Upon recovering, the heroes set out to hunt down the fiend Ardric; the villagers were escorted to the nearest city by a witch who had assisted in the battle for Grymnon. Patience tracked the miscreant to the village, where a contingent of Ardheim soldiers had arrived. They were led by one of the Daughters of Ardheim, who charged the party with hunting down Ardric.
Ardric's trail led northward. As the trail brought them closer to Ardheim, they just as well went to Ardheim with Hunolt's writ and retrieved his half-plate armor.
The trail brought them up one of the mountains to a cave. There, they encounter a dwarven ghost that implored them to leave (wailing "About!"). In the end, it compelled the whole group to leave unwillingly.
Outside the cave, the group met a wandering dwarfish-looking human by the name Flint Steelhammer and added him to the group after an initial hiding among the bushes (when a halfling...). He helped them communicate with the ghost, though it still refrained from straightforward conversation (even chasing after a then-just-about-naked Archduke when he mentioned the name "Thoon"). The group headed further into the cave, past an underground river (Belinda and the Archduke entertained the idea of poisoning what could be Ardheim's water supply). There it encountered Ardheim guards. Belinda informed the guards of the danger of Bjarne Max (who the guards claimed to have arrested) and drafted a letter on behalf of the party to the Daughter of Ardheim they met at the ruins of Grymnon.
The group left the cave and camped out for the night. During the first watch, a humanoid with tentacles approached the not-so-watchful Belinda and grabbed. Belinda awoke the other heroes by stomping her feet, even as the creature fastened its grasp on her halfling head. Coming to terms with her fate, Belinda made her final request of the group, "Kill the bastard!"
Brik and Hunolt fulfilled her request, the latter decapitating the foul creature.
***
The new group following Flint's recruitment and Belinda's demise.
