At least she looks clean and reasonably healthy.

[UncleMonty]

Here's the important question:

What does this party have that other, previous parties DIDN'T have?

Now there's an easy clue you've dropped in our laps. The other parties didn't have a questor.
Now, what in the world would the Gragum want with a questor? And why this round-about way of finding one? I'm beginning to sense a "We'll release the girl if you'll do this job for us" deal here. This possible job had better be an "honest" one, or Quentyn might have to turn it down.

Can you imagine how that'd feel?

[RHJunior]

I didn't say WHO, I said WHAT.

[Earl McClaw]

What does this party have that other, previous parties DIDN'T have?

Hmmm...

...the gun?
...enough people?
...a "finder" button? (Did a wizard who'd seen them have the girl abducted?)
...the "Frog Wizard"?
...the new Questor? (Geez, all he had to do was get the title and he's got enemies!) Something he's carrying?

[UncleMonty]

I didn't say WHO, I said WHAT.

Hmmm, that'd be especially difficult to say, since the very existance of those other search parties is unsubstantiated. It could be that everything this party has is something no other party has had, if there were no other search parties.

I don't have any way to tell if magic swords are so rare that no other party would be so equipped, and the same can be said about Quentyn's boots. Perhaps the Frog Wizard's staff has some quite extraordinary spells woven into it? It could just as easily be the tracking stone Quentyn is using. It probably isn't the boomslang they're after, because firearms need ammunition. A Gragun would have difficulty keeping his powder dry.
Considering the quality of their armaments, the Gragun might just want the soldier's spear.

I'll go with the boots, if for no other reason than the thought of a Gragun running out of control through the swamp, screaming.

[ZOMBIE USER 12886]

That's it! It must be the heart-shaped pendent they used to track her, because no other party knows about it or has one. And they're not likely to look.

Obviously, despite a possible lack of fluency in Racconan, these Gragums (sp?) know that this search party has somehow gotten around that little trick they used to cover their trail. And if just one person gets back, he could tell all the others how they found the girl...

Quentyn's boots may come in handy here, but at the risk that the others may be killed once the Gragums find out he's gone. Geez, this is quite a pickle they've gotten themselves into!

Quick Ralph! To the drawing board!

[BBlalock]

That's got to be it.

Of course the Gragum don't know that the little brother knows, and Quentyn did mention that they would be able to track him that way. I think that she left good notes, and that Quentyn was able to whip together a pair of tracking amulets for himself.

Once all the search parties return from thier fruitless hunt they'll go after the missing party and Quentyn.

[UncleMonty]

Don't you just love cliff-hangers? I know I do.