Shortly after returning to Deal, the party comes across some merchants in distress. The party investigates and finds a badly-beaten Giles, an overturned cart, and a gutted donkey. Mendelor picks up some tracks, and the party follows these into a nearby birch wood and into a ravine. The tracks lead right up to one of the stony walls of the ravine and a small, odd door that has been left ajar. The party tries the open door. They encounter a grueling series of long, cramped tunnels, set with murder holes and secret sally ports. After taking moderate casualties, the party withdraws. While the rest of the party returns to Deal, St. James climbs a tree overlooking the ravine and observes several squinting ruck-men emerge from the tunnel complex, quickly survey the ravine, and return.

In Deal, the party regroups: it will take a couple of days to recover sufficient strength to again try the ravine entrance. These ruck-men are believed to be members of the Gory-Moon tribe—the same rucks from Willoghby copse. The Gory-Moon tribe could also have been responsible for the massacre of Rotting Eye rucks which Mendelor and Hamral had observed several weeks earlier.

The next day the party follows up with Giles and his fat brother, and discovers that the manservant Godwin is still missing. Friar Sidrach learns that Godwin had only worked for the merchants for a short time as an animal handler, and that Godwin often disappeared on 'family business.' Godwin is described as a great, strapping blond-haired man, resembling a man occasionally seen in Deal in the company of a small, cowled companion. This blond-haired man had gotten into some trouble in Deal for thrashing a local a few months earlier. A cursory examination fails to reveal another set of tracks leading from site of the ambushed cart. Could Godwin have made the man-sized prints that led directly to the tunnels? If so, was Godwin actually a traitor?

Hamral and Mendelor construct four mantlets—small, portable walls (or are they large, unwieldy shields?) in order to thwart the ruck-man gauntlet of murder holes. Suddenly, Mendelor realizes that he can no longer find his shield—the same marvelous one that had brought out of the tunnels at Willoghby Copse. A desperate search reveals that nothing else in the party's rooms seems to be missing—but Valerius swears that someone or something has been looking through his strange, precious books! No one in Deal saw anyone approach the party's rooms, nor had any suspicious strangers been seen in the vicinity. Furthermore, at no time had the room ever been empty. So how could the shield disappear? A jittery party plants a false rumor that they are preparing to leave Deal the next day. A vigilant guard is set up in the room. Shortly after Matins, noise can be heard in the hallway. The door to the room is flung open, but no one can be seen! The party frantically examines the inn and surrounding houses, but stops short of venturing near the tunnels in the dark.

The next day the party returns to the tunnels in the ravine. The improvised mantlets work reasonably well at nullifying the murder holes, although the nasty little ruck-men also employ such tricks as orcish fire, covered pit traps, and several secret doors. After some tough scrapes, the party nears the heart of the complex. They slay some rather tough ruck-men and find a sack of strange iron coins, each marked with an `X.' Hamral, slightly shaken, recognizes these coins: he had found such coins on an ill-fated expedition to a haunted ruins known as Corbiestone.

The party finds some secret doors—and only after much delay and confusion, the party appears to find the personal quarters of the ruck-men's leader. But the quarters are in disarray, obviously abandoned. The party frantically searches the tunnels, fearing that some invisible opponent may slip through their grasp. In the confusion, however, several precious minutes are wasted. Also, Valerius's weird orb no longer seems to function. The party eventually discovers a secret trap door in the ceiling of one of the rooms in the tunnel. When opened it reveals a secret escape shaft. St. James attempts to open a door at the top of the shaft, but has no luck. A mysterious voice calls down from above:

"HELLO DOWN THERE! GIVE MY REGARDS TO HIS LORDSHIP, AND TELL HIM BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME!"

The party is unable to entice the voice into further conversation—and a hasty search of the ravine and surrounding environs fails to reveal the mysterious leader. The rest of the complex is seemingly abandoned; the party contemplates pursuing the missing master towards Heremac. But the party decides instead to bunk at Deal: after all, several party members are hurt, and everyone is tired.

After a good rest the party returns to the tunnels to bring back the stolen iron on commission from Giles and his fat brother. This service done, the party strikes out for Heremac.