Tag: Actual Play Podcast

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 AltaVista ad. Gather round, friends, let me tell you a tale of three heroes, noble and bold. A brute, a druid, and a thief who is but nine years old. You know them by name, you know them by deed. Their quests are famously daring. So here I sit, singing to you an adventure that is worth sharing.

Tuck is the brute, he knows not his home, he loves to sing and fight. Fingers half-elf, he shifts his shape and wields a spear with great might. Billy's a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart. Best in bread. They may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts. So gather round, friends, and listen close. For the tale's about to start. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Spout Lore. I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara.

Joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the barbarian, Abdul Aziz. What's up, you miserable fucks? Playing Ving, the half-elf druid, Paul Oppers. Hey, I'm gonna talk again. And playing Fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica Dye. This is what the podcast is now, just Abdul. No one can talk now, just me. Get ready, this is gonna be the season that we lose all of our patrons. Paul's gone. Paul left, great. Oh, Jessica's getting up too. She looks furious. I don't want to. I'm so tired.

I'm so tired of getting up and down every time Abdul takes over. Jessica, you said we were gonna walk out together when he takes over. I gave her $2,000 to betray you. That's all it took? Actually, he gave me $1,000 to walk out. Oh, what? You guys are getting paid? I didn't get paid at all. This is bullshit. I've been withholding payment from Sean. Come on. All right, let's fix that intro so we don't lose a bunch of patrons. Okay. Okay. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Spout Lore.

I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the barbarian, Abdul Aziz. What's up, you fucking fuckers? I was wondering what was gonna happen. Okay. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Spout Lore. I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the barbarian, Abdul Aziz. Hello, everybody. Playing Ving, the half-elf druid, Paul Oppers. Hi. I'm playing Fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica Tai. What's up?

I'm as aggressive as I'm gonna get. That's Jessica's attempt at taking over. She's quietly saying what's up. What's up, everybody? Welcome to Just My Podcast. With me, I got three of my best bros. It's just your podcast, but we're still here. And we're still your best bros. It's called Just My Best Bros. Just My Best Bros. That's pretty good. That is pretty good. We should remember this for like a Patreon exclusive. Just My Best Bros. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

When last we left our heroes, we joined them a week after, six to nine days after the climactic battle under the heart tree. Nice. Recuperating. The party introduced you, the listener, to their new classes. And we saw how everyone had spent the last several days. In Ving's case, it was awkwardly trying to talk, but not talking with his father, Dathaniel, AKA- You just say talking to your dad. Yeah. Yeah. I guess that is. Yeah. That is generally talking to your dad. Mm-hmm.

Coming to terms with his new connection to the land with the knowledge seed inside his very chest. Mm-hmm. Billy was- Pinchin' buns. Pinchin' buns. Billy had a little solo adventure in Heartwood City as they escaped the confines. And it mostly involved Billy stealing from bakeries and also helping Tuck recover because Tuck spent most of that intervening time completely unconscious. Totally unconscious. Dreaming terrible dreams. Over and over. Tacoma Dome. Yeah. Yeah. The Tacoma Dome experience.

Dreaming terrible dreams while unconscious. Oh my God. I cannot wait until that's what we do with the Las Vegas sphere. What if it's just a horrible dreamscape over and over? It's just a terrible dreamscape if you want to come on in. It's like a Gravitron of terrible dreamscapes. You put a Gravitron in the middle and then it's also a terrible dreamscape. Awesome. It's therapy. Yeah. It's the most expensive therapeutic treatment in the world.

In the course of Billy's ministrations, which involved dipping bandages in minestrone. It was chicken soup, but the pun was right in front of me. Yeah. Billy and Ving at some point removed Tuck's leather bracers, revealing beneath two intensely scarred rings of tissue. Billy being the one to wrap those scars and bandages didn't really click that anything. Was wrong. And Ving had them hidden from him. But then they crew talked a little bit about what to do next.

And they mostly landed on the fact that it's time to handle the Gash. Now that we know the man known as the Ranger King was not the Ranger King, but also wasn't known as the Ranger King. It might, they might have a case for speaking to the oval council in Hibernia and breaking the Gash altogether. Also, Nathaniel said that he would just turn himself in. Yeah. And on speaking about this with Nathaniel, Nathaniel said, yeah, let's do this. Let's do it. Let's go.

I will tell them that it's my fault and I'll just throw myself at their mercy to clear you, my son of your obligations. The party decided to, after some, uh, some gossiping and trying to spy on Ving and his dad, we spent so much time in the walls, a lot of time in the walls, a lot of the time peering through paint paintings as we realized as we gave Morrison Perel new nicknames, shared nicknames in the form of the gossip girls. It turns out this entire palace is just for hearing whispers.

More or less. Uh, Tuck went to go speak to Nathaniel alone in his recuperation chamber slash personal gym, destroying all of Nathaniel's finely tuned workout equipment and becoming flustered with him sexually. Or just his energy was a lot. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Oh, and they had a conversation in which Nathaniel actually gave up quite a lot of info. What? Uh, what was it? It was, have you spoken to the Gibbous man? Do you know his plans? And he said, yeah, I made a deal with the Gibbous man.

Right. And was betrayed. Wow. Yeah. It's almost like I wasn't there. Yeah. Because Tuck was staring at Nathaniel's full plump lips the whole time. Uh, the last thing that happened in that conversation was Nathaniel saying, my son will follow you anywhere. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The party then went and spoke to Walt Wick. Oh, yeah.

The owner of the ranch that they'd been hiding out at for a period of time and became so enamored with this crazy character that they forgot to ask him any real questions. Sean bamboozled on her. Because I got sure I enjoyed doing this voice so much that I forgot to say anything important. And then the Thunderbird Uber that Ving had called arrived in the form of Gale. The party drew straws. One star review. One star talks too much. The party then drew straws to see who had to ride with Gale.

Billy forgot how to play straw straws and he gave himself the shortest straw. Yep. And then Ving very graciously offered to ride with Gale. Climbing aboard her back with a fanny pack around his waist, his family safely ensconced with their… …and then Gale took to the skies. And you see Ving put in earplugs. Cotton wool. So smart. From the alpacas. Yeah, totally. Oh, yeah. These will come in handy.

And the camera cuts to Walt closely examining one of his alpacas and going, Somebody took some of my wool. An elf's ears worth. Two canals worth of wool. The government. The government. They're trying to text. They're trying to text me. They're texting my wool. Time to reset all the traps. Welcome to this episode of Walt Sets Traps. Oh, yeah. Just Walt. All right. Just going to roll a defy danger to set this trap. Okay. Going to roll a defy danger to set this trap. Okay. Is there a trap here?

And what activates it? The goddamn government's what activates it. But that is where we find our heroes now. Or hero Ving on the back of Gale ripping through the skies, being windswept, blown by the wind, hunkered low because Hibernia is quite far away. Yeah. But Thunderbirds are exceptionally fast. So you are absolutely hauling. As they're going through the winds, there's different birds trailing in the wisps behind Gale as she patches through clouds.

The cloud coalesces into different shapes of birds. A crane, a swan, a flock of geese, owls, eagles, all the different spirits of the birds are flying with us, passing through the clouds. That's you that's doing that? Like your effect on the environment? Yeah. Cool. That's so sick. And while this beautiful scene unfolds around you, Gale's like, so he was in a couple of plays and one of them was about like a guy that owned a restaurant, but was really abrasive.

And the other one was about a guy who had mental problems and was in a little thing and he met a lady fella. Yeah. I can't remember his name. It's Shathane Hanks. I don't think that's what it is. If it was Shathane Hanks, I think I'd remember. It's Shathane Hanks. I don't know. The flight continues inside the fanny pack. What do we find? We're playing Sorry. Yeah. And how is Sorry played in this world?

We all, we sit around in a circle and we tell each other stuff that we did that we didn't tell you. We told each other about before. And then you have to say sorry and then maybe it'll be accepted or not. This is a game. It sounds like that Tuck and Ving devised to get Billy to tell the truth. So when is Billy's turn? Okay. So when I said that I was stealing buns. Yes. I stole some other stuff too. What did you steal? Billy takes out one of his bags of buns and he starts opening up the box.

And there's like the acorns from the acorn library. And I'm like, they just seem so fun to look at. Billy, are these the books from the corner? Yes. Oh God. Don't take them though. They're mine. I took them fair and square. Perel's looking around like, are these important? You have to tell him what you did. Okay. So part of the game is I have to tell everyone what I did. So the heart tree has a library. That's kind of like the Morgani library, except even older. And these are the books.

And I took some of the books. Billy, they're books. You're supposed to steal them. Thank you. And Perel reaches over and reaches for a pine cone and Billy grabs his hand. Oh no, it's not on camera. That's so funny. I reached out to take an imaginary pine cone and Jessica reached out to hold my hand. That's very cute. Thank you. Benny. He kind of awkwardly shakes your hand. It's okay, Billy. Tuck, I'm sorry. I accept your apology. Yes. And then Tuck puts like three marbles in the jar. Yes.

I'm winning. Yeah. And then. There's four jars. Everyone's got a jar in front of them. Yeah. Billy's just full. Victor is there. Victor sees the marbles going and goes, okay, I also have thing to say. I also have secret to reveal. I made friend with a deer, but then I ate it. I am sorry. You know, everyone was wonder what happened to their slippers. Well, his easy answer is they are gone. Hard answer is they will come back. May I have marble, please? Well, you missed one part of that.

Oh, I'm sorry. I forgive you. I forgive you. And then you. He's your dog. Oh, yeah. Okay. So that's what Tuck says to Billy. He's your dog. He is my dog. So I give him three marbles. Yes. My marbles are almost as tall as yours. Not quite, though. I'm going to beat you, Victor. I make so many mistakes. I have even more things to apologize for. Our game of sorry is really backfired. We played this game to get him to admit what he's done, but now he's doing bad things. So he can't hide. Oh, yeah.

It's like that dog in France that got a stake for saving a kid from the Seine. So he started grabbing kids and pushing them into the river. Is that real? Yeah, that is real. Oh, my God. And we cut back out to Ving on Gale's back. Cloudpiercer sends his regards, by the way. Thank you. The war is going not great. No? No. No. Thronebreaker still gathers his strength. And we're pretty worried that he is becoming too powerful. Is there anything we can do to help the war? Can I Spout Lore about this?

Is there anything that we can do? I mean, we don't know. Yeah, we could do like a discern realities if you wanted questions on the or wanted to examine the situation. Cool. Yeah, that's like a discern realities for what's going on. Super sick. Okay, 2d6 plus wisdom. Nice. Plus wisdom. 12. Holy shit. So you get three questions. What should I be on the lookout for? Great question. Can I use Eye of the Tiger and see through Gale's eyes of one of the most recent battles? Yeah, sure.

That's a cool way to do it. So you use Eye of the Tiger and your spiritual skill to see recent events through the eyes of Gale. I like that Ving closes his eyes and then opens his eyes. Oh. First he was like looking at Gale and then he opens his eyes and he's looking through Gale. Ooh. As a piece of ice cuts through. It cuts her cheek as she's flying fast through a battle in the sky. Oh, yeah. So razor sharp shards of ice whip through the air in great gouts of glittering blades. Mm-hmm.

Birds wheel and spin through the storm, tearing at each other. For someone such as yourself, it's difficult to tell the forces of the storm from the forces of the sky. But the one thing that it is not difficult to discern is Thronebreaker. Mm-hmm. The great, powerful, powerful, powerful, powerful, powerful, powerful, powerful, powerful, powerful, king of birds. His massive bulk, his snow white feathers reflecting the light of the storm.

And in the center of his head, where once there was a shattered stone, thanks to your dear friend and ally, Tacoma Dome, there is now a glittering piece of obsidian. Whoa. What here is not what it appears to be? Ooh, that's a good one. Ah, that is a great question. So yeah, the what here is not what it appears to be is you think that this is just a storm that is whipped up by thunder. Thunderbirds naturally during their battles. But you see that it is even just through the currents.

Through Gale's eyes, you can see the natural and unnatural currents in the air and see that this storm is connected to Lillian's storm, to the storms in the Sea of Graves, and to similar storms around the world. Hmm. What's about to happen? I think that what you see is as what is about to happen. It is answered both in the past and in the present. As you see Thronebreaker and his flock. His murder. Begin winning. Whoa. Oh shit. They are, if not striking down birds, scattering them to the winds.

And you see that in the moment Thronebreaker won the battle, and in time he may well win the war. Oh no. And you're back on Gale's back in the clouds. Oh no. They need a break. They need to take a truce or something. How long will you fight? Why? Why do you keep fighting? We have to. If we don't, the storms may consume the globe and there will be nowhere for us to roost. It is Shathane Hanks. You're absolutely right. It is Shathane Hanks. I told you it was Shathane Hanks. He won a gosh.

He won a, he won an EGOD for that. I know it was Shathane. I'm so sorry. I doubted you. Let's go back inside for a sec. I also want to say that when Turkey went missing was not me. But when garbage with Turkey went missing was me. And I am sorry. I feel like you're not really sorry about that. I didn't believe that one. Oh, I have to mean it as well as say it. That is not the rules. There's so many marbles in his jar.

But everybody's starting to con with the fact that he doesn't actually feel sorry about this stuff. That's like the number one rule of the game is you have to actually be sorry. Is it actually a rule? Yes. Yeah. It's a rule. It's written. It's written right here. I can't read it, but that's what it says. I can't read it either. They're looking at a takeout menu that we just gave Billy. And we're like, these are the rules of sorry. What can we say?

No, if those are the rules, it is not honorable to overcome lessers by cheating. Remove my marbles. Okay, then. Remove them. I dump it all out. I'm so sorry, Victor. He howls. Don't worry. We're going to land and then you can look at the moon. I will never go to all day breakfast again. No, don't say that, Victor. I don't want to be here anymore. And he runs. Victor, no! So floppy running for the wolf. He's doing that overly emotional dog run where his legs kick all over the place.

I wonder if Victor, as he is becoming domesticated by Billy, it's having a physical effect on him as well. I think actually what you've noticed is that he's becoming slightly easier to see. Oh, cool. Like he's not as invisible as he once was when you met him. I like that his ears are floppier than ever too. His ears don't stand up anymore. Yeah. Okay. So, Ving, Pawn Gale's back. Let's say it's like Thunderbirds, as we've said, fast as hell.

Let's say it's like half a day, three quarters of a day of flying at like near supersonic speeds. Ving is just clutched to the back. He's like, I'm going to get a little bit of a kick of Gale as she hauls ass. I wish Walter gave me that fucking vest freezing up here. After a while, you realize that you are surrounded by like a thick gray fog. Whoa. You have entered the gray. Gale begins to descend through the fog.

Her extra sensitive Thunderbird senses for currents and navigation, taking her unerringly towards land. And before you, suddenly resolves rocks, stone, saltwater, tall pine trees, the island of Hibernia. And the wind starts whipping up around her just as she descends. And you can see people like step out of their homes and like cover their eyes as the wind blows at them. And now we're going to roll a move we've never once used called Outstanding Warrants. Sick.

When you return to a civilized place in which you've caused trouble before, roll plus charisma. Okay, here we go. 12. Holy shit. Is that just a normal, it is? Natch. Nat 12. Nat 12. Nat 12. Nat 12. Fuck me. Okay. I'm coming in hard with charisma. Yeah. It's because you're on the back of a massive, majestic bird. And it comes out like a flock of Thunderbirds, but the other Thunderbirds like fade out of gray mist. Oh, yeah. Whoa. Like your spiritual mastery is like telegraphed. Yeah.

Like Gale comes cruising in and as she like dips up to slow herself down, her wings spread and the rest of the Thunderbirds dissolve. Yeah. Oh, I love it. I love it. So they've… Where are you? Where is Gale landing? Just on the beach? I mean, somewhere really cool. Like on the cliff by that Arbutus knowledge tree. Oh, like right at the council. Yes, like just get land there. Yeah. Right at the council stone. Boom. Boom. Gale, her talons grip deep into the stone.

And on a 10 plus word has spread of your deeds and everyone recognizes you. Oh. Maybe not good. It's hard to say. But maybe it's good because they love the knowledge tree. Right. So maybe we've righted a wrong. I think the council is definitely heard. Okay. As is evidenced by the fact that people are emerging from the woods on the edge of the council stone. Okay. Druids upon druids led by Grim Shay, leader of the Deep Striders and head of the Oval Council. What is the meaning of this?

Gale, tell them why we're here. I come bearing thing. The druid son of. Oh, God. Ranger. The Ranger King. And also, I think a druid. Like his mom is a druid. I think. Anyway, I am Gale. That's right. Nice to meet you. Big fan of everything you're doing down here on this island. Do you want to take this way at any point? I am here as a representative of. Billy is in the bed going. The birds. The Thunderbirds. Yes, I am a Thunderbird. As you can see.

And we as allies of Ving and his allies are here to show our support for whatever is going on. I didn't really get the whole idea, but I am here. This is so look out. This is like you had to do a court appearance and you brought your Uber driver in to defend you. The lawyer. He jumps down. He's like, yes, the Thunderbirds have helped us and have brought us here. And in return, I ask that you help them. They are in a locked in a battle bigger than all. The better that you help them.

What has been forgot what we're here for? Yes, I am being bangs. Who, but knees Zumba. I am. Love ring. Goving. I am. It's not the name. I am being a ringer. I am. Love on Garvinga. And a figure pushes their way to the front of the ship. And they're like, oh, we're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be.

We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. It was like the gossip.

We were doing the gossip thing. Oh, so you were all leaned against? Yeah, cut to inside and we're like, what does he say? Is he saying his name or is he? Did he forget his own name? He said it like four times. Him and I talked about this. I'm supposed to be here so that I can go before the council. You guys, you shouldn't be here right now. You shouldn't. Oh. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Oh, no. And you are all dumped out. Just stay really still.

I'm like, maybe they didn't notice that also came out. Morris and Perel are also splayed out on the stone. There's a bunch of marbles skidding around too. Oh, yeah. Billy was going to lay still, but his marbles went everywhere. He's like, oh, my marbles. I feel like when the druids see Billy scrabbling around for marbles, they like shy back because they're terrified of him. Boy. I think a couple of them like instinctually go, oh, marbles, and try and stop them.

But then they're like, wait, wait, wait. Who's this? When Billy sees them go near his marbles, he goes back on. They do. They absolutely do. And as Nathaniel raises himself to a knee with his black thorn. Ving helps him up. And the crowd goes, and Grimshay steps forward. You bring this man to our shores. I bring you the shadow of the man known as the Ranger King. This is the man you thought you needed to bring down. This man will not die.

And if that means you have to kill me, and then Ving opens up his fur, and then opens up the chest and takes out the seed, then you kill everything that you have ever known. And then Tuck sidles over to Ving really quick, and he just grabs, he's like, can I talk to you for a second? Okay. Hold on a second. I will die along with me all of your knowledge. And if I die, I'll kill them too. I need to talk to you. Hold on. I put the seed back in my chest.

He's like, hey, I'm kind of awkwardly trying to do a thing. I don't really know. Do you have any tip? Didn't we fucking come here so your dad could give himself up so you didn't have to die? Why are you sacrificing yourself for him? Okay, hold on. That's good. I'll use that. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Oh, looks at Tuck and gives him a finger guy what the fuck are you doing the council is all looking at each other like guys I'm really good at podcasts welcome to Ving and others and Nathaniel who's been standing there like holding his walking stick with both hands while you say these things just puts a hand on your shoulder and takes a weak step forward towards the council goes I would speak with you alone and they all look at one another the council and then back to all of you and Grimshay nods very well and there's sort of an unspoken like get out of here vibe well I'm not done picking up my marbles after you pick up your help the boy pick up his marbles and the rest of the druids run forward and start putting marbles in the jar do you leave or do you stay I stay yeah I want to stay and hear what the fuck this is yeah so the non-council druids are ushered away and you all just stand your ground yes we shall attend this council and Morris and Perel kind of look at you guys and they're like we're gonna go back in the bag actually that's cool with you just gonna hop in that bag real quick just gonna hop in the bag real quick if you could just open the bag real quick so we can hop in it Doug opens up the bag they hop in the bag real quick he folds it up and he puts it in his little backpack and all you can see Stoneye especially sees you do that sees like this magic bag with these two dudes climbing into it and is like spits on the ground and he's like and then Tuck also spits on the ground oh he's he's boiling already he fucking hates Tuck so much he takes like a he does a deep like breath out of his nose and like salt spray comes out like a fucking walrus Tuck does it too and a bunch of snot goes into his beard and then Tuck wiggles his eyebrows at Stoneye he turns away do I know you have we met you look so familiar I swear to God are you did you have you ever spent time in McCall his face is beet red he's so mad and Grimshay holds up his hand and is like Stoneye you will comport yourself as a member of this council or you will take leave of it oh Stoneye's cool Stoneye's I love your thing dude whoa you were so good when you were a whale I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you We are here to discuss the matter of this gech!

Because you want us, for the crimes that my family did to your people, and for returning to your island, breaking the sacred oath, you wanted me to rid you of the darkness that is the Ranger King, the man that was known as the Ranger King. Well, that was no man. That was the Gibbous Man, a god. You expect to come to this council and spin tails in yarns? That is how you think you will get out of this ancient oath that you have sworn? The deal was blood for blood. His or yours?

There was no talk of blood in the oath. It was to kill the man known as the Ranger King. Your oath was broken when you made it. He was no man. This is the Ranger King. Oh, shit. Good line, dude. That's sick. That's sick. That's a tuxet. He tries to high-five Stonai. So when he accidentally high-fives Tuck. No, I didn't do that. You tricked me, you fuck. You try to high-five Stonai, and from his cross-arm pose, you hear a bunch of joints pop. His whole body denses up. Try not to beat me up.

You're going to have to roll some stuff. Yeah, okay. But this is a good angle to take. Oh, yeah, okay. What's the roll here? So that is going to be a Defy Danger Charisma. Great. Come on. Bone dice. Eight. Okay. Seven to nine. Stonai is fuming as always. You can see steam rising off his body. The seawater is basically boiling in contact with his skin at this point. But Hadar, a man-eater especially, is baring his teeth. He's furious that you'd even suggest that you can get out of this.

But Grimshay holds up a hand to the rest of the team. And he's like, I'm going to die. There's a woman inside.

We'll hear what you say But just know That if we are not convinced On both your heads be it I agree He looks at Tuck And he looks at Billy I think Tuck Tuck is gonna let this play out And if it goes wrong He's just gonna kill everybody That's his plan And Bing is thinking that exact thought The party's already doing that thing Where they kind of subtly spread out a little bit Just in case Totally Can I share Dick Dathaniel's memory?

Yeah I think you could probably find a way to do that Well I just hand over my ring to Grim Shay He holds it in his hand You gotta put it on to see This is not a fairy trick Billy just smiles at him He rolls his eyes a little bit Puts it on his finger And Can we give the other one to Stoneye? Stoneye will not accept I will tell you that much You hold out your hand to Stoneye And he crosses his arms even harder And yeah Tuck's like Are your fingers as big as mine? Could you wear my ring?

Or are they littler? Push me no further Okay dude Some people have small hands If your hands are really small You could just wear mine I'm so I feel absolutely I feel Stoneye's frustration Cause he No no cause it's interesting Cause I My instinct is like He leaves But he can't leave He doesn't want to lose face in front of the council And he also can't just hit you But he really wants to Who else will take this ring? Who among you Will soften Even a little To see the truth?

Who will take the dare along with Grim Shay? Oh yeah I like that Tuck goes Yeah Who's brave enough to know the truth? Oh Oh The truth of what the world is now Noreen And Oh Yeah No yeah She moves forward And then Tuck goes Wait I'm not done And what it will become Noreen If you don't Takes another step Learn the truth She steps forward For the veil has been upon your eyes Your heavy brow For eye on these neon ions Eye Eye Eye Eye Eye Eye Eye Eye Eye Eye Eye Eye Eye Eye Eye Eye!

Eye on these many eons Look to the sky Tuck says For it shall be revealed The veil And you look Shall be lifted You look to the sky and see A wall of dense grey fog Exactly For now The veil has been pulled upon your eyes Allow us to remove it And Noreen Leader of the silent step clade With her graceful antlers Hmm And she says Ltal Ltal I feel like it's a series of flashbacks.

Yeah, maybe we get even somehow, maybe it's Ving's contemplation, maybe it's his bias, maybe it's the druidic knowledge, maybe it's the tree itself having observed these events. Oh, right, there's chests. We see slightly more than we did that day. Yes. Cool. Like, what? Let's hear it. No, you guys are going to tell me. Oh, yeah. But I'm trusting you not to just blow the whole thing. Okay. How so? If we have any revelations, keep them reasonable.

Don't be like, the gibbous man pulls off his mask and it's chimes or some shit. You know what I mean? Well, don't say cool stuff like that and then we're not. What? That would be just for real, if Sean did that, you would be so mad. You would be so mad. I would be very betrayed. I thought chimes was like, cool, like our dad. Our dad betrayed us. Okay, so what we do see is our sea daddy. Paul.

The first memory is Nathaniel and Ileana standing under the tree, her in the auburn robes of the gardener, and him in his uniform, and them unifying in their love and their common goal. Hell yeah. And they're talking about how to save the tree of knowledge. And we cut forward to Abdul. Then we see him getting a decree from the court. Someone within the court soured everyone on Ileana and Nathaniel getting an order to kill her and Ving.

And then instead of killing her, they're secreting them through the woods to get them out of there. And it's like, you can see he personally shepherds them out of the forest. It's a very difficult goodbye. Yeah. Jessica. I guess the thing that they see is when Nathaniel does kill Ileana, they see it wasn't intentional.

Yeah, and we see a moment that we didn't see in the Gibbous Man's revelation of Nathaniel holding Ileana in her human form and them locking eyes with the understanding that this was not how it was supposed to go. And we see Nathaniel trying to kill himself after that on the beach. Yeah, walking towards the druids with just, yeah, shot, kill, shot, kill. Stone eye hurling the rock from the back lines. What's the last thing that we see? We see the deal that he made.

Yeah, I was gonna say the deal, but some moment of that deal, yeah. Oh, right, because, yeah, that is he basically just said that the Gibbous Man, though he did not know who it was, offered him information that would allow him to further his goals, or so he thought, which is what led him beneath the tree.

And maybe in this vision, like, because it's, like, mediated, like, through Ving's spiritual connection, we see the true form of the Gibbous Man, not the thing he was, like, disguising himself as. Oh. That's the black hole? Yeah. Like, the shattered aspect of night that he appears as when Ving can, like, see him in a way where he's not being affected by the disguise.

Is it, like, a shattered, black hole, and then from it are these, like, almost, like, broken glass that comes out, like, darkness, and then, like, tendrils of, like, almost, like, mist that flows out. Yes. Of, like, the night. A hundred percent. Yeah. Like, kind of spidery. Yes! Yes! I love that. I like that also, like, all the light that he does soak in in his true aspect comes out like webs. Yes. There's, like, white tendrils and black tendrils. Oh, that's so cool.

Like, the off-gassing of the, whatever they call that in a black hole, like, radiation that comes, like, things are still coming out. Oh, the Hawking radiation. The Hawking radiation. Oh, cool. I always forget you're a scientist. It's so sick. Yeah, and it's, like, the webs, like, they stretch with him wherever he goes. Oh, yeah. I love that. Yeah. His face is almost like a shattered piece of glass, and there's times when the light catches it and it's got, like, a million eyes. Yeah. Yeah.

And each of the eyes has a projection out to somewhere in the world, like… And they all blink at once. Yeah. Oh, cool. Yeah. Yeah. And I think upon seeing that true aspect of the Gibbous Man for a moment, like, Grimshay and Noreen gasp. Yeah. And his head bows, and then as it comes up, like, underneath a ranger's cap, and he's, like, in the middle of a court somewhere, telling the rangers what to do, and orchestrating all the stuff as him in disguise of Dathaniel. Yeah.

And then you see Dathaniel, like, under the tree, getting absolutely, like, milked by the tree. This is what Tuck says. And he was getting absolutely milked by that tree. And I think that's the last vision that we see. They had been sucking my dad dry for 150 years. Yeah. And so it was that Dathaniel was sucked so dry, and his taint went all over the place. This is crazy. Everywhere. And we are back in the real world as Grimshay and Noreen take the ring… Grimshay takes his ring off.

Very quickly. Kind of almost tosses it back. Like, scared. And Noreen seems far away, as she slowly removes hers and holds it out. Give it to Billy. Give it to Tuck. And Grimshay looks at Dathaniel, and Dathaniel has… He, again, looks like he is about to collapse under the weight of his own body. But he's really doing it, like, a good job. Yeah, you can see if you're close to him, you can see that he's, like, shaking with the effort of standing upright. And Dathaniel…

Looks at Grimshay, and though he wasn't wearing a ring, it's clear what he's been shown. And he says, It's all true. Though I didn't mean to, I struck the blow that felled Ileana. If you must kill me for that, at least let my son go. And Grimshay is silent. I think it's clear to you that he is shaken by having seen the Gibbous Man's true form. And Billy walks up to him and beckons him to come down. He kneels. Do you remember the story of Spider? Of course. Do you all remember?

And the members of the council nod. The Gibbous Man is Spider. And the stars up in the sky that we used to read? He covered them. The storms, that cut you off from the rest of the world, those are because of him. The wells that have run dry, the knowledge tree, that's poison that you heard of, that's the spider. You think that Dathaniel is the root of your problem. But the Gibbous Man is the one who started it all.

And if you care for your stories, and your stars, and for the spirits and the fairies who live on this land, you'll let us do what we need to do. And actually, I think Stonai, at this point, has an outburst. Steps forward and goes, You cannot be considering this, Grimshay. They have not completed the Gesh. They will not complete the Gesh. Blood demands blood. Or have you forgotten our ways? So Tuck wants to use his new move, Deathless, when Stonai has that outburst. Yeah, new move.

Cursed with foreknowledge, and your path through the realms… Oh god, we gotta write this better. Uh, excuse me, I wrote this. No, I augmented it, and I made it absolutely incomprehensible. Okay, I was wondering why it seemed weirder than the one that I wrote, but… You must do a standing 69 in order to get a plus one forward against your enemies. Abdul. Definitely wrote that. This one is Abdul. Okay.

You've been cursed with foreknowledge, and your path through the realms of the yet-to-be has been illuminated. You know, your end, and this knowledge echoes back through time. Your enemies can see death on you. When you enter a fight, knowing your death will not come, roll plus wisdom. On a hit, your foes are dismayed. Take plus one on going against them, until the fight is over. On a ten plus, your surety in your destination makes something about the now more clear.

Ask a question from the discern realities list right now. So this is the one, this uses wisdom. Yeah, I guess so. Fuck. Alright. Someone give me some good die. Jessica? Oh yeah, the two pink ones. Give me some of your fucking luck. They are blessed. Blessed die. Okay, so the thing that this is, is like, Tuck is basically scarier because he knows that he can't die in this situation. Yeah. So he's trying to tell Stoneye to back the fuck off. Uh-huh. Okay. That's ten. Whoa. Nice. Fuck yeah.

Did you roll two sixes? I rolled a five and a six, and I have a negative one. Uh, okay. So you get in Stoneye's face and tell him to fuck off. Yeah. Uh, and he just, you know that thing that like, bros do at bars where one of them gets mad and the other, they just get really close and they're like, they try and like they're square off like dogs. Yeah. Totally. So that's what Tuck does. He like gets in really close to Stoneye and he goes back the fuck off.

Uh, and Stoneye, he you can tell that he is quote unquote dismayed in the fact that he doesn't back down, but he's like, but he doesn't take a swing. Like he's he's, he's dogging you back basically. Yeah. Like you're just kind of pressed against each other. Uh-huh. Go, no, you, you fuck off. You get away from me. Shut the fuck up, dude. Fuck you. Uh, and you get a question from the discern realities list. Oh, hell yeah. I feel like I want to know what here is now what it appears to be.

You can tell by looking into his cold, tide worn stone eyes that no matter what the council decides, he's coming for you. Oh, you've made an enemy for life. Awesome. But you have cowed him and Grim Shay and the rest of the council can continue the conversation. Yeah. See, count them. Oh, he's fucking boiling even more now. I'm not a sea cow. I'm an elephant. Okay. So where are we talking about? The parlay here is we will take down the gibbous man, but you have to give us more time.

Yeah, we are willing to uphold our end of the gash, your broken oath. The gibbous man is the man known as the ranger king and his blood, if he bleeds, will be spilt. We need more time. That is our oath. That was a great line, man. That was a fucking sick ass line. All right. 2d6 plus charisma for the parlay. 11. Whoa, nice. So on a 10 plus on a parlay, I believe they accept your promise.

Grim Shay listens to this oath, this promise, this offer and says we need just a moment to confer and turns back to the council and at this consideration that the gash might be broken. Stone Eye at this point pushes tuck away from him turns to the edge of the cliff and dives off. Whoa. And you hear him splash into the sea far below. What a little baby. Yeah, what a gigantic baby loser bitch.

And if you just want to like basically wait, they just need they go off to the side and they speak amongst themselves. So we see like time pass like Billy's flicking rocks. Talk is just I don't know. Wizzing off the side about an hour passes. Oh my God. Snacks. Yeah, no snacks. I have granola. Do you want granola? No, I'm just trying to make them feel bad. The way you treat a fairy.

I say that and actually the willows daughter of the Larry with like the long like willow strands in her hair actually fearfully looks over her shoulder when she hears that consider that lady. It's a good point. Somebody get him some food and then Grimshay returns to you and by returns. I mean walks 12 feet and says word reached the council through the knowledge trees. Of what happened in Heartwood. The destruction of the old tree. Was that the gibbous man's lies or was that the truth?

That was true. A necessary truth. The gibbous man poisoned the old tree. We needed to plant a new one. We accept your promise, but we need assurances. You have sworn against. You have sworn against. You have sworn against us before. We will not ask you to do it again. But how do we know that you will in fact complete your quest? You don't. I mean we could pinky promise. And there's like a murmur goes through the council. You would have me swear a promise to you fairy?

Why yes, then we would both know. And you can see he takes a steadying breath and his eyes resolve. And he kneels down reverently in front of you and he extends both of his hands in front of him. I will swear. You will swear that while we hunt the Gibbous Man, you do not harm Ving or Dathaniel. That no one from Hibernia harms them. And you swear that you will complete your quest and free the people of Hibernia from their isolation. I swear. And he extends his pinky and shakes.

And here on the Council Stone in Hibernia, this most ancient of places, that pinky promise can be felt in the air around you. Ving gets a new rune. Oh, cool. Yeah, a new scarf. It's like, you know, in Pirates of the Caribbean when like the coin drops in the ocean and that. Oh, yeah. That's what the promise is like. Yeah, if the camera, it can be seen across the island, like across the island, fairies are seen to emerge from their hiding places from their slumber. Yeah. An oath. Mm-hmm.

And the Pete, like the Druids of Hibernia raise their heads to the sky. And Tug is like, so is Basara somewhere around here or what? Is she still here? Is she still here on this isolated island that no one leaves or goes to? Yeah. I gave her a thing when I left. Oh, yeah. No. She's actually gone. She went to college. Okay, whatever. Yeah. She's going to grad school. She said to say hi if she saw you again. Okay. The promise is sworn. I want to go to the beach.

And we can follow the crew walking through Hibernia, through the village, down the trails to the beach. I mean, if that's okay with you guys, I just want to go real quick. Okay, yeah. We can go to the beach, really. It's fine. Yeah. I love going to the beach. And as you walk through the village, Ving's going to get some more Hibernia water. I use it a lot. Oh. Yeah. Can I get uses? Three. Three. Yeah. Thank you. We'll say three. Nice. And heads turn.

As they said, stories of your deeds have reached this island and they are watching you pass. And it's weird for you guys because they are watching you pass like heroes. Yeah, Billy. And Billy's not really taking, he's veering off the trail. A lot. He's like walking through bushes and stuff like that because he's saying he's greeting fairies. Yeah. As he goes. Oh, like all the fairies that like got disturbed. Yeah. Isn't Barry here? Yeah, Barry's somewhere. Oh, yeah.

Barry is watching from a bush in the forest. Like, I'm going to get them again. And you reach the beach where the sun runner docked all those months ago, all those weeks ago. Yeah. Um, if you don't mind, I'm just going to step away for just a second. Are you going back to your little cave, Billy? Yeah, but I don't want you to know where it is. Where what is? My nowhere. Okay. Okay. We don't, we don't really know what any, we're going to, oh, what, Ving, what's over there?

Oh, why, that is a California maple. And as Tuck and Ving look away, we see Billy start padding off down the beach. Yeah, he's scrambling over all the logs and stones. Yeah. We turn around and just watch him to make sure he's fine. Don't look at me. We're not. Staring right at you. I'm carrying Finn's backpack as I'm running. You stole his backpack. Yeah, it's full of buns. Yeah. And we find ourselves in a tiny little cave by the sea.

Yeah, so Billy shut, like, has to push the suitcase in and then he squeezes himself into the opening and no one's been in here thank goodness. While he's in there, though, because he's like, I'm suspicious. I don't like the way that all the villagers looked at me. So he makes a little fairy ring with his buns. So fairy ring is one of the changeling's new moves that allows Billy to create fairy rings.

Roll plus dexterity and on a seven to nine the ring is unpassable but requires constant attention and on a ten plus it will last until sunrise without worry. So go ahead and roll 2d6. Got nine. Okay. So your ring sprouts to life. What does it look like? Well, Billy tried to make it with buns but he's like, oh, that doesn't really work because they don't do anything. They don't hold on the buns. Springs up.

So it's more like beach lichen that sprouts up and moss and puffs up like wherever he's running around. So he does that a couple times and he steps into the circle and pulls out the buns and then he's like, oh, that's a good thing. And then he's like, and then he rips them apart and takes some of the pine cones out and shoves them under his little stack of things. Uh-huh. Do we get to know what those pine cones are about? Yes, sure. They are some of the oldest stories.

Right, because these came off the knowledge tree. So they actually are like old books. And he thinks these ones shouldn't have been there. Oh. Like these are for the fairies only. Oh. Well, cool. So he stole them for a reason, but maybe didn't know, but also did know. Yeah. I just think it's cool if fairies have their own stories. Oh, yeah. Okay, so one of them is the story of the first trade. So cool. Yeah. That is very cool. That's sick. I hope it goes well. It didn't. I know.

All right, dragons. Here's my idea. It was the first trade between a fairy and a person and the fairy lost out on that trade. Oh. Yeah. It's sort of like a moral lesson. Like why not to trust humans? Like you always need collateral or whatever. Oh, cool. That's very cool. And then, oh, okay. So another one is related to the spider and the hummingbird. It's the last half of that story that like we didn't talk about really.

So after spider wrapped up hummingbird and like the reason hummingbird died, is because hummingbird always has to be in flight to live. Because it removed the core nature of her. Yeah. So it kills her because she is a spiritual entity. And so like the eyes took her legs and walked away. But what spider didn't notice was like a feather dropped off of her. And that was like the fairy. Whoa. So I guess, and then Billy was like, makes his marker or whatever and then emerges from his cave. Mm-hmm.

Puts the little stone back on the hole that hides the entrance. And Tuck and Vang are just looking at a tree. Yeah. I think it's like the sun set now. Yeah. Oh, was I in there a while? You were in there for a while. Like some of the locals came out onto the beach. They started a fire. They started roasting a giant fish. Wow. Smells like shit. Oh my God. Who was that? Whoa. Oh no, that one's just a fish. Don't worry. That's a normal fish. I asked him. Okay, thank God. Sorry it took so long.

I didn't really realize I was in there forever. In where? What do you mean? Having a poo is where I was. Whoa. That must have been an awesome poo to take so long. To take five hours, Billy. It was very long. Five hours? Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. So I think Grimshay actually asks, what will you do now?

We could also take a bit of time and spend the night here if we want. Oh yeah, maybe Gale's like, I'm tired. I'm tired. All you guys want to do is fly, fly, fly. So boring. They gave me a huge fish. Yeah, fish is for her. Giant fish, that's great. Yeah, get you, I'm fat on fish. I can't fly. You all come back to the beach and Gale is like, I'm fat on fish. I'm fat on fish. I'm fat on fish. I'm fat on fish. I'm fat on fish. I'm fat on fish. I'm a bird, like choking back a huge fish. Oh my God.

Can we stay here tonight? Yes. Okay, yeah, we can stay here, Gale. Great. And she sits down on the ground and tucks her head into her wings. Cute. Anybody want to get in here? It's nice and cozy. Stop looking up. Just like old times, huh? Stop talking so loud. Everybody can understand you now because of Ving's stupid thing. Well, they're all druids. Leave you guys alone. Leave you guys alone. Stop it. Stop doing that. Everybody stop doing this.

And there's just, there is like a little, people are trying to engage with you, but not like to make it weird. They bring you food. They bring you drink. They welcome you to the fire. Yeah. I could join them. Yeah. And there are a number of druids, young and old, sitting around a fire and they're all like staring wide eyed at Billy. Is there something on my face? No, you look totally fine to us. Don't worry. Um, uh, do you need anything?

Um, I've actually been, uh, I've actually been trying to, um, to pass my, to pass my, uh, my master's test. And I was wondering if you could maybe bless my test or there's any sort of boon that you could offer me. Um, Billy's like, what? Oh, I understand. I'm sorry. I asked too much. I asked too much here, please, please. And he's handing you like fried bread here. Here. Well, now I kind of don't want it. Now I feel like you're just giving me the bread. I need to get a favor.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Never, never, never here. And he hands you like a cup of cream, please. I don't allow cream. I'm so sorry. Uh, forgive me, please. Forgive me. What can I do? Bing, they're trying to get me drunk over here. Do not give him cream. Don't give our kid cream. What are you doing? I'm sorry. I didn't. Do you have any kids? No. Well, if you did, would you like me to give them tequila? No, I don't think so. I don't know what tecarla is. How old is this? This druid? 17, 18.

Oh, you're just a small baby. Oh, yes. I am just a foolish child. I would, I never, I never meant to offend you. I'm so sorry. He reminds me of Mears. Oh yeah. What's your name? Shears. It's Liam. It's Liam. Liam. Yeah, I'll bless your test. Whatever. Oh, thank you so much. And Billy doesn't know what he's doing. He's just like. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Some of the marble. Yeah. Yeah. He takes his jar out and he's like, I mean, these are the most important things in the world to me.

We're like, both of us are like, whoa. You're giving away a marble? Here, Liam. Liam shakily extends his hand. You get a marble. He actually feels answers flooding his brain. He holds it up to the fire and it's glinting off the smooth glass. If you get a lot of those, you can go to an all you can eat breakfast buffet. It's all day breakfast. It's not all you can eat. Huh? Thank you so much. You're welcome. And he gets up from the fire and he rushes away excitedly with his marble.

And yeah, you are able to mingle as you so choose. If there's anything that you want to accomplish here in Hibernia. Billy starts handing out his marbles and inviting people to the breakfast buffet. Whoa. And you're invited and you're invited. You get to come. You can come. And everyone that gets a marble is like, oh. Ving and I are like, wow, he's sharing really well today. Like, Billy, you're doing great. It's really great giveaways. Billy also thumbs up. Do I get more marbles for sharing?

I mean, no. What? We'll find a way. We'll find a way. We'll find a way. You're going to get some marbles for sharing. Yes. Yes. More marbles. More marbles than Victor has. Victor's not going to give up those marbles. Oh, trying to take Victor's marbles away unwillingly. Yeah. He bit Tuxer one time. Just came out of Victor's room bleeding. He's like, yeah, I try to touch one of his marbles. I wouldn't go in there for a little bit. He's really mad. I locked the door. He's pretty mad.

I don't know what a hackle is, but I'm pretty sure they're up. Ving is telling stories of the adventure. And of the flying squirrels around the fire and casting shapes and shadows with the fire. Oh, cool. Playing in little theater bits. Yeah. Cool. Very cool. Tuck is in front of a bunch of kids and showing them TLC and then just being like, and then I smashed the coin and then the gibbous man was there. And they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Look at his chest. Yeah. He's huge.

This guy's fucking huge. Oh, yeah. And he's like, he's doing the thing. Where he's like, all right, anyone that beats me, I'll give you free, free. I'll give you coins or whatever. Yeah. Or fuck. I'll give you. Yeah. Marbles or whatever. And then he's like fake arm wrestling with all the kids and just being like, oh, you beat me. But every once in a while, a kid's got to look in his eye and Tuck's like, I got to show him, teach him a lesson. You suck, kid. Suck kid named Jason.

Get out of here, Jason. Tell your mom I said hi. Can Billy run off with Liam and his friends for a bit who are also very nice and he wants to tell them like fun stories about the land? Yes, absolutely. Cool. You've gathered like, Liam's definitely the oldest of these kids. You've gathered a bunch of like eight to like, you know, 14 year olds who are just mystified by you. Yeah. I show them like the cool runes on the cliff side. Yeah. And I show them like little bushes and like.

Rocks and just like garbage and stuff like that in a seashell. And I'm like, these are all the fairies. Like, these are their names. Whoa. And Billy might not realize this, but decades from now, these kids will tell their children about the night they learned from a fairy. Yeah. On the beaches of Hibernia. Ving notices, he looks around and Nathaniel's down the beach on like a little point by some giant rocks. And. Oh, shit. This is where it happened. Yeah. Oh. He sees that.

And he just like, leaves. I'll be right back, guys. And just wants to walk down there and doesn't really know. He doesn't feel close, but he feels something. There's a weird moment. As you're standing there, he's gripping his walking stick. I had the opportunity to make it right. Yeah. And I let you save me. Ving puts his hand on his shoulder. Says, I forgive you. I hope you will forgive me. And you just stand there a while, looking at the water.

And I think that's where we're going to end it for this week. I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the Barber Shop. I'm Sean O'Hara. I'm your game master, Barbarian Abdulaziz. So long. Playing Ving, the Half-Elf Druid, Paul Hoppers. Take care. Playing Fat Billy, the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai. Bye, everyone. Thank you to Aaron Reid for our intro and outro music.

If you would like to hear more of Aaron's original music, under the name ACR, I believe, you can find him at aaronreid.bandcamp.com. And if you want to hear all the music that he's produced for the show, written by Abdul and occasionally myself, you can find that at soundcloud.com. Thank you to all of our supporters around the world. Without you, we wouldn't be able to do this. We wouldn't be able to do this show.

If you would like to support Spout Lore and get access to a whole bunch of cool bonus content, you can find us at patreon.com slash Spout Lore or Spout Lore.com slash money, please. Including the newer tier, the Piss Monster, with a slot still available. I'm playing in one of the Piss Monster games and it's super fun so far. Pretty good. What? Yeah, I'm playing. What? Yeah, bro. And also the wizard tier, a game run by me, which has another slot available.

So if you want to learn more about those. Patreon.com slash Spout Lore or Spout Lore.com slash money, please. The Spout Lore community discord is also available. We've got patron specific channels for streams and whatnot, but it is available to all any and all lovers of Spout Lore. So you can find that linked on our social media, I believe. On our website. And on our website. Yeah. So come join us there. Hang out. It's worth it for the fan art alone. The fan art is beautiful.

The community is so wonderful and we would love for you to be a part of it. And thank you most of all to all of you for listening. We'll see you next time. And so ends the tale of adventures three who tried the best they can. Though dumb and scared and lost they be for times of rest in revelry. And though our journey may be like a conclusion. We will not leave you without a resume. And if you're lost, we will not leave you without a conclusion. Return next week to hear some more.

Whilst you commute or do your chores. And for you I'd gladly Spout Lore.

Hi everyone, it's Fat Billy here. Thanks for coming, listening to our podcast. If you want more podcasts, you can go to patreon.com slash spoutlore, where you can give us some money. And I like money, so I can buy snacks. 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-elf, he shifts his shape and wields a spear with great pride. Billy's a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart. Best and brightest, they may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts. So gather round. And listen close, for the tale's about to start. Last, we left. We left our heroes in the glade of Heartwood City. Everyone was waiting for me to do something fucked up, I think. I was waiting for you to put on sunglasses. I thought that's what you're opening up.

I looked over and I thought there was going to be a cop puppet. Oh, God, I wish I had prepared enough. But no, I only thought about what we would need for the video production. What about all the props you always have laying around? There's one. I didn't bring them this time. For the listeners, we're recording the sessions for the first time in an attempt to create social content because it is a social media world and we have ignored that for seven years.

And the fact that we're recording the episodes now means, or that we're physically, visually recording. We're filming. Filming. Jesus Christ. This is why that YouTube studio fired us. No, that YouTube studio fired us because a billionaire was… Billionaire was philandering with his employees and he couldn't financially keep us on board.

When last we left our heroes in the glade of Heartwood City beneath the corrupted knowledge tree at the heart of the very forest, and some might say the planet itself, Tuck faced off with the Gibbous Man. A tense conversation passed back and forth, the kernel of which it felt to me, was the Gibbous Man saying, do you even know what you are? And Tuck responded by attempting to crush the Gibbous Man's windpipe. I tried to bum rush him. I tried to bum rush a god and it didn't work.

He just gave me my ex-girlfriend's scarf as a taunt. Exactly. Tuck grabbed onto the Gibbous Man and was unable to make purchase, but instead came away with a silk red scarf that he lost many moons ago. Mm-hmm. Well, I guess in terms of time, it's only been like one moon. Yeah. But, you know, it's been a year and a half in real time.

Beneath the knowledge tree, Billy and Elman were attempting to plant Ollie, the cutting of the original knowledge tree in the earth, choosing a blood-soaked patch of soil that would provide the nourishment required for this new cutting. They began the process of raising a new tree to replace the old one. Oh, Ving was there too. Ving came. Ving came down to help. Wow. I've got… I couldn't remember if Ving was still upstairs, but… You heard it here first. First. You heard it here first.

I could… I forgot that the fight that Ving was a part of was already over. Yeah. And Ving was down here. So, using some Hibernian water, Billy and Ving created a channel between the old tree and the new to attempt to guide the knowledge from the old tree into the new one to begin its life cycle. And because of the deep iconic corruption, Ollie began feeling the force of the demon of greed that lurked within.

Quick thinking, using some sunstone torches to keep the iconic influence at bay, and some fairy trickery. They began the true process of draining the old tree and raising the new one, the only way they could think of to end this iconic influence. Up above on the surface, Tuck saw a new threat coming over the walls. Mm-hmm. Imps. Imps. Hordes of imps. Yeah. Pretty gross. We haven't seen them in a while. Haven't seen them in a while. Got bad reviews from Jessica. Yeah. Zero out of five stars.

Would not… Would not recommend. Would not recommend these imps. Yeah. And also, they started their process of bringing Tuck to five hit points. Yeah. By absolutely just mobbing him. Mm-hmm. Tuck playing the hero, defending the hole into the earth where his family resides. Yeah. Yeah. Tuck's great at blocking a hole. At least that's what Vegas told him so many times. He's a huge hole blocker. I brought you to be a wingman. You're just blocking my hole.

The fight upstairs reflected the fight downstairs as both groups fought tooth and nail to attempt to complete their goal. The… The growing of the tree was going okay while Tuck was being lacerated, mobbed, piled on by imps over and over again. Billy and Ving thought that maybe the best way to complete this process was to enter the fairy. To stop the corruption. To stop the corruption and speak to the spirit of the tree itself without the influence of the demon of greed.

So Billy, using Shadow Dance and Midnight Waltz, brought Ving into the fairy itself. And we got a little bit of insight into not just like the world. Of the spirits and the fairies, but the history and culture of the spirits and the fairies. Learning about a period of time where the fairy itself was accosted, invaded by creatures of I'll intent maliciousness. And also about a story concerning Spider and Hummingbird, two of the primordial gods of the realms. Mm-hmm.

In which we learned that Spider… Spider, aka, we believe, potentially, another name for the Gibbous Man's oldest form, was responsible, inadvertently it sounds, for the death of another god from whom the world grew. Mm-hmm. And also, eyes that walked like men. Mm-hmm. According to the spirit of the knowledge tree. That's very cool. What that means, we're not sure, but we know that the story itself was enough to scare Billy into silence. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

And Ving and Billy convinced the tree that the best way… Mm-hmm. To move forward was to remove itself from the tree in the material plane and wander a while to learn about the world while Ving safeguarded its knowledge in preparation for the new tree. Mm-hmm. We came back to the material plane with a knowledge tree seed. Billy, quick thinking as he saw that it needed a place to root, apologized to Ving and placed the seed in Ving's crystal cavern in his chest, which closed over. And then…

Mm-hmm. Runes began to sprout from Ving's body. Mm-hmm. So now his skin is covered in sort of scars that reflect the runes of the knowledge tree. That was also sick. Mm-hmm. Pretty sick. You guys are doing some sick shit. Some magic. Last episode. Man, talk about sick shit. Yeah. Talk about messing up all them imps. Mission imps possible. Imps possible. It was amazing. It was amazing. If you haven't listened to that episode, first of all, what the fuck?

What the fuck are you doing listening to this episode? Spoilers. Start at season 11. That's the best place to start this show. We just started telling people. Back in the material plane, Elman stayed below and attempted to continue ushering Ollie into his new form as Billy and Ving went to the surface. I do remember Ving leaping through the hole like a majestic martial arts hero. Yeah. And Billy kind of climbed up and falling down a few times. Right. Fell back down. I could have. Could have.

Nay, I should have helped you. No, I got to learn to do things myself. This is Ving's way. Okay. So at this point, Tuck has been taken a fucking beating. Oh, yeah. But he's been given as good as he was getting. I was giving like 20 damage per attack. It was pretty unreal. Some would say that you maybe forgot how many hit points the imps had. Oh, no. I had a number. Okay. I had a big number. Yeah. We knew. We were looking at an unending horde of imps. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And at the top of the hole, the rest of the party emerged and a true battle began. Yeah. Tuck took three abilities and lost more than four fifths of his hit points. Yep. And Billy and Ving arrived to deal some damage of their own. And as did Nesh. Yes. Ranger of Nathaniel's Talon. Oh, yeah. The little karate kid. Yeah.

Yeah, tightening his bandana and entering the fight and getting backhanded into the dirt before doing some pretty cool karate. Yeah. Morris and Perel using their various magics to deal damage against their foes. The fight ended as Ving immolated himself and dove through the final massive imp with Larry, Terry, and Chad. As the creature tottered, perhaps finding a second wind with which to deal a mortal blow to our friend, Tuck, a spear sailed through the air, the unbreakable spear. Oh.

Felling the beast and turning, we saw Nathaniel, the Ranger King. So cool. At the top of the hole. Yeah. He said to his long lost son, what took you so long? Before falling to his knees. And that is where we find our heroes now. Or is it? Where do we find the heroes at this point? I think this could be a mid-recovery time. Yeah. Before we set out. I think we should have done guess removal. Yes. Oh, yeah. I like that a lot. I'm applying many wet bandages to Tuck's body. Yeah.

Thinking it's helping. Yeah. They're just wet. They're not. They don't have any medicinal stuff on them. Well, they. I. So I have bowls of chicken soup that I'm dipping the bandages in because I know chicken soup. Very healing. Billy is doing this without Ving's permission. That is for sure. Tuck is passed out. He's not awake. Oh, you're not awake. Not awake. Okay. And on his way to sepsis. Uh-huh. So the big thing that we need to establish. Uh-huh. We kind of talked about it off mic. Yeah.

We're doing a bit of a time jump. A little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just a little bit. So what are we looking at? Three days? One day? Five days? I feel like. A week? Enough time to get us somewhere safe. A week? Yeah. I think a week feels good. A week? A week to 10 days. Okay. So. Okay. I love. Let's do six to nine days. Six to nine days. Nice. 420 hours after the initial. A finale fight. So we can assume as listeners, as fans of the story, you escape from Heartwood City. Yes.

You're probably not sticking around. No. No. Hell no. You've completed your goal. All you needed to do was replace the tree. Yeah. Whatever is going to happen in Heartwood is going to happen. We destroyed elven Christianity. Yep. And this is where my true plan of this podcast comes to fruition. To destroy the Christian religion. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Who are you? Allah. Welcome to Islam, everybody. As-salamu alaykum, motherfuckers.

If you have been listening this long, you are automatically inducted into the realms of Islamism. Uh-oh. What just happened? Did you just all become Muslims? Did you just pull your- Shut up. Right. Jessica, put a hitch up. Oh. Oh.

Okay anyway so I like this a week has passed and we're still recovering I think that speaks to the the nature of the battle because there were probably a few days that were like we got to get out of here yeah if we could see like a montage I imagine you tried to do the billy sneaks around with the fanny pack thing for a while oh yeah for sure like we got tucked away in there for a bit yeah he's like oliver twisting through the alleys of heartwood city and there's blood dripping from the pack holding like a meat bag like oh just coming home from the butcher shop don't worry about this I like also the idea that you maybe just also got distracted by a bunch of buns for a couple of days I did buy buns yeah that's a good crust yeah so I bought buns and then I camped outside the bakery to wait for the fresh buns like it was a new iphone yeah I was like I'm having like afternoon buns morning buns are gonna be something else and we're trapped in the bag is like kicking yes billy listen to what ving's doing cpr on tuck right now just trying to keep him alive uh and we're like fresh buns oh okay so I guess I mean I imagine you're all in the fanny pack uh-huh at this point in time but my question is where's the fanny pack with billy right oh no I think we're set up now I think that was part of it I think at one point you probably you know you strap it around victor's neck I see oh and he runs for a bit yeah yeah cute like a french canadian dog exactly I like that and now now you are in a relatively safe place and I think we would know like because dathaniel is still like the ranger king he probably knows like go here to be safe oh what oh I was just gonna say he he's like go find the wicks because they're they're such like shit right because they reject elvin like royalty and culture and stuff cool that's a safe house they have like a ranch like yeah preppers kind of kind of yeah I like that okay so there's a wick or like maybe a couple like I think I like the idea that there is a member of the wick family who's fully off the grid walter wick walter wick I like john wick no sean wick you're you're you're we're approaching the origin of the name shathane oh yeah uh so walter wick walt wick walt wick hell yeah like walt whitman yeah cool leaves of grass yeah okay so I think what what we're gonna do then is that if we are a camera we see the fanny pack unfolded into the tent sitting in like a kind of cleared field in a in the woods in the distance there's a log cabin of a very like sturdy almost unelven construction there are animals a berm behind the cabin it looks like a natural berm yeah and there's a lot of trees like small trees growing out of it it looks like a little lump maybe shouldn't be there exactly you're like what's that what's that thing doing back there oh like a little a little mound yeah okay cool cool there are some animals grazing in this clearing uh what kind of animals are there it's an alpaca it's a bunch of alpacas there's like four or five alpacas oh yeah this is strange and there's a peacocks here yeah you're like what are these things doing in the woods there's some uh silver uh messenger doves messenger pigeons yeah I like that a lot yeah they're like in the branches of the trees on the edge of the clearing and flying squirrels just like crossing over top little flying squirrels all over the place remember clarence yeah the rest of the flying squirrels oh you didn't you never activated them yeah we probably did that in the time yeah we see a montage of billy going to the the stable and going get out of here yeah that's true or maybe they free themselves because of that one guy we empowered to free everybody else right like all the other people that are that one guy we empowered to free everybody else right like all the other people that are animals freed the animals warthog there was a jumanji scene as all the animals went through the city yeah oh yeah in the animal scene that's when the flying squirrels took advantage of the chaos oh yes oh that's so fun yeah so heartwood was in pandemonium for a while yeah there's scenes like a donkey riding the back of a giant flying squirrel whoa that jean valjean the donkey yeah it was it was jerek the donkey yeah the donkey I love that this is such a full examination of the fact that these characters never deal with the consequences of their actions because you just left heartwood and who knows what happened that's their problem now I like it a lot that's their fucking problem deal with it I I also imagined billy at a certain point like when in the days that we were trapped in the fanny pack went and like snuck into finn's room I was gonna say some finn wrap up yeah I was like billy was trying to wrap everything up so he freed and made a convincing illusion that finn's mom was dead so billy spent three days in heartwood ignoring what ving and tuck told him to do the first day was bun related first day was bun second day was also bun for half the day I had to stock up oh you did a bun bun fun day yeah and then he had a solo picnic for a few hours with the buns I like that he calls it a fun sandwich because it's bun fun and then another bun exactly and then he went to uh oh my god what's this stupid finn's stupid house and he cut a bunch of holes in finn's clothes this is the most like traditionally fairy like billy's ever been as in like a folklore fairy just terrorizing a kid in his house he also traded a bun to a fairy to haunt the finn's room for a while oh nice I like that that fairy lives in a dead fish so it haunts him and it smells bad it smells like it one day we'll do like a little adventure that's just billy's three days on his own in heartwood city yeah that's great um and then uh billy got found out by one of the housemaids and got shooed away with a broom so then that's when he took off into the woods yeah switched with victor yep and then victor took off yeah because billy ran a few blocks and he's like I don't want to run anymore I'm so tired a few blocks he just stopped I guess I live in heartwood now I imagine you opening the bag like weeping and we're like billy what happened and you're like I ran too long and we're like a half a block away from finn's house where were you guys I had to run we've got to encourage more exercise somehow he's such an unhealthy little kid oh my god uh okay so that is where we see the fanny pack and inside this is where we find billy applying chicken suit bandages morrison perel going about their domestic lives they're working on something by the way it seems like morrison perel are working on a project that they are keeping to themselves yeah they work on it really hard at night yeah mostly working on it without any clothes on I'm surprised that their bed frame can handle how much they're working on this project weird billy's giving them a lot of privacy uh so like you've been with dethaniel dethaniel's been here for a week but he's also as sick as so he's in full recovery as well I think he's walking like with a cane basically like he is yeah fucked up I was just gonna say I bet he's been like in like council kind of with uh walt wick oh he's been like in the house totally talking to his cousin basically yeah yeah because walt will will obviously like to host us he's gotta know what's going on yeah walt like is kind of a safe person to talk to because he's just like not uh what do you call it he has no allegiances yes yeah I imagine that I imagine walt kind of like bill from the last of us yeah like he mostly he's like whatever is best for the woods yeah but he's also like leave me alone you come on my land I will take you down like stay away which is why we're not allowed to camp in the house he's like you can stay over there you can stay with the alpaca you can stay with the alpaca you can stay with the alpaca you can stay with the alpaca but do not touch the alpacas it looks so soft and in the same way sorry as a prepper he's very good at like um the medical side of stuff he's he's very self-sufficient and he has all the things so he's been taking care of dathaniel nursing him back to health as well totally yeah and like figuring out what perel did to him to keep him alive uh-huh yeah because like yeah I realized I thought I didn't mention it but I did mention it I didn't mention it I didn't mention it kind of mentioned you did so he used pieces of his functional organs to repair his heart right so he basically trant like transmuted different parts of his body his heart doesn't work like a normal heart anymore yeah oh and to answer your question how he looks um he looks like a previously very athletic person who has been in atrophy for a long time so he's pretty he's pretty lean paul very proudly pointed at himself I got really fat when I broke my leg this guy's atrophied to fuck right now fucking atrophied as shit uh so I think you can see like the suggestion of a great physicality but just in massive decline so he's like he's looks like he's cold all the time he's pretty gaunt long beard big beard yeah his beard's pretty long it is even his hair is probably very long yes and it's great mostly or just silver white kind of thing yeah oh yeah yeah because he was black haired for his entire life he was he's pretty he's kind of iron gray actually okay but um but I mean but that is the gibbous that was the gibbous man's disguise I know this and then the stress of being connected to that tree and the disconnect to that like I think that he is getting really silvery I like that yeah totally I also imagine there were like a couple of times when he like overexerted himself and just passed out because like the blood pressure like his ability to maintain his own blood pressure is like fuck yeah like like a proud old man like a proud old man anytime that he has had a problem since you've been hanging out with him and you've tried to help him he's gotten very angry he seems very frustrated with the fact that he has almost no control over his body and that's sort of been you were hoping in a way ving that there would be like this reconnection but it seems like yeah it's been very difficult I think ving would be anticipating that but hoping that maybe it wouldn't wasn't that way so maybe he's a little disappointed in the fact that he's not surprised right so it's something I was thinking about was it sounds like by coming to walt's place you're sort of or at least dathaniel is probably like we should we got to tell the wicks what's going on because they'll be the ones that are most likely to be prepared to move on the court yeah whether or not you want to be involved in that is up to you yeah I mean I don't I also don't yeah I again I like the idea that you're like hey great forest here is the thing that you need to be dealing with yeah we're gonna go I think that's more of a what do you think yeah I would think so I'm trying to balance that between ving now being like having it written on his body but also he's never cared about the core of the woods that's for sure yeah like he'd be really inclined to leave talking about being written on your skin is a good point to introduce the fact that ving is now a new playbook yeah and that playbook is the vox silvi oh so fucking cool every time I hear it yeah pretty cool voice of the forest yeah we don't have to go into the specific moves until we use them but uh what's the basic overview of the vox silvi that he's basically um a living tree of wisdom he embodies all of the druidic knowledge and all of the wisdom of nature the core moves that we'll go over when they come up are like your ability to tap into all of the collected druidic knowledge of the land and of like hit the history of your people and also your ability to lend voice to the spirits yeah you can help them speak to other people you can give them bodies to walk around yeah I'm allowing the spirits not just walking with me but allowing them to walk on their own yeah they almost like manifest around me the influence of ving now is bringing forth the spirits representations into the world that's so cool I didn't think about that until just now that's yeah and it kind of makes sense too with the fact that the walls between the worlds are like starting to fall apart you're able to like usher from the spiritual plane directly into like our world maybe that's an advanced move I like that a lot and I also think that every time that fairy that billy the little fairy billy has taken a walk through like every time we've done that has just made that it's made it feel easier for you it's easier it's just like it's just I'm walking more in that world at all times now and I guess you would like you would be able to learn kind of like how to do that like sometimes when he's really feeling it like in the moment you know and I'm not a meditative state or a picture I just pictured him walking through the forest and like a a young willow tree bends down in the shape of a wall like a deer and kind of follows and then fades again as he's passing like things are just spiritually druidically manifesting around him yeah I like that a lot that's very cool totally yeah like a princess mononoke stepping into like yeah yeah totoro yeah very totory totory oh no you set me up I do imagine there's like a night where you kind of like went for a walk like it was foggy and like in the fog like all of like impressions of every spirit that was coming to like talk to you yeah the mist is soothing the new scars on your skin yeah you're feeling like the blending of your form with the forest around you I really like that I really like this hell yeah and yeah in the in the mist there the suggestions of animals as they attempt to break through follow your guidance into the material world that's a cool idea where it's like ving is like is a door so he can like keep them back or usher them through yes this is a great way of thinking about it and he's done this in the past with the snake spirits gave them he empowered them to pass through into the material the bear I bet oh my god Maybe that was like the snake thing was like a thing to come.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. The snakes are a very strong open. Mm-hmm. Pretty cool. And mentioning Billy's fairy-ness and the passing through of places helping Ving sort of soften this transition into this new state is a perfect opportunity to have the camera pan over to Billy as he's patting chicken soup soaked bandages onto Tuck and talk about Billy's new class, which is… The Changeling. Ooh. Thank you, Polar, for that idea. Yes, that was Polar's idea. Pretty sick. Whoa, nice.

I was already leaning towards that, but he suggested it and I was like, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, pretty cool. So what are the overarching ideas of The Changeling? I guess like the freeze on Billy is over. Like he's moving into like the changing of the seasons that like fairies naturally go through. Mm-hmm. Ooh. Yeah. Is it like a thing you're in control of? No longer. Okay. Not really. Okay. And I think it's going to be a slow.

It's a slow process, which is kind of why like he has some control over it, but not a lot. Okay. He's going to look the same, except like I was saying earlier, like if he's in his winter form, he's just going to look a little frosty and stuff like that. There's frost where there wasn't frost before. Look like a little Malfoy. No. Tips. The tips. Frosted tips. Yeah, frosted tips.

So the idea of The Changeling, I think, as Jessica and I talked about it, is that Billy's been trapped in his spring form for so long that now that this change is possible, he's kind of rapidly passing through each of them in a more unstable manner than is natural for a fairy. Basically, like you said, Billy has a degree of control over it, but the main control he has is whether or not he wants a change to happen, not what change he wants to happen.

So he has four different seasons that he can pass into, but he doesn't get to decide which season he passes into. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And sort of like how Fairy Child renews every day. Oh. He has that option. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting.

I kind of imagine it like it's like there's been a bunch of water pushing on a water wheel for so long. Yeah. And it like the peg got knocked loose and you can kind of like jam it in every once in a while and lock it, but you can't kind of choose. That's kind of what it's like. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. But he's still keeping like kind of the mischievous part of himself. Yeah. For sure, because the boy, capital T, capital B, is still kind of in play, but his hold on the situation is also loosening.

So it's still a little baby boy Billy, but just inundated with the power of all four seasons. And then also, he's becoming more comfortable with more natural aspects of fairydom, such as creating rings. Fairy rings. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Pretty sick. What's a little scene like Ving in the Forest with the Mist that sort of shows how Billy has begun coming to terms with this change? So Billy stocked up on a lot of buns and some other things, too. And they were starting to get kind of moldy.

And so Ving was like, you got to get rid of them. Billy's like, no. So he built his own fairy ring around the buns. He's like, you can't touch them now. Ving tried to cross over to throw out the buns. Yeah. Couldn't do it. That's the Vox Silva. I am a door. I can't find the door. I can't find the door. You throw those buns. Don't eat that bun. You put that bun down. And the bun is like so blue. And Billy's like, no. You don't eat that. Put that down.

Billy's in his summer, like with hair the color of ripe wheat and just like eating old buns. Like, you can't stop me. And totally naked. Billy, get back here. Put your clothes back on. He's playing with a knife. Maybe. A knife. A knife. A knife. Yeah. Cut to diarrhea. Yeah. Cut to six hours later. He's in his autumn form and just shitting. In the stream. Ving's rubbing his back. I know, Billy. I know. There, there. It's okay. His dead leaves fall from his hair. Beautiful. Stunning. Stunning.

And the camera pans from the patter of the bandages. To the patty of the bandages. As Tuck lies there. Still recovering. Probably conscious at this point. I actually think Tuck is still unconscious. Oh, damn. Did we. Did like Ving or like Perala or someone put you in like a little slumber? I think so. Cause Tuck was like on death's doorstep when the fight ended. He was, yeah. Like Dathaniel threw the spear and he said that cool line. And Tuck was like, man, all's well that ends well. And then.

And fell face first. In a puddle of somebody else's blood. Coughed up a gout of blood. Yeah. Just immediately puked so much blood. Oh my God. And then he was like. Oh Lord. You know when you puke and then you freak out. Yes. It's so scary. Yeah. It's like that Tim Robinson sketch where he's choking on the hot dog. And Tuck starts like flailing. And everyone gets scared. Trying to hold him down. No, no, no, no, no. He's like a wild animal. So they put him into a coma so they could treat him.

Yeah. Okay. So then we're, I guess we're in kind of like the infirmary zone. Yeah. Tuck's been on a cot for days. Yeah. And he's been dreaming nonstop. All right. Let's see those dreams. As we talk about Tuck's new class. The Truthless. Yeah. Very cool. What's the overarching idea of the Truthless? It's like leaning further into the truth. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Has an absence of truth inside of him is like it kind of relates to a lot of the stuff that happened at the end of last season where like the iconic influences couldn't gain purchase on him and like he's always had kind of like a natural resistance to like the more metaphysical forces yeah the class is sort of all about that then let's see a little bit of this dream that tuck's been having I think it is the dream oh okay so we're on a burning hillside yes yeah like it's sort of iterated before it was like just the land rending and like being destroyed and then it started to encompass like my friends and family and then I think like the burning tree is now like ever present in it like if you try and escape it you always end up back at the burning tree yeah and then like even when you kind of like get really far away it is like the sky entire is just like an image of like branches on fire and then I think like sometimes it does like uh the sky feels angry and this is something that tuck saw during one of his visions and has accompanied you in this dream is every once in a while you see standing beneath the burning tree the shadow of another oh right but you are you find yourself unable to approach the figure or get a good look at them it's the kind of thing where you try and walk around them and it just keep it continues to be the same thing they're back exactly yeah so what has tuck been doing in this dream he's just been like running through the cycle over and over again maybe that's where we come in truly to like the present okay is you're running through the cycle which feels it feels like for the billionth time like you've been here for eternity right you come up the hill the tree is burning you see a person standing beneath it you see billy and ving and all of the people that you've come to love in this world consumed by the roiling earth yeah sometimes he tries to save them sometimes he like runs away before it happens sometimes he tries to get to the tree and he can't make it there sometimes he tries to catch the figure and the figure doesn't exist and what do you do how does this last cycle end I think I think he gives up this time yeah yeah so you just you just give in yeah he's just tired so he sits on the ground lays on the ground and he's like I'm gonna go to bed I'm gonna go to bed and he's like I'm gonna go to bed I'm gonna go to bed I'm gonna go to bed I'm gonna go to bed I'm gonna go to bed as the soil consumes him yeah and as you startle awake for just the briefest of seconds you feel as if your wrists are bound in chain and then you wake and billy is patting chicken so you see you reek of chicken soup absolutely reek of it and billy's standing in like in front of you I'm wrapping his wrist in in soup bandage I'm like are you tying my wrists together billy I'm not I'm just fixing like your owies slash he's away oh did they take my wrist braces off I think that's maybe what you wake to is billy is like trying to take your bracer off so he can put the bandages on I think they were we took them off because they're so swollen and you had a hatchet through one yeah yeah so everything's off okay so your leather wrist straps are off yeah uh what's the big deal the first time oh yeah tuck doesn't ever take them off oh right yeah so what do they see underneath the bracers you see pretty heavy scarring around both wrists oh yeah oh yeah bill you take off the wrist straps and you see all the way around like a ring of scar tissue oh on both arms and tuck you wake up and billy is wrapping a bandage around your bare wrist uh I think tuck kind of instinctively like pulls back his hands and like shoves them under the arm and he's like oh my god I'm so sorry I'm so sorry the blankets and he's like whoa billy hey there's a lot of chicken soup in the bed well I mean ving said that chicken soup usually makes people feel better so I thought I'd just use both you know both what bandage and soup for super healing super healers super this might be my fault and it's working because you're awake now Yeah yes you know what Can I get a bowl Of just chicken soup With no bandages in it Billy like so there's a lot of bowls Cause the page has been making Soup So Billy wheels in a fresher one I haven't touched this one yet Oh thank you The bed is soaked Oh yeah saturated Like all the way through There's not a fiber that is Without soup I like the idea that the Entire room is surrounded in a fairy ring And Vang's like Please can I come in there now He's awake Yeah you can come in How long have we been trapped in here 30 minutes 30 very long Vang said he was taking a nap And to watch over you You did a great job until you started Pouring chicken soup into his wounds You did a really Really good job Billy And then Tuck beckons Vang over As he like lies back down And he's He's just like Why did you leave him unsupervised With soup I didn't I left him unsupervised With bandages You know bad things happen When he just has unfettered access To soup He's been all in this bun train I didn't think he would go back to soup Soup Soup We promised each other We would never let this happen again Flashback 2 Yeah flashback 2 Vang is literally drowning in chili We went to a chili festival Where there was a giant vat of chili Like enormous And Billy did a switcheroo That went really wrong So you're all together Yep So what happened How long have I been passed out for I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know Three days Oh We're safe We're outside of the city We're with The Wicks Walter Wick Is Dathaniel okay Or is he Dathaniel's He's getting better He's still very weak He doesn't have a lot of answers Yet But It seems like he was maybe Under the tree for a long Long time Have you had a chance to talk to him Not Of any significance Just a little bit here and there He's Just so proud And I think scared And feeling weak So he's not opening up And I'm not interested in pushing him right now What about the gash Yeah Right What about that gash What What I Your gash is as good as mine I don't know what to do about this thing He's still the ranger king Is he not Yeah so we talked about it a little bit It's basically Up in the air Whether or not it still applies Because the gash was sworn When someone else was the ranger king Yeah So why don't we send word Can I send word to the druidic council Oh that's a good idea Yeah you could send word Don't we still have Oman We have two Because Oman came back Right Two moths So you could technically send one of them to Hibernia Oh sorry I just forgot about The Uh Thunderbird Oh yeah Thunderbird Yeah Thunderbird would be a great representative To send to Hibernia Oh yeah Oh yeah Oh you could send Cloudpiercer You could send Dathaniel with Cloudpiercer even And he would be totally down to Remove Price on my head Yeah exactly And would have a much easier time Entering A magical Fog that keeps people away Just be like Here we go So happy That I remembered About that Thunderbird Yeah Thank god So are the listeners Yeah Jeez Thanks guys We were about to have a real Why didn't Frodo just ride The eagles moment Oh yeah Okay so is that what we're thinking Like after some recovery The party will Briefly go to Hibernia I think so I can deal with the gash I think we need to I think we've been talking about this We're going to have to do this We're going to have to do this We're going to have to do this We're going to have to do this We're just like How do we fucking do it With this gash It's like And then you see Ving Just kind of like looking And then he He looks up in the sky And you hear a hawk Inside of his head go Yeah And Tuck says this to you guys He's like I think the only way That we'll feel okay Dealing with all the other stuff And by that he means The fact that the god of the sky Is trying to kill the world The whatever Yeah Is if we know for sure That the gash is done So we have to go back To Hibernia Yes Billy loves going to Hibernia It's true Yeah You have so many buns To put in your cave Yeah He's already gone To pack his buns Just shoving him Into a suitcase Where'd you get that suitcase?

I wouldn't worry about it It's Finn's suitcase It's Finn Yeah It says like F V or whatever His last name is And Galiar Um Yeah Fanny Pack And Nathaniel Has re-entered I imagine someone was like Hey we gotta We gotta talk Is Walt in here? Walt is not in here Walt would not come In the Fanny Pack In a million years We see We see Walt outside Brushing an alpaca Glaring at the Fanny Pack What's some stuff He's saying to the alpaca?

They'll be gone soon My love Don't worry my dear You'll never have to smell Those gross humans Ever again Such a weird Weirdo No it's not It's more It's an affectionate thing You know like you call a pet My dear My darling Not I'm not in love With an alpaca She glares at him I'm not From in the tent Tuck like ducks out For a second He's like Are you in love With that alpaca?

No My heart has been Closed to love For nigh on 200 years Shoshanna Go back and chat Shoshanna Shoshanna Shoshanna Shoshanna Shoshanna Shoshanna He turns away And grips a fist In front of his face And goes Shoshanna I want an episode Just on Walt Yeah Thank you Just sitting in his cabin Being grouchy Uh huh And inside the fanny pack Another wanderer Comes into his house He makes him rabbit And a fine wine He plays a Melinda Rodstadt Song on a piano And they fuck hard For years I never did get her name In the fanny pack In the city In the city In the city In the city In the city In the city In the city In the city In the city In the city Around the table In fireplace zone Of the observatory Section that we've Spent most of our time in In the fanny pack Victor is curled up In front of the fire His massive lupine form Only visible Because of the The edges of light Playing along his fur Dathaniel sits In a chair Honestly like Cold sick old man Looking He's got a blanket Kind of around his shoulders Like a Like a shawl He's gripping A length of blackthorn That he's cut As like a walking stick Oh Cool Him and Ving are playing cards Yeah What Cool yeah They just got a deck of cards Between them Yeah Hibernia Yeah To prove to them That I'm Not dead But also not The ranger king Yeah how do you feel about that He throws down a card And gets like The advantage on you In this game Ving picks up three He throws down a blue four And a blue three And then looks at his hand Ving goes fuck And rips one of his cards in half And throws it over his shoulder That was my favorite one And then tuck Tuck over on the other card She's just like What fucking game is this Oh no Dathaniel Picks up four cards Looks at them Puts down two Reaches over Slaps Ving lightly on the face How you just Got a Ten Ten Ten Ten Ten Ten Ten Ten Ten Ten Ten Ten Ten Ten Ten Ten I'm happy to go to Hibernia if it means that we can just move past this I mean unless there's another way of proving to them that the Ranger King is no more thinks switcheroos I don't want my mistakes to lead to your death it's not safe he throws down five cards picks up five more cards and then folds one up and puts it in his pocket I'll go we don't have to talk about it and he puts his cards down takes the one gives it a gentle kiss, throws it in the fire stands up with his cane tell me when we're there I concede and he walks off into the fanny pack to rest Tuck just leans in after D'Athena walks away and he's like so did you win or what happened in that?

No he he kissed the card that was the queen of trees he threw in the fire so he conceded but by conceding he won fuck yeah yeah totally I really like that as like his final move in the game because in D'Athena's mind he thinks by giving himself up to the council that's how he'll overcome this oh that is really cool where he's like the only move he has left is to intentionally lose because it's a pride thing where he's just like you don't get to decide when my story ends I do who in the queen of trees is his mom yeah fun and Morris closes his book goes that's your dad huh yeah I see where you get it sorry what anyway so we should be making preparations to head out I'm all packed just buns squeezing out of the seam of a suitcase what are you reading?

It is a it's like a historical fiction fantasy romance oh and Billy starts turning the pages like are there pictures? You're getting crumbs all over it there there's a lot of things actually there are pictures there are quite a lot of pictures can I see?

And he climbs up like make room and he sort of shifts over like a he shifts his arm up like an uncle as you come and sit on his leg and he holds the book in front of you Tuck leans over and just rips out the last fourth of the book because he's read this one he throws it into the fire it's like you don't get to see those pictures Billy Morris like chokes as you rip a bunch of pages out of a book well now I don't want to read it anymore and Billy takes his bags and gets off Morris I don't want to read it anymore either and he throws the rest into the fire I don't want to be around anybody and Morris and Billy storm off into the fanny pack to go mope uh okay so are we packing up?

Yeah I think as we're packing up who would I talk to? I feel like Tuck's been asleep for basically a week so he kind of wants to talk to somebody to just be like what the fuck what happened?

Maybe talk to Walt or Nathaniel yeah he's seeing oh yeah right I think that makes sense rather than us oh yeah actually Tuck might want to talk to Nathaniel yeah because Nathaniel was like hooked up to the tree for a long time yeah maybe Tuck is looking for answers on what the fuck the gibbous man was talking about yeah because maybe that kept coming back in the dream where he was just like what are you? Yeah what was the thing that he asked you again? He said do they know what you are?

Right and then he said do you? And then Tuck got really mad when he said it and just rushed him right like he got unreasonably mad at the question and he doesn't really understand why so yeah I think who should who would be the best person to talk to? Is it Nathaniel?

I think so he's been the closest with the gibbous man for the longest yeah and also Tuck doesn't want Billy or Ving to know any of this and he feels like if he talked to Perel or Morris they might like they might blab about it yeah they're fucking gossipy bitches yeah like they're like they're such little like loose lips they're wizards why would they hide anything from they're lessers but they love gossip they love gossip who doesn't?

Right the hotter the gossip the better before that tense conversation we were talking to them and we were like yeah we found out that like Ving's mom was killed by his dad but kind of by accident and they were like no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no! Throws his book that closes it, puts a bookmark in and turns the light on. I think he's gonna kill himself to save his son. Just a wife. I think he's gonna kill himself because he accidentally killed his ex-wife.

This is just too much. Perel's like, I gotta see this for myself. And Morris is like, you gotta play it cool. No, we both have to go see it. You gotta play it cool. And then all of a sudden a painting in the room where they're playing cards, the eyelids come up and he's two. Two different colored eyes. Two eyes moving in different directions. And it's like, but they're being like shoved out of the way.

There's a series of flashbacks immediately after this tense scene of like, the gramophone is quietly playing behind Ving and Nathaniel and then you see like the pipe running out behind the gramophone through the wall and then they're like connected to it. A two-way gramophone. All of the events in the last season, but you just cut to the fanny pack and Morris and Perel have their ears pressed against the opening. Oh my god. He loves gossip so much he's engineered this to be a huge gossip palace.

It's that little thin kid again. Out of the way. That's why Morris was like, eventually they got into the sitting room and that's why Morris is reading that book because he's like, I gotta play it cool. They were playing it cool. He just grabbed a book off the shelf and it was porn. He was like, oh. Oh no, I can't believe I grabbed this one. He's like, well, I've committed to it. And then he low-key freaked out when Billy was like, what are you reading? So he flipped to ads.

Went to the table of contents. The ads. Are you reading a book about supplements? Morris, what's vitamin B12? Well, Billy, it's the twelfth of the B vitamins. Oh. Okay, so Tuck is going to speak to Nathaniel. He's chosen a room for himself, just took it over without talking to anybody. It's a recovery room. He's doing physio sort of stuff. Yeah, totally. He's got little bars for stretching his legs and all that.

Oh yeah, Tuck walks in on him trying to do a dexterity exercise that he keeps fucking up. Oh, he's got his blackthorn walking stick in his hand and he's trying to spin it over the back of his hand, flip it and catch it, flip it and catch it for manual dexterity. And as you walk in, he drops it. Yeah. He goes like, fuck, and crouches down and picks it up. Slowly crouches. Yeah. So Tuck walks in and he sees Nathaniel drop the can and he's like, pretty sick move, bro. Did you need something?

Yeah, I just came in here because you got the exercise station in here, so I came in here to do some exercise. He's just staring at you now. He's like, yeah, I gotta do the physio stuff. I don't know if you know, but I got all fucked up back there pretty bad. And then what's the machine that's closest? Can I roll it? Bowflex. There's a bowflex? It's a long bowflex. It's got a bow on it and you pull down on it. For like… Oh, he's got it set up to try to get his bow drawn.

It's on a bow on a stand. And it's like a 200 pound pull kind of thing. It's like insane. Uh-huh. Just do it. Oh, is this thing on? I broke your thing. Sorry, bro. Yeah. That's what it is. You hear Nathaniel go like, huh. And then Tuck doesn't realize he's broken it, so he just grabs the top of the bow and he starts like reefing on it. He's just like, whoa. This thing's nuts, dude. I feel stronger already. Oh, man. I feel so healthy now. Is there something I can help you with?

Um, yeah, just you were hooked up to that tree for a long time, hey? Yup. What, uh… Were you like… Were you in there for all of it? Or what was going on? Yup. I was conscious for all of it. Uh… That was probably not good, right? Tuck is just… He's aware that he's talking to a living legend. Like, he's heard songs about Nathaniel. I just wanna be sure you need an answer to that question. The… I, um… Just wanted to ask you if you, like, could…

Did you, like, ever talk to the Gibbous Man? Um… Or did you know, like, did you know what his plans were? Could you tell what he was thinking or doing or anything? I spoke to him once. Whoa. When he offered me the deal. Whoa! What? Sorry, I'm not there. No, I know, but… I'm just reacting. I mean, Jessica is right there. Tuck walks over and he, like, picks up, like, a long piece of wood and he puts it against a portrait that has the eyes, Mer? And you hear a bunch of thumping behind the wall.

He's like, uh… Tuck's like, what deal? I didn't know who he was at the time. He offered to help me with the court. I'm sure thing has filled you in on all of my various failures and mistakes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, no. No, and then Tuck is just like, yeah, no, I have I did not. He didn't tell me anything or… He said you were great. He said you're fucking so good. See, now I know you're lying.

Anyway, he offered me an opportunity to make progress in my plans to enact what Ileana had always recommended that the power go back to me. Back to the wood. Back to the people. And I agreed. You took the deal? Yes. But what I didn't know was that Wendy had also taken a deal. To kill you? Yes. To kill me. Or put me in a more easily exploitable state, as it were. Did you get a coin? No. No. When you took the deal? No. Okay.

It wasn't until the arrow struck home that I realized the gravity of my mistake. I… He like leans forward with his staff, with his stick a little bit, and in a way that naturally makes you lean in a little. Mm-hmm. Tuck puckers his lip. Just licks his lip? Tuck does the thing where he just… Tuck does the thing where he just… Tuck does the thing where he just… He just does the thing where he like… He pinches his cheeks a little. Make him rosy? Yeah. Dude, Dathaniel is so hot.

I don't think you guys… Like, part of Tuck being weird when he came in here was like, Dathaniel's famous, he's Ving's dad, but also part of it is like, Dathaniel's a fucking smoke show. Smoking. Like, it's crazy. Tuck's gone on such a journey over the course of this show. I feel like he has not changed at all. He just sees shapes and he's like, I like those shapes. I think he's like, I like those shapes. I think he's like, I like those shapes. I think he's like, I like those shapes.

I think he's like, I like those shapes. It's so many. Everybody's such a cool shape. There's a ton of shapes. There's a ton of shapes. There's a ton of shapes. There's a ton of shapes. There's a ton of shapes. There's a ton of shapes. There's a ton of shapes.

Shape yeah I saw a dress on a bag of garbage one time awesome shape flown around in the wind so much used to call me the litter bug you know what I mean so much fucking beauty yeah he wants I just imagine like shapely garbage and you're like whoa yeah you know what I grew up in the streets can't escape my past you could take the boy out of the streets but you can't take the streets out of the boy you know what I mean and as you lean in when I lean out I do the thing where I look at his eyes and then I look at his lips really quick and then I look back at his eyes and then my eyes get really wide and then in his head he's like oh my god I want to fuck bing's dad holy shit oh what is that okay do you think bing would be okay with oh my god I think it'd be weird for dethaniel if I'd already fucked his I haven't wait I haven't fucked I just think about it all the time wait what's going on he's talking he's been talking this whole time and I haven't listened to one word he said and chuck goes oh no the exposition and as you come back to reality dethaniel says and that's really what happened to bing's mother and her true identity talk you idiot please let that be what he says I love it oh it'd be so funny if like if tuck had to roll to remember what yeah at a later date to try and go through the information that's the Spout Lore yeah tuck's gonna spell or now in his own mind palace to see if it's in there I had a thing I was gonna say guys no this is funny though 2d6 plus wisdom I guess yeah sweet my negative one remains uh eight so does he actually say this is what really happened to him to bing's mom the true nature of her identity but he does say that but it's because he notices that I totally spaced out and he just said he just said that he just tried to fuck with you so yeah on a seven to nine with this defy danger you do catch the thing that he actually said uh before he decided to fuck with you a little bit which was my son trusts you would follow you anywhere but if you go up against the gibbous man go alone and tuck uh he like takes a second and he like listens to make sure nobody's in the walls we're all pushing each other in hallways and more is trying to like create another like portal to another painting that might be in the room yeah you guys are running you're like scurrying sideways down really narrow and like billy's trying to like get underfoot to get there first billy get out billy no get out of the way no I if you're gonna listen I want to listen too I can't listen if you don't let me get there and make a hole but you never make a hole for me that's because gossip is only as valuable as how few people know about this is that true he's cooking something in the kitchen like they can hear you he's not he's not interested in we're just in the pantry and ving is making an omelet come help me you're on your own back you can do it I believe in you but you're on your own victor's doing that thing when dogs see other people play fighting where he starts hopping up on his back legs a little bit humping them I will dominate I will dominate gossip are you going to gossip your brains out did you know that once dogs were not wolves this is gossip I give you the first dog was chihuahua we cut back to nathaniel's room oh yeah so yeah it talks like yeah I know I don't think they're they wouldn't be able to stay this quiet and uh when nathaniel says like go alone tuck leans in and like he fixes his his eyes and he's like that's the plan then you'll nods you can see in his eyes deep respect for at least a moment and then he looks over at his bow flex snapped in half and looks back he looks back at tuck and tuck is looking at his lips when he looks back I like make I'd make eye contact he just sees your eyes stop moving and can guess where they were yes I'm pretty tired and tuck goes okay look I'll leave you alone but I I do need I need to ask you a question if you are connected to the gibbous man is it possible do you know what I am oh this is a role um I think so and I think I think it's I think it's the kind of role where we the role is not is dathaniel gonna tell you it's what does he know yeah whoa um sorry I guess it would be Spout Lore yeah 2d6 plus intelligence it's seven okay he like looks like he's contemplating for a second looking into that part of his mind that he has clearly been trying to block out for the last few days And he says, I don't know what you were before, but now you're nothing.

Okay. Ouch. Whoa, that's so mean. I mean, I think with what Tuck has been thinking about, what he means by nothing is up for debate. Yes. Okay. And also, there's something that really reverberates with Tuck as he leaves. Before. Whoa. Before what? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I realize that. As you leave? As I leave. And then, yeah, he's like, wait, before? What the fuck? Because he just, the thing that he really heard was, you're nothing from like a famous guy who he kind of wants to fuck. Kind of?

Don't backpedal. You were hounding for. More than a second ago. He's got an energy. He does have an energy about him. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well. Oh, can I do one thing before I leave? Hell yeah. So, as I'm about to go, I pick up the Blackthorn staff and I throw it at him real quick. His hand, as if by instinct, snaps up and catches it. And then Tuck like, snaps and like does finger guns at him. And then feels that that was the thing that ruined a cool moment.

And then he goes, he starts moonwalking out of the room. Oh no. Throws him another gun and moonwalks. And then he wakes. And then he does a flourishing bow. Oh God. And he pretends to tip his fedora at him. And Billy and Morris and Perel have come out into that area at that point. And they witness all this. They witness Tuck moonwalking out of the room. Yeah. Just as Bing was walking up with an omelet for his dad. Yeah. Oh my God. And then he also saw everything.

And then we watch as he flips a fake fedora. And then Tuck spins out of the room and then collapses in the hallway. Oh my God. What did I do? What did I do? And Morris and Perel both look at each other like, we're going to talk about this later. The gossip girls have got my number now. No. So do we hop on the bird or is there more stuff in the fanny pack you guys want to do? Or more stuff with Walt? I mean, like I am curious, but like this Walt Wick. Yeah. I just don't know what to say or add.

So he's, yeah, he is a member of this community, but he identifies as an outsider. He's a castaway on purpose. Which sounds like what most of the Wicks are. Yeah. He's definitely a conspiracy guy. Oh, totally. Yeah. He's like the Ghostbuster. He's the Egon Scheele who's been living out that everyone thinks is crazy that maybe some of his ideas are true. Right. Yeah. He's like, I've seen some fucked up things in these woods. I've seen spirit animals coming out of nowhere. Oh yeah. Whoa.

I've seen creatures of night making deals. Yeah. You guys could definitely go talk to Walt. I picture him too with those two big brushes, the big square brushes that you make wool with. Oh yeah. And he's making in tongues and muttering about things of the governmentship while he's making alpaca wool. Yeah. I can't live in hardwood shitting anymore, mostly because of the taxes, but also because of my outstanding warrants. But that's what the government wants.

The government wants to put tags on you and tell you what a man can and cannot do. Hold still, Delilah. This is a man who Detherial trusts with his life. Yes. Yeah. Because what you don't see is that every square foot of this forest has a tree. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. Foot of this forest for like four miles is trapped to shit. And also like there's a complex underneath that goes just as far. Yeah. The Rambo network. Yeah. Oh, do I.

I think that the reason that you guys are probably stepping out is because Ving has to contact Cloudpiercer. Oh shit. Right. You have to get him to come here. And we should probably warn Walt. Right. Because Walt's going to like shoot down a bird. Right. Yeah. That's a good point. He's going to look up and be like the government. Yeah. Drone strike. The government's coming. That bird's a drone. So you go outside because you don't have any reception indoors. You basically got your cell phone.

You're looking for bars. Exactly. And Walt is out there sitting on a bench outside of his cabin with those like wool making brushes. Yeah. And he's just got an alpaca next to him. And every once in a while he scoops a bunch of wool off of it and starts kneading it. What are you doing? What are you doing? I'm making wool. Something useful I do with my hands. What are you doing? Standing around? Yes. Sorry. Don't apologize. Just do something. Okay. And he looks over.

He like tips his head over at a trough that doesn't have very much hay in it next to some hay. So Billy starts plucking grass to make to add to the hay trough. He's like, gee. Tuck walks over. And he like, there's a giant bale. And he just starts dragging Billy's throwing handfuls of grass into the trough. Bing hops on the spinner and starts spinning a yarn. And Walt goes, spit nods. So you're Nathaniel's boy, huh? Spit nods. Not quite what I expected. What were you expecting? Don't answer that.

And Walt goes, all right. A man that asks questions and expects no answers. I like that. Bing grew up in old cheers. This is his person. That's so true. He grew up in fucking bumfuck nowhere. He knows how to deal with this guy. Sick vest. Thanks. I made it my shelf after my fourth wife told me it was over. And he turns away and closes his fist and he goes, Shoshanna. Billy also goes, Shoshanna. You ever, you know what it's like to have your heart torn from your chest, boy? Oh, literally. Nope.

I literally don't know what that feels like. Literally. It's a pain worse than death. There's nothing, nothing worse than losing the love that lit your life with passion and fire. The only thing worse than that is paying taxes. Fucking taxes. Fucking taxes. Taxes. Yeah. Well, they can take those taxes and they can go fuck themselves with those taxes. Yeah. But wait, that would mean they're taking the taxes. Well, we still back the taxes and that's what Billy says from the trough. Yes.

He's inside the trough now organizing the hay. As an alpaca walks up and starts like nibbling around Billy dangerously close. You always take back the taxes. You always take back the taxes. That's right. This is what I've been talking about. Maybe this is our opportunity to finally strike out. At the man's greedy hands and take back from Heartwood City what they've taken from people. I mean, that's kind of what we wanted to talk to you about. Yeah. We really fucked up Heartwood City dude.

You don't say. Did you hear what we did? I heard some on the wind, in the trees, in the ground. What'd you hear? I didn't hear much. That's because there wasn't much to say because. We chopped a lot of heads off. Exactly. So to speak. And then Tuck goes, here, let the wind tell you a tale. And then he blows at his face. And Walt closes his eyes and lets the air wash over him. The heart tree. Whoa. And then Tuck goes, whoa. What? You struck at the corruption at the very heart of the forest.

Look at my arm. And he grips your wrist and he pulls it really close because it's clear his eyesight's pretty bad. And he's like, oh, I'm not gonna be able to see I'm gonna be able to see you. He's got thick Coke bottle glasses. He's got half of one huge glass. Oh, just one over one eye. A massive. Oh, what do you mean? Half of one? Yeah, I know. I like that. They're really thick glasses. Really, really thick glasses. His eyes are like bugging out every time you look at him. Whoa. Easy bubbles.

These runes. This is ancient knowledge. Old figures. No designs that speak to the language of the heart. The heart of the stars. Okay, okay. You can read runes? Any ranger worth his salt can read the runes. Cool. My dad never taught me that. He wouldn't have. Why not? I shouldn't say. Say. Alright, I'll say. Your father was a contentious figure in the court even as a youth and his relationship with your mother, the Lady Ileana, made it even more so.

The very idea that he would induct you into the secret ways of the rangers in the runic language would surely have spelled his death. And yours. I see. Spare the rune, save the child. He nods. That is it, may I have heard many a tale of you three and it seems like you are doing your father and your mother quite proud. I just want to say I'll never bore I'll will towards the Lady Ileana. Or her ilk. Ving nods slowly. What? What are you doing out here? Why aren't…

Oh, sorry, did I step on your moment? Not at all. Chuck says that. Nope, not at all. You catch Ving looking at Walter's lips. This grizzled old man. Big white beard. What is happening to us? I think Tuck and Ving are… Realizing some things about themselves and each other and they are putting that energy outwards. We gotta keep it platonic. We got work to do. But I think also like the whole…

It's the kind of thing where like after you've been in a terrible battle, you just get crazy horny because you feel like you're gonna die. It's like a natural animal instinct to be like, I need to reproduce right now. Yes. Fight, flight, or fuck. Yes. The three reactions. The three F's? The three F's of life. I did this. He did four. Deed, mead, and seed. That's what Walt says. Only three things truly count in a person's life. Deed, mead, and seed. Hell yeah. Hell yeah.

He reaches down and pops the cork on a jug that starts smoking heavily and takes a deep drink from it. And then Tuck goes, if you were like a ranger, what are you doing out here? I got tired of the system. Tired of fighting battles for people that didn't know what those battles meant. We went out and we were sent after spit. Went out and sent after many a many a folk that were deemed enemies of the court. And it wasn't until terribly long into my career I am a shunned.

Shame to say that I realized that those enemies were enemies of the court because they disobeyed the court. I decided to come out here, set up a little land for myself, get me some fine alpacas, and live for me. Does anyone remember what we're trying to get out of this guy? Oh yeah. Do you have any booby traps in the sky? In the sky? No? Just these two booby traps? And he points at his eyes. We have someone coming to visit us. In a little bit. From the skies?

You ever seen a thunderbird, my friend? Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do The camera cuts to Cloudpiercer. Wind ripping at his feathers. Rumbling clouds. Yeah, all the clouds begin to roll in gray. The trees around us start to swing. And almost like a sonic boom in the sky as the clouds, part. Like a bolt of lightning parts the clouds. Crack. And then landing. Skidding. Hi guys! Oh no! It's Gale! I'm so glad to see you all again. Did you call the wrong person? I just called out to the thunderbirds.

They send who's available. Cloudpiercer is not currently available, but I'm happy to get you where you need to go. When she landed, she tumbled a bunch. She tumbled. She fell really hard. She's got so much hay in her fur. She's picking hay out of her feathers. She's ruffling up. So, who you guys need to ride? Walter's eyes are loud because due to Ving's new move called World Echo, the… Oh, right. Oh, everyone can hear.

And now everyone around Ving can hear the chirps and songs of animals around him. Yeah, totally. If an animal or something is talking to Ving around him, there's a circle of influence that everyone else can hear. Yeah, totally. So, Walt is just like, fall into his knees. Oh, great bird. Oh, great bird. I like him. Tell me what thou needs and I will be thy eternal servant. Wait, what? Oh, right. They're like sacred or something like that.

While he's kneeling, Ving takes off the necklace, the bird necklace. And he's been hearing and walks over to Walter. For your service to all the people of this land and the non-people of this land, I give you the gift of communion with the Thunderbirds. What? He reaches down and grabs the carved wooden amulet. This is a great boon you have bestowed upon me and I have to say I'm not quite sure why. This is my way. And when you say that, he nods. This is his way. You've done me a service.

And he stands up for about two and a half minutes. Creaking the whole way. We're watching it for the whole time. No one's helping him. Every time someone reaches down, he bats their hand away. I can do it myself. This guy trained Dathaniel. Oh, yeah. So true. That's why Dathaniel trusts him because he's Dathaniel's old master. Oh, I love that. Hmm, man. Why do we just introduce these one-off characters that we come to adore? I don't want to leave now. I know. I want this whole season to be Walt.

I love he's a grumpy sweetheart. He's so great. And he he stepped he bows low and he steps back to allow you to speak to Gail. So you guys, we're going to Hibernia, huh? Yes. Can you take everyone? Well, I can't take everyone. Well, what if we're all in the bag? Yeah, I can take a bag. Awesome. Thanks, Gail. It'd be kind of cool if like one or two you wrote, though, because I do get bored. And then I immediately am like, OK, pick a pick a grass.

Whoever gets the shortest grass has to ride with Gail. Should we roll for this? You should roll for this. And I think I think you guys are just going to roll one D6 and the lowest number has to ride with Gail. OK. You mean gets to ride with Gail? Gets to. All right, Gail, we'll figure it out. I got a two. I got a one. OK. Two. Yeah. Oh, wow. We both got really low rules, but not as low as Billy. So Billy picks up these grasses and is so sure in his luck that this will not fail him.

Yeah, he's so smug. And Ving pulls long grass. Tuck pulls long grass. Well, surely I have the long. Surely I also have long grass. I also. I mean, I rigged the game. Oh, no, it's short grass? No, that's long grass. Oh. And Gail goes, what are you guys doing? We're looking at grass. We're looking at grass, Gail. OK. Well, I could take the bag and I could take one or two people. Yeah, I'll go with you, Gail. Awesome. I have heard and forgotten so many songs since I last saw you guys.

So you're gonna have to help me out with a lot of stuff. All right. See you later, Gail. Good luck, Billy. No problem. I listen to the radio, probably. You can practice your songs on me. Tuck goes into the tent. Did you guys have anything you wanted to ask? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Right. Well, yes. I was wondering if maybe I could get one of those vests. He nods, smiles to himself, walks forward, grips your hand. You know what, Sean?

After all that you guys have been through, everything your father's been through. Absolutely not. And he walks back into his cabin. What the hell? Closes the door. What? Got absolutely nothing out of that interaction. Nothing. In fact, Ving gave away the only way he has to contact the Thunderbirds. I mean, not the only way. No, no. He has other ways. Right. I don't know. I thought it was just a symbol at this point.

This was your main way of contacting the Thunderbirds in the past, but we can say that a spiritual evolution has taken place. What were we going to ask again? I feel like, because he has been in the woods forever. Oh, right. We're going to be lost. We're going to be like- We're going to be like- We're going to be like- We're going to be like- We're going to be like- We're going to be like- We're going to be like- Yeah, we're going to ask like, have you heard anything?

Then you guys became so endeared by him that you just wanted to talk to him. This is how he does this. It's not until he leaves that you realize we got nothing out of him. Right. We probably kept trying to ask him stuff and he just kept being like endearingly, charmingly weird. You guys did ask him questions. Oh. And he just gave you answers, but that didn't give you information. Yeah. And then you just moved on. Wow. Crazy. Crazy. He was like a master spy kind of thing.

We have been dancing around a group within the Ranger Corps that we have not talked about. That is that exactly. What is it? And I think Walt was a former one. Oh. Somebody's going to have to roll Spout Lore if you want to learn about it. I'm spelling lore. Two to six plus intelligence. Six. Failure. And we will continue to dance around this group. No, that's perfect. It's so funny because I mean- Because that's perfect. They're spies. That's what we're- How would you know anything about that?

Yeah. We realized that he gave us no information and then we run to the cabin and we open the door and then Tuck gets shot in the shoulder with an arrow. There's no one in there. It's just a loaded crossbow tied up to the wall. Yeah. He's gone. Okay. Anyways, everybody get in the bag. Yeah. Billy reluctantly gets onto Gale. Billy, if you want to go in the bag, I'll hang out with Gale. I mean, it's up to you really. Do you want to do the talking? And singing? Buddy, go in the bag.

I made some macaroni for you. Thank you. And you fold up the fanny pack, tie it around something, your waist, Gale's neck, something like that. Yeah, I put it on my waist. And you hop on Gale's back and the clouds begin, the thunder rolls and the lightning strikes. Another love goes cold. Honestly, please never mind. It's all right. And Gale extends her- Her mighty wings. Lifts them to the skies. Bing does the same. And as she takes off, she says, okay, so tell me if this sounds familiar.

Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, And she takes off into the sky. Baba ran. And that is where we're going to end it for this week. An alpaca goes flying. An alpaca. Steve, I'm so sorry. It's careening into the woods. And that is where we are going to end things for this week. I've been your game master, Sean O'Hara.

Joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the barbarian, Abdul Aziz. So long, everybody. Playing Bing, the half-elf druid, Paul Oppers. Take care, everyone. Playing Fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica Tai. Bye, everyone. Thank you to Aaron Reed for our incredible intro and outro music and all of the music produced for the show, including the incredible season finale song that you would have just heard a couple weeks ago.

If you want to hear all of Aaron's original music, you can find him at aaronreed.bandcamp.com. And if you want to find all of the- Music produced for the show by Aaron, you can find that at soundcloud.com. And if you want to susport the show, as so many of our wonderful susporters do, you can find us at patreon.com slash speltlore or speltlore.com slash money, please. Thank you, finally, and most of all, to you for listening. We'll see you next time.

And so ends the tale of adventures three who tried the best they can. Though dumb and scared and lost they be. For time's 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, we'll see you next time. And for you, I'd gladly Spout Lore.

Spout Lore is made possible by contributions from our listeners. If you'd like to support us, go to patreon.com slash Spout Lore. Gather round, friends, let me tell you a tale of three heroes, noble and bold. A brute, a druid, and a thief who is but nine years old. You know them by name, you know them by deed. Their quests are famously daring. So here I sit, singing to you an adventure that is worth sharing. Tuck is the brute, he knows not his home, he loves to sing and fight.

Fingers half-elf, he shifts his shape and wields a spear with great might. Billy's a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart. Best and brightest they may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts. So gather round, friends, and listen close. For the tale's about to start. Aged in the garden surrounding the heart tree. Deep beneath said tree, Billy, the halfling thief, and Elman, young gardener, were looking for a place to plant this new sapling.

Finding, with the help of Elman, a wonderful place, just beneath the roots where the soil had been soaked with the wisdom of ages. Above, Tuck wrestled with Taurus, strapping elf of Dathaniel's Talon, in a fight that did not last very long. Tuck knocked him out with a powerful headbutt, and then tried a few one-liners to see what stuck. It was kind of just the same one-liner over and over in different variations. He was working really hard in his head.

He was, and it showed, honestly, the quality of it showed. It really, yeah, yeah, it seemed really effortful, I think. Ving lost sight of his combatant, the elderly elf Lysander, before Tuck was accosted, set upon by a large group of elven soldiers. Mm-hmm. Ving and Tuck fought this group together, until Billy, down below, attempted to calm a threat that appeared. The tree itself began to resist the planting of the new sapling, the force of greed overtaking it. Ugh.

Reaching out to Billy, and attempting to give the fairy within what it wanted, which was sleep, rest, and the turning of the wheel. Billy began to enter his winter form as Icefall. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Play they did winter chasing Ving around the chamber in a delightfully childish but also sinister yeah and somewhat malevolent yeah game of tag Ving using his elemental form to endure the bitter cold and trade winter a little bit more time with Billy up above Tuck was just beating ass wholesale asshole asshole sale sale on assholes yeah contact us for ass wholesale yeah ass wholesale coming at you okay what happened next Tuck was just beating the shit out of every guard that he could get his hands on was a full-on Donnybrook teeth flying blood spilling bones breaking at the end Tuck stood triumphant as he did a WWE style Irish bare knuckle boxer call out to the gibbous man into the face of his remaining foe before kicking his head off that was such an extreme thing that was the most extreme thing Tuck's ever done I would say so below Ving gave Elman the ring the Chamberlain ring so that he could communicate with Ollie and find out exactly what the sapling needed to survive as it had begun to wilt and die under the power of the archery using well water from Hibernia a sunstone torch and a little bit of fairy magic the crew put the sapling in a stronger place siphoning the knowledge from the archery into the new sapling preparing it for its life as a brand new knowledge tree that was so sick such a good idea yeah Ving gave the tree a bit of his blood to aid and comfort and strengthen it using blood that reminded it of Ileana and Nathaniel the wound in his hand healed over in the shape of a rune the name Ileana the tree was calling disgusting dead horrible things from across the wood to aid it to protect it which led to Tuck standing in the garden above guards splayed around him in various states of dead and dying as imps began to climb over the walls here to protect the corruption at the very heart of the wood Tuck in a last ditch effort attempted to smash a coin using Larry Terry and Chad as he has those times before to dispel or cut off the tree from its iconic influence instead the temporary disturbance in the spiritual safeguard of the great forest gave way to the arrival of the gibbous man and that is where we find our heroes now he stands there in the aspect that you're most familiar with at this point long black traveling cloak a walking stick and a wide brimmed hat his face is shadowed a bit by the wide hat that he wears but you see glinting in the light of the lamplighter flies one black eye and one blue oh I bet the night comes with him yeah that's why dust came earlier than we thought he was traveling so the skies darkened rider on the dusk yeah I've been waiting to talk to you cool good to see you got my message bold very bold I just wanted to say hello meet you now that we're sort of on the path that we're on I just want you to understand what you're up against what am I up against I'm pretty fucking dumb dude so maybe you should explain it to me because I I don't mind a little direction every once in a while and the gibbous man laughs you're everything that I thought you would be he kind of holds his hands out a little bit as if to draw your attention to him I'm a god I heard you weren't really a god anymore whoo you see his eyes narrow a little bit almost imperceptibly people like you have tried time and time again to beat me to outthink me to trick me I promise you I will not try to outthink you and that's a promise you can take to the bank and I will not try to beat you off does stalling make you feel better no it's meaningless here we've got all the time we need do we notice anything I don't think so you guys are like I think all focused on the tree yeah it also might be a thing where like time is frozen a little bit like there are leaves like hanging in the air like drop of blood is hanging off of Ving's hand oh yeah like the flames that Tuck saw around the tree are still around it like in his perspective but they're like frozen they're frozen yeah yeah so I think like as soon as the Gibbous man showed up like everything stopped for Tuck at least ooh I do like that yeah and it makes it almost unclear to Tuck in that moment is the Gibbous man really here or is he just in my head or is it in your mind yeah and you can see he kind of tilts his head a little bit we're almost out of time already it's disappointing wait what do you what does that mean I only had a short window to come and say hello I just wanted to see if you knew knew what do they know what you are and he tilts his head and his head tilts a little too far on his neck do you Tuck feels the hackles on the back of his neck go up I'm no one and the Gibbous man stands a bit taller and he's like smiles says oh this is gonna be fun be seeing ya Tuck rushes him go ahead and roll 2d6 plus dexterity 8 8 as you're rushing at him you see this shit eating grin on his face and your hand lashes out and grabs him right on the front of his cloak as he winks out of sight and something comes loose as he disappears he disappears winding out from underneath the cloak and in your hand is a red silk scarf its Alison's scarf the one you lost fuck you get the message I've been watching you for a while I know its important to you and shes mine the tree resumes its burning the leaves resume their falling the imps resume their approach And the night that the gibbous man brought with him recedes.

Beneath the tree, it feels like both an instant and a moment have passed. But you're back to your work. The tree is gladly taking in the knowledge from its progenitor. And as it grows and as the sunstone torch continues its work, you feel a renewed safety sort of in this place. The feeling of greed has receded. Billy, you're like, you know, still shaking off icicles here and there. But the tree is rooted and the knowledge filled water continues to run up the trunk.

Well, the stem and then the newly forming trunk as it grows of Ollie, the knowledge tree. And the tree is beginning to rapidly grow much faster than it should. But it still seems like it needs a little more help to get where it's going. What do you do? Should we? Should we focus on destroying the bigger tree? That's what I was. That's kind of what I'm thinking. Oh, yeah. Remove the negative influence because this thing is weak and small and it's doing a really good job of growing on its own.

Yeah, that's absolutely a route to go. You could just destroy it. So just to cover the bases, the tree is filled with the demon of greed. Yes. Basically. Yeah. The tree has become an icon. A demon in a sense. Yeah. It's like the icon or whatever it is. It's like. Engraved into the tree now. Yeah. So it's going to like hold on to it. Right. The engine is gone. Yeah. That's what I mean. I see what you mean. Yeah. Because the knowledge tree, they take on patterns. Right.

And an icon is just like information. Yeah. So it was infected for long enough that enough of the icon got into it. It's sharing that knowledge now across the forest. The taint has spread so wide open. Yeah. The taint. Across all the land. The taint is endless and permanent. The blood of the taint is pumping from. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So far out from the core of where it originally was that now it doesn't matter that the engine is missing, which was the arrow in Nathaniel's heart. Yeah.

So we have to untaint the OG tree. Yeah. By removing it. Yeah. Well, I wonder. Okay. Because we've already taken like the physical like demon out of the tree. So I guess I'm wondering like, is it, would it function the same? Like it's more like a memory of it. That's what I was trying to say with like the Billy. Like it's not a demon in the classic sense. Like you can think of things.

There are options that will be unusual to how you have dealt with demons in the past because it's technically a tree that is steeped in iconic energy. Maybe it needs help too. Right. Like it's like Malgath, right? Like she was influenced, but she wasn't possessed, possessed. She was just soaked in it. So if Billy can find a way to like get in there and like pull all of the taint out of the tree. Yeah. Then taint is a good word for what this is. Oh, nobody's arguing that taint is an amazing word.

I love taint. We've used it an adequate amount of time. Yes. Just a normal amount of time. So frustrating. That also means the puss between your dick and your balls because it's a great word. No, I mean, you're digging your balls. Hey, it's also between the vulva and the asshole. Yeah. It's just not a lot of space. Speak for yourself. I'm all taint, baby. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I think we can think outside the box here. Ving. Yeah. Let's work together. Yeah, right? Okay. So we can talk to this tree.

We could convince it of something. Why don't we can, can we therapize this tree? I don't want to do that. Can we. Can we talk to. Ving talker to the demon. Can we talk to the spirit of the tree? Like we could do shadow dance now or midnight waltz where I could take Ving into the fairy world. That's pretty epic. What if? Oh. What if? Okay. If we go into the spirit world or the, or the fairy realm and we talk to like the, the pure spirit of the knowledge tree untainted. Oh.

Cause the tree will know. Yeah. But the demon is talking over it. Yeah. Right. Cause if you go to shadow dance, you go into the fairy realm. Yeah. So the iconic cannot go there. So that means if you're in shadow world, then all that's left there is the part of the tree that is allowed in the fairy realm, which is the spirit part of the tree. Oh, I could. Right. We could go. Do that. But don't you need fairy child to use? I do. Shadow dance. But can I force it?

Unfortunately, I think you need the time. The time. The time thing. I have an idea. The time thing. Well, there was just a sunset and a sunrise because the fucking God of the night sky showed up for two seconds. So can we say it's a new day? Can we argue for fairy child? Can we argue that fairy child should happen? We must. We must. We must. Huh. So the night left when the gibbous man disappeared. So it's a new day, technically.

I mean, I did say that I feel like I'm being bamboozled a little bit, but I'm into it. It's very, very cool. Yeah. It is a cool idea. Yeah. How do you guys feel about this? Does this feel like the right thing to do? Does this feel like it makes sense? Yeah, I do. I want to roll fairy child. Okay. So go ahead. You said night came. I did. I said. And now it's day. I talked about how night got dark. We talked about how it was earlier than it should be. Yeah. Billy has been waiting very patiently.

Yeah. It makes perfect sense. He doesn't know that night was short. I don't know. Also, you've literally been trying to do fairy childs for like three episodes. Yeah, totally. This makes sense. Okay. So 2d6 plus charisma. I need it. Please. Fuck. Okay. What is it? Plus charisma. Six plus. I think I have two. Eight. Oh, great. Fuck. That's three. That's three. Isn't it? It's three, but. That's huge. That's not bad. That's not nothing. It's doable. Okay.

So how does shadow dance work and how does midnight waltz work? Okay. So shadow dance, I spend a roll of fairy child, a hold of fairy child and I roll wisdom to enter the fairy slash shadow world. And if I use midnight waltz to bring someone or something with me, I use an extra fairy child hold. Okay. So it would be two hold. Yeah. Contingent on a successful roll. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So a 10 plus, I can remain out of body for three holds on a seven to nine, only one hold. Okay. Great.

Then yeah, roll it. When we go into the fairy realm. Yeah. We don't have any of our things. No. No. We go in naked as the day we were born. Wait, what? Huh? And here we go. Hold on. Oh no. Six. Eight. Can you eight? Oh yeah. Okay. Four. Sure. Okay. Oh God. Big aid. Take your hand. How is it? Yeah. Oh yeah. You're just kind of holding hands. I failed. Oh no. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Oh, you have one more fairy to turn a failed roll into success. Yeah. Oh, but it's only for me.

Oh wait. That's great. You can do it. I just failed. Yes. Okay. So that's all three fairy child. So are all my fairy childs. Okay. Holy shit. All that time, all that waiting and they're gone. I knew it. Like dust in the wind. So I got one, one hold. Okay. Okay. How does this look? So Billy takes things hands and he's like, walk with me. And like our bodies fall, but we keep our spirits walk. Cool. That's very cool.

And the shadow world or the fairy world is, I don't know, like kind of gauzy, like water color. Not super like definitive, like the physical world or the shadow or the spirit world. I mean, there's a cute vibe here too, where it's like a kid taking his dad to his like kindergarten class. Yeah. For the first time. Yeah. And it's all like the paper decorations and stuff. Yeah. Thanksgiving. Yeah. Hands. Yeah. And you're showing me things like, and this is where I killed a king. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Oh, nice. Oh, that's sort of like, you're not stepping like step for step through this place. You're like passing through a lot of like immaterial parts of the world though. You're still, of course, getting back to the tree, but you're like, oh, if we come over here, which is 500 kilometers away, this is where I used to sleep. And this is where I also used to sleep. I slept a lot of places. You're tired boy. But you're here in front of the tree.

It's got this painterly sort of swimming ethereal quality to it. Ving feels at home here. Yeah. What is Ving's fairy form look like? Oh. Oh. Oh, right. Cause yeah, Billy is in bloom. And Perel, oh, Perel was here, but he like glowed. Yeah. Cause he has, he's full of magic energy. So it reacted weird. Well, Ving, as we know, was made. With magic. Oh, so maybe you glow. And he has the Moonstone cave in his chest. He's connected to a billion elements, like. Spirits too.

You must look like a jar of water that like a painter is dipping their brush into, you know? I remember Ving looking like a chimera. Like a shifting being. Right. Like you have no static form in the fairy. Like it's constantly moving. And I like that when Ving passes through, there's. Many spirits keeping pace with him and Billy behind them. Oh yeah. Because there's so many spirits that not only he is embodied, but they're walking with him. Oh yeah. It's a great idea. That's really good.

That's very cool. Um, maybe we cut back up to talk for a sec. Sure. In this place. Nice. Uh, the imps are coming over the wall. Fuck. Just keep doing shit in the spirit realm and leaving you to fight all the battles. We're so fucked up. And you see, as they start like landing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a ton of overexcited. There is no grace in how they're coming over the wall.

Like they're slamming into the dirt, breaking apart and reforming immediately. Exactly. Like you can hear like joints popping as they realign themselves. They start to approach. They're skittering across the ground through bushes. What do you do? Okay. Uh, I'm going to defend this fucking tree piece of shit. Fuck. And Tuck is, as he's posting up to fight these stupid fucking things, he's so mad that he's alone. Of course. Yeah.

Oh, he's just like, fuck Billy and Ving better be doing something fucking useful. Damn it. We're gallivanting. Yeah, we are. While he's posting up, what does he do with the scarf? He like wraps it around the wrist that always holds TLC kind of like right above his like leather bracer. Cool. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead and roll. Defend 2d6 plus constitution. Okay, here we go. 10. Okay. So you get three hold. Oh shit. Oh, I have a negative one constitution. Okay. So you get one hold. Yeah, that's fine.

I have to staunch defender, but that just gives me a plus one hold even on a miss. Oh wait. So you have to hold. Wait, does it give me a plus one to what I got? No, it gives you a plus one hold even on a miss. Yeah, you didn't miss. You got a seven to nine. So you get one hold. So that gives you two. Defender gives you two. Oh yeah. Cool. And even if you fail, you always get another hold. Sick. Yeah. I get two. Yeah. Hell yes.

That's great because you notice as they start rushing towards you, they're not rushing towards you. They're rushing towards the chasm behind you. Okay, here we go. I am going to deal damage to the attacker equal to my level. Okay. Here's where we run into like an interesting, I would say in my mind, limitation and how Dungeon World is laid out. I think that this is not a clear number of foes. Yeah. It feels like a situation just mechanically.

That's like when we were dealing with those mermaids where it's like, they're a horde. So there's like a points, a points total. Yeah. Across all of them. Yeah. Yeah. Which I think, yeah, I am, I am forming a number in my head. Is it doable? For tuck? Yeah, I think so, but it's going to be tough. Can I use my two holds then? Oh, you're going to use two of them. I'm going to use all two of my defend holds. To deal 20 damage. Yeah. Is that okay? Yeah, that's pretty fucking funny. Cool. Yeah.

Cause that number in my head just got obliterated. Not obliterated. There's still quite a bit, but you did a significant chunk. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just going to be so funny. I can just blast the shit out of these guys. Yeah. So as this horde of chittering, rotting animal corpses rushes towards this chasm behind you, what do you do?

Tuck, like he reaches up and he grabs one of the like dead stiff branches of the tree and he uses TLC to like smash it off. So he's like wielding two handed right now. Yeah. And he like runs to the hole that they're trying to get into. And just like, you know, like Thor in the beginning of the Ragnarok movie where he's just like smashing shit like crazy. It's that kind of thing where it's just like cutting through like imps left, right and center. Yeah.

Every swing is just like felling creatures. Yeah. Totally bashing the shit out of everything. Great. And 20 damage is more than enough to stem the tide for you to have some time to think. I don't even know the meaning of the word as they figuratively and literally regret. Group. You're just like waiting through this horde of monsters, sick bones and rotted flesh and fur flying everywhere. They're like picking up the dead guys that I killed too. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's actually, that is something real discern realities. Okay. This is a tense situation for you to be in 11. Fuck me. That was too much. Okay. You get three questions. What here is not what it appears to be. I think there's a, I think there's a bush far off to like your left hand side. As you're smashing through these imps, you see a face poke through it's Nash, the Ranger, and he looks terrified. What should I be on the lookout for?

There are some of the imps that are hanging back, almost showing like a weird animal kind of intelligence and gathering bodies. Oh shit. What's about to happen? Nash from where you're standing is either about to bolt or is about to be found. And both of those would potentially spell his death. Okay. But with the right encouragement, he might be convinced to help and potentially help both of you survive. Okay. As a bunch of monsters rush up towards you. We'll cut back to the fairy. I like that.

We tune back to the fairy realm and Billy's like still showing Ving around. And I think Billy, he warned thing early on as he usually does. He'll warn anyone. Like last time he warned for all, he's like, I might lose myself. Right. So I need you to help guide as well. Yeah. Ving sees Billy like wandering out into like the edge of a, of a wood and like going into a stream and bobbing for apples and having all this fun stuff. And he's like, all right, that's having fun. This is great.

Why don't you grab an apple hop on my shoulders. We're going to go. So he's never really, so we picks Billy up in the federal realm, puts them on his shoulders. Yeah. And Billy is like, all right, elf let's ride. And the fur of his neck is changing from all different furs of all different animals. Let's go. Then he starts like, it's just, it's riding him. Yeah. Slapping on his leg.

And with this galloping, I like to think that he was like, I like to think that Ving's form does, does shift into like a quadrupedal, like spiritual kind of Mount for a second, like in it's shifting. Oh, there's many different shapes that he deals. Yeah. It's kind of touching on his old spirit days. And across the leagues of the ferry, you reach the tree and it's in the ferry. So does it have a different form or is it a tree? It's very bright. And it's like many constellations through.

Oh, I like that. Yeah. But Billy can read it. And so he starts like telling stories from the tree. Would Ving also be able to read it because of his druid acknowledge of the constellations? Yeah, probably. Yeah. We've talked about how the runic language was from the, from the stars. So like the constellations are basically the old, oldest form of that kind of language. Yeah.

So Billy starts spouting off like tails from the tree and he's like, so one time there was a wolf who grew from the longest night of winter. Ooh. And he, he ran chasing the sun, but he could never catch it. And so night spouted so many wolves and the pack grew until they were able to catch the sun and bring it down. Whoa. Wow. That's sick. What'd they do with it? Oh, they threw it around until the sun got angry and it said, I'm leaving now. And the wolves howled and they're like, no, come back.

This story is fucking rad. What the fuck, Jessica? Is this coming from me? Is this coming from me? Is this coming from me? Yeah. And so the wolves howled a bunch, like so annoying. Right. And then. And being howls and a bunch of howls come up from behind. Oh, it's just like the tail is old as time. And then, so the sun gets tired of all the howling and he comes back, but he's like, you can't, you'll never touch me. And the wolves were like, oh, we'll chase you.

And the wolves keep chasing and the sun, uh, it always gets away now because it knows. Oh my God. That's the mythic explanation of why wolves howl at night. Holy shit. They're stuck on the other side. They're stuck on the other side of the world from the sun. They want the sun to come back. Oh my God. What the fuck? That's beautiful, Billy. What the fuck, bro? Thank you, elf. What are we here for? Well, we're just here to, to get to the tree. We want to talk to the tree. Oh yeah. Hello tree.

It's been so long since I've seen you. Yeah. You finished this story and the tree kind of, I mean, doesn't turn, but you can feel its attention turning to you. Like what the constellations shut, kind of shift and it refocuses your perspective and you see there's a face in it. Oh cool. Yeah. Yes. I like that a lot. And it, it sighs kind of contentedly, nostalgically. I was there when that first sun rose. I know. That's why it's on you. That's why you know the story.

I have known the first rays and I thank you for reminding me of that time. Can Ving flash him a little bit of that light? Oh yeah. The tree gladly welcomes the sun. You telling the stories in the tree seem to be having a positive effect on it. So it might be a thing where it's reminding him of himself. Oh yeah. Reminding the tree of what it was. Yeah. Asking an old person about their life. Yeah. Tell me about the war. But don't talk about black people. Just tell me about the war.

Oh I shouldn't have said anything. Now that's all they can talk about. Oh. Oh. Oh. Now that you mention it. No, no, no, no, no. Grandpa, shut up. But yeah, that's a good point. It seemed to like that story. Elf. I'm so racist. Oh, is it mean? No, it makes perfect sense. It makes total sense, but it's so funny to me. The fairy doesn't necessarily remember who Ving is. Ving goes, Faye. And Billy's like, okay. I feel like we came here together for a reason.

We're here to ask the tree how to get rid of a demon. Have they ever run into a demon before? And Billy starts spouting a story from the tree about demons. And that story goes. Okay, so Billy gets all excited and his eyes bloom crazy. And he's like. Holy shit. They're like sunflowers. Yeah. Whoa. I know. Billy went like all out. Oh, I have a demon story. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Billy puts his like hands on his hips. He's like, watch me do this. Watch me do this. Oh.

That's just so funny. No, it's so funny for a kid telling a story. Ving lies down on the ground and puts his hand on his elbow. Everyone get comfy. Yeah. So the first demon came long ago back when Spider wove its web. Spider wove its web really far and wide and it couldn't see every corner of the web, but it had to keep its eye out because it was the creator of its web.

Nothing could hurt it so spider went and put its eye in the 40 corners of its of its web and and the the web was so soft and cozy things started coming to it and it was very plush and thick and cozy for spider and his friend hummingbird was away and hadn't returned to visit for a while so spider kept busy and he kept weaving his web and one day hummingbird came back and hummingbird was very full and kind of sick and the spider thought what's wrong hummingbird and hummingbird said I need to land I can't fly anymore and the spider was like that's not the nature of you bird you always fly and the hummingbird landed and um that made spider sad because because the web wasn't meant for hummingbird to land it was sticky and and tacky and and hummingbird was too light and so hummingbird was trapped and the sickness grew and spider tried to help it but it didn't know how to do anything except weave the web tighter around hummingbird and so he wove his web around her thinking it would comfort her because it comforted him and she said no I'm too sick I'm too sick and he says hummingbird what did you do what what got you and she said I thought I thought they were seeds I thought you gave me seeds spider and spider said no hummingbird those were my eyes and hummingbird had eaten his eyes and it was making her sick I don't like this story anymore I don't want to tell it you don't have to tell it tree will you tell my story hummingbird died and what rose from her corpse were eyes and the eyes walked like men thank you for the story it was a darker time tree yes I think the eyes still walk the earth they do what do we do about them do we give the eyes back to the spider no you cannot there is no mending this web it must be destroyed has it ever happened before when the moon dimmed and the sea found its bride moon cast off her yoke and chained father night and the dark fell from the sky across the land you've seen the sickness that surrounds you I have but this sickness is not for the spirit but for men without my spirit it would hold no purchase I would wander a while if you would help me of course what do you need from us I think this is where the tree doesn't know I'll Spout Lore wait what if you spell or then you can add and give her a plus two right I forgot the stupid way I made this yeah two to six plus intelligence sweet ten so this is a kind of a this is a nice combo because this is billy trying to remember periods of history which is exceptionally difficult in the fairy because the fairy is not a place of memory well especially in the spring form because they're not meant to really like hold on to that stuff exactly at least not for a while I feel like also but because we're walking through this place hand in hand that is part of why you bring it to me bring ving here yes to talk to the tree but then also to tell you to the material exactly boy and keep physical contact with that memory yeah yeah so ving is creating like a temporal context yeah so that's that's why billy can focus yeah exactly um so billy you remember a story or actually you remember a time and ving you remember a story referenced about a thousand years ago ving you would know this and billy you remember this is a thing that happened while you were alive uh well!

As a fairy so you're not really sure exactly when it happened but the moon dimmed for a time and the fairies were aghast what has happened to the moon where has she gone it was quite a hubbub in the fairy there was a lot of like there were a lot of councils at that time a lot of parties a lot of gatherings a lot of gatherings yeah that turned into parties and then became pointless why were we here why were we here you guys want to dance yeah yeah I fucking love a scuttlebutt um but I'm gonna I'm gonna try and bounce back and forth in a way that makes the most sense the moon disappeared the fairies were concerned you ving know that about a thousand years ago in what's known as the age of grieving the moon disappeared and night was basically pitch black and then very suddenly the story goes the moon returned full force and under the power of its light the night sky felt to the earth billy you remember this as a thing that happened literally uh-huh the moon returned and the night sky shattered and pieces of it fell to the land oh this is referenced in those tales ving that you that you have read as the reign of night billy this was a hard time the sky fell and for a time the things of the night and the beings of shadow and darkness were stronger than ever before uh-huh but the fairies eventually learned to adapt because those things were stuck in the material plane and over time that changed as these pieces of night disappeared were destroyed some say were gathered secreted away and that ving you know in the the annals of history basically immediately precedes the first age of grieving so that's sort of that's sort of the story so cool yeah um when you say um the fairies remember it was a hard time like what happened mainly it was dangerous for fairies to leave the fairy oh because the land was overrun with dangerous things yeah that makes sense okay so fairies there was a time like obviously before that fairies could like occupy anything yeah come and go freely yeah but there were stories of fairies that didn't return which had never happened yeah the fairies remember this as the age of invasions oh yeah and there were a lot of things attempting to come through to the fairy from the material plane there was yeah there were like fairies that came back wrong and they had to be banished and that's why we call it the shadow world sometimes oh because these demons that would try to infiltrate it was like it wasn't like a full force demon but it was like shadows that would invade like our world oh maybe this was a war and the fairy was different before this that's what I mean by that that's what I mean by that that's what I mean by that that's what I'm thinking so I think the things like the oath the pinky promises the trade and stuff like that that was our weapons of defense and so like the fairies became tricksters in a way because it was the only way to tell each other apart yeah and so to trust people and humans like yeah we had those built in I guess to protect the fairy realm that's wow fucking rad man so what if it's called yeah what if it's called the shadow world yeah we had this idea when you were talking like that before the fairies were fairies they thought of themselves as the free folk yeah like they broke off from the spirit plane and they had like freedom to roam wherever and do whatever through all the different realms yeah and then when this happened they became something different to different worlds they became something different to different worlds almost like a frightened people yeah which would make them tricksters too they impose these limitations and rules on themselves to keep themselves safe yeah and and it also imposes those limitations on other beings because it like not only did fairies used to be able to roam freely but other beings could interact with us freely because we didn't know a time of betrayal like that whoa ving you would you would realize this isn't even allegory this is a real thing that happened this is when the fairies were free this is when the gibbous man was chained to the material plane obsidian came from the sky that is where it was formed and it fell to the earth and that is what has trapped the gibbous man here remember you said there's one ring in the tree that's a black ring that's the reign of night that's so sick I forgot about that yeah it was the year of obsidian exactly yeah I'm basically thinking about it as that one real life year that happened where it was night for a year like the sun was obscured completely it was dark for a full year because of the volcanic eruption it was a volcanic eruption that just like blanketed the world in ash that could be the cause of all this obsidian too yeah totally oh it could have been a volcanic eruption of course that's what makes sense in a physical way that's interesting I like that a lot I like to tether my brain around those moments no that's such a great idea so sorry that is probably more part of the interesting thing I think the really useful thing here if I shone the gym had to say it was billy's remembrance of the invasions and the reign of night that the fairies were safer in the fairy and that if you were to figure out a way to get the spirit of the tree into the fairy as it said the demon would have nothing to hold on to and that might burn it out right because demons need like a nervous system essentially to persist in like they need a medium to exist a spirit some sort of life-giving thing are we not talking to the spirit of the tree right now you are but like you know it's not in the fairy the knowledge tree is like three parts though yeah because it's nature and um like magic in a way like druid magic so that's why we can talk to it here so could you do you think you could facilitate it transitioning entirely into the fairy realm to protect itself from demonic influence we'd have to lose something lose the null a lot of the knowledge yes so maybe that's the price you could use your hold to do this okay but the facilitation of the knowledge from the old tree to the new isn't complete you could wait and risk everything or you could accept that some of that knowledge will be kept with this spirit while you think about this let's cut back to tuck you are being swarmed nesh is in a bush there are about a gajillion imps up here it's such a hard fight for tuck to do because they're not really trying to fight you they're trying to get past you which makes it so much more annoying because you're like come here and then they just run past I use what are you waiting for to get them all to attack me fuck how do you keep figuring out my secrets 2d6 plus con fuck me seven okay so that works a good number of the weaker shittier ones turn their attention towards you and the larger ones that are making the difference in themselves larger behind them have a bit more time to do so okay but nothing is trying to get through the hole at this moment okay so nesh is still in that bush probably pissing himself okay tuck picks up a dead fox and he throws it at nesh he's like hey help me roll 2d6 plus charisma that's a really charismatic thing to do yeah useless you stupid asshole do something with this dead fox instead of just doing nothing okay so seven to nine the fox lands near nesh and he like flinches away from it for a second and then he sees you like you know just pick up an imp and crush it in your hand like you're being overwhelmed and you see him in front of his brow steals his look reaches in pulls a bandage on him pulls a bandage on him pulls a bandage on him pulls a bandage on him over his forehead tightens it oh my god and he nods to himself one more time goes and then runs out of the bush you're the best around not a little girl to get you down and he's immediately whacked to the side by a huge imp so he's kind of separated from you but it looks like he is trying to he's getting up he's like pulling out the two blades that he has at his belt great what do you do now?

You are being absolutely hoarded by these things can I just defend again? Yeah totally yeah wow what the fuck is wrong with these dice? Six ass fuck shit so that's a failure huh but I get a one I still get a hold okay yeah so you do get a hold yeah because of staunch defender yeah and I guess you're getting chomped on great what?

He doesn't have tons uh you don't have tons what if instead of him getting chomped on like you're getting chomped on like some get through no actually maybe that's the idea those are the choices do you get chomped on or do a couple get through because if they chomp on you it's gonna fucking hurt dude I dude I look down and I see Billy and Vink sleeping and I'm like fuck and you see Elman like Elman is like rushing around the tree back and forth like with the wand like oh Tuck looks down and he's like why is everybody useless right now?

He sees Billy and Vink sleeping he sees Elman waving a fucking flashlight around and then next to him is Elman and then next to him is fucking dude Tyquan and then he gives me I was just here and he said some fucked up stuff to me I'm having a terrible day I kicked that guy's head off I'm starting to feel pretty guilty about that but yeah he just wants to uh get chomped on d6 plus four all right cool three so I could use bloody Aegis yep to not take the damage or you can just take it I'll just take it okay great oh my god so you still have that hold so do you have that hold?

So tell me what's attacking it's like a deer it's oh it's like a fucking it's a buck but it has one of those it has another buck head with like the antlers locked that has come off and it's just got it's yeah it's you know really gnarly and it's pawing at you and there's like a raccoon with fucking porcupine quills you know it's just a mess of like four or five of these things are crawling all over you okay yeah I can see that they're about to go into the hole so I kind of get in the way and one of them bites me I guess and I use the hold from defend to deal the amount of damage equal to my level yeah with TLC you just shred them yeah the ones that are on you just get shredded like a blender wow and the hole is defended for a moment and you see Nesh has gotten up and he's got his knives in his hands and he's fucking finally do something he's running towards the the group like the larger group of bigger imps yeah okay are you okay?

Yeah I'm just really stressed out I'm not gonna die I promise okay the tree does seem to be on fire Tuck Tuck is ignoring that things could still go terribly yeah don't say that I have still so many hit points yeah like seven oh yeah six dude fuck what? You have six hit points left?

I'll be fine I have bloody ages I could take so many debilities anyway cut back to the fairy okay so our options are basically to take the tree to the top of the hill and then we're gonna go to the top of the hill and then we're gonna take the tree into the fairy world and then leave its form behind yeah you would basically remove the spirit of the tree I was thinking I would have to do lightning in a bottle yeah that's a good way to do it yes and this would basically be you creating a fairy right you are giving birth to a new fairy it's a rare thing yeah yeah I think it is a very rare thing okay so 2d6 plus dexterity or though it would necessitate you leaving immediately I would allow the use of a hold if I use a hold I use the hold could I have the 10?

I think if you use the hold yeah you would just succeed you would bring the spirit into the fairy but you would have no idea what happens to it after Sean yes can I use wild wanderer here in the shadow realms? Oh that's interesting somewhere I've never been before what does that do again? It's basically like bardic lore like he just gets a question about like what's the deal here yeah yeah yeah and you have to tell me honestly yeah so I guess what does that do?

Yeah so I guess I guess I want to know what you want to know yeah yeah I mean I want to know if this is going to work I think the big thing here is that if Billy just does this and you bounce right away the concern was what happens to that knowledge? What happens to that fairy once he is here? And if you leave right away you won't know is there any way that Ving can interact with that? Can I give of myself and mark my body with some of these constellations to take them into the world?

Oh like could I mark Ving? Can I use elemental forms and transbute my body into made from the raw elements which is the raw spirit of this tree which is an element of wood does that make sense?

That's an interesting idea to take the knowledge into you and kind of become like a knowledge tree yourself a little bit sort of like speeding up what Chimes did to himself oh yeah I was thinking that too really that would have all these constellations constellations slash runes slash scars which is already happening with my hand and my mother oh yeah oh yeah Ving like looks down at me and says I'm gonna run down at his hand and seize the constellation scar oh that makes sense and looks up and knows and the blood is glowing because it's magical blood like say bro yeah interesting very interesting I like that a lot okay so lightning in a bottle hide and seek is the more advanced move of lightning in a bottle which is where I can pull the immaterial and make a material and it says store one item in the fairy world but I wonder if I could attach it to Ving oh right so that he carries it so it's anchored to him but it lives in the fairy yeah so in a way it's like I'm like will you carry this fairy oh when the fairy is this tree yeah huh I mean and this kind of makes sense that they've been playing these games back and forth with in the shadow realm and when Ving took the fey out of Billy before yeah this is another game and Billy the fairy likes that I think the tree would like that too because I'm talking the tree in the fairy realm and the fairy realm is like a tree and the fairy realm like the whole thing is to play I could offer that to the tree yeah you guys have nailed it these are great options okay well I would like to call upon the primal spirits of the tree to perform a task for me and that the task is to bestow its knowledge on me to carry into the actual world in the material realm pretty sick I hope this works are we doing this together or are you doing it separate I think it makes sense that we would like we could do it together yeah okay so Billy is going to use the tree to carry the tree to the material realm and I'm going to use hide and seek which is like the more advanced move of lightning in a bottle okay great and Ving is going to use elemental mastery okay I um I mean we can roll them together yeah yeah let's roll them both so it's 2d6 plus charisma for lightning or 2d6 plus dexterity well I was going to just use my hold for it oh yeah he doesn't have to roll shit that's sick so then we should see how Ving does first okay 2d6 plus constitution thank you yes which makes sense because like your physical body is going to be the one taking on this yeah!

Yeah Eliana oh my god I rolled a 3 fuck no my constitution is 2 that's a 5 fuck so what is a failure can I use my hold to resist the failure or you could use the hold to help like facilitate this connection yeah and roll for the lightning in a bottle potentially failing I trust your die do it do it do it holy shit yes are you kidding me fuck scars fuck yeah 2d6s plus my dexterity is 14 oh my god okay I fucking nailed this yeah so what well rub it in I know I'm sorry no this makes perfect sense this is Billy's realm he's like at home here he sees Ving who is a master of the spirit but you're like you're trying to connect in the way that a spiritualist would that the spirit walker would and the energy is so strong that you can't and the energy is so different and so tumultuous and chaotic that like all the noises of all the animals and spirits behind me and you see it starting to overwhelm Ving oh no and I'm getting the scars on my body and in the real world Ving is twitching on the ground oh shit and there's being marked up bleeding oh my god his body is being affected in this place holy shit it's a way too violent acceptance of the thing yeah this was not meant for mortals yeah like this is oh shit this is something else uh tree yes would you come with me would you leave your physical being and let us carry you with us until it's time to bring you back I would love nothing more and it steps through into the ferry and it rolls like a little seed oh so just like a little seed yeah rolls into the ferry right into Billy's hands into my hands and that's when Billy and Ving win the game and they wake up oh yes whoa Billy's holding a seed in his hands and sees Ving on the ground next to him twitching being marked up by these runes and constellations on his body and I say I'm sorry Ving and I put it in your chest and my chest cavity closes over and the scarring of my skin calms slows leaving behind these marks and runes and constellations and stories all over my body I'm so sorry it's okay thank you um!

It's a L.A. Young and experienced. He's like a Power Ranger. He is like a Power Ranger. The red one. Yeah. Yeah, he's young and inexperienced, but he was recruited for a reason to the talon of the Ranger King. Like a Power Ranger. Yeah, totally. He received a coin while he was in high school and he went to talk to a head in a tube and his little robot. Wow. What do you do? You hear commotion below you. Well, describe the fight a little bit. Give it some flavor, Sean. Yeah, come on.

We've been talking for days here. Oh my God. You expected so many deets from us and you're gonna give us, oh, Nesh is like rolling around like that. You're just gonna give us Nesh is good at karate. Okay, maybe describe it. Yeah, describe all the moves in detail accurately. The energy in this room is incredibly hostile. Do you realize you put us in this scenario? That's so hard. You walked up to me at that Christmas party oh so, so many years ago.

Okay, so Nesh is facing down one of the larger imps that has been like collecting bodies. It's got a head of a bear on one side. It's got the head of a mountain lion on the other side. It's made up of not just one body, but many bodies. Dozens of legs. It looks almost like a millipede. It's so many corpses lashed together. Nice. And you see even at the bottom, you see elven arms and legs pulling it along the ground. And Nesh wades in and becomes like a flurry of blades.

Limbs are flying off in every direction and he's staying just out of reach. He's like basically dancing backwards out of range of these snapping, slavering jaws. And he removes all of the closest grasping limbs and then kind of does one big jump backwards. And as he does, he throws both of his blades out and cuts the spinal columns at the base of both heads. Fucking sick. For a second, if you were in his head, he was like fuck my knives. I can't believe I threw those.

And then he does a cool like run run jump and grabs them and flips over and he makes eye contact with you, Tuck. And he's like, pretty cool, huh? Gets punched in the head. He's just laid out. But below, you hear a commotion as Billy pops out of the hole. I'm so sorry. For what? For laying around and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and! I would like to defend Tuck. Ooh, okay. 2d6 plus constitution. Yes. I got a three. Yeah.

Billy pops out of the hole and is like, I'll defend you. And I, Billy didn't know what was up there and he sees the imps and he's like, holy shit. And he slips backwards into the hole. Slides backwards. Yeah, he slips. He's like, oh! Oh! Boing, boing, boing, boing, boing. You're down at the bottom of the hole. He's like, oh, I'm gonna roll defend again. So it's gonna take another, it's gonna take a roll for you to get back up.

But Tuck, Nesh has been laid out by an imp and the horde still swarms around you. I'm gonna roll defend again. Okay. 2d6 plus constitution. Fuck you. Six. Uh-huh. I'll aid. Okay, how do you aid? I'm gonna aid by trying to get up there and help them defend. Yeah, that's, yeah. I got eight. Okay, so eight makes that a seven to nine, which gives you one hold. Two hold. So I use both holds to deal my level. My level of damage to the horde. Fucking ridiculous. Yes, that's 20 damage. What, it's legal.

It's legal, dude. This is not against the law. Yeah. Ving, you basically, you see Tuck like falling backwards down the hole as he's being overwhelmed by these imps. And you like just pop up and kind of help him back up. I say, mind if I join in? And Tech goes, yes, join in, you fuck. Yeah. As just like two huge swings just cleaving through these creeps. These creatures. Yeah. Clearing a little space for you to act and think. Okay, I grab my bandolier of sand. Oh, sand.

Oh, I have the bow as well. You do have a bow now. I take off the bow that I stole from Nyesender and I smash one of my bandoliers and they're full of sand and I make a bunch of glass arrows. Oh, cool. That's pretty sick. I'm gonna shoot them into the big guy. Yeah, totally. So yeah, 2d6 plus. Con. Con. Get a six. I will aid. Yeah. You almost fall in the hole and I help you. Everybody keeps falling in this fucking hole. It's such an uneven hole. Yeah. The cavern is like crumbling beneath us.

It's like falling, shit's falling in. Yeah. Eight. Eight, okay. So that makes it a seven to nine. As you almost fall in the hole, like Tuck takes his ax, buries it in the head of like an owl, elk, bear thing. And then he reaches back and grabs you, but cups your buttock. So you're just like, sitting in his hand. And then Ving instinctually clenches his butt to show off. I'm not going anywhere. He's going to show up to be like, I've been working out. Yeah, but it does like clench onto my fingers.

So like it makes it easier for me. I grab his fingers. And then Tuck goes, I missed you so much, buddy. And Ving moves his mouth. Like he's a puppet on Tuck's hand. I missed you, man. Oh yeah. And then Tuck wants to just throw Ving over the horde that's in front of us so he can attack from behind. That's cool. That's cool. And these glass arrows form in your hand. And while I'm in the air, Yeah. I'm doing a somersault and I want to Ving, Ving, Ving, Ving, Ving. Shoot as many as I can.

That's pretty sick. Is that what you're using your elemental form hold for? Yeah, I get two hold. So I want to use both of those. Okay. So that's deal your damage twice, I guess. Okay. And it's a D10 with the elements? Yes. Nine. Okay. So 12 damage. Fuck. This thing's taken like 50 damage so far. Yeah, this is wild. It's a horde of monsters. Remember what I said? Yeah. Okay. You're, yeah, you're, you're. You're like, it's doable. Jessica just went into the matrix.

She rolled her eyes so hard she ascended. Because you were like, it's doable, like just for Tuck. And you're like level 1000 basically. It is very, look at you still fucking kicking ass. I'm still kicking ass. I'm still totally fine. But yeah, you release these glass arrows. Oh, they fire, you fire the arrow and they like air burst basically. Like they fire. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.! Oh. But yeah, you release these glass arrows.

Oh, you fire the arrow and they like air burst basically. Like they shoot down towards the horde and then shatter in the air and like shred them. Sick. That's awesome. That's so cool. Thanks, guys. The number is approaching. Okay. And you can tell that because the horde is thinning out. Nash took down one of the larger ones, but there's like one more that just keeps like greedily reaching out and just like shoving corpses into its form. Oh, it's huge now. Yeah. Yeah.

There's so many corpses around. Yeah. I like that. There's guards. The guards who are usually in the garden. Yeah. There's some of those like poking out with spears like and it's like killing them and then murdering people and mashing it into itself. Spooky. It's gross. Yeah. You yell at them like, no, you have to leave. Fucking get out of here. Get out of here. Yeah. You like land on this place. Land on the ground. Get out. Yeah. Shooting to the crowd. Yeah.

It's just like bleeding from head to toe covered in scars. And a couple of them are just like throw down spears run. Yeah. I'm fucking gone then. Billy, you're at the bottom of the hole. As you like pick yourself up and start climbing, the roots are like coming away in your hand. Fucking hell. But then you realize the roots are coming away in my hand like they're rotting. Oh, good. What does Billy do? Billy is furious because he's like, I never wanted to see those imps again.

So he rips open the tent bag and he goes inside storming. Uh-huh. Hi, Perel. Hi. And he grabs like a candlestick off the table where they're having a nice dinner again. They're just eating dinner? They're doing fucking nothing. You know, if you want to help, there's like a bunch of stuff that needs killing. So you. Okay. So here's a. So. So Morris is like, what needs killing? The stepdad mode? Oh, yeah. You come in and you're fucking bloody and like filthy. And he's like, what happened?

You've activated something in Morris. Yeah, I like that. And then we cut to outside the tent and you walk towards like the roots you've been climbing up to the hole as Morris is like striding alongside you. And as you step towards the first of the roots, you're on the surface. How? Morris looks down, winks. And turns towards. The cool sick. And Perel is like, guys, he's climbing up the roots behind. Graveling so hard. What does Billy do? He's got a candlestick, a lit candlestick in his hand.

And he takes a huge chunk of the rotting wood and he lights it on fire. And it starts to burn. Can I volley this torch I'm holding? Yeah, totally. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. Two to six plus dexterity. I'm going to throw the big greedy imp. Yeah. Eleven. Okay. So you do your damage. Four. Four. So it strikes the large imp. And while it doesn't do a colossal amount of damage, you see some of the desiccated flesh start to burn. And it feels cheap, but there are two fucking wizards on the field now.

Uh-huh. Oh, and you know what else? Perel gets to the top of the hole and he's like. Transmuted beings. He's like stretching. He's like, wow. He's like cracking his knuckles. Like, here we go. And then he's immediately. Bold over as a massive lupine form leaps out of the hole. Oh, you're pathetic beasts. And he lands in the middle and goes to town. His huge head is like chomping onto bodies and throwing them to the side.

And as the horde kind of realizes this is the last push, things get hairy for a bit. What do you guys do? I light a second light because there's wood everywhere. I light a second piece on fire. Okay. I'm going to roll five. With honor. Okay. Yeah. 2d6 plus constitution. Eight. Okay, cool. So you get two. Yep. Tuck, what do you do? Tuck just straight up hack and slashes. Okay. 2d6 plus strength. Fuck you. Nine. Ooh, can I aid? Yes, please. Uh, Billy. I don't know. Like, oh yeah.

No, Billy just whips it. Just his strong arm. Straight and true. Yeah. 2d6 plus bond. Straight and true. Straight and true. Uh, five. Fuck. Okay. Well, you know, still seven to nine. So you do your damage and you throw fire at me. Oh, I'm sorry. And Billy. What the fuck? Billy falls down the hole again. No, he does. Honestly, it's kind of funny. I think there's, there's one that's like a beaver, a beaver with like a bunch of like bird legs. I hear it behind me and then I turn around like you.

It's as you were throwing it, you get like nudged and you turn around. There's a little bit of a bird. There's a little bit of a bird. There's a little bit of a bird. There's a little bit of a bird. There's a little shitty beaver behind you. Like I go, and it's going to, it's going to snap at you. So it was, it was a hard fail. So roll a d6. No, I shoot first, please. Okay. 2d6. Well, how are you shooting first? Just punch it. 2d6 plus strength. So shitty. Five. Yeah.

So go ahead and roll that d6 again. Yeah. Great. Four. Four. Four damage. Yeah. This thing chomps onto you. Yeah. I punch it right in the teeth. In the mouth. That's biting you. Yeah. It's like on your fist. Yeah. Fucking brutal. Break your hand. Yeah. Chomps on you bad. How does Tuck do this? Oh, wait, no. Tuck. Sorry. Roll your damage. Oh, okay. Fucking two. Not so good. Yeah. And then since it was a seven to nine, you also take damage. So it was a d6 plus two. Okay. All right. Seven. Seven.

But bloody ages. When you take damage, you can grit your teeth and accept the blow. If you do, you take no damage, but instead you suffer a debility of your choice. Absolutely can do that. Yeah. Whoa. So that means I can take a debility to my worst stat and that I never use, which is intelligence. And then. Jesus fucking Christ. And then I will not take damage on this. Totally. Yeah. Okay. Except to your intelligence. Yeah. Because he's like only a dumb person. Yeah. No one would do this.

And I'm a genius. I'm so smart. I don't even notice how much I'm losing intelligence. Okay. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. So you go ahead and suffer that debility as it bites you on the brain, I guess. I think it bites me in the arm, but like I'm fucking tired now. Yeah. Like Tuck has been fighting literally in the mouth of hell. For like hours. For like 45 minutes at least. It feels like for a while. Like this is the longest fight Tuck has ever been a part of. Yeah, totally.

And he squared up against a fucking God right before it. You tried to fight the God. Yeah. Yeah. Didn't work. Bing Clark said that Tuck is so done and that he's getting stupider the more he's getting attacked. Oh no. I want to use one of my hold to deal a damage within sight. Whatever is closest to Tuck. Yeah, totally. It is the group of three chittering things that are climbing all over him. One looks like a pig that you don't even know where this pig would have come from. And then it's.

Oh, it came from. The. The. The dungaree. The dungaree. Oh, it's. The rhinoceros. The rhinocerise. Oh. Yeah. I snosser is. Oh, it looks like a rock steady or bebop. Can't remember which one. Yeah. It looks like rock steady and bebop mashed together. A pig and a rhino. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to use my band leader again and use elemental form. So I jump over Nesh who's battling somebody and I'm like, holy shit. She's got some fucking moves. Yeah. Yeah. Land behind the group.

That's up against Tuck with the one that's on fire. It grabs one of his band leader that has a little bit of the gun powder that he got a long time ago. Oh, yeah. Pours it all over his head and jumps onto the guy. Wait. What? Exploding, engulfing in flames and everyone around him. Whoa. Wait. What? Why do you have to kill yourself? I don't need to. So now I'm like a fireman. Oh. And are you like impervious? I'm impervious to fire. Yeah. He's impervious to fire. Sick. Okay. Cool.

So I want to get close to him. I get him. I grab the. I grab the guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I kiss the monster on the mouth and I pour the fire over top of my head and lighting me and him on fire. Yeah. And then I punch. Boom. So go ahead and deal your damage. Okay. Wow. To D10. Seven. Yeah. That immolates the one you're holding in one next to you.

Morris steps up to like one of the imps, which, you know, they've never seen monsters like this before, but Morris holds out his hand in front of one of them. And you see like the weird wizard muscularity, like flex in his arm as a space inside of the imp blooms into negative space. And it just like, oh, just bursts into a bunch of chunks of flesh and bone. That's sick. And Perel next to him, just next. These two dudes next to each other. Fucking power couple of the century.

Like his Perel reaches his hand out. And you remember Perel's a wizard. I forgot as one of the imps just melts in front of him. Whoa. Just turns to goo. And they both already look pretty tired. And this is. Oh, right. They haven't done this. That's the state of the world. But they are. They're holding their own next to one another. Cool. And Nesh is climbing up the pig rhinoceros thing with his knives. And this seems to be the final. You've sliced through a good chunk of these things.

This is the last thing that needs to be overcome. No, Billy is spinning around with the beaver attached to his hand. And he sees like the one fire. He's like, help me. And he's like spinning it towards. Somebody. You see before you a towering monstrosity of flesh and bone. And you know, this is your last enemy. Help me. Anybody. With a beaver on his arm. It's got my arm. It's so gross. Get off me.

Can I use my last fight with honor hold to block a blow meant for someone else and take half the damage? Yeah, totally. So you rip it off Billy's arm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I said on fire. Oh, yeah. You grab it by like the head. And as it's burning, you're able to like peel it off of Billy. But it like with its remaining bottom half of a jaw lacerates the hand that you grab it with. So roll it. Roll it. Six. One. Well, it tries. At least it definitely tries.

As Billy, your hand is freed from the slapping jaws. Billy stops, drops and rolls because it's just he he's just like, it's so gross. I don't know what to do. Yeah. And as you're on your back rolling, you look up and you see chunks of branches falling to the ground. But underneath those branches, you see new growth and then realize, well, that's nice. But there's a huge branch falling towards me. What do you do? Roll out of the way. All right. Two to six plus dexterity. Yeah. Eleven.

Jesus Christ. Yeah. You roll out of the way just in time for a boom. A big branch hits the ground and just like mulches. Yeah. Tuck. Boom. A huge pile of rotten wood falls to the ground next to you. In your mind, it is fucking immolated. It is burning. Okay. And this towering, fleshy monstrosity stands before you. Get over here, you fucking fleshlight. So tired. Yeah. It's stupid now. Uh-huh. It's stupid now. I wouldn't mind if. I wouldn't mind a little bit of that.

I wouldn't mind a little bit of that. I wouldn't mind a little bit of that. I wouldn't mind a little bit of that. There's a ton of flesh over in this corner of the stadium. And Tuck takes TLC. And it's literally the last bit of strength he has left. Uh-huh. And he's like, all right, buddies. Fly true. Find the flesh. He kisses them. Uh-huh. And then he overhand whips the ax at the thing. Hell yeah. At the giant thing. Yeah. All right. Let's see it. 2d6 plus. Dexterity, I guess. I guess.

I don't have a debility and that's good. Seven. Seven to nine. So that is a volley. So it is you place yourself in danger or you take what you can get. So it's your damage minus 1d6. Take what you can get. There's so many help here. So yeah, I'll take what I can get. I guess I'll take what I can get. So you roll a d10. Yeah. And then roll another d6. Or should I put myself in it? No. Because I can take, damn it. Look how sad my eyebrows are. Jessica. I'm sorry. I still have six HP.

But Peril's literally turning them to goo. I know. So he can just turn it to goo. He's hogging all the cool stuff. Yeah. This is a thing. These are my murders. As he's deciding in the split second before he lets go of the axe, he's like, should I recover? There's a fucking weird thing over here. Which way should I fall? An angel and a demon appear on his shoulders. And one is Ving and one is Billy. All right, let's go. Dude, this is you've been fucking slaughtering this. You got this.

You're the coolest. That's right. I'm so fucking cool. Yeah. And you're like pretty cool. But think about this. You're also so tired. And think about where you go, which is Pizza Palace. Pizza Palace. Pizza Palace. Pizza Palace. Pizza Palace. Pizza Palace. Pizza Palace. Think about Pizza Palace covering you up in his nice, warm, greasy pizza blanket. I'm sorry. Pizza Palace is a guy. That's so funny. And then Tuck, like, he looks at the shoulder with Billy on it.

And then there's a sit down pizza hut that's just like, get over here, big boy. I got a warm spaghetti for you. Spaghetti. Every part of Tuck's psyche is exhausted. Broken. And he's like, are you going to let these guys just waltz in here and take over the fight? You had it from the beginning. It's my fight. Yeah. But you also know what? Pizza Palace is only open for five more minutes. So you got to come in here, buddy. You own the Pizza Palace, man. Those doors are never locked.

If you have you walk up to a Pizza Palace and it's closed, you just unlock the door from the inside because you also clean the Pizza Palace. Listen, buddy. We just pulled out a pipe. And hot fresh calzone. Stuffed. Double stuffed. With victory. Throw your axe. Hot mozzarella sticks. Now we, Billy and Bing Angels, go for a bite. They're both kind of on each other's side now. They're just arguing in favor of pizza. Do you want to go to my mind KFC with me? Hell yeah, I do. All right.

And Tuck is alone again. This is where we finally find out. Oh, my God. We find out that Bing has a mind palace as a sit down. It's a sit down KFC. That's Taco Bell. That's hilarious because Bing is like, no, I eat healthy. Oh, yeah. In front of you guys. You see a real clover about it. Grass. You guys believe this the whole time. Bing was like, yum, yum. I love grass. But every time he goes for a night jog, he's actually going to Taco Bell. I pound crunch supreme until it's 5 a.m.

And then he's like, what do I get back? Well, I really worked up a in McCall when you're doing your nighttime or like rooftop workouts and you're so sweaty. No, exactly. You know, with whispers, the Taco Bell slash KFC in my mind. She's a gordita crunch. I will take the family pack. Thank you. He's so sweaty whenever we go up there and out of breath because he's like furiously hiding the rappers and stuff. Speedy. A family bucket of chicken. Yeah. Secret eating.

But an amazing and all the women who are watching from the other balconies were just watching because they're like, look at this sad man. Oh, my God. What is going on? Just pounding macaroni in the pot. Yeah. Anyway, I deal my full damage. I do not take what I can get. Oh, no. Eight. Okay. Eight is enough that the damage that the axe digs deep into this monstrosity. Basically, right. I'm going to take the whole thing. I'm going to take the whole thing. I'm going to take the whole thing.

I'm going to take the whole thing. I'm going to take the whole thing. I'm going to take the whole thing. I'm going to take the whole thing. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work.

There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. There's a ton of work. On one side as Morris is using his magic to extend that barrier around it. Sick. It is teetering. It is on its last legs. You have put yourself in danger. You look up. There is a massive piece of tree falling towards you. What do you do? Defy danger. I just try and dodge out of the way.

Defy danger dexterity. Here we go. Fuck. That's a three. So no, I do not dodge out of the way. Can I? Oh, can I do something? Yeah. Yeah. What do you want to do? Am I allowed to defend Abdul? Yeah. Let's roll it. So it's 2d6 plus constitution. 11. Whoa. You get three hold. Sweet. So you can redirect an attack from the thing you defend to yourself, have the attacks affect or damage or deal damage to the attacker equal to your level. Yeah. I'll redirect the attack to myself. Okay.

So you just fully push tuck out of the way. I just push him away. Yeah. And I roll up into like a roly poly to protect myself. Uh-huh. Nice. So what kind of damage do we think this falling tree does? I mean, it's mush. I want to say it's a 12. D12? Okay. Okay. But I kind of want, because it's not going to just be like, the chances of it just being one are low. That's fine. So I would say you're going to be rolling 2d12 and taking the highest. Two is the biggest. Wow. You rolled a one and a two.

Oh my God. Are you fucking kidding? Yes. Luck of the Jessica. What the fudge? You roll into the roly poly, like you said. Yeah. And this huge chunk of wood just slams down around you. You did say it earlier. Like, oh, that wouldn't even hurt me. Yeah. See? It didn't. I poke up my finger. I'm like, I got a sliver. Yeah. There was like a huge crack in it that just landed around you. Exactly. Yeah. And it jumps in like a mother, like, oh my God, a sliver. Honey, no. So I'm just biting at it.

Before you pop out, there's like a moment of silence when everyone on the field is like, Billy, just die. Yeah. Totally. And it just like. No. Avenge you. You see Billy. His splinter does not need attention. He's absolutely fine. Yeah. You can tell because he's going, owie. You know what? He's fine. Whenever he makes that noise, he's not hurt at all. Yeah. And this beast is tottering, being hemmed in by Morris and Perel. It's got Tuck's axe hanging out of it.

I run up and you said the axe went into his chest. I dive into his chest on fire to go get the axe. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. And then you come out the back with his axe. Whoa. You go through it? Whoa. Like, so you grab the axe, then use the momentum of the dive? Use the axe and swing through, cut through it, and come out the back on fire with the TLC. Yeah, totally. And that's an elemental form hold? Oh, yeah. That's my last hold. Okay.

So you come out the other side as the flames like extinguish around you as you like slide I leave them behind in the animal to burn. Yeah. And it's like crackling as the fire begins to engulf it. And roll your damage. Okay. Okay. Five. The fire crackles up in this dead flesh. This thing is burning and screeching and bellowing. And Tuck, you're standing in front of this burning creature as it shrieks and bellows.

Just as you think it is about to take one last swipe at you, a spear arcs over your head and slams into the chest of this thing. What's left of its chest? Whoa. And it totters and falls. And Ving, on the other side of this body, past the head that you see of your spear, which you lost in the hole beneath the tree, standing at the mouth of the chasm, bleeding and exhausted, is your father. And he looks at you and says, Ving. Dead. What took you so long?

Your rope is coming to an end, said the serpent to the king. The steps you take are numbered now. What will those footfalls bring? Walk with me and let me tell of what will come to pass. Of stone and salt and broken bell and what of this will last? The serpent's hand. And listen to her story. For in her venom, prophecies were tales of coming glory. The serpent spoke of many things that were yet to come to pass. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Oh, Oh,. Oh,.

Kings of copper and of glass These things I say The serpent warm Will come to happen soon And though you see your place here It also means you're doomed Time now comes The serpent set To finish off our war And in the ending of your road We hear It also means It also means We hear her aeronauts. The archer sets her sights on you. Her arrow will fly true. For time must march and sun must set. For day to dawn anew. The serpent then embraced the king. As time's arrow took its course.

And though she led him down his path. She did so. With remorse. Then in parting with the king. She told him one last tale. Of the oaths and promises he kept. Of the friends he didn't fail. You're right. The road has ended now. My love. The steps have all run out. The time for plans has come and gone. It's time for dreaming now. Now. It's time. It's time. © transcript Emily Beynon

Spout Lore is made possible by contributions from our listeners if you would like to support us go to patreon.com Spout Lore where you can get extra bonus special content gather round friends let me tell you a tale of three heroes noble and bold a brute a druid and a thief who is but nine years old you know them by name you know them by deed their quests are famously daring so here I sit singing to you an adventure that is worth sharing tuck is the brute he knows not his home he loves to sing and fight fingers have health he shifts his shape and wields a spear with great pride billy's a thief his tiny size does max the largest heart best and brightest they may not be but their friendship outweighs their smarts so gather round friends and listen you for the tales about to start hello everybody and welcome to Spout Lore I'm your game master Sean O'Hara joining me as always playing tacoma dome the barbarian Abdul Aziz hello everybody playing ving the half-elf druid Paul Oppers hi there and playing fat billy the halfling thief jessica tie hello when last we left our heroes they confronted malgath first gardener and current holder of the cutting of the heart tree and kicked her ass and it ended with the party realizing that malgath had been corrupted in some way by the icon of greed that was coursing through the tree for who knows how long billy put her to sleep with some oil of tagget some might say too much oil of tagget putting an old woman into a coma I don't I don't regret it fucking deserved yeah totally but it is very funny to just think about like a little kid just like pouring the oil of tagget into a coma and pouring a bunch of liquid on a on a passed out elderly woman especially because I know in billy's head he was like I don't know if I put enough so he's really like saucing her up and we're just watching like I oh I don't know I think that's probably oh god boy oh could she still good job buddy let's go you want to watch a video watch this video of cats on surfboards for a while the cutting was retrieved by ving and spoken to by ving given the name ollie uh standing for all names cool and asked if the tree knew where elman was uh the tree had not seen elman since it saw you so billy went on a stealth mission again to track down elman who is being held for questioning in some sort of manure laboratory I call it the dunnery the dungaree oh yeah like the shorts billy hid out in a trough of hay while the guards questioned elman mostly showing off a billowy cape that one of them was very proud of and he was like oh my god I'm so before ving used his animal speaking skills to foster a rebellion amongst animal farm yeah an animal farm style rebellion amongst the animals who were being harvested for their dung it worked wonderfully tuck through a warthog at the guards knocking elman unconscious yeah immediately after slipping in some shit and the party escaped using some disguises of questionable quality they escaped into the garden and then faced off with members of dathaniel's talon taurus and lysander tuck and ving taking one each as billy was tossed into the hole in the earth to plant ollie underneath the heart tree billy and elman arrived in the chamber where the heart tree is to be planted only to find that hiddleston the elf agent of the sun peaks and recent loser of an arm was gone and that is where we find our heroes now deep beneath the earth yes where this man hiddleston once was yes and is no longer and now there is like a pool of kind of like dark blood soaked earth that drips off into the shadows yeah billy walks up to the blood pool and he's like he looks at elman he's like that's blood pretty cool huh elman nods excitedly well he's like yes please I I'm excited to watch you in your natural adventures he's a fan of you guys he's going a little bit white like a little pale he's never seen so much blood I bet the trees I mean people are buried down here I feel like the blood is a good fertilizer for these trees it is the fertile yeah like they are given bodies so elman kind of looks up at the branches and the roots and looks around it's like we're beneath the tree we are and uh billy pulls out the little sapling from the fanny pack and he says I think we know how to fix this we have to plant this little guy in place of the knowledge tree I think it's the only way to heal the forest he nods he looks at his cutting proudly I think you're right he reads the rune on it that says my name is ollie and taint and also the word wait is his name taint did you name my cutting taint oh no um that came up after and he nods to himself and he looks around and goes yes I think this is what it was meant for and in several hundred if not thousand years it will be ready to take its place as a true knowledge tree oh no this is gonna happen fast huh ving and I have special abilities I like that as a cut to the top and uh torres and tuck are struggling with each other wrestling on the ground and tucks like your breast smells like shit your breast smells like fucking shit he's just glaring at you I guess I tuckled his head but this guy again as hard as he can try and make him pass out yeah hack and slash uh it's 10 okay you can deal your damage and can I take more damage to deal even more you absolutely can so it's a d10 and a d6 oh my god let's do this 11 oh my god does he die I gave his head if you want to it sounds like you might be able to kill him his head pops off of him and rolls as far away uses and kicks it into the other guy a bunch of pads spill out as always you do not have to kill him oh yeah tuck doesn't want to kill him but you'll take him out with this yeah okay sick tug just a one inch punch but with your head yeah you can hear your neck muscles like straining back yeah there's like a thing where like tuck is grappling with him and they're like going back and forth and he like remembers back to like in the library and it's like an introductory lecture for new librarians when they were trying to get us to actually take classes and pharaoh was like the mind is the most powerful weapon of all and then tuck is like of course I must use my mind gong and he his eyes cross little birds twiddle around his head and he passes out and tuck goes welcome to the library and he's like oh my god I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry welcome to welcome to my mind bitch and he looks around to see if anybody heard that ving quickly turns and pretends he didn't hear that and speaking of we'll cut to ving uh yeah he he just uh I hope you don't mind yeah that I did that I hope you don't mind would have been a good line but of course tuck had to put a little bit extra on the end of it so tuck tuck knows that he's a good guy and he's like I'm gonna kill you that didn't hit exactly so he tries again I look around nobody nobody seems to have done so I go oh it seems like the mind is mightier than the pen ving comes up and says looks like you're the head of the class uh cutting over to ving he had just shot previously before uh tuck uh grappled you shot at taurus taurus uh shot with an arrow so you shoot at taurus I did you snatch the bow lysander says you're your father's boy and you turn around shoot at taurus turn back lysander gone fuck cool I was like his mother's son but now now all you have to deal with is the other guards that are like kind of hustling over like the normal elf guards normal regular heartwood city militia I want to I haven't used this in a while what are you waiting for there was one where I could scare the shit out of war cry yeah it's right underneath what are you waiting for great well I hope you don't mind that I didn't see that god damn it don't make this a catchphrase please uh war cry when you enter a battle with a show of force a shout a rallying cry or a battle dance roll plus charisma on a 10 plus your enemies feel fear and act accordingly and you what's the other uh oh your allies are rallied and take plus one forward okay that's what it is is it's not you it's everybody else okay which is ving yes and then also potentially billy if you scream loud enough yeah billy can hear you through the dirt absolutely there's a hole there's a hole you said that there were holes in the bottom of the tree yeah all right all right all right I've been cowed yeah you still roll it oh shit uh yeah that's a four that I wrote fuck but it's all together yeah oh my god it's plus charisma so it's a three so I got seven oh very nice yeah so your allies are rallied and take plus one forward or your enemies feel fear and act accordingly enemies feel fear okay so acting accordingly in the case of trained soldiers it's the avoiding you like they are kind of circling around you but they're all keeping their distance so what is your war cry here I think I like tuck at like after he gets up and he like looks around looks around to see if anybody heard him yeah doing his lines yeah he gets so mad that nobody heard his sick lines he's like fuck so he wants to get everyone's attention so he picks up torus by the front of his tunic and he like whips him at a giant group of guards oh god yeah and the ones that don't get hit by this massive elf that got tossed through the air like a sack of rice hold out their spears and sort of like spread out in front of you and I do what are you waiting for okay when you cry out a challenge to your enemies rule plus constitution on a 10 plus they treat you as the most obvious threat to be dealt with and ignore your companions take plus two damage ongoing all right okay that's 13 14 okay I look insane because I just threw a giant elf at them and then I have a huge axe and then there's just an axe in my arm so what is your what are you he goes hope you didn't mind the extra company yeah and then they all billy laughs from and they all rush you and what are you skulking for wait nice circle skull king yeah I hate it okay fuck that feels really good it's such a funny reaction that's a that's a cool combo of of move uses though like scaring them off by throwing tourists so they all kind of spread out around you like it's a bruce lee movie yeah and then going come on and they all rush in on you sean can I quickly roll um because the fight's about to pop off another fight with honor yeah this is something I've always wondered with fight with honor does it count if you're like running up behind somebody or is it like you're facing down people I mean samurais uh ran up behind people and they fought with lots of honor yeah and if you if you're running up behind somebody if you try and make an argument that they didn't fight with honor oh my god you are a racist yeah you're not japanese whoa I can't believe you would say that I'm only like at least say the whole word japanese next time that's what I said I can't believe you would tell a half chinese woman that she's not japanese that's crazy that's like if we said that you're not even a little bit scottish we're we're not even sure where my chinese grandpa came from he could come from japan that's true I don't know that's true you're not wrong oh my god you deleted her history paul deleted my scottish history I am kind of scottish well there was once a man in 1943 who said the same thing yeah and that man was schindler's list yeah thanks a lot schindler's list oh I guess somebody wants to live in a world without color I gotta be honest with you guys I don't even remember what I said I don't remember I'm so sorry so roll your fight with honor great I got 11 3g yeah so um in my head there's like I just also realized they don't have the context for why the mind pun is funny of course they don't only taurus would know that yeah no he wouldn't know it either because you knocked him unconscious and then said it only that guy knows ask him wake him oh never mind uh okay so they're rushing in and what ving appears behind them no no no they're just rushing into him so he's using their distracted their focus on tuck to take out a couple guys yeah totally I'd like to uh deal damage to a foe within sight as they're running into tuck I without looking grab the axe out of tuck's arm and uh huck it at the leader of the charging group yeah totally so you only gotta roll yeah you only have to roll your damage three three it digs deep into one of them yeah hits him in the leg and he like stumbles as the rest of them rush ahead of him but that guy's he's not dead but he's he's wounded and slowed the other guys down absolutely nice tuck what do you do so they're all running at me yes lead guys down yeah one is like stumbled and fallen behind so when they start running at me I start running at them too and then uh the warthog is crossing my path oh my god pick him back up I forgot the animals are everywhere there's animals I am paging I pick him up and he looks like a teacup pig in my arms because of the relative sizes and then I'm like you failed me once before warthog not again and then I kiss it on the lips and then I go fly true my friend your breath smells like shit I as I'm running at them throw the warthog and then I'm still running so I can like meet them chariots of fire uh okay yeah roll a volley I guess oh fuck this is what it always is when you throw stuff man uh nine yeah uh so a volley on a seven to nine okay yes yes how are you eating this talk to the pig yeah I was like um arms up superman you can do this your freedom 26 plus bond I failed that I'm sorry you felt that pretty bad I failed that really bad a volley on a seven to nine choose one you have to move to get a shot placing you in danger you have to take what you can get minus 1d6 damage or you have to take several shots which you can't do because it's one pig I'll move myself into danger obviously yeah that's great you're basically already running into a group of people yeah so roll your damage plus two yes it's right throws a pig pigs up uh for yeah you absolutely annihilate one guy with a warthog like you throw it and you run so the pig is like a warthog and you're like oh my god I'm gonna die I'm gonna die basically above you just above you your whole arc you you know you plant a fist in the face of the guy that gets hit by the pig yeah making sure he stays down and now you are mobbed by the rest of the guards except for the guy that ving hit with the axe who yanks it out of his leg and throws it at ving uh roll a d6 me from your failure uh-oh two two so you take two damage from this axe I have armor of two yeah yeah you just dodge it oh my god cool like oh you see some chest hair like gently razor sharp axe my two chest hairs you just had the two I was growing those and the chest hairs float down to the ground and are caught on an underground eddie going down a hole in the earth to a chamber beneath the heart tree oh my god fine billy and elman what do you need for me to make this plan a success I guess I mean I don't know where this where is the best spot because we have to make sure that this like we only have one chance hmm uh roll a discern realities eight okay so you get one question what here is useful or valuable to me elman paces around uh it's hard for him to see because you know there's a little bit of light filtering from above but it's not terribly bright can I create a little will of the wisp oh yeah absolutely okay the light cat appears and paces around the chamber with elman as he looks and is like touching roots and as he like places a hand on sort of one of the thicker roots of the tree you can see him wince a little bit oh this tree is sick but the soil is good he like kneels down and sort of swirls a hand on the soil like he pulls up a handful of earth and a little bit of rotted root crumbles in his hand so that's supposed to happen the tree rotting not at this pace but this soil is going to be a little bit of a problem I don't know if it's going to be a problem but it's going to be a problem I don't know if it's going to be a problem but it's going to still contains the remains the memories the work of hundreds of gardeners I think we can do it here okay so billy starts digging next to where elman cut the hole billy's just like yeah he uses his small hands yeah totally um I've built many sandcastles so I'm really good at digging I would like to I would like to see one of these sandcastles one day well I can do one right now where's my bucket I wish I had my bucket and uh elman takes ollie from you and gently so gently removes like the pot okay billy it stops building because he's like oh it's a big deal and also he's like there's my bucket and he places the pot on the ground next to billy billy takes it literally like an era defining moment in the history of the civilization and you're just like and there's gonna be a little flag on top brain is split two ways he's like immense powerful moment and he's like but sandcastle yeah totally phenomenal cosmic power and he lowers the cutting with its root ball into the earth and you can see the tendrils already like reaching into the soil as he mounds the soil back in place vin can feel it up top whoa yeah yeah and as you feel this like connection with the soil that the cutting is in place you can feel the soil in place and you can feel the soil in place and you can feel the soil in place and you can feel the soil in place this new knowledge tree taking root in this ancient place you suddenly feel like a spike of anxiety in your chest you feel the earth rumble a little bit and you hear a groaning and you realize it's the tree is resisting oh no oh shit what do you do billy could defend whoa defend ollie that's sick that's so cool yeah let's let's do it so what is defend okay yeah defend when you stand in defense of a person item or location role plus constitution yes okay 2d6 plus con fuck I got six oh this is bad okay I can aid being we already established as a connection as well he's feeling it too oh yes yes okay yes how do you aid I hear ollie call out oh yeah I hear ollie call out nice does he say something I think he says something like it might be kind of cliched but I think he says something like it's too strong you know like that kind of shit where he's like I can't I'm just a little guy yeah I'm only small and you also hear like from the other tree this like massive chittering sound like not even words like it's almost like it's almost like the sound of creatures coming yeah yeah their claws yeah oh so even the creatures evil from the reaches of this rotten tree are echoed through the wood to ving he hears the echoes of the chirps the rotten chirps of the forest gone bad because they would sense something new and pure and maybe like consume yeah totally and like we established last episode that like at the edges of the woods all the rotten things that the tree is supporting like are starting to like wither I feel like some of the really evil things the more sentient things would be dashing towards the heart too oh totally to protect it yeah protected there could be a gathering of awful things right yeah it's like wasps returning to the hive gross 2d6 plus bond yeah oh fudge oh no damn what did you get I got a four plus my bond is five fuck ah this is not okay this is not how it's supposed to be well you know what it is a big fucking tree yeah that's true sorry for cursing everyone it's okay okay so I think that billy you're like out against like greed like this field of greed that is washing over you the tree is resisting this place is like soaked in this iconic influence yeah the greed it's reaching out to you but more specifically it's reaching out to the fairy oh and it's and what does the fairy want to sleep it wants to change to sleep yeah so it's like do you think the fairy in billy is trying to shift because after spring of course comes summer or is it trying to jump right to winter because it's been so long oh that's a good that's a good question um oh you know what I was saying this to sean earlier billy has held out for so long because he felt the child like deserves a family and like that's what he like kept him alive for and he went a really long time without it but billy's had that family now yeah the kid or whatever the deal is fulfilled it's like yeah it's almost like pinky promises yeah the oath has been fulfilled yeah yeah it I don't know how to explain it the wheel wants to turn now yeah like the you lock the wheel like the wheel of like the seasons yeah because you were like I you made the deal you made the fairy deal with the kid where you're like I'll get you a family and that's what was locking the wheel for you yeah and now you have to yeah yeah so it's like billy has put his his own stopper into it yeah and so it's yeah it's like a water wheel and you're not pouring the water on it but there's the water is now flowing yeah without your control I like that a lot yeah okay so yeah I think this this force is like reaching out to you as this you feel this wheel turning inside you as the fairy is like the stopper like I think it pops out and you breathe out and your breath mists in front of you oh no and you see frost creeping out around your feet oh shit your eyelids feel heavy what oh my god um I'm fine I'm fine come near me or whatever I don't know just stand over there element just stand with the tree I'll I'll back up I'll back I'll back up yeah and you step behind and you feel the the ground like crisp and crunch underneath you I mean is did ving go down there was that oh um right because you were trying to get down there so then I guess you wouldn't be able to yeah you felt something happening I was gonna reach out reached out to try and stop it okay yeah but you weren't able to and now you know billy's down there something's wrong he's going to reach out and you're like alone I could use both of my holds to cross a distance between me and a foe I still have two holds from my fight with honor yeah so you feel billy beneath you in danger and you just like slam into the ground gotta go yeah oh that's so cool looking in my head yeah where you're just like superman like superhero lander kind of thing like just shatter the ground beneath you tuck billy boom through the ground yeah yeah and I think where we were saying that you're spending those are your holds my two holds I spent yeah cross a distance and break through a physical obstacle yes yeah and the ceiling of the chamber opens above you billy your eyes are like because of honestly mainly because of what billy said when greed asked what he wanted I feel like your eyelids are like yeah getting I know he's definitely like doing the sleepy thing like where he's like whoa yeah it's fine and this feels nice feels good but he's got his eyelids he's like got constant vigil yeah he's like propping his own eyelids open where your eyes are too open we were just like I'm not sleeping I'm not I'm not tired so unfocused you're not focused on anything a little kid saying that he's not tired yeah as the ceiling like you hear a crash above you and sunlight like fills the chamber as ving plummets from above ving you land on the ground underneath and you see billy like frosting over like a car in a parking lot don't worry about it I just wouldn't touch me right now because I don't know if it's contagious I think I just have a cold like literal ice pouring just have a little cold yeah is the boy shivering at this point he is shivering but not because he's cold oh all right I'd like to use eye of the storm to exert my will in a circle around me roll plus con on a hit the world calms seven to nine the effect only it affects only what I touch as long as I'm touching it can you use it to still the that's what I'm wondering yeah I have the storm okay okay so I got 10 okay so you exert your will around you yes and the world calms I would say you can either use it to halt the tree in its resistance or you can stop what's going on with billy yeah I'm gonna choose billy okay so so what does this look like I I mean I in this very like spiritually loud and tumultuous moment with the tree screaming and that he's in his home world and the stuff with his dad I kind of want to land in this weird superhero move and somehow I would like to walk up to billy and pick up his fairy child like from the body from the shadow dance oh that makes sense somehow in this calming of this world and take him just aside and just let him go and I'm like oh my god I'm gonna be like oh my god I'm gonna be like oh my god I'm gonna be like oh my god I'm gonna be like oh my god I'm gonna be like oh my god I'm gonna and try to calm him and warm him and comfort him and let the boy billy not freeze to death yeah uh just to put some distance between you and the fae I think I think you I think you were bang on like I think that billy's I think the body the physical body is maybe reacting poorly to this situation so removing the fairy from the body saves both in this moment yeah and then holding the fairy and calming it to like get the wheel to stop turning before you put it back because like the body can survive without the fairy in it that's what shadow dance is yeah so what does the fairy look like when at this point when the wheel is like turning inside it what does it look like when ving removes it um this is like the it looks like the first snow oh yeah really just like sparkly soft cool quiet so what does ving do he's got this fairy in his hands I I bing asks it if he wants to play a game of hide and seek I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know a game a game yeah what do you want to do you want to play some catch you want to hide and seek what are you looking for I like to chase oh yeah yeah and then ving starts kind of jointly running backwards I bet you can't catch me I bet I can catch you I bet you can't I bet I can I turn and the snow follows and the winds pick up and I'm running around being chased and picked up by the wind yeah put back down and the flurries like grow I love to chase my hair is blowing all over the place I bet you're cold right now I'm pretty cold I'm actually really really cold the wind picks up more the snow gets thicker and it's like you have to let me catch you okay and ving stops and then the fairy swirls around you and ice starts to form around you in this realm can I you transmute my body into a form made from the raw elements in the spiritual realm I want to turn into the ice bear whoa okay yeah 2d6 plus constitution I think for elemental form I got a nine to hold uh yeah I um gather the wind it's like not a solid bear it's kind of like a misty uh wind and frosty the winter likes this so he helps and he's uh just keeps starts frolicking more just to get him play trying to play him out a little bit and one of those hold will definitely go towards enduring this bitter cold very cold that winter is is bringing to you and winter says I know what you're doing you can't distract me I I don't want to distract you um a a I want Billy to be safe.

And I wanted a chance to thank you. For what? For giving me the chance to get to know him and you. For being our friend and our family for all these years. It might not mean to you what it means to me, but it's important for me to say it to you. Thank you. And Winter like bristles at that. I don't do well with feelings. If you want me to go, you have to trade. What would you like? What would you like? I know you want something from me. Do you want time? I would like some time.

But I can come back, right? I don't think there's anything in this world or any other that's going to stop you. Thing takes a bit of his arm and throws it at the fairy. A snowball. It catches it. We're playing catch. So yeah, Winter throws the snowball back. Okay. I'll leave for now. You know where to find us. Yeah, it just dissipates. And the snow bear falls to the ground. Does Billy wake? Yeah, and he's like… Billy is like… Bing, close the window. It's fucking freezing in here.

Why is it so cold? I'm literally freezing. It's so cold. Why am I sitting in so much water? It's so bright. You're waking up like an angry kid that pissed the bed. Who did this? I didn't pee my pants. I might have peed my pants. What'd you do to me? Can I ask you a question? Yes. Did you give him time? The fairy gifted him time. Yeah, but was it time for Billy to continue to be Billy? Time with Billy. But it wasn't. It wasn't crystallized time.

No, Billy's still required for that, but he gave Bing the gift of more time with Billy. Which he added to the body, yeah. The promise of time. Yeah, so the fairy basically traded the game for time. Okay, cool. And as Billy and Bing, as you sort of reconnect, you hear Elman go, Help! It's dying! The tree! And you turn and you see the sapling has begun to wither. Ollie! We'll cut back up to Tuck. We'll cut back up to Tuck. We'll cut back up to Tuck. We'll cut back up to Tuck.

We'll cut back up to Tuck. We'll cut back up to Tuck. We'll cut back up to Tuck. Fists. Just fists and boots. They're fighting you with fear-driven abandon, so a lot of them have, like, cast away their weapons and are just wailing on you. Yeah. What do you do? Do I feel anything that happened is going on below? You don't feel a fucking thing. Fucking stupid idiot. Just so left out. Okay. I mean, what you do feel is about half a dozen pairs of fists and boots wailing into your body. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's probably good. He doesn't know what's happening. He loses fucking mind. Yeah. He would have chopped down this tree already. Yeah. That's something we never considered. It was just chopping the tree down. Tuck just chops the whole thing down. It's the size of the house from home. The house from home. Yeah. I know. It's so much chopping. It's not that big. That wouldn't take that long. Okay. What is Tuck? Yeah. What do you do?

I think Tuck just, like, goes into, like, full-on, like, close quarters fight mode. Right. He threw the pig at one of them. They all, like, tackled him. And it's just, like, a full-on. Like, Donnybrook. Like, where it's just, like, everyone. A fucking bench-clearer. Yeah. Everyone just dropped their gloves and started, like, fucking wailing. And they kind of start fighting each other, too. Right. Yeah. Yeah. This is, like, street kid Tuck. Yeah. This is, like, fighting in an alley.

Life or death. Totally. But, yeah. He just, like. It's, like, punch, block, punch, kick a guy into the tree. He leaves a pretty bloody imprint. Yeah. Totally. Grab one guy. Throw him into another guy. This is hack and slash straight up. Stomp. Break a guy's leg. Jesus Christ. Just, like, really close. It's just close quarters fast fight. Yeah. It's 10. Okay. So, you deal your damage. And then I also do want to take more damage. Okay. Because he's in the mosh now. How much? How much?

How many points do you have left? I have 13 left. Okay. So. So. It's going to be a long day. What did I say earlier? It was a D6 for one of these guys. Yeah. So, it's a D6. But there's a ton of them. It usually adds, like, guaranteed damage, basically. When you're being piled on. Okay. And it's usually for each one. Do it. Guaranteed damage to the tuck? It would be, like, you know, D6 plus guaranteed damage. Do it. This makes sense. Okay. What did I say? Oh, I did say half a dozen, didn't I?

Okay. There's six left. So, I guess it would be plus five. Okay. Great. So, one D6 plus five damage. Okay. Can I roll my damage first? Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. 11. Okie doke. Yeah. Wow. So. So, D6 plus five. D6. Six. And then I have three armor, so I only take three. Holy fuck. That's unreal. Oof. So, this is, like, it's exactly like you described. Three of them are just, like, you just snap a leg. You kick a dude into the tree. He crumples to the ground. Yeah.

You reach out and you grab and crush something. Mm-hmm. Oof. This is kind of like a, this is a pure situation for tuck. Because no matter where you swing, it's a bad guy. Yeah. Yeah. So, you just go fucking buck wild. Yeah. Berserk mode, basically. Totally. Yeah. I'm in berserker mode. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's the kind of thing where TLC are sort of, like, guiding me, where it's, like, no matter where I hit, I hit something. Yeah. Totally. Great.

So, yeah, you deal with three of these dudes. Yeah. Just rip them apart. And they're, some of them are stabbing me and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Three of them. With, like, tiny knives. Yeah. Yeah. Three of them you don't feel. Yeah. Great. So, yeah, you've dealt with three of these, like, there are three of these guys left. They're terrified. Yeah. Some of them are starting to consider, you can see in their eyes, the animal fear of, like, run, run, run.

So, some of them are starting to consider running away. Tuck's just like, let's finish this. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. 2d6 plus strength. So, Tuck's, like, thing now is he's, like, they're, the smart people are downstairs trying to figure out what's. Yeah. I'm going to keep the dumb ones up here. Yeah. I was thinking, also, it'll make sense, like, you know, overall, because with the spiritual stuff, and then Tuck is, like, the mortal man. Like, you're, like, the dad having to do this shit. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, you do a lot of the emotional. You do a lot of the emotional heavy lifting as well. He's the stepdad's running out of the house with the baseball bat across the street. Playing for dad mode right now. Yeah. Whereas I'm beating them up. I'm like, I'm not a stepdad. I'm the dad that stepped up. Oh, my God. Can you tell me what marker that's at? Stepdad's everywhere crying. They lift up their shirts. It says Tuck on it. There's only three of them. Yeah. There's one guy. It says TU.

Yeah. There's only three of them. K's late. K's late. K's late. K's late. He's on the bus. He got a DUI. He got a DUI. He can't drive. He lifts up his shirt. It says DUI on it. It's a T-U-D. Tadui. I don't get it. Tadui. All right. 2D6 plus strength. But, yeah, he's… The goal here is to clear the garden so that no more guards are left over so that Billy and Ving can finish this. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. That's 15. Whoa. Oh, wait. Yep. 15. Oh, my God. That's a lot.

Oh, they're dead. That's boxcars. That's boxcars. And then plus three. Yeah. Wowzers. Fudge. Okay. Go ahead and roll your damage. I assume you're going to take more damage. Yeah. Yeah. That's 10 plus two is 12. 12. Yeah. And then you're going to roll D6 plus two, I guess. I only take one damage. All right. So you take care of the remaining three. What does this look like? This is amazing. Tuck is so deadly. Like, he just… He really… Oh, my God.

He just cruises around making dick jokes half the time. He might be one of the greatest living warriors, but he's just like, fucking look at my balls, bro. Yeah. He mooned the Elven court literally like a week ago. That was a week ago. Just amazing. All right. Yeah. He like punches one guy out, like just straight lays him out. Yeah. Yeah. Another guy he grabs and throws into the tree. And then the last guy before Tuck like kills.

He's just like, hey, not sure if you're possessed or not, but if your demon goes back to the iconic realm, tell the gibbous man I'm coming for him. Whoa. And then he kicks his head off. What? What? What? What? Holy shit. What? Holy fuck. Tuck is very strong. And yeah, you're just standing there surrounded by bodies. Oh, my God. Catch the head. It goes over him. It goes over him. Over the wall of the cloister. Yeah. And then Finn is driving by in a carriage outside. Nice. It smashes through.

And lands on his lap. And lands on his lap. Mommy! We like harmonized that. That was good. And back below the earth, under the tree, Elman is like basically moving his hands around the tree. He doesn't know what to do. He's panicking. There's a woman. His arm. It's dying. Here. Pulls out the sunstone torch and the well water from Hibernia. Nice. And he reaches out and grasps those things. Bing takes the ring off and puts it on Elmond so he can talk to Ollie. Oh. Here. Talk to him. This is Ollie.

Ollie. Elmond. Elmond. Ollie. Have a conversation with yourself, Sean. Um. I think all Elmond says, because he understands in the moment what he is able to do now. Yeah. All he says is, tell me what you need. And Ollie does. He delicately pours the water from Hibernia in a circle around where Ollie has been planted. Smeared on the sack is a bunch of the shit from the shit shack. Huh? Smeared on the sack that he tumbled down the hole from. Right. Smeared on the sack is manure. Yeah.

The highest quality manure that the garden. What did I say? I just, you just said smeared on the sack is shit from the shit shack. I thought it was a really cool sentence also. I thought you were doing like a tongue twister. Yeah. All of my twisters are tongue twisters. Smeared on the sack is shit from the shit shack.

And he, yeah, he works some of the manure into the soil using his gardener experience to pick out, you know, he like is smelling it basically and rubbing it between his fingers to find the highest quality stuff. And then he's using the sunstone torch almost like a, it looks like he's like wanding the plant at the airport. Like he's kind of like passing it over the plant, which is helping.

You can see some of the leaves are returning to a somewhat more vibrant life with the protection of the sunstone, but it's not enough. Can Billy come in and try lightning in a bottle, which I think is what I did in the spirit world. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. And it's what you've done on Hibernia. This is a, this is a thing that Billy has done before. Okay. Um, I roll plus dexterity. And you're doing this to push time into the tree? Yes. Yeah. I, well I think so.

But what if it pushes if he's not doing it and we push time, then it could die faster. Right. If I push, oh right, cause it's like. Right. There's something that's not, it's not thriving. So yeah. Knowledge. Oh. Yeah. I'm going to transfer the ancient knowledge of the original knowledge tree to Ollie. Would that work? Yeah. I guess you could pull the knowledge. You do that all the time. Memories, like out of the soil. Yeah. And feed it to Ollie. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Plus dexterity. Yes. Eleven.

Okay. So, um, is there any water left? Yeah. Uh, yeah, there's a little bit in the, in the container. Yeah. Billy takes that and sort of like how he, he knit the winter shins and the sun wise. He, he does that between Ollie and the original tree. Oh, cool. So it creates this, like you can see like a pattern. Yeah. Yeah. Flowing like an infinite pattern flowing. Yeah. And what does it look like once the knowledge begins entering the water? What is like the physical manifestation of the knowledge?

The tree is like sucking up the water and the runes are coming up in like little like, um, what do you call it? Like, like columns? Yeah. Like columns, like little rivers that go up and it's like writing itself up the tree. Oh, that's really cool. So like as the water passes over the sapling, like the runes are forming behind the water. Oh, that's really cool. That's so cool. That's really cool. And the tree is growing like faster.

It feels like then it should be even though you haven't like put time into it yet. It's like you can see like the layers, the rings forming like runes will go up and then like it's like writing a book. Super speed, right? Yeah. The bark grows over and over. It's pressing the knowledge into itself. That's really cool. Yeah. So the knowledge begins pouring into the sapling. Yeah.

And the water like gets pulled into the earth and then like comes out in other parts and the river grows bigger, I guess, around it as the roots start to spread out. That's sick. That's really cool. Yeah. Elman from where he was on his knees next to the sapling like gets up and starts to move away. As the water courses stronger around the sapling. Is it working? It seems to be. Yeah. Something about like having this connection to the ancient knowledge of this place is strengthening the sapling.

And Billy runs his fingers through the water kind of still guiding it, but then he'll flick out sometimes like his hand as if he's like removing the impure stuff. Oh, cool. That's pretty cool. That's sick. So yeah, Billy, he weaves this infinite current from the old knowledge tree to the sapling. Elman gets up from his place next to the cutting as the water starts to flow stronger and stronger, drawing the old knowledge from the tree to the new growth.

And Billy is like hunched over the water sort of removing impurities and debris. And Billy beckons Elman to come back and he's like, it needs the sunstone. Oh, so Elman crouches down next to Billy and continues this sort of wanding. I just wanted Ving to add because he knows that gardeners are so anchoring part of this tree. He takes one of the arrows that he has and cuts his palm and he knows that he's got his mother's blood as part of him. It would recognize you then.

And she would recognize and it would, yeah, it would recognize me and her through me. And he gives some drops of his blood and Eliana's blood. I know that he's something else. No, but I think, I think that this works. This tracks for sure. Yeah. Cause she did tend the tree for a while. Yeah. So it would reckon, yeah. The memory of him and his father. Yeah. Yeah. He's, he's all of it. I do think I want like a wisdom, like a 2d6 plus wisdom. Great. To see sort of what this means. Yeah, I got six.

Oh, I will aid. Thank you. You're welcome. 2d6 plus bond. Nine. Thank you. Okay. All right. Yeah. The drops hit the water and are carried away and it's flowing. They joined the current. They do. And so that has this red yeah. This is amongst the water ribbons. Yeah. Red ribbons. You see like a, like a red streak start forming through the tree. Yes. Cool. Sick. Where Ving has cut himself on the hand. Ving doesn't know why, but his hand heals in the rune that says his mother's name. Whoa. Whoa.

Sick. And you feel whatever like tenuous connection you felt to the old tree. You feel a stronger connection to the young one. And Elman looks up. His eyes are glittering. It's like it's working. It's working. And we cut above tuck. You have a sea of corpses around you. This hole in the earth yawns up. Before you, you know, Ving went down there. You can assume. Yeah. Is the earth still crumbling where Ving entered? Oh, still crumbling.

Oh, because the tree is still attempting to resist because like the tree is still fighting. Tree is still resisting. Right. So I think as you're standing up there, the hole that Ving created begins to form a chasm like chunks of earth are falling in. Yeah. In front of you. As tuck is watching this, he can feel sort of like the resistive effects of the ghost roots starting to wear off. Oh, yeah. And like his like iron will or whatever. Yeah. Sorry. So excited.

The table just lifted by seven to eight inches. You feel the effects of the ghost root begin to leave you. And as the lamplight hour arrives in your mind. Oh, dusk now? Oh, yeah. Time has passed. Yeah. And time is being wended in some way around you. As the lamplight hour begins in your mind's eye, flames begin to lick up the tree in front of you. Engulfing the branches above. So tuck takes this as like, you know, he still knows he's fucked, right? Like he basically hasn't slept in weeks. Yes.

He's got a minus one constitution and he knows that like this is like the effect of the coin in his chest in the tree. He knows the tree is doing something. Mm hmm. Oh, and now that you said, I think you hear. Sounds in the earth and on top of the walls around you. Imps. Imps. Oh, are you fucking kidding me? Begin crawling over the wall. Whoa. One of them has the head of the guy. Oh, yeah. One of them has this guard's head like in place of where like a wolf's head should be. Oh, geez.

And they're hauling themselves over the wall. And then tuck goes, I hope you don't mind. I'll give you. I'm happy. He stumbles this much and he goes, I'm glad I got to give you a little peace of mind. And then he looks around to see if anybody heard that. And the only people that heard it are dead things. What do you do? Uh, tuck. I will add. No, wait, I won't add. I want to hear. No, you're going to have to do it to certain realities. If you want to hear what I was going to say. But wow.

Talk to the discern realities to hear what Sean was about to say. That's not what I mean. No, that's what we're going to do now. No, I want to hear it. So that's a five plus wisdom. This is five. You don't see you. There's nothing unusual about this situation. Fuck. You love this. I do. Yeah. And it's not a ton. It is a good like hand, like a good amount of. Imps, but not like an overwhelming force yet. Okay. Well, they're also not very fast, right? They actually are quite fast.

And I think depending on their configuration, they can be faster. Okay. And what? Sorry, what do you do? So there's a few things I can do. I can defend. I can use staunch defender and defend. Yeah. The other thing I can do is TLC where I do a sacrifice in an effort to, like, fight back against the tree. Okay. To what end? He wants to, like, cut the tree off. He wants to silence the tree. Interesting. And then if he does that, it might, like, make the imps, like, just not alive anymore.

Yeah, totally. Yeah. Interesting. Yep. I think TLC will do that. Yeah. It's almost like him removing the head of the shadow. Perel. Yes. In a sense. Yeah. Kind of precedent for it. Yeah. He he wants to use the axe to, like, sever the connection that the tree has with, like, I guess the metaphysical forces. Cool. Yeah. That's really cool. So, Terry, Larry, and Chad, you are initiated in the old ways, the ways of sacrifice.

Choose something your gods or the ancestor spirits value, blood, gold, bones, or the like. When you sacrifice those things as per your rights and rituals, role plus wisdom. Fuck. On a 10 plus, the GM will grant you insight into your current trouble or a boon to help you. On a seven to nine, the sacrifice is not enough and they take up your flesh as well, but you still get the boon. On a miss, you earn the ire of the fickle spirits. Mm hmm. Okay. Dd6 plus wisdom. Fuck. Four. Four. Oh, boy.

Then, yeah, tell me what Tuck does. It just doesn't do what you want it to do. Uh oh. So, Tuck, we put the obsidian coins, like, in the all save, but then Tuck had taken one from Elf Hiddleston that he found. Oh, shit. Which he forgot about. Oh. Oh, shit. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So, he's gonna smash that. Oh, cool. Yeah. Except. Except it doesn't fucking work. Okay. So, Tuck, you have this coin in your hand that you stole from Hiddleston. Mm-hmm. You just kind of softball it like you've done in the past.

You toss it in the air in front of you. Yeah. I flick it. You swing Terry, Larry, and Chad in a practiced arc in front of you. Mm-hmm. And the coin shatters into a million pieces. And as it does, the realm rends in front of you for a moment. And stepping through that void, the Gibbous Man. Well, well, well. Kind of blew it, huh? And I think that's where we're gonna end it for this week. I've been your Game Master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the Barbarian, Abdul Aziz.

So long. And Felf Druid, Paul Oppers. Take care. Playing Fat Billy, the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai. Bye, everyone. Thank you to Aaron Reid for our intro and outro music. If you want to hear the music that Aaron has made, check him out at aaronreid.bandcamp.com. And if you want to hear all the music that he's produced for the show, check us out at soundcloud.com. Thank you to all of our susporters around the world for susporting the show. Without you, this wouldn't be possible.

If you would like to susport us and get access to a bunch of cool bonus stuff, check us out at patreon.com slash speltlore or speltlore.com slash bandcamp. And if you want to hear all the music that Aaron has made, check him out at aaronreid.bandcamp.com. Thank you to all of our susporters around the world for susporting the show. Without you, this wouldn't be possible.

If you would like to susport us and get access to a bunch of cool bonus stuff, check us out at patreon.com slash speltlore or speltlore.com slash moneyplease. Thank you, most of all, to you for listening. We'll see you next time. And so ends the tale of adventures three, who tried the best they can. Though dumb and scared and lost they be, for time's 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 more.

Hey, Tuck here telling you to donate to speltlore.com slash money please or patreon.com slash speltmore for more of this I'm doing an act out but you can't see it below the table show me your hands right now no, I'm still doing it show me your hands right now no, why?

Because I'm masturbating Gather round friends, let me tell you a tale of three heroes, noble and bold a brute, a druid, and a thief who is but nine years old you know them by name you know them by deed their quests are famously daring so here I sit, singing to you an adventure that is worth sharing Tuck is the brute he knows not his home, he loves to sing and fight fingers half-elf he shifts his shape and wields a spear with great pride Billy's a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart best and brightest they may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts so gather round friends and listen close for the tale's about to start hello everybody and welcome to Spout Lore, I'm your game master Sean O'Hara joining me as always playing Tacoma Dome the Barbarian Abdulaziz playing Ving the half-elf druid Paul Oppers playing Fat Billy the Halfling Thief Jessica Tai when last we left our heroes they were deep in the heart of darkness inside a fairy ring created by one Fat Billy the Halfling Thief Billy was having a conversation with Hiddleston the mortally wounded and deliriously minded elf agent of the Sun Peaks Billy was able through some quick thinking to to!

Trick Hiddleston into willingly drinking a potion made of golden root which made him amenable to some questions from Billy and the conversation mainly revealed the fact that Solara Van Ciren de facto queen of the great forest and leader of the Sun Peaks is a warlock um mmm yeah right?

Thank you oh sorry I mean come on guys I feel like that's a there's never been a warlock in the show before I know but I already reacted last time I got more now I got it all out of me yeah Billy then contemplated things as uh Hiddleston continued to bob in and out of consciousness connecting some dots including the remembrance of a story in which a spider in an attempt to keep watch over his vast and growing web removed his own eyes uh as sentinel in this place and realized that that might have something to do with what the gibbous man is doing with the obsidian coins mmm that he is using these coins to keep watch over the world while also weakening and binding himself in the process whoa okay all right okay fuck off fuck me uh Billy then risked the integrity of the fairy ring no way wait for the end just use your breathing exercises you can do it you learn these Sean learn inside the tent Perel and Morris mostly Perel to be honest performed magical surgery on Dathaniel Vang Zumba to remove the obsidian arrow from his chest putting him in a sort of comatose state as he healed and getting the opportunity to investigate the arrow Vang discovered within using sunstone and a combination of elven physiology the constellation for the eye concussion of greed within the obsidian itself then connecting the dots that Billy had connected moments before outside we also talked a little bit about the giant empire and how the giants were the first people of the planet can I just add something yeah the constellation of greed is a crab with one big claw cool I like it I love that that's so sick yeah like a fiddler crab yeah I guess so yeah yeah he grabbed big that is big fish yeah that is it being described 10,000 years ago around a campfire he grabbed big by Billy exactly yeah sorry there is a cave bear skull in a pot boiling over away as Billy says he grabbed big um Tuck and Ving had a sort of heartfelt conversation in the fanny packs observatory well heartfelt standing next to each other while Tuck attempted to provide emotional support for Ving in this time of need as his father lay potentially dying in the other room yeah and then said that a constellation looked like a dick and ball which consoled to great length yeah exactly and then Billy burst into the room saying the coins gotta get rid of the coins Morris offered before almost doing a wrestling style call out to the gibbous man into one of the coins you hear that gibbous man this Sunday I'm gonna tear you apart at the table my dog stop saying my name dude the party hid the coins in Morris's all safe an interdimensional safe place so now the danger of the obsidian coins is potentially nullified for now then the time came to enact plan alpha which is grow a new tree using the cutting that the gardener Elman took many moons ago as well as the sunstone that the party has gathered and Billy's ability to coalesce time into a physical substance to accelerate the growth of the cutting into a full potentially replacement knowledge tree for the heart tree yeah oh and you traded a secret to Hiddleston and the secret you traded was that you had a dream about the tree the tree oh right you revealed that to the audience that you know about that Billy has been having dreams about the burning tree right because you just revealed it to Hiddleston not them because Tuck would probably lose his mind if he knew that you knew because you haven't told anybody I told Bing and no one else yeah and I swear my lips are sealed cut to Bing being drunk in a bar so he said man what was in that wine wood you know what oh man my boyfriend well he's not my boyfriend but you know he told me something pretty fucked up you know he kind of is my boyfriend what is a boyfriend he's a boy who's my friend and I think about him sexually but anyways he's gonna die in the burning tree he's gonna die he's gonna die Leave me the razor sun all alone.

You're going to forget all about this someday. You're talking to a cow. Ah, Billy. Sir, Mike's Meats closes in 15 minutes. You really shouldn't be drinking that in here. Don't look at me and my son. He's got a little calf. He's carrying around. I'm taking this calf. You're not going to chop my son up for bologna. Sir, you brought that calf in here. And it's been shitting everywhere, sir. And that was right.

And in exchange for the secret of the tree, Hiddleston revealed that Solar of Ankyron is a warlock. Oh. Yes. A secret he absolutely should not have revealed. You know what? I believed that one for a second. I'm accepting them all as genuine now. No matter how boisterous it is. The plan, of course, hinged upon getting the cutting back. So the task to infiltrate the cloister and retrieve it was trusted to Fat Billy. Billy packed up the fanny pack, strapped it on, and escaped.

You came up out of a bush, and there were a bunch of guards searching the garden. And then you climbed up on a wall, scampered around to the entrance that you came in through, and then stealthily… And then stealthed through the cloister itself under a bucket to arrive in the chambers of the young gardener, Elman. And we were watching the whole time. Yeah. Yeah. Through the eye of the tiger, the little kiss on the forehead.

Finding the sapling in Elman's chamber in the hands of first gardener, Malgath. And that is where we find our heroes now. Billy, what do you do? I, um, am I still in the bucket? Uh, you tell me. I think you're still in the bucket. I must be still in the bucket. We're going to do a defy danger dexterity. I think to determine if she sees you. Like if you sneak in quietly enough. Do I sneak in? I do. I get an 11. Okay. That is enough that you…

This makes sense that Billy wouldn't just like slam the door open. Like he's an experienced thief. Totally. The door opens as if a gust of wind kind of gently blows it. And Elman has a lot of houseplants by the door because he loves them. And so he creeps behind the houseplant. I don't know. There's some space. Yeah. She's also… Like 2000 years old. Like she can barely see. Oh, okay. That's helpful. Yeah. Because I've described her. She's like hunched. Yeah. She's very old.

And if Dathaniel is a thousand years old and is basically in his like early sixties, she's thousands of years old. But so hot still though. Dathaniel. Not Malgath. Oh, Dathaniel. Yeah. No, we said that elves get locked into their hottest for the rest of their lives. She's just a… Completely chiseled hot, but all hunched and like really hot. Yeah. So she is standing there looking at the sapling. What do I do? Yeah. What do you do? In the room, you cut back to the fanny pack. Uh-huh.

And Tuck is just like, Fucking kill her, Billy. And Vick's going, switcheroo, switcheroo, switcheroo. Fucking kill her. Man. It's so sad. Billy doesn't hear anything. I wish it was mouth of the tiger or ears of the tiger. Oh, and I don't even have fairy child because it's not a new day yet. You ran out. Yeah. Oh yeah. So I can't do shit. Yeah. Okay. I think I'm going to discern realities. Okay. So 2d6 plus wisdom. 12. Jessica's fucking rolling hot. What happened here recently?

She is looking at this cutting and it's a little pot that has been like delicately tended, basically like a bonsai tree. But she is looking at it with scrutiny. And surprise, which leads you to believe she is seeing it for the first time, whether or not that means Elman told her and she has come to retrieve it or she was searching Elman's room and found it. You're not sure who's really in control here. I think that. So she sees it and her body language says, I can't let anyone else see this.

What is about to happen? She turns. She like puts the sapless. She tries to like kind of obscure it in her robes, in her investment vine and starts moving towards the door. Whoa. Okay. I step out of the bucket and she stops. She starts a little bit. So I just pictured a bucket shaped billion. It comes out like cranberry sauce that just came out of a tin can. Hold on there. You're going nowhere with that tree. Where do you think you're going? I don't know. I don't know.

How long have you been in here? A while. Well, that's a shame then. And she extends her hand and the house plants around Elman's room start to grow and shift in their pots and start reaching towards you. What do you do? Absolutely not. I, that is not allowed to happen. I shoot first. Yeah. So you, you are not surprised by this. I'm not surprised. You have time to act. Tuck snaps a table in half. Billy opens up. Yeah. So that's what Billy does. He, uh, Ving coughs and farts.

I don't know what to do. He throws the bag open and the boys come tumbling out. Okay. Yeah. Defy danger dexterity to act before these vines can grab you. Nine. Yeah. As you like throw your little arms out, unleashing the fanny pack, you feel like a ficus wrap around your left hand and then like a zebra plant around your right and start like dragging you towards the pot. So sharp. Yeah. But the fanny pack like unfolds in the air. Oh, it's like spinning end over end.

Like pieces of it are like starting to fly out. And then you see like Tuck's arm come through as it's spinning in the air and you hear him go, Melga come out to play. So scary. So what do you do? Uh, I try to grab her. I think he's just an arm right now. He tries to just grab her through the arm. Yeah.

I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go.

Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Oh, he's just gonna go. Through Billy's eyes. Yes. Like trying to grab. Trying to navigate it. So it makes sense. So weird. That's so strange. That's a. What is it plus? Dexterity. How many debilities do you have right now? None to dex. Hell yeah. So that's a seven. Okay. Seven. Beautiful.

I think the seven to nine is you do grab Malgath. Your massive hand locks around her like thin old lady arm. But the way that you like have jammed your arm through means that the fanny pack is taking some time to unfold. Like it's kind of caught on you. So now you're just a big arm. So you're kind of stuck. But she is also like raw. And Billy, you're getting dragged towards these potted plants. What do you do? Can I use elemental mastery to take over the vines from her control? Yes, totally.

I think the one thing that you're going to have to do is a defy danger of some kind to get around tuck. He's basically blocked the exit to the fanny pack with this move. All right. My biceps too big. I got a pump. I was working out earlier. My biceps too big. This extra dimensional space can't unwrap around it. So how are you trying to get through? I'm just going to. There's only one zipper on this stupid fanny pack. Morris, you idiot. Everybody knows the tents have two doors.

I designed it with toggles. I don't know who put a zipper on it. You're supposed to air out the farts in this thing. I'm going to use light as a feather and run up his arm and like slide down his arm. Like the Grinch? Yeah. Does he? Does he do that? He slides like up the tree kind of. Yeah. Down the tree. He does a lot of weird sliding. I'm going to Grinch slide down Tuck's arm and out of the fanny pack. It's really tickly. It's making Tuck feel all these weird feelings.

So yeah, light as a feather. So that's 2d6 plus dexterity. Yeah. I got a nine. I think you get your body halfway out. Like I think you're not like it's Tuck's arm hanging off Malgath and now your torso and arms and head are coming out. Okay, good. Yeah. So your body is halfway. There, but you're kind of stuck and we're stuck hanging off of Malgath. Yeah, you're right next to Malgath. Like you're pressed against her.

Like Tuck's bicep is out of the fanny pack holding on to her and then you're keeps flexing his own bicep and then you're you're basically sitting on top of my bicep looking at her. Nice. So it looks like my other arm is Tuck's arm. Yeah, it looks like your dick is an arm that's grabbing her arm. Yes. And that's why I think got stuck because Tuck won't unflex. He's like, just stop flexing. Just let me through. I can't. It's in six. You're not still flexing, are you? I'm going to bulk face.

All right. So you're halfway stuck, but you get to do your elemental mastery. Okay. Yeah. I'm going to try and get these plants to go after her. Again, I got nine. Nine. Okay. So elemental mastery seven to nine. Choose one. The effect I desire comes to pass. Avoid paying nature's price. Retain control. I'm going to choose the effect you desire comes to pass. Okay, great. Great. So yeah, Billy, the plants that have wrapped you up. Release you.

I think it was nice because they had stretched me enough that like my back feels better. I haven't been ripped apart yet. Yeah. And they start skittering across the floor. You know, like it looks like a time lapse video of like a plant growing, like where they're really wiggly and weird as they start coursing along the floor of almonds chambers and start wrapping around Malgath's legs. Yes. The price and the retaining control that you did not choose.

The price and the retaining control that you did not choose means that the plants continue growing quite rapidly. They start wrapping up along the fanny pack, up along Tuck's arm in your chest. And Billy, like it's becoming dangerous again. Can I shake them out of the fanny pack? So the not retaining control means that you're going to have to roll something to get through the plants before you can get to the fanny pack. Oh, I have the scythe. What is a scythe again? Yeah. It's a blade.

It's a curved blade. It's for cutting down plants. Perfect. Exactly. Here we go. Hack and slash the plants. Probably more defy danger. Okay. But like. Okay. Okay. Okay. So like strength or dexterity for hacking away? B dexterity. I have to catch up with them. Okay. Seven. Seven. Okay. So you hack a path to Malgath, who's like, she's an old lady who's suddenly being physically overwhelmed. I don't even feel sorry for her. You get to the fanny pack.

You think you're probably able to jump up and grab it, but like the plants basically rip the sickle out of your hand. Ah. But you're underneath as they start continuing to attack you. Continuing to grow around your feet. Underneath the bag? You're underneath the bag. You see Tuck's arm and Ving's torso. Yeah. Shake it out like a duvet. Okay. Do I roll? Yeah. I think this would probably be another defy danger for. For strength. Yeah. Strength. 2d6 plus strength. See?

Showing him his chores is helping. Yeah. I have no strength. 10. Oh, you have no strength, but you rolled a 10. You rolled a 10. Great. So the fanny pack in its current form with Tuck and Ving halfway stuck out of it has the exact size, shape, and weight as the garbage bags that they've been making you take out in the fanny pack. So it does. You see the flashback montage of you having to drag the garbage bags out. Yeah. And it's a very sad song. Oh. All by myself.

Dragging, slowly dragging your garbage bag. Don't want to be. Laying against a garbage bag defeated. Yeah. Oh, I love it. We sent the page to make sure you did your chores. That's why you've been consistent. You're constantly doing it. Yeah. So every time you stop the page, like. And then he blows a harmonic whistle that says the tone for all by myself. And then we see Billy finally throwing that same one garbage bag into a garbage can. Yeah.

And then in Tuck and Ving's mind as parents, the music that's playing is like the Eye of the Tiger Son from Rocky. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And the training all comes to a head as you leap up eight inches in the air. Whoa. And grab onto the fanny pack. Holy shit. You're hanging there. And the fanny pack's like. As Tuck and Ving come like exploding out of it. And now there are two full grown men in the room. And I'm clinging to your arm. Yeah. You're just holding Ving. I'm riding it.

I'm riding his bicep like it's a horse. Yeah. So I have him up on my shoulder and then I pick up Malgath on the other bicep and I'm like, get away from my fucking kid. Ted. Okay. So with a 10. Yeah. You lift Malgath off the ground on your other bicep. Yeah. And I go, stop. I reach into her and attempt to grab the cutting. Yeah, totally. 2D6 plus dexterity. 13. Jesus Christ. You guys are fucking super effective right now. Against this elderly woman. Yeah. Well done. Three of us.

You finally met your match. Why are we fighting more elderly women? This is crazy. This is great. It took us like eight seasons to figure this out. Ten seasons. Ten. We're in season 10. All right. First dude didn't count because I wasn't there for the other ones. You only missed one season. I wasn't there for that one. That one was the crowd favorite. Yeah. You reach into her robe and you snatch the potted plant right out of her robes. I'll be taking that. Oh, you do. No.

She's like reaching out, trying to take it back from you. Got a blow on her face. She doesn't like that. Yeah. I knew she wouldn't. What do you guys do? The plants are still continuing. Like Elman's room is becoming full of, it's like a biodome. In here. The plants are growing out of control. Can I threaten Malgath that we'll leave her in here to be consumed by the plants if she doesn't tell us what she was going to do? Cool. Yeah. I like that. Okay. 2d6 plus charisma. Sounds like a parlay.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. With the threat being, we won't let you die in here. Yes. 12. Okay. She says, fine, fine. I know what I've been bested. And she reaches out her hands. Closes her roomy eyes. And the plants stop growing. They don't recede back into their pots, but they cease their growing. Yeah. I feel like I'm kind of in like a loose bush right now. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. And I'm like, what were you going to do with that? Who sent you in here? No one sent me.

I knew what that little worm Elman had been up to. Whoa. That worm is our friend. Oh, you make friends easily then. And with fools. Whoa. He looks around. He looks around. Everybody kind of looks at each other like, oh, sheepishly. Or she really nailed us to the wall with that one, huh? Shut up. I wasn't asking how we made friends. I'm asking, I'm asking, I'm asking what you're, what you're doing here. Yeah. What's your grand design with this tree?

This is more important than you could possibly know. I've been working with these trees for longer than the seas have been turning, my boy. Yeah. Everybody wants a piece of the forest, but I'll tell you, there's only one person who can be trusted. Who? Me. Is she evil? Well, I mean, if you consider the, if you consider the situation, she might, you, roll to certain realities. Oh yeah. Good idea. Ooh, fudge. I mean, it doesn't matter, I guess. What is it with? Wisdom. Four. Yeah.

That's not going to do it. Um, so the question of, is she evil? Yeah. Yeah. Is she evil? Mm-hmm. Is a complicated answer, but the true thing that Billy realizes is she might not be evil, but she's definitely been in close contact with the heart tree that has been poisoned with the icon of greed for a long time. We didn't, none of us put that together. Yeah. Remember there's, there's demons and stuff involved. What does oil of tag it do again? Make them fall asleep? Yes. Yeah. Maybe I'll do that.

Okay. Cause I just don't want to deal with her. She's just obviously a messed up old lady. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. And we got to get out of here. Yeah. And Tuck was going to punch her in the face, but he was been holding back cause he felt really bad about it. He was just, you know, a bunch of old lady. Yeah. So when he sees you pull out the oil of tag and he's just like, thank God. Okay. Okay. How are you applying the oil of tag? It was remember this is, I think oil of tag. It is the one.

No, it's contact. I think that's one that. Cause didn't it pour on your head? Yeah. It had a bunch pour on me. Yeah. I just kind of toss it on her. I tell Tuck it all the way. Yeah. I get it. Okay. Let go. This is probably dexterity again, unless you have a move that you think would apply. I don't know. Volley. Yeah. When you take aim and shoot an enemy at range role plus decks. This makes sense too, because it would probably be easier to get it in her face. 13.

I, it gets, she gets all on her face and down her robes. Oh, I'm gross. But I don't hate it. No, she gets a fucking. Fucking face full of oil of tag. She swallows a lot of it, but you can see that she's like, you're a little bastard. Then catches her, falls asleep, puts her sleep in a bush in a loose bush. And you know that oil of tag. It is not a deep sleep. She will wake up soon. So what do you do? I dump another one on her while she's asleep. She dies. I just need her to sleep for a while.

Yeah. So that's two uses of your oil of tag. Yeah. Gone. Yeah. And tucking Vinger watching you pour a second bottle. And we're just like, I think that's enough. Yeah. She's had enough. Do, do what you want. Pouring it in her face. Yeah. And then I don't know where to put the ball. So I stuffed them in like her vestment. Yeah. I'm like, now you're the scene of the crime. Oh, wait, that's not what they say. Now you're the suspect. And I don't, and Billy gets embarrassed.

We're ushering you away from her. We're like, okay. Leave her alone. This is pretty good though. She's guilty. Guilty as charged. Murder. Suicide. No, no, no, Billy. Where'd you learn that? Uh, yeah. So what do you do? You have the, you have the cutting. Malgath is asleep for now. Ooh, we should put the cutting in the fanny pack. We, we should also get in the fanny pack too. So you can sneak back. Oh yeah. Do we know where Elman is? No. You don't.

I'm going to try and thing talk her to the trees to see if we can get a point. On Elman. Okay. Yeah. To the tree or to these plants? The tree. Okay. Oh wait. It's still sick. It's evil. Still. Yeah. Yeah. The little tree. The little tree is not evil. No, the little tree is not evil. Oh, talk to the little tree. Oh, that's what we're doing. Oh no, that's so cute. Okay. I'm going to talk to the little tree. Okay. Hey, little buddy. Hi. Hi. Who are you? Don't be afraid. We're friends. Oh.

And I, and then I want to give him a little bit of the well water from Hibernia. Just like a few drops. Oh, hey. I was so scared. You're safe. Don't worry about it. Okay. Okay. Trust us. Do you know where Elman is? When was the last time you saw him? Oh, the last time I saw Elman was earlier. He was here. He, he trimmed me and he gave me some, whatever it is that he puts in the soil. Kisses. Kisses. Gave me a little kiss. He gave me some water. Some shit covered kisses.

And he gave me some of his manure. And then. His manure? Wait, his? And then he went off. And then he went off with you. You were here. Remember? Oh. Oh, so you haven't seen him since we were here. No. I was in my hiding place. And then Malgath found me. Oh. Did she say anything to you? No, but I could see in her eyes that she wanted to plant me. She wanted to help raise me. Hmm. Hmm. She wanted that for herself. She wasn't well. I don't think so. Okay. Okay.

Well, we're going to take care of you. Is that okay? Are you going to take me to Elmen? Yeah. Okay. I trust you. My name's Ving. What's your name? I don't understand. Ollie. Okay. Ollie. For all names. Oh. That's really cute. That's pretty good. Okay. Ollie. Ving. Ollie. Ollie. Ollie. Ollie. It's just saying. Oh, I like that. He like blooms a few leaves. Oh, yeah. A couple leaves. A little sprout. Shout out. One of them has runes that are his name. Oh, all names. Yeah. Yes. I like that. Okay.

I guess back in the fanny pack then. Yeah. And I have a serious conversation with Billy where I'm like, anything goes wrong again, open the fanny pack right away. Even if I'm in the bucket. Even if you're in the bucket, we'll come out of the bucket. Okay. And stop grabbing knives. Okay. Hey, Tuck, stop pointing your fingers in his face. I know that scared you. You understand. We're not mad at you. It just scared us when all the knives came out. And also, you almost drowned that woman in oil.

And then Tuck goes over to Vang and he's like, Billy, give us a second. Can I talk to you for a second? Yeah, of course. He's like, all right. I understand that you don't want him to feel bad, but we need to maintain consistent boundaries with him. Okay. Or else he's going to be a little fucking monster. I don't know how to do that with you. We just like sheepishly turn around slowly. Look at Billy. And Billy's like, Ollie, no, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not.

I'm not. You hear Ollie go, you would disarm him? The natural state of life is killing and dying and surviving. He must be prepared to take a life to protect his own. Ollie, I am with you now, little knife boy. I am Ollie, your charge. Protect me with your knives. Billy goes to get the scythe from the plants. I need this to protect our family. So get back in the fanny pack. Go in the fanny pack. He points to the knife. Yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

To put a fingertip on the scythe and move it over my face. Into the fanny pack. Oh, gosh. I'm doing what have you done? Okay. Jessica, the actual knife. And unsheathed it. Oh, God. She's holding the blade the wrong way, though, so it's fine. Sorry. Oh. Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. Ah. Ah. Ah. So you guys pop back in the fanny pack. We crawl back in. We take all. Crawl back in. It's because it's still Billy. And Billy's trying to hold the door open, but he's two feet tall. Yeah.

You're trying to get into a tent that the poles haven't been extended on. We kind of have to go in backwards and drop a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. It's like dropping into an empty swimming pool. Oh, yeah. Oh, no. Yeah. And Perel and Morris are on the other side. Is everything okay? What happened? Yeah, it's fine. We're all scratched up. I'm fine. Here, put this somewhere safe. This is the most important thing. You think those coins are important? This is more important.

And Perel's holding it in his hands, and his eyes are wide. I hand him the tree. And his hands are shaking. And then Morris reaches forward and takes the plant out of his hands. We'll keep it safe. It's the only untainted knowledge tree. You know what? The less you say about what this is, the greater chance there is that we get it through safely. There's so much taint on the other one. You cannot tell us any more about how important this tree is. It's just the biggest taint I've ever seen.

I've never seen so much taint. It's crazy. And it's raw. It's like red a little bit. It goes across the whole forest. Taint as far as the eye can see. It's the widest taint in existence right now. Yeah, Billy opens the flap. He's like, it's smeared all across the whole north. And it's into all the animals. The animals taint, and all the plants taint, and all the people's taint. Morris and Perel start walking away. The elves are… They're full of taint. They're tainting each other so much.

Oh, no. It's got them, too. I can see their taint. And now the biggest threat is my aunt's taint. We have to go deal with my aunt's taint now. And then a little rune word shows up on the cutting. It just says taint. And Billy puts his… Head back in the tent. He says, where am I going? Oh, yeah. I just know I have to go in the bucket. I think we're going to go back to the tree, plant it where Dathaniel was, and then grow it there. For consistency, do we need Elman for this? No. We don't.

We're just worried about him. Yeah, you just don't know where he is. Okay, I was asking after him like we needed him as part… I would like him to be there. I would like him to be there, too. I think he would like to be there when it… I don't know. I feel like there's some reason he needs to be there. It does. It makes sense because it's like Ollie is like a young impressionable tree. And without the guidance of a gardener, he can turn into a little psycho. Oh, yeah.

Because what if the original tree overpowers Ollie? Yeah. Then we need Elman who is like we think of pure of heart still as a gardener. Yeah. He's innocent. I bet it's a thing to the first gardener. It's like a symbiotic relationship. Elman will become the first gardener. Yeah. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. So true. We need him. I mean, because we talked about the last episode that the reason the Gibbous Man couldn't come here is probably because of the tree. Yeah.

And that's why he infected the tree was so that he could enter the forest. Yeah, exactly. And Elman had constant contact with an uncorrupted fragment of the tree, which is probably why he has been able to retain his autonomy in the presence of this overpowering demonic presence. That's really cool. And it might be like Paul said, a symbiotic thing where Elman is naturally pure of heart. He's like a good person. So it's protecting the tree and then the tree is protecting him as well.

I like that he becomes not the first gardener, the last gardener. That's so cool. Hold on to that. From then forward, there is no gardeners. The tree does as the tree. They trust the tree again. The Vox Silvi and the Vox Populi become one voice. That's beautiful. I like that. And let's hope that that all works out. Yeah. Yeah. It's all on. It's all on me. Close the bag. Oh, wait. It's your responsibility to save Elvin's civilization. Do you think that's too much? That's not too much, right?

That's not too much. That's not too much pressure to put on the board. I feel like if we set the expectations with him, he'll rise to the occasion. Okay, great. So that's the last thing Billy hears. He puts the fanny pack on. That he has to save Elvin's civilization. Sweating bullets. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. So much on my small shoulders. And again, the bucket. Okay. Back in the bucket. Fuck, where do I go? Okay. Elvin was, we last knew that Elvin was in that doorway. Yes. To warn us.

So they must have caught him. This would be a discern realities. Okay, I'll do that. I would say it will start though with a defy danger dexterity or a sneaky move of some kind just so you don't get caught. Sneak. Sneak, Billy. You're good at sneaking. 12. I'm so good at sneaking. Yeah. I literally glide with the wind. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In a bucket. In a bucket. Oh, man. This bucket is skating. The world revolves around me. The bucket. I don't, I do not move. The earth moves.

Under my feet. This is, wait, Billy's mumbling this to himself in the bucket. You guys can hear me. It's so loud because it's inside a bucket and we're inside of that. So I get into like at least the main hall. I move in beautifully. I move in purely unnoticeably between all the elves. You said it was discern realities. Yes. Okay. 10. Okay. Shit. What here is useful or valuable to me. Yeah. So in your bucket form hiding behind tables and whatnot, you follow some guards.

The militarized guards that are definitely like a recent addition. They have capes and I slip under one of the capes. So I'm totally unnoticed. I keep my distance from him but his cape is really flimsy. Yeah. He got an extra long one just because he thought it was awesome and you're just in there. They're all made for elves who are like 6'4". And this guy is a little shorter. He's like 5'9". He said he was 6'4". Is Derek getting married today? Look at his train. Tobias, is it billowing?

Is it billowing really cool? Tobias, look. Yes, it's billowing. It's billowing. It looks fine. Why did you say you were 6'4"? Because I wanted it to billow. And yeah, you're under this guy's cane as you sneak around. It's just like flat bucket. And you hear them, Tobias and Gregleth. Gregleth. Tobias and Gregleth are talking and they're like well we haven't found those those intruders yet but we did snatch that young gardener so he's being questioned. Okay, well.

Maybe we'll go by and I'll intimidate him with my big billowy cape. What do you think? Perfect. Sorry, were you going to say more? Nope. They're continuing to talk about the cape. Tobias is like, the cape is fine, just don't make it your entire thing or people are going to get tired of it really fast. No, my thing is being 6'4". You're not 6'4 because I'm 6'3 and I'm taller than you. I dwarf you. You don't dwarf me. What here is not what it appears to be? You see a gardener. Uh-huh.

In the vestment vine that you're like, oh yeah, just a regular old gardener and then you're like, wait a second, that gardener's huge and has a beard and is Taurus from Nathaniel's Talon. Oh, shit. Oh, evil. Yeah. And he walks past you. He's in full undercover mode. I mean, he's a very quiet guy to begin with so he's not saying anything but he doesn't see you from beneath the cape. Oh, thank goodness. Billy was holding his breath the whole time. Oh, right.

So you're underneath a bucket with an eye hole in it. Underneath the cape. Well, I see through the billows, you know, like on the side. Through his legs. You basically, because the hole is so small, it's the kind of thing like you see Taurus from really far away down the hall but as he gets closer, you're like, oh, I can't see him anymore. It's the kind of thing where Tobias like does a big flip. He's basically walking like Snape. Yeah. Right. He's billowing it. Is he billowing too much?

Tobias, look, if I walk really fast, it billows extra big. And Billy has to run under him. His legs are so small. That's great. Was that it? I saw Taurus? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Okay, it's good to know he's here. Yeah. I think that means they're all here probably. Yeah, you can probably extrapolate that the rest of the Talon, so that's Lysander and Nesh are hidden somewhere. What should I be on the lookout for? Where do we think they would keep people?

Actually, I just answered my own question, I guess. This place was not built as a military facility. Oh, right. So there's no military facility. There's no place to keep people. So they're just keeping them somewhere like a classroom or a library or something like that. So where do we think he's being held? The dungary? It's like a room full of animal dung. All different manures? Yeah, it's like a laboratory, but for mixing manure. So yeah, Billy, you are following Gregliff and Tobias.

Oh, and I can start smelling horses? Yeah, you start smelling animal shit and bear shit. Oh, bear shit. And they get to a door that is locked and you hear like a jingle jangle as keys are fit into the lock and they open the door and the smell of shit just like wafts over you. As we pass, does the guard take the keys out or can Billy try to take them out? Oh, he definitely takes them out and like puts them back on his belt. Oh, perhaps. Nice. I sneak them. Okay. Tricks of the trade or whatever?

Yeah, tricks of the trade. Well, that's pick locks or pockets. Yeah. Okay. So I do that. So 2d6 plus dexterity. Oh my God, seven. Oh, sick. Okay. On a seven tonight, I do it, but the GM will offer two options between suspicion danger or cost. Okay. Definitely suspicion or danger. The danger being you're going to have to like get out of the bucket and you can't stay under this guy's cape forever.

So they'll like see the bucket or realize the keys are gone and be like, what happened in the last five seconds. You know what? I have I'm going to leave the bucket. I hide in the hay. Yes. We're in the dungaree, which is a combination stable and manure factory. There's like rows of animals. There's like one of those like where they like those troughs of hay or piles of hair or whatever that the horses are eating right now. So it gets into the hay stack.

Oh, and I did succeed at getting the keys. Yes, you have the other thing. I have the keys. I'm hiding in the hay. Yes. And you've got a limited amount of time basically until they realize the keys are gone. But you know, they came in. They locked the door behind them and you see Elman is sitting in a chair with his hands tied in front of him. Clearly he was not enough of a threat that they considered tying him to the chair just left and he's just sitting there. Well, the door is locked.

So I guess they can't do that. But like the two guards begin circling Elman going. So God in a betrayal huh? Turning your back on your order on the garden for who these outsiders and he's like looking behind him to see if his cape is billowing a lot. He walking in circles around. Yeah, exactly. Steps on his own. Yeah. Yeah. And Elman is like, stop stepping on my cape. I'm trying to be intimidating. No, you you don't understand. I I'm trying to help the forest. I'm trying to help.

The people you don't it's the tree. The tree is sick. The only one sick here is you betray you and this continues on in its in its fashion. What do you do? I really want to open up the fanny pack, but like is there even enough room for all of us to come tumbling out? I was thinking that can I incite a revolution style within the fanny pack from within the fanny pack? No, you'd have to leave the fanny pack. He's definitely like open the fanny pack and well, Greglith and Tobias are like preaching.

He's like, I'm I found element and I tell you guys where we are. I'm like, what do I do? There's not enough room for you guys out here and took us Billy. Did you have an accident? No, I swear it wasn't me this time. I swear I pinky promise. No, that's definitely owl bear shit. I smell. So yeah, what do you guys do? I would like to parlay with the animals and try and get them to cause a commotion so we can get these guys out of here. Yeah, totally. So what does this look like?

There's some horses and there is a bunch of goats. Yeah, just like a chicken animals and then there's like owl bears upon the maybe there's like a loft area. Yeah, and there's little baby owl bear cubs up there and rolling about. Yeah, cute. I love that. Are there any birds? Sure, I think there's like anything that shits. There's a couple of them, you know, but they're trying to get as much different kinds of manure because they're trying to create the most effective manure for cultivation.

Oh yeah, there's finfish that are like in a tank and they're sifting out sea serpent-y shit out of there. There's a single rhinoceros. Oh yeah, totally. Yeah, because they have all like the animals are like native to the north. Oh yeah. Ice gurus. Kangaroos. Tuck says that from not seeing anything. Oh my god, is that an icero? But yeah, what do you do? Are you tired of all this shit? So you start yelling. Yeah. They're gonna hear the yelling for sure. Yeah, you're gonna hear animal sounds.

Oh, I see. Yeah, coming from animal sounds. Okay. Yeah. I just want to get everyone shouting and cause a commotion. Uh-huh. Hey! So he's pretending to be because they're all in stalls so they can't see who's yelling. So he's like, he's a woolly pig. And woolly pig, he's like, you know what? I've had about enough of this shit. I'm tired of this. They keep feeding us. It's like we're human centipedes, but not human at all. I'm tired of just shitting out this useless stuff.

And they're taking our shit and I don't want to take their shit anymore. Who's with me? And then he goes as a bat and he's like, he's like, yeah. Yeah, what he said, I don't want to put up with this anymore either. Yeah. And so then he's like, hey, what do you think about that horse? Don't you want to get out of here? They're all New Jersey. People. I guess so. And then there's a owl bear. He doesn't says an owl but he's like, you're all thinking the same thing.

I'm tired of living up here and just shitting through a screen every day. More. More. Ving says in Sea Serpent, this tank is big for me and my shit. I want to be back in the seas. I long for the seas to my kills. All right. I roll 2d6 plus charisma. Oh God. Great. I got six plus zero. I fail. Can I help him? Yeah, totally. Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah.

I'm feeding him lines to say that I know we're inside an animal that's I don't know how to incite a revolution and I'm just like, oh, you should say that like the elves keep ogling their women. Are you tired of your their hands on your teats? Oh, you should pretend that you're a chicken and say that they stole all your babies. Yeah, I'm tired of them eating all of my young. All right. Yeah. 2d6 plus. You should. Oh, you should pretend this is what you should do, dude. Oh my God.

He's not stalling at all. I got a brainwave right now. You should be like, why are we paying tax? Yeah. Where are our tax to dollars going? Everybody hates paying taxes. Yeah, I'm tired of paying. I'm tired of paying taxes. I'm paying taxes out of my ass all day. I want to see the sun, the real sun. And then tuck goes say that one of them call them the N word. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that one of the elves use a slur against him. I'm not going to do that.

Ving just accidentally says the N word. He's just repeating whatever it says. Owlbear equivalent of the N word. Oh my god. Alright, 2d6 plus bond. Seven. Okay, so that makes it a seven to nine. Which means you hear a horse go, yeah, you know what? I don't know who said that, but I'm agreeing with him. I'm tired of paying taxes out of my butthole. And you hear the baby owlbear cubs go, yeah, I've been saying my own shit in months. I love looking at my shit and I take it away.

And there's an iguana that's just like, also those elves are so into looking at my sick tits. Rhinoceros is like, they keep staring at my horn. And they all start, my fat iguana tits. Alright. Jesus. Jess, you do one. No, you need to do one now. I'll reckon that if we were to leave, we would get fresh water and sunlight all day. And I want to know what the taste of beans tastes like. I'm tired of this grass. That a warthog goes, I want to know what elves taste like.

That's the seven to nine is the animals start getting really worked up. And the two guards start looking around and they're like, what's going on? Why are all these animals flipping at? Yeah, the horse are like kicking their stable doors and the woolly pigs are like ramming up against their fence.

The guards start freaking out like, you know, a horse actually kicks its way out of its stable and the woolly pig knocks over a wall and the rhinoceros puts its horn through a window and they're like, oh, we gotta go get somebody. And then Tobias goes, oh God, my cape was too much for the animals. It was too resplendent. I have to go. And they run out the door. They try and run out the door. You said they locked the door and they don't have the keys. Oh no. That's a good point.

They run to the door and start opening it. They can't find their keys. Yeah, and Greg is like, get the keys, get the keys, Tobias. And he's like, I can't find them. My kite's too big. What was the animal that wanted to taste elf flesh? Warthog. Yeah. As a warthog comes charging in and stops. Oh my God. And turns and looks. Jessica looks so actually. I'm scared. It stops and it stares at the guards across the room and starts kicking dirt backwards from his hooves. What do you guys do? Do we have?

I don't know. We just kind of chill. What, you want me to put my delectable body into view of this warthog? So delectable. You just described me as a can of cranberry scotch. That's true. I did. That's true. All right. Then the warthog, the highest compliment of all. Yeah. Well, here's something to consider. It said, I want to know what elf tastes like. And Elman is still in the room too. Oh, shit.

Elman gets up and starts like backing against one of the walls, like towards the guards towards the guards because he doesn't know what to do. He's like, I got to get out of here too. Okay. Well, I can't let this dumb dude like, okay, I go back into my mind palace, my soup kitchen and I remember Tuck's voice saying something are you prompting me to say something? Yeah. Okay.

Billy goes back to his mind palace where he's floating in a bowl of soup or whatever and immediately forgets what he was doing. He sees like a big carrot chunk float by and he's like, oh. It's like a buoy. Wait a sec. And he remembers to 10 minutes ago when Tuck is like, no matter what, you have to take us out of the bag if there's a problem. It cuts back to Tuck who's inside the fanny pack punching the wall to try and get out because he knows everything's gone wrong. And Billy's like, okay.

He takes out the bag and it's open, but he does. He shakes. Tuck runs to the other side of the fanny palace and then he starts charging for the door. And just as Billy opens as the door opens and the charging warthog is suddenly faced with a charging Tacoma dome charging warthog. Yeah. What do you do? Oh, I pick up the warthog and throw it at the two elf guards. Okay. 2d6. This sounds like a volley. Okay. 2d6 plus dexterity. Snake eyes.

So your theory that those dice are good or is fucking wrong. Oh my God. This is fun. Snake eyes. A maybe throws it on. Oh God. I don't think you kill him, but I think you pick up this warthog do like a spin on your heel and just pitch it like a shot putt and it slams into Elman everywhere. Oh yeah. Oh, you slip in the shit. Yeah.

And your aim goes off and the warthog who can say it's arms and legs straight out as it spins through the air from shot putt to shit putt and it starts shitting as it's in the air. A spiral, a beautiful constellation of warthog feces and you it slams right into Elman and he just is unconscious. Oh no. Wham right into the wall out as the two guards turn fight with honor. Okay. Roll plus con constitution is two. I got ten. Okay. Three cheat.

They turn with their weapons as being like Michael Jackson coming out of the stage during a concert like shoots out of the floor and you land in your stance ready to fight. What do you do? Put my hand up and then silently wave them to come at me. So cool. That's pretty sick. Yeah. And with all the animals huddling behind me and then in a collection of all the voices, I try and do it as all at once and I say get them boys. Okay. Is that you're trying to get them to attack the guards? Yeah.

All right. Two D six plus charisma. Damn six. Oh, I will help. How does Billy help? There's like a really there's a small donkey that can't get out. Yeah, he's a mini donkey. You gotta get me out of here. I want to rebel as well. Huge head. Yeah, the latch is too. Low for the donkey and it's perfect height for Billy to open. Yeah. Perfect. Twelve. Great. Thank you. This donkey was the linchpin in the plan.

So you unlatch the latch, which they definitely put lower on the thing because the donkey kept getting out. Yeah. And the donkey is actually the cool animal in the whole group. So the donkey's like into it. They're into it. Yeah. They're like Derek's here. Now we can have a rebellion. All the animals are like Derek. And Derek has. Oh, okay. Yeah. No, we know what we're going to do. I was going to give him like a like a Jean Valjean kind of voice, like a like a rebel, like a revolutionary voice.

Yeah. I am Derek the donkey. Beyond those men is the rest of our lives. Hell yeah. Rise up, my brethren. Take arms against our oppressor. Hoof to horn to snout to the world. Charge. Charge. Charge. Charge. There's a stampede scene from Jumanji as a million kinds of animals rush these guards. Totally. Burst through the door, which is not big enough for all of them. The door is gone.

You have fully created a chaotic situation in which now there are a bunch of animals rampaging through the cloister. Through a church. Through a church. And L. Mon is there unconscious under a warthog that is like getting up and kicking him in the crotch a bunch of times as it tries to stand up and then it runs away as that's happening. It's like Oh no, a warthog accidentally knocked Elm in the head. He picks him up. What was you thinking, warthog? Yeah, bad warthog. Oh, sorry, buddy, bad luck.

He picks Elm in the head and he cradles him. Oh, did that bad warthog accidentally trip into you somehow? Warthog is racist. Oh, against Elm. I heard he's whispering to an unconscious Elm. I heard him say some really messed up stuff to you when he knocked you out. He said it was because you were an Elf. He did it on his own. He must have jumped or something. He must have jumped at a really weird angle. He jumped at a weird angle at 120 kilometers per hour. Pretty impressive. That's crazy.

We gotta get out of here. We should run back to that bush that we came out of that Wendy was sneaking through last time. Yeah, you might actually have an opportunity to get through. We could follow the animals? Yeah. It'll be harder for them to chase you because there's dozens of animals rampaging through the gardens. Right. Creating a distraction. Yeah, totally. Is there anything that we could wear to kind of… Shit? Cover ourselves in shit? I don't know.

Can I look around to see if there's like canvas sacks or anything that we can kind of like put over ourselves? Cloaks? You don't have to roll for that. There are canvas… There's like bags of feed and whatnot here. Okay. Do we need to do that? I guess we're pretty conspicuous as is. Yeah. So isn't the… And your plan is to follow the chaos of the animals into the garden? Yeah, but kind of like go into like a more disguised… A little bit of it. Like a hasty disguise. Animal trainer outfits.

A ring. So then we're chasing like, hey, get back here. Oh, no. Good idea. Yeah. Right? Okay. Yeah. There are sacks and clothes. There's like aprons hanging on pegs. Oh, yeah. I put an apron on and I tie it behind my back and I'm like, no one will recognize me now. Your butt's hanging out. Yeah. You don't have… If you want to take advantage of the chaos, you don't have a ton of time. So you're just throwing stuff on. Okay. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We all get like one thing. Exactly. Yeah.

So Tuck grabbed an apron. What does Billy grab? A boot. Okay. Billy's got a boot. A boot. Billy's just going to be holding, I guess. He was like, it was the closest thing. I put you in the boot and I hold it. What does Billy grab? There's a top hat and a chair and a whip. Oh, yeah. Like a ringleader? Like a lion tamer. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Great. In these terrible disguises, Tuck takes some straw and he puts it on his head. So it looks like he has long, beautiful blonde hair.

Oh, and then Billy sits on your head and pulls the boot down like a cat. Just a raccoon skin have on top of his blonde hair. That's great. That's so much funnier. Yeah. What are you doing? What are you doing with Elman? I'm, uh, oh, that's a good, I shove him in a big bag. He's just in a burlap sack. Put him on my back and then I do a hunch. Great. So smart. Okay. And then you run out into the hallway. Yeah. People are scattering as animals charge through the halls. Come back here, animals.

Stop. Get out of their way. They're running for the tree. And then we go out. Separate from where they're going. You chase them. Yeah. You start chasing them. And then turn down an unfilled with animals hallway. Oh my God. They're going this way. Let's cut. They went down here. We'll cut them off at the pass. I saw a racist war hog come down this way. It knocked my friend unconscious. And you come out into the gardens themselves. And there are animals in here.

So there's like, you see Derek, the donkey cruising around, kicking trees and stuff. Yeah. Trying to bite elves. Guide us, Billy. Guide us. Right. It's this way. And I tilt your head. I don't know. Like Ratatouille. Right. Ratatouille. Right. But I'm bald. So you're just grabbing the skin on top of it. Your eyebrows are so lifted. You look 10 years younger. You look like that. I look beautiful. Yeah. So that guide them to the bush by the wall. Yeah. Great. I still have superior technique.

Oh yeah. Okay. Cause we're still in the chaos. So I think the fight's still on. Yeah. Which is great because I was going to say that there are guards that are starting to like notice what's going on. Okay. And I think that. Okay. Okay. Okay. I think that you even see from far across Ving in your like hyper fight state. You're like, I've got to be aware of everything. You see an old elf. Lysander is on the far end of the garden and he clocks you. That's the Sam Elliott one, right? Yes.

That's the Sam Elliott one with the long. He's got darker skin than Sam Elliott does, but he's got the handlebar mustache. Is Lysander holding onto anything? I think he's just got a bow in his hands. Like I think he straight up has a bow. He's wearing like the guard outfits. So he was under guard. Undercover is a guard. And he clocks you. He's got his long pipe in his mouth and he starts running across the garden. Oh shit.

He gets within like bow shot range and you see him knock an arrow and fire. Okay. I wait till it's close. And with superior technique, I can grab an item within reach and now it's mine. So I'd like to use the whip as he shoots it and grab the arrow out of the air with the whip. And now I have his arrow. Fucking sick. I mean, what if you just like, what if you whip it? And then throw it back at him and whip it back to him. Fucking rad. So cool. So sick. So you, you do your damage for. Yeah.

So the arrow, he takes the shot in like a blink of an eye. You grab the arrow and fire it back at him and it slices them along the cheek and he kind of like jerks his head to the side and then he looks back at you and kind of nods a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. I tipped the top hat. Hell yeah. Yeah. And then you see like from this distance. It's like an old man feeling young again. He's like, all right. Yeah. And then he pulls more arrows and begins to.

And then I spit on the ground like the butcher in Gangs of New York. Are you like flicking arrows out of the air with the whip or something? That would be sick. He's taking shots. You're whipping arrows out of the air. I love it. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. Are Billy and Tuck just running? Yeah. Tuck knows that there's enemies about that know them. So he's like, I'm going to try and shove the bag with Elmond and Billy into the hole. Yeah. Yeah.

And then I'm going to throw the hole just so that they're down there with the tree. Because Billy has the fanny pack, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Trying to get them to where they need to be. Okay. So I'm running for the bush. And Billy's ratatouille-ing you. Yes. To the bush. Right. Which of us is rolling? That's a good question. It's going to be dexterity for either of you. Well, your dexterity is way better. Oh, you're running. Yeah, I'm running. But I'm leading. You're leading. Yes.

So it's kind of like the getting him to move in the most efficient way. Yeah. So I'm just like, it's the blueberry bush. Oh, no. Oh, no. Six with dexterity. I'm going to help me. So I'm helping Billy by just letting go. I close my eyes. Billy, take the wheel. He's turned off his firing system. His targeting computer. He's turned off his targeting computer. That's 10. Okay, great. So that makes it a seven to nine. Perfect. He's running blind. Boot on. My head. Long blonde. Like hair.

Wearing an apron. So inconspicuous. Okay. So you look like the scarecrow with so much heart. So I think this is Billy's like guiding you forward. You let Jesus take the wheel as Billy guides you to the bush. And Billy like yanks back instinctually with his like danger sense. And you open your eyes. You see the blueberry bush in front of you. But a hatchet. Whoa. Sweeps right past your eyes. And you look to the side and Taurus is coming out of the out of the building. Yeah.

I'm pulling hatchets out. I grab the hatchet out of the air as it's traveling. And I throw Billy and the bag down at the bush. Just immediately. I assume there's a hole there. There is a hole. Okay. Billy's on top of the bag as it goes into the. So Billy doesn't have to go right into the ground if he doesn't want to. It's okay. I'll go with the bag. Okay. I can't leave Elman by himself. Totally. So you follow this bag into the earth as Taurus squares off. Just tumbling.

Unconscious Elman tumbling. So many rocks. Tuck, what do you do? So yeah, I try and grab the hatchet out of the air and then whip it back at Taurus who's running at me. Ving has moves specifically for this. I know. So you're going to roll a defy danger dexterity. I saw Ving do it and I got so fucking hard for that move. So that's a three. Oh my God. I rolled three and I. D8. That's an eight. Oh my God. Five damage. God. Yeah. What do you. How do you think Tuck hurts himself in this way?

It's like another slow motion thing where he's just like. Closes his eyes and like reaches for where he's. The forces. Is telling him it is. Yeah. What happens? What actually happens is he like it just misses him completely. And then the second one that Taurus through hits me in the arm. Oh my God. His eyes are closed. Yeah. And he is approaching. He's got two more hatchets in his hands that he's holding close. Yeah. And he's like getting into this kind of like low.

You like, have you seen histories? The Vikings where like he's got the two axes in his hands that he's holding them kind of close. To the head. Oh yeah. And he's like crouched low and he's approaching. It's almost like he's got, he's doing gun kata from, but like. Equilibrium. Yeah. From equilibrium. But with the ax heads. Yeah, totally. So sick. And we will cut back to Ving and Lysander. So I got one hold left.

I would like to, as he's flicking off arrows with the thing and I've been like gathering them and firing them back. Flick, flick, flick, flick. I want to be walking towards him. Right. As I'm going in. Oh, sick. As I get in close enough, I'm going to grab his bow. With my last chi. Ooh. And then now the bow is mine and I have these arrows. Oh, that's fucking. So I'm like whip, whip, whip, whip, whip, pow. And I got his bow. Cool. So I just disarmed him and I have his arrows.

Yeah, you take his bow. And I knock an arrow and point it right at his throat. Oh. And he stands there for a moment looking at you. You are your father's boy. Oh, sick. And I turn and I shoot it at Taurus. Oh yeah. So cool. Because he complimented me. That's sick. Yeah. So I just volley, I guess. Okay, volley. Nice, I got nine. Can I help by distracting him? Oh, totally. Yeah. Yeah. When I see Taurus posting up with his like two hatchets and his like kata stance. I like take TLC off my back.

Then I go, mine's bigger. Okay. Okay, 26 plus bond. Because I'm trying to distract him. Yeah, that's great. So that's seven. Yes. Oh. All right. So seven to nine. And that makes it a 10, which is a 10. All right. All right. So you're at a 10, which means you get a clear shot. Deal your damage. One. One. You distract. You do. You say it in a way that is like so aggravating to Taurus that he's not paying attention for the half second it takes for him to catch an arrow like in the shoulder.

It doesn't do a lot of damage, but it's enough to momentarily distract him if you have something else you want to do. I jump at him. Okay. Hack and slash. Okay. 26 plus strike. 13. Okay. That's a lot of strength. Yeah. So yeah. Deal your damage. Three. Three. Okay. Yeah. What do you do? I try and grapple him. I want to be inside of his reach so that the hatchets like are pointing the wrong way. So it kind of just looks like we're hugging. Yeah. Yeah. Totally.

I've got TLC behind him and I've kind of grabbed the post part of the ax and I've like pulled him into me. Yeah. And the way I deal damage is I just like fucking head butt him as hard as I can. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty sick. And we will cut to the tube in the ground as Billy follows a bag full of unconscious elf. Yeah. Through the earth. Did I land okay? Yeah. Do I have to roll for it? No. Elman didn't land. Oh no. Elman just went like boom. Oh no. And you landed on top of Elman. So safe landing.

Okay. I'm gingerly opening the bag though. I'm like, Elman, are you okay? He literally landed like a sack of shit. Yeah. He's like, I'm not going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. He landed like a sack of shit. Yeah. He's definitely still mostly unconscious, but he's like, Warthog. You're safe now, Elman. You're safe now. Warthog. It's just me. I know we look similar. Hate crime. Billy, I was so scared.

I know, but we're safe now. Okay. And he looks around. Where are we? We're underground. We're on our way to the tree. Shh. Just in case anyone's following us. Okay. We're safe now. Okay. We're safe now. Okay. We're safe now. Okay. We're safe now. Okay. He nods and he gets up, pulls himself out of the bag. I don't know if we should wait for Ving and Tuck. They're up there. Do I go? What do I? Billy doesn't know what to do. So he goes to his mind palace. Back to the soup.

And then you hear Ving and Tuck talking to you and you hear us go, the most important thing- Is the tree. Is to grow the tree underground. Whatever you do, do the tree. He's like, I don't remember them saying that, but- Billy, you deserve more marbles. Oh. Now these are all just things that Billy's saying that we're saying. Billy's making up now. So Billy makes this all up in his mind palace, but he's like, it must be the truth. You have a cultured palate. He remembers that saying.

I've baked you a gravy cake. Victor comes paddling, doggy paddling, buying the soup and goes, we both deserve marble. Marble are for good boys. You're right, Victor. I am a good boy. And I snap out of my mind palace and I tell Elmond, bring the bag and follow me. If you want to be a good boy too. All right, get these marbles. Yes. And he grabs the bag and rushes after you. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. With an agent of a warlock. And as you approach this place, ready to do the task that you have been tasked with, you realize that Hiddleston is gone.

And that's where we're going to end it for this week. I'm your Game Master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the Barbarian, Abdulaziz. So long. Playing Ving, the Half-Elf Druid, Paul Oppers. Take care. And playing Fat Billy, the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai. Bye, everyone. Thank you to Erin Reid from Vancouver's Sunday Service for our intro and outro music. If you like the music that you've heard on the show, you can check us out at soundcloud.com.

And if you want to hear all of the music that Erin has produced personally, you can check him out at erinreid.bandcamp.com. This show would not be possible without the support of our supporters around the world. If you would like to support the show and get access to a bunch of cool stuff, check us out at patreon.com slash spoutlore or spoutlore.com slash money, please. Finally, thank you to all of you for listening. We'll see you next time.

And so ends the tale of adventures three Who tried the best they can Though dumb and scared and lost they be For time's abreast in revelry And though our journey may be like a conclusion We will not leave you without rest of illusion Return next week to hear some more Whilst you commute or do your chores And for you I'd gladly Spout Lore

Spout Lore is only made possible through the contributions of listeners like you If you would like to donate, please go to Spout Lore dot com slash money, please or patreon.com slash Spout Lore Uh, and if you go there, you'll get a bunch of bonus content too, which is nice.

It's good bonus content I work really fucking hard on it 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 have health, he shifts his shape, and wields a spear with great might Billy's a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart Best and brightest they may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts So gather round friends, and listen close For the tale's about to start Hello everybody and welcome to Spout Lore Spout Lore I'm your game master Sean O'Hara Joining me as always playing Tacoma Dome the Barbarian Abdulaziz Hello everybody Playing Ving the Half-Elf Druid Paul Oppers Hey, how's it going?

And playing Fat Billy the Halfling Thief Jessica Tai Hello everybody When last we left our heroes, they confronted the elven agent of the Sun Peaks Known to us currently as Hiddleston Yeah Elf Hiddleston Elf Hiddleston Ving laid down to rest When Deliari Deliari of the Ranger Corps And the fight continued between Tuck and Hiddleston Billy helping with the aid of a lash and lasso made out of roots Tuck was poisoned as the knife was jammed deeper and deeper into his body With each attempt at hurting this elf Until they were able to restrain him And Tuck chopped his arm off with Larry, Terry, and Chad Wendy's beaver cat showed up Attempting to attack Billy before Ving commanded it to do so To cease And Shadowpa receded into the shadows promising vengeance Before getting lost And Desperately trying to find the way out The party then turned their attention to the man hanging from the roots beneath the tree A variety of discerned realities and spelt lores took place In which they realized that yes, indeed This is Dathaniel Vang Zumba Who has been interred beneath the tree For potentially years And that the one impersonating Dathaniel that Ving spoke to that they met at the mouth of Adarnac Allwater's tower must have been the Gibbous man in disguise.

I thought we were really getting somewhere. We had that therapeutic session in the cave. Yeah. I'm going to need so many therapeutic sessions based on that one failed therapeutic session. All trust is gone. Yeah. Oh my god. They also attempted to figure out methods by which they could break the Gesh knowing now what they know.

The helper, the McCallan magical item, the tiny little metal dwarf, aided in removing the vines from within and without of Dathaniel as Billy created a protective fairy ring for the very first time. Cool. Sealing out any potential influence from the Outer Dark or the Gibbous man and creating an area of safety in which the party could transport Dathaniel who has an obsidian arrow lodged in his heart into the fanny pack to speak to some of the finest magical minds of their day.

Billy was able to spy into the mind of Hiddleston, finding him out to be an agent of Solara Van Curen, de facto queen of the Great Forest and leader of the Sun Peaks, who gave Hiddleston both a blade and an obsidian coin. Her true connection to the events is currently unknown, but she is most certainly in cahoots with the Gibbous man in some fashion. Man. But good news, guys. The demonic influence has been removed from the heart tree. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's a good place to start.

And we learned which demon it was. Yes, the demon of greed. Uh-huh. Yes. Mm-hmm. Which has used its demonic hunger, its want to corrupt many, many souls within the forest as well as the forest itself. Billy, maintaining the protective ring outside the fanny pack by himself in a quiet moment, heard Hiddleston choke to life long enough to tell him that he knows you're here. And that is where we find our heroes now.

I imagine the scene that we open on after that revelation is Ving bursting through the door into the fanny pack with Dathaniel in his arms. Clearing off the table with one hand. Yeah. And Morris and Perel were having dinner. Like a nice candlelit dinner. Yeah. Morris is feeding Perel like a chunk of beef stroganoff. He cuts the piece of spaghetti that they were both having in their mouth. Yeah. No time for this. No time. You're both a tramp. Ving does more damage than he needs to.

Like, he starts kicking over, like, sheds just nearby. Like the bar. I go over to the mantel place instead of painting on fire. All while holding his frail dad. I don't know what to do. My insides match my outsides. He's been holding this all in for so long. He's saying, help, help, help, stay away. Help, stay away. He kicks over like a bucket with champagne in it. Yeah. Every time somebody gets near you to try and take Nathaniel, you kick out at them. Get away from me!

I hand him over, I take him back. Somebody help me. Get away from me! Don't touch him! And you lay Nathaniel out on the dining room table, a shattered spaghetti dinner, laying in ruins around you. As Perel and Morris are standing back with their hands in the air basically letting this happen. And Perel is like, who? What is this? This is my father. What? This is… The corruption at the heart of the forest. He has a demonic influence through the means of this arrow in his heart.

If we remove it, he will die. Is there anything you can do? And in a moment of confidence and surety that you are not used to seeing from Perel, he approaches Nathaniel like a surgeon. He walks up and starts looking at the wound and feeling around. And you see him close his eyes. And he looks up. I can help him. But it has to be now. Pick him up. Come with me. Do it. And… Doors flap open. We cut to you in what seems to be an infirmary of sorts. Cool.

Through a corridor that you have not yet utilized. And there is like a table and arcanical devices of mysterious make and model but things that look like they must be used in a medical capacity in some way. We're in an interesting place here in that it is technically quote unquote medieval but also magical. So there are some things that are going to be really easy to do and some things that are going to be really hard to do. But thankfully you have a magical transmuter on your side.

He directs you to lay Nathaniel out on the table sort of in the middle of the room and wheels over a couple of devices. One of which has like a big rubber hose and then like a fat needle on the end of it that he like slides into Nathaniel's arm. Weird. And it immediately goes like It's got like little bellows. Yeah, exactly. It's got little like two little bellows. That kind of move in concert with each other. So cool.

And he gets Morris in here and starts telling Morris what to do and he turns to you and goes, we need some time. Tell me what I can do to help. What do you need of me? We need you to just stay calm and let us work here. I offer this and I give him the dwarven piece of metal. Oh, sick. Yeah, which is yes, flipped back into its bar state. Whatever you ask of this, he will do. I have named him Dwarf the Rod Johnson, which is a name I just came up with. Yeah. Thank you. We'll see what we can do.

Wait, I have something I need to say to him. Discern realities to see if my dad's conscious to say something to him. Okay, 2d6 plus wisdom. Great. I got 10. Okay, so you get three questions off discern realities to see if your dad is awake. What's about to happen? I am going to attempt to stabilize his body with parts of his organs having been missing using magic while removing the arrow. Okay. Yeah. Should I be on the lookout for you see that he is breathing while they do this?

Although it seems like his breathing is stabilizing whatever they're pumping into him seems to be quieting him down, but his eyes are fluttering like he seems to be semi-conscious. What? Here's not what it appears to be. Hmm. That's a good question. Okay, so you suddenly realize a few spoke to the gibbous man. He showed you a vision of Nathaniel's past. How did he have that information? And you realize the arrow being in his heart and obsidian being a conduit to the outer dark.

He must have been seeing like the truth of your father's heart like he had access to everything your father ever knew or felt. Oh, that's why he was playing me through my dad. God, gross. And Perel at this point goes, Ving, you need to leave. I take a moment with my dad and I whisper into his ear. Either way, I'm here and soon you'll be free. And his hand twitches on the table. I leave. And the door closes. Tuck is on the other side. He's gonna go in the hall. Ving cries.

And Tuck is like waiting there for Ving and he just gives Ving a hug. Yeah, Ving hangs onto that hug longer than usual. Yeah. Billy, back on the stoop. Hiddleston has just said this to you. He knows you're here. You are forced to remain out here to maintain the fairy circle, which is a totally new thing to you. The creation of these circles. But yeah, what do you do? Could I try to like learn some stuff from Hiddleston? Yeah, totally. Okay. Can I throw him a vial of golden root? Mmm.

And basically be like, I know you're not well. This will make you feel a little better. Like I feel kind of bad for you. Yeah. Then defy danger charisma? Yeah. He's in a lot of pain, so he might be willing to do this. Eight. Eight. Um, I throw him a vial of golden root. Uh-huh. And I say, uh, we really liked you. We really didn't want to hurt you. We really liked you. Um, I'm sorry. So you throw him. Sorry about your arm. Yeah.

You throw him this vial and he's like laying there and it like hits him in the chest, like pats against the doublet that he's wearing. Yeah. And rolls down into the dirt. Oh. He's just like, you must think I'm a fool. I'm a poison, a young boy. I don't just drink things handed to me by my friend. Suit yourself. Billy pops one open, drinks it himself. Whoa. Can I use wealth and taste? Oh, that wealth and taste move that you, aw. Do I still have it? I'll check. Oh yeah. I just don't have it. Okay.

Yeah, so he's like, I mean, I don't feel very good right now. So I think I'm gonna have one too. Okay, so that is also charisma. Smart. Thirteen. God damn it. Oh my god. Yeah, you, he was willing to hear you out with the seven to nine. But with wealth and taste he like sees you drink the vial. What is wealth and taste? Can we have, what is that?

Oh, so wealth and taste is when I make a show of flashing around my most valuable possession, they will do anything they can to obtain your item or one like it. Great. Yeah. So he like sees you drink it. And I'm going, mm, mm. So good. Picking up rocks. Wow. So good and tasty. And he licks his lips. He licks his lips like a parched man. And then he like, Billy flexes his biceps and he's like, oh! I feel so powerful and strong now. And then he starts doing, he starts trying to do a push up. Wow.

How far does he get in the push up? He gets on the ground. He goes down. Yeah. And then he like looks slowly at the guy. Yeah. So Billy fakes, he does a, he does like, half a burpee. Lays down. And he burps. Yeah. Yeah. Incredible. And uh, Hiddleston licks his lips and then with his good arm, well his remaining arm, reaches for the vial, pops the top, and drinks down the liquid. Yeah and Billy's stretching on the ground. Feeling better, right?

Well considering the circumstances I suppose I feel just fine. Yeah, that's, I mean I'm glad to hear. Um, you know, maybe while you're feeling okay, we can talk and keep you awake until we get some help. I think I would like that. Nice. I would like that too. Um, so uh, tell me, uh, Billy's like, shit I didn't think this would work. Also, I love it cause Jessica keeps looking at me so conspiratorially where she's just like, look at what I'm making this guy do right now. What an idiot.

So when you say uh, like, he knows we're here, like, what do you mean by that? What do you mean? I think you know what I mean. Okay, well tell me, tell me like pal to pal, like, is he like on his way? No. He's not on his way. I simply want you to realize that there is nowhere that you can go that he will not be aware. But now he knows that you have seen what he's capable of, and he directs his hand to where Dathaniel was, that there is nowhere he cannot find you and no one he cannot reach.

Um, other question is we're getting to know each other. Oh, well, uh, moving on. Um, so, like, what made you want to side with Wendy in all of this? With Wendy? Hm. I do not work for that ranger's scum. Well, who do you work for then? I work for the highest of the high, the noblest of the noble. Her eminent Laura Van Curen. Nice. And what do you, what is she giving you for doing all this? Like, this sucks. Your job sucks. This sucks. Your job sucks. And you look fucking stupid today.

And you're ugly and your clothes are dumb. And you smell bad. Why is, why is Solera doing this? Like, what's she getting out of it? I think you might have to work for this one a little bit. You might have to, cause he seems very like, well, we're friends now, small one, but I can't. Of course we're friends. It is a poor gambler that shows all his cards. I can tell you a secret if you tell me your secret. That's what friends do. Ooh, parlay. Ah. Oh, yeah, parlay's great. 2 to 6 plus charisma.

Nine. Nine. So that means that he needs, you need to tell him something right now. A real secret. A real secret? I'll tell you a secret if you tell me one. A real secret. I had a bad dream about one of my dads. Tell me more. Just, it seemed really real. What was the dream? It was just a bad dream. It was just like a dumb, he was just chillin' under a tree and then it caught on fire and, anyway, that's it. I don't remember anything else. Anyway.

And the camera would see as Billy, like, I don't know, and looks away that his eyes, like, dilate a little bit. Whoa. When you say that. So what do you want to know? What is Solara getting out of this and like, why, why is she helping him?

You feel, again, that he's like, trying not to tell you this, but something about you think the way, now with like this fairy ring that you've created and sort of the, um, the flux you've been feeling with like your current self kind of pushing against, like, you know, like becoming your winter self in Hibernia and touching into these other parts, like, something about your connect, like how you asked this question seems to be compelling him to tell you the truth. Ooh.

Like I've, I'm like doing a trade right now. You made, you made a deal. Yeah. Yeah. You made a deal. You're like shifting into your, like, some murphy that like are the deal he wants. I guess would be the next step, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I told you a big secret, so now you have to tell me a big secret. And that's how friendship works. So, Lara Van Kieren isn't working for the Gibbous Man. Okay. She's working with the Gibbous Man. Oh, how so? You have to tell me, cause I told you.

And when Billy says that, there's like an aspect of him that shifts into winter. Oh, yeah. And it becomes like, Evil? Angry? Or if that feels right. Oh, yeah, like little, yeah, I think so, like, it's like, His influence grows? Sounds like kinda creepy, but like, you know, like in a horror movie when a little kid gets like kinda angry? Yes. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's like not just a kid having a flip out. Yeah. You can see like frost crawling along the ground as he gets angry. Yeah.

She is… And he, this is where he like, you can feel him straining to not tell you this. You have to tell me. Tell me. Tell me. Tell me. Tell me. So, Lara Van Kieren is a warlock. Warlock. Whoa. Whoa. And he kinda falls back, and you can see that, like, the golden root that you usually see, like pupils moving and stuff, contract again. Oh. And he goes, You trickster. And he passes out from strain. Oh, hope they're done soon. Uh, cool. So then I guess we cut back inside.

What are Tuck and Ving doing? Um. The page brings you like a glass of water. I slap it away. I say, bring me a glass of water. I'm so sorry. I'm a mess right now. What is this thing that you do that when you feel uncomfortable, you treat serving staff badly? Why do you keep doing that? Does that happen? You do that so much. It's because I'm trying to portray the monster that I feel inside. I'm so sorry, page. I'll get the water. What do you want, page? Just paper rustling.

I just hand him a love and love. I like thinking his little paper mustache like bristles. Yeah, is there anything Tuck and Ving are doing or discussing in here? Or are you just waiting? Yeah, we went to the observatory where it's like, you can kind of like see a fake version of the outside and there's like a telescope and stuff. Yeah, so you're standing in like the bell of the observatory.

There's a intricately made telescope pointing at a leather sky that's about two feet away from the telescope. Yeah. Is it a real sky kind of thing? Nah, it's painted pretty like, lively. Yeah. But it's, you know, like big exaggerated stars that are all in the position that the constellations actually are, but very clearly hand painted. I guess Tuck in this moment, he's like really worried about Ving.

Cause Tuck is aware of how much Ving doesn't think about his dad and his mom and how much he's like avoided it all these years. Yeah. And Tuck is like aware of like the death of a parent and like how much that can impact you and really fuck you up. So, yeah, he's just really worried about Ving and he's really worried about Billy too. Cause he's just like, he's aware that we're under the tree and we've literally considered setting it on fire for like five minutes. Yep.

And he can like feel the end of the road. Like in this moment, he can feel the steps that are left running out. So he like wants to make sure that Ving is okay. It's like almost like he has a terminal illness kind of. And he's like seeing Ving having a hard time. Yeah. And he's just like, I gotta make sure that Ving is okay. So that Billy's okay. Yeah. So that's what's in Tuck's head. And then Tuck says, those stars over there look like a dick in balls. Talk about night moves.

And then he does the, puts his finger inside the hole. And then Tuck goes, ha ha ha ha ha ha. He laughs in such a sad way. Aww. And you hear a at the stairs. It's Morris. What's up? Your father is stabilized. Is he conscious? Is he awake? No. But we're going to continue observing him. Perel will continue working on him. But for the time being, he should be safe here. Can we see him? And then he turns to Ving. Do you want to see him? Ving just walks out towards the medical bay. Yep.

Cut to doors open. Your father is on the slab. Asleep. Machines hooked up to him. Pumping away. Perel is there and he's like leaning against a counter. Very tired. Whoa. I walk up and I hug Perel. He hugs you. He's got a bottle of pineapple juice in one hand. Is this for your cum? Trying to replenish my electrolytes, alright? I don't know if it's in pineapple juice. I'm not a fucking doctor. Thank you very much for what you did here. I'm happy I could do anything. He's alive. Where's the arrow?

It's over here. And it's like in a he takes you over to a bell jar that the arrow is like standing in. The tip is on the base of the platform but the bell jar encloses the arrow. I'm going to pick up the bell jar. Careful, careful, careful. I'm careful, I'm careful, I'm careful. And then he does that thing where he goes, oh! Drops and catches it. Perel spills a bunch of pineapple juice all over the place. And Tuckos, is there something special about the jar or what? It's just for presentation.

Uh, I didn't want to touch it. It's not like anything I've ever seen. It's certainly not magical. It's something else. Hmm. Could I discern realities on this arrow? Oh yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. 2d6 plus wisdom. Nine. Nine. You can get one question. Do you know the one that makes the most sense? I know that he got a nine. Yeah, he gets one. Oh, right. Wow. I'm a fucking idiot. We were both staring at Abdul for like a minute.

Tuck got distracted cause like he was looking at the bellows machine and he was like, hey, check it out. It looks like it's pumping my balls full of stuff. Jesus Christ. So Tuck was just totally distracted. Yeah, totally. And he was like, oh, what? You guys are doing stuff over there. 11. Okay, so you get 10. What it here is not what it appears to be. Uh, yeah. So this arrowhead, you look at it now and it is like a napped obsidian arrowhead.

Like the edge has been you know, knocked away with tools in the old style. You would guess that this is much more dangerous than having a coin. The fact that it was the wound that allowed your father to be regulated in that way suggests that even nicking yourself with this arrow would probably be a huge problem. Ugh. Yeah. Is, are there any runes on it or anything or is it just an arrowhead? No. Yeah, it's just an arrowhead.

You hold it up to the light and shines a really, really, really puts like, cranks it up to 11. Sunstone light, thank you. Yeah. Puts it in front of a sunstone light. And what question are you using on this one? What should I be on the lookout for? You see what you imagine at first to be imperfections in the obsidian but resolve themselves as a constellation. Ooh. What is about to happen?

Okay, so knowing what you now know about the gibbous man and his connection to obsidian and obsidian's connection to the outer dark, you would assume that this would allow some aspect of perception on his part. Like he is in some way connected to obsidian. You also know that he is contained in a certain way. Thanks to Lillian's curse for all intents and purposes a bajillion years ago. But you also this is another like connecting dots from previous knowledge sort of thing.

If he is wanting you, basically like if he wants to stop you from stopping him, why didn't he come here himself? Why did he send you and stay behind? Why was he in Vigil City but no further? Like he basically left you to do his thing. And then you realize like why was he corrupting the tree in the first place? And you realize it has to have been the tree that was keeping him away. It was keeping him out of the forest.

And by corrupting the forest he could enter Vigil because that was the furthest edges of the corruption. But it hadn't been able to reach the tree itself. Holy shit. And that was that's consistent with like everything we've said about like all of his moves were about like removing sources of knowledge from the material plane. Like he got the Hibernians to shroud themselves in the grey so they couldn't see the sky. The skies himself he can shift his appearance. Yes.

Hiding the true knowledge of his being. Yeah. And he like he's obscuring the runes. Like he's trying to hide information. And information brings enlightenment. And enlightenment keeps him out. Yeah. He's just really trying to pull the dark over everything's eyes. Like bring about total darkness. Because I think there's probably like a functional thing of like if no one knows what the fuck's going on. Like all the wizards are gone. Like historical knowledge is shattered.

Then he's free to do whatever he wants. So it's like a functional thing. But I think also like the more literally in the dark everyone in the world is. Yeah. The like more he can do the thing that he needs to do. He can like smash all the realms together and get back to where he needs to be. Which leads you to another question. Why did he tell you to come here then? Yeah. He wanted us. He was telling us to fix the tree. He was telling us to cure the tree.

Well he was telling you to change the runes. Right. And he said that that would fix the tree. Yeah. He didn't take into account that we would fuck up so bad. That we ended up like literally face to face. Yeah. With Dathaniel. Yep. Which might have been why Hiddleston and Wendy moved in. Yeah. So it. And why they failed because it was a last minute plan. Exactly. This could be a very interesting piece of evidence that maybe he fucked up. He attempted to lie to some idiots.

He tried to use us as a tool but little does he know we're the biggest tools of all. We are a bunch of useless tools. Tools. Um. Is it a good idea for me to use bardic lore to try to discover the connection between him and obsidian? Like use bardic lore gods and their servants to see if there's a connection between obsidian and the night sky?

Cause the thing that Tuck is thinking now is if he's exerting power through the obsidian coins like it could be a thing where those are parts of his chains. You know what I mean? Well they contain a piece of the. I just saw a constellation in it. So there's something to do with it. There is a constellation. They are small pieces of the night sky. Like what if they are really yeah like actual pieces of the night sky. They're pieces of the night sky. Actual chains. Yeah. Yeah.

And remember the giants thought the night sky was the outer dark. Yeah. Like maybe what Lillian did was made the night sky tangible like she created obsidian kind of and it tied him in a physical way to the material realm. Oh and then I wonder if like when she brought the brooch that was like opening it up. Right. It shattered the sky. So it started like letting pieces of him through. That's very cool. If it's true. Could be. I think that this would be a Spout Lore rather than a.

I can't use bardic lore on it. Please. John. My character's really worried about his family. So you're using bardic lore on obsidian. Is that what we're saying? My guy's gonna die. My guy. You're playing a video game. My guy. Yeah like your instinct. Cause I don't have an expertise in obsidian. I have expertise in gods and their servants. I'm asking about obsidian. Yeah. That's a stretch. Yeah. So Spout Lore's fine. 2d6 plus intelligence. And Sean if this doesn't work.

Wait can we use sounding board? Oh yeah. Yeah I think so. Alright should we do this? Let's do it. 2d6. I'm gonna Spout Lore on this fucking obsidian. Then I buy you. You roll my bond? Yes. Okay. Here we go. Well that's a 3 so. Oh no. There's no way I'm succeeding. No. I got 7. Aw man. John. My guy. What a bummer. Yeah. Fuck. It's fine. I had a whole idea. Fuck. The lead up to that was awesome. Well who knows maybe we can ask it again. Later. Later. At another time.

So we're gonna do it in the you don't get what you want in that the answer is something you do not want to know. Which is you have to assume with Ving being like oh that must be how he knew about the death of my mother and like the war was by like using that obsidian as a conduit to like know Dathaniel's past to aid him in his deceptions. And then you're like I guess it would make sense with like the eye carvings. The gibbous man must be able to perceive through obsidian. Oh what?

So all this time you've been carrying around the eyes of the gibbous man. No. In your chest. In my chest? And you have embedded in your chest pieces of obsidian. Can he still see through these? You have no way of knowing. Can he see through them when they're white? Cause the ones in my chest are white. You have no way of knowing. Fuck! Spellore! We're at a point where we're gonna cut back to Billy probably. Oh okay. I just wanna check in with Billy basically. Yeah. Cause I mean I know your goal.

Hiddleston has passed out. Yep. He will be of no further use to you right now. And I'm not gonna betray the strength of the fairy circle. You are safe in this place as long as you stay out here. I guess I just wanna check in with Billy and see what he is doing. Is he doing? How does he feel here in this dark horrible place? Well Billy is having uh he's he gets bored so fast. Uh huh. Um so he uh was telling himself ghost stories for a bit. Like campfire stories.

So he like piled some pebbles into like a fake fire. Yeah. And he's telling himself stories. But you know how Billy sometimes like they can be really funny and sometimes they can be really scary. Yeah. He accidentally was telling himself scary ones. So then he got too scared and he's like. I thought he was the funny one. He's like I'm fine. Everything I said was made up. So he's just talking to himself. Yeah. Um and then he was like I have to find something else to do.

And everything is pitch black. Well not pitch black but you know there's nothing to look at. Um except I guess the roots. I could try to read the roots. Oh yeah. One down here. So he's but he can't leave so he's using his bilnoculars to try to read what's on the roots. Yeah. Of the tree. Okay. Cool. Very cool. So sick. When there's nothing left to do you read. You read a book. Reading is the last resort. The bottom of the barrel and stuff to do.

My options are to stare into the blackness or read. Or accidentally read. What have I become? His imagination betrayed him this time so I read. So what is this subject Billy is interested in learning about? I guess it could be like about the gods of nature. Cause we're learning that the natural world does have gods. And how they manifest and interact with our version of the world. Yeah like has this ever happened before? Oh yeah. Oh. Right cause this tree's thousands of years old. Right.

It was probably planted before the grieving. Oh yeah definitely. It's ancient. It probably has like information about like other civilizations too like you know like the giant myths and like everything else. We've really only talked about the giants but. Well I think it's because the giants were the original people. In the world? Of the planet. What? I thought we talked about this. I think so cause they were like the builders. What about before them? Let's rule Spout Lore.

I feel like I've said too much. I like that. In the middle of the tree of the rings there is like a few dark rings. Where the outer dark was more present. You know what I mean like. Yeah. There's a black ring. If you were gonna cut this tree down there would be one of the rings that was black. Yeah. And it grew within this darkened area. That's cool. Yeah. And there were runes from that year. Totally. So plus intelligence what'd you get? I got ten. Oh wait no. No I got eight. Oh thank god.

Son of a bitch. Fuck. Fucking ass. So it's interesting but not useful. Keep in mind. No. This is no. But I mean we can talk about the subject. It's just it won't be necessarily useful to your current situation. Jessica's so pissed off right now. Jessica hates not winning. She does. That's what it is. Wow. You want to win. She's just like I'm gonna read it into her hoodie. You're a natural born winner. And there she goes. Oh and her headphones. Her headphones. Priceless headphones.

Okay well I feel like I should probably say more. Now she looks like Clover. She looks like we're playing with the girl from the ring. Take a picture. Jessica look over here. That's what you look like. This is the reaction to a partial success whereas I have failed 99% of all. Of all of my roles. Head held high. Right so something that I think we have danced around is the fact that McCall, the McCallan Empire which I think maybe we'd oh I think Abdul and I maybe just discussed this.

McCall is the original word for the empire of giants. Ooh. Neat. Ooh. I don't remember this conversation at all. You rarely do. Do is it also okay you know how we've never named our world? Yes. That's why I thought you were gonna say that. Is the world like named like Maka or something? Oh yeah. And the giants were the original inhabitants of the planet. They were the first civilization. That we know of. That we know of. That's cool.

But as far as the elves are concerned the giants were the first. Whoa. They spanned the globe. They were great builders and great in the capital T capital G sense. The great builders. Sorry I just had a thought. And this is why their bones were obsidian because they were crafted from the sky. Oh yeah. They need to be made of something. Yes. Yeah. Was that what you were gonna say? The origin story.

They were basically yeah they were basically as far as the tales go the reason for their obsidian bones is they were basically the children of the night sky. They were Gibbous' children? Kind of yeah. Whoa. The elves believe at least in terms of folklore that the giants were created by the gods. Wow. Cool. This is fucking sick. I like that. I like that that means the sunstone is originally in opposition of the obsidian. The sunstone we had said that they used it. Yes. To commune with the sky.

Yeah. Cool. It was opposite but not in opposition. Yeah. You need it all. Exactly. It was part of the balance. Of the world. Yeah. That's sick. And living giants are different than obsidian. Uh huh. Um of course bones are different than rock. Yeah. Though they have the same properties in this respect. The death of the giants led to an imbalance in the influence of night. Yeah. Because as more giants basically became stone. Yeah.

That influence of like because we say the Gibbous man is the god of the sky. Yeah. He is the night and the day. Oh. But the night began to outweigh the day with the death of the giants. Like in his aspect he became more night than day. Totally. And I mean this is more like um myth than it is anything that matters. You know what I mean? It's kind of color. And it does not answer the question that you guys were asking. So let's talk more about what Billy might have been interested in. Yeah.

Because I have a feeling Billy would see like ancient giant empire and would be like boring. Yeah. His eyes would glaze over. Yeah. Okay. He would think about McCall and be like oh so sweaty there. I'm moving on. He just sees the name McCall and is like yuck. His thighs start getting pimples on the insides of them. No, no, no. He learns the true nature of the planet and he's just like so hot. And then moves over it. Can't help it. He's just an idiot. Yeah.

But he is looking for the Gibbous man I suppose. Right? Yeah. Was that poem again that you like made up last episode or the episode like last recording? Oh yeah. Chains Broken became Chains Forged. Uh huh. When Moon threw off her yoke. Uh huh. And Father Night was cast away to walk among the folk. So Chains Broken became Chains Forged. Oh. Maybe he, so his thing is he needs to go back to the sky. Mm-hmm.

Maybe he doesn't realize that him casting all these obsidian coins everywhere is what's, he's locking himself to the material plane. Oh. He's anchoring himself here. He's doing it to himself. He's doing it to himself. The more he asserts influence on the material plane, the more he anchors himself here. Yeah. So we can use that against him. Yeah. So it would make sense then for like those coins that turn white. It's actually helping him. Oh.

Like where it's like if you cast off the, the knight off it. Yeah. Yeah. Then it's just, you know, piece of stone or glass. Yeah. It basically like takes the part of like the outer dark that's within it, the piece of him. Uh huh. And it like gets rid of it. Yeah. So it releases it. Yeah. It's like the spirit of it if that makes sense. Yes. Yeah. Which is why the demon is trapped in white obsidian. Cause then it doesn't have that like transmission point anymore. Yeah. Yeah.

So it's stuck in the physical coin. Yes. As opposed to being like a conduit from the dark. Yes. Yeah. It's, it's basically like closing a door on that demon. Whoa. Which means the gibbous man can't watch through those. It's just the demon in there. Ah. Cause it's just walked now. It belongs to earth. Yes. Yeah.

And it also means that if the gibbous man wants to undo the thing that he's done to himself in like reclaiming all of the pieces of himself that he's had to plant in the world to exert his influence. He's gonna need a thing that can shatter all these fucking coins. TLC. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Cool. Cause I think Bill Lee came upon a story of like um, like it's like an old myth story like old, very old and it talks about like the eyes of the spider and stuff like that.

And like the spider's web and things like that. Yeah, I like that. And the web was so large that the spider like he couldn't protect his web on his own. Like it was too big for him. He had eyes everywhere. He had eyes everywhere and so he had to grow more eyes and take parts of himself to place eyes everywhere. But like all it did was like. Make him more vulnerable. Make him more vulnerable. Yeah. Whoa. That's really cool. Fuck. That's a great parable or whatever. Thank you. That's sick.

That's fucking sick. And that makes so much sense too that like maybe he wants TLC. Because the first time that Tuck like smashed a coin was in McCall to stop the demon of ambition. And if he can see through the coins up until that point he must have been like what the fuck was that? Yeah. And then was like I need to find those people. Uh huh. Interesting. Cause that was kind of when like that was when the Medjai started coming after us. Yeah. That was when. When things got really hard. Yeah.

Yeah. Got dark. Yeah. When the narrative entity that is the end of the story saw us for the first time. Interesting. Totally. And I think I bet the Gibbous man would have taken it as like a threat to his like safety. Like if your sight's cut off you're like whoa what the fuck. Like that's automatically a threat. But really it's it's like that's what he needs. But has he realized that? That is beyond what you would know. Okay. Does he know that he if he had TLC that it would help him free?

We would know. There's no way for anybody to know that. Uh huh. But the fact that Billy realizes that the coins are actually chaining him. Like he is chaining himself in trying to expand his influence. That's huge. Yeah. So interesting and pretty useful. Fuck. But more so interesting. More interesting. More interesting. It's so much more interesting that it is useful that it's basically not useful. Like I can't use it to make myself dinner right now. So it's so not useful. That is a great point.

Anyway thank you guys for helping. That was awesome. That was really good job. I fucking love it. Huge world building. And the spider story. The spider like removing his eyes to like oh that's so fucking good. I'm pleased with that. I love how there's like a little connection to that like that myth. The spider and the hummingbird. Yeah. Like the scorpion and the frog. The scorpion and the frog. Yeah. And the spider myth that Abdul wrote for the Almanac about like prophecy.

I thought that was an intentional connection. Oh no. I was thinking about like the scorpion and the frog. Then it's a perfect like. Wow. Yeah. Oh it's so good. You know the thing where like sometimes in myths gods are good and sometimes they're bad and then they morph over time. There must be like some interpretations of like those like progenitor myths where it's like oh the spider was gibbous. Like but like others where it's like no that's like a completely different thing. Oh yeah.

It's just now they refer to it as gibbous cause he's the modern god. Yeah. Well it's like real like dude like god. The Christian god. Yeah. Yahweh was a war god. Uh huh. In an old like Babylonian pantheon. Whoa. And then so to those people he was the god of storms. The god of war. Uh huh. But then to his cult he was the creator, the protector, the one that defended all. Cool. Yeah. So that's what you learn. What do you do? Um Billy's like I need to tell Ving and Tuck about this like right now.

So he's like what do I do? So he starts coughing and farting. As loud as he can. Tuck just took another one of those coins off Hiddleston and walked into the tent. What an idiot. We're so stupid. He's been collecting them for seven years. You cut to Tuck and we're in the medical theater and I'm like freaking out and saying the same thing or I'm just like fucking stupid collecting these fucking coins. Just dumping them in a garbage can. Stop pointing them at me. Everybody's running away.

He's like Ving you gotta take the coin and Ving's like get it away. Morse is like trying to shut all the doors to hide secrets. Get these fucking outta here. They're throwing them into a fake sky. And he grabbed the bag of coins and the axe and I'm like I'm gonna solve this forever. And he starts running to the danger room and he's gonna try and force them all out of existence like he did that one time. Wait the danger room doesn't exist anymore. Oh right.

Cause it's like a where it oh right cause you guys are in the danger room. Okay so then Tuck takes his axe and slices through one of the walls of the tent to try and find the extra dimensional space. Oh no. Tuck. Um. Did you just break? Oh no. I can't do escape route. Where did you cut through? Uh I think. You're in the medical area?

I was in the medical observatory but I imagine Tuck running back to the observatory and you know how like there's a night sky over the balcony but it's actually just two feet away. Oh no. He tries to just slice into the night sky and like shove the coins in. And then he can Billy's outside farting and coughing and yelling. When he realizes that the coins are a problem. Yeah. Yeah totally. Uh. Ah! Ving! Tuck! And then Ving's stuck between Tuck doing this possibly destructive thing.

Oh my god yeah. And then uh fart coughing. And Tuck does hear that. He hears Billy screaming and he stops. Uh huh. Billy runs in and he's like I called for you so many times. No one answered me. It's so scary out there. Oh Billy. And then Tuck drops the axe in the bag of coins and he goes to Billy. Are those the coins? Billy we found out that these things are the gibbous man's eyes. I know. I found that out too. Wow really convenient. I know so convenient.

So I guess a thing to consider is that he must know about the fanny pack and about the wizards and about all that stuff. Yeah. So maybe Billy tries to like do it in like code like shhh. I don't know what it can see. We have to hide those. Yeah we Tuck that's not for we've already had enough dinner. Yeah. You've had enough dinner. It's time to put the napkin on the plate. And then Tuck goes I was trying to put the napkin in the toilet room.

Morris do you know where there is something like a toilet room that can hide our napkins? What the fuck are you on about? Shhh. Secret time. And he looks around all over the place. And Billy trips like in quotations with like his cloak and like drapes it over the coins and he's like whoops. And then we all get really close to each other. Yeah. We bring Morel in close. Morris and Perel? Morel.

And they well Perel is still in the operating theater with uh with Dathaniel but Morris gets his little whiskery face in there. What the fuck is going on? The gibbous man can see out of those. Oh no. The coins are the spider's eyes. I don't even know if the one in my chest he can see out of or not. So we have to talk in code. Is that what we're doing right now? The napkin is the coins. The toilet is some liminal space where he can't see out of.

Are you saying that the gibbous man can see through the coins we've been getting? Shut up right now. The gibbous man that I want revenge on? Shut up. Yes. Yes. And you will not get revenge. And he looks to the coins. No. And he starts walking towards the coins. No touching. Oh no. Fuck Morris. Morris. What? If he knows what we're planning we can't get revenge on him. You can get your revenge but not now. Alright. We have to get out of here. Where can we hide these that he won't see?

And I tell him, I'm like Morris one time before we found this when the danger room was still like toilet room. When we were shooting. Is this the first that he's finding out that it was our toilet room? No. He's familiar. I shoved the coins into one of the coins into that space. Yes I'm familiar. Can I, is that a place that they give us man cannot get to? I suppose. What about the safe behind the painting? That was between worlds. What safe behind what? Oh you already know about my safe.

Sorry that's a reflex. Wouldn't that be somewhere that exists in many places and no places at once? The safe. The safe. Yeah the old safe. Would that keep it safe? Keep us safe from him? That's what it's designed for. Okay yeah let's put it there. Alright. And he picks up, he just moves over the cloak, picks up the coins, throws them over the page, just goes put those in the safe and it runs off. So I mean keep in mind that all of my work was designed with humanity in mind not the divine.

So there are considerations. One, he's a god. Two, Tarka's coins in his chest. Three, he's a god. Okay so on number two, do we think that the coins that are white he can see through? The story said no. Okay that's good news. That's good news. So you simply have a demon of some sort in your body. Mhm. That's bad. No big deal. NDD. That's whatever right now. So are we in um, I don't know I assume that we've left the forest or something? We're in a safe place?

Um Smash cut like we cut to the outside where there's no people and we see the mycelium of the fairy ring starting to recede Oh no. Back into the soil. Oh shit. Oh shit. Um we gotta get out of here you guys. We don't have much time. I shouldn't be in here right now. Okay. Billy runs out. Okay. And closes up the tent. Okay. And does Billy just like start packing up the tent? Yeah. So nobody Wait. So you close up the tent with us inside? Yeah.

I think you might have to explain to us what's happening. Oh sorry. Okay. I gotta guess I would hear you guys. And the fastest way is if I go alone. Are you saying that you wanna find Elmin on your own and just take us in the fanny pack? Yeah. If that's okay. Do you think it's okay? Yes. Do you know you can do this? I know I can do it. And I know at worst I'll open this up again. That's true. Yeah. Tuck is so apprehensive.

Like it's like this is like letting your kid go to the corner store for the first time. Yeah. To get you cigarettes. Yeah. Okay. I will mark Billy. Ah. I'll use the mark of the animal. I'm gonna use the eyes of the tiger to mark Billy. That's great. That is very good. You will be removing the mark you have on Maugath. That's okay. That's fine. This is basically like putting like one of those air tags on a kid. Yeah. Totally. Basically. Yeah. I tie it into his shoelaces. He's at the gas station.

I don't know. Yeah. He's been at the gas station for like six hours. Okay. And then Tuck is realizing that he's the mom now. Yeah. Fing realizes that he's the father now. He's like, you'll be fine. What could go wrong? He's gotta do it alone at some point. Okay. Billy, if you have things I have to tag around you, I trust you. Billy's like holding out his hands like waiting like, okay, I'll do it. Do it fast. Do it fast, Fing. I'll give you a hug and kiss on the cheek. Aww. The kiss.

The kiss is the mark. That kiss is the mark. It's the only clean part on his entire face. Yeah. Fing's lips are so dirty now. What the? Well, I did like dunk my face in blood earlier. Yeah. Right. We have not cleaned that up. Yeah. Billy, if anything happens, you open the fanny pack right away. Don't even cough, fart, yell. I won't do any of it. I'll do it real fast and quiet. And Billy emerges from the fanny pack. The last of my my little mycelium wall is receded. Yeah. Okay, be brave, Billo.

And I roll up the tent and wrap it around my waist. Billy, is a child. Yeah, I'm not doing well. Attempting to fold up a complicated tent. Oh, yeah. So it's like, it's like coming down like, you know, like it's still kind of puffed up. It's like just folding it like, I don't know how they do it. Oh my god, Morris is freaking out. No, no, that side folds in. It doubles over. We're inside and we can see like stuff happening. Like little hand prints. Yeah. Like rooms are changing size.

Is he putting it in his mouth? Why is he putting it in his mouth? Billy's like, like, yeah, like, I don't know. Is it like an envelope? Try to lubricate it to get it into itself. And it's sort of like if you fold a fitted sheet. Yeah. So he's like, good enough. Yeah. He's just bulging. He puts it around, kind of around his waist, but like tucks his shirt over it so it stays in. Yeah, nice. Perfect. And Hiddleston is passed out down here and you know that Wendy is dead around the corner.

I'm gonna use escape route. Excellent. Great idea. This is a really solid plan, by the way. I like this. I'm not gonna dilly dally. Nope. So when I'm in too deep, need a way out. I, oh yeah, name my escape route and roll plus dexterity. So I'm gonna try to find the way out that Wendy came in. Yeah. You're literally in too deep. You are deep in the earth. I'm scared. This is perfect. Come on, do it. Do it, Billy. Do it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, plus dexterity. Oh, ten. Oh my god. Fuck yes.

You got eight plus two. Okay. This is us watching from the inside. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, you got plus two. That's amazing. Everyone's just standing around Ving like he's a radio. Yeah. Yeah, so I'm like leaping over like the roots and stuff like that. And I can see Wendy's footprints. Yes. It's quite muddy down here. And you follow her footprints like back into another side tunnel up a route. Oh, she ran a long way. Yeah, she's quick. She's fleet of foot. Yeah.

Which means, unfortunately, because you said it and I agreed, that you come up quite a ways away from the action. Okay. Like you're, I think. Am I still in the I think you're still in the garden. Okay. Yes. I think you haven't entered into like the chambers, but you're in the garden itself. But you come up pretty close to the walls on the other side of where you were. Like you know you'd have to go through either the garden or the cloister to get to Elman's quarters. Okay. But there are guards.

There are gardeners wandering to and fro. There are armed like military elves. Oh shit. Stomping around. And you see the like the callousness with which they treat the garden. Okay. Stomping through. And I feel like there are gardeners like actually holding weapons. Like looking uncomfortable about it. Yeah. A few gardeners have like scythes and sickles. And are yeah walking around very apprehensively. Are they like concentrated in an area?

Like if I were to use fairy dust to make them fall asleep, would that kind of create enough of like a quiet zone where I can Yeah. They're not super concentrated, but you would be able to either take down the guards or the gardeners. And a gardener a very apprehensive looking young elf girl has a sickle and is walking down a row of bushes including your bush like poking. Oh shit. The bushes. I back up against the like garden wall. Yeah. And I try to shoot out some fairy dust. Okay. Yeah.

Perfect. 2d6 plus charisma I assume. Come on. Nine. So I believe you choose one between you can get a bunch of people, you can do it from a distance and they stay asleep for a long time. For a long time. So you basically since you don't do it from a distance you like wait for her to get close to you and just like poof. And it hits her right in the face. She sees you and there's like a moment of alarm. She's like Yeah. And that gasp she breathes in a bunch of fairy dust.

And then and flops into a bush. I steal her sickle. Ah. Nice. You have a weapon now. Yeah. Terrifying Billy with a sickle. Yeah. Okay. Now you got to get across. Are you going over the garden wall or through the garden wall? I will. I'm going to go over the garden wall. Nice. Okay. Defy danger dexterity to climb up the garden wall. Vingatuck have popcorn at this point. Yeah. Yeah totally. Billy's in full stealth mode. Yeah. Eight. Eight.

You scuttle over to the garden wall and start climbing up the old ancient wood of the roots that have been turned into this structure. And like an old PS2 stealth game the camera sees like a guard has a question mark over his head and turns and is like huh? And starts walking over to where you are. You haven't been found out but they like caught movement out of the corner of their eye. Oh shit. Basically as you get over the top of the wall. I'm just going to book it. Yeah. Uh.

Can I use escape route again or is that too many times? You should be able to use it again. Okay. Yeah. Ten. Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. So you just book. Yeah. You use your scary agility and your thiefly intelligence to sprint as much as your tiny little legs will allow. So crouched? Yeah. And you hear as you're running away Hey! Wake up! She's like being shaken Uh oh. By this but since you used a long time he's like hey! And you're able to slip in to the cloister itself.

What's inside the cloister? Like are there, is there furniture that Billy can kind of like traverse around? Yeah. Yeah I think there's like you know. All sneakily. Chairs and places with flowers and stuff on it. It's basically a big ring structure with like corridors and rooms as a part of that big ring. Uh but you do recall that you're sort of close to Elman's quarters. Is there any like little anything I can disguise myself with? You can discern realities. Okay. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it.

Uh nine. Okay. What here is useful or valuable to me? Uh there is a bucket next to a mop. Actually that's perfect. Yeah. So I squeeze it to the bucket. Yeah. Like over, like overturned. Yeah. Yeah. I use the how big's the sickle? Sickles aren't huge. Sickles aren't huge. Billy's aren't huge. The sickle is about as tall as Billy. Oh shit. Can it fit in there with me? Yeah but you got a big ol' razor sharp sickle in your face. I'm risking it. Yeah. Alrighty I'm covered in blood.

And we hear Billy say that Yeah. From inside and we're like what the fuck? Why is he risking it? Why is he running with a knife? And then he brings it really close up into his face. No no no no no. To carve little eye holes out of the bucket. Holy shit. Oh I see. Be careful. Be careful. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. This makes the bucket way more useful so you're gonna have to roll for this I think. Uh 2d6 plus dexterity. Yeah I gotta do it like without dying. Seven. Oh my god. Seven to nine.

You're only able to get one eye hole. That's fine. Which means your peripheral vision is dog shit in this bucket. It's okay. Actually I am so good with just one eye cause that's how thieves like thieves look around. Just one eye open. Out of the one eye. Alright so now Billy's in a bucket with a hole in it. And there are gardeners and guards in lesser numbers than those in the garden itself.

And now this is a cartoon where we see a shot of like a bucket moving and then a guard walks by and it stops. There's a hole in your bucket. Dear Billy. Dear Billy. So I think this is going to be I wanna say defy danger Oh it's wisdom or charisma. Cause it's no longer. Charisma cause I gotta move like a bucket. Yeah. You have to move like a bucket. Like a bucket. Alright charisma. Nice. That's a funny enough explanation. Yeah.

Well cause I'm thinking it's either like knowing when to stop or knowing how to pretend to not be there. Yeah. Nine. Okay perfect seven to nine. You get so it's stop. You're stopping at all the mops on the way. Yeah. Hopscotching the mops on the way in. There's a lot. There's so many mops. There's so many mops. They do a lot of cleaning. Yeah. And you get to Elman's door and you wait like a bucket would wait. Like in a bucket's worth amount of time. Yeah. And I'm going do do do do do do do do.

And then Tug inside is like why the fuck is he singing? Go. Go. Go. Stop singing. Let's go into the god damn room Billy. Stop singing and go. They just trust the bucket process. And you wait the appropriate amount of time for the guards to leave. And you sneak in the door. And you see there Elman's cutting in the pot. Nice. Held in the hands of first gardener Malgath. Oh fuck. Am I still in the bucket? And that's where we're going to end it for this week. I'm your Game Master Sean O'Hara.

Joining me as always playing Tacoma Dome with the Barbarian Abdulaziz. So long. Playing Ving the Half Elf Druid Paul Hoppers. Take care. And playing Fat Billy the Halfling Thief Jessica Tai. Bye. Bye everybody. Thank you to Aaron Reid for our intro and outro music. You can find all of Aaron's original music at aaronreid.bandcamp.com and all the music produced for the show at soundcloud.com Thank you to all of our susporters around the world.

If you would like to susport the show and get access to a bunch of cool things check out patreon.com slash spoutlore or spoutlore.com slash money please. And thank you finally and most of all to you for listening. We'll see you next time.

And so ends the tale of adventures three who tried the best they can though dumb and scared and lost they be for time's 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 gladly spoutlore

Hi there Spellorians, Abdul here with a special pre-show announcement to let all of our Monarch level patrons know that we are currently shipping out your Christmas merch drop, which this year is a beautifully crafted dice advent calendar that's a collaboration between our very own Jessica Tai and the amazing people over at Fantasy by Numbers.

Just like last year's advent calendar, this one has another dungeon crawly type design, but this year the dungeon crawl features the cool treat kids from our bonus show and it tries to solve the mystery of who stole Clover's diary. If you're not a Monarch and you'd also like an advent calendar, then you're in luck. We will be releasing this new advent calendar in our merch store this Thursday, November 23rd after all the Monarch ones have shipped out.

And if you can't wait, then you can head to our store right now and snag one of the advent calendars with last year's design on it, which is a Spout Lore themed calendar. Also there, you'll find all the other amazing Spout Lore merch designed by the incredibly talented people over at Fantasy by Numbers. You can find all of that at www.speltlore.com slash merch or fantasybynumbers.ca slash Spout Lore. Links for those will be in the show notes. And now, on to the episode.

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-elf, he shifts his shape And wields a spear with great might Billy's a thief, his tiny size Does mask the largest heart Best and brightest They may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts So gather round, friends And listen close For the tale's about to start Hello everybody and welcome to Spout Lore.

I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always playing Tacoma Dome, the barbarian, Abdul Aziz. Hello everybody. Playing Ving, the half-elf druid, Paul Oppers. Hi! Hey everyone. And playing Fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica Tai. Hello everyone. When last we left our heroes, they had engaged in an extreme study session and came out of that study session aggressively in the room of Elman, junior gardener at the cloister of the heart tree in Heartwood City.

And he aided the party in their infiltration of the garden to learn more about the sickness at the heart of the wood. And they, they attended the morning salutations of the gardeners, observing an ancient ritual in which they all acted like fucking buffoons and still somehow made it through. We were briefly attempting to interrogate first gardener Malgath about the fate of Ileana, to which she refused to speak and also warned you against doing the same.

We went to the conery, a room in which all of the cones from the heart tree of knowledge are kept, and we went to the conery, a room in which all of the cones from the heart tree of knowledge are kept, investigating a record of gardeners past, finding that Ileana was not only not included on the list of first gardeners, because Malgath would have been alive at that point.

So she was likely still first gardener, but realizing through the connection of dots that it is very likely that the court had no problem with Ileana being a wizard, at least at first, lending more credence to the political nature of her death. Mm-hmm.

We used Eye of the Tiger to see first gardeners, gardener Malgath speaking with some representatives of the Sun Peaks that we had spied on our wander through the cloister at first, including a sinister elf who looked very dangerous, that is supposedly an agent, quote unquote, of the Sun Peaks, and their determination to capture infiltrators that you assumed probably rightfully so to be yourselves. Would be funny if it was just a completely coincidentally difference.

It's like Fenton and Franklin and Clover. Yeah, exactly. The guys who were breaking in and- Vance. Oh, the Vance gang? Yeah. They're back. We tricked and trapped and snuck our way through the cloister to the garden itself, avoiding the sinister looking elf, Tom Hiddleston style. There's a lot of us walking casually. Yeah. Casually in quotes. Yeah. Pretending, putting on hats and grabbing trowels and being like, we're going outside. We love beans. Can't get enough of these beans.

The thing was sliding his feet along the floor and saying casual, casual, casual, casual. Which is the most casual way you can walk in elf society. So it worked perfectly. In the garden itself, we snuck around, saw some plants, figured out that there were some other people in the garden, including Nesh, the undercover ranger from Dathaniel's Talon, whom we are not completely sure if we can trust or not.

The party made their way to the far side of the tree, Billy stopping them and explaining that they need, to make some sort of offering to be welcomed to the tree. And here's where things started going pretty bad. They were going bad before this. They were going pretty bad before, but this was like a lot of failures all in a row. Yeah. Ving attempted to commune with the plants of the garden and attempt to offer some water from the well in Hibernia. That failed.

The plant saying that there was no hope of getting the sickness out of this place. Tuck attempted to tune into a sort of discomfort he'd been feeling upon entrance to the garden. Which did not go well. No. He smashed an obsidian coin to offer to Larry, Terry and Chad to implore their aid. And all of this coalesced into some sort of awakening and awareness within the tree and the earth opening up beneath the party to swallow them whole. Yeah. As they fell, they heard a cough and a fart.

And that is where we find out. That is where we find our friends. Now. Now. Falling. Farting. Hearing. Coughing. Loving. Living. Laughing. Farting. Loving. Farting. What do we have? Do I have? I don't have any weapons. I didn't. I haven't described what my gardening tools are. Yeah. I mean, like, I think you guys all discussed that you had your weapons on you when you got here. So you've been disguised. I think you can safely say like Tuck has TLC disguised as a trowel. I have a bow.

I'm going to shoot an arrow up into the mouth of the hole and try. I secure a rope. Okay. Yep. That's a lot of gear that you have. So are you, you're falling and you're taking a rope and you're wrapping it around an arrow and then you're loading your bow. Don't be an asshole. I just want to make sure. Don't force me to justify this thing that I'm doing. I'll stick a rake in the dirt. I have a rake. I'm going to try and slam a rake in the side and clutch it and grab on to Tuck. Sounds great.

This is going to be strength, I guess. 2d6 plus strength. Nice. I got 12. That's insane. So you slam the rake into the mouth of the hole and like the handle kind of jams into the other side, creating like a cross beam of sorts and you're just grabbing on. And I wanted to reach out for Tuck and Billy. Okay. So you reach out and you grip your friends. Now you're hanging over the mouth of this hole. Okay. Swing over to the side. Can we like latch on the side? I assume there's roots and stuff.

There's lots of roots and dirt and debris hanging down. Like it looks like an underground cavern. It is an underground. Yeah. It absolutely is. Can we see the bottom of it? You can't see the bottom, but like the light filters down telling you that there is more hole. Can I make a willow the wisp and send it down? So the wicker the wisp appears. There she goes. Yeah. So the bell, you hear the bell ring. That is her like little fairy meow as she hops down. Oh, down all the roots. Yeah.

Boing, boing, boing down to the bottom. And the hole is not massive. I think there's maybe like 20 more feet. Is there a hole above us or does it close over? It closes over. It does the roots and the earth. Mostly the roots. You can see the roots like raising up and sort of knitting the earth back together above you. So it gets dark. It gets very dark. But the wicker the wisp is casting quite a bit of light and it pats down about 20, 30 feet below you. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Climb down.

It's like, please climb down. Right. Everybody's been hanging. Oh, right. Oh, right. They grabbed me by the ankle and I've kind of just been hanging there. It's like, take over. Don't be having fun with the echo. Billy, let's go. And I basically like just bounce off the roots. Nice try. Roll two D six plus dexterity. Okay. You're falling like try to bounce down the roots. Six. So with the dexterity. Yeah, that's unfortunate. Oh, shit. Okay. You can roll a D eight. Oh, my God. God. Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. So much. Oh, there's one rock down here. Yeah. Billy lands on the rock. How many? How many HP do you have? 15. So you took six. No, no, no. Sorry. I had 21 full. Okay. And now I have 15. And then tuck looks up at Vig and he was like, why did you tell him to climb down? He's a little boy. I'm sorry. You're 20 feet up. It was an instinct. I'm so sorry. Please climb down. I look up and there's like a big cut across my forehead with a ton of blood coming out. Oh, my God.

I'm like, I'm fine. Oh, no. Oh, my God. Vig likes to go of the rake and falls. Okay. Yeah. You guys are just falling. Yeah. So how are you trying to not hurt yourself? Light as a feather. Okay. Yeah. On the roots down. Great. So 2D6 plus dexterity, I believe, for light as a feather. Oh, I got eight. Okay, great. So on to seven to nine. Something goes wrong. GM tells you what? He lands on Billy. Billy takes six more damage. Oh, yeah. Oh, God.

I wonder if your rake, AKA, is a little bit more of a spear. Yeah. In the roots. Oh. Like in the ground above, because you said you let go of it. Yeah, I did say that. So your rake, which was your spear, but disguised, is stuck in the mouth of this hole. Oh, my God. Tuck, how are you dealing with this? I'm just like trying to avoid Billy, and I'm going to just take the fall to avoid Billy. Smart. So unbowed, unbent, unbroken, I guess? Yes. Okay.

So when you prepare yourself to endure some hardship without fighting back, role play, plus constitution, on a hit, you take half damage. Okay. Ten. Sorry, what's a ten plus? Ten plus, take half damage. So yeah, D8. There we go. Eight. Whoa! So half damage is four. Four. And then I have three armor. Minus your armor, yeah. So just one. Wow. That's unbelievable. I just only took one damage on an eight roll. Yeah. So you straight up hit the ground like a fucking meteor, just like boom.

And then you're like, oh. Oh, man. Yeah. And then I get up and I'm like, I'd like to see Tom Hiddleston fucking fall like that and be fine about it. Can I use a pull test against Billy? Billy's trapped in a tree root, so he can't go anywhere. He can't get away from the goo. I mean, unless Billy really doesn't want the goo. No, it's fine. He's trapped, so. Also, this is just smart, given that we're going into such a fucked up situation. I know. We could just get beaten the shit out of. Yeah.

Heal them of seven damage. Great. Oh, shit. Oh, thank you. You're welcome. So now your little cut on your forehead is like smushed closed and pasted closed with like a goo. I painted the goo in the shape of a little kitty cat. It's like being feeling really guilty. It's like face paint. Like it's like little cat face paint for Billy. Even though Billy is the one who let go. Yeah. So Billy's touched it and like licking it. Like, mm. Yeah. That'll just keep healing you. You just keep doing that.

Herbs and spices. Mm, it tastes like KFC. So you find yourself deep beneath the earth in a cavern. The cavern. The cavern. The cavern. The cavern. The light of the bill of the wisp is illuminating the cavern around you. It's not a terribly large cave mouth and it seems like at least at first glance, it is sort of a natural result of the roots and the earth and the movement of tectonic plates over time flowing water. So this seems like a natural formation, at least where you are.

Does it look like it's well traveled? No. Okay. Can I discern realities about it? Yes. Two to six plus wisdom. Okay. I got five. Oh man. Oh no. Oh no. So much experience. Okay. That's going to be level 22. So the doom is all encompassing. Oh shit. Your vision is filled with like the crumbling burning earth that you dream of and you see your friends around you standing in the mouth of hell itself and the coins in your chest, the shards that you have been harboring for these many months.

I was going to say burn, but it's not a burning. It's a deep aching bone chill. Okay. So you're going to take a debility to constitution. Oh, I like that. There's like dry ice almost like coming out and falling off his chest. Oh yeah. Is that like, yeah. Oh, you guys can see that it's almost like my skin is freezing. Yeah. Like there is like a cold rolling off of me just like there was off the tree. Oh my God. So Tuck doesn't usually get affected by the weather, but Tuck you feel cold. Yeah.

What do you do? I look like shit. I think like Tuck is like sweating and like, like he looks like he's got a fever I think cause he's like bone cold and also like sick sweat and then also like depressed now. Oh no. And he's seeing things. Yeah. What's going on with your chest? Are you doing okay? Uh, yeah. Tuck is, uh, yeah. Tuck lets you guys know cause this, he knows he's a liability now. I think in most situations he would just like push through whatever till the end of what we're doing.

But like he's, I think he's aware that what he's seeing isn't real and that he can't really perceive his surroundings very well. So he's like, I'm pretty fucked up right now. I can't see. I can't see. And I think the corner of my chest is mad at me. I have that obsidian knife with the brass handle. Like can we try like cutting it out of me? Can we try some like surgery right now? Interesting. How deep are they? They're surface level. Not surface level, but you can see them. They're embedded.

Yeah. It'd be messy. It would be messy. It's going to be a messy thing. But you've done worse to yourself. I have three poultice left and half a bottle of alcohol. Three poultice left and half a bottle of wine would wine. I also have, I don't know if it would do anything. Golden root. What does golden root do again? Golden root makes people friendly. Yeah. Give me some of that golden root. I have oil of taget. Oh wait, I have ghost root. Yeah. Isn't there something ghost root?

Ghost root interrupts iconic influence. Yes. Yes. Oh. I also have a teapot. Give me everything. Everybody just give me all your pills and drugs and I'm going to take them now and then you guys cut this shit out of my chest. You have a teapot. I have Amma's teapot. What does that do? Let's make some ghost root tea. What did he say the teapot does? I think he just gave you a teapot. Yeah. What a useless fucking gift.

I mean, you also never used it, so it's hard to say if there's a- That's because it's so useless. I mean, yeah, the ghost root is a very interesting idea. Should we, Tuck is like, should we do the surgery here? Should we open up the fanny pack and try and use- Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Is it feel like a moment that we can take a pause or is it something that this has come over you suddenly? We need to do this now. I'll just lay out how I'm thinking about it. One thing that we know is you guys are alone and you've been hiding the fanny pack. This is a fine place to hide it. You're completely alone. But do we think that the fanny pack is a safe place from iconic and demonic influence or that you are risking something? Like exposing them? Exactly. Like exposing Perel and Morris.

Yeah. Like would you be basically putting another target on yourself by opening this like magically potent object here? Okay. No, we have to do it sans tent. And also the other thing is do you want to start cutting into Tuck's body here? Or do you think that it would make more sense to the party in the moment to do this ghost root thing to just like hop a bunch of ghost root or whatever to protect yourself in the moment and hope that you can take care of it later? Let's see. At least see what…

Let's start… Let's start with the ghost root. Sure. Let's troubleshoot this. First aid. You know what I mean? Yeah. Let's triage it. Yeah, exactly. Cool. Yeah. Do whatever. I feel like shit right now. So whatever you do, just do it fast. So Tuck pukes. Oh my God. Yeah. How much ghost root do we think you have dose wise? I want to say three. Three seems… Reasonable. Okay. Okay. So one use is gone. Yeah.

And Tuck is just eating it raw, but in a more controlled dose because the problem was before that he ate a bunch of it. I ate the whole thing. Yeah, exactly. What does ghost root taste like raw? Like ginger, like raw ginger. Yeah. So it's pretty intense. Yeah. It's spicy. Like raw cocaine. It tastes like raw cocaine. But it's kind of garlicky too. You got that like bite of garlic. Yeah. It tastes like ginger and garlic together so much. It sounds so good. It's really burning all of my sinuses.

It's a problem. It sucks that it's like so dangerous to cook with because it's fucking tasty when you cook with it. Oh, fun. So you swallow this raw ghost root. You feel the cold recede. The debility is still there. But you do not feel as quite an acute sense of dread as you did above ground. Can I see you now? You can see for sure. Yeah. Your vision is not tumultuous burning ruin anymore. Okay. You can see your friends and you can see the dark, miserable cave that you find yourself in now.

It basically puts you in the point that you still feel like shit, but it puts you in the place where you can barrel forward. Okay. Exactly. Yeah. But if you were to stumble just a little bit, you think you'd see that vision again. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, Tuck steals himself and he's like, all right, I'm good enough that I can keep going now. And hopefully there are no side effects to ghost root. Can I have the rest of the ghost root just in case stuff comes up and I just, I can eat it.

I can just eat it straight away. I give Tuck my two doses of ghost root. Oh, I don't know if you should do that. This stuff's not addictive, right? What do you do? Is there a wind coming? Is there a direction of the wind? Yeah. I think. Follow the cold wind. Exactly. And I think it's like the path that all of you can take. I think there are small, weird fissures all over the place, but the largest path is ahead of you. Great. And it seems to be the one where the wind is coming from. Okay.

He pulls out one of his sunstone torches that he has too. Yeah. Oh, nice. Yeah. I give one to Tuck. I have two. I take it. Billy, do you want one of these? You got will-o-wisps. Oh, thank you. There you go. So here's where the GM's burden has arrived. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. We have previously determined that sunstone has an effect on iconic forces as well. Oh, shit. Oh, wait. But isn't it? In a good way. Oh. It's not the magic bullet.

That's not what I'm saying. It's not the golden gun. Yeah. I'm just saying that within the light of these sunstone torches, you feel a little safer. Oh. Oh, great. Cool. Because the darkness here is oppressive. Okay. And oppressive not just in a dark sense, but in like it is attempting to oppress you. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Oh. Oh. Tunnels. It's like willfully walking along a spider web. Exactly. Yeah. Spooky.

Whatever lurks at the heart of this is aware of you. The hunger is driving us towards itself. Yes. You feel if you are outside of the light for a moment, you feel this like, whatever I want is right ahead. Uh-huh. And I just have to find it. Teal's here low-key freaking out too. Aww. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. What are they saying? Uh, we're fine, man. We're fine. We're fine, but please don't leave us behind, okay? No, it's chill, dude. You know what? Just post in the bag maybe.

We'll be there when you need us for sure, but oh my God. One of them is doing so many chin-ups, but like in a way that it's clear it's not okay. Yeah. I was just a fucking rock like a year and a half ago and that was so chill. I don't want to be a troll. The nature of rock is to chill, man. This is not the nature of rock. Chill. I don't want to be a fucking axe anymore. Remember when we didn't have names? It was so nice. Remember when we weren't a we?

Yeah, so you were just continuing down this tunnel. Oh, I have my bow with the ready. Yeah. Arrow notched. And TLC are in axe form again. You've dismissed the illusion? Yeah. I think the glamour. Is everybody cool with that? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because it takes effort on Billy's part to keep it going. Like I'm too tired in this place. Yeah. Maybe as soon as you land on that rock. Oh, yeah. It's done. Oh, yeah. That makes sense. Like it's just you hear it. You hear the illusion shatter in the ferry.

It's like so yeah, everybody looks themselves again. Dirty ragged. Awesome. Oh, man. Okay. So here we are beneath the heart tree. Do we see anything? What do we see? Oh, trap expert. Trap expert would be a good move. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Eleven. Okay. Eleven. So you get three hold. Is there a trap here? And if so, what activates it? I don't think so. Okay. Yeah. I do not believe there is a trap here. I it feels spooky. Yeah.

Because it's the only time you've ever said that. Yeah. And you know what that means is that there is a trap here and we're in it already. Yeah. Billy's like a figure, but you know, I just want to double check. No, no, no. Make no mistake. Whatever is at the center of this tree wants you there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's almost like too easy to get there. We could just stand here and get there. Yeah. Yeah. As the earth like royals beneath your feet a little bit and you move like imperceptibly forward.

So I guess because we're in the trap, what does it do when activated? Okay. So you like even through the little light that you are casting with your tiny little sunstone torch, you know that if you go to the center of this tree, wherever this darkness lies, you will get everything you could possibly ever want. Nice Billy. Do you hear what it said? Yeah. We heard what Sean said. Yes. Billy, you are not to keep walking. Billy, this is a bad place. Anything it's telling you is wrong. Right.

Everything is wrong, even though I want it. What else is hidden here within the dirt walls within the soil in the roots? Things move like what creatures dangerous ones that have been drawn. You think to the darkness. Oh shit. Things that live beneath the earth. You see you out of the corner of your eye, a flash of legs. Spider carapace. What is it that shining insectoid segments burrowing through the dirt millipedes centipedes the like the worms in my hair like moving around a lot. Gross Billy.

Let us save you Billy's pulling him out. I don't like it anymore. I was like, whoa. Yeah. Do you throw the knowledge worms? I know those two can stand just the regular earthworms that I've put in the regular worms and they immediately they hit the floor and they start digging immediately almost as if they're afraid. Can't believe I ever let those on me. The tremors of your footsteps seem to be drawing things near as in the walls and the ceiling and the floor. Earth starts to move.

Chittering sounds can be heard. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Should I back up? The light of your sunstone torches seems to be keeping these things at bay, but you know if they get even a shred of an opportunity, they will take it. So we keep casting the sunstone torches about. And things proceed further into the roots. Yeah, that's what I fucking thought. So you are safe for now. So like the thing that we can kind of interpret is that everything is iconically controlled right now. Maybe not everything.

You can't be certain that the things in the in the dirt are controlled iconically or just attracted to this place. Okay. The things that are attracted to the evil places and the dark secret hidden things. Yeah. But they do seem large and they do seem dangerous and they've been feeding on the roots of a knowledge tree for God knows how long. Oh, yeah. Which like we know it affects the way things develop. Yeah. Carry on. I do want to ask a couple of questions.

So I have iron will when you are subject to mind control or magic that influences your feelings. You may choose to take one D4 damage ignores armor and ignore the influence. Interesting. Then yeah, you can choose to take one D4 damage. You will not be able to resist this with your armor though. Yeah. So I can take one D4 damage and like absolutely disregard the effect of like whatever it is at the core of the tree at least on your emotions. Okay.

So like the hunger that other people are feeling I can kind of be clear of that. Yeah, I guess so. Okay, cool. Tuck wants to do that roll a D4 which is the pyramid one one damage. Nice. How do what is what is Tuck do? How does this work? I've never used it before so I have to think about it now. I also wonder if like TLC mediates it a bit. I think that you initially think that that's what it is the protection of TLC.

Okay, but you feel so completely disconnected from whatever it's attempting to do like it's like it's talking to somebody else. Uh-huh and it just rolls right off you. Yeah, I think there's like a kind of like when Tuck was a kid there was like a place he would go in his mind that was like an empty place that like when stuff was bad, he could just like not feel anything. Yeah. Yeah, just a just a comfortable nothingness. Yeah, total absence of self.

Yeah, I think and I think he kind of like just like uses that again weaponized dissociation. Yeah, totally like forget it. I'm nothing. Yeah great. So yeah, your mind feels clear and you see Billy like rubbing his hands together like it's all in front of me. I want it and Tuck like he pulls a like a puzzle box. He has the puzzle box still and he wants to distract Billy with it just in case be like Billy. I think there might be something really cool in this puzzle box. No way.

Yeah, I think something real cool is in here. I think there's that he shakes it. I think there might be a bunch of marbles in this puzzle box. No way. Give that to me. I don't know Billy. I want this. What do you want for it? You want to ride on my shoulder while you try and solve it and then we'll split the marbles. If you do solve it. It's 70%. Okay. Yeah, sure. Okay. Okay. He's even haggling 70%. What is that? Is he haggling with marbles?

So I give it to him and I put him on my shoulder just so I can keep him a little closer. Just let me win. I got you. He's got a nice head as a parent. He has that thing where he's like, fuck you, you little fucking bitch. I'm going out of my way to help you right now. Billy's just like making fun of Tuck. Like, wow, I've really got one over you. Really got steamrolled. You lip cut. Okay. So actually, now that this has been reintroduced, something to consider.

Is Billy trying to solve this puzzle box? Trying to solve the puzzle cube? Yeah. So the puzzle cube was broken. Oh, yeah. By Tuck. But is Billy still able to work on it? Yeah, he's just like, there must be another way. 2d6 plus wisdom. You know what? Against all odds, Billy, you're like investigating this cube and you're like, there's got to be more to this. And you know what? I think it's partially because you've like met Morris. Now you've hung out with Morris who made the puzzle box.

You're like, fuck me. There is more to this. Like, it's not just a physical thing. It's like an orthogonal object. So there's metaphysical space to be messed with. I'm like, okay, so I know there's a drawer in here that goes way further than it looks like it goes. Yeah, exactly. There's a drawer that you had. Bing feels in the fanny pack around his waist. He's like, whoa, what the hell was that? Oh, that's interesting. Yeah.

So there's like, yeah, Billy has actually discovered some sort of metaphysical aspect. Yeah, he squeezed his hand into like this crack in it. And it's like going really deep. What the fuck? Where is this coming out? Tuck is coming out. He's like, I'm gonna go inside. He's like, it's probably better than him looking at the creepy crawly things that are trying to kill us. So we'll keep that in mind. Billy, we keep walking down the tunnel as Billy is uncovering this magical puzzle box.

Looking for marbles. Yeah, he's like singing a song himself. Uh-huh. It's like when you give your kid at like you'd clock that there's a bad accident on the highway and you're like, hey, do you want to watch a video for a second? What's Ving feeling in all this? I think Ving like if Billy just feels like the influence. And tuck is like disconnected from it.

I think because it's like iconic and spiritual you feel like you're in front of a speaker that's cranked to the maximum but isn't playing anything like it's that like like it's just a discord. Did you get what do you what like what do you think Ving is feeling? Because I think this is a this is a horrible place for a spiritualist to be like he's drowning in all the sounds of these awful and voices of these awful creatures. Yeah. Oh, right. Yeah, you can hear them speaking.

Foul dirt and roots and the air in here is just like saying all the same thing. Yeah, I like there is no hope. Yeah, it's just so it even if he's not feeling it himself. If whatever isn't in there is not affecting him personally. Mm-hmm. He just you know, it's just like the voices are telling him. Yeah, absolutely. So you can hear like the whisperings of the things in the dirt. It's kind of driving him mad a little bit. Yeah, because they're just telling you there is no hope. There is no escape.

You will die here. And I think it's the same thing that Billy was. Feeling like outside the light of the Sunstone Torch. You feel that like powerful need to have all of your wishes granted no matter the cost is the thing at the heart of the tree white privilege. Oh my God, Billy. We have to go come with me. My boy Jessica and I are naturally impervious to it. All you just got to reach out your hand brother. What is meant for you? I'm coming. I'm coming. I mean, here's the thing.

Whatever you are looking for this tree. This force is not going to try and stop you. It wants us. Well, Billy's like like fiddling with the puzzle box. Can I see any of the knowledge tree roots down here? Great question. Anything that can be read off them? I think you do see runes on the roots but much like. The Heartwood itself. They are so old and twisted and gnarled that it would take some real investigation to actually glean any information from them is there grown over.

Can I can I use a move? You can you can spout Lord? Yeah. Oh God for or that's a failure just had the physical affect of a cartoon hamster when she that is how she gets when she's nervous. You look like a cartoon hamster is denying somebody alone. So I think that you like stand up on tuck shoulder.

You're like others roots and then you're like kind of walking around on on touch on talk like you normally do because you're small and he's big right you reach up and you like grab a root because you're trying to get a closer look at it and the root itself comes loose and dirt falls from the ceiling like a great amount of dirt falls down on you and obscures the light. Oh no, your Sunstone torches for just long enough for the things in the soil to strike. Oh wait, hold on. Strike first.

Oh, yeah, shoot first. Yeah, you cannot be surprised. No, I cannot. So what do you do? Is there anything on me? Oh, I still have like little shovels. Oh, you've still got weapons for sure. Yeah, start swinging the shovels around. Yeah, great little blades totally. So this could be a sneak attack shoulders because you're basically acting before. Yeah, he's swinging blades around while on. Top of tuck.

So you see like an insectoid head like bigger than your body disgusting start bursting out of the wall in front of you and you get to strike first because you have shoot first. I'm in the eye. Seven. Okay. So on a seven to nine with backstab, what do you get? I get to choose from one. So, you know, I'm going to deal my damage plus one d6. Okay, so you deal a d8 and a d6. Yeah. Six and a six twelve damage. Yeah. Holy shit. Is this thing? Dead. So it's not dead dead.

The reason it's not fully dead is as you're like stabbing at it's got these like huge crushing mandibles and it's jaws are like dripping with some sort of viscous fluid and it's got, you know, gross bug eyes and it's got goo. It's got goo for sure and you stab into it, but you're you're basically like you can tell that you got really lucky dealing this nearly mortal blow because you missed all of the hard.

Gray carapace that this thing is covered in but it was able to turn the blade away in just such a fashion that you weren't able to kill it out. Right, but it's basically dead and two more one bursts from like the ground behind Ving and another from the wall behind tuck. Let's go to Ving. You see Billy like stabbed this horrible bug. There's a moment where there's nothing happening and then Billy's like killing a thing moving so fast. What do you do? I take out one of my vials of.

My element bandolier. Oh, yeah, and I have a bunch of iron filings and I want to elemental form and pours it on his hands and then I erase his hand up and as he's bringing it down it forms into his spear that stuck in the cave. Oh, yeah, he clasps it and then brings it down onto the bugs head. That's fucking sick. That's sick. So cool. I also imagine that you wouldn't even pour it. It's just like break glass in case of emergency. I love that. Just like rip it off and smash it in your hand.

Oh my God. He forms into a spear. Yeah, that's fucking cool. Instant. I can like with my other hand. I pull it out. Yeah, so sick. So then is this elemental mastery then elemental form? Okay, because I'm transmitting a part of my body into a form made from the raw elements. The spear I roll plus con. Okay, I rolled a 12 and my con is to I got 15. Okay, 15 is unreal. That's massive. This I imagine it is like very sharp but also kind of thin because it's like filings just out of this metal.

So you've got this metal Javelin in your hand. You look like t1000 right? Yeah, he brings it out of the side of his body and slams into the top of a bug's head. Hell. Yeah. So I guess you just use one of your hold. Yeah. So now you've got to hold and then roll a d10 to do your damage. Eight eight. Okay, so it is a pretty solid blow this big like almost cockroach looking thing but with like crushing horrible mandibles and dripping jaws. It's got a little flip up kind of.

Almost ear wiggy like tail on the back where it's not a big whipping tail because they live in caverns. If those long crab claws. Yeah, totally and it comes out of the earth and you form this spear and stab true and punch your spear right through one of its carapace plates and you have to like yank it out but it screeches and like a dripping smoking liquid pours out of its body. Yeah, fucking gross. These things are gross, but it is still alive tuck.

You've got one coming out of the wall right next to you. What do you do? Yeah, tuck goes gross any punches it really? Man, so much easier. Hack and slash. It's so startle. That's really scary. Yeah. Do I have any special things that I can do to fucking kick this thing's ass extra? I think you've just got punch. Yeah, just punch. Just punch. Big punch. Just punch. It is a big punch. I mean you have Terry, Larry and Chad punch. True. Yeah, but I just punched it with my hands.

He just said he punched it with his hands. So it's 2d6 plus two. 6 plus strength for hack and slash. I like that you're punching it with an axe in your hand. With your axe in your hand. Okay, here we go. 2d6 plus strength. Fuck. Stop betraying me dice. Oh 13. 13. Yeah. Okay, so go ahead and roll your damage. 8. 8. What's the special thing that I can deal more damage? I can choose to put myself in danger to just deal more damage. To deal an additional 1d6. Yeah, I'll do it. Fuck it.

Kill the fuck out of this thing. Because he like he punches. Is it right in the mandibles? Yeah, that he goes. Six wait. So how much damage did you deal overall 14? It's the magic number. Hell yeah, you go gross. You punch this button. You're punching you like it's got you as a head like almost as big as your chest like comes out of the wall and you punch it and it screeches as your massive fist crushes plates on its face and it spits at you.

And this smoking liquid hits you like kind of in the shoulder chest and starts to sizzle and burn how much damage I did. I rolled a date but the eight. Oh God. No, and that's a three. Okay, so that's going to be four because you take plus you play taking additional damage. Oh, yeah, right. So you get spit on and your flesh starts smoking and spitting and then he goes cross. He whips it off. It's like this thing's so gooey. You just crush it with your other fist and it is dead Billy.

You're kind of stuck in this one with your little trowel, but it's freaking out tuck is just turned very rapidly and only because you are basically connected to the bug in the ceiling. Do you not fall off immediately your feet just kind of twist on tuck and you land back on your feet. Yeah, but what do you do? Am I on the ground? No, you're hanging like your trowel is like in this thing that came out of the ceiling.

Oh, I try to twist my body around so the trowel twists inside the gross bug head. Yeah, look at hack and slash crocodile death roll. Yeah, that's exactly what I do. 12. Okay. Well, roll your damage. Goodbye motherfucker. Got a seven. Yeah, that'll do it. So yeah. Yeah. How does Billy kill it? I'm like a vitamin mix inside his body. Basically look like a graceful big fat crocodile spin around and yeah, like the brain goo just like comes out everywhere. Yeah, I basically turn to a blender.

Oh man, you spin so much that your blade comes loose. There's just nothing solid for it to hold on to it. More onto the ground. I'm like nice and this thing is like hanging out of the ceiling and the one that tuck destroyed is hanging out of the wall. And when Billy goes goodbye motherfucker text like what did you say just now? Billy language and then he kicks the body as hard as I can to try and dislocate my bugs head from yeah, totally hack and slash. Ice 10 plus strength plus 1212.

So roll your damage fucking sick for four. So four is not quite not quite enough but you do you connect with it and it like you basically kick and as you're kicking at it. It is like diving back into the ground. You just kind of glance it as you as you connect. Wow, good old-fashioned hack and slash. It's been a while. Yeah, man. This is a problem that we were facing before we're trying to think our way into situations.

Yeah, we should just be punching our way into situations punching and cutting our way into it always works every time. Every time I never wield my spear with great might never. Yeah. Yeah, as you're all like this is a great idea. Billy's covered in viscera tux arm is like melting. My toes are turning black and blue thing has like a metal spear corroding his hand man. This is great. This is what we're good at. Yeah, high five high five clang clang.

So this thing is not by the thing spear stabs me in the hand. Through the so. Five deaths. Just so I got a fish life. But as this creature burrows into the dirt, are you assuming that it's running away? Are you just treating this is like we're good to go? Yeah, I guess. Yeah thing. You weren't able to kill your thing. It just it ran away. Yeah. Thanks Sean. That sucks. He starts digging with this iron thing. Get back to your self. No, he'll die. That was a pretty pretty good guys.

You saw that he'll die right? For sure. He's gonna die the worst death of all three of them. Yeah, he probably he's probably gonna go home and then murder suicide. Well, those other bugs. Yeah, probably stinger. He's got he's probably seeing himself right now. Yeah. Yeah, he's dead. Yeah, I probably took out. He probably went back to the hive to kill the rest. Yeah. So murder suicide. The other bug is weirdly dark. So he's you said that to an eight-year-old there.

Billy knows all about murder suicide. He's three thousand and eighty. Yeah. Okay, so you have you have resisted the the the attacks of the things in the earth for this long. Yeah, text scans scans the torch around. Yeah, just to be like get back motherfuckers. Yeah, or we'll murder suicide all of you. So it's only a few more minutes of walking in this horrid place, but you do exit this cramped tunnel into a larger chamber. The light of your torches reaches up this place is like though.

The earth has cleared mostly. It's now even more full of roots like the room is quite large, but there are roots of varying sizes arcing all over the place and like filamenty roots to like yeah, smaller ones that sort of like crawl across the ground and then large ones that like plunge into the earth. Whoa, and this is all the like the heart tree. Oh, yeah. Wow. Yeah, and you realize Ving especially and Billy because you're so connected to these kinds of places.

Is a fairy these roots the roots that you are now standing within extend throughout the great forest like this is the center of it all. Can I put my hand on one of these roots and just hear what it sounds like? Yeah, absolutely. I do that. What do you desire you feel in your like spirit in your soul? My desire the hunger within the tree to leave this place forever. No hunger is natural. Want is natural. All things want. What do you want Ving? To be free. I can give you that. I'm coming.

And you take your hand off the root. So what do you hear? Yeah, that was really intense. What was it? It asked me what I wanted and I said I want to be free. I didn't even know I wanted that. I don't know what that means and it knew my name. And I said, I'm. Going there. I don't know. Mmm. Okay, it's getting delicious in here. I feel like yeah, I guess tuck like stops for a second and he sees I like he's resisted it but he sees how much it's affecting the two of you to be in this space.

So he's just like is this maybe too dangerous for us to just like go ahead first into it. Yes, I can say yes from having touched that. Yes, it is bringing us inside. So it has the upper hand. Whatever it is. How do we? Gain an advantage here. We could all have ghost root. There's two more pieces. That's true. Oh, yeah. Why don't you guys have some of this ghost root? But I also feel like we should all know what it is what we want. Yeah, so that we're like prepared. Oh, yeah. So we can resist it.

Hmm. Billy touches it. Bing touches it too. So because the thing talker with the ring. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you can all tap into it. Mm-hmm. What do I do? What do you want? I want to what do you really want? I want to sleep. I can give you that. I don't believe you. You should. Whoa. Whoa, let's go. He's like, I don't like that. You just want to sleep. I'm just get tired. Do you want to do what I took pulls out the Bjorn? He's like, do you want to get in the Bjorn? Not right now.

I want to talk about it. Okay. That's okay, buddy. You don't have to talk about it. Starts like kicking the tree like stupid stupid. It's just stupid one. Three fucking treatment. Yes, little foot. Like it's doing nothing. Okay. Yeah, tuck tries it. You like touches the tree. The tree does not speak to you. Do I hear anything? You do not. Whoa, is it because of the ghost route? Was it because of the ghost route? Couldn't be the ghost route could be that feeling of it rolling over you.

And then tuck realize how fucking weird that is. So he goes. I want chicken. Really nods like very seriously. Just pretend. And he knows he's pretending. Yeah, they can hear the tree. All right, here's. I want to say chicken. It rolls his eyes like a right does a clock that bring can tell that he's like he pulls his handbag. He's like whoa, being like ostensibly looks over the tops of his glasses. I'd talk even though he's not wearing glasses and then took us Tao is scared. Oh, yeah. You.

I don't want to do that again. Really what you want the most. Oh, yeah. I love chicken. I would do anything for it. That. I'm. I believe I believe that he's like, well, he starts pretending to be obsessed. I would do anything. It's got him. It's got come back to us. No, I'll take a look at this coaster. It I'm better. Tastes like chicken. So your pull your plan. Billy and Ving is to take some ghost. I guess so. I feel like Billy's gonna eat like half of one of the roots. Yeah, is he small?

I think if you want the effect, you're gonna have to take a full dose. So spicy in my mouth though. You got a Billy. I can give you I stole some yogurt from the mass. Do you want to tip it already ate it? Oh, okay. Yeah, you just got to eat it. How it is. I'm sorry, buddy. I found it in your backpack already. Yeah, it's already grown. Nolan. You cleared us out of snacks. But I did the thing that a Ron Swanson does. I smelled it in your bag before I even parked my car. I already ate it.

It's gone. I hate everything. What a great runs away character. Yeah. So you got a full dose it if you want the full if you want the effect very well. So you are now and being is taking one as well. Yes, you are out of ghost route. This is not good, but you do feel a mitigation in the like creeping dread that you've been feeling since you've been here. Okay. Hmm. The whispers. Of the tree are quieted momentarily. Mm-hmm. What do you do? Carry on Sally forth.

Yeah, it can't affect us as much anymore. I already feel the need for chicken. You're sitting and I will fight it. I promise both of you. I love you both more than chicken itself. I don't believe you anymore. I'll never believe you again. Okay, so you approach. The center of the tree, which we've discussed the trunk is as large as the house from home alone. So big so big. I feel like the chamber that we're in is like it's like a big chamber and there's roots going upwards.

Yeah, and the actual center of the tree. We kind of to climb up. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I think of how yeah, there's roots and then we just come up to the thing, but that makes sense of it's a hollow. We're in a cave hollow underneath the root system is yeah. Yeah. Okay to them from the bottom of the tree. That makes sense. How are you climbing this root structure? If that is what you are choosing to do to approach the heart of quickly. All right, so 26 plus dexterity for quickly.

Wait for all of us for you because you said quickly nine. Okay, seven to nine. How are you doing it? Climbing wise? Yeah, I'm doing Constitution. Okay, so you're just physical training and I'm climbing hard as fuck. So strength. All right, great. I don't know why. I gave you all the opportunity to min-max your climbing role, but I'm climbing in a really charming. I love climbing. He's like flexing his biceps. A bunch of clenching your butts.

Oh, you do a lot like those like chin-ups where you like pull your whole body. Oh, yeah, a full-on muscle up. Yeah. And then Billy tries and he can't I can't do it. Text answered all the right muscles. You like looks at Vick. Oh, somebody's in a cafe. Wow. My God, I built it up. So I mean, you should have been concentrated climbing charismatic fool. I rolled a three and I have three strikes at six. Can somebody you don't deserve this aid? Ving says as he aids to the six plus bond. Oh seven.

That's incredible. Wow. So tuck reaches up and grab. And he's like, ooh, look at me just pulling one hand like look at us like and then you're yeah, the brute you're on like snaps a little bit and you start to fall fuck and I imagine being just roof catch catch hand out snap. Billy is also doing a seven to nine. So you get you try and do a Superman muscle up and you shock yourself by pulling yourself all the way up.

Oh, I did it but like some sort of tether ball you start to flip over the other side and you begin to fall. What do you do? Whoa. He digs his nails. Okay, 2d6 plus strength. I guess seven. Okay, I get lost splinters. You take roll a d4 for splinters buddy. We got to cut those things one you take one damage as your hands get splinters in them, but you save yourself from falling by am hung upside down kind of by your nails. Yeah, can I go get them?

Yeah, you've already you've succeeded at your climbing. You're going to just whoop grab them off their little put you up on a route. I don't care you all the way. Sorry thing. Now don't be part of climbing up. It's falling down. Yeah, you're right and you climb these roots the lattice work of this ancient tree the support structure of the entire forest these roots have seen the rise of a region spanning civilization over thousands of years and has held the knowledge.

Of tens of thousands of elves and as you climb the roots like Ark above your head and rise up from beneath you creating this chamber that's almost church like a cathedral of rock and stone and wood and dirt and you're approaching the heart of things. Do you stop? No, no, we got to keep going being has such a dichotomous feeling in his chest of despair and warmth and love and belonging and Abyss and you carry on into this like Cathedral wait before we go.

I I stopped being I'm like, are you cool to keep going this stuff affects you more than the rest of us and there's a bunch of family shit tied up in it with you too. I mean we have to part of it is we have to and I feel like I need to. Okay.

So you reach a more level section that allows you to stand on your own two feet and walk forward as you do the roots that form the archways and walls of this place this chamber the shape of the roots becomes different creating what it first reminds you of like flowing water or the branches of a beautiful tree, but then suddenly brings to mind the image of chains. Hmm.

And before you you see a body hanging by the wrists wrapped in roots supported around the chest locked in place pale pallid skin a frail body long dark gray hair hanging in front of a face in the chest sticking out an arrow of dark wood. Oh fuck. Oh no. Before you hangs the body of Dathaniel Fang Zumba. What? What? Whoa. What do you do? Wait, so who's up there? I want to discern realities 2d6 plus wisdom. Oh fuck. Whoa. Oh fuck. Nine. You get one question. Can I help you? 2d6 plus bond.

Uh eight. I like the can Billy just hold my hand. Billy. Yeah. This is like tiny little hand comes up. This is my dad dead and you I'm a dad dad feeling. Uh, what? What's happening? You go. I'm actually flustered. This is who's really in control here. So thinking about the information that you have so far, you are reminded of the fact that there is a piece of obsidian somewhere in this tree and that it is not a coin. Okay.

And your eyes are drawn to the shaft of the arrow and the head that must be within. Whoa. Whoa. What? Here's not what it appears to be. If this is your father, truly, this is your father. The other man that I've been talking to is not. So who was it? They give us Matt. They're that's fucked that who? What the fuck? That's can't be true. Right? I kissed him on the lips. I've been jerking off nonstop to this guy. Oh my God. Is it the giddiest man? Who else could it be? Oh, what is he dead?

He's breathing. He's alive. Whoa. What's about to happen? You've that's four. You've that's four questions. No, no. Is he dead? You gave that for free. Yeah, you gave it. Oh, you fucking Aladdin ass genie motherfuckers. It's not one of the questions. You didn't have to. You just gave it up for free. What is about to happen? Oh, that is a great question. You're reminded suddenly of a cough and a fart. Oh, fuck. Somebody else is here. They're coming. How would they find us? I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. We found our way here. They're being drawn by the same thing that we are. We all get to Daniel out of here. I don't think you'll be doing that. You turn Wendy. Oh, what have you done? Only what I had to thing, which is get my vengeance on who? Everyone. Why? The people of this place, the court of the wood. They ruin lives.

We are powerless under their rule. And I chose to take the power for myself. How short-sighted of you to think that you bringing this place down affects only this place, the entire forest, the entire north is sick and dying because of what you are doing here. Be that as it may. We will stop you. You will try. Shing. And she draws her bow. She has it while she draws an arrow from her side. Is it obsidian? You. Is she alone? It would appear. I didn't ask that question.

Can I like discern realities? See if any realities in a fight is perfectly, perfectly normal. Yeah. Wendy has not struck. Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to see if there's anyone else here. Cause it seems weird that she would come along. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It seems weird that she would come alone. Yeah. God. I just want one success. What the fuck?

These are the cursed dice. That is such not a success. I got three. Yeah. Beautiful. So you look around, assuming, rightfully so, as an experienced warrior, there's no way that Wendy is here alone. And as you're like, who else could be here? You feel a blade sink into your back. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Fuck. And you hear someone whisper in your ear, easy big fella. Vving. Damn. One sec then. Hold on. Okay. But wait, you need to. He just has to look up how much damage he does.

Oh God. So what we're going to do, and remember, don't freak out when I say this, 2d10 and keep the higher. Oh my God. Fuck. Oh. Four. So with your armor, it's just one damage. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. And it's like right beside the kidney. Yeah, exactly. Like it doesn't hit anything vital, luckily. Uh huh. And you hear, does Tuck, Tuck makes a noise? Yeah, he does. He, like he reacts like an animal. Yeah. He like wraps his arms backward and jumps back. Oh shit.

To smash the guy underneath his back. Oh fuck. Oh my God. That's hardcore. Yeah. Yeah. Hack and slash. 2d6. And drive the knife further into your body. Wow. What is happening? Not the day. Wow. I rolled six. Eight. Oh. Yeah. Can I aid? I guess you could. Yeah. But you would be taking your eyes off Wendy. What about Billy? Billy could help. Yeah. I could aid. Yeah. Uh, 12. On an aid. Yeah. So how does Billy aid here? This is insane. Well, Billy's small, so he's gone around the guy.

I shoved my shovel into that guy's foot. Oh yeah. Great. So that is enough that like he's trying to like twist out of your grip. And as he attempts, he almost breaks like the little grip you have with your fingers. And then he goes, ah, cause Billy stabs him in the foot. Then I would like to shoot first. Okay. Great. Wendy. Yeah. So Billy stabs this guy in the foot. And so you do your damage. Duck one. Oh boy. You are still gonna roll the 2d 10 and take the higher. Oh shit.

Cause remember on a seven to nine. Right. Yeah. So he's got crazy damage. Yeah. Four. So I only take one. Okay. So this is a very weird fight. He's trying to kill somebody that is very tough and you are trying to kill somebody that is very hard to kill. Maybe you don't jump and land on him. You just back him into a wall. Uh huh. Yeah. Knife him. He gets slammed. Like he throws off my balance. So you just stumble backwards into a root and he goes, yeah. Uh, okay. Billy. Yeah.

So when the guy like kind of falls over the, I don't know, the shovel blade, he's going to whip them at, at Wendy and he would love to like basically have it slice her neck. Yeah. That's a good goal to have for sure. 2d six plus dexterity. 10. Fuck. Okay. So I'm 10 plus I get a clear shot and I deal my damage. Yeah. Which is a D eight. D eight. Yep. Please give me eight. Seven. Seven. I'll take it. Yes. Okay. So you just fucking missile a piece of this shit.

The ladder and it does hit her like in the neck, nice, right in the throat, like the larynx zone and it hits her and she coughs up a bunch of blood like instantly just like, and then she drops into a crouch and darts into the shadows. I want to follow her. Yeah. Ving takes off after her. Okay. Yeah. Ving. Uh, so she is getting into the darkness. What are you doing to keep your eyes on her? I'm going to fight with honor and roll plus con and get some cheese. Okay. Two D six plus constitution.

Come back, come back, come back. 10. Okay. So I get three hold. Yes. I think it's cross a distance between myself and a foe and deal damage to a foe within sight. Nice. Yeah. So how do you do that? I, uh, uh, use my elemental form and throw the spear out of my hand. Oh, sick. Cause yeah, you didn't use all your holds. No, I didn't use all my holds. So yeah, I just send this whistling. Oh, I'm going to throw it. Oh, I'm going to throw it. Oh, I'm going to throw it. Oh, I'm going to throw it.

Oh, I'm going to throw it. Oh, I'm going to throw it. So you, you just, you're spending your hold on that, so you don't have to roll it. You just roll your D 10. Come on. Big one. Seven. Nice. So enemies in Dungeon World don't have the most hit points. So, oh wow. You hear nothing. You hear nothing. You hear nothing. You hear nothing. You hear nothing. You hear nothing. You hear nothing. Which you know means nothing with a ranger, but you can tell that you're- I didn't miss. You did not miss.

I knew I got her. Yeah. So what do you find when you reach the spot that she was in when you fired? He comes up behind her and finds her standing facing the wall- Yeah. With the spike going through the back of her neck- Oh. And pinning the piece of the shovel that Billy threw into her neck into the wall in front of her. Yeah, and she's like, fair warning listeners, she's like trying to get off the spike. So she's like gripping the spear and like trying to pull herself off of it, but she can't.

You know in The End of Ghost when he sees his friend and what's happened to him? Like Ving is actually like, he threw this thing, but just out of like fear and like we need to stop her. Yeah. And he's like, oh, Wendy. Yeah, totally. And Billy arrives. Stay there, Billy. Okay. I walk up slowly. She's bleeding out. And you walk around to her and you see her looking at you with just pure hatred. And she's trying to choke something out. And you hear through her life's blood, your mother is.

And then her vision unfocuses and she's gone. And I think that's where we're going to end it for this week. I'm your Game Master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always playing Tacoma Dome, the Barbarian, Abdul Aziz. So long. Playing Ving, the Half-Elf Druid, Paul Oppers. Take care. I'm playing Fat Billy, the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai. Bye, everyone. Thank you to Aaron Reid for our intro and outro music.

You can find all of Aaron's original music at aaronreid.bandcamp.com and all of the music produced for the show at soundcloud.com. If you want to support the show, you can do so with hundreds of other supporters around the world. Thank you. At patreon.com slash speltlore or speltlore.com slash money, please. Where you can get access to stuff like a bonus campaign set in the High Spear Mall using Blades in the Dark, merchandise.

Every month there's writing and art and whatnot with the Speltlore Almanac. And at higher levels, even games run by Abdul and myself. Thank you most of all to all of you for listening. We'll see you next time. And so ends the tale of Adventures 3 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 you without a resolution Return next week to hear some more of our stories Whilst you commute or do your chores And for you I'd gladly Spout Lore

Hello listeners welcome to Spout Lore I'm doing sean's job while he's having a nap is this okay yeah this is good okay she was asking the listeners that I'm asking everyone um we're here to tell you some really fun news yes abdul well I have the list of news here you didn't take that over at all I'm sorry okay you do it we have a really exciting announcement about a new tier coming to our patreon for all you abdul fans do we have any abdul fans listening in okay everyone all you abdul fans listen up here have you ever wanted to be part of the chaos that is just a part of the chaos Abdul do you ever wonder what a game would be like if Sean wasn't there have you ever wanted to be Sean have you ever wanted to be up close and personal with the things in Abdul's mind all the dick jokes all the things like you know we're super obsessed with like going to prom and like his skater boy voice and stuff like that yeah yeah yeah all the different voices that I do like Queen Victoria I do a pretty bad Woody Harrelson anyway if you're interested in that there's going to be a new Patreon tier yes called the wizard yeah well there is already a wizard one fuck I fucked up what is it called again I don't know that we have a name for it let's come up with a name for it right now is it just part of the wizard tier yeah well Sean's is the wizard tier are we just opening up like two new spots or are they I think we have to open up a different tier that's the same level that is just me tower tier the piss shit box tier the piss monster tier that's so funny yeah okay that's a good one so we're calling it are we calling it the piss monster we are now I can't say it with a laugh I'll say it we're calling it the piss monster and Abdul's gonna GM DM and HM your in your DMs if you please if you wish to GM with him aka game with him sign up for that I think there's only two spots available yeah we'll keep it to two spots for now I'll GM a game which I've never done before so it will be objectively bad it's gonna be chaos yeah you will regret it you will regret this that's all of you listeners out there do not subscribe to this because it will be bad and chaotic and I'll see you next time and I will not give refunds so yeah that's gonna be called the piss monster tier we just decided while we were doing this announcement and while Sean was out of the room he has no say in this and he's gonna be mad at us he's gonna be so pissed that we called it this the last time that he gives us the reins for sure yeah this is the only time we've ever recorded it without him in the room he was like why don't you guys do the announcements for the merch I'm gonna step out for a minute cause I need to clear my head and we're like yeah sure we can totally handle this responsibility the smallest job absolutely we can do it no problem we'll definitely do everything to your specs you know what would be fucking hilarious if I priced it one dollar more than Sean like some petty the price is right move yeah you guys could sign up for Sean's at $300 a month or you could sign up for mine at $301 a month oh no Sean's back Sean's in the room nothing at all we were just about to do the announcements excuse me we are having a very serious discussion about our feelings right now and you coming in while we're vulnerable is making me feel unsafe the accuracy the straight facedness at which that Jessica is lying right now is making me feel really uncomfortable how accurate that was were you guys trying to usurp my no game master spots no no not at all no don't even worry about it Sean you have nothing to worry about at all why is your wizard tier so cheap I is it cause it's worse is it cause it's not as good as mine which is actually $301 a month so you heard us if you're interested in having Abdul DM a game for you that's right click on piss monster tier and we will get that to you no you're calling it the piss monster that's the first time Sean's ever heard this no oh oh fuck that's brilliant actually nice damn from the minds that brought you Spout Lore Paul sound effect apps not working oh now I'll put this one okay in a world inside your imagination oh god dude what one man in his crazy mind will break outside the box you thought that Abdul was annoying during Spout Lore but you've never seen him inside your house this patreon 2023 for some reason I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Where Will be chaos www.patreon.com Slash Spout Lore Or www.spellore.com Slash Money please Spout Lore brings you The piss monster Tear Yeah Yeah That was actually incredible Holy shit you deserve an Emmy for that My favorite part was when the ones They'd interrupt you Like you were surprised by them Oh man Thank you Paul Thank you guys You try to do the app And then Yeah In a world of your imagination Fuck That was from yesterday When that would have been funnier www.spellore.com Slash Money please Yeah that's We should just release that As the thing Absolutely Yeah That's so fucking good!

Thank you! Thanks for watching! I hope you enjoyed this video! If you did, please subscribe! And if you want to see more videos like this, I'd be happy to! Thanks for watching! See you next time! Bye!

Hi everyone, it's Fat Billy here. Thanks for coming, listen to our podcast. If you want more podcasts, you can go to patreon.com slash spoutelore, where you can give us some money. And I like money, so I can buy snacks. 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-elf, he shifts his shape and wields a spear with great might. Billy's a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart. Best and brightest they may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts. So gather around. Gather around friends and listen close, for the tale's about to start. Hi, I didn't see you. Oh, hi. Oh, hello. Hello. When last we left our heroes, they had been received of the present. What's going on over here? What's going on over there? I did not even see you.

Welcome. It's a good day for a podcast. I like this guy. Who's this mysterious stranger? This is the opposite. Instead of BORN. My name. Oh, my name? You're not stalling, are you? No. My name. Beef. Beef? Beef. Can't believe Abdul yelled at me for 15 minutes that we were late in our recording. That we were taking too much time. You do it. You do it. Abdul is just screaming at Jessica. Yeah. At me only. Only. Only. Only. We were all in the room too, but he was just giving it to Jessica.

We kept trying to go in front of him and he'd push us down and keep screaming at Jessica. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Beef. I'm kidding. Sorry. Well, it's because you knew that you had to spend 15 minutes introducing us to Beef. Beef. Beef. You had to get us back on track. Can you say his name again? Boo. Wait, it was like, B-E-E-F. Yeah. Boo. Boo. Boo. I didn't hear that. Turning the word beef into four syllables. Beef. Beef. Beef. Beef. Beef. Beef. Beef. Beef. Beef. Beef.

Your last name sounds like your beard touching the microphone. Well, here's the thing is apparently I was too rude last episode. Oh my God. This is the new me. It wasn't just you. Wow. Yeah. Jessica looked at Paul. Oh, I've never been squirted by Jessica.

Suck it w we're getting started early no no no this is the show now no it's not I mean it's always been the show I'm not gonna make a single rude joke this episode that cannot be just intellectual jokes I'm gonna take my vulgar and put it back in myself I'll take the v and put it back in the p yeah all right when last we left our heroes I'm just gonna read excerpts from infinite jest I hope everyone enjoys that great triple experts when last we left our heroes they had received the presence of a one oman the bookworm who had been sent away months in game and one full human year ago from the isle of hibernia to answer some questions about the iliana's vings potential parentage the history of wizards creating life I will say it was not months because things gash has like oh right yeah it's under two months yeah it's like a month then a month wait yeah we're halfway through are we halfway through the gash we're coming up on it yeah yeah I forgot about that gash yeah yeah it's good to remember oh there's a society of people that want me dead yeah those are the stakes for sure I forgot about stakes but you know who didn't forget about stakes was tacoma dome who took himself to an all you can eat pizza palace in his mind oh yeah in an attempt to translate the librarian shorthand that far margani had returned upon the wings of oman we went to tux a mind pizza palace to find him surrounded by yet again versions of himself in a variety of roles and disguises including master librarian far margani tuck and through a series of roles successful and not we learned that the ranger attack on the island of hibernia and the death of iliana was also politically motivated as iliana had pushed a little too hard at the time to try and rebalance the power between the vox populi and the vox silvi the vox populi as represented by the court of the wood did not like that so a number of people wished her dead which is saying it now a shocking revelation as we believed that it was primarily a tragic falling out between dathaniel and iliana but was in fact a politically motivated assassination yeah that dathaniel was forced to take part in yeah pretty fucked up yeah pretty screwed up and it was also dathaniel's sister that forced him to do it yes we were introduced to vings and solara van kieran queen of the sun peaks and de facto queen of the great forest who was suspiciously absent at the arrest and imprisonment of the party ving wanted to know about the history of wizards creating life which we learned is suspiciously absent from the writings of wizards of the time generally accepted to be impossible through thaumaturgy you said it was the holy grail yeah if anyone were to figure it out it would be one of the largest magical innovations of the era well also I thought you said that like biologically they could biologically they can have kids right but they can't create life oh via magic I see or at least that was the thought at the time but there are no written records of anyone ever having achieved that I think it's also like creating a nuclear bomb essentially because if they can create life then hypothetically they can create like as many wizards as they want yeah whereas if they're like beholden to like a biological process to make kids you can't choose that your kid is a wizard just like you have a regular kid because it's like the universe basically chooses yeah exactly any wizard that has a kid that is a wizard is like a billion to one chance yeah then we also learned iliana translates to mother bear and that that family that clade of bear shapeshifters were basically tasked with the spiritual guardianship of the island of hibernia and its connection to the spiritual realm supposedly also tending to the great bear that slumbers beneath the island which led to yeah billy discovering this tied up poem on oman's body written by a fairy many many many years ago which read chains broken became chains forged when moon threw off her yoke father knight was cast away to walk among the folk which the party interpreted as the gibbous man being a chained unwillingly to the material plane and tuck interpreted as lillian having chained the gibbous man as punishment for his transgressions in the past and that if he has changed the material plane as an aspect of a god then he must in some way be vulnerable and that is where we find ourselves now the party aggressively coming out of this state of having read for an entire episode my back hurts so much my legs are numb and my eyes are blind oh my god it's like I was looking at instagram on the toilet for four days all of our legs are as you all make that giant groan at the same time elman goes oh and knocks over an easel on which he'd been painting a watercolor why am I wearing a bonnet and nothing wrong with it but oh I I I'm so sorry that I um I had to observe it was quite quite exhilarating how many drawings did you make there's a drawing of us as dogs playing poker what what I wanted to fill the time but I didn't want to interrupt your process what happened what is this creature it's a bug yes I see that it is a bug it's a bookworm they live at the library in mccall they use them for like categorization we've been using this guy to send messages back and forth billy's like I don't know if we're allowed to say that I think fair is gonna be mad fuck shit you're right god damn it you can you can trust me I swear you can trust me this this specimen comes from the great margani library of mccall the specimen traveled from the great tree of knowledge and then to the library and then has come return to the tree of knowledge and as you say he traveled from the tree to mccall back to here you hear elman go yeah because he you guys wouldn't stop moving around oh my god oh my god he probably went every where that we've been he did yeah he had to find the goblins oh my god the little muscles around his wings are jacked his shoulders buddy he's wearing a white tank top fucking shredded now he's got a little thing of creatine powder I have to have this gotta refuel right now he's a foam rolling and took is actually just like flipping him over trying to find more messages he's like I'm sure maresh had some but something on here for me a little something for me how do I know if she's up oh god trying to figure out if that girl's up you know what I mean you keep flipping oman over and after like after you flip him over and he like flips back onto his legs and unfurls his wings and starts like vibrating a little bit like and then he slowly begins to like molt whoa what and the wings that had been written on by far like well they fall off yeah and now he's got like fresh little dewy paper wings underneath and a fresh carapace oh my god okay I gathered those wings keep them safe yeah and he curls up his wings re inserts them into his body wraps himself back up and then squeaky squeaky starts crawling towards billy again I pick him up and I put him in my hair yeah he squeaks right in there where you want to go there's so many other worms in billy's hair I know I can't keep track you guys do have two yeah I know but I've also been collecting worm pets as we go just worms just other worms in your hair it's a real problem they blend in really well with his curls you think they do it's just full of fucking worms it's really gross we're like we have to get him shampoo special shampoo for that he refuses to he says it's goo and doesn't want to let it touch him so what did you learn blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah my word we tell him everything and he reacts okay and now we're back in the present wow what a theater of the mind we've created I mean like I have thought of a lot about we don't need to rehash every piece of information every time but he goes I I just have to say this has been quite exhilarating watching you three adventurers of great renown investigate your mystery has been I cannot even say we need to get this guy out he places a hand on his chest leave the garden yeah no I could not I couldn't possibly are you not allowed to leave well no of course part of my sworn oath to the order is that I will I will remain here under the bows of the great tree until I become one with its roots wait what when I die I will be interred beneath the tree as the garden is before me has it always been like that it has yes part of part of the symbiosis of of life in the great forest is that the gardeners learn from the tree we absorb that knowledge we return to the earth and the tree recycles that information but of course I hope that the tree is in much better health by the time I expire I mean wouldn't you want to if you're going to give it knowledge wouldn't you need to go collect knowledge to give back to the tree maybe that's part of the problem is it it's just been a echo chamber of knowledge for so many years there's a whole wide world out there there's so many stories being told have you ever heard of lone tree hill about two brothers playing a basketball game betraying each other he's just trying to be what they've trying to be lately it sounds quite thrilling but I fear my place might be here although I will say that the the great outdoors does feel quite tempting from time to time well let me tempt you further big boy and we slide him a copy of love it is dog and quite stiff are we doing a role to like get him to rebel I don't know maybe I guess yeah defy danger charisma we want to like inspire with him a hunger that will get him to do whatever the fuck we need yeah and also I feel like to protect himself at some point because like what if someone finds us and then poor elman gets in trouble and like I don't want him like sitting there like a little duck yeah it's true yeah give him the like the wings to fly yeah we're gonna be the wind beneath your wings dude and then I blow in his face his long golden elf hair blows behind him and he closes his eyes and he imagines a life out beyond the walls of the cloister that's right imagine yourself on a ship wind blowing in your hair the sea smells worse than I imagine the sea smells exactly like salami uh if are you saying that when you leave you'll take me with you I mean if you want okay this is a parlay now okay who's rolling it tuck I mean tuck is leading the combo so okay plus charisma 10 okay nice oh I I can't believe it perhaps perhaps I will leave this place one day I swear to the three of you and he drops to a knee he puts a hand on his chest I will do whatever you require of me in this quest to heal this tree I accept your oath so it is and so it shall be rise for you are no longer elman of the tree you are elman of the wandering three whoa whoa oh oh oh start slow clapping yeah and he stands to his full five six and looks up and to the left into a new dawn and then there's a knock at the door oh shit I fucking hide oh wait no wait we're disguised remember you look like a regular ginger boy right oh right you're all disguised as as monks yeah I sit around his little tea party that he had set up earlier yeah I pretend to drink oh wow oh wow oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh!

And tuck pretends to Read What? What do you mean Pretends? And the door opens and it is first gardener Malgath the hunched old elven woman in her long vestment. I'm an elf. Oh, who are your friends here? Are you? She's trying to recognize you and you can feel Billy. You can feel like you're you're like disguise glamour like he's saying there was like every muscle clench like I'm fine. I'm an elf. You must be new. You must be old. She laughs that I am young man. And Tucker.

Says, uh, uh, uh, yes, we're we're transplants from the city of vigil is a are you first gardener Malgath? I am. Well, it's great to meet you. We are from House Van Zumba transplanted gardeners tending the tree there. Very good. Glad to hear that House Van Zumba came around and sent some folk. It's time for morning salutation. I'm ready. Slowly salute her shaky and sketchy looking each other. She just starts kind of hobbling back and forth as she turns around in a circle in the doorway.

Elman goes, come on and you fall into line behind Malgath as she takes about a billion years to walk down the hall and we're seeing the cloister during the day. So it's morning. There are a lot of people. There are gardeners kind of going to and fro with, I don't know what, like baskets of earth wheelbarrows. We are wheelbarrows. Some are just like draped in plants that they're like carrying to different parts of the building.

There are a lot of guards more than you remember there being yesterday. It seems like your infiltration and disappearance in the wall has not gone totally unnoticed and they are extra vigilant today. Your disguises will hold. Unless you do something ridiculous. You know what I mean? Like they won't keep you from all scrutiny forever. And you are led very slowly down the hallway by Malgath and you pass, you know, different chambers. You pass what seems to be some sort of mess hall.

Billy, the smell of Elvin cuisine wafting out of the room as you walk past it. Do you resist? It's honestly not that appetizing. It smells like bean sprouts. Oh, yeah. Mung beans. Yeah. Yeah. Just like boiling. Yeah. Yuck. Let's fill in some of the details of this place. Everybody give me something that they that you see in the cloister as you walk behind Malgath. The kitchen eatery area is like an entire greenhouse. Like they eat mostly raw things and boil.

So it's like they have a greenhouse full of edibles that you just go in and everyone. It's like a salad bar, but it's growing forage in the greenhouse. And then there's like tables kind of placed inside the greenhouse. The people are sitting at because it's not like the fact that there are a bunch of guards means there's almost more guards here than there are gardeners. Because the garden is not like stuffed with monks all the time. Yeah.

And then because we're at the mess, there's all the gardeners because it's salutation time. So everyone's coming in eating before the day starts. Totally. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And Tuck notices that like sort of at the head table in the mess hall, there are like two or three people who are not gardeners. They're like not where. They're like not wearing the vestment vines. They're like very clearly like court officials that seem to just be here. Interesting. In the church. Yeah. Very interesting.

What does Billy see? I don't know. Weapons. I saw a post of people with like loose hammers and axe heads planting them into fast growing trees. And then you get them in like three years to make a new thing. Then you just chop it off and you have. Whoa. So there could be like growing weapons. Cause it's kind of in the area where the guards are. Depending on what kind of tension we want to grow. That's a great idea. Yeah. But maybe it's more like growing tools.

Like they're growing their tools for like the tending of the plants here. So it's like. Yeah. I think there is like sort of not a new, but like slightly newer patch than the tools where they grow the weapons. Oh, right. So it's like, this is a more recent addition where they're getting more militant. I like that. Oh, the militant wing of the gardeners, like the sickles. Oh, cool. Yeah. Yeah. And spears and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So there, that is interesting. That is a thing that I think tuck in Billy would be like, oh, there's weapons. And, but Ving would be like, there's fucking weapons here. Like why gross. And Malgaff leads you further into the garden itself. And you come out into another like greenhouse like structure with a high peaked roof of branches draped in leaves and ivies flowers sprouting, but everything with that sort of like. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It looks a little sick, like a little sicker than normal where, um, gardeners have been filtering in preparing for their salutations. Malgaff takes her place at the head of this congregation is first gardener and turns to all of you and makes a sort of expectant hand gesture as all of the gardeners seat themselves. They sit down, they like fold their legs under them and sit kind of, you know, like on their knees. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Figure out how to cross our legs in the weird way that they did. Yeah, they all sit down as one and the three of you are still standing for a second. The vibe of this is when you're at your friend's house and they're Christian and you've never done grace. Exactly. And you all like are just looking around you. Oh, we're supposed to bow our heads and you close your eyes and you can't eat it.

Doug takes take something that might be a root vegetable, might be a spoon out of his mouth. No way to know. And she begins her speaking part of this, which is basically just we spend another day under the boughs of this great tree whose light washes all in the forest and whose roots extend to the ends of the world. We come together in thanks for the shelter of its boughs. The fruits of its knowledge. Yeah, the fruits of its knowledge. Thank you.

You're basically doing the Lord's Prayer just a little bit. Faster than the priest. Actually, you know what? Roll it. Roll it to find a charisma. Six. Fuck. Okay. I'm going to help. Yeah, please do. Seven. Okay, so seven nine and a seven to nine. She she looks at you as you you are like reciting this prayer a little bit louder because you've heard it in the court and she goes and the fruits of its wisdom and the strength of his roots.

We tend to you great tree as you tend to elven kind and as she says this the branches at the peak of this chamber begin to pull back and the light we actually do that and the thousand leaves of the heart tree arc above you and you take in as the morning light reflects off its leaves and off its branches and you are bathed in the light of a new day and Ving is actually like caught up. It's beautiful to see it.

It's still working in some ways and like to see an element of what he knew and it you know that is still a quite a sight to behold. Yeah, and as it hits the table like all of the meals that were there like bloom a little bit like they it's like the last step in like vegan rock. Okay, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's cracking a sprout comes out and and this appears to be the conclusion of the salutation as everybody rises faster than you expect.

Okay, and they all leave and go about their work. So we're just leaving the food here. What we're not eating it or what? I don't know why you brought the food in here. This is actually a different room. So you guys salutate and eat where you go. This is she Malgath does approach you. I was very pleased. She reaches out a knobbly hand and places it. I grasp both sides of it. I was so pleased to hear that the old ways the ways of the garden extend even still to the boreal reach.

Yes, the words have traveled far and wide. Why am I keep lying to this old woman? I don't need to do this. Oh, very good. And I'm glad it's so you you consume sustenance during your salutations in the boreal reach. Yeah, they they makes us get to our work faster. Yeah, it's real TV dinner kind of situation. Very interesting. Yes, in the boreal reach.

We have a much more utilitarian approach to worship and gardening talk is struggling saying a lot the dead the King Nathaniel his nature as a ranger really permeates all parts of our civilization. It's an always be snacking scenario. Yes, always have trail mix. In your pockets great a great Rangers be grazing and then took puts his hands together and bow. Uh-huh. Yeah, and she kind of bemusedly goes. Oh, it's just as she puts her hands together and pals. That's a nice.

That's a nice twist on things. Nathaniel is a great. He's a great leader and a great man and it has been many years since his presence is grace this place. So I'm glad to have his influence. In these halls once more. He is still a hallowed figure among your people among the gardeners. There are some who have opinions of him that are perhaps unfair if not untrue, but I have lived many years and the stories of the Ranger King have always been a source of inspiration and pride to me.

Have you ever met the Ranger King? Oh, once. Twice a handful of times. It's been centuries since I have left the light of this tree. Did you ever know the woman that he took as wife? Hmm. Known to some as Ileana? Yes, Ileana. A true tragedy, that. How so? Well, she meddled with forces that she should not have and she unfortunately paid the price. Good day. I must return to my work. She very slowly begins walking towards the door. Wait! And she very slowly stops.

And very slowly turns back to you. Tell us more. You'll have to forgive me. I'm an old woman. What was that? Tell us more of our King. And in days past, how did it go back then? Fuck! Sucks at this. What? She seems a little confused. What do you wish to know? Tuck drops the pretense and he's like, not many people within the court speak of the Ranger's former lover and it is interesting to travel to other cities and courts to hear what others say.

It helps as a gardener to interpret the trees to know the history that people don't want to share. You must understand this is not a subject that is spoken of often or very freely. How much would it take to… Are we talking money or… To instinctively go to bribing her? How much are we talking about here, Malgath? Come on. Just like, uh… First base, second base? You don't want to know how far I'll go, Malgath. I'll do whatever you want. Anything. You misunderstand me, young man.

She reaches out a knobbly hand and places it on your shoulder. I cannot speak of these things. I will not. She pushed too far too quickly. Spoke of things. She ought not have. It would be irresponsible of me to encourage the same thing in others. It's a warning. Now if you'll excuse me, I must return to my work. But she must side with what Illyana was trying to do, right? I don't know, dude. Who knows? She's first gardener now. Yeah, that's true. She could've been part of the overthrow.

Yeah, I mean, like, she has navigated a very treacherous political situation to continue to be first gardener over the last few hundred years. She's super shrewd. Yeah, and she kind of doesn't seem it, which it feels dangerous. Yeah, she could be planted by the populi. Unless, like, maybe she knows that there's, like, they're listening. Oh, yeah. Like, make no mistake, we're having fun little sleepovers with elf monks and little college student fun times. You're in a den of lions right now.

Like, you are in the heart of the great forest surrounded by enemies. Yeah, so Billy's like, well, thank you very much for the beautiful ceremony. I will go also to my work. I love that Billy's saying this to her as she's walking away. So slow. He's saying it, like, to her back as she waddles away. Yeah, and then she says nothing so Billy, like, veers off and goes and finds Elmond. Who's, like, standing nearby near the door, basically, to this chamber.

This old woman, is this the woman I peed on? I put my arm under the animal? Yes, yes. Okay, right. So I'm checking with her. This is the old woman you pissed on. Yeah. But yeah, Elmond is there. He looks kind of nervous. Um, did we do something wrong? I, I, I, it's hard for me to say. Not many speak of Illyana within the walls of this garden. I, I myself know very little. Are we not allowed to? Based on the reaction of First Gardener Malgath, I would suggest you express caution.

Who are those, like, non-priest dudes who are in the mess hall? Those are delegates of the Sun Peaks. They usually in here? No. I have no idea why they would be here. Hmm. Shit. Unless, and he looks to the three of you, alarmedly, unless… Go on. Oh, I figured that that would be enough. Yeah. To suggest that maybe it was, maybe it was connected to you. You're gonna spell it out for me? Oh, okay. Okay. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I just, I know as adventurers you're used to, um, dramatic pauses, so I'm trying to, uh, insert some dramatic pauses into my speech. You did a great job. Thank you. He's read a lot of Dick and Benjamin. I see, I see. Oh, okay. A lot of contraband, contraband paperback novels that get snuck into the forest. They're all fanfiction of Dick and Benjamin. So, what now? Is the, the tree in this chamber? No, the tree is, like, outside the chamber. Okay. This is, like, still part of the structure.

Yeah, the tree is kind of, like, on, it's, like, in the center, but it's kind of on its own. Like, the cloister and surrounding areas, I imagine, were, like, the roots of the tree kind of come out a bit. Yeah. Like, that, it's more attached to the roots than the tree. Yeah, exactly, yeah. It's a bit of a walk, I think, from, Yeah. Like, the cloister to the tree. Okay. Yeah. Not, like, an hour or anything like that.

I imagine the garden is almost, like, the size of, like, raw space, if you will, in the cemetery. Yeah, yeah. Quite large, yeah. So, if you were to enter, like, the garden to see the tree, it's very obvious that you're going to see the tree. Yeah. Like, it's, the garden, like, the tree is right in the center. Yeah. And the, and they've given a ring of space around the tree. And even over the years, as the tree grows, like, really slowly, they'll move the structures back to keep giving it space.

Cool. Ooh, yeah. Oh, and that's a huge celebration when they move it, because it shows that the tree is growing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But maybe it hasn't happened for a while. Yeah. Maybe some of the, some of the parts of this, of the, of the cloister seem, like, old. Like, they should have moved a long time ago. We are on old stone. Yeah. Still, to this day. Then, so what next? I feel like either we have to distract if we want to go to the tree, or we have to do it in secret somehow.

And what are we hoping to do to the tree, hack into it? Like, we already communed with it. You already looked at it. Uh-huh. Like, what else are we going to do to it? We still don't have all the details of what's happening with the tree. Yeah. And we need to figure out what the Gibbous Man did to it to cure it. Yeah. And we need to cure it to fix elven culture. Mm-hmm. And then we need to do that to overthrow the court. Yeah. And then we need to do that to get my gash. To get your gash done.

Mm-hmm. Um, is there, like, a library or, like, a place with records in this area? Yeah, oh, and then it goes, oh, um, yes, there is. And it takes you through the hallways of the cloister, past some guards who are like, , you know, as people walk by, they look very vigilant. Oh, so I just start saying stuff that I think is very elf-like. Uh-huh. Um, why, yes, the mung beans were quite the nicest, uh, uh, clump of beans I've had in quite some time. Mmm. Fresher than the ones we had last week.

Yes, laryngitis. Yes, yes. I also like mung beans . Elman locks eyes with a guard and says that. God. And I look forward to the beans of tomorrow. The beans of the day after that. I, bronchitis, love the beans I eat every day. And I, Giardia, am… Am aware of the beans that have passed through me. Amen. May it nurture a great tree. And may it be the evening sky. Time looks down upon me. And I bet the guards are like, alright, they're like, hmmm, alright, guess this is elves.

They do love mung beans just like me and my missus. Uh, and Elman takes you to a chamber that is absolutely full of shelves, and those shelves bear endless pine cones of varying sizes. And he goes, this is the archive, I suppose. Or, as it's called amongst the gardeners, the conery. Uh, conery. Do you read them? Yes, yes. And he takes you to a pine cone, and much like the leaves and fruits of knowledge trees that we've encountered in the past, the pine cones are covered in runes. Whoa. Oh, cool.

Hmm. And then Tuck picks it up, doesn't see the runes, and he's like, you can make a cool bird feeder, Adamus. Do you have any peanut butter? He gingerly takes it from you. Please, I would request that you be exceedingly cautious in the conery. Many of these cones are older than even First Gardener Malgaff. Hmm. This place is a trove of knowledge. Is there a pine cone that talks of gardeners past? Yes, I'm sure it does. Discern realities. Nine. Okay, one question off the list. Can I eight?

You can indeed. Ten. Whoa, ten. Holy shit. Ten. Thanks, Billy. No problem. What should I be on the lookout for? What should you be on the lookout for? Because you were talking about finding a record of gardeners past? Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so sort of using the natural, not quite library-esque, but more synergistic organization system that they have here in the conery, he tracks down a cone that contains, according to him, a great number of just names and tenures of First Gardeners, starting from now going back 2,000 years, 3,000 years. Is Ileana on that sheet? Ileana is not on the sheet. Ooh, she was scrubbed from the histories. Maybe. Mm-hmm. Or she's just notably absent. Or she was not technically a First Gardener.

Well, we do know that her vestment was different, denoting her as someone else. Yeah. Which to you would further reinforce the political motivation of her killing in that, I'm giving you a lot for this, but I feel like I just want to say it anyways, her vestment must have denoted the fact that she was a wizard. What? They knew it at the time? Oh. I thought the whole point was that they didn't know that. But why wouldn't they know it? Because back then wizards weren't, like, hated as they were.

It was pre-exist. Yeah, it was pre-exist. We keep forgetting that. Yeah, so like they existed just openly. So she was a wizard gardener. Or she was like a, um, an advisor. Because sometimes I think wizards were advisors to, like, whatever. They were hired for, like, whatever they could do. Yeah, because she obviously had some sort of special ability to commune with the tree, talk to the tree. Who's really in control here? Oh, shit. That is a very good question. This is another book.

Like, this was some time spent with the list of First Gardeners and some contemplation on your part and some reflect- probably some conversation in the room. Some hushed, like, what the fuck? It's mostly you and Elma and me and Billy are, like, playing with pine cones. Just throwing cones back and forth. Goolum! No! Good throw, Billy. Elman's, like, panting. He sees you doing this. It's fine. They're delicately handled. It's just they're- they're just pine cones. They're just little pine cones.

Exactly. They're just pine cones. Don't worry about it. Who is really in control here? I could use my tiger's eye for this. Oh! Okay. SICK! So this is gonna give you in the immediate sense. Okay, yeah. Yes. Yes. I like that. Yes! You can just tap into your eye of the tiger. Yup. And you find yourself- I go, Who's really in control here? And he's about to answer me and then I put my finger over his lips. And you close your eyes and make that connection with First Gardener Malgath.

And she is speaking to the two representatives of the Sun Peaks. They are here. I have not deduced where. Well, you must find them as soon as possible. They must be detained, says one of the members of the Sun Peaks. And the other looks uh, menacing. Finely dressed and menacing. Like that guy that people like from the Thor movies? Like Tom Hiddleston from the Thor movies. Oh yeah! Tom Hiddleston, but enough. He's got the very high like widow's peak, the long dark hair, elf classic elf.

Pointed ears, very pale. And his robe is like, sort of like very neat. It's like minimalist. I think he, yeah, I think he, it's so minimalist it's not even really a robe. It looks like it's made for him to be very mobile. Like it's kind of armor, it's kind of clothing. Ooh, cool. So sick. Who's this guy? Who's this mysterious stranger? If Tuck was watching this movie, he'd be like, who's this guy?

He's got Fing by either side of his head and he's holding his eyelids open staring into his eyes, whoa! Whoa, who's that? He tilts Fing's head towards him more. Let me look it up on IMDB. Whoa, he was in Cougar Town? Cool. Um, so they are discussing that they are looking for people that may or may not have infiltrated the garden. Mm-hmm. And that the Sun Peaks representatives want them detained immediately.

Oh shit, that means they're gonna lock down the tree if we can't get to it soon, probably. Yeah. Very well, I will have my guards spread out and maintain their vigilance as your agent conducts his investigation. And then the menacing looking elf stalks off into the halls. You have one more question. I mean, valuable? That seems to make sense, what's valuable to us? Or what's about to happen? Ooh, that one! I like that one! What's about to happen?

You would guess, based on where you know, well, how fast you know Malgath can move, where she must have been speaking to these people? We have a book? Six to seven hours before she gets back to the mess hall. Well, you've got about six to seven hours before she makes it back to the mess hall, but probably within five to ten minutes before someone checks the conery. Oh shit. What do you do? Get the hell out of here, let's move. Okay. We need to leave the library immediately. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Are you going back through the door into the corridors, or are you trying to find another way out? Is there any way out of this library? The conery. I mean, Almond looks around and sees like, windows in the vines, and you know, places to hide. Nothing that I've known, but you three are quite cunning. I'm sure you could discover an alternate route if you so chose.

The alternative is that we continue the farce that we are just regular guys, and like, try and shuffle our way into the garden to get to the tree before the next guy finds us. Mm-hmm. Just like, pretend to continue to be these continue to be laryngitis, bronchitis, and GRD. Yeah. And then try to like, get to the tree, because it feels like it is kind of just a matter of time. Yeah. Before they find us. So like, we have a window now.

Yeah, I guess if we tried to escape and failed at all, we would really expose our- we're opening ourselves up to exposure. Yeah, totally. Failure. Okay, we gotta make a move towards the tree in the garden. And we are totally disguised. We don't look like ourselves at all right now. No, we don't. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Okay, let's get out of here. Okay. Nonchalantly. Yeah, so you nonchalantly leave the conery? Too slow. Walking too slow. Yeah, I'm moving my shoulders a lot to look so nonchalant.

How's everybody moving nonchalantly as they leave? Um, the elves have like, little storage areas and like, shelving and stuff like that kind of throughout the garden that keep tools and hats and things. Mm-hmm. So Billy gets a little hat and a shovel. Uh-huh. And he's like, I think I will, uh, weed the garden near the tree. I think I also will weed the garden near the tree. He locks eyes with another guard while he says this.

Sounds like you're just making a bee line for the tree as quick as you can. 100%. Yeah. Great. Uh, okay. What would the role for this be? Perilous journey through to Kew. Yeah. Oh! Yeah. Like a short journey but perilously just try and start. I like it. It is perilous waters. I like that. I like that a lot. Uh, so perilous journey as we know. We need somebody to scout ahead, someone to navigate, and someone to manage provisions. Oh, I could take provisions. Okay.

Yours is like all of the shit that you're carrying. All the shit I'm carrying. Also I'm like, okay, like, I make sure like Tuck doesn't look too wide and Ving doesn't look too princely. Oh, right. Yeah. Gotta manage the illusions. Yeah. His finger keeps going up his nose. What's going on? Yeah. Okay, so then who's scouting ahead? I'll scout. Okay. So that means Tuck's navigating. I'll navigate. Alright, so scout ahead is 2d6 plus wisdom. Eleven. Oh! Okay. Nice.

So you choose two from the list below. You get the drop on whatever lies ahead. You discern a beneficial aspect of the terrain such as a shortcut shelter or tactical advantage. Those two. Okay. Uh, navigate is 2d6 plus intelligence. Great. Six. I aid. 2d6 plus bond. Eight. Okay. So that makes it a seven to nine which means you choose one from the list below. You happen on a discovery missed by the scout. The going is slow or you wander off course. Or you encounter a danger. Encounter a danger?

Okay. Okay, so manage provisions. 2d6 plus wisdom. Oh no. Oh, jeez. Snake eyes. Three. So you mark XP and the GM makes a move. Ooh, could I use a fair child to turn a failed roll to a seven to nine? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Okay, so the party consumes the expected amount. So you're not going to get anything great, but you're not going to get anything terrible. Yeah. Okay, so we're moving as a unit. Elman, absolutely terrified.

Trying to keep it together, be so cool and and espionage. Just a gardening unit coming through. Yeah. We're just here to garden and go outside and weed the trees. That's what we do. And the guards turn around to like watch Elman go as he's being really loud. And Billy, you're momentarily distracted by all the stuff you're carrying like your big hat. Keep falling over your face and you drop your little trowel and you look up and for a second, all of your illusions are like gone. Holy shit.

How do you what does Billy do when this happens to maintain them? He coughs really loud to try cover a fart. Okay. Obviously he coughs and then farts and at the cough is when you guys like your disguises come back. Yeah. And then the guards look at Billy when he farts. To draw their eyes away so that they don't catch you guys looking like it's a long fart too. You cough so they look at you and then you fart. Yeah. It's the perfect disguise. Oh, I really filled up on beans this morning.

I don't think I soaked them long enough. Silly me. It's a rookie mistake. Oh, you know, I've done that myself. Morning, afternoon, next. Yeah. I mean. Which means two mornings from now I'm gonna do the same thing. You know, I might be right there with you. Excuse me, boys. Well, carry on. And as you're scouting ahead, Ving, you see this sinister looking elf. He's like walking very arrogantly, I would say is the way.

He's kind of got like, you know, his shoulders back, his head kind of tilted and he's like sauntering through the corridors. This is the danger that Tuck sees. So you okay, so you get the drop on whatever lies ahead. That is the danger that Tuck has spotted. He goes, oh, fuck. There he is. And Ving, you know, it's not like you instinctually know where to go because you know the place. It's you instinctually know where to go as a man of the wild. You're like, oh, there's a predator. Whoop.

Go this way. Okay. And you find yourself basically on the threshold of the garden itself. Your shortcut is, hey, here's the garden if we want to go in here. We don't necessarily have a reason to go in here. We don't know what will be through this threshold if we do go. We should probably go in here. And you're just, you're trying to duck away from this, this sinister elf altogether. Oh yeah, 100%. And you are in garden. Elman says, I, this is quite dangerous.

Is it beneficial to you if I come along or should I stand guard here and perhaps give a signal if I see some sort of threat approaching? Yes, if you could cough fart and let us know if anybody comes, that'd be great. Cough and then fart. Yes. And not at the same time. Not at the same time. It doesn't work that way. Okay. Alright.

I will, I will stand here and I will, he like kind of just moves to the side of the door within the garden itself but like peeking through and goes, I will cough fart if danger approaches. And Tuck like clasps him on the shoulder and he wants to give him strength. So he hands him a trowel and he's like, this is a tool but it is also a weapon of your order. And then Tuck kisses him on the mouth. . And you pull away and he is beet red. But he grips the trowel so tight you hear his knuckles pop.

And then as Tuck pulls away he goes, I trust you. I trust you. And then Tuck goes, cool. And then he walks away. And we, the camera stays on Elman as he grips the trowel with both hands and watches Tuck walk away. And now we are in the garden. The rays of the sun peek through the branches of the heart tree as much as they are able. As the massive canopy stretches out not only over the garden itself but over the entire city of Heartwood. Is the garden like pretty lush?

I think like we were saying like there's space around the trunk itself that is kept relatively clear. Or at least was in days past. But there is a circle around that is full of plants. So this is like a walking garden. So it's like a butchery garden. Like these are cultivated plants. Very cultivated. Okay. Is there anything else in here? Not that you can see but it's a pretty big spot. So there might be people working on plants or in paths that you can't see or on the other side of the tree.

Is there a path through this garden? To certain alleys. Twelve. Holy shit. Yeah, fourteen. Bing's crushing it. Okay, so you get three questions. What should we be on the lookout for? What you should be on the lookout for is that you do hear some voices kind of in the distance. There's people in the garden. Whether friend or foe, nobody to tell. What here is not what it appears to be? As you're walking along this path you're like, oh there are people here.

Like you hear the voices and you're like, ah okay well you know, stay cool, stay cool. And you do sort of pass by a small, like two or three gardeners who are doing just gardener work and you recognize one through your disguise as Nesh. Oh shit. I don't remember who Nesh is then. Is he not the kid? He's a ranger that works with Wendy. Thank you. The young man. Yes. He's our friend. We don't know now. Cause Wendy betrayed us. Uh oh. And he, but he can't recognize us right now. No.

Your disguises are fully in place. Oh right, yeah. What's useful or valuable? What's useful or valuable is um, based on the voices that you can hear and the things that you can see with your elf eyes, you think that if you were to go, like you've basically got a path in your head through this walking garden to get out of sight. Of most of the people in this garden to get like a closer dash to the tree. Like if you were to go straight towards the tree. Great.

You could go all the way around to the other side. But you will be in like open land if anybody does see you. I kinda feel like I feel like it doesn't, Tuck's talking to you too guys. He's just like, I feel like it kinda doesn't matter. We just need to get to the tree as quickly as possible. I think so too. Like that guy is hunt, that beautiful, dangerous leopard of a man is hunting us. He will find us eventually. So we need to just get to the fucking tree. Yep. Okay, let's go. Okay.

Can I like trap expert first? Oh yeah, absolutely you can trap expert. Yeah! Twelve. Twelve, okay. So you get three questions. Is there a trap here? Yes. What activates it? I mean the easy answer is getting too close to the tree. So Billy is on like the edge of like the garden section, like the plant section of this place. It also feels powerful to Billy. Exactly. So Billy like stops, like you stop everybody. And you can feel that there is like, it's not as simple as approaching the tree.

Mm-hmm. What does the trap do when activated? I think if you approach this tree improperly, at its peak, at like the height, what you know about trees like this, especially old, ancient, powerful knowledge trees, is they can reject you completely. Like you will be unable to approach, you will be unable to glean any of the information, you will be unable to communicate, it will just not be interested in interacting with you at all.

And you think that because this tree is sick, it would be even more dangerous. Um, what else is hidden here? What else is hidden here is as you are like feeling this power, Mm-hmm. You feel like cold ancient wind blowing from a deep, dark place, you feel that chill Oh. Rolling off the tree itself, suggesting that there is an opening. Okay. I tell that to Vang. Hmm. Okay. Okay, so Vang's gonna use Thing Talker to talk to the plants at the edge of the garden. Mm-hmm.

And ask them to create a diversion on the other side of the garden. Okay. And I'll offer up some magic water I brought from the well on Hibernia. Whoa. Oh, cool. As a, uh, not a parlay, as a… That's a parlay. Parlay. Yeah. 2d6 plus charisma. Four. Jesus fuck. Okay. Something's happening. Uh-uh. Uh, you offer the water to the plants of this place, and what, yeah, what do you, like, say to them? I mean, give me, give me path. I am here to help the forest.

I want to cure the blight at the heart of wisdom. Mm. If you help me, I will help the forest at large. There is no help. There is no hope. The darkness has taken root, and nothing can pull it from the soil. I'm gonna try anyways and put the water on the ground. And they, they, they hungrily drink it down. Yeah. And it is gone into the earth. Nothing. You feel like a, well, not nothing. You feel something happen in, in the soil, but it doesn't feel reassuring.

But you do notice that same hunger that you felt in the tree when you tried to commune with it. Yeah. Is effective. It's protecting the plants in this place as well. Is Tuck feeling anything, like, in his chest, being so close to the tree? I think so, yeah. I think that once you, like, especially once you've entered the garden, you've been feeling this, like, sense of dread. Mm. This, like, nagging background sense of doom. Like, it's just, it does not feel good to be here. To be here? Yeah.

Am I getting, like, I feel like I might be getting kinda sick being in here. I think so, yeah. Yeah. Like, I feel like he's, like, having to hold it together. Like, if you looked at him, he'd be, like, flop sweat and, like, kinda green. Uh, yeah, I guess, like, Tuck kinda, like, he feels the sense of dread, and he sort of tries to hone in on it. Mm-hmm. Cause he could see, like, Ving, like, talking to the plants, and it's kinda, like, feels like it's not going well. Yeah.

And he's, like, fuck, we don't have a lot of time. We have to figure something out. Mm-hmm. So he, he uses TLC. Oh, sorry. Try and, like, mediate a connection, like, through this, like, sickness that is, like, infecting him while he's in here. Yeah. What does TLC look like in your disguise? Did we talk about this? It's, like, a little trowel. Yeah. Copper trowel.

It's, like, yeah, it's a little copper trowel, and there's, like, a sheath of burnished gray metal on the front of it, and there's, like, a little pommel of, like, a little purple stone on the back of it. I like it. It looks like I bedazzled a trowel. Yeah, totally. Optimize your tools, man. Yeah. That way you know they're yours. Fuck, I feel like shit. Alright, go for it. Okay. Wait, what are you rolling? TLC. Oh, you're using the move TLC.

You are initiated in the old ways, the ways of sacrifice, choose something you're gods, value, gold, blood, bones, or the like, so it's destruction for TLC. Yeah. When you sacrifice those things as per your rites and rituals, roll plus wisdom. Here we go! Fuck! Negative one. Fuck! Oh, no! Uh, yeah, cause I still have that debility to wisdom, so I, that's a five, so I fucked that up. Shit. Uh, what happens?

Well, the thing that Tuck knows is he has to, like, enact destruction, and the thing that he has that he feels like is connected to this whole thing is the obsidian coins. So he takes one of the six that's in the bag, and he uses TLC to just, like, smash it against the ground. Okay. So. Billy is kind of doing, like, uh, spiritual overwatch, more or less, like, keeping an eye on the, on the metaphysical layer of this. Mm-hmm. Um, Ving has just attempted to commune.

He's trying to keep, uh, keep an eye out with the, the plants. He's trying to, like, convince them, but they're sick and twisted. Right. And you've poured this water into the earth, this spiritual water, and Tuck smashes the coin, and that bitter wind that Billy feels rolling off the tree intensifies. Mm-hmm. And as this water soaks into the soil, the spiritual water from the Isle of Hibernia, signaling to the tree and the sickness exactly where you are, Oh.

The ground beneath you begins to fissure and shake. Oh, shit. And you fall into the earth. And as you fall, you hear a cough and a fart. You just did. And I think that's where we're gonna leave it. Really? Okay, yeah, that's great. Okay, great. I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me is always playing Tacoma Dome the Barbarian Abdulaziz. So long. Playing Ving the half-elf druid Paul Oppers. Take care. Playing Fat Billy the Halfling Thief Jessica Tai. Bye, everyone.

Thank you, as always, to Aaron Reid for our incredible intro and outro music. You can find all of Aaron's original music at aaronreid.bandcamp.com and all of the music that he has produced for the show, at soundcloud.com. You can also join us on Patreon with all of our other supporters from around the world to get access to stuff like a whole bonus campaign set in the High Spear Mall featuring the Cool Treat Kids. You can get merchandise. You can get stories. Writing the Almanac. Postcards.

Postcards. Sent to you in the mail. Yep. Lovingly addressed by me all the time. Wait, that sounds really mean. I didn't mean it like that. All the fucking time. All the fucking time. All right, I'll address one. No, it's fine. We sent out merch at the Monarch tier. This month, we sent out keychains. We're kind of behind. We sent out some really cool keychains. But they had a tag in it that talked to the computer and then leads you to a website.

Like a MySpace page where all the cool kids hang out. Yeah. Actual magic. Oh, and this month I'm gonna be sending out some t-shirts. Oh, yeah. More t-shirts. T-shirts for the Monarchs. And then at higher levels, things like a monthly game GM'd for your friends and you by myself and or Abdulaziz. So if you want to check that out, check us out at patreon.com slash speltlore or speltlore.com slash money, please. And last of all, thank you to all of you for listening. We'll see you next time.

And so ends the tale of adventures three who tried the best they can. Though dumb and scared and lost, we may be 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 gladly Spout Lore.

Spout Lore is only made possible through the contributions of listeners like you. If you would like to donate, please go to Spout Lore dot com slash money, please, or patreon dot com slash Spout Lore. And if you go there, you'll get a bunch of bonus content, too, which is nice. It's good bonus content. I work really fucking hard on it. 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-elf, he shifts his shape and wields a spear with great might. Billy's a thief. His tiny size does mask the largest heart. Best and brightest, they may not be. But their friendship outweighs. They're smart. So gather round, friends, and listen close. For the tale's about to start. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Spout Lore.

I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the barbarian, Abdul Aziz. Hello, everybody. Playing Ving, the half-elf druid, Paul Oppers. Hey, how's it going? And playing Fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica Tai. Hello, everybody. When last time, I was a thief. When last we left… I don't know why I didn't expect that. It's been a while. It has been a while. When last we let… I lost one. Do we have more dice to dump out?

I mean, Jessica's was open, but not dumped out. Maybe she didn't want them dumped out. Yeah, no one asked me. Yeah. We choose for you, Jessica. I appreciate it. It's so much easier on my little brain. When last we… Finally. We respect Jessica so much. I want everyone to know that. Oh, my God. When last we left our heroes, they had been betrayed. Sorry, there's more dice. Okay. We don't need all of these dice. Where's the middle dice? We used two D6s. Here's the middle ones. Oh, my God.

Those are really heavy. Sean, but what if we need a D20 at some point? We'll never need a D20. Today could be the day. I bet you we'll need a D20 once when I do… When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? When? We won't because it unbalances everything. Why would we do that? Sean, you're so mad. Sean, who here has a master's degree in math? You, I guess. Who has a game master's degree in dice? Oh, yeah. Amazing. That's really funny. Fuck.

When last we left our heroes. Betrayal. Tacoma Dome soared through the air after being betrayed by Wendell Ari of the Ranger Corps. Yeah, I didn't see it coming at all. You didn't? Yeah. Nice. Yeah. I love truly betraying you when you didn't expect it. Sent down to the ground, Tacoma Dome was overcome with a vision of darkness, a void, his lungs being filled with liquid, and then seeing a burning tree above him.

The party reconvened through measures that involved them hearing Tuck bellow, Wendy betrayed us at the top of his lungs. Like an angry child at his birthday party. You just learned the word betrayed. He's not even sure what it means. Yeah. Who didn't win the pass the parcel? You betrayed me! And they all arrived momentarily to fight a bunch of guards at the Cloister. The fight went fairly well.

You were able to both fight off and contain a number of guards before escaping through a secret door into the innermost cloister of the heart tree. Once inside the garden itself, you came upon Elman, a young idealistic gardener who Billy had been following through the fairy realm. Upon being told of your great quest to save the people of the great forest and the tree itself, Elman, very enthusiastically and perhaps naively, said, There's a woman inside.

Investment vines which formed to you immediately and also help you with some biological processes which some people took more advantage of than others tuck summoning an ungodly amount of piss to dump into these vines elman was able to throw off the attentions of first gardener malgath but not before ving was able to fling a bit of investment piss do onto her marking her with the eye of the tiger it is really funny that we created a monastic order that was at the center of an aeon old civilization and then immediately made them piss monks uh yeah well you know that's the the spell or guarantee is we will make all of your most important figures piss themselves for fun your important physics yeah unfortunately yeah uh and after a nice night of sleeping in this guy's bed while he slept on the floor oh no he shared a bed with tuck yeah we shared oh right yes yeah I forgot the specifics of the bed configuration head to toe or no just spooning him he was doing the thing where he wiggles his hips into me pretty hard he's a monk he doesn't see a lot of other he doesn't get a lot of human contact does not know what it's doing what is it doing on this end it's it's there's a there's some better to fill my suit yeah tuck's been on a very special kind of journey over the course of the show whoa this suit soaks up more than just piss oh my god did you just come into your suit very not sure uh horrific uh a little strawberry formed oh god what the fuck That's for some reason the worst.

Why did you ruin such a good food? And the window began a tapping. Oh, Ving got a vision. Oh, right. This is very important. Yeah. Ving, instead of sleeping, chose to use this time to, uh, meditative state and was gifted a vision of Ileana and Nathaniel many years ago. Ileana in her capacity as a gardener here in Hartwood city. And Nathaniel as a young military man, it seemed like he was less, uh, disheveled, distraught. Yeah. He looked more put together.

Cause it was like, he, you know that thing where it's like a hard guy gets a partner and then like softens and then it's like, maybe the world is okay. Yeah. And then everybody's favorite trope. And then that partner dies and he turns into the punisher. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. That the vision, uh, mostly concerned Ileana telling Nathaniel that the, the court wasn't going to listen.

And then, and that they were going to destroy themselves, uh, and that she just wanted to bail and let them do it. And Nathaniel said, no, we can make them listen. We can show, we can fix this. And then the window began to tap in and we were gifted with the arrival of a one Oman, the bookworm tuck rushes forward, forgets to open the window, smashes through, grabs Oman, crushes him to death. Yeah. Can I, can I roll to delicately grab Oman first? Through, through the window? Oh yeah.

He's got a smash through the window. Yeah, I guess so. You love giving yourself the opportunity to make a mistake. I like, I like a challenge. It's not a challenge. Okay. Duty six plus dexterity. I guess this is a challenge situation cause you have to bust through the window and then grab a little soft, little cute, little worm. I want to be clear. You don't have to bust through the window. I'm going to bust through the window. It's just so funny. Okay. All right, here we go.

Two D six plus dexterity. Oh, seven, zero seven. So seven to nine. I pushed Jessica and Paul to the ground. What are you talking about? Jessica and Paul? You pushed the actors, Jessica and Paul to the ground through the fourth wall. Tuck punches the window so hard. He breaks the fourth wall. Oh my God. You went through too many pains. Roll D six. Four. Four damage. Yeah. Yeah. So your hand is just bleeding immediately. You're just covered in blood. Yeah.

And then I take that bloody hand and I offer it to Oman. And you can see Oman's like flapping above your hand. And you can see on his little worm face, a face that sounds like, Ooh, he flits past you into the room. I wanted to see if I, the reason why Tuck was so amped to get it is to see if, uh, Maresh had written him anything. Uh, yeah, he flies right past into the room. When he flies past me, I go, if there's, if there's anything on there from Maresh, it's for me. So nobody read it.

He dibs on the note. So he's just kind of fluttering around the room looking for a play, a safe place to land. What news you bring? Many words from master librarian. Offer a finger. And he unfurls his wings. Oh my God. And they are absolutely chalk full crammed. Oh my gosh. With librarian shorthand. Oh, cool. So it is, I mean, you all look at this and you go, Oh, that's librarian shorthand. Like this is like, they're basically coded note taking method that none of us were taught.

What thing was a silent? Yeah. Yeah, totally. You learn the martial arts, martial arts, but you're not a researcher. So maybe I know what, like it says, like slap foot, you're able to pick up the things that say punch, but there isn't unfortunately very much something about a hole punch here, but it's something that you could, you could probably decode over time. It's just not going to be like super simple to read right away.

Can I try to go into my mind palace and to all bed and see if I can find all of the times that far tried to teach us short. Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah. So this will be a defy danger intelligence. So you like sift through your daydreams. Are you going to get the board, the pizza palace in your mind with all the tucks? Yeah. The sit down pizza. How did my, my balls laughing really hard. The pizza pie, my balance with the pizza. Yeah, that sit down pizza, bad pizza in my mind.

It's gotta be a sit down pizza. It's not a fucking pizza hut express. There's Jessica spilled. It's like the name of a fucking vinyl cafe. Short story collection. The sit down pizza hut in my mind. Oh God damn it. Uh, I don't know. I mean, I can't answer that question. Seven years in, I cannot answer that question for you. Okay. So here's what I was thinking is you guys asked a lot of questions. Yeah. So far returned with, with a lot of information. Do you remember all the questions?

I wrote it down. Oh, he asked you up. I went back and I listened. You did. Unfortunate. No, you started asking you up and then you guys like erase some stuff. Like you're like, no, we got it. He saw us. He saw us erase it. That's embarrassing. Uh, things. Mom is a wizard. What do you know of wizards creating life? Have you heard of the Iliana's? She may have created me was harbored by a Druid family. What do you know of the Ranger attack on the Iliana's and the Island of Hibernia?

Uh, well, that is a lot. So this is what I was thinking is like, do we, do we do one role that unlocks all of the information on the wings? Or are we trying to decode the different messages? Can we each try and remember the shorthand? Well, let's see what happens with the first role. Like we're not going to roll them all at the same time, unless we all want to go to the sit down pizza hut and tux mind. Oh my God. I mean, you've got, you've got the rings. This is what the rings are for.

This is my version of communion of the sit down pizza. My mind. D sixes. Uh, yeah, I guess. Yeah. How are we structuring this? I guess it's just, well, so it'll start. Not all of you have to roll, but like, so tuck can roll and then you guys can be there. Okay. And then if tuck requires help in the sit down pizza hut, then you can roll. Okay. Yeah. What am I rolling? Plus intelligence. Yeah. Remember it's mine. Tell us it's been, it's book stuff. Exactly. Meaning is one of the virginity days.

Yeah. Okay. We got to stop calling them there, but, but Hey, eight minus one is seven. Fuck. Still a seven to nine. Still a seven to nine. You know what? Not bad. Yeah. Yeah. So we go to the, the sit down pizza hut in tuck's brain. What do we see? Pizza. Uh huh. Yeah. It's lunchtime. So there's a seven 99 pizza hut buffet. Yeah. So there's a lunch rush. The pizzas are plates. And then you pile on a salad and pasta onto the pizza. Onto the pizza is a plate. Getting it back to tables. Hot. Yeah.

Yeah. It's very hot. Yeah. I love that. Great. And, uh, we see, uh, in the corner next to the street fighter two machine, uh, a table. There's a tuck in like board shorts and like an upside down visor. Yeah. Playing the street fighter two machine. Uh, just button mashing. You just got a button mash. And there's a table very much like the desk of master librarian, Farah Margani. Oh.

Uh, and at that table sits Tacoma dome and across from him, uh, Tacoma dome, but in a long gray wig with a robe, a golden rod, a golden rod hem. Just dress like fair. Yeah, exactly. Okay. I believe that this is locked within your mind to Tacoma. You just got to look a little bit closer. Thank you. Tacoma. Please call me master librarian, Farah Margani. Thank you. Master librarian, Farah Margani. And then he says, I appreciate you teaching me to read. And then he touches, the other Tacoma gently.

And he looks into your eyes and he brushes the gray wig hair out of his face. And then Tacoma reaches forward and puts it back. And then another Tacoma starts playing saxophone. Kenny. And he pulls his hand away. No, we have to focus. We can't fuck like we do every time you come here. The analogy, he's getting very confused in Tuck's mind. This is why it's a seven tonight. He can't remember what were dreams and what was reality and what only happens in the sit down pizza hut in his mind. Yeah.

For, I don't know what is dream and what is reality here. And then he touches his face gently. He touches the saxophone, his face. All I know is every moment with you is a dream come true. He touches the saxophone. He's like, why don't you get in here too big? Jing, jing, jing as the door opens. And then Billy and Vinger. We should not have brought you here. Nobody should see this. I shouldn't see this. Billy and Ving, you are in a pizza hut. Yeah.

Full of Tacoma domes of different clothing and style. Billy doesn't even recognize it. He just sees pizza plates. It's like, I've never seen something so good. It goes for it. And there's a, there's a Tacoma dome. There in a full chef's outfit with a chef hat and a, and a mustache over his beard. And he goes, Hey, slow it down. I've had a pizza for everyone. I'm sorry. Uh, and yeah, tuck. You are sitting at this table with the shorthand lesson as you kind of half remember it in front of you.

Okay. And Ving and Billy have arrived. I did grab one of the textbooks that's on the table. I put it on my lap and I'm like, Hey guys. And we were sitting at a desk across the restaurant and talking to a different talk. And we're like, Oh, what? Oh, what? Oh yeah. That one has a, one of those green visors on and like a calculator in front of them. Cause he's got some questions about his expenses. Yeah. He's got to get it sorted out. Oh, he's not going to give you good advice.

You're not going to get the answers you're looking for. Yeah, guys, I'm trying to figure this thing out. So what do I get out of this? Uh, so what you get, okay, so the seven to nine here is that we're in the pizza palace and this is where we're getting this information. Can I present the things that I get? Like the gist of it to Billy and Ving in this palace of knowledge that I have constructed for myself and be like, can you guys figure more out? We all add our own bits of knowledge here.

Can we go into each other's mind palaces? Can we, can we in step further? Yeah, totally. Cause our restaurant might not be, it's a hut. Yeah, it could be so many other places. Okay. What if, okay, we are incepting right now. I do want to find that we're doing an inception right now. Uh, so how I was thinking about it was when we were in the library. Remember if you spent a day researching in the library, you got a 10 plus on a Spout Lore. Oh yeah.

So I think that's basically what you're getting is you can pick, each of you can pick one of the questions maybe to get a full. Oh yeah. Debrief on. So the information that you're getting, from the bookworm, which is being told to you by far a Margani, of course, because she's here presenting that information to you is a hotter, more muscular. Uh, the, it sounds like in the shorthand that you can decode that she kind of got like an all hands situation to help you with this information. Cool.

What's that mean? It means that she considered this important enough that she was pulling in different departments. Like she pulled in all working groups and was like, you know, we need to get them answers to these questions. Sick. Yeah. We're, we're important assets. Oh my God.

So the attack on Hibernia was, um, they believe politically motivated based on sort of the climate in the great forest at the time, though records are sparse because the elves have always been fairly isolationist and their information has always been held very tightly. Uh, but librarians that were placed in the forest at the time, uh, reported that there was a strife between the Vox Populi and the Vox Silvi because around that time.

So this was what I was saying earlier is the runes on the great tree have been overgrown for so long that there was a point in Elvin politics where it became no longer about following the words of the heart tree. And it became about interpreting the words of the heart tree because they weren't as simple to read. So people started putting their own spin on things and the gardeners began to have more power.

Uh, and then as that became more important, members of the court began putting their own gardeners in place so they could control the word, at least according to the librarians that were here at that time, got all purple monkey dishwasher. Exactly. Yeah. And then every once in a while someone would be like selling purple monkey dishwashers. So of course it would be, you know, that kind of thing. Yeah.

So there was a degree to which like, Oh, Ileana is an abomination because, she is a wizard and we kill wizards. But the underlying is she is trying to take power away from us specifically. Not that her magic is unbalancing the world, but she is specifically trying to take power away from the court. Do they know what faction within the Elvin court? Oh, like which like members of the court at the time? Yeah.

I don't know if that's important, but like, who are the players that like were anti Ileana? Oh, that's a good question. I don't know. What if it's the Royal family? Like the prime Royal family? Yeah. And Nathaniel stays in his role because he's, he's kind of like the only one, um, like he wants to like protect the tree. So he's like, if I step away, then like all that's left is like the other people in my family to do what they want.

Oh, you know what I never thought of, but I don't, I do kind of like, is that because we've talked about how it's different territories. Like Nathaniel is the king of the, the Boreal reach, but that they are all related, related, that they're all siblings and stuff like that. It's not like separate families. Like it's like cousins and brothers and sisters. Like Nathaniel's family is in charge of the Boreal reach and the wicks are in charge of like a different region. Yeah, totally.

The wicks and, uh, Nathaniel, like they're still related. Yeah. They're like cousins. Yeah, totally. So is it all the rest of the siblings then? Yeah, I think maybe, I think there, there was one other fan and maybe it was the wicks. Like I think the wicks maybe supported Nathaniel at the time. Oh, cool. That's fun. So sick. So fucking sick. That's why the name was so connected. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. And they're kind of like Nathaniel. The wicks are kind of like assholes.

Well, like assholes, but also kind of folk heroes to some people because they were like supporting the people at the time. They wanted the power to be in the wood and in the trees. Uh, whereas the nobles wanted more and more power for themselves. It would be interesting. And this is not related to this question at all, but like if the wicks were the, like you remember when the war started, like some Rangers had to go out and deal with the wizards. Yeah.

It would be interesting if that was the role that the wicks took upon themselves. Oh yeah. Which is why it was Shathane who like was out in the world. Yeah. They were like the hunters. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Uh, okay. Yeah. So I think that's what you're going to get for that. Cool. Does that answer the question? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like the rest of Nathaniel siblings other than like the wick family. Yeah. Like essentially betrayed him. So it's like a familial like betrayal. Yeah, totally.

And some of them, I think the ones that directly were like sending Nathaniel to go kill Ileana are still alive. I think maybe one or two of them are dead. Okay. Yeah. Just by intrigue, natural causes, that kind of stuff. But there is still like a little finger in the court. Oh yeah. Totally. Yeah. Can we get a name for that? A name for, for the, the like person, the little finger. Oh, um, yeah, totally. Uh, Solana. Oh, that's nice. What is Nathaniel's last name? Yeah.

What is, I was trying to think of that too. What is Nathaniel's last name? We've never said that he has a last name. Oh, okay. It's not Zumba. No. Oh, was that from, Zumba was the, was the Elvin name. Yeah. Okay. His last name Zumba. Okay. It's Nathaniel Zumba. We haven't said that. Hilarious. Nathaniel Van Zumba. That's what it is. Van Zumba, yeah. Oh my God. I'm so sorry everyone. No, it's very funny. Uh, so it's, so it'd be Solana Vang something. Kieran. Yeah. Like C-Y-R. Yeah.

Solara Vang Kieran, queen of the sun peaks. Oh, I like that. Yeah. Paul's doing tit stuff. I love when Paul does tit stuff. Yeah. Queen of the sun peaks. Which I think is like a, when we read the name, tuck goes in the, in the pizza pass goes, ha ha ha. Uh, so yeah, I, and I think the sun peaks are a more mountainous region of the wood. Like they like it. They're, they're called that because like every peak of every tree in this, on this mountain is touched by the sun.

Like it's, it's a very elevated place in the wood. Yeah. So icy. Oh yeah, totally. Yeah. But it's like, Oh, but we're still, Oh, we get so much natural sunlight that like, Ooh, we can still grow stuff. So glittery. They probably got like a aerial, like raised greenhouses and stuff like that to like take advantage of all that light. Oh, cool. There's like helium bladders that like, Oh, I kinda like that. Yeah. That some of them are like straight up floating. Yeah. Yeah. They could ride on them.

Thermals. Ooh. Oh, their tree gliders are probably so fucking skilled cause they like, ride the thermal waves and stuff like that. They're probably a little polar ones like white and fluffy. Yeah. They maybe can fly higher too because they are used to the thermal so they don't have to be in the trees. Cute. So cool. We did. We're doing it. We're world building. Oh yeah. Okay, here we are. We're back baby. Okay. So that is that question. Okay.

You get the answer that it was not just culturally motivated, quote unquote. There was a political aspect to the death of Ileana. Yeah. So Lara van Kirk. So Lara van, uh, Vang Kiran, queen of the Sun Peaks who is still alive. And I guess if we're going to retcon was present at the beginning of the trial of the three of you, I guess. Yeah. Makes sense. Technically would have been there or maybe no, she wasn't there. Why not? It wasn't it like a gather. Oh, okay.

She was supposed to be there, but she wasn't cool. Hmm. So is that a hand reaches across the table to, to rest on yours? Does that answer your question? And then I lean in and go, my kid wasn't here. I'd fuck you so hard. Right? And then a John's hand darted away from a dual so fast and then brushed away a piece of hair on your forehead.

And then I, because I talk in a pizza height uniform shows up and goes, we're closing, we're closing out, we're closing everybody out and we are slammed back to elements chambers. What is, is Elman seen this whole time? He's standing there gently sipping from the sleeve of his vestment vine. As you stand stock still in the middle of the room, our heads are kind of cocked to the side and tilted back and her eyes are rolling in her head.

Billy's going, we're all rubbing these rings on her hands and he's just like being is high-fiving and like almost falling over. Incredible. Tuck is pissing himself. That just as the stories described, he's like, unintelligible, but of course the motivations of adventures such as these would be quite unknowable to people like me. Billy's eating a shoe, but you've still got a wings full of information.

If you so choose to investigate it now, I want to look at those wings, two to six plus, I guess a Spout Lore makes more sense. Really? I like to spell lower about what's on those wings. Yeah. Now that tuck has been able, to decode some of the shorthand. You can just Spout Lore. Okay, so two to six plus intelligence. Seven plus intelligence. I got a six. Can I help? Yes, absolutely. Or can tuck help? I would love to help. Okay. Yes, two to six plus bond. Let me help you with that reading big boy.

Come in behind him. You can you reach around him and open his eyes even wider. Put your hands underneath my neck scarf and come out of my sleeve. This is my glasses on his face. So a failure. I am comfortable with that. Meaning that just one of the questions is an answer. You don't want to get. Okay. Yeah. What question would you like answered? Oh, I was going to something about creating. What do you know of Wizards creating life? Yeah. Yeah, like why? What's the motivation?

Why would she have done? That sort of thing? Yeah, totally. So yeah, with the with the failure far in the shorthand says evidence of Wizards creating life absent completely perfect life considered near impossible through Thaumaturgy Gollum's closest approximation considered quote unquote Holy Grail of Thaumaturgy. Cool research and then after that it says absent and then it says suspiciously absent. Oh, it sounds like they couldn't find any references to it, right?

Because when the library was burned the first time the torch scrubbed parts of the stacks like there were a lot of books that were destroyed. Do you think that maybe he scrubbed this part on purpose? I bet. Yeah, because the like the torch it was a part of the dark art, right? So he was taking yes. Yeah, he was taking commands from the gibbous man. So, if they give us man wanted evidence of like this thing scrubbed, he could have done it. Cool. Mm-hmm. Then Jessica you get one too.

Okay, what of the questions do you wish to be what's left? So what is left is what have you heard of the Ileana's? Let's try. Why not? See? Yeah, 2d6 plus intelligence for a spell or 12. Let's go to 12 close enough 10. That's 10. Tell it shit. Hold on. Hold on. This is not fair. Yeah, it's not fair. I'm practicing how read in secret. Wow. Yeah, in the mind Palace. You're a genius. Yeah, his mind Palace is soup. Wait, just like swimming around in soup.

Yeah, I'm like he gets like the little spaghetti and he floats in it. Oh my God, like, you know, a potato like comes by eats potato. Yeah, there's a little celery. It's celery. El Faggetti. So yeah, so it's a read everywhere. It's shorthand. El Faggetti. That's so cute. So that's all the letters in the noodles are spelling out the information in a way that Billy can can read it like way in the distance of the soup. You hear tuck and Ving freaking out. What the fuck is happening?

Oh my God, you can't swim. It's so hot. It's so hot. So back in the room, Elman just sees Billy still going. But the information that Billy gets from this is you get in the it's like jazz. The things that far I didn't write down suggest that when she got this information, she lost her mind, but she does say like Ileana's cast out of Oval Council name translates to bear keeper or something like that. Like if they're like, the oldest druids and then they have the constellations.

What if sex of druids came from like the constellations that they read? Yeah, that each of the different grades were like constellations. Yeah, I like that. And that's like a natural connection to like the demons. Yeah, because the demons are also like the different icons are represented by constellations as well. Yeah, which is a throwback to old druid acknowledge, right? Yeah, that's cool. This shows their early connection. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, then that means yeah, because that's cool.

Because then there's a constellation of like the deer constellation of the deep were like the deep walkers, right? Yeah, I like that. The idea that like bear Surrounder bear keeper. Yeah, just that the night sky is the keeper of everything on the planet or on this place. The bear was considered like the overarching like spiritual Guardian of the material plan. Ooh, you know, there's that like myth that there is like a bear that will eat the moon one day.

Yeah, and maybe that came from the fact that the constellation of the bear. There was always surrounding Lillian's moon like in a protective capacity and when it shattered the bear disappeared like the entire constellation was gone. Oh and maybe that might have been at least. Oh, that's a cool idea. Yeah, that might have been part of the reason that the Illyana's were cast out of like the council because like when the moon shattered in the bear disappeared.

They were like, oh you're fucking out whatever that means not good for you get out of here. Mm-hmm. Is after the moon shattered. That's when they made a deal with the gray. Yeah, they shrouded the islands so they couldn't see the stars anymore. Anyways, yeah, the shattering of the moon. What I was gonna say is also that it brought up an older sect of something that was a bit more superstitious. Mm-hmm. It's like all of a sudden if astronomers astrologers are like put up as our highest.

Yeah, yeah, totally intellects. Yeah, absolutely. Well, and it kind of it's interesting because it kind of parallels the court in a way right as they couldn't see the stars anymore. So they were basing it all on themselves just like the court can't read the runes anymore. So they're like coming up with shit. Oh, it's almost like someone is obfuscating knowledge that has to do with the night sky.

Ooh, and like the gibbous man has been actively destroying the other sources of guidance like where the night sky is almost guidance from both the spirit realm and the iconic realm. The knowledge trees are guidance from the spirit realm. Like it's like the stars. Yeah, even like the Sea of Braves. You can't like read the sea and like the constant storm also like covers up the sky totally in the runes themselves. And the pillars are like indecipherable.

Yeah, because you can't even get close enough to them. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Pretty sweet. Mm-hmm. Okay. So to further answer the question, I think the Iliad is I like the translation of Iliad meaning mother bear. Mm-hmm. And I think that their role in hibernian society at the time was the Shepherds of like the spiritual connection of the island.

Like they were the custodians of the islands actual connection to the spirit realm because as we know, via Billy's interaction with the fairies that place is very spiritually resonant. And I think the Iliad is were meant to be the ones that like directly took care of that. There are also connections to the myths of the lunar bear and stuff like that and how they were the ones that supposedly tended a great bear that slept beneath the island itself.

So yeah, that is that is that is primarily what you get on the Iliad front. Although that's a 10. It's got to be something useful. Yeah, so I think maybe yeah. Hmm. Oh, what if it was like a postscript? That like Pharaoh wrote just for Billy like in runic language. Yeah, it's just that or I was saying to Sean the other day.

I was like, what if Oman has like a tiny little like rolled up excerpt like tied to one of his legs or something or his back and it's like fair would never usually ever do this, but she knows it's so important. So she like sent like an original excerpt and like, oh, I we can't read this. We need Billy to look at it. Oh, I like that. I like that. I like that. That's a 10 plus. That's a 10 plus for sure.

So you see you get Billy is like in his suit Palace reading the reading the noodles and there's a giant Oman like flitting above him Billy. I come to you with great knowledge. And then in the distance you hear tuck go. I drown out tuck screams. Tell me Oman look upon my little butt. I am looking and you see in the soup Palace turns around and then peeks back a bit with one finger on his lips.

Yeah, and you see tied to him with a delicate silk strand a rolled up piece of parchment and I grab it because I don't know space and time doesn't matter and it is written in the fairy language. Is this from an excerpt from a fairy book? Or from like a runic manuscript?

Um, I think it would be kind of amongst like those like fairy pages that you remember like there's that room Billy was hanging out in and there is like pages and like little booklets that I guess the librarians didn't really know what to do with because they couldn't decipher it. But Billy was like, oh, this is fairy language. So he could read it. Okay, cool. What if those pages were made out of like felled knowledge trees? Yeah, so it's like it's like the all the really thin bark.

Yes, like shave. Like our view to spark. Yeah, that's a great idea. And it was like it used to be other books, but that ink faded in the runes remained. Huh? Hmm. Cool.

Okay, so Billy, I assume still in the suit Palace still partially in the suit Palace partially climbing Ving to read this parchment unrolls it and anyone in the room would see that it is in that sort of strange runic style that fairies right in the sort of like twisty Ogham like branching things that just communicate an idea instead of having to be read like words. They're written in the in the grains of the wood.

Oh, yeah, totally and Billy you are inundated with a fragment of verses written a thousand years ago by a fairy who came to the material plane at a very tumultuous time in this planets history and the words that you receive are chains broken became chains forged when moon threw off her yoke. Other night was cast away to walk among the folk. Whoa, my God wrote that in like two minutes. Holy shit. Now, I'm hard. So that is the information that you receive.

So the gibbous man does not want to be here. Yeah, so it's like he didn't willingly come to the physical realm. Maybe he's trapped in our realm in some form. No, because it's like chains broken. That's Lillian. Yeah, that's chimes freeing Lillian and then to become chains forged. Like what if I mean, it could mean that Lillian was chained up again or it could be referring to the gibbous man or that the freeing of Lillian were changed for somebody else. Yes, they give us man in some way.

Yeah, I think that's what it is. I think when chimes broke Lillian's chains that like when he broke the cage that Lillian was in the side effect of that was that the gibbous man was chained up again. The gibbous man was chained to the material realm and he's been forced to walk as like a material aspect all of these years and maybe that's what this is all about. Maybe he's trying to get back to what he was before eternal. It's not necessarily that he's trying to wreck the physical plane.

He's just trying to get himself out. Yeah, he's trying to collapse all of the different realms back into one. So maybe that's how he, well, if you think about it, like Jessica was saying like where it's like gods can be split into different aspects and dimensions and facets. Like if that event split the gibbous man then shoving all of the different realms back into the same thing allows him to naturally like reintegrate with the rest of himself. Yeah, is that right?

Is that I'm going to let you guys connect these dots. Can I use bardic lore to? I because I have gods and their servants and histories of the grand world to like get a firm answer on what this means in history. Can you read the specifics of bardic lore one more time? Because there's kind of it's kind of like you can't ask questions about a thing forever when you defend you always get a plus one hole. There it is. Okay, perfect. Then yeah, go for it.

Yeah, when you first encounter an important creature location or item covered by your bardic lore, you can ask the GM any one question. About it. The GM will answer truthfully. The GM may ask you what legend song or tale you heard this information in. Hmm. Do we think that this applies within the words of bardic lore? I do.

I mean, I think yeah, I mean like it's it's tuck interpreting a poem, but the sliver of the fairy tale is is definitely there's definitely songs about yeah, like the fairy tales encompass so much magical language and yeah fantastical songwriting. Tuck is also walked the road for so many years and just sat around so many campfires where people have just told stories that have just been propagating through the world.

Yeah, and I'm sure a lot of those stories come from fairy folk tales totally like a fairy trades a story to a person for a favor kind of thing. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think unless okay, this is a good payoff for receiving the library's information after all this time. I think. Unless you uncover a similarly huge piece of information like other ancient art or tales or somebody that was alive at the time. This might be coming up on the end of the questions.

You can ask about the gibbous man specifically. Okay, you're going to have to uncover something serious. Okay, you want to ask more questions? You know what I mean? That makes sense. Yeah. Okay. What do you want to know? Okay, so we're floating in like the infinite palace plane of soup. Yeah, Palace is maybe a strong word for. One person ocean. I'm calling them all palaces. All the soup ocean.

Yeah, and Ving and I have like finally like found an ode that we consider being found a door, but there's not enough room on it for tuck. You've been reenacting that scene Titanic. Yeah, tuck is drowning in chicken broth right now. Tuck. There's a bunch of bubbles of rise up around tuck and things like I get it. The fart of the ocean. I'm pretty good. Pretty good. You hear it go. Ha, ha, you can smell it. All the ha ha ha letters pop up. LOL. We really like that.

It's really I mean, it's really funny. Very funny. Okay, but yeah, we're all like we've tethered all of our like letters together. We're all floating looking at the sky. Yeah, we're like, I think the verses that Billy is reading are kind of like projected across. The sky and tuck. What is what is a good question here? I like that. The sky is wings. Mind Palace. Oh, yeah, it's like a lovely beautiful cumulus cloud.

Yeah, openness becomes a blending of Billy's soup ocean and then like the night sky or not the night sky, but the sky. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, the eternal sky and morning sky. Yeah. Can you read the verses one more time? Yeah, chains broken became changed forged when moon through. Offer yoke father night was cast away to walk among the folk. This might be a useless question. This is your last one.

All right, so tuck is like very like like stupid like he's very he's like, I think tuck is way smarter than he gives himself credit for I know but like tuck is like grounded in the tangible right? Yeah, so he like looks at this poem and then he focuses in. On the chains part of it because like those are that's like what he understands as this like street kid from McCall is like being trapped being chained.

He understands the weight of something like chaining you to something else and how important those chains are when you're trapped. So he's just like what are the gibbous man's chains? Hmm. Who good question. Jin. Hmm. So you would believe based on everything you've learned the stories that you've read the fact that you've spoken with ancient beings directly involved in these situations and based on this very knowledge that the gibbous man as punishment was chained to the material plane.

By Lillian. Whoa, huh? She turned it around on him. Yeah, you don't know the specifics of how that would work metaphysically or why but that is what the story is suggesting the chains broken the act of breaking whatever hold the gibbous man had on Lillian at that time whether it was through the deal that chimes made with the sea or the actual power that was being discharged Lillian was able to use that to punish her. She was able to use that to punish her. She was able to use that to punish her.

She was able to use that to punish her. She was able to use that to punish her. Father. So that means that the gibbous man intentionally killed Lillian to try and break his chains probably if it was her who chained him to this plane. And then he tried to tear her apart to get back to I mean, maybe we don't know. We don't know the details around any of those other events like the death of Rian or the grieving. We only have some information. Mm-hmm. But what you have determined is that.

It's very likely almost certain in your mind based on the mind of someone that has known chains in the past has has lived a life of like internment or imprisonment. Yeah, you would guess that that is what the story is trying to convey. Yeah. One other thing I will say is that you don't know exactly what but you would assume I mean, you know for certain that the gibbous man still has some. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a ton of work to be done.

But if he is chained to the material plane, he must, in some way, be vulnerable. He can die. And that is all you're going to get. I've been your host, Sean O'Hara. Yeah, join me. This episode was just a bunch of spell lords, essentially. A bunch of just us standing in Elman's room. Our heads tilted back, eyes rolling in our heads. Like, we keep cutting back to Elman every once in a while. He's like eating cereal. He's drawn, like, a little charcoal portrait of us.

He's doing a finger painting of Ving. But it's, like, really sexual. He's doing a finger painting on Tuck? Yeah. Where he's, like, he's painting Ving's lips. He's like, there's you, Ving. We cut to the three of us, and we're wearing different costumes, and he's having tea beside us. Oh, Mr. And Mrs. Mickey the Cutty. Having a tea party. Everybody's… You guys have just had your eyes rolled into the backs of your head all morning. Wow, that's a powerful bug. Yeah, right? He knew a lot.

He's staying away from Oman for sure. Yeah. 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 Tacoma Dome, the Barbarian, Abdul Aziz. So long. Playing Ving, the Half-Elf Druid, Paul Oppers. Take care. Playing Fat Billy, the Halfling Thief, Jessica Tai. Bye, everyone. Thank you to Aaron Reed. Aaron Reed of Vancouver Sunday Service for our intro and outro music.

If you want to listen to all of the music that you've heard on the show, you can find that music at soundcloud.com. And if you want to listen to Aaron Reed's original music, you can find that at aaronreed.bandcamp.com. Thank you to all of our susporters around the world for susporting the show. If you would like to susport us, you can find it at patreon.com slash speltlore or speltlore.com slash money, please. And guys, let's talk a little bit about the show.

Let's talk a little bit about what you get on Patreon. Oh, they get… Merch. Access to merch. Sensual postcards. No, sorry. That's the wrong adjective. Yes, you're being too sexual this episode. Yeah, you're right. It's all my fault. Well, I'm working on the next postcard, so maybe it will be sensual. You can also get… Bonus material. Bonus material like our Mall Brats game. Yep. Set in the High Spear Mall. Outtakes and bloopers are fun. Uh-huh. Where we have all our swears and…

Other things. Yeah. And at the higher levels, you can get access to a monthly game run by yours truly or a monthly game run by Abdul. Yeah. Piss Monster TV. Yeah, it's all coming soon. And thank you, most of all, to all of you for listening. We'll see you next time. And so ends the tale of Adventures 3 Who tried the best they can Though dumb and scared and lost they be For time…

Time's 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… There's a glad lease about love There's a glad lease about love

Spout Lore is made possible by contributions from our listeners. If you'd like to support us, go to patreon.com slash Spout Lore. Tuck is the brute who knows not his home, he loves to sing and fight. Fingers half-elf, he shifts his shape and wields a spear with great might. Billy's a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart. Best and brightest they may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts. So gather round, friends, and listen close, for the tale's about to start.

Hello everybody and welcome to Spout Lore. I'm your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me as always playing Tacoma Dome, the barbarian, Abdul Aziz. Hello everybody. Playing Ving, the half-elf druid, Paul Oppers. Hello everybody. And playing Fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica Tai. Hello everybody. I quit, I quit the podcast. Oh, that podcast is over. When last we left our heroes, they had been suddenly found in the presence of Finn and Fanny.

Finn, noble mother and son, and rivals of Billy specifically and exclusively. Rivals of Billy and I think Nathaniel's house probably as well. Probably in general, yeah, absolutely. Finn is Billy's rival for sure. And not even rival, but like has been bullied by Billy. Whoa, that's enough like I started it. No, of course you did not, no, but you did end it. Yeah, I think Finn's crime was throwing a pine cone at you and having a… Stupid haircut. Yeah.

And having more food than you had at the time. 100% and gloating about it too. That's pretty bad. You know what? He deserved it. That's true. He does. But he's slowly like not deserving it. Yeah, exactly. Like every act that we go further into it. No, it's hard to disagree right now. Okay, okay. Hard to disagree. Jessica's just built a dice tower that's 20 tall right now.

Through some kitchen restaurant spell or shenanigans, the party escaped via a combination of disguise, and Ving attempting to engage with his newfound passion of the service industry. I thought my mother was a server. I thought I was a server too.

After jumping out of a plate glass window, Tuck led the party to the third floor of the Doubletree Hotel where they regained their equipment and spoke with Wendy and Lysander, rangers of Dathaniel's Talon, to discuss the plan in rooting out and curing the corruption in the Heart Tree. Yeah. At the center of the wood. We told them that it was the Gibbous Man that was doing it. Yes, and Lysander made clear that he was aware of the Gibbous Man.

Ving communed with the spirits to receive a vision of a gardener in the cloister who is unhappy with the way things have been going in the Church of the Wood, and then the party split up to do a Stormin Norman-style stakeout of the cloister in which Billy met a young ragamuffin named Biff. And tracked down the… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The… The ferry and following from his spiritual ferry.

Oh, shit. So Billy's still in the ferry. You're still in the ferry zones. Yeah. Next, we saw Tacoma Dome, who climbed the wall of the cloister without consulting anybody. It was just like, I'm getting in there. I was so embarrassed. I had to climb something. You gotta use arm when arm present. It's like when you're at a barbecue and a kid gets… Gets reprimanded by their parents and then climbs a tree and refuses to come down. Oh my god, yes. And at the top of this wall…

It takes a playboy up there and starts ripping pieces off and throwing it down at everyone at the barbecue. And goes, ooh, I know what this is. And throws it down at people. Tuck saw the bulk of the body of the heart tree for the first time in a clearer respect. Feeling the coins in his chest pull towards the tree. Learning for true that there is a demon lurking in the heart of the tree. So sick.

Then we went to Ving, who was communing with the tree itself via forgotten roots in the alleyways of the city. Learning that there is a feeling of hunger and need in the tree that was not present when he was a youth. That the piece of obsidian that Billy spotted in the heart of the tree is not a coin, but something else. That was a huge revelation for me. Gonna be totally honest. Yeah.

And the final question in his discerned realities, who's really in control here, cut back to Tuck, found on the wall by Wendy, the ranger Wendelliarie. Yeah. Who revealed that she would rather side with the bitter wind and pushed Tuck over the edge into the armed guard area of the cloister before disappearing. And Tuck fell through the air, looking up. So loud, so many barrels. Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck.

But from Tuck's perspective, looking up, falling towards the ground, looking up and seeing a burning tree. Before slamming into the ground, his vision going black. You spend a long time in this void. And Tuck, you're pretty sure it's Tuck. Yeah, it's Tuck. You're pretty sure. Tuck. It feels kind of familiar. The void? The name, right? Tuck. I yell into the void. It feels a little more familiar. Tuck. You're sure you know him. And I yell again.

And you are suddenly, your vision is filled with liquid. Your lungs are filled with liquid. And then your eyes shoot open. And you are lying on the ground. Underneath the boughs of a great tree. Oh, shit! And you hear clank, clank, clank, clank, clank. As a bunch of men and women with weapons approach. And Tuck doesn't know where anyone is. So he's just like, Windy Matrinus! Oh my god. You know what? Roll a Defy Danger Constitution to get that out.

Yeah, because it's the thing where he landed on his back so all the wind got knocked out of him. Okay, well, Defy Danger Constitution, I got 13. Okay. So roll a d10. Two. You take two damage. I have like three armor. Yeah. So you hit really hard and all the air is forced out of your lungs. But as that air is forced out, you force with it the words, Wendy betrayed us, which echo through the air. I hear it. Ving hears it. Yeah. Billy does not. No. Because Billy is in the ferry.

I'm in the ferry zone. Billy, you are following behind these two gardeners and they're walking through the cloister. You pass through the gates of the temple itself. What does the inside of this temple look like? I imagine there are structures. But I think a lot of it is dedicated to the tree. I think the roots lift out a lot and create big arches that they've sort of like maneuvered like other plants around to like make shelters and stuff like that and make like hallways and connected rooms.

Oh, so the cloister itself is made out of the roots of the tree. Well, the roots of the tree are basically like the frame and then other plants they've like tended to to grow into this like chapel around it. Oh, sick. Oh, cool. That's like attached. Yeah. So like the tree is basically like the central pillar of the of the chapel that is dedicated to its existence. So cool. Fuck, that's so sick. So yeah, they go back into the hallways of the cloister.

They're wandering these these boughs and these vines. This is the part that Billy can still kind of see. Is this like the life in the trees and the plants? Yeah, I can see like the like almost like the lattice work of life like light, you know, in little rivers. Cool. The two murky outlines of the people that you're following turn to each other. They nod. They go their separate ways.

Are you planning to just continue to follow Elman until something presents itself or now that you're like in the cloister, you're kind of free to move about. I mean, I kind of want to stick to him because that's the familiar face, but I want to pay attention to to like any like any roots I can see. Yeah, totally not like tree roots are like roots inside. Okay, great. So yeah, you're following under these like archways of verdant plant life.

He goes to what if Billy was not in the ferry, he would recognize as his room and you through the like the life that like excitement and chaos of life. You see that he is troubled and he opens a little like chest that he has. He pops it open and he pulls out like a potted sapling of some kind like a shoot and he pulls it out and puts it back down and looks around very furtively.

And kind of hustles past you in the ferry passing right through you unknowingly of course and closes the door and seals it and then comes back to his sapling and pulls it out and begins to water it very delicately and like prune off this little leaf and this little leaf and it looks like in the in the ferry. It looks like a young imperfect copy of the tree outside cutting. Yeah, what do you do? I mean, I can't really do anything. I can't touch it. Are there any runes on it?

I think they naturally have runes on them. Don't they? I think it's a property of the tree. They all have runes. So maybe this one has like because this is the first one. So it could be so old that they've all been gnarled and grown over to Oh, maybe. Okay, so I think the runes are on the new sapling. Yes. This tree is so old and has been like through so much that the runes are obscured. But this one he's growing and you can see small delicate runes on the on the young bark. Can I read it? Yes.

Let's roll something to determine this Spout Lore probably so I got eight. Okay, so interesting but not useful. I think it is. I think this tree is so young that it's not talking about like the runes and it's bark aren't about like specific pieces of knowledge, but it's about like the basis of the knowledge trees structure. And I think because there's only a few runes on this tiny little tree like I should say the you know, the trunk is it's basically a bonsai tree right now.

The runes that Billy can see say something along the lines of nature's law unchanging nature's law. You know what I so I see that but then I also see like past like further down is that like black spot. Oh in that like through the walls you can see like the the the black spot in the tree. Mm-hmm. Okay. I want to try to get there. Okay, so I will say that this is the hold. Okay.

Well because we already know that like as Billy tried to exit his body and enter the ferry he felt a resistance already. Yeah, and the closer you get to the heart of the tree the actual trunk itself you feel that resistance again. The trunk as we said is the size of a large. It's like fucking a big house. However far wide that is like it's like the home alone house. Yeah to size of the home alone house. How big would we say the diameter of that house is 100 feet. Yeah, 100 feet.

So it's about 100 feet across. It is a big ass tree, but it is gnarled and twisted. You can see there are like gaps in the bark gaps in the trunk and you're really forcing yourself forward because that that inky sludgy feeling is starting to assail your fairy form. Oh, it's creeping up your body. Yeah, and you're spending your hold. Uh-huh. So you really focus. Your fairy energy. I am Billy. I want out of this goo play is the thing Billy said a lot.

I want out of this goo cut to all the other times. He said I want out of this to bath time get me out of this goo. It's just soapy water. Anytime you have soap time there's soap the time he fell in a vat at a maple syrup festival. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah, that was a real fuck up on our part as parents taking him to a maple syrup festival. That one that one is him chanting. Get me back in that goo as we're pulling him out. No, let me back in the goo.

So you spend your fairy hold which I envision is you like like really powering up your fairy body. I'm just flinging it off of me like get me out of this goo. Yeah, do not play. I am Billy and you drive yourself towards the inky corruption at the heart of the tree and you see just for like a second before you get pulled back into your physical body. Another body curled wounded in pain like seemingly catatonic and then you're back in your body and you suddenly wake next to Biff.

Oh, you were you went out that long. That's a quick nap. Oh, I you know, I'm just all about power naps efficiency. I still get the I still get the coins though, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thanks for looking after me. Hey happy to do you need that sign? I don't think so. Okay, great. And he starts trying to spin both of them on his fingers. I'll see you later Biff. Okay. Dang it. And Billy goes running off trying to look for for Ving and Tuck. Yeah, Ving. I heard the call and chimed into the ring.

Oh, yeah. I heard Tuck yell. So I want to somehow get within range because yeah, how could how what is our limits and what is our parameters on these rings? So the limit that is a limit. We hit last episode was Billy tried to contact you on the rings and it didn't work. Yeah, I mean, I like the way that we have figured like it allows you all to communicate with animals. It allows you to like share visions and dreams when that comes up, but it's not like they're not like two-way radio.

We can't talk to each other through our heads. I just I heard you yell and I'm running over to it and running along the top of the wall. Yeah, light as a feather sounds like light as a feather stiff as a board. You got to roll that eight eight. So on a seven to nine, I believe you leave something behind. Something goes wrong. Something goes wrong. GM tells you what I think it is just like Billy starts running along the wall like outside. Oh trying to go back to like oh, we're tucking Ving.

I have to find them and you see Ving like like running along the rooftops of the buildings and leaping onto the wall into the cloister. Okay better go after him then Billy is on the outside of the wall. Okay. Yeah tuck you are on your back. Are you just like unable to get up? No, I can get up. I only took two points of damage, right? Yeah, which means zero points of damage, which means zero points of damage. But do you I hear I heard clanks.

Yeah, there's like guards running towards your location. All right, I go into fight mode. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you see a cadre of guards approaching you. Let's say for what's around me. So you're kind of in between the two walls one new one very very old and there's just like usual military guard post to like barrels crates. Yeah, it's just like sundry crap.

So the wall is to the side any gate that you would have into the inner temple is too far away and the gate into the inner wall is like quite a distance from you as well. Okay, sounds good. So the guards are coming at me. Yeah. All right. I pick up two barrels one in each hand and I whip both of them at the group of guards that are coming at me and then I sprint at them immediately. Okay. Okay, this will do it. This is a volley. Because you're throwing barrels at people. Yeah.

Yeah, let's call it a barrel volley. So it's 2d6 plus dexterity. Okay. Five. So you are like, all right, here we go. My patented barrel throw move. Donkey Kong. Yeah. And you try and throw both barrels at the same time and you just smash two barrels right in front of you. Okay. Then I do a war cry to freak them out. Yeah, go ahead. Hey, my enemies feel fear and act accordingly. Okay, so you smash these two barrels in front of you and just like scream at them.

Yeah, and I scream in anger because the barrel thing was so cool in my head. Yeah, but it just looked like shit. Yeah. Yeah. I just scream the word fuck and as we have determined screaming fuck at a bunch of elves actually really freaks them out. So the four guards don't swear. Yeah, no, they are. They do not flee but they like stop and they start to spread out. Yeah, and they're freaked out. You can see their hands are like shaking holding their spears sick.

So the failure from your previous move is you realize as you're screaming at them and they're backing up. They seem extra scared. You're used to people being afraid of you, but it's you realize it's because you're now glowing the barrels that you smashed were full of lamplighter oil and you are now covered in this brilliant. Yeah. Bioluminescent substance. So sick.

Not sick if you're trying to not be noticed, but if you're trying to be scary, pretty sick, but tuck realizes how fucking badass he looks. He strikes a pose with TLC. Your muscles are like oiled up with glowing liquid. Oh my God. I look like a bodybuilder. So it looks extra fucked up. Guess is what that means. You're still wearing your steed bonnet outfit. Has that been destroyed in any way? Yeah, I think when I hit the ground because it was too tight, it shredded immediately. Yeah.

So it's basically shredded on the back, but you do that cool fighter thing where you just grab the front and rip the rest of it off. Yeah. Sick, which means just your arms are covered in oil. Yeah. Then you like land skidding to a halt. There is. Yeah. See him right away screaming at a group of people and Billy, you hear the word fuck and you're like tuck is in there. So I try to climb faster, which is pretty slow. Still we'll just come. Back to Billy.

I'm not going to make you roll for climbing. I want to roll for climbing. Okay. 2d. Oh, 2d. 6 plus dexterity. Sweet shit. Fuck. Yeah. 12. Oh my God. I what I did was I unraveled to my ladder outfit. Yeah. Caught on to like a branch. I'm like, fuck yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. So you're all kind of arriving at the same time. Like tuck is screaming covered in glowing oil. Ving hits the top of the wall alighting like a professional as Billy tumbles over the top.

Pulling up his yarn scarf behind him and you see. Yeah. I didn't get the yarn scarf unraveled in time. We have to run away without it. It's too bad. I rip off what I can. Yeah, totally. So you leave a good length of your massive yarn scarf behind and you look over and you see, I don't know 100 feet down the wall. Oh, there's Ving. Oh, there's tuck. Yay. We're all together again. And then you see like throw someone into a pile of boxes. You're like, oh, we're fighting. Yeah. Okay.

So Ving you see with honor. Okay. As he jumps up, he sees him glowing and does some flips in the air and roll. I'll roll fight with honor. All right. Eight. Eight. Okay. So you get two cheap points. And so tuck, you're screaming doing this is like as barbarian as tuck gets. Yeah. Just a group of adversaries afraid to approach you and you're just bellowing. Yeah. As he's been really scary to think about. Just a seven foot tall man screaming at you with an axe in his hand.

Yeah, I wanted to being wanted to like do flips over behind tuck land right behind him and slap down on his traps as hard as he can. Splashing, glowing oil. Oh, yeah. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Eight again. Okay. You are now also covered in lamp lighter oil, but you do manage to scoot like slap a bunch off with.

Like maybe a little puff of wind from your elemental list abilities and they are kind of like like squinting a little bit because it's kind of glowing too bright in their faces. And as being arrives tuck you see pattering along the top of the wall towards you, Billy. I'm coming. So how does Billy enter this con? He jumps in off the room. Oh, no. And I I've got my like scarf outfit unraveled. Like almost like a net and I'm going to jump on the guards. Try to tangle them up. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

We'll call this defied injured dexterity as well. Eight. Eight. Okay. So here's the thing. You can wrap all four of them up, but you are also wrapped up with them or you can get to and still be able to move. I'll get to. So you land on two of them and they get all wound up and you release and I guess join tucking being on their side. I'm just in my bloomers. Just in his bloomies. High five Billy and then accidentally covers them in lamp. Oh, geez. All three of you are covered in lamplighter.

It's okay because I just put on my face. Yeah, my tummy. Yeah. Okay. So that's where we're that is the current state to elves trying to extricate themselves from a wool blanket that was suddenly wrapped around their heads and two more preparing to charge tuck. What do you do? How many are there total? There are four, but you would assume that more are coming. Okay, tuck just wants to like step forward and kick one of them in the chest so hard. Yeah, hack and slash. Yeah, 10 10 deal your damage.

Here we go. Eight. So you kick one right in the chest and they fly backwards through the air into a crate and they clang are knocked out sick, but you have come quite close to the other one that is not wrapped up good who begins to make a strike towards you. I take it because I want him to get close. Okay, so that is unbowed, unbent unbroken. Oh, right.

When you prepare yourself to endure some hardship without fighting back role plus constitution on a hit, you can either take half the damage or you can completely ignore one other I'll effect. Yeah. Okay. Eight. Eight. Okay. Yeah. So roll a d8 if you want to take damage. Okay. Six. So you can either take six damage or you can half it. I'll take six damage because I already have three armor. Okay. So what is the other I'll effect that you would like to ignore? What weapons do they have?

They all have spears. Okay. He kind of he jabs me with the spear and it goes through my side to the other to the other side. I'm like good hit and then I grab him by his shirt and then slam him into the door where other people would come from. Yeah. Yeah. That leads like yeah into the milk like the guard structure of the wall. Yeah. Yeah. I like that so that his body becomes a doorstop basically. Yeah.

Immediately as his body hits the door, you can hear like people slamming on the other side trying to open it. The door is rattling in its hinges and he's like stop it. Oh, stop. You just hit me Ving. What do you do? There is one guard with the spear that is not wrapped up in Billy scarf. Yeah, I can cross a distance between myself and a foe. You absolutely can and then deal my damage within reach. Perfect. Yeah. So you duck under his spear and you get in close. How do you take him out?

I get like I do a little splits down and it leaves us like this neon streak and then Johnny Cage style punch in the nuts. Great. So no, you just deal your damage three three. So not quite enough to take him out, but enough that you hit him in the nuts and he stumbles backwards ripping his nuts. I can't ripping his nuts gripping. Oh my God. I totally rip my nuts. My nose. My nuts are ripped, but he stumbles backwards. Going.

Oh, my nuts as the other two guards wrapped up in the wool scarf start cutting themselves free. Billy, what do you do? We steal the knife. They're not just going to steal their blade so they can't cut themselves free. Let's say defy danger. Dexterity. So good. Thirteen. Yeah, you get their knives because their arms are kind of like caught up as well and they can't really use their spears effectively. How does Billy get their knives away? They don't even see it happen.

They're going to take a swipe and then it's gone. I'm so fast. And then while they're like laying there like, where'd my knife go? Billy went and tied their ankles and their hands together. Jesus Christ. Yeah, that sounds like another move. Perhaps defy danger. Dexterity. Nine. Nine. Shit. Yeah. Hell yeah. I don't do a very good knot. Okay. Ving swips over and does a little dance in front of them and distracts them while he can get the thing. He's doing like. Stop paying yourself. 2d6 plus bond.

Eleven. Eleven. So that makes it a ten. Which means Billy does tie up these remaining two guards. Sick. They're not tied up forever. This isn't hitman. You can't just throw someone in a garbage can and have them never wake up in their lives. Well, then I'll push them into a hiding spot. No. She is doing the hitman. Actually, no. I'll shove them against the door too. Oh, perfect. Yeah. We put them in the pile. Yeah. Great. So nuts guy. He's still here and he's like going hero mode in his head.

He like picks himself up with this spear and he spits on the ground and he goes you think you can hit my nuts and I won't fight back headbutt to the face back and slash seven. Okay. Roll your damage to. Yeah. That was what you needed is all he had left. All he had left in him. Just spinning. Blood already. Yeah. So it was a seven to nine. So you roll your damage. Okay. You roll his damage, which was a D eight. I think it was. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Two. Yeah.

So you headbutt him and he clangs to the ground, but you do hurt your nose on his helmet. I have three armors. He's got now, but his heroic moment has been cut short. The door is starting to like their stop. They're not rattling it anymore. They're like heaving against it. So you can see the bodies are starting to move. So I want to go. Take the spear and put it through the door like all the spears together. Excellent. Two D six plus strength. Okay. Six. Oh, I'll help you. Oh, shit. Pass me.

I put one in and they like break it. Pass me the other spears. Yeah. Pass it to you. Two D six. I can say shit. I'm never fast enough. I'll aid Billy. I'll help Billy. This is perfect. I see Billy struggling with a huge. I'm sorry. I could never do it myself. No, Billy. This is really big for you. Can you hand me this beer already? I got 10. All right. So that makes that a seven and that makes that a seven. Nice. So this is again.

It's not going to hold him forever, but it's going to hold him for now. Okay. Tuck throws him just holds the door shut. Yeah. Ving puts the spears in. I'm imagining Billy has like little knives or caltrops that he's like stabbing into the bottoms of the door. Yeah, I'm stabbing it. So that's like, like angled. So it's like stuck into like the frame. Yeah, exactly. Nice. Great. So the door is sealed for the moment. You do have a second to think to certain realities about the area. Yeah, right.

Where are we? I have no idea about the layout of this two to six plus wisdom nine. Oh, can I aid by describing what I saw when I was in the hall? Yeah, absolutely. Nine. Perfect. So you get three questions and Tuck also gives you guys a heads up. He's like, Wendy fucking raid us. She found me on the top of the wall and she pushed me off. She called the guards. Wendy, your girlfriend sucks, dude. Not my girlfriend. We told her all our secrets. We're just friends with benefits.

That's how you guys find out that they've been fucking. You guys have been fucking this whole time. You guys have been fucking this whole case. Two missed high fives. It's a real whiff of a high five. You're both left. You both leave each other hanging somehow. Yes, that's awful. Thinking about Wendy. Oh, God, dude, you pick terrible women. That's not my fault. You feel the spirit of everyone that's ever known the two of you going. He picks terrible women.

The calendar flips to January where they're all on there. He does. Uh, what should we be on the lookout for? I mean, I think the easy answer is a way into like the garden without going anywhere near anyone else that works here. Yeah. What here is not what it appears to be. I guess what here is not what it appears to be. The wall is not me. Oh, maybe it's even like classic D&D like being like your perceptions like you're looking at the wall. You're like, this is an ancient wall.

This wall has been here since elves. Have been here and you're like a secret door. Oh, like one of those like an old ancient door. Yeah, through the wall into the garden, but you see like the way. Okay, so I until Jessica mentioned it as like the roots of the tree being used as like the infrastructure points for the thing. I was imagining a stone wall, but is the wall would like is it a grown wooden wall around the garden?

Oh, that would be cool if it was actually part of the roots that they coaxed up. And out you like shield it to protect it. Oh, maybe this was like the first shelter of the elves where the elves originated. It's like the incubation for the civilization. Exactly. Yeah. And you find a little gap that has not a mechanism, but you see sort of in the way it grows. You're like this is meant for something.

This isn't just an idle part of this plant and you approach and it's like younger, lighter colored. So yeah, it's like growing and regrowing and you're able to move aside a section of the wood. It just kind of like bends but moves and there's a gap through the wall on the other side plant life. Quiet silence. Tuck wedges it open and he holds it open for everyone to go in. Yeah. And you all sneak through and you are within the door closes behind you. Tuck it's a little bit of a tight squeeze.

Yeah. Yeah. I like thinking it kind of moves on its own like seals back up. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. The roots move back in place. Yeah. Cool. Do you still have one more question? I sure do. Oh, you do. You do. So now you're inside the garden. What's about to happen? What is about to happen? I think what you hear, you do hear like a voice. Inside? Inside the garden that just says, what are you doing here? We have come to help the blight. What does he look like? Or they? Or she?

It is he and it is Elman. In his green robes, quite young for an elf, younger than Ving probably. Pretty elf-y looking. Long, straight blonde hair. Green robes, pale, sharp ears. Elman? What? How did you know that? I followed you and the old lady when you came back in. Sorry. I just needed to know how to get in here because we have some stuff to do. You shouldn't be here. No one can be here. That's okay. We're not like everyone else. And Elman like squints. Swipes off the neon.

The spirit walker. That would mean Tacoma Dome. The tear bringer. And Fat Billy. Yes. The fat one. That's me. I've heard of your exploits. You've come to me. I'm here to help the tree. Yeah. Yeah. We're in service of the tree. It's really fucked up, dude. I've guessed. I've only guessed. And he's like, you see that he's been holding something like kind of hiding, like turning away from you a little bit. And he starts to turn back to, he turns back towards you and he pulls his hand down.

Is it the tree? It's the tree. It's the sapling. Did you take a cutting? I did. From the healthiest part of the tree. I've been worried that something's been wrong. And I thought that this was the only way to save the knowledge within. It's to start again. There is something wrong in the tree. And I saw it. There's someone in there. What did you see? It was a dark figure. Yeah. I could tell that there was like a demon in there. Like an icon.

Ving tells him about the hunger that he felt for the tree. It's insatiable. That explains so much. Says Elman, gripping his gripping his little sapling tight. The forest. Has been wanting. It's been twisted. Been sickened. I didn't know what from, but it must be the tree. The tree is at the heart of the forest. And everything lived in harmony. But if the tree needs or wants more, it would take from everywhere else. Oh, shit. The hunger is pulling from everywhere else.

It's killing the whole forest because the tree was providing for the whole forest. But now, because it's drawing from the whole forest. It's pulling everything from the whole forest. We got to figure out what the fuck's inside of that thing. Swearing so much. He's had a hard day. We need to also lay low and we need to get away from the guards. Yes, absolutely. The cloister, the temple, the city is in absolute panic. What's been going on out there?

Well, there was some sort of kerfuffle, I suppose, at the Doubletree Inn that has put the guards on alert. There was… There was some sort of fight in the fortress. They're not sure if it's connected. But someone in the Doubletree, some sort of waiter is thought to have, I don't know, attacked or kidnapped a wealthy family that they were waiting on. That seems like not what we would have done.

I can't promise that if you were to attempt to heal the tree now that you would be able to do so unassailed. How much can you keep secret from the guards of the garden? I have kept, and he hugs his plant tightly. I've kept much secret. Okay, you need to keep us as secret as your sapling. Okay, I can do this. What do you need? Shower. Robes? Something to wipe his stuff off? Oh, yeah. You guys are thinking we, like, stay inside and then try and… Wait for things to cool down a little bit? Yeah.

And then sneak back into the garden? Yeah. And, like, investigate the tree? We're nuns on the run. Nuns on the run. Yeah. I think he says, I have… He looks a little bashful. He's like, I have secret ways in and out of my quarters. So I can get you inside, hide you, find you disguises, and keep you secret. Is there anyone you trust? The first gardener, Malgath. She is kind. She's wise. She holds to the old ways. She can be trusted. Okay. Does Billy not believe him? I don't fully believe him.

Well, it's not that I don't believe him. I just don't know if I trust anyone else. I can keep it to myself. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Come with me. And he, like, takes you through a bunch of, like, oh my god, beautiful plants, rare plants, vital plants, but, of course… What's this? Actually, what is one plant that Ving sees that he runs by that he's like, what the fuck? No way! It's a autumn paper lily. Amazing. Yeah. And they've… Been extinct for generations. Whoa.

And they have a very, very potent toxin that elves used to tip their war arrows with. Whoa. That's very cool. Okay. So, good to remember. Autumn paper lily. Very potent poison available in this garden. Yeah. Okay, great. Elmin rushes you through the garden. As we're walking through, Tuck's like, what's this one? And it's just like an apple tree. Whoa. Bet you this is some kind of, like, rare fruit. Not having grown up with apples, he's like, what? Never seen this fucking thing before.

And he takes you through the cloister into the temple itself. You flit through the service hallways and servant entrances into his little quarters, which is quite cramped with the four of you in here. And he hides you in here and he goes, I'll be right back. And he runs off and comes back with an armful of linens. And he's like, I had to concoct quite the tale for why I needed so many extra robes. What'd you tell them? I told them that I had spilled on my other ones. Whoa, crazy.

That's a crazy lie, dude. I am not one for spinning falsehoods, but I feel I was quite effective. And he hands out the robes. Thank you. Such a fucking nerd. I love plant nerds. I really like him. And yeah, you all get little robes and they fit. Little robes? Do you have other short gardeners here? Oh, no. The robes themselves. And it's like, it's basically as you're putting them on, you're like, oh, shit. This fits perfectly. And he's like, it's the robes. They're made of vestment vines.

They grow to the wearer. What? It's quite ingenious. So comfortable. So soft. I've never worn one of these. They fit perfectly. They regulate temperature using sort of a symbiotic property. And they're grown right here in the garden. I heard that you can use them. You can even pee into them and they clean your pee into drinking water, Ving says. Tuck immediately pisses. You know how hard it is to piss your pants deliberately? Tuck is an expert. It's actually so easy. That's desert power.

Tuck doesn't tell you that he's doing it, but he's like staring into the middle distance and then he just shakes for a second. He does one of those like shoulder shivers and he's like, I don't believe it. And I'm eye level, so I see the like, dark. Yeah. And it's awkward, kind of, because after a few moments, the leaves begin to do like they're covered in like a clear like crystal clear do goes up and sucks one of the balls back. It's just water. It's quite astonishing, isn't it? Amazing.

It makes it makes those nighttime drinks quite easy to achieve. You don't have to get out of bed quite so often, but we must we must be quiet now. Oh, yeah, we have to should whisper. Yes, I must say I'm I'm quite thrilled to meet three of you. I've been hearing of your stories. As you might understand, travelers in and out of the forest have not been very common lately, but I have been most attentive to news of the outside world and your exploits are quite thrilling.

What are people saying about us? Because we don't really get that much insight into that. Oh, stories of you traveling in the companionship of a dragon. Stories of you facing down an army in a desert village headed up by some sort of dark warrior traveling across the sea of graves to and fro. It's quite amazing. I guess when you put it that way, it sounds like pretty cool. Yeah, I guess we have done some pretty cool things.

There is an upper limit on how much urine the plants can absorb before they need recuperation. So I would like an over water tomato. It's starting to split down the middle. Yes, I would pace yourself. How do you still have water in your body? It was a very short period of time between the two times you pissed. All he's had for four days is chicken. I don't know where he's getting all this liquid from. Jessica laughing in the mic.

Just hearing So I believe that the best way is for me to see how things are progressing in the temple. But is there anyone nearby that might wish to do you harm? Yes. Yes. Yes. Ranger Corps. Ranger Corps. Ranger Corps. Specifically, Nathaniel's Rangers. They were betrayed by Wendy specifically. Yeah, so we don't know that all the Rangers. Yeah, but we can't trust them now. Yeah. And she said that there was somebody on the inside. They were working on it. Right.

Do you have any inkling as to whom she might have spoke? No, we took in a newer grouping of initiates just last week. Do any of them look like this? And Ving takes a stick and draws, draws in the sand a picture of Nesh, the young man. But this is Aelmar. Aelmar. Aelmar is lying to you. His real name is Nesh, and he loves doing moves. Tug's not good at being famous, I think. It's really getting to his head. Yeah, he's trying to sound important. Oh, by the leaf and bow. Infiltrators in our temple.

Mm-hmm. There's more than that infiltrating your temple. There's a big old fat piece of shit inside that tree. We're here to suck it out. A bad, bad gibbous man came into this temple one time and took a shit in your big shiny tree. Put a big old hard obsidian shit inside of that tree. That shit's grown into a man, and we're here to kill him. Yeah, we're here to take that little piece of shit out of that tree. Flush him from your city, for good. Uh-huh. Wow. And now you just piss on the ground.

Really steps back. Yeah. Because I was in the pee zone. It does get soaked up by the sand that Ving dumped on the floor of Elman's room to draw in. Tug, why are you doing all the things that you say I can't do? Pee as I say, not as I pee. Very well. Then what will you do? These disguises, I should say, are quite fetching, and you should be able to move about the cloister unobstructed if you so choose. I mean, I can hardly recognize you. I don't know if I believe his judgment.

I don't know if anyone's quite as short as me. I feel like my stature gives it away. I feel like same with me, yes. I've been thinking about this, says Sean, the game master. I think that especially considering the reality of Billy's play versus reality and his now, especially with Luck of the Fair Folk, the fact that him just knowing you two sort of bends luck in your favor from time to time. I think that your disguise, because we've talked about how your disguises should not work.

I think that they kind of do. I remember when we were I think it was Tuck and Billy were dressed as like the horse. Oh yeah, Billy can also cast illusions. Maybe that's what I'll do. Oh shit, you don't have any fairy child left, right? Well, if we wait till morning, it's night right now. Right, so if we do wait until morning, you can use your fairy illusion magic to disguise us. At least tonight, Tuck probably won't wet the bed. Yeah, that's good this time. I don't wet the bed.

It's obvious that it's you now. I wet the bed all the time, but my vestment vine filters it for me. That's awesome. It's quite amazing. It's a really weird quirk of your order that none of you are pottying. I'm potty trained. He says drinking a droplet off his shoulder. I think it's like it's almost like a still suit from Dune where there's like a stem that comes out of the sleeve that if you know how to use it, he can just sip off like the stem. His own piss. That's amazing.

These piss monks are at the center of Elven civilization. That's the world we just created. It's just kind of cool that they always have water on them and in them. They're a constant supply of food for the plants. Nature is about harmony. I live in harmony with my vestment vine. They provide for me. I provide for them. That is one of the first things that you learn as a young gardener is techniques for peeing freely. I pee freely? Oh my god. This is the best sleepover I've ever been to.

Everybody gets to pee. Everybody's just pissing. They're pissing their pants constantly. So much fun. I believe that the next best course of action would be to get a little shut eye, as they say in the outside world, I believe. So I will… And he stands up to his full five, six. Ooh, really little guy. I will take the first watch. Of what? Just in case anyone comes in, I guess. Oh, okay. Yeah. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on. And he walks to the door and he locks it. Ah, there we go. That's it?

No one will come in? I mean, I hope not. Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. Um, just a moment. I'm peeing. Hide. Oh, shit. Why do you have more furniture? Um, um, um, can we all fit under the bed? You could try, for sure. Alright. So Tuck lifts the bed up. Tuck lifts the bed up and you guys get under it? Yeah, and I kind of pull the covers a little more on the side that is facing the door so that they can't see. And Tuck goes and stands behind the door with his axe out. Oh, shit.

Yeah, if this goes bad, I'm just gonna kill whoever's on the other side of the door. Yeah, exactly. So he's just, he like silently stands on the other side of the door. Oh, that's so spooky to think about. A seven foot tall man standing behind the door with an axe. Yeah. And click. Hello, Herman. I'm sure you heard that there was quite a commotion outside. Yes, yes, first gardener. It was quite quite thrilling, I'm sure, but everything is good here. Everything's fine in here.

And Ving and I are under the bed like, fuck, he's so bad playing it cool. Oh, God, he's gonna get us fucking killed. Can Ving take some of his, um, piss do and flick it on the feet of the first gardener? Yes. Oh. I have the tiger. Oh, smart. Okay. Say 2d6 plus dexterity to get her with it. Oh, no. Plus dexterity is two. I got eight. Oh, shit. So Paul just did a jizz motion. He did kind of like, what's that called? The Spider-Man? No, I was rolling dice, playing craps. Got ten.

So what's the seven to nine here? So you whip out a little bit of your piss do. The drops soar through the air and patter onto the floor. Oh, yeah. Oh, no. What's that elf song from Lord of the Rings? Oh, uh. May it be the evening star that's done upon me. And we see echo. We see. Oh, sorry. We see reflected in the droplet, distended in the water, Billy and Ving underneath the bed, wide-eyed. We see behind the door, Tuck towering over. May it be. May it be. May it be.

We see almonds shaking knees as the drop passes by before they patter onto just a little bit of exposed ankle between the vestment vine and the vegan leather shoes of the first gardener. There was so much arrogance in your tone. That's amazing. And you feel that connection take hold. Nice. Yes. And the door closes. And Elman drops to his knees and starts panting. Pukes. Just a little bit. I don't know. I don't know how you all do this. This life of deceit and falsehood. Wow, dude.

You've had it pretty easy, hey? Well, I mean, I've had quite an academic and spiritual upbringing and I have spent many, many years in deep contemplation of my role in the wild places of the world. Well, here's the thing. You might be the only person in this entire forest who is capable of saving that tree. And Tuck points out the window at the heart tree. And Elman throws up a little bit more. So we'll jump forward to the morning. You all sleep just, I guess, in under on the bed.

Elman lets one of you take the bed. I'm under the bed because honestly it's like pretty nice in here, like a little cave. Uh-huh. Pretty good. Tuck took the bed. Tuck took the bed. Elman's curled up in a corner. I imagined him in the bed too, like it's kind of a bigger bed. Elman is also in the bed. Just spooned by Tuck. But he's in the corner of the bed and the wall. And he wakes up. You hear an emerald forest rooster caw, waking. And it sounds like … … … … … … … … … … …

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Oh, his eyes flutter open with the call of the emerald forest rooster. And he takes a long, deep sip from his vestment. Good morning. Oh! I forgot! Our deceits. Our quest. I had the most wonderful dream. None of this happened. But I'm ready. What do you need from me this morning? Fair jump. Oh yeah. Billy crawls out under the bed like a dead man.

Like a cat or something. I don't know. Like a sleepy spider. And he lays in the sunbeam and he's like, I just need a second. And I roll 2d6. Yeah, plus charisma. Eight. Eight, which I believe means three. Yeah, so I get three holds for today. Not too bad. Not bad at all. Not too bad. So Ving, as Billy's lying in the sun, he slowly comes out of his, and he's been doing a commune of whispers all night. Excellent. In the place with all the different plants, the exotic plants.

He doesn't get to know one. Maybe his mom knew some of them. So he's communing with her ancient knowledge of all the other trees and the sapling. Cool. To figure out what's different about the tree to try and make this dark figure inside of it stand out. Yeah. Have you ever communed with the spirit of your mom? I don't think so. That's why I brought it up like half-assed. Because that's the thing is like, Ileana knew, what was happening here.

She knew and she called it out and they push her out for it and commanded Dathaniel to kill her. I think that's a good, yeah. I'm going to commune with the whispers of the echoes of my mother in this place and anywhere that she touched, if there's maybe a way that I can, that she left a message. Yeah. Okay. So cool. It's pretty hardcore. I don't think we've ever used communion of whispers this way. To like contact a dead person? Yeah.

Because we haven't really talked about like people spirits being the same as like spirit spirits. You know what I mean? She's a druid. So maybe something that she imbued. Yeah. Right. Or something that she did while she was here that was very spirited. It's like when a tree grows, you've got the rings, right? Yeah. And the rings record history. Yeah. At a certain part of going into the middle of the tree towards that black withered being, I would reach a ring. In there. I love that. Yeah.

That's really cool. Roll plus wisdom. Nine. Nine. So still unclear, meaning murky. Ooh. Yeah. So I think it is that you reach out into the tree, into the building, into the temple, into the land. And in communicating with the tree in this way, yeah, you're sort of reaching backwards through time, going like ring by ring into the tree, searching for something that reminds you of the woman that rings you. Raised you. And you are suddenly given a vision of a time long since past.

Ileana in the green vestments of a gardener, but different. Yeah. She's sipping from the stem. I didn't need to see that. But they are altered in some way, I think, to denote that she is not of this place originally. Like she is not, strictly an Elvin gardener. She's not wearing the green. She's wearing like an autumn colored one. Ooh. I like that. Then it's like, yeah, like the Russet Browns. Mm-hmm.

And she is speaking to a handsome young elf, short, straight hair, dark, dark, dark black, no facial hair, striking features. And he is wearing the green gherkin of a ranger. And it takes you almost too long to be like, oh my God, that's my dad. Whoa. Um, but as like a younger man, it looks a lot like being, yes, you see yourself a lot in him. And it really drives home the, the, the idea that no matter how you were born into this world, your father is your father. You know what I mean?

Like, it's like, he still shaped you in a lot of ways, just as much as Ileana did. Um, and she seems, and we see her with Elvin ears, maybe. Oh, Oh, I like that. Like in this place, she's made herself, like an elf. And she doesn't have the like polar bear for a mantle that she had, unless that is over top of her, um, her gardener robe that she has like, yeah, a mantle of, yeah, it definitely looks like a flight, like a pilot's jacket. Yeah, it does. Yeah. It looks fucking sick.

It was so fucking sick. Your mom looks so sick and hot. So she said she was sick. And then you said something else. There was a thing that you said after that. After that, something, that I didn't like, they won't listen to me. They won't listen to me. The Daniel, no matter what I do, they are blind to what is happening in these woods. And, uh, Nathaniel was sitting on like a bench and he stands and he comes over to her Aragorn style, puts his hands on her shoulders from the back.

And Laura, the ring. And, uh, he says, you can make them, see Ileana. They're just, they're stuck in their ways. You can turn them, but there's no time to Daniel. If they don't see the error of their way soon, they are opening themselves up to forces. They do not understand. Then we will make them understand. And he turns her around. So he's facing her under the blooming light of the tree. Almost like fireflies falling. Yeah. No.

And the, yeah, the lamp lighters, begin to flit to the ground, creating this like glowing rain. But in your vision, as they fall, their light dims and becomes like a creeping shadow. As the light fades from the tree itself and from your parents. And then all this darkness. And you hear Tuck is taking a huge drink. He's like the whole suit. It's huge on him. And he, when he's moving around with it, it like slosh. You hear it sloshing. It's like a sumo suit at a party. I don't know. Staff party.

It's so awful. So the aura Boris has awakened. That's just, for his eye, the aura Boris. I drink my own piss and that piss becomes me again. The snake that drinks his own tail forever and ever. Just the worst. Hmm. Hmm. My mother saw something that she knew it was coming. Do you tell us what you saw? Yeah. I mean, I think we sometimes have a practice when important things happen. Yeah. It sounds like the Elven people chose something. They opted into something. Yeah.

Like they made a deal or something. Hmm. Do you think they made a deal with the Gibbous man? Yeah, probably. That sounds about right. Like he came and offered them something. Or someone. Oh shit. I don't know. Yeah. Oh, like what if they sacrificed like a Druid or Gardener, an elf or something as like overseer or like protector of the tree and like buried them in the tree or something. I don't know. Place them in there. Place them in there. It's so dark.

But like had them take like the obsidian coin. Uh huh. The thing that Nathaniel told us was that like the nobility wanted more control. Like, I guess we have established it, that they're like Elven society has like two voices that dictate. There's the voice of the trees, the Vox Silvi and the voice of the people. And I think the voice of the people didn't like how powerful the voice of the trees was and the influence that it had. Yeah. They're trying to silence the trees. Yeah.

So maybe it was a deal along those lines. I mean, we know that the, uh, the Rangers were really active during the wizard war. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And thereby the events that led to the Exodus. So like the forest was very involved in the, in the conflict, in the conflict and the, and the, the events of the outside world in a way that they probably didn't want to be. So maybe that prompted the accepting of some sort of deal. Could have something to do with that.

It could be the tree could be a tomb for a wizard. Oh, could shit. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. A ward stone tree almost. Whoa. Hmm. And what do we know about? Nah, I feel like I'm trying to lead you guys too much. No, I want to hear it. What do we, what do we know about possession? Oh, uh, that it's when a person is open to it. Yeah. They gotta be open to it and they gotta need something or want something like they have to be somehow aligned with the icon that's trying to gain purchase in them.

And then it comes in. And it like kind of takes over their like decision making, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty much it. Also keeps them alive like forever basically. Yeah. It grants them powers. Yeah. So that is what we know. Okay. Yeah. Okay. What you want us to come to the conclusion? Not, I mean, there's some stuff I want to reveal, but like, I don't think we're there yet. Yeah. We're stupid. It's all good. Is there, do we have all the pieces that we could figure it out now?

I think there's some things you could figure out, but not like it. Okay. Yeah. Fuck. We're so close to getting some reveal. Yeah. It feels like we want it. Yeah. Oh, and then he was like, we will teach them. We will show them what it is. It's so depressing. Like the young unjaded like version of Nathaniel. Yeah. But he's also jading somebody else who's bent on like, you know, avoiding the dark side. The darkness, but he's like, no, we will show them to darkness. Yeah.

That's a, that's an interesting way to look at it. That she's like, they're going to fuck it up. I don't think it's my problem. I got to get out of here. And Nathaniel being like, no, we're going to get, we're going to get involved. Yeah. Yeah. Cause Nathaniel has always been the, like I know best. Right. Or at least when he was younger, he is clearly, well, even now, even now he's like, I don't think there should be any monarchs. I don't think there should be any monarchs.

I don't think there should be any monarchs. There should be no leaders. Yeah. Because I know that that's the best course. Well, his man, he's kind of a ding dong. His world view is infallible to him. Yeah, that's true. Even his worldview that he is a bad person. You know what I mean? Like he, he is like, I am always right. Even in that I am wrong sometimes. Yeah. Oh man. Nathaniel's cool. Yeah. Cool in, in an interesting way. Yeah. Not cool in a like, what a cool dude.

He's an interesting character. I think so. Okay. So what's next? Billy, I did. If we have to go out. Yeah. Yeah. We, I think we need to get close to the tree. So we gotta be disguised as regular size people. You take half of me and put it on most of him. Yeah. I'll, I guess I could create a, is it like a creative convincing illusion basically? Yeah. And you just spend a point for it. Okay. Yeah. So I'll do that for, for tuck and I. So what does this look like? What do you look like?

I look like a tall teenage ginger boy. I look like a tall teenage ginger boy. I look like a tall teenage ginger boy. I look like a tall teenage ginger boy. I look like a tall teenage ginger boy. Do you make yourself look like an elf? I do. Okay. But he's still got curly hair. And I'm so tall, but not too tall. Just like tall. Yeah. Not like Conan O'Brien tall. No. Yeah. Just like five, like five, 10. Yeah. Which to me is like so. Massive.

And then I made tuck look basically the same, except his hair is longer. Oh. And he's got point ears. So you made him your twin, but with long hair. Yeah. We look the same. And no, because he's got point ears. Yeah. And he's got point ears. Yeah. And he's got a weird beard. Cause I was like, Hey, so he's just got weak little chin. Yeah. I've got the weakest chin. I don't tell talk that it's just for me. Yeah. Yeah. You gave me really long black hair. It's like blowing in the wind. Yeah.

Elegantly. It's like dead to my feet. It looks so weird. It's too long. Can you do anything about this? No. Okay. It's illusory. Fuck. Okay. Fuck. Like, and I realized what's on the line. So I'm like, Oh, I gotta make it less weird. So I do shorten it. But just, so it's down to his butt. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. To the bottom of the shoulders. And Elman is just like, Oh, astonishing. Text. Look at you. The Mary's like, I look like I was fucking homeschooled. That's perfect.

That's what I was going for. Then I, I think you hear like against elements window, like don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't. What's that bonking? It's my, it's my window. And he goes and opens the window and tuck is standing behind it with the ax ready to kill whoever's on the other side. I'm behind talk. I'm so scared. And flapping through the window is a bookworm. And that's where we're going to end it for this week. I'm your game master.

Sean O'Hara. He is always playing Tacoma dome. The barbarian Abdul Aziz playing being the half elf druid. Paul offers playing fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica tie. I want to read it. Thank you to Aaron Reed for our intro and outro music. You could find all of Aaron Reed's original music at Aaron, read.bandcamp.com and all of the music that has been produced for the show at soundcloud.com. Thank you to all of our supporters around the world without hoops. This show would not be possible.

If you would like to support the show and get access to a whack, a bonus content, including a full campaign set in the high spear mall, which we have just started, like book two of check that out at patrion.com slash spelt Laura spiller.com slash money, please. And thank you most of all to all of you for listening. See you next time. And so ends the tale of adventures three who tried the best they can. Dumb and scared and lost. Maybe for times of breast in. And though.

Oh, our journey may be like a conclusion. We will not leave you without a resolution. Return next week to hear some more whilst you commute or do your chores. And for you, I gladly spelt.! . . . .

Hi everyone, it's Fat Billy here. Thanks for coming, listening to our podcast. If you want more podcasts, you can go to patreon.com slash spoutlore, where you can give us some money. And I like money, so I can buy snacks. 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-elf, he shifts his shape and wields a spear with great might. Billy's a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart. Best and brightest they may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts. So gather round. Gather round, friends, and listen close, for the tale's about to start. Spoutlore. Spoutlore. And playing Fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica Tai. Hi. When last we left our hero, Tacoma Dome had been struck down by the powerful Borge. I'm in the party now.

Let's describe Borge to us. Oh, you know, he works admin in a parking department. For us, a municipal parking department, so he's a guy that people come… In McCall. In McCall, yeah, he's a good guy that people come to when they get parking fines and tickets and stuff. Uh-huh. He's a dispute manager. He's a dispute manager, and he's really… He's good at managing the situations, because people don't like talking to him for that long. Like a sloth at the DMV.

They just give up, and they're like… His torso is shaped like an egg. He's a dispute manager at a municipal parking department. He's 1,300 pounds. He's 18 feet tall. He's a dispute manager at a municipal parking department. His flesh is made out of soil from the heart of the earth. Yeah, he's a giant. He's got a little tie. Yeah. Hi, guys. I'm Borge. Who's getting the cake for Deb's birthday? Uh, fuck. When last we left our heroes, they had arrived at Heartwood City.

They decided to disguise themselves, as they often do. Mm-hmm. And Paul really pointed it out. You guys decided to disguise yourselves. You guys decided to disguise yourselves in a method that would demand the attention of everybody that looked at you. Which is the way we always seem to do it. You hide in plain sight by making yourselves as, like, visually attractive as possible. Yeah. So… And it's never let us down. Yeah. It's true. Works every time.

So, Billy disguised himself as a ball of yarn in a giant scarf. Mm-hmm. Tuck disguised himself as… I think you described your outfit as looking like that of Steve… Steve Bonnet from Our Flag Means Death. 100%. So, cravats and a long coat. I also put Fig Elf ears on, but they're way too long. Yeah. So, they look like rabbit ears. Yeah. Perfect. And Ving decided… Ving's dressed like Justin Trudeau in the 80s. No. No, no, no. You're dressed like a full centaur. Half a centaur. Half a centaur.

The top half of a centaur. Just the top half. And the bottom half of a man. So, the plan was to enter the market with some, quote, unquote, livestock. Stock to sell in the form of the sugar gliders, which you did achieve. Making contact with Wendy, the ranger who was undercover in Heartwood City. Using the most basic subterfuge possible to tell you that she was going to be at the Doubletree Inn having dinner. Mm-hmm. Billy made some friends slash enemies with a pie man slash science lady.

Ving and Tuck made a good deal, honestly, selling some sugar gliders to the military because that's part of your plan. Yeah, we got 1,500 gold coins. 1,500 coins. 1,500 coins minus 30 up front. Pfft. And then you went to meet Wendy at the Doubletree Inn where you got some food and drink in classic Speltlore fashion. Right. It was give us a nice drink and then the weirdest meal you've ever heard. Yeah. Which was a full roast beef and all of the birds that you have.

One thing we never do here at Speltlore is glaze over a meal. We acted out in painstaking detail, including incorporating the service staff. Yeah. And also, can I have some? Can I have a menu? Yeah. Is a thing we constantly ask. And it's also shocking how much we bring up receipts for meals as well. And there's always a wait. That's the thing. It's like you order the food and then some stuff happens and the food comes later. Like we don't jump to the food.

No, we're very realistic with every approach. With this. With this. Meals only. Yeah. We talk about bathroom breaks as well. What a quest you've been on. Yeah. What an incredible adventure we've undertaken. So you spoke to Wendy briefly about your plans. For getting to the actual Heartwood. Yeah. To investigate slash cleanse the corruption that you have discovered in the center.

Before we were so rudely interrupted by a shrill voice proclaiming, requesting, nay, demanding the attention of his mommy. Finn, the small elf noble boy has arrived in the hotel bar of the Doubletree Inn with his mother. And that is where we find our heroes. Now, what do you do? Oh, shit. Tuck slides down in the booth that we're in. So you could just see that only the ears. And being seven feet tall and like 500 pounds, the whole table moves. Of his body becomes way more visible.

His legs stick out under the table. He does an accidental fruit basket again to the entire restaurant. A waiter walking by trips over my leg. Lamplighter drinks go everywhere. Yeah. There's a huge commotion. And at this table, like drinks spill. The table moves. The scratching record in the heart player stops playing. Yeah. And you look to your immediate right thing. And Wendy is gone from sight. Whoa. She just disappears. Oh, shit.

Billy panics and he grabs the whole rose and curls up into a ball to like think like become a pillow. Become a pillow. Yeah. So what is your plan here? Is it to is it to just hope he doesn't notice you? Billy is hiding. I'm hiding. And Ving is. I've. Yeah. I've combed all my hair over my face and I pick up the trays and I put on like the towel and I'm like, I'm the waiter now. Oh, yeah. OK. So smart. For some reason. OK. OK. So defy dangers, dexterity, dexterity and charisma.

Can I do charisma since I'm hiding? You're hiding. What? Emotion. Like with your personality. Yeah. I'm trying. I'm making my first. OK. Yeah. Good point. Yeah. Good point. This doesn't make any sense. Yeah. Yeah. No. Good point. Good point. I got three plus charisma zero. But I did dent the table. Whoa. Holy shit. That's worth it. I got nine. OK. Seven. Seven. Nine. Nine. Three. So you're not going to be able to get far.

I think that's Billy and Tuck is your partial success is you're hiding, but you're stuck in this booth. OK. Ving got a failure. So you get up and you put the rag over your arm and the the train your hand. And as this huge commotion happens and there's crashing in the drink spill, somebody that looks like he's wearing like a vest. Like a shorter elf man in a vest and a short hair and a mustache walks over to you. And he's like, what's going on? They've they've spilled their drinks. Go.

Go get them more drinks. Go get their food. And he's like, we're pushing you towards the bar in the kitchen. You my manager with that tone of voice. No, I don't think I will be much longer. Oh, my God. Get them their drinks. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I'm so sorry. Oh, my God. And he comes back over the table. He's like, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. And then Tuck goes. I have never. Never. He's slouched down pretty far, too. I have never. He's slouched under the table. Yeah, pretty much.

And he's acting indignant. Yeah, just his chin is on the table. His ears so long. I have been a patron of the Doubletree Inn at Wingdom Hotels for years now. I will take my loyalty card to the Marriott. Sir, I don't think that will be necessary. We would be more than happy to make this meal complimentary. For you and your small son. Daddy, is that true? Do we have to go to the Marriott? I don't like the Marriott. Their roast beef is inferior. I lost my roast beef in the kerfuffle somewhere.

I happen to have misplaced it amongst all the chaos. And then Tuck is just like, the Yelp stone outside of this restaurant will be afire. With. With comments. Pull out a chisel. Don't make me use it. The Yelp stone outside this restaurant will know my wrath. If my son does not get a second roast. He's got his fingers woven in front of his chest in supplication. And he bows so low to you.

And he goes, sir, we will do your utmost, our utmost best to make sure that your stay here at the Doubletree Inn is exemplary. I would like a private dining room now. Okay, now you got to roll something. You're asking. You ask too much. 2D6 plus charisma. Or yeah, I guess parlay. Yeah. Unless you want a 13. Doesn't matter, I guess. He goes, of course, sir. Of course. We would be more than happy to bring you to our canopy lounge.

And I want a curtain brought over here so nobody sees us go over to the canopy lounge. Because we're embarrassed about how. Covered in this liquid we are. Oh, yeah. Because you're glowing from the drinks. Right away, sir. And he reaches up and he goes, like he claps. And Ving, as you're hustling into the kitchen towards the double doors that go into the back, they flap open. And like half a dozen elves come out with curtains and go like across and spread out in front of the table. So fancy.

Welcome to the Doubletree. Yeah. They take service seriously here. Wow. So I'm in the kitchen. Yeah, you're in the kitchen. Yeah. At the bar. Yep. And you see through the like service window, you see Finn and his mother, Fen, be seated at a table in the lounge. Ooh. Yeah. I don't really need to do anything here. Well, as you're standing there with your tray. Just standing there like.

A larger elf, bald, little chef's hat on, greasy, just like comes up with two plates and puts them on your thing and goes, table five. Table, which one's table five? The fifth one. Okay. No problem. Roll a discern realities to find table five. I mean, yeah, yeah. Go ahead and roll discern realities. Don't tell my players how to roll. I got a 10. Okay. So you get three questions off the discern realities list. What's about to happen?

What's about to happen is, um, you can see tuck and Billy being like ushered into a private dining room. That's like just off the main lounge. And I'm like, Hey, what's going on? What's going on? What's going on? What's going on? What's going on? What's going on? What's going on? What's going on? What's going on? What's going on? What's going on?

You come into the lounge and as they're being taken into this private dining room, you see Finn's mother then like look over like there's a private dining room. Oh shit. And I'm in the main lounge. Acceptable. And she starts snapping to like get the manager to come over. What should I be on the lookout for? Uh, wherever Wendy went, like she's like your main kind of connection to what's going on with the Rangers. In Hartwood City, so you need to track her down at some point.

Okay, here's not what it appears to be. There's a bartender at the bar who looks a lot like Wendy, who's mixing up drinks. And I walk up and I… Ving just goes out there and charms Table 5. Oh, did you get any on the plate on your fork? But he's just like a really good waiter. Yeah, well, you're gonna have to roll for that. Okay, I'm gonna go and wait the shit out of this restaurant. Defy danger charisma for charm. Six plus charisma is zero. Oh, we got six. Can we aid from where we are?

Billy can aid from any distance. Okay, so Tuck is carrying me over his shoulder like a baby. Yeah, and I'm patting your back, pretending like you're crying because your roast is gone. The roast that he has with him. It's between us. It's being pressed against your white suit. Yeah. So yeah, I'm gonna aid him. From a distance. Yeah. 2d6 plus bond. Six. Shit. Shit. Can I aid Billy? Like I'm being like carrying him and hugging him is like offering some kind of spiritual support.

The burping is really helping as well. He's feeling clear and fresh. Yeah, the lamplighter was too carbonated for you. So it's giving you acid reflex. I'm burping it out of you. Eleven. Okay, so you burp Billy and uh, a bunch of a big burp. Yeah, and a bunch of bioluminescent like gas comes out of your mouth. So you like a little glittery yellow cloud forms in front of you. Blow it towards me. That's so fucking good. You then you smell a burp wash across your face colorful.

I'm lift my feet are off the ground. I'm floating on this burp all the way to table number five. Yeah, put the plates on the right table and as you like touch down the cloud kind of settles over them and they're like, oh, I'm gonna burp. Oh, you are such a charmer. I swear if I was a hundred and fifty years younger, don't tell me that I might age myself. Oh, what? You tweedle away. So we'll go back to Billy and tuck. You are welcomed into the canopy dining room.

Yes, and the canopy dining room has a roof that is made out of the living woven branches of the tree that the double tree in the canopy dining room. You're welcome. You're welcome. You're welcome. You're welcome. You're welcome. You're welcome. You're welcome. There's a ton of work.

Of cool and then like tall you know like in Lord of the Rings how like elf windows look all fucked up and weird yeah it's like that like it's like very spirally like wood designs and then like very tall fragile looking glass that looks out over this very fine district of Heartwood City but you are also taken you know with the sort of the gloom and tension that has been washing over the city oh yeah it's a beautiful sight but you can feel like the tension oh shit you can see the lights of the city only go so far and then it's just like black dust and like yeah like crying babies and stuff yeah dogs barking car alarms you know that kind of stuff yeah I go and I look at the window and like the darkness of the forest is stark like it's a kind of darkness that eats light like usually like in a city it'll like throw light into like the surrounding areas but like it just ends and then it's black past it not unlike the Gibbous Man himself totally yeah I like it and I just realized that I have that move I think that I the first time I encounter something I can ask about bardic lore yeah yeah so what do you ask what question are you asking ever since Tuck came into the city he cannot stop thinking about the prophecy yeah he's like he is beneath a massive tree that is a light with like bioluminescent fire so he's just like how specific are yeah these prophecies symbolism like I don't understand anything about symbolism like her as in it it doesn't have like her as I don't think this is symbolism oh my god it means it's a metaphor which is even worse though but yeah Tuck is he wants to know more about the history of the tree and how it works yeah so because this is bardic lore of course you are gleaning this from stories and songs that you've heard heard and learned over your years as a traveling musician yeah so the thing that you know historically is legends say that the elves are the fruit of this tree whoa these are stories this is like a creation myth within elven culture is that they are the fruit of this tree that like the first elf was grown from the branches of this thing oh cool and that this was not only the heart of the forest but the heart of like elven culture cool and because of that for millennia uncounted because elves have existed for tens of thousands of years and their culture is sort of like unbroken they treated this tree with unbelievable reverence so most elves at least for a long time like they lived under the shade of the branches and they lived under the shade of the branches and they lived off the fruit of the trees and that kind of stuff but they left the care of the tree to the gardeners so gardeners have lived in sort of a cloistered temple around the tree forever which ving mentioned I think either last episode of the episode before has been built up more defensively over the last few years like there's now a wall wall for defensive purposes as opposed to a wall to delineate like the borders of the temple are there ever any like open days where the cloister and the church that are associated with the tree like allow you to get close enough to it to like examine it like allow the populace access to the tree right ritualized yeah processions or like yeah any kind of like church like you know how like seasonal things yeah or like a festival or like a weekly thing something where it's like you go and you pay homage to the tree or something is that part of their religion or their culture and is it saturday or sunday yeah uh there definitely used to be like because the this wall and the sort of isolation of the tree is relatively new tuck probably wouldn't know if it's still happening but there are definitely holidays there's probably a holiday that's like the beginning of spring that is the beginning of like the lamplighter life cycle so the tree is especially vibrant at that time as the lamplighter start to hatch and sort of grow cool um so that's probably yeah the blossoming of the flowers before the fruit of the lamplighter yeah leo mentioned a holiday that was coming up he did it was what did he first light first light so there are holidays like that but it's probably pretty far away which is not to say you couldn't settle in and play the long game and wait for first light for first light but that's probably a few months away there's also academies where people before they get to the gardeners like a priest um school you know like a seminary seminary yeah there's so many schools so there's like a school that you go to learn about the gardener way before so that could be somewhere that we start hypothetically we could kill someone steal their outfit yeah and then take their identity and then pretend to be priests yeah you guys could just like breaking into the death star style yeah find a couple guys steal their outfits or kill them or kill them you could kill them um that is on the table that's what Texas says to Billy as we're like looking at the window at the heart tree I was like you remember how like I put on that guy's outfit outside of the clear water and then I used that to get in that's I feel like we could do that again we definitely could but I also remember you crying a lot for a lot of nights after you did that and I was like he's crying more than usual more than usual and I don't know maybe I'm wrong you can tell me if I'm wrong but like does that have anything to do with you killing that dude to steal his pants are you crying because I'm bringing it up the chicken's just so spicy it's so spicy Billy's eating a whole roast during this conversation by the way Billy is like stone like not crying at all and Tuck is like weeping biting a rose like an apple back to the dining room Ving and Wendy are like cocktails and dreams Tom Cruise style bartender tricks right yeah and the cloud is like yes yes yes Wendy flips it up in the air the little martini shaker snatches it opens it pours three drinks in a row slides them down the bar in different directions Ving drinks them all spits them back in a different concoction he had gin in his mouth he switched it up and a couple people go oh okay lights them on fire oh that's cool we're back in and she's trying to she's like alright who's next for a drink in the bar and she's doing all these tricks but she's leaning in easy big fella she's leaning in okay what do we do we cannot be spotted by the young man and his mother she is a noble she will rat us out for sure we could get her blind drunk brilliant so okay so your plan is to get her drunk yeah great sure fine that's a great plan let's get her really drunk let's get her super wasted just keep giving her free drinks do I have to roll for that maybe charisma defy danger charisma to not come on too strong okay I'm gonna try and get her a bit more drinks just so she's a little more loosey goosey in the mind so she's unreliable in her memory great I got snake eyes oh my fucking god okay how can this situation escalate in some way yeah she comes up to the bar shoulders her way through the excited crowd having fun yeah excuse me she tells me and I drop a Caesar on her oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ma'am I am so I am so sorry oh my god oh my god and he's putting vodka on a towel and like damping your face trying to oh my gosh I never I demand to see your manager post haste yeah um wait a second I'll go get the manager yeah and she's like squinting after you as you rush off to go find the manager I hope some of that Caesar landed in her mouth and through the back door where's the manager I need the manager you're actually gonna go find the manager manager's in his office there's a lady there she's very happy with the service she wants to talk to the manager well that's a I'm glad to hear that uh and he goes he walks past you I'm gonna go back to you guys okay I'm not causing too much shit and you're so you're gonna sneak through oh you're going through some sort of back door yeah yeah there's a of course there's a private kitchen entrance to the the canopy lounge and you see the kitchen entrance to the the canopy lounge and you see the kitchen entrance to the kitchen entrance to the the canopy lounge and you see the kitchen entrance to the No, I thought about it, though.

You were thinking about it. I think there's other ways of getting clothes. We can think of other ways. There's other ways of getting clothes. That's a good one. Yeah, we tell you the plan. We explain everything that we figured out about the tree that we could maybe dress as a priest and the priest in training get in there because there aren't that many festivals where they let you at the tree. Because the first one is First Light. First Light is not for a few more weeks. Yeah.

I mean, during First Light, there is always a procession around the tree where each household brings a fruit, something that they've grown that year. Yeah. A representation of the first elf born fruit. The first fruit. That's very cool. So then there's like a fruit feast kind of where like everybody brings fruit and there's a feast. Or at least that's what it was when you were a kid. You remember it being that. Yeah.

And then, yeah, I'm just going to add, it's not pertinent to your planning, but then I think that there are. There are gardeners that travel outside of the wood with like little glass globes full of lamplighters and they take the light from the tree to the other towns and like spread that first light of the year to everyone. And it represents the spreading of the knowledge trees. Exactly. And the unity of the elf civilization. All our lights will burn at once.

But that has not happened for many years. As Wendy says, having suddenly appeared behind you. Holy shit. The light of the heart tree has not been spread to the outer cities. Why not? Because the hearts of elves have grown dim in return. Wow. You're really melodramatic sometimes. She goes over to the window and she puts her hand on the glass.

And then Tuck does a similar thing because he's crying and like he goes up and he puts his hand on the other side and he's like, sometimes I think back to some of the things that I've done and I feel like the lights in my heart have dimmed as well. Wow. Bing comes between them, puts both his hands on the window. And sometimes I feel like I'm also getting dimmer. Billy's hands go up on the window and some gravy smears on it. And he just goes, I just wanted to feel part of the group.

I just imagine Billy putting his hands up, smearing gravy and going, there's a dog down. There. Look at that dog. So fluffy. He's so brown. He's got a little brown face and he's got a little brown body. Slappy on the window. Hi, brown dog. Like Billy shows his face at the glass. What kind of dog are you? What kind of dog are you? What kind of dog are you? And the three adults in the room are trying to feel cool while you're doing this.

Everyone's brooding while Billy's screaming into a piece of glass. What kind of dog are you? I'd like to roll to find out what kind of dog. Yeah, totally. Now, are you trying to recall what kind of dog it is? Are you trying to ask the dog? I asked the dog. Oh, cool. So discern realities plus charisma. No wisdom. Five. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.

Wendy, where are our fucking weapons? They're in my room. Why would I have them on me? Your axe is about six feet long and weighs 90 pounds. What's the fastest way there? Tuck runs at the window and jumps into it. Okay. I rolled. Is it Defy Dangerous Strength? I don't know. You just rolled. I guess Defy Dangerous Strength, yeah. Okay. That's 14. Cool. So 14, you smash through the window. There's about three stories beneath you. Oh my God. What? Oh, wow. We were on an overlook.

Are you trying to go all the way out the window or are you trying to grab something? What room is she in? Do we know? Up. I'll grab something. Yeah. I'm not stupid. There's probably so many trees outside of this tree. I'll just try and grab the side of the tree. Dexterity to grab it quick? Yeah. Five. Oh. Oh, Lord. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, Tuck, you see Tuck go, I've got it. And he runs towards the window and reaches out his arms as he smashes through and you see his fingers close on open air.

He got it all right. Yeah. So what do you do? Does anybody try and help him here? Okay. I can try and give him a big shot of wind. Totally. Yeah. You could elemental mastery him out of this. Elemental mastery to give Tuck a little toot up into the air. But you know what? I'm going to let him fall for a second while I ask Wendy, what room are you in? What floor are you on? I'm in room 15. Three. One. And you get here the whole time you're having this conversation. You're going to go. Okay.

Elemental mastery. There we go. 2d6 plus constitution. Nice. Elementalist. I got 12. Okay. So that means that you only have to pick one from the three. I will pay nature's price. So it's like classic, like, ah, like stopping just above the street level. Yeah. Oh, as I hit a cushion of air. Cushion of air. Nice. Ooh. Ooh. Back up into the air. Yeah. And you are all watching this from the window.

You see Tuck like, oh, and because with a 12, let's be real, Tuck, you like a light on a, you very gently set down on a balcony, on a, on a balcony, about two, two floors above the canopy lounge. He like looks out onto the city and then takes a bite of a chicken that he has. I love this city. Oh. Oh. We can figure this out. So pay nature's price. What does that mean in this context? Hmm. I, well, okay. So I do think I'll just hold onto this in this way. I think like you call this wind spirit.

Who's like quite powerful. That shoots tuck up two stories. And as you're like, all right, let's go. You kind of feel like you're like buffeted in the shoulder. And there's just like a, you see in your spiritual sense, there's like a very excitable wind spirit. That's now kind of following you around. And it's just like, what's up? What are we doing? We have like a Tasmanian devil. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's like, just like an East wind sort of like, okay, let's do it.

Let's go fucking blow some stuff down. Come on, let's go easy, easy, man. Whoa, man, just, just blow some steam, but no, let's just, you just go, you just go do what you got to do. I appreciate what you did. Thank you. No problem. How much do I have to pay you? Like what is nature's price here? It's just going to follow you around for a bit. Okay. Yeah. I should say, yeah, like every once in a while, like a lamp tips over because this thing is just flitting around. Yeah. What the fuck?

Oh, don't answer the wing goes. Wendy's bangs are just like flapping in her face. Like, is this going to carry on for much longer? I'm not sure. Um, Billy starts unraveling himself out of his costume, right? Making like a big yarn string rope thing. And he's going to try to climb up and leave a rope behind. Amazing thing to follow. Yeah. And Wendy, and Wendy, yeah. Nice. Uh, so yeah, go ahead and throw that two D six plus dexterity. Nice. Whoa. So strong. A 14. Oh, hell yeah.

Make like a rope ladder with like two sides. It's so good. Yeah. And you realize like anybody watching Billy do this realizes that he did this ahead of time. Like he made it into like a yarn rope ladder that he then wore as a scarf. And, uh, yeah, you, with your little fairy accuracy, I guess, flip it right. Up onto the balcony where tuck is tuck. Can you catch a catch, catch it. And you just arm straight out in front of you as everybody climbs.

The ladder is just dangling on the bottom, waiting his turn. Yeah. One arm. Yeah. So strong. He's eating chicken. So strong up the cavity of the chicken, eating it off. Okay. Candied apple inside the chickens. Yeah. Amazing. So yeah. Bing and Wendy following up. Yep. And you are on the second floor. I believe I said, quick, we don't have much time. So Wendy leads you through this very nice room into the hallway.

And, uh, she's doing the like hand signals, like stop, go this way and takes you up a stairwell to the third floor and the room that she is staying in, which has a double bed, a chest of cabinets. It's got a small curing coffee maker. Oh, and then it's got a pile of weapons, all of your weapons. Oh, sick. And then you're like, and then tuck grabs TLC right away. Yeah. And you, he feel it like hum in your hand as you pick it up. Oh, they're humming. Good to see you, bro.

It's good to see you little bros. I, and everybody just straps on a straps up. I put on my strap on. Oh, I didn't know this was here. I didn't know if you would need it or not, but I found it in your pack. I bet you did. And she sits in the little chair that's in every hotel room that you're not really sure what it's there. I've been there before. And, uh, she turns to you all. So what did you determine about the tree? Did you have any thoughts on the infiltration process?

We wanted to know what you know and what has been set up by the Rangers before we got here. That I'm afraid is confidential. What? Wait, you hired us. Yes, but I'm going to be honest with you three. Mm-Hmm. Nathaniel brought you in and brought us in, but that doesn't mean that I trust you. Whoa.

You must understand that the life of a ranger is one of constant danger and one of constant vigilance and the door to the closet pops open and shadow par her beaver cat leaps onto the bed and is standing behind you. You tell me right now why I should trust you or shadow Paul here will rend you nape to neck. Shadow Paul, you're not going to do anything, are you? Oh, you don't know what I'm capable of. Jesus. This has been his voice the whole time. He's a Jersey bro. I don't get to talk very much.

I don't talk very often, but I know that you've got a voice and I'm glad to hear it, but I'll rip you to shreds. I don't know how to make you trust me. I could tell you a secret. It depends on the secret, but very well. Okay. The more embarrassing the better. Okay. I pee in the bathtub every time. Every time? I can't help it. I can't help it. I can't help it. I can't help it. I can't help it. I can't help it. I can't help it. I can't help it. It's so warm. Then Wendy nods. I trust you.

I told you the level of water was going up. There's no way he's peeing enough to change the level of the water. I swear it changed. It does not change. I didn't put that much water in there. You? She looks to tuck. I also pee in the bathtub every time. I have to use the same bath water after. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. There's no way he's peeing.

There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. There's no way.

Well, what about the poetry book that I see you write in all the time? What about the time you lost your virginity in the book? Tuck pushes Billy to the ground. Amateur poetry, you say. Well, that does sound embarrassing. Read me a poem from your book and perhaps I will trust you. Fine. And then Tuck looks at Billy and he's like, you fucking betrayed me. I'm so sorry. He takes a marble out of the jar. He dumps half of the marbles into the toilet.

And Billy has to hold his fist up to stop himself from crying and screaming. I earned this. I deserve it. Shadow paws just like, whoa, man, that's pretty harsh. I've heard of these marbles. These little kids love them. I can't believe you would do this. Get my M&M now. Read the poem. Okay. Can I take a second to write a poem? Oh, sure. Yeah, totally. It's a poem about Wendy. Oh, that would be pretty good. That would be pretty embarrassing. Okay. All right. So Wendy leans back in her chair.

Tuck is like, he's flipping through. And you see at the top of every page is a different lady's name. What does the book look like? Like, what does this little book look like? And how long has he had it for? Who comes before W? Me. The book is, so he stole it from bar. And it's like, just like a bunch of like purchase orders, essentially. That was like going into the trash. And he was just like, I'll just use this for a book. So it's not even a book.

It's a bunch of stapled together pieces of paper. Yeah. You're writing on the back of? Yeah, I guess so. It's like woven with like a piece of leather with holes along the spine. Yeah. And he's like, he's taking a piece of leather and like wrapped it around it as if it is. The cover. And then he carved like a picture of him in Black Spire high-fiving into the leather in the front. And it says best friends underneath.

And then on the back, it says, do not look in this book or I'll fucking kill you on the back. Do you read the book? Oh, what have I done? Do my wife, I love her. He is very much a child in his mind. Oh, yeah. A lot of ways. So he's flipping through the pages and you see, you're seeing like lists of drink quarters on the front, like 20, 20 vodkas, 60 oxbloods, like that kind of stuff where it's like they're replenishing inventory.

But then on the back, every page is like a different woman's name and he flips to the most recent entry and it says, Wendy, you said you wanted it to be embarrassing, right? Proceed. Fuck. This is the most embarrassing what I can read you. That thing's like, no, no, no, please. No, please. No, I can't watch this. Please. I'm just going to go in the closet while I read this. Very well. It's like, I just don't want you to look at me while I read it. You get to the closet. Okay.

And you're enshrined in darkness and bathrobes. And beaver cat piss. Yeah. Yeah. It's a real nest in here. Shadowpaw really. Shadowpaw said, this isn't even your room. Yeah. I'm marking my territory. So any beaver cats that come in here know this is my turf. The ranger's heart is a winter bloom. It hides from ice and bitter winds. But with the warmth of sun at noon, the beauty breaks and friendship mends. The door's closed. The door's closed. The door's closed. The door's closed. It's opening.

Was embarrassing. So, perhaps it is time I let you in on our side of the plan a little bit more. The Talon is in the city. We are here, as we have been commanded by King Nathaniel, to support you in your efforts to cleanse the Heartwood Tree of its corruption. We will do it thusly. Nesh, the young ranger that you encountered in the forest during his karate moves, has been placed inside the seminary of the Church of the Tree. So, with any luck, he will be within the cloister soon. Sick.

Where's everyone else? Taurus is amongst the people, blending in as a simple laborer. Cut over to Taurus for a second. And he's beating the shit out of a woodcutter. And there's like six women lined up watching him. Yeah, it's just a crowd of people as he like pulls his jerkin' off and his glistening elf muscles. Jerkin'. Jerkin' off. He's pulling it. Jerkin' off. Wow. And Lysander has been in this room this entire time. Show yourself.

And he emerges from like a corner where he was just so still. He comes from underneath the sheets. He stands up and just rises up. He's just under the sheets completely. And he just flips up and flips them down over himself. Hello there. I've been here the whole time. It looks so flat. He has a lit pipe in his mouth as he pops back up. Ving was sitting on him and didn't notice. Yeah. So these are the kids, huh? Yes. They are, if Dathaniel's word is to be trusted, our only hope.

And he holds out his hand to Ving. You got a firm grip there, son. He's old. Remember, he's got gray hair. He's quite old, but he has stayed a regular rank and file ranger his entire career. Kind of looks like a… Looks like Sam Elliott. A little bit. Yeah. Darker skin. Darker skin. Like, yeah. Gray hair. Yeah. And then also definitely the handlebar mustache. So we are here to support you, Nesh, with his infiltration. Lysander with his stealth abilities. Taurus with his combat support.

And me, other stuff. Tell me a bit about your plan and how we can best aid you. So should we kind of be… Straight up with them? Do you guys think? Yeah. That's our… That's usually our… M.O.? Yeah. It's amazing you have not told them everything yet. All right. So Tuck has a bag of six obsidian coins and he tosses it on the table in front of everyone. He's like, what do you guys know about these? They spill out of the bag. Hmm. She reaches down and picks it up and holds it up to the light.

I can't say that I've ever seen one before. What manner of currency be these? Clink. The… Beacons. Magnets. Magnets for demons. Demons, you say? Icons is another word for them. Icons. And what relevance do they have to our current situation? There is a guy wandering around the world handing these out to people. Have you heard any stories of a traveler? An elderly man with a kind countenance. Dressed all in black. Big black hat. Wandering through the world affecting things. Cold as the night.

And Lysander chomps the end of his pipe thoughtfully. You mean the gibbous man. So you've heard of him? Only stories. But he is not one to be trifled with from what the tales have told. What do you know about him? Oh, just that he… He appears offering aid to people in need. But that his intentions are… Always his own. I always thought he was… A myth. What do you feel these myths offered those who heard them? Comfort? Solace? He means to disrupt all these things.

So you're saying that he's real? He's very real. We've seen him with our own eyes. Well, at least Bing has. And you've seen the touch of his fingers on the land. All that has been happening to the forest comes at his hand. Then our quest is even more dire than I imagined. La Rungarvinga, she turns to you. You are the spirit walker. What counsel you next? My counsel is… Not my own. I wait for… The world to tell me. I will… Counsel the tree. The… Deedly-dee. And her eyes are…

Leave me be. On balcony. From whence I sit. And… And… And smell beavercat shit. I will come up with a plan. For if not, I am the spirit man. And Tuck throws his notebook to the ground. So angry. He's like, you fucking improvised that? This fucking sucks. I suck. And Bing winks at Tuck. Tuck kicks the chair that Bing is sitting on. And he rolls backwards out through the door onto the balcony. And stands up. Yeah, lands in a llama, llama, llama. Looks so cool. And Tuck is so mad.

He goes into the bathroom and slams the door. Bing is piggybacking on the wind spear. He's sitting on his shoulder. So he's like hovering on the deck. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. Okay. So what move are you going to use? I'm going to do communion of whispers. When I spend time in a place making note of its residents, spirits, role plus wisdom, be granted a vision of significance to you, your allies, and the spirits around you. 10 plus, it's clear and helpful. I got six. Okay, six.

Can I aid from a distance? Totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can aid. How are you aiding? Billy is being helpful by shoving sheets under the bathroom door to muffle out Tuck's crying. You're trying to make it more peaceful? Yeah. Yeah. I work so hard. I got a 10. 10. Nice. I work so hard. And you are alone communing with the spirits of this place. So you get a seven to nine, which means a vision with an unclear meaning. Mm-hmm.

So what you see is the most beautiful, pristine, grassy hill you've ever seen. The light of the sun shining down. An elf in a long green robe, like floats into the vision and plants a sapling in the hilltop, cups his hands over it and his hands fill with crystal clear water that waters the earth that the sapling is in. And it sprouts forth into the air, its branches arcing and twisting beautifully, creating a canopy under which on the branches, beautiful fruits begin to bloom and grow.

Out of the most beautiful flowers. Exactly. And those fruits become heavy and they drop to the ground and where that fruit is, that fruit touches the elves spring to life. Millennia pass before your eyes. Beautiful elves and beautiful elven culture spring forth and are thriving. And then shadows begin to swell in around the edges of this canopy, breaking against the barrier of light like waves against the shore.

The fingers of the darkness start like reaching in through the roots of the tree and rotting the heart of this trunk. And the elves weep. They weep as their culture rots before them. And the green robed figure who, you know, to be the embodiment of all that makes this order what it was and was meant to be. You see them turn towards the darkness with like staff and trowel and hand ready to take back what the forest deserves from the clutches of this darkness.

And as you do, you see the face of this mystical, gardener figure, the Vox sylvi, the first voice of the forest shift to the face of another that sticks in your mind. You don't recognize them. And they put the, the staff and the trowel together. Yes. To make a weapon. Yes. Oh, cool. To create like a trowel spear sort of gardener's tool. Sick. Distorting the original intention. And then you see a quick flash of a few visions of like a young elf in a green robe.

Who's like watching people become, um, hard and mean and the way that the gardeners treat the tree as like a tool rather than a thing to be revered and cared for. Uh, you see them like sneaking out in the middle of the night, leaving the cloister, which you know is forbidden amongst gardeners in the order. Picking unripened fruit, which is like, yeah, no, no, it's like, it's a cursed act. Yeah.

And what you mainly see is you see a face that sticks in your mind that you believe to be a person that lives in this place. But that is, that is all you take. All, all you can take from the vision. As you are returned to the material plane to somebody that is now displeased with the way thing, the, the gardeners have been run. That's what you believe. Yeah. Cool.

Uh, and for those of you that don't listen to the bonus content, cause we mentioned it in a, in a bonus content segment, the Vox Silvi is one half of what we talked about. Elvin justice being there being in all of these kinds of proceedings, the Vox Silvi, which is the voice of the forest speaks, for the land. And then the Vox populi voice of the people that speaks for the elves. There's dissension in the ranks. You saw this in your vision. Yes. There is an unhappy gardener.

Would you recognize this gardener? If you saw them? I think I could. Okay. Then we must get you close to the gardeners. Yeah, I think we should, uh, I think we should stake out the church. And then you hear tuck go through the door. Yeah, we need to get close to the church. I think we should, uh, I think what we should do. Tears streaked down his face. So wet. His beard is damp with tears. Yeah. Let's go to the church or whatever.

Lysander, uh, gets out of the bed and reaches down, picks up tucks, poetry book and hands it to him. I, I gotta say, I liked it. Really? Yeah. You got a real talent kid. He like pats your arm. Thanks man. And he walks past you making the face. That's like, Oh boy. Uh, so how would you be observing the cloister? Um, yeah, I could be a little hobo getting alms. Yep. I like that. We could also all pick a, like, sort of like the other place. Like storm and Norman was here. Yeah.

Like where we're, we're, we're all going to watch a different zone. Yeah. Make a little triangle. Yeah. We go, we could all go out and like, uh, stake it out to try and get some information on how to get in there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. We're all getting less codependent and can split up for a little bit, but the whole time everyone's like, man, I really should get back to this too. What are we up to right now? The guy's walking around behind me. Yeah.

But Tuck's doing something pretty awesome right now. Yeah. I miss Billy. And you cut to Tuck and he's like, fucking piece of shit. Ving being good at poetry, fucking asshole using his fucking stupid Elven brain being better than me at better, better than me at fucking word stuff. Fuck words. Words are fucking stupid. Tuck's back. Tuck's poem was so good. It was great. It was a great poem. It's fucking stupid. Ving's poem literally contained the word beaver cat shit.

And then Tuck scribbles out the wedding poem and he's like, to the beautiful Wendy. You have put a spell on me. Yes. Keep going. We were doing so well. Okay, great. So Jessica, you mentioned something about Billy going to a soup kitchen or something or getting homes. Oh no, I was, I thought I'd like kind of sit outside and like a little ragamuffin thing.

Sort of like what he did in McCall where like the kids would just like sit around and like, you know, beg for money or like ask for snacks and treats and stuff. Um, and he sees another ragamuffin who's doing a similar thing and he's got a sign up that obviously Billy can't read, but he's like, Oh, I've never seen anyone use a sign before. So he grabs like, I've never seen anyone use a sign. Is this kid the first one who uses a sign? Yeah.

So Billy's like really interested in, he's like, I want to make a sign too. So he grabs a piece of bark and a rock and starts etching in what he, what he thinks is the same thing as the other kids got on his side. That's pretty great. So Billy, what Billy doesn't know is that his sign says will work for food. Yeah. Can, can do, uh, can do tricks or what? I don't know. Tricks, uh, and wood chopping and babysitting. Uh, is this an opportunity for Billy to use, what is it?

Contact his ragamuffin move? Yeah. I'm going to try that. So I'm, I sidled in a little closer just to see the sign better. Copy it. Does he have a vest on? Yeah. Yep. He's got a little vest and he's got a little hat on, but it's a top hat. It's not a flat cap. What a fancy little guy. It's got the, yeah, it's got the pop, the top popped out of it. Oh yeah. Classic, classic ragamuffin. Yeah. I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, classic ragamuffin hat. And I'll say, hey. Hello.

How often are you out here? Oh, just about every day. This is sort of my place that I come to. There used to be more of us, but as time went on, more of the kids, more of the ragamuffins, you see. You look like you're a ragamuffin yourself. I am a ragamuffin. I can see the type. A lot of us realized that the church was getting less and less generous, so they moved on. Well, that's a shame. Oh, you know how it is. Just how it is here in Hartwood City. Oh, don't you know it? I'm Larry.

My name's Larry. What's your name? Oh, my name? My name's Biafandar. You could call me Biff. Biff? Call me Biff. Larry's short for Laryngitis. Nice to meet you, Laryngitis. That sounds like a proud Elvin name. It is. Passed down to me from my dad. Yeah. And then his dad. We all call it Laryngitis from my great-great-great-grandfather. We were sharing one water bottle. You know, I'm just wondering, like, do they ever come out of there? It's been a while since I've, like, you know.

You know, hung out on the streets. You're gonna have to roll the connections for this. Eleven. Jeez. Okay. So with an eleven on connections, what is that ten plus? So on a ten plus, someone has it just for you. Oh, perfect. So Biff goes, oh, yeah, you know, not as many as they used to. But there are a couple gardeners who still, they sort of have their prescribed, quote, unquote, prescribed times that they're allowed to come out of the cloister. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Some of them choose to use that to give poor old souls like us a coin or two scrap of food. Oh, boy. Can't wait. Would love a scrap of food. Oh, well, you're just in time then. And you hear. Billy starts, like, positioning a sign, like, waving around. Like you are outside of a Little Caesars. Yeah, like a pizza twirler. He's kind of doing a dance. Spinning it. And Biff sees you do this. And is like, you got the right idea. And he gets up and he starts spinning his sign around.

Start getting competitive. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm spinning, like, weaving around myself. Yeah. And kind of tossing it between my legs. Holy shit. Between your legs? Well, it's a pretty small spot. There is not a lot of room in there. No, Billy has to jump over it a lot. And Biff kind of puts it on his finger and tries to twirl it like a Frisbee, but he's not very agile. So he just keeps doing it over and over again. But the doors to the cloister. Creak open.

And as these two ancient massive church doors open, what gets revealed is these two little grubby urchins doing signs spinning like crazy. Yeah. And there are only two gardeners. There are a number of guards. There's probably like half a dozen guards per gardener that comes out. Billy drops his sign and takes a really long time picking it up to try to scope out the faces. Yeah. Discern realities. Go ahead. Yeah. Ooh, that's only a six. Okay. Shit. So you get a point of experience.

Or can I use… Oh, you have fairy childs? So yeah, I'll use one to turn a failed roll into a seven and nine. Okay, great. So you get one question off the discern realities list. What here is useful or valuable to me? What here is useful or valuable to you is that one of the gardeners is quite old, wizened, bent, long.

White hair hanging down on either side of her head, hunched, but like on an old cane that looks like it's like grown around her, like not into her hand, but it's like grown with her hand basically over the years. Whoa. And she walks over and she drops a few coins of elven silver into the hat of Biff. He goes, thank you, miss. Thank you. And she comes over to you and she does the same, gives you a few coins. Oh, thank you. Oh, of course.

It's the will of the trees that the little boys be taking care of. And she turns and says, you'll see, Elman, this is the true role of the gardeners and wit has been forgotten. And Elman, who she is talking to, is striking to you. Something about his features seem very familiar. Oh. Oh, shit. What do I do? I'm going to… I'm trying to like ping my ring. I'm just like squeezing it in my finger, like a fist, like, guys, I see him. I see the guy.

I think it's like as Billy's like hitting his ring with his thumb, like trying to turn it on. Elman nods and goes, ah, yes. And he reaches into his sleeve, like he pulls his hands out of the sleeves of his robes and he has like two pieces of fruit. And he gives one to you and one to Biff. And they nod at you and they turn and the old woman. Totters back towards the gate and Elman walks with her. I pick up my stuff and I follow from a distance. Oh, cool.

So they are going right back towards the gate. Shadow dance. Oh. Oh. Oh, my God. Shit. I'll leave my body here, though. That is true. It is a sacrifice. No, really. Actually, I turn around really fast. I give my sign to Biff and I say, can I take a nap right here? I suppose. Thanks. You can have my silver. That could be a parlay. Yeah, parlay. Yeah, absolutely parlay. Just watch over my sign and watch over me while I take a really fast nap. And you can have my money. Okay. 2d6 plus charisma.

Ten. Ten. Shit, yeah. You got a deal. Easiest silver off ever made. And plop. Out. Oh, my God. Billy? So, yeah, I'm going to use shadow dance. I'm going to spend a hold of fairy child and roll wisdom. Okay. To see how long it can stay. Excellent. I only got a six. A six. Um. I mean, you do have one more. Yeah, I'm just going to use them all. Yeah. That's it for me. Okay. So, this is the last fairy child for the day. Yeah. But you. So, I'll get one hold. Yeah, you try and leave your body.

You try and enter the fairy, this sort of halfway state that you have been able to enter transition so easily in the past. But it's like something's holding you back. Yeah. For a second. And you really have to focus. Yeah. Weird. Yeah. But you're. It's almost like there's like sticky sludge in the tree. Yeah. It was really hard to get up off the ground. Yeah. That makes sense with the sap. Mm-hmm. It's like when you're running in a dream and it feels like you're in tar. Yeah. Yeah.

But you are able to enter the fairy and you are the fairy again. You leave the boy behind for a moment. Okay. Stay focused, Billy. Yeah. I actually. I like the idea that when Billy is the fairy that he has to keep reminding himself. I am Billy. I am Billy. I am Billy. So he doesn't get lost because in this place with this vibrant spiritual tree. Yeah. It's probably just. It's like coming home from a long trip and seeing your own bed in front of your own toilet. Yeah.

I could take the most comfortable shit in the world right now and never ever get up. Oh, boy. Okay. Keep focused and follow that dude that you know the face of. Okay. So, Billy, you kind of flit through the fairy after Elman and the old woman through the gates into the cloister. Who's next? Tuck or Ving? What are we doing? We're just. We split up. Yeah. You split up to survey the cloister to see. The cloister wall. To like see different parts of it. I had nothing. If you have something, do it.

I have something. Okay. Yes. Tuck. Yeah. So, Tuck is climbing the cloister wall. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Something. This is exactly what I would expect to happen when you three split up. So, you're climbing through over the outer wall. Of course. You have determined that there is enough of a gap in the patrol that you can climb over this part. Yes. Okay. So, first things first. Defy Danger Strength. I'll fucking show Vang who's good at words. 11.

Words never climb the wall. Yeah. Oh, you know what's good at walls? Arms. Words. Words can fuck themselves is what words can do. So you can't get in a cut phase. Arms can. So you pull yourself up over the wall. Yeah. And you are like far enough away from any patrols that you're kind of safe right now. And when he gets to the top of the wall, he says, arms one, words zero. Fuck you all.

And you see a butt like you get to the top of the wall and you look over at the walls of the cloister, which are, of course, because the second wall was built. These aren't made for defense. So you see the massive trunk of the heart tree in the cloister. How big across do we think the trunk of the heart tree is? It's like the width of like a big house, like a mansion. Yeah. Okay. Cool. I love that. Yeah. Okay. It's pretty big and gnarly. I like how gnarly it is.

So you can actually climb into it potentially because it's so, it looks like Methuselah. So it's like you could get in there. If you needed to. I think that's what you, what Tuck sees initially. Yeah. Is that there are like gaps and gnarles in the trunk where you're like, is there, I mean, if there's something, if there's a corruption in the heart of the tree, is there a corruption in the heart of the tree? Yeah. And then you have to think quick because there are patrols coming back your way.

Can I use, is there any way I can use the coin in my chest to like do something? I mean, well, what do you mean do something? To like study the like corruption at the heart of the tree. Yeah. I think that, you know what? Okay. So this is something that we maybe never considered is what you could use to study the corruption at the heart tree is your eyes. You're familiar with the gibbous man. You're familiar with corruption and demons.

You can probably look at it and try and determine how it might be twisting the tree. Open your eyes as wide as possible. Get your fingers in there. Oh, I have an ear for magic. But can he use an ear for magic to see the corruption at the heart of the tree? Can he try to? What is it? Yeah. You have. I should be able to with all the stuff in him. Yeah. Yeah. You do have a coin in your chest. Yeah. I want to ear for magic the fuck out of this tree.

Please read the move and please integrate it into your decisions instead of just saying the name of it and swearing. Yeah. I'm feeling very attacked right now. I'm fucking ear this tree. So goddamn magic. It's going to be insane. Okay. So can you read an ear for magic for me? Was that a poem? When you hear. An enemy cast a spell, the GM will tell you the name of the spell and its effects. Take plus one forward when acting on the answers. Shit. So you just ask. Yeah. And I have to tell you. Yes.

See, this is why I was like, we should limit it to certain kinds of energy instead of all of them. But I think the demon stuff is, I think you feel the coin. In my chest. Yeah. Yeah. You're not reacting to it. Oh, like it's, it's like having a piece of magnet. Yeah. I feel like it's even just that you're aware of it. Yeah. You're not always aware of the pain of the coin anymore. Cause your, your pain tolerance is so weirdly high. Yeah. But you are just like, like you kind of shift around.

Um, you think that. Oh. What? No. Yeah. You tell me. Here's what I think it is. The coin in Tuck's chest is still like not in one piece. Like when those coins are in one piece and there's a demon in them, they're just white. Right. Yeah. Because it's contained the demon. But like, there is like, I think iconic energy.

Just like kind of leaking out and like, it's almost like when you put a microphone and a speaker in front of each other, it's creating like feedback where the coin in the tree is reacting to the. Oh, I will say that you don't know what's in the tree. Oh yeah, we do. Oh yeah. It was a piece of a piece of obsidian. Yeah. The coin in the tree is reacting to like the shards of obsidian in my chest that have like a demon in them, which is reacting to the coin in the tree.

So it's creating like a feedback. Like a loop of like demonic energy. Yeah. Iconic energy. Yeah. Okay. So that is, that is the answer. There's definitely something in the tree, physically in the tree. The other thing that you think about is if I can feel the coin in the tree, it can probably feel me. Whoa. Whoa. So that's something to be aware of. And what was your, what was your specific question in terms of Ear for Magic? Is there a demon in the coin in the tree? Ah, that.

Well, I guess that reactive. Feeling would tell you. Yes, there is. Ooh. Tell me what demon it is. No, I will not. Yeah. I will not. So cool. Um, do I have to like do anything to like withstand the energy that's like building up? Not yet. Okay. Ving. Yes. What are you doing? I'm just casually walking along the routes. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Oh, interesting. He's having a casual walk about. Yeah. I like that.

That you're going to like the different parts of town where like the roots kind of poke out. Yeah. And trying to get information that way. Doing a different style. Yeah. So what you like put your hand on the root and try and connect with the spirit of the tree. Yeah. Spirit tongue. I just want to know like if, if it can direct us to the pain, what the nature of the almost like diagnostic. Like, I kind of want a triage.

Knowledge triage knowledge triage yeah okay so I guess that would probably be discern realities yeah okay 12 boy oh boy sick so you get uh three questions from this list what should I be on the lookout for uh so what you should be on the lookout for is um you're trying to separate like what the tree feels naturally versus like what you're remembering pilgrimages to heartwood as a child and like meditating under the knowledge tree and vigil when you were younger and remembering that feeling of like wisdom and vitality and you're you're feeling in this tree a sense that you'd never had when you connected with them in the past of a hunger like a need a need to sustain itself over all of the of the other living things a hunger that wasn't there before yeah what here is not what it appears to be ah so you're like in your mind you're like the coin the coin I have to find the coin and you are filled with a resistance from the spirit of the tree that tells you it is not a coin what what we saw a coin but it's not a coin you saw a night black piece of obsidian oh fuck words tricked us again what else is obsidian uh moving on moving on next question pick the right one so we figure this out who's really in control here hmm yeah I think um oh oh!!

Whoa whoa whoa whoa I've been your game master Sean O'Hara Joining me as always playing Tacoma Dome the Barbarian Abdulaziz so long everybody playing Ving the Half-Elf Druid Paul Oppers take care Playing Fabulous the Halfling Thief Jessica Tai Bye everyone thank you to Aaron Reed for our intro and outro music Thank you to all of our Susporters around the world for supporting The show without you this show would Not be possible if you would like to support Us find us at patreon.com Slash Spout Lore for a whole bunch of bonus Content and most of all thank You to all of you for listening See you next time And so ends the tale of adventures Three who tried The best they can Though dumb and scared And lost they be For time's 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

Hey, Tuck here telling you to donate to speltlore.com slash money please or patreon.com slash speltmore for more of this I'm doing an act out but you can't see it below the table Show me your hands right now No, I'm still doing it Show me your hands right now No, why?

Because I'm masturbating Gather round friends, let me tell you a tale of three heroes, noble and bold A brute, a druid, and a thief who is but nine years old You know them by name You know them by deed Their quests are famously daring So here I sit, singing to you an adventure that is worth sharing Tuck is the brute He knows not his home He loves to sing and fight Fingers half-elf, he shifts his shape and wields a spear with great pride Peely's a thief, his tiny size does mask the largest heart Best and brightest, they may not be but their friendship outweighs their smarts So gather round friends and listen close for the tale's about to start Hello everybody and welcome to Spout Lore I'm your game master Sean O'Hara Joining me as always playing Tacoma Dome I'm the barbarian Abdul Aziz Hello everybody I have no food in my mouth Playing Ving the half-elf druid Paul Oppers Hi everyone I no longer have food in my mouth And playing fat Billy the halfling thief Jessica Tai Hello Wow That almost sounded like you had no food in your mouth When last we left our heroes They were reeling from Ving's encounter Brief though it may have been With the Gibbous Man Reeling?

Sorry Yeah is that reeling or gone?

Mad Ving after Billy found his mourning fairy child stretches A little hampered by some sort of presence in the air Ving shared with the party that he had encountered the Gibbous Man And through some Chamberlain ring memory watching The party lost their minds They were convinced that Ving had a coin in his head And tried to shake it out of him Like a pinata Absolutely at each other's throats Thrown around I don't trust you Well I don't trust you Until Morrison Perel arrived And explained that perhaps that was the Gibbous Man's trick all along Was saying just a couple words And causing you all to freak out We then headed out back on the trail To the center of the wood Which we decided and realized Is the elven capital city of Heartwood Changing The party's goals a little bit From finding a magic tree To infiltrating the most populated city in the great forest But you know We totally fucked ourselves Maybe a little bit But it's going to be more exciting for sure The party carried on through the trees On the back of their tree gliders Meeting Among many other things Leo, an old elf burnout Hanging out in the trees recording music Of the tune wood He's a major recording artist Yeah his full name was Leonardo DiCaprio I thought you were actually going to say it Excuse me, say it twice Leonardo DiCaprio Leonardo I rolled down, kind of Leo The last bit of his name was And Leo absolutely Bamboozled the shit out of the three of you You know what, I think we got a deal This is magic music I'm really defending Leo's He's a cool guy I made him up, he's neat And I thank you that he's the coolest guy I guess he's kind of been one of the only ones who's nice to us That's true Why are we shitting on this guy just because he's an old hippie He's probably a racist, you're right I didn't think of that We carried on down a secret treetop road That Leo and other elven Forest walkers Use We made our way to the next Ferry ring Taking a brief moment to Abuse the The page's functions once again To get it to summon as many clothes As you possibly could So the party disguised themselves Ving as the Humanoid equivalent of a Centaur merchant Tuck as the fanciest boy in town And Billy as A pile of yarn And mounting up And heading off into the trees To make their final approach to Heartwood The camera Seeing at the edge of the ferry ring They camped in the night before A couple small withered mushrooms And that is where we find our heroes now Coursing through the trees Top their tree gliders Discussing, I imagine, their plan for their approach to the city Yeah Black Spire 2 Yes sir What do you know of the tree gliders Stables at Heartwood Very little sir I mostly served in the Boreal Reach And I am only six years old So I have spent most of my time in that part of the forest sir Fuck Dude Tree glider lifespan I'm considered early middle age sir Aww Yeah so unfortunately your tree gliders won't be much help In this part of the wood Cause remember though they have been a ripping ass The forest is a very large place Can I Spout Lore about the police force Or like the military presence in Heartwood Totally At least as you remember it Seven So interesting but not useful What's something interesting about the Militia, the guard at Heartwood's That Ving would remember from being a young boy Umm Maybe they don't have stables Like they're always stationed In the trees Oh yeah that's interesting Like they're always kinda on the move And also I guess if tree gliders used to live in the Heart tree Then maybe theirs still do I like that What do you mean lived in the Heart tree Well remember we talked about how like tree gliders were The original population of them was found Like around the Heart tree like in this area Oh the knowledge tree Yeah the knowledge tree Yeah the knowledge trees Okay Yeah sorry So then maybe these ones still Kinda roost in there That is where their stables technically are Oh it's like close to the heart of the Yeah like of the city Of the city yeah Well and I like that since the Twisting of the woods That they've like moved them out Like they're like Oh They think that they're protecting it But they're doing it harm maybe Yeah Or they're changing the way that the forest operates Yeah that's very interesting Yeah cause if we If they were kind of like around the Heart tree Of like around the Heartwood still Then us as like merchants we could get in there Mmhmm Yeah that's a good point Yeah Um Anything else you wanna try and discuss on your way So yeah Tuck goes Are we So I assume we're not using our real names When we get there That's a good point Should be Terry, Larry, and Chad Yes That's a great idea Dibs on Chad I'll be Terry cause of the What Fuck no just Larry's the lamest one What Okay so Terry, Larry, and Chad Yeah I'm Larry Okay You're Terry And you're Chad Sweet Mmhmm Alright Are the three of you gonna remember this Yeah Yes I'm gonna write it down You look like Larry cause of your weird outfit Oh thanks This is how Larry dresses One of the dumb Dumb and dummers He dresses like a fop Yeah Yeah Uh Okay that's a good one Okay that's a good one Okay that's a good one Yeah so that's the We've got our disguises Yeah Any plan or are we just gonna Go Full balls I feel like we We wanna kinda like Claim that we're merchants To get past the guards right We should Wander through town And see if like I don't know like Nathaniel must know where we're going by now Mmhmm Maybe some of his rangers have come To like Try and meet us Yeah I guess we can kinda like Let ourselves be seen Mmhmm And then I don't know Maybe go to a hotel Or a cafe Or something Is there a market?

Oh yeah there's lots of markets Then we should go to the market And try and sell the Tree gliders there Pretend Yeah pretend pretend Obviously Okay And we could even Maybe get the tree gliders If they're into it To You know we could sell them to The The attachment here And then they can work From the inside Oh As sleeper cells Mmhmm I don't mind that Hey Black Spire 2 What do you think about that?

I think that that is a Dangerous proposition Sure but one I am willing to Undertake in pursuit Of the mission What better way To free your brethren Than to infiltrate And get inside Agreed We trust you And your capabilities You're basically A detective now Detective eh?

Do do do do Yeah You see his like His stance changes A little bit His little fur Puffs up Yeah it puffs up And he just His stance changes From a rigid To kind of like Aloof It looks like He's holding a cigarette Yeah He's got a little Twig in his In his paws now Or I guess a big stick Cause his paws Pretty big And he just starts Chewing on it Alright then we're on The approach to Heartwood Sweet Yeah Disguise is ready Plan set And hopefully Fingers crossed Nathaniel's forces Can contact us When we're there I think we did this In McCall too We're like We're in disguise But we're gonna make A big deal So everyone looks at us And sees our disguises And that'll be our disguise I can't think of anything Else Neither can I We could also go To a pub We will eventually Go to a pub Because And then Tuck pulls out The marble jar And it's totally full Can we have husky breakfast now?

We'll do it after We'll finish the mission And then we'll go husky Fine We'll finish We'll just kill the god And then we'll go To the restaurant Yeah Yeah if it's still there By then If the gibbous man Hadn't destroyed it I bet you Was trying to destroy All of the huskies Yeah Oh my god We need to stop him Because he's the knight The thing that he hates The most is All day breakfast Perfect So you're Ripping through the trees Black Spire 2 Is You can You can hear him going We approach the metropolis And I can feel The stink of corruption In the air already The air is I mean the light Is coming in Through the branches And creating like Venetian blind strips Yeah Venetian blind strips Across the sky Yeah And I knew there was One thing that I was Going to find in this place And that's trouble And as you're running Through the trees Very suddenly Appearing on either side Of you Are two more Like war gliders With guards on the back They spin their fingers Around in a rapid up motion And they point to the ground And they say Ground it We do that We do it in like Really like Fast Like in a neat way Oh yeah And their two gliders Like kind of Arc down Through the treetops In front of you Crisscrossing And then landing On either side What took you so long?

We'll ask the questions here Yes we'll ask the questions here What's your business here?

State your business In Heartwood We're uh We're merchants Uh Tree glider breeders Uh We heard that The uh The battalion here Was uh Was short So uh We came to deal But We are very expensive So don't think You're getting a deal Cause we have top notch Sugar gliders here for you My name's Chad Of course I'm I'm Larry The cool one Of the group Damn it You really are pissed Um Terry I I am the lead trainer Oh man Yeah Fuck yeah My methods are Wide and renowned I mean Renowned Widely Do you have any documentation To prove your claims?

Heartwood is not in the Business of allowing Outsiders Into the city I haven't rolled My fairy child yet For the new day No you have not So I'm gonna do that Right now Alright Oh hell yeah Fourteen is what I got Holy shit So that means I have five Fairy holds For today Wow God damn So I'm gonna use one To charm This individual I hand the British guy An old receipt From Husky Diner That you kept For sentimental reasons Yeah Yeah Yeah It's hard to hand it over Cause I don't know If I'm gonna get back It's all greasy Cause you had a potato wedge Folded up in it You will find all my Credentials on this Paper here And he takes it And the charm Overlooks the fact That you did just Hand Like he doesn't even look At the receipt really He just goes Oh Quiet quiet quiet Understood Please Welcome to Heartwood Go on by Thank you As you're like Walking past The other guard Rides over Goes what was that about man You got like a You got like a scheme Going with those three Just like They just seem trustworthy Enjoy your time In the city I will You forgot His voice His voice is gone Yeah And you Ride through the trees Emerging into Heartwood And uh We see The city of Heartwood So let's talk about What this city looks like The Wizard of Oz Oh like Emerald City kind of Tiered almost Yeah Like starts low And then builds up To like the base Of the The Heartwood tree Oh yeah That'd be kind of cool Yeah How big is the heart tree I'm thinking pretty big Cause it's like the tree At the center of the whole forest Yeah it's like A millennia old So it's the size Of a skyscraper Kind of thing I think it's pretty thick But actually Not as tall It's stunted It's stunted Cause it's These old trees Can I don't know I guess I'm thinking Of like that tree Methuselah a bit Yeah I like the idea That it was The tree that Was here first So it didn't have to Out compete with everybody So it got to be Got to be very wide Wide and fat And just take it all in Didn't have to grow up And then by the time The other trees were growing It was You know It's a magical tree Or whatever Yeah And I'm imagining Like a lot of the Cause it is like Twisted and old Like Methuselah Like very Ancient and like Naughty looking But like I imagine like branches Big branches like Arc out over the whole city That's kind of what I was thinking Like it's very wide And umbrella-ish Cool And then I think that there's like A kind of a natural clearing Around the tree And I don't think They've built up quite To the tree Yeah That makes sense And then Or even I was thinking Like a wall Yeah Like a ramshackle-y Kind of But very intense Thrown up wall Around it Like they're trying To protect it Like this thing of like Squeezing something In your hand And falling on your fingers Yeah Yeah And we were talking About there being like Monks or priests Or something That kind of live Around the tree Is that where like The wall is Yeah like It's sort of like You know like how a church Is built when they've got That wall around Like the cloister Or whatever Yeah I like that there's Churches So to speak To use Built into the wall Like so they have access To the tree Yeah so that's like A religious district Is like right immediately Around the base of the tree Well not immediately But you know what I mean I like the Like if the orientation Of the city is like The entire city Is built on a hill And like The knowledge tree Is like At the top of the hill In the middle So even On the approach To the city You can see it Yeah But then like Coming down the hill Is like the rest Of the city Essentially Oh what if it's like The roots Of the tree Are like All over the city Oh I see Cause it's like At the top of the hill So like the roots Are kind of going down All over And things are built Around and into that I like that I like that Like it acts as Like the framework For a lot of structure Yeah The infrastructure Of the city Is the root system I also like that You'd think it would be The Like the well to do Most rich people Are up against the wall But it's more like The poorest of the people Have clambered in As close as they can To the wall around Like the slums Are around the churches Right Cause if the If the gardeners Are essentially the priests Like then They would be giving out Like What's it Alms Alms yeah So people want to be close Yeah Right and like We were talking about The woodworkers Like a lot of buildings Are coaxed Growth Yeah So maybe Things are like Grown up Out of the roots Like buildings That grow up out And then maybe In the branches too Like hanging down I do like what you were saying Or like a part of what you were saying About how They have clear cutted areas And like Maybe they've taken down Like whereas they used to live Up in the trees They've cut those things out And they've built them Like maybe with rough masonry And they've built them up On the ground But used these old things So like The big houses Are like Burls Burls Glass Concrete Stone Oh yeah Moss Like they've built them Into these McMansions But Out of the chunks Of the old trees Yeah Like people used to live In the branches of the tree But over time For whatever reason The gardeners And the nobles Were like Nobody's allowed to do that anymore They probably took it as a threat If Like they didn't want anyone seeing Yeah Right So The quote unquote Clear cut Is like That there are Sparser branch structures Oh yeah Yeah it's less Spread out Than it used to be And more like Back towards the center Of the tree That's cool So you're approaching The city What's the first thing You see like After taking in This giant sprawling Old twisted pine tree Yeah there's people Milling about And There are many markets out There's some smaller Little like Outdoor stands And then there's Market Areas But up the hill Like kind of the Paths that are More I guess Like sort of like A sidewalk I like that they have Pulley systems set up too You can like Click click Click your card in And then people are paid To like Oh yeah I like that That's so cool Yeah Pulley Pulleyman And I think like Those parts are maybe A little newer too Because it used to be like Oh if you take a wandering Path through the city It's kind of like A spiritual thing And like enjoying The shade of the Knowledge tree Oh yeah But now people are like I gotta get to work I gotta go straight up This hill And I need this thing To help me Yeah in the very Steep parts They've carved out Steps Yeah Yeah It looks a little More worked Than it used to Like less natural Some of the roots Have been cut Into steps too Like Oh Yeah God No What am I doing Yeah totally So you Emerge right into You come into the city And you're in A market You see a guy Who's got his arms out And he's got birds All over his arms And he's like Gesturing to all his birds And the lady's like Hmm I don't know Looks pretty big Arms are just Covered in shit And And Tuck He looks He's like That's not nearly Enough birds Can't make even A decent dinner With that Yeah There's a guy Standing next to What's like I guess like a big Like deer And someone's like Hmm How much milk She given Like it's just Classic farm Merchant stuff Is everyone an elf Yes Around you That is gonna be A big problem For you guys Some people are Kind of looking Yeah People are like Looking at this Tiny little boy Wrapped in yarn Walking on the ground And then a gigantic Man in a fancy suit Did we put Pointy ears on everyone Yeah I put I did what I was With the page I did put on Like elf ears Cause like We do stand out a lot In like an elven Civilization Yeah Billy did you do that I didn't Cause I had a hood And I didn't think About it I'm too short To be an elf anyway Yeah They know right away Tuck's ears are Really long It's trying to Touch it in a Different way Yeah And yeah So you're looking For like the Like a place to set up Or a person to talk to Oh yeah I'd like to discern Realities to see if We can find the Market runner Yeah let's do it 2d6 plus Wisdom Oh nice Good lord 13 Okay 3 questions off Discerned realities Who's really in Control here There he is There's a guy With a scroll Made of bark Who's like writing Things down and Talking to people Seems like he's Taking coins Every once in a while He's like Early 30s equivalent Of elf age He's got Like a robe Of green fabric On and little Glasses on his face And a Goatee Yeah He walks up And he goes Alright where's Where are you Setting up You here to sell These things Yeah how much For a stable It's uh 5 coins 5 coins Per day Plus expenses Oh my gosh Jeez that's extortionate That's a ridiculous rate 5 coins a day Uh what here is most Is useful or valuable To me Uh you do see That there seems to be An older Elf woman In like the The same sort of Uh Arraignment That the Guards were wearing On the way in Going around and looking At uh Livestock Like hmm Oh so she's buying Looks like it For the military Or she's just buying And she's in the military But either way There's a military person Here buying What he does not What it appears to be You see Just behind That military woman In a cloak The hood pulled down Trying to be very sneaky What Looks up Wendy Oh And she She makes eye contact With you I look away Oh Tuck and Vink Both clock her At the same time And then we very Obviously look In the other direction Oh what's that What's in the sky Uh It's a tree Oh shit There's Oh it's a whole city A big tree like that It's a whole one big Whoa Wait is this one big tree Fuck Tuck says that to her Fuck An elf next to you Jumps And the bird in his hand Starts flapping Oh my god Oh yeah the guy With the arms of birds They're like They pick him up And fly away And he's gone That guy's Calm down Calm down That guy's been dragged Away into the air He's gone The market runner's like Actually this stall Just became available We'll take it This is perfect We'll take it Well wouldn't you know it A stall has just become Available Hmm Uh and you Set up your fucking Your stall Yeah While you guys do that Can I just Can I go pickpocket Yes 100% you can go pickpocket You do not have any coins I don't think Billy Do you have any preferences On how the stall looks You're very particular Sometimes Billy I know Today more so than others I'm sorry That's okay Billy You guys are saying Your real names Constantly Oh shit We're dumb Right Sorry I mean Terry Terry No I didn't know What you meant No Chad And Larry I am not Feeling particular About our stall today But I appreciate you Checking in with me Put her there Mr.

T Yeah we punch it in Punch it in Punch it Yeah That's actually what it looks like When Billy has to Fist bump those two We stretch We downward dog Yeah And we're We're like No problem Larry And then The market runner's like Wait why do you guys Always pause so long Before you say each other's names Also did you say that He was going to go pickpocket No Picklocking He works for a clock maker Who Needs him to unfix Lock gears Yeah Ah interesting Well I mean The fee Is six coins a day You said five I did And you said Pickpocketing And he holds his hand out How much money do you have None I don't have You don't have any money There's no money on here Can I There's a big coin purse Attached to This guy's Belt And I'm like I don't have any money Yeah Nice Um I would like to switcheroo Oh okay Yeah so Yeah I've got I've got my trail mix I've got a bag of trail mix Under my cloak Nice Nice So I'm going to switcheroo Okay And I'm going to use A fairy child for that I guess Yeah Yes Let us pay you Right now And as you Basically as you pull it Out of your pouch Uh huh Whoop It just swaps In your hand And now you're holding A little pouch of coins And I just like Open it up So that he can't tell It's his bag And I put out five coins And I say Here you go sir I think I said six You know what An extra coin For your trouble Ah very good Have a enjoy Your day at the market Alright Thank you My name's Chad I don't care I'm Larry Very well They now pronounce As Chad and Larry And he walks off Through the market And starts fucking Extorting other people How many more coins Are left in here Uh what's a Normal amount of coins For somebody to carry Fifty Fifty-ish yeah Fifty If he's like Taking coins from people Like doing active business And it's five coins a day This market's probably Like twenty or thirty stalls That's true So we've got Forty-four coins left So now you guys are loaded And uh In this illegal market Sick That was easy That was too easy I need a challenge Yeah Can I go Can I go pickpocket Yes Billy You can go pickpocket For two hours max Okay Yeah that's fine Okay Okay Bye Bye Be safe Have fun I will If something goes wrong Come back and get us Yep You know how to reach us Ving flicks the ring Mm-hmm Mm-hmm Bye Clarence Bye Go steal something cool for me Oh I will I'm gonna pickpocket For snacks mostly Yes Screech Screech Uh and you You Tattle off into the market Anything or any One kind of person You're specifically Looking for Or just grabbing stuff You see Scrabbing stuff Um There is a Pie cart So you're gonna go Try and steal a pie Mm-hmm There's little hand pies Alright pick It's the tricks of the trade 2d6 plus dexterity Ten Holy shit Fuck yeah You do it no problem Wow I am able to grab a pie Of every flavor Yeah and there's an old Crooked elf At the pie cart Says hey young man You looking at pies Um You know what Not really Um They smell nice But I Uh I uh Have I um I can't have wheat Or Bread Oh One of those Yeah Mm Well I always wish I could We do have a gluten free selection Oh do you Yeah and he points At a bucket of oats That his Mount is eating out of That's not bad actually It's better than most Other pie shops Well Alright So if you don't want any pies Then you should go Oh I'm sorry Okay That's alright Bye I'll tell people That your pies smell Really good though And he leans forward Will you actually Yeah Oh no I should have Taken his pies His eyes got so big Okay So what you gotta Here's what you gotta tell him Come around Come around here You work for me now boy You need a job You got one My name is Harlin Uh huh Short for Loth-Har-lin-da Okay Once more Loth-Har-lin-da Okay Wow So just tell him That my pies Are good Okay Hoth-Lar-in-the-urse Pies Are really good They And I can tell You use fresh Sage and rosemary Tell him that for sure Oh you don't Just tell him Yeah I can do that Beautiful Alright And uh You know what What Well take a little pie For yourself No way I couldn't possibly Thank you I insist We're in business now Thank you Alright Get on out of here You little scamp Okay So I take a pie And then I secretly Leave him Four coins Is that another Fairy child move No I just I just leave it Like on the It's his cart And they're all Kind of lined up On little shelves Along his cart Oh cool So I just leave Some coins there I'm like Yeah you know Just don't check That spot Until I'm gone So I got a fun Butternut squash And lentil pie And I got A deer pie Oh nice And root vegetable Mash pie Ooh What about a bat pie For Clarence Ooh a bat pie I grabbed two bat pies Nice And they're all Shaped like the things They're flavored as So like the squash Is a little squash And the bats Are all like Very delicately crimped To look like The things that they taste like Cool And then I'm gonna run to another cart Okay And we will cut back To the tree glider Sales booth And Yeah Somebody Walks up A middle aged Elf man Shorter Little paunchy Has a little mustache So Got tree gliders For sale huh Yeah Ving said You look like You need one That could handle A little extra Around the middle Huh Don't you know it That's the fanny pack Under his shirt Yeah Well you know My son He's got really Into the The old Tree glider Racing lately And I'm trying to find Some good stock To get him set up Oh Good stock Heck We got the best stock Look like it boy Yeah these guys Are the fastest Tree glider I've ever raised Honestly He goes up to Hank And he starts like Ruffling under his head Um And he's like Whoa These boys look like They're almost Military stock Yeah Pret near Hank You can tell Like starts like Growling I'm gonna bite the shit Out of this guy Get away from me Uh So How much for him Uh Yeah They're uh 400 coins each 400 Coins These are Primo Racing Gliders You gotta be Out of your tree Blessed minds Look dude It's gotta be Value on my end Or else No fucking deal We also only Sell them wholesale So you gotta buy The whole lot All at once Otherwise It's not worth it For me I'm dual specific Whatever He's like No you're out of your mind I can't I could do Maybe Maybe 200 We could do a lot of 20 400 each It's all That's all I can do man It's all I can do for you I like that This is like We're way overpricing So no one buys them Yeah totally He just He goes And then he walks away And then he stops And he turns around And goes And keeps walking Through the market You just hear this Like Affronted sound Like a beacon Like every Fire Like a foghorn In the night And he walks The fuck away And Are you I assume you guys Are waiting Trying to tempt the We're waiting for Wendy to approach us Yeah and Wendy is You only notice Because you've seen her And you know what she And she's probably Trying not to hide from you Yeah But she's kind of Doing this like She'll glide Her cloak Blowing behind her Glide over to a booth And go Hmm I don't know And then look back at you She's pretty graceful And then she like spins And goes to another cart And looks at a knife And goes Hmm And then Tuck Leans into Ving And he's like Dude I think she's like Kind of trying to show off To you Or something Or like do something I don't know if she's Trying to show off to you No definitely not me I get the vibe That she's super Didn't like me She goes over To another cart And picks up some sort of Like tree fruit And looks at it And goes Hmm And then she like Walks past a guy And she's got As she like Passes There's a pasta guy?

She walks past a guy What are you fucking Trying to do here? Are you The intern? You son of a bitch She walks past Someone in front of her And as she crosses by As she comes out On the other side She has a glass Like a drink And she takes a sip And then the guy That she passed by Raises an apple To his face And goes What the fuck? Whoa God Did you see that?

Her tradecraft is like Fucking crazy good She's as good As Billy And she Glides over to you Hello there I see you are selling Some fine tree glider stock Yes hi My My I'm Jed Ah I'm Jed Sorry One more time I'm Jed Pleasure to meet you Chad Hey I'm Larry Wonderful And then The top of Larry's ears Are brushing against The little tent That they're in The stall you set up The stall that we're in Keeps like Pulling my head Back This is my elf friend Larry Charmed I'm sure And then I wiggle The ears at her Well unfortunately I am not in need Of any Tree gliders That's too bad It is What are you in need of?

Oh I'm just Passing through town I'm Mostly here To take in the amenities At a local hotel Ah Bing thinks he understands But doesn't I see I will be staying Staying At the double tree That's pretty funny I was trying to come up With a fucking hotel name And all I came up with Was double tree Ooh By Wyndham Hotel I will be staying At the double tree inn In the center Of the Trade district And then Tuck is like Cool yeah Yeah Bing Where should we We don't know Where we're gonna stay We don't have any I would say My favorite thing About the double tree is The double tree is The double tree is The double tree is The double tree is The double tree is The double tree is The double tree is The double tree is That there is a delicious Dinner Available At 830 In the evening We're gonna eat At the market There's a lot of things here I saw Billy Buy the pie cart He's definitely Eating a couple of those Ah wonderful And she turns around And goes to Billy He's uh He's He's at a little Science fair Trade cart Okay Okay And it's mostly Marketed towards children Uh huh But he's buying Little sciencey kits Nice Okay so there's a little What does that look like One in a fantasy world Two in an elf city Okay So They're little baskets That have been woven With like tree bark Mmhmm And inside Are like little vials Of vinegar And baking soda And um Plant dyes Uh huh For red food coloring Nice Um And like Arbutus Paper Mmhmm For paper mache Horse glue Uh huh From horses From horses Yeah I don't know Just like fun stuff Yeah Powdered Pigments Yeah totally And there's a There's a young elf woman Who has the vibe of like The people that work at the bug zoo Yeah Who's just like Yeah that one's really fun If you've never done like a Baking soda and Uh Vinegar volcano It's quite exciting No way Yes Does it explode pretty big Oh it explodes pretty big Oh they're gonna love this Make sure that your parents Uh Supervise you when you do this I don't really have parents I've always I've just always dreamed of Having one of these But Maybe one day I'll fulfill that dream She's crying instantly Look I I really shouldn't do this My My boss is going to be quite upset But I think science Should live In the heart of every child And not just those that can afford it You know Before my grandpappy Passed away That's exactly what he said to me Grandpappy Please And she takes one And she gives it to you And she closes your hands around it I couldn't I couldn't I couldn't You must I insist Are you sure Please Okay thank you bye And she stands up And the camera sees her Wipe her eyes And Billy's like Nice Fucking gotcha Another emotional manipulation check Is Billy a bad person He says this in his head Am I a bad person So he stops And a woman is towering above you Hello there I didn't steal this Oh I didn't take it I never would have dreamed Of accusing you of such things And she pulls her hood back Oh it's just you Okay And she puts her hood back on So I was just telling Two men who you might be acquainted with Uh huh That I'll be staying At the Double Tree Inn Okay I mean I don't Know what this has to do with me But whatever We're thinking about getting dinner Dinner At 8.30pm At the Double Tree Inn In the Trades District Oh I'll be there What are you having Have you looked at the menu yet We'll discuss it Do you have a copy of the menu So I can look at it I don't If you go to the Can you tell I can't read it I can't read the menu though Can you tell me what's on the menu So I can plan ahead We'll discuss it At the inn I didn't actually get a chance To look at the menu But it's important that you remember Double Tree Inn 8.30pm Yeah 8.30 Dinner time I'll see you there Very well And she stands up And takes a few steps Into the market crowd And you can't see her anymore I go back to the science lady She's back How much are these kits It's on the house young boy No how much are they What does the price say It says It says one coin I give her one coin Oh Well thank My grandpappy didn't die I just I told a lie I'm sorry Oh Oh What Nothing It's just that Well my grandpappy did die And he did love me And I didn't inherit anything I have to work this job And I don't get paid very much And I just I just don't know That I'm able to To survive on these wages Much longer Things are so hard In Hotwood City Wait that's convenient Who's that That's my grandpappy He looks Fine and well Yes he's He's never been healthier He's a thousand And ten years old And he's never been better He's in the prime of his life Kill me Somebody kill me He's got the elf madness For sure And that's why you shouldn't Lie to people little boy Look lady I'm really sorry I lied Well just you remember this You remember this lesson That I have taught you Go Scoot And she takes a broom And she starts Chasing you away I bought this fair and square I didn't do anything wrong I didn't do anything She looks like Michelle Pfeiffer From that movie Yeah And uh We cut back to the booth Fuck it It's gonna be really hard To figure out Where we're gonna stay tonight I don't know Billy comes running back in tears I don't know Whoa Billy What happened?

I did what you guys told me to do I told the truth Uh huh Uh huh Cause I was having fun I was getting stuff from people for free Uh huh I was still giving them money Wait Cause I had so much And it's heavy Uh huh But then I told the truth And she She didn't like it So I'm never gonna tell the truth again Wait a second That There's no way that's the way The full interaction went It totally was Are you leaving out any part of it?

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Awesome And uh You hear behind you Oh Well these ones are beautiful Just a beautiful Beautiful specimen And you look and there's the older elf woman In the military garb Oh yeah Um And Tuck goes over to her And he's like Uh yeah These ones are They were raised to be military stock I can tell that they are military stock Mmhmm In fact they are Exceptionally Well bred military stock And they seem to be currently wearing armor Made from the woods In the style of the elven armor You see They Their father was a major And their mother was a major As well They are double majors Um It's in their genes to fly with armor Armor According to their parents' stylings Passed down from generation to generation Sugar to sugar And they're wearing armor Forever and ever And down the lines And they're also uh My name's Chad And I'm Larry Uh And the They've also been partially trained by our Our little breeder here Why yes I am the head trainer Um Of this cohort Mmhmm Um Watch this And I go to Clarence And I hold out a pie And I say Sit boy And he sits Because you're Directly communicating with him Uh Roll over Rolls over And I'm like Oh Good boy Give him the pie Thank you He eats the pie See And the When Clarence does all those moves The rest of the formation Like does them in sync Yeah Totally And I give them the rest of the pies Yeah They all gobbled them up Just incredible How much for all of them?

24,000 coins Yes My word That is a preposterous number You see this look on my face? Do you see preposterity? Upon my face? Chad's face? My Chad's face? Let me look something up real quick And she turns to an attendant Who has a bunch of sheets With stuff on it And we have about 20 of these guys, right? Oh no No We have like five Yeah We have about five of these guys, right?

Yeah It says 20 Oh my god I think I maybe Was being concussed Every two seconds On the way here It was like your vision was doubling Queen doubling It's like wow There's way fewer of them Than I remember Oh the imps must have been Must have got them He's holding a funeral For the lost That didn't die Yeah And she turns back From the attendant And says I couldn't possibly pay More than 1,500 coins You got yourself a deal Wow And then after that Tuck leans into Ving He like pulls him in close And he's like Is 1,500 more or less Than 24,000?

It's significantly less Fuck I don't know By quite a song Uh Very well Have them delivered To the Tree guard detachment Near the Trunk district Okay Gives you a little sheet Turn this in for your payment Job well done I think we Require A little Up front If we're gonna deliver them It's gonna cost us To bring them across town Five Gold coins each Should do the trick Less expensive Do you have dental? Somebody roll something To get a little up front What are you rolling?

Parley We'll deliver Five Pristine Amazing sugar gliders Later For a little Something right now Okay We've had a lot of people Offer us money Seven Okay Uh She says Alright Very well And she holds her hand out To the attendant behind her Who plops A bag of coins In her hand And Tosses you Thirty coins And uh Says But You know I've taken quite a shine To this one here And she sort of strokes Uh Clarence's head Says I think I'll take him now And Uh Tuck leans into Clarence And he's like Alright buddy She's gonna take you right now You gotta be brave But Everyone else will link up With you in a bit What?

I have to go by myself? It's okay I know it's very scary But don't worry We're all here And we're not gonna leave Without you What? And he's kinda like Shaking Aww Is there anything I can do To calm him? Uh I mean you could probably Use some fairy child stuff To relax him I could I have a Druid pipeweed Ooh Which is not marijuana Is it not? No I give him a hug Okay Can I roll plus charisma To give him a hug To make him feel brave?

Yeah totally 2d6 plus charisma For defy danger Ten Of course Uh And the Use my big brave point The guard Captain sees you hug The tree glider And goes Hm Quite unusual It's how they know That they're transferring owners And he's Like he's believed His own lie And he's He's crying It's like It's the only way To go I'm so sorry He has a Bad allergy To our Tree gliders Uh But this is how We trained them Was with love And kindness Which is why We're all crying Now that this one Is leaving Uh!

It's good that you've Given it a good base Of emotional response To its ownership Cause from here on out He's a military man I whisper to Clarence Don't listen to her Okay Just be a good boy We'll see you soon You're a wild one You're a wild one You're a wild one You're a wild one You're a wild one And she reaches back And the attendant Hands her A large collar That she Clanks around Clarence's neck Oh I wanna Punch her in the face With a rope Attached to it And she begins Leading him Through the Market We'll get We'll free all of them Billy don't worry Oh yeah I will give my life For Clarence Clarence is giving his life For us too He's doing his part So should we Deliver the rest of these guys And then go to the Where should we stay Oh yeah I gotta tell you We're gonna need Somewhere to eat too Yeah Actually Funny you should say that When I Ran into Wendy Oh we did too Yeah we saw Wendy Yeah she invited us To dinner At 8.30 tonight She did?

Yeah Oh she was inviting us To dinner Oh I thought she was saying She was going to dinner Yeah I was like That was rude She didn't even invite us It was ridiculous It was so rude Oh my god She probably It was probably code It was probably secret code Ranger code To say that we should Stay at the ranger She was being kind of weird About it And she wouldn't tell me What she was having What the menu looked like That's weird I thought that was weird That is weird Yeah Alright Well we have a plan For the evening Okay Okay Should we drop the rest Of the tree gliders off At the Yeah Yeah let's do that So you walk them Through town And you get a better look At sort of The immensity Of Heartwood Because we've talked About how like Elves Their population Is kind of stable At not as many As you would think Yeah But Heartwood Is still the densest Populated place In the city So after being In the forest For so long And in the north For so long You're like Wow There's so many People here Ving to you You can tell That there's like Been a bit of a shift In the culture Everything feels For lack of a better Word More Like human In a way Where that Comradery That unity The symbiosis That existed In the forest When you were younger Just doesn't feel Like it's quite as strong As it used to be Yeah these markets Were never this big Or busy Yeah there's like People on the streets Like sitting Against buildings Just looking dejected And people Obviously as wealthy As can be Walking right past them And there's like A prickliness To like A lot of the interactions Yeah It's less like Ah yeah I'm happy to provide This for you As you provide This for me And more like Fucking pay me Here's your shit I need mine I need mine Yeah Tuck is even noticing Like McCall is like A very like People dicker and stuff But there's like A friendliness to it Like It's an understanding Yeah where it's Sort of like New York Where it's like Hey we're all assholes But like We're all New Yorkers Isn't it kind of fun That we all suck a little bit Yeah But uh It's a waspy Kind of prickliness Yeah Where it's like There's no friendliness Or camaraderie to it People are afraid Yeah That's what it gets into Yeah And the uh The sun has begun To set On this day Becoming evening And the one thing That you're So glad still exists Is as the sun sets Um There's a Very light Creak creak Creak creak Like call in the air As these like Insects or something Start kind of calling To the sunset And all of these Glimmering lights Start to shine In the branches Of the heart tree So pretty Lighting the city Hmm For all Fireflies Fireflies Or maybe like There's like sap In the tree That is reflecting light Alongside These insects We're spouting lore Yeah I wanna Spout Lore Alright yeah let's do it These old bugs That's cool Nice Plus wisdom We got eight Eight So interesting But not useful Uh These are called Lamp flies Maybe I don't know Lamp Lamp something Lamp lighters Lamp lighter Yeah so these are called Lamp lighters They're an insect That is Almost only found In this part Of the forest And There are stories About like This is why elves Settled around The tree In the first Place Was on top Of it being A knowledge tree The light That the lamp Lighters provided Uh Felt like A location Of safety In this dangerous Part of the woods Zoologists think That they're like Related to the Bookworms Oh yeah Yeah Like the Are they like Sentient like Bookworms or something Probably a little bit Cause they were living In the They're living so close To the knowledge tree For so long right What if they're light Cause they Like to read And they Oh that's great Oh so they Oh they like to read Oh they like to read Oh they like to read Oh they like to read Oh they like to read Oh they light themselves up So they can read The bark of the knowledge tree Oh yeah That's really cute And maybe like They kind of bred The worms for the library From these guys Because they have like A natural skill set That's That they need Yeah Maybe over a longer Life cycle The worm is a Life stage of these guys Oh yeah Like a pupate stage Or whatever Yeah A worm stage Or it's like They never reach The lamp lighter stage Because they're Undergrounded in the Library and stuff Oh yeah They're so far away From the tree of knowledge Yeah We talked about In the almanac entry That we did for Bookworms That As far as anyone Actually no one in the Library knows where Bookworms came from Oh Just that they exist In the library And only in the library Yeah But that makes sense That maybe like A wizard bred them From Yeah Lamp lighters A long long time ago Or like they Came in on a shipment Of like Scrolls that came Oh I was thinking that too Like spiders In an arachnophobia It's like they live In the papers Yeah So there was maybe Eggs In the papers Yeah And then they like Naturally developed In the library They naturalized To the library environment Yeah They naturally had The ability to read So then the librarians Were like Oh shit We can use these For categorization I mean I think The first thing They probably said Is oh shit These bugs are reading They were like Oh we could use this Yeah Yeah cool So the The whole city Is lit With this like Warm glow But it is less It is lessened Than before Like it is dim And people clear The streets more I Yeah Cause the With the dimming Of the lamplighters There's like More shadows More gloom Than there was In ages past But uh You take your Tree gliders To Can I add one more thing Yeah It would be cute If like people in the city Called the time In the evening That they're Creating light As lamplight hour Yeah it's like A twilight kind of thing Yeah Yeah meet me up After lamplight Yeah I like that You better be in bed By lamplight Or The The!

Lamp man's Gonna get you Yeah lam man Um So yeah you take the tree gliders Through Town Lit by this Light from the lamplighters And Get a good look At the sort of Militia Or the tree guard Like detachment Oh yeah In uh Heartwood Which looks like It's been expanded on Like the original building Is part of the like Grown up through the roots Original construction Of heartwood But then it looks like There have been Buildings The ones that were like Taken down from the branches Like Attached to it To expand for More guards In the city You go There's a guy outside Waiting for the Tree gliders Just give him the rat Yep He hands you A bunch of money And takes the Tree gliders Hell yeah I hugged them all Uh huh Go through each Hugging Saluting Sir don't worry sir We will Do you proud Okay And don't worry We will come for you We await your signal Try and infiltrate The rest of the tree gliders Yeah Already done sir Already done wow He takes a bite Out of the stick That he's been carrying In his mouth Okay Right he's a detective now The rod at the heart Of the guard here Will lead me To the festering wound Of corruption In this city That's deep So cool I will be the scalpel That cuts it out Of the body So dumb Uh alright yeah And you get Uh Fifteen hundred coins Fifteen hundred and thirty Wait hold on Not fifteen hundred and thirty The thirty was from The fifteen hundred What?

Yeah you said up front Not extra No she said up front No deal We ripped up the red Yeah so you get Fourteen hundred and seventy Coins additional Yeah Yeah And uh I guess head off to The double tree Yeah And the double tree Is of course An inn Built in between Two trees Nice That were uh Grown from the roots And so lush That they have their own Branches and leaves Yeah It's a beautiful Flowing elven construction In between these two trees In the old style Yeah Yeah this is one of the Older buildings in the city There's a little Natural like uh Spring in front of it Yeah Beautiful Burbling up Yeah And Inside A very nice lobby Just like nice Wooden This is the nicest hotel I've ever seen Yeah We'll take this room Yeah We'll take it And the attendant Behind the counter goes Sir very funny But we have a number Of beautiful accommodations That would more than Suit you and your party Alright well Yeah we'd like to check in And uh We also have uh Dinner with a friend Of ours At eight thirty I believe we have Reservations Alright what's your name Chad Chad Chad Chad And Just Chad Also Chad Yes Too late I can't fix it We are the three Chads Yeah Tuck has forgotten his name So he's just like Also Chad My good man And he goes to like Nod at the guy And his ears brush the guy In the face When he nods He blows them out of the way And looks at his reservation sheet Oh I'm so sorry sir I have a Larry, Terry, and Chad But Three Chads I don't You must have used our Our maiden Our maiden names Our maiden names When we married We all took the first name Chad Well he's your Actually my two fathers And they named I'm named after them Yes Yes I understand We had a whole There was a more of a Naming ceremony Than it was a wedding ceremony Yes I understand To join us in union Chads I understand All elves I understand All of us are elves I understand Very good sirs Well We've got your It says here it's a double Are you just Are two of you sharing Are you I assume you're just sharing a bed Then We've got our dinner Lounge Off to this side So please feel free to Oh I'm so sorry There's just the matter Of your deposit And then Tuck puts A bag of Fifteen hundred coins On that Very good sir And he reaches in And takes a few coins Out of it How many you got there This is How much I like that Anytime Tuck does something With our money Billy's like No no no no Like he's just thinking About all the Like the ragamuffin Laws Where it's like You never show your money You never put all your Cards on the table And then also Interspersed between Those memories Are memories of Tuck Just wasting Hundreds of coins Yeah And then in his mind All of these like Eggs Benedict breakfasts That he could have bought With that money Like dance away From his mind Little tuxedo Eggs Benedict Yeah And the attendant Only takes out Like four coins Sweet Yeah Alright sir Enjoy your stay At the Double Tree Inn Thank you My name is Chad And I'll be here If you need anything Is it actually Chad Yeah it's Leth Chad Reander Enjoy dinner And he waves you Off to Which is What is basically Like a hotel bar We're gonna go To the hotel bar Yeah Oh so fancy There's a Elf woman Standing behind the bar Wiping glasses There's somebody Playing a piano And there's another elf Lying on the piano Yeah Singing a song Well laying on the elf Equivalent of a piano Which is a harp A harp Like on the top Laying on the top of the harp Yeah It's like a Yeah it's like a Wide-ish kind of harp Uh huh That squiggles around That's the fattest harp I've ever seen Tuxes And there's a There's an elf Laying on top Singing And it's just like Only you Just doing like A little crooning Yeah And you see Across the room In the cloak Still Hood down now With a Wendy Sitting at a table Wendy We came She closes her eyes You were Being secretive She waves you over Really aggressively We start walking over And bumping into A lot of tables and chairs Sorry pardon me Pardon me Excuse me That looks good What are you having?

Screw screw screw I'll have what he's having I know you didn't say I could bring them But like I I hope it's okay That I did And you sit down at the table And she leans forward A little bit And speaks Ving in this way That you remember Your dad speaking When you were younger This like special Ranger speaking technique Where it's Modulated So that it's just Loud enough for you to hear But basically Outside of this Thing It's almost impossible To listen to Do you Want to die?

Oh he gets Shivers Oh my god sorry I haven't heard That Do you have a death wish?

No no Then Then be Discreet Discreet Yes Discreet You came here On a mission Yes And we We have tried To explain to you The day That you Got lost In the forest In the forest In the forest In the forest In the forest In the forest And guess where we are now In the heart of the forest The heart of the forest Okay yeah Okay I'll be more discreet Put on sunglasses You're inside At night That is not discreet I have to say I have to say I've heard many stories About you And those That you travel with And I cannot Believe That the three of you Are responsible For the things That you're responsible for And have achieved The things That you have achieved And I cannot Well Then maybe You should trust In our methods This is how we are This is who we are We're gonna get it done She huffs out a sigh I suppose that's fair I'm sorry I do feel a little stupid About that restaurant thing You were being pretty Upfront and clear About that I thought so That's like Day one subterfuge Anyways You've made it Into the city Disguised Discreetly For the most part And now The only thing That remains Is to infiltrate The cloister And get you Get to the heart Of the tree And cure the corruption Within Uh There's like One matter That I'm curious about Did you bring Our weapons?

We kinda like Need those And she Cuts off a piece Of the like Meat that she's eating And very delicately Raises it to her mouth I did Nice And then Tuck Uh He does a very similar thing Where he cuts off a piece Of the meat That she's eating And then he Very delicately Raises it to his mouth But he takes it And he takes the lion's Chair of the meat And leaves a tiny piece there And then he's like Wonderful And she reaches for it And she cuts the last piece In half Kind of spreads them apart On the plate And pushes the plate Towards Ving and Billy Ving keeps eyes with Wendy And pushes his piece of meat Towards Billy's piece of meat We are about to enter A dangerous game La Ranga Vinga You would do well To listen to your compatriots Here and there And enter into The ancient pact Sharing of meat As you know On the eve of battle Is an important bond I take a little piece of meat That Billy's been chewing Out of his mouth Is that okay?

Oh yeah I didn't realize It was a symbolic thing Me neither Billy Can I use it okay I'll just have this Of course I taste Blueberry pie Then we are united In our goals Now I suppose That's all All that's left Is to rest And what is your plan Do you A plan to Infiltrate the cloister Socially I haven't had My appetizer yet Ah very well And she raises her hand And waves over a waiter And it's It's Chad again What can I do for you here Hi my name is Chad I'll be serving you tonight And he hands out some menus Here we take them Can I get you started With any drinks What is your specialty Our specialty is We call it The lamp lighter And it is Kind of a fermented Sweet Acidic soda Derived from The sap Of the lamp lighter fly Am I allowed that Is it Is it alcoholic Oh only the Mildest alcohol Does it have any cream in it No no cream It's actually sort of like It's like a carbonated It's kind of sweet And refreshing Yeah you can have that Billy Wait do you set it on fire at all No no no no Yeah you can have that Yes okay I'll have one Very good One lamp lighter I'll also have a lamp lighter Yeah that sounds good Two lamp lighters You know what I'll have a I'll have a lamp lighter too That sounds great Wonderful Three lamp lighters I'll have a lamp lighter as well Four lamp lighters it is Delightful I'll get right back with those And Oh okay bye Wait no what's Oh do you want to order some food now Yeah I'm ready Oh okay Can I have your roast beef and gravy please Yeah absolutely Can I have the whole roast beef I can see what I can do Yes Bing puts The Two coins on his little platter I'll see what I can do And he Swipes them off the thing Into his pocket And uh Tuck's like How many birds do you have Back there I'll tell you this much sir Not enough And then Tuck says Bring me all the birds Very good sir Very good And for you I'm good Very good I'll be right back Then uh Chad comes back with four glasses Sort of like a mojito glass Like kind of taller and thinner With this soda in it And it's kind of got a yellowish Orangist tinge to it And he puts it on the table And as he like taps them on the table They start to glow from the bottom up Cool As the lamp lighter sap illuminates Whoa Cool!

So cool! Uh we're quite proud of this one It's our signature beverage That's awesome And uh A few moments later He comes back with An entire roast beef And gravy And Probably Eight to twelve chickens Eight to twelve That's quite a spread Yeah This is a great start Who am I appetizing? And as you're eating Uh Wendy's drinking her drink And uh Asks So What is your plan?

To infiltrate the cloister Through the gardeners To the gardeners To sneak in In the night Full on Martial assault Yeah those are good plans I didn't think of any of those I mean sneaking through the night Is pretty fun I mean we do have the Gliders in there So uh You know when we give them the signal They'll hopefully be able to Break out Do you have any rangers On the inside of the stables?

Um Not yet But one of our agents Is working on it There are several rangers In the city As it stands And if If you'll give me Just a moment And she like reaches into this bag That she has She says So I have found One route In particular That I think will be quite And as she's like Unrolling this thing You hear from the other side Mummy Mummy I want a lamplighter Mummy Oh fuck Whatever you say Finn Galliard Finn You look over And Billy's Enemy Finn Walks into The dinner lounge At the double tree inn And that's where we're gonna end it For this week Oh shit Game master Sean O'Hara Joining me as always Playing Tacoma Dome The Barbarian of Dulaziz So long Playing Ving The Half-Elve Druid Paul Hoppers He's seen your fruit basket Playing Fat Billy The Halfling Thief Jessica Tai Do you think he's gonna recognize us?

I hope not Thank you to Aaron Reed For our intro and outro music You can find all of Aaron's Original music At aaronreed.bandcamp.com And all the music Produced for the show By Aaron And written by Abdul and myself At soundcloud.com Thank you to all of our Susporters Without whomst We could not do this show If you want to Support the show And get access to Bonus content Like a whole new campaign Set in the High Spear Mall Games run by Abdul and myself At the higher levels And a whole bunch more Check us out at Patreon.com Slash speltlore Or speltlore.com Slash money please And lastly And most of all Thank you to you For listening We'll see you next time And so ends the tale Of adventures three Who tried the best they can Though dumb and scared And lost they be For time and time again Time's 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 like to say Gladly speltlore

Spout Lore is only made possible through the contributions of listeners like you If you would like to donate Please go to Spout Lore dot com slash money please Or patreon dot com slash Spout Lore And if you go there you'll get a bunch of bonus content too Which is nice It's good bonus content I work really fucking hard on it Gather round friends let me tell you a tale of three heroes Noble and bold A brute, a druid, and a thief Who is but nine years old You know them by name You know them by deed Their quests are famously daring So here I sit Singing to you an adventure that is worth sharing Tuck is the brute He knows not his home He loves to sing and fight Fingers have health He shifts his shape And wields a spear with great might Billy's a thief His tiny size does mask the largest heart Best in bread They may not be, but their friendship outweighs their smarts So gather round, friends, and listen close For the tale's about to start Hello, everybody, and welcome to Spout Lore.

I'm your Game Master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me, as always, playing Tacoma Dome, the barbarian, Abdul Aziz. Hello, everybody. Playing V- Correct response. God damn it. This time. You said you weren't going to say anything. I'm glad you did it. I'm glad you did it. Playing Ving, the half-elf druid, Paul Oppers. Hello, everybody. And playing Fat Billy, the halfling thief, Jessica Tai. Also, hello, everybody. We all did it. We all said hello.

That mix-up was like when- Remember when we were trying to do the previously-ons? Oh my god. Yeah. And I kept saying next time on Spout Lore. Next time on Spout Lore. And Sean and I just listened back to it the other day, and it was because you said next time, and you put it- Paul, you put it in my head. I know. I'm the dumb one. I'll take that. And then it just stuck in my head. That's so fun. And it's like, it's the same reason why I can't remember whether Brendan's name is Brendan or Brander.

Because I did that too. It's Brendan. It's Brendan. Oh, god. This is what Paul does. When last we left our heroes, they were being accosted by imps in the bog, the frozen bog of Camp Alder, an old ranger outpost abandoned and destroyed following the flooding of the drowned forest. The party decided, faced with such an eldritch abomination, that the only course of action was to continue looting. We were moving really slowly, so we thought we had time. Oh, they're slow zombies.

So the party leapt across the pond on the back of Black Spire 2, and as the imps crossed the pond to the other side, they began merging and creating a new, more aggressive body. They found inside, the cabin, a dead ranger, likely the first talon of this camp, and Ving immediately stole from him. Well, no. Hey. You stole from a body? Just accept it. You're right. You all said grave robbing so many times. We gotta rob this grave.

Ving shot a bone at the imp, which immediately integrated it into its body. And then Billy had the plan to burn the whole place down, which worked, and they escaped into the trees, after a day of traveling. The party found themselves in the Chune Wood, surrounded by the ethereal haunting music of the forest. Without supplies to speak of, Ving went out to hunt, and stumbled upon a woman that we discovered to be a bounty hunter named Nyanna.

She did not immediately reveal herself as a bounty hunter, but after a thrilling chase, a tense negotiation for peace, and then a return to the campfire, Billy was able to communicate to Tuck that Nyanna was in fact a bounty hunter, planning on turning all of you in. And we did a cool, like, everybody moves at once, sort of, very quick fight, in which Tuck dealt a tremendous amount of damage to Nyanna. Billy convinced Nyanna to make a binding fairy oath to not pursue them on pain of death.

And she said, okay, whatever you say, kid, and then left. Uh, after that, we continued on through the tune wood, making camp in a fairy ring. Uh, Billy did a little dance and made a little offering to the mushrooms of the fairy ring, who basically created a protective circle around the fanny pack, which we have had this whole time. Yeah. Uh, inside we met Morris and Perel, who have just kind of been vibing out for a little bit. Uh, we had a dinner that Tuck made using, uh, conjuration.

And a thousand chickens. And a thousand birds of varying sizes. Yeah. You call it avion de mille. A million birds? That's a great name. Uh. That's so awesome. Wow. You should learn French. That's so, yeah, man, if I saw that on a menu, I would get that for sure. A million birds? A million birds? Yes, please. Uh, excuse me. Waiter, this is like three birds. It's not enough birds. It's not enough birds. It's not enough birds.

Following that meal, Ving took his watch outside the tent, just keeping an eye on the forest and the dangers that lie within, though they were protected in the tent and protected in the fairy ring. You never know what's going to show up. And what showed up was the Gibbous Man himself. Mm-hmm. The Gibbous Man looked Ving in the face and said, so you figured it out. And that is where we find our heroes now. Figured what out? Well, who I am. The God of the Sky? And he nods.

I have to say, I'm a little disappointed. How so? I thought you would have figured it out sooner, if I'm being honest. Ving takes a ladle out of the kettle that he has over the fire and pours it into a mug. Mm-hmm. Sips a tea. Do you want some tea? I would, but, and he tips his walking stick forward and it stops just at the barrier of the fairy ring. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal.

Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. As the fairy light… Not before I see you! Damn it. As the fairy light crosses in front of your eyes, the gibbous man disappears. I shouldn't have said that last thing. And your watch continues.

Who has the watch where the sun comes up? Uh, can I take it? Yeah. Okay. I would also like to roll my fairy child. Oh, nice. Yeah. Six. Okay. On a six, I only get one hold. Oh, shit. For the day? For the day. I can't do anything. There's no pranks allowed today. Yeah, no wasted fairy child pranks. Billy, you go out and you're like, ah, a new day is rising. I'm so excited to see the sun. Start doing, like, my little yoga routine that no one gets to see. Special fairy yoga? Yeah.

Well, it's just Billy's stretch routine. He gets embarrassed if people see him do it. Uh, does the audience get to see it? Yeah. Oh, what does it look like? He starts off with a little bit of that, like, Tai Chi kind of movement. I think that's what it is. He does a little downward dog and touching his toes. He can touch his toes? No. Downward dog is touching his toes. And then, did you ever watch Big Comfy Coach? That's what I was thinking. The clock stretch? The clock stretch. Oh, yeah.

Dude, that's what he's saying to himself. Time for stretching time. Time for stretching time. Oh, that's great. And as you're doing your usual stretching routine, waiting for the sun to rise, a chill runs through you. And you get, like, a fraction of the warmth and a fraction of the sunlight that you're used to getting. Okay, I roll back into the sunlight. It's just cold here. Well, I guess that makes sense. We are in the frozen north, I say to myself. Uh-huh.

Did Ving, did you say anything to anybody as you, like, switched watches? No, I'll wait till everyone's up in the morning while I talk about it. Can I discern realities? Or about the cold? Yeah, yeah, you could. Eight. Okay, so you get one question. What here is not what it appears to be. Okay, so yeah, at first you're like, maybe it's just because it's cold here. Maybe it's just because it's the north and it's frozen all the time. But there is, like, a presence hanging in the air.

Where you, as this, like, extrasensory energy fairy being, feel like there was someone here. Ugh. And the mushrooms around the circle are like, they're, like, shivering. Are they cold? Are they scared? They seem scared. Oh, maybe the ones where he, like, touched his, like, staff. Like, beneath it, they're, like, kind of withered. Yeah. Little shriveled guys. Yeah, I'm inspecting my little mushroom friends. Oh. Are you scared? He was here. He was here? Yes. Who was he? The black-headed man. Oh.

He was… Was he dark as the night? Dark as the night, cold as the void. Oh. Is he gonna come back? I don't know. I'm gonna run inside, wake up Ving and Tuck. Uh, yeah, Tuck is… Tuck is also doing secret stretches. What are his secret stretches look like? What do I… What do I… What do I… What do I… What do I… What do I… What do I… What do I… What do I… What do I… What do I… What do I… What do I… What do I… Did you talk to the mushrooms? Yes.

And they said that a black-headed figure, dark as the night, cold as the void, that he made a visit. And is it who I think it is? Yeah. Come here. Hold my hand. Okay. And I'll show them what I saw last night. Oh, yeah. I hold your hand. Yeah. You see a man below average height for a man, older, 60s or 70s, short white beard, wide-brimmed black hat, black traveling clothes, and a walking stick, one blue eye, one black eye. Oh, fuck. Holy shit. Yeah. Can I discern reality?

Yeah, you can discern realities. To inspect him through the memory? Yeah. Okay, here we go. Discern realities, plus wisdom, which I have a negative one on, and that's a four, so. And that's a what? I got a four. Fuck. Oh, no. I like that he's, you know, when you're remembering a memory, it's not accurate, and that's kind of the failure there. You can't inspect somebody else's memory because they're not accurate. And then also his presence in Ving's mind would be weird. Yeah.

That's what I was thinking, too. Oh, what if he, like, the memory becomes, like, fractured? Oh. Yeah. Yeah, because in that Stalwart Sons song, the lyric on the last verse is, do not speak my name. So he, like, protects his identity a lot. So it would make sense that he would have the ability to, like, remove himself. Yeah, totally. So you don't get anything from this. This memory at all. Fuck. He said he'd be back. He didn't say when. Did he tell you anything else?

I, um, he said that he was disappointed a little bit. In what? I don't know, in us. I think he was trying to, like, you know that, like, really proud, like, God complex kind of daddy issues playing out? Oh, I thought you'd do better. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. Yeah, totally. Totally. I totally know what it's like to have a dad. Yeah, me too. You're talking to two people who have no frame of reference. You know, like, when your mom's like, oh, I made spaghetti again for dinner.

And you're like, oh, spaghetti again is delicious, but again. Wow. Yeah, I would hate if a nice mom cooked me a meal twice in a row. Yeah, fucking sucks having someone make you food and not want anything out of you or be mad at you for stealing it. I don't know. Wait a second. I thought the gibbous man would, like, leave us. I don't know. I've thought, like, I don't know. I feel like he's, like, way trickier. Like, he would try and convince us of something or give us a boon.

Like, try and tempt us into a deal kind of thing. I don't know. Like, I feel like he would, it would be, like, some, like, thing, like, riddly or. Well, he hasn't done anything. He's just revealed himself that he knows where we are. Yeah. Did he do anything to you? No, he tried to get in the circle, the fairy circle, and he couldn't get in.

Can we, is there a way we can, Billy, is there a way you can use lighting in a bottle to see if, like, the gibbous man fucked up Ving's mind when he talked to him? What? Because it's like he was in your head, right? He was in our thing? Yeah. Seems kind of rude. I don't know. I mean, I give you permission if you think he might have given me, told me something that wasn't there that I don't remember. What do you mean in his mind? Yeah.

Because it seems, it does seem weird that he would just show up and be like, what's up? So it's like, maybe he, like, did something to Ving, like, in that moment. Because he was also, you were communing with the whispers, right? So he was kind of in your head? Right, yeah. Because he was like, you nodded off, and then he was there. Yeah, I was, like, in a different space, kept, well, I mean, I couldn't, yeah. Yeah, what if something happened while you were, like, communing?

Yeah, if he, like, got in there or left something in there. What if there's a coin in your head now? Open your mouth. Open my mouth. And then Tuck, like, pulls Ving over to him, and he looks into his mouth, like a psychotic dentist. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Billy's looking deep into his throat, like, I don't see anything. Billy, use your binoculars to look into his mouth. I am going all the way in. God, God. And Morris and Perel walk in at this moment.

Get it out, get it out, get it out. Where we're leaned over Ving. Billy's got his little grubby hands in his mouth. Move your tongue to the side. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. Ving's shaking his head. I can feel it rattling. I can feel it rattling. We're all freaking out now. There's a coin in my hand. There's a coin in my hand. Turn him upside down. Turn him upside down. Shake it out of him.

He's already upside down. I'm shaking him so hard. Harder, harder, harder. Can I roll to shake the coin out of his brain? You don't have to roll to do it. No, don't feel this. Don't feel this. I got an 11. Yeah, you really shake the shit out of Ving. Ving, get it open all of your holes. Let it out. Relax. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Done. Done. What comes out of Ving? Some bird from last night. And a lot of marble cheese. Marble cheese. Like a log of melted marble cheese.

That's a lot of cheese, Ving. I really do. I love Tuck's cooking. I got to say, Perel put his hands on his solar plexus. He's like, I got to say, the same thing happened to me last night. Like, it was delicious, Tuck, for a little bit. But after that, that's too many birds, I think. It's too many birds. It's too many birds. And then Tuck is… His feelings are hurt, for sure. Because he said it's too many birds. Yeah, he said it was too many birds.

And in his head, he's like, I slaved over a hot golem for those birds. I shattered a fucking priceless sword to make that happen. Fuck. And Morris is like, so is this normal or did something happen? The Gibbous Man was here last night. What? The Gibbous Man. Yes. The one we've been looking for. Well, we think so. All right, let's get to work. Tell me everything you know. He put a coin in my head. I think he fucked me up. I think I'm on a ton of time for the evil Gibbous Man now.

I can feel it rattling around in my head. There's for sure. If there's anything we know for sure, there is for sure a coin in Ving's head. Or… You should… You should what? I'm just wondering, like, should Billy actually do lightning in a bottle to confirm if he's… If this is true. Yeah, totally. Ving, do I have permission to do lightning in a bottle to make sure there's no coins rattling around in your head? Billy says the name of the move that's on his character sheet.

Did you think of that? Ving doesn't know what Billy's talking about. He just wants his little game. Do I have permission to use lightning in a bottle? Now my charisma stat is pretty high. Pretty high. So I'm probably gonna be… I'm probably not gonna fail. I do have hot shit rolls. I trend towards hot shit rolls. Yeah. And he's holding two dinner rolls. Billy. Yeah. I give you permission to take this coin out of the jar of my head. Okay, let me take a look, Elu. Do I roll for it?

No, not on Ving. Really? Really? Yeah, I think we've talked about how you don't have to roll if it's on, like, a willing participant. Do you need anything from me? Lie down? Stand up? Squat? I am below drags. One of Perel's little looking glasses. Uh-huh. A little vanity mirror up to Ving. And we're gonna watch it together. Watch the memory of… Yeah. The Gibbous Man? Yeah. Okay. Tuck, you can squeeze in here if you want. Oh, yeah. I squeeze in between them, behind them.

And Perel, and then Morris also squeeze away. Yeah. And then Victor also. I can get a bigger mirror. Yeah. So, the way that you tried to, like, watch it through Ving with the Chamberlain rings, you realize must have been a Communion of Whispers style situation in which, like, you were seeing the Gibbous Man through Ving's spiritual lens. Mm-hmm. So, you look at it through this mirror, and you're seeing it through Ving's physical eyes. Okay.

Like, the stimulus that he was taking in while he was communing. And, oh, it's actually, it's kind of like a slideshow of both. Like, you're seeing, like, this fractured image that you saw in the Chamberlain vision. Mm-hmm. Of, like, a man in a wide hat and a cloak, but, like, kind of shattered glass. As you're trying to look at him, his shape doesn't quite take form. Oh, yeah. I like that sometimes the glass looks like it falls inward into the void of his body. Yeah. Yeah.

Like, sometimes the aspect stretches in a weird way to encompass, like, the entirety of a horizon. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then comes back. So, then through Ving's physical eyes, what you see, and what the Gibbous Man must have actually seen. What the Gibbous Man actually appeared like in that moment is just a patch of absolutely light-sucking, day-killing, darkest night. And a globe of pure bright blue, like, on the right side of this thing's face. Uh-huh.

And that's much clearer than the fractured human aspect that you see in Ving's mind. Whoa. Just this, like, cloak of pitch-black midnight. So cool. Is there any indication that he, uh, like, suborned Ving's mind in some way? No. Okay. No, there's not. There's gotta be some way that he fucked this guy up. Morris, uh, is looking at this image of the Gibbous Man and the Gibbous Man's maybe true aspect. Mm-hmm. And he's like, I think I know what he did.

He said a handful of words, and you're all freaking the fuck out. What? Could it be? Could it be that that was his trick? Could it be the evening sky? Yes. In quite a literal way, yes, it was. Gas lit down upon me? So, I mean, if what we know about the Gibbous Man is true, it seems like he either did something that is a secret trick, or he did nothing, and that was his trick. Ugh. He's making us question our own sanity. All it took was the slightest nudge, and you're all questioning yourselves.

Right. I don't trust Ving anymore. What are you talking about? I, now I don't trust you anymore, because you don't trust Ving. Look, look. Maybe he got to you. I've never had Billy reach into my mind with his fairy fingers. I don't trust him anymore. And I don't trust you anymore, Billy. What? You, you asked me to do this. Morris, I've never trusted you. This is a trap. Morris holds up his hands. Hey, look. No one trusts anyone, okay? That's just life. The aspect ratio?

The ratio stretches to like 16 by 1 or whatever cinematic ratio, and then we all pull out guns. It's a Mexican stamp. Yeah. A tumbleweed blows through the center of the sitting room. I grab my mirror. I'm like, fine. If no one likes my cool tricks, I'm going to just go in my little hidey hole and do them myself. Billy, you don't have to go in your hidey hole. No. I want to. Look at what the gibbous man has done. Tearing us apart. Yeah. And it only took him like two hours. Oh my God. We have to.

We have to be stronger and stay together more than this. We can't let this happen. I'll never be on Nightwatch again. I see what's happening. I mean, based on what you said, we were safe in the fairy circle. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He couldn't get in. Yeah. You're all welcome. Thank you, Billy. Thank you for your fairy circle. Billy, do you know how often these pop up? How rare is a fairy circle? Billy is ignoring Vane. He's turned his back around. I know. And then Tuck realizes that he fucked up.

He goes over to Billy and he's like, okay, Billy, I shouldn't have said I didn't trust you. I obviously trust you, Billy. And it was my fault. And I reacted too quickly. And I'm sorry for that. I trust you too, Billy. I just felt that power in my head and it freaked me out. And I got scared. And sometimes when adults act scared, they say things they don't mean. Adults get scared just like little kids get scared.

And sometimes when we get scared, we force each other's mouths open and we dig around in there and we scream that there are coins inside of each other's heads. We put coins in each other's heads in our mind. I understand now. I'm sorry. Okay. I'll answer your question now. Let's Spout Lore about fairy circles because we have never talked about this before. Would you ask again? How often are they? How rare are they? Can we like hopscotch the fairy circles and use them as camp? Are you rolling?

Nope. You are. I think I was asking Billy. Yeah. And I think that you. You will tell me depending on this role. 10. Beautiful. So yeah, tell me. Within reason. Within reason. It's not like they're every two steps. You know what I mean? No. But like tell me about fairy circles. They're dependent on their environment. So if we're in like a damp forest, you're going to find them more frequently.

If we want to make sure we're kind of always safe from the gibbous man, is it possible that there are enough fairy circles that we can always make camp? Yeah. Yeah. If we can find one, like we can like go out of our way to search them out.

I would say if I had to guess that like there is kind of enough fairy circles in the forest that you would be able to camp in them, but like you would have to maybe travel a night or two without resting if you wanted to make camp specifically in a fairy circle. Because then we're not just traveling, we're traveling and searching. Yeah, exactly. Well, how far are we from the tree? I feel like we've probably like traversed half. At least. At least. At least. At least. At least. At least. At least.

At least. At least. At least. At least. At least. At least. At least. At least. At least. At least. At least.

Ask the mushrooms like that's the only way you would know where to find more because they're all connected oh cool oh it's like a mycelium kind of thing that's all the fairy circles are connected or every fairy in the circle is connected every fairy circle is connected oh cool that is cool that's sick what's the purpose of fairy circles there's not really one it's basically just like a well-trodden path for fairies so more like it's like if a lot of them tend to like linger in the same area or like come and go from the same areas that will create I don't know like a little concentration cool in the mushroom books they always talk about that it's a place where fairies gather and dance so it's like their little like barn where they have their square dance yeah totally I love that so you said they were kind of like wi-fi hot spots so is it the same thing where fairies are traveling from the fairy realm to our world yeah I guess in a way it could be like an you know for a fairy it's an open door versus a locked door cool but it could also just be a spot that they like hanging out in and dancing around oh cool I like that yeah cool so you're gonna ask the mushrooms yeah where the next one is side victor comes with me to sniff around and have a pee oh cool yeah so you don't see like victor's outside and you can't see him but you just like hear all you see is a stream of this hitting a tree don't pee on the mushrooms victor no I thought I want these two I'm sorry and then he goes back out into the trees he's starting he's starting to defer to billy quite a lot the marbles yeah oh yeah you do have the marbles right please do not do not take away marble I will go pee in the trees we use the marbles to try and keep billy in check and billy use the marbles to control the dog uh-huh uh yeah victor walks outside with you and you can he stops okay and like what do you start to growl the stink of gods is he still here no but he's think is oh and he goes out and pisses in the trees so victor can sniff out gods whoa oh gods sorry I thought you said goats I genuinely didn't think there are goats nearby and nothing I hate more than disgusting goats uh but yeah he goes and pisses in the woods okay I'll talk to the mushrooms oh quite a night quite a night it's probably a lot hey it was has he ever visited before no not here but I have I've heard stories where else where else is he frequent wherever the night sky kisses the earth he can be oh come on enough with the riddles I'm a fucking fairy I know but I'm in a human body right now and my human brain can't comprehend the riddles as easily as I can I'm a fucking fairy I'm a fucking fairy I'm a fucking fairy I'm a fucking fairy I don't okay so where what do you want to know I'm sorry little mushroom no it's fine what do you want to know I'm sorry what do you want to know oh no oh have I offended you no no not at all what do you want to know oh have I offended the mushroom I mean I think that like yes in the capricious way oh no you were like do this and he's like don't tell me what to do I'm sorry that's fine I'm used to eating shit I just eat shit every day okay now I just want to know are there any more of you between here and the heart tree I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know one or two okay it would take us no time to get there but for you and your bigger friends it might take two sons okay be careful I will I'm really sorry that you got snippy it's okay I was scared of of the gibbous man with good reason I'll leave you some m&ms fuck yes so I sprinkled some candies and you see like little like like my psyllium shoots come up and like grab the mushroom the m&ms and pull them into the earth and they're like oh fuck yeah oh man so good whoa that's a lot yeah so much sugar I know I'm so little and you get like a general kind of like you can feel your brain like pulling in a direction so you kind of know generally where that's thanks to the mushrooms I I did offend them but my m&ms kind of like repaired our relationship exactly so they're pointing me the way yeah okay I kissed the little mushroom thank you thank you the social structure of like fairy seems to be almost identical to like eight-year-olds where it's like you piss each other off so fast and then you can make up by just giving each other m&ms instantly yeah yeah so you know that like um between you and the heart tree it's like gonna take you longer to get there if you want to camp in the rings but like a day day and a half longer okay I ask you I let you guys all know what the mushroom told me yeah we as you were talking about the mushroom I was like I don't know what the mushroom told me we were talking about the mushroom we were trying to like put the tent down and like tear down camp we're like billy we're fucking we're all doing work here okay I'm also doing work but I'm just laying on my stomach kicking my legs talking the mushroom and then I talked to vayne I'm like we gotta get him doing more chores like this is bad this is I mean but in his mind he's doing more chores than we are probably balance that out there is one way I know marbles yeah marbles the marbles control all things now I ask of you one more question one task one request please open the bag I want to be inside the bag oh so yeah before we kind of like pull the tent poles out we just hold it open for him as you're reopening the bag like a dog he's like already shoving his nose in and like scrabbling at the bottom the bag I must be in the bag and then his tail goes through and I love that we have a dog you said those exact words so many times so happy yeah so he's inside the bag now nice yeah but uh yeah so billy knows kind of the direction of the next fairy circle yeah we'll have to follow the arc of the sun get the next one cool that is cool very cool uh yeah so I think we're gonna do a unless you have anything else you want to do directly in this area maybe we should we have a little chat about what we're gonna do when we get to the heart tree yeah will there be like another sort of like court there that's a good question um that is one thing is we've kind of I assume that the party has been actively avoiding like population centers yeah do we think that there's anyone that lives around the heart tree yeah would it be like the center of their civilization do you guys think so oh so we're going to like capital city like a bunch of people live at the heart tree yeah it is the middle of the city that is the middle of the forest kind of thing okay cool that changes everything in my mind yeah I just pictured a tree there but why would that be yeah they would never leave it unprotected camera zooms in on the heart tree as it zooms out you see like it's within a court that is within like a citadel kind of thing exactly yeah and then you as you zoom out from like the citadel where you see like monks moving around and tending the trees it's like a massive sprawling city there's huge aquifers like made of wood like running around it going out into different parts of the city yeah they're running water and everything to the hardwood and I do like the rome thing where it's like there is like this this city is teeming with life it is like uh panem in the heart of the city and it's like like uh in the hunger games in the hunger games yeah there's people all over and it makes sense like all roads lead to rome because the roots of the heart tree connect all parts of the forest so everything does lead to this place so when we get to the end of this road we're doing city stuff yeah which means disguise yeah totally hell yeah breakfast restaurants probably they're probably and the marble jar is getting pretty full have to do so many good deeds because tuck to make it up to billy for being mean to him this morning dumped like 15 of them well that's not helping him either I know but we fucked up so bad come on man he saw god I told him I didn't trust him uh okay so there's a city at the center of the wood heartwood yeah I like that name yeah yeah so heartwood is this is the capital city of the elves but here between here and heartwood is a big old stretch of wood and a fairy circle that you're relying on to keep you safe from the sky can we all think of a thing that we pass by as we walk through the chune wood yeah totally you're leaping through the forest on the back of your noble tree gliders and you see uh vincey's uh um this like old elf with like long hair with like dreaded hair up in the trees with like this like little woven cedar bark harness thing that he's up top in the trees and he's like what is he doing and he's got this giant backpack with jugs on it full of jugs glass bottles hanging from everywhere he almost looks like a and he's up there and he's recording the he's gathering the tune music yeah he's like an old hippie he was like sounds of the forest and he sells these tapes of solitude to people in the city to be like oh you can't hear it because all the chune trees are gone from the city center yeah so he gets uh he takes people into like nostalgic remember what nature sounds like that sort of thing nice oh my goodness I love that I mean if you guys are just riding by I think he's recording he's just like what's up hello there morning what you got just the sounds of nature man beautiful oh it's nothing like it only two coins oh shit yeah I'll go oh what fuck yeah dude two coins but you get three for ten oh shit yeah dude we'd be losing money if we didn't get three can't afford not to I say get six yeah I gotta get six yeah how many are six 25 coins bro wait the price goes up if you get six he said one for two or three for ten yeah and then six it was 25 yeah yeah it's all going up and price the more we get to wait no if we get one bottle it's two coins it's two coins three balls is ten coins oh shit we got bamboozled so fast you were just idiots no both I and tucker am very stupid I'm so glad that that actually worked wow I can't believe it yeah why why why we stop at ten let's get 20 damn it yeah man fucking they're flying off the shelves the second I get to heartwood these things are gone baby man we gotta act fast give me everything you have do you have any with june bugs oh yeah you know it and he pulls a bottle off his back and it's it's already corked but there's a little tune beetle inside it guys you're gonna love that when the when the when the june bugs and the tune bugs get together it's like a symphony I can't wait yeah bro nothing you've never heard anything like it man um I I pull out a couple coins from my pocket to add to the pile clink ving you have all of our money how how much is it for everything for every for everything we'll we'll take three okay we'll take three one each you guys listen what kind of you pick your bottle I mean they're great they're great for holidays great for presents which holiday is coming up soon which elven holiday I forget it's been a while it's uh first light bro oh cool yeah oh man and you know you gotta get a good present for your lover for first light not you little guy you gotta get a good present I could have a lover yeah I could have a lover yeah no no idea what a lover is I love my moment I love I love my dog I love the dog you think victor can't enjoy music yeah man you can get a bottle for your dog I'll take the little uh purple bottle here you go little boy it's a small and cute thank you two coins okay thank you I'll go right off uh what what tell me what you got I've got 10 coins what billy's got 10 coins yeah tuck didn't doesn't have any coins ving took all the money from me because I keep doing stuff like this I give tuck two coins can I have two yeah thanks billy borrowing money and I put two marbles in the jar as an even trade direct bribing I give tuck the rest of my six coins oh sick six more marbles okay how many will six coins get me god I'm terrible with money six coins gets you two man okay wow dude I really appreciate all the deals you're giving me fuck yeah and I give it here you go what bottles is he giving me well he's giving these are sounds of the forest man but is there specific ones are they all the same I mean they're not all the same some of them are different sometimes I like put my hands over the holes and I kind of like you know what I mean if you touch the ball you can kind of feel it vibrate so you know what you want so I feel I touch one of the bottles yeah this one sounds like uh don't worry about a thing fuck that and then I grab another one uh uh I'm sorry I lied to you oh yeah this is awesome I'm so sorry yeah I grabbed the one that's blink what I need to my grandson recorded that one man so I grab you know what I mean I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry the two pop punk ones yeah one of them has a little uh tune beetle in it and he's got one of his pieces of chitin has come off his head and created bangs that go across one eye great yeah my grandson loves these man man your grandson's fucking cool is fucking cool man his dad not so cool that's a lot of information about your family to tell a stranger why do you think I'm out here from talking shit about my family today everyone what about you big guy um do you have any just silence solitude silence any points at you and he goes yeah brother I like the way you think check it out and he reaches back and he pulls out a little bottle that's like long and thin here you go brother thank you the purest silence the sound of silence hello I've come to talk with you again it's not like pure silence because I mean I go out there and I record the silence and I get kind of bored so I sing a little bit but it's mostly original so you know it's kind of one of a kind sort of priceless really if you think about it sick what's your name leo man cool thanks leo yeah yeah leo short for uh I know you all have weird names yeah yeah all right well I it's short for leo yeah thanks man it means uh great cat of the morning do I mean you knew that though well I mean yeah it's been a while since I've I forgot what I meant yeah yeah yeah it's hard because it sounds a lot like which means uh dog of the do yeah there you go yeah big dewy dog so anyways five coins for the silence great here you go thank you wow it's been great doing business with you yeah how's the road to hartwood oh uh you know I'm more of a people power kind of guy so I usually just walk and I walk up here so it's not so bad takes me like a week oh wow but I don't have any of these big bros he points into the trees at all the tree gliders uh is there anything weird that we should kind of be on the lookout for or whatever on the way uh nah man it's fucking chill up here you just gotta like walk you gotta be quiet and you gotta watch out for the uh for the tree guard you know but always you gotta watch out for the tree guard tree guard oh the tree guard you guys remember being accosted by two tree glider riding guards oh there's so many gliders in the center of the forest in heartwood oh maybe we could disguise ourselves as tree guards because we have the gliders where maybe we can say that we're um like you're like dog trainers like we've trained these animals and we've come to sell them to the guard in town oh yeah I like that a lot yeah that's a good idea are you a dog trainer?

Are you guys okay with it? Ask the sugar gliders how do you feel about this plan? Clarence is like you'll have to wear a saddle again I'm sorry just for a short while sir anything for the subterfuge mission sir?

And clarence is like uh all right okay yeah I'll do it I'll do it I I don't need to my mom and dad are probably fine I don't need to worry about it I sent word to them oh oh that's great I was I sent bird to them well hopefully hopefully we get bird back but I'm just uh I'm glad that they don't think that I've been killed yeah so you're not gonna sell us though that's no oh no never no in this economy okay yeah yeah sounds good okay uh all right well you know happy trails guys bye and he's just hanging in the tree with two open bottles recording the sounds of the tune we're really lucky that guy's such a burnout or else or else he would hold on us for sure for sure for sure for sure for sure for sure for sure for sure for sure for sure for sure uh so oh wait we're doing more stuff yeah that you guys see right all right so I think it's like afternoon now should should we run into an animal or like a structure I think structure's cool yeah yeah okay the discovery is a road oh oh in the tops of the trees oh oh yeah because leo said he walks up here this must have been what he was referring to leo's like like treetop roads oh cool but other people use it too for sure yeah it's branches that are just kind of interconnected but you see like ribbons tied to branches that create boundaries of the road so you're just like the tree gliders uh slow down and are just like oh it's nice to just walk you know yeah we run and glide so much it's also nice for us because we're not like being whipped around for 12 hours a day my kidneys are sore my neck hurts so much I think I'm worse at math now yeah yeah You're even worse.

Now that we're just walking, I think we got a pretty bad deal on these jars. We were so scrambled in our heads. Wait a second. How much did you guys end up spending? I spent five coins. We spent ten coins. Yeah, we spent a full ten coins on three. Yeah. He got you. He got you back to the ten. Fuck. Fifteen coins could have bought us so many breakfasts. I mean, fifteen coins was how much your meal cost at the Husky. Fuck. Don't tell him that. No.

Don't use the H word around him when he's so excited. I told you not to bring up the H-U-S-K-Y. H-U-S-K-Y. That means marbles. So you make it to the next fairy circle in record time. And you have a relatively eventless night in the fairy circle. The mushrooms here go, oh, no, we heard. Don't worry. Come on in. And set up their little protective field. Unless there's anything specific you want to do in the tent. Morris and Perel are just kind of hanging out there.

They've been doing some work researching other magic stuff, mostly volcanoes. Although, no, they've moved on to they've moved on to making a bridge and then seeing if they can drive a little car across it. They have the little metal dwarf that you guys got. Oh, sick. Oh, the little helper one. Yeah. Yeah. So they like build a bridge out of toothpicks and tape and they're like, walk across the bridge. And he walks. And it doesn't break. And they're like. Yes.

We didn't do a watch tonight because we're all too scared of sleeping outside. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. We zipped up inside. Yeah. We are hoping that the. That the gibbous man doesn't come knocking. Yeah. Having spent all supper carving mushrooms out of woods and pine cones and sitting them around like, I don't know. Maybe that'll do. I don't know. I hope that's OK. That's a really cute idea. I'm just imbued with like, just like. Spears. Spears. Spears. Spears. Yeah.

I think the only thing that Tuck would want to do because he's like missing Black Spire after. After naming that tree glider Black Spire too. Yeah. So he wants to try and use that like pick that Ving gave him to like check in on Black Spire and see how he's doing. Yeah. Totally. Like just while he's going to sleep, he like holds on to it. And like as he's drifting off, he tries to like make a connection with him. Yeah. And see what's going on over there. So yeah. How do you. Was this.

This was a role, wasn't it? I can't remember. No, I think it's just like it's Ving's Eye of the Tiger. Eye of the Tiger. Yeah. So yeah. You. You hold on to the pick. And I like uncork one of the punk bottles that I. Yeah. Totally. I'm listening to him like Black Spire would love this. If he was here, we were able to take him on that fucking boat. That for sure would fit on. He for sure would have fit on that boat. We've rehashed this so many times. Leave it alone.

And you are brought back to, you know, different time zones. But you see. See through Black Spire's eyes. You're in what looks like a lab in the library. Whoa. And there are a bunch of librarians with goggles and clipboards and stuff kind of standing around him. Not a volcano in sight. Like they're doing some weird science. I can't even. I don't know how legitimate this information is going to be. A pseudoscience I would call it.

If you walk into a lab and you don't see a single baking soda and vinegar volcano, turn around, walk out. Yeah. Those guys are nuts. Yeah. Yeah. Getting published in Nature. Uh-huh. And he's being like prodded and he's just like. And they like somebody. The guy with sort of like the German accent. The like zoologist. Yeah. Reaches down and grabs like his paw, his front paw and picks it up. And Black Spire like holds up his paw.

And you see that some of the scales on the back of his hand have started to become like a glimmering white. Whoa. That's sick. Yeah. All the sunstone he's crunching. Oh, maybe. Tiny crunch. And I mean like the image isn't going to go away. You can just kind of watch Black Spire do his thing. I want to watch. Yeah. We all want to watch. Yeah. Are you guys doing like a Chamberlain ring? Yeah. Like shared dream watch party as you go to sleep? Yeah.

There's like a giant beanbag chair in the lounge and we're all like lying down on it together. Bing was lying with his back to tuck and then he rolled over and kind of spooned him. He was like, what you doing? Looks like you guys are in a fucking like 1970s flop house. Just like on beanbags. Yeah. Beanbags like, oh man. Vibing out to this dream. Yeah. And after a while of him being prodded and you just watching, he goes, tuck. Oh, Black Spire. Am I going fucking crazy right now? No, dude.

This is the because you gave Bing that scale of yours. He did like some spirit thing on it so I could see through your eyes. We're all here. What the fuck? What is fucking up, you guys? What is up? Holy fuck. This is amazing. Hey. This is amazing. How's the library? Oh, it's great, man. They're feeding me like hardcore crunch all the time and they're fucking poking me and it feels so good. You know how hard it is to get to an itch when your fucking scales are like two and a half inches thick?

I have an idea. Oh my God. It feels so good. That's great. What's going on with your hand? Are you eating the shiny crunch that you're finding? Well, they're feeding it to me. They're giving it to you on purpose? Yeah. I think they think that it's like. I look fucking sick how cool I look. So they want me to look even cooler. You do look fucking sick. I look fucking cool as hell because like some of my skills, like my skills are still like black for the most part.

And then some of them are white and it's fucking sick. Oh my God. He looks cute. Can you go over to a mirror so we can see you? Yeah, totally. And he like walks forward and bowls a bunch. Yeah. And also he's been speaking out loud. So he's just been screaming. Everyone's like, what the fuck is happening? Stop prodding him right now. He just walks forward and shoulders a bunch of people. Out of the way, knocks a bunch of shit over because this room is like, it looks like this.

You can see as he like looks around that it seems like this room was recently recarved a little to be like made bigger. So he's got a little bit more room to maneuver. Cool. And he goes up to a mirror that is not made for a dragon and he sticks his head and you can see his like big bulldog head and like he's got where the scale was taken away from the middle of his forehead is still blank. But he's got like a little. Pattern of white shining scales. Oh my God. On his forehead now.

Like a little tuxedo cat. Exactly. He's looking kind of like a tuxedo cat. Oh man. You look fucking sick. Dude. Isn't it fucking cool? So cute. And he opens his, he opens his mouth and like a dog smile and is like big tongue laws out. It's like shaking his head back and forth. And then that German librarian is like, the dragon seems to be very enamored with his own reflection. There's like furious scribbling from all the. He seems as if a man peering into his own soul for all eternity.

Just this burner hurts. Yeah. Maybe you are all just a black and white dog peering into eternity. Well, I really, I really am so happy to hear from you guys and I hope that you're doing okay over there. We're doing okay. We would do better if you were here. We miss you so much. I miss you guys too. It's pretty sick here.

Overall, I get to kind of do whatever I want and I get to go into the shit hole all the time and they come out and they hose me down and it's awesome and I get to eat a lot and I get to play whenever I want. That sounds fucking rad, dude. I fucking miss you bro so fucking much. I miss you too buddy. I wouldn't get to do any of this shit if it wasn't for you bros. You fucking did this for me bros. That's very sweet. We wouldn't be fucking alive did it ever work for you. I miss you too buddy.

I miss you too. I miss you too. I miss you too. I miss you too. I miss you too buddy. I miss you too buddy. I'm a fucking liar. I'm a fucking liar. You're like you're all sharing your feelings right now. And he's crying so much and his mouth is wide open and his tongue is long and you see like magma start to peak up from his throat and the librarian start freaking out. He's melting sousaphone. They're like pushing instruments and shit out of the way. Okay.

I got to, they got to poke me some more. His own reflex. Has made him so sad for some reason. Put away the shiny crunch. No more. No more of the shiny crunch. Oh, these fucking nerds are freaking out now, man. So I gotta go. I'm sorry. I'll talk to you soon. I know. You guys fucking call back whenever you want. Oh, we will, buddy. We'll see you again sometime soon. I promise. Okay. We're crying so loud that Morris is standing in his like nightcap and he's like, what the fuck?

Yeah, he's got a nightcap and a gown and a little candle on a thing. He comes into the living room and we're all bad. Keep it down in here. We're all on the beanbag chair just crying at the ceiling. I swear to God, if you don't keep it down, these little late night sleepovers, over. No more. You can't do that. This is my house and when you live in my house, you follow my rules. You're not my real dad. You're not our real dad. Don't you take that tone with me. You're just our uncle's boyfriend.

And that's what's happening. And he storms out. He storms back to their bedroom and they have a very tense conversation. Do not yell at them like that. It never goes well. They're just so disrespectful. Yeah, but they're adults and they get to make their own. Well, Billy's not an adult. Well, Billy's kind of, it's complicated, okay? And then they just sit next to each other in bed and read kind of angrily for a while. Love and lust and love and lust. Two love and lust and lust unbound.

And Perel keeps spoiling it. Keeps spoiling love unbound or lust unbound for Morris. And the next day, Ving, you would know that you're basically probably like a day and a half from Heartwood. And that is well within the range of where the tree guard would operate. So if you're going to disguise yourselves, now's the time. Ooh, maybe before we leave the tent, we put together outfits. We could ask the page. We could ask the page to make us some outfits maybe. Oh, smart. Yeah, totally.

Yeah, so we see like the page has little tiny glasses on. Yeah. And he's got, yeah, the measuring tape around his neck. Yeah. And he's at a sewing machine just making costumes. Pins in his mouth? Pins, yeah, through the paper where his mouth would be. And then through his arms. Like he's just got pins all over him now. Are we going as merchants or are we going as? He's a merchant. Okay, yeah. Yeah, I like that. I like that. I like that. I like that. Billy knit himself a little merchant shawl.

Uh-huh. Like a merchant. What does his merchant shawl look like? It's like a cloak with a hood, but it's like very, it's also got like a scarf attached to it. So he just looks like very draped. Uh-huh. Draped in woolen knit shit. Nice. Very nice. That's great. What does Ving look like? The only merchant, like the merchants that he could think of were the camels and McCall. The centaurs? The centaurs.

So he's done up like just a man centaur and he's like, oh yeah, I got the, so much, you gotta like a beautiful sugar glider. Sweetest sugar glider in the sky. God, this is hard to keep up. You put like a big fat belly underneath your shirt. Yeah, and I can hide the fanny pack in there. Oh yeah. Cause we do need to disguise you. You are the most wanted of all of us. So I give, so we fill his fake tummy with like my bag and like the fanny pack and stuff. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You see some black back hair and I can tuck my ears into my side of my hair. Right. We are in a nice spot in that the average person because like photographs don't really exist wouldn't immediately recognize you. But anybody that's been distributed your description like guards and shit like that would definitely. Yeah. Okay. Have a higher chance of recognizing you. And people probably have seen Nathaniel. Yeah. And they were like, he's Nathaniel's son. Yeah, totally. Yeah.

But you've got, your ears are under a wig.

So perfect impenetrable disguise nice he takes a bunch of like what were you gonna put a beard we're gonna put a black face on because that's what jessica and I thought yeah that was the joke I was gonna make I held back on we're learning all right I'm just imagining being knowing that like his pale elven dathaniel like skin would give him away and holding in his hand a handful of soot from the fireplace and it's just shaking I know what I have to do I'm really I'm better than this wrong I don't know if I have the strength to do it what if I want to run for office someday I definitely shouldn't wear this on a roller coaster um okay so and tuck uh tuck gets like a fake nose from perell's disguise kit and he puts it on you yeah there we go so you look like a very different person he puts like a scar over one eye not a real one I can put it on with paint there's one way to make sure they don't recognize your face forever fuck it up uh what's tuck's disguise like tuck went the opposite direction when they said merchants and he thought of the fanciest merchant he could think of so he's all in white three-quarter length pea coat ruffly shirt uh like white like big wide pants into like these white boots like riding pants almost into riding boots and he's also wearing a riding helmet wow and he's holding like a white crop uh he's dressed like reese darby's character from this our flag means yeah it's a fancy cravat so there's a lot of like blue in it too yeah you guys uh left me unsupervised with a page for two minutes and came back and I was dressed like this holy shit billy stample's pants are so good I'm gonna wear them I'm gonna wear them all night knitting this stupid shawl he's so fancy and cool you guys look he's like why didn't anyone tell me that could be anything I wanted to be we told you a few times no yeah we tell you that all the time no no billy it's billy it's a very nice shawl honestly I probably look the most mysterious anyway so whatever look at how shawled up you are anyway perel pulls your hood up over your head and wraps your scarf around you and it does almost completely envelop billy's body it's very thick yeah and is it like you grabbed the butter moth silk that we stole so you use that in this yes okay so you have I re-knitted it yeah yeah you got you like used the parts that weren't eaten away by rotten time I thought that when we found it like well this is like the chunk that's left might be billy's yeah yeah you're a little bit disguised every time I put your hood up I'm like oh where's billy where's billy really billy and we're playing a game and then we're like holy shit actually we can't see oh my god where'd he go actually where the fuck is billy guys I'm right here oh you pathetic fools he's here you see the heat from his breath give him away victor I love it in here so many earth don't for me to camouflage your kids uh and you're all disguised up and you head out hop onto your tree gliders morrison perel give you a little salute and a handshake yeah we roll up the fanny pack does victor stay in there too victor stays inside yeah he just said he likes the earth tones yeah I will guard safeguard earth tones in here I will protect two pathetic old men I will plug my ears and let them do whatever they do they have many fights it seems open hand slapping fights it seems like many slapping voices coming from chamber um you're all uh disguised up and you pack up the fanny pack and hop on your tree gliders give a little thank you to the fanny pack and hop on your tree gliders and hop on your tree gliders give a little thank you to the mushrooms that protected you over this dark dark night I tossed the rest of my m&ms and you head off into the trees on your way to heartwood and the camera stays on the fairy ring and at the very edge you see two small withered mushrooms and that's where we'll end it for this week uh I'm your game master Sean O'Hara joining me as always playing tacoma dome the barbarian abdulaziz so long playing ving the half-elf druid Paul Oppers take care playing fat belly the halfling thief jessica tie everyone thank you so much to aaron reed for our intro and outro music if you would like to hear all of aaron's original music you can find him at aaronreed.bandcamp.com and if you want to find the music that aaron has produced for the show written by abdul and myself you can find that at soundcloud.com thank you to all of our patreon supporters around the world for supporting the show we wouldn't be able to do it if it wasn't for your help uh if you want us to support us you can get access to a whole bonus campaign set in the high spear mall art merchandise drops uh games run by abdul and myself and a whole whack of other shit so check that out at patreon.com Spout Lore or Spout Lore.com money please and uh lastly and mostly thank you to all of you for listening we'll see you next time and so ends the tale of adventures three who tried the best they can though dumb and scared and lost they be for times of rest in revelry and though our journey may be like a conclusion we will not leave you without a resolution return next week to hear some more whilst you commute or do your chores and for you I'd gladly spout more you