Session 19

The Knot members quickly wrapped up their fallen comrade in a shroud, did a cursory search of the vanquished undead & scoped up all valuable items around, including the magical armor of the undead warrior.  Noticed an odd resistance when putting the armor into the bag of holding, but were still able to do it.  Then they fled the tomb of the undead.

Arriving back at their waiting boat, the fisherman Bartholomew gives an odd look as the group throws the shroud wrapped corpse of Yvainne into the boat.  But a stern look from Emmerick & a couple gold marks from Mardus whip the look off the fisherman's face, returning it to an indifferent stare.  Still, as he rows the boat back to town, Brother Summit hears him whisper under his breath to himself "Why kill her and then not dump her body on a the deserted island.  Makes no sense."

Brother Summit & Quell rush the remains of Yvainne back to the preservation room in the horn.  Force marching through the night & into the next day.  Finally making it back worn out & exhausted but able to get Yvainne's remains secured away & notify Galen & Grumblejack of what happened.  Grumblejack seems quite sad about it.  "Na! Nat da' little healin' girl!  Na Na!"  Galen too is concerned, but more about the price.  Death can be eluded.  And must be for the Knot members mission to succeed.  But it isn't cheep.

Meanwhile, back in town, Mardus & Emmerick waited until the morning, when they speak with lady Shalyn Marsten.  They ask the powerful merchant if they can rush order a Raise Dead scroll.  They also ask for absolute secrecy.  Lady Marsten is willing to get the scroll and can do it in a matter of days, but it will cost upwards of a thousand gold to magically make the rush order happen.  And even then, it will still be three days.  As for the secret, there's some haggling, but Emmerick tells her whatever she thinks it's worth, it will be worth 10 times that if she waits.  Because they will be powerful forces in the future.  So lady Marsten lets the Knot simply owe her a favor.  One she'll call in later, with interest.

Reasonably sure lady Marsten will keep the secret, the Knot reassembles at the Horn, hoping the death of Yvainne goes unnoticed by the rest of their would-be allies.  While together, the Knot goes over the magical treasure they received so they can pay their merchant ally for a scroll of Raise Dead.

When they pull out the magical armor they recovered from the undead out of their extra-dimensional holding space,  a load moan & gust of air is released & the armor disintegrates before their eyes.  Galen uses his magical knowledge & determines what his less arcane inclined members failed to notice before.  The armor was some pillar of the magical affects in the tomb.  It's removal from the area has likely altered or even destroyed the magics.

While the Knot waits a day, Galen finally finishes constructing the magical alchemical gollem, using the brain of the dead bard from the earlier adventuring party.

The Knot readies the next day to return to town to buy the scroll of raise dead & return to the underground crypt but are stopped when a messenger arrives from the 7th Knot.  An adventuring group group is heading for the Horn but they say they're unsure on the arrival but think maybe they'll try for a 3rd floor "center eye" entrance.

The Knot, unsure of when the enemy might arrive, sends Galen off to town using magical flying to procure the scroll & sell extra gear while the rest remain.  Expecting some form of magical flight to reach the 3rd floor balcony entrance, the Knot focuses their defenses on the 3rd floor as well as the Sanctum.  As they worry flying enemies might see the higher level entrance & risk passing through the energy shield to investigate.  The Knot is stationed in the Sanctum proper to ensure the ritual continues uninterrupted along with one of the two Daemon guardians.  And they leave a sizable force of guards on the 3rd floor entrance, including all the wraiths, the newly constructed alchemical gollem & the second Daemon who is in constant telepathic communication with the Daemon in the Sanctum with the Knot.  And they leave token minions & undead to guard the other two entrances.

Before Galen can return to raise Yvainne from the dead, the adventuring group arrives.  And they head straight for the 2nd floor entrance.  A pitched battle ensues, but the minions are no match for the Sorceress lead adventuring group.  Watching from the Sanctum through the magical scrying eye of the blood soaked & Mitra chained alter to Vetra-Kali the Knot watches the battle unfold.  Emmerick growls when he sees his soldiers break & flee to warn the rest of the Tower instead of stand & fight to the death.

The adventuring group makes a b-line for the temple & searches around the hollow column that contains the secret stairs leading from the caverns to the Sanctum above.  Clearly showing some for-knowledge of the Horn.  Still, as no secret door exists there, the group gives up & checks out the 1st floor entrance.  From range, they stop & destroy the assassin vines guarding the way up & encounter the sealed off entrance with undead archers behind murder holes.  They give up & break off the attack after finding no way to proceed.

The entire time, the Knot remains at the Sanctum guarding the alter & waiting.  As the adventuring group stumbles from one trap to another.

Eventually the group returns to the 2nd floor entrance & is faced with the same dilemma as the Knot faced those many months before them.  Scale the exterior or try to climb up the trap floor chute.  They make the same choice as the Knot & try the trap floor chute & have to rely on magical flight to get a rope secure.

However, unlike the Knot before them, a horde of monsters is just waiting for them to arrive.  And so the outcome is quite different.  Only one of the four adventurers even makes it out of the chute only to be waylaid by undead and a Daemon.  The cleric in the adventuring group does manage to destroy two of the lesser wraiths & causes Ezra Thrice Damned to flee.  But with the Gollem lobbing alchemical bombs & the Daemon savaging into them, two of the four adventurers die in a matter of a couple rounds.  The other two attempt to flee, but one doesn't even get out of the trap room before getting bombed from above by alchemical gollum.  The leader of the group, the Sorceress, does manage to get away from the slaughter, but before she can reach the 2nd floor exit the Knot sends the Daemon who is with them down to the entrance & the Sorceress is ripped apart.  Another adventuring group destroyed in the Horn of Abaddon.

While some in the Knot are quick to loot the dead & celebrate a victory, Emmerick has a different opinion.  Furious over the desertion of his men, he makes an example of two of the "cowards" who fled the un-winnable battle by giving them over to Ezra to be transformed into Wraiths.  The dread wraith is quite pleased with replenishing his loses.  And terror grips the soldiers & other minions of the Horn as they realize just how wicked their leaders truly are.

In sort order Galen returns with the scroll and Mardus attempts to restore Yvainne to life.  It takes multiple attempts and Mardus comes dangerously close to a misshape, but he manages to breath new life into the death priestess.  Though, Yvianne does rise with an oddly paler skin color & the skin itself seems almost stretched.

With their strength back to full & the Horn currently safe from attack, the Knot sets off to Farholde & the secret ruins that lay on Wrecker Island in the heart of the harbor.

Upon arriving they find the Wall of Force to be gone.  Walking into the room beyond they find an odd alter to some nature god of the forest elves from the forest.  Galen does comment that in the annuls of history Farholde was ruled by the forest elves.  Before Talengarde came & seized it.  Other exits to the room lead to further darkness.

Spotting a magical wand or staff that is not part of the alter, but simply resting in it, Emmerick grabs it & pulls it free.  And in doing so awakens some ancient spirit.  For coming down a side passage arrives a druid ghost & her ghost dog animal companion.

At first the group tries to parley with the spirit of vengeance and ask if they could help it in anyway find peace.  It looks down on Quell for 'abandoning' the great forest spirit & turning to the humans culture.  And says it wants Farholde returned to it's people, the King of Talengarde to die along with all other blood of House Barca.

The group realizes the spirit is from another time.  It doesn't even know of the downfall of House Barca & the rise of House Darian.

Speaking in Ignan to each other the Knot plots & considers the offer.  But Emmerick says he will not turn over all his kin to this ghost to be slaughtered.  The spirit, apparently able to understand Ignan, howls.  "You are of the blood of the enemy!  Die!!"  And attacks.  Though the Knot questions Emmericks "royal" heritage  this vengeance spirit has no problem taking his word for it.  Battle is joined.

Dropping flamestrike & focusing on Emmerick, even while risking her safety, the Druid Ghost still nearly kills Galen & others in her blind fiery rage.  Her spirit hound also jumps into action, howling a frightful bay.  And again, against a fear aura of a canine, this one dead instead of extra-planner, Quell flees in terror.  Though the rest of the Knot manages to steel themselves against it.  The elf is last seen barreling down one of the side corridors, into the enveloping darkness.

Despite her rage & incorporeal nature, the Knot rallies.  And though they are close to loosing another member in this crypt, they pull through and are triumphant.  But their victory will likely just be temporary as Ghosts are rarely ever permanently destroyed.  The druid spirit will likely be back.

The Knot members catch their breath & look to see where Quell has gone.  And all they see is darkness.  It seems their Elvan member has gone missing.

Session 18

The following week proved to be a relaxing time, or boring depending on perspective, for the Knot.

Having defeated the defenders of the forest, the Knot continues unmolested with their dark ritual.  Some of the Knot head into town to shop.  While there they are invited by the Baron to attend his upcoming 105th birthday party.  An invitation the Knot is quick to accept.

While in town, they also check up with the seventh knot.  A somewhat tense exchange between the Elise, the head of the seventh Knot & Yvainne happens over how extreme Elise should get when dealing with potential threats.  In particular, if a flood of would-be heroes arrive, how strong of a welcome should they receive.  It turns into Yvainne trying to order Elise to do her job a certain way.  But before the two woman go at it, the normally abrasive & harsh Emmerick chimes in and displays his rarely seen charm & skill with words to diffuse the situation.  A sight that relieved Mardus, but also surprised him.  He never imagined his traitorous co-conspirator & cats-pawn could be so skilled.  A sobering thought about the "puppet" he & Galen wanted to plant on the throne of Talengarde.

Meanwhile back at the Horn, the ritual goes on.  Galen, Quell & Brother Summit are treated to a visitor while the other knot members are off at town.  The extra member of the seventh knot, Aliciette Cardoso, arrives with a status report from Elise & a birthday invitation from the Baron.  Ironically, no different than the information the other Knot members were receiving back in town.  Aliciette does ask to stay for the night.  A request Galen is quick to fulfill.  But after their incident with the shape changing forest creatures, he does insist on magically searching her person.  And he's worried when he finds Aliciette is not wearing her magical Iron Crown.  However, the knot member retrieves it from a bag of holding, along with a silver holy symbol of Asmodeus thus proving her identity.  While socializing with Brother Summit & Galen, one of them does inquire as to why Aliciette doesn't wear her crown or holy symbol & instead keeps them tucked away in an extra-dimensional space.  Aliciette simply responds with a smile.  "It was a gift from someone I don't trust."

At the end of the week, with the Knot reassembled, Galen spends time studying the Iron Crowns, using magical identify spells and he finds there is something... odd about the gifts from Thorn.   They do not simply confer the ability to change your appearance.  They have some other magical effect about them, but what other function(s) they possess are a lost to Galen.

Emmerick, taking to heart this information, opts to not wear the Iron Crown around the Horn for the next few months.  To see if he notices anything different.

The following week is when the Baron throws his birthday party.  All of the Knot members save one prepare to leave for the party.  Galen though, insists on remaining at the Horn, to guard it along side Grumblejack & the minions.  Emmerick & Yvainne both try hard to convince him otherwise  but Galen absolutely refuses to take part the aristocratic feast, despite the possible benefits it would confer to both the Knot as a whole & their evil organization.  His adamant refusal raises some eyebrows amongst the Knot members, but the escaped prisoners have never been overly conversational toward one another.  Especially where their past lives are concerned.  So five members of the Knot depart, leaving one behind to guard the Horn.

The party itself is a fine affair.  Many magnificent & abnormally large sea-food is served in decadent sauces along side some of the finest wines in Talengarde, as well imported Galtan & Sarain wines.  Some in the Knot make note of the abnormal size of the seafood and questioning some wait-staff find out the Baron has been stockpiling large creatures pulled from the lake of Farholde and saving them for this occasion.

Various Knot members socialize with all sorts of people from around town.  Even the elusive acting commander of the Farholde watchwall, Sir Valin Darian, is present.  He even has a brief conversation with Yvainne, unaware the woman before him is a death priestess to the dark god Zon Kuthon.  Quell speaks briefly with the Mayor of Farholde, a rotund & jovial human with mild elvan features.  Mardus spots lady Shalyn Marsten, the powerful merchant in town & speaks with her.  The biggest surprise though is when Aliciette shows up hanging on the arm of the Baron himself.  The Knot member is revealed to be an agent of the Aspis consortium speaking to some merchants in Farholde about setting up a long term deal with her agency.

Brother Summit & others speak with her about this recent revelation & she confirms Cardinal Thorn was fully aware of it.  And that her role has been part ally/part judge.  It seems the Consortium was sizing up Thorn as potential business ally.  Someone to get them into the otherwise locked markets of the Mitrian controlled island nation.

Wrapping up their evening at the Manor, the Knot is reluctant to retire for the evening.  They'd heard odd rumors about the lake around Farholde, add to that the odd almost magically enlarged sea life found around it.  They felt they had to investigate & what better time then at night.

The Knot members quickly convince a fisherman to take them on a midnight excursion out to Wrecker Island, in the middle of the harbor of Farholde.  Paying a few silver to ensure the silence of the dockside angler.

Arriving, the Knot beings to search over the island, not really sure what the'd expect to find.  But through luck or skill or divine (or rather profane) providence, Quell spots a suspicious looking rock pattern.  At first he thinks it's a secret door, but in actuality, it's an odd cave in of rubble hiding the tops of some old ruins.  Before digging further, Mardus goes of & converses with the fisherman waiting on the shore while Yvainne rolls in some obscuring mist to hide their excavation.

With Emmerick & Brother Summit to help, Quell finds a small stone passage with red rusted iron rings extending down into darkness.  The sound of banging or clanking can faintly be heard below.  The orc & elf quickly decent down, leaving their human allies above ground.  With Quell's limited vision, he doesn't see much in the filtered moonlight from above.  But Brother Summit's darkvision cuts through & he sees a passageway extending off into the distance before opening up into a room beyond.  The odd noises seem to be coming from there.

Brother Summit slips into the darkness, leaving Quell behind and stumbles upon an odd sight.  He sees a well appointed audience hall, with fur carpet and clean cut stone along with a group of what look to be a squad of soldiers decked out in odd looking livery being lead by a sergeant   The group appear stuck at a door, trying to break it down yet having no luck.

The Monk slips away unseen back to his waiting Rogue ally & reports his findings.  It's only when the elf asks if the group had a light that a sinking realization sets in with the Monk.  There was no light source.  How could a half dozen humans carry on in the dark like that.  Looking back down the hallway, hairs on the back of Quell's neck stand up.  They must be ghosts or other undead.

Unwilling to give up for the night & return later with Galen, the Knot pushes ahead.  The remaining members slip below in the fog, Mardus leaving the fisherman alone on the shore with only the moonlight, an odd fog & his thoughts to keep him company.

Some in the knot, hearing the description of the odd livery remember the house Vandermir that looked similar, with their origins being that of the old royal line of house Barca.  Emmerick transforms his appearance to display the heraldry of house Barca & the Knot walks into the dark chamber, his allies following behind him.

Members of the knot were greeted with different scenes.  For some in the knot, they saw the same as Brother Summit.  Others were unaffected by the illusion & saw the horror before them.  The room beyond was in tattered ruins.  There was no "door" at the end, but rather the rotten remains of a door & a shimmering energy field blocking passage.  And banging against that magical barrier were no men, but rather shambling undead.  Their leader, a frightening, armor clad warrior directing it's undead minions around the room.  With Yvainne blinded by the illusion, those who saw the undead leader failed to realize the threat before them.  The graveknight like creature turned & demanded to know who was interrupting his men.

Emmerick attempted to bluff the creature.  Acting like a commanding officer here to get a status report.  At first it worked, but the undead leader began questioning the presence of other non-uniformed people in Emmerick's presence.  But it was finally the combination of a slip of the tongue on Emmerick's part, along with the presence of Yvainne, a woman, that got the undead warrior to shout out "Men, it's a trick!  That forest witch is up to something.  The woman is likely one of her agents.  Get them!"  And combat was joined.

Initially the fight went in the Knot's favor.  A fireball or two by Mardus & most of the undead minions were destroyed.  However the leader possessed some sort of magical spell resistance that Mardus was unable to overcome, so it was left unscathed & able to ruthlessly assault the knot, screaming all the way about avenging the "deaths of my men!"

Hacking with an acid soaked blade, the undead "sergeant" caused great harm to the Knot. Nearly taking down Emmerick & Brother Summit.  Mardus was forced to frantically heal his allies.  Yvainne started heading for the exit, wishing to flee & seal up the stone portal behind them.  But unwilling to abandon her fellow Knot members she remained to magically aid her allies.  Quell & others saying they thought they would handle it.  At that point the undead knight stepped back and spewed forth acid over the Knot members.  Yvainne, near the exit was spared, but she continued to stay, magically supporting her allies.  An opportunity to flee was opened up, but still the Knot members remained in combat.  Then the graveknight turned on the death priestess who was but five to ten feet away.  Screaming that "all the druids would die!" he stepped forward and with two hacks of his massive greatsword brought down the priestess and "freed" her from her mortal coil, to be embraced by the unloving, cold touch of Zon Kuthon.

The remaining Knot members piled on the undead brute & through a combination of all four knot members, they managed to eventually destroy the undead knight.

Unsure of what to do & faced with another death of a member the knot stood in silence in the darkened room.

Session 17

Having vanquished Hallack's group, the Knot is quick to get Sister Marta into the Manacles of Cooperation they had acquired in their initial looting of the Horn.  They also stabilized the dying dwarf, Yorgen and collected the remains of the others, to be placed in "storage" for later use, and allowing Grumblejack to wield the magical hammer that use to be the weapon of Yorgen the Smith.

Immediately following the downfall of Hallack's Crew, the Knot moves on any possible opportunity this has opened up.

Galen, Quell & Brother Summit make a trip to Farholde and they break into the houses of the members of Hallack's Crew, though they find little of note.  While in town, Quell & Brother Summit check in with the 7th knot and have cordial but brief conversation with the aloof Trak.  He mentions a reward has been posted on information pertaining to the missing Sister Marta.

Back in the Horn, Yorgen & Sister Marta experience the craft of the talented Yvainne.  If Halthus the Flayer's heart wasn't in a bowl in the sanctum of Vetra-Kali powering the dark ritual, it would have beat faster knowing the old torture chamber was being put to good use.  As it was, the heart simply kept a low beat in time with the ritual magic which ebbed around the Horn.

For the next couple weeks the Knot carries on with a variety of actions.

Concern over the possible faltering of the faith of Sister Marta, the Knot devised a plan to keep her spirits up.  Mardus began his roll in the plot by pretending to be a minion in the Horn who was in charge of feeding the Sister.  For the first couple weeks he begins to show kindness towards the blind woman.  Unable to rely on the disguise ability of the Iron Crown, Mardus showed his true con-artist ways & easily fools the blind Nun.  Along the way, Yvainne helps out by being upset about Mardus helping the Nun and "acting" out abusing him for his help.  The whipping of Mardus was done with a great deal of ease on Death Priestess' part, as if it wasn't an act at all.

Meanwhile, Mardus and Emmerick also spend time working down the Dwarf's resistance, trying to convince the reluctant Smith that cooperation will yield better circumstances.  A combination of diplomacy (by Mardus) and intimidation (by Emmerick) provide some results & Yorgen acquiesces to the idea of helping the Knot with minor work in exchange for increased freedom.

Galen spends his time examining the damaged alchemical golem in an attempt to catalog all the various damage and set about a plan to repair it.  Along the way the Conjurer continues to craft a variety of magical items for the Knot.

The Knot gathers together to perform one of the Rituals of the Sons of the Pale Horseman they found.  They create three hell hounds, bound in service to Yvainne.  The Knot also makes a trip to their neighbor, the green dragon, Sanderax, leaving Grumblejack behind.  By offering tribute to the dragon, the silver tongue of Mardus manages to gain a powerful aerial look-out for the Horn's defenses.

Arriving back at the Horn from their outing with a dragon, they find a fight has broken out.  The Daemonic guardians of the Horn have returned & are butchering minions while Grumblejack attempts to fight back.  Quick thinking on Galen's part saves Grumblejack from the assault.  By using the name-plates containing the Daemon's true names that were recovered from the hidden treasury, he binds both to his control, adding two more powerful defenders to the Horn.

While questioning the two new Daemons in their guard post at the foot of the long stairs leading to the secret Sanctum above, Grumblejack idly asks what is above.  Emmerick is quick to dismiss the large giant, as he has been for the past few weeks.  Galen however speaks quietly to the ogre & explains what's going on.  In response Grumblejack is quick to ask to see what's above.  Emmerick responds with indifference, but Galen encourages the curiosity & wrapping up the rather pleasant conversation with the Daemons, offers to take Grumblejack to the sanctum high above.

The minute the ogre enters the Sanctum of Vetra-Kali, he complains of a powerful headache and an overwhelming thirst.  Quell and Emmerick both offer water-skins but they are of no avail, nor is a wine-skin   Thinking in an unorthodox way, Galen draws forth a vile of unholy water from the shrine and feeding the unholy nectar to Grumblejack, the ogre's form changes.  Grumblejack's horns, before only stubs hardly visible under his mop of hair now sprout and reveal the half-fiends true origins.  The most startling discovery, for both the ogre and the Knot, is when Grumblejack recovers to find himself magically floating above the ground.  Startled and then ecstatic about his new-found flight, a reenactment of Grumblejack's earlier adventures crossing the border into Talengarde play out.  Various knot members try to get Grumblejack to return to the ground.  And are met with limited success, but only after the ogre has flown all about the horn, including through the glowing green energy field that surrounds the upper reaches of the Horn. Grumblejack returns to his guard duties, but the sight of a flying half-fiend ogre about the Horn of Abaddon will likely be a common sight for the months to come.

During all the hustle and bustle of the knot, a couple activities go mostly unnoticed.

The first is that of Brother Summit.  Some in the Knot notice him taking an interest in their religious rituals.  Yvainne gladly teaches Brother Summit all about her Death God.  And Brother Summit gets an insight into Emmerick's religious experience.  Seeing what a well adjusted individual could only describe as the insane ramblings of a madman.  However the Monk simply watches & occasionally attempts to imitate it.

However that is not what goes without notice.  Rather, what no other Knot members notices is the constant battle of wills that is going on within Brother Summit as he meditates and willingly lets the power of Vetra-Kali into his mind.  Only to fight off the outside alien presence.  The constant battle of wills further heightening the Monk's power as he engages on a quest to become truly independent of divine interference.

The second mostly unnoticed activities are that of Quell.  The elven rogue slips away into the caverns below the Horn to speak with the Shaman of the Boggard clan that lives below.  Quell asks to take part in one of the Shaman's vision quests.  He seeks to remember his time when he was dead & his soul was in Hell.

Smelling the incense & licking an odd looking Toad the Shaman usually has kept in a cage near by, Quell embarks on his vision quest.  Eventually he recalls the fiery pit in hell where he was kept.  He remembers the pain & agony, his price for abandoning the light of Mitra for the fires of Hell.  But he remembers something else.  A dark shadow watching him but before he could see who, or rather what it was, he was woken to the image of the bulbous face of the Boggard shaman.  And behind him a rather dark scowl from Yvainne.  It seems what was but a moment in Quell's mind was hours and hours of real time.  And the Death Priestess went looking for him after he hadn't been seen for hours on end.

Quell was still not content.  His vision quest was so intoxicating & powerful.  What other memories could he free up & relive.  So after a few days, Quell again returned to see the Shaman below the Horn.  And again took part in the ritual.  This time he tried to remember a fonder experience.  The time when his mother was still alive.  This vision quest however was unsuccessful.  He could not get the image of the Toad out of his head.  It swirled in his mind, blocking any other thoughts.  He eventually is shaken awake by the concerned looking Boggard Shaman.  In his croaking voice the Shaman informs Quell he's been out of it for hours on end and that it's night time.

Quell head back up to the 2nd floor of the horn, along the way he can't seem to shake the visions of Toads swirling in his mind.  As he walks into the 2nd floor entrance, instead of seeing the recently slain remains of the zombie minotaur guard, he only sees more toads, swirling in his vision.  Still a part of his mind registers the oddity of no guard.  As he continues to walk along, he spots what he thinks is the zombie minotaur guard who is with two of Emmerick's guard minions, who appear to be snooping around some of the unused rooms.

He calls out and tells the minotaur his place is to guard the entrance, and the undead brute responds that he'll get right on that & starts walking past Quell.  The elf stands dumbfounded   The zombie creature spoke to him?  That doesn't make sense.  As the creature moves past him, Quell's mind snaps into focus, and he sees the fluttery white feathers brush past his face.  He turns and sees true the creature before him, it is no minotaur!  It is the flying winged serpent woman who led the winged elves & treant in an earlier assault on the Knot.  Quell shoots out as the two "guards" that were there transform before his eyes into hounds with oddly human faces.  And quickly battle is joined.

It takes a few rounds for the rest of the knot to be roused from their sleep, as Quell is forced to take on the foes alone.  The serpent woman hacks at Quell with her blade, the two hounds move forward, one disappearing from sight, the other making multiple images of his form.

As Quell gets surrounded, Galen dimension doors in with Grumblejack & Mardus in tow.  The large half-fiend Ogre blocks the escape.  The three assailants  blocked from escape, focus on Quell.  The serpent woman landing more blows on the rogue while the hounds loose unnerving calls, causing Quell & Mardus both to flee in fear from them, along with one of Yvainne's Hell Hounds.

A long grueling fight ensues, the healing powers of the serpent woman, along with minor healing powers from the hounds allow the three to fight for a long time.  And the absence of the outflanking experts of Quell & Mardus seriously hamper the Knots efforts.  Eventually Grumblejack and others take down the serpent woman.  And then work away at the dog creatures, despite the mirror images they have to contend with. The ever relentless blows from Brother Summit & Emmerick strip away images, as Galen & Yvainne's spells hit true.

The battle eventually ends with the good outsiders vanquished by the Knot of Hell.

Session 16

The next week becomes a flurry of activity.  The Knot returns from the Horn to the town of Farholde with a plan on establishing an evil organization, named the Basileal Shroud, to aid them in their endeavors.  It's emblem being triangular in nature, to represent it's three leaders, Emmerick, Galen & Yvainne.   On the trip back to civilization, they carry what loot they can manage and have Galen lay down arcane marks along the route, to allow future minions & messengers an easy way to and from the Horn.

While in town, Galen gets busy with selling various goods acquired from the Horn, as well as collaborating with Emmerick & Yvainne on establishing their group of evil-doers.  Yvainne focuses on the Orphanage to gain able bodied young lads & children to help the cause.  And Emmerick helps Yvainne, but also searches the slums of Farholde for any desperate cut-throats that could be molded into future soldiers of Hell.  Galen helps out & also begins purchasing some gear they Knot will need in the Horn.

Quell spends some time relaxing & exploring around.

Mardus & Brother Summit check in with the 7th Knot.  There they find a relieved Elise.  It seems a visitor arrived recently & wishes to see the 9th Knot.  Going upstairs they find Tiadora waiting.  It seems Elise finally got ahold of Thorne.  Tiadora is quick to ask if Quell was alive.  Followed up by a general status report.  Her terse attitude rubs Mardus the wrong way, but not being Emmerick, is wise enough to keep his mouth shut.  She doesn't seem bothered by the apparent length of the ritual but is glad to hear from Brother Summit that the Knot is ready to start the ritual soon.  And it seems part of her anger is at an apparent failed attempt to assassinate the King by another of Thorn's Knots.  A failure caused by the son of the late Balentyne Watch Captain, Samual Havelyn.

After her magical departure via teleportation they catch up with Elise on the activities of the 7th Knot.  Again, with Elise, they get a terse report of what the knot has been up to.  Which mostly consists of general recon & the like.  Though she does verify that the acting commander of the local Watch Tower is blood kin to the Victor.   Despite her, at times, unkind words of the 9th Knots progress she gives a full report of her Knots activity.  And this time Brother Summit & Mardus have no problem freely exchanging their opinions before leaving on relatively good terms.  Though clearly a strain between them and Elise has formed.

Also for part of the week Mardus spends time reconnoitering the Abby.  Just to get a feel for the security of the place.

At one point the Knot organizes a quick trip across the river & into the Forests of the Savage North.  Their goal is to pick up their old friend Grumblejack & bring him back to the Horn.  Wielding fireballs & other arcane death, it is with relative ease that the Knot finds their large friend.  En route they question an orc prisoner for information & verify the location of an Ogre encampment and that the Ogres are of a different breed, "southron" as the Orc put it.  What the orc meant was unclear, but the information leads the Knot directly to their friend.  And after a near scuffle with some Ogre guards, Grumblejack comes lumbering forward, calling out "no smash, them little 'uns my friends!"

Reunited with their friend they head south again.  Faced with sneaking the Ogre south into Talengarde lands, Galen casts magical flight on the Ogre.  And after they stop him from simply flying straight up into the air & swooping around for fun, they get him safely across the border.  Together all 6 of the Knot with their Ogre cohort head to the Horn with one objective in mind.

Start the ritual to free Vetra-Kali Eats-the-Eyes.

Arriving back at the Horn, Yvainne schedules one last meeting with Halthus the Flayer.  With Emmerick standing guard outside, Yvainne explains to the Torturer that she wishes to speak more with him and that the new torture equipment was installed and could use testing.  Halthus looks worried, but Yvainne insists all is well & offers herself up first as a test subject.  Halthus, knowing the Anti-paladin is waiting outside agrees & though enjoys himself at first, when his turn comes, his attitude sours quickly.  But seeing no choice he participates.  Yvainne asks a few lingering questions of the torturer and spends her time insuring the cultists legs are left in poor shape.  So that running will not be an option later.  All the time insisting the cultist is critical to their plan to restore Vetra-Kali.

Then the Knot goes upstairs with Halthus in tow, leaving Grumblejack & the Boggards below to stand guard.  Pouring unholy water over the seal of Mitra & intoning the first Dirge, the Knot begins the ritual.  Then Brother Summit grabs the crippled Halthus while the Death Priestess quickly cuts out the heart from the last living Sons of the Pale Horseman & places it in a bowl on the Shrine of Vetra-Kali.  An alien voice fills the minds of all assembled.  "Kazara Vo” -- “I hear".

Like some kind of unholy beacon, a blast of green light shot up into the heavens, shredding through a stray cloud & trying to reach up to the moon high overhead.  All around the horn green balefire glows.  The undergrowth of the forest is blasted off the sides of the Horn, revealing the daemonic temple in all it's dark glory.  The ground quakes and wraiths play about the glowing flames of the Horn.  Far off in Farholde people out at taverns & walking the dark streets look up as from the south they see an eerie green light shine down on rooftop & church steeple, followed by a low rumble that shakes windows and rattles signs.

There is no doubt in the town.  Evil stirs in the Caer Bryr.

The Knot members stand shocked.  Any hope of secrecy has been blasted away by balefire.  After a while the magic subsides and is reduced to only an eerie green sheath of energy that encompasses the top of the Horn.  But still, their position has been exposed, the damage has been done.

Over the next week the Knot rushes to improve defenses.  Hauling around stone & then using magic to shape it into walls & other defensive structures.  They let the Boggards recruit more into their ranks as they begin focusing their other minions on learning the ritual & preparing for attacks on the Horn.  Along the way they learn many of the dark rituals of summoning extra-planer evil creatures that the Sons had learned & detailed in Murals.

The following week the Knot begin instructing the Boggards on how to do the ritual as well, so that all in the Horn know how to perform the ritual.  Aside from Grumblejack, who Emmerick doesn't bother showing the Sanctum to, or the ritual done within it's walls.  Instead he has the Ogre help him with training of the new recruits.

Half way through the week they get their first message from Elise.  It states a group of local adventurers is coming & it details them all.  Quell immediately recognizes the names of Hallock Amon, Yorgun the Smith & Bianca DeVallya.  And all in the Knot remembers the name of James O'Toole, the boxer who nearly downed Brother Summit in the pit fighting in Drownington Manor.  Also a Sister Marta Dian was with the group.  The knot resolved to stop the group, waiting for them to arrive & then ambush them.  With their goal to take Sister Marta alive as a captive and future sacrifice.

The Knot members waited, huddled at the lowest "Eye" of the Horn.  Quell hiding in the shadows looking out over the Caer Bryr from the opening.  Deep below, in the caverns waits Grumblejack, guarding the end of a slim covered bridge, flanked by a trio of Boggard warriors.  Quell, spotting the unlucky band of adventurers from his perch high above the forest signals to his companions and waits.  Just like Elise's note stated, the adventurers head straight for the cave entrance.  Once the last of the doomed adventurers disappears below, the Knot rushes forward.  Joining hands, Galen casts Feather Fall & they all leap out into open air.  The Conjurur's magic provides a swift & safe landing on the forest floor below.  The para-trooping Knot regroups at the cave entrance.  Knowing they have the stop-gap of Grumblejack & the boggards, the Knot takes the time to have Quell slowly scout ahead & ensure the adventurers move past the open cave entrance & are well inside the smaller caves before attacking.

Having ensured the trap will be closed when they attack, the Knot then springs into action & falls on the helpless mouse of an adventuring party.  Hallack's Crew barely has time to react.  O'Tool calls out from the rear of the party that they're under attack.  Hallack tries to rush up & form a wall with O'Tool and Yorgen attempts to flank.  But before their plan is fully realized Galen temporarily blinds most of the party with Glitterdust.  And then, Emmerick, wielding his anti-paladin magics, slams into Hallack, backed up by his arcane companions & Hallack falls under a flurry of blows.  O'Tool likewise gets out-flanked by Brother Summit & Mardus, who work as a team to end the Monk once & for all.  Sister Marta dispels some of the blinding effects but not in time to save Bianca, who goes down under Quell's sneak attack.  A wounded Yorgen, having his sight restored only to see his friend dead at his feet goes into a rage & continues to hammer into Emmerick, giving the Paladin of Hell pause.  But Quell pulls out a sap & quickly downs the mad dwarf.

During the fight Yvainne had quickly walked in amongst the dead & dying, their life's blood pooling at her feet.  All the while feeling the power of her god around her as she unleashes her negative energy blood mists.  Finally arriving at the scared & alone Sister Marta, she casts Blindness on the Mitrian priestess.

As the follower of the sun's vision fades to permanent darkness, the Death Priestess rests a hand on her shoulder.  "Hush.  Accept the mercy & blessing of Zon-Kuthon."

Session 15

The death of Quell hangs on the Knot.  Faced with two unpleasant prospects, the Knot chooses flight & rest over further exploration without their elven rogue.

Fleeing down into the caverns below, they have to explain to the Boggards the death of their "chieftain".  Emmerick is quick to claim the kill on the Daemon who killed Quell & with it the claim on the Boggards.  The Boggard shaman explains it all to the other boggards, before leaving, complaining as he leaves that he thought the Knot was strong enough to restore the Horn to it's glory.  Halthus is also surprised & worried, to which Mardus and others are quick to point out is the reason they've asked Halthus to stay hidden with the Boggards until the Horn is fully cleared out.  After that, they hear no more complaints from Halthus about staying with the Boggards.

The Knots next order of business is to restore their fallen comrade.  Galen returns to town first, utilizing magical flight & finds out the only quick way to gain the powerful restoration magic they need is to go to the Abbey of Saint Cynthia-Celeste.  Returning to the Horn, Galen relays that information to the rest of the Knot.  Emmerick then pushes to return to town and insists he be the one to talk to the Nuns.  With some discussion, he agrees to have Mardus go as well.  The knot then makes all haste for Farholde, with Brother Summit shouldering the burden of the fallen Quell, without complaint.

Upon arrival to Farholde, the Knot seeks out the 7th Knot already in town.  Meeting with Elise, they ask her for any information on the Abby.  Eager to help & somewhat surprised at the fate of Quell, Elise hands over information about the Abby & it's leader Abbess Temperance Avigail.  Emmerick & Mardus revive their roles as Priest of Mitra & Knight of the Alerion Order and go to the Abby.  They are granted a late night audience with Abbess Avigail and spin a tale of how they were exploring in the savage north when they were attacked by Gnoll's and their elven ally was laid low by a Demonic creature helping the savages.

Emmerick's honeyed words of grief and anguish, mixed with a hint of truth, sway the Abbess to cast a spell to bring back their fallen comrade, provided an appropriate donation be made to the Abby.  And so the following day, within the holy shrine and burial tomb of a Saint of Mitra, a Priestess of the Sun god unwittingly brings back from the depths of hell, a follower of Asmodeus.  And unknowing, adds a plan to bring ruin on all of Talengarde.

With the Knot made whole again, the six members head back to the Horn the following morning to resume their searching.  Quick to pick back up where they left off, they return to the spot where Quell fell.  Walking past the corpses of the Daemons they brought to ruin, they begin the ascent up the stairs.

At the end of a 100 ft climb, they finally find the end of their searching.  For at the stairs terminus, with a balcony overlooking the Caer Bryr below, is the secret Sanctum of Vetra-Kali Eats-the-Eyes.  And around the alter & most unholy statue of the bizarre alien outsider, are chains of silver terminating in a seal bearing the Mitrian Sunburst.  The Seal the Victor placed on this dark, hallowed place.

But the ritual chamber is not empty.  Floating high above the alter is a glowing ball of electricity.  This elemental made of pure lightning is quick to attack the intruders, starting with the newly raised Quell.

The fight with the elemental is hard, but ends much more in the favor of the Knot of Hell than their last fight in the Horn.  Despite some initial damage, the powerful healing of the Death Priestess, and energy resistance from the Fire Oracle reduces the impact the lightning elemental had on the Knot.  Further still, a critical blinding attack by the Conjurer caused the fight to go much smoother.  And in the end the Anti-paladin's armor was charged with electricity & the Monk's hair was standing on end but otherwise all members survived the encounter.

Having found the holy artifact of Mitra & hidden sanctum of Vetra-Kali, but still lacking the third eye, the Knot resolves to find a way into the the unexplored sections of the third floor.  Now without having to worry about one or two Greater Ceustodaemons attacking them mid-rope climb, they decide to approach via the trap shaft they found terminating on the second floor.

Brother Summit attempts to scramble up the smooth surface, rope in hand, but fails to find any traction.  Meanwhile, Mardus nonchalantly casts levitate on himself & floats past the struggling monk, showing off his power.  However, the Oracle of Hell is foiled at the top when he finds a closed trap & afraid to break it open, has to return for his Elven friend.  Quell, being given magical flight as well, quickly floats up & with a flick of his wrist, pops open the trap door.  With magical flight & old fashioned rope climbing, the remaining Knot members gain access to the third floor of the Horn of Abaddon.

A quick look over most of the third floor turned up little of use.  Mostly empty rooms cleared of any original furniture or art work, with eerie green continual flame lights illuminating the desolate level.  But there are two notable exceptions.  One was an odd prayer or meditation room, with the nonsense word "nen" scrawled across it.  The other, the temple on the third floor of the Horn, which is the Fane of Vetra-Kali Eats-the-Eyes on the prime material plane.

The Fane looked mostly intact.  The zeal the Victor's knights took in destroying the lower levels doesn't appear visible here.  Quell, leading the Knot, skirts the alter to Vetra-Kali & heads for the only side door to the room and finds it locked.  While he begins to fiddle with the lock, Mardus notices the door radiates a magical aura and backs up the Elf in his attempts to open the door.  While Quell continues to fiddle with the lock, Mardus, attempting to active the magic on the door notices writing on the shrine that says "Hail Vetra-Kali".  Right as Quell pops the lock & opens the door, Mardus calls out "Hail Vetra-Kali".  At first, the door starts to open on a rather plain, empty store room, full of old barrels & cobwebs.  But as Mardus's voice rings out, a buzz of magic can be felt & the room transforms into treasure vault.  Piles of gold & silver coins & objects of art lay about.  In the middle of the room, held up by a clawed podium is a massive glowing emerald gem, the missing eye of Vetra-Kali.  But before the Knot can move in to take their price, the dark, semi-transparent guardians of the treasure vault rise from the floor.

Three wraiths, lead by a dread wraith stand in the way.  The dread wraith calls out "Kill all who stand in the way of Vetra-Kali!"  And with that the wraiths move into combat.  As the lesser wraiths fly into the midsts of the Knot, a horrible realization falls on the various Knot members.  Quell notices one of the wraiths dressed as an adventurer, Brother Summit notices another clearly wearing the holy symbol of Asmodeus.  Three wraiths.  Three missing members of the 4th knot.  The fate of the 4th knot became clear...

Still, wanting for a different outcome, the members of the 9th Knot call out to the Dread Wraith and ask for a truce and try to explain their desire to free Vetra-Kali & release his Tears on all of Talengarde.  Their words cause the Dread Wraith to pause.

With open hostility stopped, the Knot converses with the Wraith, apparently a "priest" of the Sons of the Pale Horseman.  And they explain their plan and ask for a truce of some kind.  Surprisingly the Dread Wraith relents on it's desire to feed on the life energy of the living & agrees to add the Knot in their quest.  It's desire to free it's master overcoming it's hatred of the living.

It even lets the Knot have the Eye of Vetra-Kali, though reluctantly.  As well as the rest of the treasure in the vault.  And vows to help guard the Horn as the Knot begins the ritual to restore it's banished master.  And after answering a few brief questions, leaves, claiming it wishes to no longer be tempted to feed on their mortal souls.

The entire encounter ends up having gone much better than any in the Knot expected or could have hoped for.  Yet, Yvainne & Quell exchange a glance after the wraith leaves.  Something was off.  Still, the Knot gains the last Eye they needed, as well as a true pile of treasure and gold.

Having finished clearing out the Horn and gaining possession of all three Eyes of Vetra-Kali, the knot now faces the question, what next?

Session 14

The Elves called out to the Knot & asked them their business.  The Knot, all disguised as Elves of the Caer Bryr, attempted a ruse.  Quell, a native speaker of elvin did most of the talking, claiming they were simply fleeing from the human lands.  The elves didn't seem to be buying their story, but seemed unsure how to respond.  At one point it seemed they could leave, but only if they left the area around the Horn.  Knowing they would likely be followed to insure they left the region, Quell pushed harder.  Asking if they could stay.  And eventually Brother Summit, who was not fluent in Elven was asked a question, at which point the lie was fully exposed and the elves, with wings like Butterfly's  attacked, along with a winged half-woman half-serpent hiding in the canopy & what appeared to be a living tree or Treant.

With some well placed fireballs from Mardus along with Galen using the last charge off the stolen wand of Fireballs from the dead Magistrate of Balentyne Tower, most of the winged Elves fell.  The serpent attempted to rally her troops but it was a lost cause.  Fire proved too damaging to the tree folk.

The Treant trampled over the knot members, inflicting heavy damage.  At first the members attempted to flee from under root, but seeing that as a futile attempt, changed tactics & tried to inflict as much damage as possible to the tree.  The winged serpent-woman flew down to heal her ally and got him partly restored.  But then Galen summoned a number of fire elementals who eventually set the tree ablaze.

Seeing his doom at hand, the treant told the winged serpent-woman to flee.  Galen attempted to stop her flight with air elementals, but she simply flew past them, taking minor damage before casting invisibility on herself & disappearing, heading toward the dense canopy-top of the jungle forest.  Meanwhile, the burning treant & last remaining winged elf put up a valiant fight against the knot, but were swiftly destroyed under fire, blade & arrow.

Dusting themselves off & healing from all the damage, they arrived at the friendly & safe confines of their Boggard camp in the caverns deep below the Horn.

After resting with their Boggard kin, they climbed the exterior of the Horn & waited for an hour for the arrival of the green dragon.  After a brief & arguably friendly conversation with their green scaled neighbor which involved the Knot paying the remaining coin owed the dragon, the Knot resumed it's ascent of the Horn.

The knot resumed it's room by room search of the second floor.  This time with all members present & armed with Silver weapons in addition to their other gear.  Ready for another surprise attack by the Daemon that was lose in the Horn.  What they found at first was no Daemon but something much different.  They found the remains of a camp, likely of the fourth knot.  Bed mats lay out, provisions long since rotten were still laying out.  Clearly the other Knot came to an unpleasant end...  yet they found no bodies.

Continuing on, the Knot stumbled onto an unexpected foe.  While searching some rooms that apparently belonged to a high priest of the Sons of the Pale Horseman, they found the bed chamber of the high priest so badly damaged that a hole in the wall was present, exposing the room to the greenery of the Caer Bryr, which even at this elevation was quite thick and had spilled into the interior of the room.  Including two very unhappy plant-like oozes, who quickly went after the new apparent meal.  And a quick battle ensued.

The oozes, dripping acid, began the damage the knot members who engaged.  And Energy Resistance spells were needed to protect gear, including the valuable silver weapons.  At one point during the fight, Mardus unleashed a fireball to clear out some of the undergrowth around the room.  The scene from the forest floor must have been quite odd, when bursting out from the side of the Spire was a gout of flame.

There was also an incident of friendly fire (or two).  At one point Yvainne was unable to exclude Galen from her blood mist negative energy burst.  Unwilling to let that slight go, the Conjurer in service to Hell made sure that in addition to hitting both oozes with a magic missile, his extra missile "missed" and hit Yvainne.  A friendly reminder to the Death Priestess, and one that the sadomasochist Priestess seemed to... like.  Along the way, the undead boggard warrior was able to prove it's worth, causing some good damage to the Oozes.

In the end, after the Energy Resistance got up, the oozes became less of a threat & the Knot was able to take them down without suffering too much damage.

Among the various other ruined rooms they found, they did find one interesting piece of information, and one interesting piece of rubble.  The information they found was that apparently there were not one but two Greater Ceustodaemons summoned by the Sons.  And yet so far, they have only encountered one.  And that wasn't even on this trip.  Where could they both be?

The interesting piece of rubble was a statue.  But not any statue, this was a badly damaged & "decapitated" statue that appeared to be of fine detail & who's belt pouch radiated strong magic.  Acting on a hunch, Galen  & others wondered if perhaps the statue wasn't originally a statue after all.  But instead a creature who was frozen by magic.  After finding the incredibly detailed head of the statue mixed in with other rubble & reconstructing it into it's full form, the group used a Stone Salve.  And their guess rang true, as standing before them was a former cultists & member of the Sons of the Pale Horseman.  Stuck as stone for near to one hundred years, he seemed quite confused.

After a relatively brief explanation & introduction, the former Son, Halthus the Flayer, offered to help the Knot in restoring his god, Vetra-Kali, to glory.  Yvainne & Mardus are both quick to point out how Halthus could be "vital" to their plans.  Leaving out the part where they need to ripe the still beating heart out of a member of the Sons or a descendant to start the ritual to free Vetra-Kali.  And how Halthus would fit that role quite nice.

Continuing on exploring the second floor of the Horn, the group stumbles upon relatively fresh blood splatter, maybe 1-2 months old, that lead along a hallway full of Murals.  Galen wants to stop and read them, but given their scale & expanded detail, they are by-passed by the Conjurer.  Eventually the trail ends with the decomposing corpse of an Elf who has been dead for over a month.  Armed with powerful magical items, the Knot infers this was likely either the leader or a senior member of the 4th Knot.  Further, they verify, despite the extreme decomposition, that death was disembowelment.  The same threat leveled at Brother Summit by the Greater Ceustodaemon.  Some members of the Knot eye check their silver weapons to make sure they're close at hand.

Still, having seen no sign of the Greater Ceustodaemon and no way further up the Horn, the Knot seemed stuck.  They did spot an opening a full 90 feet above the 2nd floor entrance.  But with no visible latter or stairs leading to it, they'd be forced to climb the angled ascent.  And with now possibly two Greater Ceustodaemon's around, they felt that was unsafe, except for perhaps Brother Summit.  They also found on the second floor the the bottom chute of what was likely a trap on the level above.  But consisting of smooth stone walls & having no idea where the trap would open up, it felt no better than the exterior ascent option, possibly even worse.

They spoke with Halthus about the Horn & he stated there was some place in the lower caverns that the high priests would go to in order to get to the inner sanctum of the Horn.  He thought that was above the 3rd floor somewhere, but he was unsure of the details.

Liking the relatively safe confines of the Boggard caverns over an angled 90 ft ascent along the exterior of the Horn, 200-300 ft above the forest floor or a climb up a smooth walled shaft coming out a trap door at an unknown location, they opted for that choice.  After spending a day doing an exhaustive re-search of the lower caverns, Quell eventually found a cleverly hidden secret door that got overlooked the first time through the cave system.  Behind it, raising up to unknown heights was a flight of plain stone steps.

The group rested for the night & began climbing up the stairs in the morning.  It took them a long time, as they went up well over 200 ft, straight through the Horn.  But eventually they arrived at a landing that contained the long dead remains of two knights of the Sons of the Pale Horsemen.  Laying where they fell at their posts, still in the now rusted armor engraved with the runes & unholy symbol of the Pale Horseman.  With only one door leaving the landing area, the Knot opens it, ready for what lays beyond.  Or at least that is their hope, but that hope quickly gets crushed.

Beyond, guarding a stairwell leading up, are not one, but two Greater Ceustodaemons.  One speaks up & says to the other, "Ah brother, those friends I mentioned from earlier have finally arrived.  It is time to kill them I'm afraid."  The other responds, "Agreed".

The battle that ensues is quick and brutal.  The two Greater Ceustodaemons, knowing the Knot was coming, opens up by joint breathing lightning all over the Knot members.  As the melee members rush one of the Daemons, the other follows up the next round with another lightning breath, bringing down Galen and utterly destroying Yvainne's Zombie pet.  Fortunately, quick healing brought the Conjurer back into the fight.  But the undead frog-man was toast.

While ranged magic shot back & forth between the Cuestodaemon who was not engaged in melee & the spell casters of the group, a rough melee was going on with the other Cuestodaemon.  Emmerick, Brother Summit & Quell, backed up by Mardus, brought the fight to the Daemon guardian of the Horn.

Armed with Silver weapons, they started off dealing powerful damage.  In particular, Quell savaged the daemon with a powerful sneak attack.  However, drawing the ire of creature ultimately proved fatal.  The Greater Ceustodaemon responded to the Elf's attack.  He hit once with one claw, then landed a critical blow with the other claw, nearly ripping the Elf apart.  Then, with Quell barely standing, he bit into his side & shook him.  When he was done, the elf lay dead on the floor.  The first casualty of the Ninth Knot's war against Talengarde.

Seeing their ally fall, the other Knot members around renewed their melee attacks on the brute.  Brother Summit landed blow after blow in quick succession.  Even Mardus engaged at one point, nearly landing a critical blow with his large elven curved blade.  In the end, the Daemon fell under a torrent of blows, so close together, it became hard to say who landed the killing strike, as fist, mace & blade all landed.

With one down, the 5 remaining knot members all converged on the last remaining Daemon.  The servant of Vetra-Kali never attempted to flee.  Even with his "brother" fallen & with it clear he was going to die.  He fought to the death, attempting to inflict as much damage as possible on the remaining Knot members as possible.  In the end, the servants of Hell triumphed over those of the Pale Horseman.  With a valley of magic missiles from Galen finishing the last brute off.

However, the victory came at a great cost.  The Knot members looked down on their fallen member and up at the stairway that extended into the heart of the Horn of Abaddon, unsure how to proceed...

Session 13

Quell's ability eventually kicked in & he cracked open the safe, to find a pile of coins and magical manacles of co-operation.  Not the huge treasure rumored to be in the area, but useful none the less.  The knot continued to explore the remainder of the first floor of the Horn of Abaddon.  They found little else of note.  Mostly just more destroyed and abandoned rooms, including a ransacked old tavern on the first floor.  The only thing that intrigued them was an odd Throne in a large temple.  It radiated a conjuration aura, which greatly interested Galen, the Conjurer.  However, they could not figure out how to use it, even Mardus tried to "fake it" but had no luck.  They only useful markings where the words "Yah" in Abyssal.

Having finished exploring the first floor, the Knot went back outside & began ascending the much longer & more precarious stairway up to the second floor.  When they got a little over half way, off to the north a large flock of multi-colored birds took flight, accompanied by the sound of some creature roaring.  The Knot stopped & those of keen eye peered off in the distance, trying to see what was causing it.  They did notice the area of commotion was centered around that clearing where those unicorns were located.  Even more intrigued at the possibility of the "green lizard" being out there, they tried harder but still failed to see anything.  That is, until the large green dragon took flight above the tree canopy, weighed down by the severed unicorn head in it's claws.

Mardus & Yvainne dove for cover, using the various roots & brambles that covered the walk way to shield them from site.  Quell, an expert in both hiding and fleeing, opted to combine his areas of expertise and being closer to the unknown gaping maw of the second eye of the Horn, he stealth-ed up that way.  Brother Summit & Emmerick simply stood unmoved, eyeing the beast as it rose up.  Wither the dragon would have ever noticed them or not is unclear, it's possible Brother Summit & Emmerick's indifference might have been just fine.  But it didn't matter, for Galen took a much more "pro-active" approach.  He cast fly on himself and charged straight at the dragon, along the way calling out a greeting in Draconic.

At first the dragon responded as most dragons would, he breathed a cone of acid all over Galen.  The wizard some how took the blow & continued to try to converse.  In the end, the combination of bravery verging on the insane, fluent honeyed words in draconic, speaking with a slightly wounded dragon that could keep up while encumbered with a large unicorn head and quite frankly a healthy dose of dumb luck saved Galen and allowed him to have a conversation with the dragon that did not end in him being eaten.

The dragon, named Sanderax, lived in a near by spire.  The Knot, attempting to be friendly offered to heal the wounds the dragon sustained in it's fight with the Unicorns.  Also, noting the unicorn horn being quite valuable, offered to make healing items from it for the dragon.  Sanderax said they had one day, then he'd be back for the healing items the group would make.  Then he took flight & left them with the severed unicorn head.  Warning that if they attempted to leave the Horn, he would see & hunt them down.

Faced with a tight deadline, the Knot had a hard choice to make.  In the end, they opted to split the group.  Mardus & Yvainne went back down to the Boggard village in the caverns below.  Yvainne to being grinding up the unicorn horn into powder to craft healing potions with it.  And Mardus to provide the healing spellls to be used.  Galen went down briefly as well, claiming to cast spells to aid Yvainne in her crafting attempts, though, Yvainne & Mardus did note when they got down there, he also changed himself.  As it seemed the dragon got the best of the mighty wizards bladder.

The remaining members, Emmerick, Brother Summit, Quell & the returned Galen continued up to the second floor of the Horn, without any powerful divine casting.  The Knot seemingly unconcerned with the prospect of another Knot having gone missing in the daemonic ruins they now crawl through continued on their way.  The group took no time at all to get across a disabled pit trap in the entry way before Quell quickly noted a secret door.  The group choice to abandon the obvious choice of continuing down the hallway head & used the secret door instead.  Though, they left Emmerick behind to guard the hallway, in case something came from that direction.

They eventually stumbled into small temple, much smaller than the one of the ground floor, yet covered with much finer carvings & inscriptions.  And at back center of the temple, nearly identical to the one on the first floor was a throne.  This time, the throne bore the abyssal script "Rah".

Galen, even more intrigued, had an idea.  He sat on the throne & called out "Rah" and when that failed, he tried "Yah" only to disappear & reappear on the 1st floor throne room.  He then tried "Rah" & got back to the 2nd floor.  Unsure if it was his ability as a wizard or something anyone could do, he had Brother Summit try.  And it worked, Brother Summit appeared back on the first floor throne.  However, when he arrived, a Greater Ceustodaemon was there waiting for him.  The daemon kindly explained he needed to disembowel the monk.  Brother Summit, not waiting to see the Daemon carry through on it's statement immediately teleported back to the throne room on the second floor to alert his companions.

A split second later, the Ceustodaemon teleported in among-st the knot, again stating it's insistence on disembowelment.  The Knot jumped into action, Emmerick came running from the near by hallway & Brother Summit launched a ferociousness assault, one that would have downed, or seriously injured any mortal. And would have easy ended his pit fight with that O'Toole monk in Farholde.  Mardus & Quell were impressed by it.  Yet the blows seemed to have little effect on the Daemon, who clearly had magical protection against such mundane weapons.  A fact further realized when a combination of sneak attacks by Quell produced likewise, little results.  The Ceustodaemon returned attacks in kind, though, his blows savaged Brother Summit quite easily.  Galen, realizing the full might of this Daemon, blinded the creature.  The Daemon quickly teleported away after being blinded.  Galen then quickly informed the Knot the time to flee was at hand.  Quell already eyeing the doorway was the first out.  Not wishing to waste time walking down the long stairs, Galen cast Feather Fall on the group & they all jumped off the side of the Horn & fell the two hundred plus feet to the forest floor in a matter of seconds.  Then they fled into the Boggard village to rest.  The Ceustodaemon apparently not following after them.

The Knot remained hidden in the Boggard village for the night.  They decided the next day they should return to Farholde & get silver weapons to aid them against the Daemon of the Horn. And so the next day as promised delivered the Green Dragon his potion, or at least the one they could make, along with a "tribute" to their neighbor of other miscellaneous healing items.  Sanderax took the items & told them the remaining powder should be used to make healing items & then sold for coin in Farholde, as he was much more interested in coins.  The knot grudgingly agreed, having hoped the dragon would fail to notice the difference in magical value.  They they left to Farholde.

Able to rely on speed over direction, the Knot had a quick and uneventful journey back to Farholde.  While there they checked up with the seventh Knot.  They asked Elise to deliver a message to Thorn explaining the ritual would take 222 days.  A fact Elise found odd as she claimed to not have a direct communication ability with the Cardinal, but offered to do it anyway, using "back channels".  Also while in town, Galen sold off their miscellaneous gear & bought the group a set of silvered weapons.  Brother Summit tried to get a pit fight set up, but it seemed after the floored O'Toole, there weren't any takers.  The "Lord" of Drownington Manor did offer to set up a fight with some wild animals, but said it would take a few days to set up.  Time Brother Summit didn't have.

So the Knot then began their return trip to the Horn, having only spent a couple nights in Farholde.  The trip went quite quick.  Galen's knowledge of geography, coupled with their experience already travelling, and leaving in the pre-dawn hour allowed them to reach the area around the Horn as the last rays of the evening light was fading.  As they approached the Horn, ready for a long rest in the oddly friendly Boggard village, Quell & Brother Summit noticed something odd.  A tree was planted near the entrance to the caverns.  A tree neither recalled being there before.  Also, they spotted winged elves, hiding in tree branches near the cavern entrance.  And Quell noticed something else... some kind of simmering winged creature.

It seems a welcome party was waiting for the Knot to return "home".