Even if the orcs' tent hadn't been plopped rudely in he center of town, old Djoth would have been able to find the sisters by smell alone, following the greasy burned-hair-and-carrion stench of rotisserie skunk.

His limping shape, longsword strapped across his back with the familiarity of a lifetime of use, crossed the square towards the camp without any attempt at stealth or surprise. He came close enough to stand within the orange gleam of their campfire but no closer. Maintaining his distance wasn't something his demeanor would normally have predicted, but he hadn't come alone.

A woman was with him, short even for a human, her auburn hair a messy braid down her back and her deeply shadowed eyes downcast as she twisted her hands into the faded checkered apron tied around her waist. She was middle-aged, and somewhat portly as many women with children became as they got older. 

"We came to speak to Bula," Djoth told the three younger sisters, stooping to drop a small wooden cask that he'd been carrying under his arm. The small barrel sloshed, sounding full. 

The pair was silent until Bula appeared, Djoth surveying the camp and the Orcs with a shrewd stare, the woman watching the sisters at first but then glancing out into the trees as if there was something out there she feared more than four beastly green orcesses. 

When Bula finally showed herself, Djoth eyed her lack of clothing with a smirk before he started to speak.

"If it were up to me you'd be setting up camp far away here tonight. Yeh've got a lot to learn about soliciting a small town for work." It was pretty clear that he wasn't at all confident about Bula's claims.

"But it ain't up to me." And he glanced down at the top of his companions head, pursing his stubbled lips. "This is Wyanna. Her two youngest boys both went missing earlier this year and she thinks she seen what took 'em."

"Not what, [i]who![/i]" Wyanna blustered, her voice surprisingly loud and unsurprisingly desperate. "It's that...[i]man[/i]...that...[i]animal[/i]-man. He can turn into a beast. He moved into the area two months before the first little boy..."

Her words were rushed and breathless, grief-stricken and desperate.

"I live just up the hill. He comes into town to buy food and arrows every few weeks. I ain't never seen him around my place until the day before my little Benjie..." She was forced to pause, stifling a sob. Djoth put his arm around her shoulder and patted her. Wyanna wiped her eyes with her apron and continued.

"I seen him walking through the trees, watching my boys play by the river. He didn't see me putting out my washing to dry. I didn't like the way he was watching the boys so I called them back to me. When he saw me he turned and ran. One minute he was a man, but then I swear the next minute there was only a dog running through the woods away from me."

Wyanna was frantic, desperate to be believed. Djoth shushed her somewhat succesfully as the woman stared at each tusked face in turn.

Djoth continued for her, distressed by Wyanna's grief but stoically providing her with a shoulder to cry on.

"She's the only one here that seen him come near any of the children who went missing. She has one boy left she's worried about." That seemed to suggest that Wyanna was the only reason Djoth wa willing to deal with the Orcs.

"The only name we know this man by is Slade. He's thin, sandy brown hair. It's a tricky situation because ain't no one actally seen him do anything wrong, so Brecker, the farmer Slade buys from, still wants his business. But the timing is suspicious. Ain't nobody seen Slade 'cept right before the kids go missin' and when their bodies come back." Wyanna sobbed especially loud at this and shook her had, eyes squinting as though to banish the painful memories.

"They turn up here by the river, dried up and sort of...drained-looking. Never seen anything like it. I've heard of were-people (he pronounced it "way-er") coming a bit mad but..." He shook his head and shrugged. 

"Fact is, we'd rather someone else just made this problem disappear and I'm too old to go tromping through the woods." Djoth fished a crude leather purse out of his belt and dropped it with a tell-tale metallic jingle of good coin onto the small barrel, which he then nudged with his foot.

"There's good whiskey in that, and more than enough silver for the job.You get the rest after the job's done."

Wyanna seemed to collect her composure enough to add, "Please kill him. You'll find him in the valley where the river forks." She pointed upstream.

"There's some kind of old lodge in the thicker part of the woods, Slade might be staying there. Take a good half-day's hike. We sent a couple lads to check it out after the second kid went missing but they didn't come back."

Both humans waited for Bula's reply.