Savages of the Sacred Salvage

The rod turns out to be a limb of a destroyed and shattered demon locust. It might have been this very beakdog that performed such a feat.

Some other bits are still attached to it and snag in the long grass, preventing you from pulling it free. Just as the angry beakdog is nearly upon you, a hard yank rips the makeshift weapon loose, the momentum of it carrying through to a swing that knocks the animal sideways.

What you wound up with was an inflexible length of a demon locust's leg, nearly as tall as you are, with a collection of ropey red tendons hanging from one end and connecting to a jagged chunk of its shoulder armor. The savage dog recovers quickly and lunges at you, squawking. You swing again,but your timing is just a bit off and instead of the shoulder piece, its the long tendons that strike over the top of the its neck. As you dodge around the lightning strike of the beak, the cords become wrapped around the creature's throat.

That doesn't help the situation much at first, as you can't move away without the dog coming with you, and it's all you can do to keep it from just turning around and splitting your skull open as you continually try to dodge behind it and it whirls to chase you. The two of you perform this no doubt ridiculous looking dance, practically spinning in circles for a bit before you think to stop suddenly and jab the rod towards the animal. Its own charge slams it against the end of the rod, and luckily the tendons don't break. It twists its head then to grab hold of the rod, grinding it between its razor beak and glaring at you with its deranged eyes. But whatever the demon locust's legs are made of is strong enough to withstand that, when nothing natural found outside the God Maze would have.

While the beakdog's deadly beak is thus occupied, you quickly move behind it, using the tangled cords to force its neck back at an awkward angle before snapping it with a sudden sharp twist of the rod.

After ensuring the beast is really dead, you sit there for a bit just to catch your breath before carefully removing the cords, looking with a newfound respect at the unexpectedly formiddible weapon you wound up with. Now that you're not about to die, the whole thing was rather exhilarating on reflection. And beakdogs, unlike Hell monsters which are hollow inside except for tendons and sparks of fire, make for damn good eating. The whole tribe will feast on this one once you can arrange to have the carcass hauled back.

Before you return you search around the area and find a nest of newly hatched beakdogs, all about knee high and hissing at you menacingly.