Among the many sons of Telamant, the supreme lord of the City of Shadows, not many actually crossed the threshold and became legendary mages. There were only five in total.
Brenas and Ramolek have the highest spellcasting level, which is LV26.
Next are the twins Mattik and Vatik, both at LV25.
The last remaining one is Desude, whose spellcasting level is LV23.
As for other ghost princes, although their total professional level is quite high and they have all crossed the legendary threshold, due to too many part-time jobs, their single spellcasting level is often not high.
For example, Yada's professional composition is a warrior and a warlock, plus two advanced professions. The combined level of all professions is LV32.
Another example is Corari Bonas, who is not only a warrior and a warlock, but also a LV3 thief.
Therefore, the importance of Brenas to the City of Shadows is self-evident.
It can even be said that he is one of the few successors chosen and favored by Telamante.
If one day he dies due to an accident, then the successor of the Haunted City will only be chosen from the four Haunted Princes: Brenas, Ramolak, Mattik and Vatik.
As for Revalan, the eldest son who is ambitious and wants to gain more power and is loyal to Shar, he was not included in the investigation at all.
To be precise, from the moment this guy became a voter and a devout believer, he was destined to be excluded from the list of successors.
After all, according to Netherese tradition, the future ruler of Shade City must be the most powerful legendary arcane spellcaster, not a priest who is easily influenced by the gods.
In this regard, Telamant, as the great arcanist, still has his own insistence.
Therefore, after learning that Brenas had been arrested, he immediately sent his men to Ascatla to inquire about the news.
After confirming that his son was kidnapped by Zuo Si, he immediately used diplomatic envoys to get him back through negotiation and payment of ransom.
After all, the current Yinhun City is not ready for a head-on collision with the West Coast Empire, a force with a large population, a huge territory, sufficient financial resources, strong military strength and many wizards and warlocks.
What's more, as the supreme emperor of the empire, Zuo Si had just completed the feat of killing gods.
In order to show his sincerity, Telamant even asked the envoy to present a secondary artifact created in the golden age of Netheril - [Storm Star], and personally performed a series of enhancements to increase its enchantment level from the original 3
Upgraded to 5.
This is an electric morning star hammer that is loved by the princes of Shade City, high-ranking priests of Shar, and elite officers.
When someone holds this weapon, it will be instantly enveloped in dazzling arcs of electricity from head to toe, but it will not actually harm the holder. Instead, it will inflict violent additional lightning damage to the enemy.
In addition, the holder can also use lightning three times and thunder summoning once per day.
Even though the power of this thing is not very good, and even the title of "sub-artifact" is a bit embarrassing, it can be mass-produced if it can't stand up to others.
This is one of the few sub-artifacts that has been clearly recorded in the continent of Faerûn that can be manufactured in large quantities, and the number is far beyond most people's imagination.
Yinhun City alone has two dozen...
Yes, you are not mistaken.
It's two dozen instead of two.
However, as an apology, in addition to the most basic functions, the enhanced version of [Storm Star] also permanently adds an eight-ring evocation spell [Lightning Ring].
After this spell is activated, it can give the caster a certain amount of lightning resistance, and at the same time cause continuous damage to all nearby creatures, a bit like an electric shock halo, and will shoot two lightning arrows every few seconds.
From this weapon alone, it can be seen that Telamante is definitely spending a lot of money to avoid conflict and redeem his son as soon as possible.
But what he didn't know was that the real Brenas had disappeared long ago.
To be precise, it was made into a summoning creature card by Zuo Si, and then summoned again with the intention of stuffing it back into use as a spy.
At this moment, he was standing in the laboratory, playing with the [Storm Star] that he had just used the special ability of the Creator profession to forcibly shape the Morning Star Hammer into the shape of a long sword. He asked with interest: "What's going on over there in Yinhun City?"
What conditions were met?"
Davian replied without thinking: "They claim to be willing to share some research information on the shadow plane, related spells and experience in using the shadow magic network."
"Haha, it seems that His Highness the Prince of Shadows is worth a lot.
To think that Telamant was willing to give up so many things in exchange.
Especially about the Shadow Plane and the Shadow Weave.
I am afraid that there is no other force in the entire Faerûn continent that has conducted more in-depth research than the City of Shadows."
There was unabashed ridicule in Zuo Si's tone, and he put down the [Storm Star] sword in his hand.
It has to be said that among the many weapons with extra energy attribute damage, fire, lightning and ice are always the coolest and most stylish in appearance.
Especially when holding the [Storm Star], the dazzling electric light surrounding the blade and the holder can pretend to be Zeus, the King of Gods.
As for the specific power...
It can only be said that it is far inferior to the lightning breath of the blue head in the dragon form.
For today's Zuo Si, the [Storm Star] sword is a complete toy. There is no room for use when facing a truly powerful enemy, but it should be quite good for torture.
"Do I need to add some price tag to the negotiation?"
Davian asked in an uncertain tone.
Zuo Si smiled and shook his head: "No, no need, that's it.
After two days of pretentious bargaining, Brenas and his captured men were released.
I have no plans to start a head-on war with Haunted City for the time being.
So it's better to leave this kind of matter to Ovo.
And do you think that with the attitude shown by Yinhun City at the moment, their expansion direction will be to invade the Northland to the west?
Or invade Cormyr south?
Or go east to fight with Fuzor Chambery who conquered the Moon Sea?"
"Hmm - I think Ghost City will first have a conflict with Fuzor Chamberry. Because they are both eager to establish regional hegemony and launch foreign wars to expand the scope of their rule."
Davian touched his chin and expressed his point of view.
As the saying goes, one mountain cannot tolerate two tigers.
When two very aggressive forces come into contact, they will inevitably feel that each other is a huge threat, and fierce confrontation or even war will break out.
In the original history of Faerûn, Fuzor Chamberry also fought a "Battle of Shadow Bane" with the City of Shadows, and at the same time contacted the mortal enemy of Netheril, the Felin Demon Kui, as a
ally.
But in the end he was defeated and died due to lack of strength.
The only result was killing a ghost prince, that's all.
Zhentil Keep was also completely razed to the ground during this time.
Later, Ben, the god of tyranny, resurrected this elector and promoted him to the bishop of the divine domain, which is a certain degree of demigod.
Therefore, it can be foreseen that before the City of Shadows truly begins to expand, it will inevitably destroy Zhentil Castle and the surrounding areas of the Moon Sea controlled by the Benn Church.
Otherwise, just one Zhentarim would be doing things behind his back every now and then, which would be very troublesome to deal with.
After all, there are only so many people who are truly loyal to Yinhun City, and if they can survive, they will only be around a few thousand to ten or twenty thousand people.
It is obviously unrealistic to rely on this small number of manpower to manage hundreds of thousands or even millions of civilians scattered in various towns and villages. Small administrative units like villages and towns decentralize their functions and allow local autonomy.
And autonomy means that rule does not exist at the grassroots level.
This undoubtedly gives excellent opportunities to many intelligence organizations that are good at infiltration, such as the Zhentarim and the Harpers Alliance.
Especially the former, who have no bottom line, can easily create conflicts and riots by inciting hatred or directly using charm control spells.
In addition, the ruling method of Shade City is the same as that of Netheril. They do not regard the people at the bottom as human beings. They obviously prefer slaves to civilians.
Therefore, just suppressing the uprisings and resistances one after another will continue to consume its own strength.
When the time comes, the more land is conquered and the more people live within the control area, the weaker the City of Shadows will become.
Even though they have extremely powerful strength and can easily destroy most of the countries in Faerûn, they are like giants with both feet stuck in the quagmire, and they will continue to sink no matter how hard they struggle.
Therefore, even in order to reduce the pressure of rule, the City of Shades must eliminate Zhentil Keep and the Zhentarim Order and pull out the nail that poses the greatest threat to itself.
Zuo Si undoubtedly knew this very well, so he nodded slightly: "You are right. There will be a battle between Telamante and Fuzor Chamberry.
However, this war will not break out too early in the short term. It will take at least several months or even years.
Both sides will first test each other's strength until one side confirms that it can win.
To be continued...