Barcock (also Barcok Mo) was the druid of the company: a forest man of about thirty who read the name of Gulthias at the Sunless Citadel, met a dark double of himself among the roots, and marched to the end among Los Condenados (“the Condemned”).
| Type | Character (druid) |
| Age | About thirty |
| Companion | A bear |
| Teacher | Salazar |
| Spanish entry | Barcock, el druida del bosque |
Description
Long-haired, with a wooden shield always in his left hand, he heard the call of nature and withdrew to the blackest poplars to listen to it. He traveled with a bear and could calm frightened beasts.
History
On the first night of the Old Road, he dropped to the ground in time when a black mass — one of the panthers of the lord of the mist — leapt at him, and struck with a burning log to break the attack. On the frame of the great inner door of the Sunless Citadel he read the tree alphabet, the Ockman, and spoke aloud the ill-famed name Gulthias. With his skin turned bark-like by his art, he dragged out by the armpits a dwarf swallowed by a gelatinous cube without burning his hands.
In the mushroom garden of the roots, among the branch-like beings serving the Bellaca, a druidongo came to meet the company: a dark version of Barcock, almost noseless, with rotten bark-like skin, a banished druid eaten away by what lies below. “I come on behalf of the Bellaca,” it said, and escorted them to the heart of the cult. In the barrows, when the false sister appeared to Héctor, for Barcock that husk was the lady of his old druid master, the only one who had helped him train; Kira finished her off.
In the north, at the druid’s dwelling, his master Salazar — a neutral lord who administers sacrifices and likes neither chaos nor law — questioned each companion about their balance, collected his tolls, and pointed at the statue of a horned man, asking whether one of them could become the king of the forest. The mission sent them against the clock to the Caves of Chaos to destroy the Bell before the third toll. There his bear turned savage at the funnel of the door, attacking brutally with claws and bite; “something happened to it here”. The loyal beast began to turn into a pure wild animal.
Barcock marched with the company to the arena of Arden Vul, where his name remained on the last list among those who awoke condemned.
Open questions
- Whether the call from below finally took him, or he died still a forest man, is not recorded.