*Hear now the chronicle of Ar-Saku, once named the Cruel, a miscreant of the Merchant’s decoy Frog-Bloods -- an underling whose ambition burned hotter than his wits. In those elder days I permitted him the obscene honor of slaying me, and by that sanguinary deed he ascended to the rank of captain. More than once thereafter did he dispatch me to the void, only to meet his own ignominious end beneath the ferocious hand of Lorm the Slaughterer.*

*Yet the grave, it seemed, held no jurisdiction over Ar-Saku.*

*From beyond death’s presumptive dominion he clawed his way back into the world of the living, waylaying me upon the frozen mere wherein Tar-Goroth had once been entombed. But the fates were ill-disposed toward him that day, for Mâku the Accursed and Pushkrimp, Flame of War, marched at my side; together their might reinterred him into the permafrost he so richly deserved.*

*But still --* ***STILL*** *--* ***HE DID NOT PERISH.***

*Like a malign revenant he manifested again, this time donning the grotesque Krûk Blood-Axe sack-helm. He slew me yet anew and shattered my blade (a prized relic once wrested from Az-Laar the Legend). Long did he skulk across the snows of Seregost, hewing down myself and numerous luckless, nameless souls. By perverse chance he accrued the epithet “the Gutless,” and in those days I bent him to my will through HbE, much as I had done with Norsko the Kin-Slayer and Stakûga the Red* (you can see the two of them in the background of this image).

*Yet Ar-Saku’s fealty was as ephemeral as smoke. During my attempt to conscript Stakûga’s blood-brother, Bûth the Legend, the oathbreaker revealed his true nature. He slew me for the final time and adorned himself with a new sobriquet: “the Traitor.”*

*Thus I pronounced doom upon him. A Death Threat was sent, a summons to his reckoning. And at his overgrown den of arrogance, I -- joined by Norsko and Pushkrimp -- did mete out utter ruination. We eviscerated, obliterated, and annihilated the wretch. I myself took his leg, then his arm, and at last severed his treacherous head from its shoulders, ending his accursed saga.*

*May he rest -- if rest he can -- in torment unending, that shrakh-ridden cur.*

(I hope y'all had as much enjoyment reading that as I did writing it. Also, if anyone was wondering, no, I *don't* believe Ar-Saku will return as the Stitch, as the cheated death queue seems to be bugged in this playthrough, hence why I'm restarting to make Norsko into a Stormbringer.)

Good riddance, you backstabbing excuse for a captain.