Episode 9 – I Want To Make It Right

If you like what you're listening to, then you're going to love patron.com slash Spout Lore, where you can be part of our, you want to say Patriot of the right words. You said patron.com patron Don come patron to doubt. Come if you want to support us in our stonk pursuits. So sorry. Let me tell you a tale of three heroes. A brood, a druid, and a thief. Who is, but not his own. 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 brood. 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 the thief, his tiny size does mask the largest part. This is the guy who sings the Grinch song. This is the guy who sings the Grinch song. That guy wants to fuck the Grinch. Hello everybody and welcome to Spout Lore.

I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara and joining me as always playing being the half elf druid, Paul Oppers. Hello there. Playing Tacoma dome, the barbarian, Abdul Aziz. Hello everybody. And playing fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica tie. Hello everyone. When last we left our heroes, they were entering a yawning portal in the side of the cliff face below cliffside and above the lower ward. Um, entering into a dark and twisting tunnel. Billy recognized and avoided some traps.

There were some, uh, ancient etchings found in the, the tunnel itself before the party came upon the unconscious form of their friend and former wizard Perel upon seeing this figure tuck barreled headfirst into the room. He's all hard. He's not, he's, and he's dumber than he's ever been. Mechanically dumb as shit. Billy and Ving also rushed in because what they're just going to let talk Russian. No way. And, uh, it turned out to be a trap.

The gate swung closed behind them and they were accosted by Roth of the Medjay and two nameless Medjay mooks. A battle was undertaken and not one per se, but survived that lost either escaped. And, uh, Roth was put to sleep by Barry, Billy, Billy's fairy dust, uh, by Barry's Philly dust, Philly cheesesteak dust. Uh, yeah. One of our sponsors is Barry's Philly's cheesesteak dust. Now, uh, we're going to do an ad read for him. Jessica, take it away.

Hi, this is Barry from Barry's Philly cheesesteak dust. Uh, come on down for some discount dust where we get harvested from the finest of the Philly cheesesteaks. Homegrown here in Philadelphia, Philadelphia city. See you down at here. He's, his accent is changing. And part of the stipulation of Barry's Philly cheese dust ad was, I want Jessica to pretend to be me. I don't want you to read the ad as yourselves. He sent us a recording of himself reading it.

And then we were like, we just play the recording that you sent. And he's like, no, make Jessica pretend to be me. I, my voice is so upsetting that I can't sell my own product. I need someone with a nicer voice to do it. Put to sleep by Billy, Billy's a fairy dust. Roth was left at the bottom of the staircase, which led to the very tippy top of the monumental lighthouse of McCall. Uh, and our party ascended those stairs over the course of several hours.

The unconscious form of one of the Medjay hanging from the end of, uh, Vings harpoon. Wait, you're carrying him by the harpoon. Uh, yeah. I mean, I was supporting his bottom at the same time. And once they reached the top, they gazed out upon the city of McCall, the city of McCall itself. And in the distance through his bill, noculars, Billy spotted on the ocean blue, the clear water, former HQ of Maggie Cole, AKA muckraker in mudlark, the ship rebuilt and approaching the shores of McCall.

Holy shit. She's like a week out. We decided. Yeah. I mean, who knows? We should really try it and remember this time to just throw that pin away. Yeah. Great idea. This is the perfect opportunity, but we'll promise to do it. Later. Yeah. Billy's like, I will certainly throw it away. There's no way he's throwing it away. He's so attached to it. Yeah. It opens doors like a motherfucker. Yeah. It's been forever. He stuffs it like further into his like little, like hair fro situation.

And that is where we find our heroes. Now on the very top of the lighthouse of McCall with an unconscious Medjay, who is slowly becoming conscious, groaning in pain and confusion. I've pulled out the harpoon. And I've, uh, started patching him up and I give him a little sip of, uh, wine, nursing it back to health. They cough up the wine. That's it. Yes. Get it up. Their eyes flutter. Oh, and they start struggling. Hold them down. What's your name? I don't have to tell you my name.

Blasphemers, agents of chaos, villains have at the, he's, maybe I just lean them up and show them. Oh, how high off the ground is. Yeah. Tuck. He takes a Vings cue and he like just picks, uh, the guy up and put, put hangs him out over the edge of the, uh, the edge of the balcony of the lighthouse. All right. Two D six plus strength. Uh, 10. Okay. Uh, he's like, have at the villains. I will. And you hold them out over the edge of the lighthouse, a kilometer above cliff side.

And he goes, I will tell you, whatever you want to know, he drops this stick. Just please don't drop it, please. And then tuck like, cause he's holding him by the scruff of the neck where there is a hood. He like, let's go for a second. And he tenses up his whole body. Yeah. And it looks like a little bit of moisture drops off the bottom of his shoes. And like something turd shaped and colored comes out of tux pants and splatters on his fucking legs. Yeah. Now tux covered in poop.

How do you like it? He didn't poop. The amount of characters that you've been making shit lately. I had to stop you. That's true. What do you, what do you want? What do you want from me? We'd want answers. Of course. Yeah. Why did you trap us? Why did you take Perel? And why did you beat him up? Why did you trick me? What do you mean? What do you mean? You took away my powers. I feel like there's something else going on here. Yeah.

We, uh, Roth, when you came to the city, uh, you know, that kind of, that kind of energy coming into a place that there's ripples in the spirit world. We, we felt that Roth felt that that's too much power for one person to have. Yeah. But I thought we had an, I thought we like, we're working towards a mutual goal, but what you did was too much. Can you tell me a little bit about what happened at the ritual? Cause I am, I am this, this guy knows cause Sean does need this context. Yeah.

Just that he was, he had an idea that he wanted to, uh, he knew he had to sacrifice something to gain his element or mastery. And he was, I can't say it. I did that. You can't make fun of people with speech impediments. That's a good point. Uh, no, I shouldn't make fun of people with speech impediments. That's a good point. Um, you guys, there's a lot I didn't tell you about that ritual and there's a lot of leading up to it that I, I never talked about. Well, yeah.

I mean, it seemed like you were pretty fucked up after it. It, we didn't feel like it was our place to make you talk about it. I thank you for giving my space. I know the, I come to things as they come to me. I had a, I had a, I had a, uh, I had a master, a sensei. I met him on the streets of, uh, McCall when I was doing outreach and my tread step into, uh, stop him from being hurt. And, uh, he, um, surprised me and the light guard that was trying to shuffle him along.

And he laid him out in a, uh, in a way and using, um, a fighting style that I've never seen. It was such strength and assuredness that it seemed effortless and outside of him and eternal his strength. So we struck up a relationship based on that. And he helped me with my chi became my master, I guess. And I went to him every day and trained with him for a long time. Um, yeah, over time we learned that we had a lot more in common than I initially thought. And he told me that he was once a Druid.

Whoa. And that he knew the pain of calling upon the spirits to do your bidding. He had experienced the same shame and guilt about exploiting the spirits for his own means. And he told me there was a way, a way to be, powerful and to be in tune with the more elemental spirits of the earth. And so he told me the only way to do this was to make a sacrifice. So I followed him to the cliff side one night and he picked up a portion of the cliff. He raised it out of the ground with no effort.

Uh, below it. It was a stairwell. We went in. It was dark. He was in front of me. I was calling his name. I could hear him whispering, follow him, follow me, deeper, darker. I couldn't see anything and I could smell it. That burning sage smell, I could smell it everywhere. It was filling my nose. I thought it was burning sage. I got down. There was singing, drones, a droning chant. When I got into what I felt like was a chamber, I lit my chest up.

It was a small chamber, barely big enough for the four people that were in there. Hooded cloaks, much like those guys down there, covered in tattoos. In their hands were brass bowls and they were all holding one of those pestles that we saw at the entrance. Each of them went different. They were putting what I thought was sage in the bowls. They started grinding up the bowls. The bowls started singing. With their chanting combined, the resonating kept getting louder and louder.

I started losing lucidity. I was seeing different spirits. I was hearing different spirits coming and going. In the middle of the room was a slab of rock. It looked like it had been worn from the amount of bodies that had laid upon it. It was eroded out in the shape of a man. The images are spotty, back and forth, in and out. I don't know how I got down on the slab, but I was. They're ringing the bowls and they're singing the songs. There's a woman. There's a woman.

They were using it as a means to force their way in and out of the spiritual world. And I was shape-shifting uncontrollably. First it was a dog, then a bird, and every animal form I took on the slab, one of them would stab me. They would stab the animal with this horrible knife, this awful knife. And with every different animal that they stabbed, I felt that that animal was leaving and never coming back. It felt worse than pain, deeper than pain. And the room was filling with smoke.

The sound was filling my head. It was filling my whole body. My chest was vibrating. At one moment I was in the interface. My hands, my feet, my head was ringing with the sound of this vibration. It seemed like the rock broke apart. It was all around me. There was faces flying in and out of my mind's eye. Face after face of all the animals as they left me. Angrily. And then I woke up. Downtown. McCall. Asleep on the street. Light guard kicked me awake. Told me to move along.

And that's when I came home. And then I slept for a week. And… It took a long time to… To feel okay at all. But… I fell back into my training. I knew that I had made the sacrifice that I set out to make. Even though it wasn't the way I wanted to make it. And I have not seen my sensei since that day. Nor have I shapeshifted. Billy and Perala. They're listening and just speechless. That's fucked up, man. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I didn't know how to. That's okay.

I'm really sorry. I still don't know how to talk about it. I understand. It's okay. Yeah. I'm sorry. You don't have to apologize. I'm so sorry. He's just kind of saying it out over the horizon. I'm so sorry. It's not your fault, thing. The Magi says… That sounds really hard for you. As he struggles against… Being held a kilometer above the city of McCall. 25 minutes. Anyways. What's your name, you piece of shit? Huh? Yeah, look at this guy. That's going to draw a cock on his forehead.

Should we just kill this guy just for that? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We could. Unless you want to talk to us. I'd be more than happy to. I wasn't even there. I literally have no reason to keep you alive right now. I know things. There's so much I know. Hmm. Okay, well, you better start talking right now. Or you're going to kill me. Yeah. Are you actually going to kill me? You know what? At this point, after that fucking story, I want to kill you. So… Okay, I'll tell you what I know.

Start at the beginning. Of what? Of your life. Ask me what you… Ask me what you want to know and I'll tell you. All right. I'll tell you what I know. I do know things, but you have to understand. I'm an acolyte. I've only been with the Magi for like a year and a half. Where's the man that led me into the tomb? I… I… Like I said, I wasn't there. I don't know what you're talking about. Well, tell us why they did that to Ving. That's a fucked up thing that just happened to him. Yeah, it's…

It's… You have to understand. When I joined, they had a very compelling point. Over the last couple years, things have been changing in the world. You know, demon possession was at an all-time low. But unexplained deaths were at an all-time high. The turmoil in the spirit world was destroying life. And we were getting news reports from all over about impossible things happening. I was afraid. I wanted to make a difference. Things like what? Things like living storms. Wiping cities off the map.

Things like creatures that hadn't been seen in millennia. Just out in the wild. It's scary. You know. You've heard stories. I'm sure you've seen things. Honestly, we live a pretty low-key life. So… We haven't really seen or heard anything that you're talking about. I'm wondering how you expect me to believe that. You know what? I wouldn't concern yourself with the things we may or may not have seen. Tell us more about your side of things. Okay.

Well, I joined the Medjay because they told me when they found me that they were looking to balance things back out in the world to make things safe for people again. On a broad scale, on a spiritual scale, that sounded like something I wanted to do. That, and he pointed, doesn't sound like something that I would want to do. But, you know, they made a compelling point.

There are individuals throughout history who have had untold powers that have made life nothing but difficult for the people that don't. And they wanted to stop that from happening. And then you came to town, this so-called spirit walker, that they'd been hearing whispers of in the spirit world for months. And they took that as providence, an opportunity to even the scales a little bit more. But I was willing to work with the Magi. I was willing to do it. It didn't have to be like that.

They didn't want to take that chance. Are they doing it for themselves? I can't answer that. I am unable to answer that. He puts his hands up as he sees all of you squint when he says, I can't answer that. I'm unable to. I do know, I think, from what I've heard, that the power that they took from you still exists somewhere. It's not gone. It's just been removed. And put where?

If I had to guess based on the texts that I've been given access to or the traditions, it sounds like the knife and those bowls could be part of it. The knife tasted the blood of all those forms. It stands to reason that it has those spiritual reverberations, resonances, signatures. Echoes? Echoes. Yeah, that's good. Me points at you. Echoes. Yeah. It stands to reason the knife still feels those echoes. Okay. Anyways, yeah, they wanted to even the scales, but I don't know.

It seemed pretty hardcore to me. They seemed really untrusting of you. And then when that woman came and told us about the wizard, that seemed like… Wait. What woman? What woman? A woman came and… Was it a super hot lady in a red dress, short hair? Was her name Allison? No. Was it a lady that made your boner so hard that you couldn't get your pants off? No. Definitely. Definitely not. Okay. What was her name? Oh, my God. What was her name? I'm sorry. I'm trying to remember. I did hear it.

I swear to God. She was an orc. She was pretty tall. She had long hair. Was it Caroline? No, it wasn't Caroline. It was like Corrine, though. Yeah, Corrine. Corrine. That's what it was. Did she mention who she worked for? No, but Roth and the others, the elders, they seemed to know her. They seemed to know her. They seemed to know her. Or be familiar with her in some way.

But yeah, once she came here and said, there are some people, they're traveling with a wizard, the wizard is dangerous, and we need you to capture them. That's all I know, I swear. That's all I know. You mentioned texts? Yeah. Yeah. Old writings. Where are these old texts? Fuck. Man, you're asking me a lot of questions that I wish I had clearer answers to. I can't impart on you how… How secretive these people are. We need to find those books, man. Can you help us? How? I mean, you have access.

They're not gonna stop you. Access? I mean, I guess you're gonna have to… This is where you're gonna have to roll. Your life for… Because like… You've already asked him to divulge a bunch of stuff that could certainly get him killed. But now you're being like, how about you act as a… Double… Double agent for us. Yeah. And that's an order of magnitude more. Okay, so is somebody rolling something? I'll roll this parlay. Okay, and what are you offering him?

What leverage do we have on him? He just divulged a bunch of information. You could turn him over to… His people and let them know that he's a snitch. Yeah. Yeah. That, I think, is the best leverage we have. Yeah. Yeah. It's just to be like, you want to walk away from this? Yeah. You want to walk away from this, Colleen? Then you steal those texts back for us. Otherwise, we're gonna find the rest of the Magi and tell them what you told us. Mm-hmm.

And it won't be hard because I know they're looking for us now. You gotta roll first. Yeah. That's good leverage, though. Yep. 2d6 plus charisma. Damn. 10. Wow. Because I made myself dumber. Yeah. Take that. He's gripping onto Tuck's wrist really hard, by the way. Like, he's shaking. He's shaking a lot. Tuck, of course, is just iron. Yeah. I picture, like, a cartoon. Like, Tuck takes a second, like, scratches his head and goes back to his throat. At least his head, his things go…

As you reach back out. So strong. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. I'll do it. If what you said about the Magi is true, I think that maybe they are not as dedicated to balance as they might think they are. Yeah. When I joined, they were like, we, because of these reasons, we have the moral, spiritual authority to decide who deserves power. And I believe them. I believe them. And if I'm being honest, I might still a little, but I would rather not die. So I will do what you say.

And do you promise to us that you're going to do this? Nice. I promise. All right. Billy's going to use oath. When someone promises you something, you may spend a point to make it super naturally bind. Tell the GM what will happen to the person if they break their promise. If the person breaks their promise, the effect will come to pass and you will know immediately. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Like that. Then we will know immediately if he betrays us. Yeah.

And the promise is I will steal these books for you. Yeah. And bring them to us. Okay. And Billy like licks all the yogurt off of his hand because he still had plenty of raisins in his pockets. And he's like, all right, pinky swear. Tuck, bring him over. And tuck, like just brings him back onto the platform that we're on. And he collapses a little bit. He like drops under his weight. Like, oh, oh, thank you so much for not dropping me. So that pinky swear. Pinky swear. And what's your name? Erk.

Erk. Okay. All right. I was going to say one of you needs to knock me out, but I'm about to pass out anyways. So, as soon as he says, one of you needs to knock me out, but tuck slugs. And he's just out like blood. Like you break his lip. And he's out on this, on the brickwork. And it's kind of beautiful watching the droplets of red blood splatter. Some of them go out sailing over the town. They glitter through the air. Land on a seagull. And yeah, Perel has, has since woken back up as well.

Yeah. I gave him some jerky sticks. Well, what? Talk. Did you kick me at somebody? No, I think that was Ving. Ving did that. Hey, Ving, how could you do this to me? How did you wander off? What happened? What do you mean? What happened? You wandered away. You made yourself a fucking target and they got kidnapped. I didn't wander away. And he's like picking himself up off the ground. He's like, for the first time in months, we had a clear path to our goal of returning my magic to me.

And you were all having a fucking party. And we all like, I mean, look at that. That's that blood. Oh, weird. Wow. Don't remember that. So high up. You were sleeping in a bag and he points at Ving. He points at Tuck. I don't know where you were. And he points at Billy. And I looked down the stairs. You were eating yogurt raisins. Look, that's all there was. I just, I just wanted, I just wanted to make actual progress. So I thought that I would go do some forward scouting. You know what I mean?

Like, come on, I'm you guys rag on me a lot, but I've been doing okay. I've been doing all right lately. Look at this. And he lifts up his shirt and you can see he does have his abs. His stomach's a little bit harder than it used to be. He's not quite as like soft as he was. I've been working. I've been practicing the silent word. I'm I can take care of myself. I'm an adult. I'm technically older than all of you. When did you get a belly ring? I forgot. I didn't take that out. I got that.

There was a librarian that I've been hanging out with. They thought it'd be fun. It was, but that's beside the point. Well, I'm sorry, Perel. I didn't mean to make you feel useless. It's just obviously, I mean, clearly we've been under a lot of stress thing, especially, and we're not going to be able to do anything. And we're not going to be able to do anything. And we're not going to be able to do anything. We're mostly doing this for you. And it just don't run off again without telling us.

We always tell you what's going on. You're, you're right. You do. You're right. You do. And I shouldn't have run off like that. And we always check in with each other before we get piercings. So rule in this family. Yeah. Did you guys want to get piercings too? No. Yes, but I'm not allowed. Yeah. That's the thing is we've talked Billy out of multiple septum piercings. He thinks it would be fun. To like hang little, like nice smelling flowers. So what now?

Well, I think we need to get out of here. Cause my fairy dust doesn't last very long. And I imagine Roth is on his way up. Oh no, you didn't kill Roth. I, I felt like he was kind of, I tied his shoes together. So maybe he died because of that. He was on the staircase. Perel's fully struggles to his feet. And he's like, we have to leave. Yeah. Is Roth like the king of the Druids or whatever? Yes. What an idiot. I, I don't know who their leader is, but Roth is up there. He is very dangerous.

You saw, you must've seen during that fight, his mastery over the elements is, is surprising. All right. I can get us, I can get us out of here. How? And then Tuck catches a moth and he whispers, and then he lets it go. It flutters dead down. Tuck, Tuck reaches out, grabs him off, whispers to it and go. All right. That was the only way to get to call the giant Eagle. So we're fucked now. I'm so sorry. His name was Barry. Yeah. So how are you guys going to get down from here?

Are you going to go back down the way you came? No, you got to find a different way down. Tuck, how did the low, like how did the locals get down? Nobody comes up this high. The locals, climb up like a bit, like a third of the way up on the outside. Well, the giants must've come up here. How'd they get down? They climbed down the inside. Shit. Oh no, where broth is. And Peral's nodding like, uh-huh. Can I roll escape route? Yes. Oh yeah. Could you read it out real quick? Okay.

So, uh, escape route when you're in too deep and need a way out. Name your escape route and roll plus dexterity on a 10 plus. You're gone. You're gone. You're gone. On a seven to nine, you can stay or go, but if you go, it costs you and you leave something behind or take something with you. The GM will tell you what. Whoa. Oh God, please. You can do this, Billy. Use your brain. Fuck. Fuck. Shit. Plus dexterity. Oh, um, oh, actually, uh, eight. Okay. Not bad. Shit. Okay. Oh, is it the teddy bear?

Oh, no. Uh, the teddy bear would be less narratively interesting cause you did just get it. Ooh. You know what? Billy's been stealing books from the library. Uh huh. And if he left a library, a book from the Margani library, Billy, we told you to steal any more books. What? When? Okay. So first of all, I think you'll, I think Billy will realize later, like once you get to the bottom that you left one up there. What was the book that you stole? Was it the fairy journal?

It was, I think it was a pink book. It was a pink book and it was about food. Okay. Food for beings who don't eat. Yeah. So that is the book that you're going to leave at the top there by signaling to Roth and the Medjay that you were working with the library. Fuck. No, no, Sean, choose a different thing. Yeah. Choose me. I'll stay behind. Take me instead. Uh, and yeah. So what's the way down? I guess we could repel. You got a harpoon in a rope and just like go.

And Tuck has a ax that he's traditionally used to climb down. Like, I think it's through a combination of your abilities and equipment. You are able to get down very slowly. Kind of like at Aquarius tower. I think that's how we got down. Totally. Like Tuck embeds the accent to the side of the railing, leans out, leans out a kilometer above the city. Like this is really scary. Yeah. Tucks like legs quiver a little bit.

And then he like closes his eyes and he's like, worst thing that'll happen is I'll die. And then it won't be my problem anymore. Uh, and then he like takes Ving and hangs him down to like, uh, throw the harpoon down. Ving's taint is humming right now. Oh boy. I throw the harpoon down, uh, a length and then scale down the rope. Mm hmm. Oh, and Billy, is he climbing or is Billy on the, in the Bjorn? Billy is climbing for sure. Uh, he trusts his own hands more than Bjorn right now.

And I guess Perel is like coming last. And yeah, Tuck's thing is that he like pulls the accent and then like slams it into the wall a distance down. God, so scary. He does like 50 foot drops every time. Yeah. Like Billy, Billy Ving and Perel are climbing down like hand over hand. Very scared. And Tuck is just like, fuck. And I, I'm like crying, just pissing also. So, uh, Dan's down at the bottom and he's like, there's no clouds. It's raining. Ah, catching the raindrops in his mouth. Jesus.

Uh, so do you guys get all the way down or do you get to like a, a partway point? I think it'd be cool if we landed on like the, like when it may be like a roof or something. Yeah. Of the sticks. Yeah, totally. So, cause the sticks, I think there are houses that are built, like closer to the lighthouse. It goes way higher. You know what I mean? Like they're not built all the way up the side, but they're pretty high up. Kind of like flotsam. Exactly. Yeah.

So, but they go like, you know, six stories, which is fucking big for ramshackle buildings. And I think it's so cool that like the sticks went out and around and then down the cliff. Yeah. It's like, it looks like moss. Yeah. It looks like fungus. Yeah. That's really cool. And they're like rich people in the lower ward. Like they look up at it and they're like, disgusting. Yeah, exactly. There was, yeah. They try to put like a policy in place in the city when they started moving them out.

They're like, absolutely not. We're not looking at it. And every once in a while, a bunch do fall down. Yeah. And it's bad news. But yeah, so we cut to one of the top floor shacks in the sticks. It's about 120 feet. Yeah. A shack high on the side of the lighthouse. An old rickety man makes soup in a beaten iron pot over a small guttering flame. He's like, Hmm, my life is simple, but it's good. Just about there. Just about ready.

And he looks over at his whistling teapot with his little rat that's curled up on a chair next to him. And he's like, Petunia, we're going to eat good tonight. And then boom, crashes through the roof of this guy's house. Lands in the soup. And Petunia and the old man don't move. Just looking at all of you. Tuck bursts up through the pile of floorboards that were on top of a roof boards or whatever. Oh my God. I'm so sorry, sir. We can fix this for you. We are so sorry to bother you.

Vings like Petunia. I'm sorry. I didn't know it was your house. It's been a while. It's good to see you. Yeah. She's like, Oh, don't worry at all. Ving. It's always fine to see you out on the street. Done from my friends. And the old man says, would you like some soup? Oh, so we have soup with this man whose name is, uh, his name is Greg. Greg, Greg, Gregory, the third. Wow. You can call me Greg. Thank you, Greg, for dinner. I hope your roof holds up. Oh, it's fine. Stuck around to fix his roof.

Yeah. That's not the first time someone's fallen through my roof and it's not going to be the last. I'll tell you. That much. And then we can cut forward. What next? What's your next step? It, it, would it be okay if like we get out and I, um, what there's like some moths flying around. Um, and I'm looking for like a paper moth. Hmm. Oh, like a bookworm. Yeah. Bookworm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The library's. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. To ask for an extraction. Yeah.

To ask for them to pick us up because we're ready to come back. And as you're like looking, do you think that, yeah, they must be the one that don't, that Tuck swallowed, just coughs it back up and it's Oman. Oh, Oman. Uh, yeah, you, Billy are looking around. The evening is slowly darkening around you. The worm lights of the cliff side sticks are starting to glow and you see a fluttering cloud of moths guttering around a sign that says cheap suits.

And, uh, you recognize one of them as a bookworm. So I go catch it and I bring it to Bing and Tuck. Okay. Um, can you write down to ask for a ride back? What is your name? Uh, it's Karen. Holy shit. This mouth's clearly a bitch. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. It's Karen with a Y, not with an E. Cool. What do you need? We need extraction. Back to the library. Post haste. Chop, chop. Well, I can speak to you, but that is a very unusual thing. You will have to write your request upon my wings.

So Tuck writes, extract, extract. He writes, Tuck writes, extraction. He writes this. Wow. The R is backwards. Oh my God. Extraction, please. Extra action, please. Incredible. And, uh, Karen, the bookworm, she seems very perturbed. When Tuck finishes, is finished writing, you can see her reach up one of her little, uh, tiny moth feet and touch something on her face that makes it look like she's adjusting, uh, glasses.

And you can see she has little black markings around her eyes that look like horn rim glasses. Yeah. And she's like, okay, extraction coming soon. And she flaps away. It takes a little bit for the library to get back out here. While we're waiting. Can I just check in with, because I marked, Oh, who? Alma and, Oh yeah. And, uh, Farhan, can I just get Sean to tell me what they've been up to? Wait, you marked them? How? Well, you marked, well, you would have marked one of them. Yeah.

Remember he, I shook hands with him. I marked them in the library. Oh, like with eye of the tiger. Yeah. You can use it on people. Yeah, I can. That's sick. He told you this a couple episodes ago and you had the same reaction. Yeah. And, um, so what they're doing right now, they're both kind of in a more quiet area. Yeah. That isn't their rooms. They've been a little bit more mobile lately, not much, but a little tiny bit. And they are, um, sitting at a table, sharing some tea and just talking.

And, um, before, like to give you an idea of sort of what's going on, they're in a very lush garden conservatory zone, like a little place where people study plants from all over the world. And they're sitting between bunches of tropical ferns and flowers, drinking some tea and talking idly about like the good old days. Yeah. I mean, their good old days are very different because, uh, but it's like, you know, they're talking about food. They're talking about games that they like.

They're just, it's old men having a conversation, but you do see in a chair between them fiddling with like a sandwich and like twisting a cup of tea back and forth. Moodily is fat. Um, Oh, he's there. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is this like a group therapy session? Almost. It kind of has that vibe and Fadum looks very, he looks pretty fucking moody. Uh, he's bald now. Like he doesn't have his like weird faux Hawk ponytail thing anymore.

And his, um, his sunstone eye is glowing Dolly in his eye socket. And he's just like muttering to himself. And, uh, far Han like places a hand on Fadum's arm for a second and is like, Fadum, something seems to be bothering you. And he's like, yeah, yes, everything's bothering me. Uh, I, I'm in this fucking place full of nerds. The whole, like the last three years of my life have been a waste. I've just been a tool. I've been a weapon that's been used by somebody.

And you can see he like looks at far Han for a second and far Han, like frowns, not angry or sad, just like kind of disappointed, I guess. And he's like, I just, I don't know what to do anymore. And I'm tired of fucking sitting around and drinking tea. And he like slams his hands on the table for a second. And all the teacups rattle and Alma, you see Alma reach a handout and you feel through his senses, like a vibration, a frequency and Fadum stops his like grumbling.

And Alma says, you have had your life. I'm like, I'm taken from you, but what do you wish to do with it now? And he stops for a second and thinks, and you see the, the sunstone. I like glow a little bit brighter. And he says, I want to make it right. And then you get pushed back to your perception. I have so many goosebumps. That was so cool. That was great. So sick. And then your ride shows up. You hear honk, honk. And some, he pops out of a sand boat.

And a guy with a, with a mullet and a handlebar mustache pops out and goes, hop on. We're heading back to the library. No, that none of that fucking happens. It's the regular surreptitious, a hop in a sand boat quietly on the edge of town and get taken back. So by the time you get back to the library, it's like around midnight, maybe one in the morning, the night shift has started. So there are librarians up and about, but it's a little bit quieter than you're used to.

You get this, this feeling. It's a feeling that you haven't had in a while, especially since you've come to McCall, like the click, click, click, click, click, boom, closes behind you. Like from the, uh, what are those things? The funicular that takes like the sand boats down into the library itself. And you feel a sense of safety. You're like, we're home. We're fine. Uh huh. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then you get to the library and you get to the library and you get to the library Yeah.

Tuck lets a bunch of tension out of his like shoulders that he'd been holding, uh, uh, subconsciously. Billy lets a huge fart. And the sand boat driver looks down at you and says, thank you for holding that. Sorry. It's been a long day. You're right. And they let rip a huge fart as well. I've been sitting in that boat for a while. Anyways, I'm hitting the calf. See ya. I also want to hit the calf. That's a great idea. I'll come to the cafeteria too. Let's get some grub.

Perel, do you want to come? I, I think I'm going to hit medical and then I'm going to get some sleep. Oh yeah. We look at Perel and this side of his face is so swollen. Do you want to get some food? I would love to, if I could open half my mouth. I'll, I'll see you guys tomorrow. Yeah. They really worked him over. Yeah. Perel, you can take my teddy with you. Thank you, Billy. And he takes it. And before he leaves, I'm like, here, I have this. I think you'll like it.

It's a choose your own adventure, love and lust. And he snatches it out of your hand. He goes, uh, yeah, that looks fine. I want to give him the, here's a puzzle artichoke to try and figure out while you're lying up in bed. And now he's like, got shit. He's got shit piled in his arms and he's like, okay, thank you. I mean, do you have anything else that you would like me to take back to our room? I mean, if you're going there, here's my silver gauntlets. I don't need these right now.

I take back my teddy bear. I'm like, fine. I mean, if you don't want, no, Billy, I'm joking. Okay, fine. I thought, I just thought you could cuddle him if you were lonely. I'm probably going to anyways, have, I'll, I'll see you all later. And he hobbles off to, uh, to the medical wing. So what is your, you're going to the cafeteria. That's your first stop. Oh yeah. Always. Every time. Yeah. Um, the night shift chef is working. It's not Louise. Oh, we all got so excited. Oh my God.

I'm going to get a party burrito. The, the, the night shift cook is, uh, an 18 year old named, Bertie, who's been, uh, here for not very long, but has been a librarian since they were like nine. Wow. But hasn't been cooking for very long. Cause it turns out that Bertie's not very good at other stuff. Hi Bertie. Hi. How are you? Oh, I'm great. I got a whole batch cooking up back here for you. Nice. What'd you get?

Uh, so it's called Bertie's surprise because I started making a goulash and I messed it up and then I had to add some other stuff. And now it's a different food. That's funny. Usually you end up with a goulash after you mess up. That's what I thought. I guess I did a reverse goulash. You know what? It's called the reverse goulash. Can't wait. And he's slopped some out for, uh, for Billy. Cause it sounds like he's excited. Oh, Billy loves any food. Yeah.

There's other stuff, but if you guys want to reverse goulash, you can have that. Yeah. Yeah. I'd want to try this reverse goulash, but can you also make me a coffee? Yeah. Yeah. Oh no, I got a whole pot. His coffee sucks, but he makes a lot of it. Tech doesn't care. He hates coffee anyway. He just needs to stay awake. That is Abdul's feelings about coffee. I've for somebody that drinks coffee so much.

I've had multiple conversations with Abdul where he's been like, I don't like coffee, but it's the only thing that keeps me awake and focused. Billy helps himself to a couple bread rolls and some carrot sticks, an apple, a waffle. And, uh, uh, two chocolate almond milks. Fuck. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and being in the back, you see like behind birdie and his huge cauldron of reverse goulash. You see what looks to be a leftover tray of, um, Louise's gumbo. Oh, he's not doing anything with, I'll take that.

And also he's indulging his sweet tooth. So he grabs a few of the cheesecakes, cheesecake bars. Nice, man. I really, I want to go to the library's cafeteria right now. I love cafeterias so much for some reason. Um, yeah. And you guys just have a nice, like, honestly, take your hit points back like this. After a long day, this is enough to be like, man, what a fucking couple days we just had. Does Farrah like come and find us after she finds out that we've come back?

Um, you would guess that she's probably asleep. Can we get sent? Just send word to her that we are back. Yeah. Yeah, you can do that. And, um, you know, somebody rushed, like goes off to go grab her and she comes down and she's like wiping sleep out of her eyes. She goes to the counter in the cafeteria and gets a tea from birdie and she comes and sits down with all of you. Hi, Farrah. Hello. Sorry to wake you up. It's, it's quite all right. I only sleep four to five hours a night as it is.

So, um, what has happened? I get the distinct feeling that there were some events. Oh, man, I forgot. Billy's face is so slashed up. He's like, what do you mean? Yeah. You guys got your hit points back from a philosophical sense. You know what I mean? You're still injured as fuck. So let's start at the most terrifying. Terrifying. Uh, revelation and work backwards. How about, um, seems like tux getting dumber. Hmm.

Uh, he started holding his pencil with his entire fist and now all of his hours are backwards, but it has made it more charming and she just sips her tea and waits for you to continue. And there, we had a run in with the magi. Uh, who are like fake druids. Basically, she puts her tea back on her saucer and they beat up Perel and kind of beat us up a little bit and we beat them up. We beat them up. Um, what else happened?

Wait, Billy, weren't you saying that they like were torturing spirits or something? Yes. Billy forgot. Yes, that is a big point, uh, that we learned. Um, yes, they are there. They've made themselves druids in a totally unnatural way in that they've basically forced the spirits, the natural elements to basically like shackle to their bodies. Um, instead of the natural way, like being where you call upon the spirits, they're getting these powers in a really different way. Interesting.

Do we think that this is connected to the rituals that Perel and Ving noticed in that novel that corroborated accounts Perel had studied of the, the dark church? I think so. I had a pretty significant flashback. You might call it. If the Medjai of McCall are descended even ideologically from the dark church, the bringers of the black flame, whatever their name is, that could be trouble for a number of reasons. They also had like a weird fucked up heart, hard on, sorry, no, this makes sense.

So Turk like says that, and then it's like, ah, sorry, shit. It's so late. Uh, I fell off of the lighthouse today. She, uh, she, why widens her eyes and nods a little bit as she sips her tea. Uh, they have like a weird fucked up boner for like power and balance. That is traditionally the ideology of the Medjai. Yes. The balance, but like they're doing it in a, in a weird way. Like they tortured the shit out of Ving to get his like spirit Walker power. Hmm.

They've been known to take extreme measures in the divesting of power in the past. Yes. It just seemed targeted. I can see why you're the spirit Walker. After all, if there is such thing as spiritual imbalance, you are the walking embodiment. They also said that someone tipped them off to us. Yeah. Their name was Kareen, an orc lady with long hair. She, she, she widens her eyes. Do you know her? I do. Who, who is that? She was a former student of mine. Huh? What does she know?

Why would she have a vendetta against us? I know not. I know only that my goodness, 15 years ago, 16 years ago that she left the library. Um, and sailed away. My understanding is to the principalities, but once she left the shores, I lost track of her. Why do you think she'd come back from what I could glean, uh, in her hasty exit from the library, she was going to serve some, she said greater purpose. I will send people into the city to try and gather more information.

Cause this is, this is personally concerning to me. Um, well, Billy made one of them pinky swear to bring us back. One of their ancient texts. I wouldn't worry about it. It's a very powerful curse. And he takes a bite of his goulash, a pinky swear. You say, don't make fun of it. It's big deal. And he, she looks at the other two and was like, is this a fairy thing? Yeah. Billy's pinky swears are the real deal. There's a big business. She, she laughs as she's sipping her, tea.

And she's like, thanks. That's quite funny. Considering the pinky swear traditionally descends from the, the binding of two in an agreement, the chaining of one to another, the fact that you are able to, that's just funny to me. I'm sorry. I, I, I digress. I find that hilarious. That's so funny that Farrah is too smart to be funny. Doug says to Billy, Billy, and Farrah smiles. And she's, she's still drinking her tea. So, um, okay. The Medjay, they're binding spirits. You fought them.

They are connected perhaps to the bringers of the black flame in some way. They forcibly took being shape-shifting from him under the auspices of helping him possibly for somebody else. And they said that that power still exists somewhere. So they might be using it. Really? They might've taken that balance in their favor. Goodness me. They seem like hypocrite. They, they sound like hypocrites. Doug wouldn't know that word. He knows words. Come on.

He, he probably meant like something else, but he used it in the right. Yeah. Accidentally. Sound like a bunch of hippogriffs. That's what I mean. Yeah. So if that is true, if your power, if that power, the power to shape shift, could they be using it as a weapon? If they could take it from you, perhaps they could transfer it to another. Yeah.

That would be the only thing that kept the power of the spirit Walker in check for this long is the fact that you thing are a decent man and kind of an idiot. I didn't want to say, man, Oh, he was going for a fist bump. Oh, he was going to get his gulag. Oh yeah. Okay. If it's not, she has bumps here, um, in the hands of another with less, uh, moral scruples than you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It could be true danger. It could be truly dangerous is what I meant to say. I'm sorry.

I woke up 25 minutes ago. So, okay. Anything else? Any pertinent information to share? Um, I, Shia and Jake, the jackal from the jackals are dating. Dating. I think so. Not for sure, but they're like low key sniffing around each other's butts. If you know what I mean, these were almost touching. Under the table. And she picks her saucer up and she says, but Shia said they were just hanging out. She's into the gossip. Wait, Farrah and Shia hang out? Shia checks in from time to time. Yes. Wow.

Well, I mean not to like gossip too heavily, but I did see a photo of Shia in Jake's locker. So What? I think it's pretty serious. Really? Was it decent? Tell me it was decent. It was. Oh yeah, she was clothed. It's fine. That's incredible. And considering the price of photographs, that's quite an investment on Jake's part. Hmm. Exciting young love. Oh, and a third, the gin has been destroying homes and other things. Right. Hmm. Yes.

That, uh, that corroborates a number of reports that I've been receiving. Yes. It's kind of off the chain. He's like vigilante Ying through the town. Left and right up and down the streets and the boulevards of old McCall. Uh, the coffee is now hitting text system. Yeah. Um, yes, that is deeply concerning. Oh, also the menders might be here. Oh yeah. I saw the ship with my block alerts or they will be here. Everybody's moving right past the fact Jessica said block alerts. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

She nods. She's aware of the menders, but not like super familiar. So she's like, ah, yes. Okay. That's the group that you were briefly aligned with in mud. Lark. Yeah. Mudlark. Yes. Yeah. We recognize their ship. Uh, and they don't, they don't care for you three. Correct. No, I can't imagine they would at this point. Now they wanted us to trap Perel forever in a stone jail.

Uh, I think we should, we should, we should, we should, we should, we should, we should, we should trap a stone in a stone. Jail. Uh, in solitary confinement for eternity. And we didn't do that. It's did. We smashed their Jel and we hacked their go Lomb and we left a box full of shit instead. There. So they might be bad. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. In that case, would they be a reason? Do you fear them? Are they a threat to you? I mean, Maggie's always been pretty chill with us.

Yeah, but she does have a very assertive side. So yeah, I am intimidated by her. Yeah, and a little bit turned on for me. In that case, I would caution, and I understand that I'm saying this to the three of you. To the three of you who, for some reason, are eating something called Bertie's Surprise. Backwards goulash. Yeah, Bertie goes, it's a reverse goulash. But she says, I would caution discretion when you return to the city. If you return to the city. Feel free to not return to the city.

And Billy, it's at this point in the conversation that you realize the thing that you left behind on the other side of the screen, on the top of the lighthouse, next to the unconscious form of Irk, was a library book. Oh, one second. And Billy hops off his bench and starts rummaging through his stuff. And he pops back up on the bench like, Thera. Yes? You wouldn't get mad at me, right? If something happened and it wasn't my fault?

Well, if it wasn't your fault, I would have no reason to get mad at you. Really? Okay, like you promised you wouldn't, you wouldn't get mad at me? She narrows her eyes a little bit. You promise you won't get mad at me if I tell you. Why do you need me to promise, Billy? Because I am scared. And I don't want you to yell at me. You can roll a defy danger charisma. Okay. Nice. Nine. Okay.

Maybe a seven to nine is that she's like, you tell me first and then I'll decide whether I- And then I get a time out. No, I don't know. Anyway, I'll let you decide. Yeah. Well, it's just, it's hard. It's hard for me to decide because if you do tell her, she's going to be like, well, Billy, I can't allow you to supernaturally train me into not getting mad at you on punishment of up to death. And Billy is trying, he's like, fine. He's trying to grab her pain. Yeah. Yeah.

Billy, if you just tell me, have I, is there anything in our short, short, short time knowing each other that would lead you to believe that I would be overly angry at you? I don't know. What happened? I may have accidentally stolen a book from the library a while ago. And I was carrying it up the tower and I might have like lost it in there in the lighthouse. And it might, one of the bad guys, the magi might find it. He probably will. Cause it was right beside one of them.

Cause I was reading it. I was reading it. Well, I was reading it up there when I was, cause I was bored for a second. I'm sorry. She puts her tea down and she stands up and she walks out of the cafeteria. Oh no, this is the worst thing I could have imagined. Her leaving? This seems like a pretty tepid response. This is a very like, but I know she's disappointed me. I'm like, whoa, that really hurts. And we cut back to the top of the lighthouse. Yeah. With Roth. Checking the library card.

Pulling the library card and seeing Billy. Big B. Big B with a heart next to it. Yeah, Bill, Billy. And he puts it back in and he snaps the cover shut and goes, the library. And that's where we're going to end it for this week. I've been your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always playing Ving, the half elf druid, Paul Oppers. Take care. Playing Tacoma dome, the barbarian, Abdulaziz. So long. And playing Fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica Tai. Bye for now.

Thank you as always to our incredible Patreon supporters who are on those internets all the time. I can't believe I said internets like a teacher in 2006. I'm mad at myself that I said that. But you can find us online at speltlore in most places. And we can has Patreon supporters. Wow. Yeah. Support us on Patreon. Support us on Patreon. Should I buy? We can has Patreon supporters. Dot com. Oh, I bet it's not taken yet. That'd be amazing.

And if you support us at the $10 level at above, you can throw some names in our hither and yon discord channel. And we'll name, well, I'll name some NPCs after them. Thank you to Patreon supporter Stramash for the name Urk. Thank you to Optimus Bitch for the name Greg Greger. Thank you to the hilarious Gregory the third. Thank you to meme friend for the name Roth.

And if I haven't gotten your names yet, I will eventually, I'm basically just looking at a bunch of paragraphs and I picked the first name that I see. So come in and throw some names in the discord if you want. And we would be thrilled to name an NPC. And maybe drop us a review on iTunes if you want. That really, really helps us out. And we love reading all of the nice things that you say, because we're desperate for validation. So until next time, everybody, we'll see you next episode.

And so ends the tale of adventures three, who tried the best they can. Though dumb and scared and lost they be, for time's abreast in revelry. And though our journey may be like a conclusion, we will not leave. 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 no.