Session 8

The covert sabotage & assault on Tower Balentyne begin in earnest.

Following the demise of Captain Varning's patrol, the Knot returned to Aldencross and began plotting their next move.

With the acting troupe moved into the Tower to being their main performance, the Knot begins their first assault on the tower itself.  Their sights set on the rockery, the hope being that the noise of the play, which from their earlier watching they knew could get quite load, would help hide them.

Lacking specific intel on it's location, and still not completely sure the location of the secret entrance to the tower relative to other features, they send a team it with maximum stealth.  Quell leads the way, with Galen loaded to bear with both scrolls & memorized invisibility and vanish spells and Yvainne along to provide divine support & her powerful burst channeling to take out the ravens in the rookery with optimal haste.

While the stealth group enters the lower tower, Brother Summit attends the play with Isenbauch's team.  And Mardus & Emmerick, using their crowns & Mardus' acting ability, are sure to be spotted by tavern goers as they play the roles of their missing companions (Yvainne, Galen & Quell) to provide an alibi.

The assault team, using a bit of luck combined with Quell's observations & advice ahead of time from Emmerick based on his experience as a soldier, manage to find the rookery.  Along the way, they find the major arrow reserves of the entire keep, unguarded, which they opt to leave and destroy if there's time.  Then the plan starts to fall apart.  They try to trick Mad Martin out of the Rookery, but he won't leave and instead gets scared & sounds a signal horn.  Quell fumbles trying to unlock the door.  All the while the horn sounds & ravens make a massive racket.  Galen comes through, using his ring to recall & cast a Knock spell to unlock the door & allow the assault team.  They are quickly attacked by a swarm of angry ravens.  Quell focuses on taking down Mad Martin while Yvainne unleashes a torrent of negative energy throughout the area.  In under a minute the Rookery is in shambles.  Yvainne & Galen try to make it look like the birds attacked Mad Martin, but lacking time they do a horrible job.  A point Quell is quick to make.

They have to flee quickly, relying on arcane means to slip by a patrol arriving to examine Mad Martin's horn call.  In the dash out, Quell stops for nothing, with Yvainne quick on his heels.  Galen however, unwilling to leave the arrow stores intact, risks being seen & using arcane fire, sets the arrow stores ablaze.  Somehow, through luck & magic, Galen also manages to slip out unseen.  The fire & attack bring the play to an abrupt end.  And all in attendance, including Brother Summit are questioned, before being released.

The Knot, continuing their attack, turn to more covert methods.  Verifying the cloths of Captain Zac Edderly  that had a woman's perfume fragrance smelled the same as Mrs Caitlyn Mott's perfumes, and Mrs Mott's distraught look over the necklace Quell found, the knots next move is to use fake letters to force a meeting between the alleged lovers, that Captain Mott would know about in advance.  Quell, still tormenting Mrs. Mott by wearing her necklace openly in the market, does slip away long enough to steal some writings of both Captains & provides them to Galen to use as examples to forge some notes.  Mardus, using his urchin persona delivers the notes to the keep (separately to ensure Captain Mott gets his last) as well as to Mrs. Mott.  And the plan works without a hitch.  While Caitlyn & Zach are embracing, in a secluded area of the local park, Captain Mott catches them & challenges Zach to a dual, at dawn the next day.  The knot members hiding around the park grin in satisfaction.

The following day, on a field near the Keep, Captain Mott, the enraged cuckold, strikes down Captain Zach Edderly.  All while a distraught Caitlyn watches on in horror.  Emmerick & Mardus are able to conveniently arrive in their Knight & Priest persona, just in time to see the killing blow.  Emmerick is quick to arrest Captain Mott for dueling unto the death, while Mardus, playing his part, attempts to comfort the weeping Caitlyn.  By the end of the day Captain Mott is sent off in chains to Branderscar prison to await his fate.  And the tower is without two more Captains.

But the Knot would not be done yet.  No.  Another target was in their sights, the Magistrate Tacitus.

They already saw the odd ice construct in the Magistrate's laboratory back when Emmerick & Mardus were playing their part as "investigators".  So, using that, Quell & Galen worked up a forged letter from the Alchemist, stating that he had been sold an odd piece of ice that didn't melt, to be delivered to Tacitus.  The bate sent, all that was left was the trap.  The Quell, Galen & Mardus quickly dispatched the Alchemist & stilling what was of value.  Then the knot set up in the shop.  Mardus taking the role of the alchemist in the main store.  Yvainne waited upstairs, a stone with the silence spell on it in her hand and a loosened floor board at the ready to drop the stone into the store below.  Quell & Brother Summit waited in the back room.  Galen & Emmerick waiting out front.

Tacitus arrived, though, the knot didn't realize he'd be ready for trouble.  He brought two guards with him & he was magically buffed with Stone Skin, a fact they quickly realized in combat.

Arriving with one guard staying outside, Tacitus & his other guard entered & he quickly asked to be shown the stone.  Mardus, acting as shop keep tried to get him to come into the back room so he could see it.  Tacitus refused & insisted to see it out in the main room.  Mardus when back, swapped places with Brother Summit who returned with a wrapped cloth.  That is when Yvainne dropped the silence stone & the fight broke out.  It was a very risky fight, Tacitus was only able to be kept in check by the silence stone.  Emmerick once had to bull rush him back into the shop, and the stone's effects.  Alerting bystanders on the street of a fight.  And Brother Summit had to hold him down to prevent more casting.  The fight ended up causing a fire to break out.  Fulled by academical reagents, it damaged Mitrian & Asomdian followers alike. In the end, Tacitus fell, due to Summit's constant restraining him, along with Mardus' elemental & Emmerick's anti-paladin touch of corruption.

The knot had little time & began to flee the burning building, hoping to avoid the town militia who was likely arriving soon...