Assault on Rath
| Assault on Rath | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||
| Event Information | |||||
| Era | War with Phyrexia | ||||
| Date | 4205 AR | ||||
| Location | Rath | ||||
| Sets | Tempest, Stronghold, Exodus | ||||
| Characters | Crovax, Eladamri, Ertai, Gerrard Capashen, Greven il-Vec, Hanna, Karn, Lyna, Mirri, Oracle en-Vec, Orim, Selenia, Sisay, Sliver Queen, Squee, Starke il-Vec, Takara en-Dal, Tahngarth, Urza, Vhati il-Dal, Volrath | ||||
| Outcome |
| ||||
| Timeline | |||||
| |||||
The Assault on Rath was an event that took place on the plane of Rath in 4205 AR, set in motion by the abduction of Sisay.
Description
The assault on Rath began when the Skyship Weatherlight entered its dangerous atmosphere far above the desert of deadly flowstone in the hopes of rescuing their captain, Sisay. The Weatherlight Crew, led by Gerrard Capashen, was heading towards Rath's Stronghold, but their journey was interrupted by the arrival of another airship — the Predator, commanded by Greven il-Vec. Greven and his crew ambushed the Weatherlight, boarding the ship and engaging in a fierce personal battle with Gerrard. As the battle raged, Vhati il-Dal, Greven's mutinous first mate, fired upon the Weatherlight, causing the ship to capsize. Gerrard was sent tumbling from the deck, falling through a long stretch of open air.
Greven, enraged by the loss of control, ordered his moggs to loot the artifacts of the Legacy, including the pacifist golem Karn. Meanwhile, Gerrard was caught mid-air by Selenia, a powerful angel, who sought to bring him to Volrath, the ruler of Rath. However, Gerrard managed to wrest free of her grip and plummeted into the canopy below. As Selenia hovered above the Skyshroud Forest, searching for him, Greven turned on Vhati, throwing him off the Predator. Vhati met his end as he was impaled by a branch, his death mocked by Selenia from above. The Predator retreated as the Weatherlight listed toward the forest, with Greven sensing Volrath’s displeasure from afar.
As the Weatherlight crash-landed in Skyshroud, Tahngarth, who had secretly clung to the Predator's hull, made his way to the ship but was caught by Greven before he could rescue Karn. While the crew scrambled to begin repairs, Hanna, the ship’s navigator, directed the crew while Orim tended to the wounded. While searching for Gerrard, Hanna and the cat warrior Mirri encountered a shapeshifter, which Hanna managed to kill using a technique she had learned from Mirri. Their bond strengthened in this moment, but they were soon captured by Skyshroud elves.
It was then that Gerrard, accompanied by Eladamri and the Oracle en-Vec, emerged from the forest, revealing that he had been saved by Selenia before managing to escape. Declaring the prophesied "Korvecdal", Gerrard resolved to use this revelation to their advantage. Reunited with the crew, Gerrard began to strategize. The plan was to repair the Thran crystal, rescue their comrades — Sisay, Tahngarth, and Karn — and reclaim the Legacy from Volrath.
The Weatherlight’s crew soon learned that the elves had been preparing for an attack on the Stronghold and had discovered an abandoned planar portal. Meanwhile, Starke il-Vec, who feared his past as a defector would be exposed, doubted their plan to storm the Stronghold. Eladamri suggested they use a back passage through the Furnace of Rath to their advantage. The Oracle cryptically warned Starke that betrayal would bring no lasting gain. He considered murdering her, but something kept him off long enough for her guards to spoil the opportunity.
The Weatherlight then entered the Furnace of Rath, a fiery and dangerous place, passing through air ducts where slivers attacked the crew. The crew discovered that their strength was linked by proximity and that separating them would weaken their ability to fight. Starke, realizing that Volrath’s power was far greater than anticipated, feared that his betrayal of Sisay would be exposed and made a fateful decision to act against his crew.
Left outside by the inactive portal, the ship's mage Ertai made a deal with Lyna, a Soltari emissary: She would help open the portal if he allowed her people to pass through. Meanwhile, the Weatherlight faced constant danger, with the crew barely managing to escape the Furnace’s flames. Hanna had to improvise a lightning rod to save the ship, and they eventually reached the Death Pits, where they fought off Volrath’s failed experiments, only to have the goblin cabin boy Squee accidentally activate the Salvation Sphere, sending the undead attackers away.
Arriving at the Stronghold itself, Mirri killed a guard, and Gerrard, Starke, and Crovax entered, ordering Hanna to rendezvous at Volrath's Gardens if necessary. Crovax, in a fit of rage, brutally killed a shapeshifter that had taken Selenia’s form. The group discovered a three-dimensional map in Volrath’s Map Room, revealing his plans for a full-scale invasion.
Meanwhile, Karn, imprisoned in Volrath's Dungeon, stood motionless in his cell, reflecting on his past actions. He was taken to witness Tahngarth’s torturous mutation but refused to fight, believing that remorse would outlast rage. His captors cruelly informed him that he would be forced to kill hundreds of goblins daily before the torture would resume, as his new cell contained a tilting floor, making him helpless to fall and crush the scrabbling moggs.
The rescue party eventually crossed a flowstone bridge, using a shapeshifter’s corpse as bait to lure enemies into a trap. They successfully freed Karn and Tahngarth and found Sisay in Volrath's Laboratory, only to discover it was another shapeshifter. Following Starke’s advice, they headed for the Dream Halls.
After Crovax killed another shapeshifter mimicking Selenia, the group finally reached the Dream Halls, where they were ambushed by the real Selenia, who wounded Mirri. Crovax, pleading with her to stop, was met with resistance as Selenia insisted that fate had bound them to this battle. In a moment of deep regret, Crovax struck her down, and her shattered form entered his body, transforming him into a cursed being - a vampire.
Crovax, now with fangs and golden eyes, collapsed. Barely conscious, the wounded Mirri and the delirious Crovax were returned to the Weatherlight by Tahngarth, where Orim, overwhelmed, mourned the loss of the man she once knew and the tragic failure of Selenia to save him.
As the Weatherlight prepared to depart, Karn encountered the Sliver Queen in her lair, where a mutual bond between two very different beings allowed him to claim the pieces of the Legacy and return them to the ship. He had also retrieved the Skyshaper, an artifact capable of enhancing the ship’s speed. Just as they set off, an army of elves and humans approached the Stronghold outside. The Predator launched a final attack on the Weatherlight, harpooning the ship. Crewman Tomalan was thrown by the impact and accidentally revealed a hidden compartment in the Skyshaper. In a daring act, Tomalan severed the harpoon lines before being shot and killed. Hanna, acting quickly, managed to drag the Predator into a collision with the Stronghold.
The Predator recovered and sent two goblin-bomb-laden ornithopters after the Weatherlight. Hanna readied a new weapon she had made and fired a beam of light, knocking one ornithopter into the Stronghold.
As they neared Volrath’s Gardens, the final ornithopter closed in. Gerrard and Sisay struggled to make their way forward, while Tahngarth climbed a tree and leaped onto the enemy craft in a daring rescue attempt. He crashed the machine onto the Weatherlight but leapt aboard to safety first.
Gerrard realized that Rath was absorbing Dominaria itself. Upon entering the Dream Halls, he was shown visions of his past and Volrath’s plans for the invasion. Volrath taunted him, setting Sisay and Starke's daughter Takara against him in battle. Gerrard defeated them, but Volrath's body morphed into yet another shapeshifter.
Meanwhile, Mirri, recovering below deck, was confronted by Crovax, who had been transformed by Selenia’s death. In a brutal fight, they fell overboard into the Gardens. Mirri nearly succumbed to the vampiric influence of Crovax but managed to break free. Realizing Crovax’s purpose was to delay Gerrard’s escape, she sacrificed herself, allowing Gerrard to live.
As the Weatherlight fled toward the portal, Gerrard saw Crovax heading for the Dream Halls. With the Predator still in pursuit, he ordered Hanna to activate the Skyshaper, and boosted by tremendous speed, the ship crossed the portal. Gerrard briefly glimpsed ghostly figures walking through and saw Ertai hanging from the arch to drop onto the deck, but due to the ship's speed, he was unable to save him, leaving him behind on Rath.
The Predator crashed into the portal, sending Ertai tumbling at Greven il-Vec’s feet, while Lyna and Urza watched from a hill, marking the end of the assault on Rath and the beginning of new trials both for those who remained and for those who left.[1]
References
- ↑ Peter Archer, ed. (1998) - Rath and Storm anthology, Wizards of the Coast.