The caravan leader greatly discounts the party's cost of travel by having them scout ahead for the caravan, watching for wandering monsters and things of that nature. One day away from their destination, Karrlakton, Amahndar spots bulette tracks — commonly known as the "land shark" — and realizes they'll have to draw out the beast for the caravan to safely pass. Alyosha "bravely" volunteers to go first, and as soon as they move forward, the bulette leaps from the ground beneath them. Alyosha teleports away to avoid the attack, and the bulette leaps to attack Amahndar instead — rending him with his claws and turning the paladin into a tin can.
The party quickly moves to surround the beast, but it unleashes a wave of bad breath (tainted by a recent undead meal) and burrows underground to recuperate, before emerging to chase its original prey, Alyosha. Still, the party repeatedly cripples its defenses, and Alyosha goes so far as to blind it. The bulette tries to limp away, but Laharal blasts it with a mind thrust, killing it. Examining the corpse finds that the bulette recently ate another adventuring party, yielding some coins and magic items.
The party arrives in Karrlakton, and Mevakri immediately sets about making inquiries about Jahanah Drocin (who they believe has the torn-out pages that tell where the Pandect is). She's a well-known noblewoman in town, and her estate is heavily defended, but she is hosting a gala event tomorrow night. The party conspires to get into the party — Mevakri and Mika buy fancy new dresses to help them look the part. Mevakri also receives a telepathic message sent by Professor Burch, telling them he's in Zilargo doing research and they should contact Professor Jewell, who's in town and can help them.
Having a solid lead now, and with the party not for another night, the party goes their separate ways for the rest of the day:
- Laharal hears that the warforged factory workers are on strike, because the dwarves get more pay and more breaks. This is a perfect opportunity for him to increase his political power and strike a blow for construct rights. He goes to meet with the warforged and proposes that instead of going on strike, they should work to negotiate — otherwise, the factories can just hire more warforged. He wins their respect and arranges to meet with factory leaders the next morning (well before the Drocin party). He also picks an emissary, Captain Longspear, a warforged who commanded troops during the Last War, to act as his spokesman. Still, there's some uncertainty about how the talks will go — Karrnath is a monarchy, and much more "law and order" than the other nations, so they may not react well to the idea of a warforged union.
- Mevakri, having purchased a fancy dress (as well as a dagger to hide on her person) and dyed her hair to blend in better, goes to meet with Professor Jewell, who's staying at one of the schools in town. She finds him with a group of grad students dissecting corpses they've recovered from the Mournland — it's a scientific curiosity that the people there died more than 4 years ago, but they're still warm and haven't even rotted a little yet. Jewell is more of a long-haired hippie-type of professor than Burch, but he's glad to meet Mevakri and says he can get them into the party, as he's got an invitation too. Mevakri explains how they're looking for the Pandect and they believe Jahanah Drocin's got the notes they need, and Jewell agrees to help them find the notes — he can do "the ceremonial dance of the Eldeen druids" at the party to distract the other attendees.
- Mika walks around town with Gunther and looks for things to steal, but finds most of the valuables are kept under heavy guard. She goes to the tavern adjacent to the inn where the party is staying, and proceeds to get rip-roaringly drunk. She also learns many tips about weapons maintenance from the factory workers before stumbling back to her room and feeling awful.
- Knowing that Karrlakton is the most religiously tolerant city in Karrnath, Amahndar finds the recently built temple of the Silver Flame, where he spots a poster calling for adventurers to help defend against strange Mournland creatures. An elderly priest explains that the temple was built in the past few years, not long after the Mourning, and that lately, the city has been attacked a few times by horrific warforged with stitched-on undead flesh. Amahndar has heard of such creatures before in his work defending Thrane's border, and agrees to help; he also generously tithes to the temple.
- Alyosha goes to the arts district to take in a show, but is accosted by an old man who accuses him of bearing "the mark of death" and warns that "the Mourning has destroyed the Prophecy." Alyosha, taken by his warnings of doom, invites him along to the shindig at the Drocin estate tomorrow night, but the old man backs away and refuses to go. Alyosha then decides to spread around some of his treasure from the bulette kill, and purchases food for the Cyran refugees who live in town. He then decides that having a doomsayer of his own at the party will be a big hit, so he recruits another one to warn about "the unholy truth of the Mournland."
- Alyosha goes to the temple with Urik, his personal prophet of doom, and decides to tease Amahndar by having Urik relentlessly preach to him. However, Amahndar resolutely maintains that the Silver Flame will protect against "the mists that will devour us all," and Urik, not used to being reasoned with and talked to, eventually backs off. Alyosha then tries to send Yorick to harass the elderly priest, but the priest merely blasts the flying skull with a blast of holy light.
- Alyosha then goes to the inn where the party is staying, where he sends Urik to harass Mevakri. He warns her about "the unholy truth of the Mournland," but she fools him into thinking she's already on board about it and totally believes in his dire warnings of apocalypse. Alyosha's a little disappointed he couldn't fool his comrades so easily.
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