Ten Paths to Glory

Ten Paths to Glory Drakkal rolled up the lengthy scroll uttering a curse while shaking his head in amazement. If he hadn’t seen the dead man personally, Drakkal would have thought the scroll recanted some orator’s fable. The scroll itself was part of the proof of the truth it explained. The writing on the parchment had been neat and crisp at the start of its tale. By the end, it had been barely legible; blotched, scrawling and obscured by droplets of dried blood, sweat and other drippings. Dust and dirt further compromised the document and its script. It was evident that the scroll captured the writer’s travels while physically reflecting the man’s deteriorating state. 
With the scroll, Drakkal’s marauders had found artifacts too disparate to comprehend. Ivory tusks of a great seal of the Glatsha Ashzarsing, the skin of a great ursine of the Glat Shindanar, dried meat from a fish known to only swim in Doxiss Fondtor, the skeleton of a rodent from Kandorax Gruliss, eggshells from a roc from Chonpazax Plakh, a snake molting from the Ashfonax Exarulsha, red sand beetle shells from the southern wastes, horns from the leaping gazelle’s found on the open plains west of Durlashhang Ashsingiss, and an insect carapace from the marsh glades at the mouth of the great southern river. Most remarkable was an ebon pearl from the great southern sea. 
Drakkal remembered the passage in the scroll that described how the author had climbed to the top of a sheer cliff losing skin, fingernails and blood along the torturous ascent. Two great rocs had harried and clawed the climber until he finally killed them in their nest. Drakkal recalled the man writing sardonically about giving one eye for two eggs. Drakkal also remembered discovering the scroll under the tunic of the one-eyed dead man. The body of the poor soul validated the truth of the scroll.
The scroll told the dead man’s story from his desire to wed his Khan’s daughter, the Khan’s rebuke, and the man’s boast in front of the clan that he’d travel to the ends of the world for her beauty. With derision the Khan accepted the man’s pledge. The Khan charged the suitor with bringing ten things from across the harsh far flung lands of Grular within one cycle of the sun. In exchange the Khan would grant the man’s wish believing it a promise that would never be fulfilled. No man could survive such a trial.
Each of the items came from the most unforgiving terrain in the Khanate of Grular. These godsforsaken places were the harshest lands in Isarshael. Extremes of cold, heat or storm combined with water bare deserts, wind crushed plains, miasmic swamps, staggering mountains or treacherous forests.
The hardiest Grular traveled these lands of necessity or seeking glory or treasure. Weaker men simply died and left their bones to rot. The dead man had travelled them all and done something truly foolhardy and monumental. Drakkal sighed. At least his daughter would be consoled that her suitor had given his life for her in a fashion truly worthy of a Grular hero. Perhaps he’d let her read the scroll as comfort. 
Thinking beyond his domestic challenge, Drakkal, Khan of Tribe Garbalakah, knew he was honor bound to commemorate the dead suitor’s accomplishment. Drakkal knew exactly how. He would host a greatrace; a race for bold Grular from across the Khanate to repeat the dead man’s sojourn. Drakkal would call the competition Gal Onaf Pa’Zaarl ax Dexon - The Ten Paths to Glory.