Shadow of the Valley
Recent Battles — NQ 23
The “Recent Battles” series presents scenarios that allow players to participate in key engagements during the last few years of warfare across western
Immoren. Some of these represent small but crucial battles where a single
warlock or warcaster has changed the course of history. Others depict large clashes involving massive armies and multiple warcasters or warlocks.
LEGION OF EVERBLIGHT VS. CIRCLE ORBOROS
From a stony outcropping, Absylonia gazed downward into the white valley. The swiftly moving forms of the Circle Orboros beasts and troops were silhouetted against the snow.
The long column of Legion forces they pursued blended more readily into the surrounding terrain, although in their haste they took few measures to conceal themselves. There was a desperate urgency to their march, for they had gone many miles without rest.
Absylonia watched as an exhausted group of Nyss swordsmen at the rear of the column faltered. Within seconds the blighted elves were overtaken by a pair of warpwolves and effortlessly shredded. The warpwolves howled triumphantly before loping off in continued pursuit, leaving only a mush of unrecognizable bodies in a bloody pool of churned snow and mud.
Absylonia’s stare was emotionless. She felt no particular connection to the slaughtered Nyss. Only Everblight mattered, but the dragon had deemed it imperative that his Nyss soldiers should be preserved. For that reason alone, Absylonia had come very far and stood ready to intercept this persistent enemy.
The dragon stirred in her mind, filling her thoughts. With her, Everblight eschewed the mentally projected words he used to communicate with the other warlocks. Absylonia’s mind was open to the dragon on a level that none of the others could even begin to understand. She welcomed his presence totally, willingly and completely subjugating her own fears and desires in place of his.
As Everblight began to flood her consciousness she felt the presence of the other warlocks more and more strongly. She grimaced; their mortal minds were an annoyance that distracted her from the presence of the dragon. She tolerated them without resentment only because Everblight valued them as tools.
Anticipating Everblight’s wishes, Absylonia focused on Rhyas, who was even now moving back through the column to help defend the rear guard. The swordswoman greeted her mentally. “Your arrival is well timed.” Absylonia ignored the meaningless greeting. Of course her arrival was well timed, for had not Everblight guided each of their strands to come together in this hour? Thagrosh, Vayl, and Saeryn approached even now from the opposite direction as a small but potent force, having emerged from their underground passage. Each of them played their designated role in the dragon’s schemes, yet only Absylonia truly abandoned the prideful facade of self-will and exulted in her servitude.
From the rocks where she crouched, Absylonia watched as Rhyas leapt nimbly down from a boulder to land amid the beleaguered Nyss swordsmen. Her sword opened the nearest warpwolf from groin to neck, and then she whirled to hew through the neck of a druid before the black-robed man could back away. He fell to his knees gurgling and clutching at his throat fruitlessly as his blood sprayed onto the snow. Even as his life bled out, a large group of fur- and armor-clad warriors advanced with spears. The Circle was feeling bold, certain they had driven the enemy to their last reserves. They had no
awareness they were being watched from far above.
Absylonia spotted a large group of hulking Tharn warriors flanked by argus converging on Rhyas from the opposite direction. She looked to be surrounded. More Legion swordsmen and archers were falling back from the rear of the column to provide support, but they were clearly not at their full fighting strength, wearied as they were from the long chase. Anticipation radiated from the attackers as they closed in like a pack of hungry wolves nipping at the heels of a blooded prey. They could almost taste their victory now. Additional warpwolves had come forward for the last push, ready to rend the raeks protectively flanking Rhyas as she stood in a ready stance with her bloodied sword raised.
Absylonia could feel the acrid edge of Rhyas’ thoughts as the enemy moved to engage her ranks. “Where are you? Strike now!” It was not quite fear that filled Rhyas’ mind, as the assassin had faced certain death many times before, but certainly a growing anxiety. She knew her limits; she could kill many of those who came against them now, but not enough — not without support.
What Rhyas could not see from her vantage, but which was clear to Absylonia, was how nicely this trap would be sprung with just a few more moments’ patience. A significant portion of the foremost Circle force had sped ahead of the rest, eager to deliver the decisive blow after their long months of pursuit. They were nearly to the point where they would have no hope of support or retreat when she fell upon them. Thagrosh and those with him would be arriving very soon to strike the larger force just behind. The timing was delicate.
Several of the warlocks sent their minds to her, picking up on Rhyas’ unease. She sensed Lylyth, who was farther away with a small strike force attacking a different element of the Circle pursuit in an attempt to slow them down. There was also Saeryn and Vayl, who were hurrying alongside the newly transformed Thagrosh to come to the main column’s relief. All of them sought her out, hoping to see through her eyes. With a growl Absylonia pushed their intrusive minds away. She would not be second-guessed. The carniveans and seraphs behind her hissed quietly, mirroring her feelings. Unhurried, she took a final look at the valley. Satisfied that the druids’ forces were past the point of safe retreat, she turned to her beasts.
Absylonia felt an echo of her devotion for Everblight as she looked at the fanged, eyeless faces of her spawn.
She had watched each of the beasts pull itself from the spawning pools far to the northwest and had provided carcasses for their first feeding with almost tender care. Each of them was fully grown now, and she felt a swell of pride at the knowledge that they were ready to descend upon the enemies of Everblight. She raised a hand to the sky and gestured down into the valley. As the first wave of seraphs took wing, her own hands contorted; her fingers grew and extended, and membranes filled the gaps between digits. Absylonia shuddered with pleasure as the raw agony of Everblight’s favor washed over her. The massive carniveans roared in a single voice, exulting in the outpouring of blight, and began to make their way down into the valley.
In a single, frozen moment the once eager enemy realized their situation and put up cries of retreat she could hear even from the mountainside. Absylonia bared her teeth like an animal in pain as the blight rippled through her body, making her ever more lethal, and hurled herself from the rocks. Harriers joined her as she glided toward the thick of the fight. That her assault would save Rhyas was inconsequential. It gratified her merely to revel in a slaughter that would please Everblight, her god and master.
Scenario Background
An army of the Circle Orboros led by Morvahna the Autumnblade pursued the Legion forces from the Castle of the Keys, through eastern Llael, and all the way to the borders of Rhul and Ios. Believing that she could deal a deathblow to the Legion, Morvahna extended her armies well past their reserves and reinforcements, leaving slower elements behind. When she saw the Nyss and their dragonspawn caught in a valley, Morvahna believed final victory was within her grasp and pushed her forces to their limits, ahead and with limited ability to retreat.
Unknown to Morvhana, the battered Legion army had chosen this valley
for rendezvous. It is here they would join with Absylonia’s reserves of freshly spawned warbeasts and with the newly transformed Thagrosh the Messiah, who had separated from the main Legion forces while undergoing his transformation. With Morvhana’s army overextended in an attempt to eradicate what she believed to be the last elements of the Legion’s forces
on the continent, Absylonia attacked. Hundreds of warbeasts swarmed from the peaks, inflicting horrific casualties on Morvahna’s army. Morvahna herself only barely escaped, thanks to the last-minute arrival and intervention of Kaya the Moonhunter.
Shadow of the Valley — 608AR
- Legion forces fleeing region, pursued by Circle Orboros
- Underground route taken by Thagrosh, Vayl, and Searyn
- Diversionary route taken by Legion army led by Lylth and Rhyas
-Route taken by Absylonia and her dragonspawn
