Session 34

As crystal gargoyles enclosed on the Knot, their bodies shimmering in blinding lights, the Dragon roared overhead and called out in a mocking voice... "Six blind mice, see how they run!"

The fight was joined.  And Quell fell over in uncontrollable laughing.

The agethion concubine struggled to keep up with her allies as they rushed ahead.  The tree-shaped woman leading the three, using magic to move in among the Knot in a blur.

The Knot scattered, casters fleeing from her aging attacks as the melee fighters surged forward.  The dragon continued to roar overhead as Quell rolled on the floor laughing more.

At one point Yvainne tried to run away & bumped into something invisible and just kept trying to move around it until she got in the clear.  Not waiting to see what it was she cast down divine wraith, stunning gargoyles and concubines alike.

Wasyli managed to invoke his infernal pact and feeblemind the Rakshasa before hiding in shadows.

The gargoyles still moved in, blinding as they went, Quell gave out a laugh.  "Ha!  Now I am blind!  Ha!  This is SSOO funny!  Ha!!" As around him his companions struggled for their lives.  Even Mardus' repeated attempts to break enchantment failed.

Still, in spite of their adversity, the Knot tried to rally.  Brother Summit & Emmerick laid into the tree creature.  Their repeated blows chopping her down.  Eventually she fell to Emmerick, for a second the anti-paladin looked to a nearby Gargoyle, but then turned to the fallen concubine.  And resumed hacking at her with helbrand until he was sure she was dead.

Then the invisible dragon dropped the rouse of his illusionary copy.  And he savaged into the wicked creature who smote his lover.  In a rush of attacks  Emmerick staggered and fell.  The dragon refused to relent.  Blow after blow, until the very armor Emmerick wore was bend under the final tail slam.  Emmerick's battered form was well beyond the breath of life Mardus could offer and then Mardus succumbed to the blinding light of the Gargoyles.

Emmerick dead, Quell consumed by laughter, the crystal of the island even seemed to blow teleportation magic.  The potential doom of the Ninth Knot was at hand.

Thinking on their feet, the Knot came up with a solution.  Wasyli used limited wish to create a dampening field to allow teleportation magic to work.  Yvainne rushes into it and calls out for the others to come running as she preps a word of recall.  Mardus waited blindly, not realizing he was outside the dampening field.  Brother Summit paused, his gaze alternating between the laughing form of Quell and the crumpled mortal shell of Emmerick.  He looked over at Wasyli, who gave an uncertain look in response.  With a sigh, Brother Summit rushed and grabbed Emmerick's body, running back to his waiting allies.  Then he is staggered under a passing bite from the invisible dragon.  Only his half-orc ferocity able to keep him on his feet.  He reaches out and grabs Yvainne and the blind Mardus.  Yvainne's spell goes off, there's a ripple of magic and it looks for a second like the blind Mardus will be left behind, but then the magic snaps and he disappears with the rest.

Left behind was the laughing Quell.

Arriving in a safe house in Farholde, Brother Summit blacked out and had to be brought back up with healing magics.  Emmerick was a more complicated situation.  Resorting to a raise dead scroll, they managed to get their anti-paladin back on his feet.

Realizing they were way in over their heads, the Knot plots what to do next.  They try scrying, but fail to see Quell, while back on the Island, Quell was "getting to know" his new friends.  His taunts only increase the punishment the Rakshasa lays on him.  Between her less than gentle attention and the arcane magic of the ancient copper dragon, Quell breaks in a matter of days.  Revealing a great many of the Knot's secrets to the forces of good.

The rest of the Knot didn't remain idle.  With scrying magic not aiding them, they opted for a more direct route.  An invisible flying Wasyli would do airborne recon of the island from hundreds of feet in the air.

There he spot an odd sight.  Quell, contained in some kind of glowing energy sphere, was on display in the middle of the island.  Guarded by 2 gargoyles.  Also, Wasyli saw two pairs of Gargoyles on patrol in other parts of the island.

Wasyli returned a day later, the second time armed with true seeing.  And he saw what he expected, the image of Quell and his two guards were simply illusions.  He also spotted the dolphine-woman patrolling the reefs around the island.

He's scared off when the Copper Dragon spots him invisible in the air high above the island. Forced to teleport away.

Wasyli does one more fly by the following day, not seeing anything.  Even the illusion is gone.  But the two patrols of gargoyles remained.

The time for an island assault was at hand.

The Knot discussed an all-out invasion.  Throwing minions & lieutenants in an amphibious assault, while the Knot does covert ops.  A bold and risky move likely to seriously leave a dent in the ranks of the Shroud.  But the Knot decide to leave that option as a backup, instead focusing on tactical strategic guerilla warfare.  Their first target.  The Gargoyle patrols.

With that the Knot grab Trik, spell up and teleport back onto the island that almost doomed them four days before.