Everybody fishes around in their bowls, looking for small flat disks. Hooflepoof finds some lumps and riff raff, but nothing that looks like a disk. Elbolin and Karat find nothing in their bowls except oatmeal and regular bugs.

Elbolin sticks his finger down his throat and barfs up his breakfast, then looks through the disgusting mass for anything suspicious, but finds nothing. The other adventurers do the same, and also find nothing. Then they carefully re-eat their breakfast.

Then they pack up, and get back on the road. Noohar's group, including Bilbo and Barry and the new guards, lead the way, still at the back of the caravan, and the other group stays about 30 feet behind, close enough to see what is going on, but not so close as to be together. They lead the golden stag, on a rope, along the road.

Most of the day passes without further incident, just one foot in front of the other on the dusty road. In the late afternoon, as they come around a corner, they notice that the cart up ahead of them has stopped in the middle of the road. They pull up within about 30 feet of it, and Barry can see that the cart's horse has collapsed in the road, and doesn't appear to be moving. None of the people of the cart are visible. Barry starts to get up to investigate, but Noohar is nervous, and says "I think my bodyguard should stay here". Barry stays, standing up on his seat to see as much as he can.

Hooflepoof approaches the cart, and as soon as he is close enough, Barry tells him that he thinks their horse is dead, and the people are missing. Hooflepoof dons his Cloak of Invisibility and sneaks up there to check it out.

The horse indeed appears dead, and there are signs of violence. It takes him a couple of minutes of looking around before he finds the people, who are hidden under the cart, with the points of spears and arrows peeking out around the skirts. Coming closer, he can see three human guards and a noble crouching under there. "Are you ok?" whispers Hooflepoof.

"What?" says one guard to the other.

"I didn't say anything," whispers the second, and they all look at each other nervously.

Hooflepoof crawls under the cart and removes his hood. "Hey, what's wrong?"

The nearest guard points to the bushes by the side of the road. "You see those guys?"

Hooflepoof hadn't noticed anything, but now that he looks, he can see the faces and dim shapes of a few hobgoblins in the bushes.

"They ambushed us and killed our horse," the guard says. "We managed to defend ourselves under here, but I think they are just waiting for dark when they can get the jump on us."

"How many of them are there?" asks Hooflepoof.

"About a half dozen, I think."

"Hang tight, I'll be back soon with some help," says Hooflepoof, and pulling his hood back up for invisibility, he sneaks back and tells the other adventurers what he saw.