Session 28

The Ninth check over the dead angel.  Yvainne quickly cuts out the heart and puts it in her chalice, a gift for her vampire ally.  And grabs the angel's morning-star hefting the magical weapon with delight.  Then Emmerick strides forward.  And desecrates the last flame of Mtira.  Seeing the magic struggle to overcome the flame, Mardus, Yvainne & Wasyli hurl vials of unholy water.  The flames sputter and go out.  The faith of Mitra is plunged into darkness, even though many of the faithful don't realize it yet.

Their wicked deed done, the Ninth rejoices and the Cathedral trembles.  The pocket plane continues it's shifting from divine to infernal.  The heavens turn blood red, infernal cackling is faintly heard through the halls.  The floor starts to crack in places, heat & fire flaring up through the cracks.

Then the Ninth are staggered by a piercing noise.

They shake it off & see the Cathedral shake more, statues of saint's start losing their heads as stone & debris  drop around them.

Then another piercing noise.  This time some of the Ninth spot a comt of black cut through the blood red sky as the sound pierces their heads.

The Infernal chatter dies down.

Silence grips the Cathedral.

Then a bolt of black streaks in through the broken cathedral window, slamming into the spot where the flames were.  Splashing out, the gooy black substance quickly filled the space between two of the massive stone columns that flanked the flame, reaching up to the rafters above.

It shimmered until it showed a glossy black portal.  Walking through it were two Hounds of Tindalos.  Emmerick stood dumb-founded for a moment, then combat was joined.

Brother Summit & Emmerick were closest and they both rushed to lock in combat with the Hounds.

Mardus, staring blankly into the horrible void had a thought.  He quickly engulfed the area in a roaring blinding fire.  It obscured Emmerick & Brother Summit from their allies, but also saved all the Ninth from staring at the horrible void...

Soon more Hounds rushed through the portal, some spilling out of the fire to engage the other Knot members.  But they were by far the least of the Ninth's worries.  For far above, at the top of the portal, near the rafters, came a hideous purple bulging spider of a truly horrifying visage.

The Spider of Leng scurried along the rafters, trying to spread insanity and confusion amongst the Knot as it fended off ranged assaults.

Meanwhile, the battle ranging below, Brother Summit did something odd.  He pinned & dragged off one of the Hounds, another Hound nipping at his heels.  There in a secluded spot, Brother Summit pulled out an odd arcane collar, applied it to the Hound and then subdued it to unconsciousness.

Meanwhile, back at the portal, the fight carried on.  More hounds poured forth.  The Ninth struggling to stem the tide.  Emmerick started ignoring the Hounds and instead focusing on the columns supporting the portal while Mardus & Wasyli tried to dispel the magic of the portal.  Emmerick's mace smashed chunks loose, but as he did that, black tendrils of the portal reached out & filled the void.  Protecting the column.  With arcane magic not dispelling, Wasyli took a different approach and shattered massive sections of the columns.  While Mardus bathed the area in acid.  The black goo of the portal reaching out as tendrils held the shattered fragments together, but it weakened, exposing the cracks in the foundation laid by Emmerick.  Adamantine Mace in hand, hounds biting & clawing at him, the anti-paladin struck true, shattering the column & bringing down a rain of stone & debris.  The portal stretched in an unnatural way and a massive purple tentacle from some unknown creature reached out, grasping blindly near Emmerick and nearly touching the anti-paladin, before it was sucked back in and the portal collapsed.

That is when the spider dropped down among the Knot & caused devastation.

The Spider of Leng relying on it blistering hallucination poison to cause confusion and agony in the ranks of the Ninth.  Its massive reach and combat reflexes allowing it to catch many Knot members by surprise as casters tried to flee & melee types tried to rush forward.

A horrible battle was waged.  The spider flinging about a man-sized object wrapped in web as its poisoned stinger slams into Knot member after Knot member.  Yvainne and Mardus tried to keep the Knot up.  And Wasyli unloaded all his arcane might.  But the spider shrugs it off continuing to down combatant after combatant.

Brother Summit eventually returning to the group, having dispatched the other Hound that was on him only to find half his allies unconscious or dying.

His arrival did do one thing, it pulled the spider's attention off of the others.  In a savage assault, unleashing all it's might on Brother Summit.  The monk crumples under the blows.  Dead in a matter of seconds.

In a fit of madness brought on by poison, Yvainne beats to death the unconscious Emmerick with her recently acquired magical morning-star from the fallen angel.  Agents of Mitra watching from the celestial plane simply sighing at the irony.

Mardus pauses, considering a breath of life for his companions, but opting instead to set up to outflank the massive beast with his rogue ally before Quell falls over from repeated flail blows.

Mardus waits for the flank with Quell, only to have the spider step away as well is wracked with poison.  The purple horror drops it's massive flail-like object, picks up the Monk's body & quickly spins it up in webs, giving it a new man-sized flail.

Mardus pushes forward, looking hopefully at his elven ally.  Readying an attack.  Quell steps forward and the two unleash a torrent of flanking blows.  Mardus getting an extra attack from a critical strike from Quell, doing sizable damage with his massive elven curved blade.  But it was Quell who saved the day.  Landing sneak attack after sneak attack, he downed the massive purple horror.

As the fight ended more Knot members staggered under the ongoing poison somehow surviving until it ended.

Still, the damage was done, two Knot members dead.  One nearly taken away by a horror of unknown origin.

As the Ninth surveyed the battle, Quell spotted something odd, one of the Hounds off near a corner was unconscious but alive, an odd looking collar around it's neck.  He walked over to finish it off when Mardus bid him stop until they've examined it.

Then the Ninth realize this Hound was saved for some reason by Brother Summit.  And the collar, it somehow blocks dimensional travel and has an odd arcane mark.  A mark of one Professor Tiberius Feign, arcanist of Ghastenhall.

Questions & concern fill the Knot members as they look on the fallen remains of Brother Summit.  Quell argues to end the hound's life immediately.  But Mardus urges caution.  Consult first with the monk.  The conversation goes on, before the Knot settles on Mardus' idea.  Quell still looks uneasy.

The Ninth call Trik to help transport them, their fallen companions & the hound... back to Sanctum.  When Trik arrives he bears news.  Tiadora is waiting for them.  Worried, the Ninth use a scroll to bring back Emmerick immediately and they travel to Sanctum on the wings of fiendish hippogriffs.

The conversation is brief if direct.  Flanked by two Erinyes, Tiadora actually bows & shows a surprising amount of respect to the Ninth.  Her usual haughty sarcasm missing.  She gives a boon of treasure from Thorn before grabbing the mayor of Sanctum and heading for the door.  Emmerick strides forward and intercedes.  Saying the Mayor, along with the rest of the town are under the Ninth Knot's control.

Tiadora gives him an odd look before having an Erinye break the man's leg & throw him at Emmerick's feet.  "Suit yourself" she says, and simply walks out.  An odd interaction, but the Ninth mostly ignores it.  Focused instead on Brother Summit and his secrets.

The Ninth still reluctant opts to use Speak with Death to communicate with their companion.  Satisfied with their friends undead answers, they raise him to get the full story.

That's when he finally tells them how he went and researched the creatures.  How he spoke with Tiberius Feign.  How the Arcanist gave him an odd collar to place on a hound with the mission to return one to him.  Alive.

He insisted he didn't know the risk.  And that it was an omission of ignorance, not malice.  And that other Knot members had their secrets.

There were quite looks shared between some of the other Knot members.

But still there were more grumbles about how Summit's obsession with the creatures and his failure to speak of the risks caused the deaths of two knot members, nearly killing them all.  Still, Mardus defended Summit.  Insisting Summit originally drew the ire of the hounds at the Horn, where he was doing Knot business, and that he could never have known what would happen.  Quell outright stated they should consider expelling Summit from the Knot for gross failure and endangering the rest of the Knot.  But Wasyli was quick to point out, doing so was not their decision but Thorn's.  The thought of going to the High Cardinal of Asmodeus brought a pause to all members.  Mardus pressed on defending Summit, opting to wait on a final verdict until more could be known about these otherworldly creatures and their dark obsession with the Monk.  And that only if no satisfactory solution could be achieved would contacting Cardinal Thorn be required.

An open vote was made.  And in the end, the Ninth stayed intact, keeping Brother Summit in their ranks for the time being.

With little else to do, the Ninth turned its collective gaze on Ghastenhall and started the cold winter trek back to the city, the bound Hound of Tindalos in tow, eager to resolve the issue of Summit and his dark bond.

As they arrived less than a week later at the doorsteps of the bustling city, Shroud agents around Talengarde was already reporting wide-spread plague symptoms but no fatalities.  The general populous was still oblivious to the death that stalked among them.

This winter was going to be a truly wicked one...

Session 27

Mardus fumbles with the magic coffin, trying to figure it out, as Hound Archons slam into him.

He calls for help and Emmerick rushes forward, Mace in hand when he trips the trap on the door that Mardus accidentally managed to avoid.  Fireballs exploded around, but the Ninth, shrouded in Fire Resistance ignored it.

Pressing forward, Emmerick and Mardus both bashed and smashed into the class case, finally breaking it bringing the complex ritual to an end.  And stopping the divine onslaught of spirits and angels.

While that was going on, the remaining Knot members, let by Quell, laid into Father Earnan MacCathlain.  Yvainne stripped the Father of his Holy Aura and Wasyli countered his healing spells, still the Father's Frightful Aspect caused Quell to flee in terror, but not before landing a savage sneak attack.  Quell fled from the wounded priest, past Mardus and Emmerick.  Mardus gave a sigh as he ran after Quell.  Having learned his lesson earlier in the Druid crypt by Farhold, that a fleeing Quell can work his way into the most awkward of situations..

Emmerick turned & rushed at the priest, not caring about the spell and simply braining Father MacCathlain anyway.  The strategy worked, for as the Anti-paladin gave out a frightened squeak, the giant form of Father MacCathlain crumpled to the floor.

With victory in hand the rest of the Knot went after Mardus & Quell to find Quell huddled at the end of a hallway, and Mardus standing guard in the hallway, eyeing a room beyond.

The Knot all looked and saw in the next room a massive rune covered vault door and two massive iron angels standing guard.

The Knot withdraws to the Abbott's library and rummages around, finding an odd encrypted book, but little else of immediate note.

Wasyli mentions avoiding the vault doors by simply disintegrating a wall near by instead.  But seems reluctant to do so, for risk of damaging anything directly behind the wall.

Brother Summit suggests the Knot go with that plan, avoiding the Gollums.  But the rest of the Knot vetoes that idea.  Yvainne being the most outspoken, wishing not to risk the Chalice they came to recover for the Vampire of Ghastenhall.  So with a grumble, Brother Summit resigns himself to a slug-fest with the Gollums.  All so some old vampire gets his cup of blood.

Still, with the ability to buff and prepare, the Knot strikes, using a Wall of Force to separate the two brutes.  And so separated, facing fully buffed combatants, the Gollums didn't stand a chance.  Within a minute, they were both reduced to scrap.

Then faced with the vault door, the Ninth were stumped by the riddle for entrance.

"By the four names, cursed be he who unleashes what is bound within."

The Ninth fumble back to the library and do some more digging, where they come up with the useful information from the records of the creator of the Vault, Saint Angelo.  "The vault is sealed with the names of the first, the teacher, the founder and the maker."

The Knot struggle, but the come up with what they think are the correct anwser, Suchandra (the phoenix, first in the vale), Ara Mathra (the teacher of the order), Macarius (the founder of the order) and Angelo (the actual maker of the vault).

With the riddle in hand, Emmerick strides forward, the remaining knot members falling back, waiting...

Emmerick stumbles on the names, occasionally glancing back at the others when he forgets a name.  But he struggles through & is rewarded with a satisfying click, as the locks tumble into place & the massive door swings open.

Beyond are crates and crates of religious jeweled religious paraphernalia to the wicked gods.  Most if of Asmodeus, but Yvainne does spot a couple wicked daggers to her dark god, Zon Kuthon.  But that is not the true treasure.  The true treasure are the magic items displayed out on the far wall.  Each with a trap that Quell not only easily spots, but is easily able to disable.

A full length mirror, with two bound bone devils.  Bound to answer any question posed to them truthfully, they will make truly worth advisers to the Ninth.

A horn made of the bones of an angel that protects the blower in a magical circle of protection from good.

The chalice for their vampire ally.  Able to make mortals into vampires themselves, all be it after one full year of drinking blood from it.

The blade of a broken bastard sword labelled "Helbrand".  Emmerick reaches for it, and for the first time in a long time, he hears a voice in his head.  "Remake me."

But all those pale in comparison to the lesser artifact, the The Incomplete Codex of the Damned.  Wasyli gingerly picks up the four volumes present & puts them in his bag for later study.

With a secure vault and now low on spells, the Ninth opts to rest another night in the Crypt beneath the Cathedral.  They make it almost completely through their slumbers, when they are awoken to the sight of two ghost martyr paladins who attack them.

During the fight, the Knot realizes these ghosts are two they've fought before.  Still, only two ghosts don't stand a chance against the Ninth and they are vanquished in short order.

Wondering out loud Mardus asks "Why did they attack now & not the last time we rested."  Then he realizes.  "We've been here for days.  They're ghosts. They're returning!"

A chill befalls the group.  What if all the ghosts are back...

The Knot steels itself for a long fight out to the exit, but are surprised to see no other ghosts attack.

Still, with some spell casters having interrupted sleep, the Knot heads upstairs and rests again.  Vowing not to go downstairs until they are finished with Ara Mathra.

With the bones of Saint Macarius ready, the Ninth trudges forward, a hell hound bobbing forward, dropping the bundle of bones into the blazing inferno.

The fire roars & crackles, the Hell Hound rushing back to it's master.  The Knot waits as the wall starts to flicker and fade.

The Ninth rally around Emmerick.  Their plan, have Emmerick share his smiting ability with the others, then drop a silence to protect them from the likely Holy Word spell they'll get.  The flames fall and waiting beyond them is the angel, Ara Mathra.  And combat is at hand.  But before Emmerick can get off a shared smite for his allies, the Angel rushes forward, swooping up & landing in their mists, calling out a holy word, and following it up with a quickened holy smite.  The Knot's collective vision fades as they all go blind, some being deafened and stunned as well.  With all three Nessian War Hounds banished back to hell.

Ara Mathra then charged forward, relentlessly beating on Wasyli.

Knot members scrambled to restore their senses, Wasyli managing to dispel the Holy Aura on the angel, with Emmerick getting a silence spell cast on himself.

The Ninth regrouped, Emmerick finally unleashing his communal smite, granting the boon to Mardus and Quell.  As they both rushed forward to attack the Angel.  Still, Ara Mathra continued his focused onslaught.  Beating Wasyli with his morningstar and blasting the area with another quickened Holy Smite.  Yvainne and Mardus rushed as they saw Wasyli's lifeless corpse fall under the unrelenting blows.  And with a Breath of Life, followed up by a Heal, they got Wasyli back up before his soul was claimed by his infernal pact.  With Mardus stuck healing and unable to use his smite, Emmerick rushed forward, bringing the zone of silence with him and striking Ara Mathra, but it was not enough.  The angel shrugged it off.  It was when Quell, who took one step forward, and unleashed a flurry of smiting sneak attacks that did the angel in.  One strike in the gut, another in a chest, finally a savage blow, ripping a wing clean off the angel.

Ara Mathra staggers, gurgling up blood and his dying words ring out.  "It will be the son
who brings your doom."  And his form fell to the floor in a pool of his own angelic blood.

So similar to the words spoken by the Triton Oracle of Mitra, who attacked the Ninth when they sailed up the coast on the Frost-hammer loaded with weapons for Fire-Axe's horde, so many months ago.

Session 26

The sounds of soldiers drawing swords and clerics casting spells alerts the Knot.  A quick application of a Blade Barrier spell by Yvainne blocks the soldiers from pushing on their flank, as the Knot finished off the lingering Ghost Paladins.

Multiple dispel magics by Mitrian priests is not enough to take down Yvainne's magic.  With the Knot ready, they start to rush forward, some members still shaking off a lingering blindness from Holy Word.

Yvainne lowers the blade barrier and Wasyli, hiding with shadow magic, slips through the horde of warriors and priests to be in position behind the stalwart defenders.

The rest of the Ninth's might smashes into the front lines of Mitrians.  The holy warriors and priests try to hold the line from hell's might, then Wasyli attacks from behind.  The defenses crumble and in a matter of seconds the halls are full of burned bodies, snapped necks, crushed skulls and slit throats.

With no more noticeable resistance the Knot explores around.  Quell quickly spots a trapped secret door leading further into the catacombs.  And the Knot find some interesting puzzles, but the Ninth double back to finish defiling the graves of the dead before advancing further.  They even manage to find the crypt of the past Abbots, though they failed to find the bones of Saint Macarius

Finishing up their grave robbing, they Ninth stumbles upon an odd scene.  There, in a cloud of swirling fog is a little girl.  The Ninth approach, Mardus thinking it an illusion.  For it makes no sense.  Still with hesitation and caution Quell approaches, calling out to the girl.  She simply looks at him & shakes her head in sorrow.

Quell politely asks her questions and she doesn't respond.  Mardus and Emmerick boost and try to intimidate her, speaking in infernal.  That prompts an unpleasant response.  The Chalkydri Angel shed her mortal form revealing herself as the six winged serpent angel she was and let out a blinding Holy Word.

Battle was joined.

Repeated Holy Word spells rang in the ears of the Ninth and they all staggered around half-blind, half-deafened.  They still got a few good blows on the Angel, forcing her to fall back, healing herself.  Yet the Ninth continued to push forward, Yvainne healing Emmerick to keep him up as he ruthlessly beat the Angel down with his mace.  Eventually, the Ninth triumphed, leaving the boon companion to Ara Mathra dead, while her friend remained locked in his ring of fire in the cathedral above.

Having defeated the angel, the Knot approaches the vault.  Could this be where the Vampire of Ghastenhall's treasure could be?  Quell quickly spots and disarms a trap.  Following it up by quickly disabling the locked vault door.  Beyond there was no magical treasure.  Simply mundane gold, silver and platinum.  Over 750 lbs of it in fact.  The Knot stood stunned.  Amassed before them was more wealth then they'd imagined.  Considering their options, they decide to rest in the vault.  Hurt and short on spells, the Knot uses the fortified vault as a camp site before resuming their exploration beyond the secret door into the deeper section of the Cathedral.

The Ninth moves forward through the winding catacombs.  They stop and have Quell start scouting ahead.  He eventually overheard the sound of faint chanting from ahead and spots an odd entry room, with what looked to be a library beyond.  The threshold of the room stating "".

Rushing back to the group, the Knot gathered up & began prepping buff spells.  Brother Summit & Wasyli creeping forward a bit with Quell.  Then Quell heard the chanting stop and spells start to be cast.  Their stealth was blown.  Combat was at hand!

The Ninth moved forward when a group of hound archons fell around them slowing them down.  As the Ninth engaged, more hound archons were conjured around them.  And them the magically enlarged form of Abbot Earnan MacCathlain stepped out of the library.  He attacked over his Hound Archon allies and cast spells upon the Ninth.  And still, more Hound Archons were summoned from somewhere.

Stuck by the Hounds, Wasyli teleports half the Ninth behind the cleric and his archons.  They they see it.  The skeletal remains of Saint Macarius wrapped and encased in a glass shell engraved with magically glowing runes.

Mardus called out Asmodeus' name in infernal and rushed forward to the glowing glass expecting to have passed the test and stopped the spirit.

He was surprised to see the runes glow as the spirit summoned hound archons around him, flanking him as he as he was then hit by a Holy Smite.  It seems calling out his lords name hadn't stopped the angry spirit of Saint Macarius from attacking.

The battle raged in the crypt of the Cathedral.  Meanwhile, back in Matharyn, a beautiful blonde woman sought out someone who would hear her plea.  And there the Emissary in White found a Knight of the Alerion Order and his ragtag band of adventurers, the Sons of Balentyne.  The Knight listened to Taranea of Ghaele as she spoke of the violation of the Cathedral of Mitra-Made-Manifest...

Session 25

The unknown "Emissary" having apparently fled, the Ninth recovers from the battle and they turn their attention on the cathedral around them.

They quickly rummage though the guest room the "Emissary" came from.  While looking through the effects they find a letter from a Brigit of Brijidine.  Mardus picks up a fine silk with unusual gems.  Wasyli walks up and examines it as well.  The two share a look.  The Emissary was a Ghaele...

The Ninth check the rest of the ground floor.  They are blocked from the inner sanctum of the Cathedral by a raging wall of divine flame.  Still they are able to explore the rest of the level.  They mostly find empty quarters of priests and holy warriors who fell in the Battle of Saintsbridge.  Along with stores of mundane items.  Still, one thing was of particular note.  They found the personal journal of the Lord Abbot, MacCathlain, in the back of his family bible.  Within the last journal entry were two items of interest.  First, that the Lord Abbot was in the basement, trying to summon an army of the dead.  Second, Ara Mathra, the divine head of the church of Mitra was sealed behind the raging fire, in the inner sanctum.  And "Only a Saint could pierce the flames"... Mardus gives Yvainne a shrug, "Guess we need to find some saint bones."

Before taking the stairs down into the basement, the Ninth do find some religious paraphernalia of Saint Macarius.  They decide, if they manage to find the bones of the Saint, then they might as well wrap them in the dead saint's robe & walking stick.  After all, it couldn't hurt.  Them.

The Ninth descends down into the depths of the cathedral's catacombs.  Weary of ghosts.

Within it's halls they find room after room of old bones wrapped in cloth.  Along with records of the church, including books detailing those interned there.  Quell quickly looks through it and finds the name of Saint Macarius.  Seems they have their saint bones, if only they can go get them.  Mardus is eager to burn the records but Quell and others urge cation, lest disturbing the records would disturb the spirits.  Mardus shrugs and instead of burning the records, simply takes the main internment records book and sticks it into his Bag of Holding.  As the books leaves the plane, a group of nearby ghosts moan & rush through the walls to attack the Ninth.

The Paladin ghosts attack, some manage to corner a couple Nessian War Hounds and nearly smite them down before Yvainne and Emmerick come to the rescue.  Quell flees back before realizing the Hounds are stuck and then helps Brother Summit fend off a ghost.  It's when a couple more ghosts come rushing at Wasyli that the Ninth realize they've seen these ghosts before.  And recently.  They were two of the monks they burned in the second flame at the center of the gardens outside the Cathedral.  A shiver runs down Mardus' spine.  Did all the corpses they burn turn into ghosts...

The Ninth, even without ghost touch weapons, managed to overcome the incorporeal foes and vanquish them.  In the case of the monks, for the second time.

The Knot moves forward, exercising extreme cation going forward.  Simply poking heads or shining lights into bone filled rooms, but never actually disturbing anything.  The Knot managed to stumble on surprised Ghosts, three ghost paladins, and the ghost of the Head of the Serene Order, the Master of Serenity.

The combat was fierce and long.  The incorporeal nature of the ghosts protect them, forcing the Knot to wear them down.  But like before, the Ninth manage to be victorious over the Ghosts.

Exploring a little ways further and finding more rooms full of bones, the Ninth doubles back and starts openly pillaging and defiling the graves.  They gather any trinkets of value, knowing full well gold and silver holy symbols of Mitra can be melted down for scrap.

The Knot continues on like this for some time before their open desecration summons the last group of ghosts, these spirit paladins being lead by the Oracle of Mitra.  The ghosts run into the trailing end of the Knot's forces and battle is joined.  Where before the combats where quite affairs this was not.  The Oracle laying down blade barriers and screaming out Holy Words, the Knot responding by filling the halls of the quite crypt with the load noise of roaring fire.  Hounds, Knot members and ghosts ran this way and that, fighting, yelling, unleashing divine and arcane destruction.

The Knot managed to take down the Oracle, but was still contending with the Ghost Paladins when Wasyli and Yvainne heard the sounds of near by shouting from a yet to be explored section of the crypt.  It seems there loud combat had drawn a fresh wave of combatants...

Session 34

With the battle won and the center of the Garden of Serenity claimed by the forces of hell.  The Ninth Knot rests.  Reluctant to climb the towering flight of one thousand stairs to the imposing Cathedral of Mitra-Made-Manifest.

Licking their wounds, the Ninth rests and tries to figure out how to recover their lost animals.  The Nightmare will likely plane-shift on it's own and make a long journey back to Sanctum.  The two Nessian Warhounds, one banished by Holy Word, the other lost in the maze prove a more complicated matter.

Still, the Ninth is not without resources, and allies.

Yvianne casts Planer Ally to bring back the Contract Devil who got them the Hounds in the first place, Dessiter.  And the Ninth was surprised to see the Devil brought with him the missing hound.  "I believe my great masters that you lost this?"  The Devil looks up at the towering majesty of Mitra's mighty Cathedral and quickly gives a low bow to the Ninth before quickly leaving.

Having recovered one of their hounds, they decide to leave the clearing & return into the winding maze. Still, before they go, they hurl the bodies of the fallen into the burning flame and then extinguish it with unholy water.  The Ninth rejoices as the heavens turn blood red, the earth shakes and off in the distance, the sound of shattered glass is heard.  Hell's influence has crept further into the domain of Mitra.

The Ninth recover in Sanctum before returning to the Gardens, this time with more candles & blindfolds for the Nessian Warhounds.

Reaching the top of the one thousand steps, the Knot arrives at the cathedral of Mitra. Seeing nothing, the Knot advances toward the large double doors, but Wasyli decides to pause & cast See Invisibility.  That's when the three invisible Movanic Deva struck.

Unleashing a relentless barrage of Holy Smites they managed to keep Yvainne, Wasyli and the Warhounds blinded & injured.  Emmerick and Quell rushed forward, but were unable to get at the angels from the ground.  Brother Summit however had another idea.  Climbing up the side of the cathedral, he then hurled himself out into a free fall, grabbing at one of the angels has he went.  He managed to grab hold of the celestial creature & drag it down into the waiting embrace of the other Knot members.  One of the other angels tried to come to it's comrades rescue, only to have it's sword sundered by Emmerick and his adamantine mace.  The fight quickly turned to the Knots favor.  One angel disarmed, another pinned into submission.  It was a simple mop-up effort from there before the Knot stood triumphant at the doors of the Cathedral.

Quell quickly searched the door for traps and finding one, quickly disarmed it.  Only to then be foiled by the door being barred from the other side.

Brother Summit shrugged & climbed up the side of the Cathedral and tried to pear in through one of the windows, only to find the stained glass to hard to see through.  Giving a shrug, he simply smashed a pane and looked through.  Seeing six surprised Legion Archons look up, he rushed through the hole, controlled falling down the inside of the cathedral shouting out that combat was at hand.  Landing at the doors only a moment later, he yanked up the bar on one of the doors.  Only to have the other door burst, shattering into a thousand pieces from the arcane might of Wasyli.

As battle was joined, the Legion Archons rushed forward toward their doom.  Then something happened that surprised them.  A side door burst open and a radiant looking blond woman emerged, wielding a glowing greatsword.  One of the Arcons shouted in celestial, "This fight doesn't concern you Emissary. Flee!"

Flee, thought the Knot.  They couldn't have that.  So before the apparent "Emissary" could respond, Brother Summit rushed past the fiery swords of the Archons & grabbed hold of the woman.  Forcing the issue.  She slipped free & cast Freedom of Movement, only to have Wasyli dispel it and Brother Summit grab hold again.  Again forced into a bind, she shed her human form and turned into a glowing orb of energy.  Wasyli and Mardus were both stumped as to what creature this was.

The fight ragged on.  The Legion Archons proved to be nothing more than an annoyance to the Ninth.  The Emissary proved the real fight.  The Ninth struggled to contain her, Wasyli relying on dispel magic to try to counter her powerful spells while the others struggled to hit her incorporeal form.

With her major arcane offence stymied, the Ninth slowly bur surely whittling away her health and all the Legion Archons dead, she gives a sigh before sinking into the ground and disappearing.

The Ninth wait for her to return.  Poised to strike, but she never does.

Session 33

The Knot spent the night recovering in the great Hunter's Hall.  The walls still splattered with the blood of it's angel defender.

The next day, the Cardinal Thorn's Ninth Knot stepped into the Gardens of Serenity and began to leave the prime material plane.

Quell led the way and was immediately approached by a floating mote of energy.  It whispered a riddle, "speak it's name and it dies..."  Quell pauses for a second before Mardus remembers what they'd found from their questioning of the town's Mayor.  "Silence!"  The mote floats away & waits for the Knot to follow.

And so, being led by this ball of energy, the Knot tramps through the Gardens of Serenity.

The mote leads the Knot along through the stone walled garden maze,  Quell & Emmerick leading the way with Yvainne's Nessian Warhounds tromping along with Brother Summit at the rear of the group.

Then as they travel through a nondescript section of the maze, the Warhounds start growling & snorting sulfurous smoke.  The hairs on the back of Brother Summit's neck stand on end.  Something is wrong...

Then the blink dogs, lead by their celestial blood alpha male, attack.  The dogs teleport all over the Ninth.  Causing confusion among their ranks.  Still, Brother Summit is worried, he sees visions of darkness & an unknown horror watching him.  And he sees, as the blink dogs continuously blink in & out of existence, an after image, of a darker hound blurs in his vision.

Then that horror manifests and the rest of the Knot sees.  For as the blink dogs start to dimension door out of the way of the counter attacks from the Knot, in their place stand Hounds of Tindalos.  The blink dogs look confused, as the hounds attack indiscriminately between the forces of Hell and Heaven.

Yet is takes only a short time before the hounds focus their ire on their true target.  Brother Summit, in the rear of the group.  As the hounds go through the ranks of Hell, their gaze attack weakening the Knot, another battle is forming at the front.  With arcane magic, the leader of the blink dogs conjures pits full of acid & tries to swallow Knot members, only to suck his own pack down.  Still, the gaping extra-dimensional pits separate Emmerick & Quell from the fight going on behind them.  So the Knight of Hell and Elven rogue push on, trying to flank & take down the dogs.

An epic battle raged, Hounds of Tindelos, Nessian Warhounds & Blink Dogs, with Knot members running in-between.

Brother Summit proved triumphant over the Otherworldly horrors, with the help of Mardus, Yvianne & her warhounds.

Meanwhile, the fight up ahead was more balanced.  Wasyli using magic to push ahead as Emmerick & Quell leap out of the way of magical pit after magical pit.  Quell was slowed by enchantments and Emmerick was unable to get out ahead, always landing on the wrong side of the pits.

Eventually the remaining Knot members arrived to help, Yvainne laying down a plane of Stone, covering over many of the gapping pits.

The alpha dog fought to the death, trying to cause as much death as possible, before eventually getting cornered & overwhelmed by the combined might of the Ninth.

The members of the Ninth Knot caught their breath.

After a short respite and peaceful travel, the glowing light asks another riddle.  "One to whom the mirror never lies..."  The answer came swiftly to the Ninth.  The Blind Man.  Answering the riddle, the Ninth continued as the wisp of light headed forward leading them to the opening of a large clear area.

The Ninth stopped, one of their member grumbling "It's leading us into another trap."  Another of their rank is quick to point out that likely the wisp of light is simply leading them forward through the Garden, blind to the actual situation.

Slow to advance, Quell spots a large clearing ahead, full of odd spotted horse-like creatures.  The Ninth, wishing to attack in silence opts to use stones enchanted with silence spells, along with a staggered ambush to ensure the melee combatants get out ahead of the spell casters.

Though the Knot had the advantage of ambush, Emmerick and others got off to a slow start & instead of getting out ahead, they got bottled up near the entrance.  Then the Kirin charged forward, trying to gore Emmerick, Quell & Brother Summit.  While those Kirin that were stuck at range called down Lightning.  The Knot's silence spell ended up blocking their own spell casters as they struggled to fight forward.

Still, even without spell support, the Knot showed of their brutish side, hacking and slashing through the creatures.  The only issue, their might scared the Kirin, as they saw their number slaughtered with brutal efficiency and they flew away, up through the barrier above the maze.

The knot considered pushing after them, but choose instead to stay the course.

Still, the shadow sorcerer of Hell did point out that the magical remains of the Kirin could be used for magical crafting.  And the Knot resolved to send Trik later to search over above the maze later, in case any of the wounded Kirin fell after pushing through the planer barrier.  After all, you can't afford to let a good pelt (or celestial blood & bone) go to waste.

The Ninth Knot stepped out of the grassy clearing & were approached by a mote of light, asking for the last riddle.

"A wick'ed thing from which  darkness files..."

Mardus blurts out "Candles"

The wisp responds, "The three at once where the answer lies" and disappears.

Remembering statues out by the docks of priests walking blind with candles, the Knot knew what they must do.  Walk forward, eyes closed & holding candles.  The members of the Ninth fumbled through their packs, looking for any candles.

Yvainne & Emmerick both found candles in their packs.  Wasyli was surprised that they had candles on them.  They remembered over a year ago, when they were all under Cardinal Thorn's roof.  Training.  And Galen had insisted they all get kits of useful gear.  Mardus lost his in the dungeon trial below the now abandoned manor house.  Yet Yvainne & Quell still had their packs.  And over the past year and a half, had lugged them around.  Through Balentine, a year guarding the Horn, a month in Ghastenhall.  And now they've carried them all the way to the Gardens of Serenity.  Somewhere off in Absolan, the City at the Center of the World, Galen smiled.  His foresight and planning having paid off for the Ninth.  Even if he struggles with aiding the Sixth Knot in it's endeavors...

With the candles in hand, Yvainne & Emmerick led the Ninth forward, blind & silent.

The Ninth arrived at the circular center of the Gardens, the towering facade of the Cathedral of Mitra Made Manifest as a backdrop.  It's shadow would likely cover the whole of the open clearing, if it weren't for the massive flame of Mitra burning in the center of the circle.  And standing before the Flame, already prepared for battle are Sambathe, High Oracle of Mitra, the Master of Serenity, and two junior monks of the Serene Order.  Battle is drawn as the forces of Heaven surprise the forces of Hell.

What ensues is a quick and fast battle.  The entrance to the clearing was covered in overlapping silence spells, blocking spell casting.  Yet the deft Oracle of Life didn't seem to mind as she rained down the divine wrath of Mitra upon the Ninth.  Mardus & Wasyli learned from earlier fights & scattered, using magic to distance themselves, & not a moment to soon, for Sambathe soon cast Holy Word, blinding and stunning many of the Ninth and outright banishing both Emmerick's Nightmare & one of Yvainne's Warhounds.

Still, Mardus was free of the blast & soon began healing his allies, restoring their sight.  And blind or not, Emmerick, along with Quell and Brother Summit unleashed a torrent of pain on the Master of Serenity that even the Life Oracle had a hard time curing.  Then Wasyli struck with his powerful spell... Suffocate.  And he chocked the air out of Sambathe's lungs, ending her life & by extention, the Monks.  For with no healing, they fell swift and fast before the overwhelming might of Hell.

Session 32

Knot members rush to check Mardus' eye damage.  Yvainne determines the eyes are salvageable, just with some healing magic she doesn't currently have.

The other Knot members go about securing the mountain top & exploring.  Their primary objective is the flame that burns above the temple.  Using some of their unholy water collected from the now ruined Horn, the forces of Hell quench the light of Mitra & plunge the mountaintop into darkness.  Only two more flames to put out.

The Knot with-drawl and returns to their forces camped outside Sanctum.  They send Trik with some bugbears and shroud guards to go to the mountaintop & maintain desecration on the phoenix.  Meanwhile the leaders of the shroud organize their forces.  Some minions have already spread out among the cities of Talengarde, but others being procuring large quantities of acid.  The Phoenix will be melted down into nothing...

And there in Sanctum the Knot waits until morning when Yvainne is able to restore Mardus' eyesight.  At one point the invisible Ogre Magi, Raiju, spots Mardus slipping into the house commandeered by Izeval & her undead horde.  But the Ogre simply shrugs & returns to his silent patrol.

In the morning Yvainne restores sight to Mardus & the Knot head out.

While in route to the Gardens outside the Cathedral, the Knot are surprised to see a flock of hippogriffs come swarming over the Vale, lead by two huge Rocks, one of which is bearing a jovial yet brutal Storm Giant.

The two massive birds at the head swoop down on the Knot, as the hippogriffs fly by.  Some heading for Sanctum, others to the Phoenix mountain top.  Mardus, unsure of Trik's ability to keep the Phoenix remains from being resurrected, lobs fireballs at the hippogriffs heading to the mountain.  And when the burnt birds arrive, they are quickly overcome by the soldiers stationed there.

Meanwhile, the Knot is forced to fend off the vanguard of the assault.  A mixture of magic & ranged attacks takes the Rock being flown by the Storm Giant down.  Though not before the Giant chained lightning through the Knot.  On the ground, the Storm Giant struck out at anything he could reach.  He nearly took off the head of a Hell Hound, and seriously injured Quell.  While the other Rock swooped low & grabbed Emmerick from the ground.

As the Storm Giant fell before the Ninth, Emmerick was still being carried away by the mighty bird.  Brother Summit & Mardus rushed along the ground underneath, as Emmerick's Nightmare lagged behind.  The bird eventually dropped Emmerick, to have him plummet hundreds of feet to the ground, before it was blasted out of the sky.

Mardus was surprised to see Emmerick somehow managed to survive the fall.  But the Hell Knight was more surprised to see that when he rouse, Mardus' eyes were wreathed in fire & he spoke with an alien voice.  "Give the Storm Giant to me.  Sacrifice him in my name."

The Knot quickly sacrificed the fallen Storm Giant to Asmodeus.

As the blood of the chaotic good creature spilled on the ground in the Vale of Valternia, the hippogriffs still alive returned and circled overhead.  And there, before all to see, they transformed into fiendish monstrosities, wholly under the command of the Ninth Knot.

Hell was pleased.

Back in town, some of Hekkarth's Headtakers used the cover of the Hippogriph attack to attempt to loot the town & kill some villagers.

Roderick and the other shroud minions were still recovering.  But Raiju and Izivel were quick to rally and stomp out the Bugbears foolish enough to cross the banks of the river.

By the time the Ninth Knot returned to Sanctum to drop off their fiendish hippogriffs, the banks of the river already had a couple beautiful bugbear statues decorating it's banks.

With order restored, the Ninth turned around & once again made the trip to the Garden's.  This time on the backs of hellish hippogriffs.

As the Knot rushes over forest & river, they arrive at the stone dock to find six legion archons.  The angels rush to engage with the forces of Hell.  Over dock & river, flaming swords clash, a couple hiphogriffs fall under the onslaught, dropping Quell and Brother Summit into the river.  But the Knot does not faulter.  They push on and crush the celestial inervention, and push on to the doors of the Hunter's Hall.  And beyond, the Gardens of Serenity.

The Knot walks into the Hunter's Hall and their toughest fight yet.

Somehow Quell's keen elven eyes fail to spot the expertly hidden Lional.  The angel lays in wait until the Knot fully enters, then it strikes.  It roars, unleashing a holy blast, blinding and stunning many of the Knot & leaving Emmerick's nightmare paralyzed in place.

As Knot members struggle in the face of this angel's divine wraith, the Lea the Huntress follows it up by dropping a Wall of Force & isolating Brother Summit & the blind Emmerick from the other 6 knot members & their three Nessian Warhounds.

Brother Summit calls out to Emmerick so he knows they're isolated, then he does what he always does, rush into melee.

The Monk & Anti-Paladin tag team the celestial, as the other Knot members start to recover their sight & assess the situation.  A couple small holes high in the rafters gives those knot members with flying an option to slip through & help.

Arcane and divine spells are flung throughout the Hunter's feast hall.  Yet the divine wards around the angel prove to great and they fissile and fail to land any effect.  Still, the raw physical might of the Knot stagger the Lionel.  Lea staggers back & slips back to roar again, blinding the Ninth, then quickly healing herself, wiping away the damage so painstakingly inflicted on her.  Then another wall of force is created.  Effectively restarting the battle.

Round two of the battle commences, but it goes better for the Ninth.  This time, knowing what they are up against, they trudge forward undaunted.  And slowly, excruciatingly, the Ninth wear down the angel, until, through pure force of will, the angel falters and falls before the combined might of the Lord of Hell and the Midnight Lord.

Meanwhile, as the Knot rests before the entrance to the Gardens, their minions continue to claw their way into secret posts.  So as King Markadian V of Talengarde holds court in Matharyn and finishes rallying his mighty army he doesn't even realize spies for the breakers of Balentyne are in his court, quietly watching & waiting.

Session 31

As a dark dawn opens on the Vale of Valternia, the town of Sanctum finds itself ruled by a new set of masters.

Seeing a chance, even a slim one, to save villagers, the Mayor of Sanctum quickly bends a knee to their new overlords.  And what a benevolent set of overlords they are.  The Knot keeps the bugbears at bay, having their own human minions patrol the town.  Their only cause for tribute is to search the town for any magic items.

Emmerick taking particular pleasure in recovering a magical mithril shield adorned with the trappings of Asmodeus.  A trophy of the Mitrian conquest of the Lord of Hell.  Better if they'd have melted it into scrap.  Now the anti-paladin would use the shield to protect him on his quest to kill as many celestials in the Vale as he could find.

With order maintained, the Knot quickly posts a set of guards on the gates leading into the Vale.  And in a matter of days their preparations pay off.  For a ragged war band of Mitrians tries to break out, only to be captured.  Their leader, a man claiming to be Lord Roderick of Farholde, is in possession of some interesting trade contracts.

A few minutes alone with Yvainne's gentle company and he coughs up the truth.  He's no Lord, he's just a simply hustler, Robert the Rapier, a rogue from Ghastenhall.  His con warms Mardus' black heart.  Reminding him of his own glory days.  The Knot offers Robert a choice, join them and earn come coin.  Or die.  Either way, his contracts were forfeit, destined for the Knot's close ally, lady Shalyn Marsten. The con artist picks the obvious choice & joins the Shroud.

With order established in Sanctum, the Knot set their sights higher, literally.

They sail by boat to the base of the Mountain of the Phoenix and stare up it's jagged cliff & ice covered switchback stairs.

Brother Summit tries the snow choked stairs & confirms they are a bad option.

Using the Nightmare & zombie silver dragon and Mardus using his flaming wings, the Knot fly up the cliff-side.  They come to a screeching halt when Quell notices a shimmering energy field.  There is some sort of trap.

The Knot regroups at the base & considers their options.  But with little alternative, the Knot buffs for a fight & rushes up through the magical trap & land at the grand foyer entrance to the Mountain top temple.

Expecting a fight they wait.  But don't see one immediately.  So the Knot gathers, buffs more & bursts into the temple, only to find themselves confronted by overlapping walls of fire.

Emmerick strides forward and calls out to beyond the roaring fire.  "Your doom has arrived.  Prepare to die."

A voice calls back.  "Then come, for Doom there shall be."  Then the sound of casting follows, as a near by brazer of fire explodes, choking the Knot in smoke.

The fight with the Angel of Fire has begun.

The ensuing battle is a slug-fest of fire and smoke.  The Peri unleashed the full measure of her fury.  And the battle dragged on.  The Knot never able to land a solid blow.  But as the damage worn on her, the Peri flew out into the open to get away from the melee members of the Knot.  And there, flying 400 ft above the placid lake below, Wasyli struck.  Using his devil pact with his Suffocation spell, the Shadow Sorcerer of Hell pierces the celestial's defenses & sucks the air out of it's lungs, suffocating it mid-flight.  The majestic creature plummets the 400 ft to the jagged rocks below.

There's a pause, as the Knot catches their breath.  Then a roar sounds from the top of the mountain, and the temple shakes.  The Phoenix stirred.

The Knot members rushed into the Temple, closing the door.  Quell climbed up the column to get at an odd glowing sphere he'd spotted during combat, likely the source of whatever trap or ward was in effect on the mountain top.

As well fumbled around, other Knot members tried to shake off the lingering effects of the choking smoke, and bar the doors into the temple.  Then a great roar reverberated at the large double doors to the temple and they were bashed down.

Emmerick stood his ground & coming roaring through the thick smoke was a massive flaming phoenix, it's aura of heat washing over the anti-paladin.  Mardus's magics warding the Knight of Hell from the divine Phoenix's flames.

The pitched battle went on for a while as other members of the Knot tried to heal their still fresh wounds & see if the stairs out the back of the temple lead anywhere.  Rushing out they found the sacred flame of Mitra burning under a completely open sky.  No cover to be found anywhere.

Meanwhile back in the temple, the Phoenix flew back out the doors under relentless attack where it healed itself before spotting various Knot members fleeing up the narrow stairs toward the flame.  And it's nest!

The Phoenix soared above the mountain & swooped low over the stairs & flame of Mitra, clawing & screeching at any it saw.  And there above the stairs, a pitched battle was fought.

Brother Summit tried leaping onto the Phoenix, only to have the massive bird shrug off his grapple and leave him tumbling back down to the stairs below.

Yvainne tried in vain to cause significant damage to the celestial.  The beasts resistance to spells proving too great.  Resorting to buffing magic, Wasyli got busy trying to magically fly his allies.  The magical flying failed for Brother Summit, forcing him to fall a second time down onto the mountain top.  However, Emmerick was lucky enough to stay aloft.

Emmerick, augmented with magical flight, was able to engage directly with the bird.  And soon the fiery winged Mardus rushed to his side to heal him & provide light melee support.  The beast tried dispelling Emmerick's flight, but only managed to remove his fire resistance.  With Mardus close beside, Emmerick took only some damage.  Still, it was frightening to feel the unrestrained heat of the beast, without protection.

Between the healing & energy resistance, Mardus got the full furry of the Phoenix as the beast turned it's full attention on the Fire Oracle.  The snapping beak was followed up by back to back claw strikes.

Emmerick looked over in horror as Mardus grabs for his eyes as the Phoenix finishes clawing at his face. Down below, unsure if his compatriot is blind or not, Wasyli once again pulled out all his power. he called on his devil pact to empower his arcane spell & once again cast his Suffocation spell.  The air was quickly sucked from the lungs of the Phoenix, the massive bird fell to the mountain stairs below, where a waiting Brother Summit beat it do death in a flurry of blows.  Yvainne, wasting no time, quickly encircled it's corpse in a desecration spell to stall it's self-resurrection ability.

The fight over, the Knot looked to assess the damage.  The most concerning of which appeared to be Mardus' eyes.

Session 30

The hammer fell hard and fast on the heart of the Mitrian order in Golarion.

Knowing surprise was their only friend, the Knot made ready for their assault.  The Bugbear horde & minions of the Shroud ready themselves, hidden behind the mountains, less than an hours ride from the Watchtower guarding the entrance of the vale as the sun set, the light of Mitra fading away as darkness filled the Vale.

Wasyli rushed ahead of the attack, cloaked in invisibility, undetectable alignment & his own shadow sorcerer ability to use the night shadows to hide in plain sight.  And armed with a devastating device.  A stone with Silence cast on it.  Using magic to fly over the long wall & float up behind the Tower, Wasyli landed, hidden in shadow and magic by the massive gong on top the Watchtower.

Meanwhile the rest of the Knot rushed forward, behind them a dozen vampire spawn in bat form rushing, their black wings flapping furiously in the cold mountain air.

The Knot blaze over the top of the watchtower & decent onto the guardians of the watchtower, while below them, vampire spawn turn gaseous and slip through the arrow holes all along the front of the Watchtower.  The sounds of battle soon ring through the tower.

The full might of the Knot easily destroyed the guardians.  Soon after the magical beasts fell, the captain of the watch tower rush to the roof, only to fall as swiftly as the guards to the might of hell.

The Knot rush down through the levels of the tower & witness the carnage wrought by the vampires.  Many soldiers didn't even get out of their bunks as the night beasts destroyed the rank & file of the Tower.  Even the holy warriors of the tower stood no match.

In a matter of minutes the Knot controlled the Watchtower proper.  Leaving only the clay golems guarding the lower level tunnel.

With vampire spawn manning the gate levers, the Knot gathered their full strength & entered the lower level.  Led by the adamantine mace wielding Emmerick & backed by sling wielding knot members with adamantine sling bullets, the Knot wouldn't even be stopped by the Golems and vanquished them quickly.

Though, the Knot did suffer one loss.  Emmerick loyal nightmare steed was seriously hurt and it's wounds refused to heal.  Not wishing to risk it, Emmerick left the Nightmare behind.

Still, the Knot held the Tower from foundation to rooftop in less time than it took for the Bugbear horde to rush from their hiding place to the open gates.

The town of Sanctum's first warning of their doom was the Bugbear horde rushing out of the Watchtower, with a Medusa riding a zombie silver dragon high above the Watchtower of Saintsbridge.  The militia & soldiers rushed to meet the enemy.  The Battle of Saintsbridge was joined.

Sir Dallidan the Bold, Knight of the Alerion order, blindly charged ahead of the lines of Talerian soldiers, leading the spearhead of a phalanx of knights in full barding toward the disorganized lines of Bugbear.  Fear begins to grip the shaggy northern monsters, until the Knot acted.  Arcane and Divine fireballs filled the air, in their wake left a devastated line of knights with a broken spearhead.  The charge broke up before even reaching the bugbears, the monsters charged forward, emboldened by the might of their Ninth Knot allies.

The horde rushed across the open field toward the lesser Saintsbridge.  Along the way the Ninth Knot spots a coordinated group of archers raining fiery arrows among their army.  The forces of Hell rush to ask.  Emmerick takes a couple devistating rounds of arrows from the Captain of the archers, but in the end, the fires of hell burn bright that night and fireballs rain down and destroy the nest of archers before even the fast moving Brother Summit can even reach the fallen Captain.

Moving forward a fire oracle of Mitra returns to the Ninth Knot their own medicine.  In fireball form.  Quick communal resist energy fire from Mardus softened the blow.  A flurry of ranged attacks, both magical and mundane take down the fiery winged oracle of Mitra.

The Knot marches forward with their horde slaughtering the yeomanry and common soldiery of Talengarde.  Then their forces encounter an obstacle, a tight cluster of dwarven soldiers, lead by their Thane.  The Knot hesitates for a moment.  A golden opportunity has presented itself.  Looking to use up the wild and hard to control savage Drugar, the Ninth Knot find a perfect opportunity to spend the force.  Throwing the Drugar at the dwarves, a slaughter by far the most brutal is unleashed.  In the end, only the Drugar Prince & one body guard were left alive, and barely at that.  With ever dwarf, from Thane to foot soldier all dead.

The horde surges forward and stubbles upon a group of monks, cracking skulls & snapping necks.  The Knot throw their vampire spawn upon them & push on.  The monks devastate the blood sucking fiends, but ultimately fall, drained of blood, on the battlefield.

The Knot pushed forward, in the dead of night unsure of their troops success.  But always sure they were gaining ground.

Finally they arrived at the bridge head of the greater Saintsbridge.  And standing guard at it's entrance are a pair of Shield Archons.

Without missing a beat, the Knot rushes forward, knowing their troops will do little against the celestial guardians.  Yvainne unleashes her hounds & they burn the Archons nearly to ash.  With a couple swift strokes of Mace & Blade, Quell & Emmerick reduce the soldiers of heaven to nothing but burnt flesh & scourged steel.  It seems the gifts of Dessiter have proven themselves.

The Knot rushes ahead of their horde across the Saintsbridge, only to be waylay-ed by flying knights on celestial griffons.  A combination of fireballs, breath weapons, arrows & readied steel, bring down griffon & rider alike, though not without some wounds.  Emmerick among others took some savage charges from lance tips.

Pushing ahead the Knot arrives at the other bridgehead.  Beyond open fields and the wall-less town of Sanctum.  Between them and victory stood a ragtag group of soldiers, knights & priests of Mitra.

Yvainne is quick to unleash her hounds again.  But before they have a chance to be useful, the area is doused in Holy Smites.  The first strike from the priests of Mitra nearly destroy the dogs of hell and Yvainne is forced to have them flee.  The battle is joined after that, with some of the Knot still blinded from the holy light.  The footman rush forward & engage.  Steel clashes with steel.  Prayers to Mitra are invoked.  Curses are intoned.  And blood mist full of negative energy fills the air.

When the sound of battle stop, it is the Knot that stands triumphant over their slain foes.

The Bridgehead secured, the hordes rushes forward.

The Knot has to do everything in their power to contain the unbridled savagery of the bugbears.  The northern monsters manage to burn a small set of traveller's inns & warehouses on the far side of the river before the Ninth Knot reign them back in.  Still, the town proper of Sanctum is spared that night as the forces of hell amass on the far banks, Bugbear eyeing the innocence & unprotected township beyond.

As dawn comes & the sun starts to raise, light fails to shine in the vale, as the sky fills with storm clouds.  Darkness clings to the Vale as the first snow flacks of winter begin to fall.  And the greenery of the Vale is covered in a cold blanket.

Perhaps this is merely a sign of an early winter. Or perhaps Asmodeus watches the deeds of our villains and is well pleased...

Session 29

The Knot calls out to the ruined temple asking an alliance.  A figured cloaked in darkness answers with anger.  The half-fiendish Medusa rushes out into the light & takes flight.  Combat is joined.

The unexpected arial ability of the Medusa takes the group for surprise.  Still, a quick casting of fly on Emmerick by an otherwise fleeing Wasyli gives the anti-paladin "wings" of his own.  Most of the Knot scatter, Brother Summit tries to climb to the roof of the temple to jump from above.  Mardus sprouts fiery wings & opts to avoid the terrifying gaze & fly away to seek range.  His spells failing to puncture the fiend's spell resistance.  A blindfolded Quell fires off shots in vain.  While bursts of negative energy in the shape of blood clouds burst around Yvainne.  But in the end it was Emmerick to won the day.  The flying champion of Hell showed complete disregard for the petrifying gaze of the Medusa and relentlessly struck her with his mace until she yielded to him.

Forced to parley, Izevel the Accursed listened intently to the unexpected offer from the Ninth Knot.  So long had she been cursed by her goddess Shelyn for her pride.  Stripped of her beauty & turned into a monster.  Here was a way out for her.  Possible acceptance.  And brought on by a group including a powerful priestess of Zon-Kuthon.  Fate was not done with her yet it would seem.  Eager to learn of the death gods teachings & for a place to live outside of her hovel, she left with the Knot.  The trip back to Ghastenhall she learned a great deal of the comings and goings of modern times.  Speaking at great lengths to Yvianne.  The whole time using Emmerick's Iron Crown to transform her shape into that of a Aasimar to spare those around her of her natural deathly visage.

With another ally added to their ranks, the Knot turned its gaze on the mountains & the elusive Drugar rumored to hide in their rocky roots.  Without a trained outdoors-man, the Knot struggled, but with some vague knowledge from Isevel, combined with the skills of Brother Summit & Emmerick's Nightmare, the Knot scoured the lands until they managed to find a set of caves leading deep underground.  The suspicious marks of booted feet confirmed their suspicions.  Drugar were near about.  Still, the Ninth would not arrive as uninvited guests without a gift of some kind.  The Shroud took little time at all to round up some dwarven prisoners.

The Drugar guards at a perimeter outpost were quite surprised at the sight of a party of adventurers with a complement of dwarven prisoners.  After summoning higher ups though, the silver tongues of the Ninth worked wonders & the host were allowed beyond, to the secret Drugar city of Zhaanzen Kryr and it's Thane, Zasher Arzen.  The above worlders are eyed nervously as they walk the streets of the Drugar, but their strength of arms, their Drugar escort, and their obvious dwarf captives bound for the Thane give pause to any Drugar citizen bent on assaulting the group.

Eventually traversing the nearly pitch black Drugar city, the Ninth Knot arrive at the keep carved out of the stone in the back of the massive cavern that houses the Drugar.  There, before the burning fire pits of the dark gods of the Drugar stands Thane Zasher Arzen.  Again the guile and wit of the Ninth is on full display.  And what should have been a daunting task plays out to the common observer as merely a simple few choice words.  The only moment of reluctance from the Ninth is when they hand over their dwarf slaves only to find out they will be slaughtered in a dark ritual.  Many in the Ninth give pause at the ruthless savagery of their future allies.  All that is expect the Death Priest in the group.  Yvianne is eager to see a feast and slaughter.

With the dwarven prisoners writhing in agony as the dinner music, a massive feast is held in honor of a new alliance.  The thane's own son, Zargun Arzen, will lead one hundred Drugar soldiers in the aid of the topsiders.

Another ally plied to the will of Hell.

With their army nearly assembled the Ninth return to Ghastenhall and ready themselves for battle.  Still, little intel was retrieved by the scouting of the Shroud minions.  The Ninth wrap themselves in undetectable alignment spells and risk a personal foray into the religious heart of their enemy.

Arriving in the vale mixed in with a group of regular pilgrims, cloaked in magic & armed with guile, the Ninth Knot of Thorns first steps foot in the Vale of Valtaerna.

Two days pass.  During which time the Ninth discovers much.  They verify the location of an ever-burning flame atop a mountain in the middle of a lake.  They do an invisible fly-over of the Garden's of Serenity trying to get to the Cathedral of Mitra-Made-Manifest, and discover the entrance is protected by a maze-like spell, requiring them to pass through the gardens on foot.  And that the garden entrance is guarded by two shield archons.

They find out more about general defenses as well.  The quite village of Sanctum and the near by Watchtower are on a peace-time footing.  A large garrison of guards stays quartered in the village proper.  They include archers, foot soldiers and mounted knights of the Alerion order.  Also, griffon knights are rumored to be stationed near the Cathedral of Mitra-Made-Manifest, though the recon group failed to see anything.

Further the watchtower itself is guarded, all be it lightly.  At least of humans.  A small compliment of soldiers main the tower & low wall, lead by a watch captain.  But they are not the true guardians of the Tower.  That honor goes to two pairs of creatures.  One guarding the base, the other the top of the tower.

The base guards take the form of a pair are simple statues.  But are in fact clay golums that guard the gate-way tunnel through the watch tower.  Though, they are not the worst.  That honor falls to the guardians on top.  Two Half-Celestial Lammasu and their alert gong.  One sounding of that gong and the whole Vale would be alerted to an attack.

The peacetime status of the Tower is critical to the Knots efforts.  Should the tower be fully armed with the garrison in town, then a truly herculean effort would lay before the Ninth's army.  No.  This can not be like Balentyne.  Where the Knot picks away one at a time guards.  For this watch captain, unlike poor Thomas Havelyn of Balentyne, has a host of mundane and divine agents able to be called to main the walls at a moments notice.  Should even the slightest attack occur.  After all, this is not the watch wall, this is the heart of the kingdom and war is abroad.

The Ninth Knot will only have one chance to strike.  When the hammer falls, it must fall hard and swift.  The gates must be breached and the Saintsbridge that lays beyond must be seized if the Vale is to be taken.

Session 28

While out about town the Knot heard of a festival of Princess Iris, a long lost noblewoman of Ghastenhall.  The name sounded familiar, and checking with the journals Galen left with the Knot, they determined the ring they found from the Horn was labelled as being from Iris of Ghastenhall.

A quick check with their local contact Thrane confirmed it.  So the Knot quickly sent their goons to "find" a skeleton of a half-elven woman from a near by farming town graveyard.

The Knot did discuss what favor to ask.  They thought of titles, or information about the vale, but ultimately settled on the best reward ever.  Money.

As the Knot prepared to leave their manor house & make the short trek up the hill to the Duke's castle, they met an uninvited guest.

Appearing in a poof of brimstone & smoke a contract devil stood before the Ninth Knot.  Introducing himself as Dessiter, he offers the knot his help in their quest to undo the vale & bring ruin to Mitra's agents on this plane.  The Ninth Knot doesn't buy it and expects something more is at play.  Still, when the Devil offers a contract with limited terms and a reward of transforming Yvainne's three hell-hounds into Nessian War-Hounds, how could the Ninth refuse.

And sign the contract they did.  They would kill a monadic deva, the head of the Mitrians on this plane.  And gain three powerful beasts of hell as payment delivered up front.

Only after signing the contract, did the groups legal expert Wasyli point out the risk.  If Thorn ordered them to abandon their mission & leave monadic deva Ara Mathra alive, they would be forced to breach a contract.  As unlikely as it would be, it would be advised to leave their side dealings from being known by Thorn.

With the interruption from hell behind them, the Ninth dons the appearance of Hallack's crew and head to the Duke's castle.  Emmerick takes the roll of Hallack.  The knot considered using the real dwarf, but were reluctant, so Mardus, having spend the most time around the blacksmith plays that role.  Yvainne plays up the bard.  Summit the Monk, an easy role to play for sure.  They do not bring along a fake Sister Marta, deciding instead to claim she died at the Horn.  For all great lies profit from a sliver of truth.  Wasyli & Quell play new members of the adventuring band.

Initially their meeting with the Duke's court appears to go over poorly, the Mad Duke's aids seem to not buy the story & the assembled crowd seems to agree.  But Quell's keen ears hear a reassuring whisper from the Duke to his aid.  "Think, if we pretend to buy the story, I'll be ride of this long line of charlatans once and for all."  The Duke bluntly cuts to the chase, asking the Knot what reward was worth it.  Mardus responds asking for a large sum of over 20,000 gp.  The Duke balks, Emmerick tries to press it.  The Duke then asks to see the "alleged" evidence for himself, as he has his doubts.  Mardus, sensing their plot unraveling, jumps in and accepts the much smaller amount of 12,000 gp.  The duke agrees & adds the Ninth will have a feast in the Lord's Quarter to honor their efforts.

The Ninth enjoy the lavish feast, but wish to shake their disguise soon.  Their new found noteriety is weighing them down, so while wining and dining with the elites of Ghastenhall, "Hallack's Crew" mentions wishing to explore the rumors of a nearby Medusa.  Some dignitaries urged caution, but "Hallack's Crew" insisted.

The Ninth plan to shed their disguise the following day, hoping to not don it again.

As the feasting wrapped up, Wasyli mentioned to the group that the Tavern & Inn they were at happens to be the rumored location of the Arcanist Ben.  Wasyli was quite interested in meeting the man, so Yvainne & Mardus offer to introduce him that night.  A discrete payment to the Innkeeper manages to lead them to Ben's suite upstairs.

Wasyli meets the fellow arcane caster who kindly offers his sitting room to the acquaintances and brief pleasantries are exchanged.  Yvainne is sure to ask about Ben's wife, who Ben simply says is "doing fine".  Though Ben constantly seems to eye the door to the bedroom.  Inquiries about Ben's travelling companion, Vincent are made.  And the Knot finds out the vampire hear visiting a local vampire of some note.  A meeting is arranged between the Ninth & Vincent for the following night.  And Ben is quick to hurry his guests out of his suite without mentioning his wife.

The following day the Ninth meet Vincent.  The Ninth asked for help, in particular strength of arms.  Vincent pushed until the Ninth revealed their plot to assault the vale.  Vincent offered to bring the Ninth before his ally, “Prince” Gaius Vestromo, vampire of Ghastenhall.  Further Vincent gave the Ninth an edge, he told them Vestromo needed a family heirloom held in the vaults of the Cathedral of Mitra-Made-Manifest in the Vale.  When asked what Vincent got out of the deal, he made it quite clear.  He knew Thorn's organization would be in a place of power, when that time came, he'd come calling for favors owed.  With a fang lined grin Vincent added "When you're forces rule this kingdom, and rule it they will, I will come calling."

That same night, Vincent lead the Knot into a near by graveyard & into an abandoned mausoleum.  Mardus noted the banal and stereotypical lair for a vampire, to which Vincent gave a sympathetic response of "Not my choice for a home..."  The Knot met with the dread vampire & under the guidance & advice of Vincent managed to gain the Prince's support in the form of 10 vampire spawn.

With the macabre scene behind them, the Knot runs into trouble of a different nature the following day.  Mardus is sought out in the Red Quarter by one of the pimps who works at the Golden Palace in the Red Quarter.  It seems Master Vex needs some help.

Rounding up the Knot, Mardus meets with Master Vex.  They find the eastern priest there badly injured, along with some scared looking thugs.  Master Vex is quick to ask for help.  His creatures have broken loose & he needs the situation dealt with.  And quickly.  He'll gladly pay the regular winnings for the game, just so long as speed is taken.  Quell, smelling fear & profit pushes, he wants a shadow stake-holding in the Golden Palace.  Master Vex balks at that.  But to sweeten the pot, Quell offers to not only capture as many of these creatures alive as possible, but further will ship future creatures they find back to the pit fighting arena.  In exchange a simple 1% cut of the profits is required.  Forced with little option, Master Vex buckles & agrees.

The Knot makes quick work of the creatures that fled into the sewers.  Relying on their powerful skills, the Knot recovers most without incident.  The only exception, the mighty Allosaurus which they were forced to kill.

As the weeks slipped by the Knot became increasingly restless.  Sending a cell of the shroud to the Vale they scouted out the area.  There was a village full of innocents.  Woman and children.  Emmerick was the most vocal.  He disliked the idea of wonton slaughter.  It reminded him of the uncaring fires of the inquisition.  Quell has a moment of pause as he remembered the burning flame of mitra kill his master & leave his master's children as orphans of the state.  Mardus reminded the group that ever since the beginning he's been a proponent of corruption but maintaining social order.  Simply with a new absolute ruler and the law of Asmodeus.  This destruction and worse the plague.  The more research into the savagery of the plague gave the Knot more pause.  Except for Yvainne, the death priest seemed quite pleased with the prospect of sending her dark god so many sacrifices.  Still, a reluctance hung about the Knot.  Was Thorn truly looking to rule Talengarde or simply cause chaos...

With their free time spent, Tiadora arrived to inform the Knot it was time to meet an old friend, The Fire-Axe.  Taking the form of a white-furred female bugbear, Tiadora provided teleportation coordinates to the ruins of Westkirk Castle, the current headquarters of Fire-Axe.

Arriving in mass across the mountains, Tiadora quickly led the Ninth to see the First.  A warm reunion was had.  Fire-Axe informed them they'd be given one squad of soldiers to invade the Vale with.  Tiadora pushed for a second troop lead by Fire-Axe's chief lieutenant, Night-Mane.  Fire-Axe hated that idea, but soothing words from the Ninth changed his mind.  He & Tiadora spoke to the Ninth of some different sources of potential help, Drugar were in the mountains near by, likewise, the Medusa was on the other side of the mountains near Ghastenhall.  He also told the Ninth of a Ogre Magi on the run in his camp.  Something about killing a sub-chieftain over a dispute.

With pleasantries & business concluded, the Ninth left the First to his planning.

Combining arcane divination and cunning tongue, the Ninth easily tracked down the Ogre Magi and explained plainly he had no future left in Fire-Axe's hoard.  But glory still awaited him.  After haggling over a price, the Ninth settled on a fee nearly identical to the monthly profits they'd just secured from the Golden Palace.

A convenient arraignment if there ever were one.

With affairs in order, the Knot makes their next move.  To track down this Medusa they keep hearing about.  With a little bit of luck & skill they manage to find the ruined temple that's the supposed location of the snake-haired horror.  Doing areal recon they spot a cluster of stone statues out front, likely victims.

The Knot steels itself & approaches on foot...

Session 27

The first week in Ghastenhall is a whirlwind of activity.  Wasyli meets the Ninth Knot's new cohort, Trik.  The priest of Asmodeus invites Wasyli to join an interfaith service the first morning of their stay in the Manor house in the Lord's Quarter of Ghastenhall.  The service is not held in a basement, or hidden closet, but rather on the ground floor sitting room.  It is a surreal experience for Wasyli to see.  All those years of his Aunt telling him to hide his faith.  And here it is being openly worshiped, not less than a mile from the Duke of Ghastenhall's audience chamber.  The trappings of Hell and the Midnight Lord on full display.  An odd sight indeed.

The rest of the week is filled with various actions.  The knot is quick to sell off the ill gotten equipment recovered from Branderscar as well as do some long overdue shopping.  Emmerick disappears to gather information from the town.  Others ask Thrane more questions about what is going on and how the disease will be released.  And other sundry actions take place.

The only other major event of the first week is the day of the pit-fight.  

Brother Summit "hungry" for combat, goes with Mardus & Quell to the Golden Palace, a hive of scum and villainy in the Red Quarter of town.  Having heard rumors that this is the place to get into pit fights, he's not disappointed.  Quell acts as fight manager & fast talks with the owner, Master Max, about the rules & getting Summit into the fight.  Using the same stage name as back in Farholde, "Empty".  Mardus does raise an eyebrow at the overly friendly nature of Quell.  A side of the elf he hadn't seen before.  Clearly the rogue is comfortable now that he's back home in Ghastenhall.

The negotiations finalized, the three return that evening where Brother Summit fights against 3 savage beasts. First the giant two-headed cobra falls to the monk.  The Owlbear who followed fared an equally poor chance against Summit's blows.  Some in the crowd notice his fighting stance looks similar to the Monks of the Serene Order.  But under the roar of the crowd, Quell & Mardus don't notice their comments.  Mardus is too busy shooting out narrations of Summit's fighting style, while Quell chats with Master Max as the fight goes on before them.  The last brute to face the monk is an Ankylosaurus.  The dinosaurs large stunning tail & think armored skin prove a hard challenge.  At one point Mardus is worried about needing to use a Breath of Life spell on Summit if he were to fall.  But the Monk perseveres & triumphs.

With the fight over, Mardus takes a battered & bruised Brother Summit back to the manor house to recover.  And Quell slips away to find himself at his old stopping ground.  The Silver Tankard Inn.  Eager to see how his old friend Khyber the elf slips into the tavern.  His usual table is empty, and Khyber is no where in sight.  He does spot his favorite barmaid, Eve.  Part friend, part little sister, it's comforting to see a friendly face, even if under his disguise she fails to recognize him.

He smiles and is a bit surprise to see her flirting so much with a patron. But his smile disappears when he sees who she's flirting with.  Emmerick.  The Unholy Warrior fails to notice Quell as he sits smiling & chatting up Eve.

Quell wonders in the back & picks a spot near his old table & waits.

The second week progresses along.  Much like the first.  

Quell continued to watch for his friend at the Silver Tankard, while quietly watching Emmerick maintain a role of wounded veteran and hobnob with locals and flirt with the pretty barmaid, Eve.  Quell eventually saw his friend Khyber show up.  And though Khyber gave Quell a look and even asked him "Do I know you?" the elf simply shook his head.  Afraid to speak & blow his cover.  Khyber also noticed the wounded soldier flirting with Eve, which raised an eyebrow on his rugged face.  But Quell noted he seemed too busy giving orders to a couple of thugs working for the local crime boss Nicholas Breuder.  It seems old Khyber has moved up in the ranks in Quell's absence.

The other Knot members continued their routine.  Emmerick gathered information & flirted with Eve, unaware of Quell's ever watchful eye.  Other knot members went about their business.  Two rumors did cause some of the Knot to investigate.  Rumors swirled of murder of woman in Red Quater.  That combined with rumors of an older man with a young woman who seemed confused wondering the market place raised concerns among Yvianne & Mardus.  So they went snooping around but found little to go on.  Consulting with Quell, they decided to dismiss the murders as likely an unfounded rumor.  But the story of the older man & confused woman did lead them to a name.  Ben.  It seems the necromancer who travels with a vampire is in town somewhere.

Also there was more pit fighting.  Brother Summit went up against a Wooly Rino that tried to skewer the Monk on his great horn, only to be stomped to the ground & knocked out.  A slicer beetle tried to take off a hand but found his pincers weren't sharp enough to bother the punishing kick & flurry of knuckles the Monk had to offer.  The charging Dire Lion that attacked the Monk nearly shredded him to ribbons.  And Mardus was worried he'd have to jump in and rescue the monk.  But the cat eventually fell just like all the others.

All in all, a pretty tame week for the Ninth Knot.

Session 26

Galen hurriedly teleports the Ninth Knot outside the familiar Branderscar prison before teleporting away.

The five remaining members of the Ninth Knot looked on their old home once again.  The infamous Branderscar prison.

Quell attempted to stealth up to the gate house of the prison only to be spotted by some local villagers doing some sort of construction.  Quickly resorting to bluffing he's able to blend in with the workers & see what's going on.

The disguised elf spots a couple obvious changes.  First, construction efforts are underway to increase the gate-house of the prison.  Second, a much larger guard contingent is present manning the walls of the prison. And last, two banners fly beside the prison's flag, those of the Knights of the Alerion Order and the Mitrian Inquisition.

Times have changed.

The Knot spends considerable time guessing at their options.  Without an arcane caster, they'll be hard pressed to launch a magical assault into the compound.  Further, not knowing how long remaining their prisoner has forces them to not wait and pray for different spells.  So they fall back on what they do best.  Lie.  Bluff.  And sneak their way into position.  Then burn things down.

Emmerick & Brother Summit take on their role of Priest of Mitra and Knight of the Alerion Order.  Though they swap names in case their actions around Farholde & Balynten have raise suspicions.  They come with a guardsman (Quell) and two prisoners (Yvainne & Brother Summit).

The silver tongues of Emmerick & Mardus manage not only to deceive the simpleton guards but also the clever inquisitor.  Yvainne & Brother Summit are hauled off to the prison.  And thanks to the trusting words of Emmerick aren't even checked for weapons.  Meanwhile Emmerick & Mardus give their report to the inquisitor.

One flaw in the hasty plans of the Ninth Knot becomes apparent.  Quell, who deftly disabled the locks in their last stay at Branderscar prison is stuck upstairs with an inquisitor, leaving Brother Summit & Yvainne stuck in shackles.

Still, the Monk sees in a near by cell a bound & gagged prisoner matching the description of their target.  Not wasting any time the monk begins to break his bonds & those of Yvainne.  Causing a large amount of noise.  Meanwhile up above the fabricated story being told by Emmerick & Mardus begins to fall apart before the inquisitors insistent questioning.

Realizing the story is falling apart Emmerick makes some noise himself as he hurls a table up onto the inquisitor & all three of the knot members in the room attack.  With Quell's precision stabbing backed by the gross power of Emmerick's mace, the inquisitor falls, but not before calling for help.

And with the jig up, the Ninth unleashes hell on Branderscar.

In the prison below, Brother Summit & Yvainne remove the gag from Wasyli's mouth.  With the Sorcerer able to speak, he quickly dimension door's out of his wall mounted chains.

The three rush to the door to find it barred.  It seems the guards noticed the noise.  Wasyli doesn't hesitate and casts Shatter, reducing the door to a pile of splinters.  And the three prisoners rush forward & up the stairs.

That's where they run into the other Knot members who are in the middle of fighting a half-dozen guards, one cleric & have a wall of fire up burning part of the keep.

Unleashing Hell indeed.

The combined arms of the Knot destroy the remaining resistance within the keeps interior.  A quick use of arcane magic by the new sorcerer blocks the main entrance of the keep.  Quell and Mardus have to pass through their own wall of fire to break into a store room & recover Wasyli's gear.  Meanwhile Brother Summit & Yvainne move toward the servants exit in the kitchen where they get waylay-ed by a pair of Knights of the Alerion Order.  Brother Summit finds himself reeling from the blows when Emmerick rushes up and lets the staggered Monk fall back and receive healing.

Under the unrelenting mace blows from Emmerick and punches from the healed Brother Summit, the Knights fall before the Knot.

Unsure of how they'll all flee the island, Wasyli brings up that he can cast the Fly spell on all of them.  Yvainne adds an enveloping darkness and the six criminals of Talengarde flee Branderscar prison.  For five of them it's their second time.

The Knot arrives at a familiar all-be-it abandoned manor house.  Dust, cobwebs & decay fill the air.

After breaking their clay seal & waiting for an hour, Tiadora arrives.  Taking a reluctant Wasyli she departs.  Wasyli finds himself before Thorn in a freezing cold throne room of sorts.  The trappings of Hell adorning the walls.  At Thorns side stands some sort of guard.

A pleasant if stiff conversation ensues, ending with Wasyli signing a familiar contract with the High Priest of Asmodeus in Talengarde.

Then as quickly as he came, Wasyli is teleported back to the abandoned manor house and his new fellow Knot members.

The Knot settles in for a long overland journey to the bustling trade port of Ghastenhall.

Arriving from the West they find an Inn in the crime riddled Red Quarter and quickly get a lay of the land.  And only until after spending a couple days gathering information around town, does the Knot approach their contact at the Library of Ghasten.  The member of the fifth knot.  Barnibus Thrane.

Making contact with Thrane is quite easy & they schedule a private meeting in the evening.  Speaking with Thrane then, he's quick to take the Tears from the Knot.  He informs them there is an estate set up for them, with servants.  And also 6 magical gems, each able to be socket-ted to the Iron Crowns they each possess.  Each stone provides a different magical bonus to the wearer of the crown.  A gift from the Cardinal for a job well done.

With that settled the Knot is faced with the decision of what to do next.  They have Ghastenhall before them and a month of free time.

Four weeks is probably not enough to bring Ghastenhall to its knees, but how will they know if they don’t try?

Session 25

The massive Mud Elementals surge forward toward the Sanctum of the Horn and the Ninth Knot rush to the defense.

One of the Mud creatures entraps Emmerick's nightmare, but the Anti-Paladin of Hell doesn't miss a step as he leaps from the saddle & slams his heavy mace into the creature's goey mass.  Brother Summit, Grumblejack & even a reluctant Quell stand by Emmerick to face the beasts, backed up by a well placed Wall of Fire from Mardus to split the two elementals up and divine and arcane buffs from Yvainne and Galen to buff and protect the Ninth for the fight to come.

Blade, fist and magic slam into the creatures.  The first falls quickly, trapped between fire behind it & the forces of hell in front of it.  The second creature lasts longer but starts to falter under relentless blows when it's bathed in a cone of acid from behind and falls to the ground.  Looking outside, the Ninth spots their Green Dragon ally, Sanderax, landing and surveying the damage.

The fight went quite well and the Horn remains quite for the remainder of the day.  And as night falls, another day passes by.  Another day closer to the return of Vetra-Kali.

The dawn rays of the next day bring a dreaded foe of the ninth.  The Ninth first get alerted when Sanderax comes flying through the magical energy sheath & straight over the half-wall to crash land out of site.  His words chill the blood of the Ninth.  "The spawn of Antharia Regina has come!"  The silver dragon is at hand.

Mardus is quick to cast communal resist energy cold on as many of the Ninth as he can get.  Galen and Yvianne begin buffing the group with their own magical means.  They hold nothing back.  As this happens, the magical energy sheath disappears around the entrance to the Sanctum.  Then the Silver Dragon lands and gives out a roar.

The Ninth manage to steel themselves in the face of the terror and a swift battle ensues.  The Dragon's cold breath weapon proves nearly useless against the well prepared Ninth Knot.  And trying his paralyzing breath only managed to stop Emmerick's Nightmare, but not Emmerick himself.

In fact, the Silver Dragon has a hard time hurting the Ninth.  The worst single attack comes to Quell, but not from the Silver Dragon, but rather the Green Dragon.  Right before the fight, Galen was quick to cloak Quell in magical invisibility and it shielded the Elven rogue from the eyes of all dragons.  A problem that proved nearly deadly when he was caught from behind by the breath weapon of his ally.

However, with the Silver Dragon trying to fight it's way on foot & unable to take to it's natural home in the clouds above, the Ninth was able to leverage it's full might against the magical beast.

In particular, the negative energy channelling, good smiting anti-paladin of hell, Emmerick, lead the way in putting out huge amounts of damage.  And eventually under his unrelenting heavy mace the silver dragon, Argossarian, hatch-ling of Antharia Regina, fell.

Sanderax rejoiced in the slaughter.  The young green dragon rushed out as Argossarian fell and ripped out the silver dragon's heart and feasted on it before letting out a roar and taking to the air around the horn.  The dragon flew circles around the horn, breathing cones of acid in triumph.

With the silver dragon dead, the ninth finally begin to relax.  The rest of the day passes by.  At the midnight ritual the ninth take their places, knowing this will be the last ritual to do.  For at this time tomorrow, Vetra-Kali will arrive.

They eagerly intone the chant when they feel a coldness settle in on them.  Then, stepping through the corners of the room step out Hounds of Tindalos.  These eldrich beasts quickly attack the surprised ninth knot.  Their primary ire appearing to be Brother Summit.  It seems the Monk's journey through the dark places out of time were not without physical risk...

The hounds prove to be a much more challenging fight then the silver dragon.  They quickly rake into the members of the ninth knot.  Mardus attempts to maintain the ritual but eventually has to abandon it to come rescue Galen, who gets trapped & blocked from using his extra-dimensional travel when one of the hounds dimensional anchors him.

Brother Summit too takes a few tough hits, along with other Knot members.  But still, they persevere and somehow overcome these otherworldly horrors.

When questions arise as to why the hounds seemed to focus mostly on Brother Summit, he mentions he encountered them on his meditation.  When pressed if there are any more the Monk thinks back to the horrors he saw & simply lies and says there are no more.

The ninth quickly redo the midnight ritual and manage to complete it within the allotted time.  Only two more rituals remaining.

The next morning, the sunrise ritual completes without incident.  Leaving only the final ritual and sacrifice remaining.  But shortly after the morning ritual, the Daemon guard with them in the Horn shouts out "We're under attack!" and teleports away.

Galen, thinking quickly, realizes there must be a threat beneath them, where the other Daemon was guarding, in the stairs leading up to the sanctum.  They bring up the scrying and see one Daemon already missing and the other in a pitched battle with the likes of Sir Thomas Havelyn and his band of adventurers.  Included in their number are the two members of the Banner Verdant who escaped from the Horn but four days ago.  It seems they didn't have enough of the Ninth.

Seeing the threat below, the Ninth hurries and magically buffs themselves as they see the Daemon stagger under blow after blow.  And then they teleport right into the midst of the good-doers, leaving behind Grumblejack to guard their prisoner & Vitra-Kali's eyes.

The fight that ensues is as brutal as it is quick.  It's all over in less than a minute.

Brother Summit manages to outright kill Brother Donnigan in a matter of seconds.  Emmerick & Sir Havelyn fight a little longer, but in the end they both fall over unconscious under each others blows.  Though, technically it's the wizard Erik who's magic missiles finally take down the anti-paladin.  Vethia and Brunhild from the Banner Verdant help the forces of good, but prove once again out of their league against the forces of hell as they struggle to contribute significantly.

Mad Mott manages to push his way into the ranks of the Ninth and take down Yvianne before she's able to heal back up Emmerick.  But he begins to get swamped by Brother Summit and a blinding glitterdust from Galen doesn't help his situation.

Erik watches and the ever cautious evoker comes to the realization.  They are doomed.  Brother Donnigan is dead.  Brunhild might be able to restore Havelyn, but not for long.  The forces of good will not triumph this day.  It is time to flee, but not before inflicting a lasting blow.  Erik quickly arcs lightning between the downed Emmerick & Yvianne, making sure the Anti-Paladin of Hell and the Priestess of the Midnight Lord both were sent to the respective fiery and cold embrace of their gods.  Then with a snap of his fingers, all this companions and their gear teleport from the Horn in a flash of arcane magic somehow able to by-pass the magical barrier of the Horn.

The Ninth is badly damaged, but still able to push on.  Mardus uses a scroll of raise dead to bring back Yvainne.  And they wrap Emmerick up in a shroud of gentle repose to await a future raise dead.  And they settle in for the last ritual and the coming of Vetra-Kali.

The evening ritual comes.  With Emmerick dead it falls to Galen to sacrifice the Blood of the Victor.  The ritual goes off without complication & the still beating heart of Sir Valin Darian is placed in the alter.  There is no grand earthquake, or shaking or maniacal cackling.  Simply a strong steady pulse of green energy piercing the heavens & acting as a beacon for the Daemon Prince's return.

As the glowing subsides, the wraith Ezra Thrice Damned floats through the wall into the Sanctum.  He makes a grand declaration that it is he who will receive the gift of Vetra-Kali, and that the Ninth is doomed.  As he says that, a half-dozen wraiths move from the surrounding walls.  The Knot is confused, seeing so many wraiths then they recognize the new ones.  They look like frog-men.  It seems Ezra also betrayed the Boggards living far below.

The knot engage with the undead.  Perhaps if Ezra had simply surprise attacked the Ninth things would have gone better.  But he didn't.  He lined up his "soldiers" and gave a speech.  At the end of which, he and his spawn promptly got hit repeatedly by fireballs, flamestrike and other magical destruction.  The damage destroyed over half his force in a matter of seconds.  Further, Brother Summit charged into the exploding magical energies with indifference.  He would end Ezra.  A creature he considered an ally and acquaintance.  A betrayer. The monk promptly destroyed the spirit.  Even without Emmerick, the Ninth managed to easily destroy Ezra and his army.  And along the way Yvainne managed to command one of the wraiths over to the Ninth's side.  Not bad for one combat's work.

Midnight comes, the moment the Ninth Knot has waited 222 days for is finally at hand.  A glowing dark portal to the outer planes opens up & through it comes the monstrous Daemon, Vetra-Kali Eats-The-Eyes.  It screams out for it's eyes.  And that's when Quell realizes it's eyes were not metaphorical as the elf had assumed.  The Daemon has gaping eye sockets the same shape as the emeralds the Ninth possesses.

Galen steps forward and offers the first eye, but only if the ninth is granted protection from Vetra-Kali.  The Daemon prince agrees and greedily takes the eye & eats it.  After a moment, a bulge is seen moving up to an empty eye socket, the eye lid closes & reopens revealing the shining emerald gem.  Quell looks a little uneasy at the sight.

For the next eye the Ninth requests the Tears of Achlys and when asked promise to spread it throughout Talingarde.  Vetra-Kali is clearly pleased and hands over his Tears to the Ninth.  However, the Daemon Princes sick pleasure is short lived.

For the next eye the Ninth insist Vetra-Kali returns to his home plane and NEVER return.  Vetra-Kali shrieks out in blind rage.  He seizes the last eye and howls out that the Ninth stink of the failed god Asomdeus and that they will regret their foolish demands.  Then the Daemon Prince disappears through the portal he came in.  And as all the magic and essence of Vetra-Kali leaves the Prime Material Plane, the Horn gives a sickening sound as the magic supporting it starts to fail.

The Knot doesn't hesitate, Galen grabs everyone & teleports straight to Farholde.

Back in the Caer Bryr, Sanderax pokes his head out from the entrance to his lair to look out over the forest to the Horn.  He sees it crumble to dust and rubble.  The green dragon hisses in Draconic "Some gift they left me for a new lair" before the his head slips back into the entrance to his lair.  The green dragon scales covered over in shadows leaving only two pin-pricks of light from his gleaming eyes.

Meanwhile, back in Farholde, the Ninth Knot is quick to crack the seal & notify Thorn.

After an hour of waiting, Tiadora arrives and is quick to examine the Tears.  Seeing they appear genuine she quickly departs and returns a few moments later with a pouch bursting with emeralds and a letter from Thorn detailing instructions to go to the trade capital of Ghastenhall & meet another Knot there who will know how best to use the "gift" of Vetra-Kali.  Quell eyes the gems & says the reward is not enough.  Tiadora shoots a deadly stare his way and reminds him of the fate of the greedy captain of the Frosthammer at the hands of the Ninth Knot all those many months ago.

Tension fills the air as the Elf insists the reward is not enough.  Spread out over the 222 days, it's hardly anything per day he insists.  He further states some guards in Ghastenhall get paid more to guard a merchant's warehouse.  Let alone an evil fortress in the middle of a jungle!  Tiadora sneers and is about to give an unpleasant rebuttal when Galen quickly points out that based on the letter, Thorn has more of a reward waiting for them in Ghastenhall.

The tension subsides a bit as Quell relaxes a little.  Unnoticed to the others, Emmerick gives a faint smile at seeing Quell push against Thorn's Lieutenant and their Master's commands.

Tiadora informs the Ninth that Galen has been requested to aid the Sixth Knot.  "It seems the Malebolgian Knot has need of your assistance my sweet heart."  Tiadora informs the Conjurer.  "You can bring your lacky with you if you wish."  Tiadora says, pointing to Grumblejack.  Tiadora, Galen & Grumblejack leave that evening.

It seems all is going according to plan.  And at dawn the next morning the Nessian Knot prepares to depart Farholde for Ghastenhall when Tiadora returns in a huff with Galen in tow.

"We have little time but a potentially useful ally is about to meet an untimely end in a familiar place. A Sorcerer devoted to the cause of hell is about to be executed for trying to express his... religious freedom.  You must act.  And quickly.  We have desperate need of Galen elsewhere, but time's a factor.  So he'll be able to teleport you all to outside Branderscar Prison before heading to Abselom.  Rescue the arcanist of house Veryn and hurry with the Tears to Ghastenhall.  But I'll warn you, security is not what it was the last time you were there my sweethearts..."

Tiadora only pauses a moment to answer any last minute questions from the Ninth before preparing to leave.

Before she goes she says "Oh and do contact Thorn when you have him safely away from the prison.  There should be an empty manor house near by you can hold up in when you contact our master.  After all, our new recruit will have a contract to sign..."  And with that Tiadora leaves in a flash of arcane magic.