If Durkon does die here... (spoilerish speculation)

[Holy_Knight]

...what will the Order's plan of action be for Girard's Gate?

Suppose that Durkon dies before the Order can rescue him. Not only will they have lost their cleric and potentially most powerful member, his planar ally was also instrumental in their plan to try to reinforce the gate's defenses. The mass death ward was also a key part of the strategy to take on Xykon and Team Evil. Whereas the villains probably outclassed them before, now it would pretty much be suicide to try to fight them without Durkon's support. Add that to the new threat of Tarquin and co., and the gate is pretty much lost. The only real hope would be that whatever final defenses Girard himself put into place were permanent and strong enough to repel everyone trying to seize it--but that's not something the Order can depend on, especially given that three other gates have fallen.

So, it seems to me that in this scenario the Order would find themselves forced to conclude that the least bad of all the terrible options they have would be to intentionally destroy Girard's gate. Then it's a race to try to reach the dwarven lands as soon as possible. Durkon is brought back to his homeland in hopes of ressurrecting him (fulfilling both of his prophecies) and in order to gain the dwarves' aid in finding and defending the remaining gate, hopefully in alliance with whatever armies Hinjo can send as well. In the meantime, Tarquin's armies won't be surrounding the gate the good guys are trying to defend, and whatever defenses Serini put in place might be able to hold off Team Evil long enough for the good guys to mount a counterattack if they can't get there first.

It's not an ideal plan by a longshot, but I think it's the probably the best chance the good guys would have. What do you think?

[SavageWombat]

Well that's what I've been thinking -

except that I've proven repeatedly unable to anticipate the plot twists. So I really think Rich is going to surprise us.