Hello, Everyone!
Last time, our heroes finished their encounter with Granny Gretel (whose Hut had appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the road in Ekoba) and continued their way towards the country's capital. While they were riding through a forest, they came upon a big tree, sprung over the road. A few young men were waiting around it, holding makeshift weapons.
It was an ambush!
However, just as they were passing through, Aurum poofed off from his horse and appeared behind one of the robbers, holding a knife to his throat.
The boy Aurum teleported behind yelped and almost strung himself onto the bard’s dagger. Tears started streaming down his face and Mary saw a wet spot emerge at the front of his pants.
“I’m sorry!” he cried out. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please don’t kill me!”
The other boys were in panic. They dropped their makeshift weapons and started begging, too.
“I told you we shouldn’t do it!” one of them shouted. “I told you!”
“We’re sorry! We’re so sorry!”
“Please!”
Aurum loosened his dagger ever so slightly and raised his eyes to catch Mary and Bruno’s. He looked flustered, as if he hadn’t expected such a reaction to his actions.
Mary jumped from her horse and ran back to join him. On the way, she flicked her wand and the spot on the first boy’s pants disappeared. She didn’t feel comfortable speaking with him with the evidence of his bladder’s release between them.
“Easy now,” she said as calmly as she could. “Look, Aurum is going to put his dagger down but you have to promise to behave and tell us what’s going on.”
The boy almost nodded before realizing that that would easily slit his throat. He whined and said he’d do anything as long as they let him live. When Aurum took the blade off of his neck, he crumbled down on the ground, trembling and trying to catch his breath. The other boys rushed in and hugged him. It took the whole group a few minutes to calm down.
Then, through tears and apologies, the four told them everything. They were two sets of brothers – Adam and Bezar, and Drosek and Zani. They both had recently lost their fathers in an accident in the nearby coal mine and, being the oldest in their families, had to try and provide for everyone else. And they were desperate. The only livelihood available in their town was the one that had killed their fathers and they were ready to do anything not to take it on.
“Yeah, it doesn’t seem that roadside robbing is much better, is it now?” Bruno said.
They shook their heads in unison.
"Was that your first attempt?"
They nodded.
"Well, good thing it was us you tried it out on, and not someone who wouldn't hesitate to kill you."
They mumbled some more inarticulate apologies.
“It's OK," Mary said. "Let’s bring you back to your village and see where we go from there."
Anzen was bigger compared to the previous settlements on their way. It even had some paved streets. However, the people here weren't much better off than in the other places. They were grey and sullen, and awfully thin. On some of the doors there were signs of mourning and Mary realised that the explosion that the boys' fathers had died in had probably taken many more lives as well.
There were homeless people on the streets, too, not begging for money but just sitting on the curb, resigned to their fate. Mary thought of giving them some money but she hesitated. What would they buy? And from whom? Most people here didn't seem to have anything to spare.
Drosek and Zani apologized one last time and went off to go home, and Adam and Bezar took the trio to their house. It was small, only one room, with a tiny barn at the back.
It was almost night, so the boys offered Mary and her friends to stay there.
When the house door opened, the trio was greeted by the boys' grandma. She didn't seem very keen on housing strangers, but when Adam said that the travellers were willing to pay for their stay, she welcomed them inside.
They were an awfully big family. There were four girls at different ages doing chores inside the room. One boy, way smaller than Adam and Bezar, was playing by the fire. And the children's mother was cooking something with a sullen expression.
Dinner wasn't much and Mary and her friends ate from their own rations. Mary took out some oranges for dessert and distributed them among everyone. The family, like most of the other people the trio had met so far, were surprised by the fruit and hadn't had any before. They said that there was someone in the village who claimed that their father had eaten an orange many, many years ago.
During the dinner, Bruno asked about the abandoned villages they'd come upon on the way. Adam and Bezar had told them that one of the places--Raza--had had a mine explosion just like in Anzen, and after losing the mine and all the people inside, the rest of the villages had gone away.
"No," their grandma said. "Raza was attacked by orcs. They killed everyone. And nobody ever lived in Barja. They say it was built by spirits, or fairies, or something like that."
Spirits 'or' fairies? Something stirred in Mary's mind. What if the things she explained to herself like done by spirits--the paid bills or the sudden appearance of the key to the mausoleum--were in fact fairy deeds? It would make some sense for Gillean to send her little helpers, like the one that had sewn in the Pocket of Holding to her bag. She had to talk to him to check if that was true.
They talked some more and then the family said they wanted to prepare for bed. Mary and her friends would sleep in the barn where they'd park their horses. Once outside, Mary planted her wand into the ground near the barn and they made their camp around it. After all, the weather kept on getting colder and unpleasant, and under the branches of the orange tree, it was always nice and warm.
"I'll stay up to watch the horses," Mary said. She'd been doing that for the last few days, ever since they entered Ekoba's territory. As much as she sympathized with the people here, she was still very cautious. Her mind was filled with all the stories about Ekoba's bad reputation.
It wasn't a problem for her not to sleep. That way, she'd have time to inscribe Granny's spells onto her Book of Shadows and write in her journal.
Ekoba is turning out to be a sad, sad place. I hope our heroes don't get too bummed out by all of this. Let's see what will happen to them in our next episode.
Until then,
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide, the Glossary and the Map for the series. You're welcome!)
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.