This tale originated in my Outsiders campaign, and had multiple purposes. I needed to introduce Heroquesting to my players in a way which wouldn't break the campaign if their trip went poorly, and I wanted everyone to be involved in some way (which meant a heroquest involving only one or two active cults wasn't going to work). I also wanted a range of challenges involved in the quest, so they could get a feel for their options and have a sense of relative difficulty. Sometimes, inspiring people on a heroquest is harder than fighting the baddies.
Naturally, the characters had to have a good reason to go, too. In this instance, I decided to play on their desire to learn more about Chaos in a way that didn't involve potentially being corrupted by it. In effect, I needed a mini-version of I Fought We Won. I also needed something to resolve the deep resentment the others had of Sebastian the Humakti after he ritually severed his association with them--they just didn't understand what that meant yet.
David
This is a story about Humakt.
Long ago, Humakt wandered the land, training warriors, fighting battles, hunting undead.
One day, he came across a home not too far from Orlanth's stead. The house had been devastated. The roof was torn off, two walls collapsed, and everything inside smashed. The broken body of a woman groaned near the doorway. Humakt approached to learn who had done this deed, and the woman called to him. "Great Humakt, you are a warrior. My family has been killed by a terrible creature, a great snake-like thing filled with poison. Please, swear to me you will avenge them."
Humakt decided that the woman's request was just. "I shall kill the beast who did this to your family, so that it can do no more harm." Then Humakt saw that the woman's body was not just twisted and broken, but bloated with the creature's poison. She moaned in agony. But in those days death was newer, and it was a harder thing to die.
Humakt showed his mercy that day by ending the woman's suffering. He gave her the gift of Death.
Humakt found it easy to track this beast by its trail. He needed no hunter to help him. He came upon the snake-thing quickly, and swiftly struck off its head. But in seconds, two heads grew to replace it. With swift sure strokes, Humakt chopped off these heads too, while blocking their bites. In seconds, four heads writhed around the warrior. Humakt stepped back and tried to force the thing to Die, but its foul vitality foiled his attempt. "This thing is Chaos," Humakt thought. "I will need help to kill it."
Humakt returned to the stead and sought out Storm Bull. "I need your help to fulfill my oath, Storm Bull."
"Why do I care about your oaths?"
"My oath is to slay a thing of Chaos, Storm Bull."
"Chaos? Where?" And so Storm Bull joined him.
They attacked the thing together. Humakt hoped that Storm Bull could help him kill the Chaos-thing, since it was Chaos. But the Bull went Berserk and started to chop off heads with speed. In seconds, there were nearly a dozen. "This will not work," said Humakt. "With every strike the thing grows more dangerous, not less." But Storm Bull would not stop attacking, so Humakt quelled his berserk rage and dragged Storm Bull off while he was exhausted. Storm Bull was angry until Humakt told him that they needed to learn how to kill this thing of Chaos from someone who knew.
They returned to the stead and sought out Lhankor Mhy. "Ah, that creature sounds like a Hydra. I heard a story once about a Hydra that grew new heads. Its attackers used fire to sear the stumps of the heads, and it could grow no new ones and soon died. I'm sure this creature must be the same."
But Humakt knew that not all enemies that looked the same could be killed the same way. He and Storm Bull forced Lhankor Mhy to come with them. That way, if he was wrong, he would be there to tell them some other way to kill the Hydra. The threat of dying would make him give them the best advice.
They picked their way across a field littered with heads that Storm Bull had cut off the creature. Storm Bull killed a thing that was trying to take one of the heads. Then they caught up to the Hydra. Storm Bull and Humakt made their weapons burn with fire, and went to work. Sure enough, when they cut off a head, it did not grow back immediately. Soon, the Hydra was reduced to a few heads. But they were glowing, and breathing flame on the two warriors.
Then Humakt saw heads start to burst forth from the burned stumps. Fire didn't stop them from growing back, it only slowed them a little. "Any other ideas?"
Lhankor Mhy thought a bit, while Storm Bull and Humakt sweated to keep the Hydra at bay. "Sometimes, a creature can survive losing a part of its body. But blows to the center of the body may kill such a creature. Try ignoring the heads and striking the body."
And so Storm Bull and Humakt hacked at the body, opening up wide wounds like mouths. But these wounds festered and new heads burst from them. Now the creature had more heads coming out of other parts of its body, not just the front. "This isn't working, Lhankor Mhy!"
"Hmm. Well, I can't think of any other stories that might help. I
suppose how to kill this thing is something I do not know yet.
Perhaps you should kill it first, Humakt, and then tell me what you
did. Then I will know." And then he left, in something of a hurry.
Lhankor Mhy wasn't helpful. But he had agreed to help, and Humakt was going to hold him to that promise. Humakt and Storm Bull withdrew from the fight. They soon caught Lhankor Mhy. "If you don't know how to kill it, do you know who might?"
"I suppose we could always ask Orlanth for help."
So they returned to the stead and asked Orlanth for help. He told them, "What a few cannot do alone, many can do together." Orlanth gathered together all his warriors and made a speech. Together, they went out to fight the Hydra.
When they arrived, some Chaos things were cutting off heads from the Hydra so that it would grow more. Storm Bull killed them. Orlanth told all the warriors to work together. If they cut all the heads off at once and burned the stumps with fire, perhaps they could not grow back quickly enough for the thing to live. And so they struck the heads all off at once. And indeed, when they worked together, Humakt found that together they could make the Hydra dead.
And that is why, even though Humakt is no longer kin to Orlanth and the others, he still knows that it is important to have good warriors at your side. Because no matter how great a warrior you are, you cannot win all fights alone.
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