Eastern HSE at war

For decades an enclave of lizardman warriors had hidden itself within the borders of the Holy Sigmarite Empire, conducting raids and spying missions for the Cuitlaxaochitzin Slann. They could not last forever without being discovered. Relations between the HSE and Cuitlaxaochitzin were already close to all-out war, and the Emperor needed little prompting in 577PC to order the enclave hunted down and exterminated.

The overconfident Slann sent their Ogre forces on a commando raid into the HSE to extract the lizardmen before they were found, believed the powerful force would be little challenged by anything the HSE could throw at them. But the warriors of House Volbeck proved sterner than most, bolstered by the dark magic that was by now ingrained into the HSE and ignored by the ruling classes. The Ogres were forced to retreat back to Cuitlaxaochitzin and in the months following numerous skinks were rounded up and executed within the borders of the HSE.

The east of the HSE was suffering increasing raids on farmlands and villages, mostly due to Domovoi attackers from Kaalroen. As House Volbeck was dealing with the Ogres from Cuitlaxaochitzin the chaos raiders took the opportunity to make an attack. House Volbeck's rear guard was defeated and the lords of Volbeck returned to find much of their outlying settlements looted.

It would take a few years to recover, but House Volbeck was eager to remind the Emperor of the good it had done against the Cuitlaxaochitzin Ogres and not the losses it had suffered. In 580 the lords considered their house strong enough and they went to war, attacking the Ogre Kingdom to the east under a flimsy pretence that they believed it was the Ogres who had raided them and not the Domovoi. Once again House Volbeck proved themselves worthy against Ogre foes and they looted enough treasure to return to the HSE and look like heroes.