The session opened in the pre-dawn hours of a forest clearing, where the party had camped for the night with the Greasy Spoon. Ledger woke first, alerting Wickett — who was on the final watch — to the approaching sound of tracking hounds. Before the party could fully rouse themselves, three enormous mastiff-like dogs (each pushing 200 pounds) crashed into the clearing, teeth bared and wearing spiked collars that appeared to be causing them visible pain. One collar bore a softly glowing magical amulet. Initiative was rolled, and the party moved to handle the dogs without killing them.

The encounter was a creative mix of grappling, improvised shield work, and sleight of hand. Wickett rang a bell that briefly halted the dogs' advance — the tone happened to resemble their training master's command signal, buying the party a single round. Wickett then climbed a tree, leapt onto the back of one dog, and with a 21 sleight of hand check deftly unbuckled its spiked collar, earning an enthusiastic face-licking in return. Skrit used his Protection fighting style to impose disadvantage on an attack aimed at Sanji, shielding her with a stolen pot lid — an instinctive act that surprised even him. He then landed a critical non-lethal smite with a meat tenderizer, knocking the alpha dog unconscious before healing it back to consciousness with Lay on Hands and offering it rations. Gorlog successfully grappled the second dog after holding his action and fed it a leg of lamb. Sanji, deeply uncomfortable around dogs throughout the fight, nevertheless removed the third dog's collar with a 22 sleight of hand check — and then immediately disengaged. She also stomped the glowing tracking amulet to pieces, destroying it.

Once all three collars were off and the dogs were fed, the aggression drained out of them entirely. Scrit identified the amulet as a tracking device — able to reveal location to a remote scryer on demand — and confirmed that its destruction prevented further magical tracking. Examining the collar hardware, Wickett spotted ornate engraved initials: CBP. Constable Barnaby Plum's dogs. Wickett tied a handwritten note to a loose rope collar on the last departing dog, its contents kept secret from the party (and the audience), grinning to himself. The dogs trotted off into the forest in a different direction than they had come, apparently native to the woods and unconcerned about the party now that their task was done. Gorlog named one of them Meatball, and the farewell was genuinely emotional — particularly for Scrit.

With the dogs gone and the tracker destroyed, the party broke camp and hit the road. The journey to Waymoot provided the first real opportunity for the crew to talk. Gorlog revealed he used to push a single broken-wheeled cart before Wickett joined and helped him build up the operation. Wickett said he was just roaming, found himself useful, and asked for a job. Sanji explained she came from a monastery in the mountains and left to explore — for fun, not as a job. Skrit shared that he was simply looking for food in the market when the chaos in Splinter's Bend swept him up, and noted that kobolds are generally not treated well. The session closed with the Greasy Spoon rolling through the heavy timber gates of Waymoot, Ledger's narration framing the moment — hungry loggers on the other side, the party still fugitives, and breakfast service about to begin.