I am the Second Wind

## Description

A mysterious outbreak of an unknown affliction at the Mericival\Skidders wedding sets off a chain of events that leads the Dragon Friends to get closer to Father Brackenvald and his masked and muted priests of Ilmater. Banknote discovers new talents and depressingly familiar outcomes. Philge stops to smell the flowers.

## Synopsis

The Dragon Friends have entered Rivershine Hall to find a wedding waltz apparently frozen in time, the bride, groom and guests all frozen in place and swaying from side to side, and the fiddle player playing a single continuous note. Lionshield decides to go up to the fiddle player and use *Shocking Grasp* - allegedly to attempt to shock him awake, but actually killing him (and discovering to his surprise that the character he has made is Level 1, while everyone else is Level 7). While frantically gesticulating in an attempt to explain himself, the artificed device he used for the *Shocking Grasp* creates an arc which kills another band member, and Baston then attempts to flying kick another member of the band. The silencing of the music does not free the others from their trance; Butterworth, the hall custodian, commands a nearby child to go and fetch the priests.

Bobby examines the room more closely and notices that there are distinctive purple flowers appearing in every arrangement in the room, and in the buttonholes of the guests and band. Philge experimentally sniffs one of the flowers and (after a failed Willpower save) freezes in a similar swaying motion, constantly sniffing the flower. Father Jebadiah Brackenvald then arrives with two priests. Bobby warns them about the danger of the flowers, and uses a *Mage Hand* spell to collect them in the corner of the room. Brackenvald is not pleased to see that the Dukes have come to the wedding rather than going to the Sanitorium as he petitioned them to do; he adds that the members of the wedding party will now have to be taken to the Sanitorium, making the overcrowding even worse. The priests begin to take the swaying guests away on a donkey cart - initially including Philge, who they ask to take to the castle instead. Brackenvald replies that if he's going to be expected to treat a patient in the castle, he should be permitted to take the other guests to the castle as well to be kept in the dungeon, and they agree.

Meanwhile, as Lionshield is debating what to do with the dead musicians, Michael Hing asks if he gets any XP for killing the musicians that would go towards improving his level balance with the rest of the party. Dave gives him 30 XP.

As they are travelling to the castle, the Friends ask Father Brackenvald about what is driving people mad, and he refers to "The Glimmering" which is responsible for 90% of the patients in the Sanitorium and is associated with a celestial convergence that occurs once every hundred years, and is about to happen in eight days. The main symptom is obsession with particular phrases and dogmas, and more and more patients are being admitted with it recently.

The Friends rest overnight at the castle, during which time Philge recovers from the effects of the flower and wakes up in the dungeon. She begins to bang on the dungeon doors and call for the other Friends. The Friends and Brackenvald arrive; Brackenvald says it is remarkable for someone to have apparently recovered - as the other guests are still catatonic - and asks if he can take a blood sample from Philge and take her back to the Sanitorium to study. She agrees, and the Friends travel to the Sanitorium, leaving Lionshield behind as they don't yet trust him. As they walk through the cells, one of the Glimmering patients grabs at Bobby Pancakes, stating that he has been "touched by her", and that he has "wonderful dreams of colours, and her, and the lost city". Bobby learns that the man in the cell was a painter, and asks if he can see some of his paintings. The paintings show a similar symbol - a "broken point of light", and the text "the lovers will rise, the waltz will begin, the world will end in seven days."

Brackenvald is still surprised at Philge's recovery, and asks if she has encountered any form of inter-dimensional travel. She replies that she "went into space and met God". He then examines the flowers (in the course of which Philge smells them again and freezes); he explains that it is Flowson Lily, an unremarkable flower, but the scent is not that of the flower; it is Dusty Illuska, a scent that would have been sprayed onto the flower. The Friends decide that Lionshield - being an Artificer - might know something about this. They head back to the castle and wake him up; he identifies that the scent is magical and must have been created by a master perfumier. Baston remembers that the Glimmering patient mentioned working for William Ascot, who was a fellow member of the Tinctures, Pigments and Perfumers Guild.

The following morning, the Friends go to meet with William Ascot in the rich quarter of the city. They find his shop unlocked, but when they meet him, he offers Philge a poisoned flower (which she remembers not to sniff this time). Lionshield tries to challenge him, but he crushes the flower, and repeats the announcement that the world will end in seven days, and steps backwards out of the window, falling onto the road and being torn apart.

## People

### Dragon Friends

* Philge
* Bobby Pancakes
* Baston
* Lionshield Banknote, aka Sebastian Dollarsign

## Themes, tropes and running jokes

* Gratuitous List of the forms of madness Brackenvald has treated at the Sanitorium:
	1. Hairy brain
	2. Suddenly speaks Chinese
	3. Thinks they are a panther but are not
	4. Thinks they're not a panther but are
	5. Bad mood
	6. Backwards guy
	7. The Glimmering
* Tugs on your Jerkin

## Quotes

* "... You kill the fiddle player." "No, no.." "He collapses in a heap and the music stops. You feel like a big man?" "No! I feel like I was nearly really clear about this, I.." "Oh, you wanted to do non-fatal electric damage." "No!" "Tom has walked off the stage." "I wanted to just like shock the fiddle player to wake him up." "Yea, you can shoot someone with a gun and say 'I wanted to make him smarter'.." "I'd like to remind you, Dragon Friends, that you don't know this man." "But in a way, don't we?"
* "The lovers will rise, the waltz will begin, the world will end in seven days." "Is that new? When did you paint this?"
* "Banknote, you wake up in the middle of the night and you go out for your cup of warm milk, and you discover for the first time that the door to the Duke's bedroom is open." "Ahaha! I do an investigation check! Dave, I've rolled a 1! And back to bed I go!"
* ".. And is ripped asunder by the passage of horses." "Aww. Poor horses. Are they ok?" "The horses are fine, Alex."

## Table Talk

* "Are you writing that down, Hing?" "No, he's scrawling '300' in dark text art over and over again in a sort of manic sort of script." "I want you to know that, me as Michael Hing, I've been going to therapy recently and my therapist said it's important to have goals." [300 is the number of XP that Lionshield would need for level 2]