It took 3 construction companies and a team of stone-kin a month and a half to finish the Shadow Lands estate. Partly because much of it was already built, and mostly because the new owners spent so much gold. Quorash hired three translators to teach the three female translators he had brought with him on the black ships. The three Shadow Lands women were amazing intellects, and they soaked up tree-kin, Zonian, and Westerosi in record time. Quorash had been amazed by the Tower of Westerosi and wanted towers on the estate too, so they added 3 towers. One was much taller than the wall itself and looked out over the bay.
As soon as the estate was close enough to finish, about 250 people came off the black ships and settled in the now-walled estate. Locals were amazed that by the next morning, after moving in, the entire estate, walls and all, was black. The dark mages had cast spells overnight to bring about the change. While the building was being finished, Quorash had bought two ship loads of cut timber which had been sent back to the Shadow Lands, and he commissioned 4 more ships to be built. He also traveled to the tree-kin land and spoke with them about coming to the magic college to teach and learn. The tree-kin sent 35 mages to help open classes. Once they arrived, they tested all the Shadow Land people for magical affinities. Six of them had wind affinity. Quorash sent word that he would hire wind-affinity users for the campaign. The Shadow Lands would field eight ships, and each ship needed at least 4 wind-affinity users. The amount of gold being offered for the job quickly filled their openings.
Later that summer, two large ships arrived full of Shadow Land soldiers; they carried strangely shaped weapons and wore weird ghost grass reed armor said to be blessed in some way, making it nearly impenetrable. They marched straight from the ships to the estate and bivouacked in tents behind the buildings.
Classes began at the college, and students from all over came to study. The classes were held in the converted warehouse that had been part of the bankrupt traders' buildings. Both tree-kin and black mages taught, with the six translators each running a class. Slowly, they learned and practiced the spells, though few attended the necromancy classes.
Tyrion, Ming, and Tse followed all these events with fascination and were invited to many lavish dinners at the estate. Even Belaletrix attended some, but he seemed rather put off by dark magic. Quorash endlessly questioned the two Zonian intel men about the layout of the Zonian capital city. Ming drew him a rough map of the places where magic was taught there. A detailed map existed, but it was considered top secret. Tse told him that there were three magic colleges in the capital and where the two main magic libraries were located. Quorash seemed especially interested in those.
One night at one of Quorash's lavish dinners for the three intel men, Tyrion brought a bottle of especially strong drink. Quorash had never tried that drink before and got very drunk. Seeing Quorash in his cups, Tyrion chuckled to himself and asked the man directly, "What exactly are the Shadow Land plans for this invasion?" Quorash made a shhh noise, holding a finger to his lips. "It's a deep secret, but we plan to capture a great many Zonian mages and gather as many grimoires and books as we can. They will all be transported back to the Shadow Lands... hic." Tse laughed at him, saying, "You should be aware that Zonian dark mages would kill themselves before allowing themselves to be captured, or they will fight to the death."
Quorash smiled at him, saying, "It's a good thing they will be asleep then." Tyrion perked up at that, saying, "How will they be asleep?" Ming chimed in, saying, "You should know there are spell wards on these buildings." Quorash tut-tutted them, saying, "Oh, we won't be using spells for sleep; we will use a special gas we have created. When we arrive at the capital, we will cast a huge darkness spell over the entire city, then launch huge gas canisters into it. Our troops will move in with masks that stop the gas from making you sleep and round up the books and the prisoners. It should go rather quickly, I hope." Ming looked thoughtful for a bit, then said that the libraries were hermetically sealed, so gas might not work on them. Quorash said, "We do have troops, some 1000 of them; they should solve that."
Tyrion asked, "What will your men do after all this takes place?" Quorash looked surprised at his question and said, "We will load them all up and go home. They and the knowledge will be taken to the Shadow Lands for study." "You won't help with the rest of the campaign?" Tyrion blurted out. The question sobered Quorash up some, and he leaned forward towards the dwarf, "Is not laying the entire Zonian capital open to capture for the counter-invasion not enough?" The three men looked at each other and smiled. "Yes, it's enough," they all said in unison.
This information reached all the parties it concerned, and they were all surprisingly pleased. Taking the capital without bombardment and a huge battle sat well with everyone. If only it went that easily.