I think we need to acknowledge that MadJackal and probably eiselmann aren't going to be posting, again, and move on from there.  How to handle the Queen is up to the GM (though for a character so central to the plot, I will submit that the Queen be either an NPC or a player with an established history of play so we're not all sorta waiting on someone who won't even tell us they're gone), but since the GM seems willing to give us a free head with what our characters do, I'm quite willing to start a scene that moves my character out of the throne room and that interaction.  Pipaluk's character put in thought balloons about trying to have my character seduced, for instance, or something else altogether.<br/><br/>For my own part, I don't think a game should end because a bunch of players dropped out.  I think most of us know that players dropping out of games is pretty normal.  I think there's about a 50% attrition rate in the first couple of weeks for most games, especially when they don't have an established core group, so I basically *expected* people to drop out.  But I don't see why a game can't move forward with only two or three players if those players, y'know, are making posts.  In some ways, it's much easier to deal with a small group, so long as it's reliable.<br/><br/>Which is to say, I'm here and ready to play.