Guilim will rush after it as well, bringing his halberd down towards the creature.

Attack: 8 Damage: 5

As it moves to run if it is still alive, Guilim will once again bring his weapon around in an arc, slashing towards the beast.

AoO: Attack: 22 Damage: 8

"Leelan, could it be that it is just protecting its younglings? Are we sure we should slay this beast, or should we instead leave it to not incur the wrath of Maggie?" Aubrey calls out.

Leelan:

Leelan:

"Arrrgh!" Grugga screams as his arm flesh is ripped away by waves of tiny needles. He drops his axe as his right arm falls limply to his side, bleeding badly. He looks like he's about to pass out. He does not attempt to swipe at the fleeing beast, and indeed looks relieved it's making its own escape.

The Displacer Beast limps past Grugga into its cave, subject to additional glancing blows from Guilim and Rohuzar.  It collapses just inside the mouth of the cave, too weak to stand though it still breathes.

Two small forms clamber over the blue lion, rolling down its backside.  You see two Displacer pups, yipping and pushing at their mothers side.  The adult cranes it’s neck back to glare balefully at you all, panting heavily but taking no further action to attack.  One of the pups pokes its head out and makes a not-at-all-menacing growl toward the strangers outside the cave.

Looking back at Aubrey, Leelan stares blankly at the scene.

"I fear you may be right, and that we have been horribly mistaken. She was merely protecting her youngs.We should find a way to help it.", he says, staring at he mother’s wounds.

His attention then drifts toward Grugga, who seems in pretty bad shape. He runs over to the artificer’s side and uses a bit of magic to reinvigorate him.

cure wounds : 5

Rohuzar hears the others and runs into the cave. He drops his axe and kneels, holding out the cupcakes to the dark. Internally praying. 

Guilim stays back from the beast, watching it closely incase it makes a move to attack again. 

Aubrey hurries after Rohuzar, trying to cover him from the cave entrance. "Should we try to save the blue lion." He says to the others outside the cave.

As Leelan applies healing magics to the worst of Grugga's injuries, Rohuzar drops to his knees and offers apple tarts to the seemingly confused displacer pups, while Aubrey and Guilim look on.  One cub is braver than the other, and it slowly approaches Rohuzar, though the other clings to its mother's side; a mother that continues to glare at the Orc.  The little cub yarps aggressively at Rohuzar before coiling its tentacles around the tarts and then prancing back toward its mother and sister.

And then it freezes.

Everything freezes.  Both cubs.  The mother.  The birds in the trees.  The little fox.  Even the storm seems to quiet.  The eyes of all the animals take on a purplish glow; indeed, everything has been cast in shades of purple.  It is as though the invisible bubble protecting you from the storm has been replaced with a vast, semi-transparent tent; muffling the sounds of the storm and tinting all the light around you.  

To the east, this purple tent begins to warp and distend, trailing off into the forest.  The very trees bend as well until a tunnel of wood and earth and sky appears.  And through this tunnel a parade of wolves emerges.  Marching in pairs, a dozen grey wolves enter the clearing and spread out... and at the end of the line a wolf the size of a draft horse, silver of fur and with eyes of yellow fire.  Astride its back is a feminine form, covered in a sheer tapestry the color of wine and with a similar cloth covering her face; a laurel of brambles on her head.  The smaller wolves stand at attention until all have entered the clearing, and then all eyes - wolves, displacer beasts, smaller animals - turn to face the party.  When the silence is broken, it is by the large silver wolf.

"You are not mistaken, Gnome.  Rather, all has unfolded exactly as it must.  You have shown you can handle simple instructions and that you are capable of defending yourselves.  You have satisfied the requirements; you will do."

Rohuzar breathes several sighs of relief and exertion, but remains on his knee, giving a nod to Leelan with half a wry smile. 

Grugga clasps his left hand around the gaping wound on his right bicep. Leelan's magic has knitted together some of the flesh, but blood still oozes between his fingers. "Thank you, Leelan." the Orc mutters, then turns his attention to the suddenly shifting magics.

"What in Gel-Nagev's name is happening in this forest..." he mumbles in awe

After the procession of wolves arrives, he turns to Leelan and raises an eyebrow as if to ask, "what the hell is going on here?" He mouths the word "hag" questioningly.

Leelan looks around at the procession of animals and at the lady ridding the wolf.

"Trust me, my friend. I am possibly just as confused as you are.", Leelan answers Grugga as he offers a hand to stand up.

He then raises his head and readjusts his glasses. "I’m Leelan Dapper. And these are my friends." He gestures to each of them to give them the chance to introduce themselves. "Pardon my ignorance, but who are you and what’s happening?"

Aubrey looks on in awe as the forest distorts and the procession enters. He listens attentively as the large silver wolf adresses them. "What is this? A test to find a group of champions?" He says in a lowered voice to no one in particular as he moves up behind Leelan, ready to join the conversation.

"Our names are not for you, and we care not to know yours.  It is enough for you to know I am a grand wolf and I serve the Lady of this wood."  As the wolf speaks, it doesn't articulate its jaw, tongue and lips like a humanoid.  Rather, its maw just hangs open and a voice pours out.

"You have come to this wood seeking a dark prize.  Others have come, both Greater and Lesser than yourselves.  Only the cruel elf still lives.  But he cannot claim it alone.  So he traps Our Lady with a commandment, 'Lock down the enemy in this forest with a great storm and steer to me a group strong enough to fight and not too stupid to follow simple instructions.'

The huge wolf seems to grin, saliva that reflects a rainbow of colors drips from its fangs.  Upon its back, the feminine form continues to sit gracefully, motionless.  "You have helped Our Lady fulfill the terms to which she was bound.  You will travel to the grave of the Carcerimon; you will tell the elf Our Lady grows weary.  He has tonight, and then this storm will be no more come the dawn."

"How do we find this grave of the Carcerimon?" Aubrey asks loudly, trying to stay calm and collected.

Grugga wipes his hands of mud and blood and picks up his axe to stow it. He listens with prickling neck hairs to the proposition and looks at his companions. "The Elf..." He murmurs, "The Elf from what the innkeeper in Midway told us. The one who could change form and had the impressive looking weapons." He frowns, considering that they may have already met the 4 others who were after the crystal skull. He clears his throat and speaks up more clearly, "I think the only way out is forwards, eh?" He waits for the wolf to answer Aubrey's question.

Do we recognize the voice? Was it the same voice that spoke to us through the old man in the village?

In response to Aubrey's question, the large wolf turns its head toward the opposite, western side of the clearing.  A tunnel similar to the one the wolves arrived in begins to take shape, with the trees twisting and shaping themselves into a covered path.  "There.  Follow this path and neither storm nor beast nor magic shall molest you.  It will take you straight to the hideaway of the rangers, now dead and defiled.  The elf awaits... though be warned... he has abused and mistreated Our Lady most unfairly.  You lot should expect no better from a blood traitor such as him."

Grugga, when the old man spoke, he spoke in his own voice but the words seemed to have been... put there... but something else.  This wolf speaks in a voice that is almost alien.