I soon found the tracks again
but this time they were accompanied by human sized boot prints… this confirms
the suspicions I have held for a day or so now that the animal, a bear of some
not insignificant size, is being directed by some malignant malefactor and is
not directly responsible for it’s action. I fear I will have a hard time
convincing anyone of that though… it seems to me that the good folk of Tristor
have a tendency to hang first and rationalise later!
We followed the tracks over
the fields and through another piece of woodland and came upon another farm.
This one seemed to have been skirted and as we approached to check it out just
in case a Gnome, who later introduced himself as Zebele Cullen, came charging
out brandishing a rusty spear. He asked us why we were on his land in a gruff
and unfriendly manner saying also that we were too late, he had slaughtered all
of his livestock already. I complimented him on his ferocity and his weapon of
choice and we explained to him what we had found at the previous farm. He
seemed sad and angry saying that he had told the Boscos to do exactly as he had
done and slaughter their livestock but they had refused to listen, a sad fact
that had probably cost them their lives.
Zebele had heard noises outside
the previous night and had locked his farm up as tight as a drum so we headed
off to where he said he had heard the sounds but lost the trail.
Time was marching on so we
turned and headed back toward Tristor carrying the knowledge we had gained and
the sad news we had to impart. We were met on the road by the scarred man in
the brown cloak that I’d met in the Inn who had ridden his horse hard from the
direction of the town. He pulled up sharply before us, sneering as he said that
the constable was waiting for us a little way down the road by a copse of
trees, that he might have some information for us but that we should mind our
own business… the bounty was all his!
I thanked him kindly for
passing the message on and gave him a cheery wave as he cruelly spurred his
animal into a canter. People like him should not be given the chance to have an
animal to carry them, it truly saddens ne to see such brutality. We made haste
and soon found the constable’s horse exactly where the maimed messenger had said
we would, although of the constable there was no sign.
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