Hello, Everyone!
How are you? I’ve been down lately. The end of last year was bad for D&D, with all that ‘going-to-meet-the-family’ and ‘celebrating-New-Year-abroad’ things.
I hope our group will be able to catch up soon!
Until then, here’s the next part of Mary Windfiddle’s story. Last time, she and her friends went out with Tesaya and finally had the chance to walk around Myth Adofhaer. They met a unicorn whom Mary spoke with, and then went to the Archives to look for information on the case they’ve been working on. Mary, however, had additional plans. She really, really wanted to snoop around and find out information about some side stuff that’s come up during their adventures so far. She got Aurum to distract one of the guards that watched them, and Tesaya took care of the other. Mary happily headed out to find the files for the elven scientist Sylvannas, whose corpse they found all the way back at Mary’s first trial.
However, Sylvannas’ file turned out to be too close to where Tesaya had led the second guard!
It was too late to back down now.
Mary was standing before the big letter “S” on the shelf and, just on its other side, in the space between the folders, she could see the elven guard talking to Tesaya. Currently, he was facing the other way, but how long was he going to stay like that?
Mary froze with her arm reaching for Sylvanas’ file and met Tesaya’s eyes across the shelf. The elven woman raised her eyebrows and then turned to the guard.
“Sooo,” she said, “how have you been lately? How’s the family? Any interesting gossip?”
Mary didn’t know why their hostess was aiding her in what Tiriel Elaire had explicitly said was forbidden. But with the distraction Tesaya provided, Mary was able to quickly page through the file. She remembered Sylvanas' strange research on giving plants sentience and resilience, and wanted to know everything about the mysterious ‘she’ who’d sponsored him. It could be helpful with Gillean’s trees at one point.
Frustratingly, the only new information she got was the elf’s last name (Bliss) and where he’d studied his craft (Tiriel School of Magic). Everything else matched what she’d already read in his diary. His benefactor wasn't revealed, nor was the reason he'd started his research in the first place.
Mary returned the file, disappointed, and looked around. Tesaya was--loudly--stretching in her plate armour. Mary wondered if she could try her luck with another of the things she wanted to know. Maybe there were files in the elven Archives for the man with the dry hand, or for Nurvureem. Plus, there was a chance--however small it might have been--that she could find a mention of her birth father’s name. There was no ‘Halas’ in Pamagos’ Archives, and she hadn’t really been looking for him back in Frinkeltong… But maybe here…
“Oh, my Gods!” Aurum’s voice boomed from the corridor beyond the archive room. “That was a close one! Thanks, man, that'd have been really embarrassing!"
Mary flinched and ran to her previous place, meeting Bruno’s glare, and pretended that she’d been there the whole time.
When they got out of the Archives, Mary expected that Tesaya would immediately confront her about what had happened in there. After all, her curiosity had almost gotten them all in trouble. The elven woman, however, didn’t say anything. Instead, she smiled politely and asked them where they wanted to go to next.
"We could go see Prouvier," Aurum said.
“I'm afraid I won't be very good at interrogating him right now,” Bruno said. “I don't have the spell that makes people tell the truth. I need time to prepare it."
"If not that, what else?" Tesaya said.
"We could just go home to talk over what we've found in the Archives," Bruno said, looking intently at Mary.
"Well, um…" Mary said. "I'd actually like to go to the Bearers' office first."
She wasn't ready to face the dwarf's lecture.
Mary spent as much time in the Bearer’s office as she could. She made Bruno, Aurum and Tesaya wait outside, claiming she had some personal matters to conduct--and, well, that was partially true, she did send a letter to Lilly and Bramble--but she also wanted to find out what’d happened to her letter to Dorina Dwendel.
“We’re sorry,” the person behind the desk said. “It’s a noble thing to try and find her, but her family already tried our services six years ago, to no avail. She is just… undetectable.”
There were no more ways to delay the inevitable.
“Look, I’m sorry!” Mary said, even before Bruno had opened his mouth to speak.
The trio had gathered in their room, after telling Tesaya that they needed to ‘talk among themselves’. Their hostess had given them the privacy they asked for without any protest. Mary felt a little guilty for not including her, but she was afraid that if they did, she’d get two lectures instead of one.
“I had to look up some more information,” she continued. “Who knows how many interesting and useful things we could have learned!”
“Well?” Bruno scowled. “What ‘interesting’ and ‘useful’ things did you learn? What was worth going against the will of the Council?”
“I… um…” Mary’s hands fidgeted.
She told them how little she’d found out about Sylvanas. Bruno gave her a fierce look but then sighed and shook his head, murmuring something about ‘the young and foolish’.
“That whole ordeal aside,” he said, turning his attention to both Mary and Aurum, “what do you think about the really important information that we learned? The one we actually went there to check?”
“All women were blonde,” the bard said. “And the things about Prouvier feel too much like a set-up.”
“You know what?” Mary said. She’d just had a great idea. “Dorina captured him with a bait. Do you think we can try the same with whoever is doing the kidnappings now?”
She looked at Aurum.
“I mean, you can become a blonde elven woman if you want to…”
The bard murmured a confirmation. He looked uncharacteristically hesitant about the whole thing.
“And we’ll be there to help you if there’s any need, ” Mary continued. Her idea felt better the more that she was thinking about it. “Plus, you aren’t actually an elf, so whoever is kidnapping the women won’t be interested in your soul.”
“Yeah,” Aurum said again.
“Of course, you can say ‘no’ if you’re worried,” Mary said, half-jokingly. She knew that would make her friend’s pride take over.
“I’m not worried!” Aurum sputtered, as expected.
“Whatever we end up doing, I think we should include Tesaya in the decision,” Bruno interrupted.
“But do you think she’d agree?” Mary said. “I mean, she could say ‘no’ and then we won’t be able to do anything.”
It was easier to look for forgiveness than permission.
“We need to include her, anyway,” the dwarf insisted. “She’s our hostess and she needs to know what we intend to do. And her skills could be useful if something bad happens.”
Mary pursed her lips. She wouldn’t admit it but, as usual, Bruno was right.
They went to Tesaya and told her of the plan. The elven woman looked at them for a long time before, finally, smiling widely and clapping her hands.
“I knew you guys were crazy!”
We’re going to set a trap! A booby trap, it Aurum decides to 'Alter-Self' into a certain body-type of a woman. Do you think it’s going to work and attract the kidnapper? I hope it does. It’s Mary’s first reckless and dangerous plan and she’s so proud of it!
I hope to see you next time, when we find out what’s going to happen!
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide and the Glossary 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.