IC: Ch 1a: To the Farm (Eddie, Maria, Dr Porter)

[BenTheRat]

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.

[Mr. Handy]

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

[CrackheadC.]

"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.

[HoneyDog]

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?"

[BenTheRat]

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.

[CrackheadC.]

"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

[BenTheRat]

"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.

[Mr. Handy]

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

Spoiler:

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:

Mr. Handy rolled 1d100:
19

Penalty die:

Mr. Handy rolled 1d10:
3

[HoneyDog]

Maria claps her hands in admiration.

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

[CrackheadC.]

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

[BenTheRat]

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

[Mr. Handy]

"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."

[BenTheRat]

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."

[Mr. Handy]

"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."

[BenTheRat]

"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.

[HoneyDog]

Maria

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

[Mr. Handy]

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

[BenTheRat]

"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."

[HoneyDog]

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

[CrackheadC.]

"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.