Hello, Everyone!
Last time, after defeating Racox and his undead dragon, our heroes called for Granny Gretel and the hag flew in right there and then, on the wings of her enchanted Hut. The group offered her the undead skin of Diohastos in exchange for some healing potions and maybe weapons for slaying Nurvureem, but she refused and demanded a real payment.
Mary didn’t like that. She was sure that the hag would take the skin anyway when they went away and left it behind. Granny became even more suspicious to her when she realised that the hag had somehow acquired Aurum’s purple amulet (she’d wanted that trinket ever since the first time they met her). How did she get it? Aurum had been adamant – he would never part with his childhood gift from the Fairies!
Aurum's amulet was glimmering on Granny's chest. The old woman had wanted it so badly when they first met. And now she’d gotten it.
"Oh!" Mary whispered to herself. It was suddenly all coming together.
This was Aurum's card reading, exactly as the hag had predicted it!
Now all the card readings had come true. Bruno's ‘Bishop’ was Racox. They'd dealt with him already. Aurum's ‘Tax Collector’ was Granny. She had gotten something of his that she'd wanted. And Mary's ‘Traitor’…
"Oh!"
Back in Frinkeltong, she'd thought that Aurum running from them was the betrayal the cards had predicted. But it wasn't that. Aurum wasn't the ‘Traitor’.
It was Tesaya.
It had come true. It had ALL come true and they hadn't been able to avoid any of it. So, maybe… if they got another set of predictions now, this time they'd see the misfortune coming.
"Granny,” Mary asked suddenly, “can you give us a new card reading?"
The bartering for dragon-killing bolts and healing potions stopped abruptly as Granny looked at her and clapped her crooked hands. She reached behind the counter and took out the deck of cards.
"Do you have a question to ask?"
Mary shook her head. She just wanted to know what the future held, so that she could avoid it at any cost.
With a wide grin, the hag offered her the deck. Mary cut it and the woman flipped the first card.
"Oooh, the ‘Warrior’!" She stared at Mary with a look of recognition. "You've changed."
Mary looked at her feet. Her mind went to her new scars and the fury she'd felt, wanted to hurt Nurvureem. She had changed, but that was none of the hag's business.
"There is an important battle ahead of you," Granny said. "The ‘Warrior’ – that's you."*
She was surely talking about Nurvureem. That was the biggest thing a ‘warrior’ would have to face in the foreseeable future. Mary opened her mouth to say so, but then the hag flipped a second card. It was depicting an angry man in chains, with a building burning behind him.
"The ‘Anarchist’," she read it. "There's chaos waiting for you. Maybe pain. The man is chained up and maybe so are you. The card tells you to break the chains."
Mary frowned. Pain was to be expected when dealing with Nurvureem. But she didn't understand the thing about the chain.
"My turn," Aurum said.
He reached for the deck and flipped the next card. Granny's face darkened. She looked at him with concern and bit her lip.
"Its the ‘Donjon’," she said. "A very bad card."
Silence fell on the group. Mary felt her chest tighten. Did she have to worry about Aurum now, too?
"Although…" Granny cocked her head at Aurum. “You didn't cut the deck, dear. This is not your fortune."
She moved her eyes to Mary and held them on her for an uncomfortably long time. Mary's hands grew cold. What did that mean? What was the ‘Donjon’?
Meanwhile, Granny offered the deck to Aurum for real, and he cut the cards.
"Ooh, the ‘Mizer’!" she chuckled. "This time someone has something that you'll want. But they won't give it to you willingly."
"My turn!" Agatha said.
She cut the deck and let Granny flip the first card.
"It's the ‘Abjurer’," the woman said. "This is a guardian. Someone will look for your protection. A ‘Druid’, by the looks of it." she said, showing the next card – a man in front of a big hollow tree.
Agatha looked confused. "I don't know any druids," she said.
"We do," Mary said. "Paulina is very cool, you have to meet her! Although, there must be someone that you know, too. Maybe someone you didn't know was a druid? Or someone that became a druid while you've been away from the Islands?"
"Oh!" Granny interrupted their chat. She was holding a third card – the ‘Necromancer’. "It seems that you'll be summoned to help a druid but it'll be too late. They'll already be dead."
At that moment Bruno took a sharp breath. They turned to look at him. His eyes were staring into empty space and he was mouthing Sending after Sending.
He turned to them, as pale as a sheet. The words that left his lips rang into the small room like a funeral bell.
"Paulina is dead."
Oh, no! Not Paulina!
How? When? Why?
You'll find out in the next part of our story.
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.
Getting a fortune telling from a hag is very..... brave....
At least the Donjon turned up in this deck. It's bad, but there's another deck where it could be so much worse.
Good luck, Mary, it sounds like you're really going to need it !