I am Shadu Dawnroars, Hunter of all that may be Hunted. By the grace of Kima Dellbucks the Tail of Coasts, I have slain the mightiest beasts in the land, all save one.
I grew up a hunter. My father was a hunter, my mother was a hunter. I practiced the crossbow, the spear, and with my bare fists. I learned not to fear beasts but to respect them. And then to conquer and subdue them. We hunted beasts from all the lands surrounding the Stern Unions. I first killed when I was five, and I have not stopped killing since. Once, and only once did my family sleep within the hamlet of Fuschiacastles; my parents feared the place, for it contained the evil sorceresses Zim the Wretched and Obruk. These vile magicians had convinced the people that they were both manifestations of Kulur Oilcrested, the goddess of mountains, earth and caverns, but we saw through their treachery. They were of a strain of wicked and cruel master sorcerers.
One day not more than two months ago, I found myself strolling through the pastures of Fuschiacastles, and into the village proper. There I witnessed one of the sorceresses standing in a doorway, and not a moment later the other emerged from the house next door, shouting obscenities at the people inside before setting the house ablaze with her magic. The witches were looking for sacrifices, as it was said they did, and without finding one, they turned to slaughter.
I yelled out, but as soon as I did, I found myself engulfed in flames! I quickly ran around the back of the house I stood next to, and jumped into the well, and only barely survived my wounds. But my parents had taught me healing magic, and after casting a healing spell my skin recovered, although I was still left pale (even powerful healers cannot restore one's life-blood). What I saw again was a horrible sight indeed; the witches were setting fire to any who did not bow before them yet again, and any who cried out.
I drew my glaive and shield, and tracked one of the witches, Zim, around the north of the settlement. I could not close without being spotted because of the openness of the fields, so I was forced to wade through her barrages of fire, ice, stone, and pure magic. I traded spikes of Holy Wood, which healers of Medisephos like myself can also conjure, and got a lucky shot to her leg, bringing her to the ground and allowing me to close the distance. The fight was still perilous, and her magic nearly overwhelmed me as I became sick from the aetherium she conjured, but I dealt the killing blow, splitting her in two up the middle as she rolled on her back to cast again. These sorcerers, their blood can grant others their magic if consumed, so I quickly drank of her liver, knowing I was not done with this battle. Sure enough, as soon as I stood up and turned around, the other sorceress Obruk stood aghast and screamed bloody hate before launching a spell at me. I returned the same, this time not only with the holy wood, but the sorceresses' own elemental powers.
The fight was a blaze of narrowly-missed and blocked bursts of power, but luck was on my side, for as I had brought a shield with which to defend myself, the sorceress was exposed and when I finally landed a blow, it was fatal.
And so the two lay dead at my feet. The villagers sought to extinguish their burning houses and relatives. I admit, I did not know what to do, so I left. In the next village over, I spoke of my battle. A traveler there told me of a greater quest than the never-ending hunt for meat, bones and skins to supply the people; the Fortress of Slodiakul, where warriors are sought. Those who could kill such terrible beasts as the land is plagued with, that themselves can wipe out villages in a single night. I once had witnessed a great frog chimera, a monster of which they speak, from a distance with my father. Indeed, I thought, I must go, for I would no longer be welcome in the Stern Unions, having killed what many still believed to be aspects of the goddess, and stolen their power.
I fled south-east into the dwarven lands, and there met drunken dwarf lass by the name of Zas Channelstill, who had a lust for adventure, and accompanied me eastwards. We trekked for several days, and one morning while walking the banks of a river we were attacked by three leornithes, terrible bird beasts.
They honestly proved no challenge, they're big and frightening but no match for a well skilled hunter. But then we came upon a strange structure of pillars, and Zas said it was the shrine Twigwhiskered, where the titan Dor Shellsaffron dwelled. So I had to kill this beast, obviously, if I was to enter the hunters guild at Slodiakul. So I crept closer to see the beast from a distance, and it was an ugly thing for sure.
I drew my crossbow, and fired at it. But whether I hit or missed, the beast didn't seem to notice. I finally, a bolt got lucky and pierced its right foot, causing it to fall over. I soon ran out of bolts without doing anything more serious. Then I just pelted it with magic until it looked like its right wing would fall off, and then it rolled over and around so I could blast its left wing off. But it was still just sitting there, not giving half a fuck.
So I just walked in there. It finally got excited to see me (somehow, no eyes right?) and tried to peck me to death, none of that web spraying stuff Zas said it could do. I just stabbed it until it stopped moving, for what must have been an hour. The damn thing didn't want to die. I took its skull and feathers with me, you can see them on the pedestal there.
After that we continued east some more, but just before we got to the other big mountain range, on the edge of The Elder Desert, we came upon a roc, this gargantuan eagle, and it came after us. Lucky I was, I forgot to make any more bolts for my crossbow, but magic bolts turn out to be pretty effective, and between stabbing at it and dodging its talons I got in a good shot that crippled it again. It was a long fight, because again this thing didn't know how to die, and my glaive simply couldn't cut deep enough into it to reach anything vital, nor could magical bolts. But eventually I did get a cut to its throat, and cut deep enough it bled out. I took its skull too, its right next to the other ones.
So we finally got traveling again, and after visiting some dwarven hillocks around the south side of this mountain range learned we were going the wrong way, Slodiakul was almost straight north of us now, by many miles. But they said they had a monster problem too, in the shape of a Spider Queen by the name of Aslefi Wildchar. She had tormented these people for a long, long while and killed a few, and was in a cave straight north of us, where we'd have to pass by anyway, so we figured why not kill another one? We finally get there, and find her out on the surface after we'd gone looking all around the mound the cave exits out of for the actual tunnel into it. This thing is ugly.
She's distracted killing this weird crab I guess must have crawled out of the cave, never seen it before in my life. So I start pelting her with every spell I've got, and sure enough I manage to bust a few legs.
Then I just charged in, and engaged her in hand-to-hand combat. That barrage of magic had damaged her abdomen real bad, so she couldn't shoot any webs at me. But, she was not a weak combatant, and was enormous, and I could do little to injure her in any way serious enough to kill her right-out. So she started talking to me! Demanding I yield, said the living such as myself must be killed if we don't. So of course I basically had to kill her then. but I got lucky, and drove my glaive into her heart, and the ichor spilling forth sealed her fate, but she wouldn't give up, and I asked her how it felt to be the one dying to a mortal.
I took her skull too, of course. Then Zas and I continued to a dwarf fort north of there. I prayed to a couple of their gods for good luck but...
The dwarves have stupid deities, really. I bought some food there and borrowed a nice looking pole arm, but we left before night fell and camped in the forest. The journey north from there seemed uneventful at first, but then we came upon another shrine, this time one neither of us recognized, and the beast inside it looked pretty nasty;
So I decided to sneak around the hill to get within shooting range, but Zas was drunk again, and she stood right on top of the hill and stared right at it, which of course it noticed, and promptly charged right for her. I tried to blast it with some magic, and got it to fall over
But that didn't stop it from reaching us. At one point it got between me and Zas, and just crushed her head in its mandibles, and she drops dead. Then it turns around and looks at me, and I shove my glaive right into its head a couple times and must have hit its brain, because it just dropped dead.
It was too late for Zas, and she had already told me she didn't want me trying any resurrecting magic on her, so after I tore out the beast's eye I left her there, with her sword and her booze beside the beast.
I just kept going north, but I was unlucky again now, and ran into a third shrine.
This time though it wasn't your standard beastly titan, but this huge statue made of gleaming white metal that came charging over before I was really ready to do anything about it.
I fought with the thing a while, but nothing I could do would even scratch or dent the thing. It was like nothing at all could damage it. So I had to flee. I dropped my sack and ran for the trees, and then hid behind a hill. When the statue went back to its shrine, I returned for my sack, and then I just kept walking.
The rest of my way here was pretty uneventful, didn't even encounter any good animals to hunt. And that's pretty much all there is to it. Like I said, I put my trophies next to the others down in the lower hall. Honestly I expected more people here, more hunters anyway.
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Topic: THE MONSTER HUNTER GUILD OF SLODIAKUL(MONSTERQUEST) - ADVENTURE SUCESSION GAME (Read 6503 times)