Everyone here has a job in which they take on armed adversaries willing to kill them and the ongoingly secret spies have chosen to do it at least twice; this is a one-time confession-encouragement policy and if they catch someone tomorrow they will not be so fortunate. Anevia should talk to the people who have fessed up if there is some reasonable thing to do which gets appropriate parties acceptable amounts of information safely.

...Some people who heard Knightly Order Guy's confession would like to know exactly how broadly he meant that. Does he want to know about anyone writing to a patron back home? To a family member? Even if nothing they're saying is secret per se?

If you are writing that you hate the food and miss your sister and would like the money you are sending home spent on a new goat instead of replacing the shutters that is fine unless it's code. If you are writing about the weather where you marched, your commander being a hardass, your having taken an arrow to the knee - that's more borderline, enough information of that kind could add up to material information about the location and morale and condition of the army - this is true even though anyone who walked past you could derive all these facts; the important thing about spies is that they provide the "being someone on location" step of the information-gathering process. Any more material information than that is definitely trouble to hand out even in small amounts.

...In that case a whole lot more people have things to report! This guy has been dictating letters to his family about all the cool demons he's killed. This guy had a patron in Kenabres who's dead now but he's not sure if the Knight-Commander is going to apply things retroactively? This guy has been making suggestions to his baroness about things to donate to the army. This guy wrote letters home complaining after his shield broke and his unit commander blamed him for it. This guy's been complaining about that asshole sorcerer serving under Harmattan...

(It will take well more than a single Zone to get through everyone who's willing to admit to something along those lines.)

Blai is not going to apply this thing retroactively.

He prepped two Zones but he would like to save one for the evening for anything that comes up over the course of the day so anyone who doesn't make it into the first one can chill till then.

They will do that. 

Next up: consulting his companions about the nightmares.

"Many phenomena can cause nightmares! Considering the situation, the most obvious hypothesis is their proximity to the Worldwound; those nearby report nightmares at elevated rates, particularly when camping in a comparatively exposed area rather than a protected structure. Other potential causes include the spell Nightmare, creatures such as night hags and certain rare demons, various diseases..." She can continue in this vein for a while. "Though of course, a purely mundane origin cannot be ruled out."

"Desna doesn't really do nightmares — even when she sends a dream about something bad, like the Wardstone, it's not upsetting the way a nightmare is. But I think other gods do send people dreams occasionally, it's just harder for them? I think I'd be able to guess whether the dreams meant anything if I talked to them."

"Nenio, we're looking for a reason why it would be concentrated within this particular unit... you can have some time to do that, Thall, go ahead."

He trots off to do this.

In the meantime, Irabeth has the report he requested. It seems like people have broadly gotten the message that they aren't supposed to rape prisoners, though they did not consistently understand that anything done to a male prisoner might qualify. She did hear some complaints, including derogatory remarks comparing him to a paladin. Some people are under the misapprehension that he's from Lastwall, Heaven, or Axis. One person seemed to believe that he had prohibited literally any form of physical contact with prisoners whatsoever, regardless of circumstances. She did overhear one conversation speculating on alternative things to do to prisoners if rape is disallowed, including some straightforwardly prohibited in Lastwall (such as beating them up in circumstances when this isn't actually necessary) and some that she expects Lastwall would disapprove of but which are hard to cleanly prohibit (such as taunting them about how they're going to be turned into Abyssal grubs). Relatedly, she recommends not putting any of the following names in charge of watching prisoners; she expects there are others with similar impulses and the sense not to discuss them in front of her.

People's understanding of the illegal orders explanation was more dubious. She heard a number of assertions that the rules obviously did not apply to various circumstances where Irabeth expects that in fact they do apply. She also heard a number of claims about circumstances where she expects it doesn't apply, such as someone claiming it's an illegal order for someone to order a scouting team to retreat after observing a threat they were unprepared to fight. She overheard several attempts at reciting the list of illegal orders that were incomplete; there is also a persistent rumor that it is an illegal order to command anyone to do anything contrary to the teachings of Iomedae, and various less-persistent rumors that mostly seem to be wishful thinking. People do seem to have absorbed that the concept of illegal orders does not mean they can trivially avoid being conscripted.

That is all extremely useful and he will do another walk-and-talk clarifying these points if the sidequests permit, at least as long as no one suggests in his hearing that this has anything in common with public speaking at all, thank you Irabeth.

"Happy to help, Knight-Commander."

Meanwhile, Thall is back with his own observations! He's pretty confident that the nightmares aren't conveying some sort of important message — there aren't any common features that apply to all of them, and the commonalities that apply to only some tend to be things like 'several people had nightmares related in some way to recent battles their unit has seen.' He's not sure what is causing them, but if they build a little altar to Desna and leave it outside near their tents tonight it might help and won't hurt.

They are certainly permitted to do this should they care to.

Breakfast and then they should collect the party and go sally forth into the forest of undead.

The undead beasts still active in this forest are nearly all larger creatures — wolves, elk, and the like. They show the party none of the caution that an ordinary animal might display, charging into combat even when badly outnumbered and never fleeing even on the brink of death. Their hides are tough, tough enough that even well-aimed blows sometimes lack the force to pierce them, and their bites are powerful.

Still, it's not too difficult for them to clear out the forest, with time left to spare for the mysterious puzzle-structure.

These poor animals are hurting so badly...

(Ember is much less effective against the undead than against demons; she can't put them to sleep at all, and if she gets close enough to cast her healing spell she's also close enough for them to bite her.)

His summons pierce their hides like they're normal beasts rather than terrible abominations! Neat!

Blai winds up sticking close to Ember and trying out his positive energy ray once he's prepped each engagement with an appropriate fraction of his undead-specific spells.

The ray is about as strong as a Cure Serious and doesn't seem to afford any sort of save; so long as he can keep his aim even vaguely steady, it'll be a useful asset here.