Hello, Everyone!
Last time, our heroes arrived in Pamagos to see it pretty much under Nurvureem's control. People were so tired, broken and scared that it had created a paramagical effect all around the city. Mary and her companions met with Dynatos Perres and learned what had happened to Paulina and her party. Only the raven, Dohos, had managed to escape.
“Well, if we’re going to fight the dragon, we’d better prepare,” Aurum said and took out their last remaining zaga.
Dynatos Peres opened his liquor cabinet and picked up some glasses. “To Paulina,” he said, holding his high.
They drank. The warmth of the magical drink spread through Mary’s body, giving her strength and vitality. She felt her anger burn inside her chest – wrapped in cotton, but, nonetheless, there. She was going to do anything in her power to kill Nurvureem.
“Where do we face her, anyway?” Agatha asked. “The streets? Her cave? Somewhere on the way there?”
“If we fought on the streets, there might be innocent victims,” Mary said.
“Yeah, and if we fought inside her cave, who knows what traps we might face there!”
“Dohos will guide us.”
“He didn’t see anything, remember?”
“Well, it’s not like we’re going to have much choice,” Bruno said. “This doesn’t seem like a fight that we can dictate.”
“I’ve been thinking,” Mary said. “Last time, Nurvureem spent a lot of time trying to kill me, in particular. What if we tried to use that and confuse her? I have a spell that’ll allow me to transform all of us. What if we went on to her lair, all looking like me?”
“It’ll work only until we start acting,” Bruno said. “We all have signature spells and abilities. Nobody will be deceived that I’m you, after I cast my Guiding Bolt.”
“That’s true. But if it gives us at least a moment of distraction, won’t it be worth it?”
“Yeah, I guess…”
Mary did the spell, and in a moment, four Maries stood in the room, looking at each other curiously.
“That’s… something!” Aurum said, inspecting his new form.
“Please don’t.” Mary said. “It’s just an illusion anyway. You can’t touch it.”
“I wasn’t trying to!” he mumbled. “I just like the spell!”
While the others were preparing for the coming battle, Mary tried to have some rest and recover the power she’d used to cast the spell, but she realized that she couldn’t. Maybe it was the dread of the coming fight, or the mere thought of facing Nurvureem again… but she couldn’t sit back and relax, not even a little.
She used the time to compose a taunt for Nurvureem and learned it by heart, so that she could recite it if she had the chance. If it could distract the Dark Lady even a little, it would have been worth it.
They went on the streets. There was no point in hiding now, it didn’t matter if Nurvureem would find out they were coming. Plus, if they were obvious enough in their intent to fight her, maybe that would make her meet them out in the open instead of in her lair, where nobody knew what they could expect.
Mary found that her taunt made her feel braver, and so, once they’d agreed that they weren’t going to be sneaky, she started shouting it out on the streets.
“Once upon a time, in the Underdark, there was a silly Black worm,” it said. “It liked to cause pain because it was weak and incapable of anything else.”
The sound of a horn pierced the streets. The group tensed up but nothing happened. Mary continued shouting. Maybe it wasn’t doing anything, but yet again, maybe if people heard it, it’d make them less afraid.
“One day a group of adventurers sneaked into the Black worm’s cave. They managed to fool it and take its prey from under its snivelling snout.”
A few more horns sounded as they advanced, but no Nurvureem came to meet them. Dohos, flying up above them, didn’t seem to find anything worrying, either.
“The Black worm got angry,” Mary continued. “It thrashed and screamed in impotence and spite, but it was all in vain. In the end, it went back to its damp cave and lived there, feeling sorry for itself.”
The story continued, describing the second time Mary and her group had faced Nurvureem, saving Nymphadora, and then finished with Nurvureem’s defeat in her new cave, powerless to stop the forces of good. That last part was still in the realms of fiction at this point, but it made Mary hopeful, and maybe it made the people in the city hopeful as well.
After a while, they were able to get out to the countryside. A few yards beyond the city limits, the grass suddenly became greener, and the air easier to breathe. The paramagical effect stopped there, almost like it was cut with a knife.
Here, out in the open, they would easily be able to see if a dragon flew at them, and when it didn't, they started moving a lot quicker than before. The road was littered with nasty critters--bugs, scorpions, snakes and the like--who mindlessly crawled all in one direction – the same Mary and her company were moving to. Just like last time, when they were going towards Nurvureem. Black dragons attracted the creepy crawlies like a magnet, and they layered their caves’ floors. The closer the group came to the Devil's Hole, the denser the critters became.
When they were finally at the cave’s mouth, Bruno stopped and concentrated on his Sending spell. Mary could see the anger flash in his eyes and, while Bruno’s Sendings were usually silent, this time she could hear him whispering under his nose.
“You’re going to pay for what you’ve done to my sister!” he mouthed. “Come and meet us at the entrance of your cave.”
There was a pause, and then Bruno looked up, his face paler than usual.
“She replied,” he said. “Told me she wasn’t done with Paulina.”
That was a depressing episode. Mary's taunt didn't do anything but that's how things are in D&D – things that you think ’might’ work, sometimes don't. Or, maybe, it would have worked, if Nurvureem was actually in the city instead of her cave? We can never know 😅
Well, anyway, see you in the next episode when we'll get into said cave and find out what keeps the dragon in.
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.