The party finished off the golem-laboratory floor with Kael dropped unconscious after the slaver noble hit him with wyvern poison and a poisoned bolt. Arya cleared the smoke-filled corridor with a wave of water and struck the bound efreeti with Flame Strike, breaking the charm that held it. Freed, the efreeti gave Arya a word of respect and beheaded the noble. Grateful for its release, it plunged Kael's blade into the lava to reforge it and invited the group into its brass vessel, a pocket plane where they rested in comfort while little time passed outside. It gifted them forged fire arrows for Siax, lenses of darkvision and construct-sight for Kael, a cinderforge focus and bracers of defence, a wizard's spellbook, ritual spells for Tiaumil, a potion of fire protection, and an obsidian stone Kael could use to summon it again. It promised to gather its kin and burn the tower to the ground once the party was done.
Leaving the vessel, they found the tower breached to open air, wind moving through it for the first time. They ascended past the fields of slaughter to a silent white floor, the hole above now sealed. A chamber held Merdelainian soldiers, every one killed by a thin rapier through the heart. Effie appeared, claiming she had gone to find help, but Kael caught the lie and used his archivist lens to see the truth: an ooze wearing her face, flanked by figures of Factore and a falcon. It had devoured every ooze on the floor and been freed when Lumalia tore its cage open. Kael named it and called out its vulnerability to fire. As they moved to strike its core, Kael's thoughts reached out and Idris appeared.