Garm and Tanis.

[TLDunn213]

As promised. Assuming you ever find time to read it.

 

Garm is a wolf type Wylding. Which is almost a given, what with him being in the Gray Guard and all. Not that they don't have a few non-wolf members, but still.

 

Anyway he's a gruff grizzled veteran who looks about 30 and is closer to 50. Which isn't all that amazing for a Wylding.

He's seen his share of combat and taken a turn at training new recruits. Something you have to do to move up the ranks. And now that he's at a comfortable pay grade he's quite willing to take the less exciting jobs. Which you can't really give to cubs anyway. They get bored and stop paying enough attention and end up getting volunteered for the unpleasant messy bits like bleeding and dying, Which totally gets in the way of enjoying the fun bits, like drinking and gambling.

 

 

 

Tanis is a cat type Wylding as you would expect from someone in Bast's Elite. She's in her late 20s and looks it. The whole slow aging thing is only now starting to take effect with her.

She started training as an assassin but found herself fascinated by the brewing of poisons and their antidotes to the point of taking extra healer training. All assassins take some, for obvious reasons.

She took enough to qualifie for full healer training but discovered that while she loved the lore and could learn it quickly, her real love was just learning. So on to scout and spy training.

It's rumored that she's pulling bodyguard work as part of a project to find ways to train new recruits in dealing with boreing duites.

 

Garm's aproch of sneaking up on lax guard trainees and shaving the fur off their necks while explaining the importance of staying alert, While effective. Isn't the sort of thing that can be built into regular training.

[TLDunn213]

Footnotes.

Both Garm and Tanis have Spell training.

With him it's just the basics every non-com is required to take.

 

Tanis, on the other paw, given her background and love of learning...

She'll likely go for research mage training when she's old enough.

And odds are she's got a few nonstandard spells in her tome already.

[TLDunn213]

Garm lay under the enchanted wolfskin cloak with the stones of the not quite dry streambed pressing into his belly. Which helped distract him from the feel of Anna's body pressing into his back and side. Now was not the time for that sort of thing. Not with a Naazz, cloaked and mounted, scanning the landscape  for you less than fifty yards away.

Taking out the one at Old Tom's cabin had been a mistake. But how was he to know that there was a whole Fist of them out there. Only eight of them left now; and he longed to make it seven. But that was Tom and Tanis' job; leading the Naazz away. 

As if in answer to his thoughts, the Naazz jerked in his saddle and galoped of to the northeast.

"Now's our chance." He said scrambling out from under the cloak and quickly settling it on Anna's shoulders. A Word of Power, and she was dropping to the ground on all fours. A moment later and a pair of gray wolves were bounding away to the South. 

 

[TLDunn213]

Tanis looked down at the Naazz, whose throat she had just cut, and then at the blood on her dagger as it flowed into the Runes. They started to glow. A quick look to see if Tom had lead the horse far enough away. He had. Pointing the dagger at the fallen Naazz she spoke a harsh guttural Word of Power. Greenish Flames leapt from the dagger to the fallen Naazz. Engulfing the body in an instant and racing outward along the lines of magic leading to the other Naazz and their master. "That should get their attention." She said with grim satisfaction. 

"What did you do?" Tom ask as Tanis walked over.

"Psi-poisson. They'll likely see it coming and block it, but it should still get them riled up. And, an angry foe is a stupid one."

"Aye. And I'll gladly take any advantage we can get.  Now, what's yer, plan for these horses ?"

"Decoys. The more we can split them up, the better our chances of getting away."  And with that said Tanis walked slowly around the first horse chanting words of Power and tracing Arcane symbols in the air with her dagger.  After the first circuit there was a hazy form taking shape in the saddle. By the end of the second, it was recognizable as the fallen Naazz. And by the end of the third, Tom was forcing his hand to let go of his swordhilt. 

Tanis took a small vile from her cloak and poured the contents over her dagger as she headed to the second horse. Tom opened his mouth, then closed it again. Tanis gave a small nod."Blood Magic. Nasty; but effective."

Tom waited for her to finish with the horses, keeping a close eye on their back trail. When she was finished "And while they're chasing the horses we'll be...?"

"Sneaking away through the underbrush in cat form." She said taking off her enchanted pantherskin cloak. "We've been lucky to take down three of them. I'm not going to push it by trying for four; at least not today."

 

[TLDunn213]

The thunder of galloping hooves cut off further conversation as Tanis draped her cloak over Tom and spoke a Word. A second harsher Word sent the bespelled horses galloping off to the North. And a moment later Tanis was dropping to all fours next to Tom. "* We'll  wait until they've passed, then head southwest*"

Before Tom could reply one of the pursuing Naazz raised his arm and spoke a Word. A bolt of dark energy shot skyward bursting into a rain of smoking arrows forming a net in front of the bespelled horses. 

"*Run!*" 

Tom didn't waste any time on questions he ran, and soon found that his new form was in far better shape than his old one. 

"*Speed and distance will buy us some time. But we need a place to hide and work. Are there any towns big enough to fend off this many Naazz ?*" Tanis ask after they'd been running for about 10 minutes. 

Tom thought for a bit, "*Maybe Bristol, if we can reach it. It's most of a day's travel from here even at this pace. Assuming we can keep this pace for that long.*"

"*Bristol, sea port, shipyard, Magus training school. Yes; that should be enough to give them pause. And give us the time and cover I'll need to turn this mess around.*"

"*I'm a bit slow at the magic game; what have we stepped in, and how deep is it ?*"

"*Not sure. They caught the horses while my spells were still fresh. They can use that to track me. Any magic I do now will be like sending up a firearrow. We can use that to lead them into a trap, if we can get enough of a lead on them to have time to set one.*"

"*Head a bit more south then. And we'll reach a stretch of ground that'll slow them up quite a bit. Slow us a bit too, but a cat will still make better time than a horse and rider. Couple of places they'll have to get off and lead the horses or risk losing them.*"

"*purr-fect.*"

 

[TLDunn213]

The ground began to rise as they ran and soon they were leaping over gullies and fallen trees. After twenty minutes of this they came to a fallen tree bridging a deep ravine.

"*do you think they would try to lead their horses across this  ?*"

"*Maybe; Depends on how well trained the horses are and if they have any levation magic strong enough to try jumping it.*"

They padded across and jumped to the ground on the far side, where Tanis resumed human form. "If we've got enough of a lead on them I might be able to make a trap out of this."  Tanis said drawing the Rune Dagger she had used before. Holding it blade up in her left hand with her right palm facing the dagger and the way they had come she began chanting softly. After a minute or so a faint glow formed in the air between the dagger and her palm. 

"Good, they're just now reaching the edge of the broken ground. That should give me just enough time."

Tanis climbed back onto the fallen tree and began carving Runes into it with the dagger and whispering Words of Power. After about five minutes she plunged the dagger into the tree in the middle of the spell speaking a final Word of Power. Causing the whole thing to glow brightly for a moment before fading from view. "I'll miss that dagger, we've been through a lot together. But with a little luck I'll be able too make a new one in Bristol."

Tanis jumped down from the fallen tree and resumed her cat form "* let's go, we will want to be well away from that when it goes off. *"

"*won't they know that you did a spell, because of the tracking spell they're using  ?*"

"*They will know that I did a spell, but they won't know what I did. If they slow down enough to find my trap and avoid or disarm it...Well, it's not as good as a kill; But it will give us a heck of a lead on them.*"

 

[TLDunn213]

Meanwhile:

"*I hate running from these guys. Fighting them is what I was born to do.*"

"*Maybe. You haven't come into your powers yet. And given that you are the only Wylding Wyrdling hybrid we know of; We don't even know for sure what your powers are, or if you'll even have any.*" 

"*Angmar sure seems to think I'm fated to be his downfall.*"

"*I hope you are. The world would be much better off with him gone. But the first step in making that happen is keeping you alive long enough to come into your powers and learn how to use them.*"

They ran on for a while after that as Anna though about what Garm  had said. "*So, where are you taking me anyway ?*"

"Ultimately to Melkior's Keep. He'll be able to figure out what your powers are and train you in how to use them to best effect. Short term; We're going to Bristol. It's big enough to hide us from the Naazz and it's where Tanis will most likely head for once she's done leading them in circles. And it gives us the best range of options for our next move no matter which way things go. And with a Mage School there we might even get a chance at figuring out what your powers are and start training you in how to use them. *"

"*Really?!*"

"*Why not. Melkior's good, but if we can get started without him; I don't think he'll mind too much.*"

 

[TLDunn213]

!!KABOOM!!

"*What was that ?!*"

"*Things not going according to plan. Well, not according to plan A, at any rate. *"

Anna gave Garm a questioning look 

Garm resumed human form and spoke a Word to restore Anna as well.

"By this point she was supposed to have lost the  Naazz and be slipping quietly through the trees not setting traps to try and take them down. And if that wasn't one of her traps going off, I'll eat my boots." 

"I'd love to get you some hot sauce for them; but, assuming you're right...?"

"They'll probably be coming out of the trees over there near the edge of that field. If they're in human shape and walking, we relax a join them. If they're in cat shape and running..." Garm paused to string a longbow he'd pulled from his pack "...We get to find out how good you are with one of these." He finished passing her the bow and pulling a second one from his pack.