Hastric

Hastric
Details
Race	Human
Birthplace	Ardestan, Thune, Shandalar
Lifetime	Mending Era
Sources
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Hastric is a scout and adventurer from Thune on Shandalar and is famous for having discovered and described the Shandalaran slivers in great detail.

History

Hastric was scouting the area near the Eastern Sea when he happened upon an area known as the Skep, which was home to the slivers of Shandalar. Struck by a rockfall, Hastric tumbled into the caves of the slivers, and saw there the milling masses of various types of creatures, variously changing form and shape. The creatures chittered to each other in a never-ending racket as they pursued rote tasks with no apparent purpose. Shocked at his discovery, Hastric found himself transformed into a sliver himself. As he instinctually tried to reshape himself into a human, he saw that nearby slivers did the same, shaping themselves into five-fingered creatures.

Hastric then discovered that monstrously large versions of the slivers would at times thrum some unknown command over the others, and he found himself trying to mimic the movement of the other slivers to not attract unwanted attention. He discovered one fossilized sliver that was the size of a dragon, and the presence of more humanoid slivers, which appeared to speak in their language and were subject to some type of worship ritual by the lesser slivers.

After describing the writhing masses of slivers and their various types, Hastric kept pretending to follow their swaying and writhing motions, while slowly backing away and into an adjacent tunnel. In a seaside cave, he found evidence that the slivers had once been very differently shaped, but they had somehow morphed into new forms over time since their appearance.

Surprised by spiny slivers having followed him, Hastri managed to change into an aquatic form of sliver and escape their caves through the ocean itself. As he left the caves of the Skep far behind, he found himself reverting to his original human form.

Hastric's new prime motivation was to warn the world of the incredible danger the slivers posed should they ever decide to spread beyond the Skep. Traveling around Shandalar and spreading his message, Hastric was viewed by some as a raving madman, while others took note of his words and formed expeditions of their own.

One such expedition was performed by Yisan and Jalira, who had heard the words of Hastric and decided to investigate for themselves. They found themselves in a similar situation as Hastric had experienced, themselves transforming into slivers by the power of the sliver leaders.

When he first entered the caves of the Skep, Hastric described something he called the Hum, a muted sound that seemed to be some type of communication between the slivers, the constant flow of thoughts from every sliver in the Skep. Even long after he left the Skep and transformed back into a human, he could hear the Hum, and it appears his perception of it changed over time, as his name for it changed from the Hum to the Thrum to the Call as he descended into madness.

Story appearances

Title	Author	Publishing date	Set	Setting (plane)	Featuring
Prisoner of the Skep	Jennifer Clarke Wilkes	2013-06-26	Magic 2014	Shandalar	Hastric
The Bard and the Biologist	Matt Knicl	2014-07-09	Magic 2015	Shandalar	Hastric, Jalira, Yisan, Dexros, Grendub

In-game references

Quoted or referred to:

• Battle Sliver
• Belligerent Sliver
• Bonescythe Sliver
• Diffusion Sliver
• Leeching Sliver
• Sliver Hivelord
• Venom Sliver