Clomm's wondering goes unanswered as Conrad brings them all into his house.
It is a stoutly made building -- a two-story, timber-framed, wattle and daub structure with a steeply pitched roof. The second floor has a jettied overhang, and an addition has been added to the ground floor at some point; it is through this utilitarian front room that the group enter, behind the family patriarch. They walk past a workbench and some washing basins, past some tools and garments that are in need of mending -- and past a trap door in the floor that is secured with a makeshift lock, into the kitchen, which smells of bread and roasting potatoes.
Eliza Spudfield, a friendly-looking brunette in her thirties with a babe in one hand and a wooden spoon in the other, smiles as her son steals a piece of sweetbread from an earthenware platter on a nearby table. "Conrad, Daece, who's this then? You've brought -- oh! There are a lot of you! And you're -- there... there are a lot of you!"
"I found them at the Bellowing Bear!" Daece declares. "The Reeve wouldn't help, just like dad said he wouldn't, but these four travelers -- once hearing about the terrible beast in our cellar -- said they'd have a look, they'd take care of it!"
Eliza looks impressed -- with the height of the one, the hair and wary expression of the pock-marked fellow, the flamboyant clothes of the woman, and the elegant and unusual manner of the bald man. They were a sight... but they were willing to help. Handing her snoozing babe to her husband, smacking the table with her spoon to prevent her greedy-fingered son making off with another sweet, the woman wiped her hands on her apron and came to greet the foursome properly.
"I am Eliza, and I thank you for agreeing to help us. I'm sure Conrad has told you we have no silver to offer, and little copper besides -- at least until we can sell part of our harvest... which is in the root cellar we don't dare go into!"
Daece relays that the four travelers have expressed interest in room and board, and her mother readily agrees to that. "The least we can do," she says as she leads them back towards the trap door in the front room. "Now I didn't get a good look at the thing I saw down in the cellar last night, but it was evil, I'll tell you. It's eyes! It's teeth! It had a kind of... hunger that I could feel. Scared me out of my wits, I ran like I'd seen Death itself! We slammed shut the door and bolted it, and that's when we heard the thing growling -- and what an awful sound!"