The Llorkh spellcasters Cassius and Kain are joined by War Cleric Sigurd, who is looking for his lost friend Ivar, taken prisoner by the Zhents. With Sigurd leading the way, they cut a deal with Winget Sparrow of the Black Network for some information, then find a drug dealer named Chuka who knows the way to Lost Hope Prison up in the mountains. They encounter kobolds, the stone giant Hazbarg, centaurs, and the cyclops Palidos, who relieves them of a mule. At the prison, they don't manage to get past the security to find and rescue Ivar, so that will have to be a future quest. On the journey back they stop in and visit the Axeholm dwarves.