The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford

Soon enough, it becomes clear that they are all smelling something other than just carrion. A pungent, acidic, sour smell pervades the scene, and it doesn’t take long to realize it’s coming from the dead grass, and other places where something awful was spilled or splattered.

Nessa spies tracks in the woods, tracks that indicated that the thing that made them was big, big enough to knock-down some full-grown trees.

Sable is able to track the monsters’ departure, into a different part of the wood, and Gann discovers little of value or interest in the barn. Near the house, Wren sees that it is closed up tight, and looks unoccupied.

Nessa returns from the edge of the woods and links up with the others. "Whatever did this was certainly big and maybe dragon shaped. Though I doubt it is still here, or we would have all been eaten by now." She comments, almost casually.

Gann moves comes out of the barn, shaking his head. He joins Wren at the house can calls out, just a bit louder this time.

"Anybody in there? I'm with the Marchguard, we don't mean any harm. Jus' passing by, saw the damage and thought someone might need help."

He starts looking around for any signs of damage to the house, and possibly a way in.

Wren hold her nose and, rather than enter the house, she goes to examine where the awful smelling liquid was spilled. Is it acid? Poison? Some toxic chemical? Necrosis?

Sable heads back to the group, planning to note on the map where he saw the monster's departure and probable direction of retreat.

"I agree, it looks like whatever was here and whoever was here are gone. We should probably move on before scavengers arrive."

He sees Gann trying to make his way into the house. The cloaked man tries to peek in a window to see if there is any signs of life inside.

No response comes from inside the house, which is dark. The door was locked with a key and the place's few windows are all buttoned up with heavy shutters. It appears that the owners battened down the hatches -- then fled.

For her part, Wren believes the source of the smell to be some vile liquid that's been spewed onto the ground, and splashed against the house. Several animal carcasses marked with the same stuff appear partly burned or even melted.

Seeing the house locked up and little chance of anybody being inside, Gann leaves it alone. He walks back to where the others are checking out the acid carnage.

"Well I think we found the trail, and thankfully we’re not following it." He shakes his head in disbelief. "We wouldn’t last a minute against this."

He nods at Sables suggestion to move on before the scavengers arrive, eager to put this place behind him.

"Though I really don’t like how close this is to the town, and how fresh. It’s getting bold."

"I recon the dragon thinks of the town as getting bold, for being built where it wants to hunt that is." Nessa muses to herself. "In any case, there is little for us to do here, let's move on."

Wren announces her findings to the others, saying, "So something large came through there and spewed acid on everything... Look, some of these things are burned and melted! Do dragons spit acid?? Or is this something else? Either way, yikes."

She shakes her head and says, "I think we should move on to the witch's house. This place creeps me out."

Sable starts heading back in the direction they were in towards Vivian the Witch’s house. He will stay at the back of the group as before.