Facing the Queen

Battered and bruised The Silk Glove pull back deep into the tunnel at the threshold of the Hive egg chamber. Somewhere beyond the end of the tunnel the wounded queen lies in wait - should they go back and face her or accept defeat and look for another path? After a little hesitant scouting it is soon discovered that she has vacated the chamber, moving to the tunnel opening the chamber looks invitingly peaceful. Then, from behind them they hear her approach - she has come around and now they are between her and the treacherous hive floor! The vain hope that she will be slowed as she squeezes through the narrow tunnel turns to dispair as it becomes clear that she is tunneling her way towards them.

Accepting valiant defeat over being slaughtered as they flee - C waits until he can get a clear view and charges her, Puff follows and the others attack at range, she is battered and aflame from Hubert's bow but still she comes - rearing back to spit acid, Abe's cloud of daggers bite and something vital in her body is severed - she falls, a pile of quivering flaming chitin at the feet of the battered warforged.

With great care, the party pass through the egg chamber, pausing to loot a resinous midden that holds a stash of indigestible booty. Then, out into fresh air and a cautious night's rest.

In the morning the way is easier, travelling along the strange ravines of The Wormway the path is easy enough and the orc's seem to have left a pretty clear trail, in some areas they have even fashioned crude ladders to make easier passage. Then at a pass, Abe pulls the party up and points to the falchion that was taken from the corpse of the slain orc champion. It glows with a sickly light, and with a little experiment the wizard deduces that it is detecting something close by.

The party quietly work their way along a side ravine and come upon a pair of elves, they approach in peace but the response is a hastily assembled ambush - Puff, unarmed persists in calling for a parlay and falls under a hail of arrows, but with the help of a magical voice Abe is able to make them lower thier lessons. It is quite apparent that the elves are terrified and under only minimal control by their leader.

The elven leader is recognised by C - he is Quicksilver the guide that Etherian Highbow, the elven ambassador had appointed to lead them to Skyshun three weeks ago. C had met him early one morning to appologise as The Silk Glove had accepted a commission to take ship aboard [[[Storm 14]] and go after the necromancer.

Quicksilver tells the tale of an elven nation under seige - from this lookout, they can see the smoke from the orc encampment, but they are deep in occupied territory now and these elves are not soldiers. He will see the party back to Skyshun to speak with Etherian maybe he can see a way forwards.

Travelling through the Garden of Rememberence the party is spotted by a troop of wolf-riding orcs and there is a short battle - C is knocked briefly unconscious but the enemy is dispatched fairly swiftly - the elves take several casualties however and it is clear that the lightly armour skirmishers are no match for the wolf-riders.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License