Paul indicates that he can't possibly start until Bruce (Grenville d'Tharashk) finishes with his bread. For his part, Bruce is totally unaware of the growing crowd of wrathful faces. Chris (Thaiphong) grumbles something in bugbear about bread not having enough blood in it to be real food. Chuck (Xim) reminds Chris that bugbears are totally fictional creatures. And besides, he doesn't know how to speak their language anyway. Ernest (Kurgash d'Tharashk) leaps to Chris' defense, growling, "Bugbear is too a real language! It's part of the Draco-Goblinic linguistic family!" Tim (Silharath) ignores the ongoing argument in favor of a series of yearning glances towards the oven. He mourns, "Why does bread have to take so long to bake when I'm hungry now!" Billy (Secheck) manages to avoid this whole scene by becoming ill.
Finally, Bruce finishes kneading and rejoins the group, completely unaware of all the excitement.
Grenville d'Tharashk thinks, "We're completely lost in this case. Time for some real detective work. Time for a real all-nighter. A real brain-buster. Hmm, there's no coffee left, so I guess that I'll just drink this spoiled cream." After a few hallucinations, he finds Xim standing over him. He thinks Xim says, "Cheeef Weeegum! Don't eat the cloooes!" He asks Xim, "Did you drink the spoiled cream too?" Xim rolls his eyes.
Xim offers, "Thaiphong has an idea. He thinks we should shake down the locksmith." Thaiphong stands in the background and nods vigorously, all the while stealing hungry glances at the spoiled cream.
Kurgash d'Tharashk stomps in and announces, "Stop drinking spoiled cream! I was just watching CSI: Eberron and it gave me an idea! We need to interview some witnesses! And track down the craftspeople who made the things in Jerissa Glenill's house!"
Grenville finds the locksmith responsible for Jerissa's well-made locks. Halgor Corona is a large, burly orc with delicate fingers. His shop has several pre-made locks on display. When the characters stomp in, he is busy working on something very small at his bench.
Halgor is quite willing to admit that he made the locks on the Jovial Jackal. In fact, he is very proud of them: they are his "treasure keeper" brand, and he boasts that they would take a master thief to pick. Under interrogation, he admits that two weeks ago, someone came in and bought out his entire stock of six treasure keeper locks. Halgor thinks he was human, "But then, all those humans look alike to me."
Kurgash points out, "I don't see how this guy couldn't remember any details about the biggest sale he probably makes in a year. I think he's lying. Want me to lean on him, or want to try Sense Motive on him first?"
Grenville tries the Sense Motive option. He decides that Halgor seems nervous, as if he doesn't want to tell everything he knows. Kurgash gestures at Xim in the way that means "Close the door and turn the sign around to say 'Closed'."
Xim is confused. He asks Kurgash, "So every time you look at me, it means you're going to beat someone up?"
Kurgash briefly considers who to beat up, then heads for Halgor on the basis that he has hands far too purty for an orc. He rumbles, "Grenville thinks you ain't telling everything you know. It's mighty hard to do locksmithing with broken hands."
Halgor backs up, demanding, "Why don't you leave now? I don't want to get involved in whatever you're doing. I pay my money to your Family for protection!"
Kurgash asks Grenville, "You're getting money from these guys? And we didn't get a cut?" Grenville shrugs.
Xim starts to get into the whole organize-crime extortion thing. He threatens, "It'd be a pity if lightning were to hit this place..."
Kurgash follows up, "It'd be a pity if alligators were to attack you..."
None of this threatening has much impact upon Halgor, so Kurgash takes a swing at him. And misses. He grouses, "I love being first level." Halgor dances out of the way, then knocks Kurgash in the chops.
Silharath goads Kurgash, "He's dancing! He's mocking you!"
Kurgash howls in rage and rushes forward to grapple Halgor. Once again, Halgor dances out of the way. Grenville baffles everyone by pulling out a flute and Inspiring Courage. Xim joins in the melee and flails away. Halgor hits Kurgash again.
At this point, Kurgash goes berserk and demonstrates that he can do quite a lot of damage with his spiked gauntlets. Grenville walks in swinging, and connects! He is so proud of himself! Halgor continues to beat Kurgash, but not fast enough: Kurgash and Grenville beat him to the ground. Meanwhile, Xim tries to counsel reason and rationality, apparently to no avail.
Silharath and Thaiphong have been in the back alley all this time. They're really trying to not be involved in this fiasco.
Grenville calls out to them through the back door, "Hey! Get your butts in here! We just beat up a shopkeeper!"
They respond in shocked unison, "You what? Why? Did he attack you?" There is no response.
The characters tie Halgor to a chair while Xim incompetently looks for his books. Xim mourns, "I can't even find any locks in this place! There's no way I'm going to find his books!"
Grenville reassures him, "That's his ledger book over on the counter, dude." Xim chirps like a happy hummingbird as he dances over to take a look. He is shattered to find that the ledger doesn't have purchasers' names listed.
Thaiphong looks around the remains of Halgor's shop and mourns, "I'm so sorry I ever suggested we talk to the locksmith."
Xim applies his healing arts to bring Halgor around after Grenville incompetently ties him to a chair. It doesn't work. The characters end up waiting until he comes around on his own. He comes to muttering something about, "Pyramids of naked cheerleaders." Kurgash leads the interrogation.
Xim, in the background, apologizes, "We're so terribly, terribly sorry."
Grenville is able to find out that there is a female master thief in the Hidden Door named Halaria the Quick. She is a half-orc, and known for both her skills at larceny and fighting, particularly with the longsword. People know her because she's a recruiter for the upper echelons of the Hidden Door. She tests informants and low-ranking members to see if they are good enough to enter the guildhall.
Xim asks, "What if this was some sort of initiation for Jerissa? And she's actually okay, and happy to be a high-ranking member of the Hidden Door, and surrounded by friends and money and luscious changeling courtesans? Wouldn't that be a hoot?" Nobody else seems to think that this is as funny as Xim thinks it is.
The characters come to a consensus that the Hidden Door probably blamed Jerissa for the failure of their heists and decided to disappear her. There's a good chance that she was narking them out to Constable Braakhor anyway.
The characters spend the night in the Jovial Jackal, then head out once again on the morrow. It is now the 14th of Zarantyr. The characters go to Downside to the theme of Deliverance, and then use Find Object to locate the belt. Grenville concentrates for a moment and proclaims, "It's that way!" The characters follow the trail to an orcish street urchin wearing a very nice leather belt. The urchin is fighting several other urchins who seem to want his belt. "Get away! It's mine!" Kurgash walks in, drives the others away, then asks, "What's yer name, son!"
The urchin introduces himself as Lurgrok as he wipes some dirt off his very nice belt.
Kurgash compliments him, "Nice belt, son."
Lurgrok protests, "It's mine! And I'll be damned if I let anyone take it away from me!" The offer of small sums of money elicits the information that he found it in an abandoned warehouse in Downside. He takes the characters there.
Most buildings in Downside are on stilts, about 10 feet above the water. Lurgrok leads the characters to a warehouse that has partially collapsed and is mostly at or below water level. The place is about 25 feet wide and 60 feet long, with a single door in the front. It looks very abandoned. Of course, the characters break their way in.
They find themselves in a small foyer with three doors leading further in. The door directly to the East is locked with an iron lock; the two other doors are unlocked. Thaiphong and Kurgash hear people talking and rolling dice to the East.
Thaiphong silently tries the North and South doors. Both lead to small, unused rooms.
Kurgash whispers, "I'm going to break that door down. You all ready?" Everyone looks back at him blankly. He storms the door. The door shatters, revealing four rather surprised-looking thieves. He, Silharath and Thaiphong rush in, stabbing and chopping. Kurgash yells, "Hit him right in the grommet!" Silharath executes his special secret stalker strike and cuts down one orc right off. Another thief leaps to her feet and casts two daggers towards Kurgash. Kurgash pays little heed to the daggers as he steps right up and kills her with one great axe chop. Kurgash enthuses to the others, "Didja see that, Thaiphong? Meat and bone cut asunder by the bite of my blade!"
Thaiphong ignores his companion as he steps forward to execute a nonlethal attack on another thief. He hits the thief with the flat of his greatsword, knocking the guy out instantly.
Xim resolves to duplicate his compatriot's prowess. He casts a sling bullet at the one survivor, but breaks a glass instead. The thief takes the only rational action and surrenders. Thaiphong comments, "This is so cool!"
Kurgash hurls himself into the next room. It looks like an empty mess hall. He continues through. There is nobody home. The only other room is a kitchen, which also has nobody home.
The characters waste no time in extracting valuable information from their prisoner. Kurgash demands, "Where are the others?" WHAM!
The thief, a weedy fellow who looks like purse-snatching is more his speed, gasps out, "There's a secret door over there!"
Kurgash drops the fellow and reflects, "That was fast."
Almost nobody pays attention as the thief continues to spill his guts. He claims that Halaria the Quick, some other masters, the Shadow Stealer and thirty or forty other Hidden Door members are down there now. They had Jerissa, but might not now; he doesn't know.
Thaiphong realizes that the thief has been providing additional information. He picks the guy back up from the floor and demands, "Who is the Shadow Stealer?"
"He is the guild boss. He guards the hidden door itself!"
Thaiphong drops the thief again, his one question satisfied.
Loot from the battle includes four shortswords, three sets of leather armor, one suit of studded leather (from the dagger-throwing girl) and two throwing daggers. Xim takes the two throwing daggers. Everything else goes into the sack. All told, the characters have three prisoners: one conscious, one knocked out by Kurgash, and one badly wounded but stabilized by Xim. The female leader is the only actual fatality.
The characters easily locate the secret door and force it open. They see a tunnel that clearly goes underwater. Kurgash asks the others, "What, this is for the aquatic members of the organization? Or is there a corridor?" Apparently, there is a corridor.
The characters head through the secret door and into the corridor. They note that it is made from wood and sealed with tar. Thaiphong leads, followed by the hostage, followed by Kurgash, Silharath, and Xim. Grenville brings up the rear. They stomp along until they walk right into a guard post manned by two thieves. Thaiphong charges down the stairs at them. The first thief goes down like a sack of potatoes. Kurgash makes sure the second one doesn't last much longer.
Thaiphong gushes, "I love first level Rogues! This is just like Christmas!"
Silharath points out, "They're not even Rogues: these guys are actually just Experts!"
Thaiphong burbles, "I've never been so happy in my whole life!"
The floor levels out and the characters end up at a four-way intersection. Right = training room. Left = guildmaster's quarters. Forward = dormitories. A whispered consultation ensues. Kurgash points out that the characters must capture a master to find out where Jerissa is. He wants to go to the guildmaster's. Grenville equates this to suicide, suggesting that there may be many fewer masters in the training room. All eventually agree with Grenville, except Xim, who reserves the right to say, "I told you so!" when it all goes wrong.
The corridor to the training room slopes up above water, ending at a hatch in the ceiling. The characters suspect that there is someone on the other side. They follow the obvious plan: they burst up through the hatch with longswords blazing.
They find that Halaria the Quick is there, with her longsword and studded leather, along with three other Hidden Door thieves.
Thaiphong is ghastly surprised to find out that one of the Hidden Door thieves is actually a magician. He finds this out by walking straight into a Burning Hands spell. Thaiphong hurls himself to the side as he bemoans his decision to wear his paper kilt today. Silharath averts his eyes and screams, "Aaaah! Naked bugbear!"
Kurgash notes, "Apparently, 'Thaiphong' means 'hairy sac' in bugbear." He marches up to one of the thieves and kills him in one gory axe swing.
Thaiphong chops at the mage, a fellow named Maedor the Pale. He gets a respectable hit, but Maedor stays up.
Silharath staggers the third thief. Who uses his last action to lie down real peaceful-like.
Xim and Grenville put up an amazingly ineffective barrage against Halaria the Quick.
Then the Hidden Door forces get a chance to even up the situation. Halaria the Quick steps over and guts Thaiphong while Maedor the Pale decides to equalize the battlefield a bit by casting Sleep on everyone. Kurgash and Silharath both sag to the ground. Xim is standing right behind Kurgash, and realizes that without the orc or the bugbear he's going to get converted into shapechanging cat food. He quickly wakes the orc, then runs for the opposite corner of the room.
Grenville sends an arrow through Maedor the Pale, knocking him down and leaving Halaria the Quick alone on the battlefield. She whirls upon Kurgash and tickles his innards for 11 points of damage. Kurgash whines, "Oww! We should discuss this..."
Kurgash rages again, demonstrating that he is not a morning person, and puts an axe through Halaria's gizzard. She notices.
Xim moves up behind Halaria to stab. Kurgash urges, "Backstab her!"
Xim protests, "I'm a cleric!"
Kurgash, "But aren't you a cleric of The Backstabbery?"
Xim, "Yes, but that isn't one of the tricks I get!"
Silharath wakes up to find out that there is a fight going on. That happens to him all the time. But this time Grenville is standing over him.
Kurgash takes another wound, but ignores his rather aggravated situation to hit Halaria again, inflicting 21 points of damage and knocking her out. Kurgash collapses directly afterwards.
Xim walks around healing people. Kurgash is very much in need of healing, as when he drops out of rage he also drops below zero hits. The loot from Halaria and her cohorts includes:
There are apparently people in the other room. For whatever reason, they didn't respond to the sounds of combat. Xim suggests using Halaria as a hostage and bluffing their way through the compound. Grenville suggests that this would be suicide. Silharath suggests sneaking back out with the bodies and the wounded characters very quietly, but only after looting all the dead thieves. Grenville tells him, "For the first time in your life, you are making dead total sense."
The characters sneak out and return to the Jovial Jackal. They let the stalker do the cavity searches.
Upon his return to the Jovial Jackal, Thaiphong heads for the beer. Silharath asks, "Are you sure you should be doing that? I mean, in your condition and all?"
Thaiphong replies, "Get outta my way or I'm going to have you killed. And then I'm going to pay someone with fewer morals than I to skull-fuck your corpse."
Xim asks Thaiphong, "How much gold you got?"
Thaiphong grumbles over his beer, then drops unconscious from blood loss.
The next day, everyone gets better quickly once Xim gets his healing spells back.
Kurgash asks Halaria to take a week's vacation starting right now, and gives her her sword back. He thanks her as an honorable opponent. She agrees to these conditions.
The characters watch her go, then take an extra day to rest and to finish healing up Kurgash.
The characters' next stop is out in the swamps. In a bid to survive the experience, they gear up with two reed boats (hardness 2, 3 hp) for 15 gp each. Four oars come to another 4 gp. Finally, Grenville hands Silharath 10 gp and tells him to buy swamp survival stuff. Thaiphong suggests that swamp dwellers are likely to be coating their blades and arrowheads in frog-sweat, and urges the others to try and trade some of the shortsword collection for antitoxins. Sadly, the profits from a few used shortswords are insufficient to buy more than a single dose of antitoxin.
Once again, the strains of Deliverance float through the air.
The plan is simple: Xim is disguised as Halaria. He will boat up to the swamp island alone to meet Jerissa's jailors alone, while the other characters approach from the other side of the island in the other boat. If Xim isn't able to talk them into releasing Jerissa, the rest of the group will massacre everyone in sight.
Xim meets four small cloaked figures at the shore. They are suspicious of him, as it isn't time for the next payment. He demands to see the prisoner. Two more of them drag forward a small human figure in a bag, then show him the inside too briefly for him to see any detail. He notes that the figures have birdlike, clawed hands. Then they attack him. He promptly surrenders.
Then the rest of the characters attack from the other side of the island. Thaiphong and Kurgash charge one of the bandits in the center of the island. Silharath and Grenville shoot the other down with arrows.
Xim finds himself surrounded by four diminutive cloaked bandits. They grapple him. Xim writhes like crazy. One of them puts a knife to his throat and announces, "You others! Stop or this one dies!" Kurgash responds by charging up and severing one of them. The limp body gets flung to the side. The creature's cloak is torn asunder, revealing that the creature underneath is a kenku. Xim responds by activating his Freedom of Movement power and magically stepping out of the grapple. He watches as Thaiphong chops another kenku down.
Kurgash and Thaiphong march through the kenku, scattering bodies like wheat. Xim and Grenville hang out and make attack-like motions, but really do little more than to cheer on their compatriots. Silharath darts about with his blade, cutting open the occasional kenku when one is convenient. Kurgash decides that he'd like one as a prisoner, and knocks one over. The little guy tumbles over into a patch of fleshy bushes. Kurgash crows, "I think I bent his beak!"
Silharath decides to simply demand a surrender from the last. The kenku gives up. And then Xim cuts him down from behind. Kurgash complains, "Gah. I think you stabbed his brain out."
Silharath wipes gore from his face, protesting, "But he'd surrendered!"
Xim calmly replies, "I thought you were just distracting him."
Kurgash pulls open the bag. The prisoner is a young, red-haired woman in a gag and a blindfold. Kurgash removes the blindfold and gag and immediately tells her, "You are not Jerissa!"
She agrees, "No! Who's Jerissa? These guys kidnapped me!"
Thaiphong groans, "Oh, these fuckups lost Jerissa and kidnapped this girl as a substitute. That's why they wouldn't let Xim look in the bag."
The girl is more than happy to tell the characters her story. The kenku have had her for about a week. Her name is Thistley Goldrun.
Kurgash interrupts, "With a name like that, you're begging to be kidnapped. Where are you from?"
Thistley scowls at him, then continues, "My parents are farmers, we live nearby. They have boats and help take crops to market. Thank god you kind people showed up to rescue me!"
Xim stabilizes the leader's wounds. He notices that the fellow isn't carrying any weapons. He does have the key for the wooden chest in the middle of the island, hidden in his feathers.
The wooden chest contains eight bags, each marked with a rune. The characters lump all the gear together and verify that none of it is magical. It includes:
The supreme kenku leader really wasn't carrying anything interesting beyond the key.
It turns out that the bag labels are personal names for the kenku. The prisoner's story is that maybe six humans showed up a week ago and stole the original prisoner away, killing two kenku in the process. Then two more humans showed up and offered money for the kenku to kill her. The kenku knows where the first humans' camp is.
Thaiphong exults, "I kiss him. I love you little birdie!"
The kenku nearly dies of a heart attack. He gasps, "We were waiting for our clutch-mates to arrive. We were going to hunt the humans down." He continues on to explain that the leader followed the two who offered money back to town. They were in league with the other thieves: they went back to the Hidden Door's base. Klikclek is willing to point out these two in the city for money. He asks the characters, "May I take care of my friends?"
Thaiphong agrees, "Sure. I don't think any of them are alive, though." It turns out that only two of them have died; the others have stabilized on their own. The Supreme Leader is among the living.
The characters take Thistley Goldrun back home and get a square meal out of it. Then next morning they set out for the human camp, four hours' travel away. The place turns out to be a simple longhouse out in the wilderness. It is forty by sixty feet, and building up on stilts. There are eight windows around the walls, all of them closed tight with shutters. There is a heavy wooden door on each end, and a wooden roof.
Silharath does his best to make the characters' boat look like a floating log, then the group drifts up to the structure.
Kurgash discovers that the front door is actually barred. Thaiphong finds out that the shutters are also locked. Kurgash and Silharath place themselves to go through shuttered windows, with the rather optimistic plan of breaking them open on the way in. Kurgash makes it through; Silharath takes his time.
Kurgash sees that the room is occupied by seven human bravoes, plus a wizard and the captive Jerissa. Kurgash takes stock, then flings open the bar on the door.
Xim takes a look in through the window, and seriously thinks about closing the door again. He thinks even more seriously when a mass of them pile into Kurgash and take him down. Before he topples, Kurgash cuts one of them in half and watches as the body drops into the water. Grenville reacts to this stressful situation the way he always does: by singing.
The wizard sends a Magic Missile at Kurgash. Xim sends an arrow back at him, ineffectually. It glances off the wizard's Shield.
Another stabs Grenville through the window, dropping him. Grenville calls out, "I spend my action point to stabilize!"
Thaiphong remembers that he has a nauseating gas potion. He throws it into the building, watching with glee as two more goons double over retching.
Silharath continues to try and kick in a window blind. He hurts his foot.
Xim grabs Grenville and drags him over to Silharath. Silharath feeds him the Cure Light Wounds potion, bringing him up to -3 hits. Then Xim heals him up to one hit point. He yells down at the nearly insensible human, "Now you can shoot a bow! Get up there and start shooting, soldier!"
Thaiphong cuts down one more goon, sucks down an antitoxin, and goes in for Kurgash's body. He roundly ignores the effects of the gas.
Silharath continues to smash at the shutters. The instant he succeeds, one of the female thieves inside hits him with a thrown dagger.
Xim zaps Kurgash with his last healing spell, bringing him back around. Kurgash leaps back into the fray. Rrargh! He shouts, "You send out the woman and we'll leave. Don't and we'll through more of these gas vials inside. And then we'll stab your asses!"
A voice from inside mocks him, "You didn't seem so tough before."
Kurgash yells back, "We don't need to be when we've got gas vials. And Grenville will back me up on that."
Grenville agrees, "Yep, I got a box of a dozen of those things right here."
As if on cue, the gas dissipates.
Silharath pops up to pierce a ruffian with an arrow. The bravo sags to the floor.
Xim finally manages to hit one of the thief girls in the head with a sling. He boasts, "I just knocked out a girl!"
Another bravo flings himself through Silharath's window to attack him. But he falls afoul of the mage's Grease spell and plants his face on the floor. Then Silharath ends him.
Grenville pops up and shoots the wizard down. He reflects that his role in life appears to be shooting wounded magicians. He wonders if he can gain any benefits from specialization.
Thaiphong, Kurgash and the best-equipped fighter engage in a drawn-out duel. Xim shows up to help out. Kurgash hits the guy, delivering a very respectable hit that the bravo manages to tough out. Thaiphong groans, "Oh god. He's still up."
Thaiphong elegantly leaps through a window, across the Grease, and makes a wild attack upon the bravo. He is disappointed to realize that there's no such thing as double-flanking.
Grenville steps through the window, across the Grease, and over to check out the girl.
Kurgash takes a hit and goes to zero (counting his rage bonuses). He's still up, but not for long. He swings wildly, then sags to the ground. Kurgash chirps out, "Nap time..."
Thaiphong howls, "Grenville! We might still need your help!"
Grenville steps up and attacks. He is amazed to hit; he concludes that the bravo must be too distracted by Thaiphong to pay proper attention to him. The bravo, Xim, and Thaiphong swing wildly at each other. And then Silharath takes him down.
Xim quickly stabilizes Kurgash, who is still in need of serious medical care.
The characters quickly strip the bodies of the fallen and lump everything into a pile. Nobody has Detect Magic available at the moment, but the next day they are able to learn that the lead bravo's shield was magical.
There is some debate on where to spend the night. "We could stay here!" "No way, it smells like vomit!" "I can help! I have Prestidigitation!" Everyone cheers as Grenville's magic finally finds a use: he cleans the place out and makes it smell like flowers.
Thaiphong looks at the unconscious Kurgash and comments, "Okay, let's get out the makeup and paint him up again!"
Jerissa is initially quite glad to see the characters: "Thank god you came to rescue me! Please untie me!"
"Uhh... Not yet."
"Who sent you to rescue me?"
Grenville explains, "The Finder's Guild. My boss is paying us to bring you back."
"Let's make a deal. Don't take me back. I know some information. I know where a treasure is! That's why this guy had me! He and my husband had a deal to find a treasure, but they tore the map in half. He kidnapped me to get me to tell him where the other half of the map is. Look on him and you'll find the other half of the map."
Thaiphong holds up a torn map, "I know where the other half of the map is!"
Xim looks at the map. He realizes that it is of someplace in Cyre, now better known as the Mournland. Thaiphong grouses, "It might as well be on the other side of the moon. What kind of stupid first level motherfuckers want a treasure map like that? Were these guys opium addicts?"
Jerissa points out, "BTW, I didn't betray the Hidden Door."
"Oh, then that must have been the two other guys who showed up and tried to get the kenku to kill you. Sucks to be you."
"And if the Finders' Guild is looking for me, then I'm getting out of town."
Grenville explains as gently as he can, "Trouble is, I work for the Finders' Guild and I'd prefer to impress them. And I don't see any useful way to accomplish that and let you go. So it's off to the Finder's Guild with you."
Everyone agrees that they're not interested in going to the Mournlands, but hanging on to the half-map they've got is worth it. They are able to figure out that they have the end half of the map.
The characters end up spending a day in the stilt house, healing. Then they head back with Jerissa.
On the way back, Thaiphong suggests that the group should head back to the kenku island in about three months and hit them again: the captive said that they had relatives that were going to show up.
On their return to Zarash'ak, the characters arrange to pass a message to the Hidden Door to the effect that they will sell information on some Hidden Door traitors for 600 gold. The characters give the Hidden Door representatives the bird and get the money; the kenku gets his share of 100 gold before they hand him over.
In the course of the discussion, the characters figure out that the Hidden Door knows that the characters were the ones who busted up their base. They express skepticism about the initial deal, in that they're not sure they have the muscle to get money back out of the group if needed.
Each character gains 2000 experience points and becomes second level. Grenville gains Bard 2 and +4 hp. Xim goes to Cleric 2, with +6 hp. Thaiphong goes to Bugbear 2. And Silharath blossoms his psychic powers, becoming Ranger 1/Psion 1, with +4 hp.
Silharath takes the magic shield.