c02s01e01 - Yak Attack hanging out at inn of the moored siren, Raskal is introducing Frank & Nero to some local farmers. "Ranchers" they'd be quick to correct. Jebediah and Ezekiel were local yak herders that graze west of Cragwar north of the insufferable Ivory Plains. In the past 2 days, 12 yaks have been taken away, leaving only giant churned earth where the yak stood. no one's caught sight of it except young Tommy; Eze's oldest boy. he says the ground opened up and swallowed a yak whole. Nothing but gnashing teeth and so much blood. that boy and his daddy were gonna be up all night anyway, so the heroes got them to show the sites late at night after having ridden long through the day to arrive asap. the creature, whatever it is.. it's travelling through the herd. two incidents within a few moments of each other, moving eastward. once the herd panicked Zeke corralled them back to the ranch pen by the barn. The creature attacked them 3 more times. A total of 7 yaks killed, two wounded.... legs missing. Not that Frank would admit to any knowledge about subterranean horrors capable of snapping yaks in half like twigs-- the threat is probably burrowing undergrond. dubbed, "demon gopher" Later still in the eveining, they get a look at the last earth tear, closest to the ranch pen and barn. there's a purply mud puddled in the recessed earth Frank hops down to collect some for investigation, and once they get back to the barn they can look at both the purple mud and the yak remains in there. Herbalism kits are cool. and as a m,onster hunter, Frank can simply, "figure out" strange fluids and secretions through some simple experiments. This stuff is acidic. they totally ate holes through his boots and wore the soles down to a nub. and the yak legs had receding nocrotoxic effect on the legs, meaning that after the limbs were snapped off, the purply stuff got on the flesh of the yaks and continued to dissolve their legs while they were being forced to run from the scene by zeke, dragging them by lassos. Zeke says many atonements for having tortured that animal before killing it, but he had to get everything out of there. stampeding them home, for the next hour another 5 yak are snapped away at the back of the herd.. that's when Tommy sawr the gnashing erupting from the ground. The plan is to go out with the herd in the morning to see what happens. Nothing hapened yesterday while zeke and jeb were away, so they didn't assume a priority here; they made zeke start late so they could get good sleep, so they would have to graze closer to home than expected, but Zeke and family are good with the delay for the sake of safety. That purple puddle was gone. no residual material remained but the dried earth was pockmarked and further churned, but the tunnels quickly collapse as it descends further down... 5 foot diameter tubes that ascends and descends quickly from the surface... NO body wanted to go down those tubes, so waiting for it to return remained the best idea for safety. But nothing came. actually, one of Raskal's ships came by. HE said they couldn't spare ships to hunt for demon gophers, so when they flag the ship down, they learn that east of here on the road to marketplace, a horse and cart caravan carrying supplies was ambushed by an earth churning monster that ate the back two horses and submerged again. This was yesterday about 10 hours after Frank and Nero left to visit Zeke-- about when the team was investigating the zipper tracts. they figure the next hit will be near fort Light East of the road south of marketplace. so they boat over to the ranch and give the ranchers firework flares to launch if they run into trouble, so the ship could fly over and hopefully pursue the creature overland somehow... but no flares launched. Next day the boat drops them off with zeke and head back to cragwar empty-handed. day 5 now, up early to ride out with zeke to meet the four neighboring herders ... "Ranchers" They'd all correct. about 250 yak all monging grss together for the day... pretty juicy ta54get. No bites. The team ditches mid day to go warn more ranchers up towards Marketplace and loop back around in two days to the road. spreading safety emojis and educating the locals on how to flag down a RaskalShip. at the end of day 7 they find a small hostel bed/breakfast to crash for the night with an open room... small coin drop and they're at the barlistening to some local merchant hauling potatoes says that there's demons using yaksblood to perform a ritual of tainting upon all of the ranchers' daughters for evil's command. Nero gets a ping from his demonic patron... encouraging Nero to embellish and encourage the rumour to earn "Favor" and "Rewards"... but he refuses. When Nero tells Frank he's being pushed towards evil, Frank starts sassing the rumor-monger getting into a Hard Conversation, mostly to spite the demon's request. This triggers a Local History challenge. In The Crags, precedent is everything. If you can legitimately cite historical relevance to a current situation, you can win nearly any argument... This yokel has a 15 page picture written by the sages, Periferous the Knowledgable and Templeton the Renowned-- Periferus died a few years ago but Templeton is still selling out stadiums for those into Tales of the Impossible that constantly remind the world just HOW amazing, incredible, and terrifying the world Really Is. THESE two sages say that in fact, 72 years ago, a similar event occurred where demons were actually warping the region's morality through yak blood rituals. Frank calls Bullshit, and Nero backs it up with an Int. check for obscure knowledge about the sages... to dispute the credibility of the source. Turns out Periferus committed suicide under unusual circumstances after it was being realized taht he had been a child predator for about 50 years in rural communities like The Crags. All the art is even of suspiciously young girls receiving gifts from a rather paunchy demon figure. Good enough to call the legitimacy of the source material into question to douse the rumor and earn themselves a room of appreciateive hosts and guests. Food and Drinks were free, the rumor monger was embarrassed, but apologetic. No one held a grudge. After a deserved night of rest and relaxation, the team sets for a long rest over to the 8th day to continue their investigation and public awareness campaign. 7 days into the campaign mid spring Team earns level 2