Darkfang Hold

Chieftans Hall- Personal Quarters

Jacob watched as Sosa cuddled up to him, he smiled and kissed her head before bringing up the kingdom tab and started reading, some of the information was redundant, but other stuff was a surprise. Like an Experience tax, it would accrue from people completing quests within the City or Kingdom and the ruler could set the tax up to 10% of what people could get. Jacob immediately set the taxes, tariffs and exp tax at 5% while leaving export taxes at nothing.

The various perk trees could provide an edge in coming days, perks that he choose might mean the difference in victory or defeat but only time would tell. Looking at the various perk trees he knew he would take some time to figure out what to choose and that he would talk to other people before making a final decision.

Sosa slightly stirred before cuddling closer to Jacob. Jacob smiled at her sleeping form and considered the coming days, hoping he was making the right decisions. Unknown Location

Dumathoin gazed out at the primordial chaos and felt the portal open and Eilistraee stepped through checking her surroundings before letting the portal close. "Welcome back lass, how are you doing? How did your homecoming go?" the Dwarven god asked.

Eilistraee chuckled as the other god conjured two steins full of beer and handed one to her, "Well my mom acted surprised, but it was all just an act. What she was really thinking, I have no idea. How was your homecoming with your pantheon?" The Drow goddess asked before downing the drink in one go.

"Well, I definitely enjoyed punching my brother and beating him. The rest of my family enjoyed me showing up again after all this time, I have no idea which way my family will jump through in the end." Dumathoin responded as he downed his own stein before refilling both. "Now what are we going to do to help that mortal out?" Fortress of Baereghel

Lady Ilmdra Do'und watched Nadal Despval process her proposal, he was doing better today because one of the slaves had been discovered to have some healing magic and they had immediately forced him to use his gifts to speed the healing of the wounded general. "It would take months to train and equip the slaves you have. Even once that is done, the Council of Damnation will send both assassins and armies to destroy you. You do not have the numbers to fight them and this new enemy that we know so little about."

Lady Do'und sneered at him, "The Council is on the verge of a civil war, it is already fractured by the loss of two fortresses and your defeat. Our succession will cause an all-out civil war, the Council of Damnation members will be too worried about infighting to worry about us. As far as this new threat, I am sure they are consolidating their new positions and are in no way a threat to us." Suddenly alarm bells sounded from the outer wall and causing Lady Do'und to curse.

Despval rolled his eyes at what Lady Do'und said, "Arrogance and stupidity, two things that have brought down many Drow females, I guess you have underestimated them Lady Do'und." Lady Do'und contemplated killing him before whirling away and running from the keep and toward the outer wall.

Tarren watched as the First Legion deployed for battle, the Combat Engineers with work crews were assembling the three Ballista, two Catapults, and a battering ram in case the situation turned into a siege. Based on the fact they magical defenses of the fortress had been activated Tarren doubted they would surrender, but that was up to Jacob. Immortals and their War Parties were deployed along the battle line to rienforce them anywhere they were needed and the other half of the guild would be coming when Tarren activated the Portal Stone. "Ready for your big entrance?" Tarren asked over the guild chat.

"Next time, you deal with the bandits and guild politics and I will do the boring march through the Underdark. Now please activate the Portal Stone." Jacob snarked back. Tarren smiled as he placed the unassuming stone on the ground and activated the inherent magic. He quickly forwarded the coordinates to Jacob so the Dawn Guard and the rest of the guild could come through. "Incoming, stand clear." came through the guild channel and Tarren repeated the order through the raid channel.

Suddenly the stone started to glow and float before whirling into an active portal that started to immediately disgorge the elite Dawn Guard troops and the remaining Seekers of the Dawn. Within 10 minutes they were all through and Tarren expected the portal to close but then more troops started to flood out and based on the banners and insignia on the armor they were Clan Darguun troops. Jacob came walking up and took in Tarren inquisitive expression he responded, "The couple who conquer together, stay together. Whoever is in command of this fortress is supposed to surrender it without a fight, but considering its a Drow in command of the fortress. I am willing to bet that deal has fallen through. She insisted on coming along to make sure we win and she put together about 400 troops on short notice. Well, let's see if this is going to be an easy win or not." Jacob turned and started walking toward the fortress accompanied by his War Party, a squad of soldiers from Clan Darguun, his newest wife, and a squad from the Dawn Guard. Lady Do'und watched the approaching party, a mixed lot. Some were obviously from the old enemies of Clan Darguun while others were an unknown people she had never seen or met. The motif was a sunburst and shield, an odd combination for the Underdark and all were led by the two half-breeds. One was a mix of Elf and Human and the other was Elf and Goblin or Hobgoblin, both had an aura of command and authority. Lady Do'und turned toward her Swordmaster, "Ready two squads, I will go out there for a parley. Do not do anything unless I signal you."

Despval was leaning against the nearby wall looking out at the enemy and studied their formation and deployment, "You should surrender. They outnumber your forces nearly 3 to 1 and they are disciplined. The only advantage you have right now is the shield, as soon as they crack it, we will lose."

Lady Do'und looked at the other Drow, "I will consider your words General, but you are not in command here. I am and I will decide what to do." She responded before descending from the wall and heading toward the gate with the two squads as an escort. Jacob watched as the large gates of the Fortress of Baereghel opened up and disgorged two squads of Drow with female Drow leading them toward his party. Jacob smiled and rolled his eyes at the fact another female was in command even though it had been proven time and again their arrogance was their downfall. Jacob removed Moonlight from its sheath and jammed it into the ground and then let his helm hang from the hilt. "Bet you a gold piece she will talk to you and ignore me." He told Sosa who snorted and rolled her eyes while jamming her spear into the ground.

"I do not make stupid bets, it is well known that Drow do not respect males and are arrogant to a fault. How long will you let her talk before you enlighten her to the fact that you are in command of the army that has come here." Sosa asked while she started studying the defenses.

"What's the fun in bursting her bubble, it will be all the more amusing if I wait," Jacob replied as he did his own studying of both the fortress and the approaching party. Most of the incoming Drow were Warriors of some type but two in the back were obvious Rogues. Jacob immediately looked and June and Chalxae who simply nodded while studying the two Drow hanging back.

Of course, Jacob was right, the woman immediately ignored Jacob in favor to Sosa much to both their amusement and while she laid out her whole spiel Jacob ignored her and continued to study the fortress and its defenders. The Magic Shield was a basic variety with 50,000 health and would not regenerate while in combat. The Ballistas could deal out 1,000 damage per shot and the basic Catapults dealt 2,000 per shot. If they took the time to research the more advanced ammunition they could deal more, but they didn't have any at the moment. The siege engines alone could do 10,000 damage a minute, that did not include archers and magi, including those his army could deal out nearly 16,000 damage a minute so the shield would be down in less than 5 minutes unless the Drow had magi assigned to the shield to bolster its strength.

Jacobs thoughts were diverted when he heard Sosa clearing her throat and looking at him, "Oh is she done with her speech? Did she surrender?"

Sosa smiled while the Drow started cursing, "Yes she is done with her speech and no she did not surrender. Yes, she is aware that you made arrangements for the fortresses surrender but she doesn't care."

"So she got a taste of power and independence and does not want to give it up. Got it. To bad." Jacob pulled out the communication coin he had to contact Ranyln Do'und while holding up a finger toward the Drow in the universal sigh to wait.

Lady Do'und was furious, she had offered to pay them off to leave them alone but the leader of the invading forces had ignored the offer and had now indicated for her to wait until he was done discussing the situation with someone else. It was infuriating, the leader was a non-Drow and was male. The two Drow in his party ignored her or smirked at her reaction to their leader.

This man was nothing, yet he treated her like some child who was misbehaving. He acted as if he did not have a worry in the world even though if these talks broke down, blood would be spilled. After a few minutes, the man stopped using the coin and stood there contemplating her and her escort.

"Your cousin is furious Ilmdra, you can still surrender and save your life. We do not have to turn this into a fight." The man said and as soon as her escort heard the man say her name they started looking at each other and started considering who he could have been talking too.

"My name is Lady Ilmdra Do'und and I..." before she could continue Jacob interrupted her.

"No, your name is Ilmdra now. You have no House or home, both have been stripped from you because you reached too far. You can save your life though and surrender the fortress if you do not your cousin says I can do whatever I will with you and anyone in the garrison that follows your command." Jacob retorted. What Ilmdra did not know was that one of the mages that had come with him had amplified the voices and everyone is the fortress had heard what he had said. "If you and your people fight, you will die. No one needs to die for your pride, surrender."

Ilmdra snarled at Jacob before suddenly drawing the falchion and whip from her belt and quickly moving forward. The whip struck out at Sosa while the falchion darted toward Jacob's exposed neck. The Battle for Fortress of Baereghel began because a Drow was arrogant and Vampire lord provoked her.