An aberrant salvation from down below

Shortly after Ardric's escape, the heroes began their hunt. Patience and the Archduke went on ahead for reconnaissance while the rest stayed behind, tending to the survivors of the conference ambush.

They discovered that Ardric had kidnapped the widow Hutchinson's daughter and that time was of the essence. He also controlled the Ardheim contingent.

In the end, the whole party tracked Ardric and his company to one of the nearby vales. There Ardric performed a profane ritual, one dedicated to Thoon, that appears to have transformed his company into creatures from below. They were too fast and too powerful for the party, prompting all its members to retreat back to Grymnon. (with at least one horse killed in the process).

Incidents included the sudden appearance of dozens of smaller creatures and a dozen larger beasts to our left, Pandora's moral dilemma of either riding away or waiting long enough to secure the Archduke (where she decided upon the latter), the Archduke's six-second horse-switching (as his horse died, he jumped up on Pandora's), and Belinda's mounted spellcasting (as her horse was about to collapse due to its wounds, she successfully healed it while riding on it).