The friends head back to Northfort, and by the time they arrive it is dark. Two guards at the gate stop them, but eventually let them in after recognizing them.

They head to the inn, where Elvan says there is only one room left — the inn is unusually busy tonight. He initially asks for 8 gold for a night’s stay and then relents, giving it to them for 5 after Daladium asks nicely. He serves them piping hot stew, bread and wine. Elysant refuses the wine and asks for mead. She eats heartily, knocks back 2 pints of ale and heads to bed for the evening, making a lot of noise as she goes upstairs. Voran gets food scraps for his wolf and goes to feed him.

As it gets a little later the tavern becomes quieter, and Elvan talks with Voran and Daladium for a while. He says that he heard about what happened at the castle and is sorry for introducing them to Gilroy in the first place. He had been around the time for a while, but Elvan did not know what a bad apple he was. He also says that the town is very busy now because word has gotten around that the castle has been opened and the wizard hasn’t re-appeared, and many people have come from nearby villages or even further off to try and raid it — and perhaps even find one of the wizard’s magic items and become the next ruler of the Spear. Elvan hopes that the friends find the castle’s secrets first. They do not tell him about the door with the runes, however.

The next morning, after a good night’s sleep, the friends have breakfast in the tavern. The place is bustling with newcomers of all stripes — some look dangerous, some look poor, and some look moneyed, but Daladium listens in on their conversations and finds that all of them have come to explore the castle. As he is listening however, one of the men, a large red-faced man with a beard, fancy armor and a huge hammer at his side, points at Daladium. He says that he recognizes his description as one of the people who went into the castle, and orders Daladium an ale (which he declines). The man says his name is Talan, and that he is a great warrior. He explains that he will be the first to find all of the Wizard’s riches and will rule this area when he is done. However his boasting comes quickly to a close when he sees Daladium’s white pet guinea pig, Fausbat, poking out of his cloak. He grows wide-eyed and pale, and goes back to his drink immediately. Daladium doesn’t really know what to say, and leaves the tavern.

The friends make several errands, first going to the bank to deposit some gold, and then to the jeweler to sell some items (a gold chain, a small ruby and a set of silverware). They then travel to the edge of town to get some answers from a local master arcanist.

The arcanist’s store has all kinds of strange and foul-smelling things such as heads in jars, odd dried herbs and knick knacks that seem mostly worthless. There are a couple of items that seem valuable, like a vase with runes on it, however. The owner is in the corner, sitting like a buddha and mumbling some kind of mantra. Daladium tries to get his attention politely a couple of times, but he doesn’t seem to notice. Elysant raps her spear on the floor loudly and he snaps out of it. He asks why the friends have come here, but before they can answer he points to Daladium and asks if he is a wizard. Daladium says yes, and the man says that he has known a few wizards from Daladium’s country before.

Daladium asks him to determine what the contents of the test tubes he found was, and offers him some gold in exchange. The man refuses and takes one of Daladium’s hairs from his head instead as payment. He checks the test tubes and the first (red) ones appear to be inert, and tosses them out. The purple ones make you smarter for a period of time, and the green ones are actually three doses: another intelligence potion, a vigor-bosting potion and finally a dose of something that allows you to detect arcanum.

After this, Daladium explains about the locked door with the runes on it in the Wizard’s castle. The man explains that runes like that can only be bypassed by the original key (which the Wizard always wore around his neck, and it probably disappeared with him) or a master thief. Daladium thinks of their friend Swiftmark, an accomplished thief, who left a couple of weeks ago. The friends thank the strange little man and head back to the tavern.

At the tavern, the friends ask Elvan if he knows where Swiftmark may have gone. He says that he doesn’t know, but there are other halflings in the town that may know. Elvan sends his servant boy, a dirty faced lad, down the street to tell some of the halflings there that a free lunch is waiting for them at the tavern. In the meantime he makes lunch for the friends.

After only a few minutes, a bunch of halflings show up at the tavern, excited to get a free lunch. They eat and drink happily. Daladium approaches them and asks if they might know anything about Swiftmark. One of them takes Daladium to a back table and begins speaking to him. He says that Swiftmark is not one of their family members, but he knows him well. His family is from Rock Island, one of the northernmost islands on the Spear. He had to leave to take care of some trouble that was happening there, but that’s all he knows. Daladium thanks him and the group decides to head up to Rock Island to see if they can help.

The friends rent three horses and start riding north. They make it past the lighthouse and on to the next town, but while on the road they see something moving in the bushes. Voran sends his wolf to look and uses his Animal Sight to see through its eyes. They see in the woods a huge grizzly bear and the wolf is close enough to have annoyed it. It tries to attack the wolf, but it gets away. Voran will not attack the bear because he doesn’t hurt wild animals. Elysant tries shooting it with her crossbow but misses, and Voran asks her to stop. She puts it away. Daladium runs up to the bear and tries to shoot it with a bolt from his staff, but the spell backfires and he is left dazed. The bear swipes at him and nearly takes his head off, but Daladium comes out unscathed. He tries a second spell to restrain it with vines, and this spell backfires even more violently. Voran runs to Daladium’s aid and tells the bear firmly to leave, and it looks at him, stunned. It grunts and turns away, running off into the forest. The friends regroup and resume their journey.