Serpent Reckoning

After several failed assassination attempts against King Bloodtusk, this infamous wight-king decided to put an end to the yuan-ti threat coming out of Gurutharni. The issue for the yuan-ti was that Bloodtusk refused to pay the tolls for passage of the Ralban River; something that had long been honored by Tâchumâz's former masters. In addition to kill orders, the yuan-ti stirred up trouble on the frontier, poisoning water supplies, and spreading disease in the garrisons.

In 1475, Bloodtusk sent five crack regiments, Skull Brigadiers east. They flanked the ships and barges heading up the Ralban. Dax, former adventuring partner of the King, sent in his special forces, 45 dread guards, hullathoin, deathbringers, 12 undead rhinoceros beetles with crews of 6 ju-ju archers. This powerful force met light resistance from the start, steam-rolling through yuan-ti outposts. At the Sinkforn Crossing, the advancing army encountered stiff resistance from yuan-ti soldiers and wizards, and a herd of gathra; vicious and tough quadrupeds brought in from the faraway world Avernus. The staggering losses, 12,000 dead, of this first major conflict were only a precursor of what was to follow over the next three months of guerrilla attacks, aerial combats between reptilian beasts, dragons, and maleraunts saddled atop giant vultures of Kilth.

At the end of the third month of this conflict, Dax fell back to Tâchumâz with the remnants of his shattered force. All that remained were six dread guards, the hullathoin, and two undead rhinoceros beetles with no crews. Dax was to claim that it was bad intelligence all around, losses way more than expected. A breakthrough came when Bloodtusk's spies learned that a powerful yuan-ti abomination was leading the normally tribal yuan-ti. This monstrosity was the anathema Ursorehor. Trained in the armies of Goth-Dyvermoir, she used uncanny tactics, a "Fabian-styled" warfare, concentrating her forces at river crossings and other bottlenecks. After a near-death experience at the hands of a trio of blood fiends, King Bloodtusk decided that the push was too costly. He fell back with his army towards his capital. In 1477, the war was one of skirmishes and sabotage.

The defeat of the Kingdom of Bloodtusk led to the formation of the Malshirk'iss Empire. On 23 Temporal 1478, the two sides ended hostilities with the signing of the Ralban Treaty.