===== A foe beyond our means =====

[[farne:actors:Sanria Veris|Duchess Veris]], after days of frustration, pulled her forces back.   She walked alone to the city gates of [[farne:locations:seldermoor|Seldermoor]] and demanded entry.  Following a barrage of arrows, she withdrew.

When the sunset that night, the Duchess appeared alone on a ridge just outside of the flight of an arrow.  Summoning the fires of the lower realms, she engulfed the entirety of Seldermoor in a massive conflagration, melting through the magically enhanced walls and straw thatched roofs with equal ease.  The inhabitants, to a soul, manifest and mundane alike, were slain instantly, their flesh melting from their bones in an instant.  As the buildings melted in the hellfire, the duchess, obviously exhausted, turned her back on the hellish sight to return to her tents.

The coming of the dawn revealed a perfect circle of cooling obsidian where Seldermoor once stood.  The army, no longer occupied by the diversion of Seldermoor, began gating in their ships to the new frontier, opposite [[farne:locations:dimmersdel|Dimmersdel]], where the duchess' emissaries entreated [[farne:actors:Tenris Melfir|Duke Melfir]] to surrender.