A traveler wandered into the Grotto tonight. 🌿
Quiet footsteps, wary eyes, the scent of distant roads still clinging to her cloak.
She stayed by the fire longer than expected.
The Keeper offered warm bread, a lantern, and a quiet place to rest while the rain whispered outside the stones.
Her name, apparently, is Mellara.
Before settling beside the fire, she carefully leaned an enormous greataxe against the stone wall and, with complete seriousness, introduced it as Margherita (Daisy).
As the candles burned lower, Mellara admitted she no longer truly remembers who she was before the fall of Elturel.
Distant roads.
A barking dog somewhere far away.
The feeling of a hand reaching for hers in the dark.
Dreams that feel more like memories than sleep.
There is a small metal fragment woven into her hair. Three letters written on it: “Tig…”
She touches it absentmindedly whenever silence grows too heavy.
Tonight, both Mellara and Margherita rest safely among the dusty walls of the Grotto.
Mellara is my current D&D character for a Descent into Avernus campaign.
She’s a High Elf Barbarian with fragmented memories after the fall of Elturel, and I’ve slowly been building her story through sketches, dreams, and little details during sessions.
Visually, one of my biggest inspirations for her was Ilona Maher. I loved the idea of a woman built like someone who could genuinely survive the end of the world and still carry a greataxe named Margherita with complete confidence.
