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Under The Black Cross X
A Call To Arms I
The Itinerant Company dallied for but a while longer in the tumultuous lands of the Crusader States, saying goodbye to their friends and allies that dwelt in the war-torn lands of Faith, and receiving promise of welcome from Prince Etienne whenever they should return to Acre.
They booked passage on a merchant vessel heading for Zara with themselves as sleeping cargo and Dragovitch as the guardian.
Zara had largely been rebuilt under Venetian control since their last eventful stop there, but their stay was brief, as after making sure none watched their movements, they headed north-eastwards toward Transylvania and their true master of the hour, Vladimir Rustovitch, the Voivode among Voivodes.
Their route took them through the treacherous Carpathian passes, and toward Lord Bodor's lands of the Vale of Toth. The Boyar was not present upon their arrival, departed with his childe Erzebet and some of their forces to join the war with Rustovitch, but Pietre, the younger childe who Mortius years ago had inducted into the Cainite Heresy remained to watch over his father's estates, and welcomed his old friends to Castle Toth before their journey took them further eastwards.
At length they reached the isolated and looming fortress of Rustovitch, high in the Transylvanian Alps and heavily guarded by numerous patrols of mounted Vlaszy Knights and fearsome Bratovich's with their Hellhounds.
Upon reaching the keep they were taken by one of the seneschals to the great hall, where, beneath the great banner of the red dragon, Vladimir Rustovitch stood around the table with some of his generals of the Revenant Families, and upon seeing the Company's entrance dismissed them for a time, welcoming his hidden weapons to the hall, and bade them sit, ordering refreshments before asking them to tell all they had come to tell.
The Voivode was clearly a Lord with business to attend to as the still unrolled parchments displaying battle plans on the oak table suggested, hid demeanour was brisk and to the point though he listened with interest to the account of Von Achern's death, drinking in the details.
After they had told their tale he spoke of the coming war, the battles that would end the conflict between himself and Lord Jurgen, telling them that their continued services to him and his allies would be needed in the nights to come. He said that they should go to Lord Jurgen at his court in Magdeberg and assure the Eastern Lord Ventrue of their continued allegiance , accepting service among their allies in the nights to come, and when the time was right they would be given the opportunity to fight openly by his side and reap the rewards adding that until that time Dragovitch would remain with him, as the revenant merely nodded, accepting his fate.
With that, and saying that much demanded his attention, he stood, leaving the great hall by the door his generals had left by and promising them the hospitality of his keep till they journeyed west.
The Company stayed in the bustling yet isolated great keep of Rustovitch for the night and talked among themselves, setting their story's straight before facing Jurgen.
And so they journeyed north-west to the eastern marches of the Holy Roman Empire and across the Elbe to the city of Magdeberg.
The clean and well-ordered grey stone german city was obviously heavily millitarized when they arrived, Teotonic Knights manning the walls and gates as the white banner with the black cross of the order flew from all towers, and soldiers departing for Hungary filled the streets.
At Castle Magdeberg, overlooking the town, they were led to Lady Lucretia Von Hartz childe of Jurgen upon arrival. There she asked many questions, probing of their deeds and reasons while away with her late brood-mate, and commenting that it would take decades to repair the damage Von Achern's rash actions had done them in the courts of Hungary. Still, she commented, it was a great shame he had met final death, for war was upon them and he was a great warrior...
They were led to the grand hall of the keep where Lord Jurgen awaited them. The opulent hall with its grand Ventrue banners was quiter than their last visit, no longer filled with the hordes of scheming visiting Cainites. Surrounded by a small group of noble courtiers Jurgen sat upon his throne and accepted their bows as they entered. He asked many of the same questions as Lucretia, perhaps to hear their answers for himself, before saying that they had made the right choice concerning Etienne and Acre, but questions why they had not intervined to save his childe and their master. He was told by them with as much humility as they could muster that to do so would have meant revealing themselves too before the very King of Hungary himself, shattering the Silence of The Blood yet further...
Jurgen nodded, saying that the Baron had doomed himself the moment he had shown his fangs before a King, and that it was unlikely they could saved him in such circumstances.
They offered their continued service, and the Sword-Bearer accepted, saying that capable Cainites would be of use in the coming conflict.
They stayed in Mgdeberg for some weeks, reaquainting themselves with the place and its denizens and reporting to Lady Lucretia.
Years passed as the storm built, the Teutonic Order continued to move forces into Hungary and numerous skirmishes were fought by night between them and Rustoviches forces, at times the Company was called to Transylvania by Jurgen to swing the balance in his favour, which they did, after contacting the Voivode Among Voivodes of course.
In the intervening years there was also much time for their own pursuits, and many of them travelled far and wide.
Bother Mortius attended the Cappadocian Conclave of Milan at the invitation of Adam of Jerusalem, to debate the nature of the death and the human soul.
Maelduin and Volund returned to the pagan Kingdom of Lithuania to fight the good fight against the encroaching tide of Christianity along side their Baltic brethren.
Baradeus returned to Nicea but spent more time in the city of London among the servants of Mithras, even obtaining a small band of mortal mercenaries and ghouling and inducting their sergeant into Mithraism, while Gregoire turned his attention to the maintenance of their trading company.
It was now the year 1225 AD, and the Company was together in the Transylvanian city of Krondstadt, where Lord Jurgen The Sword-Bearer had made his headquarters, and the best defended settlement in the region now that it was filled to bursting with Teutonic Knights and german mercenaries. Morale in the city seemed low, for as the Lucretia and the other leading Ventrue seem confident in their Lord's ultimate succsess, many of the Vampire and ghoul Knights to not share their optimism, for thanks to Lady Kara and her agents things had gone ill for them in the Courts of Hungary, and without that support things can only hold so long they say.
On one of their patrols outside the city walls among the heavily forested terrain they spot a strange creature circling in the sky above, as they looked closer they saw that it had a hawks body, bat-like wings, and an indeterminate head. The creature circled down lower and landed on the ground before them and in the moonlight revealed its head to be a human hand, rudely stitched in to the torso in the same fashion that held the wings in place.
As the creature sniffed the air with its fingers it hoped forward, then snaped a small stick from a nearby tree, griping it as a writing plume, pierced its own breast, letting the blood dribble out before using it as an ink to write, in a surprisingly neat hand, upon the tree.
My old associates,
I have a message of some interest for your Lord Jurgen. Meet me under the new moon tonight in the village of Milash, and I can convey it to you.
With regards,
Jervais bani Tremere
Having delivered its message, the ghastly beast convulses and dies before their eyes.
Being now at least partly familiar with the surrounding region they knew that Milash was a small village near the next city of Hamenstadt, on the western shore of the river Olt.
It would be a hard ride to reach Milash that night, but they knew that whatever Jervais wanted must be important to Jurgen, and perhaps Rustovich, so they returned to the walled city of Krondstadt for their steeds before riding hard out of its gates and on to the rough Transylvanian roads, into the night towards Milash.
Milash, they knew, was once a holding of the Bratovich Revenant family, the Tzimisce's fearsome footsoldiers and breeders of Hellhounds, but had been taken with great bloodshed by German Knights at the start of the conflict, but now the local Bratoviches and their Boyar were re grouping and many Teutons had fallen back from the town towards Krondstadt. Milash, it seemed, was on the verge of falling a second time.
They arrived at the small wooden-walled village on the banks of the river after two hours hard ridding through unusually quiet woodland. They were admitted by the sullen Teutonic guardsmen at the gate and entering the mud-filled streets saw that there was but one inn in the village.
They entered the low-ceilinged tavern, and saw the familiar shape of the Tremere Magus sat as still as a corpse in the shadowed corner.
Approaching him his eyes snapped open from beneath his thick hood of deep purple.
He greeted them, dismissing the circumstances under which they had last met as poor choices on his part. After they sat down with him he told them that their liege had asked him to to bring him something, but that he did not wish to make the treacherous journey to Krondstadt by night and then return to Ceoris, hence the meeting in Milash.
He pulled out a small velvet pouch, tied with metal wire and dyed with various arcane symbols. He told them it was what Lard Jurgen had been waiting for.
Stating that the Fiends attachment to to their native soil went much further than most suspect, that they are also mystically bound to the soil of their mortal graves, the places they died or where fleetingly buried .
In the bag, he told them, was dirt from the grave of Vladimir Rustovitch. Destroy some of it in the right way, and you can cause harm to the Fiend like he has never felt..
Jervais stood to leave, but as he did so there was a thunderous bang, accompanied by panicked screams and a bright hot glow from the windows of the tavern.
The inn erupted into chaos as the patrons scrambled to get out through the single doorway. Baradeus and Gregoire both lost control at the sight of the furious flames, Baradeus charged forwards and out of the inn using the strength of his blood to crush the innocent that stood in his way, while Gregoire simply rand forward screaming and broke through the inn's daub walls. Once in the streets they could see more bright-hot flaming balls streaking toward them through the night sky accompanied by the sounds of fierce fighting at the town's gates.
Upon going down the main street they could see the Teutonic Knights that were still in residence vainly attempting to hold off a larger group of axe wielding Bratovich's and their fleshcrafted hounds, while behind them through the smashed gates waited a larger force, Szlatcha and mounted Vlazy Knights awaited for the gate to be cleared while two monstrously large and terrible Vozhd hurled great balls of Greek Fire toward the village with specially crafted arms like those of a catapult, and in the midst of it all some unknown Boyar sat atop his steed surveying the destruction.
Another screaming ball of flames came hurtling toward them and all but Gregoire ran clear in time, but the errant childe of Malkav moved not fast enough, and was caught by some of the showering liquid fire. The others scrambled to smother the flames, but Baradeus had sighted a woman screaming from within a burning house near the inn/ Looking up he saw her at the window, hair and clothes already burning. Summoning all of his courage he quelled his frightened beast, and making use of his Vampiric strength, jumped straight up to the burning window, griping the frame that was bright hot embers while taking hold of the screaming woman with the other. He grasped her, but hell as he did so, nevertheless the fall was to safety as she landed on top of him. Locals came to aid her and smothered the flames that still licked at her while the rest simply ran on by, fleeing the town and certain death as fast as their legs would carry them.
Baradeus caught up with the rest of the Company as they too decided to leave Milash, and made for the river as fast as they could, plunging in to its cold depths as the Bratoviches and their Boyar entered the town, slaying all who had served the german occupiers and burning their homes.
Their flight was swift through the trees on the other side of the Olt, and they did not look back to those that were being slaughtered without mercy in Milash. They could not reach Krondstadt that night, and so after a time buried themselves in the earth to escape the killing rays of the sun, and marched on upon awaking, reaching Krondstadt some hours into the next night, soaked, burned, and muddy.
After entering the city, now even more swollen with refugees, they made for Jurgen's abode in the local Bran Castle, and were soon ushered in to the hall there, where Lord Jurgen stood surrounded by his childer and the other Cainites of The Order of The Black Cross and their ghouled Knights, almost filling the hall.
After bowing they told Jurgen what had transpired, and handed to him the pouch given to them by Jervais, minis the real earth which they had hidden and replaced en-route. He gratefully took it from them, before turning to stand upon the dais before his throne and address his followers.
For years we have cut at the heart of the Fiends by brothers!
We have fought their thralls and monstrosities, cut down countless of their young and old alike. We have ridden through gardens molded flesh and torn out the heart of broods more horrific than anything in Hades. And still our true foe has not shown himself.
Deep in those dark hills, sits a dark chieftain who thinks to send his brood against us without bloodying himself. Well no more!
I call him out! Let the terrible Vladimir Rustovitch enter the field of battle, and we shall see who the greater warrior is.
I hold here two handfuls of the earth that he holds dearer than blood, and through this the fiend hears my call most terribly.
With that Jurgen tossed the pouch into the flames of a nearby brazier, a gout of greenish fire curling up from the pouch as the mystical bindings burned away, letting the earth settle among the embers.
Yes Fiend! Feel the flames burn and come to me! For the Order of The Black Cross awaits you!
He raised the Toreador sword high above his head as those assembled began to chant his name for all to hear, Jurgen! Jurgen! Jurgen!...
The Company joined in the chant, seeing the folly of pride at work all around them as they did so.
Some nights later Jurgen held another court in Bran Castle, it was rumoured that Lady Kara and her agents had finally done their work as King Andras had ordered the Teutonic Knights out of his kingdom, but the Sword-Bearer sought to delay the departure and lure Rustovitch into open battle where he could be defeated.
Those hall was filled much as it had been some nights ago and the Company talked among themselves until the herald made an announcement, Master Vykos of Byzantium!
Myca Vykos walked forward, dressed in his plain but fine robes with his dark hair falling down his back. He presented himself to Lord Jurgen, and then announced that Vladimir Rustovitch has heard his call, and is riding to the assault. He says that through his spies among the revenant houses he knows that the signs of mobilization are every where in the Carpathian homeland, the entire east was moving toward Krandstadt he said, all of Rustovitch's legions.
Jurgen thanks and dismisses him with a curt nod, but once Vykos' back is turned they see his smile with obvious satisfaction.
Vykos made no move to speak to them during the court, but later, once most had left, they found him waiting for them outside the chamber.
He warned them that the war was about to take a turn for the worst, and that the current bloodshed would pale in comparison to what was to come. He said that Rustovitch was no fool and that whatever Jurgen's plans where he could not hope to turn a defeat into victory, but the war was far from over he said, and unless something was done many more innocents my die for but little gain by their Lords.
Volund replied that sometimes the innocent must die for a victory to be achieved, but Vykos was predictably unmoved by his point, saying that he did not expect a barbarian to understand how civilised warfare was to be conducted, and after Volund protested yet again, turned and left, saying that perhaps he had been wrong to warn them after all...
Shortly after talking with the enigmatic Obertus, Akuji, Lord Jurgen's Cainite mistress of spies appeared by their sides. The black Nosferatu questioned them sharply as to the nature of their conversation with Vykos, whom she plainly didn't trust, and seemingly not quite satisfied with their answers, stalked away slowly, leaning on her staff as she went.
The Teutonic holdings were shrinking by the night as in the dark and wooded countryside entire villages were put to the sword as their garrisons fled back to Krondstadt, swelling Jurgen's central army all the more, concentrating his forces as the Tzimisce took back their petty villages, preaparing for that final and decisive strike that he had waited so long to deliver...
But what ever the case, the end was nigh, and all knew it.
Be on time to start playing at 9:00
A Call To Arms I
The Itinerant Company dallied for but a while longer in the tumultuous lands of the Crusader States, saying goodbye to their friends and allies that dwelt in the war-torn lands of Faith, and receiving promise of welcome from Prince Etienne whenever they should return to Acre.
They booked passage on a merchant vessel heading for Zara with themselves as sleeping cargo and Dragovitch as the guardian.
Zara had largely been rebuilt under Venetian control since their last eventful stop there, but their stay was brief, as after making sure none watched their movements, they headed north-eastwards toward Transylvania and their true master of the hour, Vladimir Rustovitch, the Voivode among Voivodes.
Their route took them through the treacherous Carpathian passes, and toward Lord Bodor's lands of the Vale of Toth. The Boyar was not present upon their arrival, departed with his childe Erzebet and some of their forces to join the war with Rustovitch, but Pietre, the younger childe who Mortius years ago had inducted into the Cainite Heresy remained to watch over his father's estates, and welcomed his old friends to Castle Toth before their journey took them further eastwards.
At length they reached the isolated and looming fortress of Rustovitch, high in the Transylvanian Alps and heavily guarded by numerous patrols of mounted Vlaszy Knights and fearsome Bratovich's with their Hellhounds.
Upon reaching the keep they were taken by one of the seneschals to the great hall, where, beneath the great banner of the red dragon, Vladimir Rustovitch stood around the table with some of his generals of the Revenant Families, and upon seeing the Company's entrance dismissed them for a time, welcoming his hidden weapons to the hall, and bade them sit, ordering refreshments before asking them to tell all they had come to tell.
The Voivode was clearly a Lord with business to attend to as the still unrolled parchments displaying battle plans on the oak table suggested, hid demeanour was brisk and to the point though he listened with interest to the account of Von Achern's death, drinking in the details.
After they had told their tale he spoke of the coming war, the battles that would end the conflict between himself and Lord Jurgen, telling them that their continued services to him and his allies would be needed in the nights to come. He said that they should go to Lord Jurgen at his court in Magdeberg and assure the Eastern Lord Ventrue of their continued allegiance , accepting service among their allies in the nights to come, and when the time was right they would be given the opportunity to fight openly by his side and reap the rewards adding that until that time Dragovitch would remain with him, as the revenant merely nodded, accepting his fate.
With that, and saying that much demanded his attention, he stood, leaving the great hall by the door his generals had left by and promising them the hospitality of his keep till they journeyed west.
The Company stayed in the bustling yet isolated great keep of Rustovitch for the night and talked among themselves, setting their story's straight before facing Jurgen.
And so they journeyed north-west to the eastern marches of the Holy Roman Empire and across the Elbe to the city of Magdeberg.
The clean and well-ordered grey stone german city was obviously heavily millitarized when they arrived, Teotonic Knights manning the walls and gates as the white banner with the black cross of the order flew from all towers, and soldiers departing for Hungary filled the streets.
At Castle Magdeberg, overlooking the town, they were led to Lady Lucretia Von Hartz childe of Jurgen upon arrival. There she asked many questions, probing of their deeds and reasons while away with her late brood-mate, and commenting that it would take decades to repair the damage Von Achern's rash actions had done them in the courts of Hungary. Still, she commented, it was a great shame he had met final death, for war was upon them and he was a great warrior...
They were led to the grand hall of the keep where Lord Jurgen awaited them. The opulent hall with its grand Ventrue banners was quiter than their last visit, no longer filled with the hordes of scheming visiting Cainites. Surrounded by a small group of noble courtiers Jurgen sat upon his throne and accepted their bows as they entered. He asked many of the same questions as Lucretia, perhaps to hear their answers for himself, before saying that they had made the right choice concerning Etienne and Acre, but questions why they had not intervined to save his childe and their master. He was told by them with as much humility as they could muster that to do so would have meant revealing themselves too before the very King of Hungary himself, shattering the Silence of The Blood yet further...
Jurgen nodded, saying that the Baron had doomed himself the moment he had shown his fangs before a King, and that it was unlikely they could saved him in such circumstances.
They offered their continued service, and the Sword-Bearer accepted, saying that capable Cainites would be of use in the coming conflict.
They stayed in Mgdeberg for some weeks, reaquainting themselves with the place and its denizens and reporting to Lady Lucretia.
Years passed as the storm built, the Teutonic Order continued to move forces into Hungary and numerous skirmishes were fought by night between them and Rustoviches forces, at times the Company was called to Transylvania by Jurgen to swing the balance in his favour, which they did, after contacting the Voivode Among Voivodes of course.
In the intervening years there was also much time for their own pursuits, and many of them travelled far and wide.
Bother Mortius attended the Cappadocian Conclave of Milan at the invitation of Adam of Jerusalem, to debate the nature of the death and the human soul.
Maelduin and Volund returned to the pagan Kingdom of Lithuania to fight the good fight against the encroaching tide of Christianity along side their Baltic brethren.
Baradeus returned to Nicea but spent more time in the city of London among the servants of Mithras, even obtaining a small band of mortal mercenaries and ghouling and inducting their sergeant into Mithraism, while Gregoire turned his attention to the maintenance of their trading company.
It was now the year 1225 AD, and the Company was together in the Transylvanian city of Krondstadt, where Lord Jurgen The Sword-Bearer had made his headquarters, and the best defended settlement in the region now that it was filled to bursting with Teutonic Knights and german mercenaries. Morale in the city seemed low, for as the Lucretia and the other leading Ventrue seem confident in their Lord's ultimate succsess, many of the Vampire and ghoul Knights to not share their optimism, for thanks to Lady Kara and her agents things had gone ill for them in the Courts of Hungary, and without that support things can only hold so long they say.
On one of their patrols outside the city walls among the heavily forested terrain they spot a strange creature circling in the sky above, as they looked closer they saw that it had a hawks body, bat-like wings, and an indeterminate head. The creature circled down lower and landed on the ground before them and in the moonlight revealed its head to be a human hand, rudely stitched in to the torso in the same fashion that held the wings in place.
As the creature sniffed the air with its fingers it hoped forward, then snaped a small stick from a nearby tree, griping it as a writing plume, pierced its own breast, letting the blood dribble out before using it as an ink to write, in a surprisingly neat hand, upon the tree.
My old associates,
I have a message of some interest for your Lord Jurgen. Meet me under the new moon tonight in the village of Milash, and I can convey it to you.
With regards,
Jervais bani Tremere
Having delivered its message, the ghastly beast convulses and dies before their eyes.
Being now at least partly familiar with the surrounding region they knew that Milash was a small village near the next city of Hamenstadt, on the western shore of the river Olt.
It would be a hard ride to reach Milash that night, but they knew that whatever Jervais wanted must be important to Jurgen, and perhaps Rustovich, so they returned to the walled city of Krondstadt for their steeds before riding hard out of its gates and on to the rough Transylvanian roads, into the night towards Milash.
Milash, they knew, was once a holding of the Bratovich Revenant family, the Tzimisce's fearsome footsoldiers and breeders of Hellhounds, but had been taken with great bloodshed by German Knights at the start of the conflict, but now the local Bratoviches and their Boyar were re grouping and many Teutons had fallen back from the town towards Krondstadt. Milash, it seemed, was on the verge of falling a second time.
They arrived at the small wooden-walled village on the banks of the river after two hours hard ridding through unusually quiet woodland. They were admitted by the sullen Teutonic guardsmen at the gate and entering the mud-filled streets saw that there was but one inn in the village.
They entered the low-ceilinged tavern, and saw the familiar shape of the Tremere Magus sat as still as a corpse in the shadowed corner.
Approaching him his eyes snapped open from beneath his thick hood of deep purple.
He greeted them, dismissing the circumstances under which they had last met as poor choices on his part. After they sat down with him he told them that their liege had asked him to to bring him something, but that he did not wish to make the treacherous journey to Krondstadt by night and then return to Ceoris, hence the meeting in Milash.
He pulled out a small velvet pouch, tied with metal wire and dyed with various arcane symbols. He told them it was what Lard Jurgen had been waiting for.
Stating that the Fiends attachment to to their native soil went much further than most suspect, that they are also mystically bound to the soil of their mortal graves, the places they died or where fleetingly buried .
In the bag, he told them, was dirt from the grave of Vladimir Rustovitch. Destroy some of it in the right way, and you can cause harm to the Fiend like he has never felt..
Jervais stood to leave, but as he did so there was a thunderous bang, accompanied by panicked screams and a bright hot glow from the windows of the tavern.
The inn erupted into chaos as the patrons scrambled to get out through the single doorway. Baradeus and Gregoire both lost control at the sight of the furious flames, Baradeus charged forwards and out of the inn using the strength of his blood to crush the innocent that stood in his way, while Gregoire simply rand forward screaming and broke through the inn's daub walls. Once in the streets they could see more bright-hot flaming balls streaking toward them through the night sky accompanied by the sounds of fierce fighting at the town's gates.
Upon going down the main street they could see the Teutonic Knights that were still in residence vainly attempting to hold off a larger group of axe wielding Bratovich's and their fleshcrafted hounds, while behind them through the smashed gates waited a larger force, Szlatcha and mounted Vlazy Knights awaited for the gate to be cleared while two monstrously large and terrible Vozhd hurled great balls of Greek Fire toward the village with specially crafted arms like those of a catapult, and in the midst of it all some unknown Boyar sat atop his steed surveying the destruction.
Another screaming ball of flames came hurtling toward them and all but Gregoire ran clear in time, but the errant childe of Malkav moved not fast enough, and was caught by some of the showering liquid fire. The others scrambled to smother the flames, but Baradeus had sighted a woman screaming from within a burning house near the inn/ Looking up he saw her at the window, hair and clothes already burning. Summoning all of his courage he quelled his frightened beast, and making use of his Vampiric strength, jumped straight up to the burning window, griping the frame that was bright hot embers while taking hold of the screaming woman with the other. He grasped her, but hell as he did so, nevertheless the fall was to safety as she landed on top of him. Locals came to aid her and smothered the flames that still licked at her while the rest simply ran on by, fleeing the town and certain death as fast as their legs would carry them.
Baradeus caught up with the rest of the Company as they too decided to leave Milash, and made for the river as fast as they could, plunging in to its cold depths as the Bratoviches and their Boyar entered the town, slaying all who had served the german occupiers and burning their homes.
Their flight was swift through the trees on the other side of the Olt, and they did not look back to those that were being slaughtered without mercy in Milash. They could not reach Krondstadt that night, and so after a time buried themselves in the earth to escape the killing rays of the sun, and marched on upon awaking, reaching Krondstadt some hours into the next night, soaked, burned, and muddy.
After entering the city, now even more swollen with refugees, they made for Jurgen's abode in the local Bran Castle, and were soon ushered in to the hall there, where Lord Jurgen stood surrounded by his childer and the other Cainites of The Order of The Black Cross and their ghouled Knights, almost filling the hall.
After bowing they told Jurgen what had transpired, and handed to him the pouch given to them by Jervais, minis the real earth which they had hidden and replaced en-route. He gratefully took it from them, before turning to stand upon the dais before his throne and address his followers.
For years we have cut at the heart of the Fiends by brothers!
We have fought their thralls and monstrosities, cut down countless of their young and old alike. We have ridden through gardens molded flesh and torn out the heart of broods more horrific than anything in Hades. And still our true foe has not shown himself.
Deep in those dark hills, sits a dark chieftain who thinks to send his brood against us without bloodying himself. Well no more!
I call him out! Let the terrible Vladimir Rustovitch enter the field of battle, and we shall see who the greater warrior is.
I hold here two handfuls of the earth that he holds dearer than blood, and through this the fiend hears my call most terribly.
With that Jurgen tossed the pouch into the flames of a nearby brazier, a gout of greenish fire curling up from the pouch as the mystical bindings burned away, letting the earth settle among the embers.
Yes Fiend! Feel the flames burn and come to me! For the Order of The Black Cross awaits you!
He raised the Toreador sword high above his head as those assembled began to chant his name for all to hear, Jurgen! Jurgen! Jurgen!...
The Company joined in the chant, seeing the folly of pride at work all around them as they did so.
Some nights later Jurgen held another court in Bran Castle, it was rumoured that Lady Kara and her agents had finally done their work as King Andras had ordered the Teutonic Knights out of his kingdom, but the Sword-Bearer sought to delay the departure and lure Rustovitch into open battle where he could be defeated.
Those hall was filled much as it had been some nights ago and the Company talked among themselves until the herald made an announcement, Master Vykos of Byzantium!
Myca Vykos walked forward, dressed in his plain but fine robes with his dark hair falling down his back. He presented himself to Lord Jurgen, and then announced that Vladimir Rustovitch has heard his call, and is riding to the assault. He says that through his spies among the revenant houses he knows that the signs of mobilization are every where in the Carpathian homeland, the entire east was moving toward Krandstadt he said, all of Rustovitch's legions.
Jurgen thanks and dismisses him with a curt nod, but once Vykos' back is turned they see his smile with obvious satisfaction.
Vykos made no move to speak to them during the court, but later, once most had left, they found him waiting for them outside the chamber.
He warned them that the war was about to take a turn for the worst, and that the current bloodshed would pale in comparison to what was to come. He said that Rustovitch was no fool and that whatever Jurgen's plans where he could not hope to turn a defeat into victory, but the war was far from over he said, and unless something was done many more innocents my die for but little gain by their Lords.
Volund replied that sometimes the innocent must die for a victory to be achieved, but Vykos was predictably unmoved by his point, saying that he did not expect a barbarian to understand how civilised warfare was to be conducted, and after Volund protested yet again, turned and left, saying that perhaps he had been wrong to warn them after all...
Shortly after talking with the enigmatic Obertus, Akuji, Lord Jurgen's Cainite mistress of spies appeared by their sides. The black Nosferatu questioned them sharply as to the nature of their conversation with Vykos, whom she plainly didn't trust, and seemingly not quite satisfied with their answers, stalked away slowly, leaning on her staff as she went.
The Teutonic holdings were shrinking by the night as in the dark and wooded countryside entire villages were put to the sword as their garrisons fled back to Krondstadt, swelling Jurgen's central army all the more, concentrating his forces as the Tzimisce took back their petty villages, preaparing for that final and decisive strike that he had waited so long to deliver...
But what ever the case, the end was nigh, and all knew it.
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