#84 Crusaders of the Rose

February 02, 2022

#84 Crusaders of the Rose

"Still no sign of the vargheists?"

"No Sir Jean," replied Kastellan Stercus of the Templars Ascendent. The Blood Knights were standing guard atop a towering, treacherous cliff looking down upon Ghurish plains from an impossible height. Each vampiric warrior personally recruited and tested in combat by the Pontifex himself, the Templars had been crusading here for many months now, prosecuting the Way of the Rose among the barbarian tribes of the Realm of Beasts.

Templars Ascendent, Blood Knights

Kastellan Stercus of the Templars Ascendent

Sir Jean de Majeure chuckled grimly. "His Holiness will not be pleased. Especially in light of the Ophanim's previous absences."

He stepped away from the brink and strode back through the campaigners' village of tents towards the magnificent red and black canvas palace of the Pontifex Surrexit. In truth, Sir Jean knew full well where the vargheists were, and why. And indeed why the Ophanim had briefly disappeared. He knew a great many things that the Pontifex did not, but the Lord-General would not learn then from Sir Jean. For the Pontifex was not de Majeure's true master. No, Sir Jean was ringleader of the Brotherhood of Mannfred and his one true allegiance was to the Mortarch of Night.

It was common knowledge among the crusade's forces that the three vargheists known as the Evils of Voltaire had formerly been Kant, Locke & Rousseau, Blood Knights of the Order of the Blood-Drenched Rose. Less well known was that they had been created by their former leader Lord Voltaire in his effort to escape punishment by Neferata. A futile gesture, for she had turned the Vampire Lord into a Wight and the rest of his entourage into deathrattle horsemen. Voltaire the Mortified, his Errant Knights and his Three Evils had then been banished from Nulahmia and sent back to serve Neferata's agents in Barfunweltz. They had since become thralls of the Pontifex Surrexit and joined his crusade. But the Pontifex was unaware that the Vargheists remained closely bound to Neferata's servant Lady Beauvoir. Nor did he know that they were with her at this moment, assisting in her assault on a Dawnbringer Crusade.

Sir Jean de Majeure, Vampire Lord

Sir Jean knew all this because another member of the Brotherhood of Mannfred had inveigled herself into Lady Beauvoir's inner circle - the Bloody Pilgrims. Tes had recently sent news of Beauvoir's intriguing necromantic experiments, and of her coven's siege of the nascent Sigmarite city of Salas Nova from within as well as without. He was as yet uncertain how the Brotherhood should respond. If Beauvoir failed it mattered not, but should she make Salas Nova her own, a cursed city of dregs and thralls would truly magnify her power and influence. Yet if Tes could then usurp her as leader of the Bloody Pilgrims, that power would be stolen for the Legion of Night.

He was also cognsicent of a warning from his agent Boritz that, with Lady Beauvoir distracted by Salas Nova, on the other side of Barfun Moor the Noble House of Heisenberg was moving to eclipse her influence. The Heisenbergs were a proud, ancient and complacent Vyrkos house, but Bortiz had informed him that they were under pressure from other members of that bloodline to raise their status.

As Sir Jean approached the pavilion, he could clearly sense the presence of both the vampire potentate and his spectral dragon. The Pontifex liked to think of the Ophanim as 'his', yet Sir Jean knew the mighty beast actually answered to the Elohiim Lord of Hosts. Khammron of the Brotherhood of Mannfred was close to the mad Vengorian and reported regularly. Some months ago the Ophanim had absented itself for a period of time and when it returned it bore fresh battle scars and an aura that suggested it had been back in Barfunweltz. The Blood Knight who made this observation had swiftly suffered the Pontifex's lethal wrath so the issue had not been raised in the Lord-General's presence again. The news of the vargheists's absence would be similarly enraging, so Sir Jean carefully affected an air of nervousness for the sake of appearances. In reality he had no fear of the Pontifex, for de Majeure understood that knowledge is power. He knew that most of the Pontifex's forces answered to other masters, and that the crusaders would soon be forced to return to Barfunwleltz. He also suspected that when the Pontifex finally met Elohim he would recognise his blood sire Lord El of the Legion of Night. Oh yes, in the end, the threads all ran back to Mannfred von Carstein.

Sir Jean de Majeure was ushered into the great pavilion by another Templar Ascendent. Bowing his head to hide his smirk, he knelt before his Liege, the majestic Pontifex Surrexit, Lord-General of the Crusaders of the Rose. So grand, so arrogant... so ignorant.