Discord
Changelog
There was only one word she could think of.
Disaster.
From the plains below the Keep of Sorrows, and then from the top of the High Road Escarpment, the Simbul had watched as the remaining zulkirs of Thay and their seemingly-immortal enemies tore themselves apart.
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The zulkirs and selected heroes and mercenaries gathered at the Keep of Sorrows in an effort to defend it. They were led by and included Zulkir Maurin Greyhand, Sabel Aerlian, Ihsahn, Melaa ShadowRaven, Elliana Sendry, Melanna Jindaern, Anastashia Shadoe, Calhoun Mahr, Kalis Kurm, Malark Greycastle, and Ardin Riley. While the defense of the Keep was being organized, zulkirs Samas Kul and Lauzoril along with virtually all the High Priests of ‘The City of a Thousand Temples’, prepared a counterattack to be launched from the High Road Escarpment.
However, the Vengeful also sent some of their strongest agents to assault the Keep, led by the now-undead general Taraska Traynor, Karaz Dragonheart, Alice Blackstone, Mirabela Ebonheart, and Red Wizard-turned-Vengeful Sargatha.
The battle at the Keep went well for the defenders to start with as Taraska ordered her lesser undead to attack in an attempt to wear down the defenders of spells, ammunition, and maybe get lucky enough to bring down a couple legionnaires. Eventually dispatched, she continually began launching more powerful undead at the Keep until finally unleashing some of the Vengeful most powerful undead: Pestilence, War, and Famine. The gate was breached and utter chaos ensued as the powerful agents of the Vengeful poured forth to battle the forces of the zulkirs. The zulkirs held firm and even dispatched the agents several times - but they were all to arise shortly thereafter and resume the attack!
Having watched the battle from afar and realizing that the Keep was lost, yet realizing the heroes there could be useful to augment the assault from the High Road Escarpment, the zulkir Lauzoril ported into the Keep and opened a portal for the defenders to escape to the High Road marshalling point. Despite the fact that Alice slipped through the portal as well and caused some problems, the zulkirs and their allies were able to regroup.
While back at the Keep of Sorrows, the Vengeful undead and Sargatha had captured Melaa - who then escaped through the use of a recall stone. In a fury befitting the name they held, the Vengeful proceeded to wipe out any other living combatants, taking no prisoners, and took control of the fortress. Drawn by the power of their master, the leaders of the force were then transported to a smaller battalion of undead just north of Bezantur in preparation to lead a pre-emptive strike against the zulkirs and their allies gathering to the north of their position.
Taraska, leading the forces, charged forward to encounter Samas Kul and others at the southern edge of the zulkir force. Using one of his transmuters bone wands, he simply pointed it at the ferocious Taraska and with a command word she disintegrated to nothingness! Buoyed by the apparent success of the wands, the zulkirs tried leading the undead into the jaws of the assembled priestly army. Very quickly, the undead were turned to statues or simply disintegrated and disappeared as the wands were used on them.
However, it was only when the forces were fully engaged with each other that Samas Kul revealed his ultimate treachery. With a command word, apparently spoken overeagerly and before he intended to, the bone wands in the possession of all the priests exploded with tremendous force, reducing each of them to ash - including those given to the faithful priests Elliana and Ardin! But quick to react, Lauzoril called for aid and sought to bring down Kul for his treachery. In the following mayhem, Mirabela strode up and calling forth with the power of her new god simply struck Lauzoril dead!
Samas Kul continued to fight for his life, but his impatience had cost him what advantage he had. And under a storm of magic and blows by the remaining defenders around him, he was literally torn apart!
By this point though, the escarpment was overrun by undead. The statues of undead created by the wands still moved - and were now indestructible! Undead poured up the escarpment without even any regular priestly power to help stop them. One-by-one the zulkir’s allies fell: Malark, Azura, Anastashia, Melanna, and even the enigmatic Calhoun. Shattered and demoralized, the defenders ran or teleported from the battle in a rout as the Vengeful agents and their undead allies wiped out any remaining survivors that lingered.
Were it not for the heroism of Zulkir Greyhand - Azura, Malark, and Melanna all would have passed on in death or joined the Vengeful that day. As it were, he was unable to save Calhoun and Anastashia - and both rose from the dead to join and augment the forces of the Vengeful undead, as did countless other legionnaires in the Keep of Sorrows.
It was an unprecedented disaster for the Zulkirs of Thay.
------------------------------
For a moment the Simbul almost felt sorry for the zulkirs and their allies with the terrible losses they had suffered. They had at least rooted out perhaps the worst traitor in their midst with the death of Samas Kul. But his actions, and that of the other Vengeful, that day had lost them the Keep of Sorrows, the High Road Escarpment, Zulkir Lauzoril, almost all the High Priests of Bezantur including the priests Elliana and Ardin, and battalions of legionnaires including Calhoun and Anastashia who all rose as undead. But her sympathy only lasted until she remembered the very wickedness at their core. How many who had fought and died, or who fought and survived, had enslaved others? How many had killed another for gold, or just because they could for no good reason? How many actually cared about anyone other than themselves and the power they thought they wielded? How many had just stood by watching and growing jaded to all the evil in this land without doing anything to change it?
They deserve this, she thought grimly. They deserve all of this for what they are, all the evil they have caused, and all they represent. They deserve this eternal damnation.
------------------------------
An aspect of the god Mask lay as a shadow on the edge of Dweomerheart, the domain of Mystra. He had watched and waited for some time after accepting the challenge from the goddess Shar. It was almost time. He now knew what was needed to succeed.
Curiously, the prayer from a priestess of moderate power reached this aspect of him despite the fact he had others dealing with prayers from his faithful. Ira Ravenheart of his temple in some minor kingdom in Toril was offering up a solemn prayer to him since all the other priests of her insignificant city had been destroyed and his temple there now stood supreme. For the briefest of moments he thought to acknowledge he had heard her through a sign or even some shadowy magic to aid her, but then the moment passed as he closed out her voice and all other distractions from his mind.
He had a goddess to kill.
Disaster.
From the plains below the Keep of Sorrows, and then from the top of the High Road Escarpment, the Simbul had watched as the remaining zulkirs of Thay and their seemingly-immortal enemies tore themselves apart.
------------------------------
The zulkirs and selected heroes and mercenaries gathered at the Keep of Sorrows in an effort to defend it. They were led by and included Zulkir Maurin Greyhand, Sabel Aerlian, Ihsahn, Melaa ShadowRaven, Elliana Sendry, Melanna Jindaern, Anastashia Shadoe, Calhoun Mahr, Kalis Kurm, Malark Greycastle, and Ardin Riley. While the defense of the Keep was being organized, zulkirs Samas Kul and Lauzoril along with virtually all the High Priests of ‘The City of a Thousand Temples’, prepared a counterattack to be launched from the High Road Escarpment.
However, the Vengeful also sent some of their strongest agents to assault the Keep, led by the now-undead general Taraska Traynor, Karaz Dragonheart, Alice Blackstone, Mirabela Ebonheart, and Red Wizard-turned-Vengeful Sargatha.
The battle at the Keep went well for the defenders to start with as Taraska ordered her lesser undead to attack in an attempt to wear down the defenders of spells, ammunition, and maybe get lucky enough to bring down a couple legionnaires. Eventually dispatched, she continually began launching more powerful undead at the Keep until finally unleashing some of the Vengeful most powerful undead: Pestilence, War, and Famine. The gate was breached and utter chaos ensued as the powerful agents of the Vengeful poured forth to battle the forces of the zulkirs. The zulkirs held firm and even dispatched the agents several times - but they were all to arise shortly thereafter and resume the attack!
Having watched the battle from afar and realizing that the Keep was lost, yet realizing the heroes there could be useful to augment the assault from the High Road Escarpment, the zulkir Lauzoril ported into the Keep and opened a portal for the defenders to escape to the High Road marshalling point. Despite the fact that Alice slipped through the portal as well and caused some problems, the zulkirs and their allies were able to regroup.
While back at the Keep of Sorrows, the Vengeful undead and Sargatha had captured Melaa - who then escaped through the use of a recall stone. In a fury befitting the name they held, the Vengeful proceeded to wipe out any other living combatants, taking no prisoners, and took control of the fortress. Drawn by the power of their master, the leaders of the force were then transported to a smaller battalion of undead just north of Bezantur in preparation to lead a pre-emptive strike against the zulkirs and their allies gathering to the north of their position.
Taraska, leading the forces, charged forward to encounter Samas Kul and others at the southern edge of the zulkir force. Using one of his transmuters bone wands, he simply pointed it at the ferocious Taraska and with a command word she disintegrated to nothingness! Buoyed by the apparent success of the wands, the zulkirs tried leading the undead into the jaws of the assembled priestly army. Very quickly, the undead were turned to statues or simply disintegrated and disappeared as the wands were used on them.
However, it was only when the forces were fully engaged with each other that Samas Kul revealed his ultimate treachery. With a command word, apparently spoken overeagerly and before he intended to, the bone wands in the possession of all the priests exploded with tremendous force, reducing each of them to ash - including those given to the faithful priests Elliana and Ardin! But quick to react, Lauzoril called for aid and sought to bring down Kul for his treachery. In the following mayhem, Mirabela strode up and calling forth with the power of her new god simply struck Lauzoril dead!
Samas Kul continued to fight for his life, but his impatience had cost him what advantage he had. And under a storm of magic and blows by the remaining defenders around him, he was literally torn apart!
By this point though, the escarpment was overrun by undead. The statues of undead created by the wands still moved - and were now indestructible! Undead poured up the escarpment without even any regular priestly power to help stop them. One-by-one the zulkir’s allies fell: Malark, Azura, Anastashia, Melanna, and even the enigmatic Calhoun. Shattered and demoralized, the defenders ran or teleported from the battle in a rout as the Vengeful agents and their undead allies wiped out any remaining survivors that lingered.
Were it not for the heroism of Zulkir Greyhand - Azura, Malark, and Melanna all would have passed on in death or joined the Vengeful that day. As it were, he was unable to save Calhoun and Anastashia - and both rose from the dead to join and augment the forces of the Vengeful undead, as did countless other legionnaires in the Keep of Sorrows.
It was an unprecedented disaster for the Zulkirs of Thay.
------------------------------
For a moment the Simbul almost felt sorry for the zulkirs and their allies with the terrible losses they had suffered. They had at least rooted out perhaps the worst traitor in their midst with the death of Samas Kul. But his actions, and that of the other Vengeful, that day had lost them the Keep of Sorrows, the High Road Escarpment, Zulkir Lauzoril, almost all the High Priests of Bezantur including the priests Elliana and Ardin, and battalions of legionnaires including Calhoun and Anastashia who all rose as undead. But her sympathy only lasted until she remembered the very wickedness at their core. How many who had fought and died, or who fought and survived, had enslaved others? How many had killed another for gold, or just because they could for no good reason? How many actually cared about anyone other than themselves and the power they thought they wielded? How many had just stood by watching and growing jaded to all the evil in this land without doing anything to change it?
They deserve this, she thought grimly. They deserve all of this for what they are, all the evil they have caused, and all they represent. They deserve this eternal damnation.
------------------------------
An aspect of the god Mask lay as a shadow on the edge of Dweomerheart, the domain of Mystra. He had watched and waited for some time after accepting the challenge from the goddess Shar. It was almost time. He now knew what was needed to succeed.
Curiously, the prayer from a priestess of moderate power reached this aspect of him despite the fact he had others dealing with prayers from his faithful. Ira Ravenheart of his temple in some minor kingdom in Toril was offering up a solemn prayer to him since all the other priests of her insignificant city had been destroyed and his temple there now stood supreme. For the briefest of moments he thought to acknowledge he had heard her through a sign or even some shadowy magic to aid her, but then the moment passed as he closed out her voice and all other distractions from his mind.
He had a goddess to kill.