Trials of the Ratpuncher

After a delicious if somewhat tense supper with Steingrimur the Probable Werebear, Squoan “the Serendipitous Riddlefist” and Sarett “the Sullen” Umett hid in the forest to await the rising of the full moon and the consequent revelation of Steingrimur's True Form, which indeed came to pass, nudging Steingrimur's Werebear status from Probable to Definite. Squoan tracked the unwitting Werebear through the forest, to a meeting with a Shape-Changing Druid, where the gentle soul procured a pouch of what - after a series of investigations and misadventures - turned out to be healing herbs for Sarett's sister, who would no doubt need them, were she found alive. Sarett was not best pleased at being left behind while Squoan went off on Solo Adventures but there is no pleasing that guy so Whatevs.
 
In fact, perhaps Sarett's constant sullenness played no small part in the bond which rapidly formed between Squoan and Steingrimur, who sensed in each other a Kindred Spirit and vowed to be Boon Companions Forever (or BCFs), a pact marred only briefly when Squoan was assaulted by a moment of insecurity – perhaps not dealing with the misplacement of his mentor with as much equanimity as he would like – and attempted to blackmail Steingrimur into staying with him by suggesting that he (Squoan) had no need to become a Wereanything as long as Steingrimur was around, a situation which would swiftly change were the Definite Werebear to ever abandon him. Our hero regretted this unfortunate lapse of composure in himself almost immediately, but if Steingrimur noticed or took offense he gave no sign of it, and so their Bond remains Unbroken.
 
Steingrimur produced a Magical Doohickey he had found at the site of the crashed cart, which - through a series of ingenious deductions and interrogations – led Team Riddlefist to a Cartwright in Riverbend. Squoan managed to find a use for Sarett – at long last – by having him intimidate the Cartwright so that they could track her panicked movements back to the source of the Rampant Nefariousness. Unfortunately, as Squoan felt them nearing the Evil Encampment, he decided it would be a good idea to leave his companions behind and scout ahead, and his Hubris proved to be his undoing. For when he stepped on the loudest twig in all the forest, he fell victim to the Cartwright's poisoned blade and was paralyzed.
 
The Foul Cartwright dragged our hero into a ruined underground temple consecrated to the gnome goddess Zanna, and in a back room therein he was imprisoned, in a cage not fit for a Dog, where he finally met Sarett's sister, the Quite Becoming Valethanna Althaliel, likewise encaged and somewhat the worse for wear, who revealed that their captors were Wretched Wererats. After a comically short-lived rescue attempt by Sarett, Val used Druidic Magics to bend the bars of Squoan's cage enough to allow him passage, during which he did not become stuck in an undignified fashion even once, and certainly not around the head area. Squoan certainly earned the “fist” portion of his appellation during the ensuing escapades: rats were punched, Wererats bludgeoned to death, companions (boon and otherwise) saved, and Sweet Vengeance was enacted upon the Wicked Cartwright, thus ending her brief tenure as Squoan's Nemesis. Not to mention the loot! So much loot.
 
Upon their triumphant return to Riverbend, Valethanna the Fair was able to divine the use of most of the magical artifacts and esoterica uncovered during their Wererat Adventures, with the exception of a Mysterious Amulet to which Squoan would need to attune himself and a quote written in Gnomish in the ruined temple – “the shield of courage is sundered” – both of which had been of great interest to the Wererats for Reasons Unknown and Currently Unknowable, as the Wererats in question had already received their Just Deserts from Squoan's iron flute.