After a comfortable night's sleep at the priest's home, we set about on some minor items of business. At the temple, we learned that the samurai's master had been healed, but would have to stay there for a few days more. Then we went to the refugees' section of town, where the samurai wanted to investigate the corrupt usurer. This business did not take long. He quickly procured agreement from a few other money-lenders to take on the refugees' business, and confronted the usurer with the information. I regret being part of the affair. It does not due to make more enemies than necessary. In payment for the samurai's service, one of the refugees swore to serve him. It would seem our number has increased yet again.
While the others had our new magical equipment identified, I spent the time reading the journal of the wizard we killed the day before. An entry two weeks old said that the Red Warrior would soon move to the south and southwest, to the heartlands of this region. A week later, the wizard wrote of his plans to take beggars and thieves off the streets, and transport them to a distant location to help in the Enemy's machinations. They had been using the money from their tavern to pay for their operation. Each day, they had sent two people off to a town eight days' journey away, and from there, teleported them to the castle where the artifact had been found.
At night, the Infiltrator and the Empty Hand sparred again, and ironically, the Empty Hand appeared almost to gloat, while the Infiltrator remained calm about his loss.
In the middle of the night, we woke to a pounding on the door. The cultists, we were told, had escaped their cell an hour before, leaving the body of the wizard behind, and killing several guards. The winged woman immediately set out to search for them. I was of a similar mind, and wanted to inspect the town walls for weak points where the cultists might be able to climb over with minimal resistance, but the others thought that with walls as long as those around this town, such a search would be hopeless. Instead, they preferred a thorough search of the tavern, to see whether there were any clues we might have missed. With the cultists, and the news they carry of our existence and location, heading full speed towards our enemy, I can derive little joy from the wizard's spellbook, which the samurai found in the tavern and gave to me. By sunrise, the cultists were gone, and two more guards dead.
Rather than pursue the cultists immediately, the others insisted they were too tired from the search of the tavern, and went back to sleep! Unless I can convince them otherwise, we will not leave the city until tomorrow, which is some sort of holiday when travelers are said to be blessed. It is precisely this sort of foolishness which has dropped a trail behind us so wide that four wagons could drive it abreast. There is nothing I can do about the cultists alone, however, so I will wait.
The samurai and his master had some business at the castle, and the priest negotiated a deal with the captain of the guard, where the city would buy any equipment useful in combat for half again what we would get for it elsewhere, and they would pay us an additional sum to follow the cultists and stop them from what they were doing. Using the priest's magic, we then interviewed the wizard's corpse, who told us that he and the others had been planning to go to the town eight days away. We already suspected that much from the journal. He also told us that there were twelve cultists there, and that their base of operations was in some tower.