Episode Four - Double Blind 

Review

In episode 2, our heroes Clancy, Skelly, and Erin managed to secure the Talim-Beothainn, a powerful and evil artifact that had been creating waves of undead that were harrassing their village.  In the last episode, a necromancer (who turned out to be the same "hooded man" from episode 1) stole the artifact and kidnapped Erin, burning the temple of Aoife to the ground.  Aided by Egan, the recently arrived Steward of Idris, Skelly and Clancy managed to defeat the necromancer and capture him.  Driven by clues dropped by the "hooded man" about Erin's location, the heroes returned to the farm where they defeated him, but found only an empty hole dug into the corner of the root cellar.  Worse still, the Necromancer had somehow managed to escape from his locked cell right under the goard's nose.

The following night, however, Erin returned under her own power, claiming that the artifact was safe and that she was okay.  After sleeping through the next day, she went to Clancy and seduced him, finally consummating their long-building relationship.  Immediately following their passionate act, Clancy had a vision of Erin being killed by the Necromancer and buried with the Talim- Beothainn in that hole in the cellar.

The next morning, a town militiaman was found dead, his throat messily cut from ear to ear. 

Erin was not seen again until late that evening, where she was carousing with several men in the village tavern.  She was scantily dressed in tight-fitting black leather, and was acting very odd - telling vulgar stories and flirting blatantly with every male in sight.  When Clancy confronted her, she broke down in sobs, saying that she just couldn't deal with all that had happened to her.  She begged him for some time and space to deal with everything, and promised that she would be alright.

Old Friends

Over the next 5 or 6 weeks, Erin remained hidden in her home while the rest of the town continued to recover from the waves of trauma it had also suffered.  In the middle of one afternoon, an irate farmer burst into the jail, complaining that some kind of wild animal had been eating his livestock.  Clancy and Skelly went to investigate, finding several sets of wolf tracks all over the man's farm.  Some of the tracks, however, appeared 2-3 times larger than the others; something that even Clancy had never seen before.  That evening, just before dark, they heard howling from the area north of the farmstead.  Coming across the fields, they then saw what first appeared to be a mated pair of wolves running alongside a litter of puppies.  As the animals approached, however, they soon realized that the "puppies" were fully grown wolves, and that the other two were the size of large draft horses.

Despite being unnerved by the unnatural size of the dire wolves, the two young sheriffs handled the animals easily.  Just after the skirmish was completed, however, they noticed a band of men moving swiftly over that same field towards them.  Prepared to fight once again, Clancy soon recognized their leader as Duncan Blair, his friend and mentor in rangerly skills.  He and his band had been tracking the wolves, and report that there has been a dramatic increase in wolf activities in the area.  Kermit MacNair, one of the rangers who trained alongside Clancy, says that there have also been sightings of half-wolf/half-man "werewolves" in the area.  

In the midst of the conversation, the farmer spoke up and mentioned that he hadn't heard much from his neighbors, the Casmyn family, lately.  With all the wolf attacks that the ranger party mentioned, he wonders if something happened to them.  Duncan's band was headed in the opposite direction, but Kermit volunteers to help Clancy and Skelly check things out.

A House is Not a Home 

When the party  arrived at the Casmyn homestead, they found it silent as the grave.  No sign of life could be seen in the barn and no lights or activity were evident in the house.  In the main room of the farmhouse, the corpses of both Dearc and Fianna Casmyn were found, faces shreaded to ribbons and throats eaten out.  As they investigated the bodies, Clancy was nearly overcome by a stunning headache when the lifeless mother and father suddenly leaped forth from their eternal rest and attacked the party.  Recovering his senses, Clancy and his companions managed to destroy the undead monsters in short order.

Progressing into the home, the heroes climbed the stairs and heard the faint sound of sobbing coming from one of the rooms above.  In the center of the room lay the bodies of three young boys, all massacred and mutilated as were their parents downstairs.  There they also discovered a young girl, Kea Casmyn, hiding in the dead space between the outer wall and the cracked paneling of the room.  From what little they could see, she was covered in blood and crying uncontrolably.  Refusing to come out from her hiding place, she told them over and over, "They're still out there!  Don't let the bad wolfmans get me!"  

Unable to convince the child that they were there to help, they cautiously continued to explore the upstairs.  As they approached the room at the other end of the hall, Clancy's nagging headache again intensified.  There they found an old woman sitting in a rocking chair facing a window opposite from them.  She sat askew in the chair, head lolling to one side.  As they entered the room, however, the chair began to rock, and soon the elderly lady was also animated with evil power.  She attacked them with unholy strength through a grotesque tentacle of entrail that burst from her mouth.  As the two rangers fended off her savage blows, Skelly burned the monstrosity with magical fire and finally gave the grandmother the rest she deserved.

Returning then to the children's room, Kea finally began to calm down.  As she moved closer to the opening in the paneling, however, the party quickly noticed that her face was covered in blood and that her mouth was filled with sharp fangs.  Distracted by the vile sight of such innocent youth that had been so disgustingly corrupted, the party barely noticed the corpses of the boys before they also attacked.  Despite the shock and horror of fighting such young undead creatures, the party recovered their composure and destroyed the boys, prompting the young vampire to flee into the night.   

In Pursuit

In a vain attempt to follow Kea, the group quickly left the house.  Searching the area for tracks, Clancy and Kermit soon discovered several sets of odd canine prints just north of the farmyard.  Oddly enough, the tracks appeared to be in sets of two, not four, indicating that they were made by bipedal creatures.

Following these strange tracks, the party soon discovered a small clearing about a half-mile away.  There they found signs of a recent camp and a rather viscious fight.  As they looked for other tracks leading away from the clearing, they were startled by the sound of a loud howling.  Seconds later, a large charcoal-gray wolf was spotted off aways in the forest.  For the next 15 minutes, they followed the wolf, catching occasional glimpses of it as it led them into the rocky terrain north of Batterglais.

As they followed the wolf into a steep gorge, however, they quickly realized their mistake.  Nine other of the same creatures suddenly lept out from hiding places all around the crevice, ambushing the party.  As they fought off the worg pack, Kermit volunteered, "These don't look like werewolves to me."

First Contact

While Skelly, Clancy, and Kermit held their own against the intelligent wolves, they did not notice that another group had joined the party.  In the midst of the battle, all of the remaining worgs fell dead as they were blown nearly to pieces by volleys of arrows from above.  Looking up along the ridge and blocking off the only path of escape, the three heroes saw a well-armed and well-organized party of gnolls.  As the gnolls descended and disarmed them, Kermit once again offered, "These are closer, but I don't think they are werewolves either!"

Unable to communicate with their captors, Clancy, Skelly, and Kermit were bound and taken back to the gnoll camp, blindfolded and carried hanging from wooden poles (Return of the Jedi style!).   There, they were literally barked at by several of the humanoid band, especially some that appeared to be injured (even though the adventurers knew of no battle involving gnolls within the recent past).  Just from observing the interaction around camp, they noticed that the gnoll leader was very different from the stereotypes they had heard stories about as children.  He was calm and controlled, spoke calmly but with authority, and had almost total control over the other gnolls.  Several times, this leader attempted to communicate with them, but was unsuccessful.

After nightfall, once camp was quiet, Erin came to rescue the three men.  As she emerged from the forest, covered in the gore of the gnoll sentries she had killed, Clancy was wracked by a stinging headache and almost paralyzing flashbacks from the vision he had of her death.  Ignorant of his internal conflict, she fawned over him, calling him her "lover" and kissing him repeatedly before loosing his bonds.  Despite their desperate ambivalence concerning the beautiful young woman, the three heroes quietly left the camp with her.

As they travelled farther into the forest, they were soon joined by the young girl, Kea Casmyn, they had encountered earlier.  As Clancy moved to kill the young abomination, Erin stepped between them, baring long fangs and hissing.  "No!" she said, "My father taught me how to yield children, and you must accept your step-daughter!  I will not have this in my family!"  

Skelly and Clancy then grilled her about the Talim-Beothainn and its whereabouts.  She deflected the question, saying only, "My father has shown me many things.  He has told me who and what I am, and of the dark and glorious destiny he has in mind for me!."  Kermit was intrigued by talk of the powerful artifact, and attempted to get more information about it.  At this, Erin grew almost violently angry, screaming at the ranger and threatening him.

At that moment, however, the sounds of cackling hyenas broke through the night air.  Erin suddenly stopped her maniacal ravings and looked again at Clancy.  "Time to go!" she said, then turning and transforming into a wolf, fleeing into the dark woods with her young progeny. 
 
Finding a New Path

Staying mere minutes ahead of the pursuing gnolls, Clancy and Skelly led Kermit back to Batterglais to raise the guard.  Moments later, Skelly and Kermit stood shoulder to shoulder with the untried town militia as Clancy went to find Egan and the Idrisite deacons.  Then, in the final moments before the inevitable attack, Clancy stepped out beyond the town defenses and laid down his arms.  Empowered by Egan's clerical magic, he attempted to speak to the humanoids in their own harsh, barking language.

After a few tense moments of waiting, the gnoll leader also stepped out from the forest and introduced himself as Silvertongue Wickedfang.  Communication between the two leaders was difficult, but they were both driven by their mutual desire to protect their followers.  Silvertongue claimed to be an emissary from a large gnoll colony in the northern mountains of Locklin.  Since the mists came, they had been cut off from their normal hunting grounds and trading partners, and were now looking for some sort of relationship with the humans.  Two nights ago, they were attacked in the night by Erin, and he had been having difficulty keeping his scouting party from attacking human settlements in retaliation.  

Gaining each other's trust, however, a tentative peace was established between the gnolls and the small town of Batterglais.  Over the coming days, simple trade agreements were made between Silvertongue and the merchants of the village.  While it was unprecedented to deal in such a way with one of the "evil" humanoid races, tough times call for tough choices, and Clancy and Skelly were ready to make such decisions.