Having cleared the house, the party returned to Tebur to report on their findings. He thanked them for their hard work in resolving the issue. He explained that the guard has known for a little while that unknown hostile forces had been trying to slip Kythons past the gate. Most of the shipments were caught, but one or two slipped through. He was hoping that the party would be able to track down some more clues as to the perpetrators, or at least find another stash of Kythons.
Gronk and West also show Tebur the untranslated letter that the party picked up from the leader of the Savage raiding party. Tebur skimmed the note, and got mildly upset. He claimed there were urgent matters on the note that needed to be handled immediately, and asked if he could keep the note. The party agreed, but then asked if a copy could be made for them. "Wait right here!" Tebur said, and went rushing off. Ten minutes later he returned with a new copy of the note, the ink still damp. Although the party was clearly expecting to keep the original, not the copy, they accepted it and prepared to leave. As they did so, Tebur pulled Oleg aside and asked to speak with him privately.
Gronk and West then handled some shopping matters, including the disposal and distribution of some of the accumualted loot. Oleg catches up with the party and explains that Tebur had an employment opportunity for them, if the party was interested. A human mage recently opened up a small mine and is employing local dwarves to dig. He's not mining ore, however, and this makes Tebur a little concerned. If the party is interested, they are to go investigate this wizard and see what he's trying to accomplish. The party agrees to consider it, and they split up. West goes out of town to commune with nature, while Oleg identifies the sword (+1) and the ring (protection +1). Oleg then buys a scroll of Comprehend Languages and starts trying to learn it. Gronk whiles away the rest of the day, and then retires to the tavern for supper and some rest.
At supper's end, an older dwarf enters the tavern. He glances around, then walks (well, staggers) up to Gronk and plops himself down right next to the beleaguered half-orc. "You're ugly for a humansh, you know that?" isn't the best conversation starter, but at least hasn't drawn a dagger. As Gronk sits, and nods politely, the dwarf rambles over three or four Dragon's Breaths. He explains that he has a map, one that leads to an artifact of great power near the edge of the Vast Swamp. Sadly, his siblings, spoilsports that they are, are insisting they're all too old for such adventures. But cleverly, the dwarf made a copy of the map, which he surreptitiously hands Gronk. "Now my brothers will have no choice!" the dwarf crows, "They'll never let themselves be beat to the treasure by a humansh! It's a rashe!" At that point, the dwarf's brothers catch up with him. Bursting into the tavern, they drag him out bodily, berating him angrily in dwarvish for consorting with an Orc, of all things! How will the clan ever live this down? With Gronk's attention no longer distracted, the patrons stop staring, but continue whispering at each other in dwarvish.
Nonplussed, Gronk heads back upstairs, disturbing the busy Oleg. When he hears the tale, he immediately wraps Gronk in a cloak and drags him to another inn. "Surely they'll come back for you, once they realize what's happened. We can't hide forever, but maybe they'll have left for the artifact in a day or two. They might have let a human get at it, but a half-orc? Never."
The next morning, Oleg meets West and notifies him of the party's new location. He then returns to his studies. Gronk handles the sale of the remaining items, and acquires a magical ring of protection for Oleg. West arranges the comission of a suit of leather armor for his new animal companion, a black bear. The party is raring to go at this point, but Oleg urges patience. "I'm almost done mastering comprehend languages," he insists, "Can't we wait until tomorrow?" The party accedes, and retires for the evening.
Just before falling asleep, however, West is stirred as first one, then another dwarf enters the stable he's sleeping in. The newcomer, dressed fully in dark clothes, adresses the first dwarf in a harsh whisper. He directs the dwarf to deliver a note the next evening, or his family will be killed. The dwarf simpers, promising to obey and begging for his family's freedom thereafter. With a snarl, the mysterious dwarf leaves the first wracked in sobs on the floor of the stable. At this point, West approaches. The dwarf quickly draws a dagger, but West manages to calm him down. West points out that the man's family will probably be killed whether he cooperates or not. He convinces the dwarf to return with him to the inn where Oleg and Gronk are staying, offering to help recover the dwarf's family.
Things get tense back at the inn once the dwarf, one Voimli Trueforger, realizes that Gronk is a half-orc. The party manages to calm Voimli back down, and they make plans to intercept the man who is to recieve the message. Examining the message, they see the seal is identical to that of the man who asked them to bring the Kythons into the city. Opening the note, they learn a man named Imsh is supposed to protect a cart leaving from Ker Bazainn on the 15th of Harvester. The party arranges to ambush Imsh as he meets Voimli to get the message in the hills just south of the gate.
After some tense waiting, Imsh, an orc on horseback, arrives. He is accompanied by some of the Brotherhood's odd crossbreeds -- a pair of bears with huge spines over the whole back half of their bodies, much like a porcupine. The party quickly jumps into action, but sadly Voimli gets caught in the fight, and his skull is crushed by Imsh's warhorse. Gronk rushes up and grapples Imsh, pulling him off his horse and then rolling downhill, punching along the way. Meanwhile, West has ensnared one of the bear-beasts, while his animal companion goes toe-to-toe with the other, and a summoned griffon distracts the warhorse. Oleg snipes at various combatants with his crossbow. Gronk fells the orc at the same time West's bear finishes its bear-beast. West calms the warhorse, while Oleg finishes off the second beast. The spines of the bear-beasts were more than just decorative -- five stick out of West's companion, and one out of West himself, hampering their effectiveness. With Voimli dead, the party stops to consider their next move.