Marisol's mithral cutlass glitters balefully in the light.
With a flick of her wrist, she casts a spell and suddenly her form seems to shift and blur.
Garborn begins to cast a spell.
Nico pulls out his cross bow and loads a bolt.
Dovan takes a few steps forward, and leaps from the raised area near the altar toward Vladimir and Garborn. He roars in their faces baring his vicious fangs.. wielding his long dueling sword in one massive clawed hand. His hot breath smells of blood.
Woelder drops to his knees and curls up in a ball whimpering.
Vladimir steps to flanking position with Garborn, while continuing to relay any and all lore he may know about werewolves, before striking at the werewolf formerly known as Dovan.
(inspire, flank)
(precise strike - doubled, inspire, challenge)
Garborn's spell completes, summoning a pair of air elements to either side of Vladamir, then he grins fiercely and swings his club at the ugly mug of the enemy as well.
While the attacks are fierce, and filled with glee at the combat, they are also rather unfocused and inaccurate.
Marisol steps up next to her love and brings her shining cutlass to bear. With a whisper she causes the blade to glisten with ice.
Nico produces a bolt of pure force and sends it into the werewolf's hide.
Dovan growls in pain and rage as Vladimir and Marisol cut into his tough hide. He swings his blade at Marisol, and bites at Vladimir.
"Keep on him! This ends here!" Vladimir calls out, encouraging his companions to end Dovan, especially given his new form.
(inspire, flank) - Potential Crit!
(precise strike - doubled, inspire, challenge)
(inspire, flank)
(inspire, challenge )
Marisol snarls and lashes out with her cutlass once more, fired on by Vlad's encouragement.
Garborn continues his assault, aided by the elementals he had summoned.
Clearly wounded, but even more clearly enraged, Dovan roars and slams into Vladimir... driving him back.
His voice and stance grow more primal....
"End here?! Yes.. I end you!"
Meanwhile, Nico sees two of the bodies stir in the vestibule... they begin a similar transformation... their bloodied flesh ripples and swells... fur sprouts from the skin.
Vladimir continues to shout out encouragement to his companions while stepping to the side to take a flanking position with Marisol.
(inspire, flank)
(precise strike - doubled, inspire, challenge)
"Garborn!" Nico calls out, "Your animals are in danger!"
Marisol lashes out again with her mithral cutlass, hoping to cut the werewolf down quickly.
"Hah! You finish big talker, Garborn take care of friends!"
Rushing to the entrance chamber, Garborn quickly moves to attack the right most werewolf, together with his animal companions, meanwhile he quickly directs the air elements to hold off the other werewolf, to keep him of the mage.
Nico pulls out a dropper of molasses, gestures with his other hand and casts a spell.
The werewolf in the vestibule being attacked by Garborn and his companions is slow to rise as he is assaulted. The other springs up and bites at one of the elementals.
Dovan looks haggard and bloody, though Vladimir and Marisol do see some of his wounds closing. He takes a heavy wild swing at Marisol, then snaps again at Vladimir... still ferocious, but ineffective...
Meanwhile, Woelder Hague appears to get enough wits about him to flee. He makes his way up to the raised area, and runs for a hatch. Durielle sees this, and goes after him.
Vladimir strikes at Dovan while continuing his oratory about the evils of lycanthropes.
(inspire, flank)
(precise, inspire, challenge)
Marisol continues her attack, pressing forward into Dovan's strike and counting on her magic to protect her as she slashes with her sword again, hoping for a telling blow.
Nico turns around to see Hague bolting for what looks like a trap door. He pulls out a scroll from his pack and reads it, triggering a spell targeted at the low flames burning in the brazier.
"Hah! Bad wolf men! No biting, not civilized! Bark worse than bite maybe?"
No fool, Garborn realizes that he probably won't be be able to deal with both werewolves, and he also know that the second one will soon be free of the air elementls.
Taking a step back, leaving the werewolf to be held up by his animal companions, he begins to cast once again.
Woelder Hague starts coughing, and backs out of the cloud... he leans against the back wall as he tries to get the smoke out of his lungs.
Dovan whips his head around - as if looking for an escape. He attempts to sidestep the melee toward the entrance, and begins to morph into a wolf shape.
The two werewolves in the vestibule continue to fight.
"No escape for you today, Dovan." Vladimir chide amidst his continued encouragement of his companions.
(inspire)
(precise, inspire, challenge).
Marisol moves in tandem with Vlad, trying to cut down the werewolf before he can escape.
Garborn's spell finishes, calling forth a quartet of air elementals to harass one of the werevolves.
He then steps back up towards the other one and strikes at it.
Darkstar, bleeding from the werewolf's attack retreats, but Whitefang continues the onslaught.
The elementals gleefully attack the werewolf, before two of them fades away, only to be replaced by the new arrivals.
A moment before his transformation is complete, Dovan topples. The body of a large wolf with lingering hints in its appendages of a humanoid form makes it particularly grotesque.. and eerily otherwordly.
Garborn and Darkstar bring down one of the two werewolves in the vestibule - they'd not yet recovered from their previous grievous wounds. The other is harried and slowed, but still stands.
Glancing into the antechamber of the chapel, Vladimir decides Garborn and his cadre of companions, summoned or otherwise, have the remaining werewolf well in hand.
After stabbing at Dovan's prone form one more time to make sure he is dead, the swordsman dashes up to the alter to prevent Hauge from escaping.
(inspire vs. helpless AC)
(precise, inspire, +4 if challenge still applies)
Garborn himself stays back from the fight, taking a moment to catch his breath, meanwhile the air elements continue their onslaught.
The final werewolf drops, and the sounds of violent battle in the stone chapel fade. Those near Hague hear him exhale as he slumps down on his rump - back propped against the far wall... "I was a fool to be lured by her proffered boons." His eyes are wild, his demeanor beyond weary... a shaking hand pulls a tiny vial from deep in his robes.
"I'm too old and too tired for the hell she will bring to these lands." he pops the entire thing in his mouth, bites into the glass and swallows. His eyes fix on Vladimir as blood wells and seeps through his gritted teeth.
Garborn sees the worg leader enter and loom in the first set of double doors - he looks upon the fallen werewolves and his lip curls.
"Grotesque.. man-thing abominations."
"GYAHAHAHA! A mighty battle! Garborn had fun!"
After giving vent to his emotions, which truly are too big (even for his frame) to keep in, Garborn looks around with an almost childlike look of confusion on his face.
"So, battle won, enemy defeated, what now?"
"Finding out who 'her' refers to might be a start," Nico says, rubbing his chin as he walks back towards the rest of the group.
Seeing the worg enter, he walks to the front and addresses it. "From their ramblings, it seems they fell under the influence of someone. A woman. Saying something about 'the hell she will bring to these lands'. Does that mean anything to you?"
Vladimir stands in stunned silence, watching Woelder Hague's last moments of life, only brought back to the present by the voice of the Worg.
Pointing toward the grotesque, mid-change amalgam of man and wolf, the swordsman says. "That one was Dovan. Prior to changing form, he mentioned a dark lady that had taught Hauge a ritual...assumedly to turn Dovan into that." Vladimir adds to Nico's question.
You see the massive worg skull in the glowing embers of the brazier behind the pulpit. It is oddly clean... no char or soot on its burned bare surface.
Gesturing toward the skull in the embers, Vladimir says to the Worg, "We have held up our end of the bargain, there is what is left of Howl-of-the-North-Wind...although it seems to have been used in the ritual to change Dovan into what he became."