RQG 62 - (Sky) Ship in a Bottle

## Content Warnings

Air travel, mass destruction, mass death (implied), blood, graphic description of disease symptoms (scurvy), incorrect use of 'psychopath', chronic/degenerative illness, stalking

## Summary

The Rangers make their way to Prague aboard a skyship. The team takes a very well earned rest, and Bertie meets an old friend.

## Synopsis

The episode opens with a gnome bursting into the captain’s
quarters, whispering something in Amelia’s ear, then running out. Hamid,
Bertie, and Sasha try to hear what’s being said, and only Hamid can hear, but
it is in Gnomish so he isn’t able to understand. Amelia then says they should all
head outside; they all grab some food and follow her as she leads the way out.

On the deck of the ship, the crew is going about their business.
Amelia leads the party over to the starboard side of the ship, and Sasha and Zolf
see something large moving, out in the distance. Amelia looks grim and
serious. Hamid and Bertie are able to see it finally as well, and it’s moving nearly
right over the center of Paris. Zolf asks what it is and no one responds, just
watching the shape moving far away from them. There’s a loud roar, still
incredibly distant, and a pair of massive wings break the cloud cover. A golden dragon appears, shining in the sun, and then angles down toward Paris, back beneath
the clouds. They can see pyrotechnics shining off the clouds, and then there’s
a large explosion sound along with a flicker of heat, a wave disturbing the
clouds that moves toward them. Everyone braces as the wave rolls toward them,
grabbing onto the ship. Zolf tries to grab something and misses, not sure what
to grab, and is knocked over the edge of the boat, getting incredibly nauseous
as he does (he’s clipped in and is hauled back up by some of the crew). As he
gets back on the deck, he hyperventilates, throwing up a bit more.

Zolf, Sasha, and Hamid decide to go get some sleep below decks.
Zolf and Hamid share a room, Sasha gets her own. Bertie decides to go get more
food from Amelia’s quarters. He knocks on the door and Amelia peeks out,
looking weary. Bertie asks where he can get more food and Amelia brings him
some food and cheese and tells him to get some more below decks. He heads down and
runs into someone: Harrison Cambell, the author that Bertie met on the lightning
rail train to Calais. Cambell tries to run away without being recognized, but
Bertie figures out who he is and starts to bluster, before escorting Harrison Cambell
away to his own room and begins to regale him with tales of his adventures
since they’ve last met. This lasts about 5 hours, and then Bertie goes to
sleep.

The party wakes up. When Sasha wakes up, there’s bloodstains
on the hammock bunk that she’s been sleeping on. She goes into the washroom and
notices a scar on her entire torso (basically, an autopsy scar); it hadn’t been
there before, and Sasha wonders if she has scurvy before dressing her wounds. They
all meander about a bit before coming together again and look around a bit. The
boat is made up of the following: a top deck for sailing, the middle deck for
passengers (leisure, eating, bedrooms, etc.), and a bottom deck for engineering
and crew. The party reunites in the lounge.

Zolf is sitting in the middle of the room, as far away from windows
as possible. He isn’t nauseous but he isn’t feeling great. Sasha inches her way
over to Zolf and mentions that she might have scurvy. Zolf offers to
go back to one of the cabins and do a proper medical examination so that he can
find out what’s going on; they head back to Sasha’s room and Zolf notices that
the hammock is covered in blood.

He does the medical examination; whatever’s
wrong with Sasha seems superficial (she doesn’t feel super weird), and it might
be scurvy but she doesn’t have a lot of the symptoms beyond old scars showing up.
She takes her jacket off and Zolf sees the scar of the falcon on her back for
the first time (from when she got squashed in Paris). He picks up on a magical
effect when he tries to see what else could be wrong with Sasha; he isn’t able
to figure out what it is, but he knows that it will slowly get worse. His healing
magic will be able to keep it at bay for a bit. Zolf tells Sasha what’s going
on and lets her know that she’s got a weird degenerative disease, but that his
restorative magic will help and that as long as she sticks with him, she’ll be
okay. Zolf casts a *cure light wounds* on Sasha, and it works but the scars are still slightly visible. Sasha heads out and leaves Zolf behind.

Smash cut over to Hamid and Bertie in the lounge, relaxing in
smoking jackets. The door opens and someone peeks in, before slamming the door and hurrying away. Bertie doesn’t notice; Hamid notices but has no idea who it
is.

Sasha notices the individual running away from the lounge
and watches them head up toward the front of the ship and sequester themself away.
She heads over to speak with the crew and ask if there’s anything she can do to
help out, get some odd jobs done. She learns that they were in Paris on
legitimate business, and were rushing to get out of the warehouse to get out of
the way, and are carrying a load of cheeses.

Zolf goes to ask Amelia if she has any books on magic.
Amelia is in a much better mood today. Zolf asks about magical books, Amelia
says that have a healer on board who’s okay, and then looks through her
bookshelf, pulling out a number of very old, out of date medical journals. None
of them are particularly helpful. Amelia then sits down and says that she’s happy
to help another Harlequin, asks Zolf if he has another mission with them. Zolf
reminds her that he didn’t know anything about them, and Amelia apologizes. She says she's willing to get them armor,
equipment, etc. but Zolf declines the assistance. Amelia takes it in stride,
and then says that they should be in Prague in a few days. Zolf offers his help
as a healer if she needs it, and she thanks him.

Hamid has no plans for the day, and Bertie gets acquainted
with the wine list. They both get relatively tipsy, and Hamid and Bertie notice
that someone is trying to avoid them. Hamid spends most of the time watching
out the window at the landscape as they sail by. There are a few other people
in the lounge, including a woman who is reading in the corner and seems disinterested.

Jump cut to the next morning: everyone is back in the
lounge, Zolf and Hamid have no plans for the day, and Bertie goes looking for
someone to buff his armor. There is no one on board to help him, and eventually
Bertie realizes that people on the ship are avoiding him. Bertie heads to
Cambell’s room and decides to wait for him there. He goes inside to wait, and
at some point he hears someone outside before footsteps dash away. When night
hits and Cambell still hasn’t returned, Bertie decides to snoop through his
things.

## Quotes

**Alex**: "He, he, he's just looking at you, and he's clearly afraid—not afraid that you're going to flip out, just afraid that there's a good chance everyone's going to die because you are on this ship and you know this. And he, he's just kind of smiling and nodding, the way that you would with someone who's holding a big gun."
**Ben**: "So he now has phobia of Sir Bertrand."
―Harrison Cambell runs into Bertie on the airship.

**Sasha**: "Um, so, I just had a thought, um, I think might have scurvy."
**Zolf**: "Right, ok. Have you tried eating a lemon?"
**Sasha**: "Well the thing is, I eat as many lemons as everyone else, right. But, but I keep…"
**Zolf**: "Tell you what, shall we just go back to a cabin and I’ll actually do a proper medical examination."
**Sasha**: "But, like, you already did that right?"
**Zolf**: "Yeah, but I’ve actually had a nice sleep and can do so not from a wheelchair. So, shall we have a proper one, and just get it sorted?"
**Sasha**: "Oh, this is the awkwardest. I guess, alright."
―Sasha asks Zolf for medical advice.

**Bryn**: "So in our pulpy, high-adventure, high-fun season two, you’ve given Lyd’s character a mysterious degenerative disease."
**Alex**: "Yes. This is what people think is fun! Her body’s slowly going to degrade into a pulp, this is what you all asked for, I don’t understand!"
―[add context]

**Zolf**: "Right, so I’ve got good news and bad news. Which one do you want first?"
**Sasha**: "I don’t really believe in good news."
**Zolf**: "So, uh, just gonna be the bad news then?"
**Sasha**: "Well, I’m assuming that one is a cover for the other, so like, cut to the chase."
**Zolf**: "No, not really. Alright, you’ve got a degenerative magical disease."
**Sasha**: "Yeah that doesn’t sound like any good news!"
**Zolf**: "Well, that was the bad news. This is why they’re two separate things."
**Sasha**: "Yeah, but I don’t think any good news could really balance that out! “You’ve got a degenerative magical disease, BUT, you’re starting to go glittery.”"
―Zolf figures out what's wrong with Sasha.

**Zolf**: "What I’m saying is, I think that my restorative powers can just keep it at bay, right? So, it’s not like you’re gonna wither away and die straight away. As long as you’re with me, you should be fine. I’ve got limited working knowledge of how magic works that’s not divine, so, get Hamid in, he can have a look, see what’s what."
**Sasha**: "I thought getting blown up on the regular was bad."
―Zolf reassures Sasha that she'll be alright.

**Zolf**: "Shall we go see Hamid then?"
**Sasha**: "Um…no."
**Zolf**: "Alright, don’t wanna—"
**Sasha**: "Let’s just wait until there’s an actual specialist. He's not a specialist, he's doesn't even—Hamid would just get freaked out and throw up, right?"
**Zolf**: "Okay, that is at worst a 50/50."
**Sasha**: "And don’t tell Bertie, for the love of..."
**Zolf**: "Well now, why would I tell Bertie? You can’t shout the problem away."
―Sasha asks Zolf to keep her condition secret.

**Sasha**: "Alright, well, I guess I’d better go back to, I don’t know, just waiting to degrade and die."
**Zolf**: "No, look…"
**Sasha**: "I can do that at the top of the rigging! I think that’d be quite fun. Alright, see you…"
**Zolf**: "Wait, no, no - *I’m not gonna let that happen to you!*"
―Zolf calls after Sasha.

**Alex**: "How would you describe what you're wearing?"
**Ben**: "It's my underclothes... I'm in a onesie."
―Zolf still hasn't gotten any armour.

## Dice rolls and Mechanics

Bertie, Sasha, and Hamid both roll perception to hear what
is being whispered to the captain: Bertie gets 12, Sasha gets 12, Hamid gets 27.

Everyone rolls perception to see what’s happening off the
side of the ship: Bertie gets 7, Sasha gets 20, Hamid gets 14, Zolf gets 23.

Everyone makes a reflex check to not get bowled over by the
wave of force: Bertie gets 14, Sasha gets 12, Hamid gets 22, Zolf gets a nat 1.

Bertie rolls perception to recognize someone: 12.

Bertie does a sense motive check on Harrison Cambell: 4.

Sasha does a perception check to notice her scar: 26.

Zolf rolls a fort save to not be sick: 18.

Zolf does a heal check to see what’s up with Sasha: takes 20.

Zolf makes a knowledge arcana to see what’s up with Sasha:

Hamid makes a perception check to see who was at the door to
the lounge: 15.

Sasha makes a perception check to notice someone running
away from the lounge: 20.

Sasha makes a knowledge local check to interact with the crew:

Hamid and Bertie make a perception check to see how tipsy
they get: Hamid gets 12, Bertie gets 9.

Bertie makes a perception check to notice people avoiding
him: 15.

Bertie makes a perception check to find Harrison Cambell: 18.