In a time when the Coldlands were in crisis, the drow emerged a third time.
The Conflict
Prelude
The drow prepared for this invasion heavily. House Greatcaster invented magic that sped up gestation, allowing the drow to replenish their numbers more rapidly. In addition, new armor was created. Up till this point, drow armor was very heavily padded to protect from falling on rocks. This time, new helmets were created with slants to deflect spears. In addition, the fungal-fabric armor the drow used had elements of mail, an armor used by humans, incorporated into it. The left arm of the drow was given mail with metal plates attached to it so it could act as a shield while allowing the drow to move around in the caves. Finally, the drow shortsword became heavier to deal with armor better.
The Faland Republic and House Redfield has prepared as well. Seeing how effective the charge was against the drow, they incorporated falxmen into their army to get into the drow quickly and do a lot of damage. They also employed more spellcasters into their army to make up for their range disadvantage. Methods for taming hippogriffs had also been discovered and hippogriff riders were incorporated into the army to make up for the inability to have cavalry in the mountains.
However, the Republic entered a crisis. A civil war was started and House Redfield became involved. The drow saw their chance.
The priests sounded the call to arms again and houses Greatcaster, Goldweb, Shiftingskin, Sheer, and Bleak answered. Their massive army emerged into the surface world in the winter of 819. They raided numerous villages, small towns, and forts. They took the city of Hugelberg, razed the city of Stone Hill, and besieged the city of Falx Pass.
Spring came and Redfield began preparing to fight the drow invasion. However, they were still involved in the civil war and couldn't spare their full army. The group of soldiers they sent got annihilated by the much larger drow force.
As winter came, Falx Pass' supplies dwindled and the drow used the opportunity to attack more settlements, this time taking several villages and 2 forts. The villages were forced to give the drow supplies. However, when Spring came, Falx Pass received relief.
While the emotional memory of the drow attacking during the last invasion was gone, the kobolds knew that after the humans were defeated they would be next. A large force of kobold skirmishers, backed up with mercenaries from the Desertlands attacked the drow siege force. They didn't do much damage, but they broke the supply lines and burned the food stores. The drow assembled and once again attacked the kobolds.
This time, the kobolds were ready for them. They had built up the defenses of their mountain passes and tunnels, hired mercenaries, and obtained the aid of two dragon. If it were any other enemy, the drow would have betrayed each other there, but none of them thought the kobolds had a serious chance at winning, even with dragons.
The drow-kobold conflict ended in the winter of 823. The drow armies never managed to break into the heart of kobold territory; however, they killed a lot of the kobold forces, including one of the dragons. The kobolds made a treaty with the drow, agreeing to not attack them for 10 years.
WHen the drow returned to the human campaign, the scenery had changed so to speak. The civil war had ended, the Faland Republic was now the Faland Empire, and the emperor had married the daughter of the head of house Redfield.
A massive Faland army marched off to confront the drow, who responded by fleeing and avoiding battle. Winter came, but this time the Faland army garrisoned in Falx Peak instead of disbanding. They built up their supply lines and brought food there at great expense. The drow attempted to attack Faland settlements during this time, but the hippogriff riders and spellcasters harassed them and hampered their efforts.
Spring came and the drow priests had a meeting. They agreed that the only way to get rid of this army would be to defeat them in battle.
The drow deployed on the side of a mountain this time to gain the high ground. They used a similar contingent system to last time, with each clan having their own group led by the priests. The priests and spellcasters were placed just behind the infantry this time, climbing a bit up the mountain for the artillery phase. They didn't employ any skirmishers this time, trying to gain a total archer advantage with Gastraphetes, who were placed in front of the infantry and would go behind them before the infantry battle started.
The Faland army deployed on a plain with the infantry in front, the spellcasters buried within the infantry, and the archers and hippogriff riders in back.
The battlefield was in the mountains covered with gravel that made movement difficult.
Despite the attempts to gain archer superiority, the drow had half the archers of the Faland Empire. However, the drow had twice the spellcasters of the empire. The Nine Caverns forces were also depleted after years of fighting. The same could be said of the empire forces; however, the full wrath of the empire was upon the drow, rather than House Redfield alone.
The drow had armor specifically designed to deal wtih Faland weapons, but didn't have as good shields. The Faland soldiers were better trained, but not by much. However, the drow had a terrain advantage and could rely on the high ground to slow enemy charges and missiles.
The battle opened up with a massive missile and spell barrage from the drow. The Faland infantry put their shields on all sides to block as many missiles as possible, the falxmen went into the back of the infantry lines, and the spellcasters focused on protecting the infantry. The barrage was devastating, though less so than the last time the armies clashed.
The missile barrage was immediately followed up with a massive charge from the drow. Faland infantry got in battle formation and charged, but the falxmen were held in reserve. Many drow got past the pikes and spears and started hacking away at the men holding them. The Coldlanders were being pushed back and looked ready to rout at any minute.
Then, House Shiftingskin fell back and attacked the Nine Caverns archers. Shiftingskin and Crystalsword were the dominant houses at the time with Crystalsword having gained their power by letting the other drow get killed in the second invasion. Shiftingskin wished to replicate their success in a more proactive way.
Surprisingly, the other drow forces did not break. Their leaders were in the back and thus were in a position to form an organized retreat. They fell back, intending to camp out at Hugelberg and gain reinforcements there.
Faland sent their archers, slingers, and hippogriff riders then. The hippogriff riders dropped flechettes on the retreating drow and the archers and slingers launched volley after volley at them. The Nine Caverns army went into a defensive formation to wait out the attack, but the slingers picked up rocks from the mountains and kept shooting. The drow lasted for hours, when the barrage suddenly stopped. Thinking they were in the clear, they broke formation and moved off, which is when the falxmen charged. Most of the drow broke instantly. They were utterly defeated.
Most of the Drow houses were utterly annihilated. The falxmen killed many of their leaders, forcing House Greatcaster to allow non-divine spellcasters to become leaders and cementing House Goldweb's perpetual decline. House Shiftingskin came to power, using the weakness of the other houses to dominate House Crystalsword.
While they hadn't been involved in the fighting, the success of the falxmen was noted and they began to be used more often from that point on. The emperor became more popular than ever before and House Redfield was rewarded greatly.
This was the most consequential of the drow wars. While the Nine Caverns would invade 4 more times, they would never pose the same threat they did this time. The empire paraded this victory over and over again, but their overconfidence led to them overextending themselves and falling 200 years later.
House Shiftingskin enjoyed dominance for only a short time. Betrayal was part of drow society, but Shiftingskin brought it to a whole new level. Houses Deepcave, Crystalsword, Bleak, and Vendren joined forces and carried out a series of attacks and assassinations that brought down house Shiftingskin.
The priests of the Nine Caverns blamed each other for this failure. More priests than usual ended up getting assassinated and replaced, followed by them getting assassinated and replaced.
House Greatcaster was seriously invested in these invasions and its leaders and important thinkers went into deep contemplation on why they lost. Their conclusions would lead to another great shock for the Nine Caverns.
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