Rat Race for the Claw Wardens
The banana peel of 310 AC was about to unfold itself onto the tiny mountainous province of Kleaster, unremarkable, home to only a small convent, a few hamlets, and some dispersed abandoned townlets that were far removed from House van Fryse's power base. Crossing from the golden wheat fields of Goudvelde, Haqet and a troupe of Vampires and allies (as well as some disposable Vampire friends they made along the way) made a mad dash for the village of Berkenstrand, on the very end of the Kleaster peninsula, which they would aim to reach in less than an hour in gallop. The whole group had captured some horses in the adjacent province, assuming some kind of resistance and perhaps even anticipated movements from Haqet's enemies, but the amount was certainly something they could not have anticipated.
Immediately upon crossing the border, Bludritter remarked that it was odd that there were no border guards. Normally each province has at least a token borderguard to record travel between the regions, as locals traveled very little and so it was easier for the aldermen to tax travelers. Indeed, the further their horses raced, the more Kleaster just appeared abandoned. The town of Zuidklooster had no residents in it, not even a barking dog as they marched into town. Haqet might have felt the first pang of "this is going to be a long day", when they saw Silver appear on one of the roofs of the buildings, flanked by ever increasing numbers of Isldar Archon. Having used his spy network, Silver had contracted several Archon from Draackenrust further in Anglia and set up an ambush. Immediately and all around, arrows and ice javelins hailed down on the group, striking several disposable Vampires outright. Haqet commanded for an urgent breach through, reasoning that they still had the element of movement. They were outnumbered, but the Isldar were heavily armed, and they were on horseback, so the large troupe made a mad dash out of the town of Zuidklooster, with Isldar descending down on them left and right, spears and moon-glaives poised to strike. The group broke through, and evaded the Isldar ambush, though they would not so easily get rid of Silver who had mounted his Wyvern and was flying high above, stalking the group and alerting anyone so much as looking to the sky for their location.
The group galloped on, until they reached the forested valley of Kriessenwoud. Blutritter had a bad feeling about this particular stretch of the road, but they had no choice, as this was the only area where they could conceivably hide from Silver circling overhead, under the canopy. Indeed, he did seem to lose them, but the group had only walked from one element of surprise into another. Tesfa had been galloping next to the group on hooves, reared her nose into the sky before bellowing for the group to run as fast as they could. Before long, it became obvious what Tesfa had smelled that the rest of the group did not, from between the thick trees barreled a Silvershale, a massive white furred-gorilla that slammed into the middle of the line, throwing some Vampires clean off their horses. Immediately in its wake of knocked over trees galloped Revna, Tarlok, Seth, Quin, Tlalli all Url, barelling into the group also, grabbing horses by the necks and dragging their riders off one by one. The group started scattering in a panic as the Silvershale kept choralling them into random directions. Haqet quickly deployed caskets of Tirgunn plague for everyone, buying them enough time with the slowed and dazed Url and Silvershale to make a run for it once more, but yet again, the group had been thinned out.
As the group rode out of the forest, Silver's Wyvern shrieked high up in the sky, to Haqet and other's annoyance, it could not be reached with any ranged weapons or Magic. They were not alone as they left the forest however. Behind them were five riders on black horses, clad in black leather robes and the distinct black pointed hat of the Darkwald Order, Darkwald Riders. The riders raised up what looked like Muskete Rifles, however these barrels held no normal ammunition. Streams of golden light erupted from them, like molten lava but with such great speed that when it punctured through the still remaining numbers of disposable Vampires that their entire body erupted into flames as if they were being burned from the inside. Haqet knew then and there that this was not a chase they could easily run from, and so turned around on the horse, Coraveay turning into a rifle in turn, and shot several horses of the disposable Vampire riders behind them. The horses tumbled, the Vampires flew off, but this causes enough of a barricade for the Darkwald Riders to rein in their horses and break off the chase, or risk tripping over the horses that were killed and being beset upon by the Vampires that were now on foot. They raised their rifles again and dispatched the Vampires on foot, but broke off the chase, allowing Haqet and the remainder to ride up to the town of Poortburg.
Poortburg also was completely empty. No citizens, all doors padlocked. When they rode into town, they considered staying for a moment, but Haqet Blutritter quickly called them to attention when they saw two armor-clad brutes standing by the exit gate of the town, resting their hands on their greatswords as if they were mere statues. Blutritter tried to urge the group the other way, but Vampire vanity got the best of Vallerik and the other Vampire casters, who got off their horsesand prepared a barrage of spells, certain to take down two mere opponents. Those two armored brutes raised their swords aimed forward and marched towards them, not even charging, a mere slow but heavy pace, with each foot step thudding into the ground and the metal clanking together on all the smooth and rough edges. Sure enough, the Vampires unleashed a barrage of spells, bloodfire and void hail, and the two armored brutes just shrugged it off. The magic just bounced off their polished black and gold-plated armor. At this point it was far too late when Vallerik realized the reason why one does not challenge the Imperial Guards, one started a running charge, his great sword to the side, before he landed a slamming punch right into Vallerik's mouth. The last Vallerik saw before his sight went black was two Silven eyes staring at him from behind the helmet's visor. The others were quick to respond, other Vampires jumped down to help, a few jumped at the guards from their sides but the Imperial Guards just did not seem to care. They grabbed Vampires from the air and cleaved them in half before they even landed. Luckily they were so busy dispatching the other Vampires that Jip could ride up to Vallerik, quickly pick him up and charge off. The group left those few Vampires behind who were getting terminator'd by those two Imperial Guards, with Blutritter cursing that they should have listened to him the first time, but that this was also very bad news, because it means the Emperor knew what they were doing, which means everyone knew what they were doing. Indeed, unbeknownst to the group, Countess Rowena van Fryse had gone to the Palace to report about the slew of activity in Kleaster, and the Emperor had sent these two Imperial Guards to investigate.
The group marched on, only to be beset by the next assault, though they would easier get away from this one. From the forested side of the road, hordes of van Fryse soldiers charged down the hill at the galloping Vampires, higher up the hill was Laurent van Fryse on the back of a horse. These soldiers had been sent in to patch up and clean up any straggling Vampires, and the sighting here also made sense: House van Fryse had evacuated the relatively sparsely populated Kleaster, and simply let a bunch of Haqet-unfriendly groups do whatever they wanted on the road, and it turned out to be the biggest gathering fiesta of groups that had been seen in a long time. Jip urged the rest of the group on, taking Vallerik and the wounded in a different direction, feeling confident that they could shake off the large van Fryse army and then make their escape. Indeed, they did, returning with the wounded back to Regalia a few days later, and buying Haqet, Blutritter, and the remaining Vampires some time to reach Berkenstrand.
Berkenstrand however was obviously going to have yet another ambush waiting for them, and the defense had saved the best for last. Cordenia, Medea, Jocelyn, Rangira, Maiyusa, Lynmard, Elmyra, Elena, Calibur, Lyonel and Allisa had Ley-transported ahead of everyone else to Berkenstrand and set up the final defensive line there for the Vampire group that had now been wittled down to less than a third the group that crossed into Kleaster. Immediately both groups broke into conflict, Medea pelting ice magic at Haqet with frustrated snarls, Cordenia and Jocelyn bending Dragon Magic to wittle down Haqet's disposable Vampires, and the others chasing down Haqet's faithful. Haqet knew this was a battle they likely weren't going to win, because the other groups (and Swyftfurusat who now came crashing down on his Wyvern and joined the fight) were still chasing them, and if they got held down in this fight for merely 20 minutes too long, they would be completely overwhelmed. Blutritter was already ahead of Haqet's thought process however, and had broken off the fight to charge through the abandoned town of Berkenstrand with Cecil, to the end of town where the supposed Archive of the Claw Wardens was located.
It was here that they realized their ultimate folly of (presumably) mis-communication. There was a reason that the Soulcore of the Orrorey had identified the /Ruins/ of the Claw Wardens Archive, something that was perhaps not communicated to Haqet by the hackers of the Orrorey who were very objective-oriented. There was nothing there. A vague outline of a foundation that had once stood there, Cecil could make out the stairs up to the building, the main hallway, and corridors that lead out to what he presumed were archive rooms, but the whole building was just gone, and it looked like it had been cleanly demolished. Blutritter cursed to himself, wondering why anyone had thought this would be any different. Surely if the presumption that the Emperor was the last Claw Warden had been correct, why would he, the man who engages in the highest octaves of politics, just leave an archive with incriminating evidence of his membership to some Occult organization sitting out in the open in such a badly defended location? Why would the man who co-orchestrated the Regalian Senate signing itself out of office be so stupid as to leave occult details about his own family and himself out in the open? Surely, the Emperor who was known to love collecting books and artifacts and locking them up in the safest place in the whole world: The Imperial Palace, would not be such a fool to just abandon his family's legacy to a dingy old archive where anyone could simply stroll in and steal all of its works. Sure enough, the building had been dismantled decades ago, not even with violence or disdain, but very calmly and orderly. The bricks had been removed cleanly and re-used to fortify the buildings around town. The only thing that still remained on the site was the badly overgrown and mossed-up insignia of the Claw Wardens, a stone carving of a Dragon claw on a blank shield.
This whole trip had been a disaster from start to finish, while the original group was still intact, they lost nearly all of their Anglian minions they had recruited along the way, and they had nothing to show for. Blutritter signaled their final retreat, and while they all got away (minus the disposable ones who cursed Haqet before being slain), Anglia would prove too hot for them to return anytime soon. The Crystal Spires of Draackenrust were now watching for them, and House van Fryse had established routine hunters to eradicate any sign of Vampirism in the area, while the Darkwald Riders also combed their way south. Indeed, even Hengest Harhold had come out of hiding in Vlissinghelm with his Unionist "clean-up service" to rid the south of Anglia of Vampires, and for the first time in nearly 50 years, Anglia was safe from Vampires.
(I know there were other orders, but this one was too good not to write out in full form, other orders to be processed tomorrow or otherwise) All information is public knowledge (except Rowena going to the Palace, only van Fryse would hear), with van Fryse soldiers gossiping about all the events back to Regalia.
