I have an idea to solve these problems... Has anyone ever determined if the Lizards are repulsed by the sounds of crushed pelvises? Just a thought...

That said, I'm almost more eager to read about Griselda and her sister's schemes prior to the events of the story.

Phenomenal work!

Maybe I'm missreading this but it seems like there's no possible way for Griselda's plan to go well. She wants to forcibly marry Dirk for the gold but that's a piece of information that has already spread too far to be contained. If this gets to the Queen or worse Dirk's friends in the Imperial army, which it probably would too many people know about this to keep it a secret long term, Griselda is fucked. Maybe she could get control over the gold for a few months or even years but eventually this will bite her in the ass. Of course she's gonna lose long before that, because the protagonists aren't going to lose, but even if she were to win this seems doomed and if she was smart she would've cut her losses the moment information security was broken.

At this point there are several civilians, a priestess, a dwarven engineer, and a smuggler with lines of information that stretch across the boarder all with varying levels of interest in this not working out for Griselda. She needs to silence all of them and do it before the information gets further, without knowing all the people this has been leaked to and without just disappearing lots of people all connected to her business in suspicious circumstances. The fact that she's even needing to try to keep this under wraps means she doesn't have the kind of political capital to endure it and the local climate doesn't seem disposed to tolerating this sort of thing in the slightest.

Fun story but when you think about it the villain's threat seems more how much damage can she do before this collapses on her rather than any real indication that her plans could succeed, then again that's the nature of these kinds of stories anyway so. . .