Bo-Jing was an expert tracker and the beastmen who had captured Narantsetseg made no effort to cover their tracks. For three days, the heroes and their warbands pursued the beastmen, arriving at a dense and swampy thicket at the northern limit of the Naran domain. Leaving the warbands to guard their retreat, the crafty leaders, Tetsukichi and Bo-Jing, together with the powerful sorcerers Bangqiu, Hyamsam, and Salt, and a small number of other trusted companions, made their way into the thicket. This was a fulsome place; the thorny branches of the hedges torn at their arms and ankles, the mud stank of death, and the air rose in a thick, reddish mist.
They fought several small groups of beastmen before reaching the center of the thicket, and the site of a horrifying ritual. Surrounded by over a hundred beastmen and other disgusting monsters, there Narantsetseg, chained to a black altar, with a man in black robes looming over her, holding a knife aloft. The sky swirled in a blood-red vortex. The man chanted, together with three witches, and the horde of beastmen echoed their chanting. As they chanted, the horrible blue-black statue of a horned man seemed to glow from within.
The heroes stayed a safe distance away and made a plan. The sorcerers made Tetsukichi and Bo-Jing invisible. The Mustapha created the illusion of an attacking force from the other side of the thicket. The beastmen attacked the illusionary invaders, while the black-robed man and witches continued their ritual. Bo-Jing’s henchmen pelted the beastmen with arrows as they closed with the illusionary force. Bo-Jing surprised the man I the black robes, dealing him several grievous blows; Tetsukichi guarded Bo-jing’s flank, holding the three witches at bay. The black-robed man tried to continue the ritual while dodging Bo-Jing’s flashing swords. The witches were of little help as they were being blasted by magic missiles from Salt, Hyamsam and Bangqiu. When two of the witches fell, Tetsukichi turned to assist Bo-Jing in his fight against the black-robed man. The wretched servant of evil fell to a flurry of sword strokes.
Within moments a green-golden wind swept over the thicket, dispersing the red clouds and vaporizing the beastmen in a flash of blinding fire. By the time Bo-Jing regained his senses, he found Narantsetseg free of her chains and safe in his arms.
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