Hearing the growl, Guy wondered if the legends of loup-Garou might be true, and what manner of man or beast awaited them upstairs. He decided to return to his horse and retrieve his kite shield.

"I'm not sure what's in there, but it may come running out and try to flee. Be ready" he said to Sir Wlliam.

Returning inside, he polled his coif over his head and proceeded up the stairs staying hard to the right and holding onto the rail. If some kind of massive hound leapt at him it would likely hit the shield and bounce off down the stairs.

Quin had leant against the wall at the base of the stairs as Guy changed his mind and collected a shield, holding the passage with the chopping board and his armoured body. Guy returns to find him quietly looking upward with the air of an unhooded hawk spotting high motion overhead.

As the older knight brings his shield past him, Quin starts to move. He swaps hands with the chopping-board, as ready to use it to smash anything sliding off Guy's shield to the ground as to hold it up against scrabbling hands or lupine teeth.

"Call to thy father again," he suggests softly to Jehanne.

William braces himself just behind Quin for whatever lay atop the staircase. If it barrels down at them, he'll be able to help Quin hold it off in hopes Lord Guy can pounce from the rear.

In any case, he is currently thinking he had no idea what he was getting himself into by volunteering to accompany these men here.

Guy looked around. "No, William, I want you outside, and mounted, least it jump out the window or burst past us outside" he said softly.

"Understood, apologies."" William says with embarrassment as he slowly backs out and resumes his post.

Jehanne calls up the stair. "Pere?" There is no real answer but the growl subsides, a little. She looks worried. "What is that sound? We don't have a dog."

Guy goes up the stairs as described before, and enters the room...

Quin draws in breath to reply, but then the Lord de Roquefixade leaves the eminently defensible position of the stairs and vanishes into the upper room. He raises his voice instead, hastening after: "Forgive our entry, sir! We are not robbers, and mean no harm to your daughter."

So saying, Quin makes shift to join and guard de Roquefixade's side, trusting to his armour and the girl's aunt should some fell power ranged against them take advantage of his distraction from the damsel to possess her again. The back of his neck prickles, and he crosses himself on leaving the last stair almost by instinct.

Guy ascends into a room dominated by a 7 foot tall wolf-man backed up against the far wall, growling with raised hackles like a wild animal. It is completely covered in grey fur and roughly man-shaped apart from the head that is that of a snarling wolf, baring teeth at you. Its arms ends in long, wicked-looking claws. It has no tail that you can see.

The room is a little larger than the living room below, extending out over the entrance as the second floor of these kinds of town houses tend to do. The room is sparsely furnitured but there are two windows, one facing the street and one facing the cortyard. A pile of discarded clothes lay heaped on one of the narrow beds.

OOC: Go ahead and state you actions, rolling for an appropriate skill representing what you want to do and I will roll opposing rolls if required. If you want to attack or force the wolf-man in any physical way you're at -10% since you're coming straight from the narrow stairs. Quin, standing in the stairs, will have to wait for Guy to move further into the room to do anything upstairs.

Jehanne is standing at the bottom of the stairs wringing her hands and Penota has moved to hold her shoulders in support.

The rest of the entourage is outside with the horses and William mounted and ready for anything.

Guy stared with shock at the wolf man. He wished by the Almighty that he had a drawn sword in his hand, and yet... the thing looked scared. He swallowed.

"de Serignac, there is a man wolf here" he called down in a low voice, striving to keep fear and other emotions out of it. "He doesn't seem aggressive, yet."

He  slowly and deliberately stepped into the room, and side stepped to the right, making room for Quin to come up but staying as far away from the beast as was feasible. He didn't want to spook it.

"Monsieur. Can you change? Can you talk? How did you come to be like this?" he asked in the same low calm voice.

OOC 23:29, Today: Guy de Roquefixade rolled 91 using 1d100.  Influence 40.
High is good, right? :rolleyes:

Edit: spending a fortune point to make that 19 so a success
This message was last edited by the player at 23:22, Thu 14 Dec 2023.

[[you can spend a Fortune point to make it 19, I think? Or maybe keep those for not dying...holding action until M'seur responds]]

Quin simply steps up, seemingly more perplexed than terrified by the man-beast. He stands ready for action at Guy's side, sincerely glad of their general covering of metal. "He must be in pain, to be stuck between shapes, and in desperation to have changed at all," he mentions softly to Guy, watching the creature, "-it is the dark of the moon, I saw it as I came in last night."

There seems to be little in the form of understanding in the wolf-mans grey eyes but it tilts its head a little as if trying to hear something more clearly.

OOC: Guy, Influence is used in persuading, what are you trying to make it do?

Well, I was trying to persuade it to change back, to talk.

"What if we got Jehenna up here, mayhaps it could shock him into changing back" he mused.

Quin's brows knot briefly. "If this is her father, might not what is still man in him be ashamed and made more desperate to be seen so? He is naked as Noah and halfway a beast..." he responds to the elder knight, then addresses the towering upright animal, very carefully stepping nearer the bed and the clothes: "Stefe...? Stefe, will you sit with us?"

Wary but half-sure he has the thing's attention, Quin sits and pats the bed beside him as though indulging a favoured hound or kitchen cat, the chopping board set for a moment on his lap. The unnatural length of nails become dog claws without the shortening of the fingers looms large in his awareness, but he shows up an empty armoured hand as though he might fold it on approach much as he would for a mastiff to sniff.


[[would this be some kind of nerve-keeping roll? Or help for Guy's persuasion, maybe. 'Sit, stay' might be simple enough ideas for a half-crazed loup-garou to parse, no?]]

Impressed with Quin's bravery, Guy raised his free hand high and slowly brought it down in a series of small patting motions. "Stefe, sit down, sit, down, it's all well, sit. Talk. "

Jehanne slowly creeps up the stairs and here already wide eyes become the size of saucers and she gasps loudly. The wolf-man looks her way and as soon as it sees her it looks around frantically and suddenly leaps for the front window!

OOC: This is the wolf-mans action for this round, to try and get away. You may make an opposed roll to stop it (Unarmed Combat for example a tackle or Close Combat for an outright attack), otherwise it will leap out the window.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:09, Mon 18 Dec 2023.

"Wait!" Quin cries out. As swift as speaking it, he rises - sending the chopping board clattering to the floor - and darts across the space, seeking to interpose himself between window and beast.

[[13:19, Today: Quintillian de Serignac rolled 28 using 1d100.  Wait! -either Unarmed Combat 45 or Athletics 55, normal-level success either way.

Note that Quin hasn't pulled his coif up or thought about the fact that this puts him in a prime position to get panic-chomped in the face, if not carried bodily out of the window on momentum - this is an absolutely instinctive reaction to something his instincts aren't built to calibrate for.]]

Seeing Quinton throwing himself recklessly into harms way, Guy also reacted instinctively and charged across the room, slamming into the beast with his big shield and attempting to pin it against the wall or window frame. Hopefully not Quintillian...

His other hand shot down and pulled a dagger from his belt.

12:05, Today: Guy de Roquefixade rolled 23 using 1d100.  close combat 77.

William's horse reels as he and the beast get their first glimpses of the wolfman in the window, as it struggles with his two companions. He readies himself for a chase or to dismount and dash to their aid.

The sharp claws of the wolf-man rips large tears in the wooden floor planks as it muscles tense and it lunges towards the window. It quickly tries to avoid the two men moving to block its path.

So, as I've stated in the House Rules thread we're doing combat by opposed rolls. It works like this:

Opposed skill tests:

Opposed skill tests are made by both characters who are in direct competition with each other. Both characters make the skill tests, as usual, rolling 1D100 and attempting to roll equal to or under their skill.
One character succeeds
If one character succeeds their skill test and the other fails, then the successful character has won the opposed skill test.
Both characters succeed
If both characters succeed, then whoever rolled the highest in their skill test wins the opposed test.  If one character rolls a critical, while the other rolls an ordinary success, then the character that rolled the critical, which is a higher level of success, wins.
Both characters fail
Whoever rolled the lowest in their skill test wins the opposed test. In the case of ties for both the player wins.

The wolf-man is attempting an escaping sprint.

Escaping Sprint:

The character runs out of combat range (from either close distance or ranged distance), forsaking their attack and only being able to Dodge as a defensive reaction. If running away from combat, if they successfully Dodge any incoming attack, at the end of the combat round they have disengaged from combat. Otherwise, their opponent has moved with them and has successfully held them in combat.

Defense against multiple enemies work like this.

Dodge or Parry:

You can defend as many times as you want, but you get a cumulative -20% modifier for every defence after the first.

Quin is trying to hysically block the wolf-man from leaping through the window, I think that's Unarmed Combat.

Guy is using his shield as a weapon so that's Close Combat as stated.

Using Shields to Perform an Attack:

Shields can also be used to attack, either on their own as a standard attack to do what is called a shield bash, or with a one-handed weapon to perform a multiple weapon attack (see page 73).

With loud grunts the knights manage to pin the Wolf-man to the wall. It growls at you and saliva spatters everywhere as it grows even more agitated.

Guy slams his shield hard into the furry body but it barely even notice, it just frantically tries to get loose, clawing at the walls.

Once a round it gets to make an opposed Unarmed Combat/Close Combat (if it becomes agitated enough to use it's claws on you) roll to break free.

12:20, Today: Referee, for the NPC Wolf-man, rolled 27 using 1d100.  Dodge Quin. Skill 60%. Success but lower than Quins result, sp a fail.
12:20, Today: Referee, for the NPC Wolf-man, rolled 71 using 1d100.  Dodge Guy. Skill 40%

Quin tries to get an armoured arm about the beast's neck to haul him down and give him something to occupy those jaws, but the creature is thrashing about too much to be caught.

[[14:01, Today: Quintillian de Serignac rolled 88 using 1d100.  Hold! (Unarmed 45) Nope. ]]

In the shattered, over-clear instants of potentially deadly strife, he becomes highly aware of his bare skull, the raking claws, the rising glint of metal from Guy's side. All he can think to do is to call out and keep his intentions plain, ready to try and tackle the beast should Guy's pinning hold waver. "Jehanne! Gather a blanket to cast over him ere he leaps into the street!"

"WILLIAM! GET IN HERE!" Guy yells, pushing hard with the shield to keep the beast pinned. He reaches with his dagger behind the tail of the shield to try to hamstring the wolfman.

"Don't use your arm, for the love of Mary! Shove bedding in its face!" he exclaims to Quintillian.



23:40, Today: Guy de Roquefixade rolled 36 using 1d100.  close combat 77. to try to hamstring it.
Is there a contested roll to keep it pinned? What?

William drops from the horse with haste and barrels up the stairs, one hand on the pommel of that steel of meticulous Frankish design on his hip as he ascends.

He sees Quin trying to restrain the beast and struggling, so he joins the fray to try and pin the beast before it makes an escape.

"Quin! I've got him! Get the bedding!" he shouts in reassurance and drives his forearm into the beast's throat, reaching now halfway over Guy's shield. He applies ample pressure to the windpipe that lay between his arm and the wall.

19:13, Today: William FitzAlan rolled 30 using 1d100.  Unarmed Combat 37.

The Wolf-man is immensely strong and struggles ferociously, almost managing to break free. Only Williams swift intervention keeps it from throwing the knights to the floor. Guy slashes its hamstrings, blood spattering on the wall boards behind them. The wolf-man snarls at the pain and the wounds close before Guys eyes.

Jehanne, having heeded Quins words comes up from behind the men and throws a blanket on the wolf-monster. It lands on top of its head and shoulders. Immediately the wolf-man stops thrashing and the beast in the mens hands start to transform. There are bones cracking and re-setting, fur transforms into naked skin and its claws meld into ordinary nails. The beast howl in agony but slowly starts to shrink into a man, slowly slumping to the floor. "Papa!" Jehanne calls, pushes her way past the men and gathers the limp form of her father into her arms. She pushes the blanket down from his head to cover his torso and sobs down onto his unconcious face.

OOC: 14:11, Today: Referee, for the NPC Wolf-man, rolled 67 using 1d100 ((67)). Break free (William). Target 60%.

Guy, since you opted to slash I took that as your action instead of holding. Turned out well anyway.

Not at all sure what's happened in the past five minutes, Quin dazedly claps William on the shoulder in thanks and looks round at the bed, then at the man on the floor. A fear that was entirely absent during the confrontation and subsequent struggle ghosts through his look as he observes the slow drool of spattered blood down the wall. "My lord de Roquefixade, perhaps it is best to wipe that blade on something in this chamber," he manages, slightly hoarse, then kneels down by Jehanne.

"Does he breathe?" is his first question, the shockingly audible re-alignment of bones still fresh in his mind. "Let us put him in his bed, and a shirt on him." Quin reaches to gently set a hand on her arm but does not try to move her whilst the un-wolfed man is still, his statement more of a request than a demand.