LOST TRAILS TWO: TRACK OF THE BEAST-MEN

[ewancummins]

The Governor happily accepts the party's help in the search of the farm.

She takes along her three huntsmen but leaves the militia to secure the road the the outer fencelines/perimeter.

[Lord Skybolt]

ALain calmly walks into the center of the farmhouse and precedes to cast his favorite spell* for looking around quickly and efficently . He does this once more based on results of the first casting of the spell .






*Sponateous Search

[ewancummins]

The party searches the farmstead in the afternoon light...

After an hour of poking about, you have found:

• claw marks on the broken door of the farmhouse
  
  
  a large irregular bloodstain on the farmhouse front from floor, near that clawed open door
  
  scattered, scuffed footprints, some rather too large to come from normal-sized men--and some of these oversize prints with what might be the marks of doglike nails on toes.
  
  footprints of a man or woman, but the trail is broken and even Governor Samus and her hunters can't trace it farther than the stubbly western grain fields
  
  No live farm animals, only the chewed-up remains of what appear to have been several swine. Something has cracked the bones and sucked out the marrow.
  
  No tools seem to be missing, but it's hard to say for sure...
  
  half the food in the pantry has been tossed on the floor and tainted with something sticking, yellowish, and foul smelling

-


Governor Samus confers with Benedict. She shares the scholar's suspicion about the type of monster that might be involved.
''Yes, I think you are likely right. Gnolls."
A nasty look crosses her face.
" But we cannot be certain of that with the evidence we have, and we can't be sure the gnolls weren't accompanied by something else...I mean to set up a camp here and then strike out east in the morning, searching for a trail leading toward the Vast Swamp, the likeliest source of monsters nearby. My men and I will look for clues and trails as long as there's light, and the dogs should be here before nightfall... But it seems that the raiders did a bit of covering their tracks. I'm open to suggestions."

[Adam]

Bennedict shrugs. "I must confess, much of my expertise is focused towards more urban pursuits than the wilderness. Dogs seem like the best chance to track the creatures back to their lair, assuming that is your intention."

He looks around, thinking for a moment. "I'm sure there are things in the house the beasts could use to get the scent of the parents. Are you going to send a team to look for them? Or are we sticking to the creatures and assuming that if we find them, we'll find what's left of the people?"

He pauses a moment more, looking around to survey the scenery. "Is there anyplace nearby where you or some of your more woods-inclined servants would expect to find them? A ruined fortification, or a system of caves perhaps?"

[ewancummins]

Bennedict shrugs. "I must confess, much of my expertise is focused towards more urban pursuits than the wilderness. Dogs seem like the best chance to track the creatures back to their lair, assuming that is your intention."

He looks around, thinking for a moment. "I'm sure there are things in the house the beasts could use to get the scent of the parents. Are you going to send a team to look for them? Or are we sticking to the creatures and assuming that if we find them, we'll find what's left of the people?"

He pauses a moment more, looking around to survey the scenery. "Is there anyplace nearby where you or some of your more woods-inclined servants would expect to find them? A ruined fortification, or a system of caves perhaps?"

Governor Samus says,
''The water table is too high for dry, airy caves of any size, this close to the Vast Swamp. But there are soggy burrows and pits across this stretch of open country, and either a monster or a survivor of the attack could hide in one of those, yes. As for fortification, there's a sunken ruin less than a day's march northeast, inside the Vast Swamp. Used to be outside--the wetlands grow in an unnatural way; dikes and levees only slow the progress.''

She looks about at the surrounding farm a moment, then turns back to Bennedict.

''I want to rescue any survivors, of course. But if someone made it out of here alive and not too badly hurt, he's got every chance of reaching a farm or village. Even sick and hurt, he might be found by locals, as the girl was. We have to consider the raiders may have taken prisoners. I am therefore going to focus on tracking down the raiders. Kill or capture them all and free any captives. If no one but the girl survived, at least we'll have avenged her family and demonstrated it's a bad idea to raid outside the swamp edge."

She glances toward a clump of militiamen, who rest in the shade of a tree across the yard.

''Those men are farmers and drovers, not professional hunters or killers. I'm thinking the best use for them will be to secure this farm, sweep the surrounding fields with some help from my huntsmen and the hounds, and run messages to surrounding farms and settlements. If our hunt takes us into the Vast Swamp, I'll be glad to have your party with me. I know the Vast Swamp about as well as anyone--I spent the better part of two years in it, in my adventuring days. Not that I know all its secrets. Nobody does. But it's your magical might and prowess in battle that we'll need, so if you aren't swampers or woodsmen, no matter.''

[Adam]

The Lamordian sighs deeply, the thought of diving headlong into a battle with an unknown number of demi-humanoid hyena-men on an unknown world not exactly inspiring his sense of loyalty.

He shrugs, resignedly. "What aid I can render, I will provide. I'm sure the others will be glad to lend their aid as well. I don't love the idea of charging in when we don't know how many of the gnolls we will find, though."

[ewancummins]

''Charging, eh? Think of it as creeping ahead at a fast pace!"
She grins, chuckles, then the mirth drains from her face and her voice,
"But you are quite right to be worried. Worry can keep us alive, especially if the trail runs east."
She looks east across the the farm.

Out that way, a few militia riders and men afoot search the open country moving though brown grass and between scattered windbreaks of poplars and dwarf oaks.

Dust flies on the wind, then clears as the wind shifts direction.

If Benn peers hard in the direction Samus is staring now, he descries a long brown smudge in the dimming east: perhaps distant trees growing tall and close in the wetlands.



END OF CHAPTER