Café de Nuit

"A fair start," Klokulf responds. "I see no more animate sign of human life."

He points at the cow. "If we are dealing with plague, it is not killing cattle---not yet."

"Well spotted," Bennedict says. "Shall we be off?"

the farm

Benn, Klokulf, and Raen (accompanied by any others who wish to go) head off to investigate the farm on the outskirts of the town.

...

They find the farm apparently deserted, at least upon a hasty inspection, with no obvious signs of battle or fire.

Looking in the farmhouse, some household goods lie in disarray, but whether the inhabitants packed in a hurry and fled or looters have hit the farm, or something else occurred...they can't tell for sure.

The cow out in the fields looks healthy . The rope round its neck has been cut by something sharp and it has a few scratches on its sides.
It wanders over, lowing, and happily munches on any cow-friendly food the party might feed it.

The fields have been harvested but not gleaned. Some wheat stalks remain, and the vegetable gardens aren't fully picked.

Bennedict moves to the farm house, looking through it and examining it thoroughly.

Adam wrote:Bennedict moves to the farm house, looking through it and examining it thoroughly.

Benn finds a trap door in the floor of the half-empty pantry.

Cautiously opening it...

Bennedict falls over onto his rear end, scrambling to pull his crossbow up into position. "Who's there!?" he shouts, aiming the weapon.

Adam wrote:Bennedict falls over onto his rear end, scrambling to pull his crossbow up into position. "Who's there!?" he shouts, aiming the weapon.

The dirt-smeared boy freezes in the open doorway of the shadowy pantry, eyes wide, skinny body shaking in terror.
''Please don't kill me!''
He looks as if he might be nine or ten years old.
His clothes are patched and dirty. He clutches a paring knife in his right hand, but he's not holding it out to threaten Benn.

Raen hearing the commotion rushes to the house. He's instantly suspicious of the little boy but this career requires risks.
"Hey kid! We're not enemies. Bennedict, please lower your weapon."
He tries to fish out some food or snack from his pockets and slowly push it towards the kid.
"Here, this is for you. We are not your enemies. "

Klokulf also hustles toward the scene. Upon seeing the child, rather than the half-imagined adversary that was expected, the priest calms himself and begins silently appraising the boy for injury or illness.

Katrin steps swiftly into the house, then also relaxes at the sight of the boy, and allows her lips to twitch in amusement at the sight of Benn.

"What's your name? and what happened here? where is everyone?"

The boy cautiously accepts food from Raen.

He answers Katrin between bites,
''I'm Randal. All the folk have fled. Sickness in town and a traveler told us there's goblins in the woods.''
He looks around the pantry.
''This isn't your place? I don't want to steal. But I'm hungry and my Da is sick. He's not far from here. Can't walk anymore. Got a bad fever. I'm looking for food, medicines...''

SIR CLIVE
OUTSIDE

While several of his companions investigate the farm house, Sir Clive walks about the farm and the nearest section of the town outskirts, looking for clues the others might have missed…
He finds some wagon ruts, hoofmarks, and footprints in the fields and along dirt trails. But these tracks are partly washed out, perhaps by one of the recent storms the party experienced while at sea drawing near this coast, and he can’t tell much more by looking than that a good number of travelers left the city not many days ago and headed out into the countryside.
He spots a thin smear of smoke drifting from someplace within the town, the source concealed by the bulk of houses and the lay of the land.

"Well... there is a cow outside. Do you think the milk, or the meat, would be safe to eat Randal?"

IN THE FARMHOUSE

alhoon wrote:"Well... there is a cow outside. Do you think the milk, or the meat, would be safe to eat Randal?"

''Milk? Sure. But you want to kill somebody's cow and eat it?"

"What sickness?" Bennedict asks. "The town looked completely deserted. What happened? Is you father sick with the same thing?"