Homeward Bound

The night after the ritual to resurrect Xentarix is stopped, there is a cutscene back to Dragon’s End in Crown’s Rest where Talon confirms to Raynere that Landor Blackthorne is his son with Lady Marian Blackthorne, hidden to keep him from being used as leverage against Raynere. Talon also confesses his regrets with each of his children, flinching hard at the mention of Octavia over "what's still coming," but won't explain further. He refuses to confide his real burden in his children, gives Raynere a letter marked only with a date, and makes him swear not to open it until then. When asked what the date means, Talon says only: "It's the day I die."

Back in Soleilae, the party regroups, all major allies survived, though some assassins were lost. Edwinn asks Zephoros to teach him necromancy after unknowingly seizing control of undead mid-battle. Zephoros identifies the source as Va'Gro lich magic, and is alarmed to learn Edwinn's cursed gauntlet is actual Va'Gro lich-lord armor, worn since age eighteen with no visible ill effect. He agrees to teach Edwinn in exchange for a future pardon, and reveals Via privately asked him to take responsibility for mercy-killing cult-corrupted friends of hers. Allies then depart: Marceline Duval to expose corrupt nobles, Ophelia to heal (refusing to cross into Edaria), and Elim, Torwyn, and Moreau to report to House Astralor at Tomehold.

On the week-long trek to Colline, the healed dragon Bramble recalls his captivity: a porcelain-skinned man matching Voresh’s description giving orders to the Ember Hierophant, and an armored figure carrying what may be Dragonsbane. Voresh mentions needing to head back to Crown's Rest to tend to "his brother." He also suggests the missing third egg was taken north to Maldaris. In an exchange of sending spells, Talon then mentions receiving regular reports on the party's location, supposedly from Moreau, who's sent nothing. Cailynn tracks the source to Kaeleth Antlersworn, spying for "the Shepherd." A fight breaks out: Kaeleth downs Marik, Elim intervenes and forces Kaeleth to chase him off leaving the party behind. Xanthe finds letters at his camp confirming the reports were being received by someone signing as "the Crown" — in Talon's own handwriting.

At Colline, the party trades information for the last phalactory piece from the Silk Spider, who spends an uneasy hour alone with Zephoros discussing his past in the Desert of Nekaru. Back at Colline the next day, Edwinn tells Xanthe about the necromancy and the gauntlet, hearing that the gauntlet belonged to the necromancers Xanthe insists that it be taken off immediately. She fetches Zephoros and together they remove it. The extraction tears the skin from his hand and arm and knocks him out; the instant it's free, the gauntlet's influence briefly overtakes Zephoros, who reaches for it before Xanthe wrestles it away and pins it to the ground. Neither trusts moving or destroying it. The session ends with the rest of the King’s Hand finding Edwinn unconscious and bleeding, the gauntlet pinned nearby.