We pick back up with Bloody Thirston, the pack leader, holding a knife to Grabnar‘s throat. Grabnar is on the verge of death until Waldo stabilizes him—on the condition that he helps heal the pack leader. While Waldo feigns cooperation and tends to the pack leader’s wounds, Jackalwere “D” places his hands on the leader’s shoulders and pledges loyalty, saying he’ll do whatever is needed. The pack leader tells him to stand down.
During this tense exchange, Lis—still disguised as a jackalwere—pushes between the pack leader and Waldo. Jackalwere “D” sees this and suddenly lashes out, calling Lis a traitor. Unaware that Lis is part of the attacking party, the jackalweres break the stalemate.
The pack leader tries to regain control, negotiating with Waldo and demanding that we drop our weapons. Waldo pushes back, insisting we all step away and disarm simultaneously.
Meanwhile, Wrenn and Grix are still above the cavern in a tunnel. They follow it and discover it leads to a vantage point behind the enemies. Both draw their bows, unaware of the negotiations below. They’re spotted by a jackalwere and held at knife point before they can attack.
Wrenn and Grix put their arrows away and lean on their bows like staffs, signaling they’re not escalating—though they remain ready.
Du.ee makes his way across the room to check on Rio, but Jackalwere “A” grabs her limp body and drags her to the far side as leverage. The pack leader and Waldo agree to a compromise: we move to the far side of the room while the jackalweres begin to retreat.
Waldo drags Grabnar across the cavern by his beard while Du.ee casts a spell to revive him. As the jackalweres retreat, Grix and Wrenn see an opportunity—the leader is exposed.
Grix nods to Wrenn. Wrenn nods back.
Grix fires, striking the pack leader and slamming him into the wall, where he slumps over and dies. Wrenn follows up, dropping the nearest jackalwere with another arrow.
Now only one jackalwere remains in the room—two others have escaped. Lis casts Eldritch Blast, burning the last one but not killing him. Du.ee steps in. The jackalwere attacks, but his blow bounces off Du.ee’s metal frame. As the jackalwere turns to flee, Du.ee swings his book-flail and crushes his skull from behind.
Du.ee rushes to Rio, heals her, and she jolts awake in a defensive stance. She relaxes when she sees Micki, who vouches for us and brings her up to speed.
Rio crosses to a metal desk and retrieves a paper and some vials. Meanwhile, Wrenn searches the pack leader’s body, finding:
- A vial with a brown liquid
- Some kind of root
- A golden medallion.
The one face of the medallion is cast with the likeness of a lion, with the upper body and head of a woman. She gazes out with a fierce expression. Her left hand holds a book, pages facing out; her right hand points a dagger at it. On the reverse: an inscription reads, “The Word contains within itself both truth and deceit. Even the most pure lie under the Veil of Falsehood.”
Before we leave we decide to take Templeton’s body with us, determined to give him a proper burial.
Outside the cave, we question Rio about the vials. She tells us it’s Assassin’s Blood, produced using secretions of the cave snails—valuable and profitable. She admits she was trying to profit from this operation and proposes we help her find an alchemist in the city. In return, we’d get a cut of future sales. We don’t commit but keep it in mind. She asks us not to tell anyone. We ask what we’d get in return.
She says she can smuggle us into Brampton by boat, unnoticed – bypassing the long road into the city, across the bridge, where they would of course pay exorbitant tolls, and most certainly be questioned by authorities and harassed by assorted scoundrels and miscreants.
We return to town with Templeton’s body and Bloody Thurston’s head to the Rivington Rats’ lair, where we tell Jughead what happened. He’s devastated but thankful we avenged Templeton by killing the second-in-command and the leader.
To honor Templeton, we all take a burning shot of Malört (instantly regrettable).
We collect our reward: some gold and a book created by The Engraver—a book that resembles the one we saw in Du.ee’s library.
After a somber celebration, we head to the Crooked Tavern with Rio. Inside, we see Louie and a woman at the bar with a pigeon on her shoulder. She turns—Wrenn recognizes her.
It’s Ineeza, Silk’s ex-wife.
She says she got Wrenn’s message to Silk. He responded with the following:
Dear Inee — Nice to hear from you. Been a while. Tell Wrenn I’m up at the Three Old Kegs in the Upper City… at least I will be after I finish this assignment… might be a few days. Ask for S’ateen. P.S.: tell Louie that T.O.K. has better beer than him anyway. Love – S.
Rio tells us her contact Phyllis, a fisherwoman, can take us by boat to the Lower City in the morning. We eat, rest in our old rooms, and Rio crashes in the cellar, curled up on a pile of lumpy potatoes.