Piper recovers from another one of his black out spells at the Black Rock Hostelry. He indicates to Torn-Ear that he is a very good tracker, and might very well be able to track Machkat – a Gallah seen with the Blood Kings – back to his private lair. Torn-Ear is enthusiastic about this possibility, and takes Piper near the Blood Kings' lair, and Piper tries to get a whiff of Machkat. He succeeds, as Machkat is inside the building at that very moment, but some Kavis spot him. He has as his cover story that he is simply hunting vermites, and after bribing them with some vermite repellent, he is able to leave. However, he drops some vermite bait into the sewers nearby, to test his theory that Machkat may in fact use the sewers to leave the building. While watching with Torn-Ear, they hear some yelps, signalling that Piper's assumption was true. Machkat emerges above-ground, and Piper prepares to track him through Darkside overland…