Mercenary Command
With the ambushers prevented from doing too great a harm to the group, you all put your efforts into the workings of the locked door. After a short period of time, you realised that you could try and “brute force” the code, and began to try different combinations. After a few unsuccessful attempts, there was a slight hissing emitting from the door itself, but no further indication of any problems
Deciding to press on with your attempts when nothing further happened, you tried once more. All of a sudden, a great gout of gas emitted from the edges of the door’s lock, and the most nimble of you backed away out of its sudden appearance. Of those of you who couldn’t move away, one managed to suppress the overwhelming nausea and cramps that wracked the other. Seeing their pain, however, Aldrich passed a hand over their chest and a warm, comforting glow spread out from where his hand had touched – the poison was gone!
In the moments of investigation before the gas, Aldrich and Atticus had come to realise the pattern of the lock – it was a matter of finding where the four patterns had an odd number of shadowed tiles. With a few more attempts (and another near poisonous gas incident), the correct combination was found, and the group awaited the slow grinding of the door as it rose to reveal the first fully lit room you had found.
Waiting inside were three ragged, scared looking swordsmen, who were clearly uncertain about how this was going to end for them. At the back of the long room another stalked - a man of grim determination and foul temper – the mercenary commander that Smitty had seen previously. Striding forwards with purpose, he shifted and changed as others had, but with a natural flow to it –this was someone who was well accustomed to the transformation. With his wolf companion at his side, he pulled a longsword from his scabbard as he went.
With a yell, the group poured into the room, quickly subduing the three swordsmen & wolf before hammering the Commander with blows. Though the Commander was a strong adversary who laid heavy damage into some of the group, it wasn’t enough and he sought to withdraw, his wounds nearly overtaking even his iron hard resilience.
Fleeing up a previously unseen passage at the back of the room, the wolf form of the werebeast gave him a fleetness of foot that most would be unable to keep up with – he was going to get away. Leaping into action, Rasiu sprinted across into the hidden stairwell and caught up with the creature. Bringing the thin, flexible metal staff around in whistling blow, there was a sharp crack as it struck the back of the beast and his spine shattered.
Crumpling to the ground, his life force draining away, the commander pulled himself up the stairs by his hands only, screaming up the stairway.
“Alpha! Avenge me!”