The cold rain is relentless with the buffeting winds resisting each step you take. As the land begins to rise at an incline, you sense you have reached the foothills of the mountain range near Refuge. Once you have cleared this hurdle, you should be able to reacquire the Wire Road. Suddenly, you feel a vibration rumble beneath your feet and the world around you begins to change. Birds flee from the shelter of the boughs high above as a brutish shape bursts from the darkness ahead, snapping fat branches like twigs and pounding the earth. An Ocarro, one of the few herbivores able to survive the Deepwood, charges toward you in a heavy gallop. The beast is larger than a cart and horse and is covered in bony plates of armor. Each toe on its boulder-sized feet is armed with a single scythe-like nail that gouges the earth with each stride. Not far behind, the rest of the Ocarro herd crashes through the Deepwood, crushing plants and stones alike. They are clearly fleeing the storm ravaging the area and rarely attack humans, however, that hardly matters when you are standing directly in the path of the stampede.

You manage to dive aside, narrowly avoiding being impaled by the spear-like toes of one behemoth as the avalanche of armored meat and muscle plows through the forest and rumbles off to the east, in the direction opposite the village. With the crisis averted, you gather up your strewn equipment and continue on toward the village of Refuge.

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