Chronicles of Rygorh: Statue of the Dogman

We finished our lengthy conversation in which Alev decided that he wished to provoke me to the point of nearly cutting him down were he sat. "When this is over we will finish it," I thought. Goodbyes were said and Tilk, the Knife and Rumus headed back up to the surface to move forward with their own plans and research. I turned to begin my nightly offering and prayers with one final glance at Alev, and then I heard movement in the sewer outside our safe place. Turning I noticed that Casey had also heard. We alerted Neil and Alev, and everyone began to prepare for combat when we heard this howl outside. Looking at one another I knew this must have to do with the statue of the half dog in my pocket when we heard the howl again.

Such raw power the voice held; my breathing quickly increased I could feel my heart pounding against my ribs. I realized that I wanted nothing to do with these horrid monsters outside. Dropping my sword I ran to the corner of the room and attempted to find another way out before they broke in. With my breath coming in gasps I looked on in horror as Neil opened the door and these two demonic and savage hounds ran into our little sanctuary. I could see into their blood-thirsty eyes and that they wanted to feed on my flesh and drink my blood. "Oh, how could the culmination of my life end like this?" the panic stricken thought rose in my mind. The world seemed to move in slow motion even as the dogs came rushing at me I knew there was nothing I could do but crouch there with my shield up to protect myself. I could feel their hot breath as they both snapped at me again and again one scoring a hit as I felt his teeth dig into the flesh of my arm. "Oh, it's over now," I thought, "he has tasted my flesh and won't stop until he consumes all of me." Never in my life have I felt so helpless. Then as quickly as it started the feelings of fear and panic subsided; I lowered my shield and looked around to find both dogs were now dead. Casey stood panting in the other corner of the room as Alev and Neil had begun dragging the corpses out.

After the battle we stood in silence for a few minutes until Casey suggested that the figurine I had found in my pocket had something to do with it. After agreeing, although I had already thought this, I handed the statuette to her to destroy. She then smashed it to bits with her sword and we bedded down for the night. The next morning prior to making our morning offerings, Neil and I both spoke with the group about what our plans were for the day. During the discussion I found the figurine was once again in my pocket. "Wow! I thought Neil said this thing wasn't magical?" Casey wanted to smash it again, however, I told her that I would take care of it this time. After finalizing our plans for the day I began my morning offering of blood and fire to the blessed Goddess, "This was probably the first time that I have done this in front of these heathens. Hmmm, I wonder how they will react?" During the offering I dropped the wooden statuette into the sacred flames where it burned to dust. Then afterwards Neil, under Casey's suggestion, cast a remove curse on me to ensure that this thing did not appear in my possession again.

We traversed back through the sewers and headed to the surface continuing to discuss our plans for the day. Neil had come up with an ingenious plan, I thought, to pinpoint our adversaries. He was going to locate object in the warehouse district in an attempt to discern the most exotic chemical that had been stolen and used to create the explosive we feared. Alev, finally showed some value to the group (other than to attempt to aggravate me) as his knowledge of this practice seemed pretty deep and he was able to explain to Neil what he needed. He located this substance in a warehouse with painted windows in which I immediately thought housed Drow: the paint of course keeping the sunlight out. Alev had some stupid plan of tracking the owners of the Warehouse which I knew would avail nothing and would bet was a rented space, "Hmmm, I was right again." We wasted some time on his plan, but in talking to locals found out that the General and Council member had been delivered a bottle of black wine from the Midnight Enclave, and then we went to meet with that Arigane woman again. During the course of the day Casey found that statuette of the half dog thing in her possessions, she quickly gave it to Neil to put in his backpack that was in fact an extra dimensional space.

We had our meeting told Arigane "or whatever" about the warehouse, the statue and the rumors. She agreed to take the statue and study it and try and find out what there was about it that caused it to reappear. She did seem very interested in the warehouse and the rumors, so under our request called in the count whatever his high and mighty name was. He listened to our tale with disinterest and told us that he had not received any bottle of wine; he even told us that he had a meeting with that evil count whom we expected was part of the Enclave. We attempted to warn him about such meeting but he waved off our suggestions to his welfare just as arrogant as the lady Arigane had. "Fool," I thought. He did however seem helpful in the warehouse situation and gave us a writ to search and seize whatever we wished from the place.

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