Hello, Everyone!
I hope you’re ready for the next part of my dear Mary’s adventures.
Last time we saw her, she was hanging upside down in the air and a Roper was opening its mouth to devour her. How did that happen? Well, her party started on their way towards the task she got in her dream, went down a fissure in the ground, swam by a peculiar portal and reached a rope bridge above a dangerous chasm. While passing the bridge, they woke up a Roper and it caught Mary in its tentacles.
Now, we’ll see if she’d be able to get out of it and whether they’d manage to pass the bridge without waking up the sleeping entity underneath.
Content warning: The text below contains descriptions that might be upsetting to some readers (blood, death). Proceed at your own caution.
Mary gave out an impotent squeak. Her head was spinning with panic she’d never felt before. In her mind, she could see the helpless duergar from the previous day, flailing in the Roper’s clutches and being devoured limb by limb, his blood spattering all around the cavern. With the needle-sharp teeth of the Roper coming closer and closer to her own body, it wasn’t that hard to imagine herself as its next victim.
She heard Paulina’s voice inside her head.
“I’m gonna hide us. RUN!!!”
Suddenly, the bridge underneath got covered with thick, milky-white fog. The Roper couldn’t see in there, it wouldn’t be able to aim its tentacles to catch her or her friends if she managed to escape it now. Mary came back to her senses and Misty Stepped on the far edge of the cloud. Giving Bruno and Aurum the same Message she’d just received, she ran ahead. She heard her two companions’ steps clanking on the bridge behind her and Paulina’s to the front. Every time they were about to exit the fog cloud that covered their escape, the dwarf girl made another one ahead of them.
They were almost on the other side when an awful cacophony of sounds pierced the air. The entity under the bridge had woken up. Millions of voices rose from the deep--young, old, adult and child-like. They screamed, laughed, whispered and chattered all at once. Despite the padding in her ears, it got straight into Mary’s brain. She felt the voices burrow in her mind, trying to call her down, to invite her in the chasm. She took her head in her hands and screamed.
She saw Aurum, his posture suddenly too relaxed, a wide senseless smile on his lips, start stepping over the railing of the rope bridge. She yelled in vain, her voice drowned out in the entity’s screams, and thought they’d lost their bard for good. But then Bruno caught him and roughly threw him back on the bridge. Aurum gasped and came to his senses.
They ran, got to the other side of the bridge and ran further, down a winding tunnel and into another cavern, until the sound of the screaming faded away far behind them.
“You saved me!” Mary burst out. “It was going to eat me and you saved me! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!”
She hugged Paulina tightly and squeezed her until the dwarf girl patted her on the back to show she needed a breath.
“Yeah, no, it’s cool,” she said. “Don’t mention it.”
Mary awkwardly backed away and joined Bruno and Aurum who were trying to catch their breath on the ground.
“That was a close one,” the bard said. “I honestly could already see us as an afternoon snack for one of those things.”
“The important thing is that we managed to get away,” Bruno said.
“Ok, is it just me or is this place super gross?” Paulina said.
They looked around. The tunnel they’d ran into had started quite narrow but was now getting wider and wider. But that wasn’t what Paulina was referring to. Everywhere they looked, the place was riddled with life of the most sickening variety. Centipedes and scorpions infested the ground, snakes slithered on the walls, other bugs and creepy crawleys hung from the ceiling and fell to the ground like a disgusting drizzle. The ground was littered with their nasty carcases, like they were killing and devouring each other, and it all smelled of death and decay.
“We’re closing in on the dragon’s lair,” Mary said. “Black dragons are known for attracting this kind of creatures around their dwellings. We must keep going.”
She stepped to the front, next to Bruno, and they started clearing the way ahead of the group. She was flinging the creatures away with her Eldritch Blast, and the cleric was scorching them with his Sacred Flame. Aurum had his Mage Hand above his head, trying to protect his hair from the falling bugs. Only Paulina didn’t care much about the creatures. She was marching on top of them, crushing everything in her way with her heavy boots. Mary marvelled at her confidence and tried to copy her manners.
She wasn’t very good at it.
About half an hour later they finally reached the place where the tunnel widened into a proper cavern. The rock gave way to a wet, fungus-covered floor. Clusters of weird, crooked plants interspersed the otherwise smooth surface.
The cavern was huge, spreading over a hundred yards across. Several wide columns supported a high ceiling. It was dark and humid, the only two sources of light coming from somewhere at the far end of the place. The air was thick, the sharp smell of acid making it unpleasant to breathe. It stuck to their throats when they spoke and made them taste it.
They were in the dragon’s lair.
We’re finally there. Honestly, the next couple of chapters were very hard to write because… well, remember Mary’s dream? That’s why. But I persevered and they turned out really good. I hope.
Please tell me whether you think so, too!
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the chapter guide. You're welcome!)