The Cheetah
A were-jaguar was terrorizing a village of half-orcs in the rural region of Northern Hattun. Princess Keremet and the party departed for the village to help combat the werejaguar. In the jungle of Northern Hattun, Keremet and the party traveled with pack mules down a dirt road cut through the thick of the forest headed toward the isolated half-orc village. The noise of far away animals could be heard through the jungle and the hot sun beat down on the heroes. The group spoke with Keremet about the werejaguar and discovered there was a feline expert at the village who would be able to tell the group more about the monster.
At the end of the day, as the sweltering sun begans to set, the party arrived at the half-orc village. There, half-orcs lived in thatched huts with high ceilings lit only by candle-light lanterns suspended from the rafters of the huts. The party and Keremet met with local ranger and animal expert Cheetah in her jungle hut as a hot jungle rain set in on the village. She informed the party the werejaguar attacked only at night- even though it could become a jaguar at any time of day- and lured children out of the village. A total of ten children were reported missing from the village, and their remains had not yet been found.
The next morning, the party awoke to the sound of a hard rain on the jungle village and took time to explore the town throughout the day to learn more from the villagers. The town was connected via wicker roads that dissected the village and connected the various thatched buildings over a plaza of wet mud. The Hood went to engage with the locals as a village dance while Sorcerer and Atom went to visit the local warlock.
The two spellcasters attempted to learn more about the mysterious evil lurking in the jungle when the half-orc warlock managed to foretell the heroes of a greater evil at play in the realm. When her crystal ball cracked under the pressure of the future she saw, the warlock retreated and withdrew from the village. Meanwhile, Hood managed to serenade the half-orc chief's daughter during the dance and learned more about the missing children.
After speaking with the town's butcher in an attempt to narrow the suspect list to a hunter, the party decided the main suspect was the animal expert Cheetah. Keremet remet with the other heroes and told them she attempted to confront the Cheetah about being the werejaguar, but the dwarf woman escaped her grasps and ran off into the jungle.
Keremet and the party prepared to ambush the werejaguar at night in order to capture it and hold it hostage until morning when they can ask it for the whereabouts of the missing half-orc children. That night, the were-jaguar appeared and attempted to lure children out of homes. The party fought the beast- struggling greatly in the mud of the village. Keremet herself was struck unconscious in the fray, but the party's genius outmatched their speed. Sorcerer pinned the jaguar to the earth with two jade daggers while Atom retrieved Keremet's unbreakable lasso. The three heroes wrangled the jaguar and tied her up.
The next morning, the werejaguar returned to mortal form, but in her dwarf form- the Cheetah could not recall anything that happened while in her werejaguar state. Atom and Sorcerer were able to cast a spell releasing the werejaguar personality and communicating with it. She spoke of a massive war ready to be unleashed on the realm- so massive that one like it had not been seen since the First Age. In anger, Atom drove a jade blade into the werejaguar's chest. Keremet pulled the hero off the beast and the monster whispered a few words into Keremet's ear before dying. The party used the fiend's last words to locate the missing half-orc children in a nearby cave and returned them all to the village alive. The entire party were heralded as heroes to the village, and Hood particularly gained the affection of the chief's daughter who gave him a flower in thanks- a symbol of courtship among her people.