Slurb throws out his hand, summoning a skeletal fist to grasp at the being.

Attack: 24 Damage: 3

Despite the horrible visage of the creature, the party unleashes a volley of attacks on the creature once was Rutherford, taking advantage of it's momentarily exposed body to strike. Sulskan makes two deep cuts with his hand-axes, followed by another crippling blast of eldritch energy from Limine. A transformed Vadania slashes down with his Great-Axe, this time striking true. And while Jack's first two blows miss, he feels the crack of bone as his third strike lands. 

Though it's taken a number of wounds that would kill ten men, the creature doesn't react with any notion of pain, but death must surely be close. However, only when Slurb's ghostly hand manifests does it react. It bellows a horrible cry as the chilling hand grasps it's arm, and seems to devolve further in it's frenzy. 

Suddenly, there's a caw as a raven flies above the clearing, perching on top of the cabin. The creature immediately tenses up, as if something has managed to paralyze it's prodigious muscles. Then, it turns away from the party and bounds away into the woods, evasively covering it's back as it moves. When it passes the treeline, it moves from trunk to trunk, taking cover behind the massive trees. 

(Disengages and moves 40 ft., which takes it ten feet into the forest. Ranged attacks will have disadvantage as well as the creature will have a +2 to AC from cover.)

How does the party react? 

Slurb casts Magic Missile at the beast, praying for it to hit. (Yes I know Magic Missile auto hits I just want to make it sound cool)

8

(Total of all of the missiles.)

Vadania bolts after the creature, giving chase. She moves 35ft toward it and then lunges forward with her claw. She pushes her whole body forward to get an extended reach. The fury of a lycantrhope is not to be underestimated as the claw seems to almost home in on the creature.

Reckless Attack Tail (Her actual tail is tucked in her pants and I don't expect it to do damage even if it wasn't because her tail is fluffy and  not spiny so flavored the tail attack as swing with her claw instead): 18 (Adv: 9) Dmg: 10 Pierce

Limine is actually relieved the monster ran away. She keeps concentrating on the curse in case the monster returns but doesn't try to chase it. "If you ask me, that's a good thing. We can return to town, perhaps learn more about the creature. I have a feeling we might learn more about it if we visit the wizard's tower. The stone here... it looks similar. Maybe someone there could decipher the runes." She studies the runes once again, trying to memorise what they look like. "Any of you got a quill and paper maybe? It'll be easier than trying to remember."

Sulskan sprints after the beast. Limine's words are logical, but blood is pounding in his ears and the spirits are whispering at him and encouraging him to, "Kill...Kill...Kill..." Combined these drive him to the edge of the forest where he squints to make out the beasts shifting form in the woods before chucking both of his axes at the beast. As his spirits fly towards the beast with the axes, if either of the axes connects, the beast feels a strong compulsion to return towards Sulskan and the rest of the group.

(OOC: Reflavoring the Move Target effect of gathered swarm given that the spirits are intangible and this just seems more appropriate.)

Slurb's missiles shoot through the thick underbrush, blasting their way through the thick tree trunks as they thud against the creature's back. The creature grunts and hastens forward, but Vadania charges ahead and claws at the it, rending it's back into pieces. The creature roars as collapses, knocking over a young tree in it's fall. It stays on the ground, motionless and inert. 

The raven atop the cabin caws fiercely, as if in a terrible rage. It takes off and flies away, disappearing in the forest. Silence returns to the glade as the violent tension in the air dissipates. 

The cabin now has a huge gaping hole in it, but it's difficult to make out the details of what's inside without entering. Thankfully, the small hut and stone tile have remained intact in the fight. 

Sulskan is about to hurl his axes when he stops himself short. Seeing the beast fall to the ground, and appear dead, Sulskan runs up to Vadania and the fallen beast, quickly checking it to ensure that it is, in fact, dead.

Medicine: 14

Vadania stands over the body of the creature and takes a few deep breaths. Her extra muscles recede, dropping her height back down to 6ft. 8. The clothes that fit tightly around her now also loosen, back to being a size too large for her. Her wolf head however does not return to normal. It seems the "transformation" was very minor and her Hybrid form is permanent for her. She holds her axe tightly in two hands and raises it over her head. She turns to Sulskan and asks, "Should I make sure it is dead?"

Sulskan looks at her curiously as he gets up from checking its pulse. He thinks he has a pretty accurate guess (will know more when the DM posts), but a second opinion couldn't hurt, "Be my guest," he says backing away from the body to let Vadania perform whatever check it is she wants. As he backs up, she notices how Vadania is holding her ax and her intention hits him so he quickly clarifies, "Wait! Maybe, we shouldn't decapitate it just yet."

(OOC: If it is already dead... then perhaps, but if it is just unconscious, then the creature could still be of use. I'll wait for @Razor...)

(If Limine can't see all this through the woods, ignore this post.)

Limine runs closer, although she keeps her distance from Sulskan and the two beasts, looking wary. "Wait!" She says when Vadania lifts her axe, hopefully in time. "If we can restrain it somehow, we can bring it to town. Maybe he can be healed or, at the very least, maybe we'll learn more about what happened to him." She looks at Vadania suspiciously. "It doesn't look like he's the only one suffering from lycanthropy. There could be more like him, unable to control themselves."

Sulskan takes a closer look at the inert creature. He notices several oddities about it's grotesque form: needle marks dot the all areas where there have been abnormal muscle growth. It has some stiches around it's neck, and several tumors bulge from it's back. 

The creature has no pulse to speak of. Perhaps it is dead?

Vadania turns to look at Limine as she talks. The werewolf lowers her axe and says, "A cure... that would go a long way to prevent future tragedies caused by this accursed disease." She pulls up her hood and says to the whole party, "Now that you know about my affliction, I request that you do not spread word of this to the guard or the inquisition for they will come for my hide."

"A cure? That's not what I was thinking about. It will be a nice bonus, could probably make me rich, but it won't help us with the case. We need to make sure no more of these pop out. He might be the only one, maybe not. If these runes are related, I don't think just anyone could do it. One more reason to go back to town and figure those out." She still maintains distance from Vadania - mostly out of fear, as you can see from her shaking body. Or, perhaps, the cold is the culprit. Either way, it doesn't show in her words. "Don't worry, you're secret will be safe. We all have secrets the inquisition should never learn of, I think. At least I do. No, I'm not telling you." She says with a wink.

Vadania notes Limine's distancing and sighs. She says, "It's okay. My Lycanthropy has become symbiotic with me by now. I can maintain control but as a trade-off, I lack many of the traditional strengths associated with the wearwolfs such as immunity to normal weapons. However, I also don't have their weakness to silver either and I can maintain free will."

Limine thinks for a second. Then, unable to contain her curiousity, she asks: "Is the full moon thing a myth, or should we be worried when the moon is full? Wait, more importantly, how does it feel to have fur?"

Vadania did not expect the fur question. She thinks for a bit and says, "Well... I personally never noticed if the moon has any effect on me. I think the moon thing might be a myth but then again, we've established that my strain of the disease is very different from the more well known cases." She subconsciously rubs the fur on her neck. "As for fur... it has a few draw backs. Wearing clothes that a bit on the tighter side feel like it's pressing pillows against my skin and getting wet in the rain sucks a lot if you are wearing clothes. Summers are hot. On the plus side, having fur feels great during the colder times and it's always more enjoyable to go swimming during the summer. Plus I can dry off very quickly when I'm not wearing clothes by shaking all the water off. My mother doesn't like me doing that in the house because it ends up spraying water everywhere. Still it's quite fun to be able to shake the water off. It feels good to rub my fingers though my fur and finally having a tail is the best part. It's like having a very fluffy, very big toy with you to cuddle with." Vadania's tail is currently tucked in to her pants so it's not visible to Limine.

Limine uncoils her tail from her leg and it circles around her to her hands. She runs her hand over it. It is ivory-coloured, like the rest of her body, but more leathery in texture. "Must be nice. My tail is all rough and leather-like. I also have to pay attention to it, otherwise I press it so tightly around my leg that it can stop the flow of blood in it." As she says that, her tail flicks back and coils around her left leg again. "Is it dead then?" She asks, looking at Sulskan and gesturing towards the body to his feet. She still tries to imagine what having fur is like, and she's also tempted to pet Vadania. She doubts Vadania will agree, however. She'll look for an opportunity.

Sulskan nods to Limine. He isn't really bothered by Vadania's appearance as she says that she can control it and her behavior during the fight seems to match that. Furthermore, he finds that the things to be afraid of are generally inside of people instead of on the outside. Speaking of the inside, his spirits his right on time. A shudder runs through his body as his spirits slowly recede back into his mind still reveling in the pleasure of a kill. Glancing up nervously at the others, hoping that nobody noticed the shiver he says, "It looks as if there are some needle marks and stitches around his body." He waves the others over and points the markings out as he continues, "It would appear that the body had some kind of experiment conducted upon it. Whether it was performed by the farmer himself or someone else remains to be seen. I'm also not so sure that this has anything to do with lycanthropy and the beast's appearance may have even just been to throw us off of the trail of whatever this creature really is. Does anybody have any experience with artificial or synthetic enhancements? My expertise lies in the natural as opposed to the unnatural."

(Spoiler is for DM regarding what is happening in Sulskan's mind)

Vadania walks back towards the body. She kneels down on one knee and runs the tips of her fingers along the marks pointed out by Sulkan. She glances at the creature's blood on her axe blade and her claws and says, "You may have a point. If it was the most common form of lycanthropy, then my axe and my claws would not have been as effective as they were. Perhaps you are right that this... grotesque form is a result outside meddling." She turns her head to look at the stone hut and the cabin that now has a hole in its side. "Perhaps we should take a look at these structures before returning to town."