At breakfast the next morning, the party gets a visit from Sister Garaele. She sits and immediately hands Lilvari two empty glass vials. She then pulls a hair pin from her golden blond hair and hands her that as well. “We need two vials of ogre blood,” she tells Lilvari. “The pin is magical, and will start to glow when you get within several hundred feet of them. There are plenty of ogres in Neverwinter woods, so finding them shouldn’t prove difficult.” She then gives them all an update as to the man who the party found dead the night before, that a red granule of that stuff he was carrying was found in the corner of his eye. “The Harpers want us to find out more about this substance. Hopefully the ogre blood will help us with our testing.” The stare she gives Dare is stern and motherly-like. “And I heard what you did with the red substance last night. Snorting it? Seriously?”

Dare shrugs. 

They receive their breakfast barely have time to eat it. Swarms of rats scurry in from the back and start attacking Pip and Trilena Stonehill after Pip strikes at one with a stick. Dare, Lilvari, Mystic and Mercarri get involved while all the patrons clear out. By the time two members of the Neverwinter Guard hurry in, the party has killed all the rats. Toblen Stonehill is beside himself. He’s afraid that this will impact his business, and he implorers the party’s help in checking the rest of the inn.

They follow him to the backroom. Dare, perhaps still feeling the effects of the red granules from the night before, walks right through rat droppings. It takes Lilvari and Mystic to point the dropping out. They follow the trail to the last room where they find the droppings heaviest near the back wall behind some barrels. Some more rats jump out but are quickly dispatched. Searching the room further, they find that not only have several holes been drilled in the exterior wall but the holes have been smeared with peanut butter. Toblen sees this as sabotage and reports it to the Neverwinter Guard.

The rats dispatched, Dare, Lilvari, Mystic and Mercarri head out to see Traubon. He’s at the Smithy, seemingly making himself right at home. He greets them with a smile and hands Mercarri her repaired armor. It looks good, any sign of the damage all but gone. While talking with Traubon, Freda comes over, demanding a word with Lilvari. Their conversation takes place in the corner of the room, away from prying ears, but as they’re talking Dare and Mercarri catch a glimpse of Scoff and Laral outside. Halia’s two helpers seem to be taking interest in what’s happening at the Smithy, but having been caught in the act, they hurriedly walk towards the Miner’s Exchange. The party follows them for a short distance — a public display of intimidation if there ever was one.

After, they ready themselves and head North for Cragmaw castle. About five miles into the foreboding forest, Lilvari casually brings up that she might need everyone’s help to hide a body. She then fills them in on her conversation with Freda Drawning — the guards seem to be getting suspicious and asking a lot of questions about Hedrar’s disappearance.  It doesn’t take much persuasion at all to get them to agree to help.

A short time later, the pin glows. They follow its lead until they come across two ogres who seem to be hunting. The party is about sixty feet away, working out a plan of attack when a stick crunches beneath Lilvari’s feet. The sound is deafening in the otherwise quiet woods. The ogres turn in search of the noise. Just as they lock eyes with the adventurers, the ground starts to rumble beneath everyone’s feet. A herd of deer comes running out of the wood towards the party. Most of the party is able to move out of the way in time, but Mystic gets caught in the middle of the stampede. The others immediately bring the fight to the ogres — one of which yells out, “You scare meat. You new meat!” 

But it turns out that the ogres themselves are the meat. The party is just too strong, the ogres too confident. The mighty swings of their great clubs often go wild while Dare, Lilvari, Mystic and Mercarri’s honed attacks strike hard and true time after time. By the end, there is no lack of ogre blood for Lilvari’s vials.