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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 7252407" data-attributes="member: 9546">15 Desnus, 4718 - Blood TiesThe new moon rose one week after Kat’s scouting mission to the Adarium. Tardaesha had sent Father O’Toole, still firmly under her control, back to the keep so as not to  arouse suspicion. Before he had departed, however, the vampires of the Knot had secured an invitation to the Adarium from him, and he had also disclosed the pass phrase to bypass the forbidding that warded it. When the night of Chargammon’s impending arrival finally came, the Nessian Knot made their way to the Adarium cloaked in silence and invisibility courtesy of Kelvin. Kat led them to the outside wall of the king’s bedchamber, and there Kelvin cast a spell that created a temporary hole in the barrier. The companions darted through and the hole vanished behind them. Kat was eager to investigate the locked room with the warning inscription above it’s door now that her friends were with her. “There will be time for that later,” Kelvin snapped. “We are on a time table, and I want that wizard eliminated!”Kat pouted, but followed her brother’s lead. They slipped quietly into the hallway outside the royal quarters and assembled before the door where Kat had seen the wizard. “Are you ready?” Kelvin asked Roger.The big half-orc nodded. He could not reply, since he had cloaked himself in a second silence spell, one that would move with him. Kat picked the lock and swung the door open, and Roger charged in. Heironymous Thatch never heard him coming. Roger struck the wizard, knocking from his chair and sending him sprawling to the floor. Shocked and dazed, Heironymous tried to get to his feet, but Lemmy blasted him with shards of sharpened rock. Bleeding and barely conscious, he tried to rise again, but three point-blank shots from Dakota pinned him to the wall, ceasing his struggles for good. Kat tossed the room quickly and turned up little of value, but she did find a small journal concealed in a drawer of the desk. Mostly filled with pedantic nonsense of no interest, it did have one interesting line: “Why am I here? The princess needs no instruction with magic! Such power! How could a nineteen year old girl wield such might?”Kelvin read the line several times.“I’m going to warn Chargammon,” he said at last.He cast a sending spell, which allowed him to speak briefly across the miles with the great wyrm.“The princess may be more than she appears,” he said. “Be on your guard and prepared for anything.”“I always am,” came the disdainful reply. “Do not trouble me with your petty concerns. She will die as all your kind does...screaming.”_____________________________________________________________________“We take out the Iraen’s next,” Tardaesha said. “They’re not known for their loyalty to House Darius, but I also don’t imagine they harbor any love for dragons. Why take chances?”Kat led the group upstairs to the guest quarters where she’d heard the Iraens. A week had passed, and for all she knew, the barbarians may have already returned to the north. When she listened at the door, however, she again heard their guttural language amidst laughter and song. Kat held up a finger, motioning for her companions to wait and be silent. Then she flashed all ten fingers, meaning they should give her ten seconds before entering. She enfolded herself in her cloak and vanished into smoke before seeping under the door. She quickly passed through the room with the eight Iraen hunters and then under another door at the far side. She had hoped it was empty so that she might set up a flanking position when her friends entered. She was not so lucky.Dakota slammed a boot into the door, smashing it open. Lemmy dashed past her and began blasting anything that moved. Dak stayed at the door, leaning around the edge and picking her targets. Kelvin leaned in from the other side and sent a multi-colored spray of light into the room, As the beams struck the barbarians, the effects were as varied as they were deadly. Several caught fire, while others jittered with electricity. A few began roaring with rage and then turned upon their own brethren. Kat found herself alone with a tall, red-haired half-elven woman, whose body was covered in intricate tattoos. She looked decidedly dangerous. The priestess didn’t seem to have noticed Kat’s presence, even after she’d resumed her corporeal form. Kat took advantage of that. She moved silently up behind the woman and drove a dagger into her back. The priestess merely grunted as she turned. Kat drew back, eyes wide, as the woman’s form began to shift and change. The temperature in the small room began to rise dramatically. Within seconds the priestess had become a living column of flame!Roger crossed blades with several of the warriors, driving them back before his fearsome onslaught, while Lemmy continued to hurl kinetic blasts to deadly effect. Suddenly, the inner door blew open and a huge creature composed of flame lumbered into the room. The priestess raised her fiery hands above her and summoned her druidic magic. A wave of power washed over the room, sucking moisture from the living members of the Knot, leaving their mouths parched and their eyes as dry as sand. Kat came behind the priestess, still stabbing with her dagger but having little effect. Then Kelvin pointed one finger at the elemental and sent a spear of solid ice through her chest. She collapsed to one knee, transforming back into her true form before falling to the floor. The remaining Iraens looked on in dismay as their priestess fell. They didn’t have long to grieve before the Nessian Knot sent them to rejoin their leader.________________________________________________________________Kat led her friends back to the ground floor and towards the guard post she’d observed earlier. There was no sense leaving any potential opposition for Chargammon if they didn’t absolutely have to. As the Knot approached the post, they disguised themselves as Iraens to avoid suspicion. The guards nodded as they passed, but when Dakota made to move through, one of them reached out and seized her by the arm.“Just a minute, Miss,” the knight said. “I don’t recognize you. Where did you come from?”Dakota looked the man in the eye, her own flashing momentarily red.‘You will let me pass,’ her voice spoke into his mind. “You can pass,” the knight nodded.“Wait,” another Knight spoke up. “What’s the matter with you, Jordan? You know that’s not protocol.”“It is now,” Kelvin replied, locking his gaze on the guard’s.“Of course it is,” the knight acquiesced. Before the remaining two guards could react, Dakota and Tardaesha dominated them as well.“Now then,” Kelvin instructed. “It’s been a long night. Your relief will be here any moment. Why don’t you lot stand down for the evening.”“Standing down,” they said in unison, saluting as they turned on their heels and left the Adarium.___________________________________________________________________“What’s up there?” Tardaesha asked Kat, pointing towards the stairs on the far side of the entry foyer.“I never looked,” Kat shrugged. “Just guessed it was the upper level of the portico.”Tardaesha rolled her eyes.“C’mon then,” she said. “We’re not going to leave some potential enemy behind us to stab us in the back.’Two spiral staircases led to an open chamber divided by a ten-feet high partition. The great dome itself rose more than eighty feet and was adorned with stained glass windows that honored Darius and Iomedae. It seemed more like a cathedral than a gathering place for royalty and their courtiers. But in that time of war and worry, there were no courtiers nor social functions. Instead, it was empty and quiet. That is except for a powerfully built angel who sat upon the king's throne. He spoke as the villains entered.“I've waited for you. My brother said your road of woe and wickedness would lead you here. My name is Ara Zandra. You banished my brother from the world he sacrificed so much for. Your journey ends here upon the throne you would steal. Righteous vengeance is mine!”And with that, the angel attacked.As Ara Zandra swooped towards them, Dakota raised her bow and shot him once in the chest. He did not pause. Instead, as he drew closer, a blinding radiance emanated from his body. Kat shrieked and covered her eyes too late. They felt like they’d been burned out of their sockets. The light burned and seared the flesh of all of them, especially the vampires. Kelvin quickly cast a spell, and a huge, disembodied hand appeared before the angel, blocking him from approaching any closer. Dakota shot him twice more as he struggled to circumvent the spell. Roger and Grumblejack closed in, trying to shield their eyes. The angel easily battered Roger aside with a blazing sword that suddenly appeared in his hands. He then drove it into Grumblejack, causing the fiendish ogre to stagger backwards, “Vengeance!” Ara Zandra shouted.“Is all mine,” Dakota hissed. She fired a volley of three more arrows, all of them striking the angel in the throat. He gurgled and clutched at the shafts, his sword vanishing as he dropped it. His eyes blazed golden for a moment and then went dark as he dropped to the floor in a crumpled heap.As Roger picked himself up from the ground, he felt a familiar tug in his mind and from his hand. Helbrand. The sword was trying to communicate with him again. It’s point dipped of its own volition and pointed towards the throne. When he reached it, he found himself involuntarily raising the sword and then smashing the old throne to splinters. Hidden among the shards was a gleaming, obsidian hilt. Roger bent to retrieve it and then easily snapped it into place upon Helbrand. Instantly, a voice spoke to him.“The blade thanks the master who has awoken it. Together the master and the blade will write their names in blood upon the pages of history.”Roger smiled grimly</blockquote>

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