Adventure #19 - To Hunt a Werewolf

General Summary

Adventure #19 - To Hunt a Werewolf 9/20/24
Players: Karl: Erberk Toruń Sean: Sylvi Seth: Gimp Chris: Dimple Nackle Kira: Tesh Mikey: Ragnar (via a quick FaceTime interaction)
Synopsis: With the accumulated wealth of the town via taxes on hand, the townspeople of Aberystwyth gather together to discuss and vote upon an upgrade to the town's public works. In a landslide vote, the citizens choose to have magical street lamps installed throughout the town, which would provide better visibility for everyone during all hours as well as promote a sense of security, considering the recent werewolf attacks. After the decision was made, Pappy began making arrangements to have them installed, including hiring Erberk to forge a large quantity of lamp posts, and hiring a magical contractor from out of town to enchant them. Meanwhile, at the next full moon, another werewolf attack takes place, this time massacring Jebodiah's cattle. Strangely, this news has been spread through local gossip, and its said that Jebodiah did not reach out to local law enforcement to investigate this time.
The same morning the gossip spreads, Laerwynn, having lost his long bow on the last adventure, decides to go to Bits and Bobs to purchase a replacement. As he reaches for the shop's front door, Jebodiah slams open the door with a heavy crossbow and a sack of supplies in hand, and storms past him. Laerwynn runs after him, tells him that he heard about the second werewolf attack on his cattle, and tells him that he wants to join him in searching for whatever beast has been slaughtering his livestock. Jebodiah turns and regards Laerwynn, admitting that he has heard about Laerwynn's prowess at hunting and slaying monsters, including skeletons and a giant serpentine swamp creature, and welcomes his aid. He invites Laerwynn to join him at his farmhouse after he purchases his bow, and that they will discuss the details of how Jebodiah intends to deal with the werewolf problem. Laerwynn agrees, purchases a new bow, and meets Jebodiah at his farmhouse. Once at the farmhouse, Jebodiah reveals to Laerwynn some surprising backstory about his himself and his grandfather. According to Jebodiah, his grandfather was once a prominent monster hunter, slaying vampires, werewolves, and other beasts who would hunt mankind, and that he was a part of a long line of monster hunters. Unfortunately, his dangerous occupation placed Jebodiah's young father in perpetual peril, and the constant moving from place to place made for a miserable childhood experience. Due to this, when Jebodiah's father grew to adulthood, he vowed to end the family trade with him, and instead chose a simple life as a farmer. After Jebodiah was born, he and his father enjoyed a peaceful life, and when Jebodiah was old enough, he decided to start his own farm in Aberystwyth, keeping a promise to his father that he would never turn to his grandfathers ways. When Jebodiah's father passed, he inherited among other things his grandfather's trunk of monster hunting gear, which he at first simply used as a coffee table in his parlor. But after the second werewolf attack on his livestock, Jebodiah decided to take matters into his own hands, broke his promise to his father, donned his grandfather's gear, and began training as monster hunter using his grandfather's notebooks as a guide and converting his barn into a training ground.
After sharing his history, Jebodiah explains that he has learned much about werewolves from his grandfather's notebooks, including that lycanthropy (the term for the werewolf curse) is contracted through werewolf bites, and that those infected have until the first full moon to find a cure before it completely takes hold. Known cures include Remove Disease or Remove Curse spells, as well as the use of wolfsbane, a toxic herb that can purge the infection from subject, assuming the infected survives the wolfsbane treatment. After the first full moon, however, the only hope for a cure would come from divine intervention through a high level cleric using the Remove Curse spell, but such clerics are few and far between. He also explains that with each transformation, the infected will attack larger and more intelligent prey with each consecutive attack; first attack is usually on small animals like cats and sheep, the second attack is on larger animals like horses and cattle, and the third attack will likely be on humanoids. Jebodiah's expression turns grim when he reveals that he believes the werewolf is in fact a citizen of Aberystwyth; the attacks have been localized exclusively to Aberystwyth, for none of the neighboring towns have mentioned such an attack. He also deduces that the attack pattern follows exactly as his grandfather's notebooks said; the first attack was on his sheep, and the second attack was on his cattle, and if the pattern continues, then the next attack would put the entire town in danger. Jebodiah explains that although it's likely a citizen in town, he still must do what is necessary because they are not taking responsibility for their condition and putting everyone at risk because of their carelessness. He feels sympathetic for whoever the infected is, for each time they wake the morning following a transformation, they always find themselves naked, covered in blood, and laying near the remains of their latest kill, and likely confused, afraid, and ashamed of what they've done. However, Jebodiah feels that they've had enough time to make things right, and that now it's time for Jebodiah to put them down. After a moment of consideration, Laerwynn admits a shocking secret; he believes that he is the very werewolf that has been attacking Jebodiah's livestock, for twice now he was woken up naked, covered in blood, and laying beside the remains of Jebodiah's animals. Laerwynn also admits that he kept the events a secret, both out of shame and fear of being hunted by his own neighbors, and asks Jebodiah for help. Jebodiah, after his shock and anger soften, admits that he has a lot of respect for someone who would confess those details to the very person who swore to hunt them, and agrees to help Laerwynn manage his transformations and seek a cure. To be sure of Laerwynn's claim, Jebodiah pulls out a silver dagger and presses it into Laerwynn's palm, which burns him painfully and confirms his claim. Jebodiah suggests that they hold a meeting with a small group of trusted friends who could aid them Laerwynn in his time of need. Just as Laerwynn agrees, a knock is heard at the front door. Jebodiah whispers to Laerwynn to hide, and then answers the front door.
Meanwhile, at the exact same time Jebodiah and Laerwynn's meeting is taking place, Tesh, Sylvi, and Dimple are at the Elderflower enjoying some lunch. At the bar, they see a worn out wizard resting his head and looking exhausted. Tesh and Dimple both greet him, and the wizard introduces himself as Felix Xander, the wizard contracted by the town to enchant the new magical lamp posts. He says the company he works for is from quite a long distance away from Aberystwyth, and that he has been sent from so far because he's the lowest ranking employee in the company. After hearing that the town doesn't yet have their own magic shop, Felix considers the possibly of quitting his job, move to Aberystwyth, and starting fresh. Wanting to get the lamp posts done as soon as possible, Felix asks them if they would help him enchant a few lamp posts with some scrolls he brought, and the partial party agrees to after they check in on Jebodiah. Felix agrees and continues his nap as they leave the tavern and head towards a Jebodiah's farm. On the way, Dimple, Tesh, and Sylvi are joined by Erberk, Numbers (Erberk's newly named automaton companion), and Gimp, who also want to follow up on the rumors regarding the latest werewolf attacks at Jebodiah's farm. On the way Erberk explains that he has been incredibly busy forging the lamp posts for the town. In time, the party arrives at Jebodiah's farm, which is eerily quiet and devoid of any livestock. Suspicious, the party splits up, with Sylvi, Gimp, and Dimple going to the front door of Jebodiah's farmhouse, and Tesh and Erberk examining his barn. At the barn, Tesh and Erberk find the barn doors loosely chained closed. After loosing the chains, the two find what appears to be a training ground of some sort, including a complex obstacle course, training dummies, and a hay bale target with numerous crossbow bolts embedded in the bullseye. As Tesh and Eberk investigate, Gimp knocks on the front door, which unbeknownst to the party interrupts Jebodiah and Laerywnn's meeting, thus bringing the two coinciding storylines back together.
After Gimp knocks, a number of locks and deadbolts can be heard from within the house, and Jebodiah opens the door only a couple of inches, keeping his chain bolt secrured, and gruffly asks what they want. Gimp explains he heard rumors that another werewolf attack took place on his farm, and that as co-Captain of the guard he wanted to investigate and make sure everything was alright. Jebodiah responds bitterly, saying that he is taking care of it and that he doesn't need any help. Gimp pressures him, saying that he should have informed the guards so they can help keep the town safe, to which Jebodiah bluntly replies that he did in fact report a werewolf attack during his first livestock loss, and that not only did the town guard fail to apprehend the werewolf the first time, they also failed to notice the attack the second time during patrols, resulting in even more loss in livestock. After that, Jebodiah demands they get off his property, and slams the door in Gimp's face. Seeing the commotion, Tesh and Erberk join the party, and they all walk to the road near Jebodiah's property line together. The party is torn on what to do; they want to investigate further, but they don't want to trespass on Jebodiah's land, especially if they don't have any proof that he did anything wrong. Erberk explores Number's capabilities in tracking footprints, and it leads the party to the scene of the first werewolf attack. Afterwards, they decide to walk just outside Jebodiah's property line to the forest edge so they might be able to see the scene of the recent attack out in the field. In the distance, they see a number of crows circling above something in the field, and Gimp decides to call his peregrine falcon to scan the fields from the sky, which lands at the site of the attack. The party then convince themselves that they aren't trespassing if they suspect "probable cause", and so they march into Jebodiah's field towards the scene of the attack.
The scene they find is gruesome. As the crows clear away, the mangled bodies of three cows scatter over the bloodied field. Erberk asks Numbers for multiple scans, revealing not only werewolf tracks, but also two sets on humanoid tracks; one set leading to and from Jebodiah's home (which the party assumes to be Jebodiah's), and the second leading to town. With this information, the party deduces that this must be where the werewolf transformed back into human form and then went into town, revealing to the party that the werewolf might actually be a member of their town. Energized by their discoveries, the party has Numbers follow the tracks leading back to town, which take them into the center park area. Soon, the tracks begin to degrade in the heavily trafficked area, and Numbers tells Erberk that it can no longer find the trail. At this, the party circles around the park multiple times, seeking any hints of where the person went from here. Sylvi uses her sense of smell to try to track, but the scent trail is too mixed with the other scents from everyone else walking through the park. Erberk then spots Ragnar getting frisky with a nearby bush, and interrupts his afternoon delight to ask him for help, and a Ragnar decides to ask his intimate bush friend in plantspeech if it had seen a person covered in blood running though the park. The bush affirms that it has in fact seen such a person, but being limited with its vision, it could not tell which direction it went. Meanwhile, Dimple climbs the steps of the massive Sister Tree sitting beside the park to asking Azalea if she saw anything from her bird sanctuary. She sadly admits that she hasn't seen anything unusual, but then asks a nearby owl if it has, and it tells her that not only did it see a naked and bloody person, but that it also saw them fleeing out the east entrance of the park. With the help of Azalea's birds, Dimple glides gently back down the tree and informs the party of this new information. Promptly, the party goes to the east entrance, which leads to the road with The Elderflower and the majority of the homes in Aberystwyth. After another failed footprint scan by Numbers and a failed attempt to capture any new scents, Erberk resorts to going to everyone's home door to door and has Numbers scans for lycanthropes. However, after an exhaustive search, Numbers scans detect no lycanthropes in any of the homes; after all, Laerwynn was at Jebodiah's farmhouse in the outskirts of town during the search. Frustrated, the party tries to think of ways they can root out who the lycanthrope is, and Tesh offers an idea; at the next full moon, the town should hold a Lamp Lighting Festival to commemorate the first lighting of the town's new magical street lamps. Since almost everyone in town would be present for the celebrations, it would be easy to see who is not a werewolf, and that they might even witness the transformation of the lycanthrope. The party gladly accept the plan, and immediately begins making arrangements for the festival to come. Tesh and Dimple completely forget to help Felix Xander with his work.
Days later, Pappy's new barn owl Big Hootie clumsily delivers messages to a handful of adventurers, inviting the recipients to a secret meeting after hours at The Elderflower to discuss new revelations about the werewolf attacks. During the meeting, Jebodiah shares his backstory with them, all that he has learned about werewolves, and that the lycanthrope has come forward to him seeking help. He asks Laerwynn to join his side, and then reveals that Laerwynn has been the werewolf all along, and needs the members of this meeting to come together to help find a solution to his condition. Azalea gasps and weeps at her sudden revelation that Laerwynn contracted his lycanthropy during her coming of age trials, where he was attacked and apparently infected by a werewolf. After coming to the conclusion that the only permanent cure from a high level cleric is out of their reach, the party devises a new plan to manage Laerwynn's transformations. It's then suggested to create a silver lined containment cell to hold Laerwynn during each full moon, and Jebodiah offers to have the cell in his barn; not only is it on the outskirts of town and not likely to arouse attention, but Jebodiah can then keep watch over his transformations and act appropriately should anything go wrong. Moreover, the Lamp Lighting Festival, which originally was planned to root out the lycanthrope, will act as a excellent distraction to the town during Laerwynn's first contained transformation. Everyone in the meeting agrees, the meeting is adjourned, and the plan is set into motion.
Erberk then writes a letter to his fellow paladins of Torag in his home dwarven kingdom of Ozryn, seeking a high level cleric's aid for a cure. He receives a vague response, saying that due to a major conflict, they are unable to spare anyone during this time, and that they cannot risk saying anything more in case the letter falls into the wrong hands. They also mention that Erberk should still remain where he is, and that the arduous journey to help them is unnecessary. However, they suggest he use silver lined steel bars for the containment cell, to have the benefits of the silver for the lycanthrope and the strength of steel to contain him. Disappointed by the news, Eberk sets to work designs for the containment cell and begins seeking a large source of silver to make it.

Report Date

20 Sep 2024

Primary Location

Aberystwyth