Yammock answers, "Why yes, I've lost animals the last two nights: first a sheep and then a goat. There was blood on the grass each morning, and the other animals were skittish. Felt a lot like when I used to raise chickens and a fox started taking them, long time ago. These nice young men—" she gestures to the guards, who are probably in their late thirties and seem to be hiding smirks at being called young, "—are going to keep watch tonight, and put down whatever predator shows up."
The human guard then speaks up. "With the prey having been so large, we're guessing it's actually a pack; probably wolves. We'll snipe the alpha and scatter the pack so that they'll leave and hunt elsewhere. There's a remote possibility that it's a single, larger animal, like a dire wolf; if so, we'll put it down."
Please show me where the animals were taken from and the blood on thr grass.
Narnel gets down low and examines the area for any trail left by whatever took the animals.
The guards happily show you the spot, but unfortunately a full day's worth of animal wandering within the pen (two days for the first occurrence) has done quite a number on any tracks that might otherwise have been visible. On the bright side, this means you can rule out some of the big, beefy monsters whose tracks you'd have been able to spot even after a day's traffic. You're probably not dealing with any individual creatures much bigger than a cow, which means (thankfully) you can rule out the guards' dire wolf theory.
Narnel paces back and forth across the area, and he stops to say.
Since we cannot find a trail, maybe we can determine a pattern between targets. Guards! Do you have any other farms that wete robbed, and do you know when or in what order? I am thinking we could try to set a trap to catch what appears to be an internal threat.
Corson, noticing that his compatriots are gone, excuses himself at this point. Once he gets out of the pub, he looks around, scrunching up his face, Now where could they have gone?
The guards chuckle through awkward mouthfuls of cookie, then the dwarf swallows and says, "Internal threat? Don't tell me you've been listening to the tales of Old Man Podder and his yes-men. When the scene was fresh, we got three different folks to have a look and they all said it was a predator. On top of that, this farm—the farm furthest out on the edge of town, I'd point out—is the only one losing animals."
"Anyway," interjects the human guard, "We don't know when it's gonna show up, so we need to be ready. If you aim to stick around, then either find an ambush spot or head on inside with Yammock. Don't want the animal to know we're waiting for it, after all."
Narnel searches for a suitable ambush site near the location of the theft.
"I'm not sure it's worth all of us waiting out here. Likelyhood is that it won't be back tonight anyway. If one or two of us want to keep an eye out, the rest can probably either go back home or we can camp out on Yannock's floor."
"Of course if we are staying then we should probably let Corson know where we are. Don't want him to think he's been abandoned."
Crax steps up, "I'll jog back and grab him from the bar,"
Looking around, at the group, "We'll try to be quiet when we return,"
Crax heads off back toward the bar, alone.
Pavel will join the ambush party. Although he is not at all optimistic that anything will happen :-(
Lying in wait for Narnel.
Corson shrugs and heads back into the Pub to share another round with the workers.
Stepping into the tavern, again, trying not to draw too many eyes, he'll search around for Corson, after finding him.
Sliding up the bar behind him, offering a low growl, "Corson, the rest of the group is investigating a farm that was recently attacked, let's go,"
If Narnel and Pavel are keeping watch, Cedany doubts she will see anything they can't. She heads over the to the farmhouse to inquire if she can borrow a blanket and sleep by the fire.
"I'll come running if you need me out here. Or wake me if you need someone to take over."
Corson nods and finishes his drink with a toast to the village, "To our future, may it be as bright as the noonday sun!"
Thanking the barkeep again, he makes his way after Crax.
Walking along with Corson, "Ol' Lady Yammock had some animals killed and stolen, she said some beast must've torn 'em apart, we were gonna stake it out along with some guards and see if the creature returns,"
Feeling like he might not be great at stealthily waiting in ambush, Crax decides he may as well go inside and get some sleep. Corson has long since drowned such judgment in ale and instead crouches behind a fencepost.
Meanwhile, Cedany also retires. Narnel and Pavel each crouch in the nook on either side of the farmhouse's front steps.
A few hours pass. By midnight, crouches have turned to sitting, and Cedany and Crax have long since fallen asleep. Soon, however...
Corson, Narnel, and Pavel all hear the faint sounds of wingbeats approaching. Looking to the western sky, you see a large, shadowy, winged figure heading your direction!
Pavel is the first to react!
The creature appears to be a hill drake. Despite somewhat resembling a dragon, its lack of forelegs gives it away as a drake, and its dark/subdued coloration identifies it specifically as a hill drake. Males have venomous bites, while females have hardened scaly bumps on their tails that result in a powerful bludgeoning weapon. Unfortunately, it's very hard to identify the gender just by looking.
"What in the blazes..."
"thanks to all the Gods, it is a Hill Drake and NOT a Dragon. Never seen one before. Fascinating"
IF I think that it is an animal or am unsure, I think that I'd throw Animal Friendship (Will Save DC 14)
If I'm sure that it is not an animal then its time for Faerie Fire (Dex Save DC 14 to avoid, all attacks against it have advantage IF it is outlined)
Pavel waits for the drake to fly into range, then casts a spell!
The creature swoops down and, without landing, bites a goat. The animal winces, then goes limp in the beast's jaws!
Suddenly the drake looks toward the hunting blind as if it heard something, dropping the goat as it notices the guards. The guards loose arrows!
,
,
One of the arrows finds its mark, thoroughly pissing off the drake!
Hold your fire! Pavel, can you make peace with it, or should we kill it?
"Pavel? What'd you do, Pavel?" Corson calls as he rushes in to protect the guards. "Is it beyond your influence?"
Corson shouts at the creature, attempting to draw its attention!
Where is the fun in just killing things? Belly rubs for everybody is my motto
Pavel quickly casts Speak with Animals
In common
"I'm going to try and negotiate with it"
In Drake
"My friend, let us talk. We can't have you attacking animals every night but I REALLY don't want to hurt you. I know you're just hungry but these are NOT for you"
The mental impressions you receive in reply seem, to your wise druid sensibilities, to roughly mean "Okay, I'll hunt elsewhere."
The drake flaps hard to get some altitude back, then wheels around and soars back westward in the general direction it came from. The guards peek their heads out from behind their cover, staring wide-eyed at Pavel with faces like "The hell did we just see?"
"Pavel, is it over? Will it come back?"
[B]"I think that I've convinced it that it should NOT hunt here again. Hard to be completely sure. If it comes back we'll probably have no choice but to kill it.
Thanks to all of you for letting me reason with it. Its just too magnificent to kill outright if there is a chance we don't have to"[/ooc]
Well, I would be happy to tell the old gentleman back at the tavern that we have potentially solved his problem.
Crax continues snoozing away in the barn, laying on a bed of hay.
Crax will of course accompany them, he still doesn't fully trust these elves to protect the laborers if a fight sprang out, they need to see we are there helping.
Narnel will also join the group, but 1st, he tries to explain the theft of the livestock by the drake to old man Podder, the guards and the Lady Boss.
Cedany will go along, after asking interestedly if anything actually happened last night?
"Ah, yes, our resident druid made a new friend, I think. Some kind of drake?" Corson looks at Pavel, prompting him to explain.
Pavel would definitely want to accompany the laborers
"Yes, it turned out that it was a Hill Drake. An utterly fascinating creature. I managed to convince it that it should not prey on our local animals.
I just hope that will stick. I'm concerned that it may forget in a few days and come back. But I think that I managed to hook into its instincts and convince it that its territory must shift away from us. Almost all animals know that there are some fights better not fighting"
"We might want to check what might have caused it to expand its hunting grounds to the village... Creatures will often have a set hunting territory that will only change when there becomes a scarcity of food. I mean, eventually we might want to look into that," Corson stops, and seems a little surprised that something smart came out of his mouth.
"If I'd have realised how many problems could be solved by talking to animals, I'd have tried to learn it long ago. A pity folk are not as often so reasonable." she pauses a moment "How are you holding up, you can't have had that much sleep last night?"
Though some of you are a bit groggy, you all trek out in the morning along with the laborers to help with the work and try to keep up morale and bolster relations with the elves.
Realizing his team mates had a late night, Crax takes the lead, helping make sure the path is clear and scorching any puddles he comes across with liberal uses of firebolts.
Don't need the laborers havin' soggy socks
"Don't worry guys, we'll be there soon, these trees won't know what hit 'em," Offering a forced laugh at his own bad joke, as he tries to liven the mood.
Corson laughs, "Easy big guy, let's not set the forest ablaze..."
"Excellent. Another days work finished. I'm dead tired. Man, I wish we could all agree to spend the night here and not have to walk back to the village"
I agree, Pavel. It does not make much sense to return after working all day. We lose valuable time and only prolong and lengthen our visits.