Hello, Everyone!
How have you been? I had a short break from posting and made some very good progress with the story. Our D&D group keeps playing and we’re a couple of arcs ahead of what you’ll be reading this season, but it’s all right. My writing’ll get there eventually.
I hope you haven’t forgotten what Mary's story is all about but if you have, here’a bit of a recap.
One day Mary Windfiddle, a quiet and socially awkward bookworm from the city of Frinkeltong, decided that she was going to write a book. The greatest book of all time, or at least that’s how she imagined it.
She had read every novel she could get her hands on at Frinkeltong’s library, and could write pretty well herself, but there was something missing.
An actual experience.
So, she decided to go out into the world and use what she would learn and live through as the basis of her book. She had the main character all figured out – Imre Stormbringer, a great adventurer and a stooge for peace and prosperity.
There was just one tiny problem. Mary didn’t have any adventuring skills. So, in order to be able to survive in the outside world, she made a deal with a Patron, an unknown Archfey who gave her magic powers in return for what he described as ‘some small favors’ she could do on the way.
And thus, Mary started adventuring. Her first contract was as an escort to a lord named Dwendel and his family. That’s how she met her future companions and friends – the human bard Aurum and the dwarven cleric Bruno, as well as a human fighter named Jared who left them at the first opportunity.
Together with Bruno and Aurum, Mary fought monsters, helped people and retrieved stolen goods. Their escort mission ended at the walls of the elven city of Myth Adofhaer. There, they said their goodbyes to Lord Dwendel and Mary promised to find his missing daughter Dorina.
There wasn’t as much as a pause until their next adventure. Right as they left the lord, Bruno received a message from home – his brother was missing and his sister Paulina was asking for his help.
On the way to the dwarven city, Mary had her first mission from her Patron and she took Aurum on a little side-quest. Then, the trio saved some people from an attack on a tavern and got a few very useful items as a result.
The trio went to the city of Belfast where they found out that danger was looming over the dwarves. Forces from the Underdark were threatening the city with war, unless they let them have access to a certain Artefact. Mary, Bruno and Aurum (and Paulina who snuck out after them) went down into the tunnels in search of Bruno’s older brother, Saami, as well as some loggers who’d previously been sent out on a mission and never came back.
Down there, they climbed a scary wall in darkness, befriended a tribe of goblins, fought some duergar and almost got eaten by a scary stalagmite. In the process Mary found out that adventuring isn’t all fun and giggles. She started having nightmares, which only worsened after her Patron sent her on a mission in the lair of a Black dragon.
The dragon, Nurvureem, was found torturing one of the remaining loggers and captured Mary with the intention to torture her, too. Aurum came to her rescue but they both had to promise to tell the world of the dragon’s greatness in exchange for their freedom.
They saved the logger, got chased by the enraged dragon, managed to escape and later found Saami who, along with several other prisoners, was being taken to the dark elves to be enslaved and/or killed. A fight ensued. Mary found out that she could see in magical darkness, Paulina almost died and Bruno’s deity sent him some holy light to fend off their opponents.
Tired and almost at the end of their rope, the adventurers met a deep gnome named Roko who took them the rest of the way towards safety. It was a long and hard crawl through the tunnels. Mary’s nightmares, as well at her lost trust in her Patron’s well-meaning, made her refuse to sleep and she suffered grave consequences. Finally, after what seemed like days of wakedness, Aurum managed to convince her to have a rest.
That’s when Mary’s Patron summoned her to his realm. She was mistrustful at first, wondering if he’d used her for some nefarious purposes, but after he apologized and explained himself, she got to trust him once again. She even learned his name--Gillean--and received some magical presents (including a wand and the ability to never have to sleep ever again). Before he let her go, Gillean told her that he’d met her birth father and had a role in her being sent to her adoptive parents Lilly and Bramble.
The crawl through the tunnels ended with the group successfully getting to Belfast and finding out that the dwarves had made a deal with the Underdark. They were going to let them have the Artefact, and the duergar weren’t going to attack the mines. Powerless to stop the handover, Mary and her friends had to watch the magical item being taken by the rock giant Agrax and then passed to an unknown hooded figure who then disappeared in a teleportation circle.
However, their mission was now over. They had successfully rescued Bruno’s brother, along with the surviving loggers and two light elves they’d found in the tunnels – a woman named Moira and her daughter Dalia. The trio were named ‘The Heroes of Belfast’ and were awarded special privileges and honours. With the money they received from the dwarves, they managed to buy a lot of useful items and in the process made a deal with a mysterious and creepy old lady.
This is where the story finds them. What’s going to happen next? Let’s go on this adventure and see for ourselves! See you in the next part!
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide and the Glossary for the series. You're welcome!)