After heeding the call of the Lord Menthizar of the Cult of the Unseen, Inquisitor Vollastor’s messengers explained the Inquisition’s interest in the Toothspire as a potential leyline focus, as well as in establishing a relationship with the Cult. The negotiations went well but tensely, and the Inquisition is aware they will be betrayed at the slightest notice. Very well, then, nothing unexpected here. They shall show them why one should keep them as friends, instead of enemies.
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The Bloodroot Sylvaneth of Arch-Hekatos Kalazar had already encircled the Toothspire in a dense thicket by the time the Inquisition approached. Their magical rites weaved into the dried-up roots of the region’s plant life, and the ground beneath the Inquisition’s troops feet quivered and cracked.
The Inquisition arcanists responded in kind, and summoned the deadliest long-range magickal barrages they could muster, from the Void and Necromantic magic.
And in one final violent crash, the two armies fell into each other, mindlessly and with abandon, mortal emotions distant from the animus of either side.
The generals of the Inquisition know, however, that their own troops are dispensable, being always harvested on site wherever they travel. Their purpose is to anchor a battle line, so the captains of the Inquisition can coordinate the sneaky rear attacks delivered by those who give the army its name: the Hounds. The swift hunters and tracker beasts, used to chase prey across realms. In a moment, they encircle the enemy and pounce on them from the shadows and from the air, slicing into the Bloodroot’s backline and their aelven allies, and tying up their reinforcements from mobilizing around the Inquisition’s infantry.
At this point the battle is truly joined, and the Bloodroot Sylvaneth are trapped in a pincer movement. The vampire captains of the Inquisition join the fray, in a concerted effort to slay the gigantic treemen that hold the Bloodroot’s batteline. This effort would take the better part of an hour, bodies and bones piled high all around them and the numbers of the undead slowly dwindling… but not breaking.
As the leadership of the Bloodroot sylvaneth is finally surrounded and crippled, the Inquisition battleplan closes its jaws after enduring so many heavy losses. With a snap of their fingers, the necromancers of the Inquisition exhume cadavers buried under the battlefield, surrounding and immobilizing even the biggest battle assets of the Bloodroots from either escaping or reinforcing their weak flank. The immortal champions of the Inquisition, always hand-picked from the choices graveyards and warrior-barrows, encircle and chase down the mighty treemen, and the Bloodroot finally breaks and calls for a full retreat.
Unnaturally enduring through the savagery and slowly cutting down the Bloodroot, the Inquisition hacked and slashed, until it pushed them to their limit. No longer being able to hold their line, the sylvaneth scattered in an attempt to regroup, but were given full chase by the unrelenting undead soldiers.
With the Path to the Toothspire free, the Inquisition regroups to re-animate their troops and salvage their number, adding to them from long-buried cadavers of orruks and other denizens of the Steppe, as they slowly make their way to the tall spire, and the forces of the Cult of the Unseen.
A new defensible position must be taken, to defend this access point, and stave off further incursions. The Hounds, re-assembled from their dismembered component parts, are now up on their paws and sent on the hunt again.