The War of the Broken Crypt
"All landless serfs, vagrants, and mercenaries are hear-by called by Bishop Dagobert of Carovin to put down a heretical uprising! The cultists have stockpiled great treasure and threaten the Barrowmark and its environs! Your rewards will be both material and immaterial! Those who fight will gain the eternal favour of Tyr in the Overhall!"
The War of the Broken Crypt was an undead invasion involving Rhudaria and much of the Holmgardian Empire orchestrated by the Calabim to weaken their enemies prior to the return of Sanguine.
Summary: In 686 HR, the Empire was in a weakened state, having lost population, technology, and half its territory in the preceding centuries. Little did its denizens know that their circumstances were about to fall much further.
For several years, the Inquisition had been infiltrated by Lord Wachter, a Barovian who sought to emulate Strahd von Zarovich, and Dagobert, a bishop hungry for power. Both fell under the sway of the ancient goddess Sanguine, and the pair founded a cult in the Barrowmere Valley, based in the lost dwarven city of Tznchundel. The cultists began by abducting peasant families and turning them into undead. They engineered the People's Crusade, a large migration of peasants to Carovin, in order to obtain the bodies needed for an undead army, and used ancient dwarven machinery to animate them and seize Carovin.
With a vast undead host at their command, the forces of Sanguine quickly overran nearly a third of the Empire, capturing the important cities of Aldberg and Grinstead. But a group of adventurers, originally a part of the People's Crusade, had escaped. They warned the exiled Prince Karl, and began to form an army in Holmgard with the Emperor's blessing.
The War Council, as these adventurers were known, retook Grinstead and used the lost dwarven tunnels of the Underway to secretly enter the occupied Barrowmark with a small army. In the process, Noro, who had become a renowned religious figure and a cult leader, died in battle - passing his last will and testament to his friend in secret. Joining up with the remaining survivors, they defeated Lord Wachter while taking heavy casualties, and retook Carovin, striking at the very heart of the undead host. And in Carovin, they found the root of Lord Wachter's corruption - a Shard of Sanguine, stolen from the Amber Temple in Barovia. With the war thought to be coming to an end, the Emperor himself returned to Carovin - but was assassinated by a minion of Dagobert.
Seeking to end the threat once and for all, the War Council infiltrated Tznchundel as the army, lead by Emperor Karl Graelingard, attacked the main gate. After a mighty battle, they killed the lich Dagobert, the killing blow being struck by none other than a tossed brick. The Hall of the Ancestors, the very heart of Tznchundel, collapsed in a storm of magic. Though a shard of Dagobert's soul remained in a phylactery, he never again threatened the Empire. Background: The Situation in 686
"I was a pig farmer, then an executioner. Nothin' for me in Coalshire now. I joined up 'cause it seemed like a good idea at the time. Now where can I get a drink 'round this place?"
- Conversation overheard by a peasant in the Greytower Inn, Carsgarde
Fifty years after the fragmentation of the Holmgardian Empire , the remnants of the realm faced threats both internal and external. A rebellion in the Duchy of Tserad, supported by the Kingdom of Rhudaria, had been ongoing for several months by late 686. What at first seemed to be a peasant uprising soon sprang into a full-blown separatist revolt, supported by foreign cavalry divisions.
The Half-Elves, always in an uneasy situation, were viewed with suspicion by the smallfolk and The Tyrian Inquisition . Witch-burnings and pogroms targeted against elves became increasingly common in the 680s, and merchant caravans in the Greatwood and other elf-populated regions came under threat.
Most importantly, reports of a fell cult in the Western Empire soon reached the ear of the Emperor. These reports were evidently deemed a secondary concern.
In the Barrowmere region, outlying villages began reporting disappearances during the summer of 686. By autumn, entire villages had gone missing in the Irontooth mountains.
The People's Crusade - Eleisen (August) 686 - Urogar (November) 686
"Friends, followers of Tyr. These worshippers of a strange god have been stockpiling wealth beneath the ground, wealth that could aid the cause of our people. This wealth has been squandered by these unbelievers, and so it falls to us to use it to purge the heretics, to drive the cultists from this land. It is not evil to steal from these unbelievers - no. We are furthering our holy cause by using this wealth for Tyr!"
- Approximate recollection of a speech by St. Noro, the "Eye of Tyr", prior to looting a crypt beneath Sasau
Faced with an alarming number of missing peasants and reports of the dead walking the hills at night, Margrave Albrecht von Carstein was put in a difficult situation. Most of his army had been requisitioned by the Emperor to deal with the growing rebellion in the south. The time for brushing the problem aside had passed, however. So when Bishop Dagobert approached him with an offer, he listened.
Dagobert offered to call a People's Crusade, a call for landless, "surplus" peasants to march to Carovin . Once a sufficient army had been assembled, they would be armed at the expense of the Church of Tyr, placed under the command of High Inquisitor Visgrad Wachter, and sent into the mountains to purge the cultists en masse. The Margrave agreed.
And so rag-tag bands made their way across the Empire to the Barrowmere. At first, only a trickle came. But as the call spread through the hamlets and outlying villages, the trickle became a flood. Among them were a disparate group of adventurers that later became known as the Champions of Carsgarde and the War Council, among other names. These adventurers saw the cultists of Sanguine first-hand, and then freed the village of Carsgarde from the reign of a heretical group of bandits. This group of adventurers consisted of Noro Codsworth, a former-inquisitor turned vagrant, Ivan Pines, an outcast noblemen and magic adept from Aldberg, Caspar Edelweiss, a pious farmer from Drakenhelm, and Tom Chumsky, an exiled executioner and pig-farmer from Coalshire. In Carsgarde, they were joined by Gerhardt, a former guard from the ruined northern town of Aufheim.
The goals of the People's Crusade, and the Champions of Carsgarde quickly became muddled. The crusaders were ordered to camp outside Carovin in a ramshackle tent city, rife with disease and crime. Over 10,000 "crusaders" aggregated there, barred from entering Carovin. The situation became grim. After aiding the village of Sasau , the Champions entered Carovin. They negotiated with High Inquisitor Wachter and the imprisoned mage Nexander, and obtained supplies for the starving crusaders. They were also joined by Garon von Rallus, a pragmatic monk, scholar, and one-time gladiator, a quarter-orc hailing from Drakenhelm.
Unfortunately, events soon spiraled quickly out of control.
The Siege of Carovin
"You folk are free to defend the city and die for glory, Tyr, and so forth. But the city is clearly doomed, and I'll be making my escape, thank you very much!"
Garon von Rallus, AKA Jorg the Gigantic, to the Champions of Carsgarde and Nexander, at the Middengate
Unbeknownst to the Crusaders, Dagobert and Wachter had ulterior motives for calling the People's Crusade. With a great mass of poorly-armed folk trapped outside Carovin, the time was nigh for their plan to be unleashed on the unknowing people of the Empire. On the 7th of Nightfall, a great host of undead Wights swept down from the mountains in the middle of the night, ravaging the remaining villages and slaughtering nearly the entire People's Crusade. Only a few scattered bands, including one led by Captain Holger, and the Champions of Carsgarde, escaped the massacre.
In the following months, the power of the Cult of Sanguine grew beyond the confines of the Barrowmark. With Carovin encircled and the mountain passes blockaded, the undead scourge had free reign to invade the undefended western Empire. During the early days of the siege, the Champions of Carsgarde managed to escape from the Barrowmark before the roads into it was heavily fortified. During the escape, several warriors from Carsgarde and Mannheim, a former inquisitor and friend of Noro, died fighting fell Wights and Pyre Zombies. This event, the battle of Dagren's pass, proved to have great implications.
The Blessed March to Holmgard - early 687
"People of Holmgard , followers of Tyr, I welcome you on this blessed day to the capital of humankind. We have seen great changes here in the mortal plane in recent months. There are whispers of foul things gnawing at the edge of the empire and abominations stirring in our forests. Many worry of dark times ahead. But on this holy and revered day, let me remind you that we have overcome far darker times through the power of our faith in Tyr!
May Tyr watch over all of mankind.
- Excerpt from the sermon at Graelingard square - St. Caspar
While Carovin was under siege, the Champions of Carsgarde escaped to the haunted berg of Grinstead, deep within the haunted Greatwood. There, they met the exiled Prince Karl by chance. Through the wit of Garon von Rallus, they were enlisted to serve as his escorts - for an exorbitant fee. Along the way, Tom Chumsky seized the heart of the wolf spirit Morvudd, becoming a Skin Wolf, a ferocious whirlwind of fangs and claws in battle.
After a leisurely march to the capital, the Champions found themselves plunged into Holmgard, the overcrowded, dangerous capital of the Empire. Weeks after their arrival, they found the Tyrian Inquisition to be heavily infiltrated by the Cult of Sanguine. As the Inquistion was being purged, Holmgard itself was attacked by the undead, and a horrible abomination. Garon plunged through the portal that had brought these fell creatures, and discovered that they hailed from the lost city of Tznchundel itself.. In the aftermath, the Champions of Carsgarde gathered a small but devoted army - the Second Crusade to retake Carovin. Among these were the flagellants - remnants of the now discredited Tyrian Inquisition - who had reformed themselves and devoted their lives to Noro Codsworth and the War Council, as the party was now known. Noro and Caspar slowly became religious icons, their legend bolstered by Noro's fiery faith and Caspar's humble piety.
The Battle of Grinstead - early 687
"I christen thee the Flametouched. And with this blessing of Fire, may you ever follow the will of Tyr.
- Ivan Pines, Court Mage, to Joanne von Arken, zealot of Tyr, after burning a group of traitorous heretics at the stake.
The War Council returned to Grinstead, marching once again through the haunted depths of the Greatwood. There, they discovered that the cultists had allied with numerous remote villages and the local Beastmen, and had seized Grinstead. Through a three pronged assault, they defeated a sizeable garrison and killed a powerful lieutenant in the army, a former inquisitor called Beron the Red. Unfortunately, thanks to intelligence leaked by Ivan Pines to the enemy, they took heavy casualties in the process... In the aftermath of this betrayal, a frenzied purge ensued. In the process, numerous former cultists were burned at the stake in front of the entire army, an event which brought Noro and Ivan's power to unprecedented heights. In the blood-red glow of the pyres, a new Order was born: the Purifying Zealots of Tyr. This birth of this order would have grave repercussions in the latter part of Karl's reign... Return to the Barrowmere
Knowing full well that Dagren's pass was heavily fortified, the War Council sought a different way to Carovin... Leading the army through the Underway, a crumbling network of dwarven highways, the party came across skittering rat-men and decrepit constructs, horrors of the ancient world. After several days of travel through the stifling depths, the party emerged in the Barrowmark once more. Emerging south of the Barrowmere, the War Council set about scouting the ravaged highlands, amidst the smoke and ash of a hundred burning villages. To their surprise, they found survivors, camped in the ruined town of Barrowgarde. They reconvened with former comrades, and set about planning to retake Carovin. But they were intercepted. A great host of vampiric monstrosities and a legion of undead marched on their camp in the dead of night. Hoping to evacuate the civilians from the ensuing battle, the Council led them to the boats - only to find the dead themselves had emerged from the lake, dragging down many a screaming peasant to a horrible death in the mud. The party fought them back, before forming a rag-tag shield wall in front of the gate. In the great battle that ensued, hundreds of mighty warriors died amidst the rain, mud, and blood. But as the hour grew dark, a great burst of lightning crackled and the heavens themselves seemed to open. A hammer - the Hammer of Tyr - appeared in Caspar's hand, a beacon of goodness and light. Striking down Wachter, the enemy was beaten back by the War Council and the thunderous charge of Kelemvorite and Tyrian alike. But in the chaotic rout that followed, St. Noro - founder of a mighty order, cunning leader, and secret atheist - fell. And so the council laid the spirit of their brave but calculating friend to rest. The Liberation of Carovin and the Lost City of Tznchundel Mourning their losses, the War Council and their ragged army prepared siege weaponry and assailed Carovin from the lake and the sewers, seeking to take advantage of their hard-won victory. They crept beneath the Cathedral of Tyr - now a Temple of Sanguine - and discovered that Dagobert had retreated to Tznchundel. In a titanic battle, they killed Lord Wachter, and the remnants of his personal guard were routed by Ilyanov van Richten - brother of Rudolph van Richten and an esteemed monster hunter renowned for his single-minded brutality. In Carovin, they discovered that Wachter had been corrupted long ago by a Shard of Sanguine, which he pillaged from the Amber Temple in Barovia. The War Council spent months then recuperating, for the undead threat had subsided for the time being, and they sorely needed reinforcements. They met the vanguard of a much larger imperial army led by none other than the Emperor himself. Among them was Gisele, Noro's old lover, who was bearing his child, along with many zealots bearing a sigil of a flaming hammer. Yet in that bittersweet moment, the Emperor himself was assassinated by a horrible mobius witch. With haste, the party rushed to Tznchundel to end Dagobert and his ritual to attain godhood, earning revenge in the process. The War Council nearly fractured, however, as Garon attempted to steal the blade of the Custodian and the Shard of Sanguine, but then repented. The party attempted to infiltrate Tznchundel, fighting their way through all manner of ancient horrors as the city quickly proved to be haunted and ruinous. And so it came to light that the dwarves of Tznchundel were enslaved and mind controlled by a race of invaders - the Illithid. Yet that was long ago. The party pressed on and battled Dagobert in the Hall of the Ancestors. In a battle that sundered the mountain, Dagobert was slain, the Construct Animator destroyed. The War Council was declared heroes, each of them made Jarls of the Empire, and Emperor Karl's reign began in earnest.
Conflict Type
War
Start Date
Late 686 HR
Ending Date
?
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