Operation Watersport - Chapter Seven

> "*Mommy, why is the monster Blair Witching to lounge music?*"
> ― Chaz
>
>

**The Library is Closed** is the twenty-third episode of Queens of Adventure. In it, the queens seek safety after the battle of Watersport.

## Synopsis

A wyvern circles over the town of Watersport. Below, the town hall starts to collapses as a magical tree grows out of it. Behind it in the cemetery, Fraya Love, Harlotte O'Scara, and Sir Throbardon have just escaped through a hole in the wall. In the tunnels below the building, Arson Nicki flees in her new drider form accompanied by three illusory copies of her and a giant spider companion.

In the archive, fire rages. Cher Noble battles a giant black ooze in a battered tuxedo. In the center of the room, the devil Barb grapples Butylene O'Kipple. She casts *arms of the void* against her captor. Having been told moments ago by Fraya to run, Cher Noble complies, pushing past the black pudding. The fire explodes and spreads, engulfing the black ooze, and the two infernals.

Moving down the tunnel, Arson finds a three way crossroad. Down one she can hear the waves and feel a breeze, through a second she can hear the mechanical sound of a distillery, and down the third she hears noting. She heads that way and finds a wooden trap door. Hearing nothing, she pushes the door open and finds a shrine filled with rows of wooden pews leading to an altar. There is a statue of a squid pinning down a devil. Testing her newly mutated legs, Arson climbs up the wall to a bell tower, from which she can see a view of the town, including the collapsing town hall. Through the front doors she can see Cher Noble, holding a bundle, running away. She and her mirror images scuttle down the side of the shrine.

In the cemetery, Fraya peeks a look inside to see Butylene grappled. She casts *frostbite* on Barb's arms, and while some crystals form on his arms, they completely melt away doing no damage. Harlotte next to her takes a shot with her bow, but the string snaps and the shot fails. In frustration, she uses her *mage hand* to yank on Barb's ear, demanding he let Butylene go. Throbardon swoops in, and before his wings start to singe, he swipes with his claws on the Devil.

Undisturbed by the attacks, Barb insists they leave the building, and drags Butylene away, passing through flames. They arrive through a hole in the wall into the Loose Lips bar, where imps are working on distillery equipment. Butylene, struggling to get free, grows frustrated and downs her mutagen, breaking Barb's grip as she becomes Mutalene. Barb is impressed.

Arson skitters through the city until she nearly collides with Cher Noble. The warforged has acquired the medicine she needed for her ward, Chaz, and is taking it to where he hides below the apothecary shop. They both agree things didn't look good for their friends. Arson decides to follow him as far as the apothecary.

Entering the half ruined shop, Cher Noble points out some traps for Arson to avoid before knocking on a trap door that slowly opens.

Exhausting her last spell, Fraya casts *cure wounds* to heal herself before stumbling towards the tavern, followed by Harlotte.

Barb decides to knock out Mutalene, slashing with his claws and his tail, but Mutalene is resistant to the attacks in this form. Mutalene bolts, taking another hit from Barb before she knocks down a wall, staggering into the drizzly outside.

Arson joins Cher Noble down the trapdoor. On a cot in the corner is a small child who stares at her with giant eyes. The guardian prepares the medicine and to read the Tales of Trixie LaBouche. Arson says she had an encounter with Trixie. This surprises Chaz who says she died a thousand years ago. They were going to go to LaBouche Gardens before the boats stopped running. Arson says she will tell the kid the story sometime but wants to take a rest, meditating for an hour with her spider curling up at her feet.

As the others gather outside the tavern, a wyvern crashes through the bell tower, circles, and settles down on a far building. Barb glances up at the wyvern, curses, and tells the two imps nearby, Pip and Squeak, to transform and watch the others and the devil retreats into the tavern.

Retreating into the shadows to avoid being seen by the wyvern, Mutalene catches her breath.

Fraya begins singing obnoxious earworm songs in her head to see if Barb is still listening while grabbing a rock to throw into the tavern to break things. Machinery thunks and begins to rattle and shoot steam. To help, Harlotte casts a colorspray through the window like fireworks or a disco rave. The noise draws the wyvern's attention, but only for a moment before sniffing the air for something. Sir Throbardon, realizing they need the wyvern distracted, flies into the air and draws the wyvern to fly away from town square.

The tavern explodes, throwing Harlotte from the blast. She smells something sweet like cough syrup, and an ooze pours out of the tavern. Luminous magical energy spreads out from the cloud. Fraya and Harlotte inhale the vapor and feel their minds slipping.

Across the square, Harlotte sees a shimmering in the air and then sees a gorgeous red orange gem atop a pile of rubies. Fraya sees her staring, but sees nothing across the square but Mutalene. Soon the only thing Harlotte can see is the gem, until she starts to walk towards it and suddenly sees a crowd of laughing, pointing, booing clowns, with sharp hooked falcon faces. The rogue restrings her bow and fires at the clowns. The arrow passes through them and they dissipate, vanishing. As the others watch confused, Harlotte sneaks around the square like a cat.

Mutalene, growing tired, suddenly hears a dog yapping in the distance. She approaches Harlotte who has started to come out of it, but only sees a blurry form approach her. Fraya checks that all the threats are gone before slowly walking towards them. In the air, Throbardon dives towards the tree in Town Hall, the wyvern follows, so the aarakocra flies off towards the sea.

As Harlotte's mind clears, the group all hear the barking coming from the southwest. It is the same barking she heard her first day on the island. As the cloud follows them, the group decides to look for shelter as they follow the barking. They pass a shop with a mortar and pestle sign, partially collapsed, and the barking seems to come from a corner of the shop. The rogue investigates, but gets caught in a snare trap. Mutalene comes in, and after playfully swinging her, to Harlotte's ire, she cuts her down and catches her as Fraya enters.

A trap door opens behind the counter and the group sees Cher Noble pop her head out and offers the group shelter. They all descend through the trap door (Mutalene minding her horns). Downstairs, Chaz watches with wide eyes. The group all look for places to sleep, not noticing the rat looking through a crack in a wall, nor did they see the raven that was watching them outside the shop.

It flies towards the rubble of town square before vanishing underground into the tunnels where it, Squeak, reports into Barb.

### Characters

#### Party

* Arson Nicki - drider warlock
* Butylene O'Kipple - tiefling alchemist
* Fraya Love - water genasi cleric
* Harlotte O'Scara - human rogue

#### NPCs

* Sir Throbardon
* Cher Noble
* Barb
* Imps
	+ Pip (rat transformation)
	+ Squeak (raven transformation)
* Chaz (debut)
* Pomeranian (heard only)

#### Monsters/Enemies

* Wyverns
* Oozes

## Episode Notes

### Lore

* A shrine in Watersport seems to worship the Kracken.

### Inspiration Earned

* Butylene - for swinging a trap dangling Harlotte
* Harlotte - for glaring back at Butylene

### Memorable Quotes

* "I am classy and touch potentially cursed objects, I don't shout." - Arson Nicki
* "How dare you weaponize your kegels." - Butylene O'Kipple
* "I'm like mildy scared to roll. It's like that hamster... Oh nineteen!" - Fraya Love
* "It's like I'm a cat and there's a giant cucumber in the town's square." - Harlotte O'Scara
* "Fraya did you say hotboxing in the woods? That's not how that works." - Arson Nicki
* "I'm going to give you both a point of inspiration for..." - "... for working out our relationship *on* the podcast?" - DM Matt and Harlotte O'Scara

### References

* Blair Witch
* Simpsons - "Can we have a pool, Dad?"
* Jubilee from the X-men
* Mulan
* Aladdin
* Poltergeist - "Come into the light, Carol Anne"
* Cats scared of cucumber meme
* Lost

### Name That Tune

* "MacArthur Park" - Donna Summers
* Theme from "Sex and the City"
* The Song That Gets on Everybody's Nerves
* The Song that Never Ends
* Drunken Sailor

## Behind the Queens

* DM Matt announces another live stream for December 22nd, 2018, which will feature the queens in full drag with guest Rock M Sakura. This live stream was ultimately cancelled.

**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