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====== Campaign IX, Chapter 11, Episode 24 ======

===== Chuul Queen =====

**Location:**  In the forests south-southeast of [[gaeleth:places:Mount Lavanor]]

**Date:** Summer, 1333 Avard

**Characters:**  [[gaeleth:people:Este]], [[gaeleth:people:Halite]], [[gaeleth:people:Nalani]], [[gaeleth:people:Isaac]], [[gaeleth:people:Xydeco]], [[gaeleth:people:Izabella]]

Halite hung onto Nalani, and Nalani was held in a pincher of a chuul that raced through a tunnel of silk webbing.  Halite attempted a flame strike that tore through the roof of the silk webbing, exposing the thunderstorm, but was ignored by the chuul.  The chuul took them through the tunnels to the main house of the compound, squeezing through the main doors, a side door, down a spiral set of stairs, across a room with two more carrion crawlers and lots of immature grubs spinning silk, down another set of spiral stairs, and down into the cistern.  Rising up out of the cistern was a chuul queen so large she could not go out through spiral stairs.  The water glowed dimly of a bluish light from below, and there were enchanted items scattered about.  The adult chuul left in a hurry, leaving them in the company of the queen and a few grubs.  Halite wisely did not attack a grub that came to feed on him, but pushed it aside with a shield found nearby, while pocketing a few items of interest.  Nalani was fascinated with the queen, memorizing her so that she could be drawn in detail in her journal and expounded on to the other mages -- provided she lived.  The queen advanced almost gently, exploring Nalani's goggles and other items.  Rather than two lobster-like pinchers the other chuul had, the queen had a dozen smaller pinchers.  Before the queen could grab her, Halite and Nalani scooted up the stairs, the hastily acquired shield held up in defense.  Halite squeezed a soft prayer to [[gaeleth:divinities:Galgiran]] in while touching the queen's receding and frantic claws.  Halite asked the queen a question in the common tongue, "What d'ye want?"  The queen answered, subaudible signals pulled up and descrambled by the powers of Galgiran:  she wanted to eat them, and anything that didn't digest would be magical, adding to her hoard of magical things.  Nalani, taking advantage of the situation, cast a spell through the communication, suggesting that if they were all released, they could go get even more magical items, more than she could imagine.  The queen's greed forced her to send to all her hive a message, to let them go.  Nalani wasted no time, shrinking the heavy, slow, and bulky dwarf known as Halite down to half his height and only twenty-two pounds in weight.  She pulled him under one arm and rushed back towards the barn, the carrion crawlers ignoring her per the orders of their queen.

Meanwhile, in the barn, Isaac had managed to befriend one carrion crawler for a moment, before the other rushed in to attack.  Xydeco and Izabella battled with blades, wearing it down and killing it -- but not before managing to knock Xydeco down with its poison.  The befriended carrion crawler was only Isaac's friend -- Izabella and Este and others, however, were food.  Xydeco's leg was gnawed on before Este and Izabella could garner it's attention.  It then took Izabella down, paralyzing her for later.  Este, the only one still up, tried to use Isaac as a shield while cutting his cursing twin brother's feet free.  With a last, poisoned arrow into the remaining carrion crawler, they thought they might stand a chance, even with four of them paralyzed and one of them a traitor.  Before they could do more than survey the situation, the adult chuul returned.  It would decimate them.  And then i withdrew, responding to the subaudible commands of its queen.

Nalani and Halite appeared, explaining the situation quickly as they tended to the paralyzed, helping them to recover.  When the party was finally on their feet, weak, almost out of spells, Halite barely back to his normal size, they opted to wander into the storm above rather than remain in the walled compound of the chuul.
 

====== Behind the Scenes ======

**Date:**  THU28DEC2017

**DM's Notes:**  Dinner was ham and beans and chicken (thank you, Heather, for the Chicken Express and white gravy!).  Sommer was interrupted towards the end by a very tired toddler, but I caught her up on things afterwards.

**Reference:** [[gaeleth:campaigns:campaign IX:Campaign IX]]\\
**Previous:** [[IX-11-23]]\\

==== Sommer (Halite) ====

No comment.

==== Heather (Nalani) ====

No comment.

==== Saige (Izabella) ====

No comment.

==== Seth (Este) ====

No comment.

==== Aidan (Isaac) ====

No comment.

==== Alex (Xydeco) ====

No comment.

===== Visitor Comments =====

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