First Adventure: The Hunt for The Night Thing

Wotan crushes into the swarm using frenetic speed and Vigor to smash the insects instead of technique. He was a rave of motion and anger. His Blade of Grass flailing wildly without any real regard for safety.

Wotan, with the fury and frenzy driven by his supernatural gifts, seems to usher the pesky bugs away, and they fly off.

Lilla'martu gripped her staff tightly and looked around wide-eyed.

"Did anyone else hear that roar?" she whispered urgently. "If it is our quarry, the Night Thing, we should prepare to ambush it!"

Beckoning to Stekko Gravelsnake, Lilla moved as quickly and quietly as she could towards what little cover could be found.

Lilla, you recognize the sound of a tyrantmaw's roar! You know that this is an apex predator, well above most people's ability to actually fight off.

"Wait a minute," said Lilla, standing up in alarm, eyes wide. She knew that roar.

"Tyrantmaw!" she hissed, waving her arms frantically at her comrades. "Hide!"

Wotan dove into the nearby mud and blood and held as still as he possibly could.

Bracus doesn't have to be hear that twice as he moves to side for cover.

Medheyg takes the advice seriously and immediately slides into cover behind a decently-sized rock or bush.

The only one who doesn't take cover is poor Stekko, but that's not (entirely) his fault... you see, too much blood lost (curses to you mosquito bites) means he is currently out cold.
Hopefully, Tyrantmaws are like bears and playing dead will save the poor dwarf... at worst he will work hard to cause a bad stomach ache to the beast.

Lilla frowned and looked out at the clearing atop the cliffside where there lay a pool of toxic blood and the body of Stekko Gravelsnake.

"Oh, gods," whispered Lilla.

She glanced frantically around the treeline and saw no sign of the tyrantmaw they'd heard earlier. In the confusion of combat she hadn't noticed him go down. The Gravelsnake was not of her clan, but they'd had some friendly encounters over the years, she and him. To leave Stekko for carrion would be unacceptable.

"Help me!" Lilla hissed, as loudly as she dared.

She ran in a hunched-over sprint towards where Stekko lay and fell to her knees beside his prostrate form. Lilla pressed two fingers into his neck. There was a pulse, which sent a wave of relief washing through Lilla's body, but there was much blood that ought to have been inside the dwarf rather than smeared on his skin and the ground. Lilla grabbed Stekko under the arms and began trying to drag him towards cover.

Bracus suddenly realizes that Stekko is down, and he rushes over to him and takes the time to cast a cure wound on him before helping him to take cover.

Stekko is dragged by Lilla, out of the mud and thrown into a bush, and Bracus comes forward, covers Stekko more, and heals the dwarf.The tyrantmaw tears through the trees. It steps right where Wotan was, and its tail hits the spot that Medheyg was crouched in prior to hugging the tree.

The tyrantmaw leaves the scene, and after a few minutes, you don’t feel the vibrations in the floor caused by its earthquake-like steps.

"Thank you spirit."

Wotan whispers to the wood and when the coast is clear slowly stands to full height. "Not trying to die again." He offered with a mirthful chuckle. "Ho ho ho! Merry combat!"

<Uh?> Stekko's conciousness comes back not with the best timing, since the dwarf is about to ask loudly to Lilla and Bracus, who are near him, about what happened. The last thing he remembers is that he was being stung by those pesky flies and then... black. <Wh...> he is stopped at the start of the sentence by a strange voice, whispering in his ear.
He thinks about it just for a moment, then he shrugs his shoulders, it's not the first time that he listens to a voice in his head.
And good for the dwarf, since the giant Tyrantmaw would have definetly saw him otherwise.

Stekko waits for the monster to be out of reach before taking a breath and almost start screaming: <What in the upside-down happened?> he asks to the rest of the group, <Merry combat? Look at this you goat-head> he shows the pale arm with little to no blood remaining, <it will take at least half a tyrantmaw worth of meat to regain all that blood...> he sighs.

Medheyg peeks out of the tree to see if the danger is clear and then steps out, clearly relieved. It seems the spirits of this land don't want them dead just yet. She looks over at the complaining dwarf and pulls out her wineskin.

"It wouldn't do for that, companion. Here, have the rest of this - it's invigorating."

She offers the wineskin to Stekko and then goes off to poke at the corpses of the insects, picking one or another piece to take with her.

Lilla'martu exhaled slowly and her shoulders slumped in relief.

"Phew," she said. "My thanks to whomever that was whispering to me. Which of you was it?"

She looked around expectantly at her comrades.

"It was Ymir, the Great Spirit." Wotan replied cryptically.

Wotan walked a circle around the site of the bugs and found the blood trail, looking for signs of his quarry.

Bracus looks about and says, "Perhaps we can fallow it and find a way to kill it. It is what we must do."

"We need to keep focused."