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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 7152122" data-attributes="member: 9546">The Sacking of Daveryn - 9 Pharast, 4718 - 16 Pharast, 4718"This should do the trick," Kelvin said, as he placed the ducal crown upon his head. "Now let's see about finding your owner."The young wizard closed his eyes and focused his mind as he cast out with his magic. At first his inner vision was clouded, almost as if something was intentionally blocking his spell. He pushed harder and the mist parted, revealing a middle-aged man clad in ratty and tattered noble garb, hunched and shivering in a darkened cellar."Got him!" Kelvin said, his eyes snapping open. "No sense wasting any more time. Gather round."The others stood in a circle around Kelvin, hands linked as he began to cast. A bright light gathered around them until it was a blinding nimbus. There was a moment of disorientation, and then the glow faded. They still stood in a circle, but they were no longer inside the city hall. Instead, they were in a low cellar, surrounding the man Kelvin had seen in his vision...Duke Martin of Daveryn."Polydorus sends his regards," Tardaesha smirked as she drew her sword and slashed the cringing man viciously down his right arm."Now, now," Kelvin chided. "We need him alive.""Done," Kat said as she drew a sap from her belt and smashed it into the back of the Duke's skull.He reeled drunkenly but still did not go down."Let me show you how it's done, little girl," Roger sighed.He turned his greatsword so the flat of the blade faced the Duke, and then swung it mightily into his face. Duke Martin went down as if deboned. __________________________________________________________________The Fire-Axe was beyond pleased at the live-capture of the Duke and ordered a great feast be held in the Nessian Knot's honor. He offered slaves to them for their own personal use, but Dakota had only one request...to be present during the Duke's "interrogation."The Duke was very forthcoming under Dakota's tender ministrations, especially when she threatened to keep him alive until she delivered her baby, so that she could feed him to it one morsel at a time. He quickly spilled his guts, babbling and yammering hysterically. According to Martin, most of his army had marched south to join the Grand Army of Talingarde that  was assembling under the king. He wasn't sure of its exact size, but felt it must be 20,000 soldiers and knights at least. The King himself was leading that army and nothing could take him from the side of his men...with one exception. The King wore an amulet around his neck. If his beloved daughter, the beautiful princess Bellinda, was ever threatened by an evil so grave that his trusted veteran knights could not deal with it, they would summon the King and he would rush to the Adarium via the amulet. Distracting the King in such a way would not mean the end of the army's might, however. His second in command was General Vastenus Barca, a veteran soldier and considered by some to be a military genius.After that information was pried out of him, the bugbears celebrated in earnest. More of Daveryn burned and Sakkarot had the Duke roasted in a large open pit. The Fire-Axe and his lieutenants then proceeded to eat Duke Martin. “His city and his power are now mine! ” proclaimed the Fire-Axe to his assembled throng of monsters.They roared back in bestial and brutal delight. The frenzied celebration lasted long into the night.____________________________________________________________________Katarina was bored, and that was a potentially volatile and dangerous situation for those around her. She wasn't sure what they were still doing in Daveryn. The Duke had been found and dealt with. Sure there were still some pockets of resistance, but there were more than enough bugbears and other monsters to deal with them. She and her companions were meant for greater things. Kelvin kept telling her to be patient, and that Thorn would contact them soon with their next mission, but Kat was not good at being patient, and the curiosity of her nick-name was getting the best of her. She had taken to hanging around the bugbear camps, listening for any interesting rumors that might provide her some distraction. One such evening, she got lucky."Don't go near the Ballerina School o' sword fighting," one of the big brutes said to his gathered brethren. "No wait, that's not it. The Balleryn school in Glassboro. Yeah that's it.  Those fops are dangerous with those little swishy pokes of theirs."That was all the incentive Kat needed.Glassboro had been an artisan's district, and the Balleryn School, little more than an open courtyard really, had been one of its barely-tolerated ventures. The headmaster was not from Talingarde. Rodrigo Garza Diego Guillermo Valentino Estanza de Garradora (usually Rodrigo sufficed) was definitely a foreigner. He was a swarthy man of uncertain accent who occasionally broke out in a rapid fire language no one on the island understood. Regardless, the short, dark and handsome foreigner had managed to establish himself as one of the premier sword masters for hire in just a few years, and gathered together a band of dedicated bravos desperate to prove themselves to their master. Rodrigo was, by any reasonable standard, insane. He made time enough for only three things in life: dueling, drinking and wooing. Yet, that wasn't what made Rodrigo insane. His madness came from his bravery. Where some men claimed to be fearless, Rodrigo was very nearly so. He believed himself the greatest swordsman in the world and would eagerly take any challenge to that title. He never refused a duel (even though dueling was patently illegal in Talingarde) and was all too eager to prove his prowess with a blade to anyone who happened by. Rodrigo was amongst the most hated men in Daveryn before the city fell. He had dueled, cuckolded and disgraced so many nobles that it was a wonder he survived to see the city fall. Despite several solid tries, the minions of the Fire-Axe had failed to slay him and his surviving students. In fact, Rodrigo had decorated the entryway to the courtyard of his school with the heads of three ogres, five bugbears, eight goblins and one hill giant. Beside the heads written is blood were scrawled the words “Open for business.  All challengers welcome. ”"Hold my beer," Kat whispered, smiling to herself.She watched from the eaves of a nearby rooftop until darkness fell and, one by one, the six students tired from their endless dueling and drifted off to sleep, tucking themselves into bedrolls laid out around the periphery of the courtyard. Finally, when only one remained awake on watch, Kat quietly stole down to the ground and over the wall of the yard. Silent as death, she drifted over to one of the sleeping students and deftly plucked his dagger from its belt sheath. Then she waited until the student on guard was facing away from her, at which point she flicked the dagger and sent it precisely into the base of the young man's skull. He collapsed with a gurgle and Kat melted back into the shadows. It wasn't long before one of the other students awoke to relieve himself and noticed his dead comrade. He shouted in alarm, waking the others. There was confusion at first, but that quickly turned to shouts of accusation as the murder weapon was discovered to belong to one of their own. One of the students challenged the accused to a duel as Rodrigo stood by and observed in indifference. The two students drew their blades and fought until one lay dead on the ground...the accused as fate would have it. Afterwards, sleep seemed to elude the remaining students. Two finally returned to their bedrolls, but at opposite ends of the courtyard. Kat waited a bit longer before tossing another dagger from the darkness and taking one of the sleepers in the throat with it. The three students who remained awake saw this and shouted the alarm once more. Kat risked one more dagger-throw, but her aim was slightly off and she only managed to wound one of the swordsmen as they rushed towards her hiding spot. She remedied the situation a moment later with one last throw. The student fell in a pool of his own blood as Kat leaped over the wall and vanished into the ruins, leaving Rodrigo with half of the pupils he'd had that morning.________________________________________________________________The clarion sound of a trumpet blast woke Lemmy from where he'd been dosing on the upper floor of the burned out house the Knot had been squatting in. He cracked open his bleary eyes, still trying to shake off the effects of the hog piss that passed for bugbear beer. Two figures stood in the room. One was a tall, human-like creature with long, feathery wings and a gentle inner radiance that made him difficult to look directly at. He gripped a huge warhammer in both hands. His companion was lithe and beautiful, with skin the color of marble. He hovered upon powerful, white wings and radiated a sense of serenity. He held a gleaming golden trumpet, but as Lemmy watched, it rapidly transformed into a mighty greatsword."Villains," the one with the hammer intoned, "know that now thou shalt answer for thy wickedness. Our brother, the mighty Ara Mathra hath tasked Maul and Clarion with thy destruction."Before Lemmy could respond or react, the angel closed the distance to him and swung his hammer into the dwarf's gut, sending him flying into the opposite wall. Roger, who'd been sleeping nearby, rose from his pallet in a fury, drawing his sword as he charged. Clarion stepped into his path, but the anti-paladin swung his blade and smote the archon with unholy power. At the same time, Lemmy managed to rise up on his elbows and send a blast of metal shards into the oncoming Maul. Clarion recoiled from Roger's blow, golden blood trickling to the floor. His face grim, he opened his mouth and spoke one word, but the force behind it struck both Lemmy and Roger completely blind, as well as Grumblejack, who'd lumbered into the room at the sounds of the melee. The trumpet archon then followed by conjuring a frigid spear of ice that impaled both the dwarf and the anti-paladin. Though Grumblejack could not see, his ears still worked just fine and he honed in on the sound of Clarion's voice. Summoning the power of his fiendish heritage, he infused his sword with dark energy and swung blindly. He was rewarded with a groan of pain from the archon, followed by the sound of a body striking the floor. A flash of light blossomed in the center of the room as Kelvin appeared with Tardaesha and Dakota in tow. The three vampires had been resting in the cellar, snug in their coffins when the sounds of battle from above had so rudely awakened them. They arrived to find their mortal companions stumbling around blindly while a burly angel with a large hammer swung madly in all directions. Another angel lay dead on the ground, apparently impaled through the chest. As the vampires took in the scene, Lemmy managed to lever himself up on one elbow and blast the angel, but the brute shrugged off the brunt of the attack and smacked the dwarf across the forehead with a back-handed swing of his hammer. Lemmy sagged to the floor, bleeding profusely but still breathing...barely. As Grumblejack stumbled towards the sounds of melee, Maul whirled and drove the head of his hammer solidly into the ogre's chest. Wheezing, Grumblejack fell backwards and crashed heavily into one of the badly burned support pillars. What was left of the ceiling above sagged dangerously. "Time to end this, sister," Tardaesha announced.Dakota grinned, baring her enlarged canines, then drew her bow and loosed three arrows. All three struck Maul and he reeled. Before he could recover, Tardaesha rushed in and smote him down, the wounds smoking with brimstone as he fell to the floor."We seem to be accumulating more vendettas against us," Kelvin said as he moved to check on his fallen friends."Let them keep coming!" Dakota laughed. "This is a lesson these self-righteous bastards have had coming for a long time."Kelvin nodded but remained silent. He didn't disagree, but he wondered if a day would soon come when he and his family were going to be on the receiving end of that lesson._________________________________________________________________Later that evening, when Kat returned and breathlessly told her tale of her encounter at the fencing school, the others were less than impressed. "Two angels!" Dakota pointed to the bodies on the floor. "Two! And you expect us to get excited about a few rich brats with swords?""Now, now," Kelvin chided. "It sounds like Kat did well for herself. Let's give her the benefit of the doubt. These may indeed be some dangerous rabble that need putting down. The least we can do is go and have a look."The companions followed Katarina back to the Balleryn school to find all of the remaining students and Rodrigo awake and alert. Dakota casually put an arrow through the throat of one student as she approached. The young man fell, gurgling, and Roger stepped over his still-twitching body, headed directly towards Rodrigo. The swordmaster raised his rapier in mock salute."And what do we say to the god of Death, my students?" Rodrigo shouted."Not today!" they answered in unison.Rodrigo lunged at Roger and managed to drive the point of his blade through the gaps of the bigger man's pauldrons and into his shoulder. The students cheered and made to rush forward as one, but then a fiery explosion detonated into their midst, burning the flesh from their bones in an instant. Rodrigo turned, mouth gaping at the charred corpses of his pupils, but then Kelvin hurled a spear of ice at him, impaling him through the belly. As he staggered about, refusing to die, Grumblejack stepped forward and decapitated him with one swing. In the silence that followed, all eyes turned to Kat."Don't worry, little sister," Dakota smiled, "we would never let the big, mean boys hurt you!"The others laughed boisterously and slapped Kat on the back, continuing to taunt and jibe her all the way back home. She hated them all._________________________________________________________________Over the next several days, the companions of the Ninth Knot continued to pick up more rumors from the rank and file killers among The Fire-Axe’s troops:“I hear there's some soldiers left nearby in Smallward!  Anyone want to go eat ‘em?”“The Duke's not the only one who's missing. We didn't catch the Cardinal either. He's gotta be somewhere around here.”“I heard there was still fighting over at the prison in Cliffward. We should round up some killers and check it out. ” “Good idea…after we finish this last barrel of beer. ” “We've got three barrels of beer. ” “ After we finish the last THREE barrels of beer!” “They say one of the noble houses in Angleton ain't been looted yet. We should check it out!”All of them seemed intriguing, though certainly some would just be the idle speculations of bored soldiers, but the tedium of simply waiting around and doing nothing was more than enough to send the Knot out into the city in search of adventure. The Cathedral of Iomedae Beneficent seemed the most logical place to start looking for the missing cardinal. The church was one of the four great Cathedrals in Talingarde (the other three were in Matharyn, Ghastenhall and Valtae-rna). The bugbear raiders were just superstitious enough that the Cathedral had largely been left alone. Rumors of good outsider guardians also helped to ensure that it was one of the least ransacked places in all of Daveryn. The structure was certainly impressive. It presented a great gothic edifice; every inch covered in intricate decoration that celebrated an endless procession of saints and heroes of the faith. Familiar aphorisms written in both common and celestial adorned the stonework. Saying such as:“There is no darkness so deep, that a single candle cannot defeat it. ” “The suns sees and blesses us all with light and life. ” “The sun may set and winter may come; but always there will be another dawn and summer will return triumphant. ” Great flying buttresses, stained glass windows and a mighty facade completed the cathedral. It was truly a place of awe and reverence for the exaltation of Iomedae.As the villains pushed open the facade and walked into the cathedral, their first impression was one of amazement. It looked as if the place had weathered the sack of Daveryn completely unaffected. It hadn’t been dusted in a few days certainly, but otherwise, a congregation could have filed in and started their prayers without a moment's pause. There was loot there, to be sure. The golden fixtures and sacramental vessels were still neatly positioned on the central altar. Unlike most Iomedaen temples with their silver items, these were older artifacts and largely made of gold. Grumblejack recovered from his momentary awe and marched directly up to the altar, which he easily upended with one massive hand. He raked all of the gold into a large sack, then relieved himself on a bas-relief carving of the Bright Lady herself. Then he began a prayer of desecration, claiming the holy site in the name of Asmodeus.“Hello,” Kat murmured as she sifted among the debris the ogre had left in his wake. “What have we here?”She knelt down to peer at the floor beneath with the altar had been. She pushed down on the end of one flagstone, and a small latch popped up. Pulling it lifted the entire stone easily, revealing a flight of stone stairs descending into the reliquary below.“Whomever is down there,” Kelvin called, “you have one chance to reveal yourself. Do not make us come looking for you.”There was the sound of shuffling footsteps from the darkness, and then an old man dressed in dirty clergy robes climbed the steep stairs, hands raised above his head.“Who are you?” Kelvin asked.“I am Ignatius, Cardinal of Daveryn,” the old man stated, drawing himself up.“People have been looking for you,” Kelvin smiled. “You picked a good hiding spot.”“Do with me what you will,” the old man said. “I will not help you in your unholy efforts.”“Very well,” Kelvin said.Baring his fangs, he seized the old man in an iron grip and sank them into his throat. In a matter of moments he’d drained the priest dry and let his pale form drop to the floor.“Well how am I supposed to torture and interrogate him now?” Dakota whined.“Don’t worry,” Kelvin smiled. “When he rises again tomorrow, he’ll tell us anything we want to know.”__________________________________________________________________The rumor of one of the noble houses still unlooted drew the attention of the companions next. When they arrived in the small farming district of Angleton, they discovered the rumor was true. A band of bugbears stood a fair distance away from it, eyeing it warily.“What’s going on here?” Kelvin demanded as they approached.“Nuthin,’” one of the brutes grunted. “The old lady is still holed up in there.”“One old woman?” Kelvin asked. “Why haven’t you rooted her out yet?”“‘Cause she’s got guards,” the bugbear sneered. “We sent four of our killers in yesterday, and they was all cutdown by crossbows afore they got twenty feet!”“I see,” Kelvin nodded. “Best you not risk any more of your men. We’ll handle it from here.”Dakota touched the iron circlet on her brow, and her form and gear shifted to that of a disheveled woman dressed in rags and grime. She began walking slowly towards the manor house, glancing back over her shoulder in fear every now and again. When she was still a hundred feet from the manor, a voice called out from an upper window. “Come no further! You are trespassing on private property! Turn back now or face the consequences!”“Please!” Dakota pleaded. “I’m with child and starving! The bugbears are right behind me!”“You have been warned!” called the guardsman.With a feral snarl, Dakota began running towards the house. A chorus of bowstrings twanged from the roof and upper windows of the manor, and a swarm of bolts arced towards her. She dodged left and right, moving in a serpentine pattern. Still, four of the shafts found their mark, though they bounced harmlessly off of her supernaturally hardened flesh. She reached the front door, but then realized her mistake. The house was a private dwelling. As a vampire she could not cross such a threshold without an invitation.“Grumblejack!” Dakota called. “I need you!”With a mighty roar and the beat of leathery wings, the big ogre landed beside her and slammed one huge fist into the door. It splintered inwards, where a dozen armed men awaited in the foyer.“Stop!” a commanding, female voice came from the top of the stairs. A lovely, dark-haired middle-aged woman stood there, glaring down at both her men and at the invaders. “I have fifty veteran soldiers at my disposal,” she proclaimed, “and by the gods, we will fight to the death if you charge this manor, but if you can promise to be civil and not steal the silverware, you can come in and we can discuss terms.”“Is that an invitation?” Dakota asked, grinning.“Do you lead that rabble out there?” the woman asked.“We do,” Dak nodded. “Most excellent,” the woman replied.“I am the Baroness Vanya of Veryn, rightful duchess of Daveryn, deposed by damned Darian usurpers. Who might you be?”“We are the Nessian Knot,” Dakota said, “and before much longer, all of Talingarde will be under our sway.”_________________________________________________________________Baroness Vanya explained to the Knot that her family once ruled the Duchy of Daveryn, but they lost their rights when they supported Barca over Darius in the last war of succession. When the Palace fell, she committed none of her personal forces towards saving the city or Duke Martin (whom she regarded as an idiot). Instead, she tried to flee the city and half her guards perished at the hands of goblin wolf-riders. The survivors fled back to her fortified manor house and there they had remained since. The redoubt was well provisioned and ready for a prolonged siege. She was certain the King of Talingarde must be on his way, and her goal had been to discretely remain in her manor until he arrived. This passive plan of inaction grated upon the baroness. She despised the House of Darius and detested the fact that she must rely upon those righteous fools for rescue. She was certain she could cut a deal with the Fire-Axe if only she could reason with someone in authority.“And now here you are,” she smiled at her guests. “Yes,” Kelvin smiled in return, showing just the barest hint of his fangs, “and what is it exactly that you are offering us in return for your life?”“Information,” she replied calmly.“I could get that from your corpse,” Kelvin said. Vanya blinked once and then cleared her throat.“I see from your heraldry that you are followers of Asmodeus,” she said. “Will you allow me to show you something?”She led her guests down into her securely locked basement, and there, tucked away in a hidden corner, stood an shrine. The stone altar was a massive stone block adorned with the unmistakeable iconography of hell. Leering devils cavorted with mortals across its surface. Written upon the altar in infernal was the phrase, “By blood and devotion to thee, O Lord of Hell, are we preserved forever.”Kelvin nodded in approval.“I’m impressed,” he said. “So you are one of the devout?”“How do you think I’ve maintained my beauty and youth for over eighty years?” Vanya smiled coyly.“In that case,” said Kelvin, “I believe you can be trusted…for now…and perhaps we can come to some sort of accord. Now, what can you tell us about the prison…?”_________________________________________________________________Rumors of a fledgling resistance movement buzzed around the city. Several bugbear soldiers had been found murdered in blind alleys by something other than fellow bugbears. An ogre head was found impaled on a wrought-iron spike. Several servants of the Fire-Axe had gone mysteriously missing. Some began muttering that maybe Daveryn wasn’t as subdued as it appeared. As it so happened, Baroness Vanya had heard those same rumors, and had even managed to ferret out a likely hiding spot in the sewers of Argentyle. When the Fire-Axe asked the Nessian Knot to investigate, they did so enthusiastically. When they found the so-called resistance, it turned out to consist of a few dozen soldiers of the watch, led the last surviving watch captain, Rikkon Harbold. Captain Harbold was a mean, cussed, ugly, scarred mountain of a man who was rarely seen without his trade-mark cigar. Though he looked and talked like a villain, there were actually very few men in all of Talingarde more dedicated to the cause of justice and law. It didn’t save him nor his men. The Knot hit them with an infernal fury. Those whom Kelvin’s fireballs did not kill were summarily dealt with by the blades of Tardaesha, Roger and Grumblejack, Dak’s arrows or Katarina’s knives. The Captain himself went down beneath a barrage of Lemmy’s stones. Later that evening, when they reported their success to the Fire-Axe, he had equally good news in return. It seemed that Cardinal Ignatius had risen from his grave, and had been very forthcoming in his new incarnation. According to him the High Inquisitor, Lord Solomon Tyrath, had been charged with the defense of the Castle Matharyn and the Old Palace while the king was away on campaign. Lord Tyrath was a powerful individual who scared the Cardinal to death. He also reported that Markadian V had a surprise ally. He had been in communication with a powerful outsider of living flame named Brigit of the Brijidine. Brigit, a queen of fire beneath the mountains, was revered as a goddess amongst the Iraen. By convincing her of the eminent threat of Asmodean followers, Markadian hoped to gain the Iraen's aid in the coming war. Already an Iraen delegation awaited within the Adarium. Ignatius also had information regarding the king’s second in command, the masterful elven general Vastenus Barca. Vastenus impressed the Cardinal much. He was clearly one of the great tactical geniuses of this age. Lastly the Cardinal revealed that the king took the security of his daughter Bellinda very seriously. So seriously, that he had paid an immense sum of money to have a golem of solid mithral constructed to defend the Adarium. There were other lesser golems in the Adarium but all together they paled before that monster. Kelvin let his new spawn know that his master was pleased, and then promptly gifted the Cardinal to the Fire-Axe to do with as he pleased</blockquote>

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