Tales of Faerun

[AurianaValoria1]

"Conall and Argyros are up there!" Rhaine exclaimed, jumping to her bare feet and taking her sword in hand, "Dagny, too!" Once Tenebris made mention of the wererats, she knew exactly why they were here. They were after the paladin werewolf...

 

...and as he said, they would not hesitate to kill anyone in their way.

 

Zorica drew her own weapons as the Chosen dashed up the stairs, leaving Sir Meowsalot to hide under the woodpile by the fireplace. The half-drow followed the rest, a flash of ferocity in her amber eyes.

 

Meanwhile, Dagny had been sobered up rather quickly by her injuries, which included two dagger wounds in the back and deep claw marks down her arms and legs; the assassin had attempted to kill her in humanoid form, but lack of success forced him or her to transform. The dwarf woman now lay with one arm broken and her clothes soaked in blood, her eyes dull with pain as she beheld her rescuer: the pink thri-kreen. She offered him a weak, lopsided smile and croaked, "No...short softskin is not all right..."

 

Across the hall, Conall was still embroiled in battle with his assailant. However, the arrival of a giant white tiger, the drow Xundus, the Jergali half-vampire, and a stranger, gave him all the distraction he needed. With one forceful smack of a fore-paw, he hit the wererat squarely in the jaw, snapping the lycan's neck sideways and breaking it. He hoped the newcomers would recognize him and he stood very still for a few breaths, his electric blue eyes aglow and his grey-tipped white fur stained with crimson blood - some of it his, some of it his attacker's. His ears were backed in anger, his fangs bared; he looked much like what Fenrir would have if the wolf was anthropomorphic instead of an animal.

 

Then, there were thumps and shouts from the neighboring room, and he spoke as best as he was able with a beast's mouth, his voice a deep growl, "More of them! Look out!"

 

Argyros had not managed to escape the attack on the inn, and he was now locked in his own fight with an as-yet-untransformed assassin, holding the man's dagger away from his throat as he had been pinned to his bed. With his free hand, he cast a Lightning Bolt, throwing the dark stranger off of him with the crackle of electricity. The pale elf leaped to his feet, fury in his silvery eyes as he grabbed his shortswords and deflected an incoming strike from the agile assassin.

 

Just as Rhaine and Zorica reached the top of the stairs, a woman burst from her room clad in only her shift, screaming, another wererat on her heels...

[Deleted6317247User]

Nawen followed the rest of her friends upstairs, her blade at the ready. The mention of wererats worried her greatly as a bite of a lycanthrope could infect the bitten, and it is not something her most basic potions or herbs could cure.

 

As she finally reached the second floor, the drow caught a glimpse of a white tan tiger and a white werewolf and stopped in her tracks. "Good thing that they're not wererats." She thought as she noticed a woman being chased by one wererat. She let the woman pass and jumped in front of the creature with her blade pointed at it. "You're not going anywhere." She said.

[spyro1201]

Adroroar was blissfully sitting on his chair, enjoying a mug of hot cocoa he grabbed when nobody was looking, as well as all the stories these strangers had to offer, despite not having met them yet. He'll ask them after they were done.

 

Suddenly, a loud crash is heard from upstairs and everyone jumps on their feet and goes to investigate. Worried that something really bad might be going on, the tiefling follows the group, but unfortunately, due to the many people upstairs now, he can't really see what was happening in the room everyone headed for.

 

The surprises don't stop there though. Rat like humanoids started coming out of the other rooms, daggers in hand.

[Flipout6]

The noise and the following sounds of combat propelled the Grey siblings out of their seats, and they grabbed their weapons. Weyland barged in a side door, winding up in Dagny's room. Sybille charged right to the end of the hallway, blowing past Marie, who had made it up the stairs very quickly.

 

"Amendale, Dagny's hurt!" He shouted.

 

A door burst open, and out came a screaming woman with another wererat practically on top of her. Fast as lightning, Marie nocked an arrow and fired, striking it through the cheek just below the eye and piercing all the way through its skull and into the brain. It dropped like a stone, twitching. She hit it again. When it didn't move, she suddenly felt thankful that she'd had the weapon enchanted in Westgate a few months ago.

 

Sybille, meanwhile, barged into Argyros's room when his lightning bolt flashed like a beacon. His attacker was still in human form, which meant nothing except that there wasn't any fur where Sybille's warhammer connected with his knee, shattering. He shrieked and fell on his face, only to roll out of the way of what would have been a finishing blow. Transforming mid-roll, the creature's dislocated knee popped back into place and it leaped at her, dagger raised. Unable to raise her maul in time to deflect the blow, Sybille let go of the weapon and caught its wrist with a clenched fist and grabbed it by the throat with the other before propelling it into the wall. It tried to get a bite into her arm, and Sybille was fully aware that she was only wearing a short-sleeved shirt to protect her upper body. Reacting quickly, she shifted her grip and tossed him as hard as she could across the room and into the wall, splintering it. The wererat gasped and hit the floor hard, and was just barely managing to scrabble to his feet when Sybille's warhammer hit his head so hard that it caved in the skull and painted the wall red with his brain. She wiped a sizable smear off of her face and pulled the weapon back into a proper grip, grinning at the massive hole she'd blown into the wall.

 

"You alright there?" She asked Argyros. "I can grab Annette if you're hurt."

 

Annette, meanwhile, had found Connall in his room and was tending to him with what she had on hand. She had plenty of disinfectant and healing potions, so the wound itself wouldn't be a problem. She was worried that the beast may have carried a disease, though, and if it had already seeped into the blood her disinfectants would do her no good and she'd have to spend time making a curative medicine. For now, she cleaned and disinfected the bite and claw marks she could see, before handing him a healing potion to drink. To her credit, she seemed utterly unfazed with his sudden transformation into a lycan.

 

"The others can handle the rest of them. But you're not going anywhere with a bite like that." She insisted, as Amendale mirrored her actions with Dagny in the opposite room. Weyland stood guard over her, making sure no others would attack Dagny or Amendale while they were vulnerable, even as yet more wererats swarmed the hallway just outside the door. He speared one on his blade as it tried to force its way in, but otherwise it looked like the rest of the group could handle it.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Flipout6

[josh900]

Tannin let out a laugh. "Well I certainly look forward to the chance to do so." He said in a low voice The sudden loudness upstairs made him let out a sigh. "Of course, things have been too quiet I suppose." He complained as he rose from his seat just in time to see a wererat scramble down the stairs shrieking at the top of it's lungs.

"MAKE IT STOP, MAKE IT STOP! GET IT AWAY, GET IT AWAY!!!" It cried as he ran out the front door with an exceptionally excited Hexol chasing after it.

"Do you live in the sewers too? I bet it stinks down there, Do you like cheese? I like cheese but only certain kinds, Rats like cheese don't they? Hi Guys!" He stopped and waved at the group members that remained downstairs. "There are ratpeople upstairs! I've never seen one before!" He said happily before continuing his chase and barrage of annoying questions

 

"Poor blighter." Azuris chuckled as he took a drink of his hot cocoa.

 

"Indeed." Tannin replied. "So shall we head on up and aid our companions good sir?"

 

Azuris looked up at the ceiling and shrugged before taking another swallow. "Yeeaah I think they can handle it, besides..... This stuff ain't that good cold soooo...there's that." He said before taking another sip.

[AurianaValoria1]

Two more wererats attempted to barge down the hallway after Hexol, but Zorica and Rhaine made short work of them; the former promptly beheaded one with a scissor-like maneuver, and the latter stabbed the other straight through the heart with Touch of Death. As soon as both women perceived the immediate threat to be over, they sheathed their weapons and made their way to the others who had come up before them.

 

"Is everyone all right?" Rhaine asked.

 

Conall continued to stand very still as Annette tended to his wounds. He glanced down at her with his predatory blue eyes and admired her courage. He had been sure that most would shy from him in this fearsome form, but he had been pleasantly surprised. Carefully, he took the bottle from her, claws clinking on the glass, and he awkwardly downed the potion. He grunted as it did its work, sealing his wounds closed from the inside. The werewolf tossed the bottle onto the bed and dipped his head to Annette gratefully.

 

"Thank you," he said, his fangs glittering with his wolfish grin, "You are a kind and brave woman. I hate that you had to witness me like this...and that I was the cause of such an attack. Give me a few moments to...calm down...and I should be back to...normal."

 

Across the hall, Dagny had passed out from blood loss in Amendale's arms. Next door, Argyros was sheathing his weapons after Sybille made short work of his attacker. He nodded to her, "You have my most sincere thanks, friend. That was...disturbing to say the least. I am well enough. Just a bit bruised up, is all. Nothing that needs tending. It is good to see you are unharmed as well. Let us see to the others."

 

He poked his head out into the hallway to see Rhaine and Zorica approaching. It was odd seeing the Doomguide in her nightdress with her sword in hand, but it did not make her any less regal in bearing. Zorica kept glancing from side to side, as if expecting more wererats to appear at any moment. Since they seemed all right, Argyros proceeded into Conall's room to see the paladin's white-headed form ducked on the other side of his bed to hide his nakedness while he pulled his breeches back on. With the threat of battle over, Conall had shifted back into his human form, and he had to move quickly to keep the ladies of the group from seeing anything...

 

Once he had clothed himself, Conall slowly stepped forward, careful to avoid the pooling blood on the floor. He winced and held his shoulder; even though it was thoroughly healed, it still stung a bit. His blue eyes held sadness in their depths as he saw Dagny's healed but unconscious form on the other side of the hallway.

 

"I am so sorry, my friends. This is all my-"

 

He was interrupted as a series of profanities - both known and unfamiliar - became louder and louder. Suddenly, the innkeeper appeared at the top of the stairs, his face as red as a summer tomato. His words came out in a mixed and elaborate string of Common and Shaaran, his anger making him fluctuate from one language to the other in the same sentence.

 

"Out! OUT! Get out of my inn! You....make a mess EVERYWHERE! My customers...run off! Injured! Maybe even DEAD! OUT! ALL OF YOU! And take your....cursed gold with you! I'm calling the guards! By the time they arrive, I want ALL of you...OUT! You cursed bunch of trouble-making TRASH! My business is RUINED!"

[Quintatas]

Xundus had been prepared to help fend off the wererats, but it seemed the others had it under control, so the drow simply stood to the side. When he saw the injured Conall and Dagny, he winced, but oddly felt no sympathy. As the innkeeper came up the stairs and began to rant, he gave a black look, even going so far as to threateningly move his hand to his rapier hilt.

 

"Is that how you react to the victims of an attack? I'll be glad to leave," he said, glaring at the man for a few seconds before making his way downstairs.

 

==================================================

 

Marian Black watched the inn closely, hearing a few shouts and the sound of fighting from within. His lips curled into a sick grin as he thought of the bloodshed inside. It made him... hungry. The shadows hid the half-fiend well, though a fetid odor pervaded the area around him. It would be easy to kill any simple townsperson, but he longed for a fight. Perhaps those inside could give him what he sought.

 

"Don't worry, Cyric. You'll feed soon enough," he said under his breath. And he meant it.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Quintatas

[GrueMaster]

Dri felt like she had hardly left her seat before the fighting was all finished. Useless again... she kicked herself mentally, before seeing Hexol chasing after a panicking wererat. Dumb-founded, she only watched, stunned and amused at the same time. Wow.. now that's something you see everyday...

 

Tak'we gave a hiss of relief that Amendale was there to help, and turned to help the others, but the fighting was already finished. Thank the spirits...

 

He walked over to see how his clutchmates were doing when he heard the barkeep yelling and cursing at them to get out. *NRAK'TCK'TCK!* "Stupid softskin!" the now very-annoyed thri-kreen hissed at the man, poking him with strength enough to send him stumbling several paces. "We did not want or expect this fight, sso do not blame uss for thiss. Your hut iss alsso lacking in protection, sso you should be ashamed for promising false safety! Look at Dagny!"

 

Angry but not wanting anymore trouble for his clutchmates, the warrior gave a disgusted hiss and went to Dagny, picking her up from Amendale's arms tenderly. "Tak'we will hold her for you, pointy-ear."

 

 

"Well, that was a thing," Tenebris said simply as he put Bones away and approached Aera and Conall. "You are rather full of surprises, but I guess 'Whitefang' should have clued me in. Nicely done, Aera, by the way." He turned to see as the rather-red-faced innkeeper stormed towards them, demanding they leave immediately. "Ah, back to the same old, same old, I see. I was wondering when I'd be kicked out. I'll be a short while first, however. My duties call."

 

The half-vampire then pulled out a rather large book and a quill from his robes and went up to the dead wererat. Snapping his fingers, the book opened up and began writing as Tenebris studied the body, a name and basic information forming on the page. As soon as that was done, he moved past the others and did the same for the other bodies, book and quill floating after him.

 

Slamming the book shut once the last assassin was cataloged, Tenebris called out to Rhaine. "I am finished here, Doomguide. I'll leave the rest to you. Your job, after all." Not saying anything else, the Jergali left the inn and stood out by the front, waiting patiently for the others to come along.

 

Bored, he pulled out his knucklebones and rolled them, doing a simple telling to pass the time. What...? he thought, suddenly alarmed; the bones came up giving a foul omen. Suddenly feeling ill at ease, Tenebris began scooping up the bones, mildly disconcerted, when he felt like someone was watching. And that's when he smelled some ungodly stench, emanating from somewhere in the shadows.

 

Or some thing... he thought grim-faced, and immediately cast Light as he drew his mace, studying the now-lit area and spotting some fiendish-looking creature hidden away. Oh stlarn... "Good evening, sir!" he called out calmly. "You waiting for something, or someone, should I say?"

[Flipout6]

"It's fine. There's nothing you need to apologize for." Annette told Connall, looking up at him.

 

Amendale caught Dagny as she passed out, and was trying to pick her up to take her somewhere safer when Tak'We gave him a hand. Amendale thanked him and looked disapprovingly at the innkeeper as he went about his tirade. That was as far as his reproach went. Weyland, however, was not so forgiving.

"We're terribly sorry, dear sir, for bothering you with our being threatened. We didn't mean to cause any mess by defending ourselves from your rat problem. And it certainly wasn't our intention to get blood on your floor because our companions are injured, were almost killed." He had, by now, pushed by Tak'We and glared at the innkeeper, eye-to-eye. "Go ahead, kick us out. Leave us exposed to the dozens that might still be around." And then, without warning, he brought his boot to the man's chest and sent him thumping painfully down the stairs, winded.

 

"Hey! Leave the man alone, he's scared out of his wits." Annette scolded.

 

"He is now, if he wasn't before." Weyland responded. He could feel Amendale's disapproving gaze on him, but he didn't bother responding to it. "So what's happening? Are we actually complying with his wishes or what?" He asked Rhaine.

 

"I say we do that before we cause more trouble than it's worth." Sybille interjected. "Arland never knew when to back down, and I say we don't follow his example. We've already given these people enough trouble."

 

"Seconded." Amendale agreed.

 

"Guard can't kick us out without endangering us unless they're taking us somewhere safer." Marie interjected. "And that would go against everything a proper policing force stands for. It'd be ignoring their own responsibilities. Since we were defending ourselves, we are not at fault in any sense, legally or morally."

[tokyobiohazard]

Aera changed back to her normal "human" form within a minute or two and frowned as she heard Conall apologize for everything, and presumably for being what he was. She supposed not looking human most of the time made it a little easier to accept lycanthropy, and left it at that, but not before deciding that she'd have a talk with Conall when the situation was more opportune.

The weretiger grabbed her clothing and clothed herself, feeling sore in her hand where she'd swiped at the wererat. She'd hit him a little too hard, she supposed. It'd been ages since she'd had to fight anything.

Ianthe and Arva stirred as the innkeeper was kicked down the stairs. Arva smiled warmly and clutched Ianthe tightly...

Before she awoke and wriggled free, "Thanks for keeping me warm, Arva! We hardly ever keep each other warm like that... It'd be nice if we could share a room more often or something..." She looked down at him.

"Yeah, sure!" He didn't even think about the very innocent nature of what she was implying for a moment before beaming up at her and standing, wrapping his arms around her. He didn't mind it. He kissed her hair and intwined a hand with hers. "I love you."

She smiled, "And I love you as well."

Aera stormed down the stairs and around the bewildered innkeeper who'd been kicked down the stairs and straightened her skirt, "Get your things. We've been asked to leave."

"What do you mean? That's never happened before." Arva let Ianthe go hesitantly.

"Well, I don't know for sure, but I doubt you've ever been attacked inside an inn before." Aera took a sip of cold cocoa, "Ugh, that's really no good cold."