Through the Woods

“Keep going, just keep going,” Jade urged.

They were making a mad dash through the forest. Olivia was barely hanging on - her sword lost, her chain shirt feeling more like it was weighing her down than it could protect her. Jade wasn’t much better. And Renee was pale as a linen sheet in the moonlight, when there was moonlight.

The teeth marks were gone, but none of them were sure if that mattered.

Alexander Houndsfang had bitten her.

The dash to escape the camp had been haphazard - Olivia and Jade didn’t want to leave Renee behind, but the sorceress had taken off in the opposite direction as her friends, leading the werewolf back towards the bandits as they poured out of the alehouse and their camps. Her hope had been that at least those outlaws that weren’t in the Risen Wolf Gang might have an issue with a werewolf.

That hadn’t even started to become an issue, though, because Houndsfang was a wolf, and wolves chased.

She’d made it fifty yards before he caught her, knocking her to the ground. And, looming over her, unable to speak with his body so close to a true wolf form, he’d snarled as he pinned her to the ground, raising a claw to carve through her chest. But then he’d stopped, his wolf grin appearing again even as his blood dripped from the gaping, sucking sword wound in his chest down onto Renee, and he’d snarled.

She’d Shadow Stepped away at the last possible moment.

Perhaps a moment too late.

The plan had always been for Fergus to meet them at the edge of the camp and escort them down one of his pre-scouted escape paths. Olivia and Jade, after seeing Renee leading Houndsfang away, had painfully accepted her sacrifice and staggered to the treeline, hesitating just long enough to see the torches lighting and spreading as the crowds of bandits followed the sound of the commotion.

Then, bleeding with a bite wound on her shoulder, Renee had staggered out of the shadows and into Olivia’s arms. The Paladin had immediately used some of the divine healing, pressing her hand to the wound and kissing her friend on the forehead, and the gashes had turned to thin silver scars as if long healed… but the question remained whether that was enough.

Everyone knew that you got a werewolf through a bite.

There wasn’t time to do anything more about it at the moment though, because they had to run.

Running through the woods was tiring. Running through the woods, at night, with no lights so you didn’t draw attention, and getting chased by dozens of bandits who would be extremely happy to tear you limb from limb was exhausting.

I had the girls rolling Constitution checks to keep going, and faked rolling Survival checks for Fergus to keep them on the right path. I also did a lot of frowning and grimacing as I noted down their results before narrating how the escape was going. They heard more supernatural howling at one point, and the crashing of something large through the forest off in the distance, but the adventurers and their woodsman guide didn’t roll so poorly as to get ambushed or caught.

In my prep, I’d been ready to drop an encounter here, but they were out of resources, low on health, and had just taken a fairly big moral defeat even if in my books it counted as a victory - they’d escaped a fight with a much tougher monster than them without losing a member. Still, morale was important too, so when both Rhia and Tory rolled Natural 20s on their fifth Constitution checks to keep going - Olivia practically carrying Renee - I let luck dictate the end of the pursuit as the skies opened up and rain came pouring down, wiping away their tracks and scents from anything that was hunting them.

They were able to slow down, even if they weren’t able to stop.

“Olivia,” I said. “Your arms and legs ache. The little bit of healing you used on yourself closed the wounds, but your body still feels the hurt of the claws that raked your muscle and flesh. Your vision is fading in and out, your only focus on Jade’s back as she trudges on in front of you through the wet forest. Your knees feel weak, and you stagger to remain upright - if not for yourself, then for Renee. You’re carrying her now, her body having given up to whatever is coursing through her veins from that bite. But it’s all pressing down on you.”

“I reach out for Revelry, to try and find some joy in my heart to keep me going,” Rhia said. “I try to remember a time Renee and I celebrated together. And I think of the oath - of our ritual in the hot spring, how I swore that I would protect her with my life. How she’s my sister in the eyes of Revelry.”

I nodded. “One foot in front of the other. You trudge through the trees. You’ve stopped hearing what’s around you, or what Fergus is saying to Jade. One step after another, and eventually you might be safe. Just one more step. One more step. One more. And then there’s light - all around you. And a breeze. Cool and refreshing instead of wet and damp.”

“I blink and try to get my vision to focus,” Rhia said. “I’m afraid I might be dead. That I’ve carried Renee with me into heaven or something.”

“What are you trying to say, I don’t belong in heaven?” Elyse chuckled.

“Well, you did fuck a werewolf,” Tori smirked.

“For the greater good!” Elyse laughed.

“You look up, blinking, and see that Jade and Fergus have stopped a few steps ahead of you. You’re not in heaven, but the storm has broken and the sun is rising. You’ve stepped out of the treeline of the forest and, about a quarter mile from where you stand, Castle Unger stands overlooking the King’s Road. You’ve made it.”

“Thank Revelry,” Rhia sighed.

“Thank fuck,” Elyse nodded.

“Thank Fergus,” Tori said. “He got us here.”

“Thank you, Fergus,” Rhia and Elyse both sang, grinning at me.

I rolled my eyes. “Neither of you are capable of saying that right now.”

“Good,” Rhia said. “Cause I need a drink, and I need dinner. This has been one fucking stressful session!”

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