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The next morning had to be confirmed by venturing further down the drainage pipe and seeing the first streams of sunlight pouring in through the grate. Once everyone was up and had eaten they faced the first and only daunting task of the day; to try and expose the alpha werewolf. At first the consensus was that they try to escape, but even if they managed to evade the guards, it wouldn't be long before they contacted King Pandez and drew him towards their direction. The plan became to expose that the local lord was working with a dangerous creature and hoped the resulting panic and confusion would cause the message of their sighting to become lost.

"Are you sure this is smart?" Draggor asked as they picked up their things. "I feel like the last thing we should be doing is splitting up, you know, because of the werewolves that are out to get us."

"As much as I agree we need to rush this thing fast," Alkali replied. "Now you take Zen and Xander and go back to your contact, see if you can find anyone connected with the alpha. Serathin and I will be going to this Lord Dryskale and seeing if we can put the pressure on him to reveal the alpha that way."

"I still don't like how you're the one doing it," Xander said with his arms crossed. "It should be Serathin and I, you're the one that they're hunting the most and you're walking straight into his den."

Alkali smirked and put up his hood. "You're more famous than I am," Alkali responded. "Either way our presence is going to cause quite a stir, but you can you use your fame with whomever Draggor manages to bring to light while I need Serathin to talk our way into this."

"Oh... we're talking our way into this?" Serathin said suddenly with a sheepish chuckle. "Good thing that got brought up when it did, otherwise that may have been embarrassing... and probably life threatening."

Everyone looked at the hybrid for a second before they turned back to the discussion at hand. After a few more details were ironed out the two groups parted their separate ways and once again emerged into the city of Draslyis proper. The first to arrive at their destination was Draggor, Xander, and Zen, which after carefully choosing their route in order to make sure they weren't seen or followed, made their way into the scroll-maker's house. Poker once again greeted them wholeheartedly, and after they explained their situation, the wolf mage was more than happy to point them in the right direction.

That direction was a merchant that had a significant holding in the Draslyis market, which would have made a prime target for the alpha werewolf. Once again their journey towards the storefront where the merchant was took far longer than necessary, but as they stood outside they were once again relatively confident that they had not been followed as they huddled up. "So Xander is going to be the one doing the talking here," Draggor explained. "I'll be watching for any signs of potential lycanthropy or deception in him, which in order for that to happen we have to get him extremely angry."

"So what do I do?" Zen asked.

"You're going to be the one getting him mad," Draggor replied with an evil grin. "Just use your imagination and we'll roll with it."

The three walked inside the shop and were instantly greeted with the smell of spice and herbs. The store looked more like a small warehouse with all manner of alchemical ingredients inside it, most of them in large glass jars while some were stored loose in barrels or hung whole from the ceiling. Completed alchemist potions sat on one corner of the wall where a large counter stood, and it was there they saw a large, brown bear sitting behind the counter writing in a heavy, thick book before his head shot up from their presence.

"Welcome to Hatter's Alchemy Emporium!" the large shopkeeper exclaimed loudly as he stood up, tipping his impressive top hat framed with a pair of goggles on the brim to him. "My name is Alexander Hatter, and I have everything you could need to make anything you need. What can I do for you today?"

Both Draggor and Xander looked at each other with a slightly nervous glance. The merchant stood nearly a foot taller than the dragon and almost two over the demon, and despite his friendly greeting, had a very intimidating demeanor about him. The only one unfazed was the barbarian fox who simply wandered off while the other two approached the counter. With the heady aromas that floated through the air it was hard to tell anything about the bear by scent; though neither knew what a werewolf would smell like even if they could. The bear motioned for them to have a seat, and despite their trepidation, they did so before Alex did the same.

"I see that you are an academic of the Arcanum University," Alex stated as he gestured to Draggor's robes. "Quite far from your home base in the capital, but if it's supplies you're looking for, I bet I could beat any of those shops you have there."

"I'm sure you could," Draggor mentioned as he eyed up the large male. "But we're actually here on a different kind of business, my friend here and I have some questions that we would like you to answer. Perhaps you've heard of some problems that the city has been having recently?"

Before the bear could respond there was a loud crash from behind them and they looked back to see Zen in front of a smashed jar of cinnamon, the smell flooding the air as the fox looked sheepishly at them. "Whoops, my bad," the barbarian said.

"Please be careful with my merchandise!" Alex shouted as he started to stand up, only for Draggor and Xander to wave him back down.

"We apologize for our associate," Xander said in a smooth tone as he brought the bear's attention back to him. "We bring him along for protection, I'm sure you know how it is."

The merchant frowned deeply and pointed a stubby finger at Zen. "You'll be cleaning that up," he said angrily. "And you better be paying for it, too. Now, what're your questions? I'm very busy and if you're not here to buy anything, I don't have time for much else."

"Trust me when I say this won't take long," Xander replied as seriously as he could. "Now I don't know if you've heard of me, but I work for King Pandez and he's heard some very disconcerting things... about werewolves."

Draggor felt himself twitch slightly in anticipation as he waited to see the bear's reaction, which was one of mild surprise before the ursine shrugged. "I don't know what you would want to come to me for concerning werewolves," Alex suggested as he closed his ledger book. "Unless you want some quicksilver or something to try and fight them, otherwise I'm afraid I can't help you."

"Do you have any quicksilver?" Draggor asked. "I don't see any on your shelves in your completed potions section."

"Quicksilver is very expensive and also quite popular," Alex explained. "So when I can make the substance it tends to sell out rather-"

There was another crash and Alex shot up out of his chair as Zen once more stood over a broken bottle, this time it was a large container of a thick sap that oozed over the wooden floorboards. "Get out!" he shouted, Xander and Draggor both watching intently as they saw the larger male's nostrils flared. "You can wait for your friends outside!"

"I'm afraid he's not going anywhere," Xander replied, the angry ursine's eyes flashing down at him. "We're servants of the royal court and we have information that you might be in possession of knowledge about these werewolves that are infesting your city. So the fact that you're not cooperating with us makes our fox friend there very anxious, and when he's anxious he... gets clumsy."

To emphasize the point Zen stared straight at the bear as he took a rather large glass bottle filled with dried herbs and pushed it deliberately to have it smash on the floor. "Whoops," he said in a cynical tone. "How clumsy of me."

"You... you scum..." Alex said as his fur bristled with rage, yet neither Xander nor Draggor saw any hints of transformation in him... yet. "You come into MY shop, destroy MY things, and you just expect me to give you what you want?! I don't know anything about any alpha werewolf, and even if I did, I wouldn't tell the likes of you! Now I'm getting the guards and having them haul your tails to prison, royal court or no!"

"One quick question though," Xander said quickly as they both stood up and began to back away. "We never said anything about an alpha werewolf, just that there were werewolves in the city."

Alex's muscles seemed to tense all at once, then appeared to take a deep breath to try and calm himself down. Before he could exhale; however, Zen one more let out a shout and they all turned and looked wide-eyed as he juggled several bottles of alchemical ingredients in the air. "I don't even know how to juggle!" he shouted exuberantly before he missed one of the glass containers and they all came crashing to the ground.

A loud roar came from behind the counter and the three watched as the bear's eyes turned a golden amber color and he began to grow even larger in size while the seams of his clothes strained. "There it is," Xander said as before the quickly retreated further back into the warehouse while the merchant's ursine features disappeared until the monstrous canine ones of a huge werewolf. "Let's bring him down!"

Zen needed little prompting as he ran forward and jumped up on one of the stools, grabbing a bottle of bright blue liquid from the nearby shelf before he jumped up. At the same time Draggor's hands glowed with red light as he took the spell he had been holding and unleashed it at Alex, glowing bands appearing around the thickening fur of the creature as Xander ran to the other side. The werewolf struggled before he was shoved backwards by the fox barbarian, who then threw down the container of alchemical liquid. As soon as the glass shattered and the liquid came in contact with the air it froze, surrounding the creature in a thick layer of alchemical ice.

Both spell and ice seemed to strain against the massive strength of the creature as its powerful form flexed against its bindings. Zen hopped back up onto the counter and Draggor readied another spell as the werewolf frothed and raged against his imprisonment, but once Xander had gotten to the creature's head, his hand glowed with a radiant light before he pressed it against the werewolf's head. Almost instantly the thrashing stopped and the werewolf's entire body seemed to relax, though it continued to rebel occasionally as its eyes rolled back into his head.

"That should keep him down for a while," Xander said as he breathed a sigh of relief. "At least enough for us to try and get him to talk. Whatever we do, though, we cannot anger him any further, otherwise the enchantment will break."

"How can we make him angrier?" Zen asked as they looked down at the sedated werewolf. "I always thought werewolves were always at maximum anger all the time, like when a barbarian berserks."

Before Xander could explain Draggor interrupted them both. "Who cares?" the demon asked as he knelt down by the large creature. "The real question is can we still interrogate him like this?"

"Well we're going to have to get him back to his normal form," Xander explained. "Even if he can understand us there's no way we'd be able to understand him like this. Unfortunately that's going to be a bit tricky considering that anything we do to him could break the spell."

"I can translate!" Zen said loudly, causing them both to look at him in question, to which he merely shrugged. "I'm a barbarian of the wilds and have the ability to talk to animals, this really should be no different. Plus, you know, I do what I want."

"What do you think?" Xander asked.

"Hey, if it works it works," Draggor replied. "Let's just do this and get out of here before the guards get here. Werewolves or no, we're going to be in trouble if they crash this little party of ours."

Xander nodded and motioned for Zen to move over to him. "Do you know where the alpha werewolf is?" the dragon bard asked, to which the werewolf replied with a simple nod that Zen mimicked, Xander shaking his head. "Can you tell us where his lair is?" This time the werewolf made a series of growls and snarls that Zen seemed to nod his head in understanding to.

"He says that even if he wanted to tell you where the alpha was he couldn't," Zen translated. "Even magic won't pry the location from his muzzle, which he then mentioned he will use to eat your heart once he pulls it out of your body. Then he went into detail on how he was going to take his claws and-"

"I think we got the picture," Xander interrupted before he looked back down at Alex. "Why is the alpha here in this city? What is his purpose here?"

Once again there was a series of grunts and growls that Zen listened to. "He wishes to create a pack that will be more powerful than most of the royalty in the kingdom," Zen repeated. "He doesn't create more than is necessary and seeks to establish dominance in the eastern provinces as well as the trading routes along The Dragon's Tail. It will usher in the era of the werewolf and provide prosperity for his pack for generations to come."

"Certainly ambitious," Draggor commented as he scratched his scaled chin. "Explains why he wants us then, the reward for capturing such fugitives might help propel his pack into greater glory, he may even use it as leverage to try and force King Pandez to recognize his pack as something other than a bunch of civilized monsters."

A soft growl emanated from the restrained werewolf and Xander told Zen to stay there and guard their captive before he took Draggor aside. "This is not good," Xander whispered to the mage. "If this werewolf is hellbent on capturing us he may expose himself just for the chance to do so. I think we need to try and sneak out of here and take our chances with bringing Pandez to this area."

"They'll chase us," Draggor responded with a sigh. "They have our scent now, even if we leave, if one of them catches a whiff of any of us leaving we're going to be in a lot of trouble." The demon looked over at the counter where the fox and werewolf laid, then back to the bard. "How much longer do you have the werewolf enthralled for, anyway?"

"Oh..." Xander said as he scratched his head. "I should still have a little time left, enough to figure out what we're going to do with him... unless, of course, being a werewolf shortens the duration..."

As though to answer their question the werewolf suddenly sprung up from behind the counter, clutching a struggling Zen by the throat in one hand as he roared. "He's angry!" Zen choked out as he kicked at the huge creature to release him. "Very angry!"

Xander and Draggor both moved to attack, but by the time they had gotten ready the werewolf threw the barbarian at them. All three fell to the floor as the werewolf turned and clawed up the wall before he smashed through one of the upper windows. The three quickly picked themselves up and ran out the back door in order to chase, but by the time they had exited the building the werewolf had disappeared. They took a few minutes to search, but it wasn't long before the city guard had begun to descend upon their location and they were forced to flee.

"A little forewarning would have been nice!" Zen shouted as they ran, rubbing his throat.

"Sorry!" Xander replied. "I'll make it up to you later, right now we need to get out of here and hope that Alkali and Serathin have better luck finding the alpha!"

Meanwhile on the other side of town a lone elven girl sat behind the desk set up in the largest building of the city, where Lord Dryskale presided over Draylsis. As she wrote on a piece of parchment she was suddenly interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. "Oh my," she said as she saw the two cloaked figures standing in front of them. "Can I... help you?"

"Why, you most certainly can!" the creature on the left said with a light, hearty voice as he pulled back the hood of his cloak. "We're from a small mining community on the western side of Kaldin Bay, nice town, though you never would have heard of it. We're here because we need the help of Lord Dryskale in order to process our goods!"

The elf stared slightly at the multi-hued hair of the sabertooth tiger that stood in front of her, thin white stripes against black fur as he looked at her with bright red eyes. "I... well, we don't actually do merchant requests here," she explained once she regained her composure. "I'll have to refer to you to the guild hall in the financial district of the city, trust me when I say you can't miss, it Mr... er..."

"Arkham," the sabertooth replied as he gestured to himself. "This is my bodyguard Liam, doesn't speak, kicked in the face by a horse, very sad. Great soldier, not good on the conversational skills... thinking isn't that great either, but that's not what I pay him for, right Liam?"

"Naaargh," the still cloaked figure replied.

"He says you have a very pretty dress," Arkham said with a grin as he leaned against the desk. "Now I know this would normally be a matter for the guild and such but you see, I know that the fees they charge for the transport and selling of goods is rather high. If your Lord is interested; however, we would like to circumvent such a thing; as a mining town we have the means of hauling our goods from one place to another and the protection to guard them, all we're looking for is a way to turn them from raw materials into coins. Are you catching what I'm saying?"

The elven woman was slightly uncomfortable with the conversation, her eyes only occasionally going up to meet the cool grin of the feline in front of her. "The Lord would never try and betray the merchant guild in such a fashion," she stated. "There are plenty of ways to buy and sell your goods in Drasylis without such... dark means of doing so."

"Perish the thought, my dear!" Arkham said with a laugh. "We're not talking about buying and selling over the merchant's guild's heads! That would be wrong. What we're talking about is... investing directly in Drasylis's infrastructure needs. In exchange Lord Dryskale may give us a bit of coin in order to help us with our transport and security... surely that's not illegal if we're helping the city, is it?"

"Um..." the perplexed woman said, clearly confused. "What... kind of goods are we talking about?"

Arkham just grinned and reached into a small pouch on his belt, setting a small, silvery bar on the desk. "Mithral of course," he said. "Found a vein in the most remarkable of places, a vein several feet under the coastline of the bay itself, probably some ancient reservoir or something. Either way, the miners think the town is sitting on at least ten thousand bars of it once properly smelted."

The elven woman's eyes widened in shock, but before she could say anything Arkham reached over and gently grabbed and held onto the woman's hand to bring her stare back into his. "We'd be most grateful if you could set us up just a small meeting with your boss," he said as he touched the back of her hand with his palm. "I think he would be very eager to hear this, don't you?"

The elf nodded and stood up, the sabertooth tiger motioning for her to go on before she left the room and closed the door behind her that caused both figures to sigh in relief. "I don't know why you had to make me your brain-dead guard," Alkali said beneath the cloak as he adjusted it to cover his face. "I could have just been, you know, your guard."

"I didn't need her asking you any questions," Serathin replied as he ran his hands through his hair before he fiddled with the golden ring on his finger. "I probably already burned this identity using it to get us in here, so you having to play my idiot bodyguard is a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Loved the sound by the way, really in character."

"Thanks," Alkali shot back. "I still think you should have just gone as you and I use the disguise ring."

"No," Serathin denied flatly. "It's already attuned to me and I know how to run this con like the back of my hand, plus I'm a little upset that this alpha wolf already knows what I really look like. The less I flash my face around the better, plus the whole point of all this was to try and take this Lord Dryskale by surprise. Now hush, I think she's coming back."

A few seconds later the elf came back and motioned for them both to come with her, to which two gave a nod and followed her deeper into the building. As they passed by the various offices and other rooms it all looked rather normal to them, no werewolves running around or bloody meat or anything of that nature. Eventually they were led up several flights of stairs and into a room that took up most of the top floor. The walls were richly furnished and a large desk sat at the other end of the room, which the elf walked up to and leaned over the edge of the seat. The two continued to stand there until she walked back and told them to have a seat before she left and closed the door behind her.

"Would you two care for a drink?" the voice that came from the chair said as the two sat down. "From what my assistant told me we have quite a bit to discuss, and I would hate for such important conversation to be done with dry throats."

The hide chair slowly swiveled around as the disguised Serathin poured both himself and Alkali a drink, though he almost spilled halfway through as they finally saw Lord Dryskale for the first time. The man was small, maybe two feet tall as his head and body hardly poked above the top of the polished wood of the desk. Both tried to keep the look of shock on their faces to a minimum, Alkali thankful his was hidden as Serathin quickly regained his composure and poured the rest of the drink. Serathin motioned to pour one for the iguana that sat before them, but he waved it off with a hand.

"So Arkham, was it?" Lord Dryskale asked, to which Serathin nodded. "Your town got lucky and found a mithril vein off the coast. Now you're what, hoping to find someone that can move it for you? You know, even with the fees the merchant guild levees on their transactions, you'll still make out like bandits."

Serathin looked at Alkali, then leaned back in the chair and closed his palms together. "This is where we run into a little bit of a problem," Serathin explained. "I'm afraid I haven't been... entirely truthful in the matter. You see there is a vein of mithril sitting underneath the town, the problem is that the town doesn't know it."

"So you staked a claim on a mine that's already occupied," Lord Dryskale laughed. "Quite the problem indeed, especially since I doubt they'll want to split the profits of such a mine with you, and since the town owns the land they can just deny you without question."

"Indeed," Serathin replied while he took a sip. "Now normally I would just find someone willing to partner up with who had the funds for me to hire a mercenary company to come in and wipe the place out, but from what I hear you may already have such a force at your disposal. A group of fighters not affiliated with you that you can use to... persuade people to leave."

The iguana paused for a second and leaned back, the silence in the room deafening as the two waited for him to speak. "Perhaps I do have such a connection these... bandits you speak of," Lord Dryskale replied casually. "What do I get out of the deal for arranging such a service?"

"Thirty percent," Serathin replied.

"That's it?" Dryskale replied with a chuckle. "I would have expected that if this was a serious business you'd make a serious offer, Arkham."

"I assure you thirty percent is more than enough," Serathin negotiated. "Ten percent will go to our new mutual friends, which I'm sure will make them more than happy with you for arranging such a deal. The only condition is that we meet the leader of your group, I have a very specific way of doing things and I don't need some crazed mercenary making things difficult for me."

Once again there was a pause, this one more deliberate than the last as Serathin continued to keep up the facade as best as possible. Even without seeing his face he could sense that Alkali was starting to get anxious as well... something about this didn't feel right. The sabrewolf couldn't quite put his finger on it, not until he noticed how often Lord Dryskale looked at Alkali, as well as the slightly twinge of a smile that played on the corner of his mouth every time he did. "I think we have enough here, we'll be in touch," Serathin mentioned as he stood up from the chair.

"Sit back down, Serathin," Lord Dryskale said lowly, the once hidden smile on his face revealed as he motioned for the sabertooth to sit. "You can take off the disguise as well; while I admit that you had me quite fooled in the beginning, the fact that you had a keen interest in my outside contacts plus the timing gave you away. You can go ahead and reveal yourself as well Alkali, make yourself comfortable."

Serathin sneered as he pulled off the ring on his hand, his form shifting back to his draconic sabrewolf state as Alkali pulled off his hood and put his fingers to his head in frustration. "There we go, now that wasn't so hard," Lord Dryskale said with a grin. "Are we more comfortable now?"

"Why are you doing this?" Alkali asked angrily. "You're selling out your city to an alpha werewolf, and for what?"

"I'm working with an alpha werewolf for this city," Lord Dryskale replied. "Do you know how much crime has gone down since the werewolves took charge of the city guard? A completely loyal force at my command, and all I have to do to maintain it is to let the alpha take those he's deemed worthy and allow him to add them to the pack."

"They're not at your command!" Alkali shouted. "They're at his command! Any day now he could come in and say that he's in charge and kick you out, or just convert you so you're under his control! You have no loyalty!"

"I would look in your own house before you criticize mine," Lord Dryskale warned. "How do you think he knew about you coming in the first place?" The iguana's smile widened as he took out an apple and began to peel it. "There's a traitor in your midst, and thanks to him you'll be our prisoners until King Pandez comes in and takes you all away. You see, the alpha needs me to speak on his behalf and legitimize his position, and you're going to help him with that as well. So sit tight, you're about to get your wish and see him first hand."

Alkali suddenly stood up and pulled his blade, and as a beam of green light shot from it at Lord Dryskale, a clear orb formed around him and deflected it away. The same happened to Serathin's blade that he tossed at the Lord, which caused the small man to laugh as two already transformed werewolf guards burst in through the door. "Detain them!" Lord Dryskale shouted, the werewolves charging forward with claws bared.

The necromancer warrior easily parried and sidestepped the creature's charge before he spun around and slashed the werewolf in the back. At the same time Serathin dived into a nearby shadow and reappeared above the second soldier to slash him in the head. Before the second werewolf could react Serathin backflipped into another shadow and popped up in another one on the other side to stab him again. Meanwhile Alkali stumbled backwards as the thick claws slashed through his robe and scraped against the black armor underneath, which he responded with a sharp upward stab that impaled the werewolf in the chest and caused him to crumple to the floor in a growing pool of his own blood.

"Time to go!" Alkali shouted as he ran through the door, Serathin following right behind as Lord Dryskale shouted for the two staggered creatures to get up. "Well it looks like we were right about him working with the werewolves!"

"I guess!" Serathin shouted back as they ran. "What did he mean by a traitor being-"

Serathin stopped mid-sentence as he had to suddenly dodge a clawed hand from tearing his muzzle, the two stepping back to see another werewolf between them with the tatters of the elf's dress on her body. "Are you kidding me?!" Alkali shouted before he rushed the snarling creature, crashing both him and the werewolf into the wall. "Down, girl!"

After a quick spell from Alkali to hold the third werewolf in place the two ran out of the building and into the street. Aside from a few sideways glances it appeared that their fight hadn't alerted anyone outside, though as they moved into a nearby alley they saw several of the city guard already moving in their direction. With the midday crowd in full swing it slowed their progress, though, and allowed both Alkali and Serathin to disappear into the nearby stands out of sight.