I'm no rangemaster or nature lover, but I say we go out to the pasture and find where there may be tracks or drag marks which can be followed.
Sinch starts heading out toward the pasture...
Those not interrogating or spectating, come on with me.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Morley looks around as the others make their way out to the pasture. "I think this is where they were taken from, but I'll be keelhauled if I can pick out any specific tracks in this grass. It's a bloody cow pasture, there's tracks everywhere. Not to mention cow crap. Damn, those things are really full of s%+@!"
He stands back out of the way as the others make their inspection. "So d'ya see anythin'?"
You find little tracks, like those left by a child, leading out of the pasture. Gnomes? Halflings? Who could the rustlers be?
[oos]Sinch is eager to get going, what can I say.[/oos]
"It looks likes someone small may have been involved in the thievery. But, again I'm no expert on footprints.
|
"Corblimey, tiny little tracks? Hahahaha! We have the smallest thieves on the history of cattlestealing!"
Zahk'rii quickly regains his composure and draws his sword and shield "Me hearties, prepare yerselves. We had a sayin' in me land: if there are little, mischievous things you can bet on the Go-blins." says the dragonborn half rhyming.
Briena examines the area and the tracks carefully
Baldwin, carefully avoiding messing up the tracks, looks about for more evidence of the cattle raids.
"If these were goblins," he opines, "I would expect see more evidence of violence to match their petty and cruel natures. We should not rule them out as the perpetrators, but perhaps they should not be our prime suspects, barring more evidence."
Briena examines the area and the tracks carefully
[dice=Perception]1d20+7
[dice=Survival]1d20+9
Baldwin, carefully avoiding messing up the tracks, looks about for more evidence of the cattle raids.
Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22
Lia taps her scimitar against her leg. "So, shall we follow them?"
Aye. I'm with Lady Warlen, as she leads I will follow. She is best suited for finding the way to the culprits.
Sinch eyes Rishi.
Well, perhaps not so close. Regardless, we are burning daylight.
Her nose wrinkled in disgust when goblins were mentioned, they were fecund little runts that the world would be better off without, but she nothing really about them really.
I guess there is nothing to it but to follow the tracks then.
She said aloud to no one in particular really. She slowly slid her hands about her body, not in any particular enticing way, it was clear she was checking the emplacement of her daggers...of which it appeared their were many. She didnt want to be unprepared chasing goblins.
"These look like they could be kobold tracks. Regardless we should follow them."
"Are Kobolds better or worse than goblins?"
She asked the Flanesse druidess a note of worry in her voice. Again she checked her daggers placement.
"That depends on who you ask, Bitterleaf. The farmers I knew where I grew up would thought goblins were more trouble. But there was a community of gnomes in the region, as well, and they had a particularly bad opinion of kobolds." Baldwin says as looks about the pasture.
"I was just about to convince myself that these tracks might have been left by goblins after all when you identified them as kobolds, Briena. I think you must have a keener eye than I do. Lead on and we shall quickly put this cattle rustling to rights."
Sinch looks at the tracks again.
Now that you mention it, they are rather clawlike. I've known some gobs and draggers, and I can certainly say that the draggers are more trustworthy. I can remember a time when our Ringmaster, Strom the Magnificent, hired a band of clown gobbers and a whole clutch of draggers to fill the same role. Each group had auditioned for a single act to fill the space between Tiny Tom's High Dive and Rondo's Wrangle, and I'll be darned if Strom didn't hire both acts to play as a kind of clownish mock battle show. Under the tent, it was a great show, but the times between, the gobs would drink all the booze, would rob you blind, and had terrible potty manners. The draggers never lifted a finger to help tear down or put up, but at least we could trust them and they didn't smell bad. Both surely have an inferiority complex, but if I were to choose, gobs are easier to put down.
"Well, please go find the livestock," said the elder elf. "That's what you are here for."
The kobold tracks look easy enough to follow. They lead out of the pasture, taking the cow tracks with them. The tracks split into two rows, but the majority of the tracks go right.
Kobolds and Draggers?
She said incredulously clearly not aware he was using a nick name of sort for the kobolds. Her frown became much more obvious.
Stupid cows. ...
She muttered kicking at a rock along the trail.
Lia doesn't say much as Baldwin & Briena lead the party onwards, instead keeping her head on a swivel.
Bitterleaf's remark about the cows causes her to nod in agreement. "Part of me is wondering how many of them the kobolds have eaten by now..."
Morley continues to wipe his foot on the grass as he listens to the others talk. Finally getting his boot somewhat clean of the cow manure, he falls in behind the others as they follow the tracks. "Great. Kobolds. I was kinda hopin' that the cows just smartened up and took off because they didn't like becomin' beef." He looks around at the others and throws them a big grin. "I know, I know. It'd be interestin' though, wouldn't it?"
Continuing along behind the others, he smirks to himself as he rummages through his pack to ensure the safety of his alchemical materials.
Sinch takes his place in following Lady Warlen, keeping his eyes peeled on either side of the pathway as the party travels along the path.
Yes, Buttercup, I said draggers. They are little dragonblooded wannabes. Dragons, drag arse, so draggers. Tricky little buggers.
The group takes a while before finding their first cow. Mutilated and drained of blood. The cow looks like it had been butchered, and the bones had been scattered about.
Lia winces and turns away from the gory sight. "Oh, dear..."
"They must have been pretty hungry or they decided to celebrate their success with a feast. I wonder how many of them there were? A cow has a lot of meat on it," Baldwin says as he looks about the area for any further clues.
Baldwin of St. Cuthbert is distracted by an untended shrine dedicated to Saint Cuthbert.
"How vicious."
Briena searches the area for clues
Lia joins in the search.
Lia finds two flint knives with feathers on them, bloodied and smelling of beef.
Swallowing a bit of bile back her opinion of the draggers took a decidedly southern turn. Covering her mouth with her her hand and wincing slightly as she studied the area closely...
"Huh. Couple of flint knives here. They've got feathers and blood on them--I think they were used to butcher this cow."
Sinch looks around at the scene. "Hmmm...I wonder. He rubs his chin in thought as he gazes at the carnage.
Morley looks at the mangled cow in disgust. He idly prods at some bones with his foot, shaking his head."What the hell! What a waste of good beef. If yer gonna butcher a cow it's a damn shame to do a half-assed job like this; it wastes the meat. I assume flint knives with feathers on 'em is a normal kobold type o' weapon? I ain't that familiar with the little buggers myself. It's weird that they stopped to butcher this one before they got to where they was goin' though. I wonder why they'd do that?"
"We had best get back on the trail. I think we can expect to find that more of the cattle have been slaughtered for their meat before this is all resolved and the surviving cows are back with their rightful owners."
Well, I may not know where the trail leads, but I'm going off to see what is up. If anyone would like to follow, then be my guest, but standing here looking at cow guts all day is not getting the little draggers or gobbers found.
Sinch takes off following whatever evidence there may be in the form of a pathway.
Lia follows, eager to get to the bottom of this.
|
|
"A matey after me own heart! Hahahaha! I prefer action over this investigation, so count with me steel." exclaims the dragonborn as he follows Sinch
After a couple seconds the dragonborn speaks again "I hope they be goblins, me friends... Kobolds are distant cousins o' me and they resemble hatchlings too much! Hahahahs! Annoying and murderous hatchlings, cor blimey!"
Morley gives his boot one last scrape, and finally happy with its lack of cow manure, falls into line along the trail.
The trail leads to a cave. Two more mangled cows and cow blood are set around the cave. A crow flies past, cawing at the air. Some buzzards are around the guts of the dead cows, scavenging off the remains. Picking at them and fighting over scraps.
"A cave? Of course it would be a dark little warren of filth and disgust, stay about ten feet behind me just in case. If one of you could be so kind as to have a torch or something out that would be great too."
She warned drawing out her rapier and a dagger in her off hand before pausing at the entrance to the cave peering in.
Sinch steps aside, allowing Bitterleaf in front.
"Ladies first, Buttercup."
He then takes his leather mask, positioning it on his face, pulls the spiked chain from its tight posture and drapes it over one shoulder.
I seem to have skipped town without any torches, but I can help with lighting anyone else's if need be.
"I have some in my pack, take a few, I would much rather have light at my back to run to when we run into trouble in the cave... which i think we might considering we are going into something's home uninvited."
Holding up a lit torch in his off hand, Morley sticks his right hand in his pouch and gets ready to pull out a combustible flask. Now that there's the possibility of danger, his easygoing demeanor has dropped off him completely and his eyes dart around quickly, looking for threats.
"Well, looks like we might'a found what we been lookin' for. I'm right behind ya ladies and gents."
Baldwin straps his shield on tight to make ready. With a minor word of power, he casts a light cantrip on his mace.
"There. Now we have two lights to illuminate our way."
The inside of the cave is wet, and damp. And it smelled like wet slate. The inside also has a couple of stalactites and stalagmites. Who ever is here, they enjoy the smell of wet slate. The tunnel goes on for 40 feet before dividing into two tunnels. You here cows mooing from the left wing tunnel.
As quiet as she can be she pointed towards the left hand and then put her hands up to the top of her head like little horns. Taking up her arms again she skirted torwards the right hand tunnel, because if trouble was about to hit... she was sure it was from there.
Sinch nods in agreement and continues to follow Bitterleaf, also to the right.
You hear the voices of little kobolds to the right tunnel. All them planning for their next beef meal.
With as quiet a whisper as she dare make she glanced back to Zahk'rii...
"You mentioned cousins... you want to try and speak to them about returning the cows and paying for them?"
She asked