Changer's Ring

Episode One. Glace uses Cass as bait to distract a mark while he tries to lift a few valuable items. The only thing of worth that he discovers is a strange ring. Cass recognizes it for what it is and insists they take it to the Hell Hole Tavern where Mathew Changer, and crime lord and fence, will deal with them for it. They pass a hellhound on the way into the Tavern. The hound is dining on human. When asked by Cass, the hound confesses that it does not know if Mathew is inside. They go in. Carid Brewer, the owner, demands that Cass fasten her open shirt. She refuses and flaunts herself in the tavern. They approach Mathew and present him with the ring, a match to the one he wears on his hand, only this one is real. Cass tells Mathew that he can have this ring if he promises to train Glace and breeds with her. Glace prepares to defend his honor, but is backed down. Matters reach an uncomfortable impass whe Tessla, the god Trelsar's assassin, enters the tavern with the hellhound's head dangling from her hand. She is hunting. She comes to their table. Mathew prepares to defend himself but she informs him that she is not interested in him. She is after the bitch. Cass finishes stripping off her clothes, grows fur and fangs and claws, and becomes a hellhound. She is not a natural, she is a changer. She and Tessla fight. Meanwhile, Mathew grabs the ring and puts it on his finger. Bad idea. It is a Changer's Ring. It begins transforming him into a wolf. Torn between the woman he loves and the horror of Mathew's plight, Glace finally leaps to Mathew and slices his finger off. The change stops, but Mathew now owns a wolf's face, furry hands, and claws instead of a man's parts. Tessla defeats Cass. While dying, Cass confesses that she loved Glace too much to tell him what she is, though it comes out that when she is with him she desires the taste of his flesh. She finishes dying when Mathew knifes her. Glace mourns and Mathew tells Glace that he will train him because Mathew now owes Glace a debt. Glace refuses, but Mathew does not accept. He tells Glace that he will be trained until the debt is repaid. Glace has no choice.