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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Seravin" data-source="post: 2477376" data-attributes="member: 6783">Death and Demons-Quaggoth?  Aye, I’ve fought them.  Almost as big and as mean as an ogre and furrier then a dwarf’s face.  I’ve heard them called beast-men ‘cause they look sort of like flat-faced, walking bears. –Unnamed warrior stationed at Broken-Spire Keep---Days later in a cavern far away from their original home, a small horde of six young quaggoth gathered about their leader, Chuqua, the sole surviving adult of the Time of Demons.  Driven from their caves they now looked for a new place to call home, leaving signs for any surviving hunters who had managed to avoid the light-bearing monsters.Chuqua, an older female whose dark fur was starting to turn silver was not especially clever but she was the one who kept the teaching stories for the old Thonot.  Chuqua understood that the past days of defeat called for a new teaching story if the cubs were to survive a meeting with the demons.  They would have to know how to deal with the demonic creatures that drove them from their caves. For now, the cavern they rested in seemed safe enough.  They had food and water and the cavern had no strange smells that warned of other creatures.  Now would be a good time to start the newest story.Chuqua whistled and grunted softly, causing the cubs to draw nearer.  “Now is the time to remember what happened so that when the demons come again you will know what doesn’t work.”   Chuqua wrinkled her face.  It galled that the small creatures had done what years of the hooked horrors had been unable to do.“The pack was strong; remember that first.  The hooked-arm beetle-things that went klick-klack in the darkness tested us but we repelled them at every turn, even as they grew bigger.  Only the magic of the klick-klack bug leader prevented us from feasting on them all.“Then the demons with light came.  The warrior guards called out the alarm as the monsters approached from the hunter’s tunnel.  No warrior survied to tell the tale, but we heard the call of attack.  I was nearby and heard the sound of magic and fire.  At first I thought the klick-klacking bugs were attacking with their leader, but it was from the wrong tunnel.”The cubs were attentive, though she could smell their fear.  Chuqua briefly cooed to them softly, giving them comfort them before continuing.“Before I reached the cavern I saw the flickering lights of the demons; and before I could join the fight I saw the poison-air.  It formed about the demons, billowing dark and green and it covered all the warriors who still stood.  The warriors cried out in pain and then fell.  I fled for the cave of the Thonot to gather the strongest warriors.  Other warriors stood their ground and the poison-air killed them as they drew their first breath.The poison-air chased me all the way back to the Thonot cave, but it moved slowly as it ate the life out of all the warriors who stood their ground.  I told the old Thonot all I had seen; of the flickering lights surrounding the demons and the klick-klacky leader magic they used and of the poison-air. The old Thonot called me coward.”  Chuqua bared her teeth at the remembered insult; “but he had not seen the magic of the demons.  The old Thonot told us to wait in the cavern and we would attack the monsters when they approached.”  Chuqua’s large, black eyes narrowed.  “The old Thonot was stupid.  He thought he could club anything to death.  He was almost right, but that was not enough.”The old quaggoth sow trailed off in thought, remembering the terrifying moments of the fight.  “The poison-air was gone; the gods were kind enough for that.  Stupid as the old Thonot was he deserved a warrior’s death for keeping the klick-klack thing back.The Thonot’s cave was wider than any warrior could see across, so we hid ourselves carefully and waited for them to come.  Five of them; that’s all there were.  The tallest two were smaller than me and wore the hard-clinking hide of some large bug.  The clubs they bore were thin but strong.  There were three smaller demons, barely bigger then any of you and covered only with strange, thin hides; one bore a thin club as tall as herself, another bore a club similar to the larger ones, but her own was larger still.  The third one bore a curved club that shot small spears that stung very much.  All of them were ugly and hairless.”Chuqua fell silent for a moment counting the names of those who were in the cavern.  “Forty.”  She said finally.  She raised her paw and pointed to her finger-claws.  “This many warriors, plus that and that and that…”  Chuqua pointed to seven other paws amongst the cubs.  “We will remember the names later.”“The fight was close.  Two of the smaller demon creatures fell and would have been food, the one that threw the small spears and the one that bore the warrior’s club.  The third small one and one of the taller ones were sorely wounded.  Maybe if all the Thonot’s warriors had been there we would have killed them and feasted for our trouble; but many warriors would have died.  We might not have been able to defend ourselves against the beetle things anymore.”Chuqua again fell silent and cooed softly to the cubs, for her own comfort as much as theirs  “The monsters spared us; maybe because the gods would not allow the pack to die.”  She shrugged.  “There were other warriors out hunting.  They should find us soon and then we will find a place without the demons with light.”</blockquote>

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