The Wolf and the Spear of Alairros

###### Completed on May 26th

Following a run in with a young woman being chased in the woods by the townsfolk of a small town called Tidale, Blaine, Fargrimm and Lizzy decide to figure out how this came to pass.

## A Weekly Sacrifice

The townsfolk explained that a creature had been attacking the village on weekly basis, up until the Mayor decided to leave a sacrifice outside the town palisades for the Beast on the night of the creature's return.

The adventurers learn that the Beast was defeated on one of its previous visits, but had dissolved and returned the next week, as ferocious as ever. They realize that there must be a special factor to its defeat.

## The Witch and her Bargain

The mayor told the adventurers that the witch Sventland may know something about how to defeat the Beast, but that nobody in town wanted to deal with her. They went to find her in her hut, and it quickly became apparent why the townsfolk avoided her.

The hut and the witch were both foul and in clear disrepair. The hut was drafty, and barely held together, the thatch was patchy and held together haphazardly. The interior of her hut was furnished with dozens of stone crows, and when they weren't being directly observed, they seemed to move around on their own.

Sventland offered a bargain, she would tell the group the location of a weapon that would destroy the beast irrevocably. And in exchange, Blaine would spend a night with her. The bargain was accepted, and she gave them directions to a tomb of a warrior blessed by Alairros. They were to find a spear, blessed by the same god, and thrust it into the ooze that the wolf dissolved into upon its destruction.

## Monsters and Murals

The adventurers found the tomb of the elf warrior to the southwest of Tidale, and gained entry, only to be washed down a steep and winding tunnel by a massive water elemental. Blaine narrowly avoided being washed down a drain at the end of the entryway, and they began to investigate the deeper recesses of the tomb.

As they moved down further and further, the walls of the tunnels were decorated with intricate murals showing tableaus, each depicting a pair of elves in conflict. Initially they fought against a clan of dwarves, killing one. And after, they teamed up with the dwarves to battle werewolves. Over time, the dwarves were defeated, leaving the elves alone against the wolves. And eventually, one of the elves fell and was turned by the last wolf. The remaining elf destroyed the final wolf, and chose to restrain and imprison his companion. In the murals, this final elf was the one who wielded a spear.

The adventurers explored the tomb, discovered a cracked open sarcophagus, and a pair of rooms dedicated to the elves in the murals. One of these rooms was caved in, and inaccessible. The other was fillled with massive pillars, and had an unstable ceiling. They found that there was a small tunnel above the entryway to the cavern, and chose to follow it through the crawlspace that it led to. Through the crawlspace, the adventurers found a way to access the room of the elf who survived the mural. The one who held the spear.

Inside the room, where the floor was extremely unstable, there was a monster, a carrion crawler, that stood guard over the corpse of the elf.

Blaine, Fargrimm and Lizzy safely destroyed it, and retrieved the Spear of Alairros.

After a brief rest, the adventurers exited the tomb, and returned to the village

## The Wolf and the Witch

In the forest on the return journey to Tidale, the Beast attacked from the woods. She fell upon them, targeting Blaine initially, as he was holding the Spear of Alairros, but after a devastating strike from Fargrimm, turned and ravaged him, savagely biting him. Lizzy and Blaine struck at the wolf, attempting to dislodge the beast from their friend. And after a few more moments, Blaine dealt a savage blow to the wolf, killing her, only for her to dissolve into a black ooze that began to sink rapidly into the earth. Blane immediately struck at the ooze with his spear, and it began frothing and bubbling. The wolf appeared to be, for all intents and purposes, destroyed.

The adventurers returned to Tidale, and had a evening of revelry to celebrate their saving the town from the predations of the Beast.

The following day, when night fell, Blaine went to Sventland's home, and made good upon his promise. The witch's pets were revolting, and she was more-so. But a promise was made, and would be upheld. After an unpleasant night, Blaine woke up cursed, his fingers had been melded together. Sventland was nowhere to be seen.