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[JoeBlank]

Late in the day, the repairs to the door were nearly complete. A member of Dram’s watch signaled that he heard a sound. Others agreed there had been a male voice from down the road on which we had arrived. Dram advised that the door was serviceable, but may not hold. Determining that action was needed, I took Vosh and headed to investigate. The bold Igor volunteered to join us. We departed, and the door to the Outpost was closed behind us.

A short distance down the path we came upon the body of a man. I instructed Vosh to guard the perimeter of the clearing, where he could just see the body a short distance away. Investigation revealed him to be one of those who had left the Outpost earlier in the day, a deep slash wound across his chest. He still wore his leather armor but was without the sword I was certain he had before. While preparing carry the body back, we heard crashing in the woods behind us.

On my honor as a Hoyle, I swear to you, my own parents, that the warnings we had heard were true; the creature, this giant, stood no less than the height of two men. A barrel-chested beast, his head was above many of the trees. As Igor and I began to lift the body of the fallen man, we turned to see Vosh was already at the gate, standing in a pool of his own urine. We moved quickly to join him, and the body of another of our departed men sailed over our head, smashing into the wall of the tower. Once we were inside with the gate bolted we were glad to hear that the giant had wandered off. If he meant only to strike fear in our hearts he met with great success. The men we had worked so hard to motivate were again shaken and losing confidence in our chances. It was an effort on my part not to let them know how much I shared these feelings.

Our preparations and repairs continued in earnest, for now we had seen the true threat to our safety, and our lives. The work on the door was completed, and Igor continued work on his traps. I learned that his field promotion had been to the position of Quartermaster, and he was turning out to be quite resourceful. Dram did an excellent job of reorganizing his watches, as they were becoming out of sorts. Brother Ben had put the men through some sort of test of thinking ability, and had enlisted as his aides three brothers (in the familial sense of the word): Goodrich Greslam, Rizzle Greslam and Grizzard Greslam.

Night came, but I found myself unable to sleep. Volunteering to assist in watch duties turned out to be my good fortune, for I was awake when the excitement began. A light mist was falling, and through the woods we heard a great deal of movement coming down the path. This was surely no giant, but from the sound we made it to be a force of more than two dozen man-sized creatures, heading our way in a hurry.