Mary Brown

The morning sun rose high above, shining brightly on our small encampment. We all awoke refreshed and starting pottering around doing our own thing. Breakfast was had and then once over, we all packed to get the day underway. Continuing our trek towards Morthus, I decided that it was best to head for the mountain base and then skirt around it back to the main road, as no one else had any other suggestions. We travelled until around midday and then stopped for some lunch. As I was sitting, drinking some of my vodka and eating pickles, which I also shared with Alf, he decided to strike up a conversation. He was sitting on my shoulder and leaned over, "Did you know that Mary and Struth are dead? How do you feel about them?"
 
I popped a pickle into my mouth and chewed on it before answering, "I already knew that and I am fine with Struth. It is Mary that I do not trust at all. She is not who she claims to be."
 
"Who do you think she is?"
 
"I think she is Albert in disguise," At hearing this, Alf spat out the alcohol he had just sipped, "I can tell you now that she is not he, I am he and I have always been with you." I looked at the weasel and made a face, "You only joined us at this stone pass."
 
"I joined you as soon as it was suitable," Alf said while licking his paw. "Then who is she?" Alf shrugged, "All I know is that she is up to no good and not good for Mal. Do you think he is strong enough mentally?" I glanced to Mal, who I could see was staring into the fire, but he seemed to be having some internal thoughts that were making him sad.
 
"I do not think, with all that has happened to him, that he may be strong enough." I saw Mal look up, and his expression changed briefly. He seemed to be angry but it was quickly gone again and he looked sad once more. Tyrian got up and sat next to Mal. He offered his vodka bottle to him without a word. Mal nodded, took the bottle and took a long drink. He once again returned to watching the fire, as did my brother. I continued to munch on pickles while Mal looked to Petros and they then began a conversation between them. Petros then mumbled some words and Mal seemed to be at ease. After their conversation, Mal loudly asked Mary why he had no friends, this seemed to be quite strange as I thought that he thought we were all friends of his. Mary piped up that we all were friends and that he was not friendless. We then all packed up and continued on, reaching the road and travelling along that until we had to set camp again for the night.
 
Once we were settled, our party sat by the fire and I could see that Mal was deeply troubled. He spoke with Petros again for a while before Petros got up then mumbled some words at Mal. Mal suddenly fell backwards unconsciously and so did Mary. A wisp of smoke left Mary's mouth and she became very rigid. She looked dead this time. Tyrian took the opportunity to tie the two up. Mal could not be trusted as this stage to not hurt anyone or himself... Mary just couldn't be trusted. When Mal came too shortly after, he became quick angry at the situation and fought against his restraints. He ranted that he was going to kill us all. Tyrian stared him down, demanding to know what the hell was wrong with him and to tell us everything. Tyrian's tone was enough to scare Mal into revealing everything... how he wanted to kill us all and that Mary had convinced him to do so. He told us about everything that had happened from blowing up the wharf which caused Struth's home to be destroyed and to the tavern burning. He had had quite a few things go wrong in his life.
 
Tyrian kicked Mary's lifeless body causing her to be moved closer to the fire. I could see that her arm was beginning to melt as if she was made of wax. I asked Alf what Mary was and he mentioned he believed that she was taken over by a succubus demon and that she was now free. I looked to Petros and asked him if he knew of any tales of any succubus demons. He told us what he knew on how they took over humanoids and that they target a person and turn them against everyone. This did sound a lot like what was happening. I mentioned that I believed that Mary was now free but I didn't know where the demon would have gone. Walking over to Mary, I could see that her arm was now completely melted. I picked up a stick and poked the puddle of wax-like substance to get a better look. I held it up and it did definitely look like wax. Mal was quite upset at this and kept mumbling that she was just a little girl. I held the stick out and said that little girls were not made of wax.
 
Dropping the stick into the fire, I sat back down as Petros cast another spell on Mal to calm him down. This also caused Mal to drift to sleep which was a good thing. The rest of us took turns at watch and made sure that Mal rested easy through the night.