Can you save Mason? (Spoilers)

[RiKShaw]

Nearing the end of the Valvenor part of the story, the town is attacked by Deadwalkers. If you enter into the area where Mason was sitting (same place Mirana had her healing centre) then you'll find Mason under attack by a club Deadwalker, an archer Deadwalker and one of those fat bloaty guys.

If you do nothing he'll take damage and die, just like normal but is there a way to save him? Thing is, if you finish off the Deadwalkers quickly you can get to the blob guy before he gets to Mason (he's away a little bit and walks slowly). But if Mason isn't busy with the Deadwalkers, he runs up to fight the bloat guy. You can easily hold aggro and/or disrupt the bloat guy so he doesn't hit Mason but when the bloat guy dies, he does a massive damage AOE all around him, knocking about 70% of your health down and I've yet to see this not kill Mason...

I've tried killing the bloat guy away from Mason, which worked but Mason died to the Deadwalkers. Is there a way to save him? Or a reason to save him?

[kaay]

Replaying game now, saving Mason is part of a secondary quest to defend the barricades.
Save private Bumpkin and save Mason for this subquest.
Dont worry about the bloat guy explosion, it never seems to kill an npc, only the player :P.

[RiKShaw]

Well, I saved him but it didn't give me any sidequest. Is that only when you replay it?

And yes, the bloatsplosion does kill him... many many times...

[kaay]

You get the sidequest to defend the two barricades from Buffalo when you enter the village.
The goal of this sidequest is to keep Private Bumpkin and Mason alive.
Weird about the explosion, both Bumpkin and Mason didnt have any problems surviving the explosion on two playthroughs.....but i play on normal (hawk) maybe you are playing on higher difficulty level.

[RiKShaw]

The defend the barricades quests succeed when the enemies die, regardless of Mason is dead, alive or about to die from BloatSplosion.