From the notes of Caarad Surestrider, submitted to Borrum Binbalik for his work "On the Bearers of Akasha"

One of the more difficult episodes in the history of the Bearers of Akasha was their association with Mal, a windling beastmaster from the Liaj Jungle. At the time of this writing, the event was only a few months old. Rather than press the issue, I tried my best to touch upon the topic during casual conversation. Regardless, my efforts to extract commentary concerning Mal have failed. Our only sources on the matter are the journals and papers of the Bearers themselves.

However, I soon discovered that there was one point of agreement between the Bearers on their history with Mal. It appears that to varying degrees, each of them disliked Mal's zoak steed, Neghri. In particular, Sanjuro, Maxwell and Midnight Blue were particularly annoyed by the creature. One time, during a fine dinner prepared by Maxwell, I inquired about Neghri. Below are the responses I received. For reasons of space, I have edited out the extraneous adjectives and action verbs (of which there were many).

Sanjuro - "It wasn't the bat I had a problem with. It's just that everytime we needed to do something or go somewhere, Mal raised his own personal Scourge about bringing that thing along. He was so obsessed with having his bat around, he forced it into a Horror-cursed kaer. Nice beastmaster. And there it was, no matter where we were, squaking loudly and smelling badly. Come to think of it, I did have a problem with the bat. Scratch that first statement...oh, and pass the zoak gravy. Thanks."

Maxwell - "Hmm, well, yes...you see, beastmasters, more than any other adept save nethermancers, traditionally have trouble being part of an adventuring group. Their ties to nature and the wild are far stronger than the more civilized and more common adepts such as swordmasters or, ahem, wizards. Therefore, it is understandable that a bonded animal such as Mal's zoak would react negatively toward certain people that it perceived its master did not like."

At this point Maxwell became aware of the very strong glares being focused in his direction.

Maxwell - "Ahh, well, hmm...it liked to urinate on my cloak a great deal but in no way does that affect my judgment concerning it or Mal. Really. It doesn't. The two of you stop looking at me like that! Hey! Stop laughing! It's true! It is! Bah..."

Blue - "I'm upset that it's gone because it left before I learned Animal Possession...but I've made up for it."

Afterwards, they showed me a magical device that Blue and Maxwell had created. Using a variant of the flame flash spell, combined with astral energy and low-level illusions that a friend helped with, they created a small game based on Neghri. Although I had my difficulties, they were all quite good at it. It was called "Shoot the Zoak".

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Last Updated 08/27/98 by Paul

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