Nemesis Crown Campaign: Battle 6

Vampire Counts
Due to his successes in battle, Byron Manfred's undead army continued to grow as word of his victories spread. He was soon joined by a much more powerful necromancer, and was taken as his apprentice. There was much for Bryon to learn from this new ally, and his necromantic skills continued to improve. His army was also joined by the ancient spirit of a long dead king, a powerful wight lord with mighty magical artifacts. This had been the great power that Byron had sensed in the burial ground he had discovered.

Unfortunately Duke Tepes, Byron's vampire thrall ally, left the army temporarily to pursue the upstart Bretonnian hero who had fought him to a draw. Tepes would not rest until he had tested in skills in a rematch with the Bretonnian. But Byron continued his search for the crown without Tepes, and with a larger army thanks to his new necromancer master.

His search soon brought him into conflict with a large beastman army that ambushed and attacked his undead force. The army included many chaos warriors and beastmen, and some larger monsters such as ogres and several dragon ogres. It was an intimidating force. But Byron, by now quite experienced in battle, was able to out-maneuver and eliminate the attacking beastmen piece by piece. The army was aided a great deal by the new master necromancer and his powerful magical abilities.

Byron managed to keep his army away from the powerful group of dragon ogres, partly thanks to the intervention of some drunken centigors who, seeing the dragon ogres from behind, must have mistaken them for some particularly butch but not completely unattractive female centigors. To add injury to insult, the master necromancer managed to cast a powerful necromantic spell on the dragon ogres, causing them to age unnaturally. Of course he must not have known that dragon ogres are immortal, so they would never age to the point of death, and growing old only makes them more powerful. These facts would later come back to haunt Byron in a future battle when the humiliated and infuriated dragon ogres returned for revenge.

But for the time being, what was left of the decimated and leaderless beastman army would have to retreat in the fact of the overwhelming undead hoard that remained. And Byron had some time to continue his search for the crown, and to study with his new master.