Pugmire: Guards, Guards, Guards, and Worms

Once again, we return to the abandoned, though by no means empty, Castle Transylvanian-Hound. 

Our noble Pioneers have awakened in their Private Kennel, courtesy of Petunia Pibble, to discover that their compatriot Boomer Pitbull has somehow been transplanted into the body of his...unspecified relative, Max Pitbull. Boomer is achey and uncomfortable; Peppa Papillon recommends rolling in the mud a bit to ease the joints. 

Petunia wonders if she can dispel this magic, but isn't sure what it would do - if Boomer gets ejected from this body, where does he go? Boomer says he's game to try it, and Petunia casts the spell. Boomer immediately feels like something is being slowly and painfully ripped from his body. Petunia continues the magic and Boomer grits his teeth, but then his snoot starts bleeding and Petunia stops. 

What could do this? Petunia knows of no spell common to Artisan or Shepherd that could, but has heard this kind of thing is more the purview of the rodent Cult of Labo Tor. But then Gelert Sausagedog recalls reading stories from the War of Cats and Dogs of a device called the "Inversion Wheel." Strap people in, spin the wheel, and they randomly redistribute minds and souls. So if you strapped just two people in, they'd switch. And Max Pitbull is a veteran of said war...

The dogs consider their next move. Maybe better to head back to Houndton and get help, try and figure out what happened? But Dire Newfoundland points out that if they do that, they've lost a lot of time and they aren't sure that Max isn't here already. Better to press on and clear the castle. And with that, they continue to the next room.

The next room is a huge main hall, almost entirely empty. A few wall sconces, an iron chandelier, and a big wooden door at the far end carved with the symbol of House Transylvanian-Hound. But as the Pioneers enter, they hear a bell sound, and someone yells "Guards! Guards!"

And either spectral dogs, each wielding halberds, appear, and charge, ready to defend their home. 

The battle is joined! Dire runs out in the fray, swinging his hammer, and is immediately surrounded by the guard-dogs. But while Dire might not be able to lay waste to his enemies the way Boomer can, what he is good at is avoiding blows. He parries with shield and hammer, and his mighty floofs absorb the rest of the hits. Sausagedog capers after him, strikes one of the guards, and the vanishes into the shadows. 

Boomer reaches down into the depths of his soul to find his rage...and he manages. He draws the longsword from his erstwhile body's belt and slashes about, felling two of the guards immediately! But the Pioneers watch in horror as two more appear at the other end of the room.

Peppa summons up her Magic Stick, and Petunia lets loose a Sonic Boom to knock these dogs back. The battle continues, but every time one of the guards is destroyed, a new one appears. The battle shifts to the far end of the room (leaving Boomer to run, wheezing, trying to catch up), and Petunia yells to get through the door. One of the guards responds "they're trying to get to the door! Block it! Defend the Lord-Mayor!"

Peppa calls up her Ghost Yorkies, and standing near the door means that the guards are immediately chewed and weakened, meaning a quick slash from Sausagedog or a bonk from Dire will drop them...but they reappear almost immediately. Sausagedog uses his dust of disappearance and slips past them, into the next room, and immediately wishes he hadn't. The room is ankle deep in some kind of brown swill that smells completely foul, and something moves within in. He falls back - this battle needs to be won first.

Finally Petunia realizes that these dogs will never stop as long as they're defending their home. She tells the others they need to be ordered to stand down, and Sausagedog tries ("I am a visiting noble from House Daschund!") but they don't buy it. But then Dire draws himself up to his full height, raises his shield, and limmed by his Shield of Man's Faith, bellows, "IN THE NAME OF THE CHURCH OF MAN, STAND DOWN!"

The guards, cowed by the presence of the paladin before them, step back. "Why are you here?" one asks.

"WE ARE HERE TO SEE..." Dire searches his memory for a name and comes up blank. "THE LORD-MAYOR!" That apparently works. The guards fade away, and the Pioneers take a breath. 

Sausagedog relates what's in the next room, and they open the doors to have a look. Peppa and Dire are horrified to realize that this room is in fact a chapel to Man, obviously defiled now. Dire suggests that they just burn the goop, or at least try - if it's flammable, great, if not, they haven't lost anything. Petunia considers and decides that's actually pretty sound logic, and hurls a bit of fire at it.

An explosion blows them back, deafening Boomer and Peppa, who were kind of in the path of it. When the foul-smelling smoke clears, the goop has been burned off, but a figure rises up in the middle of the room. It's taller even than Dire, but seems to be composed entirely of huge, slithering worms! The worm-monster advances, and Dire casts Sacred Flame at it. Several worms fall off, burning with white fire. Definitely a demon, then.

Boomer tries to find his rage again...and cannot. His body is tired and spent. Sausagedog vanishes into the shadows and hurls a rock at the monster, knocking a few more worms off, and Petunia hits it with a corrosive arrow! The demon lunges at Dire, opening its mouth and forming teeth from wriggling worms! It "bites", but the worms just get lost in Dire's floof ("I'm gonna have to brush so long tonight"). Peppa conjures up her Magic Stick and bonks it, and the stick goes right through it, all the way to the floor, destroying the creature.

The Pioneers pick their way through the poop and dead worms ("that was easier than I thought it was going to be," muses Sausagedog, unwisely tempting fate). They find themselves next in what was once barracks. Decaying piles of wood that were probably once bunks adorn the corners. They consider sleeping for the night, but then realize that if they give Max that much time, who knows what he'll do? If there's a back way out, he might escape. Better to take a quick rest and press on. 

Peppa casts a Prayer of Healing, and Petunia searches the room. Under a loose stone, she finds an crumbled, decaying note wrapped around a ring and tied up with string: 

Sausagedog listens and finds himself a little teary, but blames it on the dust. Petunia finds the ring within and identifies it as a Ring of Protection, and gives it to Peppa to hold onto. After they all finish their rest, they move on.

The next room was once residential apartments, they think, but there's nothing left here except a couple thousand of those red-winged moths. They warily avoid them, and find a door at the far end of the room that leads out to another courtyard! 

Nothing here but high grass, it seems, and a staircase that leads up to the door to the main tower. But in the grass, they find exsanguinated corpses of birds and rats and other fauna. Sausagedog remembers stories of an Unseen creature called the Blood Drinker, that hunts by night and, well, drinks blood. There's about an hour before sunset...better to check the next door.

As they approach, Dire hears voices and shushes the others. Listening closely, he hears a female voice that sounds familiar to him:

"I don't care. I want Boomer dead. I agreed to help to have my revenge on that-"

And then another voice Dire knows, that of Boomer himself, but with the cadence and inflection of Max Pitbull. 

"You'll not be harming my body! It's old, but it is a national treasure of Pugmire!" 

The argument continues, but then a third voice interjects, and this one chills Dire to his core. It is the voice of nightmares, the voice of the shadow that frightens pups. "You'll not fight amongst yourselves until they are dead. Whatever force prevents them from leaving also restricts us. They come soon. The Pioneers must die."

Dire relays this to the others quietly, and Peppa casts a Protection from Evil spell on them. Dire hears the third voice again: "Hark. They are here. Be ready."

"Welp," says Dire, and kicks in the door. Before them, a huge circular room, and in the middle, a gigantic wooden wheel with multiple leather restraints - the Wheel of Inversion! Three beings stand in front of it. 

One is Amelia Fold, the feline criminal who sworn vengeance against Boomer when he killed Luigi Husky. She snarls and spits, and then vanishes into the shadows. 

The second is Max Pitbull, wearing the body of Boomer. He pulls Boomer's maul from his back and his eyes take on the same fiery brightness as they always do before he rages.

The third is a huge creature that seems to be cat from the waist up, but the rest of its body is an immense serpent. It coils up in front of the Wheel to watch the battle. 

The Pioneers brace themselves for what might well be the worst fight they've ever experienced.