Major skirmish

Sounds of battle fill the Shadowdale woods, demons being summoned, Zhentarim soldiers yell their warcries...
Among the dozens of voices, a few stand out. A fierce barbaric warcry, a dwarven call to battle and an enchanting female voice.

The battle rages on, the air filled with magic.
All those who approach see that a Zhentarim battalion faces off with some heavily warded figures. Spells fly back and forth, several badly wounded swordhands are trying to retreat, other lie dead on the ground - their blood soaking to the soil.

A few long moments later, skymages appear. Their first creations are quickly dispatched, but as more and more Infernal creatures appear, the warded figures regruop. They break off the engaged Zhents in one vicious assault and retreat. Not a single one of them has fallen.

The battle is over. But the battlefield is far from quiet. Moaning of the wounded and chanting of the spellcasters still fills the air as the Zhentarim battalion claims what seems to be... a victory?

After the battle four swordhands carry the headless body of Vanguard Lendrick Hellfury laid out on a stretcher. A little while later another swordhand (this one soaked to the bone) carries his head into town to be reunited with the corpse.