An excerpt from an issue of The Dragon's Whisper
[INDENT]A long running joke of stablehands was, "What do you get when you cross an Aragen librarian and an oxen? A pack bore!" Oddly enough, this bit of humor was either the seed for an idea or a bit of subterfuge to cover some research.
In the oppressive climate of these dark ages, a trio of researchers took it upon themselves to aid the people. Oxen are a luxury of brighter days. The animals that thrive now are far less picky as to what they eat: Wild game animals and grotesque insects. These three sought to harness this change.
Though the specifics have been lost, the rumors suggest that it was a ranger, a wizard, and a druid that joined together and began gentle tests of the various creatures of the land. It took many failures and difficult days to come up with workable alternatives to the oxen. (It has been suggested that there was a fourth member of this troupe, a bard, that was eaten by an early attempt at taming badgers.) In the end, the three struck upon two workable beasts of burden: The common boar and a non-aggressive beetle.
The Dragon's Whisper has exclusively learned that this group of entrepreneurial individuals are about to reap the fruits of their labour and is in negotiations with ox merchants to sell these pack beasts.
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