Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hey, Barry. Hey,
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Where can you find the rules? Lawyer
Speaker 2 00:00:07 Where by the bug it's time for compelled. <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:00:26 Hello everybody. And welcome back to compel duel. I'm Al and I'm Barry, and we are a single-player co DMD, actual play Dungeons and dragons for the edition podcast.
Speaker 3 00:00:38 Previously on compelled dual, we'll
Speaker 4 00:00:41 Be weighing anchor and miss borough later on this afternoon, just to get some supplies there, acolytes part to Zephyr Isles, state service,
Speaker 0 00:00:52 And, uh, they don't like me much
Speaker 1 00:00:56 Interesting. Can I ask
Speaker 0 00:00:58 Why I wasn't too good at my job back when my name was acolyte captain, did you bring us anything? Not
Speaker 4 00:01:07 Last, you know, you're better supplied here than most of the other Isles. In fact, we came here to get some things from you. Oh, well, that's going to be hard. Let's put the sirens and everything. The what
Speaker 5 00:01:19 You've been searching so long for somewhere you've along and you haven't found it yet. Why don't you stay with us? There's nobody here who can hurt you. You could be free,
Speaker 1 00:01:34 Sorry to disappoint. But I have been offered gilded cages before.
Speaker 4 00:01:39 And this siren that has taken the shape of defiance looks over at you fi and then turns back to the captain and says, she's going to leave you too.
Speaker 5 00:01:52 Wouldn't it be smarter to just cut your losses at this point, stay with people who actually love you.
Speaker 0 00:01:58 Okay. I'm going to cast me a guiding bolt.
Speaker 4 00:02:00 He reaches back and their hands are almost touching when you just absolutely fry this thing with a guiding bowl. The thing about the place where you belong, the place where you really belong, go to way of finding you.
Speaker 0 00:02:17 Sophie's going to kiss him on the mouth.
Speaker 4 00:02:20 He fully swaggers off to the captain's quarters. You can see it in the way he is walking. As he turns around and walks away from you and opens the door to the captain's quarters and shuts it behind him,
Speaker 1 00:02:33 Stays there for a second. Just letting the rainfall.
Speaker 0 00:02:37 It says shit and goes off to her bunk.
Speaker 1 00:02:50 It's been a couple of weeks since he left mess bureau. And the whole thing with the sirens you are up on deck. The crew have said something about stopping. Cause it's the last clear day for the rest of the storm season. You're not really sure how they know that. Just sailor knowledge. You would guess
Speaker 4 00:03:12 I've been too busy throwing up to really question anything. I'm assuming the weather has been pretty shitty the whole time. Oh yes.
Speaker 1 00:03:20 Driving rain. Thunder lightning fee has spent a lot of time out on deck, but the water has been choppy enough that you've been having a bad time. Love that for me. But things are nice today. You hear people yelling to each other up in the rigging as the ship groans and turns in the water and says, I'll find a course for a little landmass jutting out of the sea that you can see off in the distance.
Speaker 4 00:03:48 I think Leo's on deck, practicing with his thieves tools again, but he has sourced his own padlocks this time. So the captain can't glue them shut. I also don't think he's super happy about the idea of stopping. I think if he has the chance to mention to the captain that they are in kind of a hurry and making use of the good wind, seems like a more prudent use of time.
Speaker 1 00:04:11 He's standing at the wheel kind of relaxing waves of hand at you.
Speaker 0 00:04:15 He says, it's good for morale to have a stope. It's the last day of sunlight that most of the crew is going to get for the next few months. And
Speaker 4 00:04:23 I understand that morale is important. I get that, but we have a couple of pretty pressing matters on our hands that are a little time sensitive. Don't you
Speaker 0 00:04:32 Think? I think the captain raises his eyebrows at you. And he says, those sound like the words of someone who needs a day at the beach.
Speaker 4 00:04:41 Leo puts a finger up to keep arguing, but kind of still
Speaker 0 00:04:46 There's a beach. I well, in that case, my opinion
Speaker 4 00:04:54 About the urgency of our situation stands. But I mean, I'm not the captain of this vessel. I'm going to go see if I can find some swim trunks.
Speaker 0 00:05:03 The captain laughs. He says, aye, that's the spirit. Don't worry that there'll be plenty to do. And Powell part, the legislators are a lot of things. Expedient is not one of them. Bureaucracy is the name of the game.
Speaker 4 00:05:20 I will take paperwork over sirens
Speaker 0 00:05:23 Any day, a sun hat. Do you know where I could find a sun hat? He gives you this very sharp grin. And he says, ask you, she burns like cheap, hard tack in this one. And she's self-conscious about her freckles. Okay. I'm going to go find you. You is standing at the side of the boat,
Speaker 1 00:05:44 Looking over the water, just kind of scoping out conditions. You've noticed she is very attentive to her job despite, or maybe because of her age.
Speaker 0 00:05:57 She is
Speaker 1 00:05:58 Very careful to not let anybody catch her slipping as it were.
Speaker 4 00:06:03 Leo pays no mind to how busy she is. Just kind of walks up behind her. Hey you do you have a sun hat?
Speaker 3 00:06:10 It's just, you know, currently there's a beach day involved. And I
Speaker 4 00:06:15 Mean, if you look at me like this is skin cancer waiting to happen,
Speaker 3 00:06:21 You slowly turns to look at ya. She raises her eyebrow hoes and a mannerism
Speaker 1 00:06:27 That seems like directly copied from the captain.
Speaker 3 00:06:31 And she one handed
Speaker 1 00:06:33 Just kind of gestures at her whole thing and
Speaker 3 00:06:35 Says, do I look like the kind of person who owns a sun hat? Uh, no,
Speaker 4 00:06:42 You look like the type of person that owns more than five different kinds of sword Polish. But I just figured I'd ask if I'm intruding, I'll leave you alone. Can't help. But notice that you don't seem too excited for BT.
Speaker 3 00:06:57 She scowls in the moody teenager way that she does mixed, loaded to be a day farther from PowerBar. Well, do you have something against Pearl port? Was this
Speaker 4 00:07:08 Like an edgy tea and anti-establishment thing or there is a brief pause
Speaker 3 00:07:16 And then you narrows her eyes at you and says edgy. Am I? I mean, it's
Speaker 4 00:07:23 Not an insult. I was super fuck the man when I was 85. I'm kind of super fuck the man. Now if you consider my whole
Speaker 3 00:07:30 Thing, but Hey,
Speaker 4 00:07:33 You have to justify why you're the ship's resident Ray of sunshine. I just came to ask
Speaker 3 00:07:36 About you gives you just a withering look, I suppose it's easy to be
Speaker 1 00:07:44 A G when you went back to the place that ruined your life and where everyone, you know, one load makes the residents.
Speaker 3 00:07:51 Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:07:52 I kind of feel that way about going home myself. She bristles like a tiger
Speaker 3 00:07:59 And just grit that Pearl part. It's not my home. And she spins on her heel and she storms off. Good talk from behind you, you hear doc's voice say parasol for your agonies. Leo turns over to look at doc raises an eyebrow and goes, you know, I
Speaker 4 00:08:20 Don't really know how well a parasol is going to fit in with my whole aesthetic, but I'll take what I can get. And then he looks at where you had stormed off across the ship, kind of jerks with them back over his shoulder.
Speaker 3 00:08:31 What's up with her doc
Speaker 1 00:08:33 Is applying some kind of lotion to her face, like under her eyes and on her nose. Not quite looking at you as she holds a parasol out with her other
Speaker 3 00:08:42 Hand and she says, ah, can be a bit troubling for
Speaker 6 00:08:48 Some members of the crew getting too close to as big
Speaker 1 00:08:51 Of a population center as Powell parties. She, after where you stormed
Speaker 3 00:08:56 Off, she left the service
Speaker 1 00:08:58 More recently than most. So I expect
Speaker 3 00:09:00 It's a bit raw service, like, like state service. You was an acolyte. Is that the right thing to call it? I've I've only ever doc snorts. I younger. She was, she would have been in
Speaker 1 00:09:17 Training, but acolyte to still the correct total.
Speaker 3 00:09:20 Don't say that to her though. She makes kind of a broad gesture at the rest of the ship. She says most people on this tub where it's about Daisy or to leave
Speaker 1 00:09:30 It all behind for a life of crime and violence.
Speaker 3 00:09:32 If you don't have much weight and for you. Well,
Speaker 4 00:09:36 The progression here is that if somebody decides they don't like being an acolyte, they could just go be a pirate
Speaker 3 00:09:42 Doc frowns at you finishes applying the lotion to her nose and goes, that's a bit more complicated than that. Most
Speaker 1 00:09:51 Of the crew didn't leave as accolades.
Speaker 3 00:09:53 I certainly didn't. So you, oh doc doc. Sure. Okay.
Speaker 1 00:10:01 I, and I didn't work my ass off for my medical license to take SaaS from Lexi and she kind of like sniffs and she
Speaker 3 00:10:07 Says, as far as I know, the only two
Speaker 1 00:10:09 That left is acolytes. Are you in glasses? And you situation is a bit more complicated than most. Okay. Well
Speaker 4 00:10:17 That's me me want to betray my innate sense of tactfulness and ask for clarification there because now I'm afraid that I was probably a real asshole
Speaker 3 00:10:26 To her doc looks extremely awkward for a second. And then she says, well, conventionally state service keeps ranks up through
Speaker 1 00:10:36 Taking in and raising orphans and foundlings that don't have anywhere
Speaker 3 00:10:40 Else to go. She presses a hand on her chest and she says mostly foundlings towards the case with myself and boots, as far as I know, but she kind of grins. She says the bastard was
Speaker 1 00:10:51 As big as the baby, as he is now a kind of blamed the court soccer
Speaker 3 00:10:54 That had to push him out. And then she looks like she's thinking for a second. She goes far as I know for the wrist, pelicans obviously never worked for the service. He can tell looking at him, but the losses belief's
Speaker 1 00:11:07 Parents got smashed up in the Dragon's mall
Speaker 3 00:11:09 And Ascot losses, mother to a favor as a little one. And she kind of makes a vague gesture. And she says, but tactically, he didn't leave. We just took him as a hostage. And he stayed around like a stray puppy. This
Speaker 4 00:11:24 Is the most interesting and most horrible boat in the world. I related to the hostage taking technically
Speaker 3 00:11:33 Ascot owns it, owns the boat on behalf of the state. Anyway, he was sent to repossess it one day and then the captain repossessed him. And there is a like
Speaker 1 00:11:47 Loud clatter of boxes. As the cat runs across the deck with glasses
Speaker 3 00:11:51 Chasing him and doc very nonchalantly says, incidentally, it's the same day we got that troublemaking bastard. And
Speaker 4 00:11:59 The cat's name is notice of delinquent repayment. Okay. It's all coming together.
Speaker 3 00:12:07 So what happened with you doc grimaces? And she says
Speaker 0 00:12:15 There's historically been a fair bit of scaremongering about deflation and the ranks of state service. So a few people in the area around power part have taken it upon themselves to artificially bolster the ranks, we'll say. And
Speaker 4 00:12:35 How would one go about doing
Speaker 0 00:12:37 That? Well, you see, and she like rake the hand back through her hair, adjust her eyepatch because state service takes and foundlings the text of the law states that children surrendered
Speaker 1 00:12:52 By their parents are inducted into state
Speaker 0 00:12:54 Service. So
Speaker 1 00:12:57 Some people have taken it upon themselves. Que
Speaker 0 00:13:01 Intentionally have children that they then give up to be acolytes. And that's what you's parents did. Again, another vague gesture. She looks a little uncomfortable. Yes and no, they didn't do that. But you was a bit of a special case. Her parents had
Speaker 1 00:13:26 Another daughter would have been much older, who I didn't get all the way through acolyte training.
Speaker 0 00:13:32 So Leah Romeo history check dirty 20. You remember the fight with the sirens and
Speaker 1 00:13:45 How before the siren that you were fighting to get a commission
Speaker 0 00:13:48 For a little bit, you heard you
Speaker 1 00:13:51 And a battle with her own siren. And what the sirens said to her was all your life. People have been giving you names and taking them
Speaker 0 00:14:00 Away, Leo squints and frowns. So you're telling me that what, when this first kid
Speaker 4 00:14:10 Didn't make it all the way through that, you's
Speaker 0 00:14:12 Parents just, I
Speaker 1 00:14:17 Personally, I think the whole endeavors a bit self-important to service is supposed to be as much about sheltering the children. It takes in as helping everyone else, but
Speaker 0 00:14:27 Caught that's awful. She
Speaker 1 00:14:31 Snarks herself. She goes, you won't get an argument from me on that one.
Speaker 4 00:14:36 Oh boy, howdy. I was definitely a huge asshole. Then I should probably go apologize. Doc raises one eyebrow and says, are you telling me that your plan is to go find that girl when she just stormed away from you and
Speaker 1 00:14:54 Apologize for being insensitive about her personal business that you now knew about when she didn't tell you?
Speaker 4 00:15:03 Yeah, this is maybe one of those situations where I should probably just let myself be the
Speaker 3 00:15:08 Asshole, huh? I, she reaches that and claps you on their shoulder and says, that makes me feel better. Teenagers have the memories of goldfish. And then she walks off, you know, for personal
Speaker 4 00:15:22 Reasons, frowns and goes, I'm not sure how true that is, but then turns around and walks off in the opposite direction. Sophie, the line last time we checked in with you, you had had some pretty interesting developments in your personal life. I regret to inform you that those developments have somewhat stagnated in the past couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 00:15:46 The captain's not pushing
Speaker 4 00:15:48 You away or shutting you out. But you do notice that he seems to be manufacturing any time he spends around you into situations where you can't have a repeat of that night in the storm, on the deck, he doesn't bring it up in conversation and you don't really find yourself having the opportunity to be alone with him for long enough for you
Speaker 3 00:16:13 To bring it up. But other than that,
Speaker 4 00:16:16 The dynamic between the two of you doesn't really change. It's more of the same brazen, shameless, flirting, and good natured interactions that you've always sort of had with him. Just you can tell, he's making a calculated effort to not be alone with you.
Speaker 3 00:16:34 Your below deck.
Speaker 4 00:16:35 When you hear the rattling splash of the anchor being dropped into the water and feel the ship slowly drift to a stop. I go up on deck as you okay. Exit the door from the lower decks. You run headlong into your brother who is wearing his knee breeches that he bought in parlay Cove. No shirt has a frilly pink parasol popped open over his shoulder and is wearing a pair of sunglasses. He waves at you and goes, Hey, uh, I guess we're having a baby each day.
Speaker 3 00:17:10 Feast stops and blinks for a couple seconds and then says, I'm trying
Speaker 1 00:17:15 To think of something mean to say to you right now, but the effect has rendered
Speaker 3 00:17:20 Speechless. Give yourself have a minute.
Speaker 4 00:17:22 You've never been incapable of saying something mean and you're yes, but
Speaker 1 00:17:26 You've never looked at the stupid. So, you know, wonder
Speaker 3 00:17:29 Of wonders. Leo
Speaker 4 00:17:31 Makes an offended little noise and flounces off down the gang plank that boots and Pelican are lowering down onto the shore of this sandbar that the ship has pulled up to from behind you. You hear a laugh and then a voice say, you really shouldn't be so mean to him when he's got no means of defending
Speaker 3 00:17:51 Himself last fi tilt her head a little bit this side. And she says, there's
Speaker 1 00:17:57 A lot of insults that can be leveled at my brother. But, uh, the idea that he is ever unarmed in a battle of wits is
Speaker 3 00:18:05 Not one of them turn
Speaker 4 00:18:08 Around. You see the captain leaning casually back against the railing of the stairs that go up to the helm. And he is midway through unbuttoning his frock coat and pulling his boots off. He just looks over at you grins winks and says, you keep speaking highly of when people are going to think you're developing a soft spot,
Speaker 3 00:18:29 Not so much developing a soft spot as wearing away. Some sharp edges gives
Speaker 4 00:18:36 You this acquiescing nod. Like he's acknowledging your point and then nods down at the bottom of the gangplank. And have you ever taken a vacation in your life loss? You don't strike me as the type to take breaks. And unless
Speaker 1 00:18:50 You count court functions with my father, which is less a vacation and more a psychological test of endurance, not since I was a small child. Now,
Speaker 3 00:19:02 Is
Speaker 1 00:19:02 This a relatively one-on-one conversation? Yes,
Speaker 4 00:19:06 There are. There are people up on deck, but everybody's pretty busy getting off the ship right now. You see a lot of the crude walking off the ship with their stuff, getting ready to go enjoy their shore leave. There's probably a 20, 30 foot radius around you in the captain where no one's really paying it.
Speaker 3 00:19:25 Okay.
Speaker 1 00:19:26 So the thing about fie the season is that she's decided to embrace being impulsive. So I think she's going to cross her arms over her chest
Speaker 3 00:19:35 And then say, so if you've been avoiding
Speaker 1 00:19:38 Me, because you're afraid that your wife will react poorly to the fact that we kissed, I feel it's only fair to warn you, that she has the upper hand on you a bit. Having seen my tits, he stares blankly at you for a long time.
Speaker 3 00:19:53 And then
Speaker 4 00:19:55 It's to pick his job back up off the floor, looks off to the side, curses quietly, and mumbles gave us breath. That woman really does have all the luck in the
Speaker 3 00:20:04 World. Odd with that. He takes
Speaker 4 00:20:07 Us hat off and doesn't exaggerated bow to you before hanging in on the banister of one of the staircases and says, lots of think. We both know that I'm not selling myself short by saying that I'm not a smart man, but types are five this long by Kivas grace and my own impeccable survival instinct. And that's telling me that you're a little bit too angry with me, for me to make the crack that I was fixing to make about even in the playing field. So enjoy your day. And he fully jumps off the side of the boat, into the water
Speaker 1 00:20:35 Feelings over the side and to the ocean
Speaker 3 00:20:39 Says, what part
Speaker 1 00:20:41 Of that sentence didn't sound like an invitation to even the playing field. You see
Speaker 4 00:20:46 The captain just swimming along. He surfaces several yards out from the ship, spits water into the air points at his ear.
Speaker 1 00:20:57 Nevermind. We'll talk about it later. Okay. Uh,
Speaker 4 00:21:03 Everybody's getting off the boat. They all seem to be dressed in swimwear. If they have it or dressed, you go get in the water. If they don't, would you like to go change or do anything before you disembark?
Speaker 3 00:21:17 He's going to attempt to scrounge up something she can swim in. I think she's going
Speaker 1 00:21:22 To braid her hair so no small fish get
Speaker 3 00:21:24 Caught in it. Okay.
Speaker 4 00:21:27 You change. You get ready. You disembark.
Speaker 3 00:21:30 This is an absolutely
Speaker 4 00:21:32 Gorgeous beach, smooth white sand leading into a Palm forest that stretches around this big kind of monolithic stone mountain. That's coming up out of these crystal blue seas
Speaker 3 00:21:44 Around you. Sun is
Speaker 4 00:21:46 Out. It's warm. There's a nice breeze blowing. If you listen hard in the distance, you can hear a lute cover of Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville play. By the time you hit shore, most of the crew are either in the water or setting up small beach camps on shore to
Speaker 3 00:22:05 Hang out. You do
Speaker 4 00:22:08 Pass Leo who is dramatically flapping out a towel, laying it down, attempting to screw his parasol into the sand, like a beach umbrella. He lays down adjusts his sunglasses and goes, no one looked at me. No one talked to me. No one come near me unless you're holding a Mai Tai. And then immediately lays back to take
Speaker 3 00:22:27 A nap. The
Speaker 4 00:22:29 Officers all look like they're having a good time. Doc has set up some kind of fantasy beach chair and has buried her feet in the sand and looks like she has a good book open in front of her boots. And you are setting up some kind of game in the sand with a net and an inflated leather
Speaker 3 00:22:45 Ball. Glasses
Speaker 4 00:22:47 Is in the water. Periodically dipping his head under for long periods of time. And coming back up, the captain is also still swimming. Pelican is up in our Palm tree, just picking coconuts. He seems pretty content. The bird is circling slow circles around the ship and the crew. You were not the last person off the ship because you see Ascot following down the gangway, not far behind with
Speaker 3 00:23:13 Fantasy coolers, they look
Speaker 4 00:23:16 The artifice boxes that have various ruins on them. That seem to be keeping whatever's inside them cold. And he's just wheeling them up onto the beach, dig some drinks and some sandwiches out of them. It seems to be a really nice relaxing day for everyone.
Speaker 3 00:23:33 Okay. So
Speaker 4 00:23:35 Fi you have a day off for the, the first time in recent
Speaker 3 00:23:39 Memory. What would you like to do to do with it? First of all, for just gonna jump in the water and swim for a bit and just not interact with people. Water is
Speaker 4 00:23:50 Just absolutely ideal. Turquoise blue, totally clear your floating around a bit, kind of kicking your feet when you feel a hand or wrap around your ankle and yank sharp.
Speaker 3 00:24:05 Okay. On instinct at being grabbed, fee's going to alert
Speaker 1 00:24:10 At whatever grabbed her and cast Thunderclap. Okay.
Speaker 4 00:24:14 So that's a DC 17 con save and that's a 10. So you're going to go ahead and roll me to D six thunder damage,
Speaker 3 00:24:23 Six feet. You
Speaker 4 00:24:26 Reach down and create this Sonic boom under the water. And it creates a massive bubble. Your hand collides with skin that you can't really process it. But then this massive bubble erupts from around your hand rises up through the water and pops. And the captain gets launched like five feet out of the water, into the air and flies
Speaker 3 00:24:50 Away fi floating there with her hands up, says shit, and then swims over. Are you okay?
Speaker 4 00:25:00 I mean, he's just taking six damage, but yeah, he's fine. He looks a little more ruffled than
Speaker 3 00:25:05 Anything. Okay.
Speaker 1 00:25:07 Having ascertained that, he's going to just start splashing seawater at him and yell. What is wrong with you? He just
Speaker 4 00:25:14 Shrugs still looking a little ruffled and goes, I was just having fun last, but I mean, so you, you
Speaker 1 00:25:21 Grabbed me by surprise in the water. That seemed like a good idea to you. You've seen me cast lightening bolts.
Speaker 3 00:25:29 He has
Speaker 4 00:25:30 One big wet shock of hair flopped over in front of his eye. And he pushes it back. Grins winks at you and goes, the fellowship was well-established. That's flourishing with dangerous. One of my proclivities at this point, fi continues flashing him.
Speaker 7 00:25:48 You avoid me for weeks, weeks. And
Speaker 1 00:25:53 Then he decided that the best way to start a conversation is to grab
Speaker 3 00:25:56 Me from the ocean you're splashing.
Speaker 4 00:25:59 It has no real effect, but he does blink at you slowly and tilt his head to the side.
Speaker 3 00:26:05 Uh, I've been avoiding. Yeah. I've just,
Speaker 4 00:26:12 You see them run a hand back through his wet hair. Again, I've just been parsing out some complicated interpersonal dynamics and
Speaker 3 00:26:22 Frankly, Aurora, if
Speaker 4 00:26:24 This was something that I didn't give a damn about, I wouldn't be bothering to take the time. So
Speaker 3 00:26:30 I beg your indulgence face, flashes him in the face one more time for good measure, right? Fine. I can breathe under water. You know, he points at his gills. I know what, and
Speaker 1 00:26:43 There's a pause and he starts to grin just a little mischievously. And I think she just jumped him and just tries to dunk
Speaker 3 00:26:50 Him. Okay, we're
Speaker 4 00:26:52 Going to roll a strength contest.
Speaker 3 00:26:55 Is it a grapple check? Yeah. Why not roll an athletics check six. And that will be a 12 for the captain. You go to try to dunk him.
Speaker 4 00:27:08 And as soon as he's underwater, he just slips out from under your hands. And there's a long moment where you're not really sure where the captain is, but then a hand closes around your wrist and you hear him pop up behind you out of the water and over your shoulder, he leans into your ear and says, no. Did you try that? Because you thought she would win or because
Speaker 3 00:27:35 This was your desired outcome. He has her wrist. Yes. I'm going to try
Speaker 1 00:27:44 Move my arm in such a way that he has to stand in front of me
Speaker 3 00:27:47 And I can like pin him. Um, I guess that's
Speaker 4 00:27:51 A second grapple check. Go ahead.
Speaker 3 00:27:55 1815.
Speaker 4 00:28:00 Yeah. You get him by his arm. And just gang came around
Speaker 3 00:28:04 In front of, you know, this was
Speaker 4 00:28:09 The captain's eyes go a bit wide. And if you listen hard enough, you can hear his breath catching his throat just a bit,
Speaker 3 00:28:18 Right. You up enjoy the rest of your day loss. And he wades out of the water away from you. You too, captain. He doesn't say
Speaker 4 00:28:28 Anything. He just shakes his head as he walks away. So Leo,
Speaker 0 00:28:37 You are relaxing on your towel trying to get some sun when a shadow falls over you, I scowl up at it. You were standing there looking down at you. She
Speaker 1 00:28:51 Scuffed her foot and some sand gets kicked up onto your towel.
Speaker 4 00:28:56 Leo sunglasses, races, an eyebrow and says,
Speaker 0 00:29:01 Hey you, can I help you? I suppose you can.
Speaker 4 00:29:07 Oh, because of recent revelations. He's trying so hard not to be mean to her. Yeah, fine. And what is it that I can sacrifice my first day off in five years to do for you?
Speaker 0 00:29:21 She rolls her eyes. She says, well, your bad attitudes kind of talking me out of it, but we're going to play a game mountain, the water. I'm going to be two on each team. What
Speaker 4 00:29:32 About me is making you think that I, in any way do
Speaker 0 00:29:37 Water? Nothing. That's why I'm asking you a second twice with glasses.
Speaker 4 00:29:44 Well, I mean, unfortunately Leo's not wanting to turn down a challenge. Yeah. I'm going to go
Speaker 3 00:29:48 With her. She leads you into the water where
Speaker 1 00:29:52 Fi and the captain are standing very close together. Both completely soaked
Speaker 3 00:29:57 And see water
Speaker 1 00:29:59 As fie catches sight of you. You watch her like startle a little bit and
Speaker 3 00:30:03 Straighten her posture in a way that almost looks guilty. You
Speaker 1 00:30:08 Stick your fingers in her mouth and whistles and says, all right, rules
Speaker 3 00:30:13 Are simple. And then she points at you. And then at fi and says, he's got to get on your shoulders. And then she points at the cabin and says, yeah, we're going to get on mine. First. One of you, the pushes, the other end to the water wins. I Leo just blinks at her. You pulled me off of my nap in the sun for this. She raises an eyebrow at you. Challengingly you've got plenty of sun, if you're any good. All right. I clamber up on facial olders. The captain gets up on you shoulders. She's a very sturdily
Speaker 1 00:30:49 Built teenager. She lives with no problem. And go ahead and roll me a flat strength check. Cool.
Speaker 4 00:30:58 My negative one is going to make this just great for me.
Speaker 3 00:31:02 12, since it's flat
Speaker 1 00:31:04 Strength, the captain only has a plus one
Speaker 3 00:31:07 No fucking way. Are you damn kidding me?
Speaker 7 00:31:15 I am sick to death of this man. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 3 00:31:33 So that was in that 20, you reach out
Speaker 1 00:31:37 And like grab the captain's hands and try to shove him off of your shoulders.
Speaker 3 00:31:41 You lose your balance just a tiny bit, and he
Speaker 1 00:31:43 Takes advantage of it and shoves you so hard that you fall off a few shoulders and he over balances and has to catch himself with a hand
Speaker 3 00:31:52 On the shoulder, from the water you come up, spluttering, you watch as the hand
Speaker 1 00:31:57 Lingers there for a second. And you just like squeezes and then sits back up on your shoulders perception really quick. That would be a 26. My friend C has gone a very interesting, very dark shade of herbal.
Speaker 3 00:32:15 Leo looks
Speaker 4 00:32:15 Back and forth between fi and the captain and narrows his eyes quite a bit, but then nods back up at you and goes, okay, whatever revenge agenda that you may have had, clearly it has been satisfied. Can I please go back to my nap on the beach? Now you squints at you for a second
Speaker 3 00:32:36 And goes, oh, and I take my revengeful. No, let's do out of three.
Speaker 4 00:32:44 So fi you and your brother get your asses handed to you by the captain, in you in this game of chicken that you have been roped into. And after Leo rage quits you all head back, for sure. He stomps off to where his towel is still laying on the beach and pops his parasol up. So none of you can look at him and lays
Speaker 3 00:33:04 Back down fi
Speaker 1 00:33:07 Roll thrice and to the captain. And you says, well, I could have told you that was going to happen. I love my brother deeply, but a graceful loser. He is not
Speaker 4 00:33:18 Just laughs victoriously to herself and goes off down the beach to start playing volleyball with a couple of the other crew members who are getting a game started. And the captain nods with his lips, very tightly pressed together. Like he's trying not to laugh and goes. I'm trying so hard not to say anything about a little dog complex, but
Speaker 3 00:33:38 Ah, boots, thank you. Boots walks by
Speaker 4 00:33:40 Behind you with a big tray of drinks in coconuts. They have little umbrellas in them. They're very cute. And the captain snatches two of them and hands one,
Speaker 3 00:33:51 Thank you. He's going to
Speaker 1 00:33:53 Nod to where you went off to play volleyball and says, at least she's in a better mood than she was. He nods and takes a sip of his drink. You use a fine
Speaker 4 00:34:02 Sailor and a better friend, but a humble winner. She isn't,
Speaker 1 00:34:08 And you yourself seem to be at a higher spirits than you have been. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:34:14 Sun in the sky sand between my toes drinking in my hand. Fair. Last of my
Speaker 3 00:34:17 Side, this is pirate heaven. How could it not fair enough fi straight that are hair rollers or shoulders back a little bit personally. I think I've had enough of the water for the day. I was, she looks a little awkward for a second and she says, I was wondering
Speaker 1 00:34:36 If I could borrow your, a copy of the book I
Speaker 3 00:34:43 Am in the mood to learn. You see he, his eyebrows
Speaker 4 00:34:46 Furrow in a way that looks a little bit confused and his head cocks to the side a bit certainly, but uh, the books, no, exactly light, Patriot.
Speaker 3 00:34:57 And last, I mean, don't get
Speaker 4 00:34:59 Me wrong. There's plenty of good points in there to be found. If you can get people to stop arguing about what they mean for two seconds, but it's a bit of what you'd call a dense
Speaker 3 00:35:07 Read. Well, it's not as if I have to get through it in a day. I just, and she kinda like fitted with her hands a little bit. I
Speaker 1 00:35:18 Feel like it's important that I know more, you know, no,
Speaker 4 00:35:25 But I'll let you borrow to anyway, the captain just grins and kind of jerks his head back of the ship and goes,
Speaker 3 00:35:31 Come on and starts walking off. He follows after you
Speaker 4 00:35:36 To make your way past the rest of the crew that are all having fun on the beach and head back for the ship. As you pass the last of them. You who is taking a break from her volleyball game cups, both hands around her mouth. That goes <inaudible>. And doc, who does not even look up from her book, just reaches up from her chair and gets you by the ear and twists and
Speaker 3 00:35:59 Silences her immediately. The captain
Speaker 4 00:36:02 Curses in Ocwen, under his breath and stomps up the gangplank, but does lead you across the empty deck and into the captain. It's much the same as the last time you were in here, you know, same tables Laden down with maps and navigational charts, the big four poster bed on one wall. He goes and digs around in his nightstand for a minute and comes up with that little pocket sized leather-bound book that you saw him within mystery. And he hands it to you with a flourish and goes there you are, like I said, could look, she's going to like
Speaker 1 00:36:38 Go to Suffolk then or shirt then realize that our clothes are wet and just kind of like awkwardly
Speaker 3 00:36:42 Hold it. The
Speaker 4 00:36:44 Captain you notice is also digging through a little chest of drawers by his bed. And he pulls out a dry shirt and changes it out and grabs another one and holds it out to you. You'll have to make some adjustments on it. Probably a tear, all the buttons out to my shirt,
Speaker 3 00:36:58 Obviously. Right. Is there
Speaker 1 00:37:01 Like a piece of furniture that he could like duck behind to change her shirt? Ben has curtains.
Speaker 4 00:37:07 You could go around the other side of the bed and pull the curtains.
Speaker 3 00:37:10 Okay. I do that yet. I think
Speaker 1 00:37:13 Because there's no buttons that she is just going to like tie it around her stomach, play
Speaker 4 00:37:17 Daisy goddamn duke. I love her so much. And I got no buttons.
Speaker 3 00:37:23 Yeah, she's going to do that.
Speaker 1 00:37:25 And then I come back out and still adjusting
Speaker 3 00:37:28 It. Roll insight for me real quick, 16,
Speaker 4 00:37:33 The captain gives you the once over real hard shakes, a little bit of saltwater
Speaker 3 00:37:39 Out of her hair and then says, so now
Speaker 1 00:37:42 That we're in private, would you like to discuss some of those complicated interpersonal dynamics? Ah, he goes from horny to horrified real quick. His eyes
Speaker 4 00:37:51 Get kind of big and he blinks a couple of times.
Speaker 3 00:37:54 Ah, no, if I could be Frank, well, if that's the case, you need to stop looking at me like that. I'm getting mixed signals here.
Speaker 4 00:38:07 He hisses out a breath between gritted teeth. Yeah. And sort of just leans back against one of the posts, the bed. There's a moment where you watch that really raw hurt look, go across his face again. And he just kind of kicks at the foot of the bed and curses a bit and says,
Speaker 0 00:38:29 Look, I don't think it's a secret by now that things didn't end well with. All right. In fact,
Speaker 4 00:38:38 Shit went sideways. And the speed with which shit went sideways, made divorce proceedings a little bit impossible. And the woman ruined my bloody life. But in the eyes of the law, she's still my wife. So there are complicated interpersonal dynamics involved. But moreover there vows that I made, none of those vows precluded me from fucking my way through every porch from I have gorgeous to male NAICS after everything went to hell. But I did make a promise to love that woman with me, whole heart,
Speaker 0 00:39:12 My whole heart. I don't
Speaker 4 00:39:16 Know. So the world looks at me and sees a brigand and a con man with no principles. So I've got nothing if not my own word,
Speaker 0 00:39:25 But I look at you and you're,
Speaker 4 00:39:29 He waves his hand in some incomprehensible way at you. Look at you and a note that I'm breaking a promise. So yes, there are complicated interpersonal dynamics. It's a complicated situation. Every bit of this is complicated and it's not easy for me. Obviously, this isn't easy for me either. She
Speaker 1 00:39:52 Like crosses her arms over her chest defensively. I think I've made it clear by now that I love to be she's clever and funny and moral and beautiful. And obviously I wish I could talk to her about this because I spent my entire life in a cage of other people's expectations, just looking for a scrap
Speaker 0 00:40:18 Of acceptance. And she was the first person that offered a handout of it. And I, if he takes a very deep breath, whenever feelings I'm developing for you, I don't feel that they betray her. And I don't feel that the fact that I love her diminishes, what I feel for you.
Speaker 1 00:40:42 It's it's not easy, but it is that simple for me. And if you feel differently as to how that reflects on either of you, then that's fine. But as for me, the feelings that I am developing for you are inexorably influenced by the fact that you're the only person I know who has also fallen in love with the city and knows how I feel about that. And if we end whatever this is today, and I go back to her, then the way that I feel about her will be influenced for the rest of my life, by the fact that she and I both love diem. You don't have to accept it, but I, I won't be treated like mistake. I've had quite enough of making myself into a simpler woman than I am, because I think that my complexities and my contradictions make me harder to love.
Speaker 4 00:41:48 He blinks a couple of times really heavily, almost like he's trying to blink away tears. There's never been a question of whether or not I loved Sabine
Speaker 0 00:41:59 Loss. The question
Speaker 4 00:42:02 Of whether or not she loved me as the one in play here. And I understand it. I see where you're coming from. You're at the lowest point of your life and she's there
Speaker 0 00:42:16 And she's beautiful and
Speaker 4 00:42:18 Clever and everything that you said, but she's not good. I won't blame you for not figuring that out in the time that you knew her, but I'll beg your pardon to take it into consideration.
Speaker 0 00:42:35 And to trust me, when I say that, I know
Speaker 4 00:42:40 He just looks more upset, more absolutely gutted than you've ever seen him. But there is a moment where he sees you notice
Speaker 0 00:42:51 That and straightens his
Speaker 4 00:42:54 Posture, clenches his jaw swallows really hard and nods down to where you have the book tucked into your shirt. But at any rate, you seem to have gotten what you came
Speaker 0 00:43:07 Here for whatever that is. Enjoy your reading loss. Yeah. See walks out
Speaker 3 00:43:25 Leo after a few minutes of soaking under your parasol fi flounces over and to sit in the sand next to you out of the corner of your eye, you see her like hunch over a little leather-bound book and start flipping through it. If you look over you notice that
Speaker 4 00:43:46 You've never seen the written form
Speaker 3 00:43:48 Of Ocwen. It's a little harder to understand, given your fluency in Elvish than the spoken form is you think you would have to like puzzle over it. It's not really something that you can glance over and really figure out she's visibly irritated as she's doing this. But she does not say anything to you. Leo pivots
Speaker 4 00:44:12 The parasol around so that he can look at her and raises his sunglasses.
Speaker 3 00:44:18 Hey, they're sourpuss. What's gotten into you nothing. Oh, and
Speaker 4 00:44:23 That's why you're pissed off. Okay. I get it. He lowers his sunglasses and picks up a coconut drink
Speaker 3 00:44:29 Fee, closes the book. One puts it down on the sand, very gingerly and then scoops a big handful of sand up and drops it right on you.
Speaker 4 00:44:40 Leo throws a handful of sand back at her right in her
Speaker 3 00:44:43 Face. Okay. So you do have a sand fight. Fee goes luck. It was a difficult conversation. I don't want to talk about it. And then she picks the book back up difficult conversation with the captain. Who else do I have difficult conversations with? Apart from you, Leo
Speaker 4 00:45:11 Sits up brushes as much sand as he can off of his chest.
Speaker 3 00:45:17 Where is he just wondering? I assume still in his quarters since he kicked me out. Excellent. Thank you. Leo reaches into his bag and pulls out camera's blade. He goes very still for a second and then says, why do you have the knife? I'm just going to go talk to him with your knife. I'm just going to go talk to him. They put the knife away. I have a question about rogue things. I'm just
Speaker 4 00:45:48 Going to go talk to him. I leave before she could stop me. I run down the beach.
Speaker 3 00:45:53 Leo. I go back to the ship. By the time you get there, the captain is leaning against a railing, just taking swigs out of a flask.
Speaker 4 00:46:03 I'm going, going to calmly stroll up the gangplank and lean against the railing next
Speaker 3 00:46:09 To him. You know, I didn't take you
Speaker 4 00:46:11 For the broody type, but I guess we learn new things about each other every day.
Speaker 3 00:46:16 He fully like throws his head back to take a swig out of the flats, wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and says, you know, that I can think of people that I'd like to talk to less than I would do right now. But it's a short list. Oh, that's
Speaker 4 00:46:30 A shame. Cause I really want to talk to you. I am not trying to look like I am making an explicit threat, but I do take the knife out and start twirling it between my fingers, doing it. A knife trick.
Speaker 3 00:46:43 You know, captain, I really want to trust you. That'd be your first mistake.
Speaker 4 00:46:51 Oh I don't Leo tosses the knife up and catches it again by
Speaker 3 00:46:55 The hill. I can't because of a mixture of my own betterment judgment, recent experiences, fucking childhood trauma. Take your pick. The more
Speaker 4 00:47:08 Pressing matter at hand here is that my sister wants to trust you.
Speaker 3 00:47:16 He likes another D pull of the flask
Speaker 4 00:47:20 And you see, my sister doesn't want to trust anyone
Speaker 3 00:47:24 Ever. In fact, this is a bit of a first for her. So you understand if she were to get
Speaker 4 00:47:33 Burned by that particular decision, that as her big brother, it would be my job to step in and rectify the situation.
Speaker 3 00:47:42 Yes, the captain gives a flat humorless laugh. Just are you giving me the shovel talk? Lad, Leo,
Speaker 4 00:47:55 The knife up again. It catches it and stabs it down into the railing. Turns over to the captain with his big plastic political smile. He reaches out claps. The captain on the shoulder, a little too hard
Speaker 3 00:48:10 Captain. We
Speaker 4 00:48:11 Spend most of our time out in the middle of the ocean. I won't need a shovel
Speaker 3 00:48:18 Roll intimidation 19. Okay, captain's going to roll insight. That's a 15 captain looks a little bit intimidated. The captain puts the top back on his flask with a few sharp twists of his wrist and puts it back in his pocket. And then he turns to you and opens his mouth. And as he's doing that, you hear a horrible cat, he owl. And then you hear glasses yelling. Notice of delinquent repayment. No. And then you watch the cat run into the woods off the beach. You watch glasses take off after it. The captain stops blinked a couple of times. And then under his breath, just grits out storms and bloody salt. And then he has glasses or adopt. You don't know what's in those woods. Glasses does not listen. Glasses is taken off. Pelican drops out of a Palm tree and starts going off after him. Boots is heading off from the beach. You see fi get to her feet and start running the captain, regs a handbag through his hair and says, and then Kivas perfect. Idiot said to himself, oh, you will have a fun beach day. It'll be good for morale. And then he takes off down the gangplank. I run after her. Oh no.
Speaker 3 00:49:41 You find your be treating interrupted quite
Speaker 4 00:49:44 Suddenly by glasses running off into the forest. After the ship's cat and all of the other officers quickly fall into step with you. Boots and Pelican are slightly ahead of the rest of you. You are running along next to you who has her great sword in a sheath attached to a leather strap that she is quickly pulling over her head as she runs and behind you, you hear some crashing through the foliage as Leo and the captain both come running down off the ship. You go careening headlong through these woods. There is no sight of glasses or the cat. I think the person here best suited to roll a survival check because it's Wiz is probably going to be Leo. So let me roll that for him real quick. And that will be a 22 to survival. So Leo and the captain come crashing into the woods behind you. Leo shoves you, the captain and you out of the way and lunges forward into the brush and grabs boots by the back of the shirt and points off to the left, where there is, you notice an indentation in the foliage where it looks like glasses has gone crashing through and you guys just take off in that direction. The six of you go tearing through this thick Palm forest. The captain's going to use one of his cutting actions to double dash. And from the brush ahead of you, you hear a cat <inaudible> very angrily.
Speaker 3 00:51:17 After a couple
Speaker 4 00:51:18 Seconds, you see the captain and glasses emerged from the brush. The captain has notice of delinquent repayment by the Scruff of the neck and is holding him a loft. He points a finger in the cat's face
Speaker 3 00:51:29 And goes. Now you listen here, you have mangy beast. And
Speaker 4 00:51:33 Then quirks his head to the side and looks off over his shoulder and goes
Speaker 3 00:51:40 What I'm going to try to see what he's looking at. Okay? Roll perception. 21 in front of you,
Speaker 4 00:51:50 The captain hands, the cat back over to glasses silently, still looking off over his shoulder and narrows his eyes. You follow his gaze. And over the top of the trees, you see the mast of a ship with a flag waving from the top big blue flag with a white oyster, with a Pearl in it. And two cross swords underneath it's fleet colors. You've seen it flying on the
Speaker 3 00:52:18 Ship, looking over at it. He says, where are we supposed to be rendezvous in with anyone?
Speaker 4 00:52:25 The captain frowns shakes his head and then goes marching off towards where the master shooting up over the trees.
Speaker 3 00:52:33 Obviously I am also going, yeah,
Speaker 4 00:52:37 Everybody falls into step behind him looking similarly confused. You sort of fall in next to Leo. Let me roll insight for him. Nat 20, 28 with a modifier, his hand drifts down to his belt where he's got his knife that he took with him in a sheath and he says, something's wrong?
Speaker 3 00:53:02 Oh great. I'm going to statements. As we marched through the woods, this is a great beach day that we're having
Speaker 4 00:53:13 Your party pushes on through the undergrowth in this Palm forest and exits onto a high Ridge overlooking another one beach. And there is a large multi mastered multi-sale sailing ship. Half sunk into the water with the bow, sticking up into the air over the sand. You do not see anybody on the deck. The captain is standing closest to the ledge
Speaker 0 00:53:49 With a very
Speaker 4 00:53:51 Gravely concerned look on his face,
Speaker 0 00:53:54 Huh? Fuck me. That's the Moray Moray by Miriam and Kelly and ship.
Speaker 4 00:54:10 And fi you remember Miriam Adler and Kelly and Cassidy, the two members of the fleet that you met in a sky at the games,
Speaker 0 00:54:19 Shit face starts down the ledge. You
Speaker 4 00:54:24 Move closer to the ship. Again. There looks to be nobody on deck. It looks to be completely abandoned, but you don't see any kind of debris on the beach. It doesn't look like anybody disembarked.
Speaker 0 00:54:36 You could
Speaker 4 00:54:37 Feasibly get up onto the ship from the beach because it has kind of been run into the sandbar. Would you like to do that? Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:54:47 Not allowing I'm going to wait for everybody else to catch up, but yeah, I want to try to get into the ship, the captain
Speaker 4 00:54:54 And the other officers, and Leo are not far behind you. And all of you start clambering up over the railing onto the ship where it's been beached on the sandbar. Roll me investigation eight. You can tell that the ship obviously got beached and that it is damage. You can't tell much beyond that, but you see as people kind of clamber up behind
Speaker 3 00:55:24 You glasses, and you
Speaker 4 00:55:26 Start looking around much more carefully. So I'm going to roll for them. You beefed it. You look panicked as she's just combing through boxes and things on the deck. But glasses seems to be looking at things with a much more critical eye. You see his head snap over to the side. As he still got the cat wrapped in his arms and he says
Speaker 3 00:55:51 Compton, there's no signs of struggle. So where is everyone?
Speaker 4 00:55:57 The captain just hisses to himself?
Speaker 3 00:56:01 I don't know that. I think it's our job to find that out. And now the
Speaker 4 00:56:06 Glasses has mentioned it. You kind of start to see it. The deck looks completely swapped clean. There's a couple boxes laying around. It just looks like whoever was on this ship disappeared next to you. The captain shakes his head and goes, this isn't Marianne. Wouldn't have gone down without a fight. Boots, go check the hold. Boots, nods, ICER, and goes. So Wade underwear part of the ship is underwater. You see him just absolutely fully rip a trapdoor up and dive down into the water with a splash. The captain nods toward the bow of the ship and says, the rest of us are going to go check the captain's quarters. Figure out what happened here.
Speaker 3 00:56:51 Yeah. I go with him again. The deck
Speaker 4 00:56:54 Of this ship, even though it's wrecked looks happy, absolutely pristine. It looks like nothing went wrong here. It's really odd. Considering what kind of condition the ship itself is in you close in on the door of a captain's quarters near the bow of the ship. And the captain reaches down to grab the knob and it won't twist under his hand
Speaker 3 00:57:15 Fucking hell, back up the
Speaker 4 00:57:20 Captain surround and glares at you a little bit and goes last. I know what I'm doing. And behind you, Leo goes
Speaker 3 00:57:26 Thieves tools and I have a shatter spell back up
Speaker 4 00:57:33 The capita just, and he puts his hands up and takes a step back. And Leo behind you. Aw,
Speaker 3 00:57:38 I can't shatter on the door. It's
Speaker 4 00:57:41 A door. It can't save. It blows off the hinges swings
Speaker 3 00:57:44 Inward. I gesture towards where there is no longer a door there and say to the captain after you. Okay. The captain heads in, are you headed after him? Yes.
Speaker 4 00:57:57 Yes. Move into this captain's quarters. It is set up pretty similarly to how the captains is back on the ship. Couple tables Laden down with maps, charts, dining, table, bed, chest of drawers. It looks like two people here. You see a couple of different sets of clothes that are still on the floor next to the bed. It looks like whoever left, this just walked away from it. And we're going, they do a little bit of division of investigation duties here. So you see the captain, not at Pelican who goes over to the table, where all the maps, it looks back to where the door goes. You guard duty. She nods in a very clipped manner and she goes outside. And then he turns over to human life fi and says, and you two are going to help me come through the rest
Speaker 3 00:58:47 Of this glasses, distress signal. Now
Speaker 4 00:58:51 Glasses puts the cat down the cat immediately when he jumps on the bed and curls up on the dovey gets hair. Yeah, everywhere. And then you see glasses over into one far corner of the room on another desk where there is a large black metallic box with a mirror mounted on top. There are several arcane runes that have been etched into it. Glasses reaches down to his belt and pulls out a screwdriver that he's had there the whole time apparently, and starts chipping at this thing. So what's going to happen is fi Leo and the captain are going to roll a general investigation check, and we're going to average it. Pelican's going to look at the charts and see what's going on there. And then glasses is going to check the distress signal in that order. So fi I'm going to need uteral investigation, Leo and the captain are also going to roll. And we're going to average that
Speaker 3 00:59:46 14. Okay. Leo got a 21. Nice. The captain got
Speaker 4 00:59:56 And natural too. So with this modifier, the captain got zero he's way too upset to figure out what the fuck is going on here. So that averages out to about a 12. So you guys are able to ascertain a couple of the captain is just Frank. It's mostly you and Leo that are going around kind of parsing this all out. Leo stops at the foot of the bed and stares down at the floor. Okay? So all of this furniture, the bed, the desks, they all got moved around. You could see the scratch marks. So there was probably a scuffle, but why is there no blood? And you move back towards the doorway where you came in and look at the door that you blew off, the hinges you crouched down and you look at the door knob. And as you fiddle with it a bit, you can tell that it was locked from the outside. So whatever happened in here happened. And then someone walked out and locked the door from the outside with a key,
Speaker 3 01:01:00 Presumably someone's still married.
Speaker 4 01:01:04 Okay. And now I'm going to roll for Pelican, who has proficiency in investigation? Oh, he rolled a Nat one. That's only a seven. He blinked down at the charts on the table and tilts his head to the side a bit confused. And then the bird ruffles its wings and says, it appears that's all of the recent navigational charts are missing captain. And then I'm going to roll a tinker check for glasses. As he's over there, messing with this, the fist distress signal. There's a good lab. That's a 26. So with that big fat zero to an investigation check, the captain is kind of just standing in the middle of the room. Dissociating as all of you are throwing this information at him and glasses is prying at the front of this black box with all the arcane runes on it, dive into it with the screwdriver and pulls a wand out of his belt and starts poking it around in there as well. You see a couple of flashes of bright light, almost like a welder's torch. And then the mirror that is mounted on top of this black box socks, shutters, buzzes, and a picture ripples life inside of it.
Speaker 3 01:02:21 It seems
Speaker 4 01:02:23 Grainy distorted, but in the mirror you can make out the terrified face of Miriam. Atler this plump storm folk woman with curly dark hair back in a braid. She's holding a Cutlass in one hand and leaning into the mirror, speaking urgently. But every couple of words, it seems like static is coming across the mirror. And you're not really getting a full picture of what's being said, she's looking back over her shoulder frequently, as she says, about 30 leaves, Southwest of sleet, Gulf
Speaker 3 01:03:02 Taking on water and don't know how long we can hold them off air, just assistance
Speaker 4 01:03:08 Needed. I repeat urgent assistance needed there's and then the image solidifies one last time. As you see Miriam, look over her shoulder, gasp, raise the Cutlass. And then the image goes dead Behind all of you. A dripping wet boots walks into the doorway shrugs and says, well, the hold was completely cleared out, but it was also completely underwater. So unless the people who wrote this boat for all storm folk, we have to assume it happened before she went down. The captain looks absolutely shell shocked, grief stricken, and deeply, deeply worried. He snaps his head over to the side and goes glasses. Why didn't we get that distress
Speaker 3 01:03:59 Signal? Glasses
Speaker 4 01:04:02 Is still twisting his screwdriver elbow deep in the box
Speaker 3 01:04:05 And says under no, sir, it appears
Speaker 4 01:04:08 That the hailing frequency was scrambled, but we still should have,
Speaker 3 01:04:12 I don't know what, what could have scrambled the I'm sorry. I'm not well versed in mechanics, but what could have done that glasses
Speaker 4 01:04:25 Just looks over at you lost for words and shrugs. He looks absolutely mortified that he can't tell you more. And then from the other side of the captain's quarters, Leo pipes up, I think something that we're all ignoring here is that a struggle clearly happened. So why doesn't it look like it did
Speaker 3 01:04:47 Clearly someone wanted us to think that the boat had simply been abandoned and that's clearly
Speaker 4 01:04:54 Not the case. So the next logical question is who is that? Someone
Speaker 3 01:05:01 I think we can all recall
Speaker 4 01:05:02 In recent memory, a certain person that was recently in the neighborhood that might have reason to do something like this. The captain just shakes his head, brings a finger up to pinch the bridge of his nose. It's not defiant slot.
Speaker 3 01:05:19 Who else would it be? I don't know, but it's not. She's got no reason to. She has every reason to defiance
Speaker 4 01:05:32 Does our share of and Luton from the Zephyr Isles, but she's not behind the people disappearing.
Speaker 3 01:05:39 She,
Speaker 4 01:05:42 He, it looks around at all of the other officers standing around you and fully flinching is a few years box sheet helped us track down a boatload of people that had gone missing onto the Dragon's mall. I'm given prison company. I won't elaborate on the favors that she was receiving in exchange for that. But the fairest and only thing you need to know about defiance is that she never acts against her own interests. All right. So
Speaker 3 01:06:10 This wasn't her, no defiance never does. It gets her out interests. And she described you to me as dead useful and the right situation. So I have to wonder what her own interests mean in this situation, we'll talk about it later. Loss. He
Speaker 4 01:06:29 Fully snapped that you teeth bared looking very, very
Speaker 3 01:06:34 Angry
Speaker 4 01:06:36 And then whips back around to glasses and Pelican points back and forth between the two
Speaker 3 01:06:40 Of them. Where was the ship headed? We need to know that and we need to know
Speaker 4 01:06:46 A whole crew. Does it just disappear? There's no bodies. There's no
Speaker 3 01:06:50 Blood figure something out.
Speaker 4 01:06:55 And I mean, mechanically Pelican rolled Hass on his investigation. Check and glass has got all that he could get. So the two of them just kind of look at him, lost for words, he takes his hat off, runs a hand back through his hair curses,
Speaker 3 01:07:14 Right? Then everybody back to the beach, back on the ship, we're going to go find these people. I'm not losing anyone else. Fi makes a disgusted noise and just storms out.
Speaker 4 01:07:26 You all make your way back to the beach where the ship is docked. Everybody gets pulled back on board very, very quickly. And you set off fee the anchors up. You're out in the water. What do you do?
Speaker 3 01:07:41 Fee's going to stay up on deck. She needs some air Leo's
Speaker 4 01:07:44 Stays with you. He's just staring off into the dark ocean, reflecting the gathering storm clouds overhead.
Speaker 1 01:07:58 She clenches her fists around the railing that lets go takes a very deep breath and says, I know what that woman is. I don't have the proof. I don't know how to explain it, but I, I know.
Speaker 4 01:08:20 Yeah. And I'm willing to bet the exact description of what you think that woman is. Isn't something that could be uttered in polite company because I'm thinking the same thing. Yeah. That too,
Speaker 1 01:08:38 He just shakes her head, set. Their jaw looks out over the ocean, daddy useful. And it exactly the dynamic that you have to have with the person to describe them that way I've been on the other side of it. And the fact that he won't listen to me is she just puts a handout on the railing, firmly shake their head. Look, if you're
Speaker 4 01:09:14 Trying to make me play devil's advocate and defend the guy
Speaker 0 01:09:17 I'm not going. But when you were in it, when you were really, really in it,
Speaker 4 01:09:28 One had tried to tell you what was going on. Can you really say that you would have listened to them? The first he just puts her head in her hands,
Speaker 0 01:09:39 Leo shakes his
Speaker 4 01:09:40 Head and kind of adopts that thousand yard stare out at the horizon. Yeah, again and again, I say, you're not going to catch me dead defending the captain. I
Speaker 0 01:09:52 Think he's in. But I also think that both of us,
Speaker 4 01:09:56 Those have been the exact same kind of idiot before with the exact same kind of stuff
Speaker 0 01:10:02 And that it might not be fair to hold it.
Speaker 4 01:10:05 And the standards that we didn't hold ourselves to when we were in it, I've already said my apologies for not trying harder to make you see what was going on.
Speaker 0 01:10:22 We're both already living with the consequences of it. So for the sake of whatever, incredibly stupid
Speaker 4 01:10:32 Reason that you've decided that you care about this nasty little man, you think he deserves better than what you got when you were in the same place as he is now.
Speaker 1 01:10:44 He kind of scraps her hands on her face, shakes her head, looks out over the horizon. I hate it. When you're reasonable, I've
Speaker 4 01:10:54 Been told that it doesn't happen. Often soak up the wisdom while you can.
Speaker 1 01:11:00 Yes, they are always. So insufferably smug about it.
Speaker 4 01:11:05 Good. Talk to you. A little boyfriend fee. I'll be downstairs in the bunk to listen to you, rant and rave and maybe give you a hug. If you feel like it later, I love you. You're a bastard.
Speaker 0 01:11:21 This slow, easy, comfortable
Speaker 4 01:11:25 Smile, but you've never really seen on him before, which is across his face. Love you too. And he claps you on the back back and goes down the stairs to go below deck,
Speaker 3 01:11:45 Not for the captain's quarters. Okay.
Speaker 4 01:11:48 Are you knocking or are you just going to walk
Speaker 3 01:11:50 In? I'm just walking in. You
Speaker 4 01:11:54 Just barge into the captain's quarters. He is sitting at the big secretary desk in one corner of his room with an open leather bound book. Just kind of scratching at something with a piece of charcoal. In his hand, if you walk closer, you can see that he's doing this really beautiful, really well executed sketch of the Moray as it was in its heyday. Just this majestic multi-master sailing ship, but he stamps his head up. As soon as you walk in and goes to shut the book, roll perception,
Speaker 3 01:12:35 15, a
Speaker 4 01:12:37 Lot of the pages of this book flutter by as he goes to snap it shut. And you see sketches of the ship sketches of the crew. You see this really lovingly rendered drawing of you with her great sword. In her hand, just kind of leaning on the pommel, a sketch of boots and Pelican arm and arm leaning over the railing of the ship dock with her doctor's kit Ascot with his clipboard. And as the pages flick by you also see a really gorgeous sketch of yourself with your Cape. It looks like colored in with water colors, draped around your shoulders. But as soon as you see that he fully leans on top of the sketchbook as he slams
Speaker 3 01:13:24 It, shut loss. Good to see you. If he pauses for a second and shakes her head and says, he said, we'd talk later. It's later, let's talk. He looks severely put out, but then
Speaker 4 01:13:39 Nods stands up and walks over to the kind of little dining table that he has in the middle of the captain's quarters, pulls out a bottle of Australian wine and pops it open and just sits it in the middle of YouTube. Right? I guess it is later.
Speaker 3 01:13:57 We'll talk. He sits down. I'm going to sit down across from him. There
Speaker 4 01:14:03 Are no glasses on the table. He just picks up the bottle of wine and takes a slug out of it and then goes to pass it over to you.
Speaker 3 01:14:10 So, uh, the whole thing with defiance much likely,
Speaker 4 01:14:16 Oh, he also has a bit of a thousand yard stare right
Speaker 3 01:14:18 Now. Well, for
Speaker 4 01:14:21 All of that makes sense. It strikes me that I should probably go back to what happened with Sabine.
Speaker 3 01:14:27 She washed up
Speaker 4 01:14:28 On the shore of some sandbar decades ago since she had fled the country and was looking for shelter. And well, the thing about those Zephyr Isles is that we've got a bit of a limited path to citizenship or asylum. It's either joined in state service, doing some monitor, a great marriage or
Speaker 3 01:14:49 Getting married to a citizen. And well, I mean, you've met Sabine, like how did bad from the start. But
Speaker 4 01:15:00 So that happened. And several years after that, when the aforementioned rescue of the ship of kidnapped people happened, defiance brought up to me that there was some fucking shadowy secret society in Australia come for the life of me, remember the name of it. But that Sabine was a part of it. And that they had something to do with all the people that were going missing.
Speaker 3 01:15:25 And of course it's fucking defiance. I didn't believe her. But then, uh, two days later I
Speaker 4 01:15:35 Caught Sabine trying to sneak off in a long boat at three o'clock in the morning with a load full of maps, navigational charts and half the treasure and the hold.
Speaker 3 01:15:47 So you could follow that story to its logical conclusion. Pirate code says that punishment for stealing from one's own crew is death or maroon. And I, I couldn't, I couldn't,
Speaker 4 01:16:02 He puts one hand up to his forehead.
Speaker 3 01:16:05 So to the island, she went and she lived
Speaker 4 01:16:09 On, she held a grudge. Now she's wanting to do I'm sure.
Speaker 3 01:16:12 You know, and today I find a ship full of some of the best sailors completely disappeared off the face of the earth
Speaker 4 01:16:23 Will tell their conclusion, am I supposed to come to here fee?
Speaker 3 01:16:27 She picks up a bottle of wine drinks out of it for a good few seconds. The society, as you mentioned, is called the bacon Sabine. The part of it. So is defiance. And so am I, they're not behind the disappearances for a multitude of reasons. One of which is that the people that are involved in it, can't stop trying to rip each other's throats out long enough to coordinate a sharing of information, much less. The scale of atrocity that's been going on in the dragon smile for as long as it has. I'm asking you to trust that I know she crosses her arms over her chest. She says, I'm sure some people in it are involved, but that's because they are higher up in the Assurion government and closer to the rotten core of the church that my family helped to build. Not because of the beacon.
Speaker 3 01:17:25 And I know that Sabine isn't a part of it because when I met her, she was trying to figure out the disappearances and almost got disappeared herself. She kind of leans forward across the table. Looks the captain in the eyes. I am going to tell you the bare facts of the situation. Sabine was clocked over the head, taken to a cave, half underwater, and then caught in the middle of a firefight. I am asking you to think about the woman that you married and whether or not you trust her principles to be what she said. They were. I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me that Sabine trusts anyone to be competent enough to pull off part of that plan and not get her killed. I am not asking you to trust that Savina's good. I'm asking you to trust that Sabine has the strongest self-preservation instinct of anyone I've ever met.
Speaker 4 01:18:25 He's quiet for a very long stretch of time, grabs the wine bottle back from you and takes another big slug out of it. And just as he puts it down on the table and opens his mouth to say something, the door of the captain's quarters bursts, open
Speaker 0 01:18:45 Boots and Pelican comes storming in Pelican looks more exhausted than you've ever seen him. He looks like he has just run a marathon. The bird is not with him. And boots is
Speaker 4 01:19:00 Actually kind of holding him up, trying to keep him up right as he staggers into the captain's quarters
Speaker 0 01:19:08 And books it
Speaker 4 01:19:09 For the table, with all the maps and charts on it, the captain stands up from the table and runs over to where they are, gets his hand on Pelican's free shoulder, the boots isn't holding and Pelican just jams one finger down into the chart, pointing at a spot in the open sea. On the map, you can kind of put together that he's been in the bird for a while and has figured out where the missing people from the Moray are. The captain looks down at the map. Nods says, Hey, if we have the wind, we can make that
Speaker 0 01:19:49 You go rest boots. Make sure he arrests boots, nods and says, I do my best.
Speaker 4 01:19:59 The captain leans forward into a little box of supplies on the desk and jams a pan down into the map or Pelican was pointing. Are you going over there? Yep. You don't really, we know how to read nautical charts. So you can't really figure what kind
Speaker 0 01:20:14 Of distance you're looking at here. But judging by the landmasses surrounding this pin on the map. It's not that far off. The captain
Speaker 4 01:20:26 Finishes screwing this pin into place on the map
Speaker 0 01:20:29 Looks over at you, nods and says, it seems like a lot of us here haven't answered questions. But if we're lucky, we may be able to parse a few of them out.
Speaker 1 01:20:41 Fi looks at the map, looks at him and slowly raises a hand, twists it in emotion that he would recognize as her getting ready. It has to spell, we don't need luck. We'll have the wind.
Speaker 3 01:21:03 And that's where we're gonna end this week. This was supposed to be a fun beach episode. You guys,
Speaker 4 01:21:14 We need a light episode. We said, let's do a beach episode. We said
Speaker 8 01:21:19 Maybe next time. Don't fucking likely on compelled. <inaudible>
Speaker 4 01:21:42 Buddy Barry here with the postscript, just clearing up a couple of housekeeping things here at the end of the episode, as always, you can find us on social media. We are on Twitter, Tumblr and tech talk at compel duel. You can also find us on Tik TOK, acapella, dual adios, where we post audio snippets from the show. We have lots of other cool stuff, including an official website and official Spotify profile. You can find all of that linked on our various social media pages.
Speaker 3 01:22:06 Additionally, we
Speaker 4 01:22:07 Host a live Q and a show on our YouTube every week on Mondays at 3:00 PM. Pacific time. We would love to have you guys come, hang out, ask some questions, just chill. We'll be talking about the latest episode. We'd love to see you there. You can find us by searching compelled duel on YouTube. If you're enjoying what you're hearing so far on the podcast we ask that you consider pledging to our Patrion starting at just $2 a month. You can get access to all sorts of cool perks, like early access to episodes, priority questions, submission for Q and A's access to exclusive Spotify, playlist and bonus episodes, or even letters from your favorite character every month. If you'd like to support the podcast in ways, other than pledging to our Patrion, we ask that if you are listening to us on apple podcasts that you consider leaving us a rating and a review that helps get the show promoted to a wider audience and helps us grow our listener base. And as always word of mouth advertising is the best possible tool that we have to get ourselves out there. If you like compelled duel, we ask that you just tell three friends about it. And if they like it, ask them to tell three friends as well, episode 10 sure is coming out on Friday. The 13th of August, 2021.
Speaker 4 01:23:17 It, it sure is coming out on Friday the 13th. And that's a hell of a coincidence. If you're a patron though, you're going to get access to it on Thursday, August 12th, boy. Howdy. We'll see you guys next week.
