Episode 3: Bimar

Baracus' words earn a nod and a smile from the warband leader, while Ybus' comment draws uncomprehending looks from both Buluyagon and Makabo.

"We should start heading back. I expect the feast will begin very soon," Makabo says.

"Why wait for the feast?" Buluyagon snorts. "Let us visit the cookfires!"

Makabo heads for the longhouse, but "Buloy" leads you to where the food is being prepared. As you near, the heady cooking smells are incredible, and Ybus' stomach starts to grumble audibly, prompting your guide to chuckle. At last you arrive at the cooking area: huge pots and vats of food sit bubbling or sizzling over fires arrayed around a large stone oven. A veritable army of tikbalang bustle about in ordered chaos, tending fragrant meat and vegetable stews, stirring coconut milk perfumed with yellow ginger into rice with cooking paddles big as oars, stuffing wild boar with sweet fruit and spices before turning them on spits over roasting fires, pounding heavy wooden pestles into waist-high mortars filled with purple yams.

You sample every dish, urged on by the proud cooks, with loud toasts and plenty of rice wine at each stop. Already, runners begin carrying steaming platters of food to the feasting area. Joining this merry procession, you soon arrive at the clearing in front of Apo Mai’ngor's longhouse.

The entire village arrives in droves, singing and carousing. The atmosphere is one of celebration after victory. One would not think the battle is yet to be fought. Apo Tagipusuon, smoking her pipe, nods to you as you arrive and are seated with Makabo's warband. Conspicuously absent are Urban and Makisig.

There is no formal start to the feasting, at least nothing that is obvious to you - one thing just seems to flow naturally to the other. There are rituals interspersed with dances that are stylized depictions of some battle or other (or several). Pula and Buluyagon lead the boasting and jesting and loud toasts as the rice wine flows. Apo Mai'ngor presides over all, nodding approval over the festivities and leading some of the rituals himself. Makabo presents himself to his father, who leans forward in his throne and touches the warband leader on the forehead. For a moment there is a softness in the chieftain's eyes as he registers the constellation tattoo.

Ybus' storytelling goes over extremely well. The tikbalang clap and cheer as he recounts the PHULES' exploits.

A massively-built tikbalang with a severe speech impediment named Lingkon-Hok challenges Baracus to an arm-wrestling contest. It's a close call, but the half-orc wins out in the end, amid wild cheering by everyone assembled, including Apo Mai'ngor.

Makabo rejoins your group, and so do Urban and Makisig, who looks a little worse for wear after his ordeal with the maggot infestation, but appears to be battle-ready. With all of his own warband dead, it seems Makisig is to fight alongside you under Makabo's command. The warband leader's eyes glitter with the anticipation of battle as he calls everyone's attention.

"My friends. Our first task come morn is to scout the field of battle. With the main body of our forces Apo Mai'ngor will assault the enemy position from the east. The filthy kalding will have the sun in their eyes, but the tikbalang will be fighting uphill on open ground once they break tree cover. It is hoped that with most of the enemy, including the Worm That Walks, engaged with the main force, our warband, slipping in from the forest to the southwest, can swiftly overrun any defenders remaining at the portal and destroy it utterly. The Fools will be invaluable here, as I am told they have destroyed a similar portal before.

Apo Tagipusuon will join us to cleanse the site of the kalding's defilement afterward. Needless to say, she must be protected at all costs. We strike fast and hard. The outcome of the battle - the fate of our tribe - hinges on the destruction of that vile portal and banishing the abomination!"

At that moment, one of the scouts rushes up and cries out, "The goatmen are cutting and burning the trees around the portal! They mean to level the entire forest!"

Makabo's warband are first to leap to their feet, drawing their weapons. All eyes turn to Apo Mai'ngor, who rises deliberately, followed by the rest of the elders. An exultant roar erupts from the assembled warriors as the chieftain raises his spear. There is ordered chaos as the war drums are sounded, and the various warbands form up and begin the march to battle. Dawn is not far off, but it seems like battle will be joined before then. Has the carefully laid battle plan been abandoned for the sake of the forest?

Ybus' question about mounting the tikbalang like riding horses raises a few eyebrows, but Buluyagon laughs. "You can ride on my shoulder if you want, my friend! Just like Erden here rides Big Baracus. Up you go!"

After a quick huddle with the other warband leaders and the elders, Makabo lays it out: "The timing has changed, but the plan is the same. If they are burning the forest, the light will be in their eyes. It will be easier for us to loop around in the dark and hit the portal while the main force keeps them busy. Let's go!"

"A fine plan, my friend," Buluyagon says to Ybus with a chuckle, "but one that would take far too long, I'm afraid."

Baracus' words, however, give both Makabo and Buluyagon pause. "It escapes me why not one of us has ever thought of that!" Makabo exclaims. "It's a bold plan - one my father would never agree to. Underground, in the worm's domain, we would be at a serious disadvantage. Which is why no one will expect us to go by that route. Let's do it!"

Another warband comes up to jog alongside your group, led by Apo Handyong. The battle-scarred elder confers with Makabo before addressing you, "To draw the enemy east we must wreak as much conspicuous havoc as possible on that front. Perhaps some of you would prefer to join us there?"

Urban and Rydler decide to join Apo Handyong's warriors. They wish you luck as the warband peels away to join the main force.

No torches are lit, and hardly a word is spoken other than an occasional terse command as Makabo's fighters maneuver skillfully through the woods with an eye out for any sign of the Worm That Walks.

You lope uphill through the deep shadows of the forest. Apo Mai'ngor leads the vanguard while the rest of the warbands echelon away to the right. You begin to smell resinous smoke wafting between the trees. The sky in the west is aglow with the goatmen's fires.

Makabo's scouts call excitedly. A tunnel has been found. In the distance, to the north, war-horns blare as battle is joined.