An eerie silence pervaded the town.
Doors were smashed, windows broken, wagons appeared to have been flipped over by some massive force. As the sun rose in the sky and the morning mists lifted, the destruction of the town became ever clearer. There was no doubt that something had raided it.
Charlie, Geoffrey and Gregory slowly returned to their original forms. Charlie, in particular, had it rough. His paw was twisted and useless and he couldn’t use it properly. He hadn’t stayed a lizard long enough to fully regenerate it.
“Maybe you drink?” Palseks said, staring at Charlie’s paw as she held out a flask of lizardman potion that she’s stashed.
“I should,” Charlie swallowed, trying to flex his paw, “but can I afford to if we have to deal with whatever did all this?”
Palseks frowned. “Palseks not sure…”
“It’s a twenty-four hour long potion.” Geoffrey spoke, the polar bear rubbing his chin, “We would need to find shelter for that time.”
“What shelter?” Gregory asked, the mink indicating the torn-apart doors and windows, “I hate to say this, but perhaps Charles will need to deal with one useless paw. At least for now.”
“So what did this?” Charlie asked Palseks, “Did you see?”
“Mmm…” Palseks mused, “It was, how say? Metal men?.”
“Robots?” Charlie raised a brow.
“No, not robot.” Palseks squinted in thought before looking at Gregory, “not know warm-blood word… like stone men kobold sometimes use for mine.”
“Golems?” Gregory heaved a sigh, paws wriggling, “We use those for mining too. We’ll need our gear first, then.”
“Oh! Palseks know!” Palseks said excitedly, “Is back in house!”
“Good.” Geoffrey flexed his paws, “Unarmed attacks without my adamantine gloves are basically ineffective against Golems.”
“Where did they even come from?” Gregory asked, the mink clearly still confused.
“Don’t you remember what Rodrigo was saying?” Charlie said, “He was talking about the mines and how they’d accidentally opened up an old ruin from Paranor. They must have come from there.”
“That was real?” Gregory shook his head, “After we got drugged, I figured it was just something inane to talk about while the potion he fed us took effect.”
“And that’s another reason not to take a potion. Rodrigo has that magic amulet that lets him control people who’re under the effect of the potions.” Charlie said.
“Is he gone too?” Geoffrey asked Palseks.
“Everyone gone.” Palseks replied.
“How many Golems were there?” Geoffrey asked as they quickly made their way to the top of the hill where the mansion was.
“Palseks was hiding, hard to see. Think maybe… ten?” Palseks said.
“Just ten?” Charlie asked, squinting at the ground, looking for tracks, before realizing how pointless that was.
Geoffrey looked at Charlie and asked, “how’s your tracking? Can you tell?”
“I’m not a ranger,” Charlie sighed, “ten seems like its probably in the ballpark, but it could just as easily be 20 and I wouldn’t know the difference.”
“Ten Golems is more than enough to be a threat,” Geoffrey reminded him, “Especially if they are of old Paranor make.”
“Why?” Charlie asked.
“Paranor practiced soul magic. They say that was why the country fell.” Gregory explained. “And not just a little soul magic here and there. An entire society built on it.”
“Doesn’t soul magic require-”
“It requires people, yes. An underclass. Once Paranor fell, soul magic was forbidden for a thousand years,” Gregory replied. “And then, well, it was decided that maybe it was useful as long as only the right people practiced it.”
“The right people?”
“Royalty,” Gregory explained. “Obviously, people still practice it, at least in limited forms.”
The party kept walking, nearing the center of town, where a massive statue of Rodrigo stood. It was obviously not a true portrayal of the wolf’s likeness, as he was much less rotund. Also, Palseks was pretty sure that he had never once held someone’s child without the mother screaming for it back.
Near the statue was a basket full of potions, each of which was set in an organized fashion – like the basket had been gently placed there, rather than dropped. Palseks picked a bottle up and noticed that a stylized sticker of a wolf was the only label. Even if she didn’t recognize it from before, it wouldn’t have been hard to guess what was inside. Transformation potions.
“Are those…” Charlie asked.
“Polymorph potion, yesss.” Palseks nodded as she couldn’t help but make a very reptilian, drawn out hiss.
While they were contemplating the basket and its contents, footsteps approached them.
“Don’t move!” A brusque, deep voice called.
Palseks froze, eyes flicking in the direction of the voice.
A rather burly stag stood at the side of a building, two crossbows leveled at the party. Behind him stood a handsome, rough-looking puma in a coat that reminded Palseks of Veles’ outfit, though his tunic and pants were rougher than the fox’s normal garments.
“Wait, Oz,” The cougar laid a paw on the stag’s shoulder. “That’s THEM.”
The stag paused, glancing over the four anthros, before lowering his crossbows. He waved a hoof, and a dozen figures popped out of hiding, from the streets and alley surrounding the party, lowering their own crossbows.
Palseks’ reptilian eyes actually managed to widen. She hadn’t noticed the rangers encircle them, which meant that they were definitely a step up from the town guards in terms of threat level.
Charlie, on the other hand, flinched with panic before exclaiming. “Wait, who the hell are these guys?”
“These boys are Oswin’s Rangers.” Oswin explained. “They’re experts in ambush tactics.”
“Oh. Of course,” Charlie rolled his eyes and muttered. “Fuckin' NPCs. Probably have extra feats or something.”
“They don’t look like much to me, Ein.” The stag answered. “You sure they’re your old adventuring party?”
“Ein?” Charlie raised a brow. “Who the hell is Ein?”
“That’s not the name they know me by,” The cat stepped forward, hands up, “It’s alright, it’s me, Charlie. I know I look different, but it’s me.”
Palseks would have scoffed at the idea back in the real world, but she’d seen enough of this world’s transformation magic to believe him. The mere fact that Veles had been a fox when they woke up in the morning didn’t mean that he wasn’t a cougar now. How he’d managed to keep his old identity post-TF was beyond her. Though to be fair, most of what they’d seen so far had been based around swapping souls, it wasn’t so far fetched for there to be other forms of transformation magic as well.
“Guys, this is Oswin. My, erm, new boyfriend.” Veles gestured to the stag.
“Hello,” Oswin actually looked uncomfortable, “Uh, Ein told me about you guys. Where is everyone?”
”Charlie shrugged, “we think they were taken by golems. Palseks here is the only one of us who saw them and she didn’t get a good look.”
“Golems? Here in the forest?” Oswin said with a hint of befuddlement, “my rangers would have spotted them.”
“They probably came from the mines,” Gregory supplied.
“Oh. Oh shit!” Oswin looked around frantically, “What about Rodrigo? We need to find Rodrigo!”
“Why?” Charlie asked, folding his arms.
“Because of the curse, you morons!” Oswin snarled. “If Rodrigo dies, everyone in town dies too!”
“What?!” Gregory’s jaw dropped, “But…”
“So killing him would have been bad then?” Charlie asked, “Because I was totally just going to slit his throat at the dinner table.”
“Why didn’t you?” Geoffrey asked.
“There were plot hooks!” Charlie said exasperatedly, “I was pumping him for information!”
“We got turned into lizardmen by the fat wolf mayor,” Gregory explained to Oswin, who was listening to the exchange with confusion, “And put to work in the lumbermill.”
“Oh yes, he does like doing that to people,” Oswin nodded.
“Why do you let him, then?” Gregory asked.
“Because he’ll kill himself if we try imprisoning him. Look I’d love to chat, but the longer Rodrigo is missing, the more likely he dies. And if he dies, I die.” Oswin said.
“Yeah, but isn’t this good news, in a way?” Charlie interjected.
“How? How could my eminent death possibly be good news?”
“First of all, I don’t know you.” Charlie pointed out, “Clearly you’re only Veles’ boyfriend because of whatever changed him into that. And second, most importantly, it means that the recipes to those potions are now unguarded.”
Oswin paused. “Huh. Doesn’t save me, though.”
“No, Charlie’s right!” Veles grinned, “Rodrigo can’t possibly be able to make those potions without a detailed manual! I can learn more about Trimming from it! We definitely need to raid his house first!”
“We were actually going there to get our gear,” Charlie grinned and turned to Palseks, “You said he stowed our stuff in a chest?”
Palseks nodded. “Craft chamber in hidden room in basement. Saw tome there.”
“Well there you go!” Charlie grinned. “Everything’s coming together!”
“Isn’t that usually right when things go wrong?” Gregory pointed out.
“My liege, perhaps we’ve already had our share of misfortunes.” Geoffrey intoned.
Both Oswin and the party dropped their guard and began to walk over to each other, only for Veles to point at Charlie’s deformed paw and exclaim, “What the hell happened to your hand?”
“Uh… got it cut off and I turned back before it could fully regenerate,” Charlie said sheepishly.
“Can you fight?” Oswin asked.
“I’m a rogue, so I can easily fight one armed just fine.” Charlie said.
“I meant more whether you were mentally capable of fighting, but I suppose you would answer yes to that too.” Oswin replied, eliciting a brief nod from Charlie.
The new party, now fully formed, proceeded up the hill.
“Are you a ranger?” Charlie asked.
“Yes.” Oswin replied.
“Uh, okay, then how many Golems are there?”
“Looks like 12 from the tracks.” Oswin replied. “It’s a problem, because I don’t have a magic weapon. Or Adamantine, for that matter.”
“12…” Charlie rubbed his chin. “That’s going to be rough. Veles, see if there’s a stash of healing potions in the basement.”
“On it,” Veles said, turning to Palseks, “Let’s circle around to the basement.”
Palseks nodded and they both hustled down to the hidden entrance to the wolf’s cellar, while the rest of the party liberated their gear from a giant trunk that had been left out in the middle of the living room.