Episode 8 – The Lighthouse

Spout Lore is brought to you by listeners like yourself if you want to check out more stuff or give us a support go to www.pat I'll start over it sounds like a fucking alta vista ad hi if you want to support Spout Lore go to www.patreon.com Spout Lore 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 he knows not his home he loves to sing and fight fingers half healthy shifts his shape and wields a spear with great might billy's a thief you hello everybody and welcome to Spout Lore I'm your game master Sean O'Hara joining me as always playing Spout Lore playing ving the half elf druid Paul Oppers hello there playing tacoma dome the barbarian abdulaziz hello and playing fat billy the halfling thief Jessica Tai hello when last we left our heroes they celebrated a job well done after freeing leader of the daydreamers pellin guaranteed corbin from the clutches of the demon of ambition returned to the stray dog yeah after our intervention for drugs we wouldn't got hammered I just noticed that's awful good intervention everybody let's all go do cook in the bathroom we earned it and upon returning with the stray dog they were told hey you know just come hang out if you want billy slept under some rugs while tuck and ving went upstairs and got absolutely plastered uh playing a game called scribbles that I'm not sure they actually understood the rules of I understand that tuck lost 98 gold coin we on average between us last 50 on average each of us lost 50 gold I want that on the record that's like a that's a fortune that's an insane amount of money uh but it's gone now but I had the potential to make 98 gold coin and so if you think about it I couldn't afford not because we would have been basically losing 98 gold coin if I didn't at least try to win 98 gold coin that's a great way to think about it for sure it's a great way to feel better so I ended up losing 98 gold coin yeah there it is uh and we saw a quick montage of the process of blacking out uh tuck and ving played a song on stage at the stray dog thereby divulging a number of secrets to a crowd that was hopefully as drunk as you were yeah shia stopped us yeah shia stopped the song from continuing and uh tuck awoke the next morning in a barrel of pickles and ving awoke in a sack on a coat hook billy woke early in the morning and had a great night's sleep and uh scrubbed around in the street the story of the stray dog finding a secret compartment containing amongst other things a teddy bear belonging to jake the jackal that he stole and now has the stakes have never been higher billy is fairly certain there's something inside the teddy bear but he hasn't investigated further because upon being caught by jake the jackal and thrown upstairs the party was greeted by none other than shia the garden snake who revealed that yes she has been uh manipulating the jackals and various other parties in mccall to maintain order of the upper ward uh you learned that indeed the gin third is on some sort of vigilante rampage and you learned that perel left for a morning walkabout to quote unquote scout ahead and definitely get his ass kicked yeah and through a series of investigative techniques discovered that he was apparently pursued from the line outside of a brunch restaurant into an area of the city where he was being held in custody for a night's sleep and kidnapped taken to the sticks itself the shanty town built on the edge of the cliff of cliffside and down the face of the cliff of cliffside surrounding the monumental mccall lighthouse upon spotting what appeared to be a guards person of some sort go into the top floor of a shanty you pursued finding some sort of I'll conceived misdirect in which you were tasked with going up only to go back down to a catwalk hanging underneath the cliffside village discovering a hole in the cliff face itself leading to some sort of chamber and on the rock wall a single orange flower ooh some cup it's rose that is where we find our heroes now wait billy does your do you think your wicker cat could find more of these like your willow wisp maybe here I'll try it but first I do I have to roll for fairy child for today yes because you haven't yet yeah it's like the morning basically so I roll plus charisma and I got eight plus two is ten sick that means I get five holds today what yeah that's a lot so feel free to uh be freewheeling and fancy free with your fairy child moves nice so now I'm gonna make a little willow the wisp I don't have to roll for it right nope you can just create light at will okay yeah so you create a little oh so I did yeah sorry my bad sorry there's usually like a sound or something well I it just is on the ground I mean I make the sound I just didn't this time so I've got my little willow the wisp kitty a little wicker wicker the wisp um and I I lift it up to the flower does it do anything it sniffs the flower for sure and you hear it make like a little chirping trill sound that actually sounds like a bell ringer ringing because it's not a cat cat so it makes like a little bell ringing sound when it purrs can you find more ring ring I don't know what that means that means yes uh it like when you put it down it sniffs at the air and walks around in a circle and just curls up all right that means nap time everyone so I get on the ground too I and just to uh just again to paint the scene you guys are basically at the bottom of the room and you're like oh my god I'm so tired of this the bottom of a staircase and billy is now napping on a five foot wide catwalk that is hundreds of feet above the lower ward yeah it's a thousand foot drop down to like the salt statues exactly yeah you can see the tops of the heads of like the former uh prophets of fire oh man yeah this is the highest well being asleep is probably the safest possible position for billy so all right let's all roll to go to sleep I'm not asleep I'm not asleep I'm not asleep yet you guys I'm just following the teachings of the ancient one this little one here billy now that you're like laying on the ground you're trying to get into the get into the mindset of your will of the wisp the wicker the wisp uh you think that maybe that just means that there aren't any other compass roses nearby okay then that maybe this is a signal as opposed to the beginning of a breadcrumb breadcrumb trail did you say breadcrum no I didn't say anything I said breadcrumbs breadcrumbs breadcrumbs breadcrumbs and starts walking ahead of you.

And this dark stone tunnel that looks like it was definitely hewn into the stone. Again, Tuck, quite a tight fit. Most people aren't your size. You're at a bit of a hunch, but you can walk straight on. Okay. Yeah, but there's just this like yawning stone portal, this tunnel going into darkness. There's no light sources except for the sun behind you and the wicker cat. And the axe. The axe. And the axe. My crystal. There's a shit ton of light sources in this tunnel.

But what I'm saying is there, okay, yeah, there are no light sources outside of your light sources. Our glowing bodies. Yeah. Holy shit, I can barely see because it's too bright in here. I've got light sight. Somebody turn one of their lights off. So are you guys just heading forward? Yeah. Should we discern reality? Is it Trap Expert? Oh, Trap Expert. Might be a good idea. Might be a cue I was trying to give you. So Billy's embarrassed and he's being, extra vigilant. Whoa. Nice.

He is being extra vigilant. Yes, he is. So I got 10. 10. Damn. Yeah. So three questions off the Trap Expert list. Is there a trap here? And if so, what activates it? There is a trap here, yes. Okay. It's a simple trip wire. Okay. Like there's a hair thin trip wire four feet in front of you. All right, so I stop. What does the trap do when activated? You, get down really close. You're like peeking at where the wire is connected to. Yeah. And you don't see any obvious mechanism in this tunnel.

Like there's no darts or blades or whatever, but you see that the wire continues further down the corridor. So it seems like it would be some kind of alarm. Oh. And what else is hidden here? A thing. You notice in the wall there are various idols. Crude. Yeah, they're crude, like crude drawings. Yep. No, it's a, it is, it's crude depictions of the elements. They look like dicks and boobs and vaginas. And they're all in various states of undress. No, it's like very simple elemental designs. Yeah.

Just kind of covering the inside of this tunnel. These are old. Some are older than others. Ooh, what do they look like? Anything you can pick out from that? I'm only picturing the elements from fifth element. So straight line for earth. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Thing what you would notice is that they seem you're like man I have seen these before because the events that led to your shape-shifting being taken away are kind of a blur I feel like you probably blocked a lot of it out but you realize that some of the magi had tattoos very similar to this and there's uh little burnt piles in front of each of them and the burnt piles are reminiscent of like he can smell them deep old old scent of a scent that is disturbing and he recognizes yeah it's an herb that they use during the that they burnt during the ritual yeah cool oh these sorry really quick the carvings are like um pestles like a mortar and pestle they're set they're set in little holes oh I see what you mean like little clubs they can be removed cool interesting yeah so it's like kind of yeah ceremonial objects yeah yeah actually that's kind of neat like you see these little carvings in the stone and it is like bowls yeah and pestles like set into the wall whoa cool yeah that can be like slid out yeah yeah creepy yeah all right step over this line everyone very careful okay and tuck does it without intentionally tripping the tripwire which is his immediate instinct whenever he sees a tripwire oh I gotta trip this wire it's just begging to be tripped billy's like don't do it I'm not gonna do it billy and uh you go a little bit deeper feeling the like weight of the stone above you the immensity of the earth on either side do we hear like foot traffic or anything above us there is actually a point where you get close to a part of the tunnel that looks like it was bricked up a really long time ago and you hear people talking on the other side can we listen in yeah yeah yeah you can well I mean honestly you don't even have to discern realities it's idle domestic chatter oh there's houses on the other side yeah like it's just people being like oh we should go down to the market there's pretty good like you know they have some good cuts today so we're kind of just like under and inside the walls of the city I wonder if they could hear us yeah because I bet there's like such old structures in mccall that like it's like everyone's just like I live in this like box and it's my home and I have no idea what's on the other side of this wall exactly like you can hear water running it like through a certain part of the wall like you're just kind of inside the city cool yeah and uh again super dark like you know billy like seeing the scuffs on the floor people have come by here recently but uh you don't see any light you don't hear any sounds besides just domestic life bro whisper bro hell yeah shit are you guys actually calling no no not now we were until you said that um yeah you can you can carry on it's again it's like darkness mystery who knows what's down there do we do we need to do a perilous journey can we just keep walking you can you don't have to do a perilous journey you could do a discern realities if you wanted more info what is it plus wisdom okay good uh okay I can't believe that throughout the course of this game tuck has gotten less educated like it's taking knowledge has seeped out of his brain and he's like oh my god I'm not brain yeah I guess for everyone that's not a patron we can now move around our stats and I moved a stat out of intelligence into charisma giving me a minus one intelligence but I'm gonna discern realities okay yeah with wisdom 26 plus wisdom try to fucking find our fucking uncle nine uh yeah so you get one question off to certain realities um what is useful or valuable to me okay um so you can see all the light is like mixing from all of you like you have amethyst light you have like bright sunlight oh no I'm sorry I was using my crystal you have a moss hand I was using crystal in my chest like a headlamp on my chest yeah yeah oh so you just like open your shirt and there's a crystal in there yeah and vings pecs are fucking popping yeah yeah they were but I've been kind of laying off so they're also a little drooping I've got actual some pretty juicy boobs right now yeah popping down yeah they pop at least up until the point that it becomes like uh craggy and calcified and then changes into a amethyst geode in the center of your chest yeah so all those light sources are mixing in a very beautiful kaleidoscope and you see now that the tunnels get a little more twisty here like they're more naturally worn over the eons and further ahead on the right hand side you see a another hewn doorway and you hear what sounds like because it's so quiet down here now breathing ragged breathing oh weird uh fuck can we peek around the corner like alvin and the chipmunks surreptitiously yeah you could all try and stealth up there okay sure do you want to roll for decks yeah you're all gonna roll for decks because you're all going okay are you gonna douse your light sources in any way three eight nine okay so you walk forward hello hello hello and you peek your heads in and the door goes into a chamber that it looks like has a very high ceiling this chamber is much much larger and you realize that this is even you guys being under here spatially you can tell that this is more in the direction of the lighthouse so this seems like it's actually under that structure so it might be a little bit more of a part of the lighthouse but the ceiling is very tall and very wide no lights again and in the middle of the room in a chair with ropes around his wrists and ankles head lolling to the side is perel no my no perel sorry I yelled but maybe that's your failure you run in the room yeah that's maybe it I see perel and I'm overwhelmed oh you just say something or do you go into the room I probably run in there to untie him this is fucked up he's beaten up uh yeah I'm not beating up him he's been knocked unconscious okay yeah I run over to tuck wait uh yeah and tuck rushes forward and billy your danger sense goes off you know the second tuck crosses that threshold uh something above is going to crash down blocking his way out I rush in after I want to dive in too if we're all going in this room I'll hey I'll let you all go in the room that's for sure yeah perel tuck billy it's a trap I feel like billy's danger sense I think would mean that he'd be able to act before the thing closed I think ving's gonna have to try so 2d6 plus dexterity being okay I'm gonna try and run in and um like slide in like um india jones under a collapsing door totally nice oh yeah no problem 10 yeah get right in oh he does it on his knees and the door is coming down and he limbo's all the way back and uh this huge iron gate swings down and slams and is locked in place with a mechanism set into the wall how big is the room we're in the ceilings are very high 60 or 70 feet and the doors are really tall the doors are like 40 feet high there's a door behind perel a giant chamber yeah this seems like it's a giant structure yeah which makes sense if it's the lighthouse yeah and perel is yeah in a chair tuck runs up to perel and he kind of like smacks him to try and wake him up is he wearing a hat uh no no hat he's got does he have a mustache on nope no mustache man things are bad uh and you slap him around a little bit and he like snorts awake talk perel why did you wander off oh no you shouldn't have followed me what happened tell me what happened as you're saying this lights flare in each corner of the room like there are flames just hanging in each corner of this chamber like hanging from chains or floating floating individually like balls of flame are floating in the corners and uh three figures covered in the air and they're like oh my god I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die like tattoos depicting the elements walk through the huge door behind perel uh ving is really freaked out he's seen these tattoos before in his vision like coming and going and yeah because of that whole situation he is he's a little cagey I would like to shoot first yeah okay oh my god how dare they yeah so what's coward so what's billy doing yeah I'm just mad I guess so I stick my hands uh in my pockets where I had some just daggers like jangling about and I throw two of them yeah so you're gonna roll um volley so 2d6 plus dexterity oh no it's so bad oh my god wow uh okay four four okay wait damn oh resist I'm going to yeah turn a failed roll into a seven to nine with one of my fairy child moves right oh it's so cool it's pretty cool it's perfect too billy uh roll your damage so roll what is it a d8 or something one the lights flare like these flames flare in the corners of the room the figures walk in and billy just throws two knives immediately and uh the figure at the very front who's covered in the most tattoos like the most dense and elaborate of them as one of your knives flies right towards this man's face he puts his hand out and flicks it to the side and a gun is fired at him and he's stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck stuck That's a huge.

Okay, so you kick this chair. You kick Perel at them, and he sails through the air. The one in the front is just recovering from Billy's knife, and he lifts his hands up in front of him, and bricks come out of the ground, and he tries to create a little shield before Perel hits them, and he crashes full on into all three of them. They hit the ground, but it looks like they've diverted a lot of the actual damage that that would do to them. But for a moment, they're on the ground.

But Ving, one of the younger Medjay to the side with slightly less dense tattoos, kicks a leg out at you, and a little gust of air travels along the floor and knocks your feet out from underneath you, and you land with a thud on your chest. Oh, no. And he knows that he's out-elementaled, that I'll send up my harpoon. Okay. I'm going to go for that younger guy who tripped me up. Okay. So.

So you're going to have to, like, defy danger dexterity to be able to get into a decent position from the ground to throw your harpoon? Yeah. Or I can leap over across a physical obstacle. Yeah, totally. You could get right up on them. He does, like, the leg thing. Yeah. Up like a tornado. Yeah. And then harpoon. Sick. Whoa. Nice. Ten. Ten. Perfect. So you get to deal your damage. Great. Three. Three. Well, lucky for you, these ones are, these are just, like, acolytes or something like that.

Like, they're not full on. So you're going to take this one out. Are you killing him? No. Okay. I threw the shoulder into the wall. Okay. So you threw, like, the blunt side. Oh, you're nailing him to the wall. No, spearing him to the, yeah, his harpoon to the wall behind him. So he, like, kicks that air blade at you and gets up on his feet as you do your tornado kick into the sky. Your harpoon comes shooting out and jabs him right, like, not even just in the shoulder, like, part of his chest.

Yeah, in the meat. Yeah. And hits him right in the wall and he cries out and passes out from pain. So he's taken care of. Billy. Yeah. Full on fight. Ving just took a dude out right away. What are you doing? I run and grab that dagger that the, one of the magi, like, deflected. Mm-hmm. And is it possible that I can grab it and basically, like, hold it up to one of their throats to get them to talk to us or stop fighting?

It might be more than one defy danger because you want to go get the dagger. Yeah. And then you want to get to the, so 2d6 plus dexterity to get to your dagger. Nine. Okay. Ooh. And then I roll again. Oh. Huge. Shit. 13. Okay. You just start, like, sprinting. Well, what sprinting looks like for Billy? It's a lot of, like, tumbling. Yeah. A lot of rolling around. Yeah. Yeah.

So you're rolling around and you run towards your dagger where it's been sent to the other side of the room and the other younger magi that sees Billy, you running, punches forward from where he's laying on the ground and sends a bunch of shards of the brick that the older one used to block Perel. Uh-huh. And these shards, like, whip towards you. Roll a d6. Five. So, yeah, you take five damage as a bunch of these razor-sharp shards of stone just kind of slice you. Like birdshot. Yeah.

Got it all over my cute little face. More freckles. Yeah, maybe it slices it too much. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if it's true because you're carrying the teddy bear on your back and you're like, no, teddy! You turn around. You turn to protect the slow motion.

It's basically like you get your knife, you roll, you grab your dagger and it's this series, like this is a series of cuts basically as he's like punching shards at you and you're kind of dodging out of the way as you run to him and you jump on him, get around his neck and hold the knife to his neck. Yeah. Stop what you're doing, everyone or I'm definitely gonna kill him. That's why it's a 13. And you know what?

The older Magi, as he's like getting up, he does this really cool thing that I'm pretty sure I saw in a movie or Avatar or something where where he's laying on the ground, he slams his fists into the ground and he pops right back up on his feet. Well, he looks like a Dracula. Yeah, kind of. Like the earth pushes him back up to his feet, but he is standing there for a second. He sees Billy with his knife at the guy's throat. And he's like, and is like, he means nothing to me.

Is this the leverage you have? Do you value your own life? Mine? No. Whose life do you value? Because we'll find them and hurt them bad. All life is forfeit in pursuit of balance. Balance? What? What balance is this? And he gestures to where Perel was before he kicked him and then he's like, oh no, this. What balance is this? You look at what, you know, you did, you did this. He's getting angry. Like he looks bad. He's like, I have heard that you are fools and japers.

I will not listen to your buffoonery. Forfeit yourselves and we can speak. You forfeit yourselves and then we can speak. He, you can tell, Tuck, you've been in enough fights that you can tell he's getting ready to throw another punch. He's not having a fun time with this. So unless you want to roll something to force him, you've got leverage now that Billy's like, I'll fucking kill this kid. I don't care. Can I parlay? Yep. I want it because I want to try and use bamboozle.

I haven't used that yet. What's bamboozle? On a parlay with someone on a hit, you also take plus one forward with them. Cool. So what are you saying to this guy? I'm just like, look, dude, chill out. Let's talk. And that little raccoon won't slice your friend's throat. Seven plus charisma. Yeah. Is 10. I think I fucking moved. That point from intelligence. Yeah. Minus your ongoing one. Shit, nine. Someone help me. I mean, Billy's in a pretty good position. I'll help. Eight. All right.

So that makes it a 10. Again, Tuck having social experience with people. And now that you're, for some reason, more charismatic and more adept in social situations, you can tell he was kind of bluffing when he was like, kill him. I don't care. So he does lower his guard. He's still very tense, but he lowers his hands. And Tuck, like, scooches forward and grabs the wreckage that is Perel and he pulls him back over to him. And he puts his hat on Perel's head. Oh, that's nice.

I'll let him go, but you have to open that gate because that's a little creepy. And if you want to talk to us, I want to do it willingly. And maybe outside. Yes. The Medjay looks at you and when you say, let us outside, he laughs shortly, gruffly. Ha! You will not be leaving here. Wait. I feel like I got a, I won that. Yeah. Probably. Mm-hmm. So I won't attack you. Okay. Let me roll again. No, hold on now. Let me continue speaking. Wait, I have a plus one forward against you. Yeah. Suck my dick.

No, that's not what, plus one forward. Holy shit. He sucked the shit out of your dick. It's a shame you wasted that because I asked, I didn't ask you to roll. Okay. Sir, what is your name? Ving, you, you, there's a memory flashes to your mind. You remember this man. He was present at the ritual that took your shape-shifting. Oh my God. What is his name? Roth. His name is Roth. Roth? Okay. Yeah, you know his name is Roth. He's just like, Ving, it's nice to see you again.

I say facetiously, I thought that once we had robbed you of your wasted and abused ability to take any form you chose, that you would cease being a thorn in the side of the world. But now I find that you three had been traveling in the company of a wizard this entire time. What do you want with us? Why did you take Perel and beat him up? This is like embarrassing to do. He's so weak. One such as him is too dangerous and too powerful to be out in the world. Wandering. Unattended.

And tuck gestures at Perel who is semi-conscious wearing a cowboy hat, a torn Hawaiian shirt, and netted swim trunks and tevas. Mm-hmm. Him? Looks are deceiving. Power is not always what you view, what you perceive. So your job is to remove power from the earth? The way of the Medi is to maintain balance. And I suppose the balance is that you have power in Noah and everyone else does. The ones that can be trusted with power are fit to wield it. And who chooses those people?

The ones fit to choose. Classic. And who is that? You're being very cagey for someone who literally lured us in. And put us in a cage. Yeah. How do you think traps usually work, little one? Or should I say fairy? I know everything there is to know about traps. So you should know that when you are trapped by one seeking to maintain life, you are trapped by one seeking to maintain life. And leverage over you, they will not present you with every detail that is asked of them.

Well, then I will make you. Whoa, that's hardcore. Yeah, actually. What can I do? I don't, like, what does shadow dance do? That's the teleport move, isn't it? No, it's the one that allows you to like leave your body, like become a shadow. And go into the spirit realm. Right, so I just got this move. So shadow dance is I slip out of the body, I slip out of the body, I slip out of my physical body and into the fairy slash shadow realm.

And with seven to nine, I get one hold to do something in there. And on 10 plus, I get three holds. Yeah. Okay, yeah. I'm going to try shadow dance because Billy's so mad, does not like this whole situation. I'm going to use one of my fairy child holds and roll wisdom. See if I can do it. Okay, two to six plus wisdom. Seven. So, what does it look like for Billy? And what does it look like for everyone else when he does this? I push over the dude that I've got the knife to.

And I like take a running jump at Roth and my fairiness slips out. So Billy's body just lands with a thud. And you just see like a shadow like leap onto this dude and like flitting around. Okay. What does this look like for Billy? It's like, like a rage, like tunnel vision almost. And it's like, he feels like light all of a sudden. Like he doesn't feel so heavy and encumbered and his vision like opens up and it's just like mist and shadow kind of like where he was before.

And he sees, you know, the shadows of like being in talk. But the magi, like Roth and everyone, they're like this like weird, like twisting shadow. Cool. A bit more solid than that. And he sees like. Because they exist in this realm more than standard people do. Yeah. Like it's a lot of like the elements and the animals that they kind of control. But it's not the same that he's seen in Ving. Before Ving, like his form was very like solid. It wasn't shifting all the time. It was very pure.

But the shadows for these magi are unsettled, as he said. And just like, and like writhing a bit, like it's, it's really, it's really uncomfortable. Yeah, totally. And Billy, you can see. So the, the one thing that I'll editorialize is that you don't see any animal spirits. Okay. What you do see is pure elements, but you also see stuff like lightning and like all these kind of, at least. Okay. So in Roth, you see a mixture of elements.

You see fire, like torrents of gusting air, like earthquakes, mudslides, all that kind of stuff. And then in the one nailed to the wall, you see his shadow, just like a roiling tornado. And the one that you slammed into the ground, you just see like turning earth. It's very confusing for Billy to look at because you're in the ferry right now. Yeah. But you're also seeing that these are phasing into the ferry and you're, you're catching glimpses of their forms in the spirit world.

And it looks like these elements are like looming above them. And they're almost like tethered or chained to the physical bodies of these men. It's almost like slices of these things. Yeah. Exactly. Is it like, this is a genuine question. Is it like the part of their shadows that the elements are tethered to? Is it the tattoos on their arms? Oh, that's cool. Yeah. And they go up in the pattern of tattoo and the pattern of the tattoos. That's really cool. Yeah. Sweet. Yeah.

So that is what you see. So what's Billy attempting to achieve with this? Basically, I want to like find out what it is that they want. Cause he knows that from being that these are Druids, of some kind. And did these spirits give themselves over willingly or were they taken? Oh yeah. Sick. The chains speak a lot. So I will accept the spent fairy hold to kind of intimate this information.

Cause it's not really a fairy thing to like draw thoughts out of people, but you're kind of, now that you're pure fairy for this minute, basically you're gaining a lot of information very quickly. You get the distinct feeling that these spirits are not serving willingly. They've been like bound to these people and you can tell that the, like the air spirit exists in Roth and also in the one nailed to the wall. And you can tell that it's parts of the same spirit. Like it's not individual spirits.

They're all like grabbing pieces of it and trying to chain it individually. That sucks. Yeah. It's not great. Um, yeah, that's the feeling that you're getting off these spirits. As a, as a, as for what they want, I'm not sure Billy would get much of an insight ideologically into what the Medjay, but Ving would kind of know this is that they are very much about balance. Like it's, but it's the idea of like, everything is great. There's no good. There's no bad. It should always be gray.

You know what I mean? Like both should always exist. Yeah. Well, they're fucking hypocrites then. Cause why are they trying to kill Perel? That's part of the, like, well, wizards have a lot of power. And they could upset that balance. I don't like these guys balance that they think they hold exactly or steward.

Uh, so yeah, Billy, you get this like very uncomfortable feeling cause you can feel something very similar to when you, um, encounter another fairy that like beginning of individuality because they're being bound to other forms, but they're not quite reaching that full individual potential. So it's really uncomfortable for the spirit as well. I mean, possession. Yeah. Cause they didn't want to be there, but they're still acting as like one spirit. Yeah. Of course.

And the tattoos are definitely the mechanism that's keeping them bound. Yeah. And to have them kind of tethered constantly is not in tune with the way these spirits work. And something that'll get you because this is a hard move. Yeah. Is you think given enough time, not instantly, this would eventually kill the Medjay as well. Whoa. Like this kind of spiritual imbalance. Yeah.

This spiritual turmoil combined with the stress it must put on their bodies to try and manipulate the elements would kill them eventually. Cool. And I, Billy is feeling that very fairy thing where he's like, given time, he would slip away into the fair world. So he looks back on like tuck and thing. And then it's just like, he's just like back in his bod. Yeah. He just wakes up like, and Roth is standing there. Like, was that supposed to do something? And I laugh. Ha.

You don't know the powers that you wield. You idiot. And that shakes him for just a second. I see what you hide. Hide. You know, nothing of me. Fairy. A real Druid is given these powers from nature on their own terms. And you've taken them against their will. You wear them like a badge on your skin. It shackles you. Yeah. Yeah. I can see you getting angry. Get angry. You little bitch. He's, he's getting very angry.

And text just, I guess, hyping these two because he doesn't know what the fuck's going on. So he's just like, Oh, Oh, you got smashed Roth. Uh, and he looks at all of you and looks at Perel on the ground and says, a wizard is bad enough. They are the weight that upsets you. You are the one that sets the scales on the balance of the world. And you, he points at Ving were their successor.

Your power was unearned and it was destructive and given free reign, you would have brought the spirit world down. None of you can be allowed to leave this place. You are the crest on the destabilizing wave of the world. And I will end it today. I'd like to see you try. He puts his hands on his chest. He says, puts his hands to his side and he's like very well. And you see electricity start crackling between his fingers. Tuck throws the ax at his head. Okay. Uh, seven plus dexterity.

Uh, no, I fucked decks. Are you serious? That's straight. You're throwing, you're trying to hit him. He throws it really hard. You're trying to hit a target. Oh, can I change that to, uh, now I'd like to point out that you have rolled dice already. Okay, fine. Plus decks. I failed. So what'd you get? Did you? I have zero decks, but I have a minus one. I'm going. So it makes it a six. Yeah. Can we help? Yeah, I'm going to Gus to win the ax. There you go. Two to six plus bond nine. Okay.

Um, so you throw the ax at him and uh, everything slows down for just a second. The, like the electricity is crackling in his hands. You see him bring them to the center of this chest. Whoa, and build like this, uh, He's a dookening. Yeah, this, this turning ball of electricity and he extends his arm to unleash a bolt of lightning and the ax it's, oh, it's going off course. Oh no. What have I done?

And Ving, just as he sees what his friend is attempting to do, punches in the air and a puff of wind swings across nudging the ax back on target, but not enough to hit Roth squarely. There's a ton of air coming up. There's a ton of air coming up. There's a ton of air coming up. There's a ton of air coming up.

The axe like instead of being discharged into all of us it just discharges into the axe and arcs into the ground yeah yeah split the ground oh yeah yeah what I was gonna say is that like it's he's not gonna be able to hit you but what I was I like the discharging into the ground but it's like a huge release of energy so there's like yeah cracks the ground and like these rents in the brickwork travel up the walls like chunks fall down and you have a second where he is like I a little bit cooler than that but like chunks of the ceiling are falling out there's dust and rock everywhere so you have a second act before he can get his footing under him it's a real you want me to put the hammer down kind of moment yeah totally exactly I want to bring seems right I was gonna element or elemental yeah just we open ourselves to a catastrophe but I don't think it's gonna happen because of the anger and the righteousness of this act uses those crumbling rocks around them to bring them down with a good amount of water I want to like maybe fuck him up his electricity yeah where are you bringing the water from like where would you be trying to bring the water from deep oh yeah deep under oh so from down like yeah yeah totally you first just kind of bubbles up around his feet like where the cracks formed yeah yeah to the six plus constitution plus my constitution is a seven on seven and nine choose one I want to retain control okay so what you wanted to happen is not going to happen the effect you desire does not come to pass and I don't avoid paying nature's price okay cool that's kind of embarrassing for you to be totally honest given the context of the situation yeah this is basically you guys are trying to take this opportunity to escape or get the upper hand and as this earthen work was coming down and you're trying to pull the water up you realize that like maybe it's the destabilization of so many elementalists in the same place that the spiritual energy would just make it too destructive too unpredictable so you're just holding it off you're like okay here we go nope never mind never mind close the door so what is nature's price oh maybe nature's price is that one of the other guys dies oh you drown one of the other dude drown one of his dude the guy that's like hammered into the wall yeah or the guy that's yeah that's on the ground head smash on the ground yeah as the the the water's filling up through the cracks and widening the cracks on his feet this man falls into a fissure at his feet whoa soundlessly doesn't make a noise yeah and he's gone uh yeah and you do retain control so it's not like this whole room's coming down but the fissures are wide they're filling with water roth is getting ready to uh make another play basically what are you all trying to do um I'm trying to get perell untied oh yeah no problem slice slice slice you got a rope and also he was tied to a chair and tuck destroyed that chair right yeah is he awake he's waking up now yeah it's been pretty hard for him not to I guess can I like try and punch roth out um yeah you could well you can try and get past him for sure punch out might be tough but you can definitely work on it should we try and like duck past him and run yeah so he's bringing those rocks crumbling there's water everywhere yeah guy's gone he's freaked out a little bit yeah he's trying to maintain control of the situation when I bet it's harder for him because the elements don't want to be there with him yeah especially with the thing here like then you know that it's not quite the same relationship for you yeah so they're like fighting against it basically yeah yeah like with a true elementalist in play it fucks up their whole thing because the elements that they have are tethered and it's kind of like hey why are we tethered in that he can just let it flow all right yeah let's go I grab the guy out of the wallet and I carry him out by the harpoon I want to bring him with me oh my god that's gonna hurt him a lot yeah I'm sorry I'm sorry I've pulled this it'll help okay um and somebody's grabbing Perel I assume tuck is grabbing pro yeah so I think you're all gonna have to roll to get out of here okay so tuck how are you getting past Roth he's just like Hulk runs at him okay so with Perel yeah he puts Perel in front of him okay to pull Roth down yeah just to make sure Perel's dead if I can just drink so it's a nine yeah okay which means a week and a yeah oh we like join in on the juggernaut that is tucked to put more weight towards running at the guy yeah and I have the guy also on the harpoon in front of me so I have like two people yeah plus bond seven and that makes tucks thing a ten I'm comfortable making that so it's easier for all of you to get out of here sure because tuck just shoulders Roth like into a wall basically yeah down on the ground and you're just running into the darkness of the lighthouse you're running into tuck a mythic construction that has existed in the city of McCall since before it was a city and we're running through like water that is rising right yeah like it gets less deep the further you get in because it's like rising from the fissures in the room behind you but basically you run out of the room you were in down a relatively short corridor if you were a giant slightly larger because you're normal sized people and then just cavernous absolutely massive open air walls arcing out around you in a circular shape and a massive spiral staircase curling up the walls into darkness so we're in the main kind of tube wow duck knows a lot about architecture let's go up head for the light oh is there like a light shining at the top of the yeah very very high up uh-huh um I've created my wicker the wisp and she's running up ahead of us lighting these stairs that billy is devastated to see are like two feet tall just like I just cling on to I think ving is the closest I cling on to his boot and wrap myself around his leg that works for me you!

So roth is gonna be hot on your heels once he gets his shit under him um oh can I try fairy dust yeah totally so uh yeah roth comes running out behind us and he is just steps below like maybe like another story below us up the stairs and I'm I'm hanging on to ving's leg and I try fairy dust okay I don't want him following us what's fairy dust again um basically fairy dust I just wrote fall asleep great yep I'm sure there was more to it than a hat yeah let me see if I haven't written down I'm sorry it's not on my news sheet and uh it's just a falling sleep spell right um okay so fairy dust roll plus charisma to put people to sleep on a ten plus choose two seven and nine choose one okay whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa I am so charismatic so this is a 13.

Ha ha ha The choices are it affects a group of people. They stay asleep for a good amount of time. You can do it from a distance. Okay, I can do it from a distance and they're going to sleep for a while. Okay. So yeah, Roth like comes skidding around the corner, like water kicking up behind him. And it looks like he's actually using the water to move faster. It's like, it looks like he's skateboarding. He looks like Disney's Tarzan. He comes around the corner.

He puts his hand on the ground and his feet kick up behind him on a wave of water. And it starts like the water curls up the wall and he starts like sliding up the staircase behind you. We're so fucked. It looks pretty cool. Juicy fruit and pops in his mouth. I want to establish that Roth is very cool. So Roth is, is he ripped? Because this last move makes me think he's ripped. I thought he was like a kind of like a scrawny, like evil vizier type of person.

And they're gross looking, aren't they? He is, he is a, he is a vizier type. Like Roth is young. He's a vizier type of person. He's a vizier type of person. Actually, Ving, you describe Roth. Uh, yeah. Uh, and he, um, a long hair. In a, in a braid. That's what I was thinking too. Yeah. Yeah. Long hair. And he has black fingernails. You were saying? Yeah. They all have black fingernails. Oh. Like digging in the dirt. Yeah. They're a little bit long. Like, not like witch long. Not talons, yeah.

But like, you know, like creepy guitar player long. Oh yeah. Gross. Um. Also they're like dirty with like earth. Yeah. There's earth and, and like smolders and stuff under there. Sick. Stry, like striations of stuff in there. Yeah. Are they clean or dirty? These, them. Uh, except for the fingernails, they're very clean. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Meticulously clean. Yeah. I think he's probably pretty scrawny. Like he's a very thin, borderline malnourished guy. Whoa. But wiry. Yeah. Really wiry. Veiny.

What are they dressed like? Uh. I'm imagining a dark robe, but that might just be because he's an evil vizier type. Maybe that's too much. Yeah. Tasteful belt. Like a nice. A tasteful belt. That's where you're starting. And billowing out of the belt at the bottom. It's like, uh, you know, those, uh, big pants that kind of look like a skirt so you can move around really easily. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, no shirt. This shows off their tattoos.

They have to be, uh, so it's like a cloak with, uh, pants, like a two layered cloak. Cool. That starts at the, at the waist. And no shirt. No shirt. Cool. Yeah. And like, kind of like short, short sleeves so you can see their tits. Oh, no sleeves at all. Oh, no sleeves. I like that. Okay. And a hooded cloak. These guys like. So sick. So funny. They do look, their style is interesting, but kind of cool. Yeah. Yeah. They're kind of like background people in, uh, Mortal Kombat. Yeah. Totally. Yeah.

And this is the person you see chasing you up the staircase on a wave of water before Billy turns around and. And I open one of my hands and all this like glittery dust puffs. Puffs. Down. Upon. Upon. Roth. Uh huh. Um, and Roth comes to a halt. It's like stumbling onto the stairs and the water falls back down to the ground and dissipates and he's asleep. Sick. Tuck runs down and grabs him too. And starts running upstairs. Interesting move. Two prisoners. We could tie him up when we get up. Sure.

Wherever we're going. Right. Yeah. Do you think that ropes negate spiritual ability? Okay. Yeah. Maybe you're right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You just tie his shoelaces together or something. Yeah. Our Tug just ties his shoelaces together. Draw a cock on his forehead. And then he farts in his face and he runs away. Great. All right.

Roth is going to stay asleep for a good while, which means that you can hustle up. You can explore if you want to, or you can just make the trip to the top of the lighthouse. I just want to run up and find somewhere to like kind of hide and question this other magi. Yeah. Can we get out and on top? Yeah. I mean, hard to say. You'd have to go to the very top. Let's go to that. I feel like that's a pretty intense place to question somebody. Yeah, it kind of is.

Dangling them over the edge with their ankles. And Billy's like, you know, I mean, personally, like pretty already high up. So like, I'm good whenever you guys want to stop. Whenever you want a break, I'm super happy to take a break somewhere like low down. So Tug opens his backpack and he takes a baby Bjorn out and he like straps it to himself. And he's like, Billy, do you want to ride in here? Did you double? Not that? Yes, I did. Okay, then sure.

I slide Billy into the Bjorn and I cinch it tight. Yeah. Perfect. So you're good. Are you going all the way to the top? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Defy danger constitution from Tug and Bing because it's very high. I can't remember the exact number. It's like a thousand feet. It's like the CN Tower, basically. Yeah. It's what it was built by giants. So it's like it's giant sized and like giants were really good engineers. So like they were able to build skyscrapers, basically. Yeah.

There's buttresses all the way up. Twelve. We got twelve. Nine. But I have a minus one. So I have eight. Okay. So, man, Tug being hung over is totally fucked him today. Oh, yeah. And as you're walking up the as you're making the trip up the stairs, how long do you think it would take to walk up a kilometer long staircase? It usually takes like two or three hours to walk up the CN Tower. Holy fuck. Yeah. Have you done it? No, I've heard other people do it. Yeah.

Oh, so that's about how long it takes. Ving, you feel great by the time you get there. Tug, you get pretty tired and your hangover gets worse and you have to drink some wine like of the wine that you have. Yeah, I'm going to drink wine wood. But the first bottle that you drink has no effect besides keeping you baseline. Okay. Can I drink another bottle? Yeah. You're drinking two bottles of wine. Oh, no. Back to the hangover. Okay. Things like jogging the spot. Backwards. Like, come on, buddy.

You can do it. And Tug is literally sucking back a bottle of wine being like, okay, just give me a second. Hold on. Maybe try water. Throw it off the side of the stairs. Yeah. Smashes it against the wall on the other side. Yeah. Seven plus three is ten. So that's the Constitutional. Yep. You use about halfway up the tower. You were drunk. But by the time you get to the top, you've burned it off. Yeah. Billy's ringing out sweat. Not from him. But from Tuck that absorbed into Billy's clothes.

And he's like, this is disgusting. And you come out on to the top of the McCalla lighthouse. There's a massive piece of sunstone set into the very top with beautiful designs carved into it. Wow. Oh, like what? It's spherical. For one, it's been carved into a sphere. It reminds you of the statues that you saw in the tomb. It's like depictions of. It's like depictions of individuals, giants. It seems like it's one giant repeated many times. And it looks like they're hammering.

They're like building a mountain. They're building a mountain? Yeah. Can we Spout Lore to see if we know anything about this stuff? Yeah. Well, I wouldn't have to Spout Lore. I could just do bardic lore. Yes, that is true. Oh, sure. Oh, cool. Yeah. This is a depiction of the giant creator god. Whoa. Yeah. So this piece of sunstone tells the story of the progenitor god of the giants, whose name has since been lost, building the world. They think a giant built the world? Yep. Wow. That's so cool.

Yeah. There's a depiction of the giant hammering a mountain of them basically cooking the sea, making the sea, kneading clouds out of star stuff, that kind of shit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And playing like some sort of woodwind instrument to create all of the animals of the planet. That's cool. Yeah. Other cultures have the breath be the life, but theirs is the music.

Like the vibration of the breath. That's really cool. Is it super bright up here? The sunstone is pretty bright. Is it bright all day? Like the lighthouse, is it on all the time? Yeah, I think so. So I guess it's fucking bright up here. You come upstairs and there is a sun three feet from you. Yeah, I'll bet there's like just stairs down to a lower platform that isn't just like fucking crazy bright. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, you can go down to a platform that skirts like the entirety of the top.

And you're just looking out over the entirety of McCall. It's a restaurant that slowly spins around. Yeah, there's a couple whose barrage is clearly on its last legs having an anniversary dinner. I thought this would work. This isn't working. Harold. There's a jazz pianist. Yeah, I know. You just see the entire city spread out before you and the desert and the salt flats and everything. Wow. And the man hanging off of things harpoon for the last couple hours starts to groan.

I've taken it out and I'm patching it up with one of my poultices. So we're outside. We're not inside the room anymore. No, you're outside on like this skirt, this platform that's in circles, the top of the lighthouse and the whole city is spread. Okay. And you see the salt flat below you. Oh, wow. Billy's getting like the shiver me timbers. And in the distance, you see the Alcoly Desert under the noonday sun.

You see an enormous sandworm just crest at dune and you hear its song lilting on the wind before it dives below the sands. Oh, yeah. Let's all describe a moment of peace that we see from this vantage. You can see like the ocean from here, right? Yeah, I think you can see slivers of the ocean. Like on the other side of like whatever salt plain exists. Yeah. Yeah. So Billy is using his binoculars because he sees in the ocean like a ship coming in and he recognizes it from the principalities.

Oh, what ship is it? Is it the Clearwater? The ship from Mudlark? Half of the ship. That was like embedded in the ground in Mudlark? Oh. It is the Clearwater and it's been rebuilt. Oh. Oh. Shit. Wow. Okay. That's where we're going to end it for this week. Damn. There's a lot happening all right now. I've been your Game Master, Sean O'Mara. Joining me as always playing Ving the Half-Elf Druid, Paul Oppers. Take care, everyone. Playing Tacoma Dome the Barbarian, Abdul Aziz. So long.

And playing Fat Billy the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai. Bye, everyone. Thank you as always to Aaron Reed for our intro and outro music. Incredible every time. And we'll see you next time. And thank you to our Patreon supporters, supporting us from all over the place. If you want us to support the show, you can find us at patreon.com slash Spout Lore or at Spout Lore most places on the internet. And if you feel like helping the show out, maybe give us a review on iTunes. It really helps us out.

Have a good night. Or I'll see you next time. Bye. Whenever you're listening to this. Whatever. See ya. And so ends the tale of Adventures 3, who tried the best they could. Though dumb and scared and lost, they never found the way. For times abreast in revelry. And though our journey may be like a conclusion. We will not leave you without a resolution. Return next week to hear some more. Whilst you commute or do your chores. And for you I'd gladly Spout Lore.