The party heads for Pe'rigon with as much haste as possible without drawing attention to themselves or kill their horses.
They make good time along the road passing a merchant caravan or two and several local peasants traveling back and forth from their homes and the local markets or towns.
Avoiding too much contact with anybody, they make it to Pe'rigon late on the fifth day of travel. Just after dusk, a blazing red comet appears in the night sky and lights up the whole area with scarlet fires. The comet appears to be hovering over the area and not traveling across the sky as one would expect.
As the party approaches the city gate, the guards quickly usher them through as they are more distracted by the comet and possibly other issues.
Once inside the gate, you see nearly vacant streets as most people are hiding inside or gathered inside the local taverns to discuss the strange portents and what the comet could possibly mean.
"What the hell?" says Hunter amazed at what he is seeing. "If this isn't magic then what is it?" he continues while looking for one of the guards and asking, "What is that, has it happened before?"
Out of Character: How far is the comet from our location?
The comet hangs high in the sky overhead. When Hunter asks the guards, they absentmindedly with a little bit of fear and confusion, "No, I've never seen anything like this before. Have you? It must be some kind of portent!"
Entering the nearest tavern, all of the chatter is about the comet and what it could mean. There are even some in the crowd who are loudly asking if the comet could be tied to the Beast of Averoigne which has been blamed for several deaths of both people and animals over the course of the last several nights.
Hunter shrugs at the guard and shakes his head that he doesn't know any better. Hunter inquires about the Beast among the people as usual tossing two gold to the barkeep to see if he can give more than the patrons.
Gabriel also asks about the beast, surprised and curious to learn what everyone was talking about. He will listen to what the patrons have to say about what is going on.
"Well that sign in the sky does not bold well for someone. I do not care to think about it's meaning this evening. Though tonight I do care for a hot bath, a nice bed and a warm meal that is not hard tack. Bar Keep do you have rooms for rent if so consider one sold for the evening, I will also take the evening meal and a cold ale. Also do you happen to have a bard in the house that can spin a yarn or two I would gladly contribute to his fees if he told a tale of this so called beast people are talking about."
During the evening Ardo will listen to the stories of this so called beast and if purchase a drink or two to patrons that seem to now anything more than just idle gossip.
It's not hard to overhear the conversation in the tavern. It's a little more difficult to get the attention of the barkeep as he's flitting from one conversation to the next, quickly interjecting a comment here and there, and then moving on the next all the while filling drink orders.
It seems that everybody in the tavern is either talking about the comet in the sky or the beast. And many of them are talking about both.
The beast has been stalking the town over the course of the last two nights. It attacks both man and animal alike. It attacks its victims and tears them apart. The only thing it appears to eat is the marrow from the bones of its victims.
Possibly the most interesting thing that you hear is that a group of townsfolk who have vowed to find and kill the beast, appear to have tracked it down and are closing in on it somewhere near the town abbey.
There are rooms available for the night should you choose to spend the evening.