in reverse, mine was the fever dream of someone who'd been up for two days straight during school, angry about falling asleep in classes and such.
And as such it sucked hard balls.
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- You wander the old tower, having killed the residents, and stare in awe at the endless rows of books. Suddenly, a spine with bands of gold leaf along the top and bottom catches your eye, and you take it down. It clearly hasn't seen the light of day in some time. There is evidence it was used as a coaster for a rather large mug at some point. You look at the cover, bound in Elk leather and decorated with gold leaf and onyx, it is a truely wonderful sight, despite the numerous marks on it from the afore mentioned mug.
You decide to look into it, to see if it has any arcane knowlege within...Barbaris de Vastarent Montes
The Barbarians of the Wasted Mountains
A breif history of the invaders, by historian Stamar Justicefused
Introduction-Strange beings are they who call themselves the mountain barbarians. They are black of hide and heart, and favor the blade and flail over any other form of weapon. Our first encounter was when these madmen had razed a fishing village to the ground after they had beached thier warships. Every man and woman was slain in the massacre, but the childeren were spared. At first we thought this compassion, but latter found they were of slaverous intent, selling or otherwise brainwashing the childeren of the village.
We were oblivious to the threat of course. And they spread quickly, killing and enslaving all in thier path until the vampiric war erupted. They had, according to thier own chorniclers whom I was able to speak with so long as I left my weapons with the village warlord's men, had decided to leave the natives of this, to them, new and strange land and turned thier attentions back to the sea during the war, though they have allegedly helped those who's battles strayed near thier taken ground. They said that they had wheeled around to stave off thier "Great Enemy" who we now know to be the Spawn of Holistic from the legends spread by sea-going merchants from coming to and from Everoc to the east. Evidently, they suffered heavily in the battles with those things as they, as one worded it "Swam, floated, or even
walked here from the Old Land." They fought long and hard against the Spawn fo Holistic, as did the Coalition of Nations did against the Vampiric Empire.
From what I understand, they suffered many a death due to lost supply trains, the occasional wandering vampire, and to the horrible storms that ravage the eastern coasts of our great continent. They eventually gave up and made moves to take Coalition fortresses, and established strongholds nearby or in the mountains. Of course, being weary from the Vampiric War, we didn't stop them. Nor did we stop the Spawn as they took root in our own mountains.
The Barbarians continued to fight any who crossed thier holdings, and have since become increasingly aggressive, seeking any they can to "reeducate" to fill the growing gaps in thier armies. I have been told that they plan to launch exploratory raids against a small outpost called Spearbreakers. But they don't plan on beiing able to do much against dwarves, whom they hold in high regard for thier ancestors' stands at Headshoots and Syrupleaf. I am also told that them aside, they hold a place even here considered not but a legende, as the most sacred of battlegrounds and holy places, some besotted and abandoned place called Swordthunders, a place where hell itself was said to be conquered. Wether or not that the dwarves of our lands will be able to hold a candle to thier long dead ancestors, remains to be seen.
Now, I will begin my proper lecture on the culture of the Barbarian...
-The book appears to be stuck past here, you set it aside and hope, your lust for knowlege that brought you here having been given a taste of new information on another culture, there are other copies that don't have dried booze holding the pages together somewhere in this mess.