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[a series of wooden planks are set among the trees around the beetle cave, each bearing the same carefully woodburned pattern]
(http://www.msu.edu/~huntjere/potm/circlemessage.jpg)
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One that would travel towards the Romulich farm see a half-devoured cow by the bridge, organs ripped out blood smeared all over the tree and the board by the bridge. The cow was dragged out from the broken up barn of the Romulich manor. Deep tracks of a large predator were found all over the place, a ranger or druid would be able to follow it towards the Balinoks through the forests. Strange tracks, belonged to a larger bear, walking on it's hind legs.
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Many of the trees in the Romulich Orchard stand unharvested. Many of the cheap labor, Gundarakite Labor was forced to flee due to the Registration. Despite the shame of recent occurrences, the old family sent a petition to the Citadel requesting a reprieve. Fears being that without cheap labor the family may go bankrupt.
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Much activity is seen at the Romulich Farm in the morning as Garda are seen visiting, a servant woman was seen crying and some of the labourers noted that her Daughter Ana, had disappeared in the night. She and her husband woke up to find her gone from the family bed. Later that same morning representatives of both the Ezra Cult and the Morninglords Cult visited, after the morninglord representative left, both the servant and her husband where seen to break down.
The Romulich's present where seen to be talking angrily to the Garda representatives and their coach was later seen rushing into the town.
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Sightings increase of a large wolf roaming the farmlands and western shores of lake Zarovich.
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In the night air around the farm lands, small pistol shots can be heard followed by the clash of thunder and lightening. The next day. a large pool of blood can be found on the ground in the northern farmlands. Many foot prints seem to litter the ground as if there was a large group of people standing there. Near the pool of blood, it looks like something or someone was dragged away. The trail leads north near Constantines before vanishing.
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A team of drovers and pick-axe men (Barovians, but of a breed of religious types rather than normal superstitious peasants) is seen working in the orchard of the Northwest Farmlands, overseen by the Ezrite Marcus Hulford. Those who stand at the entrance of the gates as the work goes on can see a black altar and a statue in the centre of the orchard, being smashed to pieces and carted away in chunks. The chunks are blessed by local priests before being dumped into Lake Vallaki. Later, the men are seen retiring to a tavern, where they all eat and drink heartily on the Ezrite's tab.
The more observant would note, the blighted trees at the centre of the orchard suggest that this altar had been there for a long time prior to today's events... Rumours as to its origins and significance spread like wildfire. The only thing that's certain is that nobody is talking.
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[A large ruckus is made as farmers discover their barns have been broken into and robbed during the winter. Not only has all of their remaining food been stolen, but all of their stored seeds as well!
Gheorghe Puscasu has been roaming around outside his orchard ranting loudly about having to hire security to keep his trees safe.]
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Mutterings spread of an attack in the early hours of the evening... Barovian farmers struck by some sort of creature of old noapte. Screams of fear and pain broke out over the fields, just as the sun sunk down. Those willing to investigate in the first hours of the morning would find a trio of farmers, slaughtered. Faint, black, spider web-like lines extend from all of the slashed wounds, and their skin seems pale, drained of life.
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The loud, agonised cries of a man could be heard by those living nearby. By the time morning came, there was nothing but a large dead wolf, and the blood-stained plate armour of a Light-Carrier, a wooden spear mere inches from where the rocky stones of the path road rested
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(https://i.imgur.com/qvQQYij.png)
Come morning the local serfs discover a scene of slaughter and carnage. A local farmer wakes to find several of his livestock killed and partially eaten.
Woodsmen and trackers attempt to identify the culprit but are confused by the muddy tracks. Large feline prints the size of dinner plates are found but most confusing two; too many paw prints are counted.
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Packs of wolves brazenly circled around the farmsteads, and their blood-curdling howls kept every single soul awake. Come morning, peasants discovered paw prints the size of a horse hoof in the snow right under their windows, and the front door of one of the houses was covered in deep scratches....
...something was trying to get in, and who knows what would have happened if it actually succeeded...
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A plume of smoke billowed into the grey Barovian skies over the Northwestern farmlands of Vallaki during the twilight hours of the early morning. The Romulich estate and orchard bore the hideous scars of the either tragedy or a malicious act. A grouping of trees within the copse had been savagely burned, charred husks of barren branches and trunks jutting up into the sky, a blight upon the previously pristine beauty of the grove. The Romulich’s pride, their distillery in its entirety, was singed and blackened. What could have been an utter calamitous event was only narrowly mitigated by the fervor and expeditious reaction of the Romulich’s trusted laborers and staff. Bucket brigades from the nearby family well extinguished the flames and prevented the entirety of the compound from begin consumed by the catastrophic blaze as they labored against the heat throughout the morning.
Meanwhile, rumors swirled within the local Vallaki populace gossiping about the exodus of patrons, staff, and Ylenia Romulich herself from their gambling establishment in the slum districts, The Prancing Nymph. The throng left with haste, turning to the east towards the smoldering Romulich lands. In their wake, in the early morning hours, commotion and activity was abound around and within the Nymph, culminating in a broad, posted proclamation and barring of the doors: “The Prancing Nymph is temporarily closed.”
The truth of all that occurred this fateful evening and morning revolving around the influential Barovian family is mired in speculation, unknown to nearly all.
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Various corpses of slaughtered farmers begin to crop up. Some look tortured to death... others are more gruesome... deaths ranging from being ripped in half, their intestines lying in the bloody grass, heads torn off, eyes gouged out, tongues ripped out... Some are even hung by their own line of intestines or their throats ripped out...even one with it's spine ripped out.
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The werewolf attacks grew suddenly more aggressive today... One family was dragged out. The father, mother, grandmother, uncle, and aunt slaughtered. Though two children were left alive - shivering with fear. A single bloody pawprint has been placed on the wall where the door has been broken down. The bodies were later found by the bridge near the Orphanage west of the outskirts.
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Various outlanders are seen to be carrying animal corpses off the beaten path. At night, riddling words can be occasionally heard from within the forests beyond the farmlands. Those who explore between the trees might find the intestines of beasts sprawled over wide stones, arranged in strange and inconsistent spiral patterns.
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(https://i.imgur.com/BKjdt3y.png)
A putrid miasma wafts from a field past the orchards in the Northwestern fields. The corn crop is moldering and slimly with rot, the stocks black and crumbling.
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A number of bloodied bits of parchment begin to appear in various places, all reading the same thing:
My minions are mindless beasts that do as instructed out of fear. You do not want me to join the fight proper. This is your last opportunity before I begin taking lives. Volunteer a Corvaran Half-blood for a conversation, or suffer.
Beneath the wording are a number odd symbols, except for those who understand Vistani Tralaks.
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Early in the morning, a man dressed as a Vallaki Garda was seen carrying a body. After reaching the farmlands he allegedly dropped the body into a field, turned, and walked back towards the grey city. It was later revealed that this body belonged to a female member of the Vallaki Garda
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Gruesome noises reverberate throughout the Northwest Farmlands as the hour of the wolf fades away. As morning arrives, a horrific scene awaits the morning workers and travelers, leaving a disturbing sight to be discovered.
(https://i.imgur.com/NVHOSqH.png)
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The passed morning greets a strange scene: as two green-clad Ezrites pass through the roads towards Raduta, a ghostly-appearing hog passes by them as they greet another of their church on the road - a sight that soon turns to danger as unnatural lightning lashes the nearby forest. The three green-cloaked Ezrites go to investigate, returning with a haunted-looking tribal man and covered in the ichor and carapace of many spiders, completing their travel to the Chapel after.
Whatever could have travailed, in those dark places of the woods?
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A tall blonde woman and a shorter hooded figure could be seen combing the area on the way to Zeklos. Whether they found anything or not they could be seen heading back to the outskirts after dawn broke.