Shaw Farms, like most farms in the area, has a small sign facing the road which says "A proud supplier to Tyson."

The dirt driveway is partially blocked by a police cruiser. Its lights are not on, but an officer is sitting in the driver's seat, kicked back with his hat over his face.

Well. If he's sleeping, I can look around. In any case, I'm authorised to be here...

It's a good thing having a PhD and a MD (along with many other qualifications) gives you a sense of confidence (okay, maybe that's just Adele), since she just parks, gets out of the car, and walks in (well, around the car) like she owns the place.

Hopefully he doesn't wake up.

But she's not making any attempt to be silent, and the car makes enough sound...(couldn't they afford something better?)

The officer doesn't budge as you pass him by.

You follow the road a short distance and soon see the tell-tale sign that you have found the right place: yellow crime scene tape.

As you approach you realize that the body is still at the scene, covered by a sheet. Trails of blood lead up to the body and the area is covered in footprints.

A cow from one of the nearby enclosures lets out a bored-sounding "mooooo", which resonates across the open plains.

Is he sleeping or dead? The sort of help they get these days...

Adele pulls on the traditional Medical Gloves and attempts to uncover the body. It's such a good thing she's used to this. (Usually they're alive and in pain. Or on painkillers, though. She doesn't normally do the autopsies...)

You pull the sheet and whitness a very gruesome scene: on the ground lies the mangled remains of a strong young man. A gash runs from the right side of his chest diagonally to the lower portion of his torso. His entrails and internal organs have spilled out onto the dusty ground, and his left leg has been almost entirely chewed off.

...ew. Okay. Very ew.

Eh.

She's seen worse pictures.

(But just pictures. Most people she has to fix up...not this bad.)

But now it's time for what gets her paid. Time to snap a few pictures and inspect the gash and the leg...

The damage seems to have come from an animal, but you can't tell what type.

Checks made on your behalf:
21:31, Today: Facilitator, on behalf of Dr. Adele Sienkiewicz, rolled 9 using 1d20+4. spot.
21:30, Today: Facilitator, on behalf of Dr. Adele Sienkiewicz, rolled 15 using 1d20+13. know (earth/life sciences).

Well. That wasn't very helpful.

Though it wasn't a case of attacking-for-food, apparently...

Adele takes a closer look at the distribution of wounds and the possible sequence of events. Hopefully she can get some idea of why he was attacked, from that.

You notice abrasions on his hands and dirt marks at the knees of his jeans; it's possible that whatever attacked him got him from behind and knocked him over. Once the animal got him on his back, it must have slashed at the man's chest with a claw. The gnawing at the leg was slower and deliberate, so it must have been last -- you only hope that the man was dead or passed out at the time, but there's no way to tell for sure.

15:47, Today: Facilitator, on behalf of Dr. Adele Sienkiewicz, rolled 16 using 1d20+13. search.

Tobias parked next to Adele's car and got out. "Hey, where's..." he called out, cutting himself off sharply when he noticed the answer to his question sleeping in the patrol car.

Silently, he headed to Adele and the corpse. "What'd you find?"

"A useless cop. Is this what we pay our taxes for, I ask you?"

Adele stripped off very bloodstained (and other-stained) gloves. "Looks like it could have attacked without provocation, and obviously it wasn't planning to eat. If it's natural, it's very odd. If it's unnatural...very aggressive. I hope you've been practicing on the range."

She hadn't, but.

Oops.

PM

[Private to Tobias Byrne: You notice a set of feline foot prints leading away from the body. Next to them is a pair of boot prints.

12:35, Today: Facilitator, on behalf of Tobias Byrne, rolled 21 using 1d20+6. spot.]

"Not a heap, I'll admit." Tobias replied, crouching down near the body. "What I found in the fields wasn't... hello."

Tobias pointed out the tracks, feline and booted, heading away from the body. "Whose are those?"

"Neither have I. Think we should call for one of the heavy-weapons experts? This looks fairly...unpleasant, I'm not sure it's stoppable by the peashooter I'm carrying. Ooh. Hm."

Interesting tracks. "The next clue. Shall we give Frank a call?"

"Not yet." Tobias shook his head. "It could just be some sort of summons, in which case we need to take down the one controlling it. But Frank is a good idea."

He pulls out his cell phone and dials.

After Frank picks up, Tobias fills him in on what they found, and that they'll wait for him to arrive.

Frank replies that as they have both the cars, it might be a better idea if they come and fetch him in one of them, or he can take a look and see if the town has a taxi rank.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:36, Tue 29 Sept 2009.

Tobias agrees, gets Frank's position, then hangs up. "You wanna go get him, or should I?"

"You may be able to find more stuff here. You know, those things you do which I've never been able to figure out."

His Strange and Mysterious Powers, that is.

"I'll pick him up. Couldn't they afford three cars?" Or does he not drive?

Either way.

"Right then. I'll make with the voodoo."

Tobias kneels on the dirt and begins to murmur.

[Private to GM: Casting detect magical aura, see what's what.]

PM

[Private to Tobias Byrne: Sorry, I meant to do this yesterday but I guess I missed it. You don't detect any magical auras.]

Grr.

He didn't want to follow the tracks until Adele and Frank got here. What to do, what to do... House.

Heading for the farmstead, he tried the door.

The back of the farmhouse has been extended and turned into a decent-sized office. A few wooden steps lead up to the door, which is locked. A hastily-written sign on the door says "Office closed today to pay respects to Bill".

You can see through the window that the office consists of a big room with a counter, probably where the secretary normally sits, and two separate offices behind that. Both office doors are closed, and one has a light on.

Knocking first, Tobias pulls out his Rod of technology, converting it to a lock-release gun in case no one decided to answer.

Hang on! a voice cries from somewhere deep inside.

A few seconds later, a burly man appears from the lit office. He walks to the door and without unlocking it gruffy says Whadyou want?

Tobias pocketed the rod. "Just want to talk. I'm with Tyson, checking our interests."

He held up the blank card in his wallet, which should appear to the man as a Tyson field department Id. "Can I come in?"

The man stiffens at the word "Tyson", but a gruff expression remains engraved on his face. Well come in then.

He unlocks the door and opens it. As you step through he points to the sign and says As you can see, we are closed today. I wasn't expecting anyone from Tyson, though. I guess you heard about our little critter problem? I can assure you that all of our cows are completely safe. We've been locking them up at night and we've always got an eye or two on 'em during the day.

[Private to Dr. Adele Sienkiewicz: You can return with Frank any time you like.]

Tobias nodded soberly, "I understand, but I was sent yesterday, and they don't like me staying longer than I have to.

"We at Tyson are dedicated not only to our assets in the field, but also those who take care of them. My condolences on this entire matter, but I do have some questions." Tobias stepped into the room, glancing around as if curious.

"Have you caught whatever it was that did this?"

[Private to GM: Can I make a spot check to notice anything of interest?]

The man leads you back into his office and invites you to sit down across the desk from him. You notice a plaque on his wall reveals his name to be Tony Shaw.

I thank you for your concern, Mr., uh, I'm afraid I didn't catch your name.

Anyway, we haven't caught the creature, but with those posses running around it's probably been scared away. We hear wild cats out in the mountains, but it's pretty unusual that one comes all the way out here. He'll go back home pretty soon.

[Private to Tobias Byrne: You look around the outer and inner office, but you don't see anything you wouldn't otherwise expect to see in a farm office.

14:22, Today: Facilitator, on behalf of Tobias Byrne, rolled 14 using 1d20+6. spot.]

"Rogers." Tobias said, sitting down, "Mr. Rogers."

"Forgive me if I sound ignorant, but do wild cats have a habit of attacking people so close to buildings like this?"

Well Mr. Rogers, to tell you the truth, it's very unusual for animals to attack humans. Usually they are skittish, so this one must have been very, very hungry. At the time of night when Bill was killed the cattle were in the barn for the night and most of the lights from the house were off. Bill was probably sitting on the fence smoking a cigarette before he left for the night.

Mr. Rogers nodded, mentally categorizing and taking notes. "I've heard some scuttlebutt that there have been other attacks around here. Is there going to be an autopsy?"

Yeah, two other people were killed, probably by the same animal. It's a very grim time for our little town. Dunno anything about an autopsy, though. You'd have to ask the sheriff, he's the one in charge of the investigation.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:54, Fri 16 Oct 2009.

"Thank you." Tobias stood and extended his hand to Shaw. "Do you mind if I look around, look at the cattle, that sort of thing?"

Sure, if that's what you want to do. You want me to go with you?

"Rather boring stuff, really." Tobias said. "Paperwork, you know. Don't want to be a bother. I think I can find my way around."

Alright then, Mr. Rogers. He reaches out to shake your hand.

I'll be in here doing paperwork if you need anything else.

"Thank you." Tobias let himself out.

He was itching to follow those tracks, but didn't dare without the others. What if he actually found what had made them? He contented himself with poking around the outbuildings, looking for anything that appeared out-of-place.

About 500 feet away from the farmhouse are two large state-of-the-art corrugated steel barns, each of which holds at least a thousand cattle. Currently both barns are full, but they open up to allow the cattle to graze upon the seemingly unending acres of grass in the fields. Nothing appears out of place.

As you are poking around, a black town car rolls down the gravel drive carrying Frank and Adele.

Frank climbs out of the car and walks over to Toby.

"Right, I'm here," he said, "What's our next course of action?"

"Well," Tobias scratched his head. "There's nothing magical around here, at least not my kind of magic. The circles out in the countryside don't show any sort of pattern, but I can't help feeling they're related somehow.

"We'll have to talk to the sheriff about autopsies, but those tracks we can follow now." He gestured towards the body and the footprints leading off.

The set of bootprints and paw prints follow the dirt path for about 40 feet then turn off into the grass. As a gentle breeze rolls across the field you realize you have no hope of following them any further.

None of you have track so the DC is too high to follow the tracks through the grass :)

[Private to Tobias Byrne: 20:10, Earth/life sciences (10): Nada. And what a let down after all that waiting, eh? :D]
[Private to Francis 'Frank' Decourcey: Earth/life sciences (5): Nada.]
[Private to Dr. Adele Sienkiewicz: Earth/life sciences (30): After putting fresh eyes on the tracks, you realize that they are feline. They could be from a bobcat or wildcat, but it would be one of the largest such cats on record.]

"Well, we've got a snowball's chance in hell of following those," said Frank, as they realised that they weren't going to be able to follow the tracks. "Think it's time to go have a word with the sheriff. Not that hell like it much, know I wouldn't have when I was on the force."

"Mind you," he said, "This is big sky country, guess we might be able to find a decent tracker around here to help us. If you want to try that?"

Adele was somewhat distracted by the tracks on the path. "That's a...really, really big cat..."

She looked up. "Eh? What? Back to town again, or are we going to wake up sleeping cop over there?"

"Up to you guys." Toby said, "I'm feeling a bit useless at the moment."

"Best to let sleeping policeman lie," said Frank, wryly. "Doubt he's seen much anyway, judging by the look of him. Even if he had, not likely he'll be the type to share. Cops seldom are, 'specially country cops."

"My vote's with the tracker. We find someone who can tell us where that trail leads, given that's the best lead we've had so far."

"Tracker it is. I'm useless here, too. I can roughly guess what it is, and we probably do have a valid mandate to be here...but apart from that?"

Back to the car they went. (We presume.)