Vara sighed to herself as she and the other Rovers left the Lucky Y Ranch, home to the alleged cattle rustler Tyrel Sackett. This whole situation was turning into a bigger distraction than she intended.
“Make some easy money and be on your way…” she thought, mockingly, as she picked at the scars on her wrists. “We’ve spent four days in this town and it doesn’t seem there is going to be any quick resolution.” The thought, “What am I missing?”, started building into a terrible chorus inside her head as she started digging into her scars hard enough to draw blood.
They had arrived at Firestorm Ranch three days earlier and talked to the foreman, Burton, about the smoking dogs that guarded the ranch, as well as the missing cows. Burton only contributed further rumors about the Lucky Y Ranch and its inhabitants (Drusilla the Tiefling lady of the house, and a fire-breathing horse) while offering little useful information. “He did mention the shared watering hole at the bottom of the valley, though. That seems extremely convenient…”, Vara mused.
“Oh, right…” Vara thought, half-chuckling, half-annoyed, “the druid started talking to the cows as well.”
After the druid had finished playing with the cows, they walked the perimeter of the fenced-in Firestorm Ranch and found nothing. They decided to head back to town before finally confronting Tyrel face to face.
“Our trip back to town provided a much needed respite, as well as our most promising lead yet.” Vara’s face took on a look of tempered admiration as she thought, “Urs is a simple creature, but that boy can fight. He took those Quaggoth that jumped Avery head on, even as Avery ran away leaving him alone with the two beasts.”
Bratak had mentioned that Quaggoth were unusual in this area as they had been mostly sequestered to the Canyonlands. “They can burrow and burst through the Earth. Maybe we did write them off too soon… I don’t know how Urs was the first to put it together though… Oversights like that can be costly,” she thought, as her face got suddenly cold and again she dug into her scars.
The Wild Rovers made it back to town without further issue and Urs picked up a new warmaul from the town smith. “Another oversight…” she thought as she gritted her teeth, remembering how that smith had seen some kind of inscriptions on her longsword. “I’ve had this longsword since…”, Vara closed her eyes and winced at the memory, “and never once had I noticed those scrawlings,” she finished the thought as her eyes threatened to betray the pain she felt.
She found Beeho in Fatty O’Malley’s without Barnabas. However, talking to him only further demonstrated that most of Beeho’s ideas on the situation came from Barnabas.
As they were preparing to head out to the Lucky Y Ranch, Avery and Desmond proposed that Desmond turn into a cow with a Firestorm brand and Avery would then try to sell this stolen steer to Tyrel to test his integrity. “Desmond’s usual flair for reading situations sank that plan before it ever started,” Vara thought as she shook her head. Tyrel had spotted them camped out in the field near his ranch and, upon seeing Tyrel, Desmond turned into a cow, revealing his capabilities.
When they actually rolled up to the ranch the next day, Tyrel played along but let slip after the fact that he knew what they were trying before they even showed up. “His anger seemed real enough, but it could have just been because we were trying to trap him,” Vara thought. Tyrel had spun a well put together story about why his herd of cows was flourishing and insisted he wasn’t a criminal, though he wouldn’t let the Rovers inspect his cattle.
“Quaggoth in the area seems the most likely cause for Barnabas’s and Beeho’s missing livestock,” Vara thought before gritting her teeth, “but if it isn’t and one of these worthless shits lied to me, they’re going to wish they hadn’t.”