The Fall of Mirith was a dramatic and momentous series of unfortunate events in Oberin in the later moons of year 438. It is especially notable for tying up many uncertainities and loose ends regarding the status of old governments and villains.
Precursor - The Farookh Crisis[]
Many days before the fall of Mirith, when a person could get laughed out of the city for claiming that Tirana was still alive, an invasion and assassination attempt took place. This brought Mirithians to terms with reality and served as a harbinger of the great tragedy to come.
The Foehan Underground invasion.
Late in the Growing Moon of Year 438, the Foehan Underground surrounded Mirith with an army of 412 bracken. The bracken were eventually purged and at the end of the battle, King Galandir was drawn out. The king had not been seen in public for years, and the reason for this quickly became apparent – the old man was quickly losing his wits and believed that the explosions of the battle were actually fireworks for a party in his honor. Before too long, the rogue Farookh of the Underground crept up behind the king and thrust a dagger in the monarch's back.
The assassin and the Underground was dealt with, and Galandir lived, although the events had revealed a vulnerable city with a weakened system of government.
The Coming Calamity[]
Perhaps the most pressing concern facing Mirith in 438 was the status of the Royal Scepter, which had been in the possession of the Black Hand since the year 430. A few years after that, it was learned that the scepter had been broken down into five parts, each of which had more magical power than the scepter as a whole did. Without the scepter (which would reportedly glow when in the presence of the rightful heir) and without the heir N'eroth (who had been sent to train with the Centaurs as a boy), Mirith was left with a senile king (who had been going crazy after the beheading of his treacherous sister Tirana in 431).
By 438, three pieces of the scepter - the Dark Ruby, the Cerulean Diamond, and the Ornate Staff - had been recovered by Mirith. Meanwhile, the Royal Mage Beleth (whose daughter had been slain by Tirana) attempted to cure his illness stemming from overuse of Black Magic. After various attempts, Beleth finally managed to cure himself, but in doing so, he lost his ability to use magic and entered a slow recovery period. In a less publicized incident at around the same time, a high-profile Black Hand prisoner escaped Mirith.
Then, in the Dancing Moon, Mirith organized a 3-party mission all in an attempt to recover another piece of the scepter, the Emerald Prism. Two covert task forces managed to discern the emerald's location, while the larger third force created a diversion. The three groups come together in a hidden valley in the mountains of Duldrus and discover not only the emerald, but Ice Dragon leader Vandrovic and Commander Nyatha Vaup of Marali as well. Since 434, the warrior and the dragon had been trapped in a never-ending duel, which ended as soon as the emerald was retrieved. Meanwhile, Beleth recovered the final piece, the Blue Metal, and preparations to reforge the scepter begin in the cave of Avesne in Duldrus.
The Twins reemerge.
However, in the Lucky Moon, two long-time enemies of Mirith known as the Twins returned to center stage, kidnapping the Hermit. The Twins had been leading the Alliance away from the public eye ever since they had allowed Tirana to be captured in 431. But as the Diabolical faction of the Hand had grown in the second half of the 430s, it had generally been believed that the Twins were losing power. Now it was clear that the influence of the Twins was growing once more, and the Diabolicals had been on the defensive ever since the destruction of their Black Asylum research facility two moons earlier. By the Blue Moon, the scepter was completed, but Beleth decided not to announce this information until he finished his quest to find N'eroth.
The reforging of the Royal Scepter.
In the meantime, elections in Andris were nearing, and various people were conducting their campaigns. On one occasion, the candidate Ivanelda Janik was nearly captured by Alliance troops, until she was saved by the intervention of a young bawdy pirate named Halforth and his equally raunchy companion, Istra Falvo. Halforth had become known in underground circles during the Harvest Moon for his attempts to recruit an army. Now, however, it seemed that his ambitions were beginning to change.
Then came the Blue Moon Festival, a time known equally well for both merriment and adversity. It would be the latter, unfortunately, that befell Mirith and indeed all of Oberin.
The Traitor's Revenge[]
While a great majority of the population was distracted with the festivities in Andris, the escaped Black Hand prisoner known as the Veiled Lady killed the centaur ambassador to Mirith, Mernias. With her powers enhanced by the centaur blood, the Veiled Lady revealed herself as Tirana in Dragon's Mouth. There, she killed Casden Pernell before leaving to capture Mirith with the Twins and a Black Hand army. Just as those gathered in Dragon's Mouth were returning to Mirith, the Twins slew Ciddia Tigg and Galandir.
Tirana reveals her identity at Dragon's Mouth.
It quickly became clear that Tirana was heralding herself as the rightful heir of Mirith. She appointed the Twins as Commanders of the Vanguard; Rasha almost immediately called for all those present to report for duty, to be either sent to the mines or become subjects of important experiments.
Lord Rengal arrived and ordered the survivors and refugees to flee to Duldrus. Upon questioning, Rengal divulged the truth about Tirana: In 431, Tirana had been captured by Mirith while the general public was led to believe that she had been beheaded. The infertile Galandir had forced his sister Tirana to bear the legitimate royal heir, N'eroth, with Casden Pernell. Now, Tirana had exacted her revenge and claimed her lawful right to the throne, although this claim rested upon the murdering of half the Mirith court.
At the frigid docks of Duldrus, Casden Pernell was buried at sea by Serancha, who had grown to love the captain before their relationship was cut short by his untimely death. That night, the ghost of Pernell gave her a final farewell at the docks before disappearing into the ocean.
The survivors build the Resistance in Duldrus.
Resistance in Duldrus[]
The first refugees to arrive in Duldrus were the surviving Mirith guards and scouts, including the green-clad Serath. As civilian refugees came pouring in steadily each day, the frontier mining town was converted into the base of operations for the Mirithian Resistance to Tirana. The Sleeping Miner Inn soon became the location of a new temporary bank branch and the center of Resistance activity as well.
One of the first priorities of the Resistance was to gather supplies and to retain control of the Duldrus docks. While the refugee camp was still small, members of the Mirith Vanguard met with officials and leaders of Marali, Lerilin, and Andris. The negotiations resulted in promises of aid: Marali would deliver weapons and armor to supply the Resistance army, Lerilin would feed the mouths of the rapidly growing number of refugees, and Andris would donate magical robes and reagents for Resistance mages. It was up to the Mirith Vanguard to train the recruits that would be supplied by the other cities. In addition, Mayor Palmer granted the Mirithians the Charm of the Sea to protect ships from foundering, as well as a bottle of '18 vintage for Royal Cleric Nafets to crack open returning to Mirith. Subsequent deliveries of supplies would be ambushed, but not deterr
Creatures of ice invade Duldrus.
ed, by Alliance armies.
With such a large concentration of humans in Duldrus, unexpected problems arose. Due to the close proximity of the exile to the Frozen Wastes, It was inevitable that relations with the ice dragons would grow chilly. Early on, adventurers gathering resources for the Mirithian war effort encountered and killed an ancient ice dragon beneath Ice Isle. Not too much later, another ancient led an invasion of Duldrus, comparable to the battles of the Ice War five years back.
In addition, an Alliance invasion of Lerilin provided a painful example of how paying strict attention to Duldrus left the other settlements vulnerable to meeting the same fate of Mirith. Realizations of this led several foreign supporters of the Resistance to return to their home towns.
A Deepening Quagmire[]
As the war accelerated, the advantages of the splintering of the Black Hand became apparent. The Artificer Arathis admitted to a duo of Vanguardians that some of the Diabolicals have defected to the Alliance forces of Tirana. This fact opened discussion of using the temporary assistance of Diabolicals to evict their mutual enemy from Mirith. Marthonis's faction of the Hand concurred with Arathis on the opposition of Tirana's occupation. Although no agreements on this matter were reached, Arathis would later help repel an Alliance army that attempted to seize the hills just north of Mirith. However, the Alliance forces remained in great numbers in the forests immediately surrounding the city.
Tirana slaughters Mirithians in the Spider Cave.
By then, the atrocities committed by Tirana were well known to the free peoples of Mirith. On once occasion, captive Mirithians were executed as a group behind the Mirith Vanguard Hall. Some other time, corpses of enslaved townspeople who opposed the reign of Tirana were found rotting within the Spider Cave. Many other corpses were found in heaps in the sewers, which posed a sanitation problem that would affect the city at a later time.
Meanwhile, Royal Wizard Beleth was continuing in his search for the heir N'eroth, without whom the Resistance had no claim to Mirith. In a rare visit, Beleth announced to the vanguard that Tirana was seeking to gain access to the Mirith's piece of the Curio, which was magically sealed within the city's statue of Elara. In order to prevent the usurper from using the great power of this magical artifact, a brave army embarked on the 9th journey into Crausaar's Descent. Their aim was to strengthen the magic securing the Curio in the city of Mirith, which was rumored to be far above the Descent's Citadel. Although all members of the expedition died, the goal appeared to have been met - Tirana never got her hands on the Curio piece.
Supplies from the Andris Charity Ball reach the Resistance.
Developments in Andris regarding the 438 Elections were favorable for the exile. With the election of the illiterate but strong-hearted Falov Ellychas, the forceful Helda Grantham, and the fashionable yet kind Ivanelda Janik. Janik led the organization of a charity ball in which donations would be collected to aid the Resistance. Just before the ball took place, a battalion of Tirana's forces acting without Tirana's approval assaulted the Andris bridge. This incident did little to help Andris's view of Tirana. The ball went forward and the donations were eventually delivered, but not before Tirana sent her ambassador to announce her hopes that Andris and Mirith would "remain as friends". Senators Ellychas and Janik denounced Tirana and escorted the ambassador out. Andris would remain in support of the Resistance.
Simultaneously, the duo of Halforth and Istra Falvo were becoming more significant in the fight against Tirana. Halforth spoke of a desire for a "change of government" in Mirith that involved the takeover of the city by pirates. Falvo travelled the lands, researching various soups and concoctions, all in an attempt to defeat the Black Hand and kill the "Twinnies" as part of some personal vendetta.
During these times, other developments with grave implications for the future took place. Valencius worked to create the Hell Mages. A chance encounter with Captain Jass further pointed towards the strange willingness of Halforth to fight Tirana. Tirana's powerful henchmen Bethe and Csilith first became known to the public.
From Territorial Aggrandizement to Collapse[]
Beginning in the Sleeping Moon, Tirana attempted to expand her empire to the outlying territories. Such actions ultimately contributed to her demise.
Tirana attempts to add more territory to her empire.
Katjaa Vrel, a general of Tirana's forces, set this trend into motion by attempting to forcefully impose a tax on the Raven Shield guild hall. Bethe then captured Foehan in the name of the Twins. Both of these ventures were eventually thwarted by the growing Resistance armies. Then, on the 43rd day, Alliance troops occupied the Lerilin Bridge and claimed Port Gast under the command of Bethe. D'arkk L'yver, who had been keeping a watchful eye on the area for quite some time, rescued Voltan of the Port Gast Guards from the brigands. After a hard fight, the port was liberated, and Voltan finally resolved to join the Resistance army. Following these failed attempts at empire-building, Tirana was at a relative loss of troops and resources. In addition, Andris intelligence revealed that the bulk of Tirana's forces were still out trying to capture other colonies. Wi
The Resistance Army invades their home city.
th the time ripe for invasion, the Resistance army struck.
The ensuing battle saw the first use of Hell Mages in battle, to near-devastating results for the Resistance. The arrival of the incredibly strong Halforth helped offset some of Tirana's advantages. Tirana finally appeared once the battle had reached the castle moat. There, she unleashed the lich form of Galandir. Before the tortured being could act, however, Beleth arrived.
Using the combined power of the Royal Scepter and the Mirith Curio, Beleth destroyed Lich Galandir and Tirana. Istra Falvo, meanwhile, had administered her soup to the Twins. The soup, however, only weakened the villains. As they attempted to flee through the sewers, Rasha and Varsha were finally slain, at the hands of Nyatha Vaup herself. The Scepter began to glow in the hands of Halforth, and it was revealed that the pirate was actually the royal heir, N'eroth.
A Pirate Ascendancy?[]
As the chaos of the occupation died down, Duldrus was summarily emptied and its bank disappeared as the refugees returned home. The remnants of Tirana's occupation army, which had fled to Gohoran, were dri
A newly crowned King N'eroth addressing his subjects.
ven out in one of the first of the new monarch's initiatives. Some other near-immediate initiatives included three promotions: Rengal became Duke of Duldrus, Voltan became Mirith Guard Captain, and Amere became Royal Guard.
Although the liberation (or perhaps recapture) of Mirith was monumental, it brought a host of new problems. Most visibly, the new king N'eroth retained many of the morals and mannerisms of Halforth. Pardons were given to the Tribune of Exiles, who happened to be close contacts with the king during his pirate days. Despite all this, piracy was not officially condoned and N'eroth largely dismissed his old pirate crew. Now, the new Mirith would be tested with a tough reconstruction period and a vast, insidious Diabolical infiltration plot.