After speaking with Ethor in Tent City, the adventurers seek out Menelaus Cree, the guard who took Ethor’s place the night Ethor got sick. They find him up patrolling northern Phandalin. He vehemently denies seeing Ethor the night of the 16th, says Ethor is full of shite. Menelaus says he never left his route. He then pulls out a notebook full of recorded events which he shares with the party. They notice two entries in particular: On the 16th at 11:30 where he helped a lost traveler find his way to Stonehill Inn. The description is of a man with elven features and a green cloak. Dare remembers someone fitting that description from the party — one of the folks they played Baldur’s Bones with. The other recorded event is from a few hours later at 3am on the 17th. It mentions that Menelaus saw Daran Edermath’s barn door ajar. He didn’t remember it being open his last time around. Menelaus says that when he closed the door it made a hell of a loud noise. 

The adventurers decide to seach Edermath’s barn and are heading in its direction when Sister Garaele finds them. She tells them to come at once, that it’s an emergency. Dare says they will, but first they might as well check out the barn. She follows them. The barn door is ajar again. Dare closes it and just like Menelaus said, it makes a loud noise. They go inside. There’s little to find other than farm supplies. Mystic finds a satchel containing some coin, which she pockets. She also sees hay on that has fallen from the loft above. She climbs the ladder to check it out. The plan is that she’ll search the loft while the others head to Last Rites with Sister Garaele, who wishes them to go there at once. She only gives it a quick glance before going after the others. While she can tell that the hay has been disturbed, she finds nothing of interest. 

Sister Garaele tells them that there may have been a poisoning, and that it’s an urgent matter. She says little else until they reach Last Rites. Inside is Nilsa Dendrar along with her mom and little brother. They’re besides themselves with worry. Nilsa apparently has eaten some food from the market that had a strange taste to it. It was only after doing so that she found out that the tainted food might have had a strange taste to it and that it might have come from the market. She and her family are worried that the food she’s eaten may have been poisoned. By this time, it’s about four in the evening. If the food was poisoned, Nilsa will be dead in eight hours.

Isolde asks the adventurers to head south. “There’s a bush whose berries may be an antidote to the Midnight Tears poison. It’s called the Biseechee Bush. She describes it as  a short, slender, prickly bush that grows  in the rocky soil near the base of the Sword Mountains. The berries are orange with a purple hue. She wants them to pick a few but not too many, for their healing properties are lost a day after being picked. Getting to the base of the Sword Mountains will take them four hours if they hurry, five if they don’t. If they hope to save Nilsa (if she indeed ate the poison) the clock is ticking. They head out at once. 

A little less than two hours into their journey South, they spot an abandoned wagon along the side of the trail. They approach carefully. Goods seem to have bene strewn about. There are several sacks of grain that have been ripped open. They give the area a quick scan but hurry on their way when they don’t immediately see anything of interest. 

The trail eventually grows even more worn and broken until its not much more than wheel ruts carved into the tightly packed dirt. They continue to follow it South into a narrow valley of sorts. That’s when the attack comes. From both behind and in front of them, hideous creatures standing over eight feet tall attack with spears. They are wearing pieces of mismatched leather armor and resemble hyenas standing on two legs. There are eight of them in all. A name comes to Lilvari based off their description: Gnolls. Not long after the fight begins, they hear a loud roar from atop the steep embankment to the North. It’s another Gnoll only this one dwarfs the others in size. Its armor is adorned with small spikes, and it carries a makeshift glaive. Three hyenas stand next to it but rush down the embankment towards the adventurers at their master’s command. 

The gnolls, at first, seem to overwhelm the adventurers. They especially get several good hits on Droop and Mystic. Droops nerves are shaken and it affects his abilities. While he’s still able to quickly craft a tiny cannon hand-held cannon, he’s too shaky to aim it successfully, at least at first. But soon the tide turns. The party is able to slay some of the beasts, making the fight more even numbered. It’s at that point that a few of the more injured gnolls run for their lives. Their leader, though, fights to the death. Lilvari ends its life with a devastating blow from Curse Bringer. The battle has been won, but time ticks on. They still need to reach the Sword Mountains and retrieve the berries. Nilsa’s life might depend on it.