Hello, Everyone!
Last time, our heroes went to sleep in the safety of Mary's magical tree. Mary stayed awake to guard the others and, while they were snoozing peacefully, destroyed some vines that were trying to creep on the tree. Later, Tesaya took on the guard duty and Mary went to sleep... only to be woken up violently, by vines bursting out from the ground and enveloping her whole body.
She had forgotten that the tree didn't protect them from threats from below!
There was no movement in the plant-cocoon. There was no vision, either. Mary couldn’t make the gestures for her spells, nor could she say the magic words. She could hardly even breathe! She was utterly powerless.
All she could do was wait and hope that her friends would come to her aid before she suffocated.
She heard their grunts, and the slashing of their weapons. She heard Bruno’s prayer and Aurum’s distant words of inspiration. She heard Agatha yell out something but she couldn’t understand what.
She gave out a yelp, feeling the vines constricting her tighter. A few of them buried their roots inside of her shoulders, and she felt some of her energy leave her body, like they had sucked it out. She wiggled, desperately trying to get loose.
“Release!” she heard Tesaya’s voice boom outside of the cocoon.
Suddenly, it opened up. Rain poured on Mary's head. She tumbled in the mud, coughing, but immediately, the light from Bruno’s Holy symbol reached her and gave her strength. She took in a laboured breath. She was alive!
“... you OK?” Tesaya’s voice came to her once again.
The Paladin was holding her magical necklace, one of its green jewels glowing brightly in her grasp. Mary felt the healing magic flow through her body and stood up, ready to join the fight.
Everything was slightly blurry. Her eyeglasses were covered with little raindrops that made it hard to distinguish what was happening around her. She saw Bruno's figure nearby, his Spiritual Weapon hammering on the vine creature. Agatha had climbed on top of the plant mass and was slashing madly with both her daggers. Aurum was nowhere to be seen.
Except that... there was a human-sized bulge half-way up the creature’s arm. The plants had swallowed him up, too.
Mary had the energy for only one more spell left in her body. She yelled out the magic words and pointed at the monster. Her Blight hit it hard. Same as before, its mass began to dry up and shrivel, the leaves and vines quickly greying and falling to the ground.
In a few seconds, the creature was gone. Aurum emerged from the middle of its mass, cutting his way out of the dying plants.
They were all safe.
"Where is my wand?" Mary called and fell to her knees, frantically splashing in the swamp around her.
It was cold and dark, and the water was still up to her ankles. It was going to be nearly impossible to find her wand in these conditions, except…
Oh, yeah! She had her Eldritch Sight. She blinked and everything magical around her started to glow. Immediately, she was able to see her wand's silhouette a few feet away. She dug it out and pressed it to her chest. She'd thought she'd lost it for good!
"We should get away from here," Bruno said, looking around through the rain. "That thing might return, or something else might come to check us out. We were quite loud out here."
"I'm sorry! Mary said. "It was all my fault!"
"Don't be ridiculous, Mary," Tesaya said. "Of course it wasn't!"
But it was. It was Mary's initial Blight that made the creature attack them. She'd been too overconfident, too careless. How could she forget that things could attack the orange tree from below?! She should have woken her friends up, she should have told them about the danger. She felt so foolish!
A lightning bolt zipped through the air and struck a nearby tree. The whole party jumped and looked at Tesaya in her full plate armour. Mary instinctively took a step away from her.
"So, yeah," Bruno said. "It doesn't matter whose fault anything was, we need to get somewhere safer."
"I saw a rock formation on our way down," Agatha said. She looked really miserable with the raindrops pattering on her fur. "It had something like a shelter and it's less than a few hundred yards that way." She pointed towards the mountains.
They gathered their soggy belongings and took off. The place Agatha had seen was a stone outcropping on a small hill overlooking the swamp. It wasn't as comfortable or safe as the orange tree, but at least now they had something between them and the thunderstorm.
We did it! We beat up a Shambling Mound! It was a short fight but I feel like it was pretty challenging. I remember how desperate I was to do anything at the beginning. I couldn't cast any spells, not without being able to speak the words! Thank goodness for Tesaya and her Command spell!
See you next time when we continue our journey!
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.