Rhun, Darwish, and Drake decide to wait until the light of morning to search for tracks showing which direction Margil and his gang traveled after they left Targen’s folly. Their intention is to track the bandits and capture Margil wherever he is, since it could be days or even weeks before they return to the keep.

Drake takes first watch and notices the light of a fire to the NW along the road. During the third watch, Rhun notices a rider approaching the keep, and wakes the other two. The rider, a fighting man on a war horse has apparently ridden here at speed seeking the Margil.

Drake descends into the yard to greet the rider, hiding his appearance so to appear as one of Margil’s men. The rider angrily complains that his “master” expected Margil to have already left.

The man becomes suspicious of Drake as he approaches the horse, then draws his sword. Drake goes for his weapon as well and the fight is on. Rhun and Darwish, who had snuck down into the yard while the man was talking with Drake, join the melee. The rider eventually yields, and then slips into unconsciousness from his wounds.

They take the man into the tower and Rhun treats him and stabilizes his condition.

They notice a messenger’s bag tied to the man’s horse, but after some embarrassing attempts to retrieve the bag from the suspicious beast they give up.

They decide it is too dangerous to let the man see them, and not wanting to kill him in cold blood they help him out to his hell-spawned mount and send him away. As the rider climbs onto his horse, Darwish cuts away the messenger bag.

Drake finds tracks leading away from the keep, and they set out after Margil and his men. There is a rough trail that leads north west and then runs parallel to the road. There are signs that the men were tracking the movement of something on the road. Eventually the trail leads to an Inn on the highway and then goes cold.

They enter the Inn and strike up a conversation with the barmaid, hoping to find out if Margil’s gang had been here recently.