Background Fluff of Necromortis’ Deathly Host

Part I-A Beginning on Necromortis

Very little is known of the vile creature Necromortis.  The Empire’s Dukes and noblemen only recognized his existence when he led his dread crusade against the province of Nuln.  The poor citizens of that province still tremble at his name, though none are old enough to remember his deeds.  My most noble Emperor, upon your command I have spent the last year and a half researching this beast so that you and your generals can better assess the rising threat of the Vampire Count Necromortis.

In the great tomes of the ancient land Khermi I discovered that Necromortis studied underneath the great Necrarch vampire W’soran, the very vampire that all Necrarchs claim decent from.  According to these evil tomes, W’soran bestowed upon his best pupil the Blood Kiss, the specifics of which I have written about in the past.

It came to the time that the city of Nehekhara was destroyed, and Necromortis was forced to flee with his brethren for his life.  It is said that Necromortis had the wits to bring his copy of the Book of Nagash and the dread Liber Mortis.  It is said he fled for decades, and finally collapsed deep in the heart of a civilization which would later become the Empire.  In the heart of the forest, Necromortis fell into a deep slumber for an uncounted number of years at the edge of a vast glade.

When he awoke, he was ravished with hunger and blood lust.  Such is the hunger of a vampire that Necromortis killed every living creature in a three mile radius around the glade.  Once his thirst was sated, he explored the great tower and accompanying fortress in the middle of the glade.  Once he had established that it was empty, he decided to make it his home.  After all, it was as good a place as any.

Drunk with the blood of hundreds of animals, Necromortis stumbled into the crypt, deep underneath the fortress, and only had time to raise a few skeleton guards before he fell into a stupor.  Little is known about his life after that point, as the book suddenly stops, the remaining pages covered with blood.  We can only assume that the scribe who followed Necromortis was killed when the vampire awoke, and the book lost.

Part II-The Nuln Crusade

On the subject of his crusade against Nuln, I know little.  It was over fifty years before my time.  I do, however, know the basic facts.  Talebheim was in the middle of winter when it was suddenly assailed by a vast force of Undead, and village after village fell, swelling the ranks of the evil army.

Dukes callously ignored Talebheim’s pleas for help, thinking that the vacant space of Emperor (who was assassinated soon before the crusade) would be more easily attained if there were less Dukes to compete against.  By some stroke of fate, the Undead army did not raze Talebheim’s capitol to the ground, and instead marched right past it, crossing the border into Nuln.

Villages once more fell, and soon villages led to towns and than towns to cities.  It seemed the undead horde was unstoppable.  This time, however, the Elector Counts answered Nuln’s cry for help, and Ostland, led by their Count, marched to war.  And so it happened that the combined forces of Nuln and Ostland met Necromortis head on in battle.

The Elector Counts’ army was fighting well, when Ostland’s count, whose name has since been lost, saw Necromortis enter a cathedral’s crypt, which was near the site of the battle.  Taking his son, the count jumped at the chance to kill the monstrosity away from his minions, they followed Necromortis into the crypt.  They arrived in time to see Necromortis lift a massive chest single-handedly and hand it to his retinue of bodyguards.

The count’s son foolishly charged in alone, and was easily dispatched by some foul sorcery uttered by Necromortis.  The Elector Count of Ostland this and wept, for he was too far away to save his son.  As Necromortis advanced outside, the undead force retreated, and marched back through Talebheim, and back into the forest, eluded pursuers, and vanished for forty years from the eyes of the Empire.  To this day no one knows what was in the chest recovered from the crypt, and personally, I don’t want to know.

Part III-Closing

It is assumed that Necromortis gave the so-called Blood Kiss to one of his necromantic pupils after the crusade against Nuln, as when Necromortis was next sighted he was accompanied by the Vampire Tenek, an accomplished wizard and Necromancer in his own right.  Two Vampires of the Necrarch bloodline working together is very rare, almost unheard of, and poses a very large threat to the Empire.

Ever since you came into power my Emperor, it seems Necromortis has been gathering his strength, launching campaigns against Talebheim, Midenheim, Stirland, and Ostland in order to capture magical artifacts and dread books devoted to the black art of Necromancy.  It also seems that wherever he goes, he enslaves groups of people and takes them back to his lair alive, and I speculate that Necromortis and Tenek use these sorry souls as subjects for their mad experiments.  I fear for the Empire if these vampires launch another crusade against the Empire, especially in these troubled times.

On Dwarfish Experiments

            Dwarves seem a very good subject to practice techniques on, but Tenek noted that they are quite useless for anything else.  Both he and I have abandoned our research on lizards and their opportunities in favor of this challenge.

            It seems that Dwarves are very headstrong, and after modifying them they seem to die off, either by suicide of some odd mechanism in their bodies.  They then seem to decay much faster than a normal human.  I suspect is has something to do with the modification process, most likely the preserving balm provokes a reaction in the body.

            I have to experiment more, but I believe that freezing the Dwarf until it has died and then raising it seems to help.  Unfortunately, this does mean you have to deal with the stupidest Zombies there are, but I have discovered the psychological advantage over other dwarves is more than enough reward.  It seems that dwarves react even more strongly than humans when they see their own kind fighting as undead soldiers.

            I will have to get some more subjects, as I am running low, but I have been toying with the idea of grafting bat wings to the dwarves.  There are a few limitations that arose however.  The first is finding bat’s wings that a larger wingspan, about three feet.  I had to bargain with that stupid Von Carstein, Mannfred, for a large supply of bats.  He wanted necromantic secrets!  I ended up giving him a bit of armor.  He’s quite stupid.  I would never wear it anyway.  Well, in any case, I did get the bats.

            The second problem is that the dwarves’ muscle mass is so large that the wings grafted to the backs were often broken because they were being put under too much strain.  It took several tries to find the correct amount of muscle to take out, but find it I did.  It’s a good idea to keep in mind that you should remove about three handfuls worth of muscle, otherwise the wings won’t work.

            As a closing point, I’d like to add that grafting claws to the dwarves’ fingers and adding the muscle removed from the back to the lower arms creates a much more effective warrior.

On Reptilian Experiments

            Reptiles seem to be the ideal subjects for modification, especially if you are using parts of the lizard to add to other creatures.  However, finding the correct reptilian subjects proves to be very difficult.  The first difficulty is size.  The Lizardmen of Lustria are of optimal size, but they are quite hard to find.  All other lizards seem to be much to small.  However, their poison is quite lethal, and can be put to good use.

            If you do manage to get your hands on a Lizardman, there are several very interesting things that you can do.  However, if you only have one or two subjects, it is a much better idea to use the parts of these lizards to modify other subjects.  In fact, modifying Lizardmen isn’t the best idea, as their rarity makes their parts to valuable to waste.

            The lizards that can be found in the deserts of Araby are of a stature that donates them to giving parts to other subjects as well.

On Modifying Humans

Zombies are incredibly annoying.  If I were given a choice, I would hardly ever raise Zombies, preferring to raise Skeletons.  However, in some circumstances, Zombies make an excellent choice for mundane tasks.  I therefore have compiled some ideas for modification, so the Zombies aren’t quite as weak, and aren’t quite as boring.