Gameplay 1b - Rats in the Woodwork

Yeah let's go. Gerald makes moves to leaving, hoping the bandits will come to a decision.

"No? Well no good night kiss or hand shake for you. As promised. Hope you two make some good life choices. Ataan states telling them where he'll be staying if they don't give an immediate response.

"This situation went to shite quite quickly..." Ataan admits once back at the inn.

The two thugs give you the tour which is boring and takes less than an hour. You've seen all the shady spots of the port town, and encountered a few more thugs and cutpurses but the source of your sojourn eludes you. You elude the watch knowing that you're all wanted for witchcraft, where suspicion alone ensures guilt.

By morning, you're exhausted from being awake all night and return to the tavern for breakfast and possible sleep.

That's when you hear the news spreading like wildfire: During the night, someone broke into a peasant’s house and attacked the family. Another shocking and gruesome murder has occurred!

Almost unbelieving they've somehow missed the only exciting thing to happen in this horrible excuse for a town Cecily forces herself to keep an ear open as the rumors circulate, trying to determine who, what, and why got robbed. Ideally all three without leaving her seat.

During the night, someone broke into a peasant’s house and attacked the family.

We never seem to be in the right place at the right time lately, Gerald surmises. Is the family still alive? Was anything stolen I wonder?

Any of you can roll Streetwise to suss out the location and identity of the victims, then check it out.

Ataan is able to figure out, with careful local details asked as questions, that the Steiner family was killed and you get their address (by reference to landmarks).

Let's make haste to the Steiner family residence, God rest their poor souls. Hopefully there will be some clues there.

Cecily can't fathom why, but she has the sudden urge to punch whoever said the same damn thing about the break in...odd.

"Anything to get out of here. Afterwards we shall slumber."

You find the peasant families home easy enough, and entering, you find that the family had been eviscerated, basically torn apart.

Make Guts checks to avoid nausea.
Make Notice checks to search for clues.

Ataan sees the mangled corpses of the family, but managed to keep a tight rein on his constitution.

rollin'...

Cecily isn't sure what she expected, given they knew there was going to be death. "We must hurry before they start...blossoming."

You find the wooden floor of the house is covered in scratch marks, several inches long, as is the front door. The scratch marks look like those of an animal. During the search, you find a child’s room, but there is no sign of a child. Searching the house reveals no corpse (or dismembered parts). From the stories you know that the family had a young daughter.

A faint blood trail leads from the child’s room and down the stairs.

Ataan growls lowly unsatisfied by what he sees going down the stairs, "I'll go first..." he states pulling both his weapons.

The blood trail is hard to follow once it gets to the front door and it into the street. This will require a Smarts(Tracking) roll. If you don't have that skill, you can roll untrained (1d4-2,1d6-2).

Gerald shakes his head. Sadness and foreboding competing for attention.A child taken. This is very tragic and for what I dread to think.