At the gate, a group of gnomes were unpacking crates. Several wagons had been brought around and were being harnessed by servitor contructs. One of the gnomes, who had been telling the others what to do rather than actually doing anything, was trying to direct the various teams away from each other.

"All right, all right, stop complaining. Everyone! Everyone, listen! Each team gets a wagon, which comtains the gear you will need. No, stop that, they're all the same! No, you can't have two. Okay, the wagons have food, tents, rope, climbing gear, firewood, and all sorts of boring stuff. The important things are the masks. Six per wagon, they cast illusions on the wearer. What? No, you can't be an elf. Because you're even shorter than me, that's why. I don't care, shut up."

He waved his hands, and the halfling that had been threatening to stab him in the eye was sealed in a slightly translucent sphere. It started rolling away until the rest of the halfling's team managed to stop it.

"The next one will have spiders in it. No, shut up. Okay, the wagons are fitted with a small divining rod. That's the iron bar set on the pivot right up there where you would sit to steer. There are eleven pieces of the Scales, and the bars will point to a piece that is not being pointed to by another bar. Once you have a part of the Scales, put it in the small box secured to the underside of the seat. it's a Box of Holding, and the rods will stop pointing at it. When there are fewer than six parts left outside of the boxes, then two teams will end up chasing the same pieces. The small red pointer set next to the bars point to the other wagons' boxes, in case a team gets wiped out. What? What? Yes, we planned this. We're gnomes, of course we planned this. We plan for everything. Shut up."

The groups bickered among themselves, but generally congregated towards their own wagons. Eventually, they were ready to get going, but not before the orc representative threatened to twist someone's head off if he didn't get his horse back. It was brought around, and his hostage was let go.

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"There are three kinds of plan. The fast plan, the good plan, and the sneaky plan. The fast plan works because by the time anyone knows you're there, you're already stabbing them in the face. The good plan works because they know you're going to stab them in the face, but they can't do anything about it. The sneaky plan works because while you were listening to me explain all this, I stole your sandwich."