Fallon stabs the wounded warg to finish it off, while Delores slices up another one.
Uruuna misses the first wolf but wounds the second.
The wargs and wolves attack! Selgaer, Delores and Uruuna all take hits!
Joy and Imedren burn down the remaining wargs to the south. Selgaer badly wounds the last one, and Tabog scares the wolves fighting Uruuna! Dramm heals Fallon completely!
With only a few wolves left, Dramm moves to clean up the stragglers. A few short steps along the slope moves him away from his allies. He crackles with energy and unleashes an empowered Ruin.
Dramm grins with sadistic satisfaction as the magic built up within him explodes outward, engulfing the wolf attacking Delores and scouring the ground of plant life.
Sel pulls his spear back and whips it around his body, aiming not for the Warg, but for the battle-axe, trying to knock it out of the wargs hands!
Joy keeps her broom near ground level, launching a sling bullet to aid Selgaer then willing her witch fire to speed towards the battle farther south.
Without a thought, he sprang for the wolf but his strike went wide as he didn't want to really touch the dirty hound.
He bounded away, back up the tree, readying himself to pounce his target.
As Tabog's claw eviscerates one wolf, Uruuna decapitates the second with a mighty swing of her scimitar!
"Let's just end this!" Imedren growls under his breath. He steps between the boundary, appearing next to Delores. He unleashes a powerful blast of fire at the remaining wolf there as the others finish off the rest.
Moving fast, Imedren stalks northward to get clear of everyone and closer to where he still saw some fighting.
He thought about blasting the last remaining Warg with fire but held himself back, instead he used his magic to bend the fabrics of the spell and instead reach out to slow its own time down.
Imedren's energy are too much for him to hold again, he releases them into the air.
Dramm and Imedren annihilate the last wolf before it can attack. The final warg slices Selgaer with its axe, but the faun responds by knocking the weapon out of its hands! Joy's attack misses, and Imedren moves closer before slowing down the warg,
Selgaer reverses his grip on his spear and bashes the warg over the head, knocking it out!
Imedren let's out a small sigh of relief, as the last of the wargs falls and any remaining wolves had fled.
"That's it then, right? Constable Delores I think you and your deputy should be able to declare this area safe for now."
"This was a huge pack of monsters. We couldn't have cleared them out without you. Thank you my friends," Delores says with a weary but grateful smile.
Imedren grabbed on to one of his still bleeding bite wounds on his arms where he'd fended off a vicious attack from some of the wolves. The pain was starting to throb now that the danger had passed.
"Any number of these things could have spelled an end for you all had we been just a few days later in our arrival. Maybe you would have gotten lucky and the Wargs and the Bandits could have fought each other while the Wyverns picked some of them off. But those creatures that got into the well would have been a constant problem. Not to mention whatever would have happened had this cult sacrificed Craven to the demon imprisoned in the tree.
You have very few people who could be considered town defenders and not very many people here anymore at all. What do you plan on doing at this point? Because once we leave, it'll just be you and your handful of deputies again, maybe Craven for a little bit yet... at least, I suspect, until Merry Preen is wedded to Elder Zeke."
Delores makes a face at Imedren's last comment. "The residents of Verge are far too stubborn to know what's good for them and just relocate to a different location. Still, a confluence of dangers this large is unlikely to happen again. I suppose I should reach out to Commander Rena and request a contingent of militia members be stationed here. It wouldn't take too many to ensure the town's safety from here on out."
Imedren clicks his tongue. "I wish you luck at convincing that woman to do anything useful with her militia... she doesn't help unless she thinks it's well worth it. Well perhaps defending a town is something she'll be more amenable towards.
I advise you draw up a list of reasons as to why this place might be useful for a potential military staging point. Natural resources, terrain advantages like those caves the bandits were in, town production specialties of goods, you certainly have enough empty space to house a decent amount of people still.
Maybe we'll try and convince Elder Zeke to do something useful with his wealth and become a patron. Rena is a very practical commander when it comes to it, so you'll need to have practical reasons for her to care about."
Delores's scowl deepens. "Yes, I've had... dealings with the commander before. I'll take your advice to heart."
"I would avoid mentioning us by name to Rena except perhaps Selgaer." Dramm is busy binding the claws of the Warg. "When he wakes, we can interrogate him. My magic will last for nearly an hour and allow me to translate if it does not know a common language. We will need to determine what drew them here, or if there are more. The job will be of no value if another camp survives. Though I doubt one exists. This many predators close together was unusual in itself. Perhaps they know more about the Thorn. Is there anything else we need to know? It is likely to be grim work."
With the warg tightly bound, tends to Imedren's wounds. He injects the regenerative magic with several practiced, surgical quick jabs at key points. Imedren's skin crawls and the wounds quickly close.
"Merry will have to decide for herself where she will be going. Zeke will respect that choice. We will see to it."
Joy speaks up:
"Perhaps members of the Old Faith could be convinced to attend to the stone circle?"
***************************
"The warg might not know much. But we have to ask."
When you revive the warg, it growls and curses at you in Dark Speech. Dramm is reminded of the last warg he interrogated almost a year ago.
Dramm had brought the Warg around with a minor heal. He expected the reaction. The sorcerer ignored the snarling and spitting words. Instead he simply checks the bindings again, nodding to Selgaer and Uruuna who held the Warg still. He had learned something from the previous encounter with the beastmen.
Now ready, he cast Ruin on the creature, assured that his healing would see it survive. Dramm touched the knife to each fingertip on his left hand and left silvery beads of magic behind. He then gripped the Warg firmly by the neck.
"Speak when spoken to. Your language is loathsome." Dramm snaps irritably. "We have questions that we need answered. You will answer because I have already decided to let you live. How forthright and honest you are will determine how much of a gift that is. If I feel otherwise, I will carve away everything that makes you a warrior. I will cut away your hands, blind you, and cut away your tongue. I will castrate you like a common steer, and then blind and mute you. I will shatter your teeth and then let you go into the wild so that you must find some creature that takes pity on your grotesque, ruined form and grants your pathetic pleas to die. Rest assured, my healing will see you through the entire process. Now, what drew your pack here?"
The warg snarls in pain, eyes burning with hatred. "We heard its call several days ago. The Hunger in the Void! We came to slaughter in its name, to feed souls to our dark master. Its appetites must be slaked! The souls belong to the Hunger, but the meat and bones are ours to devour..."
Tabog, still a lynx, stands close to the wolfman being interrogated. He listens to his first answer while casually liking the blood from his claws but stops suddenly and chuckles.
"Hah! Well, not yours anymore pup! This Hunger of yours is either a liar or weak..."
The wolf snaps and barks at the big feline viciously, and Tabog returns the vocalizations with his own blood cuddling scream; punctuated by raking the beast's lower limbs.
He nearly begins to clean himself again but thinks better of it. Tabog turns and lightly jumps, turning back into a man mid stride and finds some water to clean his hands properly.
Defend the innocent, kill the bad guys. This was the world Selgaer wanted to believe in. For him, it didn't matter if it wasn't true - it was something worth believing in.
So while Dramm was threatening torture, Selgaer became visibly uncomfortable. Fortunately, he was one of the ones holding the beastman, so it couldn't see his face. Still, the thought of slowly ripping out eyes and teeth was not something he wanted to think about. To help with that, Selgaer imagined that Dramm was simply bluffing. It would be something he would have to ask about later. For now, there was a creature to extract information from.
He listened as it spoke, and realized the horrific truth. As long as that demon stays tied to the tree, monsters will be drawn to this place. We need to either eliminate the demon or evacuate the town.
Joy looks a little queasy as Dramm speaks and tries to focus on all the people in Verge that need help.
And then Selgaer points out the terrible truth. And she pales.
"Can....can we defeat it? If we brought everything we have?"
Dramm did not stop Tabog from tearing at the creature, ensuring only that it did not die.
"Maybe, maybe not. We can certainly defeat this lot, and it seems we must turn our attention to the Thorn. It will have to do better than scavengers in the dark." He then turns his attention back to the Warg. "You can do better with these answers. I do not have the patience for your exaggerations and threats. Give me something useful. What do you know about the Demon that beckons you? What power does it hold? What does it seek in order to free itself? Answer quickly before I decide to ensure that your attention is focused solely on me instead of your prose. Remember, if you aren't a warrior who can kill for the void, you're nothing more than meat like the rest of us."
The knife point presses to the flesh just beneath the Warg's eye socket.
Imedren gave a pensive glance.
"It's the pull of evil in this world, Dramm. This demon is a focal point. We know how to weaken it's bonds already, we don't need answers from this thing anymore, it gave them to us. Not only that, now we have to remember that we aren't necessarily dealing with only one demon if we do decide to get open the Thorn. It's swelled and there may be another demon in it as well."
He looked around at the others, reiterating what he'd learned to the others.
"Demons are dangerous at the best of times... they hail from the void and are utterly evil beings that you cannot talk to or reason with in any meaningful way. They're vicious, tough, and they're fast, much faster than we are so there's almost no chance of escape if things go wrong. They're also resilient to magic and immune to poisons. They can teleport short distances and they often have other abilities besides. Their size and shape varies but the larger they are the stronger they tend to be and some have strange powers.
If we're going to do this, we'd better make sure we're ready. We'll likely only get one chance and the odds of us all surviving are not great."
"The Hunger is all-consuming! A Dark God, cast out of the cosmos for the crime of creating us. One day, it will devour the world and everything in it! But we offer it souls to feed on in the hopes that it will spare our lives."
It's clear that the warg isn't speaking about the specific demon trapped within Black Thorn. It sounds like he's speaking of the Demon Lord himself!
Tabog had quickly returned and had been listening with serious concern for once. He starts pacing while he brain storms but doesn't get very far until he comes up with his first thought.
"We have to, at least, get Randolfo and his men. He still has that box we put the basement stone in. He and his men are a must have... I wish Anophth was still here, he might've been able to his mind control again... Imedren, if we found an incantation like the one he used, could you do?"
Tabog rolls his eyes at Dramm's dramatic rantings and talks over him when he asks his question to Imedren. The ferren agreed that there wasn't much more information he could extract from the warg anyway.
Joy says:
"Ask him if he feels any more wargs or monsters coming. It may not *just* be two demons we have to fight."
"That assumes a great deal about our enemy's motivations and draws." Dramm says to Imedren. He ignores Tabog's eye roll. "Valid assumptions, but assumptions nonetheless. Thoroughness helps to prevent mishaps."
Dramm nods to Joy and relays her question.
"How many more Wargs remain? What else has been drawn to the Thorn?"
Imedren looked at TaBog but let out a long breath. "You mean the Enigma stone fragments Inquisitor Randolfus has? I'm not sure if that will be helpful or not. As for the incantation, yes. I could use it, but that was doing bad things to Anophth in a hurry, I'm not sure I would use it unless I had no other choice."
"I don't think he knows, Dramm. I think they're simply drawn to it and have their beliefs about it."
"My tribe has been wiped out, but our numbers are legion! Soon all of the packs will converge on this place, and the Hunger in the Void will feast well indeed!" the warg rants.
"I'm just spit balling. I only know about this demon s#+# from what we've done together. We still need the man power even if the trinkets won't help, Rando and his men may be the most willing to put his life on the line... We definitely need a magic circle of some kind, there's gotta be one that like, hurts demons and s##!."
Tabog stops pacing again and stairs directly at the ground for some time before lifting his head and addressing Imedren once again.
"Sooo... Are we assuming that a good old fashioned tree burning won't just kill the demon..."
You can tell he has stopped asking direct questions and is talking through the situation in an effort to come up with new ideas.
"Does it need the blood or is that for something else entirely? Can we just chop at it? Is holy fire a thing? What if we just drown the tree roots with a boat load of holy water?... We need a consultant!"
Dramm releases the spell and straightens himself.
"Worthless animal." He sighs at the lost time. "I do not regret the diligence, but we learned nothing. A waste. Kill it. He serves no purpose."
Tabog's thoughts bring a light to Dramm's eyes.
"Holy water? I had forgotten about that option. I only have a single vial, not enough for something so large. But perhaps applying it will weaken the Demon before it springs forth." He looks to Fallon and Delores as if sizing them up in his mind. "I've seen what happens to villages that fall under the control of a demon. If we do not stop the Thorn now, it will draw the desperate to worship and release it. We have to fight."
He completes his analysis and shakes his head.
"You and Fallon are very brave, Constable, but not exceptionally powerful. If you were to enter this battle, you serve no other purpose than to slow the Demon's advance towards town. Your deaths would likely be swift. Perhaps we should employ a runner. If we are losing, the messenger would be able to warn you and the town while we delay the demon. You may be able to evacuate those that are willing."
He looks to the others, seeking further ideas.
I still want to kill the demon. So for those of you against it, come up with a better plan.
Joy, still a little pale, nods.
"We have to fight. We should get as much help as we can manage to get quickly but we have to fight. Too many people will suffer if we don't."
Selgaer breathes out a sigh. He brushes some loose dirt off his fine clothing. Ok, so here's the plan. We can't leave the tree. Too much risk of some other evil being attracted to it. And too much risk of this cult.
We'll need to inform everyone about this cult and the dangers the tree represents - give them the option to stay or go. From there, we can send a messenger pigeon back to Commander Rena requesting aid. Despite what many of you think, she and her crusaders will be willing to help - this is what they do. Hunting monsters which threaten Crossings and the surrounding area is how I met her.
It'll be a couple of days, probably even the higher end of a week before she can get here, so we'll have to keep a patrol up to scout for other threats.
Everyone good with this? Amy questions?
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"That makes a lot of sense, Selgaer. I'm willing to wait that long. We should also tell Reinhold. He did send this way after all."
"I will study the Thorn while I can. It cannot be left here. The demon is awake now and will continue to attempt to free itself. We will kill it when the others arrive. For now we should search the bodies and the camp." Dramm sets about looting and searching for anything to being back to the town for the families of the victims.
Dramm's rest is poor that night. Anyone who shares the room with him can hear him tossing and turning. Occasionally, fearful noises escape him. When he awakens, he uses his magic to help remove some of the fatigue, but his mood remains unpleasant for some time.
Selgaer helps the sheriff take Silas back to town, and then helps her deputy round up the rest of the cult. He quickly chases down anyone who tries to run.
That night, he slept well, satisfied with the day.
The next morning, he grabbed Joy, asking her to write the note they needed to send to Commander Rena and Reinhold.
Then he set off to find a messenger pigeon, telling the bird who to look for when it arrived in Crossings.
Joy writes a clear, yet positive, letter of entreaty at Selgaer's request.
"As long as we get more boots on the ground here, I'm good for it. Hey Sel, maybe request a shipment of as much holy water as they can spare in your letter? That'll come in handy when we do attack the thing."
Tabog takes the night to mingle with the folks at the inn and rests well after a night of entertaining the gathered crowd and...
the lovely ladies, afterward.
Tabog easy charm catches the eye of the bartender Anise, and after several drinks and much flirting, she invites him to spend the night in her own quarters...
***
The next morning, Delores fills you in on the results of her questioning the other members of Silas Branson's conspiracy. It turns out that the midwife Kyra Peen was the one that inadvertently set everything in motion. She was the one who wrote the wish in the well, having harbored unrequited feelings for the woodcutter for many years. Kyra had spread the rumors about him which caused the rift between Silas and Salla Reed and ultimately led to her death. Kyra had agreed to go along with sacrificing Craven, hoping to be the one to comfort Silas when the ritual to bring Salla back failed.
Lesser Zeke was invovled only because Silas Branson was his friend, one of the few people in town who treated the mayor's son with any respect. He didn't understand what he had volunteered for, only that he was doing as Silas asked him.
Merry Peen shares a tearful and heartfelt reunion with Craven. Free of her controlling mother's influence, the young girl makes plan to leave Verge with the changeling once everything settles down. Finally finding the courage to speak up for herself, she declines Elder Zeke's overtures for her hand in marriage. The mayor is miffed but grudgingly relents in his efforts to woo Merry.
Selgaer sends the message off to Commander Rena and Reinhold, and then it becomes a waiting game. You keep a watch over the Black Thorn to make sure nobody tries to release the demons trapped within, and fortunately, it remains quiescent. Several days pass...
***
Eventually, a contingent of reinforcements arrives in Verge. Inquisitor Randolfus leads a contingent of his fellow New God priests, as well as a squad of militia soldiers equipped with fine weapons and armor supplied by Master Dreen. The priest Reinhold appears as well, and after a warm embrace with Craven, his manner becomes serious.
"Thank you for rescuing my ward. Nobody in Crossings took your warning lightly, and so we have come to ensure the demons in the woods are eliminated, once and for all. I've brought with me knowledge of a ritual of binding that Craven and I wll perform around the Black Thorn. It will temporarily prevent any demons from simply stepping through the Void and fleeing the clearing."
"We have come to lend our blades to the cause," Inquisitor Randolfus says from behind his skull mask. "My men and the soldiers on loan from Commander Rena will handle any lesser demons that might emerge. That will leave you free to handle the more powerful of their kind, including the original fiend that was bound to the tree. With Astrid's grace on our side, we will prevail!"
"Make any final preparations you need to before we depart," Reinhold says. "Then let us purge the taint from the Black Thorn."
When everybody is ready, your company treks through the Old Wood to the blasted clearing where the Black Thorn grows. The inqusitors and soldiers form a perimeter around the clearing, with Randolfus anchoring the formation. Behind him, Craven and Reinhold stand, chanting and invoking the power of the Old Gods. A shimmering green field of energy rises to form a dome over the Black Thorn, ensuring that the demons will be unable to teleport out--for a time.
As Dramm and Imedren cast their preparatory spells, Uruuna chugs the growth potion procured from her. She gasps in surprise as she starts to swell in height, and in a matter of moments, she looms over the rest of you! The ten-foot-tall halfling laughs despite the tense situation. "Now this is what I'm talking about! Make a short joke now, I dare you!"
The moment of levity passes, though, and Uruuna grimly readies her sword and shield as she takes position by the Black Thorn. Dramm stands behind her, with Tabog concealed at the edge of the clearing. Joy and Selgaer hover on the witch's broom, while Imedren watches from a distance.
Everybody is ready. Uruuna takes a deep breath and smears a bit of goat's blood on the tree. There is a groaning noise, followed by some high-pitched shrieks and laughter. The tree's roots begin to churn beneath the blackened soil, and a quartet of small demons clamber out of the ground! Randolfus's men invoke prayers to the New God as they rush to meet these threats.
At the same time, the Black Thorn cracks open as a pair of larger demons claw their way out. Both have hideous and bizarre appearances. The first demon appears in the shape of a geometrical pyramid, its body composed of exposed muscle and sinew dotted with bleeding, open sores. It walks about on a pair of thin and withered legs, and feathery antennae wave above its otherwise featureless body. The second demon is serpentine, a massive snake with cracked, leathery scales. Its facial features are melted and indistinct, but hatred burns in its drooping red eyes, and it burbles with laughter.
"At last! I, Catanka, am free of that accursed prison! It has been centuries since I have tasted mortal flesh. It is time to slake my hunger!"
Dramm's armor begins to glow faintly, and the shadows around the demons lenghten, negating their horrifying appearance.
Before
Joy adds an order for as much holy water and numerous syringe potions, as many as the group wish.
As they wait, the young witch spends her time trying to to understand the standing stones.
"If nothing else, Craven and Reinhold might be able to use it too!", she will say to whomever accompanies her, or to the others later.
Not long before
Joy pays one more visit to the standing stones, to cast magics.
Now
"Up we go!", she calls as she flies into the air, taking Selgaer with her. And tries not to think too hard about what she's seeing.
Selgaer adjusts the spear on his back, ensuring it stays put while he rides the broom up into the air. Then he wraps his bow around his torso and holds a vial of holy water in each hand. The third he has in a vest pocket. I'm ready when you are.
Once in the air, he takes aim at the demon who spoke.
When they had neared the tree, Imedren cast his spells, making sure to rush far enough away from the others whenever he felt the rush of power become too much. Two explosions later, one large and the other moderately sized he had done what he could for the others. He gave the others enhanced speed this time around, believing they could put it to better use than he could this time. He handed Dramm an incantation of a blessing spell and then regarded Uruuna with a moment of his own shock as she drank her potion and became twice the size of him.
He looked up at her with a grin. "I don't think anyone is going to be making those except for you right now, Uruuna. I know I'll be here with you but try not to get to carried away."
He jumped to a decently far distance from where things were going to occur.
The demons came out, their allies rushing forth to meet the smaller ones, then the larger two stepped forth. The strange alien nature of them threw him off for a moment but he cast the foretelling spell for Uruuna, blue light shined in his eyes showing him multiple potential situations ensuring she would have the best chance to succeed.
There was an explosion but he paid little attention to it. The ritual was underway now.
Dramm further enhanced Uruuna with regeneration. Her skin crawled uncomfortably, but her wounds would heal quickly for some time.
"Make sure you stay close to me. The healing is powerful, but it is not insurmountable." He says to Uruuna, then turns to address the others. "Make sure not to range too far. Keep anything from breaking through the lines and holding me in place."
Dramm quickly distributed his own spells and protections. Vigor fortified Imedren's sinews and Dramm carved a forcefield for himself. He produced a syringe of healing potion, just in case.
Dramm pulls out a small stone and carves out a circle to cast it through. The dart arcs forward, testing Catanka's defenses. The sorcerer is unusually cautious about approaching.
Dramm starts to glow with reserved power as he shunts the excess energy to different parts of his body.
With a mighty battle cry, Uruuna slices out with her scimitar, tearing into both Catanka and the pyramid-shaped demon!
Tabog lay in wait for the action to being. He wasn't happy about the lack of wall or ballista but it was better than a rag-tag team of misfits and himself. Once the demons showed themselves, he made a note of its name, huddled out of site and then loosed his first arrow.
Dramm's missile burns into Catanka's serpentine body, but doesn't seem to harm it too much. The demon narrowly dodges Selgaer's holy water, but Tabog's arrow lodges in the side of its head. The wood of the arrow sizzles as a mild corrosive acid leaks from the wound.
Resisting a potentially fatal strike, Catanka turns its melted visage on Uruuna. "BEGONE!" it bellows, and the enlarged halfling suddenly disappears, teleported away! She reappears 40 yards distant among the trees.
The pyramid demon waves its antennae as it teleports forward to loom over Tabog! It slams its body into the would-be assassin, pummeling him!
Uruuna curses loudly and begins rushing back to get back in the fight.
Imedren's innate senses attuned to magic twinged as he felt the demon who had boldly announced itself as Catanka, lashed out at Uruuna with a teleportation spell and he cursed loudly as the demon's magic was powerful enough to send Uruuna away but fortunately it sent her back and away towards him and with the speed bubble she started rushing back towards the fight and he was able to maintain his focus on her without losing the spell.
He gave a smirk as his wife lunged back into combat. He doubted even the Demons had expected this to occur.
He gave a worried glance toward Dramm and where TaBog was but he knew the Ferren had several tricks up his sleeve. Hopefully they would be enough.