Episode 7 – Stop…Don’t…You Love Me

Now the 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 who knows not his home, he loves to sing and fight. Fingers have health, he shifts his shape, and wields his spear with great might. Billy's a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart.

Best and brightest they may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts. So gather round, friends, and listen close, for the tale's about to start. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Spout Lore. I'm your Game Master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the Barbarian, Abdul Aziz. Hello, everybody. Playing Ving, the Half-Elf Druid, Paul Oppers. Hello, everybody. And playing Fat Billy, the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai. Hello.

When last we left our heroes, Billy had escaped through the window of hither and yon, out into the mysterious and dangerous Gray Marshes in search of Cloud Piercer, and hoping to avoid the dangers that exist within, the threat of Mother Never Was. Billy found a gigantic dragon turtle while attempting to attract Cloud Piercer via stolen bread, while Tuck and Ving realized that Billy had escaped. And our bread was gone. And there was no bread.

The party eventually came back together, but not before attracting the attention of the massive dragon turtle which emerged from the pond. Battle was waged. Ving summoned a powerful elemental turtle spirit, which did battle with the dragon turtle, allowing them- Pretty original, I'd say. Pretty original. Is that a turtle? Making that a turtle. You explicitly said it looks like fan art of Donatello. There we go. Perfect. You said it has abs. That sounds like you, not me. No, that wasn't me.

I was doing you. The party emerged above the fogs of the marsh to find a tree piled with belongings, discovered to be a shrine to Mother Never Was, people leaving offerings for deals made in days past. Billy, observing the shrine, almost subconsciously grabbed the little lock of hair and stuffed it in his little pocket, unbeknownst to him, while the party waited in the higher branches for Cloudpiercer.

Ving attempted to commune with the spirits of the marsh and attracted the attention of Mother Never Was herself. A cryptic conversation was had with the ancient spirit of not making choices, and we kind of intimated through conversation, through some roundabout speak from Mother Never Was, that she really wants to help with what's going on, but is unable to due to her nature of not being able to interact with the world except through the making of deals.

So a deal was made, via Tuck, in exchange for their safety, that Mother Never Was can take one choice from Tuck's future when that choice is made and use it for her own benefit. We don't know what that's going to look like, but it is probably going to be scary. It's a Chekhov's gun that you now have. Yeah, I love it. Cloudpiercer showed up a little bit later, the storm and the recently betrayed Gale on his heels.

The storm came, started whipping up all manner of debris and detritus as Gale attempted to take down the party and Cloudpiercer. The waning knife was exchanged, and the party took off back towards Hitherin Yon, narrowly avoiding Gale. Examining the waning knife within Hitherin Yon, the gang was treated to a vision of Rian's birth and the creation of the waning knife, into which Lilian took a piece of the moon and a piece of her love for Rian, implanting it in the knife itself.

Now the party has what we believe to be the only weapon capable of harming the Gibbous Man. They then decided to travel to Hibernia, via Hitherin Yon, to protect one of the remaining and most vulnerable pieces of Lilian's moon, now that the grey, the magical fog which surrounds Hibernia and that part of the Sea of Graves, has begun to lift.

Then, traveling to Hibernia, a little bit of a mix-up in the placement of the bar led the group to being in the center of Hibernia's village itself, where they observed an argument between Oval members and Clade leaders, Aldus of the Empty Sky, leader of the Windwalkers, and Stoneye, king of the Selkies, during which they discovered that Grimshay, former leader of the Oval Council, is dead, and the council is in disarray.

They emerged, Tuck tried to get himself into the council with everybody else by declaring being king of the Druids, which was a big swing, and being essentially trespassers. They were brought before the council at Spearpoint. Wanted to trespass. An argument took place at the council, to say it lightly, as Stoneye demanded that the three be ejected, and he be allowed to kill Tuck for essentially sidestepping the Gesh, which he finds extremely disrespectful.

Aldus of the Empty Sky has said that the Thunderbirds which are on their way are not their enemies, but their allies, and that any aggression happened on the part of the Druids. And Ving showed off his constellation scars, the words written in the sky, the Druids' ancient knowledge, in an attempt to have the council hear them out. And Velary, the willow's daughter of the Oval Council, has asked the council to just listen. So that is where we find our heroes now. Bound to the Knowledge Tree.

The council has decided the only way they're going to listen to you is if you are absolutely the least bit of risk possible. So all of you tied arm to arm, stretched around the trunk of the Knowledge Tree. You dare bound your king? Don't I? I thought we were bros. He groans so loudly. Say your piece. Oh, whose turn is it? And I look at, I guess I look at Billy and Ving, I'm like, whose turn is it to talk now? Whose turn is it? I guess I haven't said much. I can say some things.

Billy, you have things to say. You are a fairy. They defer to you. Do they? I don't know if they like me that much. They're afraid of you, yeah. But they defer to you as a powerful being. I kind of lunge at them a little bit. And they all hoof. All right. The floor is mine. Okay, um, the Thunderbirds are on their way, and I know you know that, but they're not coming to help you. You see Aldous crosses his arms at this. Thronebreaker has been, I don't know how you say it, overtaken? Corrupted.

Corrupted by something that I'm sure you are aware of by now. And Billy looks up to the sky. And he says, when you read it, look between the stars. Nice. I don't think we should speak his name here. And you see the council members looking back and forth at each other. The campus man. Doug whispers it really quietly. Doug, that's still out loud. I heard you. Sorry. Try and make this super intense for them. Sorry. Sorry, Billy. No, it's okay. I don't think they heard you.

Noreen is like, I absolutely heard you. Her ears, her cat ears go forward. Yeah, yeah. And you will not speak his name in this place. I won't say it again. And you see, okay, so I'll say, somebody give me a discern realities. Billy. Six. I will aid you. Okay. With an eight. Okay, so that gives you one question, makes that a seven. So one question off the discern realities list. As you say this, there's like a ripple that goes through the council.

We're in a place where these are the most powerful druids on the planet. They can feel the movement of the world. They know kind of what the deal is. But it seems like they're just not in agreement on what it means. Right. Like they know what is happening and who's coming and all that, but they don't seem to be able to agree how to meet it. Okay, so maybe what here is useful or valuable to me. Yeah. Great.

Maybe what here is useful or valuable is Billy's kind of just like watching and Ving, because you guys are kind of watching together. Tuck is just like, here I am with my king. The center of all power yet again. Ready to serve. Ready to serve. The realm. The realm. The king of the north. Tuck's been reading a lot of Lust Unbound and Knights of Rodanthe and stuff like that. So he's reading a lot of knight fiction. Yeah. My king, I am your knight, and I know I must not touch.

The arm stretch back is making this like really erotic. You said we were tied like this. You said you were tied like that. No, you introduced hiding. You said touching. Yeah. You said they put a codpiece on me. No, they took it off. They tied us up butt to butt. Ass to mouth. The most secure way to bind a prisoner. A fantasy Caterpillar. What's it called? That's what the guy that made this human centipede thought he was doing, fantasy catcher Billy.

So what is useful is, Tuck is not paying attention, Mears and Victoria are also bound to the tree and you can see that there's a lot of anger that you brought not just outsiders but like seemingly fucking nobodies to the council rock. But Billy, you're noticing the eye, the glances being passed between people and you are picking out where everyone stands in terms of the council's dissension.

So what you're picking up is the Willow's daughter, Velari, the oldest druid, and Noreen of the Quiet Step seem to be, like they're looking at each other more than they're looking at anybody else. The Stone Eye seems to be apart from everyone. Oh, on his own. He's got like his huge arms crossed across his barrel chest. Bloodied knuckles, scars on his arms. He's been in a bad fight recently and he's not looking at anybody. A lone wolf just like me. Just like you.

Yeah, he's on the other side of the tree. He's facing away from everybody. He's got one whole side of the tree. They put him face against the tree. And we're facing out, having conversations with people. Guys, what's going on out there? My king. Lips to the tree. My king. My king. Face mushed against the bark. My king, what's happening? We kill her every day. My, what smooth skin you have, my king. Tell me. Tell me where my chance is and I'll release myself. Want to know my chance?

One, two, three. Here's my chance. You just let me know when it's time. One, two, yeah. And we're like, ow, ow, ow, ow. Tuck, stop it. My king, I did not mean to harm you. But there is one on the other side of the tree who's like me. A lone wolf. A man without, without heart or hum. A man like me, big guy. Big guy just like me. Stern-eyed. He only sees people at least as big as he is. Anyone smaller than Tuck is like in protect mode. Anyone bigger, fight mode. Yeah, fight or fuck.

Fight, fuck, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. He doesn't have fight or flight, he has fight or fuck, yeah. You gotta be at least six foot nine to ride this ride. The forbidden fruit, my white whale. Come to me, my whale. Wait, does he want to fuck Stern-eyed? Yeah, I think maybe he doesn't know. Who knows? He's a very, remember, he's a elephant seal. He's got shapes for days. Shapes for days. He's got lumps and bumps. Yeah, that's what's happening. All to graze. That's what's happening.

On the other side. The camera goes back there every once in a while and you'll see the wind blow and Tuck's butt is like out to the cliff. Oh, mighty wind blows from your lungs of strong. Oh, the fog tickles. I feel the breath of the world upon my taint. Oh my god. Jesus. Sorry, there's one more piece to what I was telling Billy. Sorry. No, not at all.

Billy, the last piece that you put together is that Aldous of the Empty Sky, who I believe turns into an eagle and is leader of the Windwalkers, is making a lot of eye contact with Hadar, a man eater. So boys for the boys and girls for the girls? I think I have said man in the past. Both apply. They are making a lot of eye contact with Aldous and it seems like something is about to happen. Pop off. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh. Oh. Uh. What? Uh. Trap expert. Yeah. Do you mean shoot first? Oh wait.

Shoot first. Oh fuck. Shoot first. I'm so sorry. Shoot first. Right. So shoot first means that whenever there's a question of who acts first, the answer is Billy. But it depends on what you want to do. There is like a tension building between Aldous and Hadar. Ugh. Oh. And Stoney seems like he's just furious that you're here. Can I do connections? Oh yeah. Connections might be tough. What are you hoping for?

Like if the fairies have like intel, if they've heard like Hadar and Aldous talking in the past. Oh. Hmm. Like do they have information? Because if they're given weird glances. Interesting. Mm hmm. Yeah, I like that. So you're kind of like putting the vibe out to the fairies for this info. Yeah. So I'll whisper to them. Yeah. Because they're all around. Oh fuck. No. I think connections is with charisma. It's with charisma. So five plus two is seven. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

So I'm whispering out of the corner of my mouth. Hey. Guys. What fairy answers? Pip. Pip. Pip. Pip. Pip. Pip. Pip. Pip. Pip. Pip is what kind of fairy? Pip. Pumpkin. Oh, Pip's your pumpkin one. Yeah, yeah. So a little round gourd like fairy appears up on Billy's shoulders like, yeah what's up? What's going on Billy? What's up with Hadar and Aldous? Oh. Oh. I'm given a look and it's weirding me out.

So on a seven to nine, I believe you get something that's okay or it's got strings attached, right? Yeah. Well, they've been whispering a lot to one another after council meetings. That's shady. What are they whispering? I don't know. But the first fight with the Thunderbirds in which our friend the blubbery one over there took quite a beating, seems like those two got off pretty clean if you're asking me. They were part of the beating. They're in on it.

They've been sniffing around the old well quite a lot these days too. The old well? Do you mean that literally or figuratively? Is that a sex thing? The over-enunciation of figuratively is so funny. Figuratively. I mean it both literally and figuratively. I mean that they've been sniffing around the old well in which they've been playing their part a little too close to the chest. You know what I mean? Going back to the old-timey druid ways.

But then also, they've literally been going to the old well in the center of the island. Oh, where Ving got those snakes? No. Where the moon in pieces? There you go, tips his little pumpkin hat. He's not in the scene, but figuratively. All right. All right. I'm realizing I gave you a lot of information on a 7 to 9, so I think I've got to attach a string of some kind. What can I give you, Pip? What have you got in your pockets? And he crawls down and starts digging around in your bag.

Help yourself then, Pip. My arms are tied. What have you got in your… I have the waning… No, I don't have the waning knife. That'd be so funny. Teddy bear with a secret. With secret stuff in it. I have that black hair with the ribbon. Oh, shit. Pip reaches his long… He's got arms like pumpkin vines that are wound into little fingers. Yeah. And he reaches into your pouch and he pulls out a locket of black hair. There's hair where there wasn't hair before. What's this from, Billy?

I don't know what that is. Well, I think it looks quite fetching. And he presses it onto his face and gives himself a big black mustache. He's like, what do you think? I'm the sheriff of Pumpkin Town. Yee-haw. It actually suits you pretty well. All right, well, I'm going to take this and surely nothing will come of it. And he tips his hat. If you need anything else, just give me a call. All right. And he scuttles off into the fairy wilds. So I tell, well, I tell Vang for sure what I heard.

Tuck is so far away from here. Tuck is muttering a lot. Bing. Bing. Billy. Mirrors. Oh, mirrors. I'm also here. All right, mirrors. Victoria, can you hear this? I can hear it from where I am. Everyone is having the conversation. I don't want you to look all at the same time. They all turn their heads in different directions. All this and Hidara, apparently I've been told are in on something together. They've been working with the Thunderbirds is what I take from what I was told.

The good side or the bad side? I think the bad side. We're in trouble. Oh, my God. And I was also told the old well, they've been lingering. They know where the moon piece is. I think so. They must be looking for it. On the distance, thunder starts to roll. They're going to do something, Bing. Winds start to pick up on Council Rock. You can see darkness in the horizon. There's no time to waste. You must set us free. The fight is already here. Bing cuts the ropes with a waning knife. Oh, okay.

All right, roll. With a waning knife. I don't know why. I'm going to ask you to roll Defy Danger Dexterity because a couple things are going to happen. Oh, shit. I imagine, like, a power metal riff starts. Yeah. The storm. Yeah. Oh, this is such a cool song that just came to my mind. What song is it? Oh, fuck. Which one? I think it's Banners of Arai. Sean, this is what you wanted me to play. That's a great album, dude. These tits are out, man. Yeah, they're out. Jesus. There's so much snake.

Can we wait to see how I rolled? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Pull up the cool songs? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do it, do it, do it. Six! Plus dexterity? Zero! You have no dexterity? None! Wow, six. I'll help you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can help. Seven. Seven. Seven. Okay, so that makes it a seven. So that's a partial success. I pull the rope taut. Yeah. This is actually interesting, because this means that everything's going to happen simultaneously except Billie goes first. Oh! Why? Oh, she first?

Because of shoot first. Oh, yes. Billie acts before everybody else does. Okay. So I pull the rope taut. Okay, yeah. So your bonds get cut at the same time as Hadara goes for Noreen. Oh, shit. Aldis grabs Valarie. And he starts to toss her towards the cliff edge. The aid has gotten everybody out. So now all of this stuff is happening at the same time. It's kind of like a slow motion stuff is moving, and then Billie's going just before. So Billie, what do you do? I'm a bad guy now. Does that work?

Oh, sick. Yeah. 100%. Okay. What are you trying to do with it? I would like to freeze something in place. Oh, sick. Oh, yeah. That's rad. Cool. Freeze someone in place. Okay, great. I have to call upon my winter form. Oh, roll plus wisdom. Wisdom, yeah. Okay. So I'm going to roll plus two, six, plus one, seven. Oh, nice. So on a seven to nine, I get two holds. Yes. On a seven to nine, you get two holds. And I think on a seven to nine, you're forced into your winter. Yes. Oh.

To remain there for until. Until a sunrise comes. I can roll out. And it's the fact that we're on Hibernia. Yeah. More. Like. Oh. It's like maybe Billie's winter aspect becomes like a little bit more than it usually is. Yeah. Flurry Billie. Yeah. Okay. More than a winter. Great. That's cool. Yeah. Billie almost. It's like he almost disappears into a flurry. Oh, yeah. I don't see him anymore. So this all happens. Hadara goes for Noreen.

You can see like their fangs in their mouth bloody and glinting in the torchlight. Aldous grabs Valarie and starts hurling her towards the cliff face. Stoneye is like pounding across the stone towards them. Billie. Yeah. So Billie. Yeah. He lashes out like one of the flurries. It catches Valarie. Yeah. In this like ice arm that reaches out to catch her. Awesome. Yeah. So she's like crack, crack, crack, like frozen in place.

As you can see, if you hadn't done this, she would have been sent flying off the edge of this cliff. Yeah. And Aldous sees that ice crackle up out of the ground and catch her. Turns. Sees that you're like surrounded by flurries and snow. And the next frame jump, there's a huge eagle there. And he starts taking off into the sky. I would like to shoot him down with my bow. Oh, the bow. Yeah. Ding, ding, ding. So volley. 2d6 plus dexterity. Okay. Oh, great. I got a 10. Ooh. Okay. Natch. Yeah.

Roll your damage. Four. Four. Yeah. So you send an arrow sailing into the night sky, which slams into the chest of Aldous in his eagle form. And blood just like gouts out. But he continues flying off into the trees. Oh, no. So he is heading off deeper into Hibernia. Like, into the island? Into the island. Okay. And Hidara is taking Noreen to the ground. And you can see, like, fur sprouting up as they take on their wolf form. Stone Eye is charging across Council Rock. Tuck, what do you do?

Tuck feels the rope slacken. Mm-hmm. So he, like. Wakes up. Wakes up. Wakes up. Wakes up. He goes, ugh. My bones have been cut. My bones have been cut. And he does, like, a twist. He spins around the tree. Yes. And he sees his white whale going to save his friend. Uh-huh. And he goes, I won't give you the satisfaction of saving your friend. Oh. And I grab the axe and I throw it immediately at Hidara. Hidara. All right. Okay. Go for. This is also volley. So this is dexterity. Well, that's bad.

So, yeah. I failed. I got a four. A four, huh? The axe was flying over the cliff. Yeah, absolutely. You threw your axe toward a target. Yeah. At the edge of a cliff. Yes. You knew this was a possibility. Yep. Larry, Terry, and Chad sails right past Hidara. Off the edge. Shit. Into the darkness. Oh, fuck. The purple. The purple goes. Did you see the purple? The light? Yeah. As Stone Eye completes the task. and tackles Hidara off of Noreen, who is bleeding heavily.

Has like a chunk taken out of her neck. Oh, fuck. Yeah. I go to her. Yeah. I run to her and like bound the wounds. Great, yeah. This would probably be. A couple hands? Oh, no. I guess it's not a player thing. It's an NPC. So you could probably do wisdom. Defy danger wisdom. Oh, a 13. Oh, Jesus Christ. Yeah. That's a 13. That's a 13. That's a 13. That's a 13. That's a 13. That's a 13. That's a 13. That's a 13. That's a 13. That's a 13. That's a 13. That's a 13. That's a 13. Jesus Christ. Yeah.

So you see she's like looking at. I go still. And I use like a little bit of my life symphony to calm the moment. Mm-hmm. And to get her blood to slow down. To stop gurgling out. Yeah. And she like you can see. This is an experienced healer as well. She like reaches up and pinches off something in her own neck. Mm-hmm. As this happens, she changes before you into a powerful long-limbed panther. The blood starting to like clot around the neck and she darts off into the forest.

After the flying guy? You would assume. Okay. Yeah. So the people on the cliff are now Valari who is frozen, all of you, and Stonai is fighting Hidara Maneater. Yeah. Tuck wants to help Stonai. Okay. Great. What does their combat look like right now? Yeah. Currently. Like a Roman. Hidara is kind of halfway between. It's interesting. The druids seem to have different methods of transforming into their animal forms. Uh-huh. This was just a bird suddenly, whereas Hidara is like becoming a wolf.

Okay. So they're kind of halfway between right now where they've got long claws, fur, but still have like arms and legs. Wolf in London style. Exactly. Like the snout is lengthening as they are fighting and Stonai is just walloping them. Yeah. In his human form, just hammer blows. Yes. Okay. So they're going to do a two-on-one fight, Captain America and Bucky versus Iron Man. Yeah. Yeah. Back and slash, 2d6 plus strength. 11. Okay. Yeah. Go ahead and roll your damage. Which is a d10. Wow. 10.

Inside the leather cuff. Yes. Amazing. So Tuck, he has thrown the axe, lost it, went, fuck. But as he kept running. I'm going to make this worth it. Yeah. He goes. Jumps as Stonai is like holding Hidara and like goes, all 350 pounds of Tuck elbow on the top of Hidara's head. Crack. Oh Lord. Oh yeah. Skull like elbow, crack, skull, rock. Yes. A fracture forms underneath his skull. Yeah. Yeah.

And Hidara, you can see like the bell ringing in the eyes as he, he spins underneath away from that blow as it's hit. And you can see the changes like completing the limbs are becoming like long loping legs. And you can see them making the calculation of do they stay in fight or do they run? What are you waiting for? Nice. Oh, sure. Would you cry at a challenge to your enemies on a 10 plus they treat you like the most obvious threat to be dealt with and ignore your companions.

And so they, as they're making that calculation, I spit and I go, do it, pussy, cat, 10. So they treat you as the most obvious threat and you get a bonus on, uh, damage towards them. Yes. Yeah. So, uh, now a huge, huge slate gray furred wolf bleeding heavily from the teeth where it looks like a massive crack formed as a tooth was knocked out. Whoa. Dives at you. Shit. Teeth bear. It bears you to the ground. Can I take a shot? Yeah, absolutely. I take a shot with my bow and arrow. All right.

Volley plus dexterity, plus dexterity three. So this is a hard failure. Something bad happens. Shoot tuck in the head. I think, I think as you're, as you're shooting, you're, you're like just missing. You're rolling around too much and you've only used a bow like two or three times in your life. In your whole life. I've always had one with me though, apparently, but above your head, there's a crack, like a peel of thunder and it starts to rain. They're here. Yeah. The rain starts lashing down.

The storm is here. Billy, you have frozen Valaria in place. You see that she's trying to pull herself back to the rock. Like roots and vines are reaching up out of the cliff side and trying to wrap themselves around her body and pull her back over the edge. What do you do? Like to help? Yeah. What do you do in this situation? Tuck is fighting a giant wolf. Uh, two of the druids have run off and Stone Eye is, uh, is trying to get in the middle of the conflict between, uh, Tuck and Hadara.

Or do you comfort Ving for missing? Also, Mirrors and Victoria are kind of like standing around the edge. Mirrors is a hireling. Mirrors is a hireling. Oh, yeah. What do you want me to do? I don't know. Aren't you the hireling? They all turn into animals and stuff, but you can command him if you want to. I'm going to command him. Okay. Yeah. Mirrors, do something. Yeah. Mirrors has the sword in his hand and he's looking around like, uh, uh. Get her. Valaria, pull her to safety. Okay.

Uh, so go ahead and roll 2d6.

plus oh wait i'm i roll for me yeah yeah you do okay seven to eleven okay mirs reaches out with his metal arm and grabs valari tuck yes snap snap snap like huge wolf mouth bite what do you do help you're on your own i can i use my last hold yeah um i want to i guess terrify an enemy oh yeah yeah nice with winter billy yeah winter billy i think you just spend this hold i do yeah really because you've already taken the the downside of you are pushed into your winter form so your charisma is like now nothing you just do more damage okay and you're kind of mean now i want to like leap forward as like almost like in the shape of a liar wolf like a wintry liar wolf nice the like uh whipping like snows and winds around you are taking a wolf shape yeah that's sick okay so yeah tuck you see these like snapping jaws getting inches and inches closer to your throat holding it back and all of a sudden you see the like bloodshot wolf predator eyes like look up and see this terrifying frost visage in front of them and they pause for a moment what do you do i do the thing where i grab its top and bottom jaw and i start like ripping it open yeah yeah 12 all right roll your damage here we go fuck you wolf six okay you feel as you're pulling this druid's jaws apart yeah in his animal form you feel like part of the jaw dislocate yeah and like and uh he tumbles off and tries to back away from you and is turning and running into the trees what do you guys do i have a my glove with venom paralytic if you can get up there i'm going to say to be defy danger dexterity to get up there fast enough to put them under so then we can try and like a question possibly so defy danger dexterity to get up there quick great i got snake eyes it's called oh man i got snake eyes plus nothing dexterity yeah yeah yeah that's plus dexterity that's catastrophic that's rough yeah i just like like the thing just goes slide off the edge get my axe i'll get your axe so you slide after uh after hadara man eater as she takes off into the trees and stone eye steps in front of you also chasing after hadara and you slam into his body and you both go tumbling to the ground and as you look up you just see like the wolf tail disappear damn it and uh the rain is lashing down the thunder is rolling valari is like slumped against the tree and mirrors is holding her up and victoria is standing by moodily what do you all do i'm trying to get stone eye off of me what have you done let go of me what have you done he escaped you got in my way and they pushes himself no get your arm out of there and uh gets himself to his feet i look at the horizon rolling black clouds only lit by the light of the moon and stars crackles of lightning like veins inside can i see if the thunderbirds are coming you can rule the certain realities for sure yeah uh so that's six plus intelligence wisdom wisdom seven okay one question what is about to happen the thunderbirds are here throne breaker's flock has arrived you had less time than you thought ahead of them you don't know if the winds are helping them if the storm is pushing them along or if throne breaker is just that fast even though his massive size would make that mind-boggling to consider but you have 20 minutes before they make landfall we have to get to the well we have to get through the wall that sorry i'm just gonna in my head we said it at the same time we have to get to the well we have to get to the well is that where is that where hadara and uh aldous are going i don't know okay we gotta go uh and i tell that to stone eye i go they're gonna try and take what's in the well he wants to do it himself he doesn't want your help stone eye you were right we're on your side we know we like we know what happened you were right help us come on there's no time to be angry after this we're finishing this if there's an after this we'll deal with it and he yells at mirs you get her to safety and mirs goes okay and starts taking valari down the path back is there anyone else on the rock uh there's no one else here except for victoria okay let's go i jump off the cliff in the direction of the axe okay all right ving you're diving off the rock okay you're aiming for the ocean i suppose i imagine we're above the ocean yes you're above the ocean yeah yeah great okay roll yeah okay 2d6 plus dexterity great 10 yeah you leap off just like the silence of the air whipping past your ears the storm clouds rumbling in the distance the ink black ocean beneath you you see underneath the water the barest pinprick of amethyst light right oh and you are in the abyss the ocean the sea of graves lies around you i want to discern realities okay or commune with the whispers commune with the whispers you could commune with the whispers yeah uh six plus nine oh i will you can aid oh billy can aid from a distance great eight yep thank you so that makes it a 10 so you are communing with the spirits of the sea of graves and on the 10 plus the vision is helpful and clear to me and i like if you want to come bring in because i go down and i get the axe and i use the weight of the axe to keep me at the bottom yeah oh yeah and i'm down here for a moment in the stillness i just tell tlc to stay with bang yeah oh yeah keep him safe keep him safe so you grab onto this axe as it's like arcing down through the water and it's dragging you deeper into the depths oh cool you feel your gills open up they've been hidden for a little bit i think so they open up and you take the sea water in yeah a little uncomfortable and you are surrounded with the exception of the the surprisingly faint light from tlc by just darkness primordial darkness i hold the axe in front of my the cave where the tree is and i try and make the moonlight shine i'm trying to give a little shine through the axe okay so you sink down to the bottom you feel like gritty stone and sand underneath your feet my hair is waving like upwards yeah like a halo around your head and you see like an after image of the of the rock of hibernia like coming up out of the base of the world and the the moonlight from what must be the piece of lillian which rests in its center kind of leaking out into the ocean and this energy which is pouring out into the sea of graves as you try and connect with the spirits of it your vision goes far it follows the waters to the sea of graves to the pillars within into the tomb at the very center and you as we might recall a long time ago uh cerulean depths as seen from a great height found cracks in the bases oh yes of pillars in the sea and you see this tomb and you see deep into the water where the the tomb sticks up out of the bones of the earth cracks forming and the water carries you into the tomb and you see just for just for a second the form of a sleeping woman illuminated purple light from through the amethyst and as you're watching she stirs a small bubble rises up from the corner of her eye and you're back in your body breaking the surface with the x diving up out of the water back on the cliff what are you doing uh i've told mirs i'm like get valari back to hither and yon and then i point at victoria i'm like you're with us billy what do you want to do do you want to come with us i'm with you okay and mirs is like running ahead of you with valari like over his shoulder basically and he's like go i've got her and he's so much faster than i remember him being yeah even though he's kind of thick he's like strong legs when you met him he was but a boy yeah now he is a man yeah he's a warrior yeah and it actually where we are in the story you're kind of overcome with sort of how far mirs has come you you met him screaming at him in the streets of mudlark he was a little boy a little boy yeah and now this like capable confident warrior takes this druid down the pathway and you're like he's fine you don't have to worry about him and might i add a very fine chef a very fine chef what a fine chef huh greatest he's finally ascended thunder crack boom lightning bolt feathers slowly charred falling to the ground yeah oh charred feathers crackling with energy falling out of the sky the smell of fried chicken in the air 11 spices and herbs crackling in our nose can i uh can i reach out to the fairies can i use connections totally what are you looking for i want to ask them to make a fairy ring for us oh cool around the well yeah around the well just because that's a big move yeah this is going to be connections and then if it works then it's going to be fairy ring yes and you're not going to have as much control over the ring because you're not there i'm not there and your charisma is zero and your charisma is currently zero because you're a winter boy what do you look like right now It looked like a like a furious little storm.

Okay. Yeah. Oh, there's like wind blowing around Yeah, and there's like ice if you come too close it like slices through. Oh, yeah Okay, so six plus two is eight. So on the seven to nine I'll have to settle for something closer It comes with strings attached. Okay, what would strings attached be here? I will owe them something. Oh Okay.

So just a favor offered for a service rendered classic fairy shit Yeah, okay, the fairies want to leave and I'm asking them please this like one big favor like they're scared I want to leave hibernia.

They want to enter deep into the ground Oh, they don't want to be on the material plane at all anymore No because they don't like that the That the sky is exposed now and so they're being seen and they don't want to be seen they need to go somewhere safe They're like worms electrified on the ground. Okay, so you had one of them Literally a worm it says to you if we do this for you. Yeah, you'll help us get back. You'll send us home I'll take all of you home.

Whoever wants to come with me I'll send word and into the dirt and you see a little line go worms along in the ground So you're gonna roll fairy ring now, yes with which is it says dexterity that it is dexterity Yeah, cuz you like weave it. Yes. Yeah That's seven, okay, so this is where things get get complicated not complicated as in it's not gonna work It's just a seven to nine means that you have to be physically maintaining it the whole time So you're leaving that up to these fairies?

Yes, which means that if something happens, it's out of your control Okay, does it mean that Billy has to focus on it the whole time? No, cuz they're doing it for me, right? Yeah, that was the connection but I see what you mean where it's like Billy might have to pay something for this or the or it's just that they might not be able to hold them off for Long, you know, I could take a temporary debility. Well, the fairy ring is in operation. Yeah Should have been doing this the whole time.

That is great. I like that a lot. Yeah, take a debility to Wisdom or Dexter? I mean I used Dexterity. Oh, yeah, Dexter makes sense cuz you're like part of almost part of your body is being used. Yeah maintain it Yeah, I like there's like an AC fairy ring, too. Oh, yeah. Yeah, totally. Yeah, maybe that's how it keeps it safe It like freezes the well It's a very cool idea Okay, so you are running down the path mirrors is off Victoria's behind you.

She's got her sword drawn Is stone I with us stone? I is with you. He's thundering along next to you His big-ass legs pounding into the ground Like Paul look to you like No tux locked into the just see the big titties It's a great album so much power you would hold with tits that big. Yeah, those look uncomfortably She's about to fall over. Yeah, imagine tits this big waist this small. You're not holding anything up Holding does the one on the bottom have arms. Nope. Nope. Is she a snake lady?

Oh She might be a snake. Anyway, they're too big Listener eternal champion great band ravening iron great album. And if you look at the cover, I didn't have anything to do with that You brought to all of our attention because it's a good album, okay You're right.

I blame Abdul Yeah, I honestly didn't even know there were tits on the cover I was just listening to the music I was just listening dad I swear I was just listening for the article Yeah, so the the rain is picking up and the winds are whipping Yeah, you've got like I said 20 15 20 minutes before the Thunderbirds make landfall and ass. Yeah, absolutely hauling Can I talk to star? I well, we're absolutely yeah. Yeah, and he's running a little bit faster than you.

He's just a little bit faster My cardio sucks. How's this guy running so fast? He's so much fatter than me. Why is he running so fast? Yeah, how is he doing this? Yeah, and I go what? Sure, I what happened the last time the Thunderbirds attacked. What happened to Grimshay?

They came out of nowhere We went out into the sea to see if we could head them off or distract them Grimshay He got too bold They struck him down with a bolt of lightning from the sky and I I tell him I go they're coming here for the peace Of the moon that's under the island You guys remember the giant bear that's sleeping under the island If they were if they take that the lunar bear wakes, oh Yeah, what happens when it waited lunar bear wasn't asleep.

It was guarding the moon It was asleep It was there to guard the moon Sleep but it's like the dragon sleeping on the gold, right? the story that we had when we saw the lunar bear first is that the Druids the Hibernians believe that the moons have been a cycle of Lunar bears that are born and then grow and then go into the sky and eat the moon and become the new moon Okay, but I think but the bear is so maternal a mother bear and this is the chunk of the moon that is love Absolutely.

No eternal love. So what I think is that like that is a story, right?

The moon is not a bear this bear is real and I think that it's basically like this this animal might be kind of one of the examples of a melding between the spiritual and the material one of the consequences I was gonna say could be for the Druids that this bear waking up the spiritual giant spiritual energy bear would scare away their animal form It's like the ultimate predator oh shit it will banish them their ability to shape-shift right cuz the Druids shape-shifting is like a consensual connection between them and an animal spirit and we see a like a little bit of a Bellwether of that when like Billy talks to the fairies and they're like we're trying to get the fuck out of here Yes, this place is fucked now.

So maybe the spirits are feeling the same thing Okay. All right, and the mother bears just like no more you have nothing to do with my children. Yeah, totally.

Yeah Yeah, so stone I hear as you say they're going for the the piece of they're going for the well Yeah, and he starts running faster I Had a little bit more in me it passes Victoria If they take that the bear wakes and if the bear wakes this all ends Okay You know what you're running with someone that's more fit than you yeah, and they're trying to have a conversation I mean, I know from the other side.

Sorry when I said, yeah what I meant was no I Can imagine that might be hard for you like you? Okay Okay thing yes, you come up onto the beach Rocky Pacific Northwest Beach, we've all been there wounding up the yacht head and you you're trying to go for the well Do you know where the well is? Yes, of course. It's like my family.

Well But your family's well, it's over there I know where the well is because he's the moon in it and I am of the moon There we go defy danger wisdom to tap into that moon power Nine nine, okay Yeah, you kind of like stop on the crest of this beach and you see that the trees of hibernia above you descending to the Forest. Oh, yeah All these taught high tall pine trees are starting to bow against the winds that are galing some of them are breaking up Oh, the tops are not falling but blowing away.

Yeah, totally. Yeah, and you read Yeah Just gonna we're watching a TV show the other night that's like scary and every time something cool and scary happened I went this is awesome And Yeah, you you reach within this connection that you've had to Lillian ever since for for frost Mm-hmm. I hold the waiting knife in my hand and you feel like yeah, you're waving the blade in the trees Glint's glint's and you've got you've got a heading. Okay, you take off into the tree.

That's Yeah, I take the heading. Yeah, I can hear them running. Maybe I'm even here Yeah, you can hear them running in the trees.

And as you're like running up the beach Nobody I Think tuck is talking as if people are right next to him and they're like half a can Wow, I love doing tuck boys I Loosened it that's out now guys But as you're running along the beach you see Down down the coastline on a little abutment of earth a familiar cabin familiar hut Hmm that you spent some time in the last time you were on hibernia. Oh Oh, my mother's hut. Yeah, your mother's hut.

And it's just because you're looking in this direction that you see this You see a thundercr- like lightning lashes through the sky in the darkness You see it glint off the waters of the Sea of Graves and out in the water. You see a woman Walking on the waves. Oh my god. Holy shit The winds pick up screaming in your ear and you see off in the distance lightning flashes again massive wings in the clouds Oh What do you do? I keep running. You take into the trees or down the coast.

Do you join your friends? Or do you see this who this woman is? I want to use life symphony to it's basically I have a storm But no, no, this is captivating other people around. Yeah, you don't have I have the storm anymore. I know I don't John Is this funny because this has come up a lot so many times. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um, I I See a path heading up into the trees towards the well It's literally like either be this way or this way.

Yeah, there's there's the path and then it's there's like a Peninsula that where there's no more land. Mm-hmm And there's the road and I turn run off the beach onto the surface of the water Oh Sprint towards her You can walk on the water I'm trying to I'm just gonna say yeah Mastering the elements. Okay, I'm making an elemental element elemental elemental form elemental mastery There's got to be something cuz then I can't fuck with you if it's bad.

Okay, great Nice 2d6 plus con for elemental form elemental form plus con. Oh snake eyes again Snake eyes again. I want to sacrifice myself so he can he can do it. No The choice and my cons too, so I got four, okay, so you you run out to the beach and you start Stepping out onto the water and you feel it like firm up under your steps and then let you go So your step you're like waiting out into the water You see this woman's silhouette on those dark waves only lit by lightning.

I try to climb on the steps again I try and keep moving as fast as I can Yeah, you're pulling yourself out into the water and you see as you get closer cuz she's approaching. Mm-hmm She's a push. She's getting closer to the island and you're at a point where you start seeing features like a dream It is it's very dreamlike. This is an extremely surreal experience for you, but you see this woman long Simple robe white robe and you see she is tall.

She's lean She has long gray hair that you remembered lightning flashes between her and I oh Through the lightning with my light sight. Yeah. Oh you see your mother When the light flashes and you make eye contact with her. Mm-hmm All you see is cold blank empty eyes. What and we're gonna cut back into the trees. Whoa You are running as quickly as you can through the forest of Hibernia. How are you navigating? Oh stone. I I guess is ahead Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm following stone.

I had Billy knows the island. That's true. Yeah, he's barreling through the trees Billy as you're running through the forest, you see fairies all through the woods running away in the opposite direction The ring I asked you for the ring you feel the ring is held But many fairies are running off in the other direction. They're terrified of what's about to happen.

Oh Cuz the bear they know right shit and Billy you feel as you're running you kind of there's like a stutter step as You feel like a jolt go through your body. Oh Someone is attacking your ring. What do you do? Okay, can I shadow dance I'll get there faster do it. Oh my god this I will let's let's let's let's let's hold on Let's just remember this is high stakes on Hibernia. Yeah, the veil. I hate to use the word veil in a fantasy sense It's so trite.

Okay, but the barrier between here and the fairy is Incredibly thin I think we talked about how there is a risk when Billy shadow dances here of losing all through Oh, yeah, like becoming lost And he's already losing his Billy Ness in winter form. I just wanted that on the table. Okay, it's dangerous here stay. Yeah. Hi Should I do that? You should absolutely do it. It's cool as hell. It's just also dangerous. What are the odds of you rolling snake eyes?

Twice Six plus less wisdom wisdom Okay, nine ten. Fuck. Yeah So you get three holes get three holes. Yeah, okay So you fully you feel this jolt go through your body and you just leave it entirely My body because remember when you shadow dance you leave the bot the boy. Yeah. Oh, yeah, but I'm behind you So you just see Billy like hit the ground I slide Instinctively scoop him up. Yeah. Yeah. Do you realize what's do you talk realizes what's happening?

I know Billy doesn't collapse like this unless he His blood sugar is So he's either gone into a diabetic coma Or he's eaten way too much It's hard to tell but it's like usually in the high-stakes situations he's in the veil one time he didn't go into a diabetic And bail is such a fun word On the veil of insulin, yes, I scoop him up and I put him like in a pupus basically that I always have yeah Great. Oh, yeah. I love that.

Like the idea that tuck kind of wears like almost like a kilty sash all the time Yes, but it's mostly for sticking Billy in there. Yeah Yeah, and also I guess attaching all the stuff that he uses. Yeah and hiding his dick and balls Uh, there's so much wind though today. It's really flappy. So my dick is being Long fast run every once in a while you hear Every once in a while.

Yeah It just reaches him because it swings out and then back and no it swings up hits his belly Anyway, just do the cool thing We Have talked in the past about how the fairy looks different here as well. Yes So what is it Billy emergence from his body everything glows here? Yeah I think it's very bright because it's like dark forest when you leave your body. So so many fairies So it's like looking like it's so many stars. Oh, yeah Like the Milky Way here.

Yeah and further into the woods you see like a font Yeah, a geyser of energy that you assume is the well and around it like a hard icy ring that is chipping and shattering because you see oh Interesting we've never looked at them like this you see two animal spirits Attacking your fort you see a huge wolf and a huge eagle tearing at your fort in the fairy Like their reflections through the spirit world. Oh my god. I'm going to defend Okay, nice And okay, so it's with Constitution Constitution.

Yeah, or you can spend a fairy hold. No, I'm going to roll Okay, I only have one left. So you have three shadow dance hold remember So as a fairy that means that you can spend them to do things, you know, very okay Once you spend your last one, then you're back. Okay, then I will use one to defend. Okay, great Yeah, so I think that that would mean in this case that you get like a 10 on defend, you know what I mean?

Okay, I will deal damage to the attacker equal to my level Okay Wait, no nine nine. Yeah. So who are you going for Hidara or all this all this? Okay, so all this you see this Hidara is pretty fucked up But all this is all this has got no points on the board. You know what I know for Yes, all right So you see like like scarlet blood pouring from the wounds and misting off into the Oh black blood Black dust. Oh Yeah, okay.

So you expect to see scarlet blood, but what you see is a spray of black dust out of his chest corrupted huge spirit eagle wings like Flapping and a massive piercing beak slamming into your fort. How do you approach? I approach like a wind sick and you Blast into all this with this icy wind dealing.

Yeah through his the pierced and piercing part in his Oh, yeah Very cool and you Force him backwards a little bit away from it and he shrieks and screams in his eagle form It cuts more slices through his form. Yeah, and there's more black dust Emerging from this spiritual form and you're seeing beyond the form and through to the outer dark Compromised So deep tuck. Yes, Billy hit the ground you picked him up.

We're getting close to the well, you can feel it Yeah, yes, I feel like I'm getting close and I know Billy has gone and done something Things should be here. Oh, right alarming. Yeah your axe, right? You are unarmed. I'm on Forget that Tuck realizes all of this at once and he's like, okay, this is bad. Oh No Tuck takes he takes Billy off and he tosses him to Victoria. Yeah.

Yeah, she catches Billy What do you want me to do with these and I go keep him safe if anything happens to him I will fucking kill you. Okay, and then I I put, I like go faster than I've ever run. I've run so hard and fast. I don't even look at the trees. I close my eyes. Whoa. Tree, tree, tree, tree, tree. Snake eye, snake eye, snake eye, snake eye, snake eye. I close my eyes and I turn off my targeting system and I want to feel where the wolf is and I want to run full, full speed into it.

Talk. Talk. Use your sickness, doc. What? What? Use your sickness bro. Is that a move I have? No, I'm doing the Star Wars thing that you're doing. Oh cool. I'm Obi-Wan Kenobi, it's me Black Spear I'm Obi-Wan Kenobi. He's in the barn doing this. Doc, I can feel you. He's got a mouth full of hay. Yeah. Doc, something cool is happening, isn't it? Oh, and I go, Black Spire, can you hear me? I can hear you. I was just talking to you. To my eyes. Don't make it seem like a thing you're doing.

I'm doing it. The gym introduced it. I can use this now. Agency. Agency. Agency. I have closed my eyes. I have entered the realm of the beyond. No. I am still running. No, don't do it. It doesn't work, remember? No. No chess beam. No chess beam. It doesn't work. And I go to my good boy, my best friend. Don't tell him anything. And I go to my good boy, my best friend. And I go to my good boy, my best friend. And I go to my good boy, my best friend. And I go to my good boy, my best friend.

And I go to my good boy, my best friend. And I go to my good boy, my best friend. Don't tell him anything. I go, we need you now more than our greatest, hour of greatest need. Obi-Wan Kenobi, you are our only hope. We established this, and it doesn't work. It's not gonna work. It can't. It can't work. I go, please, Blacksmire, aid me in this moment. Guide me or come help. Or do the chess beam thing. Or do the chess beam thing. Hold on, you only get one of those things.

You can decide what you're doing when you try. Sean, can I legitimately try the chess beam thing? What does it do again? I don't know. We don't know. His idea is that he wants to summon Blacksmire's light through his coins in his chest. Yes. It shoots a beam of demonic beating power. Sunstone energy. Sunstone energy out of the stones in my chest. Yeah. That's cool. Let's see how it goes. Okay, yeah.

And then I tell Blacksmire, I go, I wasn't even thinking of doing this until Sean started resisting it. Oh, come on, no. And then I go, please, Blacksmire, lend me your breath. What are you rolling for this again? I roll dog. I think we've established that this is not a thing that can happen in this world, so breaking the rules of the world makes sense. Oh, breaking the law? Breaking the law, yes. You've already done breaking the law, I think, to do this. Oh, yeah. You just keep failing.

It failed, but I did. So I'm gonna make you do it again. You have to break the law again. I'm breaking the law. What are you taking a debility to? Everything. What? No, you said one thing. I take a debility to, I guess, what makes… Intelligence? I guess, yeah, intelligence. Or con. You're trying to channel energies through your body. That's hard. Yes. I make myself a conduit, and so I roll con. Yeah, for conduit. To do it. Come on, do it. Okay. Come on, do it. Take a debility.

Breaking the law. What is it? Take a debility to one stat to make an impossible thing possible. Still have to roll. Yes. So can I roll for, like, whatever this connection I have with Black Spire is? What would that be? I think we've… Oh, you know what? Maybe this is a demon of loyalty, or whatever it is. Right. Like, you're using the loyal connection between you and Black Spire to try and do this now. Yeah. So roll plus charisma to gain a boon from your demon on a seven to nine.

The demon offers the boon, but causes mental damage. I shouldn't have made it charisma. On a fail, you lose control. Okay. Please. And then I go even deeper into the void, and I reach out to the demon of loyalty, and I go, no one is more loyal to a boy than his dog. And his dog to this boy. And his dog to this boy. He crossed an ocean to be with me, and I destroyed my friendship with Sean to get him. You made a mockery of my game and a mockery of my world. Please, demon. Help me. Help me.

So, roll plus charisma. It's a five and a one. It so barely worked. Plus charisma, which I have a minus one on. So, six, seven, eight. Seven and eight. Shit. What? Jeez. And what's the seven to nine on this? On a seven to nine, the demon offers a boon, but causes mental damage. Okay. What does a seven to nine look like on this? Wait, you got it? I did. You got something. So, the light comes out. Yeah. Yeah. And it causes mental damage. Yes. Yeah.

I think we were saying it's like, is it equivalent to your damage, or is it just a D6? Oh, I do damage to myself. You're hurting yourself. Right, yeah. It is a D10. Yeah. Go ahead and roll it. Here we go. Eight. Wow. You're not getting your armor for that. Okay. Oh, boy. Holy shit. Where are these coming from? Embers. I just fully lost, like, a third of my points. Yes, that's true. Hey, those are the stakes, baby. Eighteen. So, okay, you're going to describe this. Yes.

Not exactly what it does, but you're going to describe what it looks like. Yes. So, you're running forward through the trees. You feel this energy building in front of you. You close your eyes. You close your eyes. Out on the outside world, we're seeing you just miss trees. That's awesome. So close. And you feel that building up, and then, boom, eyes open. Eyes open. Time to go. I feel heat in my chest so much. Oh, boy. And then Jack goes, oh! Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.

Black Spider, what have you done? He did not expect it to hurt this much. It hurts so much. Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh, no. Oh, no! There's a clearing around the well. He smashes through the clearing, eyes alight, mouth alight. Light coming from your eyes. Light's coming from your mouth. This bright thing of light emanating from my chest, kind of like building a bubble off of my chest. And then I hear Black Spider go, all right, bro, I'm going to give it to you. I'm going to shoot!

And then I go, wait, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! And then silence. I try to aim it at the wolf. You're just spraying it everywhere. Everywhere. Typical talk. Just spraying it all over the place. It came sooner than I thought! It came sooner than I thought! All right. Roll your, you're going to roll your, you know what? You're going to roll your damage twice and take the highest. Oh, shit, yes! 2d6 take the highest. 2d10. Five. Oh, wait, 2d10 take the highest. 2d10 take the highest, yeah. Five.

Five damage. Okay. Not an absolute slam dunk. No. But Hidara, Maneater, in the form of a giant slate gray wolf, is caught in the blast fully. Already grievously injured. Sorry, can we just recognize that he finally did it? Yeah. I'm blown away. This is amazing. You were in Captain America against Iron Man, now you're Iron Man. Yeah, I did it. Took his, like, his chest, his, like, on fire. Yeah. Hidara is caught in the blast.

You see, like, a good portion of this icy wall that's been built around the well shatter and melt under this beam. Oh, fuck! Shit! Sorry, Billy! But Hidara is hit, like, kind of in the shoulder, and you see it cleave through their body. Oh, I'm dead. And as much physical damage is done to them, you see, as they hit the ground in this wolf form, black dust and smoke is pouring out of their long lupine mouth, out of their nostrils, out of their eyes. What does Billy see? Billy, you are seeing…

It's an explosion of black. Just… Oh! Massive… Like, the light beam was black in this place? No, the light beam was, like, blinding white. But hitting Hidara, just, like, poof! And then it's just, like, all these plumes of black dust blowing around. Yeah, you see them blowing around, and then in the rents that you see in Aldous' eagle form… It's being, like, sucked in. Yes, they're being sucked in through Aldous' wounds. Whoa! Yeah. And Hidara, like, he kind of, like, stumbles to his…

Smoke rising. Your chest is seared. Kentucky fried chicken. Oh, yeah. He, like, his knees get wobbly when he falls, and he's, like, Hidara, Hidara, help me! You gotta help! I did too much! And, yeah, you just, you hit the ground. But Hidara, you see, as you're, like, trying to get yourself back up to your feet, Hidara kicks a few times, and then is still. Sick! Ving. Yes. Out in the water, you're, like, chest-deep in the ocean. Mm-hmm. This woman is standing above you. Your mother. Mm-hmm.

Adernac Allwater. Dead-eyed. Empty. She looks down at you. I reach up for her. She walks right past you. She continues walking to the beach. I clamber after her and grab at her. Ilyana! Yeah, roll a Defy Danger… Let's say Charisma. Mm… Seven. Seven. Seven to nine. So at the name Ilyana, she pauses for a moment and kind of, like, looks up and to the side, and continues walking to the beach. Mother! She pauses. Again. Dithaniel. Ving.

She continues, you're like, you can see her struggling against these words. But she's moving to the beach. Now I want to use Life Symphony. Now that there's somebody else here with me. Yeah. I want to try and bring her to some calm moment. Captivate those around me in the spiritual bliss and togetherness of the natural world around me. Okay. 2d6 plus Kahn. Twelve. Twelve. Okay, so on a twelve, everything calms. And they are like brought into this moment. Yeah. So she stopped.

She's still standing on the water. She's kind of shifting a little bit, kind of shifting more and more as the winds pick up. Because remember, this is, this is, there's a storm. Yeah. Waves are almost breaking around her as she stands here and it's clear she's exerting some sort of influence on the water. But she does stop. I want to go up beside her and I take my bow off my chest and around the handle of the bow is the leather strap that's engraved with her name and Nathaniel's name.

And I want to present it to her as some sort of remembrance of her life from before. So I feel like she's just lost in this wizard state or I don't know what's going on with her. Yeah. So you hand her the bow. No, not the bow, the strap. I take it off. Oh, you take it off fully. I see. Yeah. And she takes it in her hands. And she is looking at the names engraved on the leather, feeling the time-worn feel. How many hands have passed over this? How many times over the years?

And you see like a flicker of recognition in her eyes. She looks up at you, she reaches out a hand and places it on the side of your face. And then you feel a creeping pain as she begins to drain the life force out of you. What do you do? I let her take it. She gave me the life. It's hers to take. Okay. 2d6 plus constitution. Why'd I do that? 12. Okay. I'm going to roll a d12, but you're only going to roll it once. 7. Okay. That's not bad.

You take 7 damage as your mother drains the very life energy out of you. Sounds familiar. Moms, you listening? Yeah. Do better. Yeah. Happy Mother's Day. Oh, yeah. Is that today? I think it's today. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Sunday is Mother's Day, right? That's Mother's Day, I think. Tomorrow is Mother's Day. I thought it was today. No. Sunday, May 10th. Yeah. Tomorrow. Money. Has everybody just…

So, take 7 points of damage as she drains the very life force out of you, and as she's draining it, I want to use helpful hands. And what does helpful hands do? It allows me to heal people. Okay. Like, he can heal others. And I want to give her more. Yeah. I think that makes sense. I will say that I think, just to respect the narrative, whatever you give her, she's taking from you. Yes. Yeah. So, as she's taking, I give her more. Okay. So, you're like… Plus charisma. Plus charisma. Yep.

So, I got 7. Okay, yeah. So, I think this is a straight trade for trade. So, you're going to roll a d8. 4. Okay. So, 4 additional damage. And I think what it is, is that Ving, when she starts extracting this life energy from you, you see like a glint of like recognition. Pain. Pain and recognition in her eyes. And as you feed more of this life energy into her, that recognition grows until her eyes are meeting yours.

Well, she's like allowing something in her to open up to her I'm diving in, basically. Yeah. Go, yeah. Roll me a discern realities. Okay. 5 plus wisdom. 8. So, one question off the list. Who's really in control here? So, you are recalling a lot about what you've learned over the last couple of years. What you knew about your mother and her time as a druid. Her time on Hibernia. This cabin, this hut that she lived in. Her death here, or her supposed death.

And her life before that as the wizard Aedirnac Allwater, a magician who was dedicated to the study of life and what makes life. In the tower, you remember discovering this chamber shattered from the inside, bare footprints leading out into the snow. And you see your mom here before you, blank, but slowly recovering. And your time as an adventurer, finding all of these magical contraptions around the world that are failing as magic left the world.

And you think you're pretty sure you know what happened here. Whatever your mother set up before her death reconstituted her in her tower. But whatever memories she had, something failed along the way. And she did not recover who she was when she was reborn. And something about that drew her back here, to this hut. And now that she's here with you, and you are feeding this energy back into her.

All of my memories and everything from the trove of the Tree of Knowledge, and the tome of druidic knowledge written on my skin, I'm giving back to her. The seed that she prepared for you. Giving her own dreams back to her, that I've witnessed. And as you look at her in your feet, you can feel yourself fading a little bit. You're giving so much into this. And she's looking at you, your eyes meet. And as more of his energy is being drawn from him, by her, he says to her, Stop. Don't. You love me.

And tears start to form in her eyes and fall down her cheeks as the rain lashes both of you. She reaches up, puts her other hand on the other side of your face. And the recognition is there, and she says, My boy, you've done it. 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 of Dulaziz. Playing Ving the Half-Elf Druid, Paul Oppers. Happy Mother's Day.

Playing Fat Billy the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai. Oh, goodbye, everyone. Thank you to Aaron Reid for our intro and outro music. What an absolute gift. If you'd like to hear all the music produced for the show by Aaron Reid and Taylor Swindles, you can find that at Spout Lore, on Spotify, or on Bandcamp, or wherever. And if you'd like to hear… It's actually everywhere but Bandcamp. Everywhere but Bandcamp. Don't go to Bandcamp. Bandcamp's not okay with us. I don't know why.

Actually, I've been using Bandcamp a lot. I love Bandcamp. We do like Bandcamp. Bandcamp is good. Bandcamp gives all the money to the artists. Yes. Or more artists, more money than other places. But we just wanted to put it somewhere where everyone would be able to access it. So we put it up for streaming. But Aaron Reid's original music is at Bandcamp. Yes. And you should listen to that. And Taylor Swindles' band, Neighborhood Libraries.

Thank you so much to all of our Patreon supporters around the world. If you'd like to support the show, join us at patreon.com, or spoutlore.com, please. Patreon supporters like… We've got someone called the Alternatist. Alternatist. That's a cool name, and you are mysterious because of it. Yeah. And then we've got another cool name, Pat. Pat M. Oh, my God. It's Pat. Some people think the name Patrick is cool. Yeah.

Some people who one third of their names is Patrick think the name Patrick is cool. Pat M., you got a name like Shud's. Yeah. And then we've got Vilja. Vilja? Vilheim. I'm looking at the email as well. See how it says Vilja? Vilja? Vil. Vil. Vil. Another mysterious being. Oh, yeah, it is Vilja. Vilja. Thank you so much for your support. Thank you so much. Cool name. This name can't be real. Then we've got a fake name. So we can read it all.

Tevin Ticklebean whispers rich people are a scam and releases the arrow. You have creative parents. Thank you so much, Tevin. And if your name really is Tevin Ticklebean, I'm so sorry that we just doxed you. Oh, no. Tevin Ticklebean is a great name. JB. JB. We know all about it. Jane B. Jane B. What up, JB? I played a game with you for a while. It was really fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Me too. Yeah, I was there. Yeah, I played a couple of games with Jane over the years, actually. Yeah. JG. JG. Jim.

Jim G. Thanks so much, Jim G. Thanks, James. Dad's Jim. Jimmy? Melissa F. Melissa F. I can't help but be having a small crush on the name Melissa. My first crush. Oh, very nice. Thanks, Melissa. Thanks, Melissa. Thanks for bringing up the crush. Cool ass. The name of a guy who bullied me. Opposite of a crush. Not always. It's still a crush. Bullying is inherently tense. Yeah. Look at this elegant name, Margo. Margo. I love the name Margo. I wish I was named Margo. Margo, see?

You could change your name. It'd be weird, but you could. Good. Mike L. Mike L. Mike L. Thanks, Mike L. L, you have a name that reminds me for some reason of a friend of mine from elementary school. Maybe. Yeah. It's very similar. Martha. Martha S. Oh, Martha S. Martha Stewart. Thanks for sticking through us through all your hard times. You're in the Discord. Get out of here! What up, Martha? Hi. Jack H. Jack H.

I always wanted to name a kid Jack, but my last name's Oppers, and it sounds too much like Jack Offer. That's so funny. Do it. You guys have such good eyesight, I can't see shit. I have to squint so hard. Don't squint. Squint harder. I made him way too small. Jeffrey M. Thank you. Good squinting. Andrew W. And Bailey M. Jessica's eyeballs are working so hard right now. Bailey! Oh, Bailey! Oh, Bailey! If it's the Bailey we're thinking about, there's only one Bailey. You've been around forever.

Thanks so much for your support. It was great to meet you the one time I met you. Thank you for coming to our show. Came to fake Osteros? Mostly for us. Wow, that was… It was so fun. Did we not go to the chicken place after? I think so. Was that it with them? Chicken or ice cream? No, we went to Duffin's. We always go to Duffin's. We should go to Duffin's when I come over. We should go to Duff. We haven't been to Vancouver in like a year. What are we doing? What date? Monday. Easter Monday.

I'm out! Oh, sorry. Paul has to celebrate the day that Jesus rose from the grave. I have to. And terrorize the people of Rome. Otherwise the devil… Terrorize the poor Roman senators and soldiers. He forced their hand in that thing that they did. That was so not their fault. I've never read it. Jesus was executed by the Romans. He rose from the dead and spewed lions from his palms into the Roman court. Spoilers, everyone. If you don't celebrate him on the day of his birth…

You've been reading the Bible for like 900 years. You've got to finish it. Jeremiah. Jeremiah. Ian. I know your name. And you've been around. This one is just the word mess. Honestly, same. Al W.T. Al W.T. I love a double name. Oh, there's another Ian. Ian F. H. Elizabeth C. You seem cool. That's a cool name. Robin T. April F. Local. Local. Thank you for all your support. Filling out your hat envelope. Yeah, totally. April has been to Fatecoasters. Oh, cool.

April came to Fatecoasters at the museum. That was also how we met Dave and Casey. Oh my gosh, yeah. They came to Fatecoasters. P.R.T. Pat R.T. J.R. Jr. Who shot J.R.? Lockleaf. Also a cool name. There's no way this is your real name. Infinite Oregano. Oh my God. Infinite Oregano has been around for a long time. I live on Salt Spring or something. I feel like I have Infinite Oregano as well. If you clip it right and neuter the ground. Oh, that's a good tip. Chris C. Garrett A. Two first names.

I love cabbage. Chris C., you're also in the Discord. I recognize that email. Oh, yeah. Brian F. I recognize that name, write it all the time. Just a normal amount like everyone else. Whoa, Jess. Open your diary. It's just covered in Mrs. Brian F. Alex C. Thank you so much. Susan U. That's a cool name. You sound like you have a power suit. There's no way this is your real name. Fake Believe. Thanks for your support. Mark D. Mark D. Denton A. Thank you so much for your support. Denton Abbey?

Oh my God, thank you. Foolish Princess. Thank you. Aaron G. Aaron G. Cute. Kit W. I know who that is. Kit W. has been around so long that we've used their name in fiasco. Oh my gosh. Right. We did use it. I hope that's okay. Kit, I hope you liked it. If you didn't, what are you going to do about it? It's so cool that our show is woven with the people in the community. It's true. People would opt into that, right? They would put their names down. If you want to use your name, just hit us up.

I don't know. Yeah, we'll do it. Especially if your name is Gary. Or Jerry. Actually, I'm putting this on the books right now. Yeah? We'll say it at a certain level. Up All Night, we're going to need a lot of real people names. Right. We can start using people's names in the show. Yeah, for sure. Totally. If you want to be a part of Up All Night. Ashok, will you check yes or no? Give us permission. I'll talk to Ashok soon. Moe is also the only brown kid in town. That's kind of his whole thing.

Well, what if there's a new brown kid in town? I don't like that. He's the only brown kid? Yeah, that was the whole thing. That was his whole thing? No, but let's say Ashok is from the rich town. Oh, Clarebot. Ashok, do you want to be a rich guy? Do you want to be a rich kid from Clarebot? Ashok is feeling our brainwaves reaching him wherever it is he lives, who knows? No, I do know where he lives, but I'm not going to dox him. And he is levitating off the ground right now.

He will absolutely consent to being in Up All Night. Oh, we can make him a villain. Yes or no? Check yes or no. Do you want to be a rich asshole from Clarebot? Also, Jessica actually had a great idea for Up All Night. Where? Because we were listening to that radio show that was interviewing Mel and his giant hole. And Jessica was like, what we should do is we should have patrons send in the weird rumors from their towns. That's a great idea.

Even if it's just for my entertainment, I would love to know about your weird little town or big town. Points of interest. Points of interest, urban legends, rumors. And then we can do adventures based on that. Family lore. Ghost stories. Trauma. Doctor trauma. Intimate family trauma. Fun diner meals that exist. Or snacks that you can only get at a certain store.

I think a thing, because we did this, Abdul and I, when we were making our ghost tourist thing, is that the idea of Bushwick is every small town. It's everyone's hometown. That's why it's got so many monsters, so many legends. It's the densest small town in the world. If you live in a community in a big town, give us something specific from that. From your little neighborhood. Victoria, thankfully, is, we're lucky enough to have two monsters. That's crazy. What's the two monsters?

Cadborosaurus, a sea monster. Hugely popular in cryptozoology. And popular to a lesser degree, but one of my favorites, is the Thetis Lake fish man. Oh, cool. Some kids in the 70s, I think, called the police and said that a fish man ran out of the lake at them. To the point where the cops went down to the lake, and they were like, where's this fuckin' fish man at? I'll fuckin' fill him full of Big 38! The cops just wanted an excuse to unload a 38 into the water.

The one New Jersey cop that was transported to 1970s Vancouver Island. Yeah. Yeah. Those are two pretty good. There's also, like, the Flasher. He's a pretty good… Boss Top Masturbator? Boss Top Masturbator, pretty good urban legend. No, he's a real guy. Darth Fiddler? Nice cameraman. Darth Fiddler is a real person. Darth Fiddler, yeah. Cameraman is… I love cameramen. Oh, cameraman! Yeah. At my school. Cameraman was always… We did the… He was in the… the Christmas episode. Yeah.

Like, with the woods around my elementary school, we thought that there was someone named Cameraman, who lived there. Oh, yes. Because we were like, we swear he's taking photos of us, and if he takes your photo, I guess you die or something. Oh, that's so creepy. That's how it was phrased. Yeah. Or something. One of the other elementary schools I went to, there was a pack of coyotes, and they were like, do not go out of bounds, because there will be coyotes hasting on you. Wow.

There was also that one cougar that came into the playground when you were playing. Yeah, that was just for me. That wasn't an urban legend. But the cougar was… I mean, it was lounging, so… Yeah, you saw it, which is… It meant it… It meant it wasn't interested. It decided not to kill you. Or it was demented. Yeah, it was even more dangerous than a normal cougar. That cougar… It let me live. Sorry, that was a bit… That was a bit of a… Let's get back to it.

I like the cougar that you're on the seesaw by yourself, and then the cougar jumps on. Aw, cute! Pushes me on the swing. I'm like, well… Best friend! Let me tell you about my best friend! I love him to the very end. Which will be in about 15 seconds. V bet VI we're here. Did you say Ben V? Oh, we didn't say Ben V Alexander G Then a lot of Lana you've been around forever Lana and Cody Wow Such up all night. Yeah John John Paul a John Paul h2 out of four not bad.

Then we've got the master of outer space and clams That's not your real name sounds like somebody who likes to spend time in the water. Yeah me up Brayden G Thanks so much Braden Patrick D And the and Sawyer which I think we already thanked you yeah But now we're going through the list. Yeah. Yeah and Michael for this one Michael Michael are thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. That's up to February 3rd, 2020 2020 good lord. Nothing crazy happened right after that.

No, no, no. No, this is a normal time in our lives Much everybody I'm suppressed in Turn next week to hear some more whilst you commute or do your chores Gladly