In the beginning, there was this young lad …
In the beginning of this tale, there was this young lad Mannfred, the son of a fur trapper in the County of Averland. His mother died giving birth to him, and his father did not make much money those days, so he had a hard and poor existence. He never knew presents, like the kids in the towns and castles did on their birthday or on special occasions, and he always had to work.
One day in the beginning of winter, he was collecting the animals from the traps his father had set. There weren’t much that winter day, and his feet already felt frozen from walking through the snow. He really wanted to go home to the warm fire, when suddenly his instincts told him to hide. There was this man stumbling through the forest, one heavily bleeding arm in a strange angle, still holding his broken sword, leaving a darkish red track in the snow. Mannfred just came out of his cover to come to aid, when he spotted several pairs of red eyes in the distance. Wolves, following the blood-track !
Quickly he guided the man to his father’s cottage at the edge of the forest, dropping some caught small animals here and there to distract the wolves. In this way, they managed to escape the pack.
As soon as they were in the cottage with the door closed, the man collapsed on the floor. The boy wanted to help him, so he tried to tip him on his back, when he suddenly realized the teeth of the man were not normal.
Before Mannfred could blink an eye, the vampire reached out and plunged his teeth in the neck of the young lad. The last thing that went through his mind was “what in the name of …”
Those strange feelings …
When Mannfred opened his eyes, he only thought “… Holy Sigmar”, since he did not realize anymore what happened. After the first blurry moments, he saw his father on the floor, dead. Not knowing what to do, he ran to the priest in the village. By entering the small temple of Sigmar, his skin started itching, but he did not pay much attention to this, as most people wouldn’t in such situations.
The priest examined his father to find out that a vampire killed him. Still, Mannfred did not realize what had happened.
After his father’s funeral, the 15-year old Mannfred went back home, and started to take over the business his father used to do. However, after a month or so, he noticed normal food did not fulfill his hunger anymore, but he was afraid to ask anybody what to do. One night, when the full moon was shining its silver light through the trees, Mannfred could no longer resist the hunger, and left the cottage to dwell through the woods.
Somewhere in the forest lived a lumberjack, supplying wood to the local carpentry. By chance, Mannfred found himself at the doorstep of his house, knocking on the door. His wife opened the door, and led young Mannfred inside, as she thought his shivering was because of the freezing cold outside. But as soon as she turned her back to him, he rushed to her, and lavished his hunger by the blood sucked from her neck. In a last act before death, she stabbed him - frequently being alone at home, the woman always carried a small dagger – in the forehead.
For a normal 15-year old, this would lead to a quick death, but Mannfred managed to get back to his cottage, too astonished by the act he did. When he came back to his senses, the wound was already partially healed. The lumberjack, finding his wife killed by a vampire, told the priest, and he remembered the death of Mannfred’s father, so they took the city guard and went off for an investigation at Mannfred’s place. When the boy saw them coming, he realized he would be recognized as the killer by the wound in his head, so he fled into the woods. His last thoughts on Averland soil was “where the heck did I learn to run so fast ?”, he still did not know what changed him …
Apprentice for revenge...
After several days of running and hiding, he came to the eastern edge of the woods, and saw the grey mountains in east of the empire for the first time in his life, not knowing what to expect. He only knew he had to run as far away as possible from home. This is how he ran into a bunch of skaven. When they attacked him, Mannfred managed to bite one to a sudden death. But the taste of the skaven flesh was so horrific that he was overwhelmed easily, not wanting to bite another one and not knowing how to defend himself otherwise.
They started to dreg him to their lair
in a mountain cave, probably to feast upon him after hours of cruel torturing,
when they were attacked from the rear. Before they could blink an eye, the
first two skaven fell by the blade of an unknown warrior, the third one found
himself on the receiving end of the deadly steel after a very brief fight, and
the other two ran away, “going to look for help”, as skaven oft do.
With a fatherly smile, the warrior introduced himself as Gerhard rachZahn, Vampire and Count of DrachenSloss. He embraced Mannfred as if it were his son, while the boy could only just stand there out of pure fear. Slowly the knowledge dripped into Mannfred’s mind. “This guy was the one I helped in the woods the other day, he killed my father, and gave me the Kiss of Death !”.
Having seen the agility of Gerhard, Mannfred knew he could not take revenge now. But he also knew he could not go back to his old home. He also could not stay in these mountains, infested with skaven and who knows what else, so the only option left to him was to do what Gerhard asked him : join the vampire nobility of DrachenSloss to become one of Gerhards Thralls.
During daylight, Mannfred carried out the wishes of the centuries older vampires, since they all feared the sun. Mannfred did not fear the sun, because he only changed very slowly into a vampire. The Death Kiss, given by a badly wounded vampire, is not that powerful. In return, the other vampires taught Mannfred all the abilities to become a real Blood Dragon Vampire, the bloodline of Gerhard and his minions. He became an expert swordsman, and he learned how to wake the dead to fight for him. He also took part in some small battles against everything Gerhard felt as a threat to his reign over his part of Sylvania.
One day, he came across a company of witch hunters, hired by the king of the halflings, to stop the raids of the vampires into his County. A bold plan started to grow in Mannfred’s mind. He lured the brave men into the dark caves of the DrachenSloss, where all the vampires hide from the sun. Most of the vampires, including Gerhard, were resting in their tombs, and so were killed by surprise. They never suspected Mannfred to betray them, because he was one of them. The cries of the dying kings of the night alarmed the last vampires, who managed to kill the witch hunters. Unfortunately for Mannfred, the look of pure revenge on his face showed the surviving vampires who initiated this massacre, and they turned completely frenzy. They just wanted Mannfred to pay for his deeds. So Mannfred had to flee again, the sunlight saving his life for the last time …
A place to stay overnight...
Now that he grew stronger, he took the risk to flee into the mountains. Indeed, he met some skaven and some wild animals, but they were quickly sent to their respective heavens. However, few people lived in the mountains, so after a few weeks of dwelling, he could not resist to feed upon a lonesome dwarf ranger. The blood actually tasted good ! The impact of a crossbow arrow in his arm however didn’t. Quickly taking cover, he saw several dwarf rangers attacking him. Now that fighting was more of an instinct to Mannfred, he took them out in no time, only to discover that the rangers had alarmed a regiment of hammerers. This was a little too much, so he had to keep on running. This time, he ignored his hunger until he reached the land of Bretonnia.
He had just put his first steps into Bretonnia, when Jacques du Petit Chateau, a questing knight looking for the Holy
Grail, challenged him. To make the challenge fair, Jacques dismounted and threw
his shield aside. “Piece of cake”, thought Mannfred, but after half an hour,
Jacques was still standing, barely wounded, while Mannfred was covered in
scars. It made him so outrageous, that the bloodline powers of the
Blood Dragon
Vampire really started to make their way ! His agility and strength grew
enormously during the following minutes, and he struck the knight down in a
whirling dance of pure steel.
If all men in Bretonnia were that strong, he needed some allies or he would die soon. Alas, he already killed Jacques, so he could not make another vampire out of him. However, he learned some spells to wake the dead ! So he transformed Jacques into his first servant, Wight Lord Jacques du Petit Chateau. Due to the looks of Jacques and the pain of daylight, they could only travel by night and hide during the day.
They dwelled for a long time through the Bretonnian lands, feeding upon the poor souls that risked walking alone outside in the dark. After another few years, Mannfred and his companion reached the outskirts of Moussillon, at a time when the city was already struck by pestilence. Here, Mannfred searched the city for a place to call “home”. On one of his quests, the vampire and his Wight came upon a necromancer, who just happened to discover a considerable quantity of magical artifacts from a former Bretonnian palace. But he would be dead in a few moments, hunted by a party of orcs. By now, killing an orc was easy, so they all ended up in a nice pile of green. By the sight of this, the necromancer – also known as Fritz Aschenbrennerpass - did the only thing he could do to save his life, and swore to serve Mannfred.
With their combined forces, it was easy to expel a necrarch vampire from his tomb, just to take over his tomb and grave yard full of nice new servants. Finally, Mannfred had found a place to safely put down his head during the day.
The glorious days...
In the following decennia, Mannfred and his first warband were able to hold their ground against many attacks, slowly increasing in population by converting some of their foes into friends with the help of Fritz. One other thing Fritz created was a false Grail filled with venomous potions, but with the odor of fresh daisies on a beautiful spring morning. Many Questing Knights who drank from the Grail in believe they would be blessed for eternity, found themselves as rank and file troopers in the regiment of Chevaliers du Graal Tenebreux, Mannfred’s Black Knights. At least they got the eternity-bit …
Now and then, Mannfred still did fight an interesting challenge with Bretonnian Knights or others, and if they were really good, they received the Kiss of Death. Mannfred was now an unmatched vampire, so the Kiss immediately twisted the knight’s brain, burning out all good that was ever inside.
So, my dear Michaëll, that’s the story of our ever-living Grand Master Mannfred, who established the DrachZahn Family here in Moussillon more then 500 years ago. He gave me the Kiss after the battle near Charlemontagne and you received it just now, lad. So follow me and be grateful, since I saved you from drinking from that Grail you still hold in your hands …
