As everyone ashore rushes back to the ship the flaming arrows continue to splash with hisses and smoke into the water around the Javan Queen. Some hit the boat but their fires burn out without doing any damage except blackening the hull a bit. The arrows seem to be wrapped in resin soaked twists of cloth and set alight with fire pots on the canoes. A couple of the arrows that hit the deckhouse do almost set it ablaze. Uglash fires the ballista at the canoes coming upriver and hits one of their archers, then he jumps down off the deckhouse to grab a bucket that he fills with water from the port side of the boat and extinguishes one of the fires. He heads back to the side to refill the bucket to extinguish the other, but the flaming arrows continue to streak across the darkening river towards the boat. Ferro, Kash, and Dale return fire with their longbows. The arrows from beyond the cypress trees continue to rain down upon the clearing and the riverbank, but now everyone is back aboard the Javan Queen and the oarsmen begin to push the boat back out into the depths of the river.

Fingol sends his team to the bow and stern and gives the order, “Fire at the paddlers! Slow the canoes down.” 

Gar tells Uglash, “I’ll take care of fire duty. You can stay at the ballista, okay?” Then Gar calls upon the power of Obad-Hai to send a small hurricane of wind and rain out of the palm of his hand to put out the spot fires. He tries to aim away from his comrades so that they do not get blasted by the wind.

Once everyone has scrambled aboard and the guardsmen get into position to begin firing back, the Olman crew of the Javan Queen push the boat back out and then take up their oars. Uglash rushes back up to the top of the deckhouse and begins winding the ballista back to full cock. Flaming arrows from the canoes upriver and downriver continue to fall onto the boat and into the water around it. None of them succeed in starting any new fires. It can now be seen that there are approximately three groups of seven dugout canoes each coming from the Hool River, upriver on the Javan, and downriver on the Javan, though only the first three canoes of each group are firing the flaming arrows. Each canoe has a paddler, an archer, and a warrior with a fire pot for lighting the arrows. The macabre white war paint on the warriors gives them a skeletal appearance in the deepening dusk. Presently, Sgt. Apone, Noch, and Hex are firing from the bow at the canoes coming upriver, at the stern, the rest of the squad fire at the two groups of canoes coming downriver.

Indranil climbs to the roof of the deckhouse for better range and angle and starts firing forward with his bow with careful aimed shots.

Lorindel joins Indranil but takes aim at the targets off the stern that are moving with the flow of the river.

Rain very quickly joins Apone, Noch and Hex on the bow to quickly dispatch those canoes in front of the boat. She ignores Fingol’s orders however, and targets the warrior’s with the fire pots, thinking that if they are hit they will drop the fire pots and severely disrupt the canoe. Her bow, however, becomes unstrung. Rain cries, “Crap!” then quickly begins restringing her bow.

Fingol, rushing to the bow to take a shot, actually ignores his own order and aims at one of the enemy archers instead and with his first shot takes down the one in the third boat who falls overboard.

Aramek immediately rushes to the bow and yells to no one in particular, “I’ll use my crossbow till they’re in range of my missiles.” Then to Sgt. Apone he yells, ”Should I concentrate on the paddlers or archers?”

Sgt. Apone replies, “Sir Fingol said the paddlers.”

Aramek, beside Fingol, hits the paddler of the same boat with his crossbow, but he continues to row with the bolt sticking in his leather armor.

Indranil and Lorindel miss their shots. Rain’s bow again comes unstrung.

Ragnbjorn shouts out, “Keep firing lads! I’ll be in the deckhouse. I have to write a letter.”

Seeing that Gar continues to wash down the Javan Queen with his storm blasts, the Amedi cover their firepots but continue to fire upon the ship with regular arrows. Hex and Ferro are both struck and collapse to the deck. Rain restrings her bow as everyone else continues to return fire, though there are few hits.

“Forgive the confusion.” Fingol shrugs, “The canoes in the stern must pursue us so losing their paddlers would put them out of the fight. We are charging down on these canoes before us, so the archers would have to be taken out. Let’s get back to taking out the paddlers so they won’t be able to maneuver and board.”

Rain yells out while stringing the bow, now thoroughly pissed at her crappy equipment, “What the Hell is Ragnbjorn doing?”

Gar rushes over to the side of the two downed guardsman and begins praying for Obad-Hai to lend his power to stabilize them, starting with Hex. A cry is heard from the stern as Frost is wounded by an arrow. Noch hits again and the archer in the second canoe coming at them from the east falls. Aramek takes out the paddler of the first canoe with his crossbow.

Ragnbjorn opens the shutters on the port side of the deckhouse and whistles. A sparrow hawk swoops down from one of the nearby cypresses and perches on his outstretched left arm and snaps up a small piece of salted fish Ragnbjorn holds out to it with his right. He then takes the bird back inside and begins attaching the message he wrote to its leg and thereupon sends it off downriver.

The Javan Queen and the seven canoes heading upriver towards them are now less than 200’ away from each other. Arrows continue to fly thick and fast between the keelboat and its pursuers and interceptors. Ragnbjorn finally takes up his bow and from the stern he fires off a shot that wounds the Amedi paddling one of the canoes pursuing them. Gar checks on Ferro and sees that his bleeding was not as bad as he feared, but then he hears cries of, “Man down!” from the stern as Dale falls to an arrow. Aramek takes an arrow in the left hand that pierces his mage armor with a flare of bluish light. Rain’s shot drops the wounded paddler of the second canoe coming towards them. Indranil also gets a hit and wounds the Amedi paddling the third boat coming towards them from the east, though he keeps his grip on his paddle.

It looks as though the other canoes that have been holding back are beginning to move up to the ones that have been firing. At any moment their archers will begin loosing arrows at the Javan Queen as well. Then something even more dire is seen. Heading towards each group of canoes from the riverbanks are 40’ long war canoes manned by a dozen or more Amedi warriors, paddling together in unison. They will quickly catch up to the smaller canoes so that each group will have a war canoe to back it up and help in any boarding action. All seems lost as the Amedi arrows continue to slam into the ship from all sides. Sgt. Apone is hit, and Kash falls with an arrow in his chest.

Indranil cries, “By the Light. For Honor! Keep heart my friends! Fight on!” as he continues to fire carefully aimed shots at the forward canoes.

Indranil yells over his shoulder to the captain, “Captain, have your rowers make battle speed now and aim for the center canoe, we must get away from those chasing us or we are doomed! Forward by the gods! Pull for your lives every man jack of you. We are leaving!”

Indranil then notices that Uglash is continuing to have trouble with the ballista and has still not gotten a shot off yet and moves over to him to help, but sees that he has finally gotten around to loading the ballista. He can’t help but think to himself, This Uglash is retarded and not helping – damn half-bred beast.

Then several things happen that brings hope to all aboard the Javan Queen. Captain Olnut had been directing his crew to unfurl the sails, and it now catches the strong western winds and leaps ahead. The Captain begins tacking to the southeast in an attempt to slip past the Amedi canoes. Uglash finally fires the ballista and its huge bolt takes down the Amedi paddling the second of the seven canoes trying to intercept them. Sgt. Apone, cursing the Amedi whose arrow is sticking in his thigh, returns fire and hits the Amedi archer on the first of the seven intercepting canoes. Noch’s arrow follows right after and finishes the job. Fingol also gets a killing strike on the Amedi paddling the third intercepting canoe. The guardsmen on the stern continue to return fire, and even score a few hits themselves, though it does not deter their pursuers. On the bow, Gar intones the sacred “Om” and calls upon the life giving forces of Obad-Hai, sending out a wave of healing energy that revives Hex and Ferro and both pushes out the arrows and closes the wounds received by Aramek and Sgt. Apone.

Captain Olnut calls out, “It looks like we might be able to weather this storm after all if those savages don’t pick us all off before we can get by them! You had all better take cover below deck!”

Suddenly, to the surprise and dismay of the skull faced Amedi warriors, many of the canoes behind the Javan Queen begin tipping over. The warriors are dumped overboard and begin flailing about in the water. The four canoes and the war canoe on an intercept course with the Javan Queen that had not yet begun firing arrows are also capsized. Of the first three interceptors, two are dead in the water, and those remaining alive on them try desperately to retrieve their paddles. The third paddles over to help the other two. The pursuing canoes stop and turn around to help their friends. As the crew of the Javan Queen watch, the Amedi flailing around in the water are suddenly dragged under screaming, one by one. Then the remaining canoes start tipping over as well. It is not long before the Javan Queen is alone – sailing downriver past the drifting hulls of the now empty canoes and a river that now runs red in the setting sunlight.