We find our … anti-heroes lounging in the tap room of the worst bar in the city of Pineshire.

Vug plays out his daily ritual of drinking – or punching – everyone else under the table. The Necrophagist has finally stopped flaying people with his eyes and is socialising with Azabolt. They converse in a language that drives almost everyone else out of the bar. Two elves (freshly arrived from Aelfheimr tower) sit oversing the other patrons. One of them, possibly a priest, scribbles notes onto a long roll of parchment. There is also an idiot who thinks he’s a werewolf.

The barman is just about to toss these weirdos out when Sherriff Baleson barges in with the local butcher. The finish an argument that started outside and announce their business. Five children are missing, but the town’s more ‘respectable’ adventurers are all afield. There is good money available for anyone willing and able to go after the kids.

Nothing sparks comradery in a dingy dive bar like soft, biteable gold. Azabolt and Vug quickly reach an accord to share the risk and reward. The Necrophagist follows, dreaming of the wonderful corpse stock he can buy in Ortho. The elves join too, along with the deranged barbarian, who nobody actually asked.

A hunch from the sherrif leads out fortune seekers to question the unruly village children. It seems that their missing friends went off to play in a “haunted” orphanage. The group sets out to find the place, which burned down several months ago. Once there, they find evidence that the children were captured by kobolds. There is also the dead and very squishy Elara, the custodian of the orphanage. When Vug touches it, hundreds of baby spiders erupt forth. The “wolf man” manages to burn them with lamp oil, simultaneously depleting his space of the oxygen he was using to talk (double win!). At the same time, Vidaar holder off Mama Spider until Vug can do the dwarven Leadboot dance on its carapace.

They also run into a young girl caled Jeva, who asks them to help her get back to town. Our cunning protagonists aren’t fooled though, and recognise her for the werewolf that she is. Being incredibly stupid, Fen H’rel decides to help her escape. The rest of the night passes in awkward silence, until Vug invites Fen H’rel for a quiet walk in the forest, from which Fen H’rel does not return.