Jak-a-Napes is bustling on the evening before it happens.  There is singing and dancing from a bard's troupe that is traveling through to the southern port city of Falcarragh.  Mugs of ale and heaping platters of mutton, cheese, and bread are served throughout the evening.  Rumors of a new inn in Falcon's Hollow across the river buzz through conversations.  Rumors of an arrest at the cemetery buzz through conversations. If rumor is to be believed, they finally caught whoever was digging up cadavers from the cemetery. It is late night when all the bustle finally settles down.  Patrons disappear to their rooms, or back to their homes, or to wherever they lay their head for rest.  It is Sunnendaeg 0115 High Moon when the first of the dogs begin to bark in town.  As more across the town begin to bark, it becomes apparent something is amiss...

OOC DM NOTE ... we will be starting with this opening scene.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:20, Wed 23 Nov 2022.

Xenaryn was sound asleep after a day of helping with the candle making.  She wakes, turns onto her side and sighs as she listens to the night sounds. It has been a grueling week for Xen, struggling to catch up on chores and work in the shop she had been neglecting during her tutelage at Vade's tower.  That was over now, having passed the novice apprenticeship.  Another sharp bark brings her back to the present. She pads softly to the window and opens the wooden shutters.

She scans the street left and right along Mid-Road.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:38, Wed 07 Dec 2022.

As Xenaryn scans the town's road outside her window known by locals as Mid-Road, she catches sight of a stray dog hustling down the street to the East. It barks a few times, then darts into "low market" where the barking becomes more intense. Xenaryn loses sight of the dog as it darts north between closed trader stalls, but hears moments later a sharp whimpering yelp. Then all is quiet. Her sharp vision down the moonlit road becomes vague as clouds obscure the moonlight. Brief flashes of lighting off to the West herald a coming storm. A peal of far off thunder is heard a few seconds later.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:16, Thu 24 Nov 2022.

Alaion awoke from his sleep, from the noise outside in the night. He had been staying at the inn for about a week now resting from the long trek as a caravan guard. His extra funds about all used up now, "Dog, we need to find some more work soon." looking towards the shape of a large dog laying by the window. "Loki, is it OK boy or should we be ready?" He then moves to the window to look out, petting the dog on the head as he scans the area.

Valeros stumbles from the Sitting Duck, trying in his light stupor to roll some tobacco shavings in a tobacco leaf.  The sound of dogs barking draws his attention.

"Shadd up, yeh flea mongrels!" he shouts off into the dark.  The barking stops.

"Tha's more like it." he says, spilling the tobacco to the ground. The cuts on his fingers from "knivesies" causing some irritation.  "Shyte." he curses.

Something moves in the shadows among houses down the Palisade-Road drawing his bleary eyes in the direction.  Too far to see. Too dark to see.  "Probly kids doin' kid things.  That, or I had more of that potent local brew of fermented dark-wood leaf than was good fer meh."

He squints and looks up at the night sky.  Cloudy.  No moon.  "Still high moon I think.  Surely!"  He mumbles, then shrugs.

He moves southward toward Jak'a'Napes, hoping he would be able to get up in the morn'in and catch the first wagon out to the north cut-yard.  If he was late again, Jarlben Trookshavits will... best not to think about it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:39, Wed 07 Dec 2022.

Now what happened to that dog? Xenaryn wonders.  It sound like it got hurt.  It took only seconds for her to gather her things.  She had prepared for something like this weeks ago. The unknown. Mysteries to be solved.  Magics to be found.  Though probably not on a wounded dog, she chided herself.

Quick as she can and as quietly as she can so as not to wake her parents, she climbs out the window and follows the road east toward low market looking for the dog.

"Wuf!" comes the reply from Loki, perhaps looking for a treat, but is content with the scratching of his ears as Alaion opens the inn's shutters and takes a look.  From the second story of the building he can clearly see the street below, which the locals have called High-Road.  From his vantage, he can see the road as it leaves the intersection of low market and heads northward.  There are no street lamps like you might find down in the city of Falcarragh.  The darkness becomes darker as the clouds cover the moon and off to the west are flashes of lightning from a storm.  A few seconds pass before the thunder rolls faintly in the distance.

The dog had stopped barking before Alaion opened the shutters.  As he looks northward, he sees a dark humanoid figure moving southward along the road, meandering much in the way a zombie might.  Movement catches his senses as a girl suddenly passes below the window.  She enters the low market area looking for something amongst the stalls that are shut up for the night. Apparently, she finds what she is looking for.

In the intersection on the north side of the low market, and next to a stack of wooden barrels Xenaryn finds the dog.  It lies on its side and is not breathing, nor moving.  Something bashed it good.  At least it died quickly and did not suffer.

Only one thing on the road to the north... and its coming toward Xenaryn in the darkness!

---

Range to dark figure 100 feet

[Private to Alaion Dragonblade: Alaion's range to target is closer.  So close now that he can see with his infra-vision it is only someone staggering a little from drink and not a zombie!]
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:40, Wed 18 Jan 2023.