The spriggan does not seem to notice Janus' deception.
Sarek watches his comrades drop their weapons one by one. I've trusted Thediar this far... He walks over to where Thediar's trident is sticking out the ground. He drops his flail on the ground, draws his sword and stabs it deep into the ground. He turns towards the spriggans...."Take us to see your queen."
Once we've all made our decision, Thediar casts cure moderate wounds on the spriggan, countering points of bee-sting damage.
The spriggan bats away Thediar's healing touch. "I'd rather die then be indebted to the likes of you," he says, glowering.
The thorned palace doors swing open and the party is allowed inside. Within high halls of living wood are orchards and galleries of morbid, dark beauty. The party is led up the central spire of the palace, up to the throne room of the Fellnight Queen.
Flowering vines hang down from thorny columns that rise into archways of a vaulted ceiling. Dangling from the vines are small golden cages with little songbirds. Adorning the west wall, tapestries depict a setting sun and a rampant moon over a primal meadow. To the east, a carpet of woven summergrass leads to a polished mirror before an ebony throne. A woman of heartbreaking beauty sits upon the throne and gazes at the mirror, which shows moving images of a battle raging between the creatures of the forest and the Fellnight army. She does not bother to even spare a glance at her new visitors.
"You were to meet me atop the faerie mound, but you stole the wardstones from me instead. Is that how you would treat a queen?"
Thediar laughs merrily. "Be at pease; there was no debt impled, soldier. Healing the injured is one of my duties. My apologies; I meant no offense."
From the positions on the map*, Thediar bows to Rhoswen, but does not bend his knee. She is a queen, but not his queen. He's an envoy, not a subject. "We beg Your Majesty's pardon for the missed appointment. We left early in the day, but the time just got away from us. It was a grave error, and we regret it."
"Was it out of courtesy, that your captors left you the mirror? Or cruelty, that you might ever look out from your prison?"
Diplomacy:
"You were to meet me atop the faerie mound, but you stole the wardstones from me instead. Is that how you would treat a queen?"
"Those stones were being used as a weapon against my home. An offer to negotiate does not bar the right to defend oneself appropriately. Our actions with the stones are nothing more than such a defense. Since we know what you were hiding with these stones, let us dispense with any further protest on that matter."
Our meeting occurs now. We may both have desired elsewhere and elsewhen, but past is past and now is now."
"Stupid girl, those stones created the mist which hid my glorious army .. ooh! Hahahaha!"
Rhoswen claps delightedly at something she sees in the mirror. But from the vantage point of the party there are only images of destruction and tragedy.
"Ahem! Where was I? Oh yes, I sent my army to liberate the forest, and this is how the people repay me? To cast me as villain and vex me at every turn?"
They're doing both.
"Ahem! Where was I? Oh yes, I sent my army to liberate the forest, and this is how the people repay me? To cast me as villain and vex me at every turn?"
"By Your Majesty's leave, that's what we've come here to reverse. This is the Fellnight, a land of primordial beauty and dark majesty, and we would seek to find its rightful place amid the forest. To find a way for both parties to have what they want.
"But I advance beyond myself. Your Majesty, may I have the honor of presenting to You Your daughter, Ylera, strong in the mystic arts, resolute of heart, honorable in all things."
Diplomacy:
"My daughter? I don't enjoy your sense of humor, but at least you have one. Unlike the last gnome."
Outside the window Tenzekil's legs can be seen, dripping blood, swaying with the chill wind.
Ylera's reaction to Thediar is at first a moment of shock before she speaks. "I would have preferred that you asked my leave before revealing my identity but I am done with running and hiding." at that point she removes her hood again, revealing her full features.
"Father told me you were ridden by malice and cruelty. To equate the spreading of death, destruction, and misery with liberation only tells me that he was being kind in the way he described you. Have you truly become so blind that you can not see what you have wrought?
The forest needs no liberation. There are problems, but these are problems of the Second World, to be solved by those who dwell there. Nothing is solved by this needless slaughter."
Thediar makes a mental note: I can add the reference "Has a sense of humor -- Fellnight Queen" to my resume. Although, heck, I could probably add just about any commendation: "Great dancer, and makes a mean peach pie -- Fellnight Queen"; it's not like anybody's going to check with her for accuracy. All this, assuming I survive, of course.
Ylera's reaction to Thediar is at first a moment of shock before she speaks. "I would have preferred that you asked my leave before revealing my identity but I am done with running and hiding." at that point she removes her hood again, revealing her full features.
Thediar protests sotto voce, "You were yelling it at the gate, just a few minutes ago."
As Ylera continues, Thediar grins widely. She may get us killed, but by damn she'll get Rhoswen to turn away from that stupid mirror!
This isn't going well, Lilia thinks to herself. She hasn't even turned to look at us yet. How insulting. She trusted Thediar's instincts when it came to reparte, but she was beginning to have serious doubts as to the possibility of success.
Sarek steps beside Ylera. "Your daughter speaks the truth Queen Rhoswen. You so called liberation has caused the death and destruction of many of its denizens."
The gnome raises an eyebrow at Sarek, looking bemused. Thediar would blithely agree. Of course it's caused death and destruction. She's currently out for revenge, and she's not a good person. Thediar's okay with that. He's negotiated with wicked people before; if everybody were nice, there wouldn't be a need for diplomats. He hopes that he can turn the negotiations away from condemning Rhoswen, and engage the queen on more productive topics.
"The forest needs no liberation. There are problems, but these are problems of the Second World, to be solved by those who dwell there. Nothing is solved by this needless slaughter."
Rhoswen leans forward and levels her cold, emerald eyes at Ylera.
"All will be as it should be when the forest remembers its rightful queen."
Sarek steps beside Ylera. "Your daughter speaks the truth Queen Rhoswen. You so called liberation has caused the death and destruction of many of its denizens."
Hearing this, the Queen of the Fellnight laughs mockingly.
"And do you think the pretender Maligorn would do any different if the forest turned away from him? I, Queen Rhoswen, am placed on this world by the gods and the greater powers of Shadow and Darkness to rule as I see fit. The lives lost are inconsequential. But I, being a good and kind Queen, shall take a moment to remember them when this war is finally done."
Thediar fairly beams at that. He had been worried, throughout, that he as dealing with nothing more than an insane mobster, willing to destroy the Fellnight, if that was hat it would take to seek revenge. But at this, at Rhoswen's pledge of remembrance, he understands that somewhere behind all the rage and indignation, there's actually a ruler there, who feels some need to answer to her people.
That is what Thediar is going to try to target, kindle, and enflame. And he's going to do it by appealing to her emotions --vanity, fear, a need for admiration, a thirst for victory-- rather than a careful logical case. For Rhoswen is Fae, and that means that, whatever the Fellnight Queen's powers, Thediar realizes he's negotiating with a 4-year-old.
--+--+--
"I suspect Your Majesty may be right in that, but none shall know, for Maligorn has not been made to suffer so. He rules as an easy king, and watches as, yearly, the human loggers and settlers take the forest away by inches. And now he seeks to turn the attention of his subjects from that peril to ... You, Your Majesty, to the so-called threat Your return represents. He paints you as the villain in this piece.
"And, I fear, that by continuing the Fellnight attack upon the woodlands, Your Majesty plays into his hands. So long as You throw Your soldiers against the nymphs, the elves, and the honest folk of the woods, Maligorn will parade the war-dead as exhibits in the case against You.
"Your forces may win; the Fellnight is mighty as well as beautiful. (But they may not; much of your forces would seem to be held back in reserve on this side of the bridge between worlds. Maligorn knows where the choke-point is. If the Satyr-king takes it, he can hold it against a much greater force.)
"But, good queen, know that, if the war is left unchecked, the attrition will be terrible. You are mightier than they know, but they are much stronger than Your Majesty remembers. They have had all these years to strive against the other forces in the world, to learn warcraft, to gain puissance. If this is settled by war alone, the victor will be a shell of its former strength, and the vanquished will be gone.
"And then the lumbermen and clerics of city gods will come in, and chase out the tattered remains, and eat the forest. Your forest.
"But there's one thing that every man --civilized, oh-so-proper Man-- fears, and that's the things that go bump in the night. The lumbermen are not afraid of Maligorn, of his centaurs and nymphs. But if they were to come across the Fellnight, at the height of Your power, those who survived would blanche and turn tail. These would become "the haunted woods", the "Fell Lands"; and the Andorans would seek their timber elsewhere, fear lodged in their breasts.
"This war works against you in all ways. It paints Maligorn as the last defender of virtue; ah, how he must laugh to know that! It depletes all the forces that might keep all these lands safe, and it brings to bear the entire forces of the Inner Sea against you. The good men and women will try to hang Your Majesty on the wall as yet another villain, and the foul powers will see the Fellnight as weakened and easy pickings.
"Instead, we advise, sue for treaty. Ask some sort of share. Perhaps the woods run wild with spriggans and worgs every night, or throughout the winter, or from full moon down to new. Offer such a deal, and watch Maligorn choke in his fury. He cannot say no, for then it would be he who cannot compromise, and You Who will be heralded as the voice of temperance. Spurning Your offer would ruin Maligorn's prestige. And if he says yes...
...oh...
...if he says yes, then the Fellnight defeats him over, and over, and over again. If you suggest that the woods swing back and forth on a lunar cycle, then every full moon, he sees his kingdom give way, give way, and give way again to the Fellnight. You shall conquer him not once, but thirteen times every year. And all he shall be able do is watch, bound by the pact he cannot turn down.
"By the will of Gozreh, Lord of the Wind and Lady of the Wave, I come to You, Lady Fellnight, with this offer. If you accept, then let the church of Gozreh be counted Your first ally."
Diplomacy:
Edit. Oh, yeah. Right when it counts. Can Thediar get any assistance with this?
Thediar fairly beams at that. He had been worried, throughout, that he as dealing with nothing more than an insane mobster, willing to destroy the Fellnight, if that was hat it would take to seek revenge. But at this, at Rhoswen's pledge of remembrance, he understands that somewhere behind all the rage and indignation, there's actually a ruler there, who feels some need to answer to her people.
That is what Thediar is going to try to target, kindle, and enflame. And he's going to do it by appealing to her emotions --vanity, fear, a need for admiration, a thirst for victory-- rather than a careful logical case. For Rhoswen is Fae, and that means that, whatever the Fellnight Queen's powers, Thediar realizes he's negotiating with a 4-year-old.
--+--+--
"I suspect Your Majesty may be right in that, but none shall know, for Maligorn has not been made to suffer so. He rules as an easy king, and watches as, yearly, the human loggers and settlers take the forest away by inches. And now he seeks to turn the attention of his subjects from that peril to ... You, Your Majesty, to the so-called threat Your return represents. He paints you as the villain in this piece.
"And, I fear, that by continuing the Fellnight attack upon the woodlands, Your Majesty plays into his hands. So long as You throw Your soldiers against the nymphs, the elves, and the honest folk of the woods, Maligorn will parade the war-dead as exhibits in the case against You.
"Your forces may win; the Fellnight is mighty as well as beautiful. (But they may not; much of your forces would seem to be held back in reserve on this side of the bridge between worlds. Maligorn knows where the choke-point is. If the Satyr-king takes it, he can hold it against a much greater force.)
"But, good queen, know that, if the war is left unchecked, the attrition will be terrible. You are mightier than they know, but they are much stronger than Your Majesty remembers. They have had all these years to strive against the other forces in the...
Rhoswen listens to Thediar and smiles slyly.
"Mmmm yes, that would most enjoyable, to torment Maligorn again and again until his own court turns on him. I prefer you much more than that dreary white gnome. Except your plan gives Maligorn plenty of time to lock me back up in the faengard. If I only had those missing wardstones ..."
"What would you do if you had the wardstones, Rhoswen? How would that change your views? " Lilia asks interestedly.
"Before coming here, Your Majesty, we drafted an agreement that you must never be imprisoned again. The forest communities all agreed to that, that even the Satyr-king assented. Were he to try closing off the Fellnight again, the people of the woodlands would turn on him as a hypocrite and a liar. Exposed as such, his power to rule would dissolve.
Diplomacy to reassure Rhoswen:
"As for the Wardstones, Your Majesty, they need to be destroyed. This pact we propose between Your people and sun-lit woodlands cannot hold, so long as either side, or any third party, has such a threat to hold over the other.
Diplomacy to convince her to allow us to destroy the stones:
"One other thing doesn't belong here,Your Majesty. By Your Royal leave, we would take Tenzekil's body with us. He has folk to mourn him back in his lands, and his death, and the evidence it shows of Your power and ruthlessness, will serve You, as well.
Diplomacy to allow us to remove Tenzekil's body:
"Your Majesty, the longer we tarry here, the more throughly does Maligorn harden his forces against the Fellnight. Although it breaks our hearts to think about leaving this beautiful land, we must make haste back and carry Your willingness to share the dominion of the lands.
Diplomacy to let us go:
"What is Your Majesty's mind regarding the time of the cycle? Monthly, yearly like the Sidhe, or some other period, best aligned with Your Royal Wisdom?"
Rhoswen acknowledges the diminutive Lilia for the first time.
"I would then be sure that Maligorn couldn't trap me inside this demiplane again."
"Before coming here, Your Majesty, we drafted an agreement that you must never be imprisoned again. The forest communities all agreed to that, that even the Satyr-king assented. Were he to try closing off the Fellnight again, the people of the woodlands would turn on him as a hypocrite and a liar. Exposed as such, his power to rule would dissolve.
Rhoswen laughs again, this time with bitterness and abandon.
"Why would that get of a goat be embarrassed by being caught in a lie? All fae are liars! You don't know how they deceived me and robbed me of my freedom for a millennium, do you? No, I must have the wardstones before I offer Maligorn anything at all."
Sense Motive. Well, she has (a) schemes and potential uses for the stones, and (b) probably a sky-high Bluff skill augmented by magic, but Thediar has to make an attempt to see what she really wants here.
Sense Motive:
"And do you think the pretender Maligorn would do any different if the forest turned away from him? I, Queen Rhoswen, am placed on this world by the gods and the greater powers of Shadow and Darkness to rule as I see fit. The lives lost are inconsequential. But I, being a good and kind Queen, shall take a moment to remember them when this war is finally done."
Ylera returns Rhoswen's glare with one of her own, speaking in a voice as cold as the northern glaciers. "I'm sure that will comfort your loyal subjects here that they can look forward to such regard when they have spent thier lives likewise in your service. Be cheerful oh loyal soldiers of Rhoswen, your queen MAY take a moment to honor your service after you have passed on."
Sense Motive: 1d20+11
Would Rhoswen find it acceptable for us to make sure the stones are destroyed?
Sense Motive:
Thediar frowns a little. This doesn't make sense. Rhoswen had the wardstones. Devarro told us she was using them to create the fog. Now they're the bars of her long-lasting prison? Was Devarro lying to us?
"I think that can be arranged. With Your Majesty's permission, I would seek consultation with my god, as to the best way to give You what You seek."
Thediar makes a quiet prayer to Gozreh, and casts divination. The specific course of action is returning the wardstones to Rhoswen. What do we have to do, to ensure the best outcome?
"No, you may not cast spells within my halls, gnome."
"Fair enough, Your Majesty. We will take Your ... conditional ... offer back to the sun-lit realms, and do our best to broker Maligorn's acceptance. We have the backing of several of the woodland folk, so I think our chances good. We shall return here to close the deal and end the war, wardstones in hand. This I swear, by Gozreh."
Diplomacy to persuade her to let us go: .
"Tut tut. I make no offer to Maligorn until you give me the wardstones first."
"Which we will make clear."
Anybody else up for leaving?
"I agree that we have apparently accomplished all we can do today. We need to relay the information back to the forest denizens, and determine our next course of action. Thank you for meeting with us," the halfling said, taking a step toward the closest exit.
Aid Another of Thediar's Diplomacy check
Rhoswen waves dismissively and returns to gazing at her great mirror. The spriggan guards come up from behind, herding the party towards the stairs.
Before leaving, Lilia takes a final looka round the place, trying to see if the the crook of Cildhureen, as described to her earlier was in the Queen's possession.
Perception
We requested that we be allowed to return Tenzekil's body. He's war-dead, after all. Will anyone stop us from taking him with us?
Before leaving, Lilia takes a final looka round the place, trying to see if the the crook of Cildhureen, as described to her earlier was in the Queen's possession.
A twisted and gnarled black oak staff rests on a stand, within ready reach of the queen.
We requested that we be allowed to return Tenzekil's body. He's war-dead, after all. Will anyone stop us from taking him with us?
After another exchange of words with the queen she orders her servants to take down the corpse of Tenzekil. They climb up the outer walls chop at the body, which falls away in several pieces.
"We'll have him bagged and packed on a donkey, my lordship," says a spriggan with a conspiratorial wink.
Thediar thanks the spriggan. Do we make our way back to the portal without further incident?
As the party makes their way out of the palace of thorns they are met by a large crowd of spriggans at the gates. Cheering and hollering, they pat and jostle the departing visitors. But it soon becomes clear that their cheers are hardly sincere, their pats more like shoves and lewd gropings.
Perception
Secret roll: