When the Verlimes still styled themselves Dukes (18.07), Duke Oster Verlime lead an army (if such a mob, with each man who had brought anyone else along willing shout his name calling himself a general, could be a called an army) against the orc tribes (26.01) to the west of the Titan’s Skull. After many bloody skirmishes and more inclusive blundering about, the army disbanded and staggered back home.
On the long march southwards, a company of archers somehow mistook a troop of halfling ostrich cavalry for a warg pack and opened fire. Before the two units could get disentangled, the ostriches had run amuck and several men lay crippled or dying.
Even now, the ghosts of the men and halflings scream insults at each other nightly and are accompanied, some say, by the ethereal shrieks of maddened ostriches. For obvious reasons, this land is now unsuitable for agriculture and the locals keep their herds well away from it.
Thad Breen, (15.04) who sometimes claims to have been alive during the Last Skirmish, claims that the ghosts can only be laid to rest if a plow made from a magical sword is drawn through the field of the fight by a proper red cow.
Hooks:
- Just how old is Thad Breen anyway? There hasn’t been a Verlime duke since the elves sacked their citadel 150 years ago! How does he know about how to break curses? Is he not quite human or just a consummate liar?
- What are the nearby halfling communities like? Do they have an ostrich derby? They really should have an ostrich derby.
