Hi! Hello!
I’m going on a vacation! Woo-hoo!
Don’t worry, the story updates won’t stop, I’ve drafted and scheduled them at least until I return home. But I fear that the quality of the illustrations will suffer and you’ll have to put up with a few place-holders until I’m able to complete them.
Anyway, off to the story!
Last time, after finally coming back to Belfast from the Underdark, Mary and her friends started on their due rest. Mary received a parcel and a letter from home and then, in order to challenge Paulina to try out her tea, had a smoke for the first time in her life. It was fun and then it was clouds and she doesn’t remember anything from the evening :D
On to the next day!
They named them 'The Heroes of Belfast'. There was a ceremony and everything. The dwarves gave them money, and honours, and special shoulder patches with diamonds encrusted in metal. They even gave them the ownership of an old dwarven fortress one day's journey north.
To Mary's horror, the end of the ceremony consisted of all the 438 dwarves from the Council lining up and congratulating them one by one. There were handshakes and patting of backs, a few of them even tried to kiss her on the cheeks. Bruno kept whispering that this was a cultural thing and that everyone would be awfully offended if she tried to escape or pretended to die. Or, you know, attacked them with an Eldritch Blast.
So, Mary had to endure it.
She was so glad when this was all over! She almost ran ahead of her two friends and stopped only when she passed by the main gate of the city and saw the light coming through.
It was sunlight.
She hadn't seen real sunlight for… she didn't know how long. Days? Weeks? Years?!
In a daze, she went out of the gate. The light spilled around her, caressed her face and heated up her hair. The space outside was endless, she could see the horizon! No cavern walls limited her view. There was sky, and hills, and mountains, and rivers, and meadows, and… everything, as far as her eyes could see.
She sniffled, her cheeks wet with tears of happiness. She sat on the hill and looked at the... the… everything, for a while. At one point Aurum and Bruno must have joined her, because they were there when she pulled herself together. She hadn't sensed them coming.
It was heaven.
They had the day ahead of them and they decided to check out the 'Leopold's Antique Shop' Paulina had told them about. On the way they stopped to see Moira and little Dalia at Papios Ferenc's house. Mother and daughter thanked them again and refused to take any money as support. It turned out they had an account in their host's bank even from before their abduction, and weren't in want of funds.
Mary gave Dalia her Lumeer crystal. She told her how it helped her when it was dark and scary and she told her how brave she thought Dalia was herself. The little girl thanked her and hugged her warlmy.
'Leopold's Antique Shop' was just outside of Ferenc's bank. Mary wondered if that was because you were supposed to take loans from the bank to afford his items.
She was almost wrong.
They talked with the owner--an older orc gentleman with long grey hair--about the paintings in Nurvureem's lair, and found out exactly what they depicted.
The first was of an agreement the heads of Eastern Erathos' most powerful countries had signed 20 years ago – it defined Pamagos’ borders and binded the other rulers to react immediately and decisively if an intrusive armed force entered its teritory. The agreement was signed by Papios Ferenc whom the party already knew, Bartemius Finesse whose face Mary had seen in Frinkeltong, Dynatos Perres who governed Pamagos, Francesca Findabair, the wizard-ruler of Zerakas tol, Rezemius Briggs from Ekoba and Balaine Endoras, an elven Elder of Myth Adofhaer.
The picture was an almost perfect--albeit a lot smaller--recreation of the one that became the reason for Mary’s rendezvous with the dragon.
The other painting, 'The Battle for the Kipsos Pass', they already knew more about. But still, Leopold had something interesting to tell them. He took out an old book, blew off the dust from its front cover and found an entry about Maheshvara’s bells. There were seven of them in total and he read the cryptic description of each of them:
“Ranna The Calming closed their eyes.
Mosrael The Two-sided was fierce and temperamental.
Dyrum The Talkative loosened their tongues.
Kibeth, The Banisher put them in their places.
Bel'gaer The Decisive required courage.
Saraneth The Quiet was seen by none.
Astarael The Mournful imposed silence.”
They wondered which of those bells was in Aurum’s posession. So far they’d learned that it could hurt enemies and heal friends when rung, although the healing part was kinda hit and miss. Its design, however--rose engravings on one side and thorns on the other--pointed at ’Mosrael The Two-sided’.
The book Leopold read all that information from, was called ‘Legends, Myths and the Magic throughout’. Mary found it fascinating and bought a copy with the 50 gold Bramble had sent her. She was sure she could get a lot of useful information from it.
Then, they did some shopping. Aurum got a new musical instrument – a harp with a human skull as a base. Mary didn't like it all that much but it looked really good with the white lock of hair he'd gotten in the underwater portal.
Bruno bought mainly presents for his family, and so did she. But while looking for a nice trinket for her grandma Mona, she came upon an orange necklace which lit up her Eldritch Sight in red.
For the first time since they'd entered his shop, Leopold took out a device to look at the object they wanted (all the other appraisal he'd done by eyeing or smelling the items). To Mary's eyes the monocle he held shone with Divination magic.
"A thousand gold," he said.
And that's when they had to go to the bank.
It turned out that was a Necklace оf Fireballs. It had three gems and if you threw any of them at a target, they'd produce… well, fireballs. It could be useful if they ever fought many enemies at once (or, Mary thought, hoping that would never come true, a certain black dragon).
Soon after, they said ‘Goodbye’ to Leopold and exited his shop, only to then see a familiar little building huddled in an alley, where there had been nothing before.
'The Hut' was back!
I hope you like this chapter. It was a lot longer at our D&D table but I know shopping episodes are the least fun of all, so I shortened it significantly.
See you next time when we’re going to see the owner of ‘The Hut’ again!
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide and the Glossary for the series. You're welcome!)