Meanwhile, somewhere along a lonely trail on the way to Phandalin, Gourbain and Elbolin are setting up camp when suddenly ten stirges swoop in and attack them, thirsty for blood. Elbolin hears their wings flapping as they approach and readies his weapon, but Gourbain is taken by surprise. Both take some damage, Elbolin kills one sturge, and then manages to escape their attacks by outrunning them.

After comparing a few details about their respective caravans and the memorable characters traveling with them, Hooflepoof and the two women agree that they are traveling with the same caravan. Hooflepoof tells them about the fungus they encountered this morning, their day of scrambling to catch up to the others, and their broken wheel.

"Was there anybody in the caravan behind you?" one of the women asks.

"Yeah, there were. We didn't know them, but they couldn't get past the fungus."

"It would have been better to travel together with them, wouldn't it? Why didn't you help them, or at least wait for them to catch up?"

"We just had to get out of there. Our whole group was totally traumatized by the screaming of those awful toadstools. Well, I'm glad we're back with the rest of the caravan. Can we camp here?"

"Sure," she says, "there's plenty of room in this clearing, and we could use the 'safety of numbers'. We were just talking about whether we were really comfortable being the last camp in the group. So we'd be happy to have you with us."

Hooflepoof goes back to where Noohar and the rest are waiting by the road, and tells them about the conversation. After this long day, they are all ready to get some rest. They stoke up the fire and Noohar's brother cooks up a nice stew, but Bilbo and Elfo can't eat; it seems they've lost their appetites. Hooflepoof also has some trouble, but he picks out the mushrooms and then finds the stew quite tasty.

Although Bilbo and Elfo can't find the taste for the stew, they smell a very enticing scent on the breeze, and it smells delicious. Elfo decides to follow the smell, and at Hooflepoof's suggestion, Karat goes along. They pass several camps before coming to the camp with the two too-friendly ladies they met the night before, and on their fire, the very enticing-smelling soup. Hiding in the bushes, Elfo can barely hold himself back, but suspecting some dangerous magic, Karat restrains him. Elfo tries to squirm away, and finally uses Misty Step and Fly spells to escape her grasp, and then his prestidigitation cantrip to throw a shower of sparks, distracting the ladies so that he can swoop down and grab the whole pot of soup, and fly it back to their camp.

Karat stays hidden near the ladies' camp to see what happens next. They immediately notice the missing pot of soup and chuckle a little; it sounds like one of them says something about "one of our victims returning". Hardly missing a beat, they pull a new pot from somewhere and start adding water and vegetables and spices from small jars.

Back at the adventurers' camp, Bilbo is very suspicious of the soup and tries to resist, but the smell is so good, that try as she might, she can't hold back, and she takes a big slurp of it. She finds it delicious, and her vigor is immediately restored. Elfo also starts gulping it down, finding it incredibly satisfying. Everyone else is highly suspicious.

Black Barry jumps up and tries to tip over the soup; at first, Elfo prevents him, but Black Barry tries again and manages to dump the soup all over the ground. Elfo dives to the ground, trying to lick the soup off the dirt, but it soaks in and disappears before he can get more than a taste.

"You're going to get sick," says Black Barry.