Expedition: Fingers/Wizard Tower of the Ghost Keep - 15 Oct

[Zhym]

Fingers looks at the dead girl and the self-healing wolves. "Weird. I wonder why the one I hit transformed and stayed dead and the others didn't." He's tempted to see whether his blade is special by stabbing the alpha wolf, but decides that would be cruel. Besides, wolves look so much like dogs that it's hard enough to kill them when they're attacking. The way they yelp when they die...Fingers can't help but shudder. And if these wolves are actually people, too?

Fingers quickly grabs a rope and starts tightly binding the alpha's fore and hind legs. Not wanting the wolf to slip out of its bonds if it changes back to a person, he uses extra loops and ties the wolf in multiple places. He uses another length of rope to make a muzzle to keep the wolf from howling when it wakes up.

"If this turns back into a person we can talk to it to find out what the hell's going on. Meanwhile, we'll need to keep a guard on it in case I didn't tie it up as good as I hope."

"If anyone's got extra rope, we might want to tie up the others, unless you're sure they will run away. Or, I dunno, maybe we don't care and just want to get on with where we were going?".

He gazes up at the sky and back down at the alpha he tied up. "It's not even a full moon. Do you think the wolf will change into a person when the sun comes up?"

I'm assuming the one Fingers killed was because he did enough damage to bring her to -10 hp. Otherwise, I don't see a meaningful difference between Fingers's weapon and Markd's. Both are magic, and both had critical hits.

[Marullus]

Being clear: One never fell and fled immediately. Idriss knocked two down as they ran, but they only lay there for a minute outside the firelight, then got up and fled. You have the bigger leader now tied up, still a werewolf, and you have the corpse of the young girl. The other three are gone, out in the darkness.

The contusions on the werewolf's head heal swiftly and he regains consciousness just as Fingers finishes binding his limbs. He snarls and thrashes, but the ropes hold. He stops and glares at you balefully.

The body of the young teenage girl, draped in sewn wolfskins, perhaps a little younger than Fingers and Alyse, looks helpless and small as it lies by the fire. Her dark hair falls across her pale cheek, her petite nose. The pack leader fixes his eyes on her lifeless body and says nothing.

It is still a few hours before sunrise, but you've all rested. If the spellcasters can study and pray, you might as well be up for the day.

Next actions?

Date: 16 October 2021, 5:04am
Light: Campfire, waning gibbous moon / partially cloudy
Effects: idriss (levitation)
Injuries: None

[Zhym]

"Sorry," says Fingers, looking at the dead girl and back at the wolf—or many shaped like a wolf, anyway. Even though it doesn't say anything, Fingers tries to talk with it, even though he figures it's futile.

"Can you turn yourself back into human shape when you want to, or do you gotta wait for morning, or what? I got nothing against you if you're not trying to eat us or make us werewolves too, so I don't wanna just kill you if I don't have to. I'd rather talk, cause I've got all kinds of questions. Why are you a werewolf? Did you mean to be? Why did you attack us? Are you usually wolves, or people, or what? Who was the girl?"

Fingers prepares to wait until dawn to see if the wolfman changes—unless one of the magic users in the group has another idea.

[Marullus]

What language(s) are you attempting to communicate in?

[onlyme]

Markd grabs the knife sheathed in his belt. He holds it tight watches for any aggressiveness from the wolf leader.

[Zhym]

What language(s) are you attempting to communicate in?

He'll try all the ones he knows, including alignment language (although I realize the communication in his alignment language would be primitive). Then, realizing that the wolf spoke in a language no one understood, he asks Alyse if she could do some magical translation, at least in one direction.

He expresses his regret for the death of the girl in his alignment language, to see if that works. If not, he hopes his body language makes it clear that he doesn't like having to kill a human girl. He signs his questions as best he can: pointing to the wolf and making a questioning face, making himself look as much like a wolf as he can, down on all fours, then standing up as a person, and making the questioning face again. He points to the wolf, them mimes attacking, and again the questioning look.

If he can manage to establish communication that far, maybe he can attempt more complex concepts.

He wishes he had a handy book full of passages to point to, like back in the tomb.

[Spearmint]

Idriss

"Well certainly his fellows were injured. I would go as far as to say slain but they stood again? I might have expected as much from a troll but not a wolf, werewolf or wolfwere. So many beast men types these days." He thinks back to his circus days and the emporium arcades of changeling creatures that would manifest and dazzle in displays of body theatrics and illusions. He was ever glad of his silver daggers, 'just in case'.

"The trio who fled, we should expect them to return, at least to find out what happened to their comrades. Perhaps Mark'd knows of a cell the ghost guardians could keep this fellow under lock and key for a while?"

[onlyme]

Idriss

"Well certainly his fellows were injured. I would go as far as to say slain but they stood again? I might have expected as much from a troll but not a wolf, werewolf or wolfwere. So many beast men types these days." He thinks back to his circus days and the emporium arcades of changeling creatures that would manifest and dazzle in displays of body theatrics and illusions. He was ever glad of his silver daggers, 'just in case'.

"The trio who fled, we should expect them to return, at least to find out what happened to their comrades. Perhaps Mark'd knows of a cell the ghost guardians could keep this fellow under lock and key for a while?"

Markd agrees to inquire once we get there, as long as they feel safe escorting him the way there.

[Marullus]

Idriss floats above amidst the tree branches while Fingers tries to communicate in Southron common and in goblin, then in the rough commonality of chaotic beings. The three can roughly understand each other - the creature is sullen, but malevolent. It doesn't recognize you as equals. It is emotionally impacted by the death of the girl. It holds no fear, despite it currently being bound.

The creatures wounds steadily knit together - in a few minutes, it will not appear to have been injured at all. It meets Fingers' gaze as he talks and stares him down - a clear and wolfish behavior of challenge. It snarls words through its wolfish maw, but they are not intelligible to Fingers. It glances at Alyse, lingering on her longer than you're comfortable with.

Markd stands, holding the golden knife of Baudhon at the ready, while Alyse casts her spell to interpret the creature's words.

Fingers and Idriss can communicate roughly in Chaotic.

Markd and Alyse can understand his words, now. Markd can speak in his language to respond.

"The flesh of your mother sticks in my teeth," it curses as an epithet. Observing the blank non-comprehension in Finger's eyes, it continues.

"You are weak, you stand no chance and will be food for the master. You will fuel his growth, Chattel. My pack will return and you'll beg for my mercy. I'll pick my teeth with the bones of your witch after I take my prize."

Date: 16 October 2021, 5:04am
Light: Campfire, waning gibbous moon / partially cloudy
Effects: idriss (levitation)
Injuries: None

[Zhym]

Fingers returns the wolf's gaze. He's not going to let this cur play 'alpha dog' with him!

"Gee, I guess he doesn't want to be friends," he deadpans when Alysse has translated the wolf's words. "I don't think we'll be able to drag it along with us, so we can either kill it now or wait until dawn to see if it changes form. But first, let's see if we can figure out who this 'master' is. Is this tied-up thing claiming to be the master, or is it someone else?"

[onlyme]

MArkd will ask the wolf thing,

Who is this master of yours that has turned your soul into a puppet for him?


He will translate the question in common so the others know what he asked.

[Marullus]

Currently, Markd can speak clearly with it, but has no hope of winning the CHA test to intimidate or convince it to divuldge more than it wishes. It is hostile, [5d6].

Markd steps forward, armored in the coats of arms of those who once lived on these plains. The divine sigil still glows on his forehead, filling the werewolf with disgust and repugnance as with all who look on him.

"Who is this master of yours that has turned your soul into a puppet for him?" asks Markd in the creature's language, that of those men who once lived here, the tongue still used by the Khallorim along the far western coasts.

"I am no one's puppet, worm. I took leadership by my strength, and I recognize those who grant us more power. If you wish to know my master, I'll take you to him."

Idriss and Fingers know it remains superior. It appears snide and unkind, but honest, in its offer.

A pair of howls sounds in the pre-dawn light, not far away and to the southeast. Your captive howls in return.


Date: 16 October 2021, 5:10am
Light: Campfire, waning gibbous moon / partially cloudy
Effects: idriss (levitation)
Injuries: None

[Zhym]

"Y'know, I just realized I don't care," declares Fingers. "Standin' around here waiting for the other wolves to come back is dumb, and following it to its leader would be dumber. So let's just kill it and move on. Any problems with that?" If not, he kills the wolf until it's actually dead.

I assume that with the wolf tied up, we don't need attack rolls.

[Marullus]

Alyse gasps and covers her mouth.

"Slaying a captive, bound prisoner has no honor," states Zirina disapprovingly. "Choosing to take him prisoner imparts a responsibility... Now it is murder, not battle."

[Spearmint]

Idriss

"Interesting. 'Took his position' by strength is a typical alpha male culture of animals . Chimps do it, rutting stags and wolf packs. Whoever 'Master' is, he is more powerful then than half a dozen werewolves." From an Eruanna stand point, I guess Templars view turning into a rabid beast by design, through choice or election is an aberration and fiendish. So killing the creature that attacked us without mercy or cause is justified. Taking it captive to the Keep had some merits but that is done now. "Maybe it is not murder but justice. The law of the plains, natural selection. Call it what you will. I will not cry over the wolfman or judge the anger or pragmatism of young Finger's. Shall we move on?"

[Zhym]

"Any problems with that?" If not, he kills the wolf until it's actually dead.

I'll take Alyse's gasp and Zirina's protest as expressing "a problem with that."

Fingers glowers, but he stays his hand for a moment. "What would you have us do?" he asks, his expression a mix of defiance and dejection. "Set it free so it can stalk us and try to kill us again? Leave it tied up here, so the others can come gnaw it free and stalk us together? Untie it and try to kill it in a fair fight where one of us might get bitten and infected? Follow it to whatever trap it has in mind for us? Put it on a leash and pretend it's a pet until it bites us in the ass, probably literally? We can't take it with us, and if we set it free, it'll kill innocent people. Is your honor more important than their lives?"

“It’s not like it surrendered. We—you—defeated it. It’d be dead already if not for some unnatural magic that fixes its own wounds.”

"No, there's no honor in killing it, but it's the smart and safe thing to do. And, hell, it's practically daring us to do it!"

[onlyme]

Markd agrees. It certainly isnt helping Baudh's cause by remaining alive. He votes to end it as mercifully as possible.

[Zhym]

if the NPCs continue to protest, we’re only a day out of Gaul. We could try to haul the wolf back there and deliver it to the wooden keep to be locked up and interrogated.

[Marullus]

I like hard moral choices for PCs. Yes, they expressed dissent. But I suggest Fingers make the hard choice and move on... Perhaps as a changed man.

Zirina is quiet, letting Fingers argue with himself. It is notable that she refused to strike the werewolves when they turned to flee... Her morals are clearly different than the young backstabbing thief and she offers no words to ease his conscience.

[Zhym]

Zirina is quiet, letting Fingers argue with himself.

I’m a little confused. Did Zirina object out loud or didn’t she? And did she wait until the wolf was dead before doing so? Or are you not treating the wolf as dead yet?

Fingers didn’t attack the fleeing wolves either.

My intent was not for Fingers to argue with himself. I just wanted to speed things up by having Fingers kill the wolf if no one objected. If someone does—and it sure looks like Zirina has a problem with it—he’s genuinely curious what she would do instead.