Hello, Everyone!
Last time our friends had a shocking revelation. Ever since Myth Adofhaer, hey had had a fourth mamber of the party, a woman named Lanurey Trost that they didn't remember. The only trace they could find of her were her items and the entries in Mary's journal which she didn't remember writing.
They tried playing around with their subconsciousness by asking questions in Mary's notes and realizing that they had written answers to said questions--you guessed it--without remembering them.
“Before we go to bed,” Aurum said.
“Yeah?”
“Can we try and call Granny?”
“What? Why?”
“She said she had a contact who could let us go beyond the First wall,” Aurum said. “Who knows when we’ll need to do that?”
“And also we could ask her about Lanurey,” Bruno said.
Mary frowned. She always felt uncomfortable when they had to summon Granny. It was true that they could ask her for all that they didn’t remember or knew… but would she name a price?
“Yeah,” Mary mumbled. “I guess we could call her.”
Aurum took out the ruby amulet from the folds of his shirt and whispered into it. They looked around and waited. Where would the old lady come from? Would ‘The Hut’ appear outside the inn or would Granny just show up out of nowhere?
A knock on glass took them out of their wonder. There was a sparrow on the windowsill.
“Hello, children,” it said when they let it in. “I’m so glad to have you call for me. What can I do for you?”
Mary started, before someone else could.
“Granny,” she said, “when last we were in your hut, how many were we?”
“Three, of course.”
Mary sighed. Some part of her was hoping that the hag might have seen and remembered Lanurey, but alas, she was as useful as Gillean the last time she wrote to him. Why were those powerful Fey beings so unhelpful?
“What about this ring?” Aurum said holding his hand up. “Is it magical?”
“I think Mary could tell you if it is,” the bird said.
Mary already knew that it wasn't. She'd looked at it with her Eldritch sight. But she felt uncomfortable every time Granny Gretel knew more than she was supposed to.
“And do you know anything about a woman named Lanurey Trost?”
“Lanurey… Hmmm,” the sparrow cocked its head. “No, I wouldn’t say I do. Who is she?”
“I wish we knew,” Mary said. “She’s a half-elf from Myth Adofhaer. She’s supposed to have left with us for Ekoba.”
Mary listed what they knew about Lanurey without actually saying why they were interested in her. The old hag didn’t need to know everything about their quests.
“An alchemist, you say?” the sparrow said. “You know, that’s strange. I did find some of my alchemy supplies missing after the last time you were in the Hut.”
Mary flashed to the alchemy kit they’d found in the Bag of Holding.
“But there was a surplus of money in the cash register,” Granny continued. “Like someone had left them there without me knowing about it.”
That stirred Mary’s memory. She’d just heard of someone else who’d found stuff in their house that wasn’t supposed to be there. She jumped from her seat, and, without saying a word to anyone, rushed downstairs.
The man was still there, drinking quietly with his friends. Mary stopped, caught her breath and smoothed out her clothes before approaching.
“Hello,” she said. “My name is…” the hesitation was barely noticeable when she continued, “Lanurey and I’m a detective. I learnt that you had a break-in recently. I’d like to investigate your case.”
“What?” the man said. “But I haven’t called the g-guards! H-how…”
He swallowed hard and looked at his friends. They all seemed freaked out by something that Mary couldn’t quite get. But it didn’t matter. She had to press on.
“There have been more break-ins lately and my colleagues and I are looking into them,” she said. “We’d like to go to your home and check out for any clues.”
“I…” the man hesitated. His friends looked at him with widened eyes. “Of course! Of course. I’ll… can I f-finish my drink first?”
“Of course,” Mary said. “I have to call my colleagues anyway. We’ll come down really soon, wait for us, please.”
She turned around and calmly walked back to the stairs, then, the moment she was out of the man’s sight, ran up and burst through the door of their room.
“Yes, we agree,” Aurum was just saying to the sparrow.
“That’s good,” it replied with Granny Gretel’s creaking voice. “See you later then. Take care, children!”
And the bird flew out.
Mary glared at her friends.
“What did you agree on?!” she said. “Did you make another deal?!”
They had. Granny Gretel had told them where they could find the person who could take them beyond the Second wall. In return, they had to help another one of her ‘grandchildren’ who was aiming to become a captain of the guard.
“Did she say a name?” Mary asked. “Who are these ‘grandchildren’ of hers?”
She almost expected one of those to be Jared. There'd been so many coincidences that she was convinced he had something to do with Granny Gretel.
The only two times they'd seen 'The Hut' before the whole thing with her book, were in Raxtrad (where they'd fought the undead and she'd told everyone about the book she was writing) and in Belfast (where she'd left her journals unattended for the first time since).
In her imagination, Jared had happened upon 'The Hut' before--or shortly after--they had, but where they hadn't trusted Granny enough to make a deal with her right away, he had.
After all, that would explain the impossible way he'd been able to sneak into the Airhammers' home and copy Mary's journals. If Jared's wish for Granny was to make some easy money and screw Mary in the process, what easier way than to make him undetectable and give him the opportunity to steal her writing?
“She didn’t say the name of that second one,” Aurum said. “But the first was Johanes. He has a shop beyond the First wall but can get us access beyond the Second.”
“And we know the name of the shop?” Mary said. “What’s stopping us from just going there right now and asking this Johanes for the access?”
“Yeah, no. We made a deal,” Bruno said. “We have to keep our end of it.”
Mary huffed. She hated making deals with the hag.
“Anyway,” she said. “Get your stuff and come with me. We’re investigating a break-in.”
What's going on? They were too tired to check the water, but they're going to have an investigation? Oh, guys! You're priceless!
Anyway, see you next time!
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide, the Glossary and the Map for the series. You're welcome!)
An important disclaimer: These are my notes from a D&D game turned into a narrative. All the worldbuilding and NPC encounters belong to our DM, and all the actions of the other main characters (Aurum and Bruno) belong to my co-players. My contribution to the story is only everything Mary-related (actions, reactions, inner thoughts), as well as the writing itself.