Chapter 4.3: A Fear of Heroes

“Please, strangers, help me!”
They can see the terror in the demon’s eyes. He fears for his life.
“Wolves are hunting me. Please, save me!”
He’s right. Three wolves run up the hill, one significantly bigger than the other two: a mother with her cubs. Their black fur is covered wi polar bears th grey tones, like they have been rolling through the ashes of a died out fire. With every step they take towards them small clouds of smoke are shaken of their fur. Their paws and the end of their ears are blood red. The same bloodlike colour marks their vicious faces: a red dot between their feral eyes.
(Survival 12) (10 versus AC)
“I don’t know what kind of wolves these are”, Bruq says as he takes aim, “but they sure are no dire wolves or vampiric ones. Whatever they are, I’m going to be the hunter that kills one.”
He fires an arrow at the mother wolf. She runs straight towards the arrow, fearless, but at the last second, she dodges sideways and evades the projectile. She is not slowing down. On the contrary, she speeding up and her cubs follow her example.
(12 versus AC)
Oslando draws both swords and walks to the front of the battle line.
“I’ll cover you”, the half-elf says. “Just keep shooting.”
Lyssa joins the satyr in his ranged battle. She stands just behind their guarding knight and aims her gun at the biggest threat. The bullet leaves the blunderbuss with a loud bang, one that doesn’t startle the wolves at all. With the same ease as she did before, the mother wolf dives below the bullet and continues her approach towards her new preys.
(18 versus AC) (Perception 16) (DC 12 verus dexterity 13, 15 and 15)
Instead of running towards the growling beast, Oslando waits until she comes in his reach. He prepares himself, tightening his hands around the grip of his blades. He lunges forward and jabs both swords forward. Each weapon finds its way into the wolf. The flaming blade reaches deeper into her flesh than his shortsword, but both are placed effective enough to create two gushing wounds at the base of the beast’s neck.
After pulling back his swords, Oslando notices something peculiar. Normally, striking someone with his flaming sword cauterizes the wound or at least burns away the hairs around the point of entry. But now there’s no sign of any harm of the fire visible.
The growling sound coming from the mother wolf grows louder. Behind her canine teeth an orange light burns brighter and brighter. She opens her mouth and a sea of flames spreads fifteen feet wide. Although the half-elf, the siren and the satyr guessed something like this was coming and prepared themselves, the flames are still excruciating to endure. The ends of their hairs singe and the skin exposed to the fire turns red with burn marks.
(17 versus AC) (14 versus AC)
From beneath the vanishing inferno the two cubs appear, both eager to set their teeth in the flesh of those who want to hurt their mommy.
Bruq doesn’t even see the young coming, his eyes still hidden behind his arm. The wolf bites him in his leg. Even though the lower legs of satyr mostly consist out of fur instead of muscle, it still hurts like hell when the fangs scrape the surface of his bone.
The hunter drops his bow reactively and looks down with his black eyes. He tries to shake off the beast, but the wolf only clenches his jaws tighter to hold on.
The other cub goes after the siren. He jumps and sinks his teeth in her lower arm. She screams and, with one firm swing, frees herself. Warm blood drips down her arm. It stings as it crawls down the burned skin.
(17 versus AC) (12 versus AC)
Mero stands just outside the line of fire. He can feel the heat coming of the flames, but he remains unharmed, unlike his friends.
He cracks his fingers and directs his hand to the mother wolf.
“Bad dog”, he says and he fires a crackling ray of freezing energy to her. It strikes her body hard and lays a thin layer of frost on top of her entire fur.
“Stay away from my friends and leave the demon alone!”
He still sounds like how they all know Mero, but with his new body he is more intimidating. His face shows more emotions and together with his glowing eyes, he would be able to terrify someone if he wanted. His magical hat wouldn’t help with that, though.
“Dargothoth, do something!”
The cleric follows the sorcerer’s directions and tightens his grip on the sceptre. Even though Bruq is still struggling with shaking off the cub, Dargothoth chooses to aid Lyssa.
He runs past the siren and blocks the way of the young wolf.
“It’s been a while since I cracked a few baby’s bones”, the cleric says with a foul grin. “Too bad you’re only a dog.”
He smashes his sceptre onto the top of the small skull and smacks him again in the face. Bones crack and blood gushes out of every cavity of his head.
The young wolf cries and draws the attention of his mother. She looks at her bleeding child and charges towards his attacker.