Severance Package

When the dragons of Craigheight came to raid the Raithwall Peninsula, they expected to find the Raithwall tribe to be there, either willing to surrender and join their horde--their only hope for survival--or prepared to fight in a vain attempt to keep their territory--the preferred option for some of Craigheight's greatest warriors. The truth of the matter, the Raithwall tribe surrendering would have been anti-climatic, and the Craigheights might want to butcher them all for their cowardice. If they fought back, it would have been at least with a warrior's dignity that they were slain.

However, Chief Cyrgin found the tribe lands... empty. No humans, no hill dwarves, no elves, no halflings, no goblins taking advantage of the stomping around to do a little pillaging, and certainly no rival clan of dragons either caught unaware or armed to the tooth. Not even the local orc village had life in it, and those tusked, pig-nosed, muscular fools didn't fear anything short of a whole pack of bigger enemies crashing down upon them with overwhelming force!

That's when it dawned on Cyrgin. The large, blue and white dragon turned and looked at his forces. "Where is Shiko!?" The other dragons looked around and realized they were short one scout. "Traitor! She must have informed the Raithwalls we were coming!"

"Chief Cyrgin," his lieutenant, Marsen, informed him, "we found... something." The blue dragon turned to the orange and green one, who was holding in his claws a small, brown paper box with a letter attached to it. Cyrgin looked at the box and the letter with a deadpan gaze, before bright lightning surrounded him, and in his place stood a male human with a large, muscular frame with tanned skin, brown, wild hair and a wicked goatee, wearing brown and white leathers with fur. He picked up the box and looked at the letter, his green eyes tempering his rage.

Hey, Chief Cyrgin,

If you're reading this, then you've probably arrived at Wraithwall territory, only to find it vacant rather than humanoids and dragons to conquer. You can thank Chief Tultoc, who made me as his spy, and his older son Gargec, who suggested our tribe's exodus, for this barren peninsula. You see, Gargec figured that sooner or later, with the dragons becoming too populous, someone like you would try to cull the dragons to take over Odiosera, and war with one of the greater tribes was inevitable. That's not even counting the non-draconic races on Odiosera who'd get caught in the crossfire. It would be suicide to try to fight off the greater tribes, so we chose the simplest compromise ever:

You get to have the Raithwall Peninsula, but we're not giving you the satisfaction of destroying our people to get it. That's a bit of a pride thing to you, isn't it? Slaughtering your enemies? Well, too bad! By the time you get here, we'll be far out of your reach. I guess you'll just have to cross "destroying the Raithwall tribe" off of your potential list of victories. Call it cowardly, but we call it 'pragmatic'. While you mad-dragons waste time fighting for Odiosera, we're going to survive the war elsewhere, and rebuild with the peoples under our protection.

But, I'm not about to leave without giving you something to remember us by. So, for all of the business you had me be a part of... I'm going to let you keep my severance package from the Craigheight Tribe.

With love,

Raithwall Shiko

Crysen looked at the package, and tore it open, revealing the brown and white armor in a female orc's size, as well as a tattered brown flag that had a white dragon's claw gripping and crushing a bolder on it. The Craigheight sigil. Crysen snarled at the insult to his clan and his mouth, despite his human form, sparked up as his eyes turned white with rage, with small sparks of lightning flickering off of them. He then screamed to the sky, shooting a tower of electricity into the sky.

When the beam of rage faded, he turned to the other dragons, and called out, "This... insult will not STAND! I want the Raithwall tribe hunted to the ends of Skyeria if it calls for it! They will pay for their cowardice with their blood! I will have Tultoc's skull as a trophy! His son's skinned pelt as a mat! And the traitor's wings as decor for my throne as Dragon King of Odiosera! Their tribe will be a memory!"

"Shouldn't we focus on the other tribes?" Marsen asked. He was answered by Crysen grabbing his horn and pulling the dragon down despite being human.

"And let these enemies get away with not being conquered?" Crysen retorted. He then slammed Marsen's whole head into the dirt, shaking the world. "No... my reputation will not STAND for this!" He then tossed the box aside, and declared, "We will find the Raithwall tribe... and we will not show MERCY!"