A Demon Hunting We Will Go!

[Dulcie]

It didn't take the wolf long to find the scent that she had been looking for. Enough time had passed that the prints were likely gone but the stench of evil was something difficult to erase. The instant she caught the beginning of the trail it was likely that Kals would feel it, a sense of excitement and hunger. She didn't wait for them this time, instead bolting off in the direction of the woods where the head had been seen disappearing off to before. There were no polite pauses or lolling about, no this time she moved wih purpose. The only chance the others would get to catch up would be when she would stop a nber of feet away and put her nose to the ground again before heading off in the next direction. If that head was still on this earthly plane she was bound and determined to find it.

[Drache]

The dragoness seemed rather quiet about the whole affair, perhaps reconsidering her part in this alltogether. It was much too cold to be running around, after all.

Kals wasn't the only one reaching out with his special abilities, though as the most fire-oriented person in the province, she felt understandably hampered by the snow and cold wind. But she stood quietly next to Agnie and watched Kacela root around for a scent. The fire-drake was not as sensitive to the taint of evil as the wolf, and though it drifted sourly across her nostrils now and then, it was a trail much too old for her to follow.

[channe]

Agnie follows, of course, for now yielding control of the group to the werewolf -- but keeping her eyes peeled around her for movement in the brush.

[BetaFlame]

Aleksei stays close to Agnie, for what its worth. He owes her protection, and he knows it. Considering he utterly failed at protecting her and everyone else with that damn book, he was determined not to let it happen again. He'd do whatever it takes to win, at this point.

Of course, defining what "winning" is might be a little more difficult.

So for his part he pays attention to the part of him that can still feel the Taint of the thing. And he waits

[Vanidor]

Everything that Aleksei had said about the wrongness of the Head, the Daemon and the... Well, whatever was perfectly true. There was still a... a scent to the air that was hard to perfectly describe. Just as there were marks upon the wall from where the head with legs had skittered across the stonework, there was a presence that lingered yet there in the darkened alley. To the Wolf and her snuffling nose there would certainly be the smell of decay. Not just the refuse of humanity lingering in the shadows, but of corruption and death as well. It, like the marks upon the stone (they are there, burnt into the slab-stone side of Kerrak's home, like someone took a molten poker and drove them into the granite). It continues down the alley, to where a body lay in a puddle of long frozen blood.

Hands are missing from this one, along with one forearm. The face of the man is beyond recognition, having been... Well. From the sight it is as if the face had been gnawed off, features and front of skull, in order to get at the brain behind. That's gone as well, for what it matters. If anyone had the presence of mind (and fortitude of stomach) to look that deeply. A smear of blood is painted against the wall at the end of the alley, and a bloodied handprint can be seen making way up the wall and beyond it to the rooftops above. Opposite the crimson hand-print is the same blackened holes as before, though the pace of whatever made them is more disjointed. As if one side of the creature was now longer than the other.

The trail, if the Wolf wished to bound or anyone wished to clamber up, would be straight enough to guess where it lead. Kerrak's home may have been nigh to the centre of town, but the smeared trail lead across the top of the next set of houses and did not deviate from a path to the closest wall. It looked like the damned thing was taunting and/or directing with that trail, like it WANTED to be followed. And likely, as capricious and chaotic as the entities and eldritch followers of the Old Gods were, that was likely the case. Follow me and be damned. Follow me and be one with us. Follow...

[Dulcie]

Logically the wolf would be the first one to find the body considering that everyone else was following her. When she arrived at that alley she'd pause and howl up to the air, giving the others the sound to follow in case she had lost some of them in her rush to get there. For Kals however there would be the mental assurance that she was alright, and that she had found the body.

That snuffling nose left nothing unturned save for the physical disturbance of the body. She had sniffed every inch of the thing by the time she reported back to Kals ~I found a body in the alley way. It's been mutilated and it's been dead for sometime. There's a trail here. Tell the others to hurry up, the whole place smells of the Nightkin." There was that trail to consider too as she sits back on her haunches, staring up at the wall. She'd growl slightly, lifting a paw to the wall and trying to find a way up. There was no way she could scale the thing, but she was nothing if not resourceful.

Deep brown eyes would find the carts and bins set up in the alley way and she'd test them with one quick jump up on one of the carts. From here she'd be able to jump up to the rooftops, but she'd wait, not wanting to leave her other companions behind, especially considering that there might be things that they can learn about the Nightkin that she wasn't able to ascertain.

[Suede]

Kals turned his head towards the sound of the howl and stared at the alley in quiet before starting off in that direction, waving an arm mostly at Aleksei to follow along, though he was reasonably certain everyone would come along. His skilling had stopped, snapped back into him after he'd listened to Kacela.

"Dead body in the alley, apparently it's been torn up pretty badly and smells like our guy... or thing. And there's a trail." Since the scholar had seemed to know most of what he was talking about Kals was mostly interested to see what he could make of the scene.

A rather nasty scene that had Kals turning to the side almost immediately upon seeing the mutilation. He felt sick, then he gagged, and finally he turned to a nearby cart and moved his veil aside while he dry heaved several times. Oh, Kals was used to blood and fighting... even seeing people getting taken by sea predators, but the state of that's body's head had caught his stomach just right. That was something he wasn't used to.

[channe]

"Here we go," Agnie says, under her breath -- she chews on her bottom lip for a moment, and then takes a breath. "All right. Let's follow." She takes off behind the others, and then comes to a standstill next to the body, and just one moment's under-the-breath oath to God --

-- and she'll turn her eyes towards the trail, and what lies beyond it.

[BetaFlame]

Aleksei had a far more practical way of getting to the roof. He merely knocked on the door, introduced himself, and asked. The building owners were quite happy to let him climb up from an upstairs window. Most of the people in town remember his.. odd cranes that he used to move the larger boulders, and if the crazy man in glasses wanted up on the roof, there was a probably a good reaason.

And that is how he found himself hunched over the body, poking and prodding at it. His gaze shifted around and he sighed. "It's.. feeding. Unless we find it soon, it will kill again for more food. Speculatively, this is probably how its going to heal. Eating."

He stands, and his face is.. different, somehow. Determined. All the kindness and softness has washed from it, leaving only a stone edge. Aleksei the Knight. He follows the blood and poked holes in the roof, and nudges the arm, partially chewed upon with the toe of a boot, and just looks at Kacela "After you, hunter."

[Dulcie]

It seemed that most of the others had gathered their wits about them, or at least had decided if they were staying or going. With a look over the other people in her party the wolf would make a somewhat human gesture, dipping it's head down slightly in acknowledgement of Aleksei's words and then she'd be off again. The trail was easy to follow which meant that she could make her way across the rooftops at a good pace, leaping easily when there was seperation between buildings, pausing only now and then to check on her companions, her first priority given to the creature that she was hunting.

It wouldn't take long for the massive beast to come close to the source of the smell, especially considered that the thing was luring them into following, a circumstance that Kacela had never really fully considered.

[Vanidor]

It is here at the base of the wall that the next victim is discovered. Well. Victims that was. A trio it would seem. Two are garbed like merchants, and are likely were heading home despite the urging of the Constables and Watch to remain within during the later hours of the evening. The third is a Constable. How they perished follows;

The man, carrying a bag on a sling is missing his throat. Torn from flesh by sharp teeth, or perhaps claws. The woman has several holes drilled into her chest, as if molten claws had decided that that was a perfect place to clamber. Yet their deaths are just that. A creature that reveled in murder doing its thing with a target at hand. Neither is missing much other than their lives and some flesh. It is the Constable, who seemed to have been able to draw his weapon and attempt a defense, that saw the most atrocity.

Like the one in the alley, this man is missing his face, and indeed the matter behind his skull has been disgustingly slurped from its case. Missing as well is a leg, though how the beast managed that was best left unquestioned. Yet it looked as if the creature, after attacking the merchants, had rushed along the ground in order to deal with the Constable. There are pock marks upon the cobblestones to show where it had raced for the glee of murder. Lastly. There is a hole in the center of the torso, with flesh and bone seeming to burst outward from the cavity within. The blood is... Fresh. Or at least, fresher than what had been in the alley.

And if the Wolf, with her keen senses looked, she would note the presence of the thing. As would, likely, Aleksei with his affinity for finding the unclean and daemonic. The Head is there, strange five-disjointed claw appendage gripping to the stone of the Wall that circles Myrkentown. It is a mess, the face of the being it wore already decomposing. A gash can be seen crossing from temple to nose as well, attesting to the Constables efforts. The mouth is slack and spills with a treacly mass of blood. Its eyes, however, are brilliant even in the dark of the evening. It is almost like they are... Laughing.

When it sees its pursuers the entity hops. HOPS! Not once, but thrice, upon the wall. As if to ensure that they have seen it, and they know that IT has seen THEM.

[channe]

There are things that just should not be.

When she'd first joined the Brotherhood, Jons Feul had been a mythical creature; she had just a headstrong girl he'd had the pleasure of pummeling into a bruised pulp at his superiors' behest now and again. That he was a bastard, cruel and unfair was common knowledge; but she knew that in the end, he worked for good, even in through cruelty, that he worked for his brothers-in-arms, that he would not betray those brothers, or at least she'd thought --

-- and she'd thought a lot of things. And she was still thinking, as her stomach turned, looking at the man's head perched on the Wall like that egg in the old children's ballad, or a bird from freaking -- hell --

"Stop," she says, quickly, raising her hand. "It wants us to follow. It's a trap." And then her hand trembles for a moment, and she swallows something in her throat. "But we can't let this go on." Her eyes flicker to the dead merchants, and to the poor Constable who would have never had a chance against Feul, dead or alive. And she feels responsible for all of this -- "Keep yer eyes open, an' your heart true." And she'll advance, if the others advance with her.

[Suede]

This was quickly turning into something Kals didn't precisely find appealing. He'd always imagined his first hunt would be for something a little less... eldritch. Maybe a big boar or a bear for a heavier challenge, but he was committed at this point. And he was sure as hell not going to let Kacela go on without him even if she WAS far more capable.

So when Agnie announced that it was not only there, but trying to bait him he slung slung his bow down from his shoulder and set an arrow against the string as he followed up behind her. The trader didn't speak more than a grunt of acknowledgement to her words, a large shadow following behind her and just off to one side.

He made it a point to steadfastly not look at any of the next set of corpses even if his stomach had nothing inside to let him taste again and instead tried to focus that hidden gaze on the... thing on the walls. He had half a mind to take a shot at it, but he'd likely miss. He just wasn't that good. Instead he just stayed ready to act on the lead of the more experienced group members.

[BetaFlame]

His senses have found it even before the others announce its there. Eyes following the path it took to get on the wall. Agnie spoke the obvious. Of course it was a trap, everything about this was a trap. The head, the book, all of it. A trap carefully crafted by creatures that wanted in this plane. But his eyes remain steadfastly locked on the creature.

His hand moves inside his coat pocket, and a second vial of the odd silver liquid is produced. Popping the cork reveals a small needle, enough to draw a drop of blood, a drop that falls into the silver, turning it gold. The cork is tossed aside, and he throws the vial back like a shot, dropping the glass to the ground.

"Of course its a trap. Its been a trap since that book was made, Agnie." He licks his lips and concentrates. Could he? Again? Really, what choice was there. A faint whisper crosses his lips. "Unbind, first seal." This transformation is much less dramatic than the one from the council house. His skin takes on a faint silvery sheen, and his eyes fade from a blue on white to a set of full silver orbs. It was clear the thing was fast, so he wanted to be ready. He glances at Agnie, then just steps forward moving toward the base of the wall with slow measured steps.

Well, someone needed to spring the trap.

[Dulcie]

And who better to spring a trap than the eager wolf? She had arrived at the bodies first, inspected them with the same time that she had the others, her nose pressed close to the ground as she took in the scents, the details and it hadn't been long before she spotted the hopping head on the wall. She felt little of the revulsion of her companions, instead Kals would likely feel a sense of excitement from her as she howled, announcing her presence and sitting back on her haunches until the others arrived, her tail twitching with eager anticipation for the moment that she could spring at the thing.

The presence of the others began to move around her and to those who knew her very well they might have noticed the tiny hint of amber coloring that crept in at the edges of her deep brown eyes. Vials were thrown about, nauseated sounds were made, but her mind pounded with the hunt, her gaze analyzing those little hopping movements as she pulled back, each muscle twitching in those powerful limbs before she took the bait and leapt at the creature clinging to the wall.

Her movements were preternatural, her body vaulting from it's place in the snow one moment and slamming up against the building in the next, her paws shaking loose brick and morter from the building as her massive jaws would begin snapping at the creature. She had little concern for it's appearance or the skittering movements of the things and she held nothing back in her persuit of it.