Part 22:
About the only task remaining that I'm interested in doing before I have to go hunt Eothas again is investigating Bekarna's observatory, which Arkemyr sent us to do. It's supposedly a bit tough for us, but we elect to go there anyway.

We get inside the observatory to discover the Torn Bannermen there once more, ransacking the place in search for a book; the fact that the observatory has a library has impeded their search for a particular book. We ambush the group in the front hallway; they're tough, but outnumbered, at least for long enough that by the time their allies arrive to check out what all the noise is, we've taken down the first group. Our party continues to struggle with armor penetration. Fortunately, Tekehu has that chanter spell that does foe-only shock damage in an area, which helps provide reliable damage to plate-armored enemies.

We reach the top of the orrery, having collected various books from the library that mention fragments of a tale of a figure called the Huntress. We examine the orrery, which has a panel explaining to Bekarna (hedging against mishaps with mind-affecting magic) that her research can be found inside if she sets it to the coordinates of the figures from the Huntress legends. Unfortunately, in order to do so, we have to first ascertain those coordinates with a telescope, and that requires venturing to another part of the rooftop. When we get there, we see none other than Concelhaut! The archmage is as shocked and irritated to see us as we are to see him. He talks about how he had planned on killing Ryndara and destroying Caed Nua on account of how she kept him around as a pet floating skull (which seems unfair; he got to witness us learning ancient secrets about the universe and watch Ryndara permanently kill Thaos ix Arkannon, a boon we did not grant to Llengrath), but Eothas beat him to the punch. Following that, he dragged himself to a dock and made his way to the Deadfire (he does not explain, however, how he acquired a new, or newish, body).

A fight ensues; it's difficult and it required reloading once (on account of how he never seems to run out of spells and is immune to most afflictions and also, somehow, to raw damage), but we manage to kill off his minions and then assemble a firing squad to put him down. Once again, the humble Grease spell is the most effective tool in our arsenal against such a mighty foe. We take Concelhaut's grimoire and skull again, making a mental note to have it destroyed at some point in the future. (Perhaps we could write "destroy if found" on the back, where he can't see it.) Then we return to Arkemyr, Concelhaut in tow. The lich is more vocal now than he was the first time we decapitated him, ranting on about how he'll endure "when the Wheel has ground [us] all to dust," but Ryndara is amused by it. Arkemyr, strangely, does not comment on the fact that we brought him along with us. When we give him Bekarna's research notes, he takes us to his scrying pool, where we commune with the rest of the Circle of Archmagi. The new Llengrath gives us flak for having killed the old one, but everyone else seems reasonably amicable.

Arkemyr presents the findings: Bekarna happened by her own research into one of the Circle's old theories, that a stream of soul essence runs through the Deadfire, but she managed to do one better and chart its precise destination. It heads off east, and its course, by and large, is parallel to that of Eothas. This fits with the hints the party has found that Eothas intends on finding the Wheel itself and destroying it. However, we aren't given an opportunity to tell the Circle that before they shoo us out. Arkemyr snidely says that we aren't entitled to everything he owns, which is rather unfair, given that Ryndara only took the Harapo Epic, out of respect. Now, however, we have little incentive not to drop by his vault on our way out the door and steal everything inside, which we do.