Hello, Everyone!
Last time in Mary's adventures our friends brought the dwarven loggers to safety and had an argument about what to do next. Mary suggested going to the deep gnomes for help but Bruno didn't agree. They realized they didn't have many options and decided to talk it out again in the morning.
Then, Mary fell asleep and had a dream.
Content warning: The text below contains descriptions that might be upsetting to some readers (blood, torture, disfugurement). Proceed at your own caution.
Mary was climbing a wall in the darkness and the jut she was holding on to turned into a goat’s head. It started bleating, made her jump and drop her support. She plunged into the emptiness. Then, a Roper appeared from the darkness and she saw a duergar trying to escape its grip. The dark dwarf turned around and... he had her face. The Roper pulled her in its mouth and bit into her flesh, and she could see her blood splatter on the wall and hear her bones crush inside the monster’s mouth.
She writhed in her sleeping bag but didn't wake up. Then, her nostrils felt the scent of oranges and she breathed a sigh of relief. Her Patron was there to help her!
Her dream became much more realistic. She saw herself waking her companions--this time all of them, not just Aurum--and led them through a tunnel. Darkness surrounded them but she was somehow able to see everything around her.
The dream skipped ahead.
They were in an enormous cavern containing a city of black stone and spikes. The buildings looked like they were full of hatred. Figures in shadow moved in the streets but she couldn't discern anyone specific.
They went a safe distance around the city. Their goal was elsewhere.
The dream skipped ahead.
They were next to a fissure in the ground. It was narrow and dangerous. One by one, they lowered themselves inside. The air in the deep smelled weirdly and the walls had a strangely porous texture.
The dream skipped ahead.
They were in another dark cavern. The air was filled with a sharp smell that hit her sinuses and made her eyes water. She saw a chain dangling from the ceiling, with a hook at the end. A creature was hanging there, upside down, the hook jabbed in its ankle. Its whole body was skinned, blood dripped on the floor of the cavern. Dying moans came out of its mouth.
Less than ten feet away from the creature there was a pool of greenish liquid on the ground, and in it she saw a dwarf. He was alive and chained up, but his skin was horribly disfigured, like it had melted away in the liquid he was immersed in. Screams of pain and horror were coming out of his mouth and Mary wished she could make the dream-her cover her ears.
On the ground, next to its two victims, a black dragon was sleeping. The skin on its skull was stretched terribly, two long horns were protruding on both sides of its snout. It was snoring contentedly, waving its wings with every breath.
An enormous sword, so big that it would have been impossible for a mere human to lift it, was driven into the ground in front of the dragon.
Mary saw her dream-self approach the sword. She took out an orange seed from her pocket and planted it right under the dragon's breath.
The giant eye opened…
Mary woke up with a shriek. Her dream was still in front of her eyes, the screaming dwarf, the skinned creature, the skull-like face of the dragon...
She clutched her head in both hands and shook wildly. She felt someone trying to hold her and through her panic she heard Bruno’s voice say something that she couldn’t understand.
It took her a few moments to remember where she was. She slowly stopped shaking and managed to look around. All her companions stood above her, their expressions worried and confused.
“What happened?” Bruno asked again. “Are you ok? Are you in pain? Let me do a check up!”
He tried to touch her forehead to do some kind of cleric examination.
“I’m fine,” she pushed him away more out of habit than anything else. “It was a nightmare. Just a nightmare. I’m ok. I’m fine!”
The only thing she could think about was her Patron’s request. She rummaged through her bags and grabbed the Book of Shadows. On its last page, she started writing “NO” over and over again.
For the first time since she’d gotten it, an answer appeared.
“It is important to me.”
She felt her heart fill with fear and anger all at once. She shut the book and threw it across the campsite. Then sat on the ground, her head in her hands, and forced herself to slow her breathing. She had to focus on anything but the dream-visions she'd seen.
Little by little, the panic fogging her brain subsided and she started thinking more clearly. She stood up, almost mechanically, went to the nearest campfire and boiled up some water to make herself tea. It always helped calm her down.
Her companions were following her with worried eyes but didn’t say anything. Even Paulina who usually dissed Mary for how she used camomile to drink instead of smoke, was silent.
Mary sat with her metal mug in hand for a few minutes, staring at her Book on the ground. However distraught she might feel, she knew she couldn’t refuse her Patron’s request without repercussions. She could lose the magic that made her… well, someone. She could become her normal, useless self again. She wouldn’t be able to help anyone if she didn’t have her spells!
She slowly rose and went to pick up the book. Her “No”-es had already disappeared from the page she’d scribbled them on.
“Can I plant the seed somewhere else?”
she wrote in their place, desperately trying to find a way out of her predicament.
It took a while before something happened. Then, the answer appeared under her fading question.
“The place is important,”
it said, short and definite.
“Does it have to be ME who plants it
or could it be someone else?”
Mary thought that, if it came up to that, she could maybe use her Unseen Servant to do the deed instead of her.
“It can be someone else but it will be
more pleasant for me if you do it.”
“Would it be pleasant for you if I were to die out there?” she thought bitterly but didn’t write it. Instead, she looked at her companions on the other side of the campfire who were pretending--without much success--that they were not looking at her; and she thought of Bruno’s brother.
“How important is it to do it NOW?”
she wrote.
The page stayed blank for a long time before the answer showed up.
“It’s not more important than the life of a friend…
but I don’t like waiting.”
Mary sighed, somehow relieved. ‘Not more important than the life of a friend’ sounded kinda reassuring, although she didn’t know what her Patron meant by that. She put the book down and started thinking of the last time she’d read anything about dragons. She would need every piece of that knowledge if she was about to do this.
Oh, my goodness! That was a nasty dream! I hope you won't have nightmares after reading it (because Mary might). Isn't it awful that Mary's patron would make her go through this just to plant a little seed? What do you think, is he secretly a monster?
Anyway, I hope you keep reading, despite the gruesome nature of the narrative. I can't promise there won't be more of this in the future but that's how D&D games work sometimes…
See you next time!
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the chapter guide. You're welcome!)