Having had enough violence for one day, you pull back into the brush and make a mad dash for the small boat. Brambles and thorns rip at your skin as you rush through the overgrowth.
“Hey! He’s gettin’ away!” yells Grelnar, stumbling after you.
“Stop ‘em!” screams Jarim, farther away. “I was going to wish for all the berrywine in the Five Kingdoms!”
You burst from the riverbank a few yards downstream of the boat, and notice it is tied to the large, knobby root of a Cypress-like tree. Untying it would take time, which is the one thing you don’t have. Mere yards away, you hear the Avidar fishermen crashing through the brush.
Whipping out your dagger, you cut the line as quickly as possible. The boat is immediately pulled out into the current, just as the Avidar burst through the brush. Grabbing the single oar inside the boat, you begin paddling to the other shore.
“It’s stealing our boat!” bleats Jarim.
“No!” groans Grelnar. “What about my wishes!”
Strangely, they do not jump in after you. A human could easily swim into the boat at this distance—a natural instinct in a case like this, perhaps—but the Avidar seem reluctant to even approach the water’s edge. Instead, they hurl insults at you, and lament their lost wishes.
Inside the boat, you notice what appear to be two heavy vests made of a cork-like material, strikingly similar to life-jackets. An empty bucket, still containing a thin slime of bloody chum, sits in the bottom of the boat. Apart from these items and the oar, the boat is empty.
Looking across the river, you see that small search parties appear to have spread out from the keep. You hope that you are still far enough away to be indistinct. You paddle towards the place where the Avidar woman desperately clings to her rock, but as you approach you realize with horror that a small search party is very close to her position. They obviously haven’t seen her yet, nor do they seem to notice you, but it may only be a matter of moments.
Do you: Approach slowly, hoping they’ll assume you’re just a fisherman, and then swoop in to rescue the Avidar woman; or paddle away bide your time until dusk falls, then return?
