Following the arrests of Thorne's associates, the Hellknights conduct muscled interrogations. All of them tell a similar story. They last saw Thorne in the first week of Gorzan, which corresponds to the same time frame as the last time the sisters saw him. Roscoe orders further interrogations. The suspects are to be kept apart from each other and under 24 hours surveillance. They are to be interrogated at least twice a day until useful information is gathered from them.
Roscoe then departs the Citadel and meet his sisters and Omok at the Juliver Arms for breakfast.
Doliber welcomes them and vigorously shakes the Coopers' hands, congratulating them on their good fortune. When Roscoe looks confused, he tells them that earlier in the morning Gerald came in and announced that he and Cassandra would be married at the end of the Festival of Songs on Rova 1, 4712. After a great meal and some discussion about their brother's insanity, they decide it is time to return to the Emerald Spire. They gather their gear, and then head out. They'll deal with Gerald later.
They trek through the blooming countryside, and soon enter the Echo Woods. At the halfway point, the sky begins to cloud over, and the greenish darkness that descends bodes ill. The sisters immediately begin looking for shelter, as another green storm is striking the area. The best they can find is a large pile of rocks that offer protection against the rain, but not much else. Still, it's better than nothing so the Coopers hide there, weapons drawn and on guard against any surprises. The green fog rolls in, the cloud cover is low, and the winds begin to howl. Lightning flashes, and rain starts to pelt the ground. For half an hour, the intensity of the storm does not diminish.
Then, among two flashes of lightning, Daryle spots seven small figures emerge from the surrounding trees. The group is under attack. She recognizes them as twigjack, which they encountered back in the forest by Dimsdale. Darelle can smell the rot in the air. Clearly something is out there. The twigjacks separate and attack each member of the party. Roscoe and Darelle emerge from the shelter to engage, while Omok and Daryle stay behind and attack from a distance. The cackling of a voice can suddenly be heard, and giant slugs appear behind Daryle and Omok. Slime pours out of them, and the space soon become extremely slippery. Engaged on all sides, the Coopers do not notice the gnarled old man emerge from the nearest tree. He rushes Roscoe, who, surprised, gets knocked aside.
With the slime saturating the area, and with rain and wind battering them from all sides, the Coopers are soon down in the slime, struggling to get up and yet still fighting their enemies. The gnarled old man taunts them and tells them their doom awaits in the Spire. Eventually, he withdraws and merges back in a tree. After everyone managed to get up Darelle tells Roscoe and Omok about their previous encounter with the gnarled old man and tells them that he is an agent of chaos, one of the many who have emerged or been drawn to the Spire.
It takes four hours, but the storm finally abates. During this time they hear strange noises in the forest, and at one point a rendering cry of pain, but aside from hints that things are moving in the distance, nothing bothers the Coopers.
In the late afternoon, the Coopers reach the Emerald Spire. They enter through the tunnel and reach the Splinterden level. Using the transport token, they arrive on the Pleasure Gardens level, then use the hovering platform by the Devourer's throne to reach the 14th level.
The Coopers descend on the platform and arrive about a thousand feet lower in a large hall. The ceilings here are 30 feet tall, and the craftsmanship indicate that significant resources and time were spent building it. A large staircase lead from the elevator platform to a huge set of stone double doors. On either side are two large statues. The whole level is bathed in an eerily green light. On either side of the doors, in their own alcoves, are two statues, as finely crafted as those they encountered in the Pleasure gardens. The first one is that of a woman wielding a sword and appearing to be leading troops in combat. A star-shaped hole in her left palm is clearly visible. Omok comprehends languages and reads the inscription written in Azlanti "Eternal is the Seal of Estrekan. Eternal is her vigil against evil."
Next to the other statue the Coopers discover a dead body. Based on her cloak, Roscoe recognizes her as Tiawask, a missing wizard from the Goldencloak Iliara Starcloak had asked him to locate. She displays no visible wounds, and from the state of the body Darelle estimates that she's been dead about four days. Omok speaks with dead and converses with the dead wizard. Tiawask tells them her story of being captured by Klarkosh on the sixth level, and explains how she escaped using a potion of gaseous form. She was unable to find a way up, so she made her way down, hoping to discover another exit. She's been meandering down here over the last ten months, and died when she placed a star shape ioun stone in the statue's palm. The Coopers then notice that this statue has a similar star shape hole in its palm, but a stone fills the space perfectly. Roscoe promises to fulfill his mission and bring the body back when they return to Fort Inevitable.
Wrapping her hands in parts of her Shadowborn dress, Darelle retrieves the eastern star ioun stone. She realizes she has a similar stone in her equipment, the western star ioun stone. She is also suddenly able to read the inscription on the statue, even though it is written in Azlanti. It reads: "Dedicated to the brave sacrifice of Lady Estrekan of Almorain Blue, Knight Commandant of the Western Star." Omok casts divination to find out if placing the stars in the reverse order would work, and the answer is that indeed that is the fact.
On the count of three, Roscoe and Darelle place the stars in their appropriate spots, and the double stone doors shimmer, then majestically open. Daryle quickly spike them in place. In the middle of this large room is a huge clockwork leviathan, surrounded by four humanoids bounds in chains by its feet. The construct releases a jet of superheated magical steam that takes the Coopers by surprise. They suffer grievous wounds, but they engage the creature. Darelle is thrown against the wall, and falls to the floor. She notices that the humanoids' eyes and mouth are sewn shut.
Roscoe leads a valiant attack but he is grabbed and swallowed by the leviathan. He lands ten feet below in the creature's stomach, a pool of boiling water. Since the water itself is not magical, Roscoe is able to withstand the heat due to the protection against heat they acquired from the Mistress of Thorns back when they headed down to the magma level. Inside in the darkness he spots what seems like a large mechanical heart. It appears easy to dislodge, but Roscoe hesitates to do so.
Meanwhile, the combat outside the leviathan continues. Daryle is grabbed by the creature and is when swallowed, joining Roscoe in its stomach. He points the heart to his sister, and she removes it from the wall. The monster keeps operating, however. Roscoe then plans to throw the heart out before the leviathan releases steam again. Unfortunately, Roscoe misjudges the timing, however, and as he aims the leviathan releases another jet of steam. Both Roscoe and Daryle are ejected while Omok and Darelle suffers grievous wounds. Roscoe drops the heart to the ground, and Omok picks it up and puts it in his backpack.
The Coopers continue to rain blows on the leviathan, and they inflict enough damage to disable the construct. As the party recuperates, Darelle looks at the four humanoids. They are humans. She carefully removes the stitches from the first person's mouth and eyes. His voice is a first raw and much disused, and Darelle can't understand a word he says. She remembers the ioun stones, and heads back out to the statues and removes both of them. Returning in the room, she sees Omok following the lead and removing more stitches from the other folks.
The first man Darelle freed introduces himself as Ithan. His companions are Efrah, Urian, and the lady Ommarra. All of them were Knights of the Ioun Star, and they had pursued the perfidious Nhur Athemon from Azlant all the way to his refuge here at the Emerald Spire. In a mighty battle they destroyed the archmage and his acolytes but the lady Estrekan and themselves were slain in the process. They were revived later by the archmage, who had indeed become a lich before the fall of the Spire, and, to taunt them and flaunt his power over life itself, forced them to endure in mock salute for over ten centuries.
As he tells his tale, Gerald walks in holding a couple of spikes, and happily returns them to Daryle. The doors to the outside world close with a ominous bang. The Coopers are once again locked behind magical doors...
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