The party decided to harry the minotaurs at night. They had veered slightly to meet some supply wagons and were now camped.

With only a sliver of moonlight and scattered clouds, Malif struggled to see, but Rabab had scouted the camp to help him. Malif cast fly on himself and flew towards the enemy camp.

Rabab had two stones of light wrapped in cloth. She dropped them above the tents, and Malif cast a fireball into the camp.

As he was casting a second one, however, he was struck by a ray which did enough damage to disrupt his fireball. Realizing that he wasn't immune to their attacks, Malif retreated.

The party pressed on through the night until they got to the town and slept till dinner.

Tidus, who had been sent ahead to warn the town, reported that two companies of patrolmen were in town when he arrived and were staying to help fend off the minotaurs.

The captain of the guard again commented that the minotaur seemed exceptionally clever, only attacking enough to drive off the human settlements but not enough to draw a full scale war from the king.

A day passed without an attack, and Rabab again scouted for the party. She estimated that by nightfall the minotaurs would only be a couple hours outside of town.

The party conferred with the captain and decided to surprise the minotaurs in the early hours after midnight. With that plan settled, the party went to sleep early as did most of the patrolmen. Only 4 were left up on watch.

Around midnight, Vernon was on watch for the party and heard an alarm and some sounds of a melee. He alerted the party and headed towards to commotion. The rest of the party waited a while and then followed.

Vernon arrived at the fight. He saw the granary on its side, shattered with grain spilling out. An entangle spell had been cast on it, and flame arrows were raingin on the area from afar.

Vernon urged his owl to look for a single figure. The owl flew off and soon returned in an excited state. From this Vernon deduced that the owl had found something interesting. He gave the owl a lightstone and told him to drop the stone near where the interesting thing was.

At this point, the rest of the party arrived. The light fell and Vernon was barely able to see the outline of a minotaur near the light source. He yelled for the party to come and that he had found the minotaur leader.

Malif was doubtful, however, and the figure slipped out of the light.

The captain was livid, and cursed himself for not being smarter.

The party convived the captain to get the guard to follow the tracks immediately. Though they only had a half nights sleep, the adrenaline was flowing and the patrolmen quickly agreed.

Moving slowly, the party tracked them till dawn. Malif was worried about Rabab being targetted or Rabab's mind being read so they kept her straight overhead. About 90 minutes later, Rabab reported that the minotaurs were in the next flat area, apparently waiting for them.

The party was reluctant to charge the minotaurs without fireball support. They decided to wait the five hours needed for Malif to finish changing his spells.

Vernon took a look at the minotaurs after about 45 minutes, and he was able to spot there seemed to be more. A careful count revealed that there were now 30 minotaurs instead of 25. About 45 minutes after that, the minotaurs packed up and continued moving.

The party decided to wait until Malif finished changing his spells. Towards midafternoon the party started after the minotaurs again. Rabab discovered that even more minotaurs were en route to the main force. In all, they would have to deal with 40 minotaurs.

The captain began to have second thoughts, as did the party. They decided to head back to camp.

The patrol headed out to continue patrolling the road while the party trained in the town. During this time, there were no more attacks, and several of the families living there packed their remaining belongings and headed back down to the grassland.