In the aftermath of Big Moe, Glayder goes out of her way to ensure Alexis is properly adjusted to normal civilisation, and Isabelle and Arishtava bond over magic nerd things. Elloven and Tarric vibe at the hospital in an attempt to recover, under Jinx and Khetari's care. They meet in the tavern in the morning, with Jinx and Glayder surprised to see Alexis out of the hospital so soon. At a nearby table, they find Sprocket and Aliza tinkering with the Oracle of War, which has reverted back into repeating "Third protocol activated" ad nauseum. The two of them look exhausted, and reveal that they'd been working on the device all night -- it acted up the moment the attack ended, and they don't know how to revert it.
Isabelle inspects the Oracle, unable to find a root cause for the malfunction, so Aliza suggests taking it to Belaluur to have her check it out. As they leave the tavern, Elloven notices a group of strange two-headed dogs circling the outpost. Isabelle's curiosity is piqued, so she tries to pet one, only for it to growl in anger and bite down on her hand, poisoning her. She then goes out of her way to aggressively hide this fact, despite Glayder stating that she has the ability to cure poison.
At the market, they present the Oracle to Belaluur, who inspects it but says she won't be able to pay them very much for it. She's interrupted by the sound of armoured boots clomping into the market as two humans and a dwarf enter, threatening to take the Oracle off the group's hands at the cost of their lives -- Garundah identifies them as Irullan Karnach's lackeys. Glayder goes on about how little she values her own life, giving Jinx a distraction to help Aliza and Sprocket move the Oracle out of the way. The fight proves surprisingly difficult for Elloven, who hadn't expected the thugs to be as tough as they are, but all three are eventually dispatched.
Before they can catch their breath, though, a magically amplified voice rings across the outpost: "People of Salvation! My name is Saal Dreadstroke. I have a simple proposition for you. Bring me the device known as the Oracle of War, and no one else needs to get hurt. Defy me and you will all die. Every ten minutes, one of my colleagues will take a hostage from this outpost. If you have the Oracle, I suggest you step forward and let yourself be known."
Stepping out onto the streets, the party sees a group of panicked Orien workers fleeing from the lightning rail station, as well as six figures: a half-orc in a leather duster (clearly the leader), an ogre carrying a battering ram, a helmed warrior, a snarling gnoll, a snake-like iron construct, and a ferocious orc wearing clawed gauntlets. Sprawled at their feet is the corpse of Sheriff. The half-orc nods to his gang, and the other five fan out to search Salvation, breaking into buildings and taking hostages. Through all of this, the Oracle has yet to shut up.
Under Glayder's guidance, they first head to the Gray Beyond tavern, where they find the orc preparing to smash open a window and grab a hostage. The group, minus Jinx who's busy tending to the wounded at the hospital, intervenes, but the sounds of combat alert the helmed figure, who had been flying overhead somehow. Elloven and Glayder crash through said window to save the young canine shifter that the orc was about to take as a hostage, while the rest of the group takes potshots at the flying figure. Isabelle reveals another one of her magitech beasts -- a water-elemental lizard named Echo -- who joins in sniping at the armoured guy, but whose shots don't seem nearly as effective as Khetari repeatedly channeling the Silver Flame. The armoured figure quickly dips and zooms away when it actually gets hurt.
The fighting eventually draws in the iron snake construct, who can be seen crashing through a nearby house with a pair of drow twins coiled up in its tail. Glayder corners it and repeatedly smites it to death using the lightning that constantly sparks from her mark. With that out of the way, the group sneaks towards the southeast side of town, where they run into the gnoll, who also gets incinerated and axed very quickly. The ogre with the battering ram is drawn in by the sound of this combat, and nearly knocks out Glayder in one hit, but is taken out by the combined efforts of the rest of the group. All that's left at the end is the helmed figure -- which Isabelle identifies as a helmed horror. Thankfully, it continues to not be immune to the Flame's power, and is burnt to death by Khetari.
With all of the lackeys taken care of, the group decides to take a quick rest before rushing the leader. Whist forcibly cures Isabelle's poison before she can resist, shutting her up with a wink and a headpat, and Mother Jahannah and Jinx provide enough cure wounds spells to get everyone back into fighting condition. However, the group's bonding moment is cut short by the voice of this Saal Dreadstroke person ringing through the outpost again, threatening to kill one hostage every minute if no one brings the Oracle of War to him.
They head to the salvage market, retrieve the Oracle from Sprocket and Aliza, and lug it to the lightning rail platform. There, the same half-orc smiles calmly at them, his sword leveled at a terrified dwarf. Glayder tells him she'll hand over the device if he releases the hostages, but he disagrees with this idea, and insists she hand it over first if she wants to live. She goes on another tangent about how little she values her life, A fight breaks out, in which Dreadstroke breaks almost every bone in Glayder's body, but is killed by the static from her mark shocking his entire nervous system.
With the attack resolved, Isabelle yells at Glayder for literally trying to die, and the group relaxes and unwinds once more. Glayder learns that Ari might have to leave Salvation soon, as they just received a job offer to TA at Morgrave University, and is uncharacteristically shocked and disappointed by this fact. Jinx receives a mysterious letter from her higher-ups back in Vedykar, notifying her of some kind of emergency situation within the House.