After a few days, Ontharr informs the adventurers over breakfast that Leosin has returned! He came in late last night, and is now resting, but he said he would join you for dinner.

Indeed, when dinnertime arrives, Leosin joins the adventurers at their table in the inn, and you start to fill each other in on what has transpired since your last meeting. "I can't believe I found their dragon eggs and destroyed both of them!" he says.

"You only saw 2?" asks Karat, but Leosin doesn't realize there may have been more than two.

"Yes, there were two dragon eggs in that cave, and I destroyed them both!"

Karat isn't sure whether to let on that there was a third egg, and they have it in their possession, so she lets it go at that.

"Why did you destroy the eggs?" asks Elbolin.

Leosin seems incredulous. "Because dragons, my man! They are dragon people, and dragons are terrible, vicious beasts! The more dragons the cult has, the more powerful they will be! Enough dragons, and they could massacre us all!"

"Yeah but... why destroy them? Maybe they'd be useful," says Elbolin, still pondering whether they should tell him about their egg.

"Well it would be great to have a dragon on our side, but I have no idea how to raise a dragon. They are very dangerous and hard to control. It's like having a pet tiger cub, they might be cute and friendly and harmless when they're young, but when they grow up, you just don't know, they might just kill you."

Bilbo doesn't exactly agree with the tiger analogy, and a discussion ensues about whether animals learn aggression or are born with it innately. Anyway, Leosin insists that raising a dragon is a formidable task.

Hooflepoof interrupts. "Um, so how about my cloak of invisibility?"

"Of course, of course," says Leosin, "matter of fact it's right here," and he picks it up from where he had set it, invisibly, on the table behind them. "Thanks so much for loaning that to me, I can't imagine I would have gotten out of there alive without it, after I destroyed their eggs!"

"Did you learn anything else?" asks Black Barry. "We figured out from one of them something about a Dragon Queen, and the loot is for her. Do you know who she is, and what they want with her, and why they loot?"

"I wish I knew," sighs Leosin, "that's what I've been trying to figure out. After I escaped, I followed their wagon trail, toward the west, as far as Baldur's Gate."

"Oh no," exclaims Elbolin, "so they're attacking Baldur's Gate?"

"No, I was surprised too," says Leosin, "but they weren't. They were unloading their loot."

Leosin goes on to explain that Baldur's Gate is an unusual hilly town, where they don't allow pack animals or carts in the city due to the steep roads and often slippery streets. They are right on the Coast Way, an important route for trade going north-south on the western edge of the Sword Coast, and they have capitalized on their unique position to set up an unusual trade. Since there is no good road around the city, they require all the traders to unload their goods from their wagons, hire porters to hand-carry them across the city, and then reload them up on new wagons on the other side.

"The thing is," says Leosin, "it makes it rather difficult to track goods passing through the city, because they get broken up into human-sized loads and reloaded onto different wagons. The dragon cult didn't have to go to Baldur's Gate, they could have taken an entirely different road. I think they're doing it to make the loot hard to track. I wasn't even sure which road they might be taking out of town, until I had lingered around all the gates for a few days. I just happened to see a palanquin heading out the north gate, and sneakily following it for a while, caught a glimpse of Rezmir, whom I recognized because she interrogated me at the camp. So I hung around that gate a while, and noticed a few familiar faces from the cultists' camp among the laborers lurking around and loading up carts. At that point I headed back here, because I had heard word through some of my Harper friends that you guys were here, and I thought maybe you'd join me. Do you have a plan for what you are doing next?"  

"We should kill this dragon cult," says Hooflepoof.

Ontharr interjects. "Well I don't think it's going to be that easy. My group says that there are hundreds of them, and they have dragons."

"Well we found their base, and killed most of their leaders," says Hooflepoof.

"I don't think you realize," says Ontharr, "that was probably just a sub-group. My group believes they have a bigger base somewhere, perhaps hundreds more of them, and dragons."

"You keep saying 'my group', says Karat. "Who is your group?"

Ontharr reaches under his red beard and pulls out a pendant that is on a chain around his neck, showing a gauntlet grasping a sword by the blade. He seems to expect them to recognize the symbol, but the adventurers just look at him blankly. "The Order of the Gauntlet", he says finally, "an order of faith and vigilance against evil. We are concerned about the growing power and viciousness of this dragon cult, and from their killing and looting, we must assume that their plans do not include peace and prosperity for all."

"Us too," says Leosin. "I hesitate to tell, because we are not a group that cares to announce itself, but I trust your confidence. I am a member of the Harpers. We believe in a balance of power and nature, and this dragon cult has us quite concerned. I happened to drop by here on my way south because Ontharr is an old friend of mine, and we happened to notice that both our factions shared the same concern."

"Not that old," says Ontharr good-naturedly.

"Anyway," says Leosin, "what I'd like to do, is go back to Baldur's Gate and see if we can follow the dragon cult's wagons. I think that will lead us to... somewhere, I'm not sure, but wherever they are taking that loot must be important. It might be going to their main base, if we can find that, I'm sure we could learn a lot about what they are up to."

The adventurers are interested, but they are concerned with this dragon egg that they still have in their cart - presently in Ontharr's stable - and they still aren't sure whether to tell Leosin and/or Ontharr about it.

"When would you like to leave?" asks Elbolin.

"As soon as possible," says Leosin. "Well, I'd like at least a night to rest. Can we leave in the morning? We'll have to decide what to do with your cart and wolves and corgi, as these guys aren't going to be allowed to pass through Baldur's Gate."

"Is there a highway around?" asks Elbolin.

"Not without many days' travel," answers Leosin, "we don't have time for that."

"Maybe if we had a dragon..." muses Elbolin.

"Well, we could do a lot of things if we had a dragon. Let's get some rest and reconnoiter in the morning. And by the way, we don't invite just anyone, but I've been impressed with you guys' valor and resourcefulness, so if any of you are interested in joining the Harpers, talk to me."

Bilbo indicates she is interested, but after Leosin talks to her further about the Harpers' operating principles, she changes her mind and decides not to join.