Last we left our heroes, Dorza and Havayla had ridden off into the rainy night, leaving the rest of the Derailers to confront their shadow, a young man named Tevo, and the threat of a Beher attack.
As the feeling of electricity in the air fades, the remaining Derailers decide to head back to the ship. During their walk, they send a message to Havayla telling her where to meet them. Havayla replies that she’s pretty sure she and Dorza narrowly escaped the beher and they would meet everyone at the ship.
Gathering in the kitchen, a battered Havayla and Dorza greet the group. Havayla doesn’t want to discuss what happened, but Dorza reveals that they attempted to commune. When the spell took hold, Havayla fell into a trance and began to attack Dorza. Havayla finally admits that the commune did not reach Sehanine; she connected with Tharizdun again. His hold is getting stronger. She excuses herself and goes down in the hold with Aurora. Ryker follows, but not before instructing Reg to post guards to watch over the ship and their view of the city.
Everyone else heads to their respective bunks, deck, or kitchen counter. The next morning, while on the upper deck, Yevin is approached by a fire elemental. It points to him, and then back to the city; Daton is requesting their presence. He rouses the rest of the group and they begin their trek in to the castle.
On the way, there is evidence of a beher attack. A large tunnel is dug up through the road and the side of a building is collapsed. Earth elementals stand guard, but Nathan evades them to explore the tunnel, until he’s called back by the others.
They are met at the castle gates by Baldus, who is clad in carpenters clothes. He tells them that Grimclaw is in with the council and things do not sound good. Yevin immediately dimension doors into the room, interrupting Grimclaw’s retelling of the previous night’s meeting. Grimclaw tries to use this sudden appearance as further evidence of the Derailers aggressiveness. Yevin counters that the council should be wary of anything that comes from the bird’s beak.
It is then the the rest of the team enters. There is back and forth between Grimclaw and the Derailers as they cross examine his retelling of the night and bring up further evidence to support their claims. Eventually, the council asks if there is a truth spell or something that could be cast. Wander volunteers and casts Zone of Truth on everyone. Grimclaw resists the first time, which she points out. Turder informs him that he should give in to the spell, how else will they know the truth. Upset, Grimclaw submits to the spell as Wander casts it again. Dorza, however, resists…
Once the spell is in place, various truths finally comes out; There isn’t just one beher loose, there are two; a male and a female. There are probably eggs somewhere too. Grimclaw doesn’t specifically say he released them, but he certainly has known about it for longer than he originally let on. Turning the direction of questioning, Grimclaw levels accusations of deception at Dorza, demanding she reveal who she really is. Angry and protesting, Dorza is finally persuaded by Arunak to reveal her true form. While taken aback, the Council is surprisingly accepting of her reasons for hiding and do not hold it against her. Finally, Grimclaw admits that he is willingly obeying the Beholder.
As this is spoken, he attacks. Ryker shoots as black smoke billows out from Grimclaw. He vanishes, arrow thudding into the door behind him, and reappears across the room, flying up to the ceiling. The incorporeal smoke deals very corporal damage as the groups moves in reaction. Nathan reaches out and magically paralyzes the corvidian menace, bringing him back to ground. Arunak attacks with a flurry of blows. Yevin dispels the dangerous smoke while Daton summons a pair of air elementals. Seeing their quarry subdued, but knowing Dorza’s anger towards him, Wander moves next to her. Dorza says “I’m sorry” and moves to attack, but not before Wander magically freezes her in place with a hand on her shoulder.
Grimclaw is tied up. As far as the council is concerned, he has proven his guilt. Daton whisks him away to a prison cell using the air elementals. Then, attention is turned to Dorza. Trapped, revealed, and surrounded, Dorza breaks down. She was sent by the Crimson Eyes to kill the priestesses 20 years ago. Somewhere along the way, she discovered Sehanine and began to follow, but she was still beholden to her family. She did not complete the job, one of the priestesses was left alive. The Crimson Eyes did not take her failure lightly. In an attempt to gain attention and make amends, she performed a dark ritual to Orcus under the temple, summoning the Beholder. But it wasn’t enough, she was still marked for death as a failure by her family. So she left. She hunted down and killed the last priestess, the final witness to her existence in Riverband. She took on the guise of a priestess and made it her mission to reclaim the temple, now taken over by the beholder she summoned, who secretly used its influence to repurpose the abandoned building into Haidar’s Citadel.
The council, in shock from all the revelations in the past 5 minutes, decide to wash their hands of the matter. Someone needs to manage the citadel, no matter what is done to it. Whatever happened 20 years ago is no business of theirs, they have a city to rebuild. They quickly vote to hand over the citadel, its management, and the responsibility of any related items (specifically the escaped behers) to Dorza. They ask the Derailers to help with the escaped creatures, thank them for their time, and adjourn the meeting.
The Derailers and Dorza discuss their next moves. No one is quite sure what to do with the Beholder problem, but they decide that luring the Behers to the citadel might be the safest route. It is realized that the Behers are attracted to electricity, so plans are made for Yevin and Nathan to use their spells to entice the electric lizards to follow them. Plan established, the team heads out.
Along the way, according to the plan, Yevin and Nathan begin to let energy spark from their hands as they walk. The plan works a little too well as Havayla casts “locate creature” and realizes that one of the behers is right behind them. It breaks through the road before they’re able to reach to the citadel and the fight begins. But almost as soon as it does, the beast is struck down through a coordinated combination of spells, arrows, and melee attacks. Looking around, there is a moment of tension as Wander casts locate creature as well, targeting the second beher. It’s 300 ft away and incoming, fast.
The second beher bursts through the next street, expelling a stream of electricity over Havayla, Dorza, and Aurora. Ryker, Nathan, Arunak, and Yevin unload their various attacks as the creature climbs up on top of a building. Yevin conjures a wall of thorns around it, but the beher simply pushes through and climbs down the other side. As it rushes across the ground to attack Nathan and Ryker, Wander throws a splash of divine energy that is the final straw. The felled beher slides to a stop just in front of its intended targets.
And with that kill, we finished the session. How long until the Crimson Eyes turn their attention back on to Riverband and their wayward daughter? Will the Derailers find a way to placate the greedy beholder? Are there any other end-of-the-world plots waiting to be revealed? We’ll find out next time…