So far you have only seen two wolves and they appear to be eating something.
Calistria knows there's any number of diseases that can be transferred through a bite.
"If I may tend to him, I'll see if I can help." Calistria offers to the priest's wife.
Assuming she's allowed, she hurries to his side and begins to explore his wound and his symptoms.
You believe the priest has ghoul fever. you think he might last 4 or 5 days without treatment but his chances of recovery without help are low.
Voryn waits for the others to move into position, and then he lets go of the arrow that he has aimed at one of the wolves.
Calistria asks the priest's wife to prepare a tea and to set some stones in the fire. She then sets to work to treat the fever. She'll use the stones, heated by the fire but not burning hot, to help warm the priest so the fever will break sooner. She'll feed him the tea regularly. She'll use Purify Food and Water to make sure the water for the tea is pure. She'll use Guidance to help the priest overcome the disease.
And Calistria will pray. To her deity and to the priest's.
Rois moves into position, surrounding the wolves. He takes his crossbow and aims it at one of the wolves, loosing the bolt as Voryn fires his arrow.
"We should cautiously approach them. We seem to be too far for our attacks to be of any use. I'll stay at the ready in case the wolves decide to come within melee range."
Swift will retrieve his kama from his belt.
Make stealth checks then and depending on how well you do will dictate how close you can get before the wolves detect you.
The wolves realize they are being tracked when you reach around 300ft from them.
Rather than running away as you would expect they begin moving slowly towards you. Then picking up speed, they cross about 200ft before most of you can react. Sir Rois is able to fire 1 shot that wounds one of the wolves as they advance.
Hailey
Garekk
Voryn
Swift Palm
Sir Rois
Vorel
Wolves
All Players can act now.
Swift will place himself in front of Hailey, shielding her from harm but not completely blocking her view. He holds his kama at the ready.
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Garekk watches, stunned as the wolves charge instead of running. These beasts like human meat!!! He drops his little sling and draws his sword to wait for the charge
-Posted with Wayfinder
"WELL ALRIGHT!"
Vorelloex grins as he feels again the rushes he had learned as a small boy atop great mountain peaks. The hunt was on.
He unravels his hefty flail as he advances towards his prey, baiting them out with his slightly 'inept' positioning. But it was a clear bait to the eyes of a hunter. He makes the fuss needed to make the hounds hunger.
Rois curses and drops his crossbow in the mud. He quickly arms himself with his spear, running to move in line with Swift. He then braces himself for the oncoming attack...
Voryn follows example, drops his bow and draws his greatsword while moving 40 feet forward.
Both the wolves charge Vorel, but neither can sink their teeth through his armour.
Players are up.
Vorelloex dances not among, but through the wolves, thrashing one of them with an upwards sweep from his cruel iron flail.
He whistles at them like pups and boys at play as he aims to smash in their skulls.
"Kwiip tsil kwiip rhyaex! Come 'n get 'em!"
The two barbarians smash the wolves with their weapons, leaving bloody wounds that quickly bring down the beasts.
Rois relaxes and puts the butt of his spear in a resting position on the ground. Well, I guess I didn't need this after all...
He turns to Voryn, "The killing is done. What is the next step?"
"We'll have to skin them. Unfortunetaly I haven't brought my skinning knife. Has anyone got a knife?"
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Garekk offers up his dagger as he begins tying the dead wolves up to field dress them. "Perhaps the meat will be of use as well!"
-Posted with Wayfinder
You see that the target the wolves attacked was a male deer. The only thing still worthwhile from the deer is its antlers.
Calistria asks the priest's wife to prepare a tea and to set some stones in the fire. She then sets to work to treat the fever. She'll use the stones, heated by the fire but not burning hot, to help warm the priest so the fever will break sooner. She'll feed him the tea regularly. She'll use Purify Food and Water to make sure the water for the tea is pure. She'll use Guidance to help the priest overcome the disease.
And Calistria will pray. To her deity and to the priest's.
Despite Calistria's best efforts the priest gets worse. By morning she is not sure if it is possible to save him. He will linger for a few days then likely die no matter what she does.
Calistria rubs at her eyes. She slept very little that night, having sat with the priest. Trying to help him overcome this horrible disease.
"Nothing." Calistria whispers. "Oh, winged lady, what do I do? Maybe Hailey will have some ideas."
Calistria makes sure the priest is comfortable and then leaves the room to see if her companions have returned from their wolf hunt.
Rois hands Voryn a sharp, well crafted dagger. It is 10" wrought steel with a silver cross-guard and a handle inlayed in maple. The pommel of the handle is crafted in the vague shape of Iomedae's holy symbol. It is an ornate blade but not well crafted; as if it's making was to practice the skill of smithery.
"Here Voryn, use this. It is more of a memory than a weapon, but, the blade is sharp and it will do the job. My son crafted this during his training at the wall and gifted it to me as a present. It has never tasted blood, but, things here are shifting. Maybe it is time for a change in the right direction."
Voryn holds the knife and examines it for a bit. "It is a fine blade, Sir Rois. Your son must have been quite the craftsman."
Voryn then proceeds to make a cut up the lower side of one of the wolves and up its legs, and opens and removes the skin from the animal. He repeats the procedure with the remaining wolf, and cleans the knife with a piece of cloth, before handing it back to Sir Rois.
"Shall we hunt for more or return to Kotla?"
You have about 4 hours till sundown and are 2 hours from the village.
Swift watches from afar as the men prepare the beasts for skinning. His face twitches at the sight, but he soon relaxes his posture and accepts the fate of these poor creatures.
"As much as it might pain me to see such harm come to the living, I know it is necessary. As I said before, preserving the balance is of the utmost importance. I'm glad they had a swift end, drawing out their suffering would have pained me..."
Vorelloex bundles up and stows away his flail behind his waist after cleaning it up, and watches Voryn as he skins the pelts from the flesh.
He veers his vision to the northwest, near the far-off peaks of his home.
"Chisok. ...Back in the mountains my brother and I would go on hunting trips and not come home for months on end, and we brought back great hauls. I think it would be clever to make camp and draw them closer to us... It certainly wouldn't be hard for us... Save some time and resources. We can eat the meats."
Vorelloex shrugs. He's not used to civility or the luxuries it ensnares people with.
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"You are truly a man of the wilderness, Vorelloex," Hailey remarked. "Were we to stay in the woods I think I could request no better guide and guardian. Garekk is wise, though, in the suggestion that we sleep in safety tonight and return in the morning. And Swift-Palm, su . . . such wisdom that you show, so consistently. It shames me."
Of course, she thinks to herself but does not say, when done well and artfully, drawn-out suffering can be turned into an art. But done badly, yes, it needs to be over with quickly.
Rois looks sympathetically over at Voryn, "Hailey is right. Ustalav is not a safe place at night. These wolves were easy game for us, but, darker, more dangerous things than wolves hunt men at night. It would be best if we head back to town. If Calistria is not yet done with her task, we can hunt again tomorrow."
Voryn nods to Rois. "Aye. Let us return to Kotla then."
"As you wish. Relthas will be redeemed in the right war sooner or later."
Vorelloex helps carry whatever's around to carry, and puts up no childish quarrels.
As the troupe travels, his thoughts begin to wander to hunts past, of mammoth, mastodon, blood, meat, ice, victory, and family. And as his mind proceeds through the years gone by, Vorelloex begins to remember the most recent times. The faces and forms of those new memories were all different, but their souls were the same. Blood, glory, and kin.
New days were ahead indeed.
As the sun sets, Calistria leans against the outside wall of the priest's home. She sighs, tears in her eyes, as weariness overcomes here.
As her friends roll in, wolves on their cart, she straightens up and offers a prayer to Desna, hoping a new solution will present itself.
Calistria hurries up to the others. She keeps her voice low, not wanting to cause a panic in case anyone might overhear.
"We have an urgent problem." Calistria speaks softly. "This village's priest was bitten by a ghoul. I've done what I can but I can't save him. Please tell me one of you has an idea?"
"My, you've had your hands full, lady Calistria. Perhaps the fates have decided that this must be so. However, I've never been the type to refuse someone in need. Let me go over my what I know, I might have a remedy yet!"
Swift puts his arm around Calistria's shoulder in order to comfort her. He wants to show her that she is not alone.
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Hailey thinks, trying to remember what, if anything, she can about non-magical healing.
"I'm afraid my only interest in the healing classes was in the reversal of the lessons, learning where best to . . . no, better left unsaid. But I think I remember something about it. Either way," she gives the others a wicked grin before continuing, "Swift-Palm, you take Sister Callie and go comfort her. She's spent. Leave Mr. Priest to me . . ."
She throws in a wicked, gleeful cackle for good measure, then goes toward the priest.
Rois looks at the group, perplexed, "Are you sure that the bite will be fatal? Perhaps he was bitten by a dog instead? Dog bites rarely kill..."
unfortunately there is nothing that the mundane arts of healing can do for the priest at this point he is just too weak to fight off the disease now.