Bloody Black Stone: Chance for bonus damage against Giant raids; Extra damage for each piece of Hydra Warrior's set worn; Increases Player's Attack by 1,000 against Giant raids
Giants drain the blood from hydra carcasses, and treat the flesh with special mixtures of herbs to render any lingering traces harmless before they feast. Even those powerful beings fear the poison which flows through the veins of the Chaluan hydra.
To become a Chaluan animal warrior, fighters must prove themselves worthy in that group's eyes. The exact trials and challenges vary a great deal, but there's one constant: They must kill the eponymous creature for its hide. Aspiring monkey warriors don't find this so challenging. But for a would-be hydra warrior... There's a reason their numbers are so much fewer.
Tribesmen say hydra warriors drink that monster's blood, enduring the poison as it burns within their bellies, until their own venom-dripping teeth can kill a man with a single bite.
There are probably more legends about hydra warriors than there are heads on all those creatures combined. Their wounds can regenerate, just like a real hydra's. When one's struck down in battle, two more rise from the corpse. They hurl their babies into pots filled with boiling blood and poison to see if they're worthy of life. Dozens of stories, which haunt the minds of anyone who faces them in battle.
A barrage of hydra warriors' spears and arrows can bring down a giant. Even if the gargantuan being doesn't absorb a fatal dose of poison, the anguish will give them qualms about facing those weapons again.
The most indecent stories about hydra warriors concern what's said to lie beneath the males' loincloths. True or not, the details are probably best left to the imagination.
Many Chaluan warriors walk through the jungle barefoot, but hydra warriors are known for always wearing boots with thick soles -- to give them a measure of protection against the poisoned caltrops they and the serpent warriors both favor.
The custom of shaking hands is alien to Chalua. Hence when an enthusiastic and rather jovial scholar from West Kruna walked up to hydra warrior, no one expected him to clasp the woman's hand. Otherwise they'd have warned him.
This sharp stone once adorned a hero's macuahuitl, and drank the blood of giants. It tasted her own as well -- when she lay smashed and dying. Her deeds live on in the tales of the Chaluan tribes. And her wrath lives on too, echoing in the soul of any warrior who wears this amulet.
There are temple carvings showing ancient heroes riding hydras in battle. However, this is probably artistic license -- since hydras seldom react well to any attempt to mount them.