Fel Invasion

## Participants

### Binturian Allies

Keep, Swiper, Mini Manny, Metrion, Aiur, North and South Gobble-de-Gook, Aldenlied, Talios, Coral City, the Peaceland Commonwealth, and the Amrali Republic

### Binturian Enemies

Vierfrynn, Fel Demons, Xaoc, Mortalis, and Nor

## Casualties and Creations

### Casualties and Losses

Keep, Swiper, and Various Binturian Allies

### Creations and Gains

Emergence of Fel magic and the repulsion of the invading Fel

## Common Knowledge

In the spring of the year 10,016 AB, the sky tore open into a massive green flaming rift, and Fel Demons (and later Warlocks) poured through the rift into the Material Plane and began wreaking havoc. The city-state of Jericho was completely destroyed by a massive monster, the consequences of which can be felt to the current day. The Fera Islands were flooded by a tsunami that is assumed to be linked to the events of the Abyssal Invasion. Fort Veridae was permanently destroyed.

The home plane of demons, the Abyss, was also destroyed, though this is significantly less well-known.

## Contributing Factors

Following her defeat in the fall of 10,014, the drow sorceress Vierfrynn retreated into the Void, the realm between the planes, to recover. Stewing in her own emotions, her concentrated essences took on the entropic energies of the void to become the Fel: a new, inherently corrupting form of magic. Though she now held much less sentience than before, she conspired again to invade, conquer, and destroy Temporis.

Handpicking three powerful mortals to be her heralds, the Hierophants Mortalis, Nor, and Xaoc, Vierfrynn reached into Temporis to find those willing to sacrifice themselves for her vengeance, and found her chosen in a select group of Dove-folk.

## Binturian Involvement

Though they inadvertently led the Dove-folk cultists to the Conduit where they could open the Abyssal Tear, the Binturians would go on to be most directly involved in closing the rift and ending the largest threat overall. After failing to save the Fifth Archive, the Fera Isles, Jericho, Coral City (albeit to a much lesser extent), and even their longstanding home of Veridae in Binturia itself, the Binturians flew into the tear with the legendary sword Glorybringer. Through a grueling battle, and the sacrifice of many allies, the Hierophants were defeated and the tear sealed for good thanks to the Binturians.

## Order of Events

### Coronation and Invasion

Due to presumably natural causes, King Wu of Veridae died; during the coronation ceremony of Prince Wu, a large earthquake occured, and an unknown individual by the name of Eurphoria warned the Binturian Party of a cult of Dove-folk attempting to wake the Beast Below, and urged them to help him stop them. The party escorted the individual into the Underforest, and saw a group of dovefolk blocking their passage. Under Euphoria’s guidance, a ritual was performed that he had told would protect the Beast Below; this was a trick, and the ritual instead opened the Abyssal Tear at the Conduit, and the three Hierophants Mortalis, Nor, and Xaoc stepped through and killed Euphoria for failing to kill the Binturians before opening the portal.

The Hierophants then accepted the Dove-folk and turned them into Fel Valks, and demanded that the Planar Pillars within the party submit to them. After refusing to submit, the party was slain and the powers of the Pillars were sealed away. One of the few surviving Binturians called upon the Archfae Keep, who returned the party to Veridae and flung the Abyssal Tear away from the Conduit. The party then called upon all Binturians, past and present, but many could not be reached. Additionally, planar interference near the Abyssal Tear began to prevent teleportation near them.

### Searching for Answers

With the aid of Swiper, debatably the most skilled thief on Temporis, the Binturians located both the new location of the Abyssal Tear and a cult of demon worshippers in K’Vesten. Splitting the party between the two goals, those who went to K’Vesten found the cultists were summoning the enemies of the Fel to be slain. Just after learning all they could, the Binturians were discovered and ambushed by Fel Demons and other monsters. Vi the Purity Goddess, having been summoned by the cultists, defended the party against a monstrous Fel Hydra long enough for them to escape. Though victorious, the corruption inherent to the beast wounded Vi greatly, and she retreated to the void to recover and has not returned since.

The remaining Binturians, led by Swiper, infiltrated the Fel encampment in the Arlaven Glades and discovered their plans to spread across Orelisle and to return to the Conduit and become unstoppable. Here, too, they were caught off-guard and forced to retreat. Swiper held off Hierophant Mortalis just long enough for the Binturians to escape with the Fel’s plans, but at the cost of Swiper’s life.

At the behest of King Wu, and with the aid of Bernice the Skymaiden, the Binturians descended into the depths of the Underdark to acquire warded protection crystals he had purchased from Duergar merchants. Fighting Drow, Fel Demons, and their corrupted monstrous offshoots, the Binturians narrowly reached the Duergar after Bernice sacrificed herself to destroy a Fel Rock Demon. A confusing battle unfolded, as a group of werewolves wiped out the Duergar and allied with the Binturians, and together they returned to the surface with the crystals in tow. Others also joined their colorful coterie, including the Greater Reaper Metrion, the vampire coven Bluh, the Drow beneath Binturia, and the countries of Aiur and K’Vesten.

### Recruit and Protect

Keep learns of a druidic witch coven that would be able to help with the Seals on the Pillars. At the same time, distress calls are sent from both Jericho and Coral City which are under attack from Fel Kaiju. The Binturians rushed to Coral City where Leila, the queen of Amerale, underwent a magical transformation to fight the invading fel kaiju. With the Binturians’ assistance, Queen Leila managed to defeat the invading fel saving Coral City. Jericho, however, received no such aid and was destroyed in the invasion.

The Binturians who sought out the druidic witches, the Twilight Moon Coven, and found that the Binturian Forest had been capturing and transforming people into Ivies, aggressive human-like plant monsters, to protect itself from the advancing Fel corruption. After the Binturian Party fought their way through the Ivies, a group of Beeple (or Bee-folk, depending on who you ask) directed them towards the coven. The Binturians discovered the coven right before they completed a ritual draining the Binturian Forest of the Fel corruption releasing out through the Beeple’s safe haven.

The Binturians were then approached by the archaeologist Hot E., who had been Fel corrupted. Answering his pleas for help, the Binturians teleport to the Fifth Archive where they rescued Glyph from the invading Fel forces. The Party learned that to get past the shields around the tear the Insignia was necessary. To prevent the Fel from learning more from the archive, members of the Binturians perform a ritual to cleanse it. As a result of this ritual, Nayeli assimilates Glyph, the knowledge from the Fifth Archive, and Hot E.’s Fel corruption. This causes the Fifth Archive to lose the magic to keep itself afloat causing it to plummet towards the Fera Isles.

In Veridae, a council is held between several nations on how to confront the Fel invasion. However, several arguments sprouted between the nations on what terms an alliance would be formed under. Notably, Taphran, Aldenlied, and Arlaven refused to join the alliance. The remaining nations formed the United Orelesian Army and the artificer Mini Manny was tasked with the construction of Warships and other supplies as the alliance prepared for the upcoming battle.

### Glorybringer and the Insignia

In order to bypass the magical barrier protecting the Fel Tear, Keep performed a ritual to send the souls of several Binturians into the Abyss (without their bodies). Within the Abyss, the souls managed to avoid combat and snuck in Xaoc’s private quarters to find the Insignia necessary to disable the magical barrier. The party then performed another ritual to return to Binturia with the Insignia.

Glorybringer, a legendary blade capable of “killing” inanimate objects by destroying its True Name, was required in order to destroy the Fel Tear. The party managed to secure the blade from an unknown location by defeating its guardians, who were child orphans trained by the blade’s original master.

Returning to Veridae, the Binturian party found themselves in the path of the approaching Fel Army. The party had the choice between permanently depleting Glorybringer’s energy to empower a weapon created by the artificer Mini Manny, which would have destroyed the army; or overcharge Veridae’s elemental wards to seal the entrance to the Underforest at the cost of the destruction of Veridae and all those living within the town. The party at the time chose the latter option, and sacrificed Fort Veridae.

Keep took this time to save as many people in Veridae as possible by teleporting them out, and the modern Binturian Party rediscovered Will’s Tavern. Angered at the massacre of his people and the destruction of his kingdom, King Wu banished the Binturian Party, and disappeared into the forest, never to be seen again, and is currently presumed dead.

### Seal the Portal

Sleeping through a cold Binturian night as Mini Manny built weapons of war, the Binturians were picked up by the warships of their allies the next morning. Aiur, North and South Gobble-de-Gook, Aldenlied, Talios, Coral City, the Peaceland Commonwealth, and the Amrali Republic all joined their flying fleets, the Binturians leading the charge with an airship of their own. Setting course for the Crinoid Mountains, and the Abyssal Tear beyond it, Keep ran the Binturians through the plan once more: as the other armies fended off the Fel, the Binturians would rush to the Portal and destroy it with Glorybringer. Keep realized there could be no room for error, and he gave the Binturian Kazane the Fae Clothespin,  a powerful artifact that can steal the true name of anything it touches, entrusting her to steal the name of the portal and give it to him should Glorybringer fail.

The Fel threw everything they had at the approaching fleet. Balls of fire, missiles, Fel Dragons, Fel Demons boarding parties, poisons, and anything that could slow them even a little flew through the air, slowing but never stopping their advance. Just as the Binturians’ ship was boarded, and the fleet around them began to give way, they reached the Abyssal Portal and leapt through to confront the Hierophants. Mortalis, Nor, and Xaoc stood before them and demanded their submission to Vierfrynn, the Abyssal Empress. When the Binturians refused, Mortalis and Nor removed their masks to reveal the Fel corrupted forms of Gethin and Atro, former Binturians now turned against them. A complicated struggle ensued, with Binturian betrayals, allegiances questioned, and Glorybringer changing hands near-constantly.

As the battle wore on, Gethin summoned Keep to the battlefield to destroy him once and for all, but before he could do so Kazane stole the name of the Portal and gave it to Keep. In a final act of sacrifice, Keep used his name to destroy the name of the Portal, wiping both the Abyssal Portal and himself off the face of Temporis. The Abyssal Tear closed, the Fel corruption departed from Gethin and Atro’s minds, and the Binturians were ejected back to their world (with those who willingly sided with Vierfrynn vanishing to the Void forever).

### Epilogue

Xaoc, having narrowly survived the encounter, fled to K’Vesten where he became its defacto ruler within a year. With the Abyssal Portal permanently closed and the Hierophants scattered, the Twilight Moon Coven released the seals upon the Pillars. Statues of the many fallen were erected in the ruins of Veridae, renamed by the scant survivors to Keep-Veridae.

## Aftermath

Fel Demons, Fel Magic, and Warlocks persist into modern times, their strength waxing and waning with the efforts of their Hierophant. Glorybringer has been lost to the annals of time. The crater that used to be known as Fort Veridae eventually falls under the jurisdiction of the United Sanctuaries of Orelisle, as its capital. The Binturian party relocates their base of operations to Will’s Tavern, rather than Fort Veridae.

## Further Information

* Darkfell
* Vierfrynn
* Fel Demons
* Demons
* The Abyss
* The Mordant Realms
* Glorybringer
* Fel