(Hunter Hunted) Tracks

[Yumyumcrow]

The soggy clearing beckoned.

Skye found her focus distracted as her two companion's ranged in two very different directions.

Guru took his time attempting to piece the various trails together. His self appointed task was taxing and time consuming: the stream devolved at this point into a sodden mire - while the tracks were preserved in all their chaotic glory, they ran over each other, and the general laying of the trails was collapsed into a singular point, making deducing which trail was first a tough ask.

Fortunately, the Shaman had enhanced his skills in that area. Somehow, he knows the subtle signs - that he can't actually make out - which help him sort out a rough sequence from the tracks he can see.

His journey takes him to the southern side of the swampy ground...

Avis focusses on seeking out harder evidence. She moves off to the higher ground first, where she can get a better view of the landscape and check the riotous thicket for the evidence she seeks. The Arrow will confirm that the beast did not come that way and neither did the hunters.

She returns to the boggy mire and locates the principal spot where the confrontation took place: fur, torn clothing, skin, gobbets of flesh, a shredded utility belt buried in the churned mud (containing small tools for hunting and camping).

Avis discovers a leather pouch (hand crafted) containing spell components under a bush, where it had been flung when two bodies had suffered a high velocity impact. She also finds a hunting knife cast aside in a brackish pool.

The site was indeed an ambush, but probably not in the manner that Guru had first envisioned. There was no chase or pursuit - not in the sense of closing down an animal and bringing it ground. Rather, the beast more likely chose the marshy ground for an ambush site and lured those that hunted it to this place (Guru recalls the scraps of fur he had seen hanging from some thickets further down stream).

The beast had hid in the thicker brush on the south side of the boggy ground and waited. The hunters had arrived, were probably checking the area for clues, when the beast had launched itself at the pair. It had knocked one to the ground and brutally smashed into the other. A regular human would surely have perished from such a terrible onslaught (the mire is really torn up where beast and hunter and crashed to the ground).

The first hunter (who had been knocked out of the way by the beast's charge) had picked themselves up and attacked.

Flanked, the beast had struggled to fend off this new attack. The second hunter had managed to get out of their disadvantageous position - despite being heavily wounded.

The fight had become a stalemate. The beast had been injured but one hunter was heavily wounded. The beast appears to have withdrew south. The hunters retreated back the way they had come - and this explained the trail they had found. The hunters were bleeding as they limped away from the ambush site; they were not tracking an injured foe.

[Skye]

Spells

Honing the form, dex+3 (pot3)
Body control +3
Pulse of the living world
Organic Resilience 2E monthly pot2

Listening to Avis words, taking it in she hadn't know that werewolves were actually real nor did she knew anything about them so this was interesting information to get.

Keeping her eyes on Guru not fearing much for her fellow arrow she should be able to take care of herself Guru however was the one that needed to be guarded should something happen.

A thought raising in her mind if a werewolf was around here were there others as well? Wolves were pack animals but what about werewolves, it had clearly showed signs of increased intellect meaning that the full moon was not in play suggesting it had other means of shifting.
Next what would make one wanna hunt such a thing? They were dangerous by every sense of the word anyone with half a brain could understand that much but that didn't mean it was the danger here, if they existed so were they perhaps far more naturally attuned to the world than her and should be given credit as such, to discredit the different with no information were for lesser ones not for her.

Looking towards the hunting knife.
"Hey you gonna keep that or mind if I take it once were done here?" Money being low, each new free item she could take was of value but first wondering if the knife had any value to the one that had lost it.
"Either of you able to use these left materials, skin and blood to sense the ones that left them and if so which one should we focus on the beast or those who hunts the beast?"

Looking towards Avis.
"You said that you encountered a Werewolf tell me do you think they would be a threat to the natural order of things around here and be the one that needs to be hunted down or is the likelihood higher that the ones that left such components here are the ones we should fear?"
"Personally I would feel safer seeing if we can use the remains to locate the wolf, it would be nice to know if it was alone or had a pack in addition to finding out what has happened, sadly I fear that the hunters might be the ones to meet us with lies whilst the wolf would be honest but also if were in bad luck a threat however if it is a threat so is it also what we need to neutralize."

Looking to them both, Avis were the one with experience here and Guru seemed to be doing quite well, her own skills failing her at these critical times which were more than a little annoying.
Silently waiting to take in their words and hear their reasoning.

[Avis]

Avis had gathered up all the evidence she'd found, and explained what she could about the struggle, and then listened while Skye spoke.

She considered for a moment, then shook her head.

"No, I don't think we need to be worried about the werewolves. They're as natural as anything else in the Fallen World. They're as much a part of the lie as this mud, or that tree, or the knife in your hand. It's the hunters that are unbalanced. Why were they after a wolf, or whatever this thing was? I'll scry on it in a bit. Same with the hunters. But you get my point, don't you? Are these mortals who are close to waking up, or are they agents of the Lie, too? Either way, I don't like it," she explained with a scowl.

"Also, you should sanitize that knife before taking it. Don't want stray sympathy, you know?

Avis looked down at the clump of fur in her hand, and the blood that she'd gathered in the other. Time to figure out exactly what they'd stumbled upon. She closed her eyes, and began to chant in High Speech, focusing on the fur in her hand, opening up her mind's eye to the creature she held a piece of.

Then, she did the same to the blood of the hunter, opening her mind's eye across the gulf of space, to peer at whoever had challenged the wolf in its lair.

1 success to scry the wolf

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-06-01 23:43:21	Avis rolls 7 to Scrying on wuff (gnos+space+HS -4) (10 Again)	3, 4, 8, 5, 2, 7, 6	1 success

2 successes to scry the hunter

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-06-01 23:43:52	Avis rolls 7 to Scrying on hunter (gnos+space+HS -4) (10 Again)	9, 5, 7, 2, 1, 3, 9	2 successes

Avis casts Scrying twice. -4 (intimate without true name) sympathetic connection for both.

[Guru]

“Oh! Wait…” He snapped his fingers and turned around. “I got it, original hypothesis-reverse it.” He then went on to point out the story, the pattern the tracks told, how the hunters tracked the wolf to its ambush spot and if there hadn’t been two of them they’d have been eviscerated but the second saved the first and injured the wolf and they scattered after. Wolf heading south, hunters doubling back. He smiled to himself at a job well done, mostly thanks to the supernal casting the light of truth on the situation.

He'd done his part with Skye’s help, he couldn’t think of anything else to do but wait for Avis to report back. He could check for secret doors or compartments but didn’t really think there’d be any in this place. So he’d keep watch try and make sure they didn’t have any onlookers.

[Yumyumcrow]

Guru and Skye join up with Avis as she begins to cast her spells. They are slowly acclimatising to the stench of waterlogged soil.
Avis snatches glimpses of those she seeks. The beast has no protection against scrying but the hunter does - the Master of Space detects a slight resistance to her working, one she manages to beat aside.

She see's the Beast: a powerfully built hybrid of man and animal. Coarse hair bulks out his frame. Horns rise, gnarled and twisted, from his forehead. His face is a distorted and wretched approximation of a man. He wares tattered khaki shorts.

The Beast lis laying on a pile of hay, surrounded by weak shadows of yellowed shafts of light. His back and side and shredded but slowly healing.

He is asleep.

She see's the hunter. He is a big man, barrel chested and hairy. A thick hair and beard cover his face. He is laying on a couch, stashed agains the wall of a small cabin. Green hued light pours in from the window. Shirtless, his chest, stomach and one arm are bound in bandages. His shoulder has some sort of padded poultice applied to a very deep looking bite mark.

He is not sleeping, but not fully awake. The door of the cabin opens and a rangy woman with yellow eyes limps in, favouring her right leg. The Master's vision fades as the man grunts in recognition and slowly hauls himself up.

[Skye]

Spells

Honing the form, dex+3 (pot3)
Body control +3
Pulse of the living world
Organic Resilience 2E monthly pot2

Letting Avis take her time to gather her information before speaking.
"So I would suggest that we take a vote on our next step, from how it seems so do the hunters not seem like they can heal at least and if they were gonna call in reinforcements so have they probably already done so. That thing does not sound like a wolf to me though unless I am mistaken? Possibly an experiment linked to us or possibly something else anyways so is our choice which one to go for, personally I would like to track down the beast. If it can talk so will it hopefully be more honest about what is happening and give us some insights to what is happening before we take action. I would fear that the hunters would be more deceptive and not share the full story or twist things to their advantage. Additionally so is the beast still injured so if we have to put it down so would it serve us good to be able to fight it before it fully heals, the hunters are wounded as well but they will need a lot more time to recover."

Looking at the two.
"What are your thoughts on the matter as said I am completely fine with taking this to a vote and also you said that your mind could reach out to others so if he cannot speak so would I think that such a trick might help us learn who he is and communicate with us he does seem to have his intellect intact even if he might have other instincts. That is naturally not the preference but it is always for the best to be prepared for eventualities wouldn't you say."

Looking towards Avis.
"I would love to hear your expertise on how to remove such stray sympathy once were done here if you wouldn't mind?"

Standing there waiting to hear their thoughts on the matter, she would follow the majority vote here.
Taking the knife when Avis seems done with it and adding it to her belt for the time being hoping to hear some suggestions on how to remove the sympathy later on now was not the time.

[Avis]

Huh.

So it wasn't wolves. It was...something else.

Instead of speaking the information aloud, however, she'd bypass the flawed technology of language and implant what she'd seen into their minds directly.

Once upon a time, she would have simply burnt it in. Without warning. Thankfully for them, she'd learned a bit since then.

"I'm going to share what I know. You're going to feel something touch your mind. Try not to resist, if you can."

With that, she began to chant, and reached out with her mind, ready to show her companions exactly what she'd seen.

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-06-04 20:23:23	Avis rolls 8 to Telepathy (gnos+mind+HS-2 targets) (10 Again)	4, 6, 8, 6, 4, 3, 6, 1	1 success

Avis casts Telepathy. Yumyumcrow don't remember if you can waive resistance? If not, oops

[Guru]

He couldn’t hide the flinch when Avis’ finished her sentence, last time she’d asked something like that had led to a gap in his memories and a few more white hairs on his head. Luckily he could fix that. He took a deep breath but nodded, allowing the intrusion mostly because he’d need her to trust him if he needed the same in the future. He didn’t want her fighting him while he tried to save her life, she’d win that fight.

After the memories and experiences come flooding in he nodded, looking over at Skye, really just wanting to jump feet first into that thought pattern but he couldn’t. He knew they didn’t have the whole story.

“Natural, not natural, I ain’t even willin’ to speculate on what it is. All I know is from the trail it was being hunted and it lead them into an ambush. I feel kinda obligated to help it…but I don’t know what the right thing to do here is.

“Like, the question is what’s our aim here? We found out why things are odd, conflict happened here. Though the insects should have returned if it was just that. Was it the beast or the hunters? Who is predator and who is prey? Which are we hunting here?

“If we’re hunting the hunter, helping the beast could give us insight. IT was wearing…shorts? Odd but probably has sentience and intelligence of some sort if it’s buying pants. But I’m just a padawan, what’s the master say?”

He looked to Avis with the last question. There wasn’t a trace of irony or humour in that statement, they’d come out here with a task and she was the more experienced one here. He had too many unanswered questions to just jump to a conclusion he needed more data points. If he had to pick blindly he’d side with Skye but luckily they had someone they could ask.

[Yumyumcrow]

I'll waive Resistance. Avis has advised what she is doing - and, frankly, the move helps move plot along much more smoothly.

[Skye]

Spells

Honing the form, dex+3 (pot3)
Body control +3
Pulse of the living world
Organic Resilience 2E monthly pot2

More of this annoying made up speech yusch.

"Well my vote still remains to track down the beast, if it can talk so is it better to find it before it fully recovers and hear the story from it regardless of what so do I want this mystery solved and I do hope that the humans will not call for backup or well quite frankly if they could so would they probably already have done so. As such it would be better to get the beast down first before it fully recovers in case we will need to put it down. In addition if the humans are doing things that needs to be stopped so do I prefer to go up against them with the potential knowledge we can gain from the beast, humans does have this tendency to lie and seeing as they have not recovered so do I doubt that they can heal themselves and will be just as fragile afterwards. I do admit that the weakness with this is that we will not know much of the beast in advance but seeing as they did not seem to have that much skill to go up against it in advance so do I not know if they will be able to give us much information that we can use.
What do you both think? I will follow the majority vote here and in case it cannot speak but have human intellect so do I hope that you can stretch out your mind to help us communicate with it."

"I do agree that it is all very odd Guru which is why I prefer to get the info from the beast in hope that it can speak or communicate it is clear that it either is or were human once and that it has intellect."

Watching the two as she waits for their reply.

"Also would you mind instructing or helping me with how to clean the knife after this is done to make sure any stray sympathy is gone?"