Kobolds: Kill the Witch Queen

Log Info

• Title: Kobolds: Kill the Witch-Queen, part 1
• Emitter: Cryosanthia
• Characters: Aryia, Seyardu, Braelnoir, Selia, Jinks
• Place: Sunken Hope, Lake Uskvutha
• Time: Sunday, August 21, 2022, 2:00 PM
• Summary: Aryia, Seyardu, Braelnoir, Selia are making the assault on the Temple of Sunken Hope, while the other adventuring teams lay siege to the Town, or occupy the occupants of the Sandcastle in the lake. Only one issue, there seem to be no doors or windows, what ones that were have been sealed over with Stone Shape, seemingly ages ago. Rowing around and searching, Aryia finally spots an illusion covering an entrance. At the same time, a kobold swims up and reveals himself to be Jinks. He explains the Vouivre Yaretzi-Yolotl has been driven off, and he uses some bard magic to allow everyone to see the illusion. Once they can test the door, they find it locked. Selia picks it, saying it was magically held, and the way beyond is a curved passage that follows the outer walls. There's an inner set of doors, and something behind it. Aryia moves their boat out of the way, as the doors open and a Barbed Devil attacks everyone. It is swiftly defeated. Jinks creeps into the main part of the temple, sees the Witch-Queen and attempts to move the party into position. This teleport fails, badly, further revealing their position.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  Appearing  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Aryia        4'8"     110 Lb     Shadow Elf        Female    A heavily scarred mul with a resolved look about her.
Braelnoir    5'11"    146 Lb     Human             Female    A tall, pale Acanian woman, branded in silver.
Jinks        3'4"     39 Lb      Gnome             Male      A gnomish fellow in fancy garb and jewelry.
Selia        2'10"    35 Lb      Halfling          Female    A sleek halfling lass, quick and nimble.
Seyardu      5'6"     150 Lb     Sith-Makar        Female    A friendly silver sith-makar with a perpetual squint.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  NPCs of Note  =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The Witch-Queen                  Kobold            Female    A dark scaled Thullite Witch
Quo                              Kobol             Male      A dark scaled amoral wizard
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  As the GMs  =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Cryosanthia  6'9"     291 Lb     Sith-Makar        Female    A dashingly tall, elegant white-scaled lizard woman.
Williwaw                                                     Assisting
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=

The bell tolls.

The day is early. Sunken Hope drowns in Rain. The sounds of battle are muted through the mists. Distant orders are heard, the thunk of siege engines, the ring of metal on metal. Dying and crying, the ever present splash of droplets on the lake, inconsequential lives lost and none responsible for the flood.

The bell tolls.

The battle in the town is a distraction. The battle at the sandcastle is a distraction. The distractions are to keep the Kobold Witch Queen in her lair, to prevent her summoning their assistance. The temple at the centre of Sunken Hope is her fortress, formerly dedicated to the All-Mother, it featured circular designs and many yonic embellishments. These have been corrupted with its re-dedication. The stone walls have bubbles and craters, as if stone pustules erupted. Much of the building seems melted, the stone running like wax, in rivers that cover and reinforce the walls.

The bell tolls.

Water laps against those walls, mold growing upwards in sickly green streaks. Much of the temple extends below the water line, deep enough the cathedral ceiling barely crests the surface with enough clearance as a regular room. Not that much, or anything can be seen of the interior. The outer walls have the remnants of doors and windows, long since absorbed. The dome stretches way above.

The bell tolls. Reinforcements aren't coming. There is calm at the centre of the war storm, the circular temple waiting. Lurking. A temple, defiled.

One with no visible entrances. Whatever windows and doors might once have been, they appear closed over by melted stone.

It's a hard urge to ignore.

Such a cacophonous melody, and not allowed to dance.

Not yet.

The Stormgardian Korite must leave the festival dance to others, in expectation of a more exclusive soiree'.

That it's notes will be soured by likely some deathless mouser's hoodoo is something she'd been told to expect, but Kor surely won't mind.

The fight is all.

Having gone over her bandoliers one last time for certainty's sake, Braelnoir has a certain tiny smile tugging at the corner's of her lips as she makes the rounds, checking on her compatriots and getting brought up to date on their target and what is known of the defenses. Her smile fades momentarily after she tosses back the bubbly, clear contents of a potion vial, then, "Not long now."

Selia fails to sit still, moving from seat to seat with nervous, almost manic energy, hard to keep track of, her minor mass barely shifting the boat. The little lutch has no particular feeling for kobold, but anyone who holds others in slavery gets her ire. Oily black armor shifts and shimers with a rainbow sheen that blends oddly with the background, making the eye slip to something else, even when looking right at the tiny dancer.

Shoving her face under the water, Selia peers for several long moments before pulling herself back up, frowning to the others in the boat, dry despite the submersion. "We gots a plan? I dan't see nuthin obvious, but aint sure wot supposed ta look fer."

Their little boat drifts on the southeast side.

<OOC> Aryia uses Ki power: Barkskin

Aryia is stone faced as she's busy sailing the boat up towards the melted dome of a ruined cathedral, the rocking eddies eliciting a minor meditative reprieve for the building anxiety of what is to come. She rolls her shoulders, adjusts her jacket. And, finally, cracks her neck with a wincing >POP<.

"If we can't find a way in," she signs with a few brisk motions, the gestures understood despite one not knowing what language she's miming. "I can break us in, but it might give them a warning." <Handspeech/Tongues>

GAME: Seyardu casts Mass Bear's Endurance. Caster Level: 14 DC: 22

Seyardu was quiet in the boat, watching the tower that loomed ever closer to them. The cleric only broke said silence to offer a prayer to the gods, and she returned to that silence until they got closer.

"We have a plan, to a degree. Find an entrance, kill the witch-queen, begin an end to this pointless war." She states. "If we need break through the walls to reach them, then so be it."

Inside...

More later...