Oster teleported Tone, Brick, Alidin, and Derrick out of Highmoon and left them in the village of Viscara, three days west of Bluetree. He set of walking back toward Silvercloud, leaving the party to search for the alleged elven vampire. The group spoke with the village priest, a Ceridwan named Father Weege, and concluded from his observations that the menace was not elven vampires, but rather Markirans. They set off into the forest in search of the enemy, and after half a day's search came upon a cave entrance. The cave was revealed to have two openings, one a tiny crawlspace containing a pit and a desiccated body. Alidin was sent into the crawlspace, and found a wooden panel at the end. He opened the panel and saw that it looked out into a chamber where a Markiran cleric was lurking. The cleric heard him and came to investigate; Alidin slashed at her hand with a dagger and withdrew rapidly into the crawlspace. He escaped, and the party took up a position at the main entrance to the cave. When no one emerged, Alidin slipped in, finding a Markiran creeping up the passage. Tone cast an improved phantasmal force of Alidin and sent it where the Markiran could see it; when she attacked, the real Alidin backstabbed her. The two Alidins continued to attack, as did Tone. The Markiran fought back with her batclaw gauntlets, but was quickly killed. Then Alidin and Tone saw a dark shape coming from down the passage, and made a quick retreat to make a stand with the others outside the cave. Three Markiran clerics burst from the cave, and the battle was joined.