[WHF] The Broken Mirror - A Divided Loyalties Peggy Sue

So from the vote breakdown - case by case in future, but no retcon.

You take a few seconds to consider your options and let yourself be very much afraid; acting on instinct without recognising your fear is precisely what got you into this mess. You suppress your desire to simply carve your way through the two remaining ghouls and rescue Wolf - you have at least a score more minutes before his soul will depart his body, and given the direct tie between your souls you're not sure even that would stop you bringing him back with the seed.

Instead you carefully coat yourself in a cloak of shadow, moving as little as possible and speaking just as quietly. You take your time, weaving the spell three times as slowly as usual. Then, once you're thoroughly surrounded by your tamed shadow, you crawl away on hand and knees.

Selecting a tree that looks unclimbable you cast skywalk (quietly, but with no subtlety to your movements) and walk up to its lowest branches, 20 feet from the ground. The branch is awkward and slightly slippery but it'll do.


From your new perch you have to cast your spells with minimal movement once more - not for stealth, neither of the ghouls is looking up, but rather for stability. You cast drop upon the first ghoul to force your arm from its grasp, observing with concern as you note that its second charge has just activated and healed the arm itself without you. Then you pull it towards you, zigging and zagging so that the ghoul cannot grab it out of the air before you have it safely in the tree.

With its lunch mysteriously escaping, the ghoul gives chase - and you blast it with a magic dart, before realising that you did none of the necessary motions.

The now wounded ghoul dashes towards you with surprising speed, and its claws allow it purchase on the tree with far greater ease than you'd expected - but not greater than you were prepared for. You pull your pistol from its holster and fire its final shot directly into the head of that wounded ghoul.

The ghoul collapses, dead, while the other ghoul looks up from where it's making a meal of Wolf, scared.

You throw out another Magic Dart at the remaining ghoul, hitting its leg, and it grabs up the intestines it was pulling from Wolf and makes to flee. Uncertain of what effect the removal of such internals might have on the healing of regrowth you cast Drop once more and the ghoul simply continues its flight, knowing that it's alone and beaten.


You grab your left arm, and trigger the spell once more to reattach it - using up its fourth charge. Then, you drop back down to ground level and approach Wolf. With a guilty heart you place his intestines back inside him, and then trigger the seed's fifth charge, healing him completely.

Wolf nuzzles up to you for cuddles, and licks your face - you know he holds no grudge against you, he would have died for you if it were necessary, but he's very glad that it wasn't. So you stroke the Best Boy's back while you reload your pistol, and then you head back towards the town, keeping your senses wide and remembering that even scavengers can be a serious threat in Sylvania.

---

When you return to the location you last saw Maltor you're surprised to find he's still there. At your approach his face falls. "I suppose you'll be wanting me to tell you everything? I've only got hours to live now I suppose, not like they've got anything left to hold against me. Just promise me a proper burial and I'll tell you everything I know; little as it is."

What approach do you take to questioning Maltor?

You know he's fed numerous people to a vampire, including some that were relatively petty criminals (pickpockets and similar) and one that was used to create the banshee that attacked Fort Redemption.

[ ] [Maltor] Inform him you've successfully saved him - for now - then question him.
[ ] [Maltor] Question him while he believes he's dying, then inform him and continue.
[ ] [Maltor] Question him while he believes he's dying, then kill him.
[ ] [Maltor] Inform him you saved him, then question him - then Mindhole him and question him while he believes he's dying.
[ ] [Maltor] Write-in
If you don't kill him you'll take him to Fort Redemption for holding, potentially more questioning, and eventual trial.

Wolf saved your life, but it almost cost his own. What's your reaction to this?

[ ] [Wolf] If he wants to join you in battle more often, he can be trained and equipped for it.
Options to train Wolf and equip him for combat will become available - Wolf will join you on missions where either stealth isn't needed or the presence of a wolf won't be noticed. (i.e. travelling through woodlands)
[ ] [Wolf] No, Wolf is best boy and shouldn't be at risk - you'll protect him, and keep him safe. No combat training for your puppy.
Wolf will be told not to engage in combat, and simply to have fun. It's not impossible he'll jump in again anyway, but you won't put him in positions where its probable. You'll still be able to give wolf purely defensive and escape-oriented items.

Voting will last 24 hours, stopping here as I have plenty of things to write outside of the vote results but currently don't feel up for writing further, and know people want the update sooner rather than later.
The seed's auto-trigger is based on whether it's attached to a beating heart - it'll trigger once per minute if not attached because it has no way to tell that it shouldn't.