Lone Wolf's night becomes dark, the city buildings become black and the streets empty, and his voice echoes. Eventually the city guards stop Lone Wolf, telling him that his yelling is disturbing the peace and everyone's sleep. They forcibly escort Lone Wolf back to the inn, where he can no longer cause trouble.
---
The chill morning arrives. Dortumn steps out onto the front of the stadium only to see Dreadstone being the only one arriving timely, and asks, "The hell is everyone else!? Don't they know that we're ready today? No matter the quartermaster has reason to see you." This time Dortumn doesn't have to lead Dreadstone around, he decides to wait outside for the others instead, knowing that the ranger knows well enough to make his way to the arena.
Once Dreadstone does, he is met by a halfling looking up to him, literally, whose hair is as unkempt as they come and wears a full body working suit with gloves, a name sewn into the chest of his suit with the name 'Curly'. He holds an umbrella in one hand though seems to mostly be toying with it idly. Initiating the introduction, the little person lets in a muffled snort and speaks curtly, "You're the oh, so scary man with horns I heard about, right? Well, come on we don't have all day. I was ordered to bring in some extra equipment just for you." He gestures Dreadstone to hurry along.
Moving along the tables and stands they have, they see various weapons and tools laid about. The halfling ignores most of them, feeling they need no introduction, and pauses when he reaches a particular table, one with a half-orc dressed as a noble wearing a wig at it who appears to be writing something that wouldn't be much of interest to Dreadstone. Curly smiles and politely greets, "Good morrow, sir. I see your words flow well on the pages." Speaking surprisingly well mannered in response, the half-orc smiles and answers, "Why yes, my heart pines to immortalize the pleasant feeling of this morning day." The half-orc then takes the vial of ink he was using, and tosses it behind him. An explosion flares loudly behind him, but he acts as if it was not there. Curly looks to Dreadstone and snorts once more, then explains without question, "A bomb disguised as an ordinary bottle of ink. Makes for riveting poetry, don't you think? We're still formulating the quality of the ink on paper, of course."
Curly eventually leads Dreadstone to a collection of cages they have brought, their contents already apparent as the sounds of animals whining and barking suddenly boom when the two approach, "This is the equipment I was ordered to show you. As you know, an animal companion is standard military issue for both Rangers and Druids, and to take an economical approach we have begun issuing out animals that have been collected from the streets and we expect the rangers to train them themselves so that they don't grow attached to the wrong trainer." He snorts, starting to show Dreadstone around, starting with the largest cage up front... and by large it is about as large as a small building. Inside is a gigantic lizard that sits on two feet. Curly points with the umbrella, "This is a tyrannosaurus. I told them not to bring it but they did anyway. I'm afraid I can't give this to you because it wouldn't fit in the wagon." He continues on towards the more modestly sized pets, looking ahead and not towards any particular one, "Here you can choose a puppy or kitty to turn into your new weapon. You can do anything with them: bite ankles, tear off heads, or spill entrails. Be creative!"
Among the animals that are caged, are quite a few feral creatures that they managed to capture, notably four legged large cats and dogs. Most of them keep to themselves and at most would growl at Dreadstone to encourage him to keep distance.
Curly moves over to one of the cages, leaning against its height as he points over to the dog within. Snorting heavily, he points out, "We just got this one last night. Pretty white dog that was abandoned by his owner in front of the building. Oh, how one can be so cruel to just abandon their dog like that. Whoever owned him must be a heartless bastard that deserved to be bullied as a child." The wolf's fur inside is easily visible even in the shadow of the cage, and the face has a strange colored marking on it.
There is one animal in a cage that stands out from all of the other animals. When the ranger passes by it, the wolf inside scrambles to lash out at the tiefling, scowling loudly and seemingly intent on killing him already. This creature is a black and white breed, whose fur is a messy, unkept coat that expresses his brutal character. Curly runs over, as fast as his small legs can take him, and calls over, "Oh! That's Gnaw. He doesn't like anything except raw steaks. We brought him in when animal fighting competitions were cracked down on. He had a cruel owner who trained him to kill, kill, kill." He shakes his head and tsks, "Of course, we brought him in knowing how that would be useful as a military pet if re-trained right, but nobody has attempted to take him on yet."
