Wrath of the Winter Wizard
I held up my rapiers. The winter wolves growled at us.
"I don't intend to die by wolves," Adair Thundertree, human fighter, said.
"Me neither," Colin, his brother (also a fighter), said.
"Well, whatever we're going to do, we'd better do it soon. We're running out of room, and time," I said, looking at the 100-foot drop a couple feet away.
"Erevan, have you any spells left?" Kathra Ironfist, dwarven cleric, asked, with her heavy Scottish accent.
"Just one or two," Erevan Ilphelkiir, high elf wizard, replied.
"I don't like this..." Dain Proudfoot, halfling ranger, said, with Kitty the panther growling by his side.
"WHY AREN'T WE KILLING THE DARN THINGS?" Ah. Dante the Destroyer, hot-headed human fighter.
"Tham, you're the rogue, you can distract the wolves," Adair said. Thambelant Liadon-Do'Urden, half-drow rogue, that was me!
"Okay, I'll try," I said. I backed up as far as I could go.
"Don't get yourself killed," Erevan said, ruffling my hair.
"Can't guarantee that," I said.
"Well, it would be a real hassle to ask Hades to bring you back," Kathra said. I laughed.
"Just go already!" Dante said. I ran towards the wolves. I jumped. I'm not going to make it, I thought. A million thoughts ran through my head, the ones I remember were this was a dumb idea and I'm the worst rogue ever and I AM SUCH AN IDIOT TO ATTEMPT THIS.
A wolf leapt to intercept me, and I hit it's side with a FWUMP! I hit the ground and could smell the horrid stench originating from the wolves. Teeth sunk into my leg and I cried out in pain. Suddenly I was flying, flying through the air... and off the 100-foot cliff.
ONE DAY EARLIER...
"And then, I brought my Greataxe down and cracked the beast's skull open! MORE ALE!" We were relaxing in a tavern in Neverwinter and handsome Dante had a miniature crowd around him.
"No, actually, Adair jumped on the troll's head and stabbed it, which caused the cave troll's death," I said. I hated it when Dante twisted our adventures so that he was always the hero.
"Yes, please tell the story as it actually happened," Erevan said.
"Anyway, that was the latest story, so you can leave us be, now," Dante said. The crowd slowly thinned to a couple people. Dain yawned.
"I'm going to take a nap," he said.
"Go ahead," Colin said, ordering another round. A couple minutes later an old man approached us.
"Do you six fight monsters?" he said.
"There's actually seven of us, our halfling took a nap," Adair said.
"Well, I have a wolf problem on my farm," he said.
"We'll take the job. Now, sit down and tell us your story," Erevan said.
"My name's Thardin, and I own a farm just outside here," he started. "For some reason, lately, I have been having problems with wolves,"
"What do they look like?" Erevan inquired.
"Big, white, blue eyes, nasty fangs," Erevan and I exchanged glances.
"Winter wolves," we said. Our party had fought winter wolves before, in a tower that had been attacked by a mind flayer (adventure Mind Blast), but that's a different tale.
"What are winter wolves?" Thardin asked.
"Exactly as you described, and they can breathe a cone of cold," I said. "We've fought them before,"
"Oh, yes, remember with the mind flayer?" Adair asked.
"You've fought a mind flayer?" Thardin asked.
"Well, yeah," Dante said.
"Then my winter wolf problem should be easy for you to handle!" he said.
"When do you want us to come?" Colin asked.
"Tomorrow, if you can," Thardin said.
"That would be perfect," Kathra said.
"I'll be here," he said, and departed.
THE NEXT DAY...
We were up early, with all our battle gear on when Thardin returned.
"Ah, you're ready to go," Thardin said. "The wolves were back last night, my cabbages are ruined!"
"What do wolves want with cabbages?" I asked.
"Well, they trampled the cabbages while they were going for the pigs. I only have four pigs left!" he sounded quite distressed.
"Let's go, then!" Dante said. Thardin lead us outside to a horse-cart pulled by two black stallions.
"I don't have enough room, two people will have to-" "Oooh, me!" I said. I've always loved horses.
"Anyone else want to ride the horses?" Thardin asked.
"I will, then," Adair said. We mounted the horses, and everyone else piled into the horse-cart.
"Oof!" "Ow!" "You're on my beard!"
We reached the farm in a couple minutes. It was a standard, run-of-the-mill farm, apart from the gaping hole in the fence.
"Oh no, they're back! They must've noticed I left. The only question is, where are they now?" Thardin said.
"How do you know they're here?" Colin asked.
"I patched up that hole right before I left," he said. I heard a growl off to the left.
"DUCK!" I tackled Adair and we tumbled off the horses as a winter wolf landed exactly where we had been seconds earlier. A yell from the cart alerted me that a second wolf had attacked. The door flew open and everyone fell out as the horses whinnied and started to run in a flight of panic. The two winter wolves were then joined by eight more.
"Since when have wolves been this organized?" I asked, grabbing my bow off my back.
"I don't know," Adair said. I sent an arrow into what looked like the lead winter wolf's forehead. It howled, which was echoed by more wolves in the forest.
"RUN!" The wolves started running, and more appeared to cut us off.
"They're trying to cut us off!" Colin yelled. We couldn't get to the farm, and we couldn't go back... there was only one option - the 100-foot cliff to the left. We couldn't stay where we were, either, or the wolves would cut us off completely, and we didn't want that. I heard a growl behind me and I hit the dirt, and the wolf jumped over my head and skidded and fell off the cliff. As I stopped about ten feet from the edge, I realized how bad this plan was, but I drew back on an arrow. I was determined to make this work. I took a couple down with direct shots to the eyes, but more took their places. This was turning out to be a very bad day.