Adrac gulps in a breath of air as he regains his senses once more. Coughing and sputtering to life, he looks about, before immediately springing to his feet with at least some degree of grace. For an old man.
"I believe this is what the young people call... getting decked?" he muttered, before turning his sights on the nearest wolf and bringing up his foot, hoping to level a swift kick to its jowls with it.
Adrac springs to his feet, far quicker than the nearest wolf could possibly react, and kicks the wolf square in the face. Some of its teeth go flying in the other direction.
Jansen takes advantage of the situation to move back to his feet, side-stepping away from Adrac to give him more room. He swings wildly at the wolf, but his sword hits the nearby dwarven statue instead.
One of the remaining wolves snarls at Davi, lunging at her free hand. It pulls her to the ground, ripping up her arm with its sharp teeth as it goes.
The other wolves look up at Soroza and Adrac, whimpering, and flee, tail tucked between their legs. Soroza takes a swipe at the slower of the two, but misses.
Round 4
Soroza is up.
Unfortunately, when the wolf drags Davi down to the ground, she falls unconscious from her two bite wounds.
Soroza is still up.
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"Davi!", Soroza shouts, her voice filled for concern with her friend.
She abandons her defensive stance, putting everything she has into a thrust at the wolf that brought Davi to the ground.
Soroza is distracted by Davi and completely misses the wolf when she keeps her eyes on the downed changeling rather than on her target. Luckily for Davi, she is just unconscious - her condition is stable.
Meanwhile, the wolf engaging Anthony lunges at the tall tiefling nimbly steps out of its way.
Anthony is up.
The wolf's lunge throws Anthony off guard, and though he dodges the attack, he's left incapable of mounting a counterattack of any significance.
Anthony's thrust with his rapier misses the beast pitifully, but he rams his horns into the animal's side, knocking the wind out of the creature.
Adrac is up.
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Davi's out cold. She's also snoring lightly.
Adrac squints as the wolf drags Davi down, with Soroza trying to assist the poor girl. This was getting out of hand. Adrac's hand immediately snap behind his back, before withdrawing. A metallic *SHING* accompanies them, as a pair of shuriken suddenly appear. "SOROZA! JANSEN! DUCK!" he ordered, before flinging the pair of metal stars at the wolf.
Adrac flings his shuriken, but it misses wildly, flying out of sight to some unknown destination.
Jansen moves forward to engage the remaining wolf in the courtyard, whirling his blade at the snarling creature. It pulls back at the last moment, and his sword shears off a tuft of hair. The wolf counterattacks, but Jansen likewise twists out of the way.
Herral's swing hums through the air with force that Guln Hawthorne would be proud of, smacking sideways into the distracted wolf before him.
Round 5
Soroza is up.
Soroza takes a quick stab with her short sword at the remaining wolf.
Soroza's shortsword whistles through the air before sinking its razor-sharp edge in the wolf's hide.
Meanwhile, the dying wolf engaged with Anthony makes one final attempt to bite the tiefling, but ends up collapsing onto the ground in a heap instead.
Anthony is up.
Anthony checks to make sure the wolf won't be getting up in the immediate future, then glances forward, considering to venture forth, but he decides against it for now. Until things quiet down out here, he won't have any backup. Also, there would be an heightened chance of the fort's inhabitants being put on guard by the noise.
It would be best to wait here.
Adrac is up.
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Adrac grunted a little, perhaps frustrated that his aim was so off. To be fair, he hadn't made use of those in a long time, so it was forgivable.
Opting to let the younger folks deal with the beast, Adrac instead turned his attentions to the fallen Davi, moving close and kneeling next to her. "Come on, young lady." he muttered, fishing one of the health poultices from his satchel and holding it to her lips. "If my old bones can come back to the land of the living, this should be little more than a brisk walk for you."
Adrac brings Davi back to consciousness. Meanwhile, Jansen performs an agile maneuver, placing him the perfect position to execute the wolf.
Combat ends.
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The potion works fast with Davi's wounds closing up in a matter of seconds. The changeling blinks as she wakes up.
"Ow. Friggen wolf" She holds her arm up and examines it. "Oh good, that's still here. Having both arms is just too convenient to give one up."
She pushes herself up into a sitting position. "Everybody ok? Nobody mangled? What is it with wolves and attacking people anyways. Why don't you go eat a deer or something?"
"Wits up, everyone. Some of those wolves got away, and we don't know that there aren't more beyond that."
Soroza extends a hand to Davi in order to help her to her feet. "Perhaps you can get their autograph on your other arm, as well? Always good to have a matching set."
The heroes are in a courtyard filled with tall-grass. There are two doors that are cracked open, and one that is still closed.
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"I motion to continue our previous course of action. Sorry, my previous course of action, really. As long as the rest of you don't mind waiting, of course. Despite the noise, I think we may have a chance at gaining the upper hand with a bit of reconnaissance " Anthony says. With the group's assent, he will proceed quietly through the corridor after the north door. He attempts to peer through the nearest door in the corridor while being very careful about where he steps.
Herral sheathes his morningstar and picks up his crossbow, loading it as he trudges slowly through the grass that his head barely peeks over. He peers into the darkness, but doesn't say anything, for fear of alerting further predators.
Meanwhile, Anthony peeks through one of the cracked open doors. He finds a chamber entirely shattered, with much of the outer wall and ceiling completely crumbled. The rubble is not so ornerous that one could not climb over it, though it would be slow going.
Looking around for the aforementioned evil auras and preferring not to be caught scrabbling through the rubble, Anthony leaves that particular door alone and heads to the next door in the corridor, trying to peek through it. This is just reconnaissance after all.
Anthony creaks the door open, a little more noisily than he probably hoped, but is relieved to find nothing evil-y looking behind the door. Old cobweb-covered racks and armor stands dominate much of this small chamber. What must have once been a well-tended armory is now devoid of arms and armor. He does not notice much beyond that.
Soroza uses the copious amount of tall grass to wipe the blood off of her sword, then retrieves her whip from where she dropped it.
"Well, Jansen, I'll give you that you know what to do with a blade. I'm glad we had your sword arm there."
She looks to the door Anthony disappeared through and frowns: "I know it was my idea, but now I'm worried about him heading in there on his own. That was a bloody lot of wolves."
"Well done! Good work, all of you."
Adrac smiles as Davi rises to her feet, and looks after Anthony as he moves inside the ruins. "If he's even half as tough as James was, it'll take something fierce to endanger him. But if you fear for his safety, perhaps we should not leave him be."
Moving close to the door, Adrac peers in to keep an eye out for him.
The interior is dark, because it is an abandoned ruin at nighttime, and so Adrac cannot see anything without help.
Davi follows along after Adrac. At the door she whispers "Let me see. They're not a matched set but these eyes let me see in the dark" She pokes her head around the corner and takes a look while trying to be as quiet as possible.
Last one Anthony thinks to himself.
After discovering the contents of this last room, he'll return to report his findings.
Davi peers into the dark hallway and finds nothing of note, except for the smashed dwarven statue at the far end of the hall. His head lays on the ground near the base, the dwarf's face somber.
Meanwhile, Anthony peers into yet another room - a small study. It looks like it has been lived in recently. Gnawed bones litter the floor and tufts of gray fur can be seen here and there. An old stone desk sits in the center of the chamber, scratched and cracked in many places. The stench of wet fur hangs heavy in the air. Around the corner, Anthony can see that the room leads into another room, but it is beyond his vision unless he moves further into the study.
Afterwards, Anthony returns to the rest of the group to report his findings.
Anthony bumps into Davi on his way back, motioning her back to the main corridor. After briefing the group on the contents of each room, he says, "We should obviously still proceed with caution, but I think we should check the room I last discovered first. Unless anyone wants to search the rubble over here for loot."
"Yeah, no, I'm going to veto the loot search for now. No digging around while something nasty is roaming ahead of us. I've had enough creatures chewing on me today." Davi gestures for Anthony to take the lead "After you my good man"
Herral touches his morningstar, imbuing it with light so that he and the humans of the group can see inside of the ruins. "Oi don't like these tight corridors." he sighs.
Anthony nods a fraction to Davi, smiles, then steals to the aforementioned room in relative silence.
Soroza follows after Anthony, but when he enters the room she is struck by an impulse to scout ahead a bit. Attempting a quiet approach, she moves to the end of the corridor and peeks around the corner.
Soroza peers down the dark hallway and finds that she can't see much in the dark.
Anthony heads into the empty wolf den and peers into the adjacent room. He finds a ruined chamber, with gaping holes in the roof allowing faint light from the nearly full moon to enter the room. One of the stone columns that once supported the ceiling is toppled, its broken pieces littering the floor. A thick patch of black mushrooms hides in a nearby corner, giving the room an earthy scent that is barely noticeable above the stench of wet fur.
Within the room is a massive wolf with an evil, almost intelligent look shining in its eyes...
Behind it cower the two surviving wolves from earlier, nursing their wounds.
The massive wolf leaps up atop the ruined column, baring his teeth and snarling at Anthony, demoralizing him and leaving him shaken momentarily.
"Come out, come out, horned man - I can smell you. I am Graypelt and I am lord of this domain. Explain why you have disturbed my rest and attacked my wives?" the wolf snarls in a deep, throaty voice.
Adrac remains close behind Anthony as he tries to investigate the room. Hearing the voice and seeing the glimmer of eyes in the dark, Adrac moves in closer to steady Anthony, placing his hand on Anthony's shoulder. "Do not let fear distract you. Keep your mind clear and focused on your task." he offered, before squinting into the dark.
"We mean you and your kin no harm - they attacked us. I'm sure you can understand the desire to defend yourself when threatened." Being dark, Adrac couldn't see the creature he was addressing... but he could hear it. That was good enough for his old senses. "If you are lord of this domain, Graypelt, perhaps you can be of assistance to us. We are searching for a special type of mushroom: ironblooms. I would ask for your aid in doing so, and would be willing to return the favor... but rest assured, if you attack us as well, we will defend ourselves again."
When he hears a growl, Anthony stops suddenly. When he realizes the growling is actually words, he goes rigid to keep himself from jumping. Graypelt, as he had just named himself, was more than a mere beast. Human intelligence lay beneath those glowing eyes.
Adrac's hand falls on Anthony's shoulder, steadying him. He steps out from the shade, wordlessly. He couldn't trust his voice not to betray him with a tremor of fear. He looks to Adrac and then Graypelt and nods.
He doesn't draw his sword yet, but his hand clamps around its hilt.
Graypelt chuckles, resting on his haunches in the rubble.
"Irrrronbloom?" He gestures towards a dark corner of his room, where a small patch of six ironbloom mushrooms grow. "These are my mushrooms and I find them rather delicious, though my wives don't agree." The other wolves are on their feet now, watching the events closely from behind their packleader.
"My wives leave to hunt at dusk and find you intruding into our home, and you blame us? I don't like your tone old man. But I am a forgiving packleader - and if some of my wives died that only proves them unfit to bear my sons. I will allow you to take some of my mushrooms if you help me clear out my home from some of the other creatures that are squatting here. You two-legged creatures are far more capable at these menial things than I am."
"There are these strange creatures that live down the hall from here, the large, open, double doors on the right when you leave this room. It is a nice room, full of beautiful things, but it is infested with these small, black, tentacled creatures that live on the ceiling where I and my wives cannot reach them. Exterminate them and you will have your reward."
Graypelt chortles. "Little human too coward to speak to my face?" he says to Jansen. "Needs a horned man and an old human to speak for him?"
He snarls to his wives, ""These mewling creatures defeated you?" The smaller wolves whimper.
Anthony grits his teeth as the Wolf speaks. The tentacled creatures must be Darkmantles. It's the one thing that makes sense. He would need to brief his fellows on them before they go charging in.
He finds his voice after Graypelt says the word coward, "The loggers, if it please you. Our negotiations need not end with the mushrooms."
Davi moves down the hall until she's right next to Jansen. She turns her back to him so she can keep an eye on the hallway behind them. Her rapier's in her hand. She traces a small pattern with it, twisting it back and forth while keeping watch. If something's going to come out of the darkness she's going to be ready for it.
Graypelt narrows his eyes at Anthony, then grins. "Loggers? I have no interest in loggers. If you want information you will need to first help me - I don't give help for free. Especially to cowardly intruders."
"It seems a fair deal to me," Soroza mused to the rest of the group. "There's little sense in making enemies. If this task squares us for slaying the other wolves and wins us the mushrooms besides, I say we do it."
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Adrac's expression goes... troublingly neutral at Graypelt's comment. "...old..?" he repeats, hands folded behind his back as usual. His turns his head up and eyes the beast with something of a mix between admiration and condescending expressions. "I prefer the term... experienced. But I suspect that much as you prefer to call yourself a 'lord', neither of us will be earning that title from the other."
Adrac's eyes lock onto the large creature, studying him carefully and returning his gaze before inhaling. "...very well. We'll deal with your squatters and in return, you provide us the mushrooms. This will do for now." Adrac turns and motions for the others to depart, before halting and spinning on his heels to face Graypelt once more. "Graypelt. Today is a very poor day to lie to me. If you have even the slightest notion of going back out our deal, I suggest your rethink it before we return. Goodbye."