The Curse of the Witch-King Chapter 4

[Lord Skybolt]

Fala leads the party around the farm looking for tracks and anything else out of the ordinary on it .

[ewancummins]

Fala finds animal and humanoid tracks but nothing that suggests monsters or exotic creatures. The only foul odor comes from a midden heap in the back yard, and the rain cuts that stink down to just a whiff of dung.

The gnome glimpses movement through another window, on the east side of the farmhouse. Again, too quick and too much hidden by the rain for her to identify who or what it was.

When the group, cloaks now heavy with damp, completes a circuit of the house, a face appears in the front window. Looks like a young woman, pretty, strands of laurel hair hanging over her forehead.
She calls out,
"Wellmet! Name yourselves, strangers."
It's hard to see but she seems to be holding something wooden against her shoulder.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

"Greetings!" Klokulf calls back. "My name is Klokulf Blix. We are travelers, temporarily stopped in town."
He falls silent so the others may introduce themselves, if they wish.

[kintire]

Katrin remains silent, standing slightly behind Klokulf's left shoulder. If the wooden thing should happen to be raised up, she will amend that to "directly behind Klokulf".

[Lord Skybolt]

"I'm Alain and my gnomish companion Fala is looking for tracks of usually nature that I heard about it in town ."Alain declares, Fala only grunts at being referred too while she checks the farm for tracks even in the rain .

[ewancummins]

The woman in the farmhouse calls out, " And the other one of you? Who's that skulking? "

[kintire]

Kat adopts her meekest and least threatening tone and calls out

"Katrina. Pleased to meet you, ma'am"

She remains close to Klokulf, glancing swiftly around to watch the group's backs while the conversation engages their attention

[ewancummins]

Kat adopts her meekest and least threatening tone and calls out

"Katrina. Pleased to meet you, ma'am"

She remains close to Klokulf, glancing swiftly around to watch the group's backs while the conversation engages their attention

The woman in the farmhouse watches the party a moment, then says,
''I'm called Lara. And you had better come in out of the rain before you wash away. Come on, then. You can tie your mounts in the barn. And mind you scrape the mud off your boots before you step on my floor.''

[Lord Skybolt]

Alain puts his mount in the barn, while the gnome who does not need a mount goes to get out of rain after scrapping the mud off her boots .

[ewancummins]

IN OUT OF THE RAIN


The party, boots scraped clean of mud, enters the farmhouse.

Lara, the young woman waiting within, waves toward the hearth, where a small fire burns and a cookpot bubbles.
Whatever's in the pot smells savory.
The interior of the house looks clean and orderly, with simple, rustic furnishings and whitewashed walls. Not much decoration beyond some gorse in a pot in the little kitchen area set to the left of the main room, and a multihued quilt hanging as a curtain over a sleeping nook to the right.

Lara pulls up a battered old armchair for Klokulf, a stool for Fala, and offers Katrin a seat on an upended tub which she covers with a folded blanket. She places the tub closest to the fire.

"This is my father's farm. He's not at home, but I expect him back anytime. He just..."
Lara blinks and coughs, looking rather uneasy for a moment.
"In the meantime, will you take salt and meat? Drink?"

[Lord Skybolt]

"How long has he been gone ? We came to help with trouble that may be hindering your normally quiet farm life here . After the rains stop for while we could go and help you dad deal with whatever is harassing your farm life ."Alain says also thinking to himself: And I don't like leaving possible unknown enemies out here to ambush us on the way back from going down into the Stairs

[kintire]

Kat seems happy with the exchange of a simple seat but near the fire, and basks in the warmth with considerable relief, smiling pleasantly at the young woman as she relaxes and nodding at the mention of meat and drink.

She listens to Alain's questions quietly, taking no apparent interest in the crossbow

[ewancummins]

After a moment of hesitation, Lara reveals that her father went out before the storm to check on a damaged fence at the northern edge of their croft, about a mile distant from the house. The lay of the land conceals the place from a ground level view out the windows or doors, although she could climb up on the roof in clear weather and see the area he went to inspect.Her father took a spear with him and also his hound, Garm.

She says that something broke into a sheep pen the other night and carried away two ewes. Whatever it was, the raider left tracks a bit like a toad's only far bigger. Man-sized and two-legged, her father guessed. There might have been more than one sheep-stealer--hard to say, the prints were so muddled. A nasty smell clung to the earth and the broken pen, fading by this morning. Sheep remain afraid to enter.
Lara doesn't know if the fence break was made by the rustler or beast that took the sheep, but if it was, it was made later, because her father inspected the bounds yesterday and found no such damage.

A rough-featured man of about thirty, hard-muscled and weathered, a big knife tucked in his broad leather belt, enters the house and wipes his hands on his trousers. He seems unsurprised to find guests.
Lara introduces him as Karll, her father's hired man.

[kintire]

Kat gives the newcomer a bright smile, still trying to radiate normality and comfort to the doubtless nervous hostess. She assess him also for danger, but seeing exactly what she expects from a farmhand she gives no sign of any tension

[ewancummins]

KARLL walks over to the fire and strips off his sopping-wet shirt, revealing his well-muscled, lean torso and arms.
He hangs the shirt on a hook near the hearth and turns to face his employer's daughter.
"I must have missed him somehow, Lara. Didn't see him down that side of the farm, anyway."
The hired man shrugs.
"Want me to go out and take another look?"
He walks to a pallet in the corner near the hearthstone, behind Kat, and retrieves a dry shirt.

Lara pauses a moment in thought, then says, "Not by yourself."
She snatches an sheepskin jacket from the wall and tugs it on with the fleece turned in.
The young woman apologizes to her guests for leaving them waiting to be served food, and heads for the door...