Thanks to everyone who came out last night! We had a lot of people in the guild (and of course the GMs) working very hard for weeks to set this up, so it was awesome seeing such a large turn-out, over such a long period!
The epic battle of Shadowmire lasted almost four hours until the surviving humans and dragons at last managed to slay the black lich that the ghost ship was to deliver to the naval port. Was this a sound, if bloody, victory for the kingdom? Or merely an opening gambit to test the strength of the human armies, to experiment with summoning the Haunted Armada, and to add even more corpses to the Shadowmire garrison? Only time will tell!
Once word reached his ears that Lord British's agents had spotted the ghost ship on the high seas and put out a call on the town criers, Lagrath quickly gathered his hand-picked strike force and gated them to Shadowmire castle!
Once the first humans arrived, the Undead Warlords rushed from the castle, intent on destroying the initial invaders with sorties from the fortress!
After over an hour of fighting and sending countless mortals to The Guardian, the human's numbers finally became large enough that the strike force retreated back into Shadowmire castle. From there, the Blood Baron gated them to the town's docks. The UWL fighters joined up with the rest of the undead horde and repulsed the invaders from the old Shadowmire bridge again and again!
Along the way, we encountered some arrogant lich lords and confused zombies that rebelled and refused to obey the commands of The Guardian and his chosen elite! They were quickly slain for their heresy.
The bridge was held successfully as the sun dipped in the sky and evening fell. Suddenly, black ravens arrived and whispered to the Baron of a massive, ruined ship, pulling fast into port ahead of human pursuers. The strike force rallied in the castle once again, preparing to rush to the docks and hold off the naval assault.
The bows of the stalker ghouls and Lagrath's ancient spells easily destroyed the seaside invaders.
By the time the Undead Warlords had made their way back up the cliff, the humans had already pushed to the center of town! A fearsome battle began as the strike force and their monstrous guardians surged back up the cliff, determined to repulse the living back to the town square!
This time the human fleet thought to flank UWL while the dead were busy holding the front lines. They were quickly sent down to hell for their arrogance.
To even Lagrath's amazement, an unaffiliated cabal of murderous human necromancers began teleporting directly into the docks at the base of the cliff, attacking the dead and living alike! Surely they were intent on seizing for themselves the mysterious techniques now being used to summon the Haunted Armada. They only secret they discovered was the sensation of a halberd to the face.
As the full moon sat heavy in the night sky and the ghost ship began unloading its deadly occupants, the battle at the top of the cliff continued to rage. UWL succeeded in pushing the mortal armies all the way back to the town square, behind Shadowmire castle.
Any heroes who tried to slip past and reach the docks were quickly slain. Unfortunately, after hours of fighting, it seemed as if the combined strength of the human guilds and city-states have finally arrived to finally conduct a combined, last desperate assault on the town and reach the ghost ship.
As the ship's black lich began tearing into the human army, Lagrath seemed content, having learned whatever he set out to find. Suddenly disinterested in the outcome of the last fight between the remnants of the two sides, he ordered the strike force to withdraw back to Shadowmire castle. Sitting in its lavish throne, the Blood Baron dispensed promotions and unholy honors to his greatest warriors. Tantalizing bits of future plans were revealed, including a call for volunteers to sail soon with the new ships of the Haunted Armada that are scheduled to arrive in Shadowmire in the coming weeks. The rank and file of the Undead Warlords then offered testimony to the glory of The Guardian and gave thanks for the slaughter that he offered that day. Several humans even came in to hear the sermons, moved by the carnage to offer their services for what was surely the winning side in the Great Battle.
Down at the docks, the mortal Castellan of Shadowmire cursed his kind for their sacrilege in slaying the ebon lich. The surviving humans withdrew from the cursed town...but their memories of this day were sure to haunt them for a lifetime. Every mortal left a piece of his soul at Shadowmire, and every human took a small portion of its corruption with them as they returned home to their cities and families...
