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The iron-tipped bolts scream towards you but your swift reflexes are more than a match for these deadly missiles. You open your hand and thrust your palm into Prarg’s back, pushing him forward and saving him from the first bolt; then you sidestep to avoid being hit by the second. The lookouts fumble with their crossbows, desperate to fire again, but before they can reload you have disappeared along the beach.
Shortly you reach a small secluded cove where Captain Prarg discovers a rusty anchor. It is a landmark, left on purpose by agents of King Sarnac to point the way to the cave where they have left your boat and provisions. You find the cave and together you haul the boat down the beach and raise its coal-black sail before pushing it out into the icy waters of the Tentarias.
Once aboard, you trim the sail whilst Prarg takes charge of the rudder. There is a good wind and within minutes your tiny craft is bobbing towards the far western channel of the Hellswamp, twenty miles distant. You ask Prarg if this dark estuary has a name, and he replies, ‘Yes. The Drakkarim call it “Dakushna’s Channel” after the Darklord who once commanded the city-fortress of Kagorst. They say it is a fitting dedication, for the waterway is as deadly and as treacherous as the creature after whom it is named.’
