[DH] Silver for Monsters (23/04)

I think today has contained the simultaneously luckiest and unluckiest moment I’ve experienced since arriving in Kantas. But before I describe this particular happy magical accident let me talk about the events that surrounded it.

I had decided to wander back into Daring Heights, it’s been a while since I last updated myself on the goings on in town, and of course I also wanted to seek out any adventuring work. I was worried that Phalange, the skeletal cat I seem to have befriended, might have been spooked by the lively town but they seemed quite content on my shoulders (with the occasional head scratch of course). While in the Ettin I managed to find work helping some farmers discover what was killing their livestock, poor souls, with Milo and Serpentine and Crowrustle.  

On the way to the farmers’ lands we stumbled upon a market with quite the array of stalls, and you’ll never guess what, there was a flower stall! They even stocked some rarer plants I’ve not encountered before which included the spider blooms I immediately purchased (there was also some claymore mushrooms, but they sounded much too violent for my liking). I don’t know where the other three went, but they somehow walked straight past the best stall in the whole market! 

Once I finally found them we had to hurry to the entry gate of the farm where we met Jim, the farmer who had been having the livestock trouble. He said the latest attack had been just yesterday with his sheep as victims, and then immediately started aggressively blaming his neighbours the Burkes. Now I understand that this was certainly a stressful time for him, but it’s not going to help anyone by pointing the blaming finger like this. He didn’t even seem that concerned that his other neighbours the Hoopers had suddenly disappeared around the same time that his livestock troubles started. None of us seemed that convinced by his accusations, especially after looking at the sheep that were clearly attacked by an angry wild animal, and prints that Milo found led to the abandoned Hooper house.

  

Between the efforts of Serpentine’s familiar and Crowrustle we were able to eventually get into the abandoned but well secured house and continue our investigation. Nothing seemed that interesting at first glance so I continued upstairs into one of the bedrooms where I found a loose floorboard, a prime hiding spot for interesting things! Before I reached for this floorboard I remembered that hiding spots are also frequently protected by painful traps, so I decided to cast a protective spell on myself just in case.  

This is where it all went downhill for me.  

I’ve never had a magical surge quite like it, there was spells, auras, wards, you name it, if it was magical it was probably somehow involved. They were bouncing off the walls and all around the house, I’m sure a cube creature with one eye emerged at some point. To top off this colossal amount of bad luck I grow another feather beard, this one has peacock feathers in it which is nice, but still embarrasing!! As I look up mortified by the havoc I’ve created and the potential damage I’ve done, Serpentine is unharmed and just standing in the doorway openly laughing at me. Looking around I realised I also had amazing good luck on my side as I haven’t harmed a single object or creature around me, I honestly couldn’t believe it and even had to sit down for a bit.  

So after all that Serpentine finally investigates the floorboard and finds a silver ring and poem of sorts. Talked about The Silver Man, bonds, debts and the end of the stars. It was all a bit beyond me if I’m honest. Milo and Crowrustle didn’t find much else of help in the rest of the house so we sent back to the dead sheep to see if the woods further on had some better clues.  

Don’t know how I didn’t see it before but I found some beast tracks that led us to this cabin in a clearing deeper in the woods. At this point Crowrustle is getting agitated about hearing something angry in the distance, and the warning is very much appreciated because the angry something turns out to be a werewolf and two direwolves which are now in the clearing with us. 

Serpentine makes quick work of stopping the direwolves in their tracks with a clever hypnotic spell, leaving just the werewolf to deal with. Between all of us we manage to just about hold up against it (although Milo did go down briefly, nothing a quick healing potion can’t fix) and as we have it surrounded some distressed women emerges from the woods. She begged us to stop hurting him, she wasn’t specific so I’m assuming she meant the werewolf, so I pop it to sleep and Crowrustle snaps these magical looking silver manacles on it. I have no clue where they were hiding them this whole time.  

As they do this the werewolf instantly transforms back into a sleeping man who we find out is the distressed lady’s husband, Mr Hooper himself. According to Mrs Hooper he’s been transformed for a couple months after failing to settle some debt with The Silver Man, and she’s been out here in the woods trying to help by leading him to sheep to eat.  

We’re eventually making sense of all of this when yet another person suddenly emerges into the clearing, The Silver Man himself! He thanks us for our work in capturing Mr Hooper, rewarding us with silver, but says he was promised a soul and that he’s here to collect. At this point we all jumped in to negotiate with him for better options, I guess none of us wanted to be accidental debt collectors.  

Four promised favours later and we all get to eventually leave the clearing, with the direwolves and The Silver Man nowhere to be seen. And good riddance to them! 

After all that carnage, happy magical accident(s) included, I think I’ll stay out of trouble for a while and tend to the small garden I have started. I’m hoping there’s a way I can plant the spider blooms I found, they would be quite an exciting addition to the clearing I have started to call home. 

Until next time, 

BB