Episode 5 – Port Forefrost

Uh spout if you like Spout Lore and you want to hear spout 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 have health he shifts his shape and wields a spear with great might billy's a thief his tiny size does max the largest heart best and brightest they may not be but their friendship outweighs their smarts so gather round friends and listen you for the tales about to start hello everybody and welcome to Spout Lore erin welcome erin uh that was thank you for listening to us poorly attempt to harmonize with the opening song of Spout Lore I'm your game master Sean O'Hara and joining me as always playing tacoma dome the barbarian abdulaziz hello everybody playing ving the half-elf druid paulie hello there I'm playing fat billy the halfling thief jessica tie hello when last we left our heroes they were tripping out uh we the entire episode was spent with a group of people trying to get three floors above where they started oh my god uh the crew and passengers of clearwater had consumed record quantities of ghost root uh due to some I'll-advised seasoning by ship's cook ted who's no longer the ship's cook and he's now the ship's cook and he's now the ship's cook and in doing so found themselves looking into stepping through living adjacent to the uh the spirit world the ship experienced incursions by a variety of spirit beasts uh billy did a lot of stepping through places we believe he may have fallen through some crack momentarily in reality oh right ending up somewhere right that looked like the winter war or at least a snowy field anytime there is snow in a place like that it's like a snowy field it's like a snowy field it's like a place you guys think it's the winter like winter's not just a season yeah uh what else tuck started to become a tree in some fashion his his spirit tattoo interacting strangely yeah it started taking over my whole body he was billion pretty hard there yeah totally bing and tuck ended up uh saving a group of the crew saving from shitting themselves to death I ruled snake eyes and then snakes came my eyes and bit my hand in a promise oh right yes you got you got a promise coming yep bing made a promise with two snake spirits to help them enter the material at some point yeah and was injected with their spirit venom oh man mother fuck I'm nervous but also kind of excited it's been a while since I've you know confronted the animal spirits oh right yeah bing saw a jungle scene and heard a movement in the trees and then in attempting to follow that form ended up at the physical end of the boat but passed that into the spirit world saw what he believed to be an elf of some fashion shithane of an elf of some fashion that fashion is shithane yeah that fashion is a grumpy old fuck trying to fight his wife in his green gherkin yeah right he called it a gherkin yeah yeah man mark's such a nerd sorry I meant merkin uh who else did we see we saw elk momentarily oh yeah spirit of elk uh billy saw scorpion traded his story with scorpion and wasp saw billy and said I will find you or something be seeing you okay yeah that's still scary because it's lost yeah he said uh be seeing you and then he said wait wasp seeing you fuck uh and then the crew made it to the surface uh and the sea air for some reason helped nullify the effects of the ghost route and billy found perel fighting against the form of koi oh right oh yeah before uh spitting up a silver triangular coin sick that astute listeners will remember was used to pay the spirit koi for their guidance many seasons ago and everybody took a moment to uh catch their breath after that tuck it in and we're gonna see what happens next we're gonna see what happens next we're gonna see what happens next we're gonna see what happens next we're gonna see what happens next we're gonna see what happens next um um The old Sunstone Mines.

There was giant machinery around him, and he was a curious little boy. Yeah. Billy took the coin that Perel spit up and, quote, brought it back to his stuff. It's such a funny, like, rodent-like way to describe your life. And in attempting to find a place to hide the coin, opened up the teddy bear stolen from Jake the Jackal back in McCall and found a small McCallan music box that played a gentle lullaby when cranked. Cute.

And Ving attempted to commune with the spirits from this part of the ocean and had a terrible time. Oh, fuck, right. Yeah. Holy shit. Wasn't good. Yep. Saw all of the stressful spirit environs that had been encountered by people on the boat and then also saw a wall of fog with black ships emerging from it and felt teeth on his throat. Jeez. And wide black eyes. Oh, my God. Crocodile. Mm-hmm. Is what I think. Oh. The thing that killed you. And the thing that's gone from the world. Oh, right.

Whoa. And that is where we find our heroes now. We could do another perilous journey or we could cut to the rocky archipelago of the Four Frost Islands. Yeah. I thought it'd be funny to have some sort of, like, dinner scene. I don't know. Yeah. Okay, yeah. So everybody's having a nice meal. Yeah. You've got some tables have been brought up to the top deck. Like, everybody's, yeah. Wow. Al fresco. Al fresco. Because if we go down there, like, we're fucked. Yeah. It's still fucked up down there.

We're too scared. Yeah. Nobody wants to go back down. We keep having to Rochambeau to go downstairs. It's like, I don't want to go downstairs. Some parts of the boat look like they've been transmuted in some way. Like, there are leaves sprouting out of beams. Whoa. Yeah. Really? Holy shit. Not a lot of it, but some parts. Permanent? Seemingly. Wow. Wow.

So some tables have been brought up top deck and not Ted is preparing some meals for everybody unless someone else would like to roll manage provisions. I think Perel should prepare meals. Oh, yeah. He hasn't done anything. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, I have been here. Go on. I can't because that's it. I've been here. I've been taking care of the M-O-N-K-E-Y. The Griffin. We all know there's a Griffin. Yeah. I've been taking care of Griff and we've been bonding. You named it. Yeah. Yeah.

It looks like a Griff. Aren't you a Griff little guy? You're a Griff. Griff. He likes it. Ashante Griff. Yeah. He actually does say Ashante and puts out his little claw hand. But Perel is like, all right. All right. Fine. I'll see what I can do. I'll try and make. Yeah. I'm going to make everybody a delicious meal. He's eyes got all shifty. What the fuck? What? What are you going to make for dinner? I'm just going to. I know a lot of recipes. I think we can all agree.

Why did you put quotes on recipes? Well, you know, it's what is cooking, if not the transmutation of food? And sure, maybe with transmutation, I used a unique mastery over another worldly energy force as opposed to my own two hands. But it's probably the same principle, more or less. So I'll see you guys soon. And he goes below deck and makes. Hmm. A bunch of noise. Steam sound. Steam sound. He's cooking like the Swedish chef from the Muppets. And he comes back up about 45 minutes later with.

Man, what was even left? What kind of food was even left below deck? Barrels. Spaghetti. Yeah. Mostly nuts. Wasn't tons of nuts. Lots of nuts. Lots of nuts. He didn't let him. Fruit and nut. Yeah. What if it's like leftover spaghetti noodles with a bunch of nut sauce? That sounds. Oh, nice. Put some sriracha in there. You got a. You got peanut sauce. Throw some briny seawater in there. You got yourself a ramen, my friend. That's not bad. Yeah. A ramen that might kill you.

At least make you hallucinate. So he comes up with like a bunch of bowls of nuts and lays them out. And he's like, hey, OK, just a little bit of an appetizer course. Kind of, you know, enjoy. Enjoy the nuts. And he is like laying them out on the table. Getting closer to you guys. Yeah. And he gets to the end of the table and he goes, that's all we have. Eat as many of those nuts as you can. There's nothing else. OK. There's nothing else. Zero.

I don't know what happened when you guys were down there, but the food is gone. So we look over and Crow has like a little food baby. Just laying down like, I don't come down often, but when I do, I make it worth it. Whose table are we sitting on? Whose table are we sitting on? Who's sitting on? It's one long table that's all along the deck. So like Maggie and Caroline are close to you. Perel sits down. Bruno is nearby and he keeps winking. What's up? Nothing. Wink. What is it? I wink back.

It's just like I'm on it. And he points at his own eyes and he points at everybody else. I know I'm on it. Wink. What are you on? Are you still on Ghost Route? Your side. I'm going to. Deal with the mutiny. No, the mutiny is over. What? That's. Remember when Maggie tied up all the mutineers? Yeah, that can't be it, though. Yeah, that's it. I did. It was like a one episode thing, man. They attacked us. The bunch of people died. Yeah, I know. I know that. Oh, you thought it was pirates.

And then the mutiny was going to happen after. I get. I get. No. What do you think a mutiny is? I honestly don't know. Oh, Bruno. I don't know. It's over. It's over. You did a good job, though. I did? Yeah. Okay. All right. And just then people at the other end of the table jump up. All right. Stick it up. This is a mutiny. Everybody pulls out guns. Yeah. All right. Cool. All right. Cool. No, that's fine. Everybody. And he stands up and he cleans his spoon on his glass. Click, click, click.

We grab our glasses and raise them. I just want to say congratulations to everybody on a successful. Successful counter mutiny. I think we can all agree that those filthy mutants got what they deserve. And anybody that may or may not have been involved at the beginning and then changed allegiances before it actually took place has total amnesty for the rest of our time on the ship. Peanuts like here, here. Agreed. Click, click, click, click, click, click, click.

And everybody just is there anything that you guys want to do during this dinner of specifically mutiny? Nuts only. Ving slides his nuts towards Tucker or Billy. Like, Billy, here, you can have my nuts. Oh, I can't. I can't do that. I did not. That was not. I didn't. I didn't want that. I didn't want to be here where I am now. Yeah. It's of. It's such a shame because I genuinely really enjoy the food group of nut. Yeah. But it is. You cannot say it.

You can't say that you love nuts without somebody going like, but there are food. Yeah. This is Bruno. No. I say that I love nuts all the time and people laugh at me, but there are great source of fats and minerals and I need my fats and minerals. And he flexes. He and then he grabs his rolls on either side. He jiggles. Look at all these fats and minerals in here. He's like a really like thick, strong, like he's not cut at all. He's just big. Love it. I need it.

Anyways, you guys were saying Billy could have those nuts. Yeah. If you want, Bill. I'll save them for later. Good idea. Yeah. And Maggie leans in. All right. So with the mutiny and with the supposed destruction of our food stores, we now have a lot more to do in the four frost than I initially thought. Okay. Let's lay out a plan. Maybe a little bit. Just half out. So we just go in there swinging. I mean, no one on this ship is has any sort of legal authority.

So as long as we just stick to our guns, we should be fine. We'll be welcomed. Not welcomed as welcome as you can be in a port like that. Is there a chance that there could be people there that expect the pirates that were trying to kill us to show up with the clear water? Yeah, I suppose. But maybe that's just like what it's like to be in league with pirates. Yeah. Seems like a hazard of the job. Yeah. Okay. They come back and say the stuff.

Sometimes the people come back that they were just trying to kill. Okay. I mean, we'll deal with it when we get there. You know? But we so we need to repair the ship. We need to stock up and we need to get some more crew. Right. And all of that stuff is going to take money. We need money. Yeah, we need money. So I'm really going to need to rely on you three in a way that I was not expecting to need to. What you need to steal money for you or make money or what? Or something. I'll do whatever.

I make a lot of money. Tuck is like flexing his arms as he's saying this. People love giving me money for doing stuff like this. Flex. I suppose we could sell that creature. No. What? No. What? Griff? We promised we wouldn't. You promised what? That he would be free. Yeah. You promised the bird, the Griffin, that it would be free. No, we promised the monkey. Okay. That's fine.

Suppose it's not mine to decide what to do with but uh we could try and sell this gold nug yeah oh yeah yeah that might be a little risky that's probably you know what that's actually probably the best thing uh for it is I can see if I can set up a sale yeah uh mediate some kind of deal for the the forger's gold and then hopefully you know we'll be out of town before anybody realizes what it is yeah okay and uh unless there's anything else you guys want to do with folks at this dinner I can't think of anything all right then we cut to midday tomorrow as you sail northward upon the edge of the sea of graves you feel a chill a strengthening in the air and snow starts to fall and it's just a gray snowy sorry sorry uh and the snow starts to get thicker and thicker before you know it's time to go to bed before you're just kind of like shrouded in snow uh the gray waters of the sea lapping at the sides of the ship and you see buildings first you see smoke rising over the horizon oh what normal amounts of smoke okay oh no yeah it talks like I think something's wrong there's smoke in the distance oh it's chimneys never mind oh it's a normal amount of smoke okay uh and then you see buildings and you see islands can you describe the buildings for us the buildings are mostly wood construction some are just like a boat cut in half and then tipped up on its side some are just houses regular wooden houses made out of ships and then there's like collections of smaller shanties near the sides oh arcing wooden bridges connect stony islands and near the back on one of the largest rocks there's an old stone fort that rises up into the sky whoa oh cool how tall is it it's like a small military fort it's not huge but it looks like it is of actual like military construction and probably pretty old whoa who lives there I ask does anybody know nope Spout Lore yeah you can spell lord about it perfect opportunity lore and it's been here for a long time so I get my wisdom yeah history you'll so that means you'll know the history of it not oh that's fun that might help us in our heist of it yeah seven nice great uh okay so what you know about this is that it was a light guard fort from when the light guard had more influence like this far out when they used to patrol the coast but a few hundred years ago their influence in this area started waning and they abandoned the fort whoa and then it over time looks like pirates moved in and started building a town around it what drove them out uh nothing drove them out they just lost influence in this area and decided to you know move stuff and resources and people closer to the city yeah was that when farhan was in charge or I guess the torch you could connect some dots that it seems like that's about when it lines up oh so he took over and then maybe as the influence of the um demon of zealotry became stronger people started like being the wide ranges who felt it started doing like journeys to mecca sort of thing yeah they started going on pilgrimages totally uh yeah so then you know the light guard there was a point where they were like there's no reason for us to be out here yeah then they just abandoned the fort and they just left the fort and they just left the fort cool what if they're cool light guards shit in there oh yeah for sure uh yeah so you know you see boats surrounding the town like that there's it doesn't look like there's a real solid like this is where the dock is it's like people dock wherever they can there are boats anchored further out there are boats anchored further out that are lashed to other boats creating like little flotillas so just everybody is scrambling around trying to dock and you bring it in there are boats anchored further out that are lashed to other boats creating like little smaller boats like wheeling around you you know just it's a pretty busy midday sort of time how big is the clear water compared to all the other boats like do we draw attention coming in uh yeah there are boats that are your size or bigger okay like it's all sizes definitely a boat this size always draws attention yes so the city's a fair size then yeah there's it seems like the kind of place where a lot of people just stay on their boats people come come to shore for like you know bars or whatever sort of entertainment shit or to trade but uh yeah you pull in and the clear water is docked what do you do hmm when they're they're we're fine here for some reason I think I feel like really nervous about this like we have to state our business or somebody's going to come up here and question us or try and rob us but yeah you do see there's a there's a a middle-aged woman uh with like long gray hair standing on the dock near your ship looking at you with her arms crossed duck waves hi she nods do we have to talk to you before we get off she nods okay we're going to talk to you okay I'll come talk state your business oh we're here just to do repairs on the ship and uh maybe pick up some work all right what's your name taint none of your business all right well taint it's nice to meet you uh you can hear her drawing breath from where you're standing so there's a there's a mortgage fee standard mortgage fee you know what it what is it your size let's say 50 coins a day she made that up on the spot go for less ving yells from the helm and then I'm like I feel like you might have made that up on the spot oh do you well 50 coins a day uh what if I don't pay it then you can turn around and leave can I bargain with you a little bit depends what are you offering and then tuck flexes his biceps wow what are you offering here I don't know whatever you want to do you want to do with all of this are you offering to have sex with this lady oh what uh not explicitly no I'm offering any kind of strong boy work okay roll 2d6 plus charisma for a uh what's the word parlay uh 12 12 that's a pass okay I'll make it 20 coins a day and I will be calling on you decent all right you got a deal my friend welcome to port four frost all right it was good to meet you taint do not call me that what's your name then bethelda bethelda can I call you beth yeah all right call me beth okay cool and she wanders off back down the dock and she pulls out like a book as she's leaving and starts writing in it I got 20 coins a day I yell back up as zero geysers parting you hit both of them say sucker I'm trying to gauge the the vibe of pulling up to the city too I have no idea oh great we should discern realities about this place to see how fucked up yeah so billy billy's uh he's coming down from the his his perch up the mast and this is what he's seen when he discerned reality okay uh eight eight so you get one question what here is useful or valuable to me okay so you're scanning sort of like the collection of buildings directly off the dock and you see a building that's leaning towards you and you see a building that's leaning towards you and you see a building that's leaning all over the fucking place.

It's like the bottom level leans to the right, the next level leans to the left. It looks like it's been built up over many years. And there are people coming in and out. They've got food and drink in their hands. There's smoke pouring out of a ton of chimneys that are coming out of all different spots of it. And there is a name that you can't read, but there is some sort of animal on the sign, and it looks like a really raucous, cozy, fun-looking little pub. Is that a coyote? The hound.

The hound? Awesome. All right. What you get from that is that seems to be the place to be in Fort Frost. I'm getting a real Weasley home vibe. Yeah. Well, I'm into it. I want to go. I want to go look around. Hey, Perel, do you want to get some lunch? And you turn to look at Perel, and he's got a curled-up tricorner hat with a feather on it and a vest and, like, boots and, you know, flowing pants and a flowing shirt, and he goes, hell yeah, I do. Whoa. Okay. You don't look that bad, actually.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. And he pulls an eye patch out of his pocket and puts it over one eye. There you go. There we go. You look great. Thank you. He's so clean compared to everyone else. Like, it's obvious he's in costume. If anybody says, hey, what's that guy's name? Call him my name. Tell him. Call him, tell him my name. Yes. Tell him my name. Should they call you by your name? My name's Colin, tell him my name. Yo, my name's Colum. Tell him my name. All right. Hey, Bing.

Yo. Tuck. What's up? Do you want to come to the pub thing there? Oh, fuck yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you know us. Okay. And you guys head to the pub. You're walking across the docks, passing ships from every corner of the fucking world. Ooh, I want to fucking discern realities about these ships. See if there's anything I recognize. Ooh. 26 plus. Plus wisdom. Holy shit. 12. Okay. Three questions. What here is useful or valuable to me? Is Allison here? Why would she be everywhere?

Yeah, maybe the book is here. Maybe the fanny pack is here. All the magi are here. We found a fanny pack. Oh, right. We were talking about the market. Mears. Is Mears here? Is Hither and Yon here? Is the hound Hither and Yon? Are you Mears? He is Mears. Oh, Sean's gone. I'm sorry. I just got so overwhelmed by my emotion. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. What here is useful or valuable?

So, Tuck, what you notice is you're walking down the dock and you smell a very familiar smell for just a second. It smells like earthy, like herbs, kind of like an incense sort of smell. Oh. Yeah. The magi. Is it the magi? It smells very reminiscent of your time in McCall. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck. Wait. Follow your nose. Yeah. Can I follow my nose? No, you're not a bloodhound. Oh, God. Humans can't do that. Fuck. Okay. So, Tuck starts pushing people out of the way to get to higher ground.

Picking them up and smelling each one of them. Higher ground? You're on a dock. Yeah. They're flat. What about all the ships that are piled up around us? You want to go onto a random ship in a pirate port? Yeah. Okay, sure. Tuck is like, he's in hunt mode now. Wow. And nothing can stop him unless someone kills him. Here we go. You know, what are you rolling? I'm getting on a ship or just climbing up high to look around and see if I can see a medjay.

Yeah, you don't really have to roll to climb up a ship because you get up a ship like you pull yourself up over the side and there's a sword pointed at your throat. Hey, what's up? Get off my boat. Okay. See you later. Clap your hands off and go, all right, not that one, guys. Yeah, I didn't see anything up there. You didn't see anything? I didn't see anything. But so, yeah, you smell, I smell a smell here. Oh, God. You smell a smell of time gone by. Okay. You have two more questions.

Yeah, I have two more questions. So what here was useful or valuable to me was that smell. Uh, what here is, yeah, give me that list. Shit. Is this what the questions are now is trying to figure out what's going on with the ship? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What happened here recently? Oh, okay. Yeah, because the smell lingers from what happened. Yeah. So you are looking around and you're like, oh, what's that smell? Yeah. I smell a smell and you're blundering around that end of the pier. Your nose first.

Your nostrils flared. And Tuck can flare his nostrils really big because he, for a year, he was just doing like jaw and nose exercises because he was worried that his jaw was too fat. And then he just grew a beard because he couldn't do anything about it. It turned out those exercises don't do shit. But they did make his nose huge. So he's sniffing around the end of the pier and you find lashed behind that boat where the guy pointed a sword at your throat.

A rickety, a rickety, a rickety rowboat that has a bunch of like handprints of like paints of various colors like blues and reds and yellows. Wait, so it's got a bunch of blue handprints on it? It's got paint all over it? Yellow and red. Does anyone else know what this is? No, I don't remember the Magi doing any handprint magic stuff. Should we know what this is, Sean? I would say so. Say so. The boat that was following you was the Blue Period and it was painted and it was Oh.

It's the Blue Period people. Oh. So they already, they're already here. God, we're so bad at solving mysteries. Literally a boat covered in paint. So they are here with Ghost Route. I mean, okay, so what you would assume is that this is one of the rowboats from the Blue Period. Not necessarily that it was covered in paint during the escape but that it probably got paint on it at some point. Okay.

So it just, it just means that whoever was on the Blue Period and escaped has already arrived here somehow. And it's just a rowboat, right? Yeah. Like in a, like a, like a, just a shitty rowboat that a sailboat would carry with it. Can't be too many people. I want to sink it. I don't want them following us. Yeah. Cool. I don't want them to leave. Okay. Nice. So how's Billy going to sink this boat? Okay.

So he takes out one of his daggers and he starts like, like cutting a big shitty hole in the bottom. Okay. Give me a defy danger strength to get your little arms to force through the wood. You can do it, Billy. You got a nine. Oh, I'll aid by distracting people over there, making a scene at the other end of the dock. Nice. I got 12. Holy shit. Jesus Christ. Yeah. And Tuck is standing in front of him to like block people from seeing that he's vandalizing this boat.

And you saw a couple pretty good sized holes in the boat just. Yeah. And I undo the rope that's holding it to the pier. I'm like, nice. We got you now. We got you. That was great. We pull out. There's a quick cut to the entirety of the port and all of the dozens of ships and boats that are readily available with signs that say rides for sale. Space available. Billy going, got you now, fuckers. There's no way you could follow us now, you motherfucker. No way off.

And what's the scene that Ving is making look like? Oh, he's standing really still and pretending to be a statue and then when people walk by and throw him a coin that he moves and tips his hat and like starts moving. Yeah. And you know, you make like three coins doing that. It's pretty cool. Sick. I can't believe I just gave you three coins for no reason. Yeah, I guess it does. It's for flair. It's like, you know, a collection of silvers and coppers that amounts to three coins. Great.

And you have one question left. What's about to happen? If you, hmm, this was, this is more like dot connecting than it is you guys like seeing some new information. But if you got to a place on a shitty rickety piece of shit boat and then you knew that you had to get somewhere else, you would probably look for somebody to give you a ride. Oh, yeah. You'd probably try and hire a new ship. Okay.

And Billy having seen that whatever this pub is seems to be the place to be, that's probably where people do business in town. Fucking sick. Well, I'm getting real Mos Eisley vibe from this town. Yeah, it's definitely like an Arctic seaside Mos Eisley. Awesome. Yeah. So that's probably, you imagine that they're going to go probably get some food, something to eat, something to drink, some rest, and then find a new ride off. All right. Unless they have other business here.

That's the other caveat is if they have business here, then they'll be doing that. They could be from here and, and have a, a bunch of friends. Could be. We could be stepping into their turf. And much like Mos Eisley, this seems like the kind of place where like there's a certain criminal element where that community, it's like, it's always like a work conference. You know what I mean? You're always running into people that you know. All right. Yeah.

So that's kind of, that's the vibe that you get. They're probably going to head to that pub to get some business done, but you don't necessarily know who you're looking for. Just that they might smell like incense. Before we walk in, I want to help Perel disguise himself a bit. What do you mean? This is perfect. It's not bad, but the hat is going to give you away. And if these are the Medjay, they're going to know it's you. Oh. Oh. It's great. It's awesome. But maybe not for this.

I'm wondering, you know what? You guys probably got this under control. I should probably go back to the boat, right? Yeah. I'll bring you back a sandwich. I just, I forgot about the Medjay. So, and he takes his hat. I'm going to go back to the boat. You fill me in later. All right. Bon voyage. Bye. And he starts walking and then walks faster and then basically runs back to the clear water. I patch feather thing. Mustache flying behind him.

Because, you know, don't forget, he got fucking worked over by the Medjay. Right. So did Ving. Ving is a warrior. Gotcha. Perel wishes every day that he could turn people to goo again, but he can't. So, yeah, you guys are alone now on the dock. And are you heading to the pub? Do you think that's your plan? Oh, hell yeah. Let's go to the hound. Let's go. Okay. So as you walk off the pier, you like, you know, walk up some steps that are hewn into the rock.

And this is a place where like whatever grass there was or moss or whatever is long since gone. It's mostly carved out like stone plazas. And then like if there's any sort of plant life, it's like grow beds and shit like that. But this area right off the docks is the busiest. There's stalls set up. There's like covered market areas. Oh, cool. There's music. There's performers. Like it's a really busy vibe. I feel like Mardi Gras kind of. Yeah. Well, Mardi Gras is more celebratory.

This feels like a night market. Okay. You know, like a Richmond night market kind of thing. It's packed. There's lots of stuff going on, people buying and selling. Is there rides here? No, there's no rides, sadly. Paul's smile left so quickly. When we arrive at the front door of the Hound, Tuck is holding a cotton candy. A giant teddy bear. Yeah. So there's a dog carved out of wood on the sign and people are coming in and out. There's like balconies that people are hanging out on.

This place is busy. Can we get a table for three and a booster seat for Billy? Yeah. There's a server at the front or a host at the front who leads you right to a table right in front of you. Right in the middle. Unfortunately, it's really busy right now. So all the booths are taken. Is it by the bathroom? Gross. It is. Yeah. People are coming in and out of the like saloon style doors. Oh, and every time the door swings, it coughs bathroom smell at you. Gross.

So, what do you, you know, here you go here at the menu. It's happy hour right now. We got some pretty good deals and he gives Billy what looks like a kid's menu with a little cup of crayons. So, I'll be your server. My name is Augustine and can I start? Start you off with some drinks, maybe. Yeah. Can I get someone else go first? It takes me so long to read these menus. There's so many pages. May I have a cup of gravy? Cup of gravy. I'll do a miso soup and a side of sake.

Miso soup and I'm so sorry. We're out of the sake. Oh, just give me some miso soup and a ball of vodka. Ah, good choice, sir. Good choice. And you, sir, I could come back. If you want me to give you a minute, I could come back. No, I'll get, um, can I get, can I get a cup of weak sauce and your forever gravy? What's, uh, sorry, weak sauce? Oh, you guys don't have weak sauce. Uh, forever gravy. We got the, we've got the gravy. I'm bringing the gravy for your, for your boy here. Okay.

And, uh, can I just get a cup of alcohol? Any kind. Any kind. Yeah. Do you want our grog? Yeah, I'll get a grog. It's on special. We got a jug. It's only, uh, you know, two coins or whatever. Oh yeah. Give me a jug of grog. Okay. And I'll be right back. If, uh, if you want any food, my name is Augustine. Augustine. Thank you. And he hobbles off to, uh, to go get your drinks. Okay. And you guys are struck by the variety of figure around you.

All people from all different parts of the world really dastardly types. Some, uh, some foppish gentleman thieves, people in plate armor. Like it's, it's just packed full of people. Is there a band playing? Uh, there is. Yeah. Really like, classic like accordions and violins. Oh, fun. Yeah. Doing the whole, uh, pirate song thing. Do we see any like magi looking guys or guys that look like they would have been in the blue period? You're gonna have to roll for that. I'll, I'll discern if you want.

Yeah. All right. Two to six plus wisdom. Five. Fuck. Okay. Market point experience. I was trying to be cool and I started coloring on my, on my map, but I'm like looking around like really side eyeing everyone looking too suspicious. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, you see, there are some figures, uh, off in the corner that have like their hoods up.

There are actually a lot of people in this place that have their hoods up, but unfortunately, once you start looking super suspicious, everybody with a hood turns away from you. Dang it. And it could be anyway. There's like six, six tables with really shadowy figures. Yeah. I'm gonna slide off my, uh, booster seat. Yeah. He's really getting good at sliding in that thing. I'm gonna investigate closer. Okay. I'm gonna walk up to the, the biggest group in the corner. Mm-hmm. They look shady.

Mm-hmm. And I tug on one of them. Yeah. Excuse me. Excuse me. And the third time you tug, they go like, and they lean down. Whoa. And they have like huge tusks. Whoa. Oh my God. What do you want? Uh, I'm sorry. I think I got the wrong table. Okay. Yeah. And it's like, it's a, it's an orc with like scrimshot tusks and like missing one eye, like an eyelid drooping over an empty socket. Holy shit. I'm just looking for my uncle. He said he'd be here.

And he turns and he goes, boys, anyone of you this kid's uncle? And you look up and they're all orcs. Uh, nevermind. Sorry. They, they were also wearing cloaks. So I'll, I'll go look over there. Uh, yeah. So it's not those guys. That's for sure. This big group of people. Okay. So I go to a different group. Um, can I hear any of like the conversation as I walk around? This is going to be a discern realities. Yeah. Holy shit. Two. Snake eyes.

It doesn't matter that I have one wisdom because it's three. Yeah. I'm just going to go. I'm just going to go. I'm just going to go. I'm just going to go. I'm just going to go. I'm just going to go. I'm just going to go. I'm just going to go. I'm just going to go. Okay. So I think what this is, is you go to each table in turn and you know, without a shadow of a doubt that they are not here or they are at least not in this room.

If the blue, the crew from the blue period or whoever was on that ship came to this place, they're not in this main room. There's somewhere else in the building. Yeah. So I'm, I'm pulling on another robe. Blue period. Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me.

Me excuse me yes yeah hi you drop this what I give him uh my copper spoon ah thank you you're welcome this is um definitely my spoon okay uh and I'm like looking I'm looking for my uncle is he with you what does your uncle look like he's wearing a cape any other distinguishing features he is he's got a nose it's not too big uh his cheeks on his face are very full the ones on his butt are flat you say uh he's got a nose and there's a guy with a missing nose it's like not me his cheeks are very fat and there's a gaunt dude that's like not me either dang it uh he has a a beard and he's bald there's a guy with uh no facial hair and a huge head of hair that's like couldn't be me all right it was very I'll keep looking good luck my boy I'm so sorry to interrupt thank you for finding my family spoon no problem guys I got this spoon from this stupid kid he just gave it to me and they all clink uh different colored spoons together whoa what yeah weird right as you walk away they go spoon boy I want to know the spoon boys spoon boys for life anyway I go back to my booster seat I don't think they're here fuck damn and augustine walks up with your drinks all right here are your drinks thank you gravy gravy vodka miso soup thank you can I get you anything any sort of meals I have a favor um to ask you and he he you see down at the bottom of the menu it says favors yeah five coins okay what can I get for you here's your five coins okay I uh I want to use my connections yeah to see if uh if he knows if any med guy around or have been in town please nine uh so what is a seven to nine on connections um I have to settle for something close or it comes with strings attached okay I'll settle for something close settle for something close uh I okay well I can tell you this much uh I have heard tell of some folk that are bear a similarity to the kinds of people that you're looking for they may have been here but they aren't now tell you that much when were they here they were here earlier today oh reason yeah and I I I stood outside their room and they said something that was too quiet for me to hear unfortunately and it sounded a little something like this that's them magi for sure but I I got the idea that they were waiting for someone oh shit uh-oh should we check their room yeah that's what I was hoping for oh yes hell yeah awesome let's go to their room okay we do what uh augustine we're friends now right no oh well no okay ducky looks crestfallen and he slurps over and just starts drinking gravy too fast augustine that wasn't very nice I don't know any of you I thought we were friends man my name is fat billy this is my dad slash mom thing My dad slash brother.

Talk. Yeah. All right. Yes. My name's Augustine. Like I said. And you're our new friend. Okay. What's the room number, man? Yeah. We just want to see if they left any clues. It's very important to us. I really shouldn't be telling you. Here. I give him the last of my gold coin. Yeah. All right. I was going to tell you anyways, but I wanted to see if you'd give me any more money. Yeah. They're in room 401. Oh, sick. You have four floors in this shithole. So, yeah.

Don't tell anybody I told you that. But, you know, here's their key. They're in room 401. What? The lock. You got to jiggle it a little bit. You gave us the key? Yeah. You are our friend. Oh, there's nobody staying there now. Oh. Yeah. Oh, they were there. They left. I said. We'll go find clues. Has housekeeping been by? Housekeeping. Perfect. And he walks away. Housekeeping. And he grabs a guy by the shoulder. They said house. He is an obstetrician. Housekeeping.

So, now you guys got a key in room 401. Okay. Perfect. Let's head up. I chug my gravy. I'm so excited. I chug my gravy, too. And we're in a competition. Yeah. Chug, chug, chug, chug, chug. Can we roll to see who finishes it first? Yeah. Constitution. Ten. Ten. Got to go again. Two more gravies. Two more gravies. Two more gravies. They slide down the bar. Thanks, Aspirella. Here we go. Seven. Twelve. What? Twelve? Yeah. Do you want to go best out of three? No, it's fine. You win. Fair and square.

Billy's just covered in gravy now. Just the whole front of him. Bing's just slowly sipping on miso soup. Puts a bottle of vodka in his satchel. Just holding it in two hands. Sniffing it like, mmm. So cozy. God, I love these people. Just gravy all over our faces. Faces and stomachs. Yeah. I'm standing like, I'm standing waiting for Bing and I've just got like a huge mustache of gravy. Full pirate's beard. Yeah. Tuck's whole beard is full of gravy. It's just sodden.

And you head out into the spot or the area where like the rooms begin and you start climbing the very rickety zigzaggy stairs. The inside you now see this place is made out of so many different. Oh, wow. Like one whole staircase you walk up just rocks back and forth as you're walking up it. Part of the stairs are a rope ladder with knots tied up. Yeah. You have to climb up it. Exactly. Man, none of this is to code. This sucks.

I mean, it's to the pirate code, which is put what you want wherever the fuck you want and don't let anyone tell you what to do. And studs have to be nine inches apart. That's the only rule. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you get to the fourth floor and there is the roof is like glass, like light comes in through the roof. That's wicked. Yeah.

And there are rooms all around. You hear voices, laughter, shouting, the whole spectrum of human emotion going on around you. Cool. And you see room 401. Should we try it? Really? Oh, smart. I hate those dice. I'm going to use these ones. Trap expert. Plus dexterity. That's six. Would anyone like to aid me? For sure. I'm going to aid by, um, oh yeah, I do have that sunstone torch. Okay. It is pretty dark up here. Yeah. Okay. Sunstone torch. Aid. Nice. Eight. Fuck yeah. Okay.

So, uh, is there a trap here? And if so, what activates it? Uh, there is a trap. There is a trap here in that as you're approaching the door and you're like getting ready to do some, uh, thief expertise in, uh, you hear a thump from inside the room. What quality is thump? Uh, somebody moving around. And Tuck knocks on the door. Housekeeping. And you hear like a flurry of movement. Housekeeping. Now you don't hear anything. I hear you in there. Housekeeping. Housekeeping. Nothing.

God, I hope they don't know that there's no housekeeping in this hotel. Housekeeping. You don't hear anything. If I don't hear, if you don't say anything, I will come in. There's nothing. Oh, that's going. Okay. And Tuck's like, I'll block your guys' bodies. Cause I don't know. I feel like I'll be able to take whatever hit this is. He just opens the door and there is an empty room. Fuck. Discern realities. Okay. Yeah, totally. Just vacuuming. Vacuuming sounds. Vacuuming sounds. Eight. Eight.

So you get one question. Where the fuck is he? What's about to, what, what happened here recently? Okay. So you come into the room, pretty shitty room, couple beds, really thin, hay stuffed mattresses, you know, a shelf, a chest. Yeah. Tuck feels the sheets and he's like, these are like thread count, like 100. This sucks shit. You guys got to stay at the best Western by Wyndham hotels. They have. They have awesome sheets. The sexist spokesperson for the Wyndham hotels. Yeah.

The Wyndham hotels actually sponsors, spell Lord. Our podcast theoretically brought to you by Wyndham hotels. Um, and yeah, you see there's like dust on the ground. Like this is a dirty place for sure, but the curtain is pushed to the side and the window is slightly open. Tuck discerns realities. Okay. Yeah. At the window, right? Yeah. It's a different place. Yeah. The window. Uh, six plus. Wisdom. Wisdom. So I have six, uh, help. Yeah. Bill. Oh yes. Everybody's looking around.

Help me with your binoculars. Oh, fuck. Yeah. 10. Hell yeah. So you get one question. What should I be on the lookout for? Uh, so there is it, there's like, you know, the window opens into the air and then drops. There's like a stone cliff of the stone of the island. There are a couple buildings kind of off to the side. So whoever was here had to either drop. Down or climb up or be in a different room or whatever. Uh, but you see somebody running down the alley. Tuck jumps.

Oh, I think jumps to two huge figures. Jump out the fourth floor of this bill. I wouldn't have been worried for tuck is going to fucking die. We'll see about that. What do I roll? So you just taking it? Are you trying to angle towards something soft? I mean, sure. If there's something soft down, there's something soft down there. God, Vink, Jeff jumped too early. He is. I could possibly land on me. Uh, yeah. So who's going first? Tucker? I guess tuck said, I'm jumping.

So two to six was constitution. Doesn't sound like you're trying to do anything. So it's five plus three is eight. It's eight. Uh, yeah. You are going to take a debility. What? A whole debility? Dexterity. Oh, that's fine. I don't do any tech stuff anyway. Except chase people. Uh, you, you fall and you like, you know, kind of ping pong between the rock cliff and the building. You like slam through an awning and you land on your side and you feel your something in your like pop. Ah, fuck.

And it's a big, like your vision swims. You pass out for a second. Okay. I'm going to drink one of these wine would potion. Just pop it and start drinking. Yeah. I drink the whole thing. I'm pretty sure a healing potion can get rid of a debility. Yeah. Uh, just throw the empty bottle against the rocks. And Ving, what comes sailing down behind him? Uh, yeah. He's trying to like jump off the rock, jump off the house. Ting, ting, ting. That sounds like a light as a feather to me. Yeah. Dex.

I got a nine, nine. Okay. So what's a nine on light as a feather? Um, 10 plus. You do no problem. Seven to nine. Something goes wrong. GM tells you, uh, Billy is still in the room. That's fine. Go on with homie. I, I am of no help to you. Uh, and Ving, you like, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Yeah. Right. And just land lightly on your feet next to talk. Who's pulling, pulling himself up off the ground, put yourself together, big boy. And then sprints by and chases down the guy.

And Tuck starts running behind him, huffing and puffing. And he's like, it's pretty cool how we both did kind of the same thing down that cliff in the building. Like back and forth. Like what we did it together. Ving is leading him out and running backwards, like listening to him to like kind of humor him. Oh God, how did I get winded so immediately? He's flashback chugging gravy. Like five minutes ago. Yeah. I drank three cups of gravy and just drank an entire bottle of shitty wine.

Uh, so this person has quite the lead on you. Okay. So, uh, in fact, they're like basically in one half a second, they're going to be out of sight. So what's your plan for tracking them down? I kind of want to light his feather up onto the little pieces of ship they're sticking out because it's a shittily made. So there's all these little knobs and footholds. Yeah.

And then jump up in the, in the air and gather whatever snow was falling into an owl shape around me with my element form and try and glide as far as I can to catch up with them. Hardcore. That's sick. Yeah. So do that. 2d6 plus dexterity for light as a feather. Okay. Dex light as feather. Nice. I got nine. Okay. Uh, something goes wrong. You can aid me by throwing me or something. Oh yeah. We could do an aid. Yeah.

Like where that thing where like you jump into my cradled hands and I jump off your face. I cradle my hands. And I'm planning on throwing you leaves off your forehead. Ow. Fuck. Sorry. 2d6 plus bond. Seven. Nice. So that makes it a 10. Great. So I get really high. I get, I was able to get high off a building and then jump up in the air. I'm going to try my elemental form, transmit my body into and bring snow around me and do an ass. No owl made out of snow. Hopefully I can get enough old seven.

So I get two hold two old. That's not bad. Yeah. So now you are a snow, owl made out of snow. Yeah. Like a snow owl glider. Pretty sick. Yeah. Wow. That's so cool. And people would just look up and see snow. People would look up and see an owl made out of snow. So make no mistake. Is it daytime or nighttime right now? Uh, I'm when I said, you said you guys got here. It was like midday. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So it's still kind of day moving into night, but is it like the streets are really narrow?

So it's very dark. Yeah. Down on the street level. It's definitely darker. There's like people in the window being like, Oh, what the fuck? Yeah. Buildings built really close together. You can build your building wherever you want to build it. So some of them are built just like over an alley on top of two buildings, kind of bridging them together, but not connected to those two buildings. Yeah. Okay. I'm above the person. I hope.

Uh, yeah, you will, you can, you know, you can use one of your hole to kind of track them down and you see this cloaked figure running through the twisty turny alleys. Okay. I'll drop my other hold to land on them. You just like dive bomb. Yeah. Basically as a snow owl. Yeah. As the owls coming down talons first and then the snow's like, and fades away and it's just him like, yeah. No, no drop. Yeah. And you hit them in the back and take them down to the ground.

The weight of your body here, like, and roll over and you're on top of them with your like arm on their chest. And you're looking into the face of sweet Caroline. What? What? What the fuck? She takes that opportunity of your shock to kind of flip kick you off of her. Like, over top of her body and she gets up and starts to run the other. No. Can I catch up? Because he, he slowed her down. She sees you barreling down the alley and she like darts to the side and leaps through like a window. Fuck.

And then tuck turns, just turns and runs through the wall. That is the same as the window that you jumped through. All right. Two D six plus strength. Strength. 10. Nice. From, from, from the inside, we cut to the inside of the building. We see Caroline like dive through an open window park or half a second later. Boom. As tuck comes bursting through it. You're just like in a house. You're in somebody's house and she's running. She dives over a table.

There's a pirate family, little pirate children, little tiny pirate, little baby hook hands. A birthday party, and she slides underneath the table, dodging the pirate cake. Tuck runs through the table. Happy birthday. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. And she like opens the door and runs out onto the street. Chuck runs through the wall next to the door. The open door. Ving's taking chase too. Yeah, totally. Ving is behind. So sorry, so sorry. Like flipping gold, copper coins to everyone.

But sorry, sorry. Yeah. And she's, she runs like into a more crowded market area. We cut back to Billy. I am discerning realities around the room. Yeah. Discern realities. We're coming up on the kind of last clues that you can glean from this. One room. Yeah, but I'm good at scrubbing around. Oh yeah. Uh, nine. Perfect. So you get one question. What here is not what it appears to be.

Um, you are, as you so delicately put it, scrubbing around and you are on your hands and knees, which, which makes you like a foot tall, kind of rolling around on the ground, like a Roomba, looking for clues, a Klumba. Bumping into the corner. Yeah. I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, I'm just like, bumping into the corner. You find under the bed tucked into the frame. What looks like a folded piece of paper.

And it has a word on it. And you can't read, but the first letter sure looks a lot like a B. Okay. I tuck that way. I don't know what else to do. I don't know if they're coming back or if I should look for them. So do you just run back out of the building? Just runs out, though. I just picked him running. All right. Jumps out the window. Woo! Worked for everyone else. So Billy does try to leave through the window. He's being really careful, though. He's got one leg searching for something.

So slow. Just waving in the wind behind him. His little feet kicking down, trying to find a foot mold. Yeah. So I get down. Fine. It took a while. I'm like, oh. You hear off in the distance. Oh, no. That surprised me. So I fall off. The last six feet. Yeah. And I run towards it. I've got the note securely tucked away. You hear, I'm sorry. Sorry.

And if you run, you run back around the building and you see tuck charging through a crowd of people and you see the flapping gray hair of Ving behind him. Out of the way, people. You can't see who they're chasing, but you assume it's the same person. Okay. So I run after Ving. All right. Give me a defy danger dexterity to kind of move fast enough to get to them. Eleven. Fuck. Okay. Shit. Ving, very suddenly you feel a weight on one of your calves. Billy. Hi. Hey. I'm climbing up Ving.

Good catching up, bud. Thank you. I found a note. I need you to read it later. Oh. Okay. Just try and hold it in front of his face right now. And it's just like. I'll read it later. I'll read it later. I'll read it later. Okay. Tuck, you are quickly losing sight of Caroline. Oh, God. She's fast. She is fast. And I'm not. You're going to have to do something tricky, I think, if you want to stop her. Oh, can I throw? Can I throw a thing? Yeah, definitely. Okay. Okay. So.

Oh, I'm going to throw a dagger. Just try to slow her down. I won't. I don't want to kill her, though. Ving goes into like gimbal mode where he's just like he's running, but he keeps his top of his body. He's really still. He's totally still. He's in like steady cam mode. The other one's a one. Wow. Not good. So I think that this failure might mean that she escapes. Wait. Can I use fairy child? What does fairy child do? I can turn a failed roll into a seven to nine. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

So what are you trying to do with this dagger? Just hit her? Hit her in something non-lethal like her side. Not too deep. Non-lethal like her kidneys. Oh, shit. Like her butt, maybe? Yeah, her butt. You're trying to like trip her, like hit her in the leg or like. Hit her butt. Hit her butt. Okay. So you whip a dagger and it shoots out with the preternatural strength and speed that Billy has exhibited in the past. And it hits her in the butt. And she.

Yells and stumbles and like trips over some barrels. I think jumps over tuck. Okay. Yeah. Light as a feather. Yeah. Because she's like getting up and getting ready to move. Yeah. Nine. Okay. Oh, I can help you. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Billy jumps off so that you can do light as a feather easier. Oh, nice. I was going to throw you ahead of me so that you're there. You're like you, me, tuck. Well, I failed. Okay. Oh, fuck. So it's a seven to nine, which something goes wrong. Yeah. You tell me what?

You throw Billy and you're like sailing through the air with Billy just ahead of you. And you see Caroline pull the night. She grimaces as she pulls the dagger out of her butt and she sees Billy coming and she grabs him and she holds the knife to Billy. Whoa. And where do I land in all this? Right in front of her. Like you just poop right in front of her. Put the knife down. Back off. Put the boy down. I back off. I take one step back. And then tuck runs up at this point.

It's just like, Caroline, come back over here. Don't follow me. Wait, what are you doing? Don't follow me. Why? What are you doing? Threatening you. Put him down. Oh, while she's doing that, I'm going to apply fairy dust to put her to sleep. Okay. So I got it's plus charisma. Yeah. Got a five, seven. Okay. Seven to nine. Choose one. It affects a group of people. They stay asleep for a good amount of time. You can do it from a distance. Uh, they stay asleep for a good amount of time. Okay.

So what? You just like sneeze and a bunch of dust puffs up in her face. Yeah. I look up at her face. I sneeze into it. Yeah. A bunch of glittery dust poofs out of Billy and she goes off. Fuck. And she stumbles back and drops the knife, drops Billy. I grabbed the knife. I catch her. Yeah. And she just goes limp in your arms. I can relate. Uh, okay. Yeah. So sweet Caroline. I'd tie her up. Okay. Uh, we should probably take her back to the clear water. Try and figure out what the fuck's going on.

Yeah. I didn't want to search her, discern her reality. Can I like pat her down? See if she has anything of use on her. Yeah, totally. Do I need to discern reality? Yeah. I mean like you can search her, but yeah. Okay. I got, yeah. 11. 11. Okay. You get three questions. Uh, what here is valuable? Useful to me? Uh, you are. You're patting her down and, uh. We've probably taken her into an alleyway at this point. Yeah. She's not doing it in the middle of a fucking market.

She's like crying, screaming people like a direct line behind us. Right. Yeah. If Port Four Frost has any sort of, uh, militia or guard, they are going to be here very soon. Yeah. So you are patting her, uh, thing and you find something kind of stashed at the small of her back and, uh, you pull it out and it's wrapped in like a rough kind of suede cloth. Yeah. This is probably nothing. Throws it over his shoulder. Opens it. Uh, you open it and your mind for it.

Like you have a flashback and you just drop it on the ground. What the fuck? Oh my God. Uh, you guys see what looks like a yellowed bone tooth wrapped in a leather, like with a leather hand wrap, uh, and like carved on one side to have a sharp edge. That must be like the ceremony knife. Oh, fuck. Fuck. Shit. Bing, is this the knife that they used on you? It must be. I think so. It is. Oh my God. I wrap it. I, I grab it with the cloth. Mm-hmm. Stash it. Mm-hmm.

Sweet Caroline's a magi or she's working with them. Wait, Billy, what did that note say? I don't know. It's got a B on it though. Can you read it? I grab it out. These are really hard to identify. That's pretty good. Well, I read it. Is it just a piece of paper or is it an envelope? Uh, it's a folded up piece of paper. I unfold it. Uh, yeah. Okay. So it says, Billy, I kept my word as long as I could. Oh, it's the book guy. Oh no. Irk. Irk. Um, who's really in control here? Okay.

Something that you would remember is Irk, when you guys shook him down all those, uh, weeks ago or whatever, told you that they were contacted by an orc that like contracted them in tracking Bing down. Is Caroline a magi? Yeah. Okay. All you know is that, all you know is that no, that they worked for her. She, she hired them functionally. Wait, did she hire them to fuck up Bing? Yeah. That's what Irk said. Oh shit. Do you think Maggie has anything to do with this?

Is she being playing along with us? She might've been then. Who's really in control here? You said that. What's not, what, here's not what it appears to be. Um. And don't say it cloaks a robe. I think that it stands to reason. That your current situation is not exactly what you believe it is with Maggie pearls on the boat. Oh fuck. What does she wanted us off the boat so she could take Pearl? Oh my God. Fuck. And tuck throws Caroline on his back and starts running to the dock.

You run like through the crowd. You're, you're like pushing your way through the market. You see some like people in a, in a, a variety of uniform, all carrying weapons being like, Hey, pointing at you. No time. And you, uh, you run to the dock and you, even as you're approaching, you're like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. And you get to the pier and you see the clear water sailing off. No. No. No. And that's where we're going to end it for this week.

I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always playing Tacoma Dome, the barbarian Abdul Aziz. Fuck. Playing Ving, the half elf druid, Paul Oppers. Billy, you sunk the wrong boat. Playing fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica Tai. I'm sorry. Thank you to Aaron Reed for our intro and outro music. Thank you to, uh, all of our Imadrian, Imadrian Patreons to support us. This just keeps getting weirder. Thank you to all of our amazing Patreons to supporters all around the world.

If you want us to support us on Patreon and get hours and hours of bonus content, monthly live streams, including Q and A's and live games, uh, and a whole other whack of shit. Join us at patreon.com slash Spout Lore or Spout Lore.com slash money, please. We're also online at Spout Lore. Most. Places. Catch 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 of rest in revelry.

And though our journey may be like a conclusion. We will not leave you without a rest. Resolution. Return next week to hear some more. Whilst you commute or do your chores. And for you I gladly Spout Lore.