Oh but you really should, how else will people know of your great deeds? That's how I became known as the greatest hunter in all of Vieland. he says puffing out his chest
No, lady, I meant I spread the name Duristan Silvio Ariseir wherever I go. In both word and deed so that all will know there is not a creature that cannot be hunted by my bow or blade! he says with a wide, amiable grin.
But my accomplishments must pale into insignificance to yours of course, real adventurers! My, my!
"We don't have a title for our band", Vermundr growls in frustration. "But it would have something to do with the Lorrimor family name", he adds quietly.
"Tell us more about this werewolf you're hunting. Has he hurt someone? Stolen livestock? Is he a pureblood?"
The werewolf tribes in this region are savage and rampant. They are Beasts of the highest order but they are a most excellent quarry!
A party from the Lodge were out hunting a magnificent stag yesterday afternoon and they came upon it flayed and torn. Delgros is going to lead us to the kill site to see if we can track them!
Although young, perhaps in his mid twenties, Duristan has thinning brown hair and a plain face. He wears a large wolfskin cloak and wears an elegant rapier at his belt.
Constantin mutters something under his breath.
Vermundr grunts in agreement.
Zed detaches himself from the shadows and speaks for the first time. "We will accompany you." If it's a rampant evil werewolf, they will need our help. If it is an innocent bystander, we will need to protect them. Either way we should go.
Kazamir merely nods and follows, quietly.
Vala throws up her hands in defeat, knowing the foppish noble is their only way past the thinks-too-much-of-himself halfling bureaucrat at the lodge's gate. "Fine, fine. Lead on."
As you start moving off, your horses lining up with the hunting party's, Duristan strikes up conversation;
Tell me, you didn't have any trouble with the werewolves on the way to the Lodge did you?
Duristan lights up at talk of the slain man.
My trap! Did it work, were there other werewolves around it? Ingenious, I thought, and it'll show those other beasts that there is a master hunter on their trail. Haha!
I flushed that one out away from his pack, tracked him for miles through the woods before I cornered him. Werewolves are fearsome but to a silver blade and an iron will they are just a fantastic quarry - a deadly but wonderful quarry.
Web-spewing gremlins! Wow! The life of an adventurer must be truly wondrous!
With every small insight into your escapades he seems to become more enraptured and impressed.
"I don't know that I'm convinced these werewolves need hunting", Vermundr says in agreement with Hazel, voicing his complaint. "Other than sport, why are you hunting them?"
Duristan looks confused as if the need to hunt was an end in and of itself. He looks as though he is about to speak, concerned that he might somehow have offended his new adventurer friends.
At this point the trail leads to a small clearing, where the trampled ground and snapped brush shows signs of a great struggle. The soil is soaked with blood, and more has splashed upon the tree trunks and leaves. Despite the telltale evidence, Delgros' jaw drops and his eyes dart wildly with shock at the situation. It's gone! he cries.
Duristan lights up immediately.
A werewolf kill site! Unmistakable!
He dismounts quickly and starts moving this way and that, examining tracks and drag marks.
Whilst it's true that the werewolf tribes have attacked and killed travellers in these woods, either devouring them or turning them into their kind, I must confess it is the sport for which I hunt them rather than any sense of justice. Imagine a creature with the strength and savagery of a dire wolf but the cunning and intelligence of man! A truly worthy adversary. he replies.
He pauses haltingly and says;
It is a shame you do not share my passion but I would be glad to host you at the Lodge nonetheless. But for now, I want to find this stag!
"We have never had the opportunity to do battle with an actual werewolf," says Constantin, "though we have dealt with all manner of other strange beasts and undead. If a stag-hunt is to your appetite at this time, of course, I will not look askance at venison and an invitation to the Lodge!"
Zed decides that it's time to stop dancing around the question. "Duristan. Have you ever considered the possibility that there can be a werewolf who wants to live in peace?" He steps forward, bringing his own face more into the light. "We don't all choose how we're born, it's what we do with our lives that determines who we are."
Duristan looks confused at the question. He sees Zed's pale and pallid demeanour but if he can identify the inquisitor's lineage he doesn't let on.
Rather he replies:
They are animals. he shrugs, Apex predators with all the cunning of man but none of the compunction. I came here to test myself against the best, having hunted every other animal you can name.
I never seen one.Delgros offers. But I seen enough of what they leave behind. Bodies torn apart not for food but for fun. Or maybe cos they came to close to their grounds who knows? the woodsman shrugs as he scours the grounds for signs of exactly what transpired here. I don't share 'my lord's' fascination with hunting 'em, but you won't see me cryin' over 'em either.
Satisfied enough with Delgros's answer for the time being, Vermundr gets to business studying the site of the 'werewolf attack'.
Kazamir will run an eye over the scene, still feeling out of his depth in all this wilderness...
Mmmmhmmmm... Duristan says distractedly, bending down to examine an area of flattened grass and broken shrubbery.
The trail leads this way. Vermundr and Delgros agree.
Duristan pushes back the bushes and follows in, happy to lead and actaully displaying some skill at tracking to back up his hunting claims.
The tracks that Vermundr and Delgros identify are not consistent with normal lycanthrope hybrid prints, seeming more like dire wolf tracks, though with strange elongated claws.
The bushes part into a second clearing, this one occupied by a trio of hugely fat snuffling boars that dig hungrily into the carcass of the great stag Duristan has been looking for.
They look up angrily with blood covering their tusks and snouts, beady eyes fixed on the interlopers.
12.6
12
Zed glances around at the party, then rolls his eyes. At least we will eat well tonight. He draws his weapon and suddenly shatters his quiet demeanor. "BURN SWINE!"
Constantin moves up next to Hazel and brings his longspear into a downward-pointing position.
As the boars wheel around and turn on the group, Vala throws her hand out and conjures up a cloud of scintillating motes to rain down amongst the boars, threatening to rob the angry beasts of their vision. "Not today!"
HP: 39/39
Negative Energy Resist 5
AC: 14 (10 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 14
F/R/W: +6/+3/+11 (+2 vs death effects, energy drain, negative energy, & necromancy)
Monstrous Insight used: 0/7
Healing Hex targets: Hazel
Current Wandering Spirit: Life
Channel Energy (3d6) used: 0/5
Prepared spells
Orisons (4) | DC 15: dancing lights, disrupt undead, identify, read magic
Level 1 spells (4+2+1*) | DC 16: inflict light wounds [ ], know the enemy* [ ], magic missile [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ], produce flame (CL7) [ ]
Level 2 spells (3+1+1*) | DC 17: glitterdust [X], lesser restoration* [ ], spiritual weapon [ ] [ ] [ ]
Level 3 spells (2+1+1*) | DC 18: fly [ ], lightning bolt [X], locate object* [ ], spiritual weapon (extended) [ ]
Level 4 spells (1+1+1*) | DC 19: legend lore* [ ], greater magic weapon [ ], spiritual ally [ ]
Ongoing Effects
glitterdust: 1/7 rounds
Vermundr conjures a ward and steps into position alongside Constantin to intercept the monstrous boars when they charge.
Move action to study one that is not blind. Standard to T-K projectile at the same one.
Duristan rips his rapier from his belt, cursing the lack of a boar spear. He drops into a low fencing stance that suggests either he has some skill with the blade or at least is able to pretend that is so.
Delgros pulls his bow from his back and fires quickly at one of the beasts but the arrow flies wide and he growls in frustration.
Wreathed in flame, the boars screech horribly. They run around the clearing almost aimlessly, rolling in the bloody grass every now and then trying to put the flames out.
Vermundr closes on the nearer of the panicked boars and takes a mighty swing with his two-handed blade.
Vala adds her own flames to Zed's, conjuring a dancing tongue of fire to hand before hurling a stream at the distant, screeching boar.
HP: 39/39
Negative Energy Resist 5
AC: 14 (10 T / 14 FF)
CMD: 14
F/R/W: +6/+3/+11 (+2 vs death effects, energy drain, negative energy, & necromancy)
Monstrous Insight used: 0/7
Healing Hex targets: Hazel
Current Wandering Spirit: Life
Channel Energy (3d6) used: 0/5
Prepared spells
Orisons (4) | DC 15: dancing lights, disrupt undead, identify, read magic
Level 1 spells (4+2+1*) | DC 16: inflict light wounds [ ], know the enemy* [ ], magic missile [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ], produce flame (CL7) [X]
Level 2 spells (3+1+1*) | DC 17: glitterdust [X], lesser restoration* [ ], spiritual weapon [ ] [ ] [ ]
Level 3 spells (2+1+1*) | DC 18: fly [ ], lightning bolt [X], locate object* [ ], spiritual weapon (extended) [ ]
Level 4 spells (1+1+1*) | DC 19: legend lore* [ ], greater magic weapon [ ], spiritual ally [ ]
Ongoing Effects
glitterdust: 1/7 rounds
produce flame: 1/8