Novek looked out over the common room of the inn from his position near the door. He hadn't made it more than a few steps inside before his arms and armor had attracted attention, at which point he'd been beset by villagers who began demanding assistance. In a way, it was a refreshing change from the usual suspicious glances and muttering — standing 2.1m tall did that. It could also be the crossbow slung over his back, or the leather-backed braces of throwing knives strapped to forearms and thighs. Or maybe it was the fangs, claws, and tail. Nobody ever really gave an honest answer when asked.
Rather than food and drink, the inn was instead serving as the default town hall and mustering point for the village, Teneskil — per the wooden post he'd passed a few kilometers back. He was waiting for someone from the group of agitated, if not downright terrified, villagers to get it together enough to give him something close to a coherent report. He wasn't holding out much hope that it would be soon, though.
Fifteen minutes later he'd decided that was enough time wasted.
“Someone. Anyone. Give me the short version, start to finish. What happened?”
Three different people all tried their best to summarize the events of the morning at once. The problem was that their best wasn't very good. Talking over one another, going out of order, getting stuck on pointless details, and arguing over what might come next. He suffered through that mess for another few minutes, all while trying to piece together what happened.
The village head was useless — he hadn't been present for anything, but he sure had a lot of opinions about it. The owner of the farm that held two of the fields at least gave a blessedly short summary, but he was panicked and then went on to ramble about what the attacks meant for him personally as three of the victims were his farmhands, and another one of two itinerant workers who often came around during sowing and harvest times to earn some extra coin. It was hard to be sympathetic to the farmer when he didn't have a scratch on him, though. The last speaker was the owner of the smallholding, the third field being worked not part of a farm, just a small plot beside a house. The neighboring farmer would work that field in tandem with his own, then keep a percentage in trade. The smallholder was primarily concerned about her partner, who'd been away to market in the nearby town since the prior day and was due to return from the same direction the attacks had come, so she was understandably concerned. Most of the useful details came from her, as she'd been in hearing range working in her kitchen, where a window looked out over her field, which was adjacent to the other two.
If Novek was getting this right, the farmhands had been attacked at dawn as they were preparing to start a harvest day in the fields by a small pack of animals or beasts. The attacks probably started in the smallholding field, with one silent kill, and one ambush gone wrong where the victim got out a scream before falling silent. Either at the same time or just after, two more victims had started screaming in the larger fields. The order of attacks was not apparent, but one victim tried to make a run for it based on the short path of broken stalks in the field, another had been seen swinging wildly while fighting back, but their scythe was unbloodied. It was this fight where the all but one of the sightings had occurred, as by then others nearby had run to investigate, but the animal wasn't as tall as the crops and so only glimpses had been seen of a dark shape darting back and forth. The end of that fight had come swiftly and decisively — with the unlucky sod's throat torn out. Two farmhands had been nearby the small field, but had reported immediately running to shelter in the nearby shed at the sounds of the screams and shadowy assailant.
There was no consensus on the attackers' species, but the cacophony managed to agree that there had been a small group of mid-sized — less than a meter tall at the shoulder — dark-furred felinids. Or at least the way they moved was cat-like; quadrupedal and agile — nobody living had gotten a good view due to the tall crops and the position of the rising sun just over the copse of trees where the attackers had come from, and retreated to. The attackers had apparently stayed out of sight until they pounced, literally, and attacked in a coordinated manner with claws and fang, per the wounds. All those attacked were killed, there were no wounded left living, and none of the bodies were partially eaten or had been visibly dragged away. All the attacks had taken place in the span of only a few minutes, happened in or around three fields on the east edge of the village, and there had been no warning sounds or activity beforehand.
Novek trusted that to be true for the first attack, at least. Once the screaming started nobody was going to have been listening for incidental noise unless it was very loud.
In total six people had died — each with horrible gashes and rents on arms, legs, or abdomens. A few had torn-out throats, but apparently all had a bite to the neck except the man who'd fought back who had bled out from a severed femoral artery. The details on the wounds came from the aged midwife who had taken upon herself the unenviable duty to prep the bodies for burial. The village had no resident coroner or doctor, they went to a nearby town for that, but absolutely no-one wanted to risk traveling with a murderous group of animals lying in wait, so the midwife's analysis was all they'd have. It would do — she was concise, thorough, and calm.
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One other comment stood out, asserted by a meek looking younger man who wasn't given much credence by the others, but who kept trying to make his voice heard, without much success.
“I saw them yesterday in the woods looking out at the fields. I swear it. They were slinking around the trees at the edge of the forest where it meets the fields for an hour, right before sunset. I told Rannith about it then. She can tell you I did.”
Well now, that's not good, Novek ruminated over what he'd heard, careful to not let his thoughts leak out onto his face.
The details of the attacks and the wounds were concerning. Coordinated ambushes were common for baseline ambush predators. But reconnaissance… recon implied tactics, and tactics implied intelligence. Intelligence was a problem.
Aggressive animals, even Ber, would be easily dealt with — move in pairs, stay armed, don't go near the fields for a couple of days, and they'd likely move on rather than attack. Novek had previously been told that his gauge was slightly miscalibrated for how intimidating a hulking, at least compared to humans, tiger uplift was. He disagreed; he recalled avoiding animals half his size with natural weapons like horns if they decided to stand and fight rather than run; a wounded predator was just prey for something else.
Brin — those uplifted by the Human system like Novek — were more difficult. They were intelligent and could be organized or not, but like any other sophont, they were primarily tool users. Talents — the system-granted skill-powers — were always wildcards with any sophont. A combat-focused talent could turn any Brin into an effective fighter, but a group of combat talent uplifts was rare — outside bandit groups and mercenary companies, at least. They could usually be discouraged by presenting a greater threat with a dash of reason. Novek was sure this wasn't banditry as nothing had been stolen and no-one had been taken for ransom; but it could still be a grudge. People were people, after all, and uplifts were people; almost everyone agreed.
If it was Ber'Dunn, well, if a group was unwilling to negotiate — or even state grievances — it could easily be a disaster. While awakening was similar to uplifting, their augments were at a level above Human or Brin — there wasn't a consensus among Humans whether they were even truly augmented, or if the system merely activated latent capabilities. Which brought up another point — their uplift was handled by the strange and nigh-unfathomable progenitor system that Humans knew little about. Unlike Human and Brin augments which were all relatively unique to the person, Ber'Duun augments were standardized, predictable, and refined in a way that Human augments simply could not match in terms of power or capability. Ber'Duun were capable of using those augments instinctively, within days if not hours of being awakened, and it was more common than not for a group of beasts to be suddenly awakened all at once, rather than one at a time.
Novek knew from experience that if a small group of Ber'Duun wanted something badly enough, it could take a mercenary company or an entire city militia to dissuade them. He decided it was time to take charge of the situation.
“Okay, we don't know what we're dealing with, so we're in the unenviable position of needing to prepare for anything. Not my favorite planning position. Running down the likely scenarios and basic responses — I don't recommend a bunker-down wait-and-see approach — usually what I'd suggest if we knew it was just a roving pack of hungry hunters. Next up is my preferred strategy for dealing with some angry Brinnies. Form a defense squad to watch the village, and a nice and well-armed, threatening looking negotiating party to find the enemy and try to parley. Uplifts are smart enough to respond to reason, but not usually strong enough that a good show of force won't cause them to reconsider — same as any other sophont.”
“The problem is that if we send out a negotiating party, it isn't going to be able to stop a group of pissed off Ber'Dunn unless you've got some real heavy-hitters along. If the attacking force was intelligent but willing to be reasonable, they wouldn't have attacked without warning or making demands first.”
“So, given all that it looks like we have an enemy force possibly performing recon, giving no warning or attempts to negotiate, a coordinated rapid ambush, and stealth attacks meant to be silent, I'm going to recommend that you gather the village into one or two buildings, fortify them, and arm yourselves and prepare for a second assault. The throat bites were likely intended to keep the kills silent, but something went wrong.”
“Unless you have reason to believe that the attackers got what they wanted out of the first attack, the only safe assumption is that there's going to be a follow-up. So we prepare accordingly. Of course, they might not attack, or have moved on already, in which case we'll just have a nice time getting to know each other. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.”
“Who here has any combat experience? How many weapons do we have, and can we get our hands on any others? What's the most defensible building that can hold everyone, two if necessary. And let's get some people axes and knives and start putting points on sticks while we plan.”
