New Hallownest-Yellow Formian War

A war between the kingdom of New Hallownest and the Yellow Formian Empire in late 23 ARL.

The Conflict

Prelude

The conflict between the two nations was precipitated by a brief battle in September of 23 ARL, when forces called up by the king of New Hallownest intervened to stop the Empire's invasion of the kuo-toa city of Bpfashishlaship. After two weeks of successfully sieging the city, the invading army was suddenly and catastrophically attacked by a detachment of Malthorians led by King Harold of the Malthorian House of Air, King Knight of New Hallownest, and a collection of other legendary combatants. The formian invasion army was mostly annihilated. The Malthorians and their allies declared victory, looted the remains, and went home.
The formian leadership was left to descend into a panicked frenzy. They'd previously had little idea New Hallownest even existed, and while they could track the devastating assault back to that kingdom, none of their magic could discern where the army involved had come from or disappeared to. In the face of this massive and unpredictable threat, they began rapidly bringing additional queens online and preparing a new invasion army of hundreds of thousands of formians, intending to wipe New Hallownest off the map.
Unfortunately for them, New Hallownest learned of this planned invasion weeks in advance.
Seeing the xenophobic, expansionist, and more than a little insane formian leadership as impossible to reason with, the leadership of New Hallownest began preparations for a devastating preemptive strike and a subsequent war of annihilation.

Deployment

New Hallownest recruited mercenaries and adventurers from Guardia, Leithien, Alvidar, and Argerus to supplement their own forces and make up for the population and military size disparity. They were also aided by forces from Derkusk's Tribe and Druin Kraz.
New Hallownest's initial decapitation strike was carried out by twelve adventurer strike teams and forces from Derkusk's Tribe. Their goal was to wipe out the formian adventurers, queens, and military leadership in one go, shattering the Empire's coordination and ability to conduct a similar counterstrike.

Battlefield

The 7 caverns/areas of the mad formian empire as seen by the New Hallownest infiltrator, Slick.

1. A green, vine-covered, slightly glowing cave with strange life force emanating from the walls. Glowing crystals and abundant insect life. Used as a farm by the formians.
2. A winding complex of caverns, rivers, and lakes that stretches for miles as it descends through the earth. Strange mists, magical auras, a variety of glowing crystals. Used as a training ground and staging area by the formians.
3. The obsidian death drop cave is a very vertical series of large cylindrical holes melted into existence by some cataclysmic fiery event. Used as a fortress and staging area by the formians.
4. The ancient grell city is an oblong ancient cityscape of vertical, strangely shaped towers and domes. It is the primary city/residence of the formians.
5. Blue stone crystal cavern. A large, mostly spherical blue-grey cavern with softly glowing pale blue crystals growing from almost every surface. The formians use it to mine strange minerals they use in their weapons.
6. Petrified Brain Cave. Over a mile and a half long petrified brain of unknown origin. Carved caves follow the twists and 3-dimensional wrinkles, with small rooms burrowed into it to house various research projects. Patrolled by a literal army of formians, the brain is their R&D secret military base. Best protected area against scrying.
7. Dusty Mold Lake. A brown-yellow miasma covered lake where the visibility and air quality are actively hostile to most life. The formians have a sealed city in one wall and a series of 'private dwellings' of the rich and powerful of their society spread around its banks. Formians gather food from the fungal lake and seem oddly at ease in the vicinity, using it like a toxic resort and mold farm.

The Engagement

The New Hallownestian surprise attack proceeded largely as planned. Devastating adventurer-led assaults unfolded simultaneously, targeting key locations and personnel. The farming caves were struck with lava. The attackers suffered upwards of 18,000 casualties, the vast majority being easily replaced goblins from The Horde, but they inflicted some 128,000 losses in return, including one formian queen. The decapitation strike was largely unsuccessful, but the assault was a victory nonetheless.
New Hallownest conducted a second strike two days later, dumping magma into the main formian farm cavern and their toxic resort. The formians were able to shut the portals, but not before significant damage was done.
Later that day, the war was disrupted by an assault on the entire region by the golem forces of the derro city of Gertaglebrache. New Hallownest, underestimating the urgency of the threat and aiming to take advantage of the chaos, continued their plan to infiltrate the Imperial core with their most powerful adventurers. Their opportunistic strike at the climax of the golem assault saw another formian queen, a super-golem, and some fifty formian adventurers dead, leaving the formians with only two queens remaining. The New Hallownestian strike team returned to reports that their supremely valuable mithril mine had fallen to the golems, though New Hallownest's own defenses remained firm.
New Hallownest's adventurers counterattacked, and within hours the mine was reclaimed, Gertaglebrache was in ruins, and the mad king of the derro was dead. In the midst of those events, King Knight of New Hallownest discovered that they had acquired a passenger: The spirit form of the formian queen they had fought had latched onto their soul-absorbing form and was hanging on for dear life. The associated telepathic connection had allowed the formian queen to realize that Knight was more than just an animal or an object. This change in perspective made dialogue possible. Diplomacy ensued, and a truce was called after New Hallownest's leaders restored the queen to living form and the queen promised to bring this new, non-genocidal understanding back to her people.

Outcome

The Yellow Formian Empire was devastated in the war. While it did survive, which was a better outcome than its enemies were initially aiming for, it lost hundreds of thousands of people, at least one of its four queens, many of its adventurers, its main research facility, and significant portions of its infrastructure. It may have suffered permanent damage to its best farming territory. Even this may be understating its losses.
New Hallownest, primarily fielding mercenaries and elite adventurers, suffered minimal casualties. Its mercenaries and associates suffered more; the Horde took large but expected and easily recovered losses, while Derkusk's orc tribe, deliberately fighting without coordination with their allies, lost an unknown number of warriors. One hired adventuring party was entirely wiped out. New Hallownest's own greatest loss was its mithril/solcite mine: Despite the extremely brief period that the mine was out of their control, the derro managed to scour the main areas of the mine with a burrowing extraction golem, greatly and permanently reducing the mine's regular output.
Despite the losses, the broad short-term result was a safer Darkhome region. The megalomaniac derro and the omnicidal formians had been removed as local threats, and the formians had survived to perhaps become cooperative members of Underdark civilization. The events of the war also gave outsiders the first warning signs of strange trouble within Derkusk's tribe, signs that would prompt increasingly concerned investigations from New Hallownest over the coming months as the tribe stonewalled all attempts at communication.

Conflict Type

War

Battlefield Type

Land

Start Date

November 28th, 23 ARL

Ending Date

November 30th, 23 ARL

Conflict Result

Truce/New Hallownest victory

Location

Meridan Underdark

Belligerents

New Hallownest

• Darkhome
• Derkusk's Tribe
• Druin Kraz
• Kalgrid

Led by

• Averigor
• Ba'alzamon Dreamender
• Derkusk
• King Edward Celris
• Knight of Darkhome
• Terana DelGarrod

Yellow Formian Empire

• Yellow Formian Empire

Strength

Notable Individuals

King Knight of New Hallownest

Ba’alzamon Dreamender

William Sith

King Averigor of Druin Kraz

Derkusk

King Edward Celris of Kalgrid

Queen Terana DelGarrod

Queen Ngel Sfet of the Black Hive

Queen Hornet of Deepnest

Zolsikar, King of the Spiders

Syresia, daughter of Veragna

Scyka, High Priest of Karnifax

The Hollow Knight

Rodger Silverton

Zem

Sunderfury Ironspire

Avalon

Immori

Et-Kehri

Zathian and Belther

God Tamer

William Kit

Named Strike Teams

Lightning Tuskers

Order of the Bloody Brand

Erevan's Folly

Halcyon

Company of the Emerald Flame

Bramble Flame Bandits

Leithien Spec. Forces/3rd House unit

Leithatorian Spec. Forces with Drago

Rebel Crown group

Silver Chalice Knight order sponsored group

Larger Forces

Grim Jack's Mercenary Company

Lenux's Rogues

Guardians of Ghul-Dan

Horde detachment

Derkusk's Tribe

The Fools

New Hallownest Sentries

Druin Kraz detachment

Eben's Barricade Force

The Kalgrid Army

Hundreds of thousands of formian warriors

Numerous formian adventuring parties

9+ formian queens

Various commanders and higher-tier combatants

Casualties

Objectives

Destroy the yellow formian leadership

Remove the Empire's ability to threaten New Hallownest in the future

Defend their territory and leadership

Annihilate New Hallownest