Fall and Rise of the Skrall

"But it is only a battle, not the war, Tuma thinks. The Skrall will rebuild somewhere else, and when the baterra come again ... his warriors will have their revenge."
— Narrator

Fall and Rise of the Skrall
Comic
Author	Greg Farshtey
Illustrator	Christian Zanier

Fall and Rise of the Skrall is an exclusive 25 page comic included in the eighth Graphic Novel, Legends of Bara Magna. The comic was illustrated by Christian Zanier.

Summary

Tens of thousands of years after the Shattering, a Skrall patrol, led by Branar, travels through the Black Spike Mountains in search of supplies. Branar warns his team that they need to hurry before the snow storms drastically increase in ferocity, though dismisses a suggestion to raid Agori farms, believing they are already starving at this point. Attempts to contact other patrol groups fails, and Branar's squad splits up, all eventually discovering their allies slaughtered. Most are killed by the baterra, while Branar manages to survive the assault along with another Skrall. The two decide to return to the Skrall Fortress.

Back at the Skrall Fortress, Stronius is assaulting a warrior-class Skrall, who is his practice partner. Tuma approaches him, requesting he stop his attack, and spare the warrior. Stronius expresses his frustration at being forced to stay in the fortress. Branar soon returns, and informs Tuma of the assault. Tuma grants the Skrall his name, Branar, and attempts to contact other Skrall outposts. Word soon returns that the other outposts have been destroyed, and Tuma leads a legion out to combat the threat. The Skrall are slowly picked off; guards disappear in the night, an avalanche claims 150 lives, and Skrall are systematically murdered on patrol. Stronius leads a pack out as bait, and manages to destroy a baterra, discovering that they are machines. They track two baterra, who flee instead of disappearing, back to a forest. However, once they enter the forest, which turns out to be baterra in disguise, most of the legion is obliberated. Tuma returns the reduced pack back to the fortress, where they hole up. All parties sent out to fetch food and supplies are either killed or return with nothing, save for a single party that manages to find firewood. Tuma realizes too late that the firewood also turns out to be baterra, who infiltrated the fortress. Tuma, knowing they cannot win the battle truly, has the fortress set on fire to halt and trap the baterra, and leads the remaining Skrall south, towards Bara Magna.

Characters

• The Skrall
  • Branar
  • Stronius
  • Tuma
• 2 Agori
• Baterra
• Several Rock Steeds

Trivia

• The Agori in this comic are erroneously depicted using the models of Zesk and Raanu, rather than members of the Rock Tribe.