Last night was Atlantis! Magic, mayhem, and ghille suits!
When last left our heroes, they were in a barn in Dar, and a couple of them had been shot by some fucker with a thunder lance. They spend the night resting up, and close to dawn Eithne takes the form of a fox and goes running around to see if she can find the guy on the hill from where he shot Akala.
Eithne doesn't find him, but does find a trap that he set and some scant evidence of his passing. Looking down the hill to the docks, she sees a crowd of people. She scampers down and takes on her true form, and finds that the boatman who took them across the channel from the Dardanus Institute is lying on the ground bleeding. His throat has been cut, but the artery missed by inches. Eithne uses magic to stop the bleeding and then stitches him up as best she can. He tells her that a man in a cloak, his face covered by a scarf, approached and cut his throat with a quick movement, and then stole their boat.
A kindly villager puts the boatmen on a donkey and leads him with Eithne back to Chize's barn so that Akala (a more skilled medic) can have a look at him. The heroes get more information from the boatman, and learn that the assassin was human (or at least, not an Andamen or Lemurian), had brown eyes, and was carrying something long and thing wrapped in cloth, probably his thunder lance. Akala examines the wound and guesses that the weapon used was a tjaluk, a curved dagger with a knuckle guard. Unfortunately these weapons are common in Jambu and Gondwana, so that doesn't narrow things down much.
The heroes figure that the assassin must have already been tracking them before they got to Dar, meaning he might have been on their track as far back as Gorgos. According to the boatmen he sailed south, toward Dardanus, but also toward Gorgos. Either way, he's got a good six hour head start, and as such is out of range of Thanos' magic to scry. For now, they're going to have let this guy go. They still have the Skull Wolf to deal with, however.
They decide to go hunting in the olive groves, since that's where they found it last night. Before they go out hunting, though, they do some prep. Eithne casts a quicksand spell to the turn the ground beneath the creature into a trap, and "hangs" it so she can call on it later. Thanos takes advantage of his companion Thanatos' new status as a familiar and binds several spells into him: A warding spell to prevent the creature from teleporting, a damage spell to flay flesh from bone, and a wall of bones and fire to protect them. He also summons up a demon to fight for them. Imani, for her part, spends the day making a ghille suit out of grass, sticks, and mud - it won't help much if she's moving, but if she's stationary she looks like part of the landscape.
The heroes head out at dusk, and as they move into the olive grove the creature attacks! The Skull Wolf leaps forward and snaps at Thanos, but misses. Imani hurls her spear and pierces it, but it vanishes! Akala, up in the air, scouts the air and spots the monster, and shouts directions to the others.
Thanos casts the teleport ward at it, Imani retrieves her spear and flings it, and Akala follows up with a javelin. It vanishes again, despite the ward, but Akala spots it. Eithne casts a spell to create bells on its tail. The creature lurches forward and bits Thanos, tossing him up in the air and biting, but he grits his teeth and calls up the damage spell to throw at the creature. This time the teleport fails it!
Eithne casts her quicksand spell and the Skull Wolf sinks into the muck. Imani runs up its back and stabs it with her mong, and the demon that Thanos summoned leaps on its back and claws it. Akala flings another javelin and puts out one of its eyes, and it teleports again! Thanos falls into the quicksand, but the bells on the monster's tail give it away. Eithne sees it pawing at the javelin in its eye and gets an idea. She casts a spell on the fragment in its head, making it expand greatly in size. The Skull Wolf's head bursts, and it falls dead, half its skull gone.
The heroes take a breath. The demon helps Thanos out of the quicksand and then asks to be dismissed (which Thanos agrees to). Eithne sends up a magical flare to let the villagers know that the beast is dead. The farmers bring the heroes to their town square, and everything drinks, eats, and makes merry. The heroes decide to stay on Dar for a few days and heal up before embarking on their next quest.
And somewhere, the assassin plots...
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