The Hunt for Urshamu-Rapli - A tale of an Ashlander turned Buoyant Armiger's Exploits

Satyrfey

"At one time I was hunting Guar at Bal-Sil, which men of the west call "stone light", east of Kogotel.

From there I moved east to Bahlarhihn Difshid , where giant's heads lie"... in the mountains close to Skyrim.

From there with only my own tent I started away hunting.

I was warned by my fellow hunters not to go toward the north, as in that direction, near a certain large uprooted tree, there lived a dangerous monster Urshamu-Rapli... a Cursed Guar that had killed many a Mer and Nords.

It kept constant watch, and whenever it could spring upon an unwary hunter it would stomp them to death, and then drag the dead body down the mountain side into a deep hole.

Naturally so, driven by a desire to best this thing, I ignored these warnings and set out to find this Urshamu-Rapli.

Many days my hunt took me, far away from settled land, into the wild north of Velothi, glacial strand.

Soon I came to the fallen tree and climbed upon the trunk, and there, sure enough, on the other side was the great Urshamu-Rapli stretched out in the snow.

It was the most beautiful creature, save for Vehk hirself, I had ever seen!

In that moment, I knew I could not kill it, but must convince it to be mine.

It was lithe and strong, and had stipes of glowing blue for it had eaten many ice wraiths... I consider how best to approach..

I knew that this beast would not accept a mer coming into its domain... so I retreated, and stalked, not the monster... but its prey... the ice wraiths of the Velothis..

the fierce and powerful elemental demons of frost and snow and darkness were notorious also... and I knew that by burning a fire in the highest points, I might draw them to me…

So I went to the top of an icy crag, and using a scroll I blasted the spot with the hottest fire... and waited…

Then arose a loud and awesome scream! Ten fleeting Hoom-Snakes, Ice Wraiths came slithering through the air... the bones of lost things charging, to snuff out all joy and warmth!

But miserable was to be the life-ending of these fiends; their alien spirits were fated, for food they would be.. bate, so I might claim the heart of the beloved monster I had spied before!

One after the next they came, with numbing sleeping game!

But they knew not of the ways of the Golden Reed, as I have long studied. My blade sliced through bones and magic stuff alike, and danced we did, o'er flaming mountain top, bathed in fire light as the sun faded behind thunderous clouds.

Confident I felt, though in vain, as slipped I did in the melting ice made by my own flaming inferno!

Grappling two of the last freezing whale bones, wriggling and biting to be free, We tumbled down the mountain!

Deep into a fissure we slid, fighting all the while, and into darkness, the icy domain, without light! Finally I found a foothold.

I thought of Vehk, and of the light within.. the fire behind the eyelids.. so closed my eyes I did, and fought the two demons now without eyes

for eyes can deceive... and the slave labor of the senses can be as greedy as polar ice.

To the last I killed them! Their bones falling to the darkened snow...

but in a state I was, unsure if I would yet survive, or find myself broken and lost in the deep hole I'd fallen to.

Such is the velothis, that many a mer never return once such a fate has been earned.

So I sat, and meditated, thinking on what the Three would do, on how this test might be conquered.

then... in answer to my prayer, there in the darkness, I saw a light

blue glow... like holy fire.

It was the monster Urshamu-Rapli... come to claim the frozen bones.

I remained still as the lethal beast came close

I extended the bones, on my knees in the snow and darkness, presenting the gift I had surely fought to give it.

Urshamu-Rapli sniffed, then licked the freezing things from my hands, watching me....

And in Urshamu-Rapli's eyes, I knew it was impressed... for it had not been eating these things to gain some sustenance... but to destroy the fiends.

It's instinct was pure, and in my battle with the lost bones of the Snow Whales, I gained the trust of Urshamu-Rapli

Whom I ride with pride to this very day."