Session 11: Hen Night

General Summary

The sun rose on the fourth day of the party's challenge. Zeth'rim went outside early to scout the main square and visited Westfield's general store. Westfield being a large village/small town didn't really have the populace to accommodate specialised stores as Ullford does. This was reflected by the store's inventory. Zeth'rim was joined by Falco in this shop run. Falco acquired a partially used Healer's Kit for a fair price.
The party journeyed up to the Northern Farmsteads, which were a few hours ride to the north (surprisingly). The Northern Farmsteads are seven farmsteads arranged as almost a farming cul-de-sac. Three on each side with one farm sat at the very end of the road. The party started by questioning the owners of the first farm on the right. Speaking with Ben and Truda Demoke, they revealed that at this point, they believed every farm had had livestock taken at some point within the last three weeks (15 days, in the world). They personally lost two goats and young sheep and were one of the first hit by this menace. They personally had not seen what did it and believed that nobody within the community had. They also seemed to harbour a mild disdain for the Westfield Lawkeepers for being lazy and not investigating themselves. Mr Demoke said that he thought the last one to suffer losses were the Inwoods, last on the right.
As such, the group moved to the Inwood's farmstead, who were solely chicken farmers. They were met by the Inwood matriarch, sat in her rocking chair on the front porch. Her son, Harris Inwood, greeted them at his mother's calling. He explained much the same knowledge as Mr Demoke had and allowed the party to check whatever they needed to check. Zeth'rim went to investigate the chicken's enclosure, mildly startling Harris' wife in the process who had not heard the group's arrival around the front of the house. Zeth'rim noted there appeared to be signs of a struggle from within the coops themselves, whatever was doing this was capable of reaching in there. He also confirmed the chickens' own alibi in the matter.
The Inwoods allowed the group to set up for the evening on their front lawn. Leo and Jraxler went door to door to ask the rest of the farmsteads about the situation, whilst Zeth'rim very unstealthily attempted to stealth around the rear of the properties. From this, Leo and Jraxler were able to ascertain that the livestock thefts seemed to happen every 2 to 3 days, and whatever was doing it was able to do this without leaving evidence of forced entry. The only clue was a broken fence at one of the farmsteads that looked like something had been dropped from above and cracked the top slat down, and a gouge in the corresponding fence post and that was it.
Jraxler also managed to coax a small child down from a tree, to their parents' delight. He did this by creating a zip line for the child, less to the parents' delight. The group were fed by a farm wife with a penchant for making far too much stew. The plan for overnight was to stake out the Inwood's chicken enclosure by transforming Falco's seagull into a chicken and being a spy.
Falco's attempts at acting like a chicken whilst looking through his familiar's eyes were rather dreadful, however. As the sun rose, following the group taking shifts to keep watch overnight, they discovered that one of the other farmsteads had been hit in the night and no one had perceived this attack happening. It was the Engeham farmstead that had lost chickens, seemingly. The group had staked out the wrong chicken enclosure it had turned out.

Report Date

11 Dec 2018