Session 46

Thorn begins a long diatribe about how he brought in the Knot & raised them, and this is the thanks he gets when Mardus interrupts him.  "Thorn, you're in my chair"

"You what it?  Then come and take it."

Battle was joined.

Thorn is quick to use timestop and bring in an Ice Devil in the midsts of the Knot.  Along with a host of defensive spell effects.

The barbed devils try to hold as many of the Knot as possible, but are much less successful now that the Knot is buffed up & ready for a fight.

They even use illusions to bring in a horned devil, but this time, the Knot sees right through it and ignore the illusionary construct.

Instead they focused there combined rage on the Ice Devil in amongst them and had destroyed the summoned creature in a matter of seconds.  Under a relentless barrage of attacks.

Wasyli did manage to get off a dimensional anchor to keep Thorn from fleeing, which got a cackle from the Lich Priest.  "You think I'd ever flee!"

Thorn responded by unloaded orbs of negative energy & used channelling to pull negative energy from the very floors and walls, bursting it all over the Ninth Knot, who's well prep'ed death ward spell left them immune to the effects.  Well, aside from Yvainne.  The vampire priestess of death jumped into the sphere of negative energy & basked in the extra health it offered her.

Still, the Priest of Hell had some power not tied to the negative energy plane.  And he showed it by directing an implosion spell on Quell & crumpling the elf into a dead ball.

The Knot stood stunned for a second before they rushed into action.

Emmerick provided a wall to keep off the barbed devils while Mardus & Yvainne rushed to the side of their fallen comrade.  Two breath of lifes and one heal later and their elf rogue was brought back from death and able to carry on the fight.

Meanwhile Brother Summit rushed forward to break the concentration of Thorn only to run into some kind of barrier blocking him.

A quick check from Wasyli deduced it was likely a anti-life shell or some other effect.  Regardless, he blew away the magic with a particularly powerful dispel magic.

And Implosion was directed at Brother Summit but the Monk shrugged it off before rushing in and clobbering the Lich, disrupting his concentration.

Thorn desperately tried to fend off the Monk, only to have him ignore all the powerful magics the Priest could hurl at him while all around Devils were falling.

With the ranks of Devils reduced & Quell back up Emmerick was able to stop playing guardian and be the killer he was, charging forward with Helbrand in hand.  His recently restored elf companion following along behind.

As the Knot swarmed Thorn, Yvainne looked at all the Devils surrounding her & laughed with joy before unleashing a wail of the banshee and destroying most of the remaining Devils in one swift stroke.

Thorn stood his ground, not fleeing but fighting to the death. And that is just what he got when Emmerick, wielding Helbrand and infused with his anti-paladin power as a vorpal weapon, swung the blade around and took clean off the Lich's head.

The future King of Talengarde would be no puppet anymore.

Yvainne quickly pulled out Thorns phylactery.  The vampire grinned as she bit down into the withered pulsing heart.  The wicked iron barbs poking into her mouth as her blood mixed with Thorns.  She feasted on a Lich that night.

As Yvainne dropped the drained, shriveled husk on the ground a rumble could be felt from high above and a voice whispered in the ears of the followers of hell.  "Come my children".

The Knot left the throne room & walked past that curious ornate door before going outside.  There, the sky turned blood red, then it started to rain.  Blood.  As infernal shapes danced in the sky, singing in infernal.  And that same curious voice spoke softly in the ears of the followers of Hell among the Ninth.  Whispering to them all the times the righteous or faithful faltered or failed to act it was the corrupting influence of Hell.  That the Ninth Knot as been secretly helped along the way to reach this moment.  For now, the Devil is thy only Master.

Emmerick, Mardus and Wasyli stood enthralled with the glory of their faith.  Even Quell & Brother Summit felt blessed.

While Yvainne stood in the corner.  The death priest's eyes shining in the dark.  Disliking even the taste of the blood falling.  Finding it too... infernal.

The Knot returned back to the secret throne room, once again passing the curious ornate door.

Back inside the Knot does an exhaustive search of the secret inner sanctum.

Along with finding Tiadora's true name, Thorns personal diaries and a bunch of seals for communicating with other knots, they find the great treasure room of Thorn.

Among the treasures was their former Knot member, Galen's phylactery.  But the greatest treasure is an odd looking ring of great power.  The Knot catalogs it & moves on.  They do note, in the great battle with Thorn, the Lich Priest did not use the ring.  Which gives the Knot pause.

As the Knot nearly finish the rounds searching through the inner sanctum they here a rumble & roar fill the underground complex, followed by a crackle of electricity.

The Knot rushed to the secret entrance of the inner sanctum, Mardus used his Fire Oracle power to see through the torches in the hallway beyond.  And there he saw the ornate door broken on one hinge and a massive undead dragon bursting forth.

The Knot paused.  "Perhaps we should just let it leave" someone says.  Another observes it might kill the traitor general, which brought some mild desire to intervene.  Then someone else pointed out "Oh what about Ben & his wife?"  That statement brought the Knot into action.  They quickly rushed for the door to burst out on the undead dragons.

It seems at least one trap of the Cardinal would still annoy the Knot.