When the Bow breaks

[Walkabout]

Craigue shrugs and tips his head around the corner towards the garage, then pantomimes turning a handle and fiddling with a lock.

[HereticNox]

The priest... Looking over, Martin grimaces as his eyes move over the fresh graves. As each grave comes into view, Martin can't help but start to tear up. His mind drifts to his own family,Dad.... Still it had been years, and rather than let the memories consume him. He pushes them to the back of his mind.

Martin raises his hand, debating on whether he should console the man or not. Finally his unfamiliarity with the man forces Martin to lower his hand back to his side. "I'm sorry for all your losses. I've heard stories of the priest, I thought most were exaggerated. Sadly, they seem to be accurate..."

At a loss for words, Martin reaches in his pack producing a a pair of cigarettes and a match box. Striking a match, he watches as the fire flares to life. Lighting one cigarette, he takes a long drag. "You want one man? How about some help? I might not be here for long, but I can help out with something."

[tonberryking]

Veronica seems fine by that logic, though she gives her compatriot a questioning look: she can't break locks (unless literally) so the job's going to fall to him.

Or it will be a loud forced entry.

[Thatguyoverther]

Amber

Amber can't seem to find anything that could be causing the disturbance. After searching a bit she does find some of the herbs she was originally looking for, hemlock and hensbane, in a garden. The garden is unique because someone has been maintaining it. The faint sound of classic jazz trickles out of an open window, letting Amber know that the house isn't abandoned like the others.

Martin

The man takes the proffered cigarette. "Thanks, but I think I should do this alone. A man buries his own, right?"

He lifts the shovel with weary arms and continues his macabre task.

Luke and John

The barkeep seems to want to respond to John's comment, but bites back his retort, content instead to simply glower. "I've got two for you, but **** me if I can keep em cold." He scratches his chin at Luke's comment. "**** all good it'll do us, but thanks for the effort."

[Kazaran]

Amber neatly harvests the parts of the herbs she needs with her sickle. When she notices she's on someone's property, she can't help but sneak a bit closer to take a peek inside through the open window... whoever lives there probably has nothing to do with the panic among the wildlife, but it can't hurt to take a look, right?

[Mangles]

"Just keep it in mind, for when we return." Luke tips up the bottom of his bottle, taking deep gulps, stopping for a breath he turns around and looks at the other patrons of the bar. He turns to the drunk "Thank you for the drinks. Are you coming John, in any case I'll wait outside once your done sipping that." He drains the last of the bottle and puts it on the bar before heading back to where Martin is.

[HereticNox]

"Alright, thanks for your time." Turning back to the group,"Hey guy- you all aren't here...Great." Heading down the street, he moseys over to the town's drinking establishment. Bumping into Luke as he comes out the door.

"Hey there...You guys have a nice drink?" Martin seems a little sour at being left out of the drinking. Still he puffs on his cigarette, and by the time he finishes. His face looked exceedingly calm.

"What did you find out. Heard something about the priest."

[Walkabout]

Frowning, Craigue leans very close to Veronica. "You sure we can't just talk with her? I'd hate to bust into an old lady's house and scare her to death after she got through the Awakening." He shakes his head, then rises and looks through the window of the side door and focuses on the gifts of Byonde. Unlock the door and step away from it and wait for further instructions, he thinks to the summoned helper before looking back at the tiger-woman and nodding.

[Banki]

John drains the last of his beer, "Thanks Neighbor" and follows Luke

[Thatguyoverther]

Amber

A peek through the window, reveals an almost idyllic sight. The inside of the house looks like a hollywood version of what a grandparents house should look like. Pictures of children and grandchildren decorate a fire place. A tabby cat naps peacefully on a rocking chair. With her feline nose, Amber can even smell the sent of baking wafting in from another room.

Veronica and Craigue

The invisible servitor opens the lock with a soft click.

[Mangles]

"I didn't find out much about the priest, just that he is power crazy and working out of Muddy Waters Correctional facility. Sounds like he has raised a bit of an army out there, although these guys gave them something to think about." Luke shrugs looking to the grave digger. "Although they took some heavy losses for it. Turns out they want to move in with us, but the Moff won't let them. Did you find out anything from the old man?"

[Kazaran]

Seeing this sweet scene and smelling the baking delicacies almost makes Amber want to walk in and curl up by the fire. It's a sight straight from a fairytale... but wait, even in those there's usually a bad guy. Amber turns her head and look around to make sure nobody's sneaking up on her... in this changed world, she has encountered enough ruthless people with a blatant disregard for others' lives that she knows she has to watch her own back at any time, especially when she's out by herself.

[tonberryking]

Craigue, this is too clean, too conspicuous," the tigress quietly hisses back to him, unintentionally showing her pointed teeth, "Nothing survived this clean and if it was reconstructed some basic reconnaissance could have told us that. We don't have to treat the old girl as hostile, but this *stinks*. We have to be cautious, unless you'd like to knock on her door and ask her how things stayed so relatively calm."

Veronica stands poised to go through the door first, but she takes the time to explain herself at least.

[Walkabout]

Still frowning, Craigue nods sadly. "I understand. I just..." he trails off as he shakes his head. "Yeah. Go. Let's go." he says with a hint of resignation in his voice.

[Thatguyoverther]

Amber

As far as Amber can tell, she and the baker are the only two people in all of Indian Hills. As she watches a little old lady walks out of what Amber assumes is the kitchen. Humming in time to the music she walks over to the cat and scratches it affectionately behind the ear. "I'm going out. Winston, I expect you to take care of things while I'm gone." The cat doesn't respond, returning to it's nap as soon as the woman stops scratching. She walks out of Amber's line of sight and returns with a bag in hand and large straw hat on her head. She begins walking towards the front door.

Veronica and Craigue

The inside of the garage is cool and dark, illuminated only by the window in the door. A single car sits in the two car garage. The walls are lined with gardening tools along with some power tools. A single door on the far side leads to the rest of the house. ((Both you please make a couple of checks, you know for the hell of it. ))

Martin, Luke, and John

After a brief wait Sophie reappears, returning from whatever endeavor separated her from the group. "I tired to find out more about these 'Corn Stalkers' but I didn't turn up a whole lot. All the stories seem contradictory. As far as I can tell whatever's out there is a whole lot of different things or one thing that can take a whole lot of different shapes. I'm not sure I like either alternative." ((Unless any of you have something more you want to do in Thomasboro, we can continue on towards Winsville.))

[Walkabout]

Craigue shakes his head in amazement. "Okay. Officially creepy. No one kept a garage like this when we had electricity!" he whispers. Follow, he silently commands the unseen spirit.

OOC:

Spoiler

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I had intended on moving the raven to the room with the vitrola to keep an eye on things (heh heh), but I don't want to seem like I'm cheating, so we'll leave it where it is.

[Mangles]

"Well I guess that's it than, everyone have a nice break shall we head on. Just hope we don't run into these children of the corn."

[Kazaran]

The old lady looks innocent enough, but her gut feeling tells Amber that something is not quite right about this. How could this lady survive all by herself out here? She certainly can't drive down to the grocery store anymore, and it's doubtful whether she could care for and live off the garden all by herself. Amber decides that this must be investigated further, and walks around the corner of the house on soft paws, making sure that she's out of sight of the front door.

[questionmark]

Erik entered Williams room, cocking his head head sympathetically at the man's injuries; He had had his ass handed to him enough times to know it was never fun.

"Ah, hey there. I, um, know you don't know me, but you might know a few things that I really could use about now. So, if you don't mind sparing a few minutes, I have two things to ask you. First of all:"

he took out Sara's photo again and gave it to the man. "Did you see this girl around here about two weeks ago?"

[Banki]

John nods, "Yup, Let's get a movin on. I think we've done all we can here for now, and I have a hot date with a bottle of Scotch in Winsville."

[HereticNox]

Martin's ears perk at the mention of scotch, shaking his head to snap him back attention. "Does she have any cute cousins?"

Slinging his pack on, "All ready, we should get going."

[tonberryking]

Veronica gives him a "What'd I tell you" look before looking the place over herself before moving forward.

Spoiler

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Spot, Listen, and a search: (1d20+1)[4] (1d20+1)[12] (1d20+1)[21]

[Banki]

John chuckles, "I'm sure she does." He adjusts his pack, "I guess it's time to hit the grindstone again."

[Thatguyoverther]

Amber

Amber can hear the lady's shoes tap softly on the concrete side walk as she continues on whatever errand she left for. After a couple of minutes her footsteps fade to inaudibility. About the same time the music coming from inside stops leaving the entire area almost eerily silent.

Veronica and Craigue

The door to the rest of the house opens noiselessly. A corridor with thickly padded carpet leads to the living room Craigue and Veronica saw through the window. The corridor has three doors, two on one side and one on the other. Before either of the two can continue down the hall way the music dies.

Luke, Martin and John

Sophie smiles at John. "More importantly does she have any brothers?" With that the party leaves the town to bury their dead.

After roughly two hours of walking, the party passes through another town which has sprouted up around a grain elevator. This one is tiny making Thomasboro look like a metropolis. (Make spot checks)

[Thatguyoverther]

((Sorry about that.))

Erik

William sits up a bit more and winces. He takes a look at the picture and studies it. "Who is she? Girlfriend?" He scratches his chin some more. "I think I remember her now. She was brought in by a couple of us. She had the bed over there." He points to a bed occupied by a sleeping woman. "She was put over there, she was out. Nurse cleaned her up and bandaged her and she didn't even wake up."

[Thatguyoverther]

Luke, Martin, and John

The party progresses through the abandoned town. A bangs softly slams repeatedly against a wall pressed by the wind, the only sound in the small hamlet. The buildings are all abandoned and empty. The entire place devoid of human habitation. The large grain elevator looms over the town, casting a dark shadow over the train tracks. As the party gets closer the elevator seems tower over them, dark and foreboding.

The party passes the structure without incident and a few paces later is outside of town. A short and uneventful time later and the party is at the outskirts of Winnsville. Even at the edge of down the change is pronounced. Fire has taken large sections of town and, here at the edge at least, the town seems to be abandoned.

((It's early afternoon by this point. How do you want to progress through the town? What area's if any do you want to avoid? What places or points of interest do you want to hit along the way, if any?))

[Mangles]

"Lets see that map, we don't want to go into the wrong neighborhood this time of night." Luke holds the map out so everyone can see. "The plan was to head to the Good guys and try and avoid the church. Anyone got any other ideas."

[Kazaran]

Amber walks back around the house, minding stealth less now that the old lady's gone. She looks for a window or door that was left open, as well as keeping her eyes peeled for anything that seems out of the ordinary... something's fishy about this lady, she's sure of that.

When the music suddenly goes silent, however, Amber stops dead in her tracks. She had hardly even noticed it before, but now she has to wonder if there's someone else in the house (besides the cat)... she ducks towards the nearest window and carefully peeks inside.

[HereticNox]

Manuevring himself in order to get a better view of the map. Martin traces his finger along the borders between the various factions. He proposes his idea to the group."Yeah avoiding the church is something we should focus on. Unless we want to end up like those townspeople. I think it might be best to take it slow, and stealthy. Does anyone want to do some site seeing? I think if we keep our wits about us, should we get this done quick and easy."

[Banki]

John shrugs, "Works for me."