Blood Run: A Terror Returns RPG

[mormegil]

Kuric had made up his mind and he knew what he must do. Erling’s outburst made Kuric understand that these companions were afraid, but they pursued their fates anyway. It touched the old dwarf and that is what caused him to realize that he must do what he could to preserve these people. As Groin and Erling were loudly discussing what should be done Kuric took one look back and a with a deep breath and sigh he left the forest opening heading toward the sound of the warg, for he knew there were more than one.

Kuric trotted along doggedly as best he could in the direction of the sound. Weaving his way in and out of trees, he felt that at any moment a warg may jump out and attack. Instinctively he clutched his great mace preparing for any attack. Alright lad, he told himself, ya’ve been in battle a hundred times, this’ll be no different. He had never reassured himself before, but he felt something was different this time.

Finally, he was reached the point where he must stop running. Leaning over for a moment to catch his breath, Kuric heard sound that made the adrenaline course through his veins as he felt new vigor and strength. He yelled the ancient dwarven battle cry, "Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu!" He rushed toward the source of the sound uncertain of his fate but knowing that he must do all he can to save that small group of Breelanders that were unprepared for such a battle.

[Durelin]

They had come out of nowhere, and Parkun and Toby had suddenly been surrounded by snarls and growls. These were no ordinary wolves. Though they resembled them, they were larger, and there was an intelligence in their eyes that Kun had not seen in any other animal. There were three of the great beasts, and they looked…hungry. They seemed to be grinning at their prey. Wargs…Kun had thought them beasts of legend, or at least creatures destroyed in the War.

Suddenly Kun heard an angry growl from behind and thought one of the Wargs was preparing to leap onto him and the hobbit, but instead, Kun saw two more wolves came bounding out of the trees as he whirled around. One had silvery fur throughout his coat, and it…it spoke to the others, and even Kun could make out the words.

“You had orders, fleabags,” it growled angrily, looking around at the three who surrounded Kun and Toby, “You were not to touch any of the two-legs, even the small ones.” The speaking warg gestured with his muzzle towards Toby. “Besides – you know I get first kill.” The beast’s eyes met Parkun’s. The thing really was smiling at him, and Kun sensed that it was preparing to move.

“Wait!” he yelled, and sought quickly to save his life. He had not volunteered to die. He was no sacrifice. No one and nothing was worth a sacrifice, much less held value equal to his own life. “There is a party looking for you. They are probably in the forest by now. I can lead them to you. I’ll tell them you have the hobbit. No, I’ll tell them he’s hurt, and bring them to him, but you’ll be there…hidden. An ambush.” He quickly counted in his head. “There are…there are at least six others, most much bigger than this hobbit. I can bring them to you.”

If they were busy with six meals besides Toby, he could escape, even if they did not let him go. They would not bother hunting him, bellies full, and when he had helped them after all. When he would be no threat to them. If he did not bring them back, they would hunt him down, and he knew he had no chance. They knew he knew that.

The wargs caught a whiff of the other humans, Hobbit, and…another scent, which Kun identified for them as Dwarf; and several began howling in anticipation. The plan was in motion, and Parkun was still alive…

~*~*~*~*~

Parkun rushed through the trees in the direction the wargs had sniffed out the others. He was not sure if they would eat Toby yet, or wait to enjoy him with the others, but he heard nothing but the howling for some time.

Suddenly there was a shout that rose above the howling, close to Kun, in a language he did not recognize, and then he felt himself crash into something too short to be a tree and too hard to be a bush. He was pushed backward, but before he fell, a heavy blow thudded against his chest. Kun landed hard on his rear, the wind twice knocked out of him and his chest pulsing with pain. He gasped for breath, and it felt as if his heart had stopped altogether for several moments. It had not stopped pounding in his ears since he had first heard the snarls of the wargs.

It was strangely quiet now in the forest, as Kun lay on the ground at the feet of Kuric with his mace, coughing and flailing in a panic to take a full, normal breath again. Perhaps the wargs really wouldn’t be the ones to kill him after all... Everything slowly faded...

~*~*~*~*~

Dûrkoth leapt at his approaching comrade with anger burning in his eyes, and clenched the other warg’s neck in his teeth, not gently. Blood covered Carchel’s maw and his front paws, and there was a gash in his left flank. “You fool! What have you done?” he growled. Those looking for them now knew exactly what they were looking for and where to look for them, and their pack was weakened by one wounded. Dûrkoth let out a howl to silence the four others and bring them to him. He would be making an example of Carchel, and they had work to do.

[Groin Redbeard]

Gorin had the fire going nicely and by now everyone was gathered around it to warm themselves. As Gorin sat comfortably on ground, his mind began to wonder from the present situation. The flames from the fire began to form shapes, in his mind, of great dwarven halls deep under the mountains. He could hear the smote of the hammer on the anvil, the plucking of harp strings, and the joyous laughter of dwarves feasting. The illusion was short lived, and Gorin awoke from his dream when Sam bumped him.

The dwarf’s mood was suddenly a sour one. Then he remembered why he had lit the fire in the first place.

"Where is Kuric with those torches? Probably asleep somewhere." he said turning around to see if the old dwarf was sleeping.

"Kuric?" he said in a raised voice, "Where has he got to?"

He walked to the border of the fires light to see if he could see or even hear the old dwarf; nothing.

"Kuric!" this time Gorin's voice was loud and clear.

Even though Gorin was worried, he just put it out of his mind telling himself that Kuric went to do his business and would be back soon, but this meant he had to chop torch wood. He was done in a short amount of time, and brought back four large bludgeons of wood. The ends were placed in the fire.

Gorin had seated himself back beside Sam and waited for Kuric to come back, but several minutes passed by before they heard it.

The nighttime stillness was broken by Kuric's deep dwarf yell, "Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu!" Gorin jumped up from where he was sitting.

"He's in trouble! Quickly we must... Gah!" and he fell to the ground screaming. Gorin had not noticed in his hastiness that he had put his left boot in the middle of the fire when he jumped up. He fell to the ground sputtering and slapping at his boot with his hands. When his boot was extinguished he grabbed one of the torches from the fire and tried to run off after Kuric, but someone grabbed him.

"Let me go, I he needs us! Let me go lad!"

"Hush, Gorin," came Ash's voice, "Let's not get separated for a second time tonight. We are coming."

Although Ash was young he was incredibly strong, using one arm to grab the dwarf's shoulders and his other arm to stop Gorin from hitting him. However, Gorin calmed down before he could do any harm to Ash. With their weapons in one hand and blazing torches in the other the defenders started off, this time in search of a dwarf.

[mormegil]

In a moment Kuric would spring upon his enemies, this was his moment. He always felt most alive before the kill. With adrenaline pumping he steadied his mace waiting for that glorious moment of combat. Suddenly, he realized he had made a mistake when a creature came crashing in at his back near his flank. He turned abruptly and with all of his strength he swung his mace at his attacker. Ready to let out a victory yell, he suddenly realized mid-swing that his pursuer was not a warg, in fact it was human.

Instinctively, he pulled as much of the swing as he could. Fortunately he was able to angle to blow downward, away from the head. He hit the man's chest and abdomen with a glancing blow, certainly not enough to kill a man. "Good" he thought as he saw the man go down. "This might be our enemy too" He began approaching the figure cautiously when the man began to slump and looked up at him; that is when Kuric realzied that he had hit a fellow defender. Before Kuric could speak he saw the man, Parkun slump down splayed out on his back. "Lad, are ya alright," Kuric queried.

Going up and shaking Parkun roughly by the shoulder, Kuric attempted to wake his companion. "I wonder how ye found me lad," Kuric wondered as he shook.

[Durelin]

Parkun regained his senses after a few moments to find Kuric kneeling over him, shaking him roughly. Kun groaned and tried to sit up so the Dwarf would stop shaking him. He gave up, though, and decided to simply speak from on his back. Was he alright? Did he look alright? And he certainly wasn’t feeling any better with a Dwarf man-handling him! The young man groaned again, wallowing in his pain. Luckily he was feeling too weak to give Kuric even a nasty look. He needed to keep all of these “defenders” on good terms with him if they were to follow him deeper into the forest simply at his word.

“I’m…I’m alright… Don’t worry about me…” I sound so bloody ridiculous, he thought, but he knew this Dwarf and any of the others would eat his entire act up. All he had to do was seem afraid, distressed, worried…which he was. “It’s Toby…Toby we need to worry about. He’s hurt. A warg…it came out of nowhere…that’s what’s killing the livestock…we fought it off, but Toby’s hurt bad…”

Finally Kun did sit up, finding some strength as his plan began unfolding, and as he recalled the reason behind his mission. He was going to save his own skin. Of course, this crazy old Dwarf could have killed me before the Wargs had a chance!

“Where are the others?” he asked as he glanced around him. If he was stuck alone with this crazy Dwarf… Those beasts would not be satisfied with just one.

[Groin Redbeard]

His torch flashed and flickered as he swung back and forth, frantically looking for Kuric's tracks. The group was spread out in a long line with Lea and Ash, along with Orin, covered one area while Sam and Gorin covered another area; Erling was bringing up the rear. Gorin had guessed his Kuric's path up to now, but the path had gotten clearer to him now and Sam's keen eyes were soon to see Kuric's tracks.

Gorin's fear for the well being of Kuric soon began to turn into anger. He had no right to run off like this, he thought to himself, He'll get a piece of my mind when we catch up with him! Gorin looked back to see how closely Sam was following him, when suddenly noticed that the hobbit was standing stalk still a couple of yards back.

"What are you halting for," Gorin said impatiently, "Can't you curve your queer hobbitish ways for a little bit? We've got..."

"Shhh!" said Sam, frantically waving his hands up and down.

Gorin did as Sam said sighing and grunting; presently he heard it too, somebody was yelling for help close by. The hobbit disappeared into the brush, and Gorin started yelling at the others to come to him. Gorin followed Sam through the bushes and over tree stumps until they came to a man standing crying for help. The man had short blond hair (by dwarf standards) and was very skinny. Gorin did not know who he was and thought it strange to come upon a man alone in the wild. He stepped forward cautiously with his axe raised in readiness, suspecting that the man was a highwayman pretending to need help. The stranger immediately started yell and back away from Gorin as the dwarf walked towards him.

"Leave me alone," the stranger screamed, "Cut it out Kuric, don't hit again!"

"Kuric, he did this to you?" Gorin's face suddenly switched expressions, "Where is he?!" he said grabbing the man and shaking him violently, "Where is he, I'll teach him to run off like he did!"

"Easy with him, Gorin," Lea said running up beside Kun, "He's one of us!"

Gorin was surprised at what the girl said, had there been two groups that set out from Bree, and did he only meet with one? Before he had time to ask them this Kun spoke again.

"Wargs attacked us, but I fought them off, and Toby is hurt! Kuric's gone to get him."

Gorin stood up and through his axe into the ground. "That blasted Kuric!" he roared, his eyes blazing with fury," If I ever get him I'll... wait what did you say?" his mood suddenly changed as Kun's words of "Wargs" suddenly registered in his mind.

[Dimturiel]

They had all gone after Kuric as quickly as possible, Sam and Gorin leading. Erling was at the rear, a thing that made him uncomfortable. If the Wargs were only in front of them, then Erling had the best chance should an attack occur. But what if they were behind them also? From time to time, he would look behind him, dreading to catch sight of dark shadows ready to spring on him.


The company halted suddenly, and Erling-who was still gazing behind, although he could not see too much in the dark-nearly crashed into the person in front of him. He stopped just in time.

“What is it?” he asked in a tense whisper. “Why have we stopped? Have we found Kuric?”

But soon, he could see for himself what had happened. They had indeed found someone but it was not Kuric. He saw Gorin bending over a man that looked very much like…

“Kun!” he exclaimed then. “You are the last person I have expected to run into here! How did you get here?”

But there was no time for such talk, as Parkun’s words clearly told him. Toby was hurt and Kuric had run off to take on a pack of Wargs single handed.

“Curse that stiff-necked dwarf for going alone and not waiting for us!” Erling said. “And poor Toby! What are we to do?”