Battle for Meridell

Battle for Meridell was a Plot on Neopets which took place between February 2, 2004 and May 13, 2004.Lord Kass bred unrest within the ranks of his people and started a war against Meridell, violating their peace treaty, in an attempt to satisfy The Three.

Plot Summary

Lord Kass' Takeover

After Lord Darigan's fall from power, Lord Kass, a general at the time, began to gain power and influence in the Citadel, by bribing, intimidating and blackmailing a number of important or otherwise influential people (his diagrammatic plan would imply at least eight), including a captain, two chairman, a mayor, constable, judge, sheriff, prison keeper Master Vex, and General Galgarroth (interestingly misspelt by Lord Kass). Those who did not swear fealty to him were disposed of: Master Vex was locked in his own dungeons and General Galgarroth was chained up and tossed from the Citadel during one of Kass', now as Lord of the Citadel, speeches to the public.

During this time, Lord Darigan, who after his defeat had gone fully insane, and regressed to an animalistic creature who stalked Meridell's farms in search of food.

The Plans for War

In an open-air speech to his public, Lord Kass, after a propaganda campaign portraying himself as a beloved leader and King Skarl as a hater of the people of Darigan/Kass Citadel, he said that people were willing to attack them "in the name of King Skarl", while in fact Meridell had not intention to attack. He called upon his people to tell him what to do, and the crowd responded, "War!" and "Attack him first!"

At some point in this time, Kass must have engaged the support of an enchantress, the hag Morguss, who's magic would prove vital in the ensuing war.

Lord Kass sent Morguss' daughter, an Aisha who portrayed the illusion of being beautiful, when in fact she was an almost beast-like creature, to King Skarl to capture him and his courtiers in a hypnotic dance. He had also seeded Meridell Castle with spies and Morguss set a blight spell on Meridell's crops.

By this time, Lord Darigan had set himself up in a barn of one of the Meridellian farms, where the young Usul daughter of the farmer, Sally, brought him, or Mr. Scary as she called him, scraps and leftovers.

Kass' Invasion

While King Skarl was mesmerised by the dance of the Court Dancer, Lord Kass started his offensive. Jeran, Champion of Meridell, and his relatively small troop, were the only force in the vicinity, and his calls for reinforcements and supplies were ignored by Skarl, who, thanks to the Court Dancer, was indisposed. The Court Dancer did find time, however, between her performances for the King, to hypnotise the villagers from the area of the attack to revolt against the military force there.

By Jeran's account, the first encountering of Kass' forces could have been no more than a days travel away from Hope River Village, or possibly at it. The day after, the force was seen again, featuring several of Kass' war machines, a type of weapon that Kass would be famous for introducing. By Jeran's reaction, this was an imposing sight, and may have been a larger force than that which was encountered the previous night.

As the Kass attack pressed on, in its early stages a small party raiding party attacked a farmhouse: by coincidence, this was the same farmhouse that the creature Lord Darigan had become had taken up refuge. Sally rushed to the barn to tell "Mr. Scary" that they had to run, when the party swooped on her, and a Skeith grabbed her. Darigan swept forward, and with easy beat off the Skeith. The other three soldiers looked on, stunned. One of them called questioningly to him, "Darigan?" before Darigan charged forward and effortless defeated the remaining members of the party, but his old name haunted him, and he was in an almost trance-like state before Sally spoke to him, at which point he appeared to fully remember himself. He said that he had to go, before flying off towards the Citadel.

As Kass' war machines pressed onwards with little resistance, Lisha suddenly snapped out of the Court Dancer's trance. She realised what was happening and rushed to the library to retrieve a copy of Imry Infilson's Index of Illusions. She hurried back to the throne room, and enchanted a counter-spell, and the Court Dancer's spell, and her disguise, collapsed. As King Skarl suddenly came to himself, he ordered that the Court Dancer be arrested, and a soldier burst in to tell Skarl of the invasion. He immediately instructed his generals to the war room.

Meridell's Counterattack

A royal summons was immediately sent out, calling to arms men and women from across the kingdom. With the army swelled, Skarl sent about concocting a counter offensive.

The plan involved a two-pronged attack. Kayla's new concoction, an enlarging potion which impressed King Skarl, would be used to supersize Turtum, and these would be equipped with catapults on the top of their shells and manned with a squad of troops to combat Kass' war machines on the ground (the front for the ground war appeared to be closing on Meridell Castle quickly). Just as the ground offensive got going, Jeran would lead a team of soldiers, riding Uni-back, through the air to assault the Citadel itself.

Jeran's attack met heavy rain on their approach to the citadel, and the turbulent weather may have made things difficult where it not for the Air Faerie Psellia, who cleared the sky for them. While the Meridellian line met the oncoming invaders, Lord Kass was receiving information that the army was in full retreat and that Skarl had ordered all troops south. It is uncertain whether the Zafara Double Agent was triple crossing Kass, as her Trading Card suggests, and giving him false information, or another agent gave Kass the false information which the Zafara Double Agent corrects (it is likely the former as he still seems happy with himself after the frame in the plot where she appears), but in spite of the news of his army's success, or perhaps because of, he orders Morguss to shower Novas down on the battlefield as Jeran's force slip into the citadel.

However, Kass, despite only having a skeleton force with him, seems prepared enough to take on Jeran's sneak attack. Several fireballs are launched within citadel at the invaders, and Lord Kass himself joins the attack, and forces Jeran off the edge of the floating rock. He is about to dispatch the remnants of the attackes, when Lord Darigan arrives on scene.

Lord Darigan's Return

Lord Darigan, armed with a clawed staff and wearing no armour, arrives at the area. Kass turns, stunned that Darigan is still alive. "Dead?" he replied, "I thought I was dead too."

The two Lords fight, and Kass begins to gain the upper hand as he presses Darigan back into a wall, and catches his shoulder with his blade. The tide not just of the war, but of Kass' own engagement turn against him, however, and Darigan soon causes Kass to fall to the floor, narrowly missing a swing of Darigan's staff. The amulet around Kass' neck smashes, to his horror, as he hits the ground, and his connection to The Three dies with it.

Darigan offers his hand to the fallen Eyrie, telling him that The Three can control him no more. However, they approach, in gaseous spectral forms, and Kass runs from them, but they peruse him, and decide to take from Kass everything he promised them - everything.

Lord Darigan, having defeated Kass, rushes to the Engine Room, Kass' troops surrendering to their old Lord. They restore the engines, which were about to fail, but Darigan himself is plagued by The Three, who presumably were responsible for his attack of Meridell before his fall from power. They tell him that he will eventually return to them, but Darigan denies it, and The Three vanish.

After the war, Jeran is returned by Psellia, who takes him to Skarl. Jeran makes a recovery, apparently saved from his fall by the air faerie.

The Opponents

Challengers in the Battledome were released as the war progressed, with a limited number of each opponent to defeat.

Character	Picture	# of Opponents	Points Per Win	Difficulty
Giant Spyders		5,000,000	1	12
Skeith Soldiers		500,000	3	30
Eyrie Guards		450,000	5	65
Zombie Petpets		225,000	10	120
War Machines		100,000	25	180
Zombified Peasants		25,000	50	210
Blugthak		10,000	250	750
Lord Kass		1	10,000	4000

Prizes

Ranks	# of Points
Peasant	1 - 4 - ?
Serf	? - 7 - ?
Squire	? - 13 - 16 - ?
Herald	? - 20 - 49
Man-At-Arms	50 - 99
Apprentice	100 - 199
Journeyman	200 - 499
Defender	500 - 999
Warrior	1000 - 4999
Knight	5000 - 9999
Champion	10000 - 19999
Baron	20000 - 49999
Hero	50000 - 99999
Lord	100000 - 142591

Those who participated in the war automatically received an Avatar along with a Trophy in their User Lookup, showing their collected points and title.

External Links

• Plot Info: Battle for Meridell, Meridell War Room
• Gallery of Heroes: Jeran, Lisha, Kayla, King Skarl, Master Vex, Galgarroth
• Gallery of Evil: Lord Kass, Morguss, The Court Dancer
• Neopet TCG: The Bat-Thing, King Skarl, Lisha, Lord Kass, The Fall of Jeran, Jeran, Meridell Knight, Psellia, Zafara Double Agent, Count Boris, Court Dancer, Kayla, Morguss, Morris