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.