Two months before the events of the first session, Quinn and Rhys come into a town near Phandelver during the afternoon. They have not met Saffron or Nylian yet, and have only been adventuring together for a couple of months.

This is a small town and there is only one inn and tavern. They see some town guards on horseback and a few people wander the streets minding their business. They go into the tavern, which doesn’t have a name. The bartender says that they only have ale, so Quinn orders one for each of them.

Rhys sets up his lute in a corner near the bar and begins singing of Quinn’s exploits, specifically of their encounter with some orks recently. He embellishes and says that Quinn defeated 40 of them by tricking them into a trap. He plays very well and the other patrons are interested in talking to Quinn more about it.

A man comes into the tavern who looks ragged. He is dirty and his cheek has a nasty gash. He asks Quinn if he will speak with him, and Quinn ignores the other patrons and agrees.

They head over to a small store next door, and the man tells Quinn that his village a few miles away from here named Midra has been taken over by bandits. They are working with the mayor who is giving them safe haven in exchange for some of the money that they steal from travelers on the roads. He doesn’t have a way to prove it yet, but he asks Quinn for his help.

Quinn tentatively agrees but says that he will go get Rhys so they can both discuss with him. He goes into the tavern and tries to extract Rhys, but after learning that the man is poor and comes from a small village, Rhys is not interested in helping because it won’t give them much money or fame to do so. Quinn pushes him hard on it, and he finally relents.

The friends walk over to the other store, but the man is gone. Quinn sees some slashes on the furniture and drag marks that didn’t appear to be there before, and guesses that the man was kidnapped. They head outside and ask the town guardsmen, still on horses and surveying the town, if they saw anything. The first one says that he saw nothing, but Quinn tries to bribe him with two gold. The man is insulted and rides away.

Quinn asks Rhys to sweet talk the second man and he is nervous but finally agrees. He asks him in a roundabout way to indicate if he saw anything and where they might have taken the man, and gives the guard 15 gold. He points that they took the man into the woods and also rides away.

Quinn and Rhys head into the woods immediately to find the man. They pick up a trail and soon hear sounds of a struggle in the woods. A rough looking man in leather armor approaches them and tells them to leave. They agree but circle around and find where they’re holding the man. It is three people, the man they just saw, and another man and a woman. They have the villager tied up and on his knees.

One of the men scolds the villager for trying to go get help, because the town is theirs and he shouldn’t do anything against them. He argues that the town is made more prosperous because of their arrangement and punches the man across the face. The woman doesn’t want the villager to cause any more trouble so she says that she will kill him. The man disagrees at first but she eventually convinces him to let her kill the villager.

As she is about to strike, Quinn comes out of the woods and strikes her down in one blow with his greatsword. Rhys attacks the with his rapier but only wounds him. The man on the horse strikes Quinn with a glancing but painful blow, and then both of the friends strike him and he falls off of his horse.

The friends untie the villager and he thanks them profusely for saving him. They search the bandits and find a huge cache of riches on them — six gems worth at least 50 gold apiece, a Cloak of Elvenkind, a Circlet of Blasting, and a Bag of Tricks. Quinn takes the items and they decide what to do next.