Happy Holidays, Everyone!
I hope you're doing well! I'm great, I'm on vacation so I have more time to write. You'll get two updates until the end of the year after this one - isn't that great?
So, let's have a small break from our narrative posts to talk about Mary and her magic (and also have some comic fun at the end).
A little bit of meta information: Mary didn't have any protective spells at level 1. I created her from a purely roleplaying perspective, my thinking being: "What would a bookworm like Mary wish for in the first place from a powerful otherworldly being like her Patron? A spell that can let her understand any language (Comprehend Languages). A helper to bring her more books and tea (Unseen Servant). Something neat to show off to her parents and peers (Minor Illusion). And, because my DM (or, let's say, her Patron) insisted - one offensive spell to protect herself (Eldritch Blast).
Yes, she didn't pick them very wisely for the life of an adventurer. At this point in time she was around 18 and very inexperienced.
She'd learn :)
On second level she was already on the road and had heard stories of injuries and bad things happening to adventurers. But she was still optimistic and thought that these things will never happen to her (after all, she had a powerful Patron who took care of her!) so when she got her Eldritch invocations she prioritized being able to see magic energy (Eldritch Sight).
At that point she had still never had a fight and never been wounded. The scuffle with the Carrion Crawler and the Duergar ended without her even using a spell, remember?
And here's the fun part. When I'm choosing her spells and abilities on level-up, I do it with two things in mind. One, what she wishes for with her naïve, somehow romantic 18-ish year brain. Two, what her Patron gives her without asking because he needs her to f***ing stay alive to do his "tiny favor".
So, that's why she was able to push away the ghouls in that fight in Raxtrad (the Repelling Blast Eldritch Invocation) and that's why she was able to cast Armor of Agathus on herself the whole time but did it only after the big ghoul had already slashed her with his axe (and I forgot to mention it in the narrative).
But anyway, here's a little comic I drew after the game session, of Mary's Patron watching her fight. I, of course, am not sure if this is what he looks like or if he would even react like this to anything Mary does. You remember, as a character he's entirely out of my control. But I had so much fun imagining and drawing this little comic that I just couldn't not show it off!
I hope you like it, too!
Happy Holidays!
Take care and be well!
Next time on Mary’s Adventures:
We return to the narrative for a little down time. What really happened in Raxstrad? Is Aurum going to be OK? Can I make shopping sound interesting?
And also… what’s in the booox?