61: A rural horror story

[Ebiris]

[12:20] <@Ebiris> As Henrietta makes her promise and the group retreats back into the hag's shack to lick their wounds and hopefully shelter safely through the night, Liamae speaks up as she sits down heavily by the fireplace, "I don't get why she attacked. If she wanted to eat us or whatever, why try and scare us away when we first met?" she asks, shifting her back to try and get comfortable.
[12:21] * @Henrietta inevitably turns to look at Rudy.
[12:22] <@Lucie> "For sympathy, I guess," Lucie says with a shrug. "More she'd prattle on about how terrible this place is, the more we'd feel like we need she needed someone around to take care of her?"
[12:22] <@Rudy> "Must have worked for her before," replies Rudy, slumping on the ground. "Don't look at me, I don't understand women."
[12:23] <@Lucie> OOC: ex "we need" there
[12:23] <@Lucie> "Yeah, well, whatever your failings, I don't think anyone can blame you for not understanding monster swamp women in particular."
[12:24] <@Henrietta> "I suppose... well, it is entirely possible she expected us to come with her despite her warnings?" Henrietta suggests hesitantly, trying to place herself in such a creature's shoes. "Or, perhaps, she wanted to come with us for a while until she struck?"
[12:24] <@Ebiris> "I guess she saw us coming," Liamae seems to accept Lucie and Henrietta's explanation, reaching over to gently pat Val's head where he curls up between her and Henrietta. "What about your horse, Lucie? Was there anything important in its saddlebag?"
[12:26] <@Lucie> "Beats me what she planned on doing with all this loot, though," Lucie says, nudging the chest in demonstration. "Swamp around here must be full of bones from the people she took this stuff from." To Liamae: "Rations, stuff like that. May have to mooch off you all 'til we get to town."
[12:26] <@Rudy> "Well, maybe she was saving up for a better house?"
[12:27] <@Rudy> "You know, you live cheaply for a long time and then splurge it on something big, some people do that!"
[12:27] <@Ebiris> Liamae covers her mouth to smother a laugh at Rudy's comment, wincing afterwards and looking at him with hurt eyes. "Don't, it hurts when I laugh!"
[12:28] <@Henrietta> "Would it not be a bigger swamp, in that case?"
[12:29] <@Ebiris> "Think she's responsible for making it?" the other sorceress asks, settling down.
[12:30] <@Rudy> "Maybe. Or she moved in after," muses Rudy. "Should've asked, but, you know, didn't seem like the time."
[12:30] <@Henrietta> "It is not on our maps, and it seemed to appear too rapidly for any reasonable explanation. It is as good an assumption as any, I believe."
[12:30] <@Lucie> "Well, it wasn't on the map, right?" Lucie says. "It's not like swamps just spring up on their own so quick. I think. So maybe so."
[12:31] <@Rudy> "Yeah, but our maps have failed us before," points out Rudy. "Could've been here a while!"
[12:33] <@Henrietta> "And when they failed us last time, it was because of strange, supernatural events!"
[12:33] * @Henrietta shudders. "All those undead, and... the things."
[12:34] <@Ebiris> "Well if she did it with some kind of powerful magic hopefully it'll fade away with her gone. Cuts off m'lady's new lands quite badly," Liamae reflects. "We gonna try and get out of here tomorrow, then?"
[12:34] <@Lucie> "Must be tough being a mapmaker when you've got all these ghosts and things mucking up the landscape all the time." Lucie shrugs. "If there are any towns around, we can ask. Though I guess that's a big if. Gods I could use a bath after all this."
[12:34] <@Ebiris> "Lessmus, still a few days ago," Liamae tells Lucie.
[12:35] <@Ebiris> *away
[12:35] <@Henrietta> "That is the best plan," Henrietta agrees with Liamae. "As long as we have our spells, we can make it out."
[12:35] <@Lucie> "Don't want to stay here a minute longer than we have to," Luce says. "Get a night's rest and head out at daybreak if everyone's feeling up to it."
[12:35] <@Rudy> "I can barely stand," chimes in Rudy, already lying down. "First watch was awful."
[12:41] <@Ebiris> The night passes peacefully enough for Lucie and the horses outside, thankfully nothing seems inclined to approach the hag's hut and menace her... aside from a veritable cloud of flies that descends over the old woman's corpse. They mercifully don't seem interested in anything still alive. As the weak rays of the sun begin to penetrate between the far off mountainpeaks to the east, the noises of early morning swamp begin to dominate in a chorus of croaking and buzzing, while the strange dancing lights disappear into the ether. Soon enough the bedraggled and wounded group inside the hut begin to rouse themselves... but between two fastidious sorceresses they don't stay bedraggled for long.
[12:42] <@Rudy> The first thing Rudy does after he's shaved is summon Myra, who takes flight and circles above the party whilst they orient themselves. "So, my fearless friends, which way do we go?"
[12:43] * @Lucie attempts to stifle a powerful yawn and fails. "Well, we come from that way," she says, pointing back the direction they'd traveled from. Then she points the opposite direction. "So I guess we go that way."
[12:43] <@Henrietta> "Val and myself may try to search for a way out," Henrietta suggests, "or we could try to double back and circle around the swamp." With a glance overhead, she amends, "And, of course, Myra could first scout ahead to make the task simpler?"
[12:45] <@Lucie> "Lose plenty of time going back and trying to find a way around," Lucie says. "Bad enough we're already down a horse. I say we push on through. If Rudy's goons can look ahead once in a while, that'd help, sure."
[12:46] -> *Rudy* Flying around, Myra can see that the party is in the middle of the swamp-filled valley, with higher and drier ground East and West. To the South about two miles away she can see what looks to be a large wooden dam, beyond which the ground is also drier, a tiny trickle of a river snaking through the valley beyond within a much larger and drained riverbed.
[12:51] <@Rudy> After some preliminary scouting, Myra soon returns and whispers disconcertingly into Rudy's ear. "Okay, if we head north, we'll have to go through about three miles of swamp, and then we can find a trail going up the side of the valley," he states. "That'll take us to the east and in the right direction. We could just head straight east from here, but then we'd have to climb by hand."
[12:52] * @Henrietta recoils at the very suggestion. "North is fine," she responds curtly.
[12:52] <@Lucie> "No climbing," Lucie states emphatically.
[12:52] <@Ebiris> "Or just skirt the edge of the swamp like we did when we were going South towards that building Lucie saw," Liamae points out. "That's probably less dangerous, right? We did fine last night before we followed that woman."
[12:53] <@Henrietta> "Can Myra check how long that would take?" Henrietta asks, interested in this suggestion.
[12:54] <@Lucie> "There is that," Lucie says. "She seemed to try and keep us away from heading that direction, which I'd says is a mark in its favor."
[12:55] <@Ebiris> "I actually meant going North rather than South, but I guess there might be something at that... hunting lodge, she called it?"
[12:55] <@Rudy> "But we still need to get out the swamp, right? We're bang in the middle of it, so we might as well take a straight line through it instead of going all the way out, then skirting around it."
[12:55] * @Lucie shrugs. "I'll go whichever way's shorter if it's alright by everyone else. Less swamp is best."
[12:57] <@Henrietta> "North it is," Henrietta says anew. "And if we really care about the lodge, Myra can just go and take a look after." She glances at Rudy in confirmation. "She truly cannot die, can she?"
[12:57] <@Rudy> "You have no idea how hard I tried!"
[12:58] <@Henrietta> "And I fervently hope to never gain that idea."
[13:00] <@Ebiris> OOC: make survival checks everyone who has ranks
[13:00] <@Ebiris> roll 1d20+3 Val
[13:00] * +Hatbot --> "Ebiris rolls 1d20+3 Val and gets 16." [1d20=13]
[13:01] <@Lucie> roll 1d20+4
[13:01] * +Hatbot --> "Lucie rolls 1d20+4 and gets 21." [1d20=17]
[13:01] <@Henrietta> roll 1d20+3
[13:01] * +Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+3 and gets 5." [1d20=2]
[13:01] <@Ebiris> roll 2#1d100
[13:01] * +Hatbot --> "Ebiris rolls 2#1d100 and gets 94." [2#1d100 = 33, 61]
[13:05] <@Ebiris> Despite her weariness, Lucie leads an accurate path through the swamp, seeming to have a knack for avoiding trouble. About the worst that happens is a snapping turtle startling one of the horses, but it doesn't seem inclined to push its luck. For some reason Val has to sometimes butt his head against Henrietta's leg to keep her from stepping in certain directions, but unless she feels stubborn and wants to test her dog, everything seems to turn out well. It takes most of the morning, evidenced by the wintry sun high overhead, but the party finally emerges, filthy, weary, and bloodied, from the swamp and onto the muddy dirt road out of this wretched valley...
[13:06] <@Lucie> "Next time surprise swamp shows up, let's go around," Lucie says, trudging onward.
[13:06] <@Henrietta> Given how often Val had steered her in the right direction before, or was the first to warn of unseen danger, Henrietta would need considerable reason to go against those suggestions! Once out of the swamp, however, she is forced to stop and spend some time with Prestidigitation to feel clean again.
[13:07] <@Ebiris> Now that it's safe to do so, Liamae clambers onto her horse and all but collapses as she lets it do the walking from now on. "Just a few more days and we'll be at the town," she speaks up, probably to reassure herself as much as anyone.
[13:09] <@Rudy> Rudy spends a bit of time dumping all the mud out of his boots. "If it's still there."
[13:09] <@Henrietta> "We should rest properly after putting some distance between us and the swamp," Henrietta suggests. "Tomorrow, when we set up camp?"
[13:09] <@Lucie> "Sure, sure," Lucie says skeptically. "Just have to look forward to more wonderful surprises like walking through a dark cave that wasn't on the map, ridding some benighted hamlet of a marauding troll, maybe climbing a mountain or two..."
[13:10] <@Rudy> "This is nothing like the stories my mother used to tell me. Where are the riddles? There are meant to be riddles, but it's all wading through disgusting shit and fighting slimy things."
[13:11] <@Lucie> "Think of a few for us," Lucie suggests. "Damned little else to talk about out here, right?"
[13:11] <@Henrietta> "I think the riddles are on another continent," Henrietta voices hesitantly. "That's what my mother would tell me."
[13:11] <@Ebiris> "Those were just fairy tales, Rudy," Liamae tells him, perking up a little. "If we run into any fairies maybe then you'll get a riddle. Or it'll just prank you by swapping your potion labels about..."
[13:12] <@Rudy> "Aren't they all based on adventurer things, though? They're probably all half-true," he points out.
[13:13] <@Ebiris> "And when you tell this story to your kids, you'll tell them how you outsmarted the hag in a contest of riddles and she melted into the water with a wail at her defeat rather than the grisly truth, right?" Liamae teases, grinning over at him.
[13:14] <@Lucie> "Yeah, how'd that go, anyway?" Lucie wonders. "I mean, exactly when did you find out she was, you know, that?"
[13:16] <@Rudy> "When she turned into that thing and tried to rip me a new one! It's not like I have some kind of monster sense, you know? I'm so glad I turned her down."
[13:17] <@Henrietta> "I think we all are, at that."
[13:17] <@Ebiris> "Definitely couldn'tve told that story to children," Liamae snickers.
[13:18] <@Lucie> "It's a sad world when you can't even count on a pretty girl being what she looks like," Lucie laments.
[13:18] <@Rudy> "I gotta leave some for you guys, don't I? I don't have any siblings, so someone's gotta play the doting aunts."
[13:23] <@Ebiris> The rest of the day's riding passes peacefully enough, the group finding a nice campsite on a ridge that overlooks a huge lake to the Southeast, the setting sun casting a golden gleam across its distant surface...
[13:29] <@Ebiris> A days rest has everyone in good spirits, although supplies are starting to run low they should prove sufficient for a few more days without needing to supplement elsewhere. And so the rest of the journey passes in peace, snaking around and occassionally going over the foothills until three days later Liamae finally announces, "We should reach Lessmus probably within the hour if I'm right. It's on the edge of that Lake Nathavanassu. Think the place'll still be standing?" she asks that last part only half-joking.
[13:31] <@Lucie> "If it is, just give us a day or two."
[13:32] <@Henrietta> "They were, well... they were cut off from the rest of the country by the swamp? And for years? So some changes might be expected...."
[13:32] <@Rudy> "Like them not wanting to pay tax?"
[13:33] <@Henrietta> "Ooh! We can collect their taxes for all these years!"
[13:34] <@Lucie> "Don't think that's gonna be the best way to win folks over to their new landlord. More like we'll have to grease a few palms, really."
[13:34] <@Ebiris> "There's still the North road we never took... hah, you know Rudy, all that gold we found in the swamp might have come from the last tax collector," Liamae chuckles as you wind through a narrow and windy pass, trees above swaying with the loud gusts. A small hut is seen on a branch going off it ahead, crammed into a little nook.
[13:35] <@Henrietta> "The other road must be even more horrible!" Henrietta says empathically.
[13:35] <@Lucie> "We'll find out on the way back," Lucie decides for everyone, adding: "No more swamp travel."
[13:38] <@Rudy> "I'm okay with this, even if it takes us to Jovar and back."
[13:38] <@Henrietta> "How about stopping by that hut?" Henrietta suggests, point it out, perhaps needlessly. "We could use some information, if it is occupied."
[13:38] * @Lucie merely shrugs and lets Henri go where she wants.
[13:38] <@Rudy> "If you like."
[13:39] * @Henrietta leads the way, then!
[13:40] <@Ebiris> "It looks pretty decrepit, but okay," Liamae doesn't seem to mind, dismounting her horse and heading towards it after Henrietta. Val sticks close to his owner, his tail flat and occassionally growling. It's a very small structure, unlikely big enough for more than one room. A window covered by wooden slats faces the path, along with a rickety looking door.
[13:41] <@Henrietta> "Hello? Is anyone there?"
[13:42] <@Ebiris> OOC: roll perception, peoples
[13:42] <@Lucie> roll 1d20+14
[13:42] <@Henrietta> roll 1d20+2
[13:42] * +Hatbot --> "Lucie rolls 1d20+14 and gets 15." [1d20=1]
[13:42] * +Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+2 and gets 19." [1d20=17]
[13:42] <@Rudy> roll 1d20+1
[13:42] * +Hatbot --> "Rudy rolls 1d20+1 and gets 19." [1d20=18]
[13:42] <@Ebiris> roll 1d20+6 Liamae
[13:42] * +Hatbot --> "Ebiris rolls 1d20+6 Liamae and gets 11." [1d20=5]
[13:45] <@Ebiris> Rudy and Henrietta both hear some shuffling and scraping from inside, as though someone were moving furniture, before the door opens to reveal a smiling young man with a wispy mustache and already thinning hair. He wears unkempt leather armour and dark coloured pants adorned with darker stains, a hatchet hanging from his belt. "Strangers, hello!" he says in a friendly tone, narrow eyes looking over the party and widening a bit when they fall upon Lucie.
[13:47] <@Lucie> "Folk round here always greet strangers armed and armored?" Lucie asks, giving the man a skeptical looking over.
[13:48] <@Henrietta> "Hello!" Henrietta repeats, all smiles. The weapons don't bother her, since she carries them herself. "Do you get many visitors?"
[13:51] <@Ebiris> "I'm a hunter, this is what I wear for my livelyhood!" he asserts defensively, seeming rather thrown by Lucie's appearance. To Henrietta he replies, "Not many, I'm a solitary man by nature..." before he goes back to Lucie, "What brings you here anyway? Here for the fishing?"
[13:51] -> *Lucie* It's fairly clear there's some deeper meaning behind his question, as if he's expecting a certain answer.
[13:51] <@Henrietta> "It is the hat, is it not?" Henrietta asks sadly. "Lucie, you are scaring people again."
[13:52] <@Rudy> "We're here to visit the town, and we'd like to see the mayor while we have a chance," replies Rudy. "There's been some deals done in the capital of which he ought to be informed."
[13:53] <@Lucie> roll 1d20+11
[13:53] * +Hatbot --> "Lucie rolls 1d20+11 and gets 25." [1d20=14]
[13:53] <@Henrietta> "Thus, we were hoping to hear about the situation in town," Henrietta follows up on Rudy's words, then. "And we were also wondering if you know anything about this swamp and how it formed."
[13:54] <@Lucie> "Fishing? Not so much my game," Lucie says.
[13:57] <@Ebiris> He seems to be tensely awaiting Lucie's answer, and upon getting it the tension ratchets up a notch. "I don't know anything about any swamp, I just do my hunting here and don't go far. Not my business if you want to go that town," he replies quickly, shuffling his feet on the packed dirt floor underneath. "Capital ain't here, don't matter to normal folks, does it?"
[13:59] <@Lucie> "What do you hunt?" Lucie asks conversationally.
[14:01] <@Ebiris> "Animals... I sell their pelts in town once a season, keep myself fed..." he replies, his gaze flickering over the crowd outside as he stands in his doorway.
[14:01] -> *Lucie* He sounds full of shit to you. Probably hasn't skinned an animal in his life.
[14:02] <@Rudy> "That's super interesting we have to go now bye. Come ON, Lucie," replies Rudy, turning about.
[14:03] <@Lucie> Lucie presses onward, sounding skeptical. "Yeah? What kind of animals? Oh, but I guess we could ask folks in town all about that and they'd know."
[14:05] <@Ebiris> "Yeah, you ask them. You do that!" he retorts challengingly, stepping back and slamming the door shut!
[14:05] * @Lucie shakes her head and moves on towards the town.
[14:06] <@Henrietta> "Umm. Thank you for your time, Mister Hunter! Have a good day!" Henrietta tells the closed door, before giving it one last hesitant glance and heading towards town herself.
[14:06] <@Rudy> "What is wrong with you today, Lucie?"
[14:06] <@Ebiris> Val growls softly, keeping himself between Henrietta and the hut as the group abandons questioning and resumes their journey.
[14:06] <@Ebiris> "That was just weird," Liamae comments for herself, mounting her horse. "Guy didn't seem all there, did he?"
[14:07] * @Henrietta casts Mage Armor without even thinking about it, before patting her dog's head.
[14:07] <@Lucie> "What's wrong with *him*, you mean," Lucie says. "Wanted me to say something but damned if I know what it was. Man doesn't do much hunting, I can tell you that much."
[14:08] <@Henrietta> "Val does not like him or his hut, which probably means something horrible," Henrietta voices, mounting her own horse in turn. "We can find out more in town, I suppose?"
[14:08] <@Rudy> Myra is nonexistant at this part of the journey, as such a fearsome monster will surely terrify the locals. That is, if Lucie doesn't get at them first. "Today's just not going to be a good day, is it?"
[14:09] <@Henrietta> "It is better to keep expectations low and be pleasantly surprised, I think."
[14:09] <@Lucie> "Sure, sure. Only let's not start out here by asking nosy questions about the locals? Bring it up after we've raised her ladyship's interest here and gotten folk used to us being here."
[14:10] <@Rudy> "Yes, let's not go asking people why they carry weapons. You know, in the isolated, bandit-ridden countryside."
[14:10] <@Ebiris> "I don't carry a weapon!" Liamae sniffs in mock-haughtiness.
[14:10] <@Henrietta> "Your body is a terrible weapon!" Henrietta is quick to assure her.
[14:11] <@Lucie> "Come on, Rudy, you can't tell me you didn't take one look and assume something wasn't right with the man?"
[14:12] <@Rudy> "Well, yeah, he was totally jumpy," admits Rudy. "I figured it might've just been you, though. You're still terrifying, you know?"
[14:13] <@Lucie> "Well, at least I'm doing something right. There are worse ways for people to think of you, you know."
[14:15] <@Rudy> "Yeah, if you want them running away or coming at you with pitchforks.
[14:16] * @Henrietta tilts her head in consideration. "Perhaps we should ride ahead, then? And have Lucie come after on foot, as if we are not traveling together?"
[14:16] <@Ebiris> Leaving behind the strange hunter's hut, the group press on through the pass before finally breaking through into the open, the chilly silvery expanse of the lake ahead, and on its bank just to the North spreads out a small hamlet... most of the buildings are made of dark and mossy-looking wood, with simple thatched roofs, forming a crescent around the lakeshore. A solitary pier juts out into the water, a few rowboats tied to it and a single figure standing on its edge with a fishing line dangling into the water. The only exceptions to the wooden construction are two grand, if decaying, stone buildings. A tall vaulted temple stands facing the path around the lake, its pillars crumbling and in disrepair. In slightly better condition is a two storey manor perched on a bluff overlooking the lake and village both.
[14:18] <@Lucie> "Looks peaceful enough," Lucie observes at first glance.
[14:19] <@Henrietta> "Not for long..." Henrietta says ominously.
[14:19] <@Rudy> "The comet probably won't land on it, you know," points out Rudy. "Let's go visit the manor?"
[14:20] <@Henrietta> "Oh, that?" Henrietta blinks. "I was just thinking of Lucie."
[14:20] <@Ebiris> "Oh, hush," Liamae pouts. "The manor's probably the best place to check in, or else there's that village store over there. We could even chat up the fisherman if we felt like it."
[14:21] <@Henrietta> "I am perfectly fine with trying the manor first."
[14:22] <@Lucie> "What is wrong with you people?" Lucie asks as they walk along. "I give one backwoods hick a hard time because he's obviously full of shit and suddenly I'm some kind of terrifying demon." She shakes her head. "Manor sounds right. We could ask the fisherman on the way just who lives there to be sure?"
[14:24] <@Ebiris> Indeed the fisherman does seem to notice the horsebound group approaching as they must pass the pier to reach the manor. He stares dumbfounded for a moment before dropping his line. "Zeus strike me down right now if I don't see new faces finally come into town!" he marvels, walking over in a manner that broadcasts surprise and almost disbelief.
[14:25] <@Lucie> "Swamp's keeping travelers away, I guess?" Lucie asks.
[14:25] <@Rudy> "Aye, we're out from the coast," explains Rudy. "How d'ya do? I'll tell you what, we weren't expecting to run into a swamp on the way!"
[14:26] <@Henrietta> "It was not the only thing we did not expect to run into, either!" Henrietta adds.
[14:27] <@Ebiris> "Swamp? Don't know about a swamp... you came along the West Road?" he asks, he's an older man, face tanned and lined, his hair turning snowy white. He wears thick sturdy clothes that nonetheless have been darned and sewn over so many times its unlikely any of the original garments remain. "Been... near enough two years since we seen anyone from the rest of the country show up!"
[14:28] <@Rudy> "There's nobody who's sought to leave this town in that time?" asks Rudy, in surprise.
[14:29] <@Lucie> "Sure, big damn swamp, took hours for us to get across it. Wasn't on our map, either. Probably we're not the first folks to stumble into it by accident. And past that there was a bridge out along the way. Road to this town hasn't been kept up well, it seems."
[14:29] <@Ebiris> "Sure'nuff," he shrugs. "Ain't never come back, though..." he shakes his head now, "Folks scared to come out of their homes never mind head out of town."
[14:30] <@Rudy> "Whatever for?"
[14:30] <@Henrietta> "Scared?" Henrietta repeats, picking up on that. "Is the town in danger?"
[14:34] <@Ebiris> "Lotta folks just disappear," he sighs heavily now, sitting on one of the dockposts. "Name's Teo Brundt, by the way. We ain't ever been a rich town, and there's been that curse on poor Lady Esmerelle's family going back generations. But we're tough, we got by. But last two years, since the curse took Sir Jacin? Gotten worse, folks've just vanished without a trace - won't find a family in the village that hasn't lost someone, prob'ly."
[14:34] <@Lucie> "Curse, huh?" Lucie says, sounding intrigued.
[14:35] <@Henrietta> "Henrietta Ul Copt," she introduces herself in turn, tipping her hat at the man. "Are you certain this is a magical curse and not, say, more mundane abductions?"
[14:39] <@Ebiris> "Goes back centuries," Teo nods firmly. "Back to when the town was first founded, I figure. The second mayor, Bale the first? Story says that one night he and his brother saw this giant wolf from the window of their mansion,  out on the hills. Breathed fire and drooled acid, glowed like a ghost... so those two roused the guard, ran out to get it! They were never seen again. Since then every generation of Vangaunt's had to face the same thing. Two years ago it took Jacin the third, an' his sister's been in charge ever since."
[14:42] <@Lucie> "Huh," is Lucie's eloquent response. "It 'took' him, you mean he just disappeared like his ancestors? And lately it's the first time folk outside their family started disappearing?"
[14:43] <@Henrietta> "If this is happening, why would anyone wish to live alone?"
[14:44] <@Ebiris> "Lady Esmerelle saw the whole thing, hear it actually smashed through the windows and took Sir Jacin right out of the sitting room, dragged him off into the mist!" Teo explains with suitable dramatic fanfare. "Dunno if it's the Beast taking other folks or something else, since nobody else's seen the it since then. But can't say they're not disappearing when the town's half empty!"
[14:45] <@Ebiris> "Some are just stubborn or don't have anyone else?" Liamae suggests to Henrietta. "Or are you thinking about that guy from earlier?"
[14:46] <@Lucie> "Maybe they're just hitting the road, not coming back?" Lucie wonders. "Living in a town where monsters show up regular isn't for everyone, right?"
[14:46] <@Ebiris> "Without telling anyone or packing anything?" Teo asks Lucie dubiously.
[14:46] <@Henrietta> "Him, yes," Henrietta responds. "It takes a very special person to live for two years while this is going on without anyone close enough to help, don't you think?"
[14:47] <@Lucie> "Guess you're right," Lucie admits.
[14:48] <@Ebiris> "Yeah, do you know about a hunter that lives in a hut up along that pass, Mr Brundt?" Liamae asks, gesturing back the way you came.
[14:48] * @Henrietta looks quite interested in the answer herself.
[14:49] <@Ebiris> The old man furrows his brow, "You mean Than? Haven't seen him in over a year! You telling me he's still kicking out there?"
[14:50] <@Rudy> "He was pretty jumpy. Nervous, even," remarks Rudy. "Probably been hiding there in the corner."
[14:51] <@Ebiris> "What did Than look like?" Liamae presses.
[14:52] <@Henrietta> "You think that maybe, well, someone else is kicking out there?"
[14:53] <@Ebiris> "Skinny little ginger-haired man, pretty pale and freckled... couldn't grow a beard to save himself. I remember young Dale went out to see him when he hadn't shown up for a few weeks back last Winter... he disappeared, too," Teo shakes his head mournfully.
[14:55] <@Lucie> "Looked like he was working at a mustache and having some trouble at that," Lucie recalls. "Could've been him?"
[14:55] <@Ebiris> "I didn't see any freckles," Liamae replies dubiously.
[14:55] <@Rudy> "He was a young guy, didn't notice any freckles," admits Rudy.
[14:55] <@Rudy> "Think maybe we should head back and check it out?"
[14:56] <@Lucie> "True," Lucie concedes.
[14:56] <@Henrietta> "Say, would you mind terribly coming along with us to take a second look?" Henrietta asks.
[14:57] <@Ebiris> "Hmm..." Teo looks uncertain, before shrugging. "You made it in, probably safe to travel with you lot. Not like I've a wife to miss me now, either," he stands up, his back creaking. "Just don't go too fast, these old legs ain't what they used to."
[14:58] <@Henrietta> "You could take my horse!" Henrietta offers, dismounting. "And I will protect you. I swear upon my honor!"
[14:59] <@Ebiris> "Yer a good one, Miss Ul Copt," the old man grins toothily, clambering onto the sleek black horse.
[15:02] <@Ebiris> It's easy enough to retrace your steps back along the winding windswept pass, Teo seeming in quite good spirits to be travelling by horseback while Val seems surly and growly the closer and closer you get to your destination. A little under an hour later, though, and the cramped shack lies before you, its door pressed firmly shut against intrusion and no signs of life visible from the outside...