Taid Tehoredor Lasu

Divine Domains

Considers himself to be a champion of Aheru-Mazda.

Holy Books & Codes

Revere the sun for its warmth and ability to make plants grow. Honor cattle and oxen for the gifts they give sentient-kind. Your faith's foe is your own; never attack a priest of the faith except in fair, open duel; never break your word if taken in the name of Aheru-Mazda; resent any insult to your faith and the gods in general.

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Sun, Bull, Circle, Bull Skull

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Strong, healthy.

Facial Features

Full beard (as is usual and proper for Dwarves)

Identifying Characteristics

Heterochromic eyes

Special abilities

Spells (Protection and Warning, Light and Darkness, Movement)

Apparel & Accessories

Chain shirt worn over gambeson

Specialized Equipment

Halberd

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Taid came early as a baby, and was born in the Pleated Skirt, a brothel in the Five Meadows District of Port Karn, which was owned by a healer by the name of Florence Jarrek. Needless to say, social diseases were rare there, and the workers were always healthy. When his mother went into labor, his father rushed her to the Pleated Skirt, where he asked a currently non-busy prostitute where Florence was. She answered by simply pointing down the hall, saying, “Second door on the right…I think.” However, she thought wrong, and when Taid’s father opened the door indicated, he was met with the sight of a young nobleman and his three “guests”, doing what patrons at the Pleated Skirt did when not injured. “Florence?” he asked. The nobleman, up to his eyebrows in naked flesh, called out, “The other door!” but due to his current level of inebriation and his activities, it came out rather garbled, sounding more like “Tehoredor”. And so Taid got his middle name. His parents, Austen and Drysdallite, and his two other fathers, Celsian and Grossular, grew up in Zirak Dûm, a Dwarven cavern city at the southeastern tip of the the Melêkurâd Mountains. It was a farming city, with several buildings and houses above ground, overlooking the fields that occupied the shallower of the mountain slopes and terraces. One of those buildings was an abbey devoted to the sun god Mithras, or Aheru-Mazda to the Dwarves, called the Retreat of Saint Euclase. Most people understood it to be a quiet, religious place, nestled in the crook of the mountain, where solitude and self reflection could be more easily attained. But its history was a little darker than that. It wasn’t named a “Retreat” because it simply let people get away from it all. It was the last stand of an actual retreating army. In 7 AFE, the fledgling Imperial Army pursued the last above-ground army of the Dwarves nation that made its home in the Melêkurâd Mountains. They died to a man defending the cavern opening that led to the city of Zirak Dûm, and then to all of the other cities in the mountains. Two years later, the Dwarves finally surrendered, and became part of the Tondene Empire. A year after that, the Abbey was built, in honor of the commander of the army that fought so hard to defend their lands. His parents noticed his ability with magic when he was young, and being devout followers of Aheru-Mazda, sent him to the Retreat of Saint Euclase when he was old enough. Not only were there priests living at the abbey, but warrior mages, too. In effect, the Abbey was a mage guild, teaching primarily Light and Darkness, Healing, and Protection spells. Taid did rather well there over the years, learning several spells and the basics of melee combat skills. But eventually, he started feeling restless. Life in the Abbey was all well and good, but it was boring. The combat training was used more for meditative purposes, rather than practical ones. And Taid had a practical bent to his attitudes. So he left the quiet life of the Abbey and joined the Tondene Imperial Army, eventually becoming part of Azure Dark Centasenti, 43rd Kilosenti, Fourteenth Legion. Their combat training was a bit different than that of the Abbey. Army training involved group maneuvers and large unit tactics; the Abbey was more focused on dueling, as if all combats were one on one. Most of his army life involved engineering projects: roads, bridges, tunnels, and reclaiming land from the encroaching jungle. It seemed that his primary weapons were picks and shovels, rather than polearms and swords. But even during peacetime, not all assignments were safe. There was this one assignment, in the spring of 875 AFE. A bedraggled, exhausted civilian came to the western gate of Fort Mountainwatch, located outside of the city of Yivool, in the south part of the Empire, nestled in a valley in the foothills of the Northern Expanse. He was from Jytok’s Mill, a town about fifty miles upriver from Yivool, even further into the mountains. And he had news that made the Sou-Hyperion in charge of the military base very alarmed indeed. According to the civilian, his town had been attacked by a large force of well-trained brigands. These brigands also had managed to let loose several flickerbugs into the town. Flickerbugs were a terrifying predator, part insect, part puma, with mantis-like limbs coming out of the their shoulders that they used as strikers. But their primary ability was to displace their image of to one direction or another. Every few seconds it would shift to a new apparent location; the resultant effect was to make them very hard to combat, since no one could tell exactly where they were until it was too late. And against townsfolk, they were terrifying and unbeatable. They made great terror weapons. And their attack had killed over a hundred people, burned many of the buildings, and destroyed many of the newly-planted crops. Men, women, and children had all been killed, many raped beforehand. The brutality was incredible, and the civilian messenger was having a hard time dealing with the horror of it all. Sou-Hyperion Kaniik Ulpekk ordered Azure Dark Centasenti, commanded by Sou-Themis Arnien Kull, to Jytok’s Mill with two objectives: defeat the bandits, and rebuild the town. Azure Dark set out the next day, along with supply wagons loaded with extra food for the survivors, tools, and construction supplies. Lumber supplies would come from logging the local trees when they got there. It took two and a half days to get to Jytok’s Mill. Had the supply wagons not been there, they could have made it in one long day, but that would have left them tired and with no ability to scout ahead for the bandits they knew were around somewhere. Taid didn’t mind taking over two full days to get there, he was used to sleeping under the stars by now, anyway, and it was springtime, so it hadn’t gotten too terribly hot yet. Besides, he felt comforted by the fact that he was going into the mountains. He much preferred seeing mountains around him, slowly getting taller as they went further and further up the valley, following the river to its headlands. They wouldn’t make it all the way up into those snow-capped peaks, but they would get close enough. Taid was in the front 20% of the column that stretched for several hundred yards along the twisting, narrow road that lead from Yivool in the valley to Jytok’s Mill, in wooded valley cradled by the mountains that curled around it. They were marching four abreast, a line of hooked spears and halberds glittering in the sun. The supply wagons and pack animals were placed about two thirds back in the marching order, with a pair of decasentis as rearguard. Taid was a trooper. He had been given the chance to be a tech praxis, but that would have meant having to debase himself and work with iron, which he didn’t want to do. He was a brightsmith, not a blacksmith, and frankly, he would rather dig roadbeds and latrines before working with iron. There just wasn’t a lot of need for gold and silver smithing out in the field. So he was a Trooper, not a Technical. Besides, Technicals didn’t get the chance to get promoted as often, and Taid was bucking for Sou-Tethys. Maybe he could prove his worth, now that he was actually on a combat patrol. Yes, much of the work to be done would be construction, but there would be at least some combat! Jytok’s Mill was a village of maybe 300 people, situated on a small river. Demographically, it had been made up of about 35% Goblins, 25% Humans, 10% Orcs, 15% Hobbits, and 5% Elves. Most of the population farmed the surrounding farmlands, carved out of the forest by the logging that made up most of its economic base. Along both sides of the river were once four sawmills, now all burned to the ground, leaving only blackened stumps and stone foundations. One had half of a water wheel, while another water wheel lay on its side, downstream, wedged in a crook of the river. The one grain mill was destroyed as well, the two grindstones blackened disks in a pile of still-smoking ashes. The residences weren’t in much better shape, as nearly two dozen buildings lay as smoking, blackened timbers and piles of dark ash. Sad-eyed civilians lined both sides of the central street through the middle of town, their faces filled with fear and despair. They had all lost friends, family, and loved ones, and even the arrival of the Imperial Army couldn’t raise their spirits. What Taid saw—and heard from the survivors—was horrible. The death, destruction, the horror of what the villagers went through…and that was just the beginning. The army was shown the still uncovered mass grave the survivors had dug, just to get the bodies out of the street and remaining houses. In it were men, women, and children, including at least two infants, all brutally killed. The bodies had been wrapped in whatever cloth shroud could be found, out of respect for the dead loved ones. Seeing their abused, torn bodies had been too much for most of the villagers. Azure Dark deployed their camp outside of the ruined town, in what had been a wheat field before the crops had been burned to the ground. They surrounded their camp by a trench and embankment. Inside that they pitched their tents, five or six soldiers per tent, two tents per decasenti, or twenty tents for the entire centasenti. There was also room for the wagons, and several tie lines for the pack animals. Over the next few days, they started rebuilding the town, utilizing a local woodlot for materials and setting up three saw pits to cut the logs into boards. It was messy, as the person manning the end of the whipsaw in the pit was showered by sawdust constantly. But boards were cut, and building progressed. Taid was often top sawyer, although he performed as bottom sawyer as well. His smithing and his talent as an artificer helped in keeping the cut straight on the log, a vital part of the top sawyer’s job, his raw strength helped with pulling up on the saw, and his endurance was one of the highest in the centasenti. He got in the habit of casting Watchdog around the tent each night. It wouldn’t help the rest of his tent mates, but if anything with hostile intent passed its perimeter, he would awaken instantly. It would at least give him an extra moment to alert his mates. During the day, at random times, he would also cast Sense Danger. It only worked a few minutes into the future, but he figured that maybe he might get lucky and give the force a few extra minutes preparation time, and if he was really lucky, maybe foil an ambush. It was during the night, sometime around the third eightday that they had been repairing the damage and rebuilding the town, that Taid was woken in the middle of the night by the blare of trumpets sounding the alert. He could hear the other soldiers shouting, mostly in confusion, as they sought the source of the attack. He shrugged on his gambeson, and boots, and grabbed his mail shirt and opened the tent flap to see what was going on. At first all he saw were soldiers, rushing to and fro, buckling on their armor and baldrics. Then he saw the orange glow from the town. It was ablaze! Or, more precisely, the new construction, the five buildings they had been rebuilding, were on fire. But there were still no specific directions or orders as to where the enemy was. “Tethys Drake!” Taid could hear Sou-Themis Arnien Kull shout. “Take your men and sweep through the north side of town!” A Human saluted, fist thumping on his chest, and dashed off, shouting orders to the soldiers under his command. “Tethys Mondakk! Sweep up through the south side of town!” “Aye, sir!” the Goblin tethys said, and he ran off to gather and lead his men. “Tethys Drak and Falshon! Organize a bucket brigade and get those fires out!” He shouted orders to other subordinates, but Taid wasn’t really listening; his orders had been given, and he set to them. They had something to do with the other decasentis acting as cover or guards. Tethys Falshon, Taid’s immediate superior, got his decasenti moving. Taid’s halberd, in the rack just outside the tent, would just be a burden, so he secured his axe to his belt and marched after his tethys along with the rest of his decasenti. They grabbed what buckets they could find, and rushed into the village to get a better idea exactly what was happening. The civilians were out, starting bucket brigades from the river to the four almost-complete houses that were aflame. Apparently, the raiders had been interrupted before they could set fire to the fifth one. Taid got in the line, passing the bucket full of water to the next guy in line. In a short while, messengers came around to let the tethys know that the enemy was nowhere to be found; they had bugged out when they were discovered. They had killed six sentries, however, opening up a huge gap in the perimeter coverage that they were able to take advantage of. Sou-Themis Kull sent out Drake and Mondakk’s decasentis to find out where the raiders had gone, hopefully to track them to their camp. Kull doubled the number of sentries, and included all six of his Orcish soldiers. He wanted their night vision and nocturnal alertness. He did not want to have the enemy sneak into the village under his nose again. Two of the four burning buildings were more or less saved; they weren’t complete losses and much of them were saved. The other two, however, would need to be started from scratch. The sky was lightening by the time the fires were fully out. They cleared the rubble, and Sou-Themis Kull ordered everyone to knock off early, as no one got much sleep the night before. Taid, as usual, set his Watchdog spell around the tent. Then he crawled into his sleeping roll and, like a good soldier, fell asleep almost instantly. He was awakened by the blaring of war horns, sounding the alarm. “Shit! Are they burning the town again?” he asked no one in particular. Everyone in the tent was busy donning their gambeson and buckling on their swords and axes. Screams could be heard outside the tent, and they were the screams of pain and fear. Taid didn’t bother buckling more than one buckle on his gambeson; he grabbed his axe and mail shirt and ran out of the tent, grabbing his halberd on his way out. It was dim, the single moon waxing half full, and the torches that some soldiers held did little to illuminate the camp. But Taid could see that his fellow soldiers were fighting over by the western side of the camp. But he could also see clots of fighting throughout the camp, the hooked spears and halberds flashing in the moonlight. The cries of “Flickerbugs!” rang from several throats from several directions. In the dark, his head swiveled, trying to find the nearest conflict, all the while trying to finish buckling up his gambeson. His eye caught a quick movement over to his left: a dark, slender form, leaping and striking at a tent, and a man going down under the weight of something four feet to the right. “Shit!” Taid said, scrambling to get his mail shirt over his head. His helmet was on before he pulled the shirt down. He charged over to help his fallen comrade, swinging the halberd in wide arcs in case the flickerbug was near, but unseen. In the background, over the yells, screams, and clashing of weapons, he could hear shouts of “Nets! Get the nets!” and “Where are the nets?” He saw the dark shape emerge from the far side of a tent, but then it faded, reappearing half in, half out of a tent further away. He had an idea where it actually was, and calling out “Blink!” to the surrounding soldiers, he cast a Flash spell. The code word warned his companions to shield their eyes, and the intense, bright light erupting from the palm of his upraised hand lit up the area for a moment. Taid’s eyes were closed too, to keep from being blinded himself, so he didn’t see the flickerbug’s body in detail: the puma-like, carapaced body, mantis like striker arms flailing at a fallen soldier, desperately trying to keep his shield between the vicious animal and himself, but, most importantly, compound, insectile eyes that can’t close. The flickerbug let out a scream from its mandibled jaws, its image flickered rapidly, almost fast enough to appear to be an entire pack, as it took off at a dead run, straight into a tent, where it foundered and got entangled in the the guy lines. It thrashed there, righted itself, and just before three spear-wielding soldiers could stab the thing it took off in another direction, running blindly up the side of another tent, then over it and away, screeching. A whistle blew, three short, then a long blast. The flickerbugs retreated, bounding away, the spears of the defending soldiers mostly glancing off of the hard chitinous armor. And it was over. Mostly. Taid thought he heard the call “Loose!” but he couldn’t be sure at the time. Later, he found out that as the raiders retreated, a quick thinking sou-tethys was able to get a group of archers to loft some arrows at them. Six raiders fell to that volley, two of which were still alive and brought back to camp as prisoners. In addition, three more raiders had died in the attack. There were fourteen casualties on the Imperial side, two fatal, mostly from the flickerbugs. One on one, the raiders were not as good as the Imperial Army troopers. Taid felt a hand slap onto his shoulder. It was Jax Myller, one of the soldiers in his decasenti. “Good thinking, using that burst of light,” he said. “Messed that thing right up. Probably saved Lerris’ life. He’s got a nasty cut, but he’ll live. If you hadn’t scared that thing witless, it would have gotten him.” “I don’t know how scared it was,” Taid replied, “but it was certainly surprised. Or just blinded. I don’t think their eyes have lids. Makes them vulnerable, I suppose.” “I will accept any vulnerability they may have. They are tough to fight, and we need to get the nets distributed around the camp so we can use them against the ‘bugs if they attack us again.” The wounded were tended, and the two prisoners were interrogated. It likely wasn’t very pretty, but Taid and his fellow soldiers were too busy getting the camp back in order after the attack. Several hours later, Tethys Falshon addressed his decasenti. “Here are the details. These raiders aren’t just raiders. They are a mercenary centasenti, led by an Orcish ex sur-Coeus by the name of Dargh Kurglick. He is vicious, mean, and clever. He also has upwards of 70 armsmen and support personnel. Some of those support personnel are animal trainers, and have a half dozen of those flickerbugs under their control. As you probably already know, they seem to use whistle codes to command them.” He paused. “Motivation is still unclear. The prisoners we have don’t really know or understand what it is about this village that makes Kurglick want to destroy it. Rumor among the men is that he was spurned by some woman in town, and he went crazy.” There were mutters among the men, with a few chuckles. “Yeah, I know, it’s an understatement.” He continued, “We have new orders, effective immediately. The sou-Themis wants us to get a palisade around the camp ASAP. I want a fucking wall around this camp yesterday. So let’s be about it, shall we?” There was a chorus of “Sir, yes sir!” and the soldiers moved. By sundown, a palisade of logs 15 feet tall was erected. Catwalks along the inside still needed to be made, but that could wait until the next day; the important thing was that the wall was up, and the camp was more secure. They even managed to get all of the surviving villagers into the fortified camp. Sou-Themis Kull did not want any more villagers killed. Lean-tos were made for them, utilizing the branches cut off of the logs they had been sawing into boards. It would at least give them some shelter, in case it rained, which it did almost regularly every day. Taid was on patrol duty that night, just after midnight. Sentries patrolled the walls; he patrolled inside of the camp, walking between the tents, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. It was always possible that something might get past the sentries at the perimeter. The hail of flaming arrows came out of the sky, heralded only by a faint whooshing sound. They fell randomly within the palisade, punching through tent canvas and lighting it on fire. “Fire!” Taid cried out, “fire in the camp!” He ran towards the mess triangle, only 15 yards away. By the time he was banging on it to wake everyone up the second flight of flaming arrows was falling into the camp. This time, Taid heard shrieks as some arrows found victims. “They came from the east!” Taid heard a soldier shout. The officer on watch duty, Tethys Hragg Swordbender, was quick to organize the sentries and patrollers into two groups, one of which would sally forth and attack the archers, the other would guard the camp as the soldiers awoke in response to the attack. A third flight of arrows sailed into camp; another scream, and more tents and supplies set ablaze. The camp was bustling now, soldiers emerging from tents, hastily buckling on armor or pulling on boots. Taid, selected as a member going out to find the archers, ran out the gate with the other dozen soldiers, halberd ready. It was dark, the moon barely lighting anything even when it wasn’t obscured by clouds. But they had torches, and four Orcs ranged out ahead, scanning for heat signatures. As they crested a rise, one shouted, “They’re down here in the ravine! Two dozen of the bastards!” And two dozen more fire arrows streaked over their heads like meteors, arcing up and then down into the palisade. Tethys Hragg shouted a command, “For Murgu! Give her their blood, boys!” It didn’t matter that two of the soldiers were women, they all crested the rise in a charge, then ran down into the midst of the archers, who were busy trying to retreat. Their duty was done; they had disrupted the camp, and now that there were soldiers charging down the hill at them, discretion was the better part of valor. Taid charged down the hill, halberd aimed at a fleeing archer. A brazier stood hanging from a tripod, the glowing coals lighting the rising smoke a lurid orange. The downhill slope helped his running speed, and he gained on the fleeing archers, along with his fellow soldiers. It helped that the only direction the enemy could flee was up the other side of the vale, and Taid’s halberd point stabbed through the back of the linothorax and gambeson that the archer was wearing. It drove the archer to his knees, but Taid, fueled by anger, frustration, and a sense of long-delayed payback, kept moving forward, the long point sliding into the archer’s flesh and driving him into the muddy earth. Taid’s powerful legs pumped uphill, and he passed the fallen archer, rotating the halberd in his hands to allow his speed to pull the point out of the dying, gasping man. Blood, black in the dim light of torches, bubbled out of the wound, in rhythm with the man’s labored, pained breathing. Of the three dozen archers, six were killed by the defending soldiers. The others managed to disappear into the surrounding jungle. Taid’s assault group sustained only minor injuries, by the two raiders that turned and fought with their short swords. They had been skilled, but short swords against spears and halberds was a losing proposition most of the time. Tethys Hragg and his “decasenti” (it was actually 13 soldiers, so it technically was more than just a decasenti) returned to find more arrows had dropped into the camp, from a second set of archers to the west of the camp. Sou-Themis Kull had sent two decasenti after that group as well; but they hadn’t returned yet. The arrows had stopped falling, though, so Taid figured that they had been routed out like they had done to the first group. Overall, ten soldiers and three civilians had been wounded, but fortunately, none had been killed. They lost several tents, some supplies, and a good night’s sleep. Morning came, and Sou-Themis Kull ordered six decasenti to search the surrounding area for where Dargh might be hiding, and to scout for potential avenues of attack. The remaining four decasenti guarded the camp and tended the wounded. Taid was in the decasenti commanded by Tethys Piter Krimm, one of the decasenti sent out to scout for the enemy. It was time to take the fight to Dargh, instead of letting Dargh bring the fight to them. The reconnaissance force was broken up into two forces, one focusing on the eastern area, the other focusing on the western area. Taid crept through the dense brush. The Imperial Army standard load out in the Empire was polearm or missile weapon, along with a sidearm. The polearms came in two types, both about nine feet long: halberds, and a hooked spear, sort of a cross between a winged, hewing spear and a bill hook. In the southern areas of the Empire they were shorter, closer to seven feet, because of the dense jungles and forests that carpeted the south. Full length weapons would be unwieldy and get caught in branches too often. The seven foot length didn’t get caught up in the vegetation as much, but still allowed the reach advantages of the weapons. But even so, Taid had left his halberd behind this time, instead opting for a crossbow. Most of his fellow soldiers had followed suit. An arrow thwacked into a tree trunk six inches from his head. He dove and was sprawled on the forest floor scrambling for the cover of a large bush before he even realized which direction the arrow had come from. “Enemy to the south!” he called. He could hear the twang-thunk of the crossbows of his unit as they fired in response. But there were no further arrows; the enemy had flitted off once they fired, leaving two wounded soldiers, one with an arrow through his forearm, the other with an arrow in the thigh that missed hitting an artery by a fraction of an inch. That day was filled with disappointment and a series of minor, hit and run attacks. Injuries were minor, but the attacks got everyone on edge. This became the pattern: Sou-Themis Kull would send out groups of soldiers, and Dargh would send his warriors to harass them. Sometimes he released the flicker bugs, but only in ones or twos. Just enough to cause chaos, confusion, and, usually, some wounds. On some occasions, the soldiers would get a hit on one of them, but they would be recalled then using the whistles, so any victory was incomplete. And at night, small groups of archers would loose arrows over the palisade wall, then retreat and move to another spot, where they would again loose arrows into the camp. All through the night, arrows rained down randomly, at random times. Sleep was becoming impossible. Taid lay awake on his bedroll, staring up at the roof of the tent, expecting an arrow to come slicing through it any second. Several of the soldiers slept under the sky, foregoing tents, and suffering through the almost daily rains that kept everything wet and muddy. But they considered it better than being in a tent, where they couldn’t see the arrows coming. Not that they could most of the time anyway, since most of the time the raiders didn’t use flaming arrows. Rebuilding had pretty much been halted by this point, with the exception of the catwalks around the upper portion of the palisade, to allow for wall defense and proper sentries. Seeing his soldiers sleeping without tents, Sou-Themis Kull ordered the construction of wooden roofs over the tents to protect them from arrows. He could see the toll it was taking on his forces, and he didn’t want disease running rampant throughout the camp due to perpetually wet, tired soldiers. While the troops were building the roofs in the camp, the brigands attacked the town, lighting two more buildings on fire before running off. At least one soldier swore he could hear the raiders laughing. After three eightdays, a supply train with food, building supplies and tools, and other miscellaneous equipment was due to arrive to the camp. But when smoke was seen on the horizon, two decasentis were sent out to investigate. The supply wagons had been attacked, the drivers and guards killed, and the supplies stolen before the rest was burned. The only good news was that five of Dargh’s men had been killed as well. But it was small comfort. Couriers were sent back to Fort Mountainwatch outside of Yivool to inform them of the loss of the supply train and to request reinforcements. It went on like this for several more eightdays; some soldiers were sent out to try to find out where Dargh and his men were camped, while the majority of the soldiers attempted to rebuild the town. Dargh kept his forces moving, however, as the remains of several large camps demonstrated. During this time, a message came back from Fort Mountainwatch: a new supply train, guarded by a reinforcing centasenti, was being sent. And while the centasenti rebuilt the town, the raiders would destroy, damage, or sabotage the repairs, never staying long enough to be caught. Amongst the soldiers, frustration was building. Sleep was difficult, as Dargh sent his men out to harass the soldiers. It didn’t matter if any soldiers were actually wounded; what mattered was that they were being worn down. The two forces played a game of cat and mouse, with Dargh striking at random times, sometimes with his warriors, other times releasing the flickerbugs. Sometimes his attacks were relentless, striking quickly and then retreating, only to attack again minutes or hours later. Sleep, rest, and relaxation became prized, rare commodities. Exhaustion started to take it’s toll: sunken, dark eyes, slowed reflexes, lethargy, inattention. It resulted in a higher amount of casualties, and Taid had to utilize his healing magic on an almost daily basis, further tiring him out. But eventually, Sou-Themis Kull had his soldiers set traps specifically for the flickerbugs. Several snare traps were set around the camp, and when the flickerbugs got caught in them, they were much easier to wound and kill, since their actual location were better known. Three died the first night, and it was several days before Dargh used the remaining three again. But even without the dangerous flickerbugs, Dargh still made harassing attacks. It didn’t seem to matter to Dargh whether the attacks actually caused any overt harm, either. Just the act of attacking, causing the Imperials to rise to the defense, only to just disappear into the night was enough. It wore down the soldiers, interrupted their sleep and meals, made them nervous and anxious, and lowered their morale. It didn’t help that every time decasenti were sent out to find Dargh and his men they came back empty handed and with fewer men. Both sides had scouting groups, and sometimes they clashed, and so far, Dargh was coming out on top. While having what appeared to be a smaller force, he had the initiative, and wasn’t tied down while defending a town. By the sixth eightday, Azure Centasenti was down to sixty three armsmen. Fortunately, the supply wagons arrived, accompanied by Orange Centasenti, who started to expand the existing camp to make room for the new troopers. This provided a great morale boost to the beleaguered troopers that had been harried for eightdays by the raiders. While unable to make any meaningful repairs to the town, they had been able to build up a supply of construction materials, as those could be produced within the protection of the camp. Mainly this consisted of lumber, but they also hadn’t been able to make use of the barrels of nails they had, either. Orange Centasenti was commanded by Sur-Coeus Loragh Narr, and her centasenti had been chosen for the mission because she was an Orc, and thus would hopefully be more able to anticipate Dargh’s tactics. Orange’s proportion of Orcish soldiers was also high, at 35, so they would be more able to perform night operations. Sou-Themis Arnien Kull, being of higher rank, effectively now commanded both centasentis. Now that the reinforcements had arrived, the primary objective became finding wherever Dargh and his raiders were located, and removing them as a threat. Paired decacentis were sent out to search for the raider band, now that the manpower was available. Single decasentis had proven to be too vulnerable to the hit and run attacks of the raiders, but combining them before had just made it easier for Dargh to avoid them. Two days of searching later, the forces clashed, and Dargh lost two more flicker bugs and two dozen of his men. The survivors fled into the foothills, scattering in several directions. Some were caught, but most escaped. The initiative lost, Dargh took his remaining raiders and fled through the Northern Expanse towards the Maegorod Confederacy. It is more likely, however, that they headed southwards, toward the lands of the Goblins and perhaps as far as the Orcish lands of the Cragdith Federation. With the threat of Dargh gone, repairs were finally able to be made to the town, and the civilians allowed to move back in. But the damage was done. The eightdays of near constant attacks had worn many of the soldiers thin, and several showed signs of mental distress. Taid, unfortunately, was one of them. He had trouble sleeping, and occasionally would think he was under attack by fire arrows or flickerbugs. He was hyper vigilant all the time, even when he didn’t need to be, and showed some major trust issues. There were times when he would draw a weapon on known allies, and would need to be calmed down. High anxiety was something that magic just couldn’t fix. There was no spell to cure it, and no alchemical drug to take for it. So he lived with it, because what else could he do? Glossary
Centasenti: a group of about 100 soldiers, roughly equivalent to a Company. It is commanded by a Coeus, and 10 Tethys.
Decasenti: a squad of 10 soldiers, commanded by a Tethys.
Tethys: a rank about equivalent to a Sergeant.
Coeus: a rank equivalent to a Sergeant Major.
Sur: Over. Used to denote a rank slightly higher.
Sou: Under. Used to denote a rank slightly lower.
Sou-Tethys: A rank that is equivalent to a Corporal, sometimes given charge of 2-4 soldiers.
Sur-Tethys: can be in charge of 2-5 decasenti. Equivalent to a Sergeant First Class.
Sou-Coeus: can be in charge of 6-8 decasenti. Equivalent to a Master Sergeant.
Sur-Coeus: can be in charge of up to two centasenti. Equivalent to a Command Sergeant Major.

Education

He learned the basics of fighting from the warrior monks at the Retreat of St. Euclase. He also learned his magecraft there, as well. Then he refined his fighting skills by joining the Imperial Tondene Army.

Employment

Free lance mercenary.

Mental Trauma

Suffers from combat-related flashbacks, and hates flickerbugs because of the incident.

Morality & Philosophy

He is a devout follower of Aheru-Mazda (also known as Mithras in human cultures).

Personality Characteristics

Likes & Dislikes

Hates flickerbugs

Current Status

Champion of Aheru-Mazda

Current Location

The City of Port Karn

Species

Dwarf

Realm

The Tondene Empire

Age

Date of Birth

Colding 1

Birthplace

The Pleated Skirt, a brothel in Port Karn

Children

Gender

Male

Eyes

Amber and Blue (Heterochromia)

Hair

White

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Pale

Height

4'6"

Weight

220

Belief/Deity

Aheru-Mazda

Related Plots

The Goblin Cannibalism Problem

Related Reports

Known Languages

Northern Khuzdul, Imperial

Taid Tehoredor Lasu