Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hey, Barry
Speaker 1 00:00:01 Hail.
Speaker 0 00:00:03 Why did the adventurer scream when they were grabbed unexpectedly?
Speaker 1 00:00:08 Why?
Speaker 0 00:00:10 Well, it was a shocking grasp It's time for compelled duel.
Speaker 0 00:00:28 Hello everybody. And welcome back to compel duel, IML,
Speaker 1 00:00:32 And I'm Barry.
Speaker 0 00:00:34 And we are a single player code, DMD, Dungeons and dragons. Fifth edition actual play podcast.
Speaker 1 00:00:40 Previously on compelled. Dual Defiance is here. We have to go with her, keep your distance, but sent help. Whenever it arrives. We'll be okay. See you soon.
Speaker 0 00:00:55 Shit. She's still alive. Of course she is Cooperate for now. We'll be there soon.
Speaker 3 00:01:02 The fleet is on the way. Lock them up separately.
Speaker 1 00:01:09 Separate no, no fee.
Speaker 0 00:01:13 You are a child that is so scared of being hurt. You think it gives you a right to hurt everyone else. And you are so terrified that someone will prove that you are wrong and that you had no right to do any of the things that you've done, that you have to tell yourself that everyone else is a fool. I pity you
Speaker 1 00:01:38 Petty from a dead woman. Doesn't mean that much, honey,
Speaker 1 00:01:45 Help
Speaker 0 00:01:45 Has arrived.
Speaker 1 00:01:47 You beautiful feathery bastard. I would kiss you right now. If there were an a port hole between us
Speaker 0 00:01:54 From up on deck, you hear the sounds of clattering people landing on the deck.
Speaker 1 00:02:01 Defiance.
Speaker 3 00:02:03 We'll be having our girlfriend
Speaker 0 00:02:04 Back evil bitch.
Speaker 1 00:02:06 I'm here, chill. You know, Let's go show defiance who she's dealing with. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:02:14 Let's
Speaker 4 00:02:20 I hope you find exactly what you're looking for.
Speaker 1 00:02:25 And she crumbles to the ground dead. According to the laws of the pirate court, you killed defiance that gives you her job. You're the pirate queen of Australia.
Speaker 0 00:02:41 Oh,
Speaker 1 00:02:51 Fi it has been several days since your confrontation with, and the subsequent death of defiance pirate queen of Australia.
Speaker 1 00:03:01 You wake up in a pretty normal arrangement with the captain snoring in your ear and Sabine curled into your other shoulder. But now the experience is underlined by the gentle rocking of the ship beneath you. And the sounds of waves crashing into the home, your eyes crack open to early morning, light filtering through the portholes. On one side of you, the captain is just dead to the world. On the other side, Sabine is actively drooling into her pillow Ks, and just outside the door to the captain's quarters. You can hear the crew running around on the deck, various deck, hands, yelling, things back and forth to each other. It seems like the day on the ship is already underway. What are you doing?
Speaker 0 00:03:51 Fears, reverse army crawling, sort of out from between the captain and Sabine and out of bed.
Speaker 1 00:03:59 We've been here before a roll of self-check
Speaker 0 00:04:02 Not again, a 15 on the dye. That's an 18.
Speaker 1 00:04:08 Okay. Well, the captain's passive perception is not that. So he stays in his trance, Sabine. However, has a passive perception of 21. You do manage to wake her up. As you attempt to get out of bed. She opens the one eye that isn't buried in her pillow and then scowls at the captain's very persistent snoring and reaches over to just kind of manhandle him onto his side. He stays unconscious, but the snoring stops and Sabine sits up in bed and reaches out to rapid dressing gown around herself before standing up.
Speaker 0 00:04:45 You know,
Speaker 1 00:04:45 I keep telling him to get that deviated septum checked out and he just won't listen to me.
Speaker 0 00:04:51 I don't know. I think it's kind of cute,
Speaker 1 00:04:54 Which is why it's in your ear every night and not mine love. Let's go get breakfast and we'll let him wake up on his own time.
Speaker 0 00:05:03 Sounds good fee is going to throw something light on and looping arm through Sabine's and head out.
Speaker 1 00:05:13 Sabine also gets stressed and you to head out, you have apparently gotten a little bit of a late start this morning because the mess hall is completely abandoned by the time you and Sabine get down there. But you hear a rustle from the galley and a large whole king form comes around the corner with two big plates of food. The pirate boots, who is about a seven foot tall storm folk, man built like a brick shit house blonde buzz cut opalescent with flashes of pink and green and sporting a frilly little apron with lots of little seabirds all over it comes bustling into the mess hall and puts these two plates down on the table, closest to you and Sabine top of the Mart until you ladies, you too. Didn't keep the captain up all night again. Did you any wings
Speaker 0 00:06:09 Fi wrinkles her nose and says boots, I will do my level best to procure you a lifetime supply of any delicacy from anywhere that you would like. If you promise to never say that again,
Speaker 1 00:06:24 He just grins at you and shrugs and twirls a long handled dish scrubber around his finger before heading off to the galley, I'll be sure to collect on that. Tell the captain that I left some waffles for him in the galley. When he wakes up
Speaker 0 00:06:39 Will do thank you. Boots and fee is going to sit down at the table, very calmly and then just shutter. And she turns to Sabine and says, it's not that I don't love boots, but I could have gone the rest of my life, pretending that he doesn't know that I know what sex is,
Speaker 1 00:06:58 Sabine smirks, and takes a delicate little bite of her waffle. I mean, with as many years as everybody else on the ship has spent roasting him in Pelican. I think he's entitled to a little payback, you know,
Speaker 0 00:07:10 Sabine darling, dearest love of my life in a what world was that? The correct response to the thing that I said,
Speaker 1 00:07:21 Fi sweetheart, beloved light of my world. Why are you assuming that I would prioritize correct over hilarious. The two of you sit there and eat your breakfast. It's like objectively the best waffle you've ever had in your life. Your aunt Nora is a pretty good cook, but over the last few days you are remembering just how much you missed boots, cooking. You're in the process of shoveling homemade whipped cream and raspberry Coolie into your face. When the captain stumbles in adjusting his hat on his head still very bleary-eyed oh, half the treasure in the hole for a cup of coffee right now,
Speaker 0 00:08:03 I think he has a mug on the table already, and she just puts a hand over it. Is that a promise? She is grinning very mischievously at him, the full knife cat, full knife, cat.
Speaker 1 00:08:16 He squints at you, but then seems to wake up a little more walks further into the galley, takes the outstretch plate from boots, with a nod of thanks and then sits down at the table with you and Sabine. He does take your mug of coffee, drain the rest of it and shovel like half of a waffle into his face before speaking again
Speaker 6 00:08:38 About that.
Speaker 1 00:08:40 And then he reaches into the front of his shirt and pulls out a familiar silver broach and closed around a spherical red gem and puts it on the table. In the middle of the three of you. You've got access to far more, half the treasure in the hold of the ship. And to figure it's time, we talked about this
Speaker 0 00:09:01 Fees been avoiding this conversation for several days that she's not about to stop. Now, she's going to take her mug a coffee back.
Speaker 1 00:09:08 It is empty
Speaker 0 00:09:10 Bastard. Then she's going to busy herself with refilling it, not looking at either the captain or Sabine.
Speaker 1 00:09:17 The captain also gets himself a fresh cup of coffee before jamming his finger into the tabletop directly. Next to this broach, you see the flickering lights of the mess hall reflect off this gem in it in time with the identical gem on the amulet around his neck. Look last, I understand that the Australian succession crisis is first and foremost on all of our agendas right now, but we need to keep in mind that it isn't the only delicate political situation at hand, the pirates court and the code that upholds it has held for 7,000 years. And if we let it fall through now, then I, the entire fleet I command and every pirate you've ever met are doomed to fold back into the way things were before backbiting and violence and pointless bloodshed. You don't have to like it, but you do need to address it for my sake. If nothing else right now at this moment, you are the pirate queen of Australia,
Speaker 0 00:10:19 Captain. I don't even know what that entails. I, and then fi kind of looks at Sabine and goes, would you like to chime in here? Cause I, I, I, I don't know what to do.
Speaker 1 00:10:29 Sabine pauses with a fork full of waffle, halfway to her mouth and to looks a little uncomfortable for a second. Um, I mean, I don't really have the expertise that I would need to give you a sound opinion. I was just sort of around when the captain became pirate king of the Zephyr Isles and, um, she takes a very big swig of coffee. The captain brings up a hand to pinch it, the bridge of his nose and looks down at his plate of breakfast. Hi, you know, all pattern there. The last two times we've gotten a new pirate Monarch. One of my exes has died.
Speaker 0 00:11:08 You get, so you get the title of pirate Monarch by how many people have the two of you conspired to murder together, just out of curiosity.
Speaker 1 00:11:19 Well, let me, I feel like that divides into two different questions. How many people and how many pirate monarchs? Because the answer to the latter is one on the answers of the farmer is the captain and Sabine make eye contact. And they both start tallying off on their fingers together.
Speaker 0 00:11:34 Nevermind, we'll discuss it later.
Speaker 1 00:11:39 The three of you turn your focus down on to where this broach is setting on the tabletop, softly, glowing and pulsing, and the captain reaches across the table and grabs your hand. Look last pair of the code. As soon as you're able to, you can hand the title off to whoever you want, but of all the people on the ship of all the people we know right now, it's safest with you. And in case you were forgotten, I'm also a pirate Monarch. I can show you all the things you can do with this position. If you don't want it in the long run, that's fine. But for now somebody has to pick it up.
Speaker 0 00:12:18 We are already embroiled in about a dozen separate crises. I need to know what picking it up, entails in the short term. And I need to know how I can work that around the war that I am trying to stop. And the charges I am wanted for in Boulder and another throne that I never asked to be in the running for. I just It's a lot.
Speaker 1 00:12:50 Well, essentially what it boils down to is the pirates court all as equals, no matter what other political bullshit is going on in the outside world, we're all responsible for the water surrounding our territories. It's the reason I've been able to keep this Fri hill safe for as long as I have, because we don't have the population and heaven's new. We don't have the military to hold up against the rest of the world, but we've got the washers on Jew. Well, you've got something we could use to our benefit. Less. You've got control over the entire dragon, small enough support from the fleet. You could cut off that. Thailand's entire supply
Speaker 0 00:13:27 Darling. Even if we could get the people together that won't work, we can cut them off in the outside world. And that is good, of course, but They are highly motivated to keep bringing people to that island and making them disappear. And if they can't get anyone from outside, then they'll just turn to the mainland. And I don't think that's a good solution either. I'm not going to sit here and watch my country to voucher itself.
Speaker 1 00:13:55 Captain frowns, looking down at the table, and you could swear that you just hear the gears gnashing and grinding together in his head. As he tries to think and fails while he is buffering, Sabine reaches down and picks up the broach, sort of turns it back and forth between her fingers. A couple of times,
Speaker 1 00:14:15 Look, I get that. You are not jazzed about this fee. I wouldn't be either if I was in your shoes, but we need to consider that defiance likely told your father where she was planning to take you. So most likely he'll be along before we have time to come up with a better plan. And he has what's left of the Navy and we have two ships right now. We're going to need numbers, which is something that you could give us by leveraging your position on the pirate court. I don't claim to know the code inside and out, but I know the court protects its own. You could a meeting ask for help Beside her. The captain is cradling his head like he's nursing a migraine from thinking too much. And without looking up at you says, oh you, and if you need any more convincing, just imagine the look on your old man's face. When he runs up against a line of Aquafina, the red steamships
Speaker 0 00:15:09 Fee was opening her mouth to argue with Sabine, but she swivels points at the captain, narrows her eyes. That's not fair.
Speaker 1 00:15:18 I may not be fair, but I am right. The only thing stopping the court from helping you out to the best of its ability a year ago was defiance and well, she's not an issue anymore. Your father has been stumping all over agro penis turf for far too long. She's probably chomping at the bit to take him out Beatrix and Ingrid want this war over for Tor dunes sake and Katia likes yet. If you pick up that broach last and you accept the title and you call a meeting, they will come and they will help just call the meeting and write a letter, put down what you need. I'll go to parlay Cove. I'll parse it all out for you.
Speaker 0 00:15:54 I Find you're right. We are deeply outmatched and I'm not going to prioritize my own stubbornness over the resources that we need to stop all this. I understand we need help and I will do my best to get that help and to accept it. But, And she takes a deep breath, picks up the broach and kind of turns it over in her hands for a second. I hope you'll both forgive me for saying that with my family history, I am not comfortable keeping a title that I had to kill to earn. So we'll call this my first and final act as pirate queen of a sharer. Yeah. Yes.
Speaker 1 00:16:41 The captain nods and then stands up squeezes at your shoulder. As he walks around the side of the table. I won't fault you for that last, you and Sabine can work out what you want to put in the lecture and we'll solve it whole after we figure out the whole flux Togala and shit-show lounge without I should go check on my crew. He leans down to kiss you on the forehead, reaches out to press his hand to the side of Sabine's cheek, and then turns around and leaves
Speaker 0 00:17:13 The stays there for a second. Nods to herself, scoops up the broach And to Spain says, I need a little bit of air. I'm going to hit up on deck as well. And then she leans over, gives Savannah kiss and heads up on deck.
Speaker 1 00:17:36 The first thing you notice when you get out on deck is that all of your party's familiars are kind of hanging out together. The horribles zombie Pelican is perched on spine of Dexter, the bone Wolf, who is just kind of curled up in the sun and ravines familiar, sweetie. This little skeletal Sparrow is perched on the pelicans bill kind of pecking at the barnacles and crusted there. The bird opens its mouth and eats, sweetie. And as you were watching this happen from up in the rigging, you hear Pelican the man make a very fronted noise and start snapping at it. The bird reluctantly spits sweetie out. And she goes flying away to perch on a ravine shoulder. You watch all this happen in quick succession. And then from next to you, you hear a voice say, wow,
Speaker 0 00:18:35 Huh? Yeah, I didn't like that at all. I said,
Speaker 1 00:18:39 Zed is leaning back against the railing of the ship with his arms crossed over his chest eyebrows raised at the scene that you have just witnessed. You know, when I was a kid, we had a cat, just a cat, a regular cat, not a dead one. I'm starting to think that I formed some unrealistic expectations about what a pet is supposed to be
Speaker 0 00:19:02 Fi stops for just a moment and then says, huh, I've never seen a flesh cat. What's that? Like,
Speaker 1 00:19:10 You have seen a flesh cat rule deception right now.
Speaker 0 00:19:20 16.
Speaker 1 00:19:22 Okay. I'm going to roll insight for Zed dirty 20. He looks over at you and tilts his head to the side. Oh, so you're trying to fuck with me. That's what you're trying to do.
Speaker 0 00:19:35 Yeah. Can't blame a girl for trying. It would have been very funny. If I'd managed to convince you that there were only bone animals in a Sharia, I was whipping up a whole pitch about how it was more sanitary. It would have been fantastic.
Speaker 1 00:19:48 You know, I've been to Australia and church. I saw the skulls hanging from the ceiling. I would be inclined to believe you, but I have known you and your brother long enough to know that the two of you share a genetic propensity for bullshitting.
Speaker 0 00:20:02 Hmm. Yeah. I think that's fair to say. One of our ancestors was a serial killer for several decades before he managed to get himself onto the throne of a Sheria establishing our entire dynasty. And we just kept that shit under wraps for 10,000 years now,
Speaker 1 00:20:20 Zed stares into the middle distance for a couple seconds and then leans a little further into the railing and goes, huh. Interesting. How Leo didn't catch me up on that. Anyway.
Speaker 0 00:20:32 It's relatively new information. Anyway, you get used to the bird eventually sort of
Speaker 1 00:20:38 Does it, uh, does it always eat things?
Speaker 0 00:20:42 Oh yeah. Stray food seagulls. It leads notice of delinquent repayment alone. But I think that's because they have a healthy respect for each other.
Speaker 1 00:20:51 Oh, that's the cat. Right? I had to feed him when I got on the boat.
Speaker 0 00:20:55 Yeah. Did he call your hand open
Speaker 1 00:20:57 Zed kind of squint at you until it says head to the side? No, he's a sweet cat. He's really nice.
Speaker 0 00:21:04 Hmm. He's a menace to society, but okay.
Speaker 1 00:21:09 Yeah. Well maybe that's why we get along. Zed pushes himself off. The railing stands up and turns over to look at you. You don't look so good. You feeling okay.
Speaker 0 00:21:23 Feet gives them a look and says, well, he said, since you asked, I am having somewhat of a difficult few weeks. Yes. You know what? With the being framed for a murder and being arrested and finding out a lot of troubling information about my family history and being kidnapped and I woke up in a dumpster and then I killed a person.
Speaker 1 00:21:49 Yeah. I've been there. And I mean, I'm not one for toxic optimism, but maybe try to look on the bright side. I mean, we made it out of older. The weather's nice. The sun is shining. It's a beautiful day. We have fine company right in front of you. Boots walks by and says, head goes on a swivel to follow him. Yo ho yo ho a Pirate's life. For me,
Speaker 0 00:22:16 Careful. You are both so taken and he's at least put a ring on it
Speaker 1 00:22:22 Just because I'm on a diet. Doesn't mean I can't look at the menu. And besides, I don't see a spouse anywhere
Speaker 0 00:22:28 Fi looks around for a second and then points up in the rigging.
Speaker 1 00:22:32 Zed looks up and up and up into the rigging at where Pelican is perched gargoyle like on one of the masks, just glaring at him, the bird flutters up and settles on his shoulder. It is also glaring. It said it is deeply creepy to behold Zed eyes get real big and he just goes, wow. I have suddenly lost interest in being a pirate.
Speaker 0 00:23:01 Yeah. It wouldn't work out. Anyway. If you said you wanted to live on a boat full time, Leah would break up with you out of self-defense
Speaker 1 00:23:08 Zed. Winces sympathetically. Oh yeah. Poor guy. You know, I think he's doing better now. I can't tell if it's because he got his sea legs finally. Or if he's just holding it back out of spite, but he nods across the deck past where Sabine and dock are set up at a little rickety table playing a game of backgammon and a few feet away from them. Verity is huddled on the deck with the teen squad, apparently reading their birth charts. She's got that little glowing crystal star map of hers out in her hand, kind of poking at you. Looks extremely perturbed about what the stars have to say about her. But Zed line of sight is actually fixed towards the upper deck at the stern of the ship back where the wheel is. And in that direction, you see Leo and Calissa taking turns, throwing knives at the side of a big packing crate up against the railing. Meanwhile, the captain is at the helm, turning the wheel to get the ship, to catch the wind chatting animatedly to Eleanora Ash, thorn of all people who is staring straight ahead with a Kubrick stare, just looking like she would rather be anywhere else, but where she is right now
Speaker 0 00:24:28 Fee nods her head over towards Eleanor and the captain and says, something tells me we're going to need to get in the middle of that conversation to prevent great tragedies,
Speaker 1 00:24:38 Roll a persuasion check.
Speaker 0 00:24:41 Okay. Fine. 13.
Speaker 1 00:24:44 Okay. Let me roll for said, Well you rolled a three, but I rolled a two and fi and said both get plus 10 to persuasion and insight respectively. So you just barely convinced that to intervene in this. You look over your shoulder and see him tucking. What looks to be homemade betting, slips back into his vest, very sheepishly. But then he raises his eyebrows nods and goes, yeah. Yeah. We should stop him from fighting. That was exactly what I was about to suggest.
Speaker 0 00:25:19 Oh, I'm sure it was. I would never suggest otherwise knowing your ethics and moral character, Zed,
Speaker 1 00:25:27 Zed looks deeply affronted and brings a hand up to press against his chest. I'll have, you know that my ethics are fucking impeccable. I'm just a bastard. It's why me and your brother works so well.
Speaker 0 00:25:41 All right. All right. And he's going to head off towards Eleanora and the cabin Leo, you and Calissa are engaging in some target practice. As behind you. The captain is talking about something about the wind currents. You don't really understand it. He has been doing this for several minutes. You have not understood more than every fourth word he said, and you can almost hear Eleanora getting more and more aggravated.
Speaker 1 00:26:15 Okay. But like, is he mansplaining? Because if he's doing that, I'll intervene. But if Eleanor is just annoyed by him, I'm going to let it slide.
Speaker 0 00:26:25 You don't think
Speaker 1 00:26:27 So.
Speaker 0 00:26:27 So because that requires a level of condescension that you aren't sure the captain is smart enough to conjure up.
Speaker 1 00:26:34 Okay. In which case it, Leo is smirking and throwing another knife at this packing crate.
Speaker 0 00:26:40 You throw this like kitchen knife and then up and retrieve it from the packing crate. Calissa is standing at the throwing line. One eye close as she lines up an angle. Sunlight is glinting off of her newly dyed, bright fluorescent orange hair. And the effect almost makes it look like a halo of fire around her head. She tilts her head a little bit still with one eye closed and says that I can get it to ricochet off the wall.
Speaker 1 00:27:14 I'll take that bed. As soon as I am out of your line of fire, how's that sound.
Speaker 0 00:27:20 She waits for you to move out of the way and then attempts a trick shot. I'm going to roll for it. You draw back even with her at the throwing line. And she says up at five gold on it, what do you say?
Speaker 1 00:27:37 Uh, we're on a moving ship. I'll see your five and racy 10.
Speaker 0 00:27:41 Okay. 10 gold. I can get the knife to hit the wall. And then the crate, she rears her arm back throws this knife. She rolled a 19, it hits the wall and then starts to drop. And she casts made hand And the major hand puts the knife back in. Great.
Speaker 1 00:28:07 Leo puts both hands on his hips and kind of whips around to look at her that was dirty. But then he fishes 10 gold out of his pocket. Nancy
Speaker 0 00:28:20 Calissa raises her eyebrows, takes this 10 gold from you says thank you and sticks it in her pocket. As her May's hand brings her knife back to her.
Speaker 1 00:28:31 I'm starting to remember why I don't make bets with you. Anyway. He looks over his shoulder and make sure that Eleanora and the captain are still occupied before turning back to Colossae. I was wondering, um, Well it seems kind of stupid to ask if you're okay, but
Speaker 0 00:28:52 Calissa pauses, she does her knives and looking at the floor says, yeah, it does seem like that would be stupid.
Speaker 1 00:29:01 Look, I'm trying to apologize. So please just cut me a break. Okay. I'm sorry for how I talked to you that night. You had just been through the worst hour of your life and no matter what was on the line, people shouldn't talk to their friends the way I talked to you and I'm sorry, You have always been willing to go to bat for me no matter what. Even after I had been gone for five years, you were still willing to go to bat for me. And in that moment, I should have been willing to go to bat for you. And I wasn't, I'm sorry. I didn't acknowledge your loyalty for entire time. And I'm sorry that mine fell through when you needed it most But Calissa. If you're not okay, just take it from me. You need to tell someone because without help, this only gets worse.
Speaker 0 00:29:55 I appreciate the apology. And I get that. You think you mean it, but it is really rich to be told by you of all people that if I need help, I just have to ask. I spent years giving everything that I had to people that weren't there when the chips were down is me asking for help going to change that.
Speaker 2 00:30:30 Yes.
Speaker 1 00:30:33 If you don't want me to be your friend anymore, I understand I haven't treated you the way that people are supposed to treat their friends. But if you're willing to give me one more shot, I would really like to try to be better.
Speaker 0 00:30:51 Colossae still not looking at you. Nods again, reaches up to swipe at her eyes and then digs around in our pocket for a second and puts five gold down on the railing and says putting money on it. Now you're not going to follow your own advice.
Speaker 1 00:31:10 Leo reaches into his pocket and pulls out another 10 gold and puts it on the railing next to her coins. I'll see your five and racy 10
Speaker 0 00:31:23 As you two are standing here. You see out of the corner of your eye, fie and Zed, both approaching across the deck.
Speaker 1 00:31:31 Leo raises an eyebrow and then kind of reaches down to get Calissa by the elbow. And Jostle's are a little, okay. Here comes trouble
Speaker 0 00:31:40 For me. A quick perception, check
Speaker 1 00:31:43 19
Speaker 0 00:31:45 Zed nods at you as the two of them are approaching. Fi is not looking at you. She is looking behind you where you know, the captain and Eleanora are. And with that 19, you can kind of hear just like barely audible Eleanor. I go,
Speaker 1 00:32:05 Yeah, the captain's his friend. And besides that, if he dies, they're going to have some logistical issues getting the ship moved around. So Leo is going to walk over and insert himself into that conversation,
Speaker 2 00:32:17 Captain.
Speaker 1 00:32:18 Hey, I heard that sunshine was looking for you.
Speaker 0 00:32:24 The captain stops the middle of what he was saying, raises his eyebrows at you and goes, oh, all right. And then one hand still on the wheel. He says, I'll go see what she wants. Do you mind holding this for a moment?
Speaker 1 00:32:39 Leo, very nervously takes the wheel. Like he's picking up an armed bomb.
Speaker 0 00:32:45 The captain strides off across the deck, whistling a tune that you recognize as an extremely body Shanti, but he is not singing it. You've gotten the sense the last couple of days that he has dearly missed being on his own goddamn boat.
Speaker 1 00:33:00 I'm happy for him too bad. It's making him more insufferable than usual. Speaking of which he looks over at Eleanora and raises an eyebrow. You good
Speaker 0 00:33:14 Eleanora takes a deep breath, puts her hands down to her sides and says, I don't know what it is that this guy, he already annoyed me. But now that he's been chipper for the last few days, oh, he's gotten on my nerves.
Speaker 1 00:33:31 Oh, cut him a break. He just got back to his home and his family. And I know he's a jackass most of the time, but I mean, really what's he done to you?
Speaker 0 00:33:40 Nothing. And I know that makes me sound like a bitch. I get it. He's just so annoying. He's like you. And the first two weeks that we knew each other, but harder to ignore somehow
Speaker 1 00:33:52 Leo let's go of the wheel and plants both hands on his hips as he whips around to look at her. Whoa, okay. I'm starting to feel a little bit better about the conclusion of our romantic relationship now. Hey Zed, honey, are there things about me that are easy to ignore
Speaker 0 00:34:11 Zen and fee have come over here at this point. Zed walks up next to you. As you say, this puts an arm around your waist and kisses the top of your head and says now without a good set of earplugs,
Speaker 1 00:34:28 Leo takes Kimbro's blade out and casts a message can trip. It said your plugs won't save you motherfucker. I can get in your head. And even if I couldn't, I'm very good at nonverbal communication. And he puts two middle fingers up at him.
Speaker 0 00:34:44 Zed opens his mouth to fire back at you. And then from up in the rigging, you hear Lon
Speaker 1 00:34:54 Leo's eyes go kind of wide. And he not trying to be mean, but urgently kind of shoves Zed off of him and goes running for the side of the ship,
Speaker 0 00:35:06 Leaving the wheel unmanned. Fantastic. Yeah. You go running for the side of the ship and sure enough, the coastline of mainland Sheria is coming into view.
Speaker 1 00:35:22 I think he just stares in absolute silence. Just looks blankly out over the railing, taking it all in. He's having a lot of big feelings because it's been the better part of seven years since the last time Leo saw his home. And I think there was a pretty big part of him that sort of just believed he would never see it again.
Speaker 0 00:35:48 There is a sort of fog over the water that makes the outline of this coast kind of blurry and dreamlike. You are relatively near looks to Golan. Like you can just barely see the top of the tower that you now know is a long defunct lighthouse between you and it, you see fields, what might be the smudgy shape of a little town. You can tell just by looking at kind of the geography you are around this kind of horn of land that sticks out just south of STLR. You're the closest to home. You have been in seven years.
Speaker 1 00:36:38 Leo is not looking away from all of this, but he is reaching out his free hand towards fi
Speaker 0 00:36:45 Fi had kind of come up to the railing behind you. As you went over, she grabs her hand back, squeezes it super tight
Speaker 1 00:36:54 For once in his life. Leo doesn't have words. He just keeps clinging to his sister's hand and trying to process the knowledge that he is returning to a home where there is nothing left for him.
Speaker 0 00:37:11 From behind you. You hear the captain yelling, you had one drug as he presumably runs back up to the wheel and fi turns her head and over her shoulder says, love, tone it down.
Speaker 1 00:37:27 Leo doesn't even have a snarky comment to add onto that. He's fully dissociating. At this point,
Speaker 0 00:37:34 You are still approaching mainland Sheria, but more importantly, it looks to Gallen and as you draw closer, something weird happens This low fog over the ocean, almost jitters like bad stop motion and shifts. And then you blink and it stops. Everything is calm for a moment. You are still approaching land and fi from beside you says, wait, what?
Speaker 1 00:38:19 Uh, I'm going to look around and see what's going on. I'll roll. If you need me to,
Speaker 0 00:38:23 Uh, yeah. Roll investigation,
Speaker 1 00:38:26 Who likes to live proficiency? You think Soren 11, Leo's not having a good day
Speaker 0 00:38:34 Out of the corner of your eye. You see ghost Soren appears he is following FI's eyeline and then stops seeming distracted and looks further down the ship to where Lorelei and the rest of the team squad are talking to Verity.
Speaker 1 00:38:53 You know, I would argue that now's not the time for sentiment, but I get it go forth. And Leo turns back over to fi what are you seeing
Speaker 0 00:39:04 Fee has gone very pale next to you. And she points with her chin towards this landmass that you were approaching and confused and disoriented. She says, That's, That's omegas. You follow her online. And yeah, there is a city in your field of vision where there was not before. And you recognized the geography. It has changed from the kind of rolling fields of the metal of a Sheria to the sheer Rocky cliffs along the Southern coast.
Speaker 1 00:39:49 The hats is not possible. Illness would be what, two, three days of sailing from where we just were,
Speaker 0 00:39:58 Uh, at least we're on the run, the wrong side of the island captain From behind you, you hear the captain cursing up a storm and the ships though, they start to turn as Sabine, Zed, Calissa, and Eleanora. All approach You hear Sabine from behind you say is that The ship continues turning and you see that you were headed away from Oxford Dolan and the captain is trying to get you back on course.
Speaker 1 00:40:33 What the hell is going on?
Speaker 0 00:40:36 The ship turns and starts heading back toward Loxo Golan as fi looks around and goes, I, I, I don't, I don't understand what's going and you start approaching again. And the fog does that jittering thing again, and there's almost a shimmer in the air, and then you blink and there is just open sea in front of you.
Speaker 1 00:41:06 Like no more Australia, no more nothing
Speaker 0 00:41:09 In front of you. Now,
Speaker 1 00:41:11 Leo runs over to the other side of the ship.
Speaker 0 00:41:14 As you run over to the other end of the ship, you see the co-sign of a Sheria again, you are heading north again towards Boulder.
Speaker 1 00:41:28 Leo's eyes are just fixed on the island and the tower in the middle of it. And he purses his lips, shakes his head a little bit. Uh huh. Okay. Well this seems like wizard shit. I don't know anything about wizard. Shit ravine,
Speaker 0 00:41:46 You spot ravine down at the railing on the lower deck near where they already and the teens have all run to look at what's going on. He looks up as you call his name says, yeah, just a second. And then bustles across the back and up. What what's going on. Do we know what's going on?
Speaker 1 00:42:06 I wish we did. It's like every time we start getting closer to the island, we get zapped to the other side. Do you know of anything that could make that happen?
Speaker 0 00:42:17 Ravine squint, and then pulls out his wand, sweetie. The skeletal Sparrow that is his familiar flies over and purchase on his shirt. And he starts casting something. And then still squinting at this hazy outline of looks to Nolan. He says,
Speaker 1 00:42:41 It
Speaker 0 00:42:42 Feels almost like private sanctum, but that's not that there's something else. It's not just AB duration. It's it's, there's some divine magic in there and it, it feels like edification. Maybe, maybe necromancy. I don't. This is weird.
Speaker 1 00:43:08 Okay. Well it's weird. We should consult our chief expert on weirdness. Mia. Do you have any idea what's going on?
Speaker 0 00:43:17 Mia does not even come up to join the conversation just from the lower deck. They yell. Why the fuck would I know what's going on?
Speaker 1 00:43:25 Leo glares at them and heavily debates dragging all of their shit out into the light of day, but decides against it. And just goes back to looking out over the railing.
Speaker 0 00:43:37 Ravine is still staring confused at the hazy outline of the island, whatever this is. If it's big enough to cover that entire place, it's, there's some serious power behind it. I don't think I could do this
Speaker 1 00:43:55 Unprecedented magic, big power source. I think I've got an idea what's behind this fi
Speaker 0 00:44:04 He purses her lips. Nods, grimly. Yeah. We have somewhat of an idea. How do we get through it?
Speaker 1 00:44:14 Well, obviously not on the ship. We've tried that three times and it hasn't worked. I've got a dispel magic, but if the power behind whatever's going on is that big? I don't know that I could really touch it.
Speaker 0 00:44:27 Ravine shakes his head. Uh, uh, I, I definitely don't think you should get the ship through this. You could maybe poke a hole in it, but even that you'd have to get closer, I think,
Speaker 1 00:44:44 Okay, we need to brainstorm and it'll probably be better if we wait for night to try whatever it is we're going to try. Anyway, captain, we should maybe retreat to a safe distance and way anchor
Speaker 0 00:44:57 The captain sounding extremely troubled, yells back. All
Speaker 14 00:45:02 Right, that sounds reasonable.
Speaker 0 00:45:05 And the ship slowly starts to turn to a trait
Speaker 1 00:45:12 Fi several hours pass. The sun begins to set in the west, casting the tower of Luxal Gallen into a sharp silhouette where the ship is anchored several miles off shore. And you find yourself in the captain's quarters with your brother Zed, the captain Sabine and ravine all hunched over this big table, full of maps. Leo has been pacing for several minutes, but briefly stops to whirl around and point down at the coast of the island on one of these maps across the top of the table. Okay. Ravine, you said that I couldn't get the whole ship through with a dispel magic, but I could punch a hole in the spell. Maybe big enough for two people, because if we can do that, I can water walk us over there.
Speaker 0 00:46:09 What if they see us from the island though?
Speaker 1 00:46:13 Yeah, that's true because it would probably be you and me going just to do reconnaissance and I could hide pretty well, but you, I mean,
Speaker 0 00:46:22 Yeah, we all know I'm very ostentatious. We get it.
Speaker 1 00:46:26 Or a vein puts up a finger and goes also it's night and you both glow in the dark.
Speaker 0 00:46:32 That is a good point. And there aren't exactly trees to hide behind in the ocean. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:46:43 I mean, we've got people on board with invisibility spells, right?
Speaker 0 00:46:48 Yeah. But he looks over at the captain and says, sweetheart estimate for me really quick. How close do you think we were able to get to the island before things got weird?
Speaker 1 00:47:01 The captain picks up a couple of navigators tools from this table and starts marking at little spots on the map, like roughly where you were when you first sailed in. And then when you got zapped to the Southern coast, and then when you got zapped to the Eastern coast of Luxal gall and where you are now, uh, a mile maybe a bit more.
Speaker 0 00:47:25 I don't think any invisibility spelled that we have access to is going to long enough for us to water walk a mile, Leo.
Speaker 1 00:47:32 Okay. So some other kind of magic to stop us from being seen. I know Verity did that thing when we snuck into Boulder, but we had to be close to her. Right. So I don't even know if I can get the two of us through this. Adding a third person seems counterproductive.
Speaker 0 00:47:52 No. And besides there's only so much pass without a trace can do, we're looking at a dead sprint across a mile of water,
Speaker 1 00:48:02 Open water at night.
Speaker 15 00:48:06 Fuck.
Speaker 0 00:48:08 I, I can cast darkness.
Speaker 1 00:48:12 Yeah. Yeah. You could. How long can you hold that up for
Speaker 0 00:48:16 10 minutes? Give or take? I can't move it though. Once I cast it.
Speaker 1 00:48:22 So that would only give us a couple feet of cover. And would we even be able to see in it?
Speaker 0 00:48:27 No, not dark vision. Can't Pierce through it. I dammit.
Speaker 1 00:48:35 So nothing. We've got nothing. Leo turns around and like smacks his hand against the wall of the captain's quarters. Very pissed off and just starts pacing again.
Speaker 0 00:48:51 Hang on. Oh, well wait, wait, wait, wait, brain blast. Uh, so very, um, correct me if I'm wrong. I'm looking at the stats for darkness. I can cast it on a point that I choose or I can cast it on an object. So if I cast it on an object and the object moves, the spell moves with it.
Speaker 1 00:49:16 Oh, K
Speaker 0 00:49:18 Fi stops and says, wait, I can somebody hand me something, light, something that'll float. And that I could move with a gust. Can't drip.
Speaker 15 00:49:36 Okay.
Speaker 1 00:49:38 Uh, you know what rule of cool. I'm going to let you do this and actually go ahead and take a point of inspiration. Cause I like the cut of your gym.
Speaker 1 00:49:49 Everybody in this room starts floundering around to try to find something that fits your specifications. You see Zed like taking out a couple of his facial piercings and dropping them in a glass of water to see if they float. The captain is like weighing how much his shirt would take on water. If you needed to use that. Leo has gone pretty much full unhinged at this point and just slings the leather messenger bag that he carries around off his shoulder. Dumps it out on top of this map table and starts pawing through the various contents. Let open up Leo's inventory real quick. Okay. So I also have kind of a wild idea. Leo goes pawing through the contents of this bag, sprawled out across the top of the table. You see a couple extra daggers, some of the glued shut padlocks that the captain had given him when he first started his rogue training is thieves tools, a coil of rope. And then he stops braces, both hands on top of the table and goes, somebody go outside, put a bucket over the side of the ship and bring me some seawater now.
Speaker 0 00:51:08 Oh, okay. Fee's going to go do that. Just dipping a bucket into the ocean.
Speaker 1 00:51:15 Yeah. You have to get some help from you who ties a rope to a bucket and helps you throw it down over the side, giving you a really weird look the whole time.
Speaker 0 00:51:25 I don't know. My brother has a plan.
Speaker 1 00:51:28 You take this bucket of sea water back into the captain's quarters. Zedd is looking at Leo like he has grown a second head, very concerned, but as soon as the door shuts behind you, Leo rakes through this pile of stuff from his bag, one more time and comes up with a big block of soap.
Speaker 0 00:51:53 No,
Speaker 1 00:51:55 I just want to try it. I just want to try it. Leo takes one of the many bars of soap that he was given by this one. When the two of you left, oh, sky up brings it over to this bucket and gently lays it down on the surface of the water. I'm going to roll. We'll call it a DC 15 nature check just for Leo to do this little science experiment and see if this soap will float
Speaker 9 00:52:29 15.
Speaker 1 00:52:30 Exactly. So the soap floats Leo hurriedly, fishes it out of this bucket of water and holds up a coil of rope that he got with his starter adventure gear and goes, you can push a bar of soap, right?
Speaker 0 00:52:46 Fee puts her head in her hands. Yeah, I can.
Speaker 1 00:52:53 Okay. You can cast a darkness. Bell. You can push a bar of soap. The gust can trip. Both of us are in pretty good shape. I think we could run a 10 minute mile.
Speaker 0 00:53:04 Is the soap gonna, I can't believe I'm saying this. It's the soap going to last 10 minutes?
Speaker 1 00:53:10 I don't know. Fee. I've never had to time. How long it takes a bar of soap to dissolve in the ocean before I'm giving you options. What more do you want?
Speaker 0 00:53:22 I don't know, but this is the weirdest plan we've ever had
Speaker 1 00:53:26 Behind the two of you. Zed puts both his arms up in the air, eyes wide, shakes his head and goes, you know what? I was trying really hard to be supportive, but I got to say something. I just got to say something.
Speaker 0 00:53:39 No, please. I would love to know that I'm not the only person that sees how wild this is.
Speaker 1 00:53:45 Look, I'm not super caught up on the whole state of affairs. I don't know everything that's going on right now. And I don't really want to, but what I do know is that somebody getting onto that island is instrumental in taking down your father, stopping the war, saving the world. And we're looking at those odds. And the best thing we can come up with is soap.
Speaker 0 00:54:12 I don't have a better idea. This is it. This is the idea we have.
Speaker 1 00:54:19 Leo is already in the process of tying his rope in coils,
Speaker 16 00:54:24 Around this soap
Speaker 1 00:54:25 And kind of sheepishly looks down at the ungodly mess of knots in his hands and goes,
Speaker 16 00:54:33 It's good for your skin. It's made from goat's milk, no sulfates.
Speaker 0 00:54:41 Okay. Put another bar soap in the water. Let's see how long it lasts
Speaker 16 00:54:48 You and
Speaker 1 00:54:49 Your brother and your
Speaker 16 00:54:50 Friends
Speaker 1 00:54:52 Internationally wanted
Speaker 16 00:54:56 All insurrectionists spend the next 20,
Speaker 1 00:55:00 The minutes huddled around this bucket of salt water, slowly watching a bar of soap dissolve.
Speaker 0 00:55:08 And as we're doing that, I'm going to continue to strategize fi turns to the captain and says, do you think you could draw attention with the boat somehow while we're doing this? So no one looks too close.
Speaker 1 00:55:22 The captain staring blankly down into this bucket nods, we've got a hundred souls, a Barton and several cannons, which is better than your bar. A sole plastic.
Speaker 0 00:55:34 Everyone stopped saying the word soap. I don't want anyone on here hurt, but any attention we can draw off of the two of us will help us get there. And maybe we can figure out how to take down whatever spell it is. So you can all join us as reinforcements. I, I don't know one way or another, we have to get there though. And a dark dispel could do a lot, but eventually someone would notice that there is a patch of darkness moving over the water.
Speaker 1 00:56:05 I, we can't get too close to the island obviously, but ravine could maybe put out feelers, make sure that we can get just along the edge of the magic and we could draw attention that way.
Speaker 0 00:56:17 Okay. So we have a plan. Our plan is to follow a bar of soap across the ocean while you all shoot Canon balls at the center of the kimberlite church, cool
Speaker 1 00:56:32 Zed, fists, his hands up in his hair and goes, I need to take a walk and just walks out of the captain's quarters. And several minutes later, our cameras zooms in on you and your brother on the upper decks of the ship with your soap on a rope and a plan. Leo is crouched down on the deck, drawing a complicated looking arcane circle in chalk casting waterwalk as a ritual and next to you, fi Sabine comes over and squeezes at your shoulder super hard. The two of you are firing off a message as soon as you find anything, right?
Speaker 0 00:57:17 Yeah, of course. But our top priority is finding a way to get the rest of you onto the island to help us
Speaker 1 00:57:24 Good call as long as whatever that enchantment is, is up. I don't think I could get in there to teleport you out. So I want to say this is a bad idea, but it's not bad. It's just insane.
Speaker 0 00:57:43 I'm sure it'll be fine. I'm sure it'll be fine.
Speaker 1 00:57:47 She pulls you in and kisses you.
Speaker 0 00:57:50 Yeah. If he kisses her back, okay. We'll figure out some sort of shenanigans to get the spell down and I'm sure maybe something else that can be solved with a bar of soap.
Speaker 1 00:58:04 This is bananas. I am romantic CLIA involved with two people that are absolutely off their fucking rockers. Don't die.
Speaker 0 00:58:14 I'll do my best. And then fee's gonna cast at darkness bell on the soap on the rope. God,
Speaker 1 00:58:26 You do this just as Leo is wrapping up casting. This waterwalk spell as a ritual. The two of you step into a lifeboat and are lowered down into the water. Leo casts, the bar of soap out probably 30 feet in front of you. He still has a little bit of slack on the rope, coiled around his arm and you to set off with this void like darkness spell in front of you, shielding you from anybody who might be watching from the shore. Okay? So fi here's the thing your gust can trip can only move an object up to 10 feet at a time. I will factor in the knowledge that you are on moving water and that that water is moving towards the island. But what I'm going to need to do is roll me a perception check to see if you can anticipate which way these waves are going enough to keep this shield of darkness out in front of you and Leo,
Speaker 0 00:59:38 Uh, natural 17. So 21,
Speaker 1 00:59:42 Okay. That will cover you until the ship starts playing its part in this whole operation. If you look back over your shoulder, you can see the ship lit up as brightly as it can be. All of the portholes open, just starting to unleash cannon fire. None of this artillery reaches the island. Obviously it's too far back, but they're making a lot of noise. And from the island in front of you, you see three bright red pinpricks of light. Start to gleam through the darkness. They get brighter and brighter. And then three beams of laser-like magical light shoot out across this distance. Gonna roll to hit three times, Okay? Only one of those is going to hit. So that's 12 damage to the ship. You and Leo have covered about a quarter of a mile at this point, fi I'm going to make you roll perception again.
Speaker 0 01:00:55 I'm going to use my point of inspiration 19.
Speaker 1 01:01:01 Okay. You're good. The ship is still holding the attention of whatever weapons are on the island, but they're going to roll three more times on the ship.
Speaker 17 01:01:12 Hit, hit
Speaker 0 01:01:15 Miss
Speaker 1 01:01:19 Another 32 damage on the ship and fi you and Leo cover another quarter of a mile roll perception. Again, as you continue blasting these Gus canned trips,
Speaker 0 01:01:33 I'm going to use one of my roles. I'm going to use the second one And use my final reroll 16.
Speaker 1 01:01:45 That will just barely do it.
Speaker 17 01:01:48 So
Speaker 1 01:01:49 You and Leo keep tracking, pushing this darkness, spell out in front of you. I'm going to roll to hit three more times on the ship
Speaker 17 01:01:58 Hit, Hit Miss
Speaker 1 01:02:07 28 more damage on the ship. It is far behind you at this point, but you can still hear the echoes over the waves of the whole and some pretty hefty damage being done fee. You are on the home stretch. You're on this last quarter mile between you and the shore of Luxal Gollin you have no re roles remaining. The ship is taking heavy fire. I'd like you to roll perception. One more time to keep this darkness spell on track.
Speaker 0 01:02:42 All right. All right. All right. That's a nine.
Speaker 1 01:02:51 Okay. The bar of soap that is carrying your darkness, bell gets yanked off course by an errant wave and you and your brother as Australians, as bioluminescent people that glow in the dark are momentarily exposed. And you see one of the three magical lasers that has been focused on the ship pivot to point at you. As you run across the surface of the ocean, you're close. You're within a quarter of a mile of the beach, but you don't know that you can outrun this.
Speaker 0 01:03:32 Hey, since we have waterwalk cast on us, we can't go under the water. Right?
Speaker 1 01:03:38 Um, let me look at what waterwalk does. Hold on. So the wording of the spell says that it grants us the ability to move across any liquid surface up to 10 willing creatures. There's only two of us. That's fine. If a creature submerged in a liquid is targeted, the spell carries the target to the surface of the liquid. So I would interpret that
Speaker 16 01:04:05 As,
Speaker 1 01:04:06 Yeah, we can't go beneath the surface of the water because if we had been beneath the surface of the water, the spell would have pulled us up.
Speaker 0 01:04:13 Okay. I cast Titlewave.
Speaker 16 01:04:20 Um, alright.
Speaker 1 01:04:23 Tell me what that does. And I'll figure out how to integrate that into this situation.
Speaker 0 01:04:29 The text of the tidal wave spell reads. You conjure up a wave of water that crashes down on an area within range. The range is 120 feet. The area can be up to 30 feet long up to 10 feet wide enough to 10 feet tall. Each creature in that area must make a deck save on a failed save creature takes bludgeoning damage is knocked brown, blah, blah, blah. The water then spreads out across the ground in all directions.
Speaker 1 01:04:54 Okay. I mean,
Speaker 1 01:04:58 Should I make you make this deck safe? Like maybe with advantage? No, because you're on top of the water. Like you're not getting hit by it. Oh, this is fascinating. Okay. Um, no. Yeah. The way I'm interpreting it is you and Leo are on top of this wave because you cannot physically go under the water, which means that you can't be hit by the wave. I will say that this wave will carry you the rest of the way to shore. I am going to make you make the deck save, not from getting walloped with the wave, but from getting body slammed onto the beach. Does that sound fair?
Speaker 0 01:05:41 Yeah, that works.
Speaker 1 01:05:43 So fi what you're going to do is roll me a DC 19 deck, save against your own spell, save DC. Leo is also going to do that
Speaker 0 01:05:54 Natural 20
Speaker 1 01:06:00 Um, wow. Okay. Be you fully hang tan on this wave. You just ride this rolling wave of water onto the beach with the utmost grace, like a pro surfer and step off on onto wet black sand. Totally unfazed. I'm going to roll for Leo
Speaker 1 01:06:38 Well, I didn't roll on that one, but I did roll a two, which with Leo's modifier for saves, it's a set. So Leo gets, I think just caught up in the barrel of this big tidal wave. That's rolling towards the shore. He can't go under the water. So he just gets tossed around like a coin and a washing machine And then gets fully body slammed onto the beach. And I do need to roll that four D DEA bludgeoning damage for him. So that is 17 bludgeoning damage as Leo just absolutely eats shit on this beach and the waves wash up the sand around him before retreating back into the ocean. He lays there for a couple seconds and mobile, and then laboriously flops himself off of his face. And over onto his back sticks one arm up in the air with his hand, curled into like a hang loose gesture.
Speaker 0 01:08:00 He is going to apologetically walk over and give him a hand up. I'm sorry. I made fun of your soap idea.
Speaker 1 01:08:11 I'm sorry. I had it.
Speaker 0 01:08:13 Let's
Speaker 1 01:08:14 Figure out those lights were coming from. I think if we take those down, we can give the ship a better chance at getting here.
Speaker 0 01:08:21 Yeah. Uh, shoot. Somebody ascending, tell them they come back off.
Speaker 1 01:08:26 He zaps Kim rolls blade out of his Bracer and you see the knife glow for a second. Leo sort of frowns and then nods his head before zapping it back in. Okay. So knows they're retreating
Speaker 0 01:08:42 Fi looks up the island at the looming shape of the tower that used to be a lighthouse nods to ourself and says, okay, here we are.
Speaker 1 01:08:59 Here we are. Let's finish it.
Speaker 0 01:09:05 Yes, let's
Speaker 1 01:09:12 Our camera smash cuts away from Leo and fi into pitch black darkness. For a moment. There is nothing we can see. And then out of this darkness balloons, a lattice of luminous blue magical light that is intricately laced between leather gloved fingers. We watch a few moments of this frantic magical cat's cradle, thumbs and fingers dropping between these threads of magic. Only to pick them up again, lacing them into increasingly complex patterns until the magic has formed something that looks almost like a window. And in this window we see the effects of a clairvoyance spell, play out. The magic glows and pulses from these threads and coalesces into an almost screen like depiction of a young infernal elf woman and a young Australian elf man sopping wet, struggling their way upwards from this black sand beach
Speaker 1 01:10:37 And in the ambient glow from this vision and this lattice of magic. We see the silhouette of a person who is wrapped head to toe in dark clothing. In fact, in the darkness of this environment, all we see is a thin sliver of pale skin with blue undertones and two gray eyes with slit pupils staring down at the Tablo in front of them. We hear a sharp intake of breath, and then the complicated threads of this magical cat's cradle shatter into dissipating, moats of light, the picture disappears, and our camera cuts sharply away. Once again,
Speaker 0 01:11:38 Leo, you walk quite a distance on the island of looks to felon, a place that has haunted your nightmares for more than half your life. You walk past the docks, you walk past the remnants of a crumbled structure that you know, from the angles is the boat house, where you are a great, great however many times. Great grandfather told his sister what he had been doing to keep his power. You walk through the dilapidated remains of a village that you saw through the eyes of a Lander Val sign. And the priest is justice. No one has lived here in a very long time. The priesthood all live further down the island around the central tower. That used to be the lighthouse. So what you were walking through now is nothing but ghosts.
Speaker 1 01:12:44 Cool. Love that for me specifically.
Speaker 0 01:12:48 Yeah, roll a, just like a whiz check. 14, you are passing the ruins of what used to be homes and community centers and places of worship and out of the corners of your eyes. You see people that, again, you saw through the lenses of a Lander injustice, old ladies, calling their grandchildren in for dinner fathers, walking away from the docks with fishing nets, slung over their shoulders, laughing and joking with each other children playing tag in the square. And you are very aware that every single one of these people is gone. It is just the impression that has been left on this island before it became somewhere that people only went to die.
Speaker 1 01:13:56 Um, just knowing my character, I'm probably going to need for Leo to roll a save to not just collapse under the weight of this.
Speaker 0 01:14:07 Yeah, go ahead. Uh, with F
Speaker 1 01:14:10 19,
Speaker 0 01:14:12 You stand in the ruins of the place where the legacy that you fought for your right to inherit and the blood soaked history that you have learned undergirds, that legacy began. You stand on the island that for so long has represented for you. The center of a religion that has done nothing but disappoint you. The place that took your mother from you, and more recently, the place where your first love died and you do not fall
Speaker 1 01:14:56 Leo stackers forward and leans against the nearest solid surface, but then zaps camera's blade out of his Bracer. And I would like to try to cast a bit of an unorthodox locate object, spell if that's okay.
Speaker 0 01:15:15 Uh, reminded me of what you need for locate object.
Speaker 1 01:15:20 Okay. Verbatim the spell says that I can describe her name, an object that's familiar to me. I sense the direction to the objects location. As long as that object is within a thousand feet of me, if the object is in motion, I know what direction it's moving in. The spoken locate, a specific object known to me as long as I've seen it up close within 30 feet. At least once alternatively, the spell can locate the nearest object of a particular kind, such as a certain kind of apparel, jewelry furniture, tool, or weapon. I saw those weapons fire on the ship. I would like to cast a locate object to find something that can shoot magic lasers at people.
Speaker 0 01:16:12 Okay. I want you to roll me in our contract to see if you can like visualize and conceptualize whatever this is well enough to be able to find it with the spell.
Speaker 16 01:16:23 Can I take a short rest so I can talk to my grandma again and get proficiency in our cottage checks?
Speaker 0 01:16:30 You could, but the longer you are on this island and out in the open, I'm going to start rolling for something bad to happen.
Speaker 1 01:16:42 Fuck. Okay.
Speaker 0 01:16:44 It's not guaranteed. I could roll. Hi,
Speaker 1 01:16:48 But you could roll low. Like I've been doing all day. I'm just going to roll the R comment check. I'm just going to fucking roll the Arconic check. Well, that was a natural one. So with my heart econom modifier, that's a four mother fucker.
Speaker 0 01:17:10 So the spell does not work with your special little eyes in your little brain. You are going to have to try and figure out where on the island. Those magic lasers for lack of a better word were coming from. And also you have used a second level spell slot. So if you're going to start looking around for this weapon, I want you to roll may survival check.
Speaker 1 01:17:38 Okay, well, that's a 21. So apparently I just turned into fucking Aragorn. After this spell doesn't work. Put my ear to the ground. I don't fucking know.
Speaker 0 01:17:51 I want you to roll may stiff check. I'm going to have feveral one as well,
Speaker 1 01:17:58 21 for Leo.
Speaker 0 01:18:00 And she got to 17. Okay. You roll a very good survival check. You think you can like vaguely tell where those blasts at the ship were coming from. You start to set off towards the other side of the island, where the lighthouse is. And with a group self-check of 19, you managed to stay undercover. As you move around this island, you crest a hill on the road that you know, leads from the village to the lighthouse and you see the tower rising, tall, above everything. And around it, you see laid out various smaller buildings that were not there. When you saw this island through the eyes of a Lander Val sign and his sister, you gather that these are all buildings that have functionality to the priesthood. You would guess housing and sort of ceremonial buildings, roll me, investigation or perception. I'll let you pick
Speaker 1 01:19:20 My God dicer ice cold today. 13.
Speaker 0 01:19:26 Okay. That's great. You don't see anything that strikes you as obviously the source of those beams of light. You would have to move further in among these buildings to try and figure it out. As you are considering that fee from next to you is looking up at this tower troubled. There's one thing I don't get.
Speaker 1 01:19:58 Well, that puts you ahead of me. There's a lot of things I don't get.
Speaker 0 01:20:02 Well. Yeah, obviously, but I just, why disabled the lighthouse?
Speaker 1 01:20:12 I mean, this is a little grim, but it makes enough sense to me shut the lighthouse down. It makes for easier shipwrecks makes for more people that nobody's going to come looking for
Speaker 0 01:20:28 Fees, gaze breaks away from the tower to look at you. And she goes,
Speaker 1 01:20:36 Look, we'll tackle all of the nastier parts of this. As soon as we're able to get those weapons shut down, let's just find them. And then we'll figure the rest of it out.
Speaker 0 01:20:50 Still looking troubled and a little bit confused. Fi nods and says, yeah, let's let's do that. Let's go. She starts to set off down among these buildings. I need the two of you to roll a, another significantly higher DC stealth check,
Speaker 1 01:21:18 Dirty 20,
Speaker 0 01:21:19 Okay. Fee. You got a six. The last stuff check was a DC, 15 you to start walking down among these buildings. And as you are crossing over the threshold into the bulk of what seems to be that living space on this island for the priesthood Romi, another perception check
Speaker 1 01:21:50 21
Speaker 0 01:21:53 As fi is about to step around one of these buildings. You hear a twig snap.
Speaker 1 01:22:02 Leo grabs her by the elbow and yanks her back around the corner of whatever building they're sneaking behind.
Speaker 0 01:22:09 As fi is stepping around the corner of one of these buildings. You hear a saw almost imperceptible. I'm going to roll a hit. I want you to roll a deck, safe,
Speaker 1 01:22:27 Fucking okay, 11,
Speaker 0 01:22:32 You reach out to grab her, but you are not fast enough. And an arrow goes sailing out of the darkness, but because he has her armor and her shield, it does not hit. And you realize as this is happening, you are not alone and you have not gone unnoticed. Dozens of kimberlite priests start to flood of these buildings.
Speaker 1 01:23:08 Leo has fee by the back of her armor at this point and kind of shakes her a little bit and nods off towards the surrounding terrain that is outside of this residential area. Okay. Aport mission. We'll come back later, go go. Cocoa, cocoa,
Speaker 0 01:23:29 Pursued by these priests. You to run into the woods, I'm going to have you to roll a group survival check to get away from these priests that are pursuing you. And they grouped stealth check to hide from them.
Speaker 1 01:23:45 Okay. So survival check to get away <inaudible>
Speaker 0 01:23:52 Oh, okay. And fee roles. Uh, five. So that averages out to a 12, Which we'll just do it.
Speaker 1 01:24:06 Okay. And now we're rolling stealth to hide.
Speaker 0 01:24:10 Yep.
Speaker 1 01:24:12 26.
Speaker 0 01:24:14 Okay. Let me roll for fi Matt 20. So you to just barely get out of eyeline of these priests. As you run through the forest, you just barely managed to get yourself in a position where you can hide. But fie manages to find a tree that has kind of a hollow in it. And some heavy leaf cover and holes, branches, and around you. As she yanks you into the space, You two are still and silent as the forces of the kimberlite church. Start pawing through these woods. Looking for you. As you are sitting there, you can feel fie shaking next to you.
Speaker 1 01:25:06 Leo brings a hand up over his mouth to try to muffle his heavy labored breathing and reaches down with his other hand to squeeze at hers.
Speaker 0 01:25:19 She squeezes back super tight and you two are not found as these priests keep searching for several more minutes afterward, you have no way of telling exactly how long it is.
Speaker 1 01:25:34 I think Leo is going to start counting from the last sound that he hears in the woods and not allow either of them to venture out until it has been at least a half an hour after that,
Speaker 0 01:25:52 As soon as you give the signal that it's okay, fee is up and out of your improvised, hiding space, breathing quickly and heavily. And she puts one hand out on tree that you have been hiding against to steady herself and just nods a couple of times.
Speaker 1 01:26:15 I don't think we can do anything more right now. I think we need to find somewhere to bunk down for the night and come at this with a new angle tomorrow. Yeah,
Speaker 0 01:26:27 Yeah, yeah. I think that's yeah. You to start trying to find somewhere to camp for the night role survival. One more time.
Speaker 1 01:26:41 17,
Speaker 0 01:26:43 You search around for a while. You're trying to find somewhere that is both easily hidden and safe to transcend for the night. You managed to find an area where it seems like a big tree has fallen over and it offers a little bit of shelter where Disney knee against another one. You think you could hide this place? Well enough, if not to light a fire or at least to bunk down so you to start getting set up and buddy, I'm going to need you to roll me one more perception. Check. I'm so sorry,
Speaker 1 01:27:24 21.
Speaker 0 01:27:27 Okay. Let's see what you're all on against you to clear out a space that you can transfer. Then I, you managed to hide it well enough. You think that you won't be disturbed. You hope you are trying to relax. And then I need you to roll me a grapple check.
Speaker 1 01:27:50 Oh, for fuck's sake. Okay. So I get plus five to acrobatics to try to get out of this, right?
Speaker 0 01:27:58 Yes, sir. I'm going to see what your role and against.
Speaker 1 01:28:04 Cool, great, awesome. 15.
Speaker 0 01:28:09 I got an 18. You are sitting there on the ground. Your sister has curled up right next to you with her back to you. She's on her side. She is clearly not transferring it, but she is trying to relax after the events that just happened. And then a dark shape comes out of a tree at you and tackles you flat to the ground.
Speaker 1 01:28:40 Leo screams loudly
Speaker 0 01:28:45 As you shriek and get tackled flat on your back fee is up and grabbing for her shield. And before she can do anything, there is a knife press to your threat. You have the presence of barely to notice that it is not a priest knife, but it is a knife. And it's on your neck.
Speaker 1 01:29:11 Leo yells again. And he is going to cast freedom of movement, which allows him to escape from any non magical restraints.
Speaker 0 01:29:22 You process that this figure kneeling on you is a slender, sorta figure draped head to toe in dark fabric, gloves, high, tight boots, a long flowing Cape with the hood pulled up and a mask over the bottom of whoever they are is face. You process a thin strip of softly bioluminescent fair skin with bluish undertones and two big luminous gray eyes with slip pupils and crow's feet at the corners you slip out of this grapple. What are you doing?
Speaker 1 01:30:04 Uh, scrambling backwards as quickly as possible and readying an action to cast a blight. If this person gets any closer to me or fee
Speaker 0 01:30:16 You and fear both sitting on the ground, she reaches out and grabs your arm super tight. And this figure's head swivel sideways. You watch these eyes squint at you. And this person says in a soft, mid range Alto voice valoran
Speaker 1 01:30:43 Leo had his knife up, ready to drop the biggest baddest blight smell that he could, but it falters and lowers a little bit as he squints at this figure. Um, no, I'm about a century too young and way less dead. I have been told the resemblance is uncanny, but I'm not valor and fell sign. I'm his nephew. Who are you?
Speaker 0 01:31:15 This figure backs away a little bit and shakes their head. Eyes closed. No, no, that's, that's not right. That's that's not right. My little boy, that's not. And all of a sudden you recognize this voice
Speaker 1 01:31:41 After everything he's been through. Leo has been fooled enough times by outside forces, pretending to be people that he loves. He still has this blight spell prepared glowing on the end of his knife. I haven't been a little boy in a long time. Last time I'm asking who are you?
Speaker 0 01:32:09 This figure, shakes their head again, looking troubled. And then one gloved hand goes up to the mask over the lower half of their face and pulls it down. And Leo, you are looking at your mother. She doesn't look how you remember her. She is in a Sherry and Elvin woman in the equivalent of her, late fifties, early sixties. She has slate gray hair. You always remember it being immaculately taken care of, not ostentatious, usually tucked out of the way in a braid or a bun, but very healthy. It is oily and nodded and frizzy now and hacked off at about a little longer than yours is.
Speaker 2 01:33:13 She
Speaker 0 01:33:14 Looks like she has not been able to take very good care of herself since the last time you saw her, But undoubtedly, this is arch Duchess, a Donna Val sign.
Speaker 2 01:33:32 She
Speaker 0 01:33:33 Looks back up at you meets your eyes. And her expression goes from troubled to clear, Confused, but very focused in a way that you remember vividly
Speaker 2 01:33:50 Soft.
Speaker 0 01:33:50 Shirley, almost, hopefully she says Layer on Mom. And that is where we're going to end this week.
Speaker 23 01:34:11 Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.
Speaker 0 01:34:19 Next time.
Speaker 1 01:34:38 Hey, everybody Barry here with the postscript, just clearing up a couple of housekeeping things here at the end of the episode, as always, I'm going to go ahead and plug our social media profiles. You can find us on Twitter, Tumblr, and TechTalk at compel duel. We have lots of other cool stuff going on. However, an official website and official Spotify profile, 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 01:35:47 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 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, we'll be going live on Friday, April 15th, 2022. Or if you're a member of our Patrion, you'll be getting your early access on Thursday, April 14th. Thank you all so much. And we'll see you next week.
