After the shaky gathering between the members of the Von Carstein family, it became rather clear that Vlad would not be assisting Gustavus and Konrad in their attack on Stirland. In fact, by the time the day to commence the invasion of Stirland came, it turned out that Vlad had abandoned the keep in which he lived and most importantly, he had taken all the elite grave guards, black knights and crypt monstrosities that had dwelled there with him, thereby leaving them with far fewer elite units to raise. In order to compensate for this somewhat, Mannfred gave Gustavus the permission to lead his portion of the Drakenhof Templars, the regiment of Blood Knights second only in skill to the Blood Dragons of the Blood Keep, after their former grand master Anark von Carstein had been conclusively deemed too damaged by the halfling hot-pot to be resurrected into vampiricism once more and the other half of the unit had joined Vlad’s army.

Gustavus galloped along the rode to Stirland, pulling Konrad by a leash attached to a saddle while he was too busy toying with the knots on his armour. Mannfred had been able to persuade Gustavus to wear armour fortunately but even then he focused far more on what looked stylish than what would genuinely protect him, resulting in the templars sighing in disgust at their newly appointed master who behaved more like a Countess of Sylvania in terms of his extreme vanity. However, as stupid as Gustavus might be, even he knew it would be stupid to lead an attack on Wurtbad, the capital city of Stirland, with his diminished forces thanks to the larger garrison it would have as well as all the elite knights of Morr which lived there under Count Albrich Haupt-Anderssen’s leadership.

However, this does not mean there was nothing could do. Instead of aiming straight for the prize, the templars advised Gustavus to lead them against the border town of Siegfriedhof, a small and poor town but home to the training grounds for the Order of the Raven Knights, one of the sects of the Knights of Morr. The vampires figured that many of the orders best knights would be based in Wurtbad alongside the better known Knights of the Sacred Scythe, therefore meaning this border town would be protected mainly by squires, old fighters who took on teaching roles and the odd Amethyst Wizard or two.

As the vampires continued to ride across Sylvania, Gustavus discovered he thoroughly enjoyed toying with his mentally paralysed brother, often riding just fast enough to require that Konrad had to run after him while not riding so fast that it would become too obvious that he was mistreating his quick-to-anger brother. For years Gustavus had been insulted by his siblings for his stupidity especially by Konrad so to have the tables turned in this occasion made for something Gustavus would certainly enjoy. Meanwhile, the templars simply followed suite, hiding their disgust due to not wishing to question their lord’s decisions. Finally, the vampires reached the town of Siegfriedhof and upon seeing it, Gustavus saw no way this could go wrong. The town had no walls whatsoever, relying purely on a chokepoint bridge across the Eschenstir river. Indeed, the population of the town itself numbered only at 320 citizens. However, the Order of the Raven were based in an abbey atop a hill which could be difficult to take precisely because of the town’s population. Mannfred took all the elite units and monsters with him going South so it was up to Gustavus’ army to raise troops along the way, combine this with Vlad taking a large army already and Gustavus had little to raise to his cause. Therefore, this town’s low population would not help him much either in raising troops. Still, Gustavus gave the attack order to the templars before the defenders could amass around the bridge and headed straight towards Siegfriedhof’s old town on the South bank to lure the Raven’s men from their Abbey.

However, while the town may be poorly defended as squires were forced to done armour and run into battle against elite vampires, Siegfriedhof had an ace card. The legendary witch hunter Alberich von Korden was one of the teachers here and prepared to join the battle, armed with his pistols, rapier and White Ring of Templehof which gave him the ability to harness a fraction of the Lore of Light. Seeing Alberich and the squires approaching, Gustavus crossed the bridge on his horse and unleashed his big brother “There Konrad, attack you enemy!”

….

⚫ Angry React: Upon being unleashed, Konrad immediately turned around and rammed into Gustavus’ steed, causing his skeletal warhose to fall into the river. Gustavus attempted to get up only to get stabbed in the back by his brother. As Gustavus writhed in pain, Konrad walked over to him and proceeded to stamp on Gustavus’ head three times with his plate armoured boots.

Having dealt with his brother, Konrad grunted through his iron mask at the blood knights and motioned to attack the Raven’s followers. Alberich fired at the dismounted vampire with his pistols but Konrad simply shrugged the bullets off, either blocking them with his gauntlet or simply allowing them to graze the tips of his skull for his bloodlust allowed him to move regardless of pain. As he neared, Alberich prepared to use the White Ring of Templehof on his foe only to be hit by a surprise Gaze of Nagash spell by Konrad. Alberich fell to the ground as he attempted to overcome the spell which gave Konrad the opportunity to reach the witch hunter and stab him. From there, Konrad tore off his mouth mask and gave an almighty warcry which sounded more like the roar of a Vargheist. Konrad went on to slaughter every inhabitant of Siegfriedhof including the Drakenhof Templars once he realised they were complicit in Gustavus’ beheaviour, some of them fled for their lives on horseback but most were not so lucky.

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⚫ Love React: Konrad charged headlong at the Order of the Raven’s men while Gustavus motioned for the Drakenhof Templars to circle around and join the charge. Alberich attempted to hold Konrad back with a net of amyntok from his ring but the vampire effortlessly escaped from it and continued its attack, jumping straight into the raven lines where he proceeded to cut through their halberdiers with ease, thereby making the cavalry charge extra effective. He then turned his attention to Alberich who attempted to duel the vampire with his rapier. The two clashed a few times until Konrad enraged into bloodlust once more and simply pushed forward, deliberately forcing Alberic to wedge his rapier into the vampire’s under-arm so that von Korden could not pull his sword back.

Consequently, Alberich reached for his pistols only to have both his hands cut off by the Vampire’s blade who then proceeded to kick the hand-less Witch Hunter to the ground. With the witch hunter lying in pain, Konrad took great pleasure in sitting over him and wrapping his hands around von Korden’s throat. Once Konrad had choked the witch hunter to death, the vampires went on to exterminate the population of the town. Consequently, the Drakenhof Templars re-leashed Konrad to his brother’s steed and Gustavus raised the deceased population of the town to his service, including von Korden.

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⚫ Sad: Konrad ran across the road towards von Korden’s men growing more enraged by the second, snarling so much that he began spitting blood out of the sides of his mouth-guard. Von Korden fired a Shem’s Burning Gaze from his ring which was countered by a gaze of Nagash on Konrad’s end. As Konrad grew closer and closer, Alberich proceeded to open fire from his pistols which injured the vampire but none of them truly took his down, if anything his pain translated into even greater anger still until he finally threw himself on top of von Korden. The two fighters proceeded to brawl in the muddy streets of Siegfriedhof, both trying to fight on their knees or standing but being knocked down before standing position could be achieved. All around them the Drakenhof Templars were annihilating the squires under Morr for even though they were wielding halberds, these vampires were far better trained. Seeing his students dying, von Korden made a desperate decision. He used his rapier to cut his own ring open, thereby allowing the burning light of Hysh to escape from its core. The bright white light emerged and engulfed the entire skirmish in a bright white fire that could blind anyone who dared look at it. Gustavus had held back the whole time and so was the only man left standing, but given that he would not be able to raise the bodies after being purified in such an extreme manner, it really wasn’t all that much of a victory.

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⚫ Laugh React: Von Korden armed his students with halberds to counter the enemy cavalry charge while he focussed on the enraged vampire charging on foot. As soon as Konrad came into range, Alberich used his ring to cast the Net of Amyntok which held Konrad firmly in place. From there Albrich pulled out his two pistols and fired them into the vampire’s skill, before reloading them for additional shots to make sure the vampire was finished. Upon seeing his brother killed and his cavalrymen being held back by halberdiers, Gustavus turned tail to flee from the field. However, one of the squires passed Alberich a handgunner rifle which he used to shoot Gustavus in the lower areas of the back where his armour was less protective before the Vampire could move out of range. Gustavus fell from his horse and was soon put out of his misery by the Raven’s men who went on to slay the vampiric cavalry. Once the battle was over, Von Korden ordered his students to remove the deceased vampires’ armour and bring them together in a pile. Alberich then went inside the abbey and brought his pet pig out which ate all the vampires’ bodies, even Konrad and Gustavus.

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⚫ Wow React: Konrad charged towards the abbey followed by the blood knights. However, the blood knights turned and fled before the battle even began when they saw a contingency of Knights of Morr charging down the road to Hermsdof on Siegfriendhof’s west side. Among these knights were a mixtured of trained Knights of the Raven as well as Knights of the Sacred Scythe who were being led by Alberich Haupt-Anderssen, Elector Count of Stirland. Gustavus fled alongside the blood knights, leaving Konrad von Carstein behind to be killed by the Imperial charge.