Of all the things that the Herzgraf of Slothjemia has been accused of he has never been blamed for not giving enough thought to a military campaign. The recent triumphs of Slothjemia on the battlefield against the vaunted legions of the Ash King only drives this point home. Even the naysayers in Geldenreich that believed a Slothjemian victory was probable could not have foreseen the lop-sided wholesale collapse of Vincasikilian forces and the speed with which they crumbled.

The attacks jointly planned by Slothjemia and Geldenreich didn’t go off quite as anticipated, though. The adventurers from Fanolania, Geldenreich, and Slothjemia managed to depose the Ash King well in advance of the scheduled onslaught of regular soldiers so the timeline had to be sped up accordingly to take advantage of the chaos within Vincasikilia. Luckily Slothjemians are always up for a fight so they tore into the shambles of what used to be the armies of the Ash King and promptly tore them a brand new orifice all the way down to the already burning capital on the Dolonau River and kept charging along to the south crushing whatever resistance the enemy offered. Facing no less than fifteen legions totaling over 75,000 soldiers both living and undead the Slothjemians had their work cut out for them.

The undead elements of the Vincasikilian forces proved to be the easiest obstacle to get around. Most of the lesser undead were vaporized when the Ash King was destroyed. The ones that survived remained under the command of lesser necromancers, and many of these were slain instantly when their horrible monarch fell. Free-willed undead were suddenly free to do whatever they liked and that meant tearing into their former comrades for slights long-remembered. At least one city was brought down from the inside as the undead slaughtered everyone trapped within.

Living soldiers and servants of the Ash King were not keen on where all of this was headed and reacted accordingly. If they were close enough to the borders of other members of the Sikilian Confederation then they simply made a run for it and took refuge in the domain of another lich. There was some effort on behalf of these other liches to grab as much of the Ash King’s former army as they could for their own purposes. However they weren’t able to get any land out of the deal because the Slothjemians were simply moving too fast and with far too much muscle. The Herzgraf had planned for the invasion to proceed even if the multi-national adventurers failed. That meant the Slothjemians had put into the field as many troops as they could risk. With a final force of around 67,000 the Slothjemians felt confidant they would at least be able to take and hold the northern half of Vincasikilia.

What they have so far ended up with is the entire damn country except for a ring around the cursed necropolis of Zar-Grojna in the south and the small city of Subotica in the north that is being laid siege to by an army from Geldenreich. The plan going forward in the north is to subdue Subotica so that the Geldenreichers can return home. In the south the Slothjemians are setting up to utterly destroy Zar-Grojna and establish a perimeter around it to prevent it from ever being used again as a haven for evil. The other members of the Diosian Lodge are keenly aware that their world has changed and not necessarily in their favor. While the defeat of the Ash King invited a great deal of celebration it has also brought about a great deal of uncertainty.

And somewhere a darkly malevolent power that has been biding its time for centuries taps its fingertips and quietly hisses, “I love it when a plan comes together.”