Arc 1 - Beast of a Thousand Knives (Completed)

[I Drink Blue Moon]

Gloom heard all that he needed to know and did what he did best, disappeared. He made his way towards the barn while the others talked. (16 stealth check)  

[Onlin3 Gam3r]

Thava finally landed, but the others had moved on, save for the dwarf. She began to approach the group at the door.  

[Kowsauni]

Girl at the Door

With it being broad daylight and there being no total cover or concealment between Gloom and the girl standing at the front door looking in his direction, she quickly spots him trying to sneak away and shouts. "Hey Mister! Don't go wanderin off by y'self now. I know why y'all'r here but my brothers sure don't! Things are lil' tense after what happened last night. If y' get caught sneakin round here by y'self someone might get the wrong idea! I'll be happy to show you whatever y' want to see!"

The girl leans back into the house and shouts "Ma! There's some folks here from town who want to ask Pa 'bout that creature he heard last night. I'm gonna take them back to the barn!"

The voice of an older woman shouts back from further in the house. "All right dear, be safe now. Who knows if that critter is still wanderin' about."

The girl rolls her light green eyes. "I'll be fine, Ma. Let Alice know where I've gone." She then turns back to the party "All right then, well, let us go find Pa."

The girl steps out the front door and closes it behind her. She then makes her way towards the barn, which lies some distance behind the house. She keeps her eyes on gloom having seen him already try to slink away once.  

[Alzzak]

Adrik stayed back and silent, just wanting to view how the others would interact with the villagers. Besides Glooms shadowy behaviour, he was actually surprised at how the whole interaction.

"Emmaline, how is your father holding up?"

(sorry, for short)  

[Kowsauni]

Emmaline Hopkins

Emmaline casually responds to Adrik's question, as if he's part of her family. "Oh, you know him. That man never rests! The only reason he heard anythin', 'cause he was up all night workin' on one of his projects. He's right angry 'bout ol' Duke bein' gone, but he'll git over it. He's channelin' that negative energy right now into finishin' a rocking chair for Ma!"

Emmaline leads the group back around the house and down a well-worn path towards the barn. The large, red three story building was a little further away than it had originally looked, but in no time they make it to the barn. Emmaline leads them inside to a small room that was used as a woodworking shop. There, crouched over a workbench, there was a man who looked to be in his sixties. He seemed to be making a rocking chair and was so absorbed in his work he did not notice them coming in until his daughter spoke. "Pa, these people have come to see you about that incident you reported this mornin'."

The old man seemed to perk up at the sound of Emmaline's voice and he turned around to greet them. His face was weathered and grizzled from a long life spent out in the fields. His beard was sparse and what stringy bits of hair he had left clung to his forehead from perspiration. He sported the same strangely pointed ears his daughter had. "Well, howdy howdy. I wasn't expectin' such a quick response to my complaint. Y'all must be some of those adventurer types I've heard so much about. Well, where do you want me to start?"

Old Man Hopkins

 

[Rain Yupa]

"You know... these people are far more welcoming and understanding than Poa had led me to believe," Revenge would say lowly, to Kuori and Thava.

Clearing his throat, he would then step forward and would respond to the old man if no one else beat him to the punch. "Yes, hello, sorry. Truth be told, the lot of us are still kind of in the dark about what this whole thing actually entails - the beast, stabbings, and kidnappings, I mean. I think if this happened overnight, the best place to start would be at nightfall? How did the evening progress, to the best of your and your family's recollection?"

While doing his best to sound understanding, Revenge still looked a touch grumpyfaced.  

[Kowsauni]

Old Man Hopkins

Mr. Hopkins looks over the entire party and scratches his chin. After a moment, he seems to have some sort of realization of his own. "This is sure a lot of folks to listen to one ol' man's complaints. Ol' Redf'rd must be taking this all quite seriously now. Well, I can't rightly tell y'all about others' experiences, but I can tell ya what happened here last night. Or rather, why don't I show y'all?"

Mr. Hopkins leads the party outside his little workshop to the side of the barn. Emmaline tags along as well. While they walk, Mr. Hopkins begins to tell his story. "Well, as it was, I was out late last night workin' on building a new rockin' chair. My old one broke last week and the missus had been wantin' a new one anyways. So, as I was carving away, I heard a strange noise comin' from the side of the barn. It was very faint, now. At first, I thought it was just the wind blowin' a branch against the barn, but the sound began to move around! I heard it go from one side o' the barn to the roof and back down the other side. I went outside to see what it was, but with it bein' a new moon, it was pitch black that night and I couldn't see nothin'. In the mornin' though, I discovered this!"

Mr. Hopkins stops in front of part of the barn and motions to the wall. Two rows of small indentations can be seen going up the side of the barn wall. The marks are faint, but noticeable. It looks almost as if someone had systematically poked a knife into the side of the wall in two neat little rows.

"Th' marks come back down on the other side and I can only imagine they're on the roof as well. I guess this is how this critter got its name. In all my life, I never seen anything like this. What's more, I think it made off with my prized bull!"

Mr. Hopkins begins looks furious at the thought of his missing bull. As he stews on his own anger he mutters, "M'boys must have been sleepin' on the job. For a bull like Duke to disappear from his pen without anyone noticin' is ludicrous!"  

[PupSage]

Kuori had a response to what Revenge had said, but not one that the Hopkins family need here. Poa was still leading the pack for suspects on her list. Maybe it wasn't her doing it, but she knew more than she lead on.
Instead she focused on the marks, trying to see if they stirred her memory of anything that she had ever seen or heard of. "Mr. Hopkins, as a woodworker I would assume that you have a measuring device of some kind, meterstick, tape, et cetera. Could I borrow it for a moment?" She would begin looking at the knives for any patterns or groupings.

All da Knowledge
Dungeoneering: 5+15= 20
Nature: 2+13= 15
Arcana: 6+2= 8
History: 13+2= 15
Religion: 14+2= 16  

[Kowsauni]

Old Man Hopkins

As Kuori studies the side of the barn, her nature check reveals to her that these strange marks are obviously the tracks of an animal. They appear to her to have been made by some sort of large, many-legged arthropod creature that climbed up the side of the barn.

Mr. Hopkins, whose face was still twisted up in consternation, is brought out of his angry funk by Kuori's question. "Huh, oh, sure. I have a measurin' tape sittin on m'desk right now. Em, would you be a dear and fetch it for your Pa?"

Emmaline nods at her father and responds. "No problem Pa, I know right where you left it." She runs of back into the barn and within a minute or so she returns with the measuring tape, then hands it to the towering Kuori. The goliath woman would get the feeling that Emmaline finds her appearance to be both a bit awe-inspiring and a little intimidating. She politely asks. "So, do you have an idea what it was?"

Emmaline Hopkins

 

[Rain Yupa]

Revenge would step forward to the barn wall, running his gauntleted left hand along, feeling the grooves.

Quote:

Nature check of 11

"When I first heard about this, I presumed it was the act of goblins. Haven't ruled that out yet, ((especially with an 11 -_-)) but this certainly doesn't sound like the behavior of any goblin I've heard of... Kuori?"

His tail would flick a couple times as he stood there, hand to the wall, before looking thoughtful. He would backtrack a few steps, looking up towards the roof, shielding his eyes from the sun as he did so.

"You went outside to check? How long after you heard the noise? Was it still occurring when you investigated? Did you hear any noises once you left the interior of the barn?"

He paused, then lowered his hand, and turning back to the farmer man. "And where was... or rather, where should have your bull been while this was going on? ... sorry for so many questions."  

[Alzzak]

Adrik stood for a moment as the looked over the scene, trying to ignore the knife marks, as he looked for other clues.

(perception 7)

"I am not about to tell ya, what you can do with family affairs. But, I would like to talk to your boys. They may be able to shine a new light on this." The dwarf spoke after his search proved fruitless.

"Thava, can ya do your flying trick to the top of the barn?"  

[Kowsauni]

Old Man Hopkins

By his nature check, Revenge can tell these marks are definitely the tracks of some sort of animal, but he cannot tell exactly what kind of creature would have made such odd markings.

To Revenge's questions and apology, Mr Hopkins replies, "Think nothin of it, sonny. Yer helpin' me figure out what happened to some of my property. I have no problem answerin' questions about that." Mr. Hopkins scratches his chin for a moment as he thinks about the events of last night. "Well, I went outside right as I was hearin' the sound come down the other side of the barn. Once I was outside I didn't hear or see nothin', nor did I for the rest of the night. I just sort of dismissed it after that, until Em went to feed Duke this mornin' and discovered he warn't there. See, we keep Duke in his own pen so he wouldn't bully the steers.

"M' boys who were on watch saw Duke a few hours before I heard the noise in the barn. They didn't notice him after that on their rounds, but that warn't unusual. Like I said, it was pitch black last night and his pen is big. You wouldn't have been able to see him unless he was hangin' out near the gate. It wasn't until it was light again 'til we found he was actually gone. I guess it was hubris on our part. We were more concerned with the rest of the herd. We never figured somethin' would go after Ol Duke. He was a massive bull and an ornery one at that. Here, why don't I take y'all to his pen? Maybe y'all'll find somthin' I missed."

Adrik doesn't notice anything out of the ordinary as he looks for other clues. As he asks Mr. Hopkins to talk to his sons, the old man scratches his head as he responds. "Well Adrik, I'm afraid that would be sort of difficult considerin' Henry and Oliver are still sleepin' from being up all night on watch, and the rest of my boys are all busy doing the daily chores that keep this place afloat. If you like, you can talk with them in a few hours when they get up, but I already questioned them about what went on last night. In fact, I feel a little bad. They got a bit of a talkin' to when I found out about all this, but in hindsight there probably warn't any they could've done. Whatever had the power to take Ol' Duke, well, I don't think they could've stopped it."  

[Rain Yupa]

"S... sonny?" Revenge would say to himself lowly, before speaking louder. "Ah, sorry. I am called Revenge. This is Kuori, Thava, Gloom..." he would say, gesturing to the others in turn, stopping at Adrik. "... Dwarf."

He would look in the direction the stabbings in the wall led to/from, and had one more question for Old Man Hopkins. "Would you be able to tell us which side you heard it 'go up', and which side you heard it 'come down'?"

If he can give an answer, which is in what direction? Sentient creatures would go around if easier, especially if trying to move under the cover of darkness; making undue noise would compromise stealth. If this WAS an animal, it would make more sense for it to go in a straight line, especially if it was tracking a scent, or maybe scurrying off with a meal in as direct a line as possible. The question is, if this thing took the bull, I'm trying to see if it came FROM the pen, or went TOWARDS the pen.

Or, quite possibly, I'm on the entirely wrong track here, but hey, this is how you eliminate possibilities.

"Assuming none of us go for a walk in the woods, we should be safe in the daylight. Should we split up, and report back each other's findings?" he would ask the others.  

[Kowsauni]

Old Man Hopkins

Mr. Hopkins responded back sarcastically. "Really, and all this time I thought Adrik was a halfling." He seemed a little offended by Revenge not referring to Adrik by his name but he did not draw any further attention to it. Instead, he just went on to answer his question. "The noise was faint but it definitely started on this side, lingered a bit on the top and then came back down the other side."

At the mention of splitting up, Mr. Hopkins crossed his arms across his chest and spoke. "I'm afraid I can't let y'all just wander all over my property willy-nilly. M'boys are all keyed up about what happened last night and are all being extra watchful for anythin' suspicious. With the exception of Adrik here, y'all would fit the bill. If y'all want to split up and search different places at the same time either Em, Adrik or m'self will need to come with. Before any of that though, I'd like y'all to take a look at Duke's pen. I still have no idea how he got out of there without leaving a trace."  

[PupSage]

From the moment the measuring tape touched her hands, Kuori entered into a trance-like state. She would occassionally mumble things like "no blood," or "chitin?" before returning to her measuring. Finally she would break off from it and hand the measuring tape back to Em. She caught the last bit. "Duke didnt escape from his pen. His was taken. Hoisted straight up. I need to get up on the roof to verify, but I think that I have a good picture of what we are dealing with. I dont have a species, but it would have to have cetain traits. Judging by these tracks its as large as me, if not larger, it has some kind of armor, due to the lack of blood in its puncture marks, obviously multi-legged. And it was light enough that it didnt cave in the roof, even whilst holding a prize winning bull. I want to know how sturdy that roof is and how it grabbed a bull from a pen from up there."