Propaganda for Queen Ezra, because it's my favorite fight in all of naddpod:
At the beginning of the fight, Queen Ezra says, "There have been many Seelie queens over the years, but only one Unseelie. And in the end, I will rule both courts." Bev looks at Queen Ezra, who has been described as having a thorny crown growing into her eyes, and cheerfully says, "you can try."
Both Queen Ezra and Murph as a DM don't pull any punches for the rest of this fight. The revelation about Moonshine's father being a high elf could've been so easily played for comedy, but Murph and Emily really lean on how devastating this would be to Moonshine. Ezra describes Marabelle's lie to Moonshine that Jolene wasn't her mother, and then continues, saying to Moonshine, "she told you that she was your mother, that you were a monster. That was a lie. The truth is more painful, I'm afraid." Moonshine, after her heart has been frozen, says quietly to her party "Why would you touch me, I might rub off on you," and responds to Beverly holding her with "That's nice, but when you're dead inside, you won't feel nothing." When Pawpaw starts to get ice in his fur, Moonshine says "It's my fault. I did this for you."
After Hardwon kisses Moonshine to try to snap her out of the feeling, Murph narrates it as "You feel worthless, you feel like no one will ever love you, you feel like the thing that’s most important to you, your identity as a Crick elf, is in question, you’re half high-elf… and then Hardwon runs over and plants a big one on you." Later, Ezra looks at Hardwon and says "Oh, you think you can save her?" and Hardwon, who started the campaign desperate to play the hero and earn other people's respect, responds "I think she can save herself."
After hearing his mother's voice when he died temporarily, Ezra shows Hardwon how his mother is being tortured in Shadowfell, that killing Galad Rosell was for nothing, and tells him "The person who brought you into this world, and you sentenced her to an eternity of suffering… you are a bastard, indeed.”
When Moonshine takes her turn, she looks at Hardwon and says "I don't deserve you", and casts Bear's Endurance on the party. Ezra counters, saying "You really don't deserve it." Trying to save against the curse, Moonshine says "I look to my friends to see if they agree what she said." Beverly says "You can't see me because I'm currently hugging your leg."
Beverly has seen Moonshine fall to the curse and Hardwon emotionally ravaged in order to fight it off, two of the people he looks up to the most. Ezra shows him the truth that Erlin is fighting because he wants to make Beverly proud of him, that his father made a deal with a literal devil in order to save Beverly. He has been trying to help Moonshine this entire time to no avail. He is not yet sixteen years old. As his heart is breaking, he tells Queen Ezra, "You may have told me the truth, but it’s lead to your own death. I'll take that, and I will walk with it, and I'll have it, and I’ll wear that guilt. I’ll wear it like a crown, and it will make me strong, and we’ll get through this together." Queen Ezra responds "If you don't freeze first." Bev fails the saving throw, but he tried so very hard when everything was falling apart around him, and I think that's worth recognizing.
Balnor, the person who none of the characters thought was capable of doing anything at his introduction, including Balnor himself, is the character who tries to snap Beverly out of it by telling him how strong their party really is.
And after all this, Hardwon finishes the fight by giving the finishing move to Moonshine, who slices her with the broken glass of the nannerfly jar she threw at her earlier in the fight out of desperation.
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