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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1561476" data-attributes="member: 1210">Dog PackThe halflings’ first warning that they’re being stalked is a loud caterwauling sound that echoes across the shrub-dotted plains in the afternoon.“What was that??” exclaims Phenol Sandybanks, drawing forth his longspear.Our heroes grow tense and move a little quicker.  They are paralleling the line of the mountains, and decide to seek out a better battle ground- somewhere they can have a cliff wall at their backs.  Hurriedly, they clamber up a foothill and onto a ridge.  They find themselves on a stone-strewn path that zigs and zags from one side of the ridge to the next, and as the sky starts to turn purple with the setting sun the party hears another howling whine.  “That noise is really creepy,” shudders Ed. “Look!” cries Trinia.Movement; something large and muscular slinks from one shadow to another, momentarily skylined against the clouds as it passes over a rise.  Feline, dark-skinned, whatever it is, it’s clearly headed in their direction.  Several of our heroes fall back; Sandy readies his spear.  Airhead Ed draws out her bow.Federico calls out, “Hello!” in a loud voice.  “We’re just peaceful travelers- we mean no harm!”The cat-thing rises onto two legs, showing a surprisingly humanoid profile for a moment.  Then it lets out an incredibly loud, ear-splitting screech.  Trinia gasps and grabs her head.  Blood starts to pour from her ears and nose.  She staggers, legs going weak...Sandy rushes forward and jabs as the cat-thing drops to all four and leaps down towards them.  Ed starts a wailing of her own, crying and stomping her feet, and it’s so loud that it overwhelms the caterwauling of the cat-creature.*  Then she starts firing her bow at the creature, dropping back as it moves forward.  Federico fires his crossbow, but both of them miss the creature.  Then the dog pack attacks.Federico’s dog Ethel is in the lead, but Trinia has a wolf and Brother He has a riding dog as well.  The three of them, naturally aroused by a feline opponent, tear into it, barking furiously.  Trinia moves in a moment later with a shillelagh, and Martini fires and lands an arrow in the cat beast’s side.  It yowls like an angry tomcat, then slashes Ethel across the snout and bites her along the face!  The poor dog merely redoubles his assault, and Federico moves forward and uses his bardic magic to cure some of her wounds.  Trinia’s wolf, meanwhile, pulls the caterwaul from its feet.  Savagely the dogs set on the prone beast, and Airhead Ed springs in with her rapier, sticking her blade up beneath the ribcage and into its vitals.  The cat monster is bleeding from several wounds and is starting to weaken and slow, but it keeps trying to slay poor Ethel.  From its position on the ground, however, it seems incapable of landing a blow, and in another few seconds the dog pack has won the day.  They tear the caterwaul literally to pieces until the halflings finally call them off.“Do you think it had a lair?” wonders Federico.“We could look, but it might entail a lot of climbing,” Martini answers doubtfully.“Never mind,” Federico says hurriedly.“Besides, look at those clouds,” Trinia points out.  Indeed, the sky is starting to cover itself in dark clouds.  “That’s rain for sure.  I’d say in an hour or so.”Her prediction is borne out.  Soon a chilly drizzle is falling on the clan.  The general consensus is that a nice comfortable shelter- a cave, an outcropping, something- is pretty much required, so the group travels on for a time.  Soon a small structure looms out of the night ahead of them on the trail.  Nervously, the group approaches; and then when they get close enough they all relax.  “It’s a Black Cottage!” exclaims Sandy.  “Just what we need!”Eagerly, the party lets themselves in to the building.  The Black Cottages are a group of way posts that the Strogassian Empire set up for travelers to rest in when they might otherwise be caught in the wilds in inclement weather.  Though neither stocked with provisions nor patrolled regularly, they are often visited by traveling military units, tax collectors and the like, and so are usually pretty safe for a night or two.  Not always, of course; but this one is.While the rain pounds down outside our heroes rest peacefully...*Ed, as a bard, is geared toward drama-queen style performances.  This was a countersong.Next Time: What is the secret ingredient of the jam?  Will even Leanne Bakeswell know?  How will our heroes find out?  And what’s Benjy Peachtree up to?</blockquote>

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