Looking about as you leave the town, you notice that civilization disappears almost immediately. Trees close in around the river, which is narrower and even faster moving here. The oarsmen are struggling merely to move the boat forward at any pace at all. Kalanos urges them on from in and out of the cabin. The helmsman, meanwhile, just smiles and watches the trees go by.

You have not been out of town for more than a few hours when you hear a grating noise and the boat abruptly comes to a halt, throwing you all off-balance, and several of you lose your footing, as none yet have their sea legs. Kalanos steps out of the cabin, "What the hell?" Suddenly you see a group of eight men come rushing from the woods to the south. Each has a bow, and they have arrows strung even now, loosing them at the boat. The first has the poor luck of snapping his string, the second however is right on target. The helmsman who was so open with information before sees a feather sprout from his chest. He falls to the deck, clearly dead, with a look of confusion on his face. The other six arrows scatter about, a few landing on the deck or hitting the cabin, others landing in the water. Behind the archers you see another group of men, a dozen or so, naked except for loinclothes, come charging out of the woods with daggers in their teeth. They dive into the water and begin swimming for the boat. Kalanos dives into the cabin, slamming the door behind him. You hear him yell, "Okay, mercs! Do your thing!" You hear him yelling something further at the oarsmen, but you cannot tell what.

Jacobus looks around the boat watching as Kalanos dives into the cabin "Now there's a brave man" he says to no one in particular.

Jacobus moves up to the side of the boat and kneels down using the cover of the side of the boat to provide full cover from the archers. He calmly draws his longsword and waits until the raiders get aboard. (Since he has no missle weapons, there is no sense in him providing an easy target)

Asif keeps low beneath the gunwale of the boat, to keep clear of the arrow fire. He draws his twin scimitars ready to repel all invaders. By Aten these infidels will pay for the murder of the poor helmsman, who lies in a pool of blood not 10 metres away. He counts slowly to ten in Arabic, planning to launch a furious counterattack upon any who have boarded the ship..

Ullar moves with caution towards the side of the ship, the HandAxe given to him by Urak ready for cutting lose any enter-hooks being tossed up to the ship. His new two-handed isn't that much of a use right now, so the Axe should do the trick, Ullar thinks.

Having nothing in the way of range weapons, Matteo drops low to the deck, using the boat hull as cover, and draws his weapons. Prepping a spell to mind, he takes a quick look around him to the other party members. "We need some return fire over here.", Matteo says as he peeks over the side to see what the bandits are doing.

Jacobus grins across at Matteo "Perhaps we can throw our brave first mate at them ?" He still hasn't noticed the loss of the Helmsman.

Matteo, his face cold at Jacobus' joking manner, thrusts his stiletto in the direction of the downed helmsman. "Save your comedy for an audience that will appreciate your jokes. For now, make yourself useful and help me get to that man... He may still live!" Even as he speaks, Matteo can tell from the dark blood staining the wood that the man is surely beyond his powers, but he must at least try. Staying low to the floorboards, Matteo inches his way to the helmsman until he can test for a pulse. Then, seeing that the poor man is truly dead, Matteo says a brief prayer in his name before inching back to the side of the ship.

Jacobus ignores the Matteo's words as his eyes follow his stiletto to the still form of the Helmsman. He shakes his head and grits his teeth as he begins to move towards the downed man with Matteo.

When he sees Matteo shake his head as he tests for a pulse, Jacobus silently moves back to his position of cover, waiting to extract his revenge.

Rhune falls to the deck and just barely manages to stand when she sees the archers. She wishes that she could have gotten that bow, but there is nothing she can do about that now. She draws her long sword and tugs slightly at the tight leather armor. She goes over to the side of the boat that the swimmers are approaching. Hopefully there is a bit of cover as she tries to keep the boarders from getting on. She plans to slash at fingers and hands. If necessary she moves back and lets one on.

Xania looks around quickly, searching for the highest concentration of the enemy. She moves to the side of the boat and grabs a pinch of something (multi-colored sand) from a hidden pocket in her cloak.

Marika whirls about and takes a step or two toward the downed helmsman, but sees that Matteo is closer to him, and already moving that way. She ducks behind the ship's railing for protection from the rain of arrows, and reaches quickly into her belt pouch. Hoping to act before the archers can get another shot off, she springs to her feet, hands dancing through an intricate set of gestures as she reels off the now-familiar incantion, "Xe-miam fiel obdormio jan!"

Rhune waits for the swimmers to come to the boat. She does not relish the thought of getting peppered with arrows. She keeps an eye on the railing of the boat and at the first sign of fingers or heads attempts to slash at them with her sword from the low kneeling position she is in.