(Content Warning: Death. This story gets heavy everyone, read at your own discretion.)
Waves crashed against the ship, the sea itself was choppy but the weather was comparatively tame, a light breeze rustling the sails doing little to disturb a sky dense with clouds. The ship itself was a fairly luxury vessel, a mixture of expansive cargo holds and four-person cabins forming the inner workings below the deck.
In one such cabin on the port side, Marieya Ebontide was reclining on a hammock, having been recently banished from the Shadow Realm on punishment of being hunted like prey and then killed in whatever way the victor saw fit. She was not alone however, as some friends had joined her in the realm of Midgard in solidarity with her.
They included Izumi, a roguish looking individual, her small nub-like horns concealed underneath a hood that cast her eyes in shadow revealing only a mouth curved into a slight smirk, alabaster white skin reflecting in the moderate light provided in the cabin.
The next compatriot was Vardal, a ranger of great renown within the Shadow Realm. His outfit muddied from tracking bearfolk on long hunts, long spiralling horns on proud display and the light catching on his dark grey skin. Beside him was his handcrafted bow and quiver, covered in several notches, one for each successful hunt.
Finally, trying to keep to themselves and express minimal emotion was Ancil. One of Marieya’s oldest friends, they were the one who supervised her trip into the forest, the one that lead to her banishment.
“Is there any reason you’ve dragged me out here Marieya?” Ancil said, a tone of exasperation lacing their voice, checking the buckles on all their gear as they followed the excitable Shadow Fey sorcerer, eager to try out new spells.
Marieya spun as she walked and beamed happily at her fighter friend “Well, whilst I get to grips with using my spells in a proper scenario…” she said, casting a spell to produce a small puff of smoke around her hand “…I figured I could use a strong, strategic, handsome fighter to escort me!”
The mildest apparition of a smile appeared on Ancil’s mouth before fading as they reached a small clearing. A fire pit smouldered gently around ebony logs that had been dragged close to act as makeshift sitting stools, and aside from a few crushed leaves, there were no remnants of the hunting party that used this area as a rest stop. Even the smallest dropped item could lead bearfolk trackers right to them.
Approaching the fire pit rubbing her hands together in glee; Marieya closed her eyes whilst taking a deep breath, envisioning the spell in her mind before saying out loud “Fiiirreeeee… Bolt!”, flicking her hand forwards at the same time. Wisps of flame circled around her palm before forming into a more cohesive ball in the centre, launching out at high speed into the fire pit reigniting the smouldering logs with a flash.
Giggling at finally getting to use her powers properly filled the young Shadow Fey with confidence, perhaps overconfidence considering her next move.
“Hey” she said “Hey Ancil.”
Ancil sighed, and said “What is it?”
Marieya gripped a piece of cured leather tight in her hand, focused on her next spell, pumping her arms and shouting “Let’s see if your fancy swords can get through my armour!”, causing a translucent red magical energy of sorts to whip around her.
Again, Ancil sighed, and shook their head. “Marieya… you’ve had some really blunt ideas in the time we’ve known each other” they said “But ‘goading me to attack you’ is probably the bluntest yet”
With a slight pout, Marieya shot back “You’ve seen me studying” she said, “I’ve looked into what this spell does, and it should be able to withstand a hit from your longsword!”
The fighter realised there was no way around this and no route to convincing their friend to back down, and so unsheathed their weapon of choice; a bespoke longsword with a straight blunt edge and a delicately sloped sharp edge, designed in such a way that allows the wielder to swap between lethal and non-lethal combat on the fly.
Ancil tutted “You know that day I used the blunt edge on you?” they said, “There was no way I was going to risk gutting you because you didn’t know the limit of your powers.”
Izumi laughed, twirling a shortsword in her hand “I would’ve done it”, she said, her voice dripping animosity “Would’ve taught her to fucking rein in.”
As the blade was deflected off the ethereal protection projected by the younger sorcerer, she fully ventured into the territory of overconfidence, allowing her ego to be swelled. Ancil continued to show barely any emotion, aside from their body language indicating a train of thought of why exactly someone this talented with sorcery need their help.
Putting the leather back into her pocket, Marieya cracked her knuckles and surveyed her surroundings. Many dark twisted trees make up the forests of the Shadow Realm, some young sprouts, and some ancient monoliths, but to the girl drunk on her own power; they all looked like targets to another spell.
Interlocking her fingers together and muttering an incantation to manifest the spell, very soon glowing red darts of magical energy appeared around Marieya. First three appeared, but as she muttered more mystical words another manifested, and finally one more also materialised, five darts in total and with a sweeping motion of both arms away from her chest each dart launched itself into a nearby tree.
The more brittle trees shattered almost instantly upon impact, sending bits of bark and wood chips flying across the clearing and to other trees. Stronger trees were visibly damaged, but the debris was more localised around the tree that was hit.
Vardal tutted “Whilst it was an amalgamation of errors that lead to this situation” he said “that was most likely the root, as you had just surrounded the area in what was essentially kindling”
Izumi chimed in and said “Yeah, I could’ve made it out if it weren’t for the bits of shit you had chucked everywhere.”
In addition to the damage caused the spell was quite loud, leading to Ancil expressing concern to their friend “Alright, you’ve proved your power and that you can handle yourself” they said “But you just made a few loud bangs, so if people didn’t know we are here before, they definitely do now.”
And soon enough, someone revealed themselves and was quite annoyed at what had been going down. “Marie, are you fucking insane!?” Izumi said, approaching the duo with a furious stride “I’ve been watching from the sidelines and it was all harmless fun until you blasted the shitting tree I was standing behind!”
Marieya crossed her arms in a huff “Well where else am I supposed to improve?” she said, “If I did this anywhere else, I’d get shouted at.”
“I’m shouting at you now you power tripping bitch! We’re friends but you seriously have to know your limits here.”
“I know my limits just fine!” Marieya said in rebuttal, “Watch! I’ll use one of my most powerful spells with the utmost of control!”
Upon saying this she reached into her pocket and pulled out a medium-sized red crystal, with minimal cutting and carving on it, leading to it having rough edges and an unusual shape. Nonetheless it brimmed with magical potential as an arcane focus, which the girl directed away from the group and started to concentrate on casting the spell.
In her mind, she was going to create a large, fiery explosion at the furthest distance she could to demonstrate the proficiency of her power.
However, the concerns of her friends clouded her mind, was she really going out of control here? Had she already done what she needed to be satisfied with herself? Was everything after protecting herself just needless showmanship?
Realising her impulsiveness, Marieya lowered her crystal… but the spell had manifested, and in her doubtful state instead of the spell being casted at a safe distance; the spell was cast but thirty feet away from the group.
Whilst they were not caught in the primary blast; the group were close enough to be pushed back by the force of the explosion. Izumi collided hard with a tree, falling to the ground quickly after whilst Marieya and Ancil were thrown back to the path they had initially travelled down, but the pain from the impact was the least of their concerns.
The fiery explosion had ignited the scraps of trees leftover by the earlier magical missiles, which provided enough ferocity to the ensuing flames to start burning the trees themselves, in the moments whilst the two on the path were composing themselves; the fire had already engulfed a good portion of the surrounding forest.
“Move.” Ancil said “Now.” Their previously ambivalent voice now provided insight to how they perceived the current situation, and they were not going to take any chances. The two began to flee the encroaching blaze, before Marieya looked back.
“I-Izumi? Izumi come on we have to move!” she said, shouting to get her friend moving. There was no response. The hit from the tree had rendered her unconscious.
“We don’t have time.” Ancil said, urging their friend to keep moving.
“But… but… she’s our friend! I have to help her!”
Marieya began the first steps back to try pick Izumi up, but the tree she had hit into was already burning, and before long a branch had caught fire, breaking off from the main tree and landing flat on her motionless body. If the impact did not kill her, the flame claiming her certainly did.
Marieya shuffled in her hammock, looking over to Vardal and Ancil. “Time slowed down for me when that happened…” she said, a haunted demeanour washing over her “I was horrified… she died because of me… because of my selfishness.”
Vardal seemed to agree, but took a restrained tone, saying “You had certainly laid the groundwork for such an incident, but your inexperience with a new spell is nothing to be ashamed of.”
“N-no…”
Ancil grabbed Marieya’s arm and pulled her through the burning forest, not giving her time to process the grief of losing a friend. The fire had continued to spread exponentially, each moment Ancil had to rapidly process the information around them to work out where to go next, within a given second a path could be blocked by falling flaming foliage requiring a moment to pause, a moment that could mean death.
“Ancil! Marieya!” a voice called out from within the flames “Can you hear me? Try to follow my voice!”
The duo complied, navigating their way through the burning forest until they reached the source of the voice. It was Vardal, presumably he had been on a hunt as there was a party of other rangers with him. “We need to get to the forest border” he said, taking control of the situation “We’re working on getting clerics and druids together to help control the blaze but we don’t know how long they’re going to be.”
Once safely navigated through the last bit towards Vardal and his party, they continued their advance through the forest, with other rangers acting as lookout for more falling branches, passage eventually calming down despite the rage around them.
“Alright, we’re close to safety” Vardal said “It should only be another three hundred feet, once we’re out we can check for injuries and- “
There was a loud bang, disorienting everyone in the vicinity. More bangs were heard, and shards of wood went flying. “Shit!” a ranger said, “The hidden caches of alcohol are igniting and exploding!”
Hidden throughout forests by various forward ranging parties; the caches were intended to be accessed by any explorers looking to relax or take the edge off a hunt, but instead now have become a deadly trap. More explosions went off, and in a spell of misfortune, Vardal was standing right beneath one of these.
Marieya sighed in sadness, and looked over again, only Ancil looking back at her. “I hope the explosion ended it quickly for him…” she said “I can’t stand the idea of having caused him more pain than I already did…”
Ancil nodded “I hope so too.”
“…his legs being blown off is never going to leave my mind though.”
The tears streamed down Marieya’s face; it was a shock to lose one friend due to her actions but losing a second shortly after was traumatising. If it were not for Ancil continuing to pull her along, she would have let herself be consumed by the results of her error, succumbing to the flames.
Slowly, the border of the forest became clear, but the flames had managed to catch up to Marieya and Ancil, the latter not moving as fast as they were previously, their breathing had become laboured and their normally stoic expressed had twisted into a rictus of pain.
“Ngh… sorry Marieya… this is as far as I go…” Ancil said, grunting, pushing Marieya in front of them.
“W-what? No! We’re so close! Come on!” Marieya said, her voice cracking with guilt and fear.
In response Ancil rolled up both their right and left trouser leg, revealing flesh penetrated with several chunks of wood “Barrel explosions got me good…”
Marieya refused to leave her friend behind, not after the events of today, she tried to tug Ancil along, but she did not have the strength to. “Please… I can’t lose anyone else…”
Ancil breathed deeply, realising the flames would reach them any moment now “It’s up to you to live now…”, and with that, they picked Marieya up, pushed the last bit of distance they needed to before throwing her clear of the forest, succumbing to the pain of their injuries and collapsing to the ground with the fire washing over them soon after.
The impact on the ground briefly stunned the girl, but she turned on the ground to try running back to save her friend, but the flames were already too strong. All she could do is scream. Scream. Cry. Wail. Despair. Despair at the horror her hands had caused.
Soon after the clerics and druids had arrived and cast spells to form a massive rainstorm over the forest, extinguishing the flames. A sorcerer had pulled Marieya aside and delved deep into her mind, discerning what had happened in the depths of the forest.
“Marieya Ebontide, for the crime of gross misuse of magic, for the crime of death in the misuse of magic, and for the destruction of ranger caches, I hereby banish you from the Shadow Realm. I will conjure a portal to the realm of Midgard, if you do not leave through it in the time the spell lasts, I will execute you. If you ever return, we will hunt you down, and the victor will choose how you are executed.”
Marieya laid in a hammock, trying to focus on anything other than what she had done.
“I need to ask one more thing of you” Ancil said.
Marieya jumped in shock “But… all the others disappeared… why are you here?”
“Because if there’s one person to tell you this, your mind would rather it be me.”
“Ahh…”
“You need to forgive yourself for what happened that day.”
“How… how can I forgive myself for such a heinous act?”
“We’re all gone, and you’re in a new world. You have a chance to find a new start.”
“I’d rather just stay on this ship, in this hammock, forever, and ever.”
“Where do you think you are?”
***
Marieya awoke with a jolt from her meditative trance, revealing true surroundings of large supply crates she had stowed herself between. As she heard a guard approaching to where she was hiding she pulled a tarp over herself to better conceal her position, loosening it as the footsteps became quieter.
She wiped her eyes of tears before rolling onto her side, using the tarp as a makeshift blanket, and tried to settle down to sleep.
She did not need to.
She just hoped nightmares would hurt less than memories.
Inspiration
This is probably the most difficult thing I have written in a very long time. It is dealing with a topic I’ve never really explored in fiction, the most dialogue I’ve written, strange perspectives on telling the story, and is the largest piece of fiction I’ve written in almost 4 years (2695 words of main content). I hope it reads well enough and the details are understandable. Any and all constructive feedback is welcome.
It somewhat seems appropiate that my first proper D&D character would go for the trope of tragic backstory, I also hope there’s enough interest in the content itself to make it stand apart. There’s honestly more to come when I explore her time training as a cleric.
Through this though, Marieya is someone I’ve played as a walking disaster, and whilst the reasons for this haven’t been explore in-game, I definitely try lean into the more comedic side of this to add interest in the roleplay aspect, such as when she found Jørgen and Fauna in the city of Jozht (after having gotten a 9 on Investigation to try find them) and badly tried to describe the situation she had gotten into with Honesty.
That situation is what spurred this story on, as Marieya had her mind delved into by a nothic, which prompted my DM to message him a secret privately, and that it can be anything. I decided now would be a good time to start drip feeding in the backstory I had been working on, especially since we uncursed the nothic, who now has this bit of knowledge in a more rational form.
To put it more into game terms, Marieya in this story is a 5th level sorcerer, hence her having access to Fireball. The reason she does not have these abilities as a character right now are distinct but connected:
- She lost her friends due to not being able to control herself and her spells, leading to her suppressing her sorcerous nature
- She lost her friends to fire and fire related effects, and with a good portion of her spell list being fire based, she worked even more to suppress her magic
The second reason is also why she has a phobia of fire. Whilst it is in the demands of Segottan to “Light no fires”, she came to fear fire long before she met the Mharoti Empire.
What does this bit of information mean for her progression as a character both in-story and in-game? I honestly feel I have a lot of ways to advance with her, with several options already considered for potential multiclassing as either releasing her dormant potential, or speccing into one of the classes of her fallen friends.
Or perhaps she will just continue as a cleric, realising the call of yesterday has long since passed, and that whilst her current path was not one of her choosing; she can now determine her own destiny.
I will leave off with two things, one, for anyone who may be curious, here is Marieya’s sorcerer spell list:
- Cantrips
- 1st Level
- 2nd Level
- 3rd Level
Secondly, the title. Something that inspired the storytelling (and I directly echoed in the ending) was the Scrubs episode “My Screw Up”, I’ll leave the clip below with a spoiler warning for Season 3, Episode 14.
Rosalia Rambles 
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