The Slow Serpent adventuring band finds the Book of Fangs and Talons (an artifact of the god Malar) atop Berun's Hill, laid out flat and held that way by stones. Burnt candles adorned the stones and a circle of blood surrounded the book. Besides this, splashes of gore stoodas mute witness to the various beasts that were sacrificed. Strangely, nothing was left of them but a single paw or claw from each, arranged around the outside of the circle and pointing inward, at the book.
The Slow Serpents took their find to a learned, local priest of Silvanus, who was baffled. Though he and his kind had no love for the followers of Malar, he was familiar with the general intent and form of their religious services, which involved hunts and beast wrestling with feats upon the fallen. Nothing in his experience, however, was as bloodthirsty or wide-ranging in terms of numbers and types of beasts slain at a single observance as this.
The priest of Silvanus considered the book at least 20 years old (probably more) and that he entertained three possibilities about the ritual.
Three nights after the priest of Silvanus took possession of the tome, over 40 Malarites wearing beast masks and with bone claws strapped to their hands descended on his hermitage and tore him and his home apart, carrying off the book with them.
The Malarites scattered across the North. It is known that the book was Triboar not long afterwards. »
Rumors spread in Secomber of the Book of Fangs and Talons (a holy book to the god Malar).
The secretive Malarite cult takes the tome to the Daggerford area (as reported by warrior-priests of Chauntea [in the brief time when such a form of worship was popular among the followers of the Earthmother] who scoured the Secomber area and the Delimbiyr valley upstream for many miles and found no trace of Malarites). »
Members of a Malarite beast-cult conduct a "Wild Hunt" through the streets of Elturel by night, chasing the monsters they had collected, caged, and then released together.
The Malarites slay the monsters, passers by, and Officers of the city Watch indiscriminately, and so are in turn hunted down in retribution on the following day. Magic is used on captured and slain cult members to learn the location of the hidden under-cellar Temple of the Beast - cleaning it out becomes a pitched battle that lasts several days. This struggle ends when authorities reach the alter, only to see the high priest whisk away using a blood teleport magic powered by the life-forces of his sacrificed victums. He had the Book of Fangs and Talons. »
Adventurers stumble upon a hidden temple in the settlement of Easting, where they find the Book of Fangs and Talons. They attempt to carry the book away with them, but are set upon by beasts summoned by the furious priests who encountered them. The carrier of the book is dragged away and devoured in the battle. When the adventurers returned with hired mercenaries to avenge their comrade, the temple is empty and abandoned. »
The Book of Fangs and Talons appears in Elversult where Malarites hold an open conclave to plan their dispositions in the lands north of Amn, east of Iriaebor, and west of Vaasa. The book is featured as a holy object in many rituals during the long tenday gathering. It is known to have been taken north by a certain Onglukh Neirim, who styled himself the "Holy Stalker of Malar". Onglukh set about breeding great cats and other rare, large predators in secret near the Border Forest, feeding them on orcs, flinds, and ogres (whose decline in the area dates from this time). »
The Book of Fangs and Talons (an artifact of Malar) is spotted being borne through forests by chanting Malarites. »
The Book of Fangs and Talons (an artifact of Malar) is spotted being borne through forests by chanting Malarites. »