Session 44

The Ninth faced their enemies both in front and behind.

The Frost Giants moved in only to find themselves having to fight fire, and gravity reversing on them.  Even the massive King had to grab hold of a pillar to not fly forty feet up and wobble, suspended in thin air.

With the stall tactics on the Frost Giants working, the Knot focused on the interloper astro-daemon.  The creatures shifting form made it difficult for the Knot to target it, but still they unloaded on it with all they had to bear.  Emmerick taking point with Yvainne backing him up.  And others raining ranged attacked down on it.

Still, it wasn't enough.  Then the King rushed forward.  Forced to leap out of the reverse gravity field, he was unable to bring one target down with his full destructive might.  Instead he made a massive cleaving attack.  Emmerick staggered under it but instead of targeting Yvianne next, the astro-daemon was attacked.  The King stopped in confusion as his blow went through thin air.  The displacement of the creature saved it.  And as the King stood confused, it in turn saved Yvianne from a blow she was sure to regret.

Emmerick & Yvianne stood in the breach, all the while the other ice giant guards fell under the blade and fist of Quell and Brother Summit.

In another round of blows the astro-daemon fell and the Knot turned back to their original target.  Quell and Brother Summit got in their licks but it was Emmerick who showed the King of Frost Giants who was to be King of all of Talengarde.

Gripping his adamantine mace he hit one knee cap of the King causing the brute to stagger, then he swung around and hit the other knee, a sickening crunch resounded as the Giant fell to his knees.  Quell managing to get in a outflank sneak-attack and as the King fell forward, the Anti-paladin twirled the mace back and leaping into the air he brought it down over the head of the giant.  The massive mithril crown of the King of Frost Giants crunched under the blow, along with the tissue and skull underneath it.

There would be only one King in Talengarde.

Then, stepping out from a cloistered area further in the Cathedral was the Queen of the Frost Giants.  With a low bow, the towering beauty introduced herself.  It was clear a deal could be made with her and so the would-be King of Talengarde and his less than marry band, dealt.

After securing a blood oath from the Knot that the Queen would bend a knee to the Crown but retain all her lands and sit on the new King's counsel, she told the Knot everything she knew about the fortress they were in.

The Knot cataloged the extra intel and bid the Queen leave.  Before she left, she healed up the Knot & buffed them for the dangers below.  As she walked out, she scooped up the Mithril helm of her late King and exited the cathedral.

After she left, Emmerick heard a familiar voice in his head.  His sword spoke to him.  He listened.

Mardus & Wasyli were still studying the massive alter they just swore on.  They were sure it was powerful, but unsure of how it worked.  Then Emmerick strode up without a beat drawing the blade, gripping his bare hand and sliced.  Mardus & Wasyli stood dumbfounded as Emmerick's blood dripped of the blade into the bowl on the alter.  The blade shone brightly, the magic of blade and alter fused.  And Emmerick smiled.  And knew, if he spoke, the Prince of Hell would here.  He had but to wish to commune with his dark god and it would be so.

Armed with their intel, the Knot send Quell in to scout an area expected to be lightly guarded & their intel pans out.

The elf is able to explore a section of the compound undisturbed.  He spotted a large guard barrack and avoided it.  The Knot's hope was to find the necromancer wizard Ben, who was rumored to be in residence, instead they find his empty study and laboratory.  Near by Quell finds the room containing a clearly operational negative energy machine.  Channelling negative energy, clearly from a breach in the planar barrier.  Their intel suggests this is the device that is powering the defensive aura of the compound, but still, Quell leaves it be for now.  Remembering the hounds of Tindalos, the elf opts to not even enter the room and scurries away.  Though, he did block what he thought was the door to the undead servants room.  Just as a precaution.

With one section explored, the Knot came at it another way, this time going in force, the Knot tunnels through walls to were a isolated prison wing should be and once again, they turn out to be right as they burst into the back of a locked prison cell.

And then their intel finally let them down.  Expecting a sealed prison wing with doors, Yvainne ghost forms into the hallway to find there is no door.  And beyond are a squad of graveknight guards.  They all turn up & look in unison at her.

Thinking fast she floats into the prison cell on the other side of the hall.

This goes on a couple times, the vampire in ghost form bouncing between rooms, dragging the confused graveknights further into the prison wing.  Once the graveknights got all the way into the hall, then the Knot struck.

The rest of the Knot burst out of their prison cell, shrouded in a silence spell.  This time having perfected their technique, they kept the silence forward and well clear of their casters.  Allowing them to seal the hallway behind the squad of graveknights, insuring their fight didn't draw the attention of the near by guard room full of graveknights.

With a quite, isolated fight, the Knot makes short work of the gravenights.  Even with the tight quarters, Quell has no problems tumblig around the undead warriors, while Emmerick simply smashes everything in sight with his mace.

With Brother Summit backing him up.  And as Mardus, Wasyli & even Yvainne enjoys some blasts of magic.

The only slightly concerning moment is early in the fight, when the gravenights try to command Yvainne, but the priestess of death simply shrugs it off.

And faced with the combined might of the Ninth, the undead warriors died yet another time.

The Knot is wise enough to leave the armor around, soon they'd be the ones commanding the undead warriors, no reason to not let them rise again.

With the prison ward quietly secured, the Knot got to exploring their new claimed prize and found seemingly little of value.  No angel prisoners, nobles, nothing, just one half-naked, body of a man who starved to death a year ago or more.  And a quick speak with dead revealed he was a fur trapper from far away Farholde.  Hardly the high valued target they were hoping to catch.

Still, having already spent the effort, they still tried to find out what information they could find from him.

And then they got a huge break, when the dead trapper explained how he was brought before Thorn.

Checking their intel and impromptu maps, the location everyone thought was the throne room wasn't the actual throne room.  The Knot didn't need to say it.  A trap.

Such a helper wasn't to be ignored.  And Yvainne was feeling benevolent.  The vampire death priest asked the trapper her last question.  "What should be done with your remains?"  The trapper asked them to be returned to his kin in Farholde, or at least buried somewhere outside in the pristine wilderness, not left to rot in the dank prison.

The Knot collected the remains before deciding where to go to next.

Session 43

After much deliberation, the Knot resolved to get their own house in order.  And that all revolved around eliminating Cardinal Thorn and seizing power of the Knots.  The Paladin of Mitra and his hearty band would simply have to wait.

The Knot decides to bring a bigger squad.  Their Ogre Magi and Medusa would accompany the 6 Knot members and their new Black Dragon.  Even Trik would come along, to buff them before they attacked the fortress of their former master.

With so many members, Wasyli would be reduced to a teamster, having to use his teleportation magic to transport the large number of creatures into the frozen north.  Faced with that prospect, the Knot decided to travel to the isolated area outside the cairn where they found Thorn's twisted phylactery heart.

Once there Wasyli shrouded them in a field of protection from divination, ensuring they'd not be bothered by any extra-planar visitors sent by their dear former master.  What they got was extra-planar creatures from the area around them.  Over a half-dozen angry elder earth elementals attacked the Knot as they rested.

The Knot was quick to react.  The Black Dragon rushed forward to engage as the other followers bolted, getting clear from the massive mounds of earth.

Wasyli cast mass fly on the fellow members shooting out "To the skies!"  As knot members jump up & start flying into the air with Wasyli dropping darkness and hiding in the shadows.

The massive earth elementals slam into the dragon, forcing it to flee away as the elementals rush into the Knot's camp, Wasyli floating barely out of the massive reach of the beasts.

Emmerick, still waking up doesn't bother to fly away, instead drawing Helbrand and gripping it in two hands, clearly disinterested in avoiding the fight.

The Elementals take an arcane beating from the Knot's casters before slamming into Emmerick as the anti-paladin somehow shrugs off the attacks without his plate armor.

The elementals have a harder time shrugging off Helbrand, the bastard sword cutting off huge hunks of rock as more magic reigns down on them.

Seeing Emmerick stand in place bolsters the courage of the other melee fighters of the Knot and they rush to his aid.

Despite initial concerns, the fight quickly turns into a slaughter and before Yvainne is even able to take the field the enemies of the Knot are nothing more than rubble on the already rocky ground.  Yvainne gives a shrug and returns to her vampiric sleep with indifference as the rest of the Knot recover from the battle.

The Knot are able to resume their sleep and before long they are rested up & ready to find Thorn's lair.

Shrouded in the shadow walking spells of Wasyli and guided by the intelligence gathered from the Nameless Tyrant along with the keen survival skills of Brother Summit the Knot find themselves before an immense Cathedral, all alone and isolated.  Clearly it was meant for a multitude of followers yet nerry a village was in sight.  Even the bugbears and other intelligent creatures of the Savage North give this place a wide birth.

After a brief reconnoiter around the exterior of the massive cathedral determined the best approach was the massive double doors in the front.  Quell did see a trap, and was greeted by an odd programmed image of Thorn asking them to leave behind his phylactery and leave.  But the Knot simply ignored the image and Quell easily disabled the trap, leaving it ready to be rearmed later.

Remembering the information they received from the Horned Devil who betrayed Thorn, they readied for the likely Frost Giants who awaited them on the other side.  They had Trik add some extra magical buffing before he Word of Recall'ed away leaving the Knot braced for the fight to come.

They busted open the doors to find a contingent of Frost Giants waiting for them, just as expected.  In the hopes the diplomacy might work, Emmerick and Yvainne use their surprise to plead their case in a truly elegant fashion.  In a way direct, blunt and yet somehow also polite, in a few words they manage to lay out the only logical course of action for the King and his clan.

The King gave his response with a growl and the brandishing of axes.  Diplomacy would not work on this King, only battle was an option.  So battle there was.

The forces of hell clashed, the Medusa and Ogre Magi took the flanks as the Knot surged forward as the Black Dragon breathed acid on the King.  The King's axe fell hard on the Ninth, at one point Mardus pushed ahead of Quell and took a particularly savage blow, bending but not breaking.  The elvan rogue was clearly quite grateful.

Then from behind, they arrived.  An Astro-daemon with two odd looking insectoid like daemons that chittered in a truly horrifying way.  The hideous astro-daemon brandishing a green crystal that the Knot immediately recognized.  For they watched over it for the better part of a year. It was one of the eyes of Vitra-Kali.  A fact that was removed from any doubt with the Astro-daemon made it's one sentence proclamation "Vitra-Kali sends his regards."

Yvainne acted before anything could happen and blasted the group with a powerful banishment spell.  A spell she'd planned to have to use on a Devil not a Daemon, but it worked none-the-less, pushing back the two insectoid daemons before their feeblemind aura was able to destroy Wasyli and the other spell casters.  Yvainne was rewarded with her bravery by a blast of negative energy from the Astro-daemon, the vampire actually enjoying the enervation array, much to the dislike of the Astro-daemon.

Still, stuck between the Astro-Daemon and an angry Frost Giant King, the Knot's flank's collapsed, the Medusa and Ogre Magi forced to flee before the might of Frost Giant foot-soldiers.  All around the enemies of the Ninth surrounded them.