Razelvarg

In the land of Yakai, there are many mythological traits and properties associated with rabbits and hares. They are seen as bearers of good fortune and their rapid breeding makes them symbols of fecundity. Various heavenly bodies are associated with them, with innumerable tales saying they came to Teleria from putative stars, planets, or constellations high in the sky. In other lands hares are bred or hunted for meat and fur as a matter of course, but in Yakai there are more cultural practices and rituals associated with tracking, trapping, and killing them. Since they are regarded as good luck, it is customary for Yakai hunters and furriers to pay a symbolic ‘hare-price’ in exchange for taking the life of one. This price usually consists of a handful of grains or some vegetables, left where hares are known to frequent. Besides functioning as a spiritual ritual, feeding the creatures helps ensure their population remains robust enough for other hunters to profit from it. Raas Zal’far was a Human from Anhelt who settled in the foothills of the Cloudspire Mountains on the border of Yakai. A hunter and trapper, he scoffed when he learned of the local customs and superstitions. Paying no mind to the traditional hare-price, he killed as he pleased, despite the protestations of the locals. But those who slay animals for their living are at particular risk of contracting the Skinwalker curse, and those who take more than their fair share are all the more at risk, for they are rolling the dice of fate all the more frequently. One day this fate befell Raas Zal’far as he was butchering his catch, and a violent hare spirit, contorted by the touch of Darkness, attacked his soul. Rich fur such as that he had long profited from sprouted across his skin, his ears grew skyward like stalks of corn, and his body and musculature distorted painfully. Raas’s mind and spirit struggled mightily with the hare-essence, and this transitory period of mental and physical anguish lasted far longer than is typical for a newly-afflicted Skinwalker. For weeks he rampaged through the woods babbling and shrieking, striking fear into the local people. Stories spread of the rampaging, insane beast-man, and the constant repetition of his name eventually transmuted it into Razelvarg. Though his violent struggle to integrate his beast-self eventually ended, Raas’ mind was twisted and scarred, leaving him a vicious lunatic. He attacked farms and feasted on their crops, needing vast amounts of plant matter to sustain his huge, swift, and robust body. He first killed individual farmers, and then preyed on armed groups who assembled to deal with him. From his early victories he scrounged a pair of swords, and when a wolf tried to hunt him he slaughtered it and now wears its skin triumphantly. Survivors of his attacks described, shuddering, his incredibly swift leaps and bounds, and seeing a furry blur out of the corner of their eye zipping from tree to tree and cover to cover. They said slingers and archers were too slow to aim and track the creature, and one by one stout swordsmen and club-bearing militiamen were pounced upon and were slashed to ribbons or had their throats torn out. After multiple failed attempts to kill the creature, the local magistrate put a massive bounty on Razelvarg's head and issued a call to arms. It was more successful than anticipated: sorcerers, priests, men-at-arms, gladiators from Velyzar, and Dwarves from the Skyiron Dominion traveled to the region, lured by the promise of reward, a sense of moral duty, or both. Many members of this impromptu crusade, especially those from Yakai, proclaimed they were furious at Razelvarg for besmirching the folklore of their people. Despite their shared goal, and in some cases zeal and hatred, these bounty hunters have been reluctant to cooperate with each other, loath to split the prize and mistrustful of potential allies. Thus, Razelvarg remains at large, and scattered incursions into his territory by the more bold or foolhardy seekers have ended either with no sighting of the creature, humiliating failure, or the hunters’ slaughter. All the while, Razelvarg continues to devastate entire fields of crops, and he rips apart any farmer who tries to defend their land from him.