Session 34

As crystal gargoyles enclosed on the Knot, their bodies shimmering in blinding lights, the Dragon roared overhead and called out in a mocking voice... "Six blind mice, see how they run!"

The fight was joined.  And Quell fell over in uncontrollable laughing.

The agethion concubine struggled to keep up with her allies as they rushed ahead.  The tree-shaped woman leading the three, using magic to move in among the Knot in a blur.

The Knot scattered, casters fleeing from her aging attacks as the melee fighters surged forward.  The dragon continued to roar overhead as Quell rolled on the floor laughing more.

At one point Yvainne tried to run away & bumped into something invisible and just kept trying to move around it until she got in the clear.  Not waiting to see what it was she cast down divine wraith, stunning gargoyles and concubines alike.

Wasyli managed to invoke his infernal pact and feeblemind the Rakshasa before hiding in shadows.

The gargoyles still moved in, blinding as they went, Quell gave out a laugh.  "Ha!  Now I am blind!  Ha!  This is SSOO funny!  Ha!!" As around him his companions struggled for their lives.  Even Mardus' repeated attempts to break enchantment failed.

Still, in spite of their adversity, the Knot tried to rally.  Brother Summit & Emmerick laid into the tree creature.  Their repeated blows chopping her down.  Eventually she fell to Emmerick, for a second the anti-paladin looked to a nearby Gargoyle, but then turned to the fallen concubine.  And resumed hacking at her with helbrand until he was sure she was dead.

Then the invisible dragon dropped the rouse of his illusionary copy.  And he savaged into the wicked creature who smote his lover.  In a rush of attacks  Emmerick staggered and fell.  The dragon refused to relent.  Blow after blow, until the very armor Emmerick wore was bend under the final tail slam.  Emmerick's battered form was well beyond the breath of life Mardus could offer and then Mardus succumbed to the blinding light of the Gargoyles.

Emmerick dead, Quell consumed by laughter, the crystal of the island even seemed to blow teleportation magic.  The potential doom of the Ninth Knot was at hand.

Thinking on their feet, the Knot came up with a solution.  Wasyli used limited wish to create a dampening field to allow teleportation magic to work.  Yvainne rushes into it and calls out for the others to come running as she preps a word of recall.  Mardus waited blindly, not realizing he was outside the dampening field.  Brother Summit paused, his gaze alternating between the laughing form of Quell and the crumpled mortal shell of Emmerick.  He looked over at Wasyli, who gave an uncertain look in response.  With a sigh, Brother Summit rushed and grabbed Emmerick's body, running back to his waiting allies.  Then he is staggered under a passing bite from the invisible dragon.  Only his half-orc ferocity able to keep him on his feet.  He reaches out and grabs Yvainne and the blind Mardus.  Yvainne's spell goes off, there's a ripple of magic and it looks for a second like the blind Mardus will be left behind, but then the magic snaps and he disappears with the rest.

Left behind was the laughing Quell.

Arriving in a safe house in Farholde, Brother Summit blacked out and had to be brought back up with healing magics.  Emmerick was a more complicated situation.  Resorting to a raise dead scroll, they managed to get their anti-paladin back on his feet.

Realizing they were way in over their heads, the Knot plots what to do next.  They try scrying, but fail to see Quell, while back on the Island, Quell was "getting to know" his new friends.  His taunts only increase the punishment the Rakshasa lays on him.  Between her less than gentle attention and the arcane magic of the ancient copper dragon, Quell breaks in a matter of days.  Revealing a great many of the Knot's secrets to the forces of good.

The rest of the Knot didn't remain idle.  With scrying magic not aiding them, they opted for a more direct route.  An invisible flying Wasyli would do airborne recon of the island from hundreds of feet in the air.

There he spot an odd sight.  Quell, contained in some kind of glowing energy sphere, was on display in the middle of the island.  Guarded by 2 gargoyles.  Also, Wasyli saw two pairs of Gargoyles on patrol in other parts of the island.

Wasyli returned a day later, the second time armed with true seeing.  And he saw what he expected, the image of Quell and his two guards were simply illusions.  He also spotted the dolphine-woman patrolling the reefs around the island.

He's scared off when the Copper Dragon spots him invisible in the air high above the island. Forced to teleport away.

Wasyli does one more fly by the following day, not seeing anything.  Even the illusion is gone.  But the two patrols of gargoyles remained.

The time for an island assault was at hand.

The Knot discussed an all-out invasion.  Throwing minions & lieutenants in an amphibious assault, while the Knot does covert ops.  A bold and risky move likely to seriously leave a dent in the ranks of the Shroud.  But the Knot decide to leave that option as a backup, instead focusing on tactical strategic guerilla warfare.  Their first target.  The Gargoyle patrols.

With that the Knot grab Trik, spell up and teleport back onto the island that almost doomed them four days before.

Session 33

After recovering, and some pointed questions with Jaretheon Knightsbane, the Knot started to worry.  It seems the young dragon lied about the creatures of the island, but what was worse.  It seems the dragon lied about the way he parted with his father.  Perhaps this gift was a bit overvalued...

Still, with no other choice, the Knot pushed forward, wandering through a macobre scene of melted flesh and bone, before arriving at the secluded flooded out cavern lair of Chargmagon.  Then, rising out of the cloudy water, the hulking form of the great wyrm.  The beast roared but the members of Cardinal Thorn's Ninth Knot stood their ground.  Even the fear prone Quell managed to stand tall in the face of the brute.

The Knot presented their "gift" and waited for a response, unsure of what to expect.  The father grabbed the head of his spawn.  Emmerick quickly let go of the Mithril chain before he too got dragged forward into the pool.  The Knot cringed as they saw the dragon father squeeze on the muzzled head of the younger dragon.  Then a popping sound filled the chamber.  Jaretheon fell down, Chargmagon holding in the split open Mithril muzzle in his massive clawed hands.  Jaretheon scurried away as Chargmagon dropped the Mithril muzzle into the pool.  Mardus gave a sad look as he saw the valuable Mithril disappear with a blurp.  A couple knot members whispered to each other.  "We told the Eagle King we'd return it.  Opps"  The grinning response "Well, we can always tell him where to go to get it... "

Emmerick and Mardus stepped forward.  Emmerick put on a performance unseen before by the other Knot members as he and Mardus wove a tale of a time when Chargmagon could be a glorious powerhouse again and make the whole isles fear his great name.  Between a returned dragon spawn, a fair amount of boot-licking and an incredible stroke of luck, the Knot managed to not get eaten by the Dragon.

Chargmagon agreed to the Knot's cause.  But with a caveat.  They were to complete his quest of blood, before he'd complete theirs.  A copper dragon and his outsider concubines ruled an island far to the south.  "Return with the dragons head, or don't return at all."  Hissed the Dragon before he slipped away under the pool of water.

The Knot waisted no time to flee.

When they were far away they gave a collective sigh of relief.  Then they realized just how insane of a plot they were in the middle of.  Emmerick spoke up.  "What is Thorn thinking, that could have killed us..."  Then, realizing what he just said.  He gave a groan.  "This is a suicide mission isn't it?"  No one else in the Knot spoke up.

Still, the mission was in front of them so they pushed on.  Wasyli & Mardus spent a great deal of time researching the dragon and got as much information about the copper trickster and his concubines.

The Knot then sailed off to the isle of the copper dragon.  Arriving they circled the island, the sailors afraid to approach the jagged reefs that ringed the isle.  They they spotted it, a dock pocking out of the island, behind the reef.

Figuring there was some way to approach, Brother Summit offers to go explore.  Layered in divine spells, the monk easily swam through the water, breathing with indifference.  Even with the full moon out, the monk was able to hide in the water & explore the reef.  He found a route through, and followed it until he was confronted by a dolphin mer-maid angel.  A concubine of the copper dragon.

Brother Summit stood in stunned silence.  The angel spoke short and concise.  "The island is closed, turn around."  Brother Summit, not use to lying tried to stretch the truth.  And seeing that was failing, just came out and said they were here to challenge the dragon lord of the isle to a battle to the death but that they wished no harm to any others of the isle.  Then it was the angel's turn to stand in silence.  His open desire not to kill others gave the angel pause.  Instead of attacking him, she told him one more time.  "Leave".  And Brother Summit, without saying a word, turned and swam back to the waiting ship.

The rest of the Knot stood dumbfound to Summit's story.  Still, the Knot played up the "lie" and started to turn the ship around.  Quell and Summit noticed the dolphin-angel go to the docks but she never leaves the water, returning to beneath the waves after a few moments.

The Knot knew, the time to strike was waning.  She was warning others.

Wasyli got the Knot together and tried to cast teleportation.  Then he realized, there was resistance coming from the island.  Something on the island was making it difficult to teleport.  Still he was able to teleport the group to the edge of the island.  Where they ran into a group of oreads waiting for them.

The Knot held back nothing.  They carpeted the docks with 7th level spells and ruthless attacks.  Laying waste to the meager defenders.  The angel came to reinforce the oreads from the ocean, a Elder Water Elemental charging in front of her, only to have the huge watery monster turn and run in fear from Emmerick.  The remaining oreads broke and fled.  Brother Summit & Mardus rushed after them and slew them.  Wasyli tried to Feeblemind the angel, and failing that, tried to dimensional anchor her.  It all failed.  Resorting to Glitterdust her, they managed to blind her.  But that only got her to flee sooner and before the Knot could respond she slipped beneath the waves.  The Knot waited for a few seconds.  Unsure if she'd return.  Then, rolling out from the heart of the island, all the way to the shores came one word in Draconic.  "Invaders!"

The Knot turned in surprise.  Fearing they were losing their window, they rushed forward through the island.  Mardus did some light ariel reconnaissance and they saw another group of oreads rushing toward the main domed building and started to make a defensive stance.

The Knot clashed into the oreads, savaging through their ranks.  Even their captain, a mighty barbarian staggered under the blows of Brother Summit.  A group of crystal gargoyles flew in to engage them and the struggled to stay afloat against the roaring inferno of fiery hell Mardus unleashed on them.

Then out of the domed building, they came.  Three concubines and one very angry copper dragon.

The Knot paused, a sense of dread filling them as they saw the tide of battle starting to turn...