I'm not sure to what extent this falls under carousing, but John's first spending priority is an interview with Ontussa. If we can assume this goes off without trouble (perhaps by laying out some extra hazard pay to a dozen dwarves, so that the questioning expedition will scare off any wandering bands or efficiently warn of any stone golems) he will greet Ontussa with even more gallantry than usual, accept her sympathies, honestly assure her that he fully intends to see to this necromancer when the group has accumulated sufficient resources, though he thinks this will likely be after the Beast Lord is dealt with (if the party as a whole is not interested, he will recruit mercenaries). As always, he is entirely honest with her. He will ask if anyone wants him to bring her more questions, but these first ones he will pay for alone. Here's the opening salvo:
#1: The Beast Lord consults the dog brothers and rages — as if perhaps he sought some thing, or some opportunity, that their scrying bowls do not reveal. What is it he seeks?
#2: I am ghost-struck and aged. It is an honor I have not yet earned and most uncomfortable. Where is the nearest magical treasure capable of restoring me to the humility of youth?
#3: What is the most fearsome creature, either living or undead, that still inhabits the Lichway?
#4: What is the second-most fearsome creature, either living or undead, that still inhabits the Lichway?
#5: (I acknowledge I may by pushing the envelope here, but feel free to interpret this with even more fighter jargon) When I was a stripling squire, my trainer Blue Roznop, a HERO of the frontier, could make a good four strikes to my one. Now, were I to fight a half-trained NORMAL MAN, I think I could make five good strikes to his one. Were I to fight the Beast Lord, would he trade me blow for blow? Would he make two to my one? Three?
#6: That insipid green horned skull is some sort of oracle? Setting aside its repulsive appearance and tiresome chuckling, it is also unresponsive, even to the language of my ancestors. I have the honor of addressing the finest and most attractive oracle of whom I have ever heard, but still I wonder if we cannot wrest some profit from this hovering buffoon. How can we make him respond to us — or does he have nothing to say?