Governor Nighthill also asks about their experience at the mill. He's surprised that there weren't any villagers over there - and if they wanted to burn the mill, why they didn't just do it. Elbolin also wonders about this; it rather looks like some sort of ambush. Nighthill wonders if anybody knows the adventurers are here, who might want to trap them.

There are a handful of makeshift soldiers also on the parapet, who shoot arrows down occasionally to protect villagers approaching the keep, or repel invaders if they get too close. As the adventurers converse with Nighthill, they notice the soldiers duck down against the wall, hiding behind their shields, and wisely the adventurers flee to the stairwell. Above they hear the flapping of monstrous wings, and the roar of dragon fire. They fear that the patrolmen on the parapets may be roasted, but the dragon appears to be more interested in scaring than in inflicting mortal damage.

Nighthill directs them toward the temple, off to the east, where they can see moving torches, and a column of black smoke. "Follow the river to the east," he says, "until you get close to that black smoke and torches, that's the Temple of Chauntea."

Escobert lets them back out through the rusty gate leading to the tunnel, and they make their way down the river. Where they get closest to the torches, the light is mostly obscured by a forest, which they use for cover to get a view of the temple without being noticed.

They see two different groups around the temple; one group, composed of three cultists, ten kobolds, and two ambush drakes, is circling the temple in a loose mob. Another group, composed of two cultists and six kobolds, enters and exits the black smoke rising from the closer side of the temple, gathering loose materials to feed a fire they are building against a back door. From behind the temple, where they cannot see, they hear loud booms of heavy wood striking heavy wood. Hooflepoof dons his Cloak of Invisibility and sneaks around to see what is going on there; a third group, composed of one dragonclaw, two cultists, and six kobolds, has improvised a battering ram from a fallen tree, and are trying to force their way through the massive main doors of the temple, which are blocked by the villagers inside.

Hooflepoof returns to the rest of the group in the forest, and tells them what he saw. They decide to proceed without revealing themselves; Elfo casts an Invisibility spell on Karat, Elbolin, and Black Barry, and they sneak off to fight the group with the battering ram. The rest of the group remains hidden in the wood.

The group with the battering ram has no idea what is hitting them, and no defense. The dragonclaw and two of the kobolds are killed before the others run away to the east, out of sight. Meanwhile, the circling group passes near to the forest, and Elfo hurls a fireball at them, killing two cultists and four kobolds. The invisible group comes back around to help, but Black Barry gets separated from the group and calls out "where are you guys", to which Karat answers "over by the bushes", so the enemies become aware that unseen forces are present. Elfo fires a Ray of Frost out from the trees, and the remaining ambush drakes and kobolds and cultists converge on the area from which it came. Gourbain shuffles away from the action and remains hidden, while Bilbo kills a kobold, and Elfo one of the ambush drakes. The battle continues.