The next morning, Voern had recovered sufficiently to heal the others somewhat. Then they rested there in the rocky defile, slowly recovering and gathering their strength. After midday, they heard the slow splashing of oars or paddles and a low murmur of conversation from the edge of the lake. Salesat risked a view of the shore and saw that a raft bearing four humans was approaching. They beached their craft and tied it up, before moving to the path and examining it. Salesat and the others kept very still, hoping that they would not be discovered. The four interlopers finished their scan of the local area and returned to their raft, but then Salesat noticed that they were taking the other one as well.
Ke-Herram and Salesat loosed a volley at the rearward of the two rafts once they were about twenty feet off the shore. One of the paddlers was injured by both Salesat痴 arrow and Ke-Herram痴. He folded over, dropping his paddle. Voern took this as a good sign and joined his comrades in missile fire, but they were largely unsuccessful this time, only scoring a minor hit on the remaining human on the rearward raft. Rather than remaining as sitting ducks, those on the rafts realised that they could not paddle out of range before they were all picked off, so they responded in kind. They picked up their own bows and fired back at the party, wounding Ke-Herram with one arrow while the rest flew wide. The bandits and the party exchanged volleys repeatedly, with those on the rafts having more success than those on the shore. Voern was the first to fall, an arrow taking him just as he was about to loose one of his own. At this Ke-Herram and Salesat hid completely behind the rocks, but this only allowed the bandits to beach their rafts and come at them from other angles. One other bandit fell before Ke-Herram and Salesat were subdued.
Salesat awoke first. He was trussed up, his wrists and ankles tightly tied together behind him, these knots being tied to each other and secured to a metal ring on the wall. Voern and Ke-Herram were similarly bound, too far from him to reach. When he realised that he could neither slip out of his bonds, nor break them, he tried to gnaw at the rope securing him to the wall. He was making some progress on this when he heard someone approaching. The human entered the room and started questioning the litorian. Salesat did not answer. His gaoler eventually resorted to a mace, bloodying Salesat痴 temple, but gaining nothing from it except his unconsciousness. When Salesat awoke his ropes had been replaced and he found that he could not twist enough to bring his teeth to bear. He started raving, calling out the name 溺eegtaraat� again and again. No appreciable response could be determined. After some time he dosed off muttering. Voern was the next to awake. He found that he could extricate himself from the clumsy human knots and soon he had freed the others. He then channelled the power of the green into his companions, awakening Ke-Herram and making Salesat lucid again.
They ventured out of the chamber and found a dead human in the passageway outside. They took what weaponry and armour that they could use and moved on. They slowly traced their way through a number of passages and chambers, discovering that they were on the same level of the complex by the lake where they had been ambushed by the archer. They picked up a hodgepodge of weaponry on their way through, finding a number of dead bandits, who looked as if they had been killed by some hideously barbed weapons. They found their first live opponent in the northwest, a twisted small human who lived near the bandits� horses. He leapt out to attack them and Ke-Herram killed him with a stroke. After this, they found large doors to the west which seemed to lead outside, an armoury, and a kitchen where they fed, quickly and without ceremony (even for Ke-Herram). They felt rather nervous about whoever had slaughtered the bandits, but determined to finish their task.