Dissent in Vailin

Admiral Swordhand gives commands to his fleet to raise more ships and begin defending the coastline of Zembar's central island. Against the orders of the crown prince himself, Vailin's home fleet strikes off on the Admiral's orders to patrol, where they encounter a storm elemental positioned by the Iron Circle in the Saris Straight. The fleet is sunk, but not before its own storm elementals overwhelm and consume the magical essence of the Iron Circle's guardian.

Back in Valindor, the King's advisor Magus Graycloak, sends the bowman guarding the city gates south to guard the Deep Havens, against the protest of the kings cousin Alrick Silvanus, the captain of the Knights of the Vale. Graycloak argues that he is merely defending the free and loyal peoples in the Deep Havens who are providing Vailindor's crops. He sets his own woodshaping mages to work building war engines to guard the city gates.

Crush the Rebellion! The Death of Roq Firebeard

From the Throneholds, the dark lords of Karkoth quickly summon their armies to suppress the rebellion. Ebrek the Drow warrior takes his elite unit of soldiers riding giant spiders from the jungles of Zannad north to Slaughtergarde. There they ambush Yvonne the Punnisher, capturing their web and putting down her slave revolt. Yvonne and a handful of strong survivors are taken to the Vault of the Drow and put to work in the deepest mines of the dark elves.

The freedom enjoyed by Blisterforge's peasants is quickly soured by the arrival of the Karkothi hero Darkranger, a twisted being who once may have been human, but over time became corrupted exploring the shadowy parts of the feywild. He brings a legion of skeleton warriors, and elemental and a dracolich with him, firmly establishing the Karkothi lords authority through fear and destruction to those who openly oppose them.

The Gorgon King sends his personal orc guards south to the Maze of Markull, along with some bolt throwers, a pair of medusa riding iron gorgons. The huge black dragon from the crimson ramparts flies up the coast to join their assault.

The League of Nerath's combine armies had taken refuge in the great tower at the center of the maze. As the orcs and bolt throwers set up positions on the cliffs alongside the tower, the Lunarmancer lead the dire bears out across a wide stone bridge crossing a chasm to confront them. The Lunarmancer cast a great blinding light from the sky as they crossed and the bears tore into the seige engines and troops.

The iron gorgons mounted by medusa's charged into battle, turning the bears to stone. The Lunarmancer dove off the bridge, featherfalling to safety. The two copper dragons atop the tower swooped down to strafe the gorgons on the bridge, their hide turning stoney as they resisted the creatures dark powers and continued to rain cold and fire on the bridge. Finally they cracked the great bridge with the force of their breath weapons, crumbling the stone bridge with the gorgons atop it, who fell to their doom.

During the battle, the huge black dragon silently sailed to the opposite side of the tower, intent on killing those remaining defenders inside. Roq and Toj Firebeard the northmen, hid themselves just inside a balcony as the beast prowled along the far side of the tower, looking to ambush the copper and silver dragons when they were vulnerable. Roq distracted the great beast with a mightly blow that severed one of its wings, and died in a great blast of acid that melted his flesh from bone. Toj cried out and leaped to the other side, severing its other wing before forcing the great beast off the balcony with a furious smack that the thing falling to its doom.

In the aftermath, the Lunarmancer used his rituals to reverse the petrified Dire Bears and their handlers. Toj burned Roq's remains in a great pyre atop the tower of Markull, as the mighty dragons and bears roared in tribute to the fallen hero.

The Iron Wolf Hold Strikes! Rebellion in Karkoth!

From the Iron Wolf Hold, the king plans a powerful offensive against the Karkothi lords to the east. He sends his best mage, called The Lunarmancer along with two northmen heroes, Roq and Toj Firebeard to rally forces in the White Raven chieftain. They join up with the copper and silver dragon and unit of shifters driving a pack of dire bears to mount an offensive against the Maze of Murkull, land of the minotaur chiefs.

The Maze of Murkull is a treacherous series of valleys, canyons, and tunnels. Some are natural while others are carved from the rocky cliffs by picks and magic. The Maze's master, a wicked mage called the Nightmaster lets the army press deep into his territory before his army of minotaurs, ogres, and shadar-kai attacks. The White Raven clansmen charge valiantly forward alongside their dragon allies, taking the brunt of the ambush. As the dragons and men pin the armies of Murkull down, the Lunarmancer weaves a powerful mist spell that blinds and chokes their army. The dire bears then wade into battle, decimating their lines. Roq and Toj the northmen fight through the ranks of brutish guardians to slay the Nightmaster as he is chanting to reverse the Lunamaster's incantation. Once their leader falls, the remaining Ogres and Minotaurs flee into the labyrinth.

Further north, Ella the Enchantress, a powerful adventurer journeys to Skalgard to join Prince Stalkingwolf. They lead their army east to exact their revenge on the Cloven Skull Orc Hold. The orcs rush out to greet them on the field of battle before they reach the hold's gates. Leading the charge into battle is the dread wraith Kraxus. Prince Stalkingwolf and Kraxus square off, but the wraith envelopes him and drains his life essence. In his weakened state he still manages to defeat Kraxus, but the elite unit of frost giants charging over the plains surround and crush the prince and his retinue. Ella the Enchantress squares off against the orc hold's foul necromancer. Fighting and dodging her way through a skeletal legions arrows, she slays the deathpriest with a silver dagger through the heart. Ella rallies her army and routes the few orcs and giants remaining.

In the far northern icebound wastes. News of the giant's defeat encourages a slave revolt. It first starts with a champion, a half elf named Yvonne the Punisher, who kills the frost giant guards and sends the newly freed people west to join up with the League's units on the Plain of Ebon Spires. As the miners labor to build a fortification and defenses in the plain, Yvonne takes a small force on a raid further south, across Blisterforge and into Slaughterguard. Along her path she frees slaves and takes her growing army of rabble toward the Thoneholds, to unseat their former masters.

Back in the Iron Wolf Hold, the King buries the Prince at sea, setting his burning funeral vessel north into the icy waters. Songs of his great battle with the dread wraith tell of his valiant end, though his closest friends hold their tongues. For they all dream that he has not ended, but has risen again as a wraith himself, haunting the bloody field of battle, draining the souls of the lost in the night.

Xanlomin's Last Stand

The tactics of Xanlomin's gnome rangers puts the Iron Citadel on the defensive, forcing them to double back and retake lands they had moved through quickly on their assault against the Duchy of Solandir. Still the opressive weight of the wealthy city-states' alliance proved too much for the rebel armies of Vailin.

Tithnian soldiers returned from the duchy, their pockets full of coin and plundered riches, and they crushed the Emerald Blade's forces with their siege engines. Great Iron Golems moved south from Tithnia through the Thorndeep, carving a road through the wilderness, allowing safe passage for the Iron Citadel's legions of footsoldiers.

In Rana Moor, a dragonborn mercenary named Alukahn leads a power force from the Citadel of Iron's Grasp to defeat the Druid Isle's storm elemental that was plaguing the region. Worg Oswe, Half-Ogre takes a bride, Alrackis the Bloodhanded. They celebrate their new lands as the new Duke and Duchess of Solandir with public executions and trials by combat for the defeated nobles that fill their dungeon.

Worg Oswe's great red dragon moves to join a unit of infantry from the northern coast, where they had been occupying the Sand Sea tribes lands. New garrisons move in as they join an elemental force to destroy Xanlomin Goblinsfoe's mountaineers in the Black Stone Desert. Xanlomin's carefully laid trap defeats the infantry easily, leaving the Black Stone canyons littered with arrow filled corpses of hobgoblin soldiers.

The gnome's best laid plan is twarted when his carrion crawler is tied down by a storm elemental and his rangers must do battle with the great red dragon high atop the cliffs. The monster and elemental destroy each other and his rangers are picked off one by one against the dragon. Finally Xanlomin himself leaps onto the dragon and stabs it furiously, but he is crushed beneath the monster as it rolls into a cliffside. The dragon survives, but Xanlomin is no more.

Meanwhile, a Tiefling Warlock named Irielyassa disembarks from the Iron Circle's navy in the Emerald Blade Barony. She summons a great pack of Succubi and takes control of the Baron and his court with their wiles.

Castle Zembar

Admiral Norneiros Swordhand returns from the Sea of Ghosts a haunted and changed man. Having seen many men die at the Crimson Ramparts he brings news of the recent defeat to the Crown Prince of Vailindor. When he arrives at court he finds that the Prince has locked himself in the high tower, enveloped in the pleasures of his court, and avoiding the responsibilities of his office. Since the recent string of defeats the Prince has declared that he wants no further news of the war until there is good news and to that end, he cares not what actions his servants take, so long as he is secure in his palace.

Refugees from around the southern lands have choked the streets and the walled gates have been closed and all the knights pulled in to defend the capitol, effectively leaving the surrounding countryside to conquest. The admiral sneers at the Prince's advisers and heads to the royal treasury, taking a large sum with his men and loading it onto his ships. He takes the bravest knights from the surrounding lands and flight of griffons, along with the best stone and woodshaping mages in the kingdom, and sets sail for Zembar. When they arrive at his homeland, the admiral begins construction of a spartan, practical fortress along the cliffs overlooking the Zemish Strand.

On the peninsula ruled by the Iron Circle, the disparate forces of Vailin's southern kingdoms re-align themselves after the fall of the Duchy of Solandir. Choosing hit and run, guerrilla tactics they strike toward the weaker heart of the Circle's territories, rather than a full confrontation with Worg Oswe's powerful army. The Emerald Blade Baronies army moves west into Tithnia, their long-time rival, crushing the garrison left behind in the Circle's advance to the Duchy. Xanlomin Goblinsfoe the Gnome, leads his small band of rangers into the Blackstone Desert. The goblins there are taken by surprise as he sends an enormous carrion crawler (the unseen river monster from the Massacre at Thorndeep) up the side of the mountain pass to consume their archers, while the rest of his force scales the opposing cliff to gain higher ground and rain down arrows on the fleeing survivors.

The Isle of the Druids sends their Storm Elemental to Rana Moor, where their hippogriff riding soldiers are drawn up into the great magic vortex and burned and blacked by the lightning in its heart. The Prince's advisers send word to him in his great tower of ivory and gold, but they find him intoxicated in bed smoking strange spices from the lands across the the great eastern mountains. They resume their plans to restore their kingdoms glory and honor.

The Rain of Colorless Fire

In the Karkothi's northern lands, the dark lords send out word to their necromancers to begin a great battle ritual. Three great pyres are built and prisoners from the dungeons are marched into the flames. Three great pillars of black smoke rise into the heavens forming a great cloud that snakes along the coast to the southern lands.

On his flagship in the Sea of Ghosts, Admiral Swordhand witnesses the black cloud darken the skies above his blockade and the Crimson Ramparts. Over the ancient fortress a colorless fire descends, raining death upon Valin's guardians. The storm elemental hurls itself up into the cloud to dispersing it and the elemental in the process. Valin's dragons spread their wings to protect the vulnerable treants from the magical flames falling all around.

The Karkothi attack comes swiftly on the heels of the storms wrath. An ancient black dragon from the north leads the charge spewing acid onto the treants as they hurl boulders across the ruined walls to strike at Karkoth's undead soldiers, lead by the resurrected Elistine Gellantara, who is now a vile wraith. Valin's dragons take flight, strafing the undead legions, consuming Gellantara and her footsoliders in their flames. As the battle concludes, the two wounded and weakend metallic dragons stand against their larger chromatic foe. In a bloody land battle, the black dragon rends one in half with its claws while biting the head off the other. It burrows into the mud of the moat along one of the many battered walls to recover before its next flight. The carnage strewn battlefield is silent.

Further East in the Great Wildwood, the peaceful forest peoples had just begun to recover their wits and confidence with the help of a garrison unit of elf archers, lead by Richand Woodsheart the ranger, and Zannerios Dragonsbane the arcane archer. Both witty and cheerful and great storytellers and bards as well, they have lifted the peoples spirits after their successful liberation from the zombie hulk invasion. With their help the people train in archery and learn skirmishing tactics to help aid in their defense the next time they must defend the lands.

Still they are unprepared for what comes next. Yllakain, the Half-Orc Paladin of Orcus rides through the forest with a pack of dire wolves to sniff out the woodfolk, with a unit of ghouls stalking behind to catch any that are missed by the wolves. Overhead, a purple dragon circles the skies scouting out the locations of the wildwood people's refuge and leading the army to find their hidden forces, thwarting their ambushes. In a delicate game of cat and mouse the elves move carefully through the wood, trying to find the best terrain for their attack, but when Richand and Zannerios are finally captured and impaled on Yllakain's blade, the rest of the archers break ranks and begin to flee through the woods where they are run down by the ghouls and dire wolves. Yllakain cuts down the most ancient tree in the wood and has his dragon roll it's trunk over the captured soldiers as the rest of the forestfolk prisoners watch in horror. He then sends the forest folk in chains to the north to serve the Throneholds.

The Barony of Brandhil braces for the worst as news of the invasion to the north trickles in. A small force of townsfolk with light armor and pikes they take up positions on the edges of their town to guard against the horrific undead stalkers that have overtaken Cernal. Soon they too fall to the silent predators who pick them off slowly, savoring their cries in the dark night. The creatures leave no bodies in their wake, only cold hearths and abandoned homes, as they move further and deeper into the Walkingwood, home of the Treants. While the proud warriors of the Walkingwood die defending the Crimson Ramparts, the undead menace creeps into their forest groves, uprooting their seedlings and driving out the rare animals they had gathered and protected there. Poachers who once prowled the woods looking for easy meat in the Treants' absence now stay clear away from the Walkingwood, declaring it haunted.

Skalgard Keep liberated! Sinister secrets unearthed in Sarthel.

Laralove Dewshining rests from her expedition to the Sunless Citadel in Fallcrest then joins an arcanist named Xanroar Carter on a journey to the Trollhaunt Warrens. There they battle a tribe of hill giants loyal to Skalamad the Troll King. In the hill giant's lair they find a horde of gold. Xanroar uses the bones of the hill giants to craft powerful magic gauntlets that are shipped to all the fighters in the league. The two mages rest in Nera, among the ruins of the old Nerathi Empire's capitol.

The city state of Sarthel has been defiantly collecting taxes from neighboring villages and invading those who refuse to pay for their protection. Many refugees from the raided villages and those who have no more coin to sustain themselves head to nearby Vor Rukoth seeking sanctuary. The dwarves stationed there hear the villagers cries for help and mobilize their cannons and mountaineers. They also recruit a tribe of stone giants nearby who owe their clan a debt from ages past, and a silver dragon from Winterbole Forest who has sworn allegiance to the league for honoring an ancient Nerathi Imperial pact to leave his lands untouched by axe or plow.

When the force from Vor Rukoth arrives at Sarthel, many of the wealthiest nobles have already fled. The mercenary guards abandon their posts at the sight of the powerful army set to lay siege to their city. Only a handful of loyal warriors fiercely defend those few houses who remain. They are quickly overcome and the rabble flood through the gates alongside the army, rushing into the lush mansions to loot the remaining wealth within.

An elite unit of dwarves scales the back wall of the fortress and captures several fleeing noblemen. As they move through the nobles home making more arrests they make an unsettling discovery: a great subterranean temple to Asmodeus the Lord of Hell and signs of human and animal sacrifices. The nobles found in the home above the temple and inside are executed for devilry, and the remaining prisoners are held for trial later as investigations continue. The house and temple are razed to the ground by the great dragon.

In Skalgard Keep, the orcs reign of terror continues and the lands fall into chaos. Prince Stalkingwolf leads the Iron Wolfhold's liberation force. The orcs, too busy plundering to rebuild the main gates of the keep, which they had smashed with their siege engine, were unable to repel the Prince, though they held out long in their fight and claimed nearly one thousand of the Wolfhold's soldiers on the battlefield. Their great engine of war, with it's cloven skull rolled out from the keep, decorated with the bodies of Skalgard's finest knights. It's great wheels crushing many of the advancing troops before the Prince himself climbed atop the great machine, setting it ablaze with his flaming sword. A bronze dragon joined the strike, setting orc archers on the towers of Skalgard Keep aflame, as great stones heaved by trebuchets battered the walled defenses. The last of the orcs standing on the field of battle were cut down by the Ironwolf's berzerkers, a loyal shifter clan.

The King in Ironwolf Hold drank to his son's victory, and sent ale to all the villages in his honor.