Day of Balthazar, Month of Sun--Excerpt.

[DoS Archive]

From: kaeneblack@aol.com (KaeneBlack)
Date: 30 Aug 1999 13:58:45 EDT

"The attack had come without warning; an ambuscade well planned by creatures of little more than base intelligence. The playing children were the first to fall, followed by the lethargic elders--their bodies crumpled into the black snow, which recomposed around them. And still the beasts raged inwards, violating the peaceful atmosphere of the villiage. Lanokai Behemoths--immense canine creatures--quick as
colts--ferocious as lions--large as mammoths, with a hunger that the meager pickings of the dying tundra could not sate. And so they came, once a month or so, to prey on the Lroft. A curse from the Great Thwarter, Llavin, the fountain of their troubles.

Blood liquified the black snow, heating it to a dirty mush of water and blood and ash--it would freeze again, sure, in the sub-artic temperatures, a thriving testament to the kill-or-be-killed theorem on which all inhabitants of the unforgiving valley operated. Here, the men were the weak ones; here, knowledge was not power. Here, strength and rage governed, and the small ones were oppressed.

The villiage warriors quickly assembled what little defense they could, as they made accessible their weaponry for quandries such as this. It was grossly laughable, though--even if the frail bone-spears could penetrate the callous exterior of the beasts, only a well-placed strike could even hope to bring one down. Spears shattered as often as skulls, as often as the frail bodies caught underfoot, and could not size up to the terrible jaws of the
assailants, which tore through the ranks like a child on Christmas morn'.

As the attack rescinded, a thick silence prevailed; only the sounds of boots sloshing through blood-thawed snow and the bodies thus dragged dared to challenge the quiet. I withdrew from my place of refuge to see how truly devastating the raid had been. I have never seen such carnage in my life and, for a moment of weakness, verily pitied the pagans. But God hath no love for those of little faith and the state of compassion passed as quickly as it
had come. And I still look forward to the great feast."

--Excerpt from Friar Penance's Journal,
Day of Balthazar, Month of Sun.