Barnaby narrowly dives out of the way of the incoming arrow and the party quickly finds themselves swarmed by a club-wielding barbarian and his ferocious wolf companion. While Opir cowers in fear and ducks for cover, Fobias becomes accosted by the man and Theo by the beast. Something becomes apparent immediately – these guys hit HARD and it’s going to take some deft maneuvering and strategic insight to defeat them.
Even more curious, however, is that this group of waterway robbers doesn’t bleed. Not a drop. After being struck multiple times, the flesh underneath the skins remains taut and intact. Their heartiness is disheartening. And then, there’s the added issue of a figure tied and bound on the far end of the riverbank. Barnaby vanishes with a twirl of his magnificent cloak.
Theo, realizing that he needs to incapacitate these enemies, spews forth a horrendous stinking cloud, the same move that helped turn the tide for the party back in the Seven’s Sawmill. Unbeknownst to him, however, is that Barnaby is invisible right in the middle of the cloud’s area of effect. He becomes sickened, but luckily the old man wearing the gigantic bearskin is also crippled by the noxious fumes. Which is especially imperative since the man had grown to the MOUNTAINOUS size of twelve feet from toe to head.
As Barnaby makes his way over to the struggling figure in the bushes, Krask enters an archer’s duel with the other bowman. Both sides are peppered with arrows and bolts. Richard continues his hot streak of being useful in combat and defends Theo briefly before the witch ascends into the air and zips out of danger. Fobias is not a slouch either, and he implores the party to exit the barge before activating the magical effect of the Impaler of Thorns. The old man becomes struck with powerfully sad emotion, which limits his damage-dealing capacity. A capacity that is still incredibly high.
Meanwhile, Barnaby makes it over to the incapacitated figure and realizes that the elven woman is critically wounded and dying. Without this important revelation, she almost certainly would have died, but Barnaby is able to bring her back from the brink.
It’s Shalelu.
The end of the battle comes quickly as the giant man collapses to to ground in an unconscious heap. Theo immediately questions Opir of his intentions and whether or not he sold them out. Opir vehemently insists that the men were lying and that he had nothing to do with the near-death experience. He is visibly shaken by the encounter, and feebly attempts to calm down the oxen.
Shalelu is surprised to see Theo and Krask this far outside of Sandpoint. Coincidentally, she is bound for Fort Rannick to find Jakardros, a man that she knew when she was younger. According to her, Jakardros abandoned her and left her to die after an unexpected attack killed her mother. But it wasn’t just any attack.
It was a dragon.
What sorcery prevents men and beasts from bleeding? Is the party bound to find a dragon terrorizing Fort Rannick? Will Fobias rename his new weapon the ‘Summertime Sadness Spear’?