Salt in the Wound

Professor Hydran

Zetaruul

Alexander Thunderpouch

**Salt in the Wound** was a Brigade oneshot for higher-level characters. It followed the guild members on a request for aid from Shards, who took them with her to finally put down her feral mother, Meribelle the Unyielding. After reaching the cavern she was forcibly caged in, they fought and killed the ancient brass dragon and collapsed the den to form her tomb, finally putting her to rest after almost 1,000 years of frenzied, mindless existence.

## Prompt

It’s a late evening, a couple days after the return of the Knights from their quest to Caus Drukat. Shards and Hydran are basking in the moonlight out past Port Perdue, enjoying the feeling of the boundless ocean surrounding them rather than some enclosed bubble or cramped tower.

They surface at the docks, Shards shifting from the form of a merfolk to that of her familiar sand elven one as she climbs up and dangles her feet from the pier’s end. As she wrings out her hair she looks up to the moon, a serious expression on her face. She turns back to look the Professor in the eyes as she speaks.

“Hydran, I know you have only just returned home, but I have an important favor to ask. It will be immensely dangerous, but now that we have forces strong enough to deal with such I feel I must take care of it now…”

Her gaze darken, and she scowls as she speaks through gritted teeth.

“It’s time to kill my mother.”

## Character Developments

* First Appearances for
	+ NPCs
		- Meribelle the Unyielding
* Shards' mother is put to rest, and the Brigade members involved help recover any remaining relics of the brass dragon's life before her spiral into madness
* Various equipment of Meribelle the Unyielding obtained
	+ Kerfuffler's Cuffs
	+ Locket of the Shifter
	+ Patina Cradle
	+ Stryfe's Signet Ring
	+ Cloak of the Unyielding

## Entry #1

Yo. Thunderpouch here, writing a report on our mission: Salt in the Wound.

Shards took Rok'Soag, Zetaruul, Rabi, Prof. Hydran and myself, Alexander, over to tackle a very serious issue; her mother has been imprisoned in a cavern, rabid and mindless. The only possible solution is the final one; death in combat. That's big sad, but bigger sad is letting her remain there as she is.

We headed to Tower Haylight, and camped out halfway between there and the cave. Professor Hydran and Shards talked about the professor's late family while keeping watch with Alexander. Alexander told them a bit about his mother, but he was a little uncomfortable because the other two people's parents weren't doing so well. Later, while most of us were sleeping, Rabi spotted a Bile Tribe orc, but he ran off, so we weren't too worried, but we were a little on guard after that.

After we found the cave, Zetaruul used his weird mind powers to make us go poof into the cave. That stuff is wild; some crazy sorcerer stuff. I wonder what tribe he is from? He's like, a bug? Is there a bug tribe? The Big Brain Tribe? Anyway. So we got down there... and I'll cut the description of the combat short in case Shards reads this report. Needless to say, Maribelle was put to rest.

We found a chest, and went through it to find a journal and some items that looked to be magic. We put everything together, and took it out. After some debate, we settled on caving the cave in on top of her. I was pretty against the idea, and really wanted to burn her up and return her to dust... in the end, Maribelle is buried where she spent the last several hundred years trapped. Poetic, but in a very tragic way.

It really makes you think twice about what you do though... a simple mission to kill an evil yellow dragon led to all of this sorrow. A mother losing her children and her mate... But sometimes things like this happen, and we cannot dwell on them and let the dark overtake our light.

The world is a dark place sometimes. But, part of being a hero means accepting the darkness, and working to make it a little bit brighter. I think today is a dark day, but tomorrow is going to be brighter than yesterday because of what we did here today. It wasn't easy, but it had to be done and we did it.