And finally we get to look at the Thayan cities and the road between them.

Veil

The town of Veil is so named because it’s built atop a stable rift to the Shadowfell, which makes it look like it’s covered by a veil of shadows from afar. This is where Shadowfell Road ends. Valindra’s people are very aware of that, so they’re busy fortifying the town and bringing in undead defenders to gradually replace its living garrison. Should the down fall or the rift close, their Neverwinter contingent would be cut off.

The rift also protects Veil from direct bombardment by the flying fortress, as it makes its shadow-powered projectiles go astray. Its defenses cannot stand up to a Netherese ground assault, but the attacking army would risk getting caught between Veil’s defenders and a relief force sent from Surcross. The fortress therefore focuses on the bigger town, but sometimes comes here to float ominously over Veil and throw some rocks at it. As we saw before it does this when it needs to take in supplies, as its own Shadowfell portals require proximity to a rift to work.

The city’s defenses are led by a priest of Bane named Renault Abrecht, who coordinates everything from the local temple he took over. When not doing that, Abrecht spends his time ensuring the forces under his command are more loyal to him than to Thay, and acquiring more converts from the town’s stressed-out population. When he judges he has a big enough army of followers, he will cross into Shadowfell Road and collapse the rift behind him, hoping to conquer a kingdom for himself elsewhere in Faerûn. The Netherese would actually love that, as it would achieve their own goal of cutting off Valindra’s supply route.

The Road

The road linking Veil and Surcross is warded and trapped to a frankly ridiculous level, because the Thayans rightly fear that if it got taken then Veil would fall soon after.

Both sides of the road are lined with stakes upon which are impaled bodies. These are enchanted to animate, jump from the stakes, and kill anyone who attacks the town of Veil or a Thayan national while on the road. Under the road itself are a series of deadly necromantic rune traps that activate when anyone living steps on them. They deactivate for five minutes if an undead being steps on them, so caravans to and from Surcross use zombie guides to travel the road.

I guess it’s possible for the PCs to travel overland between the two cities without using the road, since by this point they should be able to navigate the area’s environmental hazards without much trouble. Armies, however, would prefer to use the road if they can, and supply caravans must use it.

Surcross

Tam was smart enough to foresee any serious attack against Thay would have to go through Surcross, so he had potent defenses installed in the city a long time ago. However he couldn’t imagine that the actual attack would come in the form of a whole Netherese flying fortress, and the particulars of that attack lead to the current stalemate.

Surcross is a town under permanent martial law. It’s governed by the military garrison stationed here to fight the Netherese. Its civilian population is suffering greatly because the soldiers requisition all the food for themselves, and don’t hesitate to kill any who complain about it or displease them in other ways. A dead Thayan is just an undead Thayan in waiting, after all.

Getting into the town is hard and will require some ingenuity from the party. Once inside, though, they can easily pass for residents, because who in their right mind would want to break into the place?

The town’s governor is Ukulsid, an undead gnoll general who is entirely focused on the war effort, and therefore dislikes the fact that his town also became the center of Valindra’s schemes. His loyalty to Tam forces him to obey her, though, because she outranks him.

External Defenses

The gates of Surcross are made of necromantically animated bone. They open and close themselves at the orders of Thayan military necromancers, and will attack others who linger close to them for too long like the animated wall traps we saw earlier in the Dread Ring.

The wall surrounding Surcross is pretty solid, and also festooned with hundreds of hidden crypts. If the wall is breached or bypassed by enemy forces, a single command will trigger a selective zombie apocalypse. Every corpse within the wall will be animated and the shambling army will be sent into the town to kill every non-Thayan they find.

Fingers of Szass Tam

These five bone and marble towers are the reason Surcross hasn’t been flattened yet. Located at equidistant points around the perimeter of the city wall, they can project force fields over the city. They can’t cover the whole city for long, so the towers usually project stronger but smaller fields over whatever parts of it are being bombarded.

The towers have no windows, but their walls are enchanted to “not exist” to anyone inside them. They’re filled with arcane artillery pieces similar to those that defend the plateau, whose crews can see and fire through the walls just fine. They also have assault units ready to deploy to anywhere inside the city or to just outside its walls by marching on force field bridges.

The Garrison

Another important structure in Surcross’ defense, the garrison houses all living Thayan troups stationed in town. It’s guarded around the clock by undead. Its barracks are not segregated by gender, but by species: human, orc/half-orc, gnoll, and “other”. It has short-range teleportation circles that can move soldiers instantly to the front gate or to any of the five Fingers.

A particularly luxurious section of the garrison is reserved for the Sunmasters, a contingent of Bane clerics and star warlocks who specialize in radiant attacks. They mostly work as a special strike force against the Shadovar, or when there’s an emergency and they need every soldier in the field.

The Tombstone

This squat fortress at the very center of town is where its leadership resides. Its windows and doors can be commanded to meld into the walls and disappear, allowing it to serve as a last redoubt if the wall is breached.

Ukulsid holds court here and lets people petition him for judgment on disputes or to make other requests and complaints, but since he tends to draft those who annoy him into the army, few people make use of the opportunity.

The building also contains an enchanted audience chamber that’s a perfect replica of the one Szass Tam uses in his palace. It’s one of many such chambers spread throughout Thay. The lich can sit in his throne in the original chamber and establish a link with any of the replicas, causing an illusion of him to appear on the corresponding throne. This lets him talk to anyone inside the replica chambers as if he was there, and lets him forcibly teleport people inside the replica chamber to the original one if he wants. Ukulsid occasionally uses this room to report to his boss. PCs should probably avoid lingering here.

Valindra has an area reserved for her use underneath the Tombstone as well. This currently stores a large and still growing collection of dragon bones, guarded by skeletal guardians hidden among them. Valindra is stocking up in preparation for the time when she learns the ritual to raise dracoliches.

Impressions

Surcross looks like an even worse place than Evernight, and that’s saying something. PCs who make it inside the walls will have some freedom of movement, but still their stay there will resemble a dungeon delve more than a city adventure. Nowhere is safe, no one can be trusted, and you ideally want to do what you came to do and leave as quickly as possible.

If the PCs main reason for coming to Thay is to disrupt the Thayan supply lines, then Veil is probably their best bet, since the portal can be closed without them needing to destroy either city. If the GM says Valindra’s Soul Vessel is here in Thay, though, then its most likely hiding place is her bone collection under Surcross’ Tombstone.