Atlantis Joins the party … while Ulm prefers to go break skeleton bones …

The victory of Mireni was quite an incentive for Atlantis to move. Indeed, Therodos had been thoroughly weakened and their offensive would certainly be easier. So several months after their promise to join Helheim in the war, they were finally in. The first attacks were rather successful but quickly the offensive stalled. Indeed, Megalesius, the Telkhine that had survived the battle of Mireni led an army to secure the northern oceans, while Thalassa the Queen of the Sea went alone to fight for the southern ones.

And while Atlantis was fulfilling its promise, Ulm was breaking it. They had indeed probably understood that there was not much to gain for them in a war against Therodos … Also, they had had some problems on their western borders as some unatural diseases were spreading there. The Dragon of Ulm was sure these were due to some vileness from Niefelheim and had decided to focus all of its military might to teach them a lesson. And soon war broke out between the barbarians and the frost giants and their undead legions.

All in all, that new war between Ulm and Niefelheim was not bad news. Indeed, the provinces close to Ulm were key provinces to access the Throne of Stability, so if Ulm didn’t take them, they would be of great value to Helheim to help unfold the Plan. Furthermore, with Niefelheim at war with Ulm, it was 2 close neighbours kept busy while the Plan was going on. And, given that 2 of the thrones included in the plan were located in unfortified provinces right in the middle of this war, that was almost an insurance that these provinces would not be fortified anytime soon.

Come to us, Bishop Fishes !

With the capture of Mireni and the arrival of the Wraith Lords (cf. chapter of the Raid war), the Oceans were finally open for conquest. Indeed, the Lords being spectral beings, they did not have any need to breath and could move underwater easily.

Two Wraith Lords, Floki and Lord Vajra, were tasked to raid the enemy oceans and find a proper place to summon the Bishop Fishes that were so important for the Plan. Soon the perfect place was found. Lake Seaweed (a strange name for a small part of the great Ocean …) was located just south of Oceania, and had a fully functionnal Laboratory that would be of help to call in the Bishops. Also, the place was very rich in magical gems, especially in direly needed Air gems  thanks to Bubbling fissures. So, due to these properties as well as being both remote from Therodos and close to the coasts held by Helheim, it was decided to use this place for the summonings.

Persephone the Kokythiad (a sorceress summoned from the frozen hell of Kokythos) was appointed to call the first one of the Bishops. The summoning was successful and the Bishop was quickly given a Shambler Skin Armor to allow him to survive out of water. He was then ordered to hide in an inland fortress until came the right time to get into action.

However, after this first successful summoning the operation was temporarily cancelled. Indeed, Megalesius the Telkhine and his army was roaming around and Persephone was evacuated too. Also, Lord Kall himself had came in to help with the summoning but his security being compromised he went back too to dry land. Several months would pass until the summoning of the 4 last Bishops could resume.

Acid Royalty

The victory of Mireni had opened the way for the Iron Throne. And, with a decent enemy force taken down, Helheim’s generals were pretty confident the enemy would not engage in a major battle anytime soon. However, the surprise caused by the sudden appearance of the enemy army to save Mireni had been quite a shock and the war council was scared of other bad surprises. For that reason, the march on the Iron Throne kept a slow and cautious pace … and a bit too cautious as the first assault to take the fortress protecting the Iron Throne failed … indeed, in order to avoid unexpected losses only a very small force had been tasked for the assault, which proved insufficient …

Lord Kall was a bit displeased by these news, but soon the fears of the council proved right. Therodos was definetely quite fond of Elemental Queens and after the Air Queens and the Queen of the Sea, the scouts signaled the presence of Limne, the Queen of the Lake . One of the Vanjarls sent to raid Machaka was suddenly attacked by the lady and torn to pieces. Indeed, the enemy had transformed her into a war machine and from what was known, she could easily stand up against whole armies. Thanks to her incredible regenerating powers, and the very strong armor the Archmage had given her, she was very difficult to kill and that was enough to make her a very dangerous opponent.

And just before the second assault to storm the fortress of the Iron Throne, she attacked the whole besieging army. Her plan was simple : engage the battle, create a powerful magical Acid storm and survive until the acid slowly destroyed its enemies. Thankfully, the plan could not go on as expected. As soon as the battle began, the whole Valkyrie host commanded by Skaljv fell on her and prevented her to cast the dangerous enchantment. Many Valkyries sacrificed their lives in the process as 57 out of 104 died to protect the rest of the army from being dissolved in the acid bath.

However, after spotting the Queen in Machaka, Lord Kall had devised a plan too to take her out. The Flame spirits had been ordered to Incinerate her to the death, burning her from the inside. But … that plan completly failed due to a lack of coordination and initiative : the spirits were left defending the mages and never got in range of the queen …

And, as feared, the Queen was strong enough to survive even tens of Valkyries trying to pierce her with their lances. Also, due to some dangerous experiments in battle magic, a few mages were killed by their own friends during the battle. So, even though the Queen was forced to flee and the Iron Throne captured, this was quite a setback. A solution had to be found to take down the Queen, quickly, or the campaign for the Thrones of Therodos would soon turn into an unwanted bloodbath.

Maelstrom confusion

Lord Kall had been wanting to open the jaws of Charybdis for himself long before Therodos did it. So, when the news came they had made the move, he was quite frustrated. Not only he was not the one to do it, but it was beneficial to its currently most dangerous enemy.

A plan had been devised to cast it on the Throne of Elements. Indeed, that throne had special powers that allowed to focus the energies of that kind of spell in such a way that it would use far less ressources than normal. And so Lord Kall went there and started to prepare himself, as he had done for the Eyes, to cast that powerful enchantment … but … he quickly found that a very important information had been forgotten by every mage working on the topic. Was it because Helheim’s mages were unaware of the subleties of Water magic, was it Fate ? The fact remains that the Maelstrom enchantment could only be focused in the deepest places of the oceans … pretty much like the Bishop fishes could only be called from that kind of places too …

That was so stupid … and so another idea came up. May be it was not such a good idea after all to claim this power for Helheim. Lord Kall could then appear too powerful to the eyes of its opponents, and the peaceful diplomatic stance adopted so far could fall apart. So, a proposition was made to Atlantis : Helheim would give them the magical gems  necessary to cast the spell, and then Atlantis would claim the Maelstrom for themselves. This way, Therodos would lose it and be weakened while Atlantis would come out stronger. That would also be a good diplomatic move because Atlantis may feel beholden to Lord Kall for this important gift …

The deal was settled but … even though the mages of Atlantis were certain to master that enchantment, they soon discovered they had not studied it entirely. In fact, a lot of important details were unknown and the time for them to uncover these secrets would take several months, may be a year.

So, after all these setbacks, Lord Kall accepted his fate and gave up on his dream … the Maelstrom would not give its power to him. And so other plans were made to use these quite numerous Water gems  for other deeds.