The group exits the council rooms and proceeds to investigate empty room after empty room – apparently vacated in some haste following the party’s assault. SIgns of a thriving giant presence are found, and it clear that despite the slayings, many survived to flee the area.
The party pokes about in a desultory fashion and finds evidence of hasty gathering and fleeing, but little plunder. They discover a door that is barred from the outside and ole. It to discover a trio of merchantmen who claim to be hostages. Dalliance notes that the last rug merchant that the party believed ended up being Mr. Slippers and that little oversight nearly cost her life.
Ti’Karu breaks out the starlight sphere and the scene changes somewhat to reveal the trio of merchants is really a trio of deadly Rakshasas! They attack the party mercilessly and relentlessly. They detonate fireballs in the room and engage in melee depending upon their spell immunity to neuter the party’s largest threat. Within seconds, Bud is dying and several other party members are severely wounded. The retreat is unplanned and chaotic. Dalliance teleports Bud’s corpse and she and Barada follow. Ti’Karu assumes wraith form and drifts away while Demming turns into a bird to flee. Demming’s flight plans are impeded by the barricade of rocks and timbers that the fleeing giants piled across the main doorway as well as the presence of the chimera that now roams the upper complex. A combination of shape changes and elemental magic allows him to escape and eventually the party regroups – first in a friendly village and later in Waterdeep. Some soul-searching is undertaken…=
While some say that the battle did not go well Dalliance is surprised beyond belief that they managed to take down a Rakshsa.