Session 49

The Shroud spent some time looking over the artifact in the dank underground cavern.  Quell using his linguistic talent, Wasyli relying on his knowledge of the planes.

In the end, the Shroud used a miracle to turn off & move the artifact safely from the site back to their island fortress.

Once there they spend more time analyzing it and discovered that among other things, it had the ability to summon and control otherworldly horrors.  The possible combat implications intrigued the Shroud greatly.

The Shroud returned to the area of the Caer Bryr where the ruins of the Horn were to search the lair of the green dragon.

As they feared, their ally was no more, his lair now home to otherworldly horrors taking residence including hounds and spiders.  The corpse of the young dragon wrapped tight in a massive web in one corner.  Worse still, a large alpha hound was there with his pack.

As the fight broke out, the massive wrapped corpse started to ungulate and to the Shroud's collective horror, they realized it was chock full of swarms of baby spiders it belched out in massive clouds.

With a combination of magics & summoned monsters the Shroud kept back from the swarms of spiders until Yvainne rushed forward & plane shifted the baby spider nest back to the plane of Abaddon.  Making it a problem for someone else, but no longer their issue.

The remaining spider & hounds proved difficult to fight, but still manageable.  Relaying on blade, magic and their own bare fists in the case of Brother Summit, the horrors were no match for the prepared Shroud.  And all fell before the villains.

With the otherworldly horror mostly resolved the Shroud turns itself to making the final preparations for their victory over Fire Axe & their conquest of the capital.

Their first stop is to talk to Fire Axe.  Informing their ally of Thorn's demise & their coup of his organization go over better than expected.  Honeyed words and promises of a future as a Shroud member keep Fire Axe on their side.  The bugbear even provides an ideal ambush spot that's a few days ride still from his slow moving force.  The Shroud agree and head there to prepare the site.

While preparing a spot for Yvainne to stay hidden but still functional during a daytime battle, Emmerick summons Tiadora & General Barca.  Tiadora will be tasked with extraditing Fire Axe during the coming battle, but General Barca has a more important job.  Emmerick wants advice on how to approach his claiming of the throne.  And wants his new advisor to provide the advice.

After a long conversation, the Shroud & their general come to a decision.  He will enter the capital & use his contacts to prepare the city for the new King's coming.  While the Shroud will defeat the "savages" in combat.  Allowing the new King to return, bloody & battered but victorious in combat.  A savior of the people.

As the general leaves the mercenaries arrive.  Their leader, Heir Essenmark greats the future king & they prepare for the battle.

Using the natural terrain to funnel the bugbear army into a choke point, Emmerick & his band will hold the breach with Yvainne already prepped, hidden close at hand in a stone-shaped cavern.

The bugbears arrived with after dawn and without realizing it, funneled themselves right into the trap.  And then it was sprung.  Archers, protected by light infantry and natural rock cliffs rained down arrows on the tightly packed brutes.  Heavy Cavalry, combined with a well placed earthquake blocked their exit and their general, Fire-Axe disappears as a she-devil teleports in & out with him.

Wasyli uses sympathy to hold the regular bugbear in front of the choke point, unable to push through.  But the large ogres & giants surged forward, unimpeded by the magic.

Emmerick, Quell & Summit brace for them, then Mardus began unleashing Earthquake after Earthquake while using quickened fireballs.  Wasyli and Yvainne joined in to rain down their own divine & arcane magic.  What followed was over a minute of non-stop screaming and wailing as bugbear, ogre and giant alike are blasted, melted & swallowed hole.  Burnt and buried alive the sounds are horrifying.

Quell fires a couple arrows into the inferno, making little difference in the grand scope of carnage.  Emmerick shakes his head in disgust and sheaths his sword as his fellow Shroud members destroy with ease the last remnants of the "grand" army of Fire Axe.  There would be no glory here for the would-be King.

As the battle ends the mercenaries rush forward, killing the maimed & wounded bugbears still standing.  But this was no mercy killing.  This was a chance to pillage from the pillagers.

Emmerick rummaged through the field, matting his blade & armor in blood, to make it look like he did something other than stand there.

The rest of the Shroud looked out on the field of battle.  Blood and gore chocked the river at the edge of the battlefield and mini-waterfalls of gore spill down into unknown depths exposed by the cracking of the ground.  At the far end of the field cavalry obliterate what wolf-riders managed to escape the initial assault.  After the dead pillagers were picked clean, their bodies were thrown on massive burn piles.  The flames roaring over the occasional sounds of screams from underground.

With a quant field turned into the gory graveyard of the the army of Fire Axe.  The Shroud moved on with their army to the final destination.  The capital.

As Emmerick leads their army to the walls of the near by city they are greeted by an entourage of dignitaries from the city.  Among them are two of the Shrouds allies, Wasyli's "Aunt" and General Barca.

The Mayor of Matheryn was the first to speak, greeting Emmerick, clearly unsure of the situation.  He is quickly brushed aside by Count Leothyn Barca, the aging brother of the late Barcan King.  The Count shares a knowing look with the General before giving a cunning smile to Emmerick.  "It is good to see you nephew.  Let us come into the city & rejoice at your victory."

The mayor looks even more confused but also relieved as the entourage joins with the Shroud at the head of the Army of Mercenaries and strides into the city.

Civilians poking their heads out of allies & windows.  Most confused but some do let out some clapping or cheering at the new defenders of Matheryn.

And just like that Thorn's plan comes to fruition, as the forces of darkness seize the heart of the Kingdom of Talengarde.

A new golden age of Asmodeus is at hand.

Session 48

The Shroud argued about what to do with their political options.

Emmerick and Wasyli had no interest in bending a knee before the throne of Chiliax and they managed to get most of the remaining shroud members on board.

Quell still found it an unwise move and argued as much, but as it became clear Emmerick had won the majority, Quell relented & went along with the rest of the Shroud.

Galen was upset, but bowed before his new leaders.  Though he did request to be extracted.  He felt that perhaps he had overstayed his welcome and the Shroud agreed.  They removed their agent & brought him back to the safety of Talengarde.

Shortly after moving forward & arranging the transport of their mercenary army they started using powerful divination magic to locate the Princess and the Sons of Balentyne.  They found them all, at the capital of Andoran.  The arch-rival of Chiliax.

Quell restrained himself from criticizing too hard, as the rest of the Shroud realized they just turned down the help of a major power, as their fellow claimant to the throne was doing that very thing.

Still, the Shroud had picked their course.

Using magic items & knowledge acquired from Galen & Thorn's notes, Wasyli proceeded with attempting to craft a phylactery and move down the path of transforming himself into a Lich like Galen.

With their primary source of arcane magic having only limited availability and a mercenary army still weeks out and there arch-rival in a location that might prove difficult to attack, Brother Summit pushed the Shroud to consider a loose end to follow up.  The threat of the otherworldly creatures hunting them.

With a planer breach to the negative energy plane readily available in the Cathedral, the Shroud easily collected a few hounds and brought them to Professor Tiberius Feign.  The wizard was surprised at the unexpected guests, but always eager to pursue his planer research, quickly found time for them in his underground laboratory.

The Shroud wanted to find the location of the thing that was sending creatures to them so the Professor gathered his collection of planer forks attuned to the various outer planes and performed a ritual with a special compass to point to the planer fork attuned to the plane the thing was on.  The ritual commensed and the chamber was filled the wailing of a hound.  Yet the compass didn't seem to settle on a planer fork.  Then Brother Summit noticed it.  The compass kept tracking the Professor.  As he stated that, a look of horror filled the Professor's face, as he reached into his belt pouch & pulled out a planer fork attuned to the prime material plane.

The Professor quickly slit the throat the wailing hound and a dread-filled silence descended on the camber.  Then the professor told the Shroud if they were to face the creature, they should do so quickly.  And he left the camber, his assistants having to scramble to collect all the valuable planer forks the wizard had ignored in his haste to be rid of the place.

The Shroud thought back to the time they were near the Horn and saw signs of the creatures there.

Could this all have come when they called forth Vitra-Kali...

The Shroud prepared for an adventure, Wasyli was able to drop them off near the horn before returning to his creation.

The Shroud them moved toward the old green dragon's lair, were they'd seen signs of the creatures before.  They prepared to fly to the areal entrance at top of the mound and stopped as they cleared the tree tops.

Further to the south, was an ever expanding pool of black liquid and at it's center, the ruins of the Horn.  Everywhere the liquid went, fauna and wildlife died.  A huge blight has spread out across the land for miles.  It even got into the near-by river & travelled up & down stream, chocking out a massive lake near by & the bogland near the coast.

Brother Summit remembered his trip with Wasyli, were they saw a small pool of liquid in the ruins of the horn.  What horror has befallen the land.

Steeling themselves, they leave the green dragon lair and head to the source of it all.  The Horn.

They arrive and see slowly moving black liquid oozing out from the foundation.  With an overabundance of caution, the Shroud advance into the familiar yet distinctly different underground of the Horn.

The mouth of the caves was chocked with rubble from above, hunks of stone & earth filled in most of the cracks between the stalactites & stalagmites, leaving just a small passageway in.  Around the side a river of black liquid goo oozes underneath.

The Shroud move on into the interior, having to avoid rubble and black goo.

Within they found a further altered interior from their last visit.  Walls broken down, or caverns chocked with rubble.  Yet no sign of spiders or hounds.  Just more black ooze.

Eventually they found the likely source, it appeared to be coming from the mud room they used to conjure mud elementals.  Yet they couldn't reach it as the main passage was a river of black goo and the only walkable surface was a ledge on the far side.

Yvainne shaped from the stone walls a buttressed bridge with a lip to protect from the goo below.  As the bridge finished being shaped, screeching wails came from down the passage in the mud room.

As the Shroud advanced via a combination of arial magic & the stone bridge, they found two creatures of ungulating flesh, a massive blob of eyes, mouths & other organs.  Oozes of flesh splashing in the black goo.

And they advanced, letting a wail loose as they went.

Mardus and Quell both quickly go mad from the screeching, as Emmerick & Brother Summit push forward, overcoming it.  And Yvainne's undead mind ignores the wails as her undead frame likewise ignores the black goo as she wades through it in front of her companions.

Quell in his madness flails at Mardus this in turn brings the focus of the equally confused Mardus to turn on Quell & savage into him.

Realizing the two would rip each other apart in their madness, Yvainne had to return & heal Mardus who then healed Quell and stopped the madness induced cycle of in-fighting.

Still the horrors advanced, one taking particular interest in Brother Summit.  And the shroud paused, unsure if they could handle the fight or if they should flee with what shreds of sanity they retained.

But then the Anti-paladin of Hell stood forward and cast fear on one of the abominations.  Even it's alien mind reeled in terror and the creature fled from the beacon of hell, deep down into the goo.

The shroud got a second wind & pushed forward, their doubts starting to wain.  Then Quell finally made his way to the bridge and finally seeing the horror, he fled again, his mind unable to handle it.  Meanwhile, Brother Summit, stuck with one of the horrors on his own was forced to withdrawl for some healing from his companions.

Seeing their second wind vanishing, Emmerick & Yvainne surged forward to fill the void meeting the attacks of the otherworldly creature with blade and fang.  And as Brother Summit & Mardus recovered, the four Shroud members even without their rogue or wizard, managed to hack, slash, burn and bite the creature.

Against even the limited might of just part of the Shroud, the creature was ripped into ribbons.

It's mate eventually emerged in a rage as the fear had subsided but weakened and without it's companion, the prepared Shroud destroyed it too.

As quite returned to the caverns, the Shroud looked where the creatures had been.  There, beyond where the mud pool had been, in the alcove were the old broken chest used to be, were massive stone tablets & some sort of pool, that appeared to be the source of all the ooze that was invading the plane.

Investigation revealed the tablets to be some sort of otherworldly artifact that was generating the black liquid substance.

The Shroud stood before the artifact, unsure of what comes next.