The Prophet of Grunwald - Session 4 - Hounds

Following up on Stephanie Grasserman's account of her night on the run, Olessia, Berend, Yuric, and Siegfried went to investigate the Ferry Terminal building and the nearby home of the River Warden Garald Lebziak and his family. Stephanie had reported hiding in the Terminal until "something horrible" happened at the Lebziak home and she fled.

On the way from the Red Orc to the Terminal, the party noted that the Countess and her daughter remained aboard the Hammer (since the guards and carriage remained in place and the common people were still lining up to await a service).

The Ferry Terminal was notable only in that it was utterly unoccupied. Although Olessia and Siegfried both attempted a thorough search, they uncovered no specific clues or signs of Stephanie having hidden there. Certainly, there were plenty of places she could have hidden, however. Unbeknownst to her companions, Olessia also gazed at the terminal with her Magic Sense but saw nothing unusual. 

Proceeding to the nearby Lebziak home, Berend, Yuric, and Olessia proceeded to the front door. Siegfried's instincts (developed over 16 long years of being a general troublemaker) told him something lurked within that house and tried to warn the others off while he went around the back of the house to check things out. Berend (surprising no one) was unable or unwilling to wait for Siegfried to return and attempted to bash open the door. Although the door held firm, this immediately triggered loud barking from within the house.

Siegfried meanwhile discovered that a set of ground-floor windows on the river side of the house were entirely broken in (or out, it was unclear). Girding his courage, he snuck in through the gap and surveyed the ruined remains of what had been a family's common room. A foul smell assaulted him and he noted the two angry dogs barking at the front door. When a third dog came down from the upstairs, Siegfried tried to make a quiet escape back out the window but instead drew the attention of the third dog.

Yuric also tried to beat down the front door and made a healthy crack in it, but it still held firm. He and Berend left Olessia at the door when they heard Siegfried exclaim from around the corner. Yurick went to see and found his young contact rolling out of the broken window along with a very angry dog.

While Siegfried pushed away from the dog, Yurick and Berend engaged the animal. Yurick cut a large gash in the hound and Berend then cut it fully in half with his large ax. A second dog leaped out of the window and Siegfried used his sling to toss rocks at it (managing mostly to break out a few additional windows).

Olessia meanwhile finished breaking open the front door and went into the house, where she was immediately attacked by the last dog. The hound tore into her arm, but she managed to call upon her magics to fire an icy bolt that all but killed the beast. She then made her way inside and fired another bolt at the final dog (the one who had thus far dodged Siegfried's attacks through its tactic of standing still and letting him miss). Although not a killing blow, the bolt sent the last hound fleeing.

Now to see what these beasts may have been defending...