Hello, Everyone!
Last time our heroes had some time to reflect on their previous guesses about the things they'd forgotten. They had cryptic messages, checked out Maheshvara's bells and had some trial-and-error diving into the depth of the Misty Sea. Aurum saw something creepy but then started to doubt his observations as soon as he got out of the water and into Ekoba's atmosphere. Mary thought it was suspicious and checked it for magic. It turned out that there was constant but imperceptable noise in the air.
Mary’s heart was racing. If there was a sound in Ekoba’s air that was playing tricks on their minds, there had to be a way to trick their senses and see what was really there.
Aurum’s Clairvoyance allowed him to send out only one of his senses. In this case it had been sight. He had looked over the city while hearing the silence of the sea. That’s when he’d seen what he had seen. And the moment he got out on the shore and began hearing the actual sounds of Ekoba, he’d started second-guessing his experience.
Mary climbed on the shore and tried covering her ears to check if she’d be able to see anything out of the ordinary. When that didn’t work, she started folding her familiars. She could look through their eyes, without the interference of her hearing.
She made three ravens and let them fly through the city. Then she let her mind go to the first one.
“There’s nothing,” she said, disappointedly.
“Try it underwater,” Bruno said.
And she did. The moment she submerged and looked without hearing, they suddenly appeared. Columns, tall and pale, towering above Ekoba’s streets and swaying in the air. There were seven of them, just like the vertical lines Bruno’d subconsciously drawn in Mary’s journal yesterday.
On top of each of them were large heads, bald and pinkish, with black holes for eyes and rows of flat teeth. They weren’t exactly columns, but they weren’t worms either. They were something else.
The closest creature was somewhere around Trim’s inn and, if Mary’s sense of direction was correct, there was one near Loyosh’ house and аnother by Rory’s. It was too much of a coincidence for them not to be responsible for the forgotten people.
Mary walked out of the water. Ekoba’s atmosphere pressed on her head and her breathing sped up.
“I’m telling you, I must have made it up,” Aurum was just saying. “It sounds like some kind of a sick fairytale.”
“Mary!” Bruno said. “He’s forgetting. Write everything down!”
She grabbed her journal and started writing. It was easy at first, the words just poured out from under her hand. But then, gradually, like a dream that was starting to fade after waking up, certain details started getting fuzzy. Were the worms pink or purple? Did they really have eyes? And were there even worms to begin with?
Her head started hurting. She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples furiously. When she finished, she blinked with confusion. What was she doing?
“Oooh!” She gasped and looked up from her journal. “There’s more writing here! Look!”
And she showed them the notebook.
So, the moment they went out of the water and regained their sense of hearing, the memory of the creatures started to fade from their memory and they began thinking they’d made everything up. That was going to be a problem.
“Oh!” Aurum said. “I know what to do!”
He picked Saraneth up and rang it. The moment the clapper of the tiny bell touched its side, all sound cut off abruptly. The grunts of the sailors on the docks, the squacks of the seagulls, the noise of the sand under their feet. And that other sound, which they couldn’t really consciously hear.
They looked up and, about 300 yards away, a column of pale pinkish flesh appeared, towering above the nearby houses.
Oh, yeah, riiight. That’s what they were after.
Aurum held up his hands with his fingers spread out. They had ten minutes before Saraneth’s silence ended. They ran towards the worm, all the while staring at it, fearing that if they looked away, it’d disappear once again.
A random passerby happened upon their small bubble of silence. He looked up, his eyes widening in horror, opened his mouth for a noiceless scream and ran. The moment he got out of the silence, he slowed down, looked around and shook his head, seemingly embarrassed. Then he just carried on to his path as if nothing had happened.
If they only had ten minutes, Mary would have to use them well. She grabbed her friends’ hands and let them pull her behind themselves. Then, she sent her ravens out to the three nearest worms and looked through their eyes.
The first one flew up and up, until it was already high above the city, overlooking everything. It had a clear view of all seven of the creatures, but noticed that two of them behaved differently than the rest. Right now, the first was facing the sky, head pointed upwards and mouth opened wide. The other was bent over a two storey building and Mary watched as it slowly straightened up, its whole mouth covered in blood and something caught between its jaws.
Mary swallowed hard. She pointed it out to her friends and pulled them in that direction, hoping that they’d reach the scene in time to save whoever was being devoured.
They didn’t. A tall wall rose before them and stopped their advance. So, at least one of the worms was inside the most inner city. They weren’t praying only on the poor people and the middle class.
Saraneth had only a minute or so of silence left. Once again, Mary went into her ravens’ senses. She looked through the eyes of the one closest to the open-mouthed creature, and sent it flying inside its throat. The connection cut off abruptly. Without missing a beat, she flashed to the eyes of the next raven and sent it to the same place.
One of the other worms turned towards the raven and stared. Then, slowly, its face pointed up and its mouth opened wide. The one who’d had its mouth open until now closed it, as if they were passing the baton in a relay race.
She didn’t have time to react. A blur of motion flashed in front of her raven’s eyes and her connection to this one seized, too.
The third one flew towards the new open-mouthed worm. Spreading its talons, it went straight for its eyes. And just when Mary thought that she’d manage to cut off whatever sound it was making, it closed its mouth and snapped at her. Another one of the worms in the distance had already picked up the baton.
The sound of the street life burst into her ears. Saraneth’s Silence had ended. She stopped and started writing down everything she’d seen.
“They are singing,” she wrote. “I think they can communicate even without words. And THEY ARE EATING THE PEOPLE!”
Dun-dun-dunnnn!
So ominous... and interesting!
Our DM is a genius!
See you next time!
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: 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.