An attempt to understand the events that are taking place in the village of Olinsford.

Hearing your question about the corpses of the victims of the beast and the strange symbols on these corpses, Jacob becomes gloomy. Probably, the topic of conversation is so unpleasant and serious that even such an arrogant and rude guy like this peasant feels uncomfortable.

Jacob gets up from his chair, quickly walks somewhere deeper into the room and rummages through the closet. He takes out his cloth pants and puts them on.

You mentally sigh with satisfaction: “Finally, this asshole will stop shaking his dick at me!”

Then the peasant returns and sits on the chair.

He grunts with displeasure and begins to say: “About a week ago, a monster attacked a family of peasants who were trying to escape from the village. It happened near the western road. This is the only road that leads from the village of Olinsford towards more populated areas. I'm not a sentimental guy, but even I was sickened to see the consequences what the monster did with their bodies. Torn, bloody pieces of meat were simply lying on the road. The vile beast killed everyone: a peasant man, his wife, and three children. No wolf (even a very big one) could do this: severed heads, crushed skulls, half-eaten torsos of bodies and pieces of meat that were just recently arms and legs.”

Jacob interrupts the story briefly. You see his fingers nervously tapping the surface of the chair.

You ask a follow-up question: “Did you help other peasants bury their bodies? Did you notice anything suspicious on the corpses?”

Your interlocutor narrows his eyes and says: “Probably, this information was not told to you by the old bald shit-eater Durlen... Indeed: me and several other guys brought the bodies of the victims of the beast to the village cemetery to bury. I noticed something strange on each of the bodies. It might just appear as bloody claw marks on human flesh. Marks from very large claws. But, if you look closely, you can discern the same pattern in these scars. Is it an image, a symbol, a letter? Who knows! Unclear! This sign looks like a triangle with a vertical line in the center. I was trying to figure out the meaning of this symbol. I had assumptions about who to ask for help. Alas, I found out nothing.”

Jacob takes a small piece of old thick parchment from the pocket of his cloth pants, bends down and takes out a small knife (the knife was hidden behind the top of his boot). Then your interlocutor cuts out on the parchment the very symbol he spoke about. He hands a piece of parchment to you.

You take this thing and put it in your bag. This may be useful to you.

You also think that you should ask this impudent guy about other features of the events taking place in the village.

You ask the question: "It seems that one of the local peasant hunters has already tried to kill this beast? The hunter was killed by a wolf near an old abandoned mine in the south?"

Now Jacob’s face expresses poorly restrained anger: "We tried to kill this fucking monstrous scum! We tried to do this more than once! Rolf tracked down the monster and near the mine, Rolf ambushed the monster. And all this happened with the participation and approval of the fucking hypocrite Durlen! What was the result?! All that was left of my friend Rolf's body was bloody scraps! The shit-eating Durlen began to tell everyone that Rolf was an incompetent hunter and that we urgently need to collect money from the whole village in order to hire some elite hunter from a large city! And now sitting in front of me is this fucking cocksucker elite hunter who can’t do a damn thing against a monster! Fucking shit-eating elite hunter who can only kiss the head of my dick, talk and take money! His Majesty Raul the Cocksucker!"

Your interlocutor is close to losing self-control and simply starting to repeat a stream of dirty curses.

Fortunately, Jacob was able to restrain himself.

He continues to say, "Well... If you even try to harm the monster, the monster may be weakened after disemboweling your body. Then the village militia will have at least a small chance of killing the weakened monster."

You decide to talk on an unrelated topic: “I was somewhat surprised by the external situation in your house. This is a little atypical for an ordinary peasant. Your house looks quite rich from the inside. From the outside the impression is completely different.”

Jacob grins saucily and says, "Oh! What an observant... cocksucker you are! Ha! Ha! Perhaps you will soon begin to understand that there are many things that are not what they initially seem! Indeed: I have some... additional income! Income that I won't tell you in detail to some pompous shit eater like you! But you can ask a similar question to your favorite ass licker Durlen Gruy! Ask him where he got the funds to build and maintain an inn in such a sparsely populated wilderness! Ask him who gave him money and who helped him become the headman of the village! You might learn a lot of interesting things! Ha! Ha!"

The more your communication with this guy continues, the more the desire grows in your soul to grab this guy by the neck and smash his head on the wooden floor until only a bloody cake remains from his head.

You can hardly contain your anger.

Luckily, you are distracted because something in the conversation has caught your attention.

You ask: “Regarding the strange symbols on the corpses of the monster’s victims: you said that you had ideas about who to ask for help. What exactly did you mean? Who did you try to get help deciphering the symbols?”

Jacob waves his hand indifferently and says, “It didn’t work out. I tried to went to the house of Meribela. This old woman is a local peasant healer and lives in an old dilapidated house in the north of the village. She understands medicinal herbs and decoctions, knows old tales and legends, and one more thing: she knows a little writing (unlike most villagers). I assumed that she would be able to understand the meaning of these strange symbols. But she said they were just scars. I don’t agree with this, but it’s obvious that I couldn’t get help from this old woman. She probably just doesn’t know shit.”

You are wondering whether you should pay a visit to the house of the old healer woman Meribela to try to find out at least something (perhaps Jacob was unable to find out anything due to his rude nature and impudent manner of communication). Even if she cannot help you figure out the meaning of the strange symbols, you can try to get at least some other help from her (for example: useful potions).

For a couple of minutes you ask Jacob about the details of how you can get to the house of the old healer woman Meribela.

Then you leave this inhospitable house.