So, Luis manages to find someone who'll loan him a spyglass, and John comes back with some kind of spy glasses. Apparently, these things let him see behind him while he's looking forward. Seems useful, I guess. The spyglass does what you'd expect—lets you see farther away.
Then that Gnome from earlier comes over to Luis and me and starts going on and on about various torture techniques he's used on people to extract information. He's asking if we'd like to borrow any of his instruments in case we catch up to the people who took the kids.
Yeah, that's not really our speed...
Turns out he knows Rip. Says the governor had him "work on" Rip in the past over something Rip stole. Apparently, Rip gave up the information pretty quickly. Probably for the best—this Gnome seems to really, REALLY enjoy his job. Like, way too much.
Luis climbed up this tall tree nearby to test out the spyglass, but it didn't seem to be magnifying anything. Bob literally dragged him back to the merchant he rented it from, like a parent hauling their kid around by the scruff of their neck. It was almost funny.
It takes a while for everything to settle down and get sorted out, but we finally start heading back along the road. The Gnome's convinced that the kidnappers will be waiting for us somewhere to make a trade—the shard for the kids.
We head back, and after a bit, the scout returns and tells us that one of the children is standing in the middle of the road. Before long, the kid comes into view for all of us. We know the kidnappers are nearby when two arrows come flying out with notes attached to them. A hooded man steps out from behind the child, telling us they want the stone. I try to explain that we don't actually have a stone—just what looks like an empty bag. He says we've got something that's calling to others, drawing them in. Again, I try to tell him we don't have anything like a stone.
I hand the bag to Luis, and he moves forward to make the exchange. The big gorilla man walks out of the forest dragging a cage with the other five children inside. Luis takes the bag, sets it on a nearby rock, and walks back to where he started. The hooded man releases the kid, who makes his way over to us. The gorilla man breaks the lock on the cage so the kids can get out. They slowly start making their way over to Luis, who ushers them back toward the caravan.
Everything seems to have gone relatively smoothly. The Blackwater people left with the bag, and we got the kids back. I still think that old knight was telling the truth. I don't think the bag had anything in it—I think it was a decoy. Whether someone stole the real item or just used us to pull the Blackwater crew away from something else, I don't know. Either way, I think it's important we find out what the hell is actually going on.