Grace Maeve Augustine

On the 17th of the month of Lunafrye, in the 400th year of Frostclaw, Grace Augustine was busy showing Clementine Arrowroot around the capital city of Dragonia, Dragon’s Den. Having just showed Clementine her church, the two went to a local tavern, simply called The Tavern. There, they were sat with strangers Tiberius Drystan and Takó•s, as the restaurant was a bit full. After ordering, they noticed a small child named Taleas bussing tables. Taleas eventually snuck over to the table, joining the patrons in their conversations. Takó•s attempted to discreetly make his allegiance to the Red Dragon’s Resistance known by giving the patrons official Resistance badges, but just as one had fallen into Grace’s hand, Ethan Dragonblood, son of the head of the Dragon Council, walked into the tavern. Grace had briefly met him a few times, and feared him—a fear moreso of his father and her parents’ ties to him. She attempted to hide the badge in her pocket, but Ethan spotted it and demanded her to hand it over. He asked for the group to turn out their pockets and who gave them the badges. Attempting to cover for Takó•s, who is a catboy, Grace and Taleas claimed it was a man with a dog. Being only able to find Grace’s badge, Ethan pulled Takó•s away from the table to speak privately. After this, Ethan left.

Suddenly, Raid Sirens began. Along with this, Grace heard Church bells ringing and what could have been a Revolver’s empty chambers clicking. For an unknown reason, Tiberius literally sank into the floor. Upon a quick glance outside, Grace spotted an airship crashing overhead, though, strangely, it fell gently. Once it landed, she and the others ran outside to help those on the airship. Grace met and healed famed author Athameir Nighthound, who was the reason for the ship’s more graceful crash. Along with Athameir, there was an elf swarmed by bugs (Nat Elmpool,) a grim looking pirate (Ioanna LeClerc,) and the airship’s Sharkfolk captain (Azura Delmar.)

In the immediate aftermath of clearing the airship, Grace failed to keep track of Taleas’ whereabouts—He had been separated from the group. She yelled for them, then quickly was drawn to their sock that had fallen on the ground. Beginning to panic, Grace tore through the crowd that had gathered, and eventually found Taleas, crying and clutching his head. She ran to them, scooping her up in her arms, but Grace’s appearance only made him cry harder. Grace recognized this as a panic attack, and did the only thing she could think of—with a wave of her hand (Channel Divinity,) she attempted to bring Taleas peace, which barely helped. Takó•s shifted into a cat to calm him, which did the trick. At this point, Takó•s looked to the Council’s Palace in the distance, where he felt Ethan had run off to. A dome had covered it when the Raid Sirens began, but it began to come down. Takó•s bolted from Taleas and Grace, though not without Grace yelling after him.

The crash victims began talking amongst themselves, a conversation which Grace joined in on. In this conversation, Taleas revealed to Athameir that he had literally disappeared to somewhere, and had met a “Trickster God,” as Athameir eventually put it. Grace was perplexed by this, as to her knowledge, the only God out there was the Red Overseer—the God of the Island, and the only deity of Grace’s religion, Hydranity. Upon stating this, everyone was taken aback, and Athameir simply said, “You’re wrong.” He gave Grace a book he had written on various other Pantheons, to which she said and did nothing. Could he be right? Athameir was an educated man, he’d lived thousands of lives before now…but, no, that couldn’t be right.

In the distance, a powerful explosion came from the Council’s Palace. The sky darkened as smoke rose. Grace squinted at the sky, and noticed the smoke took the pattern of an ancient rune language. Having studied it in boarding school, she read: “The sacrifice used to be made. The sacrifice was made. The sacrifice will be made.” She revealed this message to the group, and resolved to investigate it, with or without them. Most volunteered to come along, and while Grace asked if Taleas wanted to come with, Athameir suggested they stay back. Grace agreed, and ran off with the rest of the group to the Council’s Palace.

On their way to the Palace, the group ran into a Triton freshly freed from prison (Khoronos Lenaseth,) an Enforcer (Radbug,) and surprisingly, Takó•s and Tiberius! Grace was relieved to see the two were alright, but confused on how Tiberius had ended up at the Palace. Takó•s revealed that Ethan was currently locked in battle with his father, Darian Dragonblood, and after a moment more, ran off to rejoin the young man that was, as it turned out, his boyfriend. The rest decided to follow.

On the second floor of the Palace, a grizzly sight lay before the group: Ethan stood above his father, who lay on the ground, missing an arm and half of his face burnt, but alive. Grace, knowing Ethan to be nonviolent, but fearing Darian, put a hand on the dagger at her waist. Takó•s ran to put himself between Ethan and Darian, to which Darian chuckled. Grace tightened her grip on her weapon and told him to stay put.

After a tense conversation between Darian, Khoronos, Ethan, and Takó•s, Grace heard the Church bells ring again…and noted that everyone else seemed to hear them too. The group then began to sink through the floor. In a moment of panic, Grace cast Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere on the nearest person instead of herself: Khoronos. Because of this, he and Radbug were the only people in the group to avoid being sucked into the ground.

Grace found herself and the rest in a bright red void. The ground, pitch black, sloshed beneath her feet. Tiberius muttered, “Not again…” To which Grace freaked out, figuring this was where he disappeared to in the Tavern. The bells rang out again. A massive being walked towards the group, who stuck to the spot, frozen with fear. On its back sat a church, and in its yard sat a grave, the nameplate on which was ever changing…with the names of the group members. Eventually, it stopped on Taleas, who was not present. The being leaned over the group, extending a long, skeletal arm, and dropping an hourglass. It said, “You only have so much time. As my grave states, Death is knocking at your door, at all times.” It spoke specifically to some people, one of which being Grace. In short, it said, “There is much more that exists [than your “Hydranity], such as the God of Death and his Red Void.” Grace could only mutter, “Of course.” The bell rang again, and the God of Death disappeared. As soon as it did, the group began to sink again.

They appeared back in the Council’s Palace—Khoronos and Radbug were gone, and, on a more concerning note, so was Darian. Grace fell on all fours, dry heaving and pleading silently to…she didn’t know anymore. There was no one she could pray to. Not after that. If the Red Overseer was a kind God, or a God with any power, he would not have let that happen. He would not let her suffer this way…He would not seal a child’s fate like that. Around her, life resumed for most of the group members. Ioanna ran away from the palace, tailed by Azura, wanting to race them. Nat’s Hive had disappeared, only to be replaced with a single bee. Tiberius suggests that the group reconvene at The Tavern, an idea that is quickly agreed on. Grace numbly agreed.

Upon returning to The Tavern, Grace spotted Taleas and Clementine, who had not come along. She hugged the both of them, and when asked what happened, said, “I don’t know! Clementine, I saw the face of a God that told me mine was fake!” The night then devolved into drunken chaos. Grace was not exempt from this.

This is a work in progress, as the story of Dragonia is long!

This is a work in progress, as the story of Dragonia is long!

This is a work in progress, as the story of Dragonia is long!

This is a work in progress, as the story of Dragonia is long!

This is a work in progress, as the story of Dragonia is long!

This is a work in progress, as the story of Dragonia is long!

This is a work in progress, as the story of Dragonia is long!

This is a work in progress, as the story of Dragonia is long!