A Report by George Skillet

Part 33

In which we visit Deer Lake Farm and an ancient barrow…

Clayday, Fertilityweek, Darkseason, 614 TA

We continue shopping in the general store. We buy a set of ‘locksmith’s tools’ from Vintus and he tells us that the rat-girl Din knows how to use them if we need tips. I ask Vintus for directions to Deer Lake farm which he gives us and we decide to go take a look.

The farm is off the south road down a little track. There is evidence of carts coming down here, but not for a few weeks. The farm itself is a burnt-out shell with no evidence of spirits around. Poking about the ruins we discover a charred human skeleton showing signs of butchery. This is a more recent burning than that of the farm and carts were broken up to make the fire which cooked and burnt the newer skeleton. Casting about the area we now see signs of humanoid footprints (plus one set larger than Vicki’s) which seem to have come along the same track as us and continue beyond the farm.

We follow the tracks past the farm along a small path, but someone skilled in tracking has concealed the prints and we soon lose them. However, following the path which eventually peters out into an animal track we spot another single set of smallish human prints which we decide to follow. It becomes apparent that these tracks are leading back to Thornbury so we track them back to where they came from and the prints stop by a tree – obviously this person descended from the trees at this point and further tracking is impossible. We return to town following the same set of footprints and Ronnie picks up that there is a ratty scent associated with the tracks – is this Din’s trail? We follow it back into town and to the inn, but Din is not there.

Having our tea in the pub we decide to gossip some more. I find out a little more about Din – nobody knows where she lives or what she does. She dresses poorly, but always pays for her drinks. No one has ever seen her do anything illegal though she arouses some suspicion with her demeanour. She was once seen leaving the general store by the back door late at night, well after closing time. I think to myself I should take Ronnie for a walk later and sniff around for rat-girl, but before this Ariella gets chatting to a local who has some interesting information.

Apparently, a few weeks ago, a well-dressed woman in yellow who is addressed as ‘Mistress’ comes into town with an entourage of flunkeys and guards. She hires out the whole inn for a few days, she goes out one day and is away from town for a while before returning and she is seen speaking to the Corporal in charge of the keep construction. After a couple of days, she leaves with her retinue.

This is useful information for us, but nothing to act on immediately so I carry out my plan for Ronnie to search for rat-girl’s scent and sure enough he picks up the scent immediately and tracks her to the general store where he is sure she still is. Hayley has come with us so quickly the party know that Din has been found and we all gather at the general store. We decide to wait for Din to emerge then waylay her and interrogate her, but our presence hanging around in the street arouses suspicion and before long the Corporal and two squaddies turn up to question what we are doing.

I quickly start to ask the Corporal about the visit of the Mistress, and we manage to coax out of him that she came with orders for him from his regimental commander and that she is a Karnaki and part of the same social group as his commanding officer. I manage to persuade him to reveal that the Mistress had some involvement with whatever circumstances caused the corporal to leave Karnak. He doesn’t like her at all and would welcome the opportunity to defy her orders if it could be proven that she is a bad ‘un. Unfortunately, we have no concrete proof of her misdeeds so the corporal must follow the instructions she has given him, which include not telling anyone what his orders are. We do, however, match up the name of the local noble (Lord Bruschia) with the “Klutie” list we copied from Lord Fotheringhay’s office. The more we dig the further down the Klutie rabbit hole we are drawn!

Whilst talking to the Corporal we notice Din slip out of the general store and away out of town. Hayley follows her for a while but loses her in the gathering darkness and wait in a tree for the party to arrive. We are about to start tracking Din when we hear a shout from the direction of the pub “Undead!” Rushing over there we find an injured and distressed peasant saying, “the dead are walking”. Heading but a handful of yards out of town we quickly spot a skeleton preparing to loose a sling stone. It hits me in the arm before being quickly destroyed by Vicki slinging it in the head.

We decide not to track it in the dark, but to wait until morning for that. Instead, we return to following Din’s scent trail which wanders through the woods for a while before again disappearing up a tree. Ariella climbs up and reports that the foliage is so dense that it is possible for a small, light and nimble person to move from tree to tree with relative ease. However, none of us are small or light enough to do this so, again, following Din further is impossible. Tired after our long day trekking and tracking we return to the inn for supper and bed.

Windsday, Fertilityweek, Darkseason, 614 TA

In the morning we follow the skeleton tracks in a dead straight line out of town for about two hours until we reach a burial mound from which the skeleton obviously emerged. There is a hole in the side of the barrow which has been dug from the outside and there are faint tracks of two humans who must have done the digging – again the tracks are well concealed as by an expert, but Ariella manages to spot them. Inside the barrow there is a single chamber protected by a small Warding. The spoil from the hole dug into the barrow has been spread across the floor, perhaps in an effort to further conceal tracks. The barrow contains an ancient, mummified corpse clutching an amulet. There are signs that other items have been removed from the barrow and it seems that those who dug the hole also looted the tomb and brought the skeleton which attacked us with them and left it there to emerge later. Taking the amulet from the corpse I value it at about 40 bob, but more interestingly it is a very modern design, obviously not original grave goods and presumably left here by the diggers, but to what end?

We exit the barrow and decide to try to follow the tracks of the diggers. This proves difficult, but Ariella spots someone shadowing us through the woods. When we approach we discover this is none other than Din. After some persuasion Din reveals to us that she is part of a mischief which is in a ruined and abandoned settlement nearby. She is more willing to talk and seemingly to trust us when we mention finding Luke (the dead wererat from the road outside Acrimony) and we tell her what we know of his demise. Apparently, they were friends. The mischief lives in tunnels under the ruins, but above ground is a group of bandits who raid the local area. The mischief has lived alongside the bandits unseen for a while, occasionally stealing from the bandits’ goods which they in turn have robbed, but recently another human has joined the bandits along with a Great Troll and Din is concerned about a change in the bandit’s activity. She seems amenable to the idea of us joining forces against the bandits and we begin discussions along those lines. Din informs us that the leader of the original bandit group is called Pierre.