Arc 1 - Beast of a Thousand Knives (Completed)

[I Drink Blue Moon]

Gloom just followed the group around, places werent his forte', people were.  

[Onlin3 Gam3r]

Thava attempted to climb the barn after the dwarf's question. "No." She instead decided to look at the marks, seeing if she could pick up anything that Kuori may have missed.

-----
Failed athletics
20 perception
13 Arcana  

[Kowsauni]

"Really?" Mr. Hopkins raised his eyebrow at Kuori's statement. It didn't seem like he quite believed her, but it was a better theory than anything he had come up with. "That would have to be one hell of a powerful creature to do that. If that's indeed the case, then I'm glad I didn't run into it last night. I have a ladder we use to get access to the roof. I'll have a couple of m'boys set it up."

Mr. Hopkins would nod at Emmaline. "Em, be a dear and grab Terrance and Milo. They should be finishin' cleaning up the the stalls at this point."

Emmaline would nod at her father, then run back into the barn to get her brothers.

Mr. Hopkins would then turn back to Kuori and speak proudly. "I can assure you that roof is as sturdy as they come. I built it m'self. I used only the finest lumber we could have shipped to us. I'm expectin' my great great grand kids to still be usin' this buildin' long after I'm gone."

As Thava tries to climb the barn, Mr. Hopkins gives her a strange look. "My boys will be here soon; there's no need to rush."

Thava sees nothing new about the marks on the barn wall, but as she glances around she notices some faint marks in the dirt on the ground that look similar to the ones on the barn's wall. They seem to head in the direction of Duke's pen.  

[Alzzak]

"Pfft... " Adrik crossed his arms and muttered something in respite after Hopkins and Revenge's sarcastic remarks. Though listened to Ol' Hopkin's and then Kuori's ideas.

"Lass, two foreseeable issues with your words; Duke would have made a fuss if something tried to pick 'em up. Less Duke was ..." He let his sentence drop, with Hopkin in ear range. "And two, distance... A creature your suggesting would have to be a massive beastie, to reach the pen from here." The dwarf thought for a moment, before adding. "Poa' would have sensed something that big."  

[Rain Yupa]

"So, are we heading over to the pen once someone gets up there and checks it out?" Revenge sounded iffy about how much more they could get out of this location right now.

"Sir," he would address Hopkins again. "Is this the first time you've lost any livestock mysteriously during the night? We heard it happened a couple times, but I'm not sure if you're a repeat victim or not."  

[Kowsauni]

Mr. Hopkins would quickly answer Revenge's question. He seemed to be getting a little dismayed."Over the decades I've run this place, I've lost dozens of cattle to different causes. Disease, weather, animal attacks, thieves... But this is the first time I've ever had a full-sized ornery bull disappear from its pen like this without as much as a noise or trace. I had heard of the other disappearances in Lupa and even had my boys doin' rounds of the place all hours of the night... yet this still happened. I'm wonderin' if it can even be stopped at this point. If what she said is true, then it would take half the town guard to fight it, let alone no one's even seen it yet."

As Mr. Hopkins goes on his rant Emmaline returns with her two brothers carrying a collapsed ladder. One of the young men looks to be in his mid twenties with long light brown hair and hazel eyes. The other looks be a just few years older than Emmaline and shares her same complexion. Adrik would recognize him as Terrance.

They both looked quite surprised to see the adventurers, but quickly get to work. With a bit of effort the three of them would place the ladder against the barn and would extend its sections until it reached the top of the roof, about 30 feet up. The two Hopkins boys then continue to stand by the base ladder and offer to hold it in place for whoever wishes to climb it.  

[PupSage]

Kuouri looked down at the man and said, "I'm not the best with words Mr Hopkins, but my father taught me that there is one universal truth, every living thing dies." She started towards the ladder. "And this thing just pissed off the Reaper." She started up the ladder, once on the roof she would bounce a bit to test the sturdiness of the roof. Then she tried to pick up on anything that seemed relevant. Maybe she could see its path better from up here.

Nat 20 +11 Perception  

[Kowsauni]

As Kuori tests the strength of the roof, it is indeed as strong as Mr. Hopkin's claimed. It doesn't event grown underneath the goliath's weight. The tracks get much fainter on the roof and almost disappear, no doubt due to the creature no longer having to work against gravity to climb. However, Kuori's well-trained eyes pick out every detail there is to be seen.

It becomes immediately obvious the creature did not just make a straight path over the roof. In fact, the little gouges all over the wooden roofing tiles show the creature moved back and forth between all the four of the corners of the roof before descending down the other side. ((Kuori may roll an insight check to determine what this might mean, she may also explain her observations to the rest of the party below to allow them to make an insight check about this information.))

While Kuori is on the roof, she has a grand vantage point of the entire ranch. Her keen eyes notice the same sort of tracks on the barn in a soft patch of dirt on the ground in between the barn and the pen. The creature apparently headed or came from that direction at some point. There is also no sign that the bull was on the roof at any point.  

[PupSage]

Kuori analyzed the tracks. Old Man Hopkins had mad it seem as if the creature wasn't up here long, but it obviously had time to look around. Was it intelligent? She thought a while about any other reasons that a beast might look off of every corner. Then she took off her bow and knocked an arrow, shooting at the patch of dirt where the tracks continued.

11 Insight
27 Attack  

[Kowsauni]

((You forgot to add in your wisdom bonus to your insight check which would make the check 15 which is enough to learn that...))

As Kuori looks at the strange tracks and then out across the landscape, she realizes she is standing on the tallest structure in the entire area and that it grants a view of the entire ranch. It quickly becomes clear to her that this creature did not just randomly climb on top of this building. It came up here with the purpose of scouting the area, no doubt to plan its attack. There is definitely a high level of intelligence to the creature along with what must be excellent dark vision.

Kuori's arrow sails through the air until it strikes the ground some 250 feet away from the barn, directly on the patch of ground she was aiming for. The arrow embeds itself in the dirt, disturbing the tracks a bit, but not enough to completely destroy the marks. Kuori sees no evidence that anything else is in the ground there.

Mr. Hopkins shouts out excitedly as he sees this. "What's goin' on up there? Is eveythin' all right?"  

[Rain Yupa]

Revenge immediately wielded his halberd, looking in the direction Kuori fired the arrow. "What is it? What do you see?" he would call up to the Goliath, trying to spot the threat.

Quote:

21 Perception to spot the monsters! 20 for Initiative! I ready an action to use Enfeebling Strike on the first monster that enters striking range!

 

[PupSage]

Kuori would go to the edge of the barn, "More tracks. I shot an arrow near them so that we could check out the area. Gloom, you wanna head over there before I climb down so that we don't lose them?" She was sweating. For the first time in a long time she was scared. Her time in the Underdark made her mind form a very specific picture when she thought multi-legged intelligent being with excellent darkvision. Driders. And Driders were among the top of her least favorite things to encounter. She would switch to Dwarven, speaking to Adrik and hoping Mr. Hopkins wouldn't understand. "We are in way over our heads."  

[Kowsauni]

Revenge spots directly where the arrow lands, and though the area is a bit disturbed by the impact, he can distinctly see some marks in the soft dirt that look similar to what he observed on the barn wall. The tracks lie about 250 feet away from the barn in the direction of Duke's pen, which stands about 900 feet away. The tracks show the creature was either coming from the pen or going in that direction. The tracks disappear where the ground is hardened by the constant traffic of ranchers.

Revenge spots no monsters, but the ranchers definitely notice him draw his weapon. Mr. Hopkins draws a small dagger from his belt and looks around wildly for what's concerning Revenge. He shouts, "What the hell's goin on? You see somethin'?"

The two Hopkins brothers instinctively move in front of their younger sister to protect her and Emmaline immediately begins to protest. "Hey now! I can't see! Let me see what's goin' on!"  

[Rain Yupa]

"S-sorry, no..." Revenge would lower his halberd, then stand normally, exhaling and return to holding his weapon with one hand, blade pointed upward. "The arrow just made me thought... well, nevermind. No, nothing."

Though he wouldn't be able to understand the Dwarven that Kuori just said, the fact that she still spoke in Dwarven instead of Common didn't instill hope in him...

Quote:

Diplomacy of 18 if the Hopkins still look nervous to show that he's calm and relaxed and there was no reason to be alarmed.

 

[Kowsauni]

Old Man Hopkins

Revenge's words would calm Mr Hopkins back down and he would put away his dagger. However he would grumpily reply, "Hmph, well don't startle me like that. I'm an old man. My heart can't take it."

Emmaline would finally push out from behind her brothers. "I don't need no protectin'! I can handle m'self. I can fight a fair sight better then both of y'all and you know it! And Pa don't say stuff like that; you're still as strong as an ox on the inside."

Mr. Hopkin would chuckle at his daughter's words. "A lot of fight in her. Takes after her mom. She'd join the guard if I'd let her, but I need her help around the farm too much. So, why don't I show y'all to Duke's pen. The trail seems to lead that ways anyways. Whatever climbed on m'barn definitely had somethin' to do with Ol' Duke disappearin'"

Emmaline Hopkins