Seeing no near danger, Kalem closes by Zamanda's position to see what happens with the maidens, before they charge in or move away of the room.
Before they charge through the blades, Ilsa hits the maidens with a cone of fear.
In their panic, the maidens drop their swords and run away, crossing the blades in the opposite direction. Laori is never wounded by them.
The maidens raising their shields to protect themselves, but only one partially blocks the burning flames of Zamanda's spell.
Kalem flies over the maidens, squeezing in between the ceiling.
And avoiding their blades, he continues flying reaching the yellow maiden with a slice of his scythe in the back.
Another two maidens the first one is alerting, look at the elf in shock! Here, Kalem spots a rack with ranged weapons to defend the stairs entrance of the castle pyramid below. There are also urns with a strange green goo set at strategic spots by the murder holes.
And the scorched maidens look confused when Ilsa finishes her spell.
Bashiel does something heroic!
One of the confused maidens knocks the shield with her head in regret for her failure to protect the Queen.
The other one keeps trying to stab Zamanda "Rebellious snakes!"
But her efforts are nigh.
The two maidens in the Gatehouse Lower Gallery shout through the arrow slits giving the alarm to the maidens in the stairs below guarding the gate outside the castle "The throne is under attack!" "Reinforcements!"
The yellow one turns to fight Kalem with resolve despite her wide gash in the back.
But her blade is deflected by the elf's armor.
The panicked maidens keep running and are lost on the edge of the stairs.
Kalem said nothing as he continued his attack. They had given ample time for surrender, and at this point it was on them.
Seeing that all chances for a peaceable solution are lost, Bashiel finishes off Vavana with as clean and painless of a thrust as he can manage. He offers a silent prayer and then advances forward to stand with the rest of the group.
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Quickly striking her bow and continuing her song, Zamanda steps back and fires at Brown.
(inspire, point blank)
(gravity bow, acid, cold, sonic, inspire, point blank)
(inspire, point blank)
(gravity bow, acid, cold, sonic, inspire, point blank)
Kalem cuts down the maiden in front with his third attack and steps forward to engage the other ones.
Bashiel makes sure Vavana will not stand up to reunite the maidens, then moves back towards the action.
Zamanda puts two arrows in the brown confused maiden, leaving it in a bad condition but injected eyes looking for revenge.
Ilsa comes over the other confused maiden and claws through her face with a perfect strike that leaves it paralyzed.
Laori just holds her position in front of the force blades "Do you think more of them are coming?!!"
The confused maiden locks herself in combat with her last attacker, Zamanda.
But in her confusion and dazzled by the angelic light, utterly fails the attacks.
Meanwhile on the gatehouse tower, the maidens turn towards the elf that is quickly menacing to engage them. One of them hits one of the urns with her longsword, releasing its green slime content. The mold quickly starts to consume Kalem!
The other one jumps forward, trying to avoid the ooze as she attacks Kalem "Who are you assailant?"
But he easily dodges the attacks.
A tumultuous noise of people walking indeed is heard from downstairs.
Kalem dodged the slime, but doing so cost him dearly, as it interfered with his attack pattern. "Who am I? Your death if you don't surrender." He said.
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Zamanda wonders if there is anything she can do to stop all this. If she were still her old size she might be able to go in disguise as Vavana and order everyone to stop... hmm. Well, she could tell everyone that Vavana killed the queen. That might be the perfect thing to drive them apart, start them fighting amongst themselves. ... But at least some of these maidens had seen it happen, so they would wake up later and discredit the story... or perhaps, if she drove the wedge in far enough, they would just be seen as complicit. Especially if they told the ridiculous story of the queen turning into snow... or the Angel of Justice... or was it vengeance or something? I mean, how obviously untrue was that?
Shaking her head, she focused again on the here and now, and seeing that a maiden was still up and in her face, she stepped back, avoiding stepping on the two unconscious maidens to either side, and shot at Brown.
(inspire, point blank)
(gravity bow, acid, cold, sonic, inspire, point blank)
(inspire, point blank)
(gravity bow, acid, cold, sonic, inspire, point blank)
After shooting she stops singing for a moment and yells, knowing Kalem will understand, and hoping he will pass it on, or make it better.
Then she strikes her bow to get a good solid chime and resumes her song.
Bashiel stands in place, unsure of exactly how to act. Although more reinforcements were coming, they would be hard pressed to get through the blade barrier without serious injury. It would take some fanatical fervor to force through it. Though that might not be out of the question for the Maidens.
He looks at the bodies of the Maidens at his feet, quickly sweeping his gaze over them to see if any are still alive, but dying. If he can identify one, he steps over and attempts to stabilize her before picking Serithial back up.
Even as bad as things were here, he still had a faint hope that some of these Maidens would survive and their twisted conditioning broken. He owed it to Mirya to give them a chance.
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The maidens in front join their shields forming a protective wall to block two of Kalem's swings, but his scythe still cuts one of them hard, leaving her shaken from the smash.
Taking a step back, Zamanda's arrows drop first the confused maiden attacking her, then the paralyzed one fighting with Ilsa.
The angel sets her bait with a sentence that resounds all over the walls of the fortress: Vavana has killed the Queen!
Forgiving their fanatical acts, Bashiel kneels in front of one of the maidens and mercifully stops her bleeding, preventing her death.
The two maidens remaining in the throne, vow again in front of Ilsa.
The other two, fighting with Kalem in the gatehouse, shaken by the mighty swings of his scythe and the word of Vavana killing the Queen, look at each other in confusion.
Through the arrow slits, Kalem, and anyone in the throne room that looks through the windows, can see the source of the noise coming from below. Gathered in the square outside of the castle by the news of your last message, there is a tumult of people, lead by Cressida Kroft, d'Bear and Seneschal Neolandus Kalepopolis. The people hold crossbows, swords and other improvised weapons like pitchforks and hammers, along with some torches, and they look to the castle shouting loudly.
At the gatehouse tower, Kalem realizes, if he activates the mechanism to rise the gate, the position of the few maidens that remain in the stairs defending the entrance would be indefensible.
Kalem raised his scythe to attack the maidens, knowing that they would lock shields to protect themselves. Rather than attack, though, he launched himself into the air with his white wings, shooting towards the gatehouse lever.
Bashiel scans the other collapsed Maidens for any more that look alive but on the verge of death. If he doesn't spot any, he joins Ilsa in knocking the remaining Maidens unconscious. From the sounds of things outside, the Maidens were caught between a rock and a hard place. He prayed that this would be enough to force them to surrender.
Zamanda surveys the room, ending her song, and then moves to go find Kalem and make sure he doesn't need back up.
Moving out into the hall, Zamanda sees Kalem flying away, and Maidens waiting.
She raises her weapon, but instead of shooting, she tries to maximize confusion by demanding of the maidens
You there! Are you supporters of the recently-executed traitor Vavana or the murdered Queen? ... Which one, quickly!
(point blank)
(gravity bow, acid, cold, sonic, point blank)
While standing and waiting for the maidens to move or respond she sees through the arrow slits that Cressida and the crew have arrived to take over, and breathes a sigh of relief. However, it is at that same moment, as she is thinking about what else they have to do here, that she realizes that Ishani is likely to be extremely unhappy with her new rumor, and the fact that they have killed his sister. I mean, they still had to save him, of course, but maybe the happy reunion wasn't going to be as great as she had previously anticipated.
Vowing to her helpless, the maidens fall unconscious easily to Ilsa's claws and Bashiel's blade.
Zamanda and Kalem confuse even more the maidens in the gatehouse which the elf profits to pull the lever that rises the front gate.
As the chains cling and the gate crackles, an uproar rises from outside the castle. Without leaders to order the defense and people set atop the roofs to action the ballistae, the masses quickly overrun the few maidens left to stubbornly defend the entrance.
Soon, the castle's halls fill with dozens of rebels and free citizens coming to free Korvosa from the iron fist of the Queen. The fight extends for an hour or so, but slowly, the few Gray Maidens, Erinyes and other lesser devils that remain in the fortress surrender are defeated or forced to teleport back to their Hellish home.
You join the attack setting your shoulders back to back with Cressida and Neolandus to fight the Erinyes which pose the only real challenge left, and in your action to control the first floor, you happen to find Ishani's body dead on the rack of the torture chamber.
Castle Korvosa is under your control.
Upon finding Ishani's body, Zamanda realizes that they were too late, and she cries over him. He was a good man, so she trusts that he is happy in his afterlife, but it is still a loss that she takes personally.
Because they get an opportunity to talk to Cressida, Zamanda takes the opportunity to recommend that she take a chance and work with Sabina who is a truly good person, and who was instrumental in their ability to take the castle.
I'm not suggesting that you allow the Maidens to be an independent force, but I think she would serve you well, and do her best to get these women some real help. They've all been mistreated, and it would do them good to have a kind and familiar face help them come back to themselves, and also for the women to still have a chance to serve in some way... under your ultimate guidance, of course.
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Ilsa is surprised to see the castle fall so quickly. But it's little consolation--the real Queen is still out there, and likely with a way to sacrifice all of them in some dark ritual.
She tries to relax, if just for a moment. They had come so far, so fast. The end seemed in sight, and hopefully in a way that would spare Korvosa.
She embraces Cressida upon seeing her again. This woman had done more for the city than almost any other, especially given her treasonous acts in a high-level position. There had been many times Ilsa thought she would not see her again.
"The castle is in your hands, then," she tells her. "But we have more to do, and soon," she says, explaining quietly about the infernal pact they had discovered, as well as the list of blood samples.
"We will need to regroup and act soon."
Cressida is ecstatic by the Castle's assault success, she smiles to Zamanda accepting her proposal in the best way possible, although clearly a bit surprised "Sabina? She was the Gray Maidens commander, but if she helped you and you think she deserves it, I am sure we can look for the new government to be magnanimous. Maybe she can bring some sense into the surviving maidens."
"And now that the Queen is no more, we can work on gaining the loyalty of the noble houses, the Acadamae and the other forces that sustained Ileosa. What are your plans now?" as she speaks and notices your faces, she looks quizzically, and when Ilsa explains what you have discovered about Ileosa's intentions, her smile disappears and she frowns "You have to stop her"
"No one else but you can do this" she pads Ilsa's back knowing how much she has also done for the city "Is there anything we can do for you?"
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The rush of freeing one of Korvosa's great symbolic sites from the Queen's evil grip stirs Bashiel's soul. Seeing the people rising up and overthrowing tyranny, leading the charge against the remaining devils, and healing those that are hurt in the process... for a few minutes at least, Bashiel is in his element. Finding Ishani dead upon the torture rack brings him back to reality.
He releases the cleric's body from where it lies bound and settles him outside of the torture room before covering him with a cloak. Ishani was as much a hero as any of the party - he just hadn't had the same luck. Bashiel offers a prayer to Osiris for the man's soul and then - regretfully - heads over to join the group with Cressida.
He nods as Ilsa explains the Queen's plan, then answers Cressida "If someone among the rebellion's supporters could cast a divination for us, there's a lot we would want guidance on before we head to confront Ileosa. Although we have a map that should help get us to the Sunken Queen, we know very little about it, or about the defenders that might infest it while Ileosa conducts her ritual."
Cressida nods to Bashiel concerned "Sure, we can ask d'Bear when can he help us with such task"
Laori intervenes though happy to be of help "What were you thinking Bashiel? If you give me half an hour and some sanctified water I could to gather a divination or even commune with the gods for guidance!!!! What do you want to ask?!"
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”Probably…” Kalem walked over and put a hand on Laori’s shoulder. ”…that you will be fighting side by side with us, and every resource might be needed for that battle. I am sure that he did not mean offense, he is just thinking of you as part of the team. Speaking of which, you were amazing back there. You really held the line with those blades of yours.” He said smoothly, his arm sliding over her left shoulder to the right, so that his arm was around her.
Turning his attention to Croft he continued ”You had good timing to come when you did. Might I recommend adding the chairs back to the castle? The Queen was petty enough to have them all removed.” It was only then that he realized that she likely wouldn’t recognize him given his transformation. He smiled at the thought, knowing then that a new life had truly begun. That is, if they could stop the Queen in time. It would be too much of a tragedy to have this new beginning be cut short so that the Queen might extend her youth.
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Zamanda isn't sure it will be possible, but she says
Strange circumstances... you can see that we are much changed, especially me and Kalem. Partially due to that, if possible, I need someone to do an enchantment on my bow, today, as soon as possible. Do you know anyone who could do such a thing on short notice? I can fight without that, but it would help if we all had access to be able to buy, sell, and enchant in an accelerated manner since we have little time, and should probably leave as soon as we have rested.
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Ilsa nods at Zamanda's request.
It didn't seem like the worst idea to take time to rest, see if there were any equipment they needed before they left, and perhaps do some divination to determine how they could go into this without being completely blind.
"Whatever we do, I think we need to leave as soon as possible. Let us prepare, but do so expeditiously," she suggests.
Laori does not reel back from Kalem's embrace, she smiles and passes her arm over the elf's powerful shoulders "And you were just great as always!!!"
Cressida is surprised at the beginning for your new appearance, but Kalem's voice and demeanor are still clearly recognizable after all. She smiles upon the idea of the chairs "That is a good idea. Let people sit at the Queen's place"
"Yeah, we can try to pass an order while you get a couple days of rest. If the Queen has not proceeded yet with her plan is likely due to time constraints on her part, and as long as she does not know about what just happened, she has no reason to rush" Cressida tries to ease your concerns "Better to make sure you can succeed than risk it when you are not yet prepared"
"I think we shouldn't spare more than a night - just enough to energize ourselves for the trials ahead. It's true that she has her own time constraints, but the ritual could as easily be done by dusk tomorrow as a week from now at dawn. We just don't know." Bashiel grimaces "And I won't be getting particularly good sleep until I know the hangman's noose has been cut free from everyone's necks."
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With the fortress under control, the group is able to go down into the city and walk around for making preparations before your departure. Outside, the streets are tense, but at this time there is nothing in the city, beyond perhaps the Acadamae, that might be barely a danger for you, and so you walk without much issues around.
Whether you decide to join at Zamanda's apartment, the Dead Warrens, Castle Korvosa or some other place, Laori arrives with the ingredients required to prepare some divination tonight so she has all her magic available tomorrow.
Once you are ready for the seance, Laori produces a pot with sanctified paintings and extends a large paper canvas on the floor. She takes Salvador's brush and soaks it in the liquid pigments, starting to splash them all over the paper through out 10 minutes "Spirits and gods that protect Korvosa, please reveal us the Queen's dealings, we need it to defeat her before it is too late!!!"
She splashes paint a few more times, communing with the gods and providing a useful divination before looking at you "We can ask now up to 15 yes or no questions and one more specific question!!! What do you want to ask?"
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Bashiel considers the best questions to ask. Yes or no questions made things tricky, considering how little the group knew of the Sunken Queen. After a few minutes of pacing back and forth, he returns with the following:
"Does Ileosa know we're coming?"
"Will Ileosa's ritual be complete within the next week?"
"Is Ileosa at the Sunken Queen now?"
"Do we have everything we need to defeat Ileosa now?"
"Does Ileosa have any more clones or body doubles?"
Laori nods after hearing to Bashiel's questions, and then looks at the canvas, throwing more paint all over it while asking her questions. As the questions are posed, the paint falls with the form of a green thick or a red cross, depending on the answer.
"Does Ileosa know we're coming?" Black dot.
"Will Ileosa's ritual be complete within the next week?" Red cross.
"Is Ileosa at the Sunken Queen now?" Green thick.
"Do we have everything we need to defeat Ileosa now?" Green thick.
"Does Ileosa have any more clones or body doubles?" Green thick.
"Did Ileosa personally scrying on us before?" Red cross.
"If not, does she have an ally that scries on us for her?" Red cross.
"Does she have more devil allies with her in the Sunken Queen?" Green tick.
"Does she have undead allies with her in the Sunken Queen?" Red cross.
Bashiel rubs his stubble, pondering the results so far. "More body doubles... I wonder if those will be with her at the Sunken Queen or if they're here in the city." He holds that question in reserve, nodding along with Ilsa's ones "More devils as well. What I'm taking from these results is that she hasn't scried on us, and we'll have a chance to catch her by surprise. Her ritual will take a while to finish, so we can be careful."
He looks to Kalem and Zamanda "Any questions, you two? I'll take them if not."
Seems strange to say that she wasn't scrying on us ever when we know someone was while we were in Shoanti lands. That part doesn't make sense at all. But I've no need to explore that further... you go ahead.
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As the divination starts to wrap up, the question of how the heroes reach the Sunken Queen arises.
Zamanda did recognize a while ago one of the features appearing in the map, the Greenrust Reef.
She knows the Greenrust Reef marked on the map is a commonly known coastal landmark. It is an odd, rocky formation on a sand bank a few hundred yards from the swampy coast of the Mushfens.
Checking a regional map, you can see the place is roughly 150 miles away west of Korvosa.
Once at Greenrust Reef Zamanda could easily use the map to orientate yourself in that area to reach the Sunken Queen through the marshes. According to the map, the Sunken Queen site is about 30 miles from the Greenrust Reef, following a trail crossing boggard territory in the marshes.
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"I'm also unsure who was scrying on us, if it wasn't her," Ilsa agrees.
"Perhaps our own allies wondered how we were faring?" she adds by way of speculation.
As they begin questioning how they might arrive at the Sunken Queen, Ilsa offers one suggestion.
"We have a teleportation scroll, don't we? Though this isn't my kind of magic, I believe I can activate just about anything. Though it isn't without risk, I think I could use it properly. I mean, the alternative is Zamanda's carriage, and that could take quite a bit longer."
That sounds like a good idea to me, if you can calculate it out. Teleportation mistakes are unforgiving, so we would need to be careful with the targeting to someplace we haven't been.
"Oh, you're right Zamanda. We did learn that back in the Cinderlands. Odd... maybe she gave up on scrying on us?" Bashiel shrugs, then when Ilsa suggests a solution, he adds "Could be. Though they seemed surprised to hear how it went once we got back."
"What kind of creature is the queen's most fearsome ally in the Sunken Queen?"
-----
As the conversation turns to how to get there, Bashiel nods "If you can control the scroll Ilsa, it seems our best choice. We've seen pictures of the place - hope that's enough to get there on target. If not... well, we've got another scroll." He looks off into the distance "Assuming we don't end up inside a hill or something."
"In any case, lets get some additional equipment, then get going. We may have at least a week, but there's no time to waste."
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For his part, Kalem was in a strange mood. He had went shopping, spending what time with Laori that he could under the assumption that they were going to fail so every minute was to be spent well. The experience had given him a taste for what life could be like. With the face of an elf nobody asked questions such as “can he afford this?” Or “will I lose my soul if I shake his hand?” No. To the contrary, one mage even wanted his opinion on the theory of magic behind a book he bought. It left him wistful for how life could have been, and yearning for more.
At the present he had his own questions:
If we are winning, will the Queen try to flee?
And: “Does she have defenses in place against people teleporting in?”
After discovering how terribly binding the appearance can be when dealing with strangers, Kalem finishes his purchases with Laori and joins the others at Zamanda's apartment where his questions are equally answered.
"If we are winning, will the Queen try to flee?" Red cross.
“Does she have defenses in place against people teleporting in?” Black dot.
As Bashiel utters his question, Laori nods and starts moving the brush through the canvas, imbued by the spirit of Salvator. Through a 10 minutes process, her traces skillfully take the red paint of the crosses and extends it over the blank surface, quickly forming an image imbued by a dark like blood red color in all corners. As the strokes take it to the detail, a blood covered Ileosa emerges, her figure under the one of some kind of sanguine dragon.
You recognize the dragon as a taniniver, a degenerate race of diseased dragons whose bodies are alive but constantly rotting. Wracked by never-ending pain, with the stench of its own decaying flesh so strong it nearly overwhelms the vile creature's enhanced senses.
The fact it is covered by blood makes you think this might be a unique blood version of the taniniver.
(fail)
Well, that looks like a dragon. We've fought one of those before... we can do this, right?
Earlier in the day Zamanda had gotten her bow and belt upgraded, and she was starting to feel more comfortable and less clumsy in her new skin, but that dragon, and the whole idea of the queen automatically healing from an arrow wound disturbs her.
If there is a question left she changes her mind and asks
Will adamantine arrows be fully effective against the queen?
She figures she has the money to invest in that, at least, and if the answer is favorable, she plans to buy 60 adamantine arrows for this trip.
"Will adamantine arrows be fully effective against the queen?" Green tick.
"I think we can squeeze three more questions, but perhaps we are done, we do not need to exhaust all of them" Laori smiles.
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Ilsa doesn't have any more questions to ask, though the image of the bloody dragon draws down the corners of her mouth.
While the others finish any questions they have, she studies the teleportation scroll for when they are ready to proceed.
Her mind unlocks arcane words and characters, putting each in its proper place as if her mind is the key opening a complex lock.
"Once we're ready, I think I've got this down," she says confidently.
With no one in the group well enough informed to deduce what kind of draconic terror the picture represents, Bashiel takes the "blood dragon" pic and circulates it among the group's allies in Korvosa. Hopefully at least one of them recognizes the beast so that the group can prepare appropriately!
Once he returns, he nods to Ilsa "Alright, lets do this. It'll be a pretty long trip even after we teleport to the reef. Good thing we'll have Zamanda orienteering for us."
Bashiel circulates the painting trying to find information about what kind of beast this might be, unfortunately there is no one among the direct allies with enough knowledge in dragons to know what this is. Bishop d'Bear thinks this is some kind of blood undead, Cressida considers this is an abomination rather than a true dragon, but most people agree if someone in Korvosa know about this, it must be Headmaster Toff Ornelos. Whether he knows, the only large enough library in this topic is in the local wizardry school. Everything points to the Acadamae as the right place to conduct this research.
But the Acadamae's doors remain closed by orders of its Headmaster since the Queen took a harder control on the city. Negotiating access to this knowledge is going to take a good amount of diplomacy and gold. Of course, nothing away from the possibilities of the group that stormed Korvosa's Castle, but it will sure take an unknown amount of time.
"It's an ugly dragon. Regardless of what the specifics are, I'm going to take this scythe and I'm going to go to town slashing at it. If that doesn't kill it, then we're probably screwed anyways." Kalem said, with a shrug. "Let's just get on with this."
With the majority of the party agreeing to jump over Ileosa while she still does not know about the Castle's fall, Ilsa gathers you around and recites the spell in the greater teleport scroll. Fortunately for this more powerful version of the spell, it is enough for Ilsa to focus on the maps the party have.
Everything starts to spin around you, and the walls of Zamanda's apartment are quickly substituted by trees and water. As the spin finishes, you find yourself half-body inside water, with your feet in the mud, although some of you are lucky enough to land entangled in a tree. The biggest change perhaps, aside from the humidity, are the vibrant noises of the wild life.
In front of you stands a tilted pyramid with a woman sculpted on its surface.
Surrounded by a grove of primeval mangroves and draped in sheets of moss and vines, the immense horns that top the Sunken Queen seem to claw at the sky like the talons of an gargantuan monster drowned in an abyss of mud. On the east side of the pyramid, which leans heavily into the marshy slough, one of the three original horns has collapsed, leaving a jagged, metallic stump. On the south side, barely dented by the elements and millennia of neglect, is a giant relief of a standing, naked woman, her lean, idealized figure immersed in murky water up to the knees.
In ancient times, the Thassilonian monument known today as the Sunken Queen served Runelord Sorshen as a symbol of her enduring power and as the site for one of her greatest discoveries: the Everdawn Pool.
In Sorshen’s heyday, the majority of her realm of Eurythnia was fertile farmland. With the fall of Thassilon, much of her nation slipped into the sea, and most of what remained above the surface became the vast wetland known now as the Mushfens. Over the ages, the Sunken Queen began to capsize into the Mushfens, tilting 20 degrees toward the southeast before coming to rest on a shelf of solid bedrock under the swampland.
The magical reinforcements that girded the structure kept it mostly intact—over the centuries, only one of its three metallic horns has collapsed into the surrounding swamp.
You do recognize the architecture of the pyramid as that one of ancient Thassilion, more specifically Eurythnia, the kingdom of Runelord Sorshen.
Ancient Thassilion structures were built by giants and enhanced by powerful magic that has preserved the stone to these days.
The Sunken Queen is surrounded by a murky pond that acts much like a castle moat; the water drops to a depth of 40 feet along the deepest side of the structure.
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Zamanda says farewell to Sabina, leaving her to contact Cressida Kroft and ensuring that she knows she is welcome to continue living in the apartment. Then she gathers with the others for the teleportation spell.
(pass)
Upon arriving and sinking down in the mud, Zamanda says
Huh. Literally sunken. Should have known.
She briefly wishes she would have gotten her bow enchanted to work well underwater, but hoping she will be able to use it later, she ensures first that anything valuable and subject to destruction in water is secured in her (well cleaned) waterproof bags or portable hole, pulls her hair back in a ponytail, then swaps out her Amulet of Natural Armor for her Necklace of Adaptation, keeping the other in her pocket in case she hopefully has a chance to switch back before any large battle.
She also pulls out her bottle of air, in case anyone else needs a convenient way to breathe as they enter the flooded structure, offering it to the others and saying
This should work for everyone if you stay close and pass it around.
Once everything is secure, she dives down, looking for an entrance. She first tries the southern side of the pyramid, figuring that the statue would be oriented towards visitors.
If she finds the entrance, she comes back to tell the others where it is before entering.