Covasna Caverns
"How dare you demand negotiations, Drac. We have no quarrel so there is nothing to discuss."
"It's you, Stefan, who's inspiring the Hoia werewolves to madness. Your impatience will bring nothing but butchery and destruction to monsters."
"Butchery and destruction befalls the weak. And I am never weak."
"If anything happens to my vampires you will feel both. I still hold Sighismund's Black Blade. Give me a reason to fillet you with it!"
Prelude
In 1792, the
Habsburg Empire was at war with France who was invading its Austrian Netherlands territories. The Habsburg need for more soldiers drew away much of the
County Governors' armies in Transylvania, allowing dissenters within Transylvania to come together.
When the war ended in the Treaty of Campo in 1797, the Governors were at first relieved at the return of their soldiers but that quickly turned to disappointment at their meager numbers. Dissenters at first went quiet but when it became very clear that the numbers of soldiers would not be built up any further, dissention began to rise in pockets of rebellion.
With the humans distracted by war,
Stefan-cel-Mare II, began to see an opportunity. Reduced to a mere baron since the Habsburgs gained rulership over Transylvania, decided it was time to take back Cluj County that had once been under his rule centuries earlier. Reduced to living in what was nothing more than minor redoubt on a hill and the empty rank of baron, he was not allowed more than two hands of soldiers. This was far too few to take back Cluj, but he had a plan.
Dracula and his vampires, their powers dependant on human blood, fiercely ensured other monsters did not deplete the human populations of Transylvania. Any direct assault would be challenged by them and Stefan did not want to bother with them. Let the beastmen tangle with the vmapires while he luxuriated and ruled Cluj in a his castle as he once had.
Stefan went into the Hoia Forest and forced Dominik Ripnu, High Hide of the Hoia Prime Werewolves, to launch an attack into the capital, Cluj-Napoca. He then sweetened things by offering the werewolves their choice of new territories beyond Hoia Forest as long as they never bothered travelers on the main road to Cluj-Napoca.
This was too big a task for one pack, so Ripnu had to call in the other packs. Their communicating howls rang through the entire forest and terrified the nearby towns for two day before all the packs were gathered in the Prime Pack's territory. Though they were all invited, tensions were high and each leader kept their respective pack camped well away from the others.
Word of these howls reached the Tugulan Conservatory and the vampires, who secretly work under its guise. Nicu Tugurlan, Baron of the Cluj Vampires, led a delegation to Hoia Forest in hopes of negotiating sense into the werewolves.
Battle
The Parley
The Prime Camp, where the leaders came together to plan, sat in the center surrounded by the other four camps. Traveling at night and under a storm cast by Baron Nicu, the delegation of thirty-eight vampires arrived at the Prime camp late in the afternoon.
Snarls errupted from the werewolf leaders but Baron Nicu explained that he was there merely to talk. He warned them that any massed assault by monsters would bring armies down upon them.
All the leaders snarled and Ripnu declared this to be a weak idea. Any show of weakness now and the other leaders would tear him apart.
Baron Nicu argued on but the snarls grew fiercer. Werewolves from the other camps heard their leaders' snarls and moved to watch from the edge of the Prime camp.
"Enough!" Ripnu snapped, his jaws slavering as he spat out words. "You have spoken. We answered. Leave. Now!"
"Very well, but give my words some thought." Baron Nicu turned to wave and nod to the rest of his deligation.
Iolanda Paler, despiser of vampires, leapt forward a single pace and roared. "Go!" Though she did not attack, her step triggered her watching pack to charge in.
"Ambush!" a vampire yelled and silver swords were drawn. The other packs, not wanting to be seen as cowardly or weak, attacked as well. There was no voice that could stop what was about to happen, and fate was carried out. Whether for ill or for gain, none would know for years to come.— Narcisa Chivu, Correspondent
The Combat
The South Pack charged in first but not before the ten vampire spawn and twenty vampires formed a circle of silver blades around Baron Nicu and the remaining seven vampires. Fueled by the tensions of all the Hoia Packs who were normally rivals so close together in a shaky peace, the South Pack never slowed or hesitated and hit the circle with full ferocity.
They slammed into blades that slew twelve werewolves right off. Three vampire spawn were torn to pieces before the first spells cast by the eight inner circle vampire struck the pack. Dark tendrils of drilling smoke pierced several werewolves, killing them. Their blood spiraled out and splashed into the wounds on the vampires, revitalizing them to carry on fighting.
West Pack was teh next pack to slam into the circle of vampires with snarls and a determination to out do South Pack. Again, the vampire circle held. The scent of blood filled the air in such an intoxicating aroma that the remaining three packs attacked without any thoughts beyond the need top tear apart vampires. The pack leaders, at first dismayed at this breach of monster parley, fell sway to the bloodied air. They howled their packs to fight on.
The numbers were too much and vampires began to fall. Still, the circle held, but slowly shrank ever closer to the Baron. Seeing the inevitable, Nicu turned to Sorine Ene, his second. She was the Lady of Secrets for the Cluj Vampires and a master at stealth. Sorine was their only hope of getting word to Dracula.
"Get to the carriages. Make all haste to get word to Dracula." Baron Nicu ordered Lady Sorine.
"But, my lord you-!"
"Only you have the skills to escape the weres, my dear. They are far too many and this is their forest." He waved a hand, and blood-draining tendrils skewered five werewolves that had burst through the circle of desperately fighting vampires. Another wave of his hand and the blood stolen from the now dead werewolves splashed into five wounded vampires, healing them. "We are lost here. Go!"
Hissing at the dead werewolves, Sorine turned back to Nicu. "I will avenge you."
She tossed up the hood of her cloak and her eyes gleamed red before fading from sight with the rest of her.— from 'The Moon Cried'
Baron Nicu looked to the sky as Sorine vanished. There was still daylight above his storm, though only minutes left before the sun set. He dared not the covering storm before Sorine reached the carriages. With fierce determination, he worked the blood magic within the circle while encouraging his vampires to kill as many werewolves as they could before falling in their turn.
The circle shrank as vmapires died, one by one. Soon, the others casting magic from within had to draw their swords and fight until it was only the Baron casting magic. It was then he ended the storm, revealing the day had turned to night. Un beknownst to all, Sorine had made good her escape and was racing away with the varriages. Finally he, too, had to draw his sword and fight. It was Dominik Ripnu, leader of Prime Pack and War Leader of the Werewolves who killed the Baron and howled victory.
Aftermath
With the vampire delegation destroyed, the werewolves grew confident in their war pack even though they spent spent the night and next day cleaning up the mess and healing. Three entire villages on the edge of the forest were killed to the last babe in order to feed all the werewolves back to full health.
The next night, they raced to Cluj-Napoca and swarmed through the city to the Governor's castle. The streets were uncommonly thin of folks wandering but this did not seem the least suspicious to Ripnu. Sorine had sent warning to the Governor and citizens that the werewolves were coming before gathering all the remaining vampires. She led them in an escape south to Dracula's castle in Bran while the werewolves fed on villagers.
The warnings went unheeded by the governor and it was a terrible masacre within the castle. As the werewolves howled yet another victory, Stefan-cel-mare II in his human form, charged from the secret escape tunnel in the cellars with four and twenty musketeers armed with silver bullets. Forced to retreat, Dominik and his werewolves swore revenge on the dragon as they retreated back to Hoia Forest. Within the city, Stefan was hailed a hero by both Protestant and Catholic alike.
In Hoia, the War Pack broke up back into their original five. In the days and weeks that followed, each pack claimed a portion of the county as theirs. Peace between all werewolves and vampires frayed and conflicts broke out between them over the next few decades in a dastardly monster war.
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