That morning the four hunters discuss their next move with Carvaron. Nobody wants to challenge the Beast while he has his “troll-eater” and skinmage nearby — it’s clear the best course of action is to strike while they’re separated. After some discussion of which target to take, they settle on the skinmage. They know that Agriax, as Carvaron names him, is likely to be camped near the star-oak where he tends his totems.

The question is whether or not to distract him by destroying the fetishes he’s set around the wood. While these would catch his attention, it’s also likely that they would put him inconveniently in motion or compel him to join up with one of the other two menaces at large. Ultimately they decide that Carvaron will circle around and begin destroying totems as a distraction, while they slip into Agriax’s lair.

They set out for the star-oak that morning. It’s easy to find, given its prominent place on a large hill, and the pale green lights that bob about it even during daylight hours. The traditional animal bones and skins hang f,rom its branches, but the bones of humanoids have been added to the trophies. The group slips past a few skeleton patrols and eliminates a scattering of sentries without difficulty. Below Faragnath’s tree, a small stone circle stands on a lower rise. The stones are set about with bone totems and strange scarecrows — and Agriax is there.

There are very few words offered on either side. Agriax — a lean, dirty human dressed in the flayed skins of humans and beasts — has no living allies to command. Rather, he draws on the power of his totems, animates a small coterie of scarecrows with skin-sack heads, and sends a pair of whirling stitched-together leather “wraiths” with knives along their fringes after the heroes. His own magic seeps into his enemies’ flesh, temporarily cursing them with withering before their power shrugs it off.

It is unfortunately — for Agriax — not enough. His scarecrows are smashed, his totems blasted, his skinwraiths cut apart. He falls in the center of the stone circle the web of his fetish magics severed.