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Mysterium Bestia: Mammoths

Tags: #Lore Event  #Mysterium Bestia 
  • Member
    April 5, 2017

    Memoirs of a Mammoth by Marius Marcilus

     

     

    Entry 1- The Job

    The 8th of Rain’s Head, 3E 404

    The Imperial City, Cyrodiil

     

    Joy, joy, ooo wondrous magnanimous joy! My uncle has saw fight to hire my naturalistic expertise to helm one of his expeditions to the north! I am to take a team of warriors, trappers, and what I assume are vagabonds into the frozen land of Skyrim and bring back a collection of goods and parts harvested from one of the region’s megafauna known as a “mammoth”. I am told these creatures are impossibly large bipedal mammals not unlike the elephants of far off Elseweyr. While I will admit I have never seen these creatures myself, I am lead to believe that their northern cousins are even larger, many times the size of any man or mer. Can you believe such a thing? These mammoths also have four! tusks of white ivory that I am told can be manufactured into all manner of expensive and elegant artistic creations. Their thick skin is covered with a mass of shaggy fur, undoubtedly to resist the effects of Skyrim’s legendary winters. Thankfully we will be traveling in the early summer and I will not have to experience first hand the biting cold of the homeland of the nords! What luck! 

     

    Now then, while I do not know the nature of uncle’s client, or possibly clientele, who knows if it is just one or many people that desire such exotic goods? I must make myself a note to ask uncle for more information, never can have too much information! Right then, well the list of items required I do have and it is very detailed and lengthy indeed. In total we need to bring back:

     

    • 12 sets of pristine mammoth tusks

    • 30 imperial tons (pre-dried) of salted & dried mammoth meat

    • 20 pristine pickled mammoth eyes (for the college perhaps? or an alchemy shop?)

    • 15 imperial tons of cured mammoth hide

    • 2 imperial tons of powdered mammoth bone

    • And any other misc tusk pieces, feet (yes feet!!), toes (how ridiculous!), and any other parts our nordic hunters tell us are valuable

     

    I can barely contain my excitement and while I still have many weeks for all the preparations to be made I have already begun my packing! Perhaps this trip will become the basis for my thesis next year at the academy! I will admit I have not had much field experience. Ever since that incident with the mudcrab several years back I have been hesitant to venture far. Why would anyone lucky enough to call the Imperial City home ever want to leave anyway?!? At any rate, uncle says this is an opportunity to learn because I am “all mouth and no trousers”, whatever that means, I learn plenty at the academy. I am always showing off my intelligence. That must be why he is sending me, he knows I finally have learned enough to be of benefit for the family business!

     

    Regardless, I have resolved myself to focus entirely upon this task and none other until it is completed. I leave in a few weeks time with three of the trade company’s guards who will assist and protect me and our goods upon our journey. We will also be hiring a few of the regular mercenaries to act as muscle and skill for assisting with the capture and killing of these mammoth creatures. Lastly will be our nordic guides who will join us once we reach the city of Whiterun in central Skyrim. With that our crew will be complete and we can set about the surrounding region to bag our quarry. Bag our quarry, gosh I am already sounding like a true outdoorsman! In a few months time I will return to the Imperial City at the head of our caravan of trade wagons, laden with the spoils of our glorious mammoth hunt and will be hailed as the rightful heir to the family empire. Ooo how glorious it will be, I simply cannot wait.

     

     

     

    Entry 2- The Expedition Begins!

    The 24th of Second Seed, 3E 404

    Whiterun, Skyrim

     

    Skyrim at last! We have just arrived in the central Skyrim city of Whiterun. The journey north was beautiful and relatively uneventful. In the mountain passes we went through the imperial checkpoints without issue, although a few of the nord legionaries that checked our papers seemed quite amused by our purpose. Why I have no idea. Regardless, Skyrim is a land of rugged and harsh beauty. And while I still prefer the soaring spires of the bastion of mankind that is the Imperial City, the heartland of the nords, where the ancient atmoreans first came to this land does hold some mystical sway over my mind. Everywhere the primordial majesty of divine Kynareth can be seen. Towering peaks with caps of pure white snow, massive timber forests, and here in the central region around the city of Whiterun sprawling, grass covered heaths.

     

    The city of Whiterun is a quaint little place, small by imperial standards, but quite large I am told by nordic ones. The whole city is spread out in three tiers, the Plains District, the Wind District, and the Cloud District. We are currently staying in an inn in the Plains District, the lowest of the tiers where we are to provision ourselves for our rural camping for our expedition, and meet our nord guides. While these nords are….unusual, I am glad for their company. While they seem gruff on the surface they are also quite lively and friendly I have noticed when you get a few drinks in them. Most importantly however is their firsthand knowledge of our prey and the foreign land I now find myself in.

     

    In total we are a nine man crew for this expedition. First and great leader of this endeavour is myself, Marius Marcilus. Next is our three company imperial guards. Valus and Reman, both colovians, tall and broad shouldered with large tower shields. If we ever do encounter trouble I will be hiding behind them for sure! Contar, the third imperial, is a nibenese warrior slim of build and seemingly quick on his feet. He seems to favor his bow from what I can tell. Next are our mercenaries, Ox the orc and Kasal the redguard. Ox might be the biggest...humanoid I have ever seen. He carries his warhammer that looks to be taller and heavier than my whole body like it was a child’s toy. Kasal, like Contar, is also lithe and fast. He favors a set of javelins which he claims he can throw with three times the power of any arrow, and just as accurate. Let us hope he is not exaggerating. While I have never spoken to any of these men before this trip I have seen them all at least once working under the Marcilus family banner. Last we have our nords, three of them as well. Hakon, Wulf, and Yiri are their names. Hakon and Wulf look like many of the nords I have seen so far. They dress in leathers and hides, and look as weathered as the stones upon which this city is built. Yiri, I find the most interesting. A woman, although not like any I have ever known, cusses like a sailor, and has challenged Ox to an arm wrestling match at least three times since supper. 

     

    Speaking of, during our supper I was able to learn more about our task, and understand exactly why there seems to be so much value in these mammoth parts (which reminds me, I saw the figures uncle set aside for each of these warriors and it seems entirely too high to me, perhaps I should talk to him when I get back about offering lower in the future. Even with the distance to travel and cart everything back we can make a bigger profit in the end? After all, how dangerous can these mammoths be?). With our party being the largest in the inn and garnering a great amount of attention for our hunt we attracted many patrons and even the inn’s staff to our conversations during the evening. In my questions about the mammoth’s ivory, which seems to be the focus of the hunt, many ran off only to return holding various objects and items carved from this substance. I will write each of them below, along with a small description of each as the flexibility and variance of items carved from the mammoth’s tusks is truly astounding. 

     

    • Engraved mammoth tusk hair pins- A heirloom of the inn’s owner’s family. These small pins were delicately carved with images of the nord’s goddess of Kyne (their aspect of Kynareth).

    • Mammoth tusk dice- Small playing dice carved on each side and used to play a game called “Draugr, Draugr, Lich”. (I understand named after some fictitious creature from the nord’s folklore.) Shown off by a young roguish fellow who kept eying my coin purse.

    • Ivory mortar and pestle- Another item from the inn’s owner. This heavily polished bowl looks to have hundreds of years of wear from grinding and crushing.

    • Scrimshander tools- Intricate carving tools for making other mammoth tusk items, themselves made with the handles of mammoth tusk. Shown by an elderly man who claims to work with the material himself.

    • Ivory spice shakers- Ornate spice shakers shown off by an aging nord man who left to get them from his home in town. Carved in the shape of a fox and a bear, these curved items showed off the diversity of the tusk material with how it can be shaped and carved.

    • Mammoth tusk jewelry box- An older matronly woman left for sometime to return with this box. Intricate carvings showing some ancient legend of the nords with dragons and warriors clashing. Give the size of the box and lack of any seams I could find this must have been carved from an absolutely monstrous mammoth tusk (can they really get that big?).

    • Ivory hunting horn- An object actually shown off by one of our crew, Hakon the nord, who states was given his horn by his grandfather when he came of age. The weathered surface lacks that polished white many of the other objects shown off had but nevertheless Hakon showed off with just as much pride as the other patrons. Clearly the value in which these people place on these ivory carved objects shows off now just the monetary value of the goods, but also their sentimental value as well.

     

    Beyond items made from the mammoth’s ivory were also a few other items from other parts of a mammoth. 

     

    • Mammoth-hide blanket- The bed covering from the most expensive room in the inn, this thick heavy blanket showed off the brownish coarse fur of the mammoth. The leathery underside of the blanket is thick and gives me worry about the ability of an arrow to pierce this animal’s flesh. The thick fur certainly makes me feel these creatures feel quite at home in the coldest days of winter.

    • “Essence of Mammoth”- I am not sure of the truth of this, but the rich old matron who showed off the jewelry box claimed that she was wearing a fragrance made from a mammoth (what parts I do not know and honestly don’t care to) along with other plants, herbs, and alchemical items. The scent was….strong...pungent….unique. I have few words to describe it and still feel its thick scent sitting heavy in my nostrils even now, hours later.

    • Mammoth meat- Actually quite tasty. The dried jerky meat is a regular food ration in Skyrim from what I understand and was readily available at the inn. In addition was a large flank steak which Ox reports was very delicious and filled him with “vigor” as he put it. Lastly was something none of us was willing to try. A hunk of mammoth snout that still bristled with the stubby brown mammoth hairs. It was one of the  most unappetizing things I had ever been given the option of eating. Still, again I am shown evidence of just how large these creatures are.

    • Mammoth cheese- Now I don’t know if these nords were simply messing with me, as none could actually produce this item but I am told it exists and Wulf claims to have actually eaten some. Claimed to be created from real cheese, but from the milk of a mammoth and is able to be created by giants (yes GIANTS!) that I am told often heard these mammoths like a man or mer shepherds sheep. Wulf claims the flavor is...strong and not dissimilar to the matron woman's perfume. He claims it has strong restorative principles and helped him heal from an injury he sustained in combat. Still sounds suspicious to me but I will see if perhaps we can’t find any of this “mammoth cheese” in our travels.

     

    Yikes, after writing all of this I feel the call of my nice warm bed calling me. With my belly fat and full from the feast of meats, breads, cheeses, and the delicious honey mead I consumed, I feel confident and excited about our expedition. Uncle believes in me. I believe in me. Our crew, while they do seem to give me funny looks at times when I talk to them (perhaps they can’t understand my speaking style due to my higher level education?) and sometimes I think they whisper behind my back, I believe they too believe in me! And quite frankly, I believe in me too! I think this is the start to an amazing adventure.

     

     

     

    Entry 3- Skyrim Sucks!

    The 27th of Second Seed, 3E 404

    Somewhere in central Skyrim

     

     

    Skyrim sucks! This whole bloody province can go straight to Oblivion for all I care! Valus is dead, crushed to death by the combined might of a

     

    giant and its mammoth. Mammoth, mammoths! Don’t let the name fool you as it did me. These. Creatures. Are. Fucking. Huge. Giants too! Fucking giants! It took us three days to make our trek out into the tundra around Whiterun and hunt down a mammoth. We followed the large heavy prints our nord guides said were from a mammoth and a giant and eventually tracked the two creatures to their camp. The rough campsite was little more than a clear spot of land with a large smouldering bonfire in the middle, smoking, steaming venison piled next to it. The nords gave us all orders but as soon as the fighting started all hell broke loose. The mammoth charged at the two heavily armored colovian imperials who were like a beacon in the sun. Their heavy armor was no protection against the onslaught. The brute battered Remen to the side in one blow and gored poor Valus straight through the chest with one of those enormous tusks. The mammoth’s giant came loping after its charge and swung its massive club...made from an entire tree….down on Valus’ crumpled form. We didn’t stand a chance and fled while the giant and mammoth were busy with the remains of Valus. The last thing I saw over my shoulder as we ran was the giant’s club turning Valus in a bloody paste of bone, blood and metal. Poor bastard. 

     

    This turn of events puts the entire expedition in question. I for one have no desire to end up as Marius goo. My life is far too precious to end it here in this place, Skyrim, the frozen back end of Tamriel. Why would uncle send me to this place? Did he know how dangerous these creatures are? Or was he as ill-informed as me? And the cold. The blood freaking cold. I thought this was summer? It snows at night! In the summer! What kind of winter must this place have if it snows during the summer? Skyrim sucks.

     

    I will discuss with the others what we are to do. Our contracts from my uncle and the company clearly state that failure to deliver the requested goods will result in no payment. While I might be okay with that, what with my family’s holdings and all….that is likely not something the others will be willing to live with. Perhaps we can salvage things….but I still have my doubts after what I have witnessed today. All I know is that Skyrim fucking sucks.

     

    Entry 4- Progress

    The 31st of Second Seed, 3E 404

    Somewhere in central Skyrim

     

    It has been three days since the...incident. Things have...improved. I now regret my original attitude and my quick descent into despair. Akatosh bless the nords, if not for them surely the rest of us would be on a slow ride back to Cyrodiil with our tails between our legs. Hakon and Yiri have taught the rest of us much in the past few days and helped share the knowledge we should have communicated from the beginning. We have successfully taken three mammoths down now, with little more than sweat and energy in expense. Patience was not something we took to our hunt with at the start, but each of us understands now just how deadly our targets are. Hakon has taught us the most, taught us the weaknesses of the beasts. For instance, when fighting them it is important to understand that one, they are terrible swimmers, and two, that they are virtually unable to climb. Now a tree might seem like a good idea but given the beast’s size and strength, anything short of a massive timber will bend to the mammoth’s will like a toothpick in the wind. A high rocky outcropping, or a cliff, that approach served us well in our first successful kill. We ambushed a lone male out foraging by creeping up under the nords’ guidance to lay siege to the creature from above. After a high volume of shots, several of Kasal’s large javelins making the key difference with shots to the head and face.

     

    The second successful hunt was a pair of females, again an independent group with no giant herder (praise Stendarr). Together we worked to drive them along a riverbank, the mammoths unwilling to pass into the rushing waters until we drove them straight over a cliff to the waiting rocks at the base of the adjacent waterfall. This method is without a doubt a fantastic way to kill a mammoth without having to engage them. However, I can see the weakness in it in that the bodies can become rather damaged. From our first mammoth we were able to harvest three of the four tusks in pristine condition. However, from the second pair only a single tusk remained unbroken. A large amount of meat and hide has been collected though and Reman, Contar, and Ox have begun salting and drying the meat. We have built a fairly large basecamp in a sheltered rocky section near the base of a large hill.

     

    I have spent each of the nights around the fire learning from the nords about their homeland and again I regret my earlier haughty comments on this land. It is indeed a wondrous place, a fucking cold one, but still beautiful, and dangerous. It is….exhilarating and I can see why it breeds such strong, crazy folk. Yiri often tells stories and legends about Skyrim. She claims the land was once awash with white skinned elves who commanded the very snows themselves and that dragons once clashed with the nord’s ancestors, the same ancestors, some of whom evolved into the very giants who we now fight against to take their prized mammoth’s remains home with us! Can you imagine? Such imagination, I would never have believed it possible from nords, perhaps the silver-tongued altmer, or the crazy khajiit, but not nords. I will continue to stick close to them in the coming days and weeks as we, Mara willing, finish our task. 

     

     

    Entry 5- More Progress

    The 8th of Midyear, 3E 404

    Somewhere in central Skyrim

     

    It has been about a week now since I last had time to chronicle our journeys. It has been a bittersweet experience. We lost another member, Kasal, our redguard friend. His javelins have sorely been missed of late. He too fell to the blows of a giant. These brutes, while peaceful and calm from a distance are ferocious and wield fearsome strength and power when roused. They protect their mammoth herds as if they were kin. Still, we are nearing completion, well over halfway to our quota. The haul has been good, the comradery good as well, despite the loss of our two companions. The others seem to feel their loss to a lesser extent than I. Perhaps it is their experiences as warriors, soldiers, guards, hunters, mercenaries and the like that has hardened them to the cold sting of loss. I will admit it is not a subject in which I am well versed….and there are not many of those.

     

    In my time hunting the mammoths I have come to observe a great many interesting and surprising aspects about them. They are fascinating creatures overall. Physically they stand some 12 to upwards of 15 feet tall. This puts them double to near triple the size of your average person. Even the massive orc Ox doesn't even reach the shoulder of the beasts. Likewise they are heavy, very heavy. By my best figure each mammoth weights around 10 imperial tons for a smaller female, to near 15 imperial tons for the big bulls. About half of this weight seems to be in meat that can be harvested for consumption, about on par with what one might expect from a deer...at least that is what Yiri says. Each mammoth, male or female sports four long tusks and given their size and strength they can swing them like a battering ram, knocking trees and anything else around them down, or thrust outwards spearing whatever poor creature is in reach.


    Speaking of males and females. I have observed, and this seems to be supported with my discussions with Yiri and Hakon (Wulf is so quiet, grunting and groaning in response to my many attempts to talk), that the females generally are more social and live in herds with other females and their young. Males on the other hand are more aggressive and territorial and wander alone, or at best in a small group with other males. Often when we have come across giants with only one mammoth it has been a male, whereas giants with herds are almost always females and/or young mammoths. These mammoths seem to wander and roam the wild heaths of the tundra in a perpetual state of grazing and eating. The amount these creatures must consume in a day must be upward of 500 pounds! With so much eating, the teeth of these mammoths are huge, flat things used to grind the vegetation down into a juicy pulp for the mammoths to swallow. From my observations with several of the different mammoths of various ages they appear to grow set after set of teeth over time, unlike most mammals which grow only two sets in their lifetime, baby teeth and later, adult teeth as they reach adolescence.

     

    They have also shown to have interesting senses. Their eyesight I have learned, and seen first hand is poor at best. They seem to have trouble making out details and suffer at a distance. Up close they swing their heads wildly, seemingly hoping to hit whatever is assailing them. Instead it seems to be their hearing and sense of smell that are vastly superior. Smell seems a naturally superior trait for a creature with a long thick trunk. It is for this reason that we always must approach our hunts from downwind, less the creatures catch our scent on the wind and run….or worse, charge. I have witnessed the mammoths from a far use their trunks much like a human uses their arm. They seem quite intelligent during these periods and they seem to understand some base level of communication with their giant handlers in much the same way a horse or other livestock might obey commands from its owner. With this observation I inquired as to why the nords have not tried to domesticate the mammoths, perhaps even harvesting their ivory without needing to kill them. Wulf chuckled at this, one of the few times he has spoken to me, and claimed that the mammoths are much too aggressive for humans to safely be near. Even a cow can kill a man if it wants, but it is tiny compared to a mammoth. Only the towering giants of the tundra can hope to command the will of such a monster and maintain some level of respect, enough to keep them from attacking. Yiri claims the mammoths can live to be half a century, maybe more. She claims there are tales of distinctive mammoths living among their giants or in the wild that outlive even the village elders. Exaggerations to be sure but I admit I have learned not to be so quick to dismiss the nordic legends. I find more and more of them are grounded in truth every day.

     

    Defensively the mammoths sport an extremely thick leathery hide, surmounted by an even thicker, heavier layer of coarse shaggy fur. Most of these are brownish in tone, but we have encountered mammoths with reddish tones, and even some lighter almost blonde tones to their fur. Beneath this thick hide lies layers upon layers of fat. It is no wonder our arrows barely register with the beasts other than to infuriate them. These layers of fat provide natural armor for the mammoths as well as incredible insulation again the cold. Indeed from what I understand talking with the local nords, the mammoth’s hide possesses natural resistances to the cold. In fact, a skilled leatherworker can take a good piece of mammoth hide and craft leather armor with an inherent enchantment that wards off a small, but noticeable amount of cold. I have tested this theory myself with one of the scrap hides from our early kills on one of our colder nights on the tundra and to my surprise, it seemed to actually work! They also seem to be oddly resistant to any forms of magical paralysis. Before his untimely demise, Kasal tried to use an alchemical poison to paralyse one of the mammoths only for the shaggy haired giant to take little to no effect and keep trucking forward, directly at the surprised redguard.

     

    Speaking of nights, they have been a concern, and a borderline problem for us. The side effect of near constant butchering, harvesting, and other manipulation of mammoth remains attracts all manner of hungry creatures once night falls. We keep a strict schedule of rotating guard duty and after the deaths of Valus and Kasal, we all take this very seriously. Sabercats, wolves, and even bears. Skyrim is teeming with all sorts of deadly and apparently starving fauna who would love to relieve us of our fleshy, bloody goods. The sooner we can be done the sooner we can leave and I can sleep at home in a warm bed, not on a pile of furs in the cold listening to the howling and pacing of wolves at the perimeter of our camp. At least the mammoths with their size and power can defend themselves for any predator foolish enough to mess with them. One morning while watching a herd of mammoths I watched a mammoth stomp three wolves to death in seconds, scattering the rest of the pack. Too bad we can’t train one, would make a hell of a guard dog and could pull more than all the horses combined!

     

    Entry 6- Bollocks!

    The 14th of Midyear, 3E 404

    Somewhere in central Skyrim

     

    Reman is dead. Wulf is dead. Contar has deserted us….possibly dead too. Oblivion take whatever damned fool demanded such a commodity. Everywhere I look in Skyrim there seems to be only death. Man killing beast. Beast killing man. Even man killing man. The whole thing sickens me…..Or perhaps that is just the stench of death that permeates my memory…..

     

    I suppose I should record what has befallen us for posterity. Especially if the rest of us, including myself, never find ourselves in the warm embrace of civilization again. Last night began like any other. We did our work, collected another day’s trophies. Our task nearly done. We ate, shared our fire, then retired for the evening, posting watch as always. I don’t know if Reman feel asleep or what happened but I awoke to the awful sound of a screaming man and the roaring of some beast. The sounds will likely haunt my dreams to the end of my days. When I emerged from my tent I witnessed no less than three enormous trolls tearing Reman limb from limb. The strength of the beasts was….astounding as they flung the colovian warrior around like a ragdoll. Each troll was already soaked in gore. We later found out that they had been attracted by the mammoth we had butchered earlier in the day. Hakon had been wise to caution us to butcher a little ways off and be weary of dragging too much into the camp. Obviously with the proximity of our approaching goal someone became too laxed in judgement.

     

    Wulf was the first to engage, but even the mighty nord was no match for all three of them. He sunk his blades into one but the other two quickly pummeled him with large sweeping blows with their hammer-like fists. Despite the best efforts of the others to save Wulf he bleed to death while the rest of my crew dispatched the trolls with only minor wounds to themselves. Luckily, while the trolls were ferocious and powerful, they seem dimwitted and were outflanked by the rest of us finally springing to arms. Yiri, Kynareth bless her, was smart enough to grab a large burning log from the firepit. I had heard tales of fire defeating trolls and though I wish I had never lived to see it tested, I know now that it is no myth. In the aftermath of the attack, Contar yelled something I did not quite understand, but the parts I could make out would have made a dark brotherhood assassin blush. He grabbed his pack and headed out into the dark cursing our expedition to the fires of Oblivion before any of us could stop him.

     

    And now once again we find ourselves at a crossroads. Our quest to claim the bounty of Skyrim’s mighty mammoths again lies in doubt. Despite each setback Hakon remains ever the levelheaded pragmatist. I shall sing praises of his hire to my uncle if I ever return to the Imperial City. He has suggested he and I return to Whiterun and hire a few more for the extra muscle we have lost. Likely at a substantially increased rate I am afraid. Ox and Yiri are to remain here and guard the caravans, and our goods. Stendarr please show us mercy and allow me to once again feel the soil of beloved Cyrodiil beneath my feet at least once more.

     

    Entry 7- Returning Home

    The 29th of Midyear, 3E 404

    Near the border between Skyrim and Cyrodiil

     

    The deed is done. Many times over the past weeks I have thought I would never get a chance to say those words. Perhaps my prayers to the divines were not done in vain afterall. We have now begun the long trek back home with three wagons loaded with many, many imperial tons of mammoth meat, tusks, and other harvested materials. Ox drives one cart, myself another, and Yiri the last one. I am paying extra for her to come back to the Imperial City with us, my three imperial brothers I left with now lie buried in foreign soil.

     

    Reflecting back I am not sure what uncle intended when he first sent me on this venture. Despite all the death, the hardship, and the adversity of it all….I feel a bit relieved that it happened. Nothing compared to the relief I feel for it to be over….but thankful for the experience. Hours spent reading and writing in the towers of the academy seem like nothing compared to the experience of being a breath from being squashed under the foot of an enraged bull mammoth, or flung clear across the tundra by the sweep of a mighty giant’s club. Who knows, perhaps a little bit of Skyrim and her strong nordic folk has rubbed off on me. It might sound insane...but maybe when we get home…(and I must admit I smile broadly as I write this)...and our job is done, I will take my earnings and return to Skyrim with Yiri. If she would have me that is. I think I could make a living in that rugged land. Afterall, I now know more than a few ways to skin a mammoth.

     

  • Member
    April 5, 2017

    Amornar, this had me grinning from ear to ear :D What a treat to logon to! Humour is hard to write but you nailed it and how! All without resorting to the many uses of tusks that I likely would have lowered this to. 

    Mammoth, mammoths! Don’t let the name fool you as it did me. These. Creatures. Are. Fucking. Huge.

    Yep, I lol'd :D

    I don’t know if Reman feel asleep or what happened but I awoke to the awful sound of a screaming man and the roaring of some beast. The sounds will likely haunt my dreams to the end of my days. When I emerged from my tent I witnessed no less than three enormous trolls tearing Reman limb from limb.

    Dude, the violence too. The scene is too vivid, gods above! Fantastic. 

    A thoroughly enjoyable read, examining as it does the practice of skrimshaw which is incredibly logical yet not so apparent in-game, along with beautiful descriptions of the place mammoths inhabit, their physiology and their nature. Enjoyable, entertaining, and informative. I shall not forget this read in a hurry :)

  • Member
    April 5, 2017
    Thank you Phil! I am so glad you enjoyed it, thank you very much for the kind words!
  • April 6, 2017
    Nice! I always liked the symbiosis (of sorts) between giants and mammoths and this article perfectly portrays the natural life of mammoths. Very nice!
  • Member
    April 6, 2017
    Thanks Karver, glad you enjoyed it!
  • Member
    April 9, 2017

    Amornar said: Thank you Phil! I am so glad you enjoyed it, thank you very much for the kind words!

    I surely did! Hope you write more and in the LG to boot! :D

  • Member
    April 14, 2017

    It seems mammoths like "mead-soaked fruit balls." Who can blame them? What do you like your balls soaked in? 

  • Member
    April 14, 2017
    CHEESE!!!!
  • Member
    May 6, 2017

    Amornar said: CHEESE!!!!

    Funny you should say that, Amo, as I have recently completed a quest from ESO's Orsinium dlc in which the task is to acquire items needed to win the affections of an Orc maiden. Along with good ale (which Orc lasses can't resist), the smell of a powerful enemy's blood (in this case a sweaty and bloody bear), apparently echatere cheese is quite the aphrodisiac to lady Orsimer. Smear some of that over your balls. Enjoy the tusks scraping it off!

    Seeing as this is the Mammoth Mega Thread now :p here's a pic of Nordic delicacies and Woolly the echatere's cheese:

  • Member
    May 6, 2017
    Lol that is awesome! She is clearly a mammoth cheese expert! Thanks Phil!