Our protagonists were loitering outside the tavern in the township. Satina was in a dark corner, the monk and the gnome wandering the street, and the treefolk (definitely not named Treebeard) in the company of the lone town tree which survived the great and terrible gift calamity of the earthquake. Some smoke began to pour from a nearby tower, and a citizen (Eldrin Sparkgwithin came out covered in soot. Soon after a pair of kobolds appeared near the tree and proceed to attack. They were swiftly dealt with, but more foul beings appeared, and soon it became apparent there was an arcane portal below the ridge and out of clear sight. After some furious havoc, violence-free fighting, and use of other tricks, the portal was found to be caused by a chalk ring in the citizen's tower, and dance moves were used to scuff it. The portal disappeared, the town was saved, and a bond began to form between Satina and not-Treebeard when she helped him avoid falling down the mountain.