Summary
After defeating Tekclif and her party at the crossroads, the party reaches Mountainfoot to shut down its prison and must win Olek over.
Detailed Narrative
Olek has held back the last batch of slaves bound for Dark Moon, including prisoners taken from the Thicket, and has not released them. He has also kept the library books rather than shipping them north, and has been reading them — working out the plans and politics of Macklot and Grimtold. He suspects someone in Dark Moon is working with someone in Sparrow, and that the abductions feeding race research were commissioned by a party outside the Dark Moon tribe.
The Flaming Spear stand against Olek's tribe, with only Dark Moon preventing escalation. The party is effectively working for Grimtold without knowing Macklot's motives; Olek suspects Dark Moon has ulterior reasons for sending them to close the prisons.
Onyx's purpose surfaces: he is trying to build perfect warriors and improve the races, taking a perverse pleasure in meddling, hoping to create a race to rival those made before.