Battle for Meridell

Meridell at war once again.

Battle for Meridell was a plot 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, breaking the peace treaty established following Champions of Meridell in the process, in an attempt to satisfy The Three.

The plot was a sequel to Champions of Meridell, was set in the same locations and starred much of the same cast: Lisha, her brother Jeran, her friends Count Boris, Morris, and Kayla, King Skarl, Lord Darigan, and Galgarroth all make reappearances.

Story

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, including a captain, two chairman, a mayor, constable, judge, sheriff, prison keeper Master Vex, and General Galgarroth. 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 Lord of the Citadel, speeches to the public.

During this time Lord Darigan, who, after his defeat had gone fully insane, 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 Kass Citadel, said that people were willing to attack them "in the name of King Skarl", while in fact Meridell had no 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 engaged the support of an enchantress, the hag Morguss whose magic would prove vital in the ensuing war. Morguss' magic may have served Lord Darigan, possibly encouraging Lord Kass to enlist her.

Lord Kass sent Morguss' daughter, an Aisha who portrayed the illusion of being beautiful, 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 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 in on her and a Skeith grabbed her. Darigan swept forward, and with ease beat off the Skeith. The other three soldiers looked on, stunned. One of the soldiers recognised him, and called out, "Darigan?" before Darigan charged forward and effortlessly defeated the remaining members of the party. However, 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 which collapsed the Court Dancer's own spell and her disguise. 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 counter-attack

Meridell counter-attacks.

A royal summons was immediately sent out, calling to arms men and women from across the kingdom. With the army swollen, Skarl sent about marshalling 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 super-size Turtums, 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 rapidly. Just as the ground offensive got under way, 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 were 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 it, he ordered Morguss to shower Novas down on the battlefield as Jeran's force slipped into the citadel.

However, Kass, despite only having a skeleton force with him, seemed prepared enough to take on Jeran's sneak attack. Several fireballs were launched from the Citadel at the invaders, and Lord Kass himself joined the attack. Engaging Jeran, he forced him off the edge of the floating rock, and was about to dispatch the remnants of Jeran's invasion force when Lord Darigan arrived on scene.

Lord Darigan's return

Lord Darigan, armed with a clawed staff and wearing no armour, dropped onto the citadel and confronted Lord Kass. He turned, stunned that Darigan was still alive. "Dead?" he replied, "I thought I was dead too."

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

Darigan offered his hand to the fallen Eyrie, telling him that The Three could control him no more. However, they approached, in gaseous spectral forms, and Kass fled. They perused him, and decided to take from Kass all he promised them - everything.

Lord Darigan, having defeated Kass, rushed to the Engine Room to prevent the Citadel from falling. Kass' troops surrendered to their old Lord, and they and the Meridellians helped him to restore the failing engines.

The Three, having dealt with Kass, approached Darigan in their spectral guises, who presumably were responsible for his attack of Meridell before his fall from power. They said to him that he will eventually return to them, but Darigan denied it. The Three vanished.

After the war, Jeran was returned by Psellia, who takes him to Skarl. Jeran made a recovery, apparently saved from his fall by the Air Faerie.

Participation

Character	# 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

Users participated in the plot by fighting back against the army of Lord Kass. Challengers were fought in the Battledome and were released as the war progressed, with a limited number of each opponent to defeat.

Eventually, Lord Kass himself came into battle, having a total hit points of 10,000 along with a collection of Battledome Equipment which made it impossible for any user to defeat him on their own. He could only be defeated with the collective effort of users, as his total HP was lowered by how much damage they could fully do on each match. The final blow was eventually given by garet_jaxx, and all battles were soon halted there after.

Prizes

Ranks	# of Points
Peasant	1 - 4
Serf	5 - 7 - ?
Squire	? - 11 - 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+

Those who participated in the war automatically received an avatar along with a trophy in their User Lookup, showing their collected points and title. Another avatar was awarded for defeating the Giant Spyders at least once.

The following items were given out based on plot points:

BFM T-Shirt Boots of Jumping Darigan War Machine Exploding Acorns

Eyrie Guard Helmet Kass Skeiths Shield Kass Skeiths Spear Lord Kass Amulet

Morguss Twisted Wand Petpet Bone Spyder Potion

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