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?
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
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.
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.
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