Spirit of Ostrogy

Seen rarely along the ridge of mountains the spirit shares its name with, separating County Skygebor and County Rodgard of southern Gronvald, the Spirit of Ostrogy appears most often as a large mountain goat buck with shimmering bronze horns, and a light golden coat. Few encounter it at less than the range of a great bow, and rarely is it seen by any but those who call the mountains or foothills of the Ostrogy home.   Many tales and local legends refer to the Spirit of Ostrogy, often depicting it as a simple nature or wilderness spirit, and occasionally as a messenger of Vegori Wildwood Grace of the Sovereign Host. The creature behaves as a wild mountain goat buck under most circumstances, flighty in the presence of people, but is occasionally attributed with bravery in the presence of evil outsiders and goblins, or with compassion to mountainfolk who find themselves trapped or stranded in the wilderness.   Numerous attempts to hunt or capture the spirit have been made, with noble visitors and celebrants eager to claim such a symbolic prize, but few even capture of glimpse of the Spirit of Ostrogy leading to most from outside its territory doubting its existence and assuming the locals to merely be spinning tales to draw them into a ruse. More than one member of the high society of Felshafen or Stromsby has told of the fanciful tales of the rural folk of Skygebor or Rodgard used to lure them to their land for a hunt of the mythical beast just to spend the holiday whispering promises and pleas in their ear.   Legends say the first settlers of the region feared the Spirit of Ostrogy until the arrival of a quilldancer monk of Vabbah named Daugaitis, who lived in the mountains as a hermit for five years and studied the mysterious creature. Daugaitas was determined to discover the motive of the beast and had sworn to protect the villagers from it if it were dangerous. When he came down from the mountain not with the beasts pelt on his shoulders but a pack of his belongings the villagers despaired he was abandoning them to the fiend, but he admonished them for their foolishness. Daugaitis told them it took the beast five years to decide he was not a threat to them, before revealing its nature as a guardian to him.