Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hey, what audio water do you get bonuses to sail across the proficiency? <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:00:25 Hello everybody. And welcome back to compel duel. I'm Barry and I'm and we are a single player, Cody and D and D fifth edition. The actual play podcast. Last time I compelled dual layer of Al sine had just a really bad day. He was captured and brought to the city of Esther meth. He broke up with his girlfriend. Her dad tried to kill him. It wasn't good. I hate that for him. And the time before that for our, of Alpine also was not having a great day, finding some ghosts and some skeletons and learning the, uh, her entire religious experiences in life were all lies. Yeah. A lot's happening. So we are gonna pick right back up where we left off with fi
Speaker 0 00:01:20 You get back to the city of OMA Groth after your adventure in the silent city, and you pack up to go home. It is a long and arduous journey home because it does not stop storming the entire time between overgrowth and Belmont hall. It starts as a thunder, snow up North, and turns to rain. The further South you get. And by the time you get back to the city, you and Fenton Colossae have been cooped up in the back of this carriage for the better part of a week. I think you stay with some minor noble families on the way back and Colossae doesn't push the subject, but she was also able to tell that something was up when they found you outside the silent city. I think she only asks once just comes to your room the first night, then you're staying somewhere on the way home and kind of knocks on the door and sticks her head in and says, Hey, uh, can I go in?
Speaker 0 00:02:16 Yes, sure. What's up. She comes in and she shuts the door behind her. Does a quick look to make sure that nobody's in the hallway. So whatever happens is this another one of those things that you can't tell me, I don't even know where to start to tell you what happened. So she nods to herself and leaves and she backs off. She doesn't ask you again. Fen is very quiet. The whole trip home, the whole encounter you had with him before you left the hunting lodge that night and subsequently losing you and having to hunt you down seems to have really taken its toll on him. He does not say probably more than 10 words to you, the entire trip home, and guess you eventually make it back developed home according to everybody in the city. And according to what everybody in your party tells your father.
Speaker 0 00:03:19 When you get back, everything went exactly as planned. You had a great trip. You did a very admirable bit of political posturing and you get back to the city and you take your trans that night and get up the next morning to thunder and rain. And you go downstairs for breakfast. Go ahead and roll me a flat perception. Check from out in the hallway. That's a natural 18 says an idea. You hear voices inside just making typical breakfast time. Small talk. You hear Colossae talking to your father. She's just talking about the trip and the different things you did in Alma Groth. And it seems like a pretty normal conversation go in then feet. You walk into the dining room and everybody immediately stops talking. It goes dead silent. You could hear a pin drop. Fantastic. Uh, yeah, I'm just gonna nod and take my usual themes. Okay. As you do that, you notice a couple of things with that perception check. The first is that everybody shuts up immediately and is staring at you. The second is that they all look intensely uncomfortable. Your father looks intensely uncomfortable and awkward, and I don't think you've ever seen him look awkward before. The last thing you notice is that Hillis, his entire family is there. The loss is there. Fen and his dad are not there. I'm going to clear
Speaker 1 00:05:12 And just clench a fist and my skirts under the table. And then he's going to turn to her father and say, Lord Tamera and Fernandez, uh, where they held up somewhere. Again, your father looks intensely uncomfortable and awkward and just takes a very slow sip of his tea and puts his cup down and says, Oh, I, um, I thought that he would have told you told me what. So an Andrews came to my office. As soon as you got back yesterday and handed me his resignation fi nods to herself slowly, and then stands back up, says I'm actually not hungry and leaves as you leave.
Speaker 2 00:06:06 We've out of the corner of your eye. You can see your father turned to a Lasha and say, I suppose it's stressed as well. At any rate, we all knew that the young man's interest in pursuits above his station would be something that we would have had to deal with. Essentially
Speaker 1 00:06:25 Feats stops in the doorway, cracks her neck from side to side and then knobs to herself. Again, goes out to like that training yard from two episodes ago and just absolutely fucking destroys some training to me. Go ahead and roll me a history check. That's a math one.
Speaker 2 00:06:51 Now that's going to make this really sad. You're racking your brain, just trying to justify what you just heard and make sense of it. And you've realized that you can't really conceptualize Fen doing anything else. You don't know where he's going to go. You don't know what he's going to do. You can't even conceptualize him not being
Speaker 1 00:07:13 Here. And
Speaker 2 00:07:15 Then I think as you come to this realization, the door to the training, art creeks open, and you see a couple of curls of bright blue hair peak out and just like one of coalesces eyes as you stand in front of all these smoking training dummies,
Speaker 1 00:07:33 And Colossae says,
Speaker 2 00:07:34 Hey, if I come out there, is that going to happen to me? And she points up one of
Speaker 1 00:07:39 The dummies. As soon as she sees Colossae there straightens her posture, smooths out her skirts, tucks, a little bit of her hair behind her ears at her at hand rushes the bays of one of her horns and says, I'm done. It's fine. Look, I don't know what happened with YouTube, but if you
Speaker 2 00:08:01 Want some information that you can do whatever you want with, I saw him packing this morning. He might still be on the staples.
Speaker 1 00:08:11 Thank you. Colossae that's very helpful. Cool. And then she's going to leave the training yard brush past class-A okay. And as soon as she is reasonably sure, no one is looking at her. She breaks into a run for the staples fantasy
Speaker 2 00:08:30 Inside. He is alone in there. It's early morning, like the stable hands haven't really come in and started doing anything. Yet. He is in there with his armor on his shield, slung over his back. His battleax at his side and he is saddling up his horse.
Speaker 1 00:08:48 He walks in, shuts the door behind her and audibly restraining any in her voice says, you weren't even going to say goodbye. He freezes halfway through adjusting his horses bridal. And he very slowly lets go of it. He does not turn around his back is still to you. And he says, where do my loyalties lie? I don't think that's a question either of us want a concrete answer to no, I know the answer. It just seems that you've don't, I've been wracking my brain for the past week, trying to figure out where everything apparently fell apart or what I could do to make you trust me again. And since we're in short supply of trees to pound me into the ground or another knife for me to take to the chest, I figured that this was the next best thing, because the only common thread I can find here is whatever the hell has been going on with you and your father.
Speaker 1 00:09:54 So now you don't have to worry about me being a mole or a liability or whatever the hell it is because I took vows to protect you. Not to be accountable to your father. And I can't protect you if you don't trust me. So this is it. I'm done. I am going to online to stay with my uncle and my aunt. And hoping that you decide that maybe one day you'll be ready to actually talk to me again. My loyalties lie with you and they always have, and they always will. It takes a very deep breath. She takes a couple steps across the stables. She grabs Ben by the shoulder and whips them around and then very in his face. She says he do not get to be angry at me for this. I am not a perfect person. I have my faults, but you do not get to hate me for not wanting to put either of us in the position where I stack the scales with myself on one side and this country and the only member of your family that you have left and the entire life that you've built for yourself on the other.
Speaker 1 00:11:09 And I ask you to choose me. And I have to watch you tell me you can't. Is that really why you're upset? Or are you upset? Because you know that I would choose you and you don't want to feel guilty about it. There are a lot of things that I feel guilty for. That is not one of them. No one has ever been given this choice and chosen me. And I recognize that that is because when you are faced with an impossible choice, there is a right answer and a wrong one. But I will not apologize for not wanting to be faced with that. Again.
Speaker 0 00:11:51 You said that you were like up in his face saying this. He gets one hand on the back of your head and kisses. You. I think just that a habit. He gives into it for a minute and then she pushes it. As soon as you push him away, he takes a step back. He looks at you and then he looks at the door and he nods to himself, kind of resigned and says, ask me to stay. If you don't want to be here, then I don't want you to be, I'm not a jailer Fen. I'm not going to keep you here. If it's not what you want. I want you to be safe. I want you to talk to me. I want things to go back to the way they were before. That's what I want. I don't want to leave. I don't want, I want to wake up and have it be six months ago. That's what I want. Not any of them.
Speaker 0 00:13:02 I can't give that to you. And I don't know that I would, if I could, things have changed. I have changed. I am not asking you to change for me. I am just trying to figure out where I stand. I want to help you figure that out. Just shutting me out. You were a white person fee. That's not going to change. Even if you do, I can't help you keep pushing me away. You can't cross that. And even if you could, plenty of people have already died over this. And I don't want you to be one of them.
Speaker 0 00:13:55 I made a promise to do exactly that. If it came down to, I am not the one that needs protecting, I don't know what is so big, bad feeling. You feel like you can't come to me with it, but I can't sit around and do nothing and watch myself lose you. So if you change your mind and you want help figuring out where you stand, you know where to find me. And he turns around and goes back to finishing sadly on his horse. He turns around and she leaves then leaves that day. And you are assigned a new security detail. And
Speaker 1 00:14:52 For a long time, you hear nothing. You fall into this new routine and everything goes back to well, you can't really say normal. It is a stormy morning, a few weeks later, and you are walking down the hallway where your father's office is and you do not have to roll a check for what happens next, because it is impossible to miss. You're about 10, 15 yards back from the door to your father's office. And from inside, you hear a voice apoplectic with rage. Shout, what do you mean God? And the door to your father's office gets blown off. It's fucking hinges. It goes flying across the hallway. This bolt of sick necrotic energy sizzling through it and burning into the wall behind a instead of in the hallway. Yes, you are in the hallway. You're about 10, 15 yards back. You were a little close to that flying door for your comfort, for sure.
Speaker 1 00:16:01 I'm going to wait before I go in and see if I hear anything else. I'll start with, if you name it, you can certainly try that. The 17. See the thing about Morlan Valcyte is that his passive perception is 25. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Yeah. This door goes flying through the air in front of you and you can hear the ambassador stammering over some excuse inside the office. I don't know what happened. The consulate just got in touch. Apparently the delegation from Esther myth said that everything was in line. And then there was a dust up in the palace and assistance from inside. And your father cuts him off and goes. You mean to tell me that the collective might have the entire nation of a strawberry, I can't deal with one insolent little and he storms out into the hallway and he sees you and he stops mid rant. Are we gonna roll a deception versus insight for fie to kind of keep the mask on? Yeah, we could do that. What did you get to deception? What did you get to incite a moral enrolled at 23, 22. He stops mid rant and stares at you and blinks very slowly. And there is an uncomfortably familiar kind of physical process that you watch your father go through of just noticeably reigning himself back in and smoothing down the front of his robes. He blinks again, clears his throat and says Ferrara, my apologies quite all right. Uh, she gestures to the door and she says, no harm done. Can I ask what's going on?
Speaker 3 00:17:54 It would seem that a certain operation that the consulate had been pursuing with the goal of extraditing your brother back to Australia in mind has fallen through. Although certain people he turns around and Colossus dad is just slowly inching his way out into the hallway, seemed to think that it was full proof. However, we have just received the information that while they had your brother in custody, they don't now Eamon. Would you like to update the grand Duchess? The ambassador just looks at the floor and says, and now we don't know where he is. Your father looks at you and smiles in a way that says he is like two seconds away from snapping. This man,
Speaker 1 00:18:42 He says most unfortunate. Do we have any information as to what allegiances he managed to make while he was there?
Speaker 3 00:18:53 Assume that the attempted marriage likely fell through given that he was imprisoned in Esther meth for a while.
Speaker 1 00:19:00 I think that's a fair assumption to make. Yes,
Speaker 3 00:19:05 Definitely. We don't have details of any other personal relationships. He may have been able to form. We don't know what's access to resources he still has. And now we don't even know where he
Speaker 1 00:19:17 Is. I would say
Speaker 3 00:19:20 That we're back to square one, but we're actually worse off.
Speaker 1 00:19:24 Do I remember where the portals on the map that Arivale showed me were, yes.
Speaker 3 00:19:31 You now know that in Australia, there are four silent city sites. So four portals, as opposed to the three that even Arivale thought were there. And then there was one just outside the city of Pearl port in the Zephyr Isles and one near the city of <inaudible> in vaudeville door.
Speaker 1 00:19:49 Okay. And I would notice because of geographic knowledge, that estimate is close to the toward union Bolden border. Yeah. I don't think fi would bring that up now fee even if she and her father were on good terms would not bring that up right now. And she is actively keeping a lot of secrets from him. So I think she just nods to herself and she says, forgive my rudeness, but I don't have a lot of faith in Leo making a smart choice in a stressful situation. So I don't think that this is an immediate concern. If you'll forgive my impertinence for making the suggestion here, father, I think that our most pressing concern should be preparing for him to pop up again, rather than trying to ferret him out of whatever he sighed. Again,
Speaker 3 00:20:49 Your father presses his lips into a very thin line and nod slowly to himself
Speaker 1 00:20:54 And says, I think that's a very accurate assessment,
Speaker 3 00:20:59 Right? There's no use in sticking our noses in where we're not politically sound to try to head layer off at whatever foolish pass he's inevitably going to try to take.
Speaker 1 00:21:12 Then we are in complete agreement. I think it is wiser to attend to affairs at home and prepare ourselves for whatever comes next.
Speaker 3 00:21:23 He nods again and very quietly sort of just mutters to himself. The first task of which is fixing my door and he turns around and walks off. The ambassador is still there. Just looking very shellshocked, kind of staring at you. He very quietly
Speaker 1 00:21:39 Just says grand Duchess. I promise
Speaker 3 00:21:41 One day that I will bring good news and he bows and he hurries off in the opposite direction of where your father lives.
Speaker 1 00:21:51 I do have a question
Speaker 3 00:21:52 For you. Where is your vegan
Speaker 1 00:21:54 Medallion? It is on me at all times. Fi wears a lot of jewelry. Normally I think it is kind of layered under whatever she's wearing under her collar tucked into like her course or something. Okay.
Speaker 3 00:22:09 And that's the one that Sabine gave you, correct? Not the one that you got from soar.
Speaker 1 00:22:14 I don't know that I would keep the one from Soren at all. I think I might've disposed of it. Honestly. The medallion and the ring, the ring is probably tucked somewhere in my room. I don't think anybody's going to go for it, but the medallion itself now I already have one. I don't need Soren's. I would have disposed of it. Okay.
Speaker 3 00:22:36 So you are wearing the one that you got from Sabine. You feel that medallion pretty much immediately, as soon as your father and the ambassador walk away, go very, very warm again.
Speaker 1 00:22:50 I'm going to go somewhere private to see what that's about.
Speaker 3 00:22:56 Not far from your room, you know, you're in the Royal wing of the palace. Yeah. I think you just run back to your room and take out the medallion and eat
Speaker 1 00:23:06 Is glowing. You have never seen it. Do this before
Speaker 3 00:23:11 Knew that they were magical items in kind of a vague sense. You were able to pick up ambient magic around them, but it was passive. This is active magic and it is glowing. And you flip it over,
Speaker 1 00:23:22 Back in glowing
Speaker 3 00:23:25 White letters on the back. It
Speaker 1 00:23:27 Says old Velon
Speaker 3 00:23:30 Tall. Bring the Cape
Speaker 1 00:23:32 A interesting, interesting. Okay. I'm going to stash the Cape into a bag. I'm going to go down to the stables and I'm going to tell one of the Grimm has been there that I'm going out for a ride and I'm going to go
Speaker 4 00:23:46 To old bundle.
Speaker 2 00:23:47 Okay? Excellent. And now that you have witnessed the magical abilities of these medallions, I will tell you they are a magical item. You can send a 10 word or less written message to any member of the beacon that you are personally familiar with. Everybody that has a medallion. It is energetically tied to them. You can send up to a 10 word written message via the medallion three times a day.
Speaker 4 00:24:15 If I know they can do that. Now I am immediately sending a message to Sabine, hoping you and Laura lie are well. Please send word fate,
Speaker 2 00:24:27 You fire this message off maybe five seconds later, your coin glows again. As Sabine responds, it says we are fine. Have news for you talk soon. S
Speaker 4 00:24:41 All right. Yeah. I'm going to stash the coin again and I'm going to old Oakland.
Speaker 2 00:24:50 So yeah, you ride up to the skeletal outline of the silent city, the spires coming up through the sparse trees, that kind of form this slowly growing forests, that inches out through the Plains surrounding Valentine hall. And you've been here before you stayed the night here when you, and Arivale had your skeleton incident at the OMA Groth site, it's relatively familiar as you kind of walk along the empty streets as you come back into the big square where the portal is, you see the outline of that old library that you saw last time you were here and Phineas. The great big baby deer is standing outside munching on some grass that is growing up through the cobblestones. Oh God, I go up to him and I've had his nose. He likes your face grass. If any is, has grown. Since the last time you saw him, I mean, he is unequivocally a baby deer. He was the size of a quarter horse. The last time you saw him, he's a little bit bigger. Now you could probably extrapolate that this deer is going to be like the size of an elephant when it grows to full maturity. I love that about him. There's a soft glow of lantern light inside the library. If you'd like to go in, you could assume that Arivale is probably in there.
Speaker 4 00:26:12 I'm going to step inside. I'm not going to fully go inside. I'm just going to step in and call into the library.
Speaker 2 00:26:19 Truth dies in darkness. Arivale has voice called speck revelation lives in light, but you really don't have to go through the rigmarole every time grant digests, it gets a little blahzay. Come on back. I'm at the back
Speaker 4 00:26:35 Under her breath. She's just mattering. Well, excuse me, for wanting to be sure with, with the goddamn father that I grew up with,
Speaker 2 00:26:41 Fuck you. And then she goes to the back. You didn't get a super good look at this library. Last time you were here. It is very clear that everything in here because of how old the city is, has been somehow magically preserved because there are scrolls like the paper in the scrolls should have a long since rotted away. If they were not being magically preserved. And you find Arivale sitting at the wreckage of a table with a big lantern, you can barely see the top of her head over piles of scrolls.
Speaker 4 00:27:17 I walk up and I'm going to kind of lean over her shoulder and say, so what are we working on?
Speaker 2 00:27:24 You're looking over her shoulder. Yup. Roll investigation for me, please. That was an 11. Well, with an 11, you actually do get something out of this. As you're looking over Arivale shoulder at the scrolls, the cheese reading, something kind of odd strikes, you, you didn't really see any other writing in the other silent cities that you went to other than the runes on the ground, where the portals are, which were ruins, that you could not decipher everything on the table in front of Arivale is written in priests, tongue. The language of the church of Kimra. Everything in here is written down in that. And it's readable to you and rested
Speaker 4 00:28:10 Make out what is written in. Am I getting anything out of the text she's looking at, or is it all hopelessly academic?
Speaker 2 00:28:16 It's more like hopelessly boring. It's like grain inventories and things. It's bureaucracy. She is slogging her way through a bunch of bureaucratic files. It looks like she's just going to take a seat and say, so are we, uh,
Speaker 4 00:28:34 Mainly concerned with the import on barley for old villain tall? Or is there another point to what you're
Speaker 2 00:28:41 Looking through? She very slowly puts down the scroll that she's looking at. She has all of the zoom in lenses on her goggles clicked in because the writing on these invoices is very small. She raises one eyebrow and lifts her goggles off her eyes and says, well, it turns out when you have a 10,000 year old library with possibly invaluable information in it, you have to read everything. And then she lowers her doggles back down and goes back to her scroll. And without looking up at you goes, did you bring the Cape?
Speaker 4 00:29:16 Obviously I brought the Cape. You gave me two pieces of information. And one of them was that I was supposed to bring.
Speaker 2 00:29:21 Okay, well, since you don't seem to understand the process of research, I couldn't be sure about your reading comprehension feel like openly
Speaker 4 00:29:30 Her mouth and then closes it. And then very calmly says, did you call me here for a reason? Or am I just here to watch you read tax records? Cause I can do that in my own room. She
Speaker 2 00:29:42 Kind of snorts to herself and stands up and brushes off the front of her shirt. She says, not quite we're going on a little bit of a field trip. How fun did we have to go through the portal again? Uh, yes. Unless you would like to hop on Phineas and go to the general illness area the long way round. I would not say thank you. Didn't think so. And she walks briskly out of the library and she whistles for Phineas to follow behind her. And he trots alongside next to you too. You walk down into the middle of this square. The routine is much the same. Arivale takes the big chicken egg sized Emerald necklace off from around her neck, plugs it into a slot on the ground. The portal lights up, swirling, blue, magical energy and a vortex in the middle of this circle. She whistles for Phineas again and he takes a running leap in and she jumps in after him hangs off the side and says, make sure you get the necklace.
Speaker 1 00:30:44 As soon as she goes under. If he takes a very deep breath and then out loud says it's been a long couple of weeks and I do not want to talk and then grabs the necklace and dives in. I think it's
Speaker 2 00:30:57 Kind of a overcast day. Like it's threatening to rain and you do hear a very loud peals of thunder as you jump
Speaker 1 00:31:05 Noted
Speaker 2 00:31:08 Through again, it's that really weird sensation of just temporary total sensory deprivation, and then like you're resurfacing through water and you come up somewhere that is pretty notably in the South of Australia. It's very similar to the landscape where you and Fen were when you ended up in Ember tide, accidentally very, very tall coniferous trees, kind of Misty weather, gray, overcast skies,
Speaker 1 00:31:38 And
Speaker 2 00:31:39 You are in another silent
Speaker 1 00:31:41 City. You're in the middle
Speaker 2 00:31:43 Of this square and you come up through the portal,
Speaker 1 00:31:48 This particular
Speaker 2 00:31:48 Place, it looks old, very old, but particularly well preserved. You don't see any skeletons, any bodies, any evidence of mass death or anything. And as you're moving around with Arivale you realize that this place looks very old, but well preserved in a way that seems impossible. Like it looks like the weeds have been pulled between the cobblestones and it looks like the doorsteps have been swept. It looks clean. It looks up kept.
Speaker 1 00:32:28 I'm going to turn to Arivale and ask. Is there a particular reason that the city has held up so much better than the others? If you'll remember
Speaker 3 00:32:43 The group of people I discussed that are worshipers of the goddess from the OMA Groth,
Speaker 1 00:32:52 Uh, they live here. All right, well, it's actually
Speaker 3 00:33:00 Genius if you consider it. I mean, it's a society of folks that wouldn't really be able to exist in Australia at large. And what better way to fly under the notice of a theocracy than by living somewhere that everybody's afraid to go as you're walking along. She says, these people have been here for a long time. They obviously don't get out much. They're a little different. So I just ask that you keep an open mind and remember that when we're interacting with everybody. But I think if anybody in this country is going to be able to tell us what the significance of that Cape is,
Speaker 1 00:33:39 We're going to find them here. Fee is going to like stop and look at Arivale incredulously and say, airway. I've been a stateswoman for several decades. I am very capable of keeping my tongue in check. I just don't with you because you don't bother either completely
Speaker 3 00:33:59 Lead dead pan. She looks at you and says, yes, in fact, this is something about our relationship that I'm very fond of.
Speaker 1 00:34:05 I agree. It's very refreshing, but I am capable of shutting up when I have to. I,
Speaker 3 00:34:10 I also would ask that you keep in mind that these people don't have anything to do with the beacon and they like to keep it that way. So maybe just ease off on the truth, dies in darkness.
Speaker 1 00:34:20 Understood. Okay.
Speaker 3 00:34:23 And she keeps walking with you down along these streets. Again, this place looks
Speaker 1 00:34:27 Very well upkept. You don't see,
Speaker 3 00:34:30 See anybody. Arivale kind of explains to you as you're walking, that they move locations around the city pretty frequently, just for safety sake. As you're walking along, you do notice a couple more things because this place is so well-preserved you actually do see writing in a couple more places like carved into certain buildings, or it seems like there are old road signs and things. They are all in priests, tongue,
Speaker 1 00:34:54 They are all readable. You also pass a temple,
Speaker 3 00:35:00 Two statues inside, same statues from the old McGrath site, the tall skeletal figure with the horns and the hooded faceless figure that you talked to in your vision. And then you turn a corner and it looks like you're walking into what might have been a park. Once. It seems like an open kind of grassy space you hear as you move through here, somebody, huh?
Speaker 1 00:35:27 Oh, okay. I'm going to move closer to wherever that's coming from you too.
Speaker 3 00:35:34 Turn this corner into this grassy park-like area. And as you move a little further in through some of the trees and the ambient flora that are around, you see a very short plump, young infernal elf woman, she looks to be human equivalent of about like 20. So a bit younger than you. She has very dark blue skin and long curling horns. Her eyes are like yours in that they are all one flat color. There's no IRS, no pupil. It's just all flat, but where yours are black, hers are molten silver. She has long silver hair. And she has a smattering of just silvery kind of shimmery, freckles all over her skin, her arms, her face. She's a very kind looking face, just kind of sweet nature disposition. And she is humming to herself as she is picking herbs into a basket that she has slung over her arm. Arivale comes up next to you and kind of leans over in front of you and says, hi, sorry to drop in without notice. And this girl, some wild shit happens fee,
Speaker 0 00:37:00 Okay. Yes. She startles and screams a little bit. She drops her basket. She's wearing very simple, like rough spun, wool clothes, like a dress and a shawl. It looks like it's handmade, but she has a big crystal like a court's point on a necklace around her neck that big crystal pulses and glows and several of the kind of shimmery freckles on her skin. Also pulse and glow in time with this necklace. And you see these bright points of light up here at each of her joints. So like her elbows, her wrists, her shoulders, they become connected with beams of light until it looks like she has a constellation super imposed over her body. She reaches out a hand and those moats of light shoot down her arm and expand into a starry bow that she pulls back and a beam of pure light pops up in it. And she whips around and pointed at you. There's a moment of very tense silence. And then she leans forward and laughs and drops the bow.
Speaker 1 00:38:37 And she goes, Arivale you scared the living daylights out of me. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3 00:38:46 Magical effect drops. By the way, she let's go with that bow. And it disappears. And all of the light like dies down and she just looks the way she did before.
Speaker 1 00:38:54 Again, if she took a bowl out, fi has also taken out her wand and it's still like pointing it kind of, wearily kind of lowers it and then brings it back up and then says, uh, Arivale introduce your friend. Arivale doesn't need to introduce her because she comes trotting over her hair.
Speaker 3 00:39:14 And I messed up when she startled and she brushes her hair back behind
Speaker 1 00:39:17 One of her horns again, and her eyes
Speaker 3 00:39:19 Are so big looking up at you and she goes,
Speaker 1 00:39:22 Your dress is so beautiful. Can I touch it? Thank you. Sure. Fine. Yes.
Speaker 3 00:39:32 Step one of your overskirts and just like runs her hand along it and is just fascinated by
Speaker 1 00:39:36 It. She looks
Speaker 3 00:39:39 Up at you after a minute and she laughs again, she just has this very kind face in this very like sweet, melodic
Speaker 1 00:39:45 Voice. Oh, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 00:39:48 I didn't even introduce myself. Hi
Speaker 1 00:39:51 Feed is kind of like awkwardly nods and half Bob's the curtsy and says I'm Ferrara. That's such a pretty name. What's your birthday. Let me guess
Speaker 3 00:40:10 This like buck wild thing. And Arivale kind of looks over at you. Like I told you, these people were weird and Verity frowns up at you for a second and her eyes narrow and she,
Speaker 1 00:40:21 Let me guess, is your birthday like right after mid-summer yet? Yes. Okay. You're like what 120 even more concerned for you says yes, she,
Speaker 3 00:40:37 She takes that crystal on her necklace again and she holds it in her Palm, it pulses and glows. And this smattering of stars kind of appears in the air above it. And she starts kind of poking things. It looks like she's adding something up. She nods to herself and she turns back to you. The map of stars disappears. She goes, Oh, you've really got some issues with putting up emotional wall,
Speaker 1 00:41:02 Fifth squints at her for a long second and then turns to Arivale and says, is there someone else we could talk to
Speaker 3 00:41:10 Not picking up on the social cue at all? Just goes it's okay. Your fear of being hurt and abandoned is perfectly rational. And I think you just have issues with overgeneralizing it because of your moon sign and Arivale cuts her off and
Speaker 1 00:41:23 Says Verity, we're here
Speaker 3 00:41:25 To talk to your mother. Is she around?
Speaker 1 00:41:30 Yeah. She says, please, right now,
Speaker 4 00:41:34 Just with love
Speaker 1 00:41:37 To be talking to your mother. Okay. Everybody set up back in the Plaza, come on. She picks up her basket and puts all of her herbs back in and leads you guys off down the street. This lady is weird as hell fi. Oh, and also you've never fucking seen magic like that before. That was totally new. That's true.
Speaker 4 00:41:58 But I don't think fie would ask Verity about it because of their, he made a crack about her emotional wall
Speaker 1 00:42:06 And she's mad about it.
Speaker 2 00:42:09 Yeah. You follow Verity down these twisting alleys and streets into another square. There's a functional fountain in the center of it with water that is flowing out and a very odd collection of people kind of milling about in there. The first thing you notice is that the concentration of population of infernal elves is higher here than any other place you've ever seen before. Infernal elves are somewhat rare in Australia.
Speaker 4 00:42:43 That is a question. Has fie ever met another infernal elf?
Speaker 2 00:42:47 I don't think in any way that is socially significant. No. I mean, she probably would have seen them in passing. So yeah, you think probably about 25% of the people here are infernal elves. Everybody else looks like typical Australian Elvin features. Do you know, slid pupils, pointy teeth, they're all in kind of the same rough spun, handmade looking clothing that Verity is wearing. And they seem to have kind of a marketplace going on. There's somebody at a loom weaving. And then there's another person cooking food and handing it out to people. It seems very communal. And like everybody's taken care of each other and meeting everybody's needs.
Speaker 4 00:43:30 Fi is just kind of quietly processing this, I think. And just kind of following the charity who is presumably leading us to, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:43:38 You follow Verity up into the shadow of an old building, where there are a group of children sitting on the floor, like young school aged children and in front of them is a woman very similar in build and coloring to Verity. She has longer straighter horns though. That kind of goes straight back from her forehead, whereas Verdi's are kind of curly and she is teaching these kids. She's sat down in front of them, telling them a story. And Verity comes up with you and Arivale this lady stops, stands up. She has a big gnarled wooden staff that she uses to help her stand. She looks at you fi shocked.
Speaker 4 00:44:28 I don't like that at all. Can I roll?
Speaker 2 00:44:32 Absolutely. Yeah. So it's a seven. Yeah. You don't know why this lady looks so freaked out by you and the Verity totally does not read the room at all. She runs over and gives this lady a kiss on the cheek and she goes, hi mom, we have visitors. You know, Arivale, this is Ferrara. The lady's eyes get bigger. And she turns around to the assembled children that were sitting at her feet and she goes, okay, kids recess go on. And they all shriek and happiness and like push past you and Arivale and run off into the Plaza. She looks at you again and she walks over. She's a little uncomfortably close to you. You get the feeling that a lot of the people here don't really do personal space
Speaker 1 00:45:13 That, well, she
Speaker 2 00:45:16 Looks up at you and her shock fades to a softer fondness and she smiles and she says, Oh, you look just like your mother.
Speaker 1 00:45:27 Okay. Feet immediately takes a step back, crosses her arms over her chest and says, I'm sure you're mistaken. I have no idea what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 00:45:39 She frowns. And as soon as she realizes that you want space, she takes a step back as well.
Speaker 1 00:45:47 She tilts her head to the side and she says, well, I would hope that I wouldn't be
Speaker 2 00:45:52 Your mother. And I were best friends growing up
Speaker 1 00:45:56 Still very defensive body language feels like starts to snap. And then like visibly rants herself in, I don't have a mother for lack of a better way to phrase it. And I have no interest in changing that
Speaker 2 00:46:13 Defensiveness aside feet. This does not match up with anything about your biological mother that you know, because pretty much all you know about your biological mother is that you were a legitimate child and all you've ever gotten out of your father is that your mother could not emotionally handle having an infernal elf child and gave you up.
Speaker 1 00:46:41 So
Speaker 2 00:46:41 What you witnessed next is extremely shocking. Verity's mom, this lady you've just met frowns, as you say this and squints, like what you're saying to her, doesn't add up. She turns around and on a little spindly table that had been sitting next to her, where she was teaching the kids. She reaches down and pulls out a big, transparent crystal ball and brings it back over to you. She has a similar necklace to Verity on. She takes the court's point, crystal of that necklace and taps it to the crystal ball. And you see images start to move inside. At first, you see what looks like Verity. But as you look closer, you could see the horn shape. It's actually a younger version of her mother as like an older teenager. And she is leaning on her staff and casting a spell in a clearing in the woods, outside of this city and across the clearing from her. You see two other infernal, elves, a man, and a woman, the same age. They both have big thick curling horns, lavender tone skin. The woman looks disturbingly like you
Speaker 4 00:48:03 Like,
Speaker 2 00:48:04 Even though there's a big part of you, that's probably in denial about this EDIS. Very hard to refute the resemblance
Speaker 4 00:48:14 Fi looks at what she's being shown for a long second, and then nods to herself and says, I, I don't. And then she clears her throat and like straightened her posture and says I am here because Arivale said that there was some information that you could potentially share with me about a different subject that is of a more immediate concern. She
Speaker 2 00:48:51 Nods and she puts the crystal ball down and tucks her necklace back away. She looks sympathetic. There's a lot of sadness in the way that she's looking at you, but she does not. And she says, of course, I'm so sorry if I offended you, my name's honor, I'm the high priestess of this clan and I will help you out any way I can.
Speaker 4 00:49:15 Fantastic. Um, and fie is gonna reach into her bag and pull up the globe
Speaker 2 00:49:21 Verity and her mom gasp in unison. As you pull it out, Verity grabs her necklace and starts muttering a prayer under her breath. And honor's eyes get very big again. And she leans down and looks at it and puts a hand out almost as if to touch it. But her hand stills a few inches away from the fabric she looks up at you and says,
Speaker 1 00:49:43 Where did you get this?
Speaker 4 00:49:46 It is a long, complicated story suffice to say, I was involved in some of Ms N Mars research. And we came upon it in a bit of an unprecedented situation.
Speaker 1 00:50:05 I mean
Speaker 2 00:50:05 Stories about this Cape, but I thought it was all allegory. I didn't know that it actually existed. You shouldn't have even been able to touch
Speaker 1 00:50:16 Unless, unless what, unless you
Speaker 2 00:50:21 Chosen by the storm Pranger to do so.
Speaker 4 00:50:24 You'd like to elaborate upon that. Or is this entire conversation
Speaker 1 00:50:28 Going to be allegory? As you've said? No, of course I follow me. And she gets all of her stuff, her staff and everything together and sets off across the square. Great. He's going to follow her. She walks you back kind of past where you were when you found Verity back to that original square where you and Arivale first landed when you got here and into the temple, that's there you stop at the foot of this great hooded statue and honor nods up at it and says our people worship the storm bringer. We don't know her real name. It's been lost for millennia now, but she's a very old and very powerful goddess. That's as old as Australia itself, all worship of her, as far as we're able to track was wiped out violently over 10,000 years ago. Do you have any idea why that happened?
Speaker 1 00:51:30 She looks over at the other statue on the other side of the altar and nods grimly. Thies also gonna look up the statue, roll me a religion. Check 21. Once again, fi you put some very unsettling things together with that 21. You look up at this other statue, this skeleton with long curling horns and pointed teeth, and you make some connections. You connect the collapsed statues in OMA, Groth, you connect the slaughtered ISO mommies at the silent city that wasn't supposed to exist. You connect that simultaneous feeling of love and betrayal. You felt when you tried to do the death rights on the lady that you took that Cape off of you connect the usage of priests tongue in all of these ancient sites.
Speaker 1 00:52:29 This other statutes, cameral fi looks up at the statue and she nods. And she says, I think I understand that cloak. Like I said, I didn't think it actually existed, but if you were meant to find it and she wanted you to find it, she must have a purpose for you. It seems like everyone does any idea how I can figure out what it is she wants from me. I can try to help there. Go get the candles. Verity has followed you guys here. And she goes, mom, we've walked like half a mile and honor goes. Now what young lady and Verity clams up. And scuttles out of the temple. You get the feeling that Verity's mom can be pretty scary when she wants to be.
Speaker 3 00:53:26 Oh yeah, of course, of course. So you and Arivale and honor kind of all stand there in a tense silence and Verity comes huffing and puffing back into the temple very quickly. You can tell she fled as fast as she could. And she has candles and an altar cloth, all kinds of weird witchy looking shit. And she starts setting things up at the foot of this statute. She spreads out this big tapestry, woven cloth on the floor and starts arranging crystals and candles and everything on it and starts lighting them. She snaps her fingers and the candles light immediately on her, looks back over at UV and goes, all right, we'll see if this works, uh, put the Cape on. Have you tried that yet? However, I don't think I have. I think I sat with it that first night. Yeah. That first night you sat with it in your lap.
Speaker 3 00:54:21 You did not put it on. Do you think he has tried to put it on in the month and some change since absolutely not. So, yeah. She just looks at you and asks you to put the Cape on. I slowly put the Cape on it settles with a solid weight across your shoulders. From that shimmering scale male that plates the collar and the shoulders of the Cape. The colors start to shift the storm cloud colors of black and purple and dark blue start to roll. And undulate across the silk of this Cape honor grabs her crystal necklace and kneels down in front of this cloth and starts chanting and outside in the sky overhead, you hear very loud thunder seemingly out of nowhere, mechanically. She is casting a control, whether spell there's a big part of the ceiling that has collapsed just over time. And what happens next happens very fast.
Speaker 3 00:55:38 She is channeling this spell work. There is thunder outside. The sky overhead goes very dark, even though it is midday. And a bolt of lightning comes down through this hole in the ceiling and strikes the floor fee. You're pretty familiar with how lightning and electricity works by virtue of it being an integral part of your life. You know enough about how lightning works to know that what happens next is not natural at all. This bolt of lightning comes down white hot and strikes the floor and fans out in an arching Lichtenberg figure across the ancient stone that shoots right at you.
Speaker 3 00:56:32 And then the electricity leaps up off the floor and into the hem of this Cape. And you see the lightning arc out across this stormy silk fabric and it shoots all the way up your back and into the scale mail of the shoulder pieces of this Cape. There is a moment of just pure white, hot electricity that surrounds you and flashes out. And you are now attuned to your magical item. Fuck. Yeah. You have attuned to the magical item gift of the storm bringer and functionally. What it does is it gives you a free lucky feat. You get three lucky rolls every day that you can use to reroll.
Speaker 1 00:57:25 Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Arabic
Speaker 3 00:57:29 Verity and honor are staring at you. Slack jawed. When your vision kind of goes back to normal, you get the impression like that should have killed you. Probably
Speaker 1 00:57:41 Great vote of confidence from the people that told me to do this fee is just going to straighten the buckles of the Cape across their throat and say, well, that was certainly exciting. Honor,
Speaker 3 00:57:54 Spell casting and puts out all the candles and the storm outside stops and immediately clears up the clouds
Speaker 1 00:58:00 All go away. And she blinks
Speaker 3 00:58:02 Very slowly at you and says, it certainly was. I, wow. Verity has like big star eyes and is bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet going. That was so cool. That was so cool.
Speaker 1 00:58:17 So cool feel laughs and goes and talks about her hair behind her ear and says, I have a bit of experience with lightning, but that was, that was new airway has a notebook
Speaker 3 00:58:33 Out and is just writing things down very
Speaker 1 00:58:35 Quickly, honor packets,
Speaker 3 00:58:37 All of her witchy shit that Verity brought it.
Speaker 1 00:58:41 So what will you do next? I should be heading back to the, on tall before I missed and well, after that, I'm not quite sure Verity still bouncing on the balls of her feet goes, that's awesome.
Speaker 3 00:58:55 Can I come with you? And honor's face goes a very Stoney. She whips around and snaps.
Speaker 1 00:59:03 Uh, that's an interesting question. I don't know that it would be good for you to stay too close to me, but if the storm burner sent you here, that must mean that you need help. Listen, I know that my
Speaker 3 00:59:17 Rising sign makes me come across. Like I'm a really passive person, but can actually really handle
Speaker 1 00:59:22 Myself in a fight. And I think that it would be beneficial and honor gets her daughter by the back of the neck, like a kitten and steers her around and marches her out of this temple, leaving you in Arivale alone. Well, that was a lot. Go ahead and roll me perception please.
Speaker 4 00:59:42 Hmm. I'm going to use one of my new luck roles. Cause that was not good. Um,
Speaker 1 00:59:50 So is it 11? You can't hear the details of it with that 11, but you can hear muffled sounds of a very heated argument happening outside, uh, between and honor. Yes. Verity is saying something. She sounds very impassioned, very upset and it sounds like honor is trying to talk her down and she just starts yelling louder, but you can't make out words. I'm going to try
Speaker 4 01:00:18 To go closer to the door and see if I can
Speaker 1 01:00:20 Hear more. You can roll stealth.
Speaker 4 01:00:28 Yeah. I'm going to use another one if I knew about curls. Okay. Thank you 17.
Speaker 1 01:00:35 So with your use of that luck role, you have this Cape wrapped around your shoulders and you trip over a cobblestone and it seems like you're going to fall and crash to the ground and a stiff wind blows through the door and actually keeps you up, right? You are able to close in on the front door of this temple and hear in more detail. What is going on? You hear Verity yell. I'm a hundred, I'm old enough to go. Now that's when everybody else goes and honor cuts her off and says, everybody else is not the apprentice high priestess of this entire clan Verity. I can't lose you. We've lost too many people and Verity shouts over her mother before she's even done talking and says, and we've lost too much of everything else by you keeping us hidden away like this. We don't even know the name of the goddess we worship every year we lose more for Aurora wants answers and I want the same ones. Let me go.
Speaker 4 01:01:33 Yeah. If he makes a kind of like, come on gesture at Arivale and then steps out of the temple. I assume into the middle of this argument,
Speaker 1 01:01:42 You walk into Verity storming off in a Huff. She's just marching across the square. It looks super angry and honor pinches the bridge of her nose and size
Speaker 4 01:01:54 Gonna like Bob a curtsy to her. And just very calmly say, I don't know about Ms. SanMar's plans for the rest of the day, but I have duties to attend to back in villain tall. And if I am missed it won't go over well for anyone.
Speaker 1 01:02:11 No, of course. I completely understand. She gives you a very weighted look at that point and says, if you ever to talk about
Speaker 3 01:02:20 Anything that you learned today, you know where to find us
Speaker 1 01:02:24 Fi is a little bit big grand Duchesse smile. She says, I'll keep that in mind. Thank you. And then she leans back into the temple and says era. They were going, right? Yes.
Speaker 3 01:02:37 She snaps her notebook closed and takes her big Emerald necklace off honor is setting off, back towards the Plaza where everybody else has camped out. And you guys go down into the middle of this square roll perception for me one more time.
Speaker 1 01:02:53 Five. Okay.
Speaker 3 01:02:56 So you're not really paying attention to your surroundings. You don't see what
Speaker 1 01:03:00 I hate that Arivale
Speaker 3 01:03:03 Plugs her necklace into the ground. Are you going first or would you prefer her to go first? The way she,
Speaker 1 01:03:09 I don't know. I think I've made myself pretty clear that I don't want any spooky visions today. So I feel all right about going first. Okay. You jump in
Speaker 3 01:03:20 Resurface at the portal in old Veland hall, probably dust yourself off a little bit. And then you hear air of a cussing too.
Speaker 1 01:03:29 Beat the band. Aha. You turn around,
Speaker 3 01:03:34 You see Arivale goggles a skew on her
Speaker 1 01:03:38 Head pushing Verity
Speaker 3 01:03:40 Off of her back where Verity has apparently piggybacked her from behind through the portal.
Speaker 1 01:03:48 And Arivale
Speaker 3 01:03:49 Is just cussing and yelling and pushing her off and shouting. You could have gotten us both killed. Are you in
Speaker 1 01:03:55 Shane? Oh, I hate this shitty little kid. She's an adult. I think in the actual silence, he's going to be a little quiet. She steps closer. And she hisses under her breath. What is wrong with you
Speaker 3 01:04:14 Tries to narrow her eyes and frown at you. She's the least intimidating person you've ever seen. So it doesn't really work. She tries to take a power stance and like plant her fists on her hips. And she says you needed our help to use that cloak. And you're going to need my help to do whatever it is you're going to do next to the storm rigor. Doesn't just send people gifts for no reason.
Speaker 1 01:04:39 Every year that passes
Speaker 3 01:04:40 My people forget more and more and more of everything about ourselves. We've turned into a nameless people that worship a nameless goddess. And I can't just sit around and watch myself lose.
Speaker 1 01:04:57 Yeah. Fi full on flinches, fetus snaps back. And I can't get anyone else involved in this. She stopped
Speaker 3 01:05:07 Sir foot and narrows our eyes a little more and says, I'm coming.
Speaker 1 01:05:11 I assure you. You are not. Yes I am.
Speaker 3 01:05:15 My moon sign is fixed. I'm very stubborn. I don't back down in an argument.
Speaker 1 01:05:19 I don't know what any of that means. Arivale slowly raises a hand. I feel like you too,
Speaker 3 01:05:26 We just started arguing with each other and your noses are like a couple inches apart. And Arivale just kind of sticks her hand in between your faces and waves and says, I have input. If anybody wants it,
Speaker 1 01:05:41 Field straightens her back and steps back, goes to smooth over her skirts and says, yes, Ms. SanMar. I would love to hear your thoughts. I think we should bring her with us. I changed my mind. Arivale takes a step back and shrugs and says well
Speaker 3 01:06:03 On the topic of useful skills, Verity knows more about this storm bringer than either of us do. If that's going to be relevant to your pursuits going forward, I don't see why you wouldn't take the helping hand. Also. She has a mastery of a type of magic. That's not seen anywhere else in Australia to my knowledge, which does make her useful in a country.
Speaker 1 01:06:25 The fact that she can't read doesn't really matter. Verity
Speaker 3 01:06:29 Blinks and looks a little offended and
Speaker 1 01:06:31 Goes, thanks. Arivale I think she can't read. That's not important right now. Uh, and then she just frowns and then nods to herself and says fine, but she's your responsibility. Yay. Thank you. She flings her arms around your waist and hugs you super tight. Oh yep. Physical contact. Yep. Sure. Yes. Great. Awesome. If you just like pats her on the head, very awkwardly,
Speaker 3 01:07:03 Shrugs and goes, wouldn't be the first illiterate research assistant I've had and she lasted herself. Like she's made a funny joke. All right. Well I know you had your sights set on vaudeville door at some point in the future. You now know how to get in touch with me. I'm going to go back to the site in the North that we found and see what Verity and I can dig up. Give us a call when you're
Speaker 1 01:07:26 Ready. We'll do don't get frost blade. Good luck. I don't know.
Speaker 3 01:07:33 She plugs her necklace back into the portal and she and Verity and Phineas all jump in, pulling the necklace after them. And you are alone in the silent city.
Speaker 1 01:07:43 Um, yeah, so she just jumps back on the horse. Okay. And you're headed back to Belton hall. Yep. You make it
Speaker 3 01:07:50 Get back to the city. Nobody seems to notice that you have been halfway across the country for most of the day and you put your horse in the stables and you go inside, where would you like to go next?
Speaker 1 01:08:03 Fee's going to go to her father's office. Are you keeping the Cape on? No. The Cape. I'm going to stash in my room. Before I go to the office, I
Speaker 0 01:08:16 Will tell you, you can not use the benefits of the Cape unless you are wearing it. So is that a choice that you would like to maintain? I feel that the risks of wearing the Cape into this situation outweigh the benefits of easing that last lock girl. Okay. Noted. So you stash the Cape in your room. You walk down the hallway to your father's office, your footsteps echoing off the stone, the door that got blown off the hinges this morning has been put back on. Although there is a sizable hole in it. You knock and you can see through the hole, your father sitting at his desk and he looks up smiles and says, Bharara, come in. And that's where we end for the week.
Speaker 3 01:09:13 How you feeling? Not good. Not good. So yeah, I know we say everything happens just so much every week, but I feel like this one in particular, we really can say everything happens just so much. I fucking hate it here. Maybe the real magic was the friends we made along the way. See you guys next time on how to compel doable.
Speaker 0 01:09:41 <inaudible>
Speaker 3 01:09:55 Hey, everybody Barry here with the postscript, just here to do a couple of housekeeping things here at the end of the episode, as always, I'm going to plug our social media as we are on Twitter, Tumblr and TOK at compel duel, you can also find us on Tik TOK at compelled duel, adios, where we post audio snippets from the show, we do have an official Spotify account and an official website. You could find both of those links on all of our social media profiles. If you're interested in getting some more in-depth compelled dual experience, we do host a Q and a show every Monday at 3:00 PM, PST on our YouTube. You can find our YouTube account by just searching compelled dual on YouTube. It should be one of the first things that pops up. If you're interested in supporting the podcast, we ask that you consider pledging to our Patrion.
Speaker 3 01:10:40 You can find us at patrion.com/compelled dual. We have all sorts of great perks starting at just $2 a month. That include priority questions for the Q and A's early access to new episodes, even letters from your favorite character every month. If you're interested in supporting us in something other than pledging to the Patrion, we ask that if you're listening to us on Apple podcasts, that you go ahead and drop us a rating and a review that helps us get promoted to a wider audience and grow our listener base. Our next episode is going to be coming out on Friday, March 19th, 2021. Or if you are a member of our Patrion, it's going to be available to you on Thursday, March 18th. Thank you guys so much and we'll see you next week.
