Episode 23

What Happened Here Recently?
Talking to inanimate objects (00:24)
https://plus.google.com/105089743033557595164/posts/PyhRFBrpFNq

What Should I Be On the Lookout For?
The Gauntlet family of podcasts (03:26)

What Here is Not What it Appears to Be? 
Fronts - Part Two (05:57)

What Here is Useful or Valuable to Me
We announce the finalists and winner of our location-based custom move contest (15:47)
Scroll down for the text of each move

What is About to Happen? 
Our ongoing comic strip AP featuring the adventures of Lucero Castafiel (26:07)

Lucero’s signature weapon (26:58)

“I may not be the smartest…” (27:46)

“…but I can kill things real good.” (28:35)

The orc one-eye (29:16)

“I am the man, stinking of the cave from which I crawled!” (29:56)

The Temple of the Upside Down Masters
by Daniel Fowler

Although it is referred to as a Temple, this place contains no idols or sacred texts.  Instead it is populated with a seemingly random assortment of unhinged hermits.  The structure itself baffles visitors as it is carved into the side of a cliff with no permanent means of entry.  Patrons must rappel from the top or climb from the bottom.  Inside is a network of rooms and passageways built to normal human proportions.  Many rooms are furnished with stone furniture still attached to where they must have been carved from the rock along with the space.  The most notable feature of the temple is that all of its architecture and furniture appears to have been created upside-down.  visitors often bump their heads on the backs of tall chairs and tables hanging down from the roof.

Shunned by many as a place of insanity, a few Sages do make regular pilgrimages to the temple to speak with those residents known as Wise Masters.  These Masters are installed into the furniture with the assistance of ropes and waited upon by the temple’s more lucid members.  They dispense wisdom and insight to those who bring offerings to the temple.   

A minimum offering of 100 gp worth of supplies is required to gain an audience with one of the Masters.  ROLL+X where X is each additional 100 gp worth of supplies or other tribute.
hold 3 on a 10+, 2 on a 7-9, 1 on a 6- in addition to the GM move.

*The Master beckons you closer and whispers a string of rhyming nonsense into your ear.
*The Master indicates a piece of equipment from your person. if you pass it up to him he will examine it, touch it in several places, taste or lick it, and converse with it briefly before returning it to you.
*The master rummages through his robes and tosses down a small hand made item of little value and no immediate use.

Whatever the Master gives you seems useless at the time but later your thoughts click together in unexpected ways and the Masters meaning becomes obvious.  You may use each to give you a +1 forward on a spout lore you would otherwise have no justification for knowing anything about.    Explain how you came to this new understanding.

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The Garden of Bao-Yu
by Tom McGrenery

A large, rambling landscaped garden surrounded by high stone walls, the Garden of Bao Yu is serene and tranquil. Among its lakes, streams, wooden bridges and winding paths, the grounds are sculpted to resemble the hills and karst formations of the Southlands. Elegant pagodas and pavilions offer visitors places to rest, take tea and enjoy the views. There is an atmosphere of gentle decay.

Bao Yu and his cousins lived here for many years. Chunying married an imperial official and died far away. The fey Yulin died of a broken heart when Bao Yu married Chun-tan. Cast aside by Bao Yu, Chun-tan departed the Garden years ago. Now only Bao Yu himself remains.

When you walk the paths with Bao Yu, he invites you to compose a couplet about the garden. If you consent, speak two lines of elegant poetry (rhyming is optional) and roll +CHA.

On a 10+, choose three. On a 7-9, choose one:
- You and your friends may stay the night in the Bamboo Hall: make camp without needing to consume rations or stand watch.
- Bao Yu praises your creativity. Gain 1xp.
- Bao Yu compares your couplet to an ancient poem. Take +1 forward to your next Spout Lore roll.
- Bao Yu relates how a feature of the garden recalls a real place. Take +1 forward to next time you Make A Perilous Journey.

On a 6- you have made a faux pas - Bao Yu becomes withdrawn and sullen.

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The Nekuian Caverns
by Jim Morrison

In some place remote from human civilization there is a barely noticeable cave entrance. A set of rough-hewn stairs winds its way deep into the ground, over an underground river and past a lifeless bone-white tree. It opens up to a series of massive carved chambers where any fire you bring sputters and dims and the air is worryingly stale. At the far end of the caverns is a shallow trench in the ground, meant to receive the blood of a sacrificial animal, such as a flawless heifer or a hearty ram.
When you perform a ritual sacrifice, spilling blood into the trench, the caverns transform and the wall beyond you becomes the Black Gates of Death’s Kingdom. Tell the MC what the Black Gates look like. The spirits of the dead crowd past the Black Gates to drink the blood you have spilled, and you may seek congress with them once they drink.

Choose as many as you want from the following options to gain hold 1-for-1:

​* You must perform a sacrifice that is extraordinary in some way. Tell the MC what you do, and the MC will tell you if it is enough.
* You must intimidate or fend off other spirits, at your peril, in order to speak to the spirits you have come for.
* You must share the food of the dead and will be forever changed by it. If ever you roll Last Breath and get a 10 or 11, you must take the 7-9 option instead.
* One of the spirits will bring you terrible news, or the spirit will be an important person who has died in your absence, and the spirit’s appearance will bring the terrible news of his or her death.
* One of the spirits will request an important favor which you cannot bring yourself to refuse.
You may spend your hold 1-for-1 to choose from the following:
* You speak to a specific spirit who has important information you desire. It will briefly answer three questions you pose to it to the best of the knowledge it had in life.
* You speak with the spirits of famed men or women who lived when the world was young. The MC will reveal the location or other useful detail of a place of power or a lost artifact. Name the spirit and tell the MC its life story and how this information is revealed in the spirit’s story.
* You speak to your departed friends and family. For each other player at the table, name a deceased person and identify your relationship to that spirit. Tell that player either: a quirk or detail about the person, how the person died, or what emotion the person inspires. The other player will answer the remaining questions and play out the scene of you speaking with the spirit. At best the exchange is bittersweet, but for each scene you play out, mark 1 hold. You can use this hold to take +1 forward when you do something life-affirming.
* You speak with a spirit who conveys a useful prophecy about the future. The MC will give you a warning and tell you something you can do to avoid a terrible fate, but no one else will hear or credit the truth of this prophecy.
* You may steal an important object or monster from Death’s Kingdom, but it will be dangerous to you, or Death will desire its return.
Alternately, you may spend 3 hold to ask Death for the return of a friend or loved one. State the offer you make to Death in return for the life, and leave the Nekuian Caverns without looking back.
Tell the MC what the journey back to the surface looks, feels, sounds, and smells like. Knowing what Death thinks of your offer, the MC will tell you why doubt besets you along your journey. If you look back, whatever Death would have given you is revealed, but you receive nothing, either for good or for ill. If you remain steadfast and do not look back, you receive Death’s gift:
* If Death is impressed by your offer, the soul you desire follows silently behind you, and regains its life upon exiting the caverns.
* If Death finds your offer inadequate, the soul follows you but does not return to life. After a short time in the light, it may retreat back to the Black Gates where you cannot follow; or it may remain in the world as a wandering soul or worse.
* If Death finds your offer insulting, something returns with you, but it is not what you asked for, and it will bring danger, ruin or misfortune down upon you.
Once you have entered the Nekuian Caverns and left, they remain forever hidden to you, and you may never return to them, even if others point out their location.