QuestForTheNozarShaDagger part 2

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"Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night

Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:

And Lo! the Hunter of the East has causght

The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light."

The battle continues hot and heavy.

Fapar and Lazalar are the sword wielding arm wrestlers.

A few more arrows are sent each way, and it looks like the other boat will come into contact soon with ours.

Just as the boats collide Ezra pulls out two axes and consigns one of the enemy to the river bottom.

Sjer awakens the Jaru? and heals some of his burns.

The other boat starts grinding its way down the length of our barge, and two men start to come over on the planks. Afalar pulls out his blade and then surgically eviscerates a man.

At this point Ezra jumps across to the other ship and engages the three remaining foes. He quickly dispatches two of them as they try to surround him, Afalar kills the last with a crossbow shot. And there we stand, blood covering the two decks, one sail on fire, and one sail billowing on the other ship. Iz'zek jumped over to join Ezra on the other ship and then Afalar made to join them, but having slipped on a patch of blood on the deck, instead goes over the side and into the river. After some effort it seemed that Afalar was not going to make it to the rope. Raj jumps in to help and soon a dripping Afalar emerges. The other ship is searched and then stripped of useful items, set afire, and hulled.

Sjer notices a cloud of dust up ahead on the west side of the river and calls the attention of Afalar and our Jaru?, Shal, and they comment that they are probably horsemen who live in this area.

Several hours ahead on the river we see the dwelling of the Valas. It is a tree fort type of structure. Sjer immediately gets Afalar and warns of more battle to come.

As we get nearer Ezra claims it is the dwelling of the Valar, a peaceful trade oriented people. Afalar shoots Sjer a look as he stands there in full armour and wet clothes which Sjer suggested he don. We notice a young boy hanging from a rope motioning us closer and calling out "trade".

The captain decides to trade with them as we are heading into a mountainous region.

They people seem quite happy to see us, Iz'zek and Shal go up and schmooze and drink the drink. Ezra goes up with the venizen. Afalar and Sjer remain down on the boat. Zali goes out into the forest to stretch his legs.

Only the slaves and Afalar and Sjer stay down on the boat. The rest of the crew and captain has gone up in the tree to enjoy the feast of roast beast and to share a pipe with the shaman. This is quite the extravagant tree dwelling that Ezra and the captain are up enjoying. There are many levels in the tree dwelling, some covered, and some not, and there is also one area which has been carved out of the tree. After dinner, Ezra, the captain, and Iz'zek go into an inner chamber with the shaman and a few other of the tree people.

A pipe is lit and passed around where all seem to partake. From the back of the room, a man brings forward some pelts, a pouch, and some other items. Iz'zek brings out some of the coiled rope and a piece of sail.

The shaman brings out some salve for the reversal of some process that being bitten by a creature of the night will bring about.

Ezra puts a dagger and 17 iron arrow heads for three of these bottles.

The captain wants to trade the ropes for food.

"There is another colony of people living in the forest about 4 or 5 journeys to the north. They will attack any person on sight unless he wears this medallion. It looks like it's made of metal it is a picture of the sun. The shaman says that showing this medallion to the people in the north will make them not attack you. And so the dealing is done and the captain takes the medallion and puts it around his neck.

Eventually the men return with some leftovers for Afalar, Sjer, and the slaves.

We set out into the river.