Welcome to Gaia! ::

An escort waited for them to lead them to the airship port - an unarmed one this time. It looked like a normal, zombified male human in a black suit, but without the slowness and insatiable hunger of a zombie, and actually moved as he would have in life. The others that were staying behind were free to do whatever they wished.

"It is but one of the many gifts bestowed upon us by our Lord," the Necropolitan answered. "He has freed many like myself from the restrictions of mortal life for but a trite sacrifice of vanity. Does your god not do the same for you?"

One of the cultists, apparently trying to preach to them. They were a zealous lot.

"Apologies, my lord. I did not mean to offend," the Necropolitan said. "Come, this way."

He led them through the city, and there was much to see. If not for the overwhelming stench of decay and undeath and the abundance of walking dead, one might think this looked like any other normal, subterranean, industrializing city. Its citizens certainly walked about as if they lived in one. One of the plazas even held a slave market, where some slavers were auctioning off a new batch of collared slaves.

The airship hangars were outside of the city. There were four massively sized hangars in the area, three of them containing colossal vessels being worked on tirelessly by undead workers, welding plating to the hull or conducting other sorts of maintenance. The fourth hangar contained smaller vessels, no doubt being used for transport. Two of them were active with their doors open, one of them being boarded by the empire's gate-building crew.



"This ship will take you where you need to go. Master Zauviir should have the gate setup to reach your destination by now."

Five mages were being sent with them along with a Dread Knight - not quite as powerful as a Death Knight, but just as horrible - to accompany them and act as a liaison between the empires. As soon as they boarded their ship the hatch closed behind them and the engines hummed to life. It emitted a shadowy substance as it lifted into the air, distorting space like heat waves and inverting colors like the negative of a photograph. One of the gates activated, the inside of the ring filling with fluid, swirling dark energies that spiraled inwards like a vortex, swallowing all light that entered it like a black hole. They were going to pass through the Plane of Shadow, fly through the Fringe, and reemerge at their destination in less than a minute.

Meanwhile...

The mages, upon inquiry, would find out that they would not be needed to build any portals. The link was already established on this side and mages had been sent with the entourage to build a gate on their side. They were free to do whatever else they wanted though, as long as they didn't venture into places they weren't allowed to be in.

Valas Zauviir, still in his study, checked in on the status of the Heaven or Hell tournament, and the spies he had sent. With Veszafein's failure to stay in the tournament he had fallen out of grace with their patron deity, and thus went into hiding... until the end of his team's last match. The cyborgs sent to deal with him had caught up to him finally, and now he lay splattered across the ground in the Square. Valas knew better than to think that would be the last he ever saw of the assassin though. His Lord had imparted to him his intentions with the drow-dragon, and even now knew where his spirit lay. That would be an issue he would have to deal with at a later time though. For now, it was time for more planning. He summoned his generals and blinked out to the Temple.

The interior of the temple was elaborately constructed, with the walls and ceilings looking a vertebrae column with ribs arcing down along the walls. A dark, tissue-like substance filled the gaps between the bones like muscles. Alcoves spaced out along either side of the walls contained small statues of a skeletal red dragon, sitting on its hind quarters and clutching a giant human skull between its foreclaws. The hallway opened up into the main chamber, big enough to hold more than a thousand worshipers on just the ground level alone. An altar in the back of the chamber was occupied by a much larger version of the statues in the hallway, with large braziers set along either side of it, burning with blue and white flames. Robed acolytes wandered through the shadows, muttering prayers as they went about their duties, oblivious to the visitors.

The temple's architecture was hardly fragile. It radiated with intense magicks, along with some other properties. Some areas seemed more biological than constructed, though it was clearly not living.

There wasn't much to see at the ground level and there were only prayer rooms and living quarters on the second and third floors. Access to higher floors was restricted and warded off against those who were not members of the clergy. A spiraling staircase led down into the sub-levels under the ground floor, which seemed to only hold a catacombs, but much further down, if either of them sneaked around and explored enough, was a vast chamber with a giant black globe of negative energy floating in the center. Black-robed mages stood around it, chanting and channeling spirits through this plane and that of the dead.


At the top level of the temple, Valas met with his generals. With the disappearance of Alexander, the demilich now had to fulfill double roles as both archmage and high priest until a replacement was chosen, which basically made him emperor. He wasn't interested in running the empire though, so he waited anxiously for someone to be chosen as new high priest.

Five generals stood around a large stone table. They were hulking figures covered head to toe in armor, eyes glowing like hot embers beneath their helms, radiating death. They were creations of the Dark Eternal for the sole purpose of leading his armies; they were his version of the dreaded Death Knight.

Unlike the ones created by demon gods, these five did not birth from fallen paladins or dark knights. They were the collective malignant energies and enmity of evil warriors slain by good throughout the ages, and animated inside of suits of armor. They knew only hatred and were masters of war.

"We have struck an alliance with the ((insert name here)) Empire," Valas started with, "They are sure to be a nice addition to the hordes, assuming all their talk is worth anything. The time draws near, generals. Give me a status report on your respective charges."

The general with the horned helmet spoke first. "First Air Assault Division currently has 13,000 undead in formation, with another 2,000 or so in reserve. Vengeance's repairs are complete and her upgrades are finished. After the final test run she will be ready to see action again. We have added another 50 bodies to our crew to cover our losses from the raid in Aggrippina. "

Valas nodded, content with the report.

"Second Air Division is ready to go," said the general with crowned helmet. "We have 12,000 standing ready with another 4,000 in reserve. Cessation's upgrades and maintenance is nearly complete as well. The final protection wards are being put in place as we speak."

"Third Air Division is ready," said the general with the bulbous helmet. "Draconis III's upgrades and maintenance is nearly complete. She will be fully armed and ready to fly before the hour is upon us. Crews will be running drills until time for deployment."

"Very good," Valas said. "What about the latest addition to the horde? How many have been enhanced so far?"

"1,200 or so, my lord."

Valas nodded again, then turned his jeweled gaze to the general with the wedge-shaped-horned helmet.

"Fourth Assault Division is completing training exercises and our mages are building more constructs. We currently have more than 15,000 bodies, including artillery and armored support."

Finally, the last general, with the helmet that had two points on the sides. "Fifth Assault Division is ready to go. We have 12,000 standing by and 3,000 on reserve, including armor and artillery."

"Good, good," Valas remarked. "The tournament is nearing its end, but we still have plenty of time. There has been a slight change in plans due to our new alliance. General Vangun, you will take Vengeance and support Xanathos' forces on their attack against Lament. Do not send ground forces unless it's needed. Generals Faul and Grahf, you will deploy with the Draconis III and Cessation, respectively, and carry out attacks against Durem and Aekea with the First and Third. Chaszmyr will take his force and fortify Barton in case any heroes try to take it back."

"Understood."

"Another thing," Valas added, "If there is any sign of treachery, you will contact me immediately."

The generals nodded unquestioningly.

"That is all. Carry on until the time arrives. Dismissed."

They blinked out at once, leaving the demilich alone in the room.

"Ah, you're just in time," said Valas, appearing and floating before Brasna. The demilich looked down at the gathered mages, still chanting and raising their arms toward the globe of negative energy. In their hands they each held a container of some sort or another - phylacteries.

"We're about to induct our newest batch of liches."

Ribbon-like tendrils of negative energy swirled around the mages, entering their eyes, nostrils, ears and mouths, taking hold of them and lifting them off their feet. Their chanting intensified as their bodies were infused with high concentrations of negative energy, instantly killing them, their bodies rotting away almost immediately from the intense corruption. Their chanting continued however. They had gone immediately from life to undeath, their souls passing from their bodies into their phylacteries. The ribbons of negative energy separated from the black globe above them and they dropped to the ground, reborn in death. There was no rejoice or celebration; not even a sigh. The liches simply pulled their cowls over their heads, hid their phylacteries inside their robes somewhere, and filed out of the chamber through a side door.

((Retcon: Any mention of Barton being used as a forward deployment hub has now been changed to using Durem instead.))