“OPEN THE GATES” An illithid guard wearing a full steel breastplate shouts down the wall to a duo, who begin rotating a larger wooden wheel.

Slowly, the portcullis raises and walking under it is a battalion of skeletons, all wearing shiny breastplates and well sharpened weapons guarding a large line of crates.

Marching in clattering sync, they reach a luscious garden composed of bodies and stop, standing in deathly silence.

A skeleton wearing a plumed helmet steps out of the formation.

“MASTER OF THIS HOUSE, THE HOUSE OF SKELOR BRINGS GIFTS OF PEACE TO THEE” He shouts out towards the sky, since no ‘master of the house’ is currently visible.

In response to the shout, the heavy iron doors of the castle entrance swing open, revealing fourteen illithids and a dryad peering down at the skeletons.

The one which is dressed in a tight black leather corset, along with matching trousers and boots, saunters down towards the quite shocked skeletons.

“Who are you?” The skeletal leader gruffly says, since none have been informed in the change of leadership in the House that just recently occurred.

“I am Lith, the Mistress of this House” She says offhandedly as she walks past the skeleton and runs her fingers along a crate “I see Skelor is as giving as ever”

The battalion suddenly felt very scared of this ‘Lith’, partially because she seemed to know Skelor in person as well as her name being the same as the founder of the House of Lith.

Ignoring the many looks, she rips open the crate with her bare hands, a shocking feat for both the skeletons

and the watching illithid; since Illithid are well known for their physical weakness, and peers at the insides for a second.

Turning back to the skeletal leader, with a wooden lid in hand, she gives him a faint smile.

“Tell Skelor…to go fuck himself” She swings the lid furiously towards the leader, smashing the lid and sending the skeletal leader to the ground.

Suddenly, Illithid charged from the rear, jumped off the walls, sprung from the many bony bushes and dropped from the fleshy trees, surrounding the small battalion of skeletons.

Not understanding why this happened, the skeletons begin to fight with the overwhelming horde of maces and hammers, killing one or two before they are overwhelmed and crushed.

Lith, although beginning within the reach of many skeletal soldiers, is left unharmed, due to the fact that within seconds she became surrounded by her own kin, before the stunned skeletons were able to react and avenge their commander.

Within a minute, the sounds of battle die down, leaving the entire battalion of skeletons in literal pieces along with a hundred or so illithid on the ground next to them.

The commander, was spared, as Lith stood on his hands, pinning him down until the fight was over.

Leaning down towards him she whispered into his ear:

“Go tell Skelor, how dare he insult me like that. Tell him, that once I am finished with Dacul, he will be next”

Standing back up, she walks away, exposing her back to the skeleton, but he does not take the chance.

Scrambling to his feet, he is roughly escorted out and thrown outside the gates, along with his weapon and helmet.

Broiled in confused fear, he begins to run back to Skelor.

Meanwhile, Lith begins overturning the carts, letting their contents smash into the ground, splints of wood littering everywhere.

“DOES EVERYONE HERE SEE WHAT THEY HAVE DONE?” She shouts to the small horde of illithid that stand around, mending their allies and cleaning the garden as she adds more trash to the floor.

They look like they know, but no one answers in fear of getting it wrong.

“THEY HAVE TOYED WITH US, FUCKED WITH US! CAN YOU NOT SEE WHAT IS IN THE CRATES?”

She points towards a guard who was wrapping the leg of another guard and he visibly begins sweating, profusely.

“Erm…n-n-nothing?” He sputters out after wildly looking around to see what was on the floor.

“EXACTLY, NOTHING! THEY PROMISED RECOMPENSE FOR THE DEATH OF OUR PRINCE AND GAVE US NOTHING! NOT ONLY THAT, THEY WENT SO FAR AS TO BRING US NOTHING! SO I ASK YOU NOW, WHAT SHALL WE TURN THEM INTO?”

“Nothing?” An illthid from the wall says half-confident

She picks up a skull, crushing it in her bare hands “NOTHING”

Storming away, her court follows after her, leaving the guards shivering and sweating in both fear of Lith and what their life is about to come to.

Shutting the doors to the main hall, she sits on her throne sighing deeply.

“I take it you’re a bit shocked Skelor could do such a thing” The twins pipe up simultaneously, patting both of her shoulders in consolidation.

“No, she was just acting up for the crowds. Skelor was never like that and he would never do such a taunting thing with no reason” The posh sounding Illithid muses knowledgeably, as he too has met Skelor before.

“The only reason Skelor would provoke us like that would be to declare war, but wouldn’t that be unfavourable for h-” The lusty female illithid in a crimson robe speaks up but is cut off by the one-eyed illithid.

“We are at war with Dacul, to Skelor this is the best moment for him to go to war with us, especially if they have joined hands”

“So if they’ve joined hands then that is a sign they are working together to destroy our House?” Lith interjects, making the court look towards her once more.

“Yes Mistress, and if they have not joined hands then it was an internal matter in Skelor rather than an act of war” Dyara speaks her thoughts, confirming Lith’s own.

“Send a spy to both Houses and give them a weapon in case they need to assassinate my old comrades” Lith speaks the order and the court scurry off to make it happen, all except one.

The well muscled illithid stays cross-armed at the foot of her throne, as if wanting to speak.

Gesturing for him to speak, he begins.

“We discussed in the war council earlier that if this was the case, I am to go recruiting yes?”

“You know that, so don’t bother me about it Bariaxüs. Raise me an army worthy to bring down both Houses”

“Can I do it through any means?”

“As long as you recruit more than you kill and make sure to burn the corpses” She grins evilly

“With pleasure” His grin matches hers

…

Gromar was cleaning his pint glasses just a few minutes ago, now, he is walking through the streets in a crowd of monsters, most half-halfheartedly due to being forced into such a situation.

He himself was just busy running his inn as usual when the doors had been smashed down by an ogre and the residents, all fearing the day this would come, obediently followed the ogre out.

They had heard both the rumours and the screams of the ‘recruitment’ that had happened over the past few days.

Of course no one was filled in with the events that transpired within the three main Houses, but they did know that war was breaking out; since they were all being forced into recruitment into the House of Lith.

Gromar had been there, just over two centuries ago; when the three Houses were at war with one another and this recruitment was no less brutal than the last.

Shuffling through the streets, they pass many piles of burning corpses; the dissenters, the ones that didn’t want to be recruited, the naïve fools who were too wet behind the ears to have experienced the last war.

Slowly, they reached a courtyard and waiting in line, were stripped from their tops and marked on their right shoulder with a hot iron in the shape of an Illithid’s head.

Sometimes, the illithid who were marking them had to stop and slice off some of the flesh on the shoulder, to remove the old mark that was still there.

Peering on his shoulder, he smirks at the fading skull mark that recognized him as a soldier of Skelor.

Although he smirked at it, he still shivers at the memory of the battlefield, of the mad screams of his allies turning upon one in a bloody frenzy.

Shaking the horrific image of slaughter from his mind, he reaches first in the queue.

“Ah, a veteran, and an old one from Skelor, you must be either really lucky or really strong to still be alive”

The illithid remarks as he brings a knife to the shoulder, slicing away the skin, leaving soft, pink muscle bulging in the open air.

Without delay, the hot iron stamps into his shoulder burning away at his flesh.

Letting out a roar of pain, he remains standing even as his muscle blazes torturously.

Soon the pain subsides somewhat and he is directed away from the courtyard.

Following the leaving crowd, most of which are rubbing their shoulder with winces, they soon arrive at the town center; a huge expansive area where a park of bones stood days before, but was now destroyed to allow more space.

The place was filled with hordes of monsters, all with fresh burns on their shoulders, some looking somewhat scared as the humongous pile of burning corpses that resided in the center of the space.

Gromar imagined that in the first day, many dissented at being recruited due to not wanting to join the great three Houses in their petty squabbles. But none here seem to want to dissent because they know just how powerful the members of the three Houses are.

A bulky illithid stood on a small raised platform in front of the fire, its little eyes watching all enter.

Soon the crowd stops moving and all silently look at him, in recognition that he may be important.

“I, am Bariaxüs, would anyone like to dissent about being recruited to the House of Lith?” He did not shout, but his voice still carried to the backs of the crowds with ease. He spoke with his arms crossed arrogantly and looked down upon them, as if he was better than all of them combined.

The thing was, that he is and many of the monsters there knew that. The stories and screams of the first day had reached their ears; the stories about how the dissenters on the first day were as many as the monsters standing here right now, and about how he alone caused them to turn upon one another, murdering eachother till none stood standing.

That humongous pile of still burning bodies are those monsters from that day.

No one said a thing and the silence grew and grew, until Bariaxüs clapped his hands delightfully.

“Good now make you wa-” He stops suddenly as an Illithid, panting and out of breath sprints towards him and drops down on one knee offering a letter.

Taking the letter, Bariaxüs reads it silently, leaving thousands of monsters waiting silently, none daring to breathe too loudly.

Tearing the letter up, he turns back towards the crowd.

“Go to Skelor, and kill them all” He growls and points towards the east, where the House of Skelor resides.

The crowd, not wishing to disobey, start to march towards the House of Skelor.

…

“MY LORD SKELOR” A skeleton rushes in and bows before the war council “there is an army of about thirty thousand making their way over to here as we speak”

The council returns to their debate in a renewed frenzy, while Skelor sighs deeply.

“See my Lord, Kel’kor’s advice was sound; allying ourselves with Dacul will help us survive this war”

Skelor sighs and nods.

It was just a precaution, nothing more, but now look; it has brought an army to my doorstep.

“MY LORD” Another skeleton, Dolan this time, wearing his usual black head guardsman cape kneels before Skelor “The escort for the convoy returned, only the commander returned and in deathly shape”

Many gasps of breath were heard as all knew that they had sent their finest to escort the convoy and little could kill them to a single man.

Skelor immediately stood up “Take me to him”

Dolan shook his head “That is not possible my Lord, for he crumbled to ashes but a few minutes after delivering the news” he replied solemnly.

Skelor nods his head solemnly “What news did he bring?”

“They were attacked by the Dacul along the road. It seems they had gotten wind of our cargo and descended upon them with all their might. The commander had spent days shambling back with a useless leg to tell us this news”

The council went silent, to ingest this new, worrying information.

“Gentlemen” Skelor breaks the silence “It seems...as though Dacul was truly trying to sour our relations with the House of Lith. So...we must go to Dacul under impressions of defending their lands with them and murder them to reconstruct our relations with the House of Lith”

“But what about the army at our doorstep?” One of the council members spoke up

“We do not need to fight with them, merely escape. However if we must fight, do not hold back, for they are simply pawns” Skelor answers quickly after a small period of thought.

The council members all ponder upon the thought for moment, before nodding their heads in agreement.

Sending the order around, the entire House begins to move out.

…

“Who goes there” A pale elven creature with fangs and crimson eyes looks down the wall at a young girl, as pale as him who is carrying a crate on her tiny back.

“I am Lucille, and I bring gifts to this House” She bows towards the man, producing a single crimson vial with one hand while pointing to the crate on her back with her other hand.

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Author's Corner: Heyyy! been a while, had a bit of long weekend with relatives so yeah, no time to write unfortunately!

However here we are with another chapter, soooo enjoy!

Review, rate, comment, tell me things cause i need the love(/hate, but i do prefer love :D)

-TRUE NORRRRRD