Chilling Adventures in the North

     "Is that them?" Bán asks in a hushed but hurried voice.  "Is that the verbeeg?"

     Even as he starts to ask, Owl is up and in flight gaining altitude and keeping an eye on the runner.  

Instead of watching the runner, Qinfaren looks to where they were running from. He was a trapper, but he suspects its unlikely to be a profession that requires a lot of running.

Ricky tries to run after the trapper. 

Owl gets closer and sees that is not a verbeeg but a human man.

Qinfaren peers into the woods, looking amongst the trees. He notices that blood splatters dot the snowy ground and the snow-covered trees.

Ricky runs after the trapper, and he catches his attention. The man stops and turns to Ricky, waiting for him.

     Bán shrugs his cloak off his shoulders and out of his was as he loosens his shield & whip and holds it at the ready at his side.  He directs Owl to fly high and try to backtrack where the trapper came from to try and see what they are running from.  "What have we stumbled on now?" he asks, mostly rhetorically, as he watches the way from which the trapper came and awaits Ricky's questioning of the man...

"Oi! Where are you running? There's a verbeeg around here somewhere." Ricky eyes this guy for trouble

Bjorn looks at the woods, but he leans to the side towards Bán, "I think this is possibly related to the verbeeg. Most creatures stay out of the way of a giant."

Now that he is closer, Ricky recognises the trapper as Fef Moryn.

"Yes, I know," Fef replies. "I was coming to Good Mead to let everyone know he has killed again. Go look for yourselves, it is a grisly sight though."

The fox, in one of the traps, whimpers behind the Fef's back.

Qinfaren looks more closely at the blood splatters from the direction the man came. While Ricky talks to the man, Qinfaren looks to confirm the blood is fresh and then looks back to the man to see if he's injured or if the blood has come from somewhere else.

The whimper of the fox draws his attention.

"Why do you have a fox?" Qinfaren asks. "He appears scared. Is he a pet?"

Ricky holds up a hand to stop the trapper. 

"Hold your horses, we're here for it. Show me. And put that damned fox out of its misery, ya cruel bastard."

Fef tilts his head and raises an eyebrow responding to Qinfaren's question, "No, this thing is not a pet."

Bjorn steps next to Qinfaren, "I don't think our good friend here is looking to rehome that fox."

"Why would I rehome a wild animal? No, I am a trapper. Do you know what trappers do?"

He then turns to Ricky, "Don't tell me how to do my job. So far, this fox is uninjured, if you must know. And you want my vote for speakership?"

Qinfaren's normally affable face hardens and the large hand on his staff clenches.

"I understand feeding people and keeping them warm from those skins," Qinfaren says, taking several steps towards Fef, forgetting about the verbeeg for now. "But this is small fox that will provide no food or warmth."

He gets much closer to Fef and looks at the fox. Using Speech of Beast and Leaf he tells the fox to be calm for a few moments and then they'll be free.

"You will release the fox now." Qinfaren says as a matter of fact.

     "Could make a nice pair of earmuffs, perhaps...  Perhaps fancy trim for gloves?" Bán chimes in, not really caring about the fox one way or the other.

     "Is the small critter our priority though?  Isn't the real question what has Sir Trapper here hightailing it out of here and where the blood came from?"

"Look, if you want him," Fef replies. "Then you can always buy him from me. I will sell him for one gold piece."

Sensing the others want to return to the matters at hand, Qinfaren reluctantly hands over a gold coin.

”If you keep doing this I will not be so friendly next time.” Qinfaren says as he gives Fef the coin. Once the fox is released Qinfaren asks a question.. “Now what are you running from?”

Fef releases the fox, which moves to sit next to Qinfaren.

"I told you, go take a look for yourselves," he replies before pushing past and continuing back to Good Mead.

Bjorns shurgs his shoulders, "Well, I guess there's only one thing for it. We'd better go look."

     Having sent Owl that way already, Bán will advise the others of anything the familiar may have already have seen and relayed back to him.  Never hurts to know what one is getting themselves into...

Ricky sighs and then laughs a bit sadly. "Pretty sure I lost that vote. Whatever. He was a bit of a lousy trapper if he's dragging them around like that."

Qinfaren looks down at the fox and lets them know they're free to go, but to be more careful with traps. He offers a little bit of jerky from his pack as well before looking the other direction and following after Bán's Owl.

Perception/Survival (same modifier) along the trail to watch out signs of other tracks and traps: 22  

When Owl comes back to Bán, Owl informs Bán that the familiar did not see much through the dense tree canopy. However, Owl did see more evidence of blood in an area nearby.

After being fed the bit of jerky, the fox returns to the woods. However, it looks back at the group before disappearing among the trees.

Qinfaren begins to search for traps and other traps but has difficulty finding anything.

"Why don't we just follow the tracks that trapper left behind?" Bjorn suggests as he points to the deep footprints left in the snow. "Should be easy to follow. It's not like he was covering his tracks."