RQG 9 - Other London

## Content Warnings

Classism, physical violence. Mentions: poor animal farming practice, drugs

## Summary

The party head down to Other London, on a mission to work out who supplied the equipment to the arsonists, and Sasha comes face to face with Ashen.

## Synopsis

The party spends the night at Hamid's. Between episodes, the party went shopping. Bertie repaired his armour with a gem in his eagle helmet, which gives an everburning torch effect that can be toggled with an eyepatch. Hamid bought 5 potions of cure light wounds potions and distributed them to the group. Zolf purchased a health potion and healer's kit. Sasha purchased Masterworks Thief Tools and two daggers.

After shopping, the party decide to go and look for whoever it might be that sold the equipment to the arsonists. Hamid asks if Sasha has contacts down there, but Sasha just says that she can lead them around. They head back to the manhole cover they emerged from the previous day, and Bertie tests his eyepatch, complete with siren noises. Sasha realises that Bertie and Hamid are going to stand out like sore thumbs down there, and asks if they can disguise themselves a bit. Bertie and Hamid don’t really seem to get it, with Hamid being actively confused until Sasha finally tells them to use disguises. Hamid uses prestidigitation to muss up his hair and make it seem like his suit has been patched, and adds some dirt to his skin as well, looking very upset about it. Hamid then uses the spell to make Bertie’s armour look incredibly rusty and old; Sasha also uses her disguise kit to paint some dirt on him and Bertie, and make Bertie’s armour more tarnished and add a cloak to him. She finally scuffs up the handle to his sword. Hamid doesn’t like it.

They head down into the sewers and toward Other London. They go down one more floor than they had, and Sasha gives them a few tips, mainly that no one will be giving them any information. She picks a door that she finds and they emerge into a shop in Other London which is selling prime rat. Sasha leaves first, trying to distract the owner. They go along with it, giving the party a chance to slip out. Hamid does so successfully, but Bertie does not. He crashes into the door, knocking over some of the shop shelves, and Zolf steps out trying to help him. They accidentally get into a fight with the store owner, but Bertie defuses the situation by intimidating him into submission.

Hamid asks where they should go next, and Sasha says that they need to go another level down, or maybe toward the northern part. She adds that her contacts definitely aren’t the kind of people that the rest of them want to talk with. Sasha tries to convince everyone to try some salted eel, and Zolf promises to do a tour after this is over.

They start to head to another room, and Sasha realises that there is a toll coming up. She tells everyone to not be remembered, and says that they need to trade in their gold for smaller coins as soon as they can. As they walk through the crowd, a mob of children pickpocket Bertie. Sasha fails to stop the thief, but she does force the rest of the children away. This causes a problem, though, because Sasha realises that now people will be looking for Bertie as a mark. The party hide the rest of their belongings as they pass through a few more gates. Sasha hasn’t recognised anyone so far, other than a few of the kids and shopkeepers who she vaguely knows.

They eventually start to draw closer to areas Sasha knows; she pauses and disguises herself (colouring her hair red, adding some contour to her face to make it look different) as they head into a more seedy market area of Other London. It looks like it’s made of bombed out buildings, and the rubble has been appropriated to be housing and shops.  Zolf asks Bertie and Hamid how they’re feeling, and both of them are very unhappy.

Hamid spots the child who pickpocketed Bertie earlier in a nearby alley, and messages Sasha about it. She sneaks over, leaving the party behind, and overhears the child telling a hidden man about the money that they’d nicked. She passes the message back to Hamid, and Hamid tells the rest of them to prepare to be attacked. They all do, heading to an eel stand for food and waiting for someone to attack.

Sasha recognises a man, Ashen, stepping out. Ashen nods to a few nearby men, some of whom have dogs. She messages Hamid again, telling him about it, and Hamid starts to winch his crossbow, and Zolf buys two eels, one for himself and one for Bertie. Two men, and the dogs move toward the party, while Ashen waits behind, nodding. He starts to move closer as the rest of them surround the party. Sasha sneaks behind Ashen and attacks him, whilst the rest of the party subtly prepares for the attack.

## Quotes

**Bryn**: "I spent 250 gold on five potions of cure light wounds, and distributed them amongst the party."
**Sasha**: "So like, that’s well nice, Hamid, it’s, it’s a bit, like, is there anything, I don’t have anything to give you, is that, like...is that all right?"
**Zolf**: "I, yeah, I didn’t buy you anything."
**Sasha**: "Yeah, I didn’t get"
**Hamid**: "We’re, we’re a team! You don’t, you don’t need to…"
―Zolf and Sasha are unsure how to accept gifts.

**Hamid**: "You said you had contacts in Other London who might be able to help us."
**Sasha**: "No. Like, what I said was that I know my way around."
**Zolf**: "That’s fine. Look. We’ll be in and out, quick as possible. First sign of trouble we’ll make sure to...well."
**Bertie**: "Hit it! Hit it really hard."
―Sasha continues to try and avoid her past.

**Sasha**: "But if, if there was a way to maybe make us look a bit less...neat. Or obvious, like...Hamid, you look pretty glamorous in that suit. That’s gonna stick out. Like, just while we’re down there."
**Hamid**: "You want me to look......not my best?"
**Sasha**: "Think of it like...like being your best for Other London."
**Zolf**: "Can you use that hanky thing to make yourself look...less good?"
―Sasha and Zolf try to get Hamid to fit in with Other London.

**Zolf**: "You’re looking much more like I think a mercenary should, actually."
**Sasha**: "Yeah."
**Hamid**: "I don’t like it."
―Hamid complaining about having to look less posh.

**Butcher**: "Well, this is, prime rat! I mean, look at this! This one? This is hand-reared. I reared this myself."
**Sasha**: "Where do you do the rearing?"
**Butcher**: "Where do you do the re—well obviously it’s all reared locally. We locally source all of our organic rats."
**Sasha**: "Right. What’re they f... what do they...eat, the rats...I don’t believe that you could rear rats this good in...this kind of place."
**Butcher**: "How dare, how dare you. Obviously the way that you rear a good rat, is you feed it a good diet, i.e., rats."
**Sasha**: "Right."
**Butcher**: "Right? These are rat-bred, rat-fed rats."
**Sasha**: "Right, but that...doesn’t make any sense!"
**Butcher**: "Course it does! Seals in the flavor, love."
**Sasha**: "It seals in...what flavor? The flavor of..."
**Butcher**: "RAT!"
―Sasha tries to distract the butcher.

**Bertie**: "Now, young man, are you..."
**Butcher**: "Young man? I’m twice your age, mate!"
**Bertie**: "Very young man, are you absolutely sure, you ABSOLUTELY sure..."
**Butcher**: "I’ve had bigger than youuuuu."
**Bertie**: "Really? If you cast your tiny mind back, have you? In all your long, depressing, tedious, tiny, irrelevant, common, poor people years have you ever had anyone as big as me? Anyone as big as my thigh? Willing to bet I could kill you by breathing on you a little bit harder than I already am. If I breathed any harder I’d mess your eardrums right up. Hmm?"
**Lydia**: "Are you sure this isn’t seduction?"
**Bertie**: "This could be a seduction if you wanted to go that badly, young man."
**Butcher**: "...What d’you want? All right? I got no money, I’ve got rats."
**Zolf**: "Well it’s just a mistake! Just tripped."
**Bertie**: "Don’t mind us. Just passing through, nothing to see here."
―Bertie successfully intimidates the butcher.

**Sasha**: "My...contacts aren’t people that you wanna talk to. Not... it’s not just for me I’m saying that."
**Zolf**: "That’s fine."
―Sasha provides more hints to her backstory.

**Sasha**: "Guys, guys. You’ve got to try some of the salted eel."
**Hamid**: "I am absolutely fine. I just think we should get on with what we came here to do."
**Sasha**: "You sure? Zolf, you never tried salted...do they serve it on ships, look..."
**Zolf**: "I have tried salted eel, actually. I’ve tried it from all over the world!"
**Sasha**: "Well, do you wanna try some of the special Other London..."
**Zolf**: "We do have a job to do, but tell you what, afterwards, we’ll uh, we’ll do a tour."
**Sasha**: "We’re gonna be walking quite a long way."
**Zolf**: "I had a big breakfast."
―Sasha tries to share the cuisine of Other London.

**Sasha**: "Keep them quiet, and round here maybe buy some, there’s a, there’s a salted eel stall there, which is genuinely a salted eel stall? It’s not even drugs. So maybe try it. It’s very good. Really delicious! Don’t pay more than two coppers!"
―Sasha is enthusiastic about eels.
## Dice rolls and Mechanics

* Hamid casts prestidigitation to make himself and Bertie look less fancy
* Sasha rolls a Disguise check for Hamid: 7
* Sasha rolls a Disguise check for Bertie: 15
* Sasha rolls a Disable Device check to unlock a door: 17
* Hamid makes a Stealth check to sneak past the butcher: 24
* Bertie makes a Stealth check to sneak past the butcher: 6
* Zolf makes a Reflex check to stop the shelf from falling: 6
* Bertie rolls an Intimidate check with Pomp and Pageantry against the butcher: 11
* Everyone makes a Perception check: Bertie gets 16, Sasha gets 23, Zolf gets 18, Hamid gets 10
* Sasha makes a Perception check when the kids are pawing at Bertie: 11
* Bertie makes a Reflex save to grab the pickpocket: 5
* Sasha makes a Reflex save to grab the pickpocket: 20
* Sasha makes a Sense Motive check on the kids staring at them: nat 1
* Sasha makes a Disguise check: 12
* Everyone makes a Perception check: Bertie gets 5, Sasha gets 21, Zolf gets 23, Hamid gets 24
* Hamid casts message on Sasha
* Hamid makes a Concentration check to subtly cast message: 12
* Sasha makes a Stealth check: 16
* Sasha makes a Stealth check to position herself for an attack: 20
* Sasha rolls to attack: 17 on the first attack, 5 on the second, dealing 5 damage