0:00

Hey everybody, your Game Master Sean

0:02

O'Hara here. Little pre-show announcement. It's

0:05

the holiday season. The holiday season.

0:07

And we've got a bunch of

0:09

Spelt Lore Christmas stuff available

0:11

on our store. We've got wooden

0:13

laser cut. beautifully made

0:16

Christmas ornaments, and the

0:18

2023 Spelt Lore Advent

0:21

dice calendar with dice for every day

0:23

of the holiday season. And

0:25

if you want to see what else we have

0:28

available, check us out at speltlore.com. Slash merch. Gather

0:35

round friends, let me tell you a tale

0:37

of three heroes, noble and bold. A

0:40

brute, a druid, and a thief who

0:42

is but nine years old.

0:44

You know them by name, you know

0:46

them by deed. Their quests are famously

0:49

daring. So here I sit, singing to

0:51

you an adventure that is worth sharing.

0:53

Tuck is the brute, he knows not

0:55

his home, he loves to sing and

0:58

fight. Big as half elf,

1:00

he shifts his shape and wields his spear

1:02

with great might. Billy's a

1:04

thief, his tiny size does mask

1:07

the largest heart. Best and brightest

1:09

they may not be, but their

1:11

friendship outweighs their smarts. So

1:13

gather round friends, and

1:16

listen close. For

1:19

the tale's about to

1:21

start. Hello

1:27

everybody and welcome to Spelt Lore. I'm

1:29

your game master, Sean O'Hara. Joining me

1:31

as always playing Tacoma Dome of the

1:33

Barbarian, Abdul Aziz. Hello everybody. Playing

1:36

Ving the half elf druid, Paul Oppers.

1:38

Hello everybody. And playing Fat Billy the

1:40

halfling thief, Jessica Tai. Hello. When

1:42

last we left our heroes, they had

1:44

descended beneath the earth, falling into a

1:46

yawning chasm beneath the heart tree. Once

1:50

in the cloying darkness of the

1:52

deep, deep soil, Tuck was overcome

1:54

with a dark energy as

1:56

the coins in his chest began to

1:59

react negatively. tunnels stretching

2:01

before them the party continued towards what

2:03

they believed to be sort of the

2:05

root ball of the heart tree Billy

2:07

sensing with his extreme

2:10

danger sense crawling hungry

2:12

things in the soil They

2:14

were attacked by creepy crawlies

2:16

the size of small horses

2:18

and the size of large bugs small

2:21

horses How little are these horses that

2:23

you're talking about they were remember I

2:25

described these things as being really big.

2:27

Yeah, it's really big Actually,

2:30

just didn't know that they're as big like that. They

2:32

were that big. Oh, they're pretty big. They're pretty

2:34

big I didn't know the horses could be that small

2:39

The party dispatched a couple of

2:41

the creatures before the remaining retreated

2:43

into the earth and They

2:46

emerged in a chamber full

2:48

of arcing twisting roots and

2:50

horrible soil

2:54

You crest evil soil

2:58

Vang attempted to communicate with whatever the

3:00

presence in the tree was and was

3:02

offered whatever he wanted Vang said that

3:05

all he wanted was to be free

3:08

and the tree offered that to him Billy

3:10

also attempted to communicate saying that all

3:12

he wanted was to sleep and the tree offered it

3:14

to him Was

3:17

unable to communicate with it at all but

3:19

said that he wanted chicken Nobody

3:22

realized anything weird was going except for big

3:25

ring does yeah Yeah So the big takeaway

3:27

from that being that tuck was unaffected by

3:30

the presence in the tree Personally the

3:32

coins reacting negatively is still like physically

3:34

upsetting but seems to be not spiritually

3:37

upsetting as it is to the other two Ascending

3:40

the roots in the heart of the tree

3:42

they found at its crest beneath

3:45

the heart tree itself lashed to the roots

3:48

Nathaniel bang Zumba pretty

3:50

huge Wow, raise

3:52

an arrow in his chest that they

3:55

immediately Surmised to be

3:57

tipped with obsidian. They

3:59

briefly contemplated what to do next

4:01

before being accosted by

4:03

Wendellieri of the

4:05

Ranger Corps. A fight broke

4:08

out, Billy cut her neck immediately,

4:10

and she took off into the shadows

4:12

while Tuck was surprised by the sinister

4:14

looking Elf Hiddleston, representative

4:18

of the Sun Peaks supposedly. Ving

4:22

creating a spear of metal took off into

4:24

the darkness, taking a shot at Wendy on

4:26

the move, knowing as the

4:28

spear connected that he had struck a

4:31

fatal blow, finding Wendy on

4:33

the end of his spear, breathing

4:36

her last, she choked out, your

4:38

mother is before

4:40

dying. And

4:42

that is where we find our heroes

4:45

now. Tuck, you are grappling with

4:47

this sinister Elf slamming him repeatedly against

4:49

the roots of the tree. He's got a

4:52

knife in your back. Oh

4:54

god, I gotta do something cool at

4:56

this point. I failed so much. So

5:00

many fails. It's hard because he's wily

5:02

compared to Tuck. He's much shorter

5:05

because Tuck is massive. He's much

5:07

smaller. So you're just having

5:09

trouble like getting a grip on him. Yeah.

5:11

Let's cut over to Billy. So I'm still

5:13

with Vang, right? Yeah. You began to approach

5:16

Wendy and Ving told you to stop and

5:18

you see him standing next to Wendy who

5:21

looks strange like her body is not

5:24

moving. Yeah. I've seen that before. Yeah.

5:26

And then you start hearing sounds of

5:28

Tuck fighting. What do

5:30

you do? I run back to Tuck. And you hear the

5:32

like boom, boom of Tuck like

5:34

slamming. Sounds like you've got it though.

5:37

Yeah. I think what he's gonna do

5:39

is he's gonna do, cause

5:41

he can't like, he tried a couple of

5:43

times to like slam the guy backwards. And

5:46

that guy keeps like stopping me. Yeah. So

5:48

I'm gonna try and do a front flip

5:50

and land on him. Oh yeah. That's cool.

5:52

Yeah. That's really cool. Okay. Here we go.

5:55

Is this just a hack and flash? I

5:57

feel like it starts with a defy danger. Fuck

6:00

me. Come on. Dexterity probably. Yeah, that's

6:02

what I'm thinking. Yeah, that makes sense.

6:05

Plus strength? Okay, seven. Yeah. Okay,

6:08

yeah. Yeah. So seven to

6:10

nine on a Defy Danger Dexterity, I'll just figure out what that means.

6:12

Okay, now I can flash. I'm going to roll your head and flash.

6:14

Plus strength. Eleven. Yes. Okay,

6:17

so you get to deal your full damage. Well

6:19

not your full, you get to roll your damage and

6:21

then roll an additional D6 if you choose to take

6:23

damage. Yes. Okay.

6:25

So yeah, go ahead and roll your damage. Okay, here we go. D10?

6:28

D10 and a D6. That's

6:31

a three. Fuck me. And

6:33

a one. Oh, God. Fucking three.

6:35

Go four. Then you roll a

6:37

D10 twice because you chose to take damage and

6:40

you choose the highest. Fuck. Right.

6:42

This guy deals so much damage. What is

6:44

he fighting with? Just a dagger. Oh

6:47

my gosh. So three. Okay.

6:50

And I have three. Okay, great. Oh,

6:52

God. But yeah, describe this.

6:54

What does this look like? So Tuck is like,

6:57

he's trying to flip

7:00

backwards to smash the guy

7:02

underneath him, but the guy's

7:04

like, he's got a really low center of gravity and

7:06

he's too strong. Tuck keeps going

7:08

like, dude, stop it. I'm trying to do a

7:11

thing. Like

7:13

you're playing Mortal Kombat? Yeah. And

7:15

you're like, let me figure it out. Don't hit me. Stop

7:18

it. So then yeah, Tuck just gets frustrated

7:20

and does like a straight front flip, but

7:22

like the kind of front flip that like

7:25

just, he just flat on his back, like

7:27

goes forward and then tries to land as

7:29

flat as possible. And the camera like follows

7:31

Tuck's alignment as he does the flip. So

7:34

it does like a spin in the air. Oh, cool.

7:37

And then you land just wham. And you

7:39

hear the guy like a bunch of air

7:41

is driven out of his lungs as

7:43

you land on top of him, but you feel the knife dig

7:46

deeper into your back and a

7:48

cold warmth begins to like spread

7:51

through your body. And you're like,

7:53

oh no, he fucking

7:55

poisoned me. Oh

7:58

my God. Tuck is

8:00

like, either he just pissed all over

8:02

my back or I'm being poisoned, right?

8:05

You pissed, bro, tell me you pissed. Bro, tell me

8:07

right now that you pissed. Ving

8:10

and Billy, oh wait, Billy, you arrived to, like

8:12

you turned the corner of this like chunk of root

8:15

as Tuck lands and like a bunch

8:17

of dirt, like in a shock

8:19

wave around. It comes down from the ceiling? It comes

8:21

down from the ceiling. A shock wave of Earth shoots

8:23

up around as fucking 700 pounds

8:26

or whatever hits the ground. Like the

8:28

whole tree up in the garden, like

8:30

the tree shakes a little bit. You

8:33

just fall from the tree. And

8:36

the gardeners go fucking crazy. Because

8:39

they're like, this isn't supposed to happen. This is

8:41

great, actually, for Billy, because all the

8:43

dirt falls from the ceiling and walls

8:45

and loosens up some of these

8:47

like viney, like more pliable

8:49

roots. So he uses it as

8:51

like a little lasso. Oh, interesting.

8:54

Not the little lasso. He's like, I'm going to get that

8:57

little like weird elf guy. He's

8:59

aiming for like the neck so that he gets like

9:01

more control of the guy. Oh, he

9:03

is basically like temporarily stuck under tuck.

9:05

Like you can see his head and

9:07

like an arm. Yeah, I'll

9:09

go for like the head, I guess. Great,

9:12

Defy Danger at Exterity. Sick. Eight.

9:17

Eight, okay. You, yeah, you grab

9:19

a root and like turn it into a little lash

9:22

like to kind of stick him in place, or not

9:24

stick him in place, but trap him. Yeah.

9:27

A little bit, yeah. Could even just do make a whip.

9:29

Oh, wrap it around the neck. Yeah,

9:31

totally. If I got a 10, I would have done

9:34

that. Yeah, for sure. Billy had to

9:36

take a second and do bunny ears to knot it.

9:38

He didn't open it, here we go. Over

9:41

the bush and around the tree. Around the

9:43

tree. Over the bush, wait. Wait, no, around

9:45

the tree. I gotta start again. Through the

9:47

bush, wait. Well,

9:51

tuck is like being poisoned. Yeah,

9:53

and Billy's just like reciting. Tuck's

9:55

like, over the bush, not through

9:57

the bush. It's like elbowing.

10:00

Hitting the ground around him. Yeah.

10:03

Phil, you're doing great. I really need you to hurry it up, though.

10:06

Bunny ears, bunny ears, bunny ears. It's a great time to practice. Yeah.

10:09

Yeah, so I do that. Do I get him around the neck? Oh,

10:11

yeah, you get him around the neck for sure.

10:14

And you like, you tighten it. Uh-huh. And

10:17

he's like... I'm trying to pull him. Yeah,

10:19

and as you're pulling, you hear a

10:21

growl behind you. Whoa, who's

10:23

there? Creeping out from under, like

10:25

a group of roots nearby,

10:27

is Wendy's evil

10:30

cat, Shadowpaw. We'll

10:33

take this opportunity to cut back over to Vang. Wendy,

10:35

you've closed her eyes. She's

10:37

breathed her last. I can still hear the

10:40

fight happening, right? Oh, absolutely. The thing with

10:42

Tuck is if Tuck is fighting, you can

10:44

always hear it. I want to

10:46

lay her down softly on the ground and

10:49

bolt back to the fight. Yeah.

10:52

You leave Wendy's body. There under the tree.

10:56

Yeah. You come around the corner to Billy

10:58

backing away from a beaver cat that's emerging

11:00

from under the roots. Tuck

11:02

is struggling with this elf who's now

11:05

got a root around his neck and

11:07

is trying to undo it while also

11:09

fighting Tuck. And Tuck's not doing much

11:11

that's effective. He's farted into him a

11:13

couple of times. And

11:16

take this. And there in

11:18

the center of this melee, your

11:20

father hanging by his wrists.

11:23

Wow, this is a real scene. Yeah. What

11:26

do I have? Huh, this is interesting.

11:28

Superior technique, grab an item within your reach.

11:30

Now it's yours. Can

11:32

I take her beaver cat as my own? Oh.

11:35

I guess it depends on if we

11:37

consider living things items. Ooh.

11:42

Everybody make a statement right now.

11:45

Well, I guess like how far away

11:47

from conception is it? For

11:51

the beaver cat? Quite

11:54

far from conception. Yeah, pretty far.

11:58

So, no. not. You

12:01

could not. Yeah, I think Bing just

12:03

runs in. It was like you will like

12:05

just scream at the Beaver Cat in Beaver

12:07

Cat. Uh-huh. You know, basically freeze. Yeah,

12:10

totally. This ends now. Defy danger

12:12

or charisma? Whoa.

12:15

I got 12. 6

12:18

is 12. Holy shit, dude.

12:21

The tone of his voice is

12:23

like you are not moving. And

12:25

Shadowpot stops and crouches low. A

12:28

meter away from Billy, like

12:30

slavering jaws. Billy is going like.

12:36

Like he's like, I don't know how to talk to

12:38

cats. And

12:40

there's the like slap slap like as Shadowpot

12:42

is like slapping the ground with his Beaver

12:44

tail. But it's just like

12:46

back off. Okay, so Billy's like, okay, don't

12:48

turn your back on a bear or whatever it is.

12:50

I want to look in the eyes. Tuck,

12:53

you feel as you're like trying to elbow

12:55

this guy, your movements and your will

12:57

are starting to lag a little bit.

12:59

Oh shit. Oh, the poise? Yeah, you're like,

13:01

move my arm. And then your arm

13:03

is like, okay. Oh no. You're

13:07

like, wait a sec. What do you do? Okay.

13:10

So Tuck is starting to realize that he's

13:12

passing out and the guy poisoned him. I

13:15

guess he knows that Billy's got the guy by

13:18

the neck. He knows that Bing just came in.

13:20

Can you tell me what the orientation is

13:23

like Tuck versus this guy? Like is his

13:25

head behind my head or where? Yeah, I

13:27

think his head's probably like, if

13:30

not right over your shoulder, like coming out

13:32

next to your shoulder. He's

13:34

got an arm that is not

13:36

conveniently placed to get this root off of

13:38

his neck. So like his left arm is

13:40

sticking out like above your

13:42

left shoulder. Okay, cool. I'm going

13:45

to take TLC and try and

13:47

slice his arm off. Okay. Yeah.

13:50

So you're trying to overcome the rapidly numbing

13:52

effect of this poison. Are you trying to

13:54

muscle through? No, I just take it. I

13:56

use unbound and bent and broken. Oh, I

13:58

would just say it's probably like a defy

14:00

danger constitution. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

14:04

Like, so I should have tried to fight it. He

14:06

knows like, okay, I've been poisoned and like it's in

14:08

me and Vang and Billy are here, so I'm just

14:10

going to do whatever I can to give

14:12

them the best possible chance of killing

14:15

this guy. Okay. 2d6

14:17

plus gone. Wow. Seven

14:20

plus, okay. Yeah. Hell

14:22

yeah. Yeah. You

14:25

muscle through. I do a thing where I take TLC and I

14:27

like throw them in the air. Oh. I'm

14:30

like straight up ahead of me. I like that. And I'm

14:32

like immediately above me. I'm like,

14:34

come on little guy. You try.

14:37

Try and aim. I'm bad at aim.

14:39

Can you take the wheel? Alright.

14:44

So hack and flash now. Yes. Yeah.

14:48

2d6 plus strike. That is a 12. Wow.

14:52

So you can just deal your damage. Yes. And

14:54

I will take more damage. Oh man. So I

14:56

can feel even more. Half your shoulder, half in

14:58

his hand and his arm. Yes.

15:01

You can stab yourself. So

15:05

seven damage. Seven damage.

15:08

Then should I do his damage? Yeah. So

15:11

2d6 plus 10 take the highest. Nine.

15:14

Oh boy. There it is.

15:16

But I only take six damage

15:19

because I have three armor. Okay. Then I

15:21

think it is exactly that. It sounds

15:23

like you lop this dude's

15:25

arm off, but also the blade

15:27

hacks into your own shoulder. Yeah.

15:30

And then tuck goes, you got me damn for it.

15:35

See the axe gets thrown in the

15:37

air and anyone capable of perceiving the

15:39

ferry sees Terry with like pilot's goggles

15:41

and a little helmet on like why

15:44

you regard. You're

15:46

like steering the axe into this guy.

15:49

That Chad's playing video games. So then it lands

15:51

half in his shoulder. Chad, I

15:54

forgot to pay attention. But

15:56

yeah, the elf underneath you really

15:58

grits his teeth, but you hear them. most pained

16:00

expulsion of air that you've heard thus far.

16:02

I want to jump up and land on

16:04

the lashes around his neck and yank him

16:07

over from under Tuck. Yeah, totally. That was

16:09

enough damage that he is out of commission.

16:12

So considering you guys always have the choice whether or

16:14

not you want to kill people, this guy's not dead,

16:16

I'm assuming. My intention was to

16:18

incapacitate him so you guys can

16:20

interrogate him while I die of

16:22

this point. Whoa, okay, now.

16:26

Get a lot of good juicy things. And

16:29

as Tuck is like so fucked up, he's

16:31

like, someone's hit the tree on fire.

16:34

Someone's hit the tree on fire is the prophecy.

16:38

I have to die under a burning tree.

16:41

He's trying to like spin

16:43

some sticks, rubbing sticks

16:45

together. Crawling towards a root making

16:47

a fire bow like, come on,

16:49

trying to kill himself. Burn.

16:53

Um, Billy's run over to Tuck because he's like, oh

16:55

my god, you look so great in pallets. Billy

16:57

starts trying to do CPR on him.

17:01

Okay, describe this. Can

17:03

I? Yeah. What

17:05

are you attempting to achieve with the CPR? He's not

17:07

dead. I don't know. I mean, Billy's

17:10

like the tree could burn down any second.

17:12

He's like, Tuck's rubbing these

17:14

sticks together. What do you mean the tree

17:16

could burn down? Billy's seen

17:18

a lot in the last 30 minutes. That's true.

17:20

This has been a big day for Billy.

17:23

Yeah, I don't know. What does CPR

17:25

look like? I guess. He takes

17:27

the guy's hand and slaps Tuck in the

17:29

face. Yeah, actually. Yeah, there's a disembodied arm.

17:31

Yeah, so he's got the arm, Billy's

17:34

blown in Tuck's mouth, not even like

17:36

mouth to mouth, just like, oh

17:38

my god. Just like my lolling

17:40

open mouth. He's like, just

17:43

stay alive, Tuck. And

17:45

then he's using the arm to like hit

17:47

against his chest. So

17:50

gross. That's so disgusting.

17:53

As Tuck is like moving and doing stuff,

17:55

Billy's like running around him. I'm trying to

17:57

do CPR. You guys stop. And

18:00

for it, yeah, Tuck is becoming

18:03

more and more delirious and he's

18:05

like, why does it smell like

18:07

yogurt? Does fire smell like yogurt?

18:11

As Ving hauls the guy out

18:13

from underneath? Yeah. And

18:15

he's bleeding pretty aggressively. I

18:18

bandage up as I stop the wound. I stop the

18:20

wound. I hold this. I think something to consider is

18:22

you're going to have to force this guy to stay

18:25

alive. Okay, I take the thing that's around his neck,

18:27

take it off and I bind up his arm to

18:29

stop the bleeding. Totally. I

18:31

go over to Tuck and give him a poultice. Yeah. Okay,

18:34

great. Hold the blade out, taste what poison

18:36

it is. Poison for sure. Damn it. You

18:39

hear Tuck doze on the knife. Okay,

18:42

that's yours. You've earned this one. So

18:44

what's the poultice cure? Seven damage or

18:46

something? You heal them with seven damage. Yeah. Seven.

18:50

And expend a use. And that's great because I was at 11 HP. No,

18:54

that's not very much. I'm back up to 18, so

18:56

I'm good. Okay, that's good. And

18:59

this elf is lolling against a

19:02

root. His arm is gone. His

19:04

blood feeds the soil

19:07

underneath this tree. What

19:09

do you do? I send Beavercat back

19:11

to its master with the rangers command.

19:14

Oh, interesting. Yeah.

19:17

You hear Shadowpaw.

19:19

It's like you killed

19:22

my master. He was New Jersey

19:24

accent. You killed my master. I

19:28

thought he had a cooler voice. What's

19:30

cooler than this? That was a choice that you

19:32

100% made on your own. I

19:35

did this myself. Allow

19:38

me to rob this moment of all narrative. You

19:45

killed my master. And

19:47

for that I apologize. It

19:50

is the Ranger way to die in combat.

19:53

I should kill you. You

19:56

can try. This blood

19:58

debt will be paid. And

20:01

then he starts to like recede into the

20:03

darkness. Yeah cool our

20:05

time will come But

20:08

not now No

20:13

whispering from the from the shadow you can hear him

20:15

as he's walking away I will

20:17

come for you The

20:23

claws of shadow Paul You

20:26

hear it echoing further and further away

20:28

my jaws will close around your

20:30

throat And

20:32

the last thing I taste will be your death

20:37

And then you hear and then you go even

20:39

further away, oh fuck

20:41

there's like a dead bug down here Shit

20:45

and he's quiet for a while and

20:48

then you hear oh fuck don't get out

20:50

of here I Think

20:53

I went this way You're

20:58

walking here all of all of the lines

21:00

from Midnight Cowboy And

21:12

you are left alone with This

21:14

sinister Tom Hiddleston elf and also Nathaniel,

21:17

what do you do? So I'd

21:19

like to use lightning in a bottle on Tom

21:21

Hiddleston Okay Yeah,

21:23

absolutely. So what are you trying to do? Like

21:25

get the info of like who is a student?

21:28

Why are they? Following

21:30

us what's going on in general? Mm-hmm

21:33

with this whole scheme. Yeah, totally

21:36

nine aid how Lightning

21:39

in a bottle. Oh, I was wondering this

21:41

is a weird thing cuz Shawn said that

21:43

he is feeding this tree with the blood

21:45

from his body and I would use my

21:49

Spirit tongue to talk to the tree and it's

21:51

a tree of knowledge. So he's drinking The

21:55

tree his knowledge from his blood. Okay, 2d6 plus

21:57

bond Nine.

22:01

Yeah, that'll do it. Makes it a 10. Yes.

22:05

Fuck yeah. So how does this

22:07

knowledge manifest? I

22:09

think in his blood, like in the pools

22:12

of blood around him. Yeah. Like

22:14

the blood wells up from the soil underneath.

22:16

Yeah. Yeah. Because tuck

22:19

blood a lot too, so there's like a

22:21

shitload of blood. There's a lot of blood.

22:23

Whoa, Billy steps back like, kind

22:25

of freaky. So then is it like reflections in

22:28

the blood or is it like a- Like a

22:30

pensive of blood. Yeah. Pensive of blood.

22:32

Sinks his face into the palm of the blood. Yeah, basically

22:34

like, all right. Okay. So

22:37

you're not getting like, um, full,

22:40

you know, 3D movie basically,

22:42

but you're getting like flashes from

22:44

his perspective. And

22:46

the main thing that you get, Ving, you

22:49

recognize this right away as you're all watching

22:51

over Billy's shoulder. I'm, tuck

22:53

is lying on the, he's very poison.

22:55

Yeah, totally. Yeah. Um,

22:57

you see this elf in

23:01

a very fine chamber

23:05

that you would assume to be in a palace of some sort.

23:08

You see through the window flashes

23:10

of the peaks of great trees,

23:13

sunlight. The sun

23:15

peaks. Yes. The sun peaks.

23:17

Cranes. Oh yeah. Cranes

23:19

like beautiful cranes, golden feathered cranes like fly

23:21

past the window. Oh yeah. Floating

23:24

like blimp like gardens that we

23:26

talked about. Oh, right. Yeah. Like

23:28

a floating greenhouse, like crystalline greenhouse kind of

23:30

bobs in the distance. And

23:33

he is being handed a blade

23:36

and a coin. Oh. Obsidian

23:38

black with an eye carved in it.

23:41

And he's being handed it by

23:44

a woman that Ving you immediately recognize

23:46

as Solara Vankeren. Whoa. Oh,

23:50

de facto queen of the great forest and

23:52

ruler of the sun peaks. Wow.

23:55

What else? What else? fucking

24:00

10 here. Yeah, I'm really gonna do

24:02

it. I got the power of the knowledge

24:04

tree. Okay, so you see

24:06

him meeting with Wendy

24:10

in the dark of the wood alone,

24:13

conspiring. You

24:15

see him watching from a

24:17

distance, following quietly as Wendy

24:20

and her talon travel through the wood

24:23

with someone that appears to

24:25

be Dithaniel, Meng

24:27

Zumba, the ranger king. That

24:30

distanced perspective continues as

24:32

he watches surreptitiously as

24:34

Wendy and Nash. I

24:36

think it's all of them. I think I think Taurus is here, Lysander,

24:39

Nash, the whole party. And

24:43

Dithaniel is

24:45

standing much where he is now,

24:47

beneath the heart of the

24:49

wood. The true center

24:52

of the forest. And

24:55

he places a hand on the trunk

24:57

as it descends down where you see. And

24:59

he seems grimly determined from where this

25:01

elf is watching. And as

25:03

he turns to address his talon, Wendy

25:05

lets loose an arrow, striking him in

25:08

the chest. He approaches as

25:10

Dithaniel stumbles with this arrow, begins

25:12

to struggle. And as he does prepare

25:15

to fight his talon, this

25:18

elf reaches out and

25:20

grasps a nearby root and branches

25:22

lash down around Dithaniel's

25:24

wrists, holding him in place. And

25:27

that's where the vision ends. Holy shit.

25:30

Uh, Billy pulls his face out of the blood. Oh,

25:33

blood bait. Yeah. And

25:36

Tucker's coming to and he sees Billy like

25:38

this. And he's like, no,

25:40

Billy. And

25:45

it took like scoops him up in his

25:47

hands and he's like, Billy, no,

25:49

you were the best of us. I

25:53

will avenge you. Avenge

25:56

you. No,

25:58

he's fine. And the

26:00

thing just like he's putting on

26:02

a rag and wiping his face

26:04

off. I'm right here. Look.

26:09

And then the gardeners in the garden

26:11

above who have just become slightly calmer

26:13

here as Tuck's lips

26:15

start to go numb. His

26:21

tongue is starting to swell in his mouth. I'm

26:24

on the... Billy

26:27

is clapping on Tuck's cheeks

26:29

like... Whoa. Clapping

26:31

on his cheeks. Clapping

26:34

on his cheeks with his hands. I

26:38

give up. Stay with

26:41

us Tuck. Do

26:46

not walk gently into that dark

26:49

night. And then Tuck is saying

26:51

the same thing back. Stay with us Billy. Tuck

26:54

is swelling. Do not

26:56

go gentle into that dark night. The

27:00

thing is just like these are both fine. Anything

27:02

that's bad down, they're fine. So yeah

27:04

your dad is lashed to this

27:06

tree. Like the roots are around his

27:08

wrists and forearms and some you see

27:10

go up his bicep and like dig

27:12

into his shoulders. Are they like in

27:14

his mouth? Yeah. Let's go

27:16

for like Matrix. Like he's got roots in his

27:18

mouth and they're traveling down the shaft of the

27:20

spear into his chest as well. Yeah he's like

27:22

encased in roots. Fucked. And

27:26

they're like as the roots kind of

27:28

like get closer to him they become

27:30

more and more thorny. Like

27:32

bramble-y. Like so the

27:34

ones that are inside of him are for

27:36

sure like spiked. Sticking into his body. Good

27:38

lord. Whoa. Alright so what do you do? I

27:41

would like to commune with the tree and see if I can convince

27:44

it to let him go. Okay. Another

27:46

thing we have not done at all is try to talk to

27:48

the hanyu. Yep. That is

27:50

true. But one I was thinking of

27:53

maybe before talking to the tree I'll

27:55

check in with his state.

27:58

Yeah. He is not. Well,

28:00

yeah, is he alive? He

28:02

is alive. He is drawing

28:04

rattling breaths It

28:07

seems like he's been down here for a while It's

28:10

hard to say exactly how long but he

28:12

you know you you remember your father being

28:14

a hail and hearty man. Mm-hmm tall muscular

28:17

Looks like he's lost a lot of weight. Like

28:20

is it so much weight that The

28:22

man we saw like there's no way they could be the same people

28:25

That's a very good question. Do I have to roll

28:27

for it? Yeah, we could do this seems like a

28:29

discernry realities Okay,

28:32

so one question yeah, who's really

28:34

in control here you

28:38

think Billy looking at this man and

28:42

then thinking about the man that you had

28:45

met at the very threshold of Adonak

28:48

all waters tower you

28:51

were unsettled by he's an

28:53

intimidating figure and Something

28:56

that you realize is that He

28:59

never came inside the tower. He

29:02

never crossed the threshold Was

29:04

that because he didn't want to? Oh because

29:06

he couldn't whoa The

29:10

feeling that you felt in the forest

29:13

you Attributed

29:15

to being in a dangerous place

29:18

but maybe it was him and based

29:22

on the timeline and You

29:24

know, you've only been in the forest for a couple

29:27

weeks. Yeah, there's no way. There's

29:29

no way. Yeah, this is the

29:31

Daniel So who was

29:33

that and the answer is

29:35

there's only one possible solution Shiver

29:38

goes up Billy Colonel Dan Like

29:47

he like remembers like the gold And

29:55

a hand reaches up and pulls the

29:57

rubber mask We

30:00

all, and then you just think, Colonel

30:02

Dancer, come on! What

30:04

a wicked way to ruin our show.

30:06

That would be... Just

30:09

throw the last few episodes into the

30:11

can. Yeah, exactly. 10 seasons. Yeah,

30:14

basically. We go back to Podlark. The

30:16

last 200 years. Yeah.

30:18

You were fucking my mom the whole time.

30:22

Yeah, Sean just being like, and

30:24

Pig, it's so clear to you, those

30:26

conversations that you had with Dan,

30:29

all those years ago, him

30:31

being like, oh, you're an elf. Why

30:34

would he know that if he wasn't your dad? He

30:37

was always trying to get me to play catch with him. But

30:40

it turns out that I've just been an idiot

30:43

the whole time. The

30:47

only way he could know you were an elf if

30:49

he was your daddy, why would he try

30:52

to get you to eat that gross herb

30:54

stuff if he didn't know that

30:56

you were half elf and that you

30:58

could survive this? That

31:01

is our series long big reveal. He

31:03

was just trying to encourage me the

31:05

whole time, but doing a bad job

31:07

because he's just a shitty dad. AKA, just

31:10

a dad. Oh

31:12

my God, I forgive you, shitty dad. And

31:16

as you forgive your shitty dad, the

31:18

roots recede and he stands tall and new and

31:20

says, thank you, son. Let's go

31:22

fishing. And

31:25

the series ends with a fish. Roll credit. And

31:28

in the distance, you see Tuck dying under a

31:30

burning tree and Billy turning into a tree. Billy

31:33

tried to build a campfire and boil

31:35

water. Yeah. Making soup

31:37

out of his dead dad. All of the

31:39

climaxes that we've been driving towards all

31:42

this time happened in the background. I have a

31:44

page on just... No,

31:47

it's slightly on brand. I

31:50

get 500 emails at the exact same

31:52

time. What is wrong with you? Oh

31:56

yeah, Billy, you're the one that comes to this conclusion.

32:00

Okay, that's actually Nathaniel. The

32:03

man up there... Guys, he was... the

32:06

Kippest Man. Tuck,

32:09

can you hear me? I

32:11

love you too, Farrah. Vigga,

32:15

did you hear me? I

32:18

heard you. So I can try

32:20

and talk to him. I also have the small

32:23

metal dwarf I could send him in. Oh,

32:25

right. Oh, I haven't used him.

32:27

That is a very interesting idea. To try

32:29

and get him to cut him down? Or

32:31

like, when you say send

32:34

him in, do you mean like, to

32:36

Nathaniel? Yeah. Like, being like, fucking cut

32:38

him loose and he crawls inside Nathaniel.

32:40

I want to like, send him in

32:42

like, nano-bots. Sort of like a really

32:44

smart idea. My command, so I pull

32:46

out my flat piece of metal. Yeah.

32:48

Set it down in my hand and

32:51

summon the dwarf. So this is a

32:53

small little few inches long iron rod

32:56

that you guys found in the

32:58

Fanny Palace. That has

33:00

the Macallan word help engraved

33:02

on the side. And when you say help and ask

33:04

it for a command, it

33:06

turns into a tiny little metal dwarf that

33:09

completes that command. Right. Yeah, you say help

33:11

in Macallan and he pops

33:13

up and goes, and like salutes. And

33:15

I say, release my father. And

33:18

he hops down off your hand

33:20

and starts like, you

33:23

know, like, goes and starts like hacking through roots

33:25

that are holding him. So maybe while

33:27

it does this, Vang

33:30

and I can talk through stuff and try

33:32

to help Tuck. Yeah. What do we

33:34

think is happening with Elph Hiddleston here? Oh

33:37

shit. Right. Right. Yeah. He's

33:40

basically unconscious right now. You could just leave him for

33:42

a while. So he's not like a present threat? No.

33:44

Okay. Yeah, his arm hacked off. Can

33:47

I try to just push through the

33:49

poisoning so I am like, more conscious?

33:51

Absolutely. Okay. Can I do

33:53

that with unbound and bent unbroken? Could you

33:55

read it out for me one more time?

33:58

When you prepare yourself to endure some. hardship

34:00

without fighting back roll plus con on a

34:02

hit you can either take half damage or

34:04

you can Completely ignore one other ill effect.

34:07

So I want to be able to ignore

34:09

the effect of the poisoning Yeah, I think

34:11

that works like I think his talk understands

34:13

that like this is really important and a

34:15

dual understands that he wants to keep talking

34:23

I think that the result of this would

34:25

mean that you are not cured of the

34:27

poison But you're able to ignore it enough

34:29

to move around you doing your thing.

34:31

Yeah, but it might come back Yes,

34:34

if you succeed like I'm super fucked up.

34:36

Oh, yeah Maybe six was

34:38

calm Okay,

34:41

okay so you Just

34:45

haul yourself back up. Yeah, tux

34:47

in the pizza palace He

34:50

had to eat enough of the pizza Right

34:55

I was imagining that like that the

34:57

mental Hallucination of him overcoming

34:59

this was tuck trying to force his way

35:01

into the pizza palace. Well another touch like

35:03

no, we're close Yeah,

35:09

and I push I push past

35:11

it and I'm like pizza huts

35:14

always What

35:23

a fucking stupid show But

35:27

you are you are at least temporarily able

35:29

to ignore the effects of this poison As

35:33

you force yourself to your feet you

35:35

see elf Hiddleston's eyes like flutter open

35:38

and he sees you getting up And

35:40

you see in his face No,

35:43

and then he passes back out

35:45

before he passes that I wave at him with his own

35:47

arm Okay So

35:50

you are awake and the the helper is Working

35:53

away. All right guys. This guy's Nathaniel

35:56

the guy we've been talking to is the

35:59

give This man for sure. Yeah, it seems like it.

36:02

Yeah, and I think Ving's aunt

36:04

has something to do with all this. It

36:07

sounds like your aunt

36:10

has one armed guy

36:12

over there. And the rest of them.

36:14

And the rest, right, Nathaniel's whole talent

36:16

to betray him and plant

36:19

him here in the middle of the forest

36:22

to corrupt the forest. So

36:24

what we know is that Wendy's family were

36:27

just regular, like lower class

36:29

restaurant tours, basically, and

36:32

through noble corruption, lost

36:34

their holdings, basically. Like

36:37

their livelihood? Yeah. Which

36:39

basically radicalized her against the nobility.

36:41

Then we know that this

36:43

guy, Elph Hiddleston, was tasked by

36:46

Solara Van Kiren to help

36:48

the talent betray

36:50

Nathaniel. I feel like he would

36:52

have been the long term, what

36:54

do you call it? Plant? Plant.

36:57

Oh yeah, like he joined. Sleepersell. Yeah,

37:00

that makes sense. He was like

37:02

a secret wood wielder. Right, totally.

37:04

Yeah. Or he might have been a

37:07

gardener that was like recruited by

37:09

Solara as a key part of this betrayal.

37:12

Yeah, you know what I mean? Whatever

37:15

he is, he is an agent of

37:18

the enemy at this point. And also

37:20

like Elph, like

37:22

Elph, their timeline is so much longer than everyone

37:24

else's, so it makes sense that this has been

37:27

happening for like a really long time. Oh

37:29

yeah, totally. Like they've been

37:31

planning this for a while. And

37:33

the this that they're planning is putting a corruption at the

37:35

middle of the tree for question

37:38

mark. That is the thing that we

37:40

don't know. To infect the forest for

37:42

their gain or to do the bidding

37:44

for the give us man. Yep, those

37:46

are both fair conclusions to come to.

37:48

Yeah. It seems rooted in

37:50

the thing that we had talked about before where

37:52

it's like the Vox

37:54

Populi and the Vox Silvai, like

37:56

the voice of the forest versus the voice of the people.

38:00

Elvin Court wanted more control, so

38:02

they wanted to suppress the

38:04

will of the forest. Adam

38:06

L Essentially,

38:10

yeah. Adam

38:14

L He

38:16

would be like, yeah, I can help you

38:18

like get your way against the forest and

38:21

its will, but

38:29

we have to put our will inside of

38:31

it. And the mechanism for that

38:34

could be this, like... Elvin Court

38:37

That makes sense too. I mean, like the gardeners, when

38:39

they die, they plant their bodies beneath the tree, so

38:41

they can absorb what they know. So

38:44

it would make sense to put, you know, like someone

38:47

with the obsidian in there,

38:49

so they would infect the tree. Adam L

38:52

Yeah. If we think about it, like they

38:54

want to modify the tree and Elvin

38:56

bodies already have the ability to interface

38:58

with the tree after death. And

39:01

then the obsidian is hacking, like... Adam

39:04

L Yeah, it's a virus. Elvin Court Yeah,

39:06

it's a virus hacking Nathaniel's body, allowing them to insert whatever

39:08

they want into the tree. Elvin Court And

39:11

it would make sense if they didn't want Nathaniel to

39:13

die because they need him alive to keep feeding the

39:16

tree. Adam L Yes, very

39:18

matrixy. Elvin Court Yeah, totally.

39:20

Adam L Yeah. Elvin

39:22

Court So all we have to do is kill Nathaniel. Adam

39:24

L Yeah. Adam L But

39:27

that is a solution. Adam L That

39:29

is a solution and it solves the Gesh. Adam

39:31

L Yeah. Well, no,

39:33

the Gesh was... Adam L Because it's the

39:35

man who is... Adam L ...known as the

39:37

Ranger King and that's the fucking gibbous man. Adam L Well,

39:40

he's impersonating the man known as the Ranger King.

39:42

Adam L Exactly. Adam

39:44

L So wait, if we take Nathaniel out

39:46

of here and we show him to everyone, we're like, this is Nathaniel.

39:48

Adam L And then we pull

39:51

his head off. Adam L That's removing the Gesh.

39:53

Adam L I don't think you know what

39:55

the word Gesh means. Adam L I

39:58

feel like how its word is so important, the man known as the Ranger... who's

40:00

been walking around for whoever knows how long

40:02

as the Ranger King. Like the

40:04

Gibbous. It's the Gibbous man. Yeah.

40:06

Yeah. Yeah. Paul

40:09

boy. Somebody roll a something. Because I

40:11

want to weigh in, but I can't just weigh in. What

40:13

would be the best thing to roll for when

40:15

we're like using the info? We've already kind of

40:18

gleaned. It is discerned realities, but somebody

40:20

roll it. Right. I

40:22

got a seven. So you get one question off the

40:24

list. Somebody regarding

40:27

the Gesh was useful

40:29

or valuable to me. So

40:31

obviously you can't really know, know anything

40:34

without speaking to like

40:36

the Oval Council. Yeah. When

40:38

the Gesh was sworn, it seems like there

40:41

was an imposter pretending to

40:43

be the Ranger King. So

40:45

does it apply that that

40:47

is the person that the Gesh was sworn

40:50

against or is it the title of the

40:52

Ranger King? Jessica was arguing because right now

40:54

the imposter is the one who is known

40:56

as the Ranger King. Yeah.

40:59

And he's been the one, like if Daniel's been down here

41:01

a long time, I don't know

41:03

how long then the Gibbous man's been up there.

41:06

So when we swore the Gesh, it's

41:09

for sure that it was the Gibbous man. Yeah. Because

41:11

it's less than two months ago. Yeah. Yeah,

41:14

totally. The one thing that Billy realizes, you know,

41:16

in this like bouncing stuff off with thing, the

41:18

two of you come to the conclusion that the

41:22

initial plan of change the runes to

41:24

try and dissolve the court. You think

41:26

about that idea now that

41:29

you're here in this place and you know

41:31

what you know about the court and the elves and

41:33

you think about the cutting with

41:36

the runes nature's law on changing. You

41:40

don't think that the changing of the

41:42

runes was what corrupted like

41:44

the elven court or whatever. It

41:46

had to have been this demonic

41:49

influence. That makes so much sense. So

41:51

that means Nathaniel has been down there

41:53

for like years. Yeah, totally. Yeah.

41:56

So the big takeaway from that at least is

41:59

that. The

42:01

law of the forest is

42:03

immutable. It was

42:05

the demonic influence that corrupted

42:07

the hearts of the nobles. And

42:10

also regular old ambition

42:13

and greed. But like,

42:16

you think now at this point that

42:18

that would be impossible.

42:21

Changing the law of the wood in a way that

42:23

would affect the court enough that the court would dissolve

42:27

automatically would not be

42:29

possible. But if we remove the

42:31

source, then that

42:33

will have like a trickle down effect for

42:35

the people. Yeah, the one

42:38

thing you do think, especially seeing like

42:40

Solara handing out the coins and whatnot.

42:42

And what you know about demonic influence,

42:44

the corruption of the wood very likely

42:46

put dozens, hundreds,

42:50

maybe thousands of elves in a position where

42:52

they would be easier to be possessed. Oh,

42:55

so it's hard to say how many demons currently

42:58

live in the wood. Is Solara a demon then?

43:00

I think she might be under the influence of

43:02

one. No way to know. Okay,

43:05

what if, okay, Tuck,

43:07

here, here, I had

43:09

just had a brainwave. Okay. Or

43:11

I, as I like to call

43:14

it, a brainwave. Okay.

43:17

Nod sagely. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

43:19

Uh-huh. I couldn't

43:21

think of a pun. I know. I

43:24

thought you were going to say something like pizza

43:26

related because- I was trying to get there.

43:28

Yeah. Has your arms crossed,

43:30

offering a better pun. This

43:32

is such a good vibe. Um, uh, uh, uh, uh, fuck.

43:40

Fuck. It still looks

43:42

pretty. A brainwave, aka stuffed

43:44

crust. Stuffed crust. Yeah. The

43:47

thing that Tuck thought though

43:49

was, what if

43:52

we just smash that piece of

43:54

obsidian that's in its chest? Mm-hmm.

43:57

What, because there is a demon in there. And

44:00

then what if we try and trap it in one

44:02

of the coins that I have and

44:04

then maybe that would suck all of the

44:06

demonic influence out of the woods so the

44:08

woods at least get better faster. It's

44:12

an interesting idea trying to exercise the

44:14

tree basically. Yes. So

44:16

it's drank so much of Nathaniel's

44:19

corrupted blood, would

44:21

we have to feed it something to purify

44:23

it or does it just need time? Oh

44:25

yeah. Should we spell

44:28

it Laura to see if we can think

44:30

of a way to do it? Yeah, sure.

44:32

Yeah. 2d6 plus intelligence. Okay,

44:34

someone else should do it, not me.

44:37

Do you have minus 2 intelligence? I

44:39

have minus 1. Who do I? Oh,

44:41

you have minus 1 intelligence? Duh. I

44:44

have zero. Oh my god.

44:47

I got a 7. Oh perfect. Interesting

44:50

but not useful. And this is

44:52

like how to try and draw this influence

44:54

out of the tree. What if you make

44:56

it kind of useful? Because it would be

44:58

out of Nathaniel. That's an interesting proposition there.

45:01

This time try to make it useful. Well like kind

45:03

of useful. So

45:06

make it useful in an interesting way. You

45:09

have a deep personal experience

45:12

with nature and being a

45:14

tree. Oh yeah, Billy goes back into his soup

45:16

palace about his tree memories and he's like,

45:18

man, I sure slurped up a lot of

45:20

stuff back in the day. So

45:23

Billy's floating around in a bowl

45:25

of Italian wedding soup

45:27

with all the meatballs and a

45:30

meatball floats by that has like a tree made

45:32

out of noodles and you're like, I know that

45:34

tree. I remember this tree.

45:37

And it is a memory that Billy has from

45:39

his tree days. A part of the forest became

45:41

sick through like polluted groundwater. The

45:44

only thing that healed the forest

45:46

at that time was

45:48

when a lightning strike

45:51

on a warm summer came down

45:54

and burnt the forest to the ground and

45:56

the trees that regrew were better

45:59

for it. There is

46:01

another way, potentially another route you

46:03

could go. What's that?

46:05

So burning down the tree, huge swing,

46:08

huge. Would work

46:11

for sure. You would absolutely eliminate

46:14

the source of this corruption in a meaningful

46:16

way. The alternative

46:19

is remove the poison

46:21

source of the corruption, which is up to Daniel's body

46:24

and then move

46:27

against the force that

46:29

it has created. So

46:31

you could be like, okay, either we burn the

46:34

forest, we burn this tree down, and then everybody

46:36

that's working against it is fucked because their thing

46:38

is gone. Or you

46:42

start the process of the tree healing and you go

46:44

hunt down Solara Venkir. And

46:46

allow the tree to heal itself. Exactly.

46:49

I have another idea that we can

46:52

add to this. I like that idea,

46:54

but here's another idea because I just

46:56

had what I like to call a

46:59

brainwave. Also

47:03

known as a pizan. Okay,

47:11

so we don't burn the

47:13

tree down because that's destructive and dangerous.

47:17

And there are some other reasons.

47:20

He crosses his arms, he's like, yeah, totally. Yeah,

47:24

we all are thinking individually of

47:26

this. There's

47:29

some other reasons why people might not

47:32

want to be within the proximity of

47:34

a burning tree. I

47:36

mean, air pollution's for one. So

47:39

much. And

47:42

so many offsets. Yeah,

47:44

cars, things, things about our footprint. It's

47:46

bad for your lungs, not good. So

47:50

we're not going to do that. So we take the

47:52

thing out of the tree, we take the obsidian out

47:54

of the tree. And then what

47:57

if we take elements cutting and

47:59

plant it? in

48:01

the tree so that the

48:03

cutting starts growing on its own, like

48:05

a pure source on its own. And

48:08

I have sunstone. Oh,

48:11

so you can feed it sunlight. We

48:13

can feed it sunlight down here even.

48:15

Billy, remember when you made the knowledge

48:17

tree grow really fast in Hibernia? What

48:19

if we like, you know, like made

48:21

it like... Like just really

48:23

made it big. You made it like

48:25

so big inside of the shitty tree.

48:28

What if you made a good tree?

48:30

So it shoots like up and like

48:32

spurts huge out of the tree. Billy,

48:36

he knows if he agrees with

48:39

this, it's a very important job, really big

48:41

boy job to do this. Uh-huh. I

48:43

will give up my life for this yet. Wait, what?

48:45

No, that's not what I'm asking. Oh, okay.

48:48

No, you're right. Right. I didn't die last time.

48:50

It's fine. No, I could do it. I will

48:52

sacrifice my life for this mission. Billy

48:54

doesn't really understand. How he did that. He

48:58

handled the blood in the earth and he's

49:00

like, I know what I must do. No,

49:02

no, no, Billy, it's okay. I will do

49:04

this for my family. Is it safe? Can

49:06

you do it safely? I can do it safe if I

49:08

have a nap. Cool. Yeah, we could do that. I can

49:13

do it. This is a great plan.

49:16

You guys have come up with a really solid plan. Can

49:19

you reiterate the plan to us? And

49:21

maybe say it to us as if we were fucking.

49:28

Try not to put it in our own

49:30

words so that we can understand it. So

49:33

the plan is to use

49:37

Elmin's cutting of the

49:39

heart tree and

49:41

Billy's ability to draw

49:44

time into a physical material,

49:47

sick, and Ving's Sunstone

49:49

and a variety of other materials to

49:51

grow a new knowledge tree here, attempting

49:54

to fix the heart tree. Okay. So

49:56

that's what I mean, the main thing

49:58

for this plan. to consider is that

50:01

you need the cutting if you want

50:03

to do this. You don't have it with you. You

50:05

don't know where Elmin is. You hope that he's safe.

50:07

Oh shit, but he signaled you when... When

50:09

we fell in the garden. ... when we fell in

50:12

the hole. I would like to talk to the tree,

50:14

use Thing Talker and try to locate Elmin. Does

50:17

that make sense? Uh, yeah. We can

50:19

find them really fast. Yeah. Because this tree

50:21

is the size of a city. You also

50:23

have that, like, Eye of the Tiger on...

50:25

Malgaff. Malgaff, yeah. Great.

50:27

I'm going to check in with Eye of the Tiger

50:29

first and see where she's at. Uh, yeah. She

50:32

is probably in the garden, like,

50:34

speaking to guards and

50:37

other gardeners. Like, there is... There are... You see that

50:39

the garden is, um, not

50:42

full, but bustling. Like, there are

50:44

people, like, searching the grounds.

50:46

I bet there are also, like, some are, like, meditating

50:48

or something like that. Totally, yeah. There are gardeners

50:50

that are sitting on the... on the ground, trying

50:53

to commune with the tree in some way. Okay.

50:55

So, I'd like to try and use the World

50:57

Talker and talk to the tree. So,

50:59

like, you reach out to the tree. Do

51:03

you wish to take my

51:05

deal? To be

51:07

free forever? Um...

51:13

You know what I want. In this moment, I want to

51:15

know what you want. You

51:18

feel like a thrill. Cool.

51:21

Yeah. Run through the tree. I

51:25

want everything.

51:29

And you feel that, like, reverberate through the

51:31

roots and through this cavern. Whoa.

51:34

So, the demon of want? You're

51:37

not far. Consumption?

51:39

Not far. Hunger? Not

51:41

far. Somebody's

51:43

gonna have to roll something. Oh, I'm gonna roll.

51:46

I'm gonna roll spell Lord. Yeah, I've done this.

51:48

It's a turn reality. It's a turn reality. Do

51:51

you think supposed wisdom? Ooh, that's no good. Oh, Lord.

51:53

Great. I got six. Oh, I helped. I helped. I'm

51:56

gonna get over here and touch this tree with me.

51:59

And touch... So many trees. Nine.

52:03

Nine. Makes it a seven.

52:05

Perfect. Not

52:07

doing anything at all. Yeah. Oh

52:09

no. I want chicken. Oh, I'm

52:11

so hungry for chicken. Give me away. But I have to

52:13

help you guys so much. All

52:16

right. So

52:18

what question do you want

52:20

up to certain realities? Yeah.

52:23

Who's really in control here

52:25

in terms of the demon?

52:28

Yeah. Great question. It's

52:30

interesting because it felt strange walking through the wood

52:32

and seeing it sick in such a way because

52:34

that's not how you

52:37

know demonic influence to work. Demons

52:40

and icons typically reflect human

52:43

not constructs rather than natural

52:45

desire. So you're like, where

52:47

is this tree so hungry? Like everything's hungry.

52:49

Why is this such a big deal? How

52:51

is hunger a demon? But

52:54

the hunger over everything,

52:57

the hunger at the cost of all confirms

53:00

to you that this must be the demon

53:02

of greed. You would assume that

53:04

this has been like, like Abdul

53:06

said earlier, like a way to hack

53:09

the tree basically. For some reason, the

53:11

gibbous man wanted to corrupt

53:13

the entire forest, but couldn't

53:15

do it in his usual way. So he

53:17

used the elven connection to the wood. You

53:19

assume and for some reason an

53:22

arrow instead of a coin to sort

53:24

of leech that influence into the tree.

53:27

I feel like the knowledge trees because

53:29

they are like spiritually impud like they're

53:31

part fairy almost like they're harder for

53:34

like the gibbous man to gain purchase

53:36

over. That's true. They

53:38

are kind of like we were saying like, like

53:41

how druids kind of overlap. So

53:43

I think of like the knowledge trees being the same thing

53:45

where it's like the really old knowledge. Yeah.

53:48

And I think in just the narrative of the moon

53:50

has no, doesn't feed the trees, the

53:52

trees live without the moon. Right. You

53:54

know what I mean? Yeah. They need

53:56

the sun. They don't

53:59

give a fuck about the next. It's Skye. Yeah.

54:02

So it makes a lot of sense that

54:04

it was like the give us man needed

54:06

the elven people as this mediating interface. Can

54:09

we get clear answers from the tree if

54:12

I just take the arrow out

54:15

of Nathaniel? That's a great

54:17

question. It would definitely lose its connection to

54:19

that demon, you think? I

54:22

mean, I've been wanting to pull this arrow out for a while.

54:24

Do you wanna do it then? I was thinking that, does

54:26

it make sense? Yes. The helper

54:29

emerges from Nathaniel's mouth. Work

54:32

done. God, I forgot

54:34

you were in there. But he's still hung

54:36

by his wrists, by his arms and shoulders,

54:38

but the internal work, he nods,

54:40

gives a thumbs up, and

54:42

starts to move towards the branches. So

54:44

this is a, you know that internally

54:46

he is at least stabilized. Okay. Cool.

54:49

So he's really just mostly held up by his arms at this point.

54:52

Yeah, they're dug into his arms, but it's

54:54

not as bad as a bunch of thorns

54:56

in his gut. Did I imagine

54:58

he came out and he was wearing like

55:00

a little like doctor's outfit? Yeah. He

55:03

looked like that Patrick Dempsey character. From

55:06

Grey's Anatomy? Grey's Anatomy. What's that ring

55:08

that's so silver? Yeah, the little reflective

55:10

thing they wear on their forehead? Yeah.

55:14

He's just like, oh, God. This is definitely

55:16

what you wanna do after surgery. So much blood.

55:18

Yeah, it's like blood all over. It's

55:20

like a little metal face. Yeah. This house is

55:23

clear. But

55:26

yeah, the work has taken time, but

55:29

it is complete. Okay.

55:31

I'm gonna use discern realities to see if I

55:33

can extract this arrow safely. Yeah, totally. Five

55:37

plus wisdom? Yeah. Seven.

55:39

Okay, nice. One question. What

55:42

here is valuable useful to me? Yeah.

55:45

So looking at the way this

55:47

arrow is like embedded and

55:50

you're kind of like, you know, touching around the

55:52

wound, like trying to feel, cause Elvin

55:54

physiology is however slightly a little bit

55:57

different than human, like their organs aren't

55:59

necessarily in the. exact same spot, not

56:01

the exact same size. Yeah,

56:03

exactly. No

56:07

wonder they're so stable on snow.

56:10

Yeah. Such

56:12

a low center of gravity. Yeah.

56:15

Way down. Yeah. Like

56:17

a tripod. So cold. Like a

56:19

good dude. You can't do it too long or it gets

56:21

too small though. Such

56:25

so cold. Not Coco? You

56:30

looking at this wound and the arrow and

56:33

feeling around, at this point,

56:35

like his clothes are like hanging off of him. He was

56:37

wearing his ranger gear when

56:40

he came down here, but he is like

56:42

so lean now. You

56:45

are devastated to learn

56:47

that this arrow most certainly struck him in

56:49

the heart. No. He is

56:51

alive and you assume that your

56:54

father's sheer force of will necessitated.

56:59

He has been kept alive either

57:02

by himself or through this demonic influence,

57:04

but. Or by the tree, being so

57:06

connected to the tree. Exactly. The

57:09

beating heart of the wood itself may have kept

57:11

him alive. You do not think

57:13

all is lost. You think there

57:15

is something that you could devise as a way to

57:17

save him or someone else

57:19

might be able to figure out a way? Because he

57:22

is alive right now. I

57:24

mean, there is plenty of elves up there who,

57:27

like this is just Daniel. They would

57:29

help him. Yeah. There is also a

57:32

fanny pack around your waist containing two of

57:34

the greatest minds of the magical age. Oh.

57:37

Oh. Oh. We

57:39

are just... I'm right. Then

57:42

we have to talk to them. We

57:45

have to interrupt them. I mean, am I...

57:47

Does that... Okay. That

57:50

makes a lot of sense. The way that I saw this,

57:52

Nathaniel is a

57:54

very mentally powerful person.

57:58

The reason that there is an arrow is because... because

58:00

he never would have willingly accepted

58:03

demonic possession in a

58:05

million years. They forced it on him into his heart. Nathaniel's

58:09

mind is essentially like

58:11

the spiritual, iconic,

58:14

and cognitive equivalent of

58:16

a diamond. It was

58:18

like, you're not getting anything in there

58:20

unless you shatter it.

58:22

The only person that could destroy Nathaniel's

58:24

mind is Nathaniel and he absolutely was

58:26

attempting to do that himself over time.

58:30

And do you believe that with a comic? Pirell

58:33

is a transmuter.

58:35

He's proficient in the transmutation

58:37

of flesh specifically. He

58:39

might be able to help or at least tell you if it's possible

58:41

to save him. Him and Morris

58:43

also built the hyperbaric chamber that Aquaria's

58:46

in. That's true. That is also very

58:48

true. She was fatally wounded and they

58:50

built that thing to keep her alive.

58:53

Yeah. Very, very true. So

58:55

we shouldn't take the arrow out here. We should take him

58:57

into the fanny pack. The

58:59

other thing that we should consider

59:01

is you have thus far not taken

59:04

out the fanny pack because you are worried about

59:07

exposing it. There's a risk,

59:09

but I think that we need to take this

59:11

risk to try and save your dad. Okay.

59:15

That makes sense. All right. Can

59:17

Billy build a fairy circle? Yeah.

59:21

Yeah. Yes. That

59:23

would be sick. Okay. Let's

59:26

talk about this because this is a move we've

59:28

spoken about the changeling. Potentially having. So this is

59:30

the first time that Billy's going to attempt to

59:33

create a circle himself. Okay. Do

59:35

I have to use something? Maybe I have to use like, I feel

59:37

like I should use something. I mean, definitely

59:39

a fairy child hold. Yeah. I'll use

59:41

a fairy child hold. So I'm at zero

59:43

for the rest of the day. Yeah.

59:46

Probably 2d6 plus charisma. This

59:49

is sick. This is fucking cool. Oh,

59:51

with charisma. Yeah. See,

59:54

I got 13. Wow.

59:56

Wow. All eight. All

59:59

right. Let's get up to 20, you guys. Let's

1:00:01

walk him through it. Get up to 20? And

1:00:04

now it is a... Okay,

1:00:07

please describe for me how Billy

1:00:09

goes about this process, knowing that

1:00:11

he needs to create a protective

1:00:14

place for his friends. Okay, so there

1:00:16

are dances that Druids would do to

1:00:18

call on different spirits and

1:00:21

fairies, depending on their need, and

1:00:24

sort of like how he knitted the withershins.

1:00:26

He has to knit the fairy circle, basically.

1:00:28

He has to weave the circle and the

1:00:30

walls to protect us. Whoa,

1:00:34

cool. I

1:00:37

love that. Yeah, that's what he

1:00:39

does. Almost like pulling vines from the

1:00:41

fairy world. You can't see them, but he can see

1:00:43

them. He'll have to

1:00:45

dance in the pattern of that weave.

1:00:48

So he's dancing around in this

1:00:50

circle, like joyously

1:00:53

weaving pieces of the fairy into the

1:00:55

material plane. Yeah, because the mushroom

1:00:57

rings kind of do that on their

1:00:59

own with their mycelium networks underneath. Yeah,

1:01:02

cool. So

1:01:04

then when Billy makes a ring, what

1:01:06

is the physical ring that can be seen in the material when

1:01:09

he does this? I guess you

1:01:11

do see fungus roots coming up from

1:01:13

the ground. These

1:01:16

little white threads start weaving. Yeah.

1:01:20

There's no actual wall being built, you

1:01:22

can see, but energetically there is a

1:01:24

wall. And yeah, where

1:01:26

Billy steps and weaves, more

1:01:29

white threads weave together to create

1:01:32

the circle. Cool. Are

1:01:34

there little mushrooms, or is it just

1:01:36

an almost imperceptible circle? The mushrooms, no,

1:01:38

there's no mushrooms. I like that in

1:01:40

Billy's in the fairy realm, there's

1:01:42

all those little glowing mushrooms popping up, but you

1:01:44

can't see them, the fruiting. And you

1:01:47

can feel in the air, like when you close

1:01:49

the window on a stormy night,

1:01:51

it goes like, and

1:01:55

then there's just stillness around you. Like there's a

1:01:57

new quality to the silence. Yeah. Billy

1:02:00

yeah he's like okay

1:02:03

I'm done we like yeah

1:02:05

don't clap insulting

1:02:13

no you're dead no you're

1:02:16

dead we don't think about

1:02:18

the dance we don't think

1:02:20

about the dance it's kind of embarrassing really

1:02:23

it's not something you should see well thank

1:02:26

you for building the fairy ring

1:02:28

Billy you're welcome did you build

1:02:30

it around decennial or just like

1:02:32

in the chamber good

1:02:35

question yeah I guess like our

1:02:37

decennial and Hiddleston included

1:02:40

in this or are

1:02:42

you like dragging them into the ring afterwards we're

1:02:44

dragging decennial and I'm not dragging to say

1:02:47

or the Hiddleston I think we're just

1:02:49

gonna call him Hiddleston yeah easier at

1:02:51

this point the helper completes

1:02:54

the work of removing the

1:02:56

remaining roots from decennial allowing

1:02:59

him to be slumped

1:03:02

slumped into your arms if you so choose

1:03:04

yep and you you don't

1:03:06

realize until you pass into the fairy ring

1:03:09

just the weight of this place that's been weighing

1:03:11

on you you like you feel a weight has

1:03:13

lifted off your shoulders as you enter this safe

1:03:15

place and you think you're

1:03:18

good to open up

1:03:20

the fanny pack if you choose let's

1:03:22

take him inside yeah tech starts building

1:03:25

the tent yeah I

1:03:27

feel like Billy needs to stay outside for this though

1:03:29

to like keep it maintain it he has

1:03:31

to like speak to the like speak to

1:03:33

the wall to let decennial in okay

1:03:36

mmm-hmm Billy are you coming in I

1:03:39

don't know if I can like the roots are sort

1:03:41

of like showing up around Billy's

1:03:43

feet I'm

1:03:46

worried about if they'll collapse

1:03:48

if I'm gone do you want me to

1:03:50

stay with you it's pretty scary out here um

1:03:53

I I think we're okay I

1:03:55

built this pretty well but I do want to

1:03:57

stay out here and just make sure like nothing

1:03:59

opens up and um I Think

1:04:03

thing needs you more right now Okay,

1:04:06

Billy if you need me

1:04:08

you call me. Okay. I will okay the the

1:04:11

cough fart Like

1:04:13

we practice and then tuck shakes his head. He's

1:04:15

just like just scream if something bad I'm

1:04:19

gonna cough fart And

1:04:23

after tuck says that he goes and he like

1:04:25

ruffles through Elf Hiddleston's shit, and

1:04:27

he like pulls the obsidian coin that he had

1:04:30

out. Yeah, he puts it in his bag of

1:04:32

coins You finish

1:04:34

building the tent you open up the flap Talk

1:04:37

you duck inside Vang

1:04:40

you carry your shockingly frail

1:04:42

father So light

1:04:44

through the doorway. Yes like you

1:04:46

remember this towering man, and

1:04:48

now he's Skin and bones

1:04:51

and Billy you sit in this chamber

1:04:54

alone Looking up at

1:04:56

like the tattered threads of the vines that held

1:04:59

Nathaniel Vang Zumba here for God knows how

1:05:01

long and you're

1:05:03

a cough what and Hiddleston's

1:05:06

eyes Flutter open and

1:05:09

they swim in his perception

1:05:11

until they lock on you whoa and

1:05:14

he says He

1:05:17

knows you're here And

1:05:20

that's where we're gonna end it for this week I'm

1:05:23

your game master Sean O'Hara joining me as

1:05:26

always playing Tacoma Dome the barbarian Abdul Aziz

1:05:28

So I'm playing Ving the half-elf druid Paul

1:05:30

opers take care and playing fat Billy the

1:05:32

halfling thief Jessica tie Bye, thank you to

1:05:35

Aaron Reid from Vancouver Sunday service for our

1:05:37

intro and outro music if you want to

1:05:39

hear all of Aaron's Original music you can

1:05:41

find that at Aaron Reid not bandcamp calm

1:05:44

and all the music produced for the show

1:05:46

at soundcloud.com If you

1:05:48

want to support the show you can support us at patreon.com

1:05:51

Spell or or spell or comm slash money, please

1:05:53

and most of all thank you to all of you for

1:05:55

listening We'll see you next time who

1:06:02

tried the best they could. But

1:06:05

dumb and scared and lost they'd

1:06:07

be, for times

1:06:09

were bressed in reverie.

1:06:14

And though our journey may

1:06:16

be light, he has been

1:06:18

given. He

1:06:22

will not leave you without

1:06:25

a resolution. Return

1:06:30

next week to hear some more whilst

1:06:32

you commute, or do you choose?

1:06:37

And for you

1:06:39

I'd gladly applaud.