One month before the battle was to take place, the Darksolian forces started laying the groundwork for the fight to come. Thanks to the so-called ‘Fallen’ Tree having a backdoor into the planning of the increasingly crazy Great Tree, Darksol knew ahead of time where the enemy would come from, roughly how many would be in the enemy force, how many of each formation type there would be, and a whole bunch of other random bits of valuable trivia. As this information was gathered, preparations began to take new and interesting turns.

As more information came in, copied from the increasingly deranged and increasingly conspiratorial mind of that dumb, sociopathic shrub, it became increasingly clear that the fucker had no god damned idea what he was doing. His massive army would be comprised mostly of infantry, which would make up roughly around 60-70% of his total forces. However, he had, for some unknowable reason that nobody could figure out, chosen a battlefield where massive ponds linked together by rather deep but slow-flowing rivers crisscrossed the terrain.

This would not only make their attempted assault on Darksol’s position a rather hard prospect, but it would force the ACT (Arcfiran Confederated Tribes) to cross a few shallow spots or use old, rickety, horribly maintained bridges that had obviously seen better days. Was this some tactical or strategic move of unheard-of brilliance? No, it was idiocy, plain and simple, and despite the fact that it was a batshit insane and utterly moronic move, Darksol was perfectly fine to have it happen.

Besides, all it did was allow a more… aquatic force to assist in the battle, and Darksol’s mortal soldiers would never say ‘no’ to having the Naga join any battle. Maybe that view was because they found the skimpily dressed aquatic monster girls attractive, or maybe they just liked having more allies to divert enemy attention, but in the end, it didn’t matter. The Naga were absolutely thrilled to be invited to what could very well be the final battle of a war for the first time ever, and aside from that, they had… other desires to fulfill, as well.

Now that the forces that would be brought to the field were set, Darksol began its long and laborious process of royally fucking with the terrain. The first things to go were the trees. There was no way in hell that they were going to let those things remain, especially since they blocked ranged fire and could easily be scaled by the elves that were coming to the fight. If there was one thing they didn’t want, it was enemies shooting from a concealed, elevated position.

Rather than rip them up at the foundation, a simple bit of ax-work was enough to remove them from the equation, especially when followed up by a bit of movement and a bit of fire. The next thing to go were the bushes, which met a fiery end, followed shortly thereafter by the tall and long grass and any random bits of foliage that remained after the ‘slash and burn’ treatment that the eventual battlefield received. But this, at most, took only a few hours of work, and there were still a metric fuckton of hands that could do work in the meantime.

On that same first day of preparations, the standard defensive works began to be made, with trenches being dug and the first rows of razorwire being placed. Soon to follow that during the same day were more specialized indentions in the ground, where the shiny new toys that Wakanda and Alistaira had cooked up were set in place, their crews already starting to use a near-infinite supply of live shells to test exactly how far and how accurate their new weapons could lob some metal death. These were set up in a few different positions, with the crews eventually determining the best ranges and angles of fire before the weapons were locked in place.

Next to be added during that same day were the beginnings of a slightly newer defensive emplacement that borrowed a bit from the old idea of a water-filled moat but crossed it with the idea of an anti-tank ditch. Large, deep, unevenly sloped ditches were dug, and due to the manpower needed for this effort, the undead really got their chance to shine. Mortal hands with power tools were good and all, but nobody could argue with the effectiveness of going the Soviet route and using numberless laborers to get something done, especially when those laborers didn’t need to sleep, eat, drink or shit.

Within a week after the first preparations were started, the undead had already done more than could be expected of a mortal labor team in the same timeframe, and with far less bellyaching. Working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, they managed to not only dig a series of tank ditches, but also link them together not by making one, continuous trench, but through a series of tunnels that would allow water to flow freely and, with it, allow the Naga to reach almost anywhere in the entire battlefield.

The Naga would be just one of several ‘secret weapons’ that would shine brilliantly here when that glorious day finally came, and they could now strike nearly anywhere and without anyone even knowing that they were nearby. The ACT forces would pay dearly for crossing the bridges, they would pay dearly for crossing the rivers, they would pay dearly trying to cross the increasingly dangerous no-man’s-land, and they would pay dearly from an endless stream of amphibious ambushes. This would very easily be a battle that was more of a one-sided massacre than a true fight, and that was just the way that Darksol liked it.

Though the forces currently occupying Darksol’s increasingly fortified position were already much, much fewer than the number of ACT forces heading to the battlefield, Darksol was not going to let its boys and girls face that many foes all on their own. Though there was little to no need to do so, Kain had specifically ordered that several of his newest Tier 3 Undead be sent directly to that field. They would not be fully suited to that battle due to the terrain, but that would not stop them from doing a bit of damage once the ACT armies broke and ran.

As per orders, the area slated for clearing increased in size and scale, all so that Kain’s new and horrible undead constructs could have their fun after the main battle was won.