The session started with trying to figure out what caused the illness. After some checking in the farmer houses it was found that some shiny rocks, iron pyrite, had magical auras. When the group along with Coravel's uncle looked out in the forest they found an area with a small amount of the rocks left with the same magical aura. Footprints from the children could be seen going in and out of the area. With more searching Feredir found evidence of humanoid tracks, wearing boots, who had set the trap. The tracking evidence was very faint and it took an hour or so to follow the tracks. It was found that they went in the same general direction that the worgs had taken. Coravel sensed that whoever had placed the rocks and hidden the tracks had strong rogue type abilities.
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The group returned to the keep and planned on how to ambush any bandits who might come to kill the farmers. While doing the planning a person was spotted riding up the road. It was a halfling, who was injured and looked like he had been in a fight. The group greeted him as he slid off the horse telling of a bandit attack on a caravan on the main road to Cillamar. After assessing his wounds, the cleric bandaged him and then told the guard to take him into the keep for help. The group would go and check out the disturbance. Kaylord and Quis'Ari took the halfling's horse to ride up while Aramil flew up ahead. Coravel and Feredir went to get another horse from the stable and followed as quickly as they could behind the rest of the Strangers.
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After a few minutes Kaylord and Quis'Ari rode up and saw two wagons, bodies on the ground and several people attacking people on horseback or on the wagon. Aramil flew up invisibly and waited for Kaylord to approach. Kaylord dismounted and strode into battle. Aramil used a shocking grasp and then Quis'Ari walked up. As Quis'Ari walked in front of the first wagon the woman on horseback shouted “Pull!” in draconic. An imp then appear behind Quis'Ari and pulled on a rope. After the pull jets of freezing water came out of the wagon, hitting Quis'Ari and missing Aramil. The figure on horseback then pulled on a rope and flame came down from the heavens, hitting Quis'Ari, Aramil and Kaylord along with part of the wagon. Quis'Ari was unable to dodge away from any of the damage and fell unconscious. The 5 attackers then turned and attacked Kaylord. Kaylord and Aramil then realized that they had walked into an ambush. After realizing this, Kaylord stepped back to allow Aramil to drop a fireball on all of the attackers and their mounts. Kaylord then waded back into battle, distracting the attackers from Quis'Ari so Aramil could help her.
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The 3 in the wagons had been on horseback about to ride away before the fireball killed their mounts. After this happened they attacked and did some damage but could not prevail. The fighter attempted to take out Quis'Ari as she lay helpless but Aramil was able to step in heroically and whisk her away to safety before the warhammer could slam down on her unconscious form. Kaylord continued to attack even though he had taken a great deal of damage while keeping the attackers away from the unconscious cleric.
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At that time Coravel and his uncle arrived and added their bows to the fight. With their addition the battle quickly turned and one of the bandits attempted to run off. Aramil created a pit to trap one and Kaylord took down the wizard. Coravel took down the wizards familiar while his uncle rode off to capture the bandit trying to escape. Quis'Ari healed herself and rejoined the group to make sure all of the attackers were dead. Aramil carved out a section of skin from the wizard to use for a spell to find their treasure while the cleric looked on with concern at this desecration of a body.
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Kaylord worked on entrapping the bandit at the bottom of the pit even though he had turned invisible. With stenchpots and tanglefoot bags he was able to trap the bandit before the pit spell ended. While the group was searching for clues one of the keep guards rode up yelling “They're gone! They're gone!”. The Strangers found out that the halfling had left the Keep taking one of the farmers children, Kina. The group gathered up all of the bodies and loaded them in the wagon that hadn't burned. They then followed the guard back to the keep while looking at the bodies. The bodies that were already on the ground had been dead for several days and appeared to be commoners dressed in fancier clothing. The bodies looked to have had their throats slit. For the guards they had on cloaks that looked liked caravan guards but underneath their clothes were well worn. The wizard was found to be a woman and it was guessed that the imp had been her familiar. The other woman appeared to be some type of fighter with possibly some blacksmithing/crafting experience. In assessing the live captives, one of the them was dressed to look like a caravan guard while the other captive appeared to have better equipment. The wagons were empty and had no special markings, other than the settings for traps that could be activated by the pull of a rope.
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When they returned to the keep they placed their two captives in the office by the front entrance with the golem and a guard in front of the door. Aramil gave instructions to the golem to obey the guard in guarding the prisoners. Kaylord questioned the guards and found out that the halfling had snuck out and taken the one farmers child that not fallen sick. The other people in the keep had either been busy tending the sick people or patrolling to watch for another attack. The little girl was the only one who had not been assigned to a place and had been trying to help with the care of the ill. It was guessed that she had been bringing back food for the ill people and the halfling found her as she was walking the halls by herself. She probably made a convenient captive that the halfling could use in case he was caught on the way out and then he kept her with him in order to give himself more time to get away.
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After getting the quick report the group took off to try and catch up with the halfling and his captive. Feredir continued to travel with the group so that he could help to find out more information about what was causing the illness and the killings. He wanted to have more information to take back to the elves and towns on his route back to is home. The tracks were easy to follow and led up into the foothills of the mountains. At one point the tracks disappeared and worg tracks replaced them. They could also see that the girl had started off being dragged and then was carried along the way.
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The Strangers followed the tracks to the entrance of a cave. Feredir noticed that there did not appear to be any animals living in the area. The tracks went up to a a pile of gravel and stone in front of the cave. The gravel and stone extended for about 50 feet straight out from the entrance and 100 feet to either side of the cave entrance. While tracks could not be seen in the gravel and stone the direction of the last tracks pointed towards the cave entrance. The group went in leaving Feredir outside to guard their backs. They found a crude alarm which Coravel disabled. Inside they could see a group of humans, a minotaur, two horses and a small figure bound with a sack over their head. Aramil flew in invisibly and cast pyrotechnics on the fire. Most of the group was blinded and then injured very badly when a fireball hit the area. Kaylord and Coravel waded in and quickly started taking down the humans. The minotaur tried to attack Kaylord but didn't have much luck. When the humans had been killed the minotaur then tried to threaten the girl in a bid for his freedom. His cowardly tactic was met with deadly attacks and he was dispatched from this mortal coil.
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The group gathered up the horses and items in the cave along with the girl. When the hood was removed she seemed to recognize the group but only spoke gibberish. She also struggled in her ropes so the group left her tied up so she would not impede their progress in searching for the halfling. They found another room and a secret entrance to more of the cave. The session ended here.
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