Hello, Everyone!
I finally managed to draw some illustrations, yay! For a week or two, you won't have to look at my usual place-holder picture. I hope that I can do the illustrations in the future, too!
Anyway. It’s time to continue with Mary Windfiddle’s story. If you’re joining us right now, here’s a recap of what’s happened since the start of the story. Some of it might be relevant to what’s going to happen next :)
After all the above adventures were done, our heroes went to Mary’s hometown and met her family. Aurum disappeared on a three-month-long mission/vacation and when he came back, they headed out on a new endeavour. Someone had copied Mary’s journals and had published them as a book. ‘Mary Windfiddle’s Grand Adventure’ had become famous in almost all of Eastern Erathos but it wasn’t the story Mary wanted to write, and it was used for someone else’s gain.
Last we left them, the trio managed to find out who’d done it (it was their old acquaintance Jared, can you imagine?!?), captured his sister and convinced (or more like intimidated) her into giving them the ownership of the bank account where the money from the books came in.
Then, it was time to decide what to do next.
“I… um… don’t want to go after Jared,” said Mary.
They had just said ‘goodbye’ to Nymphadora in front of the bank and were starting to walk back to ‘The Maimed Lion' to gather their gear.
“What?” Bruno frowned.
“I… I mean…” Mary mumbled. “Now that Jared can’t take the money from the vault without us being present, why… why hurry? Plus, I think there are, um… more urgent and important things.” At this point her voice became more decisive. “Like, for example, what happened to Pritley. Didn’t that remind you of something?”
“Raxstrad,” Aurum said gravely.
“Yes! The fire, the Undead… The way they just appeared, out of thin air… It can’t be just a coincidence,” Mary said. “We have to check if there haven’t been any other attacks like this.”
“But Jared is running away with the key to our money!” Bruno complained.
“People died, Bruno!”
The dwarf fell silent.
“Oooh, I’m gonna be so mad if he finds a way to spend all our money!” he groaned, his hands flying in the air. “But ok, let’s find out more about those undead!”
They went to the local authorities. It was a fairly big complex, both for the city’s militia and its soldiers. Mary and Bruno had already been there, looking for adventuring jobs, and presumably so was Aurum. It was here where lord Dwendel had hired them to guard his family’s journey to Myth Adofhaer.
When they explained what they were doing there, the man at the front desk directed them to the office of someone called ‘Captain Roche’. They managed to find it and knocked on the door. A low voice told them to enter.
The captain was an older gentleman with a thick brush-like moustache. He was leaning on a desk buried in loads of documents and ledgers. Behind him, a big map was nailed to the wall, with a lot of X-es drawn on it and red threads connecting them.
Captain Roche raised his head and looked at the three.
“Hello. What can I do for you?” he said.
“Hello,” Bruno said, “we’re interested in the recent undead attacks.”
“Are you looking for a job or do you have information to share?” the captain said.
Bruno shared a look with Mary and Aurum.
“Both?” Mary said.
“Both,” Aurum nodded.
“We wanted to know as much as you can tell us about them,” Mary said.
“Why?” The captain gave them an inquisitive look.
“We don’t… um…” Mary said, “We don’t want more people to die.”
“I see,” the captain said.
In the next hour they shared a lot of information. Mary’s group told captain Roche everything they could remember from Raxstrad and Pritley. He, in turn, told them all he knew about the other attacks.
There had already been 14 attacks by undead creatures since the beginning of the year. Raxstrad was only the second of them, and Pritley was the most recent. All on smaller settlements, all suddenly and during the night. Almost all gave tens of victims and every time the undead disappeared shortly after the assault, along with the bodies of the people they’d killed.
“Someone is raising an army,” Bruno said.
“We think so, too,” the captain confirmed.
It turned out that Frinkeltong, Pamagos and Belfast were actively sharing information and help on this case, but Ekoba and Myth Adofhaer were strangely silent about the whole thing. The only territory that was confirmed to not have had any attacks, was Zerakas tol. Mary couldn’t help but glance at Aurum. He’d recently been there, after all. He looked back at her and shrugged.
“The worst part is that this is not the first time that’s happened,” Captain Roche sighed.
There had been two other series of strikes by the undead in the near past. The first one was 18 years ago. There were 18 settlements attacked, after which the assaults just… stopped. The authorities that were looking into the case couldn’t find a culprit and the investigation had died down.
The second one was 6 years ago.
This again! Mary thought. So many things happened that year! Creen Bright’s ship sank, Christoff Pyron vanished, Dorina Dwendel disappeared… These can’t be just coincidences!”
There were 12 attacks six years ago, but most of them were in or near Myth Dofhaer. The elves had asked for a non-elven investigator and Pamagos had sent one of their best to check it out. They’d found the perpetrator, an elven man named Maquiel Prouvier. He’d confessed and was detained in the elven city, after which the attacks had stopped.
When captain Roche told them the name of the investigator in question, Mary’s heart made a leap.
It was agent Dwendel.
So many threads are coming together! Remember Raxstrad? Remember Pritley? Remember Dorina Dwendel? Oh, this is so exciting!!!
I hope you’re as eager to learn more as we were at our D&D table when these events were unfolding! See you next time for more information on the case!
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide and the Glossary for the series. You're welcome!)