Westcarlham bound....

Two nights from the town of Westcarlham, the party's camp is invaded by a swarm of bloated plague zombies rising out of the nearby lake and while fighting them off, the heroes discover the undead 'burst' when slain. Forewarned they are able to deal quite handily with the creatures, with Laris doing his best to defend Gith'orl from attack. Only then do they discover that the monsters were only a distraction to allow the creator of the zombies, a night hag, to try to invade the Moreta's iron fortress. Tay Vorn and Lissa try to fight off the hag, with Lissa trying to break Tay Vorn's bow over the hag's head. Gith'orl and, more importantly, her Osirian dagger finally convince the hag to withdraw for now, promising to return.
Pushing on to get away from the environs of the lake, the troop are able to rest at a military way-station run by an old man called Hansla. As well as Naz'el taking the opportunity to teach Lissa some of the more practical skills of adventuring (such as cooking), the comrades are able to discover that the 7th Nexian Hussars, who unknowingly supplied the parties identification papers, have been recently reassigned to the southern fortresses.
Arriving in Westcarlham, the party find rooms to stay in the Golden Auroch inn. Close to the Mana wastes, Westcarlham has both a large military presense and a healthy population of gnomish engineers. Despite the warnings about the hag hiding off the road to the north, the authorities dismiss the encounter, suspecting the party of exagerating a minor encounter with a local witch. The party also hear of the Rhenee orcish tribes casting treasures into the southern lake to placate the great beast that supposedly lives in the lake and of the gnomish attempts to raise those lost treaures. Few of the people in Westcarlham believe in the Rhenee legends, thinking that it is perhaps just a kraken or similar, but the orcs believe that if the creature stirs, it will destroy the world.
At the nearby Temple of the Shrines, Naz'el is able to talk a priest of Nethys into helping him summon an Arbiter Inevitable to carry back his message to it's masters about the Ifrit plan to invade the Elemental Plane of Water. Tikmala, the Nethian priest, warns Naz'el that despite being creatures of logic, Inevitables are not to be trusted. Indeed, Marut Inevitables are towering beings of stone, steel, and storm who bring a fitting end to those mortals who try to cheat death in attempts to live forever.
Talum meets Boldock, one of the gnomish engineers, who is recuperating at the Temple of the Shrines after having been turned to stone by a creature in the high fells east of the large fortified temple compound. Despite the first thoughts that it might be a medusa, from Boldocks description, they begin to suspect that it might be an aberation created by the Mana Wars called a Beholder, a multi-eyed monstrosity. Wishing to know more about such a creatures capabilities, Gith'orl consults Sarenrae who blesses her with a vision of the beholder being maimed in combat with another monstrous creature.
With a cover story of being firearms merchants, the party meet with Selra of the Merchants and Traders Guild who directs them to Miyori of the Miyori trading house. Miyori's sons, Kharles and Artur, have been captured and held for ransom by bandits that are reputed to have a large number of magical weapons. This might also be a clue to the location of one of the Star Cairns , where these weapons were researched and crafted. The fight at the ransom exchange became a confused mess partly because of the party dividing and confusion over who was to hold back in reserve and who was to go forward to meet the bandits and partly because the leader of the bandits attempted to use his cursed sword, Silver Tongue, to entrance the entire party. The end of the fight though revealed that the party had won through again, despite the magic sword attempting to possess Gith'orl and the revelation that the hostages brought to the exchange point were in fact bandits in disguise, one of whom they have taken alive.