The adventurers make short work of the rest of the dragon gang, and inside the Townmaster's Hall they find Leoson, Nighthill, and three villagers with makeshift weapons, like hoes and scythes. "Wow, I'm glad to see you guys," Leosin says, "I wasn't sure how long we could hold out in here!" He explains that he was surprised how quickly the cultists found him; barely two hours after settling in at the Old Greenest Inn, he had spotted them out the window. He'd managed to escape before they got organized enough to surround the inn, but they had followed him on a mad chase through the town for several hours before he found refuge in the Townmaster's Hall. He is still exhausted and would like nothing more than to take a good long sleep, but he is very excited to hear about what they observed in the camp, especially about the cave. "We have to go back there," he says, "I heard them call it 'the hatchery', there must be something more there."

It's now been a long evening and pretty much everyone is ready to settle down for the night, but they aren't sure where they would be safe - and also, whom to trust, since Leosin implied that somebody in Greenest might have tipped off the cultists to where he was staying. Nighthill suggests that he could probably find them a safe bed with people in the village, but they might have to split up, because most people don't have room for such a crowd. They also discuss going to the Keep, or perhaps camping out in the woods where they couldn't be easily found.

They aren't sure they can trust these villagers, so they tell them that they are going to the Keep, while secretly planning to ditch them and head out into the woods. They start off back toward their cart, but the villagers just follow along, probably thinking that there isn't really a reason to split up, it's a short walk and they are safest together. But this puts a complication in their plan to ditch them, so Karat offers to buy the villagers some weapons, if they'd like to go over and see if the weapons shop is still open. So Karat and the villagers head over, find the shop open, Karat buys each of them a shortsword, and they go together over to the Keep.

When they get to the keep, there are only a few guardsmen there, keeping an eye on the place, and still cleaning up from the mess from the raid a couple days ago. The villagers know each other, so they hang around and chat on the lower floor while Karat goes up to the parapet, with the intention of hanging around there for a couple hours to see if any cultists show up, indicating that they have been tipped off.

The rest of the group goes back to the carts, where they find that the prisoners, whom they had forgotten all about when they left their cart, have all gone home. The adventurers intend to go out and camp in the woods, but they didn't have time to discuss their plan with Karat, and they don't want to leave without her. All they know is that she went to the Keep; they aren't sure if she is still expecting them to meet her there, or what. So they come up with a plan to get her out of there and away from the villagers: Hooflepoof takes Bilbo's horse down there, and knocking on the door of the Keep, asks if Karat is there. He explains that there is an emergency in Karat's family and she should leave right away. Karat was intending to keep watch for a while, but... well, what can she do? If she doesn't go now, she might not have a chance. So she hops on the horse with Hooflepoof, and they ride back to the cart. The villagers, not having a horse, don't follow.

Before heading out to camp, they decide they could all use a hot meal, so they head over to the Old Greenest. Leosin is at first hesitant to go back there, since they already almost captured him there once, but eventually he figures that it is probably the safest place to be, since they probably won't expect him to go back there.

They sit down and are surprised that their waitress is Talis, Sildar Hallwinter's niece, whom they came all the way here to rescue, only to find her in no apparent trouble. She is surprised to see them too, but serves them up with a delicious meal of slow cooked roast beast and a few ales. They spend a couple of hours enjoying their dinner, until Leosin quietly points out that he can see kobolds outside the window. Peeking discreetly, they can see more. But how could they know they were here? Suddenly suspicion falls on Talis, who has disappeared into the kitchen, and Elbolin remembers that he still has the letter that she gave them to take to Sildar. So they take it out and break the seal, and it reads like this:

Dear Uncle Sildar,

My apologies for the misunderstanding; I was not "missing", as it was reported. I actually was just away for a while, visiting some friends. I definitely was not taken captive by the dragon cult and persuaded to join their cause, which I know would be a big disappointment to you. Thank you for sending your friends to attend to my safety, though to be honest, I wasn't too impressed. I thought that with your Lords Alliance connections you would send someone a little tougher.

PTG,

Talis