Hello, Everyone!
Welcome to the penultimate chapter of Arc 3! Last time, after an intense fight deep in the caves near Pamagos, our heroes managed to defeat the Black dragon Nurvureem. It was Mary who gave the final blow – turned into a giant ape by Aurum's Polymorph and enraged by all the death and horror the dragon had enacted, she tore off Nuri’s jaws and pummelled her head until there was no longer a head to pummell.
Meanwhile, after a brave and quite impressive run (which included severing Nurvureem's strongest weapon and annoying her to stupidity), Agatha lost her life to the dragon’s final blow. Before her spirit could pass on entirely, Bruno managed to resurrect her, and then, finally, our heroes had a moment to breathe.
The moment that Nurvureem fell, a cry of triumph and joy erupted from the cages. People shouted in relief, cried and hugged each other. Still in the ape's body, Mary tore the cages down one by one and bent the metal bars to free the prisoners.
There was someone familiar in one of the cages. The ape picked him up by the collar and carried him to the rest of her party.
"Oh, hey, slimeball!" Bruno said when Jared dropped to the ground.
The man was pale and dishevelled, with half-dried out vomit spilled on the front of his shirt. Almost by habit, Mary waved her wand-hand to clean him up, but nothing happened. She was still the ape. Her heart sank as she realized that she couldn't break the spell herself.
She went to Aurum and nudged him gently. He turned to her and she saw recognition on his face. The bard waved his hand and Mary felt all the flesh of the ape fall away, leaving only her own body. She dropped the spell she was holding--the one making the others look like her--and sat on the ground, hands trembling.
"So, Jared," Aurum said, grinning a nasty smile. "We have two ways of extracting information from you. One of them is while you're still alive. The other wouldn't need such luxuries. So, think very carefully about which one of those you'll prefer when answering our questions – the easy way or the hard?"
"The easy, p-please," Jared said, his face even paler than before.
Aurum grinned. He glanced at Mary and then at Jared.
"So, where is Nymphadora?"
"What? What do you care? Last I saw her, she was with you three."
Mary sighed with relief. He hadn't been able to sink his claws in her again.
"How did Nurvureem find you?" Aurum continued.
"She asked for cerrain people to be brought to her," Jared said. "Kent and the others thought it was for something bad. We escaped… but they caught us. All of the others are dead."
"One last thing," Aurum said. "Where's the key to our vault?"
Jared's eyes made a quick glance down and then back to the bard's face.
"I d-don't know."
"You do realize we can search your body after we kill you, right?" Bruno chimed in.
"It's not with me. I lost it."
Aurum rolled his eyes and leaned in, pressing a cocoon on the man's forehead. Mary instinctively pulled back, remembering her own transformation.
Jared's form shrank and morphed, taking on a very familiar look – that of Bruno's slug.
"Well, that's that," Aurum said. "We'll hear from him after an hour and see if he suddenly 'remembers' where the key is."
The others went on to help the people and search the cavern for some kind of an alternative exit. Mary, suddenly left on her own, found that she couldn't do anything but stand there weakly. All the adrenaline of the battle had left her exhausted and trembling.
She moved to where Paulina's body was, and pointlessly puffed the blanket they'd put over her. She placed her friend's mangled head on her lap and stared at the nearby wall.
"Can we put her in the Bag?" Bruno asked, taking her out of her thoughts.
Mary nodded. It was better this way, not having to see what Nurvureem had done to her. Bruno took Paulina and did a spell to keep her body from decomposing, then gently placed her in the Bag.
"We should take care of the others, too," he continued, glancing at the bodies Nurvureem had thrown at them during the fight.
Just then, Agatha came back with the news that she'd found a whole other cavern underneath the current one, and the four of them went to check it out. It turned out to be quite difficult to reach, the tunnel leading to it was almost vertical in places. However, they managed to get to the entrance and found that it was too big even for Mary's Darkvision. Aurum lit a small pebble with his magic and dropped it down. It flew for a looong time before hitting water. The cavern was a huge underwater lake.
"Better not test the waters any longer,"Mary said, seeing the light of the pebble suddenly disappear, as if something had swallowed it. "It's not like we have the means--or the strength--to go down there right now."
"Well, then…" Agatha said, looking reluctant. "There was something else I found… But you're not going to like it."
At first, they were met with the smell of acid – even stronger there, in the semi-separate alcove Agatha led them to. But maybe it was good that it smelled that way, instead of… what it could have smelled like.
The alcove had a pit in the bottom, dug with the brute force of the dragon's talons, and then deepened and widened by her acid. Mary almost got sick looking at it. It was filled with bodies.
No, not bodies. Body parts.
It was like Nurvureem had killed all the people Pamagos had sent after her, had taken them apart limb by limb, and had splashed them with acid, as some kind of an awful, stomach-churning culinary experiment.
“I’m sorry, I can’t…” Mary huffed and ran back to the bigger cavern.
Searching this cave system was such a nasty experience. Nurvureem was a monster all right… But she is no longer, I hope our heroes realise the good they've done!
See you 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.