| They came on a glistening spring afternoon to our village. Many
adventurers had recently attempted to encroach open us but we had
defeated them easily. In fact few are the ones that even get past
our pack of pet reedsharks which we feed scraps to at the village
perimeter. |
| Pet reedsharks are always difficult to keep fed. They have such
an appetite. They especially seem to enjoy eating the flesh of those
who wield magic for some reason. |
| But as I started out, it was on a glistening afternoon we became
aware of some adventurers trespassing in our lands. We watched them
skirt the perimeter of our town. With sadness in our hearts we could
view the corpses of our reedsharks on the horizon. Even our long living
Elder reedshark could be seen with arrow shafts protruding from his
carcass. |
| They then took up a position just to the north of town. We looked
them over. One wielded an axe of fire. Another held a huge bow which
surely would have immense range. It appeared to be a longbow from
a distant land but I could not be sure. The bowman also had a fine
dagger slung at his hip. A third was wielding a crossbow. The likes
of such a powerful and accurate weapon have never before been seen
in these parts. Even the liches in the Cellars nearby would drool
from their disgusting lips at the stie of it. The last was a mage
clothed in the hide of a Hoary Mattaker. We knew there would be trouble. |
| As the adventurers formed a battle line we discussed our defense
plan. Since 2 of them were using missle weapons we knew that we must
rush open them and slash and bludgeon them up close. Behind us would
be several our Shaman. The Shaman wield the power of magic and would
decrease the skills of the encroachers. So the plan was set and the
Shaman would remain within the temple, our holy place. |
| The party began to fire and advanced. Our first wave at the door
of the temple was cut down and suddenly they were upon us. The axe
of fire was cutting several of our brothers clean in half. The arrows
and crossbow bolts were thick in the air. In a flash the mage was
at the temple wall and had neutralized the magic of one of our wise
Shaman with a spell not known to our people. There were shrieks of
anger at this and many rushed out to destroy this mage. Some were
able to run her out of town and then cut her down as she turned to
use her magic open them. Those that left however did not return to
the temple. |
| Back at the temple there were awful shrieks of pain and death as
the remainder of the party laid waste to those inside. The blood covered
our alter. |
| Thus we lost the temple and by this time the mage had returned and
seemed more powerful and determined than before. Building by building
the party defeated our numbers and looted our treasure. They even
discovered how to enter into our most secret chambers. The bowman
switched over to his dagger and blood was spilled in ghastly proportions.
Not even the young mossworts among us were spared! |
| The mage never used a single spell of war but rained death on us
by draining our stamina and our life and worst off was somehow diminishing
our defense and armor capabilities. Many of our powerful warriors
went down in one or two hits once this spell had been landed open
them. We began to fear the words of the mage above us and the sickening
sound of it being inflicted open our warriors. |
| In all our losses were extremely heavy and treasure taken from
us was great. Destruction like this has not been seen in our village
since the great axe warrior Druss clove many in our buildings and
desecrated our temple. |
| Alas most of our people have retreated into our Swamp Temple near
the Sho town of Sawato where our Chief dwells. Surely these adventureers
are not foolish enough to pursue us there... |