Of dark magic and demonsOn the way west the party had to spend some more time hiking through the forests. While on the trek they encountered an unusual traveler – a drow woman apparently on the run from bounty hunters. Quickly ordering the drow into nearby bushes Sealia pointed her pursuers in a wrong direction, then took a moment to inquire who the woman was.
The drow introduced herself as Viconia. She freely admitted to being a priestess of Shar, the goddess of loss and darkness, but claimed that the crimes the bounty hunters were pursuing her over were not heirs – being a drow on the surface she had enough problems without hurting people out of pointless spite. Once she realized they were an adventuring party she offered to join – she needed allies now and was more than capable of pulling her own weight. "Let me join you and I will show you darkness that will leave demons blind."
Despite some resistance from Dynaheir (who, being a Hathran initiate was technically a priestess of Mystra) Sealia allowed Viconia to join her for the time being.
Before they reached Cloakwood another thought occurred to Sealia. The Iron Throne isn't just threatening peace in the Sword Coast (which was Sealia's main motivation for pursuing the matter – between the armies foraging and building battlements and siege engines wars wreak havoc on surrounding wildlife) but also disrupting the business of its competitors. Among other things, it's trying to frame Zhentarim for its crimes. Why not stir the pot a little by telling the Zhentarim of the charade?
The problem was, the only Zhentarim she knew were Montharon and Xzar (the party figured out their allegiance soon after they left) who embarked upon a journey south weeks before. As her circle dance spell indicated their location to still be somewhere south, Sealia decided for a detour. She would leave the party in Beregost and fly with Jaheira to Amn to locate the two agents and give them the news in person. (either Viconia was yet unable to cast sending due to level adjustment or I completely forgot about it) If I remember correctly, they spent some of their loot on buying another headband of disguise for Viconia, though Dynaheir was concerned she might just run with it.
It took the two of them about a week, but finally they found the two Zhentarim agents in a tavern in Anthakla. Xzar had some comments about meeting Sealia that might be seen as foreshadowing, but with his usual amount of crazy talk it went completely over her head. After explaining the situation (and taking a moment to take Tazok's sword from the bag of holding and sell it) the two druids headed back north.
Upon returning to Beregost they found their room empty. The innkeeper explained that soon after they left a demon appeared in the inn and tried to murder the party in their sleep. After it was defeated they quickly left and didn't leave any note where to.
It didn't take Sealia long to find her companions in the forest and get the full story. The demon was a babau. It managed to enter one of the rooms and would have succeeded in its attack if not for Jaheira's animal companion waking up. The wolf expired from the burns it suffered while trying to bite the demon's acid-coated flesh, but it managed to buy the party enough time to wake up and grab their weapons; it was Khalid's demonbane sword that decided the fight. While nobody else died in the fight, there were some injuries. Among other things Imoen got slashed in the face and though the local priest managed to save her eye, his magic was unable to heal the chemical burn perfectly, leaving her with a thin scar running over her brow and eyelid.
Upon seeing that Sealia declared her conflict with the Iron Throne to now be a personal matter.
Since it was now obvious they had a wizard after them (Viconia got her first chance to be useful, identifying the demon and gauging the minimum power a wizard would need to properly bind one) Sealia ordered the party to now switch to camping in the forest. That would make them much harder to precisely locate through scrying. Once Jaheira found a new wolf to accompany her the party moved towards Cloakwood.