The Search for the Circle of Vehlarr
Part Seven: The Assassin’s Spear

Have you ever wondered what makes a werewolf tick? What forces are at work that would make a human ally with such a creature? Designer Steve Miller takes you on a journey of discovery as he leads you ever deeper in the Circle of Vehlarr.

By K. Steven Miller

When I first regained consciousness, I thought the afterlife wasn’t everything it had been cracked up to be… or, if it was, I hadn’t said the right prayers at the right temples, because I must have been condemned to the Nine Hells.

My lungs and my head ached, I was coughing up water, and sharp rocks pushed into my stomach and chest and face. And someone was poking at my backside with something sharp.

"Hey," a high-pitched, vaguely feminine voice said, "this guy’s no werewolf… he’s human!"

"Impossible," another, huskier voice said. "No human would be this deep inside the wood. Someone would have gotten him long before now."

"Who? Ain’t no one around anymore. Not since –"

"Hey! He’s awake!"

I had tried to shift my weight carefully in order to turn my head and get a look at the two speakers, but they were more observant than I had thought. I gave up any pretense and twisted my aching body into a crouch.

Two rag-clad, dusky-skinned humans gazed down at me, their eyes glinting below stringy dark bangs. One was male, the other female. I guessed from their general appearance they hailed from Calimshan or perhaps even farther south and east, but they were more handsome and finely featured than any of the merchants I had met from that region. The male was carrying a spear.

"Sorry ‘bout jumping you," the male said in a falsetto voice that seemed wrong coming from a man’s mouth. "I didn’t know you were that weak and all. We don’t get many humans in here."

I wondered if these people were werewolves. If they were, I hoped they were members of Arahnar’s missing pack. It would probably lengthen my life, if they were.

"So, tough guy," said the woman, to whom the deeper voice belonged, "how’d you manage to get so deep inside the Wood of Sharp Teeth? You don’t look like no wizard, and you sure didn’t walk in."

"Them’s that live around here don’t like your kind," the male said in his falsetto.

"I’m here with one of, well, one of your kind, I imagine," I said, as the male helped me to my feet. "She teleported us in using a magic ring."

The two exchanged glances. I started to realize there was a strong resemblance between them. They both appeared to be the same age -- in their mid-twenties -- so I guessed they were brother and sister. "One of us?" he said. "You think so?"

"I can’t be sure, but I imagine so. She’s past those trees, in the cave up the mountain."

Their eyes lit up. "Just one?" they said in unison.

"Yes. Her name is Arahnar."

"Oh, little Arahnar!" she said. "She’s come home, has she? And now she’s all by her lonesome, except for you?" She smiled and patted my cheek. It was the sort of smile I’d seen Arahnar give people just before she assumed wolf form and tore into them.

"Yes, she’s alone," I said, taking a step back.

"With a magical ring that allows her to teleport, no less," the male said. He wore a smile like his sister’s, only more unpleasant, because his eyes glinted with evil glee.

"Let me fill your bucket by way of apology for attacking you," the husky-voiced female said. "Ranak, why don’t you pick up the poor man’s axe and give it to him?"

Moments later, I again held my battle-axe in one hand and the filled bucket in the other. As I walked up the hill with the couple trailing behind me, my thoughts no longer lingered on the true nature of the relationship I shared with Arahnar. Instead, I wondered whether we would have to fight this pair. Their predatory smiles and false politeness made my skin crawl. I was convinced that this pair was werewolves, but I was not at all certain their intentions were friendly.

"Is that the cave?" the female asked as we cleared the tree line, nodding toward the dark opening. A thin tail of smoke emerged from it.

"Gotta be," said the male before I had a chance to answer. "Is it?"
"Yes."

The female sniggered. "Let’s surprise her. You move as quietly as your clumsy feet will let you, human," she said, patting me on the back. "Don’t spoil the gag."

"I’ll try not to," I muttered. I used the handle of my axe as support as we moved slowly up the hill.

"You took your time," Arahnar’s voice came from within the shadows of the cave before we had reached it. I couldn’t help but smirk when quick glances at the couple revealed disappointed expressions on their faces. Clearly, they had underestimated "little Arahnar’s" sharp hearing. "I almost decided to eat the rabbit by myself and let you starve."

The couple suddenly completed the ascent up the hill with a burst of speed. As they ran, they began the transformation that I had seen Arahnar go through many times now . . . although even in its early stages their beast-man forms seemed different, lankier.

"Surprise!" Ranak cried, raising the spear above his head.

"Surprise to you, freaks!" Arahnar materialized between me and the couple, already in her man-beast form but incongruously still wearing her stolen Red Wizard robes. She had wasted a charge in the teleportation ring for a cheap stunt. But it was a stunt that worked. She leaped forward with a wild howl even as the ragged couple turned with startled looks on their wolflike faces.

The female nonetheless reacted with supernatural speed. She leaped into the air as well, shouting something in a language I didn’t understand, and the two collided with a bone-rattling smack. The stranger was larger, and her bulk carried her and Arahnar forward. The two crashed to the ground halfway down the slope and rolled to the tree line in a flurry of claws and red robes.

I turned to Ranak, who was staring slack-jawed down the hill. I threw the bucket at him. It caught him square in the face, knocking him a couple of steps back. I charged, bringing my axe back for a blow -- I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to hurt him, but I counted on at least keeping him off balance.

But Ranak was too fast for me. He sprang backward, deeper into the cave, using his spear as a pole to augment his jump. I kept charging as he hurled the spear at me. I pitched forward to avoid it, tumbling toward him and coming up right within arm’s reach… only to discover that he had vanished.

In retrospect, I should have realized that he hadn’t really gone anywhere. I hesitated for a brief moment, and that was all the time he needed. A beefy paw slammed against the side of my head, launching me into the cave wall. The magic that had made the creature invisible dispersed when he attacked me, but for the second time that day, a member of this brother-and-sister team had taken me by surprise. He batted my axe from my hand before I managed to regain my bearings and closed his clawed hands around my neck, lifting me from the ground. "Hey, Arahnar!" he yelled. "You lay offa my sister or I’m gonna take the head off your pet human! You got us all wrong, little wolf!"

To be continued…

Steve Miller has been a professional game designer for five years. He’s known for products such as Secrets of Tuarhievel (Birthright); Heroes of Defiance (Dragonlance); Doomgrinder (Greyhawk); Van Richten's Guide to Hags (Ravenloft); X-Men Roster Book (Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game); Unearthly (Dragon Dice Kicker Pack); NUELOW: Fairies!, NUELOW: Ugly Ducklings & Ice Queens! (for Wonky Games); The Dark Ages: A Clash of Wills (for White Wolf Game Studios). He claims the title as "the crankiest guy working in gaming today," but actually is just a softy. Just ask his cats, Edith and Archie (also known as Loviatar and Sargonnas).