Episode 7 – The Other Side

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 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 Alright, welcome to Spellt Lore everybody, I'm your Game Master, Sean O'Hara.

With me, playing Tacoma Dome the Barbarian, Abdul Aziz. Hey! Playing Fat Billy the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai. Yes, hello. Playing Shathane the Elf Ranger, Mark Robertson. Hello! Cartwyn is standing in her place like, alright, we're… We're gonna do this now. Thankfully they haven't found it. Thankfully they didn't find it while they were tossing the place. I guess it was pretty well hidden, I'm pretty happy with that, if I do say so myself.

And she walks over to the bookshelf that she spear tackled that kid against. And she hooks her fingers in the side. And yanks it to the side. And you see that it reveals a small doorway. Like, pretty short and not super wide, but it opens up, like she walks in. And it obviously opens up into another room. Like you see light come from inside the doorway. As she's lighting candles or lamps or something like that.

She pops out and she says, alright, just come in here, it's the only safe place now, I think. Wicker pops up in a planter, and she's sniffing an orange flower. Which you recognize as the flower. Which is the flowers that Wicker has been following since you left Mudlark. Billie, do you follow Cartwin into the secret room? I guess so, but I kinda wanna take this flower with me. So you just like yank it out of the pot? Well, I just scoop it with my hands with the dirt.

And I'm like, okay, here we go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you bring it in. You notice that Cartwin looks at you. Like she turns very sharply to look at you with the flower. And looks at the flower and her eyes kinda get a little wide. Oh. She goes, I'll, I'll, how about I, I'll take that. Okay. And she's just very delicate. Mm-hmm. Very expensive. Oh, I'm sorry. No, no, no, no, it's absolutely, it's okay, it's okay. Don't be, don't be sorry. Mm-hmm.

I'm just gonna go replant this real quick, real quick. Yeah. I'll be back. Okay. And she leaves you alone for a second in her secret room. Mm-hmm. There's like pillows on the ground, like cushions. Oh, yeah. And she's got candles on stands on either side. And she's got a little table and a little chest. And laid out on the table are various implements that are very strange to you. Mm-hmm. There's, you know, carved sticks and crystals. Yeah.

And a bunch of things you don't, like, like a ball of yarn. Mm-hmm. Like all this weird stuff. And then there's a chest underneath. Looks like it's got a lock on it, but it's under the table. Is there anything you guys wanna do while she's left you alone in here? I, yeah, let's just fucking rifle through everything. No, this is my friend. Oh, fine. Guys. Well, what about like a little bit, like if I just look with my eyes? Yes. I just turn my head towards the doorway and ignore what you, yeah.

Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna look with my eyes. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna look at this, I'll look at the chest. It's closer to me. Okay. Can I? Oh, you, well, I mean, it's a chest. You don't have to roll anything to look at it. Oh. Is it special in any way, though? It looks like it's been through a lot, because it is made out of a very nice looking wood. Mm. That at one times was probably quite lustrous. Okay. What's in it? It's locked. Okay.

Well, I tried to look with my eyes and it didn't work, so I'm gonna look with my hands. And start trying to get it open. So you're gonna, you're gonna try and pick the lock? Yeah. Okay, that's tools of the trade. Keep in mind that this is literally five minutes after she attacked a guy for stealing. Yeah, Billy's. Well, they were being disrespectful and I am being very respectful. Okay. So yeah, you go ahead and roll 2d6 plus dexterity, I think, for tricks of the trade. 10, yeah. No? Okay, yeah.

So what happens with, what's tricks of the trade? On a 10, I do it, no problem. All right. So you poke around in the lock with your, you have little twigs, right, that you use to… Yeah, I have a twig in my hair and… You also have the pin still, I think. Oh, do I? Yeah. So I'm like, ooh, which one? So I use the pin, it looks more fun. So you, yeah, you're using the mender's needle. Yeah, I am. Yeah, so you dig around in there and, you know, click, click, click. Bunk. Ooh. And the lock opens.

You guys, come here. It's, there's like bundles of herbs and stuff in here and different kinds of stones and you see a bundle of sharp… They're probably about… Six, seven inches long and there's a little bottle of black ink that's pretty low. It's about halfway full. It's just mixed in with all these different kinds of herbs and bags of what feel like sand or gravel. It's just a bunch of weird stuff. I want a Spout Lore about the contents of this box. Okay. Can I do that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah? So yeah, give me a 2D6 plus intelligence for Spout Lore. Five. So do you… Oh, fuck. So you see a root in the chest and it reminds you of a root from McCall that you know is delicious. And you haven't had it since you left. It's a white root. So you're like, oh man, I haven't seen white root in years. Yeah. So what do you do with it? Do you just eat it? You can eat it or you can grind it up. Do I have enough time to grind it up? Absolutely not. Okay. I eat it.

The whole thing? Yeah. I'm just gonna eat it. Okay. So you're like, oh, I'm gonna eat it. I'm gonna eat it. I'm gonna eat it. I'm gonna eat it. I'm gonna eat it. I'm gonna eat it. The whole thing? Yeah. Wow, greedy. Yeah. You just pop this pale root in your mouth. And as you do that, you're chewing on it. Cartwyn comes back in. She's wiping dirt off her hands. And she sees you two rifling through her chest. She's like, what are you doing? And then I'll turn around and I'll…

What are they doing? Oh my God. And she walks over and she starts like, what did you do? Did you… She sees you chewing. And she's like, did you eat something in here? No. No. No. Did you just eat one entire ghost root? What's ghost root? Oh my Lord. I thought that was white root. I can feel… Why would you eat it if it was… Because, fuck, white root makes you feel like anything is possible. It's also highly addictive. Yes. But… It takes years off your life. It does? Oh my… Wow.

Okay, whatever. I'm gonna ignore the fact that you all just tried to steal from me. No. Because I'm trying to help you because we're all friends now. We are. And that's why friends share drugs. I don't know what that's gonna do to you. Okay. So we'll see, I guess. Well, I am feeling some indigestion. I rub your tummy. Oh, that's nice. Okay, let's get started. Wow. She looks at Shathane. Thank you. I'm so glad that you introduced me to these morons. Hey. Yeah, I'm sorry.

I shouldn't have said morons. I should have said idiots. Okay, all right. You're a moron. You're a moron. You're a moron. You're a moron. You're a moron. You're a moron. Oh, look. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron.

There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron. There's a moron.

Enough for me so cartwin makes sure that everybody's in the room she's chathane tantamiles here wickers chilling billy tuck all good she's all right I just want you to understand the gravity of this situation what I'm about to attempt and she walks over and like starts closing the bookshelf back over the hole what I'm about to attempt I haven't done in decades we're going to attempt to okay we're going to attempt to make contact with the spirit world cool and I'm going to attempt it's okay she kind of puts a hand on on chathane's arm we're going to attempt to help you crossover isn't necessarily the right term but could you pay attention tuck and she sees tuck looking around the room like hey I yeah I zoned out so yeah this is a big deal yeah I heard you say that and then I zoned out okay we're going to attempt to push your no hey over here sorry your spirits your spirits hey could you just for three seconds are you okay I ghost route yeah okay I'll tell the kid what we're going to do is we're going to try and push your spirits over to the other side cool to see if you can make contact with your friend nice I haven't done this to myself in a long long time and I haven't done this to anybody and she puts her her hand on chathane's arm again but chathane in at least 30 years well I trust you completely okay great because you're probably going to hate this next part what we need to do is we need to find a way to anchor the essence of your spirits here so you're not completely lost when you cross over and how we do that and she starts rifling through her her thing and she pulls out the bundle of pointy bits and the bottle of ink she says I'm gonna have to mark you what why do you like explain more about what you mean okay I'm gonna have to give you a tattoo uh so lame I know and then I stick out my leg she says okay so you're going for a leg tattoo oh is that weird no I I'm just interested in why that was your first okay maybe my face and then I brush my hair okay yeah no give him a leg let me let me let me let me explain this a little bit further I was taught how to do this by a druid a long time ago here let me ask a question real quick I was literally in the middle of an explanation can you do like a bart simpson on my peck if you would give me two seconds to explain yeah so she says okay so yeah I learned how to do this a long long time ago from a druid named wally boda and he uh he mastered this he's a master tattooist he's a master boda anyways no paul gave me that name oh I asked paul about all this stuff he told me all that like how this all works okay he tricked you wow yeah great is uh he's a druid and he is a master I can't believe you need to know he didn't set it up I don't think he did maybe he did you guys I was like you know what I'm gonna do I'm gonna do a little bit of a tattoo what I'm gonna try and make this like kind of intense kind of sincere like like like weird and spiritual and psychedelic yeah and you're all doing fucking masturbation jokes okay sorry go again it's fine it's fine do it again it's fine no it's good it's just his last name that that doesn't quite fit the wally part's perfect though if you want to be mysterious yeah anyways so he taught me how to do this this is a method he developed to anchor spirits on this side while also letting enough of the spirit through to the other side that you can affect your environment travel sort of astrally project by way of a quick explanation master boda suggested that spirits aren't defined by their presence but by the absences around them so it's they're sort of the negative space within your experience okay so could you do a less quick explanation yes please explain more I have to tattoo you with the thing that you lost and missed the most a representation there's some symbols and some ruins to connect it but it'll be an abstract representation I only need to do you two shithanes I did years ago can I see yours so I reluctantly roll my arm up and there's three shapes on there small circle a large circle and a smaller square and there's sort of weird it's a weird snowman cool snowman with a square head side by side oh okay and there's sort of a weird snowman with a square head side by side and there's sort of a weird snowman with a square head side by side sort of connected by dots and lines almost looking like a constellation like around them and she says yeah so that's what we need to do so I just need to ask each of you to give me a quick explanation of something that you lost and missed the most in your life uh tuck we'll start with you maybe do you need everybody else to leave or are you comfortable with this I think I'm okay with everyone knowing this okay it's hard to say um we were in this town a little while back and there was this kid uh who I was scaring a lot and I accidentally gave him a bag of my guitar picks oh god and I think about those guitar picks every day you know you know this isn't gonna work if you don't tell me the truth I I don't know I don't have anything that I've really lost there was I'm an orphan a random man found me who was a used cart dealer and he raised me and taught me how to read and he taught me how to sell different types of carts and how to appraise carts and I lived with him until I was nine years old and then he was murdered and then I lived in the wilderness for a while and I know how to play music and then everything else in my life happened and then that is the story of tacoma no losses and no sadness so fuck you tell me about your father I don't have one your adopted father the man that found you and raised you bruce spruce yeah he was a good man do you miss him uh yes oh yeah then that's the thing that I miss all right I think that's probably a good place to start okay and she takes a sharp thing from the bundle and she says this is a quill from boda's animal form he takes the form of a porcupine and these are the quills that he gifted me when he taught me these techniques this is ink from his spirit companion lakshi he's an octopus she lives at the bottom of the sea somewhere I've never met her and she has made the journey across between this place in the spirit world more times than anything or anyone else that I know so this is the ink that we're going to be able to use to help speed the process of the process of the process of the process of the process between this world and the next and she gets started she dips the quill in the ink and she starts basically giving you a stick and poke tattoo um of a representation of bruce spruce and the loss that you feel around him and there's a point where she's she's doing that and she asked you like like seed questions basically like give me an idea of how this makes you feel and as she goes she's sort of she's sort of free ball in it like she sort of falls into her own world and she's like I don't know what to do with this I don't know what to do with this kind of trance and she finishes the tattoo what does it look like it's a tree that starts uh at the base of my leather wrist guard and goes all the way up my forearm uh but the tree as it gets closer to the wrist guard is getting uh more and more desiccated and dead so the top branches of of the tree are still alive and they're still flowering and there are like a lot of different flowers in them and a lot of different leaves uh and then as you move down the tree there become less and less leaves and less and less flowers and then at the base of the tree in the trunk it looks sick and dying and you do actually see like it is it is there is the tree like motif but you do see that there are symbols and the same connected constellation of of dots not the same but in a different sort of pattern around that almost like it's binding it like it's like tying it up or chaining it to your body okay she says all right billy um are you comfortable talking about this kind of thing I guess but I don't remember very much okay well why don't you tell me about something that you lost and missed the most something that you think about often well I have a lot of memories and I've been around a long time so I had friends she kind of laughs a little bit like what been a long okay how old are you oh I don't know like nine but I might have turned 10 recently I guess I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I can't really remember okay and I had friends and they got old and they died and then I became friends with their kids and they got old and they died and my mom and my dad left a long time ago I don't know where they went I don't really want to talk about that um and then I got I stole a blanket and I don't know where I put that blanket and I do think about that blanket a lot is that the blanket that billy wears as a cloak oh there it is oh so is there something is there something relating to to comfort and happiness like some sort of I guess it'd be nice but mostly I miss my mom my dad okay I don't know what they look like and maybe I never had them but I like to think I did that's um that's a lot for a little boy yeah well no one really ever asked me before okay all right well we'll get started are you gonna be okay with this yeah where do you where do you so charged up where do you want where do you want it where should I get it where would look best I don't know what like maybe your maybe your arm how does that okay how about your leg I don't know you could do it like full back tattoo wow yeah my advice for future employment purposes is to get it on the inside of your upper arm wear like a t-shirt or something will cover it up and it won't really be obvious that you're going to get it on the inside of your upper arm you've got tattoos when you go and look for a job when you're grown up okay so where does billy billy wants the tattoo on his back no because then I can't see it because I want to see it okay your classiest place is like right on your neck oh my double chin lift the chin up it doesn't have to be huge what about palms of your hand I was just thinking yeah my hand because then I can look at it and feel like I'm looking at them that's gonna be very painful I'm brave okay so I give I guess I sit down next to billy and I give him my hand okay to hold and she starts and it's the same process she starts giving the tattoo based on what you talked about and then she falls into a bit of a trance also it hurts a lot yeah I know because like doesn't palm of the hand stuff like suck really bad probably I I'm talking to him like distracting oh yeah I'm like juggling pieces of like croutons and I am like throwing them into his mouth wow hey hey hey hey watch these croutons hey oh okay and then it's done and yeah so what does the tattoo look like it looks like um uh oh what if what if it's something representing the two rivers the sunwise and the oh it's true okay so it's just it's just like two lines that's it with like the dots and the lines around them because they stick because all of them you notice that have this like constellation around them it's like one dot here and then a line and then the dot on the other side and then a line and that's literally oh I see yeah so yeah billy's ends up quite simple yeah it's basically like two circles on opposite sides yeah and then you're like oh I see yeah so yeah and then lines yeah going the opposite direction of each other cool I want to get that real tattoo now that sounds cool yeah that sounds dope great so she says all right that's the first step cool why is mine crazy detail you tell me and I say look at tantamiles and then I pull her fur back and it's like a little stuffed mouse but uh she says all right this next part again I haven't done it in a while but it should you should be okay hopefully I'm sure it'll be fine and she starts pulling like herbs and stuff out of her chest and she grabs a metal bowl like a copper bowl and she puts it in the center of the room and she starts ripping stuff up and putting it in there and then she lights a little little tinder off of um off the candle drops it in the bowl and it starts smoking up and she just asks you all to sit around the bowl on a cushion or whatever would be most comfortable for you yeah then she starts humming it goes up and down and back and forth and she's like oh my god I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry then you feel like weird depth and movement in this humming and it's there's a point where it reaches an almost stereo like quality like you feel it moving around you the smoke is filling the room and it's becoming hard to see you can see patches of light from the candles in the corners of the room and you can see each other but you can't see much else the whole room sort of takes on this warm orange glow cartwin's kind of moving side to side she's moving her arms and the the kind of cloaky jacket she was wearing over her self starts to slip down a little bit over her like jerkin don't make that noise I did I'm okay I'm okay and you're all starting to feel a little you're all starting to feel a little tired like you've been up for days and your eyes are starting to take that like warm heavy quality and you see her her jacket slips down and you see pinned you see pinned to sort of the lapel of the jerkin that she's wearing underneath you see all of her clothes are like all of her clothes are like all of her clothes are like all of her a copper pin and then the smoke envelopes all of you and you can't see anything just but warm orange light and then the light passes and the smoke clears and the three of you are sitting on the ground there's lush green grass underneath you the light filters down from the sky with almost an underwater quality it's filtered it's soft it's kind of got a deep blue tinge to it and you notice that there's a tall tree and a tree and a a tall tree next to you, a single tall tree, and maybe about 15 feet out from where you're sitting, the grass ends.

Whoa. And I puke. You know what? You feel really sick. Tuck specifically feels really sick, but you don't vomit. Why? Why don't I? You don't feel like you can. Okay, I guess I just start dry heaving then. Yeah, it's basically the feeling of intense nausea. Could you actually take a debility? And it's going to be a minus one to all constitution rolls. Well, I'm going to go try to make him feel better. Okay, yeah. Yeah. So Billy just goes over and is trying to comfort tuck.

Yeah, and then I unhook my blanket cloak, which I obviously forgot I was wearing, and then I put it around his shoulders. Thank you. You're welcome. Is there like a river or stream nearby that splashes water on my face? I go running to look. You are like 10 feet out from where you're all sitting. It ends. The world ends. Billy, you run to the edge. You see further down, maybe 30 feet more ground, but you see that there's nothing supporting the part that you're sitting on.

And in the distance, you see other chunks of earth. You see like pieces of what look like bodies of water that are just free floating in the air. Everything around you has this very strange floaty quality to it. Even as you walk, you feel the air is different. If it's air. Chathain, what the fuck is going? Can I Spout Lore? You absolutely can. Where we are? Because I've been here before. You've been here before. Yeah. Whoa. Nice. 10 and intelligence? Intelligence, yeah. 11. Fitting.

So I'll tell you so I get to tell you something useful and interesting. What is this part of the spirit world called? I call it the interface. Yeah. And you know that this is so what you know about the interface is this is a region of the spirit world where visitors usually manifest. Is you're not if you're not a spirit. This is where you show up in the spirit world. What is useful about this is you know that this is a place where guides usually come to try and help visitors.

If there are spirits that that feel helpful towards outsiders, this is usually where they'll show up. So you think if you were to look around, you might be able to find something to help someone something to help you. I'll look around and see if I can see anything, anything or anyone or anything that I recognize today from my previous visits from where you're standing on this sort of floating chunk of earth. You you look out and you see what looks like a pond.

But instead of cool, clear water, it's sort of a bright yellow light. But it is like 30 feet down from where you are. I feel like it's definitely possible to get there, though. Yeah. Like I feel like I could just jump because I need to be there. I could get there. Okay. Yeah. Give me a defy danger wisdom. And you might get a let me just check with spell or but you might get a plus one. That's bad. No, you don't get a plus. How much wisdom do you have? Lots, but not enough. So four, six.

Wait, what if we help him? Yeah, you could potentially help. How would you help? I would dangle him down and get him real close. Yeah. Yeah. So I dangle him down. So he has like less to drop. Yeah. So roll 2d6 plus your bond. All right. I'm going to try this. Do you have any bonds with your thing? No. So it's flat 2d6. 6, 7, 8, 9. Nice. Yeah. So you get the plus one. So it's a seven.

You are hung over the edge by Tacoma and he lets you go and you drop really hard for a couple seconds and then it feels like something catches you and you start slowly falling. You still hit a little bit harder than you maybe would have wanted to roll a d4. One. One. Yeah. So you feel you like kind of jar when you hit the ground and you feel your legs give out a little bit and you roll, but you take one damage and you hear tantamount like on the edge like whatever noise tantamount makes.

That's it. Exactly. Yeah. And she's she seems unwilling to jump. Well, I can speak with her or at whatever level I can. She just because she's scared of the. Yeah. She's like this seems pretty high. You're a giant cat. You can jump much better than me. Get get the big guy to drop you down. Okay. Okay. I guess she digs her claws into my arm and I go out. Fuck. Fuck you. Stupid cat. Fucking piece of shit. And then I I dangle her down and I was like fucking bitch.

She's like kicking around with her bottom leg like fucking piece of shit cat and you let her go and she kind of tumbles a little bit as she comes down, but she hits the ground and on all fours. Yeah, she's a cat. Great. She always does. Wow. She didn't even need that help. Yeah. I'm super stuck that I have these scratch marks all over my arm. Exactly. So and yeah, Billy and tuck your on this sort of little floating island. What do you do? I look at tuck. I'm like, dude, do you want to jump? Yes.

Yeah, let's do it. You guys give me a defy danger wisdom. Okay. Wisdom. Yeah. Four. Five. Ten. Ten. Okay. Billy succeeds. What does Billy just jump off? Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, you just catch this like weird. You feel like a little current in the air. You catch this little current. You go like down onto the ground and you hit the ground very lightly. Just like bloop. Yeah. Wow. And then right next to you. Nails the ground next to you. Platform shape. Yeah. Could you could you roll a d4 for me?

Two. Yeah. So you take two damage. No, you mean one because. Oh, right. Because your armor isn't armor. It's just you're tough. Okay. Yeah. So you take one. I should say. Yeah, because you do have armor, but it's not really like make sure I don't hit the ground too hard armor, but tucks just like flat tougher than everybody else. Mine. So I don't get scratched by brambles. Oh, brambles. Yeah. So you're on the ground and you're closer to this little pond. And I guess I'm kind of question.

I'm like, what? Where? Why? Or where are we going? Let's go this water. Let's get in you. So I start bringing like handfuls of water to you. Yeah. Get it in me. Yeah. So you're Billy's picking like you. The water isn't really water. Like it feels like it's just like hard light. Basically. Oh, well, I still scoop your hands in it. And there's this luminous little puddle. All right. Open your mouth. Okay.

It's weird because it like gets near tuck and then it parts like a centimeter from this face and pours down onto the ground. Fuck. I'm so thirsty and sick. Oh, can I eat some of this grass that's on the ground? I start doing that out of desperation. Try the same thing. Just won't go in. Can you eat? Try eating some of the grass. Okay. And then I'm like, same thing. Shathane, you have done this before. So something that this is something that Paul told me.

He described eating in the spirit world as sort of like that scene from Hook where you have to believe. Basically, like you can't just take it for granted like people do on in the material world. Like you have to you have to feel like this is a necessary thing and that this is like so you understand what you're doing to the spirit world. So tantamounts. Yeah. Tantamounts on grass. Yeah. She's like, yeah. Licking up the water like a regular cat. Okay. So are you going to explain that to us? Yeah.

What Paul told Sean to say. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So you do. You do. So it needs to be like a conscious. Try less hard and more hard at the same time. So you guys can give me a defy danger wisdom again. Wow. So much. Thirteen. Eleven. Okay. Wow. You guys got. So you kind of you kind of yeah, you get it. You're like, oh, yeah, less hard and more hard like Hook and then I go and like lick water out like tantamount. Yeah. Yeah. I sit down at the edge of the stream and I sing a song to it.

That is very hard rock. Get into my mouth. All right. I hope there's not be inside of you. Orange water light is going to get into my mouth. And then as I do that, the light water comes up. Wow. And I open my mouth. I'm like, get up in there. Wow. And you you do that. You're singing this weird song. It's not weird. It's good. All the water runs away from me. No, you see you see the water like rising up in front of Tuck as he's singing the song.

And then when it when a song ends, the water comes away and there's almost the exact same color as the pond, like the face of a koi. Like it's just kind of floating in the air. Holy shit. And it's so it's a koi fish, but its head is bent forward like it's standing, but it's kind of swimming in the air. What the fuck? Just like what is happening? It's floating in front of you like that was a nice song. Yeah, I really like that music. Yeah, that was wonderful. Oh, thank you.

Thank you for sharing that with me. Cool. Oh, you talk with words. It looks at you quizzically. Yeah, of course I do. Oh, have you seen a friend of ours? His name is Bing and we've come to look for him. I'm not so good with names. OK, well, let's describe him. Yeah. He's tall and thin ish. He's got flaps and pockets. He's got kills and big wild gray hair. Yes, it's all over the place. He's an elf. Elf. No elf. Hmm. I may have seen someone similar to what you're describing.

But if I did, it was a long time ago. Oh, fuck me. Well, are there any other things here that could help us? I didn't say I couldn't help you. Where? Can you? Can you take us to where you saw him? I can try. OK. And it's kind of floating back and forth. But what's in it for me? Oh, God. And I put my hands in my backpack and I'm like, oh, God, what the hell is in here? And then I feel the glass of the bottle that I stole and I pull it out and I look at it. What's the title on it?

Which one did I grab? The title of this bottle is Lords Without Faith. Oh, cool. Oh, cool. Not the one that I wanted, but still pretty cool title. I've heard that there's a bootleg of this where the lead guitarist dies partway through the album. They keep going. Wow. It's wild. Anyway, if you like that music that I played, what's your name? I'm not so good with names. Holy shit. OK. You're going to have to roll a parlay.

If you like that music that I was singing, anthropomorphic talking fish, then you will love the music that's in this bottle. There's music in that bottle. Yes. A lot. Like 97 minutes worth. I like music. And I crack it a little bit and let a little bit out. And then I cap it back. Its eyes widen a little bit. And then I'm like, oh, you see its gills kind of flip a little bit. Like, oh. That was weirdly sexual, but OK. Well. It's a hot fish. Your voice is great.

But what people will not get on the podcast is that you are slowly waving back and forth. Like a fish. Like a fish swimming in the air. It's hypnotic. Yeah. It is hypnotic. I'm rolling a parlay. Yes, you are rolling a parlay. 2D6 plus your charisma. 9 plus 2, 11. All right. Yeah. So the fish says, I'm going to roll a parlay. Very well. You give me that bottle. And I'll take you to where I saw your friend. No. I'll give you this bottle when we get to our friend. Who am I to argue?

Then it like flat. It straightens out into like a fish shape, like a fish swimming shape. Yeah. Sort of bloop swims around you guys. And then swims in a circle. And then swims off like, I think it was this way. And start swimming away. Wait, how do we follow? Oh, it's still. It's still ground. Like it's fall. It's swimming at a reasonable height, at least for a while. And the chunk that you guys are on right now has a lot of connecting bits there.

There are pieces that have come off and are floating around above you. Some very, very high. And some, when you get to like, you'll get to a part where there's, it's broken away and there's sort of roots connecting it. And you see it goes far, far below you as well. But the chunk that you're on is fairly large. And sometimes the fish will forget that you're, you're, people with legs and will like swim a little too high and then go, oh, I forgot. And then swim back down.

And it says, oh, I forgot many times. And it takes an indeterminate amount of time. Like it feels like we've been walking for maybe two minutes, maybe 200 years. Yeah, exactly. Like it's a sort of like, wow, there's just no way to tell how long things take here. Where's the light coming from in this place? Everywhere. Weird. Yeah. But it's a binky, binky blackness too. It's like a mix between night and like the night sky and the sky during the day. That's weird.

So you'll be walking and then you'll realize that you're not being pulled down, but you're being pulled to the side. So you'll start like twisting as you walk. And then it'll just go back to the way that you were before. Yeah. And it's sort of affecting how the fish is swimming in the air as well. And it doesn't really think too much of it.

And you get to the edge of a forest that looks like a, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, it looks more or less like trees, but like a tree's idea of a tree where it's like a beautiful, like, oh man, like, you know, when you think of yourself and you try and think of yourself like as nice as you can, you're like, yeah, that's what I would love to look like. Only the hottest trees. Yeah. Yeah.

It's like if a tree was trying to describe a tree to a flower and it's just all of that one after the other. Yeah. Identical. Beautiful. Wow. Scary. Yeah, exactly. And the fish stops and it turns around, says, I, I am pretty sure I saw your friend in here, but I'm not comfortable going in, going further. Then why? Oh my God. I guess we have to go without you. I mean, if you had anything else to offer, I might be willing to go a bit further. Jesus. Jesus. Jones, you're milking, milking us.

Milking? Never mind. It'll take too long to explain. You know, before we go further, I think I'd like my bottle now. Okay. And then I hand it to him. The fish puts it in its mouth and goes like, go, go, go, like a duck and just swallows it. Wow. Wonderful. Do you feel okay? Oh, I feel resplendent. Cool. Anything else for me? You're super creepy. I think that's maybe subjective. And I, so I open up my locket. Do you have anything that's good?

I have, I have my crystal, and I have goblin poison, and I have a grass cloak. Which is mostly in tatters, yeah. Yeah. Okay. What about these? I unclasp my locket, and I open it up, and inside there's two coins that I took from the traveling stand. And one is like obsidian with an eye on it, and the other one's a silver triangle. Oh, yeah. So it gets, do you just like hold them out? I'm like, what do you think of these? It gets close. Only one.

Yeah, it gets close, and it gets close to the, the obsidian one, and it pulls back and shakes its head and goes, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Okay. But it looks, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the shiny one. The silver one? Perhaps. Okay. Do you have something to offer? I've got my cloak. It's really the only item that I have. It is beautiful. But I think I like the coin. Okay. Here, yeah. Here, take it. Pops it in, its mouth. Wonderful.

I don't think we should give it any more stuff. Yeah, it's really making me a It's making me very scared. I'm going to ask the fish how far it thinks it can take us. Oh, it's hard to say. I can take you into the woods until I just feel like we've gone far enough. Do you have another form or another guide form that can help us through the woods? Wonderful point. Wonderful point. It kind of swims around you guys in a circle.

And you notice at this point that it's gotten a little bit bigger than it was before. It was about the size of tantamount. But now it's approaching the size of tuck. Yeah, like it's getting quite beefy. And as it gets close to the woods. It was hard to tell before because there is no sense of perspective in this place. It could be small and right in front of us or it could be 30 feet away and huge. Yeah.

And it swims near you and then it swims closer to the woods and you see it shift a little bit. Swims near you. Swims closer to the woods. Shifts a little bit more until four webbed arms come out of the side of it. Like two on each side. And it sort of grasps the ground. So then it is it's sort of walking on the ground, testing the ground like, ah, okay. All right. This is new. But we'll go a little bit further. I don't like this thing. And it starts walking into the woods like are you coming?

We literally have no other options. Okay. Yeah. But I am wary. Yes. So from my experience here, they are creepy and they do make you feel uncomfortable, but they are always helpful. All right. They don't understand. We don't understand their form and they don't really understand that form. So I just have to. Something I will say that that Shathane might know is that guides do love payment and they love things that aren't from the spirit world. Hmm.

Sort of the like they are creepy, but they're fairly trustworthy unless you wrong them in some way. So if I had known that we were going to go on this journey, I probably would have got a roll of quarters. So it's where we left. So it starts it starts taking you through the woods and it's just these identical trees one after the other and the light changes in here. It's not quite as diffused. It's getting harder to see and it's getting very quiet.

Can I as we're walking through I want to like kind of surreptitiously examine the trees. Yeah. Do you want to discern realities? Are you examining the trees just for the trees or are you trying to make sure there's nothing else around? I just want to know what they are because they feel creepy. Okay. Yeah. Five plus what wisdom six six and the fish is leading you deeper into the woods.

The lights getting dimmer and there's a point where the only source of light is is the fish like the fish is glowing gently. And it's casting light at about like, you know, 30 or 40 feet or so or what it seems what seems like that around you and then it hears a crack and it stops and it looks around this is bad by what what do you hear? What do you something in the trees or the trees and you hear like a rustling tree to tree around you. Who's Russell Russell comes down is like what's up guys.

You want to come play Xbox but so the fish keeps moving. It's trying to hurry you up. It's like come on. Come on. Come come now come now and as it's walking forward a root from one of these identical trees snakes up out of the earth in front of it and it catches its foot on it and it trips and it falls and it hits the ground and then roots start coming up. Out of the earth and start to cover this thing and it's wriggling and rustling and going like oh my oh no oh boy.

Oh no and it's starting to get pulled down into the ground. Okay, I'm gonna hack and slash with my sword. Okay, so roll 2d6 plus your strength. Oh boy. Oh boy. Hang on. Hang on plus one. That's three. All right, so you start hacking at this at these roots and you're sword just glances right off them like it and it almost makes a metal on metal sound when they hit and the fish just keeps going. Oh my oh my I don't know how without a guide. I don't know how to get out of where we are.

We need to we need to get help. Yeah, he's saying that the fish gets full pulled further and further underground and the light starts going out because the only source of light right now is the fish. Oh man. Can I cast a spell? I don't have that. No, you don't have that power of spells actually like even if I hold this crystal nothing will happen.

The crystal is like warm in your hand and sort of you feel that sharpening as before but it's a little too it's not quite as strong as it was at the pool. Okay, I'm just like I'm like, okay maybe that I don't know what to do. So I get nervous and I get nervous so I hold that crystal and then I like close my eyes and I'm like, where are you Perel? Oh, yeah. Damn. This isn't anything that Billy knows how to do. So this would be like a 2d6.

Charisma maybe because you're sort of reaching in yourself. Okay. Seven. Seven. Okay. So you kind of grab your crystal you close your eyes and you're like where are you Perel? Can you help me? What's going on? Are you at my boy? Yeah. And it takes a second and you see the darkness kind of coalesce like it did before this visual hallucination and then Perel is in front of you. He said wonderful is this is this the time do we begin our training? What? No, I just need that fish. Out of there.

And as you say that he starts like sliding backwards and he looks around like where where are we? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And you see him like sliding back and then he disappears and then you see the fish struggle even more and you hear the fish go. No, no, no, no. What have you done? What have you done? Oh, no. And yeah, the fish's voice changed. Oh, I did a bad thing. Yeah. What? Let's go. Billy, what happened? I think I didn't see any of this exposition.

That's the piss monster over there. The fish is the piss monster? It is. And he's not actually that bad. He seemed pretty cool. And we gotta get him out. Beg to differ. I did also but I think we need him. Great. Okay. Well, fuck me. Tuck, what does Tuck do? I pull out my axe and I wield it two-handed and I strike at the base of the roots. Okay. Yeah. Just hack and slash. I try and go fucking crazy. Yeah. Going ham. Whoa. Fifteen. Okay. Yeah. Roll your damage. Eight. Oof.

You think that wall got fucked up? So you geez, dude. Yeah. So you just like hammer into and Shathane you're shocked by this because you just attacked it and your sword glanced right off them and you see like Tuck raises his axe above his head and his muscles bulge in a very barbarianly like way. And then I wink at him. Wink. And then he brings the axe down and just. I wink and I make like my traps do a dance. His little the branches of his tree tattoo wave as he flexes his arm. The irony. Yeah.

And then he brings the axe down and just cuts through like one quarter of the vines that are holding the fish down and you see the fish start like kicking its leg out. It's not getting yanked under quite so fast anymore. We have talked about in the past how Shathane has been to the spirit world before and he has access to some sort of spirit spells. So I have an advanced moves God against the wastes dedicate yourself to a deity. You gain the cast spell cleric. Yeah.

So he has access to first level cleric spells. So now I'm going to try and cast my spell. Okay. Yeah. Induce fear even more fear. Yeah. So it's been a quarter demolished when you cast these spells in the spirit world. Are you calling on spirits? Is that sort of are you affecting the spirit world? Because it's not really a spell in the way that we think of like a cleric casting like a holy spell. It's more like your familiarity with the spirit world lets you affect it.

Normally we don't it's not easy for us to communicate with these other forms that are in the spirit world. And so if I just shouted at a tree and said we're all going to fuck you up. Yeah. My friend fucked you up. We're going to take you down. The tree would not know what we're talking about. Yeah. But in this case it's going to allow me to better instill fear into this different form. Yeah. Totally. Great. Yeah. Okay. So yeah. Roll it 2d6 plus wisdom 8 8. Okay.

So on a 7 to 9 the spell is cast but choose one you draw unwelcome attention to yourself or put yourself in a spot. The GM will tell you how you're casting distances you from your deity take minus one ongoing to cast a spell until the next time you commune or after you cast it the spell is revoked by your deity. You cannot cast the spell again until you commune and have it granted to you. I have something bad happen to me as a result. Okay.

So you instill fear in your own special way like you basically are able to communicate with this tree spirit in a way that frightens it. I point at the tattoo on your arm. I bring my hand up to my throat and I point right at him. Yeah. The trees of him. Yeah. You point at the eyes of my eyes. Yeah. Do the throat cut. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to chop you down. So you do that. You scare the hell out of this tree and you see world weird.

You see the roots start to recede and you see the fish now Perel the fish start to yank itself up out of the ground. The roots totally recede back into the ground and in fact the tree that it was attached to starts almost running through the forest. You see this tree start sliding between other trees and like crashing into other ones and it disappears into the depths of this weird photocopied forest. You can hear it kind of like crying a little bit. My roots. Wow.

That was embarrassing to watch, but I'm now at some risk. Cool. The risk is you the fish pulls itself up itself up out of the ground and looks around and looks at itself and is like, well, this is not great. It looks at you three says, what am I doing here? Yeah. What are you doing here? And then I move and grab it. You grab it and you feel it harden up. It's towering over you.

Now it's taller than you even on its back legs and it just looks at you and says, I do not have time to explain this right now, but I am not who you think I am and not for the reasons you think we will talk about this later. This has been Spout Lore. I'm your game master. Sean O'Hara with me as always playing fat Billy the halfling thief Jessica tie crispy cream playing Tacoma Dome the barbarian Abdul Aziz. God, I still feel so fucking sick.

Playing Shathane the Elven Ranger guest player Mark Robertson mine. So I don't get scratched by brambles. You can find us online at Spout Lore on Twitter or on Facebook at facebook.com slash Spout Lore. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.

So when's the tale of adventures three who tried the best they can dumb and scared and lost baby for times of rest in revelry and though our journey may be like a conclusion we will not leave you without a resolution return next week to hear some more whilst you commute or do your chores and for you I gladly Spout Lore we will talk about this later fine and I cross my arms and I look sullen and I'm like fine but we will talk about it right yes like I said yeah like I said