Fiction | Game | Medium Adventurers League ⚔️

Seeking the Elf Queen

Part of the quest, ‘An Elf Queen’s Temptation’

This is part of a story that works as an interactive game. You’ll need to have some paper and dice at the ready! Click here for the beginning of the Medium Adventurers League, and find a reminder of the rules here. You can also go back to the start of this quest: The Elf Queen’s Temptation.

Soon, the slain ape lies dead at your feet. You catch your breath, hoping that you won’t see more of its kind.

If you have previously made a deal with Lord Harbach, you can collect sinew from the ape. If so, make a note of this on your character sheet. Then read on!

You move further into the Deadwood. It gets darker as you go, even though it is still the middle of the day. The dead trees are very tall now, decaying branches hung with vines and moss. An overall mist fills the place.

If you want, you can now rest overnight in a tree. If you do so, restore your health to its previous maximum.
Then, when morning comes, remove one more day's rations. If you have run out of rations, subtract 1 point from health before proceeding.

Several times, as you walk around the bleak forest, you pause to look for tracks. The goblin clan that hide in this area must be small, you reason to yourself, but all the same… there should be some signs of their comings and goings.

Encounter: Tracking the goblins.

Challenge rating: Medium (roll 15+).
Roll using wits.

Roll up to four times. Each represents one hour passing.
If you succeed in four times or fewer, it is still daytime when you find goblin tracks.
If you fail, evening has come by the time you find tracks, and the sun is setting over the horizon. Keep this in mind for the next encounter.

At last, you spot a set of goblin footprints. You follow them, and they lead you to a much more widely-used route. There are many prints now, and they head southwards — you guess towards an area of the island where many goblins live.

In the other direction, they head northwards, towards the lowest area of the Deadwood. And that is the way you must go.

It gets more and more marshy as you proceed. Your boots are often sinking into the ground up to your knees. Perhaps you are heavier than a goblin?

At last, you reach a settlement. It’s a small wooden fortress with a circular wall. Four goblins stand guard outside.

Do you attack, or try to sneak in?

• If you try to sneak in, follow the instructions for ‘a sneaky approach’, below.
• If you attack, scroll down to the instructions for ‘fighting the goblin guards’.

Encounter: A Sneaky Approach.

Challenge rating: Medium (roll 15+).
Roll using wits. Roll at +2 if it is now evening.

If you succeed, you evade detention, and sneak 10 feet past the guards. You must succeed twice to get inside.

If you fail, you are spotted. Roll vs brawn (easy, 10+) to run away, and then try again! But next time you will roll at a -2 penalty, regardless of the time of day, because the guards are on high alert!

You can try to sneak past a maximum of 3 times overall. If you are spotted all three times, or if you fail your brawn roll when running away, then you must fight the goblin guards (see encounter below).

Encounter: Fighting the Goblin Guards.

Challenge rating: Easy (roll 10+).
Roll using brawn or magic. Roll at -2 if it is now evening.

If you succeed, you kill one goblin guard. Keep going until you kill all of them.
If you fail, you are hit. Subtract 1 from health.

• If you are killed, click here.
• You can run away from the guards; subtract 1 point from health, and then click here to get back to the Adventurers Guild. Or you can run back to the inn to recover.
• Otherwise, read on…

At last, you make your way inside the fortress. Within, there is a single wooden hut. You hurry over, surprised to see no more goblin guards.

Tentatively, you push at the door of the hut, recalling Yorrick’s words. Could this be some kind of trap?

But sure enough, when you open the door, you see an elf woman tied to a chair. She yelps from within a gag, and you hurry over to cut her free.

“Queen Arriana?” you ask.

She nods. “These vile goblins have been holding me captive. Come, now — we must escape back to my people in the Feyglades.”

You ponder her request for a moment. “Why would I come to the Feyglades with you?” you say at last.

“It’s my ancestral home,” she says. As she speaks, she is retrieving a longbow and arrows from a chest near the door. “I am their ruler, but some of the elves there have… other ideas. They don’t want a monarchy.”

You find yourself at a loss for words. “They don’t want…? But you’re their queen!”

“I know, right?” she says, as she heads for the door. “Those jerks. Now, come quickly. More goblins won’t be far away. I can use my elven magic to cloak us on the way out, but only for a minute.”

Sure enough, she is able to help you hurry outside. There are other goblins moving around in the distance, but soon you are safe (or safe-ish) amongst the trees of the Deadwood once more.

And Queen Arriana is looking to you for an answer.

You decide to…

1. Follow Queen Arriana without hesitation.
2. Tell her that you will come, but only for a reward.
3. Politely decline, and head back to the Adventurers Guild.