Infernal Invasion: Darkovia Dark Diaspora

Dark Diaspora: A Message from the Border

In Inanitas's official prelude, The Message, word of Lightguard's assault has reached the lycan scouts patrolling the border with Doomwood. Three Infernals ambush their pack during a rest. The scouts' daggers struggle against the attackers' armored bodies, while the enemy wields blades charged with Celestial magic. Their Alpha manages to bring down one Infernal, but the remaining two overwhelm him and pursue the scouts trying to escape.

The last fleeing scout is caught near Constantin's den. One Infernal pins him down while the other carves a message into his chest with silver-tipped claws. The pair then fly to the den, evade the guards' crossbow bolts and drop their fallen comrade before them. The words on his chest declare that the lycans' land now belongs to the invaders. Before the wider attack, the enemy has delivered its demand through one of the people defending the border.

The Hero's call into the crisis comes from Shadowslayer Z. Infernals wielding Celestial weapons are burning Darkovia, and Z cannot handle them alone. Most of the armed knights have moved ahead, leaving hounds, imps and a Grievous Fiend behind. The Hero reduces their numbers, destroys the organic pods scattered in the forest before they can hatch, and defeats the Fiend. Z is unsure which creatures leave those pods, but certain that allowing them to hatch would make the infestation worse.

Z initially suspects that Darkovia's vampires or lycans have brought the invasion upon their rivals. The attack on Doomwood makes that explanation doubtful, but Z still asks the Hero to investigate Safiria's castle. Orlok is appalled by the accusation. His people's home is being destroyed, and their queen, Lady Solani, is trapped inside. He directs suspicion toward the lycans in turn, but the immediate task is to reach the queen before the flames consume her refuge.

Dark Diaspora: The Burning Castle

The Infernals' weapons burn like sunlight, and the Celestial fire in the castle would quickly destroy the vampires trying to enter. Orlok needs the Hero to fight through the knights, extinguish the flames and find Solani. She is alive, but refuses to abandon those still trapped with her. Orlok and Brysin have escaped; her other minions have not. The Hero brings nine of them to safety, easing the panic that keeps the vampires from fleeing.

Solani also asks for Phaedra, her late aunt's beloved pet. The Hero lures the frightened animal from hiding with a bowl of maggot blood and returns her to the queen. Even as she prepares to leave, Solani fears that Constantin may be responsible for the attack. A huge demon, Ma'alech, blocks the way into Lycan Ridge. The Hero defeats it and goes to question Constantin, pointing out that attacking Doomwood would make little sense for his people.

Constantin is outraged at the suspicion and throws it back at the vampires. The Hero challenges that familiar argument: their feud is keeping them from facing a larger danger. This time, the Werewolf King agrees. His people need to escape, and the Hero helps prepare them. Celestial lightblades and spears taken from the invaders can be turned against their owners. Fire-frightened dire wolves are subdued and rescued, and the lycans are called together to leave the Ridge.

The back exit offers no escape. Fire blocks the route, and Lord Balax'el confronts the defenders. They push him back, but Constantin is clear that they have not killed him; his army continues to pour in. The only other way out leads through the vampire castle. When the lycans arrive, Orlok is ready to fight, until Constantin explains that they have come to flee. Solani had hoped to use the same blocked passage herself, and the route through the forest is cut off too. Then she remembers another way.

Dark Diaspora: The Road Out of Darkovia

Behind a door Safiria kept sealed lie the castle's catacombs. Solani explains that vampires whose minds decayed into mindless revenants were confined there. Their bodies retain their strength, perhaps with even less hesitation from pain or fear. No one knows what causes the change; age and deprivation of blood are possibilities she offers. The tunnels are dangerous, but Constantin accepts the risk. In gratitude for passage through the castle, he and the Hero will clear the way for the vampires following them.

They fight through revenants and shadow imps, only to find Noddharath blocking the exit. Constantin does not recognize it as a revenant, and it does not look like an Infernal. Once the monster is defeated and the refugees emerge, the Hero recalls the Queen of Monsters' involvement in the earlier attack on the Celestial Realm. Perhaps she is behind this invasion too, creating threats while everyone assumes she has been quiet. It is a suspicion prompted by what they have seen, rather than an answer they have uncovered.

A pirate ship appears off the coast. Bonnie Blood has heard what is happening and come to help refugees from the land she once called home. Seeing Orlok and Solani already on the shore, she is relieved that her crew will not have to fight into the catacombs to reach them. She offers passage, and Solani thanks her for the rescue. After the burning castle and the desperate journey underground, the vampires finally have a way to leave.

Bonnie's offer excludes the lycans. Solani protests that they helped the vampires escape and cannot simply be abandoned, but Bonnie says her crew will not accept them. The Hero tries to find a compromise. Constantin ends the argument by urging Solani to take her people to safety. They must live so that, when the Queen reveals herself again, the two peoples can face her together. The cooperation that opened their escape route has not erased the hatred beyond it.

Constantin intends to scatter his people into other forests, with some perhaps living in cities in human form. He promises that they will return when the threat does. For now, the vampires have been offered a ship, while the lycans must find separate shelter. Everyone has escaped the immediate trap, but Darkovia has not been won back. The invasion has driven its old enemies from their homes, leaving their next meeting tied to a common danger and the hope that they will still be strong enough to resist it.