GENERAL DARBORN GRIFFSPOTTER

Towards the latter years of his life, Zylon the Aged's appointed council of five regents consisted of Zilbo Throckrod (Zilbo I), General Darborn Griffspotter, Hargood of Mareilon, Gladius Fzort, and Dinbar. When Zylon took time to visit remote parts of the kingdom, those five were always left in charge of the affairs of the state and the control of Largoneth Castle. There was often heavy contention between Gladius Fzort and Griffspotter, as Gladius had often criticized the General’s bold approaches and desire for power. The hotheaded general was often quick to lose his temper at council meetings.

The remarkable longevity of Zylon the King had ensured a quiet prosperity and a sense of reassuring regularity. Although a distorted sense of tradition still led the kingdom’s generals to arm a string of guardposts along the northern border in the unlikely event of renewed hostilities, General Darborn Griffspotter and his peers were truly nothing more than figureheads commanding a powerless force. The few naval battleships built so long ago had been put to work as fishing trawlers, and every available soldier of the Quendoran army that was not stationed along the northern border made a mind-bogglingly boring living guarding trade caravans from the fiendish, imagined raiders that might happen along every fifty years or so. Nevertheless, the young men of Quendor still took a great pride in serving their land by joining the army. None of these enthusiastic, bright-eyed soldiers had ever seen a violent loss of blood, much less a full-fledged battle. Even General Griffspotter, a die-hard veteran of the northern frontier posts, had to be counted as a stranger to the mysteries of war.

In 398 GUE, a servant of King Zylon, Endeth Belzgar, who was possessed and controlled by the fallen Implementor Belegur, poisoned him. While the poison did not kill Zylon, it did weaken him significantly and he lost unconsciousness, although no one at the time knew that it was Endeth who had committed the deed. In response, General Griffspotter, unwilling to see the country arising in panic over Zylon’s condition, ordered the royal guard to seal off the castle to prevent the spreading of rumors. When none of the physicians and magicians were able to determine the cause of illness nor the cure, several council meetings were held. The members debated the wisdom of keeping the entire affair a secret, but Griffspotter’s adamant argument to do so overshadowed the others. If fact, the general stationed half of the Quendoran army in the castle to prevent any word of the king’s sickness from reaching the outside. Since Zylon had no heir, the five regents battled over who would be next in line. Until Zylon could be restored, or name the heir to the throne, these five were the rulers of Quendor. Throughout this calamity, Belegur would attempt to incite Griffspotter with great temptation to possess the throne.

After a Spell of Linking had been completed, Dinbar believed that it was possible that if they could find the Pool of Stasis that Zylon might be preserved even if a cure could not be discovered. While Zilbo and Dinbar went to Galepath to seek the Sacred Scrolls of Fizbin which contained this knowledge, General Griffspotter dispatched orders to Quendoran garrisons in the north, bringing in several armed units to accompany and protect the king wherever he might be taken. Gladius Fzort had been hesitant to let the two go, mostly worried that with Zilbo’s stabilizing presence gone, Griffspotter might make use of a perfect opportunity to take control.

Later, when disturbing rumors from the south, of civil unrest and foreign invaders, as well as Zilbo’s news of a looming war between Galepath and Mareilon arose, General Griffspotter demanded immediate military action. Zilbo argued against any kind of interference. At the conclusion of the conference it was agreed upon that if these issues were not settled at the end of three days, Griffspotter was free to march and fight all he wanted. Until then, the army would wait.

Within that time, reports came in that Mareilon and Galepath were proceding to march upon one another. General Griffspotters finally won his own personal battle, securing the permission of the other council members to march on Mareilon as soon could be arranged. Orders had gone out the night before and now a small contingent of Quendor’s token army lay encamped at the base of the Lonely Mountain, just around the bend from the castle itself. Those gathered were 209 from the Lingolf Garrison, the closest military unit. These were all that he found necessary to quell the Mareilon rebellion. The general had also sent word by messenger to some of the forts scattered along the Long Road and the northern frontier, as well as the coastal units closer to Mareilon. But it would be few days before they received their marching orders and caught up with the Lingolf Garrison, but they would soon have quite a formidable number on their side to secure the city of Mareilon. Zilbo and Litbo Mumblehum marched with Griffspotter and the army south, hoping they could capture Endeth, who they now knew was in league with Belegur.

In pursuit of Endeth, General Griffspotter had changed the course of the march of the army many times so that Zilbo and his librarian friend might capture the servant and find their way to Belegur to regain the Scrolls of Fizbin. Their final march ended at the edge of a forest, which they found had been devastated. It was evidence that a large scaled force had passed by headed westward to Galepath just hours before. Griffspotter urged his soldiers forward, determined not to waste a single moment of daylight. 200 Quendoran soldiers tore through the forest in search of their goal. The royal army spilled out of the forest’s western edge onto the ridge just above the Jerrimore Estates. They had expected to find at most several dozen drunken Mareilon rebels ready to be whipped into shape at the slightly verbal threat. But not even one dozen of the Mareilon force still lived in the valley below, but the ground was fresh with bodies of many times that number. The civil war had already come and gone, the royal army merely late entries in a finished game.

Standing victorious over the entire battlefield were the Kovalli natives. The Nezgeth banded together on the field below, awaiting the inevitable charge from the Quendoran soldiers. The royal force was to be split in half, one hundred men waiting on the highest point of the ridge, to advance only if the first attack proved a failure. Zilbo reluctantly agreed to head the reserve force, allowing himself the fleeting hope that a victorious Griffspotter would save Zilbo from leading his men into battle. Griffspotter began the cautious march down the ridge to the Jerrimore Estates.

So that the men of the Quendoran royal army might arrive in the valley all at once, the order had been given to disperse the marching columns and have the soldiers proceed down the hill abreast of each other, a long thin line stretched across the horizon. In the middle of the line and just slightly ahead of the rest strode the general, accompanied on either side by one of the force’s several trumpeters and the Largoneth standard bearer. As the approaching force arrived at the base of the hill, the watching Nezgeth warriors silently arranged themselves in a similar formation, a parallel line just as long but several times as deep making its way across the scarred meadow.

Griffspotter’s army drew close. The two lines stared at each other over an ever-lessening distance, neither enemy leader quite willing to give the order to charge. Neither leaders saw the lone Nezgeth warrior ready his bow, the arrow piercing the general’s chest and killing him. Griffspotter would be the lone Quendor casuality in the battle against the Nezgeth, who would afterwards join Quendor to fight against Belegur.

To commemorate and guard the site of Quendor's battle against Belegur in 398 GUE, King Zilbo I ordered the foundation of a military outpost, the famed Fort Griffspotter, in honor of the deceased military advisor, General Darborn Griffspotter. The caverns beneath were subsequently named the Griffspotter Caverns.