Hello, Everyone!
How are you? I’m excited, because we’re starting a new chapter of Mary Windfiddle’s Adventures! We’ve finally done all our quests in the Underdark (and then some!) and are on our way back to Belfast.
Last time, Bruno’s brother Saami showed our heroes a neat trick and summoned a Deep gnome who opened a secret side-tunnel and led them towards the dwarven mine.
I hope the journey won’t take too long (spoiler alert: it will!). Mary isn’t feeling very well. At this point she hasn’t slept for some time and, in D&D terms, has two levels of exhaustion.
Also, please read all the way to the end for a small announcement about the story coming forward.
Mary’s knees were bruised. Her wrists were hurting. Her back was killing her and her head was spinning from the exertion.
They were moving through the deep gnome’s tunnel for what seemed like an eternity. It was just big enough for their guide and the little elven girl to go through upright, all the others had to crawl, even the dwarves. And crawl they did, tired and hurting, until Mary was on the verge of passing out from the exhaustion.
“Mary, are you all right?” Bruno asked once again. That was like his mantra for the past hour or so. Mary was starting to lose her temper with him.
“I’m fine” she repeated her mantra. “It’s just hard to crawl. I’m sure it’s the same for everyone.”
The others were actually quite the distance ahead. Her and Bruno were the last in line, the dwarf in the actual rear end, waiting for her to catch her breath.
“How are you back there?” They heard the voice of their guide. “Seems like you need some rest, eh?”
He had made a round expansion of the tunnel, almost campsite-like, and the rest of their group were already sitting in a circle around a big shining crystal in the center. The elven woman was holding her child who was nodding to sleep. Fennec was leaning on Paulina with his eyes closed. Timok and Hegralda, the two loggers they’d saved from the prison cart, sat across from them, talking quietly. Saami stretched up and sat next to Aurum, and Mary and Bruno filled the empty spaces in the circle.
They sat like that for a while until the Deep gnome, Roko, broke the silence.
“That sapphire,” he said. “Where did you buy it from? I didn’t think they made such masterful engravings in Belfast!”
“Engravings?” Mary repeated.
“Yes. Didn’t you know?”
The gnome took the brooch and put it right to her eye. In the light of the blue crystal she saw an image engraved in every faucet of the sapphire’s surface - the letter F in the form of a dragon, the head in the upper corner and the wings on the side.
“We… didn’t buy it” she said. “We found it in a Bulette’s guts.”
Roko shuddered at the mention of the creature but then nodded and continued to praise the sapphire’s workmanship. Mary gave it to him to hold on to for now, she liked how much he adored it.
Meanwhile, Aurum was talking to the elven woman, Moira. He had waited for her daughter to fully fall asleep before asking the question that they were probably all wondering.
“It was many days ago, perhaps even weeks when we were kidnapped,” she answered. “I don’t know how much exactly, time is so hard to follow down here. We were travelling from Myth Adofhaer to Meraket. Dalia and I, my husband, and his brother Clement. Then, the ground just… opened under our feet. The duergar captured us, and Clement…" Her eyes filled with angry tears. "He betrayed us so easily! Said he didn’t want to be a prisoner and offered them his services.”
“What happened to your husband?” Aurum asked.
Moira looked at the child in her arms, making sure she was still asleep, and her tears streamed down her cheeks, turning to sorrow.
“There was a drow woman,” she choked out. “She said that she needed someone ‘for the Bulette’ and she tapped my husband with her terrifying staff. She just… touched him and he… and he was… he just… died.”
She sobbed in her free hand, clasping Dalia with the other. Mary knew she’d read something about a magical practice like that but she couldn’t remember the exact specifics. Her brain was full of fog.
“Taking a soul can be used as a magical component,” Aurum said. “I heard it from a girlfriend once. We were lying in bed and she was so talkative after…”
“Not the time” Mary stopped him.
“Sorry.”
“Why were you going to Meraket?” Mary asked after Moira had calmed down a little. “Why not stay in Myth Adofhaer where it’s safer? None of you look like a half-elves.”
“They’re not unkind only to half-elves there,” the woman said. “Dalia… she can’t use any kind of magic. That’s unheard of, for an elf. They were already starting to harass her, and she’s so little! We wanted to give her a better life.”
“Well, Meraket might not be the best place,” Bruno said. “We found out there’s a tunnel leading from it right to Gracklstugh.”
Moira’s eyes widened.
“Then nowhere’s safe,” she said and sank in her thoughts.
I’m sorry! That’s a bit of a depressing note to end the part on but I think we deserve to feel the gravitas of what happened to that poor elven family. And this Clement guy, doesn’t he remind us of someone? An elf, helping the duergar… Hmmm….
Anyway. Here's your announcement. Going forward, for at least a month or two, the story's updates are going to go back to twice a week. Sorry, I have too many tasks to juggle and can't find enough time to manage with everything. So, you'll have to get less of Mary for a while. Hope you don't mind :)
Next time in our heroes' adventures – we are reminded of another quest that we maybe missed, and we talk a little about our friend Paulina.
See you then!
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide and the Glossary for the series. You're welcome!)