Interlude: Dorina Dwendel (recap+art)

Hello, Everyone!

Welcome to the first character recap for Mary Windfiddle's story. This information is everything that we know about Dorina Dwendel, up until our last episode.

The first time she was mentioned was all the way back in On the Road Again - Part 1

Then she turned the map over to look at its back. There was an inscription.
“Made for Dorina Dwendel, with gratitude for the heroism, and as a sign of Myth Adofhaer's eternal respect.”
She took her eyes off the map and turned to lord Dwendel.
“Who is Dorina?”
His shoulders slumped at the mention of the name. He turned around and his face was suddenly a lot older and very, very sad.
“Dorina was my daughter” he said. “She was an adventurer like you three. She cared about people, saved a lot of lives. She was so brave!” he looked at Mary and his eyes were wet with unfallen tears. “You remind me of her.”
Mary felt her heart tighten.
“What happened to her?” she asked quietly.
Lord Dwendel cleared his throat and looked away. “She disappeared from our home six years ago and we never heard from her again. We believe her to be dead.”

Then, in the next chapter Mary promised Lord Dwendel that she was going to find her.

Lord Dwendel approached. He gave them their due payment, thanked them for taking care of him and his family and, for their surprise, gave each of them a hug.
Mary's was last. She hugged him long and sincere and before she pulled away she whispered in his ear.
"We'll find her. We'll find Dorina."

Thanks to our DM, we got to see the lord's heartbreaking reaction to Mary's promise.

His girl! He wanted to hug his daughter and tell her how much he loved her. After so many people had searched for her, how were these youngsters going to succeed? His mind was denying the possibility, but his heart was slamming against the chains of reason.
"Find her, Mary, please find her!"

We didn't hear about her for a looong time until, after the sucessful end of their first big adventure, Mary remembered to ask around for her.

“Sooo!" Granny Gretel clasped her hands. “Now that you're part of my family, what can I help you with?”
The only thing Mary could think to ask about was a way to find people. “Dorina Dwendel,” she said. “I promised her father that I’ll find her.”
Granny Gretel nodded and said she knew the name Dwendel.

A short while after that, in Frinkeltong, Mary had the idea of using the Bearers' magic to find Dorina.

She knew that they had some kind of enchantment that enabled them to find people, even when they hadn’t left an address. What if she tried this to locate Dorina Dwendel? She wrote her a message and gave it to the Bearers.

After a few months of no news, Mary got to meet Granny Gretel again, and ask her how her search was going.

“I have some information about the person you seek.”
The old lady paused, which made Mary hold her breath. Was she finally going to be able to find Lord Dwendel’s daughter?
“She’s undetectable,” Granny Gretel said.
“What?”
“Yes. She’s either dead, or hidden through magic, or is entirely on another Plane of existence.”

Later, Mary checked with the Bearers, too.

Before getting to the tavern, she went through a Bearers’ office to check how their attempts to locate Dorina Dwendel were going. So far, they’d looked in Zerakas tol, Livorda, Pamagos, Frinkeltong and even Ekoba, but Lord Dwendel’s daughter was nowhere to be found.

She was beginning to think that her search was going to be fruitless and she'd never be able to fulfill her promise, until, out of nowhere, the name 'Dorina Dwendel' came back to the story.

“She completed her assignment in Myth Adofhaer and came back with honours. But only a few days after she returned to her home here in Pamagos, on the 9th of August, she just… disappeared. Didn't pack her belongings, didn't say a word to anyone. There were no signs of struggle in her room. Her scent was tracked to the window, so we assume that's where she got out from."
...
Mary made the calculations in her head and realized that at the time of the last undead attacks Dorina must have been only a little bit older than her. So young, and already an adventurer. Mary couldn’t help but compare herself to that mysterious woman. After all, Lord Dwendel had said that she reminded him of her.

With that information, the trio went straight to Pamagos' ruler and asked him about Dorina, as well.

“She was a good woman,” Dynatos Perres said. “She used to work for me and was one of my best agents. Her job was to fend off assassination attempts against me, same as Elaria does right now,” Mr. Perres said. “But Dorina was... different. She was much more sociable and we used to have many long conversations. I really miss our talks! She was kind, too. She always tried to solve her cases with the minimum amount of violence. Many times I've learned--after the fact--that she went out of her way to dissuade an assassin or pay them off in order to redirect their efforts away from me."

We found out that, six years ago, Dorina Dwendel had used an elven woman as bait to capture the man who, allegedly, had caused the undead attacks and disappearances among the elves. And just when Mary (who, from the beginning, couldn't help but compare with Dorina) followed her example, they happened upon Dorina Dwendel herself.

She went on to try and kidnap Aurum and fought them when they tried to stop her. She sniggered at the mention of her family and looked as if she didn't care about the suffering they were going through.

Also, she had the frightening ability to become immaterial and let any physical attacks pass through her, as well as a weapon which she seemed very attached to.

And this is where the story leaves us. I hope you've appreciated this little recap and that it had been useful or at least interesting :)

Hope to see you later, at the next episode where we'll find out what happens next in the story!

Until then, take care and be well!

Also, do you like how I drew the changed Dorina? I'm kinda proud of how the picture turned out. Here's a side-to-side of the two versions. The left one is Dorina's portrait in Pamagos' Archives, and the second is how she appeared to Mary and her friends during this and the previous episode. What a change, eh?

And here's her stiletto. It's really pretty for something that deadly!

^{An important disclaimer: These are 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 and Bruno) 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.}