Jon once again leaped to the fore and, with a vicious swing of his blade, cut one in half at its torso and wounded the horse parts of another. The wounded creature went down hard, and Arya jumped in to finish it with a lunge at its heart. But Jon was struck by a thrown rock the size of a man's head. The blow took him in the chest and knocked him back and out of the fight. As another charged Arya, Brienne stepped in to deliver a mighty blow to its chest. Bronn cut the legs from under one, and Drena dispatched another with a vicious swipe of her black cutlass. There were two left still charging. Brienne charged them and dispatched one with a stab of her sword. The other threw a stone at her, which was deflected by her chest plate. Drena leaped in and killed it. They explored the area and discovered small boxes of coins and goods, which they collected and put into their packs. More writings were copied down, and they noticed a doorway at the end of a small hall. They carefully moved Jon, who they thought must have broken ribs, up to the doorway and entered.
Inside was a horrible scene as one horse creature was chained to a low dais in the center of a large room. Three other drunken people were passed out at tables around the room. The chained creature noticed their approach and pointed at Jon, motioning them forward. He put a finger to his lips for silence. The poor creature was covered in wounds, his horse legs folded underneath himself, and he was clearly dying. In one hand, he held a strange staff with double snakes at the top, and as they brought Jon forward and set him down, the creature raised the staff, and a golden light effused from it. The light lanced out and struck Jon, enveloping him in a greenish-golden glow. It was mending his injury, and Jon awoke shortly afterwards. He stood up shakily and said, "What happened to me?" Several things happened at once. The chained creature reached out the staff to them, dropping it, and then expired before them. The other three creatures awoke and attacked them. These creatures were obviously drunk, and though Jon had just awoken, he managed to kill the one that charged him. Both Arya and Drena killed another with disruption casts. Brienne and Bronn killed the last one with blows from their weapons.
There was little else in the room besides 4 dead bodies, the staff, and some plates and bottles on the tables. Except on the far end of the room was what appeared to be the statue of a god. When asked later in reporting, they all describe the statue differently, and even the two written accounts by Thomas and Belaletrix were wildly different. Thomas did spot three very large bottles of the wine on a hidden shelf. Brienne, who had a fondness for good wine, took a small sip from one of the cups on a table. She said it burned like fire going down, and that her stomach felt like it was full of molten metal. She also got wildly drunk from that single sip...and none of the group could ever remember her being drunk before. They gathered up everything and made for the exit.
When they came out, one of the attendants told them to keep everything they had found, but that King Wen would want a report on it later. Thomas pulled one of the bottles out and gave it to the attendant to give to the king. The camp was gathered up, and they rode home again. One of the large bottles was given to Tormund as he had been left behind and was known to love drink. The other was gifted to Bart, and he would drip out small amounts for others to taste for a long time after that. Rumors circulated that Tormund convinced Brienne to drink some of it with him one night, and after one cup each, they had monumental sex. But Brienne would blush at that, saying they had both passed out and nothing had happened between them. She added that nothing ever would happen between them.
The king received his report, and besides having a fierce hangover, nothing more came of it. The staff was given to Lelandobas (Lee), and when he held it, nothing happened. So he passed it on to one of Elanor's healers, who managed to get a small gold glow from it. It would take serious affinity to draw a healing light from it, and several of the scholars worked on it for a long time.
The tome had been finished translating, and the full thing was read to a large group. It was translated for all those who wanted to hear. It was signed at the end with only the letters M and O, and Oenel said he had once heard of this magic blacksmith. He took Gendry's hammer and cast a small glamor on it; a small M could be seen on one side. In fact, all the magical weapons found on the beast island were also discovered to have the same M on them when they were checked.