Card 1:
It was a dark and stormy night for our squad of soldiers. There was a lonely cabin by the cavern entrance that leads to Aurdinas. But when we entered the cave, we heard a chittering, for there were creatures skittering, and our team was jittering, jittering to the point of panic. Our team later entered a cave with a spider's nest and a bunch of dead fireflies and scarabs, as well as some of their own dead. Some of our soldiers dropped dead due to the toxic fumes of the dead spiders. As the scribe recording this event, I had to cover my nose and mouth and breathe as little as possible myself.
As we saw more nests in the cave, we saw more creatures that died to the spiders, including more of their own kind. We even saw something as great as a Shrieker leveled by the spiders. We knew we could not kill the spiders, for that would make the caustic smell even more arduous. We had to set up camp behind a huge dual stalactite bunker, which we named the Snake's Fangs. Bless our luck, for no spiders lied beyond that point. Though this place was not the most roomy, it could serve for the amount of soldiers we had.
The next day, about seven of our soldiers died due to the spiders' airborne stench, and our bard had a sleepless night. He heard the rest of the soldiers screaming in agony as they had been rotting from the toxic air. He couldn't do one thing about it, I almost felt sorry for him. I wondered if the spider he'd been talking about was a form of premonition. Luckily, we exited the cave in time to see that not many of the important soldiers had died. I, along with my fellow Enchanter, gave the spiders a name: Scavenging Spiders, as they had been noshing on the carrion that was their prey, including some of the soldiers that were asphyxiated by the polluted air.
Card 2:
It had been almost a week since the team set out. Food and water was scarce, and some soldiers had to risk drinking from the stream. The team hit a mountain passage, including one volcano, on the edge of the border to Aurdinas. An uphill climb was possible, but we'd have to develop a stride to make it a little less unforgiving. It was never dangerous on the previous trips to the gold mine, but we saw three silhouettes, allowing some of our soldiers to see a lion's mane and a dragon's wings. "Could this be the dragon?" many of us thought, including myself; "No, there's three of them. Even if there were three dragons, these creatures are much too small." Perhaps they could be the dragon's understudies?
On closer inspection, these creatures also have a stinger like the scorpions outside town. From the history I've learned about, these creatures looked like Manticores, so I gave them that name. The manticores looked down on us, as we tried to avoid their presence, though our team had their weapons at the ready. Not more than two minutes later, we saw those same figures circling above us, then... WHAM! Two soldiers were attacked from above by the manticores. They slashed at our soldiers with brute force. Only minor injuries were sustained, and the team was easily able to distract one of the manticores, killing it. The remaining two manticores started drooling their repulsive saliva. Our soldiers knew these manticores wanted blood, and only blood. With renewed vengeance, the manticores started stinging repeatedly at our team. Stingers hit our blades, even chipping some of our weapons. The gust the wings created was devastating to our troupe, and just left us open to the deadly stings. At least ten died from the manticores' stings, some dying more painful deaths than others. I thought it was blasphemy at first, the fact that I wasn't dead; me, a simple scribe, no armor or anything but my fellow comrades, still alive?
The few dozen soldiers left after these hardships were fighting with their life. Seconds turned to minutes, and minutes felt like hours, but the fighting died out soon. The squad survived, but soldiers were still dying due to the poison. I knew these were servants of the dragon. The team kept marching on, and many thought of creating memorials for the dead. All I could think about is the hardships the band has faced.
Card 3:
When we set off to defeat the dragon, we first made a visit to our friends in the Frostkracken Empire. Our armies met, but both of us didn't wish to do battle. All we knew about each other is that we had a common goal: kill that dragon. Our elites talked with theirs as comrades in arms, even though we wanted the gold for ourselves. However, the lives of our fellow empires are much more valuable than riches, so we spoke anyways. It was a fun chat, and the tavern was illustrated incredibly well.
On our way back, we met a peculiar face we've not seen before. It looked like a face at first, but it didn't seem to be discovered by the Frostkracken Empire. Were the citizens too fearful of coming here on their own? As we strode through the cliffs and waterfalls of the Frostkracken wilderness, we noticed the faces were actually... masks? A very uncanny placement, not like that's uncommon. The masks were actually some form of shell to protect and intimidate others. These arthropods seemed like mildly friendly, docile creatures. When our presence arrived, they were doing weird things, imitating our elementals and the creatures they summoned. Sometimes, they would grow bigger or light themselves on fire; one even fell off a cliff and turned into a pile of ash. I reached down to touch one, and I immediately washed the water that covered their hard shell off of my hands. The mask was all one shell, and the stubby legs made it seem more abnormal than the other creatures that have scribbled this journey to come.
"These weirdos need a name... I can't just call these turtles, well, turtles." A corporal spoke.
"Yeah, but they don't look like turtles to me. They look more like lobsters." A private replied. Some of the soldiers debated about a name.
"Hold up!" I halted our team and took a few of the creatures with me. I figured these would be useful to have against the dragon. I will have to admit, I felt bad for taking them away from their home, so I silently promised to return them home after the dragon fight. Even worse, those things are cute sometimes, being all cumbersome with their abilities, plus their relatively small size.
"These masked crabs could be useful to the troupe. We should bring a few. And come on, you can't resist that little face." I exclaimed to the team that was brought to fight the dragon.
"I never thought of that as a name... Masked Crabs... let's take them with us!" The people who were previously arguing replied jovially.
