Rolled 11, 10, 12, 19, 18 = 70 (5d20)
>>5884801As the werewolf’s fury looms over you, casting Death’s own deep, dark shadow, you return again to the nature of that rage. This dire werewolf… WHY does it have such fury? You’ve never crossed or wronged it. You have nothing it wants. It looks a little underfed, perhaps, but starvation and appetite alone cannot explain such aggression—not when it has primary been rewarded with molten, fiery blood it cannot consume. No, the chains of the unseelie—physical, then mental—are what motivates it. It is a FALSE anger, a PRETEND fury, an ARTIFICAL impetus to attack. It does not serve its rider willingly. You cannot imagine such a being ever being docile or meek, but it is not necessarily YOUR foe to fight. YOUR foe is the baying, grinning fairy riding atop this monster.
You squirm out from under Muffins, whispering unheard words of comfort and assurance to your whining, groaning friend as you go.
“It’s okay,” you say. “You did well. I love you, Muffins. You’re a very good chimera.”
He doesn’t show any sign of having heard you, but you reach out through the flaming armour you’ve encased him in to gently caress his soul. You feel the communion, and his body goes limp, tension leaving it, as his breathing becomes even and <Calm>.
You turn your eyes then to the werewolf, and its eyes meet yours. You’d expected yellow eyes, somehow—yellow like those of your goblins friend Zith-Zi, whose gaze you’ve always regarded as ‘wolfish’. They aren’t, though. These eyes have the same pale, subtly-complex opalescence as those for the clan’s priestess, Clanirae. You see upset there: disturbance, distress, confusion. You do not, in fact, see to desire to kill you. Its fangs are bared, its hackles raised, its mouth now opens and lunges forth to bite you in two, and yet this is not the desire of the dire werewolf itself—however malignant or malevolent it may otherwise be.
You are here defending and representing the Bonum Chaoticum—the Chaotic Good Gods, the Gods of Freedom and the Wilderness. In their name, you reach out to liberate this poor, unfortunate soul from his affliction, as you have Izirina, and Costella, and Hirschel the Drake, and your father, and so many others.
