Session 31

The Ninth Knot secured the prison exterior.  After a spirited questioning of the head guard, Yvainne quickly feasted on him.  Eager and hungry, after being deprived her dinner during combat.

The Knot then went through the prison and found row after row of chained, malnourished prisoners.  Never one to turn down an opportunity, the leaders of the Shroud quickly recruit, selecting the choice prisoners.  The remaining prisoners were set free to meet whatever fate was in store for them.

Another oddity was found.  An assassin, branded with a runic F.  Forsaken.  Questioning the stoic prisoner revealed he was one the foreign assassins who failed to kill the King before his unexpected march from the capital.  The Knot offered him his freedom and another chance at taking out the King.  An opportunity the Red Mantis could hardly turn down.

With the prison secure, the Ninth turned their attention to some of Wasyli's unfinished business.  His Aunt.

The Baroness of Veryn and what was left of her ragged house guards were quite surprised to see Wasyli standing before her besieged manor house.  But warm hospitality was offered none the less.  The rest of the Ninth Knot played gracious guests, eyeing Wasyli, to see how he handled the encounter.  His claim that she betrayed him seemed unlikely given her warm welcome, unless she was an incredibly cleaver liar.

During a break, the Knot asked to converse in private.  Wasyli opted to use her Aunt instead of destroying her.  A decision heartily endorsed by the rest of the Knot.

So the Ninth Knot openly conspired with the Baroness.  Rallying a Shroud/Bugbear escort to get her and her handful of guards to safety outside the city so she could flee to the capital as a refugee.  And the Knot would do the "hard" task of sacking her house.  Making sure to take any monogrammed or marked treasure of the Baroness & distribute it well amongst the Bugbear horde.  To further bolster her claim of innocent victim of the savage northern monsters.  And if the Knot found themselves in the capital, well... they'd be sure to look her up.

Having swelled the shroud's numbers, acquired a key ally and investigated the obvious points of interest, the Ninth return to the joy of simple pillaging.

Returning to the docks the Ninth were going hunting for more treasures, when suddenly two angels teleport in amongst them.  A Trumpet archon and a Monavic Diva.  The angels squandering their surprise to have the Archon declare the Ninth to be punished for the death of Ara Mathra.

That lost surprise was something the Ninth was going to make them regret.  The fight was brief and brutal.  Emmerick shared his ability to smite good.  And the Ninth all got in good blows.  Some were blinded by Holy Word.  And a Blasphemy was returned in kind, though the Angel & Archon's natural spell resistance protected them.  Summit fumbled trying to grapple & resorted to flurrying.  And Quell unleash devastating sneak/smite attacks.  Along with Emmerick carving the angels with Hellbrand.  The Angel fell under the onslaught.  And Wasyli, channeling his infernal pact, managed to Feeblemind the Archon.

The Archon did pick up the Angel's maul & tried to destroy Yvainne with the powerful anti-undead weapon.  But the vampire resisted the blow & watched as the Archon was slashed to ribbons in front of her by her allies.

The Ninth stood triumphant again in the face of the forces of Heaven.

Liking their wounds, and Yvainne shaking off her near "death" experience, the Ninth resumed trudging through the city streets looking for any hidden wealth.  They failed to find the bounty they had earlier in the docks.  But they did find plenty of loose trinkets and abandoned trade goods worth some coin.  And as they expanded their search Emmerick stumbled across an oddity.  In the heart of the ruined city, bugbear marauders all around.  The Anti-Paladin spotted a cow, just wandering a city garden, munching on the grass.  How the bovine managed to make it into this location was beyond the Knot's understanding.  But still, there it was.  Fireaxe would get a special meal tonight.

The Knot managed to find many other odds and ends amongst the ruined, burning and abandoned husk of a city.  Though non matched the oddity of the cow.  Or the wealth of the magic items from the Docks.  And so the Knot grew restless.

Then the started hearing rumors from the Horde about attacks on lone bugbears and that survivors were hiding beneath the streets like rats.  Asking more questions, the Knot begins to isolate the district with the most attacks & beings searching the sewers.

Wandering through the bowls of the city, the Knot find a curious site.  A few city watch guards manning a fire at an intersection.  Wasyli cloaks himself in magical invisibility & the shadows and advances.  He finds more guards near by.  They're all guarding an unassuming sewer block.  Reconvening, the Knot decides there must be something hidden in the area.  They rally and unleash a surprise attack on the small resistance forces.

In a matter of seconds the guards were destroyed by the fire and steel of hell.  Yvainne wasted no time and started to use divine magic to melt into the stone walls.  Her blind hope turned quite lucky when she opened up a hole into a barracks of some sort.  Wasting no time,  the Knot rained the area with fire.  The stunned Captain of the Guard stood there, the cigar he was champing, burnt to a crisp, fell from his mouth.

In a few seconds the sleeping & resting guards were burnt to death as the Knot rushed in.  The captain, and his priestly friend tried to rally.  But their power, perhaps enough to fend of the stray bugbear patrol was nothing in the face of the Ninth Knot of Hell.

Over two weeks had passed, nothing in the city stood up against Cardinal Thorn's Ninth Knot, not even agents of Heaven.  When would the Cardinal of Hell give the Knot something worthy of their time.

Session 30

The Knot received orders relayed to them via Fire-Axe that they were to stay in Daveryn and help Fire-Axe control the city.  And under no circumstances were they to interfere with the Sons of Balentyne.  Odd orders.

So, the Knot continued "visiting" Daveryn and over the next week.  And they had quite a time of it.

The first order of business was to hunt down the Duke.  Repeated uses of divine magic eventually proved successful.  In short order the Knot had the Duke cornered in his hiding hole in an abandoned merchant building.  Even quaffing an invisibility potion was of no avail to the Duke.

The Ninth spent some time questioning the Duke themselves before turning him over to a gleeful Fire-Axe.

The intel the Duke gave was quite useful.  Troop sizes of the King's army, Their commander, the King, and the second in command some Barcan general. And that the King wears an amulet that lets him return to his private sanctum in the Capital, where his daughter is.  Also, the Duke was trying to reach a wizard of some repute who offered to whisk him to safety if ever the city fell.

The rewards from Fire-Axe were large indeed.  He made Emmerick a general of the horde, granting him 5,000 gp of the Horde's earnings.  Also each Knot member was granted a slave from those captured in the fall.  The Ninth was quick to free any woman so gifted, do deference to their undead priestess.  Also they saw the Duke cooked on a spite and eaten by Fire-Axe and his lieutenants.  Some of the Knot recoiled in disgust.  As they witness the full savagery of these northern brutes.  Monsters they helped enter Talingarde.  Helped under the order of the Cardinal.

The Ninth decide to turn their attention to the wizard.  The Ninth coated themselves in magical protection, and used stealth to reach the top of the wizards tower and used magic to rip a gaping hole into the tower's roof and expose a very startled wizard.

Yvainne, unable to enter uninvited, opted to call out a mighty blasphemy.  The wizard was stunned.  Yvainne, having been blinded by Holy Word after Holy Word in the fight in the Vale was pleased.

In sort order the stunned Wizard was tackled by Summit & subdued.  He did struggle to get a couple spells off, but was unable to under the warm embrace of the Monk.

Questioning the wizard yielded little new information.

Though, searching his quarters did yield a couple rare finds.  One was a codex that seemed to match a book they found in the library of the tombs of the temple of Mitra-Made-Manifest.  The other, some intelligent thunder eagle had captured a black dragon and might kill him soon.  In interesting development to say the least.

The Ninth's wandering of the city found a few other finds.  The Knot, following a rumor, found a pocket of soldiers holding a barricaded street.  It took hardly any effort for the forces of Hell to lay low the soldiery.  Exploring the area beyond the barricade, they found a section of un-looted houses.  One was a trader's house and within was a dead to a manor house in the Capital.  The knot wondered if the owner was still alive.  Yvainne walked through the door into the house, turning and with a smile saying "no".

Operating on some other rumors, the Knot headed to the tower that stored the crown jewels of the duchy of Daveryn.  They ignored the 2 dozen bugbear & ogres waiting outside the tower claiming they "found" the jewels and instead, using magic, flew up to the top level.

Quell carefully crawled in, relying on Mardus to keep the obvious magical trap within from going off.  A couple failed dispel magic checks forced Quell to dodge out of the way of a lightning bolt or two, but eventually his arcane support came through & disabled the trap.  At least long enough for Quell to temporarily turn it off and steal the jewels.

The Bugbear grumbled at the "theft" of their treasure.  Until Emmerick reminded them he was a "General of the Horde" and not to be trifled with.  And the bugbears backed down.

On a hunch the Knot checked out the Docks and were blown away by what they found.  Warehouses full of goods, wild warhorses trotting around.  And magic items sitting in suit cases on the docks.  And two damaged ships that could easily be retrofitted into at least one working ocean going vessel.  The spoils were quite large.  The Horde somehow completely overlooked the docks.

In fact Mardus got so excited as they left the docks for the night, that a couple near by bugbear perked up & started snooping into the docks.  Likely the spoils would start going down once the Horde realized their oversight.

Still instead of returning to the Docks, the Knot followed a new lead.  Something about a prison compound repelling attacks.

The Knot rushed with magical and extraordinary skills over the walls of the Prison.

Guards rushed to mount a defense.  Fumbling to stop the death that had befallen them.  But they put up a paltry resistance.  In fact, the greatest frustration for a Knot member was when Yvainne, growing hungry from her last feeding, tried to feast on a guard, only to have her kill blown to bits by a stray fireball.  Even the Warden, a stout warrior, who charged out half-way through the fight fell before the blades of Hell like a ship battered against jagged uncaring rocks.

Standing over their fallen enemies, the Ninth marveled at their powers.  The Duke was dead, as was the high wizard.  Pockets of resistance were crumbling, riches were being seized.  Was there nothing in the ruins of Daveryn to challenge their combined might?

Session 29

The Ninth Knot managed to have a relatively restrained visit in Ghastenhall.

Mardus and Brother Summit went to meet with Professor Tiberius Feign.  With the Professor's help, they managed to transport the bound hound into the Professor's private laboratory, deep in the bowls of the University.  There, in what basically amounted to a dungeon, the Professor heard the resent otherworldly encounter the Knot suffered.  With a tact omission of the fact that it was preceded by the wanton slaughter of a major religious figure.

The Professor examined Brother Summit & then Mardus, noting the corruption of Brother Summit.  The warping of the world around his form.  And that Mardus also had a minor taint about him.  Mardus & Summit gloss over the fact that Emmerick and others had a more direct exposure during the fight and when Professor Feign offers to examine anyone else, Mardus brushes the offer aside, simply asking how he could check himself.  The Professor gives a long complex narrative of how the magic warps around the effects.  Mardus tries to follow along & nod in understanding.  All the while worried about the fellow knot members.

Still, with the talking done, the Professor moves to action.  He offers two options now that they have a live hound.  The first is to attack, crafting a planer fork, a tactical strike could be made against these otherworldly horrors.  The other option is defense.  By warping Brother Summit's essence with that of the beast, the monk could hide from the hideous beasts.  Yet part of him would become... otherworldly.

Summit & Mardus choose.

The experiment was an unpleasant experience, grunts of pain from the Monk minguled with unearthly wails and moans of agony from the Hound as the Professor gleefully arced arcane energy between his two subjects, using cruel looking instruments that would be better suited for a macabre torture chamber than a scientific experiment.  Yvainne would have loved it.

In the end the experiment was declared successful by the Professor.  He insisted Summit's aura was reduced and well masked.  A good defense against the beasts.  He would attempt to revive the dying hound & continue his trials.  But that likely they'd need to provide a fresh specimen should they wish a planer fork constructed.

While arcane experiments take place in the bowls of the University, another meeting takes place underneath the bustling city.  Yvainne, with Quell as an escort, presents the Vampire Lord of Ghastenhall, Prince Gaius Vestromo, with the vampire's family heirloom.  Quite literally, his cup runith over, as it sloshes with the heart and blood of the fallen angel, Ara Mathra.  Quickly taking the cup, the vampire askes Yvainne what boon she wants for such a great gift.  He greedily drinks the blood as Yvainne answers with one word.  "Immortality."  Vestromo looks up, his face covered in blood.  Through the red he shows a wicked grin, fangs glistening with angel blood.  "Of course."

The next few weeks pass by.  In the dead of winter, the plague spreads.  And the Ninth Knot waits.

They do manage a show trial in Sanctum, where they charge the religious leaders still left alive with committing crimes against religious freedom.  And they spare some as an act of "mercy" and burn the rest.  And do a fair amount of desecration of the Cathidral of Mitra-Made-Manifest in the process.

Yvainne is reborn a free vampire while the rest of the knot rests and does mundane activities around Ghastenhall and the Vale.  With the shroud working a very lucrative Cure Disease racket in Farholde with their merchant ally, lady Marsten.  The plague starts to rip through the major cities of Talengarde.  It gets so bad Prince Gaius worries for "his city" and employs his vampire minions to "clean up" the town.

Still, the Knot grows anxious waiting around so they started to check in on the scion of house Havelyn.  Using the Shroud, the Ninth tracked down the newly appointed Lord and his band, the Sons of Balentyne, where last seen around the capital but they disappeared.  Pulling their free shroud members from Farholde, they re-double their efforts around the capital to track down their nemesis.

Searching, they find out the Sons were researching some old Mitrian artifacts.  Using the resources in the Cathedral, they determine the artifact in question is a standard of Saint Thomas.  Some sort of magical banner of military origin.

The Knot started to get worried.  They found a likely location for the banner, a small town shrine in the low country.  The rushed a Shroud cell there, only to find the Sons had already entered a crypt.  The shroud members waited and the Ninth considered an attack, but with Yvainne still learning her new powers, they were reluctant to act.  So they waited.

The Sons never left the crypt by mundane means, instead they teleported out with the banner in hand.

Lord Havelyn himself pleaded to the King and presented him with the Mitrian artifact.  The King anxious to act embraced the paladin and ordered the armies of Talengarde march over the objection of his tacticians and generals.  And before the King had even left the city, the Sons proved their worth as they foiled a last minute assassination attempt against the King.  One of the few victories against the Knot of Thorns...

The Ninth Knot rushed to get their troops out of the Vale before the army arrived.  And thanks to their foresight, they managed to get all their troops out well before the Kings army arrived.

The Knot members themselves rushed to leave Ghastenhall and meet up with Trik and their army.  On their last night in Ghastenhall, Emmerick visited with the waitress, Eve.  A friend of Quell's who the anti-paladin had grown affectionate toward over the past few months.

It was that night when a couple assassins attacked Eve, but a few yards from Emmerick.  It was the quick action of Quell, who had been hiding that thwarted the attack.  Quell showed no mercy, killing the assassins.

Resorting to speak with dead on the corpses they find out the assassins were sent by Cardinal Thorn to teach Emmerick a lesson about following orders.  It seems the Ninth Knot's decision to spare the citizens of Sanctum struck a nerve.

Quell and Emmerick quitely hid Eve with Quell's contacts in the Ghastenhall underworld and the Ninth rushed from Ghastenhall to meet up with Trik & their army in time to arrive at Westkirk Castle, the winter camp site of Fire-Axe.  Only to find the Bugbear army gone.

Rushing they arrive in time to see Dyvern burning.  It seems the First Knot is as good as the Ninth in breaching in impenetrable fortress.

The Ninth rush through the streets of the city, the vast majority of the sacking already concluded.  They meet up with Fire-Axe and in his private war-room in the Town Hall, they discuss the war effort.

There in the privacy of the war-room Fire-Axe breaks down & reveals part of Cardinal Thorn's great plot.  He is to defeat the Kings army and then fall before an unknown army lead by an Asmodean.  Yet he fears for the King & his army.  The full might of Talengarde marches on him and he doesn't see how to win.  He asks for the Ninth's advice.  Emmerick agrees with the tactical situation.  They think Fire-Axe should up-root & attempt a skirmish action against the slowly advancing army of the King.  But Fire-Axe is reluctant.  He has his orders and he's to follow them.  Even if he doesn't understand them.  Still, the doubt is there and the Ninth exploits it, reminding him that there are others who could help him...

With the sacked town at their feet, Yvainne decides what the Ninth should do next.  A quick scrying shows her the position of her old "friend", the Cardinal Archibald Hawthorn.  The vampire death priestess leads the Knot to the grand Cathedral.  Rushing in she leads Quell to a hidden chamber, a quick check of the lock and Quell picks it with ease.  Opening the chamber the cowering Cardinal looks up at Yvainne in confusion, his old burn wounds glistening in the candle light.  "But, you... you went to Branderscar for your crimes...  How?"  Yvianne gives a grin, her fangs glistening in the light.  "I'm back".  Her divine magic flares, filling the chamber with darkness as she descends into it.

The rest of the Ninth wait above.  Mardus cataloging the ornate gold fixtures of the Church he'll need to collect & melt down.  All the while screams followed by feasting is heard from below.

Yvainne climbs out of the crypt, her chin, neck and corset covered in blood.

Mardus pulls out a handkerchief saying "You got a little something on you."  Yvainne shrugs it off.  "I'm fine, I like it this way."  Giving a wicked fanged grin.

Session 28

The Ninth check over the dead angel.  Yvainne quickly cuts out the heart and puts it in her chalice, a gift for her vampire ally.  And grabs the angel's morning-star hefting the magical weapon with delight.  Then Emmerick strides forward.  And desecrates the last flame of Mtira.  Seeing the magic struggle to overcome the flame, Mardus, Yvainne & Wasyli hurl vials of unholy water.  The flames sputter and go out.  The faith of Mitra is plunged into darkness, even though many of the faithful don't realize it yet.

Their wicked deed done, the Ninth rejoices and the Cathedral trembles.  The pocket plane continues it's shifting from divine to infernal.  The heavens turn blood red, infernal cackling is faintly heard through the halls.  The floor starts to crack in places, heat & fire flaring up through the cracks.

Then the Ninth are staggered by a piercing noise.

They shake it off & see the Cathedral shake more, statues of saint's start losing their heads as stone & debris  drop around them.

Then another piercing noise.  This time some of the Ninth spot a comt of black cut through the blood red sky as the sound pierces their heads.

The Infernal chatter dies down.

Silence grips the Cathedral.

Then a bolt of black streaks in through the broken cathedral window, slamming into the spot where the flames were.  Splashing out, the gooy black substance quickly filled the space between two of the massive stone columns that flanked the flame, reaching up to the rafters above.

It shimmered until it showed a glossy black portal.  Walking through it were two Hounds of Tindalos.  Emmerick stood dumb-founded for a moment, then combat was joined.

Brother Summit & Emmerick were closest and they both rushed to lock in combat with the Hounds.

Mardus, staring blankly into the horrible void had a thought.  He quickly engulfed the area in a roaring blinding fire.  It obscured Emmerick & Brother Summit from their allies, but also saved all the Ninth from staring at the horrible void...

Soon more Hounds rushed through the portal, some spilling out of the fire to engage the other Knot members.  But they were by far the least of the Ninth's worries.  For far above, at the top of the portal, near the rafters, came a hideous purple bulging spider of a truly horrifying visage.

The Spider of Leng scurried along the rafters, trying to spread insanity and confusion amongst the Knot as it fended off ranged assaults.

Meanwhile, the battle ranging below, Brother Summit did something odd.  He pinned & dragged off one of the Hounds, another Hound nipping at his heels.  There in a secluded spot, Brother Summit pulled out an odd arcane collar, applied it to the Hound and then subdued it to unconsciousness.

Meanwhile, back at the portal, the fight carried on.  More hounds poured forth.  The Ninth struggling to stem the tide.  Emmerick started ignoring the Hounds and instead focusing on the columns supporting the portal while Mardus & Wasyli tried to dispel the magic of the portal.  Emmerick's mace smashed chunks loose, but as he did that, black tendrils of the portal reached out & filled the void.  Protecting the column.  With arcane magic not dispelling, Wasyli took a different approach and shattered massive sections of the columns.  While Mardus bathed the area in acid.  The black goo of the portal reaching out as tendrils held the shattered fragments together, but it weakened, exposing the cracks in the foundation laid by Emmerick.  Adamantine Mace in hand, hounds biting & clawing at him, the anti-paladin struck true, shattering the column & bringing down a rain of stone & debris.  The portal stretched in an unnatural way and a massive purple tentacle from some unknown creature reached out, grasping blindly near Emmerick and nearly touching the anti-paladin, before it was sucked back in and the portal collapsed.

That is when the spider dropped down among the Knot & caused devastation.

The Spider of Leng relying on it blistering hallucination poison to cause confusion and agony in the ranks of the Ninth.  Its massive reach and combat reflexes allowing it to catch many Knot members by surprise as casters tried to flee & melee types tried to rush forward.

A horrible battle was waged.  The spider flinging about a man-sized object wrapped in web as its poisoned stinger slams into Knot member after Knot member.  Yvainne and Mardus tried to keep the Knot up.  And Wasyli unloaded all his arcane might.  But the spider shrugs it off continuing to down combatant after combatant.

Brother Summit eventually returning to the group, having dispatched the other Hound that was on him only to find half his allies unconscious or dying.

His arrival did do one thing, it pulled the spider's attention off of the others.  In a savage assault, unleashing all it's might on Brother Summit.  The monk crumples under the blows.  Dead in a matter of seconds.

In a fit of madness brought on by poison, Yvainne beats to death the unconscious Emmerick with her recently acquired magical morning-star from the fallen angel.  Agents of Mitra watching from the celestial plane simply sighing at the irony.

Mardus pauses, considering a breath of life for his companions, but opting instead to set up to outflank the massive beast with his rogue ally before Quell falls over from repeated flail blows.

Mardus waits for the flank with Quell, only to have the spider step away as well is wracked with poison.  The purple horror drops it's massive flail-like object, picks up the Monk's body & quickly spins it up in webs, giving it a new man-sized flail.

Mardus pushes forward, looking hopefully at his elven ally.  Readying an attack.  Quell steps forward and the two unleash a torrent of flanking blows.  Mardus getting an extra attack from a critical strike from Quell, doing sizable damage with his massive elven curved blade.  But it was Quell who saved the day.  Landing sneak attack after sneak attack, he downed the massive purple horror.

As the fight ended more Knot members staggered under the ongoing poison somehow surviving until it ended.

Still, the damage was done, two Knot members dead.  One nearly taken away by a horror of unknown origin.

As the Ninth surveyed the battle, Quell spotted something odd, one of the Hounds off near a corner was unconscious but alive, an odd looking collar around it's neck.  He walked over to finish it off when Mardus bid him stop until they've examined it.

Then the Ninth realize this Hound was saved for some reason by Brother Summit.  And the collar, it somehow blocks dimensional travel and has an odd arcane mark.  A mark of one Professor Tiberius Feign, arcanist of Ghastenhall.

Questions & concern fill the Knot members as they look on the fallen remains of Brother Summit.  Quell argues to end the hound's life immediately.  But Mardus urges caution.  Consult first with the monk.  The conversation goes on, before the Knot settles on Mardus' idea.  Quell still looks uneasy.

The Ninth call Trik to help transport them, their fallen companions & the hound... back to Sanctum.  When Trik arrives he bears news.  Tiadora is waiting for them.  Worried, the Ninth use a scroll to bring back Emmerick immediately and they travel to Sanctum on the wings of fiendish hippogriffs.

The conversation is brief if direct.  Flanked by two Erinyes, Tiadora actually bows & shows a surprising amount of respect to the Ninth.  Her usual haughty sarcasm missing.  She gives a boon of treasure from Thorn before grabbing the mayor of Sanctum and heading for the door.  Emmerick strides forward and intercedes.  Saying the Mayor, along with the rest of the town are under the Ninth Knot's control.

Tiadora gives him an odd look before having an Erinye break the man's leg & throw him at Emmerick's feet.  "Suit yourself" she says, and simply walks out.  An odd interaction, but the Ninth mostly ignores it.  Focused instead on Brother Summit and his secrets.

The Ninth still reluctant opts to use Speak with Death to communicate with their companion.  Satisfied with their friends undead answers, they raise him to get the full story.

That's when he finally tells them how he went and researched the creatures.  How he spoke with Tiberius Feign.  How the Arcanist gave him an odd collar to place on a hound with the mission to return one to him.  Alive.

He insisted he didn't know the risk.  And that it was an omission of ignorance, not malice.  And that other Knot members had their secrets.

There were quite looks shared between some of the other Knot members.

But still there were more grumbles about how Summit's obsession with the creatures and his failure to speak of the risks caused the deaths of two knot members, nearly killing them all.  Still, Mardus defended Summit.  Insisting Summit originally drew the ire of the hounds at the Horn, where he was doing Knot business, and that he could never have known what would happen.  Quell outright stated they should consider expelling Summit from the Knot for gross failure and endangering the rest of the Knot.  But Wasyli was quick to point out, doing so was not their decision but Thorn's.  The thought of going to the High Cardinal of Asmodeus brought a pause to all members.  Mardus pressed on defending Summit, opting to wait on a final verdict until more could be known about these otherworldly creatures and their dark obsession with the Monk.  And that only if no satisfactory solution could be achieved would contacting Cardinal Thorn be required.

An open vote was made.  And in the end, the Ninth stayed intact, keeping Brother Summit in their ranks for the time being.

With little else to do, the Ninth turned its collective gaze on Ghastenhall and started the cold winter trek back to the city, the bound Hound of Tindalos in tow, eager to resolve the issue of Summit and his dark bond.

As they arrived less than a week later at the doorsteps of the bustling city, Shroud agents around Talengarde was already reporting wide-spread plague symptoms but no fatalities.  The general populous was still oblivious to the death that stalked among them.

This winter was going to be a truly wicked one...

Session 27

Mardus fumbles with the magic coffin, trying to figure it out, as Hound Archons slam into him.

He calls for help and Emmerick rushes forward, Mace in hand when he trips the trap on the door that Mardus accidentally managed to avoid.  Fireballs exploded around, but the Ninth, shrouded in Fire Resistance ignored it.

Pressing forward, Emmerick and Mardus both bashed and smashed into the class case, finally breaking it bringing the complex ritual to an end.  And stopping the divine onslaught of spirits and angels.

While that was going on, the remaining Knot members, let by Quell, laid into Father Earnan MacCathlain.  Yvainne stripped the Father of his Holy Aura and Wasyli countered his healing spells, still the Father's Frightful Aspect caused Quell to flee in terror, but not before landing a savage sneak attack.  Quell fled from the wounded priest, past Mardus and Emmerick.  Mardus gave a sigh as he ran after Quell.  Having learned his lesson earlier in the Druid crypt by Farhold, that a fleeing Quell can work his way into the most awkward of situations..

Emmerick turned & rushed at the priest, not caring about the spell and simply braining Father MacCathlain anyway.  The strategy worked, for as the Anti-paladin gave out a frightened squeak, the giant form of Father MacCathlain crumpled to the floor.

With victory in hand the rest of the Knot went after Mardus & Quell to find Quell huddled at the end of a hallway, and Mardus standing guard in the hallway, eyeing a room beyond.

The Knot all looked and saw in the next room a massive rune covered vault door and two massive iron angels standing guard.

The Knot withdraws to the Abbott's library and rummages around, finding an odd encrypted book, but little else of immediate note.

Wasyli mentions avoiding the vault doors by simply disintegrating a wall near by instead.  But seems reluctant to do so, for risk of damaging anything directly behind the wall.

Brother Summit suggests the Knot go with that plan, avoiding the Gollums.  But the rest of the Knot vetoes that idea.  Yvainne being the most outspoken, wishing not to risk the Chalice they came to recover for the Vampire of Ghastenhall.  So with a grumble, Brother Summit resigns himself to a slug-fest with the Gollums.  All so some old vampire gets his cup of blood.

Still, with the ability to buff and prepare, the Knot strikes, using a Wall of Force to separate the two brutes.  And so separated, facing fully buffed combatants, the Gollums didn't stand a chance.  Within a minute, they were both reduced to scrap.

Then faced with the vault door, the Ninth were stumped by the riddle for entrance.

"By the four names, cursed be he who unleashes what is bound within."

The Ninth fumble back to the library and do some more digging, where they come up with the useful information from the records of the creator of the Vault, Saint Angelo.  "The vault is sealed with the names of the first, the teacher, the founder and the maker."

The Knot struggle, but the come up with what they think are the correct anwser, Suchandra (the phoenix, first in the vale), Ara Mathra (the teacher of the order), Macarius (the founder of the order) and Angelo (the actual maker of the vault).

With the riddle in hand, Emmerick strides forward, the remaining knot members falling back, waiting...

Emmerick stumbles on the names, occasionally glancing back at the others when he forgets a name.  But he struggles through & is rewarded with a satisfying click, as the locks tumble into place & the massive door swings open.

Beyond are crates and crates of religious jeweled religious paraphernalia to the wicked gods.  Most if of Asmodeus, but Yvainne does spot a couple wicked daggers to her dark god, Zon Kuthon.  But that is not the true treasure.  The true treasure are the magic items displayed out on the far wall.  Each with a trap that Quell not only easily spots, but is easily able to disable.

A full length mirror, with two bound bone devils.  Bound to answer any question posed to them truthfully, they will make truly worth advisers to the Ninth.

A horn made of the bones of an angel that protects the blower in a magical circle of protection from good.

The chalice for their vampire ally.  Able to make mortals into vampires themselves, all be it after one full year of drinking blood from it.

The blade of a broken bastard sword labelled "Helbrand".  Emmerick reaches for it, and for the first time in a long time, he hears a voice in his head.  "Remake me."

But all those pale in comparison to the lesser artifact, the The Incomplete Codex of the Damned.  Wasyli gingerly picks up the four volumes present & puts them in his bag for later study.

With a secure vault and now low on spells, the Ninth opts to rest another night in the Crypt beneath the Cathedral.  They make it almost completely through their slumbers, when they are awoken to the sight of two ghost martyr paladins who attack them.

During the fight, the Knot realizes these ghosts are two they've fought before.  Still, only two ghosts don't stand a chance against the Ninth and they are vanquished in short order.

Wondering out loud Mardus asks "Why did they attack now & not the last time we rested."  Then he realizes.  "We've been here for days.  They're ghosts. They're returning!"

A chill befalls the group.  What if all the ghosts are back...

The Knot steels itself for a long fight out to the exit, but are surprised to see no other ghosts attack.

Still, with some spell casters having interrupted sleep, the Knot heads upstairs and rests again.  Vowing not to go downstairs until they are finished with Ara Mathra.

With the bones of Saint Macarius ready, the Ninth trudges forward, a hell hound bobbing forward, dropping the bundle of bones into the blazing inferno.

The fire roars & crackles, the Hell Hound rushing back to it's master.  The Knot waits as the wall starts to flicker and fade.

The Ninth rally around Emmerick.  Their plan, have Emmerick share his smiting ability with the others, then drop a silence to protect them from the likely Holy Word spell they'll get.  The flames fall and waiting beyond them is the angel, Ara Mathra.  And combat is at hand.  But before Emmerick can get off a shared smite for his allies, the Angel rushes forward, swooping up & landing in their mists, calling out a holy word, and following it up with a quickened holy smite.  The Knot's collective vision fades as they all go blind, some being deafened and stunned as well.  With all three Nessian War Hounds banished back to hell.

Ara Mathra then charged forward, relentlessly beating on Wasyli.

Knot members scrambled to restore their senses, Wasyli managing to dispel the Holy Aura on the angel, with Emmerick getting a silence spell cast on himself.

The Ninth regrouped, Emmerick finally unleashing his communal smite, granting the boon to Mardus and Quell.  As they both rushed forward to attack the Angel.  Still, Ara Mathra continued his focused onslaught.  Beating Wasyli with his morningstar and blasting the area with another quickened Holy Smite.  Yvainne and Mardus rushed as they saw Wasyli's lifeless corpse fall under the unrelenting blows.  And with a Breath of Life, followed up by a Heal, they got Wasyli back up before his soul was claimed by his infernal pact.  With Mardus stuck healing and unable to use his smite, Emmerick rushed forward, bringing the zone of silence with him and striking Ara Mathra, but it was not enough.  The angel shrugged it off.  It was when Quell, who took one step forward, and unleashed a flurry of smiting sneak attacks that did the angel in.  One strike in the gut, another in a chest, finally a savage blow, ripping a wing clean off the angel.

Ara Mathra staggers, gurgling up blood and his dying words ring out.  "It will be the son
who brings your doom."  And his form fell to the floor in a pool of his own angelic blood.

So similar to the words spoken by the Triton Oracle of Mitra, who attacked the Ninth when they sailed up the coast on the Frost-hammer loaded with weapons for Fire-Axe's horde, so many months ago.

Session 26

The sounds of soldiers drawing swords and clerics casting spells alerts the Knot.  A quick application of a Blade Barrier spell by Yvainne blocks the soldiers from pushing on their flank, as the Knot finished off the lingering Ghost Paladins.

Multiple dispel magics by Mitrian priests is not enough to take down Yvainne's magic.  With the Knot ready, they start to rush forward, some members still shaking off a lingering blindness from Holy Word.

Yvainne lowers the blade barrier and Wasyli, hiding with shadow magic, slips through the horde of warriors and priests to be in position behind the stalwart defenders.

The rest of the Ninth's might smashes into the front lines of Mitrians.  The holy warriors and priests try to hold the line from hell's might, then Wasyli attacks from behind.  The defenses crumble and in a matter of seconds the halls are full of burned bodies, snapped necks, crushed skulls and slit throats.

With no more noticeable resistance the Knot explores around.  Quell quickly spots a trapped secret door leading further into the catacombs.  And the Knot find some interesting puzzles, but the Ninth double back to finish defiling the graves of the dead before advancing further.  They even manage to find the crypt of the past Abbots, though they failed to find the bones of Saint Macarius

Finishing up their grave robbing, they Ninth stumbles upon an odd scene.  There, in a cloud of swirling fog is a little girl.  The Ninth approach, Mardus thinking it an illusion.  For it makes no sense.  Still with hesitation and caution Quell approaches, calling out to the girl.  She simply looks at him & shakes her head in sorrow.

Quell politely asks her questions and she doesn't respond.  Mardus and Emmerick boost and try to intimidate her, speaking in infernal.  That prompts an unpleasant response.  The Chalkydri Angel shed her mortal form revealing herself as the six winged serpent angel she was and let out a blinding Holy Word.

Battle was joined.

Repeated Holy Word spells rang in the ears of the Ninth and they all staggered around half-blind, half-deafened.  They still got a few good blows on the Angel, forcing her to fall back, healing herself.  Yet the Ninth continued to push forward, Yvainne healing Emmerick to keep him up as he ruthlessly beat the Angel down with his mace.  Eventually, the Ninth triumphed, leaving the boon companion to Ara Mathra dead, while her friend remained locked in his ring of fire in the cathedral above.

Having defeated the angel, the Knot approaches the vault.  Could this be where the Vampire of Ghastenhall's treasure could be?  Quell quickly spots and disarms a trap.  Following it up by quickly disabling the locked vault door.  Beyond there was no magical treasure.  Simply mundane gold, silver and platinum.  Over 750 lbs of it in fact.  The Knot stood stunned.  Amassed before them was more wealth then they'd imagined.  Considering their options, they decide to rest in the vault.  Hurt and short on spells, the Knot uses the fortified vault as a camp site before resuming their exploration beyond the secret door into the deeper section of the Cathedral.

The Ninth moves forward through the winding catacombs.  They stop and have Quell start scouting ahead.  He eventually overheard the sound of faint chanting from ahead and spots an odd entry room, with what looked to be a library beyond.  The threshold of the room stating "".

Rushing back to the group, the Knot gathered up & began prepping buff spells.  Brother Summit & Wasyli creeping forward a bit with Quell.  Then Quell heard the chanting stop and spells start to be cast.  Their stealth was blown.  Combat was at hand!

The Ninth moved forward when a group of hound archons fell around them slowing them down.  As the Ninth engaged, more hound archons were conjured around them.  And them the magically enlarged form of Abbot Earnan MacCathlain stepped out of the library.  He attacked over his Hound Archon allies and cast spells upon the Ninth.  And still, more Hound Archons were summoned from somewhere.

Stuck by the Hounds, Wasyli teleports half the Ninth behind the cleric and his archons.  They they see it.  The skeletal remains of Saint Macarius wrapped and encased in a glass shell engraved with magically glowing runes.

Mardus called out Asmodeus' name in infernal and rushed forward to the glowing glass expecting to have passed the test and stopped the spirit.

He was surprised to see the runes glow as the spirit summoned hound archons around him, flanking him as he as he was then hit by a Holy Smite.  It seems calling out his lords name hadn't stopped the angry spirit of Saint Macarius from attacking.

The battle raged in the crypt of the Cathedral.  Meanwhile, back in Matharyn, a beautiful blonde woman sought out someone who would hear her plea.  And there the Emissary in White found a Knight of the Alerion Order and his ragtag band of adventurers, the Sons of Balentyne.  The Knight listened to Taranea of Ghaele as she spoke of the violation of the Cathedral of Mitra-Made-Manifest...

Session 25

The unknown "Emissary" having apparently fled, the Ninth recovers from the battle and they turn their attention on the cathedral around them.

They quickly rummage though the guest room the "Emissary" came from.  While looking through the effects they find a letter from a Brigit of Brijidine.  Mardus picks up a fine silk with unusual gems.  Wasyli walks up and examines it as well.  The two share a look.  The Emissary was a Ghaele...

The Ninth check the rest of the ground floor.  They are blocked from the inner sanctum of the Cathedral by a raging wall of divine flame.  Still they are able to explore the rest of the level.  They mostly find empty quarters of priests and holy warriors who fell in the Battle of Saintsbridge.  Along with stores of mundane items.  Still, one thing was of particular note.  They found the personal journal of the Lord Abbot, MacCathlain, in the back of his family bible.  Within the last journal entry were two items of interest.  First, that the Lord Abbot was in the basement, trying to summon an army of the dead.  Second, Ara Mathra, the divine head of the church of Mitra was sealed behind the raging fire, in the inner sanctum.  And "Only a Saint could pierce the flames"... Mardus gives Yvainne a shrug, "Guess we need to find some saint bones."

Before taking the stairs down into the basement, the Ninth do find some religious paraphernalia of Saint Macarius.  They decide, if they manage to find the bones of the Saint, then they might as well wrap them in the dead saint's robe & walking stick.  After all, it couldn't hurt.  Them.

The Ninth descends down into the depths of the cathedral's catacombs.  Weary of ghosts.

Within it's halls they find room after room of old bones wrapped in cloth.  Along with records of the church, including books detailing those interned there.  Quell quickly looks through it and finds the name of Saint Macarius.  Seems they have their saint bones, if only they can go get them.  Mardus is eager to burn the records but Quell and others urge cation, lest disturbing the records would disturb the spirits.  Mardus shrugs and instead of burning the records, simply takes the main internment records book and sticks it into his Bag of Holding.  As the books leaves the plane, a group of nearby ghosts moan & rush through the walls to attack the Ninth.

The Paladin ghosts attack, some manage to corner a couple Nessian War Hounds and nearly smite them down before Yvainne and Emmerick come to the rescue.  Quell flees back before realizing the Hounds are stuck and then helps Brother Summit fend off a ghost.  It's when a couple more ghosts come rushing at Wasyli that the Ninth realize they've seen these ghosts before.  And recently.  They were two of the monks they burned in the second flame at the center of the gardens outside the Cathedral.  A shiver runs down Mardus' spine.  Did all the corpses they burn turn into ghosts...

The Ninth, even without ghost touch weapons, managed to overcome the incorporeal foes and vanquish them.  In the case of the monks, for the second time.

The Knot moves forward, exercising extreme cation going forward.  Simply poking heads or shining lights into bone filled rooms, but never actually disturbing anything.  The Knot managed to stumble on surprised Ghosts, three ghost paladins, and the ghost of the Head of the Serene Order, the Master of Serenity.

The combat was fierce and long.  The incorporeal nature of the ghosts protect them, forcing the Knot to wear them down.  But like before, the Ninth manage to be victorious over the Ghosts.

Exploring a little ways further and finding more rooms full of bones, the Ninth doubles back and starts openly pillaging and defiling the graves.  They gather any trinkets of value, knowing full well gold and silver holy symbols of Mitra can be melted down for scrap.

The Knot continues on like this for some time before their open desecration summons the last group of ghosts, these spirit paladins being lead by the Oracle of Mitra.  The ghosts run into the trailing end of the Knot's forces and battle is joined.  Where before the combats where quite affairs this was not.  The Oracle laying down blade barriers and screaming out Holy Words, the Knot responding by filling the halls of the quite crypt with the load noise of roaring fire.  Hounds, Knot members and ghosts ran this way and that, fighting, yelling, unleashing divine and arcane destruction.

The Knot managed to take down the Oracle, but was still contending with the Ghost Paladins when Wasyli and Yvainne heard the sounds of near by shouting from a yet to be explored section of the crypt.  It seems there loud combat had drawn a fresh wave of combatants...