Will and his companions set out for the Rust Mountains to fight the dragon Valacirca. On the way, they pass by the City of the Dead, so Will decides to stop and visit his old home.

Will's crew saves Dine, an elf, from a hydra's attack. Dine tells them that the dragon's miasma has tainted her homeland of Lothdor and sickened its people, so Will decides to go there and heal them.