Nyroth Update 6: Daeyux

Previous Update: The Harrowing
== Daeyux ==
by Montesque64 (edited by CupcakeTrap)
This is from the second round of island explorations.
In the darkened halls of the Shadow Isles, initial interest in the 
island known as Daeyux was minimal. The frozen Nyrothian’s sketch of the
 island indicated some sort of healing power, a distasteful prospect 
unlikely to serve their interests. The records of the Nyrothians in the 
floating city above Yoroth corroborated this theory: it seemed that 
Daeyux was known principally for restorative life magic.
Magical scrying and firsthand observation revealed the truth of the 
island to be much different from the Nyrothian’s memories. It seemed to 
harbor no life whatsoever. Where they had expected to find a healthy, 
thriving human society, they found a lifeless wasteland overflowing with
 necromantic power.
They received permission to explore the island from the League, and 
the experiments began. Thresh and Mordekaiser brought a barge filled 
with captured pirates to the coast of Daeyux and whipped them ashore. 
The captives ran for their lives…but were dead within minutes. This was a
 promising sign.
Karthus observed the nuances of their demise. Stab a man to death on 
Valoran, and his spirit will be released as his body fails: it might 
traverse the cosmic barrier to an afterlife of one sort or another, or 
drift about as a tormented specter, or be seized and transformed by the 
skillful application of necromancy, but whatever the case the death of 
the body triggered a sharp break between the corporeal and the ethereal.
Not so here. The island’s energy did not drain their life away, nor 
simply extinguish it. Instead, it mutated the vital force and distilled 
it into necromantic power. Karthus sensed the inverted after-echoes of 
sophisticated healing magic, originally designed to prolong life and 
repair the body, and understood.
And so, here on Daeyux, every death was instantly followed by a 
resurrection, a transformation into an undead creature. It was not 
particularly refined, producing near-mindless zombies and skeletons from
 the captives, but it was remarkable all the same.
The Champions and Summoners of the Shadow Isles traveled inland—the 
latter protected by necromantic enchantments from the island’s anti-life
 field—and the Black Mists followed, flooding Daeyux in a dense cloud 
much thicker than the wisps that had begun to creep over the mainland 
and the other islands. There they discovered native undead of various 
levels of sentience, organized into cities and enclaves. Though devoid 
of life, it seemed that Daeyux still maintained an organized society 
clearly influenced by human civilization.
The story came together piece by piece. When the cataclysm blasted 
through Daeyux and distorted its nexus, the most powerful mages had been
 transformed into liches, and had quickly garnered some degree of 
control over the other undead. (A remarkable discovery: the spontaneous 
conversion of living humans into stable lich form, with full control of 
their faculties.) The liches had coalesced into a council of mages, each
 lich with their own domain upon the island, each sharing a border with 
the lands surrounding the ruined nexus which still pulsed with dark, 
deathly energies.
The nexus itself, ruptured by the shock of the cataclysm, bled 
distorted necromantic energy tainted with wild flashes of life magic, 
creating a marshy environment not unlike the Shadow Isles. It swarmed 
with a peculiar form of undead, apparently mindless yet resistant to 
control by even the most powerful necromancers—presumably the result of 
the life magic contaminating the energy flow. The liches had repeatedly 
attempted to regain control of the nexus, in order to wield its great 
power, but had been driven back each time by these wild undead.
=== Conclusion ===
The council of liches that ruled over the blighted island of Daeyux 
recognized their kindred spirits from Valoran. Karthus soon won them to 
their side. It was agreed that the forces of the Shadow Isles, 
reinforced by the hordes of zombies which the liches maintained, would 
venture into the core of the island. If they could seize control over 
the nexus, the necromancers of the Isles could use what they had learned
 in Monsku to
 repair the nexus and complete its realignment, ridding the aura it 
projected of the life magic contamination, while still retaining the 
remarkable property of spontaneous resurrection.
Mordekaiser decreed that he would lead his forces set out into the 
interior of Daeyux. So they did, flooding over the land like a dark 
tide, marching in time to the metallic footsteps of the Murder King.
As Mordekaiser’s army crested one of the low ridges which rippled 
across the darkened land, he caught sight of the foe: a blind, 
leaderless mass of undead, stumbling about after wispy threads of life 
magic mixed obscenely with the dense fog of reanimating necromantic 
power. Every so often, a thin mist of life magic, an echo of long-lost 
healing spells, would drift out from the nexus, and the staggering horde
 would groan with the distant memory of pain. He reveled in the 
delicious sensation.
While his Summoners recoiled from the revolting mixture of opposed 
magics, Mordekaiser bellowed a haunting laugh. He hefted his mace as 
Thresh whipped his undead slaves forth into battle. Such carnage 
awaited!
One of the wild undead had clawed its way to a deep pool of life 
magic that bubbled up from the ground near the nexus, drinking of its 
ethereal waters and regaining some semblance of humanity. Its memory of 
who it was had long since rotted away, but there was magic in its bones,
 suggesting a lifetime of arcane study. It bolstered nearby undead and 
began preparing a spell as Mordekaiser charged forward. It would have 
been most interesting to see what sort of twisted magic this being might
 unleash in the depths of its madness, but Mordekaiser found its screams
 sweeter still. One blow from his spiked mace crushed the life out of 
the deformed ghoul, and its rebellious spirit became his tormented 
slave.
Mordekaiser’s metal fist touched the side of the nexus, and drew in 
its power. He could only hold contact for a few seconds before a pulse 
of life magic shot up through him, and the Master of Metal recoiled with
 a cry of pain—a most remarkable experience. He channeled his power into
 his undead army, which was so far holding back the wild masses. 
Nocturne slithered through the fog and slashed the corpse-horde apart 
with great sweeps of his blades. They had a touch of life only, but just
 enough to perceive the nightmares he brought.
A pair of Summoners, Ares the human and Kelt the yordle, worked 
hastily to resolve the mystery of the nexus. It proved difficult, and 
the life magic from the nexus began to distort Mordekaiser’s necromancy.
“FASTER, YOU FOOLS!” he commanded, but was met with panicked Summoner-talk about thaumic matrices and leyline cross-bindings.
His own minions began to falter, turning on him, joining the crazed 
horde. They were losing ground. The Murder King saw Elise dragged down 
by a swarm of skeletons, only to burst forth as a great black spider, 
spearing undead foes with skittering legs.  Even this form was was not 
strong enough, and he watched as she vanished once more beneath the 
throng.  The undead pressed in on him, until even his powerful magics 
could not keep them at bay any longer.  As the last of his army ascended
 the ridge behind him, his mace crashed to the ground before him, 
cracking the earth and slowing their advance.  Then, his breastplate 
creaking with the fury fuming within, the Murder King retreated.
RETREAT.  Mordekaiser’s metallic bellow echoed over the battlefield, 
and his troops began to stream back the way they had come.  Mordekaiser 
stood firm, waves of metal clearing the ground in front of him, making 
room for his troops to retreat back to the fortresses of the Council of 
Liches. Nocturne and Evelynn were nowhere to be seen.
To a mortal army, the casualties suffered in the failed invasion 
would have been crippling.  Nearly all of the troops raised for the 
assault had been destroyed on the black plains. For the Isles, it was 
merely a setback. Most of the disbanded souls from the destroyed undead 
came racing back into Mordekaiser’s clutches, and would merely need to 
be given a new form to inhabit. And when his armies were rebuilt in 
greater numbers, Mordekaiser vowed to return and bring desolation to the
 rebellious undead of Daeyux.
More significant were the losses of Champions that the Isles 
suffered. Elise, Evelynn, and Nocturne soon returned via teleportation 
spells worked by Ares and Kelt. Life magic contaminated the 
spell-streams, and all three returned in greatly weakened form.
Mordekaiser brooded upon these losses at the top of what had been a 
Lich’s tower.  Unfortunately, the Lich had shown insufficient respect to
 the King of the Shadow Isles, and his bones now decorated the walls of 
his erstwhile fortress.  The Murder King was unused to defeat, and found
 it not to his liking.  His attendants shrank back as he stared 
northwards, toward the center of the island, eyes slowly glowing with an
 infernal light, as if hellish fires were stoking within his metallic 
shell.  Soon their numbers would be replenished.  Soon they would set 
out once more.  He would not know defeat again.
WE WILL HAVE VENGEANCE, his voice echoed over the tower top. SHE WILL BE OURS.
Next Update: Emain Ablach