Session 57

Eric the wizard surveyed the battlefield.  Most of his friends dead on the field of battle.  His spells almost all depleted.  The Shroud still mostly up.  He had no choice.  With a sorrowed look, the evoker cast his prepared teleportation spell to get himself, the dead Brother Donnigan and the paralyzed Ghalee.  He did give a parting magic missile on the fallen form of Quell, but with the shield other in affect, the rogue was barely able to survive.

The ranger, high above saw the wizard flee and with her fly spell still up, fled as well, flying up & over the top of the spire, out of sight.

Brother Summit looked ready to go after her, but the order was given to fall back.  The dragon was stirring and the Shroud was down a third of their strength.  Mardus brought the Shroud back to the pocket plane.  Once there they quickly got Yvainne back in her coffin where Emmerick used his negative energy to bring her back up while Mardus used a positive energy to restore Quell & the other living members of the Shroud.

A quick restoring of magical protections and the Shroud was back on the battlefield.  They wanted to go help their devil ally against the Solar.

But as they reached the battlefield, in the brief five minutes they were away the battle had changed considerably.  Two massive silver dragons flew in the air above the battle.  The Eye of Vitra-Kali shone true in Yvainne's mind.  One of the dragons was the Princess, polymorphed into that shape.  But it didn't matter to the soldiers.  Far below the Shrouds forces were breaking.  The Dragons were destroying the forces that crossed the bridge.  The King's flanking force fled across the bridge in terror.  It was turning into a rout.

Thankfully the mother & daughter team were avoiding the main fight where the Solar & Pit Fiend were last spotted.

The Pit Fiend would have to fend for himself, the Shroud wasted no time, their target was out in the open.  It was time to end this war, once and for all.

The Shroud considered their approach.  The Dragons were close to the spire still.  The ranger could be a factor.  The Shroud considered coming in from that direction, but Summit spoke up, saying he could use his Ki to shadow step to engage with the ranger if she showed up again.

So the Shroud moved with haste to stop the rout of their troops and rushed the Dragons head on.

They focused on the colossal mother.  Emmerick provided a group smite good to all the Shroud.  With the powerful boon in place, Summit led the way, getting right up to the dragon & laying down a vicious flurry of smiting blows.  In his zeal, the monk used up all but his last reserve of Ki.  Cursing his over enthusiasm, he called out saying he could not go and engage the ranger should she show up.

Almost immediately after that, the Ranger started long range sniping Emmerick.  Emmerick shrugged it off and pushed onto the mother, landing a powerful blow.  Quell and Mardus joined him.  Soon the dragon was surrounded.

Wasyli landed a quickened critical hit of enervation onto the daughter & tried to Trap the Soul on her, but somehow she managed to shrug it off.  The daughter then cast timestop along with a succession of delayed blast fireballs and buffered herself up.  Fighting her would be like the fight with the wizard, only compounded by the fact that she had form of the dragon up.

Some in the Shroud groaned.  Still, their primary target was the Mother.  The massive silver dragon tried to get out of flank & managed to land some damage on the group however, she didn't get far enough away.  Quell managed to land a succession of smiting sneak attacks, followed by Emmerick doing a dizzying number of smites.

The mother dragon was dripping blood all over, the Shroud could not understand how she could still be up.  Until Wasyli remembered that powerful Silver Dragons can sometimes even shrug off death for a round, to go down in a blaze of glory.  And he would have none of that.  He landed a Trap the Soul.  And sucked the dragon into his gem, still clinging to life, and now in a permanent state of suspended animation.

The Ranger continued to snipe the Shroud until Mardus turned and cast Telekinesis and yanked her bow from her hands.  Unfortunately for her, it was at that exact same time that two dark and brooding shapes came up over the spire behind her.  Nibarius and his lackey were victorious over the Solar it seemed.  Quell gave an almost sad look.  "She doesn't even have her bow to fight them."  He said.  And as he turned away, he saw the devil's pounce on her.  Her screams were barely audible above the thunderous rumble of the battle.

Summit tried to hit the dragon princess and kept struggling with the combination of concealment and mirror image as did Quell & Emmerick.  And one point Emmerick, with Helbrand in a vorpral state, managed to take off a head, but it turned out to be the head of a mirror image.  Still, they did some damage, but then the Princess rained down delayed blast fireballs and in her state of fiery body healed most of her wounds.

Yvianne though could see her clearly in the green taint of the Eye of Vitra-Kali.  She transformed herself into a dragon with form of the dragon.  And stepped forward.  The vampire dragon shrouded in darkness with a gleaming pin-prick of green light shining out enveloped the Princess in her shadows.

The yelling and screaming could be heard loudly.  There was a moment of silence after that followed by the sound of Yvainne casting soul bind.  The army far below looked up & saw the lifeless form of the princess falling down to the battlefield below.  Her soul trapped in a gem resting on Yvainne's cold, unmoving chest.

Nibarius flew over to the Shroud, his claws stained with angel blood.

And far below heroes from all across the Inner Sea saw Hell triumphant against Heaven.  Talengarde would be in the grips of fiends for the foresee future.

The overwhelming armies of the undisputed King of Talengarde wasted no time in clearing the battlefield.

The Shroud returned at the head of their victorious army to the capital.  There were no celebrations, no peasants throwing flowers at the feet of the triumphant.  Just silence.  A still city.  A scared city.  Many faithful Mitrians had quietly prayed for the return of the Princess.  Knowing she was still alive out there.  And return she did.  Only to die.  No one was left to save them from their new King and his fiends.

At the old palace the King's entourage received a warmer welcome.  The Quisling court of the King heaped praise on their absolute monarch.  Many spoke of a grand triumphant celebration.  But something was different this time.  This time, their praise and kind words were undercut with something else.  Fear.  For the forces of Hell had found a new home.  Talengarde.

The End

Session 56

The Shroud sets off for their final battle.  Enveloping themselves in a variety of powerful divination magics and setting off to their first target, the Titan.

The massive brute was moving onto the bridge, trampling over man & beast alike.  As the Shroud moved in, Wasyli spotted an invisible Ghaele backing him up.  And he, along with Yvainne & Quell spotted the Princess off in the distance, commanding the heart of her army on the other side of the river.  Wasyli sounded a silent prayer to the Lord of Hell that his King did not see her.  For the rash Emmerick would have simply flown over the river & attacked her directly.  And the Lich sorcerer feared they'd relive history, as the old Barca king fell to the Markadian rebel in a similar maneuver.

Wasyli called out the Ghaele.  Yvainne was angry she could not she the creature.  So the vampire priestess of death made the only logical choice & gouged out her own eye & stuffed the massive emerald Eye of Vitra-Kali into the open socket.  The true seeing let her see the Ghaele.  And also see the Princess is actually Lord Havelyn.  She shouted out that the Princess was actually Havelyn.

Emmerick barked out "Where!"  His eyes glaring out across the field of battle, looking for them.  But before he could find anything, the Titan spotted the King & his allies & surged forward.  The King turned his attention to the matter at hand.

The huge creature stomping any soldier who stood in his way while his Ghaele companion called out for him to stop, but the Titan would have none of it.  He was going straight for the King.

He was greeted by the full might & fury of the Shroud.  Quell & Mardus moved forward, steel in hand.  Quell landing a powerful flanking attack.  Then Emerick took one step forward and slashed Helbrand back and forth.  The steel biting through the flesh of the titan.  The flashing of steel stopped as the blade was coated in Titan blood.  With a groan, the Titan fell forward.  The bridge shook as the massive creature fell before the King of Talengarde.

The Ghalee looked on in horror as in under a matter of seconds, her ally was dead.  She finally started to fumble with her backpack & got out some odd looking device.  Brother Summit shadow stepped right next to her & she quickly fell under his flurry of blows.

In under ten seconds, the Shroud was victorious.  Then off in the distance two objects came hurtling down from the sky.  But it was no angelic being coming from the Heavens.  It was instead two fiery meteor like objects.  Yet the flames were half fire, half pitch black.  There was no doubt.  The pit fiend had arrived.  The fiend & his companion landed in the heart of the battle between the two major armies.  There, near the last sighting of the Solar, the forces of Hell would be bolstered.

Quell paused a moment to collect some of the blood of the Titan.  He felt his ring try to overpower him and force him to drench it in the blood.  But with an Iron Will, Quell resisted the urge & put the vial of blood in his pocket instead before he & the rest of the Shroud quickly ducked back into their army as it surged forward across the bridge.  The six of them using the speed of the fight along with the number of their soldiers to stealth away.

With no apparent response forthcoming, the Shroud considered their next move.  Emmerick demanded to know about the Princess & Havelyn.  Wasyli & Yvainne filled him in.  But they were split on what to do.  The Pit Fined would have a hard fight against a Solar.  Even with an ally & the larger army.  But others argued to strike at Havelyn now.  While they had such a good opportunity.

As they argued, Emmerick got his Black Dragon, mounted it & said simply that the discussion was over.  He was going off to kill Havelyn.  And before waiting for a response, took off and started to fly across the river.  The rest of the Shroud rushed to follow their bold and crazy leader.

So, like the battle eighty years ago that happened in the same location, the Barcan King would fly across the lake & do battle with the Darian usurpers.  But that was were the similarities with history ended.

The Shroud, led by Emmerick swooped down into the heart of the enemy army and right in front of Havelyn.  As the fight began, the rest of the Sons of Balentyne moved forward from where they were hiding amongst the regular soldiers.

The wizard Eric had a powerful wish cast ahead of time.  He wished to go first in the Son's battle with the Shroud.  And it worked.  The evocer opened up by stripping some of the Shroud of their Resist Energy: Fire before casting timestop and buffing himself with displacement, mirror image and a host of other buffs.  As well as leveling the area in delayed blast fireballs.  As the damage piled up, Yvainne was sorely regretting the shield other spells she had cast on Quell & Emmerick.  As she felt the powerful fire magic burn her to a crisp.

Emmerick & Havelyn slowly moved forward, powering themselves up as they went.

Yvainne dropped her protection of Emmerick as she frantically tried to heal herself.  Unfortuantely for her, the hidden Ranger started to rain down arrows from over a thousand feet away from her hiding spot on the spire.  And her target was Quell.  Yvainne & Quell shared the pain as he was shot over & over again.

Mardus quickly got the resist energy: fire back up & had to start healing his companions too, as they continued to take more damage.

Wasyli tried to strip Eric the Wizard, but the Evoker had Spell Turning up, just as Wasyli did.  A powerful resonance was formed and the spell failed.  After that Wasyli focused on readying to Greater Dispel Magic whatever the wizard would try next.  And he did, as the next time the Wizard tried to remove the Shroud's fire resistance, Wasyli dispelled it.  The Sorcerer & Wizard got in a stalemate with their arcane magic countering each other.

Brother Donnagin followed with Havelyn & blasted Yvainne with a sunburst hoping to destroy the vampire outright.  But she managed to survive the blast.

Emmerick moved forward and taunted Havelyn calling out.  "Come here!"

Havelyn have him a grimace and responded "Not yet" before he moved past the King and savaged into the already floundering Yvainne.  Brother Donnagin following behind & bursting positive energy.  Under the combined assault the undead priestess was teetering.

The Shroud's cleric was badly hurt.  However, the Shroud was exercising the same maneuver.  Brother Summit shadow stepping next to the Cleric of Mitra & beating him down blow after blow.  Quell tried to get in on the fight, but was still getting badly hurt by the never ending rain of Arrows falling down on him.

Mardus rushed in and cast waves of ecstasy.  It was enough to stagger the Paladin & Cleric if nothing else.  And that gave Yvainne enough time to flee & try to heal herself and while at it, she managed to use unholy word to blind, deafen & stun the Ghaele, removing her from the fight.  And made it to Quell in time to see the rogue fall under another barrage of arrows.

Lord Havelyn, staggered, with Yvainne out of reach, turned to meet Emmerick.  "It it time false King!"  Emmerick gave a wicked grin  "Not yet" and he stepped past the Paladin and slashed Brother Donnagin over and over again.  Helbrand drenched in the blood of the holy man.  When Emmerick was done, the Priest lay dead on the ground.

Emmerick then turned to meet Havelyn, with Mardus backing him up.

Before Yvainne could bring her rogue friend up, both of them got blasted by another fireball from Eric.  The damage was enough to cause Yvainne to revert to her gaseous form, as the vampire had taken too much damage.  Quell would surely have been dead but for his Ring, which having been charged with the blood of a fiend, was granting the elven rogue immunity to fire.

Emmerick was blind to the plight of his allies.  He and Helbrand were blood drunk.  He advanced on Havelyn, Mardus & Brother Summit there backing him up.  And the King of Talengarde killed his third enemy of the day.  For when he was done, the Paladin lay dead on the ground.  To make sure the paladin would not be rescued, Mardus stuffed his body into his large bag of holding.

With three of the five sons of Balentyne lay dead, only two of the six Shroud had fallen the Ranger knew what was coming.  She had but a moment to act, so she reached into her handy haversack and quickly removed her magical rocket, the same kind as the Titan and Ghaele had at the bridge.  But this time, she was able to fire it off.

It burst overhead, in a shower of sparks & fire.  As the booming faded, it was replaced by the low roar of a Dragon.

Session 55

The Shroud considers what last minute moves they need to make before the final battle.  Quell urges they return to the Kraken and slay it.  They have no need for it and it's titan-tainted blood would power his ring.  The rest of the group was unsure.  Attacking a Kraken under water, in it's lair, still seemed too much of a risk.  Quell was unhappy but deferred to the ruling of the group.

One concession the group made was that perhaps the killing of a fiend might help and there were some on the group, like Wassili that were worried about the presence of powerful angels.  Perhaps by contacting their patron, the Pit Fiend Naburus, they could garner a favor by dealing with a rival and get his help, along with a more powerful ring.

A sending to the Fourth Marquee of Misery returned a positive response & the quick arrival of the contract devil Dessiter to spirit the Shroud to the pocket plane that was the Pit Fiend's lair.

The Shroud put forth a rousing case for help from the Pit Fiend with Yvainne leading the way.  Highlighting among other things, that divine agents would be arrayed against them, and that if they won, Hell would hold Talengarde forever.

In the end, the words of the Shroud rang true in the ears of the Fiend.  The Fourth Marque of Misery would come and aid them in the final battle.

The Shroud went on to ask if he had any minor rivals that needed to be eliminated.  They had an artifact ring they wished to power up.  The Marque was surprised, but he mentioned a minor bone devil who was hassling some of his agents.  Not a caring leader, he had no interest in intervening to help his underlings, but if the Shroud needed something to slaughter, that was an option.

But he further urged caution on the ring.  It was a powerful artifact, that if fully powered, would summon it's Titan master.  And further, even increasing it's power a little might corrupt it's wearer.  The Shroud took the Pit Fiend's warnings under advisement and left.

Once back in the capital, Wasyli cast a powerful wish spell that would alert the Shroud if the Sons teleported into Talengarde.  During the following week the Shroud considered what to do about the noblewoman interested in their King.  They announced an engagement, but decided they would not have time for a proper wedding.

And that proved correct, for at the end of the week, the wish alert triggered.  Their scouts were placed on heightened alert.  But they still failed to see any major enemy troop movements over the next day.  So, the Shroud prepared their final ploy by marshelling their remaining soldiers in the capital and prepared to leave the following day.

That night, on the eve of their departure, Emmerick woke to the sounds of combat and his bedroom door crashing open.  There, standing in the doorway was the High Inquisitor of Mitra.  His inquisition allies assaulting Emmerick's royal body guards as he rushed into the room.

The guards tried to push their way in, one managing to get into the room to the Kings side as others tripped the inquisitors outside.  But the High Inquisitor was all over Emmerick, slashing him with his powerful blade as Emmerick touched him with his touch of corruption causing the inquisitor to wince in pain.  Before long Brother Summit and Wasyli responded to the sounds of combat, teleporting in.

Wasyli cast suffocation and at first it seemed like the Inquisitor would shrug off the effects, but then he finally fell down, chocking.  Emmerick stepped over the chocking High Inquisitor, still in his nightshirt, as other inquisitors fell and gave a speech to his guards.  Thanking the one guard for rushing through attacks to come to his aid.  Wasyli gave a dour look and Brother Summit rolled his eyes at it as the other Shroud members came rushing with more guards to quite the odd scene.  And no one noticed the High Inquisitor, ignored, slowly suffocate to death.

The following morning the King was roused to alerts from across the city.  Angels were spotted flying above the skies over the capital.  Four planetars in total, preaching the return of the Princess and the end of the wicked false rule of the usurper.

The shroud readied themselves and then Emmerick strode out onto his balcony overlooking the old palace in the heart of the city.  From there he called out the Angels as they flew by.  The angels turned & sneered at the King before drawing steel and swooping down on the monarch as the rest of the Shroud burst out onto the balcony met them.

Wasyli cast fly on everyone and Emmerick & Brother Summit flew and twirled into the air, clashing with the leading angel as another came down onto the balcony.  Another angel cast Holy Aura on it's allies and the last brought a blade barrier down over the doorway.  Yvainne managed to dismiss one of the angels immediately back to it's home plane as Quell ducked through the blades & struck the angel on the balcony, only to be blinded by it's holy aura.  He then had to blindly flee back into the castle where the vampire priestess was waiting in the dark to heal him.  Blindly dodging spinning blades in the process.  The death priestess restored his sight and told him to get back out there & forcefully shoved him back through the blades, the rogue had to jump & weave out of the way as he was pushed back through.

By the time Quell got back out there, he was shocked to see the Angels all destroyed.  Wasyli had used his magic to rend into the Angels.  While Brother Summit & Emmerick had savaged them with blades.  But Mardus was a sight, enlarged & taking on a celestial aspect himself.  Whatever the commoners must have though is hard to say, an Angel fighting along side the King against four other angels.  What they saw for sure was, the four angels all falling to the ground far below.  Destroyed by the King & the might of the Shroud.

With the angels out of the way, Emmerick rallied his army & marched from the city with much fanfare.  And as soon as they were out of sight, they marched their forces straight into Mardus' pocket plane.

The bait worked as planned.  Within a day scouts reported seeing an army emerge from the forest, apparently from a massive slopped earthwork underground entrance that showed up overnight.  And the fears of the Shroud were realized.  The army included not only the Sons, but some kind of Titan, the Princess, her dragon mother & some sort of powerful angel, likely a Solar of Mitra.

The only small benefit, the actual size of the army was relatively small.  In fact, only a fifth the size of Emmerick's large host.  And very few resistance or freedom fighters flocked to the Princess' white unicorn banner.  Still, it was small army & it was quickly moving toward the capital.

The Shroud used the pocket plane to drop a quarter of their army to guard a choke point on a bridge while they used the rest to flank the army from the other side of the river.  As the Princesses forces started to push on the bridge, the flank army moved in.  Splitting the Princesses forces with the Titan and a small force of fighters moving on the bridge head, the Angel leading the host toward the large battle on the open field and the Dragon apparently no were to be seen.

The pieces in place, the Shroud prepared to move.  Yvainne requesting a miracle from the midnight lord to be clocked in night and as she walked into the morning sunlight her form and the area around her turned pitch black.  The Lord of Darkness heard her prayer.

Would the Lord of Hell hear the prayers of his followers & deliver Emmerick victory.  Or would it be the pleas of Mitra that would finally be heard.

It was time to find out.

Session 54

The King and his allies were ready for a fight, but with most of the druids tense towards each other and not the King's entourage, the Shroud kept their cool.

Mardus & Wasyli started with asking questions and soon it became clear.  The druids council had ordered, by virtue of Emmerick fulfilling the prophesy, that all druids of their order were to stand down & back the King's reign.  And Brunhild, with great reluctance agreed.

But, the Shroud was still worried and that fear was confirmed with Quell pointed out a magical sensor on Brunhild.  The druid calmly explained her friends didn't trust the King & feared for her safety.  Yvainne was quick to retort that they would not talk to her until it was gone.  Brunhild seemed indifferent to that.  But the Druid leadership was quick to intercede & offered to dispel magic it and ended the effect.

The Shroud tensed waiting for an attack, but with none present they resumed questioning Brunhild.

She offered little new information.  Save two important details.  One being that the great worm silver dragon mother of the Princess was saying with her daughter.  And that the Princess was likely to prepare for war in a few months.

The Shroud considered their next move.  Reluctant to anger the druids but also fearful of Brunhild sowing descent in the ranks of their new allies, the Shroud contemplated the options.  The majority of the Shroud urged to leave her be & great relief was felt when the brash King agreed.  So long as she was watched.  Mardus & Yvainne pointed out a "protection" detail could be assigned to protect her from her former allies.  Though they would likely never attack her, it would a palpable excuse.

So, the King and his allies prepared to leave the druids.  But still were a bit reluctant of their hold on them.  So the King decided to do one more grand hunt.  This time the King & his party would capture & kill the legendary Black Unicorn of the Caer Bryr.  And they managed to do it.  Relaying on tracking, divination and abjuration magic.

The feat was considerable, but having already vanquished the terror of the Caer Bryr & fulfilling the prophecy, it wasn't as grand.  Still, it seemed to please the druid leaders, even if it antagonized a minority group of good druids.

With the confirmation on the absence of the great silver matriarch the Shroud decided to mount a raid on her lair.  It took a bit to find the location, but the powerful Shroud managed to locate her sanctum none-the-less.

Arriving in the barren peaks of the frozen North the Shroud used powerful magics to sneak into the lair.  And there, they used the greatest rogue in Talengarde, Quell, and walked through every trap, found every secret door and thoroughly explored the area.  Unfortunately, the lair was abandoned and aside from a bed of a ton of copper coins they found little of any real value.  Though, the diviners in the group did collect a scale from the dragon, in case it was needed for scrying.

The King and his allies returned to the capital to consider their next step.  Research into the dragon dug up some information about the Dwarves and their rivalry with the duergar.  If the crown could pick one, they might have a strong tool.  Mardus had his ally in the duergar and urged them to consider the value of the dark dwarves.  But others in the Shroud and in the Court urged the King to back the dwarves.  They were lawful, merchants and traders.  They would make good, taxable, loyal, subjects.

The King choose the dwarves.  He met with a prominent thane, Thane Turin.  Turin was quite surprised when the King offered him the opportunity of a life-time.  Bend a knee to the High King and become a King of his own.  The King of Dwarves.

Over the next month many titles and honors were handed out to the dwarves as a new mini-kingdom was formed under the watchful eye of High King Emmerick.

With the Dwarves organized, King Emmerick and an army of humans led the dwarves to their soon to be home.  The mountain city fortress of the duergar.  Mardus grumbled at the loss of the Duergar, but did the best he could.  He used his contact with the duergar to manipulate the dark dwarves & cause a coup.  By the time the dwarves arrived, the duergar defenses were in ruins and they easily stormed the city.  While a handful of duergar loyal to Mardus & the Crown were secretly evacuated and housed in the mountains in the savage north.

And the dwarven king was true to his word.  Soon the Crown was flowing with tax money & a unit of dwarves was available to be called on by the King.

The Shroud was ready.  They needed to finish off the Princess and her forces.  They were ready to end the threat to the throne and finally put an end to the doubts about their reign.

Then they came up with an idea.  They quickly contacted their frost giant allies.  The giants began raiding the borderlands and the Crown started raising the levies.  As exaggerated reports of attacks spread like wildfire.

All around the island the King's representatives rallied and started marching North.  But as soon as the soldiers got away from major population centers a portal would open to Mardus' ever expanding pocket plane.  And off the soldiers would go.  Ireans, Dwarves, Humans.  All the forces of the Crown.  Slowly disappearing as if they were all going far to the North.  With an added bonus that any sleeper resistance members would be stuck in another plane.  Unable to tell their allies what was happening.

While their forces appearing to head north, the Shroud left the capital lightly defended.  Yet, using chucks of the dragon's island, they made teleportation dead zones around the capital.  To force the Princesses forces to either sail to the island or teleport & rally farther away and march in the open to the capital.  The Shroud just needed enough time to assemble their army from their pocket plane.

And then the reports came in from the Sixth Vale hiding in Andoran.  The Princesses army was marshaling.  It was working.  Yet, there was a slight wrinkle.  No ships were being called.  The army would likely use teleportation magic.  So the shroud would not know the exact time of her arrival and their truce deal with the Kraken was useless.

Still, the King's army would be ready.  It's numbers swelling as Mardus continued to push to make the plane a massive luscious garden paradise for their forces.

Soon the final battle would be at hand.  The last chapter in the Shrouds road to be the undisputed rulers of Talengarde.

Session 53

The Shroud continued their discussions of the fate of the Duke.

Using illusion magics they spoke with the Duke's heir, to see if they had a suitable replacement with a sour relationship they could exploit.  What they found was a teenager angry at his confinement who knew little of the Duke's motives.

They discussed trying to get the Duke on board.  But Emmerick refused to let the Duke be his heir.  And they found likely little else to bribe the powerful noble with.

In the end, Emmerick resorted to blunt threats and stated the Duke would be "volunteering" half of his mercenaries to the Crown.

It was clear the Duke hated the order, and the man who gave it.  But backed in a corner with little options, he conceded.  Though he was quick to stick the Crown with the costs of keeping the forces.  And worse, the Duke said nothing, yet the rest of the Nobles in Talengarde were shocked and enraged at the King's flagrant disregard for the Noble class's right to protect themselves with "house-hold" guards.  At least all the Nobles save those backing the Crown already.

The ham-handed approach by the King alienated potential allies & emboldened enemies.  Much to the dislike of the rest of the Shroud.

It was the first sign of a totalitarian regime was forming and the nobles weren't thrilled.

The Shroud moved on to Daveryn where they held a brief ceremony to open the rebuilt city.  And while there, they offered the coveted post of Duke of Daveryn to Wasyli's "Aunt", Baroness Vanya of Veryn.  The Baroness was as surprised at the boon as she was quick to take it.  Even when Wasyli added the requirement that her secret magical alter be gifted to the Crown, the Baroness eagerly agreed & became a Duchess.

The tour finally arrived at their final destination, the village of Varyston, and the near-by prison of Branderscar.

As they reached the hotbed of resistance two events caught the Shroud by surprise.

The young boy, Stefan, who led the flock of children to the vale before being tricked by the Shroud into being a squire of the king, was dead.  Apparently he died in a horsing accident.  But a small part of the populous believe foul play.

But worse, the townsfolk showed signs of infection of the Tears.  And reports were cropping up from across the southern heartlands of the Tears returning.

The Shroud notified their organization and the other instruments of the Kingdom at their disposal to start quarantines & isolation as best they could.

Still, the death of Stefan seemed too convenient to have happened right after he arrived as a squire in the capital.  So as the order to quarantine went out the Shroud turned to investigate the death of the Stefan.  The propaganda and bolstering of the resistance seemed too perfect.  Mardus asked if perhaps it was a plot by the resistance.  Wasyli wondered as well.  Brother Summit suggested they go & do an investigation at the capital.  Yvainne offered a speak with dead to see if it was indeed murder and Mardus said they could raise him from the dead to show how good they were.

The Shroud continued to discuss if they thought it was murder & how they could tell until finally Emmerick spoke up.  "The divinations will show he was murdered."  Mardus responded "but how can you be so sure..."  "Oh I'm sure." responded the King.

The rest of the Shroud stood dumbfounded as realization set in.  Then thye broke out into angry argument at why the King would do it.  Even the death priestess said "But it was a boy!"  in horror.  Mardus too was particularly angry as he spend all the time to solve the problem, just to have it ruined.  Brother Summit mostly fumed with anger.

In the end the King was indifferent to their complaints.  He was King, the decision was done.  The potential future threat was neutralized.

The Shroud, angry though they may be at their seemingly blood-crazed King, turned to the matter at hand.  A bunch of plague infected political dissidents.

Spending some time speaking with the villagers they confirmed the majority of the town truly did hate Emmerick.  Though, since some of the Shroud felt the same way, they decided to show some unexpected mercy.  And instead of making an example of the town, they poured in resources to treat & aid the town.  Hoping that acts of kindness might stall the die-hard resistance movement.

In the end it helped the sentiment of the town a little, but not nearly as much as hoped.  And worse, it was doing nothing to stop the plague, as it became clear the plague originated further to the south.

With little good coming from their visit, the Shroud headed south and found the epicenter of the outbreak.  The town of Barrington, where there recently appointed Baron was located.

They found there the plague was rampant & already spreading to the surrounding areas.  Including from the great mass of children who visited the Vale of Valternae to see the sheppard boy, Stefan.

The Shroud tried to determine what happened.  Quell asked Yvainne if she still dominated the Baron and the vampire confirmed she did.  But the Death Priestess also pointed out that at no time did her thrall alert her to the outbreak or it's severity.  Further investigation revealed the Mayor and some other public figures tried to be overly caution early on & issue a quarantine only to have the Baron dismiss them as overly worried and instead only implementing half-hearted efforts.  Instead saying that trade & tax revenue would be adversely impacted.

In the end, the half-measures were not enough, the plague spread like wild-fire all across the land.  The town would be nearly impossible to save, as would the Kingdom unless the Shroud could do something, and something big.

The Death Priestess pointed out she could not cast a miracle to stop it as her god would likely be in favor of the plague.  And Mardus too questioned if Asmodeus would step in.

Then they had a stroke of genius.  The anti-plague plague.  The one that the great worm silver dragon made.  It saved the island before, perhaps it could be used again.  They are quick to find some of the commoners they found who had it before.  But the disease seemed to have died off after killing the Tears off.  Perhaps some might still live, but it didn't look promising.  Still an unorthodox option was available.

Resurrect the disease.  It was a risky move as the spell might fail.  But with the death and agony all across the island, the King had little choice.  Mardus cast the spell & managed to be successful.

Starting at the epicenter of Barrington & spreading out from there, the anti-plague worked wonders.  All rejoiced save one.  The death priestess was worried, she wanted to preserve a Tear.  It was too glorious of a gift to let die off yet again.  But the rest of the Shroud would not have it loose on the island.  So they came up with a clever idea.  They took two beggars, one infected with the Tears, the other with the cure and the turned to stone both of them.

The cure statue was stored safely by the forces of Asmodeus, the Tears statue was stored by the forces of Zon-Kuthon.

Finally the Shroud managed to break a string of bad luck & celebrate the end of their grand tour in peace at the capital.

The old Palace was alive for the next week as a great feast was held in the honor of the warrior King Emmerick and his conquest of all the isles.  And a new holiday was celebrated, Unification Day, so the commoners, still recovering from the ravages of the Tears could enjoy something.

During the feasting, the members of the Shroud noticed something interesting.  This was the first time in a year the King was finally back at the Palace hosting social entertainment and all around were young single noble lady's.  One radiant foreign beauty caught even the eye of the normally dour King.  The Lady Jezerael Della Torre, a woman from a powerful merchant house from the decadent lands of Taldor.

Still, the Kings advisor's did worry about getting sucked into the politics of another major power of the Inner Sea.  Still, in theory it was safer than the deal Galen tried to make for them with Cheliax.  But the King wasn't quick to push the issue, instead fine with a more prolonged courtship.  As he considered his options so he kept Lady Jezerael a little at arms length.

After the banquet & party were over, the King returned to the duties of ruler-ship.  And with Count Barca in his ear, he turned his attention to his old Knighthood, the Knights of the Alerion Order.  It was little work to gather a group of men to storm the chapter house in the capital.  Still, the King wanted to be there himself, and so he & the Shroud gathered a force & politely arrived at the Chapter house to see what they could find.

There Emmerick came face to face with his old leader, the Knight Commander Errol Greymantle.  Errol didn't bother with pleasantries, instead drawing steel & attacking his accursed student.  Emmerick blocked the attack with his shield & didn't bother even drawing Helbrand, instead simply touching the old man & and doubling him over with nausea and pain.  And then his casters mentally controlled him & forced him to reveal all his secrets before being handed over to Yvainne's "tender" care.

And those secrets were nothing short of the entire roll of Knights still on the islands.  What followed was a purge of all the knights of the Alerion order.  And of course what would the Crown do with all that Knighthood gear.  Well, give it to their good friend, Count Barca & the Knights of the Griffon.  If the Princess ever did return to her island, she'd find no help from any Knights.

Shortly after that, the King got an odd message.  A song bird found the King.  The woodland creature delivered a message from the Druids of Taigh Eolach.  The King should come.  And quickly.

The Shroud worried it might be a trap so they came prepared. What they found surprised them.  There, in the court of the druids was Brunhild Sturmdottir.  The druid who attacked them at the Horn.  Twice.  And who was last known to be travelling with the Sons of Balentyne & the Princess herself.  And she did not look happy.

Session 53

The shroud, coming off their glorious triumph, both political and military, in unifying the Isles heard a disturbing rumor.  Apparently thousands of children were flocking to the Vale of Valtaerna.  Led by some Sheppard boy named Stefan.

So close to the Vale, the King had to halt the Tour near the gates of Ghastenhall & investigate himself.

Arriving covertly what the Shroud found surprised them.  It was indeed thousands of children all praying to Mitra to "save them" from the rule of King Emmerick and his Asmodeans.  The King noted they could just slaughter them.  But the rest of the Shroud advised Emmerick against such a brash action.

Instead they infiltrated the crowds during the day, leaving behind their vampire death priestess to wait for them.  What they saw amazed them.  Somehow all these children were somehow surviving out in the wilds of the Vale.  The near-by town that the Knot left was providing some food but seemed reluctant to too eagerly embrace the rabble.  So mostly the children were trying to survive in the wild on their own.  The Knot made note that as expected some disease and malnutrition had taken hold but didn't bother to check beyond a cursory glance.  For they had a bigger prize, the Sheppard boy Stefan.

The boy was of pure heart.  But he was just that.  A boy.  No special powers, no divine will.  No angel in disguise.  Just a boy.

Still the danger was real.  Mitra was known to reward simple acts of faith.  And the praying going on here had a eerily familiar tone to the ritualized praying at the Horn.  Not only that, Mitra had a patron angel of children.  Cassiel.  Would this angel manifest and aid the people of Talengarde?

The Shroud decided yes.  He would.  In the form of Mardus, transformed into a celestial aspect of course.

And if that failed, well, maybe they'd just have to go to the divine plane & kill Cassiel themselves to prevent an intervention.

But the need for an inter-planer assassination mission wasn't needed.  As Mardus showed off why he landed in Prison in the first place.  His adept skill at defrauding the faithful.  Manifesting from the prayer fires, he gave a glorious speech as he radiated divine will.  And he spoke to the people, telling them to go home.  That Emmerick, for better or worse was their lawful king.  And they should return to their lives & pray to Mitra in peace.

The stunned crowd of Children slowly dispersed.

Some lingered, but the Shroud spend some time & made sure they all eventually left.

Emmerick insisted the boy must be killed.  He was still a threat to his reign.  But the other Shroud members refused to go along.  There was no need.  It would be cruel and risk enraging the populous.

Still, Emmerick wanted the boy watched.  So the Shroud came up with a plan to offer the boy's parents some money and ask he be allowed to squire at the capital.

And once again, Mardus' honeyed tongue came through.  The dirt poor parents, eager for help, gladly offered to let their son squire at the capital.  Provided they had assurances of his safety.

And so, with that last obstacle behind them, the Shroud moved on to their destination.  The city of Ghastenhall and it's Duke.  The original reason for their grand Tour, started half a year before, was finally coming to fruition.

They arrived to a grand welcome.  Mercenaries in Talengardian armor yet oddly foreign looks, guarded the roads and peasants stood behind, cheering for the King.  The longtime native of Ghastenhall, Quell, noted that many of the peasants were the poor folk often times bribed by local nobility when a crowd was needed.  Still, there were a lot.  Clearly the Duke opened his purse strings to give King Emmerick a welcome he'd remember.

Before long the Shroud found themselves in the great chamber of the Duke.  Where a few years ago they played a ruse of returning the bones of a long dead princess for a handsome reward.  But now they wanted a greater reward.  The unwavering loyalty of the city & ruler of Ghastenhall.

The Duke, polite & formal, was ever a gracious host, willing to heap great praise on the military prowess of the new King.  The Shroud, unsure of how hard to push used the pretext of a long travel and the need to rest.  This would give them time to think.

Taking the rest of the day, the Shroud did anything but rest.

They spend time conversing, exploring and gathering information.

The Shroud found out the mercenaries are from the far away land of the River Kingdoms of Avastan and his advisers are worshipers, and likely priests, of Abadar.

Quell Yvainne & Mardus all left the grounds.  Quell destined for his old friend Khyber at the Thieves guild.  Mardus hoping to meet some "new" friends in the infamous Red Quarter.  And Yvianne on a trip to see her sire.

Yvainne arrived at the crypts below the city grave yard at the court of her master, the Vampire Lord who created her.  The Shrouds hope was the Undead power could be used to aid them in their plans.  But while there she learned that her sire was not only quite protective of the city of Ghastenhall but also the Duke's line.  Fearing she might tip her hand, she quietly ended her questions on the topic.

Meanwhile, back at the Castle, Emmerick brooded in his Royal Suite impatient for action.  Eventually the King unsheathed Helbrand and shedding his blood on the blade communed with the dark lords of Hell.  During that time he confirmed the Duke as an heir.  A nephew of 16 years and according to Hell there is no love lost between the two, to the point that trying to use the nephew as a hostage wouldn't work.  But he found out something much more interesting.  The Vampire Lord who created Yvainne is somehow related to the Duke.  And he would be displeased if the Duke was killed and the nephew was the new ruler of Ghastenhall.

As this went on Mardus explored the Red Quarter & found out the Duke and his advisers do not take part in the local "entertainment"instead the Duke has a stable of mistresses & man-servants at his disposal in the castle itself.  Though the soldiers do & they seem to be well paid, as they always have coin to spend.  After a while, the Fire Oracle returned to the castle.  Interested in finding these cloistered "friends" of the Duke.  He was unable to get access to them, but along the way he did find out that the private residence of the Duke, the Advisers and his nephew are all under the effect of a Forbiddance spell.  And likely other security measures.

Quell didn't return to the castle for most of the night.  Instead he spent his time in an eye opening conversation with his friend, Khyber.  While treating with his old friend at a local watering hole, he found out a great many things.  For one thing the Thieve's Guild would love to get into the Capital City.  They would like to legitimize brothers there.  And Legitimize the fighting pits of Ghastenhall & add a Coliseum in the Capital.  And some even considered partitioning slavery.  All proceeds of course would be taxable by the Crown.

But the information on the Duke was what Quell was interested in and the reason for his visit.  And so that is the conversation he spend the most time discussing.  It seems for years the Thieve's Guild has been trying to win favor with the Duke and failed.  They tried blackmail.  Nothing.  They tried murder.  All their assassins have disappeared.  The best Khyber could offer.  Bribery.  But it would have to be something big.  Something to invest him in Emmerick's rule.  Something to bind him.  Make him Emmerick's Heir.

What would the Shroud and their King do.

Session 52

The Shroud prepare to fight the beast of legend, The Caothach Ool.

Wielding their powerful divination magic they had no difficulty finding the beasts hidden lair deep in the depths of the Caer Bryr.

What gave them pause was what they found out about the beasts legendary powers while researching in their library.  In melee combat this brute was fearsome indeed.  What the Shroud decided to do was pick an open spot to engage the beast & hope a well placed reverse gravity would neutralize the beast.  The problem was, in the heart of the massive forest a large enough open space to engage it would be hard to come by.

The death priestess did say that they could request a miracle from the god of death & purge a region of the forest of all living things.  Though the eagerness of Yvianne was appreciated, the cost of such a boon was too great, both in material cost & potential anger of the elves and humans native to the land.  What was found was a large lake right outside the beasts lair.  It would make quite a fountain, but should still work.

With the location of the trap settled, they set the bait.  The vampire priestess, equipped with a newly forged ring to protect her from the harmful effects of moving water on her undead frame, floated in the middle of the lake.  Then Mardus spring the trap with an earthquake over the waterfall entrance to the beasts lair flooding the entrance to the caverns with water.

As predicted the massive bandersnatch roared out of it's lair.  Spotting the death priestess it charged her leaping at her in the heart of the lake.  Hacking and slashing at her, it's attempts to grab the vampire foiled by her freedom of movement spell.  Still the damage was noticed.  Then the area was reverse gravity'ed.  The beast was unable to grab the flying Yvainne but it did manage to coil it's tail around a massive tree root under the lake.  The shroud cursed themselves for not checking.

A huge column of water rushed up around Yvainne and the flailing Bandersnatch shrouding them in mist obscuring the two.  Quickly the flying Yvainne came rushing out of the mists while the screeching beast could still be heard.

Using magics, they pull the water back to stop the mists and that's when Mardus gets a good look at the tree root.  For a moment he turns to the rest of the Shroud & telepathically asks if they think he could burn it.  Getting back a likely no, he grasps his adamantine blade & rushes down, braving the slashing claws of the beast & in one swift stroke hacking the massive root in two.

Beast & root go rocketing into the air.

Once there, suspended, oscillating in the air, the beast was helpless against the massive torrent of magic and arrow blasted at it.

After the beast was dead, it was simply a matter of Emmerick wearing the beasts pelt & walking into the druidic enclave and declaring the fate of the Iraens.  "Be the loyal subjects to Emmerick & full citizens of his Talengarde.

Before the King left his new subjects he was offered an interesting opportunity.  The previous Barcan line hunted unicorns with the Iraens.

The Shroud liked that idea & lingered and had a grand hunt to celebrate the joining of the Iraens into the Kingdom.  A half-dozen Unicorns were bagged in the outing as well.

The entourage finally uprooted from Farholde and it's surroundings to move on into the borderlands region.  There the King surveyed the devastation brought to the watchwall and the infiltration of the humanoids into the Kingdom.

The shroud was surprised at just how badly Fire-Axe had destroyed the defenses and how many humanoids still infested the borderlands.

They decided to rally an army made of mercenaries & recent militia recruits to purge the borderlands.

Emmerick's first campaign was a resounding success.  Though it took a couple months, his forces proved overwhelming for the small smattering of brutes terrorizing the region.

Then the Shroud saw an opportunity ripe for the picking.  The savage north lay bare, seemingly easy to seize and they sat on an army on it's border, fresh off a victory & positioned to strike.

The order was given.  The Crown of Talengarde would rule all the main island.  What ensued was a half-year long campaign lead by Emmerick and the Shroud themselves.  It managed to be even more glorious than the one in the borderlands.

The Savage North bowed before the King's army.  They slaughtered the savage humaniods and other ruffians.  And even the walled ice elven fortress capital was sacked by the King.

With the Bugbears and others put the the knife and spoils seized for the low treasury of the Crown, the King was faced with a choice.  Would he put the Ice Elves and their kin to the knife as well?  Or would he have them bend a knee to his banner?

His council was mixed.  The old nobility like Duke Barca urged slaughter & making it a colony.  The neighboring Frost Giant queen urged slaughter as well, but handing the lands over to the giants.  It was not fit for humans to live there & she could easily hold it.  In the name of the King of course.  His military advisors, such as General Barca urged mercy.  Let them bend a knee to the Crown.  They can maintain the lands themselves better than any humans & still be taxed by the crown.

In the end that was the idea the King liked the most.  The Ice Elves would be part of his Kingdom, as would their lands.

The Shroud stood in an interesting position.  The south was theirs, as was the Caer Bryr.  Now all the rest of the main island in the North was theirs.  All that remained was the reclusive human tribes of the Yukan.  Then the entire island chain would be under their rule.

When they went to treat with the Yukan they expected to find a reclusive chieftain ruling a reclusive people.  What they found was a people poised for change.  Their chieftain, a younger man, eager to embrace the ways of their southern neighbors.  When an eye on a title of a small barony along the watch wall.  A barony owned by a boy of but five years, with an advisor who was a Mitrian priest, likely still loyal to the absent Princess.

Emmerick, with but a flick of his pen appointed the chieftain the new guardian of the young boy holding the title & seizing the Priest as a traitor.

And with that the Shroud managed to do something during Emmerick's reign that Barcan and Darian alike failed at.  They united all the islands of Talengarde under one banner.

The banner of Hell.

Session 51

As the members of the Shroud considered what to do with Lord Ritcher's offer, a group of servants moved through the crowd in the throne room.

The creatures then shed their appearance.  Before the new King of Talingarde stood a horde of demons.  The forces of chaos, led by two Mariliths calling themselves the Twin Queens, challenge the new King as weak and that the Kingdom would fall to the forces of the pit.

The Shroud laughed in surprise at the brazen and clearly ill-conceived frontal assault.  The demons rushed forward and summoned more of their kin.  Then Wasyli blasted them with magic, causing a majority of the extra-planer creatures to fall over, nauseated, including one of the Queens.

All around the peasants, nobles and others in the court fled as demons vomited and the Shroud chuckled.

Brother Summit dimensional stepped up to the remaining Queen with her six swords and rained down a flurry of blows on her only to have her shrug off most of the damage and return onto him a devastating round of sword slices.  The monk fled back to his death priestess ally who healed him.

But aside from that moment of overconfidence, the Shroud managed a ruthless slaughter of the planer outsiders.  Fire and hard steel destroying the demonic forces.

With a blatant indifference to the blood, vomit & gore that coated his throne room, Emmerick resumed his meeting with the now terrified Richter.

The King insisted Richter provide more information, but that if he did, then he would be made a Baron.

Yvainne offered to "help" him, and in short order dominated the hapless mortal.  This got a disapproving look from Emmerick before the undead death priestess insisted she'd not do anything bad to him.

Yvainne was quickly relieved to find out this minor noble had no machinations to take over her covert operations.  He was simply a hapless fool who was trying to barter information for a reward, unaware of the ire it raised in her.  Sure that he'd be no threat to her, the priestess kept her word to her King and left him alone.  At least for the time being.

And Richter proved his worth, as the secret police searched the apartment and found an empty Resistance safe-house.

Not done yet, Emmerick insists if he wishes to be a Baron, he must further show his value by helping Yvainne's forces to observe the safe-house.  And so Ritcher did just that.  He repeatedly spotted different Resistance figures moving & learned a rough pattern of every 2-3 days a new group would arrive and stay for a few hours.

It was simply a matter of waiting with a strike force for the next appearance and the Shroud's forces struck.  With Yvainne, Brother Summit & Quell leading the forces, the Resistance figures were captured alive.  Among them was a member of the Inquisition, a valuable prize indeed.

Yvianne was eager to get the prisoner into her torture chamber.  Wasyli mentioned they could use mind fog and then she could just dominate him & be done with it.  Yvainne responded with a simple "that won't be necessary" and with a wicked grin she had him dragged off to her torture chamber.

With a flood of information coming in on the Tesistance, Emmerick rewarded his loyal servant & granted Lord Ritcher the title of Baron of Barrington that he so coveted.  The new Baron would have to decide if it was worth the price of having the talon's of a death priestess in his mind.

The Shroud considered their next move.  The new leads on the Resistance activity would take months to follow up.  The work on rebuilding Daveryn would take time to execute.  There was the issue of the Duke of Gastenhall and there was a whole realm the King still needed to bring fully under his heel.

Of those the Duke was the most problematic.  They brought in Count Barca and spoke at length with him.  He urged caution.  A direct conflict with the Duke was a problem, but so too was seeking an audience.  No, the King needed a pretense for going to Gastenhall.

They Shroud mused and then at nearly the same time Count Barca & Wasyli both suggested a tour of the Island.  That would give a pretense for a visit & possibly help deal with other issues.

It was decided.  An expanded entourage was assembled including some minor figures from court, Shroud members, a small compliment of Mercenaries and a couple Griffin Knights from the Counts household guard.  Along with the Shroud and some of their lesser Veil members.

The Tour would start in Farholde & work it's way along the borderlands, stopping in Gastenhall and the ruins of Daveryn before finally returning through the heartlands to the Capital on the south.

As the Tour got underway & sailed around to Farholde, a new stop was added to the end of the Tour.  The intelligence coming in from the infiltration of the Resistance found a hot bed of activity in Varyston, the town attached to the infamous Branderscar prison in the Heartlands.  It seems they didn't much like their new King.  So perhaps he'd need to make a personal visit...

Brother Summit did ask if perhaps they could overhaul the Prison and appoint him as the Warden.

Emmerick responded "Oh, maybe!! ..." in a voice like he was talking to a child asking something way above their ability.  This got a stunned look from Brother Summit, followed by a dismissive snot as the Monk left the chuckling Monarch.

When the King finally arrived in Farholde the first order of business was to meet with lady Shalyn Marsten.  With the death of the local Barcan noble, Baron Arkov Vandermir, during their last stay in Farholde, a long vacant post needed to be filled by an even longer ally.  The King was quick to appoint her as the Baron of Mir

While staying, Quell & some of the other Shroud noted that the Nuns in the town had vanished.  Speaking with the new Baroness as well as some other locals, the Shroud found the Nuns had fled into the Savage North, to some long ago explored Tomb by their founder, the adventuring priestess of Mitra.

The Shroud spend an extra month in town & snuck away to visit the Nuns.  Finding the Tomb guarded by armed Mitrians, the Shroud decided a simple earthquake or nine should cover it.  And after Mardus was done, the Shroud left, not having to draw a blade, yet destroying a major pocket of the Resistance.

The Shroud decided to linger a while longer while sending the entourage on to the Borderlands.  They wanted to check on the elves & humans of the Caer Bryr.  Their investigation of the natives led them to a familiar figure.  A druid named Keara Kilkerran who happened to be present at the King's palace when Charmagon attacked it.  The new King offered to speak to her where his predecessor didn't live long enough to.

She simply wished self rule for her people.  A fact that Emmerick didn't like.  Still, she offered a way to keep her people on his side should the Princess ever return to claim her throne.  And that was a legend.  The legend of the Caothach Ool which stated a champion of the Iraen people would come and destroy the might beast and return wearing it's pelt.  And the campion would speak a prophecy of the people.  Whatever that prophecy was all the people of the forest would follow it.

The Shroud mussed quietly at the possibilities.

Session 50

Arriving as victors the Shroud's entourage heads to the old palace where Emmerick claims as his new seat of power.  The shroud wastes little time in securing the alliance of the younger brother of the late Barcan King, Count Barca.  They also manage to secure a handful of other local nobles and allies in their new court.

Reluctant to upset the law of the land immediately, yet needing to be crowned, the Shroud manage to secure the reluctant support of the head of the Mitrian church and crown Emmerick in a lavish coronation ceremony following the Darian tradition of Mitrian worship.

The multi-day affair is well receipted by the common folk.  The overt ton of reconciliation with the Mitrians in particular lowers fears of petty retribution.  Not only is the common folk well represented, but most major noble houses manage to send at least some representation.  Though, the Duke of Ghastenhall is not in attendance and his attendants and a magical trinket gift to the new King are not enough to assuage the concern in the King's inner circle at his absence.

At the end of the multi-day festivities, well past any involvement of the Mitrian church, the Shroud does introduce a prayer to all other gods.  The opening gambit in their attempt at true religious freedom in Talengarde.

While this was going on Quell had an odd discovery what he thought was simply odd whispers he heard during the festivities was actually the powerful ring the Shroud took from Thorn's lair.  It was trying to talk to him.  Then it clearly spoke to him, about how, to grow in power it needed the blood of an angel, a fiend and a titan.

With the immediate take-over done and a small group of supporters, the Shroud works to further solidify their power base.

The shrouds organization starts to spread out through the land and over the coming months slowly remove monuments and other items glorifying the late King & his daughter.  Starting in royal holdings and lands around the capital before spreading out.

They also make pushes on the spiritual front.  Throwing together a ceremonial speak with the backing of some of their noble allies, the Shroud puts forth the case to lift the illegality of religion in the land.  The support of the nobles is won, though the common folk seem uneasy.

Also, the King picks a spot on his palace grounds for a new shining cathedral of Asmodeus.  To further push pro-religion & make Asmodeus more of a state religion.

And then the Shroud is confronted with their largest problem.  A lack of funds.  The Princess fled with whatever she could and with one of the three metropolitan hubs of Talengarde in ruin the Crown was sorely underfunded.  They could prepare the site for the Cathedral, but before any major construction initiatives could be started the funding would need to be corrected.

One option Mardus and others mention is trying to establish trade with the outside.  Yvainne points out sailors dislike traveling to Talengarde though because of the Kraken.  This brought looks of confusion from the other Shroud members until Yvainne explained it's an old sailor tale that the route to Talengarde is inhabited by a Kraken.  Speaking to the local nobles like Count Barca get a dismissive note.  But speaking to the Sixth Shroud, formerly the Sixth Knot corroborate Yvainne.  The price to ship mercenaries to the isles was inflated due to that cost.  Further some well questioned divinations removed all doubt.  There was a Kraken.

With some intelligence and powerful magic, the Shroud easily pinpointed the location of the beasts nest.  They then took the King's flagship and made a show to go out and hunt a Kraken.  And once safely out in open water, transferred operations to a less valuable ship and sailed out to the location of the lair.

Arriving at the spot, the Shroud considered an alternative option.  What if they tried to simply barter with the beast?  Using a host of protective magics they descended into the watery depths.

There far below the waves they found a massive fissure in the ocean floor that was the entrance to the beasts lair.  Quell's ring whispered "a titan draws near".  Which made the elf eager to kill it.

Using lights that shone brilliantly in the pitch darkness they announced their presence peacefully & were greeted by bobbles and a rumbling voice echoing from the depths of the fissure.

What proceeded was an odd conversation.  The Shroud tried to get the beast to turn down it's savagery and wait peacefully.  The price they got in return was exorbitant.  And some of the Shroud members wondered if the beast would even honor the deal.

Still there may be some way to get the vain beast to help.  They asked if the creature would enjoy feasting on a princess and her army.  This got the creature interested and with a small tribute it agreed.  As the Shroud dropped the goods down into the depths they spot a massive tentacle reach out, grab it & drag it down into the darkness.

The Shroud left the depths unsure if they'd made the right decision.  There would be no fan-fair of victory, and the trade lanes would stay chocked off.  And the kingdom still needed money.

The Shroud turned their attention to other options to improve their finances.

Looking over the books they saw clearly there was a massive financial lose in revenue when Daveryn was lost.  Using their minions they got a report of how much it would cost to repair and repopulate the city.  The price was staggering for it seems Fire-Axe's destruction of the city was severe.  Still, if it got back up & resettled it would help greatly with the finances of the Kingdom and perhaps also improve some moral.

The Shroud considers speaking with Wasyli's Aunt, but Wasyli urges caution.  He still doesn't trust her or her intentions and so if they were to bring her in, they'd need to understand the implications.  The rest of the Shroud agrees so they table that decision.

And the Kingdom remains underfunded.

While all this is going on an underground war is brewing.  Yvainne, appointed as the head of intelligence has been sending out shroud members backed by their Ogre Magi Lieutenant to try to run down the Princesses followers in Talengarde only to see the more pressure they apply result in the opposition slipping further underground.

That is when a minor noble, Lord Gaius Richter the uncle to the late Sir Richter, warden of Branderscar, approached the King.  He stated he could help in dealing with the underground resistance.  Clearly what the Crown as doing was not working.  He continues to talk about how the efforts are failing, unaware of the insult he's leveling at Yvainne.  Or unaware of the great deal of delight it is giving Emmerick.  He further claimed to have found a resistance safe-house.  He simply wished to serve in a greater capacity, as a Baron of the small town of Barrington, what with the former noble dying heirless in the war.  And help the Crown bring down the resistance movement.

As he finished the Shroud considered what to do.

Session 49

The Shroud spent some time looking over the artifact in the dank underground cavern.  Quell using his linguistic talent, Wasyli relying on his knowledge of the planes.

In the end, the Shroud used a miracle to turn off & move the artifact safely from the site back to their island fortress.

Once there they spend more time analyzing it and discovered that among other things, it had the ability to summon and control otherworldly horrors.  The possible combat implications intrigued the Shroud greatly.

The Shroud returned to the area of the Caer Bryr where the ruins of the Horn were to search the lair of the green dragon.

As they feared, their ally was no more, his lair now home to otherworldly horrors taking residence including hounds and spiders.  The corpse of the young dragon wrapped tight in a massive web in one corner.  Worse still, a large alpha hound was there with his pack.

As the fight broke out, the massive wrapped corpse started to ungulate and to the Shroud's collective horror, they realized it was chock full of swarms of baby spiders it belched out in massive clouds.

With a combination of magics & summoned monsters the Shroud kept back from the swarms of spiders until Yvainne rushed forward & plane shifted the baby spider nest back to the plane of Abaddon.  Making it a problem for someone else, but no longer their issue.

The remaining spider & hounds proved difficult to fight, but still manageable.  Relaying on blade, magic and their own bare fists in the case of Brother Summit, the horrors were no match for the prepared Shroud.  And all fell before the villains.

With the otherworldly horror mostly resolved the Shroud turns itself to making the final preparations for their victory over Fire Axe & their conquest of the capital.

Their first stop is to talk to Fire Axe.  Informing their ally of Thorn's demise & their coup of his organization go over better than expected.  Honeyed words and promises of a future as a Shroud member keep Fire Axe on their side.  The bugbear even provides an ideal ambush spot that's a few days ride still from his slow moving force.  The Shroud agree and head there to prepare the site.

While preparing a spot for Yvainne to stay hidden but still functional during a daytime battle, Emmerick summons Tiadora & General Barca.  Tiadora will be tasked with extraditing Fire Axe during the coming battle, but General Barca has a more important job.  Emmerick wants advice on how to approach his claiming of the throne.  And wants his new advisor to provide the advice.

After a long conversation, the Shroud & their general come to a decision.  He will enter the capital & use his contacts to prepare the city for the new King's coming.  While the Shroud will defeat the "savages" in combat.  Allowing the new King to return, bloody & battered but victorious in combat.  A savior of the people.

As the general leaves the mercenaries arrive.  Their leader, Heir Essenmark greats the future king & they prepare for the battle.

Using the natural terrain to funnel the bugbear army into a choke point, Emmerick & his band will hold the breach with Yvainne already prepped, hidden close at hand in a stone-shaped cavern.

The bugbears arrived with after dawn and without realizing it, funneled themselves right into the trap.  And then it was sprung.  Archers, protected by light infantry and natural rock cliffs rained down arrows on the tightly packed brutes.  Heavy Cavalry, combined with a well placed earthquake blocked their exit and their general, Fire-Axe disappears as a she-devil teleports in & out with him.

Wasyli uses sympathy to hold the regular bugbear in front of the choke point, unable to push through.  But the large ogres & giants surged forward, unimpeded by the magic.

Emmerick, Quell & Summit brace for them, then Mardus began unleashing Earthquake after Earthquake while using quickened fireballs.  Wasyli and Yvainne joined in to rain down their own divine & arcane magic.  What followed was over a minute of non-stop screaming and wailing as bugbear, ogre and giant alike are blasted, melted & swallowed hole.  Burnt and buried alive the sounds are horrifying.

Quell fires a couple arrows into the inferno, making little difference in the grand scope of carnage.  Emmerick shakes his head in disgust and sheaths his sword as his fellow Shroud members destroy with ease the last remnants of the "grand" army of Fire Axe.  There would be no glory here for the would-be King.

As the battle ends the mercenaries rush forward, killing the maimed & wounded bugbears still standing.  But this was no mercy killing.  This was a chance to pillage from the pillagers.

Emmerick rummaged through the field, matting his blade & armor in blood, to make it look like he did something other than stand there.

The rest of the Shroud looked out on the field of battle.  Blood and gore chocked the river at the edge of the battlefield and mini-waterfalls of gore spill down into unknown depths exposed by the cracking of the ground.  At the far end of the field cavalry obliterate what wolf-riders managed to escape the initial assault.  After the dead pillagers were picked clean, their bodies were thrown on massive burn piles.  The flames roaring over the occasional sounds of screams from underground.

With a quant field turned into the gory graveyard of the the army of Fire Axe.  The Shroud moved on with their army to the final destination.  The capital.

As Emmerick leads their army to the walls of the near by city they are greeted by an entourage of dignitaries from the city.  Among them are two of the Shrouds allies, Wasyli's "Aunt" and General Barca.

The Mayor of Matheryn was the first to speak, greeting Emmerick, clearly unsure of the situation.  He is quickly brushed aside by Count Leothyn Barca, the aging brother of the late Barcan King.  The Count shares a knowing look with the General before giving a cunning smile to Emmerick.  "It is good to see you nephew.  Let us come into the city & rejoice at your victory."

The mayor looks even more confused but also relieved as the entourage joins with the Shroud at the head of the Army of Mercenaries and strides into the city.

Civilians poking their heads out of allies & windows.  Most confused but some do let out some clapping or cheering at the new defenders of Matheryn.

And just like that Thorn's plan comes to fruition, as the forces of darkness seize the heart of the Kingdom of Talengarde.

A new golden age of Asmodeus is at hand.

Session 48

The Shroud argued about what to do with their political options.

Emmerick and Wasyli had no interest in bending a knee before the throne of Chiliax and they managed to get most of the remaining shroud members on board.

Quell still found it an unwise move and argued as much, but as it became clear Emmerick had won the majority, Quell relented & went along with the rest of the Shroud.

Galen was upset, but bowed before his new leaders.  Though he did request to be extracted.  He felt that perhaps he had overstayed his welcome and the Shroud agreed.  They removed their agent & brought him back to the safety of Talengarde.

Shortly after moving forward & arranging the transport of their mercenary army they started using powerful divination magic to locate the Princess and the Sons of Balentyne.  They found them all, at the capital of Andoran.  The arch-rival of Chiliax.

Quell restrained himself from criticizing too hard, as the rest of the Shroud realized they just turned down the help of a major power, as their fellow claimant to the throne was doing that very thing.

Still, the Shroud had picked their course.

Using magic items & knowledge acquired from Galen & Thorn's notes, Wasyli proceeded with attempting to craft a phylactery and move down the path of transforming himself into a Lich like Galen.

With their primary source of arcane magic having only limited availability and a mercenary army still weeks out and there arch-rival in a location that might prove difficult to attack, Brother Summit pushed the Shroud to consider a loose end to follow up.  The threat of the otherworldly creatures hunting them.

With a planer breach to the negative energy plane readily available in the Cathedral, the Shroud easily collected a few hounds and brought them to Professor Tiberius Feign.  The wizard was surprised at the unexpected guests, but always eager to pursue his planer research, quickly found time for them in his underground laboratory.

The Shroud wanted to find the location of the thing that was sending creatures to them so the Professor gathered his collection of planer forks attuned to the various outer planes and performed a ritual with a special compass to point to the planer fork attuned to the plane the thing was on.  The ritual commensed and the chamber was filled the wailing of a hound.  Yet the compass didn't seem to settle on a planer fork.  Then Brother Summit noticed it.  The compass kept tracking the Professor.  As he stated that, a look of horror filled the Professor's face, as he reached into his belt pouch & pulled out a planer fork attuned to the prime material plane.

The Professor quickly slit the throat the wailing hound and a dread-filled silence descended on the camber.  Then the professor told the Shroud if they were to face the creature, they should do so quickly.  And he left the camber, his assistants having to scramble to collect all the valuable planer forks the wizard had ignored in his haste to be rid of the place.

The Shroud thought back to the time they were near the Horn and saw signs of the creatures there.

Could this all have come when they called forth Vitra-Kali...

The Shroud prepared for an adventure, Wasyli was able to drop them off near the horn before returning to his creation.

The Shroud them moved toward the old green dragon's lair, were they'd seen signs of the creatures before.  They prepared to fly to the areal entrance at top of the mound and stopped as they cleared the tree tops.

Further to the south, was an ever expanding pool of black liquid and at it's center, the ruins of the Horn.  Everywhere the liquid went, fauna and wildlife died.  A huge blight has spread out across the land for miles.  It even got into the near-by river & travelled up & down stream, chocking out a massive lake near by & the bogland near the coast.

Brother Summit remembered his trip with Wasyli, were they saw a small pool of liquid in the ruins of the horn.  What horror has befallen the land.

Steeling themselves, they leave the green dragon lair and head to the source of it all.  The Horn.

They arrive and see slowly moving black liquid oozing out from the foundation.  With an overabundance of caution, the Shroud advance into the familiar yet distinctly different underground of the Horn.

The mouth of the caves was chocked with rubble from above, hunks of stone & earth filled in most of the cracks between the stalactites & stalagmites, leaving just a small passageway in.  Around the side a river of black liquid goo oozes underneath.

The Shroud move on into the interior, having to avoid rubble and black goo.

Within they found a further altered interior from their last visit.  Walls broken down, or caverns chocked with rubble.  Yet no sign of spiders or hounds.  Just more black ooze.

Eventually they found the likely source, it appeared to be coming from the mud room they used to conjure mud elementals.  Yet they couldn't reach it as the main passage was a river of black goo and the only walkable surface was a ledge on the far side.

Yvainne shaped from the stone walls a buttressed bridge with a lip to protect from the goo below.  As the bridge finished being shaped, screeching wails came from down the passage in the mud room.

As the Shroud advanced via a combination of arial magic & the stone bridge, they found two creatures of ungulating flesh, a massive blob of eyes, mouths & other organs.  Oozes of flesh splashing in the black goo.

And they advanced, letting a wail loose as they went.

Mardus and Quell both quickly go mad from the screeching, as Emmerick & Brother Summit push forward, overcoming it.  And Yvainne's undead mind ignores the wails as her undead frame likewise ignores the black goo as she wades through it in front of her companions.

Quell in his madness flails at Mardus this in turn brings the focus of the equally confused Mardus to turn on Quell & savage into him.

Realizing the two would rip each other apart in their madness, Yvainne had to return & heal Mardus who then healed Quell and stopped the madness induced cycle of in-fighting.

Still the horrors advanced, one taking particular interest in Brother Summit.  And the shroud paused, unsure if they could handle the fight or if they should flee with what shreds of sanity they retained.

But then the Anti-paladin of Hell stood forward and cast fear on one of the abominations.  Even it's alien mind reeled in terror and the creature fled from the beacon of hell, deep down into the goo.

The shroud got a second wind & pushed forward, their doubts starting to wain.  Then Quell finally made his way to the bridge and finally seeing the horror, he fled again, his mind unable to handle it.  Meanwhile, Brother Summit, stuck with one of the horrors on his own was forced to withdrawl for some healing from his companions.

Seeing their second wind vanishing, Emmerick & Yvainne surged forward to fill the void meeting the attacks of the otherworldly creature with blade and fang.  And as Brother Summit & Mardus recovered, the four Shroud members even without their rogue or wizard, managed to hack, slash, burn and bite the creature.

Against even the limited might of just part of the Shroud, the creature was ripped into ribbons.

It's mate eventually emerged in a rage as the fear had subsided but weakened and without it's companion, the prepared Shroud destroyed it too.

As quite returned to the caverns, the Shroud looked where the creatures had been.  There, beyond where the mud pool had been, in the alcove were the old broken chest used to be, were massive stone tablets & some sort of pool, that appeared to be the source of all the ooze that was invading the plane.

Investigation revealed the tablets to be some sort of otherworldly artifact that was generating the black liquid substance.

The Shroud stood before the artifact, unsure of what comes next.

Session 47

The Knot bursts out into the hallway unleashing an assault on the undead dragons.

Steel and fang clash as arcane magic rains down and infernal hell fire fills the hallway.

Quell takes the brought of one of the dragon's assaults, the stone skin from Wasyli from before the fight with Thorn gets all used up, but the elven rogue survives.  All be it with an emergency heal from Mardus.

Wasyli isolates the two dragons with a wall of force only to have Brother Summit shrug and teleport past it & solo one of the dragons himself.

Yvainne does try at one point to get the dragons to surrender, but her desire to make the Ninth their new master doesn't seem to go over too well.

The Knot resigns to utterly destroying the dragons and proceed to do just that.

Brother Summit mercilessly grinding his dragon into bone dust while the other one is overwhelmed by the blades of Quell and Emmerick.

The following morning the Knot meet with the wizard Ben and learn about the grave knights & the magic of the fortress.  Yvainne attunes herself to the key to the fortress and they wait as the grave knights raise & they take control of them.

The fortress of Thorn is finally completely under the control of the Knot.

Though, despite Yvainne's eager desire to bath herself in the negative energy of the odd magical devise, Quell brought up that none of them, save maybe Brother Summit should go near the planer breach.  There was a collective groan as they remembered the taint they all carried with them.  And one small part of their new fortress most of them would need to avoid.

The Knot left a token force to guard the fortress along with the newly raised graveknights and returned to their island to speak to their old acquaintance, Tiadora.

Calling her by her true name, the handmaiden of hell knew who her new masters would be.  She begrudgingly signed a contract binding her to the service of the Knot.  But she did insist on a rider that allowed her to ignore the orders of Yvainne until they were confirmed by a true worshipper of hell.

Her opinion of the death priestess was clear.  The devil didn't trust her.

Having Thorn's former lieutenant under their grip, the Knot decided to abolish the idea of Knots.  That was Thorn's order.  And that order was dead.  No.  They supported a shroud and so now there would be Veils.  And they would be the greatest Veil of all.

With Thorn's personal journal in hand and his lieutenant subservient to them.  The Veil moved forward with their slain master's plan.

Their attention turned toward the former 6th Knot, with their former ally, Galen.  They were supposed to have an army.  The army of the new King would come and save the Kingdom from the bugbears.

Tiadora, with Lord Vastenus Barca former general of the king's army, went to see what the 6th Knot had assembled.  They found the leader of the 6th knot in Riddleport, with a band of cutthroats and brigands as well as a formidable mercenary army.

Yet there was no sign of Galen.  The leader of the 6th knot didn't know where the Lich wizard went.

Using divination & teleportation magic, the Veil arrived to speak with Galen, Tiadora in tow.

They found Galen living in the lap of luxury, negotiating with a group called the Queen's Hand, advisors to Abrogail Thrune II, Queen of Cheliax.  Talengarde would have a powerful professional army to defend them, and all they needed to do was bend a knee to the Throne of Cheliax.

It would seem the Veil had two armies to choose from.

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.