After more arguing, waiting, watching, and probably some degree of Karcer getting ready to maim everyone in sight, night starts to fall.
Harwin, watching the from the ridgeline ever so carefully as the others wait in their full arms and armor for battle, soon starts to see something unfold. Anyone that chooses to approach the ridgeline with Harwin and look down on the fortress can see what appears to be very slight motion near the cart identified earlier that day. The carts cover, the tarp, seems to uncurl at one of the corners of it's own volition. After a brief moment where nothing can be seen, a head pops out and looks to the left and right. Then an arm, another, a chest, a waist, and then two small legs. Then another head pops up, looks left and right, and rolls out of the cart and onto the ground nearby.
Halflings and Gnomes, six of them in all, come out of the cart with satchels on their backs. They stay low to the ground, and then they crawl a bit towards the fortress till they can put their backs against the walls and tread lightly.
The towers, all four of them at the corners of the structure, have large bonfires burning attop them. These controlled fires provide the illumination to most of the camp. Against the walls, however, the little folk are completely concealed from observation for a moment.
A minute passes, still no flare.
After a minute, ropes seem to suddenly extend down from the tower nearest the cart. It dances down, slightly visible at the top of the tower in the light. Then, suddenly, a body the size of a man drops down from the tower. It glides soundlessly at first, then hits the ground with a slight thump that can be heard softly from the Ridgeline, and undoubtedly could be heard near the camp.
A few minutes pass, but nothing seems to stir that can be seen from Harwin's spot. A few more minutes pass, and Karcer and Sara spot a small man running in a straight line right through the camp. He seems to stop every twenty feet, then get up and run again. Harwin spots another doing the same thing farther off.
After the small folks are gone for what seems like ten minutes, there is silence. It breaks. An explosion goes off, a fireball plumes upwards at the base of the north-east tower. At least twenty feet wide, a body goes flying into the air and lands somewhere outside the fort.
A flare is launched on the opposite side of the encampment. A large flare, a glowing red ball of light that drops small burning specks of red flame as it streaks across the sky above the encampment. The flare is immediately followed by a tent exploding in a fireball as large as the first. The leather covering is most likely instantly incinerated, and whoever was within is invisible from this distance.
The watch suddenly glows bright red, and points towards the carts general direction. The camp seems to be stirring, and a horn starts to blow as the groggy and tired inhabitants of this seedy little fortified outhouse wakes up to two explosions. Two explosions that killed at least a man each, and probably didn't leave it's neighbors completely unharmed.