Everybody gets a good night's sleep and enjoys a hearty breakfast, after which they decide to head over to the Townmaster's Hall. On the way, they are greeted and hailed as heroes by any villagers that they meet in the street. Apparently anybody that didn't interact with them directly at the keep or the temple heard about them from their neighbors, and being strangers in the town, they are easy to spot.

They find Governor Nighthill at the Townmaster's Hall, talking to villagers as they come by needing help, looking for their loved ones, or offering resources to help others. He is doing his best to help everyone, although the town has suffered significant damage and a lot of people's private belongings have been looted. He makes lists of everything and everyone reported missing. When he sees the adventurers, he pulls them aside into his office and explains that the raiders didn't manage to steal everything from the town's coffers, and he gives them each 100 GP, with hearty thanks, for their heroic deeds the night before. He offers them another 100 GP to take on a mission for him: he has heard that the raiders have a camp nearby, and he'd like to know more about it - where the camp is located, how many raiders there are, who their leaders are, what is motivating these attacks, where they plan to strike next - basically anything they can find out. Also, he says, if they can retrieve any of Greenest's loot, the people would appreciate it, but the information is more important. Sounds like a fun job for a group of tough and tricky adventurers!

Nighthill also introduces them to a young monk named Nesim Waladra, who is limping heavily. He asks them, if they are going to find the raiders' camp, if they could be on the lookout for his master Leosin Erlanthar, who went missing last night in the course of battling the raiders. Nesim later found Leosin's choker, which he always wore, but now is ragged as though torn off roughly, and his staff, broken in two. He fears that he may have been captured by the raiders. Leosin apparently has been investigating these dragon groups for some time, and they went out of their way to visit Greenest on the way back from visiting the library at Candlekeep, for reasons that he didn't exactly explain. He gives Karat the broken choker, and Hooflepoof takes both halves of the staff.

Karat asks Governor Nighthill about Sildar Hallwinter's niece Talis - does he know of her? Nighthill says that Talis is a rather common name in these parts, and there are several in the town. But there is one that sounds like the most likely - she's from somewhere up north, he says, and has only been in Greenest a couple years. He explains to them where she lives.

The group meanders over to the house described by Governor Nighthill, and they knock on the door. They are greeted by a young woman in her 20's, with a baby on her hip. They ask if she is Talis the niece of Sildar Hallwinter, and she says that yes, she is. They are suspicious of her because Sildar had indicated that she was missing, and here she appears to be comfortably at home. She says she hasn't really been missing - well, she had visited from friends in another other town, but nothing of note. Hooflepoof pulls out the map which they had followed here, and it no longer glows. Karat suspects that maybe this isn't the real Talis, and she uses a Detect Magic spell but sees nothing suspicious. Bilbo quizzes her about her life; Talis says she came here to live after she met her husband Mokiz, or "Mokie", who grew up here in Greenest. Bilbo even asks to use her bathroom and takes a quick look inside her house, but sees nothing that wouldn't be normal for a house in these parts.

Hooflepoof casually says that he's going to head over to the store, and once out of visible range, puts on his Cloak of Invisibilty, goes back and walks right into Talis' house. He also finds nothing of particular interest there. She has a bookshelf, and he pulls on the books hoping for a hidden door or something, but they are just regular books.

Elbolin asks Talis to write them a letter for Sildar, since he had offered them a reward for coming to find her. She readily agrees, and retires into a back room for a few minutes, returning with a sealed letter addressed to Sildar Hallwinter. "Take this to my uncle," she says, "and you'll get your reward."

The adventurers are still confused, but there doesn't seem to be any other angle to investigate. Elbolin takes the letter, and they head over to the store to prepare for their journey to explore the raiders' camp. Karat buys two greataxes, a light crossbow, and some crossbow bolts. Elfo buys some chain mail for Nars. Reminded of who has what of whose, Bilbo gives Karat back the Staff of Defense and two of the Potions of Healing that she gave her before last night's duel.

They then head out to the west of town, where they left their ponies, cart, and Beans the corgi, and pack up to travel. The trail of the raiders is easy to follow by the trampled grass and tracks, starting from the northwest corner of Greenest where they had been seen loading carts with loot. The trail leads south, along the western edge of the town, and then continues south across the plains.

They travel most of the morning before they see a thin trail of smoke up ahead. They bring the horses to a halt, and wait while Hooflepoof sneaks up, wearing his Cloak of Invisibility, to see what is going on. He finds four human cultists and eight kobolds in a low spot among the surrounding hills, around a campfire where they are roasting a few prairie hens for lunch. They are clearly not expecting any sort of encounter, as the cultists have stacked their weapons up against a rock nearby, and their location offers them no cover, while large boulders jumbled around them provide ample hiding spots for anyone plotting an ambush. Hooflepoof sneaks back and tells the others. Meanwhile, the rest of the party has changed into their cultist uniforms, just in case that might be helpful.

The adventurers consider just going around this group, as it looks like it would be pretty easy to just avoid them altogether, but they decide that they look pretty easy to tackle, and they might have loot, being most likely on their way back to the raiders' camp after the raid on Greenest.

So they all sneak up just within ranged-weapon range, finding ample hiding spots behind various large boulders, and the cultists and kobolds, more interested in their lunch, don't notice a thing until the adventurers all jump out in a coordinated ambush. Four of the kobolds are killed before they even have a chance to respond.