Grigor smiles at Dhice's cheek, then leaps not the back of the nearest single-occupant stag.
You all mount the Thunderstags, with grace that varies all along the spectrum, from gracefully-floating Dhice to potato-sack Emma. The elf-rider that bears Lyntel glances over his shoulder at her and looks almost like he's about to answer, but another elf rides up alongside of you two and glares.
"Still your tongue!" he hisses at Lyntel, before pulling on the reins to guide his Thunderstag ahead of them. The elf-rider that Lyntel addressed is staring forward now, but the bard can still see his cheeks from behind, and see how brilliantly red they've become.
Commander Wildsong moves out ahead of the rest of the patrol and whistles sharply. As one, the Thunderstags leap forward, transferring almost no momentum to their riders and granting a startlingly smooth ride through the complicated undergrowth. The mounts are almost silent as they flit between trees and over gullies. The difficult terrain notwithstanding, this is almost as fast as any of you have gone on any horse.
The elves that bear you ride in a stony silence as you pass through the Sea of Trees. They do not acknowledge the beautiful sights you pass by, nor do they respond to any of your queries or speaking. At one point, Emma almost slips off, but the elf-knight riding that Thunderstag reaches down and grabs her by the neck, hurling her back onto the mount's back.
Time passes as you race underneath the Sea's canopy, and it gets steadily darker beneath the trees. Little enough sunlight filters through the incredibly dense leaf layer overhead already, and so when night falls, its effects can be felt almost immediately. It's been long enough since your last meal that your stomachs are beginning to tell you that eating is a good idea.
The first stars are beginning to come out by the time you reach the Elven city. The buildings are suspended between and on trees, with foot bridges connecting them and crisscrossing each other in midair. Thunderstags are led around on the ground level by their knights, which stare at the party as you approach.
The Elven city, known as Bellmont, is the largest Elven settlement in the Sea of Trees and the seat of the Elfchild Queen's government. Despite being the biggest, it's nowhere near the population of St. Agnes, the capital of Valetto.
The elves dismount from their Thunderstags and help you down when they reach a tall building constructed from the stump of a colossal tree. The stump is at least 70 feet high, towering above you despite being broken. Archepex and Lyntel recognize this building as a sort of combination state-house and court.
Emma, it's at this point that you fully regain consciousness.
Milo dismounts from the horse and waits for a lead from his escorts. Are they to enter with the guards, on their own, or just wait for someone to emerge. He's especially curious how much attention and scorn the guards pay to him
Heedless of the previous reprimand, during the trip Lyntel relates the story of her experience with the Skaven to her elf-rider while whispering in his ear. In particular, she highlights Archepex's noble deeds, and the Rat Queen's statements about the threat to the Elven lands. She also holds on tighter than is strictly necessary given that the ride is incredibly smooth.
As she dismounts she waves goodbye to the rider. Thank you for the ride.
Lyntel moves to Archepex's side. I will follow your lead.
After depositing you in front of the Court-stump, Commander Wildsong wheels his Thunderstag around in front of you. He gestures over his shoulder with a thumb. ”Inside,” is all the explanation he offers.
The rider that had been carrying Lyntel doesn’t respond to her words, or even allow a smile to be visible. Still, as she dismounts, she sees the rider glance sidelong at her. Lyntel, as a bard, you’re extremely experienced at reading the micro-expressions of others. You see affection in that tiny glance, along with more than a little fear. The glance fills you with doubt and you suddenly feel as if you’re being watched from every angle. You’re unused to this feeling of paranoia inside the heart of an Elven city. Normally, they are places of sanctuary and refuge.
Milo, you study the guards in the patrol carefully. You, too, catch the meaning in the glance that Lyntel is offered. In fact, over half the patrol elves seem to be highly on edge, even considering the circumstances. The other group of patrol elves is more jocular, jesting quietly among themselves and laughing as they glance over each of you. Wildsong dismisses his patrol, and they dismount and disperse in all directions; some of them looking hardened, angry or afraid, others smirking at you as they walk past. The courthouse/statehouse stump feels like it’s looming over you from this close.
Milo looks to Wildsong. Is something wrong? Tensions seem to be riding high for something as small as a trespassing charge...
Be quiet, Milo Archepex says. There is a lot more going on here than trespassing. Just stay with us and don't say anything stupid.
Archepex leads the way into the Stump.
What here is not what it appears to be?
The first room of the Stump that you enter resembles a bay of bank teller windows; it's where Elven clerks write down guests into their ledgers to keep track of the Elf Queen's visitors. However, the clerks that normally sit behind the glass windows carved into the inside of the tree trunk are absent. There are three windows on either wall of this narrow corridor, with small spaces about the width of a hand at the bottom of each reinforced window. The entry corridor is about 15 feet wide from window to window, 30 feet long, and 15 feet high. There's another door on the far side of the room leading deeper inside, and benches for those who are waiting. There is nobody waiting for an audience either.
Archepex's instincts for danger have been screaming this entire time. The fact that there's nobody in this room confirms his suspicions. He's just opening his mouth to warn his friends Trap when the trap is sprung.
From beyond the door you just entered, which opens outward toward the outside, you hear a heavy bar being lowered into place. From their attachment points on the ceiling are released a half-dozen small round balls that clatter to the wooden ground with clacking sounds. Immediately, a greenish gas begins to pour from each ball, rapidly filling up the room. Even taking a slight breath of air that includes this smoke makes you woozy, light-headed and barely able to stay conscious.
You have only seconds to act before the gas fills your lungs completely. Wicks had given a gasp of surprise when the balls fell, and immediately took a big lungful - he sways on his feet and falls flat on his face, completely knocked out. What do you do?
Archepex immediately wishes he still had his gravity-reversing cloak clasp. He then remembers his chalk! He snatches it from his pack and hastily draws a large fan on the ground. Mule takes to the sky to stay above the gas.
Archepex lifts his newly drawn tool and begins to fan the gas in one direction, toward the door that just locked. To the other door! he commands as he uses the fan to keep the offending gasses at bay.
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This isn't the first time Milo has had to deal with a gas trap. Milo doesn't waste time trying to hold his breath. He's already working on the door to get it open.
As the smoke begins to fill the room, Lyntel raises her hand towards the largest window in sight and begins speaking under her breath.
A ball of white fire erupts from her fingers and crashes into the window.
Dhice hustles to the far door alongside Milo, holding his breath to avoid the choking gasses . When he arrives, instead of bending down to help with the lock, he wraps the air itself around him and disappears into a fold of reality . He teleports to a space that he imagines must be immediately adjacent to this room, on the other side of the door. when he arrives (wherever that is) he immediately has to tamp down the magical surge by letting it course through his arms, scraping his skin even more gruesomely than it already is
Regardless of what's on the other side, Dhice tries to open the door in the few moments that he'd surely have before anything reacts to his presence.
Emma is going to keep her mouth shut and her eyes open.
Who's really in control here?
Archepex tries to discern the exact gas being used by the effects it's having on those around him.
What is about to happen?
What should I be on the lookout for?
What here is useful or valuable to me?
With a focus on what on earth we're dealing with in the now.
Archepex, your fan idea keeps the gases from spreading in your direction, but no matter how hard you pump your arms, you can't keep the gas from eventually spreading over the entire room. You do manage to hold it at bay long enough to study its appearance and behavior to try and identify it. It'll knock you out if you breathe it too deeply, but it doesn't seem to be the more lethal variety from what you can tell.
Nothing here's useful or valuable, as the room appears to have been cleared out. There's nobody behind the windows, just small rooms that the elven clerks would enter to perform their shift.
You realize there are exit doors in each of the teller's rooms! They're camouflaged to look like the wall, but they can be opened when you notice them. Biggest problem? The only windows that are accessible to those rooms are covered with a thick pane of glass. Only a hand could fit in the gap underneath them.
Emma, as your consciousness returns, you feel a little sick, but otherwise back to your normal strength. Some of the gas gets into your lungs before you can get your breath held, but it's not enough to knock you out.
Your instincts are telling you that these elves are operating on Skaven orders. This whole setup screams Skaven to you. Any doubts you had about the Rat Queen's testimony are banished now.
At the far end of the room, as Milo jams his thieves' tools recklessly into the door in his haste, Dhice teleports through to the other side through painful sacrifice of his magic. He materializes with a crossbow bolt aimed squarely between his eyes, less than an inch away. After swallowing involuntarily in fear, the channeler glances beyond the bolt head to see that there are two crossbows held aloft on rope and pulley, configured to fire at whomever entered through the door.
The door that even now, Milo was just about to open. Oblivious, unable to check for traps like he normally does due to how hasty the situation is making him act. What do you do?
Milo, your Thieves Tools are slightly mangled, take a -1 to future Tricks of the Trade checks that involve them until you have time to spend uninterrupted to repair them. You're about to open the door...and what happens will be determined by how Dhice acts.
It is at this moment that Lyntel's spell finishes gathering force and unleashes from her fingertips in a white blaze, striking the door that had just been barred from the outside. The door is set ablaze and begins to burn, weakening its structural integrity, but it is of sturdy, Elven design and doesn't immediately blow off its hinges. In moments, the door will burn away...if Archepex can keep the gas at bay long enough. In the meantime, the fire will be consuming a lot of oxygen and giving off a lot of smoke to contend with the gas as well.
Milo jams and grinds his tools into the locking mechanism, but he is able to get the door open...what will happen next?
Dhice frantically inspects the trap with an eye towards trying to figure out how it's triggered. His idea is to send the bolts safely into the closed door before Milo opens it.
Hearing the click of the latch behind him, Dhice yanks on the cord that he thinks will trigger the bows...
While the group is trying to open the opposing entrance, Grigor jumps though the nearest teller window and tries to force a secret door open.
, he breaks it open immediately, and in such a way that it doesn't appear broken and can be sealed behind us if we choose.
Archepex keeps the fan going pending the events at the door
Lyntel coughs once in the smoke from her fireball. Bad idea, bad idea!
She decides to follow Grigor and begins singing the dragoon's song through the smoke.
On Grigor:
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Grigor barrels through the thick Elven glass with ease due to his colossal frame and heavy armor, and pries open the door behind in a smooth motion. It opens into a hallway running left to right, with no trace of gas inside. The fighter beckons over his shoulder for Emma, Archepex, Dhice, and Lyntel to follow. Archepex keeps not only the gas, but also the burning smoke from the fire, away from himself and his elven cousin Lyntel. This allows Lyntel to cast uninterrupted; the damage from the fight with the yeti has not healed yet, so Grigor, you can heal for 2d8 and take +2 on your next aid.
Everyone is out of the gas room safely but Milo, who is just now opening the trapped door. Dhice frantically tries to affect the trap, and succeeds - at disarming one of the two crossbows. However, the second, backup crossbow, aimed at Milo's heart, fires successfully.
Milo you have a split second to evade the shot from the crossbow that triggers when you open the door. Give me a defy danger: Dex.
of healing, then Grigor stands ready to go grab Milo and drag him through the teller door.
As the twang fires off Milo leaps forwards.
Archepex takes a head count as me moves for the door that Grigor had so handily created. Grigor! Bring the Idiot! Where's Dhice!
Sorry Milo, the crossbow will have already fired by the time anyone would be would have been able to get close enough to you to help you. You managed to twist to the side, but the bolt still scratches through the front of your light tunic, leaving a deep cut across your midsection. Take 2d6+2 damage. At least the door is open now. The others are in a service hallway used by the Queen's attendants, and find an alternate exit door, as well as an open pair of double doors that lead to the same room that Dhice and Milo are in. You are able to reunite with them easily.
You dart through the doorway to find Dhice. He had already turned around after confirming that you weren't outright killed by the crossbow bolt (unless you roll max damage and were outright killed). He's staring at the massive, torchlit throne room that takes up the predominant amount of space within the enormous tree stump. In the center, made of wood and rising from the wood floor itself, is a tall throne. Upon the throne sits what looks like a young, elven child, wearing a finely embroidered gown that arches up on either side of her shoulders and a necklace that looks as if it's made of glittering stars. The Elfchild Queen. She sits, immobile, on her throne of wood, without her usual retainer about her. Her hands are folded in her lap. Her gaze is fixed ahead, unmoving. She is expressionless and frozen.
Next to her, whispering in her ear, is a single elf, a tall, adult male, leaning casually on the throne's armrest. He wears a noble's doublet and his hair is past his shoulders, in noble fashion for elves, but neither elves in the PC party recognize him.
What do you do?
Milo winces as the arrow slashes into him, but at least he's no longer where there is poison gas.
Lyntel immediately begins singing a famous Elven ballad of a young woman who fell under the spell of a fey trickster. Her voice thunders through the throne room and threatens to drown out the male elf's whispers.
Grigor waits for Milo and Dhice to go through the door get to the throne room. He'll then act as rear guard, being last to enter and see the queen.
Milo: it's an extra large stationary crossbow, almost a ballista really. Too large for effective use by hand, perfect for traps. I would have given you straight damage, no roll, if you had failed.
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Archepex pulls down his mask as he enters the room and seems to vaporize. This might alarm Milo, but Archepex not being seen is standard procedure. He moves slowly and silently, unseen, to the same side of the group as the unknown elf. Mule flutters to rest on the tallest friendly thing in the room in the absence of his trained perch: Grigor's shoulder.
Unseen, Archepex draws his bow and knocks an arrow, just in case.
As an afterthought, he grips the small amulet at his chest and focuses on the Elfchild Queen, then blinks...
Dhice stays fairly close to Grigor and remains silent, watching carefully. He is ready to teleport over to a spot right beside the elf child-queen, opposite from the suspicious-looking advisor, on a moment's notice. Exactly what he'd do there is beyond his current thought process.
The long-haired elven noble had been staring silently down at the intruders from his elevated position next to the throne, but when Lyntel's voice rings out and he recognizes the ballad, he hisses in anger. His attractive face twists into ugliness in his rage, and he lifts his hand to his chest to grasp at the ring on his ring finger.
He twists it, and a glowing field of yellow light springs into existence around him and the throne. From within, he calls out in the direction of the ceiling, frustration tingeing his voice as he shouts in the Elven language. "They were supposed to be unconscious! Can't I trust you rats to get ANYTHING right? Kill them! The singer first!!"
Looking up to follow his voice, you see a half-dozen Skaven lurking in the rafters! They aim their crossbows at you and fire! Three burlier-looking rats drop down from the ceiling to adopt a flanking, defensive stance around the noble elf, wielding curved hooks attached to chains that they begin to slowly spin over their heads.
The queen is aware, but what she's aware of isn't what everyone else is seeing. She's shrouded in illusion, as you can tell, Archepex.
Lyntel disappears in an instant as the bolts come towards her, reappearing with a clear shot at the three burly rats.
Lyntel carefully studies the effect of the fireball on the yellow field of light.
As Lyntel opens fire on the pests, Emma takes up a defensive position nearby.
Milo knows not to stand in a sniper trap. He flings himself behind some cover and returns fire when he can.
The gas must have dazed him more than he though...
The Queen is under the veil of some kind of illusion! Archepex announces from nowhere.
Defend Dhice so he can cast safely.
, so I am holding 3 while defending him.
From the right side of the group a bow briefly materializes as an arrow leaps up today's the shaven archers, then disappears again. Following his training, Mule follows the arrow and engages in divebombing the target.
Dhice is just about to conjure up a shield of solid air when Grigor interposes himself. Instead, he flashes the big soldier a grateful look and gets busy calling forth an Air Elemental to help out. The Elemental is not of the Earth, which has been banned for him in this Elven land, however Dhice must harbour some doubts as he go about the process...
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Lyntel, elusive is just a tag that affects the fiction where appropriate, like now. Instead of impeding your movement as you dodge the crossbow bolts fired at you from the rafters, your armor helps you to move more swiftly, giving you an advantage in positioning. Your fireball, thusly, is a full success rather than a partial success. The chain-wielding Skaven in front are scattered, and none of them even have the time needed to refocus on you. The center one is largely incinerated, and when the fireball clears he's smoking and facedown, twitching.
Studying the forcefield makes your heart sink. Such spells, when cast over such a limited area as the throne, make those inside essentially impervious, and nothing on the outside can affect those protected within. However, the force field does require the constant concentration of the one maintaining it, and it would have to be temporarily dropped before the elven noble inside could take any hostile actions against you. For now, he seems content to let his skaven cohorts take you out.
As bolts from the rafter-Skaven begin to fill the air, Grigor bolts into action. Holding his shield aloft in one hand, the fighter positions himself before Dhice to prevent him from being riddled. Heavy bolts thunk into the shield twice, then once more - Grigor, you redirect the three attacks aimed at Dhice to yourself, take 3d4 damage and then cut it in half.
Emma has the same idea, but Lyntel's elusive armor means that she has to run farther to do so. While Grigor stands firm against the crossbow hail from above, Lyntel is targeted by only two crossbow rats. According to the noble elf's orders, she would have been targeted by more, but the chain-swinging Skaven had to spend their "turn" fleeing from the blast radius of Lyntel's fireball. Emma, you redirect both crossbow bolts, knocking one aside with a great swing of your sword while the other one redirects off your armored gauntlet, ricocheting upward and burying itself in your shoulder. Take 1d4 damage from the burning pain in your left arm!
Up above, thanks to the gifts of his magical trinkets, Archepex has a clear shot on one of the crossbow rats. His aim is true, threading the needle of the complex artistic designs of the elven rafters and stabbing into the Skaven. The crossbow rat was taken completely unawares and by surprise, and screams, its cries of pain rapidly silenced by the follow-up attack of Mule.
Down below, Milo the thief was expecting something bad to happen when they entered the throne room, and was already light on his toes when the crossbow rats started firing at them. He has to take a flying leap to avoid the crossbow missile that is launched at him at high speed, taking cover behind a pillar. Unfortunately, this is close enough to Dhice and Grigor that the thief gets caught up in the channeler's wind-magic.
Dhice, the rushing air coming from your forearms as you summon the elemental is too much. Gain 1d4 Control as normal, but you have a choice. Lose 2 control instantly or lose 1 control and take 1d4 damage (ignores armor) from trying to block the excess energy of your channeling with your body. Also, the tags you were going for with this elemental - I don't know what your original intentions were for them, but I choose them now. The elemental spawns with the Hazard tag.
Instead of an elemental that takes humanoid form, the wind elemental you summon is a vast beast of air, a living whirlwind of rushing gales. The entire throne room becomes as the inside of a cyclone. Milo is swept off his feet immediately and carried through the air! Milo must defy danger to land softly; Grigor and Dhice must defy danger to avoid being swept off their feet as well! Archepex, Lyntel, and Emma are not near enough to the cyclone's origin point to need to defy danger yet, but the whirlwind is growing by the second to eventually create a spinning tornado within the throne room! What do you all do?
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Landing softly is for suckers. Milo rides the wind wave up to the rafters. He tries his best to land himself BEHIND the archers so he can have his way with their soft squishy bits.