Ep. 12: R-Mode

The fraying tapestry conceals many a dark spot on the wall just beneath. The Knights are gathered before one such spot, with a fistful of threads and the haphazardly assigned duty to weave. Something dark and primordial spills from ancient wellspring, and will not be contained by Bottle nor barrel. A darkness that will not abate in the light of Mask’s destructive candle. A foe who cannot be held down by the magics of Scroll, despite a tight two-handed grip. The outcome is hidden from me in deep darkness at the bottom of a well, but what water of truth I pull up in the bucket of my sight holds the bitter taste of failure.—If you like the show, it would mean a lot to us if you'd share the trailer with a friend! Here it is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1tkeR2f3zWwYou can also send them the show website with links to subscribe in their favorite podcast app:https://bequest.skullandscones.com/BeQuest is a production of Skull & Scones. You can find all our stuff at skullandscones.com!Follow us online at:YouTube: @skullandsconesstudiosBluesky: @skullandscones.bsky.socialInstagram: @skullandsconesstudiosFacebook: @skullandsconesstudiosTikTok: @skullandsconesstudiosYou can also join our Discord server and come chat with us and other listeners like you!—Edited by Stephen Tansey Music and Production by Jake BurleyAdditional Engineering by Mike TurleyVignette by Jake BurleyShow art by Nestor ★ Support this podcast ★

The knights venture deep into the cavern of mysteries, where not even the oppressive desert sun can follow. The Knight of Bottles, restrains his baleful touch in a show of mastery or care, hard won across his journey. Scroll and Mask and dragged through the rituals of ablution, but the stain of their purpose is not so easily laundered. The Grey Knight comes face to face with a pale imitation, but in a world without hue a charcoal sketch reflects as well as mirror glass. The knights descend further into darkness. Danger is near, but not nearer than two strides.—If you like the show, it would mean a lot to us if you'd share the trailer with a friend! Here it is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1tkeR2f3zWwYou can also send them the show website with links to subscribe in their favorite podcast app:https://bequest.skullandscones.com/BeQuest is a production of Skull & Scones. You can find all our stuff at skullandscones.com!Follow us online at:YouTube: @skullandsconesstudiosBluesky: @skullandscones.bsky.socialInstagram: @skullandsconesstudiosFacebook: @skullandsconesstudiosTikTok: @skullandsconesstudiosYou can also join our Discord server and come chat with us and other listeners like you!—Edited by Kevin RizzaProduction by Jake BurleyAdditional Engineering by Mike TurleyMusic by Jake BurleyVignette by Stephen TanseyShow art by Nestor ★ Support this podcast ★

The heat shimmer and dancing sands obscure my sight of the Knights, though four figures cast long shadows even in the endless noon. Four pillars extend from the sand, like fingers of some titan which lay beneath. First, the Pillar of Spines; warm but inane. It shares what has passed for arboreal wisdom in this barren place. Second, the Pillar of Pious Reach; Kind but passive. It tries to help but cannot soothe the regrets it cannot feel. Third, the Pillar of Lower Sun; Chosen but unheeded. Far from home, and isolated from its kin, none will hear its words. And last, the Pillar of the Dunes; slight but treacherous. It who’s poison would fester if not for the prompt ministrations by the Children of the Hive. —If you like the show, it would mean a lot to us if you'd share the trailer with a friend! Here it is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1tkeR2f3zWwYou can also send them the show website with links to subscribe in their favorite podcast app:https://bequest.skullandscones.com/BeQuest is a production of Skull & Scones. You can find all our stuff at skullandscones.com!Follow us online at:YouTube: @skullandsconesstudiosBluesky: @skullandscones.bsky.socialInstagram: @skullandsconesstudiosFacebook: @skullandsconesstudiosTikTok: @skullandsconesstudiosYou can also join our Discord server and come chat with us and other listeners like you!—Edited by Stephen TanseyProduced by Jake Burley Additional Engineering by Mike TurleyMusic by Jake BurleyVignette by Jake Burley & Stephen TanseyShow art by Nestor ★ Support this podcast ★

The knights retreat to a grand citadel amidst a field of cured meat. The Knight of Bottles hesitates when the rest fall behind him in unnatural lockstep. The Scroll grows dissatisfied with its casual use by scrivener and scribe. The Knight of Masks, he of the beguiling smile and silver tongue, is brought low by unexpected appearance of his own heart’s desire. Skull is scorned when their host does not return the customary favours. While the other knights prepare to make oaths unto themselves, the Knight of Bottles accepts a vow that is altogether more serious.  —If you like the show, it would mean a lot to us if you'd share the trailer with a friend! Here it is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1tkeR2f3zWwYou can also send them the show website with links to subscribe in their favorite podcast app:https://bequest.skullandscones.com/BeQuest is a production of Skull & Scones. You can find all our stuff at skullandscones.com!Follow us online at:YouTube: @skullandsconesstudiosBluesky: @skullandscones.bsky.socialInstagram: @skullandsconesstudiosFacebook: @skullandsconesstudiosTikTok: @skullandsconesstudiosYou can also join our Discord server and come chat with us and other listeners like you!—Edited by Mike TurleyVignette and Production by Jake BurleyAdditional Engineering by Mike TurleyMusic by Jake BurleyShow art by Nestor ★ Support this podcast ★

And so the weary Knights make to leave the great city, but even this cannot be without struggle. At their chariot, the horses are spooked. A man with no name presents an ending to this tale; but I see further still! Skull is laid bare before the Spectre of the King, who points onward ahead of the Knights but behind Bottle. For a moment Mask is seen clearly both by Knights and my own sight. He reveals his heart is possessed of a grave defect; and yet the Knights are unconcerned? And Scroll will…I dare not second-guess the Sight, perhaps some error in my interpretation? Surely this doesn’t happen a second time. —If you like the show, it would mean a lot to us if you'd share the trailer with a friend! Here it is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1tkeR2f3zWwYou can also send them the show website with links to subscribe in their favorite podcast app:https://bequest.skullandscones.com/BeQuest is a production of Skull & Scones. You can find all our stuff at skullandscones.com!Follow us online at:YouTube: @skullandsconesstudiosBluesky: @skullandscones.bsky.socialInstagram: @skullandsconesstudiosFacebook: @skullandsconesstudiosTikTok: @skullandsconesstudiosYou can also join our Discord server and come chat with us and other listeners like you!—Edited by Stephen TanseyMusic and Production by Jake BurleyAdditional Engineering by Mike TurleyVignette by Stephen TanseyShow art by Nestor ★ Support this podcast ★

A shadow falls across the great free city, cast in the dancing red light of fire. Four Knights, five questions, fewer answers than can satisfy the Knight of Scrolls, but Bottle cracks under so little scrutiny. The knights enjoy a sip of unearned peace within the eye of the storm, but from there all destinations are the maelstrom. The pieces are arranged on either side for a great conflict, their placement determined by an inscrutable logic beyond my hazy sight, with the Knight of Masks standing in the vacated place of the queen side bishop. But no! The skirmish canceled; instead, a show!  Two marionettes of flesh and bone dance together. Fickle the strings are, for they will pull one hither and tither, but when cut leave one free as a motionless pile of carved wood.—If you like the show, it would mean a lot to us if you'd share the trailer with a friend! Here it is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1tkeR2f3zWwYou can also send them the show website with links to subscribe in their favorite podcast app:https://bequest.skullandscones.com/BeQuest is a production of Skull & Scones. You can find all our stuff at skullandscones.com!Follow us online at:YouTube: @skullandsconesstudiosBluesky: @skullandscones.bsky.socialInstagram: @skullandsconesstudiosFacebook: @skullandsconesstudiosTikTok: @skullandsconesstudiosYou can also join our Discord server and come chat with us and other listeners like you!—Edited by Stephen TanseyMusic and Production by Jake BurleyAdditional Engineering by Mike TurleyVignette by Stephen TanseyShow art by Nestor ★ Support this podcast ★

The sunken house sits empty but for the whispers of schemers. Hear them hiss: The Knight of Skulls is dead, all hail the Knight of the Cracked Skull. The lance of Knights don holy vestments, seeking to hide their shame. But hark! Hear the child's cry. To arms! To arms! The Knights claim that which they have no right to: Mask threatens a damnation he has no authority to utter, as the Knight of Bottle takes hold of the minds of brave men, and Scrolls assumes a cherished name to which she has no right. And who in shadows descends to punish their blasphemies? My eyes are clouded by the endless revolution of a single day...  Check out our other podcast: Cthulhu-Con! It's a horror comedy actual-play miniseries about five dysfunctional coworkers, an off-the-rails Lovecraft convention, and the horrors of the universe slowly clawing at the edges of our simple minds. Links and more here: https://cthulhu-con.skullandscones.com/—If you like the show, it would mean a lot to us if you'd share the trailer with a friend! Here it is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1tkeR2f3zWwYou can also send them the show website with links to subscribe in their favorite podcast app:https://bequest.skullandscones.com/BeQuest is a production of Skull & Scones. You can find all our stuff at skullandscones.com!Follow us online at:YouTube: @skullandsconesstudiosBluesky: @skullandscones.bsky.socialInstagram: @skullandsconesstudiosFacebook: @skullandsconesstudiosTikTok: @skullandsconesstudiosYou can also join our Discord server and come chat with us and other listeners like you!—Edited by Kevin RizzaProduced by Jake BurleyAdditional Engineering by Mike TurleyMusic by Jake BurleyVignette by Stephen TanseyShow art by Nestor ★ Support this podcast ★

And ‘lo they wept or’e the Knight of Skulls, broken in the arms of his brother, a voice from beyond echoing in their ears. To darkness they turn! Out of light! To darkness! The Knight of Masks speaks in a false voice to His flocks whilst the Knights of Bottle and Scoll wreak havoc in a room of bones. All the while the brother laughs with his infernal beast, that unholy marriage of canine and primate. The mercy of Lathander be to them!—If you like the show, it would mean a lot to us if you'd share the trailer with a friend! Here it is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1tkeR2f3zWwYou can also send them the show website with links to subscribe in their favorite podcast app:https://bequest.skullandscones.com/BeQuest is a production of Skull & Scones. You can find all our stuff at skullandscones.com!Follow us online at:YouTube: @skullandsconesstudiosBluesky: @skullandscones.bsky.socialInstagram: @skullandsconesstudiosFacebook: @skullandsconesstudiosTikTok: @skullandsconesstudiosYou can also join our Discord server and come chat with us and other listeners like you!—Edited and Produced by Jake BurleyAdditional Engineering by Mike TurleyMusic by Jake BurleyVignette by Stephen TanseyShow art by Nestor ★ Support this podcast ★

I see a dance, vulgar and bizarre. Mask leads the dance, though neither he, nor any dancer know the steps; Yet in its conclusion the Knights are welcomed into the heart of the festival. The knights bargain for knowledge forbidden. Two bottles of knightly ichor loom over the tale. One with the trickster, one with the jealous knight. Both portent disaster. The hireling pays the price, while Skull gains the prize. The knight of Scrolls warns of the scaled monstrosities that lie ahead, her warning disregarded. Lament! No wall built of warning or brick will bar the knights from their awful fate.—If you like the show, it would mean a lot to us if you'd share the trailer with a friend! Here it is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1tkeR2f3zWwYou can also send them the show website with links to subscribe in their favorite podcast app:https://bequest.skullandscones.com/BeQuest is a production of Skull & Scones. You can find all our stuff at skullandscones.com!Follow us online at:YouTube: @skullandsconesstudiosBluesky: @skullandscones.bsky.socialInstagram: @skullandsconesstudiosFacebook: @skullandsconesstudiosTikTok: @skullandsconesstudiosYou can also join our Discord server and come chat with us and other listeners like you!—Edited by Stephen TanseyProduced by Jake BurleyAdditional Engineering by Mike TurleyMusic by Jake BurleyVignette by Stephen TanseyShow art by Nestor ★ Support this podcast ★

Now beyond where credit extends to their names, only the prince of metals and its lesser cousins will speak for the knights. The quartermaster spends freely on strands and sticks, be they half score in length or cast from pork, but the yellow and purple baubles will be left behind. A new foe suddenly appears and is crushed under a mighty tree, a new more suddenly friend crawls out from the fallen boughs. In search of the second, the third finds the first and the City of Crossroads has become host to a most strained reunion.—If you like the show, it would mean a lot to us if you'd share the trailer with a friend! Here it is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1tkeR2f3zWwYou can also send them the show website with links to subscribe in their favorite podcast app:https://bequest.skullandscones.com/BeQuest is a production of Skull & Scones. You can find all our stuff at skullandscones.com!Follow us online at:YouTube: @skullandsconesstudiosBluesky: @skullandscones.bsky.socialInstagram: @skullandsconesstudiosFacebook: @skullandsconesstudiosTikTok: @skullandsconesstudiosYou can also join our Discord server and come chat with us and other listeners like you!—Edited and Produced by Jake BurleyAdditional Engineering by Mike TurleyMusic by Jake BurleyVignette by Stephen TanseyShow art by Nestor ★ Support this podcast ★