Recap for the players:
Lyrel the high elf wizard has been compelled by visions to travel in search of the "Wizard" of someplace called "Orlane;" she has been traveling for years. She finally reached a faraway land where someone had actually heard of Orlane. She's been following clues traveling across Keoland for the past couple of weeks.
Eugenios the gnome investigator was given a punishment detail, sent to the hinterlands (ie, Keoland) to review Ansola Behir. He's been traveling for weeks.
Ferranzo the halfling entertainer heard from a traveler that his mentor, Lindun, was missing from Orlane. He set out to find out what happened.
Four days ago, Ember the human criminal fled Hookhill to lay low across the border in the podunk town of Orlane until the heat dies down.
Three days ago, the Dungeon Busters - Aanbo, Arya, Chase, Jonel, Morton, Myrtha, Theran - were sent by Olpert from Hochoch to Orlane to find their teammate Joseph and stop the cult. That same day, Eugenios finally arrived at Orlane, renting a room at the Slumbering Serpent to wait for the reeve Ansola Behir. In the days since, he's been hearing a lot of contradictory stories about adventurers kidnapping people.
Two days ago, Ember arrived in Orlane, where she was welcomed by a kindly carpenter and his wife. Ember was assaulted in the middle of the night by hooded figures and barely escaped, running into the Dim Forest. There, she met the Dungeon Busters party and helped them with some goblin trouble.
Yesterday, the Dungeon Busters convinced Ember to accompany them back to Orlane so she could get some payback. They talked to the crazy old hermit, Ramne, and found out that the town constable and the priestess of Merikka have been working hard to turn the populace against the adventurers. They decided to leave the village and wait in the forest until nightfall.
While the Dungeon Busters were waiting in the Dim Forest, Ferranzo arrived late in the day and went straight to Lindun's house. He found signs of foul play, but no clear indication of where Lindun was or whether he was even alive. Ferranzo tidied up as he considered what to do, and then night was falling, so he decided he would rest for the night and then start asking around in the morning.
Last night, the 7 Dungeon Busters and Ember snuck into town. At the same time, Lyrel arrived at the Grove at last and had a conference with the Great Wizard of Orlane: Ramne. Ramne directed her to assist the Dungeon Busters, and shared with her that they had planned to enter the Golden Grain Inn's basement. Meanwhile, the Dungeon Busters were creeping through town but scattered when a watch patrol appeared. When they reassembled, Jonel was gone. They proceeded into the Golden Grain Inn, hoping to find that the tunnels underneath led to a headquarters or lair. Instead, they found a pack of ghouls. Lyrel joined them there, and helped fight off the undead. The Dungeon Busters, feeling very jumpy and suspicious in what they still thought of as a secret HQ, insisted on stripping and having Lyrel strip to demonstrate that none of them bore the spiral markings of the Cult. After they got dressed and continued through the tunnels, they came to understand that the tunnels were not a transit route, but rather a way for the cult to dispose of evidence: valuables are stored in chests, which are guarded by the ghouls who eat any inconvenient corpses. They resolved to check out the Temple of Merikka next. Morton argued that they should return to Hochoch to rest and train, but the others felt that they couldn't spare the days this would take. But as they moved through the town, they had the bad luck of being overheard by the Slumbering Serpent's proprietor, Ollwin, who roused a bunch of late-night clientele from the Inn to help him catch the 'murdering adventurers.' This noise roused Eugenios upstairs, who started equipping himself. The party hid by the Mill.
At around the same time, people tried to break into Lindun's home to meet/confront/accuse/lynch Ferranzo. Ferranzo fled out the back door before they boxed him in, and he fled through the fields to find some help in the village Orlane proper and clear his name. Meanwhile, back at the Mill, a whole bunch of Millers emerged to help look for the 'dog-killing bastards.' Ember offered to make a distraction to draw them away so the others could continue; she ran off and started howling. The others ran off, but then they were concerned that Ember would be caught by the mob. Arya, Morton, and Theran ran back to help her. Eugenios emerged from the Inn and, with his darkvision, easily followed Aanbo, Chase, Lyrel, and Myrtha as they went to the Temple. Ferranzo climbed the low hill to see if there were any lights of people who might help him, and he saw the four heroes instead.
Arya threw a stone glowing with Lyrel's magic, and that drew some of the search party away. But one of the Millers was suspicious, and led a group back the way they'd come. Theran offered to hold them off while Arya and Morton rescued Ember. Ember, meanwhile, had jumped into the Realstream River and swum with the current downstream back into the Dim Forest. Looking for Ember, Arya and Morton entered the Dim Forest, too, but they chose the wrong side of the river. Then they and Ember had bad luck with random forest encounter rolls. Ember got away; Arya and Morton didn't (yet).
