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Episode: Where the Wild Things Are

Posted by Story on 04/02/20
Disappearances and attacks along the roads are, of course, sadly commonplace events, particularly when traveling the wilder, far less civilized parts of the Compact. This is, after all, the primary purpose of the Knights of Solace, though even they can't be everywhere, protecting everyone. Even the greater protections afforded the Great Road simply can't be enough to keep things safe along the vast stretches of wilderness, and so rumors of violence, missing people, and even animal attacks are simply an accepted, if not happily received, risk of travel.

But there certainly have been some strange ones recently.

An entire patrol of Knights of Solace along the Great Road's more northerly reaches failed to report in for several days, and those sent to discover what might have happened to them found evidence of a bloody battle right on the road itself...but no sign of any bodies whatsoever, be it Knight or attacker. The only spent arrows and discarded weapons were easily matched to those of the patrol itself. One sword was notably unbloodied, and yet snapped right in half.

The Lodge of Petrichor established near Farhaven (or the Leolan Lodge, as it is more commonly, and affectionately, known) has sent back word that several of their rangers and scouts have disappeared without a single trace. An outlying farm had every single one of their animals--pigs, cattle, chickens, even horses--slaughtered overnight. They blame wolves, but the ranger sent to investigate the incident reported that tracks, tooth marks, and the sheer destruction wrought to fences and pens suggests something, or somethings, significantly larger.

And then there's what happened a few days later at the Lodge itself; residents woke to find a pile of bones left in front of the Lodge's door. The bones were fresh, picked clean, and easily identified as human. Several tracks were left by at least two different people, but a short way into the forest, all traces of them seemed to disappear altogether.