As the party comes back home, Irdien Talvaethand Jak o' the Wisp together decide to share some more wine. They keep company with Labrat , Capper and Sirona Boydstill feeling drunk wants to go to bed, while Adrian chooses to watch over her. Capper asks to be included in the fun and gets one glass from Irdien.
They talk for a while about Drowmushroom wine, Capper's past as a gang leader, their ideas about the The Monster Hunting School and if they should play another one of their games. During their conversation, Jak starts saying something that he won't finish, and when Irdien demands him to speak, he asks for a kiss as payment. Irdien declines and presents Jak's letter holding malicious content. She wants him to confide in her, but Jak turns once again inwards, refusing to accept her support. Irdien tells Labrat and Capper not to mention the letter to the others.
Meanwhile, upstairs Sirona is visited by an unknown Mystical woman. She tells her to relax and that she is an old friend, but she also locks the door to separate Sirona from the others as she gives a proposition. The lady says that she will provide Sirona with the location of her parents if she kills Confessor Ilgron
When the door finally reopens the woman is gone, Sirona has collapsed, and Adrian Maulitz finds the stench of sulfur in the air. As sulfur is a sign of demonic activity, he starts examining the room. Sirona wakes up and confirms the visit, but doesn't want to identify the demons demanded kill. Adrian can still reckon who it is. Sirona is scared and doesn't want to be alone, so Adrian promises to stand guard over her. They announce their fondness of each other, but as Sirona is still a little drunk, Adrian makes sure not to take it any further.
When the others come upstairs to sleep, Adrian tells them about the visit, as Sirona is very worked up about it. Jak calms her down by playing an improvised lullaby. The group decides to set up a watch for the night. Sirona gives Labrat her old Holy Symbol from home as it will glow if demons are near.
Adrian takes first watch, Labrat second and Irdien decides to take both the last watches herself. As she keeps guard, Sirona wakes again from a bad dream, and Irdien reassures her that all is fine. The girls start talking. Sirona's self-worth seems to have plummeted to the bottom, but Irdien gives her a lecture to raise her spirit. She managed to distract Sirona from her dark thoughts. They talk about Shadowportand what to do when they leave Eldolan. Sometimes during their conversation, Jak wakes up but does not make himself knows.
Sirona doesn't want to go back to sleep, so she stays up with Irdien. During their conversation, Irdien gets uncomfortable with Sirona praising her. She tells her that she has done bad things too in her past. As Sirona comforts her, she notices that Adrian's book on the nightstand is open; showing a disturbing drawing. After deciding to resist the temptation of reading through it, they accidentally close the book, realizing that Adrian might notice that. They try to find the previously open page, ending up reading the story behind the drawing.
The story is about the changeling Adrian killed after receiving his first contract from The Three. The changeling was a serial-killer that murdered the family called Van Richtens while Adrian was in town. Sirona gets very upset about the fact tar Adrian killed the changeling, and she and Irdien go downstairs to the kitchen where they talk some more until morning comes. Jak, still awake, gets up and locks himself in the bathroom to compose a new song.
When Adrain wakes up, he comes down to make breakfast. Sirona leaves to get dressed, and Irdien starts prodding Adrian, a little about the circumstances around the changeling.
Jak is playing a scary song, and Sirona walks over to ask him to stop. He asks her about her dream disease and offers the solution via a potion, or through a breathing exercise. He both tells her how to produce the medicine and demonstrates the training. In exchange for not telling Adrian that he knows Sirona and Irdien read from his journal, he asks Sirona to help him apologize to Labrat.
Labrat is dreaming. She is soaring high above Eldolan to the sound of mighty wing flaps. She is travelling towards the docks, and through a small window on an east side building, her mind swoops inside to find a second-floor storage. Moving towards a shelf, she finds a hidden passageway into an underground cave. Further in, the sight of different severed body parts meets her. As she moves closer, there's a sudden scream, and the face of a demonic creature fills her entire vision. Labrat is awakened to find that she is the only one left in the barracks. She gets up and heads down to the kitchen and the wonderful smell of bacon.
Downstairs, Adrian, with the help of Irdien, has managed to cook up an excellent breakfast. As they finish their meal, Adrian makes sure to check in on the Drakes. He leaves them two gems from the spoils they took from Arlissa Thent office for the Drakes to hoard but doesn't see them anywhere. There are some goat carcasses on the ground.
Just as they are getting ready to leave, there is a knock on the door. One of the acolyte priests of Veleshas been sent to inform Adrian that they found a passage in the Death vaults that are not supposed to be there. The group decides that if they can't find the laboratory through The Relic Hunters, they will check out the newly discovered tunnel.
Sirona tells Irdien that Jak knows about them reading the journal but that he won't say anything if she helps him with "something".
Irdien confronts Jak about blackmail. Jak gets angry and says all he asked what for help with apologizing to Labrat. He accuses Irdien in return for encouraging Sirona to read the journal.
Meanwhile, Adrian gives Capper a gift, simultaneously as he keeps his ears open for what the rest of the group is talking about in hushed voices.
Jak being Jak, of course, can't resist toying a little with Irdien; telling her that he dreamt of her dancing a very sensual dance called he Sa'Sara for him before waking up to overhear the girls conversation last night. They also briefly touch on the subject of Jaks missing battle triangle. Irdien tells Jak that he must be careful with how he handles situations revolving Sirona. Jak then leaves Irdien and walks over to Sirona.
They both apologize not deeming the other one at any fault. Then they speak about their individual but resent stab wounds, and Jak suggests matching tattoos to cover the scar. Sirona is susceptible to the suggestion. She carefully prods him about his older scars, but Jak says she already knows what they are. He tries to encourage her to speak with Adrian about the journal, but Sirona believes she can't break her promise to stay quiet to Irdien. While they are talking the subject slides into one about Sironas recent feelings of anger. As Jak tries, in his unique way, to make her see reason Sirona gets furious and in response to his suggestions, demonstratively throws her war pick to the ground before telling him to leave her alone.
At this point, Irdien takes over the "handling" of Sirona, who immediately regrets shouting at Jak. Irdien calms her down a little before shifting the topic to the page in Adrian's journal about the Changeling. She gives Sirona permission to tell Adrian about it but says that she would like to be present to taker her part of the responsibility. Irdien suggests that Sirona maybe should get her own journal to help process her emotions that way, leading to Sirona confessing that Jak has taught her a breathing exercise and the recipe for a potion that can help with the nightmares. As Irdien tries prodding about the brew, she reviles that she knows another girl back home, that like Sirona, has dealt with her fair share of nightmares. After promising to Sirona that if Irdien ever needs to talk about something she'll come to her, they decide to come clean to Adrian.
Passing Jak on the way Sirona very quickly apologizes but Irdien gets swooped up in another short dance of small bickering. To everyone's surprise, it ends with Jak kissing her. The bards then walk off, escaping any follow-up questions, so Irdien, Sirona and Adrian are left to deal with the page in the journal. Sirona doesn't confront Adrian, instead she comforts him, saying it was not his fault what happened.
To pass the guardpost to enter the school grounds Jak disguises himself.
At Relic Hunter's Emporium, Laredesgreets them apologetically since he has been informed of Arlissas capture by Ernas. He reveals the entryway to the tunnels behind a shelf. Before they go in Jak manages to "buy" a pouch of Diamond dust by showing him a document revolving his account in the Official bank of the Dragon Empire. Laredesaccepts official means of credit. (This paper trail for Jaks whereabouts will obviously not have any side effects whatsoever.)
The tunnel leads to a room with a total of five doors. Above them hangs plaques with text written in a language only Jak can interpret. It is a high-level necromantic language used by the The Lich King and his followers. The plack reads as follows: Lantern watch, Death vault, Griffins square, Chapel and on the door behind them it says; Emporium. They stand for a while contemplating which way to go, but Jak feels strongly about the Chapel being the right call. The rest agrees with him, and the group moves on.
They find a second room down the passageway. It stinks of rot and decay. There is a shaft in the floor, but otherwise, the space is empty. Searching for traps, Adrian takes a staff and tests the floor tiles. As he moves inside, a Zombie suddenly bursts through an illusionary wall and grabs him, trying to push him towards the shaft. Adrian managed to get free and starts fighting the Zombie. Capper joins him, proving that he is quite able to one day become a monster hunter. Noticing the falls wall, Jak tries discerning where a second zombie might be lurking and fires an arrow into the wall. It passes through but hits nothing on the other side. From another part of the wall, a second Zombie ejects, throwing itself at Labrat. Irdien quickly fires off a crossbow bolt, embedding itself straight in the zombies head, but it doesn't care and keeps trying to push Labrat towards the shaft. Labrat breathes out a bolt of lightning and swings her sword. The third and last Zombie coms through the wall, after Adrian. He masterfully evades both the zombies trying to grab on to him. Sirona hits the Zombie by Labrat in the head and runs further into the room, trying to get some distance from the rest. Adrian tells her to get away from the shaft, but there is only so much space in the room. Adrian cuts down one of the zombies fighting him; then he moves in together with Capper on the second one. Jak sends his magical acid arrow on the Zombie fighting with Labrat. It dies. Irdien runs in and stabs at the now last remaining Zombie, but its bony body seems to care little for sword wounds. Labrat also runs in to charge the last enemy. It turns to fight her back. Sirona tries to hit it with her holy javelin but misses as she doesn't want to hit her friends. Adrian makes a last swing but the Zombie intercept, grabbing his arm with a guttural screech. The party members surrounding it keep attacking until Labrat gets the final blow to bring it down.
Sirona moves over to look down the shaft but its pitch black. She asks Irdien to take a peek. The drow can see that there's a liquid on the floor at the bottom, probably blood. Adrian lit a torch and threw it down.
There is something down there, groaning. When the ghoul moves up to grab the torch, Adrian and Jak each fire an arrow. The monster moves back, whimpering.
After a brief discussion, Adrian ties a rope around Jak. Labrat lowers the bard down the shaft to finish the ghoul off with darts dipped in holy water. He misses, and the ghoul runs forwards, clawing and biting, wounding him badly. Adrian jumps down, sliding the rope, to fight it off. He managed to kill it while Sirona targets Jak with a healing spell. They pull the bard back up while Adrian tries harvesting the remains of the ghoul, but he doesn't get any good bits out of it. Once he is done, he gets elevated out of the hole by Labrat still managing the rope