Session 21

With the arrival of one of the Daemon's & Galen, Brother Summit is bolstered with hope.  And shortly after they arrive, more Knot members come pouring out of the teleportation circle.

The Mitrian inquisition rapidly turns from hunter into hunted.  The Daemon shrugs off the attacks of the Inquisitor leader and with arcane support disembowels the Mitrian.  The guards & lantern archon begin to fall under the combined might of Quell, Brother Summit & Mardus with support from the negative energy spewing death priestess, Yvainne.

Mardus calls out to take someone alive and it is then that Emmerick arrives, riding through the 3rd floor balcony on his newly summoned Nightmare.  Charging into the fry he destroys the priest of Mitra, 2nd in command of the Mitrian forces.  Splattering blood across Mardus' face.  Clearly the Anti-paladin missed the Oracle of Hell's advice.

Still, as defeat claims the forces of good, a couple of the foot soldiers are taken alive for questioning by Yvainne.

After a few days of questioning an unexpected fact comes out.  The Inquisitors were following reports of an alleged "Knight of the Alerion Order" who was causing carnage along the river heading to Farholde.  Checking dates & times, they matched perfectly with the Ninth Knots trip along the same river months earlier.  A trip that always involved stops overnight near towns by Tiadora.  It seems Thorn's Lieutenant was keeping herself busy.  And managed to drag the inquisition down around them.

Why the inquisition thought it was forces of Hell behind the attack is unclear, as the two surviving foot soldiers simply heard the reports from the now very much dead head Inquisitor.

The Knot members discuss Speak with Dead on the remains of the Inquisitor & Priest, but they get interrupted and never get around to it.

The interruption comes in the arrival of Aliciette Cardoso.  She apparently knew of the surprise inquisitor attack.  It's at that moment the Ninth Knot thinks to ask, where was the warning from the seventh?  She assures them a messenger was sent.  She held up to watch the departure of the Inquisition, to insure they in fact left Farholde & reported to Elise before heading to the Horn herself to warn the ninth in person.

There is grumbling within the ninth that the seventh somehow tricked them.  But travelling back with Aliciette to the outskirts of Farholde, they pick up on the trail of the messenger & follow it into the woods, to see for themselves.

The follow the tracks & stumble into a clearing in the woods, that's when the corrupted plant creature attacks them.  Emitting some sort of hallucinatory spore, Mardus sees the tree as a friend, not an enemy.  Meanwhile, the rest of the knot fights off the creature's long vines as it tries to grasp at their necks.  Without Mardus' "fire" power, the fight has a rough start, but the Knot manages to overcome the tree creature with minimal difficulty.

There amongst the remains of various travellers is a letter from Elise warning the ninth of an impending attack.  Some grumbles are still heard among the ninth, but for now it seems Elise and the seventh remain faithful to the cause.

Over the next couple weeks, Yvainne & Quell together partake in the Boggard Shaman's odd ritual.  Yvainne is distressed to see visions of a fiery hell.  And not the comforting black void her god promises her.  Quell also has visions of hell though his involve odd Devils consorting and speaking of him & the other members of the ninth knot.  A brother & a sister of some sort?  The odd frog poison induced vision is too hard for the elf to follow clearly.

It is around that time a local preacher speaks of doom & evil at the Horn.  Trying to rally the town against this otherworldly threat.  Clearly this heretic must go.  If the heads of the Basileus Shroud had thought to consult the other knot members, Mardus would have strongly urged caution.  Suggesting to undermine the preacher's credibility.  But the Shroud members did not consult the others and where guided by Yvainne's secret rage at her "false" visions of hell.  The death priestess wants blood!  And Emmerick seems fine with letting her have it.  So the Shroud plots to end the Mitrian's life and after a couple unsuccessful attempts manages to succeed.  But only to prove to the town the preacher was right and now is a Martyr for the cause.

Eventually the half-way point arrives and the eventual end of Sister Marta is at hand.  Mardus, having maintained his alternate personality of a servant, convinces Sister Marta that salvation is at hand.  He leads her to her freedom by "sneaking" the blind woman out of the Horn.  In fact, he simply walks her past skeletons, guards, Daemons & others up long stairs to the Sanctum of Vetra-Kali.  There, standing before the shrine of the Daemon Prince, a glowing evil veil of green energy behind her as a backdrop, the Oracle of Hell swiftly cuts out her heart.  Ensuring that to the end, the Mitrian Sister always had faith in the Shining Lord.

The Horn burst forth with Daemonic energy.  The ground itself trying to revolt from the evils, causing loose stonework & dust to fall all about.  A sickly green pulse of energy lanced the heavens.  As the earthquake subsided, an unnatural darkness fell about the land as the rays of the Shining Lords light failed to fall on the lands around the Horn.

The following week after the dark ritual, the Knot members are awoken to the report of a murder in the servants quarters.  Before they can arrive to investigate, they hear voices coming from the cells.  Listening in, a woman's voice says, "keep quite, I'm here to rescue you."  In hushed tones the knot discusses & debates how to attack when they hear a scream.  Galen rushes & dimension doors the entire knot into the cells.  There they find some nightmare horror attacking their prisoners.

Battle is joined against the incorporeal creature.  Galen is quick to throw Brother Summit the magical shaman staff, capable of touching even ghosts.  And the Monk uses it to land blow after blow on the dream-shade   As others blows only half land.

Throughout the entire combat it changes appearance, taking on the forms of those who died in the Horn.  But in spit of it's crazed ways, the Ninth destroy it.  At least for the time being.

After combat ends Galen is explaining it's odd ability, Mardus pipes up to Quell, "Didn't you die here Quell? Could it have turned into you?"

A shudder runs down the elfs spine...

In the following week the Shroud leadership receive a missive from the headmaster at the Vandermir Orphanage, Bergill Mott.  Speaking in riddles that Yvainne & others can easily decipher  it seems another rival gang is moving against the Shroud's forces in Farholde.  A gang known as Thatcher's Crew is moving in on the slums of Farholde.

This act can not go unanswered.  But seeing an opportunity, Yvainne suggests an alternative to outright elimination   If somehow they could be incorporated into the Shrouds operations, the manpower would be quite helpful.

So, they set up a meeting outside of town between the rival gang leadership & themselves.  Speaking with Thatcher, Yvainne manages to convince him to join with them.  But her honeyed words fail to convince his crew.  Further, her supplications to the rival gang cause dissent within the Shroud.  The results are disastrous   While Thatcher & a couple of his personal cronies join, the rest of his gang scatters to the winds.  Worse, the Shroud loses more in moral & personal then Thatcher & his lackeys will ever be worth.

A bleak day for the machinations of the Ninth.

Session 20

Brother Summit quickly goes running off into the darkness after Quell.  His orcish vision guiding his way.  He eventually spots a light as Quell ignites a sun rod & finds himself hiding behind a massive stone coffin.  All around are the trappings of high druid priestess of the Iraen forest elves.  The Knot regroup and explore the ruins determining it to be an old burial tomb to the Iraens.  They rummage through the place and seize anything of value.  By far the greatest find was the Druid's staff.  A powerful magic item that has spells able to charm animals.

They sell off what they don't need and decide to keep the druid's staff.  Galen is able to use some of the spells & Mardus can also try to "fake it".  The Knot then proceeds back to the Horn to continue their defenses.

Shortly after returning to the Horn they receive a report of a grizzly mass murder in town.  A party of Iraens is found, their remains strung up on lantern posts.  With a grim statement.  "Stay away from the horn".  It seems the seventh knot is busy & not really following the ninth knot's instruction of keeping quite.  Also a report comes that the the bugbear horde as struck another blow to the armies of Talengarde & the absent Lord of Farholde and a great number of the soldiers & citizens of Farholde will not be returning alive.  The evil baron's control of the town of Farholde increases greatly as he's the only noble of any standing left in the area.

Another week goes by when the Boggard shamen & some of his frogmen approach Emmerick with a request.  A hunting party has gone missing out near the lake to the east.  The Knot decides to go investigate.

Galen leads the way & nearly gets the group lost.  Fortunately, the recently recovered magical staff has the ability to show direction, so the Knot still manages to reach the Lake, though it is far north of where they should be.

The group proceeds down the lakeshore admiring the native wildlife when an unnatural horror attacks from the crystal waters.  A massive Chuul reaches up and grabs Yvainne.  In a flurry of attacks the Chuul downs the priestess.  But the beast is unable to repeat what the giant toad did in the original prison escape & eat the priestess or drag the wounded Knot member into the unknown deepths of the lake. For Galen rushes and teleports himself and the downed death priestess to safety where Mardus revives her.

The rest of the Knot unleashes a torrent of attacks on the otherworldly horror and the hunter rapidly becomes the hunted.  Before the Chuul can flee, the combined arms of Emmerick, Quell & Brother Summit backed up by arcane might of Galen & Mardus bring down the brute.

Some in the Knot consider trying to animate dead but lacking the resources on hand & disliking the idea of dragging a corpse through a predator rich environment, they leave the remains behind.

Finally arriving near the location of the missing hunting party, Quell is quick at work searching for clues.  And somehow he manages to find a small isolated den of some large feline hunter.  Unsure of the specific creature living within, the Knot approaches cautiously.  Emmerick takes the lead, with Galen ready with his staff to charm the animal, if able.  When the dire tiger charges as Emmerick, Galen manages to enchant it with his staff & stop it from attacking.

Using magical communications, they manage to barter with the Dire Tiger who goes by "One-Eye" due to a scarred over eye he lost in some earlier altercation.  And through convincing words & magical compulsion manage to get One-Eye to return with them & guard part of the caverns below the Horn.  Though how long the predator will stay bound to the will of the Knot is hard to say.

The following week the Knot receives a dire warning from the seventh knot.  A large silver dragon was spotted flying over Farholde.  The Horn goes on heightened alert.  Mardus goes & warns the near by green dragon who seems angry at a possible draconic rival being drawn to his territory due to the actions of the Knot.  However the arcane beast reserves his temper upon hearing it be a silver dragon.  He mentions to Mardus how he dislikes a copper dragon that lives off the western shore of Talengarde.  Mardus asks if he knows of any silver dragons and all the silver dragons he's ever heard of were one of Antharia Regina's brood.  A great wyrm who lives far to the north.  And likely this dragon is one of them.  Mardus asks, "What if it's this Antharia Regina herself?"  The green dragon flashes a toothy smile.  "Then you're doomed."

And yet the days go by & no silver dragon arrives at the Horn.  It seems for now to have been a false alarm.

Unfortunately, the next attack comes with no alarm at all.  It happens as Brother Summit is walking the third floor of the Horn, speaking with the Dread Wraith Ezra Thrice-Damned about how his monk powers allow him to draw the energy from the living in the form of ki.  Brother Summit notices an odd noise by the door to the teleportation room & pauses, unsure of himself as he walks over to it.

Before he can open it himself, it bursts open and a group of Holy Inquisitors of Mitra charge through in what would have been quite a lot of noise if it weren't for the magical silence that fills the area.

Ezra, seeing a priest in their midsts flees to get help and likely to save his own undead "skin".  Brother Summit manages somehow to rush past the throng of Mitrian warriors & make it to the teleportation circle.  Only to have the men follow behind & teleport right after him.  The leader calling out, "Surrender Asmodeus scum."  Brother Summit doesn't even pause to consider how the Mitrians know he works for Asmodeus and just continues to flee.

Teleporting back & forth, he manages to stall long enough for Ezra to warn Galen & the others. The conjurer of hell teleports down & with him comes one of the Daemon guardians.  As the other Knot members rush for the teleportation circle as well.

The battle finally begins to shift in the favor of Brother Summit, who gets cornered but still manages to kill off one of his attackers.

How will the battle end?  And how did the Mitrian Inquisition know to use the teleporters...