Hello, Everyone!
Sorry I missed an update. Life happened. I was sick. Then my kid was sick. Then I had no time.
But anyway. Here I am now, with the next update of Mary's story.
Last time, after a long, cold and exhausting flight North, our adventurers finally caught up with Racox. With horror, they realised that he had somehow raised the Gold dragon Diohastos (or what was left of him after they’d stripped him off of his limbs and wings back in Ekoba) and was now using his skin as a flying carpet. The Dry Hand noticed our heroes and shot them with an unknown spell that transformed Aurum back from eagle to human, and left them falling towards the ground.
Aurum’s Feather Fall caught them only several feet above the ground. It slowed their descent enough and their feet sank a few inches in the freshly blown snow cover.
The undead dragon made a wide turn and headed towards them. Mary's heart started pounding.
(Three things. There were three things to do when fighting a dragon. Take it to the ground. Don't gather up close. And… what was the third one?)
She didn’t have time to think about it. She ran off to look for cover, casting her Mirror duplicates in the process.
Diohastos' skin hovered over the scene and breathed in, inflating like a bagpipe. The mouth opened, revealing dark emptiness inside. When its breath came out, Mary remembered the third thing: beware of its breath! She was suddenly thankful that she’d moved away from the group.
A blow of Death came from the dragon’s mouth, and it hit the others with all the force of rot and decay. Little maggots and pieces of flesh splattered on their faces, pus dripped on their clothes. Aurum and Agatha doubled down and began coughing their meals out. Bruno took the hit and stood tall, clutching his Holy symbol in hand. His face was contorted in disgust.
(Oh, yeah, Mary thought. He was a Cleric. The Undead state of the Gold dragon had to be really upsetting him!)
Racox bent over the railing of his saddle and raised a very familiar item – a censer hanging on four long chains. Black smoke started pouring out of it and began forming the outlines of a body. Mary gasped. If this was going to summon the Earth Elemental from under Belfast, they were going to be in big trouble!
“Kill them, Agrax!” Racox hissed.
Green flames ran from the wrinkled part of his left hand and flowed into the censer but Mary was just as quick. Her Counterspell zipped through the air almost at the same time as the name ‘Agrax’ left the man's teeth. Racox growled in anger. He ducked back in his saddle, disappearing from view. It was impossible to see him now.
But Bruno didn't need to see him. He swung his hands in an upwards motion, and from the ground up, following his gesture, a wall of fire erupted. It enveloped the dragon and its rider in flames. Racox screamed.
Meanwhile, Agrax looked around. He glanced over Aurum and Agatha, still coughing from the dragon’s breath, looked at Bruno in the light of his Holy flames, and stopped on Mary. Looking at her, he spoke in a low thunderous voice--“Umblac thora, kishki uma”--and disappeared into the ground.
“Useless lump of dirt!” Racox shouted from above.
He added something in a language Mary didn’t understand, and Diohastos flew away from the firewall and closer to the group. He remained in the air right on top of them, and its master appeared on the railing. With a wide gesture of the Dry hand, Racox pointed at all of them and cast something.
Suddenly, the world went dark.
“I’m blind!” Mary cried out. Her companions’ voices came to her from all directions, letting her know that she wasn’t the only one. She spread her arms and crouched lower to the ground, expecting an attack from above. The dragon’s breath hit her like a tidal wave. All around her, there was suddenly the stench of decay, and graves, and infected wounds that would never heal. Small gooey things pattered on her skin and clothes, and the force of this blow almost knocked her off of her feet.
Her head spun. Her stomach turned. She doubled in pain and wretched violently, and for a good while, all she could hear was her coughing and the desperate thought that she was, too, going to die.
It was pure chaos after that. There were words and clanks, and wet sounds of the dragon’s tail hitting someone. There was Bruno shouting healing spells left and right, and then Aurum's voice which spoke an incantation Mary hadn’t heard before.
Racox' voice filled the air… but there was something wrong with it. It was delayed, every word elongated and strangely slow, as if he was speaking through a bowl of treacle.
Was that the effect of Aurum’s spell? Had he slowed down their enemy? He must have fought off Racox’ blindness. Or was he fighting despite of it?
(Mary could fight, too!)
She snapped to attention, silencing the screaming thoughts that the blindness made her useless. She could hear the beating of wings above her! She aimed at the sound and released her Eldritch Blast, pumping a ball of fiery energy into the impact.
She heard the explosion and felt its heat upon her skin. Racox cried in pain, and there was the smell of singed leather and flesh.
She heard Agatha and Aurum grunt in pain, too.
“What happened?” she cried. “Are you ok?”
“No, no, it's fine!” Aurum shouted. “Keep going!”
She did. The second Eldritch wasn’t as strong as the first one (and definitely not that fiery) but she felt it hit, even though she still couldn’t see her target.
She heard Racox finish his slowed-down incantation. There was another wet slap from the dragon’s tail. Then, there was the light from Bruno's Symbol on her skin.
A few moments later, she was able to fight off the blindness.
This is such an intense fight! Fire and death everywhere, and an Earth Elemental who somehow didn’t join in the battle. Blindness is an awful condition in D&D and I hate it! XD But Aurum’s Slow spell made things a lot easier.
See you next time for the conclusion of this battle.
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.
You don't ever have to apologise for real life happening ! I hope you and your youngling are both feeling better 😀
I like the idea of an undead dragon's breath weapon being a wave of pus, maggots and squishy things rather than the bland "negative energy" so often quoted in the Monster Manual. Also.... why do I have this mad vision of Bruno trying a Turning attempt on the thing 😁
!BBH
Oh, I don't think he tried to Turn it. Maybe he didn't think it was as useful as his other stuff... Or, more probably, he didn't actually want it to fly away because that way we wouldn't have been able to fight Racox.