HUNT #1: Harvest
It is late September, the night of Howling Creek's annual Harvest Festival, one of the biggest events in town. The festival takes place in Dalmont Park, where the town's eponymous creek is located. The area is scattered with colorful autumn foliage, with a more densely wooded area nearby.
Nearly the whole town is here. There are carnival rides set up (including a ferris wheel, bumper cars, and a cheap-looking “fun house”) and a variety of harvest-themed activities, including a highly competitive pumpkin pie eating contest. A stage has been set up, and a local band composed of three forty-something dads (who call themselves The Mid-Life Crisis) are performing a competent upbeat cover of a David Bowie song. Everyone seems to be having a great time.
A dim, warm light fills the park. It is nearly sunset.
You were recently hired to do an odd job by Jonah, the owner of the club where you are employed; the precise details of his dealings have been kept vague, but you're able to surmise that he's involved with some sort of organized crime. You've been told to go to the Harvest Festival and meet with a man named Walter at a particular park bench; he will give you a briefcase, which you are to bring back to the club (and are not to open). Jonah gives you a physical description of Walter but doesn't provide may more details. Since this meeting is taking place in public, it seems likely that Jonah does not entirely trust Walter (or his employers) and wants to avoid any chance of violence breaking out.
The autumnal equinox is a particularly significant time of year, often linked to the hunting patterns of certain creatures as well as dangerous magical rituals. You've been instructed by your agency to be on the lookout for any unusual activity, particularly in areas where large groups of people are gathered and may be at risk. The Harvest Festival seems like the prime location.
The Collectors' arcane seers have foretold that an event of great concern will occur at this year's Harvest Festival. The details are vague, but you've been instructed to attend and be on the lookout for anything odd—particularly any unusual objects that might be recovered.
Your guardians have other plans tonight and have saddled you with the responsibility of taking Josie to the Harvest Festival. Hopefully you'll find something here to distract you from the strange dreams you've been having...vivid visions of flying through a cold night sky.
Magnus arrives a few hours early, wandering around a bit until he finds the park bench. Seeing that no one is there yet, he sets his watch for 15 minutes until the meeting time and heads to partake in some of the local fair.
Derek is led by his cousin around to various rides, games, and attractions. He stands awkwardly as locals speak to her with familiarity, and she introduces him with the description, "he moved in with us because his mom just died and his dad was my uncle who died before I was born." He accepts awkward condolences with increasing irritation, but manages to cool down on the occasional game, and keeps an eye out for the best small-fair ride he knows, a real Tilt-a-Whirl.
Phil strolls by the creek smiling as he observes the bustling activity of the Festival. What a charming little town. Hands in his pockets, he notes his concealed .38 should anything happen. The autumnal equinox could provoke something unusual, he had been informed. Every so often, he peers into the woods, watching for any suspicious movement.
Despite his mission, Phil finds himself mouthing along with Bowie's lyrics as he watches the crowd. A wonderful smell wafts by and he finds himself drawn to the nearby pumpkin pies. Looking back at the woods for a moment, Phil approaches the pie eating contest to watch.
You spend some time milling about the festival. A few people gawk at your intimidating appearance, but not nearly as many as you'd expect. It seems that people here tend to take the unusual in stride.
A few members of local law enforcement are acting as security. You're careful to avoid attracting attention, but they don't seem to take much notice of you. One of them, however, a man with a thick mustache, shoots you a suspicious look.
After some time, your alarm goes off. It is 15 minutes until the meeting time.
As you approach the tent where the pie eating contest is taking place, you receive a text on your phone. It says:
MORE DETAILS ACQUIRED. SEEK OUT A STONE TABLET INSCRIBED WITH RUNES SOMEWHERE IN THE AREA. RELIC NEED NOT BE RETRIEVED, BUT SEND A PHOTOGRAPH TO THIS NUMBER.
The pie contest seems to be very spirited. A large man in a festive cowboy hat (you recognize this as Gary Fallon, owner of a nearby car dealership) seems to be the frontrunner, but a thin woman in her twenties appears to be giving him a run for his money.
You notice Phil nearby.
The pie contest seems to be very spirited. A large man in a festive cowboy hat seems to be the frontrunner, but a thin woman in her twenties appears to be giving him a run for his money.
You notice Arianne nearby.
You manage to find a Tilt-a-Whirl in the festival's rear area, near the edge of the woods. You and Josie ride it together; she screams with glee as you spin violently.
As you leave the ride, you notice Kelly, one of your female classmates, walking in the direction of the ferris wheel. There is also an extremely large man wandering about; part of his left arm is missing.
I goggle a bit at the large man, slightly wary, before following after Kelly, Josie in tow. I call out her name, but I'm not sure if she heard me in the carnival noise.
Seeing movement out of the corner of his eye, Phil looks away from the contestants just in time to see Arianna greeting him. A look of momentary surprise washes over his face.
Arianna? If she's here, Bryson must have been right about Howling Creek. I'll need to be on guard.
"Ms. Edwards! What a surprise to see you here." Phil quickly returns the smile, glancing over her shoulder for anyone who might be watching them. "I'm on the trail of a suspected criminal who may be hiding out in town," he lies in a low voice, mostly for the benefit of any townsfolk who might be listening in.
Kelly turns at the sound of her name and smiles. "Oh! Hey, Derek! Hey, Josie! How's it going?"
Kelly is friendly and good-natured, well-liked by pretty much everyone at school even though she mostly hangs out with the theatre clique. She's in a couple of your classes; you've exchanged small talk a handful of times. She suffers from occasional panic attacks and has sometimes had to leave class to see the nurse.
I finish my ice cream and head towards the bench, taking a seat.
The bench is empty when you arrive; it's near the festival's food tents, where various local organizations have set up concessions. The local scout troop is selling hot dogs. Sounds of cheering (mixed with the sounds of pie-scarfing) fill the area.
Derek walks up to Kelly, keeping Josie's hand in his own. "Hey, it's going alright. Just weird. I'm older, but I still feel like she," nodding sideways at Josie next to him, "is the one chaperoning me."
Derek looks up at the ferris wheel. "Were you going to go on that? Mind if I, err, we, join you? I always kind wondered what the town looked like from up in the air. Might help me not get so lost." He half-smiles, embarrassed at his sudden candor.
Josie sticks her tongue out playfully when you refer to her.
Kelly looks briefly surprised at your suggestion, then smiles. "Okay, sure! That'd be fun!"
The three of you move over to the ferris wheel and stand in line for the next ride.
"So how are you liking Howling Creek?" Kelly asks. "I know it's a little... well..." She bites her lip. "It's... different."
"I dunno, still getting used to it. I grew up in Chicago, and this.. small-town-thing.." Derek looks aside. "It's just.. It seems like everybody's known everybody else since forever. I don't know where I'm supposed to fit into that, like the puzzle's been put together for years, but I'm this extra piece that doesn't fit anywhere."
Derek blinks, and shakes his head. "Bah, never mind..."
"No, I get it!" Kelly nods encouragingly. "I think everyone feels like that sometimes. We're all a bunch of pieces from different puzzles, shoved into the same box."
The ferris wheel is ready for a new set of riders, and a bored-looking attendant leads you to a bright yellow gondola. Josie looks slightly nervous.
Derek climbs aboard the gondola after Kelly. He guides Josie to the middle of the bench, and puts himself on the outside edge. "Better?" he undertones to Josie.
Derek continues the conversational tone. "Nah, not like that, I mean like you guys all fit together. You've got your friends you've known for years. Greg and James and the other guys on the team all hang out together, and they don't exactly make room for the new guy, even when I try. I swear, I can't win with those guys. Every time I miss a shot in gym class, they look down on me as a clumsy screw-up, and every time I succeed, they think I'm showing them up."
Kelly sits across from the two of you. She frowns sympathetically. "Oh. Those guys are jerks."
As the gondola begins to rise, you notice the sun setting over the horizon. You feel an unusual warm, prickly feeling begin to spread across your skin.
Some time has passed; it is now the time that Walter was supposed to meet with you here, but you don't see him anywhere.
"Only for about a week. Had dinner there the day after I got into town."
Phil notices Arianna searching the crowd. "Waiting for someone?" he asks, looking out into the crowd as well.
Derek shifts uncomfortably. "Man, are you guys warm? I figured it'd be drafty up here, but.." He removes the zip-up hoodie he'd been wearing, leaving himself in just a t-shirt. He ties the hoodie's sleeves around his waist.
"Anyway, yeah, I dunno what to do. I'm sure they're fine once you get in with them, but I dunno how to get there." Derek stares out at the landscape below, watching the fading sunlight play across the clouds. Unconsciously, he scratches at his shoulder.
Josie shuts her eyes tight as you near the ferris wheel's highest point. "We're not gonna fall, right?"
Kelly comforts her. "Of course not. I ride these things all the time, they're totally safe. Hey, look, you can see my house from here!"
Your skin begins to feel warmer, and suddenly very tight. Your forehead itches. You sense something shift in your back. Something is wrong.
You feel an intense, instinctive urge to get somewhere nobody else can see you.
Phil nods. "I know the feeling." He looks out again, scanning the crowd and the woods beyond for any sign of something unusual.
"It really is something to see the whole town out and about at once," he remarks, partially to himself.
Derek fights against the urge, not knowing why he suddenly feels this way.
"H-hey, what's that over there?" he says, pointing off and down in the direction between Josie and Kelly, trying to draw their attention away from himself.
You try to resist whatever’s happening to you, but it doesn’t seem to work. Your fingernails grow into sharp claws. The feeling in your back begins to expand. You feel like you could unleash something and soar through the air, if you wanted to.
Fortunately, Kelly and Josie seem genuinely distracted by whatever it is you pointed at, in the direction of the forest. “Hey...” Kelly murmurs. “What’s going on?...”
It seems like some sort of commotion is taking place at the other end of the park, near the Ferris wheel, where a group of people are gathering. Several police officers head in that direction.
Phil hears the commotion near the Ferris wheel and snaps his head around to see what's going on. "Something's happening," he says glancing at Arianna as police officers run by. Phil looks around at the crowd with concern and takes off toward the Ferris wheel.
Derek stares at his clawed hand in shock for a moment, before looking up at Kelly and Josie and whatever is drawing their attention. He feels the fabric of his shirt pressing against his back and whatever seems to be happening there. To relieve the sensation, he pulls the t-shirt off, trying, and failing, to keep the new claws from shredding the fabric.
While they're distracted looking down, he no longer resists the urge to get somewhere isolated, and carefully shifts his weight to not draw their attention by rocking the ride. He gets his feet under him, accidentally stepping on the sweatshirt and causing it to come untied from his waist, before quickly standing up on the bench seat and scrambling up to the roof of the gondola while it's still at the top of the arc. He tries to get over to the other edge, to see what had provided the distraction, even as he feels odd sensations from his back, and the light breeze play over his new.. wings?!
Phil's eyes widen in surprise as he sees a strange form take shape in the gondola. Feeling for his gun, he glances at Arianna with uncertainty but leaves it hidden in his jacket.
"I assume you have an idea of what that is."
Phil moves to keep people calm, holding his arms up at anyone trying to push through to get a closer look.
The people gathered just past the Ferris wheel actually don't seem to have taken notice of Derek. Instead, they are watching with concern as a distraught young couple in their twenties speaks with a police officer with a thick mustache. Those relatively familiar with people in the town would recognize this as Sergeant Pulaski, a particularly curmudgeonly member of the police force. The woman he's speaking with is holding back tears and motioning towards the woods.
The other officers are helping to keep the area clear of curious bystanders. As they murmur, you can overhear someone say the word "body."
Annoyed, I stand up, angry at this Walter character's tardiness. As I turn to head home, I notice for the first time the commotion near the Ferris wheel. I try to edge around the crowd, making little progress, but with my unusual height I hope to see the cause of the gathering crowd over everyone's heads.
A swear under my breath and think to myself, "I wish I would have brought my phone from the car so I could call Jonah."
As you approach the Ferris wheel, your honed senses catch a brief flash of movement near the topmost gondola.
Near the gathering of people, you’re able to see and hear what was described in the previous post.
From where you’re standing, you can also distinctly hear one of the bystanders whisper the word “monster.”
"Is there someone up there?" I think to myself. "Hmm"
Curiosity has my attention, although I'm surely sticking out like a sore thumb. I back off a bit and continue to work my way around the crowd, trying to find a better place to watch from. If possible, I hope to be able to see the gondola better from a different angle, although the crowd might slow my progress down.
Someone said monster. If there is a monster, perhaps its the one I've been tracking. I glance down at the hook on my arm. "Should have brought my Iron Fist", I chastise myself, realizing that the hook would be worthless in a fight.
Derek leans down over the gondola roof, checking on Josie and Kelly.
He feels more changes ripple, itch, and tingle over his skin, feeling his forehead and the new horns there, as well as his new, greyish, leathery hide. He winces as his shoes burst open, revealing elongated talons, but he gains steadier footing on the more flexible toes.
He then launches himself off the side of the gondola, sideways from the gathering crowd, spreading his wings and making a slow arc towards the woods where the police seem to be focusing their attention. He tries to find a large enough branch to land on, well overhead of everyone's attention, or, failing that, a thick enough tree trunk that he can just dig into with his claws.
Kelly and Josie do seem to have noticed your absence at this point. Kelly seems especially distraught, looking over the side of the gondola and calling out your name frantically. Josie, on the other hand, seems to just be silently bemused.
You manage to find a sturdy branch a ways into the woods. You can make out the lights and colors of the festival through the trees from here, but there's enough cover that you should be safe from prying eyes. The panicked sensation in your blood finally subsides. You feel that you have much more control over your body now.
From here, you can also see a human figure lying on their back on the ground below you. They aren't moving.
The three of you see a winged figure spring from the top of the Ferris wheel gondola, soar across the air, and descend into the woods. No one else seems to have noticed this; they're distracted by the commotion with the police.
Phil listens in on the conversation the sergeant is in as he looks between the crowd gathering around and the ferris wheel.
A body?
He spins toward the area of the woods the young woman pointed to just in time to see the figure on the Ferris wheel suddenly spread wings and fly out into the woods, with Arianne taking off after it.
"Dammit."
Phil glances back at the crowd and, noting everyone else is too distracted to take notice, runs off into the woods.
One of the police officers intercepts the two of you before you're able to make it into the woods. "Whoa, whoa there, folks. We've got a situation here. Everyone needs to stand clear."
Phil pulls out his badge and shows it to the officer. "Phil Potter, FBI. I'll need you to let me and... my partner here through to have a look at the incident."
Slightly bewildered, the officer gives a blank look to Pulaski, who sighs and comes over to you, leaving behind the upset couple. "Alright, what's going on here?" He notices Phil's badge and scowls. "Christ, don't the Feds have better things to do than stick their noses into every damn thing..."
continuing to cut wide around them, I head towards the woods, hoping that the police are distracted by the crowd and two individuals being questioned to notice me squeezing past them.
"Dont lose it... You've tracked it this far and it cannot escape a third time", I remind myself in anger. "Dammit... Why didn't I bring a weapon?"
Pulaski smiles slightly. “Well. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have a little help.” He motions to the couple. “These two were taking a walk and say they found a body. We were just about to go investigate.”
Magnus manages to sneak into the woods while the cops are busy with Phil and Arianne. An unmoving figure can be seen lying on the ground a short distance away, with a dark shape next to it.
Derek, you notice a large figure approaching. It reminds you of the hulking man you saw at the festival earlier.
Derek climbs lower in the branches, trying to maintain cover from the large figure and anyone else who might be approaching, but also trying to see if the person on the ground is alive and breathing, or if they're hurt and need help.
Derek is able to reach a better vantage point; you can now see more details. The person lying on the ground is a man in his early forties, wearing slacks and a short-sleeved button-up. You don't see any obvious wounds of any sort, but he does appear to be dead. His body seems to be frozen into a rictus of sorts, with his limbs twisted into tense, claw-like shapes. The face is particularly disturbing—his mouth is stretched into an unnaturally wide, open-mouthed smile.
Lying next to him on the ground, you can make out a pair of mirrored sunglasses (which likely fell off of his face) and a closed leather briefcase.