Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hey Al.
Speaker 1 00:00:01 Hey
Speaker 0 00:00:02 Barry, did you hear about that party? That the barbarian through last week?
Speaker 1 00:00:07 No. Please tell me about it.
Speaker 0 00:00:11 It was a real ranger it's time for compelled duel.
Speaker 0 00:00:28 Hello everybody. And welcome back to compel duel. I'm Barry
Speaker 1 00:00:32 And I'm Al
Speaker 0 00:00:35 And we are a single-player Cody, M D and D Fivey actual play podcast
Speaker 1 00:00:40 Per previously on compelled duel,
Speaker 0 00:00:45 Adrian you're mechanically minded. What happens when the wheel that the city is built on stops, turning The lava, redirection stops the volcano erupts and the city descends into a lake of fire, essentially.
Speaker 1 00:01:02 So if anybody leaves the city, they get shot to death. And if anybody stays in the city, they get melted. I love that for us. How do we turn it back on?
Speaker 0 00:01:15 Oh, you're still mad about that thing where I killed you, huh?
Speaker 1 00:01:23 Yeah. A little
Speaker 0 00:01:27 Go save these people. Ferrara. You have my blessings.
Speaker 1 00:01:34 You see the veritable ocean of lava in this caldera and you see that it is steadily rising a dry how's it going? Stop rushing me.
Speaker 0 00:01:52 I'm not trying to rush you, but, uh, I think the environment's doing that for us.
Speaker 1 00:01:59 I, I need more time.
Speaker 0 00:02:03 All right. Let's fast forward through the introductions. I'm sure you already know who I am layer blah-blah-blah. I assure you. I am every bitch. The murderous hell spawn that people have told you. I am. Let's cut to the chase. What did my father sent you down here to do tonight? This guy looks up at you from the ground eight delicate glass capsule between his teeth crunches down on it And dies foaming at the mouth within 10 seconds.
Speaker 2 00:02:54 So
Speaker 1 00:02:56 We pick up shortly after the fight down in the mechanism that spins the great wheel of Boulder. Leo, you, your sister and your cousins are walking back up the street to your aunt's house. How you feeling, buddy?
Speaker 0 00:03:16 Um, pained. I lost quite a few hit points and very tired,
Speaker 1 00:03:24 So true. And that is very much the vibe. As you all walk up the steps, um, Dexter's fill and fine.
Speaker 0 00:03:33 Good for him. Leo is going to turn him loose in the yard as soon as they get in the gate.
Speaker 1 00:03:39 Yep. Dexter's having a great time. He does like the puppy play bow as you let him loose.
Speaker 0 00:03:45 Uh, not now, buddy. I'll play fetch with you later. Okay.
Speaker 1 00:03:49 Horrible, horrible spectral bark. But Dexter does go and lay down on the porch.
Speaker 0 00:03:56 Leo pinches the bridge of his nose and just goes inside.
Speaker 1 00:04:01 As you go in your aunt, Nora, your uncle Berez, your uncle, Aaron, Laura Lasha chrono, and one Mr. Zed, stone bloom are all in the sitting room and they all get to their feet. When you walk in and just immediately start crowding around the four of you, they all start chattering. And then Lark just sticks two fingers in their mouth and whistles, and it goes silent for a second and they kind of bring their hands up and shake them out and go, I need a bath. And then Adrian, from behind them sounding very pained goes. I mean, to sit down,
Speaker 0 00:04:43 Leo, just stare straight ahead of him for a couple seconds silently, I need a hug.
Speaker 1 00:04:51 That's going to give you a big hug. Lark kind of starts elbowing past everybody on their way down to the baths and ATRA slips in behind them. And still in the armor sinks into her chair with a, through the speaker of the armor, very robotic Sy fi kind of skirts around the crowd. It goes straight to your aunt's liquor cabinet, pulls a bottle out, spins the top off, flicks it across the room and just drink straight out of the bottle for a second.
Speaker 0 00:05:26 Leo just sort of curls up against said's chest and size for first party ever
Speaker 1 00:05:35 Zed with his face, buried in your hair says, yeah, agreed. And then he kind of pulls back a little bit and he says, please tell me, this is not all your blood.
Speaker 0 00:05:49 Uh, most of it's, my blood height did get stabbed real good a couple of times. And then he takes a step back from Zed and turns around to look at Nora Burris and Aaron speaking of which, um, just to make sure everybody's caught up. We obviously got the city moving again. We ran into some very well-armed a Spherion covert operatives had a little bit of a tussle to say the least. I wanted to find out more information about what was going on, but
Speaker 1 00:06:22 Still from over by the liquor cabinet fee interrupts the men we managed to capture is quite dead.
Speaker 0 00:06:32 Uh, Laura lies still in the room. Leo gives Nora a very weighted look and goes suffice to say that nobody there had any intentions on being taken alive. If you catch my drift,
Speaker 1 00:06:49 Nora kind of gives a thousand yard stare at the floor and your uncle, Aaron says, ladies Chicana. I think people will be getting back soon. Uh, will you help me, uh, prepare hot drinks? And I think everyone will need food. We should probably get that handled. Lorelei kind of gives him, uh, I know what you're doing. Sort of look and frowns and then says fine. And they head off to the kitchen as soon as they are probably out of earshot. Your uncle Baret is shaking. Like a Chihuahua says, oh, Marlin's going to be mad.
Speaker 0 00:07:36 Well, yeah, that's kind of a given. We did ruin his big evil plan.
Speaker 1 00:07:41 Yes. And do you know what he does to people that ruin his plans have, but we asked valoran oh wait. And your aunt Nora still staring at the floor, says, take a walk, brass your uncle brace in a gesture that is very similar to one that I think you and fi have both done while stress just kind of puts both hands up and shakes them a little bit. And then he starts pacing. The foyer.
Speaker 0 00:08:09 Leo goes over to where fie is standing, takes the bottle of liquor from her and also takes a slug out of it. Well, you've got a point uncle Perez. I do think we need to start planning for the revenge. That's definitely going to be incoming.
Speaker 1 00:08:28 ATRA from her chair where she's like halfway through taking off her armor says, well, you mentioned going to the Senate. Why don't we just focus on that and go through the proper channels? At least then everyone knows ran the right
Speaker 0 00:08:45 I'm trying really hard not to be mean. I've watched the capital of the Zephyr Isles burn.
Speaker 1 00:08:55 And
Speaker 0 00:08:55 That was enough to teach me that you can't win a game against people that don't give a shit about the rules. The proper channels mean less than nothing. Now it is all about mitigating the damage. At this point,
Speaker 1 00:09:13 Adrian gives you kind of a confused wounded look fi takes the bottle back from you, takes another slug. And then you see something light up in a powder on her belt and she digs out whatever it is. It's a little silver coin looks at it and then says, uh, that's Calissa. She got back to the embassy. All right, no one suspects, anything. And then from the foyer, you hear the door open and look headed Valera and fucks fi says, um, that's my cue. And she swans off into the foyer. You hear her catching Sabine in the captain up.
Speaker 0 00:10:01 Yeah, fine. Hi captain Sabine
Speaker 1 00:10:06 From the foyer. You hears the bingo. Hi Leo. I hope your evening's been better than ours.
Speaker 0 00:10:12 It almost certainly has not. But thanks for asking. Anyway, auntie Nora, do you think that we have at least until tomorrow morning to get this bullshit sorted out because I am exhausted. Has anyone else made it back yet?
Speaker 1 00:10:30 Your aunt Nora reaches up to pinch the bridge of her nose and then says, Ms. Anmar got back a little bit ago. She went up to her room to decompress. But other than that, and then from the foyer, you hear the sweet dulcet tones of Elanora Ash, thorn yelling. God fucking dammit.
Speaker 0 00:10:54 Okay. Yeah. Leo runs out into the foyer after free.
Speaker 1 00:10:59 You see Eleanora standing there. She has what seems to be some kind of pond plant in her hair. She looks exquisitely uncomfortable and quite damp. She reaches up to like pick a leaf out of her ear and then says, every time I have to try and like lead people and be charismatic or whatever the fuck I have regrets, the decision to leave before my coronation last sandblast. You'd think the words, Hey, you're going to die. If you don't get the high ground would motivate people to not fucking argue with me.
Speaker 0 00:11:39 Sounds like you had a bad night Eleanora. I got stabbed a lot. So I feel you,
Speaker 1 00:11:46 That sucks for you. I got shoved into a lake by a ten-year-old.
Speaker 0 00:11:51 Fair enough. I guess it's been a night. We should all go to bed.
Speaker 1 00:11:57 As you're saying that the door opens again behind all of you and on the threshold, you see ravine Verity and till Andra ravine stops in the doorway. You see that he's roomed out a little bit. His nails are longer than usual. He's got the fangs poking out over his bottom lip. He's not gone full mushroom man, but like he's got a cap popping up on his cheek and he looks tired. He stops in the doorway size from like the bottom of his gut. No lava. So that's at least good.
Speaker 0 00:12:40 Yeah. You're welcome. All right. So we've all come to the conclusion that we're just resolving. This shit showed a Morrow. He has everybody. Can. We all just retire
Speaker 1 00:12:57 In unison, everybody in this warrior agrees with you.
Speaker 0 00:13:02 Okay, great. Um, said, honey, I'll be upstairs in a little bit. I just need a minute. I'm going to go make myself some tea. Does anybody else want to ravine? Do you want tea? Leo gifts for a vain, a very pointed look.
Speaker 1 00:13:20 Ravine gives you kind of a weird look back and you watch a mushroom cap on his shoulder burst. Yeah, I think that would be, and he kind of like shakes his hands out and looks at a snails. Good. Probably Verity next to him. Just very brightly says, all right, they've WT long. And she reaches out and kisses him on the cheek carefully avoiding mushroom caps.
Speaker 0 00:13:51 Leo gets through a vein by the sleeve and yanks him back through the dining room, into the kitchen where her I'm assuming his uncle Aaron and Laura, I are still hanging out.
Speaker 1 00:14:04 Yeah. Aaron and Lorelei are dutifully assembling like little sandwiches for everybody. Laura Lee looks up, does a double-take at ravine and goes, huh? That's really weird. And ravine just hangs his head for a second and nods. Yeah. So I've been told.
Speaker 0 00:14:25 Yeah. Um, everybody else is hanging out in the foyer. They would probably love those sandwiches right now. I think the two of you would be very useful out there and not in here.
Speaker 1 00:14:38 Yep. Aaron and Laurel. I head out
Speaker 0 00:14:41 Leo waits for them to leave and then puts a kettle on the stove and turns over to look at her vain. So, uh, mushroom thing, I thought we had that handled
Speaker 1 00:14:56 Ravine kind of reaches up to Robert at one of his temples and says, yep. Mostly it's, uh, it doesn't happen when I'm transferring anymore, which is good, but uh, you know, high stress situations and he reaches up to kind of prod at one of his fangs. It's a defense mechanism. So you can imagine I'm just glad I'm awake now.
Speaker 0 00:15:25 Yeah. Um, fair enough. I have a magical theory question for you as somebody pretty experienced in necromancy
Speaker 1 00:15:38 Immediately, he focuses in on you and he stands up a little Schrader and he goes, yeah, I'm pretty well versed and pretty much all net chromatic theory.
Speaker 0 00:15:49 Perfect. And you are one of the most unbiased people with that knowledge here and that's exactly what I need. Um, how do you take your tea
Speaker 1 00:16:01 Herbal and bitter?
Speaker 0 00:16:03 Cool, great noted. Leo makes himself a cup of tea that is very heavy on the honey and sugar and then saves the last of the kettle for Irvine with nothing else in it. Ima just sort of sits down next to him at the table staring straight ahead. So, um, what I'm wondering is again, theoretically, um, is it possible for a person who is not of the arcane persuasion to perceive or notice people in their life who are definitely dead? Just kind of showing up
Speaker 1 00:16:50 Ravine kinda steep, loose fingers for a second and goes well, I mean it depends sort of on what undead presence you're talking about. I mean, there are a lot of different types. There are zombies. There are Banshees, there are various
Speaker 0 00:17:05 My fiance.
Speaker 1 00:17:09 Huh.
Speaker 0 00:17:11 Oh great. Yeah. Awesome. You hadn't heard about this. Um, when I left Australia, I was engaged. I broke off that engagement and apparently afterwards my fiance got involved in a very shady secret society and died and I'm sitting down to get ready to go to the party tonight. And I look up and he's in the mirror behind me. And then at the party, he shows up again to guide me to something I can use as a scrying focus. So apparently he's trying to help. I hope he's not mad at me. Why did this happen?
Speaker 1 00:18:02 Ravine is just looking at you. Slack drawn for a good long second. Huh? So that's a lot.
Speaker 0 00:18:14 You're fucking telling me,
Speaker 1 00:18:16 Well, don't get snappy with me. You're the one seeing dead people. He takes a long sip from his cup of tea and then says, so I'm not the most experienced with revenance, but that sort of sounds like what we're talking about.
Speaker 0 00:18:33 Well, Providence are physical, right? You can touch them.
Speaker 1 00:18:38 Um, most of the time it's kind of a broad classification of a lot of different. It, it doesn't matter. Uh,
Speaker 0 00:18:46 Whatever this was, it, it wasn't corporeal. I could see through it. It didn't look like Soren, at least as far as I remembered him, but it was present and it interacted with me and I'm looking for answers for vain. I need to know that I'm not losing my mind. I need to know that. I'm you heard about anything like this,
Speaker 1 00:19:18 Her veins eyebrows kind of squinched together, another little mushroom cap on the side of his neck bursts. And he says, if he didn't look how you remember him, that rules out hallucination. But I know I've never heard of anything like that. Especially if you didn't summon him,
Speaker 0 00:19:41 I just attract weird shit. Don't I,
Speaker 1 00:19:46 He takes another sip of his cup of tea and then says, can I be brutally honest with you?
Speaker 0 00:19:53 If everybody else fucking is?
Speaker 1 00:19:56 Yeah, you attract a higher proportion of weird shit than anyone I have ever met in my entire life. You are a magnet for such a density of fucked up nonsense. It is genuinely astounding. And I, and he puts his hands up, does jazz hands and a cloud of spores forums around his fingers. Turn into this when I'm stressed out.
Speaker 0 00:20:27 So we can at least talk to each other without fear of judgment. I guess
Speaker 1 00:20:33 Ravine puts one finger up and just kind of like closes his eyes and odds. You're my friend. I'm trying really hard not to judge you. It is occasionally very difficult for me.
Speaker 0 00:20:50 Yeah. Well, Leo drains the rest of his cup of tea and just kind of leans over and puts his head on her vein shoulder.
Speaker 1 00:21:00 Ravine reaches up and pats you on the head. Leah Romero, quick con safe 13. You take two poisoned damage as a mushroom cap on the back of ravines, wrist, bursts, and a cloud of spores go into your face.
Speaker 0 00:21:23 Come on, man.
Speaker 1 00:21:26 I don't do it on purpose.
Speaker 0 00:21:33 Yeah. Yeah. I know. I love you buddy.
Speaker 1 00:21:38 Ravine size lifts his mug back up to his mouth and says, yeah, I love you too.
Speaker 0 00:21:46 I'm going to, and then Leo turns around and walks out of the kitchen and goes to bed
Speaker 0 00:21:59 Fi the next several days, pass in an attitude of tents anticipation here in your aunt's house. Your aunt Nora is listening to the news. Almost religiously. Your uncle Burris is in and out quite a bit. Adrian takes a while to recover from that journey down into the mechanism at the center of the city. She looks very pale and Peaky for a couple of days, but it is. If you can ignore the anxiety for long enough, a little bit of a respite, you all get to chill out a little bit. About four days after the gala at the museum, you come down to breakfast with the captain and Sabine and toe to see most of the rest of your parties sitting around the table in the dining room with the notable addition of your uncle who is standing in the doorway, rattling a newspaper in Adria's face and going. We have run out of time, apparently
Speaker 1 00:23:05 Fucking, oh, I'm good. I'll walk up into the middle of this conversation still a little bit bleary-eyed and say, sorry, what's going on. Catch me up
Speaker 0 00:23:16 Almost in tandem with you entering this conversation. You see your aunt Nora come out of the kitchen apron on wooden spoon and hand frowning, deeply Berea. So you've got five seconds to explain why you're yelling at my children before. Oh shit. And then she runs over directly next to you, yanks the newspaper out of his hand and holds it up in front of both of your faces. There is a grainy picture of the innards of the mechanism that turns the city of Boulder and a headline that reads Senate to vote on formal board declaration fee. Would you like to roll me in an investigation check to see how effectively you can scan this article? Uh, yeah. 14. Okay. You're able to gather most of the information in this article, just from a cursory skim, you find out that the vulner in government has been rocked by the events of the past few days.
Speaker 0 00:24:32 You find out that the vulgar and Senate that typically meets once a month to vote on relevant issues is bringing a formal war declaration to the table. After all of these events that have recently transpired and that there are certain people within the Senate pushing for an emergency session to vote on a declaration of war before the scheduled session in two weeks, your aunt Nora stares, blankly down at this article and then goes, oh fuck. And runs for the sitting room. You smell something burning in the kitchen and hear your cousin Lark, let out a worried. He L as they jump up to try to go salvage it, oh fuck. If he's going to go after Nora, as you go, you run into Leo and Zed as they reach the bottom of the stairs, kind of the late risers of the morning, both with tousled hair, looking like they're in bad need of a cup of coffee. Leo blinks as you shoulder, check him on your way by and kind of grabs onto your elbow.
Speaker 0 00:25:50 What's happening. Good morning. Shit's fucked. Leo's not super elusive right now. You have to kind of haul him by the front of his pajamas, into the sitting room where your aunt Nora is hunched over that broadcasting device, fiddling with the dial until the crystal glows and pulses, and then a rush of static followed by tinny recorded. Voices comes out and now we go to Senator to Mohs high Vail talking about how an emergency vote might not be in the Senate's best interests to mass. There's a brief pause. You hear your uncle Barry is behind you whisper, oh shit. And then a much more familiar voice comes through the speaker. Thank you, Claudia. As was mentioning in my last segment, we don't have a lot of facts to ride on right now. The formal inquiry by the infrastructure committee has shown that there's no concrete proof that there was any Australian influence on whatever made the wheels stop, turning
Speaker 1 00:27:06 Fi scoffs and says, well, yeah, we kicked all the evidence into the lava.
Speaker 0 00:27:12 Leo has a thousand yard stare at the speaker of this device as Tomas on the other side, continues talking. And there's something to be said that the actions of the Australian Navy resulted in absolutely no infrastructural damage or loss of Boulder in life. I understand that my esteemed colleague Maximus gray river and the national defense committee, which he heads being mostly comprised of the more senior members of the Senate have been deeply scarred by the memory of previous conflict with Australia. However, I would posit that pushing a hasty decision based on nothing more than some loud noises and an unfortunate mechanical failure has the potential to do much more harm than good
Speaker 1 00:28:08 Phew, squinted the radio for a second and purses her lips. And then to the room at large says, okay, why exactly is he trying to minimize what happened to the other night?
Speaker 0 00:28:22 Your uncle Berez crosses the sitting room and flips this device off with a click and the hiss before he turns around to look at you because he has one good man afloat in a sea of bastards Ferrara. He is trying to give you time. The question at play now is what are you going to do with it?
Speaker 1 00:28:49 I, I'm not sure
Speaker 0 00:28:54 From the doorway to the sitting room, you hear Adria's voice pipe up. Actually, I've been, uh, working on a little bit of a personal project that might have some benefit for us.
Speaker 1 00:29:08 Sure thing, Adrian, let's hear it.
Speaker 0 00:29:11 Adriana wheels into the sitting room with Arivale entering right behind her, rubbing at something in her Palm. You can roll me a perception, check to see if you can find out what it is.
Speaker 1 00:29:26 Absolutely. 21.
Speaker 0 00:29:30 Yeah. It's her beacon coin. She is turning it back and forth between her fingers. ATRA pivots around to face the rest of you nods, briskly, and goes, you know, I was thinking about everything that Leo said the other night, especially all of that stuff about us having to potentially avoid uncle Marlin's wrath. So I got to thinking about a lot of things in particular, something else that I had heard about us needing a neutral space for us all to meet and talk about what we need to do.
Speaker 1 00:30:13 Right? Right. A neutral meeting place. That's good. We have a few things we need to handle as a group. Um, and then fee kind of turns back to and says, I know you and Senator high of ALR friends. Uh, if you could arrange for us to have a meeting with him sometime in the near future, I would appreciate that after we handle and then feed gestures towards Adrian, all of this,
Speaker 0 00:30:44 Your uncle looks a little uncomfortable for a second, but then nods slowly to himself. Well, I mean, our book club meets this afternoon. It's Tommaso's turn to host. You could make an appearance,
Speaker 1 00:31:04 Even knowing why I'm saying the sentence. It feels like something I'm going to regret. Yes. Uncle Berez. We would love to come to book club with you.
Speaker 0 00:31:14 Leo's eyes widen where he is staring at the wall, but he says nothing. Arivale tucks her beacon coin back into her pocket and says, all right, Calissa just got back to me. They're on their way. And DRA nods in response and starts wheeling back into the dining room. All right, everybody finished your breakfast. We need to go
Speaker 1 00:31:37 Fi kind of rigs, a handbag through her hair and to Reyes says, okay, uh, where are we meeting you? So we can go to book club.
Speaker 0 00:31:49 Well, I'll be honest with you. I have no idea what secondary location Adria's hauling you off to, frankly. I don't want to. So how about you just come back here after you're done with your big secret mission and we'll figure it out from there.
Speaker 1 00:32:03 All right. A simple, hopefully foolproof plan. Cool. Got it. Great.
Speaker 0 00:32:10 Why did you have to say that? And then he walks back into the dining room,
Speaker 1 00:32:14 The calls after him, I'm manifesting it. He's going to go upstairs and get ready and then try to pull Leo aside before they leave. Hey, um, I've already talked about this with Arivale. She has concerns about fin and coalesces role in all of this. And I don't necessarily agree, but I think it would be a good policy to just put all of us under his own of truth and make sure everyone has the same facts. If that makes sense.
Speaker 0 00:32:53 Leo looks at you like you have threatened him with violence by bringing this up. Oh yeah. You're telling me that I should just go in there and suggest that we vet the trustworthiness of the people that are helping us save the world and have saved our asses multiple times. That's going to go over like a lead balloon fee.
Speaker 1 00:33:15 Well, how else has everyone here supposed to trust each other? We have, we need everyone to cooperate and I don't know where everyone's at, but I'm sure there are a few people here that have concerns about someone else in our greater party.
Speaker 0 00:33:34 Yeah, shit. You're right. I just, I am not going to be the one to look at Colossae and tell her that I can't trust her unless we do this. I can't, I won't. If you want to do this, then you need to be the one that brings it up to everybody.
Speaker 1 00:33:51 Yeah. Can do
Speaker 0 00:33:54 He reaches down to tighten his Bracer and kind of stairs out the open front door, past where Adrian and Lark are talking on the porch. A vacation would be so nice right now
Speaker 1 00:34:06 After we save the world and hopefully survive. I'll set you up with a beach somewhere.
Speaker 0 00:34:13 I want a cabana and a limitless supply of coconut drinks. Let's go stop a war. All of the rest of you, except for Laura lye, who looks very pissed off at being left behind disappear after Lark. And ATRA into the streets of Boulder. The city is still just barely starting to wake up. There's not a lot of people out moving around. Go ahead and roll me. A survival check fee
Speaker 1 00:34:43 Should be good. Big fat, negative one 14.
Speaker 0 00:34:49 Okay. With a 14, you are able to discern that you're traveling some pretty familiar streets. You've been down this route before
Speaker 0 00:34:59 Adrian rolls out ahead of the rest of you, leads you around a sharp turn, into a dark alley and stops at the far end of it before turning around to face. All of you. All right. So we're going to want to go in a couple at a time, a few minutes apart, just so it looks like we're not all going in in a group to anybody that might be watching. I'll go make sure everything's set up Lark. You're with me. They turn this corner and you realize why this route was familiar. As you watch the two of them head down to a down garage with a sign over it that says, man, Cine and son mechanics,
Speaker 1 00:35:43 I'm going to go absolutely fucking bat shit
Speaker 0 00:35:48 Next to you. Leo sounding similarly exhausted mutters. Oh God, not the Tony's off to the side. Verity goes, what's a Tony
Speaker 1 00:36:01 Verity. It is your lucky day. You're about to find out, okay.
Speaker 0 00:36:08 She loops her arm through ravines and grab Selleck his hand and tugs. The three of them around the corner, down the street after Larkin. ATRA you wait for a few more minutes at your cousin's request. And then Arivale the captain and Sabine all group up and head out of the alley. You are left standing there with Leo Zed and Eleanora. Elanora looks around at the three of you who have all been in this building before and know the tomfoolery that is happening inside. And she kind of frowns at you and goes, uh, should I prepare myself for whatever's about to go down in there cause you three look like, you know,
Speaker 1 00:36:54 There's four of them. They're all named Tony. Ha
Speaker 0 00:37:04 Fi, has anyone ever told you that you have got a real bad habit of taking normal sentences and making them the most ominous fucking thing I've ever heard?
Speaker 1 00:37:13 Eleanora. That's what it's like in my brain all the time. Let's just go.
Speaker 0 00:37:20 The four of you make your way out of this alley down the street into the lobby of the garage.
Speaker 0 00:37:27 No one from your party is in there. You are simply standing there face to face with the little, no mish man behind the desk, sturdy blue shirt, gold chain around his neck, little patch on his breasts that says T O N Y Tony. He looks up from this little ledger that he's been scribbling on. Tilt his head at you and goes, Hey, a UCL to pick up that pot that Adrial audit. And then he winks at you, but it's so disturbing. He winks so hard. Like half of this man's face convulses with how hard he winks.
Speaker 1 00:38:03 Yes, we are here to pick up a dress parked and then looking at extremely unsettled fear, winks back hesitantly.
Speaker 0 00:38:16 He nods back behind him towards the door that you know, opens into the garage from your last visit here. Yeah, yeah, no worries. It's waiting for you in the back.
Speaker 1 00:38:26 Thank you. Can I call you anything other than Tony? Is there, is there a longer for it? Anything else?
Speaker 0 00:38:37 Well, I mean, since you asked, my full name is Antonia Cicero, man Cheney the second, but the only person that uses that as my mom, when I'm in trouble. So if you did that, it might provoke my flight or fight response, no guarantee what would happen. Most of the people in my family just call me junior
Speaker 1 00:38:55 Immensely. Fucking haunted fee says there are five of you,
Speaker 0 00:39:03 Zed claps you on the shoulder and pulls you in for a little side hug. Just close enough to lean down in your ear and go at least five
Speaker 1 00:39:14 Fetus box into the garage. No more words. She's going.
Speaker 0 00:39:23 You walk into this garage. It is much the same as you remember it, all of this fancy, vulgar and machinery that you're very unfamiliar with up on lifts, shelves of mechanical equipment lining the walls. But as you move further in, you see that one of the shelves against the far wall has been pulled off to the side and behind it, there is an open door from which you can hear a lot of overlapping voices coming.
Speaker 1 00:39:53 Okay. I'm going to go in there.
Speaker 0 00:39:57 This room appears to have once been a storage room. There are a couple of very utilitarian shelving units with a couple of old parts sitting on them, shoved back into one corner. There are also a couple of loose like hand weights and resistance bands scattered across the floor, but it has been turned into a defacto war room. There's a big table in there now with a city map of Boulder and a map of the known world spread out across it. There are several mismatched chairs arranged around this table and more are being added by the remaining Tony's that you have previously met Tony with two eyes. This no mish person with the jet black stacked Bob today, it is not back in the banana clip. It is fluffed up into a big poof on top of their head is busy arranging furniture, Tony with one eye Adria's girlfriend is leaning over on the arm of her wheelchair. And as you Leo Zen and Eleanora walk-in is saying, Hey, this used to be Tony's weight room, but he moved all the weight benches and the dumbbells and whatnot out back for Aaliyah's forget about it. Buff Tony T O N E Y is standing in the corner, looking a bit perturbed, rippling muscled, arms crossed across his chest
Speaker 0 00:41:26 And hanging out around this table for the first time, the full force of all of yours and your brother's allies are finally in one place. Everyone that came with you from Nora's house has settled down into chairs or are in the process of doing so and down at the far end of the table, you see Fen Mia and Calissa all sitting very close to each other. There's this tense moment of everybody regarding each other. And then Tony Tio and I, this little lady with the dark buzz cut, leans in kisses, Adrian, on the temple and goes, all right, we'll leave you as to it. Uh, don't worry. Nobody in our family's a fucking snitch. It's like grandma, Tony used to say In the doorway said purses, his lips and whispers
Speaker 1 00:42:25 At least six,
Speaker 0 00:42:30 The remaining Tony's all leave the room, swinging the door, shut behind them. And you are left staring at the full sum of your party. A weird silence falls over the room. Finally broken by ATRA shrugging and going. Right. Well, I mean, here's your neutral space.
Speaker 1 00:42:53 Andra. Be very honest with me. You genuinely think no one is going to track us to your girlfriend's garage?
Speaker 0 00:43:02 Well, I mean, there's no paper trail, so unless they know me personally, it's going to be very, very hard to do. Tony's parents don't even know that we're dating. It's complicated. It's a whole like west Felder story thing.
Speaker 1 00:43:17 Ah, okay.
Speaker 0 00:43:20 It's out of the way. It's not connected to our family in any way. And it's somewhere that Fen Calissa and Mia can access without drawing suspicion. What else are we going to do? Have war councils at the park?
Speaker 1 00:43:34 Yup. Nope. You're right. You're absolutely right. Okay. Fi making an extremely pained expression stands at the end of the table and says, all right, everybody, let's just get into it. I think we're all aware that some people here have misgivings about information that some of us might not be sharing. And, and she gestures at Leo. We have access to his own of truth. Spell. I am not saying this to judge anyone. I am just saying. I think we would all be more comfortable if we just got everything out in the open now
Speaker 0 00:44:19 Roll insight for me. You're rolling on Colossae. So go ahead and do that with advantage.
Speaker 1 00:44:27 That's a 16.
Speaker 0 00:44:29 You say this and Calissa look at you. She whips her head around to look at Leo and an absolutely disgusted look crosses her face. Really, you know, they should do research into making armor out of whatever the hell your skull is made out of. We had that whole fucking talk Leo, and you pull this
Speaker 1 00:44:55 Colossae. If you're going to be mad at someone, perhaps you should be mad at the person making the suggestion. This was my idea. I think it's a good one. None of us can go into this without trusting each other. And it is easier to do that. If we all know what's going on
Speaker 0 00:45:15 Beside you, Leo shrinks down in his chair, like he is adamantly trying to disappear and Calissa shifts that glare losing none of it's intensity from him over to you. Fine. I've got nothing to hide and I've had just about enough of the people. I love not trusting me. So let's clear the air, Leo wincing, zaps, Kim blade out of its Bracer and nods, and everybody gathered around the table. All right, everybody group up. I don't have a big radius on this. Um, fi Zed, captain Sabine. You've all been through this spell before. You know what it feels like. I will tell you, it goes a lot easier. If you don't try to push back against the magic. Let's just get this over with your party starts to shuffle their chairs down towards the end of the table, where Leo is sitting. But fi you notice that one person hangs back your brothers, associate Mia is sitting down at the head of the table, far away from where everyone else has grouped up to get under the stone of truth. Spell chin resting in their hand. These big copper, all IRS eyes with slit pupils flashing under the low light of the room. They look at Leo, tilt their head a little bit to the side and say, nah,
Speaker 1 00:47:02 He starts to reach back to get a hand on the Tempest shield.
Speaker 0 00:47:07 They just granite you and you see that they're two canine teeth. While Austrian Elvin, canines are pretty sharp are much bigger and sharper than any of the rest of the Australians in your party. They don't break eye contact with you. You can Trask from next to you. Leo braces, both hands white knuckled around the edge of the table and goes Mia. I get the being a contrary pain in the ass is your whole thing and that none of us like this, but at this point, if you back out, it just looks like you've got something to hide. So please just play along. Mia sits back in their chair and crosses their arms over their chest.
Speaker 0 00:48:00 Oh, I got things to hide. Have I not been fully truthful about my involvement in this situation? Absolutely. Are there things that I am actively lying to all the, all about you betcha, but if I may, I'd like to present the argument that if I wanted anybody in this room dead, I can think of at least 10 ways I could have killed all the all by now. I'm not working for your old man. Leo, if I was you wouldn't be breathing, but whatever the stupid little game you have is I'm not playing it. They stand up from their chair and you see fan reached down to grab their hand. As they try to walk away, babe, come on, they gang their hand back and shake their head. I can't. And then storm out of the room. Fen looks gutted. You see him stare through the empty doorway that may have just walked out through pursed his lips together and nod quietly to himself. And then move a little closer to Leo to get under the Sona truth spell,
Speaker 1 00:49:18 Huh? Okay. Fee's going to voluntarily fail the same on this end of truth. As soon as Leah finishes casting it, she nods and she says, I have three major motivations here. I want to end this war. I want to get my father off that fucking throne. She looks where's the door. And I want the truth about what's really going on here. Excuse me. And she's going to walk out after me.
Speaker 0 00:49:56 You hear Fens voice behind you go feet don't but he does not follow you. You emerge back out into the garage. It is seemingly abandoned, but one of the doors is thrown open in the far corner of this big room. Go ahead and roll me. Perception
Speaker 1 00:50:21 17.
Speaker 0 00:50:23 With the 17, you can smell the warm, accurate scent of cigarette smoke and hear frantic murmuring from right outside this open garage door. It is me as voice. You can tell that with the 17, but you cannot make out what they are saying
Speaker 1 00:50:47 Fun. Okay? I'm going out there.
Speaker 0 00:50:52 Mia is out there in all of their glory, curly copper hair back in a French braid out of their face. Kind of envy from full metal Alchemist outfit, crop, top shorts, practical boots leaning up against a wall, frantically chain smoking.
Speaker 1 00:51:15 He steps out and says talking to anyone in particular,
Speaker 0 00:51:24 They don't turn to look at you. They're just glaring daggers into the brick wall of the building. Opposite the garage. No, not really. Just, uh, you know, say in my daily prayers, calling on Kimmerle for guidance.
Speaker 1 00:51:43 Sure. Few steps, a little closer to them. Reaching up to take the shield off her back and says, I don't think we have a need for pretense in this conversation. We both know I don't trust you. We both know that almost no one in that room does, but given that it is almost no one. I think you should ask yourself what your secrets are worth. I don't really care what your motivations are, but I care about Fenn and he deserves better than to be with someone who will lie to his face.
Speaker 0 00:52:30 May I reaches out to stub their cigarette out against the wall. And then finally turns around to look at you, their eyes flash in this really weird way. It is not at all explainable by the light in this alley. And they just fix you with this big, bright supremely threatening smile. I'll bless your heart. They grab another cigarette out of their pocket and their fingers glow in a weird way to light up the end. You know, I can put up with a lot. I've been doing my job for a real long time and it's given
Speaker 1 00:53:29 Me a very high tolerance for bullshit.
Speaker 0 00:53:35 I can put up with all you little people in all your little problems I can put up with Calissa, having an existential crisis. Every time the wind blows crossways, I can put up with zits pity party. I can put up with Leo's daddy issues set in the goddamn world on fire. But the one thing I cannot ABAG is to stand here and listen to you of all people. Talk to me about what fin deserves. Fi I need you to roll me a wisdom saving throw bitch. What you heard me, Romeo wisdom, saving throw.
Speaker 1 00:54:23 That's a 13. I'm going to use one of my roles. I'm going to use a secondary role. I'm going to use my third and final rate roll of the day. Highest one's the 13
Speaker 0 00:54:40 Mia takes a step closer to you. And given the angle of the sun on the wall of the garage, you can see some weird shit happening with their shadow. For a moment, it seems much, much bigger than it should be. They reached down to their belt, pull out a dagger and stab it with a sharp thud into the wood of the garage door where it's half rolled up behind them. But fend deserves better. She says Like I wasn't the one that had to peel him off the ground after he thought you died. Like I wasn't the first person in his damn life to tell him that he was worth more than throwing himself in front of the people he loves and letting himself get hurt for it. Put fend deserves better. They gang their knife out of the garage door and they're holding it in kind of a combative stance as they take another step forward. You're not wrong. Fenn deserves better than me, but he sure as hell deserves better than any of you. Glass houses, sugar. They are her real bitch, but not near as big a one as I am. I think you should go back and sad and feet. You are frightened of Mia for the next minute. You cannot move closer to them.
Speaker 1 00:56:33 Fi brings one hand up to press against the base of her throat and she backs back inside the building. She does not take her eyes off of them.
Speaker 0 00:56:49 You head back into the garage, scared shitless, and you can very clearly hear raised voices behind the closed door of this room that you have been given.
Speaker 1 00:57:04 Great. Awesome, cool. Uh, figures in the room.
Speaker 0 00:57:09 You walk into the sight and sound of everybody talking over each other. Leo is sitting at one end of the table with his head fully in his hands and Calissa at the other end of the table. Wide-eyed goes, you found out what Leo size and does not look up. Yeah, full-blown fratricide so that's a whole thing we have to deal with now. Anyway, we've got about two minutes left on this spell. So last minute questions. Get them out there.
Speaker 1 00:57:41 Fi walked up to the table, nod that Fen and Colossae and says, unless it's already been covered, I think it would be good to establish how and why the two of you joined the beacon,
Speaker 0 00:57:57 Calissa closes her eyes and grimaces. I, uh, told a Lasha we wanted in Sabine and air of a both go absolutely rigid. And Arivale cuts her eyes sideways over at Colossae and goes, wow.
Speaker 1 00:58:19 Fees. Posture goes absolutely rigid as well with her shoulders tense. She nods to herself and then says, we've kind of met it in 30 seconds. Colossae I'd suggest you start giving an explanation now.
Speaker 0 00:58:36 Okay. I know how it looks, but you have to realize that Fenn and I were in the fucking lion's den cut off from the rest of you. We had no way to figure out what was going on. And I just knew that the beacon has their fingers in a lot of pies with all this shit going on in the world. And I thought, you know, fuck it, two birds with one stone, I can be able to help my friends and be able to keep an eye on whatever Alicia's doing. So I talked to Fenn, I got him on board. And the next thing you know, a is handing us both beacon coins and we're double agents. Now, I guess, look, she doesn't know anything. I swear. She thinks that we're both fully in her pocket. And honestly, the fact that you all need a zone of truth to confirm for you that I'm not working for her after everything she did to Soren and everything she did to most of you is fucked up. I'm just going to say it. It's fucked up. The room goes very quiet for several seconds. And then Leo goes and time. Great talk everyone. Anyway, fi I think we have a book club meeting to get to,
Speaker 1 00:59:50 Uh, that we do is mayor back in the room at this point.
Speaker 0 00:59:56 Not at this exact moment. No, everybody's kind of packing up, getting ready to go. You see Eleanora walk over to Colossae and reach out to put a hand on her shoulder and Calissa just jerks away and storms out. Mia comes in after that, they pass each other in the doorway. Mia shoulder checks you on the way by, and then goes over to stand next to Fenn, you know, for a crack team of heroes on a sacred mission. Y'all sure do like to argue loudly. I could hear you outside. What's this about a book club.
Speaker 1 01:00:31 See kinda sucks or teeth for a second and just goes Leo and I have a meeting with a connection inside the folder and government to try and forestall a formal declaration of war.
Speaker 0 01:00:49 They give you that big antagonistic smile again, and kind of lean forward onto the table. Well, since you made it so clear how little everyone here trusts me, how bad I just tagged along? I won't leave your side. Leo snorts. He's still sitting down with his head in his hands. Okay. Mia, full offense. I can not think of anybody less suited to tagging along to a delicate political negotiation than the person that leaves a trail of bodies. Wherever they go. We've got enough dead people to juggle in all of this. And Mia grin widening says, oh, come on sugar. You won't even know I'm there I'll be a fly on the wall
Speaker 1 01:01:38 Fee purses, her lips, and then says, no, I think it's a great idea.
Speaker 0 01:01:46 Leo lets his head drop down to the table and knocks his forehead against the wood a couple of times. But then he gets up and leaves the room. Mia turns around to Fen and just kind of reaches down and grabs his hand and squeezes we're going to talk later are at and fence still looking very heard kind of nods. Yeah. Um, yeah, we'll talk later. Be safe. And he leans down, kisses them on the forehead, walks out as well. I mean it gives you one last nasty glare and then follows him out. You're kind of left alone with air of a, in this room eventually. And she's just staring down at the maps on the table. Not saying anything,
Speaker 1 01:02:36 The clears her throat, uh, did that at least make you feel better?
Speaker 0 01:02:45 It should have. But now that I'm considering the cost. No, no it didn't.
Speaker 1 01:02:56 Well son of a bitch,
Speaker 0 01:03:00 My sentiments, exactly. She straps her goggles down over her eyes and clicks in a couple of the zoom in lenses on them. Before sitting down at her chair, I'm going to stay behind compile all my notes into something more readable. Um, good luck at book club.
Speaker 1 01:03:19 Good luck with your notes. We'll see you back at the house and then he's going to head out.
Speaker 0 01:03:32 You leave, but our camera remains behind slowly zooming in on Arivale and Mar as she has always been alone with the truth.
Speaker 1 01:03:44 So all of you with the exception of Fen Calissa, and Arivale start to head back to your anthro house. LARC and Verity are like desperately trying to keep up conversation and it's just not going well for them. You all get back. People start to disperse, Mia pauses outside the secure perimeter because they cannot go inside and just lights up a cigarette.
Speaker 0 01:04:16 Leo pauses, one hand on the gate and gives them kind of a weird look. I'm probably not a super relevant question, but I thought that the whole reason that we went to the garage today was that nobody living at the embassy could be seen around this house. So
Speaker 1 01:04:37 They raised their eyebrows at you, take a long drag off their cigarette and say darlin. They don't know I'm living at the MC.
Speaker 0 01:04:46 How
Speaker 1 01:04:48 Well you see long story short, I've been living in the Vance,
Speaker 0 01:04:55 In the living, in the,
Speaker 1 01:04:58 And the vans he has. Anyway. I've been real quiet getting in and out. So nobody's seen me except fan and Calissa. I am the ambassador that one time, but I just stuck my head out of the vent real quick. And I think he thought it was sleep walk-in or a hallucination or something. I did tell him to his face. No one would ever believe him. And regardless of the damage that's done to the man's
Speaker 0 01:05:22 Psyche, uh, he hasn't told anybody. So it ain't my problem. Uh, I, I don't know what I expected. I'll be back. Leo just goes inside up the stairs to his INSEAD's bedroom and grabs the Maximus gray river book on the battle of OMA, Groth and heads. Back down to the foyer
Speaker 1 01:05:47 You get down there. Your uncle brass is it seems prepping fee on the various members of his book. Club fee is staring off into space. You can like hear the dialogue noises that her brain is making throughout this whole thing.
Speaker 0 01:06:04 Okay. Where said
Speaker 1 01:06:07 Ky and ravine and Eleanora have all gone to chill out on the back porch.
Speaker 0 01:06:12 Okay. Leo is going to leave, feed her fate and go out there to talk to them. He just sort of tucks the book into the front of his shirt, leans over and gives that a little kiss on the cheek. Okay? Wish me strengthened patients through what promises to be several hours of boring, middle aged men talking about boring. Lackluster literature
Speaker 1 01:06:39 Said snorts key brings one hand up to like cut the back of your head and brings you forward so he can give you a kiss on the temple. Good luck. Don't stab anybody who doesn't deserve it.
Speaker 0 01:06:54 No promises. Love you. See you later. And he's going to head back out and rescue fi
Speaker 1 01:07:01 I think he has fully started just like pinching the bridge of her nose and your uncle. Brian has not noticed. He's just still going. So you fee Burris and Mia all head out. You watch your uncle Berea. Step up to the curb with a hand raised and just a whistle and a streetcar with a sign on the roof that says in dwarfish it's something called a taxi, pulls up to the curb. He ushers you all into this street car looking thing. The driver is a jovial portly Baxi man.
Speaker 0 01:07:48 So you're telling me there's a Tabak seat. Driving the taxi.
Speaker 1 01:07:53 Yeah. Older gentlemen, kind of snow leopard looking. He's got the big tufted ears that you see it on a lot at. Tabak see, they seem like he hasn't cleaned them out in a while. They're pretty waxy.
Speaker 0 01:08:05 Oh, backseat to backseat driving a taxi.
Speaker 4 01:08:08 Yeah.
Speaker 1 01:08:18 So the street card takes you through the Boulder and streets to a rowhouse similar to your aunts. It seems to be very much the style kind of towards the center of the city. You fee me a pile out of the car, your uncle Bray assess the driver. Now I could have sworn the fair rates were lower. The last time I made the strip and the driver kind of leans back over the seat and says, yeah, but there's that new tax taxi.
Speaker 0 01:08:47 I want to go on record saying that I hate your ass
Speaker 1 01:08:53 And now I'm done. Anyway, you all go up to the front porch, your uncle Berez rings the doorbell and Tomas high veil answers the door looking very much the same as he did at the gala. He is dressed slightly less formally, but he looks very jovial and very composed. And he, as soon as he opens the door just starts gesturing you all in, come in, come in. And he kind of looks at a watch on his wrist. You are extremely early, probably for the best.
Speaker 0 01:09:32 Yes, for the best. Um, I hate to impose, but we have a lot to talk about.
Speaker 1 01:09:40 Absolutely. You all go in the house. He kinda stops in his own foyer and just pinches the bridge of his nose and says, I hate to be a bad host, but, uh, various, if you wouldn't mind helping me set some things up while I talk with your niece and nephew, I would appreciate that since he know where everything is. And he turns back to the two of you and says, um, my study is just down this hallway. Let's go, we'll have some privacy somewhere to sit and talk.
Speaker 0 01:10:12 Absolutely. Um, Tomas my associate Mia Sandis Mia, Tomas behave yourself.
Speaker 1 01:10:23 Mia looks at you and presses a hand to their chest and pouts and says sugar. You wound me.
Speaker 0 01:10:32 I wish that were true. Anyway, where's the study.
Speaker 1 01:10:36 Tomas leads you down this hallway and into a room off to the side, very like rich wood paneled walls, a lot of bookcases, big desk that he sits down at with a couple of chairs in front of it. Mia immediately leans up against one of the bookshelves and starts leafing through his books without permission
Speaker 0 01:11:00 Leo casts command and just says, stop Mia needs to roll a whiz. Save
Speaker 1 01:11:11 25. Cool,
Speaker 0 01:11:13 Cool, cool, cool, cool. That, um, beats my DC.
Speaker 1 01:11:18 Yeah. Mia snorts, and just keeps doing what they're doing.
Speaker 0 01:11:25 Leo glares at them, but sits down in one of the chairs,
Speaker 1 01:11:29 You and FISA down at these chairs in front of the desk, Tomas settles in behind it. Mia keeps doing whatever the fuck it is they're doing. And Tomas kinda dust his hands off and says, all right, straight down to business.
Speaker 0 01:11:47 Yes. So it seems, I understand that this might not be on the required reading list for today's meeting, but Leo pulls the book out of his shirt and opens it to the relevant passage before putting it onto Masa's desk right in front of him. This is our ACE in the hole right now. I need you to very frankly, tell me what we can do with it.
Speaker 1 01:12:17 Tomas frowns takes up the book and you watch his eyes skim the relevant passages. And then he looks back up at you squinting and says, are you implying what I think you're implying?
Speaker 0 01:12:36 What do you think I'm implying Senator,
Speaker 1 01:12:40 He shuts the book with a snap one handed. Well, if this is meant to be your ACE in the hole, it seems that you're implying that the sovereign ruler of a Sheria got his position by unsavory means we'll say
Speaker 0 01:13:01 Illegal means if we're speaking in terms of the Australian line of succession. Yes. I had the privilege of speaking with Senator grey river at the gala as well. And he seemed to corroborate a lot of these thoughts. However, I'm wondering if he perhaps has ulterior motives, either way, I'm here asking you what my sister and I can do with this information to help stop all out war
Speaker 1 01:13:37 Thomas purses, his lips shakes his head. Well, first of all, gray, river's a snake, but he hasn't lived as long as he has without being a smart one. I don't think his intention is to stop this war. However,
Speaker 0 01:13:58 Leo looks over at fi and then back to Tomas, what do you think his intention is? Because he seemed very eager to back my claim to the, of Australia.
Speaker 1 01:14:13 Tomas sets the book. You handed him down on his desk and taps the cover with a finger. I think Maximus grayer, his intention is to make money. And he's made quite a name for himself as someone who writes war stories and what with him leading the charge on this ridiculous emergency Senate meeting to try and, and he just raises his hands to do air quotes deliberate on the matter of declaring war on Sheria. I think he sees this as the easiest way to get himself back in the spotlight.
Speaker 0 01:14:54 Under the desk, Leo pulls Kim rolls blade out and sends a message can trip to fi should we tell him what actually happened down there?
Speaker 1 01:15:04 Fee sends a message back. Not yet. I don't think
Speaker 0 01:15:13 Leo purses, his lips nods, and then turns back to Tomas. Understood. Thank you for your insight. My sister and I have a bit more of a holistic view on the situation and access to details that we're not comfortable with sharing at large yet, but this has provided a great degree of clarity. Thank you. Moving on to what we can do with this information. I'm anxious to hear your thoughts.
Speaker 1 01:15:51 He squints at you for a long moment. I'm going to have him roll insight. Ah, I'm just going to say it's a DC 12, given that you don't have great deception. Well, he rolled a three, but that'll still do it. Cause he's got max whiz and he's got proficiency. He looks at you for a long second and then nods and then taps the cover of the book again and says, well, unless one of the details that you're not comfortable sharing is actual proof of what you're telling me. You suspect. I don't think there's a lot,
Speaker 0 01:16:31 Uh, actual proof. We have evidence here that the grand duke of Australia was engaged in peace talks with Wagner, Boulder, and then mysteriously got of all dura knife to the chest before they went through
Speaker 1 01:16:45 Some that's not proof. That's conjecture. Well-informed conjecture. I'll give you that. But the Senate's illegal body. If you don't have an actual legal claim that is backed up by proof, then there's no evidence that number one, that the Australian legal system would replace your father with you in the first place. And therefore, number two, there's no evidence that backing you would prevent a war. He taps the cover. Again. I cannot sell this to them, whether I believe you or not.
Speaker 0 01:17:25 Well point the first don't call me son. I've been influencing Australian legal overhauls. Since before you were born and point the second, I need a benchmark to meet. Tell me what you need to Moss. We have a similar goal here. What do we need to do to make it happen?
Speaker 1 01:17:46 Physical evidence, a confession, something that actually proves that what you think happened happened something that is not. And he taps the cover of the book. One more time, predicated on the word of an old man who has been known to over-exaggerate his own accomplishments and your personal knowledge of your father's character. Something that will actually stand up to scrutiny. That is what we need.
Speaker 0 01:18:16 Leah looks over at fi how the hell are we supposed to do that?
Speaker 1 01:18:23 Fetus shakes her head at you. Wide-eyed there is a long moment of silence and then elsewhere in the house, something fucking explodes.
Speaker 0 01:18:35 Oh,
Speaker 1 01:18:38 Tomas groans. Oh, so loudly, just from deep in his gut. And then he stands up from his desk and starts walking out of the study at yelling, babe. I've asked you to keep it down while I have a book club meeting.
Speaker 0 01:18:53 Oh, I'm following him. This is fascinating.
Speaker 1 01:18:57 The fi and Mia are also following Tomas heads up the stairs. You hear a voice call back the maiden doesn't stop for an hour. You all head up the stairs of this grand row house. Tomas turns a corner and elbows open a door. As soon as the door opens, you are a hit with the smell of smoke and paper.
Speaker 0 01:19:23 I is something burning
Speaker 1 01:19:26 Tomasa says probably, and then goes in the room. Are you following?
Speaker 0 01:19:34 Yes, cautiously.
Speaker 1 01:19:36 The inside of this room is a fucking disaster area. Something made of like metal and wires is smoking on a table. The walls are covered in various papers, like just tacked up there or glued a there's registering, connecting a few things. And in the middle of all this chaos stands a dwarfish man with a kind of patchy beard wild hair. That's just standing on end picture the pet bay Sylvia meme.
Speaker 0 01:20:18 Okay. So, uh, dwarf Charlie days in here.
Speaker 1 01:20:22 Yeah, on dwarf Charlie day, his shoulder is, you don't know what a slow Loris is, but I'm going to say that it's a slow Loris for the benefit of our listeners. It is just this weird little monkey looking thing with these giant watery eyes and these very long hands, just sitting on this guy's shoulder, the monkey's head swivels to Tomas. Uh, the guys does not Robia insight check really quick.
Speaker 0 01:20:56 I'm not sure. I want to know 17.
Speaker 1 01:21:01 It's nothing bad. Um, you just notice from the way this guy's moving and from the way like his hands are tracing over the papers on the wall, you gather that he cannot see, but this'll monkey on his shoulder. Swivels to look at Tomas, as the guy says less and less than I was whacking on an experiment, it didn't pan out. Let's move on.
Speaker 0 01:21:27 Leo leans around to his shoulder and waves at the monkey. Hello,
Speaker 1 01:21:33 This lemur blinks, it's big watery eyes. And then waves back at you. This dwarfish guy stops what he's doing and says shit I'm ban road. And then he in a very kind of stilted way, pivots on his heel. He gives the impression of someone who is in a very altered state of mind. He takes a couple steps across the room, holding his hand out like straight out and very brightly with a big smile says hi and Dylan Ignatius, tacit, a Sunseeker
Speaker 0 01:22:15 Leo, very hesitantly shakes his hand, lay a real Val sign, grand duke of Australia. How you doing
Speaker 1 01:22:23 Your hand comes away from his covered in Ash and ink.
Speaker 0 01:22:28 I brush it off on the front of my shirt.
Speaker 1 01:22:31 Fi makes an introduction. Mia does not. And from the side to Moss reaches up to rabbit, one of his temples with two fingers and says, forgive him any awkwardness. He hasn't slept in seven years.
Speaker 0 01:22:48 Oh, is that like a medical condition?
Speaker 1 01:22:53 Tomas sounding wary to the depths of his soul says no. And then this dwarfish guy Ignatius apparently waves a hand at him. And the monkey also waves a hand in unison. Don't make excuses for me. Tuts. I was like this before
Speaker 0 01:23:15 Leo is trying very hard not to be rude. He just kind of looks around this disastrous room. Uh, nice setup you have here. Are you an artificer or
Speaker 1 01:23:31 This guy is still just grinning at, you says napkin. And then he raises his arm and you see that he has a patch of scales going down from his wrist, just Ruby red. And he says, so sorry, with an insatiable Fest for the truth. And then he puts his arm back down and he says, in my pursuit, I experienced the fullness of space and time all at once. And it re-arranged my brain irrevocably in ways that my social psycho at the time said why? And he puts his hands up and does air quotes. The monkey also does air quotes off pudding and upsetting
Speaker 0 01:24:09 Leo purses, his lips together and stares down at the floor. Trying very hard not to laugh. Well, fi new friend for you
Speaker 1 01:24:20 Fi next to you, very quietly says, yeah, seems so. And the store of, and man in front of you says that was like 50 years ago though. So I have adjusted,
Speaker 0 01:24:33 Leo looks back up at the Pepe, Sylvia ness of it all. Clearly
Speaker 1 01:24:41 The lemur creature on his shoulder focuses in on you with the entire force of its gaze. And he says, I see that you carry us. Are you going to ask me about my theories?
Speaker 0 01:24:54 I would like nothing more than to hear about your theories
Speaker 1 01:25:00 Tomas off to the side, pinches the bridge of his nose and says, Iggy, all I ask is that you don't start with dragons on the moon.
Speaker 0 01:25:09 Oh no, you absolutely need to start with that. What on the white
Speaker 1 01:25:14 Ignatius with glee says that dragons on the Mon,
Speaker 0 01:25:21 Oh, how to Moss you to her door a BL how did you meet
Speaker 1 01:25:28 Tomas? Looking like he's caught between being fond and being exasperated purses, his lips, and then says I was working as a healer and he blew himself up. And Iggy apparently says, I mean, in all fairness, I knew I was gonna blow myself up. It wasn't the intended effect, but I gathered that that was about what was going to happen. And Tomas says, honey, that doesn't make it better.
Speaker 0 01:25:59 We really should be going. But I am just so enchanted these dragons on the moon, please say more right now
Speaker 1 01:26:07 Behind you. Mia says while with that, I'm going out for a smoke. And they just leave Ignatius strides over to his big conspiracy wall and gestures towards what appears to be a, uh, like a telescope picture of the moon and then points at it and says right there, evidence of civilization,
Speaker 0 01:26:34 What do I have to roll to see if there are dragons on the moon
Speaker 1 01:26:39 Investigation,
Speaker 0 01:26:44 I still have proficiency and investigation from ghosts, sore, and actually 11,
Speaker 1 01:26:52 As you lean into look at this photo out of the corner of your eye, you see Soren and you watch his glasses chain rattle a little bit as he adjusts his glasses and squints. Also at this picture, you turn your head a little bit to see him better. And he turns to look at you and just makes a face like and shakes his head. Yeah. You're looking at a picture of a Leary's moon that is slightly better than what you see every night. You recognize the craggy yellowish surface of it, the big stretches of water going across it. What Aggies point to get appears to be a really weird rock formation.
Speaker 0 01:27:46 Yeah. I'm going to be real with you Iggy. I don't see it, but I'm sure you've put a lot of work into this theory. Fi we should go
Speaker 1 01:27:56 Aggie kind of waves you off and says, yeah. Yeah, you don't see it. It takes the STB profession to the Seattle study. I understand.
Speaker 0 01:28:04 Yeah. Um, to mosque, we'll be in touch. I've got some brainstorming to do about how we're going to get that proof that you need, but we'll get it.
Speaker 1 01:28:16 Thomas says, I'll follow you out. And then turns to Iggy and says whatever that was. Don't touch it until I get back please. And eggy, very cheerfully says no promises. We not.
Speaker 0 01:28:29 Yeah. I would like to leave this house before book club starts. Cause I'm not sitting through that.
Speaker 1 01:28:35 You fee and Tomas start heading back down the stairs. As you're walking to Masa says, I know he seems a little bit outlandish, but the 60% of what he says that isn't nonsense is really reliable information. He's one of the smartest people in the city. I know. It sounds like I have to say that because we're dating, but genuinely.
Speaker 0 01:28:55 Yeah. It's clearly an active mind that needs to come up with dragons on the, just for a workout.
Speaker 1 01:29:03 Come back again. I'm sure he'll tell you about the mole people. I'm not sure if he actually believes that one or if it's just an excuse to not get married.
Speaker 0 01:29:13 I'm about to say a sentence. Thomas flier, the mole people stopping you from getting married.
Speaker 1 01:29:20 Well, apparently the Boulder and Juul industry is encroaching upon them all people's territory and supporting it is unethical. The real reason he doesn't want to get married is because, you know, he doesn't legally exist anymore. And he doesn't want to tell me that as you continue walking, he just mutters to himself seven years. Every time I see my mother, she says kitty too. I haven't too settled down yet. And I have to say it's because of the multiple mama.
Speaker 0 01:29:48 Wow. Thank you for all your help. You've been a very gracious host. We'll talk soon.
Speaker 1 01:29:55 You and fi get ushered out the door. Mia is leaning up against a wall on Tomasa's front porch, smoking roll insight real quick
Speaker 0 01:30:06 19.
Speaker 1 01:30:08 They look upset about something, but you can't quite pin it down.
Speaker 0 01:30:13 Yeah. Well I'm sure they're thinking about what they're going to say to Fenn when they get back. So that makes sense.
Speaker 1 01:30:19 Yeah, I'm sure that's it. The three of you start walking down the street towards your aunt Nora's house and you get about four houses down the street. And then you hear another explosion.
Speaker 0 01:30:33 Leo nods to himself and looks over at fi dragons on the moon.
Speaker 1 01:30:40 She nods back and says and mole people.
Speaker 0 01:30:45 And somehow that is less outlandish than the prospect of us. Having to figure out how to get father to tell the truth. Let's go. The three of you make your way back towards Nora's house. A few blocks before you get there may appeals off in the opposite direction to head back to the embassy. You assume it's late afternoon. By this time you walk in and see the of a lot of your friends are kind of just milling around in the sitting room, said sitting on the couch, listening to a radio drama with Lark, your aunt Nora waves at you from an armchair. Welcome back. You too. Uh, there's some lunch still in the dining room. If you're hungry.
Speaker 1 01:31:34 Ah, thank you. On Nora. She's going to go. And at the dining room,
Speaker 0 01:31:40 Leo, doesn't follow you. He stops in the foyer and kind of shakes his head. I'm not hungry. I need to go start brainstorming what we're going to do about father. I'll see you later.
Speaker 1 01:31:55 Okay. Good luck.
Speaker 0 01:31:59 He heads upstairs. You go into the dining room. Arivale is sitting in there alone with her head in her hands at the table. There's a Creek as the door to the kitchen opens and Sabine comes out with a cup of hot tea that she puts down in front of Arivale and then she looks up and nods at you. Welcome back. How was book? Club
Speaker 1 01:32:25 Enlightening and then entertaining.
Speaker 0 01:32:29 Huh? Okay. She leans down and squeezes Arivale shoulder. I'm going to go wash the dishes. Just come get me if you need me. Okay. And then Sabine turns around and walks back into the kitchen
Speaker 1 01:32:47 Fee is going to pause and turn the Arivale and say, do you want some space or do you want to talk about it?
Speaker 0 01:32:56 She has not touched her cup of tea and does not look up from the table space, please
Speaker 1 01:33:04 Got it. He's going to walk into the kitchen after Sabine.
Speaker 0 01:33:10 So beans in there leaned over the sink, scrubbing and a plate. She sort of scoots to the side to give you room to come stand next to her. As you walk in
Speaker 1 01:33:21 Fees are going to pick up a dish towel and just kind of dry the dishes as Sabine washes them.
Speaker 0 01:33:27 It's pretty quiet for a little bit, but eventually Sabine, hands you another plate and goes so. Um, did you learn anything?
Speaker 1 01:33:40 Well, apparently there's dragons on the moon.
Speaker 0 01:33:44 She pauses halfway through washing a cup, come again,
Speaker 1 01:33:51 Nothing. Uh, a theory that was posited to us by, uh, Thomas's partner. We came to the realization that we're going to need to get my father to confess to some very bad shit to get any traction. So that's fun.
Speaker 0 01:34:13 She blinks and then shakes her head and goes back to washing the cup. That's going to be risky
Speaker 1 01:34:22 Fees, grip tightens on the dish towel a little bit for a second and very carefully. She says, it's not like we have another choice.
Speaker 0 01:34:35 No, you're right. I, what can I do to help?
Speaker 1 01:34:41 I'm not sure yet Leo's coming up with a first draft of a plan and then we'll refine it from there. I suppose
Speaker 0 01:34:52 She turns off the sink and finally looks up at you. If you don't want me to get involved. I understand I've given you a lot of reasons not to trust me.
Speaker 1 01:35:08 I didn't say that.
Speaker 0 01:35:12 I just ever since the incident with your father, I feel like there's just this wall between the two of us. And I don't know what to do. Try to climb over it, try to tear it down.
Speaker 5 01:35:29 Uh,
Speaker 0 01:35:33 I want to fix things with us fee and I'm scared that I can't,
Speaker 1 01:35:39 If he takes a really deep breath and then puts the plate in her hand and the dish towel down on the counter, If things had gone worse than they did in that situation, I don't know that I could have ever forgiven you. And the fact that you were willing to risk that well to under exaggerate, it hurt. It hurt a lot.
Speaker 0 01:36:14 Sabine looks away from you again and wraps her arms around herself. Like she's giving herself a hug. I've been losing people my whole life over and over and over again. I lose people. So I take the ones that I have left and I hold onto them and I make decisions to do terrible things, to keep them safe because I am that scared of losing them.
Speaker 1 01:36:48 I understand that, but I need a girlfriend, not a keeper, Sabine,
Speaker 0 01:36:56 She flinches, but then looks up and meets your eyes. You're right. And I want to be that for you. I'm done smothering the people I love in the name of keeping them safe. That's not love it's fear. And I don't want to spend any more time looking at you and the captain. And only seeing things that I am afraid of. You're more than that. So whatever comes next, if you'll have me, I want to face it with you. Not for you.
Speaker 1 01:37:44 He's going to kiss her.
Speaker 0 01:37:48 She kisses you back the kitchen windows cracked open a little bit to let in some air. And from the backyard, you hear a Wolf whistle and look up to see the captain standing in the garden with a big pointy tooth to Gran, glad you two could kiss and make up. Where's mine. Sabine puts her forehead against yours and size
Speaker 2 01:38:17 That man
Speaker 0 01:38:23 Sabine takes your hand and leads you out the back door, into the garden where the captain is waiting for both of you. And that's where we're going to end for this week. Yeah, that was a lot. That's one word for it. Yeah. And there's only more coming next time on compelled duel.
Speaker 0 01:39:06 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 medias. You can find us on Twitter, Tumblr, and TechTalk at compel duel. We have a lot of other cool stuff like an official Spotify profile and official website. You can find all of that linked on our various social media profiles. We also host a Q and a live stream every week on our YouTube channels. So if you want to head on over to YouTube and search compelled, dual and subscribed to us over there, we'd love to see you come hang out for that. It's a lot of fun. If you like what you're hearing so far on the podcast and are interested in supporting us. We ask that you consider heading over to patrion.com/compelled duel, where starting at just $2 a month, you get access to all kinds of cool patron perks, including, but not limited to early access to episodes, access to bonus content and exclusive Spotify playlist, and even handwritten letters from your favorite character every month.
Speaker 0 01:40:08 And with that, a special thanks to our new patron. And we have been asked to read their name as such the wet, meaty slab of a fish to the face. Also, hi, nasper thanks for the podcast rec. If you'd like to support us in ways, other than pledging to the Patrion, we ask that if you're listening to us on apple podcasts or Spotify, that you leave us a rating and a review, since that helps us get promoted to a wider audience. And as always word of mouth advertising is the most powerful tool we have at our disposal. So if you like the podcast, we just ask that you tell a friend about it and if they like it, ask them to tell a friend as well. Our next episode is going to be coming at ya on Friday, January 21st, 2022. And if you're a member of our Patriot and you'll be getting your early access on Thursday, January 20th. Thank you so much. We'll see you next week.
