Episode 3 – Your Tongue Has Forgotten the Sounds of the Wood

Uh, if you like Spout Lore and you want to hear spelt more of it, go to Spout Lore.com slash money, please. Or 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. Peely's a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart. Best and brightest they may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts. So gather round friends and listen close. For the tale's about to start. And they set off to meet Dathaniel, the ranger king, on the borders of the Boreal Reach.

They made record time on the back of their powerful bird, landing for the night at an old summer camp frequented by Ving and other rich elf kids in his youth. At this camp they met Leaf, a sentry, a.k.a. A living tree, who Billy knew from his time in the wars. They spent a nice night reminiscing, chatting. Telling stories around the campfire. Until Billy terrified everybody with an old ghost story about the mausoleum. Man, that story came out of nowhere. And the death of a dark elf warrior.

Ending with the imagery of a burning mask being pulled from a fire and searing the face of its wearer. Guys, I'm so goth. So goth. You asked us if we want to basically put on a movie to fall asleep to and you put on Hereditary. I know. That is 100% what happened. I didn't expect it. I was like, well, this is where I'm going. Tuck spent a night on guard, not sleeping. Yeah. Due to the story that Billy told him that scared him way more than he was willing to admit. Yeah.

There's a lot of him just like walking around the camp being awake and then like doing that thing where like, here's a noise and he goes into a crouching position, puts both fists straight up in the air. Hello? I'm not scared. The morning came and the party set off along the borders of the Great Forest to go meet Dathaniel at the traditional location of the Winter Walk. And on the way, we had a little bit of a memory that Ving dove into regarding a play that he took part in.

Which is on par with a lot of our bonus content. Exactly. A lot of kids in plays. Recalling a scene that he had. With a young elf girl of lower noble standing than Ving. Named Wendy. Who he saw and had a crush on, it seems like, just before he was taken away. Her dad had the best restaurant in town. Tell me more about this restaurant. That Curly Fries. Nice. That's all you need to know. Wendy's got unlimited access to Curly Fries. We gotta get there with Wendy's. Have you been to Wendy's? Yeah.

Oh. Oh my god. I can't believe that I didn't get that. We arrived at the forest's edge. At the mouth of the Boreal Reach. Meeting Victor, the liar wolf. We met up with Dathaniel Wick. And he explained that he was going to take you into his lands as prisoners. The easiest way to get you all into the forest without too much suspicion. And that you would be taken into the forest by members of his own talon. Including Ving's old friend Wendy. Wendy. And that is where we find our heroes now.

You've all got bags on your heads. Well, Billy's in a bag, I think, probably. They couldn't find a bag small enough to just fit his head. He fits in a normal head bag. Yeah. His head is sticking out and his body is in the bag. He's in a body bag. Yeah. That's what I talked about. Yeah, absolutely. It's actually pretty nice to not have to walk anymore. And it's so nicely lined in this bag. So I'm all warm and cozy. You hear like a rumbling voice.

It's like, have you ever been in the great forest, little boy? Yes. Then you know of all the dangers that exist. Yeah, that's why I'm so happy to be safe in this little bag. What I'm trying to say is, shut up. And then Tuck, from where he hears someone say shut up to his kid, and he's like, hey, don't talk to my kid like that. We don't use that language in this house. You hear another voice. You guys can't see anything. You're being led blind down a trail. Yeah.

Ving keeps turning around and talking. And he's at the end of the line. Yeah. And he's yelling it back to where they came from. And Tuck has also turned around. He's yelling at the back of Ving's head. There are a few times that we've gotten into fights. Our pillow mouths are yelling at each other. Get out of my face. You get out of my face. And your breath smells like shit. Your breath smells like fucking shit. That's your own breath. That's your own breath.

Every once in a while, the whole convoy has to stop because Ving and I don't know we're fighting each other. We think we're fighting. Don't come at me, bro. You come at me, bro. For some reason, we don't recognize each other's voices on the other side of a bag. They have to pull you apart. We assume also the other person is fighting. So we're fighting each other. We're kicking each other with our hands tied behind our heads. And then Tuck goes, Ving, are you fighting someone too? I got him.

I'm holding him down. I got him fighting a skinny guy over here. This guy's ankles are bigger than my waist. Sounds like a real beefy boy. Yeah. Just hold him. I'm down. No, he's got me. He's holding me down. I can't help you. I'm holding this guy down. You hold me. I will as soon as I'm done holding this guy down. Meanwhile, Billy's just kicking his arms and legs in this bag, like trying to get out, trying to help. Oh, he's not trying to help. He's trying to get comfortable.

Like a dog turning a circle. Billy, you feel yourself like thumping against a back and you realize that you're basically, being carried like a backpack right now. Yeah. I'm burping a lot. Every time you do it, you hear. You guys have immediately these brand new characters that we've introduced and you've immediately annoyed them so much.

And after a good long time of you guys fighting each other and getting pulled apart and then 20 minutes later fighting each other again, you are like pushed down onto the ground. And you find yourselves like sitting on logs and rocks and you hear a fire start to crackle and you smell smoke. And then all your bags are taken off your heads and you're sitting around a campfire deep in the forest. Wendy is there warming her hands over the fire with a large muscular beaver cat at her feet.

Oh, she has a big intricately carved wooden braid keeper at the end of her braid. Oh, like a ring that's holding her braid together. Yeah, a braid ring. I like it. Describe her more. Describe below the neck. I feel like I've described her enough. But what about below the neck? Below the neck, she's wearing a green leather gherkin. Sure that's what it's called? She's got like, you know, leather pants on as they all do. Do they? Leather pants? Yeah, like leather breeches.

Not like tight leather Ricky Martin pants, but like leather armor breeches. No, one of them does. The youngest one does. His very first. Very tight leather pants. Very tight. And tears in the knees. That's the style amongst the. He's so cool. He thinks he's so cool. The large bearded hatchet man is like very stoically making like a bowl of like goo and powder.

The young elf that you saw earlier, his leather breeches are a lot tighter than everybody else's and there's holes in the knees and he's got two knives in his hands and he's standing on the edge and he's doing all these like. Complicated maneuvers going. Yeah. Yeah. And he's. Tuck narrows his eyes and like that's the motherfucker I was fighting earlier. For sure. There he is. Skinny little prick. Skinny one. I'm going to get you. At least I ripped his jeans. Yeah. Breath smells like shit. And.

That is my breath.

And the older elf who looks like he's probably older than Nathaniel, but for some reason seems to just be like a regular field ranger is like lighting a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, They're all really skinny He's the beefy guy Bing was like I recognize those ankles You're staring down the beefy guy And I'm staring down The skinny guy And the little soul And the beefy guy is sitting next to Billy Mixing this powder and water In like a wooden bowl Billy is He's kind of sniffing around Like a cat does Where you start scooping your head up And he's getting closer And Billy puts his little hands on the bowl And he's like what are you making Traveling porridge Ew I know what that is And he gives Billy a bowl With a spoon And Billy wraps his arms around the bowl And carries it away Just starts digging into the bowl with his bare hands It's so good This is usually so gross But it's so good Wendy is warming her hands over the fire Says it's uh Ranger traveling porridge Taurus doesn't say a lot But he's one of the best cooks in the Talon Tastes like gravy It is mostly gravy But elven gravy Which is of a higher quality than your disgusting human gravy I agree Yeah and Billy's got the bowl tipped up Emptying it And the large man whose name is Taurus Goes around and makes little bowls for everybody And hands them out And Tug and Vance are like Tug and Vance are like Tug and Vance are like Tug and Vance are like Tug and Vance are like Billy tries to crawl into it The bowl is definitely too small for Billy But he's like I'm so happy We once found him at the bottom of a bread bowl of chili They finish their porridge And uh They all look at each other silently And do some sort of like ranger signal with their hands And uh Taurus the large guy Nesh the young guy And Lysander the old guy All pick up their bows and walk off into the woods They're gonna scout Set up a perimeter Oh cool That's what that hand signal meant?

Yeah They call it shorthand Do not give away the secrets of the ranger corps To these outsiders And then Tuck goes what does this one mean He does his scissoring He did the scissoring He's doing uh two fingers And two fingers Jamming together Like a scissoring You know the symbol for the Two fang pincer maneuver I'm kind of a big fan of the two fang pincer maneuvers He was doing that before I met him I hope you know I did teach him this though Okay alright yes Paul is doing a finger in a looped finger The PNV The PNV maneuver or the PNBH maneuver Different speeds mean different things Ving I hope you understand the danger That you find yourself walking into In the court of the woods I think I know I think it's fine Wait what danger are you talking about Not the dangers of the forest Though those are many But the dangers in the heart of all elves The nobility Their grip tightens on the people Day after day And your father seems to be the only one With any inkling Of how to end things What's What's going on in the court of the woods Can I roll to figure out what's going on To ask her Can I charm her into To tell you what's going on in the court of the woods You can charm her by opening your mouth Saying some words And then putting a question mark at the end of them Okay Hey What's going on in the court of the woods What are the nobility doing What nobility always does Greed Ambition Jealousy Pride These things rot at the heart of elf culture And threaten to bring down The very pillars of our civilization Nathaniel said that The The trees The trees were being Uh poisoned or something Yes manipulated Poisoned Turned against the people Whose laws They lived by for millennia So as the trees wither so do the people Indeed I hope that you can help us Fing I mean I don't know if I can do anything but I We seem to be effective as a team And effective I mean Some other word That means that things get done But we don't really know how to And not really effective But Like we affect things I see yes Now I understand fully But we're not effective as a team But things get affected So wait You're not effective as a team Oh well sometimes we are And then sometimes we're not My confidence wavers A lot of stuff happens close to us Things will be different after we get there Yes That is for sure That is a guarantee That's a very good idea That's a great guarantee That's a very Succinct Summary of what We do Probably is gonna happen We guarantee you that after we leave Things will be different She nods solemnly Very well What happened to your accent?

A long time has passed since last you walked these woods Fing I really want her to call you a longer version of Fing Oh yeah It keeps every time somebody an elf says it It feels like Fing is short for something I like it What would it be?

Fing-a-ling-a-ding-dong Okay done One and done Fing-a-ling-a-ding-dong it is Rid of the gate Nailed it Fing-la-dry-a-la-thor-yat Fing-lando-bloom Fing-landry-all-cal-ree-sion Fing-bacca Fing-landry-all Fing-what-was Fing-what-is-to-come Fing-what-is-to-come And things that have not yet come to pass Fing pray love Or Fing could be at the end That's easier True yeah Cause I also think that Wendy is short for something too Yeah exactly I was thinking Wendladry-all-carry-sion Wendlorian-ah I was honestly thinking like Wendelliar Oh fuck yeah Yeah yeah yeah Great Fing can say that back Oh yeah it's kind of a snarky thing Oh not bad Wendelliar-ding-dong I do like the idea that Fing is at the end is at the end of a name.

Laron Garving. I like the L sounds. They're really funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Laron Garving. Laron Garving. Laron Garving is kind of pretty good. Laron Garving? Yeah. Great. You like it? Yeah, I like all of them. It will be canon. Great. This is going to be a canonical name for Ving. Laron Garving. Laron Garving. Laron Garving. You have to say it with the breath. Laron Garving. Laron Garving. Why Ving changes because you can never say it. There's a lot of A's in that.

She says, it has been long since you have walked these woods. Laron Garving. It's been a long time since I've gone by that name. That's your name? That's my name. Laron Garving. You nailed it. I start waving a stick around like I'm doing a spell. Laron Garving. Laron Garving. Laron Garving. Laron Garving. It is an honor to walk by your side, Prince Laron Garving. Okay. Can we all bow? Can I call you Larry for short? You cannot call me Larry for short. Wendell-ing-gar. I'm trying.

Oh, Wendell-y-ary or something like that? Yeah. Well, I mean, whatever I say in Mike happens to be canon. I'm sorry. You're true. What did you say? Wendell-y-ar-gar. Wendell-y-ar-gar. Sorry, for it to be canon, you have to say it twice. The same. Wendell-y-ay-ay. Wendell-y-ar-gar. Wendell-y-ary. Wendell-y-ar-y-ay. Wendell-y-ar-y-ay. I haven't done it twice yet. Wendell-y-ar-y-ay. Wendell-y-ar-y-ay. Wendell-y-ar-y-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay. He's doing this and Wendy's like, you've forgotten.

You have forgotten. You have forgotten. Been away too long, you have forgotten. My tongue no longer makes the sounds of the forest. It is a sad thing to see. The blood, the sap of the trees, has flowed from your veins, replaced with the soft, watery blood of the man-world. Well, that's very elvish of you. You've been in the woods too long. You know not of the great, wandering, green, gray, blue, black. Perhaps not. But we are among the trees now, Larangarvinga. I forgot your name.

We are among the trees now, Larangarvinga. I feel like I laugh every time she says this. Bing's like, shut up. You know what? I don't hate it anymore. Lavar Larvinga. You can't even say it. Larangarvinga. There you go. You got it. You got it. This feels like… We're bullying Paul Koozie. He's bad at saying complicated setting words. No, it's a complicated… I couldn't say keychain. Small words of harm. I love that. I'm glad that dyslexia is so funny to you people. I'm sorry.

Whoa, what do you mean you people? You know what I mean by that. He's talking to us. Just the two of us. Yeah, all of us. Just the three of you. I think it is time that you and your friends took some rest for tomorrow. We enter the court of your father. If you're tired, you take rest. We'll do what we do. I need not sleep. I will take this watch and then my talon and I will switch off until the sun rises upon the trees. But you must sleep. And then Bing does the symbol for…

What am I looking at right here? What do you mean? This is a little man. Little legs. It's like a sock puppet mouth. And then underneath is two legs. And a swing and ding dong. There's a dick in between. Oh, just one leg? Just one leg. Okay. This is the symbol for the night watch. She nods. Forever. Very solemnly. To the sky. And she puts two hands together. Flips her middle fingers on either side. Spins them. And then twiddles the middle fingers back and forth. And Bing says, not now.

You have forgotten the signs. I have forgotten the signs. Please rest. You will need your strength. For on the morrow, you will be prisoners. Wendy. It is nice to see you. It is nice to see you. I also enjoyed seeing you, Wendy. She gets up and walks away. Easy, big fella. Into the trees. And the beaver cat, Shadowpaw, pads up and growls at Tuck. And walks into the forest. Fucking breath smells like shit. I definitely fought that cat. I fought that cat. That's a skinny little cat.

Do you all go to sleep or do you do anything else? You're kind of alone around this fire right now. But you can definitely guarantee that you're being watched. Billy's pretty awake after all those nutrients. I think I too will take watch. Billy, why are you talking like that? Because I just want to impress them. Okay. They speak so eloquently. Fart, Billy Angelina. Billy, what's your real name? Is that my real name? That's your elven name, Billy. That's canon now. My name starts with fart? Fart.

Oh, fart. Fart. Fart, Billy. I love when we're just like, we're not even going to try and come up with actual words in elvish. We're just going to go . Wow, that was pretty good. Domino's Pizza. Tuck did that a couple of times during the walk. He's like, I'm going to go get some pizza. I'm going to go get some pizza. I'm going to go get some pizza. I'm going to go get some pizza. I'm going to go get some pizza. I remember during the walk at the big guy and he punched me in the stomach so hard.

Because it was offensive. Disrespecting the language. Yeah. I mean this is an opportunity for you guys to kind of talk about what's going on. Or you can just go to sleep and we can. No, no. Yeah. Let's talk about what's going on. So what do I know? Let's spell lower about what we know about the core of the woods. From his memory. Mm-hmm. So things that might help us. Yeah, totally. Like where they stay or what the structures look like. Something. Something. Something. Something. Something.

Something. Something. What the political situation was Or what you've heard on the road Kind of thing So you wouldn't have heard anything on the road That's the one thing They're very insular But I mean if we want to learn more about Your father's seat basically Like the capital of the Boreal Reach That could be what the Spout Lore is about This can be your plus wisdom Holy shit I got 14 You get to ask three questions No not with Spout Lore Not what it is at all Were we in season 10?

Yes Oh I'd like to partially with talk about What is going on? You're doing Spout Lore Did you see his move? No he rolled He doesn't get to choose his move He rolled Yeah and now with his success He chooses his move It was such a critical success You could choose anything from this piece of gear It doesn't even matter what he's doing We're a team So what do you want to know?

You could choose You could choose anything You could choose stuff from other game systems With that high roll Oh my god Okay so yeah let's talk about The capital of the Boreal Reach Didn't we talk about it being in the trees? Like just Yes Right?

Yes Like giant giant trees Huge Size of a skyscraper Wow All these like cool like branches Like weave around each other and stuff Like bridges and stuff connecting trees Yes And I think like the structure is in the bridges But also inside of the trunk Mmhmm Yes Yeah Yeah because the trees are really big So they grow Like over the millennia There's been like Like structures grown into the trees And this style of trees Like in Arbutus In the way that the outside's the alive part So you can hollow the inside And the tree is still alive Oh Interesting Aren't there these like wood weavers or whatever?

Those like guys that kind of like Manipulate Manipulate the element of wood Uh huh Kind of but they kind of like work with the trees Yeah It's less like Like who manipulate the trees Yes like they learn to like grow Like communicate with them And grow them in directions Totally Yeah I guess a lot of the elf stuff There are a lot of gardeners And nursery type people Yeah A lot of that kind of crew Yeah it's very slow and deliberate work Totally Uh huh It gets passed down like One project will be like three generations Totally Yeah Like in the old days Where they'd build a church for 300 years Yeah Yeah This is like a basket Yeah I think that's a good idea I think the Warden or whatever Of the Of like the Boreal Reach The capital is called Vigil Oh like the capital city?

Yeah like that This collection of trees and buildings Is called Vigil That's really cool Vigil was grown Like the first tree of Vigil sprouted When the world was new Yeah Like this is an ancient ancient forest Tens of thousands of years old Are they like tunnel systems? Uh yeah I think maybe the structures go down into the earth Like through the trunks Through the roots?

Through the roots Yeah Yeah Storage down there Like root cellars type things maybe Yeah Dungeons Unless their prisons are actually hanging From like the top Oh like That's right It's harder to escape Yeah And they can keep an eye on you easier Yeah Yeah It's like hanging cages and stuff like that Yeah Almost like a gibbet Kind of thing And uh Yeah like There's one Large tree that is The king's like full palace Like the whole tree is For staff And for rooms for your family It's where you can It's where your rooms used to be And where ostensibly your father's court is But he doesn't spend a lot of time there So the city of vigil is a bunch of these huge trees then Yeah Connected by bridges and Cool And what not So that is That is that Spout Lore But if you guys have any other Roles you want to do Or information you want to glean Uh I'm trying to find a Do I have a move that Nothing that would apply to this I don't think Legends of guitar heroes past gods Histories of the grand war I have that Yeah Yeah Do you think Tuck knows a lot about guitar heroes?

Do you think Tuck knows a lot about elf history?

I think yeah There are a lot of stuff that's written into songs Okay Yeah totally All the elven music is like opera Oh yeah Tuck was dating a girl for a couple weeks That was really into opera So he was sitting through a lot of it A lot of elf music But there was a lot of him like sitting in In like operas Just like clenching his hands Being like this is so long Can I use bardic lore Histories of the grand world To understand the history of the grand world To understand what the Political structure of The elven Royalty is Yeah So what you remember from these very Elaborate And theatrical elven operas Which are honestly mostly about Political intrigue and like forbidden romance There are five Territories in the forest And each territory has A ruling family Dathaniel is the ruling member of the Boreal Reach And all of the other territories are All collectively together They make up the court of the forest Okay It seems that each territory has like their main knowledge tree That is sort of the source of law And information for their people And then all of those trees Supposedly take their cues From a tree at the center of the forest Which is the one that you have been Tasked with curing Quote unquote Any other questions Like lightning in a bottle Do I have to like touch the person I think so yeah Because it's something that you're like plucking out Of immaterial to material Can I do it without them knowing Uh yeah if you do like a sneaky move Before that Oh okay I want to do that to Wendy Okay Because she was being all like suspicious About how the court is different than one thing remembered And Billy wants to get a little bit of a glimpse Into what that looks like Okay yeah so you saw the direction Wendy's like pretty nearby Yeah But uh roll a defy danger dexterity To kind of creep up on her Twelve Okay yeah Describe this scene Um Billy goes on all fours Very gently And he walks around like all the fallen dry leaves So that he doesn't make a sound And you see the outline of Wendy Like kind of stepping through the woods And you see Shadowpaw behind her Like creeping through the forest Also on all fours Because she is an actual animal And you're a boy that wants to be an animal apparently And you come to her and you're like Creep right up And you're right up on Wendy As she whispers something And the cat pads off And she leans against a tree trunk And like lowers herself down to the ground And pulls a little sheet of bark And starts writing on it with a piece of charcoal But she is still and alone for a moment Okay Um she's sitting in the light of the moon So it's casting a shadow And Billy's creeping up to collect some of the shadow Oh cool That's sick Okay lightning in a bottle Okay That's so cool Okay Please Thirteen Wow So we get So this is just playing out like in the shadow in the moonlight Yeah it's a little shadow play Yeah On the ground I'm just sitting there like Doing my little squat like watching Uh so you see this scene play out You see the shadow of a little elf girl And her family And they own a restaurant And they're making food for all of the elf people I really linger on the food I'm like oh what are they making Can you try and zoom in Uh huh Do like a little iPad kid Like watching Watching cartoons Yeah you zoom in and it's uh There's curly fries There's burgers with square patties Uh there's kind of like a malted Like Chocolatey frosted drink Kind of like a milkshake But like a little bit worse than a milkshake But everybody keeps coming back for them And they're like I don't know why I like these Can we go to Wendy's after this I would not mind going to Wendy's after this Sorry carry on They're just making food for people And then a bunch of people are like oh my god I'm gonna go to Wendy's after this And then a very fancy elf In very fancy clothes With uh some sort of badge Marking them as a representative of a noble Comes by And holds out a hand Like beckoning And a bag of coins Or a bag of whatever elf currency is What is elf currency do we think Just coins Sorry the dumb thing I thought was Bag of leaves for sure Maybe their coins are leaf shaped Oh that would be cool Yeah But it's definitely not a bag of leaves No It's definitely not a bag of leaves It looks like a bag of leaves Like a maple leaf Holy mackerel that's fifty dollars Uh huh And then you see the shadows like The little girl shadow gets a little bit bigger And the other shadows get a little bit older And the hand comes and gives coins And then one day The hand comes and holds it out And the dad shadow's like no no And then We see a shadow in a court There's somebody on a throne Like pointing down at the family And then the parents are thrown in cages And the rest of the family is like What's going on And the restaurant says closed forever And then the little girl elf is angry And then she next scene Cuts to her with like a bow and armor Out in the woods like shooting It's like a Mulan montage Exactly She cuts her hair with a sword Yeah she cuts her hair right off next to a pond She sees her reflection She doesn't recognize it Let's get down to business To reclaim my buns What?

Wow That was amazing Pretty good The last scene you see is like Elf with bow standing on a hill Raised a fist in anger And all of the nobles Underneath Fun And then the shadows Float away Yeah and Billy runs back And Tuck and Vinger just around the fire You guys still awake?

Yeah I'm Tuck and Vinger And I'm like okay if you don't want me to You know make any moves on Wendy I totally understand I just don't think it's up to me But also I mean For some reason it makes me uncomfortable Okay I will not But please If you think that she likes you No I don't think so either That's Okay That's not what I was saying I was saying it didn't matter Because I wasn't gonna do it If she liked me or not But Okay It's good to know What your perspective is on it That uh That hurt my feelings But that's fine Oh My perspective is Right now I'm not going to do it Right now I don't have that much perspective On that angle Okay Uh And then uh Tuck is like But uh Maybe more pertinently How are you doing with all the dad stuff That's been happening?

This was the secondary thing I guess Uh huh Gotta broach the important stuff up top Yeah At the beginning of the conversation Tuck was just like Okay I got two important things to ask you First Is it cool if I ask Wendy out? And then second How are you doing with Are you dating with me? With your dad?

I think in a lot of the same way It's kind of hard to think about Right at this moment But I feel like I'm not sure how to feel about it But I feel Like I'll be shown How to feel about it Does that make sense?

Yeah Through our actions And through his actions And seeing what Is about to happen Will let me know Where him and I stand Right now I'm Pretty confused Yeah He Super fucked up Huge Like with you and your mom Yeah Yeah And Like it seems like it wasn't A hundred percent his fault But he made a bunch of big mistakes I know he's struggling Which Will only take empathy so far but Yeah A reason is not an excuse Exactly Well Whatever You end up having to do Uh huh I will Hold him down While you do it That actually means a lot Thank you Billy emerges from the bushes Hi guys Hey Hey I tell them what I saw Mm-hmm Whoa Shit So Wendy's family is in prison then?

Yeah And you can't get curly fries At the court anymore Damn it I'm sorry Bill I really talked those up on the way here I know It's okay But I can see why Wendy's mad And see why all the rangers want This Fixed Fixed Or revenge Or whatever they want Mm-hmm The uppers have too much control And as you're all sitting here Sitting around this fire talking You hear a Movement in the leaves And the large Hulking elf Taurus Is standing there And he points at all of you And he points at his eyes And he points at a bedroll And then turns around And goes back into the trees Okay Yeah I go to bed Billy goes to sleep By choice And not because he was told to Is uh Is Vic here?

He Has been in the trees Oh He has been invisible Oh smart Cool Cause I mean in this forest He's going to be extra Unseeable Okay cool And you've got your fanny pack Morrison Pirella Just cruising in the fanny pack We gotta keep that hidden though Mm-hmm Ving has it under his shirt So he's just like Oh Like after dinner He was like Oh Patting it Like it's his little belly Oh I need to Keep an eye on that Uh-huh Cut to next morning And uh They don't put the hoods back on you But they do put like Ropes around your wrists And uh I guess Taurus carries Billy still Cause once you put ropes around Billy's wrists Or around his ankles His mobility goes to zero Yeah And he's like a cat That you put a little Band around their waist Yeah He'll fall over Or a lobster you put on its face So Taurus has Billy over his shoulder Like a fisherman Carrying his catch Uh-huh And uh In the light of day The boreal reach Like this area of the forest Is so beautiful The trees are like Towering The snow dapples everything And light is like Glittering through the canopy Mm You travel for most of the morning And then you hear Halt there travelers And through the trees You see big shapes like Jumping from log to log Whoa And thump Right into the path in front of you Two elves Astride These big creatures That have like Big furry heads With little ears And like big dark eyes They're They look like Giant flying squirrels Whoa And then you hear Uh Are standing before you Cool So one of the riders Stands up in his saddle And says Who goes there?

And Wendy Does like a little ranger sign With her hand And says We have prisoners here To deliver to the court Upon behalf of King Dathaniel I'll report to the high court That the prisoners have arrived Welcome back to Vigil Rangers Hi-yah!

And they Jump up into the trees And jump away You're Brought down this path And uh About an hour later You emerge You see above you Vigil Bridges connecting Massive skyscraper sized Trees Windows kind of Grown into them Buildings grown Off the side And uh Ving you would notice That you see a lot of people On the bridges And poking out of the windows Like looking down at you As you walk in Almost like you were Expected by everybody In the city Like shops are closed Yeah And you see a lot of Different clothing styles That you're like Oh not all these people Are from the Boreal Reach Like these are people From other territories That have come here And you're paraded down This path on the ground Is it silent As we go down it Or is it like There's a lot of like Talking High above A lot of people are like Oh Prince Laraminga Oh Companions Outsiders Trespassers All that kind of stuff There's kids running Beside us Poking us with sticks And they're like Oh my god Oh yeah Yeah like some people Are throwing pine cones I'm catching them And trying to throw them back Trying to throw them back hard Like roll Try and throw them back Yeah Yeah Roll a volley If that's okay It's a 12 Okay Sick I knock out a whole kid A whole kid Just one full kid Gets like an elf kid Gets a pine cone He's got such a little Douchey like Bowl cut I hate him so much So much Yeah He's a real And he's Oh My boy Mommy Mommy That dirty little boy Threw a pine cone At me mommy Yeah and I'll throw another one Mother And he's like Clutching his mother But he's glaring at you And you know you've made an enemy As we're walking Like When they Chain Tuck up Because he's so huge They put him in like Stockades And he Is like Really playing up The idiot Barbarian thing As he's being brought in Where he's just like Doing like Non-committal grunting And he's like Ah Ah And he sees the Kid that Billy Threw that pine cone at And he's just like Ah Mommy And the big guy Is like Holding me on a rope On the end of a leash Kind of thing Yeah totally Tuck is walking him For a minute Whoa Whoa Are we in like Cages or what?

You're in an elevator Because you're being brought in On like the ground Like the forest floor Okay And so you're like Okay You're loaded into a cage Made out of living sticks And everybody rides up Like you can hear it start Like creak It doesn't sound like It's any machine It sounds like This part of the tree Was just Raised To be an elevator Basically And you come out Of the elevator Onto a platform In front of Your father's palace tree Yeah The architecture Woven into Generations of wood growth And Hanging up In the branches Are the cages That you're to be Kept in You see like Nobles Of all kinds From the territories Very elaborately Dressed And you're all Hustled To a cage You're like Ropes are cut And Billy is removed From his Little fishing bag Thing And you're all Pushed into this thing And raised up On a rope And this Busy body Goes Before you You see Prince Laranvinga Of the Boreal Reach Now a prisoner And a traitor And a traitor And his two companions The barbarians From lands unknown And we And we We both go Shake the cage I start chewing On the bark Of the cage Ving has pulled All of his crazy hair Over in front of his face Except for one eye And he's just Kind of like Yeah We're all pointed up He took smeared shit All over himself You smell like your breath And he continues The so called Spirit walker Is a spirit walker Now a trespasser And a traitor To his people Will face trial In the grand tradition Of the elves In the court of the wood At sunrise tomorrow We will reconvene But for now The prisoners Must be shunned In the ancient tradition Turn your backs And walk away And tonight We feast It's like the thing That always throw a big party Because they got the bad guys Yeah And you see all of these people Ving a long time ago This would really hurt you To see all of these people To see all of these elves Turn their backs on you Yeah And walk away But I turned my backs on them Long ago But they don't Oh I see I thought you meant now And then I turn my back And I'm like yeah Are they looking?

Are they looking?

Yeah No they're not looking They don't look pissed They're not noticing Wait we should all Turn our backs on them And then yell back At them that we're Also turning our backs We're also turning our backs And you hear Mommy I have to look I have to see If he's turning his back That dirty little boy And I have to see My back is so turned Oh my god The little boy looks back And is shunned And he Oh no mommy He's shunned me mommy I told you not to look Fithathomalaya One more time Fithathomalaya Oh You got it twice in a row Fuck I gotta write that down Fithathomalaya And you are left alone In this cage And you have To just stand there As you hear This raucous feast A lot of old school Like lute music Going on And you have To stand in the distance And Billy is looking At him wistfully Like I didn't know We were going to have To actually stay in the cage And they aren't sending up Any of the feast Let me out He went from acting Like a maniac To becoming a maniac And you hear From a cage nearby Hanging near you Yeah it sucks Pretty bad don't it It sure does This ain't the first feast I've had my back turned on for How many feasts Have you missed Oh probably 90 91 I've been in this cage A long time What did you do I built the cages I built the cages So good even I Couldn't escape From my own cages That is a real shame sir Yeah thank you Thank you And he looks like Jafar When Jafar is pretending To be a prisoner With like Really crooked old man With a long beard And elf ears And he's bald Crazy yellow teeth My name's Illiro And I reach my little arm out I can't quite reach No but he just kind of Waves his hand In the direction of your hand So Prince eh Ving You can call me Ving Alright you call me Ill Ill Aye Traitor huh I'm a traitor Too kinda Cool What did you trade I traded Lower quality wood When I said it was Higher quality wood Yeah a little bit Of tasty fraud That's a good grift Yeah Sold a bunch of Tree gliders Yeah And they were Of substandard stock Uh oh Those are those Squirrel things Yeah those are the Big old squirrels That run around And fly in the trees Beautiful creatures Beautiful creatures Not the one I sold He was ugly as shit He was a cow He was a cow That I put a tarp on And I said it was His wing membranes I did sell it To a person Who was visually impaired And I do feel bad About that I do feel bad Cause the first time He tried to get That cow to jump Out of a tree It was a dead cow A disaster Oh my god They say elves can't die In their homeland But woo wee You drop a cow on them From very high up And they are dead They'll die They will die If you don't mind me Do they say that elves Can't die in their homeland?

Well remember we Talked about it last time Where it's like It doesn't really happen Like they live so long Right? Yeah And that's why These rangers Like they kind of go wild After a while Uh huh I like that they don't die In their homeland But they can be killed Yeah Yeah!

Yes Okay yeah Well Settle in Cause those smells They're gonna get Your stomachs Roiling Do they have to do that On purpose Like aim the smoke At us Like aim all the smells Our way I'm sorry That's tradition It's part of the tradition Come from a cruel society Elves are so big On unity And pride In your culture And your people That the greatest Punishment of all Is being cast out We look down At the banquet And it's got a real Last supper vibe Cause everybody's sitting On the same side of the table So they can face away From us Oh that's so funny And they're shuffling sideways So they don't look at us Even the musicians That are playing Are facing away From everybody else Which is part of the tradition Because they're playing To the forest So yeah You've got some time To just vibe in this thing Or we can cut to night time Ooh can I use my New move Wild wander And see if there's Anything of use Or food In this cage In this tree Cool Interesting Yes There's some lichens Hanging here They're delicious We are near all the foliage Yeah So wild wanderer When you are in a new Environment You can just ask me A question About useful plants Or animals in the area And I will tell you Is there anything That I can make A little mini feast For us Here To share with our friend If by mini feast You mean Barely a bite of food Yeah Yeah Pretty much everything Is a mini feast Really Really The wood that like These cages is made out of Is very Vital Oh Like it's very Full of life So little Mushrooms and mosses And lichens Do grow on this wood And Ving would know That this stuff is edible If not Kind of gross Oh Oh I can make it tasty Ooh That's true Nice You could Okay so I'm gonna Strip down some of these bars Mmhmm Peel back some of the bark And there's some This delicious Cambian layer Mmhmm Like toffee Tree toffee Ooh Lay it out Billy Is this a switcheroo?

I guess it's A switcheroo Okay Oh I'm gonna steal stuff From the feast I'm looking at that Shitty kids plate Oh I love this Yes Fila far far Yeah Whatever his name is Ving get the grossest stuff Like that bug right there No Yeah That stink bug?

Yeah Oh god Okay Let's pile it up Alright Switcheroo Switcheroo Which I believe is 2d6 plus charisma I scraped some of the shit That Tuck had Smeared all over his face Oh no 2 You wrap it around a stick Like a little lollipop Yeah Great Like a kabaga turds It was It was It was Wendy's beaver cat Shit Oh yeah So they're all like In little turdlets Oh That's not good 6 Aid Okay How?

Well he's aiding me By pulling all the stuff down Yeah Yes And also I put Billy Up onto the top of the cage Oh To give him A better look At this kid's food Alright 2d6 plus bond Oh wow 7 Okay Just made it So 7 Means that you It only switches For a little while Enough for him To take a couple bites Yeah basically You got a couple seconds To just shove it in your mouth Okay You focus really hard Holding this little pile Of sticks And shit And a stink bug And you look At the kid's food Who I've decided Philo Fafroar Whatever his name is Just like Finn And you Swap out Finn's food For your pile of shit And sticks And a bug What food do you get?

It's probably a lot of Roasted root vegetables Stuff inside Especially this time of year Yeah Like aromatic leaf herbs Yeah A lot of herbs Like dolmade Or whatever Like things wrapped in plants Yeah there's a nut sauce Oh Oh Keeping it together There's a Yeah nut sauce Creamy nut sauce I can't say it like that What? What? Okay This tuck's saying this What?

It's like a It's like a thick Creamy nut sauce Yeah Handmade Yeah All on these Shapely gourds Yeah On these small potatoes Cool Why do you keep looking At me like that? Nothing And then Big fried plantain Oh Nothing And And!

And but you don't keep control and you see more elves going oh my word because the stink bug goes yeah and it's spread and this the the stink bugs like spray yeah starts switching with things so like food is kind of like hopping all over the table and tastes like shit and everything stinks this is literally the best thing that could have happened weird food fight yeah yeah and a whole table of elves is like oh you're disgusting am I wearing the bags the bags and they turn around and face us because they're so disgusted they're trying to get away from the bad smells yeah and we turn around and face our back so yeah and chuck like lifts his loincloth and tucks his dick and balls between his legs so they see the whole thing you're giving him the full billy gum I'm giving him the fruit bowl my friends nice and while our backs are turned we're shoveling the good food in our back and we're like oh my god Yeah, totally.

And they're like, they are just, oh my word, all these absolute barbarians. And Ill is just like, that's what you get, you stodgy old fucks. You know, you're all right. You're all three of you, all right. If you're traitors, dang it, I want to be a traitor more. Well, you're pretty cool yourself, Ill. Hey, thanks a lot. I throw him a few more potatoes. Oh, potatoes, all right. And I give him, ooh, my love and lust. He takes the book, looks at it. I can't read. You can't read?

Well, I can't read this. Oh, you can't read Common? No. Okay. But the pictures, they'll do just fine. Well, actually, okay, here. Nope, I'll be right back. Wait, wait. Oh, God. He turns his back. No, he's disrespecting us by not letting us watch him jerk off. Even in elf culture, if you respect somebody, you let them see you do everything. Everything. Yeah. No, and I was like, Ill, Ill, Ill. Wait, wait, wait. All right, all right. Okay, hold on.

Wait, I will read this to you and then give you the book so you can look at the pictures forever. But I want a piece of information about if you know a way to get out of this cage or sneak through this palace or something. Oh, yeah. He is the cage maker. Yeah. Parlay. Okay. 2D6 plus charisma? Yeah, 2D6 plus charisma. That's three and I have a charisma of three, so that's six. Oh, aid. Oh, aid. Oh. Oh, aid. Oh. Oh. Yeah. I will aid.

And sweet talking with promises of, I know that we look like we're prisoners like you, but we have come here with a deeper, darker, more free purpose. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You help us, we'll help you. Mm-hmm. 10. 10. Information, eh? And a deeper, darker purpose of some kind. I like the sounds of that, but here. If I'm going to agree to help you out for that there picture book, I'm going to need a little taste right now. Of the picture book or of- Yeah, I want to, give me a scene.

Should we just open the book to like one of the- No, we have to act it out to her. You have to act it out. Because that was Tuck's thing. He's like, I'll read the book to you and then you can look at the pictures. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Before we get to any juicy bits, we have to give him some options. Billy sits in the corner. He's seen this show before. Yeah. And we're like earmuffs, Billy. Yeah.

It's adult stuff. Pulls his hood down. The record. Yeah. I do imagine Billy covering his ears and just seeing Tuck being like, oh, and then. You got to describe it as an audio video. Just like fist in the hole. Yeah, fisting. Fist in the hole. And then a lot of thrusting. Being like, he could be doing anything. He's talking about fighting. Billy's got his own narrative in his head. And it's like, he stuffs the turkey. It's full of sage and parsley and thyme.

And then he's forcing it into the oven. But it's too small because the turkey is so big and juicy. You could tell how big and juicy it is from how many times he's licking his fingers. And then he eats the stuffing right out of the back of the turkey because that's where all the best stuff is. Looks like he's seeing if the seasoning is right by smelling his fingers. Oh. Oh. All the stuffing got all over his face. But he seems really happy about it. He seems really like it.

He's really mashing the stuffing into his face and chest. It looks like Ving ate too much because he's falling asleep. They are falling asleep together now, which is nice because turkey does make you sleepy. And then you cut to us. Uh-huh. And Tuck goes, Cathilda takes the turkey out of the oven and it's perfectly ripe, even though it was too big for the oven and she had to force it in really hard. Mordana knew.

Mordana knew that he couldn't eat all the stuffing out of the turkey because there was still the stuff in the pot, but it's too hot when it came out. So he had to blow on it back and forth, shaking his head vigorously to blow as much as he could. And Ill is just clapping along. All right. This is a beautiful story. That's exactly what I needed in my time of trouble. Give me that book. And then they fuck hard in the ass. All right. Don't spoil it. Everything. I like a slow burn kind of erotica.

Give me the book. This was the end of you chose. Yeah, I'm glad. Hand it over. I give it to him. Turn to page 44 if they fucking the P. Turn to page 45 if they fucking the B. Turn to page 92 if they fucking the V. All right. So what is it you want to know? Billy, take your earmuffs off. Yeah. What's a good way to move through the palace unnoticed? Especially at night. Especially at night. Let old Illyoro tell you a little something.

I know how all these guards move, but I also know a little something about the trees themselves. See, what you might not understand about this, especially you two outsiders, is all them trees, they still alive. And if you know how to talk to them, you can get them to help you out now and then. Uh-oh. I've missed 91 feasts. Do you think I spent? I've spent all that time in this cage. Uh-oh. And he like puts his mouth up to the bars and whispers. And one of the bars like flows up and away.

Oh, shit. Where do you go then? Oh, I just go fuck about. You don't have to come back, you know. Yeah, but you know you spend enough time on the inside. Maybe you don't like what outside the cage looks like. Plus I got caught once and it was ugly. Yeah. Okay. Well, how do we do that? Ving does it. What does Ving say? I mean, I just talked to the tree, right? Oh, right. Yeah. You can just talk to the trees. Oh, you can do thing talker. I can do thing talker, world talker.

I mean, but we don't need to go anywhere right now, do we? Or is this the time? Whenever everyone's freaking out, they're just looking at us. It doesn't seem. Probably not the best time. Yeah. But we know for, okay, good. We'll hang tight and wait for everyone to finish the feast and get out of here. Yeah. So. So. Night falls. The party's broken up. They've all gone back to their accommodations being very, even the people that went into the palace kind of like walked sideways.

So they didn't have to face you. Yeah. But it's pretty quiet around here now. Not for Ving. Like he's home in his homeland. So the voices of everything are so familiar. They're flooding him at all times. Like he's very full of everybody. Yeah. Yeah. Like the voices of the forest and stuff. And there's so many different organisms. Cool. The biodiversity is very loud. Yeah. You hear like birds and mammals like chittering in the trees. Like the bugs in the air. It's like a party in his head. Yeah.

Yeah. And you're waiting around being like, okay, time for something to happen. But nobody comes to get you for a long time. And you reach a point where like you either keep waiting or you do something on your own. I will just, I'll talk to the side of the tree and make a hole in the side and we'll climb. And then we'll come up and go down the main trunk. Okay. Make sure we all know. Defying your wisdom, I guess. Yeah. Uh, eight. Eight. Okay. So seven to nine.

Ving, uh, holds the bars gently and then whispers into the tree. Hey tree, how are you now? We'd like to get out of this cave. If you open up your branch and let us pass down to your trunk, trunk, trunk, trunk, trunk, trunk, trunk. And the bottom opens up. The bottom opens up. The bottom opens up. You guys are dropped right 200 feet to the ground. Yeah. Ill is like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, oh wait, no. And this, all the, all the branches. Yeah. Yeah. And then the branches on the bottom go.

What do you do? Tuck grabs for one of the branches so he doesn't fall. Yeah. Ving grabs for Billy's hand. Yeah. And I grab for Ving's hand. Okay. Defy danger dexterity for everybody. I also grab for Ving so that they don't fall too. Seven. Eight. Seven. Okay. So mixed successes for everybody. Yeah. I think the mixed successes are that Tuck has grabbed onto a bar. Ving has grabbed onto Tuck and Billy has grabbed onto Ving. Like none of you are stable. Yeah. And you're just wobbling.

You're just sitting there in the air. Okay. I will climb up Ving and up Tuck. Back on top of the branches. Yeah. Give me a defy danger dexterity again. Seven. Okay. Great. It is slow going. Okay. You're basically like, hey, you're really hoping that like a guard doesn't walk by as you slowly creep up Ving and Tuck, but you get on top of the branches and now you're kind of sitting on top of the cage. Okay. Okay. Okay. Can Tuck try and lift Ving up and like put him up top? Yeah. Okay.

To fight in your strength. 13. Yeah. That'll do it for both of you. You've got. I'm just going to try and lift you up and you throw me up. Whoa. Yeah. You toss Ving right up on top of the cage and then you're able to muscle yourself up there too. Cool. Yeah. And now you're settled. Back on the cage basically. Well, but like on top of it where it's connected. So now you're kind of free to move about. So is the cage like hanging? Can we climb up the rope? Yeah. Yeah.

You could hang up the, yeah, the strands to the branch that it's hanging on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You could hang up the, yeah, the strands to the branch that it's attached to. And what is the goal right now? We're going to climb down the trunk in secret and try to make our way to the tree. Oh, the, yeah, we'll go to the, you mean the tree of wisdom? Yes. The tree of knowledge. Yeah. Because someone was supposed to come get us. Yeah. So something might've gone wrong. Mm-hmm .

So instead of doing a bunch of defy dangers as you climb along this tree, give me a discern realities, and we'll sort of describe the path as you walk along. Who's the most vigilant right now? Ving. Yeah, sure. I got 10. 10. So three questions off the list. Okay. Let's all pick one. What here is not what it appears to be? You are, like you climb up the, like the rope attached to the branch and start climbing back down the palace tree.

And as you're passing windows, like dropping from window to window, climbing down, you see a bunch of people moving about inside the tree. And it's not that everybody has gone through the same process, but it's not that everybody has gone through the same process. And it's not that everybody has gone through the same process. It's that they've been in the same process for a long time. And it's not that everybody has gone through the same process.

It's that they've been in the same process for a long time. And as you're passing windows, like dropping from window to window, climbing down, you see a bunch of people moving about inside the tree. And it's not that everybody has gone to bed. It's that there appears to be a meeting happening that you were unaware of. Ooh. With who? Like court members. Oh. Can we listen? You'd have to get inside the palace probably. Fuck. I mean, I could do a little like fairy child to listen.

If you like ghosted in or something? Yeah, if I like ghosty in. Yeah. That's great. Like shadow dance in there? That is what I will do. Okay. So I will spend one of my fairy child. I have three left. And I'll roll wisdom to enter the fairy world. Oh. What does it matter? I got a five. Oh, fuck. Yeah. You try and- I'm going to turn a failed roll into a seven to nine. Sick. So that I have one fairy child left. Okay. Which means that you can only, you get one hold or whatever in here? One hold.

Okay. So you take a turn to do something. Yeah, I get one hold. You enter the fairy. You become the shadow boy. And I think much like Hibernia was, the great forest is a bit more high def- Yeah. Than other parts of the world- Oh, cool. In the fairy and you flip through the window and kind of follow the trail of people and interaction and communication to a throne room.

You see who you assume to be dathaniel sitting on a very simple throne made of wood surrounded by figures that have the absolute shithead quality of all those nobles that you saw sitting around the tables ignoring you and they are yelling like this is a travesty dathaniel to bring these trespassers here they sully our lands to hell with tradition they should be executed now and there's like a bunch of shouting and yelling dathaniel stands up and says enough I will not be ordered about in my own court and another noble with like a warrior with him is like if you will not take action then we will and they turn and they start stomping out of the room and you back on your thread yeah I tell you guys what I heard oh shit so they're probably going back to the cage room to kill us okay let's get down quickly yeah let's get the fuck out of here yeah so you still have two more questions yeah did they leave me with my axe just out of curiosity oh no they would have taken your weapon son of a bitch no yeah that they you're a prisoner but they left you with your giant magic axe like fuck can we ask then what is about to happen uh what is about to happen is billy you felt like through the fairy the intent of those nobles that were like we'll take action if you won't okay they are absolutely going to try and go right now to execute you so what is about to happen is they're going to find out that you're not there but they won't know where you are right away yeah so you do have time but clock is a ticking okay what here is useful or valuable I think because I'm using this discern realities to describe the path of your escape you're like oh fuck we gotta go so instead of being like gently climbing down you're like falling a bunch down the trees mostly tuck that's mostly tuck is falling yeah and uh ving is very gently like ding ding ding yeah and uh tuck is mostly just like and you get to the floor the forest floor and ving you know the way to the knowledge tree that is kept in your father's court you know that there's like there's a path from the palace that the court has used for a long time but considering you're about to be pursued it's probably best stay off that path for sure so you lead tuck billy and ving through side paths through the forest you remember a lot of the time you're like oh my god I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die a lot of side paths that used to exist when this was a well-tended well-taking it's all overgrown yeah gnarly brush thickety kind of yeah there's plants you don't recognize there's a lot of brambles there's some plants that I saw in in like other parts of the world that were never here before yeah things that are like choking out the plant life in the area a lot of the trees have lots of ivy on them and stuff like yeah so it takes you a longer than you expected to get to the clearing but you do arrive at the clearing and you're like oh my god I'm gonna die I'm gonna die at the clearing of the knowledge tree there are some stones overgrown that used to have sharp carvings on them millennia ago that have since worn away surrounding this wide clearing that again you remember being clear when you were younger but there's a lot of shoots and weeds that have crept up over the intervening decades and let's describe this knowledge tree I think much like the boreal trees around it's this one's probably like the one that's been around for a long time and it's like a fir tree so it's tall proud has the needles higher up a beautiful like pure pine fir sap scent is in the air and this tree is in front of you with runes grown into the bark the pines are golden yeah oh yeah golden needles oh cool yeah is the tree pretty lush no ving you remember this being a much healthier tree it looks like you could follow the glow back yeah but now it's like struggling it still has some needles but it definitely looks like something is wrong I'm just thinking like we have to hide I guess but this might be your only opportunity to like really examine the tree yeah I'm gonna really do my best focused reading so what uh certain realities yeah discern realities again sure and yeah while you guys study I'm gonna keep watch and then fight off anyone that comes yeah seven so that is one question off the list I guess what here's not what it appears to be so bill you're like rushing around the base of this tree trying to feel it as a fairy of hibernia you're very familiar with the knowledge trees and you feel like you put your hands on it and you kind of like focus into the feeling of this tree and you get a brief glimpse of this network that spreads across the forest yeah and I get the sense the tree is very suspicious yes the tree is extremely like wary it's very wary all the trees are actually and that's why they're so suspicious yeah I'm gonna keep watching this and I'm gonna they've crept apart and you follow like you see this almost in your head like a map of like the root networks following back to the very center of the forest and like the core tree that you've been sent to deal with and you feel an intrusion in the tree itself and your focus pulls in to the very center of the heart tree at the middle of the forest and you sense something that you have sensed before a small piece of night black obsidian oh And that's where we're going to edit for this week.

I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the barbarian, Abdul Aziz. So long. Playing La Ravine Gahara. Goddamn. The half-elf, Truid, Paul Loppers. Bye. And playing Fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica Tai. Bye. Thank you to Aaron Reid for our intro and outro music. You can hear all of the music that Aaron has produced for the show, written by Abdul and myself, including the hot new single, The Stalwart Son. Oh, yeah. At our SoundCloud, Spellore SoundCloud.

Look it up. And you can find all of Aaron's original music at aaronreid.bandcamp.com. Thank you to all of our Patreon supporters around the world supporting the show. And most of all, thank you to you for listening. We'll see you next time. And so ends the tale of Adventures Three, who tried the best they can. Though dumb and scared and lost they be, for time's abreast in revelry. And though our journey may be like a conclusion, we will not leave you without a resolution.

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