Battle of Franzbruck

The Drazkharovs quickly turn their attention towards securing their power base in the north following the Battle of Weissbruck. It soon becomes apparent that the Emperor is summoning the military might of the Imperial armies to counter the Drazkharov uprising. The province of Pellenar stands an imperialist island amid a Drazkharov ocean, a thorn in the side that holds back an otherwise total dominion over the northern provinces. The vampires soon elect to turn on Pellenar and crush her before the Lord Titus Aureus can join his strength to the Imperial army or, worse, move to catch the rebel forces in a pincer movement.

Having escaped the field at Weissbruck, Count Ivan makes his way to the Drazkharov strongholds in Mallenstein to muster new forces. In a few weeks he is once again the commander of another mighty host, a melting pot of disciplined state troopers loyal to their Drazkharov masters and a horde of shambling undead thralls.

Ivan drives his army south through the cover of the Mallenstein Forest with all haste, but the seasoned Titus Aureus is not so easily caught off guard. All too aware of the danger his realm faces from the threat of envelopment by Drazkharov forces, The Lion had already mustered the famously resplendent cavalry hosts of Pellenar at the town of Saarborn and is ready to intercept Ivan’s army as it emerges from the forests and onto the plain of Pellenar.

The ensuing clash would become the Battle of Franzbruck. It is a frantic and bloody affair, with heavy casualties on both sides, the rival generals throwing themselves into the thick of the fighting. Gradually, the ferocity of the undead horrors and their sheer weight in numbers tells in favour of the rebel host as Titus’ cavalry becomes bogged down in close-quarter fighting. Ivan himself then leads the final charge, smashing Titus’ forces and routing them from the field.

Yet Ivan fails to seize upon the strength of his victory. Rather than pursue Titus and annihilate the Pellenar army piecemeal, he takes stock of his own heavy losses and holds back from pursuit, fearing to advance further without reinforcements. Instead, Ivan turns his soldiers over to ravaging and plundering the Pellenar hinterlands. The cost to the peasants of Saarborn and surrounding villages is terrible indeed, as the terror attacks coincide with Domovoi raids from across the Mallvass mountains.

Ivan’s delay gives Titus vital time to rally his armies at the capital of Auleaena. He is able to meet the Domovoi raiding parties with superior forces, without his supply lines being harried by Drazkharov scouts. Though a ruthless move in which Titus sacrifices much, his peasant-folk falling victim to Ivan’s predators as they rove the countryside unchecked, the calculated strategy results in a decisive military victory that scatters the Domovoi back across the mountains and allows Titus’ armies the opportunity to regroup and rearm to face the next Drazkharov onslaught.