Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hey, Barry
Speaker 1 00:00:01 Hale.
Speaker 0 00:00:03 Did you hear about the warlock that tried to defend his infernal pack?
Speaker 1 00:00:07 No. Tell me about it.
Speaker 0 00:00:09 Well, he was really just playing devil's advocate. It's time for compelled duel.
Speaker 0 00:00:28 Hello everybody. And welcome back to compelled duel. I'm Al
Speaker 1 00:00:33 And I'm Barry,
Speaker 0 00:00:34 And we are a single player. Cody, M to D and D five actual play podcast
Speaker 1 00:00:40 Previously on compelled duel. I'm Kim roll the Lord of bones.
Speaker 0 00:00:47 Your twin sister, the goddess Kiva is sitting at their desk
Speaker 1 00:00:53 Afternoon. Kiki. We've got a problem.
Speaker 0 00:00:56 You're a part of this family, young man, each his 80. I made it special.
Speaker 1 00:01:01 You made everything, mom. How special is it? You know, I don't mean to ruin everything right?
Speaker 0 00:01:09 As mother always says he can act against our natures.
Speaker 1 00:01:14 No, no, no, no, no. Hey, look at me. You, you don't get to leave me. You don't get to leave me.
Speaker 3 00:01:25 The hell was going on.
Speaker 1 00:01:31 Dirella bell sign is a young sullen elf girl.
Speaker 0 00:01:36 Uh, Lander for reasons of his twin is blunter that a baseball bat has gotten very good at being very charming to authority figures.
Speaker 1 00:01:46 And as you are holding this core of power inside of you, and it is singing out through your veins with every labored pound of your heart, it is all yours. And do you feel like you could move mountains with it?
Speaker 0 00:02:04 Ellender lets go of his sister's hand,
Speaker 3 00:02:08 We had a deal
Speaker 0 00:02:10 And I had a choice. You said yourself that I had a choice. I'm making it
Speaker 1 00:02:18 Say I make it my job to stop you from doing this. What happens then?
Speaker 0 00:02:24 Then I suppose it would be a question of which of us stops the other first. Wouldn't it. You still have a choice.
Speaker 1 00:02:34 She drops her shield to the floor with a clatter and then reaches out to grab his hand. I've made my choice, make yours. So fi After you experienced the fullness of everything we just talked about in the last two episodes, The origins and fates of Kimra and Kiva and the history of your family. Going back over 10,000 years, Your vision White's out, You are no longer standing at the top of this lighthouse in whatever weird Demi plane, you and your brother had been zapped to. You can't perceive anything other than the vice-like grip of Leo's hand around yours. There is a sensation of acceleration and G-Force like you are being pulled somewhere at a very high speed, A loud popping noise. And then you fall hard on your back. Leo landing, not far behind you onto a pile of
Speaker 2 00:03:59 Old
Speaker 1 00:03:59 Pizza boxes and crumpled up newspaper and smelly old food. You're looking up at the inside of the caldera of this volcano that the city of Boulder sits in. And you hear the sounds of traffic in the street. People talking, walking around, As you sort of reorient yourself, you realize that you have appeared out of thin air and fallen into a dumpster behind a pizzeria.
Speaker 0 00:04:33 Yeah. All right. This is a new low for fate
Speaker 1 00:04:39 Beside you. Leo is laying flat on his back on top of all this trash dazed and staring up at the ceiling. How about that? There are dragons on the moon.
Speaker 0 00:04:57 This raises some deeply troubling questions about them. All people,
Speaker 1 00:05:04 You know this whole time I've been asking myself what's up with MEO. What's their deal? Are they an international super spy? Are they a covert government agent? No, they're from the moon.
Speaker 0 00:05:19 This is fucked. This is fucked. And fee's gonna leverage herself up to cling to the side of the dumpster out of the trash
Speaker 1 00:05:29 And not for nothing fee. As you sit up, you feel this surge of magical power crackling under your skin. And in this ordeal you have picked up another sourcer level.
Speaker 0 00:05:41 Sweet. I have rotting cheese in my clouds.
Speaker 1 00:05:44 There's a half-eaten piece of pizza stuck in your hair. It's not pleasant. Leo beside you also starts climbing out. He's got like a smear of old ranch dressing down one cheek. Okay, well we obviously can't go back to aunt Nora's house. That'll be the first place the authorities look for us.
Speaker 0 00:06:05 Okay. So what do you suggest we do? Because from where I'm standing, the sum total of what we have is, and she grabs her cloak and kind of flutters it a little bit, a magic Cape that has no more magic in it for the day and what charm and good books.
Speaker 1 00:06:26 Leo shakes, a half eaten, pickle spear out of his pants, leg and starts pacing. Yeah, accurate inventory. Uh, neither of us have our spell focuses. Do you have your beacon coin?
Speaker 0 00:06:39 It is on the bedside table back at Norris house.
Speaker 5 00:06:45 Fuck.
Speaker 1 00:06:46 And I can't get a sending spell off without my holy symbol. I mean, I'd have to find material components. If I wanted to do it, it's not like there's much left for us in Boulder. The longer we're here, the more of a liability it becomes. And if whatever we just saw is any indication, our next step is Luxal Gallen whatever father's pulling his power from. It's there. If we can cut that off,
Speaker 0 00:07:14 Then we can stop this at the root. Okay. Uh, feet scrubs the hand back through her hair. I know that some ships from the fleet were on route. I don't think anyone's here yet, but it can't hurt to go down to the docks to meet them. Can it
Speaker 1 00:07:34 Well, heading for the docs puts us in a good place to get out of the city who at least I guess, but how are we going to tell everybody else that's where we're going or that we're even alive. Oh, Kim rolls bones and said was there, oh God, I disappeared on set again. Leo brings both hands up, fists them in his hair and just looks panicked.
Speaker 0 00:07:58 Uh, neither of us can get her spoke. Asim focuses without going back to the house. Uh, I guess we're gonna have to try and find material components.
Speaker 1 00:08:13 Okay. Okay. Yeah. Um, I don't have my prayer book, but I remember sending, sending his copper wire, right?
Speaker 0 00:08:23 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I can't believe I'm going to say this, but thank Carol for a losses. Magic lessons. Uh, I, I need paper. I need to try to write things down.
Speaker 1 00:08:36 Rolling investigation. Check for me.
Speaker 0 00:08:39 Okay. Yeah. I'm rolling investigation to Paul through the dumpster. I just landed in Five
Speaker 1 00:08:48 With a five. You scavenge through this dumpster looking for some kind of paper product and inadvertently stick your hand a half empty bowl of moldy pasta.
Speaker 0 00:08:58 Yeah, no, no. I'm getting out of the dumpster. I'm done. I'm out. I'm out.
Speaker 1 00:09:06 Leo's facial expression shifts to that of a war hero facing down impossible odds in the final battle Grabbed me by my ankles. I'm going in
Speaker 0 00:09:24 Leo. Don't it's not worth it.
Speaker 1 00:09:27 Self sacrifices, my whole thing. Okay. Just let me take one for the team, grabbed my ankles. I'm going in.
Speaker 0 00:09:34 I I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 1 00:09:37 Cool. If I get lost forever in there, it's on you then. And Leo dives into the dumpster. I'm going to roll investigation for him 15
Speaker 0 00:09:49 While he's doing that. I'm going to try and see if I can find anything useful in the parts of this alley that are not full of decaying pizza.
Speaker 1 00:09:58 Um, okay. If you are trying to source material components for spells, that's going to be in our check
Speaker 0 00:10:06 13,
Speaker 1 00:10:08 Okay. With a 13, you find a half empty water bottle, which, you know, you can use the water in it to cast a tidal wave spell and a small lump of coal, which you know, would be one half of the material components for a darkness spell. And also you find this kind of rusty pocket knife with a cracked casing. It's a weapon it's better than nothing. I am going to establish. Now there are spells that you can cast with no material components. You and Leo both have several of these on your spell sheet. They just have verbal and sematic components. You can technically cast without a spell casting focus if you wanted to. But because an arcane focus does so much specific narrowing of the magical power in Nate, in your bodies. If you want to cast something that does not need a material component without your focus, it is going to be an Arconic check of 10. Plus the level of the spell you are trying to cast not going to be easy. So even for a canned trip, it's a DC 10 Arconic check or the spell fizzles.
Speaker 0 00:11:28 And if the smell fizzles that would use up the spell slot I was using, right?
Speaker 1 00:11:33 Yes, it would
Speaker 0 00:11:35 Cool. Who, who, who, who, who
Speaker 1 00:11:39 Leo succeeded on that investigation checks. So he found what he was looking for, but he's not, unscaved he crawls out of this dumpster, looking traumatized with a piece of cheesy bread, stuck to his back. I
Speaker 7 00:11:53 A napkin and a golf pencil.
Speaker 0 00:11:56 That'll work. That's just get this list together.
Speaker 1 00:12:02 You've been Leo, put your heads together and start working on this list of components. There are quite a few things on it that you would probably be able to find just from rooting around on the street. Things like alcohol or a leather strap, or a bit of copper wire, which you know that Leo needs to be able to cast sending. There are a couple things that you're probably going to have to go to an apothecary to get things like Micah and phosphorus and licorice root. And then there is some hyper specific stuff, stuff like back for and an Amber rod and silver pins that you guys know you're going to have to go to a wizard's tower or a magical supply shop to get,
Speaker 8 00:12:55 Oh, lab's highly unfortunate.
Speaker 1 00:13:00 Leo stares down at this list and just runs a hand back through his hair, looking stressed. Okay. I need to go consult the spirits or whatever the fuck it is I can do now to maybe try to get a little help with finding all of this stuff. How about while I do that, you go sniff around, outside the alley and see if you can dig up some copper wire. We need to get ahold of everybody.
Speaker 0 00:13:31 Uh, yeah. Do you want me to roll our content again?
Speaker 1 00:13:35 Yes, please.
Speaker 0 00:13:37 Okay. 17.
Speaker 1 00:13:42 Okay. You find a few things out here on the street at the mouth of this alley. You take this list written on the napkin and start looking around. You find things that are all stuff that Leo had written down. So you find an empty bottle with just a little bit of liquor left sloshing at the bottom. You find a short piece of a leather strap, like from a bag or something and lodged in a crack in the sidewalk. You see an earring that has apparently fallen out of someone's ear. It is this little piece of jewelry with a black obsidian stone that has been artfully wrapped in a copper wire. You don't know how well you eyeball it with only a 17, but it looks like if you unraveled the wire around this earring, you would have enough material component for a few sending spells. I think you're standing there fiddling with the class on this earring. When you hear a soft pop and then a voice directly next to your ear saying, don't scream. Don't react. Just keep doing what you're doing.
Speaker 0 00:15:09 Do I recognize the voice?
Speaker 1 00:15:12 Oh undoubtedly. It's a, Lasha You look around and you can't see her. There's nobody standing next to you where this voice just came from.
Speaker 0 00:15:22 But I'm like out in public. Right? I assume that as I moved out of the alley, I pulled my hood over my head, but I'm like out where people could see me if I yelled, right?
Speaker 1 00:15:35 Yeah, absolutely. You're on a sidewalk down this folder, inside street, out in front of the pizzeria whose dumpster, you just landed in and there are people milling about going about their business.
Speaker 0 00:15:49 Okay. Then feed doesn't scream. She's gonna try to duck a little bit out of sight. Uh, she's not going back to the alley with Leo, but I'm going to try to roll a stealth check.
Speaker 1 00:16:04 Okay. Go ahead and do that for me.
Speaker 0 00:16:08 12,
Speaker 1 00:16:10 You get a couple weird looks from passer-by, but nobody calls you out. Nobody tries to make a citizens arrest or anything. You kind of get the feeling that you need to vacate this area pretty soon though, because you notice a couple people notice you And a luscious voice still very near your ear says, okay, things have gone off the rails. Do you have a way out?
Speaker 0 00:16:40 What in the world makes you think? I would tell you that
Speaker 1 00:16:45 You hear a sigh and the crunch of grit on the pavement. Like somebody is starting to pace in this empty space next to you Because you're in a tight spot, the tightest spot you've ever been in and you need someone's help to get out of it. Look, I understand that we've had our disagreements, but you can't stay in this city anymore. Fee. It is too dangerous. I I'll talk to your father. We'll figure something out, amnesty for Leo, whatever it takes, but you can't be here anymore. Oh, we're
Speaker 0 00:17:27 Getting out of here. But I have zero reason to trust anything that you say or any help that you would offer. And even if that offer was genuine, I'm not leaving without Leo and you don't want to run into him right now.
Speaker 1 00:17:47 There's a pause. And then a luscious boy sounding very confused, goes, why wouldn't I
Speaker 0 00:17:57 Alesha do the words you remember what happened? When a Donna found us out, sound familiar.
Speaker 1 00:18:07 You hear a sharp intake of breath and then a long moment of silence.
Speaker 0 00:18:15 Yeah. And you know what? I wouldn't stop him
Speaker 1 00:18:22 Next to you. You hear a law HSA suck in a breath through her teeth. Leo's mother was a good woman And a dear friend. But at the end of the day, the truth isn't for everybody. And, uh, Donna asked questions that would have put all of us at risk.
Speaker 0 00:18:51 When you say all of us, do you mean all of us? Or do you mean you
Speaker 1 00:18:58 True to form? Elijah does not give you a straight answer. Instead she sighs again and says, let me tell you something about the beacon fee. There is nothing, it likes more than a power vacuum. When you and your brother disappeared from that courtroom, you became the two most valuable political bargaining chips in the known world They are coming. And this city is about to get a lot more dangerous. You need to not be here. When the people that come looking for you arrive, You don't have to leave with me. I understand why you don't want to, but you need to leave.
Speaker 0 00:19:51 Alicia, let me be as blunt as I possibly can. And hope that this the last time I need to say this, your advice and your assistance are both unnecessary and unwanted. You have made it crystal clear where your allegiances lie at the end of the day. And it is not with me.
Speaker 1 00:20:16 That's not true.
Speaker 0 00:20:19 Every time it has come down to a choice between me and my father. You have tried to play both sides. And when you can't, you choose him Over and over. You choose him. And there is no scenario anymore with that does not put us at odds so forth. The final time Elatia get away from me.
Speaker 1 00:20:50 You feel the warmth of a Palm pressing up against your cheek and a voice. Very strained says, I don't have a choice anymore, But if I did, I would choose you. She has to drop her concentration on this invisibility spell to cast a teleport, to get out of here. So for just the briefest, second, the space in front of you flickers, and you can see her. She looks wrecked. Her eyes are glassy brimming over with tears. You see that she has a few more gray hairs than the last time you saw her. She gives you this wavering water, a smile and pulls her hand away from your face. Please get out of here. I love you. And then she casts teleport and disappears from in front of you with a pop,
Speaker 0 00:22:08 As fi goes, looking for copper wire, Leo, what are you doing?
Speaker 1 00:22:14 Sitting down behind the dumpster, out of sight and taking a short rest. I would like to use my whispers from the grave ability from Bantam rogue to acquire a new proficiency, if that's okay.
Speaker 0 00:22:28 Uh, since you're taking a short rest, absolutely. What would you like a proficiency in?
Speaker 1 00:22:33 I feel like I'm gonna need an Arcata proficiency given what we're looking at.
Speaker 0 00:22:40 Okay. Let me go through my Rolodex
Speaker 1 00:22:45 Ghoul index. Is that anything
Speaker 0 00:22:50 It's nothing and I've lost a little more respect for you. Anyway, as you are sitting there taking the short rest, you feel another one of those bolts of pain go up your spine. And then the air around you gets a couple degrees colder and you feel Leo, you could swear someone is breathing down the back of your neck.
Speaker 1 00:23:20 Leo clenches his jaw super hard, and then turns around to see whatever it is that he has summoned from the ether.
Speaker 0 00:23:30 This is the first time looking at one of the ghosts that has appeared to you. Or you have been very aware that this is not a person. The first thing you see are two very big luminous, mostly blue, and the rest of her face is kind of a smudge. You get the impressions of certain features, high aristocratic cheekbones, a very firm set mouth and around her is floating a mane of mostly gray, brittle hair and a long night gown. And the edges of not only her skirt, but her herself look worn away and fraying and mafia. She is almost impossibly tall, but her back is bent and crooked with what you can tell is advanced age and the way she is looking at you makes it clear that if you could actually see her face, she would be sneering.
Speaker 1 00:24:53 Hey grandma,
Speaker 0 00:24:55 You never met your grandmother, but the portraits you've seen and the descriptions that you've had of her. Yeah, this is her, her eyes narrow. And one hand stretches out to you again, moth eaten and brittle with long Callen like nails. Like she is going to grab you by the front of your robes.
Speaker 1 00:25:24 Leo looks down at this ghost outstretched hand and raises an eyebrow. I mean, if you want to try it, go ahead. You know, fathers said a lot about you, the most flattering thing, being that you were a very accomplished sorceress, but the less flattering things that I've heard from him and Nora. Well, let's just say that my old, man's not exactly parent of the year. And the fact that he made a concerted effort to never let me be in your presence, speaks volumes to your character.
Speaker 0 00:26:04 Eliana much like the ghosts of your uncle valor and Soren cannot speak and cannot make noise, but there is almost a vibration in the air as her eyes narrow a little bit more.
Speaker 1 00:26:24 Oh, are you mad? You're going to get a lot matter when you realize that the only thing tethering you to this mortal coil is the fact that you work for me. Now, my sister and I are going on a hunt for some spell components and I'll be Frank. I never paid that much attention. When I was going to the order of, I Luna, you helped me out. And maybe then at least you can say that one person on this earth remembers you fondly.
Speaker 0 00:26:53 There is another of those odd vibrations in the air, like an echo of what a force of nature you've been told your grandmother's temper was. And then it stops her hand lowers back to her sides. And she plucks at her skirt and dips a mocking currency.
Speaker 1 00:27:18 Yeah, that's what I thought
Speaker 0 00:27:21 At this point. Your sister walks back into this alleyway. She is wiping it. One of her eyes with a thumb and sniffling a little bit as she walks in, she holds up a little coil of copper wire and says, well, I got this, uh, we need to move. Alicia knows we're here.
Speaker 1 00:27:41 Leo turns away from this ghost and squints at her. What do you mean a lot? She knows we're here.
Speaker 0 00:27:49 I meant what I said. And I said, what I meant, let's talk about this somewhere that isn't here.
Speaker 1 00:27:56 Yeah, sure, absolutely. Give me that. And Leo's going to grab a small piece of this copper wire and use it to cast a sending spell to Zed.
Speaker 0 00:28:10 So true. What are you saying, bud?
Speaker 1 00:28:14 Oh, well like 25 words. So we're alive waiting by the docks for the fleet to get here. Shit is about to get bad. Is everyone else? Okay.
Speaker 0 00:28:31 There is a long pause and then Zed replies were all fine. I thought you were dead. That's three times. Now I'm going to kick your ass. I love you. See you soon.
Speaker 1 00:28:52 Leo grits, his teeth super hard and kind of just shakes his head before, turning back over to fi okay. So we need to hit up an apothecary to make sure that we are as well armed as we can be. Let's go do that, I guess.
Speaker 0 00:29:12 Uh, oh, okay. And he's gonna follow your lead wiping in her other eye.
Speaker 1 00:29:21 Can I find the nearest
Speaker 10 00:29:23 Apothecary
Speaker 0 00:29:26 Romeo survival check, but
Speaker 10 00:29:30 Nine,
Speaker 0 00:29:33 You try to find the nearest apothecary. You get turned around and you notice a lot of people looking at you. So I think you wander around for a couple of blocks and then fi grabs your arm and says, I think we're really risking being recognized right now.
Speaker 11 00:29:53 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:29:55 We still need to hit up the local wizard's tower or some kind of magical supply shop. Let's Move over that way and wait until it gets dark.
Speaker 0 00:30:06 I think that's a good idea. You to find another alley to hide out in Romi, a stealth with advantage because he's helping.
Speaker 1 00:30:18 Well, my high role was a seven, but that's still a 22.
Speaker 0 00:30:23 This is a real low point for the vital signs. Oh my God. All right. You two managed to hide out in an alleyway until it gets dark
Speaker 1 00:30:37 Night falls over the city of Boulder and fi you and your brother are hunkered down in a dirty damp alley. Not too far from the biggest wizard's tower in the city. Leo is acting really weird. He is routinely looking over his shoulder at something you can't see. And hissing rebukes sounding very annoyed, but after night fully falls, he creeps up to the end of this alley and hunkers down, watching all of the people, leave the wizard's tower and lock it up behind them and go home. After this happens, he reaches back one hand without making eye contact with you and waves you forward
Speaker 0 00:31:32 Fee steps forward and liens real close to Leo and just whispers. So I'm going to assume that we have some assistance and you're not just yelling at thin air for the sake of my blood pressure.
Speaker 11 00:31:45 Yeah, no, it's actually worse. I'm not yelling at thin air. I'm yelling at her grandmother. She sucks.
Speaker 0 00:31:53 Oh,
Speaker 11 00:31:54 That is worse. Welcome to my fucking life. I'm going to go, try to pick the lock. You do hang out here. Don't leave me alone with her
Speaker 1 00:32:07 Too late. He's gone. Um, fi roll me What? Even kind of check with this. Be a religion check.
Speaker 0 00:32:19 Okay. I can't roll below a 17 on religion because of reliable talent, 17,
Speaker 1 00:32:28 You watch your brother leave this alley, sneak up the front steps to this wizard's tower, almost an imperceptible shadow with how stealthy he is. And you are left behind standing on the dirty damp cobblestones with the undeniable feeling that someone is judging you just so hard.
Speaker 0 00:32:55 Fi picks a spot in this alleyway where she has decided her grandmother's ghost is and blows a raspberry at it.
Speaker 1 00:33:03 And while you are taunting, the restless spirits of the undead, I'm going to roll a lockpicking check for Leo. Oh no. So, um, Leo rolled a natural one. He does get a plus 15 to any check made with his thieves tools, but the DC for picking a locked door, especially the locked door of something as prolific as the main Valter and wizard's tower is well over 20. He doesn't do it. You see him fussing with these little metal files and picks. And eventually he just throws this whole ring of tools down to the ground and curses
Speaker 0 00:34:01 Fi mutters to herself. And then to the space that she blew a raspberry at says, come on your bat. And then she runs up to the door, grabs Leo and says, guess we're doing this the loud way. And I'm going to cast a second level thunder wave, or at least try to,
Speaker 1 00:34:26 Okay. So that's going to be a DC 12 Arcata check.
Speaker 0 00:34:38 So the first role was
Speaker 1 00:34:39 A
Speaker 0 00:34:39 Three.
Speaker 1 00:34:41 Cool. You have burned one of your second level spell slots. Do you want to try again?
Speaker 0 00:34:48 Yes. Dirty 20. Okay.
Speaker 1 00:34:55 Uh, okay. The door is a door and cannot save. So go ahead and roll me through da damage.
Speaker 0 00:35:04 I'm going to use empowered spelled to reroll five of these. That's a 20 that'll limit.
Speaker 1 00:35:13 There is a loud boom of thunder and this door gets blasted off the hinges. Somebody heard that though. You're going to need to move quickly.
Speaker 0 00:35:26 All right, let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
Speaker 1 00:35:30 You and your brother run into the darkened lobby of this wizard's tower. There's a big empty front desk with a large map of the building behind it. You see several floors labeled into warmish and no mesh
Speaker 0 00:35:47 Feed. Doesn't speak either of those.
Speaker 1 00:35:51 Well, it's a good thing that Leo speaks to war Vish. He frantically scans over this map and then grabs you by the wrist and tugs you off to the side. Okay. Store rooms on the fifth floor. Let's go.
Speaker 0 00:36:04 Okay. Do I see a staircase?
Speaker 1 00:36:06 You see an elevator. You only know what one of those looks like because of Adrian having one in your aunt's house,
Speaker 0 00:36:16 I'm gonna try to call the elevator.
Speaker 1 00:36:21 You push the button and nothing happens. Save for a little metallic key pad next to the up and down buttons that lights up as if you are meant to press some kind of sequence of runes into it.
Speaker 0 00:36:36 Fucker Fi looks at this key pad. I think she can like count to 10. And dwarfish
Speaker 2 00:36:48 So
Speaker 0 00:36:48 If it's numbers, she knows that there are numbers, but she doesn't know what order and what numbers to put in. So she looks back at Leo and goes, we have a small problem.
Speaker 1 00:37:00 Leo looks up from where he's been under the front desk, digging through the lost and found box, trying to find things and kind of tilts his head to the side. Yeah. I don't think my theist tools are gonna work on that. So fi you can either keep going with this elevator or you can roll me a survival check to see if you can find a stairwell.
Speaker 0 00:37:22 Ah, yes. Survival, a whiz based skill, Something I am famously good at. I'm gonna roll survival. Cause I, I'm not going to be able to figure it out. This elevator 10.
Speaker 1 00:37:39 Well, you are in a building that has a map. So I would say a 10 as a success, but it takes you precious time to find the stairwell. Leo goes charging through this door behind you. He has stolen one of those big pointy conical wizard tats from out of the lost and found it's got stars on it.
Speaker 2 00:38:00 Why?
Speaker 1 00:38:03 Because it sparked joy and he's had a rough week owl. Let him have this. You sprint up several flights of stairs and skid through an unlocked mercifully door into this storage room. The walls are lined with cabinetry, holding all kinds of magical bits and bobs. Leo looks down at the napkin that has your list on it, shoves it at you and then takes off running for one side of the room. All right. Let's split up. Grab what you can. We've got to move fast.
Speaker 0 00:38:37 Uh, sure, sure, sure. Um, okay. You want me to roll in our condo check to see what I find?
Speaker 1 00:38:43 Absolutely. My friend.
Speaker 0 00:38:46 Okay. 18.
Speaker 1 00:38:50 Okay. As you're looking down at this list and digging through drawers and filing cabinets with a roll that high, you managed to find four twigs from a tree that has been struck by lightning, which is a special component needed to cast, which bolt without a focus, you find three gleaming, Amber rods, which you can use for a couple of different spells and three silver pins, which, you know, you would need to cast chain lightening, which is your highest level spell Across the room from you. You see Leo elbow deep in a box of animal pelts, just pulling them out and throwing them over his shoulder. Pat, for bloodhound, for miscellaneous unspecified for Kimmel's bones. The last time I saw this much for, I was 120 years old, it was bare night at the dragon and the dulcimer and Soren and I were having the time of our fucking lives. So I'm going to roll in our Connor check for Leo to see what he gets 14. So with that, he is able to find two pelts of bat for, and two small scraps of bloodhound for he tucks them in his pocket and looks over at you. All right. Anything else? Or can we get the hell out of here?
Speaker 0 00:40:13 No, I think we're good. Let's go
Speaker 1 00:40:16 You to run down these stairs, your stolen goods in tow. But the thing was, when you came in here, you made a lot of noise and it took you a little while, fussing with the elevator. So you and Leo reached the bottom of the stairwell just in time ticket, caught in the middle of the lobby by two Voltaren city guards that have come to investigate the disturbance, please roll initiative.
Speaker 0 00:40:52 I'm gonna fucking snap 15.
Speaker 1 00:40:59 Okay. Leo rolled A dirty 20 And the guards rolled, Uh, nine and an 11 respectively. So you will be getting around on them. Okay. So Leo's going to try to hit this first guy with a third level inflict wounds. He has to roll a DC 13 Arconic check to even be able to cast the spell. And then if he makes it, he's going to have to roll, to hit Another fucker. So I rolled a four, which even with my plus eight that I now get from being temporarily proficient in Arcata checks is only a 12. Thanks, grandma. Leo runs up on this guy, raises his hand in a very familiar motion to cast inflict wounds. And you see that silvery gray necrotic energy that, you know, his magic looks like start to glow around his Palm and then stutters and flashes like a breaking spark plug and just fizzles into nothing. Leo looks at his hand, looks at the guard, looks back at his hand, looks back at the guard and quietly goes well, shit And fi Europe.
Speaker 0 00:42:23 Okay. So since I have a material component to focus with, I don't need to roll the Arconic check to cast the third level, which bullet, correct?
Speaker 1 00:42:34 Yeah, that's correct. We have precedents for that by the fact that Leo was able to cast that sending without rolling in our Connor check. So yep. Rolled ahead. You do not have plus 11 to hit anymore. However, because you don't have your plus one focus
Speaker 0 00:42:48 Know. And so, plus 10, it's fine. I'm sure it's fine. 23.
Speaker 1 00:42:57 Yep. That'll do it. Roll damage
Speaker 0 00:43:03 18. Ah, I want to save my sorcery points and with a witch world, I can just keep up concentration and do damage with it again. So I'll just take the 18 Fee focuses through this twig. And I think she's holding that rusty pocket knife. She picked up in the alley and her other hand and she casts the switch role.
Speaker 1 00:43:27 All right. And now it's the guards. The guard that you just, which bolted reels back with a scream gets a better look at the two of you and then turns to his buddy and goes, holy shit. It's them get them Octavius. And then he's going to try to get at you with his spear. Let me roll to hit. That's a 19. And because you don't have your armor on your AC is back down to 13 bestie Eight damage for fee. As you get jabbed with a spear fee, you took damage. I'm going to need you to roll a DC 10 con save to keep up the switch bolt. I'm really sorry that I stole all of your, to the store and bring your rolls to talk to God, buddy. I'm so sorry. Tell them what you rolled out.
Speaker 0 00:44:46 So I wrote an eight, but we're in combat and I wrote a natural one. So, um,
Speaker 1 00:44:54 You lost your concentration on that spell buddy. I'm so sorry. And then the second guard's going to try to get Leo who's AC is now down to 15 because he also doesn't have his armor, but he has maxed X. So Match her old one, baby Leo with all of his rogue, like grace Dodges out of the way of this spear thrust clutching his newly stolen wizard hat on top of his head. And then we're back at the top of the order with Leo. Leo is going to try for another inflict wounds. I'm going down to first-level this time. So I don't burn any more fucking spell slots. Let me roll this. Arconic check 24. Thank God. Okay. So now I have to roll to hit 29. Okay. So that's 3d 10 damage,
Speaker 1 00:45:49 12 necrotic damage. But since inflict wounds is a Melay spell attack, I'm going to also invoke a use of my channel divinity touch of death, which lets me add an additional 25 necrotic damage onto Meli attacks. So that's a total of 37 necrotic damage. Leo, just a Vulcan mind pinches this guy with an inflict wounds and he goes down and then he's going to use his cunning action to hide as a bonus action. He's going to duck behind the front desk, in the lobby to hopefully get advantage on the next time he's able to attack.
Speaker 0 00:46:29 Okay. It's fees turn. So she uses a free action to yell. Are you kidding? And then I'm going to cast spell it the other card. Okay. I'm not going to waste a spell slot. I'm going to cast lightening LER. So I have to roll in our Connor check. And if I don't roll a 10, I'm going to in real life, I'm going to flip the desk that we are recording at Barry. Look at me in my eyes.
Speaker 1 00:47:04 Why are you threatening me instead of your man? I'm not in control of that.
Speaker 0 00:47:10 It's fine. I just have to roll an eight. I just have to roll innate. It's fine. Natural 19. Okay. And then I need this guard to make me a strike saving through.
Speaker 1 00:47:23 He only gets a plus loan. It's fine. It's fine. Um, that's a 17 And fee because you don't have your plus one symbol.
Speaker 5 00:47:38 No, hang on.
Speaker 1 00:47:41 And since you don't have your plus one symbol Al your spell save DC is 17. I'm sorry. Meets it, beats it. And since it's a canned trip, he takes no damage.
Speaker 0 00:47:58 I've never been angry in my life.
Speaker 1 00:48:05 So, um, it is this last remaining guards turn. And because he can't see Leo who was hiding behind the front desk, he's gonna roll to hit on you. I'm sorry. In
Speaker 13 00:48:20 The ground.
Speaker 1 00:48:24 That's a seven. He doesn't hit. He doesn't hit you.
Speaker 0 00:48:29 Well, there's something you couldn't have rolled a seven, like on your last
Speaker 5 00:48:34 Role.
Speaker 0 00:48:38 I'm normal.
Speaker 1 00:48:40 I'm sorry You think I like doing this? You think I like hurting you? Leo's going to come out from behind the desk and try to inflict wounds this cat. So let me roll it. Arcata check. Natural 17 plus eight. He's good. So he's going to roll a hit with advantage on this inflict wounds because he was hiding
Speaker 1 00:49:04 23. It's fine. It's going to be fine. I get 3d 10 necrotic damage. I'm going to, I'm going to get this cat. It's fine. It's fine. And with one hit point to spare, I get him. I get him for one hit point more, but he is down as this guard takes a stab at you and Mrs. Fi over his shoulder, you see Leo stealthily climbing up onto the top of the front desk, and then he leaps and goes airborne and lands on this. Guy's back like a spider monkey claps, a hand over his mouth casts and inflict wounds and into his ear goes,
Speaker 5 00:49:46 Shh,
Speaker 1 00:49:49 Go to sleep. It is a sight to watch given that this city guard is a dwarf. It seems a little unfair. Honestly, Leo extricate himself from this hold and then looks over at, you looks down at the guards, both on the floor, looks back up at you. So, um, there'll be more where that came from. We should run.
Speaker 0 00:50:28 Fi is standing there bloody with singe marks on the ends of her fingers from her two, two lightening spells that have failed tonight. She puts both hands up and just says, I need to take a walk,
Speaker 1 00:50:48 Take a brisk walk with me to the docs right now. Let's go. And Leo grabs you by the hand and hauls you out the open front door to this wizard's tower into the crisp, clear Volter at night.
Speaker 0 00:51:07 So we're going to roll a group stealth check to get away from this tower and down towards the dock with that incident. And I am not going to scream, not even once. Well, feveral the four, so let's see what the
Speaker 1 00:51:48 Leo got a 29 actually.
Speaker 0 00:51:51 Good. Okay. That's over a 15. So that'll do it. Cool. So you to walk through the sheets, down to the docks, Leo, I need you to, uh, throw me a perception check really quick.
Speaker 1 00:52:11 16.
Speaker 0 00:52:13 Yeah. Yeah. My year old do it. Okay. You're about a block away from the docks and you spot and apothecary shop.
Speaker 1 00:52:24 Leo stops looks over at fie and raises an eyebrow. Well, we've already got a couple more murder charges and a breaking and entering on top of everything else that they want us for. Do we need anything else for material components?
Speaker 0 00:52:42 Fi looks down again at her bloody dress and her singe fingertips and says I could use some licorice root and Micah, if we can,
Speaker 1 00:52:56 Uh, I'm going to roll to case this joint and see what it would take to break in role for rapscallion, Mary, I suppose.
Speaker 0 00:53:05 Yeah. Let's call that a history check.
Speaker 1 00:53:10 17,
Speaker 0 00:53:12 The docs are pretty active at night and you're very close to them and on a main street. So you think breaking in through the front is maybe not a wise call, but the interesting thing is that, um, like a lot of the buildings and folder of the roof of this apothecary is flat.
Speaker 1 00:53:31 You said we're pretty close to the docks, right?
Speaker 0 00:53:34 Yes. About a block away.
Speaker 1 00:53:37 Can I roll to find some rope?
Speaker 0 00:53:40 Yeah. Um, let's call this a investigation. Check
Speaker 1 00:53:49 A 10.
Speaker 0 00:53:51 Yeah. I tunnel do it. You find a coil of rope.
Speaker 1 00:53:55 After I find the rope, I would like to make an acrobatics check to climb the outside of this closed apothecary from whatever dark alley I can find my way into.
Speaker 0 00:54:06 Sure, sure. Do that
Speaker 1 00:54:11 22. And I'll pull fee up after me to give her advantage on whatever kind of check she needs to do.
Speaker 0 00:54:19 I'm going to roll acrobatics with advantage. That's a 17. That'll do it. You and fi scramble your way up to the roof of this apothecary. What are you doing, bud?
Speaker 1 00:54:36 Uh, looking around for any kind of roof access, a trap door, a skylight. Anything I could maybe get into with my thieves tools.
Speaker 0 00:54:45 I'm going to roll a luck check really quick. Yeah. Okay. There is a little skylight that has a hinge that you think you could unlock and pop open. Rolling thieves tools check, please.
Speaker 1 00:55:03 Dirty 20. I only rolled a five, but it's still a dirty 20
Speaker 0 00:55:08 That will do you manage to pop open the skylight, move the glass door of it out of the way. What are you doing now that you have access?
Speaker 1 00:55:21 Leo takes the rope that he was able to grab and starts winding it around his legs and hips and torso in a way that is pretty experienced. He's tying himself, basically a harness and then handing the other end of the coil of rope to fi okay. We can't go out through the front door. So I'm going to have to go in and out through the skylight. You stay up here and hold on, please.
Speaker 0 00:55:50 I'm going to roll a luck check to see if there's anything to tie this rope to, which is going to affect how fi rolls this Natural 18. Okay. Uh, yeah. Fee takes the other end of this rope sighs deeply and manages to find a post on the side of this roof that assigned would be held off of, are you going in?
Speaker 1 00:56:15 Yes. With the mission and possible themes, circus remix playing in the background. I am.
Speaker 0 00:56:26 So what's going to happen is I'm going to have fee role and athletics check to not just drop you on your face. And then for every type of spell component you find she's going to roll another athletics check to not drop you. If she goes below a 10 at all, Leah was going to fall on his face. Let's see how this goes. First role. The highest one was a 22. You're good.
Speaker 1 00:56:59 Okay. So Leo gets lowered into this apothecary by this rope, gently swinging back and forth, And he is going to look out for the ghost of his grandmother.
Speaker 0 00:57:13 Oh, she is standing directly in front of USB, lowers you down. Judging, watching. Go ahead and roll me in Arcata check.
Speaker 1 00:57:24 I don't want to hear it from you. You crusty old bat. Where's the fucking licorice root 24.
Speaker 0 00:57:32 Okay. With the 24, you can get a total of 14 spell components, which is not half bad. So your grandmother she's a ghost. So it doesn't make a noise, but you can tell she's sighing walks over to a shelf. And with her long Talon, like fingernails points at a jar,
Speaker 1 00:57:58 Alright fee, I'm going to need some centrifical force down here. Swing me in a clockwise motion if you will.
Speaker 0 00:58:06 Okay. Let's roll out that ex The high one was a 15 piece, swings you in a circle groaning with effort.
Speaker 1 00:58:18 I'd like to try to grab the jar on my way by
Speaker 0 00:58:22 Role sleight of hand.
Speaker 7 00:58:24 Fuck
Speaker 1 00:58:27 Natural 20.
Speaker 0 00:58:29 That'll do it. All right. Uh, how many licorice root do you want to grab knowing that you have a total of 14 ingredients.
Speaker 1 00:58:36 Having looked at this list? Leo knows that licorice root is the material component for haste, which fi might need to cast a few times. If they're going to try to get out of here, he's going to grab five. So he has nine left.
Speaker 0 00:58:51 What are you looking for next?
Speaker 1 00:58:54 As he continues to be whirled around this apothecary, like a potato tied to a ceiling fan, Leo looks at his grandmother's ghost and goes, all right. Great job, Miko. Where's that
Speaker 0 00:59:09 With an irritable toss of her hair, the ghost of your grandmother, Eliana skulks across the room to another display case and pointed a little box of rocks.
Speaker 1 00:59:21 Alright, P a little bit faster. Uh, this one's closer to the edge of the room. I'm going to need a bit more powerful swing
Speaker 0 00:59:28 From up on the roof. See groaning says, yeah, I'll just do that. What else can I get for you? A bloody Mary. I'm going to roll up. Addicks. High roll was an ad 20. So Romy, sleight of hand to grab some rocks,
Speaker 1 00:59:48 23.
Speaker 0 00:59:50 Oh, okay. How much Mike are you picking up?
Speaker 1 00:59:53 Well, I know that that's what fie needs for shatter, which is kind of her bread and butter as a sorcerer. He is going to grab five pieces so he can get four more components as he is still rotating from fees, swinging him around at the end of the rope. He looks back at his grandmother's ghost once more. Okay. Could use some incense. That would be helpful.
Speaker 0 01:00:20 The ghost of Eliana's head tilts back like a teenager in a cartoon groaning. And then she walks back across the room and points at a shelf of incense. That is just in plain view.
Speaker 1 01:00:33 Oh no. Ma'am check your attitude at the door. My Knight has been bad enough without it. I'm gonna roll
Speaker 7 01:00:40 To try to grab the incense.
Speaker 0 01:00:44 I'm going to have all athletics. One more time. The higher role was a nine. So you reach out towards this incense and you hear fee from on the roof, go, oh shit. And then the rope goes slack above you. And you swing right into a display of jars. You're going to take seven blood named damage.
Speaker 1 01:01:17 Oh man. And Leo had a lot of centrifical force built up by that point. I have a key just goes flying into this shelf yells. Oh. And then collapses to the ground in front of it.
Speaker 0 01:01:31 As you're crumpling to the ground, roll me a deck. Save to not get beat in the head by one of these jars.
Speaker 1 01:01:38 Come on, man. 16.
Speaker 0 01:01:44 Okay. So you take half this damage. Yeah. You just take one damage as a jar of peppermint leaves falls off the shelf and just blink fans right on your head. Amidst the sounds of all of these glass jars crashing to the floor Layer of Alside blaze on the wooden boards of the floor of this apothecary shop Defeated. And the ghost of your grandmother. Eliana puts her head in her hands. As feelings leans over edge of the skylight and goes, are you okay?
Speaker 1 01:02:24 Leo is still flat on his back. Just reaches up one arm and does a shaky thumbs up. And then he's going to roll over. Grab the incense, stand up and look back at his grandmother's ghost.
Speaker 11 01:02:40 Okay. Phosphorus.
Speaker 0 01:02:44 She still has her head in her hands, but she reaches one of them out and just points.
Speaker 1 01:02:51 Cool. Going over there to get it.
Speaker 0 01:02:53 I'm going to roll luck. Check. The rope is not long enough for you to reach the phosphorus. You get so close and you reached with all your might, but between the harness, you tied yourself. And the fact that feed tied the rope to the edge of the building, your fingers. Stop three inches away from the phosphorus.
Speaker 1 01:03:19 You know what? I don't need to cast dancing lights fi pulled me up.
Speaker 0 01:03:28 I'm going to roll a DC 15 athletics check for fee to pull you up. That'll do it. This harness around your torso, Titans and feasts starts yanking you back up through the skylight. Gonna roll one more luck check. Okay. That is a 14. You do not lose your silly little wizard tat
Speaker 1 01:04:00 Leo with a few stray peppermint leaves stuck in his hair. Looks up at fi holds out the spell components in one hand and just sighs in a deep, long suffering manner.
Speaker 11 01:04:18 Let's
Speaker 1 01:04:20 Go find everyone else.
Speaker 0 01:04:24 Yeah. Yeah, let's do that. I'm going to need you to roll an acrobatics check to get down off this roof.
Speaker 1 01:04:34 Hi, not suffered enough in dignity. Okay. 19
Speaker 0 01:04:43 Fees gonna roll one as well. It's a 12 fee, almost trips over the hem of her skirt at the edge of this roof, but catches herself and just looks up at the sky, but seemingly, and then gets down the side of this building with you and you set off.
Speaker 1 01:05:07 So fi I am tempted to make you roll a dexterity saving throw to not trip over your clown shoes on this, but because I am a kind and benevolent dungeon master, I will not.
Speaker 0 01:05:25 I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 01:05:28 However, I am going to require another group stealth check for the two of you to make it away from this apothecary that you just burglarized unnoticed. Leo guy, Jesus, fuck a 34.
Speaker 0 01:05:44 Oh, cool. And I rolled this net one right now. It's going to be fine. Uh, no, I got a natural 18. Okay. Uh, 21.
Speaker 1 01:05:53 Oh yeah. YouTube are ghosts. Despite the fact that your entrance and exit from this building was less than graceful. You make your way down the mountain into a small dock side suburb. And you wait, Leo pulls the two of you into a dark side street at the earliest convenience and sort of crouches down, starts spreading out all of the material components that you've gathered. So you could take an inventory. The two of you have access to enough foolproof magic to defend yourselves if it came down to it. But that doesn't seem to be what Leo is ultimately concerned about. He pulls out one of these pieces of copper wire that you were able to scavenge and throws off another sending spell. You see him sort of hunched over this piece of wire as it glows and then disappears from between his fingers. Okay. Just got in touch with said they are waiting for us at a pub called the laughing. Lomea I have no idea where that is.
Speaker 0 01:07:07 We'll just look around until we find it, I guess,
Speaker 1 01:07:12 And try to keep our heads down until we do.
Speaker 0 01:07:15 Oh
Speaker 1 01:07:15 Fuck. I hope they managed to get both of our spell casting focuses out of the house,
Speaker 0 01:07:21 Cross that bridge. When I get to it, come on.
Speaker 1 01:07:24 You and Leo start bundling up all of these material components that you have managed to get. He's taking a lot of the herbs, a lot of the pieces of fir you're taking a lot of the more high arcane things like the silver pins and the rods. You also have the half empty water bottle and the leather strap and the knife that you found in the alley when you first got dropped in the dumpster. And as you are going to bundle up all of these supplies, Well Fee, I'm going to ask you to roll me a wisdom saving throw, but you've got a role in that 20.
Speaker 0 01:08:08 Sorry. What
Speaker 1 01:08:11 Role? A wisdom saving throw. And if you don't roll a Nat 20, it's going to go bad.
Speaker 0 01:08:18 Okay? No, that was a 16 on the day. So a 15
Speaker 1 01:08:27 Fi you remember what it feels like to have a dominate person spell cast on you. There is a sickening, painful pressure at the base of your neck and A voice in your head familiar, but almost forgotten that says, pick up the knife,
Speaker 0 01:09:00 The heck's up, the rusty pocket knife. She found in that alleyway,
Speaker 1 01:09:06 You are fighting against this for all that you're worth. But once again, you're back here. Your body is moving of its own accord. You can't control your reactions to this voice in your head, which you hear say, stand up, hold the blade to your throat. And don't move.
Speaker 0 01:09:28 Fi stands up, holds the blade to her throat and does not move. If she can talk. She says, um, Leo
Speaker 1 01:09:46 Leo looks up from where he has been counting out these pieces of copper wire and his eyes go wide. As he sees what you're doing.
Speaker 0 01:09:56 Hey, Hey, what the hell? It's not, I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 14 01:10:07 Um,
Speaker 1 01:10:09 From the mouth of this alley, you see a shadow being cast, A silhouette, thrown into sharp relief of a tall willowy humanoid person. This figure approaches closer and closer before finally coming into full visibility, beneath a flickering streetlight
Speaker 1 01:10:43 You see a tall slender infernal elf woman with Jade green skin and long spiraling horns. She is very familiar to you, but looks much different from the last time you saw her Gone are the rich sailors close. The S and the metals of service gone is the inherent air of superiority. Replacing them are worn tattered, garments, messy unkempt, ashy, brown hair, and a pair of solid black eyes, utterly devoid of mercy. The person that you have known as a vice Admiral defiance of Australian Naval special forces appears under this guttering floodlight in the alley posture, straight smile, bright and hand clutching a beautiful Mithril sword at her side. It's Pablo capped off by an orb of dark void delight, stormy magic. She had looks from you to your brother and then back to you, Her smile widens. And she says, Would you look at that? It's a small world, And that's where we're going to end for this week.
Speaker 15 01:12:52 Okay, cool.
Speaker 1 01:12:55 Any way to cap off the worst game of Dungeons and dragons, either one of us has ever played. The defiance is back. Isn't that just typical? And we'll figure out where this goes next time on compelled dual
Speaker 1 01:13:31 Hey, everybody Barry here, but the postscript just clearing up a couple of housekeeping things here at the end of the episode, as always, I'm going to go ahead and plug our social media profiles. You can find us on Twitter, Tumblr, and Tech-Talk at compel duel. We have lots of other cool stuff going on. However, an official website and official Spotify profile, our official merch store, stuff like that. You can find all that stuff linked on any of our various social media profiles. If you're interested in supporting the show, we ask that you consider heading over to patrion.com/compelled dual, where starting at just $2 a month, you can get access to all kinds of cool patron perks, including early access to episodes, access to exclusive playlist and bonus content, and even handwritten letters from your favorite character every month. If you're interested in supporting the show in ways, other than pledging to our 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 the show get promoted to a wider audience, we host a weekly Q and a show on our YouTube every week.
Speaker 1 01:14:41 And we would love to see you show up for that. Ask a couple questions. We always have a really fun time. And as always, if you like what you're hearing on the show we ask that you just tell a couple of friends about it. And if they like it, ask them to tell a couple of friends as well. Word of mouth advertising is the most powerful tool we have at our disposal. Our next episode is going to be going live on Friday, April 1st, 2022, happy April fool's day, or if you're a member of our Patrion, you'll be getting early access to that on Thursday, March 31st. Thank you guys. See you next.
