The province of Relaram lay stagnant. Its industries had ground to a halt and its citizens had resigned themselves to live in poverty. There had been multiple attempts to set up autonomous communes where there was an executive selected every week whose decisions were ratified by a biweekly town meeting, but all of these political experiments failed; dismally(Primarily because Marx seemed to forget that humans are greedy bastards). Over the 10 years, the lack of a standing army had prompted the nation to set up a network of militias in each city. Miedo naturally had the largest militia, led by a Colonel Shepard. The Enclave, a little known organization which had a military base in Relaram seemed to withdraw from the scene as well. The existence of the Relaram people continued thus, as they scrounged by, living rather boring lives.
Then, one day, there came a frantic villager stumbling through the streets of Miedo, screaming such horrible accounts of a skeletal army that was fast approaching. Few paid attention to the manic man who ran through the streets, falling to his knees at each and every passerby, begging them to listen. None paid him any mind, as the thought of any undead army had not crossed the minds of anyone in Relaram since the times of Scourge. Of course, the city of Meresti had a high undead population, but thats how those folks decided to live... more power to them. The villager finally stumbled into the Colonel Shepard, who upon looking into the frantic villager's eyes knew that something foul was afoot. The fear in the man's eyes was so sincere, and you can't fake that sort of sincerity. He sent out a call to all his militia in the city and a call out to the far corners of Gralus, a call for help. An undead army was most likely the work of a mage, and the the militia of Miedo would be no match for a necromancer capable of raising an army.
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The militiamen sat upon the ramparts of the city walls, staring southward. A number of other villagers had withdrawn to the city, claiming to have seen the army of undead. All of their accounts differed slightly, but all had one important fact in common: "Undead army approaching from South." After a number of days, it seems unlikely that any army was coming. As Colonel Shepard stared out to the sunset, something strange caught his eye. At first, he thought it was a wave of heat playing with his vision, but then he looked again, and saw it again. The glint of metal reflecting the dying rays of the setting sun. He grabbed a set of binoculars and looked out to where he had seen the glint just in time to see a rank of undead soldiers mount the crest of the hill.
"Lock and load boys!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, "those bony freaks are here!"
All over the wall, the cry "lock and load" was echoed as the civilians prepared to fight the sinister army. But even as their macho hormones and adrenaline were driving them to combat, the were struck by a sudden chill. Over all the battlecries of the militia came a high pitch shriek, sending all the men cowering, barely peering over the wall.
The skeleton army had reached the city, and was standing in ranks on the ground outside the wall, just looking up. A raspy voice spoke over the shrieking, and it became apparent that only one of the undead was moving. It was a fully cloaked necromancer, waving his hands in elaborate yet abrupt movements. The movements finally came to an end with a severe fist thrust toward the city, and with that, the skeleton army charged.
The city was helpless. The militia has almost totally abandoned their defensive positions as the skeletons scurried up the walls. Colonel Shepard stayed along with his magnum revolver, but it wasn't enough, the skeletons were close to overcoming the crest of the wall. He turned to abandon his post and ran face to face into Lucifer. Seeing Lucifer after 10 years startled Shepard, who dropped his revolver and fell backward in surprise.
"Get up Colonel, unless I'm not mistaken, those undead are still coming. Your only problem is you got no army to stop em with," said Lucifer smugly. With a simple gesture of his hand, a number of Enclave soldiers appeared on the battlements and opened fire against the skeletons. The sight was spectacular as enclave soldiers began to repel the skeletons. In response, the necromancer urged his troops on. He continued to cast his spells, trying to prolong his assault.
"Thats enough of this crap," said Lucifer, irritated now. He raised one of his hands, muttered something under his breath and clenched his fist. With that, all of the skeletons on the field fell to pieces, save the necromancer. Lucifer pointed to the necromancer and through him high into the air. Shepard had turned away from the battlefield by when he heard the thud of the necromancer on the ground. He turned around and what he saw shocked him. There, with the black cloak at his feet was a slightly older looking Uvurith. Shepard's mind began to spin as he tried to comprehend why Uvurith had attacked his own city. Lucifer, who seemed to have read his mind, assured him that it had just been a training exercise for Uvurith in commanding soldiers. He assured the colonel that none his soldiers could ever have been hurt because the weapons that the skeleton's were bearing were illusions. The training had been more about maintaining the force and directing them efficiently. Uvurith had done adequately, but no fantastically.
The Colonel had only one thought on his mind as he watched Uvurith walk away to the imperial palace, "That may have been a training exercise, but something is definitely not right in Miedo."
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Uvurith was swamped with the work that had piled up in his absence. 10 years of work had appeared, but as a Drow, his 10 years of aging was of little help to him now, as he was still fundamentally an adolescent. He was frantically trying to get things finished for the state dinner that was being held in honor of his return. Lucifer had been gracious enough to take funds from the Toketi treasury(discretely without leaving a paper trail) shortly after being ousted as Prince and was using the funds to fund the party. Anyone who was interested was invited to the party to say hello, hang out and enjoy themselves.
Summary: Uvurith returns in a rather unorthodox manner and despite the fact that the attack was a charade, Colonel Shepard remains uneasy as he feels that something more sinister may be afoot. A party is thrown to celebrate Uvurith's return after 10 years in the Imperial palace and all who are interested are invited to come and share the drinks(Sponsored by the Toketi Treasury
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