Hello, Everyone!
How are you doing? I’m fine, thanks for asking. What? You didn’t ask? Shame on you! 😆
Anyway, here’s what happened so far: our heroes took a job as Agents of Pamagos in order to investigate the Undead attacks from the last few months. Mary and Aurum went into the office of the ruler of Pamagos to get some documents and instead he started a nice little conversation about books and politics. They even had some cakes.
What would you expect from a visit to a ruler of a country?
The sun was climbing down on the sky. Its rays entered the cabinet of Dynatos Perres and made figures of light on the walls.
"You must have something else that you wanted to talk about,” their host said.
“Actually I do,” Mary said and took a deep breath. “Can you tell us more about Dorina Dwendel?”
He stared at her with a thoughtful expression until she started fidgeting in her chair.
“Look, we’d appreciate anything you could tell us,” Aurum intervened. “Mary has some… personal interest in the case.”
"Yes," Mr. Perres said. "Alexander wrote that you might come to ask about her."
"Alexander?"
"Alexander Dwendel."
"Ooh!" Mary blinked. She'd never thought to ask about Lord Dwendel's first name.
“Dorina was a good woman,” Dynatos Perres said. “She used to work for me and was one of my best agents.”
“What exactly did she do?” Aurum asked.
“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."
Dynatos Perres sighed.
"Alexander and I were very close. Dorina’s disappearance was a huge blow for me, too."
Mary thought about Lord Dwendel's sad smile and looked at the floor. Why would his daughter disappear just like that?
"Did she know any dangerous secrets that might have put her in harm's way?" she asked.
Dynatos Perres took a long time studying her before he finally answered.
"You are a very curious girl, Miss Windfiddle!" he said with a twinkle in his eye.
"Yes, I…" Mary smiled awkwardly, "I consider it one of my biggest strengths."
"Right," Mr. Perres said. "I don't know what secrets Dorina might have known, she didn't share them with me."
"Speaking of secrets," Aurum said, "what can you tell us about the fate of Christoff Pyron?"
Ever since he’d gotten this tip about Pyron having had two of Maheshvara’s bells, the bard had been looking for more information about what’d happened to the man.
"Oh, his fate is no secret," Mr. Perres said. "He was a childhood friend of Creen Bright and was with him and his wife on board of the ship ‘New Hope’. They sailed towards Drakonia but were ambushed near the shores of Ekoba. ‘New Hope’ sank, leaving no survivors. The only thing that might be considered unknown--or a 'secret', if you will--is that his body was among the few that couldn’t be found after the shipwreck."
A new silence fell in the cabinet. The sun was starting to set on the horizon. Mary exchanged a look with Aurum.
“Um… well...” she said. “Thank you for your help and attention. We, um, don’t want to take up more of your time?”
“Oh, no! Please, stay,” Dynatos Perres exclaimed. ”I haven’t had such an interesting company for a long time! Make yourselves comfortable, have more cake, some more tea… Zhanet can bring in anything that you wish for.”
The thin woman put down her book and looked at them expectedly. Mary shook her head.
"It's getting late," she said. "Bruno's probably waiting for us at ‘The Salty Bitch’."
"Ooh! Is that a tavern?" Mr. Perres' eyes lit up. "I haven't been to a tavern in ages! Would you mind if I joined you? Presuming that you'll make sure I don’t get killed, of course!"
Mary and Aurum looked at each other.
Having the ruler of Pamagos walk by their side made for a pretty unnerving trip through the city. Mary was constantly looking around, searching for any possible threats on their way and staring at people's faces to try and discern whether they could be a secret assassin.
The passersby who recognized their companion turned their heads in surprise and whispered to each other. A pretty big empty circle formed around them as more and more people made sure to just stay out of their way.
Dynatos Perres, however, seemed pretty casual about the whole thing. He was walking and making small talk, as if this was the most natural thing in the world.
When they got to the tavern, Mary heard an audible gasp from several mouths, most prominently from Vlad and Lilly. The half-orc Gruumsh elbowed a tattoo-covered gnome at the poker table and pointed to the newcomers. The gnome’s jaw dropped.
Bruno was waiting at their table with an ale in hand. He waved and beckoned them to join him. When they introduced Mr. Perres, he raised his eyebrows but shrugged and greeted him like just any normal person.
"So, Mr. Airhammer," Mr. Perres said after they'd been sat down and given their drinks (three ales for the men and a tea for Mary). "Tell me about yourself."
They proceeded to speak about the politics of Eastern Erathos and the wonderful technological progress in Frinkeltong. A few toasts were given and Mary's tea joined in each of them, although it felt a little bit silly. It was a really pleasant evening and at one point Mary almost forgot that they were talking to one of the most influential people in the country. She even mindlessly conjured Aingels, her tressym familiar – a habit she'd taken during their last time in Frinkeltong.
"Are you married?" Bruno asked Mr. Perres. "Isn't your wife going to object that you're taking such a long time to go home after work?"
"Oh, no!" Dynatos said. " My Anabelle is a sweetheart! She'd never say anything like that!" he sighed happily. "It's such a good thing to have someone to love! Don't you agree, Sir Aurum?"
"Sure," the bard said.
"Honestly," Mary scoffed, "I can't imagine Aurum having anything to do with love."
"What?" the bard raised an eyebrow.
Everyone turned to Mary and she suddenly felt her ears start to burn.
"I mean, you always, you know…" she felt the burn spread to her cheeks. "You have so many… partners..."
"We weren't talking about partners, we were talking about family," Dynatos smiled.
"Yes, well, um…" the fire was spreading to Mary's neck. "I was talking about romantic love. I can't see Aurum having anything to do with romantic love because of his, um, partners. That's what I meant. Nothing more."
She picked up her tea and took one big gulp. She almost choked.
"Let's drink to love, then, in all its forms!" Dynatos Perres laughed and raised his glass.
At that moment the tavern door slammed open and two men appeared in the frame. They were both dressed in black, with masks on their faces, and they both raised their bows and shot the ruler of Pamagos in the back.
Wait, what? Did we just went from “let’s drink for love” to an assassination attempt in, like, a second? Yes. Yes, we did. It was a fun time on our D&D table, too. XD Nobody was prepared for that turn of events!
So, let’s see how it goes from here. See you in the next episode!
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide and the Glossary for the series. You're welcome!)