Chapter II, Land of The Savage

Blackwreath learns first hand why it's called the land of the savage.

This far to the east, the land was uncharted and its territories were unclaimed by any of the civilized races. Collectively it was known as the ‘land of the savage’, so named due to the primitive dragon-like terror lizards that often roamed its thick forests, and in ancient times it is said that this was the dwelling for the first elven and human civilizations, with the proof being the mysterious stone ruins that dotted the landscape. Most of the land of the savage was covered in soft, dark soil, moss, fungi, and various odd trees with thick, layered bark. Some of the explorers who had braved its’ furthest reaches claimed that to the north there is a vast desert, with a coastline as far as the eye could see, populated with strange terror lizards of every shape, size, and coloration…

But that wasn’t what was on Rolan Blackwreath’s mind. Something felt wrong.

It had been nearly a whole day without even a single sign of the enemy. In the battle two prior nights before, Blackwreath had personally witnessed his infantry push back the enemy into a murky grotto, surrounded by the mountains in the shape of a crescent moon. Blackwreath knew it was an easily defendable position, and it would have been an unwise decision to drive his forces into the funnel, only to be surrounded on all sides and decimated. So he had his men fall back to their encampment with a temporary victory in hand.

But he would have expected to see a counterattack by now. Or his scouts would have reported the enemy was attempting to flee. Neither had occurred.

So he decided to personally lead a small group of five of his most experienced warriors to investigate, undetected, by climbing over the mountainside and see what they were up to.

As a precaution, he had sent half of his main fighting force, nearly sixty strong, at the entrance of the enclosed grotto, to prevent any attempts of escape while they investigated.

Among the group, he had made sure to included the elven knight Hadin Aurith, as he thought it would give the up and coming knight good experience in scouting.

It took them only a few hours to reach the top of the mountain, as it wasn’t nearly as tall as Blackwreath had initially assumed. With the thick fog of the land of the savage slowly rolling along the mountaintops, it wasn’t easy to see exactly what was down in the grotto below, but what he saw didn’t comfort him in the slightest.

Descending the mountain was much quicker than climbing it, as the slope lessened to such a degree that it let them safely slide down the loose dirt without harm. The scalewarriors, named so for the armor they fashioned from the terror lizard scales in the region, seemed as if they attempted to set up a campsite with the little resources they had shortly after their failed assault on his company, before something catastrophic had happened to them…

Easily a hundred bodies scattered the grotto, some were half-buried in the loose soil, with others broken or torn to pieces, while others were slumped over the thick branches on the stocky trees. Many of the dogmen, while already grotesque in appearance, were mangled beyond anything Blackwreath had even imagined possible.

“What could have caused this?”, Hadin asked aloud, obviously disturbed by the carnage.

“I have no idea,” Blackwreath replied, “But I do not think we should linger for long, lest we share their fate…”

“Quickly, search the campsite,” he continued, “And take anything of use that you can carry.”

He sent one of the group to inform the infantry at the entrance of the grotto of the situation, and tell them to cautiously await their return.

Wandering about the remnants of the campsite led to little of use, and nothing so vital that would help with the war effort. Near the back of the grotto, to the north, there was a large, pitch black cave mouth, nearly half as tall and wide as the mountain itself. The trees around its entrance were seemingly growing away from it, as if frightened by its ominous appearance.

Cautiously, Blackwreath approached a scalewarrior corpse near the cave’s entrance that caught his eye. Its body seemed bloated, more so than one would expect, and visible steam arose from its gaping maw.

“Hadin,” Blackwreath called out, “Come here and take a look at this.”

Hadin stood up from scrounging about one of the demolished tents, but just as he did so, Blackwreath noticed that the body moved.

He instinctively jumped back and drew his sword from his hip, unsure as to what to expect next. Hadin noticed the movement, and ran the rest of the distance between them, his hand ready on the hilt of the two-handed sword on his back.

“What is it, sir?”, Hadin asked.

“It moved,” was his reply, “Keep an eye on it.”

Blackwreath slowly crept towards the bloated corpse, and when he was within sword reach, he attempted to slice deeply into its gut. He was interrupted, however, as the corpse suddenly rumbled ferociously, and then the guts burst wide open with blood and bile splattering everywhere. Out of the gut flew a giant insect that looked like a maggot with wings, and mandibles the size of lion teeth.

Hadin laughed hard as Blackwreath wiped the disgusting fluids from his face.

“It’s just a swamp creeper,” Hadin exclaimed, still laughing at the sight.

“I would have rather it been undead,” Blackwreath said, as he spat in disgust, the both of them sheathing their drawn weapons.

They both suddenly turned to the mouth of the cave and became deadly serious as they heard a horribly loud roar emanate from deep within. The echo bounced off all the mountain walls surrounding them, amplifying it to near deafening extremes.

“Run!”, Blackwreath instinctively shouted.

The two turned and ran as fast as the could, as fast as their armor would allow them.

And then they felt it…

It felt like a small earthquake, and the shock of it nearly made both of them fall off balance into the muddy soil. Luckily they kept their footing, but the constant tremors of the massive beast grew slowly and steadily, and it felt as if doom itself was closing in on them.

Time seemed to slow as Blackwreath managed to turned to look back at the creature: It was massive, barely able to fit through the giant maw of the cave. It stood with an awkward posture, with most of the weight on its thick rear legs, while the thinner, though still massive, front legs touched the ground as if to simply prop up its upper half. The head of the huge beast was wide, and had a set of horns growing along a horizontal plane, with two main horns curling forward, as if to be used for impaling whatever it charged at. Its mouth held several rows of crooked, sword-like teeth, with the giant canine fangs showing even when the massive jaw was closed. The underbelly and legs of the creature were a bright tan, which grew into a yellow-brown around its midsection, and finally became a brilliant crimson atop its back. Its tail was at least as long as the creature itself was, and was thicker than the trees surrounding it.

But despite the awesome sight of the massive beast, there was something else Blackwreath saw that caused him to have a wave of terror roll down his spine. In that split second, as he watched the massive beast slowly lumber towards them from the cave entrance, he saw another figure underneath it, calmly walking out of the cave between the beast’s legs. A hooded figure wearing a plain mask, that seemed to be made of wicker. He held a staff, made of some kind of wood, with intricate twists and gnarls, with one hand. And how he held it with authority! His robes were colored a mix of black and mossy green, with many adornments of tree bark. Looking at him, Blackwreath felt a primal terror, more terrifying than the massive terror lizard which was after him. It seemed to stare at him through the wicker mask, and just the thought of that chilled him to the bone…

Suddenly, he realized he had more important things to deal with. Quickly, he turned back to focus on running, to the only viable exit out of the grotto. Weaving between the trees and broken tents, he and Hadin dashed as fast as they could away from the giant beast chasing them. Blackwreath noticed that the other members of his group were already ahead of them, warning the remaining infantry who had wandered into the grotto to get out. He noticed that many of the men were making a commotion near the entrance to the grotto, but he wasn’t able to pay attention to them for long, as he had to focus on his footing. The massive beast slowly closed in on them with every step, and with each step a huge trembling of earth.

As they reached the entrance of the deathtrap, the terror lizard was nearly on them. Then he realized what his men were doing this whole time. They were gathering all the dry wood and tinder as fast as they could, piling them into a large stacks at the entrance. As Blackwreath and Hadin neared, one of the men threw a vial filled with a reddish liquid at the flammable pyre, and it instantly erupted in an infernal pillar of flame.

The massive beast shrieked at the sight of the flames, and it manically attempted to stop its momentum, awkwardly falling to its side and taking down a dozen trees as it did so. Just as quickly as it had fallen, it readily lumbered upright, back onto its feet and retreated toward the cave maw.

“That… Praise the Angels,” Blackwreath exclaimed to his men, barely able to breathe after his exertion, “Good work… I owe you all, many ales!”

He slapped the man who threw the incendiary vial on the back, just as all the men cheered at the exclamation.

Stopping to look back one more time as the terror lizard’s tail slowly faded off into the darkness in the back of the cave, he noticed that the robed figure had already disappeared.

Something in the back of his mind told him he had narrowly escaped death, and not just from the terror lizard…