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The
Legend of the Dark Serpent
by Daniel
Deadmarsh
Hundreds of years ago, when Fellaren-Krae was first established as a trading village, a goodly mage by the name Sahrun Colum lived in a tower roughly ½ hour's ride by horse, on top of a cliff overlooking the Sea of Fallen Stars and Fellaren-Krae.
Back when Fellaren-Krae was but a struggling village. Sahrun offered his services to the community as a point guard and outpost for possible attacks from monsters and other potential dangers and threats.
Sahrun would send a magical message or light a large brazier at the top of his tower to warn the village's militia and occupants that a threat was at hand. On the occasions when Sahrun would send a magical message, the militia would send foot soldiers and archers into a secret tunnel that lead straight to the depths of Sahrun's tower. Fellaren-Krae soldiers attacking from the rear of a moving horde with the help of a powerful mage, Sahrun, while mounted troops and archers charged the advancing monsters' front line, is enough to confuse the most organized attack.
Eight would-be orc and goblin sieges were averted, in such a manner. It is believed that before Fellaren-Krae and before the arrival of humans to the area. That within the depths of the nearby forest lived an entire goblin civilization, far more advanced than the goblins of today. It is rumored that this once great civilization lived in a large underground citadel. For whatever reason this goblin community left the plush and fertile region. If there truly is an underground complex that housed hundreds, perhaps thousands of goblins, it has never been found. Very few enter the forest for the following reason.
One evening, the brazier was lit, and the townsfolk prepared for the coming invasion. The citizens of Fellaren-Krae, waited and without warning a great winged dragon flew over Sahrun's tower. Heading towards the city. The people panicked at the site of such a creature, even though it was a great distance away, anyone seeing the beast could easily tell it was three times the size of Sahrun's tower.
A great arc of lightning blasted from the tower and struck the flying leviathan. As the dragon made it's flying arc to assault it's rear attacker, another bolt of lightning lashed out toward the beast.
Seeing Sahrun's attack on the dark dragon, and believing his friend to be in dire trouble. The Oakenstaff Bearer, Davys DunVegan, asked for volunteers to go and help Sahrun. Only a handful of Fellaren-Krae's soldiers volunteered.
Davys then set out quickly with a small contingent of soldiers, knights and archers.
While the band of warriors rode off in haste to help their ally. The fiery battle in the sky continued, great balls of flame erupted, as the dragon loosed a torrent of bashes to the tower and let loose it's deadly breath weapon on the tower, only to strike an invisible barrier. As the warriors approached, the tower was aglow with a purplish dancing fire. Fellaren-Krae's mounted archers let loose a volley of arrows at the great beast, it breathed down on the new enemies and landed to better lash out at them. The brave combatants were then thrown about like rag dolls by the gargantuan beast. Warriors perished as they were thrown over the cliff's edge, ripped open by the mighty dragon's claws or burned alive by it's acidic breath.
The citizens of the nearby city could see the dragon turning it's attention to the mage in the tower who was still unleashing volley's of magical attacks at the ancient black wyrm. Then as the beast clawed into the tower to make it collapse over the mage, a resulting explosion ripped into the dragon and lit up the night sky for all to see.
The dragon's form lay still next to the ruined tower.
The Council quickly ordered another contingent of warriors to the tower with wagon's to bring back the dead and wounded. When they arrived the dragon's remains were not next to the tower. The dragon was spotted flying North East toward a nearby forest. The warriors quickly split up into two groups, twenty knights rode off after the creature to finish it off, while the remainder began the clean-up of the battlefield.
The clean-up lasted until the next day, as more soldiers arrived to help. The twenty knights never returned from the forest, and the dragon was never seen again.
The bodies of seven warriors and Davys DunVegan were never found. It was believed that Sahrun perished with the collapse of his tower.
The passageway to the tower has been sealed up at several junctures to prevent any unwanted visitors arriving in Fellaren-Krae. The tower has also become a frequent stomping ground for would-be adventurers, and has long been cleaned out of anything valuable. Rumors have it that the explosion was caused by the destruction of a Staff of the Magi. The entrance to the passageway from the broken tower has never been found, it is believed to reside on a lower unattainable level of the tower.
It is rumored that the great beast still sleeps in the forest now known as the Wyrm's Rest.
The cliff is now known as Colum's Crag, named after the mage who made the cliff his home.