All nations on the borders of Whitemarch had finally fallen into ruin. Many of the Old Kingdoms had succumbed after much struggle to the leeching presence that was the Dark Queen Evelyn's hold, with her armies the Pallid Hordes tearing away at the structural integrity of each bordering nation bit by bit before they would all finally collapse in on themselves, leaving the lands once fertile and orderly as desecrated and lawless vistas where only the depraved could survive. The Dark Elf queen obviously had no intention of governing these new lands, simply wanting to see her enemies uprooted and driven out, so that her name might be the only one spoken when the subject of absolute power arose. Given that she was now known across the land as the greatest of authorities and most ruthless of rulers...it did beg the question of why she was now kneeling in the dungeon of an old abandoned keep, guarded by common thieves and highwaymen much to her own dismay.
"You there! Guard! I demand that you open this cell, and release me at once!" How many times could one woman say that phrase? To the vagrants who now held her in their custody, it seemed like no amount of gold, jewels or diplomatic immunity would ever be worth having to hear her prattle on for another second longer. Each guard would come off his shift in the dungeon absolutely floored by how much the queen could run her mouth, even as they did their best to ignore her, with a group of them even being angry enough with their new hostage that they would end up bringing their complaints straight to their own leader.
"She's not worth it! Nothing can shut her the fuck up!"
"I swear she's just trying to drive us all crazy!"
"It has to be dark magic; no one can be this annoying naturally."
"Gentlemen, gentlemen please!" Raising his hands, the captain of their gang would try and quell the overflowing impatience of his men, looking around the crowd in obvious concern. They hadn't even devised a way to properly put her up for ransom yet, without the empire that was no doubt looking for her finding their hideout and stamping them out. If they failed to work quickly, it seemed this haughty bitch might cause enough of an internal stir with her loud mouth that conflicts might start to arise.
"I can assure you, we won't have to put up with this nuisance for much longer. She'll be worth a thousand times her weight in gold once we find the right way to ransom her." As he tries to satiate the anger of his men, a particular face emerges from the crowd; the sharp features and grayish-green skin of one of his goblinoid officers, jaundiced eyes focusing on the leader as a voice rasps from scarred lips.
"Your men complain of her annoyance, but her very presence is an affront to my brothers." The goblin says, warranting the attention of the many others present; despite the bigoted views of the Old Kingdoms, goblins could find respect among humans in these days, though most commonly among the criminals of the land. "She has enslaved our people. Forced us to fight in her ceaseless and petty wars, and even now she regards us as rats! No ransom; she deserves to be taught a lesson!"
The goblin's words bring the crowd to a hush. Each man here had some reason or another to despise the queen for her part in ruining the lands they called home, but really none of them could aspire for the same hatred that the goblins must harbor, as still the queen regards them as less than dirt even after being made their captive. Crossing his arms, the bandit captain can only furrow his brow and give a nod of understanding, contemplating what could be done to amend the injustices they've all faced/
"She'll still need to be ransomed," he says, "but...gather your men. Just because we'll be delivering her back to her kingdom, doesn't mean she'll need to be in the same condition as when we captured her."
With a soft crackle and pop, the flame of the nearby torches wanes and bows with the minor breeze of the dungeon. The Dark Queen Evelyn found her regal nose scrunching yet again at the unpleasant stench of mildew and grime that hung heavy in the air of her cell. This...This was the lodging of an animal! The fact that these fools would dare subject her to such appalling conditions was nearly incomprehensible to her! To an elf who had lived for decades already, the last week would've felt more like a passing moment, but nevertheless it was one of unbridled discomfort and stirring rage, the dark queen taking any opportunity to lash out at her captors for their insolence. In the current moment, the dungeon they held her in was oddly devoid of guards, though that wouldn't mean any ease to her escape so long as the cell remained locked; the legends which proclaimed her a powerful sorceress were not but colorful myths bringing justification as to how one woman could sire an empire of darkness and destruction by herself, though the rumors of her godliness would've surely first stemmed from her indescribable beauty.
The moment she heard the rattling of a door from down the hall, Evelyn would gather herself up against the bars once more and grip onto their rusted surfaces with her hands, her amber eyes staring daggers into the rounding hallway as if to vaporize the first person she might see. The sound of a group moving down the narrow space was undeniable, and soon made visible through the torchlight was the face of the human who had captured her, and gathered around him at no taller than waist height was a grouping of goblins all in tattered leathers and scraps of armor, squabbling and gawking in their primitive language as they began to come upon her cell. Evelyn would simply give a scowl to their mere presence, with her focus settled solely on the human who led them, the woman sitting up straight in as regal a pose as she could manage and yelling out before the man could even utter a word.
"So you show your face, finally." She begins, her powerful and feminine voice ringing out loud enough to echo through the stone halls.
"You must be here to release me. Have you finally seen the detrimental error of your petty decision? Well do not fret; if I am released now, you will only be flayed alive for a matter of days rather than weeks. I cannot say the same for those of your men who have ignored my orders, however."
"...Gods, you really can run your mouth." The captain shakes his head as he comes to a stop at her door, having at this point figured out that her threats were empty so long as she remained in their custody. Around him, the goblins all gather in a group, enough of them present to quite literally block the hallway as they themselves gripped at the bars of her cell and snarled wickedly at her. The squat little men held mouthfuls of sharp teeth, knuckly fingers tipped with curved claws, and their individual heights coming no higher than the queen's thighs when she was on her feet.
"Open the cage!"
"Punish, punish!",
In hissing vocals of broken common they all chant vindictively as they glared on at their previous overlord, a woman of unearthly appearance. The legacy of the dark queen's rule was rivaled only by legends of her beauty, though to call her flawless physique and godly face legendary may have actually been an understatement. In days long past, her visage was said to even paralyze any who might look upon her, and while she had certainly not lost anything over the decades, the myths which shrouded her would've become disillusioned to the inhabitants of her land and those surrounding it.
"Shoo, you insolent worms! When I am released, I'll seek to make an example of your entire species for this blasphemous slight!" Her voice booms with command, vivid eyes staring down the goblin nearest, who happened to be the same goblin officer that demanded such retribution as this. He was an officer only to the goblins he lead, and in large part due to age, with no goblin ever making it past the ages of twenty in such a line of work. This one was only a few years past such a threshold, sneering at the queen in return.
"Grr-no! No more! It's time that mouth was shut!" With a vehement grow, the goblin pulls the jailer's keys from his belt, quickly climbing up the bars a bit to slot the key into its hole while the dark queen rolls her eyes, looking instead back to the human.