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| The Undead Battleline |
The lord of Miladra,
Count Alejandro Dragovicz, had gone northeast with his forces to
besiege the lands of Eglixus, the Chaos Lord of Tzeentch. At the same
time the Red General, Count Leonardo Dragovicz, had traveled west
with his army, the Red Lance, to invade the newly arrived empire
forces under Arch Lector Kaslain. This left Countess Lena Dragovicz
in command of the defenses of the entire city-state with only her
personal battalion. The Lithrum Castle Battalion was usually
stationed around the countess' personal domicile, and mostly used for
local defense or Lena's numerous missions to obtain objects of
magical interest. Now however it roamed the entire country from
Lithrum Castle and the newly claimed mine to the north, to Miladra
Castle and the recently built Wizard Tower known as Axis Mortis to
the south. Lena Dragovicz had at first been most displeased with this
arranging of assignments, but hadn't had much time to grief, before
the country was attacked.
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| The orcish Horde |
The Savage Orc Great
Shaman Morgor – the Green prophet of Gork – believed Gork had
called him to invade their northern enemy, Miladra, and so he had
amassed his orcish hordes and charged over the country borders bound
for Castle Miladra itself. Countess Lena Dragovicz engaged the orcs
at the tower Duskspire, knowing that whoever controlled the tower
effectively controlled the southern region. The vampire's plan was
simple: Get into the tower with her two necromancers: Prof. Nietzsche
and Dr. Schopenhauer and a horde of zombies, and from there simply
create a wall of dead meat, impregnable to any enemy, while casting
destructive dark magic on the orcs outside the tower. Regiments of
Skeleton Warriors and Grave Guards had also been brought, along with
several Spirit Hosts, Fell Bats, the countess' personal transport;
the Black Coach and a sinister Mortis Engine to empower the vampire's
magic.
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| Big 'Un Horde |
The orcs did not come
unprepared either. At the center of the horde marched a giant
regiment of tattooed Savage Orcs wielding clubs and wearing pelt.
This formidable foe was accompanied by the Green Prophet Morgor
himself, and several of his lieutenants. Alongside this mighty savage
horde was another great regiment of Orcs armed with multiple crudely
made weapons. There was also a smaller unit of Goblins clad in black
robes, protecting the flank of the savages. The entire army was
joined by several Orc and Goblin chariots, a few Spider Riders and
Artillery aplenty.
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| The Battlefield |
As the armies closed in
on each other the countess', the two necromancers and the horde of
zombies made for the tower with all haste, and quickly seized it. The
three magic users went to the roof of the tower alongside a Banshee,
leaving the zombie hordes to hold the lower levels. Already while the
army marched forth the newly dead had begun to stir in their graves
and rise from the ground, and as the countess' claimed the tower,
scores of freshly risen zombies scrambled to join her. The remaining
parts of the army advanced slowly to secure the flanks of the tower.
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| The Zombies attack the orcish artillery |
Morgor, realizing he
was too late to claim the tower, ordered his forces onwards, aiming
straight for the tower with his personal regiment of Savage Orcs,
which forced them to march through a heavily wooded area under
magical bombardment from the vampire and necromancers in the tower.
The newly dead started rising among the orcish ranks, causing the
regiment of Night Goblins to unleash their concealed fanatics in the
middle of the orc army. These did however manage to smash into the
scrambling zombies, before flying off into the horizon. But newly
animated zombies kept crawling up from underneath to assault the
orcish artillery line. Morgor decided to abandon the catapults and
ordered the horde of Big 'Un orcs to charge the undead Grave Guards,
while he and the savages lead the siege of the Duskspire Watchtower.
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| The Big 'Uns clash with the Undead |
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| The Savage Orcs assault the tower |
This proved much more
challenging than first expected. Inside the Tower were more zombies
than Morgor had ever seen before. They lied stacked on one another on
the ground level, and several were still coming in through the
windows. The savage orcs roared with pleasure as they charged into
the meat-wall, tearing zombie after zombie apart, losing very few
orcs in the process. However Morgor soon realized that even with his
best orcs killing like dragons, there were still too many of the
living dead, and the ones brought down soon rose again, animated by
necromantic powers. The sheer mass of the zombies forced the orcs out
of the tower entirely several times. At the same time the other orc
horde was performing well against the Grave Guards, taking down the
elite skeletons, but soon found themselves overwhelmed by newly
arrived Skeleton Warriors and the Mortis Engine. On the other side of
the tower a small group of zombies had also been empowered by the
necromantic powers, and now proved a solid wall of rotting meat
slowing advancing.
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| The countess atop the tower |
Countess Lena Dragovicz
watched in amusement as the savage orcs threw themselves against the
zombie on the lower levels of the tower while she continued to rain
death upon the savage orcs in the form of the dreaded “Curse of
Years”. Then suddenly the orcs flooded out of the tower and charged
the other group of zombies. Following this clash the Savage orcs,
lead by Morgor and his lieutenants, swooped around the battlefield,
picking fights with the remaining forces of the undead. Even though
they brought down most of the vampiric forces, still taking heavy
casualties, the central tower proved unassailable to the orcs. At
this time only the savage horde and its commanders remained of the
orcish horde, and Morgor regretfully ordered them to pull back. As
the frustrated savage orcs turned south away from the tower, Morgor
himself turned around to eye the countess in the tower and roared:
“Next time you won't be so lucky, vampire!” and let out a
majestic roar, before turning around and leaving furious. The
countess had a feeling that some new hatred had been awoken in the
orcs towards her forces that might come back to bite...
Scouring the
battlefield afterwards the undead forces found enough material to
craft a magical feedback scroll, which was sure to come in handy.
