Forsooth, to Slay the Beast! (IC)

[GranspearZX]

Arc watched and listened as Rene put on his 'helpless old man' act. Again. For the most part, Arcturus knew better, but it wasn't as if he had never fallen for the ruse before, and even now he couldn't always be sure it was a ruse.

"...yeah, I'm definitely not your guy. You're a couple centuries off."

It bothered him, however, that the magic was that recognizable across nearly 700 years. Clearly he had no idea what sort of evils had been committed under its influence; he knew, of course, but he didn't really like to think about it. How long would he realistically be able to control it when so many people couldn't? He huffed irritably, folding his arms across his chest. The only way he knew to deal with such heavy issues was not to do so at all, pushing forward to the next task.

"Anyway, we need to find this thing so those hikers'll go back to normal. That's all I care about."

[Supercape]

"The only way to save those souls is to find the beast..." sighed Sir Thomas, genuinely upset at the peril of the three unconscious beast-men.

Rene nodded. "It is a plague. A plague of animal magic, deep and powerful. However, therein lies the possible way of capturing our quarry hehe" he chuckled softly.

"We can let one go, see where it takes us. It looks without wit, and if my guess is correct, it may flee back to its master, as a wounded pup would..."

[GranspearZX]

"I didn't hurt 'em too much," Arcturus muttered, scratching at the back of his broad neck. "They should be able to walk at least. We should probably get out of sight so they don't know they're bein' followed..."

Arcturus started to move further away from the three wolfmen, still disturbed at the concept of his rune being responsible for something like that. It wasn't as if he did it, but it bothered him in ways he couldn't fully comprehend. Trying to push the thought to the back of his mind, he looked back at the night. "...and 'we' includes you, tinman."

[Supercape]

Low and behold, the three bruised and battered wolfmen, seeing three powerful adversaries and nursing sore ribs, scuttled away.

"Still fast" mumbled Rene, unsure if he could keep up for any protracted period of time, although Sir Thomas was already on their tail, his shield and sword in hand, and moving at a respectable pace despite his recent fight and heavy armour.

"Can you follow ze beasts?" asked Rene to Marcus, pointing at his own nose by way of indication.

[GranspearZX]

Arcturus paused, concentrating. He could follow them, for sure; there was no fooling his sense of smell in his ursine form, and he'd been practicing enough that he was starting to be able to smell things he couldn't even see. It helped that he'd picked up their scent from knocking them around earlier.

He was more concerned about Rene. His own magic was of a purely physical nature, and Rene wasn't as built for long hikes as he was. Still, he was pretty sure that Rene would be safe between himself and Sir Thomas, and Arc occasionally looked back to make sure the knight wasn't going to try to stab him in the back.

[Supercape]

Rene was huffing and puffing behind Arcturus. He had an inkling the progenitor beast would not be far behind, but he did not know how near, or how soon, the creature would be met.

And then, there was Sir Thomas and Arcturus to consider. Both could be hot headed it seemed. What would the beast be like? cunning or just hot headed too. And would it exert any influence of Arcturus?

He felt a vague sense of premonition, or warning, lurking at the edge of his consciousness...