Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hey Al Hey Barry, why does the Australian embassy throw such great parties?
Speaker 1 00:00:08 Why
Speaker 0 00:00:12 It's lit it's time for compelled duel.
Speaker 0 00:00:30 Hello everybody. And welcome back to compelled duel. I'm Barry
Speaker 1 00:00:34 And I'm
Speaker 0 00:00:35 Al and we are a single player. Cody EMD, D and D FIV actual play podcast
Speaker 1 00:00:41 Per previously on compelled tool
Speaker 0 00:00:46 Inside this envelope on the letterhead of the Australian. Embassy is an invitation to a party tomorrow night addressed to you specifically.
Speaker 1 00:00:58 This definitely smells like a trap, right? Obviously we're not going to this.
Speaker 0 00:01:04 I don't think you can afford not to. I think I found out what your father's planning. I need Baca from one of you for Aurora. I could use some thunder on my side. You need to get the fuck out of there, whoever you're with. It's not Burress. Who are you? What you should be asking, darling is how fast you can run. I don't think you're going to make it there in time.
Speaker 1 00:01:32 You open the store. And the first thing you see is ambassador. Even Petrus lying dead on the floor.
Speaker 0 00:01:42 What happened here? Sabine nods over towards this stage and the Bard that is playing. And you are able to gather that she is trying to tell you, Hey, this person up there is a beacon operative. You're both too late.
Speaker 1 00:02:07 Shoot off a sending to somebody that's back at the house. Now run.
Speaker 0 00:02:14 What about
Speaker 1 00:02:16 We'll come back. Run.
Speaker 0 00:02:19 Wait. Where's my mom
Speaker 0 00:02:34 And the Australian embassy erupts into a massive unsurvivable ball of fire. Fi roll me a dexterity saving throw, please.
Speaker 1 00:03:07 Um, good, great.
Speaker 0 00:03:11 One way to start off the session. Would you like to use a reroll? Indeed, I would.
Speaker 1 00:03:20 Uh, that one was a natural 17, which is a dirty 20.
Speaker 0 00:03:26 Okay. Let me roll for Leo 11. So fi there is a split second where you watch the Australian embassy just explode in this massive ball of fire. And then the concussive force of this explosion hits you like a freight train. You are blasted backwards. I think you do hit the ground on your back. Hard. It sends a scream of pain out through your Lichtenberg scarring down your back. But with that dirty 20 deck save and you manage to tuck and roll backwards and land on your feet next to you. Leo fully eats shit. He is on the ground prone. And let me roll for Colossae as well. 23, she's up, your vision goes bright, white and orange for a second. As the onslaught of the light from this explosion hits you. And for a few seconds, there is nothing you can hear other than this high whine of tinnitus in your ears.
Speaker 0 00:04:35 Your vision comes back before your hearing does. So you are just in this mute world, looking around, watching incinerated bodies of the people that were closest to the explosion, littering the lawn. There is not much left of the Australian embassy. Most of the walls have been fully blown out, knocked to the ground. And what is left of the place is just an Inferno instinctively. You know that nobody that was inside that building could have survived that. And as soon as you realize that, what brings your hearing back pierces through this muted fog in your ears is cholesterol letting out the most grief stricken scream you have ever heard a living creature produce a few feet away from you. She collapses to her knees eyes wide, reflecting the flickering flames in front of them. This scream dies on her lips and she stares normally in front of her for a couple seconds before going mom, mom, and she scrambles to her feet and takes off her running towards the burning embassy. So I'm going to roll a grapple check real quick. Okay. Just barely Calissa takes off running. And then you see a small green and brown blur from next to you. As Eleanora just has to football, tackle her to the ground to keep her from running into this burning building. They both hit the ground and roll a couple of times. And then Calissa just dissolves into sobs. What are you doing?
Speaker 1 00:06:27 Fee's going to get up. I'll roll a contract or a con save or whatever to see how I'm doing. But, uh, yeah,
Speaker 0 00:06:34 Just wrote me a constitution saving throw
Speaker 1 00:06:37 11.
Speaker 0 00:06:40 Okay. Anything under a 10, you would have taken some damage with an 11. You heard, but not enough to lose any hit points.
Speaker 1 00:06:48 If I remember correctly from last session, I was standing next to Leo and the captain. So I would like to make sure that they're both okay. Really?
Speaker 0 00:06:57 Leo is flat on the ground on his back. He looks like he's had the wind knocked out of him, but he's conscious. The captain also made that deck save. So he's up, you see him a few feet off to the side, helping Sabina and Arivale to their feet kind of stumbling. It looks like he's got vertigo from whatever ringing is in his ears.
Speaker 1 00:07:17 Everybody except Colossus mom get out, right?
Speaker 0 00:07:20 Yeah. You do a quick head count and you see that everybody in your party is alive in various states of disorientation and distress, but alive.
Speaker 1 00:07:33 Okay. Then fee's going over to Colossae
Speaker 0 00:07:35 Colossae is just inconsolable. She is on the ground. Heaving, these big body shaking sobs, every few seconds. She tries to lunge out of this grapple again, fingers clawing at the ground, trying to get back into this building. And as you get over there, you see Eleanora heave her up against her shoulder and just kind of hold her there by the back of her head. You can not go in there. All right, I'm not losing you to,
Speaker 1 00:08:04 He's going to look at Eleanora and say, we need to get out of here. Now.
Speaker 0 00:08:11 Eleanora looks around panicked from the burning embassy to the bodies, laying directly in front of it, to the absolute screaming pandemonium that is starting to rock it out through this yard. And then you see this change come over her face, where it shifts from panic to calm analysis, her jaw clenches. And she nods at you. Yeah, I think that's the best course of action. You get everybody else? I've got her.
Speaker 1 00:08:41 Okay. Uh, first of all, he's going to run back over to Leo and the captain.
Speaker 0 00:08:47 Leo is still on the ground wheezing, but is kind of slowly pushing himself up on his elbows to set up. Where is everybody
Speaker 1 00:08:58 Everybody's here. We need to leave.
Speaker 0 00:09:01 We need to go back to that alley and find that woman from the beacon before she wakes up and runs off. She's the only evidence in all of this that we have.
Speaker 1 00:09:09 Shit. All right. All right. All right. You're right. Um, and if he's going to attempt to tug him to his feet with her shoulders, just screaming.
Speaker 0 00:09:18 Yeah. Leo doesn't weigh a lot. You get him up without much issue. He's apps. Kim rolls blade into his hand and casts dramaturgy to make his voice loud, hearable over the din of everything happening right now and shouts. All right. Fi said, captain Sabine. You're with me, everybody else back to the rendezvous point, we'll meet you there.
Speaker 1 00:09:38 As he's doing that fee is not going to wait because they don't have the time. She's just going to take off.
Speaker 0 00:09:45 You take off back through these alleys. Eventually Leo is able to double dash enough to catch up with you. You see the knife flash at his side, again, as he casts locate creature and kind of visibly relaxes, okay, she's still down where we left her. You all make it to the end of this alley, where Leo knocked the Bard that escaped from the party out several minutes ago, you see her still curled up on the cobblestones. But as you start to make your way down this alley, you notice that she is starting to stir limbs, kind of twitching and hands pressing against the stones, trying to push herself up.
Speaker 1 00:10:24 I'm going to use channel divinity. Nature's wrath.
Speaker 0 00:10:27 Okey-dokey remind me what that does.
Speaker 1 00:10:29 It says you can use your channel divinity to invoke primeval forces, to ensnare foe as an action. You can cause spectral vines, but I'm going to re flavor it to be an electric cage to spring up and reach for a creature within 10 feet of view that you can see the creature must succeed on a strength or dexterity saving throw of its choice or be restrained. And while we're strained by the vines, in this case, by electricity, however you want to flavor that the creature repeats the saving throw at the end of each of its turns on a success. It frees itself in the vines vanish. So that's a strength or dexterity saving throw against my spell, save DC, which is an 18,
Speaker 0 00:11:08 Okay, she's going to choose to roll dexterity. Cause that's what she's best at. That was a 17 just barely, but doesn't do it.
Speaker 1 00:11:18 So this Bard is restrained by glowing crackles of electricity.
Speaker 0 00:11:24 Everybody else in your party draws up behind you and you see Leo's knife flash again, as he throws up an anti-life shell at the other end of the alley. So that even if she gets out of this lightening cage, she can't make it out of the alley. The captain runs up on the other side of this lightning cage and levels his Cutlass at the throat of this young Australian lady that is kind of struggling to get up. I wouldn't do that if I were you less. And then Sabine comes around the side of this crackling electric cage and crouches down next to her. You see this Bard's eyes go wide. As she realizes who she's looking at. And she gasps out truth dies in darkness. Sabine straightens up with this bitter little smirk revelation lives in light, and you picked the wrong people to fuck with. She stomps her feet and quick succession. And you hear this odd effect come over her voice as she casts dissonant whispers and says Matty night, even if this Bard could have passed the whiz save on the spells. Sabine has cast it at such a high level that she's unconscious again,
Speaker 1 00:12:44 Fi looks down at this unconscious Bard, does the kind of twisting hand gesture to dispel these lightening restraints and then looks over at Zed and says, do you mind
Speaker 0 00:12:57 Zed looking more than a little rattled from everything you've just been through? Kind of just blinks at you and goes, uh, yeah, you got it. And just kind of firemen carries this unconscious barred out of the alleyway. Where are you headed
Speaker 1 00:13:15 Back to the embassy to make sure everybody else in our party got away. And then to the rush,
Speaker 0 00:13:23 By the time you get back to the embassy, it is a mess. People are spilling out into the streets, screaming, crying, panicking, you see the sirens of several emergency vehicles approaching and in the middle of it all kind of left alone with the burnt corpses in this yard, you see, Colossae still just collapsed, crying, and Eleanor are rubbing her shoulders.
Speaker 1 00:13:54 He is going to turn to the group at large and say, all right. Uh, does anyone have a way of getting us back to the garage quickly and quietly
Speaker 0 00:14:05 Sabine reaches down to tighten one of the buckles of her bells around her wrist? Yeah, follow me. And she charges across the yard to where Colossae and Eleanora are still huddled.
Speaker 1 00:14:17 Okay. Fee's going to follow her.
Speaker 0 00:14:20 You all close in around them in a tight huddle. Calissa is at this point just weak and shaking and crying. Sabine reaches up, does a complicated gesture with her arms, her bells jingle. And she casts one of her new spells, which is teleport. So all of you are headed to a location that is very familiar to her. I do. However, still have to roll on a table to make sure that nothing horrible happens to all of you.
Speaker 0 00:14:53 And that was a 29, which means you all end up on target fi there is that familiar nauseous feeling of teleportation magic that you remember from your incident back in Australia, one moment you are standing in the muted glow of the burning embassy and the next there is a loud pop and you are standing in the middle of the Tony's garage. The rest of your party does not appear to be back yet, but the door from the front room opens with a clatter. And a second later you see Florian Javares walk in big floppy hat, a skew on his head like half of a charcuterie board perched in his hand, he's halfway through munching on a piece of salami. When he looks up at all of you and goes, oh, oh, oh
Speaker 1 00:15:58 Leo. As you all get your bearings. After this teleportation, spell Zed quickly and efficiently ties this still unconscious Bard to a chair. You watch feed just immediately go to sit down. She's kind of rubbing at her shoulders in the back of her neck. Like they hurt a lot after a few minutes, the rest of your party file in you watch Florian immediately go over to Arivale and like trying to brush Ash out of her hair. And just generally fussing over her. Calissa is catatonic. She does not say a word as all of this is going on. Eleanora kind of ushered her into a chair as you were all getting your bearings back. And she is just staring off into the middle distance.
Speaker 0 00:16:49 Is everybody else back? So like ravine Verity till Indra, Fen, Mia.
Speaker 1 00:16:56 Yeah. They all got back when or they did. Mia has been pacing. The length of the garage bristling like a sculpted cat ravine needed to stop and take a minute outside before he came in and to Linda sat with him while he did that. But everybody's back yet.
Speaker 0 00:17:17 Leo is struggling to be the most okay. Person in this room right now and kind of picks up an opposite pattern of pacing to Mia. All right. Um, we need to get her in the back room when she wakes up or zone of truth, her
Speaker 1 00:17:31 Various people in your party start moving towards this barge, tied to this chair. And then Mia makes a disgusted noise and actually like shoulder checks, Zed and walks over to this chair, upper lip curled mov, and they just drag barn. This is not a small woman on this share. And Mia is a very small person, but one handed, they dragged the Bart into the back room.
Speaker 0 00:18:00 I'm going to follow them in there and then check to make sure her ropes are secure. And then I'm going to use my last two first level spell slots to cast a couple cure wounds to get her up to 25 hit points before readying an action to cast a zone of truth. When she wakes up,
Speaker 1 00:18:19 You can hear the rest of your party trying to comfort each other back in the main part of the garage. And do you sit here alone with this unconscious Bard? Eventually she begins to stir.
Speaker 0 00:18:34 Okay, cool. As soon as this happens, the zone of truth is active.
Speaker 1 00:18:38 Oh, okay. I'm going to roll this. BARDA with safe, natural one. It's a two.
Speaker 0 00:18:47 And my spell save DC is 18. So that's not going to do it. Leo poles, another chair over in front of this woman and spins it around. So it's backwards. And then kind of straddles it, purging his arms on the back and his chin on top of his arms. Hi there. Welcome back to consciousness. I'm Leo, what's your name?
Speaker 1 00:19:13 You watch this woman much like your father did the last time that you cast in a truth, open her mouth to lie. You watch it catch behind her teeth. And then she chokes out. Aye. Esta.
Speaker 0 00:19:34 Well, esta it doesn't take a genius to figure out that you've landed yourself in a whole world of trouble. And you strike me as a smart woman. I'd like to help you out. All you have to do is answer a few questions for me.
Speaker 1 00:19:50 HESTA tilts her head and gives you this sharp mirthless smile. And then she's going to spit in your face.
Speaker 0 00:19:59 Leah reaches up and wipes off his cheek with a sharp flick of his hand. And then he's going to zap Kim rolls blade into his free hand and cast. . One of the effects of that spell is that I can alter the appearance of my eyes for the next minute. I would like to make them glow with that silvery gray necrotic energy that I cast most of my magic with, and then lean in very close to her bracing. One hand on the back of her chair. I'm going to be real Frank with you, babe. I'm the one you want to play nice with because there are people out there that are ready to be way meaner to you than I'm inclined to be. I get it. You're scared. You're lashing out. So I'm going to give you one last chance. Esta, who sent you for what purpose and just how much did you know about your mission?
Speaker 1 00:21:07 I'm going to be real Frank with you. Leo, you can make me tell the truth, but you can't make me talk.
Speaker 0 00:21:16 Don't make me push this to where we both know what's going. Neither of us want that.
Speaker 1 00:21:23 You can push it anywhere. You like sweetheart. You don't scare me and you won't get what you want.
Speaker 0 00:21:33 Leo stands up from his chair and goes over to lean in the doorway. See, that's the funny thing about a zone of truth. Spell anybody under its affects can only speak what they really believe to be the truth. So I believe that I don't scare you. And I'm about to send in somebody that definitely will put us far as me not getting what I want. Well, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. You don't know me. I always get what I want. You'll find that out soon enough until then I'll let you sweat it out. And then Leo is going to turn around and walk back out into the garage. He nods back out towards the party at large and kind of cocks his hip and leans in the doorway. All right, Sabine, I need you to go in there and be way more mean and scary than I am. We've got about five minutes left on that zone of truth.
Speaker 1 00:22:37 Sabine raises her eyebrows, pulls a knife out of the full diverse skirts. And then she looks sideways at work. Calissa is still just hunched in a chair and says, Ken do
Speaker 0 00:22:52 Watch out for wayward bodily fluids. This one's a spitter
Speaker 1 00:22:56 Gross, but then to being walks past you into the back room while she's doing that, what are you doing?
Speaker 0 00:23:05 Leo is going to head over to wherever Calissa is and just sit down next to her and put out a hand in case she wants to take it
Speaker 1 00:23:17 Calissa, reaches out and takes your hand and just squeezes it super hard. Like you can feel your bones creak with how hard she's squeezing your hand. You sit there in silence for several minutes and then Sabine walks out of the back room, slammed the door behind her and just reaches up to scrub both hands down her face. Well, that was pointless. I got nothing.
Speaker 0 00:23:48 The truth was still active. She didn't talk. She didn't say anything,
Speaker 1 00:23:54 Not a word. And then Sabine reaches up and does her braid crown and then her braid so she can redo it and comes over to sit down next to me next to you. Colossae impossibly tightens her grip on your hand and then stands up and says, let me in there.
Speaker 0 00:24:19 No, no, that's a bad idea. The zone of truth is dead at this point. There's nothing you can do.
Speaker 1 00:24:27 Colossae wraps her arms around herself for a second and just laughs bitterly. I spent how many decades at the order of Elena, there are a lot of things I can think to do right now.
Speaker 0 00:24:45 Yeah. I know what you're thinking of doing. And I'm telling you that you're not coming at this with a clear head Colossae
Speaker 1 00:24:52 Oh fuck a clear head. You're going to look me in the face and tell me that if you could have made your father answered for what he did to your mother, you wouldn't have done it.
Speaker 0 00:25:03 No, not like this.
Speaker 1 00:25:07 Colossae laughs incredulously you are such a fucking liar. Enjoy your moral high ground. Leo. If you need me, I'll be getting us some fucking results. And then she storms into the back room.
Speaker 0 00:25:28 Leo takes a couple steps after her hand outstretched, but then just stops and clenches his fist
Speaker 1 00:25:36 Shit. Eleanora is going past you and going through the door as Colossae slams at behind her, there's a pause. And then you see Eleanora grabbed the door knob. Tried to turn it jiggles. She tries to turn it again and it jiggles again. We got a problem, everyone.
Speaker 0 00:25:59 Yeah, I know Calissa. I'm going to use my last second level spell slot to cast, detect magic on the door.
Speaker 1 00:26:07 You see a shimmering blue aura of AB duration magic around the store.
Speaker 0 00:26:17 Fuck she hit it with an arcane lock. Anybody got a Knox bell
Speaker 1 00:26:22 Ravine from behind. You says, ah, I, I have it, but I don't have it prepared. Uh, give me a minute.
Speaker 0 00:26:31 We don't have a minute
Speaker 1 00:26:34 From inside the back room. You hear this noise, like something, this SKUs splattering across the floor. And then you as to the Bard, say, what the hell is this? As Eleanora tries the door handle again, you hear Colossae say, oh, this it's a grace spell. You don't want to find out what I'm going to cast after it want to tell me who sent you, you hear Esther return. What are you going to do with a grease spell? I can't kill me. Fi who has drawn up next to you looks over her shoulder and says, Fen, get over here. And then you hear Calissa say, yeah, I know. But the fun thing is that I can turn a create bonfire spelt on.
Speaker 1 00:27:33 And because esta is restrained, she has disadvantage on this deck. Save the high roll was an 18 wish that mattered. Uh, the lower one was an eight, which with her plus nine does not be classes, spell, save DC of 18. So I'm going to roll three D eight fire damage 15, there is a crackling of flame. And then you hear a horrible agonized shriek. And there is this smell of roasting meat and burning hair. And then, and off as many times as I want and as Fenn approaches and adjusts his stance like he's about to like bulrush this door Colossae continues. And don't worry if we over cook you a little bit, my friend had there's a cleric. We can keep doing this for as long as it takes.
Speaker 1 00:28:44 Leo's eyes go wide and panicked. As he gags on this noxious smell fin you better put those rippling muscles to good use fences. Yeah. Move out of the way. And as you and Eleanora backup Fen is going to make a strength check to try to bust the door down. Uh, that was an 11. He gets a plus five. That's 16 with an arcane lock the DC to bust the lock door down. Believe it or not is 35 a dress still across the room sounding shaken, says, ah, we're going to need a fire extinguisher. Someone go get Tony Lark from next to her says which one of them and Lark bolts.
Speaker 0 00:29:41 Leo is going to shove fan out of the way of the door. And just try to yell through the key hole. Colossae you don't want to do this.
Speaker 1 00:29:50 Calissa does not acknowledge that. You said that you hear esta laugh, humorously and go. There's nothing you can do to me. That's worse than, and as she saying that you hear and more noises of fire crackling and another shriek. So I'm going to do another disadvantaged deck. Save a that's a three plus nine is a 12. Not going to do it. 3d eight damage. Ooh. Okay. That's a nine. Okay, cool. Cool, cool, cool. And Colossae says names now and then fi backs up a couple steps and cracks or knuckles and says, okay, everybody out of the way,
Speaker 0 00:30:49 Leo stop moving. He turns around back braced against the door. If you try to cast a shatter right now, they are both right on the other side of that door, you could hit Calissa, just let me and he digs his lockpicks out of his pockets.
Speaker 1 00:31:05 Okay. Uh, since there was an arcane lock cast on the store, it's going to be a DC 25 check to try and pick the lock. And it's not going to be quick. It's going to take you a little bit.
Speaker 0 00:31:17 I'd rather lose our witness then Colossae, I'm gonna roll to try to pick the lock 29.
Speaker 1 00:31:26 Okay. That meets the DC. As you're doing that, you hear esta sounding pained, laugh again. You know, you should have to hide back there. Colossae shoots back. Unfortunately for you here I am. You should tell me what I want to hear. Whoever's paying you off. I'm willing to bet that they haven't just watched their whole family die and they're not half the sadistic bitch that I'm feeling like right now. And even if you do rat them out though, at least kill you quickly. Last chance Leo, you feel the lock click open under your lock picking tools as you hear and fire crackling and another hideous shriek that cuts off into a gurgle.
Speaker 0 00:32:26 Oh, where's LARC with that fire extinguisher. I'm kicking the door in
Speaker 1 00:32:32 The chair and the woman and are both on fire. There is this huge ocean of fire around her from this splattered, grease smell and Colossus standing there. Her face lit by the flames. One hand up and the other one around her knife. And with that appraised hand, she goes and the fire goes out. Instantly, look at that. We need a reset. Leo, if you wouldn't mind,
Speaker 0 00:33:09 Oh fuck. This is gruesome. Um, I'm assuming this lady has been pretty thoroughly anagen Skywalker at this point.
Speaker 1 00:33:19 Yes. And she appears to be unconscious
Speaker 0 00:33:24 Eleanor and get her out of here.
Speaker 1 00:33:27 Eleanora walks up to Colossae both hands up and visible and says Colossae, let's just go sit down. It's been a long night. Colossae still with her knife in her hand. Just snaps back. Don't tell me to sit down. I'm not going anywhere. The hell.
Speaker 0 00:33:47 You're not Leo spins. Camera's blade around his finger and casks, calm emotions. I need Calissa to make me a DC 18 charisma saving throw.
Speaker 1 00:33:59 Oh, Hey, that's a 13.
Speaker 0 00:34:05 Once more Eleanora, get her out of here.
Speaker 1 00:34:09 Eleanora is gonna roll athletics to grapple. Colossae class is going to contest with acrobatics 22 and an 11. Nope. Eleanora gets Calissa and a grapple check. Just wraps both arms around her and tries to get her to sit down on the floor. What are you doing as this is happening?
Speaker 0 00:34:35 So the thing is that I have one fourth level and one fifth level spell slot left. And that's it
Speaker 1 00:34:42 Correct? What are you doing with them?
Speaker 0 00:34:46 Um, nothing yet. I am going to try to stabilize this Bard using a medicine check.
Speaker 1 00:34:53 Okay. You got a plus five. Go ahead.
Speaker 0 00:34:56 That's a natural 17 plus five is a 22. So that'll do it. She's stable at zero hit points. Leo leans out the open door behind him and goes, okay, anybody else got heels? Because I am running dangerously low on magic and have a couple ideas that I need to use it for
Speaker 1 00:35:19 Fee rushes into the room. She's going to use lay on hands. She's going to be as petty as possible about it. She does exactly one point of healing and Esther, the Bard lurches back into consciousness with that
Speaker 0 00:35:36 Cool. Using one of my two remaining spouse slots to cast a zone of truth. Again,
Speaker 1 00:35:43 That doesn't do it.
Speaker 0 00:35:45 Okay, great. And zone of truth. It's not a concentration spell. So I'm still holding that calm emotions up on. Colossae assuming she's still within 15 feet of me.
Speaker 1 00:35:55 Yeah. She and Eleanora are just sitting on the floor there. So within 15 feet,
Speaker 0 00:36:00 Leo crouches down and leans into ward where this Bard burnt to a crisp I'm sure is tied to the chair and smiles brightly. Hey esta. Welcome back to the land of the living. You're welcome for that. By the way. Remember when I told you that you weren't going to like what came after me, if you decided to spit in my face metaphorically or literally as it were, let's try this again. Shall we?
Speaker 1 00:36:38 So this was all the plan was it was that way. All of you were trying to beat down the door,
Speaker 0 00:36:44 Whether all of this was the plan or not. You're still the one here who stands to lose the most. I have three questions. If you answer them, I'm willing to let you walk. Who sent you? Were you working with anyone? And if so, who and what were you sent to do?
Speaker 1 00:37:08 I was sent to kill ambassador Petrus and plant some explosive charges. Didn't even have to detonate them, myself, hardly a two person job, especially not for someone with my skillset. And you know, who sent me?
Speaker 0 00:37:26 I do say it
Speaker 1 00:37:30 Fine. Uh Lasha Decarnin are you fucking happy? And then the common motion spelled that you dropped fades because it only lasted a minute and I'm going to roll to hit with this advantage for Colossae. Even with this advantage, that is a 16. That's going to do it. As data gets through saying that a lot of the car and hired her. And then from behind you, you hear us, let me go. And then a chromatic orb goes whizzing past your ear at third level, with poison damage, which Asda being Assurion is vulnerable to that's going to be 10 D eight damage. Let me roll that real quick. So that's 73 poison damage. That's gonna do it.
Speaker 0 00:38:43 Do what
Speaker 1 00:38:45 Leo, as you are standing here after you feel that chromatic orb whiz past your ear, you watch it sink into the bar, estas chest the chair she's on tilts back a little bit from the force of it. And then the chair tips back onto all four feet and she slumps forward dead.
Speaker 0 00:39:11 God dammit. I used my last spell slot to Castro. Vivify
Speaker 1 00:39:18 You don't have a diamond for the fire anymore, bud,
Speaker 0 00:39:22 Because I used it trying to bring the ambassador back. Yep. No I don't
Speaker 1 00:39:28 Fuck from behind you. Eleanora goes, what the fuck? And you hear Calissa, just make this wounded animal noise.
Speaker 0 00:39:46 Leo whips around and glares at her. Hey, Calissa, what you just did right there. The torture and the murder. Those were war crimes. And more than that, you just destroyed all credibility of any of the evidence we just got.
Speaker 1 00:40:07 Colossae looks up at you from where Eleanora is still holding onto her on the ground. She looks wrecked from all the crying she did after she found her dad. She's got black streaks of mascara just going down her cheeks. And she has set all over her from both the explosion of the embassy. And as you so eloquently, put it the war crime. She just committed. She killed my parents, Leo
Speaker 0 00:40:38 And Kimberly only knows how many of us you just killed Leo built regret his reactions to the situation later. But for now he just storms past her and Eleanora where they're on the ground and does not look at either of them. All right, crisis management. We need to make this body disappear.
Speaker 1 00:41:02 The rest of your party with the obvious exceptions of the Eleanora and Calissa and Lark who ran to get assistance are standing in the main room of this garage. In stunned silence. There is a long pause. And then the door to the main floor of the garage gets kicked in. And Tony with a Y comes in with a fire extinguisher and sprays down your entire party.
Speaker 0 00:41:33 Thank you, Tony, for that intervention. That's about five minutes too late. Unfortunately it does nothing about the dead body in your back room.
Speaker 1 00:41:43 He was very obviously ready to go to bed for the night. He's wearing pajamas under a bathrobe and he's got an eye mask pushed up over his hair. And he says, as a white,
Speaker 0 00:41:54 You know, I would say, don't worry about it. But on the off chance that the rest of us can't figure out how to make a dead body disappear. I feel like you might have some connections. So anybody options,
Speaker 1 00:42:08 Mia reaches up two fingers on each hand and delicately swipes fire extinguisher foam off of one eye and then the other and flicks it off onto the floor. I might be able to do a little something, something on a privacy though.
Speaker 0 00:42:25 Uh, fine. Let's all just head back to aunt Norris,
Speaker 1 00:42:32 With the exception of Mia who cracks their knuckles and then steps into the back room, ushering Eleanora, Calissa, and fi out as they go in you all head back to your on Nora's house.
Speaker 0 00:42:48 Fi your aunt's house is in chaos. When you get back, your uncle Burris has apparently made it back here since the explosion at the embassy and is just pacing. The length of the foyer, big streaks of soot and Ash smeared across his face. He whirls around on his heels, sees all of you coming in through the front door and then turns around up the stairs and yells Nora, your aunt and your uncle, Aaron, both wearing pajamas and looking severely stressed out, appear at the top of the stairs. Nora gets her eyes on all of you and lets out a sob and just runs down the stairs. She pulls Adrian into her arms first and then reaches over and grabs Lark and a big hug. Oh, thank Kimra. Okay. Okay. We'll figure this out. LARC is like half a second into this hug before they just burst into tears, sobbing into their mother's shoulder while she is petting LARCs hair down and trying to Sue them.
Speaker 0 00:43:53 She looks over their shoulder and regards the rest of you. Nobody hears in good shape. You're all dirty covered in varying degrees of soot and Ash Leo's robes are all torn up from your chase. Through the alleyways. The captain is nursing a pretty nasty looking burn up. One of his forearms and Calissa stands in the doorway. Uncertainly, shaking like a leaf. You see, Elanora disappear off to the side, into the sitting room for a second and then come back with a big knitted blanket that she wraps around Colossae shoulders and ushers her. All right, come on, come on. We've got to get you warmed up. You're going to get sick. Nora kind of steps to the side and nods up the stairs, the fireplace and my study's lit take her up there and then feed. She finally makes eye contact with you. What happened? We heard explosions and came back saying something about the embassy and well, he hasn't really been coherent since he got back across the foyer where he is still pacing. Your uncle Berez lets out a manic giggle.
Speaker 1 00:45:05 Can I sit down for a second first?
Speaker 0 00:45:08 Yeah, of course sitting room. Come on. YouTube. Nora grabs him by the back of his frock coat as she marches all of you off into the sitting room and he lets out another one of those high pitch to giggles. Oh, I don't know. What's more fucked. The fact that Morlin tried to be me or the fact that Morlin tried to kill me.
Speaker 1 00:45:33 Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Fi reaches up to Festa, both hands in her hair as Nora ushers, all of them in the sitting room. And she sits down on one of the couches
Speaker 0 00:45:42 Across the coffee table from you, Zed settles down on another sofa with a weary sigh and Leo just kind of crawls into his lap and buries his face and his shoulder for a second. Floria Jabara also came back to the house with you. You see him shrugging this thin black pashmina shawl off and wrapping it around Arivale shoulders. As he leads her over to the broadcasting device and turns it on Sabine. And the captain are huddled in one corner. You see Sabine kind of flicking her wrist to cast a cure wounds and then press her hand very gently over this big burn that the captain has up the side of his arm. Ravine looks freaked. You see his nails start to elongate a little bit and a couple of little mushroom caps pop up along his hairline and a Verity is just actively sobbing in the doorway.
Speaker 0 00:46:36 Cylindra looking numb, comes up behind both of them and gets an arm around both their shoulders, pulls them down onto the nearest love seat with her and just kind of tugs them both into her lap and starts petting their hair down Larkin. ATRA both kind of shrink back from the doorway and head off down the hall. You get the feeling that they're headed to Adria's lab to kind of decompress by themselves. Fen draws up behind this couch that you're sitting on fi and kind of just rubs at your shoulders for a second. And then when you look down, you're not quite sure when she got there, but Laurel Iesha chrono is curled up on the rug with her head leaning against your knee. One hand just kind of gripping at your skirts. And for a moment, all that you do is just sit there and look at each other as the distance strains of emergency news reports of an explosion at the Australian embassy float out from this broadcasting device across an otherwise silent sitting room
Speaker 1 00:47:40 Fi takes a really deep breath and then smooth down her skirts reaches out to squeeze Lorelei shoulder and then nods and says, well, uh, ambassador and lady Petrus are dead as are all of the people that were still in the embassy. When the explosion went off,
Speaker 0 00:48:03 You watch your aunt Nora's fists go tight in the fabric of her pants. And what you're saying that this was more or less,
Speaker 1 00:48:12 Uh, the person that killed the ambassador and set the explosive charges said that Alicia sent them and I am making the assumption that she did that at father's behest because he came to the garage, magically impersonating uncle and separated me from the group right before everything started to go bad.
Speaker 0 00:48:36 Arivale from where she's standing with Florian over next to this broadcasting device looks up eyes going wide. So the garage is compromised then we've, we've got a born, the Tony's fuck Florian, come on. The two of them sweep out of the sitting room and you hear the front door open and close behind them as they leave your aunt. Nora is still just staring down at the rug, fists going even more white knuckled in her lap. But that's, I, I don't understand Eamon was his best friend. Why would he Leo kind of extricate himself from this big hug that said has had him wrapped up in and looks around at all of you. If you'll all, just give me a moment. And he stands up dusts off the front of his robes and leaves UC Zed kind of reach out for him from the couch and stand up boss, come on. But Leo's gone. And Zed follows him out. Not much later.
Speaker 1 00:49:44 When you think about it, it was a win-win situation for them, either way, a lot of how there's political enemies died. If I hadn't gotten back in time to warn everyone, several members of our party would have died. And even though I did now, they get to pin all of this only. I assume that's why I had to turn up to the party late. Alicia set all this up and she wouldn't agree to it. If there was a possibility I would be there. I'm not sure how they figured out we were meeting at the garage, but that's burned. We can't go back there.
Speaker 0 00:50:24 Your aunt Nora does not look up from where her head is in her hands because he came here and asked me, and I thought your uncle Berez has settled down in an arm chair on the far side of the room. Kind of just rocking back and forth. Yeah, about that. We shared a womb Nora and he still managed to pull the wool over your eyes. Nora does not look at him well to his credit. He knows how to fake your asthma attacks pretty well. And the last time you came to me looking at that panicked and I questioned you. You yelled at me. I hate, I should've seen it. I could have stopped all of this before it began, but the damage is done. We should all try to get some rest. However, this plays out, we won't help ourselves by sitting around and fussing over it from the foyer.
Speaker 0 00:51:22 You hear the front door open again, and a couple seconds later, one Mia Sandis walks into the sitting room. There's a weird cognitive dissonance with how pristine they are in comparison to how to shoveled and dirty. The rest of your party is there is not a single stain on their clothes. They don't have a scratch on them. They look in conquer, honestly. Perfect Fen pushes himself back from where he's been rubbing at your shoulders and takes three big strides across the room and pulls them into his arms. Mia midway through being crushed by this hug, kind of says muffled into the front offense, breast plate. Right? Well, whoever that lady was working for, they ain't going to trace her back to the garage, which means they ain't going to trace her back to us sugar. Can you let go of me? I can't breathe Fen obliges and lets them go kind of steps back for a second and then leans in and down to kiss them on the forehead. All right. Well, I would say let's all just try to take a step back and retire for the night, but we don't really have anywhere to retire to
Speaker 1 00:52:42 Uh, yeah. Some of us are transiting the sitting room for the night. I'll I'll go get blankets,
Speaker 0 00:52:49 Fen reaches out and gets you by the wrist. We'll handle it. You go check on Colossae. She's going to want to talk to you more than any of the rest of us right now.
Speaker 1 00:53:00 Uh, yeah, you're right. And then he's going to head up the stairs to the study.
Speaker 0 00:53:06 You go upstairs in the hallway, you pass your brother and said kind of around a corner, having a very hushed conversation, but it seems like they don't want to be interrupted the door to your aunt. Nora study is open. The fireplace in there is roaring, crackling and curled up in one of the armchairs. You see, Colossae still wrapped in the blanket that Eleanora put around her shoulders. Eleanora is a knelt down on the floor in front of her. But as she sees you come in, she stands up, leans down to kiss Colossae on top of the head and goes, okay, I'll be right back. I'll be right back. And then comes out into the hallway. Eleanora Ash thorn is much smaller in stature than you fee, but she projects a stability and a sense of steadiness that is larger than life. As she kind of pulls you away from the doorframe. She looks up at you, these big luminous, yellow goblin Lloyd eyes kind of squinting. All right. She won't tell me she's cold, but she's shaking like a leaf. I'm going to go downstairs and get her some tea or some hot chocolate or something. Can you just watch her til I get back?
Speaker 1 00:54:36 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I've got her
Speaker 0 00:54:40 Elenora reaches up, grabs you by the bicep and shakes you a little bit. All right, cool. And then she turns around and sweeps down the stairs. What do you do?
Speaker 1 00:54:54 I'm going to go in the study and sit down next to
Speaker 0 00:54:59 Colossae is wrapped up in this blanket that Eleanora put around her shoulders. As soon as he walked back in and she does not look up to acknowledge you. She is just staring into the crackling flames of the fireplace.
Speaker 1 00:55:14 Fetus sits down. I think she's going to turn one hand Palm up in her lap, just in case
Speaker 0 00:55:26 There's a long pause, but then Calissa reaches out and close as her hand over your open Palm and squeezes. Really hard. Do you want me to say, I'm sorry, Leo does.
Speaker 1 00:55:42 Do you want the honest answer to that? Or do you want the answer that's going to make you feel better
Speaker 0 00:55:49 Sitting around waiting for the answers that would make me feel better killed my family fee. Please be honest.
Speaker 1 00:55:57 I think that what you did came from a place of a lot of pain. And I understand that. I also think that it was poorly thought out and it was wrong and you shouldn't have done it, but I know better than to expect an apology for it.
Speaker 0 00:56:21 She keeps staring into the, as Australia and Colossae has kind of reflective cat-like eyes with these slit pupils. And you can see the flames just kind of reflecting off of them. She squeezes your hand so tight that your bones ache. Do you remember what you promised me after Soren died?
Speaker 1 00:56:48 I promised you that all these motherfuckers were going to burn
Speaker 0 00:56:54 Every single button of them. You said
Speaker 1 00:56:59 Calissa. If you're looking for me to tell you that you made the right call by torturing and murdering a woman that was tied to a chair, I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 0 00:57:10 I don't give a shit. If I made the right call fee, roll me in our Connor check with advantage because you are rolling on Colossae,
Speaker 1 00:57:22 Uh, 15
Speaker 0 00:57:24 Meats. It beats at
Speaker 0 00:57:29 You have known Colossae Petrus for most of your life. Her magic is very familiar to you. It is wizard's magic academic. She trained at the order of I Luna to potentially become a wizard, but in her adult life, you saw her transition, that knowledge into becoming an arcane trickster rogue. You have a pretty innate sense when it comes to magic, you know its source, you know its power. As you sit here with Colossae, as she is not making eye contact with you as she is staring into the crackling flames of your aunt Nora's fireplace, you feel something primal and raw and wrathful coming off of her. Her gaze is just fixed on the white hot center of this fire in the hearth and the longer she looks at it, the more you see the flame start to warp and change. If you watch it for a few more minutes, you can start to see things reaching out of the flames that look almost like outstretched hands, reaching out to wards, Colossus free hand, which you watch her slowly start to extend. They're all going to burn. Every single one of them Colossae has been leveling a bit behind the rest of our party. So she's going to take two levels right now. She has been a straight leveled arcane trickster rogue throughout this whole campaign. She is now also a circle of wildfire Druid
Speaker 0 00:59:31 Fi before you could do anything to react to this in quick succession, Eleanora comes back with a steaming mug of tea and an extra blanket draped over one arm kind of comes in, gives her the tea and tries to get her to her feet. And in the doorway behind her, you see Leo eyes bloodshot, like he has been crying and having an absolute meltdown, kind of perching in the doorway, looking at you and raising an eyebrow,
Speaker 1 01:00:05 The purses, her lips into a very thin line nod at him and then brushes off her skirts and stands up. Yeah, I think we should all go to bed
Speaker 0 01:00:19 Eleanora. Isn't paying you much mind. She's in the process of draping this extra blanket over Calissa shoulders and ushering her out of the room. They disappeared on the hallway and you are left with Leo still with one hip leaning against the doorway, arms crossed over his chest.
Speaker 1 01:00:40 This is fucked. This is all so, so fucked.
Speaker 0 01:00:49 Leo screws, his eyes shut and grits his teeth. Yeah. You're telling me you, uh, want to go for a walk in the garden real quick.
Speaker 1 01:01:01 Yeah, sure, sure. Let's do that.
Speaker 0 01:01:05 He walks you down the stairs and outside to the back garden to the freshly turned plot of earth where you know, a lot of his plants from his new hobby are growing. He's not really making eye contact with you. He just kind of kneels down and starts fussing with the dirt around a lot of these little sprouts. So, um, uh, Lusha made the purpose of all of this pretty clear. They need a bigger villain to rally against. And that's me. That's really the only logical thing we can infer. It's a frame job. I'm beginning to wonder if I should turn myself in.
Speaker 1 01:01:51 I don't think that's a good idea. They don't have any proof because you didn't do it and not to be too terribly grim. But most of the people that were pointing the finger at you at the party are dead now,
Speaker 0 01:02:05 Which is potentially an even worse entitlement upon me fee. If I can pull this off of everybody else,
Speaker 1 01:02:14 We talked about this
Speaker 0 01:02:17 Leo yang. So we'd up out of the dirt and kind of throws it over a shoulder. Yeah. That's what said, said to,
Speaker 1 01:02:27 And you don't think maybe that should be an indicator.
Speaker 0 01:02:31 I think that I know who father and are trying to take down with all of this.
Speaker 1 01:02:37 So what do you think you should just walk into whatever their plan is?
Speaker 0 01:02:42 I think they're not expecting me to.
Speaker 1 01:02:45 I think that's bullshit one way or another. They expect you to go down for this and yeah, all the rest of us can Mount a rescue mission. That's if you don't get a knife in the back before we get there, you said we were facing things together. I don't agree to this.
Speaker 0 01:03:11 Leo purses, his lips, and kind of leans down to fuss over this very tiny little green sprout. That is just barely coming up through the soil. You know, auntie Nora until Andra and her pain, all three of them told me that this was a wasted effort, but it's growing. You know what? They call this, the Juul orchid it's finicky. And it's hard to work with. And it only blooms once a year. But if you can catch it, it's got the prettiest flower you could ever imagine. Huge. Don't agree to this. That's fine. But whatever happens next. I just want you to know that I planted it for you. I'm going to go find said he's a goddamn mess. Hopefully we'll have the space to figure all of this out in the morning.
Speaker 1 01:04:19 Yeah. Hopefully he's going to turn around and go back inside. Before she starts crying.
Speaker 0 01:04:30 You go back inside and get caught almost immediately in the kitchen by Sabine who looks like she was headed out to the back garden to try to find you. She kind of pulls you into this big hug and just squeezes you super tight. There's not much else we can do left. Let's just go to bed.
Speaker 1 01:04:53 Yeah. Yeah, let's do that.
Speaker 0 01:05:00 She takes you upstairs to your shared room with her and the captain. The captain is splayed out across the bed with a big swath of bandages across one of his arms, milking it for all it's worth. I've given so much for the cause. Who's going to come hold me and tell me I did a good job,
Speaker 1 01:05:22 Fetus, lots out of noise, just, and then she's just going to like drop onto the bed and curl up next to him.
Speaker 0 01:05:34 Not long after you do that. Sabine kind of address her way onto the other side of the bed and slings and arm around both of you. And without much further fanfare, the three, if you fall into your trans Fee, you are pretty sure that you're dreaming. You were gained lucidity on your hands and knees on top of a very familiar by this point, rolling stormy ocean. If you stop long enough to consider your surroundings. So you can see that there is a distant flashing light off to one side,
Speaker 1 01:06:22 Clenches her fists on top of the water, nods to herself, and then dives in
Speaker 0 01:06:31 You go under this water. It is bitterly, breathtakingly cold, and then emerge, coughing up salt water on a beach of black sand and directly above you crouching down on the speech. You see a looming storm cloaked figure with bright electric, blue eyes and a lightning bolt, smile leaning down over you.
Speaker 3 01:07:07 Well, here we are. Again,
Speaker 1 01:07:12 Fear is just going to lay down on this black sand beach and look up at Kiva and say, in case you haven't noticed, I've had a rough night. So if you have something to say, just say,
Speaker 0 01:07:26 KIBO looms over you, where you are laying flat on your back on the speech and that lightning bolt smile widens by a few more inches.
Speaker 3 01:07:39 Well, it's not so much that I have something to say
Speaker 0 01:07:43 As it is that I have something to show
Speaker 0 01:07:51 And then fee you are strapped in. You were along for the ride. There is this whooshing sound in your ears and you are yanked forward off of your prone position on this beach into a sequence of visions that can only be called terrible and confusing. In quick succession, you see two children playing on this beach. You're reticent to call them in fertile ELLs because they look different. Their horns are bigger and more Jagen and their canine teeth are larger. But other than that, they look basically as Tarion, as they play in the surf and skip rocks out along the water, and then your vision sort of blurs. And you are now looking at this older again, you're hesitant to call him a strawberry and man, because of how big his canine teeth are and how Jagen his horns are staring out over a gray storm tossed, see, and then your vision blurs again, and you are watching a person that you absolutely recognize as your father stepping out of a rowboat onto this black sand beach and through all of this, as if timing it, you are seeing the slow rhythmic flash of a lighthouse turning around and around and around.
Speaker 0 01:09:37 You are rooted in place on this beach, but Kiva as all of these visions flash in front of you is taking steps closer and closer and closer to you until you feel those by now familiar cold pale hands brace themselves on either side of your face.
Speaker 3 01:10:01 You are so close to the truth, but what you have to realize now is that that truth comes with the cost. Are you willing to pay it
Speaker 1 01:10:19 Fi even in the dream feeling, the weird crustiness of and Ash on her skin wraps her arms around herself and says, no, not if it's any of them.
Speaker 0 01:10:38 And fi you wake up in a cold sweat.
Speaker 1 01:10:46 Leo, we cut down the hall to you where you are. Trancing in bed. Zed has one arm slung over you and his face buried in her hair, sound asleep, snoring, and you start to dream. You are on a calm, flat black. See you are in the middle of a dense fog from behind you. You can see a light cutting through it, rotating. And in front of you stands Kim roll board of bones.
Speaker 0 01:11:33 Leo attempts to write himself on this flat surface of water.
Speaker 1 01:11:39 What cameral tilt his head to the side and says,
Speaker 4 01:11:48 From what guts?
Speaker 0 01:11:52 No, no, I am tired of watching anybody else's suffer over this. I am tired of watching. Colossae suffer over it. Look to my knee, just do to fix it.
Speaker 1 01:12:06 Kimra leans a little closer, his great horned head bobbing on his neck, like a snake, The purple silver lights, where his eyes should be flare. And he almost looks like he's smiling. As he says. And then your perspective shifts, you're not on top of an ocean. You are beneath it standing just below the surface and this fog drifts up out of it and coalesces into thousands and thousands of ghosts. And you know, in your heart that they are all looking at you and above you as this light turns and turns, you see a huge gaping chasm.
Speaker 0 01:13:10 Okay? So I'm under the water. Leo's going to follow that advice. He's going to have faith. He opens his mouth. It takes a big breath and
Speaker 1 01:13:25 You wake up choking on seawater to the sounds of someone beating down your door.
Speaker 0 01:13:37 What the hell
Speaker 1 01:13:39 Zed next to you in bed is sitting up, rubbing his eyes clearly going, or is it,
Speaker 0 01:13:46 Uh, Leo is going to volt out of bed and frantically pull on a bathrobe.
Speaker 1 01:13:51 You have just enough time to do that. And then the door bursts open and a bunch of older and city guard flood your bedroom. Shit.
Speaker 0 01:14:04 Yeah, we knew this was coming. I put my hands up.
Speaker 1 01:14:07 One of these guards comes over and cannot reach your hands because they are above your head, but says, layer of Val sign. You are under arrest by orders of the emperor down the hall. You can hear similar noises coming from the direction of fee and the captain's beans room. You hear the captain yelling as he goes, it's fine. It's fine.
Speaker 0 01:14:32 Leo makes eye contact with Zed and slowly puts his hands down to where these guards can get at them. Don't
Speaker 1 01:14:41 Zed. It looks like he's considering it. Roll a persuasion check
Speaker 0 01:14:46 22.
Speaker 1 01:14:48 You watch said grit his teeth, but he does not move. You get handcuffed and dragged out to the hallway. You see fi kneeling with her face pressed against the wall, handcuffed behind her back and you see your aunt Nora in her pajamas at the end of the hallway, yelling. If I've told you idiots, once I've told you a hundred times, we all have diplomatic immunity. And then one of the Voltaren city guards goes, Megan, you're padded, ma'am diplomatic immunity. Doesn't cover one count of Metta, much less 26.
Speaker 0 01:15:23 We didn't do this. And that is the only thing you're hearing out of any of us until we are given access to some legal representation,
Speaker 1 01:15:30 The city guard that has you cuffed snorts and goes, yeah, you're going to be keeping your mouth shut for a while. Then kid
Speaker 0 01:15:39 Leo, just glares and then turns around to everybody else gathered in the hallway. Okay? Everybody just stay calm. We're going to sort this out
Speaker 1 01:15:48 At this point, your entire party has come out into this hallway. You see till, and you're trying to keep Lorelei back in the room that they've been staying in. And Laura lie, trying to peek out around her. You see ravine with a white knuckled grip around Verity's hand, and you see Calissa blanket around her shoulders, arms wrapped around herself, standing in the doorway of the room that Eleanora has been saying, and, and Eleanora has one arm locked around her arm. And the other one locked around the doorframe Zedd at this point has gotten out of bed to stand in the doorway. He locks eyes with you, raises an eyebrow like, okay, now can I fuck these people up?
Speaker 0 01:16:29 Leo meets his eyes and shakes his head. Almost imperceptibly. It's going to be fine. Truth wins out. Right? And then he looks back at all of the guards that are swarming this hallway. Gentlemen, if you don't mind, my family has been through enough. Should we perhaps take this somewhere more private?
Speaker 1 01:16:50 You see that fee is making a very similar kind of eye contact with Sabina and the captain that you are with the Zed. The captain has a hand on his Cutlass and Sabina's buckling on one of her bell cuffs and the guard that appears to be in charge of all the others, dust his hands off and says, couldn't have said it better myself, boys take them. And you and your sister get dragged out of this house.
Speaker 0 01:17:19 So fi you've been to jail before you end up back at the same precinct that you and the captain were held at after you held the news crew at sword point In a cell with quite a bit more security than the last one you inhabited. You're in your pajamas, your brother's in a bathrobe. You're both barefoot. And Leo is just pacing from the moment this cell door locks behind you.
Speaker 1 01:17:53 What do you sit down? I can't hear myself think over the sound of your impending anxiety attack.
Speaker 0 01:17:59 No, I will not sit down. Number one because pacing helps me think. And number two, because I am full commando under this bathrobe and I don't trust the sanitation standards in this place.
Speaker 1 01:18:10 You
Speaker 0 01:18:11 Leo makes it to the other end of the cell and turns on his heel again. Okay. So this is fucked. Any physical evidence that might've existed got destroyed in the embassy explosion. So now all the courts have to go on is the stories of the people that survived. You know, the people that watch Maximus grey river accused me of murder a couple of minutes before dying himself.
Speaker 1 01:18:36 I'll admit that when you say it like that, it doesn't sound good.
Speaker 0 01:18:40 Leo's eye twitches a little bit. Yeah, no, it doesn't sound great fee. The worst case scenario here is that we go down for a crime. We didn't commit the war goes ahead and there's no one to stop father from doing whatever heinous shit he has planned next. So yeah, I would say that our backs are up against the wall. Just a little.
Speaker 1 01:19:03 Yes. And I'm sure the most productive use of our time is talking to me like I'm stupid Leo
Speaker 0 01:19:09 For going his earlier concerns about hygiene. Leo sits down on one of the metal bunks in this room, picks up a pillow and just screams into it for a long time. But eventually he looks back up at you. All right. Well, I guess all we can do at this point is wait,
Speaker 1 01:19:29 I guess so fi sits down on the other bunk, looking as dignified as she can in her flowery night gown with her hair up, right?
Speaker 0 01:19:45 You two are sweating it out for a couple hours before anything happens after a long while you hear a door down at the end of the cell block open and your uncle Bearius of all people walks up with a big leather duffel bag slung over his shoulder. One of the city guards unlocks your cell door and he sort of just shoves the bag around it at the two of you. All right, make yourselves decent. We need to talk
Speaker 1 01:20:16 Fi grabs the bag and opened it
Speaker 0 01:20:19 Inside is a change of clothes for both you and Leo. He's got a nice set of kind of just everyday clothes folded up on one side of this bag. And then you have various corsetry and under things and address folded up on the other. And across the top of this bag is a neatly folded gift of the storm bringer.
Speaker 1 01:20:45 Oh yeah. If he is grabbing the Cape and just hugging it to her chest for a second, and then she looks up at her uncle Bray is kind of confused and goes, did you just come by to give us a change of clothes?
Speaker 0 01:21:00 Your uncle heaves, a long suffering side? No, I'm your lawyer, which you could have inferred. If you had ever bothered at any point for Aurora to ask me what I do for a living,
Speaker 1 01:21:14 I assumed you just lived off of the Royal stipend and collected books.
Speaker 0 01:21:20 I did that for several decades, but then I got bored and went to law school, which is playing out in your favor. So maybe don't ask too many questions about it.
Speaker 1 01:21:28 That's fair. If he's going to get dressed.
Speaker 0 01:21:34 Yeah. You both gather your effects and get dressed from behind you. You hear a Leo go, uh, no chance. You see a Bracer in that bag anywhere.
Speaker 1 01:21:46 Uh, I'm going to look for Leah's Bracer.
Speaker 0 01:21:50 Yeah. There's no Bracer in there.
Speaker 1 01:21:53 I don't see it anywhere. Now.
Speaker 0 01:21:56 Leo finishes buttoning up his shirt and you watch his eye Twitch again. Great. After the two of you get ready, you are ushered out of the cell and a little further down the hall to a very bare bones stark conference room with a long metal table and several chairs arranged around it. Your uncle Berea sits down at the head of the table and just fully puts his head in his hands.
Speaker 1 01:22:26 Well, that seems like a bad sign.
Speaker 0 01:22:29 He does not look up. Yes. Astute assumption Ferrara. The only conclusion I can come to is that there's no evidence, not even circumstantial evidence. There's just no evidence because the embassy burned to the ground.
Speaker 1 01:22:48 W well, technically it exploded
Speaker 0 01:22:52 Just like all of my blood vessels are about to
Speaker 1 01:22:58 Look.
Speaker 0 01:22:59 All of this has pageantry. A good chunk of the Senate died last night and the bolder and machine is out for blood because of that, we cannot win this your arraignments this afternoon. And as your legal counsel, my official advice is for the two of you to say nothing until then, but as your uncle and someone who cares about the two of you very much, my advice is that if, either of you have something up your sleeve now is the time to pull it out. Your uncle stands up from this table and nods at both of you. Well, I usually say this with a great deal, more contempt, but I'll see you two in court. He opens the door to this conference room and there are several Boulder and city guards outside. Ready to escort you back to yourself. And do you watch your uncle's face go very Stony and serious in an unsettlingly familiar expression? I meant what I said to you to figure something out.
Speaker 1 01:24:13 Okay. Uh, once they're back in their cell fee, turns to Leo and goes, so any bright ideas,
Speaker 0 01:24:23 Leo starts pacing again, both hands fisted up in his hair. Okay? So let's take a comprehensive inventory of everything we've got right now, first off a political narrative that has stacked. So artfully against us, have I mentioned that father and a loss are assholes. We have no credible evidence to help us out. And I'm not overly familiar with how the vulgar and legal system works. But even assuming that we can call our own witnesses, bringing Colossae in to talk about what she did would just put her on the chopping block instead of us, which I think we can both agree. Isn't acceptable.
Speaker 1 01:25:01 No, no, obviously not.
Speaker 0 01:25:04 Leo turns on his heel at the other end of the cell keeps pacing. He's getting like more and more deranged by the second we are apparently so far up shit's Creek that our literal actual legal council is giving us veiled advice to run for the Hills. I don't have my holy symbol. You don't have your wand. You don't have your shield. What do we have?
Speaker 1 01:25:31 I have a lucky Cape and plus five to charisma.
Speaker 0 01:25:36 Leo sits down on the bunk and screams into the pillow again. After a second, he throws this pillow against the wall and just scrubs both hands down his face.
Speaker 1 01:25:49 Fuck.
Speaker 0 01:25:51 We don't even have a prayer at making it out of this.
Speaker 1 01:25:55 No, it doesn't seem like we do.
Speaker 0 01:26:00 There's a long moment of silence in cell as you and your brother are washed over by the waves of despair. And then you watch Leo's posture shift his hunched shoulders, roll back. And he sits up a little straighter on this bunk hands dropping from, in front of his face. And there's just the slightest glimmer in his eye that you by now are familiar with because you know, it means that he has a plan, a prayer. We don't have anything else, but we might have a prayer. Oh good. You've gotten insane. I'm not insane. I'm a priest. And what I'm thinking of is a long shot, but it's the best one we've got. He reaches out his hand to you as you walk in front of him. Trust me. Yeah. Always grabs his hand a few more hours pass. And then several of these guards that you've seen in and out of the cell block today, come back to your cell, put you in Leo, back in handcuffs and load you into the back of a truck for a relatively short trip to the nearest folder. In courthouse, you walk into this courtroom and the seats are packed. You spot several members of the Senate that looked familiar. Notably Tomas high veil is sitting there looking extremely worried. But what commands more of your focus is the entirety of your party lined up along like two of these big, long benches in the gallery, your aunt, Nora and uncle Aaron, both of your cousins and all of your friends are just crowded onto the seats, watching you with similar horror, struck expressions.
Speaker 0 01:28:10 You are led with your brother up to a small desk at the front of this courtroom where you see your uncle Baret waiting for you. There's another identical desk on the other side of this big aisle, down the center of the room where a little, no mish lady with her dark hair pulled back in a very severe bun is arranging a portfolio of papers in front of her. After another pause, this very old Tor Vishal lady in long black robes comes out of a back room and situates herself behind a big lectern in front of both of these desks. All right, well, we all know why we're here fee. You were the one standing closest to your uncle Burris and he leans over and up a bit into your ear. Okay. Remember when I told you that if you had anything up your sleeve to use it
Speaker 1 01:29:13 Vividly, yes. He's going to try and catch Sabine in the captain's eyes.
Speaker 0 01:29:22 The two of them are sitting at the end of one of these two big, long benches that your party has wholly occupied. Sabine is just staring at you. Wide-eyed and you notice that the captain has one of her hands wrapped up in both of his, just squeezing as hard as he can. Not too much further down the bench. You see fan who looks nauseous, sitting next to Mia, who looks weirdly calm, given the situation and is kind of just lounging against the back of this bench. Their feet kicked up on the bench in front of them with one arm, loosely draped around his shoulders.
Speaker 1 01:30:06 I don't find me being calmed that weird. I already know they don't like me.
Speaker 0 01:30:11 This no miss lady at the desk across the aisle from you gets up and starts reviewing the evidence of your whole situation. You would assume she's some kind of prosecutor and next to you under his breath, you hear Leo start to mutter in Australian priests tongue. He is going down through what sounds like every prayer he knows, and he's going to do something new and fun that he got when he hit level 10 death cleric. It is called channel divinity, divine intervention. So what that does, and I quote as an action, you can request your deities aid and roll a percentile dice. If the number of rolled is equal to, or less than your cleric level, your deity intervenes. So I am going to roll a D 100 and if I hit 10 or less, Kim, role's going to do something 41.
Speaker 1 01:31:28 Hey buddy, I know this isn't in the rules, but can I try something cool.
Speaker 0 01:31:32 Uh, what would you like to try?
Speaker 1 01:31:36 I would like to give Leo one of my roles
Speaker 0 01:31:40 From like the gift of the storm bringer, like your three roles from that.
Speaker 1 01:31:46 Yeah.
Speaker 0 01:31:51 Um, okay. You know what? Romeo religion check.
Speaker 1 01:32:09 27. What do I go with? The 27 Berry?
Speaker 0 01:32:14 Um, With a 27
Speaker 1 01:32:20 With a 27 Kiva knocked down the wall of the courthouse.
Speaker 0 01:32:25 No, hold on. I was working my way up to something with a 27 fee. You have always had this innate understanding of magic. It comes with that sort of arcane talent being in your blood and an inextricable part of you. Since you have taken those couple of palette and levels and become familiar with what that magic feels like as you stand next to your brother, going through all of these prayers under his breath, you can feel the magic beneath his skin, surging and pulsing. And you are able to understand that his magic and whatever your palette and magic is, are made of the exact same thing. You can give him not one, not two, but all three of your rolls off of the Cape for today.
Speaker 1 01:33:31 Fuck. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Uh, fi grabs the edge of her Cape and wraps it around her hand and then grabs Leo's hand.
Speaker 0 01:33:43 He squeezes your hand back super tight and keeps whispering under his breath. I'm going to reroll this channel divinity roll three times 96. No. 19. No. Okay, come on. I don't know how else we're going to fucking get out of this. Leo's cleric level is 10. He made it
Speaker 1 01:34:38 Leo all at once. The noise of the courtroom drops away and it is replaced by the sound of waves crashing against the beach. You feel your sister's hand tents around yours. And she says, oh, what the hell?
Speaker 0 01:34:59 Uh, I'm looking around, I'll roll a check. If you want,
Speaker 1 01:35:05 No need you open your eyes. And you are at the top of a black stone light house. As you look around this turning light at the top of this tower spins. So it is casting fee and sharper leaf. Next to you. She's looking around wide-eyed as this light throws her shadow long and dark into the air around this lighthouse. You look down and you see a black sand beach and past this beach crashing up against it. You see an ocean to the left in front of where fie is standing. It is storm tossed and wild and to the right in front of where you are standing, it is completely calm and glassy splits along some invisible boundary.
Speaker 0 01:36:20 Okay, well, better than a court case, we can't win. I guess, where are we? This looks familiar.
Speaker 1 01:36:34 Fiesta looking around bewildered and panicked. Uh, I, I know where we are sort of, I don't recognize. And as she's saying that something comes out of the darkness at you. You see too long, next skulls like arrowheads, and going down from these necks, you see a mess of bones and darkness and scales and weight. It is hard to look at whatever this is. It is this horrible patchwork of oil, slick like void darkness and blinding light. And what seems like a jittering skeleton, trying to move with no tissue, holding it together, whatever has come together here, you look at it and you feel wrong. Whatever this is should not exist. The way that it is. You see, as these long necks, Bob and these skulls come closer to you again, hard to look at you. Can't discern detail because looking at whatever this is physically hurts, but four pinpricks of light come out of the fog in pairs, One silvery purple and one crackling electric lit, and two voices in unison say
Speaker 3 01:38:39 Ferrara.
Speaker 0 01:38:43 So Leo's first impulse is to shriek, but he reigns that in
Speaker 1 01:38:48 Fi having less self-control than you do. Let's out a Yelp,
Speaker 0 01:38:55 Leo squeezes, a little tighter at where he still holding her hand and looks out at this horrific Eldritch being okay. Kimberly in the flesh. I'm guessing
Speaker 1 01:39:12 These two voices in unison laugh.
Speaker 3 01:39:21 Sorry, not really. It's a long story.
Speaker 1 01:39:31 And your vision goes blinding white. And that's where we're going to end this week.
Speaker 0 01:39:43 Holy Lovecraft, Batman.
Speaker 1 01:39:46 Ooh. I love flexing the old horror muscles.
Speaker 0 01:39:49 Well, I'm sure that what happens next is not going to go bad at all.
Speaker 1 01:39:54 No, no I wouldn't. Why would you think anything bad is going to come up this
Speaker 0 01:39:59 On compelled duel?
Speaker 0 01:40:15 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 Tech-Talk at compelled dual. We have a lot of other cool stuff like an official Spotify profile and official website. You could 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 are interested in supporting us. We ask that you consider heading over to patrion.com/compelled dual, 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.
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