A lanun trading vessel finds a disturbing scene upon the Southern Waters of Mazera. There is a man wearing melted black armor, infused with the power of tortured souls. He carries the Staff of a Profane, and ancient tomes only usable by an archmage. However, the most shocking part of this grand display is that he is riding a Demonic Nightmare, trotting across the Ocean surface, with flames, steam, and smoke shooting to either side of this magical and demonic display. He books passage with the Lanun. At first a few of the more superstitious of the sailors refuse, and then he notices a small elohim fleet making its way to the Deadlands. He shoots an orange ball of flame from his staff, and it bursts the flagship in flames. Tortured Spirits then scream, flying out of the fiery vessel towards the deadlands.
Once the Lanun vessel drops him off near the hippus lands, he repays their kindness by summoning a Balor onboard. A Balor whose last memories were in the heat of battle against Lanun before he was killed by a Speaker. Needless to say, the man rode towards the summons of Mal'Degreshni while hearing the sweet ballad of Screaming Sailors being assaulted by a Balor in full fury.
Tasunke had just heard word of hippus being killed in some Veil rituals. He grabbed Mal'DeGrashni by the collar of his robes and slung him against the wall of Glulynn. "You do NOT kill hippi, you understand!!"
"They were weaklings, they did not understand the strength we had to offer them. Thus they were the perfect sacrifices. We need to purge the hippus of weakness, and lead them to new heights. Really, if I simply wanted to harm the hippus you would be dead for showing such disrespect."
Tasunke let him go, but spit in his direction. It was then that he noticed the approaching Dwarven army. The particular thunder that you hear while hearing 10s of thousands of dwarven shieldbearers marching in unison .... its something that springs an instinctual "flee" response in any hippi warlord. You simply do not face a giant army of dwarves head on, you cut off their supplies, you hit and run, but you must not face out in the open.
The hippus held a brave defense, but a whole Squad of Dendrinni horselords were slaughtered by Maros himself. The surviving hippus formed an effective seige around the army of Maros. Whereever Maros went, he was surrounded, just out of archer-range, by the hippus. Maros couldn't sleep, and after losing several companies scouting for weakpoints in the hippus encirclement, he decided to hole in Glulynn.
Meanwhile, a spiritual revolution was taking place all across the hippus nation. Rabblerousers, and charismatic speakers were both leading the populace against the wind, and closer to the fires of the veil. The man on the Nightmare arrived at one of these rallies, and introduced himself as Judecca. He was then the figurehead of the spiritual revolution, and overnight he became the spiritual leader of the Hippus.
He organized a rally, where he requested 600 hippus volunteers, and 7 khazad POWs.
He also had them contruct a stage made of pinewood. He held a rally, with the 600 hippus standing in front of the stage in a trance. He sliced the necks of the 7 POWs, and used wind magic to carry the gushing fluids of the arteries over all 600 of the volunteers. He then sucked the pained souls from the Khazadi victims, and used them to open a fiery vortex. 600 nightmarish steeds ran out of the gate, going next to their assigned hippus volunteer. He closed the gate, and then sent 6 demon-spirits from his staff, to posses the lead volunteers. He spent a week training the 600 hell-riders in the ways of demonic warfare.
Overnight, he led the hell riders from city to city, recruiting soldiers from across the hippi lands into the un-holy war party. Soon he had an army of thousands, and assigned a ritualist to help govern each city, in spiritual matters, and in war recruitment. Each new recruit must swear an oath of Loyalty to Judecca first, and the hippus nation second.
Tasunke watched as Maros's catapults were slamming into the side of Rockhomme. Maros had received reinforcements and was making a move to retake some of the former Khazad land. Tasunke and Captain Mynan were able to annoy him tremendously, but they could only watch as the city was slowly taken, by sure Dwarven steel. Dwarven shields and Dwarven footing were preventing critical strikes to be taken against the dwarves, although Captain Mynan led a daring charge, which was able to kill the Trebuchet crews, as the wall was only half-destroyed. The Dwarves however, had fierce grapplers and sappers of their own, and soon the Gates of Rockhomme were open, for the garrison inside to make their final stand against the unending dwarven tide. Out of nowhere, a large Hippus army appeared on the horizon ... but something was "off" about them. The hellriders had arrived. They fanned in front of the Dwarven army, which had all but taken the city. Then Judecca set the entire city aflame, and it was the hell-riders turn to cut the Dwarves down as they ran out of the city, scared and confused. Captain Mynan capitalized on the chaos by leading a regiment of Dendrinni to slay the remaining army which was left outside of the city walls. While the Khazad army was destroyed, Maros was nowhere to be found. Perhaps the Umberguard had some hidden secrets of tunneling, or perhaps Mal'DeGreshni simply trapped him for secretive purposes.
Judecca's hell riders crushed the Khazad flat. City after city were taken, and soon all but Khazak and Hallowell were left. Khazak was so high up in the mountains that it was not worth fighting over, but Hallowell had some land that the hippus, and the Veil could use. The only trick though, was that it was an Ancient fortress, that had been standing since long before the Khazad had even gone underground in the first place. It had magical protections, and was practically unimpenetrable. Plus, Kandros Fir was leading the defense.
Judecca walked alone, up to the Hallowed Fortress of Hallowell. He deflected missile fire with his mind, as he walked up and touched the walls. The whole city started to glow an eerie red, and then the redlight gathered at the center of the city and shot upwards. then the Ground opened up beneath Judecca, and a nightmare leaped up from the hole, and carried Judecca off back to his hellrider crew. He then ordered everyone else to get as far away as possible, and to not look back. A tiny point of light appeared in the sky, and then started to appear larger and larger, as a shadow began to befall the city. A small asteroid was falling through the sky, led by the red light. The atmosphere was burning it up, yet the gravity only added to its force. Picking the asteroid of just the right size and mass was all very ancient and arcane knowlege, only unlockable by the Infernal Grimoire which Judecca carried by his side. He had been studying the spell since he first became a demon, and only had enough power to use it once. Nonetheless, his time on Malzera he felt, was short, and therefore he knew that now was the time to use it.
The impact of the Asteroid was nothing like a world destroyer, but it did clash with the shielding of Hallowell,and for a second it seemed the shields would hold, as the asteroid appeared unmoving, but then as soon as the shield broke, the asteroid dropped like a rock, shredding through buidlings and layers upon layers of underground fortress. Half of the city was turned into a crater. The debris and dust blocked half the sky of Mazera for a full month. While Tasunke was overlooking the Occupation of Khazad, Captain Mynan and his usual compliment of forces led half of the Hell-riders with him on a long trek eastwards on Mal's direct orders. Apparantly Os-gabella would have their next orders ready.
Judecca rides to the quarters of Khazak, with the burnt cinders of Kandros Fir lying across his horse.
He rides up to the meeting where Arcturus thorne and his army are gathered. Meanwhile an army of shadows and demons materializes behind Judecca. Arcturus gives the signal, only to find out that all of his ambushes have been wiped out.
An overly embarassed Arcturus, king of the dustpile, signs the peace treaty, and takes his remaining people to slink into Khazak, their remaining bastion of Dwarven pride.
Judecca then takes a small bodyguard contingency, and travels to the Winter Lands in hopes that he could form a diplomatic understanding with the icy bunch.
