Session 51

As the members of the Shroud considered what to do with Lord Ritcher's offer, a group of servants moved through the crowd in the throne room.

The creatures then shed their appearance.  Before the new King of Talingarde stood a horde of demons.  The forces of chaos, led by two Mariliths calling themselves the Twin Queens, challenge the new King as weak and that the Kingdom would fall to the forces of the pit.

The Shroud laughed in surprise at the brazen and clearly ill-conceived frontal assault.  The demons rushed forward and summoned more of their kin.  Then Wasyli blasted them with magic, causing a majority of the extra-planer creatures to fall over, nauseated, including one of the Queens.

All around the peasants, nobles and others in the court fled as demons vomited and the Shroud chuckled.

Brother Summit dimensional stepped up to the remaining Queen with her six swords and rained down a flurry of blows on her only to have her shrug off most of the damage and return onto him a devastating round of sword slices.  The monk fled back to his death priestess ally who healed him.

But aside from that moment of overconfidence, the Shroud managed a ruthless slaughter of the planer outsiders.  Fire and hard steel destroying the demonic forces.

With a blatant indifference to the blood, vomit & gore that coated his throne room, Emmerick resumed his meeting with the now terrified Richter.

The King insisted Richter provide more information, but that if he did, then he would be made a Baron.

Yvainne offered to "help" him, and in short order dominated the hapless mortal.  This got a disapproving look from Emmerick before the undead death priestess insisted she'd not do anything bad to him.

Yvainne was quickly relieved to find out this minor noble had no machinations to take over her covert operations.  He was simply a hapless fool who was trying to barter information for a reward, unaware of the ire it raised in her.  Sure that he'd be no threat to her, the priestess kept her word to her King and left him alone.  At least for the time being.

And Richter proved his worth, as the secret police searched the apartment and found an empty Resistance safe-house.

Not done yet, Emmerick insists if he wishes to be a Baron, he must further show his value by helping Yvainne's forces to observe the safe-house.  And so Ritcher did just that.  He repeatedly spotted different Resistance figures moving & learned a rough pattern of every 2-3 days a new group would arrive and stay for a few hours.

It was simply a matter of waiting with a strike force for the next appearance and the Shroud's forces struck.  With Yvainne, Brother Summit & Quell leading the forces, the Resistance figures were captured alive.  Among them was a member of the Inquisition, a valuable prize indeed.

Yvianne was eager to get the prisoner into her torture chamber.  Wasyli mentioned they could use mind fog and then she could just dominate him & be done with it.  Yvainne responded with a simple "that won't be necessary" and with a wicked grin she had him dragged off to her torture chamber.

With a flood of information coming in on the Tesistance, Emmerick rewarded his loyal servant & granted Lord Ritcher the title of Baron of Barrington that he so coveted.  The new Baron would have to decide if it was worth the price of having the talon's of a death priestess in his mind.

The Shroud considered their next move.  The new leads on the Resistance activity would take months to follow up.  The work on rebuilding Daveryn would take time to execute.  There was the issue of the Duke of Gastenhall and there was a whole realm the King still needed to bring fully under his heel.

Of those the Duke was the most problematic.  They brought in Count Barca and spoke at length with him.  He urged caution.  A direct conflict with the Duke was a problem, but so too was seeking an audience.  No, the King needed a pretense for going to Gastenhall.

They Shroud mused and then at nearly the same time Count Barca & Wasyli both suggested a tour of the Island.  That would give a pretense for a visit & possibly help deal with other issues.

It was decided.  An expanded entourage was assembled including some minor figures from court, Shroud members, a small compliment of Mercenaries and a couple Griffin Knights from the Counts household guard.  Along with the Shroud and some of their lesser Veil members.

The Tour would start in Farholde & work it's way along the borderlands, stopping in Gastenhall and the ruins of Daveryn before finally returning through the heartlands to the Capital on the south.

As the Tour got underway & sailed around to Farholde, a new stop was added to the end of the Tour.  The intelligence coming in from the infiltration of the Resistance found a hot bed of activity in Varyston, the town attached to the infamous Branderscar prison in the Heartlands.  It seems they didn't much like their new King.  So perhaps he'd need to make a personal visit...

Brother Summit did ask if perhaps they could overhaul the Prison and appoint him as the Warden.

Emmerick responded "Oh, maybe!! ..." in a voice like he was talking to a child asking something way above their ability.  This got a stunned look from Brother Summit, followed by a dismissive snot as the Monk left the chuckling Monarch.

When the King finally arrived in Farholde the first order of business was to meet with lady Shalyn Marsten.  With the death of the local Barcan noble, Baron Arkov Vandermir, during their last stay in Farholde, a long vacant post needed to be filled by an even longer ally.  The King was quick to appoint her as the Baron of Mir

While staying, Quell & some of the other Shroud noted that the Nuns in the town had vanished.  Speaking with the new Baroness as well as some other locals, the Shroud found the Nuns had fled into the Savage North, to some long ago explored Tomb by their founder, the adventuring priestess of Mitra.

The Shroud spend an extra month in town & snuck away to visit the Nuns.  Finding the Tomb guarded by armed Mitrians, the Shroud decided a simple earthquake or nine should cover it.  And after Mardus was done, the Shroud left, not having to draw a blade, yet destroying a major pocket of the Resistance.

The Shroud decided to linger a while longer while sending the entourage on to the Borderlands.  They wanted to check on the elves & humans of the Caer Bryr.  Their investigation of the natives led them to a familiar figure.  A druid named Keara Kilkerran who happened to be present at the King's palace when Charmagon attacked it.  The new King offered to speak to her where his predecessor didn't live long enough to.

She simply wished self rule for her people.  A fact that Emmerick didn't like.  Still, she offered a way to keep her people on his side should the Princess ever return to claim her throne.  And that was a legend.  The legend of the Caothach Ool which stated a champion of the Iraen people would come and destroy the might beast and return wearing it's pelt.  And the campion would speak a prophecy of the people.  Whatever that prophecy was all the people of the forest would follow it.

The Shroud mussed quietly at the possibilities.

Session 50

Arriving as victors the Shroud's entourage heads to the old palace where Emmerick claims as his new seat of power.  The shroud wastes little time in securing the alliance of the younger brother of the late Barcan King, Count Barca.  They also manage to secure a handful of other local nobles and allies in their new court.

Reluctant to upset the law of the land immediately, yet needing to be crowned, the Shroud manage to secure the reluctant support of the head of the Mitrian church and crown Emmerick in a lavish coronation ceremony following the Darian tradition of Mitrian worship.

The multi-day affair is well receipted by the common folk.  The overt ton of reconciliation with the Mitrians in particular lowers fears of petty retribution.  Not only is the common folk well represented, but most major noble houses manage to send at least some representation.  Though, the Duke of Ghastenhall is not in attendance and his attendants and a magical trinket gift to the new King are not enough to assuage the concern in the King's inner circle at his absence.

At the end of the multi-day festivities, well past any involvement of the Mitrian church, the Shroud does introduce a prayer to all other gods.  The opening gambit in their attempt at true religious freedom in Talengarde.

While this was going on Quell had an odd discovery what he thought was simply odd whispers he heard during the festivities was actually the powerful ring the Shroud took from Thorn's lair.  It was trying to talk to him.  Then it clearly spoke to him, about how, to grow in power it needed the blood of an angel, a fiend and a titan.

With the immediate take-over done and a small group of supporters, the Shroud works to further solidify their power base.

The shrouds organization starts to spread out through the land and over the coming months slowly remove monuments and other items glorifying the late King & his daughter.  Starting in royal holdings and lands around the capital before spreading out.

They also make pushes on the spiritual front.  Throwing together a ceremonial speak with the backing of some of their noble allies, the Shroud puts forth the case to lift the illegality of religion in the land.  The support of the nobles is won, though the common folk seem uneasy.

Also, the King picks a spot on his palace grounds for a new shining cathedral of Asmodeus.  To further push pro-religion & make Asmodeus more of a state religion.

And then the Shroud is confronted with their largest problem.  A lack of funds.  The Princess fled with whatever she could and with one of the three metropolitan hubs of Talengarde in ruin the Crown was sorely underfunded.  They could prepare the site for the Cathedral, but before any major construction initiatives could be started the funding would need to be corrected.

One option Mardus and others mention is trying to establish trade with the outside.  Yvainne points out sailors dislike traveling to Talengarde though because of the Kraken.  This brought looks of confusion from the other Shroud members until Yvainne explained it's an old sailor tale that the route to Talengarde is inhabited by a Kraken.  Speaking to the local nobles like Count Barca get a dismissive note.  But speaking to the Sixth Shroud, formerly the Sixth Knot corroborate Yvainne.  The price to ship mercenaries to the isles was inflated due to that cost.  Further some well questioned divinations removed all doubt.  There was a Kraken.

With some intelligence and powerful magic, the Shroud easily pinpointed the location of the beasts nest.  They then took the King's flagship and made a show to go out and hunt a Kraken.  And once safely out in open water, transferred operations to a less valuable ship and sailed out to the location of the lair.

Arriving at the spot, the Shroud considered an alternative option.  What if they tried to simply barter with the beast?  Using a host of protective magics they descended into the watery depths.

There far below the waves they found a massive fissure in the ocean floor that was the entrance to the beasts lair.  Quell's ring whispered "a titan draws near".  Which made the elf eager to kill it.

Using lights that shone brilliantly in the pitch darkness they announced their presence peacefully & were greeted by bobbles and a rumbling voice echoing from the depths of the fissure.

What proceeded was an odd conversation.  The Shroud tried to get the beast to turn down it's savagery and wait peacefully.  The price they got in return was exorbitant.  And some of the Shroud members wondered if the beast would even honor the deal.

Still there may be some way to get the vain beast to help.  They asked if the creature would enjoy feasting on a princess and her army.  This got the creature interested and with a small tribute it agreed.  As the Shroud dropped the goods down into the depths they spot a massive tentacle reach out, grab it & drag it down into the darkness.

The Shroud left the depths unsure if they'd made the right decision.  There would be no fan-fair of victory, and the trade lanes would stay chocked off.  And the kingdom still needed money.

The Shroud turned their attention to other options to improve their finances.

Looking over the books they saw clearly there was a massive financial lose in revenue when Daveryn was lost.  Using their minions they got a report of how much it would cost to repair and repopulate the city.  The price was staggering for it seems Fire-Axe's destruction of the city was severe.  Still, if it got back up & resettled it would help greatly with the finances of the Kingdom and perhaps also improve some moral.

The Shroud considers speaking with Wasyli's Aunt, but Wasyli urges caution.  He still doesn't trust her or her intentions and so if they were to bring her in, they'd need to understand the implications.  The rest of the Shroud agrees so they table that decision.

And the Kingdom remains underfunded.

While all this is going on an underground war is brewing.  Yvainne, appointed as the head of intelligence has been sending out shroud members backed by their Ogre Magi Lieutenant to try to run down the Princesses followers in Talengarde only to see the more pressure they apply result in the opposition slipping further underground.

That is when a minor noble, Lord Gaius Richter the uncle to the late Sir Richter, warden of Branderscar, approached the King.  He stated he could help in dealing with the underground resistance.  Clearly what the Crown as doing was not working.  He continues to talk about how the efforts are failing, unaware of the insult he's leveling at Yvainne.  Or unaware of the great deal of delight it is giving Emmerick.  He further claimed to have found a resistance safe-house.  He simply wished to serve in a greater capacity, as a Baron of the small town of Barrington, what with the former noble dying heirless in the war.  And help the Crown bring down the resistance movement.

As he finished the Shroud considered what to do.