The struggling Father Baird is soon subdued by the adventurers. They cram a rag (Greasy Rag to be precise) in his mouth to prevent his casting spells. They dispel the zone of silence and the fog cloud and tie up the fallen priest. Mishok investigates the mysterious one-eyed skull. He knocks it from the brazier and then, with the help of Sartan, pries the emerald from the socket. Baird struggles, clearly distressed by this. The green glow subsides, and Baird slumps, hanging his head, defeated. Mishok pockets the emerald and leaves the skull.

They haul Baird up the well and bring him out into the church. All the acolytes have left, and only Tibault and a quartet of city guards remain. There is much discussion about what to do with Father Baird. Tibault is distressed by the state of his mentor, and asks to be given care of the priest, to try and nurse him back to health. This makes the team suspicious, as they take his concern to be complicity. Davros suggests that they simply kill the priest… he is obviously evil. But Tibault insists that Father Baird is sick and in need of  help. They settle on turning Baird over to the custody of the city guards. They must imprison him for his crimes, but they agree to allow Tibault to watch over him. They all leave the church and head across town to the guard house. At the steps of the guard tower, just before they Baird is taken to the dungeons, Thbault turns and thanks the team for their help.

They take their leave and walk over to the Three Javelins to sleep for the night.

In the morning, they converse with Randall Roanstall about their potential cross-town inn partnership. Cycek shares a recipe for a delicacy with the strange name “Scotch eggs” suggesting that this item would make a great addition to both inn’s breakfast menus. They enjoy their breakfast and take a basket of Scotch eggs to the Guard Tower as a gift for the countess.

They find the tower under an augmented guard, which they find strange, but they have a productive meeting with the countess, mayor, and Bontelan Wright. They break the ice with the gift of Scotch eggs. Luckily she is much pleased with the eggs as it helps lighten her mood, and makes her more tolerant of the appearance of the all-too-chatty and stinky Greasy Rag. Before long, they get into the nitty gritty of the job in question. They consider and then ultimately sign the contact that Bontelan provides. Upon their acceptance of the terms he advances them each 50 gold pieces as agreed upon. The contract stipulates that the party will recover whatever Durgeddin weaponry they can, to be delivered into the custody of the Countess, who will pay fair market value for them depending upon the quality of the blades. (Weapons of such quality can fetch a high price indeed).  The terms of the contract assert that they must sell these to the countess alone.  Bontelan will pay them an additional 150gp apiece for credible evidence of the fate of the previous expedition. They may retain any other proceeds they come upon.

Bontelan himself announces that he intends to travel to Rennet’s Cove in the south, with a stop to visit some old friends at the Tyr Monastery. “It will take 20 – 35 days depending on my route. Once there, I will rendezvous with the Ruby Clipper and return to Stihlport.”

He provides them a map of the vicinity of Blasingdell. It lies about three days journey through the blufflands and into the foothills. It is one of the farthest west outposts of civilization. Beyond that lies the foothills and the true western wilderness. It is another 3 days beyond that to the Stone Tooth. It is there that the reputed entrance to Khundrukar lies.

The meeting comes to an end and the party takes their leave. Bontelan tells them, “You are professionals. Equip yourself as you see fit. And travel at a time of your choosing, but I urge haste, because we do not know what kind of trouble may be massing. It is best if we act before our enemies can establish a stronger presence.”

They head back to their new stronghold, “The Yur Inn” and find that Lolly Oxcart is there beginning the hard work of cleaning up. Shaggi and Skids are there lazing around in the barroom.

They decide to make use of Lolly’s cleaning supplies to make Greasy Rag more presentable. He is frightened at the prospect of become clean… he doesn’t know if he can survive the removal of the substances that first gave him life. He stands uncertainly on the bar, wondering if he is standing on the brink of oblivion