Hero's Heart - Part 4

Trigger warning: In chapter 21 the "r" word is used. The act is not described at all, but since I know the word can trigger people who have suffered, I want to make sure they can enjoy the story safely. Here is a link to the censored version of the same chapter, minus the word: https://youtu.be/XMUXRX0ou8s Please take care of yourself. Remember: Desensitization is not throwing yourself into water and hoping you don’t drown. It’s slow exposure done over time with a trained professional. Welcome to Part 4! Last time on Hero's Heart: We met the Hodgepodge Hearts and their afflictions, and the villainous Lord Raevith as he took his anger out on the people around him. As well as clay that smells like bacon. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? Find out in PART 4. Synopsis: Delilah learns more about herself, even though she doesn’t want to. Tla-hum has a glorious time, it's basically a beach episode for her, and Marstryd is just glad to watch, while Al gets to set it all up. But at last all good things must come to an end. Find out how. Oh, I forgot to mention for the last episode, but all the transformations ("afflictions") are done per Daggerheart rules except for Al, he is following the rules my partner and I created, which they posted to Reddit. Here is the link: https://www.reddit.com/r/daggerheart/comments/1qgv2m5/shapeshifter_homebrewalt_rules/ Basically, the official rules only let a shape-shifter change forms once per day, and we thought it would be more fun if you could do it multiple times. With our rules, you can change as many times as you want, but every time you do, you lose some memories ("Experiences" in the official rules language), and have to spend an action during a rest to get them back. You know what they say: They best part of waking up is shapeshifting throughout your day. I might be wrong about that, but I’m pretty sure I’m right. If you hate it, just pretend he's sleeping when he glows. PROBLEM SOLVED. This story is inspired by the RPG Daggerheart, by Darrington Press, in particular the Transformation cards from the upcoming Hope & Fear expansion. To read the story in text format, visit my WordPress blog: https://mitzytales.wordpress.com/?p=251 My email if you'd like to send me a message: [email protected] Visit me on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mitzytales.bsky.social If you've got a couple of bucks available and like what I do, feel free to visit my Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/mitzytales Photo by Jason Leung, via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/black-and-white-iron-works-MN251xZ9mBk