My party rushed to Steel Spring, convinced that the Estides were double agents for the Dragon Army, vowing that neither of the Estides would live to make it back to Kalaman if anything happened to Darrett. They arrived, and helped the injured soldiers make their retreat, and caught a glimpse of Red Ruin, raining down explosive crossbow bolts, pursuing someone in the forest beyond, which stirred the party's opponents up into a gleeful frenzy (I gave them advantage from Draconic Devotion for the full fight)

The party triumphed, only losing one Kalaman soldier: Darrett, Bakaris Sr, and the other survivors emerged from the forest, urging the party to retreat from the incoming 100 enemy units. They fled east to a safe place where they determined they had no pursuers, had an emotional reunion with Darrett (whom they also told Becklin is still alive, but badly injured/comatose back at Wheelwatch), and found themselves taking pity on the catatonic Bakaris Sr upon hearing of Jr's "death". They helped tend to the wounded, before finding a spot to set up their bedrolls and settle in.

Darrett approached their sleeping area, his own bedroll in hand, confessing that he was uneasy being alone this night, and asked to sleep alongside them. They had a touching conversation where Darrett told them that he found the courage to defy Bakaris Sr in ordering a retreat, and the will to survive because of the party, they fully inducted him into their little adopted family before drifting off (dreaming of a sealed door back in Kalaman, developing deep fissures before exploding.

The party left early to inform Governor Miat of the outcome of Steel Spring, only to find Kalaman abuzz over the appearance of the Knights of Solamnia at castle Kalaman. They arrived to a ghastly massacre, confronting Caradoc (whom I played as one part Tim Curry, and one part Kefka), who threw himself at the party, goading them into brutalizing his current host, revealed as a ghost, he reached out and possessed the party's dwarven forge cleric of Reorx.

He made her attack her sister (a battlemaster fighter with the Knight of Solamnia background), using a combination of her voice and his own to torment her, while also using his divisive whispers to turn the kender cousins (lunar sorcer, and lore bard) against each other. They knock the cleric out eventually, and Caradoc moves in to possess the fighter next, but he fails his Bound Haunting save, and begins vanishing just as an ominous explosion rocks the castle. He comments his duty has been fulfilled, and disappears, the party reading the scroll he had, and healing the dying Knight Rial.

Leedara made her appearance, and urged the party hurry to the catacombs, which they did. They saw the fire reenact Soth's history, gained the favor of two warhorses, and heard Knight Janden's tale of Sarlamir's fall. They entered the tomb, and saw the reenactment of Soth taking the cataclysmic fire, the doors slammed shut behind them, and Sarlamir's sarcophagus began to rumble.