The claw gets the Fox to agree to a zone of truth and he gives them three questions. They ask him what he does for the emperor, fox answers 'I am to help the dragon island's people reach their destiny'. Second question, what is the meaning of the emperor's dictums?, fox answers, 'the emeperor seeks to restore his beloved to her rightful place.' Nyxek understands that the Emperor is referring to the five-headed Mother. Last question, Nyxek asks what could give him the authority to command the empire to achieve this dream. The fox reveals there exists a rod of rulership of the red dome that is apparently currently in the possession of the Mistress of Storms, and she might give it to someone who returns her son. The fox is then brought to Draxelas and the two have a snark off. Eventually, Draxelas accepts a geas to serve Nyxek for a month while his loyalty can be investigated. Paragon prophet then shows up to talk about a weird undead Kraken ship causing problems. Turns out the giant child's soul has been nabbed by the lich who runs that ship so everyone dives down a dead leviathan gullet. Battle skeletons, Nyxek turns them. Oh a strange captain pops up. He has a scepter and a clockwork arm, and invites the claw to see him. Find a weird chemical mixing half-dead guy with some bodies lying around. He wants the scepter because it holds all the souls, and he can restore his Lenore with it. The claw asks if he can free the giant child soul from the scepter. The half-dead lies, the claw kills him and Lenore. Finds mushrooms and potions. Drinks the potions, saves the mushrooms. They then go to the captain in his chain filled chamber. The chains halt Paragon Prophet's flight. Everyone else huddles down, Draxelas animates several of the chains to assault the captain. There is then something resembling an epic magic fight, but it is mostly just counterspells against counterspells over counterspells. Kal eventually takes the captain's head with his longsword. Nyxek then has the scepter destroyed to free the soul of the giant child, and the party scours for loot.