The Tale of Steel and Scale

Valroc tower shattered. This is how most would recall the beginning of the day that would change Grimhollow forever. A surge of magic swept through the tower from below, and shattered the protective magic that shielded the whole of the city. This single incident would preclude an all-out assault that included a ground invasion of dragonborn and an aerial invasion of sky ships that would drop constructs down upon the city with wyverns carrying more dragonborn riders. This invasion was on a massive scale, well-coordinated, and instantly shattered the morale of the town guard who broke rank and fled early on in the conflict.

The adventurer's guild, then the Bludhood Brotherhood, rallied and mounted the major resistance to this assault, along with some aid from the Dark Sentinels who would later change their name to just the Sentinels during the conflict. After initially rallying at the World's End Tavern, a large presence of guild members were eventually forced back to the Greyforge and market square where the invasion's forces did not extend to. The initial surge seemed to have ended with these new forces, flying the banner of Skyhold, occupying the whole northeastern section of Grimhollow.

Once the guild had regrouped from the initial assault, a two-pronged mission was launched into enemy territory. One group headed towards the World's End square to assess the enemy forces there and free what civilians they could who had been trapped in the many buildings of the area and unable to escape the sudden invasion. They met with mixed success but were able to evacuate a few townsfolk and began to learn a bit about the resilient constructs that accompanied the dragonborn army. The other headed to Valroc tower, the top of which lay in ruins, in an attempt to save the council who had been meeting at the top of the tower just before the assault that toppled it. In a hard-fought battle they were able to recover Archy and Cearovi of the council and evacuate them safely to an outpost outside of town, having been some of the primary targets of this attack.

Early the next day the guild would discover a new type of construct in this army, a Juggernaut, which had begun encroaching on their position in the marketplace. A small group went out to meet it and found the machine to be immune to piercing attacks and resistant to many others - save lightning, which proved to be a weakness of many of the constructs. They were ultimately able to dispatch it, but not without much effort, serious injury, and a few close brushes with death. Having found the bridge between the northwestern and northeastern parts of the city collapsed some time during the night in response to the previous day's missions, a group swept to the southeast instead to retake the Arena from enemy control and assess how far the invasion had spread. This group's success ended up securing an area from which citizens could be magically transported out of the city, as well as freeing many townsfolk along the way and in the Arena itself, and rescuing Eoin who had been in the Arena fighting for his life as entertainment for the cruel dragonborn invaders. From him we would learn of other cruelties against the women that the new army had captured, and of the valiant stand of several Sentinels who fought and died alongside Eoin.

Armed with this information, a group headed into the sewers to find another route to the World's End tavern and ultimately saved Yin who had been degraded and held hostage there. During this mission they came across new construct stewards of the sewers as well as a large number of bodies that the Skyhold forces had dumped. Some of which fresh from the invasion, others in varying states of decay suggesting a much more involved and planned out effort before the first attack even commenced. Fearing the implications of what so many bodies in place could mean in the hands of an enemy Necromancer, Jalek led a small expedition back into the sewers to attempt to deal with them. This unfortunately led to Bengi and Tala distracting the construct Juggernauts patrolling the sewers while Jalek and Gilgimesh escaped. The guild soon sent another party in to rescue the pair, and while successful, were unable to get to Tala before one of the Juggernauts had severed her leg.

Meanwhile, a plan was hatched to wrest control of the Hospital from Skyhold forces in the southeast of the city. The party enlisted the help of a Giff, a large hippo man, who had mining supplies intended for mithril - potent explosives - as a last resort if it could not be taken. Dodging many patrols the group successfully infiltrated the hospital and found many surviving Grimhallow clerics who they were able to evacuate along with much-needed supplies. Due to the large presence of dragonborn within and their tenuous position with such a large group of survivors behind enemy lines, they ultimately decided to blow up the Hopsital.

With the recent string of successes and a building tension wearing on the morale of the resistance forces, Tala called for a final push to oust the Skyhold forces from Grimhollow. Aided and coordinated largely by the newcomer Abizu, guild members split into four teams that would attack into the World's End square from different angles. Most prominently the Vanguard drew most of the enemy attention to itself while other groups systematically picked off rooftop reinforcements and other enemies in the area. By the end of the nighttime assault, the guild would reclaim most of the northeastern occupied city, with a later mission pushing further north towards the Aetheneum to reclaim it as well.

Though most of the Skyhold forces had been slain or driven out of the city of Grimhollow at this point, the town still lay undermanned and largely defenseless without its magical barrier. Its meager 10' tall walls offered little protection against the scale of attacks it was facing. More enemy forces remained camped to the northeast of the city in and around the Smallwood forest, and notably a large shape was seen far in the distance which coincided with rumblings felt far away within the city itself. A team was sent to investigate this shape and the remaining enemy forces and reported back that in addition to some 70 dragonborn forces remaining, they had at their backs an 80' tall construct in the form of a spider heading towards the city. In response, another team was quickly dispatched to find and sabotage the enemy airfield and ground the sky ships before they could make another run on the city or accompany this giant new threat.

Another plan was hatched in the headquarters of the Greyforge which had become the beating heart of the guild resistance in this war, and Elvanshalee organized the groups that would meet this spider in the forest away from the vulnerable city of Grimhollow. Siege weapons were prepared, and the final plan called for the Lance to meet the spider head on and occupy it, while the Dagger in the Back would infiltrate the machine and do what damage they could from within and the Arrow would fire upon it from without with the ballistae manned by the stalwart survivors of Grimhollow. Unfortunately this battle would mark the first major loss for the guild and city of Grimhollow since the initial invasion. Although they inflicted heavy damage on the spider and depleted many of the remaining enemy ground forces, the Lance team was killed outright, the Arrow forced to abandon the ballistae and retreat, and the Dagger in the Back similarly forced to abandon their mission before they could disable more than two of its magical canons or deal much damage to its structure from within. Bengi, Pleth and Shahiri would fall that day, with many others only narrowly escaping death on that battlefield.

This prompted the evacuation and exodus of Grimhollow by most of its survivors, including many guild members. Only a few guild members remained behind with a last-ditch effort to stop the spider from reaching the town. After an assassination of the last engineer by Elvanshalee, the remaining force ambushed the spider outside the Northeast gate. With the element of surprise and a volley of attacks centered on the machine's legs, they were finally able to fell the terrible foe, but not without cost. The construct fell on the Northeast gate collapsing it utterly, and with it gravely injuring or murdering those who had assembled to fight it. Miraculously finding each other through the rubble, potent healing magics were employed to restore the recently dead with no permanent losses as a result. The success of this mission was due in no small part to Skyhold overestimating their advantage and splitting their remaining forces, sending only a skeleton crew to accompany the spider.

Later, we would find several of their remaining forces absconding with the bodies of Bengi and Shahiri in an attempt to return with them back to their native land. A small team pursued with Khazar's wagon tirelessly and managed to find them before they could board a boat with their quarry. Bengi and Shahiri's bodies returned to Grimhollow and would later be given new life in reincarnated bodies. Pleth was also restored to life in the Temple of the God of Death far to the north.

This marks the end of the conflict and the beginning of a period of rebuilding for Grimhallow, but the threat of Skyhold remains uncertain. Their forces are defeated for now, but the one responsible for this attack, Maldrekk the king of Skyhold, and many other figures of note yet live. Maldrekk who was once a part of the guild and his deep connection to Shahiri is said to have lost his mind in grief which prompted the attack. Additionally, a huge golem was seen inside the spider and later exited it, being trailed by guild member scouts while it wandered the deserted streets of the city. It ultimately departed in a flash of magic, its current whereabouts unknown.