Despite their best efforts to keep him from leaving, Aiken manages to get free of his wife and daughter after packing for his (supposedly short) journey with Sylvania Jack. While loading the wagon, Midge Sniffler appears and lets them know she's been bribed to follow them and keep an eye on Aiken.

Jack has no problem inviting the pretty otter lass along. Once they leave town heading west, the trail leaves the road and into the wilderness until they come across a landscape warped from the Necromancer Wars. They set up camp, then strike out at dawn again.

Jack uncovers the ruins that his maps say should be the entrance to the Vermite King's underground lair. To Aiken's dismay, Jack has brought the little cursed vermite statue with them, thinking it could be some sort of key, and asks the Kadie to bring it. Aiken doesn't want to touch it, so kicks the box along with his foot.

As they descend into the bowels of the lair, they come across a room with many doorways (and vermite holes). Jack recites a poem about the four winds being the key, and hands the vermite statue box to Aiken so he can pull out his compass.

Aiken deliberately drops the box, which results in the statue popping out and sliding down one of the corridors. He goes after it, and triggers a deadfall trap that collapses the tunnel behind him. While the two otters start digging him out, the little vermite statue becomes animated again – and it still remembers Aiken.