Episode 11: Killer Queen

Good evening and welcome to Drakenheim. This is our weekly Dungeons Dragons 5th edition game with the Dungeon Dudes. That's me, your Dungeon Master, Monty Martin.

And I'm Kelly McLaughlin, playing Sebastian Crow, the Half-Elf Shadow Sorcerer. And we're joined today by our good friends.

Jill Danidas playing Veo Senia, the Tabaxi Gloomstalker Ranger.

and Joe O'Gorman playing Pluto Jackson, the human battlemaster.

Thank you so much for joining us again. If you're just tuning in for the very first time, Kelly and I post new videos every Thursday on our YouTube channel where we cover everything Dungeons and Dragons, including advice for dungeon masters. and awesome guides for players on all the classes in Dungeons and Dragons, spells, cool abilities, and more. You'll also find all of our prior episodes of the Dungeons of Drakenheim campaign for your bl viewing pleasure there as well.

Drakenheim is no more. Struck by a firing star.

Amen.

The city bathed in Eldritch fire, on that woeful in the room. Chaos, families torn asunder, and a kingdom shattered. Fifteen years later, monsters stalk the haunted streets of Drakenheim.

And revenge.

Welcome back to the ruins. When last we left our heroes, they had ventured deep into the inner city of Drakenheim, their destination, Queen's Park Garden, after one of the elusive eldritch lilies said to grow there. sent by their associate with the Amethyst Academy River to collect the lilies, so that they may be brewed into some sort of concoction by their earlier contact Oscar Jorin, the mage who dwells on the edge of Drakenheim.

Successfully.

Successful.

And out of a tree.

They managed to find a single Elgridge lily. Though the creature that they encountered, a handmaiden that lived in the castle that gir that Via recognized by the name of Gertrude, said that a mysterious creature known only as the Lady desired to own all the Eldritch lilies. The lady had taken over the grotto dedicated to the old queen of Drakenheim, Lenore, and so

Amulet.

of Queen Lenore. As our party tried to talk their way out of the situation by dr tr attempting to drown Valeo in the water.

It's very complicated.

Real drowning.

Move. They aroused the ire of the lady when Veo threw an eldritch lily in Peluto's face, destroying the plant.

I was being drowned.

You were lightly being drowned.

So you're being drowned a little bit.

Cats don't like water.

At the sight of one of her lilies being destroyed, the lady, the figure, ripped away her veil that concealed her face, revealing A face that Vale recognized, but one twisted by strange magics. The figure resembles that of Queen Lenore, the fair and stately woman that once ruled Drakenheim alongside King Ulrich, but she has been changed by strange forces, her skin cracked and breaking, and her hair transformed into these strange

You didn't?

She screams out, You shall not destroy my lilies. I'll have your lives. she cries out.

Thank you.

I kinda ate one of the lilies and I have Veo I I almost picture like I'm I'm holding by the scruff of like your

We're still holding it, I guess, and um

freeze loo looking up at at her, she's torn the veil away. You can see her cracked skin is almost like scales. And suddenly a strange light begins to emanate from within her throat, nostrils, and eyes. It has the same green pallor as the light that's emanating from the rest of the area, and as it emanates from her, this strange radiant energy. You can see in the room beyond where the lilies are, all the lilies turn

I don't know.

Um

Who has ideas?

This is looking at we we've dealt with melty face ladies, but this is like melty face boss. And can sense that we're caught off guard. I kinda wanna throw Veo towards the doorway. In the nicest way.

Like you pick her out of the pond.

Yeah. I need to know what you're going to do. You don't have enough time to discuss.

I'm going to carry Veo towards the door.

The exit.

Yeah, the exit. Uh the entrance exit?

Okay.

And uh and and with my other free hand I'm gonna be pushing um Uh Sebastian.

Okay, Sebastian, what are you going to do?

Um I guess I'm also moving towards the door. We have enough Eldridge lilies, I'm I I'm I think. Um So yeah, this seems a little daunting at the moment and also I don't really want to kill the queen. So as Pluto shoves me, I'm like, okay, okay, let's get out of here. And I start heading towards the door. Do I have time to actually take an action?

We'll we'll be rolling for initiative when you actually want to move. Okay. Veo?

Are y so you're pushing me?

I can't. I kinda pull you out of the water.

Okay.

'Cause I'm sorry. Yeah. And uh yeah, I think we've overstayed our welcome. Time to go. Whoops sorry.

And like if you're pushing me like towards the exit, I'm yelling at her just like my queen would never hurt me. And I'm just like getting a bit riled up here because like I don't think she's my queen because the queen, like, I knew her and she was gentle and kind and she knew me and this person doesn't know me. So I'm I'm kinda I'm feisty, but I'm not I'm not against you pushing me towards the exit. I'm just not moving there per se of my own will.

Amen.

Okay. You're like I'm holding you back?

Show role for initiative.

Alberac!

The poker face. Oh crap.

Bye, bye, bye.

Eleven.

Eleven prevail?

Twenty one.

Mine was a no crap. It was five. Five. A big old five.

Okay, this figure, who we can only call by Queen Lenore, since that seems to be who she resembles.

Thank you.

She walks forward down the hallway. Let's see our map. Yep, she's she's standing at the double doorways at the end of the hallway, about 35 feet away from you. There is a grate Uh between you and her that is still closed. You haven't opened it up yet. Sebastian, you are the first to act. She is walking towards you, this green light just flickering at the edge of your face, and as you kind of turn to leave.

That's normal.

Uh so Sebastian is going to kind of run to this side of the door and push himself against the

Wall.

and he reaches into his pocket And he pulls out an aqua delirium.

Ha ha ha.

And he looks down at it and he's like, I've no idea what's in this thing, but uh here it goes and he knocks it back.

Alrighty, roll a D four. Or sorry, a D three.

That is why I'm not sure.

Alright, you regained two levels worth of spells.

A second level spell slot then.

Okay, and please note that you have now drank one vial of this. If you drink another, it will be pretty bad. Noted. As you knock back the potion, you feel it Head down your as it heads down your esophagus, you can feel like this surge of arcane energy s shoot through your blood veins. And all of a sudden the two of you see

It's it's good. It's like a warm bath, but inside.

Okay.

Would you like to do anything else?

She got him. Oh god.

I am going to also use a bonus action just to transfer some first a first level spell slot into some sort.

Okay.

And that's it for my turn.

Alrighty.

Thank you.

Next up is Veo.

Um so I can I see what's happening to the door as well?

Yes, you can see it's it's a for a moment it looks like it's melting away and cracking and then turning and almost transitioning from metal into just dust.

So I see this happen and I also turn and see Sebastian having his

I wouldn't.

throw me a moment and I'm just like This be crazy. And I start to just like kinda hustle towards the door a little bit. So I want to get inside like the the doorway. Okay. And I want to um ready Um uh an action because I feel like now that the Queen's happenin', um, her minions might come back on the other side. So I just wanna ready my long bow for anything that I see come by.

Okay. Queen Lenore. She steps forward a few feet. And she says, Yes, run, run, leave, leave my flowers. Have you taken any of the flowers though with you?

Uh oh there were three in the pool. Okay. Uh so we have two of them other than the crumpled up one that was thrown at Pluto.

Bring me my lilies Give them back and she begins walking fur f forward. She's about halfway towards the gate

Pluto, it's your turn. You can see her down the hallway, and this light begins to wash over over you. If you wish, you may now choose to avert your gaze. I do that. Okay. Averting your eyes, you feel it against your skin. It's

The helmet

Mm-hmm.

Like cooking yourself in an oven.

Nein.

Those rolls, man.

You take ten points of radiant damage.

Zap

And you suffer one level of exhaustion.

Ow.

So you shove us forward and then you don't But that's a great sound.

Pluto, you're up.

Um Cooking.

You're cooking inside your armor. Uh and it's not like fire, it's like pure radiance and it's i it's almost like intense radiation is ki emanating from her gaze.

I'm going to Looking away from her. Her it. Uh uh I'm looking away and I'm gonna run because I saw Sebastian his eyes went crazy too. And yeah, I I'm now worried that he's affected.

Okay.

So I'm gonna try to run and grab Sebastian and book it towards the door.

Alrighty. You run and you grab him. Sebastian, are you gonna resist being grabbed?

Uh yes.

Okay, you two can make a post-strength check.

You're you're coming. Oh, you're just so confident in my low rolls.

I mean it's strength.

Fifteen. Six. You're coming, bud.

Grab him and pull him with you.

Sebastian and then uh

I had a plan.

And uh I'm gonna start carrying him towards the the doorway and then uh is it my action to grab him? Yeah.

Yeah.

Then How f can I make it my whole movement, even with him? Am I strong enough?

You can pull him the rest of your movement.

Okay, groovy. Yeah, I wanna move a total of as many as I can. And I'm just kind of like You're trying to fight it but I'm just pushing you up.

Yeah, I'm fighting you back and I'm like reaching over your shoulder. I'm like, wait, I had an idea.

Go, go. It's burning. It hurts. It burns.

Thank you.

Anything else, Polito?

I you know what? We're not gonna chance it. I'm gonna action surge and I'm gonna dash.

Amen.

Okay, you're gonna dash it.

And we're gone. Okay. You're gone. You're gone, but we're going up the stairs. Oh, two at a time.

Rush up the stairs with him. I I'm gonna have you make another strength check to pull him up the stairs. opposed by uh opposed by Sebastian. If Sebastian wants to stay in the room.

7.15.

Okay. You pull him half your speed up the stairs.

And uh I want to dash so I get normal movement basically.

Okay. Uh if you're pulling Sebastian up the stairs, it's gonna be ha uh you're you're dashing, so uh you've already used thirty feet of your movement, you can s move another fifteen feet up the stairs.

Okay.

Okay.

We go to the top of the round with Sebastian. Are you within 30 feet of uh

I know.

You are not. Okay. So he's pulled you out of her range. Okay. So the light is emanating from her it can it And as it catches into the middle of the room and oscillates off of the lake in the uh the fountain in the middle, it bounces all the way around the room.

Creepy creepy creepy

Sebastian, what will you do?

Are we leaving?

Um I am and I have I I carry I own Mew now.

I don't say anything.

So you're going with me.

And are you still holding on to me? Well I guess I'm spending my turn trying to break out of Pluto's grasp.

Okay.

Like fighting back like a child, like and I'm just like trying to carry you up the stairs.

I got an eighteen.

Oh. Oh another fifteen.

I

You break out of his grasp.

Okay. Um I'm gonna run back into the room and I don't wanna I don't wanna go too close, but what I wanna do is is the light kind of like shining out like this?

Yes.

I want to pull the mirror out of my thieves tools kit.

Okay.

And I wanna try to like shine the light back at her, like averting my eyes, but I just kinda wanna Hold the mirror out.

Interesting.

Actually, could I mage hand hold the mirror and move the mage hand in?

Yes, but you'll need your action to cast Mae Chan. Right.

And I just use my option.

To break out.

Mm-hmm.

Hmm, and I don't have enough sorcery points to Quick in that. Okay. I just fight off Pluto and move back to the door.

Okay.

Stay there.

Behind the door.

What's thirty feet out?

We've got one of the measuring sticks right over there if you need to see.

Right there? Okay. Um, I'm going to use my feline agility so I can move a little bit further. I'm gonna move I guess to the edge of the door so I can see her way over here. Yep. And I'm gonna take my longbow out and I'm gonna uh

Mm-hmm.

Cast. Um I'm gonna cast Zephyr Strike.

Okay.

as my bonus action. And I'm gonna take some longbow shots at her.

Kill the queen.

Amen.

Mame the queen, okay.

Right.

Hmm.

Twenty three to hit?

That is a hit.

Nice.

The arrows whistles between the bars of the of the grate and strikes her soundly in the side.

Oh gosh.

Twenty nine.

Wow.

Ha!

Oh yeah. And then I take my second shot.

Okay.

Um

That is a hit.

Sorry. Uh eighteen damage.

That leaves her bloodied.

You got a third shot, don't ya?

It's not my first. Yeah. I use my first to wait for people and nobody came. So I'm going to then run back. So up the stairs with my um Pilan agility plus my extra on my Zephyr strike to just and I actually wanna go up a little bit more because I think I can move a little bit further than that.

Okay. Yeah. She screeches, a horrific str s screech, and as she looks down at the wounds as you r run back, uh she cries out, Fayo no, why would you do that?

My heart Oh my god. Sorry! Sorry my queen! But you're being mean.

And she's and she says You hear her cry out, Valeo, Veo, where's your father gone? He left me here. Where's he gone? Where's he gone?

I don't know, you tell me.

And she steps forward and she rack she wrestles her hands against the grates of the door and begins pushing it open.

Oh she's up against the

Yeah, and she be uh and she she presses against it and pushes it open.

Uh oh.

And begins walking into the room. And she says, Come back, come back. Where's he gone? Where's he taken my babies?

Oh my god.

Pluto, it is your turn. You are in range of her radiance. Will you avert your gaze?

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

Still need a constitution saving shape.

I like to think I'm halfway up the stairs.

Okay.

'Cause I I think for the miniature to live on the stairs. Do I still if I was halfway because I got like fifteen pass But I I like is Veo still by the doorway?

She's gone all the way up the stairs I'll pr

It's you by the doorway.

Yeah, I'm if I'm pressed up against it, is the light hitting me?

I'll give you advantage on your saving throw. Cool.

Yeah.

I think I'll give uh give you as well advantage because you're both kind of not quite in her sight, yeah.

I'm gonna try to grow go grab uh Sebastian again. Okay. And try to pull him.

Give me that constitution.

What I'm just trying to like wrestle you kids. Like I've been pushing Veo and you and you're like fighting me back. Uh twenty one.

Okay. So you totally resist it as the as this light comes forward you feel yourself but you grit your teeth you feel yourself boiling but you feel you grit your teeth and rush up to Sebastian and and what do you do?

I grab him and I pull'em. Towards the stairs.

I don't resist, but I'm just like just let me try one thing. And so like he's kind of pulling me away, but I'm I'm still like looking at the door getting ready to to do what I plan to do.

Okay. We go to the top with Sebastian.

So he's he's pulling me kind of aside here. Oh and I do I have to make the save with uh

Do you want to avert your gaze from her entirely or just try to shield yourself?

Um, I'm gonna avert my gaze. I know that she's come through the door. I can tell by like the light emanating in the voice, I kinda get that idea. So I'm gonna avert my gaze.

Gimme a constitution saving throw with advantage.

Uh.

Okay.

Amen.

You feel the radiant energy emanating from her burn like it's almost giving you a sunburn at this point. Um, but you may but it you put press on through the pane of the radiant light and you may act as normal.

I am going to mage hand and um grab the mirror from my Thieves Tools kit and just float the mage hand up to like five feet in front of or about ten feet in front of her face and hold the mirror.

Alrighty. Would you like to do anything else?

Uh no, that's that's my big move. I'm gonna see if anything happens. If it doesn't work, um we can leave.

Okay. The mirror flies forward. And

Amen.

Lenora looks upon it and sees her own face, and you can see a look of horror and revulsion as she sees her reflection in the mirror in front of her. She fails her her her saving throw, and as the light reflects back off of her face, you just see this look of horror in her as she collapses to her feet and

What did you do?

Magic.

Oh yeah.

Thank you.

Wicked. Right and you can hear her she she falls to her knees and she begins weeping and crying loudly, like al almost hysterically so.

I I do a really awkward like I'm still pressed up against well I guess you grab me and we're trying to drag me away from the door. But I like I do a quick quick little peek around and kinda look at her.

Amen.

Does she seem like

Yeah.

The her her eyes are closed and almost leaking this like icor from them. Her f and the scales have been burned off of her face and the these cable like tendrils that end in Moz are still hanging down around and over her face, but they're all hanging limp. Some of them bits of them the own radiant light has burned them

Yeah.

Veo I did something. Uh

What?

She she's different.

Thank you.

How different?

Uh she's not glowing and she looks sad instead of terrifying. Uh that's all I got. I I don't know how safe this is, but situation is more under control than it was a moment ago.

Mage hand is like your most powerful ability. More things, or you've just I'm I think you just your magic hand just kills things. Like you melted that lady's face and then you melted this lady's face.

I yeah, I've done never underestimate the power of a good magical hand.

Give me

I would say that's some pretty good handiwork there. Thank you, thank you.

Um I'm like all proud, meanwhile the like queen's crying in a corner. Yeah.

With like really bad sound.

And and and she kind of begins pulling herself over to the corner of the wall and like she's huddled in in the in the corner and her hands over her face these awful tendrils still coming down. They're it's almost like the the tendrils themselves are dead now and they're they hang limp around her head. Th the blast of light from the mirror has just shocked her. out of whatever this state was.

From behind the door, the last thing that I'm gonna yell is just, My Queen! My name's Sebastian Crow, and we're here to rescue you.

Amen.

Thank you.

Okay. I think we'll we'll pull ourselves out of initiative for now.

Yeah.

Paluto, what would you like to do? You've you've seen this happen as you were pulling Sebastian away. He turned around, reflected the mirror. That brilliant light is gone.

Oh, the... the... If the sunburn is over, uh I'm going to cautiously raise my shield and sort of like walk into the room towards the queen. I consider this the uh the turning point.

Okay. I'm like Is it safe to go down?

Don't turn on. Don't you don't And I kinda wanna pin her on the ground with my shield. Like I wanna get real

crying on the ground and you're just...

Just slowly just.

Pushing her into the ground, like but like and just imposing my shield between

Okay, as you stand over her, she looks up for a moment, and you can see whatever has happened to her face. It is like a sudden sunburn hit her in the face. And you can see this fleshiness underneath it where the scales still come up her neck and around her head. But then there's this humanoid like fleshy burned

Don't hurt

I won't hurt you, but no more glowy sunburned face to me.

She says, I don't know what you mean.

Yeah, that classic. Classic burn your face and act like nothing happened. My my body is like

And

Yeah, I've got like thirty reburns under my armor. It's very uncomfortable.

Yeah. There, what will you do?

I'm as soon as I hear him being like, Don't hurt me, I'm like, don't hurt her, and I run down the stairs. And I'm like, my queen. How are you doing? Are you okay? Is he hurting you? Don't hurt her.

Oh yeah, yeah, no problem. I'm not the one that shot her twice.

Yeah.

It had to be done.

Yeah, you can see the arrows are still sticking out of her side and she's nursing the wound.

Definitely go help her out with the

Yeah.

Pulling those out.

Yeah.

Uh.

Jimmy I think. Yeah.

But not on me. Don't hurt her.

Six.

You pull the arrow out violently and she screams and you can see in a in a moment there's a flash of green light in her eyes and she growls at at you and grab grabs you, reaches to grab you and pull you pull you close to her. What will you do?

Slap her.

Don't hurt her. Don't hurt her.

It's instinctive.

Okay, make an attack roll.

See what it sounds like?

Seventeen.

Oh, yeah. Um the ICOR s slams out of the side and she turns back around to face you and you can see that her eyes are gone. Whatever happened when Sebastian turned this light around has burned her eyes away.

Oh.

It oh it's me Veo by the way. If you can't see me Sorry.

You slap her and then you're like, Oh, it's Veoda.

Yeah.

She could tell by the slap maybe?

Yeah.

disturbed. I get up and start to move away and I say You may have been my queen, but I don't know what you are anymore.

Yeah. She she's wailing on the ground. You've slapped her, you pulled this arrow out of her. And it seemed like in that moment she tried to like muster up whatever power she once had. But whatever has happened to her now has broken that strange power.

It was out of love, Pluto. It was out of love.

You're a

Yeah, you're like I'm glad you're my bodyguard.

You're the one who was saying that we needed to protect her and you're the one who shot her twice and slapped her.

She says for a moment, Don't don't touch me. And she she holds her heads uh her hands over her eyes and she she says, I can't see. I can't see. Where was where was Vaya? Where did she go?

And I go back over and I grab her hand. I should I'm here.

Okay. What are the other two of you going to?

I'm gonna give uh Sebastian a little whistle. Like a To kinda like look at me?

I I pop my head from around the door, but like very cautiously, like I almost do like a double take. I'm still really nervous and I'm like what?

And I'm gonna motion towards the other room and I go. And a as I stand here with uh Veo, um uh interrogating, slash comforting, slash doing uh some sort of like First aid.

Yeah.

I'm gonna start creeping down this hallway.

I actually um I also wanna take maybe some cloth and like wrap it around her eyes where they were.

Okay. As Sebastian begins walking down the hallway, the other the other set of doors open and the three women from before come in come rushing in. led by Gertrude and they say and they look down at

Yeah.

Lenora, they look back at you, and they say, What have you done? What have you done to our queen?

First aid, she hurt herself.

Make a persuasion check.

Amen.

She fell on these arrows and we were trying to get them out. They're really bad splinters.

Natural one.

Um Gertrude rushes towards the Queen. Um

I'll give her space.

And

Мне тоже. Да.

The three you can see they they rush towards her with the cadence of handmaidens trying to protect their queen. And they pull her toward towards them in the end. Gertrude looks up at Puludo and says, Get away from her, you monster. What have you done to her?

She kinda did this to herself.

Literally.

Sebastian, are you still walking down the hallway?

Um I'm too mesmerized by all the glowing lights in this room. While they're having this conversation, yeah, I continue. I continue to walk towards the room full of lilies.

Okay. Sebastian, you can see in this room It is a pillared, beautiful room, resplendent with reflective

Yeah.

panels and frescoes all overhead. You can imagine that if the Queen i in her when she had this ability it would have reflected all across this room with the brilliance of daylight. Now the pool in the center is filled with lilies, brisking with light. There could easily be a hundred of them.

So not even creepy or anything, is what you're saying. No. Just a normal room.

Well the room itself

It looks like she was living on here.

With n with lilies and weird paintings and

Well it looks like she just like moved the queen moved her stuff down here. Um I actually I turn around and I'm like I think she was living down here all of her all of the queen stuff. There's a bunch of queen stuff over here. I'm going in.

Did you say that one of the one of the handmaidens speaks up and says th No, those are the queen's things. You're not to rob her.

I'm not robbing the queen, but Just picking some flowers.

Make your persuasion check.

Nineteen.

Those are those are the Queen's lilies. She keeps them here, those are hers. You're a thief.

We're here to help the queen. She might need these.

You're here to help her.

Okay. I'm like calling down the hallway. Yes.

One of the Looks to Sebastian and looks at Veo. and points at your crest. That's Master Johann's Did he send you?

Amen.

Does he come back for us?

No, he didn't. He's been missing for fifteen years now.

Fifteen fifteen years.

When's the last time he was here?

She looks back at you and the three women look and they said.

Amen.

Fifteen years?

Yes.

It's been No, no, he just la left la yesterday. It was just yesterday that he And and the three of them start to say It was wasn't it just yesterday that he was that he left us here? And they start talking towards each other like they're trying to figure out how long they've been here.

I say, what what was yesterday to you? What happened yesterday?

Grifford says. I thought... There was a light in the sky, an explosion, a wave, We were here with the Queen. We hid. We didn't know what else to do. We've just been hiding here.

Amen.

And then the Queen asked us to go get get the lilies and bring them back so that we could live, so that we could stay. It's only been a few days. He's coming back, right?

It has been fifteen years since the day where the meteor fell, and I've been looking for my father ever since. I used to be a young kitten living In the palace. And I'm all grown up now.

Yep.

Amen.

The Queen has been weeping all through this like she hasn't been paying attention.

Thank you.

Well, up to it, ladies, take her to your quarters and tend to the Queen at once.

They Shake themselves up and they help the queen to her feet and they begin bringing her back towards the her room.

Uh no no. The uh you're out your room. She can't go in there. She needs

Amen.

Yeah, we do.

By the way, I'm grabbing these lilies. I'm shoving li how many lilies can I fit in my bag?

How long do you want to spend?

Uh as long as this whole conversation's been going on, I've been grabbing lilies and putting them in the middle of the case.

As you okay. You the there are probably more here than you can carry on.

Oh yeah.

Okay.

So so let's see if we can fill it.

Anybody have room for more lilies?

Um grab a pot somewhere or chest and we can

Thank you.

I'm gonna kind of follow Gertrude and the others carrying the Queen.

They bring her back to the to the lily room. and they set her down on the the bench like throne where her where her things are and begin tending to her and like they're like trying to soothe her. One of them goes over to one of the the chests and tries to see if there's like there's like the remnants of a first of a healer's kit there and like they're trying to do things. they're s singing softly, like they're trying to like placate her.

Are you are you back here with them?

Uh yeah, like I I follow them into the room'cause I'm trying to keep them distracted while you grab the lilies, like s you know, slightly imposing myself in between them.

Yeah, I'm just I'm just there. As you guys enter the room, I kinda stop for a moment.

Yeah.

And as as they continue to tend to the queen, I continue to fit as many lilies as I can in my bag.

Okay. Uh you probably got about two dozen of them.

And then it's like Alright guys, uh well it seems you all have it on under control, so we're just gonna be going.

I I tap you on the shoulder. Uh do we wanna like bring the queen back somewhere? I mean, maybe somebody can help her, maybe somebody can I mean she's the queen of Drakenheim. We do we just leave her?

Here.

I think the ones that I would be able to trust the most with her would be the Hooded Lanterns.

I think she has a great place here and I don't want to take her out of her in Pluto's like just ready to leave.

I don't know if this is the best place.

She's got her handmaidens, she's got her clothes here. And her throne and

She's blind.

A lot of lilies.

Well a few less now.

Yeah, but not noticeable.

Why wouldn't you want the Queen of Drakenheim to be taken care of, Pluto? No.

She's being taken care of.

Not very well.

I mean someone shot her with some arrows actually. Yeah.

Worse.

This is an important situation here. This is this is the queen. I mean I know you don't understand, you're from Caspia. D do they have like do you have a king and queen in Caspia?

Yes.

Okay, if the queen was missing.

Uh it's'cause it kinda feels like we're kidnapping her. I feel like she would do better in her own

She's been missing. We're getting her back from being missing.

I guess we're putting this to a vote. All in favor of helping the Queen and getting her to the Hooded Lanterns, raise your hand.

AHHHHHH

Well you're carrying her because I didn't shoot her. And I'm kinda holding a grudge because she burned it.

The main thing can carry here.

I I turn to the three maidens and I say I'm gathering eldige lilies because they might be able to be used to create um medicine that can help her. Uh we need to take her somewhere. You are welcome to come with us.

No what we can do? Oh, we should bring her back to my tower and I can use my pigeons to go send a message to the Hooded Lanterns to meet us at the tower'cause we said they could use it.

That's close.

Yeah. That way we don't have to Uh go all the way back to the gate. Okay. Yeah. And that way she'll have a little safe haven. She doesn't have to worry about monsters or being down in this dank dirty place like

And she'll be out of the haze.

Yeah, exactly. I don't know if that'll be detrimental or helpful, but

No, I like your plan. I'm purposely not looking at Pluto. I could feel him staring at me. I don't know what you have against all of our plans here.

Pluto, we need to help the queen. This is numero uno.

I mean, if you wanted to help her, not burning her eyes out would have been a great start. Uh I wanted to leave her to her.

I'm pretty sure that burning her eyes out was exactly what needed to happen.

happen like I kind of remember not murdering her Like that was that was a murder too. If anything, the most dangerous thing to the queen is Veo and she's we're going to her tower. Like I really feel like this is a kidnap. I feel like we're kidnapping her.

I really feel like you're trying to convince us not to help the Queen and I d I don't know what you're up to right now, Pluto. I I feel like this is an obvious

She's baggage. We we came for lilies, not a queen.

And a queen. It's great.

No, that's...

Two for one.

Pluto, finding the Queen of Drakenheim is extremely important. The whole reason we're here is to to see if there's a way that we can find out what happened in Drakenheim. Uh Veo's whole plan is to restore the kingdom. And I mean, we just found the queen.

Alright. I'm not happy about it. But she can come with us for now.

Cảm ơn các bạn đã theo dõi và hẹn gặp lại. Tag along with us through our whole, you know.

Thank you.

Tride through the city, you know.

Thank you so much for agreeing with me.

Responsibility.

I'll take that responsibility. She's my queen, my lady. I will help you.

Last I checked we were a team, so She's also your responsibility.

I know, that's why I was against it.

Anyway, thanks Blue. So

Turn back to the queen and say would you like to Yeah, I guess we should ask the queen if she wants to come with us so we don't kidnap her buttons.

As as we continue to argue, I turn back to the maidens again and I'm like We're gonna bring her somewhere safe and we're going to get her help.

They they look at each other They say Safe where

We have a tower.

Yes, we'll we'll begin packing our things right away. And the three of them turn they begin gathering up the muddy, wet dresses, and packing them into the trunks, and gathering the things together, And and Gertrude goes up and grabs the Queen's hand and says, Your Majesty, these these champions, they're They have the crest of the steward. They're going to bring us to a safe place. They've come for us. They've come for us. They're going to bring us back to the king and your children.

Well we don't know. We're still trying to find the answers, but

Her face turns sour and says, But that's why we were waiting here. He was supposed to bring them.

I know, but lots of things have happened since. But our number one priority is to get the queen to safety. We'll get the rest of the mysteries answered later. Like I said, it's been some time since

We'll get her things.

Get her things, get the portraits. I need some something to jazz up my my tower.

We do need some redecorating and

Yeah. Grab the portraits.

As they grab the portraits.

This is for sure you guys are robbing.

Amen.

Robbery and kidnapping.

begin to go through the table and you can see that there are several that's kidnapped looks like there's several documents with your father's seal on them as well.

Are they open? Yeah.

Yes they are.

Can I see those? And I point to them. They're from my father.

Fiftees.

Gertrude passes it to you.

I and I look at them and I read them through. And I say, These are from my father.

Oh. There's a note that says um

Thank you.

It says on the outside of it. If I'm not back by tomorrow, open this letter.

I open the letter.

Yeah.

And it says on the inside My Queen, the situation is very dire. If I haven't returned

Yeah.

Wait here. I will try to f get a sense of where everyone has gone.

Yeah.

I don't know what's going to happen next. There's no sign of your husband or your children, but I will look in the castle for them. Yours faithfully, Master Johan.

I read this out loud to everybody. And I look at you two and say We need to get inside that castle.

First things first, Queen to the Tower.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Then I guess we need to Call the hooded lantern.

Yes.

I think they might be able to I I don't trust the Hooded Lanterns, but I trust them most with the Queen.

We trust them with the queen.

Because they're here to restore Drakenheim. Yes. So that makes sense to me.

I don't know if they'll have the best. resources to help her, but I'm sure we can call in a couple of favors.

Maybe the fact that we have a queen could be a bargaining chip with them to just say, Hey, like you should have some some of your troops stationed at your tower and that can be a place to protect and keep her

Yeah.

until we figure out a way into the castle.

Yeah, definitely. Okay. Any other letters for my father?

Not asking your advice, Pluto.

Yeah.

I'm right here.

Okay. And I take that letter and I put it in my bag. Um so I wanna keep it. It's got my father's handwriting on it. Um

Mm.

And I say, My queen, we need to go. We need to get you to safety.

Okay.

Amen.

it takes them a a little while to get their things together. The handmaidens seem insistent on bringing the queen's things with her.

As long as they can carry him.

While they're doing that, I'm putting more Elder Jalilies in Pluto.

Yeah, yeah, I'm yeah, we're filling up my bag now too.

What do we have now?

Kind of go through some of her while they're kind of packing up, I want to look around her personal effects.

Yeah.

Most of its clothes and jewelry. and several portraits and paintings of her children.

Any uh... Any uh...

What you can see is that within the paintings there are There you could recognize the figures in in the paintings. What wasn't represented in the statues outside is that there's actually three children in the royal family, but those statues were built before the third came along. Um, and the third the youngest, uh Eliza, was only a few years old. So even if she was alive today she would still be a teenager.

Any old uh family seals or The the the signs of the large

Box of makeup? And you can see that yes, there is a ring with the royal seal on it.

I'm gonna grab that ring.

Okay.

Do I see him grab that?

Amen.

Yeah, yeah, he's going through yeah he's going through it. Yeah. He's not being discreet about at all about what he's going through.

Pluto, what are you doing with that uh ring?

I could ask you the same thing about your ring.

That is not your ring.

I wanna look at it. Look at this ring.

Hand over the ring.

This could help us get into the the castle.

And I pull out my crossbow. Non.

Okay, okay, why not?

We're all just a little bit more.

Just like hold it in my hand. I'm like Pluto.

Well you guys can steal a a a lady and all of her stuff and shoot her, but I can't take one ring.

A significant ring.

You're misconcepted. Yeah.

No, you can have another ring.

Uh so it's got the seal on it.

Yeah.

So I'm not going to stop.

Does it have any like Other discerning qualities.

It may have some magic to it.

Interesting. Maybe this can get us into the castle.

I don't trust you with that ring.

Ha ha ha.

Fine. Yeah, I'll give it to Sebastian. Okay.

you can dance outside of that.

Hang on.

I won't. I won't turn anyone, I swear.

Ha ha ha.

So although this environment seems

While they're packing

Yeah.

Yeah, let's take a short run.

Yeah that could be nice.

Short rest. I'm gonna take two of my hips.

Oh I only have one hit dice left.

Thank you.

Although you get to recover your exhaustion.

Yeah, yeah. No, not on a short

On a short rest, is that long rest only?

Uh while we're sold in here.

Uh nuts.

Haha.

Ha nuts.

Four hit points back. And nailed it. I feel a tiny bit better, but I still would like to go sleep somewhere.

Um Yeah the Look, I'll I I wanna level with you guys.

How do you?

As you know, There is some Caspian treasure that belongs to my people that has been lost in Drakenheim. And it has been lost here for the last fifteen years.

Thank you.

Now I don't accuse the Queen of being a thief But as time has kind of been lost Some things that are mine might be construed as hers. For example, if let's say you just had something in your house for a really long time and you think, oh, that's mine, and you maybe forgot who lent it to you. So

Thank you.

When we find things that are owed to Caspia, they belong to me. And as far as I'm concerned, that ring Starts to fall into that category.

This ring has the symbol of

That's why I checked it. That's I was examining it and if it's if it's deserved to Drakenheim, then so be it. But

You certainly

It's easy to

Caspia can't have the symbol of Drakenheim on

They could be easily changed. There there's a there's a debt owed to Caspia. And it might also come in the form of rings and treasure and

So Pluto, if there are things that you think are

I know, not think. I know R.

are Caspias, definitely let us know. But when I know that there is a signet ring that will impart the seal of Drakenheim into lettering, I know that is not. per se.

Yeah.

Caspia because the power is then moved over to Drakenheim in order to impart information. So

You can have your Drakenheim ring.

We will have the Drakenheim.

Hey we're I thought we were a team. I thought we talked about being a team here.

Pluto, we we are a team and this is this is important. Why didn't you tell us that that's what you were up to?

Yeah. That's what I told you. I told you when you told us.

You told us that a while ago, but you don't have to be sneaking around and being all suspicious. You can just say, Hey, some of this treasure could belong to Caspia.

You guys are kind of uh shadowing my I was pretty ruthless about my I was kicking over stuff and I found this ring. Like I wasn't like sneaking around. And I also didn't shoot the queen. You love her so much and you shot her and burned her eyes out.

She was also trying to burn our faces off.

Exactly, and now we're carrying her back to our hideout.

Survival instincts for us.

So let's be let's not point fingers.

Yeah.

I have

And it's I find that it's my duty I can't lose

We're

To the dungeons of Draconai.

I think you deserve what is owed to Caspia. I agree with that. I I believe if there is gold here that is meant to be Caspian, it is meant to be Caspian.

And if that treasure has been altered or changed or is lost to the ages, then I will find my plunder in other value.

Alright, Pluto. We've been adventuring together a little bit.

Yeah.

We've lost your friends. All of your friends. I didn't really know them, but they they died.

Um people.

But they were okay.

Previous guides, you know, that get eaten.

But I feel like I feel like there's gotta be a level of trust between us. So here we go. This ring. Symbol of Drakenhead.

Yeah.

Does this belong to you?

Probably not.

Okay.

Ha ha ha ha.

No, I'm just looking at you wide eyed behind you, like I thought you were gonna offer it and I was like, What are you doing?

I'm...

Guys, I th I

Right.

I I thought that it was like, you know, collective you know ring taking. Like my rings are your rings, but there are gonna be Caspian treasures that belong to me.

And take the ring. But if it's if it's the Queen's ring and she wants it back, you would love to be able to do it.

Like you can have the ring. I don't care about the ring. It has the seal of Draconime on it, but I thought maybe we could use it to get into the cast.

We might be able to. Yeah. I just didn't want you walking away.

Yeah.

I think since I have this badge that lets us potentially get in. If one of us keeps the ring, as long as it's not used for ill means against Drakenheim. That's my only concern, Pluto. Mm-hmm. I do trust you. But I also know that with the ring signif like with the seal of Drakenheim, that's a bit It's a bit personal.

I'll be honest, um, I'm not gonna run away with one ring. Like I need a lot more treasure to go back with. I lost it.

Yeah.

Like I can't just show up and be like I got one ring With all of that? Like I need I need buckets.

Yes.

I can't

Okay.

When I when I do my runaway, if there is gonna be a runaway, it's gonna be with like

You say when you do the

If if I'm just gonna run away with a bunch of treasure, it's not gonna be with one ring. It's gonna be with like mountains of gold. So I never have to come back here. I don't know. I gotta I gotta figure that out too. It's a lot of logistics. Alright.

Okay. We'll help you with the logistics and

Um I wanna make my intentions perfectly clear. I'm here to kill things and get treasure.

Yeah.

Those are my two objectives in that order.

Cool.

Come on.

The ring itself is metal. And it is the as the seal of Queen Lenore, it confers a plus one bonus to AC and Saving Troes to whoever wears it.

And and d we just know that?

Yeah, you've taken your short rest and you can identify the properties.

I I during my short rest, I instead of regaining a ton of health because I did not, I'm examining the ring and finding this out.

Amen.

Can I can I can I wear it for a little bit?

Oh, you wanna wear it? I mean you guys don't trust me so you can have it.

I I trust you, Pluto.

Thank you.

Do you want to do that?

No you can have it.

The handmaidens also gather up much of the gold and the other offerings that have been left here as well and pack them into the trunks. The three the the three of them begin to haul the three large trunks filled with the With jewelry, clothing, paintings, and gold. Up the stairs. Um and they what they the two of them Kind of look at the

Look at

the three of you and say, We w must help the Queen walk. You will each need to pull one of her luggage.

The Queen's luggage.

You were taking the luggage and we were taking the queen.

The Queen is injured and delicate, and we will carry her.

I can piggyback her, it's fine.

Would you like to piggyback the queen? Okay.

Yeah. I was like, listen, and

How's that uh how's that strength score?

Good.

Okay.

I'm gonna watch it. I'm gonna watch.

Yeah.

I'm going to observe the uh and then

So you try to lift the queen uh the queen up and she's she's very unsure of herself'cause she's blind now.

Just hang on to my ears.

She says I can walk she takes your hand. Okay. She says I can walk. Just lead me.

Oh, okay. Wait, I put her um hand around my arm and just say, I will lead you, my queen.

Yeah.

And we lead her up.

The handmaidens have also put the veil back over her face.

Yeah, that's good. I also had wrapped the thing around her eyes too, so we're just gonna cover that up.

I hate crabs.

This is a big cover up, isn't it? This is a huge cover up.

I grab some luggage and start.

Yeah, I'm gonna I guess I'll ca can I grab two luggages then?

Yeah, you can kinda haul like it's big suitcases that

So I'm just I I'm stuck carrying two I'm like I'm all grumpy like on a Christmas like I'm just grumbling away behind everyone.

Yeah.

That's it.

I'm like come come.

You You've got the you've got the suitcase that has a bunch of of the jewelry in it and you'll probably have to go give that a a look over'cause some of that might be Caspian. Yeah.

I'm gonna do a qu uh a a thorough search when we get back to the town.

All right.

Yeah. So in in the time that you spent resting, the handmaidens have seen to the queen her wounds. They've been able to to dr dress dress her wounds. She's very much in shock. Uh as any would be with what just happened to her.

But

they're able to help her her walk about and with with Veo and Gertrude kind of guiding her forward, you're able to move, but very slowly.

Yeah.

As you walk through through Queen's Park Park Garden Vale, how are you gonna move this group? You've these these

Yeah.

Whatever abilities these Handmaidens have developed they seem like they're not aware of what they're capable of doing. Hm.

I think there's still people. Um I mean let's stay on the paths because it's a bit clearer. Um we just need to be slower and maybe be alert if there's any more gnomes that are gonna come kick us in the base.

I'm so tired and I'm dragging all this luggage and I I loud. Um

Ha ha ha.

Clonk clon.

And my face is all burned and stuff. I'm all grumpy.

Uh

Grumpy Pluto.

I'm I'm I didn't want to be right. I'm carrying one piece of luggage, but I'm also I'm like looking at everything that moves.

Okay.

Ready with my mat.

I also, as much as I'm leading the queen, I also do take out a crossbow and just kind of hold it in my hand and I'm kind of looking around, but I'm leading the charger.

Okay.

Amen.

So you're heading towards your tower? Mm-hmm.

Great.

You head back through Queen's Park Gardens.

Yeah.

It is now the mid afternoon, and the haze has come in thick.

Yeah.

So you head through the fog of the gu that surrounds the garden, this eerie landscape. dragging along the luggage. It's the sound of it dragging through the mud of the park, echoing out across the trees and across the parkway. It uh is some time, but you reach the edge of the park without too much trouble. As you reach the edge of the park, the handmaidens stop for a moment. And they look at you all and they say Are you taking us out of the park?

Yes, I thought that was obvious.

We haven't left the park in so long.

I thought you thought it was yesterday.

Yeah, it's like a b it's been like a day.

Their sense of time is

Yeah.

Yeah.

It'll be okay.

Are you not familiar with the streets of Drakenheim?

We remember the city.

Like it was yesterday, don't worry.

They seem a little afraid and hesitant to leave the garden.

We are not going back, I said as I put down the line.

Okay.

What's the hold up?

We've fought our way through the streets of Drakenheim couple times now. It's safer. Where we're taking you.

Make a persuasion check.

Amen.

Twenty five.

Okay. They nod. And you leave Queen's Park Garden. And as Gertrude steps out of the garden, she As she steps forward the just as before

when she

pulled herself into the mud, her face strips away. She continues to step forward as if nothing's happened. and her flesh strips away like vines,

Amen.

almost and strand is almost stuck in the garden, and as she continues to walk forward,

Amen.

She collapses forward and And disintegrates into dust.

Huh.

Yeah. And the three of them are naught but dust. The queen is fine.

Well, Uh you might need to hire some new handmaidens there, Queen. Just just thought you should know.

As long as the queen's okay.

Okay.

Um I'm a bit like Freaked out. I was like, that's not what I was expecting.

And this is just more magic from Sebastian, what did you do to this what did you do

Gertrude. I won't lie. I I had like a I was weighing options in my head and I felt like there was a 15% chance that this could happen, but I thought I'd gamble on that and uh looks like I lost.

I'm wondering if they were just too far gone from the magic and the queen at least we've got her out in time where she's not totally subset.

I mean I'm really sorry that you lost somebody you grew up with, but I think she was already lost.

Yeah.

If she's gonna disintegrate if she r leaves the park. Maybe we should have told them to stay. Anyway.

Let's get the

That's what's gonna be the the the the hard question is. Who's gonna carry the stuff that they were carrying?

They were gangs.

Were they carrying stuff?

They were helping to carry the queen.

Okay.

Thank gosh. And I pick up the suitcases.

Alright. Let's continue towards my tower quickly. As quickly as we can.

Let's bring up the map real quick.

I like how unfazed we all just they disintegrate and it's just like oh no.

Nothing.

Be mad.

Dragonheim anymore.

Okay.

At least you didn't see it happen.

You're at the at you're at the south park of Queen's Park. So it would be you could head directly south to Market Square and then back across the market to the uh to the clock tower. In fact, from here you can see the clock tower looming in the distance.

Thank you.

And I I describe it to the Queen to let her know where we're going so that way she understands where we are in the city.

Can you fluff it up a bit? Everything's normal.

This beautiful clock tower. The buildings are magnificent.

С вами был Игорь Негода.

Oh yeah, it's midday.

It's a wonderful day in Drakenheim.

Okay.

I'm like the moon. I mean the sun.

Can we do like a little th where it's like Hello good sir. No, I don't need any bread today

Put out a little play for the queen. CHCHCHCHCHCHCHCHCHCHCHCHCH

Silver for That's not good.

I do it. We create an ambience of of market noises so she feels at home. Hello Queen.

From the garden to the market.

Thank you.

Mm.

Amen.

Veo, you are you taking point with the queen? Okay, how are you gonna lead this group through? Because the queen is not Of

Okay.

Your your group is even though you've got a short distance to go, it's still potentially a dangerous one. So how are you gonna lead them th them through when they've got all this luggage and the Queen?

Drop the luggage.

Leave the Queen's luggage?

Just keep the portraits, drop the luggage.

Can yeah, so how is it divvyed?'Cause I I thought it was like clothes and portraits and um jewelry.

Corbits like jewelry, portraits and other knick knacks. T it's like two two trunks of clothes and jewelry and one trunk of other things, including the portraits.

Can we take like a quick couple minutes and throw the clothes out and just combine the portraits and jewelry into one bag?

Absolutely. How much time do you want to spend?

10 minit, 5 minit

Let's find some cover.

Let's go into one of these abandoned houses and we'll spend we'll do this like super fast. Just toss out everything that looks invaluable and toss everything that looks valuable into one bed.

I mean I I don't want her here, but we should probably keep one set of

All the clothes looked pretty disgusting.

We'll get the lantern springer close.

And I just huck the c

Yeah, so I do.

That was a five thousand dollar Gucci.

Just throw it into a pond or something.

She doesn't know.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm just like they're just taking a bathroom break.

Can I roll me a D6?

Two

Six.

Four.

Okay. You spend the time, rearrange the trunks, and what do you keep? You keep the jewelry and the paintings?

Jewelry and paintings.

Yeah.

Okay. You proceed into the market square from there, yes? Yes.

Yeah, but I don't wanna go per se into market square. I wanna stay around the edge.

Oh yeah, because of the monster.

That's at Slaughterstone Square.

Yeah. Yeah, no, I just uh open spaces, like I wanna stay close to the buildings and like if there's any place that if something happens that we can put the queen inside a building, okay I wanna stick as close as possible.

possible. So am I carrying the queen?

Thank you.

Yeah.

So all the luggage though, right?

Yeah, you have one bag of valuable luggage.

Oh, and that's it? Yeah. Nice!

Yeah, I maybe we'll get you to go in the front and I can direct you where we're going.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Alrighty, so you head across Market Square back towards the Clock tower. It's difficult and slow going, but you're able to lead Lenore carefully through the side streets until you reach the edge of the mar uh the edge of the clock tower. As you come towards the clock tower, you can see that the front doors have been burst open.

Did we leave those doors open?

Nope.

You know, we... We used we like barred them shut, didn't we?

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. The clock tower stands with a great planar clock.

Right.

still still with a with a timepiece stuck between pandemonium and limbo. The front steps and the barricade that you've created are scattered out across the the front as if someone broke through it from the outside.

I think it's a good thing. Milady, you should stay here for a moment with Pluto, and I should scout ahead and see.

I'll stay by the door, just pork chops if you need me.

Pork chops? Okay. And um I

Create a base camp with the case.

Thank you.

peer in and and go into the clock tower.

Okay, are you gonna approach you're you're sneaking up? Mm okay, give me a stealth check.

Natural one, which is a eight.

Okay. As you come up along the way and push yourself towards the door,

Yeah.

You catch sight of Of several figures in the base of the clock tower, their daggers drawn, it is a group of the Queen's men and

Thank you.

Por jobs!

And we will take our break there and be back in fifteen minutes. And we are back. A little bit of a mad dash for me to get set up on the in the scramble. Sometimes games take an unexpected turn. But we've had a sandwich, we've rehydrated, got set up again, and we're back.

Uh before we dive into the ruins again, a big thank you to Axe and Shield for providing us with the awesome gaming accessories we use. uh such as our initiative tracker. If you have not checked out Axe and Shield's website, check it out. He makes some really cool stuff. Uh also special thanks to Tabletop Audio for the great ambient music you're hearing, and finally 100 Years Bohr for the amazing narration in our introduction video. Check out his YouTube channel.

And just as a uh real quick reminder, uh this is our last session for 2018. We will be coming back in January 2019, uh after a couple weeks break for the holidays. But when we come back on in January, our first session back will be on January 14th, which is the Monday, instead of January 15th, the Tuesday. We'll be be playing on Monday the 14th and Monday the 21st in January and then be back to our regular schedule on Tuesdays. That's just because I've had a few work things come up on my end and

Amen.

blind and b effectively incapacitate Queen Lenore uh and kidnap uh Queen Lenore from her hideout uh in Queen's Park grotto. Bringing her back through the city towards the clock tower, you have stumbled upon a home invasion. The front doors of the clock tower have been knocked down, the barricade that you set up blown past, and Veo, as you step up the steps, you can see that there are a motley collection of Queensmen, including a familiar looking pair of halflings and a dwarf.

I'm just gonna

Or y did you yell out pork chops?

Yeah. It's time to grab some pork chop! That's what I am

And that triggers me to immediately run I was next to the door and so I turn in and kind of now right behind you. Yep. And I also yell pork chops. Pork chops. Pork chops.

What are you gonna do?

I'm going to

Thank you.

Stand up from the my luggage. I made like a little like sitting area for me and the queen and we're just waiting like patiently. So I stand up at attention and I and Don't don't do anything

Yeah. Is it dinner time?

Yes, I'll come back to the

Eat pork.

We'll figure out your restrictive diet in a moment.

Okay.

Yeah.

What are you guys gonna do? You've you've charged up, you see they're they're coming to their feet. And they can they know Veo's there, and as you're rushing up the steps, you can see that in the base of the clock tower there are now a group of Queensmen, including the two halflings and the dwarf that had previously escaped you along with three new compatriots. All of them have their their hoods drawn up, uh, and red face masks over their faces.

Get ready for a fight, I guess. Unless I I feel I feel like I'm done talking to these guys, especially since it's the same ones that tried to kill us in the bar. Yep. And where else did they try to kill us? On the road.

Yeah.

How do they how do they know to find us here? Or are they just chilling?

Thank you.

I I do you say that from like down the street? How did they know to find us here? And I I hear you and I turn back I'm like, How did you know to find us here?

the dwarf in the center laughs and says There's a couple holes in the hoods. If you catch my drift,

Not good hoods.

Amen.

That's not all good in the hood.

You've given us enough trouble, the dwarf says. If you come quietly before the Queen, you can plead your case, otherwise we'll have your gizzards.

If you leave quietly and don't bother us, you can't do it. You'll keep your lives

You can ask those two small ones over there about the last two times they encountered us. We don't leave many mouths to speak.

But we did leave a few.

Many. We don't read many.

Yeah.

Make an intimidation check. Uh Sebastian.

Okay, I'll see you. Pull my crossbow out.

Twenty eight.

They were not prepared for that kind of threat. They said We've been waiting for this, boys. Give him your best.

What did the intimidation check accomplish?

You may roll your initiative, all three of you, with advantage.

Worth it. There it is.

What do we got?

Uh I got a twenty two.

Yeah.

I got a nineteen. That advantage house.

Amen.

That it did.

Mind.

So sorry, say those again?

At 22.

Yeah.

Nineteen.

We were ready this time. No survivors. I'm tired of answering to queens. I've been doing the work for queens, like these guys are the uh want me to talk to their queen. I gotta carry the luggage for that other queen. I'm ti I'm tired of this.

Yeah.

I'm starting to

Queen Lenore alone.

I want to break down this royal system and go back to uh A simpler time.

Alright, so these Queensmen bandits, you have shaken them in their boots, uh, Sebastian. And so uh you can place yourselves all outside the front doors of the uh of the clock tower?

Great. And Sebastian, you are the first to act.

Alright, so as soon as they look like they're about to attack, um Sebastian runs forward.

Okay.

Okay.

Sebastian, as you run forward, give me one perception check.

That's that's a one.

Okay. You do not see the tripwire that they've left across the doorway the the doorway. And as you come across the the the tripwire The uh uh qu quite suddenly you hear this loud snapping sound as a pair of crossbows set to the either side of the door fire and and hit you.

It's fine. Everything's fine.

Sixteen and a fifteen to hit.

Amen.

Uh as soon as I hear the wire trip, I raise up my hand and cast shield.

Okay. So you raise up your hand, you cast shield, blocking the crossbow bolts as they stab into your sides. Uh and they d are deflected.

So without even skipping a beat, I just walk, I trip the wire, I hear it, I stop the bolts. And then I look at them and I say, Time to give you the old razzle dazzle. And I cast hypnotic pattern and my eyes turn black as this stream of shadows comes out of me and starts to turn into shadowy snakes that um kind of coalesce in the air and move in and out of each other in a very hypnotic pattern.

Cobra. Okay. Uh so I'll make the saves. Uh What's the uh saving throw DC?

Sixteen.

Sixteen? Okay, so Farley fails. One of the halflings succeeds, uh ca uh but The other halfling fails. So the uh the female ca halfling, Cassie, she's failed. Or she succeeded and the other halfling's failed. Okay. Okay. And then there's the three other Queensmen. Oh my god. Uh of the three others, though so the ones that have failed are the male halfling, the the dwarf, the male halfling, the three in the back all failed, the three in the front all succeeded.

Yeah, if you have a marker we can use them. There we go. Do you want to mark the ones that are affected, right? Yep. Okay.

So that you kinda conjure the the symbol in the in their midst. Uh the other halfling, not that that one. Yeah. You conjure the symbol in their midst, and the three in the front are so focused towards you that they kinda move their eyes past it and they fix their gaze on you as the crossbow bolts shot up. The other three in the back though are completely hypnotized to it and stand there drooling.

Thank you.

You guys know what to do.

Thank you.

Dale, you're up.

And I turn my gaze towards that other halfling. I say, You should have known by now. You really take the cake here, bud. And I turn my crossbow towards him or not crossbow, sorry, my long bow.

Well.

And I'm gonna take my three shots.

Yeah.

I I just wanna c clarify. Did you say um you should have known by now?

Yes.

Yeah.

I like it.

There is a difference between gnomes and half-life.

I know and it's like

Don't be offended.

Yeah, I hope he's I hope he takes it personally. You should have known by now.

Okay, so my first one.

That's what I thought you said, so I really wanted uh

That's a hit.

Boom. Oh. Whatever it is, it's dead.

Oh, man. That's massive.

Thirty damage.

So you as you come up the steps you lower your b Your longbow, fire the arrow straight forward and it strikes this small halfling right between the eyes and goes right through her her head and out the other side, sending brain matter splattering all across the floor.

I'm just like so pissed that this halfling came back again. Hopefully you learned this lesson. Okay, and that's a sixteen to hit.

That's a hit.

Twenty damage.

So that strikes him soundly just above the collarbone and he cries out, he's bloodied but still alive.

Mm-hmm.

Oh yeah.

Thank you.

Uh fourteen to hit.

It narrowly deflects off of his his armor.

Okay, and then I s go back towards the queen'cause I'm like, Pluto, you're up.

Plato.

I uh I let out a Caspian war cry. I'm gonna murder you.

Yeah.

And uh I run into the room and uh as I run into the room I s I do like a quick examination. And I see that one guy is like holding his shoulder with and I'm like and I just point at him and I run at him and I go to stab him with my spear.

Okay.

Is your electrical spear?

Amen.

I was a jabbling or something.

Amen.

Twenty one.

Twenty-one. You catch him in the neck with the spear. He has two h stop stop. You catch him in the neck with the spear, just thrusting it straight forward. Uh, and it severs off half of his neck and he slumps uh slumps to the ground. Be very dead.

And then I just and I just spin and I look at the other guy and I point at him again with my shi- And I just stab him.

Okay, go for it.

Fourteen.

And it's a narrow miss as he slides out of the way of the hit.

Uh but I'm gonna use my bonus action to um slam him onto the ground.

Go for it.

Uh seventeen.

He's knocked to the are you knocking him back or knocking him down? Down. Okay, you knock him down.

And I stand over him.

H he scrambles to his feet, spending his cunning action to try to disengage Oh man, and he stands up. tries to rush to lunge towards the door where Sebastian is, screaming wildly.

So I get to swing.

Right.

And I get a twenty five to hit. Okay.

And so he's gonna take eleven damage at

And that stops him stops his movement.

in the back

So he tries to scramble to his feet and you basically hamstring like hit him in the hamstrings and he stumbles forward. As as he tries to run and he just looks up right in front of Sebastian with a look of utter horror like this was the worst mistake he's ever made. Probably the last mistake he's ever made. Sebastian, what do you do?

Oh I'll just uh point a finger gun at him and be like, My name's Sebastian Crow and I'm about to set you on fire. And then I fire a firebolt at him. Uh do I have disadvantage because he's no he's not prone anymore.

He's not prone right but y you can just roll the shot regular.

Twelve.

Amen.

You miss?

Sebastian come.

He's he's tripping, so like Yeah.

So he trips forward and the and the and the bolt sails right through where his head would have been as he f as he kind of flounders forward and then flounders back to his feet.

I feel like I look up and Pluto looks at me and I'm just like w warning warning shot. And I just shake my head.

I peek my head out, see this happening, and I just go, okay. And I take my longbow and I take a shot. Uh thirteen?

It sails past him as well. So he's just dodged like three shots.

Can I take my second shot? Nope no And I'm like

He's lunging forward and he and he just goes as he pushes him out of the f uh out of the f away from the firebolt, pushes himself past the he dodges both the shots and is scrambling to his feet to try to get away from Peludo, who it's Peludo's turn.

See, I think that if though you hadn't shot his fireball and he wasn't moving away from it, maybe you would have got my shots. So we just both made a move out of the way.

I say I say stand still, Nave. And I get a twenty seven.

Yeah, that's a hit.

For another uh eleven days.

He sliced down his back, severing his spine, and he drops to the floor.

Thanks.

Clap go.

And uh and uh I'm gonna turn to the other little halfling and I'm just gonna walk up to him and and and Wait for my comrades we're gonna do the old uh

Are we?

Are we? I don't know.

Okay. I don't know, let's find out.

That's, uh...

They are you coming?

Um

I'm just gonna I gotta stay by the entrance'cause I've got a range shot anyways. Um

Oh true.

And uh'cause I still want to keep an eye out for the queen. Okay. She's out there alone.

I'm going to I'm going to use

Thank you.

Help. action. And I wanna I wanna position it. So I wanna just give Veo a target.

Okay.

So I want to hold the halfling like gently, keeping it in hypnotic pattern, but just stand there and just like hold his shoulders. Like, bam, wait, I'm like doing like the like I'm squaring it up for you.

Yeah, I'll take the shot with advantage.

Ha ha ha.

I got uh twenty four.

Okay.

Get your s

Nineteen damage.

There's no way he's gonna survive.

No, no, he doesn't.

Hmm.

Execution style.

Mm-hmm.

The ne and are you guys going to repeat this for the other two? Do you want

Do they lose their hypnotic pattern at all?

No, because it as long as Sebastian concentrates on it. So at this stage, you want to execute all the remainder of them? Is that what you want to do? Maybe.

Let's keep the dwarf.

We're going to be able to do that. Can we at least shoot him in the knees?

Yeah. You you poke your head and you're like, Can we shoot him in the knees?

Yeah.

by all means

Okay. Okay. You guys have yeah.

Ha ha

Crippled crippled the dwarf.

So we we shoot him in both of his knees and

And tie him up.

Pillar.

I literally Shoot him in the and grab one of their crossbows and I take both of them at the same time so that way I'm not having to do it twice. I'm just like right in the knees and then I go back to the

Snap him out of the thing. That snaps him out of the hypnotic pattern and he looks down in horror at what has happened to his knees.

And I go back to the queen. Like you guys interrogate.

Good evening. Is it evening? Afternoon. I don't really know the timing because it's How are you today?

Twice.

he's like he says I've had better days.

Look, you're a thief and you're a lowlife and you're scum. And the only reason you're still alive is because Uh Veo there is looking after the queen and she's not shooting you more.

Yeah.

You have one chance to talk and tell us why are you here.

Queen's orders, mum. Sent here to try to bring you in or kill ya.

Who's the queen?

Yeah.

None other. The Queen of Thieves herself, She t send sent us told us uh to bring you in to stand trial in her court for cut crimes against the gang. She's just the Queen of Thieves.

How did she know we were here?

Little Bird told her. She knows lots of

You mentioned there were holes in the hooded lanterns. Can you give us some names?

Tell us who the mole is.

You hear me from the back.

Couldn't tell ya couldn't tell you exactly who they keep that pretty tight lipped.

Yeah.

All I know is that one of their boys has a thing for one of our ladies.

I think I know who that is. Thank you. That's very helpful. Jerry Why should we um keep you alive?

All right.

I don't know.

Uh we found out last time we were at the Hooded Lanterns.

I'm like, I'm saying, who is it?

The the really annoying guy. He ha there was some talk about him some girl dumped him from Yeah, so I'm I'm putting this together here. Um why should we keep you alive?

Listen, I I I I told you what what you wanted to know. You wrecked my legs, but if you wanted to try to talk the Queen out of it, I could show you where she hides out.

You could point to it on this map.

감사합니다.

Below them.

Yeah but I won't tell you the password till you take me there.

I'm not dragging em all the way there. I'm not dragging em all the way there!

Do we like do we hurt him? Pluto what?

When he's you when he's all used up. We give him a a prisoner's death.

Thank you.

And right now it looks like you're all used up.

Make an intimidation check.

Yeah.

Uh eleven.

He says, Listen, listen, I'm a dwarf of my word. Don't off me. I'll tell I'll I'll let you in, I'll get you in there.

Thank you.

But they ain't g just gonna trust anybody. They know that you don't they know who you are. Everybody in the gangs no knows to watch out for you. They'll see you coming a mile away.

Have you ever been on fire before?

Mm-hmm.

Cause I d I don't feel a lot of trust here. I have a tendency to set people on fire that I don't trust.

And right now he's not trusting ya.

Right now I'm I'm not. I'm not. Are we doing bad comp bad?

Uh

It seems like it's bad.

I um

I'm like

Just shoot him! He's trying to take us into somewhere we're supposed to gain trial.

Talk to my uh muscle over here. Um

Yeah.

Just one moment, Sir Duarte.

Uh we're gonna do yeah, group huddle by the door.

Time up around the thing up around.

Yeah, he's tied up and he's he's crippled horribly. Yeah. Um

As long as he doesn't get away.

I think um Yeah, I think it's a trap. That being said, uh I would love to know how they got this far into Drakenheim with the Hayes. Like how are they surviving?

Uh it's probably a trap, but is it a trap that we can leverage? Also, we have a lot going on right now. We have the Queen, we have to alert the hooded lanterns. Yeah. The other question is do we have time to deal with this? Or should we just

I keep killing them.

You're in you're intense.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It makes you intense.

So some of the options we have are we could let him go we could have him as a prisoner and take us to where he says the Queen's hideout is or the Queen's place and he says he'll let us know the password, right? Or We murder him.

If we do keep him as a prisoner who's gonna lead us to the Queen's Men, I still don't trust him, so We've shot him in the legs. Should we take his hands?

We could also like disarm him and literally?

Or we could cut out his tongue so he can't talk.

Well then then he he needs to give us a password. This is getting uh I mean, I'm not much of a torture. I kind of just kill people who need to be

Yeah. I I I mean I I I I'll give him a prisoner's death, which is execution. Yeah. That being said, um

Thieves are dime a dozen, as we see.

Or maybe we send him back with a message.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They already know we're here.

But he also knows we have the queen.

다시

He will.

Yeah, he would. Unless we hide it.

The the queen.

Thank you.

I don't want the queen knowing the queen's alive.

Oh man.

Honestly, like I feel like

It's too bad you have to die. Like We we tried to save you but uh

Yeah, we don't really have time for you right now.

You're just you came at a bad time. Oh man, I hate to break it to you, but we did the huddle and

Uh he screams and begs as you off him.

Um yeah but uh like a proper Yeah. Like no no yeah.

No, if they didn't want to die, they just can stop coming after us. Obviously we're killing enough of them.

We gave them the option to leave, they didn't. I mean he did give us some information, we now know

Just Darwin is M at its finest. You know, they don't know when to leave.

We know that there's a mole in uh the hooded lamp and we have a very good idea who that might be.

you have an idea you know who um

So we might need to have a private conversation with what's his name?

Yeah. Searching the bodies, are are we able to find any other sort of tokens or or or

Oh please tell me he has the presswork.

Like a map. Mm.

They they have very little re else on them. Both all of them have a few gold pieces, but the only thing on them though

Yeah.

Each of them is carrying a set of keys.

Thank you.

Let's see. I grab one. You we should be the key master.

Do the keys all look similar?

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Each of them has on their person A s I One of them ha the the dwarf has three keys on a ring and then across the others is a across the other group of them is another set of identical keys, but they've been split off across the group.

I take one set of the keys.

Describe all the sets of keys.

Yeah, well who wants to carry the other side?

I can carry the other set.

I'm thinking that maybe we should take their masks as well. They go across our face, have one each, just in case. Sure. Okay.

Yeah, and and w I think I did collect armbands before, but I can update them if need be. Yeah. Grab the most recent armbands because this'll be this could be our disguise in. Yeah, they said that we could be um

They they might know us, but we can we can change our appearance and

Thank you.

He didn't tell us where the Queen's Men are, but honestly we have so much on our hands right now. I mean really killing him was more just because we either let him go or tried to add another thing to our plate when we have the queen sitting right outside, and I think right now we need to take care of the queen before we start worrying about these queens mentioned.

We have enough.

Well I'm As much as I trusted I trust certain lanterns to do the best, but I'm wondering is he the only spy?

I I think that Um

Okay.

We should send a pigeon to Petra specifically.

Okay.

But then is she only talking to her father?

Yeah, can I ask who do who do we trust among the lanterns? How do we know that that the mole is not Petra or her brother?

Or do we send it right to um The commander.

Or do we keep this kind of to ourselves?

We can seal it with a sealed dragonheim.

Uh maybe the message that we need to send to the commander is we have uncovered a mole within the hooded lanterns. Um I I feel like I still trust Petra.

I trust Petra.

So I think that we should send word to the commander, tell him a mole has been found in the hooded lanterns. We trust Petra We ha and like explain, we have the queen. We need to do that.

I wouldn't even put that in a letter. No.

I have a question. So what's your next move?

We need to get her upstairs.

You can bring bring the queen up and set her up here in the tower.

Yeah.

And then where what is your next step after that?

We wanna let I mean our our m our goal was to let the hooded lanterns know of the situation, although now that's become trickier. Yeah.

We also wanna we have the lilies, we need to go see Oscar.

Yeah, but one thing at a time we need to secure the queen.

Yeah, what are we gonna do? We're just gonna leave the queen. In your tower.

Could I bear with us?

Oh, that I knew this was gonna happen. I'm gonna be carrying the friggin' queen, Drakenheim around my back. I I wanted to leave her at the

It would just be slow. That's the only thing.

I still think I still think it's not a good thing. That the hooded lanterns.

At least watch her until.

They know about this place. We've given them permission to use this place. Without giving too much information, we need to let the commander know that we need support immediately. But we need to hint at the fact not to include Um Petra's brother in this.

Yeah.

Yeah, awesome.

So I guess.

We can safely say that because the Queen's men know that we're here and she's really mad at us for killing all her he henchmen and stuff. It's not safe to leave the queen here.

Thank you.

And her handmaidens are all melted and

Yeah. But is what are we trying to do for the queen? Are you we just trying to get her into the hands to be protected?

Do we trust the hooded lanterns?

I'm now not trusting the I trust certain people. I don't trust how far the reaching is of especially if it's a higher up in the command that has the power to relay that information to the queen, like Yeah.

What about Oscar?

I'd rather get her looked at.

Why would we trust Oscar?

That's right.

I was gonna leave her with Oscar.

No, but what what if we took her to Oscar with the lilies? Maybe Oscar could look I don't know if I trust Oscar Oscar either, but I ca we can't leave her here anymore because

Well, I mean like either way I could use arrest. And I say that we go to the top of the clock tower and like

Okay.

A message.

Wounds. Do we trust the commander of the Hooded Lanterns? Is that who we want to send a message to, or is there somebody else that you guys think we should send?

Petra or the commander either.

What about the

Because Obviously liked. The queen and then she ha and and your your mother had a connection with River you guys kind of

I don't know if my mother had a c connection with Rivers.

Oh no, she was just a clock tower.

Let's let's discuss this on the way up.

That's okay.

Start to get the queen up there. Sure. Yeah. Um so I um grapple hookshot up to the second level and I let down do we do a rope ladder or just a rope?

I think it just tie off a rope every time. Yeah.

It's easy enough to help the queen get up into the clock tower. Okay. It takes a bit of work to kind of you have to really secure her to kind of like a a swing loop on like make a loop on the bottom of the rope and have someone else pull it up.

Do I have anything?

Yeah, you can you can dress her and Sh her reflex of having someone else dress her is on point.

Ha ha.

And so even though she doesn't know what you're putting on her, she's like, I hope you're putting something nice on me.

Um as nice as all.

Yeah. She's okay with that. For a moment, um she she becomes lucid for like a very brief moment as you dress her and she says Oh, Veo, I always thought you were such a pretty pussycat. I always would have loved to have had you as one of my maids. You were a bit of a brat, though, your father used to say. He had to apologize for you. She and y you can see like She can't see. But it's almost like she doesn't have the focus that if she could she wouldn't anyways. She's kind of lost.

Yeah.

Where did he go?

My father?

Where did Master Johan go?

Those are the answers I'd like to find out myself, my lady.

Did he find my children?

I'm sure he did, but if he did, he hasn't returned with them.

He promised me that he'd find them. He said that he would. He said I'd be safe there. He said he'd go and find them.

A lot has happened in these years, my lady, that has caused a lot of our plants to change. But I'm sure that if he did find them he wouldn't bring them back because it's very dangerous in the city. This is the only safe spot left.

So many things have happened to And then and she just sighs out on that word and is in silent at that point.

Although when she said I was a pretty cat, I was like

Yeah.

Yeah, I am a pretty cat.

Yeah.

I'm really excited that she She complimented me, but at the same time I'm like, I am not surprised that my father ought to apologise for me all the time. That was a little shit.

Ha ha ha.

All right.

Bad influence, sorry. Wait, who was the bad player?

Wasn't I the bad influence on you?

You're still on the like luggage where like she's talking, I'm standing back, kind of like watching this whole thing being being like this is cool. And then I look behind me and you're just like climbing up the last row carrying the luggage.

And then like I'm s definitely struggling.

I do put her up in my bed as well just to make sure she can like lay down and I go to find my pigeons. Where are you guys?

Cool. What?

And is that where you want to pass the night and take a long rest?

Okay. I do wanna send out the message before we sleep, of course, with I think some watches just to make sure the Queen doesn't stab us and go crazy.

Yeah we sh we can keep it.

Yeah. Do we want to send one of your pigeons out to spy on the Paladin army?

Yeah, I do. Um so I'm gonna send where are my p

I I think you've sent them out already to spy on the army, but you want to send them out again to to watch over?