Interestingly, the wounds don't seem like the ultimate cause of death. The corpse is showing signs that it died instead of asphyxiation.
Huh. That was odd. Dawn wasn't squeemish about such things, so she opened the animal's mouth with two of the Ioun Stones and peered down its throat.
Asside from the ultimate cause of death, Dawn can't seem to gather anything else about the body from her very in-depth examination. Perhaps aside from the smell.
Trifoni didn't approach very closely, both to give the others doing more detailed inspections space and not knowing much about animal killings, especially with so much of the carcass left.
So he spoke to Dartanian from where Trifoni stood just inside the freezer, "Must be tiring and costly, sir. How many attacks have there been so far?"
Kaliban seems confused, like the world is turned upside down.
Upon hearing the fortune-teller's question, And, did they all occur in the same area?
He seems uncomfortable with being called sir, especially when he's certainly much younger then Trifoni is. "Once a day for a week now, it seems. Think it's been particularly on the westerly side, nearer to the forest? There've been some attacks even close to the road though."
"Well, whatever is killing the beasties is killing them via asphic...asphixa...choking them to death. I think it might be doing it from the inside too, but I can't see anything." Dawn looked over at the young man. "Has anyone heard or see anything funny from the forest? Has anyone been doing some logging down there, maybe disturbed something they shouldn't?"
Trifoni looked the hanging carcass while listening before nodding in agreement with Dawn, "With the frequency and amount left, it does seem targeted or vengeful, or something really odd and untypical going on with the..beasties."
"Not particularly, I mean, it's just some old woods right? We've been wanting to get the herd easier access to the river, so we'd started clearing a path through a few weeks back." The young man states, rubbing the back of his head.
"Maybe, but it might have been the home of something that's really irritated by the whole cutting access thing." Dawn shrugged. "Or maybe it's just arrived and the forest stuff is a coincidence. Where did the killing take place? Can you show us that too?"
"Whether the forest itself is somehow involved, or whether the perpetrator comes from the forest to commit its misdeeds, I think our path lies in investigating nearer the forest, and probably into the woods itself."
Kaliban removes dinner thorns and briars from an easily accessible wound.
Can either of you tell if these are fresh? Recently alive?
"I really should be getting back to my chores," Dartanian speaks, shuffling his feet and looking around as if his father would show up at any moment.
Let your father know we are on the grounds. He can meet us out by the area where the attacks are heavy.
You have been a wonderful host.
Using Dawn's clue as a guideline, Emma is able to take a more in depth look of the creature. She finds marks around it's neck that indicate it was strangled to death somehow, perhaps by a rope or something similar. The briar thorns themselves which Kaliban indicated too seem relatively fresh by Dawn's experience.
"I'm... Not so sure I should be leaving you alone on the property," He states, sounding a little more firm.
Either way, it's up to you, young man.
"Suit yourself, but you're in danger if you explore with us."
He wavers for a moment, weighing the options in his head, but it seems the mention of being in danger push it just over the edge. "Alright... Just please leave the herd alone, would you? They're anxious enough as is."
Once outside the building he gives you a vague direction of where the indication of where the killings have been located, to the South, West towards the forest, and the latest killing near the most North-eastern area of the property which is closer to the road. He leaves your group to investigate as they will and makes his way back to the main house, in theory to finally finish those chores he mentioned.
Humming as she plodded around, looking for clues, Dawn began to search for any evidence of the slaying and the thing that did the slaying.
Dawn, are there people like yours that are more warlike or argessive? It is as if they were attacked by plants with thorny vines?
I've never encountered anything like this. Kaliban reflexively and unconsciously touches and rubs his neck.
"Sure," Dawn said with a shrug. "We're people. Some of us aren't very nice. Some of us. Mostly, our job is to protect nature, so it might be a case of someone who got prissy about the trees being chopped down. Doesn't explain why they're killing cows, though."
He mentioned several directions... South, West... and the latest Northeast. Kaliban shakes his head.
If this is coordinated, we will need a map of this place... I say wego to the most recent site, fisrt... while signs may be fresh.
"A fine idea."
The most recent site of attack is obvious from afar, there's a bloodied mess in the middle of a field that the herd seems to be avoiding. As they're examining the area for signs of what caused this, Dawn for a scant moment swears she heard a whisper somewhere nearby.
Dawn perked up, muttering, "Oh, secret whispers, and began trying to locate the whispers as she scampered off to hunt.
Whatever it is, the source does not seem visible to her, but it's nearby. The whispers seem to be coming from somewhere toward her left, perhaps forty feet off. The words feel intrinsically familiar to her for some reason.
"I think the thing is close," Dawn said as she looked around. "I can hear it talking. It really wants meat." Rummaging in her bag, Dawn pulled out some dried meat. It probably wasn't squishy enough to attract anything, but it was worth a try.
Whatever the creature is, it does not seem to be reacting towards Dawn holding out her jerky.
Feeling like... meat, Kaliban unslings his axe.
Trifoni attempted to follow near Dawn, close enough to hear, but far enough not to be confused for her jerky treat. At her description of voices, he started to cast Detect Magic for any potential magical sources of what she could hear as he looked around for anything else...
The party knows that something might be hidden nearby, yet can't seem to coax whatever it is out of hiding. Trifoni, despite Dawn's instance, can only hear the distant sounds of the herd and a burd's chirp from somewhere further off. The field around him is dead silent and seemingly empty, nothing but tall grass and undergrowth.
"Does anyone have anything fresher? Dried doesn't seem to appeal to whatever it is." Dawn started chewing on a strip. "Most plants want things a little broken down, so that makes sense I guess."
It finally hits Dawn. The way the animal died, the lassarations, the fact that it was both still nearby and yet can't quite be seen, the fact that only she seems to hear it. She's seen these things before. In a way, she's actually related to them. An Assasian Vine. Ambush predator, it likely had no sense of smell or hearing at all, and is simply waiting for someone to get close enough to strike.
"Oh, an assassin vine. Everyone be really careful. They're very hungry, and reaaaallly hard to see." On the plus side it probably wouldn't try to eat her, all things considered - she wasn't meat. Still, they also didn't move far. Maybe she could move it somewhere better for it rather than killing it. It would be better, like relocating a dangerous animal. That's all this really was.
Alasayn sighs. His psychic powers, or at least the good ones, would be ineffective on a plant. "I suppose you can't even hope for competent adversaries in backwater like this. Back in Osknia it would've been some sahuagin rebels or a sea drake or something of the like." He looks around, perhaps aware of his complaint, or perhaps just waiting for a response before he says, "In any case, I'm sure we can deal with it. See how our new acquaintance handles a battle."
Emma Jane draws her sword, just to be ready.
"Maybe we can fan out and move toward it? Whoever gets close enough first will draw it out?"
Sure... Kaliban begins to lead towards the Assassin Vine.
Does is devour the flesh, drink the blood... or just kill?
Dawn racked her brain for more information on the vine.
"I don't suppose they think. Part of my vast talents include being able to detect thinking creatures."
Trifoni listened. Moving away from the group, he removed the long boarding pike from his back, and began to twirl it around. At 8 feet long, it should catch something long before Trifoni's fleshier parts should be in range - at least, that's what the man told himself as he sought out this assassin.
Hildeberg takes up stance next to Trifoni with her own bill, offering the shorter man a nod of comradely. Dawn racks her consciousness for anything else she remembered about these plants, but sadly she only knows them to be ambush predators.
Kaliban takes it upon himself to make the first move by willingly provoking the creature, and rather predictably gnarled vines thick enough to snap a man's neck with ease shoot out towards the half-orc. Yet he's more then ready to fend off the creature's strike, briefly opening it up for an attack by Alasyn.
Alasyn:
Assassin Vines:
(Emily, Dawn, Kaliban, trifoni):
Hildeberg:
Alasayn puts two fingers to his temple and focuses, mental armor coalescing around him to shield himself from the vine’s attacks.
The vines rise up more from the grass, revealing it's strange grasping leaves hsaped more like hands then foliage, along with a mass that strongly resembles an animals maw. It wastes no time in striking out against Kaliban a second time, this time his armor taking the blow's brunt.
Dawn sighed. She'd hoped for a different outcome. It was just trying to survive, after all.
But so was she.
The Ioun Stone flew.
At a loss for lyrics to fit the occasion, Emma Jane runs in attacks one of the vines with her readied weapon: