Hello, Everyone!
Last time, our heroes had just started their fancy dinner with the ruler of Pamagos, when Nurvureem's servant Kalien entered the establishment and went on to talk with another dark figure that Mary had seen before in the tunnels under Belfast - the Dry Hand.
Thanks to Aurum's 'Clairvoyance' spell, our heroes were able to overhear the conversation between the two - about someone that had died, Nurvureem who'd killed another dragon, and the Artefact which had been delivered to someone in order to start 'something' very soon.
When Mary, Bruno and Aurum came back to ‘The Maimed Lion’, Paulina and her company were still in their booth. They had a bunch of empty mugs and glasses before them and when they saw the trio in their fancy attire, they started booing and giving them the thumbs down.
Mary hid her face in her palms and hurried up the stairs. When she came down, she was dressed in her usual clothes and her hair, which had been all touched up for the dinner, was now hanging messily around her face. The scar on her neck was securely covered with a thick shawl.
Bruno and Aurum were already sitting in the booth. The bard had his pipe out and was enjoying a smoke next to Toto and Mary could see his hand travel up and down the half-elf’s thigh under the table. These two were hitting it off really well. Bruno was sitting as far away from the smoke as he could, and Mary found out, with disappointment, that this was next to Paulina.
She sat beside Asya but stared at Paulina instead. She was going to prove to her that she wasn’t boring.
“What are you drinking?” she asked, hoping to sound confident.
The dwarf girl raised an eyebrow.
“Whiskey? Why?”
“I’ll have one, too.”
Paulina looked her up and down and sneered.
“Why don’t you start with something lighter?” She raised her hand to the waiter. “Mah girl here’s gonna have an ale!”
“Make that two,” Bruno said. “It’s been a long evening.”
Mary’d had ale before. She didn’t like it. It was too bitter and bubbly and had nothing to do with the wonderful sensation of having tea trickle down your throat. As for anything stronger than that… The Windfiddle household had never been too keen in regards to alcohol. Performing in front of an audience didn’t favor getting drunk beforehand.
Mary took a sip from the mug before her and tried not to make a grimace. Paulina was looking at her and she wasn’t going to give her another reason for ridicule. She smiled reluctantly and took another sip. It wasn’t as bad as the first one.
It was after the first ale that it all became a bit blurry. Mary remembered talking but not what for. She remembered laughing but not why. She remembered having toasts and waving her hands around, she remembered Bruno standing up to go to the toilet and her sitting in his place.
She remembered taking a sip from Paulina’s whiskey and that’s when her memories ended.
She woke up drenched in sweat, with her mouth dryer than parchment. It was like someone had split her head in two. When she opened her eyes, her vision was blurry and the light from the window jabbed like blades into her pupils.
She groaned.
Mary stood up, shakily, spat out some of her hair and waited for the world to stop spinning. Her eyes managed to focus on a water bottle and a bucket next to her bed. Her parched tongue ran over her lips and found that the lower was spliced in the middle. It tasted like iron.
She couldn’t stand the thirst. She picked up the bottle and drank. The moment water started going down her throat, however, she suddenly realized it wasn’t going to stay in. Her eyes fell on the bucket.
She bent over it, wretching and coughing, wailing in pain and embarrassment.
Bruno came in after a while. Mary was lying on her bed, face down, with her head hanging off from the side above the bucket.
“Hey, Mary,” he said cheerfully. “How’s it going?”
“Can you be quiet, please?” she croaked out.
“I told you not to mix alcohol,” he said. “Here, drink this.”
He handed her a glass and she downed it obediently. The stuff was disgusting but it wasn’t enough to make her puke again. She sobbed the whole time she was drinking.
“Why didn’t you make me stop?” she said when she was finally able to talk again. “Why didn’t you do something?”
“We did. Several times. I told you not to mix alcohol, Aurum told you to slow down and take in food along with the booze. You didn’t listen. And I’m not going to stop you from wrecking yourself, I’m not your mom.”
Mary glared at him and went to wash herself. When she saw her image in the mirror, she started fully wailing again.
“They are bah-ah-ah-ack!” she said. “Bru-hu-no! They’re ba-ah-ack! Whyyyyy?!”
Not only was her face red and swollen from all the crying, not only was her hair dischevelled and dirty, not only was there filth everywhere on her…
But the Moustache Curse was back. Aurum’s Dispell Magic hadn’t worked.
Have you gotten black-out drunk in your life? I haven't, but I've sure gotten to the point of having to puke the alcohol out of my body 😅 This was my precious Mary's first inebriation, and I'm not sure if she'd like to do it again.
Plus, the 'Moustache Curse' turned out to be more persistent than she'd hoped.
We'll see each other next time, in the final part of this chapter.
Until then,
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.