This chapter is somewhat shorter, because I really wasn’t keeping track of chapter lengths at all. Still, hope you enjoy. This has the infamous ‘vines’ sequence, and some poorly written suspense, because I (as a PC in this campaign) really don’t know the villains or their plans. We just saw what directly affected us, of course, although when we stopped playing, we did chat a bit on what had been planned. (note to self – don’t forget to put in the suspense in other upcoming chapters : P )

I’m at 45,000 words, currently, and I’m (for once) not going to have trouble making it to 50,000. Always the last two years, I’ve conked out at 49,000 and struggled to put in the last 2%. But this year… Oh, Illinia only just got captured. She has to be rescued, and then to run a war! A short war, that’s already been happening, but this may take me a few days longer.

And because things seem to be going to well, I find myself unmotivated to work on those paintings I’m supposed to be doing… I’m going to try and do a couple tonight, but I for one will not be surprised if I spend the time writing. I think I’ll try to get to the rescue part. (Cameo time!)

For those I’ve been complaining to: Mr. Emopants is in what appears to be his natural environment right now, and he is far more interesting. Although there is some missing groundwork that I’m just going to pretend is there right now.

EDIT: I left paragraph 2, as it’s not very interesting or important whether I change it or not, but I made the fight scene a bit longer. Hope it’s better.

(Chapter 4)

Chapter 5

The next day, they woke early by the sun. After a cold breakfast, they set out to the north. Derek was in human form again, and seemed cheerful.
They journeyed quickly all day, aiming for the mountain the sage had told them about. The forest grew rather thin near its base, and the land around was hilly. They came across a dirt path and followed it through the trees.
When they were partway up the mountain, Illinia held up a hand for quiet. “I hear something unusual.”
They stopped and listened, but only Illinia heard it – a slow, semi-regular drumbeat. One beat every ten seconds or so. “It’s coming from ahead,” she told them. “I don’t know what it is… perhaps we should be cautious.”
They moved on, trying to be quiet, but still trying to move quickly. It was a challenge with Torrigan’s full plate armour, which rasped and clanked on itself no matter what he did. He quickly fell behind.
“You go on, and I’ll catch up to you,” he said. “Surprise is more important.”
Kellan nodded, and crept up the path. “There’s a cave,” he reported, returning only a few minutes later. “The sound is coming from inside. It’s orcs, I think. Shall I attack?”
“Yes, let’s attack,” said Mira. Torrigan was not that far behind, and he heard them.
“Shall we charge?” he asked.
“I would love to charge!” Mira said. “Come on!”
“Charge!” shouted Kellan recklessly, and as they came rushing up the path against the side of the mountain, he dove into the cave on the right-hand side of the path. They were not taking anyone by surprise today.
“Wait!” Illinia cried. “I have an idea.”
It was too late to stop Kellan, but she closed her eyes and reached out to the greenery around them, feeling how they grew and moved and lived in the earth.
Then she touched them all with a tendril of magic.
Both Kellan and the half-dozen ram-wielding orcs inside the cave roared in surprise – brilliant green vines burst through the ceiling and floor of the cave, waving wildly as if guided by sentient minds. They coiled around the people inside the cave, holding them firm. Kellan thrashed, and managed to break free temporarily.
“Wow, that will make things easier!” Mira said. “Now we can just shoot them!” But her first shot missed.
Illinia’s was steadier – she had a near-point-blank shot, and her skill was strong today – her arrow pierced an orc’s eye and came out the back of his skull.
Kellan slashed wildly with his rapier, and engaged in an extremely awkward duel with the orc nearest to him. He took a mild hit in the leg, but disembowelled his opponent.
It took them several minutes to deal with the hapless, helpless orcs, but it was so incredibly safe that Illinia almost enjoyed herself while doing it.
Kellan certainly enjoyed himself; when all the orcs were dead (and the plants had hidden them away) and while the others sat outside, sharing jokes and stories, he played with the vines, getting tangled in them and escaping them (he was remarkably good at that). Eventually, he ended up hanging, hogtied, from the roof of the cave – and then Illinia’s spell on the plants wore off unexpectedly, and he fell to the floor with a thump and a shout of “OW”.
“Oh, you all done?” Mira asked, peering in. “Can we come in yet?”
“I wonder why Aleic didn’t come out?” Torrigan said. “Of course, since he’s Aleic the Wise, perhaps he thought it unnecessary.”
“Or perhaps he’s out,” Kellan volunteered, nursing his backside.
“Well, we can just check,” Torrigan said. “Even if he’s out, perhaps he wouldn’t mind us borrowing some wolfsbane. We can leave payment for it.”
“Or we could just take it…” Kellan began.
“Uh,” Mira pointed with both hands at Torrigan. “Paladin, here! Paladin of Pelor!” She pointed at herself. “Not to mention, cleric over here!”
Illinia giggled. “I think they have the right idea, Kellan. It’s all right.”
Derek nodded. “I really don’t want to inconvenience anyone any more than I already am. So I’ll pay for it myself if it comes to that.”
“Well, let’s look at this door,” Mira said. “They were sure bashing at it with that tree! Doesn’t look like it’s made a difference, though.”
The door was made of heavy stone, covered in intricate carvings. Near to it was a double row of little pillars with statues of birds on top. They were beautifully carved, almost life-like looking.
“How lovely,” Illinia said; her hawk snuffed on her shoulder.
“I wonder…” Torrigan said, peering at the pillars. “Yes, I think this is a puzzle.”
“Oh, great,” Mira said. “Puzzles are so annoying.”
“Have you never solved one before?” Kellan asked. “Puzzles are great!”
“But they take so long!” Mira whined. “Whatever. What’s the premise?”
“I think…” Torrigan glanced up and down the pillar. “Yes. We have to read these verses, and then pull these levers in the order indicated by the verses.”
“Oh! How charming,” Illinia said. “It’s just like the enchanted doors in tales we have at home. I’ve never seen one before.”
“It’s not that charming,” Mira said, pulling the first lever. Nothing seemed to happen. Kellan pulled two more, and Illinia pulled one, and Kellan pulled the last one.
The door clicked and swung open silently.
“Oh!” Illinia squeaked. “It is just like I thought it would be. How exciting!”
“You get excited over weird things,” Kellan said.
She smiled. “Why not?”
“Because… it’s… silly?” he answered, frowning with one eyebrow, which rather intimidated Illinia, but also looked funny.
She shrugged. “I don’t understand your point?”
“Oh, whatever. Let’s go in.”
They entered the door, and found themselves in a short bare corridor, with no door or turn. It just ended a little way ahead of them.
“Now that’s odd,” Mira said. “Is this the wrong place?”
“Can’t be,” Torrigan said. “Why would he put so much stuff outside if- well, why would anyone put so much thought into those puzzles if there was nothing here?”
“Perfect red herring,” Kellan said. “Meanwhile, his actual home is in a cave 50 feet up the path.”
Illinia giggled.
“Well, let’s just see,” Torrigan said. “I think I can feel heavy magic around… around the end of the corridor. I’ll go first; I have armour.” So saying, he tromped towards the end of the corridor. They followed him closely.
They got to the end of the corridor. “So now wha-aaaaaaah!” Mira cried, as they all plunged downwards.
They landed in a heap a few feet down, too deep to climb out again. Above them, the trap door closed, sealing them in darkness.
“Well,” Torrigan’s voice sounded in the darkness, “we really walked into that one.”
“Har har,” Mira said, with a whacking noise. She might have slapped Torrigan on the shoulder. “Where’s that lantern… Ah! There it is.” There was a pause, and a tiny golden light blossomed. It revealed they were in a round chamber of stone, and they were being watched by a horde of large rats and scorpions.
“Oh, great,” Kellan hissed, his rapier appearing in his hand. “Here we go again.”
This fight was long, drawn out, and tense. Illinia hid behind her longsword, holding her knife in her off-hand. This was no place for archery. The rats were big, fast, and vicious, and there were far too many of them. The scorpions were black and hard to see except for the gleaming of their shells.
It was incredibly difficult to fight in the half-light; her elven eyes gave her some advantage that her friends did not have, but it was not enough. It was difficult to distinguish between living and dead, as well.
She could hear Mira using some less-offensive curse words under her breath; Kellan suffered several bites in stony silence. Her hawk had no space to manoeuvre or fly; it clung desperately to her left shoulder, fluttering often to keep its balance. It was distracting. The creatures stayed away from Derek, though. They could probably smell his wolfishness.
They were in a circle, their backs toward each other, although Illinia worried that some creature could sneak in between them and target them from behind. She tried to watch all ways at once, fighting defensively, and was rewarded for it when she saw Torrigan begin to take a swing in her direction. She screamed. “Ah! That’s me!”
“Sorry, Illinia!” His attack jerked to the right, narrowly missing her.
No, she didn’t even trust her friends to protect her under these circumstances. There was nothing to do but dodge and flinch and thrust her sword at anything small that moved.
She heard Derek growl over the others’ sharp cries, and felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end at the menace in that sound. She heard Mira bump into Kellan, heard him hiss as it threw off his aim.
Her sword clove a rat in half, and suddenly she saw no more movement around her feet.
They paused together, making sure they really were victorious, and took a collective deep breath. Torrigan wiped the sweat from his brow with his leather glove, leaving a trail of dirt across his face that probably only she could see at the moment. “That… was different. I… I guess we could have co-ordinated our fighting better.”
“We’ll know for next time,” Mira said, flopping down on a rock and hurriedly getting up again as a scorpion carcass crunched beneath her. Beside her, Derek was flexing, trying to turn back into a human again, perhaps.
Kellan was peering around. “I don’t see any more traps. Wait… There’s a door here. Let me check it out.”
“Go ahead,” Mira said, sitting on a different rock in the corner. “I think the rest of us will take a rest.” Illinia sat beside her.
Kellan poked around the edge of the door, the lantern in one hand. She couldn’t see clearly what he was doing, but she reasoned that he must know what he was doing.
After a few minutes, he gave a shout. “Whoops!”
The top of the doorframe collapsed in a small fall of flaming rocks.
“Kellan!” Mira barked. “What did you do?”
“I made a little mistake. Not to worry, the door is now clear! If slightly damaged.”
He was correct; the door would now open without triggering any traps. Beyond was a spiral staircase. Avoiding the wreckage, they tramped up wearily, and found themselves behind another pair of doors. The one on the left led back to the booby-trapped corridor; the one on the right led into a set of rather comfortable though sparsely-furnished and messily-kept rooms.
“Remember, we’re just looking for wolfsbane!” Torrigan said. “We should leave everything else alone. Aleic is obviously a powerful wizard, or at least a clever one. We shouldn’t do anything that would anger him.”
Illinia kept a bit of an eye on Kellan; he didn’t seem pleased with this advice. But she was not able to watch him all the time; she had to do her own searching.
After a few minutes, Mira called. “I found his herbs! Which one’s wolfsbane? Oh, I wish I was an elf; then I’d know right away.”
Illinia hurried over, and the others clustered around behind her. “I think this one. My, they look different when dried! Yes, that smells right. What do we do now that we have it?” Behind her, unseen by anyone, Kellan snuck a couple of small potions into his pockets.
“Well, the priest gave us detailed instructions,” said Torrigan. “We need to go back to town, because we’ll need his help. But basically we need to make a holy potion with this herb, and then give it to Derek before the sun goes down tomorrow. He’ll turn into a werewolf, but then he’ll turn back – permanently. But he said it would probably be an uncontrollable transformation, so it might be dangerous.”
“I understand,” Derek said. “Thank you so much for everything you’ve done. I can’t possibly thank you enough.”
“That’s all right!” Torrigan said. “We want to help.”
“We can’t just let you die, or live… a life that will make you unhappy,” Illinia put in softly, looking up at the blacksmith with her big brown eyes. People tended to respond favourably when she did that, and he was no exception – he smiled back at her hopefully.
“I will be forever indebted to you,” he said, slightly awkwardly.
“Well, let’s get going,” Kellan said, in a loud bored tone. “There’s nothing else we need here, is there?”
“Well, I just wanted to make a note that according to Aleic’s journal, he’s currently in Thaxted, the city to the north, investigating some sickness. If we need him for anything, we should go there.”
“Duly noted,” Mira said, nodding smartly. “Perhaps we’ll go look him up when we’re done. I mean, I have nothing else to do.”
“Me either,” Kellan said, leading them out of Aleic’s cave. The stone door closed behind them noiselessly. “Hope no one forgot anything in there.”
“Well, if we needed anything, it wouldn’t be as difficult to get back in,” Torrigan said.
“All right. Fine. But anyway, we need to go quickly now.”
They journeyed back to town, but had to camp partway there as night fell. They had spent longer in Aleic’s cave than they had thought.
The next morning they were up bright and early, and eager to be back in town and safe to cure Derek of his affliction. They journeyed swiftly and quietly, and were in town by mid-afternoon, going first to the temple to collect the priest. People stared at Derek, and he stared back, hope and optimism colouring his face. They still had a few hours left before sunset and his condition was made permanent.
They went to Derek’s house to deal with the cure, since the priest said it would be better to perform it in a place that he knew well and was comfortable in. It was a low little house, with a workshop on one side and a basement, and they went into the basement and barricaded the door.
“Are you sure about this?” Kellan said. “If things go wrong, we’re going to be locked in an enclosed space with an angry werewolf.”
“Better he be locked in here with us and our silver weapons than loose in the streets,” Mira said.
“Yes,” Derek agreed. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. Better that you kill me than that you let me kill anyone.”
“Well, that’s your call, but I’m not comfortable with this,” Kellan said, sighing.
“It’s all right,” Illinia said. “It will be perfectly safe. You’ll see!”
“Besides, you’re chaining me up first, right?” Derek asked.
“That’s right!” said Mira, somewhat too gleefully, a little teasingly. She twirled the chain in her fingers. “Just sit yourself down and make yourself comfortable, sir, and this will be over in a trice.”
Derek sat, and she chained him to the chair and to the support beam behind. If he tried to get loose, he would bring down the house on their heads first.
The priest got to work brewing the wolfsbane potion. It didn’t take him long, although the fumes made them choke a little.
“Here,” he said, bringing it to Derek’s lips. “It will taste awful. But you will be safe very soon.”
Derek drank, and the house shuddered.
Something had crashed into the hatch-like basement door with the force of a runaway horse. Something was pounding on the door, trying to get in with inhuman force and long scraping sounds.
“Weapons!” cried Torrigan in alarm. “Protect Derek and the priest!”
Derek was transforming for the last time, fur creeping along his shoulders to his face. His face lengthened and his teeth became sharp. But he was chained, helpless, and Mira had no time to unlock him.
The door shattered into splinters and a great grey werewolf burst into the room with a roar of rage.
Torrigan met him first, and swung with his silver sword, which was lighter than his normal broadsword. It barely made a scratch on the taut hide.
Illinia loosed a silver arrow, and Mira waded in with her own silver sword; Kellan hung back, judging his timing, then darted in and stabbed with his rapier, which was silver to begin with. The creature howled and swatted at them, carving deep gouges into Torrigan’s armour, deep gouges which immediately flowed crimson. The knight fell back with a cry, and Kellan took his place, dancing and dodging.
Illinia huffed in frustration. Her arrows weren’t doing enough. At least her hawk wasn’t in her hair; it had gone to perch on a high shelf, and frantically paced, wanting to help but unable to fly in the enclosed space.
She loosed another arrow, and took out the wolf’s eye.
Derek was slowly changing back into a man now. The cure was almost done. But their enemy was barely wounded, and seemed intent on killing the blacksmith.
Torrigan, partly recovered with a healing potion, attacked the creature from the front while Kellan rolled around to the back and attacked from the back. It twisted, trying to see them all, and Mira gave it a whack on the paw. It snarled and casually batted her into the back of the room, leaving the path clear to Derek.
Illinia cried out in terror and flung herself forward, almost colliding with Torrigan who was faster. The knight and the wolf grappled, and Illinia drew back her bow at point-blank range and buried an arrow in the creature’s throat.
It slumped with a gurgle, and transformed back into a human.
Mira picked herself up, looking very sore and bruised under her armour, and unlocked Derek’s chains. “Oh. My goodness. That was too close.”
Derek didn’t even get up; he just sat in the chair, his head in his shaking hands. “That must have been the wolf that bit me. Oh gods… I am so lucky to be alive, and forever indebted to you all.”
“And I am fortunate, too,” the priest said. “If it had only been us, the evil creature would have succeed- What is this?”
Derek raised his head, and he too recoiled from the dead human-form body of the werewolf.
“It’s the Lord Councillor!” he exclaimed.
“Oh, that guy who was so nasty to you?” Kellan said. “Gosh. No wonder he was nasty. …Wait, I’m confused.”
“This will need a thorough investigation,” said the priest. “Nevertheless, I think we must go at once to his house not for the investigation, but so that you, Derek, can see Hannah. She has been waiting for you. We have not seen a sign of her in a week. We fear she has been confined.”
Derek was on his feet at once. “Oh! Hannah! I have been sick at heart thinking of her. Yes, let us go at once!”
“I’ll get the guards,” Mira said. “Torrigan, you’ll have to do the talking.”
“I understand,” Torrigan answered, and they followed Derek as Mira went the other way.
Derek ran through the streets to the upper-class end of town, where they came to the house of the councillor. The doors were closed, but Derek burst through them. The servants stared at him in shock, but he went through the house calling the name of his sweetheart.
At length, he heard an answer, just as the steward of the house came indignantly to demand his business. “How dare a creature as yourself enter here and raise your chaotic cries? Out, into the street with you!”
“Your master was an evil werewolf, and he is now dead,” Torrigan said, distracting the steward, leaving Derek to slip by the steward. “This whole house will be under investigation shortly. Derek is only here to make sure Hannah, your master’s daughter, is safe.”
The steward gaped, and even as he did, they heard guards at the door. Mira had been quick.
Derek came down the hall with a beautiful blonde woman nestled in his arms, and Illinia smiled to see them so tender together. They were both smiling like stars.

The initial investigation took a whole day, but the end of it was Mira had three more suspicious papers to add to the ones she had found in the orc camp, Derek was cleared of being a werewolf and was permitted to marry Hannah, which pleased them both immensely; the councillor’s possessions were sold and a third went to the town, a third went to Derek and Hannah as Hannah’s dowry, and a third went to the adventurers. This made Kellan very cheerful, which amused Illinia.
The councillor must have been a werewolf for quite some time, but no one knew how long or why he had chosen to attack Derek now, unless it was to prevent his marriage to Hannah. Derek did say to them that the councillor had fiercely opposed his daughter marrying a blacksmith.
It was all very confused, but in the midst of everything, they learned that there had been no trade from Thaxted recently, and more worryingly, Mira’s new papers suggested that Thaxted was being isolated from its neighbouring cities, so Torrigan and Mira thought that perhaps they should seek out Aleic the Wise and see what was going on. Perhaps they would learn more about the mysterious Lord interfering with orcs and sages and blacksmiths. So they set out two days later, having wished Derek and Hannah joy as newlyweds.

Chapter 6