The adventurers don't spend much time watching the raiders around the mill. If they did, they might have wondered, if the raiders' purpose is to set fire to the mill and they are standing there with torches, why it isn't already consumed in flame. But they don't; from their position hiding on the riverbank only two guards are in view. They take a few range shots and then some begin to sneak up to the corner of the mill. Another guard and an acolyte come to the aid of the other two guards, but they are easily bested. Bilbo takes a spear from one of the guards, and Black Barry takes the rest of the weapons to bring back to the keep.

Karat carefully surveils the outside of the mill, finding no other raiders. On the long side of the mill is a huge sliding door for loading and unloading, and then a smaller man-door with a window in it. She peeks through the window using her darkvision, and sees normal mill stuff; directly across from the door is an elevator for lifting the bags of grain or flour up to an upper story, and on the ground floor are some bags that appear to be full of flour.

Black Barry would very much like to bring some flour back to the people who are trapped in the keep, as he suspects it might be helpful to them, so he opens the unlocked door, steps into the mill, and starts across the floor to pick up a couple bags. However, before he can reach them, he is hit by a volley of spears from somewhere up above, and killed almost immediately. Through the open door, Karat can see many eyes on the upper floor of the mill, which is like a loft, only half the size of the lower floor. She can't tell how many there are, but there seem to be at least a few, from the number of spears she can see pointed at the ready.

The adventurers aren't sure if the occupants of the mill are enemies or friends. Elbolin calls out to them "We were sent by Governor Nighthill to save the mill, and killed the raiders that were outside trying to set it on fire."

After a noticeable delay, "Come on in," says a voice from inside.

"Why don't you come out?" says Elbolin.

"This is the only place we are safe," says the voice.

"Who are you?" Elbolin asks.

"We are villagers."

"Well then why did you kill our friend?"

"We thought he was a cultist."

"Well if you are villagers, then what is the name of the town's governor?"

There is a bit of whispering, and another noticeable delay in generating a response (one might imagine that they are asking each other if anybody remembers the name that Elbolin just said a minute ago, but apparently none of them do). "It's a big town," they eventually answer, "it's hard to know everybody."

At this point none of the adventurers believe that these are actually villagers in the mill, so they step clear of the door and make a plan to rescue poor Black Berry, who is still dead on the floor, stuck through with spears. After some planning, Karat uses a cantrip to light up a rock, and throws it through the door to cast a little light in there. Then Hooflepoof dons his Cloak of Invisibility, sneaks in, and administers the tabaxi both a potion of healing and a potion of invisibility. Barry slowly comes to life again, invisibly, and Hooflepoof grabs his hand and drags him as quickly as possible out the door. They are followed by another volley of spears, but none of them hit.

Governor Nighthill had indicated that a team of reinforcements would be there shortly to hold the mill, so the adventurers decide not to engage those hiding inside. Instead they build a fire and make themselves some dinner, as it is getting rather late, and everybody is hungry.

Just when everybody is serving up their rations, and at their least suspicious, the loading doors of the mill suddenly slide open, revealing more than a dozen cultists and guards in a full ambush!