They call it 'the storm walker'.
Legends about it have floated around the mountains outside of Pactois for generations, going back to the very founding of the town. A gaunt figure, appearing out of the mist and rain to ambush travelers on the narrow mountain roads or snatch away children when their parents' backs were turned. People not from Pactois tend to dismiss the stories, chalking up disappearances and deaths to everything from bandit activity and common Grimm to taking a bad step and a long fall. The thing is, the mountains tend to deter bandits and Grimm alike -- the entire reason why the town was built in such a remote locale to begin with -- and anyone who's grown up in Pactois would naturally learn to master the terrain. The locals know all of this, and tell it to anyone who will listen... yet, the few times that Huntresses or Huntsman have come out this way has led to nothing. No findings, no slain Grimm, nothing at all.
Until one decided not to leave. Halard Jacobson wasn't an old man when he first came to Pactois; like other Huntsmen before him he'd been called out this way to investigate 'the terror of the mountains', but though he didn't find his quarry he had found something. A girl, one of the locals... and the love of his life. Halard never left Pactois after that, opting instead to settle down in the small mountain town. There were many quiet, peaceful years together after that -- though tales of the storm walker continued to circulate, and people went missing from time to time, the town itself was never directly attacked. It could have gone on like that forever... except, these things have a way of going horribly wrong. When, after over a decade of marriage, Halard's wife didn't come home one night...
... well, you can imagine. Halard's search left no stone unturned; she'd last been seen on the road to the local trade outpost when a storm suddenly rolled in, and then she was just gone, like so many others. But the ex-Huntsman refused to relent, even when the trail grew cold. It took him years, but he finally found the beast -- or rather, it found him. Just like with his wife it ambushed him during bad weather, using the fog and storm as cover for its attack -- unlike her, he managed to survive, though not without injuries. Ever since, Halard took it upon himself not to let the beast have any more prey: he's trained up every willing volunteer within Pactois to become a town militia, set up patrol routes, bolstered defenses, and generally done everything he could think of to thwart his lifelong foe. And it's worked: barely anyone has gone missing since Halard's watch took over. There was even talk that the storm walker might have left, or been starved out, or just died of old age.
At least, until the night that a bad storm swept over Pactois. Amid the thunder and lightning came the screams and weapons-fire -- it came out of nowhere, scaled the town walls with terrifying ease, and slaughtered three guards in the blink of an eye before smashing its way into the nearest house. Before it was done an entire family lay dead in their beds, save the eldest son whom it dragged off into the night. The storm walker had never attacked the town before, and no one ever thought that it would. That it would not only attack, but stop so suddenly and withdraw, was strange beyond all reason. That night confirmed one thing, however: the storm walker was definitely a creature of Grimm, roughly human in shape and size with sharp, bony protrusions covering its back and arms.
In the aftermath of the attack, Halard grabbed his weapon and left town to hunt the beast back to its lair, determined to end this once and for all. That was three days ago. The village leaders have put out an urgent request to Beacon for whatever aid can be spared...
MISSION PARAMETERS:
- Discover the whereabouts of Huntsman Halard Jacobson
- If possible, return Halard back to Pactois
- {OPTIONAL} Kill the 'storm walker'