29th Day of Garmensis – Part V

Hogar’s Journal (Translated from Giant)

Year 781 of the founding of the City

29^th Day of Garmensis – Part V

Silverkin Manor – The Bedrooms

I fell in behind Eligos as she eased open the door to the bedroom.  We were faced by a large window which dominated the far wall of a medium sized room.  Like all of the other windows in this place it was boarded up to allow only a few miserly shafts of light into the room.  Expensive tapestries hung from the walls and an opulent rug covered the centre of the floor.  Most significantly there was a double bed placed underneath the window which dominated the room.  On this bed there lay three captives, bound hand and foot and gagged.  Eligos’ response to seeing them made it clear that they were her erstwhile companions. 

I noticed a weapon rack on the wall and moved over to investigate as Eligos went to untie her friends.  A flail which appeared to be enchanted had caught my eye when the sound of cracking bones and rending flesh turned my attention back towards the beds.  The figures that had appeared to be the missing adventurers morphed to reveal that they were in fact were-rats.  Before either of us could react two of the rats surrounded Eligos and the third charged at me.  Fortunately my armour was up to the task of deflecting his fangs allowing me the chance to regain my composure, back away and put two arrows in him.

I heard a commotion on the landing outside and turned to see Old Vic poke his head around the door and quickly shoot a spell at one of the rats surrounding Eligos.  The distraction allowed the tiefling time to react in a most extraordinary manner.  Eligos herself began to morph, her flesh twisted and bucked.  The skin of her face and shoulders began to ripple as the bones and muscle beneath started to move.  With juddering lurches she grew taller and wider until, where Eligos had once stood, there was a massively muscled hulking brute at least eight feet in height.  Repeatedly this brutish shade of the tiefling landed massive blows to the injured rat’s head until it eventually dropped still and lifeless at her feet.  Vic, extending his moment of lucidity beyond his normal means proceeded to shoot a spell at the legs of the second rat causing it to fall prone at Eligos’ feet.

With the remaining were-rat at Eligos’ mercy I followed Vic out onto the landing where I witnessed a bloodied Rodney leading the rest of the group in fighting another rat, this one armed with a rapier and accompanied by a werewolf.  The werewolf was in mid flight as a mighty blow from Minron sent him flying over the banister and down to the entrance hall below.

Finding a rat in his face Old Vic called on the power of his fey ancestors and teleported back into the bedroom.  Unfortunately for him the old fool teleported himself into a corner.  The rat was rather more nimble than I expected and he managed to slip past my charge, follow Vic into the bedroom and trap him.  The Old man tried to jink past but the rat’s reflexes were up to the task and he delivered a savage cut to Vic’s torso.  Fortunately for our intrepid leader the rat was so engrossed in beating on him that I was able to identify a chink in his armour and deliver an arrow straight to his heart, killing him instantly. 

Whilst I rescued Vic the others had dispatched the werewolf in our absence and began to file into the bedroom.  It was at this point that I noticed that Eligos was still toying with one of the were-rats.  Minron, last through the door, flew into a fit of rage at the sight of the creature and slicing his own flesh to summon a berserker rage he charged the beast and clove it in two.

The lycanthropes summarily dispatched we wasted no time searching the rooms of the first floor, helping ourselves to anything of value.  Tired and battered from the exertions of the day, a bed room with only one entrance was to inviting to turn down so we hunkered down to spend an enjoyable two hours listening to the dwarf snore like a hippo with catarrh.