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Auric was fortunate that I was present to take charge of things His initial reaction was to run, which would have soon been the death of hi the panic in his mind with patient reason
It is only a dream Give up full control of yourself to me and you will live to wake Thus did I whisper into his stunned mind
His reply was faint but affirmative Perhaps he had no better idea of how to face this dreahtmare It was as well for hi in to e way We were separate beings see me to fully use it
Thea surprised foe paralyzed with terror than a trained warrior ready and willing to attack with the sa, rolling their eyes, and flashing their teeth e with anyone else, but not with eons as pets
The firstits tie of battle is on me,to ent influence, stepped forward and used the sword for the purpose for which it was best designed, cutting the goblyn in half at the waist
It took more effort than I&039;d anticipated, but then Auric was not as strong as I would be were I there Nonetheless, we didn&039;t pause, and on the return sweep our blade rendered the sarisly service to the next one that dared approach
The rest had little reaction to the deoblyns are created creatures, subject to the will of their master without th; they aren&039;t clever, but that makes them too stupid to retreat The only way to stop them is to kill them, or if their h my mind as we killed two more It was all the rest would allow as they rushed to close their circle around us Retreating, we hurriedly leaped over the fresh bodies, reached the edge of the clearing to put our back to a tree, then I had Auric call for the wolves
My children joyfully darted fro out the cries of our common enehter, stabbing a goblyn and taking its short sword away A second weapon doubled our effectiveness, but one of them clubbed us and another swiped a claw at our left flank, connecting Auric felt the i him in motion to pause
Whenever one fell another took its place, but their numbers were finite, and they were hard pressed to deal with both Auric and the wolves The latter did not seeround by three wolves, still futilely tried to reach out for us, even as it was being torn to shreds We cut our way through twoits physical li ot in another strike, this ti it solidly down on Auric&039;s left aroblyn tried for another strike, and if the wolves had not gone for the thing just in tirief then and there
There were so exhaustion It made it hto waver I forced him to use his injured arm to fish out the copper wand, then actually spare a look at his hand to see if the as in the grip of his nuone, it was hard to ht he had botched it, but suddenly saw a flare of light as the energies stored in the wand obediently lashed forth, hurling the theonized screeches - And then it was all over except for the stink of burned flesh
Auric fell back against the tree for support, panting like e out of the hen they saw the daylight bright glow for around his left hand They were quite clear of the area when the blue and purple flaoblyns For a few nant blaze of pure s to the bone It burned itself out just as quickly, leaving behind charred corpses and a thick drift of black smoke
The fire blinded us both for a short ties of the goblyn&039;s writhing forms finally started to fade from the crystal, and I couldabout
None of them seemed to be seriously hurt, which astonished oblyns are deadly with their slashing claws, and their usual for into your face with their long teeth They supposedly subsisted on raw flesh and were not above cannibalish unwary hermits had apparently been the preferred diet for this ht also be included, if they had allowed themselves to be captured
Auric&039;s felloere not the only ones inhabiting this forest to judge by this grove He had made no mention of them, and I had specifically asked if anyone else dwelled in Forlorn He was honestly ignorant of their presence That was not too surprising If the druids were as reclusive a lot as I remembered from Qwilym&039;s tale, they could be as evasive as shadows
The other oblyns had not beenhis moves and with the help of the wolves, was still no match for a dozen of them If they had really wanted to kill they should have succeeded Therefore their master desired a prisoner, not a half-eaten carcass, which left the questions of who their ht be and how he&039;d known to send his servants
The latter seemed to have a ready answer: perhaps the lord of this tiny country was as aware of intruders entering as I was for ht? Or perhaps another lich like Azalin? Charht Dare I hope that he was also trapped within his borders? Certainly I could hope, but I would prepare for the worst just in case Yes, there were decided advantages to being a pessiood a place as any to start looking into things, but I wasn&039;t certain where it was Oh, to be able to transform into a bat for a real view of the forest, not tohurts Auric had collected His ar he had taken burned like fire He was beco harder and harder to influence, to convince hi his head, saying he wanted to wake up and leave
A good idea, that For all I knew a second lot of the disgusting creatures ht this rip on Auric eakening by the oblyns
Portions of them could prove useful as coalling Perhaps I could hire people to cross the border and bring back a body or two My wolves wereie fro on sheep and the occasional shepherd, I supposed
The ht as well get soible out of this expedition for all this trouble Tired as Auric was, he could take at least one of the s I had hiht heart wound and order the wolves to pull it fro there to interfere with my spell I told hiave him the word to activate its stored travel incantation with the instruction to return hioblyn, appeared just outside the entrance, much to the surprise of the wolves there I wasn&039;t worried about the wolves left in Forlorn; they could find their way hoh Those that welcooblyn, but through him I ordered them off before they decided to make a meal of it My complete control over Auric was suddenly back He ithin Barovia again Not that I had any further use for him
A wave of weariness swept over him Damn his weak human body I relinquished h the a up tothrough my own eyes And I was decidedly uncohed htly, stirring the onto their new perch Baffling for a moment, then I understood that hundreds of bats covered h Very devoted of theht crush so into mist form They were discommoded anyway to tell by their surprised protests as their bed suddenly vanished As I drifted toward the entry, I sensed the around the cave chamber on their way back up to the roof
I continued on until feeling the push of outside air and resurateful to be controllingbody once more, free of Auric&039;s slow reactions and other defects of mortality The wolves snuffled at Auric&039;s body but left him alone Apparently any friend of Strahd&039;s was a friend to theues lolling as if with laughter
He didn&039;t once stir at their antics nor when I reclaimed my copper wand and the used up amulet I would just have to create another As for how Auric would deal with his too vivid dream and mysterious injuries, he was on his own Lord Vasili had paid hi about to answer questions
This scouting foray had been all too brief and da - at least to Auric - but instructive I knehat had been killing the hermits and would have to turn my crystal in the direction of Forlorn to try to discover who controlled the goblyns I needed to knohether the things would be crossing the border in the future and be ready for it If once the daot into Barovia, they would infest the mountains like roaches in a pantry and there would be no end of trouble - unless I could find a way to control them myself But I would rather not have to try as it would take time and effort away from my ith Azalin
Until I knew more I would send word to the boyars about this possible threat
The peasants were good at locking theht, but even the best stout door and bolts would not be enough against a deteroblyns
I would have to tell the Vistani and use them as scouts Border checkpoints would have to be set up, with people toconstructive to do with their excess energy
I would have to atteh ued, the last few hours had been quite exhausting one, so I would have to suue oblyn&039;s dah, I ordered the wolves out of the way and began the casting
The effort orth it; Iintoover the books - to drop the dead goblyn on the cold hearth stones
My guest kept a carefully neutral expression on his illusionary face, but he was definitely surprised Nor could distract hi to coe in your usual diet?" he inquired, nudging its arm with his booted toe
"Hardly, but there has been a e in Barovia"
It never occurred to me to keep this inforoal He was reluctant to accept the truth of Forlorn&039;s existence at first, but took the inarguable presence of the goblyn&039;s body as very immediate proof He knew I never tolerated such vermin in Barovia; I had far superior servants to control whose feeding habits weren&039;t in competition with my own Once past this initial obstacle of disbelief, he settled into full-blown analysis of the situation