The main cavern is the largest area. It is where Black Annis presides over the denizens of Moria from her "throne" of refuse. Bristle Sue’s kitchen is also in the main area, as is the eating area. Next to Black Annis’ throne is a large pit full of nasty little creatures Erendil can identify as anthropophagi, who, lacking a head, have their mouths right on their stomachs (saves time, of course). Annis occasionally throws food (alive or dead) into the pit, where the anthropophagi devour it like a school of piranhas.
Erendil and Edward find a side cavern next to the main one, which seems to be used mainly for storage. They follow most of the denizens of Moria into the living quarters, which seem to be divided up by kith, with the nastiest kith getting the best territories. There is a whole cavern occupied by Thallain that aren’t even supposed to exist in this duchy, like goblins, boggarts, and beasties. There are also areas for unseelie trolls (ogres), redcaps including their leader, Kari, whom Edward has met on his previous trip, and unseelie sluagh. They soon discover, to their dismay, that Toby has followed them to Moria. They tell him to stay with them and do what they say. Not much chance of that. After some tussles with the redcaps to establish that they are not to be pushed around, Erendil uses his sidhe Glamour to chase some ogres out of some prime sleeping quarters and the three of them settle down for the night, after smoking some of Edward’s high quality weed.
In the meantime, Chamone is busy straightening out Tormentil’s administrative mess. She discovers that Armand is either a very poor administrator and does her best to tend to her uncle’s affairs. Tormentil’s young troll liegeman, Joshua, helps her out and seems very interested in her.
Pensius, meanwhile, is helping the Duke prepare for the still-sort-of-secret invasion of Moria. He is charged with helping to block the exits from Moria and to help set up care for the wounded. While not much of a fighter, he is a gifted organizer and quickly puts his talents to work.
Jenny is kept busy trying to figure out who is murdering sidhe around the Hillcrest area. Following up on a tip to check out the mage bar "Perspectives" on University Avenue, she meets a band of virtual adepts there who connect her with Dr. Basil Phineas, a sluagh who owns an antiquarian bookstore in Hillcrest and studies the history of mages. He has a wide variety of mystical texts and thinks that he once read something in one of them that could help identify this apparently non-vampiric bloodsucker who is committing the murders. Based on the location and times of the previous murders and the moon and star patterns of the previous nights, they do determine where and when they think the murderer will strike again. Jenny recruits Baron Carnelian and Lorien to help her stake out the location, Fashion Valley Mall. The time is this night, at 3 a.m.
Edward and Erendil both awake in the middle of the night with a feeling of extreme foreboding. They notice a black cloaked figure walking past their corridor who gives them both the chills. Edward follows after him at a substantial distance, and tracks him to, of all places, the anthropophagi pit. Needless to say, Edward doesn’t go after him.
Jenny and her stalwart companions stake out the mall, waiting for this mysterious killer. They position themselves on the rooftops in the hope of seeing where he will strike. The time of the murder draws close with no sign of the murderer himself. Finally, Jenny notices that the Rand McNally map store has a large globe emblem above the door which casts a shadow remarkably like the map of the murder locations, and figures out that that is the location for the murder tonight. They rush to the store, interrupting the murderer in the act. The murderer appears to be a tall, black clad man, with an unconscious or dead sidhe woman in his grasp. He appears to be draining her life force and sucking it into an elaborately carved silver box. At his feet two grotesque creatures bearing a twisted resemblance to sluagh drink the victim’s blood. Jenny recognizes the creatures are bogies, Thallain cousins to the sluagh who feed on various types of bodily fluids, including but not limited to blood. They attempt to engage the creatures in combat, but they belch up a hideous dark fog that hinders our heroes from getting to the dark clad murderer. When they try for the black clad one, he somehow manages to paralyze Jenny’s two sidhe companions. He and the bogies escape after draining all of the victim’s life-force, but Jenny got a good enough look at him, his companions, and the carving on the box to hopefully be able to find out more about him.
The next day, Erendil and Edward continue to explore Moria and avoid Black Annis. They find a secret entrance to the Thallain living area, and discover another hidden door in the kitchen. They do not have a chance to discover where it leads. They remember their mission and start counting troop strength and noticing guard schedules. When Jenny contacts them via their magic earring later in the day, they tell her about the black clad man they saw. She makes the obvious connection. They also manage to check out the area near the main entrance of Moria, and discover both a weapons storeroom and the lair of a blindfolded basilisk. That explains the hideous rooster crow, which work them up this morning. They also take note of who gives the orders and where they hang out. Edward attempts to impress Kari, the redcap leader, by stealing a knife and then planting it on her, his way of giving her a gift. She is more confused than impressed, but as he is a pooka perhaps that’s the point.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Pensius is preparing for another weekly sermon to his flock. He thinks he has a great theme picked out, and without Edward and Erendil around, there’s nobody to mess it up. However, halfway into his sermon several new attendees begin to heckle him. He recognizes the leader of this gang as the "professional skeptic", Charles Roanoke, who badmouthed him on the KUSI show a few days previous. He has taken care of this kind of thing before, and tries to get the crowd on his side. He fails miserably, and the crowd seems swayed more by the heckler than by Pensius’s eloquence. The chill of banality makes its presence felt as the intruders convince most of Pensius’ flock to leave him and follow them out. Pensius is left sitting alone, wondering what went wrong.
Chamone decides that she should tell Lady Tourmaline about the pending raid on Moria, since she has figured out that Tourmaline is meant to be kept in the dark. She sends Tourmaline a note asking her to visit Chamone at Count Tormentil’s estate. Tourmaline responds to the note by showing up within the day. Chamone tells her about the raid on Moria, and that it seemed that others didn’t want her to know about it. Tourmaline thanks Chamone and tells her she did the right thing in coming to her with this important information.
Chamone also notices a strange inconsistency in Armand’s recordkeeping. She finds an entry for a large payment to a company called Virginia Investments in a real estate ledger, but can’t find anything on the company itself.
Jenny spends the day working with Dr. Phineas and Baron Carnelian in trying to learn more about the mysterious killer. Phineas finds some references to the sigil on the box in lore about the fomori, ancient enemies of the fae. One legend has it that a sluagh scholar who offended the fomori was cursed to walk the earth until he successfully sacrifices 9 sidhe and steals their souls in accordance with some unholy ritual. The sigil itself appears to chart when and where the sacrifices must take place. Dr. Phineas believes that "something bad" will happen when the killer completes his sacrifices, but doesn’t know what, exactly.
After dinner that evening, Erendil, Edward, and Toby finally have their luck run out and are noticed by Black Annis. Black Annis invites Erendil back to her lair to "get to know him better". And this is where we end.
