Hoffenland Burns

Count Toumas von Schaffernacker had retreated to the safety of Sudhafen following the Battle of the Chapel. In spite of the set-back his people remained stubbornly loyal to the imperial cause and new soldiers were soon recruited to fight beneath the von Shaffernacker banners.

The Steel Count girded his forces with every intention of surging back westward to liberate Gross Dortbeck from the vampiric stranglehold. Yet within two days the army was forced to turn back to counter a new threat in Hoffenland, the southern-most province of the empire. Though messages were confused and piece-meal at first, increasingly the scouts and outposts reported the same news: the Skaven had landed an attack force in Hoffenland.

Carried over the waves by their mind-boggling dirigibles, the loathsome Skaven descended upon the coastal villages of Hoffenland as a verminous thunderstorm. They plundered without check, kidnapping many peasants to be carried back as slave labour.

Count Toumas made his way to Hoffenland with all haste, meeting the Skaven marauders on the field of battle outside the town of Eichenwald even as the ratmen assembled their legions to launch an assault upon the town itself. Bloody battle was met as the resplendent Sudhafen Greatswords clashed with the rusty, furry tide of rat-soldiers. The Skaven inflicted heavy losses, their rocket artillery blasting gaping holes in the imperial lines. In answer, the Count’s own cavalry rode down swathes of ratmen, their terrified squeals drowned by the roar of a thousand hooves crashing against the sun-baked dirt.

Glorious charges and sweeping advances gave way to gruelling close-quarter bludgeoning as the two armies ground against one another, the dry earth churning to rancid mud beneath their feet as the soil ran red. Gradually the Skaven gained the upper hand, their vast numbers eventually telling in their favour. The scurrying tidal wave swept around and over Count Toumas’ army and consumed it, leaving few to escape.

Too late did the Elves of Mellvellon arrive to change the course of events. Even as Toumas fought toe to claw with the foe, the glittering host of the Elven allies crested the ridgeline of the hills overlooking the field of battle. The wrath of the Elves was terrible to behold, so fiercely did they fall upon their most hated and ancient foe. The Skaven, seeing the strength of the Elves arrayed before them and reeling from the day’s fighting, reverted to their basest instincts and turned tail. As water through a storm-drain, the Skaven multitudes slipped into the darkness of the Eichenwald Forest and dispersed.

Though chased from the field, the malice of the Skaven had seen the town of Eichenwald turned to a veritable bonfire, the coastal villages of Hoffenland ransacked and hundreds of innocents taken captive, damned to terrible fates of ceaseless toil in the appalling conditions of the Skaven tunnel and mines.

Pellenar Over-run!

The Drazkharovs turned their attention to subjugating their neighbour of Pellenar in a bold attempt to consolidate their hold over the whole of the northern empire. With Ivan’s monsters still exacting their savage incursions across the countryside the Drazkharov elders ordered Count Viktor to lead his armies north to deal the hammer-blow that would break the power of Pellenar.

Scouts warn Lord Titus Aureus of Viktor’s advance, and the Lion is quick to rouse the riders of Pellenar to meet the latest threat. Yet Titus’ forces are ragged and weary from endless sorties against Domovoi raiders and weeks of defending villages and farmsteads from Ivan’s marauding beasts. Arrayed against them, Viktor had summoned the power of the Volbeck standing forces to support his assault on Pellenar, bringing fresh troops to the engagement.

Though the men of Pellenar fight valiantly, the exhausted and beleaguered knights cannot stand against the Drazkharov host. Unleashing his infamous Black Knights of The Grimholt, Viktor smashes the Pellenar cavalry aside and Titus himself barely escapes with his life.

The alarming news reaches Sigmarheim and the Emperor is quick to send his erstwhile ally fresh men and supplies, dispatching a sizeable army from the capital to go to Pellenar’s aid. However, this move yields unexpected consequences. With the might of the Imperial Armies now arrayed against the threat from the north, neighbouring Rhan’k’adanra seizes its opportunity. Normally out-matched by the Imperial Army’s numbers and military might, Rhan’k’adanran forces march unchecked onto imperial soil. Local garrisons are unable to co-ordinate their forces and prove no match for the daemonic pantheon that descends upon Helland. Outrage and crisis grip the Imperial Court as the province is wrested from their control to fall under daemonic influence.

Imperial morale hangs in the balance as the land is beset with foes from all sides. Worse is yet to come when word reaches the court that a Skaven fleet makes landfall in Hoffenland...

Empire in Flames - 667PC

Wolves at the Gates

Envy, avarice and thirst for power have driven many to enmity with the flourishing and bountiful Holy Sigmarite Empire. Dark powers long asleep now seize the chance to usurp what they can from an empire that finds itself exposed and vulnerable during bloody civil war.

RHAN'K'ADANRA

Though generally a peaceful province, Rhan’k’adanra has in the past found itself on the sharp end of Imperial ambitions, her borders squeezed by the ever-expanding Holy Sigmarite Empire. Now close neighbours, the differences between the two realms has become more focused. Of greatest contention, the people of Rhan’k’adanra are pagan worshippers who put the protection of the country and indeed their very lives in the hands of their many manifest “gods”. Under the beneficence of this profilic pantheon the folk of Rhan’k’adanra enjoy simple lives of agriculture and craftsmanship. These pagan deities are appalling to the oft-times dogmatically religious Sigmarites and the resulting culture clash has caused friction between the two nations on more than one occasion.

The war within the Holy Sigmarite Empire poses a unique prospect to Rhan’k’adanra. With the mighty Alptraum armies redeployed to the north the people of Rhan’k’adanra have an opportunity to claim dominion over the rich lands of Hoffenland and the Nimarn valley that have long been denied to them by the dominant Empire. The druid-lords of Rhan’k’adanra have reached an understanding with the Drazkharovs: in return for harrying the southern marches and diverting Imperial attentions, the Drazkharovs have agreed to cede lands to Rhan’k’adanra should they win the imperial throne.

DOMOVOI

The complex culture of the Domovoi means little to the ruling classes of the Holy Sigmarite Empire, who regard them as primitive barbarians. A nomadic tribal people of the Kaalroen Empire, the Domovoi roam the Canabrin plains, often making forays south into the fertile Canaur valley. These frequent incursions have earned them the enmity of not only the Emperor but also the Drazkharovs, whose lands lie closest to the plains.

The Domovoi draw no distinction between the Imperialists and the Rebels. They simply see the rich pickings to be had from raiding into a weakened Empire. The Tsar of Novgorod rouses the Pantheon and the Domovoi war-hosts to plunder their way across the Holy Sigmarite Empire.

DARK ELF DOMINION

The Lords of Lamentation have been in seclusion for so long few remember their last public appearance. Without firm leadership, their city had devolved into infighting and anarchy as dreadlords and nobles vied for mastery over their neighbours. The coastal raids of the Black Arks continued under their individual captains, but without a strong will to unite the corsairs and reavers of the island city, they have posed little coherent threat to the outside world. Some had begun to speculate that the lords had feuded within their midnight towers so long as to have slain one another, leaving none to command and none fit for rule.

But with the ignition of civil war in the Holy Sigmarite Empire, the Druchii are as sharks drawn to the blood-scent of wounded prey. The Master of the Tower, a forbidding figure clad in the dull red of dried blood, silver armour chased in gold, has approached each corsair captain and reaver king in turn. He has presented them a writ of authority forged in iron and stamped with the seal of the highest Lord of Lamentation. It presents a single command: the Empire of Men will burn.

The fleets cross the Straits of Angfang to land a corsair host onto the shores of Flackland. Now the reaving will begin in earnest.

SCORCIO
The Drazkharov influence has reached far and wide, even to the relatively new settlements of the imperial colony of Adler an Zee. The fortified town of Scorcio was founded upon the banks of the Tiban in the shadow of the ruins of fallen Aquila. The Drazkharovs were eager to link themselves to their ancestral homeland, their forebears having left behind myriad treasures and artefacts as they were forced to abandon the burning city.

As with so many of the Drazkharov’s schemes, they first aligned themselves to the ruling elite of Scorcio through a carefully arranged marriage. Over a century later, the citadel is now firmly under the control of House Drazkharov through their now-cousin, the Baron Giovanni d’Cadavero.

The crisis in the Holy Sigmarite Empire has yet to spill over into the overseas territories. But as Ogre mercenaries prepare to depart from the colonies to answer the Emperor’s summons, Giovanni Cadavero sets his sights upon the city Ulrichshafen. With the Ogres absent little will stand in his way of the Count realising his vision of appointing himself as Grand Duke of Aranur, undisputed master of the colonies.

THE TYPHONIAN ENCLAVE

His Most Tyrannical Majesty, Master of Boiling Peak, Future Overlord of All Palurin – some of the many self-aggrandising titles Grey Seer Typhus has bestowed upon himself. His machinations are not merely for glory, plunder, or political rivalry. Rather, Typhus envisions himself as ruler of the entire world, his Skaven legions spread across the globe enforcing his iron will, with the subjugated nations revering him as a living god.

Typhus hopes to see the civil war of the man-things collapse their empire in upon itself and he's more than willing to lend a helping claw. The fall of the empire will leave a power vacuum that only he alone, of course, has the might and will to dominate. The coastal towns of the Holy Sigmarite Empire have begun sighting putrid warp-steam clouds billowing out at sea, heralding the coming of weird and wonderful vessels and a fleet of outlandish airships that can only be of the incomprehensible designs typical of Skaven mad-cap technology. Crammed within the holds of the fleet, innumerable rat-men prepare to descend to gnaw upon the weakened Holy Sigmarite Empire and hasten its downfall.

Allies Abroad

The Holy Sigmarite Empire does not stand alone as war and darkness threaten to consume it. The House of Alptraum has never been idle in matters of diplomacy, and the Emperor can count upon many friends from nations far afield.

ADLER AN ZEE
Many of the Ogre mercenary bands that have fought in the employment of the Holy Sigmarite settled in the colony of Adler an Zee. Lured initially but the region’s warmer climes, the Ogres found frontier life suited their adventurous nature.

Now that the Empire goes to war the Ogres find themselves called upon once again to fight in the name of Sigmar. The Alptraums have always proved reliable clients who pay on time, in turn for which the Ogres have time and again shown themselves staunch soldiers whose loyalty (at least to the Imperial Treasury) can always be counted upon.

But the Drazkharov shadow reaches far indeed – as the Ogres prepare to set sail from Ulrichshafen, further up the River Tiban the fortress town of Scorcio may yet prove the dagger at their back.

KARAK HARAZ

Centuries ago it was the Dwarves who toppled the ancient empire of Aquila in the bitter conflict recorded in Dwarf history as The Ghoul Wars. Few veterans still live who remember that time, but the memory of the atrocities and cruelty perpetrated by the vampire regime lingers still in the Dwarf psyche.

With Aquila’s descendants rising to power in the Holy Sigmarite Empire the Dwarves are compelled to act, lest the hardships and losses suffered in The Ghoul Wars prove to have been for naught. Perhaps more pressing, the Dwarf settlement of Karak Haraz lies scant leagues from the Drazkharov stronghold of the Krähefort. With the undead armies massing in the shadow of that forbidding citadel, can the Dwarves afford to ignore the threat?

MELLVELLON

The Dragon Lords of Mellvellon have seen their might tested and their resources drained by numerous decade-spanning wars against the Skaven hordes of Grey Seer Typhus. Yet, distant as they are from the crisis in the Holy Sigmarite Empire, the Elves still consider the Sigmarites as allies and friends. They cannot turn a blind eye in an hour of need.

Some sceptics pose a more cynical slant on Mellvellon’s interest, suggesting that the Elves simply wish to maintain a political balance and a strong Empire in the west to preserve their own foreign interests and keep in check the power of their dark cousins of Lamentation. Whatever their true motivation, Mellvellon nevertheless sends what troops she can spare to fight for the cause of House Alptraum in defence of the Empire.

The Battle of the Chapel

As Ivan ravages Pellenar his cousin, Count Viktor Drazkharov, marches his own rebel army into Dortland, with the infamous Black Knights of The Grimholt forming the steel-clad vanguard.

Viktor descends on Gross Dortbeck, with the aim of securing a southern base of supply at the mouth of the Great Cannaur River. The threat posed to Galamory and Sudhafen cannot be ignored by imperial forces and the army of Sudhafen, led by the Steel Count Toumas von Schaffernacker, moves east to intercept the rebels. Count Toumas blocks Viktor’s advance at the village of Mittelhamm, using the houses and the local chapel to garrison his troops and so turns the town into a make-shift fort.

Viktor’s attack is ferocious, his rebel army supported by undead beasts. As the battle unfolds, capture of the Chapel proves crucial; the commanding position acts as a redoubt from which a large contingent of the imperial forces can mount sorties against the undead lines before they regroup back behind the safety of the walls. Viktor’s assault is supported by shrieking bat-winged terrors wheeling in the grey skies above, borne upon tattered black wings suffused with dark magicks. Below, the Steel Count’s knights charge through the cobbled streets, and the renowned Greatswords of Sudhafen clash in bitter hand-to-hand fighting with marauding ghouls that try to storm over the walls of the graveyard.

The battle ends in a decisive victory for the Drazkharovs when, after hours of sorties and repulsed assaults, Viktor’s troops surround the Chapel and put the buildings and the grounds to the torch, burning the few remaining devout Sigmarite warriors who steadfastly refuse to flee. The imperial cavalry, unable to break the encirclement, can only look on helplessly as the town goes up in flames.

With his army almost destroyed and his son Rickard badly wounded, Toumas withdraws west to the safety of Sudhafen, leaving open the road to Gross Dortbeck. Viktor wasted no further time and quickly moved south to invest the town.

Frightened locals flee their homes at the sight of Drazkharov banners appearing on the horizon. The terror of the Drazkharov Rebellion strikes deep into the Imperialist southern provinces.

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.