Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hey, Barry. Hey, Al, did you hear about the map
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Magic skillet? No, I didn't tell me more about it. Oh, it's made a cast iron it's time for compelled tool. <inaudible>
Speaker 0 00:00:30 Hello everybody. And welcome back to compel duel. I know. And I'm buried and we are a single player, Cody and fifth edition dungeon and dragons, actual play podcast previously on Capell duel.
Speaker 1 00:00:44 We are almost there. You must conduct yourself with dignity at the games. DCIS, Katia of Klan, Mr. <inaudible> snapping turtle Chavon games last year. So she starts games this year. Yes, I am Nessa Val of the seawall merchants Guild. This asshole is Kili and Cassidy don't pay any attention to anything that comes out of his mouth. And that is the lovely in comparable radiant, Miriam Adler, you go and sign up for some events. There are the feats of strength, the feats of nimbleness, the pizza fortitude, the running of the beasts, the playing of songs and the recollection of deeds. Hi, yes. We'd like to sign up for all of these. Look. I don't like it any better than you do, but if <inaudible> into storm for waters right now with everything that's happened, you know, who will come to collect them. So the storm folk know something is your proof.
Speaker 1 00:01:52 I'm sorry, are what you are disqualified from the recollection of dates. What what's going on at big kits is very dangerous. We have to go how great of a deed would it be? If someone were to slave there's cat would be greater danger than slang a raccoon, two little loaves versus one big cat. I'm afraid to sound overconfident, but we face down worse odds, right? Why do you say things we're going to get fucking killed? You see stocking close to the tree, this massive silvery, gray crack and fee at your shoulder says, yeah, I think we got this.
Speaker 0 00:02:50 So we know this humongous crag cat is approaching the tree. Your sister is standing behind you, bracing herself. What are you doing? I'm going to stand there until this one in Ylva finished getting everybody out of the tree. And then I am going to run up onto the top of the risers and duck down and try to stealth to see if I can get a surprise round on this thing. Fee's going to get a little more distance. She's going to duck behind the stage. And she is also going to try and stuff to see if she can get a surprise round standing on the top row of these benches. He reaches down and pulls out his long sword and goes, and it goes down to the ground next to him. Oh shit, this is heavy. His strength, modifier reduction. He's going to do even less damage with his long sword because it's a strength modified weapon.
Speaker 0 00:03:47 Fi pulls a short sword out of a sheet that her ballot, because she has had it in her inventory this whole time, never use it and tosses it to him. He doesn't catch it. It, it just kind of clatters to the ground at his feet, but he looks down and goes, you know what? My pride is wounded enough at this point and leans down and picks it up and then reaches down to his belt. You see him hesitate a little bit, but then his hand closes around the hilt of another blade at his belt and pulls it out. It's a weird bone, short sword dagger looking thing looks to be made out of some kind of organic material. And he's setting himself up on top of these risers. Like he is ready to drop down on whatever comes in. You guys set up in your positions.
Speaker 0 00:04:36 You wait a few, very tense minutes of silence pass. And then you hear this low rumbling pur and a shuttering footfall of pause on the ground, outside the tree. And this absolutely massive cat makes its way under the Archway. I'm going to need you and Leo to both roll stealth checks against this cat's perception. Cause you might get a surprise 11. Okay. Leo rolled a 24 to self Leo gets down in between the bleachers. Ready? Let me roll perception for the cat. Okay. The cat rolled a 12 to perception. So you are not going to get a surprise round, but Leo is, he is dual wielding. So he's going to get two attacks. One of those attacks is going to hit. Hey. Yes, sir. So for the surprise around to start off our combat Leo hunkers down in between these two bleachers waits for the cat to come by and then jumps down onto its back and Rams short sword down in between his shoulder blades for 11 damage and locks himself in. He is on this thing's back. And now we're all gonna roll initiative.
Speaker 2 00:06:15 Well, Leo rolled in at 20, so that's 25 if he got to 23. So does Leo get an extra surprise round with our rule? Yes, he does. Okay. Because he rolled in at 20 on initiative. He's going to get another surprise round, which makes sense. He's on the cat's back. The cat rolled an eight. Leo is going to get another surprise round in on the cat. And then you guys are both going to get around in on it. So he's going to make two more attacks. Dual wielding. I'm not even shitting you, dude. I just rolled another one at 20 that's the first one and the second one's going to hit two. Okay. So the first one he's going to roll 2d six plus five. So that's another 12 damage. And the second one, he doesn't get to add this modifier to this one because he's wielding an offhand. So just another 3d image. And then he gets to take his actual turn. Oh God. Okay. So that's two more attacks. What, what, remind me, they'll put this dice in the highest position of authority in our home. Cause I just rolled another God damn mat, 20 Bucky kitty
Speaker 0 00:07:44 Val sign. Didn't come to play today. Okay. Well the second one was a three, so he doesn't hit on the second one, but another nine damage. You watch your brother go full rodeo on this cat. He drops down onto its back from the top of the risers gets a sword in between his shoulder blades, locks himself in and just starts fucking stabbing the shit out of it. It is earth warring and pawing and trying to buck him off. You were still hiding behind this stage, arguably for you. This is the most bad-ass you've ever seen. Leo B fi failed that stealth check the cat. All right. You know, she's there. She yells fucking nice. And then after a second, you're in the way so bad, but that was so cool. And then she's got a cast, a fourth level of guiding bolt on this cat and I'm going to use two or three points to do a quick and spell to use true strikes so I can give us that advantage 24.
Speaker 0 00:08:49 Okay. Excellent roll damage. No, some lamb feed does want this to be over relatively quickly because this is a very large cat that is very close to her and her brother. So she's going to use it at their sorcery point to do empowered smell. So I can roll up to five of my dice, three, four 26 damage. And the next person that makes an attack on the cat has advantage. You guys got the jump on this cat. It's already not looking great, but it is its turn. Leo's on its back as a DM. I'm going to say that the cat is going to have advantage to try to claw attack him off its own back. So let me roll for that.
Speaker 0 00:09:41 Attacker wins. So it hits, it met Leo's AC, but just barely. This cat manages to just hook one claw into the back of his armor and flipping him off. So Leo takes 13 damage from that and he is prone on the ground because he has been thrown from the back of this giant cat. But then it's back to his turn and he's going to use half as movement to get up. He is within attacking range of the cat. However, so his first attack is going to get advantage because of your guiding bolt. That's a natural 17. He's absolutely going to hit it. Second attack. Second attack is not going to hit. So he's going to do one D six plus five damage, eight damage on the cat and then fee it is your turn. So fee's going to use her other fourth level spell slot to cast another guiding bolt. And I'm going to do the same thing. So I'm going to use two-three points to cast quick and spell so I can do a true strikes. I can get myself advantage.
Speaker 0 00:10:53 Interesting. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. Uh, I don't hit Ooh, buddy. That sucks. It does see you shooting the spell off at it though. Your spell goes wide, right past the cat's ear ruffles. It's fur it growls at you and then wiggles its haunches and crouches down. And it's going to use its pounce feature. As it runs towards you to try to attack you feed as a 23 hit your armor class. That's 23 is 10 over my armor class. So I would hope so. Okay. So here's what happens. First of all, you take 11 slashing damage and then I need you to make me a DC 14 strength save. I wrote a flat 14. So at the 17, you are not knocked prone. This cat does get a good swipe on you, but it does not take you down to the ground. You jumped back just in time to keep it from pinning you to the ground,
Speaker 3 00:11:54 Like a mouse
Speaker 0 00:11:56 Insult to injury. I'm going to cast Heller should be on it. So that's a DC 16 deck safe,
Speaker 3 00:12:02 Right? The cat does get advantage on this.
Speaker 0 00:12:07 So
Speaker 3 00:12:07 Total the cat roll to 16 for it's safe. So here's what happens next for you've done a couple hellish rebukes. You know how it usually goes off instinctively. You cast one at this cat and you see the lightning hit a barrier and then turn back on you.
Speaker 0 00:12:32 So
Speaker 3 00:12:33 Now I'm going to need you to also make a DC 16 dexterity saving throw.
Speaker 0 00:12:41 Nope, that's not going to do it. I wrote a five fee.
Speaker 3 00:12:47 You take your own 19 lightning damage as the magic you send at this cat bounces off and rebounds back at you.
Speaker 0 00:12:59 Interesting
Speaker 3 00:13:02 Across the tree, Leo watches this happen and you hear him yell
Speaker 0 00:13:05 Fucking one for yells back. I hate those guys so much magic cats, magic cats.
Speaker 3 00:13:16 So the cat has moved way out of Leo's attack range. It's on top of the stage now and kind of took a swipe down at you when you tried that hellish rebuke move it's within Leo's movement. If he makes the DC five athletics check to hop up on the stage to get at it. So just let me do that really quick to make sure that that is feasible. Given that Leo has a great big negative one to athletics. Now Leo rolled a natural 18, so he closes it on the cat. No problem. And he's going to make two attacks at the top of the order. First one was a 21 is going to hit second one, not going to hit. So first attack hits for another 11 damage. This cat looks highly miffed. At this point. It is snarling and growling at both of you and fi. Now we are down to you. Leo is behind the cat on an angle, just in case you're wanting to use any area of effect.
Speaker 0 00:14:17 Okay? Uh, no I'm going to get the fuck out of there. I'm going to cast a third level of thunder step, which means that since the cat is within 10 feet of me, it has to make a constitution saving throw, and I'm going to teleport up to 90 feet away. So I'm going to get back behind Leo. What's your safety. See again, 16,
Speaker 3 00:14:40 The cat roll to 15. It's going to take full damage
Speaker 0 00:14:44 And I'm going to use another empowered spell to every roll song. I damaged eyes. So that's going to be 2000 damage. This great big cat is starting to look a little hurt, but now it's the cat's turn. The cat is going to lean into the only other person up on the stage with it, which is Leo and make a bite attack. Natural 19. That's absolutely going to hit, Oh my God. So that's 22 damage. This thing sinks its fangs into Leo's upper shoulder and absolutely throws him around like a true toy. He is screaming at the top of his lungs and then it drops him and Leo's down to 28 head points, but then it is his turn. So he's going to try to stab the cat as it tosses him around like a cat nip stuffed mouse. So his first attack is a natural five.
Speaker 0 00:15:46 That's not going to hit his second attack is a 24, which is however he doesn't get to use his modifier on the second attack. He does one damage, ah, this cat tosses, Leo around like a small toy. And he just barely managed just to swipe it with his knife. As he's being thrown around, he does scream. It's very undignified figure up fi adjusts her stance a little bit. So she is rooted to the ground and then Taleo, she yells on your right. And then she's going to cast a third level, which bolt, uh, I'm going to use my last two sorcery points to try and get myself advantage. So that's a 17. Mm. All your sorcery points are gone and that still does not hit the spell. Just barely goes wide over the fringed edge of this cat's ear, as it thrashes your brother around and he yells, but you do not hit it. And then we're down to the cat feed. The cat is able to perceive that you are the greater threat at this point because you're shooting lightning at it. Leo does get an opportunity attack on it, six damage, and then skirts around him and moves in on you. It's going to make a bite attack. That's a 24 to hit once again. My AC is 13.
Speaker 0 00:17:15 Oh, well that rolled ass six damage. Remember how you were talking about how roughly it looks right now. He has doubled my head points at this moment. And then, and we are back up at the top of the order with Leo, neither of which hits. I rolled a two and a four. He goes to try to make a running leap and his depth perception just kind of falls through a little bit. And he just falls to the floor. <inaudible> remember when we said that my overconfidence was going to help us out here. I'm doing my fucking best. He yells from the dirt. And then it's your turn
Speaker 2 00:17:52 As a bonus action. I'm going to get rid of a second level, spell slot to get myself to more straight points. And then I'm going to do something fun. I'm going to cast the thunder step and I'm going to try to get on top of the cat's back. Okay? I mean, that's not that far to move it's
Speaker 0 00:18:07 Within the range, so maybe can save nine. That's not going to do
Speaker 2 00:18:14 So. The cat takes 3d 10 damage. So I'm going to use one of the sources
Speaker 0 00:18:19 Points and I'm going to reroll one, two, three, four, and I'm going to do 24 damage. All right. The cat is really not looking good. It is it's turn now. And I'm on its back. You're on its back. It doesn't necessarily know where you went though. Cause you're not stabbing it like Leo was. So it's going to go ahead and swipe at him cause he's right in front of it. That wasn't that 20,
Speaker 2 00:19:01 That just exactly knocks Leo unconscious. This cat gets him at the bottom of the jaw as he gets up to try to get to you and just rakes a claw up and across his face almost takes a fucking eye out and he just falls to the floor bleeding profusely. So for his round, Leo is going to have to make me a death save 17. His first death, save us a success fee. Europe fees gonna try to cast shocking grasp. That was an actual 20. Okay. So that's going to be four D da this cat knocks Leo out fee, standing on its back, trying to like balance like a surf boarder is just going to drop both hands down into its shoulder blades and cast the shock and grasp and do 12 dash. And that is enough to take this cat out of commission it staggers, roars, and falls to the ground in a heap. Leo is still unconscious on the ground in front of you. Yeah. I'm going to go ahead and pour the whole healing potion that we got earlier down his throat. You pull the healing potion out of your bag, pop the cork out, make him swallow it. He comes up. Oh, Oh wow. Just screaming and pawing at his face. He's bleeding heavily
Speaker 0 00:20:48 Kind of like flutters her hands frustratedly and says healing. Magic is not my thing. Wait there. And then charges outside and sends up a lightning bolt into the air. You should not. This lightning bolt. It goes up into the sky several minutes pass. And then from out of the rim of trees beyond this great pool surrounding the tree, you see three silhouettes approaching out of the forest. You see Ylva and this one, and then Katya of clan missed foot. She who rode the snapping turtle, all three emerging from the forest approaching the fallout of this battle, where Leo is still on the ground and you are outside sending up a distress signal. Katja is the first person that closes the distance, just taking big, long strides across the shallow part of this pool. She looks around at the dead cat on the ground. You still standing with your wand in the air and Leo laying in the dirt and goes, what's happened Fiji.
Speaker 0 00:21:58 Where's the dead crab cat and says we killed the cat. If that was not self-evident. Is that proof enough for you? Leo from the ground says I jumped on its back. It was super cool in a very pain voice. Jump on his back. It was super cool. I also shot a lot of lightening at it. You saw the lighting, you'll tell babies you'll slew. The crank cat. As I said, yes. Interesting Katia says and takes a step back and nods to herself. You see Ylva is chomping at the bit to get over to Leo. She lunges forward and then Katya holds an arm out and keeps her back. She says, if DCS to beat their deed, they cannot have help. Cousin from the ground. Leo goes, what? Sorry, what if DC's to be your great deed that you submit, you can not have outside help other than medical attendance here for the games. You understand a very deep breath. And then in Elvish says, I hate of sky. So bad. Leo from the ground in a lamentable voice, yells my face and slowly from around you, you watch all of the other people that just left start to emerge from the woods.
Speaker 0 00:23:32 Leo, when you start being able to think through the pain in your face, you are in little medical tent that was set up earlier with this old, old earth Janazah lady slowly stitching up your face. Oh wow. Okay. So old lady says these field leaf scar.
Speaker 3 00:23:55 Well ma'am so far banking on how pretty I am. Hasn't done me much. Good. So keep doing what you're doing. Leo says and looks super bitter.
Speaker 0 00:24:06 You're still not going to use any of your magic.
Speaker 3 00:24:09 Leo's hand drifts down to the hilt of Kim rolls blade at his belt and closes around it for a second. But then he clenches his job, shakes his head and then hold still so she can keep stitching him up.
Speaker 0 00:24:25 So lady keeps setting up your face after a minute fee comes into the tent and just kind of sits down next to you. She like generally holds out a hand.
Speaker 3 00:24:37 Yeah. For the more painful part of the procedure, Leo does reach down and squeeze her hand really hard.
Speaker 0 00:24:44 Leo is going to have a massive scar from about the hand of his jaw, all the way up over his mouth and over his right cheekbone to the corner of his eye. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:24:58 He's willing to live with that rather than compromise what it would take to use his own magic to fix it. He's not going to sacrifice that for vanity.
Speaker 0 00:25:11 So this old lady finishes setting up your face feel kind of helps you stagger out, back into the rest of the tree where Katia is doing the ending ceremony for the games.
Speaker 1 00:25:29 She enthusiastically raises her arms and says in here we have zero winners of this year's games. And then she says, come here, come here. I come there. She genderly grabs both sides of your face. Alright. Eh, and then she looks you in the eyes. She says she got, her name is sweat. <inaudible> she nods. She says by deed, I named you lateral who churro the crack kits.
Speaker 3 00:26:09 Winces cause he has this. Lady's a big hand on his very freshly stitched wound. But then he goes, that's really cool actually.
Speaker 1 00:26:21 And then catch it NAS. And you were like, watch her go to Pat you on the sides of the face and then stop herself. And then she just nods again, moves over and grips fee by either side of the face and says your name is Watts. He says, Ferrara Katia says by DEET, I name you Ferrara who brings thunder upon her enemies?
Speaker 3 00:26:49 His breath, Leo goes, that's so fucking sick and looks over at fate.
Speaker 1 00:26:56 He looked back at you and just grins. And then Kathy has Patsy on either side of the face, but their hands back up, it says by tradition, I owes it to your favor. Leo
Speaker 3 00:27:11 Shifts back into political mode. The best that he can through the pain and the confusion steps in front of her bows and says, the favor we would ask
Speaker 1 00:27:21 Is passage on your ship to candlelight Wharf in the sovereign principalities of tortilla end with all the
Speaker 3 00:27:29 Protection between here and there that you might,
Speaker 1 00:27:32 They offer us. She nods. She says DC's good tomorrow with sale. And then,
Speaker 0 00:27:43 And she raises her hands bombastically and yells to the rest of the crowd. But tonight's we drank.
Speaker 3 00:27:53 I wholeheartedly agree. Miss
Speaker 0 00:27:56 She who rode the snapping turtle. Where's the booze. You get ushered off yoga. And this one and this one's brother just kind of like grab you and pull you over to a small gathering where the three of them and Elvis friends and this one's brothers, Jim bros are all getting a little tipsy, Killy and Cassidy. It looks you up and down. And then he says games fairly one last. And then he nods. And he just raises his glass in a silent test. You going at least a part with the knowledge that you're prettier than me, Leo. So,
Speaker 3 00:28:34 And just grabs the strongest booze and the
Speaker 0 00:28:38 Under his breath. He does. That was prettier than new. When I go here, fuck it, man.
Speaker 3 00:28:43 I'll drink to that. It's been a day.
Speaker 0 00:28:48 Absolutely. Everybody gets a little deep in their cups. You'll this friend Nessa at one point gets up on the table and says, all right, here's my proposition. We go do some target practice in the fields. First person that hits me with a rock I buy drinks for, for the next a week. I mean, that's
Speaker 3 00:29:10 A little unfair we're out of here tomorrow. And I don't feel like throwing rocks at you. You gave us fair. Call.
Speaker 0 00:29:17 This one, reaches out and pads NASA on the head, their Palm completely engulf this little goblin lady's skull. And they say they get down off stable. Oh, Nessa is also baby.
Speaker 3 00:29:31 I, I figured we were past baby. Given that we won the games.
Speaker 0 00:29:35 Baby is persistent myriad of Adler with a of booze. And her hand just starts giggling. She just slowly put their head down on the table. And she says, Lud, there's no word in giantess for short. Oh my God. There's no word in trying to shoot for short. That makes so much sense. I'm just fucking loses it. This one is looking at you kind of perplexed and says she is baby. You are a baby. Oh my God. Yes, I'm baby I'm baby. I thought you were insulting me the whole time, but no, you're right. I am baby. This one squints at you and kind of swayed in their seat and goes, yes, this one has said this, Oh, this one I've been meaning to ask you, how are your soap stores doing after the cat attack? It is good. You stop cat before this both. I have a word for you in common that I want to pitch. That is wired franchising. And with that, we close that
Speaker 1 00:31:03 It is the morning. You are all quite hung over. It's very early and you are making your way on a cautious boat. You'll then this one do give you both huggers before you get on the boat. Just absolutely crushing Leo hugs, both of them back, super tight. And when he's still locked in his hug with this one, he says, are you too sure you don't want to come with us
Speaker 0 00:31:29 Is going to be a hell of an adventure.
Speaker 1 00:31:33 This one laughs and pats you on the back. We cannot just pack up and leave these funny small business on our, we have cats that this thing with this one sister, you have a cat pygmy cat, and then they hold their hands about six feet apart. Thank you both for everything that you did for us, you didn't have to do any of it. And you saved us and we won't forget it. We'll wi fi fi still being just hugged by Yoda goes. Nope, no we are. They certainly weren't yellow pulls back and she nods the both of you. And then just very seriously, very solemnly. She says the they'll see you again. This is not goodbye merely so long. I certainly so
Speaker 0 00:32:42 Leo's a little choked up as he gets on the boat, honestly. Yeah. I think fi is like discretely wiping tears away from her eyes. She's not herself. She says so on to candlelight Wharf, I suppose. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:33:01 Leo says and nods as the ship starts to weigh, anchor and pull away
Speaker 0 00:33:06 From the doc, by the way, have I mentioned that I get really seasick
Speaker 3 00:33:14 Fi you are on this boat for several weeks. It's pretty boring. You don't really have much to do during this time, other than think and hang out with your brother. Leo gets his stitches out. After about a week. You can tell just by looking at the condition that the wound on his face is in. He's going to have a scar from this, for the rest of his life. It's pretty obvious that his facial expressions are always going to be a little bit lopsided from the scarring, but he seems to be healing fairly well. He doesn't get sick again, nothing bad really happens. You're given a small cabin up towards where Katia is. Captain's quarters are and spend a lot of time
Speaker 0 00:33:58 In there.
Speaker 3 00:34:01 Leo hangs out with you a lot. You get the impression that he does not want to be alone with his thoughts during this time at all. And so he's always hovering pretty closely to you, which is why it's kind of weird. One night, a couple of weeks into your voyage when you wake up and he's not in the cabin in the wee hours of the morning,
Speaker 0 00:34:27 I'm going to try to figure out where he went
Speaker 3 00:34:31 Roll investigation for me, please.
Speaker 0 00:34:34 16,
Speaker 3 00:34:36 You lay there in your bed. Just kind of looking around your room for a while. And then up on the deck, above your head, you hear the scuffle of footsteps across the wood.
Speaker 0 00:34:49 He gets out of bed and goes up on the deck.
Speaker 3 00:34:52 There's a cool breeze. When you emerge out onto the deck, the smell of saltwater, the brush of the ocean around the boat, which is gently rocking. There are a few lanterns hanging from posts along the deck, but it's pretty dimly lit. You're relying a lot on your dark vision to see. And eventually you spot Leo sitting with his head up against the rail of the ship, looking extremely nauseous and very pained.
Speaker 0 00:35:19 I'm going to walk over and like crouch down next to him and say, so seasickness still hitting pretty hard. Huh? Have I ever mentioned that? I fucking
Speaker 3 00:35:26 Hate boats repeatedly
Speaker 0 00:35:29 And at length, yes.
Speaker 3 00:35:32 He just continues to sit there in silence for a couple more moments, looking really sick and then
Speaker 2 00:35:38 Eventually tilt his head back, leans his head back against the side of the railing and just looks up at the sky for a little bit. There's a long moment of silence between you two. And finally he says what happened to Soren? I mean, I know what happened to Soren, but what happened? He takes a very deep breath, just fully sits down on the deck. Are you sure you want to have that conversation right now? I'm sure enough that the truth is going to be preferable to the narratives that I've been bouncing around the inside of my own head since I found out. So yeah.
Speaker 2 00:36:33 Fair enough. Well, uh, there's a very long story that I don't know all of the details of regarding a group of people that have some very particular aims that you don't need to know about, but he was arrested the, and that she like went to the official story is that he joined pasted, but I overheard father and ambassador Petrus saying otherwise, priesthood, Leo grits, his teeth shakes, his head looks sick for more reasons than one. Now that Island takes everything from people, see nods. She says, I didn't get to see the details, but Soren was doing some research on it. And apparently a lot of people that have gone there to escape execution have well not, it's not just those people. Leah's hands ball up in the fabric of his pants. Australian pirates are a thing apparently. And they've been taking people from Tor dune, from the Zephyr Isles, from dowery or for as long as anybody else in the world can remember whatever that place is, whatever Australia is, whatever the crown is, it's built on blood and death and lies. And I can't stop asking myself how many people have died, because I thought that I wanted it. I'm not sure what we're supposed to do about it. Now, if you stay out of it, then
Speaker 0 00:38:39 Father continues doing what he was doing, which will get more people killed.
Speaker 2 00:38:44 And if we don't, who knows what happens, we don't stay out of it. That's for damn sure. What we do is we go back to fog folder. We get ourselves together. We go home, we stop the old man from whatever part he has and all of this Leo's jaw sets. And you see him look off towards the East where the ocean meets the horizon. And then I'm going to burn that fucking Island to the ground.
Speaker 0 00:39:18 Snorts and lanes are head back on the railing and says, well, handling father is one thing, a difficult thing, but one that I think we can make
Speaker 2 00:39:28 Taking on the entire church is a bit of a tall order, a tall order, but one that we're going to have to fill if we want anything to change. Well, if
Speaker 0 00:39:43 The goal is to change things,
Speaker 2 00:39:46 Then I'm with you. But we have
Speaker 0 00:39:49 To just take things as they come. I think
Speaker 2 00:39:54 Leo nods and he reaches out a hand to you. Yeah. And for what it's worth, it's a lot easier to take things. One step at a time when you've got someone walking next to you, he's going to squeeze his hand
Speaker 0 00:40:15 About a week later coach's boat finally pulls into the Harbor outside of candlelight Wharf. The first thing that strikes you, Leo is the lighthouse. It is not like anything you've ever seen. It is a tall spindly tower with an open top where there is just fire coming out, like obviously stoked pretty frequently because it is just casting this warm light over the entire Harbor, which you would assume is how the town got its name. The second thing you notice is that not from the lighthouse, but from a few of the buildings on shore, you see stout wood banners, right?
Speaker 2 00:40:59 Leo as per usual, is up on deck because of seasickness reasons. And he sees the banners and quietly says, Oh shit,
Speaker 0 00:41:10 The standing next to you at the railing goes, what?
Speaker 2 00:41:14 You know, I know we had a talk back in Oh, sky about how I'm bad at keeping things low key. We need to keep things really low key here. Or I can't emphasize how hard I'm going to die. You know,
Speaker 0 00:41:28 Eventually we're going to go over a tally of all the people that you pissed off in the last five years, just so I can make sure to steer clear.
Speaker 3 00:41:37 I didn't do anything bad. It's the King of Southwood. He's just a nasty little man who did drug me and aid. And a bet. My kid
Speaker 0 00:41:45 Mapping fee makes a phase of that. But doesn't say anything. As you're looking over the town, you do see the, uh, signature kind of mishmash of architecture that you noticed when you were in Stanwood proper. It is very clearly affiliated. The boat goes ahead and docks, and I think Katra comes over. And she says, well, my favor and she dips a quick bow is fulfilled. Get off the boat,
Speaker 3 00:42:15 Bows back. Very respectfully. You have our sincerest gratitude. She who wrote the snapping turtle. I really appreciate your willingness to help us with this and respectfully. I hope we never see you again.
Speaker 0 00:42:31 She clapped me on the shoulder and says, the feeling is mutual. And she walks off to attend to something else on the boat. You and feed disembark into the town of candlelight Wharf.
Speaker 3 00:42:41 Neil has access to any kind of clothing that's on the boat. Maybe even if this one's family gave him anything, I feel like maybe he has a rough spun cloak of some kind. He's got the hood clear up face down. Trying very hard not to let anybody see him.
Speaker 0 00:42:59 Yeah. That seems wise. Fi feels no need to do this. If he is just walking next to you, as you're trying to be very conspicuous, all six feet of her in her storm cloud Cape
Speaker 3 00:43:12 Just has one hand up over his face. As he's walking, he tried to keep passer-by from looking at him and quietly says to fi,
Speaker 0 00:43:19 Okay. So our first step
Speaker 3 00:43:21 Is we need to find somewhere to sit down because I have a couple of letters to write. And our second step is we need to get the fuck outta here.
Speaker 0 00:43:31 He gives you this big fake smile and says, like we said, we're taking things as they come, keep your fucking cool. I'm doing my best.
Speaker 3 00:43:42 Leo pulls his hood a little tighter around his face. If the cloak has draw strings, I think he just pulls it in until only his nose is peaking out like a mall, goth.
Speaker 0 00:43:53 God. Okay, fine. We're only survival defined at a bar or you can not sit down for a minute to write your letters.
Speaker 3 00:44:02 That's a natural God damn 20. I've never, yeah. That's the same dice from the combat earlier this episode, by
Speaker 0 00:44:12 The way, I
Speaker 3 00:44:14 Listened to Eleanora. Tell me so many stories about this town. I know where the best bars are. I haven't even been here before. I just listened to my girlfriend. When she talked to me,
Speaker 0 00:44:27 You wander through the city for a bit, and then you see a sign for a place called the drunken duck,
Speaker 2 00:44:33 Which Eleanor I spoke of quite highly. The sign is just a lovingly rendered image of a duck with a bottle of whiskey. It's beautiful. You go. And it is a nice bar. The drinks are reasonably priced. You can smell very good food. It's a bit crowded. There are a lot of people who are aware that the drug conduct rocks, you see a lot of people milling about mostly humans, orcs, goblins. Halflings the people that mostly populate the cyber principalities of harden. You see also a few Goliath and fear bog, not a lot and a surprising number of storm folk. Okay, cool. We roll up into this place. I see that it is cool. I mentally blow a kiss to the sky for Eleanora. We get a table and I turn over to fie and say, so have you ever heard of a mozzarella stick on what? How about a Curry? Wurst again. Now you're about to have such a good day.
Speaker 2 00:45:43 We still have a good amount of our shiny rocks from the games. I am going to attempt to exchange those. Since there are people from the sky here who probably have the same currency to get us a spread of food and a couple of very strong drinks. Yeah. You see the barmaid, this pretty young woman looks to be at least partially of storm folk heritage. Like she has the kind of opalescent effect in the low light of the bar. And you see, as she gives you a smile and starts exchanging your shiny rocks, you see that she has the familiar, pointy shark like teeth, but actually like brushes her hair behind her ear. You notice that her ears are rounded. So you would guess that she is at least partially human big sunny smile despite the shark teeth. And just start to exchanging your stuff. Handsy, your order fee is kind of sitting awkward, laid back at your table, just waiting. I bring her, our food and our drinks you to start to dig in. You said you were writing some letters. Yes. I want to write two. I'm going to write one to Wilamena Dawn chaser. And as a fallback, I am also going to write one to Bertrand silver tree. So you start writing these letters. Fie is scoping out the crowd in this bar, trying not to be super obvious about it, but checking people out, seeing what's going on.
Speaker 2 00:47:13 Both of the letters that I'm writing are essentially the same letter, just Hey, against all odds, I'm back in the country. You know what my situation is? Can I stay with you? And with each letter for Bertrand, I'm going to package up a bar of this ones, magical little sky in soap. It's not magic soap. It's just so it's done wonders for my skin. So, but I package up the soap for him. And then for the letter with Wilamena, I also add an addendum of hope. You and Warren are both well looking forward to seeing you both and for Wilamena. I package up a bar of soap. And for Warren, I take one of the cool, shiny rocks that we got from most Gaya and package it up and just take it back up to the bar. Try to flag down the same bar. Maybe that helped us.
Speaker 2 00:48:06 Hey, do you have a messenger that comes through here by any chance? The barmaid kind of tilts her head. She goes not here, but there's a courier, uh, three buildings down the road to the left, I believe. Okay. Thank you so much. I will handle that business later tonight. I really appreciate the insight and I go back to the table. He is still like cautiously poking at the weird tore Dooney and bar food that you've ordered for her eat the mozzarella steak fee. You'll thank me. She kissed you a very dubious, but does chomp down mozzarella sec. Holy shit. Right. Okay. So apparently I'm going to have to run
Speaker 3 00:48:52 Up the streets to a courier. I have a couple
Speaker 2 00:48:54 Letters than need delivered. One is to a very good friend of mine, who is the queen Regent of lock-in. And the other one is to my former sugar daddy. The gets that delighted. Look in her eye that younger siblings get when their older siblings have just said something markable Oh, we're getting back in contact with the gentlemen. Are we we're going to hope it doesn't come to that. He's a very nice old man. The former person in this conversation can help us way more. Anyway, I have to go for a bit. Are you going to be able to hold it down here while I'm gone? Yes. Leo I'm capable of sitting alone at a table and eating fried cheese. Make sure you kiss the letter to your sugar daddy before you send it. It wasn't like that. I'll see you in a bed. And he just turns around and leaves don't have too much fun. He puts one middle finger up over his shoulder. As he walks away.
Speaker 3 00:50:01 Fi you sit there picking out your appetizer platter and enjoying your drink for a few more minutes. A lot of people are coming and going out of this bar, it's very crowded. It's pretty cramped inside. The tables are pretty close together. You don't really Mark much of the coming and going. So people just because it is so hectic, but you do notice at one point a group of five storm folk in very
Speaker 0 00:50:28 Clearly in sailors, garb, you and Leo were sitting in a corner booth around a small round table and they set up on the other corner of this booth around another table. Very close to you. Mostly you notice them just because of their proximity to you sitting closest to you in the booth. There is a young storm folk woman with a close cropped black pixie cut that flashes different shades of green in the low light of the bar. As she turns around talking to her friends, she's the only one in this party of people that is noticeably armed because she is about five feet tall and has a Claymore that is the size of her strapped to her back. And she looks like she's got the guns to wield it. She's in a leather vest and a linen shirt with the sleeves ripped out. And she's just absolutely wrapped next to her in the booth is a somewhat weightier, but a little bit taller young storm folk, man, who has very thick Coke bottle glasses on his face, very crisply pressed sailors, garb, and a nice little hat on his head.
Speaker 0 00:51:48 They all order their drinks. He gets a glass of juice and it is just sipping at it slowly. On the other side of the table, there is the biggest fucking elf you've ever seen in your life. Very large, almost seven feet tall storm folk guy with a blonde buzz cut that flashes green and pink and yellow under the low lights of the bar ripped as hell. Just a very intimidating figure beside him. There is a figure that is almost as tall but much skinnier rail, thin jet black hair, that as he turns to look at his companions, flashes all kinds of beautiful, bright rainbow colors, reds and yellows and greens and blues on his shoulder is sitting the most fucked up bird you have ever seen in your life. The bird looks like by all rights, it should be dead. There are several spots on it where flesh and a feather has rotted away to reveal bones and down one side of its face.
Speaker 0 00:53:04 It has a bunch of barnacles growing. It looks like a Pelican that maybe died and fell in the ocean and definitely should not be alive. And it's just hanging out on this guy shoulder. You don't really get a chance to see the last person that has sat down in this booth because you didn't really look over until they sat down next to you. You see a tricorn hat and the bottoms of a pair of boots that are propped up on the table crossed in front of this. Person's face after a few minutes, you see the same barmaid that was taking care of you and Leo come over and start talking to everybody. She leans over to the tall skinny guy with the long hair and the fucked up bird and says, sir, I'm very sorry to inform you, but we do have a no pet policy within the bar. And from this dude's shoulder, this messed up Pelican whips his head around towards the barmaid, opens its mouth and a voice dripping with gravitas. Like the voice of sir, Patrick Stewart comes out of this bird and it says, Madam, I will have, you know, this high, I'm a service animal.
Speaker 0 00:54:26 The barmaid blinks a couple times and says, all right, understandable, what can I get for all of you? She nods and starts jotting down. These people's orders. They all seem to be ordering pretty much the same drinks, a spread of food juice for the young man in the glasses. Before she leaves the table. You see a hand shoot up from the person whose face is obscured by their boots up on the table and pull her down. This person whispers something in her ear. And you watch the young lady with the big sword and the pixie cut. Put her head in her hands and say cave. This breath, here we go. Again.
Speaker 0 00:55:09 The barmaid retreats from the table comes back with our order a couple minutes later. And then she makes her way over to your table with a somewhat tense smile. She plunks down a corked bottle of what is a very clearly a strawberry and wine. This is a gift from the gentlemen at the next table over. He wanted to make sure that I let you know that there are no strings attached. It's simply a gesture of Goodwill. She puts an empty wine glass down in front of you and walks away as quickly as she can. She raises her eyebrows extremely high and then reaches out, pours herself, half a glass of wine and raises it in the direction of the other table from the other table. The person that has been obscured by the pair of cross boots up on the edge of the table, leans forward. You see the boots pivot apart and through the gap between the soles of the boots. You see a storm folk man of about 150, 160 human equivalent of early
Speaker 2 00:56:24 Thirties with a long beachy wavy shock of filings orange hair done up in a side ponytail that is falling down over his shoulder. As he looks up to smile at you, the Opalescence of his skin and his hair shifts, and you see flashes of deep Ruby red and bright gold in his hair. And in the freckles sprayed across his face, you see flashes of pink and green. He has this beat up tricorn hat on top of his head and a plethora of jewelry, gold and silver and jams, hands Laden down with brings neck full of gold and silver chains and a shirt that is open all the way to the waist of his pants underneath this big frock coat feet. You've been around a lot of people that have had issues with scar tissue before, you know, uh, Lasha always really prioritized staying out of the sun because it could damage a lot of the scar tissue that she had.
Speaker 2 00:57:35 And you see a little bit of the consequence of that there, because with this dude sitting there with his shirt open, you can see that the sun has very clearly made the two horizontals cars across his chest bright, and opalescent flashing the same colors as his freckles underneath the low light of the bar. He makes eye contact with you with those flat white eyes that all storm folks seem to have winks flashes. He was sharp tooth smile and puts his feet back together and goes back to talking to the girl, sitting next to him fi takes an extremely big sip of for wine and just does an awkward thumbs up and then realizes how awkward that was and just stares deeply and different ones. That's you sit there for a moment after awkwardly giving a thumbs up to this very handsome man that just bought you a bottle of wine. And then he stands up from the table. He's about five, seven, five, eight, very sharp chiseled features. And he sidles over to your table, nods down at the chair that Leo vacated several minutes ago and says in this very brassy, confident voice, a little higher than you'd expect like a warm Alto. I'd hate to be a bother to you last, but I just couldn't
Speaker 0 00:59:04 Help. Uh, wonder if this seed was taken, she chugs the rest of her glass of wine and says, no, no, uh, not for the moment, at least from the table next to you. You uh, and the girl with the pixie cut has her head in her hands. Again, Earl perception, 18 as this girl groans, and he moves to sit down, you see his leg dart out and he kicks her underneath the chair and she grinds the heel of her boot down into the top of his foot. He just barely winces. You almost don't see it, but with a quiet, he sits down in the chair. And with this big rakish crooked smile, you notice that he has a small scar kind of pulling down at one corner of his mouth. He steeples his fingers in front of him and says, I hope it wasn't too far off. When you're prepared choice of beverage, you seem to like, you might want something, a little familiar being as far from home as you are, what brings a Ferris Chari and lost like yourself all the way out to toward dune the leans forward and put their Shannon. Our hand tries to seem coy. And like, she has nothing to hide, neither of which are true. Go on. Oh, just taught a bit of a sightseeing trip. Roll me deception.
Speaker 0 01:00:37 That's a 15 on the dice, which is 23. Okay. Let me roll insight for our friend, even though it's not mechanically possible for him to roll higher than that. No. Yeah, that was a 15. So, because he rolled lower than you on that, you do see a very brief, odd look cross his face. It seems like he's almost making this expression subconsciously his eyes narrow a little bit and you notice his head tilt a bit to the side, but then he recovers, nods and reaches out to grab the bottle of wine, pours himself, a drink, even though it's your bottle, he doesn't ask. He grabs an empty flagging off the table next to you where all of his buddies are kind of just staring at him, fills it up more than his proper with the wine and takes a big slug of it before slamming it down on the table. Personally, the stuff tastes like Bill's Walter to me, but you know, any port in a storm, right? Did you come I'm over here for a conversation or just to insult my national experts? He throws his head back and lets out this big musical laugh.
Speaker 0 01:01:56 Oh, well, you know, insults and Australians. It's one of my more highly developed skills, but I'm more inclined to let the pretty ones have a pass. Apologies. If I've offended. He reaches into the inside pocket of this very nice Brocade frog coat that he has on and pulls out a business card that he lays down in front of you.
Speaker 3 01:02:20 Roll me perception once more, please.
Speaker 0 01:02:24 As
Speaker 3 01:02:24 He's doing this at the table next to you, you see the really big guy with the buzz cut, stand up and walk out a side door into the alley, outside the bar. But then you look down at the business card in front of you and it identifies him as one earnest hammer, Brooke and importer of fines for Isles goods based in Germany,
Speaker 0 01:02:47 See picks the business card up, raises her eyebrows says, well, you're pretty far from home yourself. You caught me born and raised in power port. Well,
Speaker 3 01:02:57 I think we can both agree that sometimes pursuit of our own higher purpose can lead us far from where we start.
Speaker 0 01:03:04 Well, I'll drink to that. He's going to grab the bottle of wine back and forth herself. Other glass
Speaker 3 01:03:11 Clink, your glasses and earnest winks at you, raises his flagging and completely just down.
Speaker 0 01:03:20 And who
Speaker 3 01:03:21 Do I have the pleasure of drinking with? If you don't mind
Speaker 0 01:03:23 Me asking feed takes another sip before wine as an excuse to think for a second and then clears your throat nods a little bit. Augustina Javares pleasure to meet you.
Speaker 3 01:03:37 You're going to have to roll a couple checks on this, uh, first deception please. 16. Okay. He rolled a 12, nothing there. I am going to need you to roll insight with advantage.
Speaker 0 01:03:52 I'm going to use one of my roles on gift of the storm breaker and I'm going to use the second one. Okay. I wrote a 17 on the die, but with my insight modifier, it's a 16 feet.
Speaker 3 01:04:08 You give this guy, your alias and he fully leans back in his chair and puts his flagging down with a thunk on the
Speaker 0 01:04:18 Table. He
Speaker 3 01:04:20 Looks thrown off for a second and almost worried, but then he recovers picks the flag and backup takes another long, long swig out of it and says a fair name for her
Speaker 0 01:04:38 To your health fee, raises her glass back and says, and to yours
Speaker 3 01:04:44 The table next to you fee with that perception check, you notice that all of these people have kind of been eyeing you guys the entire time you've been talking.
Speaker 0 01:04:54 When you give that name to them,
Speaker 3 01:04:58 Have them react in the same way that earnest did. The kid who like very clearly is Elvin equivalent of close to 15 is still just sitting there with this juice. He doesn't know what the hell is going on. He's just kind of hanging
Speaker 0 01:05:13 Out the tall
Speaker 3 01:05:15 Skinny dude with the big infernal
Speaker 0 01:05:18 Pelican on his shoulder. You see the bird lean over and mumble something into his ear and his eyes go really big. And the girl with the pixie cut and the really big sword, you see her head Twitch to the side a little bit, even though she's pointedly not looking at you puts a wine glass down and plasters on a big fake grand Duchess type smile. She's going to lean into earnest and say, I believe I've had a little too much to drink tonight. I'm going to step out for a moment. He still looks really rattled as you look at him, but sort of blinks shakes his head and says, hi. I think I'm getting there myself. I'll I'll be waging. When you get back leaning into the performance a little bit. I think laughs very quietly. Guess I'm sure you will. And then she steps out the door. There are two doors. There is a front door out onto the street where you just came from and there is a side door into an alley. Front door Night has fallen. By the time you leave this front door,
Speaker 2 01:06:32 You walk outside roll perception for me, 12, very loud
Speaker 0 01:06:38 Wildly from around the corner in the alley beside the bar, you hear your brother's voice shouting at someone saying you're going to fucking regret this
Speaker 2 01:06:48 Aflac. Okay? Uh, I'm heading around the corner. Then obviously you round the corner into this alley and you see Leo standing there, eyes wide, hands, half raised and standing behind him is the big storm folk dude with the blonde buzz cut knife up to his throat, the hold, the orb out as she rounded the corner. So she's got that in one hand and the other one raised and she smiles pleasantly and says, now my good, sir, this doesn't have to get ugly. PHY you did not roll the DC 15. It would have taken on that perception check to anticipate what happens next. You feel digging in past the boating of your corset. The point of a very sharp knife at your back.
Speaker 2 01:07:48 Now, Mr. Hammer, Brooke, I thought we were having too nice of a conversation right next to your ear. You hear a now familiar musical Alto laugh. And then a boy says, don't let yourself last. You put on a good show. It's not your fault that killing and Marissa more foster than you are. I apologize for the deception, but it strikes me that I never actually told him my name was Erin. His timer broken to be fair to him. He hasn't used his identity much since I killed him. Most folks just call me the captain. I'm the pirate King of those Fri and you'll be coming with us.
Speaker 3 01:08:46 And that is where we are going to enter this week. How are you feeling, buddy?
Speaker 3 01:08:57 I know he's hot. I know he's hot. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 01:09:00 Oh, this was just me. And we'll figure out where this is going. Next time on <inaudible>
Speaker 3 01:09:24 Everybody Barry here with the postscript, just clearing up a couple of housekeeping things here at the end of the episode, as always, we're going to go ahead and plug our social media so you can find us on Twitter, Tumblr, and tick-tock at compelled duel. You can also find us on Tik TOK at compelled dual audios, where we post audio snippets from the show. We also have a lot of cool stuff like an official Spotify account and official website. You can find all of that stuff linked on our various social media pages. If you're enjoying what you're hearing so far on the podcast we ask that you consider maybe heading over to patrion.com/compelled dual, where starting at just $2 a month, you can get access to all kinds of awesome perks, like early access to episodes, access to bonus content, even letters from your favorite character every month.
Speaker 3 01:10:10 If you're interested in supporting the podcast in other ways than pledging to the Patrion. If you're listening to us on Apple podcasts, we ask that you consider leaving us a rating and a review that helps us get promoted to a wider listener base and grow our audience. And as always word of mouth advertising is the most powerful tool we have available to us right now. So if you're enjoying compelled duel, just tell three friends about it. And if they like it, ask them to tell three friends. Our next episode is going to be going up on Friday, July 16th, 2021. Or if you are a member of our Patrion, you'll get your early access on Thursday, July 15th. Thank you guys so much and we'll see you next week. It's going to be a good one.
