A Hero Falls.
Back on their bug mounts, the Danger Gang ride along the river towards the Dryad Queen's last stand. No one is surprised when a whole platoon of choking vines descends from the trees. Everyone is getting horribly choked, but luckily there are beetles to distract the wretched plants so that the unconscious are dropped into the river instead of continuing to be choked. Lleryn is loving fighting this thing. The bad news is that the river is not free of bad news. There is a Giant Gar down there and it is ready to start biting people. Eventually, after many sub-zero hp treks into the river to save and bind drowning and unconscious comrades, the Gang finds themselves huddled on shore. Everyone is at a negative. Most of the beetles are dead.
That's when the squirrels come. Lleryn tries to get in front of them to soothe them, though they don't look particularly soothable. Martialis produces the shadow to try to ensorcell them, looking not unlike Ultra Magnus trying to unleash the power of The Matrix. That's when a flying Hell Toad rides out of the sky. It breathes fire on a beetle, then a high pitched super-fast voice commands Marty to put the shadow away. It's one of the Utie. Apparently the rumors of the slaughter of their male population were greatly exaggerated. Marty asks it to take care of the squirrels and he'll do what he says. The Hell Toad shoots some flames at the squirrels and they scatter. The Utie (who is invisible) explains that he's going to hold them prisoner and keep the shadow away from the dryad queen, as he hates dryads anyway. The gang grumbles and looks to Marty, who begrudgingly agrees to follow him to his terrible prison. About half way there, he changes his mind. He drops the Fire Trapped box on the ground after taking out the shadow in order to talk to this jerk. Karl grabs said box while the Utie is distracted and heads for the brush. Then, while the Utie is distracted, Karl leaps upon the back of the toad, where the Utie presumably was and opens the box, with a great cry of, "Fuck everything forever!". There is an explosion and the Utie starts writhing on the ground in flames. The beetles swoop in to polish off the Utie and his little toad.
Karl Shinyhands is dead.
They take his charred corpse and toss it on the back of the beetle. They continue their terrible trek north on the river, this time avoiding the dreaded choking plant. Unfortunately, fickle fate was not meant to go so easy on them, and they soon find themselves pursued by a dreaded Black Swan. Marty braves heart explosion to change into a bird and tell Master Chief to fight the little jerk for them. MC distracts the Swan for a little bit as they fly away. Unfortunately, Master Chief is not immune to the corrupting powers of the forest, and he soon gives chase after our heroes as well. Then, fortune smiles upon our poor heroes, in the form a deformed child. He's standing by the river bank and urges the boys down. Things couldn't get much worse, so they decide to take him at his word. He blows a little horn around his neck, and instantly the Black Swan and Master Chief the eagle start to dance.
Karl would have loved this.
He leads them away to the husk of a murdered giant venus fly trap. Here, they should be safe to talk. He introduces himself as Caesar of Cylia. He's the representative of Cylia to the Dwarven council at Bhijimin, largely because he's the last dwarf of Cylia. Not even that, actually, he's a half-dwarf, which is something that can happen. He tells them his whole deal, which includes his crazy half-dwarf power to heal people. He brings everyone up to one, which is really great, and everyone really likes this guy a lot. Everybody decides to hit the sack, because, boy, what a day.
