...and then Facing the Queen Report

General Summary

The party returned to the Lizardfolk lair where they were greeted by High Councillor Sauriv.  He promised to tell them of true nature of the threat the lizardfolk faced and what may face Saltmarsh, as well.   He took them to a reception hall where he explained the situation to them.  Queen Othokent was putting together a grand alliance to face the Sahuagin, a race of sea demons who were attacking all the sea folk races and who had driven the lizardfolk out of their ancestral lair.  He and the Queen hoped that the other races would join them in eradicating the threat from the shores.  They also secretly thought the land races from the town to the east might be affected and willing to join, but there were several of the lizardfolk subchiefs and shamani that disagreed.  This is why the test of facing down 1,000 Teeth was necessary.  He also told them that they had tried to send an emissary to Saltmarsh but he had been given strong mind altering liquids and came back a wreck.   He then invited the group to the main audience chamber.  Within the chamber, the party presented Queen Othokent the head of 1,000 Teeth and she congratulated them on their achievement.  She asked them if they could speak for the people of Saltmarsh and join the alliance.  Meriwether said they could not, in good faith, do so.  The Koalinth, a race of sea goblinoids, sneered at this and called them indecisive and weak.  Donnrue, the ambassador from the Koalinth, threatened to take his delegation home. The other two delegations were more circumspect.  The Locathah, a race of bipedal fish, and the Merfolk leaders stayed silent but watched and listened with interest.  The meeting was abruptly ended when a lizardfolk guard entered the room to speak to the Queen.  The delegations, including the party and Councillor Sauriv, were ushered to the reception hall for a lunch and libations.   In the hall, Korra made friends with Quelli, the Locathah ambassador, and Siltha, the Merfolk ambassador, by making the drinks colder and slushier.  Nooben engaged Donnrue and the other koalinth in conversation, seemingly impressing them with his forthrightness and his appearance.  They began to share a drink, but the conversation quickly became confrontational with the prickly and stubborn koalinth and they stormed out of the room.  After they left, Sauriv smiled and said that this solved a problem and now they may be able to invite the sea elves, the hated rivals and enemies of the Koalinth, to the bargaining table.  At the mention of the sea elves, Ambassador Siltha speaks up and asks why a sea elf had to escape.  She had overheard what the guard said to the queen and was concerned that the lizardfolk were imprisoning sea elves.  Sauriv indicated that they found him following Robespierre.  The lizardfolk who came with Robespierre had been poisoned and only one has survived.  Both the sea elf and Robespierre had been under suspicion until the third recovered and made it clear that the poisoner was not Robespierre but had not named a poisoner.   The sea elf refused to answer questions, so in his cell he had to remain...apparently until now.   Once it became clear that the sea elf in question was their former companion Oceanus, they were given permission to search the lair for him.  They were given the hint that the eastern portion was where the cells were and that there was easy access to the Azure Sea from there.  The group made their way through the lair and met a lizardfolk sergeant named Jhank who enjoyed telling them a joke and helped them open the door to the prison cells.  The party then reached the wharves where the delegations were each staying and arrived just in time to see Oceanus being pulled out to sea.  The battle was engaged and the koalinth, including Ambassador Donnrue, were all killed.   The party agreed to stay one more night at the lair before leaving for Saltmarsh to propose the alliance to the Town Council.  It also then occurred to them that their oarsmen will have left them for dead at that point and will return to Saltmarsh without them.