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Oliver raised an eyebrow, this was possibly the most people he had ever been near at one point that actually wanted to be near him. Then he amended his thought, when he had been a gladiator people wanted to be close to him, they thought that his sweat and bodily fluids made good aphrodisiacs. He smiled grimly to himself before looking up and addressing the stranger," 'Ello." He greeted him, before he began to move his mouth back and forth, as if weighing his options," Well," He started carefully," I guess something, or someone, has been killing, or kidnapping, people. Which, has led me here." He explained.

“Yes it is me, unless you speak fox this is the best way for communicating right now. Also the better term would be eating, I have found pieces of people in the woods around my home. It seems to ignore most animals, I have seen remains of a few deer though.” the monster appeared to only eat some of each kill, overall a very wasteful creature. Larisa had been living mainly as a fox the last few weeks, her deer and human forms would attract the attention of the thing. As for her owl form it just simply could not carry all she needed from the market. So fox it was, though she did miss having thumbs all the time.

Oliver's eyes grew wide in surprise. His first shock was the talking fox, and the second the fact that whatever was out there was eating people. He shook his head, this did not bode well with him. He breathed in to steady himself as his knuckles tightened around the pommel of his sword. He looked down at the ornate engravings and gemstone in the pommel and the corners of his mouth rose into a fond half grin.

Meanwhile a certain elven street vendor packed up his things and wrapped his dark green cloak around his slim frame. The color blended in perfectly with the dark backdrop of the setting sun on the woods. He disappeared into the alley with a glint of steel from his blade, and a glint of light from his eye. The knife flashed in and out as he slit a man's throat on the way by. The blodd spewed on the alleyway and covered the stones around him. The blood began to pool around the poor unsuspecting victim.

Oliver gasped. He wasn't accustomed to seeing such dishonorable killings, normally he atleast gave his opponents a chance. His mouth hang open for another several moments before he closed it and shook the thick fog of surprise from his mind. He looked around to make sure everyone else had seen it as well and began to race off to catch the man.

(( I'm really busy right now so if i don't respond it's because i'm trying to catch up on thing))

Jones at tuned out when oliver was talking to him due to the fact he couldn't hear at the moment.
Since he took off his helmet everything was louder than it originally was.
How did jones end up like this? in this village.
It was because his friend was missing and his friend's wife asked him to find him.
So he came here and started searching but during his search he swore every day he could hear screams or people's flesh being torn apart all he knew was that something laid in those woods and whatever it was it didn't like people.

Morkhan grimaced at the tale of the man-eater. He would have to get a look at the corpses to get a better idea of what this thing might be. He was pondering the different man-eating beasts he knew when the elf's movements caught his attention. What he didn't expect was for the elf to slit that one man's throat and run. While the luckling ran towards the elf, he ran to the body and used cure wounds to heal the slash. He then used revivify to bring the man back to life. He was drained, but it was worth it. The man was unconscious and weak, but alive. Morkhan pushed himself up to his feet and propped himself up on his axe. He used the last of his magic to put a tracker on each of the people picked by the ravens. It would do him no good to lose them now. At this point he was in no condition to run, or even walk, so he stood guard over the unconscious man. He was lucky that a cleric with a focus on necromancy and healing had been right there, or else he would almost certainly have stayed dead.

Oliver, while being strong and battle ready, was not a runner. He could run shirt distances but normally he fought people with honor, and people with honor don't run away from a fight. He was breathing hard by the fourth alley, and barely running by the seventh, which was admittedly longer than most would've lasted but he still cursed himself. He leaned up against the side of a hut and rested his head against it's wall. He painted heavily as sweat ran into his eyes. He brushed them away angrily as he slid down into a sitting position. He eventually got his breathing back under control and slowly stood up, hissing in pain as his weary limbs protested against this action. He got up and walked slowly back to the center of town, his shirt stuck to his body with sweat. He shook his head like a dog to make the sweat fly off of him. He walked over to the man that he had seen die and looked between the priest and the now living man. He raised an eyebrow before shaking his head and walking away wearily.

Larisa would have frowned if a fox could have, but she lacked the facial muscles. She knew she wasn’t immune from human behaviors but at the same time they all seemed so wasteful. Killing should only be used to provide food, never just because. The wastefulness of it all bothered her. She would have charged after the killer but she could only do so much as a fox. Plus if she was to change into a human it would take to long.

She went to investigate the dead man, only to find the strange magic man healing him. Larisa had some basic magic skills, but nothing at this level. It was impressive to say the least. Her whole family had some sort of magic, it just seemed to go in hand with the shifting, though it was untrained. As she sat next to the man in the cloak she spotted several other people watching them, though no one made any moves towards them.

Oliver sat down by a house resting himself there while he nursed his ego. He looked around through the sweat running down his face and into his eyes. He watched as the fox continued moving and walked to the man that had saved the dead man. Oliver was still unsure about the fox that spoke, and the priest with an odd mask. Life here was strange, although Oliver supposed he was following strange.

Oliver sighed, he was fine now, able to breath normally and he had stopped sweating. He still didn't want to get up and look at the dead man, but he figured he owed to the man. If he had been able to catch the killer then he wouldn't feel as if he owed anything to this man, but he had not caught anything. He sidled over next to the healer," How did you do that?" He asked.

Black was gone only to reappear with the man in his arms.
" Why is this guy running?" He asked confused. His helmet was on again and had kept the man from getting free.
He noticed the dead man and than looked at the alive one and slammed him next to oliver.
" Kill him" He scoffed keeping the man pinned down with his foot.
He was pissed and seeing a pissed off Black was like seeing a pissed off monster.

" This man will pay for his crimes" He scoffed.
" He shall die by the hands of justice" He looked at the man and at oliver.
" Kill him before I do because if I kill him then" he laughed a bit.
" Let's say there will be a river of blood from this man" He smirked under his helmet.
Black could get dark if he wanted to, especially if it was because of an innocent person was killed without any reasoning as to why?
That made no sense and when he heard the others talking about this monster it made him more aggitated. A monster killing people now that...that he had to destroy

Oliver raised an eyebrow," You really think he deserves that kind of grace? I mean, he didn't even give this man a chance to defend himself. And we should prolly ask him what that was for, and the one that's... kinda dead... I think as to why someone would want him dead. I mean there's all kinds of things we could learn from him." He shrugged," And I don't agree with killing a man without giving him a chance, even one that is guilty of unhonorable murder." He explained, rather squeamishly.

He looked down at the two and keeled down to look at the elf, he pulled the dark hood down and stared into his eyes with a deep hatred." So, what might you be doing here?" He asked, a threat underlying the question. His eyes slid along the many scars across the elf' s face, he wasn't sure what they meant. If you had a scar it generally meant you had fought, if you had several it generally meant you didn't fight very well. But that didn't make sense, if this man was an assassin then why would he have gotten into a fair fight?

The elf glared for several long moments before answering," I was killing a cultist, whatya think I was doin'" He snarled." If you continue healing him, his compatriots will think that your alright with horrible murders, atleast I was going to give him a quick death. They give slow painful deaths, their dark magic is powered by pain. If they can gather enough of it they can summon all kinds of horrible things." He explained, and as he explained Oliver looked back to the ,now living, man. He noticed a small tattoo behind his ear, it was a word. A word in some other language, although it called to Oliver like magic did.

Morkhan began to recover some of his strength as he and the fox watched over the revived man. He felt the luckling come back after running after that elf. When the luckling asked him how he had revived that man, Morkhan simply held up his axe a little. Besides, the boy was quickly distracted by the elf, now pinned by that other boy in armor. Morkhan turned to the fox and spoke in a quiet rumble, "You, Fox, what is your name?". It had been almost 10 years since last he saw a druid. One of his past life's memories rose to the forefront of his mind, back when druids were far more prevalent, before Raven-Fall. He banished it quickly, for one could easily become lost in other's memories.

Larisa knew of many shifters or druids, though they had become rather reclusive living mainly in their animal forms. Or at least the several family groups she knew. Of course there was her one cousin who lived with Selkies, but he was a rare case as he could only shift into a seal. So it made sense for him. Then there was Larisa who had left to find her own way.

“Larisa” she glanced over as Oliver came back and then as Black brought the killer. Pinning her ears at the suggestion to kill the man she remembered why she lived away from humans most of the time. They were rather violent and it just rubbed her the wrong way. As they stranger spoke she couldn’t help but feel more irritated, of course it was a cult. Why not it? Clearly messing with powerful magic and torture was the perfect combination.

" magic's nothing but torture in this world" he sighed and let go of the guy.
" Look what he did was wrong so I won't kill him this time next time he kills someone I'll won't hesitate" he sighed
and sat on a piece of wood.
" So what are you guys planning...I need to figure out a few things about what lies in the woods"

Jones wasn't kidding he needed to find out, to find his friend before
it was too late cause if he didn't he be screwed and that my friends
wasn't something he needed at the moment.
' These magical people drive me nuts...magic is nothing but a danger
and kills those who are innocent if this
reason why everyone is going missing is because of magic I swear I'll die' jones thought

Oliver shook his head passionately," No. Magic isn't evil, magic isn't anything. Not without a wielder. Heck, my very birth is proof that magic is everywhere. And, it messed up. So, I mean, magic makes mistakes like the rest of us, but it isn't evil. Not unless it's being used by someone evil." He explained before grinning at his philosophical he sounded.To prove his point he spun his hand, conjuring a shield in front of him," My magic protects." He inclined his head to Mordenkainen," And, he just healed a man with what I believe is magic."

Oliver gently tapped the symbol, unsure of how he felt about it. It felt like magic, but he wasn't entirely certain what kind," Do any of you know what kind of magic this could be?" He asked the group.