Altered Beast

The **Altered Beast** is a legendary beast of unnatural origins. The last time it has been seen over 1200 years ago when it was defeated by the legendary dwarf Scilla. Descriptions of the Altered Beast vary, however Scilla profits the best described known in Sahul. She said that the creature was half man and half bear. His left hand being a knife as sharp as a dwarven sword and his right hand a fork. She even claimed that the Altered Beast spoke to her. Some scholars and other adventures have refuted some of these claims.

## The Tale of the Altered Beast

The Tale of the Altered Beast is the story about Scilla her journey to slay the Altered Beast. The earliest stories appear a couple years after the slaying by Scilla.

The Tale of the Altered Beast is an old one indeed. All in a simple dwarven village with no name left today. This village lift peacefully mining away in a hillside in a search for valuable zinc. However things were to turn. It all started of with a few dead animals found on the outskirts of town, pigs being right ripped open. It was suspected that a pack of bears were the once responsible. A hunting party was send out to find and slay the bears. Few bears were found and promptly slain. All remained quite for a couple of days until more pigs were found dead. So a second hunting party was send out to see if more bears could be found. No single bear or track of any other predatory animal was to be found. However another track of an unknown large animal was spotted, the hunters followed the tracks to a nearby cave. Here they found something they never wanted to dream of, they found the Altered Beast. Five hunters entered the cave, only one managed to return badly wounded to the village. He spoke of a grant vile beast living in a cave nearby. The dwarf said that the beast had spoken in a horrid voice to them before the hunting group attacked it. As soon as the dwarf wanted to repeat these words his voice altered.

*I see you*

*I want to*

*Break your head*

*Crusty bread*

The dwarf succumbed to his wound shortly after repeating these word. Now knowing that the village was not dealing with a mere beast but something more potent; a message was send out to the nearest city asking for support in slaying a vile beast. A small detachment of professional dwarven soldier was send out to the village, over 20 bodies strong. The soldiers arrived a couple days later, following them was Scilla the legendary dwarven who had managed to slay a dragon. The detachment had setup their tents on the outskirts of the town and started preparing to set out the cave the next day. First the dwarves with shields entered at the ready. Following was crossbow support, the rear was guarded by dwarves armed with battleaxes and maces. Stalking behind them was Scilla. The soldiers went deeper into the cave until they heard a low rhythm speaking to them.

*I am the sabre, the catapult, and bat*

*The top of the food chain in my habitat*

*I am the demon bearing misery and fear*

*And I spy you convulsing from way over here*

*I could pull you apart or I could cut you to pieces*

*I could make you weep crimson tears from the lesions*

*But the thing that I lust for and the thing that I'll get*

*Is to take over your body and to be in your head*

Over the dwarves came a sense of dread. From the shadows a creature movied with an unsteady gait. It gaze locked with their heads. This gaze felt loud in the brain, making it the dwarves were stuck to the terrain. Some of the speardwarves snapped out of the gaze and started to attack the vile monster. But stabbing was to no avail, and so the dwarves turned pale. The creature hacked and it slashed, similar to a butcher killing an animal. Crossbow bolts fired at the creature, however it did not seemed hurt by the bolts. Scilla who was hiding in the back heard something whispering to her:

*For all its revoltion, and warp, and taboo*

*A part of you wants to be altered too*

She manages to snap out of it but she starts hearing a macedwarf whisper the following to himself.

*Altered beast*

*Alter me*

*Altered beast*

*Alter me!*

As soon as the dwarf said ME, Scilla noticed that he and another dwarf shout this loud and then run of out of the cave. They sprinted right past Scilla, seemingly not noticing her. Another dwarf tried to retreat but was grabbed by their right leg and drawn closer to the beast where he could feast. Scilla decided to make her way out of the cave, if a small company of dwarven soldiers can't kill the beast than neither can she. Instead she followed the two dwarves who rushed outside seemingly under the effect of a spell. The dwarves had retreated to their camp and at one part seemed to be panicking but they also looked at ease. Scilla warned the townsfolk to steal of the cavern until she could come up with a plan to defeat the beast. So the townsfolk gathered every piece of furniture they could find hoping it would stop the beast or at least give them a warning if it was to leave the cave.

The following morning Scilla woke hearing a ruckus outside, one of the soldier dwarves was found dead hanging from a tree. He seemed too have more hair over his body than the previous morning. Normally this isn't a reason for scepticism since dwarves naturally grow lots of hair but this, this was more than any dwarf reasonable could grow in a single night. It also looked as if someone had smashed out his teeth, only nine of them remained. The other dwarven soldier was no where to be found, only a single track leading away from town would indicate the possible way they went. The town send another message to the nearby dwarven city asking for more support. Scilla decided to chase after the missing dwarf.