A fortnight after Heran first arrived in the border town named Scaleshard Heran, Oleg and Veren were out in the woods which was a 2 day walk north of the small city’s wall. This was now Khar lands and they were out in a part of the forest which was partly swampy moving more and more northeast.
“Hraaa!!!” came the bellowing sound of a large bear-like creature three times the width of Veren even in armor and twice his height as it stood on its short hind legs but instead of fur the creature covered in fine, hard scales and only had a short mane around its neck partly alluding to its name, Manegators. The particular specimen was 3 yards tall and just as wide which made it at three-fourths of the larger end of the spectrum.
“Come ‘ere’! Come and fight beastie!” Veren taunted the beast with a slew of words empowered by aura. Oleg stood a few paces behind him muttering the end of an incantation moving and shaping mana into a spell which shortly produced a flash of light just before the manegator’s eyes.
The beast was dazed by the flash but continued to charge while shaking its head as it opened its large maw which was shorter than an alligator’s but longer than a bear’s snout.
Veren held his ground and lowered his the tip of his pole arm and steadying it by digging the other end into the ground. The offending tip had a boarspear’s style of blade but instead of langetes it had two enlarged studs that looked more at home on a morningstar but with rounded ends that allowed for bludgeoning.
“Now!” Veren shouted as Oleg was partway through another incantation and a log the the width of a mailed fist swun down with a sudden velocity connecting with the beasts open mouth nearly tearing the beast’s open maw off its head and rupturing some of the soft flesh within while tearing the log off the ropes.
The manegator’s head began to drop as it was knocked unconscious by the blow but a foot before its head reached the ground a stone spike burst forth just rightly to catch the beast by the throat , impaling it and slumping the tip of it’s snout to the ground. Even through all this the beast was still breathing though it might bleed out from its impalement through the jaw.
“Finish it!” Veren roared
“Hyah!” Heran shouted as she jumped down from overhead hidden in branches unto the creatures back guiding an rough wooden shaft with a strange stony tip. With a thud then a squelch she landed as she held fast unto the pole driving it through the exposed back of the beast’s neck and the tip breaking jagged and met brain.
There was no more fight as whole mass of feral beast spasmed for a few moments before falling completely still.
“Great work you two.” Veren said after pulling off his helm and the sweat was pouring of his brow
Oleg huffed while giving an approving nod as sweat poured from underneath his own helm as he slumped over while gripping his knees.
“Thanks for the clear shot Oleg.” Heran complementing the barely recovered dwarf as she held the rough pole now lacking its stony tip as the spell came undone and the bits of rock were left in the wound.
“Both of ya really got me haggard on this one.” Oleg said with a slight tremble in his voice. “Ya truly gave me a challenge with the precision bit.” he half complained and half joked. “Whole body was it or just the head and mane?” Oleg then asked.
It wasn't difficult nor particularly uncommon as dwarves are often intimately associated to three kinds of magic, namely earth, fire and light, by the nature of their partly underground living culture though they can take two out of three as is the case with all other races save for dryads and fae able to master 3 elements and humans able to master one or have over 4 at a just over basic level. Earth is obvious with their preference for stone construction for dwellings and may even touch on minerals making them sensitive to purities of metals or soil for farming. Fire is for the smelting of metals and allows them intense levels of heat kind of spells. While light is like an offshoot of fire and mainly used to light and even grow some crops underground but also giving them an affinity for healing and restoration.
“Whole.” came Heran’s answer
“Here's the chest.” Veren said as he laid down a strongbox on a one-man push cart. The particular box was barely the as wide as the thickest part of the manebear’s head at a foot and a half wide, a foot from front to back and also a foot deep.
“Let me.” Heran told Veren as he laid the box just before the beasts snot.
“All yours.” Veren taking a few steps back from the chest after opening the lid.
Heran placed a had on the front of the box and another on the beast. The chest then began to glow from the inside which then traveled across Heran’s arm crossing to her other hand and shortly covered the whole beast. The glow faded over the beast and with it the body began to vanish until the glow returned to the strongbox though now the light seemed to be “full” before dimming completely and Heran shut the lid and closed a pair of latches. The whole display only took a moment but always became like a prolonged experience to the one utilizing the function of enchanted storage items.
“We’ll take it from here lass.” Oleg said as he and Veren took a side and hefted to box back unto the pushcart which gave a clear sound of strain as it was placed back down.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The enchanted strongbox was lended to them by the client which had made the request for the acquiring the body of a whole adult manegator. Said request also placed a grave penalty to any takers who would rather run away with the considerably valuable storage item, which is equivalent of being stripped of an adventuring badge, a heavy fine for damages incurred and or the temporary enslavement of parties involved in the crime to work of the debt and so on. This was a common punishment for adventurers taking off with lent items and in cases of damages or loss of the items, unless without proper reason and witnesses.
The bear-alligator creature was both a form of delicacy and a trove of raw materials as all its parts and even bodily fluids and secretions could be of great use. The flesh and many of its organs would be turned into food and foodstuffs. The hide of scales could be turned into a lightweight and durable armor. The mane could be a luxurious, cold resistant and even blade hampering accessory. The bile, blood, urine and even fecal fluids could be turned into components for many different kinds remedies, tinctures, salves, potions, cures and even cosmetics.
The problems to gathering the valuable creature was the location where it lived was a combination of inhospitable and difficult to traverse terrain, the inherent, danger of facing the beast, the need of killing it and transporting the body or that the environment would taint the materials as the creature had a habit of swimming in the swamp and the water, mud and dirt would allow taint to enter the wound and ruin the flesh. Also if left to fester too long, and in that case one would be resorted to an on-the-spot butchering which might attract other predators and a general loss of profit for the endeavor.
A storage type item solves the “freshness” issue and mostly eases transportation, as at best, it cuts the weight down to a tenth of what the creature was. To avoiding the tainting part while killing the beast was solved by the use of a magically created stone-tipped weapon as mana cleanses any material it takes from the environment and at the same time the breaking off of the tip into the wound then seals it.
Still, the team of three had taken a full two days to acquire the requested item. Half a day was for the search of an adult beast and the other day and a half was for setting the trap and leading the target into it.
Often these hunts would have needed at least six people to, two vanguards, a trapper, an agile flanker, a spellslinger with disabling skills and a backliner/look out. Some could do with less only that it becomes more and more challenging and dangerous. So a group of just three was not unheard of and unlikely to hear from again by trying these kinds of missions with the lack of proper numbers. But a team of two dwarves and an Erun were able accomplish it by their teams’ preparation and synergy.
“That was a terrible chore.” Heran grumbled as their band of three re-entered the city. Their return journey became interesting as the night before leaving the forest a group of seven bandits had attempted to steal their luggage.
‘Attempted’ was the word as the group had attacked them an hour near midnight but were unfortunate to encounter a field of caltrops dispersed over a patch of gravel which made short work of their cloth-covered feet as they took off their leather shoes as to avoid alerting their targets which camped just beyond the small rocks inside a semi-circle of thick and thorny bushes.
Said field was prepared by Oleg by simply drawing up the gravel from the soil and the caltrops were sharpened and provided by Veren. The screams from the first three bandits were compounded as Oleg casted a flash of light and with the bumbling confusion were tripped over by wires set by Heran.
The trio simply waited several paces from where the caltrops ended behind the relative cover their round shields provided.
Moments after the tripping over, there were ️two heavily bleeding would-be assailants and three others lightly wounded as one was left relatively unscathed while still trying to force his eyes open.
The bandits cursed as they retreated and further aggravating their wounds but their plans and intentions were thoroughly directed away from loot and wholly towards self preservation.
The three didn't bother on pursuing the injured, would-be-thieves even with the prospect of possible income as some bandits may have bounties on them or some may even be sold to slavery but was a practice the three did not really align with.
“Well lass, this is the last one as Oleg and I chanced upon an acquaintance also traveling along the same road”
“Aye. The ponies ‘ave been waiting near a week now and our traveling companions ought to ‘ave their own matters settled.” Oleg almost lazily remarked
As it was Oleg and Veren had met these fellow travelers by means of the wanderer’s corner of the adventurers guild posting board. They could have chosen a caravan but that group was to leave in 2 days time and a heavy fine was the stipulation for dropping an already accepted request, one which would have cost them the amount for the ponies.
The main difference of these wanderers groups over caravan were that wanderers were often strictly made up of adventurers and maybe an odd acquaintance or companion and the caravans were populated by more than half of merchants, their servants and personal security and then the hired squads of adventurers.
“So this will be our last day then my friends?”
“Yes young lady of Fairhand.” Veren said with a bow
“Aye lassy but don't be sad, we still have a feast to attend for tonight.” Oleg almost drooling at getting to eat manegator meat again in a long while.
“No need for all that Veren.” Heran smiled before continuing “And you are right there you old glutton.” a remark she directed to Oleg which he didn't mind at all.
Part of the request reward was a meal from the catch and it was to be prepared by a skilled cook as the meat was for a private feast of sorts in celebration of a local official’s talented son which had just came of age and had also been awarded with a rank of captain in one of the city’s guard squads.
The three of them proceeded to deposit the strongbox with the whole carcass and received a the request maker's mark on the actual request letter as a confirmation of completion and were reminded to return for the night for a nice meal. They claimed the reward from the guild and returned to their friend’s relatives’s home and the rest of the day was spent resting and maintaining their equipment.
Renas was there to see the dwarves off the next day and Heran they day after that. Both times had an exchange of promises of an adventure together with friends.
Heran too had found a group to travel with though just to the next town over which was almost a week away on foot and was on the Signab Alliance’s side of the border. A week was already the quickest they could go as the more popular and much safer route took more than two weeks as it circled round a dense forest which was home to many a dangerous flora and fauna.