[WFRP] The Bloody Crown XIII

[-Sentinel-]

After a few minutes, Elsa's teeth started chattering from the cold wind.

"Let's go back to sleep, Tattie." She paused. "I don't mean to scare you, but keep your boots on."

She instructed Branca and Lorenzo to let her and Olga have the next watch, and returned to her tent.

[LCP]

Elsa, 28th Nachexen


What was left of the night passed with no further sightings in the rocks. Shivering around the ashes of the campfire, Elsa and Olga watched the sky lighten in the east, until the sun at last hauled itself above the hills. Elsa’s bodyguard wasn’t talking much - she clearly would have been happier leaving the sentry duty to the Tileans.

By the time the sunlight had reached them, the others had all roused themselves from their tents. The wind through the gap was still keen and dry, whistling over the broken rocks, but there was no more fuel to rekindle the fire.

“So,” said Skender, rubbing his hands together, “how are we going to go about catching these wolves, then?”

---

Bezahltag, 4th Jarhdrung - Jarla

Despite her absence on Wellentag, Irene was back for lessons on Marktag. She offered no explanation, but threw herself into the practice with more vigour than before. She seemed preoccupied, and grew frustrated when she thought Jarla was taking things too slowly. Still, she seemed engaged, and thanked her when their session was done.

“It’s good to be able to do something,” she said. “Honestly, Jarla, if your fool husband hadn’t driven you down here, I would have had to have sent for you.”

Word was clearly spreading beyond the castle walls as well - when Jarla took the air in Rockshadow on Backertag, she ran into two or three of the prospective pupils she had mentioned her idea to, now apparently keenly interested.

On Bezahltag, she was training with Irene again when the principessa made an unpredictable movement, and ran hard against the cross-guard of Jarla’s borrowed sword. Briefly winded, she had to be helped up off the ground. Once she had caught her breath, she brushed it off as if it were nothing - but Jarla felt the silent stare of the Iron Company guard at the door.

That evening, Jarla was in her chambers with Ida when there came a knock at the door. A soldier was waiting there with a note: he handed it over, bowed, and left.

The note was short, written in Reikspiel. Jarla thought she recognised the handwriting - it was the same hand in which the Prince had signed the document releasing her from her marriage.

To Jarla Schreiber,

My lady wife thanks you for your services in practicing the sword. Other duties having become more pressing, she will no longer be attending your lessons from this date forward.

- M.S.

---

Wellentag, 8th Jahrdrung - Painford

In Painford, the old Thorns barrack-houses were beginning to fill up, as the new recruits from those coming south along the road joined the labourers already there. Sieghard had spent some time getting to know them, particularly the three he suspected had once served in Alvarr’s army. Their names were Alvin, Jori and Lammert. Alvin and Jori clearly knew how to shoot, while Lammert was a big lad, still strong despite an evident lack of good food in recent months. Now he was eating on Prince Sforza’s schilling, he ate enough for three of them.

More people were still coming through from the north, a few each day. The open space south of Sieghard’s manor had become an unofficial campsite for the travellers, the dead winter grass now trodden to bare dirt. None of the groups that passed through were as large or as organised as Matilde’s, and they mostly tried to keep to themselves rather than try to bargain as she had done - though many of them tried to beg here and there from the villagers.

One newcomer in particular had the Painforders’ tongues wagging - a woman who had arrived on Angestag and was yet to move on. She was missing an eye, and had a very disconcerting way of cursing those who refused her charity as if she thought they couldn’t hear her. From the gossip around Gavril’s hearth, it was clear that many of them had.

OOC:

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17 more travellers have come down from the north this week - please feel free to make whatever recruitment/gossip rolls you want with respect to them.

As regards the new recruits, how are the Thorns standing for equipment at the moment? I’m guessing that if you’re training the old hands on Falkenwald’s guns, you’ll be training the new ones up on the crossbows? Do you need/want to order in more uniforms/armour?

[RossN]

Bezahltag, 4th Jarhdrung - Jarla

"To Jarla Schreiber'," Jarla muttered, more to herself then to Ida even if her maid was in the room. "Not Frau Schreiber or Signora Schreiber. He couldn't even do me the politeness of addressing me as a noblewoman of the court."

Pale skin glowing with anger she stood and tore the note into tiny pieces. "Well I'm not beaten yet."

She strode over to tiny desk in her room, pulled out a sheaf of paper and began writing a letter:

Spoiler: Letter to Giovanni

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"To Giovanni Carraciolo, Lord-Lieutenant of the North,

My dearest Giovanni,

Savonne has become desperately boring without you. If you plan on returning soon write back at once so I can prepare for your next visit. If you are staying put write back at once anyway for I shall be joining you.

Sigmar watch over you my handsome Tilean soldier,

Love,
J."

Sealing it with wax she turned to Ida and said said: "Ida my girl, find a messenger bound for Alvarran and give him this." Into her maid's other hand she slipped a few coins sufficient to pay for it.

[-Sentinel-]

Elsa paid little mind to Olga's grumpiness. The bodyguard was the one who had haggled for a generous six-crown monthly wage, and so she should expect the job not to consist solely of following her employer around. Nevertheless, the wizard knew she needed to be watchful of the prevailing mood among the rest of the party, as her life depended on them.

"So," said Skender, rubbing his hands together, "how are we going to go about catching these wolves, then?"

"We're not that far behind them," said Elsa, remembering the wolf they had seen last night. "I told Senka yesterday morning that I'd give it two days, and I'll hold to that commitment. One more day and we turn back."

"Another thing..." She pointed at a rocky outcrop back the way they had come. "I saw a torch or lantern up there last night. Tatiana saw it too. Might still be some signs of who was there and why. Are some of us fast enough to go investigate and then catch up with the rest? I'm quite a fast walker."

She repeated herself in Tilean.

Spoiler: OOC

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Hard to organically fit everything into Elsa's dialogue, but:

• This is merely a suggestion; our group is too ragtag to be treated as a military unit. If there is clear reluctance or skepticism re: splitting the party, we can hold a vote about our course of action.
• The investigation party should be some of our fastest walkers (not Olga) and depart without delay. It should include both Elsa and Tatiana, plus maybe two fighters.
• The wolf trackers should obviously include Senka and her dog. If they lose the trail, if they sense a dust storm coming or if the tracks lead into the Pale Waste, they should call it quits and backtrack to reunite with Elsa's party.

[LCP]

Elsa, 28th Nachexen

"Where are 'the rest' going?" asked Sorin. He looked over to Senka. "You do some tracking while we were asleep?"

Senka shrugged and shook her head. "The pack's somewhere up here. From what we saw yesterday... got to be close. That's all I know."

"Doesn't look far up to those rocks," said Skender, with his usual cheery air. "Sorin and me can get up there in no time." He took a bite of cured sausage from his provisions and started to chew. "Well, I can. Shorin'sh getting shlow theshe daysh."

"Supposing the pack is up here," said Bartolomeo. He spoke slowly, like he was still thinking the words over. "What do we do when find them? A wolf, he runs a lot faster than a man."

---

Jarla, 4th Nachexen

Ida obediently took the money and departed. It was late when she returned - she looked cold, and her hair was out of place, but she said she'd found a messenger who'd take the letter north in the morning for the sum of half a crown.

[-Sentinel-]

"The pack's somewhere up here. From what we saw yesterday... got to be close. That's all I know."

"Up there? Ah... my mistake," said Elsa, "I was under the impression their trail kept going south. Well, then, there's no need to split."

"Supposing the pack is up here," said Bartolomeo. "What do we do when find them? A wolf, he runs a lot faster than a man."

Elsa acknowledged his point with a curt nod. "True, but if the torch bearer is who I think it is, then she's the one we want anyway... the one making wolves act in ways they shouldn't, like attacking humans. Senka, your dog might be able to pick up her trail at the place where I saw a light."

She tapped her chin thoughtfully with a gloved finger. "Of course, if the wind still blows from the Waste, they'll smell us coming. Not ideal."

[LCP]

Elsa, 28th Nachexen

“Not much any man can do about the wind,” said Skender. He swallowed the mouthful he was chewing, stood up and slapped his thighs. “Well, what are we waiting for then?”

The soldiers struck camp with military efficiency, leaving Elsa’s tent the last to be packed away. Gathering up their things, they skirted round the north side of the gap and headed west into the rocks.

Here, where the bare bedrock of the hills thrust through the thin soil at the edge of the escarpment, the wind had carved it into strange shapes. Narrow, sinuous crevices wound between the columns of rock, offering plenty of places to hide. Val ran back and forth between them, his tail wagging and his nose low to the ground.

“Pack’s definitely been this way,” said Senka, crouching down and taking a tuft of black hair from a jagged stone. She wrinkled her nose. “Even I can smell that.”

Elsa could smell it too - the same rank smell as on the shed hair they had found down among the trees, like meat that had been left too long in the sun. Olga turned her face away as Senka held it out for her to sniff.

The sun was getting high by the time they reached the foot of the largest cluster of rocks. Roaming ahead of the group, Val’s ears suddenly pricked up - barking furiously, the dog took off like a Cathayan firework, disappearing from view. Senka took off after him almost immediately, and Sorin and Skender weren’t far behind.

When the others caught up, they found Val standing alert and motionless with one paw held off the ground, staring down the gullet of a long fissure in the rocks. The sides of the crevice were too high and sheer for the sun to reach down to the bottom - but in the shadows at its base, Elsa caught a glimpse of a shaggy, lupine shape staring back before it slank out of view.

“Are they down there?” asked Bartolomeo, pushing his way to the front. “How many?”

“I only saw the one,” said Senka, doubtfully. “But if I was a wolf pack looking for a lair… it’s out of the wind.”

[-Sentinel-]

"They'll know we're coming," said Elsa with rising excitement, "but cornering them in their own lair is better than I'd hoped for. In close confines, they can't surround us easily."

Moving quickly before the wolves could muster their pack, she dropped her cumbersome tent to the ground and shouldered her coil of rope. "Senka, you can stay here with Val; fighting's not what I hired you for. In fact, three or four of us should stay up here to stand watch." This was also her way to grant permission to any claustrophobes in the group to stay out of the cave without feeling like cowards.

She muttered a spell to surround her staff in an orange glow, then handed one end of her rope to the most stout-looking of the Tileans to begin her descent. She would not be asking them to do anything she was not prepared to do herself, and first.


OOC

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Elsa is untrained in Scale Sheer Surface (vs. 15), but I assume/hope that the rope provides a hefty bonus.

(d100)[60]
(d100)[19] With the rope, that should do it.

I rolled a successful Light spell in the OOC thread.

[RossN]

Jarla

Feeling a little guilty for her unfortunate maid - Jarla had forgotten how cold it was - Jarla slipped her an extra schilling with a smile and an order to take her rest early and stay warm tonight.

"Thank you my dear girl. You are a pearl beyond price."

[LCP]

Elsa, 28th Nachexen

“Oh yeah,” Olga murmured under her breath. “Cornered wolves. That’s the friendliest kind.” Still, she made no attempt to stay behind with Senka when Elsa made the offer. In the end, it was Sorin and Skender who stayed behind with the tracker, while Elsa and her retinue descended into the fissure.

The space inside the crevice was narrow, the sky just a jagged strip of blue overhead. Olga and Tattie stuck close to Elsa, while the Tileans brought up the front and rear. The light of Elsa’s staff cast long, shifting shadows from the rocks. The soldiers advanced with their hands on their swords.

<It stinks,> said Lorenzo, speaking up to be heard over the thin whistle of the wind through the fissure. He was right - it was the same rank, foetid smell as before. <Like something died in here.>

<You might die in here if you don’t hush your mouth,> muttered Branca, keeping his eyes on the path up ahead. The fissure looked to be widening - up ahead, Elsa could see a shaft of sunlight reaching down into the gap between three wind-worn spires of rock. Senka and the others were already out of sight behind them.

As they reached the wider space, Bartolomeo came to a sudden stop. Putting his back against the rocks, he slowly slid his sword from its sheath, then edged forward. The others followed, weapons ready.

Around the corner, they could see a single wolf, backed into the gap between the two pillars of rock to their right. The passage it had chosen was blocked by a smooth boulder of wind-worn stone - now it turned at bay to face them, hackles up and teeth bared...

OOC:

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Just to be clear, these are deep gaps between rock formations, not a covered cave.

[-Sentinel-]

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Just to be clear, these are deep gaps between rock formations, not a covered cave.

Was the Scale Sheer Surface test superfluous? In this case I guess I'll take back my Fortune Point.

Just one... so far...

For some reason this gave Elsa pause. Could well be some kind of trap; Mala was a canny one. But trap or not, this wolf needed to die. The pyromancer cast an almost apologetic glance at Tatiana, then unleashed Aqshy upon the animal.

OOC

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Channeling: (d100)[61]
Fireball: (3d10)[7][9][4](20)

(d10+4)[11]
(d10+4)[10]
(d10+4)[12]

[LCP]

Elsa, 28th Nachexen

Elsa’s bolts of fire ripped into their target, filling the air with the stench of burning fur. Incredibly, the wolf didn’t flinch - burning like a bale of straw, it managed a few faltering steps forward before collapsing, the flames eating it down to the bone.

“Is that it?” said Olga. “Just the one?”

“Hsst!” hissed Lorenzo, drawing his sword. <Up there!>

Following his pointing hand, Elsa saw the outline of a wolf’s head appear over the top of the rocks to their left. It was followed by another, and another - all around them, lean, shaggy shapes rising up against the sky.

“I’ve got to hand it to you, northerner,” called a voice - Mala’s. It came from somewhere out of sight, echoing strangely between the rocks. “You’re persistent.” The Tileans had formed a tight knot around Elsa and the others, swords pointing in all directions.

“What did you think you were going to find out here?”

OOC:

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Yes, no need for SSS.

[-Sentinel-]

"What did you think you were going to find out here?"

Of course it was a trap, thought Elsa. Of course.

Then again, sometimes the best way to catch a trapper was to trigger the trap.

"I came for you, Mother Mala," Elsa answered calmly, her ears straining to find the direction of Mala's voice. "You should've cut your losses and left the Reaches after Nath."

"Tell me... what's left for you here? Your master bled dry the last of your people. Or were you looking the other way while that happened?"

[LCP]

Elsa, 28th Nachexen

"Should I be flattered?" Mala called back. "You brought these people all this way, just to find me?"

<We should be getting out of here, Magister,> whispered Bartolomeo. <Right now.>

As if pre-empting him, a wolf sprang down into the fissure behind them, turning to block their retreat. More were creeping down the sides of the rocks up ahead, forming a full circle around their prey.

"My people might be gone," came Mala's voice again, echoing between the rocks, "but my god is still with me." At the top of the tallest of the rock spires, a great, black shape stalked into view. Almost half again as large as the other wolves, its matted fur was pitch-black. As it fixed its gaze on the humans beneath it, Elsa could see that half its face was torn away, showing the white gleam of bone beneath. Blue-green fire burned in its ruined eye-socket, the flesh torn away from a long row of jagged teeth.

"Surrender yourself to him, fire witch," called Mala, "and they will let the others go."

OOC:

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Fear test please - +10% for familiarity with undead

[-Sentinel-]

Elsa planted her feet and raised her staff defiantly.

"Surrender myself to him, so that he may use me as a weapon against the living? I think not. Nakht-Horeb won't take me alive, and if I can help it, he won't take me dead either."

She began to gather the Winds to protect herself.


OOC:

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I guess Aethyric Armour, because a Crown of Fire would be useless vs. opponents without a WP value. (Does a defensive spell trigger combat time?)

Aethyric Armour 5+: (2d10)[3][7](10) - Elsa now has a soak of 7 on all locations.

Channeling 93 for next turn: (d100)[40]

[LCP]

Elsa, 28th Nachexen

No reply came from Mala. Instead, the great wolf at the top of the crag threw back its head and howled - a hoarse, eerie sound, drawing air from dead lungs.

At its signal, the pack surged forwards. Wolves rushed from the narrow passages between the rocks, or else sprang from their vantage-points overhead, slavering jaws open wide. This close, Elsa could smell the stink of them. It was the stench of death.

Tattie screamed, trying to fall back from the wolf that came charging at her - but there was nowhere to run. She managed to throw herself out of its path before it could get its teeth into her, but it turned swiftly to follow, a rattling growl sounding somewhere deep in its chest. Around them, the Tileans were doing their best to hold back the pack, but Gualdo was rapidly losing his cool, screaming in Tilean for the others to help him as the wolf he was facing locked its jaws around his arm...

[-Sentinel-]

Shiiiiit. Damn things are fast!

Elsa sprang to action, calling upon Aqshy to incinerate the undead beasts. Close confines made it difficult to hold any kind of battle line or get a good view of what was happening, and so she relied on the screams to tell her where help was needed.


OOC:

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Fireball 7+ with spell ingredient and channeling: (3d10)[2][1][6](9)

Wolf attacking Tatiana: (d10+4)[9]
Wolf attacking Tatiana: (d10+4)[7]

Wolf attacking Gualdo: (d10+4)[12]

Then a Parrying Stance (with best quality staff, so +15 WS).

[LCP]

Elsa, 28th Nachexen

Fire flashed and flesh burned, Gualdo throwing his smouldering attacker back and driving his sword through its skull. The wolf menacing Tattie shuddered as Elsa's fireballs ripped into it, but stayed standing. Swinging her stick clumsily at its face, Tattie ended up holding it back with both hands, her arms straining to hold the stave wedged between its jaws.

More wolves were pouring in from all sides, black and grey shapes leaping from the shadows. Branca was bellowing curses in Tilean, the big soldier holding off two of the beasts at once. A third slipped round him, closing its jaws around Elsa's leg. She felt the stab of pain as her protective charm was punctured, sharp teeth sinking into the meat of her calf.

[-Sentinel-]

Elsa let out a stream of sulphurous curses in both Tilean and Reikspiel as she shook her bloodied leg out of the wolf's jaws. She never should have brought Tatiana along; the girl's powers over animals were of no help against the restless dead, and she was more likely to get killed than be of use.

"Tattie! Don't be reckless, now! Just try to stay alive!"

The pyromancer knew that the Tileans were hard-pressed, but so was she, and she needed some room to breathe if she was to help them. She directed the fiery power of Aqshy against the wolf that had bitten her, while attempting at the same time to protect her apprentice to the best of her abilities.


OOC

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Fireball 10+ with spell ingredient: (3d10)[4][5][1](10) - By the skin of her teeth!

Wolf that bit Elsa: (d10+4)[10]
Wolf that bit Elsa: (d10+4)[7] - Hmm, I don't know if that's enough... Probably not.

Wounded wolf attacking Tatiana: (d10+4)[10]

And a parrying stance at WS 56.

Crunch-wise, Elsa would like Tattie to use a Defensive Stance, though how Tattie interprets Elsa's call to "try to stay alive" is of course up to her.

[LCP]

Elsa, 28th Nachexen

The wolf's jaws let go their grip as Elsa's fireballs hammered into it, throwing it back across the stony ground. Turning, Elsa sent another bolt of flame into the beast menacing Tattie, punching a smouldering hole straight through its ribcage.

Still, the pack pressed its attack. Wrestling with two wolves, Branca was unprepared for the third that came springing down from the rocks above him. His bellows of fury turned into a yell of alarm as its weight bore him to the ground, its teeth scraping against his helmet. The others piled on, the burly Tilean disappearing under a heap of lupine bodies.

Darting through the gap Branca had left, two more of the beasts lunged at Tattie, heedless of the smoking corpse of the last wolf that had tried. Hunkered down with her stick held out in front of her, she tried to fend them off, but they were too many. The first's charge threw her off-balance, while the second sank its teeth into her ankle - she screamed to Elsa and Olga for help as it started dragging her back into the feeding frenzy...

[-Sentinel-]

Elsa's cursing intensified when two more wolves bowled into Tatiana. From the corner of her eyes she could see her bodyguard failing to prove herself worthy of her more than generous wage.

Gods, do I have to do everything myself? Should've brought Sorin and Skender.

"Oi!" she snarled at the wolves. "I'm the one you want! Come on, you know you want a bite of me!"


OOC

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Fireball 10+ with sulphur: (3d10)[7][3][10](20)

Prone wolf: (d10+4)[9]

Second wolf attacking Tatiana: (d10+4)[12]
Second wolf attacking Tatiana, once more: (d10+4)[6]

Parrying Stance.

[LCP]

Elsa, 28th Nachexen

More fire flew, scorching the creature with its jaws around Tattie's foot and reducing one of Elsa's own attackers to ash. Behind her, Branca's struggles had stopped - as she shouted her challenge, the three wolves that had been savaging him looked up with bloodied muzzles.

<Branca!> shouted Lorenzo, pulling his sword out of a collapsing wolf carcass. Bartolomeo looked round at his shout, having just dispatched another of the creatures. <Protect the witches!> he shouted - but the wolves were already inside the Tileans' circle of protection. With a terrified scream, Tattie was dragged from her feet, the pack closing over her just as they had closed over Branca.

No more wolves were attacking now from the gaps between the rocks - but over the tops of the crags, Elsa could see the big one slinking nearer, flanked by two smaller specimens. Their eyes were fixed on her.

[-Sentinel-]

"TATIANA!" shouted Elsa, sick with fear, as she called down the Red Wind upon two of the wolves trying to savage her apprentice.


OOC

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Fireball 10+ with sulphur: (3d10)[4][3][4](11) - Minor Curse.

Wolf that caused the crit on Tattie: (d10+4)[6]
Wolf that caused the crit on Tattie: (d10+4)[5]

Other wolf on Tattie: (d10+4)[9]

Sh!t damage.

Parrying Stance, because there is no such thing as All-Out Spellcasting (which is what Elsa would be doing if she could).

Her spellcasting was now wild and sloppy, and she felt her spell snap like a bow that had been drawn beyond its capacity. The metaphorical arrows still flew, though weakly; none of her fireballs felled their intended targets.

[LCP]

Elsa, 28th Nachexen

Elsa felt blood run down her lip as a blood vessel in her nose ruptured. The fire answered her call all the same, but she could feel the other Winds in the air - Ghur and Shyish rising around her, tangling the threads of Aqshy she was trying so desperately to weave.

As the smoke of the latest fireball cleared, Bartolomeo threw himself at the wolf still hunched over Tattie's body, trying to keep it from springing at Elsa while Lorenzo blocked the two behind. There was a gristly crack as Olga broke the neck of one of the beasts attacking her, and for a moment it seemed like the pack might be thinning - that was, before the great black shape launched itself from the rocks above, slamming into Elsa with all its weight. She smelt its charnel breath in her nose, its rotten jaws snapping at her face.

Just barely keeping her feet, Elsa threw all her strength behind her staff, casting the monster off. Its claws had scored three bloody trails down her arm, but her protective charm still held - it flared with orange sparks as another wolf tried to lunge at her heels. It was three against one now, Olga and the Tileans all embroiled in their own battles - as the two smaller wolves snapped and snarled at her, the black one circled, waiting for another opening.

[-Sentinel-]

Not daring to look at Tatiana's condition, Elsa turned her attention to the larger beast, intending to direct all of her rage at it. She had no real hope that killing it would in any way weaken the rest of the pack, but it was the biggest threat in the field.

OOC

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Fireball 10+ with sulphur: (3d10)[8][5][1](14)

Everything on the big one.

(d10+4)[6]
(d10+4)[9]
(d10+4)[6]

Goddammit. I don't know how many Wounds the big one has, but I doubt this brings it into crit territory.

Parrying Stance. I really need Dodge Blow and an off-hand weapon...

This time Aqshy did not lash back at her as she shaped her fireball, but it responded weakly. She let out a wordless growl of frustration and raised her staff to defend herself from the too many opponents circling her.

[LCP]

Elsa, 28th Nachexen

The black wolf seemed to sense Elsa's spell as it came. Leaping through the torrent of flame, it sprang at her. She managed to get her staff in the way in time to block, wedging the polished wood between its jaws - but one of the others took the opportunity to pounce. She felt her protective spell unravelling as it sank its teeth into her side, trying to use its weight to bring her down...

[-Sentinel-]

"Why won't you die!" snarled Elsa.

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I know I'm getting predictable, but...

Fireball 10+: (3d10)[1][8][10](19)

Big wolf: (d10+4)[7]
Big wolf again because I really want to make sure he dies this round: (d10+4)[10] - Hopefully that does it.

Wolf that would've damaged Elsa if I hadn't spent a Fortune Point: (d10+4)[5] -

Parrying Stance.

She unleashed most of her fiery power at the pack leader, and almost as an afterthought, chucked a half-formed, sputtering fireball towards the other wolf that did little but singe its fur.

[LCP]

Elsa, 28th Nachexen

The flames leapt from Elsa's hands to engulf the black wolf, its matted fur catching light. It kept fighting as it burned, keeping its jaws locked around Elsa's staff until all that remained of its head was a blackened skull. Finally, the corpse-lights in its eye-sockets guttered out, and it crumbled to the ground.

Immediately, Elsa could feel some of the spirit go out of the pack. Those wolves that were clearly corpses seemed to lose some spark of vitality, their movements becoming more sluggish. Those that still looked like they might hold some semblance of life lost their mindless ferocity. As the animated carcasses of their pack brothers and sisters started to falter, they backed away, heads low and ears flat against their heads.

Smoke still rising from its fur, the last wolf left attacking Elsa lunged for her throat. The magic animating it faltered in mid-leap, and it hit the ground nothing more than a sack of bones and rotten meat. As Lorenzo put his sword through another wolf corpse, the three wolves that still had enough life to value it turned tail and ran.

[-Sentinel-]

Elsa blinked; that was unexpected, as she thought the necromantic power animating the wolves stemmed from Mother Mala. She would have ample time later to curse herself for not devoting more attention to the larger wolf at the very start of the fight. Wiping the blood still flowing from her nose after her miscast, she turned her attention to Tatiana, dreading what she was about to see.


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Conditional post...

If Tatiana is bleeding out, Elsa is using a half action to move to her, and another half action to cast Cauterize 4+. (2d10)[7][5](12)

If Tatiana is dead or obviously beyond help, Elsa takes out her rage on the two remaining undead wolves.

Channeling: (d100)[94]
Fireball 7+/10+: (3d10)[2][7][3](12)

Damage on wolf 1: (d10+4)[14]
Damage on wolf 1: (d10+4)[14]

Damage on wolf 2: (d10+4)[13]

Wow, that is a lot of rage indeed. Where were those damage rolls when I really needed them?

I suppose there's little point rolling Ulric's Fury.

[LCP]

Elsa, 28th Nachexen

Heaving the wolf carcasses off Tattie, Elsa found her apprentice bloody but breathing, at least for now. The left side of her face was a torn mess. If she survived, she would surely bear the marks of this attack for the rest of her life.

Elsa tried to ignore the smell of burning flesh as the cauterisation spell did its work. Tattie screamed, trying feebly to roll away from the red-hot touch of Elsa's fingers - but it stopped the bleeding.

<Branca's dead,> said Lorenzo behind her. <They got him in the throat.>

<Morr protect us,> said Gualdo. <Those weren't wolves, they were daemons.>