Session 7 opened with the Greasy Spoon wagon camped for the night just off the King's Road, half a day west of Thornwall Fords. As the crew settled in around the campfire, a new traveler came stumbling out of the woods — Vaela, a Fire Genasi Sorcerer whose hair blazes with living flame. Her arrival was immediately chaotic: Skrit, believing her to be on fire, charged her and attempted to smother the flames with his cloak, burning through it in the process, while Sanji doused them both with a pitcher of questionable water she had grabbed from Gorlog. Wickett eventually restored some semblance of order, and after the group dried off and introductions were made, Vaela shared her mission: she is trying to prove her mother's scholarly book on mythical creatures wrong, believing many entries are either mistaken or deliberate lies. The crew welcomed her warmly, and she posed a question to the group around the campfire — whether mythical creatures are real. Wickett answered that since pocket dimensions exist, he saw no reason not to believe in mythical creatures. Vaela awarded the round's inspiration to Skrit, for his answer about leaving servitude under a dragon to prove kobolds can be good and the found family he has found with the crew. The evening was further interrupted by the arrival of Desmond 'The Gourmand' Cray, a refined bounty hunter in dark green leathers who had been listening from the treeline. He laid out the party's 500-gold bounty poster and offered them a deal: pass his culinary trivia challenge on a Blight-Kissed Truffle — identifying it, explaining its lethality, and describing its preparation — and he would burn the poster. With Ledger sniffing out a clue from the mud on Skrit's boots, Vaela's reference books providing the toxicology, and Sanji's monastic knowledge of poison-neutralization pointing Gorlog toward the correct preparation method, the crew succeeded on two of three checks. True to his word, Desmond handed the poster to Vaela who ignited it, then departed — but not before warning them that the Vance family's reach was extensive and that a Vance rafting party had been spotted just upriver.

The following morning, after a full long rest and a level-up to level 4, the crew broke camp and rolled east toward Thornwall Fords. Gorlog remained in the wagon as always, Sanji rode the roof, and Vaela perched on an iron skillet on the flat-top grill to avoid scorching the wood. Skrit quietly fed Ledger the aged tuna that had been riding in his pouch since before the last session. As they approached the Starwater River crossing at Thornwall Fords, they found a blockade: 30 merchant wagons backed up at the Kingsguard gate, the river barge tied fast, and the ford impassable. Captain Cynthia Stout, a Shield Dwarf and commander of the local Kingsguard, was holding back the irate merchants. Gorlog and Wickett approached with their letter of introduction from Harold, and Captain Stout — recognizing Harold's seal as legitimate — explained the problem: a massive Starwater Plesiosaur had taken up residence in the gravel beds, already killing two guards and smashing three rafts. She offered the crew free passage, coffers, and the best vendor spot in Thornwall Fords' market square if they could clear the blockade. As they walked back along the line of waiting merchants, Gorlog and Wickett separately overheard merchants talking about a pair of scholars — the Mirethanes — who had passed upriver about a week ago on a raft loaded with books, apparently searching for old ruins.

With combat initiated, the situation quickly became more complicated than a simple monster encounter. A crossbow bolt from the treeline missed Skrit before initiative was even formally declared, and a second bolt from a separate hidden shooter followed. It became clear that the Plesiosaur was not acting freely: Sanji spotted it reacting to a low whistle coming from the direction of a figure later identified as Grimm, a beast-handler, who was controlling it with a brass whistle. The crew fought on two fronts simultaneously — engaging two hidden crossbowmen in the brush while attempting to subdue rather than kill the distressed Plesiosaur. Vaela landed a nat-20 Chromatic Orb for 20 fire damage on one of the two crossbowmen (Number 7), badly wounding but not killing him; Skrit called out with Draconic Cry and later landed a critical Divine Smite on the plesiosaur for 33 damage in a single blow; Wickett finished off the wounded crossbowman (Number 7) with a critical short-bow shot, while the second crossbowman (Number 8) kept up crossbow fire from the bank; and Sanji made a spectacular Focus Step of the Wind leap across the river, ramming Grimm in the midsection and causing him to cough up the brass whistle, which Sanji then recovered from the water with a lucky check. With the whistle gone, the Plesiosaur stopped straining against its conditioning. Skrit, feeling genuine remorse, used 10 points of Lay on Hands to heal the creature, and it responded peacefully. Grimm disengaged and fled back into the woods, and the surviving crossbowman (Number 8) took the dash action and fled down the road after him. Session ended with the immediate combat threat resolved — the first crossbowman dead, the second crossbowman and Grimm escaped — and the crossing still technically blocked pending cleanup.