The Way of the Wicked Summary (Act 1)

--ACT ONE--

-Original Characters: Viktor Axe-helm (Simon),  Killian Thorne (Alex), Nalethar (Jon) and Dave (Stephen).

-The story begins in Brandescar about a year ago which is supposedly the highest security prison on the whole island of Talingarde. All of the party had been caught breaking the law to a degree that merits the death penalty and so had been sent there to await their punishment. While they waited they were branded with an F (stands for forsaken) on their forearm and it can never be removed or disguised, only hidden.

-Their stay at Brandescar was less than pleasant for Viktor, Killian and Dave as Nalethar discovered the chains binding them were made of iron conducted the electricity from her shocking grasp and took to shocking the party whenever she was annoyed, which was very common as she didn't take kindly to being chained up and dressed in rags.

-Fortunately they soon received a visitor in the form of a cold and beautiful woman named Tiadora. She appeared to have enthralled the guards and convinced them to give her a private audience with one of the party. She gave this unlikely group two things, a veil that contained a few useful objects to use in their escape and a promise of vengeance if they sought out her master's manor when they escaped.

-Using Tiadora's gift along with Dave and Killian's combined lock-picking talents the party managed to free themselves and then were brought to the brink of death by the two guards outside their cell. This forced them to seek a stealthier approach and due to some fantastic (and tragic) bluff checks they managed to blag their way outside. They also found the prison to be somewhat lacking in security with drinking and gambling being the guards highest priority allowing them to make it onto the walls. Thanks to Nalethar's feather fall spell they managed to swan dive off and land safely, if exhausted, outside the prison along with the ogre from the cell next to them, named Grumblejack.

-Aki (Mimi) had a somewhat easier time of it having been arrested a year before the others and wrapping the male guard population around her little finger due to her feminine wiles. This and her innate spell-casting ability allowed her to turn invisible and walk out the front door whilst the guards were distracted by a different escape attempt. Unbeknownst to her Tiadora was watching the escape having been the one who orchestrated the other attempt and saw the potential in Aki and offered her the chance to join her and Thorn.

-The original party navigated their way across the moors and eventually reached a great manor where they were greeted by Tiadora and a number of enthralled servants that showed them how luxurious being the villain could be, a far cry from the bleak, cold prison they'd escaped from. There they met Cardinal Adrastus Thorn; a tall, handsome man in black and burgundy robes who offered them power, adoration, vengeance and above all a way to rule the world rather than be shunned by it. The party, with nothing and no-one else, took Thorn at his word and signed a contract dedicating themselves in service to him and Asmodeus.

-Thorn and Tiadora then trained the original party the best they could, culminating in a test of nine rooms where they had to recover an amulet. This was at the very boundaries of their capabilities as Killian and Grumblejack were killed by Draugr in the dungeon. Fortunately the surviving members managed to trick the amulet off the paladin who carried it and Nalethar used her lightning as a defibrillator to bring Grumblejack back but was unable to save Killian. The party limped out of the dungeon battered but successful and were rewarded by being made the Ninth Knot, an official part of Thorn's organisation.

-The loss of Killian resulted in a rather mercenary samurai named Midas (Alex) being brought in to replace him by Thorn, having seen that the party was somewhat lacking in raw muscle.

-The party recovered for a short while in Thorn's manor and whilst they were doing so got to know the other adventuring group that had been training with them. Notable members include a murderous but friendly cleric named Trik that got on well with Nalethar and their leader Elise Zadaria, a winter witch. This adventuring party formed the Seventh Knot

-The party then received their first mission, to take a shipment of weapons by boat to Sakkarot Fire-Axe, leader of the bugbear hoard and then to open the gates of Balentyne for them. So they traveled north and met with Sakkarot who turned out to be incredibly intelligent and well spoken by anyone's standards, let alone a bugbear. The party gave a good account of themselves and made a friend of Sakkarot who let them in on a few secrets; that he and the hoard comprised the First Knot, that he was as much an outcast as them, and that Cardinal Thorn used to be of the Mitran faith and not Asmodeus.