7865
To my Lorekeeper Matteo,
Please accept my sincerest apologies for the delay of this report. It proved much more difficult than I had anticipated to acquire a recently deceased raknar, as the locals refuse to actively seek out contact with the creatures. Apparently, they avoid the beasts out in the steppes at all costs, preferring to scavenge from the corpses that result from large scale assaults by the raknar. Thus, I had to wait until such an attack upon Assena to occur before I could procure fresh and intact remains.
The fight with the beasts was quite thrilling, and I was able to record a great deal of additional data on their behavior. My hypothesis that they use their frontal limbs in hunting was proven true. They use these heavy limbs in both piercing strikes and a slicing, scythe-like motion. I witnessed a single raknar reap an entire line of guards much like a farmer reaps his wheat in one movement, and then turn to impale yet another in the next. It was quite spectacular.
The raknar proved to be persistent creatures, and displayed behavior that implied they could communicate in some manner. There were several instances where a single raknar would become surrounded by soldiers and faced certain doom when another would turn around from its own pursuit to aid the first creature.
I further hypothesize that these creatures are at the very least as intelligent as the wolves that inhabit the Tallanore forests. In addition to the obvious signs of communication I have already described, the level of cooperation between the raknar is impressive. They display complex pack-hunting behavior. They also recognize the danger of the manned siege weaponry, while completely disregarding the unmanned equipment.
I look forward to testing the oily compound that the raknar excrete, to see if it will prove to be highly flammable. The locals use fire arrows to fire down upon the raknar from the walls, and the raknar avoid such attacks at all cost. It causes me to hope that my hypothesis about the previously mentioned compound is correct. While fire is one of the more effective ways to keep back the raknar, it also led to the thought that we could harvest the oil compound from the dead and use it as a substitute for tar. Thus we can keep the costs of war down as well.
Any moment now the city guard will declare the fighting over and then I can send our men out to recover a specimen. Hopefully, one will be available that is relatively unmarred, so I can do a thorough dissection. You will receive my next report in short order.
Your Ever Faithful Servant,
Keeper Bartal Talmason