Session 29

The Ninth Knot managed to have a relatively restrained visit in Ghastenhall.

Mardus and Brother Summit went to meet with Professor Tiberius Feign.  With the Professor's help, they managed to transport the bound hound into the Professor's private laboratory, deep in the bowls of the University.  There, in what basically amounted to a dungeon, the Professor heard the resent otherworldly encounter the Knot suffered.  With a tact omission of the fact that it was preceded by the wanton slaughter of a major religious figure.

The Professor examined Brother Summit & then Mardus, noting the corruption of Brother Summit.  The warping of the world around his form.  And that Mardus also had a minor taint about him.  Mardus & Summit gloss over the fact that Emmerick and others had a more direct exposure during the fight and when Professor Feign offers to examine anyone else, Mardus brushes the offer aside, simply asking how he could check himself.  The Professor gives a long complex narrative of how the magic warps around the effects.  Mardus tries to follow along & nod in understanding.  All the while worried about the fellow knot members.

Still, with the talking done, the Professor moves to action.  He offers two options now that they have a live hound.  The first is to attack, crafting a planer fork, a tactical strike could be made against these otherworldly horrors.  The other option is defense.  By warping Brother Summit's essence with that of the beast, the monk could hide from the hideous beasts.  Yet part of him would become... otherworldly.

Summit & Mardus choose.

The experiment was an unpleasant experience, grunts of pain from the Monk minguled with unearthly wails and moans of agony from the Hound as the Professor gleefully arced arcane energy between his two subjects, using cruel looking instruments that would be better suited for a macabre torture chamber than a scientific experiment.  Yvainne would have loved it.

In the end the experiment was declared successful by the Professor.  He insisted Summit's aura was reduced and well masked.  A good defense against the beasts.  He would attempt to revive the dying hound & continue his trials.  But that likely they'd need to provide a fresh specimen should they wish a planer fork constructed.

While arcane experiments take place in the bowls of the University, another meeting takes place underneath the bustling city.  Yvainne, with Quell as an escort, presents the Vampire Lord of Ghastenhall, Prince Gaius Vestromo, with the vampire's family heirloom.  Quite literally, his cup runith over, as it sloshes with the heart and blood of the fallen angel, Ara Mathra.  Quickly taking the cup, the vampire askes Yvainne what boon she wants for such a great gift.  He greedily drinks the blood as Yvainne answers with one word.  "Immortality."  Vestromo looks up, his face covered in blood.  Through the red he shows a wicked grin, fangs glistening with angel blood.  "Of course."

The next few weeks pass by.  In the dead of winter, the plague spreads.  And the Ninth Knot waits.

They do manage a show trial in Sanctum, where they charge the religious leaders still left alive with committing crimes against religious freedom.  And they spare some as an act of "mercy" and burn the rest.  And do a fair amount of desecration of the Cathidral of Mitra-Made-Manifest in the process.

Yvainne is reborn a free vampire while the rest of the knot rests and does mundane activities around Ghastenhall and the Vale.  With the shroud working a very lucrative Cure Disease racket in Farholde with their merchant ally, lady Marsten.  The plague starts to rip through the major cities of Talengarde.  It gets so bad Prince Gaius worries for "his city" and employs his vampire minions to "clean up" the town.

Still, the Knot grows anxious waiting around so they started to check in on the scion of house Havelyn.  Using the Shroud, the Ninth tracked down the newly appointed Lord and his band, the Sons of Balentyne, where last seen around the capital but they disappeared.  Pulling their free shroud members from Farholde, they re-double their efforts around the capital to track down their nemesis.

Searching, they find out the Sons were researching some old Mitrian artifacts.  Using the resources in the Cathedral, they determine the artifact in question is a standard of Saint Thomas.  Some sort of magical banner of military origin.

The Knot started to get worried.  They found a likely location for the banner, a small town shrine in the low country.  The rushed a Shroud cell there, only to find the Sons had already entered a crypt.  The shroud members waited and the Ninth considered an attack, but with Yvainne still learning her new powers, they were reluctant to act.  So they waited.

The Sons never left the crypt by mundane means, instead they teleported out with the banner in hand.

Lord Havelyn himself pleaded to the King and presented him with the Mitrian artifact.  The King anxious to act embraced the paladin and ordered the armies of Talengarde march over the objection of his tacticians and generals.  And before the King had even left the city, the Sons proved their worth as they foiled a last minute assassination attempt against the King.  One of the few victories against the Knot of Thorns...

The Ninth Knot rushed to get their troops out of the Vale before the army arrived.  And thanks to their foresight, they managed to get all their troops out well before the Kings army arrived.

The Knot members themselves rushed to leave Ghastenhall and meet up with Trik and their army.  On their last night in Ghastenhall, Emmerick visited with the waitress, Eve.  A friend of Quell's who the anti-paladin had grown affectionate toward over the past few months.

It was that night when a couple assassins attacked Eve, but a few yards from Emmerick.  It was the quick action of Quell, who had been hiding that thwarted the attack.  Quell showed no mercy, killing the assassins.

Resorting to speak with dead on the corpses they find out the assassins were sent by Cardinal Thorn to teach Emmerick a lesson about following orders.  It seems the Ninth Knot's decision to spare the citizens of Sanctum struck a nerve.

Quell and Emmerick quitely hid Eve with Quell's contacts in the Ghastenhall underworld and the Ninth rushed from Ghastenhall to meet up with Trik & their army in time to arrive at Westkirk Castle, the winter camp site of Fire-Axe.  Only to find the Bugbear army gone.

Rushing they arrive in time to see Dyvern burning.  It seems the First Knot is as good as the Ninth in breaching in impenetrable fortress.

The Ninth rush through the streets of the city, the vast majority of the sacking already concluded.  They meet up with Fire-Axe and in his private war-room in the Town Hall, they discuss the war effort.

There in the privacy of the war-room Fire-Axe breaks down & reveals part of Cardinal Thorn's great plot.  He is to defeat the Kings army and then fall before an unknown army lead by an Asmodean.  Yet he fears for the King & his army.  The full might of Talengarde marches on him and he doesn't see how to win.  He asks for the Ninth's advice.  Emmerick agrees with the tactical situation.  They think Fire-Axe should up-root & attempt a skirmish action against the slowly advancing army of the King.  But Fire-Axe is reluctant.  He has his orders and he's to follow them.  Even if he doesn't understand them.  Still, the doubt is there and the Ninth exploits it, reminding him that there are others who could help him...

With the sacked town at their feet, Yvainne decides what the Ninth should do next.  A quick scrying shows her the position of her old "friend", the Cardinal Archibald Hawthorn.  The vampire death priestess leads the Knot to the grand Cathedral.  Rushing in she leads Quell to a hidden chamber, a quick check of the lock and Quell picks it with ease.  Opening the chamber the cowering Cardinal looks up at Yvainne in confusion, his old burn wounds glistening in the candle light.  "But, you... you went to Branderscar for your crimes...  How?"  Yvianne gives a grin, her fangs glistening in the light.  "I'm back".  Her divine magic flares, filling the chamber with darkness as she descends into it.

The rest of the Ninth wait above.  Mardus cataloging the ornate gold fixtures of the Church he'll need to collect & melt down.  All the while screams followed by feasting is heard from below.

Yvainne climbs out of the crypt, her chin, neck and corset covered in blood.

Mardus pulls out a handkerchief saying "You got a little something on you."  Yvainne shrugs it off.  "I'm fine, I like it this way."  Giving a wicked fanged grin.