Play@YSDC

In a car it only takes 15 minutes to drive out to the outskirts of the Hockomock. There is almost no traffic and the roads are passable. There has been no heavy rain lately despite being September.

The sun is low but there is still enough light to make out the name Jenkins on the letter box. The farm is rather small for the area, most are larger. As you pull into the drive you park behind a pickup that is at least a decade old and has seen better days. Rusted and beat up. The wood plank sidings are rotted and grey. At least one has been busted and a patch piece with wire is used to hold them in place. The cover over the double wide seat is still in place, but the paint is badly cracked and peeling. The seat itself is split, the leather cracked and faded.

The 4 room farm house is a standard for the area. A porch on the front with a couple empty rockers could use with a coat of paint. You're not even sure the porch would support your weight. The wood looks rotted and unkempt. The windows are shuttered, and the paint on them and the walls of the house are cracked and faded. The roof also looks its had some patchwork done to it with pitch and wood.

You can hear chickens clucking, mixed in with a dog barking in the backyard. You also hear someone yelling orders in a rough dry voice in the back, though you can't make out what he is saying from here.

"Shall we go around the back?" asks Eddie. "We should announce our presence first. We don't want to spook him."

"Most definitely, even if it wasn't the hounds, the man is sure to be on guard" Dr. Porter says as he hefts himself out of the vehicle.

Maria

"Let's go then gentlemen. Don't worry, folks round here are pretty friendly".

She leads the way to the back, calling out "Hellooo?"

As the 3 of you circle the building to the back, you can hear the farmer giving commands to his dog. When you say "hello" he commands the dog to "sit" and the dog is sitting when you turn the corner.

There are a half dozen chickens in the back yard plucking at the ground, though you don't see any feed. There are another 2 dozen chickens in some crates that look fairly new. There is one more large crate left open. An elderly man in his 50s or 60s is holding a chicken in one hand and is looking at you. He recognizes Dr. Porter, and you can see him physically relax. "Hey doc, what brings you over to my neck of the swamp," says Mr. Jenkins.

"Hello there Mr. Jenkins, how are ya feelin'?" Dr. Porter walks forward a little and waves. Gesturing to his companions he says, "This here is Miss Adams and Mister Donovan, we came here from the Bridgewater Preservation Society."

The old doctor gives the introductions a pause before continuing, "We heard you were having some trouble with what you think are the Hockomock Hounds and you know us BPS-types are a bit nosy, would you mind if we asked you a few questions?"

OOC:   Took the liberty of "knowing" your characts for the sake of introduction. I figure Porter would have either asked during the ride or known you from the bsp or his work

"Hockomock Hounds? ha, is that what the reporter called 'em. News people, always have a slick way with words. Me, I just call 'em bastards. I put these new cages together today. See if they can get through that. Here, help me round up the last few." He then looks over at his dog, Its a smaller English terrier, all white. "Herd" he says.

The small dog jumps up and started herding the chickens towards the pen. Mr. Jenkins opens the pen in the nick of time as the startled chickens jumped and ran into the pen to get away from the yappy pup. One turns away from the pen and heads toward the 3 of you. "Catch her, would you?" he says as he throws the one in his hand into the pen and closes it after the rest go in.

OOC:   The chicken is running towards you, if you want to try and catch the chicken, make a Dex check with a penalty dice. To do that you roll the 2 of the '10s' dice and use the higher of the 2. I don't think the normal dice roller can handle it. so we can do it 2 ways. Roll % dice twice and take the higher (worst result) or roll 3 d10s, labeling them high, high, low and use the higher of the 2 high rolls. If you have a bonus dice we will do the same thing except you get to use the lower one.

Eddie demonstrates his exceptional agility, easily snatching up the chicken without even breaking a sweat.

OOC,I think the best way to handle this is to roll 1d100 and then to roll an additional 1d10 as the penalty die, which will replace the tens digit of the 1d100 roll if it's worse. DEX roll (80% stat) to catch the chicken: [dice]0[/dice] Penalty die: [dice]1[/dice]

Maria claps her hands in admiration.

"Wonderful! You're a natural chicken wrangler!"

Dr. Porter laughs, "Perhaps you've missed your calling, Mr. Donovan.

The farmer comes over to Eddie and relieves him of the squaking chicken. "Thanks, so what can I do for you folks?" he asks.

"No problem," says Eddie with a smile. "I'm used to wrangling criminals, which are much larger and more inclined to fight back. I'm a policeman back in Boston. We came here from the Bridgewater Preservation Society to look into these hounds. We'd like to ask you some questions, and with your permission, we could later try staking this place out so we can see them for ourselves and catch them in the act."

The farmer puts the final chicken in the crate. "Hopefully, them damn hounds won't be able to get my chickens in these crates. You're welcome to hang out. I'd expect him to be here in a few minutes, which is why I locked them all up."

"They come in the daytime?" says Eddie. "If they'll be here that soon, I'd better go grab my shotgun from the car. Then we can conceal ourselves and observe."

"Yea, usually late evening, sometimes after dark, it's no set time. Go grap it for all the good it'll do you." He says.

Maria

"Why do you say that Mr. Jenkins? Did you actually try shooting one of them?"

Eddie jogs back to his car, retrieves his shotgun, and returns.

"Sure did, had it dead to rights, the blast knocked him down, but it just jumped right up and ran off. He fell just over there," Mr. Jenkins points off to the corner of the yard. "Jumped right up off the ground, over the fence and back into the woods before I could get a 2nd shot off. Fast as the wind it was."

Maria walks over to the spot to have a look, looking for evidence of an animal being shot.

"Interesting, how large was the animal and how many times has it come?" Dr. Porter asks as he too goes to investigate the area the creature was shot.

"He's come 3 straight nights now, guess he has a taste for chicken." The farmer says.

OOC:   Both of you please make a spot hidden check for me.

Maria can't see anything that stands out.

Spot Hidden,Spot Hidden 25: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/545516]Spot hidden[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]28[/b]

You don't see anything unusual, but it is starting to get dark as Eddie comes back around the corner with his shotgun.

Maria

"We'd better find some place to hide."

Mr. Jenkins pulls the shotgun off the barn wall. "Hide if you like, they don't seem to have a taste for people though. At least I never felt threatened by it. Just stealing my damn chickens."

"Never felt threatened by it, huh? That is interesting. And you say it goes straight for the chickens every time? Perhaps this is just some large wild animal, one that happens to know exactly where to get a meal. Dr. Porter grunts unsatisfied, "...that hypothesis doesn't account for how it could take a shotgun blast and jump right back up - that is assuming you were not using something like birdshot in the gun."

Dr. Porter moves to a spot behind wherever Jenkins and Donovan set themselves up, as he doesn't carry a weapon.

"Well, its all I got, birdshot and rocksalt. I have a pistol, but I ain't as good with that as I use to be." he stops and cocks his head. "shhhh, I think I hear it coming."

OOC:   everyone make a listen check

Eddie hears it too. Birdshot and rock salt?! he thinks. No wonder whatever it was wasn't hurt! Good thing my shotgun's loaded with 00 buckshot. He takes out some spare shells and offers them to Mr. Jenkins.

OOC,Listen roll (55% skill) behind the farmhouse: [dice]0[/dice]

Maria, crouching behind the men, thinks she hears something.

Listen,Listen 25:[url=http://orokos.com/roll/546109]Listen[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]22[/b]

Maria and Eddie,you hear restuling, its faint and fast. It doesn't appear to be coming towards you though. It's running in circles, and back and forth. OOC: both of you make an idea check for me.

The farmer takes the buckshot, "should have loaded up with these to begin with, thanks." He unloads the birdshot and begins to load in the buckshot.

Maria

"I can hear something. I think it's circling us."

Idea,Idea 90:[url=http://orokos.com/roll/546282]Idea[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]90[/b]

"No problem," whispers Eddie as he thinks of something.

OOC,Idea roll (60% stat) behind the farmhouse: [dice]0[/dice]

Maria is still straining to listen.

"No wait! I think, it's chasing its tail! It could be playing."

"Playing or not, if it comes for my chickens again, I'm putting it down. Look for the red eyes, that's when you know its close," the farmer says.

Maria shifts her feet. The tension is building quickly. She hopes that the men don't start blasting indiscriminately.

A flash of red light caught your eyes blinding you for a second. The next thing you knew in the yard just 15 yards in front of you was a large creature. It was shaped similar to a large dog, maybe close to a doberman, but this was no dog. It's skin appeared to be made of obsidian, black, smooth and shining. Water droplets are on it's back and sides, leaving streaks of water as they slide down it's sides. The red eyes seem to peer through you. Before you even realized it raised one of its paws and smashed a crate open and grabbed a chicken in it's jaws.

The other chickens exploded out of the crate in their attempt to get away from the unearthly creature.

OOC:   Everyone make a sanity 1/1d6 check for me. If you fail and roll more than 5, take an INT test. If you pass that let me know. Otherwise, you are free to act.

Eddie's eyes go wide when he sees the creature, and he instinctively fires a blast at it in panic. Unfortunately, his shaking hands make it less accurate.

OOC,Sanity roll (current level 43) for seeing the hound: [dice]0[/dice] Sanity loss for seeing the hound: [dice]1[/dice] Shotgun roll (58% skill) shooting at the hound: [dice]2[/dice] That will only hit if we're within point blank range (for me, that's 16 feet).

The farmer also blasts towards the hound.

[dice]0[/dice]

Both blasts go wide as you try not to kill the other chickens flapping around.

The hound, with chicken in his teeth, turns, jumps the fence in one leap and quickly disappears back into the swamp.

OOC:   I still need sanity checks from the player. Dr. Porter sanity [dice]1[/dice] Fails and loses [dice]2[/dice] INT check [dice]3[/dice]

Dr. Porter begins to mumble, "it was just a large dog, nothing more, a trick of the lights. " Otherwise he appears to be fine.

Maria stares, mouth agape at the sight of the hound. She is transfixed by its otherworldly appearance, but she can also see a strange beauty in it.

SAN,Sanity 60: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/546817]SAN[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]19[/b] Lose 1 San now 59

She takes out her notebook and pencil and furiously begins to draw what she just saw. There is just enough light to see by.

Drawing,Art (Drawing) 70: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/546820]Drawing[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]47[/b]

Maria is drawing the hound. She only saw it for a few seconds, it will take a few minutes to get a decent drawing.

"Well now you've seen it. Fast little bugger and got another of my damn chickens damn it," the farmer growls. "These damn crates I built were just useless, he ripped that one to shreds like it was paper."

OOC:   Everyone make a Listen check. @Mr. Handy, if you are within point blank ranch it now adds a bonus dice, not double it. Big change for 7th ed. And just noticed another rule at the end of the combat chapter. Point blank range does not apply to long rifles and full length shotguns. So they never are considered in Point blank range.

Eddie hears something.

OOC,Listen roll (55% skill) behind the farm: [dice]0[/dice]

Maria is too busy sketching to pay attention to her surroundings.

Listen,Listen 25:[url=http://orokos.com/roll/546941]Listen[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]26[/b]

OOC:   Dr. Porters listen check 30% [dice]0[/dice]

Eddie and Dr Porter,you hear what sounds like cheering well off into the distance in the swamp.

Eddie points off into the distance. "I hear what sounds like cheering, coming from the swamp," he says, puzzled. "We should head down that way and check it out."

"I heard it too, but it's gone now," Dr. Porter says. "Do you still hear it? That sounded a long way away, through the swamp, are you sure you want to do this at night?"

Eddie,whatever it was, you no longer hear it.

Dr. Porter looks a little scared.

Mr. Jenkins pipes up, "Well that's it for me, fun's over for the night. It never comes twice. Bed time for me and the misses."

Maria

"We shouldn't go into the swamp at night. The ground's too treachorous. Besides, I'm not dressed for it."

She indicates her dress.

"Lets get properly equipped and return tomorrow. Perhaps those other two have found something that can help us."

Eddie nods. "Yeah, let's come back in the morning," he says.

It is getting late, and you remembered to meet up with other 2 at 8 am the next morning at the library.

Dr. Porter was shaken, "Cheering? Could there be others of these beasts? And since when do animals cheer?"

"I agree with the lady, we should regroup with the others in the morning and reassess before we head off into the woods." The good doctor thinks for a moment, "and perhaps I should get my hands on a hunting rifle if we are to go after the beast."