Italicized paragraphs are Rahul's narration.
After the spider mission, Lunis transports the party into the border ethereal near Marakeel. The most salient feature is a glowing, moving walkway that floats about 30' off the ground. In the moonlight, you see thousands of skeletal troops readied under the walkway. Lunis says that the Westerners have already blasted through the first line of undead a few miles away and should be here very soon.
The party decided to move into the deep ether and wait for the situation to heat up; Lunis thought that they'd be detected and attacked otherwise.
You wait in the deep ether until it's pretty clear that the Westerners have gone by and pop back into border ether. You are about a half-mile from the road, so it's hard to see specific people, especially in the dark.
The Cuthbert was so powerful that Chaotics had to make saves against the blinding effect, even half a mile away on the border ethereal. At least there wasn't a penalty on them at that range. (Everybody made it.)
The area seems to be illuminated, as if by daylight. The undead are nowhere to be seen (fled? destroyed?) and the road is filled with cruising Westerners, most on foot, some mounted. The most intense light is coming from your left (towards Marakeel -- you are facing south). In this light, you can see the shimmering walls of the city. The road seems to climb to a height of over 60' so as to scale the walls. However, the way is blocked by some kind of dome. And in front of that, there is a lot of action.
Near you, the Western lines seem to be under attack from gargoyle-like creatures. In the distance, you see a tall black creature (golem? statue? avatar?) blocking the road. It is arcing lightning into the Western army. Silvana, with eyes of the eagle, sees that the Westerners are deflecting the majority of the magical attacks, presumably by the power of the Cuthbert.
The peasants are ignoring the gargoyles as they mow through their ranks. It's almost as if the entire army is focused on the action near the gates. The army is sustaining losses throughout its ranks whenever the people at the front get hit. On the other hand, you suspect that the little peasants are hurling their soul energies into whatever horror is blocking their advance, even from a mile away.
There seems to be no loss of morale on the Western side. It looks like the people are singing or chanting, even as they fall.
The round after the meteor strike, the party sees a wave of light rise up from the area. It's forming into a huge wave of light -- formed out of the soul energies of the fallen. You suspect that this has something to do with the temple of Sea and Death. The soul wave gathers momentum and energy as it sweeps up the life forces of the dead in its path. It towers over the path and the Western army and heads towards Marakeel like a very strange tsunami. It blasts into the dark guardian and knocks it off the road and blasts into the crystal shield. The shield holds, but even from here, you see giant cracks -- showing that the defenses are weakening.
The dark guardian hurls something at the underside of the road, causing it to buckle. A shock wave hurls Westerners off the road and they fall to their death in scores. Little soul waves are forming from every impact, and they are hurling themselves at the guardian and the city (largely to little effect). The dark guardian ports back to block the army and the battle continues. The Western army has already suffered huge losses.
It's clear that the Westerners have to do something quickly, because these kensai aren't even evil. They are LN folk who have decided to defend their city, and the power of the Cuthbert isn't really doing much against them.
From the border ether, you can't hear the shouts or the screams or the singing (probably all good), but you see the Westerners surge forth towards the guardian. A couple of flaming chariots are coming into view (from the enemy side) when a large portion of the kensai contingent gets frozen in midair. They seem to be peacefully discussing things with each other, ignoring the situation around them for a moment.
At the front of the line, some major event is happening. The Westerners are all chanting something...and the guardian explodes.
Unfortunately, this isn't too good for the Westerners, because it causes massive death in the front of the army.
For a moment, you see only a half a dozen survivors in the front lines, where the guardian exploded. Then a huge wave of souls builds from the carnage and obscurs the view. The rear of the army surges forth to fill the vacancies, away from the conversing kensai. The wave moves forth and batters the walls. One of the chariots gets caught by the unexpected wave and is hurled away; the other dodges to flank the army. The wave hits the weakened crystal wall, and a fragment shatters, opening the way into Marakeel.
You see the head of the army rush into the city (at 60' level?) and disappear out of sight. The ranks are starting to close again when the kensai come back to their senses and resume butchering.
You see the remnants of the Western army rushing forth into the city when the second chariot hits the road with a dancing sphere of blackness. The poor road gives way under the pressure from the elementals, servants and disjunctions. It looks like some kind of dimensional rift hit the road. A segment of poor Westerners, cut off from Marakeel, wills itself into a desperate soul wave. There is scattered fighting on the remaining portions of the floating road, but the main action seems to have moved into Marakeel.
Lunis then returned the party to the Western encampment. The rumor there was that Nomistrus had returned to the West and was doing what he could from there (which is probably a lot when you're a high-level priest with world-class scrying spells and devices).
In the morning, a first level Hollerith priest told the party that he'd heard from Nomistrus. None of the army survived, at least in any ordinary sense. Their advance was stopped on the city's main street, where they were all turned into crystalline statues (thought to be similar to sepia snake sigils, but much higher power and just about indestructible). Omimajish, Rogash, and Rogtymark are frozen at the head of the pack. The Cuthbert is now part of the Omimajish statue, but it's still glowing and slowly destroying the city's enchantments. The Easterners have summoned elementals and the like to try to move or destroy the statues, but nothing worked, and most of them are now evacuating the city.
The remaining Westerners decided to disperse quickly before the Easterners thought what an easy target they all were sitting outside of Banzeel. Some people went back west to try to hold some of the keeps against anticipated bandit and humanoid incursions. The halflings, with some other folks as backup, spread out to start working abandoned farms on both sides. (They're also still looking to get a homeland out of this. There's also talk that Lugif, a halfling revolutionary leader, is an incarnation of Brandobaris.) Third parties like the gnomish inventors went on about their business. And a few brave souls have decided to settle down in Banzeel.
The cloud is still hovering over Banzeel.
The party still has a date with Kharnzeel.
And Ganeth still wants his vault back.