Piip

Piip was an Mussalmian savant who specialized in animals. He joined an exploratory expedition lead by Baron Toivo and heading south of the Empire's borders to the equatorial mountains.

When the expedition reached the mountains, its members discovered the animals they christened unicorns. Piip joined the debate over whether they should be classified among the horse kind or the goat kind. He also became interested in Kyosti's notion that they were preyed on by some larger creatures that gave rise to the legend of dragons and took part in an attempt to capture one.

The expedition left a unicorn specimen on an outcropping with several marksmen hiding nearby. After a long wait, two large green-grey lizards suddenly sprang out from among rocks of a similar color and raced for the unicorn. While hostile with each other, the corpse was large enough for the two to start tearing into it at either end. The marksmen opened up hitting one dragon causing a broken leg. The other ran off with surprising agility for such a large creature.

The marksmen ran up with a net to immobilize it while Kyosti followed closely with a preservation spell at the ready. Piip also came up and bent over to take a good look at the animal's head. He was two or three feet away, at what seemed to be a safe distance. However, the dragon spat a vitriol substance which caught him square in the face. It was quite acidic and he screamed "It burns, it burns".

Kyosti caste his spell and then he and the marksmen attempted to help Piip. Unfortunately, there was little they or the medical mages could do. Piip could not eat or drink and died four days later.