Story 3/26/2016

The session started off with the group departing on their adventuring trek. Khaelis was actually the only party member in the trek officially. Beorn managed to sneak onto the management crew of the trek, and Monashe, Klon, Erevan and Aeowyn were tailing about 100 yards behind the trek.

The trek was being led by a human named Hallam, who had assistance from an elf named Anadeen, a halfling named Wilkus and a human named Edgar. The trek had 4 mules and 5 other travelers along for the ride.

The trek made it's way through the forest, and as dusk was closing in, Hallam informed the group that they were

heading to a nearby cave that they often used for camping. When they got close to the cave, they noticed a trail of blood leading up to the cave entrance.

Beorn moved ahead to investigate, and found the blood was less than 12 hours old. He also found a piece of a backpack that had bite marks in it, but he couldn't tell what caused the bite marks. Khaelis grew impatient and moved forward, but Beorn convinced him to hang back for a minute.

The trailing party saw the trek stopped outside the cave for a few minutes, so Monashe sent Hawkmoon up to scout. Hawmoon noticed several other areas in the forest that had blood sploches, a bit more than you would normally expect. She then decided to move towards the group.

Beorn decided to move up near the mouth of the cave, where he heard deep heavy breathing. He paused for a moment, and then decided to move back, but right as he moved 3 wolves pounced into action ready to fight.

The group and Hallam's crew began fighting the wolves, and found themselves in a nasty situation. Wolves just kept coming out to attack (9 total) and an Alpha Wolf that stood more like a werewolf emerged from the cave. Klon started to make a camp when only 3 wolves were present, thinking that the group could easily dispatch the 3 wolves.

Hallam's crew all died fairly quickly, and the wolves were attempting to drag fighters into their cave, including Beorn. Beorn managed to escape with his nifty necklace of keys.

The Alpha wolf kept empowering the other wolves, allowing them to attack multiple times, and increasing their damage over the fight. The group seemed a bit in over their heads, and several were knocked unconscious (Monashe, Khaelis, Erevan was close, Beorn).

As the situation continued to escalate, the Alpha wolf tore deep cuts into his own chest, let out a howl and stuck his arms in the air. This caused a green gas cloud to appear over each dead wolf, indicating possible undead magic.

Suddenly, a large wolf jumped behind the Alpha and began fighting it. This new wolf tore into the Alpha's chest wounds and ripped out it's heart. The new wolf then shapeshifted into a Goliath.

The unconscious members of the group woke up, Erevan stopped Klon's ritual, and the group spoke with the Goliath.

He said his name was Zadicus, and that he was in the area tracking weird animal behaviors.

Monashe took out the Serevictus and looked at the Goliath with it, and this peaked the interest of the Goliath (along with Khaelis telling the random trek folk the group was known as The Serevictors). The group decided that they would let the Goliath see The Serevictus in exchange for more information.

The Goliath agreed, and detailed the issues with the animals. Animals were moving eratically in the area, sometimes attacking other animals, and it seemed to spread. All animals were being effected (event Giestabel and Hawkmoon) but only bears seemed to resist it, even if only for a short while.

He also detailed about pack leaders gaining intelligence. He said that it isn't well known, but for thousands of years, pack leaders of various animals would gain small amounts of intelligence. Recently, they have been gaining more and more, and some are even mimicking the use of magic. He said it might be someone gifting them the ability, or they might be picking it up naturally, he wasn't sure.

The group decided to go back to his camp with him and rest. While resting, they peeked at some documents he had with him, and learned that someone named Sakuja had asked him to go check out this animal thing. Klon also took some time to investigate where they were heading in the morning (an area where Zadicus had killed some bears).

Klon (who didn't sleep), and Aeowyn/Erevan (who only sleep 4 hours) were all awake before everyone else. They noticed The Goliath in deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he was shapeshifting! He would have antlers one minute, a tigers face the next and even bunny ears for a brief moment....

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