Sartan charges up the passageway to take on the opponent facing the now gravely injured Cycek. He bashes into the bandit and knocks him to the floor. Cycek makes an ill-advised attempt to chase down the fleeing Skinny Minnie. She turns and deals him another blow with her club, knocking him to the floor where he lies bleeding. Sartan, stabs his bandit combatant with a javelin, killing him, and then rushes to Cyceks aid. He pulls out his medical pack and manages to stop the bleeding and stabilize him.
Minnie runs up the stairs, following Hack, and disappears from sight.
Across the room, Mishok and Davros follow Coriander to the lobby where she has laid Wendella out on a couch. Mishok heads up the eastern passageway to scout, and discovers a metal door in the north wall. They decide to investigate, so Davros picks the lock. they carefully look into the room and find what appears to be a well-stocked safe room, with 2 beds, shelves of supplies, a couple of chairs, and an oil-burning stove. Weakened as they are from a day filled with battles, they decide to lock themselves in and rest for the night.
During their rest period, Wendella awakens. Her emotional state ranges from furious, to defiant, to resigned and passive. She says that she doesn’t hate her parents, but they are always trying to control her, and lead her into a typical mundane life, working in Shadowfurst. She becomes agitated when she begins talking about the power and glory that can be restored to this land, if only she could continue her work here. The party insists that she will be returned to her parents. She finally states that if she must return to the city, she wants to be brought to her room, so she can retrieve some of her personal belongings. The party, suspicious, refuse.
The next morning, Sartan and Mishok decide to go in search of Eve, who they have not seen since the previous night. They find her, still asleep in Ekso’s bed. She seems somewhat moved, as much as a bugbear can be moved, by the fact that these two former adversaries have come back to find her. She goes back to the safe room with them, to strategize their exit plan. Eve remarks that they are going to have to watch out for the wretched hobgoblins. They have their own agenda, and she has no doubt that they will return here in force, perhaps with an army, to establish a strategic stronghold. She wants that stronghold for herself. But she also cautions against the Duergar, a mysterious group of “dark dwarves” who apparently have been working with Ekso. She says they are “even worse” than the hobgoblins.
Curious about the staff taken from Ekso, they ask Coriander if she knows anything about this kind of staff. She inspects it and believes that it is a Staff of Wizardry, a very powerful magic item that should not be used by one not well experienced or strong in their magical practice. Such staves have been known to corrupt the weak with a lust for power. Sartan realizes that this must be what happened to his former colleague who won the staff from the evil mage Klesto-Dirk, years ago. The group also wonders if the staff is affecting Wendella similarly. She does seem less agitated when the staff is farther from her. They decide to see if they can remove the hovering ball.
They try to pull it away several times. It seems to just barely move, but they cannot seem to get enough hands on it, or a good enough grip on it to apply sufficient strength to pull it away. Cycek hits upon an idea to wrap a cloak around it, providing the leverage and good hand-holds for many of them to pull together. They do so. They pull, and the ball separates from the staff with a huge explosion. Everyone in the room flies back, slamming against walls. various objects fall off of shelves and crash to the ground. When the dazed and injured party members look around, they realize that Wendella and Eve are gone, both disappeared in a blink.
Stunned, Coriander cries out, “What happened? Where did they go!?” She is distraught about losing the girl, and in complete disbelief about what has just happened.