A thread of loose ends

[Metastachydium]

Sure. But if we extend even that much of "on the cusp of victory" to Xykon, it would be as they are about to complete the ritual on the Gate, which isn't at The Astral Fortress, so it still fails there regardless. If Xykon retreats to the Astral Fortress (which i maintain he has zero reason to do, unless his phylactery is destroyed and he is aware of this and he is about to be destroyed and still has enough high level spells to run, in which case it's still nigh-impossible for anyone else to follow him), then he is clearly not on the cusp of victory nor in his strongest position. In fact, it would be quite far from the cusp of victory.

Sure. It's also, incidentally, a good thing that we have been in agreement as far as that is concerned from the get-go.

Yeah. It feels like the only thing that might induce an epiphany in Redcloak, having whatever future civilization the goblins end up building not be defined as a slave state founded on the ruins of a mostly noble city they destroyed is probably a necessary thing for the ending, and having Redcloak build his entire future in the shadow of a growing rift that threatens to destroy everything feels like too big of a set-up to not fire.

However it happens I hope Jirix is up to the task of evacuating the city because boy, if he doesn't a lot of people are going to be annihilated.

Well. As someone who's very uncomfortable at a number of levels with the current state of affairs as regards the Azurite/Goblinoid conflict, despite rooting for Project Gobbotopia to succeed in a comparable number of ways, I must concede that point has a punch to it.