The House of Amber

Taz'Or Ka's insurance book showed owlbear attacks had become so common on the southern and eastern roads that runs were no longer insured. At The House of Amber the party passed Natia Proudcinder, who paid Uldrick unexplained attention, and met the firbolg ward Branock, who remembered the dwarves paying tithe and vanishing overnight, and the "deal" made four years into their desertification. Below the temple they found a pool of amber and a non-physical, hyperspherical gate only dwarves can reach, and fought eight-legged rats led by a ratfolk warlock, corrupted by transmutation and necromancy and reminiscent of The RatKEENG. Uldrick communed with the Amber Queen: a dark deal was made that he must end, and he must seek out the deal maker.

Rainclaw found holes into a century-old ancient sewer system, and Slick's boss McScrooge identified the flood oil as rich export oil, told him to forget it, said the city was built on a former elven colony, and gave him bathhouse tokens.