The village elder whose name was Indriel had to have a long and rather drawn out conversation with Olnir and the leader of the merchant carts. There was no way we were turning back after all we'd been through so far, but at the same time, we hadn't come prepped for whatever issues they were currently having.

While our leaders were talking though I got a few minutes to look around the town. This village looked almost besieged, the worried looks and nervousness in the air very familiar to me due to my many issues with such through the years. The people looked at us with a mix of hope and fear as we entered, obviously not the relieving force they'd been hoping for.

The wall that surrounded the place was well enough made, but it was clear that it'd been in place for a much shorter time than similar defenses, they trees as they were seemed grown in place, with vines acting as support ropes, but something about the few boards that were here and there as the platforms looked green to me. It was also clear that whoever had made this didn't really understand defenses or wasn't making it for humanoid attacks, there were no crenellations at all. The platform was far too close to the top of the wall, anyone atop it would be fully exposed from the waist up.

"What do you think is going on here?" I asked Dras as we stood nearby, falling into the human tongue to keep things as private as possible.

"Kind of reminds me of the war, but nobody looks hungry," he replied.

"That makes sense, with the higher number of casters... even a few that could only make a little food could keep a village this size going for months easy." I was trying to count, but this place was decidedly smaller than my own birthplace. Even as a child I would have been able to keep a village of this size going for... until malnutrition kicked in.

He nodded as the others of our party came to join us. None of us knew what the situation was, but it was clearly something quite odd. Before long even some of the merchants came by, not all of them though, some were guarding their carts from rather interested looking villagers.

"What's your estimation on this?" Ulanion asked one of them, his own eyes scanning.

"Something's up, but... the elder said they were waiting for help, but I heard nothing of that, did you?" The responding merchant looked nervous as well.

"Not that we heard," Selene offered.

"That implies that whoever they sent for help... didn't make it." Our elven guard seemed more disturbed by that thought than the idea of a problem.

Soon enough though we got our answers. The village elder, Olnir, and the merchant left the former's home and moved in our direction, none looked pleased in the slightest.

"What's the situation?" Ulanion asked.

"Well, we thought you were the help we requested nearly a year ago, but it seems not." It was Indriel the elder who answered.

"It seems the village has been attacked by some form of monster, a large wolf/shadow-type. We'll need to go and talk to one of survivors for details on it." Olnir said, motioning for the elder to lead us on.

As we walked the elder spoke. "It first appeared a few years ago, we're unclear on the exact type or nature of this beast, but in it's first move it slaughtered most of a wedding party. During the event the would-be groom awakened his magic, but it wasn't enough." His breath seemed to catch in his throat for a moment before he continued. "Our village isn't large, but we lost too many that night, forty of our people fell before it, and few escaped. Ormien was one who managed to, if barely, but his bride... It affected him, you'll see."

"The wall?" I asked.

"Yes, we put it up to try and keep our enemy out, and it's worked. I can also tell you that the beast seems to dislike the light, so day is safer. Based on the fact that our messengers didn't make it to anyone though I hesitate to say safe."

We arrived at the house of the one we were going to see, this Ormien. It was large, two stories with a good footprint, but seemed to lack the care that had been given to most of the other homes nearby, the grass around it was full of weeds and the inside looked dark.

The elder beat on the door, which swung open slowly at his touch.

"Ormien... Help has arrived, we need to talk to you." He yelled in after the resident, when no answer came we slowly walked into the entryway.

With a crash an elven man entered from some back room. His eyes red with sorrow and impotent hate. He looked at us in slight confusion for a moment as raggedy unwashed hair fell over his features. In his one remaining arm he held a bottle of some kind, and was without doubt the most ragged looking elf I'd seen.

"What do you want you old bastard, come to poke fun at the cripple?" He said as he stumbled into the room.

"We need to know about the wolf Ormien," the elder said to the obviously drunk man.

Every hair on my neck stood up. It was held back a lot right now, but there was magic flowing around this guy, and he was unstable. In the span of a blink he surged forward at the elder reaching his hand out. He didn't make it though, as our physicals Glen and Ulanion met him mid-charge.

"I told you not to mention that thing!" he screamed as he was wrestled to the ground. "It took them, it took them all." He began to weep pitifully as he finally calmed. "Oh my Ilazia, I'm so sorry." Shortly he passed out, finally going limp.

"What the shit, how is he useful?" I asked.

"He fought the beast. When he'd sober, which is less and less these days, he's... fairly competent, but when he drinks he gets like this."

"So what? We have to wait until he gets it all out of his system to get anything worthwhile out of him?" Olnir seemed irked at the drunk before us.

"No, we're not waiting," I answered.

Alana's Own Hangover Cure and Poison Neutralization (Patent Pending) was a spell I'd mastered years ago and casting it on the passed out elf was no issue at all. Once I was satisfied that I'd taken the booze from his system I motioned the boys who held him tight while I lightly slapped his face.

"Uwh?" he said as he came to.

"Wake up sunshine, we need to know what we're up against."

It took a few blinks for the elf to come to and look around the room. "Who the fuck are you? And why are you in my house?"

"We came to look into some flora and fauna," Olnir took up the line with our cover story. "Sounds like you've got one of the latter we'll definitely need to be rid of before we can get to our actual work."

That got the drunk's attention and he slowly sat up. "You think you can?" he asked.

"Best chance we've got, and it sounds like all the calls for help your village sent out amounted to nothing," Olnir answered.

"Come on then, let's talk." our guide shakily rose to his feet, allowed by our own heavies and led us into the kitchen, where he smartly poured himself a cup of water. "Didn't think those messengers would make it anyway, didn't I tell you old man?"

The elder seemed irked, but didn't say anything. If he wasn't going to though I certainly would push this along.

"Why not?" I asked.

"That thing, whatever it is, is smart, too smart. When it attacked us it took out the guards first, it's not some base beast, but intelligent, it's thinking, planning, I saw it, in its eyes." For a moment he lost his concentration, before snapping back. "The only reason it hasn't attacked us yet is probably because we're more like its stockpile of food, or it just hates us and wants us to suffer."

"Weaknesses?" Dras asked, hoping to get something helpful for the moment.

"It's immune to mundane weapons so far as I saw, arrows and non-magical blades just pass through it, but you can hurt it with magic, sadly we didn't have anyone strong enough to do it in," the elf answered.

That was bad. A lot of monsters had resistances and the like, but I'd never heard of anything being completely immune to anything except magic. There were a few beasts that were really, really hard to hurt without it, but that was just because they were tough, it sounded like this thing was incorporeal.

"You fought it before, could you help us against it?" Robert asked from one corner.

"Oh I'd love to, but if you haven't noticed." He waved towards his missing right arm. "I'm still getting used to being left handed, a condition imposed on me by our little friend out there."

"I might be able to help, if we can get enough of the village together. It'll be a hack job though, and it'll hurt," our primary healer explained.

For the first time I saw something like hope in Ormien's eyes, it wasn't pretty. He clearly saw his chance, perhaps the only one he would get, for revenge. "I'm in."

"No more drinking. If we're going to fight, you'll need to be sober for it." Robert's voice was hard as he looked at the elf.

"I said I was in, whatever conditions you want." While Ormien and Robert eyed each other I could see Olnir smile a bit in the background, we'd acquired another soldier, and a physical magic user to boot.