Hello, Everyone!
Last time, after a somewhat fruitless visit to the library, Mary had her familiars follow Agatha through the streets of Pamagos and found her having interactions with some pretty shady people. After coming back, the tabaxi didn't share where she'd been and that made Mary even more suspicious of their new companion.
Meanwhile, the girl went to see Mr. Steel of the Steel Printing House and found out that she knew the man who'd ordered the flyers against Zerakas tol and Mr. Perres. It was the Dry Hand, the ‘Bishop’ from the card readings Granny Gretel had made them a few months ago. He was acting against the current governing powers, but they didn't know why.
Before going to Dynatos Perres' home, the group went to Freedom Street to check the situation there. After all, if the man's office was still blocked by the crowd, they had to think of some other way to contact him.
By now, most of the protesters had scattered, but there were still about a hundred people on the square. Some had even prepared to spend the night there, spreading bedrolls and sharing mugs and snacks among each other.
Mary reached out to try and Message Mr. Perres but her spell didn't connect. He was most probably out of range.
"Seems like he's gone home after all," she said.
They headed that way, and were only a couple of blocks away from their destination, when a small group came from another street and started walking towards them. They were soon going to cross paths and Mary looked to see them better. A tall human man with a long halberd, a tiefling woman with red skin, a nimble-looking halfling woman and…
Jared and Nymphadora.
Mary's eyes widened. Nymphadora was limping, her eyes affixed to the ground before her. The left side of her face was swollen and she was hugging her ribcage as if it was aching. Next to her, Jared was walking with his hand wrapped in bandages.
Had they been tortured? Beaten up? Did these other people do that to them?
They didn’t seem to be holding them prisoners or something... Jared, for one, didn't look wary of them, they strode alongside each other and cracked an occasional joke. Were they his friends then? Were they getting Nymphadora some help, or…
"Nymphadora!" Mary spoke into the girl’s mind. "It's Mary. What's going on? Who did that to you?"
The girl didn't show she'd heard her. She kept on trudging with her head hung down. They were now quite close to the group and Mary noticed recognition spread on Jared's face. He made a sign to his group and they slowed down.
Mary saw Bruno touch his Holy symbol and utter a healing spell towards Nymphadora. However, the tiefling woman intercepted his magic with a Counterspell.
"Uh-uh-uh," she said, shaking her forefinger.
Bruno glared at her and quickly made another attempt. This one was successful. Nymphadora quailed and her limp lessened visibly.
"Oh, hi, slimeball," Bruno said, turning towards Jared. "How have you been sleeping lately?" The Cleric had made it a habit of sending him mocking messages each night after they'd found out what he'd done with Mary's notes.
Jared gave him the middle finger. The man with the halberd stood between him and the trio, and pointed his weapon forward.
"Kent, we're going," Jared said. “Leave them.”
While they were crossing paths--from a safe distance, of course--Mary couldn’t take her eyes off of Nymphadora. Even with Bruno’s healing, she still looked so miserable!
“Please!” Mary sent inside her head. “Are you in trouble? We want to help you! Just say the word!”
But still, there was no answer.
She watched as the group kept on going to the street behind them.
“So, what was that about?” Agatha said. “You know these guys?”
“That’s Jared,” Bruno said, his eyes narrowed. “And I suppose those were some mercenaries he’s hired with the money from our dolls.”
“The girl didn’t really look like a mercenary.”
“No,” Mary said. “She’s his sister. We… met her back when we were dealing with the whole story with my book.”
“Damn, he beat her good!” Agatha said.
“Who?”
“That Jared guy.”
“What?” Mary frowned. “No way! She’s his sister! He should take care for her, not beat her!”
The tabaxi raised her eyebrows but didn’t say anything. Mary could see she didn’t take her words seriously.
“Anyway, did you see the tall one? He had a dragon tattoo,” Agatha asked. “Would it have anything to do with the dragons we already know about?”
“Not really,” Aurum said. “That’s the symbol of a criminal organization from beyond the Teeth. We fought a couple of those during our first outing with Dynatos.”
“Riiight,” the tabaxi said. “With the ruler of this place. So, what do we do now?”
"We follow them, of course," Mary said. "We need to help Nymphadora!"
The others agreed. They sent Agatha on the rooftops, seeing that this would be the least detectable way to go after Jared’s goons. The trio went ahead on adjacent streets, away from the group’s line of sight. Mary kept an open connection to their tabaxi who pointed them in the right direction.
"They entered a tavern," Agatha spoke in Mary's head. "Do I go in after them?"
"No, wait for us," Mary sent to her. "Let's coordinate."
It turned out that the tavern was 'The Leaky Sink'. Mary glanced at the tabaxi, wondering whether she'd admit she'd already been there.
"So, what's the plan?" Agatha said, rubbing her hands together. "We go in and see what they’re doing?"
"It might be dangerous,” Bruno said. “They know us, that might give them an advantage.”
“Someone else can enter, then,” Mary said, suddenly struck with an idea. “Aurum can turn into anyone! Right? With that spell of yours?”
The bard grinned. He cocked his head as if wondering whom to turn into and then a mischievous expression washed onto it. He murmured a couple of words and made a circular motion in front of his face, morphing into Kalien--horn, scaly skin and all. Agatha gasped. Seeing that he was still wearing his own clothes, he took out a cloak and threw it onto his new frame.
“Agatha?” Bruno said suspiciously. “Is there something you need to tell us?”
“What?” the tabaxi said.
“You seem more shocked than surprised of that face. Have you seen it before?”
“I… Who is he?"
"It's Kalien," Mary said. "Nurvureem's servant. We told you about him."
"You didn't say what he looked like. Yes, I've seen him before. He was at that same tavern earlier today."
So she admitted to having been there. But that wasn't the important part here.
“Oh, no!” Mary exclaimed. “You have to change that face!”
She turned to Aurum and… realized he wasn’t there anymore. He’d gone in, before they were able to finish their talk.
”Aurum!” Mary Messaged in his direction. “Kalien was in this tavern earlier today. They know him! You can’t go in with his face, they might recognize the deception!”
The bard didn’t answer.
“There was a woman with him, too,” Agatha said. “Very tall, more than 6’5’’, black hair and a huge sword. It looked a lot like what Aurum has tattooed on his arm.”
Mary took a sharp breath. She sent another Message, almost screaming in the bard’s head.
“NURVUREEM was with Kalien! She’s in human form! Might still be there! Abort! Abort mission! Run!!!”
But, once again, he didn’t answer.
Oh, no! Nurvureem, again?! What is she doing in Pamagos? And do you think our heroes will be lucky enough not to encounter her?
(Spoiler alert: Our DM is much to devious to miss such a golden opportunity!)
Well, see you next time. At least be assured that it won't be boring 😅
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, Bruno and Agatha) 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.