Ten-Hooks

The subhuman races have their epic quests, too...

Summary

The story of Ten Hooks is a unique bit of folklore as it is mostly unknown to the civilized Gazaf races (humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, etc) but has spread far and wide among the Aeldic humanoid species (Orcs, Kobolds, Goblins, etc). Additionally, unlike folklore lost to time, until just a week ago Ten Hooks himself (herself? itself?) could be found in person in his pool in the coastal caves on the southern docksides of the city of Khazigur.
The story as told from tribe to tribe centers on the dedication of this plucky band of humanoids who had worked for centuries alongside the Great Blue Dragon Thornugordonon; that the dragon was inadvertently trapped in his lair after an earthquake brought down the submarine entrance and blocked him off from the outside world, as he was far too large to move through the narrow passages at the other end of the coastal caves; the humanoids fed him and cleaned him and otherwise cared for him to the best of their ability for several generations after this, but lack of activity eventually drove him to a state of torpor. Another earthquake years later brought the roof partially down on him, and he shattered into clumps of ash - evidently having been fully and truly dead for several years at least.
The humanoids then went on an epic quest to get a replacement monster as their protector, travelling across the continent to the dark jungles of Mlastina to procure one of Abaia's spawnlings and bring back to raise in their caves; Along the way home they had to fight against some of their own kind who wanted their creature for their own. This quest completed, the creature grew from a tiny, squishy Tad-creature into the gargantuan beast known as Ten Hooks.

Historical Basis

This story is entirely true and factual, though a great deal of embellishment goes in to every telling and retelling. Thornugordonon was a mighty blue dragon who preyed on the city of Khazigur on and off over three centuries, until some 200 years ago; in all that time many an epic Gazaf band of warriors set out to find his cave in the mountain range immediately west of the city. What none ever suspected, however, was that the dragon actually lived under the city itself, coming out and going into an entrance submerged 30 feet under the surface of the Triad Sea; it was no difficult matter to emerge into the ocean and swim for miles, coming out at some random point where he couldn't be seen, and returning in the same way; his depredations were spaced out over months or years and not predictable enough to ever have watchful witnesses.
A series of earthquakes and an interesting quirk of Dragon physiology doomed the mighty creature, however; when the extensive open caverns that acted as an airlock were crushed in an earthquake, the giant dragon could no longer get out, and no digging or magic at its disposal could reopen the cavern quickly enough to prevent the dragon from slipping into a torpor - a sort of long-term hibernation that Dragons are normally far too active enough to worry about. As long as they can stretch their wings and walk around a bit each day, they remain active and alert, but after the collapse, Thornugordonon was both too cramped and too injured to do any of that. Moreover, his injuries were more severe than any of them realized, and when he slipped into torpor and immobility, he was unable to maintain his life essence. His exterior remained more or less intact, but inside he turned into the equivalent of dried air clay. Additional cave-ins revealed this fact when some falling stone punched holes right through him, bouncing off the bones.
Distraught, the leadership of the humanoids decided they must take on some other creature as their protector, or be overrun by the Gazaf above, other tribes, worse monsters, or any combination of these, and a bold suggestion was made by one of the Orcs, to go to Mlastina and bring back a spawnling of the monster-goddess Abaia.
Mlastina, of course, is more than fifteen thousand miles in a straight line from Khazigur city, so this was a generational journey; two families each of Orcs, Goblins and Kobolds set out, not merely as a warband but as a nomadic, unaffiliated tribe on the move, expecting that it would have to be their children who returned with their prize, if ever they returned at all. The humanoids left behind in the caves set about rebuilding after the quake and repopulating the tribe.
The events that occurred on the journey to Mlastina are varied and the truth is impossible to separate from fiction, but the obvious outcome was that they did make it to Mlastina, evidently in record time - less than four years - by working with and under the blessings of the tribes they met along the way, some of whom joined in the quest and replaced family members who had been lost in fighting along the journey. They spent months tracking down Abaia once they reached Mlastina, dangerous months that also involved epic battles with the native dinosaurian wildlife and vile human populations from time to time. Eventually they did catch up to Abaia, from whom deformed offspring continually would slough off and fall to the ground, often to their death; and after several unsuitable creaturelings from her trampled wake, they found one that appeared to be a mass of teeth and tentacles under a hard shell. Scooping it up with some pond water in a large jar, they immediately set out to return home.
The return journey is likewise mostly heroic fiction, but it did evidently involve several protracted battles with formerly helpful tribes who now wanted to keep their prize for themselves. This whittled away at the size of the party, and of the original six families, only nine individuals - six Orcs and three Kobolds - returned alive. But return they did, and celebrations to stand the test of time were held upon their return.
The little creature was kept in a shallow pool inside the village, where it grew even more strange, the teeth receding into a head of sorts at one end and a peculiar three-horned mouth-appendage at the other, and small bone hooks beginning to grow from the tips of the tentacles aft, and from the knees of its incongrouous cloven-hoofed goat legs fore. Over time it was becoming more and more apparent, and disappointing, that their monster appeared to be at least partially, if not entirely, aquatic.
Before it became too large to move from the village, it was decided to move him (her? it?) temporarily to what was then a deep trash pit; the seawater flow was re-routed to fill this pit with water to a depth of nearly 300 feet. The plan was to keep the beast there until the original cave mouth could be cleared, so that the creature, called Ten-Hooks after his bone-tipped tentacles and spurs, wouldn't be in the same position as Thornugordonon had been before. Unfortunately, water seepage as the excavation continued revealed that the cave-in was actually holding back a massive wall of seawater; the airlock formation had collapsed and removing the stone would, it was suspected, flood the cavern completely.
Moreover, it became clear that while Ten Hooks was every bit as large as Thornugordonon had been, he had at best only a bright animal intelligence; if he had access to the sea there was little likelihood he would return to their lair because he had no obvious food source from the humanoids relative to what would be available to him in the ocean. He also had no compulsion against eating a feeder rather than what he was being fed. Over time with Thornugordonon, the humanoids had adapted to trapping rather than killing intruders, and feeding them to the dragon who had particular tastes or, if food stores were low, would keep as food for themselves; Ten Hooks just swam around his pool and would eat anyone who came close, and his only delicacy appeared to be crawdads, which the humanoids raised as protein for themselves (with limited options for agriculture in a subterranean environment). When some of these got loose and ended up in Ten-Hooks' pool he devoured them daintily and with obvious demand for more.
Worse, since Ten Hooks was too big and droopy to spend much time out of the water, his (her? Its?) value as a protector was extremely limited. The humanoids ended up concluding a deal with an enterprising Ophitic cult to play the role of protectors instead, and in return for mining the bones of their former Dragon for the valuable nitre they possessed - the main, and most expensive, ingredient in gunpowder - the Ophitics claimed they could give the Humanoids another dragon, and would take Ten Hooks off their hands.
However, less than a week ago, an intrepid party of adventurers destroyed the Ophitic coven by prying back the last stones from the collapse, and flooding the caves; in the mayhem, Ten Hooks escaped to the open sea, and as feared, has showed no sign of returning.