Hello, Everyone!
Sorry for not being around for a while... Life is busy and something has to give :( I can't promise that I won't disappear again but I'll do my best to at least do it after the next chapter is done.
Anyway. A bit of a recap:
Our heroes--Mary, Bruno and Aurum--arrived in the city of Pamagos. Their new companion Agatha (whom Mary is really suspicious of) revealed that she had seen a Green dragon amassing an army in the South, and wanted to warn Dynatos Perres (the city's ruler) about it. The group headed to Mr. Perres' office but before reaching it, they met an old enemy - the Black dragon Nurvureem. She was chilling in a tavern, in her humanoid form, having some unknown dealings with the Cult of Tiamat. The party managed to save a young woman from the dragon's clutches, and in her fury, she (the dragon, not the woman) destroyed half a block and killed a lot of people.
Finally, our heroes met with Dynatos Perres and told him about all the dragon business they'd encountered and/or heard about. In the middle of their conversation, a portal opened in the air, and a friend of the group--the elven Paladin Tesaya--appeared, badly injured and running away from her people. It turned out that she had uncovered a secret plot - the elven Elder Tiriel Elaire wanted to free yet another dragon from its prison and use it to threaten the fragile peace in the continent. They discussed the whole situation and agreed that Mary and her group--Tesaya included--would go to the Swamp of Agony in order to prevent the dragon's release.
Last time, our heroes had just returned to their tavern and Agatha went out to gather some additional information. She was attacked by an assassin sent by someone from her past but managed to evade him, and the group was, finally, able to have some rest.
The evening went quietly after Agatha came back. They all had the chance to finally change into their bed clothes and go to rest up for the coming days.
Half-conscious, Tesaya glanced at the tabaxi and patted the bed next to herself.
"Here, let's bleed together."
Agatha dragged her feet up there and plopped on the bed. Then, the two snuggled together and Mary could swear she heard the tabaxi purr.
Since Mary didn't need to sleep, she took the watch for the night. Even in their favourite inn, they weren’t completely safe. After all, Nurvureem’s people and the Children of Terpesh were somewhere in the streets of Pamagos.
Mary waited for everyone else to drift off and opened her Book of Shadows. She hadn't heard from Gillean for a while.
She tried to sound cheerful and not-at-all worried when she wrote her “Hey, Gillean!”
There was no reply.
Confused, she stared at the page where her message was slowly disappearing.
"Are you sleeping?" she wrote and waited.
Again, there was nothing on the page. Mary's chest tightened.
"Are you all right?"
What if Gillean was hurt or kidnapped? Or dead? Could that even happen? After Balaine Endoras’ death, anything seemed possible.
Would her Book still work if her Patron was gone?
No, that was stupid! Gillean was powerful, he wouldn't just get hurt. Plus, he was in his own realm, where his rules were law. Maybe he was just cross with her? She had almost died in Nurvureem's clutches and people tended to get angry when they were worried.
"Did I do something wrong?" she wrote. "Are you angry at me?"
She waited for about fifteen minutes before she slowly closed her Book.
Her palms felt very cold.
"Good morning, Mary," Tesaya said cheerfully. "What are you writing?"
"Oh, hey, Tesaya," Mary mumbled. "Nothing special, I’m just clearing up my thoughts. How… Um…"
She glanced at the woman's missing arm and swallowed the rest of her question. The two of them were in their room in ‘The Maimed Lion’, and daylight was barely beginning to touch the tops of the surrounding buildings.
“I can’t complain,” Tesaya said with a soft smile. She followed Mary’s gaze and shrugged. “Considering the circumstances…”
They both stayed silent for a while. Mary didn’t know what to say. What do you say to a person who’d just lost their right arm?
"Tiriel has really gone mad,” Tesaya broke the silence. “She’s always been envious of other wizards--she used to loathe Falka because of her abilities--but this… this is too much.”
“What were Falka’s abilities?” Mary said.
“Honestly, I can’t tell you much,” Tesaya said. “Even among us, elves, little is known about her. She was a mighty sorceress, and she did something few people thought possible. Her spell… the one that she used to trap the dragon… she performed it in the heat of battle. It is said that it was so powerful that she used her whole being to cast it. She ended up weaving her own self in the enchantment.”
“Her ‘self’? What do you mean? Her body? Her soul?”
“Possibly. That sort of a spell is almost too fantastical to be believed. But such thing has been done before.”
Mary fixed her eyes on Tesaya and prompted her to tell her more.
“More than twelve centuries ago, at the end of the Second Age, a wizard named Karsus used some crazy spell that started the so called ‘Spell Plague’. Not much is known, except that before his time, it was possible to do spells beyond the ninth Arcane sphere. Now it's pretty much impossible.”
“Woah!” Mary said. “Beyond the ninth sphere?! What would such magic even do?”
“Many things. Make the caster immortal. Turn them into a deity… They say Francesca Findabair used one such spell to create the Higanta mountain."
“And you’re saying that Falka did something like that, too?”
Tesaya nodded. Mary sighed. Now she, too, felt envious of Falka’s abilities.
“I wish I could be as powerful as her,” she mumbled. “Too bad I’d never be.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, Falka was powerful because her magic was her own. Mine… mine is borrowed.”
Tesaya looked at her and shook her head. “Oh, Mary!” she said.
She raised her left hand as if to touch her right, but her fingers folded reflexively when she didn’t find it there.
“I still feel it sometimes,” she said quietly.
“I’m… I’m sorry,” Mary said.
There was a long pause. They could hear Bruno’s light snoring and the soft breathing of their other companions.
“There are ways to restore it,” Mary suggested.
“Oh, yes, I know there are. But this kind of magic is too advanced and there are very few people...”
“No, I mean we might have a way to restore it.”
Tesaya raised her eyebrows.
“You see, we, too, had… um…“ Mary took a breath and steeled herself. Her next words came out with great difficulty. “I mean, something like that happened during our last adventure. It was… an, um, leg that was…” She swallowed. “Lost.”
Tesaya looked at her with concern but Mary was quick to avert her eyes. She stared at the floor.
“But we summoned Granny Gretel and she fixed it,” she mumbled. “My leg, I mean. She made it grow back.”
“Who’s Granny Gretel?”
“She’s a hag that we deal with.”
“You deal with a hag?!”
“It’s not as dangerous as it sounds,” Mary blurted out. “We are very careful, and I asked Gillean and he said it was ok, and we shook hands for a hundred gold pieces and nothing else and she made it grow back in just a few minutes.”
“How do you contact this hag?”
“It’s Aurum’s amulet,” Mary said. “The ruby one, she gave it to us. We use it to summon her, we can do it right now and ask for your arm…”
“No.” Tesaya extended her hand in a forbidding gesture. “I don’t want the easy way. I can be patient. Plus, I wouldn’t trust a hag.”
“I don’t either, I just…” Mary couldn’t finish her sentence. Suddenly, she felt very small. She’d just wanted her leg back…
“Mary, I don’t blame you for taking the deal,” Tesaya said kindly. “It was the right thing for you in that moment. But I’ll look for another solution.”
Mary kept on staring at the floor.
“Coffee?” Tesaya said and rose up.
Mary nodded and they headed downstairs.
Heey! Did you like this episode? Did you enjoy the new lore about magic and Mary's grandmother? And what do you think is happening with Gillean?
I really like reading and responding to comments! It helps a lot with my motivation to post regularly! If you read this post and enjoyed it, say a few words in the comments. It'll really make my day!
This is the link to the next part (when it's available).
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: Mary Windfiddle's story is 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.