Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Now what's the difference between a good ring Mallard, a dungeon master. One is a horrible slimy monster screener and the other. One's a creature monster. <inaudible> hello everybody. And welcome back to Capella. I'm Barry. You're not now. We are a single player, Cody, um, Dungeons and dragons, fifth edition, actual play podcasts.
Speaker 1 00:00:34 Last time on compelled duel. We checked in with layer of L sign in the middle of a burgeoning poo in the city of Lockem. He smuggled out the boy King and his mother from the city into a whole heap of other things that he was not entirely aware of going on in the world. I met back up with Zed stone. Booman Eleanor Ash thorn had a whole mutual trauma dump going on there and then went back across the Lake and is about to fight one of his new friends who is aware mushroom now.
Speaker 0 00:01:12 And last time we checked in with Ferrara of Alside. Uh, she had also experienced some pretty recent revelations of trauma up to, and including being unwillingly inducted into some kind of secret conspiracy society.
Speaker 1 00:01:26 That's the podcast, revelations and trauma.
Speaker 0 00:01:31 We do have a brand don't we? All right. So let's pick back up with fi and what's going on with her the next eight days go pretty much the way you would expect them to. It's a lot of sitting in the back of your carriage with your father and Fen and Colossae you guys are making your way back to where it's vellum tall at a pretty brisk pace. You know, you travel most of the day, post up with minor noble families at night, where you can, and on the morning of the eighth day, you see the spires of the city starts to come up over a Hill. As you crest it, you are back home, you ride through the city and there's not a lot of fanfare and wouldn't have gone very well to publicize that the grand ductus had gone missing. So it's a normal day in melatonin as you ride up toward the palace.
Speaker 0 00:02:24 And as you pull into this roundabout, that's in front of the front doors of the palace, you see a livid with rage, ambassador, Eamonn, Petrus, standing on the front steps, and next to you, Calissa whispers. He grimaces, okay, we're doing this and Calissa and completely ignoring the real protocol that says that you and your father should be the first ones out of the carriage and just fails out. Hi daddy. And he goes Jones and puts up one finger. He goes, listen, I can explain. He says castle now and points behind him and call us and just kind of puts their head down
Speaker 2 00:03:00 And go. And then as you and your father and Fen bail out of the carriage behind her, the ambassador looks over at you. And you notice that the kind of living power of his face has not changed. He still looks really stressed about something, and he does a short clipped vowel to both you and your father and says, you're adjusting your Highness. I would advise that we retire to the March stooks office to talk about a few things that have happened while you've been gone. Yes, of course. Sure. Moral and Valentine has never looked more tired of his life. He just pinches the bridge of his nose and goes, can't get happy with the carriage for five seconds. All right. And walks inside the palace. You guys move up through the big central tower up to where your father's office is and you all pack in. I think Fenn doesn't come with you. I think he kind of peels off and goes back to where he and his dad lived, probably the catches data
Speaker 1 00:04:00 Things. So you all come in and you sit down and
Speaker 2 00:04:05 Ambassador sits you all down. Your father takes a seat behind his desk and he says, all right, everybody. So it turns out that so much could happen in 16 days who would have known,
Speaker 1 00:04:16 Right. Well, your father,
Speaker 2 00:04:20 It's just the bridge of his nose. Again, it goes to be Frank. Even I do hate it when you beat around the Bush very, very quietly. And the ambassador says, well, all right, I don't really know where to start that you're matched yet. I believe we discussed the high court situation right before you left. So that is in full swing. The young Lords Chicana has already been inducted and is doing an admirable job in his post. So far as I've heard, um, there's something going on in those Fri files. We're not really sure what, I'm still waiting on the intelligence to come in a fee. Go ahead and want me to advantage history, Jeff 21. Okay. If you grew up in the South, you know, quite a bit about the Zephyr
Speaker 1 00:05:07 Isles does that for
Speaker 2 00:05:09 Isles are a group of islands to the South of Australia and also the larger continent where like <inaudible>,
Speaker 1 00:05:20 They
Speaker 2 00:05:20 Are a seafaring people. They have a large fishing industry. You don't know much about them culturally, just because the relationship with Australia is so far
Speaker 1 00:05:30 Fraud, piracy is a huge problem
Speaker 2 00:05:35 Or staring and trading vessels that get sniped by storm folk pirates all the time. You've actually never seen a storm vote in your life. They're kind of a boogeyman, but at least they already, you don't go too far from the shore of the pirates. Okay. You
Speaker 1 00:05:50 Things like that. Yeah. So
Speaker 2 00:05:52 The ambassador steeples, his fingers and stuff,
Speaker 1 00:05:55 The pirates are expanding their
Speaker 2 00:05:58 Travels a little more northward than we're used to. And we're not sure if that has anything to do with the other political situation, which is the layer rail is on the move. I would assume if he's sitting down. Yeah. He buries her hands in her skirts and clenches her fists so tight. You see your father's lips press into a very thin line as well. And he says, and what is he up to even where is he moving? And the ambassador kind of costs. And it was fact, um, uh, intelligence, your majesty, uh, leads us to believe that he is courting the princess of the Vesterman possibly for political Alliance. The Tor Dooney and military might is substantial and astral with is one of the premier cities on the capital of the sovereigns. If that marriage happens, it could go very well for him. What do we know about her next to nothing? Her father controls considerable military might, and she herself is supposedly a capable warrior, but all of this is coming. Second, third hand through recycled intelligence.
Speaker 1 00:07:17 Well, I'm
Speaker 2 00:07:18 Willing to bet she won't find Leo tolerable without a title to his name.
Speaker 1 00:07:22 So that seems
Speaker 2 00:07:24 To be the extent of everything that I've been able to find out. But I thought that you should just be aware that things are moving and shaking. We're just not sure why yet. And your father, again, face just a masculine disapproval and lips pressed into a very thin line goes, then what is your job?
Speaker 1 00:07:44 Bye.
Speaker 2 00:07:45 And out. And the ambassador fucking leaves the room fee roll in Arcata check. Okay. That is a 16. When your father says, find out you see the air in front of his lips, shimmer with a very subtle enchantment magic. And he turns over to you fee and just waits until the door shuts behind the ambassador as he leaves. And then as soon as the door shuts, your father just puts his head in his hands. It seems we have our work cut out for us. Don't mean armory. It certainly seems that way. I'm not too worried. It was hard enough for Leo to get my political
Speaker 1 00:08:27 Marriage. Yes. We had
Speaker 2 00:08:29 To fight me all the way to the bank on that one. So I can't wait to see what he does so that poor girl's father, you and your father shared this conspiratorial little smile. And he eventually sits up and straightens out his clothes and smoothed his hair down a little bit and goes well at any rate, I won't put you on this stuff or aisles nonsense. I'm sure it will be easily cleared up enough for me to handle on my own and lay real is going to do what's lay real is going to do as always. I ask that you just not disappear. We can consider that your grand Duchess duties for the foreseeable future. Please just don't disappear halfway across the country. Again, I will
Speaker 1 00:09:10 Do that to the best of my ability.
Speaker 2 00:09:12 Excellent. You have my leave to go. And he waited
Speaker 1 00:09:17 Where to speak of what does he want to do? He's going to go to her room. Yeah. You go to
Speaker 2 00:09:22 Your room. I think you just relaxed in there for a bit.
Speaker 1 00:09:25 Does he have any hobbies? He probably doesn't have a whole lot that she does. I think she does a lot of things that she can just kind of handle by herself. She writes poetry. I think she plays an instrument, probably flipped. She reads a lot, probably like trashy romance novel. I think she's a trained dualist like, I think she was trained in that when she was younger. And I think she rides horses.
Speaker 2 00:09:54 Yeah. You spend a lot of the day to yourself. Probably just relaxing. Trying to unwind from the ordeal of the last two weeks, the sun starts going down. It's early evening and you hear a frantic knock on your door.
Speaker 1 00:10:13 Pick up. I think a knife from my bedside table bag. I opened the door. They half
Speaker 2 00:10:18 Dressed. Colossae Petrus is in the hallway.
Speaker 1 00:10:22 Uh, okay. Phil, he takes a second to process that and that says, getting here,
Speaker 2 00:10:28 It comes up. She looks like she has gotten herself into a bit of a clothing bind. She has on that really nice dark leather rogues armor that she had on when she came to pick you up at Amber tide, but it's like half undone. And like one sleeve is still down around her arm. And she gets this huge garment bags slowly over her back. And she goes, Hey,
Speaker 1 00:10:49 Oh, I need your help. That much is obvious.
Speaker 2 00:10:53 Okay. You usher her inside. And she throws the garment back in the bag and dig something out of it and turns back around to you. She has a corset in her hand and she says, I need you to help me figure out how to get this on over. And she points to her armor this without me dying. I definitely couldn't do it by myself. And for personal reasons, I can't ask my mom
Speaker 1 00:11:14 For help. Why do you need to wear a corset and armor? It's not.
Speaker 2 00:11:21 Okay. So the thing is that, um, does your Chronos, you're throwing some big shindig for Soren's appointments at the high court tonight. And I intended to go and find out what the fuck is going on with all this shit. And I'm not stupid enough to go in there on armored, but also I can't go to a party in armor. Hence corset armor
Speaker 1 00:11:43 The armor. Oh shit. I didn't think of that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:11:47 She opens up this garment bag and pulls out this beautiful ball gown of deep blue. It has a shear cable on the back that is embroidered with silver beads that look like stars and moons and celestial bodies. It's absolutely gorgeous. She starts jumping into this dress and pulling it up over her arm or he goes, okay, can you lace me up also? You're coming with me.
Speaker 1 00:12:11 That's news to me.
Speaker 2 00:12:13 No. Yeah. I figured you're coming with me. Why would I, you said you wanted to push soar in off a tower. If it turns out that he actually is doing all of this shit that he's supposedly doing, this would be a great chance. It would also be a great chance for me to get it by the throat and ask him what the fuck he thinks he's doing.
Speaker 1 00:12:30 Opens her mouth raises the hand was it puts the head down
Speaker 2 00:12:36 And
Speaker 1 00:12:36 Out school lesson to her dreads.
Speaker 2 00:12:38 You helped lace Calissa into this dress. Uh, she's already got her hair and makeup done. She looks really pretty. And she goes, okay. Yeah. So I'm going to need you to pick up something low key because if you pull up, I think everything is going to get a little intense. It's a masquerade. So we can go in really low key. Tell us us already going through your closet. Just throwing shit out across your bed or the floor. It's a mess. Yeah, just clothes everywhere. They're heading their hands. Ooh. I like this one. You're a lot taller than Colossae. So Colossae actually has to hold the dress up over her head. So it's not like dragging the floor and she's not stepping on it, but it's a beautiful long sleeved, high color black ball gown, full skirt, beaded black on black with lots of intricate patterns. Ooh. When did you get this present? Also put it up right there.
Speaker 1 00:13:38 Of course it. And it's going to need closet to help out later up. Okay.
Speaker 2 00:13:41 Yeah, she does that. And while you're putting the dress on, she's already braiding your hair and comparing, they go pallets, like, okay, what are we going to do?
Speaker 1 00:13:48 Oh, you are not qualified. I think I bought
Speaker 2 00:13:51 Fucking great. I even brought you a present. Let's see if you get it now,
Speaker 1 00:13:54 Bigger and better. And then she moves into her dress.
Speaker 2 00:13:58 She just sits there and pounce at you only finish getting ready. And then before you guys go to leave, she goes, okay. You know, I know I said, I wasn't going to give you your presence because you were rude. Like this could be useful also. Oh shit. I was saving it for your birthday. She reaches into her armor and she pulls out this little, it's like a little filigree, very narrow jewelry box. And she chucks it on your vanity in front of you. Inside is a gorgeous necklace, very delicate gold chain. And from the chain are hanging these beautiful teardrops of rubies. They are deep blood red and hanging in, even strings down from this necklace. And she goes, so the cool thing about this is invaluable door. They figured out how to combine magic. And there's these people called artificers and they do amazing stuff. So each one of these little gems, if you take it off and you throw it, it turns into a fireball spell. How rad is that? Inspecting his neck? Just look directly at her. He does not. I mean, you could pick one off and throw it, but it's gone forever if you do. But I watched the guy naked and I know a little bit of something about magically setting things on fire. It's the reveal.
Speaker 2 00:15:23 It starts to put it on because this doesn't go with anything about me. I think it looks really nice. And Colossae goes behind you. It helps you at like, actually get a hook done on the necklace, leaves over your shoulder and kind of stares at you in the mirror goes, you look Regal. I dig it. That is the goal generally. Okay, cool. Let's go with two claps. You don't know how Colossae knows where the secret passages in the pals are, but she totally does. You guys sneak through servants, quarters out the back. She hails you as a carriage down at the bottom of the Hill where the castle is, and you start trundling off towards the Chicago Manor, which is across Vela, tall from the palace. It's near the order of I Luna tower old, really beautiful. Well-kept up a state sprawling gardens, old stone construction in the back of the carriage.
Speaker 2 00:16:12 As you arrived, Colossae reaches into her skirts and pulls out a beautiful silver mask with stars and moons and things attached to it that matches her dress and straps it onto her face. And she digs into her skirts again and pulls out a really nice, so it's black and red. It kind of goes with the necklace and your black dress dragon mask. And she goes, I thought it would maybe go with the horns in case you have to explain to people that feel it's intensely uncomfortable for a second. And I guess add yes, of course, you guys roll up to the front of this party. You bail out of your carriage. You got your masks on, and there's a guard at the door, vetting people as they come in, like checking their names off the list. Okay. Colossae confidently walks right up to this guy in the hands of an invitation. Hey, he turns around and goes, come on. Plus one feet with the dragon mask on just kind of like, no, that's the discard.
Speaker 1 00:17:12 <inaudible>
Speaker 2 00:17:19 The inside of this partying is Rocky. You walk into a big foyer that has been cleared out for this party. There's a dance floor. There's already people dancing. There's a band playing lots of food servants walking around with platters of drinks and orders and stuff. I would like use your rule mean at advantage investigation, check to see how many of these scenes you are going to unlock. These encounters all happen to you in quick succession. You were moving through this party. And
Speaker 0 00:17:51 The first thing you notice as you move through are Soren's parents or all red and leaning, Talisha, chrono, all red is a little kind of weaning guy. He's wearing an elephant mask. He's pretty nerdy and looking looks like an accountant. Talia Chicago is a Willow mean act, very tall lady, long black hair, very bright green eyes. You can see that her Wolf mask that she has on is also accommodating room for her very thick glasses. There's kind of holding for you. See them, they don't approach you or anything, but behind you, you hear a very soft, almost disbelieving wisdom.
Speaker 1 00:18:40 She doesn't turn around her posture stiffens, and she like half turns so she can see whoever's talking to her out of the corner of her eye. You see
Speaker 0 00:18:50 A shorter in stature, but still billowy and lanky and long young girl in a poofy ball gown. It's bottled orange and black in the skirt. And she has on a beautiful Monarch butterfly mask and she has long black hair. And also her mask is accommodating for thick glasses that are magnifying bright green eyes. This is Laura Lasha chrono. This is Soren. Checon his younger sister. She is the Elvin equivalent of about like 13, 14. And you know her pretty well because there was a period of time there about five years ago where your dad tried to make a marriage deal happen. Once Lorelei was of age to make up for the whole situation with Leo leaving and his Soren's engagement being broken up,
Speaker 1 00:19:39 Laurel, I never knew this. You guys
Speaker 0 00:19:42 Had several times where you like hung out and got to know each other, but in her mind it was just so I have this cool new friend,
Speaker 1 00:19:50 Kathy takes a very deep breath and then turns around fully and like nails down together more level and then says, it's great to see you. You look really pretty. She says she has a big smile,
Speaker 0 00:20:04 Carries her body very close to herself. You know, she keeps her arms kind of tucked in and you see that she's kind of standing a little uncertainly on the balls of her feet and her fancy dress shoes. She looks a little out of her,
Speaker 1 00:20:18 80 too. I am here as a surprise for your brother. So I need you to be really quiet. We're going to be sneaky. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Why are you here to surprise sorority to pile? It was Colossus idea and you know how close it gets
Speaker 0 00:20:39 And she waves. She goes, hi, Nicolas. It sucks.
Speaker 2 00:20:48 Hi babe. How are you? You look so pretty. Can we just talk like, yeah. And she gets more aligned by the wrist and yanks her outside the Chicago banner. So beautiful garden courtyard. And it is also ducked out for the party. There's like fairy lights in the trees. Yeah. Laurel. I just kind of happily follows you guys along out. She goes, Oh, it's so much nicer out here. Oh my gosh, it's quiet. And she sits down on the bench. It kind of takes a breather and yeah, it was a lot in there. But, uh, yes, this was coalesces idea and is just like the neath of acid grinning really vague. She thought it would be better if Soren didn't know we were here until we're ready to surprise that. Oh, okay. Well, I'm glad that you're here. At least I have somebody to talk to and that there is a loud bang and a flash of light. They have started letting off fireworks or like claps her hands over her ears, hurls forward. And I have for Wilson, shutters and girls in on herself as this loud always startles her. And then you see reality start to work, just beer, chaotic, magic, stretching up off of her body. And she is momentarily displeased in reality for a second and then disappears off the bench next to you and pops back, uh, behind a tree, 20 feet away on the ground.
Speaker 2 00:22:42 Obviously she's not having a good time. It's chaotic. Times of magic are still wafting over budding. You know, again, because you've hung out for quite a lot. And you're familiar with the family, like Leo was going to marry into this family. So you know, quite a lot about them or electronic is a sorcerer. She is not the same. She was born with apocalyptically powerful magic. And she has zero control. Her and Soren's mother Talia was actually one of the most prominent professors at the word retirement to stay at home with lower line or alive, barely ever moves because things like this happen, like she'll get startled or she'll get upset. And just, apocalyptically powerful, magical stuff happens around her when this happens and there's no mitigating it. She has no control over it. She's to extremely
Speaker 0 00:23:46 Powerful magics fetus kind of like get stuck in the ground to get on her level. And then very quietly just kind of says, is it okay if I touch your hands? He puts her own hands over light hands where they're over yours. Okay. Deep breath. Yeah. She brings with you. She calms down, you see the magic rippling off of her skin teams down.
Speaker 1 00:24:18 It looks like it all sinks back under her skin and reintegrates with her and she chills out. Okay. Yeah. I want to go back inside. Yeah, that was loud. Let's go back and say, I want my mom. She says, if she wanders off from you guys, you see her go grab her mother by the hand and squeezed her mom's hand really hard. And then God, like I said, all of this happens in very quick succession off to the side of you. You hear a tell-tale jingle, jingle, jingle jingle. It sounds like somebody who's got bells on their feet, walking around feet goes up, depends on the bridge right now. Then I realized that she has the mask on and just kind of Babs it under her hand, said fucking fangs. Colossae who has no idea what's going on, looks over. And he goes, what? I heard someone that I know it's not hard to spot so mean.
Speaker 1 00:25:22 She doesn't do salty. She has on a very tightly fitted, like mermaid style, right? Red dress with beautiful applications on sheer fabric, kind of over the dress, like flowers and stuff, kind of dangling fluttery sleeves. And of course she has her bells on her wrists and her ankles, her hair's down. You've never seen her hair down before. It's a very pretty thick, wavy gray hair. And she has on a red and gold Fox mask. You know, the umbrella Academy or five and Vanya drive past each other on the right. Yeah. I think it's one of those moments she sees you and you see her and you immediately know who each other is. And she just odds and keeps walking jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle. I'm going to try to as subtly as possible for all of her. Okay. Colossae is going with you. Okay. You guys follow her. She seems to be kind of sticking to the perimeter of the dance floor, but she is also making social runs. You see her stopping and talking to quite a few people, go ahead and do another investigation. Check for me just flat this time.
Speaker 1 00:26:37 Jesus fucking Christ. Okay. You start to in the way that Sabina's moving around this room, she's moving around this room. And some people she's just talking to casually like making small talk, but every so often she'll walk up to a person and very subtly out of her sleeve, pull out a little coin and flash it to a person. And that person will flash one back and then they will have a much more intense looking conversation. Do I immediately recognize any of the people that she does? The switch? So everybody has masks on it is a little hard to tell specifics. There are people that are dressed like Australia Nobles here in the, you see her doing this to like a couple of people. You see some people from the order of I Luna that are there and they're formal robes. You see with that Nat 20 investigation check, I think you overhear them talking.
Speaker 1 00:27:32 Okay. She does this thing where she walks up to a person that is in very stately, like formal black robes, kind of skinny and it a skull mask. And she leans forward. Flashes this point at this person, this person flashes a coin back and goes with all the gin joints in the world, Sabine it's the motherfucking Hierophant and Sabine tucks her corn back away. She goes, you're going to try to kill me again, said, he goes, that depends on why you're here tonight. Doesn't it. And she says, I taught you how to swing a knife. You little shit. They thinking back, I'm watching this. They exchange verbal barbs for like five minutes. And it seems like they're coming a very tense conversation. And then Sabine turns around and sees you watching at her eyes go a little wide. He just stands there with her arms crossed over her chest. Her eyes are not visible behind the mask, but she is raising one eyebrow while you're standing there doing that colossal thing. It's over to you with this like big smart. And who is that doubt? Do you already have dibs? Come on. It's very complicated. You fucking have anything in Australia.
Speaker 1 00:28:50 I promise I will set you up with a nice girl. Just not this. Okay. And then yeah. So B turns around and wanders over to YouTube and gives Colossae the once-over and kind of smiles and nods at her that looks back over at your feet and goes, you know, for somebody that doesn't adult conspiracies, grand Duchess, you ending up at our annual shindig is a little on the nose. Not by my intention, although it is good to know that this is about that. I did figure that, uh, you know, who was your friend with the promotion, but I just had a confirmation. Well, nominally, this is the big party for Soren. We find ways to make these little, get togethers happen. It's never very fun. There'll probably be two or three people dead by the end of the night. But you know, what's a good party without some bloodshed know it
Speaker 2 00:29:42 Does make me a bit suspicious meeting up with you and Amber tide, knowing that you're connected to. So I Shanana, but I mean, if you want the truth, I didn't know that you were going to be there. Like I said, I went down there to find out some truths and got knocked in the back of the head. Got kidnapped. If you didn't know I was going to be there, then someone else most certainly knew that you were going to be there, which makes me distrustful of the whole situation. Well, the whole situation, isn't something you want to trust. Uh it's Oh, your letter implied that certainly it's complex. And if you would like to go somewhere that is not the middle of a dance floor, I can explain it to you even a little more detailed. You just didn't seem to want details. Last time we spoke, I don't want details about your conspiracy theories, but I would love details about why certain players have the maintenance that they have right this way. And she ushers you guys into a back hallway. She goes, um, granddaughters, can we talk to your little friends about this? Phyllis? All five, two of her goes little. What? Put the hand over her mouth class-A has a big mouth, but she's as trustworthy as anyone is. Fair enough.
Speaker 2 00:31:11 So, um, this, this thing is this complicated group of people that I've been telling you about is something called the beacon. And like I said, it's a coalition of people that are devoted to truth in all aspects of the word for a long time, it was much more organized. Everybody got along. Everybody had the same things in mind. About 25 years ago, there was a schism ideological vibe. If you will, between members of the beacon thoughts that our duty was to be bearers of truth and people that thought it was our duty to be keepers of truth. Everybody wants to find out the truth. What we do with it has become a big point of contention and that conflict dissolved into in fighting and sabotage all while everybody was still working to find out all the truths that have been obscured from us. And that's where we are now. Many of us are dead. Others have left the country. I had to go live in the Zephyr Isles for about 10 years, took a store
Speaker 0 00:32:40 Vote for a lover pirate cabinet on an Island. She kind of snaps back out of her referee and looks back at the moments. There's no end in sight. The beacon has no central leadership authority. It's all just supposed to be people with a common goal working towards it. But now it's people with a common goal that are all trying to kill each other. Sounds like my childhood. Not very interesting. It gets a little more interesting when you figure that part of this. Yes, you're right. Is connected to Sorin. Is it connected to the ring master that tried to kill me a few weeks ago? I don't know.
Speaker 0 00:33:30 I mean, we definitely have circus performers. We've got everybody Nobles, commoners arts, she waves, the beacon takes all types of people, but all right. Like I said, the lack of any kind of central organization, it makes it hard to know when and why operatives thing. Okay. And let me tell you what I am an attempt was made on my life, lessons, life and life. Another dear friend of mine by a circus troop that had some sort of magic to awakening tree. And when I returned to the palace or actual chrono seemed surprised to see me. And then a few weeks after I was supposed to be sent on our relatively routine trip up North. And so our Giovanna tried to heal me again. And this is all seemingly by way of him connected to my brother, doing whatever the hell he thinks he's doing over on the main road.
Speaker 0 00:34:36 So forgive me a bit untrusting of anything connected to that. And forgive me if I am more than a little untrusting of his friends, Soren did not get into this for normal reasons. I that much, I just, but you know, if he wants to follow this day around and that's fine, line is this, look, if you were going to make a move, I would not recommend making it here because things may be routing shortly. Like I said, a beacon party without three deaths is adult affair. Same could be said about a lot of things in my life. I learned to roll with the punches and make sure the deaths are, as he rules it very intentional. Savine takes her mask off. And she looks at you and gives you a little bit of an eyebrow wiggle, that attentional
Speaker 1 00:35:38 Deaths or something. We do specialize in here. Anyway, I feel, excuse me. I have to go make sure his holiness, the Hierophant is poisoning the Punchbowl again a little faster. And she puts her mask back on just the most punchable little shit, right boxes here. So she puts her ass back on him, wanders back off into the party. Colossae turns back around a UV. He goes, what the fuck was that a lot happened? Well then where that Seth did YouTube. Now. Now did you want to, I don't see how that then you have your business philosophy, just not encouraging you. And back towards the party, you walk back into the party. As you were moving your way across the room, you do see the higher fit, pulls something out of his robes and hold it over the Punchbowl. And so he comes over and slaps his hand, like a kid going into the cookie jar and he salts away.
Speaker 1 00:36:41 You watch this go down and you go to turn around and say something to Colossae and eight vice grip settles around your wrist and behind you in your ear, you hear for Rora Augustina. I am the outside figure is extremely stiff and says lovely to see Lasha no, it's not. What the hell are you doing here? You turn around a, she is standing there beautiful long black dress. The skirt of her dress is shot through with eeky dark feathers that she has on an intricate Raven mask. She looks, I feel like shrinks a little bit. It wasn't my idea. It couldn't have that since Friday, certainly. And she walks back off to the gardens where you work with Laura lives a little bit ago. Uh, he takes a deep breath and then pulls the beacon quite out of her pocket. Do we need to talk about this? Or is there something else going on? I should know about Elijah, his eyes narrow, like she's trying to get her a meat on the situation. Truth dies in darkness. See this pocket says revelation lives in light digs into the front of her dress and also pulls out a coin and watches it back away. Goes, I really wanted to wait until you were older to expose you to all this bullshit, but that's never how it goes. Isn't even coming in adults. So if I had my way, you would have never gone into a messy business. Nobody wins most of me that wasn't lying to me, but there are people here that are on your
Speaker 2 00:38:36 Side. You just need to learn who they are. Kratos are not in fat, ugly. I think you're smart enough to figure that one out. You're a bright girl. You stepped in and you stepped into this time. Young lady, you really, you would need to go home where you were safe. It's really bad here. I'm not safe, anywhere promotion. So he has clear most aspects of my life now, which he has made multiple attempts on handling it. Clearly you're an adult. You're going to do what you want to do. If you get killed, I will reach into the afterlife personally. <inaudible> myself. Just to kill you again.
Speaker 2 00:39:37 She stomps off. You have not seen Soren this entire night. Both of his parents and his sister are still floating around the ballroom and you get back in he's nowhere. I'm going to keep an eye on Sabine. Uh, Lasha the higher event and Lorelei Sabina is still at the making her rounds. You see, she's keeping a really close eye on higher. She seems to be kind of tailing him and shadowing him and figuring out what the hell he's up to. Soren's parents are playing the gracious hosts. You don't actually see either of his parents pull out beacon coins the entire time that you're standing as party. You never see anybody pull out one of them and you never see them pull up on anybody else or ally. As the party goes on, it gets a little more rowdy and starts to getting really overwhelmed. And you see her go over and tug on her.
Speaker 2 00:40:36 Mother's skirts for a second and mumble something. And her mother nods and leans down because those are on top of the head. And she, she goes out, Colossae kind of raises a hand slowly. It goes. I mean, if we're looking for soar and I could maybe go ask his mom, she might know where he is. Yeah. I think that would be best. Okay. I'll be right back. She shuts off, you see her talking to lady to Toronto and then Colossae comes, shuffling back over and nods out the side door and she goes, please, your cross said that he might've taken more alive to her room. I'm going to turn to Colossae and say, can you do me a huge favor? Yeah, sure. I'm wanting to try and subtly point out a Lasha sedate and higher fence in the crowd and say, can you watch them while I figure out where soreness? I mean,
Speaker 1 00:41:34 See,
Speaker 2 00:41:34 This is all sounding kind of dangerous. Are you sure you don't want
Speaker 1 00:41:36 Backup? I can handle myself. Okay.
Speaker 2 00:41:42 The Colossae snacks or champagne fluid off of a tray. I just kind of post up on the wall. And what ahead towards there's a big staircase that goes up into the upstairs of the house in this big foyer, where the party is being held and you walk upstairs and there's a long hallway. You know where the master bedroom is? That door is shut. Soren's bedroom door is shut. You get to moralize bedroom door. And it is just plastered with pieces of parchment and drawings. And there's like a big sign that says Laura lives room. Please knock important work in progress. Pasted personnel, the door, her door was also closed. Okay. Do I hear anything from behind her door? All a perception
Speaker 1 00:42:26 Check. Okay. So
Speaker 2 00:42:28 12, 12, you hear shuffling and moving around, like things moving around on a desk. There's somebody in there doing something. Okay. Go to a certain store catalyst. Okay. Perception, check for that as well. Natural fucking 20.
Speaker 1 00:42:46 So you don't
Speaker 2 00:42:47 Hear anything from in the room, but you feel a draft. It's a kind of cool evening. It doesn't feel like somebody slept a window move and you feel a significant presence of moving air and openness behind the store. He doesn't feel like this door opens into Soren's bedroom. Again, you have been in this house of lot. You've probably seen the inside of Soren's bedroom before. It feels colder. There's more air moving around. It. It feels like whatever is behind the store. Isn't Soren's bedroom. And you hear a Creek next to you and you see Laurel's head beaking out into the
Speaker 1 00:43:31 Hey what's up.
Speaker 2 00:43:32 She says, you're looking for sore at all. Was this about the surprise? The surprise she has on pajamas at this point, but she still has her butterfly mask on and she has long leather gloves or it looks like she's been handling something mechanical with them. I was going to see if I can get him downstairs.
Speaker 1 00:44:00 Oh, well he's already
Speaker 2 00:44:01 Downstairs. He's in the basement. Oh, okay. Yeah. He's hanging out with some of his friends. He says, that's why he couldn't come hang out with me at the party. I was really bummed about it. How he just doesn't have his priorities in order. Does he really does it or a lot odds, very sagely at you. And she peels off her gloves. She goes, well, I know the shortcut down there. If you want to come with me. Absolutely. I would love that. Yeah. And she walks up to the store where you're standing and knocks this complicated rhythm into the wood and then says a date it's Leo's birthday. You know that. And the door flicks and swings open, and again, behind the door is not sore in his bedroom. It is a dimly lit torch lit subterranean hallway leading down to like a cellar door. Okay. Yeah. I don't know why he didn't just have his friends go to the basement. He sent them all up here. That's weird right now. Weird. Okay. Thank you so much. Very helpful. I'm going to go get him and bring him back up.
Speaker 2 00:45:10 Oh, okay, cool. I'm going to go. I have a project that I'm working on and she pulls her gloves back on another gloves and she disappears back into her. I'm going to like the door shots and yeah, you're staring down this subterranean hallway where Soren's room is supposed to be. What do you do? You go down the hallway. Do you shut the door behind you? Do you leave it behind me? It disappears into the soon as you shut it behind you and you are looking at a solid stone wall. There is a stairwell down on one end of this hallway, and you can hear distantly music from the party. It seems like the stairwell I go up into the kitchens. Cause you could hear sounds of cooking and smell food. And then at the end of this long hallway, there's a big, heavy wooden door. And there is light coming from underneath it like lamp light. Okay. Roll perception. Check at that 19, you hear the sounds of several people on the other side of the door in shin discussion, they're discussing Neo.
Speaker 2 00:46:27 They aren't discussing methods of contact, which seems really strange. You hear a couple people say, how can we do this? And we have no way to contact. You also hear them discussing the coverup. And you hear now that we have evidence of the coverup and then you hear someone's voice. It's not enough. We don't have enough yet may leveraging my new position will help us over time. Like I want the rightful orange do on the throne as much as any money does believe me. I think moving now isn't our best option. You hear a lot about whatever this cover-up is. And there being evidence of it, getting this new position was basically in evidence and you have access to other information about
Speaker 0 00:47:30 Other lies that happened. You do hear Soren bring up and on the matter of the flux of gallons situation, it's apparently worse than we thought. I just went over speeds more today. She said that the supply manifests going out to the Island from advertising and possibly match up with the amount of people that have to be there. The Island would have to be critically under-supplied. If the population is what we meant, I did the math. It seems like something like 20% of the reported population is actually there or otherwise have starved to death. I don't like to engage too much in substantiate and conjecture. I think we can put two and two together. My friends, you hear another person say, well, you know, we could ask about that and Soren scoffs, it was citizen going to give us anything. And then he sighs again, us. I don't know if it would be connected to our fines with the archeological site and somebody else says, well, do you think we should maybe bring her in on this and Soren last again. He goes that it's not likely.
Speaker 0 00:48:49 And you know, they keep talking. They circle back to Leo. There's some conjecture of link toward union, military support. And one that would look like there's talk of certain players that need to be taken out of the game. One of whom is Colossus dad. And then you hear somebody say, what about the grand Duchess? Everything goes quiet for a really long really. And Zoran says, I don't think it's right. If she dies. She doesn't know that she's complicit in any of this. She doesn't deserve to tonight for being involved in a lie that she has no way of knowing about. I have tried to get her out of the way as peacefully as possible. I am going to continue trying that. And whoever sits the fucking circus on her is going to know my wrath. When I figure out who it is and gentlemen, I will find it. We should all get back up to the party, former miss. Any other questions? Your chairs starting to steer I the kitchen, several cooks. Look at you. Very confused. I, uh, tilt my head and I go, Oh, sorry. I was looking for a bathroom. Uh, are you trying to act drunk? Yeah. Okay. Cool performance.
Speaker 1 00:50:29 So I rolled up 14. Yeah. They buy it. One of the cooks of motherly looking older lady, the sports you down the hall shows you to a washer so much. Um, I got on, I take a deep breath and just kind of try to process all that plugged into the mirror. Yeah. You see this massive reflection of yourself. Just staring back, taking very deep breaths. It's really your call. What to do next? I mean you left Colossae and the party Laura lives upstairs. You don't know where all the people that you heard in that room are going next. Other than that, Soren mentioned getting back to the party. I go back out into the party. Okay. Calissa leans back in as you come in and kind of gets you by the wrist. He goes, okay. So Fox mask has been following skull mask around all night.
Speaker 1 00:51:21 They have had a couple of conversations. It doesn't seem super warm and a lot has been stalking your other friend and also looks pissed at her. I can't tell if a Basha is pissed off at skull matched or knowledge. I would be surprised my head hurts. Yes that's yeah. I mean, they haven't done anything and nobody's dropped dead. Do you find Soren? Yes, I did. We should discuss this in private. Okay. Yeah. Well we have perception check as you walk out national my team. Holy shit, dude. You and Soren make fucking eye contact, man. Okay. Uh, let me roll the insight for him to see if he knows who you are. Okay. He rolled a total of a five. You guys make eye contact. He sees you and he sees Colossae and he knows who Calissa is. He has no idea who you are. All right.
Speaker 1 00:52:20 I take less as I'm more private. And I tell her everything that I think is relevant for her to know that I overheard, I tell her that they're planning to take out her dad. And I tell her that they are supporting whatever Lee is doing. And they know of his movements. Colossal looks really shaken up. When you tell her the thing about her dad that no, no, we've got to go back to the palace. We've got to tell my father and your father about this immediately. We don't have any proof who cares about proof feed your father's. The goddamn Archduke. If he says jump, the city guard says how I, I can't just can't believe sword would do this to me. I'm going to space her shoulder. I have to talk to him directly. That's too dangerous. If he's really involved in all of this, I have your gift.
Speaker 1 00:53:14 And I pull on that list and I have a not inconsiderable amount of power on that. No, if he's going to answer to this, he's going to answer for it to me. I'm going with you. Okay? Sure. Okay. Let's go again. You see her fists tightened and you see a little mechanical device attached to one of her bracelets. She's definitely got knives on her. She is shaking with rage. As you guys leave this area to go find Soren. She goes, all right. I, um, God, I don't want to take him upstairs. I think moralize up there. Oh God. Um, absolutely not. Where can we go? Can we go? That we can talk the Colossae knows this house really well. She nods and says, Gatehouse, you go, wait there, give me five minutes. I'll bring it. Okay.
Speaker 1 00:54:09 It's abandoned. The people watching the gate, art outside, it's really easy to sneak in. There's really not any monitoring happening on this building at all. It's an old carriage house. You can tell that it's been around for a pretty long time, much like the rest of the Manor. And you go in there and you wait and you hang out in there for about three minutes and you see Colossae and Soren both with their masks off, walking down the path, talking Colossae looks for all the world like she's drunk and just battling and pulling him along by the hand half closed door, they walk in and as soon as they walk in and the door shuts behind them, Calissa reaches up, gets sore. And by the back of his jacket, flings him up against a wall with a strength that does not match the small stature of her body at all and has a fucking knife to his throat. Okay. And then I get out of the stall as soon as I said, okay, he looks panicked. As soon as he sees you, step out, have you taken your mask off at this block? Okay. Yeah. He's figured out what's going on here. That he looks panicked. Colossae is just crying and cussing at him.
Speaker 0 00:55:34 Okay.
Speaker 1 00:55:34 Something to the tune of shouldn't have been surprised that it's always Leo over everything. That's always the way it's fucking been with you. Years of friendship, down the drain, just going off on him. He puts his hands up. As you walk out and very slowly says, I can explain. He raises the hand, crackling with lightning and says, you're going to have to fail. You'd be well within your rights to blast me right now. You have been lied to about a lot of things. And I have proof. I need five minutes. I don't have to leave this room. I need you to listen to me for five minutes. Put your head down perhaps or apples and sets up
Speaker 0 00:56:20 Is lifted. <inaudible>
Speaker 2 00:56:30 Colossae slipped it this six foot two, man. I assume she could lift him at cobble ages. He's not no he's blanky. Um, yeah. Calissa keeps the knife on him. Still just like tears streaming down. Her face looks really upset and holds it on him. But she takes a step back and lets them go. And Soren reaches into the pocket of his groves and pulls out a wand at a small. It is minuscule. It's like smaller than a ring box. It's a little model of a, an iron banded wouldn't chest. And he holds it in his hand and he taps out it with his wand and a full sized Footlocker. That looks exactly like that. Chest appears on the floor in front of you guys. And he reaches down any flings. Open the top. There are just files upon files upon books upon loose papers, a couple artifacts. It looks like even ancient looking old things and some gems and stuff. And he starts digging through all of this stuff and he reaches in and he pulls out a piece of paper and he hands it to you in his application papers dated five years ago.
Speaker 2 00:57:56 The papers that your father gave to Lillian, that he ran away over at the bottom of these application papers. Aren't Leo signature and Leo seal, but it's not Leo signature. I know that for very obvious reasons. I had the paper back to him and I say, you have five minutes. I never meant for it to go this far. But I reached out to the beacon for help. I didn't know that it was going to go this off the rails. I didn't know that there were so many lies. I didn't know that there were so many things happening at the same time. I just wanted justice and I just wanted my fiance back. And then I got sucked in further, further and further. We found out that what Leo always said happened to his mother probably did happen. All of the people that are going to <inaudible> are likely dying there. And we don't know why all of the people going missing from ever tied, all of the boats then disappear in the Dragon's mall. I don't think it's pirates. There's something going on on that Island. We know that we know
Speaker 0 00:59:22 That your father is apparently complicit in it as head of church and head of state. We even have reason to believe that whatever lies are happening here, that Australia itself is built on it. We have connections exploring some of the old archeological sites in the North and the South. And the evidence that those people have found is damning that Australia, as we know it in Australians, as we know that don't belong here, I don't know the details of it. My associate with know more and then something happens. Okay.
Speaker 1 01:00:11 And alarm spell goes off extremely loudly. It's not set inside the gate house though. It is set out towards the edge of the property where you guys are right now. And it starts going off. Soren looks up, it looks out the window and says shit. And in time with that happening, a tiny baby barn, owl swoops in through the stalls and it lands on and shoulders. It opens its mouth and Sabine's voice comes out and it says the Royal guards of the entire place. Surrounded. I need to know what our next step is. Fuck. Yeah. Soren turns around and like kicks it something. He takes the owl and speaks back to it and goes, get everybody out. I'll do what we planned. I'm really sorry. And the owl flies away. Okay.
Speaker 1 01:01:09 Soren turns around and he pulls out his wand and he kicks the door, shut to the Gatehouse and cast an arcane lock on it and turns back around to the two of you and goes, man, we don't have a lot of time. I can't. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck, fuck. Fuck. He turns around and cast fireball and the entire chest of information goes up in flames. He hands you back the application paper though, to save something useful. I can't do anything with this. They're going to make it in here no matter what. And if anybody in charge sees that information and knows that that information is known by people, this entire country is going to go to hell in a hand basket. We can't, I can't. I curses again and picks up the ground. He goes, this is my father's house fee. If nobody else goes down for this, it's going to be him. And I can't let that happen to my mother and sister. So here's, what's going to happen in about three minutes. We're over. Ours are going to kick that door in and you are going to have me on the ground. Tied up.
Speaker 0 01:02:25 Yeah. She pulls out the link, the room and syringes. Fuck me. You want to get your legs and go ahead and do it now. Okay. If you pumped. Yeah. Yeah. He's like live in. I think you get him in the nose to his mouth and nose are just bleeding freely. He sits down. So Kolesnik and Lincoln and tighter on the feet. And before she can get his hands up around his neck and takes off the chain that he's got and he goes, they can't find this on me. I can't stress enough. If people learn about the beacon right now, it's going to go really bad. And he hands you the chain and on the chain, he's a being in medallion and a beautiful silver ring with a Sapphire and late into the as engagement ring and then a pocket. And you hear the doors start to rattle and you hear outside yelling, Soren looks back up at you, sitting tight on the floor.
Speaker 0 01:03:27 He knows there's other people who can help you find the truth. I have an associate, I can't name her here. They might be listening. It's too dangerous. Look to the silent cities. You'll find her and the tour busts open. And there are so many words outside. I have. I want out, they come in, they look a little surprised to see you there, but they get sore and, and start officially putting him under arrest for submission against the ground. They drank Soren plenty and defeated out of this check. And you and Calissa, arlem standing there in the aftermath, surrounded by room arts as the Chicago masquerade to solves into chains around you.
Speaker 2 01:04:22 And that is where we enter this. So a lot just went down. That was a lot. Yeah. It's been a very big night for fi um, I'm sure you have a lot of thoughts. That will be
Speaker 0 01:04:40 Next time. Hey. All right, everybody, the plot thickens again, it would seem see you guys next time. Not compelled <inaudible>
Speaker 2 01:05:06 Hey, everybody Barry here with the postscript, just clearing up a couple of housekeeping things here at the end of the episode. I know that that was a lot and we are very sorry. Also just a couple other about the production of upcoming episodes, you may notice a dramatic difference in the sound quality between episode 10 and episode 11. So next week's episode, episode 10 was actually recorded after episode 11. We did episodes nine and 11 all at the same time. And then right after that, we got some better recording equipment that improved our sound quality quite a bit. So you may notice a little bit of a backslide in quality after episode 10, and that's why, but, uh, after episode 11, the audio quality is going to dramatically improve as always. Thank you all so much for listening. We are on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Tumblr, and Tech-Talk at compelled duel or on Tik TOK at compelled. Dual audio is where we post audio snippets from the show. We also have a Spotify account. We have our official compelled dual discord that you can join. That's linked on our social media pages. We have a Patrion. If you feel like supporting the podcast and getting some cool perks, you can head over to patrion.com/compelled duel. We also have a website that is a compendium of great compelled, dual resources, our maps, a fan art gallery, all kinds of cool stuff. You can find that linked on our social media pages as
Speaker 1 01:06:32 Well. And as always,
Speaker 2 01:06:35 If you are liking what you're hearing and you want to help support the podcast, we ask that you tell three friends about it. And if they like it, tell them to tell three friends, word of mouth advertising is really all we have right now. And it's done really amazing things to get us promoted to a
Speaker 1 01:06:49 Wider audience. Additionally,
Speaker 2 01:06:51 If you're listening to us on Apple podcast, if you could drop us a rating and a review that helps us get promoted and reach a wider listener base as well, next episode is going to be going up on February 5th, 2021. Or if you are a member of our Patrion, it will be available on Thursday, February 4th. Once again. Thank you guys all so much. See you next week.
