Methilius the Feral's page

Years before taking the name Methilius the Feral he was known as Lius Fourhedges and dreamed of being the greatest chef in all of Avistan greater than even the chefs of Absalom. His search for a teacher brought him to the feet of a half orc known as the Saffron Chef. However, for as great as his skills were the Saffron Chef was a selfish and hard teacher who guarded his secrets closer than a dwarf guarded his last coin. He would ridicule, torment and punish Lius over and over to the point where Lius was ready to leave only then to be coerced back by the Saffron Chef when finally allowed to view a page from his secret cookbook or having a full course meal, worthy for the Primrose Emperor of Taldor, prepared for him.

While enroute to Castorhage, the caravan that they had been hired on for was ambushed by a group of humanoids. In the chaos of the escape the Saffron Chef did the unthinkable and threw his apprentice into a crowd of pursuing humanoids to buy him the time to escape. Instead of being killed outright the humanoid raiders gathered Lius and the rest of the survivors that had not died on the initial attack and brought them to their camp. Every few nights that followed a survivor or two would be taken before the leader of the raiders, a large ogre matriarch named Mama Grouswowe. Screams and sadistic laughter would soon follow afterwards filling the night. At first the screams bothered Lius but he soon found a way to block out the blood chortled sounds.

He continued to play over the scene of the Saffron Chef throwing him into the crowd of his captors. It became an obsession and the rage that followed began to imbalance Lius’ mind. Soon he was making up recipes that had the Saffron Chef as the main ingredient. In each thought he served the slow roasting body of the Saffron Chef to an eagerly waiting Mama Grouswowe. When the time finally came for Lius to be brought before Mama Grouswowe all he could picture was the Saffron Chef’s bound body trussed up and waiting to be slowly boiled alive. Unknown to Lius was that as he was picturing this in his mind the only thing that kept coming out of his mouth was the word ’chef…chef…chef’.

This response intrigued Mama Grouswowe who looked at the small halfling – who was now rather lean from the lack of food and water he had been given – as little more than an hors d'oeuvre. There was no fear left in the halfling’s eyes in fact they were far too vacant. Thoughts raced through the sadistic creature’s mind and she posed Lius with a challenge that would be far too fun to resist. She brought him close and told him that she would free him if he could create the greatest feast she had ever tasted. The stipulations were that it would happen in one fortnight and he would not know the main course until the night before. Just hearing the word freedom was enough to shake him from his self-induced catatonic state and nodded at Mama Grouswowe to accept her challenge. Over the next week Lius gathered everything he could scouring the camp for anything he thought Mama Grouswowe would like sometimes fighting tooth and nail with the ogress’ minions to take an ingredient that would make the main course exquisite. He could not back down his life depended on it. His revenge depended on it. If he could appease an ogress’ appetite it would stop her from eating him he would be one step closer to finding the Saffron Chef. Finally the night before the feast Mama Grouswowe brought Lius to the large cooking pit that had been prepared for him. He watched as the remaining captives ran about dragging supplies and ingredients and he sighed with relief happy to see he was going to have help preparing the food. But Mama Grouswowe only laughed when he thanked her. ”No they are the main course!” As the blood drained from his face she continued, ”You live if they taste like baby elves. You die otherwise.” and with that she walked away. Left with little else to do he watched as the sun began to set and in the night he killed each and every one of them as they slept. What happened next became more like a nightmare as he worked and prepared the bodies of the captives like one would prepare a delicate piece of venison or veal. He closed his mind that night and the next day created his opus. True to her word Mama Grouswowe enjoyed every honeyed finger and pepper stuffed eyeball she ate. She feasted like an empress and let Lius free well aware that the damage she had caused was more delightful than any meal she could eat.

Unable to face what he had done he wandered about the area close to Castorhage rarely making contact with anyone. Taking on a new name as a form of penance he slowly came to terms with what he had done but in doing so his contempt for the half orc grew even greater. Fuelled by this fury he set off with one purpose in mind. Find that half orc and then slowly roast him alive. He licked his recently sharpened teeth and saw in the distance a settlement.