Blue Moon (Part 2)
There's no stopping the rainfall. It only comes down heavier as Dolan rushes the massive wolf inside the gates. Telamon's retreat is timely, and the wolf doesn't chase him. Instead it stands as though it's guarding the entrance into the city. Its black fur is matted from the rain, and the chill wind that cuts through the night does nothing to ruffle it. Dolan's initial attack goes wide, and immediately the giant wolf retaliates.
One massive paw swipes down, cutting a swath across armor and bleeding the man out onto the street. Even from a distance it's clear that the wound is a grievous one, but the wolf is not done at that. With its other paw it swings wide and catches Dolan up. Like a rag doll Dolan is thrown clear across the space he'd charged through, and into the broken gate. There's a crash of wood and a whine of metal as Dolan collides with it and his body falls brokenly to the ground.
The wolf howls its first victory.
The clatter of the mangled and shattered gate is terrific, drowning out the screams of bystanders and the patter of now-heavy rain on the cobblestones and trees. Crimson stains the cobblestones where Dolan had stood, the pelting rain already beginning to wash it away as the weather takes a turn for the worse, lashing everything and everyone as the spring storm begins to blow its way in in earnest. Over by the broken and abused gate, there's no movement for the longest of moments.
That hurt.
Slowly, achingly slowly, Dolan groans and half-rolls clear of the mangled gate, and as he does so, it shifts yet one more time, dropping the last edge of what is left of an iron bar across his hip, as if to add insult to injury. The new position reveals a breastplate whose leather straps holding it on his left side have been slashed clean through, staining the steel and leather deep crimson-black and leaving the entire affair to flap awkwardly. Blood drips down from beneath the armor from what is clearly a serious wound, and he mutters a deeply pained curse as he struggles his way out of his pack.
GAME: Telamon casts Glitterdust. Caster Level: 7 DC: 18 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+5: (20)+5: 25
"GODS! Dolan!" Telamon sees Dolan go sailing past him and land with a crash. "Dammit..." He turns his eyes on the gigantic wolf. Too close to the buildings, though -- too close for fireball. But -not- too close to use this. "Mulan ukum," he chants, fingers moving in practiced gestures, and a rain of silver and blue sparkles come down on the wolf. Sadly, dusting its back and shoulders, rather than its face. "Hold still, Fido, I got something for you..."
GAME: Verna casts Enervation. Caster Level: 19 DC: 22 GAME: Verna rolls ranged: (7)+11: 18 GAME: Verna rolls 1d4: (4): 4 GAME: Dolan used a Potion of Cure Light Wounds. GAME: Dolan rolls 1d8+1: (4)+1: 5
Verna is hurrying towards the commotion in attempt to catch up to Telamon, only to have him race back past and then turn to loose magic upon the wolf (that seems far too large and concerning to be 'just a wolf.'). "You are not welcome here, but we cannot let you simply leave!" She then gestures with gloved fingers and focuses with an incantation before a ray of coalescing energy from the Negative plane streaks to strike the creature.
GAME: Lysos casts Thunderstomp. Caster Level: 9 DC: 18
Another groan escapes Dolan as he digs around in his pack, blood and sweat mingling with water to soak his clothing and run down his front. He finally wrenches his pack off and digs in it, coming up with the item he wanted - a small box of vials. He finds the one he wanted, separated from the others, pops the cap and slams it in one go. Some of the bleeding eases, and he drops the vial to the soaked ground, along with his pack.
It's been a day. Or rather.. a night.
Taran slowly comes to consciousness, "Maybe it was a dream." He mutters, shifting to his side but that sends his head to throbbing from where the badger bad bashed his face in and knocked him unconscious. Reaching up with one hand Taran wipes at his mouth, spitting blood out of it that is still running from his broken nose. and looks at it before the rain washes it away. "Not a dream." He groans and then shifts to all fours.
Fortunately this time it's not as a wolf, were or otherwise, and with an unsteady lurch Taran staggers to his feet right at the gate. He looks around at the bodies, then reaches for where his warmaul had fallen, nearly falling again. He grasps the handle but then stops, unable to straighten as a dizzy spell makes him wobble. Once more the Giantborn nearly falls over but he somehow manages to stay upright.
GAME: Lysos rolls 1d20+9+7+2: (2)+9+7+2: 20 GAME: Dolan rolls will: (4)+6: 10 GAME: Telamon rolls will: (10)+8: 18 GAME: Wu rolls will+1: (18)+3+1: 22 GAME: Taran rolls will: (9)+2: 11 GAME: Lysos rolls will: (2)+7: 9 GAME: Verna rolls will: (7)+24: 31
Being left alone outside the city at this time of the night with lycanthropus sinistarus roaming about is pretty much the last place Lysos wants to be. And sure, she wouldn't be along, exactly, but whoever's not charging the source of the howling isn't, in her opinion, of the kind of mettle that is likely to be of any use to her safety. So she hikes up her skirts, doing her best to stay close to at least one of the foolish people charging in. She skids to a stop when she sees the wolf, blanches. "Guh... Krakow!" The slams magic into the ground, and the ground beneath the wolf rumbles, but fails to overcome the great beast's foothold.
GAME: Telamon rolls spellcraft: (13)+11: 24 GAME: Lysos rolls spellcraft: (17)+8: 25 GAME: Dolan rolls spellcraft: (3)+6: 9
The wolf-like creature howls a second time, and this time the fear that this sound brings sends a chill down your spine. It's like the edge of a nightmare. One well-remembered. You remember being hunted. You remember the fear of it. Now this fear has taken form and you fight the effort to quiver in the face of it. Though the beast shrinks momentarily, it's like the blink of an eye and you're not sure you actually saw it get smaller. It seems as large as ever in your eyes and the citizens are fleeing. The guards... running. You're left alone to stand in the face of this terrifying creature.
GAME: Wu rolls ranged +1 -2: (13)+6+1+-2: 18 GAME: Wu rolls ranged +1 -2: (14)+6+1+-2: 19 GAME: Verna rolls spellcraft: (8)+35: 43 GAME: Wu rolls 1d10: (3): 3 GAME: Wu rolls perception: (13)+5: 18 GAME: Telamon casts Scorching Ray. Caster Level: 7 DC: 18 GAME: Telamon rolls ranged: (18)+5: 23 GAME: Telamon rolls ranged: (11)+5: 16 GAME: Telamon rolls 8d6: (23): 23
What the heck an old man is doing out here near the gate right now during all the crazy is up for debate. He just stepped out of a nearby doorway just as the wolf howled its fearful wail. There is a squint and a snort from Wu as the heavy crossbow on his shoulder is pulled smoothly into his hands and two bolts fired in rapid motion. The only worrying part is that he turns his head away from his target while aiming. And the two bolts miss, smacking into wood and stone nearby. "Ahhhh, shut up ya beastie! People are eating and trying to go to sleep!" Yeah… that'll show it.
Telamon grits his teeth as the howl makes his knees tremble, but he bears up under it. "You are not going to win this... and you've been a -very- bad dog." He chants, "Ganzer agida," while pointing his hands at it -- and a pair of searing orange-white lances stab outwards, driving into the wolf's flesh and leaving charred wounds. His eyes glow with the light of distant stars as he bares his teeth in the face of the hulking form.
GAME: Dolan rolls weapon2+2-2: (10)+6+2+-2: 16 GAME: Verna rolls knowledge/religion: (17)+22: 39
The fear washes over him. The helplessness. The waiting. The knowledge that he is about to cease to exist in the face of something far more powerful than he, swim through his mind. A thousand images from his worst nightmares.
Something whispers in his mind. _Not again. Not this time._
_No. You are not helpless._
Whatever that whisper is, it and the fear wind together into a twisted sort of impulse, one that leads Dolan to lunge to his feet and rejoin the fray, lashing out two-handed with the freshly enchanted blade.
Sadly for him, it is now positively soaking wet, and he splashes through a puddle, and slips, just a little. The wind whips through his hair and the blows his breastplate aside, just a little. But it's enough, enough to send that swing wide.
Taran finally is able to get to his feet when that howl rings out and he nearly falls to his knees again. "Please let it not be another werewolf." The giantborn rumbles to himself as he stiffens his resolve, and his spine, straightening up again. Staggering through the gate he brings the earthbreaker up and calling upon the blessings of earlier magic, moves.
Fast.
He doesn't swing just yet though. After watching Dolan charge in Taran circles wide to try and bracket the wolf, maybe cut off it's escape, or at least be a speedbump. He readies the great warhammer but... careful of not getting smacked in the face which already hurts, he closes, preparing.
Verna studies the (now ever more concerning) beast. First her eyes narrow and then they widen. "By Her hallowed Hall..." The words begin as an expletive in tone before they turn to a beseechment, "grant blessings upon them."
"Be ware! The lycanthropes did not exaggerate! It is a fiendish servitor of The Dread Wolf, Himself!"
GAME: Verna casts Prayer. Caster Level: 18 DC: 20 GAME: Lysos casts Scorching Ray. Caster Level: 9 DC: 19 GAME: Lysos rolls 1d20+5+3+2-2-4: (11)+5+3+2+-2+-4: 15 GAME: Lysos rolls 1d20+5+3+2-2-4: (17)+5+3+2+-2+-4: 21 GAME: Lysos rolls 4d6: (13): 13 GAME: Lysos rolls 4d6: (15): 15 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+27: (5)+27: 32 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d6+6: (2)+6: 8
The wolf grabs up Dolan a second time and sends him flying back across the intervening space. He hits the gate _again_ and this time the gate cracks. Half of it falls but the other half is stuck in place by bent and rent metal. Words flow out from the beast's mouth and they are not for the ears of men to understand. Just hearing it speak is like oil flowing into your ears. Unnatural and uncomfortable. "You have given me away woman. I shall repay you in blood." <abyssal>
GAME: Wu rolls ranged +1 -2: (19)+6+1+-2: 24 GAME: Wu rolls ranged +1 -2: (16)+6+1+-2: 21 GAME: Wu rolls ranged +1 -2: (14)+6+1+-2: 19 GAME: Wu rolls 2d10+2: (11)+2: 13 GAME: Telamon casts Magic Missile. Caster Level: 7 DC: 17 GAME: Telamon rolls 4d4+4: (10)+4: 14
Wu lines up two more shots while looking at the wall closest to him. The first smacks the damned wolf directly in the shoulder. A solid hit..only to have the bolt hang loosely in the fur. The second bolt wizes over it's head. "What the devil! I told you to shush yer yip!" He pokes a pinky finger in his ear as if to pull nastiness out of it and looks around at the state of those in the fight.
Telamon flinches as Dolan gets swatted again. That wolf... thing really doesn't like him. Wait... he shudders at the voice, the language. He doesn't recognize it, and doesn't want to. But... there's a pattern here. A play he can make. "The stars see your sins, interloper. You cannot prevail here." Speaking in Celestial, before he chants, "Izigi'edena zanzana," releasing four blazing stars that dart unerringly to slam into the creature.
GAME: Verna casts Banishment. Caster Level: 18 DC: 23 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+5: (1)+5: 6 (EPIC FAIL)
Verna does not care for its threats. At all. The fact that Dolan is tossed effortlessly (again) into the gate (again) does not make her any more pleased. It may be, in part, the shiver down her spine from the prior howl, but she has the growing fear that it merely toys with them. She expects it could do far worse. Now it has threatened just that.
"No!" She steels herself. "There shall be no more red upon your maw this night!" She lifts her hands high, the scales about her neck rising in one. "You are not welcome here! By Her Watchful Eye and Keen Judgement, begone!"
And it goes... ?
GAME: Taran rolls perception+1-2: (6)+9+1+-2: 14
The second crash into the gates, and the breaking of the gate is enough to draw a convulsive twitch from Dolan. That was far too close for his liking, and the pain lances through him like wildfire, now.
_No. Stand and fight._
And then the call, that it is a fiendish servitor, rings through his ears.
_Come on, Dolan. Don't let Andie see this. Get up. Stand and fight. Don't give in. Don't run. You have to stand and fight._
Even more slowly than last time, amid rain and metal splinters, too slowly, he coughs blood onto the pavement, but forces himself to his feet once more, sword held in a death grip between his hands, leaning against the shattered gate as if it could hold him up for one last stand.
When the great big wolf suddenly vanishes, Taran relaxes, "That it then?" He asks, but his general attitude is he assumes it's done. He looks around, cocking his head to the side to listen for any other potential nefarious activities, checking to see if there's anything else threatening in the area.
With a frown, Taran looks towards the building next to him, "Think there might be something going on in there." And he points towards the place just to make sure people know where he's talking about, looking for a door or another way to get inside.
GAME: Lysos casts Invisibility. Caster Level: 9 DC: 19 GAME: Dolan rolls perception: (13)+8: 21
"Obscurium!" Lysos traces the shape of an eye in the air before her, gathered power leaving a faint and quickly disappearing line, then pokes it in the center.. and promptly disappears. Then she lets her breath out, shaky as it still is, drawing immense comfort from dropping out of sight. Or so she hopes. She has yet to really encounter things that see the invisible.
The half-closed gate shudders beside Dolan. Then shudders again. There's a low sound. A whine of metal and a creaking of wood. Something... something is trying to destroy the gate from the outside.
GAME: Wu rolls ranged +1+1: (10)+6+1+1: 18
Something pounding on the broken gate. Wu's eyebrows raise but he heads Taran's words and moves to the door and knocks once before entering the place. He squints as what appears to be the family dog playfully jumping on the man of the hou.. "GAH! WEREWOLF!" His bow is up and loaded in a blink and then fired as he steps out of the door way and in front of the kids. Standing in between them and the beast. His bolt misses and smacks into a wall.
GAME: Telamon casts Magic Missile. Caster Level: 7 DC: 17
Telamon sees the giant wolf just... vanish. He turns, and looks at Verna. "No offense, ma'am, but... maybe lead with that next time?" Then he hears the old man yelling out, and magic gives his feet wings as he races over to back Wu up. "Gods! I hope they're not all over the city, this is going to be -very- bad if that's the case." He gestures wildly, "Izigi'edena zanzana," sending another quartet of arcane stars to slam into the werewolf's back.
GAME: Verna rolls perception: (17)+28: 45 GAME: Verna casts Cure Moderate Wounds. Caster Level: 18 DC: 19 GAME: Verna rolls 2d8+10: (6)+10: 16 GAME: Telamon rolls 4d4+4: (10)+4: 14
Verna looks to the nearby home, seeing conflict within yet also Taran, then Telamon moving in to aid. "Be wary of infected! Not all cursed are true foes!" She offers this before turning to darsh for the broken gate and gate-impacted Dolan. "It is not yet time for Her Judgment," she encourages, aided by The Harpist's blessings to mend some of his wounds with a touch. "We should be ready for-" she then spies movement beyond the gate- "How many more are here?!"
GAME: Dolan rolls weapon2+2+1: (10)+6+2+1: 19
The surge of healing lances through Dolan, giving him strength and stamina back and easing much of the pain. "Thanks," he tells Verna, straightening with a nod of acknowledgement. "It's a summoned wolf! The summoner's maybe three-four paces beyond the gate!" he calls, pointing at the man he saw summoning outside the gate. Forcing himself to his feet, he reverses the bloodied blade and grasps it once more in both hands. "I owe you several! I'll keep it busy!" With that, he lunges outside the shattered gate and swings for everything he is worth at where the gate rattled, but comes up with only empty air.
Brown.
Black.
A werewolf is a werewolf. A werewolf is what Taran was for however briefly until just recently. He wants to rush into the house. He wants to help save the children. He wants to do something, but looking around is all he could do. That much at least didn't make his legs tremble and shake visibly. Running around the big black wolf that made weird growls he couldn't understand and didn't seem like a normal wolves growl was one thing. It was real, and he could try to smash it. Except it was gone now.
Hopefully for good.
Taran grips his hammer so tightly that his knuckles turn white on it, which is saying a lot for the dark skinned fire giantborn. He still can't get over that howl, it by itself hasn't locked him in place. Or made him run. It combined with the memories of the pain of being turned into a werewolf though...
Taran's legs tremble, he grips the hammer tighter, and a bead of sweat drips down along his temple towards his bearded jaw. He can't move. He can't help. He tries to focus on the pain of his broken nose and regroup but... it's all to much. He's frozen.
GAME: Lysos rolls diplomacy: (20)+12: 32 GAME: Verna rolls spellcraft+4: (14)+35+4: 53 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+27: (15)+27: 42
Crossbow bolts and magical darts fly, swords clash, people yell, werewolves howl and thrash.. and then there's a moderately pretty young woman sitting beside one of the kids under the table. Yes, she's still terrified.. but there's something about being strong for children that helps push immediate thoughts of being hunted and disemboweled and eaten aside for the moment. She smiles at them, then puts a finger to her lips before whispering. "Hey. Let's get out of here, really quiet, alright? Sneak, sneak, sneak. Maybe we'll get some iced cream after, sound good?"
The giant wolf behind the gate manages to grab up Dolan, letting loose a low menacing growl at the man and tightening it's paw around him. It's really almost more of a hand, but that's neither here nor there. Meanwhile its summoner vanishes with a few words and a twist of his fingers. Dolan has bigger worries though, being trapped in a paw.
GAME: Wu rolls cmb: (3)+5: 8 GAME: Telamon casts Hydraulic Push. Caster Level: 7 DC: 17
Wu is left aiming down his empty crossbow. Blood.. so much blood and the man under those claws has kids. He drops the crossbow, something he's never in his life done so hurriedly. Then bounds forwards to grip at the half man-beast. Finger curl on furry pelt and ..come away with a handfull of fur. "Shit."
GAME: Telamon rolls 1d20+15: (20)+15: 35
Telamon takes it all in: cowering children, Wu flailing, Lysos trying to get the kids out, and a man savaged by a... she-werewolf. Instinctively, he thrusts out a hand. "Get AWAY from them!" he shouts. "Anumum lirum!" A blast of water slams the she-wolf off her prey, and in fact drives her through the wall with a crash. "...Shit, I think I overdid it."
GAME: Verna casts Dispel Magic. Caster Level: 19 DC: 20 GAME: Verna rolls 1d20+20: (15)+20: 35 GAME: Dolan rolls cmb: (19)+5: 24
"Indeed!" Verna nods to Dolan as he confirms her suspicions... before he charges off to the wolf (again?). The unknown man further secures himself as a target by vanishing... yet she realizes that he did not transition location, but merely plane of existence. There is a flash of concern as Dolan holds fast to the wolf, but she cannot allow the caster to flee.
A brief glow about her neck as she looks around his last known location and- there! "There is no need to depart so abruptly..." she notes, an enchanted rod of her own design appearing in hand and immediately accelerating the gestures of her other. Gestures that abruptly unravel the man's transplanar status, and whilst in the midst of a wall. How unfortunate. For him.
The smash of the wall and a werewolf suddenly flying nearby breaks Taran out of his fear for the moment... well, when he notices it's unconscious. "Hold on." He tells the werewolf, running over to where it landed and dropping his backpack to pull some spidersilk rope out of it. He starts binding the werewolves hands/paws behind it's back and it's wrists to it's ankles, "Sorry about this... just need to keep you contained if you wake up before you're free of the curse..."
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d6+6: (3)+6: 9
Yes, the going after the wolf again was probably a stupid move on his part, but what is Dolan going to do, let it destroy the gate? It's got him good, now, and he struggles mightily in its grip. screaming. "No! You won't have me!" To no avail, though.
At least it's no longer destroying the gate?
Lysos's eyes go wide as the werewolf is sent flying through the wall.. but hey, she's not one to look at a stroke of luck too closely "Let's go!" she hisses to the kids, creeping over to the back door and pushing it open. She takes one moment to stick her head out and make sure there's no more werewolves, then she's ushering the kids through quickly. "Go! Go!"
The giant wolf grasps Dolan tightly and slams him into the gate - hard enough to make the whole thing shudder. Hard enough to rattle the man inside his broken armor. It drools all over him as it snarls and raises him to smash yet again. BANG! BANG!
GAME: Telamon rolls heal+1: (12)+0+1: 13
Suddenly... well, hell, everyone's run off! Telamon looks around, then grabs a couple shirts up, cutting them into bandages and roughly binding the man's wounds. "You'll need a priest later," he advises, not sure if the man can even hear him. "But, at least you'll live to complain about it." He looks out the new window where his water spell slammed the werewolf outside, and sees Taran hogtying it. "Oh good. Now we... just have to keep whatever the hell that is from making an even BIGGER mess."
GAME: Verna casts Chains of Light. Caster Level: 18 DC: 23 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+10: (18)+10: 28 GAME: Dolan rolls cmb: (18)+5: 23
Verna is focused upon the man, or at least the shack into which he was aborted-ported.
'No, you won't have me!'
That pulls her attention back to the wolf. A fiend with a hostage. She must do something.
And, no, not that. Never again.
"You will not!" Gloved hands gestures in grasping motions at the giant wolf, glowing chains emerging from the ground in attempt to ensnare it. She claimed it would not shed any more blood this night, and she speaks only fact. Alas, the chains fail to cinch about it.
Of all things that Dolan did not expect to have happen today - another fiend has him in its grip. It's no better than the last time this happened, except -
He can still fight back. If he can just. get. out.
Alas, this thing is monstrously strong, and bones crack along with the armor as it relentlessly slams him into the gate. Every ounce of his will is screaming at him to fight but -
it's not enough.
After tying up the unconscious werewolf, Taran looks around and hears the ruckus at the gate, see's magic flying and decides... he'd just be a hindrance if he went to try and help with that arena. Looking through the hole in the wall the werewolf came through Taran picks up his hammer and moves into the house where the fighting is going on.
"We should tie you up." Taran says as gently as he can, "Just in case you've been bitten. So that you don't become another threat in the city, yes?" He tries to be as diplomatic and reasonable as he can, "Do you have any rope in here we can use?" While also taking a look around to see if there's any more bitten victims in easy sight.
GAME: Lysos casts Freedom of Movement. Caster Level: 9 DC: 21
Lysos is on a bit of a high. The children! They're saved! Until they wander down an alley and get mugged or something, but Lysos isn't thinking about that. The chill is still in her spine, that urge to look over her shoulder.. but there's nothing like a good deed to bolster one's resolve. She rushes back past Telamon and Taran, skidding back out into the main street.. and spying Dolan being used as a door knocker, she runs towards him without thinking, reaching out to touch one of his flailing legs. "Fliberatys!
Dolan drops out of the wolf's hand thanks to Lysos' spell, and the wolf itself simply... evaporates into smoke. As if it were never there. There's no sign of the one who summoned it. No sound of screams rising through the city. A peaceful calm spreads outwards from where you are and yet... It feels like the calm before a storm. Or as if you've been in a storm all along and merely found the eye.
Either way, you know that the danger is not past.
-End