When you reunite Ashleigh with Violet she embraces her tearfully, loosing her grasp on her smithing hammer for the first time since you left the Feather Bed Inn. On the way back to to Broadhurst, you find that under the soot and sweat and last night's terrors, Ashleigh is a cheerful, even gossipy, villager.

You finally learn something about the town that owes you its gratitude. Broadhurst is a farming village that sits on a small hill south of the Silver Wood, bisected by the flowing Dunn River. Mostly small fields. Barley and oats, sugar beets and sorghum. Here and there, a few pens for pigs and rabbits.

There is nothing in Broadhurst that could be considered remarkable. Yet it shines with a certain pastoral beauty in the light of the afternoon. Or maybe it's the light of your victory, so bright in comparison to the dank of the Tomb.

There's a blacksmith, a butcher, a shoe-and-cane maker. All the little cottage industries of a little cottage town. Something tells you that when you look closer that not everything will be as peaceful as it seems. But that can wait. You've earned some rest.

When you reach the village proper, Ashleigh takes Violet home, and you're met by a robed human. He wears a friendly disposition, a robe, and a smile. He extends his hand in greeting.

"Abbot Loric, at your service! I heard you fine folks risked your lives for others today. And in the Delian Tomb of all places!"

Before you realize it, you've having tea and biscuits in the garden of the Radiant Abbey. Fishfrogs plash among the watervine in a little pool beside the table. You can see through a nearby doorway into the humble abbey—wow, that's a lot of books.

"I hope I don't seem ungrateful for what you've already done. But frankly it's rare that we have stout help around these parts. Our baron doesn't exactly leap from his throne to help us when trouble finds us. There are many villagers who could use your help. Let us talk for a bit, so I might share their plight and hear of your adventure."

As he talks, you realize that what you first took to be a particularly ornamental offshoot of his baroque spectacles is actually a separate piece of jewelry. It hugs the top of his ear like a shiny barnacle. You'll have to ask him about it later.

"It sounds like that villainous goblins want to get to the lower levels of the ruins. Given time, they'll likely find a way. You should get down there before them and claim whatever it is they want. I'd rather it be in good hands, hah!"

Though weary from battle, you cannot escape Loric's history lesson. Twenty years ago Queen Bargnot of the Jagged Edge began harassing folk traveling on the roads to and from Broadhurst. The people banded together to put down Bargnot's raids in a series of escalating skirmishes. Eventually the Jagged Edge marched on the village. Many farms and fields were burned, but the villagers ultimately won the day. Though Queen Bargnot escaped, she wasn't seen again and the Jagged Edge was assumed to be no more.

"Alas, now we know the Queen is back, renewing her campaign to claim the life and land of the village for her own vile ends."

Finally, the falling of night avails you of Loric's gregariousness. You find that rooms have been prepared for you at the Feather Bed Inn. Sleep takes you. When you wake again, it is to the pleasant promise of A Day Off.