RQG 212 - Final Rest

## Content Warnings

Undead & skeletons, body horror, food & alcohol. Discussions of: death & afterlife. Mentions of: necromancy, nausea, physical injury, mould & rot, distorted realities. SFX: low drone, fire, static & distorted voices, cutlery

## Summary

Join Alex, Helen, Bryn, Lydia, and Ben as they reach an agreement and have a strange but lovely celebration.
This week Zolf gives a kingly gift, Hamid smashes the stone, Cel makes literary references, and Azu remembers a recent event.

## Synopsis

The party is in the crypt of Geoffrey Chaucer (Geoff) underneath Westminster Abbey. They have been having a private conversation in the mausoleum, but decide to take Chaucer’s offer of assistance in exchange for them attempting to find a way to help him in return. At this news, Geoff pulls off a ring and sets it on the table as a symbol of their agreement; Azu gives him a marble in return. He examines it briefly and then pockets it. Hamid, meanwhile, picks up the ring to look it over. It’s a mundane wedding band, and has ‘Philippa’ engraved on the inside of the ring (Note: likely a reference to Philippa Roet). He takes the ring.

Geoff stands and looks at the party, holding up a finger. His eyes grow brighter, shining light throughout the room; it’s clear that he’s controlling the creatures around the complex. Necromantic magic floods the room, and Hamid lets his Detect Magic spell fade so as not to fall unconscious. As it ends, Geoff turns back to them and lets the party know that they’re free to proceed throughout Westminster without worrying about the creatures. Before they leave, Zolf digs through his bag of holding and hands Geoff a copy of ‘When Passions Collide’. Geoff looks absolutely fascinated by the book and thanks him, and Zolf brings out the rest of his Harrison Campbell books and sets them on the table for Chaucer to read while they’re off fighting. Wilde steps up and shakes Chaucer’s hand, a bit nervous; sparks fly off of Geoff’s hand as they shake.

The party bid Geoff goodbye and decide to take a rest before proceeding; they find space around the mausoleum and rest. Before they are able to rest, they hear some strange static from one of their packs and realize that it’s Einstein calling them on a mobile stone. The connection is incredibly staticky and they can’t make out what he’s saying; it seems to be caused by Chaucer, so they move away and the connection stabilizes. They inform Einstein that Augusta, Sumutnyerl, and Tesla are all dead; he asks if they’re the reason why things are going off at the bunker, and they say that they are. Einstein tells them that he’s not been back since he dropped them off; his recollection contrasts what the rest of the party remember, as they saw Einstein the morning after making it to the bunker, when he was heading down to check the toilets. The entire party freezes at this news, and Zolf motions for Hamid to smash the stone. Hamid doesn’t, instead trying to figure out what’s going on, and Zolf starts to motion for the party to move closer to Chaucer, since that will naturally break the connection. Einstein asks where they all are, and Azu hedges, saying that they’re safe but not revealing the connection. They all move back toward Geoff, and the connection completely goes to static.

Hamid now smashes the stone; Chaucer glances over for a moment but doesn’t really react. There’s a strong chance that Einstein has been taken by the blue veins, or was potentially the beast that attacked them in the bunker, and the party discusses how they need to continue moving so that they can save all of the blue veins-ed people. While discussing, Chaucer mentions that there are worse things than death, which leads Hamid to ask him what he knows about Hades. Sadly, he doesn’t know anything, and the party returns to get some rest before moving on.

The party takes a long rest; Zolf gets up a little bit earlier then the rest to begin preparing the Hero’s Feast. He heads over to Chaucer, who is reading a Harrison Campbell novel, and asks if it’s okay if he can use the table to prepare some food. Chaucer has no problems with it, but does request to ask Zolf a question. Zolf acquiesces, and then Chaucer asks if he lived a good life pre-lich. Zolf stammers for a bit, saying that Chaucer should ask Hamid instead of him, but then tells Chaucer that a good life is very subjective and that if he feels he lived a good life, he probably did. Chaucer pauses for a moment, and then offers Zolf advice: to live well, because second chances at life are unique and usually not welcome. He thanks him, and continues reading the Campbell novel. Zolf leaves him to his reading and starts making a Hero’s Feast. He sets places for each of the party members, along with Wilde, Chaucer, Skraak, and Babbage, and works his way around the table. As he lays each place, resetting the silverware, the food magically appears and fills in at each place, along with everyone getting their favorite drink automatically. It looks like a fantastic feast; everyone is enjoying themselves despite the circumstances.

Cel chats with Chaucer, Azu realizes that they passed her birthday without celebrating (and the entire group sings happy birthday at Hamid’s direction), and Zolf is a bit less obviously grumpy. At one point, Wilde stands for a toast; he holds up the glass and says “To absent friends, to the best people I have ever known, to a world that doesn’t yet deserve the caliber of heroism that we’re about to bring it”. Everyone gets a bit weepy and emotional, toasting each other. Hamid makes eye contact with Zolf and toasts to what’s next.

As the hour comes to a close, Hamid asks Babbage what they should expect. Babbage explains that they’re going to be completely exposed, and that the enemy knows that they will be approaching since their base was compromised. He provides some silver lining, saying that no one knows where they are right now and that implementing the kill switch will be easy enough. They need to set the device up, communicate that to Lovelace, and the assembly will synchronize. After this, they will basically need to last for one minute as every single creature connected to the hive mind descends on their location. If they are able to survive the onslaught, then the activation will finish and Babbage will have successfully (hopefully) taken over the blue veins. He does add that, if anything happens to him, they will have to improvise - Babbage has no idea what that actually would look like, but promises to think on it before the final moments.

Hamid proposes that they go up to the top of the roof and then fly over to the tower where the device is located; Zolf says that he can seal the stairwell easily enough so that no one can get at them that way, at least for a bit. It seems to be a better plan than trying to sneak through the entirety of Big Ben, and the party agrees to jump over to the tower, with Hamid casting Fly on Skraak and Wilde, and Zolf and Azu going over on Topaz. Babbage reminds them that Big Ben is going to be covered with plants and that the skies may be, as he says, busy - Guivres may be in the vicinity. Zolf asks if Hamid can cover them all with invisibility, which would take up a lot of their spells, so they decide to check out the skies before casting it or not. The invisibility, if it works, will cover them for a certain amount of time, but it may not deter Guivres.

After a moment, Chaucer looks up, mentioning that he may have a way he can help, and the episode closes.

## Dice rolls & mechanics

Hamid makes a perception check to examine the ring: 24

Zolf prepares Hero’s Feast: it has to be consumed over the course of an hour. The effects include: it lasts for 12 hours, all sickness/nausea removed, gain remove disease/neutralize poison, +12 temporary HP, +1 morale bonus on attack rolls/will saves, +4 morale bonus on saving throws against poison and fear.

Cel makes a sense motive check on Chaucer during the feast: nat 1