Hello, Everyone!
Last time, we had a nice little chat with the Mage, Lady Francesca Findabair herself. She spoke about the imminent doom of the elves so callously that it made Mary
mad, and kinda desperate. She had always believed that her childhood hero would rise at the opportunity to help a people against the threat of a Dragon, but she seemed to be wrong. And the young Emperor wasn’t of much help either, which made Mary angry at him, too, until she found out that his grandfather, Ignas II, died fighting Trax’rion.
A movement behind the Queen attracted Mary’s attention. Edmund Bright had stepped forward. This time, he wasn’t the timid teenager he’d appeared to be. He seemed somehow taller and more decisive. His voice was different, too.
“Lady Findabair,” he said. “My father loved all his subjects. I want to help.”
Something nudged on Mary's brain. Why would he mention his father? Everybody knew that Creen Bright wasn’t a really impressive figure. Maybe he meant his GRANDfather? But how could he make such a mistake?
Francesca Findabair looked at the boy and let out a long sigh.
“All right then,” she said. “Let’s see what we can do.”
Mary’s heart leaped. She looked at the young Emperor. He WAS like a character of a fairytale! She caught his eyes and smiled hopefully. He returned the smile, making her heart flutter.
“So, what is there to be done?” Francesca Findabair said.
“There’s Morgax and his army on the South,” Bruno said. “The Blue-what’s-his-name-dragon and Tesaya in Myth Adofhaer. And Nurvureem, too. She’s been circling Pamagos for a while.”
“There’s also Racox,” Mary said.
“Racox?”
“He’s with the Cult of Tiamat, too. Tesaya said he was travelling North to resurrect Meltharond and try to convince the White Queen to join them.”
Francesca Findabair’s eyes widened. She paused for a moment, as if to concentrate, then spread her arms wide and closed her eyes.
”PEOPLE OF ZERAKAS TOL. I DEMAND YOUR COMPOSURE.” She spoke calmly but her message reverberated through the air, into Mary’s mind and down into the city. ”AN ENEMY IS RISING TO THE WEST AND MIGHT TRY TO THREATEN ZERAKAS TOL. THE DEVOTED WILL JOIN US, AND WILL BE PATROLLING THE STREETS AS OF TODAY. DO NOT BE ALARMED”
She opened her eyes again and looked down at the group with a grave expression.
"The White Queen, Arveiaturace, is a White dragon, more than four thousand years old. Her reign spans along three of our Eras. If she’s about to join the game, things have become really serious. Even I, with the Devoted at my side, are no match for her ferocity.”
“Tesaya did say we had to stop Racox,” Aurum said.
“And stop him you should. Do you have a means of travelling around Erathos?”
“Yes,” Aurum said. “I can teleport us. That’s how we came here, actually.”
“Very good. So, you seem to have the coordinates of a teleportation circle here in Zerakas tol.” She pointed to Reina, who nodded. “But I’m going to give you a few others.”
While she was teaching the coordinates of two new circles to Aurum, Mary opened her notebook and wrote them down. The one in Pamagos led to the barracks near Captain Roche’s office, and the one in Belfast was at the central branch of Bank Ferenc.
“Lady Findabair,” she said. “We have one more circle but we don’t know where it leads. Is it possible to determine such a thing?”
She showed the Queen the circle she’d copied from Racox back at the Belfast tunnels. Lady Findabair studied it for a few moments.
“It leads to the Cedar Woods, where Morgax and his army are stationed at the moment.” she said. “It seems that the dragons and the Cultists of Tiamat go in pairs. There’s Nurvureem and Kalien, Trax’rion and Tesaya, Morgax and Racox… There were probably Arveiaturace and Meltharond, too, before he was killed. That is why, perhaps, Racox is going there to resurrect him – so that he can continue working on their plan.”
“He has the Hand of Vecna,” Mary said all of a sudden.
“I’m sorry?”
“Yes. Tesaya told us. Racox has the Hand of Vecna. We should find out what that is.”
“No need.” Francesca Findabair’s eyes were suddenly sparkling with interest. “I know exactly what it is. Vecna used to be a powerful lich who tried to ascend to Godhood about eight hundred years ago. Kass The Bloody-Handed cut off his hand and gauged his eye while attempting to kill him, and those two parts of Vecna’s body are still mighty Necromantic Artefacts.” She smiled a mysterious smile. “I’d like to have the Hand, if you manage to procure it.”
Mary looked at her suspiciously. Why would she want it? She wasn’t a Necromancer, was she?
“So, if we went after Racox, are you going to help us with Trax'rion? You said it yourself, you and your Devoted have the best chance to defeat him.”
“The best, yes. But still not good enough. See, the Devoted might be a great force on land, they’re fierce and loyal to a fault. But against a dragon… If it’s in the air, even they don’t stand a chance.”
“So, it all falls on us then?” Mary said, a note of desperation making its way into her voice.
The terrace went quiet. Then, Edmund Bright nodded to the Queen and spoke up with that decisive tone that he'd used earlier.
"Lady Findabair," he said. "I’d like to show them the truth."
The truth? What truth? Are there even more things that our heroes don’t know? And also, how about that one-eighty on Francesca FIndabair’s willingness to help? Do you think that she’ll actually do something good, or is she just pretending?
I can't wait for you to read the next episode! It's going to be glorious!
Take care and be well!
(also, here's a close-up of Edmund Bright's very special eyes. I worked a lot on that particular effect and it isn't even visible on the bigger picture, so I wanted to show it off...)
(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.