Hello, Everyone!
Last time on Mary’s adventures, she reached the dragon’s lair and planted the seed her Patron had given her, thus fulfilling her task. Then, she found the dragon’s hoard and three scrolls lying on a plinth next to it. Being the curious girl she is, she took the scrolls. There could contain something useful.
“I’m here,” Mary whispered when she got to the others. “Still invisible, sorry.”
Aurum looked a few inches to her right. “I can cancel the magic if you want,” he said.
“No, not yet.” She didn’t want them to see she’d been crying.
Thankfully, she didn’t have to describe the dragon’s torture. Paulina had already done that. Instead, Mary told them about the scrolls and the gold in the pond.
“Oh, my Ord!” Paulina exclaimed. “So much treasure, and you had to take the scrolls instead?!”
“Well, for once, the treasure was in acid,” Mary said with a frown which she wished the dwarf girl could see. “And then, if they took such care for the scrolls, there must be something important on them.”
She put the papers on the ground and watched as her companions spread them open.
The first was a magic scroll. One could use it at any moment, without having to be as powerful a caster as the spell would otherwise require. It was ‘Chain Lightning’, it could strike four people at once. Would be very helpful if they were up against many foes at once.
The other two were paintings.
On one of them, there were six people in a spacious room. Mary had seen two of them in person – Papios Ferenc, 'the richest dwarf in Belfast', and Bartemius Finesse, the gnome-president of Frinkeltong. The rest were unknown to her. There were two human men – one quite young with brown hair, and one older-looking, maybe around fifty, also a large muscular elf with long blond hair, and a human woman in a wizard’s robe. They were all sitting or standing around a big round table where an important-looking document laid.
The second painting was much darker. There was a fortress in the background, and a storm brewing above it. At the base of the fortress, in front of its big gate, a lone person stood. He was huge, with an elephant head and the look of anger and ardor on his face. He had four arms, each of them holding a bell much like the one Aurum had in his possession.
They all knew what that painting showed. It was the battle of Kipsos pass which happened about 300 years ago. The Loxodon (the elephant-headed person) was Maheshvara and he lead the battle to defend the pass from an army of devils who attempted to conquer Eastern Erathos. It was a well-known event, Mary had learnt about it at school. The bells, however, were something new.
“That’s great,” Paulina said. “Now, when we go to save Saami, we can show the duergar some art. You should have taken the gold!”
“There was a pool of acid!” Mary repeated.
Then something occurred to her. What would happen if the dragon found out that they’d stolen her scrolls? They’d raised the alarms in Gracklstugh just a few hours ago, it’d be really easy to follow their path from there to here, if the dragon and the duergar collaborated. And they must have collaborated at some point! Otherwise why would the logger be here, in the Dark Lady’s lair, when he was captured by the duergar back in the goblin cavern?
“I have to take them back,” she said. “The scrolls. I have to put them where they were.”
“What?” Paulina said. “Going back to the dragon?! Have you lost your freakin mind?!”
“No,” Mary said. “But I think it’d be best if I did that.”
Her companions gave her a concerned look.
“Don’t worry, I’m still invisible. I can do this,” Mary said, “But the lightning scroll might be useful to us. Can we, um… I don’t know, make a duplicate or something?”
In the next few minutes they worked on forging a piece of paper from Mary’s notebook to look like the magic scroll. Aurum even tied it with the bow from the original, making it look almost indistinguishable.
“Good,” Mary said. “Now wish me luck!”
And she headed back to the plinth.
It was a quick walk from the tunnel to the pond. The dragon’s laughter and the lizardfolks’ delighted sighs made Mary want to finish this part as quickly as possible. Later, she’d try and persuade her companions to go and save the dwarf, but now she just had to do that one thing and then get out.
She went to the plinth and placed the scrolls on top of it, arranging them the way she remembered she found them.
She sighed. It was done.
Before going back, she approached the pond to take a better look inside. Maybe there was a coin or two to bring back to Paulina. She stared at the acid and thought how weird it was that she didn’t have a reflection.
Then, she realized that the cavern had suddenly gotten awfully quiet. She raised her head and felt a warm breeze blow on her back. Fear gripped her heart as she slowly, stiffly, carefully turned around.
The Dark Lady’s eyes blinked, staring at her from just a few feet away.
Sooo, um… That’s not good. What do you think, was Mary being foolish to go back? My fellow D&D players and our DM thought so at the time. But I still wonder what would have happened if she hadn’t returned the scrolls.
Anyway. This story is coming to a scary place soon. I hope you’re ready. See you in the next chapter where we’ll find out what the Dark Lady has in store for Mary.
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the chapter guide. You're welcome!)