[EVENT] Massacre

[Arcane]

TW: Death

Fort sent out a party to search for a tithe caravan that was a few days overdue. You arrive to find the caravan destroyed and all the food plundered. The caravan's guards and driver lie dead on the ground, their bodies covered in large bite marks. There are no survivors. The whers in the party can smell the faded scents of other of their own kind.

[Dragon]

Briolette inspected the dead caravan members in dismay, one hand placed lightly on Briosk's back as much for her comfort as to keep him close. This should not have happened, not under any circumstances. Certainly, working on a caravan wasn't safe, but this still shouldn't have happened. It was a travesty.

Whers, Briosk noted. Blood. Death. Strange whers. Too close. In our territory. He growled, a half-reflexive curling of his lip. Should not be.

[nineofswords]

Columbo dismounted from Lumsk's back and slowly walked through the carnage, pausing to examine the bodies more closely, seeing what he could glean from the bodies, from the marks in the ground. Was there surprise on any of the faces of the dead, indicating that the attack had been swift and unnoticed until it was too late? Were there drag marks in the dirt, showing someone had been dragged away or a survivor had crawled away from the carnage to hide? Were the wounds intended to kill quickly, or to cause pain? He was looking for anything and everything that might shed some light on this situation.

'Lumsk, do me a favor? See if you can sort out an estimate of how many of 'em there were.'

Can try, Lumsk said, taking in the carnage as well. But scent old. Will be hard.

'Well, do what you can. I know it's a long shot, but maybe we'll learn something new. Can't hurt.'

At the brown's thoughts, he turned to look at the pair, slipping a toothpick into his mouth to gnaw on as he thought. "It's strange, though, don't you think?" Columbo asked. "Whers don't usually go out of their way to attack people. They defend themselves, or their nests, they'll attack livestock for food, but they're too smart to deliberately antagonize people. They know that doesn't end well." He turned back to the gruesome sight of the former caravan. "So it narrows down what we're looking at, here. Whers could've hunted someone down that they felt wronged them, and attacked everyone who got in their way. Could also be a younger pack, one who lacks common sense and is looking to make their mark on this territory." The clues were all there. He just needed to find them, and then these whers could be prevented from hurting anyone else like this.

[Dragon]

Honestly, Briolette hadn't yet considered the thought that this might have been a wild wher pack. Columbo's ideas were good ones - it very well could have been a young pack who didn't realize that the whers at the Weyr considered this their territory, or had been after someone they thought had wronged them.

She had been looking for signs of human involvement.

Which was something she should probably voice. If there had been humans involved, this was an entirely different problem than if it were a wild pack. So they had to consider all possibilities here.

"Are there any signs that humans were involved?" she asked, looking to see if she could find any. Briosk put his nose back to the ground, searching for signs of human scents other than the ones of the dead caravan members. Scent old, Briosk noted, sniffing determinedly. Will try.

"What do you think, Columbo, Lumsk? Are we looking for a group with humans, or just wild whers?" She didn't know which option was worse.