Barry and Elbolin awaken groggily to the light of early morning streaming in from a couple of narrow windows very high on the wall. Gourbain is with them too, also badly beaten, apparently captured at some point during the night. They are all chained, with handcuffs behind their backs, to a heavy horizontal rail. They can smell hay and horse poop, along with a lingering scent of burnt wood. Their packs are piled up in the corner of the room where they can't reach them.

Elbolin manages to wiggle one hand free, but the other is more tightly manacled, and he can't get it loose. With his free hand and feet, he rummages around in the hay near him on the floor, hoping to find a pitchfork or anything else that might help him, but he finds nothing.

Outside the roadhouse, the other adventurers find each other and gather behind the carts. Karat, Hooflepoof, Bilbo, Elfo and Nars are all present. "Has anybody seen Elbolin, Gourbain, or Barry?" asks Hooflepoof.

"I saw them inside," says Bilbo. "They were scuffling with somebody. They must have been captured."

Bilbo sneaks around to the east side of the roadhouse, remaining hidden in the bushes, just to see what's over there. The entire southeast quarter or so of the roadhouse, the quarter where the kitchen and storeroom are located, has collapsed, and is now just a smoldering, blackened ruin. The rest of the structure seems intact.