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The afternoon progresses all too quickly, and some preparations are made for the anticipated attack. By early evening, wood has been cut and braced across several of the windows, making the room in the north-east corner of the building more defendable. The ivy has been ripped from the south wall to make access to the roof harder (I'll assume a rope is fixed perhaps through the hole in the middle of the roof, to ease access for the PCs) Blondung mentions that he has a spell of web that he could use to block the main entrance if we wanted to trap some of the enemy inside the temple, though he also points out that it wouldn't block the other entrances/exits from the temple, so it would probably be more useful to simply use upon a group of werewolves to slow down their enemy's attack. More firewood is gathered so that a large fire can be maintained all night.

As it starts to get dark, Herod casts continual light on the stone front of the temple to illuminate a wide area around the front of the temple, but leaving the roof of the temple in shadow. He also casts it upon a smooth round stone, which he keeps in his pocket with the intention of hurling it to wherever they need light. Herod also mentions that he has a silence spell to cast upon their enemy once they detect an enemy spellcaster.

Once dusk falls, Herod also casts a couple of Wyvern watches in the area of rubble in the south east corner, a long lasting spell that he hopes might catch a couple of werewolves and paralyse them. Blondung also walks with a couple of the fighters towards the southern trail, and casts an alarm spell on the trail heading south.

With various preparations in place, the group settle down to wait....

and wait... (9:00pm - the sunset is fading)

and wait.... (10:00pm - the western sky is now almost completely dark, bats have come out and are flitting through the air catching moths attracted by the light. The group re-fill the lanterns and light them to illuminate the temple again.)

and wait..... (11:00pm - the night sky is clear, with the stars shining bright, however, it is also the night of the new moon - opposite of FULL moon - so it is still pretty dark. A badger snuffles around the edge of the clearing, and the buzzing of some giant insect sounds for a while before disappearing again. Owls occasionally screech in the darkness beyond the clearing)

and wait..... (midnight - the temperature has definitely dropped somewhat, and the only sound is the gentle hissing and occasional crackle of the fire. The woods are silent. Not even the hoot of an owl can be heard.

and wait...... (1:00am)

A distant ringing noise makes everyone sit up. "My alarm spell!" hisses Blondung.

<Dorn aka Doug wrote>:
> Calling over to Blondung...."how does that bloody
> spell work? are we sure it is an enemy or could it
> be that badger we saw earlier?"

Blondung, rising to his own feet shakes his head. "Set off by humanoids only" he hisses.

Inside the temple near the rear, Blondung positions himself behind the altar on the side nearest the doorway to the back room. Cleo looks around and realises that Graldir is still bound in the open area of the temple. Herod and Siellis quickly hurry to drag poor Graldir into the back room. Also near the rear of the temple, the two dwarves prepare themselves mentally for the battle ahead, Dorn mentally humming a dwarven battle chant, and Larz starting to cast a lengthy priest spell, calling upon Clangeddin to boost his strength for the hours to come.

Lucretia moves to the south side of the entrance, hiding in the shadows there, as Cleo moves to the north side, both gripping the rope that has been carefully laid across the entrance in the shadow of the small step there.

Milo, having been dozing, wakes up at the commotion, and looks around sleepily. (OOC: What happened to that post you promised Phil?)

From outside comes a couple of howls, one seeming to answer the other.

Meanwhile, the three half-elves, Ceely, Merrell and Vaslin, together with Yvandel are on the roof, scanning the near pitch darkness, trying to see anything. Even with the elvish blood enhanced night vision, there is nothing close enough for them to be able to spot when they look away from the brightly lit area in front of the temple. Merrell, putting the mask on, reaches out with his senses, trying to see if he can detect the presence of Malarites, but at the moment doesn't feel anything.

Yvandel, sitting closest to the front edge of the roof, has a single candle, surrounded on each side by a make-shift light shield that he's made with a blanket and some sticks, hoping that the faint light that escapes will be missed against the bright light coming out from the front face of the temple below the roof line. Pulling out his scroll of Rock to Mud, he crouches close to the candle, re-reading the words to himself, even as he glances up and around to see if he can spot the enemy approaching the front of the temple.

When the howls sound, the three roof watchers look to the south, but can't see anything. Silence descends again over the temple, and down below, Larz continues his prayer to Clangeddin. A few minutes pass, with Larz's quiet murmuring to Clangeddin inaudible to all but those closest to him. Herod and Siellis re-appear from the northern room, Siellis wielding one of the scimitars that Lucretia had given her.
Another few minutes pass, during which Larz finally completes his prayer, feeling strength ripple through his muscles (OOC: now on 18/50%!), then those on the roof of the temple hear the sound of movement in the undergrowth to the south side of the temple. Someone, or something appears to be trying to move stealthily around the temple... Vaslin, trying to flush out the enemy, mutters a brief clerical spell, and light blossoms to the south side of the temple amongst the trees. All four of those on the roof immediately see three naked men, looking surprised by the sudden light...

ROUND ONE

In the darkness up on the roof, Merrell blurts out a spell, and a moment later, even as the three men exposed by Vaslin's light start to run for the cover of the darkness, a pea sized ball of fire zips across the intervening distance, and then blossoms into a huge ball of fire. The faces of the four on the roof light up momentarily in the blaze of light from the fireball. The vegetation, somewhat charred from the previous night's fireball, ignites, and as the initial blast of flames die, Yvandel, with scroll in hand, can see that the three werewolves are obviously dead.

Those inside the temple can see and hear the fireball go off on the southern side of the temple.

<Merrell> you have no other visible targets yet - do you wait in human form ready to cast another fireball? Or do you transform now?

All goes quiet apart from the crackling of the fire outside.

The group on the roof scan the surrounding area, searching for further werewolves. The noise of the burning wood seems to cover the noise of anything moving out there however, and as those inside wait patiently, those on the roof hunker down in the shadows and wait.

The seconds pass, turning into minutes. Down below, those ready for combat fidget, all psyched up for battle, but it soon becomes apparent that this time, there are no hordes of werewolves storming the front of the temple or climbing in the windows...

<Merrell aka Mike B wrote>:
> "If you choose to attack us you will end as your friends before you!!!
> Of this you can be certain!! What is it that you want? Perhaps we can
> solve this peacefully!!! Will you agreee to a truce and parlay?!!"

Almost immediately, there is an answering wolf howl from somewhere a good hundred feet or so south east of the temple, and a second or so later, another howl from slightly further to the west... Vaslin looks as though she is about to cast light again, but then hesitates, unsure of the exact direction, and not wishing to waste the spell illuminating a spot of forest that they wouldn't be able to see anyway because of the intervening trees.

After a few moments, a human voice yells back, again from the south-east area. "Sleep safe in your temple tonight - but you won't be able to stay there forever - and we WILL hunt you down!" There is another answering howl as if to back-up this assertion, and then all goes quiet.

Inside the temple, Dorn and Cleo move out of the temple and start to patrol. On the north side of the building, Cleo suddenly realises why it made more sense for the dwarf to patrol in the dark than she, as she finds herself stumbling along by the temple wall, the darkness almost complete. Illuminating her sword to a faint glow, she picks her way behind the dwarf. Reaching the north-eastern corner, she looks towards the collapsed corner silhouetted by Vaslin's light spell to the south. As she and Dorn reach that corner, Dorn scans the darkness, whilst Cleo starts to move carefully into the light, towards the area of the forest still burning.

<Merrell aka Mike B wrote>:
> "Please tell Cleo that I love her. But I will not let them hunt us, it
> is they who shall be hunted. Give me a day, if I'm not back by dawn
> tomorrow, assume the worst, and get the hell out or these cursed woods
> as fast as you can."

Vaslin looks at Merrell in concern as he starts to change. "Don't be that long!" she urges. "Come back soon!"

With a deep throated growl, the lion that was Merrell bounds to the edge of the roof and then down to the ground below. Standing close by, Cleo watches the large lion as it plunges through the light and into the darkness of the woods. The sound of its passage through the woods fading as it races to where Merrell thought the Malarites had shouted from.

In the burnt area just south of the temple, the smell of burnt flesh and burnt vegetation fills the air, and with some distaste, Cleo almost stumbles across the first of the contorted bodies, its charred and blistered flesh, face frozen in anguish, clear indicators of its state of deadness. Moving back towards the temple entrance, she and Dorn re-enter the temple...

<Cleo aka Dan wrote>:
> "Well, at least we stung them some more - that's 3 less Weres to
> confront us later. We are most definitely gaining the upper hand.
> Plus - if they had the strength to attack us outright, they would
> definitely have done so, so they have betrayed their weakness."

"Mayhaps it was just a scouting party?" suggests Siellis.

<Cleo aka Dan continued>:
> "For one thing, I think we should always have 2 web spells ready so
> that when attacked we can cast webs against the tree line on both
> sides of the trail where we are. That will prevent them from jumping
> out at us wherever they wish and force them to attack via the trail to
> the front and back.
> With only two way to get to us, we can better use our offensive spells
> and defend our mages."

Blondung nods reluctantly in agreement, begrudgingly accepting that Cleo's strategy was sound. Herod also nods, more enthusiastically. "Sounds like the best plan" he suggests. "I'll pray for further guidance as well..."

The group discuss for a short while longer, but often stop, listening to see if they could hear anything of Merrell or the werewolves in the woods nearby, but there is no sound.

Finally, Cleo goes into the backroom, and speaks to Graldir again.

<Cleo aka Dan continued>:
> "Did you hear the man's voice that called back to us? Did you recognize it?"

Graldir shakes his head miserably. "I couldn't hear what he was saying, and I didn't recognise the voice" he says.

***

MEANWHILE, Merrell the form of the giant lion, stalks through the forest. Within minutes, he picks up a scent, and pushing through the thick forest, he wonders for a moment if the magic of the woods will turn him around and make him lose his way, but eventually, some 10 minutes later, the scent trail crosses over an elven trail, and here, he is suddenly puzzled, as the trail itself seems to confuse his sense of smell - he can smell the scent of various forest animals, but only where they cross the trail - not one scent trail passes along the trail.

***

In the distance, the distinctive sound of a lion roaring can be heard...and then a short while later, again.

Time passes slowly, and it is about an hour before Merrell finally returns back to the group, back in half-elf form. He reluctantly tells them about failing to track down the wolves, and about the strange "pass without trace" property that the elven trails seem to have. He assures them however that he was sure he had scared them off for now.

The group try to get some sleep for the rest of the night, but it is difficult, and when morning comes, the spell casters have a hard time memorising spells, still somewhat tired, but do just about manage it.