Session 43

After much deliberation, the Knot resolved to get their own house in order.  And that all revolved around eliminating Cardinal Thorn and seizing power of the Knots.  The Paladin of Mitra and his hearty band would simply have to wait.

The Knot decides to bring a bigger squad.  Their Ogre Magi and Medusa would accompany the 6 Knot members and their new Black Dragon.  Even Trik would come along, to buff them before they attacked the fortress of their former master.

With so many members, Wasyli would be reduced to a teamster, having to use his teleportation magic to transport the large number of creatures into the frozen north.  Faced with that prospect, the Knot decided to travel to the isolated area outside the cairn where they found Thorn's twisted phylactery heart.

Once there Wasyli shrouded them in a field of protection from divination, ensuring they'd not be bothered by any extra-planar visitors sent by their dear former master.  What they got was extra-planar creatures from the area around them.  Over a half-dozen angry elder earth elementals attacked the Knot as they rested.

The Knot was quick to react.  The Black Dragon rushed forward to engage as the other followers bolted, getting clear from the massive mounds of earth.

Wasyli cast mass fly on the fellow members shooting out "To the skies!"  As knot members jump up & start flying into the air with Wasyli dropping darkness and hiding in the shadows.

The massive earth elementals slam into the dragon, forcing it to flee away as the elementals rush into the Knot's camp, Wasyli floating barely out of the massive reach of the beasts.

Emmerick, still waking up doesn't bother to fly away, instead drawing Helbrand and gripping it in two hands, clearly disinterested in avoiding the fight.

The Elementals take an arcane beating from the Knot's casters before slamming into Emmerick as the anti-paladin somehow shrugs off the attacks without his plate armor.

The elementals have a harder time shrugging off Helbrand, the bastard sword cutting off huge hunks of rock as more magic reigns down on them.

Seeing Emmerick stand in place bolsters the courage of the other melee fighters of the Knot and they rush to his aid.

Despite initial concerns, the fight quickly turns into a slaughter and before Yvainne is even able to take the field the enemies of the Knot are nothing more than rubble on the already rocky ground.  Yvainne gives a shrug and returns to her vampiric sleep with indifference as the rest of the Knot recover from the battle.

The Knot are able to resume their sleep and before long they are rested up & ready to find Thorn's lair.

Shrouded in the shadow walking spells of Wasyli and guided by the intelligence gathered from the Nameless Tyrant along with the keen survival skills of Brother Summit the Knot find themselves before an immense Cathedral, all alone and isolated.  Clearly it was meant for a multitude of followers yet nerry a village was in sight.  Even the bugbears and other intelligent creatures of the Savage North give this place a wide birth.

After a brief reconnoiter around the exterior of the massive cathedral determined the best approach was the massive double doors in the front.  Quell did see a trap, and was greeted by an odd programmed image of Thorn asking them to leave behind his phylactery and leave.  But the Knot simply ignored the image and Quell easily disabled the trap, leaving it ready to be rearmed later.

Remembering the information they received from the Horned Devil who betrayed Thorn, they readied for the likely Frost Giants who awaited them on the other side.  They had Trik add some extra magical buffing before he Word of Recall'ed away leaving the Knot braced for the fight to come.

They busted open the doors to find a contingent of Frost Giants waiting for them, just as expected.  In the hopes the diplomacy might work, Emmerick and Yvainne use their surprise to plead their case in a truly elegant fashion.  In a way direct, blunt and yet somehow also polite, in a few words they manage to lay out the only logical course of action for the King and his clan.

The King gave his response with a growl and the brandishing of axes.  Diplomacy would not work on this King, only battle was an option.  So battle there was.

The forces of hell clashed, the Medusa and Ogre Magi took the flanks as the Knot surged forward as the Black Dragon breathed acid on the King.  The King's axe fell hard on the Ninth, at one point Mardus pushed ahead of Quell and took a particularly savage blow, bending but not breaking.  The elvan rogue was clearly quite grateful.

Then from behind, they arrived.  An Astro-daemon with two odd looking insectoid like daemons that chittered in a truly horrifying way.  The hideous astro-daemon brandishing a green crystal that the Knot immediately recognized.  For they watched over it for the better part of a year. It was one of the eyes of Vitra-Kali.  A fact that was removed from any doubt with the Astro-daemon made it's one sentence proclamation "Vitra-Kali sends his regards."

Yvainne acted before anything could happen and blasted the group with a powerful banishment spell.  A spell she'd planned to have to use on a Devil not a Daemon, but it worked none-the-less, pushing back the two insectoid daemons before their feeblemind aura was able to destroy Wasyli and the other spell casters.  Yvainne was rewarded with her bravery by a blast of negative energy from the Astro-daemon, the vampire actually enjoying the enervation array, much to the dislike of the Astro-daemon.

Still, stuck between the Astro-Daemon and an angry Frost Giant King, the Knot's flank's collapsed, the Medusa and Ogre Magi forced to flee before the might of Frost Giant foot-soldiers.  All around the enemies of the Ninth surrounded them.