Larry
A large gentleman sits outside the deli as the police officers speak to him, presumably the titular Larry. It looks like Larry has seen better days if the blood-soaked apron he has wrapped around his leg is any indication. You pause and listen to Larry’s story to the officers as they try to get an idea of what’s happening.
“I-I don’t know, officer!” Larry glances with a scared look in his eye toward the door of his deli, a small trail of blood leading out said door toward Larry’s current position. “One minute I’m at the meat slicer getting the display ready for the morning, the next my leg’s on fire and I fall to the ground! Then something knocked me to the ground and started clawing at me! I couldn’t see nothing, but I felt it on me! I threw it off and crawled out here and called you guys after that!”
Larry indicates the deep scratches on his arms as the police try to calm him down. However crazy his story is, he was attacked by something or someone. If your job in this game is to maintain the balance between worlds, taking care of a seemingly invisible monster seems like a good place to start. The officers are too busy trying to make sense of his crazy story and assuring him that an ambulance is on the way to notice the already partially open door pushing open just a little further as the three of you slip into the deli.
<Remain vigilant.> Nilana warns as your eyes scan the room, finding no immediate threats. <The only thing we know for certain of our quarry is that it does not belong in this world. Otherwise our presence here would not be required.>
The store front seems normal save for the trail of blood from the fleeing Larry, a trail that looks as though it began behind the counter. Peering careful around the corner of the counter shows the floor is covered in smeared blood, most likely the result of Larry’s fight. There’s no sign of anything on the slicer that he was supposedly using; did whatever attacked him take it? If it did, it probably went toward the back.
That suspicion seems confirmed when you noticed what could only be a set of foot prints leading toward the back of the store from the blood pool. It’s not a print from a shoe or boot, but an actual print from a blood covered foot. Goodness knows what kind of animal left it, though. The footprint looks like…
Written by LunaMoonstone on 15 March 2018