Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 <inaudible> hello everybody. And welcome back to Capell duel. I'm very, and they're still mad about that joke. And we are a single player. Cody M's Dungeons and dragons, fifth edition, actual play podcast. Last Alan compel, a dual layer of outside made it some truly, truly horrible life decisions. We haven't recorded that episode yet, but I don't feel like I'm going to need to change this part of the interaction. And the time before that, the last time we checked in with Ferrara of Alside shit hit the fan. Didn't it buddy.
Speaker 0 00:01:04 Fan Calissa, infiltrated a masquerade in the Shaquana manners, nominally celebrating soar Chicago, his appointment to the high court and the order of I Luna. Well, what actually turned out to be a little meet and greet for a secret society known as the beacon. And a lot of our full trends were there. We saw, we saw the Hierophant. We saw a loss of the car and fees. Surrogate mother. Yes we did. And that relationship is irrevocably shattered. Yeah, it was a bad time. And the whole event ended with Royal guards, descending upon the Manor and soar in Chicago, being arrested for submission against the ground after dumping quite a bit of damning information all over and then to be there. And also from an expedition against the ground feed, we pick right back up where we left off. You are standing in this abandoned gate house at the front of the Shaquana Manor. Soren is being dragged out. My Royal guards.
Speaker 0 00:02:19 Colossae standing there looking just horror, struck. He disappears the chest that he conjured after. He said everything on fire and that's gone. There's like a scorch Mark on the floor, but knowledge ELLs and the guards are dragging him out and behind the guards, when she looks at the two of you, and then she turns around to the guard that has sorted. It looks to me like the dude in charge. She rolls her wand around her finger cowboy style and flicks it out of the news. You and your friends didn't see me or either of these two young ladies here, magic.
Speaker 2 00:03:00 It comes out from Vermont and the guy nods mutely and just take Soren out. And they have all been affected by whatever loss adjusted. Ladies. We need to go. Obviously I'll have Karen front around and she strides out. I don't know if you guys I'm going to wait to see reversed advantage. Cause I feel like you guys are losing to think, wow, she stalls. And she looks at the little spatters of blood and then Soren left on the floor. She looks at her and she looks at you and she pauses. Tell him when that natural money Melissa's watching you to see what you will do.
Speaker 2 00:04:00 You were the only person left in her life that she trusts right now I follow a line kind of falls into separated behind you, just very shellshocked, highly upset. You guys pile into the back of this carriage that Alicia has brought around and you hit back to the palace. Colossae gets in the carriage and shuts the door behind her and just starts balling. Like she gets in and realizes that she's in a safe space and just breaks down. He puts his arm around her. Yeah. She like leans into you and just keeps crying. Cause the carriage goes back to the palace. He has one hand running circles on her shoulder and the other one in her pocket on the beacon medallion. The one that Soren gave you are hers. She has both in the same pocket. Okay. Rolling. Our cottage. Actual national 19 Lee. Fuck man.
Speaker 2 00:04:59 Okay. You can tell that these medallions, they are magical. I know this, but you'd have to get an identify spell and all of these things before you can figure out what they do, they feel magical, but whatever you have, it's not active. Okay? Yeah. You guys go back to the palace. It's very late at night. You know, it's after midnight, you guys pull in, Colossae goes to go back into the pals in the launch. It gets her by the hand and pulls her back and turns around to both of you knows. So we need to discuss how much of this I will put on the table. That certain levels of truth, what you speak truth to power. You can do more harm than good.
Speaker 2 00:05:43 He says that because he keeping secrets has worked out so well. So far you're an adult. I can't tell you what to do, but take a second to ask yourself what your father getting in on this will look like. Not only what will it look like for you? What it will look like for the thousands upon thousands of everyday people in this country that really don't want to deal with the government. Inquisition a lot should just put their hands up and you don't really see what she does. Colossae goes inside. You guys walk into the entrance hall. And as you guys walk in, you see a pajama clad Fen, just meditating, leaned up against a railing on the stairs.
Speaker 2 00:06:35 You touch your shoulder fin jolts. It comes up out of his meditation where if he points between you and Colossae Colossae was just obviously fucking sobbing and he stops and looks from you to collect to a Washoe. Who's walking in right behind you and goes, is this like a tomorrow conversation? This is static conversation. Okay. Um, gotcha. Just watch your room. You weren't there got super worried, glad you're home. He gets up and disappears up the stairs to his and his dad's quarters. Colossae has had your hand this entire time and is just squeezing it really tight. But then she lets go and kind of like wipes her face and puts herself together and also takes off up the stairs and goes down towards the lane where her family is being housed. Her dad study. Okay. Wrote me an advantaged perception. Check if you could not 20. I swear to God.
Speaker 3 00:07:46 No
Speaker 2 00:07:48 You're going directly there. Yes. I'm not going inside. You stopped short of your father's office because you hear voices behind the door. Okay? He and the ambassador are having a conversation. You hear your father say, since someone has to be competent around here, I've handled the situation and Colossus father mumbles, something unintelligible. You hear your father's voice. Again. I've already had words with a higher fence. He assures me that he'll be dead. As soon as he sets foot on the Island, a noble choice to join the priesthood. But I think we all figured out how this was going to end long before this ever happened. The rest of the family we can send to the North. I think you agree. And the ambassador says, yes, obviously we can't just have them floating around with impunity after all this and your father humps himself and goes, we may need to kill the girl. She's a variable we can't afford to volatile. And the ambassador says, yeah, he, yes. Your majesty. I think that's a idea.
Speaker 0 00:09:00 Okay. He's going back to Chicago manner. Okay. I mean, it's a little bit of a journey. It'll probably take you like 20, 25 minutes to get there by carriage. But I mean like yeah, if you have access to the Royal care, just whatever you want. Yeah. Yeah. You roll back in the entire house is in chaos. When you go back up, most of the party guests are gone. You see Royal guard around conducting interviews with people talking to the party, guests. Some of the civilian people that were here that clearly had no idea what was going on. Soren has gone. You don't see him anywhere. You do see his parents and more alive detained.
Speaker 0 00:09:43 Okay. Do I see some B roll perception? Natural. God damn 20. Are you fucking <inaudible> fuck me. Yeah, Sabina's absolutely there. You see her looking at the road window. Okay. And she makes eye contact with you and nods towards and makes a questioning motion with her head feet nods, emphatically. Excellent. Let me pull up Sabine smell sheet. It's about to hop off motherfucker. Sabine has the message. Canter, baby. That's all we need. Do you see some mean pointing you through the window and go, do you want me to be the distraction or the extraction? The extraction he takes off the necklace that Leslie gave her fly off through the night minute, pings off the side of the mall and the gate house. And then just this or a fire and sorts the scene in the middle of the tool and the globe Rose and consumes and floats out into this huge bonfire.
Speaker 0 00:11:15 Chaos happens. All of the guards that are around whip around to trauma. You look through the window and you see chaos start to happen. And I think you just book it. You're on like one wing of the house where if you ran around to the other side of this part of the house, you'll be, I'm going to do that. You take off that way. And as you take off, you hear the front door swing open and a lot of guards shouting as they pour out and run for the gate house. And you skid into Sabine. As she melts through all of this house and dimension doors in and pulls more light out, or ally is in full meltdown mode. She is crying and shaking and the magic or Reynold her is cooling off of her in waves.
Speaker 2 00:12:25 She's just, yeah, if it's available. Yeah. And she agrees with you. I don't have time to explain. Sabine is a friend of your brother's. She's going to take you somewhere. She needs to be out of the country. Yes, yes. Sabine. He says to herself and runs a hand back through her hair. I lost all my contacts in this Fri. It doesn't matter where anywhere she can't be here. There's a safe house involved folder. I think I could get her out on the next ferry then do what about the parents? They'll be fine for Soren. Not here. I'm going to roll insight for Sabine Sabine roll with natural 20 to insight. Okay. Yeah. You say not here. And she has Brown skin with the same blue undertones that all Sherry and elves have, but you do see her pale almost a little bit. You see a lot of the color, leave her face. She clenches her jaw and she nods. And one of her hands closes around moralize shoulder and just squeezes a little bit. She goes, I can have her in international waters in two hours, make it an hour and a half. If you can, we'll do Ferrara, be safe.
Speaker 2 00:14:00 And if he takes off and you part ways, Sabina, ushers more like off into the surrounding streets and alleys of Ellen hall outside of this Manor house. And where are you going? What are you doing once you get back to her room? Okay. I'm going to stay up for a minute. Okay. What would you like to do? I'm going to wait for awhile. Again. It is the wee hours of the morning. By this point, role perception. You don't hear anything in there. You had to the petrous apartments. Knock on the door. A very tired looking ambassador. Petrus comes to the door and opens it up. He's in his pajamas. He frowns, as he sees you standing in the hallway, he goes, Oh, in vows, can I help you?
Speaker 2 00:15:01 I was just coming to see it for classes. Like I believe she's taking her trans, but I can go wake her up if you need. No, that's all right. I just, he frowns when he sees you mentioning like you need to see Melissa Roland site 11, you can see some wheels in his head start turning and he looks over his shoulders. Is this all yet? Can you go check on her? You hear sleepy mumbling and wet six sounding coughs as lady Patrisse, shuffles around in the background of the apartment. Then you hear, Oh, General's fucking teeth. She's done it again.
Speaker 2 00:15:49 And the ambassador goes, was it the pillows again? Under the blanket? Yes. He said, shit. You can do a survival check to try and find her. So if you want a 16 bedroom is kind of like right off the living room. You can see a little bit into the room. As her dressing down, Platt mother is pulling back the covers on these pillows that are subbed under the blankets. You also see the Footlocker full of booze that she keeps under her bed and it's hanging out a little bit. It looks like she has taken some booze out and gone somewhere. I think I know where she is. She's safe. The ambassador looks really concerned. Yes. I've learned not to ask anything more than that. And he vows again and shuts the door face. Can I go up to the roof?
Speaker 2 00:16:42 Colossae is up there with a model of older and whiskey in one hand and a knife and the other, she's just tossing the knife and catching it again by the Hill. And then just taking slugs out of this bottle of whiskey and just staring out over the city. Isn't that she holds the bottle out. Wordlessly needs a long drag after a very long time of just looking out over the city and the two of you passing this ball back and forth in silence, she says, I was so proud of myself for not believing in my father's brand of loyalty, you know, for our student country and all that bullshit. I thought the loyalty only belonged to people that deserved it. And there were two people in the entire world who in deserved my loyalty for my entire life.
Speaker 0 00:17:50 And one of them tried to kill my father. Am I just a bad judge of character feeding? I mean, looking at everything with Leo now in everything Soren, do I just feel like you're a really fucking good person I know anymore. He takes it out of the bottle and says, I trust someone. I guess I can't honestly say that I have trusted anyone in my life as you trusted Soren. And my brother. So turns out you might be honest things that she says and just takes another slug. That's a bad one. It to be right about.
Speaker 0 00:19:02 Right on my list of people I trust to do the right thing has one person on it. She leans over and laser hat on your shaper. Yeah. And I think you guys just sit there and Polish this bottle of owner and moose, actually I think both of you probably do your traits there on the rooms that night. And then the sun comes up the next morning, throws the bottle on the roof of the palace and then climbs back down the window and you go your separate ways. Um, what are you doing this morning? I'm gonna go talk to you. Find in the dining hall, sitting down for breakfast because Fenton his dad with you and your father. Yeah. He's in there. Your father's not there yet. Fence dad is hanging out in the background at night. So he sees that something's when you walk in and he frowns and comes over to you, are you ready to talk about what happened last night? Yes. Hey dad and fence dad turns around, Ben says to his dad, I'm gonna walk the grand Duchess factor, her room. She forgot something that his dad fixes him with a kind of what the fuck look, but Fen just grabs you. And you guys are on the hallway long night. Yeah. You guys get out and go all the way outside the dining hall. There's really nobody moving around.
Speaker 2 00:21:02 Uh, Calissa wanted to go to the party that they were throwing that for some of our Chicanas appointment to the high court, I went with her as backup. It was all a bit of a surprise. I didn't think to leave another time. Sorry you walked into
Speaker 0 00:21:20 <inaudible> house. The guy that ship us halfway across the country, you walked into his house and you didn't bring someone to pretend it's not your body guard.
Speaker 2 00:21:32 I don't see how there would have been a way for us to get you in there. I was there as glasses plus one.
Speaker 0 00:21:39 What do I know? I guess he just kind of puts his hands up.
Speaker 2 00:21:44 How do you want me to say thanks.
Speaker 0 00:21:47 I want none of this to be happening. I,
Speaker 2 00:21:51 That is no longer an option. So what do you want me to do to fix this? Or are you just going to keep guilt? Tripping me about it? I'm not trying
Speaker 0 00:22:04 What happened. Apparently some shit went down. Your father hasn't even woken up yet from his trance. I I'm assuming he went to bed late,
Speaker 2 00:22:14 So much. Ikano was arrested for what? Fuck me. Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 0 00:22:25 So he's been running a rebellion this entire time.
Speaker 2 00:22:30 It seems that way. Or at least involved in one. Do you think this
Speaker 0 00:22:34 Is about Leo or are they working together?
Speaker 2 00:22:37 I think they were working together. Leo would have made more progress by now. He is an ocean away. I don't think whatever he's doing had anything to do with orange rebellion, other than Soren's misplaced sense of loyalty
Speaker 0 00:22:55 Fences and just leans back against a wall and kind of scrubs a hand down his face. Okay. So what's the next step?
Speaker 2 00:23:02 She straightened her posture, clench their teeth for a second and it says there's no next step he's been arrested. The problem is taken care of
Speaker 0 00:23:12 Ramp up security or anything. I mean, if he had associates, they couldn't have gotten them all.
Speaker 2 00:23:18 I, I don't know.
Speaker 0 00:23:20 I'll check with my dad about the security briefings, fend knots. He looks deeply concerned and he like reaches out to get you by the shoulder. And then realizes that that's not a thing that his station allows and his hand stalls and he muscles off back to talk to his father. What do you do next?
Speaker 2 00:23:41 Same thing. Okay. You go back up to the study role. Be another perception gender. No, no, no. If I wasn't looking at it, God, you hear your father's voice and you hear the ambassadors voice and they're in there talking and you hear your father say, no, I just got the message. He apparently died was honor. And the ambassador you hear say, I can world's grace, maybe. So your father sighs very heavily. Like he's a little bit disappointed. And he says such a talented young man, what a waste for such a pitiful. Cause the, it really does ruin everything she touches.
Speaker 2 00:24:50 And you hear the ambassadors say, I can't help a degree. Yeah. Fi you definitely just listen to your father in faculty. Deadnamed your brother. And you hear them keep talking. Like, I'm not going to make you roll inside for it. But like this is normal flow of conversation. This is how these two people talk to each other all the time. And your father says to the ambassador, there is however, the matter of the girl, I am wondering who was behind that. But we do know somebody that has sympathies for the family. Don't wait even, and you hear the ambassador kind of clam up and go, I can assure you here, majesty class. I had nothing to do with this. I'm going to wait and listen to the one that shaking. Yeah. The ambassador lies to your dad and says that he saw Calissa last night. It sounds like your father buys it just go swell. But it would appear that we have more of this addition, this movement on our hands than we may have originally thought at any rate, your new task is to attract on the girl, figure out who took her and where they are. It takes a very deep breath and just clenched fists clench. And then she releases them to touch one.
Speaker 2 00:26:14 And she just squares her shoulders outside the door. Okay. You hear a little bit of a startle from inside and then your father say, Oh, come in. Yeah, your father and the ambassador are sitting there over morning tea, just talking to each other at his desk. And he looks up at you and he puts up a finger. He goes all for Rora Darla. You'll be very pleased to know that this orange CRADA was arrested for his addition in relation to your unfortunate teleportation accident, which might've happened faster. If you had told me, I couldn't be sure. I didn't want to say anything until I had more of them. Well at any rate, the young Lord Shaquana has made the noble choice to join the priesthood over allowing his entire family to be dragged down with him. However, the Chicago's will be taking an extended vacation up North, but it would seem that our entire problem is resolved.
Speaker 2 00:27:07 Certainly what I've seen. Uh, I've been hoping to take on a little more direct responsibility as to the problem with Liz movements on the continent. Well, as I've said before, it would be a very difficult maneuver to make any sort of political movement happened within Tor dune. But if he's on the move, if we can perhaps contract the good ambassador to get more information on his movements that is reliable, your father says, and his eyes narrow at the ambassador. Then I see no reason. As soon as he's out of his area of protection, which if he plans to move, he will have to eventually be that you couldn't take care of the problem. I am confident that you could absolutely crush him given that he is completely talentless. Is that something that you would be able to do? If it came down to it, she pulls her head a little bit. She looks in directly in the eye. She says, I don't think that would be a problem at all. You think you'd be capable of killing your brother?
Speaker 2 00:28:12 I think I would be more than that. Well then you will absolutely be brought into the loop of any information we discover in the company. Thank you. Oh, I'll be down to breakfast in a little bit. I'm just clearing up some paperwork with the ambassador. Of course. I'll see you then. Goodbye darling. And he goes back to his paperwork. Where do you go for the guards? For sure. There's a training yard. Yeah. Big open courtyard, sand floor, lots of dummies and everything around weapons, stashed and racks fi takes a very deep breath, cleanses or fests slips me bail and then cast a second level guide enabled a lot of the training dummies. Yeah. This dummy just explodes in a burst of radiant light. And behind you, you hear a familiar voice, say that's an anchor to work out hot kid. I'll watch it. She's perched in a doorway, arms crossed over her chest, leaning against the side of the door. He looks at her. That's just pressing of a line. And it says yes. In fact, I mean, I don't blame you finding out that you've been lied to your whole life is a hard hurdle to get over fees.
Speaker 2 00:29:42 I understand the anger, but the whole thing is fi I don't know what you learned last night, but I'm willing to bet that it was a lot. Imagine a world where everyone knows what, you know, imagine the chaos, everything would fall apart, right? That's where the beacon at its most pure intention comes in is that the truth does need to be known because without the truth, there can't be any progress, but truth in the hands of the masses can be problematic. So we need certain trustworthy people to keep that knowledge. I'm trying to find out the truth just as much as anybody else at that party last night was, and I'm doing it all for you. He takes a deep breath. Straightens it posture. Yes. I understand.
Speaker 2 00:30:58 I said some things that were perhaps Casey and I hope we can not move past them. Well, of course we can, honey. It's okay. And uh, Latia reaches up and just like presses a hand to the side of your face. I was a little out of line last night, too. I was scared that you were there. I was nervous about what would happen, but well, I think if anybody deserves to know the truth, it's you, right? We'll make a light keeper. If you, again, she pots your face and walks away, brings your hands back around in front of her. And she has done her nails into a palms. It's so hard.
Speaker 2 00:31:45 You keep going off on piece dummies for a little bit. When you see Colossae again, she looks severely hung over and very depressed. I think you just run into her, just moving around the palace and she looks up at you and kind of looks around and make sure you're not being watching this. Hey, did you, um, did you hear anything? Yes. Uh, not, not here. Okay. Yeah. I take her somewhere outside. There are gardens. That's a pretty typical political intrigue plays. Like there are sometimes Nobles milling about out there, but it's pretty quiet. It's early in the morning. So yeah, you'd go out to the gardens. I think there's a really big, beautiful fountain out there. Lots of, lots of exotic
Speaker 0 00:32:40 Flowers. She's going to say, I'm going to tell you something. You cannot react to it yet. Okay. I'm telling you because you deserve to know, but there is nothing we can do about it right now. If he what's going on, she does react, but it's not in a very loud way. And she just presses a hand over her mouth and sinks down onto a stone bench and just leans forward with her elbows perched on her knees and your hands and looks like she's about to throw up. I'm telling you because you deserve and I'm telling you because her father knew last night and you need to know that she just started shaking. She is not sobbing. She's crying. Suddenly tears are streaming down her face. She just has this hand pressed over her mouth. You have a feeling that if you peeled her hand away, she would start screaming. There's nothing we can do. Right?
Speaker 0 00:33:56 What about his family? His parents fucking girl's phones. How do you know that? Trust that I know. I need you to tell me Leo, didn't do this. I need you to tell me this isn't Oh God, no, no, no. As far as I know, this is the one part of this. What do I do? I do fee I don't know what to do anymore until I do. I will be gathering more information. I will be anxious. My father and we will figure out, all I can say is that the people around us are not whatever is happening. We're father is complicit. I think part of me always knew that. Um, okay. I concern. I know, you know, whenever you find out what it is that we're doing next, just say the word.
Speaker 2 00:35:43 I want you to tell me that these motherfuckers are going to burn fee
Speaker 4 00:35:50 Every single one,
Speaker 2 00:35:56 Calissa, nods to herself and gets up and wipes her eyes and rolls her shoulders back. Totally puts the mask back on with that resolve of these people are gonna fucking burn for what they did to my friends. She is a brick wall, she's unreadable, and she brushes her dress off and disappears back into the palace. So I would like to know fees an extra step. You absorb a lot of information last episode, and you've absorbed a lot of information so far in this one, but just a little catch up on the things that you absorbed. Uh, you have learned politically Leo is on the move. There's something going on with pirate, incursions from the Zephyr iOS beacon wise and state secret wise, you have figured out that something funky is going on on looks still gone. All of the people that are joining the priesthood for punishment reasons.
Speaker 2 00:36:56 And a lot of other people that have been going missing in the area are dying there or something else is happening to them because they're not shipping out enough supplies to feed everybody. That should be there. You have found out that your father faked Leo's application papers. And apparently the public has been told that he willingly advocated. And that is what is legitimizing your claim to the throne. You have found out that the very existence of Australia, as you know it, and maybe predicated on a lie and then somebody else in the beacon knows more about it than Soren did. He did not name her. He said, look to the silent cities and you will find her this episode, you have found out number one, that your father is a fucking piece of shit. And the Soren is dead. And that they have discovered that Laura lives gone, but they don't know who did it. So that's what you know. So given all of that, what do you think your next step is?
Speaker 2 00:37:55 I along breakfast. Okay. Yeah. You go to breakfast. You have a couple of really normal days. I think. I mean like if you're just keeping up appearances, there's a scandal. You know, a member of the high court being indicted first edition is a big thing. The Chicago does get shipped off to the towers of the North. They will be there for the foreseeable future or life's gone. That is not publicized. It is publicized with Laurel. I went with them. It's publicized at soar and made the choice to join the priesthood and absolve his family of their shame. The days passed you don't much new information after that. Everything seems deceptively normal. Your father makes no indication that anything is wrong. Some time passes. I would say about a week later, you wake up out of your trance in the morning fee and there is a little bird sitting on your window. Pecking on the last, looking at you, replies in, sits down at your desk, opens its mouth. Sabine's voice comes in. We're safe, VOC old or everything is as okay as it's going to get not sure how much Soren told you look to the silences. She has her head in her hands says, what the fuck does that mean? Roll history. Check.
Speaker 2 00:39:21 The silent cities are various ancient ruins that exist around this area. They were once cities, a long time ago, they have been officially quarantined and shut down and access to them as forbidden by the Austrian government. Because so many people got sick going in there trying to do research is the official reason going in there makes people sick. A lot of people died, so they got shut down. They weren't destroyed, but access to that most forbid, there is one of them in the North near OMA Groth. There's one to the Southwest, kind of inland. And there is one relatively close developed, all kind of out on the blades.
Speaker 2 00:40:12 She's got to pitch to her father that since she missed her, her parents and oliger off during the Equinox, that she should go up there and give another appearance, roll me, persuasion with advantage. You pitched this idea to your father and he nods to himself. I think you guys are in this study kind of purses his lips and straightens his papers on his desk and goes, no, I think that's a wonderful idea. I think that if you were asking for more responsibility that this is a perfect step. And especially now that our sedition problem is completely solved. I'm not at all worried for your safety. I am going to ask that you don't teleport, however yeah, of course understandable. I'm not eager to repeat my experience, right? Yeah. And honestly, at this point, I'm not sure how much we can trust the order of I Luna given everything going on. That was also, I thought that I had a very well, yes, you can gather your party. Obviously financials will be coming with you.
Speaker 2 00:41:20 If you wanted to ask the ambassador, if he'll let Colossae come, I wouldn't be opposed. So though I would warn you of any trouble that may potentially following her awake. I think it would be wise did she can be troubled, but she is very useful in a crisis just in case. Fair enough. I'll make the arrangements. And yeah. And within a couple of days, you and Fenton coalesce are in the back of the carriage, had a room Gras. The distance between Bella Talanoa McGrath is shorter than the distance between Bella hall and advertised. It's only about three day trip. I feel like the mood in the carriage is a little subdued, despite Fens best efforts. He's kind of excited about going on vacation, but he seems to pick up on the fact that you and Colossae are a little less than jazzed, but after three days of awkward silence, you guys do roll up on the city of OMA graft.
Speaker 2 00:42:16 It's a beautiful town secluded in the middle of the forest, pretty big city, lots of, kind of like Bavarian architecture. So like the houses that are bigger on top than the bottom. And they have the long narrow windows of diamond pattern, stain glass, you guys are hosted by the Baron of old McGrath and his family. And you have a couple of days of political appearances scheduled that you have to go to dinners, some speeches, things like that. On your third day in the city, you are hanging out with Colossae at the Baron's house and you hear a door open and Fen walks into your quarters and he is spinning a key on a ring around his finger and just grinning for all he's worth. He leans on the doorframe. He goes ladies, guess who just went to talk to his aunt and got us access to the family hunting lodge for the weekend. Oh, Phantom. I have to spend another day in this city around politicians.
Speaker 2 00:43:23 Yeah. Even Calissa kind of perks up. Fen has family in overgrowth. It's his mother's sister and her husband and their kids. They're nice people. He has so many little cousins, but they also have a hunting lodge out in the woods outside of the old McGrath. And that's the key that he's spinning around his finger. And he goes, you know, I'm not one to, uh, encourage running away, but I don't see the harm since we're on vacation. And all of these obligations are already met. I'm a cool body guard. I hate it. God, he laughs let's go. I don't want to be in the city anymore. Excellent. I have already had your bags packed and you guys escape from this Barron's manner. The forest around OMA Groth is just breathtaking. There is a foot of snow on the ground up here right now. It's late fall. The forest is huge coniferous trees that just tower up to the sky. It's really, really beautiful. And you go up into the mountains outside of Omaha Roth, and it takes most of a day to get there. But you roll up on this really nice little hunting lodge in the middle of the woods. And Fen takes all your bags inside and starts going outside and chopping down wood for a fire and getting you guys set up. Is there anything you'd like to do while you're here?
Speaker 4 00:44:49 I think he has some stuff in mind, but not anything she can do in the daylight hours. Okay. Yeah. Feel good.
Speaker 2 00:44:58 You walk in again. It's a very nice well-appointed cabin. It looks like it's been really well taken care of the first thing you notice fee is actually a big trail map on a wall. It has old hunting trails, hiking trails, something that looks like ski slopes, maybe all lined out on this map and off about three, four miles to the East of this cabin. There is an indicator on the map that says that there is a silent city there,
Speaker 4 00:45:29 Careful note of that, and then gets the book and settles down for that
Speaker 2 00:45:33 Afternoon. I'm not gonna make you roll insight for this cause Fens pretty transparent. You can tell that he's trying to like lift your guys's spirits a little bit. So he comes in and gets a fire. Started makes you guys hot. Chocolate starts telling you go stories like he's really trying to make you guys happy. And yeah, the evening wears on founding. Colossae going to take their trance, get that piece of paper
Speaker 4 00:46:01 And writes a note. And the note says out for a walk be back soon.
Speaker 2 00:46:08 Okay. And you're leaving. Yep. I'm going to have you roll stealth for me, please. Ben is outside fucking waiting for you. When you go out the door, leaned back against a tree arms over his chest armor on. He's trying really hard to not let you hear his teeth chatter. All right. So are we going to talk,
Speaker 4 00:46:32 What is they're talking about? I'm going to take a walk. I mean really
Speaker 2 00:46:38 The only thing I like to talk about
Speaker 4 00:46:41 Is you hold them.
Speaker 2 00:46:43 Let me figure out what I've done. That makes you think that you can't
Speaker 4 00:46:46 Trust me too much. Shit has gone down fee that I have been kept out of the loop for the,
Speaker 2 00:46:55 The thing I can assume is that I fucked something up and I want to fix it because,
Speaker 4 00:47:01 Well, number one, I can't protect
Speaker 2 00:47:02 You very well. If you don't trust me. And number two, you're my best friend. And I want to know if I've screwed
Speaker 4 00:47:07 Something up. Theory takes a deep breath and then Trey, their pressure cracks. Your neck goes, you haven't done anything fun. I'm very well aware of where your loyalties lie. I always happen. I just need some space for myself right now. Where do my loyalties lie?
Speaker 5 00:47:31 She grabbed misses a little bit and tilt their head side. She has, we don't have to do this right now. He looks really deeply hurt. And he,
Speaker 2 00:47:44 He puts his hands up and takes a step back. Like he's disengaging from the company.
Speaker 5 00:47:51 And he says, you know,
Speaker 2 00:47:53 I like to think that I don't ask for
Speaker 5 00:47:56 Much.
Speaker 2 00:47:58 Whenever you get the time, a little honesty, it might be nice. And he turns around and walks inside. They had that. Okay. You head out, roll me a survival check, please. As a 15, what kind of clothes do you have on? Do you have on like your court clothes or like your major's armor thing that you had in previous episodes? Probably. So you've got pretty sturdy clothes on. It's still not very fun. It's very cold. You're hiking through a foot of snow off trail. I mean, there's nowhere that goes to these cities because access to them is forbidden. But you follow kind of the bearings on this map and out of the darkness, it is the wee hours of the morning. By the time you find it, you see ancient crumbling, spires shooting up above the trees in the distance. Okay? And you keep walking and you close in on the silent city.
Speaker 2 00:48:55 It is extremely Erie and it lives up to its name. The snow covers up much of the remnants of road that were once here, but you can feel the heels of your boots grinding down into crumbling cobblestone. As you come up on this giant pointed arch way. That was once a city gate and beyond it, fi is just, it's huge. It's the size of OMA graph easily dead, silent, abandoned skeletons of old stone buildings. These buildings are thousands of years old and there is not a sound. You don't hear wildlife. You don't hear anything. It's dead silent. I'm trying to look for like any, any like residential area, because I'm assuming if I'm looking for a person they're living somewhere. Okay. Romy investigation please. Okay.
Speaker 2 00:49:58 All right. I think with a 16, you find quite a lot, actually. So you wonder these streets for a bit. The only thing you can hear is the crunch of your own boots in the snow. It's incredibly unsettling. You can see just kind of the ghost of the city as it once was. As you wonder back, a lot of the buildings are really well-preserved. There are houses that you look into as you walk down these streets fi where you can see dish is still on tables, where you can see children's toys scattered across the floor covered by thin layers of snow. I mean, it just looks like whatever happened here happened super quickly. And there are some skeletons you see Elton's in piles on the street corners like bodies had been gathered up and left there. You see massive trenches dug into any exposed earth around these piles of skeletons next to them. Mass graves. Obviously you keep walking and eventually you see a very dull light coming from one of the windows of one of these abandoned houses. I haven't been
Speaker 0 00:51:16 Anything like with their hands. I'm going to, before I touch anything, wrap a hand in fabric, okay?
Speaker 2 00:51:24 This house you look in through the window. It's one of the few houses that still has glass left in the window. In the hearth. There is a fire going and around. What you would assume was once the main room or living room of this house, there is a bedroll stretched out. There are bags and boxes scattered about. There is a pile of books and papers shoved into one corner. And on the threadbare decaying hearth row sleeping, curled up. There is a baby deer. It's okay. Baby deer, because you've seen a fond before this thing is the size of a quarter horse. Oh great. That's clearly a baby deer, but it is absolutely massive. You could totally put a saddle on this thing and ride it. All right. And it's just curled up in front of the fire sleeping and you don't see any other activity inside the house.
Speaker 2 00:52:24 I don't see a person. You don't see a person. No. You see the deer. He's going to look for tracks. Okay. Roll survival. 13. Yeah. Away from this house for the deer is sleeping inside and you see very faint. It looks like whoever was making these tracks covered them up as they went. But you do see faint indentations in the snow leading back towards the square where you first walked in, I'm gonna follow up. Okay. You backtrack back to the square. Okay. And around the square, there are houses, but there are so you can tell there was, once it looks like maybe a marketplace here, there was something that looks like a bath house. Like you see a crumbling shell of a building that has these giant empty pools in it. There are shops. There's something that looks like it may have been a wizard's tower once and off to the side of the square. The side that you go down, when
Speaker 5 00:53:26 You first started wondering the city, there's this massive building that looks like one huge cavernous hall. That's being held up by crumbling pillars that are supporting the roof. And as you wander over towards this building, following the tracks fi make an advantaged perception check.
Speaker 4 00:53:48 Yeah. Without perceptions
Speaker 5 00:53:49 In 18. Yeah. And as you wonder, across this empty square, over towards this big pillar supported building you here. Well, the thing is that you don't hear it.
Speaker 5 00:54:08 You don't process this sound with your ears. It is not coming from the outside world. It feels like you're hearing it through bone conduction, just in your bones, in the very core of your body. You feel and hear thunder. And the closer you get to this building, the louder and more consuming, it gets to the point that you cannot hear the silence of the city anymore. You cannot hear any of your surroundings, your own footsteps, your own heartbeat. It's all just the thunder. And it's coming from inside that building and getting stronger, the closer you get to it. Okay. And then I'm walk in now. I'd like you to run me a history check. Now that you're inside the building,
Speaker 4 00:54:56 That's 13. Yeah, that'll do it. You're in a temple. It's not like nanny
Speaker 5 00:55:07 Temple or church you've ever been in before. That's for damn sure. But the kind of awe inspiring architecture and surrounding things that you see. Definitely read like temple. There are crumbling, rotted, wooden pews lining the inside of this place. There is something that looks like it's an altar
Speaker 4 00:55:30 Down at one end. And on either
Speaker 5 00:55:33 Side of this altar, there are two massive fallen stacks.
Speaker 4 00:55:42 They look like
Speaker 5 00:55:43 One point they collapsed and fell into each other as they fell down and they're just holding each other up.
Speaker 4 00:55:50 I'd like to investigate the statues. Okay? Roll investigation. That's a dirty 20,
Speaker 5 00:56:00 This thunder in your bones and in your ears, just roars. The closer you get to the statutes to the point that it's overwhelming, you can't process anything. Other than the thunder,
Speaker 4 00:56:13 The one on the left,
Speaker 5 00:56:14 It looks like a rail thin skeletal figure draped in a robe. It is a humanoid skeleton, but it has long twisting horns on top of its head and sharp fangs. A lot of the face has crumbled away, but you can tell it is a statue of a skeleton in a row. The one on the right also looks like a person in a robe. And the hood of the robe is fully pulled up and obscuring. This person's face. You cannot see their face at all.
Speaker 4 00:56:53 But when you
Speaker 5 00:56:53 Look over at it specifically and maybe take a step closer
Speaker 4 00:56:57 To it, it feels
Speaker 5 00:57:00 Like you have just been struck by lightning, Your whole body shakes in the way that it does when a really bad thunderstorm is happening right outside your house and the thunder booms. And you just feel it in everything. Yeah. And in between those peels of deafening thunder inside of your head, you hear Something is drawing you to this other statute. It's like a magnet. Your body is moving on its own.
Speaker 4 00:57:49 Your
Speaker 5 00:57:50 Entire mental faculties have left. You all, you know, is your proximity to this and this voice. That's in your head, chanting your name over and over and over
Speaker 4 00:58:01 Again.
Speaker 5 00:58:03 You know, for a fact, it's not a voice you've heard before, but the familiarity of it makes everything in here, Reach out. And your bare hand is a millimeter from the surface of this statue, Rolodex dirty saving throw for me please,
Speaker 4 00:58:28 To nine,
Speaker 5 00:58:31 You feel something close tightly around your left foot and Hank. And the next thing you know, you are hanging upside down from the ceiling of this building, by your ankles, swinging slowly back and forth.
Speaker 4 00:58:44 Yeah.
Speaker 5 00:58:47 And from the doorway of this building, you hear a soft one, two, three, four one two three four one two, three, four of hoof beats on the ground. The absolutely gigantic baby deer that you saw sleeping trots into this temple. And it comes over and it sniffs at you. And then it licks your face.
Speaker 4 00:59:07 I don't suppose you could help me out of this one.
Speaker 5 00:59:14 And then from right above you, you hear the sound of something rapidly, sliding down
Speaker 4 00:59:19 Rope. And
Speaker 5 00:59:22 As you are slowly spinning, I think upside down by your ankle. At this point, you see a young Australian elf woman descend also upside down from the ceiling with a set of rappelling gear, hanging from a rope. And she slides to a halt in front of you. She looks right-side up to you. She is skinny, but strong looking very wirey. She has long silver, white hair that is done up in many, many small braids that she has pulled back into a ponytail on the top of her head and over her very dark, almost black eyes. She has a set of clunky looking goggles, strapped down and on the goggles, there are little metal posable arms where she can like selectively zoom in some lenses to magnify things she's looking at.
Speaker 5 01:00:21 And she reaches up and she taps a button on the side of the goggles and all of the lenses go click, click, click, click, click, until she is completely zoomed in looking at you as you two, both swing upside down. And she says, you know, I would ask, what's a girl like you doing in a place like this. But uh, something told me this was going to happen eventually. And she reaches down and she passed the deer on top of the head. She says, good boy, Phineas and releases herself from her repelling gear and lands on the deer's back, very gracefully. And then she snapped her finger and you fall in a heap to the ground grounds and get back to her feet and kind of brush yourself off. And then like tries to look dignified and says, truth dies in darkness. She's got this really beat up, looking leather overcoat on. And she reaches into it with fingerless gloves on her hands and pulls out a beacon coin, flashes at you and chucks it back in her pocket. Revelation lives in light. Arivale Edmar pleasure to meet you, your Highness.
Speaker 0 01:01:43 And that's where we're going to end for this week. Every time, every fucking time, every time the flat thickets God. Okay. So for you, at least doesn't hang from the ceiling anymore. She's got that going for it, but you went alone to meet a stranger. So we'll see how that shakes out next time. We'll see everybody next time. <inaudible>
Speaker 2 01:02:32 Hey, everybody Barry here with the postscript, just handling a couple of housekeeping things here at the end of the episode. Um, we're so sorry. We're so sorry. Anyway, we're active on social media. We're on Twitter, Tumblr and Tik TOK at compelled duel. You can also find us on Tik TOK, acapella, dual adios, where we post audio snippets from the show. If you would like to support the podcast, you could consider pledging to our Patrion. Our patron tier started just $2 a month and you can get a lot of really nice perks from that, including special membership in the official compelled, dual discord and access to cool things on our official compelled dual Spotify account. We also have an official compelled dual website. You can find that linked on our social media accounts. And as always, we ask that if you enjoy what you're hearing, that you tell three friends about compelled dual. And if they like it, ask them to tell three friends word of mouth advertising really, really helps us out and helps us grow our listener base. Additionally, if you're listening to us on Apple podcasts, we ask that you drop us a rating and a review as that also helps us get promoted to a wider listener base. Our next episode, we'll be releasing on Friday, February 19th, 2021. Or if you are a member of our Patriot and you'll get early access on Thursday, February 18th. Again, we are so, so sorry. See you guys next week.
