Locmire's Quest: Book One A Tales from Calencia Novel

by Brian Hutchinson

  Widely misunderstood, the Raptilians, a race of lizard people from Dead Marsh, hastened to join the armies of Calencia in the effort to defeat Hasbarie.

  The Raptilians were extremely tall for a humanoid race, with the average height pushing nearly seven feet. Their scaly lizard-like skin, long tails, sharp fangs, claws, and a set of gills protruding from the side of their necks, made them a very intimidating sight to behold. Most of the races avoided the Raptilians, mostly out of ignorance and fear.

  A peaceful race of hunters and gatherers living off of the marshes, the Raptilians utilized all the land had to offer. They excelled at trapping, hunting, and fishing. The Raptilians had an uncanny knack for concealing themselves, taking advantage of the cover that the marshes offered. It was not wise to venture into Dead Marsh without a Raptilian guide, due to the deadly traps they had laid to protect their swampy home. They became widely heralded as the most accomplished herbalists and potion makers in all of Calencia. They took advantage of the vast array of ingredients at their disposal located within the marsh. The potions and elixirs brewed by the Raptilians proved impossible to replicate, by even the most skilled alchemists.

  Once aligned with the rest of Calencia, they provided one of the biggest blows to the Dark Wizard's minions; a sneak attack from the sea. The Raptilians, possessing the ability to breath under water, effortlessly navigated the black waters and began their assault on the Onock from the south.

  They came to battle armed with tridents for close range combat and blowguns for long range. They crafted darts used in their blowguns from scorpion stingers and laced with poisonous butterfly frog extract, a very lethal combination.

  Their attack proved to be brutal and efficient until Hasbarie unleashed the Hethern upon them. The Hethern were small, fast, winged creatures that attacked in swarms, coincidentally, armed with tridents of their own. Once they swarmed the Raptilians, with piranha like fashion, the well planned attack ended abruptly.

  Outnumbered, and in a seemingly hopeless situation, the lizard people of Dead Marsh did not go gently. As the last of their army was falling, the Raptilian Queen, Jezikilah Venumroot unleashed a deathshroom bomb. She created the deathshroom bomb by grinding deathshroom, a rare type of mushroom found only in the Dead Marsh, into a fine powder. The powder was highly toxic to any creature that drew breath into its lungs. Deathshroom bombs had been previously banned in the Dead Marsh because of the inability to safely contain the poisonous cloud to its desired location. If the wind would happen to change direction the toxic cloud could easily fall upon innocents. As her people desperately looked to her for direction, Jezikilah tossed a ceramic jug full of deathshroom powder into the air and exploded it with her trident. All forms of life in the immediate area became forever still, providing the break in Hasbarie's defenses that was so desperately needed.

  From this gallant moment on, the Raptilians became heartedly accepted as a part of civilized society. The inhabitants of Calencia welcomed their potions and elixirs with open arms. Their small homeland in Dead Marsh thrived with this new source of income. Trading routes from all over Calencia finally extended into the Dead Marsh.