... No ma'am... he gruffed while exhaling, in a manner similar to that of a child, and rolling his eye in defeat. ... Let me explain it to Mama.....
"What does he mean, 'explain it to Mama'?" asked the inn keeper incredulously while looking past her at Jack, as Jack sat down next to the big bear, nuzzled her shoulder for her attention, and looked into her face.
"Just watch." Said Linea, shifting her weight to one leg for greater comfort.
Jack shuddered a moment, then the bear huffed, and looked away. He stood back up, dusting off his knees.
She dont understand a single bit of it. he grumbled. Thinks yer' bein' unreasonable and stupid--- And quite frankly, I agree-- But she said she'd be careful as she can not to knock stuff o'r in there. -- She dont e'en want ta be in dere anyhoo.
"Just like that?" The man scoffed. "You honestly expect---"
Linea diplomatically cut him off-
"Wild magic takes many forms." She politely informed. "Eye contact is often involved with magic involving the mind. Is the fact that this bear--- the very same one that came crashing into town a few hours ago-- is standing there taking a head scratch, not proof enough?"
She smiled and blinked expectantly at the inn keeper. Sure enough, Jack was there, bent over and murmuring into the bear's fur while being lavished in full-face licks, as he rubbed and scratched the back of her head.
The inn keeper boggled, and wrung his hands.
"that damn fool's gonna get his face bit off.." he muttered, before waving to let them in.
Linea thanked the inn keeper and smiled at him, once again offering assurances of safety, to which the man just returned anxious eyes, and continued his hand-wringing.
"The room is upstairs Jack. After you good sir." she nodded to the inn keeper, who double-taked for a moment, before nodding, and going back in the way he came, leaving the door open.
Linea went in calmly and politely, as Jack straightened back up, and motioned for Mama to follow. Mama had some issue getting through the narrow doorway, but she managed.
The inn keeper led them up a thankfully wide set of stairs tracing up the interior wall, and into the upper level of the inn. The room in question was at the far end, at the corner of the building. It's window would be facing out toward the northwest exit of town, overlooking the woods. A very nice view, in happier times.
"Here's the room again-- Dont tear it up." Said the inn keeper at Jack, before passing Linea, and continuing "I sure hope you know what you are doing miss.." as he wandered back out into the hall, and resumed rubbing his hands.
Jack held the door for Mama, as she squeezed through the frame and into the room, before following her in. Linea calmly entered after, before closing it behind her.
"The innkeeper said there was a lot of blood in the room, and that the creature entered through the window. I'd ask him to explain it again himself, but he seems ... preoccupied." She continued. "He said that the room was damaged a lot in the struggle, and that he had to do repairs. He mentioned that the blood has resisted cleaning, so I hoped you could help shed some light on what happened here."
Jack gave her a calm, but compassionate look.
My nose ain't any better'n yours is, girl. Hell-- Bein a elf, yours is prolly better an' mine is anyhoo.. But I'll see what I can do..
The old man surveyed the room, walking to the window, and running a single eye all around the frame, under the sillboard, along the baseboard of the walls and floor, then along all the walls, and finally back to the center of the floor.
C'mere girl-- he said finally, crouching in the center of the room.
Linea raised an eyebrow at being called "girl", but complied without argument. The hermit continued.
Tore in the whole darn winda. Spinters and tar all around the thing where they stuffed it to shut out the draft after tryin' ta fix it. Left claw marks. Biggun's. He motioned to marks in the floor, just a few feet in front of himself, as he faced the window. See em' dere skidmarks? there's 5 o'em. Here, lemmie show you summ'n.
He stood up, and wandered over to Mama, who was sniffing the corner with interest. He sat down, rubbed on her, and looked into her eyes while murmuring pleasing things at her. The bear rolled her eyes, shifted her weight, and then raised her rear right leg. Jack motioned Linea over.
Here-- Look at mama's foot. Looks a lot like a man's-- cept it's flat on the bottom, with no real heel-ball to speak of. See how the toes is spread, with claws on the end? He took of his own boot, then a tattered (and entirely horridly dingy) sock, got into a somewhat comical position to hold it up next to Mama's, and continued. A man's foot looks a fair bit differn' No claws, and the toes is more together on one side, with a more rounded profile in how they line up. He patted mama on the butt, and she sat her foot back down, looking at him like he was the silliest thing in the world. He just smiled at her, then put his sock and boot back on, before standing up.
Now come o'er here... He motioned to the floor just under the window sill, back to where the marks were.
See how there's a gap there? and rounded? Got claws like a bear, only bigger--- Got toes like a man, only kinda. Not like either one, nor some freak mix o the two. Troll Maybe... Or som'in else entirely...
He stood up and dusted off his pants.
It's big-- Bigger'n mama o'er there. And it moves strange. Kinda alternatin between walkin on fours and twos. Jumps like it walks on two. Lands like it walks on four. It tore in the winda, then spring-boarded into the poor [expletive deleted] as was bein' right here--- He pointed straight down at the ground. I can jus' make out the circle where the blood was here-- Big. Big bleed, and fast. He motioned at the wall further in. See the spatterin there? thin, starts where you ain't expectin though-- Where you see there, low near hte door-- that's where it ends. Starts up there---
He pointed up at the rafters. Above, where the innkeeper hadnt noticed, was uncleaned spatter. Tracing it, it made a thin, long arc from overhead, along the wall, and slanting toward the door.
Poor [expletive deleted] had his damned [expletive deleted] torn open, and his leg half ripped off. Tried to stop the bleedin, before it picked im up, and threw im around like a rag-doll. [Expletive deleted] woulda died in minutes, just from the bleedin. he turned to Linea, a bit of softness in that otherwise hard, and stony eye of his. I hope yer missin persons had a healer with em... It woulda took magic to stop that, and ifn they didnt, he's one dead [expletive deleted.] He resumed-- pointing at the bullet holes clustered around the window.
They tried to shoot what'er it was as was tearing their buddy up and eatin im for dinner-- It took their friend out the winda with it and they followed. Cant tell more. I could ask mama to smell ifn' ya want.
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Topic: Mystville [Game Thread] (Read 119918 times)