World Building

Fear that which can not be

Beware the longing fire to see.

Heed my call and tremble near.

Bane be my call, now tremble in fear!

-Bane Spell

Lesser ground Wyvern, or dinosaurs as they were known in Alv's former world. Were only lesser because of their lack of ability to use magic. They were however capable of poisoning those that they bit into. Their saliva chock full of germs and carrion that it's presence anywhere inside their pray would kill them. Luckily for our adventuring duo, they managed to avoid falling prey to the beast's savage spit.

Watching the beast lay beaten and panting on the ground was an odd experience for Alv. He, having come from the modern-day, had lived a relatively cozy life. He had never killed anything, not a chicken, not a pheasant. So faced with having to put down a beast that had just got through attacking him was putting him in something of a moral quandary. Pyrrha, however, had no such reservations.

"We shouldn't let it suffer like this. We should put it down," she said softly although not without steel in her voice.

"Yeah, never killed anything before" he whispered a little quiet as his previous bravery had melted as the adrenalin had begun to fade.

"I understand, but it's better to put it down than let it keep suffering. As long as we can honor it and use all of it, then it didn't die a useless death," she spoke softly trying to comfort her traveling companion.

"That and it did attack us first. It was a choice between us and the people behind us and this thing." she continued a little frankly.

Alv nodded as he walked forward. He stopped as he looked for his machete, finding it in the foliage near the path he moved to pick it up.

"Do you want to do it?" she asked as she picked up her fallen xiphos.

"Yeah. I started this fight. I gotta end it." he nodded as he moved towards the beast. He raised his blade up high then turned to Pyrrha.

"How do I kill it?" he asked confused, as Pyrrha looked on in incredulity. (she would have anime fallen if it were possible) With a sigh, she moved towards him and handed him her blade.

"Machetes aren't made for stabbing. Use my blade drive it deep into the eye socket and twist," she instructed him as he nodded and raised the blade up with both hands.

"Your death shall feed the hungry, your hide to build armors, and your teeth to mark my blade. May your sacrifice be honored in perpetuity" he whispered as he tried to assure both himself and the beast. Finally steeling himself he drove the blade into the beasts eye as it released a pained growl, before twisting the blade to end it's suffering.

The beast's death had been accompanied by the arrival of the town guard. Captain Daggerfoot had stumbled on the scene of Alvandur driving the strange blade into the beast's skull, Man'gra by her side as he was leading them where there would be hero's had fought what he had described as a large lesser ground wyvern near the village entrance.

"Well… I'm glad you had this one handled. What did you do with the others?" she asked as she looked at the beast on the ground.

"Others?" Pyrrha asked in confusion as Alv was too busy in his own head to remember something important about lesser wyverns' this species in particular. They traveled in packs.

As this revelation hit Alv, having heard the captain's question, he was greeted by the sound of a reptilian call going out in the woods in front of them. Everyone there stilled and was frozen in silence as the call was answered by silence. Something rumbled in the woods as something began to lumber towards them, accompanied only by the skittering of smaller feet. It was the sudden explosion of the treeline that finally broke the tension. Four beasts burst through. Two as large and identical to the beast they had killed. One smaller and chittering aggressively at them. The largest however towered above them all. An odd red-colored frill stood like a crown atop the beasts head. With a roar the beast had released, it's anger at the death of its packmate and like clockwork, the other's roared as well. Suddenly they rushed forward, the one barreling towards the collected defenders being the largest of them.

Samantha Daggerfoot had always known that it was likely she would die defending her town. She had realized that when she had taken the post, but her duty and the knowledge that the folks in the town were good people was what spurred her on to take the position. Now, she stood there, her shield not even raised as the beast had caught her off guard, about to be turned to either roadkill or beast bate. It was the shove from the side that she wasn't expecting.

Man'gra had seen the beast running towards them. His first thought to run, but as he turned to look to those with him he found that his friend, his only true friend, wasn't moving. They say there are moments when we begin to see the world slow down as we are forced to come to a choice. A choice between doing the right thing, and doing the easy thing. His mind flashing back to the weird human's poem he felt himself grow quiet in his mind. Would he bend to his instincts? Would he leave his friend to die? Or would he take the hit? Would he suffer what was most likely pain and death for the sake of the one person that had ever shown him true kindness? He didn't even think about it. When time slowed and the choice appeared in his mind he shot forward shoulder checking his friend to push her out of the way as large monstrous teeth flashed before his eyes sinking themselves into his arm and c.h.e.s.t.

"AGH" he screamed as time resumed for Sarah and she regained her movement. Only to freeze as the redish black blood of her friend stained her vision. With a roar of pure rage, she lept. Farther than any halfling should be able to she leaped towards the beast driving her blade into its neck forcing it to drop her friend in it's pain.

Alv seeing the sacrifice of the young man did what he did best, move to help. Seeing the man dropped on the ground he shouted for Pyrrha to focus on helping the town guard as he began to drag the curse born out of the field of combat. Rushing a quick spell of healing, he placed a hand on the large, ugly, jagged wounds that had decorated the man's shoulder. With a rush of golden energy, the wounds began to stitch together at a snail's pace. The bacteria in the saliva preventing full healing. Alv had begun to theorize that regardless of the healing process it would take days for him to recover if he could. He would face weeks of fever, and should it remain untreated he would go blind and deff. Only with the blood of the offending beast could a cure be synthesized but it was one of many ingredients needed. The sudden realization of what the sickness plaguing the villagers struck him like lightning.

They were ingesting a diluted form of the ground wyvern's disgusting bacteria-filled saliva. It's carrion spit likely breeding sickness and bacteria in the watering hole of the outer ring of the village. Setting the man down to his side he yelled in a panicked tone.

"THEIR SALIVA IS WHATS MAKING PEOPLE SICK! TO CURE THE CURSE BORN AND THE VILLAGERS WE NEED TO TAKE CARE OF THIS PACK AND PURGE THEIR PRESENCE FROM THE AREA!"

His yell had driven Sarah to the point where her rage had turned from flashes of beastly rage to something resembling a thundering storm. These beasts had poisoned her town, hurt her friend, and now they were the reason for their suffering as well?! In a fit of frustration, she screamed.

"GUARDS! DISPATCH THEM! TWO OF YOU EVACUATE THE OUTER RING! THE REST KILL THESE BEASTS!" as she screamed she lept from her place atop the largest one smashing her small armored form onto the back of a smaller one. Like a bladed meteor, she drove her sword hard into the beasts back both bruising and cutting it. Kicking off from her landing she forced the beast to swerve as it sought to take out a member of her guards.

A firey rage took Sarah, as she released a barbarian scream of rage when she landed drawing their attention to her. Rising from the ground she ran full tilt at the nearest beast, one of the smaller ones as she drove her blade into its throat killing one. Just like that, the battle for Surama had begun.