Vlad scoured the ancient texts of Khemri’s many libraries in search of clues for where the rest of the legendary books of Nagash may be buried, driven by his unending desire to free his love from the Great Necromancer’s grips in return for enabling his ascension to physical godhood. His legions scoured so many leads that Vlad lost count, yet still he pressed on. The latest clue seemed promising though, describing the achievements of an elven liche who raised an army of undead dwarfs and conquered a dwarf hold using a book of unknown power as well as other artefacts. Perhaps, someone ought to raid his tomb and see if one of these tomes may be found there?
But that would have to wait for now as a new opportunity rose. The Black Pyramid was graced by a new occupant – a mortarch hitherto unseen by Vlad in this capacity, the Doomlord Dieter Helsnicht. Once a wizard from Middenheim, this illusive necromancer was forced to flee when his darker ambitions were rumbled by local authorities. Since then he’d fled South after becoming disillusioned by Sylvanian authorities and taken up his new role as the Lord of Undeath’s personal spymaster. While Vlad spent a third of the last year sieging the City of Kings, Helsnicht had been busy himself deploying his moles in several organised governments throughout the Old World. One such informant had intellect of the highest urgency. The Imperial colony of Sudenburg was due to ship its next round of tribute to the Fatherland and among this payment was a sarcophagus crammed with treasures. Nobody could be certain what this collection included but one thing was certain, if a Book of Nagash were among them it would be much easier to reclaim it before they set sail than once they were on their way to the Empire. Vlad had no time to waste!
A few days later over in Sudenburg, Governor Andreas Leonardus was standing in the docks overseeing the last tribute shipment required to rebuild Altdorf when suddenly he was interrupted by a guard informing him of an approaching sandstorm with “glittering warriors” inside.
“Not again!” were Leonardus’ immediate response, having lost an eye last time he’d encountered Tomb Kings at the hands of a gilded figure he believed to be Settra, though in truth he could have mistaken any old Tomb King or Tomb Prince for the Khemrikara. Sudenburg was in no state to fight a defensive siege right now. Most of their city centre and dockyard were still damaged from their run-in with Captain Colombo (an obvious consequence of firing a hellblaster volley gun in a crowded plaza with the benefit of hindsight) and the Empire’s demands for tribute had drained their coffers too dry to properly repair the city’s infrastructure. Heck, Leonardus had even been forced to cancel his contract with the bounty hunter, Brunner, just to keep his books in the black – a decision he would now surely come to regret as Nagash’s army led by Vlad on horseback at the fore of the Knights of the Red Death came storming through the city gates as spirit hosts and carrion birds picked away at the city’s rampart’s guards and burrowing tomb scorpions emerged to remove entire squadrons of Sudenburg’s cavalry from their steeds by a single swipe of their scorpid-tail.
Vlad continued to charge through the city’s streets, paying little attention to the fleeing peasants he passed or enemy combatants as his knights veered off one by one to clear the way for him. As Governor Leonardus saw Vlad appear in the distance riding straight for him, he commanded the treasure-carrying ship to set sail as he attempted to buy some time by making a final stand against the fallen Count of Sylvania. He removed his pistol from his holster, unsheathed his sabre and prepared to receive Vlad’s charge…..

• Laugh React: Leonardus aimed his pistol toward the on-coming vampire count and took his shot. The bullet pierced Vlad’s skull, forcing him off his horse and dazing him long enough for Andreas to reload his gun. Once Vlad had recovered enough he stood up and charged toward Sudenburg’s governor whose blade clashed against his. Unfortunately, the bullet lodged inside his head was causing him some discomfort and thus his senses became too distracted to properly predict his opponent’s moves. As such, Leonardus used the clash to his advantage, reaching down below with his pistol before angling it upwards to blast its way up through Vlad’s chin. Now struck by two bullets Vlad fell to the ground in a daze, thereby making it substantially easier for the governor to yank that damned ring off his armoured fingers before kicking Vlad’s wounded body into the nearby water to wash away somewhere. With Vlad dealt with, Governor Andreas Leonardus went off to help his men defend the keep.

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• Sad React: Leonardus took his gun, aimed at Vlad on his undead warhorse and fired, knocking Vlad off his horse with a simple shot to the neck. Realisng that this was but a fleshwound to the vampire who would certainly rise to his feet for more, Leonardus looked toward his keep which he could see was covered in Tomb Scorpions ascending up its exterior walls. Realising there was no way Sudenburg could survive this day, Andreas made a calculated retreat by jumping into the water and swimming after the departed ship. With any luck they would escape the harbour long before Vlad or his army could catch up to them now.

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• Angry React: Andreas Leonardus took his shot at the upcoming Von Carstein lord only for Vlad to deflect his bullet with a simple lightning-quick swipe of his armoured gloves as he advanced. Vlad charged into Leonardus, his horse knocking him back before Vlad dismounted to combat his foe. Andreas took his sabre and swung for Vlad’s head only for the vampire to easily parry his lunge, grab the sabre’s blade with his glove and pull the swprd straight out of Leonardus’ hands. Andreas tried to reason with the vampire for a second but Vlad would take none of that as he responded with an ear-shattering hissing noise that put the fear of the gods in the lowly human governor as Vlad bacled him toward the end of the dock. Finally, with nowhere left to go, Vlad thrust his Blood Drinker sword through Andreas Leonardus’ heart. However, all that time playing with his victim came at a cost as the ship had left the harbour and Vlad had no means of catching up to it on open sea waters.

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(Section as prelude to both wow and love react:) Andreas Leonardus took his shot only for it to ricochet off of Vlad’s armour. Thus he stood ready with his blade to react to Vlad’s charge…but it never came. Instead, Vlad rode straight past Leonardus, more concerned about losing sight of his prize than fighting some local governor, and leapt from his animated horse onto the ship’s poopdeck from whence he proceeded to massacre its crew and search for the sarcophagus. Completely besildered by the failure of his plan, Leonardus looked agape towards the ship from the docks, far too distracted to notice that Vlad’s loyal standard bearer, Estroth the Silent, was running up behind him to stab him in the back.

• Wow react: Having slaughtered the ship’s crew, Vlad opened the tomb only to find there was no Book of Nagash inside. There were plenty of treasures inside it of course, but those would pale into insignificance compared to the loot he could have taken during the siege of Khemri if he so wished. All this would seem to have been for nought. However, while Vlad had failed to claim the treasure he came here for, he decided not to leave this place empty-handed. That governor he’d passed seemed brave in life… perhaps he would make a fine addition to Vlad’s army in undeath.

• Love React: Vlad opened the sarcophagus to find the Carrion Book of Shyish inside. That marks three books collected, six to go before Nagash can ascend to material-godhood.