<span style="font-style: italic">With the player-characters choosing to advance immediately rather than take a short rest, the next encounter will be more interesting... in several ways. The first combat encounter was pretty straightforward. This next one will introduce some new dynamics with an elite, minions, and some other things.</span><br/><br/>Leaving some of their forces to cover the jagged hole in the ramshackle two-story wooden building's side, the three heroes who form the fighting core of their little company circle around to go in through the front door rather than taking the obvious route (and exposing themselves to ambush in a narrow hallway.<br/><br/>Even before Salana's mighty hammer smashes the weatherbeaten wooden doors open with a spray of splinters, the smell of pungent burning herbs assaults their senses, wafting through the cracks in the inn's walls. Unlike the pleasant tang of incense, this smoke is heavy, greasy, and leaves a bitter taste in one's throat. Those who have lived in the city long are reminded of the noxious fumes that alchemists produce when brewing potions.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">The unpleasant smell inflicts a -2 penalty on all swallow attacks. Since two of the three PCs are already stuffed, this is more of a boon to them than to their enemies.</span></span><br/><br/>To say that the inside of the inn has seen better days would be a gross understatement. Large sections of the wooden floor have been torn up, exposing the clay-laden earth beneath. There is not a single intact piece of furniture remaining. The shattered remains of several ale kegs and tables are scattered across the floor, and there is refuse everywhere. Yellow stains on the walls show where the wolves (and perhaps some of the barbarians) marked their territory. Although most of the debris is worthless, there are a few golden and silver coins scattered around the edge of the central pit.<br/><br/>Among all of this filth and garbage stands a fierce and beautiful female anthro-wolf, standing out like a flower in a swamp. Where her henchmen were unarmored, she wears chainmail of glistening silver (magically hardened, no doubt) and holds a delicately crafted war-scythe with a silver blade shaped as a crescent moon. Combined with fur as white as the freshly fallen snow, she almost appears to be glowing with an inner light.  She is standing with her side to you, but she seems reluctant to turn her attention away from the broad, deep pit dug into the earth in front of her.<br/><br/>No doubt this impressive wolfess is the Yula which the male human spoke of. Standing beside her is a silver-furred vixen who looks to be at least two decades past her prime. But despite her age, she holds a scimitar and glares at the interlopers with grim determination. Next to her is a young catboy, dressed in fashionable (though still dirty) clothes unlike the others and holding a steel saber, an uncommonly graceful weapon among the company he keeps. Standing on the other side of the pit are three green-skinned orcs, two male and one female, wearing brown robes and holding carved oaken staffs. Although they grip their staves with determination and stand their ground, it's clear from their awkward stances and the way they cluster together that they are untrained fighters.<br/><br/>Whereas these six all appear to be followers of Yula, there is one additional person who is almost certainly not: a bound and gagged female dark elf, lying on the only remaining intact serving table. She looks at the newcomers with pleading eyes and struggles against her bindings.<br/><br/>Her face still turned towards the pit, Yula speaks loudly and bombastically. "There is no more time! Arise! Serve your Lady again and smite her enemies, or remain trapped under this worthless heap of timber for another century!"<br/><br/>A wordless, high-pitched, almost musical note floats up from the pit. Apparently, it isn't the answer Yula was looking for, because she howls in dismay - only then does she turn to face Marrok, Salana and Saraphina. She eyes the bulging bellies that Marrok and Salana are sporting and bares her teeth. "You insolent, gluttonous swine!" she spits at them. "They were in service to the Lady of the Moon! You had no right to eat them!" She speaks as if stating an indisputable fact.<br/><br/>"You are more bandits, then? Hah, your worthless baubles of gold and copper have gone to feed a higher being now. You'll find nothing here but your end... end... wait." Yula's bright, crystal-blue eyes focus intently on Salana, scrutinizing the brilliant runes that cover her distended belly and other exposed parts of her skin.<br/><br/>That seems to upset Yula greatly. She snarls and glares hatefully at Salana. "Wait a moment! I've heard of you! You are the champion of that perverted sect from the nearby city, the 'Enders of the Dream'! Heretics who claim to worship the Lord and the Lady, but say that they were 'insane' to strike back against the taint of the Feywild spreading in the West! Those who celebrate this mockery of the land that was! Those who have only been ignorant of the truth may be converted... but those who have heard the truth and twisted it are only fit to be 'converted' into fertilizer!"<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">Marrok only:</span><br/><div style="padding: 3px; background-color: #FFFFFF; border: 1px solid #d8d8d8; font-size: 1em;"><div style="text-transform: uppercase; border-bottom: 1px solid #CCCCCC; margin-bottom: 3px; font-size: 0.8em; font-weight: bold; display: block;"><span onclick="if (this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display != '') {  this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = ''; this.innerHTML = '&lt;b&gt;Spoiler: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;a href=\'#\' onClick=\'return false;\'&gt;hide&lt;/a&gt;'; } else { this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = 'none'; this.innerHTML = '&lt;b&gt;Spoiler: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;a href=\'#\' onClick=\'return false;\'&gt;show&lt;/a&gt;'; }"><b>Spoiler: </b><a href="#" onclick="return false;">show</a></span></div><div class="quotecontent"><div style="display: none;">This wolfess is a very recognizable figure: her bright armor and white fur make her stand out from the rank and file. You saw her at the destruction of Hyra's Landing, though only from a distance, where she was dispensing healing and encouragement to the barbarians. She probably doesn't remember you, if she even saw you in the chaos of that day.<br/><br/>That isn't what's disturbing, though. That catboy, a shifter by the name of Nairen, was there at Hyra's Landing too, but as a member of the militia. You didn't know him well, but you spoke to him a few times, and always saw him at gatherings. You always assumed he'd taken a trip through one of the attackers' guts. You're quite sure it's him: he has a distinctive feather-shaped scar on his left cheek, and that's the same sword he had when you last saw him.</div></div></div><br/><br/><img alt="Image" src="http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/2016/encounter2.png"/><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Since it's extremely likely that this is going to become a combat, go ahead and roll initiative. I'll post the status scroll and start resolving the first round as soon as I get inits.<br/><br/>Also, note that no NPC allies currently appear on the map. That isn't because you don't/won't have any. But since you three are leading the way, they won't appear until the second combat round.</span>