Thom shakes his head with frustration. "Are we sure it was Rootswayne? Same footprints? Did they lead back to his root home?"
Ruedi, when alerted to the missing goat, would have gone out and searched for tracks.
[Got a 12 on the Perception + Hunt roll]
"Same footprints. I figured I'd check back before following them in case you don't want me to shoot the faerie once I track him down."
Thom shrugs. "Better the devil we know... Let's make sure it was Rootswayne before you shoot him. He is not the real threat. The Glastig is who we need to worry about."
Turold will go back with Thom. He tries to track (rolled a 4) and likely has difficulty following - up to the GM whether we catch up with Ruedi.
"I'll fly ahead and see if I can find Ruedi."
Thom takes on his vulture form and wings up to try to spot Ruedi from the sky. [Per + Awareness Roll: 15. Per is +4, Awareness +4, Roll was a 7. Not sure if that's the right combination.]
The tracks lead to Rootswaynesroot, and you may all catch up there if yo want.
The goat is also there, but sickly and immobile, staring even more blankly at you than they normally would. At Second Sight+Per 6+ you look throught the illusion. All that is left is the semblance of a goat. On a faerie lore+int 9+ you may know that such semblances often contain vis, even if the vis can only be smelled when the glamour is broken.
Thom kneels beside the still goat, frowning as he notes its blank, vacant stare. “There’s something not right here,” he mutters. He tilts his head, studying it carefully, and narrows his eyes as he draws in a slow breath. With the practiced ease of one long used to seeing through illusions, he opens himself to the deeper patterns of the world, calling on his Second Sight [Per + Second Sight Roll: 12] to pierce whatever veil might be laid over the creature.
Thom lingers there, squinting slightly, waiting to see what might be revealed — and then, reaching into a different well of knowledge, he lets his mind turn over old tales and half-remembered teachings about glamour and fae tricks. [Int+Faerie Lore Roll: 12]
“If this is what I think it is…” he says, voice trailing into the trees. He doesn’t touch the goat yet, not wanting to disturb something delicate. “Sometimes the fae leave something behind. Not much. But something.” He glances up, waiting for the signs to come clear.
"Magical or at least interesting things ?"
Sionag sees only a goat, but if Thom said this is fae tricks, she believes him... thinking that she, maybe, will find time in her planning to add some faerie lore studies.
Ruedi scratches his head in confusion. He can see the goat, but Thom saying it isn't a goat, does bring to mind some folk stories he largely dismissed, until now. What else might be true in those folk stories? He silently shook his head. [Int + Faerie Lore roll: 12]
"Is it a good idea to take that? it could well be another faerie trick."
It could be a faerie trick, and Ruedi has heard stories even if he has not seen anything like this. To the seasons animal handler that he is, it looks like a strange disease. The empty stare of the goat reveals no will to live at all. There is no life or liveliness in the eyes.
Thom shrugs, looking again at the goat as he talks to Ruedi.
"Sometimes these kinds of glamour leave behind vis but I'm not entirely sure how to break the glamour here."
Thom reaches out to pet the sickly goat behind the ears, like he often does with the goats in the herd. [Fat Spont InVi 5 Sense the Nature of Vis Roll 8/2=4 Fail]. He frowns but keeps petting it for a bit longer.
"I don't know. I need to think about this some more. Need to figure out how to deal with this glamour. If there is vis here to be had, it could be a reliable vis source. We would just need to build the goat herd into a thriving throng."
There is not, just as you would not smell the vis in a living faerie even if they would leave vis in their bodies when they die.
Thom looks over at Ruedi.
"What do you think?"
Ruedi looks confused. "It seems lifeless, live something sucked the life out of it. But am not sure how or what to do with it. If you say you can use this somehow, I will not stand in your way, but it's outside my expertise."
"Let's take it back to the Circle. It may be that I can break the glamour there," says Thom.
Make an animal handling + presence 9+ to guide the goat semblance back in spite of its non-goat behaviour.
Thom makes an attempt at guiding the glamour goat. While he may love the herd, he certainly knows nothing about animal handling. [Animal Handling + Presence Roll: Near botch, 3]
The goat follows mindlessly, and it is all well until you get to the short descent where the water fall also is, though fifty paces to your right. Then the goat stumbles, and falls, and rolls all the way down the hill, disappearing in a little pufh at the bottom. It leaves behind a glittering little gem, looking like an eye. When you study it, you find one pawn of Vim vis.
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