Blakesmith looks very unhappy.
Blakesmith : "How long do you have to the car? I was only supposed to have it for a day!"
The hobo is still stumbling through the woods, though he no longer appears to be much of a hurry.
The wounded hobo is out of sight, swallowed up by the woods.
Blakesmith : "I suppose I could keep the car for another hour. This place is pretty close right? "
Pritchard : "We better get a move on then, if we're going to get there and back in that time."
Thoughtfully you march back to the car.
As you reach the road you note a long, dark coupe, parked behind Blakesmith's ride.
"Mr. Blakesmith," Edward says. "Would this help lessen your anxiety at ease over rental of this fliver?"
Edward reaches into his wallet and pulls out 3 dollar bills, all he has left.
.
Nils cautiously goes over the the coupe
Looking somewhat disgusted, Blakesmith takes the proffered money.
As Nils walks up to the car, its engine growls into life, and the car races away: Nils has a glance of two, unsmiling men in the front seat of the vehicle.
After the car leaves, Nils will relay what he knows to Blakesmith & Mayfield
[ooc]One man had a dead eye[/ooc}
You all pile into Blakesmith's fliver, and he drives a few miles down the road, closer to town, where, amidst the bucolic farmlands, he once again stops.
Blakesmith : "All right, I'll wait here for an hour: if Dr. Mayfield is right about where he thinks these hobos were camping, that should just be about enough time."
Edward doesn't even notice the car drive off until Nils nudges him and tells him about the dead-eyed man.
You set off on path that meanders between orchards and pastures.
Dr. Mayfield's sense of direction seems to fairly right on, as you quickly find yourself paralleling a narrow stream.
You come to a bend in the stream, where there is a small stand of oak trees. Among the oaks it looks like some has erected a crude lean-too.
You see that you've reached the place from the wrong side of the stream; there's an extremely narrow, and very improvised foot-bridge; a few planks lashed together, that will allow you to cross the stream.
Edward looks at Nils and shrugs. "It’s now or never" he says, and takes tentative steps across the bridge.
Groaning, the boards flex beneath your feet as you slowly cross.
Nils looks a little green, "Yes, now or never" as he crosses the bridge. Once he is across, he relaxes noticeably. Nils will approach the lean-to cautiously, "Hello? Is anyone in there?"
.
Blood.
So much blood.
So the lean-to is a ramshackle affair of rough planks, faded sign-boards, and a few bits of tin.
Within there's a rough camp-site: a fire-pit, and some dirty bedding.
There's two dead men, sprawled among the detritus: an African-American man of about 60, and a younger man, who might be American-Indian.
Both men looks like they have been stabbed multiple times.
There is a copious amount of blood.
Edward covers his mouth and quickly looks away. It's one thing to read about a murder in an ancient manuscript, quite another to see it in person. He feels his face go pale, and hopes he won't throw up.
Edward's head begins pound. Splotches dance in front of his eyes. Things suddenly seem unreal.
Nils also turns away, looking a bit green
.
Pritchard is standing back a little way, looking intently over the little strip of pastureland that stretches in front of the shabby shelter.
Pritchard : "I see somebody! Watching us!"
While Edward hears Nils saying that something is watching them, he cannot force himself to move. He just stands there, bent at the waist, hands over his face, saying, "I can't. I can't. I can't do it."
Nils will grab Mayfield and pull him away from the tent, shaking him as he does so, "Damnit man, snap out of it!". He then looks around in a half crouch, hand on his pistol, trying to see what Pritchard saw
Nils, make an Average Spot Hidden roll.
Dr. Maysfield can't seem to pull his horrified gaze from the carnage before him, to look where Pritchard and Svensson are staring.
"So much death. Death comes to us all," Edward says, continuing to stare at the carnage.
Nils sees a man, in a long coat; his eyes are bulbous, and he appears to have a blunt snout, standing among some beech trees, apparently watching you, from across a weedy field.
The strange figure turns away, and strides purposefully through the trees, away from you.
Nils, spotting the man, will act like he doesn't see him, but will remember his face and location relative to the way they need to go to get out of there. He will turn his attention back to the carnage in the tent
Nils, it is very odd.
The strange features of his face you recognize as a military style gas-mask.
Edward puts his hand on Nils' should in order to balance himself, then looks at Nils and Pritchard.
"I feel like I've been hit in the head with a club. Now I know why I never became a police detective. So what are we going to do? Did one of you say you saw a stranger?"
Edward deliberately averts his eyes from the bloodshed, trying hard to get over hyperventilation and panic.
Nils nods, "Yes, the mind does funny things sometimes. I did see someone. At first it looked like someone with a pig face, which shook me a bit. Thankfully I got a better look at him and saw that he had a gas mask over his face." Nils then starts looking closely at the carnage in the tent, trying to piece together what happened there
The younger of the pair seems to have been more savagely attacked; with multiple cuts to his upper torso, head and shoulders, and arms; perhaps he was trying to defend the older man from their attacker or attackers?
There are some bloody boot-prints walking away from the scene.
Following them a little way into the pasture, you see a small silver flask laying in the bloodied grass.
Still rattled by the experience, Edward refuses to see what's right in front of his eyes.
Picking up the flask, you notice it bears a simple monogram. Some liquid sloshes inside.
Nils opens the flask and takes a sniff
Like a cross between vinegar and licorice.
