The book of you. Mery’s words echoed in Isa’s mind. She looked down at the little notebook, about the size of her hand, maybe a touch bigger, and so light. It didn’t feel very heavy at all. How many pages? Maybe 30? Maybe less. Did that indicate how much time you have to live? You get your notebook and it’s got 3 pages…. That can’t be a good feeling.
“Well,” said Lund, “I’ve got to get an early start in the morning.” He drained his mug of wine. “I’m going to bed down in the kitchen. Good night.”
He walked past Isa, blocking her view of Mery for a moment, and when he had moved past, Isa’s eye caught Mery’s. She was looking at Isa with a smile on her face. She said, “We could get back to that kiss.”
The bottom fell out of Isa’s stomach. Here was a beautiful woman flirting with her, wanting to pick up where they’d left off earlier in the evening. Feelings fought inside her - hope and desire versus prudence. It had only been a month since Celeste walked out. Besides. how long would Isa even be in this strange world? Did it make any sense to entangle herself with this charming woman currently smiling at her? What was there to gain from such a risk?
That was what the mature side of her brain had to say - the part that sounded a little too much like her mother. The other part of her - the wild part - told her to enjoy the moment, enjoy the attention, enjoy what was likely to be a fleeting encounter with the most charming woman that Isa had ever met.
“Hmmm,” Isa smiled at Mery. “It was very nice. You’re pretty magical aren’t you?”
“There are many kinds of magic now, aren’t there?” Mery settled into her chair and crossed her legs. “Were you wanting to talk magic at a time like this?”
With a sigh Isa set down her mug. “No, not really. But I don’t know what I want instead. So,” she picked up her notebook and stood, “I think I will find a place to sleep for the night.”
Mery nodded her head silently for a long moment. “Fair enough. No hard feelings, lass.”
“I’m not saying No, never. I’m saying, I need time to just…. To just be, I guess.”
“You’re a stranger in a strange land. You don’t owe me anything, Isa.” Mery uncrossed her legs and rested her elbows on her knees. “Are you still wanting to go to Deney? Are you wanting to see this Thorn quest through? What Lund didn’t get to tell you was that you can abandon a quest. No penalties - none that I’ve ever heard anyway. And no hard feelings. You didn’t ask for the fight; it doesn’t have to be yours.”
Isa looked down at the book in her hand. “What do you do, like cross it off? Erase the words?”
“That or just ignore it.” Mery got up to poke at the now dying fire. “There’s no time on it, right? No countdown. It’s not like my little rescue quest. You can just ignore it, and nothing bad will happen.”
“That’s not true,” Isa said quickly. “That’s not true at all.”
“I meant nothing bad to you.”
“But the children will still be taken.” She paused. “Unless you can stop Thorn.”
“Unless I can stop Thorn. True.” Mery put the poker back on the stand. “I have some ideas.” She stood and flashed a smile at Isa. “Don’t you worry about me - not my first battle, I assure you. Now,” she looked around, “I need to get some sleep, too.” Mery pointed at the short couch in the corner. “That looks about as comfortable as the floor.”
“I can’t take the bed,” Isa said. “You take the bed.”
“You’re the one almost died. Get a good night’s sleep. If you’re serious and you mean to come with me, you need to rest and regain your fighting tricks.” She laid down on the couch with her jacket draped over her like a blanket. “And in the morning I’ll mend your things. Had a wild dog chewing on your arm, have you?”
Isa touched her bracer, feeling the teeth marks. “That was a gnoll. I surprised him by the river the other day.” She left out the humiliating part about running away. Mery didn’t need to know that part.
“Gnolls are tough customers, no lie. Good on you.” With that Mery closed her eyes.
Isa tucked her notebook in her bag, took one of the lamps and walked up the stairs. The bedroom that she and Mery had used to keep watch stood at the top of the stairs to the right. But instead of walking in there, Isa went to the left, to the music room.
The tapestry that Mery had torn down still lay crumpled on the floor. The piano bench and chair were where they’d left them when they freed Wat.
Wat. Isa hoped the young man would be alright. She knew nothing about him or his life. Maybe his father is a thief, and this is the only life that Wat knows. He had called his father an old bastard, so Isa suspected that maybe Wat hadn't had the best childhood.
What’s in his notebook, she thought to herself. Is he a rogue? Or maybe a fighter. Maybe he wants to be a cleric, and not the red kind but the kind that heals people. Maybe he loves animals and forests.
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Isa thought about all the people she’d met so far in this world - Lund, Joth, Anne the merchant, Mery, Gimble, Fedru, even the halfling feldspice merchant. Each one had a notebook. Each one carried the book of themselves. She’d freely shown people her notebook several times, but had anyone done the same to her? Had she actually seen anyone else’s notebook? Did Mery share her notebook with lovers the morning after? Maybe that was too intimate for all but the most devoted of lovers. Maybe on their wedding night people exchange their notebooks and learned about the person they’d just married.
Isa slowly walked back into the bedroom and sat on the bed. She pulled out her notebook and flipped to the first page.
Class: Fighter. Level: 4
Strength 11
Dexterity 16
Constitution 11
Intelligence 13
Wisdom 13
Charisma 12
She read the words aloud softly. 9 words. 9 words and a bunch of numbers are supposed to encompass everything that makes me who I am. That’s not even possible. What does it mean to have an intelligence of 13? Is that 13 out of a 100? No, can’t be. That would be very, very dumb.
With furrowed brow she tried to remember what Marissa’s character sheet had looked like. It hadn’t seemed that important in the moment. Marissa and her friends had joked around, rolled a lot of dice, consulted their sheets to see if they were successful….. Isa could hear the woman at the end of the table, the DM, asking, “What’s your modifier?” It was such an odd question that she’d whispered in Marissa’s ear, asking what that meant.
“10 is baseline,” Marissa had said. “And anything above 10 is good. Anything below 10 is not so good.” She had pointed at her sheet and said, “I’m a ranger so I want a high wisdom score, see? This 16 is my wisdom score, so my ‘modifier’ is 3. I get to add 3 to every dice roll I make, right?”
“Right,” Isa said to herself. She looked down at her notebook, but her vision was suddenly obscured by tears. She missed her friend, missed her job, and missed Portland. What was happening there?
Surely time had passed. The whole quantum idea that Isa had stepped into a fold of time and space sounded rad, but in her heart, she didn’t think it was true. She felt almost certain that pictures of her were hanging on telephone poles in Foster-Powell, on Hawthorne and Belmont, even inside the Wooden Nickel. Strangers were having their lattes while some bad black and white photo of “missing” Isa Chamberlin looked on.
“Well, that’s fucking depressing,” she said aloud. She almost wished she’d taken Mery up on her offer. Or better yet, brought up a fresh bottle of wine to drink, because Isa wasn’t sure she could sleep unaided. After her first night here, she’d mostly fallen asleep immediately - a combination of exhaustion and habits of a lifetime. But this new life in Varana, well there was too much to think about. Too many conflicting emotions to sort through, ideas to absorb, information to process.
She could feel herself spiraling down into a dark, deep depression, and she knew that she had to step back from that edge. She needed to banish the image of a rain-streaked “Missing” poster from her mind. She’d make it back home. One way or another, she would return home.
The moment she thought those words, Isa’s notebook vibrated. With shaking hands, she flipped to her quest log to find a new quest on the list. It said, Always Coming Home. And below that, she saw the words, “As part of your quest to go home, return to the Temple of Fazar.”
Spoiler: Isa's Character Sheet
Name: Isa Chamberlin
Race: Human
Height & Weight: 5ft 6inches / 120 lbs
Class: Fighter Level: 4
Alignment: Good
Background: Stranger in a Strange Land
Hit Points: 26 AC: 15
Current Hit Points: 20
Combat: +5 to Hit
Weapons: Scimitar +1 (left hand) 1d6 +4 (slashing) / Quarterstaff (right hand) 1d6 +2 (bludgeoning)
STR
11
0
DEX
16
+3
CON
11
0
INT
13
+1
WIS
13
+1
CHA
12
+1
Saving Throws: Str and Con +2
5
Acrobatics* (Dex)
1
Medicine (Wis)
1
Animal Handling (Wis)
1
Nature (Int)
1
Arcana (Int)
3
Perception* (Wis)
0
Athletics (Str)
1
Performance (Cha)
1
Deception (Cha)
1
Persuasion (Cha)
3
History* (Int)
1
Religion (Int)
3
Insight* (Wis)
3
Sleight of Hand (Dex)
1
Intimidation (Cha)
3
Stealth (Dex)
1
Investigation (Int)
1
Survival (Wis)
Special Attack: Two weapon fighting. When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.
Class Features:
USED Second Wind - On your turn, you can use a Bonus Action to regain hit points equal to 5 + your fighter level. Short or Long Rest before you can use it again.
USED Action Surge - On your turn, you can take one additional action on top of your regular action and a possible Bonus Action. You must finish a short or Long Rest before using it again.
Martial Archetype: Surgical Fighter
3rd level - Clinical Eye: Spend 1 combat turn studying your enemy and learn one of the following: if the enemy is equal to or stronger than you in strength, dexterity, or constitution. Can spend up to 3 turns to discern all 3. Can be used outside of combat as a free action - spend 1 minute to learn all three.