Werewolf Families

BJERN fights a big ol' werewolf, whose wounds close as fast as they are inflicted! SIGRID shoots it with a pair of silver arrows, driving it off.

Meanwhile many wolves of the regular type are darting in and biting. CONNEL gets bitten badly, but the wolves are driven off by GNORFANK before they can finish Connel.

The Stag impales a wolf and hurls it with a heave of its heavy head, glaring at all the other wolves. With their werewolf leader fled, they slink away, shamefaced. The elk nods, as if all is as he wishes it, and trots away.

Meanwhile, back at Wulfsgaard, some noises in the basement have prompted POUNCEQUICK, DECINQUE, and BROTHER AQUILA to investigate. The hall sits over an abandoned salt mine, in which is a big snake, a big spider, and several cells in which werewolf women are chained! These, according to Sigrid, are the former brides of Wulf, her grandfather, who never seemed to quite be able to get married, but was always trying.

Brother Aquila discovers that Rebuke Evil can harm the werewolves, and sometimes, but not always, drive the wolf spirit out of the person it possesses. With trial and error, he cures two of the three werewolf brides, but not the third one, Ivanna of Novgorod.

The last door is bigger and thicker, bearing no name. Apparently Wulf himself was locked away by his sons when he got too crazy. And behind the door, thrashing and snarling can be heard over the rattling of chains...

... so OF COURSE, when Bjern and them get back, we open the door!

A VERY LARGE werewolf snarls and twists beyond! So protean is his flesh that new bones form and disappear in seconds, jabbing through his skin in a dozen places. Silver weapons and sharpened holly stakes hurt him, but he's bigger than an ogre and the wounds we're inflicting don't slow him down from ripping Retarius' arm just about all the way off, and biting into Bjern's entire torso in one bite!

Retarius had woven a wicker shield out of holly branches too thin to make good spears. He dropped it when he lost (almost) his arm. Now Rosa uses an invocation of plant growth to make the cut holly flower anew, putting forth new vines which thicken and entangle Wulf, until he cannot move at all!

Then it's just a matter of rebuking and stabbing and stabbing again. And stabbing.

As the world's first human wound, Bjern needs major magic to survive, which is forthcoming courtesy of Rosa and Brother Aquila. Pouncequick's first aid skills don't kill anyone, either.

The redheaded Iceni princess who was to have been Bjern's wife declares she is glad to see a warrior of the Iceni (Bjern), and that she isn't planning to stay another night in this madhouse. She swirls out the door in a flurry of poise, and is shot down by an arrow from the woods!

Bjern charges the shooter -- clearly, he cannot die, so what's a few arrows? Rosa sneaks up on the shooters and determines that they are Jorn and Thalga, children of Hengist, the rival of Rothgar. Hengist's holy man has given them the secret of skinwalking, and as werewolves, they fear no man. But it isnt' nighttime yet, and Thalga's been pierced by one of Sylvia's silver arrows, so they withdraw.

Bjern, meanwhile, has angled his charge toward a new threat, Hengist himself! The bald Dane with long tattooed fangs on his forehead explains that he wants Sigrid. They can smell, he and his pack, that she is bitten, and tonight, when the full moon comes, the Valerians won't want her any more. Let the family be healed, and she shall be princess over his own daugher Thalga, offers Hengist.

Bjern offers that he's going to kill Hengist, by way of counterproposal.

Gnorfank rushes another enemy in the woods, making a distraction. Bjern fights Hengist, who has the biggest axe Bjern has ever seen, but Bjern drops, wounded in the leg, and Hengist flees. Gnorfank's opponent THROWS him through a tree, sees his boss has departed, and flees as well.

So. How was YOUR day?