Hello, Everyone!
How are you? I’m doing pretty well, considering how frantic my everyday life has become. I hope it’ll be better soon because if not, I won’t be able to draw all the fun little illustrations for the story!
Last time, Mary, Bruno and Aurum visited ‘Steel Printing House’ where they met with its owner Rickard Steel. They told him about Mary’s stolen manuscript and he agreed to discontinue the book, but only if they managed to find the person who claimed to be its author (‘Flamingo’). He told his halfling secretary Sherry to help them with any kind of information they needed and left them alone with her.
Let’s see what she can do for our heroes!
Sherry asked them to wait for a second and went through another door. They heard some rummaging and rustling, then the crash of something heavy falling down, followed by a small yelp.
“Are you all right?” Bruno said, ready to leap to her help.
“I’m fine, I’m fine, don’t worry about it,” the halfling woman squeaked.
She came back, rubbing a bump on her head, and handed them a piece of paper with a long set of numbers on it.
“Here you go,” she said.
Bruno took it and Mary saw him move his lips, relaying the information via a Sending.
“Ferenc said he’d need some time to check the account,” he said finally. “We’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”
“Then we’d need to try another way,” Mary said. She looked at Sherry. “I’m sorry, could I… um, see the manuscript that Flamingo came in with? There might be clues on it.”
The woman sighed and looked towards the room she’d just exited, then shrugged and went in again. They heard some more rustling and a few bangs. Sherry came out, her uniform crumpled and dust all over her head.
"Here you go," she smiled weakly and gave Mary a collection of pages wrapped in a nondescript leather folder.”
Mary looked through the manuscript. It was eerily similar to her own. Most of the details were verbatim from her journals, ‘cept for the places where Flamingo had edited them to favour Mary instead of her friends and make her seem more courageous or capable than she’d been.
But how could it be so accurate? It was as if somebody had sat down with her journals and had written down every single word.
Тhe only chapter that had a decisively different style from the rest was the last one, where the trio had been awarded the title ‘Heroes of Belfast’. It was scribbled casually, like a side note. Almost as if Flamingo hadn’t been able to see Mary’s writing from the event and copy it on time.
“When was the manuscript brought here?” she asked.
Sherry checked some ledgers and found the exact date they’d gotten the folder. It was the 14th of July, just a few days after the dwarven ceremony. Not enough time to have both attended it and reached Pamagos in time to see the publisher.
So, the copying had happened somewhere between their exit from Roko’s tunnels and the ceremony. During that period Mary’s journals were constantly in Bruno’s room and she hadn’t really been keeping a close eye on them.
“What about the artist?” Aurum asked. “The picture on the cover looks very similar to us. Whoever drew it must have had to talk to Flamingo to get our likeness.”
The smile Sherry gave him looked more like a plea.
“Can we see the original?” he said.
She sighed and went back to the other room. For the third time, there were bumps and rumblings, and when the halfling returned with the picture, her hair was sticking out in all directions
The drawing was made with pencils on nice thick paper. There were a lot of corrections, mainly in the trio’s faces. It looked really professionally made.
“Who could have drawn it?” Aurum asked.
“Oh, I don’t really know," Sherry said. "But I can give you the address of ‘The Gallery’. There are all sorts of artistic people gathering there. They might recognize the style."
‘The Gallery’ turned out to be quite the place. It was a small building which would have been quite unremarkable if it weren’t for the paintings covering the facade. There were depictions of gods and demons, paysages of faraway lands and all sorts of decorative patterns. It sure stood out in the mids of the other, more common grey and beige structures around it.
The inside of the building was just as decorated as the outside. There were all sorts of paintings on the walls and statues in the corners. The woman at the reception desk raised her head from a book she was reading and regarded them with a business-like smile.
“Looking for our members’ services or just browsing?” she said.
“We, um…” Mary hesitated. If this was a place for artistic people, was there a chance of Flamingo himself being a member? She decided to be vague. “We’re interested in ‘Mary Windfiddle’s Grand Adventure’. The… um, the book.”
“Ooh!” the woman gave out a chuckle. “That book! You know, it was the topic of a lot of heated discussion in our circles.”
Mary felt her heart flutter. Real, professional artists had been talking about her book? That felt so amazing! … and scary at the same time. What if they didn’t like it? What if her book wasn’t any good?
“Rafael di Pitoya even coined a new term,” the receptionist continued. “‘Mary Sue’.”
“Oh! What does it mean?”
“A female character who is unjustifiably talented.”
“Unjustifiably?!” Mary snapped. “What do you mean by unjustifiably?!”
The woman put her book down and focused on her. Mary felt her cheeks flare up.
“Oh,” the receptionist said. “I see. Well, let me show you to Rafael.”
Soo, Mary Sue, eh? Our DM says that line was a stroke of genius on the spot, he hadn’t planned it in the slightest. I still think that’s one of the best outside-world-references he’s given us so far! What do you think?
Anyway, see you next time when we’re about to talk to Rafael di Pitoya and find out what he knows.
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide and the Glossary for the series. You're welcome!)