The party returned to Seagate from Smugglers' Cove with two ships loaded with treasure. Once there they investigated selling the non-drug portion of the cargo in Carzala (the Count had forbidden them to sell the drugs in Carzala). After talking with several merchants, including Vlad Sharp-knife, they decided to keep the ships and to start their own merchant company. They hired crews and officers and so forth and started the company, with Winther and Gim taking the lead in keeping track of all the details, and Vlad Sharp-knife providing occasional consulting. After Tesla recovered she began taking a great deal of interest in the business. They sold the non-lethal drugs in the North, against the wishes and vehement protests of Winther, but to the great enrichment of the party.

Gim made a trip to Arn's Ferry, where he discovered that Ilene, young woman whom the party rescued from the Force Dome in Sassym's Stronghold, was rebuilding Balour Shaw's tower with the help of some Dwarves. She had been away at the time of the explosion and believed Balour Shaw dead when she heard of it. Back in Seagate, Gim visited the Count's archives, and discovered that the tower was standing when Carzala was settled by humans, and inhabited then as well.

The party went to Dhairrhuwyth, a local mage, to get some magic items identified.^[24] The mage turned out to have known Balour Shaw, and had been investigating the explosion of Balour Shaw's tower. He had found out that a single gold coin with a eight-pointed star was found on top the rubble, that Balour Shaw had killed three assassins carrying similar coins several years ago when the assassins were after a party of adventurers, and that one of the major symbols of the Arkanian cult is an eight-pointed star. He asked the party to accompany him to the upcoming Arkanian Festival at Finn's Waste during the solstice, where he hoped to find out more about the Arkanians.