Hello, Everyone!
Last time, we had a sweet Gillean-and-Mary chatterlude (get it? it's an interlude in the form of a chat. I'm so clever!) They spoke about the fight with Nurvureem, about Gillean’s Fey-mily (get it? get it???) business and, finally, about a woman from Mary's past who'd fed our heroine’s insecurities of being a burden to her family. Gillean have her a few words of wisdom and Mary spent the rest of the night reading on Silver dragons (because Edmund Bright is sooo enchanting and wondeous).
The morning came with Aurum bursting into the room, screaming. Mary jumped out of her bed and, before she could even get her glasses, she reached for her wand.
But the bard wasn't alarmed. "Get up, sleepyheads!" he chirped. "It's a new day, and a wonderful one at that! We have a lot of work to do today! Come on, you! Out of your beds!"
And just like that, he was out of the room, racing down the stairs of the inn.
"He sure is in a good mood," Mary grumbled, trying to get her head to stop spinning from the sudden rush of adrenaline.
"Yeah,"Agatha moaned. "And I feel exhausted. I had nightmares all night long. How did you sleep?"
"Badly. I had nightmares, too."
"It was like I was back in the cave, and I was in Nurvureem's claws once again, and it was awful."
Mary, who'd had similar dreams plague her own night, nodded solemnly.
"Gillean says that nightmares aren't necessarily a bad thing," she said. "They're there to show us what we're afraid of, and fear is a good thing because it protects us."
Agatha made a face. This semtiment probably didn't make things much better. They started dressing up for the coming day. Mary tried to mend her torn and tattered garnments, failed, and put them into a ball next to her bed. She was--again--down to her last set of clothes.
She was down on her spellpower, too. The nightmares hadn’t let her recover that part of her strength, and she wondered if the same was true about Bruno and Aurum.
Seeing the Cleric and his solemn face told her everything.
“Come on, Bruno, let’s go reviving people!” Aurum sang.
“I can’t,” the dwarf said. “I don’t have the strength.”
“What do you mean? You always have the strength!”
“It must be that paramagical effect that we’ve been feeling in Pamagos,” Mary said. “It’s draining our strength.”
“Para-what effect?” the bard said.
“Paramagical.” Mary rubbed her eyes. “It happens when there’s been some horrible evil plaguing the land. People’s fear bubbles out and spreads through the air like a constant horror all around. That's the fog outside but that's not all. I’ve read about this thing, it’s really hard to get rid of. There are places that have been like that for years, maybe decades...”
“Well, if our magic doesn't work well because we can't rest, we might have to go outside the city just to be able to sleep,” Bruno said.
“The orange tree might help,” Mary said. “Remember, in Ekoba it negated the Hydra’s song, it might do the trick here, too.”
“Excellent!” Aurum exclaimed. “Then let’s plant it and get reviving!”
Mary looked at him dispassionately.
“Not now,” she said. “I can’t spend another eight-or-so hours doing nothing. There is some stuff I want to carry out in the city before that.”
“What stuff?”
Mary rolled her eyes. She was feeling kinda irritated by his curiosity.
“You can come with, if you want, and see for yourself,” she said. She looked at him under her furrowed eyebrows. “But I’ll ask you not to speak for me when we get there.”
“Are you referring to Franny?”
Mary just looked at him.
“All right then, I will not speak."
Just then, through the closed window of the inn, a muffled street caller’s voice sounded. They were informing the public of Nurvureem’s demise and the freeing of the city. Careful cheers were heard in the distance. A bit amused, Mary listened to what the herald was calling the four of them.
It was ‘The Saviors of Pamagos’.
Mary had an idea. She knew that it was not within the power of a single person to lift the paramagical effect from Pamagos, but she wanted to do her part, the only way she knew how. If Nurvureem was the reason the people had been filled with fear, then the tale of Nurvureem’s death could be the thing that lifted this fear.
“Where are we going?” Aurum asked.
“The Gallery,” she said simply.
He didn’t ask anything else.
They reached ‘The Gallery’ a few minutes later but it was closed and quiet. A note was pasted on the front door, saying that a person by the name of Marion Abadar had died due to the dragon’s attacks, and his funeral was today.
Mary felt her heart sink. Each death by Nurvureem’s claws felt like a heavy burden on her chest. It was like it was all their fault. If they’d taken care of the monster sooner, none of this would have happened.
“Let’s go to the cemetery,” she said. “If it’s not too late, we can offer to resurrect this person.”
The cemetery was crowded. There were many funerals happening when Mary and Aurum reached it, and just as many, if not more, were still waiting to be processed. People in black clothes were standing all around, heads down, tears on their faces. Mary felt her heart hurt for them.
Marion Abadar had already been buried when they reached his funeral. His family, friends and colleagues were standing around his grave, talking quietly. Mary saw Rafael di Pitoya, dressed in black, consoling someone. She bowed her head. What was she thinking? This wasn’t the time to talk to him!
She began to step away.
“Where are you going?” Aurum said. “Didn’t you want to offer to bring him back?”
“Yes but it’s too late now,” she said. “He is already burried.”
“So? They can un-bury him!”
“Nnno, I– I can’t. They’ve already said their goodbyes. What if Bruno couldn’t resurrect him? I don’t want to be responsible for these people’s disappointment and pain.”
The bard regarded her for a few moments. Then, he stepped forward. He climbed onto a bench and rose above the grieving.
“People of Pamagos!” he shouted. “You have a unique opportunity before you! If your loved ones have died in the last ten days, our distinguished cleric Brunost Airhammer will revive them!”
Mary’s eyed widened. There was sudden silence in the cemetery, but then people understood what Aurum was offering. Not only Marion’s close ones, everyone. They crowded around him, asking questions, pleading, blessing, promising. It seemed like they were going to swarm him.
“Don’t listen to him!” Mary tried to scream. “He’s talking nonsense!”
But there was no use. Nobody was paying her any attention.
“What are you doing?!” she hissed into the bard’s ear.
“I want to be able to save at least someone,” he replied.
Oh, Aurum! What have you done?
What do you think of his promise? Is it going to come back to bite our heroes in the butt? All those people reacting so strongly smells like another riot around a Pamagosian building.
Ooh! And how do you think Bruno will react? After all, Aurum promised a lot of stuff on his behalf without even asking…
Well, let's find out what happens next time.
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide, the Glossaries (Part 1 and Part 2)
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.