Pugmire: RABIES!

Arf! Woof! Snu? Here's last time.

Our heroic doggos are in the ruins of what seems to have been a prison for Bad Dogs. Peppa Papillon, the Acolyte of the Church of Man, is overcome by the feeling of shame and sits in a corner, continually reciting the Code of Man (her player was out, though I have no reason to assume it was because of mystical existential shame). The others leave her in the cell they fell into - she seems to be safe there - and continue to explore.

The ruins consist of a single hallway with ten cells, five on each side, like the one the dogs fell into. A couple of them are full of debris, but most of them are intact, more or less. Petunia Pibble checks them to make sure they're all empty and all the same, and they are...until she reaches the last one on the left.

That cell has a whining sound emanating from it. As the dogs get closer, they start to feel strange. Petunia, Gelert Sausagedog, and Dire Newfoundland all feel feverish and thirsty, and as they look into the cell it gets worse. Behind them, Boomer Pitbull feels it as well, but shakes it off. And then, the other three dogs turn to Boomer with murder in their eyes!

Sausagedog vanishes into the shadows and appears behind Boomer and stabs him! Dire runs up and bonks Boomer with his warhammer, and Petunia, not caring about collateral damage, lines up and fires an elemental beam across all three of them! The three afflicted dogs start foaming at the mouth, and Boomer, horrified, realizes that if he rages, he can defend himself...but he knows he won't be able to pull his punches and he'll almost certainly kill his friends.

To make matters worse, Boomer (and only Boomer) sees a skeletal, ghostly dog emerge from the cell, flow over to him, and bite. The teeth go right through him, but the pull out his life and leave him weakened. 

Petunia throws another beam, this time made of lightning, and it blinds and deafens Boomer. He runs, blindly, just trying to get away, and smashes through the cell door opposite him and hits the wall. Now in a box, he turns in time to get stabbed by Sausagedog again, and then raked by the skele-ghost! Boomer strikes the ghost with his hammer, but it just goes right through the creature. Cursing, Boomer is struck by a batch of seeking stingers from Petunia! Boomer falls, choking out "I didn't...want to hurt you". But now the madness ends, and the other dogs can see the ghost.

Sausagedog, who of course is standing right there, hits the ghost with his hand axe. Unlike Boomer's hammer the axe is a masterwork, and the magic in it allows it to strike the ghost! The dog-creature yelps and whirls around to bite, but Petunia hits it with another barrage of seeking stingers and it collapses, wheezing, before melting away into nothing.

Boomer pulls himself up ("ow"). The others apologize, but Boomer is understanding ("Happens to all of us"). Petunia searches the cell from which the ghost emerged, and finds an ancient collar, apparently made of the same quasi-plastic material as the vestment they found in the ruin in the north, as it hasn't decayed. It has a metal clasp and a little metal medal on it, but it's far too rusted to read any markings. 

The dogs decide to get out of here. Any further excavation is going to require time and tools. Petunia hurls all of them out with her arcane lasso spell, and they find that Tizzy Dachshund is watching them. They tell her what happened and she reports that there have been stories of pitiful wails and howls in this valley before the earthquake, but nothing like that!

The dogs need rest and Boomer needs a bit of medical attention, so they decide to stop at Castle Ridgeback (Tizzy says that the Lady Ridgeback is a reasonable sort) rather than go back to Maxville or on to Houndton. They knock on the immense wooden doors and, once they identify themselves as Pioneers, are let in and given food and drink. The dog they talk to, a red-furred, lean guard named Pinny Ridgeback, confirms the stories of strange cries in the valley, but he doesn't know why. They mention that a dog named Arrowak Foxhound supposedly witnessed the earthquake. Pinny knows him; he's often found in the pub in Houndton. 

Once they've rested up, they decide to go on to Houndton (with the exception of Peppa; she decides to stay behind at the chapel in Castle Ridgeback and collect herself). They go down the hill into the town. It's pretty diverse - mostly dogs of the various Hound families, but also cats and rats and even the occasional bird. The dogs reflect that they're not far from Waterdog Port, so that makes sense. 

Boomer finds a streetside stall selling smoked turkey legs and buys a couple. The vendor undercharges him, but he doesn't think anything of it. He rejoins his friends chomping on a bone, and they find the local pub - the Worthless Mole - without much trouble. They go inside and get mostly respectful receptions - dogs nod and raise glasses to Dire, a group of Dachshunds at the back call to Sausagedog when he enters (he rolls his eyes and ignores them), there's some murmuring when Petunia enters. Boomer is off taking a leak and doesn't come in with the rest. Petunia asks the waitress where they might find Arrowak, and she points him out. Petunia sends him a drink with a request to join them at their table.

Arrowak cheerfully joins them, downing his beer. Boomer enters shortly thereafter, and the whole place gets quiet. Petunia hears the crowd mentioning "Pitbull," but also "Boomer" - apparently he's known here? 

In any case, Arrowak is happy to tell his story, as long as the beer keeps flowing (and the dogs make sure it does). Arrowak tells them that he was out in the valley that night and saw the earthquake - but he saw a cat with a stick! Like, a big stick (he nods to Petunia's staff). The cat was standing on a hilltop and he saw her - he thinks it was a her - holding up the staff and then the ground started to shake and roil and the ruins came to the surface! 

The dogs ask if they remember anything about the cat, and (once his beer is refilled), Arrowak says that her ears were folded over, rather than pointed up. Dire growls slightly - could this have been Amelia Fold, the onetime henchcat of Luigi Husky of the Riverwall Mafia? Amelia swore vengeance against Boomer a long time ago, after all... 

Petunia offhandedly says that they should get some dinner, and Arrowak cheerfully agrees to this invitation. The dogs eat, but when it comes time to pay, Boomer finds they are undercharged again. He asks why this time - not that he minds the discount - and the waitress tells them that Pitbulls always get a discount. It's always been that way. Dire asks if that's voluntary or coerced, but she says it's traditional and she doesn't know why.

The dogs find that Houndton has a Pioneer Guild House, run by a dog named Mawrln Wolfhound and his wife, Bunny Basset. He welcomes them in and they talk about what they've seen, look over the collar they found, and theorize that perhaps the dog whose tormented spirit they found might have been kept in that cell as a quarantine. Mawrln remembers stories of such an ailment, a disease that makes dogs violent and thirsty but inevitably killed them. Man had means of preventing it, but not of curing it - perhaps this unfortunate ghost could mimic its symptoms. 

Disquieted by this possibility, the dogs decide to bed down for the night. Once again, they wonder about the abandoned Castle Transylvanian Hound, and whether Amelia (or the Nagayaga!) has taken up residence. That's a quest for tomorrow, though, and definitely one they'll need Peppa for!