Battle of Riverdrown

Still recovering from Doug's death, Tingle drinks away his sorrows in the Seventh Ruby. Later that night, the party reconvenes and meets with Xauld on his yacht, explaining why they betrayed him and killed his two most trusted warlocks. Quite simply, they didn't want him having a powerful artifact that turns people into cannibals. He respects their decision to not work with him, but does not feel any less wronged by their actions.

Before ending the meeting, he gives the party a letter to be delivered to the city immediately, remaining vague about its purpose or contents, only instructing them not to read it. Everyone leaves the ship except for Taigus, who stays behind to discuss his previous pact with the archdevil. Wanting Nimrya and his future child to have fulfilling lives, he makes another pact with Xauld, giving up his soul to extend Nimrya's life by another 13 years. He also gains the ability to summon and command imps. As a condition of the pact, however, it will dissolve if Taigus directly defies Xauld in any way.

Leaving the docks, the party delivers the letter to Councilman Pryde. They discover that Xauld intends to besiege Riverdrown at dawn with an army of dragonborn if the city is not surrendered to him beforehand. Roach figures that this army, 1,000 troops strong, must be the same ones mentioned in the letter from Aramis's house. After the City Watch is alerted, the streets come to life with the sounds of bells and startled civilians. The party meets with the Council of Twenty, where two solutions are presented: either they give the city to Xauld, thus avoiding bloodshed, or they defend it from attack come morning. By a slim majority, it is decided that the city will prepare for battle.

Placed in charge of Riverdrown's defenses, the party recruits several of their friends and allies for the cause, such as Boyle, Azak-si, and Bertram and Verren, the two owners of the Seventh Ruby. A few, though, like Ventra, choose to flee the coming battle instead. The Crimson Wolves arrive as the city's defenders begin manning the battlements. Roach spots three erinyes circling the city in the sky, and readies himself to engage them once dawn approaches. Civilians, merchants, and nobles wishing to avoid the consequences of the siege are led northward from the city by a contingent of guards. As Xauld promised in his letter, these people are not attacked by the entrenched mercenaries.

At dawn, the battle is joined. Scores of dragonborn begin scaling the walls with siege ladders and battering the North and South Gates, defended by Lau and Hachiman, and Tingle and Taigus, respectively. Above the Council Hall, Roach bravely confronts the erinyes, hoping to keep all three of them away from walls. For a time, the city's defenders manage to hold their own against the waves of ferocious attackers: Boyle and a handful of other wizards freeze dozens of the dragonborn with successive castings of c*one of cold*, while hundreds more are barraged by the city's archers and gunmen. Hachiman, with Lau, throws off four of the eight siege ladders near the South Gate.

However, with each passing minute, the battle grows more dire for the defenders. Roach is felled from the sky by the victorious erinyes general and the South Gate is eventually breached, bringing the battle into the city. Shortly thereafter, a figure appears on the crest of a southern hill, who Hachiman and Lau soon recognize as Xauld. Without warning, the archidevil transforms into an enormous, horned creature and unleashes a screeching ray of fire at the South Gate. Several of the city guardsmen are vaporized in an instant, but Hachiman takes the brunt of the blast for Lau, and the two of them ride away on their mounts with Azak-si, as Xauld charges toward the city.

On his way to the docks, Lau spots Roach's unconscious body hanging over the roof of the Council Hall. He climbs up the building with his lizard to retrieve him. At the North Gate, Taigus, Tingle, and Bertram see and hear the large archdevil moving through the city, and declare the battle to be lost. They tactically retreat to the docks with their troops, realizing that the ships moored there are their only means of escape from the doomed city. Approximately five hundred people, including all of the party members, rapidly crowd onto Riverdrown's six remaining steamships, many of them only intended for commercial use. As the survivors of the Battle of Riverdrown sail from the city, Xauld angrily and loudly demands for Roach to be found, sending a chill down the tiefling's spine.