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((Ouch, for sure! Ai-yi-yi, I've suddenly remembered why I so love playing ranged characters... ))

The dwarf chuckles as both she and the hobgoblin seem to be sticking it to this dreadful beast. Somehow, she misjudges the creature's reaction to the flaming dart and isn't as ready as usual for its attack. The teeth snap toward her throat in a sudden, but almost thought-out, rage. Rae just manages to roll her left arm upwards as the beast's jaw clamps shut and is caught about the shoulders. For several moments the hounds tosses its head about with a mop of unruly braids and two stout little legs hanging from either side of its jaw.

For a passing moment, Rae wonders why she didn't light herself on fire before immediately realizing that outcome wouldn't be any better than this one. As best she can she kicks at the monster's jaw until it releases its hold and tosses her off to the side.

Before she can fully assess her injuries or try to scramble to her feet, Rae points her hammer directly toward the face of this brutish creature. If he comes after her, he (hopefully) will find a warhammer instead of a dwarf lodged in his throat.

"Drop her!" Galiena tries commanding the beast as it shakes Rae, but her voice is lost in the fray and she rushes forward, gripping her mace in two hands and tries to smash it into the creature, knowing it could just as easily turn toward her next.

Almost at the same time Naven manages to get his crossbow loaded and aims it again at the hound. "Be gone, devil beast!" he screams, firing his shot into the melee below.

Edit:

Naven's bolt flies into the dirt, missing the beast and also, thankfully, missing Galiena. Her own wild swing goes under the hound as it flings Rae to the side and turns it's now bloodied maw toward her.

(Xepil's up, then Rae!)

Xepil winces a little when he sees the beast strike at the dwarf lady. "Oof, grr! That looked like it hurt, grrr." Thankfully dwarves are a stout sort, or so he remembers whenever his platoon had the misfortune of fighting them. Always had at least some casualties-- Xepil will fully admit that the top reason why he deserted the Hobgoblin army was because he didn't want to fight anymore dwarves.

Reminiscing aside, even though he noticed that the beast noticed him he was not moving from his spot. He was going to milk his height advantage for all its worth! And so he loaded another flaming dart and fired!

As the beast turns its attention to the cleric, Rae roars to her feet in a fit of rage. No way is some cursed monster going to deter her from a good fight; she'd at least go down swinging.

A searing pain tears through her shoulder and down her arm, but the plucky dwarf ignores it as she hefts her weapon and swings with all her might toward the beast's hind leg. With any luck, she'll catch it at the knee and at least partially cripple the thing.

Edit:
... well.
At least I wasn't aiming very near Galiena...

((They aren't part of the WhiteBox rules... so unless you guys really want to include critical fumbles, I wasn't planning on it!))

The beast lunges toward Galiena and out of Rae's reach, the dwarf's weapon finding thin air where the hound's hind leg had just been. Its claws stretched outward as if to tear into the woman, but just as it seems about to reach the cleric, Xepil's flaming dart sunk deep into the creature's neck. Its momentum carries it into Galiena, knocking her over, but rolls past her, then collapses into a heap.

More of the nightwatchmen that had come from farther away were just rushing onto the scene, ready to do battle with the hound.

The hound itself dissolves into oily black mists.

"New folks in town, eh?" said Master Jenks, rubbing dirty fingers through his greasy black beard. "Josh, why don't you go check 'em out for us, huh?" the man said, shoving their youngest member out the door despite the fact that it was already past dark. Jenks liked to keep in the know about everything that went on in Hirot. If there was some way for him to make some money off these newcomers, he wanted to know about it.

---

Soon after, Josh would hear sounds of battle and commotion coming from the western side of Hirot. The Hound! It had returned to attack the town for the first time since the sacrifices every three nights had begun. If he goes to investigate, he'd arrive in time to see the three newcomers (a human female, a dwarven female, & a male hobgoblin!) and two of the nightwatchmen battling the monster. One of the nightwatchmen and the dwarf are injured. The hound is brought down from a flaming dart and within moments its body dissolves into oily black mists...

((I'm not overly attached to crit fails, so that's fine. The randomness they introduce into a game can be fun - until literally everything is going against you and your irritating dice decide to make it all worse, every time you roll...))

Rae grunts as her momentum is not broken, and she's spun about a quarter turn. The pain in her shoulder causes her to drop her weapon as she comes to the end of its swing. Hands on her knees, she doubles over to catch her breath. But being of the prideful sort and not wanting to look bad in front of humans and hobgoblins, she quickly regains her composure and stands herself upright.

Her warhammer is lifted up, but not jaintily onto her shoulder as usual. She makes her way over to the cleric and the area where that horrid beast had dissolved away. "Ya 'right, lassy?" she asks of Galiena. "Nasty teeth. Glad t'see ya avoided 'em."

She turns and simply nods at Xepil; he's just earned his way to a load of respect despite his race. But she won't overdo it either - no sense in letting it get to his head.

Her attention then turns back to the beast and its disappearance. Is there any of the oily, misty substance left? Or any blood from its wounds? "This how 't always leaves?" she questions of the watchmen gathered around.

"Graahahaha!!" Savage Hobgoblin laughter came from the watch tower as Xepil saw his last flaming atl-atl dart strike true and fell the beast. He waved his spear launcher down and gave a toothy grin to Rae when the dwarf nodded at him. Wow! Respect from a dwarf! That was definitely a first for the young Hobgoblin.

Running back from the catwalk he looked around to check on his companions. "Everyone alright!? Grrr."

Though his eyes eventually fell on the inky blackness that was left by the beast and his eyes widened in slightly panicked surprise. "Wait, where's the corpse?? Grrr! There's supposed to be a corpse! Grrr!"

Josh peers at the group of people and other creatures from the shadows of the wall. That hound is gone by the looks of it. I never did want to come out here either! he thinks.

Naven helps the injured Mocle down the catwalk.

"I'm alright. Was that one of the creatures Nightfrost had mentioned?," the cleric asks, climbing back to her feet quickly, adrenaline still kicking. Not that she wished to appear uneducated in the matter of supernatural beasts, but she'd never actually seen a hellhound or a werebeast before.

"Rae, would you accept the blessings of Ulesh?" she asks as she looks toward the oily mist as well. It dissipates completely as the 3 adventurers look at the spot. No blood soaks the ground there.

"This how 't always leaves?"

A stern, hawkish man sporting a long mustache and fierce eyes seems to be the leader of the watch and lowers his sword when he sees the hound has already been defeated... for tonight. Two parallel scars run across the left side of his face. "A few times," he answers, looking at them (including the hobgoblin) with respect. "Usually it kills 1 or 2 people and then leaves again before we can hurt it enough to do what you just did to it. Hirot can sleep easy for the rest of the night... but it'll be back again tomorrow."

"So it ain't dead yet, grrr, figures!" Xepil said with no small amount of frustration and scratched his back with his atl-atl, using the weapon like a back scratcher.

"This is bad, grrrr. I saw the thing looking at me right before I shot it, grrr. It knew that I was taking pot shots at it, grrr. If it comes back I won't be able to pull the same trick on it again, grrr. It'll probably go straight for our archers-- or even our cleric, grrr."

The Hobgoblin looked at the others. "We have to take it out in its lair, grrr. Tonight if at all possible, since it'll be weakened. Grrrr."

"Aye, miss, if ya'd like! I won't say 'no' to it's for sure," Rae replies to Galiena's offer. "Lucky ta have ya 'round! An' I ain't too read up on all them critters the elf lady mentioned. Darned if it kin really be called a hound though. I s'pose it's one o' them things..."

She turns her attention to the leader and mutters a bit to herself at his descriptions. Before she can respond, that crazy hobgoblin pipes up about hunting the creature down in its lair. "Aye, not a bad idea, that. I've certainly heard worse. 'S't always come back wi' it's full strength, then? An' have ye any idea what 'tis or where 't goes? ... I wonder if there's anybody 'tain't never been seen when it's about...?" Her questions are a mix of being aimed at the watchmen and rambling thoughts just spilling out instead of staying inside her own head where they might be better suited to live out their momentary lives.

Josh walks back to the base. "There was a fight with the Hound outside the walls. And the newcomers are pretty mild fellas in the money," Josh told Master Jenks.

Galiena hung her mace back on her belt and laid both hands upon the dwarf's wound. "Hold still," she says and then prays to Ulesh, channeling his healing magic to close and repair Rae's wounds.

The leader of the nightwatch, Nothan, pulled at his long mustache as he looked at Xepil, probably wondering why a Hobgoblin is here trying to aid them with this problem. A few months ago, he might have made a fuss about it, but after losing several of his own men to the beast, he's not about to go turning down help from unexpected sources. "Iraco, that's the Jarl's Hunt Master, figures it lives somewhere in the Sunken Fens, dangerous terrain to the north and west of here. He lost two men there trying to track it down."

His gaze turns to the dwarf as he realizes what she's implying, for he has harbored similar suspicions. "You think someone here controls it?" he asks her, not volunteering his own opinion. Though, a few of his men volunteer theirs.... "The Jarl's pet sorcerer, I'd bet." "Gotta be that mad widow Ymae... everyone knows she's a witch!"

---

"Guess that weasel Sylle Ru was wrong 'bout the sacrifices keepin' it away, huh? Who'd the hound get tonight?" Jenks asked to Josh, barely looking up from the game of cards he was playing with Oleen and Catkins.

"None as far as I know. It either died from the attack group or fled with weird vodoo magic," Josh replied, taking out his dagger and sharping it on a small rock, "I didn't see the whole thing, but there was two or so nightwatch men, a dwarf and a few others I didn't recognize."

Rae feels a warmth run through her shoulder as Galiena prays a blessing of healing over it. She rolls her arm a bit when the cleric is finished and hefts her weapon - no pain. "Lah, lass, thank'ee! Good as new!" She then turns to the leader of the watchman with a wink, "Your words, not mine! Yahr sure the beast will nae return tonight then? Anythin' else we ought ta know before hunting it up?"

Xepil, who by now seems to be perfectly comfortable interacting with humans, gives Nothan a weird look as he mentions already having tried to track down the beast. "And you lost two men hunting it down you say? Grrrr." His eyes raise a bit. "How exactly? Did the beast get 'em or is the terrain there is that dangerous? Grrr." The Hob doesn't seem to be too interested trying to find out who's controlling the beast in town, since tracking and hunting is more his style rather than investigation and espionage.

"Both," Nothan answered Xepil, "or rather one of each. I did not accompany them, but I was told Barrow was killed by the hound and Haelf was lost in the Fens. It is not a place to be taken lightly."

His gaze turned to Rae and shook his head, "I don't think it'll be back tonight, but how to slay it? Wish I knew." He pulled at his moustache and then added, "But I'm afraid the gates cannot be opened until dawn except at the direct order of the Jarl."

---

"They bested it, huh?" Jenks said with interest.

"It bite anyone?" Tocs, who was busy playing cards with the others, asked. "I 'eard if you get bit, you'll get turned into a wolf."