It was early in the misty morning, and the sun was barely showing over the front gates, when horror came to Carnagemansion.
Shace the Shrike had come to the fortress in its early second year. It wailed a hollow song and fluttered into the courtyard from over the mountain, drawing screams from the panicked workers stuck outside.
The fortress was young and without an established defense force. Only a few unskilled dwarves made up the ramshackle militia meant to fend off the local wildlife. They were assembled and sent out to face the beast and buy the fort enough time to build a wall between the dwarves within and the beast without.
The first to arrive was Sazir Taronoslan, an animal expert who had come to the fort expecting to train war dogs. She had been placed in the militia despite a near-complete lack of combat training, but she took her duty seriously.
The courtyard around them aflame, smoke burning her eyes, Sazir braved the beast with nothing but a wooden shield, stolen from the elves not two weeks before.
The monster would grab at Sazir with its talons only to be smashed in the beak with the shield, which fended every blow and bolt of flame the beast could throw. Its strength was quickly lost to the rock wall it threw itself into in a dive for Sazir, who missed no opportunity to strike the creature when it was down.
Until, finally...
Sazir's guard slipped for just a moment, and the prodigious bird landed a nasty kick with his fearsome clawed foot. Sazir's leg shattered, and yet she stood back up, only to collapse in pain.
The beast screeched in triumph and flapped itself toward the main hall of the fortress, where the wall would never be completed in time. The remaining militia chased after it, just ahead of the sky-charring flames now consuming the countryside.
Screams of death and pain flow up the stairs as Shace kills or maims everything in its path. The expedition leader screams like a spooked child and runs down the stairs ahead of everyone else.The cries of her comrades cut through a marrow of pain. The curtain draws and Sazir stands once more, dispels the throbbing agony, and marches down the stairs, shield in hand.Struck in the chest, the monstrous bird coughed and bled as it tried to escape the wrath of Sazir and her dogs, but slowly and surely the beast was worn down.
The rest of the dwarves had gathered to watch, mesmerized by the battle before them. As it became clear that Sazir could win, the bystanders banded together to contribute to Shace's demise. In two minutes every dwarf in the fortress was upon the titan.
Sazir protected them all from its fire.
Breathing its last, its life pooling on the floor, Shace broke away from the mob of angry dwarves and died quietly but messily in the dining quarter.
And who would gain recognition for defeating the wretched thing? Surely Sazir, without whom the fortress would have surely died?
As it turns out, Carnagemansion is one of those forts with an incompetent leader to take all credit for the good stuff.
Fast forward one month. The human caravan had just arrived.
Yes, a bloody month after Shace was killed, this thing showed up to menace us. Sazir had yet to be hospitalized, and was called to defend the fort with her leg still in pieces, but she wrestled the colossus
to the ground while a fellow soldier chopped it to death with an axe that had been purchased just when the titan was spotted.
But still, Sazir received no credit for the deed. Such is the cruelty of dwarven technicality. She may have forced an amber giant to the ground with her sheer might, but she didn't actually kill the thing. As the years went by, Sazir wondered if or when she would be recognized for what she'd done, but ever unassuming, she never uttered a word of complaint.
The years went by as Sazir recovered from her injuries. After a year in bed she emerged from the hospital to lead the new (properly equipped) militia. As Carnagemansion was a conservative fortress, the 'Danger Room' method of training was prohibited, and so she had to teach the recruits the old-fashioned way.
She had no sooner started training when she heard the dire news. Her cat had been slain at the watering hole by a forgotten beast of the deep.
Sazir took off. Herr cat was her best friend. She fought off the tears. The beast would pay.
She raced ahead of her fellow soldiers, and set her fearless eyes on the abomination that yet hovered over the corpse of her cat. With a yell, she attacked.
It lasted seconds. She lept into the air, using her spear to vault up the monster's body and grab onto the back of its neck. The beast made a violent spasm and crashed to the floor as Sazir's spear ripped through its head. She rode it down to the ground as the rocks and dust fell around her and the creature shuddered one last time and died.
Her cat was forever lost, but the beast would slay no more. And finally, Sazir got the recognition she deserved.
Sazir would go on to slaughter an unpopular fish cleaner in a fit of rage due to the misery of her lost pet. She peacefully served her debt to society and went on to lead the Fortress Guard and protect Carnagemansion from several sieges.
But who is Sazir? What drives such a dwarf to such lengths of duty and selfless service, to such depths as cold-blooded murder? What about her enables such feats as hers?
Well, apparently fighting beasts is a thrill like no other. No doubt her killing of the fish cleaner put her at odds with Eshon, god of happiness.
Today, Sazir is alive and well, and enjoys the comforts of a private mansion built especially for her. Her weapon skills remain undeveloped, as she keeps switching between different weapons, but I am confident in her fighting skill no matter what weapon she's using. She remains single and childless, as her duties leave her little time for a family, but I hope she will retire and have a family one day. Until then, I hope she will go on to spill more blood in the name of Carnagemansion.
I want to get her to legendary in Axe, Sword and Spear, since she likes to alternate between those. She's lately decked out in full steel armor; her days of fighting in clothes with a wooden shield are long behind her. I'm looking forward to the next test of Sazir's skill.
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Topic: Sazir Yellswound, Champion (Read 1068 times)