Session 19

The Knot members quickly wrapped up their fallen comrade in a shroud, did a cursory search of the vanquished undead & scoped up all valuable items around, including the magical armor of the undead warrior.  Noticed an odd resistance when putting the armor into the bag of holding, but were still able to do it.  Then they fled the tomb of the undead.

Arriving back at their waiting boat, the fisherman Bartholomew gives an odd look as the group throws the shroud wrapped corpse of Yvainne into the boat.  But a stern look from Emmerick & a couple gold marks from Mardus whip the look off the fisherman's face, returning it to an indifferent stare.  Still, as he rows the boat back to town, Brother Summit hears him whisper under his breath to himself "Why kill her and then not dump her body on a the deserted island.  Makes no sense."

Brother Summit & Quell rush the remains of Yvainne back to the preservation room in the horn.  Force marching through the night & into the next day.  Finally making it back worn out & exhausted but able to get Yvainne's remains secured away & notify Galen & Grumblejack of what happened.  Grumblejack seems quite sad about it.  "Na! Nat da' little healin' girl!  Na Na!"  Galen too is concerned, but more about the price.  Death can be eluded.  And must be for the Knot members mission to succeed.  But it isn't cheep.

Meanwhile, back in town, Mardus & Emmerick waited until the morning, when they speak with lady Shalyn Marsten.  They ask the powerful merchant if they can rush order a Raise Dead scroll.  They also ask for absolute secrecy.  Lady Marsten is willing to get the scroll and can do it in a matter of days, but it will cost upwards of a thousand gold to magically make the rush order happen.  And even then, it will still be three days.  As for the secret, there's some haggling, but Emmerick tells her whatever she thinks it's worth, it will be worth 10 times that if she waits.  Because they will be powerful forces in the future.  So lady Marsten lets the Knot simply owe her a favor.  One she'll call in later, with interest.

Reasonably sure lady Marsten will keep the secret, the Knot reassembles at the Horn, hoping the death of Yvainne goes unnoticed by the rest of their would-be allies.  While together, the Knot goes over the magical treasure they received so they can pay their merchant ally for a scroll of Raise Dead.

When they pull out the magical armor they recovered from the undead out of their extra-dimensional holding space,  a load moan & gust of air is released & the armor disintegrates before their eyes.  Galen uses his magical knowledge & determines what his less arcane inclined members failed to notice before.  The armor was some pillar of the magical affects in the tomb.  It's removal from the area has likely altered or even destroyed the magics.

While the Knot waits a day, Galen finally finishes constructing the magical alchemical gollem, using the brain of the dead bard from the earlier adventuring party.

The Knot readies the next day to return to town to buy the scroll of raise dead & return to the underground crypt but are stopped when a messenger arrives from the 7th Knot.  An adventuring group group is heading for the Horn but they say they're unsure on the arrival but think maybe they'll try for a 3rd floor "center eye" entrance.

The Knot, unsure of when the enemy might arrive, sends Galen off to town using magical flying to procure the scroll & sell extra gear while the rest remain.  Expecting some form of magical flight to reach the 3rd floor balcony entrance, the Knot focuses their defenses on the 3rd floor as well as the Sanctum.  As they worry flying enemies might see the higher level entrance & risk passing through the energy shield to investigate.  The Knot is stationed in the Sanctum proper to ensure the ritual continues uninterrupted along with one of the two Daemon guardians.  And they leave a sizable force of guards on the 3rd floor entrance, including all the wraiths, the newly constructed alchemical gollem & the second Daemon who is in constant telepathic communication with the Daemon in the Sanctum with the Knot.  And they leave token minions & undead to guard the other two entrances.

Before Galen can return to raise Yvainne from the dead, the adventuring group arrives.  And they head straight for the 2nd floor entrance.  A pitched battle ensues, but the minions are no match for the Sorceress lead adventuring group.  Watching from the Sanctum through the magical scrying eye of the blood soaked & Mitra chained alter to Vetra-Kali the Knot watches the battle unfold.  Emmerick growls when he sees his soldiers break & flee to warn the rest of the Tower instead of stand & fight to the death.

The adventuring group makes a b-line for the temple & searches around the hollow column that contains the secret stairs leading from the caverns to the Sanctum above.  Clearly showing some for-knowledge of the Horn.  Still, as no secret door exists there, the group gives up & checks out the 1st floor entrance.  From range, they stop & destroy the assassin vines guarding the way up & encounter the sealed off entrance with undead archers behind murder holes.  They give up & break off the attack after finding no way to proceed.

The entire time, the Knot remains at the Sanctum guarding the alter & waiting.  As the adventuring group stumbles from one trap to another.

Eventually the group returns to the 2nd floor entrance & is faced with the same dilemma as the Knot faced those many months before them.  Scale the exterior or try to climb up the trap floor chute.  They make the same choice as the Knot & try the trap floor chute & have to rely on magical flight to get a rope secure.

However, unlike the Knot before them, a horde of monsters is just waiting for them to arrive.  And so the outcome is quite different.  Only one of the four adventurers even makes it out of the chute only to be waylaid by undead and a Daemon.  The cleric in the adventuring group does manage to destroy two of the lesser wraiths & causes Ezra Thrice Damned to flee.  But with the Gollem lobbing alchemical bombs & the Daemon savaging into them, two of the four adventurers die in a matter of a couple rounds.  The other two attempt to flee, but one doesn't even get out of the trap room before getting bombed from above by alchemical gollum.  The leader of the group, the Sorceress, does manage to get away from the slaughter, but before she can reach the 2nd floor exit the Knot sends the Daemon who is with them down to the entrance & the Sorceress is ripped apart.  Another adventuring group destroyed in the Horn of Abaddon.

While some in the Knot are quick to loot the dead & celebrate a victory, Emmerick has a different opinion.  Furious over the desertion of his men, he makes an example of two of the "cowards" who fled the un-winnable battle by giving them over to Ezra to be transformed into Wraiths.  The dread wraith is quite pleased with replenishing his loses.  And terror grips the soldiers & other minions of the Horn as they realize just how wicked their leaders truly are.

In sort order Galen returns with the scroll and Mardus attempts to restore Yvainne to life.  It takes multiple attempts and Mardus comes dangerously close to a misshape, but he manages to breath new life into the death priestess.  Though, Yvianne does rise with an oddly paler skin color & the skin itself seems almost stretched.

With their strength back to full & the Horn currently safe from attack, the Knot sets off to Farholde & the secret ruins that lay on Wrecker Island in the heart of the harbor.

Upon arriving they find the Wall of Force to be gone.  Walking into the room beyond they find an odd alter to some nature god of the forest elves from the forest.  Galen does comment that in the annuls of history Farholde was ruled by the forest elves.  Before Talengarde came & seized it.  Other exits to the room lead to further darkness.

Spotting a magical wand or staff that is not part of the alter, but simply resting in it, Emmerick grabs it & pulls it free.  And in doing so awakens some ancient spirit.  For coming down a side passage arrives a druid ghost & her ghost dog animal companion.

At first the group tries to parley with the spirit of vengeance and ask if they could help it in anyway find peace.  It looks down on Quell for 'abandoning' the great forest spirit & turning to the humans culture.  And says it wants Farholde returned to it's people, the King of Talengarde to die along with all other blood of House Barca.

The group realizes the spirit is from another time.  It doesn't even know of the downfall of House Barca & the rise of House Darian.

Speaking in Ignan to each other the Knot plots & considers the offer.  But Emmerick says he will not turn over all his kin to this ghost to be slaughtered.  The spirit, apparently able to understand Ignan, howls.  "You are of the blood of the enemy!  Die!!"  And attacks.  Though the Knot questions Emmericks "royal" heritage  this vengeance spirit has no problem taking his word for it.  Battle is joined.

Dropping flamestrike & focusing on Emmerick, even while risking her safety, the Druid Ghost still nearly kills Galen & others in her blind fiery rage.  Her spirit hound also jumps into action, howling a frightful bay.  And again, against a fear aura of a canine, this one dead instead of extra-planner, Quell flees in terror.  Though the rest of the Knot manages to steel themselves against it.  The elf is last seen barreling down one of the side corridors, into the enveloping darkness.

Despite her rage & incorporeal nature, the Knot rallies.  And though they are close to loosing another member in this crypt, they pull through and are triumphant.  But their victory will likely just be temporary as Ghosts are rarely ever permanently destroyed.  The druid spirit will likely be back.

The Knot members catch their breath & look to see where Quell has gone.  And all they see is darkness.  It seems their Elvan member has gone missing.