Undead (novel)

Undead is the second novel of The Haunted Lands trilogy by Richard Lee Byers.

"The dead walk in Thay, and as the rest of Faerûn looks on in stunned horror, the very nature of this mysterious, dangerous realm begins to change

What started as one wizard's ambitions to take over the ruling council has become a vicious civil war that breeds a monstrous array of undead. And while the undead have always been a part of life in Thay, after ten years of constant battles, they have begun to outnumber the living."

Summary
In the country of Thay in 1385 DR, the lich Szass Tam, the zulkir (mage-lord) of the Order of Necromancy and the self-proclaimed regent of Thay, meets with his prisoner, Yaphyll, the zulkir of the Order of Divination, to discuss the War of the Zulkirs. This conflict is the ongoing and chaotic war between Szass Tam and the Council of Zulkirs that began in 1375 DR. Over the course of the ten years of fighting, the civil war in Thay has developed into a stalemate with neither side gaining an advantage. By 1385 DR, Szass Tam controlled primarily the northern part of the nation (Gauros, Lapendrar, Surthay, Delhumide, and Thaymount), while the Council controlled the southern (Priador, Eltabbar, Tyraturos, Thazalhar, Pyarados, and the Alaor). Throughout the conflict, some of the tharchions (governors) and nobles, such as Yaphyll, have switched sides multiple times. The zulkir of Divination had now forsaken the other mage-lords and joined Szass Tam in the hope of shifting the balance of power, breaking the stalemate, and ending the war before it destroyed Thay completely. However, the stalemate has endured, so Yaphyll eventually decided to switch sides once again, since she would rather support the living than the undead. Before Yaphyll could rejoin the Council of Zulkirs, however, Szass Tam took her prisoner and magically bound her using the Death Moon Orb and Thakorsil's Seat, two powerful items of imprisonment and domination.

After speaking with Yaphyll about the war, Szass Tam forces her to perform the strongest divination known to the Red Wizards, no matter the consequences to her own well-being, in order to tell him how to arrange for a decisive victory over the other zulkirs. Yaphyll completes the magical ritual and tells Szass Tam to lead his strongest army, the legions of High Thay, against the Keep of Sorrows in order to get the Council of Zulkirs to commit their main forces to a major confrontation in which the lich can entrap and defeat them. Yaphyll then has a vision of an imminent catastrophic event, the Spellplague, and gives Szass Tam a cryptic warning before she is surrounded by blue flame and breaks free of the undead wizard's control. When he tries to regain power over her, Szass Tam unintentionally kills her with his poisonous touch. Following Yaphyll's death, the lich begins planning his campaign against the Keep of Sorrows and decides to lure the Council's legions into his trap by using Hezass Nymar, the tharchion of Lapendrar and the Eternal Flame of the temple of Kossuth, the elemental god of fire, in the coastal city of Escalant. The reason Szass Tam decides to use Hezass is that he knows the governor is going to soon betray him to the other mage-lords.

About two months later, Aoth Fezim, a war mage and the captain of the Griffon Legion of Pyarados, and his griffon familiar, Brightwing, hunt a group of undead creatures that Szass Tam's followers sent to raid the countryside of Pyarados. They are accompanied by one of the Griffon Legion's officers, the bard and warrior Bareris Anskuld; Mirror, the ghost of a paladin; and Malark Springhill, a monk of the Order of the Long Death and the spymaster to Dmitra Flass, the tharchion of Eltabbar and the zulkir of the Order of Illusion since her predecessor was killed by Szass Tam. When the companions track the undead marauders to a small village where the inhabitants have been slaughtered, they engage and destroy the enemy band, which consists of skeleton warriors and a colossal bone serpent.

A week later, Hezass magically travels to Eltabbar, the capital city of Thay, to meet with the Council of Zulkirs, several of the tharchions and military officers loyal to them, and Iphegor Nath, the High Flamelord of the Church of Kossuth. Hezass reveals to the assembly that he wants to switch sides and that Szass Tam is going to soon besiege the Keep of Sorrows. Seeing this as an opportunity to decisively defeat Szass Tam, the mage-lords immediately decided to gather the armies of Eltabbar, Pyarados, and Tyraturos to confront the undead wizard's legions when they attack the fortress. Shortly afterward, Tammith Iltazyarra, a vampire who is magically bound to Szass Tam's service, infiltrates the temple of Kossuth in Escalant. Tammith was Bareris's beloved before the lich's servants had turned her into a vampire at the beginning of the war, and over the years she has further developed her vampiric abilities and become the captain of the Silent Company, a force compromised of vampires mostly created by Tammith. As she makes her way through Kossuth's temple, Tammith is assailed by a large magma spider and Hezass, but she manages to slay the guardian creature and incapacitate the high priest. Tammith tells Hezass that Szass Tam had intended for him to betray the lich to the Council of Zulkirs. However, now that Hezass has accomplished that task and convinced the Council, Szass Tam wants to secure his allegiance, so Tammith secretly transforms the governor into a vampire.

As the southern legions prepared for the upcoming battle against Szass Tam, Aoth confides in Bareris his thoughts of abandoning the war and leaving Thay with any of the griffon riders who want to accompany him. However, Bareris, who was determined to gain vengeance on Szass Tam and his necromancers for Tammith's transformation into a vampire, realizes how important Aoth and his aerial company are to the Council of Zulkirs' cause, so he uses his bardic magic to persuade his friend to stay in Thay and keep fighting. At the same time that Szass Tam’s massive army begins to besiege the Keep of Sorrows, two messengers from Hezass manage to reach the fortress. The couriers, Red Wizards named Muthoth and So-Kehur, tell Nular Zurn, the castellan of the keep, that Hezass and his host are moving into a position to strike the lich's legions in concert with the Council's army. However, unbeknownst to the Keep of Sorrows garrison, Muthoth and So-Kehur are actually necromancers serving Szass Tam and Hezass intends to betray the zulkirs.

The legions of Eltabbar, Pyarados, and Tyraturos use powerful magic to conceal their advance. When they assemble at the Keep of Sorrows, they believe that they have successfully surprised Szass Tam's host and have trapped the northerners between themselves and the fortress. The Council of Zulkirs' forces immediately attack the undead wizard's army and drive them toward the castle, where the defenders assail them from the walls. However, as the Council's troops continually push harder against the northern legions, Szass Tam discerns that they are now too fully engaged with his followers to withdraw and launches his trap. The atropal Xingax, the lich's leading manufacturer of undead creatures (and who had replaced his damaged body parts with those of the fallen nighthaunt Ysval) uses the abilities that the grafts confer to enshroud the battlefield in a magical gloom. The wraiths and other undead entities that can not withstand daylight, including Tammith, immediately join the fight and engage the southern forces. In the Keep of Sorrows, So-Kehur casts a necromantic spell that transforms the dead bodies in the fortress's crypts into undead soldiers while Muthoth summons a caller in darkness. As the undead creatures attack and slaughter the castle's garrison, the two necromancers continually reanimate the fallen defenders in order to strengthen their forces. Meanwhile, undead kraken-like behemoths emerge from the ground behind the Council's legions and proceed to massacre the southern troops. Strengthened by the creatures that have emerged with the premature night, Szass Tam's army counterattacks ferociously and starts to drive the zulkirs' forces back. The legions of Lapendrar arrived on the battlefield and moved to assault the Council's host, but Aoth and the Griffon Legion hastily assail them.

Knowing that his army's victory is inevitable, Szass Tam magically transports himself into the middle of the clash and tries to use the Death Moon Orb to coerce Dmitra, his former ally, into joining him. However, at that moment, the Spellplague occurs and the artifact explodes in Szass Tam's hands. Seriously hurt by the explosion, Szass Tam makes his way to Xingax and orders the atropal to immediately use his magic to transport them inside the Keep of Sorrows, which has been taken by the lich's forces. A wave of azure fire caused by the Spellplague then sweeps across part of the battlefield, killing Hezass and his entire army, as well as many of the griffons and their riders. Aoth and Brightwing are hit by the wave; although it ddoesd not kill them, it affects the war mage by rendering him essentially blind but with some of the blue flame in his eyes. The Spellplague also causes earthquakes to devastate the area around the Keep of Sorrows and magic to act erratically, resulting in tremendous chaos and confusion engulfing the two Thayan armies as the undead and demons turn on their allies and foes alike. As Szass Tam's remaining troops withdrew into the Keep of Sorrows, the Council of Zulkirs' surviving forces retreat from the field.

Following the battle, Szass Tam decides to leave a garrison to defend the Keep of Sorrows while the majority of his forces withdraw to northern Thay in order to rebuild their strength and design new plans. Meanwhile, Tammith realizes that the Spellplague has eliminated the enchantments that magically compelled her obedience to Szass Tam and his necromancers. She soon decides to desert the undead wizard's army. As Tammith leaves the Keep of Sorrows, she is attacked by Tsagoth, a blood fiend bound to the service of Szass Tam. She manages to wound the undead demon and escape.

Meanwhile, Aoth meets with Bareris to discuss his strange blindness, which could not be cured by either clerics or the bard, but which allowed the battle wizard to sometimes see more than could be seen with normal sight. Aoth names Bareris the commander of the Griffon Legion as long as he cannot see properly. When Aoth then looks upon his friend, he sees an illusory image of Bareris dangling a marionette resembling Aoth and twitching the strings to make it dance. Aoth realizes that Bareris has used magic to convince him to not leave Thay. He confronts the bard with the truth and afterward is so disappointed and hurt that he shuns his comrade.

When the Council of Zulkirs and the southern army's other leaders met in the town of Zolum to formulate a new plan of action, Bareris suggests that they launch an aggressive campaign against Szass Tam now that arcane magic has been diminished and become unreliable, as that has weakened the lich and his forces more than it has the other mage-lords' legions. The zulkirs agree with Bareris's idea and decide to swiftly strike and try to gain control of many of the lands that were under the undead wizard's dominion. While the Council and their subordinates are still discussing their new strategy, Tammith interrupts the meeting and tells the assembled leaders that she wants to join the southern forces and fight against Szass Tam as a way to attain revenge for her magical enslavement. Tammith also convinces the zulkirs to assault Xingax's undead manufactory, which is hidden in the desolate foothills of the Thaymount, in order to prevent Szass Tam's legions from being reinforced with new undead troops.

Shortly after he and the northern army return to High Thay, Szass Tam casts several divinations in an attempt to learn more about the Spellplague and the state of arcane magic. During one of the rituals, the lich is assailed by an entropic reaper, but he is able to quickly destroy the undead destroyer.

As the combined hosts of Eltabbar, Tyraturos, and Pyarados march north, Bareris, Tammith, and several griffon riders scout ahead to watch for enemies and hazards created by the Spellplague. When the group reaches the town of [Solzepar, they discover that blue fire has swept through the settlement and caused parts of the ground to float in the air. Bareris and his companions land on one of the larger floating islands and search a building that had been a chapterhouse of the Order of Evocation. They are soon attacked by a band of Red Wizards that the Spellplague had caused to be transformed and possessed, but they quickly fight their way out of the building and flee the island.

Meanwhile, Aoth and Brightwing are sent to the Central Citadel in the port city of Bezantur, but Dmitra and the other zulkirs decide to vivisect the war mage in an attempt to discover more about the azure fire. At the same time that Brightwing is poisoned to prevent her from aiding Aoth, a small group of soldiers tries to apprehend the griffon rider. After his altered vision reveals illusory knives in the hands of the warriors sent to seize him, Aoth manages to incapacitate the soldiers despite his blindness. Mirror, who has remembered how to use his god-given powers, then heals Aoth's eyes, leaving the battle mage with a superior ability of sight. Aoth and Mirror hastily made their way to Brightwing's aerie, where the ghost cures the griffon. The captain asked Malark to help him avoid vivisection. Malark agrees to assist Aoth, and he convinces Lauzoril, the zulkir of the Order of Enchantment, to allow the griffon rider to return to active duty.

After the Council of Zulkirs' armies that advanced north divide to undertake their different tasks, Bareris, Tammith, part of the Griffon Legion, and a contingent of wizards and priests of Kossuth travel to Xingax's hidden manufactory without being detected by Szass Tam's followers. They use deceit in order to enter the fortress, then immediately engage the stronghold's small garrison of Red Wizards of Necromancy, living soldiers, and undead entities, including an enormous lizard-like monstrosity. During the battle, the bard and Tammith confront and kill the atropal, but the vampire is severely wounded in the fight. Bareris's company defeats Xingax's minions and gains control of the fortress. To save Tammith from dying, Bareris allows her to drink his blood, and afterward the two again become lovers.

Once the griffon riders and their comrades destroy the undead manufactory, they successfully withdraw from High Thay. Many of the other southern forces have also achieved victory over Szass Tam's legions and completed successful operations, including Thessaloni Canos, the governor of the Alaor. Her troops secure both Escalant and Laothkund for the Council.

A short time later, Szass Tam uses magic to infiltrate the Central Citadel in Bezantur in order to speak with Malark. By revealing why he murdered his ally Druxus Rhym, the zulkir of the Order of Transmutation, in 1375 DR, the lich persuade Malark to betray the Council of Zulkirs and join his cause. Instead of openly switching sides, Malark continues to serve as the Council's spymaster, but uses his position to damage the mage-lords' cause. Malark reveals the southern legions' plans and dispositions to Szass Tam, guiding them into traps or into the path of blue fire and other dangers produced by the Spellplague and sowing disaffection and mistrust among the officers and soldiers.

While Bareris and his band are returning to southern Thay, they encounter an enormous abomination created by the Spellplague that is attacking a contingent of soldiers of Tyraturos. Bareris, Tammith, and their comrades immediately assail the formidable creature and eventually manage to destroy it.

As the Council of Zulkirs' forces continue to be defeated and suffer setbacks, Aoth speaks with Malark. Aoth's enhanced sight show the spymaster's face turn into a naked skull. Aoth realizes that Malark may be serving Szass Tam. He and Brightwing then begin to deliver dispatches throughout the southern provinces for the Council, while the war mage plans to try to find evidence that confirms whether or not his comrade has become a traitor.

Meanwhile, Szass Tam has summoned Bane, the god of tyranny, by performing an intricate magical ritual that required him to sacrifice slaves, necromancers, and Pyras Autorian, the tharchion of the Thaymount. Szass Tam makes a bargain with Bane in which the god agrees to provide the lich with his knowledge about the nature of magic in the aftermath of the Spellplague, grant him the ability to create more undead creatures, and enhance his mystical strength. In exchange, Szass Tam promises that when he became the sole ruler of Thay, Bane will be the only god worshiped in the country. He also promises to surrender his soul to the evil deity one thousand years after he attains complete control of the nation. Although Bane males a pact with Szass Tam, he tells the undead wizard that his priests and other worshipers will still aid the Council of Zulkirs in order to ensure that he will benefit no matter which side ultimately wins the war. Szass Tam knows that the magical strength Bane gave to him will gradually fade, so he decides to exploit his new power immediately by augmenting his armies with a vast number of undead.

After Bareris and most of the Griffon Legion travel to Bezantur, Aoth resumes command of the aerial company and tentatively renews his friendship with the bard. The battle mage also enlists the help of Bareris, Tammith, and Mirror in verifying his suspicions about Malark. Aoth and Brightwing intercept a secret message that proves Malark's treachery, They show the proof of the spymaster's guilt to Nevron, the zulkir of the Order of Conjuration, who orders them to arrest the monk. When Aoth, Bareris, Mirror, and Tammith confront Malark and try to apprehend him, the spymaster uses a magical stone given to him by Szass Tam to summon several vengeful allips. Malark flees while Aoth and the others fight and defeat the undead entities. Although Tammith manages to catch up with the monk, he incapacitates her and escapes from Bezantur.

Following Malark's escape, the Council of Zulkirs immediately tries to repair the damage that the spymaster has inflicted on their cause. The mage-lords convene a council of war to decide on their next move. The zulkirs know that Szass Tam is gathering his forces in and around Thralgard Keep in preparation for marching down the Third Escarpment and launching a new campaign, possibly against Eltabbar. However, the zulkirs are reluctant to engage the lich's legions in a major battle. Although Dmitra wants to confront Szass Tam's troops as they descend from High Thay, the other mage-lords decide that they will instead focus on rebuilding their strength and gaining control of the far northern provinces. However, Bane unexpectedly appears in the meeting and instructs the Council to fight Szass Tam's forces when they march down order to settle the war. Choosing to follow Bane's directive, the zulkirs hastily assemble their legions and advance north.

When Szass Tam's legions descends from Thralgard Keep, the Council of Zulkirs' army immediately engages both them and the soldiers from the Keep of Sorrows that Szass Tam has brought along. Initially, the lich's forces suffer many casualties and cannot break the southern troops' formation. They start to gain the advantage after the necromancers begin to magically assail the Council's host. Szass Tam uses the power lent to him by Bane to summon a dream vestige, which steadily moves across the battlefield and obliterates a large number of the zulkirs' soldiers and wizards. Neither the mage-lords nor any of their followers could defeat the dream vestige. As the Council’s legions fall back before the fog-like entity, Malark joins the fight and makes his way to Dmitra, whom he proceeds to kill. Although Szass Tam soon sends the dream vestige to its astral domain, the remnants of the southern army cannot withstand the undead wizard's forces and are forced to retreat south.

Shortly after the end of the battle, the Council of Zulkirs meet in Bezantur to discuss their disastrous defeat and their inability to overcome the dream vestige. Since they have lost the greater part of their military strength and Szass Tam now leads a massive army of undead, the mage-lords realize that they cannot defeat the lich. The zulkirs decide that unless they discover a way to change the situation, they will use the fleet of warships under their command to flee into exile and abandon the main part of Thay. Nevron orders one of his demonic minions to kill Zola Sethrakt, the weak representative of the small number of necromancers who supported the Council, since he detested her for having constantly claimed to be his equal as a zulkir.

Meanwhile, the defeated southern army breaks into numerous bands and flees south toward Bezantur while being pursued by Szass Tam's forces. One of the fleeing contingents is led by Aoth. When they reach the small city of Mophur, they are denied access by the inhabitants. Aoth's company learn that the citizens of Mophur are following the commands of the clerics and worshipers of Bane, who have been instructed by their god to no longer support the Council, to rally the people against the mage-lords, and to pledge their allegiance to Szass Tam. Aoth, Brightwing, Bareris, Mirror, Tammith, and the bard's griffon Winddancer swiftly defeat the soldiers and priests guarding Mophur's gates so that their comrades can enter the city and gather supplies before they continue to retreat south.

Aoth's band and many of the Council of Zulkirs' other remaining forces eventually make their way to Bezantur. They find that throughout southern Thay, towns and fortresses have joined Szass Tam. One night, agents of the Church of Bane instigat a riot among the common people of Bezantur and convince them to try to steal the Council's ships in order to flee the city. While the zulkirs' troops fight the unruly citizens throughout the harbor, the followers of Bane sneak over the rooftops of nearby buildings and shoot flaming arrows into the vessels in an attempt to prevent the mage-lords' escape. Only four ships are destroyed before the Council's forces manage to defeat the mob and Bane's agents. The night after the riot, with Szass Tam's vast army swiftly approaching Bezantur, the zulkirs decide to flee with their remaining followers into exile in the Wizard's Reach, where they plann to gather strength and await an opportune time to renew the struggle against the lich. The Council's large fleet departs from the city, but not before Nevron kills Kumed Hahpret, the zulkir of the Order of Evocation, because he did not believe that the other wizard was worthy of being a mage-lord.

A few days after the Council of Zulkirs' ships leave Bezantur, Szass Tam and his host arrive in the city, where they are welcomed by cheering crowds. Although essentially all of Thay is now under his control, the lich is still determined to pursue and annihilate the zulkirs and the remnants of their legions. Szass Tam, his necromancers, and the other Red Wizards serving him perform powerful magical rituals that summon a sizable force of drowned men and undead aquatic beasts. They create a fleet of warships consisting of darkness that can carry a large portion of the northern army. Szass Tam and his spellcasters then use their magic to raise a storm at sea to slow the Council's flight. The turbulent weather delays the Council's vessels long enough that they could not reach the Wizard's Reach before Szass Tam's ships and minions will intercept them, so the mage-lords decide to confront the enemy fleet.

When the Council of Zulkirs' forces, including the surviving members of the Griffon Legion, move to engage Szass Tam's followers, Nevron and his conjurers summon numerous fiendish and elemental entities, particularly denizens of the infernal oceans, to assist them. In the brutal battle that commences between the two fleets, the aerial and sea combatants are evenly matched and none can gain an advantage over the other. In the ship-to-ship fighting, however, the Council's vessels fared better than their foes' and they have defeated or destroyed many of the lich's ships. Since his forces are losing the battle, Szass Tam uses the last of the power that Bane has given him to once again summon the dream vestige. As the fog-like entity starts to eradicate the Council's followers, the zulkirs' Red Wizards and priests attempt to stop it, but they are unsuccessful.

While Aoth and Brightwing fly over the dream vestige in an attempt to find its weakness, Tammith is assailed by Tsagoth. Bareris, Winddancer, and Mirror soon came to Tammith's aid and join the fight, but when the four have nearly defeated Tsagoth, the blood fiend tackles the vampire into the sea, where the water completely immobilizes her and begins to slowly dissolve her body into nothingness. Bareris and Winddancer follow the pair into the water and resume their attack on Tsagoth until the undead demon is forced to magically transport himself to safety. Although Bareris hurries to get Tammith out of the water, he cannot do it in time and his beloved perishes.

Bareris is anguished over Tammith’s death. After Aoth tells him of his findings about the dream vestige's nature, the bard set out in a small boat to confront the entity. Although the dream vestige engulfs Bareris, he manags to destroy the fog-like creature with his bardic power. Following the dream vestige's defeat, the Council's fleet rallies and the battle quickly turned in their favor. Realizing that his forces will inevitably be defeated, Szass Tam orders his remaining ships to withdraw while his undead aquatic and flying minions cover their retreat. After the battle, Aoth and Brightwing find Bareris floating in the sea, but the bard has been transformed into an undead entity by the necromantic energies that bound the dream vestige.

A week later, the Council of Zulkirs' fleet arrived at Escalant in the Wizard's Reach and the mage-lords begin to establish the region as their new dominion. Shortly after the refugees' arrival, Bareris tells Aoth that he and Mirror have decided to return to Thay to resume opposing Szass Tam and his followers. Meanwhile, Szass Tam prepares for his official coronation as regent of Thay. He decides that he will not try to take the Wizard's Reach but rather leave the remaining zulkirs to live out their lives in exile. Szass Tam meets with Malark and explains the reason he first killed Druxus and began the war against the other mage-lords: a magical spell contained in a treatise once possessed by Fastrin the Delver, a wizard who had seemingly gone insane and obliterated the people of his homeland, a kingdom in the Sunrise Mountains, several millennia earlier.