Chapter 1 - Life's Bazaar

Jenya Urikas, a cleric of the Church of St. Cuthbert, hires the untested PCs to find four children kidnapped from the Lantern Street Orphanage and learn what they can about the abductors. The party's clerical benefactor offers one potion of cure moderate wounds per PC up front and promises a monetary reward once the heroes complete the mission. Further, if the heroes succeed, Jenya promises to arrange a meeting with the Lord Mayor, for it seems the Lord Mayor enjoys meeting local heroes and offering them future work.

The divination spell cast by Jenya suggests a connection between the unknown abductors, and abandoned gnome enclave below Cauldron, and a gnome locksmith named Keygan Ghelve. The heroes' investigation quickly leads them to the locksmith's shop, beneath which lies the not-quite-abandoned gnome community of Jzadirune.

The creatures responsible for the recent rash of kidnappings include a coterie of skulks and a small band of dark creepers led by a dark stalker. The skulks have pressed the locksmith into service by snatching and imprisoning his familiar. Since Keygan Ghelve created most of the town's locks, he has "skeleton keys" for nearly every building in Cauldron. The skulks and dark creepers have used these skeleton keys to break into houses and make off with their contents.

Inside Keygan's shop, the heroes find a secret staircase leading down in Jzadirune, which Cauldron's gnome community abandoned years ago after a strange magical disease ravaged the enclave. Heroes who survive the perils of Jzadirune discover a crude elevator that leads down to Kazmojen's stronghold, called the Malachite Fortress. There, they find the half-troll busily selling slaves to a durzagon (half-fiend duergar) client. The sudden appearance of Lord Valanthru interrupts the bazaar. The beholder wants one of the four abducted children - a dour and sadistic boy named Terrem - returned safely to Cauldron. The boy, who bears a strange invisible birthmark, is important to Lord Valanthru's future designs for Cauldron. Terrem's abduction was a mistake, and Lord Valanthru has decided to correct the error personally. Although the heroes view the beholder briefly, they are not encouraged to fight it. Before they can worry about the greater threats that lie ahead, they must free the captive townsfolk from the half-troll slaver and his hobgoblin henchmen.