A Dance in the Dark - Chapter Four

> "*I'm not doubting that you are possibly existing on a plane that we're not existing on. I mean... I'm a lizard.*"
> ― Irene Dubois
>
>

**The Sealed City** is the forty-sixth episode of Queens of Adventure. In it, the party finally finds the lost drow warriors of Fire Island.

## Synopsis

The party, continuing their travel through the Underdark, arrive at a chamber with a partially collapsed stone bridge over a crevice. They stand on a small landing, and across the bridge they see a drider covered in torn fabric. It is scrawling something on his side of the bridge. Upon seeing them it flees.

Arson spins some silk, and hands it to Butylene's familiar, Hella. In a fruit bat form, Hella carries the silk across the bridge. Irene suggests a three pronged bridge: Two atop and one below.

Fraya, Irene, and Lamont cross with no problem. Butylene and Arson both stumble. Irene grabs Butylene's arm and tries to throw her across, but the tiefling lands atop the top two strands. Butylene uses her tail to balance as she continues to cross, but one of the strands snaps. Arson manages to grab onto that snapped strand and swings, slamming into Butylene and carrying her, over to the other side.

Once all safely on the other ledge, they find this half of the chamber covered in haphazard graffiti depicting driders with colorful hair and smears of colors, a lot of it turquoise. Further down the tunnel towards a large door, the driders have simple drawings of houses around them. The group recall the drag drow were trying to form a Drag House before they were cursed.

The voice returns to Arson's head, telling her a house is not a home, and prevents her from telling the others.

Fraya kisses another tip coin, and the magic mouth tells them the curse can be reversed by making their dreams come true. They push through the door.

Through it they find another drow city, in total ruins and covered with more drag drow graffiti. In the dim light they can see a plaza full of more driders in tattered rags, covering themselves and everything with smears of paint. Arson leads them towards the plaza using her *city secrets* when the voice returns. She says the filthy mess of monsters have ruined the town, but the voice promises to save Arson and lead her to safety if she abandons the doomed surface.

As they press forward, a drider in golden armor charges Arson, raising a sword. The others see two giant spiders charging them from behind. Fraya runs towards one of the spider and leaps onto it, plunging her trident between its abdomen and thorax, trying to split it in half.

Irene rushes the other spider, killing it with a combination of great axe leg slices, javelin stabs, and a *hungry jaws* bite.

Arson summons her vibrating flail pact weapon and swings it at the drider. The others hear this and look, seeing Arson running at nothing with her weapon. She lands two hits on the drider who smiles and seems to not notice. It laughs. The voice tells Arson this has angered the creatures who will destroy her and 'her servants.'

The remaining spider flails its legs but can't hit Fraya on its back.

The drider warrior swings its swords three times, slashing through her. It doesn't do physical damage but psychic damage, halving her health.

Butylene surveys the scene, realizing something is up with Arson, she asks her teammate what is up with her. Arson asks if the others cant see the drider. Not knowing what is going on, but trusting her, she tongue pops her *healing word* to support, and takes a defensive stance. Hella bites the spider, dealing poison damage.

Lamont looks perplexed and walks over, producing a cocktail. He tries to convince Arson there is nothing there. Arson questions her sanity. Lamont wants the group to convince her she is seeing nothing. The others feel like even if they cant see it, that they should trust that something is happening to Arson. Irene asks her to signal where the unseen creature is so they can attack it, and then readies her javelin throw.

Fraya decides to finish killing the spider she is on top of before trying to help detect magic. She rejabs her trident into it. It squeals and slumps to the side, barely alive.

Arson again asks them if they can see the drider. When they say no, she decides to try and focus to shake off the influence. The drider flickers momentarily but then resolves back. The momentary glitch helps her feel more confident that this is in her brain, but tells the others she can't shake it off. She asks them to try and talk her out of it. Irene suggests it is either a psychotic break or a magic attack. They need to know so they can help her the best way possible. From atop the spider, Fraya shouts some mindfulness techniques.

Arson decides to try and meditate, and thinks to call on DJ Cyberpreppy to play music for her through the portable Hole of Glory. As the drider snarls, she plunges her head into the hoop. The Glamalala receptionist is startled by her sudden appearance and connects her to DJ Cyberpreppy. The ghost tells her he has finished preparing the lost drider song. He plays the music through the two holes.

In the cave, the music plays and echoes through the city. Other driders begin to move slowly towards the group. All are in torn rags, smeared makeup, and are swaying to the music. Arson sways as well. Her concentration leads to the armored drider fading away and vanishing. The others look at Fraya and note she is still riding the slowly dying spider.

Arson says hello, but the driders don't respond. The voice warns Arson that any moment now the driders will snap out of it and kill them, or her friends will abandon her. Arson finally manages to shake off the voice enough to be able to tell the others again what it is saying. Irene postulates that an entity is trying to take over Arson. Fraya uses her insight and Detect Good and Evil and realizes a malevolent cosmic force is trying to manipulate her.

The voice tells her that those who resist her go mad, those that don't find peace. Arson tells them the voice doesn't seem threatened and says others have failed her. Irene realizes the voice only affects her inside the Underdark. So its bound to the location. The voice cuts in, trying to demand Arson make a choice now, as the driders lost their minds when they betrayed their one true master.

"It's the goddess woman. Lolth," Fraya announces. The voice grows more demonic and demanding, acknowledging she is the queen of the demonweb pits, and insists Arson kill the driders.

The group, now surrounded by entranced driders, decide to put on a show for them, to try and grant their dream. Irene pops her neck frills, spraying glitter as she does a death drop, perplexing Lolth. Butylene does a roundoff and shoots *thaumaturgy* rainbows as Hella burns with turquoise flames. Fraya swings around the trident, and jumps into a death drop. Arson spins web clothing, several layers, and begins removing them in several reveals, while hula hooping with the hole of glory.

Lolth's voice groans at the song as the driders begin to dance along. They all begin to collapse to their knees and wrap themselves in silk. One tears itself free, followed by the others. They are once again regular drows, gorgeous, and fully aware. Makeup fresh, rags turned to dresses. One of them asks who they are, and where Dame Celia is.

Lolth commands Arson to kill them, but Arson refuses.

Fraya asks the drow leader what he remembers. He says he helped the Glamazons, and when they returned, everything went dark. He introduces himself as Gemlin and asks how long they have been trapped. The group recalls the Glamazon stories of the drow from a thousand years ago.

Lamont encourages Arson to tell the story. She tells Gemlin how they heard the stories of how the Drow once helped the surface, but were trapped. They came to free them and ask them to help with the new threat to the island. Gemlin offers their assistance and says it is time for them to once again follow in the footsteps of the Queens of Adventure. He asks them though, to help them finalize their drag house. The queens suggest House of Drow.

The group departs, the party followed by thirty drow. Lolth's voice tells Arson she has made a powerful enemy and that her 'hot tub friend' wont be able to help her for long, to Arson's horror.

Eventually they reach the surface. As they cross the beach, they see devils erecting barricades, and guests digging trenches. It is late at night. Just inside the Golden Palace, Ramshackle greets them. He says they have windowless accommodations for the drow, as the drow look around and check out the place. Some pick up dice (and the queens warn them to not roll them). After some persuasion, the group gets them into the elevators. However, Ramshackle says Belfry wants to see Irene alone.

Taking a different elevator, Irene arrives at Belfry's spacious office. It is empty, except for one of the doors off to the side is slightly open with a voice inside. As Irene calls out, Belfry's head appears and says she will be just a moment.

Irene browses the room, and licks a tiara she finds in one of the display cases. She notes a salty sea taste and decides to steal it, but before she can, Belfry emerges and comments on how she never cleaned it after taking it from the Sahuagin King years ago, before ever meeting a Glamazon.

The two sit and talk over a drink. Belfry takes back the tiara as Irene downs her drink in one gulp. She asks Irene about what Irene is looking for. The Glamazon says she wanted to see what exists outside the limits of Glamala, but that no one there will really miss her anymore.

Belfry says she invited her up to talk because she is putting together a team for a special covert mission. Irene says she is not good at deception but is interested. Belfry asks her to steal an airship. When Irene convincingly says she doesn't know what that is, Belfry says she is off to an excellent start. They clink glasses.

### Characters

#### Party

* Arson Nicki - drider warlock
* Butylene O'Kipple - tiefling warlock
	+ Hella FizzGerald - familiar
* Fraya Love - water genasi cleric
* Irene Dubois - lizardfolk barbarian

#### NPCs

* Lamont Du Pont IV
* Lolth
* Glamazon Operator
* DJ Cyberpreppy
* Gemlin and the Ancient Drow Drag Queens
* Ramshackle
* Belfry Ramshackle

## Episode Notes

### Lore

* Lolth, the ancient spider goddess, attempted to psychically control the ancient drow who had helped the Glamazons. Those who resisted her were driven mad. None of them died in the thousand years they were trapped in the Sealed City.

### Memorable Quotes

* "What the fuck is Lamont on, and where can I get some?" - "Crack, and I'll tell you after." - Arson Nicki and Irene Dubois
* "Like good grafitti? Some street art? Are we talking some Banksky?" - Fraya Love
* "Well ladies, shall we go through the door?" - "We've already gone through 17, what's one more?" - Arson Nicki and Irene Dubois
* "Look at me, I might be first in the line up this time. I'm going to be opening the show." - Fraya Love
* "What does continuous flame do? I feel like I should know that." - Fraya Love
* "I'm just sitting on the back of the other one with my *fork* inside of it." - Fraya Love
* "The flail with a tail that I received in the mail." - Arson Nicki
* "She's making weird motions and she's making the poop face." - Butylene O'Kipple
* "That childhood trauma is really getting to her right now." - Fraya Love
* "I really want to make you a cocktail to calm the voices," - Butylene O'Kipple
* "We have hypnotized an entire race of beings. Love that." - Irene Dubois
* "How do you feel about that right now?" - "I mean I don't want to right now!" - "Okay word. Don't." - Irene Dubois and Arson Nicki
* "Her name might start with LOL, but she is not funny." - Butylene O'Kipple
* "It's about to get drowsy in here." - Butylene O'Kipple
* "Who designed this room? And with what purpose?" - "Oh I think you know what purpose." - Irene Dubois and Butylene O'Kipple
* "I think the best part of this adventure is that no one has asked me why I haven't shaved my pits in three days." - Irene Dubois

### References

* Banksy
* Into the Woods - "If you want the curse reversed, I'll need a certain potion first."
* Russian Sleep Experiment
* Kill Bill - Gogo Yubari
* Freddy Kreuger
* Sarah Jessica Parker
* Kalina wigs
* Titanic - It's been 84 years
* Clickbait headlines
* "Come on season six, let's get sickening" - Laganja Estranja
* Winona Rider's shoplifting
* Shakespeare "Get thee to a nunnery"
* Uber Eats
* X-Force

### Name That Tune

* "Hungry Eyes" - Eric Carmen
* "Cant Get You Out of My Head" - Kylie Minogue
* "Set Me Free" - Charlie XCX
* "Hollaback Girl" - Gwen Stefani
* "I Can Change"
* "Walk this Way" - Aerosmith
* "Supermodel (You Betta Work)" - Rupaul

## Behind the Queens

* In the intro, DM Matt announced the next Extra Life fundraiser live stream.
* Arson Nicki does the "Previously On".
* Gemlin was named after listener and supporter DiceRefGemlin. Financial backers were asked for suggestions in April 2019, six months before the episode was released.
* In the outro, DM Matt mentions they will be releasing the episodes from the kickstarter funded "Legendary Journey" to Chicago and Minneapolis, as well as their collaborations with Neoscum and Very Random Encounters.

**Greetings From Fire Island**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - **The Show Must Go On**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - Ch4
**Operation Watersport**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - Ch4 - Ch5 - Ch6 - Ch7 - **Trials**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - Ch4
**Ghosts of the Coast**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - **The Devil's Due**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - Ch4
**Special**: The Story So Far
**The Beautiful Place**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - Ch4 - Ch5 - Ch6 - **A Dance in the Dark**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - **Ch4**
**Drama in the Deep**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - Ch4 - Ch5 - Ch6 - **Whispers From the Heart**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - Ch4 - Ch5 - Ch6
**Danger Rangers!**: Ch1 - Ch2 - Ch3 - Ch4 - Ch5 - Ch6
**Mist Connections**: Ch1 - Ch2
**Unreleased**
Lost: Camp Crystal Light - Pax West 2018 --  vs the Lizard People
Live Shows: Seattle Style -- Minneapolis Style