Rassald General Bloodthirst

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Rassald was born in the Torengrarg hill camps. After joining the armies of the Orchish Empire, he proved his charisma and battle field skills many times over, rising to the rank of general of the Southern Military District. He was the first hobgoblin in the Orchish military to obtain the rank of general. He became famous leading the attacks on the Gimhak.

His battle prowess was phenomenal, yet his wisdom proved his undoing. Ignoring his staff's warnings, he led an army against Galstyxe. One of the best units was the Geb Vanguard. Its stone giant soldiers were the few that were left intact as a unit.

On the night of his decision to attack the place, his cohort succubus was mysteriously slain. His deep love for this fiend was well known, yet he seemed unaffected with her death. The orc priests of Gruumsh and wizard advisors grew suspicious with his behavior. They questioned him and probed his mind for tampering but found nothing.

Some of these advisors were assassinated and their bodies corrupted on the march to this ominous red bastion - a relic of the demon armies that answered to Demogorgon in the Demon Spawn War (8972 GE - 9493 GE).

Rassald and his army stormed Galstyxe's walls, breaking into the mountain complexes of its interior. They met resistance from hordes of undead, deadly gas traps and chambers filled with fungi and their spore clouds. The place was a nest for more than 100 vampires; one of those in the group was Azalea. She and several cambion assassins concentrated on eliminating the leaders of the attacking army. The battle lasted two days, and the leaders fell like dominoes. Corpses were scattered everywhere, jumbled masses of tangled bodies, and blood flowed in streams, cascading down staircases, forming large pools of coalescing blood. The blood served as a source to raise blood elementals by the orc spell casters. A dozen such creatures were created and fought for the orcs for a time, until all at once, they turned on their allies, slaughtering their creators and then wading into the orc squads. The walls of Galstyxe then came to life with stony appendages and shifting chambers, causing confusion and death in the invading force. The shattered remnants of his army retreated. Even in defeat, the Orchish forces marched out of the valley with rigid discipline and élan, fighting off hordes of skeletal stirges.

Rassald was not seen again for a long time, presumed killed inside Galstyxe. Over the centuries that followed, there have been rumors from goblin and other humanoid tribes about the fate of Rassald. They claim that he was seduced by Azalea, captured, and later turned into a vampire. Rassald served her as a concubine for a century. When Azalea left Galstyxe, on the calling of Drog'paagol, she turned Galstyxe over to one who was now better known as General Bloodthirst.

Think twice before you surround an enemy, it is like fighting a wild animal, when cornered, they will put up the greatest fight, for they know they are fighting for their lives. Instead, leave a route for escape, you will save valuable troops, and the enemy may sue for peace.

- Rassald, "Maxim of War"