Near the village of Daggerford on the Sword Coast, the Red Wizards of Thay plotted to extend the evil reach of their land and its master, the lich lord Szass Tam. At a site called Bloodgate Keep they built a powerful portal, fueled by elemental nodes, that could allow Thayans to instantly transport whole armies into the very heart of the Sword Coast. With this power, the Red Wizards would surely overthrow and take control of the North.
However, groups of heroes recently assaulted Bloodgate Keep and its master, the lich Tarul Var. With the help of a renegade Red Wizard named Mennek Ariz, this assault was successful. Bloodgate Keep fell, and Szass Tam’s plans of invasion were crushed.
What no one expected, though, was that despite the fall of the keep itself, parts of the Bloodgate Nexus (an interconnected series of teleportation circles) survived, and a Thayan Resurrection cell leader named Syranna devised a way to use it against Szass Tam. Syranna had been part of the team that originally assembled the Bloodgate Nexus, and knew that remaining nodes allowed direct access to a secret Thayan training ground known as the Doomvault. She has asked Levina to make her way through the Doomvault and find the entrance to the phylactery vault.