Tiadora grins wickedly and puts a hand on her stomach as she replies, not bothering to lower her voice, "Dearest, why are you so upset? I would have thought you'd love the idea of a little baby brother with such an impressive wingspan."

At this last statement, Blau's head whips around with a snap that sounds like rock exploding, mouth open in utter shock as he looks from Tiadora to Eya in utter astonishment. At a loss he stutters "You...she... her... him?!?" and stands there, stunned utterly.

"UGH!" Eya complains as she throws up her arms. 

She walks away.

Kiven raises an eyebrow at the reference to 'baby brother', giving Eya a quick glance.  Looking much less shocked than the others, Kiven remarks "although I always avoided it, I imagine the rituals of court were not all that different, from a certain perspective."

Tiadora is still grinning as she walks back towards the knot. "Now that that's settled, if the members of the Nessus Knot could join me on the aftcastle, I'll explain what your next task will be. Dearest, stop sulking and come along, you need to hear this."

Once everyone is gathered at the rear of the ship, just above where Tiadora had just "Persuaded" Abraxxus, she casts some sort of spell, and an eerie silence settles over the area. It seems that no sound can get in or out of the area around you and Tiadora.

"Now then. I do hope that I don't need to tell you to limit the information that you provide to that little menagerie over there you're building." She waves in the direction of Calarel, Grumblejack, and Kiliketz.

"This ship is bound for Farholde, a backwater of little significance. It is important to us largely because of its proximity to our real target. A Temple known as the Horn of Abbadon, built by a death cult calling themselves the "sons of the pale horseman". Almost eighty years ago the first Darian king, Markadian I called the Victorious overthrew the Horn and destroyed the Sons. No great loss, honestly."

"But what the Victor found within the temple is why we are seeking it out.  He defeated a daemon prince called Vetra-Kali Eats-the-Eyes.  So terrified of this monstrosity was the king, that he had the priests of Mitra craft a great silver seal to forever bind the daemon in place. The seal remains to this day. The old King's fear was justified. Vetra-Kali is an archdeacon in service to the lord of pestilence, and he holds in his possession a masterpiece of his craft, a disease known as the Tears of Achlys."

"Tallingarde will have enough difficulties dealing with the hobgoblin horde, our first hammer blow to the strength of the nation, but the Tears of Achlys will be a poisoned dagger to the heart, carried by our agents to every bastion of the Mitran Faith. You are to find the Horn of Abbadon, find Vetra-Kali, release him from the seal, and take the Tears of Achlys for the Cardinal. There is a cure for this disease of course, but the Mitrans will never find it before our victory is assured. They'd be looking in the wrong place after all, the pestilence is designed to react... badly to celestial magics." Tiadora laughs at the thought.

"Our plans have had to change a bit. You see, the fourth Knot was supposed to have accomplished this task by now. They reported that they had found the temple, hidden in a great stone spire a mere day's ride from Farholde. But then that was the last we heard from them. They are presumed deceased, in one way or another having underestimated the task at hand. I suggest that you not make the same mistake. You will have the support of the seventh knot, for whatever that is worth. The true glory of this task is yours, earned through your success at Ballentyne, the seventh knot will simply remain in Farholde and see that anyone who tries to find the Horn and interfere with your work meets an unhappy end. Thus, you will have time to do what must be done. It is quite likely that whatever ritual is necessary to break the seal, it could take weeks or even months. Such things are made to never be undone."

"We do have a potential ally in Farholde, Duke Arkov Vandermir was an Asmodean prior to house Darius winning the war. He was forced to renounce our lord at swordpoint, but for some reason the foolish Mitrans took him at his word and let him keep his titles. Even they should have remembered that a forced contract is no contract. It may be difficult to persuade him, but his willing assistance would go a long way to securing our position there. If he cannot be persuaded, then I will kill him, and arrange for one of the seventh knot to take his place. Not ideal, but better than nothing."

"I will be accompanying you long enough to ensure that you are well settled and prepared in Farholde, and then after that my duties will take me elsewhere. If you have questions, I suggest asking them now."

"How is the disease spread, what and where is the cure, and how do we ensure we are not its first victims once we release it?"

Balu adds his own questions 'Once we've found this seal, will we need to be the ones to break it, or merely search for the method to do so? What kind of challenges should we expect in this temple - undead, lesser demons, poisonous jellies?"

Tiadora points to Eya, "She is your cure, in a manner of speaking. A small quantity of devil's blood, properly treated and refined through magic and alchemy, inures an imbiber to the disease. During our journey I'll be instructing you upon the correct process to make the treatment. It does need to be fresh however, so do not do so until you are close to breaking the seal. There is also a spell capable of curing large numbers of people of this disease at once, but to my knowledge Our Father Below has only granted the use of it to the cardinal. That will be his role soon enough, as the great healer and liberator, for those who cast off the shackles of Mitra that is." Tiadora smiles wickedly.

"But yes, you are expected to break the seal. If there are resources required that are not within your grasp, it will be provided. Whatever it takes, the Cardinal will be very disappointed if you leave that place without the Tears."

"As to what you will face within, perhaps all of those things, perhaps none of them. With the recent exception of the fourth knot, no one has set foot in that place in over 80 years."

  Abraxxus says, " It is well that you accompany us on this first step.  You have wisdom to impart to us. " He looks over to Eya.  " I am surprised that you didn't mention that this beautiful woman was your mother. She is most persuasive and by far the most impressive human I have ever met. " He looks between the two women wondering if she is in fact human but decides not to ask.  

Respar reacts to the news of Eya's parentage with a raised eyebrow.  The way Tiadora's appearance is always remarkably perfect could easily indicate a well-maintained illusion.  He briefly wonders if Eya's infernal heritage is from her mother or father, but then decides it is immaterial, though interesting nevertheless.

He listens to the briefing.  "I for one have never really dealt with such a powerful figure as this Vetra-Kali.  Do we think he will gladly hand over the Tears once we release him and tell him of our plans for it?  Or will we need to take the Tears by force?   If the latter, we will need to be ready for that fight."

Tiadora looks to Eya and asks, "How are your binding studies coming along? Can you answer his question?"

Eya begrudgingly goes to listen to Tiadora give a brief rundown of the mission. When prompted, Eya replies to answer Respar’s question, “When we release the creature, we will include a binding contract. In other words, in exchange for the creature’s freedom it would need to offer us a boon of some kind. Perhaps we could demand the tears and our safety for example, in exchange for the creature’s freedom, and then it would have to follow through per the binding contract.”

“But I have my own questions too,” Eya starts. “How is this magical seal meant to be broken? What’s it look like? And, regarding this “ally” Duke Vandermir, how much does he know about us, the Cardinal, and our plans in general?”

"The Duke knows nothing as of yet. He has spent the last 80 years living as an avowed Mitran after all, so his loyalty is suspect to say the least. We have every reason to believe that this is a facade, but we will not give him one scrap of information until the hour in which he is confronted with the choice to renew his vows to the Father Below."

"As to the seal..." Tiadora shrugs, "I have no idea. I suspect that the only people who could answer that question would be the remaining priests who created the thing in the first place. I suppose you could ask them, but I suspect that will not go over well. You will have to investigate for yourself and work from there. If you are worried about not recognizing the thing, don't, I suspect you will feel it long before you see it."

Respar listens to the conversation, trying to keep everything straight in his mind.  But something keeps nagging at him.  During a break he says to the group, "Just a thought, but I got a definite sense of the fourth knot as competent, but petty.  So I want us all to keep in mind that they might very well have found the seal, but ultimately realized they were not able, or prepared to open it.  Admitting failure I assume would be tantamount to suicide, so perhaps they have merely gone silent and are waiting.  Waiting for another team to come along and open the seal and secure the Tears.  Then they swoop in, wrest it away and claim victory."  He pauses, then adds, "Until we see their corpses, I won't believe they're dead."

As for the Duke, he asks Tiadora, "What sorts of weaknesses does he have in case we need to pressure him?  Loved ones?  A fondness for gold?"

  " Let whoever wishes try to take it from us.  We will reign hell down upon them.  I look forward to another combat.  Hopefully this will provide more of a challenge than the old paladin.   " 

Tiadora shrugs, "If the fourth knot have resorted to such, then deal with them. If they're alive, they've failed, and it will take more than stealing credit from you to make up for that failure."

"As to the Duke, he was always described as ambitious and pragmatic in equal measure. Based on what our spies have reported, he resents not being able to advance himself in this new society. Convince him that THIS is the moment when his ambitions can be fulfilled, and he should respond."

“Oh, one last curiosity, why are we in charge of the main mission over the seventh knot? And how mad is Elise right now?” Eya grins widely at this last question. She really hates that Elise *****.

“Oh sorry. I just meant that I am so looking forward to seeing my best friend Elise again,” Eya laughs like the mischievous arrogant devil she is.

---

Before leaving the docks, Eya spends the majority of the day finishing up the belt for Abraxxus. She then goes into town and shops for some mundane items that could help with the upcoming trip. She purchases a medium tent, a bedroll, a few torches, oil flasks, rations, and some rope. Then she goes to a magic shop and purchases a couple spells from the owner.

During the trip, crazy psycho Mom moments aside, Eya does her best to focus on crafting items for herself and the Knot. She swaps between magic item creation and alchemy, and commandeers an entire area of the ship for her own workspace that looks like a crazy mad scientist’s makeshift laboratory. She’s too mentally scarred to use her mother’s room, even though it would be much easier to work in than outside on the deck. She’s not getting within even 11 feet of that room.

First, Eya approaches Abraxxus and, without looking at him and with her head facing to the side, hands him a shiny golden trimmed belt, “Here, this will make you stronger like I promised.” She then looks up at him with a fire in her eyes, “Listen, I’m only telling you this for your own safety Abraxxus. You do NOT want to get involved with her. She can and will rip you to shreds or turn you into her own lizard puppet. Yes, I’m annoyed with you, but I’m not mad. You didn’t know. So just put on your new belt and tell me if you feel stronger. I’ll make more of these shiny items for you in the future. All I ask is that we work together and that you protect me when the time comes. And I’ll use my magic to support and help you destroy our enemies.”

She approaches Blau, hands him a silver amulet of a roaring flame, and says, “Hey, I made you something. This is an amulet that will enchant your fists with flames so that you may purge our enemies. Praise Asmodeus.” She continues, “I have a request of you. I’m great at lying and persuading others, but I’m awful at reading people. Probably because I never had many friends. Anyway, childhood developmental trauma aside, I’ll just be blunt; I do not trust any of these people, this duke, the seventh knot, and even Tiadora, though her to a lesser extent for now. Plus I really won’t be able to help myself when I see that ***** Elise again so help me Asmodeus I am going to rub this in her face so...yeah. Please beware of anything that doesn’t feel right and let me know. We can’t trust anyone but our own Knot. We are the ones bound by the same contract together.”

She approaches Respar and hands him a nice leather belt of very high quality and with lots of utility pouches. “Here, I made you a belt that should help your ability to do all that shady stuff you do. If you have any ideas for any other items you may need, let me know and I’ll give you a Knot-member discount.” Eya laughs, then continues, “Anyway, I need your help with something. Can you make sure none of these ******** lies to us? I don’t trust this duke, the seventh knot, Tiadora, or really anyone minus our own Knot since we all are bound by contract.”

Finally, she approaches Kiven as he sits down with him and his new apprentice. “Greetings, Prince Aloro and...Celarel was it?” she asks. She takes a seat next to them and hands Aloro a fine looking belt with Elven inscriptions that read, “Aim, Swift, True.” “Put it on and let me know what you think. It should help with your aim, not that your aim is bad or anything. Anyway, if you need anything else made let me know. How’s she holding up?” She asks as she looks to Celarel.

Respar replies to Tiadora, "Thank you.  Knowing that ought to help with the duke.  And have no fear, we will deal with any other knot that tries to interfere with us in anyway."

Tiadora smiles again, and there might be a hint of something other than mischief behind it this time, could that be... pride?

"The why of it is simple enough. The Seventh knot performed their duties adequately, but the ninth excelled at them. Weakening Ballentyne such that the horde could break through would have been enough to fulfill your duty, but you, you crippled them. Assassinated much of their leadership before they even knew something was wrong, let the horde in without any real resistance, and even delayed warning of the threat from reaching the other forts."

"And as to how mad she is, well, lets just say as I was leaving it was quite some time before I could no longer hear her shouts."

---

After the meeting disperses, Tiadora seeks out her daughter, stating rather bluntly to Eya, "I knew the look in that one's eyes, we could have argued and reasoned and even threatened him all we wanted. The only way to convince him was to show him the benefits of cooperating freely. Besides, he is an impressive specimen as males go, I might have sought him out even without such need."

"I told you before that you have an effective weapon as a woman that you have been neglecting, but there's more to it than that. This path is not worth walking without taking pleasure in it. I gather that you still have not fully entrapped that boy Kiven, and now he seems to have found a new person to captivate his interest, it appears that your window there is closing."

---

The ship begins its long and slow journey, heading west by southwest at first, making for a river that would take you to the western coast, to then turn north for Farholde.

Two nights hence, Tiadora orders the ship to anchor not far from a small village, then vanishes into thin air. Some time later, there's a disturbance in the village. A tall and heavily armored figure is dragging someone into the village square, there's some kind of exchange, and then the knight kills the villager before walking away, leaving the remaining villagers to gather around the body and start shouting after the knight. Shortly afterwards, Tiadora reappears on the ship, and orders the crew to resume course.

Respar nods in appreciation.  "So whom will the villagers blame?  What order has just slaughtered an innocent peasant for no reason?  Or did you learn something of value as well as make our enemies look bad?"