Scene 3: Those Who Watch...

The biggest winners of the Greyhawk Wars were those who never fielded a force of their own people on the plains of battle. The Scarlet Brotherhood pursued their own ends by treachery, deceit, intrigues, magical compulsion, and strategies unused by others: the breeding of special monsters and the enslavement of so-called savages. When the Great Kingdom sought to exert its power in 583 CY, the Brotherhood did indeed support the Iron League secretly: with weapons, equipment, funds, advisors, and mercenaries. The Father of Obedience wanted a buffer between the Brotherhood and the mad Overking. But at the same time, Brotherhood agents undermined the unity of the League, and when the Great Kingdom fell apart, the Scarlet Brotherhood demanded the surrender of the Iron League states. When they refused, assassins slew nobles and rulers by the score.

Far to the west, too, the sea princes capitulated to the unknown assassins of the Brotherhood, and as Onnwal and Idee fell to the fleets and Hepmonaland armies raised by the men in red, the Brotherhood secured an iron grip on the Azure Sea. From the Sea Princes’ lands and ports, the Brotherhood even sought to take gradsul, the vital southern Keolandish port, but were repulsed.

Not all of the old Iron League was lost. Wily Cobb Darg of ironwall knew exactly wnere his support had been coming from, and had every Scarlet Brotherhood agent executed or exiled as Idee and Onnwal were falling. Sunndi still stood, its formidable natural defenses of hill, woodland, and swamp defying all attempts made against it. But the Brotherhood had time on their side. Alone of the major forces of the great wars, they were not spent. Not everything had to be achieved in one fell swoop. The Father of Obedience still had many agents in readiness.