A flake of volcanic ash drifted down from a darkening sky to land on a browning skull. Around it the exposed burial pits began to writhe and shift in the orange glow of the erupting volcano. The fleshless skeletons of the dead slowly raise themselves to stand for the first time since their death. Their heads turn toward the great ash cloud dominating the sky and a word escapes their jaws. “Annata.” They claw and drag their way out of their mass grave and take up whatever weapons they can find. Creeping into the tents of their former overseers and slaying them as they dream. Soon the alarm was raised and the Escari began to butcher any slaves they could see, but it was too late there was nothing they could do against a nation of the dead. The Escari and the Scourge were all slain and the Ilac dead saw to freeing the surviving slaves. The dead marched as if compelled towards the city of Ilac, clearing the few Escari that had taken up residence there and then shutting the gates behind them.
The bright lava spewing out of Udar Fell can be seen from Valkyrie’s Point of Drengfold to the Eastern Oasis of the Wastes. The eruption shook the world and as the choking ash began raining down on the earth the dead of Ilac rose. From the burial pits of the slave camps to the burnt out shell that is Ilac City the dead have stood up once more and begun to fight – Annata’s sacrifice will never be forgotten.
The signal worked and word spreads of a large force of free humans, Felidi and Saurans making their way into Cinnea from the Wastes. For the first time in 10 years there is hope.