Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hey Al.
Speaker 1 00:00:01 Hey Barry.
Speaker 0 00:00:03 What happens when someone hot boxes, their entire gaming table, A total party chill. It's time for Capella dual.
Speaker 0 00:00:28 Hello everybody. And welcome back to Capell. Dual I'm Barry
Speaker 1 00:00:32 And I'm Al
Speaker 0 00:00:34 And we are a single player, co DMD, D and D five E actual play podcast
Speaker 1 00:00:40 Previously on compelled duel. You see the distinct angular profile of one princess, Eleanor Ash, thorn.
Speaker 0 00:00:52 What the fuck are you doing here?
Speaker 1 00:00:54 What the fuck are you doing here? This is my kitchen. And your dad. What in the fuck is going on? Thanks
Speaker 0 00:01:02 For the heads up said,
Speaker 1 00:01:05 Right? So travel plans.
Speaker 0 00:01:09 Um, I mean, we could always take the train. Oh, defiance. Yeah. Yeah. I know her. She lashed out against the storm bringer and her power changed, became different. I don't know.
Speaker 1 00:01:30 Did you have enough time to remember all the fucked up shit
Speaker 0 00:01:33 At about me? I have spent long enough wrestling with my own demons said I am not afraid of going a couple of accounts with yours.
Speaker 1 00:01:45 You're not throwing yourself on the sword just because you've had a shitty week. Leo. I don't accept it. We're not doing it. We're going to figure something else out.
Speaker 0 00:01:56 Question number one, you have to tell me the truth. Did my father kill his brother? Yes. Question number two. If I tell my aunt this, will she help us?
Speaker 2 00:02:07 Yes.
Speaker 1 00:02:09 Are you in Kiva connected And then he disappears.
Speaker 0 00:02:18 I cast waterwalk on everybody, but said as a ritual,
Speaker 1 00:02:24 What you recognize as a strawberry and soldiers start to coalesce on you. Dozens of them, all holding crossbows, trained on all of you,
Speaker 0 00:02:33 Leo from within the resilience, fear that he's trapped in, puts his hands up over his head, looks over at fi and says shit.
Speaker 0 00:02:56 Our camera zooms in to the brig of an Australian Naval vessel, where you fee are sitting tied to a chair with your hands shackled behind your back in similar shape to you. Arivale the captain said, Sabine, your brother, Eleanora and Verity are all just sitting there tied to chairs. The atmosphere is tense. There is a very long stretch of silence after which Eleanora turns over to Leo and says, you know, why is it that every time you try to help people, you always end up tied up in a dungeon. What? Leo is not able to put his head in his hands. And so just hangs his head forward. Oh, long story from the chair next to him, where he is also chained up Zed kind of smirks and goes. I mean, I'm starting to get the feeling that he might just like being tied up Eleanora and Leo both immediately start yelling at him fi after the incident on the shores of falter your party, minus those who managed to escape was rounded up and brought onto this ship where you are currently awaiting, probably a pretty unpleasant fate. I would like you to roll me a perception check.
Speaker 1 00:04:49 Uh, that's an 11, but with my reliable talent from my Cape.
Speaker 0 00:04:56 Okay. And that will just do it. Leo Zedd and Eleanora are all three bickering with each other. The captain is trying to make a lighthearted joke out of everything that has just been said. Sabine is yelling at everybody to shut up and over all of this ruckus you hear from the door, a metallic rattle.
Speaker 1 00:05:23 Everybody shut up for a minute. I listened closer.
Speaker 0 00:05:28 Everybody shuts up at your request. And the rattling from the door to the brig gets louder. You hear a couple metallic clicks and clunks, and I have to roll something. Know the mechanics of this lock on the door are just clicking and worrying and you hear a voice outside the door go, oh, damn it. I thought I had it, but last tumbler slipped. Hold on. You hear more rattling. And then another voice outside the door goes darlin. How about you step aside and let the real professionals take care of it. Going to roll again also, no, there's another few seconds of rattling from the door and then an exasperated Hough from the other side. Well, shit fire. I guess this thing is really stuck. All right, sta do your thing. And I need to roll one more. Check 24. So that will absolutely do it.
Speaker 0 00:06:40 The door to the brig gets kicked fully off of its hinges. There is an onslaught of light from the hallway outside that makes your eyes struggle to adjust to the change. But you see three silhouettes outlined in this hallway and moving into the break. One large and hulking, one short and plump, and one petite and compact. As your eyes adjust, you see that leading the charge into this room. Calissa Petrus is dressed in a full suit of black leather armor. Very similar to the one you've seen Sabine in with a silver beacon coin in laid into the breast plate. She still looks very similar to the last time you saw her. She still has the multitude of facial piercings and the voluminous curly head of jaw length hair, but it was bright blue. The last time you saw her, she has since died. It electric lime green.
Speaker 0 00:07:53 She charges into the brig and right behind her, the person that as far as you can infer, you have heard Leo described as somebody named Mia follows small compact wirey and strong looking person. That looks almost like an Australian elf shimmering, copper skin, curly copper hair pulled back in a French braid on top of their head, big copper eyes, all Iris with slitted pupils, no whites. They walk in survey the situation and nod at everybody cordially. And then <inaudible> walks through this doorway. He looks very different from the last time you saw him fee in stature and the way he carries himself, he is very much the same, about six and a half feet tall, very broad, very strong dressed in black leather armor to Colossae also with a beacon coin in late in his breast plate, but he looks like he has been taking care of himself in a way that you have never really known him to. He has grown out his hair quite a bit. It's almost down to his shoulders. Now. He looks like he's picked up a skincare routine. He looks great like Fabio with a sword.
Speaker 1 00:09:24 Holy shit,
Speaker 0 00:09:26 Fen rolls his shoulders back, rakes a hand back through his hair and grins crookedly over at you. Hey, long time. No, see lot of stuff has changed. Uh, the world's on fire. I thought you died for a bit. I figured out that I also like men now from the doorway, Mia glares over at him and waves their hand in a sort of uncertain back and forth motion and goes, ah, and he quickly points over them goes, I'm dating you. I like men. Speaking of which, how you doing Zed, Zen from where he is still chained to a chair, lets his head drop down to his chest for a second and goes hyphen. And again, no,
Speaker 1 00:10:22 There's a lot on pack there. Hang on.
Speaker 0 00:10:25 Colossae who is still dusting off the front of her armor looks around at everybody and goes, oh yeah, there is so much to unpack. Um, unfortunately someone will have heard that. So we need to get all of you out of bondage and fucking move,
Speaker 1 00:10:45 Right? Yes. Talk about the fact that Fen is using conditioner. Now later,
Speaker 0 00:10:50 Calissa and Mia said about breaking all of you out of your chains and the ropes tying you to the chairs with their thieves tools and all the wild Calissa is just babbling and your ear fee. So Lorelei made it to the embassy, gave us the tip-off. She's fine. Along with all of your other friends that came with her, we sent them to a library downtown to just kind of wait on whatever happens next. They're all. Okay. We should focus on getting you out of here. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:11:24 Yes, we should do that. I'm still trying to hold on. I'm trying to catch up with everything going on right now. Okay. You're in the beacon fence taking care of his hair. That's a lot very happy about it, but wow.
Speaker 0 00:11:39 I agree that fence haircare routine is also of utmost importance, but yeah, he's also in the beacon.
Speaker 1 00:11:46 Notice that too, but there were a lot of more important things going on with him. Okay. Off the boat. It's really good to see you. And he's going to hug her
Speaker 0 00:11:56 Calissa, squeezes you back super tight while right behind you. Mia is getting Leo out of his shackles and the ropes binding him to the chair. Calissa. Let's go. If you briefly and then whips around and punches Leo in the jaw with a right hook, that would devastate Tyson. So she does two bludgeoning damage to Leo who's head snaps to the side, very sharply and yells you asshole. Leo just kind of puts both hands up and goes. I just surf that. Could you please yell at me once we're out of immediate danger?
Speaker 1 00:12:37 Yeah. Uh, you can kill him once. Nobody else is trying to that's fine. Let's we should go. Let's go.
Speaker 0 00:12:45 Yeah. Okay. Fine. And then from the doorway, Fen goes, uh, yeah. So somebody definitely heard me kicking the door in. We should do what we can to mitigate that and get the fuck off the boat, which is what we're here for.
Speaker 1 00:13:04 Oh, with some speed. Everybody come on,
Speaker 0 00:13:10 Everybody follows Fen, Mia and Calissa out of the brig out in the hallway. You see Mia whip their head around to look at Colossae and go, all right, sugar. You said that you were going to be the extraction specialist. So, uh, how the hell are we going to get out of this one? Calissa, waives them off and goes, I got it. I got it. And you see fan reached down and close a hand around one of their shoulders and go, babe, don't kill anybody. If you don't have to, we can't afford the effort it's going to take to do clean up me a pouts at him. Fine. And then you see Calissa do some wild shit. She is using almost all of the magic available to her within her arcane trickster SAP block. The first thing she does is throws up an unseen servant. As soon as you all get out of the brig and sense it down the hallway in the opposite direction that you're facing. So this unseen servant is just knocking shit off of shelves, making a lot of noise, trying to draw attention down that hallway. And then she ushers you all down. This very narrow corridor to where you see an Australian Naval guard standing outside a door.
Speaker 0 00:14:44 Then she casts spider climb and climbs up the wall and onto the ceiling and is going to cast a web at this dude. And because she has a thing called magical ambush from her arcane trickster rogue features, this guy can't see her. So he's going to get disadvantage on this deck. Save to not get caught in the web spell that she shoots at him. Yeah, no low role was a natural to, he immediately gets ensconced in magical webs. As she hangs down off the ceiling and shoots the spell at him, she hops down dispels the spider climb and opens the door, lets everybody who has been imprisoned, run into this room and get their stuff Feet. You still had your Cape on you because the people that kidnapped you didn't know what it was, but your or your shield, all of that stuff has gone. It's in this room,
Speaker 1 00:15:53 I'm going to run in and get it.
Speaker 0 00:15:56 They had gotten Leo's knife to, he runs in, grabs it, zaps it into his Bracer. You see Eleanora grabbing for her sword and her shield. Everybody kind of gathers up all of their stuff. And then Calissa waves. You forward from the doorway kind of pointing you upwards up a set of stairs.
Speaker 1 00:16:16 Okay. I'm going to go where she's planning.
Speaker 0 00:16:19 You emerge up onto the deck of this ship and all of the deck hands kind of whip around to look at the group of you Calissa hisses and a breath through her teeth and goes, okay. We only brought one rowboats. So this is about to get really complicated. And then Leo elbows her out of the way and goes, no, it's not. And throws up to fourth level water walks spells to allow all of you to just jump over board and take off across the water, back towards the island. Do you do so?
Speaker 1 00:17:00 Yeah. I wait for everybody else to jump off the boat and then I say, fuck it. And I ripped one of the beads off the echoes of fireballs. I drop off the boat and I throw it onto the deck behind me.
Speaker 0 00:17:16 As you all land on the surface of the ocean and start running Calissa takes a fleeting, look over her shoulder and sees the ship behind you, erupt in flames and goes fucking nice. And you all take off running across the water to the island of Boulder.
Speaker 1 00:17:41 You all walk over the water away from this is Sherry and Naval vessel. And towards the entrance of the city of Boulder, you find yourself walking up the ridges of this mountain, jutting out of the sea to where there is a lowered chiseled out opening from the mouth of what you narrow. Nuys is a massive oceanic volcano. You come over the Ridge of it and see that it has been chiseled out into this long flat structure. Leading up to a bridge. The bridge is stretching over this yawning canyon and the city of Boulder sits at the base of the caldera of this dormant volcano. The city is on a massive in comprehensible stone gear. And as you look at it, it almost seems like a trick of the light, but it is ever so slowly turning this gear is just sliding to the side with this massive city on top of it, you see a bunch of connections to the bridge that's in front of you stretching out from the gear.
Speaker 1 00:19:10 So it seems like the bridge only joins up. If you had to guess by the speed that it's turning at about once an hour, part of the city is recessed behind the opening of this volcano and the rest of it is under it so that there is direct sunlight shining on about half the city. At one time, it is massive. The buildings are higher than any you've ever seen. There are bustling streets. It is a scope and level of invention that you have never seen before you watch as the wheel spin is ever so slowly. And the bridge starts to meet up with one of the crossings on it and Calissa says, all right, we've got to go fast. So we don't miss the bridge. Cause then we just have to sit here for an hour.
Speaker 0 00:20:15 Yeah, yeah. Holy shit. Yeah. Okay. I'm going. Okay. Um, I'm guessing that we can't just walk into the embassy. That would be a bad idea, right?
Speaker 1 00:20:30 Uh, yeah, for sure. My dad doesn't even know that I left and last I heard, although I was supposed to be listening to that conversation and it was very confidential. Uh, you too. And she points at you and fi are both wanted back in the palace that I'm guessing it's not for a return party.
Speaker 0 00:20:51 Cool. Great. Okay. We've got a backup plan. Thank you for the rescue. You should probably take care of yourself and Fen and Mia so that you don't draw any further suspicion.
Speaker 1 00:21:10 Awesome. Have you to think about that now? Uh, what's the plan, do you,
Speaker 0 00:21:16 Or going back to the embassy, me and mine are headed towards a very specific location in the city that we have no idea how to get to, but I am sure we will figure it out, Calissa
Speaker 1 00:21:30 Coalesce and makes a face and says, great. Uh, go ahead. And, and her smile, it gets very tight shoot off ascending and you figure it out. And then she says, Fen, Mia, you come in, they both nod and causes heads off. So as a DM, I would like to pose a question to you
Speaker 0 00:21:56 As a player. I would love to give you an answer.
Speaker 1 00:22:00 How in the fuck are you going to find the home of someone who you have not talked to in almost a century in a city that you have never been to while? Not one, but two governments would very much like to bring you in.
Speaker 0 00:22:16 Uh, Calissa gave us the address of a library. I'd like to take us all their first
Speaker 1 00:22:23 Good call. You walk through the streets of Boulder. Every street you go down, it's just more of these huge metal and glass buildings. There are people on a lot of the corners holding up flags and red and green as cards go whizzing by on the streets. There's a lot of smoke hanging over the city. A lot of Smaug, there are people selling food on the streets. You figured out pretty quickly that there's a specific way. You are supposed to be walking on one side of the sidewalk and that if you try to walk the wrong way, people will run you down, but you make your way to this library pretty quickly. You notice Laura lies sitting at a table on the ground floor, half paying attention to a book about bugs, just having her fingers on the table. She looks up as she hears a bell, go off as the door opens and immediately jumps up from the table and runs over.
Speaker 0 00:23:25 Leo hugs are super tight.
Speaker 1 00:23:27 She is cleaned. He is super hard. I was so worried. I didn't know what happened. And I, and I had to run because it means that I had to run. And I, um,
Speaker 0 00:23:38 Lorelei deep breath with me,
Speaker 1 00:23:50 Deep breath. Okay. She squeezes you real tight. One more time and then backs off and goes. Okay. I'm okay. Everybody's okay. Um, I got Colossae uh, cause that that's what's being said to, to, um, was that good?
Speaker 0 00:24:13 It was, it was good. She saved us. She saved all of us and we needed you to make that happen. You did good.
Speaker 1 00:24:23 Okay. Um, w where are we going next? What are we doing
Speaker 0 00:24:30 Were going to my aunt's house. You've never met her. I just need to do something really quick, actually, Laura, like, can you help me?
Speaker 1 00:24:45 Okay. Help with what
Speaker 0 00:24:48 Soren was always better with card catalogs than I was. I didn't pay enough attention.
Speaker 1 00:24:55 As you say, Soren's Naval or life lunges.
Speaker 0 00:24:59 I'm sorry. I know. I know. I need to find a book that I think will probably be here. And I need someone that knows libraries, Laura. Hi, please. My ability to keep everybody safe is riding on this.
Speaker 1 00:25:21 Oh, okay. Um, we need a card catalog. I can find a card catalog. She nods through herself a couple of times, as she sets off through the stacks,
Speaker 0 00:25:32 I follow her to wherever the card catalog is
Speaker 1 00:25:36 Rural perception. Really quick,
Speaker 0 00:25:41 27.
Speaker 1 00:25:43 That'll do it. You hear ravines voice from NSX. He sounds unhappy.
Speaker 0 00:25:58 I stop and listen in.
Speaker 1 00:26:01 You hear him saying I get it. Okay. I get how much you've given up for my sake. I get how hard it was to take care of me as a kid. I would never disrespect or belittle that I understand. And I love you. And I appreciate it, but I am a grown ass man. And you have to let me make my own decisions. And then you hear to lender shoot back while I'm sorry, ravine, that I didn't want to let you get captured by a Sherry and forces. I'm very sorry that I was worried about your wellbeing.
Speaker 1 00:26:34 And what about Verity's wellbeing? What about Arivale? What about all of my friends that you dragged me away from when I could have helped to Allendra I am a grown ass man. I am not a child that you need to watch out for. I love you. And I mean, no disrespect, but you have to let me make my own decisions. Even if you think they're wrong and you have to give yourself the space, you and Celica, both need to give yourselves the space to make your decisions. Without watching over my shoulder, waiting for me to fuck up. And my decision right now is to step away from this conversation for all of our health and wellbeing, please don't follow me. And you just hear footsteps. As ravine walks away,
Speaker 0 00:27:30 I'm going to try to cut them off. At the end of whatever aisle he's walking down,
Speaker 1 00:27:36 You step around one of the stacks and run head first into a vein storming down the aisle. You see to Linda behind him looking devastated and just kind of wrapping her arms around herself. Ravine, you notice has a couple little mushroom caps popping up around his hairline and he is dusting himself off and taking a really deep breath. As you run into him, he sees you stumbled back a step and goes, oh, thank fuck. You're all. Okay. Uh, is, is Verity.
Speaker 0 00:28:09 She's pine she's in the lobby. Everybody's okay. I have things I need to do. You need to go check on, on her go.
Speaker 1 00:28:23 Yeah, I'm any kind of like half turns to look over his shoulder at Cylindra and winces and he goes, yeah, I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that now. Um, and he pushes past you and just go that towards the lobby,
Speaker 0 00:28:39 Leo looks over at to Lindora and kind of shrugs, like, what can you do? And then it's going to keep following Lorelei off towards the card catalog.
Speaker 1 00:28:51 Lorelei stops outside the card catalog, kind of rocking back and forth on her feet with her hands behind her back. And she says, so what are we looking for?
Speaker 0 00:29:03 And Australian history section, there was one in GIM Targum I, this place is so big. There has to be one here. I am looking for a specific book on the folder in war Britain by a retired folder in general. Can I remember the title? I wrote it all down. I have the notes.
Speaker 1 00:29:28 Um, it was a bout a year ago, and I don't know how well you've held onto your notes, but go ahead and roll me a history check with advantage
Speaker 0 00:29:42 21.
Speaker 1 00:29:45 That'll do it, bud. You remember the title of this book and the name of the general that wrote it. You relay this information to Lorelei and she says, okay, okay. Um, yeah, we can find that. And she stops for a second and she goes, why are we looking for this?
Speaker 0 00:30:06 Remember how I said that I was going to make the people that did this to soar and pay for it. We need this book to make that happen.
Speaker 1 00:30:18 Laura lies mouth sets into a very firm line. Okay. I'll find it. And she keeps leaving through the card catalog. I'm going to roll a really quick history check for Laura lie. That's a 16. That'll do it. Just barely. She flips through the card catalog for another minute and then says, I got it. And then she zooms out the door.
Speaker 0 00:30:46 I follow behind her.
Speaker 1 00:30:50 She leads you out of the sacks, up the stairs, around a corner and into a section that is labeled the assuring in war. She's zoomed a couple bookshelves into the section and says it should be around here. And are you going to look for it on the bookshelf she's looking at?
Speaker 0 00:31:09 Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 00:31:12 You find this book easily. Do you want to look through it and find the passage that you were looking at the last time?
Speaker 0 00:31:19 Yeah, I am checking specifically for the passage about the treaty of OMA Groth and the fact that the war was supposed to be over way before it was because that's what I need to be able to give myself any legitimacy while I am looking for help here. I am trying to find the passage I read that made me realize what had actually happened during the end of the older and more.
Speaker 1 00:31:46 You flip through you find the dates. You find all of the details about how the Holdren army was negotiating a treaty to stop the war with your uncle valoran and you find that detail about your uncle being murdered during peace stocks. It is all there.
Speaker 0 00:32:08 Lorelei. I want you to look at me, look at me in my eyes. We're going to steal this book And I just need you to know that it is for the greater good
Speaker 1 00:32:25 That's okay. I grew up people now,
Speaker 0 00:32:28 How the fuck do you know what a grift is? Okay. Leo shoves the book under his shirt,
Speaker 1 00:32:34 Laura lipids, both this there and, and enthusiastically says anarchy. And then she zooms out of the stacks. I'm going to go ahead and roll this session with this advantage to see how suspicious Lorelei looks right now. 14 Lorelei looks mildly suspicious, but she is moving too fast for anybody to take. Notice you to hurry out into the lobby where the rest of your party are gathered. What are you doing?
Speaker 0 00:33:01 Well, I just realized that we have no idea where this woman lives or how to get to her house. So Leo is going to use his last third level spell slot to send a sending spell to Calissa. The message says, hi, it's Leo. Sorry to interrupt. But do you know where my aunt Nora lives by chance?
Speaker 1 00:33:22 There is a very long pause. And then you can't sigh when you're sending a sending smell. But that feeling kind of comes through as Calissa sends back an address and nothing else,
Speaker 0 00:33:37 Leo flinches and goes, Ooh, she's mad. And then it's going to go try to find a city map somewhere.
Speaker 1 00:33:45 You're in a library. There's an information desk. You can get a city map,
Speaker 0 00:33:49 Perfect doing that, hurting everybody out the door. I stop fee before she can get out, though,
Speaker 1 00:33:56 You pull for you to a stop. And then she turns to look at you. What?
Speaker 0 00:34:01 I walk her just outside the door with me and off to the side, pull out the book from under my shirt, open it to the relevant passage and hand it out to her.
Speaker 1 00:34:13 I'm going to just roll it. A straight wisdom check for FY 13 fee reads this passage that you hand to her, her eyebrows, furrowed. And then she looks up and she says, I'll be damned. He did do it. Huh?
Speaker 0 00:34:32 Yeah, he really did. Let's hope that that information is enough to get us the help we need. Come on, let's go
Speaker 1 00:34:42 Roll survival with advantage. For me,
Speaker 0 00:34:46 16,
Speaker 1 00:34:47 You do not get lost. You walk through the streets of Boulder with the turning of the great gear that the city rests on. Just barely something you can feel under your feet. And you walk your way through commercial areas, into residential neighborhoods and to a very well-appointed row house. A very nice garden outside. As you walk up, you hear what sounds like a small explosion from inside. And somebody yells a Adrian, come on. What are you doing?
Speaker 0 00:35:20 Leo pauses outside the gate. It takes a long look over at fi and then nods walks inside and knocks on the door fi you and your party. Follow your brother up to this door that he knocks on kind of looking back and forth. And after a pause, there is a scuffle from the other side and it swings open. The first thing you notice about this row house is that it is very richly appointed on the inside. Very nicely decorated. And it seems very long. It is not wide, but it is very long. You can tell that there's quite a bit of square footage in here. As you look behind the form of the person standing in the door, they are a very tall slender Australian Elvin person, pale skin with the blue undertones, bright blue eyes. Their hair is cut asymmetrically in an undercut and the top part is black, but the close-cropped undercut is dyed.
Speaker 0 00:36:25 A spectrum of colors that looks like Calissa is daydream, just purples and greens and pinks and yellows and blues all through the back of their hair. They're dressed in kind of a witchy long black sun dress. And they have a big city scorch mark down one side of their face as if something has just blown up in it. This person blinks, oh shit. It has a been a while. Cousin Leo sort of scuffles his feet awkwardly, um, layer L this person just kind of shrugs and grins and goes, oh yeah, it's cool. I go by Lark now anyway. Um, nice of you to drop by a urine. Internationally wanted criminal. And this is a little bit of a situation. So, and then they turn over their shoulder up the stairs in this grand entry room and yell. Mom, you're still standing on the porch behind Leo, kind of trying to look into this house. And after another moment, you see a very tall, like pushing six feet tall, very broadly, and strongly built a Sterian Elvin woman who looks to be the human equivalent of, in about her mid forties appear at the top of the stairs.
Speaker 0 00:37:58 She looks eerily like your father. They have the same sharp features, same piercing, bright blue eyes and long silver hair. The resemblance is uncanny, but there are subtle differences, namely that she has noticeable laughter lines on her face and her eyes, while that same shade of piercing blue is your fathers seem very kind. She stops at the top of the stairs and sways on her feet a little as sees you and goes, oh, okay. And then runs down the stairs. She pushes your cousin Lark, apparently out of the way and kind of braces both hands in the doorframe and looks Leo up and down. Oh sweetie, you didn't get that much taller. Did ya?
Speaker 0 00:38:59 Leo plasters on a big fake smile. Nice to see you too. Auntie Nora. Um, we didn't have anywhere else to go. And he kind of nods back at all of the people behind you and then tugs you forward just for introduction sake for everybody here. Hi, I'm layer L and this is my sister Ferrara. We need your help. And we have certain evidence that we think will help secure it. Your aunt, Nora, his eyebrows pinched together, and she frowns and tilts her head a little bit, honey, this isn't a court of law. You don't need to present evidence to get help. You are family. What are you all doing? Standing out here in the cold come inside and sheep steps back and starts waving you all in through the door of this grand house.
Speaker 1 00:39:54 The hesitantly steps inside. I think she's got her hands clasped behind her back. Just not touching anything
Speaker 0 00:40:03 You and Leo walk in all of the people that are with you. So Sabine, the captain, Lorelei Eleanora, Zed, vain, Verity Arivale, Cylindra all of them pile in and Nora shuts the door behind you guys. And she just sort of brushes her hands off on the front of her shirt and goes, okay, this is a lot of company, a Lark, go get your sister. Now, Lark kind of makes a fearful meep noise. And scuttles off down the hallway. Nora turns back to look at you and Leo with her eyebrows steadily rising higher on her forehead. So you said you needed help. Um, I do have a couple of prerequisite questions. Uh, the most pressing of which is how are you not dead
Speaker 1 00:40:54 Teleportation incident, long story.
Speaker 0 00:40:58 Leo runs a hand back through his hair and size. Yeah, very long story. We don't have time for it. We're here to stop the blockade. I think everybody here can all agree that nobody wants this war roll insight really quick.
Speaker 1 00:41:17 Uh, 14,
Speaker 0 00:41:19 You watch a very complicated expression, go across your aunt's face. Leo mentions the war. And there's a moment where she looks simultaneously bitter and like she is remembering something unpleasant. And then she presses her lips together into a very thin line and expression. That again is eerily similar to your father and nods. You are a hundred percent, right? I have had my fill of war for a lifetime, but that's something for us to talk about later. You all look exhausted. Let's get you settled in. As she says that you hear bickering coming back up the hallway drawing closer LARCs voice is one of the two engaged in this argument. And the other is a higher, more nasal tone. And they are just going at each other. Lark emerges back into this front room, followed very closely by an extremely similar looking Australian Elvin young lady about your age, very slender, bright blue eyes, black hair pulled up on top of her head in a very neat bun with little octagonal shaped wire framed glasses perched on the end of her nose, much like your aunt.
Speaker 0 00:42:41 She is dressed in very utilitarian, looking bolder and clothes and sitting in a very mechanically complicated, looking like artifice, almost looking wheelchair. There's all kinds of buttons and control panels on it. It is mind boggling to look at. She has metal and leather braces strapped around both legs over her boots. And she is just arguing at the top of her voice with Lark as they enter the room. I don't understand why you're arguing with me over this Lark. I have given you 10,000 lectures on lab safety and you still insisted on sticking your face right up next to you. And then Nora cuts her off. Adrian, you remember your cousin layer L this young lady ATRA apparently tilts her head, looks over at her mother and goes what? And then looks at Leo and goes, oh, aren't you dead? Leo's fake smile, shatters a little bit. And he looks on the fucking edge. God, I wish hi. ATRA
Speaker 1 00:43:56 Fee cuts in and we have bigger fish to fry. Hi, I'm Ferrara. I'm also your cousin
Speaker 0 00:44:06 Atrial looks over at you and tilts her head. Like she thinks you're a very interesting experiment. Oh yeah. You're the one that like, half the Navy's here because of
Speaker 1 00:44:16 That. That's me. Yep. That they sure are here because of me anyway. Nice to meet you,
Speaker 0 00:44:29 Your aunt Nora size very and says, oh right. Um, let's take your cousins and their friends on a tour of the house. And then I am going to have to get a much bigger dinner started than I was planning for, but that's okay. That's okay. You are so welcome here. All of you. Yeah. Right? This way. She ushers both of her children followed by the rest of you down this long hallway, back through the length of this row house two feet. You've never been on an elevator before Leo has, but this very strange contraption with a sliding door at the end of the hallway opens up and Adrian kind of frowns looks around at the pretty large group of people amassed in the hallway. Uh, yeah, unless everybody is way more comfortable with close social proximity than I am. This is probably going to take a couple of trips.
Speaker 0 00:45:28 So just bear with us. And then she wheels into the elevator. Lark, Nora, Leo, and a couple. Other of your friends follow her. You hear this weird clanking sound after the door closes behind them. And then a couple seconds later, the door opens again and they are gone. There is nobody standing in this little box. Oh, I don't care for that shit at all. The captain panicked goes, oh, you're not getting me in that fucking thing. Do you think we could just run up the stairs and not be missed? Right. Our last go. And he nods back up the hallway towards the front room where you did see a staircase. Yeah. I'm just going to haul ass up the stairs. I don't know what everybody else is doing, but I'm not getting in the thing. You see everybody standing at the end of another long hallway at the top of the stairs.
Speaker 0 00:46:21 When you get up, you walk down the hallway, regroup with everybody. And Nora leads you around a corner to another hallway that is just lined with doors on either side. Okay? So these are the guest suites. We should have enough room if everybody doubles up, I think. And she starts trying to do a head count. Um, take your pick. They're all pretty much outfitted the same ravine and Verity kind of shrug at each other and peel off into one room to Linda. And Arivale head into the one next door. You see Leo and said briefly head into a room together, come back out without their bags. Sabine grabs your bag from you and heads off into yet another room with the captain to get rid of your stuff. Eleanora and Lorelei are left, just kind of awkwardly blinking at each other, but then they both shrug simultaneously and head into the last available room. Everybody reconvenes in the hallway and in the background, Adrian claps her hands together and looks very excited. All right. And now we can go back downstairs. And in addition to giving you the full tour of my laboratory, I will also be very happy to show you the full-scale Australian baths that I have been able to artifice in the basement. There is suddenly a Leo shaped cloud of smoke, where your brother used to be. He has bolted down the hallway upon hearing the words, Australia baths, and he's just gone.
Speaker 1 00:47:56 Oh, well, we'll see him in about a week probably. And then fi turns to Nora and says, uh, so about that evidence that my brother mentioned,
Speaker 0 00:48:10 Uh, I'm going to roll insight for Nora really quick to see if she can pick up what you're putting down 19. Okay. She gets a long look at you and you see her face adopt that you're really familiar, serious expression again. Okay. This is kind of a pressing matter, huh?
Speaker 1 00:48:31 Extremely
Speaker 0 00:48:33 A Dre Lark you to finish up the tour. I'm going to go talk to Ferrara for a second. Okay. Adrian is already excitedly chattering to Arivale about the contents of her laboratory. And you see LARC has pulled out a deck of what appear to be taro cards. That Verity is just shrieking in joy over, and the entire pack of them just disappear down the hall with no argument after they all head down the stairs. Nora turns around back to you and goes, this seems like something we should talk in my study about right this way and leads you down the hallway that you're currently standing in to a big set of wooden double doors that she swings open. You walk into this large, very nice study. There's a big mahogany desk in here with a wall of matching cabinetry behind it. In one corner, there seems to be some kind of art studio set up an easel and a canvas and a painting that has been mostly just sketched out on it. And then on the far wall, there is a fireplace and over the fireplace is hanging a painting.
Speaker 0 00:49:53 It is not the very formal post type of portraiture that you're used to seeing in the palace. Back in Australia. This painting seems very candid and very honest and emotional in its expression. But you recognize a lot of the faces in it. You recognize the faces of your grandmother and grandfather who both have formal portraits hanging in the palace. You the face of your aunt, Sharana who, you know, she lives in illness with her husband and their children, your cousins. You recognize the face of a much younger Nora like a little kid standing next to a young man who appears to be her twin. Someone you've never met this little boy with dark hair and bright blue eyes. And you recognize the teenaged face of your father in this painting.
Speaker 0 00:51:03 He is smiling in a way that is not familiar to you at all. Standing with his arm, looped around the shoulders of a shorter young man who looks very similar to him. Same silver hair, same bright blue eyes, but with a haircut kind of similar to Leo's like about jaw length, they are all just gathered together on a beach. And then in the background of the portrait on top of a mountain, you see the outline of the summer palace, which is essentially the Australian Royal family's vacation home. Nora takes a long look at this painting looks back at you and then folds herself into a chair behind this big mahogany desk. Okay? Whatever it is you're going to tell me. I just ask that you don't mince words. I get the feeling that we don't have time for. That
Speaker 1 00:52:01 Feed takes a very deep breath and then nods at the portrait on the wall and says my brother and I have good reason to believe that our father killed his and your brother. Valoran for the purpose of extending the bolder and more
Speaker 0 00:52:26 Nora braces, both hands on top of her desk and pushes herself back in her chair, know that that's not Falco taken out by a vaulter and assassin. Everybody knows that
Speaker 1 00:52:44 Fi pulls the book out and says, why would the holder ends have wanted to take him out? He was negotiating piece.
Speaker 0 00:52:52 There were never any peace talks. What are you talking about?
Speaker 1 00:52:57 Fee flips through the buck to the passage that Leo showed her earlier. Look, look, it's an account from one of the generals that was there. They were negotiating an end to the war valor and was all for it. There would have been no reason to lie about this. It could have been easily disproven by anyone who had a contradicting story, and it's not like the responsibility was going to fall on this man specifically.
Speaker 0 00:53:24 I'm going to roll insight for Nora again with advantage because she is making an insight role into her own brother's motivations. That's an 18. She reaches out, grabs this book from you and leaves through a few pages. And you watch with every page, she flips her face. Go paler.
Speaker 1 00:53:53 My father asked me a little over a year ago. If I thought I would be willing to kill my own brother, why would he ask that
Speaker 0 00:54:03 She pauses on the last page of this passage and looks desperately up at this portrait that is hanging up over the fireplace. Oh my God. She closes the book with a snap and then tosses it away from her. Like it is made of dynamite. And then just puts her head in her hands. Yeah. And I know Morlin so all of this is what, just some effort to finish what he started all those years ago. He, God, for Rora, he knew you weren't dead. Didn't need
Speaker 1 00:54:46 Not from the beginning. I don't think a lot of people who knew what they were talking about, thought we were, but he found out months ago. And yet the blockade has continued and get his efforts towards this war have continued.
Speaker 0 00:55:05 Nora's hands have been pressed flat against her desk. And they clench into fists. He came in here talking about how heartbroken he was, how he'd lost everyone, how he'd lost his wife and both of his children. And, and he knew I'd believe him. I,
Speaker 1 00:55:30 I am sorry to spring this on you. I am sorry. This is our first meeting. And this is your first impression of me. But if we want to prevent the deaths that my father is trying to engineer, we need to act quickly and we need your help.
Speaker 0 00:55:45 You have hit whatever help there is that I can provide. You have it. I can't believe that he would lie to me like this. After everything she stands back up and rounds the desk and starts pacing back and forth across the study in the middle of this motion, you see her stop and press her hand to the painting that is hanging over this fireplace fingertips. Just barely brushing over the form of this young man that this young version of your father has his arm slung around. And then she clenches her hand into a fist and goes back to pacing. Again, there's only so much help I can give. I've been locked out of a lot of Australian political machinations for various reasons, but, um, that's a nice shield. You've got there. You got any armor to go with it
Speaker 1 00:56:48 Fi looks down at the temper shield, strapped to her arm and goes, no, the shield was sort of a special case and I got it in an unorthodox sort of way.
Speaker 0 00:57:00 She turns to this big wall of cabinetry behind the desk and opens up something that looks like a wardrobe. And as the doors swing open, you see a glimmering suit of silvery armor. Nora tilts her head to the side, brushes a little bit of dust off the breast plate and goes been awhile since I had any use for this. But this whole tin can got me through the entire folder and war without me dying. We might have to get a little bit of work done on the bottom half. You've got longer legs than me, but it served me well. Here's hoping it can serve you better. And fi go ahead and take a, another pallet in level because Nora Val sign is a pallet of cameral and is gifting. You both her experience and her armor.
Speaker 1 00:57:52 Fuck. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:57:54 Nora pulls the breastplate of this armor out of the cabinet and sort of wraps it around your torso. Experimentally, looking like she's trying to figure out if it'll fit you and then takes a step back and nods. We fought that war so you wouldn't have to, but now that that's not the case, he had best be outfitted for it.
Speaker 1 00:58:21 So, Leah, what are you doing?
Speaker 0 00:58:26 Leo is currently in a nice hot Australian bath. He has deep conditioner in his hair. He has a mud mask on his face. He has cucumber slices over his eyes and is splayed across the surface of a bathtub with his arms out just luxuriating. I'm talking bath salts, I'm talking bath bombs. I'm talking bubble bath, the whole nine yards.
Speaker 1 00:58:58 That sounds nice from your left. You here, uh, Hey boss, not to interrupt, but
Speaker 0 00:59:09 Leo startles enough that the cucumber slices pop off his eyes and fall down into the bath and immediately shrinks down until the water is right up under his nose, glares out over a Mount of bubbles at the intrusion.
Speaker 1 00:59:27 Zetta standing on the edge of the bathtub, kind of shifting back and forth on his feet.
Speaker 0 00:59:33 Leo slowly raises up until his mouth is just above the water. Okay. Said, you've got a couple of different ways that the scenario could go. If you are here to get in the tub, things will go very well for you. If you are here to get me out of it, things will go not so well.
Speaker 1 00:59:56 Zed reaches back to rub at the back of his neck and winces and he says, yeah, well one, have you ever known me to do? What's good for me? I just, uh, and he went to the, again kind Anita distraction. If you catch my drift,
Speaker 0 01:00:18 It's a big tubs ed,
Speaker 1 01:00:21 Uh, tempting. But I was thinking something a little more mobile,
Speaker 0 01:00:32 Fine. Let me rinse out my deep conditioner. Just give me a minute.
Speaker 1 01:00:38 Uh, appreciate it. And he just stays standing there fidgeting, nervously.
Speaker 0 01:00:45 Yeah, he is going to rinse his hair out, wash his face, mask off, get out, get dressed again and follow said to where ever he's thinking of going.
Speaker 1 01:00:55 That's going to lead you up through your aunt's house to a pretty well-kept backyard with a big fence around it. That's going to walk into this yard, shrug his vest off and slang it over the fence. Give you a more genuine grin than he's been able to muster up for the last day or so and say, so, uh, that fight your first night back involved with her has mostly come back to me. So what you did with the knife, it was attractive.
Speaker 0 01:01:32 Leo smirks, Adam lifts up one arm and zaps Kim rolls blade out of his Bracer and into his hand. Yeah. I've learned to do a lot of interesting things with knives in the last year care to find out in more detail,
Speaker 1 01:01:48 Zed, visibly bites down on the inside of his cheek and then smirks and says, don't threaten me with a good time, Leah. And then can I please get you to roll initiative for me
Speaker 0 01:02:05 23?
Speaker 1 01:02:07 Okay. For dead. That's a 13. You're going first.
Speaker 0 01:02:13 Leo is going to also get out his Cutlass from his belt. So he's dual wielding. I'm going to make my first attack with the Cutlass. I want to specify. I'm just using the flat of it. We're sparring. Nobody's actually trying to hurt anybody. 17,
Speaker 1 01:02:31 Uh, zesty is a 20, so that's not going to hit you, go into, try to smack them with the flat of the blade. And he ducks away from it and pivots around to the side of you grinning and says, you gotta be faster than that bus.
Speaker 0 01:02:47 Okay. So Leo is going to throw Kim rolls blade at him, not in such a way as to actually try to hit him, but in a way as to get very close to him and sink into a tree or a fence post or something right behind him, I'm not rolling to do damage. I'm rolling to make a point. Should I still roll up attack?
Speaker 1 01:03:10 Yes. Please roll on attack
Speaker 0 01:03:13 28.
Speaker 1 01:03:16 You throw this knife. It goes whizzing past is Ed's ear close enough that it actually lops off like a little chunk of his hair. That's hanging out of his ponytail and lodges in a Shree behind him. He reaches up and touches at the side of his ear where one drop of blood as welling up.
Speaker 0 01:03:38 He's going to lift his arm up again and use the Bracer to zap the knife. Back into his hand. You were say,
Speaker 1 01:03:48 Zed brings his hand down with a little bit of blood clinging to his middle finger, kind of shakes it off and then laughs. Just cause tell you the truth. I have no idea what I was saying. And then he rolls the shoulders back, brings his fists up and he's going to roll a bunch of attacks.
Speaker 0 01:04:11 Oh,
Speaker 1 01:04:13 Okay. So I'm going to roll first attack. That's a 14,
Speaker 0 01:04:20 The 16 we owe Dodges. Remind me again. What was that you said about having to be faster.
Speaker 1 01:04:29 He's going to burn a key point to do a flurry of blows to more attacks. One of those is a 23. So he's going to swing with the first one and miss again,
Speaker 0 01:04:41 Leo Dodgers out of the way again. Oh, come on. I feel like you're just going easy on me
Speaker 1 01:04:48 And then he swings again and he gets you right in the solar plexus for nine damage. I would like you to make me a con save. Cause he's going to burn another key point to do stunning strike
Speaker 0 01:05:03 11. Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope.
Speaker 1 01:05:07 So you are stunned until the end of his dad's next turn. He gets you right in the solar plexus. He grins. And he says, bus me having a bad week. Doesn't mean you get to run your mouth wherever you want with no consequences. And then he's going to disengage in back 10 feet.
Speaker 0 01:05:27 Okay. Well Leo stunned until the end of zits next turn. So he takes a moment to stagger forward and clutch at his chest. Wheezing,
Speaker 1 01:05:38 Zed, circling you like a boxer says don't tell me you're giving up that easy.
Speaker 0 01:05:48 No, the next time I want to get smacked around like that. I'll let you know
Speaker 1 01:05:52 Better promise.
Speaker 0 01:05:55 Okay. Well, if it's my turn, I'm going to use my cunning action to bonus action hide. So I'm going to roll a stealth check against said's perception check. So go ahead and roll me a perception check please.
Speaker 1 01:06:09 Nah, that's a 12 year old, a three on the die.
Speaker 0 01:06:12 Um, so because Leo gets a plus 13 to stealth, he mechanically cannot roll lower than that. So Leo bonus action hides. He's going to dart back behind one of the Toby areas in the garden and wait for his head to come looking for him
Speaker 1 01:06:30 That obliges.
Speaker 0 01:06:32 Cool. So because I'm hidden, I'm going to get advantage on this attack. 21
Speaker 1 01:06:42 That is just going to hit that they say, okay, what are you doing?
Speaker 0 01:06:47 Leo darts out from behind the Toby topiary and pins him back up against a tree with Kim rolls blade to his throat, leans in close enough that their lips are brushing and goes. Is it really running my mouth? If I can back it up
Speaker 1 01:07:03 On his churn is that it's going to go ahead and roll a grapple check. So that's athletics, but just plus two, that's an 18. So you can roll either athletics or acrobatics to contest it.
Speaker 0 01:07:17 Uh, well my athletics is a negative one in my acrobatics plus five. So I'm going to do acrobatics. That's a nine.
Speaker 1 01:07:28 That's going to reach out and grab the forearm that is holding your knife against this throat. He's going to jerk it up above your head and swivel you around. So he's pinning you to the tree and then he's going to grab your other arm and pin that up there too. So both of your arms are pinned above your head. You are backed up against the tree and Zed is grinning very close to your face. Leo, I think we both know you run your mouth, whether or not you can back it up.
Speaker 0 01:08:01 And I think we both know that you like that about me. So are we done?
Speaker 1 01:08:08 He leans a little closer. So the tips that your net is are brushing, you know, it occurs to me. I may have forgotten to add something to our conversation on the train.
Speaker 0 01:08:24 Don't worry about it. I'm capable of basic. And for Insync something, something you were better off before you met me something, something I ruined your life.
Speaker 1 01:08:35 He squints a little bit, tilt his head and then that's go, both your arms, take a step back. I was gonna say, I love you too, actually. And then he nods at you and he says, I'm gonna head back inside. You can get back to your bath. And then he takes a step stops. And without turning around, says, if that's what you really want to do right now. And then he goes inside and Leo, you have well earned your third row global up
Speaker 0 01:09:24 Hell. Yeah I have. And that means I get to pick my subclass now.
Speaker 1 01:09:29 Yes it does.
Speaker 0 01:09:31 So I have selected the Phantom subclass essentially. It's like a necromancy flavored rogue. Basically what I get with it at third level is that at the end of every long rest, I get to pick a skill or tool proficiency that I do not have. And I get to just make myself proficient in it. And additionally, when I do sneak attack damage to a creature, if there is another enemy within 30 feet of that creature, I can do half of my sneak attack damage on that enemy. Leo pauses, standing in this garden alone, and then just shakes his head, zaps the knife, back into his Bracer and walks inside. Fi after you have this conversation with your aunt, you rejoined the rest of your party and most of the rest of your day is taken up by Larkin. ATRA taking you on a tour of the house. You were shown both of their rooms. You are shown Adria's laboratory, which is a smorgasbord of artificer technology within which she guides all of you back down a narrow aisle and ghosts. Oh, and here is where I'm working on an augmented dancing light spell goggles.
Speaker 1 01:10:58 Did, did she give me a pair of goggles?
Speaker 0 01:11:00 Yes. She gave all of you goggles. When you came in and gave you a long lecture about lab safety.
Speaker 1 01:11:07 I put on the goggles when she says goggles,
Speaker 0 01:11:11 Everybody else with you, except the captain does exactly that. And then there is some sort of magic within this big bell jar looking contraption that flashes extremely brightly. And you just hear the captains scream as he claps two hands over his eyes. You finish up your tour of the house. You spend the rest of the afternoon getting settled into your guest suite with the captain and Sabine. The captain is laying down because he now has a migraine.
Speaker 1 01:11:46 He is going to lay down with him and pet his hair for a bit,
Speaker 0 01:11:50 A bit more time passes. Your aunt calls you all downstairs for dinner. Your uncle, Aaron, who you have never met, comes home halfway through the meal. He's kind of a weedy short little dude. He's an architect that works for the city of Boulder. He rolls back in, sits down for dinner with all of you after being caught up on the situation, ATRA immediately starts chattering to him. Excitedly about her new project that she's working on LARC is sitting down at the other end of the table with their deck of tarot cards out, putting spreads in front of their plate and talking to Verity. Very excitedly, Leo and Zed are looking at each other in a kind of weighted way. But other than that, all of your party are just sitting around this long dinner table. Everybody's passing big dishes of food around to each other, talking, laughing, and it is a type of comradery and serenity that you are very much not used to. You sit there, you eat your dinner. As Sabine is talking to Arivale about something and the captain and Zed are shooting off color jokes at each other across the table.
Speaker 0 01:13:14 After a while you see your aunt Nora pour herself a very generous glass of wine and excuse herself from the table
Speaker 1 01:13:25 I'm going to wait a second and then politely excuse myself and follow her.
Speaker 0 01:13:32 The door to her study is open. You find her in there, sitting at her desk, taking deep swigs from this glass of wine in her hand, eyes fixed on the portrait that is over the fireplace.
Speaker 1 01:13:50 Fee's gonna stop in the doorway and say, I hope I'm not intruding.
Speaker 0 01:13:58 She startles a little bit and then sets her wineglass down with the click on top of the desk. No, no, you're not. It's just, I am having to rapidly come to terms with the fact that I was willfully ignorant of the thing that destroyed my family. And that's not your problem. I mean, human lay, her old never asked for this. She looks back up at the portrait over the fireplace. None of us ever asked for this. And it was so easy to believe the lie Because everyone loved to foul. I loved him. Horlick loved him. So the idea that he could, I just keep asking myself how I couldn't see it.
Speaker 1 01:15:08 I am not one to lecture you on willful ignorance. He got up laughs humorously and then steps in the study and sits down. I spent a lot of years living in it myself because it was easier because I'd seen what happens to people that step into my father's line of fire. And if I just went along with what he said, then I wouldn't have to step into myself. It wasn't until I did that, I realized exactly how much I'd been lying to myself about
Speaker 0 01:15:54 Nora nods, grimly scoops her wineglass up in her hand and stands up from her desk. She walks around and takes a seat in one of the other wingback chairs in front of the fireplace across from you. I mean, I guess in retrospect, it's not all that surprising the war fucked all of us up. I just think that
Speaker 1 01:16:28 I understand, I suppose you really didn't see this coming the way that he is.
Speaker 0 01:16:42 What do you want me to say for heart? That we all always knew that he was a monster that he tortured puppies for fun as a child, that he never showed any genuine emotion. I, I can't, I can't tell you that. I mean, sure. He was an arrogant little shit, but sewer, the rest of us, and he loved his friends. He loved his wife. He loved his child. He loved me. He loved our brother so much
Speaker 1 01:17:23 And then he killed him and he had his wife quietly executed as far as we've been able to tell and the things he did to my mother are things that I would prefer not to elaborate on. So I suppose it just boggles the mind to bet that there were no warning signs.
Speaker 0 01:17:47 Nora reaches behind her back onto her desk and scoops up the book that you gave her earlier leaf through a couple pages of it. I remember OMA Groth. I was there. It was brutal and bloody and hopeless. I remember telling one of my brothers that all of that carnage was not his responsibility and telling another that if he really cared, he would do something about it. And I am just left. Wondering how much of all of this horrible fallout comes back down on me.
Speaker 1 01:18:36 He reaches up and touches her fingers to the base of her throat. I'm sorry. I've dropped a lot of information on you in a very short amount of time. And I shouldn't have been so accusatory with you. If there's one thing I've learned since getting out from under my father's thumb it's that we can't hold ourselves accountable for anyone's actions, but our own, and then fi stands up nods at Nora and says, I'm very sorry. It's been a long few days. Thank you for letting us stay here,
Speaker 0 01:19:18 Sweetheart. You don't need to thank me your family. We take care of each other. That's what family is supposed to be.
Speaker 1 01:19:29 That hasn't been my experience of this family. So thank you again. And thank you for providing some counterweight to my experiences. I hope the rest of your night is better than it has been so far. And she's got to walk out.
Speaker 0 01:19:52 Um, you don't walk out actually because you run headlong into your uncle, Aaron, on the way out of the study.
Speaker 1 01:20:02 Oh, sorry. I, sorry. Didn't see you
Speaker 0 01:20:07 Stumbles back and sort of brushes off the front of his clothes, very primly and then leans around your shoulder and goes, I am so sorry to interrupt, dear. Um, the arch Duchess is here to see you the, who your uncle's been caught up on the whole situation by now. So he looks over at you and tilts his head. A little confused. The arch touches in less, a few very powerful people have employed a lot of very powerful resurrection magic. I find that unlikely your uncle's eyes go a little wide and you see him starting to put some things together.
Speaker 2 01:20:48 Very quietly. He says, oh shit, your aunt Nora is still sitting in the wingback chair, totally drains the rest of her glass of wine and goes, oh shit. In the hallway outside, you hear the click of high heels on the tile closely followed by the offbeat percussion of a cane. And in the doorway of your aunt Norris study and the <inaudible> Elvin woman appears
Speaker 0 01:21:30 Long black hair resplendent dress with a high collar and narrow sleeves, a glimmering circuit set upon her head and a large scar down one side of her face, The arch Duchess of Australia, a Lasha to Caren looks from your uncle to your aunt, to you, nods, grimly, and says, all right, well, it seems we all need to talk And that's where we're going to end for this week. Oh, same. Oh same. Oh same. Everything's bad. Oh no. Oh fuck. Oh, when shit is going to get so much more off the rails, next time off compelled fucking
Speaker 0 01:22:50 Hey, everybody Barry here with the postscript, just clearing up a couple of housekeeping things here at the end of the episode, as always, I'm going to go ahead and plug our social media accounts. You can find us on Twitter, Tumblr and Tik TOK at Capell duel. We also have a lot of other cool stuff going on. Things like an official Spotify account and official website. You could find all of that linked on all of our various social media pages. If you're interested in supporting the podcast, we ask that you consider heading on over to patrion.com/compelled dual, where starting at just $2 a month, you can get access to all kinds of cool perks, including early access to episodes, access to bonus content, access to exclusive Spotify playlists, even handwritten letters from your favorite character every month. If you're interested in supporting the podcast in ways, other than pledging to the Patrion.
Speaker 0 01:23:40 If you're listening to us on apple podcasts, we ask that you consider dropping us a rating and a review just because that helps the show get promoted to a wider listener base and helps us grow our audience. And as always word of mouth advertising is the most powerful tool we have at our disposal. So if you like the show, just tell a couple of friends about it. And if they like it, ask them to tell a couple of friends as well. We host a weekly Q and a live stream over on our YouTube channel. And that's a whole lot of fun. So if you want to head over to our YouTube channel and subscribe, if you just search compelled duel, we should be the first ones that come up. We would love to see you guys come hang out. When we do those. Speaking of our YouTube channel, our season finale is next week and it will be a little bit different than it usually is. We are trying out something new. We are going to be doing a live premiere of the season finale on YouTube. So that means there's going to be a live chat. Everybody's going to be in there reacting in real time. That's going to be at 5:00 PM Pacific time on Thursday, October 28th. So it's going to be going up, live on YouTube on Thursday and then premiering everywhere else. On Friday, we are genuinely so excited for y'all to experience this with us. We will see you next week.
