Hello, Everyone!
Welcome to the second part of our Tesaya recap. Here, we’ll remember everything we know about her after we left Myth Adofhaer.
Sorry it took me so long (I should have been done with it, like, last week, but there were unforseen circumstances that interfered with me being able to compile the whole thing.
Anyway, if you want to check out Part 1 of the recap, here’s a link to it. Have fun reading!
When our heroes decided to finally leave Myth Adofhaer, they were so keen on Tesaya that they wanted to take her along to their next adventure.
“Tesaya, you’re cool!” Aurum said on the morning before they were about to head out. (...) “Do you want to come with us to Pamagos?”
Mary blinked in surprise. She was about to ask the same thing! They all knew that Tesaya had almost never left Myth Adofhaer. (...)
“That sounds very tempting,” Tesaya said. “But I prefer to stay here, really. And also,” she leaned forward, her eyes suddenly serious, “the recent events have made me suspicious that there might be something… fishy within Myth Adofhaer’s higher circles.”
Mary, Bruno and Aurum went on to a whole other adventure, and after they were done with it, they decided to check with Tesaya.
[Bruno] made the Sending spell gestures and moved his lips silently. Then, after a few seconds of receiving a reply, his face darkened.
“Oh!” he said. “That can’t be good. Balaine Endoras is dead.”
(...) “What do you mean?!” Aurum gasped. “How? When? Why?!”
“He was killed in his office,” Bruno said plainly, as if simply reciting what Tesaya had told him. “Beheaded. Soul destroyed. (...) The elves surmise that there were two attackers, a mage and a fighter, both of whom teleported into his office and worked together to take him down.”
“What about his bow?” Mary said.
“Disappeared,” Bruno said, then looked at Mary. “But there’s something else.”
“What?”
“Tesaya suspects that there’s a traitor in Falka’s Order.”
It was a pretty big shock but Mary was worried about their friend more than about the Elder’s death or the Order.
“Please ask Tesaya to take care of herself,” [Mary] pleaded. “She isn’t being suspected because she was associated with us, right?”
“I don’t think so, no,” Bruno said after an excruciatingly long half a minute.
The trio escaped Ekoba and went to Pamagos to reconvene with Dynatos Perres. And, while they were discussing the dire situation the continent was headed into, Tesaya appeared out of thin air in the middle of the room.
[Bruno] suddenly looked alarmed, his whole body tense. He glanced around, confused.
(...) “Bruno!” a mystical voice called.
A portal opened in the air in front of the Cleric. Through it, a bloody figure covered in arrows stumbled, magical scroll burning out in her hand.
“I’m sorry. They got me,” Tesaya whispered, before collapsing into Bruno’s arms.
(...) Tesaya's injuries were severe. She'd been almost dead when she came through the portal. A plethora of arrows--elven arrows--were sticking from her back. A gnarly wound went through her stomach. And, to Mary’s horror, her right arm was missing all the way to her shoulder.
(...) “They caught me,” Tesaya repeated between her groans of pain. “Tiriel holds the whole Order now… She said that Falka’s mistake should be rectified, they… they want to free the monster and use it… She told them to start right away.”
Poor Tesaya! She risked her life to find out the treachery of the elves! Now, there was going to be an Ancient dragon on the loose and our heroes were the only ones who knew enough to stop it. Tesaya urged them to get to the dragon prison before the Order.
“It’s ok,“ [Tesaya] said. “Don’t worry about me. I can rest and recuperate on the road and be ready to join you in battle in no time. I can fight one-handed.”
Mary, of course, knew what it was like to lose a limb, and tried to talk to Tesaya about it.
[Tesaya] raised her left hand as if to touch her right, but her fingers folded reflexively when she didn’t find it there.
“I still feel it sometimes,” she said quietly.
(...) “There are ways to restore it,” Mary suggested.
“Oh, yes, I know there are. But this kind of magic is too advanced and there are very few people...”
“No, I mean we might have a way to restore it.”
Tesaya raised her eyebrows.
“You see, (...) something like that happened during our last adventure.” (...) “But we summoned Granny Gretel and she fixed it,” she mumbled. “My leg, I mean. She made it grow back.”
(...) “No.” Tesaya extended her hand in a forbidding gesture. “I don’t want the easy way. I can be patient.”
Strangely, Tesaya did seem all right with the loss of her arm. She even insisted that she wore her armour, despite the stormy weather in the Swamp of Agony.
Tesaya turned to Bruno to help her put the armour on.
"Aren't you afraid that you could get struck by lightning?" Mary said watching them fasten the different parts together.
Tesaya smiled. "Not really," she said. "It's one of the gifts Mother Nature bestowed upon me when I took my Oath. I'm resistant to lightning."
She raised her hand and wiggled her fingers. Little zaps of electricity passed through them. It reminded Mary about the fight at Falka's mausoleum. Tesaya had been enveloped in lightning back there, too, and it didn't seem to hurt her in the slightest.
While the group was travelling towards the dragon prison, Tesaya was always very insistant that they hurry up. After all, she said, the elves from the Order had a head start.
"We don't have time to circle the whole area," Tesaya grumbled.
“Sooo, do we wait for the elves?” Aurum said.
(...) “I fear that they may already be inside,” Tesaya said.
“But the gate is closed…” Mary said.
Tesaya looked at her and Mary felt foolish. Of course, they must have closed it behind themselves.
"We should go on," Tesaya said, staring at the door in the other end of the chamber. "We don't have time to waste."
"Are we even sure that the Order people are ahead of us?" Mary said. "These things don't look like they've been disturbed."
She glanced behind, at the rope they’d left across the floorless corridor. She couldn’t get rid of the feeling that they were making it very easy for anyone to follow them through the traps and obstacles on the way.
Tesaya even put herself in danger, just to move things along.
In a puff of smoke, Tesaya appeared on the other end of the corridor and scrambled to hold on to the door with her one and only arm. Her eyes widened as her fingers slipped, and she began to fall backwards.
“No, you don’t!” Aurum shouted and his [Featherfall] cracked through the air, slowing down her descend enough so she could grab the door again.
(...) What was Tesaya thinking?! It was a hundred-foot drop! She had only one arm! Why would she Misty Step alone, and risk her life, when someone else could do it instead of her?!
But everything came together in the last chamber before the dragon prison. There, Tesaya didn’t wait for the others to discuss the best way to deal with the challenges in the room, and rushed forwards.
"I can't wait any longer," Tesaya growled.
She stepped forward, her face contorted in an animalistic grimace. Bolts of lightning danced on her armour. The moment her foot crossed the red line, the Golems' eyes flared in green and they raised their swords.
They fought the Golems and at one point lost Tesaya to a trap door with a spike pit underneath. But then, she appeared in the most bizarre way.
Suddenly, a shimmering doorway appeared in the air. Tesaya stumbled through, covered in deep cuts where the spikes had pierced her armour.
(Something pulled on Mary's brain. This spell… she'd seen Aurum use it, back under the Misty Sea. It was a powerful teleportation magic. Tesaya… wasn't supposed to be able to do it!)
It didn’t make sense! And then, even more things didn’t make sense.
The elven woman looked around, assessing the situation. Her eyes skimmed over Aurum and Mary who were still on the far end of the room, barely having stepped over the red line. She glanced past Agatha, bleeding on the ground, with Bruno kneeling over her to protect her from the Golems' hits. She looked at the Golems, and then at the door. And she stepped through to the other side.
(Why did she leave them to fight on their own?)
"Something doesn’t feel right!" Bruno shouted. "Get to the other room!"
And so, our friends rushed through the door, only to find Tesaya standing before the Dragon’s cell with a powerful Artefact in her hand.
She glanced back to Mary and her friends and smiled, but that wasn’t her usual tame, warm smile.
It was the grin of someone who’d won.
She dropped her sword to the ground and reached into her Bag of Holding, taking out a big green crystal. Mary’s heart skipped a beat as she recognised the Artefact. Last she’d seen it, it had passed from Agrax to the Dry Hand in the tunnels under Belfast. And then, in 'Gastrognome', the Dry Hand had said that he'd given it to someone!
She felt like the ground had opened up under her feet. A thousand thoughts and memories screamed in her head all at once. Tesaya telling them about 'Tiriel Elaire's plans' to free the dragon. Tesaya insisting they hurried up. Tesaya being the first one to enter every room of the prison, as if she couldn’t wait a second longer…
"What’s going on?" Mary heard Bruno’s voice. "Tesaya, what have you done?!"
"It’s all right, Bruno," Tesaya said; and her voice was changing now. It was becoming hoarse and cruel. "Everything is going according to plan."
And this is it! The final moments of her betrayal! She broke the Dragon’s prison and now he’s going to climb out and probably destroy us.
How can we even hope to beat an Ancient Dragon?!
Well, let’s see what happens! Here’s a link to the next episode.
See you there!
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.