Tulisia

We're beset men--ware the camp!  To arms!  His loud voice cut through the generalized panic.  Form up, swords to me, archers fire at will!  Protect the women and children!

A dozen men began to fire arrows into the forest at the moving shadows.  For the most part, their shots were wasted, flying off into the forest to either strike a tree, or land harmlessly in the soft loam.  A few struck their targets, but not with the results intended.

The ill aimed arrows bounced harmlessly from the hardened shells of the creatures in the forest.  Although they did not injure them, they did serve to turn them from their course, a course that led away from the camp.  The creatures sensed a threat.  One of them, indistinguishable from the rest, paused in its progress, silently communing with an unknown source.  After a moment, it turned its attention once again outwards to those surrounding it, and those attacking them.

With gentle clicking sounds and motions of its clawed hands, it instructed its companions to defend themselves.  At once, a number of the creatures turned their attention away from their journey, towards the humans in the encampment.  Instinctively, without compassion or any sign of emotion, they returned the attack.

As they entered the camp, they were fully revealed to their attackers.  The sight of the larger than man sized insect like creatures sent the entire camp into panic, all plans of defense lost in the turmoil.

The next morning found the forest silent but for the chirping of the birds and the whistle of the wind through the trees.  Somewhere, just inside the southern edge of the forest, a group of insect like, bipedal creatures moved southward.  They showed no signs of the conflict--no noticeable injuries, no sign of fatigue, no remorse.

Within the forest encampment of the brigands, things were quite different.  A few men that had chosen to flee instead of fight, along with the women that were overlooked in the slaughter, searched for survivors.  Amidst the crisscrossed patterns of sun and shadow that filled the glade, they instead found the torn up parts of people they knew.  The bodies, thoroughly hacked and torn by the claws of the creatures, were unrecognizable, and the stench unbearable.  Over forty men and women lay dead and mutilated on the ground.

In the midst of the carnage lay one dead figure that none dared approach.  The black shell of the creature was covered in human blood.  A long spear stuck from its throat, wedged into a small gap between two neck plates.  A small puddle of viscous, yellowish fluid had seeped from the mortal wound to the ground below, where it puddled around the fearsome form of the deceased creature.

The ten survivors, two of whom were wounded, possibly mortally, left the bodies as they lie.  They left the camp, fearful that the horrible creatures may return.  Afraid even to remain in the forest, the four men and six women made for the mountains to the south, back towards the more established camps of the mountain miners.  With them they carried the first stories of the dark, deadly creatures later identified as the d'rakken mahre; stories filled with terror, both real and imagined. 

These tales spread widely, and as is the way of such things, were greatly embellished around many a taproom fireplace.  This story, coupled with other rumors and legends, began a series of events that would change the civilized world; and shift forever the balance of power of Tulisia, the greatest of the ancient Empires.