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Shakyaa was originally from the frozen wastes of the far north, but the sabre-toothed cat's restless nature drove her to take up a life of adventuring. While she is impatient and often charges into battles and traps with no plan to get out, she is also fast, tough and smart enough to get out of them - the biggest one being how she ended up as a scorpion-taur. Plundering an old wizard's tower deep in the rolling sands of the desert wastes, she came across a cache of magical items. As soon as she entered, the light from the door behind her was blocked by a chitinous shadow, as the gigantic scorpion descended from above to protect it's master's property!

The burning heat of the day had not yet penetrated into the heart of the tower, and the beast was still slow from the chill. It lashed out with telegraphed sweeps of its claws, slow enough that Shakyaa was never in any danger. She lashed out with her sword as the pincers passed, but the armour was so thick that she couldn't make a dent. Unable to match the raw strength of the arachnid, she backed further and further into the chamber, knowing that she had to take action before she was cornered. The only weakness she could see were the beady little eyes, but to strike there would need to pass through both the claws and into range of that stinger. It's skittering was too random to try hurling a dagger.

She glanced behind her. A few more steps and she would be against the wall. There was no good course of action here - so she chose a bad one.

She lunged forward with her sword, and in turn the scorpion struck up with it's claw. The sword flew out of her weak grip, clattering away into a corner, but she was already clutching to the carapace of the pincer with her bruised arm. Before it could snap at her legs with the other pincer, Shakyaa was vaulting over it, her feet reaching for that stinger before it could lash at her. Her left caught it, and she dropped her full weight down on it. The tail gave way and she slammed into the back of the beast, in easy striking distance of it's head. It got the chance to look up, for just a second, before she plunged her dagger into the nerve cluster that served as it's brain.

She rolled off the scorpion as it spasmed in death throws. After a couple of seconds to get her breath back, the cat tried to climb to her feet, but stumbled. A numbness was creeping up over her left paw, and she looked on in horror as a black stain began to spread from a tiny pinprick.

She looked around, desperate for help. Her bag had snake venom antidode, but not scorpion - and the tendrils of necrotising darkness moving a little further along her veins with every beat of her heart spoke of dark magics. She had nothing that could stop the poison.

Except... she had landed within arms' reach of her sword.

***

Healing potions weren't much good against poison, but the sure did numb the pain. That, and slow the blood flow so her makeshift bandages weren't leaking anymore. She counted up how many she had left, and tried to work out if that would be enough for a crawl back to civilization, but the fuziness in her head made it too difficult. It was obvious, though - not nearly enough.

Shakyaa glanced over at her legs. She'd always liked her legs, the way they looked, the way it felt to run over plains, her mobility. Now they had both shriveled and withered away, looking like they had been mummified centuries ago. She'd had to cut further and further up her shin as the poison moved faster than she had thought, before giving up, biting her belt and starting to slice into her hip. After her left leg had gone, she had cleared the tears out of her eyes only to see the same blackness creeping up her right. That prick she hadn't even noticed.

Still. She was alive.

The cat dragged herself over to the chest of magical items. She might as well see what prize had cost her her legs, and probably her life.

She grinned, and turned back to the twitching corpse.

***

2 days later, she crested a dune to see the massive curtain wall guarding Anahk-Sur-Abahn. One of the scorpions pincers held her in place on it's back, the other swinging free. She rested her hand on the carapace and smiled behind her teeth as the light glinted off the ring enchanted with animal control from the cache. And handy thing for that wizard to have when messing with creating giant beasts. There was enough of the creature's nervous system left to respond to her mental commands, and she was able to direct it to carry her - and most of the hoard she had collected out and over the sands, to a city where they had mages would would be able to do what she wanted.

After a small bidding war amongst the flesh shapers for the old wizards' goods, Shakyaa arranged to have the still mobile scorpion's torso hollowed out and what was essentially a seat put in where it's head was, that would lock her stumps in place with armoured plates. It was attuned to respond to her thoughts alone without the need for a ring, and the link provided her with sensation. It took months before she was as agile as before, but strategically placed warming gems kept her arachnid half from torpor and gave her much more protection that before. The pincers, however, she never could use properly - while she could block with them, equally she often tripped over them.

This came to a head when raiding forces from another city attacked her adopted home. She lead a charge against the men, and fought her way to their leader by sword and by sting. She was poised to strike him a mortal blow when she caught a foreleg on her pincer, tripping and rolling. Seizing the oppourtunity, her opponent stuck at her head with his flaming scimitar. She raised her left arm to block, but the flesh and bone proved no barrier, only deflecting the blow. She didn't even notice her arm was gone, but tried to raise it again - and this time her claw responded, snapping up and grabbing his head in a vice-like grip. They both exchanged a shocked glance, before Shakyaa grinned and made to clench her fist. His skull shattered.

She had the claw removed and refitted as a replacement arm during the celebrations after her victory. A flesh shaper offered to create her a new arm - and legs - but she refused, liking the raw power of her claw. It was during that celebration that she lost her other arm - not to some lurking assassin, but to a barrel of ale - the one she'd drunk. Showing off to equally inebriated friends and allies, her stinger sways back and forth - and raising her hand too high, she spiked the back of her hand with her own poison. Still, Shakyaa knew what to do, and snipped off her last arm with her claw.

The fact she had more than enough time to reach a healer before the poison killed her didn't enter her head.

Now, she has a number of alternate prosthetics (both technological and magical) she can use, but she prefers to use her scorpion parts, to the extent she thinks of them as a part of her. The sympathetic magic has worked on her, too, putting poison in her fangs (and making her glow in the dark). She also had the ability to alter the effects of the toxins to avoid another 'incident', ranging from an instant neurotoxin to making her victim feel light headed and drunk.