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Faceless One (3 civs)

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Ogre (3 civs)

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Naga (3 civs)

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Nerubian (3 civs)

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Sand Troll (2 civs)

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Total Members Voted: 0

Voting closed: June 08, 2016, 02:25:52 pm

[ZM5]

Alright, cool - I'll end the polling on Monday.

In the meantime, another beastiary entry.
Beasts - Pt.2

Devilsaur
These gigantic reptiles are primarily found in tropical forests, marshes, swamps and wetlands.

They are ferocious predators, and their stomps and roars can be heard from far away.

Due to their size, they opt for simply crushing their prey to death - their bites are also very deadly.

They have a pair of tiny arms at the front - I do not know what purpose they serve, as they are too short to be used for combat, or much of anything else, for that matter.

An interesting thing to note is that with effort, it is possible to domesticate these beasts - the trolls in particular seem to have a fondness for them. Their sheer size makes them effective war animals and mounts.

Arachnatid
Scorpion-like insects found in the taigas and tundras.

They are quite long-lived, and can grow to very large sizes, with some growing to be as big as elephants, or even bigger.

Their large pincers are quite deadly weapons - they can very easily latch onto limbs and tear them clean out of their sockets.

The Arachnatid's sting and bite are also quite deadly, for different reasons - their fangs and stinger can inject necrotizing venom, which can easily make limbs useless and potentially kill someone who leaves the wound untreated.

I have seen various hunters and other wanderers using these creatures as hunting companions - so it's definitely possible to domesticate them. I'd wager the biggest ones could be used as mounts as well.

Jormungar
Gargantuan worm-like creatures found in the southern regions of the world.

They are very rare, thankfully, as they are only slightly smaller than fully-grown dragons. Their tail swipes can easily knock away even large creatures, and using their powerful mandibles, they can easily tear off the torso of any civilized humanoid.

Although they rarely need it, their mandibles also possess a venom - it appears to cause long-term pain and necrosis of the bitten body part.

I would guess that with great effort, it would be possible to domesticate one of these tunnelers and train them for use as war animals or as mounts.

Frostsaber
A relative of the tigers, panthers and other wildcats found in the warmer regions of the world, the Frostsabers, like the Saber Worgs, have acclimated to the taigas and tundras.

They possess very large fangs, making their bites even deadlier than those of their brethren, and are a fair bit larger than their relatives as well.

Several races do use them as mounts and war animals - like the Worgs, they make very loyal companions if one is able to tame them.

Mutants
I haven't come across these horrid beings very often, which I'm thankful for.

The wretches are, from what I can tell, former humanoids, that have been warped by consumption of extracts from certain types of exotic plants.

Their shapes and mutations differ quite a lot. I've seen several types:

-One-armed mutants - as the name implies, one of their arms has atrophied away, whereas the other has swollen to a large size. They prefer charge attacks, and despite the fact that they're only slightly larger than a regular human, their blows are quite powerful.
-Blob mutants - gigantic wretches, completely overgrown with fat, to the point their legs have either completely atrophied or been swallowed up by the mass of bloated tissue - regardless, they crawl around on their hands. Thankfully, they're a lot slower than the other variants I've come across.
-Brute mutants - a large variant with elongated arms and neck - they walk on all fours and can run quite fast. Their name would come from them being particularly brutal attackers - I've seen one completely eviscerate a tribe of sparrow people in merely a few seconds.
-Long-limbed mutants - similar to the brute mutants, but only their arms and legs are elongated. They can climb quite fast and seem more curious than their brethren - while I was staying at a dwarven fortress, one somehow sneaked inside and pulled a lever, releasing a few wild animals and prisoners from their cages.
-Six-legged mutants - a particularly freakish mutation - they're quite large, and their lower bodies are grossly elongated and engorged, to accomodate four additional legs.
-Tentacle mutants - another quite large mutation, these ones have 3 pairs of tentacles, allowing for multiple simultaneous attacks. Oddly, their tentacles end with malformed looking hands, complete with gaunt fingers.

All mutants can be heard from quite far away - their loud wailing and crying is unmistakable. Why they do it, I can only speculate - perhaps they have some memories left of their former selves?

If you hear one scream, either run away or get ready for a tough fight. They occasionally will simply stand still and stare at the target of their aggression - something that would make one quite unnerved. Again, I can only speculate why they do it.

They occasionally will projectile spew a glob of blood - it's quite gross, but otherwise harmless.

[Enemy post]

Hey, you made the devilsaurs! I hope we see one eventually.

[Droggarth]

Posting to watch! (not that much of a fan to use acronyms) o_o

Now I know what devilsaurs are about as I have killed quite a few of them.

[ZM5]

Well shit, gonna have to go with a coin toss again - Faceless Ones and Ogres are tied at 3 votes each. Ogres are heads, Faceless Ones are tails.

EDIT: Alright, interesting - Faceless Ones got 4 wins to the Ogres 1 this time. We'll definitely have to give ogres another chance later on - one of their civs is far away from any other civilizations, whereas two others are near the Confederacy of Gladness, so same general area where Olith's "chapter" took place.

Anyway, onto the faceless one civs - there's two relatively big ones and one really small one.


The pale pink symbols in the middle here are one of the big faceless one civs - the Sepia Staff. The two other pale pink symbols on the right, below the tower, are the small one - the Creepy Handles.

The Creepy Handles appear to have mostly been decimated early on by attacks from a bronze colossus and a forgotten beast - hence why they haven't expanded.

The Sepia Staff waged war against several of their neighbors, mostly unsuccessful, although they still caused significant losses to the entities they fought against - the main aggression was towards the Witch of Closing, a fel orc civilization (dark purple), though two wars were waged against the Glove of Communion, a dwarven civilization (not in the image, they're further up north) and one was waged against the Poetry of Spirits, an elf civ (dark blue in the image - they're nearly dead, which is why their sites are scattered). Their only close neighbor that they haven't started wars with are Vrykul of the Sullen Deceiver - they are the blue +'s around the evil mountain.


The remaining faceless one civ, the Sacks of Anguishing, have a particularly interesting poistion - the hillocks and fortresses surrounding them belong to the Contained Kingdom, a nerubian civ, which they waged war against. They fought with their other neighbors in the east as well - the Forest Trolls of the Confederacy of Cremation, and the orcs of the Ageless Realms (they're also in hillocks, more towards the upper-right). They are mostly contained away from the other civs, since the only way to cross to their location is via the glacier down south - the only other nearby civs are the goblins of the Horror of Pleats far down south, who make their home on an evil tundra, and the dark trolls of the South Kingdom way up north.

I'll be starting from the Sepia Staff, as on top of having quite a few monster lairs around, they also have a town/hamlet-dwelling civ nearby, unlike the Sacks of Anguishing. We're mostly gonna be going monster-hunting this "chapter", I'd say.

[darkpaladin109]

Dang, I was hoping Ogres were gonna win. Oh well, Faceless Ones sound interesting as well.

the South Kingdom way up north.

What an inappropriate name for a civilization.

[ZM5]

the South Kingdom way up north.

What an inappropriate name for a civilization.

To be fair, they are in the southern part of the world, its just that they're north of the Sacks of Angushing.

Time for the update - we'll be an Unbroken named Shasi Darkchill - the Unbroken are simply red-coloured, smaller Faceless Ones - if you played WC3 you might remember them as creeps, they didn't show up in WoW for whatever reason.

Spoiler: Shasi's appearance, values and personality traits. (click to show/hide)

I'll be taking a few liberties since the Faceless One personality traits are pretty much set in stone, similar to how goblins always have high cruelty.

Welcome back, dear readers. This story will be somewhat different from the previous two - it starts in the hillocks of Vaultverse, belonging to the Sepia Staff.

This "civilization", if you can call it that, consists of the N'raqi, also known as the Faceless Ones - grotesque, ancient beings who were created by wicked deities of old as servants and soldiers. They are mentally like a hive - having almost no sense of individuality, beyond their caste.

However, a strange phenomenon is noticed among some of them, even amongst their leaders - at random, some would lose their link with the greater hivemind, at which point they would either leave their societies, or be killed by the other N'raqi who would sense their missing connection.

One such individual is Shasi Darkchill.



He is one of the Unbroken - a lesser caste of the N'raqi, who would most often be simple cannon fodder, physical laborers, or scouts.

Shasi awoke in one of the mounds after being in torpor for several days. A strange, unknown feeling washed over him as he realized that he no longer could read the minds of other Faceless Ones. His mental link was instead replaced with a sense of self-preservation, and so he left Vaultverse as quickly as possible, away from the watchful eyes of his brethren.



The other Faceless Ones, lurkers of the Unbroken adherent Shaq'arus Breechesdented, were listening to a Starspawn giving them orders for their next military expedition. These gigantic, celestial creatures were believed to be physical incarnations of the Elder Ones themselves - they certainly possessed enough supernatural powers as well as raw physical strength to be considered gods by other races.

Next to him was the C'thrax, Ceq'aseb Twistcopper. The C'thraxxi were the generals and military leaders of the N'raqi covens, being incredibly powerful physically. They differed from the other Faceless Ones in that they lacked tentacles, and had pincers instead - they would often simply tear mortals in half with a single snap of them.

Shasi headed into the ice-covered lands of the Blizzard of Shoving, and formulated a plan when he was sufficiently far away from any N'raqi dwellings. He knew of the nearby Vrykul towns - they were one race that the Sepia Staff didn't attempt fighting with. They most likely wouldn't accept him as is, however - he had to bring them a token showing his strength, something the half-giants respected. The Vrykul would most likely still be wary of him even afterwards, but atleast he'd have a place to stay - and perhaps they'd eventually be able to tell that he was disconnected from the other N'raqi.

While wandering the glacier, he came across several, bizarre creatures being hunted by a huge centauroid, who promptly turned her attention to Shasi and challenged the Unbroken to a fight to the death.


The Magnataur were a very primitive race, only forming loose herds and never having an actual civilization. An incredibly violent race, some would nonetheless join groups they considered strong enough.

The brute rushed at the Unbroken, wildly swinging her arms in an attempt to punch him inbetween trying to gore him with her tusks. Shasi managed to dodge the Magnataur's blows and climb onto her back, at which point he broke her neck with his club.


Another two bashes from Shasi killed the savage centauroid. This gave him an idea - while the fight wasn't particularly difficult, the Magnataur were known to be quite a strong race in general - he could take her skull as one of the tokens for the Vrykul.




Wandering further through the glacier, Shasi came across several quadruped mammals fighting with each other. He took this opportunity to drag off one of the fluffy beasts and kill it, after which he carved out some of its meat and organs with the dagger-type weapon he had on him.

He explored a primitively dug out tunnel, finding nothing on note - perhaps whatever called this lair a home was away.
Upon leaving, one of the Shoveltusks from earlier grew enraged at Shasi's presence, charging straight for him. It was a relatively simple matter to simply bash its skull into mush - after this, Shasi cut off the tusks and antler from the animals corpse, as well as taking out some of its bones for use later.


After several hours of more wandering across the wastes, he found another excavated tunnel. This one was home to a gigantic worm-like creature - a Jormungar.
Shasi's club was barely able to deal any significant damage to the beast, so he opted for using his sai instead.

A stab to the body apparently hit something vital, as the worm began to vomit and attempted to move away from the Unbroken. Several more stabs caused it to retch even harder, at which point it turned it's attention to Shasi again and attempted to sweep him off his feet with it's tail - the beasts attacks were too sluggish at this point, however, and the N'raqi easily dodged it.

Grabbing hold of it's body allowed Shasi to get at the Jormungar's head, followed by another stab - this one caused the beast to fall over unconscious. At this point, the Unbroken repeatedly stabbed the worm in it's head, causing dark blue blood to spurt from the wounds.

As exhaustion began to set in, Shasi noticed that the beast was no longer breathing. He rested for a while, before carving out it's skull over several hours. He believed this along with the magnataur skull would be impressive enough trophies to convince the Vrykul to let him join their society.

OOC: Bit of a shorter update - I'll go for a longer one tomorrow, but I believe this is a decent enough spot to stop for now. Probably gonna be seeing a lot of new wild creatures in the next few updates.

[Enemy post]

Looking forward to reading more about Shasi, he/it? sounds cool.

[Droggarth]

That unbroken reminds me a lot of this eldritch (awesome) horror:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And music I listened to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im6a7v7QgSs

[ZM5]

Looking forward to reading more about Shasi, he/it? sounds cool.

I guess N'raqi don't really have genders, not as a human or dwarf would understand it, anyway. You probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a male one and female one.
Shasi's journey to the nearest Vrykul hamlet, Emptiednightmares, took several days with the Jormungar's skull weighing him down.

The Vrykul were a race of half-giants, said to be a missing link between the giants and the humans. Their society was based on a strong warrior-culture and honor. Duels to the death were a common practise - often times they'd occur even over basic arguments. Very few races ever interacted with the Vrykul - they always settled in far-out locations, such as mountains or the tundras, and the risk of bad relations with them and going into an all-out war would outweigh any benefits.

The Vrykul locals eyed him cautiously as he moved through the village, towards the mead hall. The chief, Hildnir Malignedconfuses, was surprised to see an Unbroken by their lonesome. Regardless, he accepted Shasi's tribute and allowed him citizenship, in exchange for doing some work for the hamlet - the N'raqi had already proven himself to be a skilled warrior, and those were always in demand. Two rookies would join Shasi in his endeavors - Borvar Laudedcruelty, a markswoman, and Fjolarn Racenightmares, an axeman.



Borvar was also armed with a weapon that was unfamiliar to Shasi - a rifle-like contraption that used harpoons as ammo. While it was used mostly for hunting, it was also a weapon the Vrykul often used for combat.

Meeting these people was quite refreshing for Shasi - the fact that they were all individuals was something quite unknown to an N'raqi. Of course, they had some features in common - but for the most they looked completely different from one another, and given that they brawled, they weren't of a single, linked mind.

The chief sent the three out to Syrid Splitwracks, the ymirjar of the local government - an aged, experienced warrior. He gave them the locations of nearby monster lairs, which Shasi would have to clear out if he wished to stay for longer.

The three went back out into the Blizzard of Shoving, where they came across another Jormungar away from it's lair.

The fight was substantially easier, although Fjolarn took some glancing bites from the giant worm - even for being inaccurate blows, they still managed to hook onto his flesh and inject venom.

Regardless, with enough blows, the Jormungar's head cracked open like an egg, gushing it's blood out on the snow. The three left it's corpse and went further east, into the Abated Blizzard.

The group was ambushed by several hungry wolves - for whatever reason a very large relative of the smaller fluffy quadrupeds from before decided to try attacking both sides, and paid for it when Fjolarn chopped it's head off. The wolves didn't prove to be much of a problem, and died relatively quickly from attacks from all three companions.

A herd of mammoths ran off at the approach of yet another Jormungar, which promptly attacked the three. This one was slain much more easily than the previous two - a bash from Shasi's club knocked it out, followed by Fjolarn splitting it's head in two.


Wandering further north, the group heard the sound of footsteps. A red-skinned female humanoid was watching them from behind the trees - upon noticing that she's been detected, she took up her axe and attempted to fight the three companions, to no avail - Fjolarn clove her head asunder with his halberd after Shasi knocked her out with a single blow to the head.

This grunt was a fel orc - a type of orc corrupted by demonic energies. They fully gave into their bloodlust and drank the blood of a powerful demon, turning them into nothing more than killing machines.

Shasi had no idea what one would be doing so far away from their dark pits, but he knew it wasn't normal. This was a problem that would have to be taken care of sooner or later.

The group lastly went to the hamlet of Eatenmenace, where they decided to stay the night, rest and buy some food from the local farmers - the coming days will have a lot more wandering and searching to do.
OOC: Short update - sorry for that, I'll try to go for a longer one tomorrow. Atleast we're seeing quite a lot of new creature types - I've expanded the glacier, tundra and taiga beastiaries, so to speak, so there's still a few of the creatures from there that we haven't seen yet, along with the various titans and semi/megabeasts around the area. Gonna go for some of the closest ones next time.

[peasant cretin]

Enjoying the monster compendiums

[ZM5]

After resting, the group headed out towards Esteemedsnake, a lair where the Behemoth, Gomun Bravewave the Decisive Flax was said to dwell.
The trip was eerily uneventful, save for a huge snowstorm that seemed to get even harsher as the three were nearing the shrine of Divedjumps the Diamond Mine, where a powerful mountain titan, Ron Valleynatures, made it's home.

The group stopped briefly at the dwarven fortress of Evenpainted. The dwarves were quite shocked to see an Unbroken, although they recognized that he was non-hostile, due to the two vrykul accompanying him.
The merchants at the depot were even more confused when Shasi asked for 15 pieces of meat in exchange for two bone crowns - although they were quite pleased to see that they were crafted quite well, and on top of that, one of them was made out of the bones of a Jormungar.

Shasi then stopped at the tavern, the Mint Oats, deciding to wait out the blizzard outside the fortress. The tavern keeper, Alora Faintedanvils, was a centauress. He learned from her that she came to the fortress due to unrest up north in her home civilization of the Bridled Meditations.

The centaurs were a very war-like race, although they did follow a code of honor, similarly to the orcs - they were also naturally skilled in various types of weaponry. While they were quite a formidable folk, there were opponents they would still have trouble with - a powerful Bronze Dragon, Vonach Runtwinkle the Adventurous Enchantments made it's home dangerously close to their clan dwellings, and several other beasts are responsible for attacks on their capital of Idoluttered, which drove off most of the fort's population.

Shasi took these few hours to chat with the locals, and read a book that had been left on a table. All of this was quite unfamiliar to an N'raqi - simply interacting with others in a non-violent way, and enjoying some literature.

Out of curiosity, he ordered a dwarven wine, to drink anything else other than water. It was quite a pleasant-tasting drink, although it didn't quite have an effect on him as it would on most other humanoids.

After the snowstorm had cleared, the three left the fortress. The remaining trip was uneventful, until the group eventually found a cave out in the wilderness - loud breathing and footsteps could be heard from inside the lair. Shasi eventually saw the Behemoth digging at the ground in a corner - it was the biggest creature he had ever seen. He felt a twinge of fear for the first time - regardless, he brandished his club and approached it as quietly as possible.

An attack to the head produced a loud crack of bone - in retaliation, the beast swung around it's massive body, striking Shasi in his tentacle, mangling it, and causing the Unbroken a great deal of pain.

Shasi gathered his shield in his working right hand, and retreated to allow Fjolarn to catch up and help. After multiple attacks from the companions, the gargantuan beast fell over from the pain caused by multiple broken bones and torn arteries.

The Unbroken took this opportunity to strangle it's throat by gripping it with his entire body weight - it eventually suffocated as Fjolarn slashed at it's head again.


Shasi decided to cut out some of the giant beasts leather and bones, and made some simple equipment out of it. It also turned out to be useful for patching up his mangled tentacle.


His club and shield were also looking quite intimidating, after all the decorations he added to them.

After leaving the lair, Borvar mentioned that Hildnir wanted them to also investigate some strange reports coming from scouting expeditions up north into the Hills of Ash, through the Swamps of Slaughter and the Plain of Selling. The animals were acting strange in that region, and mysterious chanting could be heard at night.

The journey took several days, during which they stopped at the fortress of Tongsblockades - perhaps the local dwarves knew something. The change of scenery was quite pleasant for Shasi, as he had never been outside of the snowy wastelands of the south. The empty wastes and gray, dead-looking witherwood trees were replaced with lush greenery and alive fruit trees, bushes and other, smaller plants.

Some of the residents of the fort were members of a race that Shasi had never seen before. One of the traders was a somewhat feral-looking woman with thin hairs over her body, and skin that appeared striped - her face was also vaguely feline. She snarled as the Unbroken and his companions approached, then pointed towards them, drawing the attention of other residents.

She was a member of the Beast Men - humanoids very distantly related to humans. They were a reclusive race, never dealing too much with other civilizations - it certainly didn't help that they were very prone to fits of anger and rage. A defining trait of them was that they were seemingly unable to create new things - this made them universally very envious, especially of their human brethren. As such, they would almost always attack outsiders whenever their villages were approached.

The three were unable to learn much, as the N'raqi's presence made them suspicious of their intentions. They were forced to leave - not wanting to strain the relations of the locals with the Vrykul, Shasi obliged.

Not far away from the fortress, the group stumbled upon a hole in the ground, dug out by some large creature. The stench of rotting meat came from below. Upon entering, Shasi noticed a large humanoid, nearly entirely covered in white fur, with blotches of gray still remaining - it was huddled in the corner, loudly chomping on a chunk of meat.

The Cave Brutes were said to be cursed giants, forced to wander the underground, completely deprived of their intelligence, leaving them as nothing more than bloodthirsty animals. Wheter this was true or not, noone actually knew - however, they were usually avoided by most races, as while they weren't anywhere near as large as actual giants, they were a lot more ferocious, and very agile in spite of their gorilla-like posture. Human females in particular were afraid of them, as for whatever strange reason, the brutes would grow excited whenever one would be around, and they would attempt to drag them off in order to eat them alive, not paying attention to other targets.

The beast attacked wildly, eventually going into a rage, with it's exposed skin taking on a slight reddish hue. While Fjolarn was guarding the entrance to the cave, in order to prevent an ambush, Borvar went into provide Shasi with ranged support, expertly piercing the brute's hand with a well-aimed shot. Shasi dodged around its swings, taking single hits at it's limbs in order to cripple it, along with striking its head to potentially stun it.

Eventually, the creature was crippled enough and collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain - Shasi simply bashed its head once more, putting it down.

The group left it's body to rot, then went back out to continue on their journey north. They eventually came upon the hamlet of Legendsilver - a large tomb was also noticable in the distance.

The hamlet itself was nearly entirely abandoned, with some houses in ruins. A few corpses lay out in the streets, partially rotten. A huge battle must have taken place here, or perhaps a powerful beast attacked it. Regardless, Shasi decided to explore what's left of the village.

Some of the houses were inhabited by Naga squatters. Shasi had never seen them before, however they seemed friendly enough.

The Naga were a race of amphibious snake-like humanoids. They were one of the races compromising the Northern Coalition - while initially they were mistrusted by the other members, they have proven themselves to be quite an asset.
Their genders have noticably different traits - males have faces that are distinctly snake-like, and have large fangs with a powerful venom, whereas females have two pairs of arms, and their faces resemble those of elven females - they would indeed be quite beautiful, were it not for the rest of their deformities. They also lack the fangs that the males have, however their bites can still inject venom - one that's not quite as strong as that of their male counterparts.

The other inhabitants included beast men and a type of creature that made Borvar and Fjolarn recoil in disgust, holding up their hands over their mouths so as not to vomit. Shasi didn't understand why, not thinking much of the being's strange appearance.

These wretches were simply called the Two-humans by other races. No one knows what spawned these horrid abominations - although all evidence seems to point to them being the creations of the same Elder Gods that made the Faceless Ones - a mockery of the human form, and possibly the human concepts of romance. Their covens often hid in the forests, performing dark rituals and indulging in despicable acts. For obvious reasons, most races, and especially the humans, wanted nothing to do with them.

Shasi left for Borvar's and Fjolarn's sake, and they found an empty house, where they decided to rest up for the day, as the journey had taken quite a lot out of them.
OOC: I'm sort of glad I'm out of the tundras - those places were rather laggy for whatever reason. But yeah, quite a few more new creatures this update - we're moving further north, at some point we might actually come to the areas from Radan's and Olith's "chapters", though that's still quite a lot of time away.

[Enemy post]

That was quite the kill on the behemoth.

[ZM5]

That was quite the kill on the behemoth.

Unfortunately Fjolarn took the credit for the kill since he struck it as it suffocated. Oh well.
After resting, the group decided to head to the local mead hall.

Going across the bridge, they stumbled across a single guard, a two-human lasher, armed with what appeared to be a meat hook on a chain.


Seeing that he was outnumbered by many stronger opponents, he attempted to run - the wretch didn't succeed, as a harpoon impaled him through the torso, allowing Shasi to catch up and start attacking - several bashes were enough to mangle both of the two-humans heads.


A battle had apparently taken place here, as many objects were scattered on the ground, including a somewhat large but simple-looking dagger. The mutilated corpse of a beast man was still here, with his severed hand not far away. Rummaging through the piles on the ground, Shasi decided to take an iron blowdart - it may come in handy as a ranged weapon.

The lord of the hamlet, a beast man lasher named Sorazun Beastblood, had apparently taken over this town a few months back. He allowed a group from the Competitive Realms, a Naga expedition, to settle here and set up an outpost. Sorazun was a neutral leader, and wasn't overly interested in the politics of the other races.
Regardless, he had a profound distate for the Two-humans - aside from their worship of the Elder Ones, general propensity for vile, immoral deeds, they had also taken him prisoner along with many other beast men - although he managed to escape from one of the forest covens of the Deteriorated Target, the nearby Two-human cult, most of his brethren were still there, forced to work and other, more degrading acts.
Reportedly, Sommlen Goldemptied, one of the local beast man nobles, was partially responsible for the Failed Turquoise's downfall - he provided the servitors of the Elder Ones with locations of his own kingdoms forces, allowing the Two-humans to flank them, leading to an easy victory. As a reward, Sommlen was given the position of harbinger - the highest rank of Two-human societies, a high priest of the Elder Ones.

Sorazun didn't question the N'raqi outcast's motives for coming here - he realized there was something different about Shasi and wished him no harm. He only asked for him to kill Sommlen, should his group ever come across him.

As they were leaving, one of the two-human residents, Suzegg Crawledspattered, stopped them - apparently she and her brethren in Legendsilver swore allegiance to Sorazun, due to his strength of will, and as such was not hostile to Shasi's group - apparently the N'raqi weren't the only ones to lose allegiance to their deities due to one reason or another, although the Unbroken was still somewhat skeptical - there was something off about Suzegg. The female head (whichever head was the more dominant one of the two was considered by other races to represent the Two-humans "gender" - although there were no actual differences between them) spoke, saying that she noticed the three were travellers and definitely not members of any local group - as a token of goodwill, she handed them an old, tattered map, as it was the only one left in the village. Shasi thanked the strange creature and left Legendsilver.

The group decided to head towards one of the nearby monster lairs - Tombscavern. It was said that a family of four lumbering horrors had made their homes in the wilderness, and were kidnapping any travelers that were passing through the local area.
Tombscavern itself was home only to Makomp, the elder of Alogar Bonesurn's children. Upon hearing the door to his mound open, the freak swung around and immediately charged at the three companions.

He shouted something unintelligible to Shasi in a frightened voice - apparently Makomp was completely unexperienced in combat. As such, a swift two-hit combo was all that it required to put the brute down.

The group decided to take care of Makomp's remaining family after they've returned - they were not present at the Sable Crypt, which was not far away from Tombscavern. They went further north, eventually coming across a shrine, the Crack of Periwinkles.

A chimera was present at the ruins, simply lounging around in the sun and resting. As it smelled the three approach it, it immediately stood up and started attacking.

It was quite a ferocious opponent, leaping with a wild fury and using all of its features to attack. A complication arose when Borvar ran out of ammo for her harpoon launcher, forcing her to bash the beast in order to get it away from her.

A lucky strike at one of the chimera's heads produced a loud crack of bone and caused the beast to seize up and fall over unconscious.

Shasi quickly took out his sai and stabbed through the creature's throats, causing the chimera to produce a disgusting gurgling noise as blood gushed from the wounds. It eventually stopped breathing, completely motionless.



The N'raqi looked around the ruins of the temple, finding some coins. Apparently they were the currency of an ogre civilization - perhaps this shrine was built by them at some point, before something turned it to ruins.

To punctuate their victory, Shasi carved out some of the chimera's bones and leather, and made some clothing for himself, as well as harpoons for Borvar. Obviously bone harpoons wouldn't be as effective as metal ones, but they were better than nothing.

The next step of their journey took them further west, into the Desert of Chaos. During one of the cold nights, the group came across a man-made structure - several stone pillars jutted out of the ground, and there was a staircase leading down. Something had to be inside, so the three went downwards.


A guttural voice rang out as the three stepped further into the labyrinth. Distant footsteps could also be heard, and a disgusting stench almost made Fjolarn and Borvar vomit.


The monstrosity eventually showed itself. While it would have been a disturbing sight for most living creatures, Shasi had no frame of reference for this, and so he engaged it without much thought. The construct brandished a machete while spewing greenish bile - Shasi dodged around, not wanting to find out what it did.

This undead being, Adara Gravejudge the Climactic Drool, was clearly an unnatural, man-made creation - an abomination. It had a patch-work appearance, with stitched together bits of flesh over a large frame. It's legs were disproportionately tiny for a creature of it's size, but they still allowed for rapid movement, whereas it's arms were thick and large. The stomach had a large hole in it, with the construct's guts hanging out from it. A small tertiary arm was also present over it's left shoulder - they normally wouldn't see much use in combat, although they were useful for throwing off any creature trying to climb up on the abomination. They hungered for flesh and ate both the living and the dead. Abominations also had a strange child-like demeanour, probably due to their very low intelligence.

Reportedly they were created by skilled necromancers in an age before written history - thankfully the process of actually putting them together was lost, although the remnants still wander the land, deprived of their masters.

The undead being swung its massive arms around wildly, in an attempt to knock away Shasi - Fjolarn managed to slash deeply into the monster's body, causing chunky, purple blood to spray out of the wound.

It then knocked over Shasi, and swung it's machete in a clumsy, telegraphed manner, which the Unbroken easily noticed and parried. He scrambled out from below the construct's feet, and gave one swing at the abomination's head - the force of the blow tore apart the stitches holding the constructs head shut, causing it's brain to leak out and drop to the labyrinth floor. The body stumbled around, then collapsed with a loud thud.

The three decided to explore the rest of the labirynth, now that the abomination was dead. They eventually found a small room dug out, with a small cauldron filled with boiling water and blood, and a table which had a beast man's skeleton stuck to it with a carving knife.


Two coins lay on the ground, each bearing marks of the Failed Turquoise. Shasi took them - more out of curiosity than any practical value. He also removed the knife - perhaps it could be useful as a throwing weapon.

After resting up a bit, the group then went down further south, into the forest coven of Pulpyblame. It was a dwelling of Two-humans, so the three didn't plan on staying long, besides taking shelter for the night.

Shasi was somewhat surprised to see a tavern full of people, especially considering the race of the hosts. Regardless, some of the bards were singing quite cheerfully, not under the effect of any spell.

One of them was an Ice Troll. They were somewhat more reclusive than the other types of Trolls, only second to the Dark Trolls. As they lived in areas with very harsh climates, they were often a lot more aggressive than their brethren from more tolerable areas, and very no-nonsense.

Another of the people simply relaxing in the tavern was a Nerubian resident of Pulpyblame. They were a race known to Shasi, as the N'raqi would often conflict with these spider-like centauroids. They also were very reclusive folk - most looked down on other races, and only a few would actually go out and travel the world. They were not to be underestimated however - Nerubians possessed a very deadly cunning, and their natural arachnid features allowed them to ensnare foes in thick webbing.
Their leaders, the Spiderlords, were also very powerful physically - bearing a resemblance to beetles more than spiders, with scythe-like blades of bone on their hands, a single large horn, and a thick carapace; they were a tough challenge even for the most skilled warriors. Thankfully, it appeared that none were present at Pulpyblame.

The tavern keeper was somewhat more friendly than what Borvar and Fjolarn considered normal. For now, however, they simply sat around, relaxing and listening to the travelling bards.
OOC: Sorry it took me this long to write this update - been quite busy lately. I should have more time tomorrow, though. We're definitely going to head further west from here on - we'll come across a few more different civilizations there, and more types of creatures.

[Enemy post]

Ice trolls: A universal threat, second only to demon hair.

[leafbarrett]

What mod is this, if I may ask?