Wandering Wolves: What Waits in The Dark (1)

Zarantyr 27 - Olarune 7, YK 1000

Resolute scooped the remains of Orlok's brain and internal mechanisms into a bag, as Brand concentrated and drew a circle with a mixture of arcane dust on the floor. His dragonmark flared to life, and in seconds, a shimmering portal opened up, showing the arrival room on Wolf Island in Silver Lake. The Wolves, along with their newest ally, stepped through.

They were greeted by Deneith security, who recognized the Wolves but not the warforged holding a smelly sack. Remembering William's constant cautions against shapechangers, they asked for proof of the Wolves' identities in the form of countersigns, questions and a demonstration of functional dragonmarks by William, Lysander and Brand. With security satisfied, and William happy to see that security was being stringent at the linked portals, the Wolves took the ferry over to the Wolves' Reward.

William disbursed gold, gems and platinum to each of the Wolves from the party treasury, and for his part, he took one of the Karrnathi paintings, which he planned to mount, along with his sword Terminus, in the war room below the Reward.

Lysander and William then went to the House Sivis office to send a message to General Karlach and let him know the status of their mission, and that they would be arriving in Karrlakton in a few days.

Brand, meanwhile, went to meet up with Luggoth and hear about what happened on the way to Passage, and anything of note that happened while he was there. Luggoth didn't have much to report, only that Aeromus and many of his allies in the House had been placed under house arrest, awaiting the scheduling of the trial, which they expected to take a few months, as the barristers would be doing research going back years for the case.

Pel took up a few of his roles around the casino, checking in on various schemes and agents, and then took on his identity of Viorr so that he could charter The Beginner's Luck airship from the Reward out to the Mror Holds, so that the Wolves could check in on potential Emerald Claw activity at the Deneith operation going on at the mining village of Grentonn.

After about four days, the Wolves arrived to make a stop in Karrlakton. They disembarked, gave the remains of Orlok to Karlach and gave him a full report on what had happened. Resolute decided to head to Sentinel Tower and make a report about his whereabouts and ask for new assignments, and bid the Wolves farewell for now.

The Wolves boarded the Beginner's Luck again that evening and flew for four more days to the southernmost tip of the Ironroot Mountains. They disembarked by means of rope ladders and entered the subterranean dwarf kingdom of the Mror Holds, walking through the territory of Clan Soldorak. They were close enough to the active volcano the Fist of Onatar that it was consistently hot, which Pel found quite a relief after their journeys in the frigid Karrnathi wilderness.

A few hours later, they found themselves in the small mining town of Grentonn. It had less than a dozen buildings, including one large apartment building most likely for the families of the miners and several other smaller buildings that represented businesses and other needs for the town. Though the Wolves didn't have anyone who could read the Dwarven script on the doors and windows, they were able to figure out that one of the places was the town tavern, and they went in to talk to Dulok ir'Soldorak, the owner of the place.

The tavern was small, and he didn't have any food to offer, explaining that he tended to work on the miners' shifts, and they had been down in the mine for several weeks, ever since the attacks by foulspawn on the town. Dulok told them that the miners had dug too deep and uncovered a vein of Khyber dragonshards, but in doing so they had dug right into Khyber, and foul aberrations had attacked in response. The town sheriff had died successfully repelling the invasion, and the mayor had arranged a contract with House Deneith for security while they dug out the rest of the shards.

The Wolves left Dulok's tavern and went over to the tents that were the base of operations for House Deneith. William was surprised to see that there were less than a dozen Deneith blademarks here, none of them dragonmarked, and their leader, Lieutenant Falchor, came over to tell him why.

Falchor explained that Maresh and most of the blademarks had gone down into the mine to protect against the foulspawn incursions while the miners worked, and he had left a skeleton crew up above to guard the town against attacks from without. Falchor expressed gratitude that the Wolves were there, suggesting they could help bolster what he believed was not enough men to guard the town.

However, there were several suspicious things about Falchor. For one, he and all his men had bushy beards, which was unusual for Deneith men. For another, he seemed very insistent in trying to keep the Wolves from descending into the mines. And for another, he was somewhat disrespectful and distrusting of his commanding officer.

The Wolves decided to seek a bit more information, and they went to a secluded area in town where Lysander could perform arcane rites to seek rumors. He learned of a teacher missing her students, an unpopular dwarven woman in town and that most of the inhabitants were scared, never going outside, and that they didn't much like what had happened "since the Deneith came."

Suspicious, Pel took on the identity of one of the Deneith blademarks and struck up a conversation. He managed to quickly confirm that the Deneiths were gone, and that in fact Falchor and his men were The Emerald Claw in disguise. Luggoth, William and Brand inspected the traces of blood and other battle scenes in the middle of town to confirm the truth of foulspawn involvement, rather than a battle between the Claw and Deneith. Before they could confront Falchor, however, they got much more vivid proof that foulspawn were attacking Grentonn.

With a howling and screaming, a band of foulspawn emerged from the mine shaft, cutting their way through the disguised Claw and into the town, where they found the Wolves waiting. Brand identified them as William counted them off: 2 Dolgaunt Monks, 2 Foulspawn Manglers, 2 Foulspawn Hulks, a Foulspawn Berserker and a Foulspawn Seer leading them. William pulled Vendetta from its sheathe and the Wolves prepared to battle these foul escapees from Khyber's depths.

Pel quickly turned invisible and moved into position, angling for the leader, as the monks charged Lysander and the manglers began moving around William, their four arms swinging bone daggers at him with freakish glee. Luggoth charged one of the Dolgaunt monks as the Hulks slowly squeezed their way through alleys.

Lysander began loudly singing a song of courage, and he punctuated it by slicing his scimitar across the belly of the Dolgaunt monk in front of him, causing it to let out a gout of black blood and an inhuman screech of pain, as lightning burst from Lysander's sword to blast the other Dolgaunt. Brand swiped at one of the manglers before teleporting next to the Foulspawn Seer. He swung his blades into the Seer, but it disappeared in a burst of warped air before the blades could connect.

Unfortunately for the Seer, it teleported right next to Pel, who became visible and shoved his rapier into the foul being's chest.

Luggoth, William and Lysander wound up in a melee with the Hulks, Manglers, Dolgaunts and Berserker as Pel and Brand pursued the Seer, trying to finish him off. The manglers proved deadly with their dagger dance, moving around their opponent and slashing in with a bone dagger whenever their guard was down, leaving numerous tiny cuts first on Brand and then on Whitehearth.

The Dolgaunts used their tentacles to pull various Wolves around, draining their life force from them before the Wolves could cut loose, and the Hulks pounded on William and Luggoth. The Berserker, in a state of frenzy, spent as much time cutting into his allies as he did cutting into the Wolves.

William finished off one of the Hulks and turned his attention to the other as Pel cut himself free of the Dolgaunt's tentacles and then called down the Traveler's burning flame on the foulspawn in retaliation.

The Seer kept teleporting away as Brand pursued him, blasting at the Orien scion with warp orbs that dazed and slowed him down, keeping him at bay. Though the Seer was sorely wounded, he managed to keep clear of the melee, and his foulspawn servants were able to keep the Wolves occupied.

Brand slashed both swords into the remaining Hulk, one of them cutting deep into its flesh, and Luggoth let out a loud cry of rage and finished the monster off, as William struggled with the Dolgaunt who had him wrapped in his tentacles, swinging Vendetta at the creature even as his life-forced flowed into the monk, healing some of its wounds. He pulled away, but the other Dolgaunt grabbed him and pulled him into position for the Manglers to move in and attack William.

As the Dolgaunts continued to grab the various Wolves in turn, and William suffered greatly at the hands of the Manglers, Lysander did his best to keep the Wolves fighting with his majestic words. When one of the Dolgaunts grabbed Lysander with a tentacle and pulled it to him, Lysander reached into his deep-pocket cloak and pulled out a clockwork bomb and sovereign glue, attaching it to the creature's face.

Brand activated his dragonmark, teleporting and swapping places with Luggoth, and he reached out and clicked the timer on the clockwork bomb as the Dolgaunt lashed out a tentacle and grabbed him.

One of the Manglers began its dagger dance and stabbed William three times, finally causing the battered Deneith defender to tumble to the ground, unconscious and bleeding badly.

Luggoth growled angrily and took the offending Mangler's head off with his sword, whirling and charging the other one, killing it as well.

Lysander pulled out his lute to distract one of the Dolgaunts as Brand teleported away from the other one, leaving it alone as the clockwork bomb on its face exploded, leaving it charred, blind but still alive. Brand's teleportation took him next to the Seer, which he killed with a sword stroke before charging over to attack the Berserker.

As Pel and Lysander moved in to help Luggoth with the Berserker, Luggoth exchanged blows with the other Dolgaunt monk. William, restored by Pel's healing, got up to attack the Berserker as well, as Brand finished off one Dolgaunt monk and then moved to help William.

The Berserker swung his greatsword, again dropping the wounded William, but in response, Brand slipped his longsword into the thing's ribs, ending its life. The Wolves then turned on the last Dolgaunt monk, and Brand and Whitehearth managed to finish it off.