The Monster of Siebenburgen - a newbies AAR

Thanks for the note of support Red Wolf

Chapter II:

Lorand entered apprehensively at my calling. He was plainly nervous at our meeting, but I could also see he carried himself proudly. I hope this is because he has been carrying out my instructions well, either that or the effects of the drink were starting to leave him. Either way I must ensure he partakes of the time-honoured control mechanism before he leaves. We will see:
"Report !" I barked.
"The country is under the heel of our house. The peasants are totally tied to the land, none may travel without papers they can never obtain. The army you wanted is raised, we have ten thousand troops ready led by General Toma - as much as either Wallachia or Moldavia."
"Ten Thousand ! Have long have I been gone ?" I demanded angrily.
"Three & a half years my master". Three & a half years ?? Surely it hadn't been that long ? The sleep had never been even half that length of time before. I knew the damage to my arms & hands had been extensive, but never imagined it could take a number of years. I realised that I have been dam lucky there had been no retribution from the servants of the destroyed Hungarian kindred - the concealment of the mausoleum had been perfect.
Lorand coughed politely and brought me back to the here & now. It was then as I looked around the mausoleum I noticed another place had been filled. Lorand followed my glance & announced quietly that is was his father. I moved to the tomb and placed my hand on the stone image that had been carved of the old man.
"He served me well, your father. All his life in fact. I had feared that without access to the longevity drink I make he might pass away if I was - away too long".
"He seemed to age quickly a few months after you went away. He died not long after. Will this happen to me ?"
"No - not for a long while. It will only happen if you have already lived beyond your time. You are a young man still, you have nothing to fear. Speaking of which before you leave you should imbibe a little of the drink if you want to keep that young face of yours." It was a perfect system, by making them partake of the drink, they not only lived far beyond their years it also ties them to me. I have no idea how & why it works, just that it does.. and that it is totally addictive. The effects wear off in time, but no one ever forgets it bitter-sweet taste or the promise of very long life it gives. If it is drunk regularly the sheep become obsessed by it & can think of little else. The trick is to feed them enough to prevent ageing and to make them bound to you without making them obsessed, a very fine line.
I stood up quickly then asked him to continue his report.
"Master, your plan of robbing the merchants travelling down the Danube worked brilliantly. We were able to keep this up for a long while by selecting our targets most carefully. However we had to 'capture' our thieves ourselves because the Austrian troops sent to deal with them were getting too close and of course we could not risk being discovered. They have since been hanged by the river as a warning to others. During their reign of terror we managed to fill the treasury with one hundred & fifty ducats as well supplying the funds required for the new troops. However as we predicted the tax income cannot support an army this size, we will quickly be eating into these funds."
"Hmmm - it appears you have done well Lorand. You have fulfilled my commands & exceeded my expectations. You have earned your continued reward of long life - here drink from the cup." I handed him the cup which he grabbed & drank greedily. He smiled broadly as it was every bit as good as he remembered & savoured the sensation as it burned down his throat. Like the last time it overpowered Lorand & he became totally lost in the sensation, losing all care in his immediate surroundings. Having seeing this hundreds of times before I moved to stand behind him to catch him when he lost the sense of if he was standing or sitting.



He fell slowly backwards & I let him slowly to the dusty floor. The expression of his face showed plainly that he would be like this for a while. I didn't mind waiting, if I had been in torpor for over three years I could wait for another half hour or so. Eventually he came to & I gave him his next set of instructions. He left & carried them out, firstly to change the policy of the government to concentrate on land reforms that would strengthen the army. The peasantry were a little unhappy with this as they like the various imports the country receives, but a navy means nothing to me right now. All the income tax was diverted to improving the roads into & out of the country. The Great North Road was in a terrible state and was the first be repaired. A new tax office was to be built in the province & given unprecidented powers for search to stop merchants evading the various import taxes. The new royal tax collector created an annual poll tax that improved the country's finances significantly. My last command had been to forcibly draft an additional six thousand infantry from the serf population & put into boot camp.

Two months later the troops were ready & given over to General Toma who began to integrate them with the existing army. I had integrated myself with the royal court (such as it was) the prince introducing me as a long lost uncle. I even had my own office, not that it was ever manned during the day. I had found better accommodation in the city by purchasing the old coaching inn, it wasn't too expensive and I needed a better place than the mausoleum to conduct business & to keep up the pretence of a 'normal' life. However I spent little time there, instead travelling to Venice & burying myself in the Venetian historical archives. Eventually after a little help from the finest forgers that low wages could buy 'found' evidence of a claim of ownership for the Lepes family over the lands of Moldavia & Wallachia. A quick journey to Rome gave the Papal blessing we needed to 'retake' these lands on the condition we attempt to convert them back to the true Church from the Orthodox faith they currently followed.

I made it back without incident from the Hungarian kindred & summoned Lorand to my chambers.
"We are going to war Lorand" I couldn't keep the excitement out of my voice. It had been too long since my last real battle & I positively itched to wield a sword in my hand again. My hand was still not healed properly, but it was enough to fight peasantry. Lorand didn't look surprised it was obvious this was coming given the previous set of orders I gave him. In fact Lorand's attention was solely focused on the silver goblet sitting on the mirrored dresser. I smiled remembering what the addiction was like for me all those years ago. I gestured that he should sit and told him of my plan for war, it would inevitably involve with Hermannstadt being sieged by the Moldavians, but that couldn't be helped. The Hungarians were still our allies (kindred politics aside), so were the Austrians & Bohemians. It was at that point I decided that Loren wasn't paying enough attention to my war plan, it was of course critical that he did. So I picked up the goblet and started to swill the contents within around. Lorand looked more & more concerned, clearly unsure what I was going to do with it - would I let him have the drink this meeting ? I swilled it faster & faster, it started to spill. Lorand was having trouble staying in his seat, when the first drops spilled over the side he almost leapt forward to catch them.
"You will pay attention to me Lorand & you will ensure you understand what is to be done. Go now, and send the declaration of war & the request for support from our allies. When you return, you may have the contents of this goblet." He looked deeply upset by this, but knew he had no choice. If he did not obey me he would never see it's like again, nor would he be able to overpower me to get at it. He had tried that once during his teenage years, I had grabbed his arm & snapped it back upon itself breaking it in three places. It took a long while to heal of course but it was a lesson I never wanted him to forget.

So on the 1st May 1419 war was declared with Wallachia, our alliance held and Hungry, Austria & Bohemia answered the call to arms, just as we hoped. General Toma & I were already half way to Wallachia when Serbia & Moldavia answered Wallachia's call for military aid.

The Transylvaian army smashed into the Wallachia army on the fields of Targoviste. I was there, in the thick of it. It was twilight of course when I insisted to the General we attack, there was simply no way I would allow a daytime attack which would make me miss it. The battle is hard for me to describe here since I didn't really see it, I only saw the enemy around me. The bloodlust welled & virtually consumed me as I hacked, chopped and stabbed my way through their ranks, it had been far too long since I last was able to enjoy such simple pleasures. Simple sword & axe wounds don't really bother me too much and there was no one there with enough strength or skill to make me lose a limb, so I fought quite frankly with reckless abandon. Only afterwards did I find out how close the battle had been. We had taken some very heavy losses. The cavalry was made of the Siebenburgen nobility and their houses, they had lost about five hundred men including a promising captain that had come to my attention. The infantry were much harder hit, many thousand lay dead upon the bloody field.

However before we could really take stock of the infantry (peasantry) losses we heard news from our scouts that a new Wallachia army was being drafted & trained. We rushed over there and managed to see them off without a fight practically. They had not had time to organise, nor were they properly equipped, they fled - we assumed - back to their homes. Only later we found they fled only to regroup and siege Hermannstadt. Meanwhile we began the siege of Targoviste.

Thanks Stroph1 & TheBee ! Am only 30 years on from this... it is taking far more space to write this up than I imagined . I will have to try to spead things on a bit after this chapter, hope you guys stick with it !

Chapter III

General Toma was an experienced general with a fair reputation of military success. Toma was a devout catholic who hated the Orthodox faith with a passion. Few knew the real reasons for this & at the time I was not one of them. I have extensive experience in single combat but had no idea on how to conduct a siege so I left the details of it up to him, carrying out my self-made role of the bored noble. The evening after the victory over the half-trained army I went to visit him in his tent on the hill.


(General Toma)

"Wonderful view from up here General, you can almost see the whole town. How long before they give up do you think ?"
"I'm not sure, your grace. They will be able to hold out long time, perhaps too long. In fact I'm not sure we will be able to contain them." I had no control over Toma..yet. He 'knew' I was a member of the royal family & for that reason only suffered me to be in his presence.
"What do you mean ? We have routed their armies, there is no one to relieve them - the Moldavians are miles away with our homeland in between & the Serbs will shortly be sieged by the Hungarians".
"Very true - but the infantry took extremely heavy losses, more than nine thousand died in the battle. I am not convinced there is enough of the army left to effectively cover all the exits out of the city. We also have to guard a goodly number of prisoners that surrendered in the battle, which is taking far more men & food than I would like. I have sent a runner to inform his majesty & a request for more troops, but I suspect Hermannstadt is already under siege by the Moldavians. I doubt any new recruits will be able to make it out to bolster our army. We may have to turn back."
"Dammit.. is there another way than just starving them out ?"
"No, we don't have the equipment or the men to storm the place & the defences are secure, no means of a sneak entry. Now please your grace, I have much to do and as you can see there are others requiring my attention."

I spent the next few nights using my unnatural talents to try to gain access to the city. However it appeared that another of my kind was either defending the city or had advised how to stop my kind from entering. It became painfully clear that we did not have enough troops to starve them out or even stop messengers from leaving the city. Almost every night a rider was able to slip past our guards (leaving & arriving). We could hear them from our camps out side the city gates; they were laughing at us. Some sort of wager was going inside about where & when our 'siege' would be crushed by their Moldavian allies from the north or the Serbs from the south.

A few days more past and the runner returned with dreadful news that the recruited army we saw off had joined up with Moldavian Army & was testing the defences of Hermannstadt, no way could any relief force be raised for us. It didn't look good. However I would be dammed if I let my plans for conquest fail at such an early stage. So I talked to the General & asked him to remain whilst I went to see if we could gain aid from the Hungarian army on it's way to Serbia.

By late June I caught up with the slow moving army. Well to be more precise as I raced my horse through the Hungarian countryside I was set upon by the army's rear guard. Thinking I was a scout for the Serbs they were about to attempt to end my eternal existence. They jumped out on me as I had paused to let the horse rest by the edge of a small wood. I could have killed them but recognising their very distinctive purple & silver uniforms decided to let them led me back to their camp. Once there I was brought to the officer of the day & with a very short letter of introduction from our General I was allowed to see the commanding officer. This turned out to be my first piece of good luck since the Major in charge of the detachment turned out to be none other than 'Little János' - in his mid 40's now. A lad I knew during my years of peace, I had given up plans of domination & lived as a simple businessman for a number of years. It didn't last, it was a good restful time, but like most things I got bored with it & craved action. János had never partaken of the drink - no one I knew during that time did, but he did owe me a number of favours. I explained to him our terrible situation & it wasn't hard to persuade him to help us in our time of need. Excusing myself from following his army back I announced I needed to get back to General Toma to advise him of the good news. It was only as I packed up to leave I realised how large the detachment he was in charge of, far too many to count - but it was clearly much larger than the army we arrived with.

I got back to the siege a few days afterwards & gave the good general the news. He was clearly relieved since the defenders of the city had managed to not only free some of the prisoners we had, but now held a gate open to the southern towns and cities. Toma was unlikely to be able to close it again; he simply didn't have the troops, only able to cover so many of the exits effectively. They had plainly receiving cartloads of supplies from the neighbouring towns & were becoming well stocked with both food & arrows. That of course was about to change. The Wallachians had become a little complacent at defending the city so I decided to take advantage of this to speed the end of the siege.

Since Toma's numbers were so low they had not been able to bury all the dead yet. Some were still littered around the battlefield; others had been heaped into a mass grave on the other side of the hill. The smell was overpowering and only a few of the serfs (infantry) could be forced to do the necessary work. This made it easy for me to sneak in & out of the area without being noticed. It was plain to see that the rats and other vermin had started to move in to the site. One of the advantages of our kind is the well-known ability to communicate with some animals, with a little interrogation I managed to find out which of the animals were disease ridden. I went to the corpses these vermin had been feeding from and butchered a lot of meat, placing the hunks of flesh on the cart used to transport them here.

I circled the long way around the city to the southern gate. Although suspicious, the city guards let me in to the city - I can be very persuasive when I need to be, another useful trait of our kind. I unloaded the cart into the food into the food stores & was paid handsomely by the quatermaster for the supplies.

A couple of days afterwards János's army arrived, a grand total of twenty thousand men. The siege ended in early September. We lost a few more loyal Siebenburgeners to disease but nothing like the numbers of Wallachian's lost. The Wallachian's formally surrendered when Duke Mihai left Targoviste to meet us at our camp on the hill. He agreed that Wallachia was to become a protectorate of the Prince of Siebenburgen in return for helping to stop the plague that now haunted their city. Fortunately I had some experience in this area as had seen the disease strike many times before, and helped ensured that the city become disease free. Some said the measures I imposed on the city were brutal, but it really was the best way.


(The Targoviste Dead)

János left some troops to help ensure the peacefulness of the new province, then marched his troops off onto Serbia.

Thanks for the support guys - won't be another update for a couple of days, going away for a long weekend - mostly for a Real Ale Festival

Stroph1 - well this is the 'Monster of Siebenburgen' !

zacharym87 Thanks ! It is hard no idea where I am going to go in the game, am very stuck (30 years on from this chapter)

4th of Eleven - Well quite nervous of the Ottomons, but Hungry is my ally & helped me out during the wars. As for Wallachia - read on to find out..

Chapter IV:

Targoviste was in a terrible state, this was really bad news for us. We had been relying on plundering the city to pay the army - what we found there in liquid cash was simply not going to cover it for more than a month. The army needed funds, the only way was to get a loan from somewhere - we also needed to do something about the army camped outside Hermannstadt. Toma arranged for himself a trip across Hungary to the Venetian bankers. Before he left, he summoned the military leaders & left instructions that the army was not to leave until he returned, perhaps with the loan we could hire some mercenaries. No one thought this was very likely, I suspect not even Toma thought so, but what else could we do ? The plan had relied on more of our army being around still. Dam sheep why do they have to die so easily ?

The following night I spent the evening getting to know the Duke Mihai during dinner at his court. It is a difficult skill we all have to learn, eating is of course extremely unpleasant to us, our digestive tract completely atrophies after time - so we must appear to eat without actually doing so. Late in the evening Mihai changed the whole course of the war for us. The meal had finished and we had retired to one of his drawing rooms alone. It was quite frankly beautiful, the plush furniture & spectacular decorations showed his household had not suffered too much whilst his army & peasantry had died horribly outside. There was clearly something on his mind, well there was probably lots of things on his mind. I sat in what was clearly his chair, a high backed red leathered encouraged him to ask them.
"What will happen to the Dukedom now it is under your nephew's protectorate ?”
"Well that depends very much on what happens to Hermannstadt. If we can end the siege there soon, I imagine very little. I expect you will continue on as the Duke of the province until your death, where it will pass to the Lepes family. That is of course if you swear fealty to the Lepes family & collect taxes for the Siebenburgen nation.”
"I see.” He sounded hopeful, the terms could easily be a lot worse. "And what of my own household ?"
"If the war goes badly, you may be asked to donate more funds or furniture & pictures to be sold - I'm sure that cannot be surprising to you.”
"No, not at all - in fact I am surprised you have not already done so. What of the Wallachian people ?”
"Well as you are probably aware we obtained Papal approval of this war under the condition of converting your people to the true faith..” It was then the idea struck me, the people.. of course how could I have been so blind & stupid ! I excused myself & left I found the captain of the Wallachian guard and demanded for him to follow me back to the Dukes drawing room. Once there I commanded them to write me a letter & personally signing it, transferring command of the entire Wallachian army over to me.


(Duke Mihai)

I took the captain of the guards horse & the Dukes personal banner and raced back to Siebenburgen. Autumn was starting to wane and the nights were getting longer, short summer nights are always a pain when being forced to travel. On arrival at the Wallachian & Moldavian camps I found the Wallachian commander (Sergeant Gortschak) and demanded an audience. This wasn't hard to obtain, the letter & more importantly the banner gave me all the authority I needed. I told him of the news that the Duke had surrendered to our forces & ordered him to destroy the Moldavian forces here. Gortschak did not object - since the arrived months ago they had not been received well by the Moldavians. They had been given all the bad jobs (burying the dead, latrines e.t.c.) and constantly sent in first into the firing line of the Siebenburgen defenders. The Moldavian commander had no respect for this 'green' army especially since it was not led by any member of the nobility. For months Gortschak had personally had been snubbed, ignored, threatened, disrespected & general made to feel inferior by the whole Moldavian army. He had seen his troops mistreated - even sent on plainly suicide missions against the cities defences. I barely needed to use my skills to 'influence' him at all, the final deciding factor for him was the promise of pay for himself & his troops, they had been working 'pro-bono' for months. Gortschak could now legally & lawfully get his revenge, after all he would just be following orders. That they happened to co-inside with his personal desires was just a bonus. A sneak attack was organised by the Wallachians that very night which saw off the Moldavian army inflicting heavy casualties.

I entered the city inviting Gortschak to meet the Prince. Lepes made Gortschak into a captain and award him the title of 'Defender of the crown'. The Wallachian army was made to wait outside the city gates, but as a gesture of gratitude were given fresh meat & good ale to celebrate with. It was clear we should take the war to the Moldavian soil, such a golden opportunity could not be missed. Gortschak was an experienced Sergeant, but had no experience conducting an offensive war, so General Toma was sent for as soon as he returned from Venice. He arrived at the capital a few days later, preparations for the continued war were well under way. The loan had been granted & he also brought the great news that Serbia had sued for a separate peace with our alliance. Their ambassador was waiting outside the city gates. Serbia itself was under siege by János - since Siebenburgen were the alliance leaders in this war they offered thirty ducats for peace. Trying to continue the war to Serbia seemed like it would be difficult at best - so we 'reluctantly' agreed. We also received news that Moldavia was already under siege by the Hungarians. The retreating army had been dealt a further crushing blow by the Hungarians when they met on the battlefield. If the reports were true then the small army that remained loyal to the Moldavian flag were totally disillusioned. If we left soon then it would be simple to totally smash them.

The tribute from the Serbs & the loan from Venice paid the troops what they were owed & for a new tax office in Wallachia. General Toma led the Wallachians on through to the Moldavian controlled Bujak. By April 1420 all of Moldavia was in alliance hands, we agreed peace with them in return for twenty-five ducats & Bujak would become under the protectorate of the Siebenburgens.

Work resumed on the improvements to the roads, much was still to be done & plans were expanded them to include the new lands. I set about improving Siebenburgens relations by marrying off anyone with vaguely noble blood. It took time to train the contenders with the arts of seduction, many were simple sisters & daughters of businessmen. After a few months instruction from myself they were irresistible.

Thanks Markgraf Rudolf - I also thought the WoD would be a good device to account for many of the strange randomn happenings in Europa. Hope you like the way I go about it.

Chapter V:

For the first time in I don't know how many years I was truly pleased. The war had gone better than we could have possibly hoped. The plan had aimed at gaining one of the two dukedoms, whereas we had not only gained one & a province off the other, but the remaining Moldavian army had been almost wiped out by the Hungarians. This left them wide open to invasion by us when the peace treaty expired in just 5 short years.

I spent the next few years on my own personal affairs, first job was to create some bodyguards. There is a way to transfer some of our dark gift to the sheep & thus creating powerful servants. By feeding them very large amounts of the drink & spending a lot of time training them in it's many uses they can gain some of the strength, speed & resilience of our kind. I am only realistically able to keep four or five mortals fed with the drink this way as it requires much feeding on my behalf to manufacture this much of the drink. They 'burn' through the drink very quickly when using the dark gift. This transfer of power - known as 'ghouling' binds them to me, the same way as Lepes was bound to me, but far more strongly. It meant I had to spend a lot more of my time feeding, but the results were very satisfactory, I had four ghouls, totally loyal & subservient. I choose them from the peasantry for two reasons: they would not be missed by anyone important of the sheep & the process destroys much of their creativity. If you ghoul your military commanders they end up harassing you for more of the drink instead of concentrating on tactics & holding on to the bigger picture of a war. I usually dress my ghouls harshly & constantly remind them who is the master; not out of any need for worship but to ensure that they never think they can overpower me. Every new kindred hears the tale from their sire of a kindred that was overpowered by his ghouls, chained in a dank dungeon & forced to make the drink at will for them. He was there for over one hundred & fifty years before anyone discovered him, by then of course he was totally devoid of any personality so he was mercifully put down.


(Me & my Ghouls)

The ghouling process took a goodly number of months, training new ghouls always did. Time passed. Seasons changed. As usual I paid no attention to them, what does the change of years mean to one who no longer counts his birthdays ? Nothing much of note happened in Siebenburgen for a while, there was some squabbles between some of the noble houses about a land dispute, but no major events. I had encouraged Lepes to institute use all the tax gathered from the merchants into the road building/improving plan. The census tax solely paid for the mostly mothballed military. Once the ghouls were half trained I took them on a tour of the old country. It was important they got to recognise others of our kind so as to be able to defend me from my true enemies better. That was a topic I was becoming more nervous about. There had - as yet - been no retribution from me killing the old man off & burning his household down to the ground. Surely at least one of his childer would try to exact revenge ? My initial probings into their feelings about me seemed to suggested that no one was going to come after me. However I didn't get to be this old without being extremely cautious & paranoid. Fluffy, happy kindred didn't tend to live very long.

When I returned I found that I should never leave Lepes in command of an army. He arrived too long for my liking at my coach house in response to my summons.
"Lepes: report !"
"Well master, in April '25 I declared war on Moldavia using the Papal approval you obtained and sent General Toma to give us a new victory. He did so & crushed the remnants of the Moldavian 1st infantry. When the runner came through reporting the start of the siege I went there myself to take command personally. The Hungarians joined of course with a massive army. The sieged progressed quickly, the trebuchets made good on their walls & time was not on their side. Unfortunately there was simply too many people there, I concentrated on taking the walls instead of ensuring there was food & water enough for them all. Many deserted & some simply died. However the walls did fall & take the city we did in just five months. Duke Alexandru cel bun swore fealty to me & like Wallachia I told him he could rule as Duke until he died and when the lands would pass to us. I instructed him to help us with your road building/improving plan."
"I see - how many of our troops survived this simple siege ? Don't think I didn't notice you had neglected to mention that. I will be speaking to General Toma after this conversation so do not lie to me" He was annoyed I brought this up. Dammit, I had been gone too long again. He was clearly deferring to me as his master still - but only just. Must develop some means of supplying him with the drink at regular intervals in case of my absence.
"Well - I admit we lost a lot of troops, but we won ! The land is ours ! The roads are now far better than they have ever been ! The Great North Road is restored to its former glory & we have started to extend it throughout the new lands, should be complete in another five years or so."
"How many troops Lorand ?" I asked darkly. I knew I wouldn't like the answer.
"Three thousand remain, nearly all cavalry"
"What ?? How could you have lost so many men ?? Where is Toma ? Have him sent here NOW." I was quite simply, furious with Lorand. Over seven thousand of my men must have died on the fields capturing that city. Clearly Toma had tried to get Lorand to change his tactics & ensure his troops were not simply thrown away in futile attacks.
"I cannot master, I banished him from the kingdom. He questioned my orders continuously & tried to undermine my authority. I simply couldn't stand the man, I suspect he couldn't stand me - certainly he didn't agree with my tactics of a quick but bloody siege is better than a long drawn out siege. General Gortschak is in charge now, I thought he deserved a crack at the job after successfully ending the siege of this city in the previous war. Shall I have him brought here ?" At this I exploded in anger I launched a kick at Lorand and hit him hard in the knee sending him to the ground with a loud thump. I grabbed his head & smashed my fist into his ear then thumped his head against the wooden floor repeatedly until he lost conscience. I then stood took his head in both hands and began to squeeze, his face turned red. I carried on squeezing and I could feel his skull beginning to give - it was only then did I reign in my anger. I let him drop to the floor whilst I decided what to do with him.



I sat contemplating Lorand in my high-backed leather chair and called for a ghoul to pass me a goblet. He passed the finely crafted, silver goblet Lorand had used in our last meeting here, I dismissed the ghoul. Pulling back my sleeve I regarded my wrist, it never ceased to amaze me the kindreds healing powers. The only mark on my ivory skin was a scar of a sword blade that had cut deeply whilst I was taught to fence during my youth. I brought my wrist close to my mouth & bit it, hard. Blood started to seep out which I caught in the goblet. Although the drink can fed directly from a vein/artery I tend to reserve that for intimate encounters. No one in Siebenburgen had earned that from me yet, perhaps none ever will. The last person to was the old man, and I had killed him over ten years ago. From my chair I can see most of the town and I looked at it in wonder. Had it been worth it ? Some days the sacrifice that had given Lorand his position seemed too high. True I was now a free agent & starting to carve out my own empire, but the old man had been around for a much longer time than me - rumour had it that he saw the birth of the Roman Empire. I licked at the wound on my wrist & it closed. Killing Lorand would give me temporary satisfaction but he would have to be replaced & the internal turmoil the country would inevitable face was a pain I could do without, especially with the army so decimated. Also he represented the last of the old man in some respects & I couldn't bring myself to destroy it/him over this. I decided to wait until he came around, which I knew would be some hours yet.

Close to dawn he still hadn't awoke. I was about to call a ghoul in when there was a knock at the door. I opened the door and was handed a message from the manager of the coach house, it said: News from a travelling merchant, Genoa is invading Bujak.


(Map in 1430 - couple of years after the above happened - thought it was about time I put a map in, although I don't have one at the exact time I am in for this part of the story)

Braedonnal - I found it surprising there wasn't another on the go too.. well hope you are enjoying the story !

Sorry it's a small installment this time, am working nigh shifts at the moment 12 hours long each So don't get much time at the moment, will do more next week.

Chapter VI:

I arose in the late afternoon, not an easy feat for it is extremely difficult for us to rise whilst the sun is still shining. Lorand had spent the day in the coach house; well he had little choice since he wasn't in a fit state to do much of anything. He had been dressed & groomed and awaited my earliest convenience. I entered his room, it was plush as befitted his station. Lorand clearly was not well, his head had been bruised very badly. Large purple welts covered his head, I guess I must have hit harder than I thought. He was safe for the moment from me as I needed to find out what was going on. He didn't seem to think he was safe, he was shaking. I walked over to him and cocked my head considering him for a moment. Chastise then reward: the classic means of control. From behind my back I produced a goblet of my blood and passed it to him.
"After you report you may have the goblet, IF you have not been monumentously stupid. Why is Genoa sieging Bujak ? " I asked sweetly. He stared at the goblet intently.
"Well master a few months ago Austria launched a war of conquest against Helvetia. They called upon all alliance members to join, naturally I accepted since Helvetia's alliance was consisted of some of the dukedoms of the Holy Roman Empire - nothing near us at all. Only later in the war Genoa joined the Helvetians' alliance & has now launched an assault against us from Kaffa with a massive army of over fifteen thousand troops. I have sent a runner to find out how long Austria intends to keep up it's war but I suspect it will not be ending soon." Well, he hadn't been quite as stupid as I thought he had, but this was a very bad turn of events for us. I let him drink from the goblet & walked out of the room. As soon as twilight fell I left the coach house with my ghouls & made for Moldavia to meet up with the army. Upon arriving it was clear that they were in no shape to defeat such massive numbers of invaders. I ordered new troops to be raised from the townsfolk at considerable cost. I knew once the Genoians had finished with Bujak they would soon be here to smash the army here to pieces. It was clear that I needed a plan to make them leave without using my decimated army.

As summer waned the army had doubled in size, but consisted on mostly green troops. Bujak fell to the Genoians. If we sent the new troops straight in to battle they would run, they needed time to find their courage. My ghouls & me left the army encampment and headed to Bujak. Sneaking into the town was easy; they were on the lookout for our army, which they knew to be miles away. Their siege had destroyed much of the city defences and was taking some time to repair leaving many access holes. Getting to the Genoan commanders was not so simple. We found a seedy tavern that was being patronised by the invaders & using my talents made friends with a non-com. He was deeply suspicious of us at first but as we plied him with ale & stories of how we welcomed the opportunities of being part of the great Genoian trading empire he became more relaxed. When the tavern closed it wasn't hard to convince him to go on with us to a house of 'ill-repute'. We ambushed him not far from the tavern & extracted the information we needed for the job. I am sure he will walk again one day, although I doubt his left arm will ever recover enough for him to use it. Why some people are so stubborn I will never know, why do they put themselves through all that pain for nothing. It's not like they can withhold information from me when I ask with menaces.

The Genoan officers had commandeered the mayor's office, which was surprisingly well designed against burglars. All the low-level windows & doors had troops stationed near them and the upper windows were a very long way from the nearest building. Anyone trying to use a rope to slowly get across would soon be noticed by the many troops below, so I entered via the roof the fast way. My ghouls were not up to the task, they were too young & their understanding of the blood was not yet advanced, so I entered alone.



The old man had spent some time teaching me the art of stealth & burglary; I was really quite proficient, probably akin to the best mortal cat burglars. The advantages of strength & speed my blood gave me more than made up for constant practice mortals had. I searched the building until coming across what I was sure the commanders' bedroom was. There were no guards nearby, they were all downstairs. Despite the difficulty of the leap to get into the building there were no obstructions at all. It seemed this occupation would shortly come to an end with very little blood shed. I turned the bedroom door handle & began to sneak in, seconds later I knew it was going to be far more difficult & painful than I had imagined.