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...