Hazlan: Chapter Four

[VAN]

"Yes, it's a very good idea to stop." Says Van as he looks around.

"I'm very tired too, but I'll do the first watch with you Alexander becasue I'm pretty sure that if I sleep now I will not be able to wake up later!"

[BigBadQDaddy]

"I agree. I could sure use a rest, and the odds of an innkeeper letting us in at this time of night are slim...That is even if we could make it to a city in the state we are in. Rest is most assuredly due."

William begins looking around the immediate area for a proper place to make camp.

[NeoTiamat]

Valerian nodded in agreement, and lowered Tara Kolyana to the grassy ground. In a not-too-long time, managed to get the tents for the camp up, with a bit of help from the others.

Within minutes, pausing only for a brief prayer to Ezra, the Warden was asleep.

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

Meanwhile Sefi sat down beside the tents, waiting out the night so far as she was able. The drugs in her system were beginning to break down, and she had a certain wish to chat with Draven.

[lostboy]

Having set a small fire, Draven hunches down next to Van "Im going to walk around the camp, I shoudl'nt be long, I'll shout if anything is wrong." With that he adjusts the sword at his hip and walks slowly off into the gloom.

Draven is'nt too keen on the idea of wandering alone in the dark, but he is aware of the potential hazards a night abroad carries. He stops a hundred yards from the edge of the camp strainging his senses to pick up anything amiss.

[OOC spot: 15 + 6 - 1 = 20, Listen: 14 + 4 - 1 = 17]

[NeoTiamat]

Josephine shook her head clear, trying to force the cobwebs out of her mind, to snap out of the hazy fog of the morphine. She was thinking again, perhaps not as clearly as would be liked, but clear enough. And I think I should tell Alexander that there are certain things one just doesn't do.

Cat-like, Sefi stood up on the grass and padded after Draven, her movements silent and unheard amidst the night sounds. She had always been a stealthy girl in the woods of Kartakass, and the skill was augmented by her lupine grace.

[OOC: Hide: 9+14-1=22, Move Silently: 12+13-1=24]

[Ail]

Lucius approahces the others, as the tents are set, and the first guard shift seems taken.

"Well, I guess I'll stay for the second watch turn then. Anyone care to join me?"

[ewancummins]

Cornelius nodded.

''I'll take the next watch with you Lucius. I can sleep afterward. ''

[steveflam]

As Sefi is about to creep up behind Draven, she hears a twig snap not far from her position. Turning in time she sees



Emerging from the darkness and a Javelin passes a hair's breadth too close to her head, barely missing.

[NeoTiamat]

Sefi tensed as she heard the sound of the snapping twig, the javeling passing overhead, the breeze of its flight moving a few stray hairs. She saw the huge, lumbering monstrosity glided out of the forest quietly.

"I've been wanting to kill something all night." Sefi grinned nastily.

She stepped out of the shadows, her body twisting and melding in the night air. Sinews snapped and muscles bulged, only to be covered in lanky black hair. Short nails turned to vicious claws, small teeth to long fangs. Sefi raised her head to the sky and howled, a battle cry if ever there was one.

http://www.everythingwolf.com/sounds/Timberwolf.wav

The human mind warred briefly with the beastly, bottomless hunger and rage, but this time, the human mind won. Keep away from those claws.... wait for the others to wake up. The werewolf circled around creature, keepin her distance. You wish to fight? How nice, so do I.

[OOC: Standard action to transform, move action to circle around the thing, keeping at least 20 feet of distance between it and Sefi. Circling around to try and get to the other side of it, opening it up for flanking attacks from Draven and the others when they wake.]

[VAN]

Van hasn't seen the creature so when he hears the howl yells:

"Wake up guys, wolves are attacking us!"

With that he moves in order to see what has attacked them, as he sees Sefi transformed and the strange creature he says to himself:

"Oh no, not again!" But immediately he notices that the werewolf is like waiting and not ready to attack them.

"Maybe this time our friend Josephine manages to keep the control of herself." Thinks Van.

[Ail]

Lucius wasn't asleep. He couldn't quite bring himself to sleep in this land, with all the recent events speeding in his mind, and having volunteered to make the next shift. It won't do to sleep just a couple of hours, I'll get groggier than if I don't sleep at all, he thought. He didn't even prepare to sleep, he just leaned against a tree, fully armoured and mace in hand.

As he heard Sefi's howl and Van's cry, he got up immediately and tried to understand what was in front of him, judging his next course of action.

[OOC:
Knowledge Arcana: 17
Knowledge Religion: 26
Knowledge the planes: 21]

[lostboy]

Draven too whips around at the sound of the branch breaking, his rapier in his hand in a fluid movement as he turns. He catches a glimpse of something moving out of the trees, something big. Draven hesitates at the sight of the creature, how could somehting like that have gotten so close.... He thinks staring hard.

The howl from Sefi close by, sends a shiver down his spine , and snaps him into action. Being between an angry werewolf and whatever that is isnt the best place to be... Draven rolls quickly to his left putting some space between himself and the combatants, and twists the silver ring on his hand vanishing from view.

Draven stays low looking for an opportunity to strike the creature in a vulnerbale spot, once it was occupied with the others.

[OOC: Draw weapon as free action (quick draw feat), move action to get the hell out of there, and used ring of invisibility. ]

** Edited to remove reference to lightning bolt that hasnt happened yet **

[BigBadQDaddy]

William bolts up from his rested position. Wolves they say? William can handle wolves. He draws his pistol and moves to the position where he heard the howling come from, or if everyone else is already on the move then he will follow them.

[steveflam]

Round One

Troll unstraps a huge battleaxe from it's back and moves towards Sefi. Sniffing the air it knows there is another present but concentrates on the Mountain Loup Garou.

[lostboy]

Draven watches as the creature pulls the huge notched axe free, he feels twinge of remorse at using the ring and leaving Sefi ostensibly alone to face that, still Im more use this way, he thinks.

"Are you really any use, pitiful one?"

The voice gravelly, cold and evil echoes in his mind, he whips round looking for the source of the voice, but there is nothing, noone he can sense close enough to have spoken the words.

"Can't find me? Im right here, where Ive been for so long...."

Dravens eyes go wide as he realises his mind is being read, he drops his sword and grabs his head with both hands as if to shield himself. Suddenly a dread thought crosses his mind, what if it isnt someone out there, what if its inside my head? If so then...... Oh hell....

"Exactly"

Draven manages a faint scream as his body burns with an unholy fire of agony, driving him to his knees. The pain sears his flesh, burrowing into his mind, forcing the breath form his lungs.

Yet a small core of his will endures, collecting itself it pushes back. "No I will fight you this time, you cannot have me." He whispers through gritted teeth as the pain receedes.

"I think not. You are mine, and soon you will be forever in fire, blood... and darkness...."

Blackness drops over Dravens vision, clouding his mind and sealing him as if within a tomb. The small spark of his conscsiouness is snuffed out like a candle....

#######################################

All of a sudden Draven flickers back into view, a hunched form on the ground, slowly standing upright, flexing his long fingers, a dark glow radiating from his eyes, withihn the dead white face. Then he is gone again.

An instant later something fades into view where he was standing, taller, far taller than Draven, yet it is him. Dark, twisted and monstrous, its form is partly concealed in a cloak of shadow, yet you sense this is only a fragment of the true horror. A smell rankles the nostrils, a stench of sulphur and darkness, blood and iron rolls out across the clearing.

It turns slowly moving its gaze over first the monstrous Troll and then the snarling Loup-Garou. The white face, the dark eyes, the sense of menace about the features, it seems to be the same manifestation form the Castle, yet darker, more powerful.

It raises its clawed hands, and smiles with a mouth impossibly wide filled with needle sharp teeth. Suddenly it flexes its fingers and a black wind billows out over the Troll and Sefi. Their muscles freeze as if stone, immovable.

What was Draven locks eyes with Sefi, still smiling it advances.

Yet soemthign is not right, its smile falters and there is a flash of something in it's eyes, something that looks rather familiar to the Werewolf. Its eyes roll up into its head, it seems to shrink back suddenly and falls limp facedown at Sefi's feet, cold and unmoving. Leaving the werewolf to stare impotently at the frozen Troll across the clearing.