Certain records indicate that when the halfling cavalry fought in the Last Skirmish (17.03), they were carrying with them a prisoner - the records are damaged and do not state who the prisoner was. It is known that this prisoner carried with them a powerful spell intended to resurrect them after death. However, in the wild melee that ensued, the prisoner was slain and their spell instead passed to the ostrich that had been carrying them. Thus did the strange case of the ostrlich come to be.
The ostrlich does not have the ageless cunning of a true lich. It is still an ostrich, after all. Mostly it is just frightened by everything, which explains why it fled from the skirmish site to the empty barrow in 18.01, where it lives now. However, over the years this fear has turned to madness and the ostrlich, in its pea-brained way, has begun devising traps and summoning undead defenders to protect its lair. It currently resides behind a trapped door in the depths of the barrow, and spends most of its time burying its head in the grey sand (actually the corpse dust of forgotten ancestors).
Six years ago, Devin Furhoof (17.05) and his adventuring companions raided the barrow, acquired some of its loot, and slew the ostrlich. However, being ignorant of the ways of the lich, they failed to destroy its phylactery. Seven days later it rose again at the site of the Last Skirmish, and immediately fled back to its barrow again.
Hooks
- Who was the prisoner with the lich-spell, and where did they come from?
- Who built the barrow, and who rested in it before the ostrlich arrived?
- What is the ostrlich’s phylactery?
- Are there any survivors of Furhoof’s companions, or did they all die in the Temple of Seven Shadows (37.01)?