Marieya’s Companions

Marieya and the party enter into the sewers beneath Donnermark, pursuing the restless dead who were carrying corpses in service of some unknown master…

Oh gross don’t step in that! Oh bugger this place is rank and smells like undead. I mean… this is one of the best places for my magic to work well but that can’t stop the smell these guys give off!

At least Fauna is in her ostrich form which makes it easier for her to get down into the sewers. Being a druid does have some perks I suppose, especially as her normal form would really struggle using that ladder. Having hooves and being shaped like she is could lead to some accidents climbing down it.

I do appreciate having her around though, aside from not taking too kindly to the jokes I make about her supposed blueberry addiction she’s very friendly. Definitely understanding of various things within the party, can heal others if I’m struggling with the task or otherwise bogged down, and her animal forms can be deadly.

Jørgen on the other hand…

Don’t get me wrong, I love this new found family I have come across but out of all of them he’s the one I understand the least. He does a lot of the talking for us, despite being somewhat antisocial in other scenarios, and his sense of urgency definitely runs on a part-time basis, usually only existing if one of us is in real danger or if he wants to cast a stupid powerful spell.

Which is usually just Fireball. Like I know it is one of the best spells a wizard-in-training can get but… it still doesn’t get any easier seeing that explosion again, especially so soon after everyone has seen my phoenix powers.

The newest member to this little group is called Nanukapik. Initially, I was crapping myself when I saw them, y’know on the whole basis of “bearfolk normally want to eat my ripe liver for brunch”, until I saw him and Jørgen talking, sharing stories of the Northlands, leading me to realise he probably wouldn’t irrationally want to kill me.

Good thing, considering he looks like he could cave my head in without much effort. Not only is a war pick something insanely scary to come up against, he looks the pinnacle of strength, able to effortlessly lift, pull, drag, and fight anything that gets in his way. Hopefully this story of his being a “folk hero” holds up.

He was taking up the vanguard position, whereas in the rearguard, like usual, was our disaster kobold, Honesty.

Okay, calling him a disaster is a little rude, especially considering we’ve both got into our fair share of trouble together over the past months. And kinda insensitive given what happened recently. I can’t fault his effectiveness in combat though, able to surprise even the wittiest foes with devastating attacks.

But… yeah, I worry about him. A lot. Losing Vantar was hard on us all, though the rest of us had only known him for a fleeting moment. Honesty had to watch as his lifelong friend died in his arms for a second time. Due to the nature of soul gems I don’t exactly know when he “died”, but the crack in the soul gem combined with the dullness told us everything. 

I wish I comforted him more, but obviously not everyone wants to hear platitudes from someone who killed their closest friends… I miss them every day…

Snap out of it Marieya, that doesn’t matter right now. Right now, we need to clear out this crap tunnel of the undead, find out what’s causing this all, then move onto helping Fauna and others.

Then, finally, I have my vision from Seggotan. A personal quest from my father beneath the waves to go to Lake Phandar and seek out a female descendant of his turned heretic. Defeating her will prove my loyalty and award me with an item of great power known as the “Staff of Origin”.

I have no idea what to expect, what trials I may face, but I’m at least glad Seggotan consistently used female pronouns to describe this individual. This means that no matter what comes to face me, I don’t have to see Corvus again!

I hope.

Inspiration

As Rosalia realises it has taken her this long to formally introduce the party of the Midgard campaign she plays in, but considering we had a new member join, figured it was the best time.

With this as well I definitely wanted the main story to focus on how Marieya herself sees her friends and what she thinks of them, hence the first person perspective this time around and writing the story with her mannerisms in mind.

As for the party themselves, I’ll give a quick summary here:

• Jørgen, our antisocial wizard with a spellbook that lets them change the damage type of their spells
• Fauna, a friendly druid with amazing wild shape forms and formidable spells
• Honesty, a rogue/paladin with a particular strong sales technique
• And Nanukapik, a warden and our primary tank (dude has 51 hitpoints)

Bit of a shorter article generally really, but it’s nice to do some condensed ones now and again.