Esperon and the young man, whose name is Onlun as he'd been told on their return trip, reach Groshdou while there is still ample daylight, well before the evening meal would generally take place.

The two of them go directly to the strange building that serves as the town hall. Upon entering the building and meeting the guards, the one named Brekkur immediately stands, walks over to the young man, and pulls him over with a large hand on his back.

"Onlun! It is good to see you! Your father will be pleased to see your sight!" He tussles the teenager's hair, which the boy does not seemed to pleased with, but doesn't protest.

After a couple of beats, Brekkur's expression changes and he looks at Esperon. "Where are all the others? Is Onlun the only one that has survived?"

Esperon nods grimly at the man but then allows his face to break into a genuine, if not particularly aesthetically pleasing, smile. "I'm happy to tell you that a whole lot of people survived. My young companion here can tell you who they are, the ones he knew. And tell the mayor that her husband is alive. We also found out what was taking them--and it definitely wasn't the scum sitting in your jail. Please get the mayor now, tell her the good news and that I need to speak with her right away." He crosses his arms, tucking his massive hands in them, and nods to emphasize his point.

Brekkur returns the nod, then walks over to the wall and taps on the cube protruding from it. The mayor's face appears again. "Yes, Brekkur?" she says.

Brekkur points to the young man. "It's Onlun. One of the out-of-towners brought back Gurry's son Onlun."

Shthila's eyes light up ever so slightly but her expression remains stoic. "Send them up."

The big guard gestures to the odd stairclimb, assuming you are familiar with it from the previous visit. It is still awkward to ascend the non-intuitive layout of the steps, even following Onlun's feet as he climbs. The lack of logic in the arrangement of the steps makes it difficult to imagine what purpose this place originally served.

The two of you enter the mayor's office. She is already on her feet when you enter. Shthila opens her arms to the young man, inviting him into an embrace. "It is good to see you've returned safely. I can imagine your father will be very quite relieved."

Onlun nods. After concluding the embrace he explains to her that he last remembers his hunting party being engaged by large winged creatures but remembers nothing else. Next he remembers they were rescued by the adventurers, then proceeds to name all the villagers that had been saved. The mayor's face relaxes visibly and her eyes well up with tears at the mention of her husband's name.

After Shthila composes herself upon hearing the news, she dabs her eyes with her fingertips and turns to you. "First of all, thank you for rescuing our people. You certainly have my gratitude. Regrettably, I believe there are more people that went missing than Onlun named. I take it you were not able to rescue everyone. Can you tell me what happened?"

Esperon nods solemnly and relates the whole tale to her. At its conclusion, he says, "Whatever set these things in motion was probably not even human. They were converting people into...something else. The people who we didn't find may have been completely changed already--dead, as far as we know. Sorry about that. Glad we were able to save the folks we did."

Leaning forward, Esperon looks the mayor in the eye. "Speaking of saving: now I need you to keep up your end of the bargain. Release the scum you're holding into my care. It's obvious he didn't have the brains or creativity to create the setup we found. That stuff was true Numenera. I'll make sure we get him far away from this place. If he tries to prey on innocent people again, he'll pay in a variety of creative ways. You have my word on that."

The mayor maintains eye contact with you for the duration, and into the brief silence following your statement.

"That is as we agreed. I'll release the prisoner and you can do with him as you see fit outside the confines of my town." Shthila rises from her desk and leads you and the lad down to the "lobby" of the building. The mayor hugs Onlun once again and sends him off to be reunited with his family. She then leads you down the hall where the detainment cells are, stops and turns to the wall a ways down the corridor, then inserts her cube into the wall. The wall seems to disappear revealing Mardrough sitting on the floor with his face buried in his knees. He looks up then stands when he sees the two of you outside his cell.

"You're free to go," the mayor says flatly then removes the cube, rotates it, then reinserts it into the wall. The opening of the cell briefly shimmers and she steps to the side. Mardrough tentatively steps to the opening, places a hand through to test that the invisible barrier is down, then slowly steps through.

"Mardrough is truly grateful!" he shouts to each of you.

The mayor holds up her hand. "Hold on. I told this man that you would be remanded to his custody until you both leave town." She turns to you. "I leave him in your hands. What are your plans for returning the rest of my people back to our town?"

Esperon, by way of a show of good faith, steps up to Mardrough and grabs the man's shoulder with his massive mitt of a hand. He squeezes a bit. "You're going to cooperate, or I'll carry your unconscious self with me back to meet my friends. Got me?"

Without waiting for an answer--or taking his hand off Mardrough's shoulder--he looks back at the mayor. "I will head back to meet my friends. If I could bring one or two able-bodied people with me so we can help anyone weak or injured back to town, that would help. My companions Arryanna, Hurley and Trophonius are guarding them and can help some, but a few more people to help would be ideal. We would go straightaway and help them all back."

Shthila nods. "Of course. Mern and Brekkur will be finishing their shifts here. I'll send them to help you along with a couple other strong individuals. We have game carts we use to transport our larger quarry from the hunts. I'll send those along with you in case anyone needs to be transported that is unable to carry themselves. Come with me."

The mayor leads you back to the lobby area. She confers with the two guards who agree, though a bit begrudgingly it seems, until she indicates that they will be compensated, then their demeanor lightens somewhat.

"Again, I can't thank you enough for your help." The mayor then turns to Mardrough. "On behalf of Groshdou I sincerely apologize. We were operating on the information we had, and we drew some incorrect conclusions. I hope you understand."

Mardrough begins to indicate that he himself would like to be compensated for his inconvenience. Shthila turns to you as if the man was not speaking, nods to you, then retreats up the stairs to her office.

You accompany Mern and Brekkur as they recruit a couple more people to help bring the residents back. As they are rounding up the game carts Mardrough says to you, "Hey, listen... do you still have that piece I found out there? Mardrough's going to need that back..."

Esperon nods in return to the mayor and then, guiding Mardrough out by the shoulder, accompanies Mern and Brekkur. On the way, he introduces himself to the pair amiably enough. These men he understood.

As the group grew larger, he looked down at Mardrough and cocks an eyebrow. "We'll talk about the piece when we reach the one of my group that has it. Which is not me. Mardrough needs to keep close to me and behave, or these fine villagers may accidentally end Mardrough. They don't like you much, see. Do you follow what I'm saying?"

"I follow," Mardrough says with a sigh. "But Mardrough found it, so it belongs to Mardrough!"

Six townspeople end up assembling to retrieve the rescued ones. By this time the sun is giving hints at beginning to set. They hitch up the game carts, making sure they have plenty of torches, and they depart the town, preparing to make the overnight journey to the coast.