Ship and a bottle

A one shot to tie up loose ends. Will involve the mysterious body they found on the Id Ascendant, and then finally answer what happened to the bottle
Priority is James, Gill, and one other, (Maybe Zack?).
Make it alien inspired with the Id Ascendant, and then it ends with one of them getting domed in the head by a flying wine bottle as they finally reached shelter in one of the harshest environments on the planet.

Holy shit James offered to use the Duke for this. Will make them downtier in terms of level to about level 2 or 3.
Player prompt:
Ambassadors from The Church of the Collective have been sent north outside the borders of the PSA, in order to help a psionic individual in need. An individual with what is assumed to be immense psionic potential has been located in the village of Thornhold, on the edge of the Spine of the World. The clock is ticking, as it sounds like they are being hunted by estranged family members looking to kill them for their psionic abilities. Will the ambassadors of the church be able to rescue this individual in time? Being sent on this mission are ____, ____ the bodyguard, and ____ a church cleric.
On this mission you are approached by Brigan whenever you're in New Mystra at a convenient time. This is pretty standard for the church to contact you, but for Brigan himself to be there means its important. He relays to you the collective was contacted by a powerful psionic disturbance outside the PSA's northern borders in a small adventuring village. They believe it is coming from a powerful fledgling psionic on the run from their family. You are given the option to use one of Brigan's psionics he's recently trained through the church, or use protection of your own accord. Your good buddy Milo Minderbinder has recently been bragging to you about his warforged bodyguards he's started to employ and has offered for your family to take up their services. Whichever bodyguard you choose, you will have a low level church envoy cleric coming with you to help detect psionics and provide minor healing if things go south.

Pre Session notes:

James' character is sent to help rescue a psionic in need of help the church has identified, this is outside the PSA's reach and as such they cannot give them military help. Gill's character will be unable to escape the mindflayers, and the duke will get thrown out of the ship, being forced to survive in the wilderness. He will stagger through the wilderness, on the border of death from exhaustion and the cold. He will finally be able to make it to the sign of shelter in a valley at like 3am, before getting clocked in the head with a glass bottle. This will give him a chance to connect to the collective again.

• The Duke is sent to investigate reports of a psionic in trouble in the town of Thornhold , who needs extraditing to New Mystra and is being hunted down. The individual in question is a Female Duergar from Sunblight fortress named Curta Glooma.
• Lately the Duke has been trying to find ways to get out of his contract with the Genie and get back with the collective. He's been trying but cannot feel the collective again no matter what
• He can find out via roadside chats that either a traumatic event, physical trauma to the head, or presence around other psionics can do it.
• Upon arrival they realize other Duergar are trying to hunt down the individual in question
• They will also be told to not bring a lot of gear that could identify them as members of the PSA
• They get there and can discover a few things:

1. They can possibly notice some folks with gunpowder weapons (muskets and flashlights), medium level checks can help them realize other nations are catching up in technology, worth looking into for trades. High level checks will reveal something off about these individuals
2. Will meet some Duergar looking for the woman on the run from the fortress. It will be revealed this woman was a traitor to their government. This Duergar was loyal to King Xardorok and fled when with some gems and money when they realized a switch of power was inevitable. If these Duergar realize the party is here to rescure this individual
3. The everlasting rime is still ongoing, and has been for sometime. The only thing anyone can talk about though is how the ten towns were attacked by a dragon, and Bryn Shandar is about to be wiped out by Auril in a few days?? There is a HUGE amount of misinformation from the sheer amount of crazy events that have happened. The only thing that is consistent is that something big happening in Bryn Shandar right now, a mechanical dragon did attack but was stopped, and a crazy amount of earthborn are in the area.
4. They will be told by the church the individual in question is in disguise and currently camping outside of Thornhold about an hours hike away. But it will seem like the other Duergar are close on the trail

Depending on how the checks go they might not beat the Duergar to the psionic in peril. If they lose or its close, they will run into them and have to fight to save the psionic in need, who is a Duergar mind master able to assist them. Upon hearing individuals approaching her campsite, the psionic in peril will reduce in size and hide in a woodpecker hole in a tree.
Regardless of how the fight goes, they will eventually be captured at night in the woods. James might be able to hold onto the ship perhaps? Or will possibly be thrown from it when he tries to grab on? Play it depending on the scenario. Either way it will appear to the two PCs that this is an airship from a foreign nation attacking them, they will not recognize it as a nautiloid. They will be thrown from the ship, and wake up with no clue where they are in the wilderness. It will be on the edge of the rime, and will be extremely brutal. Depending on the earlier session nature check we will see if they have proper clothing.

The Session

We open on New Mystra, with Vayryl and his sister Sienna at a fancy fey dinner tasting downtown, folks talking about the newly planned Airship docks that are starting to be built. Talking with Milo Minderbinder and mingling with everyone, its a great time. Brigan asks him to come talk outside. He tells him to go find Curta Glooma in Thornhold. Reminds him of the Rime and tells him whats going on, asks him to go look for the person there. Mallet Puddlepocket (Gills psionic) and the Cleric Theresa. They introduce themselves to each other and depart for the night, planning to teleport out. Brigan goes and gives a pep talk to Mallet. Mallet gets a nat 20 to survival check going to near the Rime. Meanwhile Vayryl meets with his father, they talk about the Djinn called the Wayfarer. They have some banter and talk about airships. The Wafarer is very passive aggressive to Vayryl, but the family finds it amusing and is ok with Vayryl not making a further pact. Currently the Djinn has 45% share in his soul and does not have a majority like most of his other family members.
The next morning they all meet up to teleport to the edge of the PSA in the city of People's Daleton , before a 1 week journey to Thornhold. They teleport and get to riding to Thornhold. They make great conversation about psionics, traveling, and the church. They have a long conversation or two about his patron. They go up into Thornhold, a lovely small adventuring village filled with potential, and the last warmth many adventurers will feel.
Nat 20 perception in the Tavern for Mallet, and subtle spell detect thoughts with Vayryl. They fail horribly to probe deeper into some Duegar, but cover it up well enough with deception. They chat with Dante the earthborn bartender but do not ask about why theyre there, but he makes good conversation. They make amazing checks to realize that no one in the town has heard of this psionic they're talking about. They hear from a gnomish alchemist who gave some potions to help a psionic duergar with a powerful migraine about a week or two ago. They good cop bad cop Dante after asking around enough to realize he saw the Deurgar last. Dante reveals he did see them, but thankfully their concerned family was looking for them earlier today. Bribes Dante to come with them, they fail the first group check, they will come across the ruins of the fight or the fight on the very end. They finally get to the cave, but there's been signs of a fight. They come across a weird stalemate, where the Duergar are at the mouth of the cave trying to prevent whoever is inside from leaving, but whoever is inside is not only invisible but out of their awareness. Tense standoff that goes poorly, nat 1s on persuasion checks make it very close to combat. They find out that the duergar are fighting something in the cave that killed two of them already. But the Duke speeds things up with a subtle spells. All but the leader of the Duergar die (the leader has 1 fucking health left after getting hit with a psionic hammer). The Duergar tries to make a break for it down the rocky hillside with the reduce but Theresa reveals where they are. A vicious mockery kills the Duergar mind master leader. They go to the mouth of the cave with no injuries, revealing the other dead duergar, and the Duke attempts to speak into the void to persuade them. A happy reunion and a happy ending
We come to in the sky, the netting pressed into the cheek, the wind whipping by, dragged into the sky in the net by a Nautiloid. They don't know what is happening. Theresa is dead, Dante and Curta avoided the net they think? They are alive barely, a nat 20 to psionically conjure parachutes. They smash into the ground, safely into the snow though. They are now in the Rime.
They wake up in the morning in a shivering misery. They keep going. They keep going and going. The cold and the grey is everlasting, and the few glimpses they get show them coming closer and closer to the edge of the mountains. Mallet keeps barely passing checks, and they are able to over one mountain a day. They get swept by avalanches but somehow manage to barely survive. Mallet almost dies twice from these but the Duke is able to use his detect thoughts to recover her from the buried snow. Finally the last day arrives, the edge of the mountains are in view and they can see the glimmer of the ten towns from some of the peaks. The day is worse, wracked by blizzards and avalanches, the Duke is hounded by the Wayfarer. He taunts the Duke, making him see things he is not sure are real, and trying to make him sell the last 6% of his soul.