After lunch, the group continues on until reaching the cave area where they had discovered Neveah and Zira a few days prior. Aneirin has been holding on to a mouldy book from the Dwarven ruins to bring to the grouchy orc hermit, and enlists the group’s help in finding animals strong enough to bear the gift for them as the group seems eager to return to Keskala after its destruction.

The group eventually encounters a congregation of hares, which is weird since they’re usually quite solitary. Maybe it’s mating season. Taking some time to fashion a crude yoke and cart, Aneirin attempts to persuade the horny hares to bring the book to the grumpy lonely orc by bribing them with food, but they stop listening after ‘food’. Sending them on their merry way with a very short Hansel and Gretel-esque crumb trail, the group returns to the road and re-summons the wagon.

Travelling through the night, Shael has the same sense of unease with the woods as Ceiba had the night before. The forest itself seems quieter than usual, but there is definitely increased animal activity though there is less sign of larger creatures, especially bigger birds. The animal activity seems erratic, chaotic, and seems to have steadily been increasing over the past couple of days.

During her watch, Ceiba uses her dryad senses to communicate with the trees about the state of the forest, and is rewarded with a vision of the swamp-like pool that the group had passed on their way into the dwarven ruins. Noticing Mal’s concern over the fate of his family, Aneirin suggests that Ceiba drug him in order to dull his emotions and prevent him from becoming depressive. Ceiba refuses.

In the morning, Ceiba and Shael discuss their findings, informing Mal and Aneirin of the issue as the changing atmosphere of the forest seems unusual to the normal profile of this area. As the group ponder, they are jarred back to reality by a figure on the side of the road calling for help in the distance.

As the party gets closer, they see a frantic timber elf with tangled, knee-length hair bound hastily in a headwrap. She is covered in scratches, favouring one leg, and her apron is smeared with blood. Aneirin recognises her as Sivelia Parson, one of the first villagers to see him since arriving in Tolara, though when he saw her last she had been heavily pregnant.

Sivelia seems to be in a state of shock, and manages to tell the group that her home has been levelled with her husband and child trapped underground. Whilst leading the two-mile trek back through the woods, Shael quickly heals a wound in Sivelia’s leg before reaching the home that has been thoroughly levelled. There is a pile of rubble covering an underground storeroom but the two-storey cabin, paddock, and toolhouse are completely destroyed.

Ceiba wild shapes into an enlarged gorilla and does most of the heavy lifting, clearing enough rubble to provide line of sight for Aneirin to teleport into the underground root cellar. After Aneirin teleports in, he hears a weak voice from the other side of a smaller collapse — Sivelia’s husband Yuralon has one leg pinned beneath a stone that fell in a secondary collapse. Aneirin spends the next while painfully clearing enough rubble to see through the other side of this collapse, and teleports once more.

After transporting both Yuralon and his child, Loael, back above ground with his eladrin magic, the exertion of Aneirin’s actions winds him and he spends the next thirty minutes or so unsuccessfully trying to vibe with the stone and earth around him while allowing some of his magic to return. Above ground, the others perform first aid on Yuralon, preventing him from bleeding out as a result of his leg injury, and begin to fashion a stretcher using some old cloaks gathered from the dwarven ruins. Once Aneirin teleports himself back out, the group make their way back towards the road and rush back to Keskala with the Parson family in tow.

Approaching the town, the group are able to see that Keskala’s eastern gate is hanging permanently open, and that one section of the town’s outer wall has collapsed. Even from a distance, the party can feel the heat emanating from burning fires within. Once inside the town, ba discovers that her apartment has been completely flattened but most of Mal’s home looks intact. Mal hops off to check on his family whilst the others continue through the dazed town, towards the half-collapsed village hall which has been set up as a field hospital.

Mal’s father is injured, but stubbornly refuses any suggestions to get help. Mal’s mother shares that he had helped save many villagers during chickenzilla’s attack before he was hurt, and Mal returns to the rest of the group.

Yuralon’s leg will need to be amputated if he is to survive, fortunately Ceiba had scavenged medical equipment from the dwarven ruins and Aneirin offers some drug-tree bark as anaesthetic, Mal takes his leave again just before the amputation. Aneirin and Ceiba then help to stabilise five villagers that looked to be in the most critical condition using their magical healing.

After the operation, Ceiba wild shapes again into a gorilla and helps to clear out two buildings that could be used as temporary accommodation and saving a trapped villager: unfortunately she also uncovers one dead body.

Shael heads towards the post office and discovers that the family they had helped had all survived, but that they had been unable to leave town before the town was attacked.

Mal heads towards Marlena of The Wanderer’s Tale, discussing what had happened and receiving an offer for lodgings alongside the rest of the group.

Seeing so many sad faces, Aneirin attempts to lift the town’s spirits by playing his lyre — unfortunately this has the opposite effect and triggers a sympathetic response that deepens the villagers’ sorrow. 

Failing to spread joy in such a sad situation, Aneirin wanders outside the town walls and draws water from one of the wells to clean himself with Shael following behind. This water also seems to be stagnant and dirty, but due to Aneirin’s natural resistance to diseases, he washes himself anyway.

Shael realises that there may be a more widespread pollution of the region’s water supply than he had anticipated, connecting several different sources of similarly dirty water from near the orc hermit’s hut, to the stagnant pond and the diseased shambling mound, and finally to this well.