Departing 5 Eleint, 1373DR, Freehold's first official resource-scouting expedition left the village to pursue reports made by Mircea na Heliogabala of a possible abandoned mining site far to the northeast. Since the journey would be through extensive unknown terrain, the expedition task force included a variety of talents and specializations: Mircea na Heliogabala led the way and provided technical mining expertise, along with the engineer and earth sorcerer Nitis Nochan; Lysander Arkaine and Adoward Beastfriend supplied survival know-how for the less experienced travelers; Elkas Strifelaughter maintained communication with the village through druidic magic; Shara Graye and her brownie familiar, Cassandra, provided magical support; and Trendal Kingshand was assigned the role of keeping the expedition healthy.

The iron mines, located on the far northeastern side of the Aerilpar crater from Freehold, were to be explored and potentially mapped, as well as assessed for value and previous development. Danger was encountered well before the expedition arrived, however, in the form of summoned hellhounds that attacked the party on the plains. Luckily, Karou spotted them and was able to warn the expedition members, so the battle was easily won. Shortly thereafter, Shara Graye detected a scrying sensor in their midst, presumably of similar origin as the conjured fiends; the Freeholders fled on horseback, faster than the sensor could move, and were able to escape it, but could not immediately discern its source.

In their flight, they discovered a water-eroded tunnel leading from the lip of the crater down into the Wood of Dark Trees. Though marked nearby with footprints Lysander Arkaine recognized as belonging to the strange, hunched creatures that haunted the forest, the expedition had neither time nor proper equipment to further explore the phenomenon, so it was added to the new territorial maps and left for a later time.

Not long after, as the Freeholders sought to bypass a region infested with giant ants, they were beset by tauric scorpion-creatures called Tlincalli or "stingers." Forced to fight against the monstrous vermin-men and their paralytic poison in a sudden, driving cloudburst, the expedition suffered numerous injuries, but emerged victorious. Strangely enough, the stingers all carried crystal holy symbols of Savras, god of divination, in addition to their other equipment. It was suspected at the time that the stingers may have been the source of the earlier scrying sensor, as their attack had the flavor of an ambush and they seemed well-prepared to battle the expedition force. Shara Graye identified them as paramount diviners, originally from Maztica before they were forced to flee elsewhere through the Underdark, and suggested that they may have become aggressive when the party disrupted one of their large-area divining structures; the truth of this was unconfirmed, as the Tlincalli were all unfortunately slain.

Badly wounded and tired, the party made camp at a large rock formation. Not too long after, as they proceeded north, they encountered a small caravan composed of monster-hunters out of Orphel in Durpar, bounty-seekers of the "Trollslayer Chaka" (a chaka being a Durpari merchant house): A garrulous and cunning man named Calvin, a Selûnite priest called Simon, a woman, and a telepathic thri-kreen, or mantis-man, dubbed Teek. From the odd group and their trackless magical wagon, the Freeholders learned not only that the merchants of Amn might have something to do with the Tlincalli's presence in the region, but also that the monster-infested region of Veldorn had been quieter than normal recently—news that did not bode well for Freehold. Simon claimed, as well, that a great ruin lay about four days west of the settlement, and was said to be populated by lycanthropes and undead in the service of an ancient enemy of Durpar. Some minor word of Freehold seemed to have reached as far as Durpar, too, and the party was warned that such frontier villages had been tried before, and tended historically not to last long in Veldorn.

After going their separate ways, the expedition continued onward toward their destination. One day out from the mines, they were witness to a battle between a strange breed of small behir, which killed and chased a number of goblins away from its lair, nearby. Upon investigating the scene of the fight the next day, it was discovered that the goblins bore Suth wood weapons, implying that such trees grew somewhere nearby, given the craftsmanship. An artificial structure was found as they traveled on, with tracks from both humanoids and the behir leading in and out, but was left for later exploration.

Finally arriving at the mine, the explorers were accosted by an orcish guard, and there were some tensions exchanged as he claimed the mines had once belonged to dwarves. Provoked when Adoward Beastfriend began to cast a spell—only one of translation, but without warning the orc or explaining his intentions—conflict was narrowly averted by Lysander Arkaine speaking to the warrior and his allies in their own tongue, and the subsequent arrival of the ogre leader of the mine-folk, Hrrlak.

Much discussion was held, and it took all of the Freeholders to convince the ogre of their intentions, during which process Adoward Beastfriend was unfortunately absent do to his withdrawal from the parlay, as a result of his vexation at being called out for his spellcasting and a lack of translation in the following exchange, which took place in the orcish tongue as Lysander Arkaine tried to salvage the situation before combat broke out. Hrrlak found it difficult to believe that the settlers had journeyed so far just to make friends with ogres and orcs whom they may never have encountered, otherwise, but after some fast and lucky diplomacy, he proposed a trade of representatives, with the Freeholders leaving Mircea na Heliogabala and taking Skardeg in his place, giving each a chance to evaluate the others for a time.

Upon securing agreement to the arrangement, the Freeholders were introduced to Khleg, the ogre shaman, and Rarkar, an unpleasant duergar miner, and the two groups celebrated with shared rations, sealing the deal before the expedition hurried home.