Woodsman

The Woodsman is an enemy found wandering the Maiden Forest nearby or within his house in Fear & Hunger: Termina. He is likely the first enemy the player will run into.

Location & Behavior
He is found on the way towards town at the beginning of the game, hacking up a villager's head. After he screams about the Termina festival, he begins to wander around. It is then that he can begin to chase the player, if they are within his vicinity.

If the player sleeps in the Woodsman's house while he is still alive, he will come to the bed and initiate a fight.

Lore
A woodsman from Prehevil within the Eastern Union. From the wall writings from the basement in the Woodsman's house and from his letter, it seems he wasn't in a cordial relationship with his wife, to the point that she cheated on him with a goat. He would have committed suicide right there and then if it weren't for the Moon God Rher committing his plan of the Festival at such an inconvenient moment.

Talking to him while in a fight will reveal that the Woodsman is not as crazy as the rest of the villagers but is still hostile.

If you find the letter in the second floor of his house you'll learn about his encounter with a beast and how he locked it in his basement. In the letter, he mentions that he was "changed by the Moonlight of Rher", pointing towards the fact that his pale skin, which resembles that of Per'kele, is due to the moonburn.

Strategy
The woodsman can be an extremely dangerous enemy to fight early on. The main source of damage from the is his axe-wielding arm, which has a relatively high amount of HP and can cut off limbs with ease. He uses his other hand to bash, and also has a unique, parasitic appendage on his crotch, which has a chance to fly off and place itself on the player character's face if they fail a coin toss. The player character will be immobilized and the woodsman will be left with free turns to defeat the player.

It is recommended to avoid the Woodsman entirely at start, and only encounter him with enough party members or useful items and spells.

Once defeated, he can be searched for the basement key to his house and hatchet.

Parasite after the Woodsman's death
If the player manages to defeat the Woodsman with the parasitic creature on their faces (either via poisoning him or killing him with another party member), they will have that on their faces going in and out of battles as shown in the portrait screen. So far the debuffs of having the creature on the player's face is unknown, but it is known that it disables the player's skills and menu as the player's character is too busy trying to get it off their faces. This happens in both inside and outside of battle.

It doesn't have a sprite ingame just yet, making the player character seen without it on their faces. The NPCs don't comment on it.

Oddly, one can still consume food and the like while the creature is stuck on their faces and one can still talk to others despite it clearly plugging the player character's mouth with its tentacles.

Well interaction
A special event will trigger if the player character jumps into the well while both the Woodsman and Tanaka are alive.

While usually a game over, screaming for help will result in Tanaka rushing over to help, which will get him beheaded and thrown into the well by the woodsman. However, in an unexpected turn of events, the Woodsman throws down a rope to help you get out. After exiting, he will be seen laying in by the tree, staring in the distance. He will not chase or attack while in this state.

At this point, he can be interacted with once with no consequences, but he will give a warning to "leave, or die". Further attempts will result in him turning hostile again. Sleeping in his bed will also prompt him to attack as usual.

No attempts will be made to help the player out of the well if either Tanaka or the Woodsman are dead.

Trivia

 * The phallic shaped parasite and the way it functions via forcing tentacles down the player character's throats are reminiscent of facehugger aliens from the Alien series.
 * In the data files, the parasite is labelled as a crab, orange states that it is named after the headcrabs from the Half-Life series.