher levels. For the master suite is in the highest level, and the master suite is what King Francis desires. A wonderful feathered-down four-poster bed for me, and a cigar by the hearth. And then… My butt! Oh, my butt! My butt! My buttocks! Farewell, good friends. Farewell. Bye, Francis. I love you. Goodbye, small one.

I can only relate to you guys how British that pig is. You would love it. And, uh, Chimes takes you to the door and pushes it open and points at the boat. He's got a coil of rope over his shoulder, and, um, a lantern hanging from the rope, and he goes, alright, so be gentle with her. Follow the ring. She'll do the rest. But also, I've seen a lot, I've been a lot of places, and this sea is the scariest, meanest, most surprising thing I've ever encountered, so keep your wits about you.

I, like, I grab him, I'm like, why are you doing this, man? Like, you're doing so much for us. You're giving us your boat? Like, a lot, man. Yeah, why? It's a hard world out there. But people are worth saving. And you three seem to know that better than most. Good luck out there. Thanks, Chimes. Yeah. And you can see the storm swirling just on the edge of the calm that the boat creates. He goes, alright, I'm gonna try and give you some time. But move fast. What are you gonna do?

I'm gonna raise a little hill. Oh my god! And he walks back into the common room, and you see him walk up to a ladder set in the side of the room, in the hither and yon, and he climbs up it a few feet to a hatch in the roof, and he pops the hatch, and sunlight comes in. He goes up through the hatch and closes it. Whoa. Yeah. Good luck. Okay. So I throw my pack into the boat. Like, I guess we should, I guess we should just get in now. There's nothing left to do.

There's nothing left to discern here. Should we discern realities? So what exactly are you discerning realities about? What do we need to do? Okay, yeah. Then we, for that, instead of the discern realities, we can use some of the moves from the Perilous Wilds, a supplement by Lamp Black and Brimstone that totally changes up all of the journeying rules.

Instead of Quartermaster, Trailblazer, Pathfinder, there are two moves that one party member each performs, Scout Ahead and Navigate, and that's sort of how you determine what happens on each leg of the journey. Okay. Yeah. Would that be Tuck, because he has the braid in his beard? Yeah, Navigate would probably be Tuck. Okay. Yeah. And would you want to Scout Ahead with the Thunderbird, maybe? Maybe, yeah. Oh, yeah. So Tuck's gonna do Navigate, Vink's gonna do Scout Ahead? Yeah. Okay.

So Scout Ahead is 2d6 plus Wisdom. Ooh, 8. So on a 7-9, you choose one from the list below. You get a drop on whatever lies ahead. You discern a beneficial aspect of the terrain, a shortcut, shelter, or tactical advantage. You make a discovery, or you notice sign of a nearby danger. I want to discern a beneficial aspect of the terrain. In the clouds, just like past where the pillar enters the top of the storm, you see a soft orange light start to circle, around the edge of the pillar.

Is that the lantern that Chimes was holding? You can assume so. Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah. Because he's, like, out of sight, basically. He's, like, so high up. Yeah. Way, way high up. And you just hear shouting. Are you screaming? Hey, you old sumbitch! You ready to settle some scores? Whoa, holy shit. And you hear boom! Boom! Like, there's a fucking cacophony. Holy fuck. And the storm starts to swirl around the pillar. The worst of it starts to move upwards.

Like, it starts to form a cyclone around you. But as it moves upwards, it's pulling up from the surface of the water, leaving gaps in the storm wall. Oh. Oh, man. Let's weave through those gaps. Yeah. So that's one of the best shortcuts that Ving can see, is like, oh, this is gonna get us through the worst of this right here. So then the next move is navigate, which is 2d6 plus intelligence. Uh, okay. Fuck. Whoops. Uh. Eight. Eight. So on a seven to nine, choose one from the list below.

You happen on a discovery missed by the scout. The going is slow, or you wander off course, or you encounter a danger. Whether or not you're surprised depends on whether the scout has the drop on it. I encounter a danger? That's too soon. Then you can choose the other two things. I happen upon a discovery. Okay. Okay. I'm gonna roll a discovery. Why is one a good thing and two bad things? Uh, one is, well, one is just a, like, the discovery just a thing. Oh, it's interesting.

It's not, like, beneficial necessarily. I'm interested in discovery. Okay. So you are sailing through the storm as it undulates on the top of the water. It's creating these tunnels of clear sky and calm winds and calm water that Tuck is desperately trying to navigate the ship through. The ring in his beard is pulling, showing him which tunnels he should take, which is helping you make it through this a lot quicker than you could otherwise. And it goes on for a while.

Like, it's probably 20, 30 minutes, maybe an hour of navigating this rough part of the water. You don't know what Chimes did, but you do know that after about an hour, the storm calms and the clouds pull apart. And now where you are in this section of the Sea of Graves is absolutely still. There's blue skies, still water, and the pillars are just spread out in a grid, around you.

And as you're sailing past one pillar in particular, you are looking at the runes, and you see that in the side of this pillar, there seems to be a dug out section. And that's the discovery, is that there is this section of this pillar that looks like it has some sort of structure dug into it. Like, whether it's natural or man-made or an animal made it, you have no way of knowing. Hmm. Can I use my binoculars? Yeah, absolutely. So I guess this is discern realities. Please! Cool. Eight. Nice.

So… You get one question on this. What here is not what it appears to be. So you're looking at this pillar with these holes carved into it. As you're looking at it, you see that there's more than one hole in the side of this. They kind of honey comb through it. You are looking at one section that looks particularly craggy. As you're looking at this part of the stone, it starts to move. And you see segmented legs and a long, broad back and huge pinchers. Jesus! Rock crab!

And it shuffles and moves on the side of the thing, and it looks like it's starting to come down off of the tower. I will use spirit tongue and try to talk to the rock crab. Yeah. That crab. Yeah. I'm gonna try and spirit tongue the trap. Don't worry. I'm tonguing him. All right. I'm about to. Hello, my friend. What a nice pillow you have. And it's still up on the tower, and you see the stalks of its eyes whip up, so it's facing you. Ew. Gross! Fuck! They don't mean that.

You are a beautiful crab. Unfortunately, all you hear is, I will crush you. I will crush you! And it's, like, clacking its claws. Ah, he's just into crushing. We should get the fuck out of here. Yeah. Okay. Nah, he's an idiot. You have entered my waters, and I will crush you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's kind of like an Italian crusher. It's clacking down the side of the tower. They call me Wesley Crusher. Crush, crush, crush. How fast does this thing go?

Well, around here, it's absolutely still. Like, there's no wind? There's a gentle wind. I thought this boat didn't use wind, though. I thought so, too. Oh, right. Billy is right. This boat doesn't need wind in the traditional sense. Oh, the runes. The runes. Billy's memories might have runes in them. Oh, my God, they might. Shit. Sorry. Billy, language. No, sorry. Fuck. It's so hard when- Talk language. Sorry. Jesus Christ. I just have so much to remember, you guys. Spout Lore, I guess?

Yeah, Spout Lore on the runes. Two to six plus intelligence. Yeah! Eight. Eight. Okay. Something interesting, but not useful. Can we both aid to make it a ten? No, only one can aid. Oh, wait. Billy used to certain realities to see the crab. Yes. And when you act on the information- You get a plus one. You get a plus one. Oh! So I get nine. So if somebody is to aid Billy successfully, he will get a ten. Ving knows. Rune language. Ving knows. Helping Billy. Ah, 13. Hey! Ooh, ten! There we go.

It's a ten. Boom. Gonna know how to read soon. This is the most successful Spout Lore we've ever had. Oh, yeah. Maybe the only one. Yeah. So the crab has now gone into the water, and you can see its shell over the waves. Oh, shit. And it's going clack, clack, clack, clack. I hate this thing. She's sticking its claws out. How is it swimming? How about you guys tell me how this works? The runes. The runes? Yeah. What did he do? He smacked it. He was rubbing things. He's rubbing it. So I…

What if you use your magic and rub on it? Yeah, so I… Trace the rune. Yeah. I dip my fingers in the seawater, and I run them across the arrows, and they glow. Ooh. Mm-hmm. So the arrows are… There's one arrow, and as I glide my hands over it, I turn the arrow the way I want to go. Cool. Ooh. And it moves in the wood. Yeah. Wait, the rune moves through the wood of the ship? No, it's like a compass. I can manipulate it to the direction I want. So you can rotate it. Yeah.

Like the navigator style. Yeah, totally. Yeah, absolutely. Instinctual flying. So I think how this works is the tiller is still used to steer, but that rune is used to fill the wind in the sail in the direction that you want. It's making like a localized wind. Yeah. Fucking sick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then whoop, and it starts moving. But you guys are still going to need to do some good piloting to get away from this crab. All right, let's pilot the shit out of it. But so yeah, Tuck is piloting.

So this will be a defy danger dexterity probably. Cool. Ooh, 11. Yeah, great. So the crab is swimming surprisingly quickly through the water and gets just to the back of the boat. It's pinchers reaching out its massive crushing claw. No! And just before it snaps on the rudder, it's like, oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. The sail fills with air.

It pulls forward and Tuck, you're steering out of the way as it tails you. And it's like, snap, snap. I will crush. I will crush. You'll crush nothing, loser. Are we putting some distance between us and it? The boat's starting to pick up. It is still a crab. It's a crab that can swim pretty fast, but it's still a crab. Okay. Does the crab give up? The crab does eventually get tired, and you go, and you hear it, Ving, you hear it go, I will crush later. It turns around and swims back to its nest.

Oof. Yeah. That's fucking gross. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Great. So I need another scout ahead by whoever's scouting ahead this time. Oh, it changes. It can. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It doesn't matter. Bilbo. Oh, should I do it? Yeah. Yeah. You got Knox. Yeah. It's been very calm, and Billy's looking out with his biniculars into the sea. 2d6 plus wisdom. Eight. Eight. Okay. So one from the list below. Get the drop on whatever lies ahead. Discern a beneficial aspect of the terrain.

Make a discovery or notice sign of a nearby danger. I guess I'd like to get a drop on what's ahead, just because it's so calm right now. Totally. Then this would play into the navigate. Ving will take over the till. Give Tuck a chance to have his arms free. And I failed horribly. Oh, no. Yeah. Did a bad job. So he's like, ah, I got this one, buddy. You take a load off. And falls off the back of the boat. Whoop. Uh, okay. Give me one second. Sure. Tech is really relaxing. Yeah.

It's just kicking back. How what's relaxation look in this boat? He's just sunning himself on the deck, like feet hanging over the edge, like dragging through the water. Nice. And Billy's standing on the front of the boat with his binoculars. Yeah. I'm laying on my tummy actually. And I'm looking out. And it's just unbroken water for so long with the pillars on either side as you're sailing in between them. And then it looks like there's a sheet of water. Of some strange looking material.

Mm-hmm. Like in the water, just spread out for dozens and dozens of feet around you. Around me. It's basically like you're sailing into it and it's all on the right side of the boat. Oh, tuck. Bring your feet up. I pull my feet into the deck. Yeah. What is that? So Billy, what you see is you see this sheet of something spreading out ahead of you and maybe.

A hundred, 200 feet ahead of you, you see that it connects to this long sinuous body that you can just see there at the top of peeking up out of the water, this long shape with a huge sheet connected to it. Almost totally still. Tuck. What is that? And I look up and I'm like, it's a fucking trap is what it is. I take the arrow that is the wind arrow and I slam it the other direction. Yeah. Backwards. Okay.

That's going to be a defied injured dexterity to act quickly enough before you fuck something up. Sick. Someone help me. Billy. Billy is the rune master. Yeah. Um, and tuck is like slamming a bunch of random runes. He can't remember which one it was. Stop it. Doing the ones all around it. Fuck. Fuck. Plus bond. Five. Oh boy. Son of a bitch. Yeah. Market point of experience. Everybody market point of experience.

I grabbed Tuck's hand, but I'm small and all I do is just push his hand across other rooms. There's a bunch of random shit. Like a toaster pops out of one side. It turns into a car for a second. A boat like flips upside down for two seconds. And we're like, now playing Dolly Parton on Spotify. What the fuck is this? But the boat doesn't stop quick enough before it passes over this section of whatever. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, sheet is laying on the water.

And you just sail across this part of it before sailing back into the water. And you realize it almost looks like skin. It's like vascular. You can see the sun shining through it into the water below. You can see veins. Yeah. Oh, fuck. This is so gross. Can someone Spout Lore about it? Is it an animal? Hey guys. Oh, Jesus Christ. Bad at this game. Oh boy. Ving's like, I think I know what this is. I think it's garbage. Let's just keep going. Yeah, Ving's still piloting like, it's fine.

Stop touching stuff. Maybe Ving can't feel it. Like maybe you reach out to like the spirits and you're like, no, there's nothing here. I think it's not alive. That's for sure. Interesting because he's absolutely wrong. The water, which has been very still up until this point, starts to churn a little bit.

And then far ahead where that long sinuous shape can be seen poking out, you see a fin near the end of it poke out of the water and then a massive reptilian head pulls up out of the ocean and its eyes slowly blink open. Oh, hey, Billy, did you see there's a huge monster behind you? What? Girl, I hadn't seen the head yet. He's still looking at the wing like gross. Monster? Yeah. Looks like Tuck's scrote. Oh, man, that's great. Oh, my God. I did this to us. We're doomed. I can't save us.

You should have put me in charge, you guys. Don't have the best eyes. I these are just toys. It's just my imagination. Who put me in charge of steering? We're so fucked. Even the dumbest amongst you has probably figured out what this is. Is it the world serpent? Is it the world serpent? No. Oh, okay. It's a dragon. It's a dragon? None of the dumbest among us knew that. Are you kidding me? That's a fucking dragon? A water dragon? Well, now I'm excited. I did. Holy shit.

The water starts to churn and its head comes up out of the ocean and its head is fucking huge. Like it's like the size of a house. Oh, I imagine way bigger. Its head is the size of a house. Oh, okay. Really big houses. It's the size of your apartment. Of a boomer's house. Enormous. Oh, my God. There's like six bedrooms in there. There's a bidet in this dragon's head. Jesus Christ. You know what they have? They have a games room that they never use.

They have enough rooms that they've had to gin up reasons to have rooms. There's a workout room. There's a study. Who has a fucking study? They have an office. Neither of them work for 20 years. There's one that the husband calls the quote unquote man cave that has a Guns N' Roses pinball machine that has not worked since 1999.

But yeah, so this huge reptilian head comes up out of the water on this powerful long serpent like neck and it's just kind of slowly swinging its head back and forth trying to figure out what touched it, but it just moves its wing. Well, that's what we saw. Yeah, we the skin thing was pulls its wing out from underneath you and readjusts on the top of the water and it just settles its head back down and underneath you are like you are really close to this thing, but somehow it has not seen you.

Maybe it's tired. Maybe it's like in some sort of fugue state, but it's just floating this enormous serpent. Should we quietly try to skiff past it? Yeah. Or go really close to its face. Hear me out. Okay, go on. If it's friendly and helps us get to our Perel. Dragons are magic. I failed the Spout Lore, but I know that much is true. I have immense doubts. Fair. But I don't want to admit that to Ving. Ving is freaking out. How many times are we going to run into a dragon?

How can we just tiptoe past this big motherfucking thing? We're having a whisper argument. Okay, you want to go close to it and look at it? Yes, I want to get closer to it. I think we should be as fucking quiet as possible. It looked like it looked at us, right? I will say that you're on the butt side of its wing, too. Oh, its head is on the other side, so you'd have to go over or around the wing to get to its face. Guys, we got at least take a picture.

I don't ever remember seeing one in person this close. What? You've seen one before? Yeah, like a long time ago, but not in the water. Oh, well, that's an opportunity for Billy to roll some things because that is an opening for you to at least learn more about dragons in general from your memories. Yeah, is that a spell or this will be a spell? Okay. Yeah. Plus intelligence. Not great. Six aid. How do we aid anything that Vings heard about dragons? He's very excited. Oh, yeah.

Maybe you like studied them in high school like in your on the weekend. Yeah, you did a school project on it. I went on a field trip out east and then got obsessed with dragons when I was 12. Oh, God. Jesus Christ. Guys, what did you roll? Six. What is going on? What the fuck? I didn't even switch die. Okay, guys. I remember his long time ago and I saw it from really far away. It was definitely not as big as this guy. And as long as you don't move too quickly, you show a lot of respect.

It won't bother you. I think they're actually kind of blind. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, okay. Okay. Okay. Fine. We'll sail close to it. We'll be as still as possible and we'll show respect. Yeah. Make eye contact. Do not look away all shady. You have to look at straight in the eyes so that it knows that you see it and that you respect it. P's and Q's, everybody. Yeah. P at it? No. No. No. Respect. Okay. Thank you? Why is it Q? What is a Q? Say, how are you doing today? Okay.

With your eyes. Okay. So considering that that's a failure, what do you do immediately that makes this way worse? Go over its arm. Yeah. Go right over the way. While we're doing this, we don't, we aren't navigating, so we just bump over its arm. The water starts to churn again as it pulls its wing into its body and the boat is like pulled along with it for a little bit. But it does, it does right itself back in the water.

You get bucked off a little bit and then you sail right up to the face of this thing as it pulls its head out of the water more. Okay. So just keep looking at it. We're all staring. We're staring and smiling, baring our teeth. Tuck is holding Billy. It's looking at you from the side with its one gigantic eye. Ving just waves. You could do another spell or whatever. Oh yeah. There's been a lot, there's been a couple failed spell lores at this point. There's been more than a couple.

No, like with this dragon, there's been two. And a failed aid. So it's just like, maybe you guys kind of blew it with the dragon knowledge. What about spirit tongue? Should you try and tongue it? Oh yeah, tongue it. Try and tongue it again. I'm going to tongue it guys. Okay. Can't wait. So it's, its head comes up out of the water and swings over to you on its serpentine neck. It's gigantic nostrils. Billy tips his invisible cap. Tips an invisible smile.

And then Tuck like puts his palms together and bows at it. And then he like, he takes, the ax and like pretends to gong it. He goes, that's not racist because this, we haven't established what culture that refers to. So why'd you have to jump in and say that it wasn't racist? Just so everybody knows. So weird that like it's a dragon from like Chinese culture and you decide to gong at it.

So the head moves towards you and its nostrils like unseal because its nostrils were closed when it was under the water. Flares his nostrils. And you can just, and his gills, his gills open up. They make this him. It's eyes are on the side of its head. So it has to do that thing where it looks at you one side than the other.

But then it's nostrils face you and you just hear like as it really like you can feel the air tugged into its nose and it gets really close to you thing and you can hear through the spiritual conduit of your soul. How are you? Yeah, I feel it resonate from his crystal chest cave. There's such a timber to it with this body because you tuck and Billy do hear sounds. Yeah, and it's like vibration. Yeah, it's almost like you can feel your clothes shaking. Yeah, the boat shakes in the water.

Brown note. Yeah, all those Burgum wines that you drank last night. Oh God, yeah, it's coming up. It's gonna make me shit my pants. It's just the dragon. That's the only reason hurry. Yeah. Hello. Great one. We are travelers three that we may be passing by on such a day. Who are you? I'm glad you ask. I am so really in depth seen from a great distance. That's really fucking really, really in depth. Seen from a great height. Yeah, but you can call me Siri. Here.

What brings you this far out and her head is like swinging around you like a snake now, like it goes around and then faces the other way. What brings you to the sea of gray Siri? We're trying to find a friend of ours. Actually, have you seen anyone pass? I've not seen anyone in these waters for many generations. Your size is impressive. Thank you. My bulk is immense and my girth is also impressive.

I have been coming to these waters for thousands of years and her wings come up out of the water and shake off all these drops that glitter in the sunlight as they pour back into the water and you see the fucking scale of this thing. It's huge and you see the scales of this thing and each one is about as big as a fucking hubcap. Is she big enough that she can kind of touch two pillars at once? Oh, I bet. Almost. Well, you guys said it, so yes. She can. Her scales look like mother of pearl.

Oh, because of the spelt lures you guys failed, I can't tell you why. Sorry. I will say that if you know anything about animals, her eyes are on the side, not on the front, which means she's extra horny. Does it mean? She can look for cocks from 180 degrees. And if you look at her teeth, they are not like jagged. She's an herbivore. Which means she smokes weed. So, probably a lot of weed. It looks like, but they're not jagged, but they're not totally flat.

They look like they're good for grinding things. Weed. She's horny. She's horny. She wants to cry. Your pearly scales are most beautiful. It has taken me many generations to get them to this luster. Thank you for noticing. Have you noticed anyone pass? Specifically a bald little cuck on a piece of wood. Bald little cuck. What was he dressed in? His robes, wasn't it? No. He was in like a vest and like he had cut off his leather pants. Oh, right. Oh, yeah. He's just taking on the pirate vibe.

He ended up looking like he was just doing a play about a pirate and everyone's walking around being like, what the fuck? But like a really sexy one. Any pirate daddies floated by. Yeah. He cut assless chaps. He cut the butt. This is a bad idea. My buns are burning. They're wet and hot at the same time. His butt is going to be so sunburned by the time he gets to the… These purple circles. Yeah, the eye of the storm. I'm like, I want to like start looking through all my shit.

And I have two of the obsidian coins. Ooh. And I also, I have a diamond too. And I want to like go to Ving and be like, see if you can trade these for information about Perel. Like, would that help? I mean, it's a parlay. Unfortunately, you don't know anything about dragons. So you can't… I mean, it's a parlay. Unfortunately, you don't know anything about dragons. So you can't… I can't be sure if it'll work, but it's worth a shot. I feel like she would really like that diamond.

She seems to like lustery things. Yes. Oh, right, because the mother of Pearl. Yeah. So yeah, the diamond. I give you the diamond. We would like to offer you this beautiful shimmering diamond from the lands of shore. Mmm. Please take it as a gift of our passing and a gratitude to your benevolence. Mmm. You're going to have to roll a parlay. Yeah. I can't wait to succeed. Let's roll. Parlay. Aha. Fuck. Plus my charisma. Eight. Eight. Mmm. Ooh.

One of her massive nostrils comes right up next to the diamond and sniffs real big and goes, Mmm. Gemstones. I do love a gemstone. I love all things of shine and shimmer. You must have more than such a paltry diamond. I, I, I, Wealthy taste. Yeah, I, Oh, fuck. Yeah, um, when you, I make a show of flashing around my most valuable possession. Choose someone present. They will do anything they can to obtain your item or one like it. Well, there you go.

I mean, yeah, that's a great way to use that move. Yeah, so I pull the uncut ruby and the diamond I have and they are so beautiful and I hold them up and I'm like, do you like these? And I look at Bing like, I think she does. How do you make it look more alluring? I just like, I move my arms slowly in big circles like a tree, like a tree kind of and like I try to catch the sunlight off of them so they glimmer. And then I do a bit of like Vanna White kind of like, Oh, look at this.

Starts kissing them. And her, she turns her head to the side again and puts her gigantic, eye in front of it and it dilates as she's looking at these gems that Billy's showing off. Because Billy's really good at showing off gems. Yeah, I hold them close. I'm very scared. And she says, I will accept your offer, your tribute to my, what's another word for shimmering? Luster? That's what she said. What's another word in your tongue for shimmering? Satin. Satin.

Oh, I like how that feels on my serpentine tongue. My satin countenance. From the body language, it seems like Vig's kind of seducing this drink. Kind of flirting a little bit. It's like, is there something going on here? He looks over his shoulder, talking, winks at him. And she swings her mouth back around in your guys' direction and opens her jaws and these gigantic grinding teeth are shown. It's okay, Billy. And the two of you don't fucking know what's happening. It's fine, it's fine.

Do I put him in? Please hold. Okay. Then this huge tongue comes snaking out. It's got all these big, like, barbs on it. And she just sticks her tongue out in front of you. Put the jewels on the tongue. I put the jewels on the tongue and it's, her tongue is surprisingly soft. Yeah, between the barbs, it's like pretty silky. Yeah. And then it snakes back into her mouth. Tuck, when she moved close, he did that thing where it's like you, uh, uh, uh, yeah. I'm scared, but I'm okay. Uh.

And as she swallows the gem, she goes, mmm, delectable. I will see what I can find about your bald, cuck-like friend. Whatever that means, I will find this cuck for you. Is this the name that he answers to? Like, Tuck is like listening to this and he's like, sounds like she's saying cuck over. 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. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. You're hearing, cuck. There's like no dragon word for it. Yeah, it doesn't translate. She just says it in English. Yeah. Or common. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How will she find us? I know these waters well. I will find you when the time is right. It would be easier if you gave us of your flesh. What mean you? I mean, if you were to give us one of your pearly scales, perhaps it would make it easier to track us down. We could use it as a… We'll keep it as a…

Can I have one of your scales? This is another… This is a Defy Danger charisma straight up. Oh, God. People are not going to believe how beautiful you are. I want to be able to show them what a fantastic, wonderful creature you are, Siri. Plus charisma. Oh, shit. Ten. Ten. Finally. Oh, my God. She says, I have remained secluded in these waters for far too long. It's time that tales of my beauty spread the wide world. And what a wide beauty it is. You didn't mean to insult her.

No, that's not insulting to a dragon at all. I am exceedingly wide. And her body moves in the water around her churns. And then a single talon of her fucking enormous claw pops out of the water in front of you. And on top of that, on top of it is sitting this hubcap-sized, almost like shield-sized mother-of-pearl scale. Ving bows his head and accepts it like a sword from a samurai master. We both. The scene.

Jessica and Abdullah are both putting their hands in front of them in a prayer motion and bowing. And we start, like, vocalizing. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Thank you, dragon. And she looks at you one last time and says, this is a gift. Her wings come up out of the water and she rears like two-thirds of her body up out of the ocean. And it's just towering. It's hard to explain how overwhelming it is to even see this much of this dragon.

Ving gets a boner. Yeah, Ving's like, oh, cool. Wow.

You guys seen the scale and then she dips up and dips her head back down and dives into the water pulling her wings in tight she's gonna fly she's only in the water diving under the sea and out of sight siri call perel colleague cuck yeah uh siri find uh perel from the purifier ordering perel hand sanitizer on amazon.com so dumb um yeah and so so really in-depth scene from great heights is gone wow whoa uh guys uh worth it this is pretty cool tap tap tap tap maybe the best way to frame what's gonna happen next is for you guys to roll those things for the next leg oh yeah and then I can just okay so who's who's scouting ahead and who's uh navigating billy will not scout do you want to navigate no okay yeah you have the chime I have the chime but you can feel perel so it might make sense for you too what if you put your hands in the water yeah yeah so ving first I'm scouting scouting from the boat from my elf eyes okay 36 plus wisdom oh thank gosh not bad nine nine okay great you choose two from the list below you get the drop on whatever lies ahead you discern a beneficial aspect of the terrain make a discovery or notice a sign of a nearby danger get the drop on whatever lies ahead and make a discovery so you're sailing through this calm area as chimes is bear baiting of the storm of the sea of graves remains in place for now but the sun has started to go down and before long it's night and you settle into this quiet dark starlit night tuck is just like strumming his lute a little bit he hasn't had a chance to play it in a long time it's been a long time since I played music just doing like a few simple chords and as you're playing this quiet lute song you hear a tambourine and then a flute and then a fiddle I look around you see about three pillars away to your front and two to the right the lights of a town clustered around a pillar in the sea of graves what we're going to play a song and then we're going to play a song and then we're going to go towards that town and that's where we're going to pick it up next week oh my name is Sean O'Hara I've been your game master this week playing tacoma dome the barbarian abdulaziz goodbye playing ving the half-elf druid Paul Oppers take care playing fabula the halfling thief jessica ty hi everyone thanks to aaron reed for our intro and outro music thanks to adam coble and sage latora for Dungeon World hey thanks to lamp black and brimstone for perilous wiles I had a lot of fun with this this time and thank you to all of you for listening you can find us at Spout Lore most places on the internet including the link in the description box below and you can find us on patreon.com and find the Spout Lore fan club on facebook 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 times 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 Lore