RQG 69 - Rag Week

## Content Warnings

Compulsion, blood, implied mental deterioration, vomit

## Summary

The party goes back to university. Bertie makes friends, Hamid meets a professor, and Sasha gets along with Grizzop.

## Synopsis

The party are still tracking the mage, but Hamid suggests that they wait until the morning so that they all can recover from the zombies and the fog. Sasha continues to remain close to Bertie, even as she’s throwing up and super sick from the fog. Bertie asks Grizzop where they can find the mage; Grizzop says he doesn’t know, or he would have already found them, and says he’ll need to go up to the university to discuss the mage and what they should do next.

Sasha suggests that Bertie takes the ring off, and Bertie keeps taking the ring on and off as Sasha struggles not to be forced to stand close to him. Bertie notices her struggling, and Sasha finally admits that something must have happened to her while they were staying with Mr. Ceiling. (For the benefit of Grizzop, they explain the Mr. Ceiling backstory as they head out of the sewer to the main square.) Bertie says that she must be partially undead, and Sasha explains that she was basically dead until Zolf stuffed her organs back in her and healed her up, according to Mr. Ceiling. Positive energy doesn’t affect her negatively, so she must not be that undead, and Grizzop suggests that she goes to speak to a paladin of Aphrodite, as those kind of issues are much more their area.

They head back to the teleporter, with plans to head up to the university so that Grizzop (and by extension, the party) can investigate more regarding the rogue mage. The teleportation services are down, so they decide to head back to the hotel as Grizzop is invited to stay with them.

Upon returning to the hotel, Bertie pulls out the wand that allegedly cures wounds, and decides to figure out what the curse of the wand is, since everything else he has had has been twisted in some way. He sticks it in his ear, to cast on the sonic damage he has, but points it the wrong way and decides it’s “a wand of minor ear ache” when nothing works except his ear hurting a bit.

Sasha heads up to bed as they get back. As they wait, Hamid explains the whole story to Grizzop, to get him up to date. Hamid tells him the whole story, but omits Bertie’s curse and that he’s on a quest for reasons of money, and tries to put the entire thing in a positive light.  He also omits all of Sasha’s personal backstory - Barret and Brock, mainly - and the fact that Bolla Smok, the Prague Meritocrat, is dead.

The next morning, Bertie wakes up to find he’s tired (mechanically, he is fatigued). In another room, Sasha wakes up to find her wounds have opened again, and are bleeding all over the place. She gets up earlier than the rest, and heads over to the temple of Artemis to get healed - saying she got some scratches last night - and sneaks back in the window as she gets back. Hamid and Bertie notice. As they head back to the teleportation station, Bertie mentions how tired he is, and Grizzop asks what’s going on. Grizzop checks Bertie over to see what the issue could be, but it seems like nothing is wrong. He lays on hands, and the fatigue disappears (since Grizzop has mercy, which removes fatigue). While those two chat, Hamid checks in with Sasha, asking if she’s alright. Sasha says she’s okay, and it's clear Hamid doesn’t believe her, but he doesn’t press the issue.

They finally make it to the teleportation circle; the same wizard is on duty as before, and lets them cut in line so that they can get up to the university quickly. There’s some more traffic than yesterday, but they don’t have to wait. They head up to the university; once they land, it looks pretty untouched, nothing out of place or out of order. Grizzop explains that a lot of the mages here in Prague don’t really care about what happens on the city level.

As they head toward the university offices, Grizzop explains that the rogue mage he’s looking for is from the wizard council at the university, and says that his name is Franz Kafka. His plan is to head to the council and confront the council, as they’ve been lying to him. The rest of the party decide to follow him and they make it over to the offices. They sneak by the guards blocking off the office, and head up to confront the council. Bertie isn’t able to sneak by the guards, and distracts them while Grizzop, Sasha, and Hamid go inside.

The inside of the building is elaborate; there are no signs telling them where to go, and Hamid is still invisible, so he lets Sasha know that he’s still there as she jumps. They head into another hallway; it’s a little bit less opulent than the great hall they had entered into, and there’s a plaque on the wall listing the different schools of magic and their heads. They are, as follows: Enchantment: Sigmund Freud; Illusion: Eldarion; Conjuration: Einstein; Transmutation: Marie Curie; Abjuration: Elizabeth; Divination: Henrietta Codswallop; Necromancy: Franz Kafka.

They head down the stairs and a trap triggers; a booming voice saying that he isn’t seeing students today, and Sasha continues to check for traps as they head down the corridor. As they get to the bottom, they run into Einstein, who heads back into Kafka’s office and starts rifling through some papers. The office has some bay windows and is done up mostly in florals, with chandeliers. Hamid tries to convince Einstein that he’s looking for Kafka to ask questions about an essay, and Einstein ignores him as Hamid tries to figure out how to get information out of him. Grizzop and Sasha start searching around the room, and Hamid distracts Einstein. However, it’s pretty clear that Einstein is rather rubbish at searching himself. Grizzop and Sasha keep searching around the room, but it all looks pretty banal. They notice a breeze coming from the window, but the window isn’t open, and looks properly sealed.

Outside, one of the guards is inspecting Bertie’s wand, who’s explaining that it's a wand of minor ear ache. The guard doesn’t look like he believes him, and casts it at someone who drops to their knees and starts screaming as blood pours from between his fingers as he grabs at his face.

Back to Hamid and the rest - Einstein is still searching, but won’t tell Hamid what he’s looking for. Hamid takes the opportunity to ask Einstein if he knows how someone could randomly know a spell they never studied. Einstein asks if he is a fae, and mentions that he could be a sorcerer. Hamid says he isn’t fae, and asks how he could tell if he was a sorcerer. Einstein asks what spells he prepared, and Hamid says none, and then casts *dancing lights*; Einstein basically says he isn’t a wizard, and he’s probably a sorcerer, leaving Hamid a bit shell-shocked.

Grizzop and Sasha start feeling around the room to see if there’s a secret entrance somewhere or something; the bay window isn’t a bay window, and is probably a door. She asks Hamid if he can see through illusions, and he asks Einstein in turn, who says he isn’t sure but casts *dispel magic* on the door. Hamid asks again what would happen to him if he were a sorcerer, and Einstein suggests that he needs to trace his ancestry. Hamid insists that it’s just halflings, and that there’s nothing else in his family tree. Einstein doesn’t seem to believe him. They find a secret entrance way and Hamid distracts Einstein.

Smash cut to Bertie outside with the guards (who have now been named Oliver and Oliver): the one who cast the spell starts panicking and completely freezes in place as he freaks out. The one who had the spell cast on them just looks as though they got punched in the face. Bertie takes the wand back from Oliver and uses his panic to take the opportunity to usher both of them into the building.

Back to Sasha and Grizzop - Sasha disables the lock that they find on the door. Einstein is still explaining how Hamid could be a sorcerer, and Hamid looks stunned. He turns, and notices the door that Sasha and Grizzop are standing in front of. Sasha hears screams further up the building, Hamid hears weeping from up the building, and Grizzop hears Bertie comforting someone (at this point, Grizzop can’t remember Bertie's name, and calls him Barry). He mentions this to the other two and Hamid agrees, and then goes to grab Bertie and bring him back down with them. Bertie, who’s mostly navigating on instinct, goes down the wrong corridor, but Hamid finds them quickly enough and calls for Bertie to go the opposite way. Hamid tries to make Oliver feel better, and has him sit down and walks him through the panic attack.

## Quotes

**Bertie**: "I think it’s important to acknowledge that young Miss Racket is at least partially undead."
**Sasha**: "No! I’ve got maybe an undead kidney or something, like one of the organs that Zolf stuffed back in me is maybe a little bit undead, but obviously I’ve been healed. I’m not...I’m not like actual undead, didn’t get damaged by all that channel positive energy, so I’m not a zombie, just, just a little bit…little bit ill, maybe."
―The party learns that Sasha is beginning to become undead.

**Alex**: "If anyone was watching, it's because Bertie, holding the wand that has a clear taper goes, 'Hm, small end first. Oh no, that—my ear's too big.' Takes it, uses the wand backwards, rams it in his own ear for a while. It hurts a bit, cause you've just rammed it in your ear, take it out and go, 'Clearly it's a wand of minor ear ache. I mean it's inconvenient but it's not particularly cursed.'"
―Bertie investigates his new wand.

**James**: "I've got a feeling that's gonna come up later."
**Alex**: "I've got a feeling it that would've gone a lot worse if you'd have succeeded to put the cursed item through your brain! Stop putting things through your brain!"
―[add context]]

**Hamid**: "Why are you in professor Kafka's room, professor?"
**Einstein**: "I'm professoring!"
―The party finds Einstein while investigating Kafka's room.

**Einstein**: "Look, okay, when you have a mummy, okay, and you have a daddy, and one of them has the magic, sometimes it goes screwy! It’s not that big a deal, I mean, okay, you would be the first sorcerer in what, like 200 years, so what? It’s not that big a deal, it’s just a thing!"
―Einstein explains sorcerers to Hamid.

**Sasha**: "It is generally best to leave Bertie handling to Hamid. It’s not that he’s better at it, it’s just that nobody else wants to do it."
―Sasha explains the party dynamics to Grizzop.

## Dice rolls and Mechanics

Sasha rolls a will save to not stand close to Bertie: 9.

Sasha rolls a will save to not stand close to Bertie: 15.

Sasha rolls a will save to not stand close to Bertie: 19.

Bertie rolls a use magic device: 5.

Sasha rolls a fort save: 8.

Bertie rolls a will save: 13.

Everyone rolls a perception check: Hamid rolls a 25, Sasha rolls a 25, Grizzop rolls a 1, Bertie rolls an 18.

Grizzop makes a heal check: 16.

Sasha rolls for stealth: 29.

Grizzop rolls for stealth: 16.

Hamid rolls for stealth: 23.

Bertie rolls diplomacy to speak to the wizards: 13.

Grizzop and Sasha make a perception check: both roll an 18.

Sasha makes a perception check, Grizzop aids: Sasha rolls a 22, Grizzop gives her a plus 2.

Sasha rolls a disable device: 17.

Everyone rolls a perception check: Hamid rolls a 13, Sasha rolls a 1, Grizzop rolls a 23.