When our forces reached Twinbriar Monastery, our Khainite allies warned us that the Forces of Ruin where already scouring the land, trying to find Thyria’s Bane. As expected from their arrogant ilk, they had split up and were each desecrating the holy site in search for the Horn of Famine. The plan of our coalition was to split up and intercept the warbands, as cutting off the limbs of a Spawn. Our forces would join the Sunspire Lumineth to intercept one of the greatest and most feared warlords: The Blazing Corruption. Our overwhelming forces would have given us a clear advantage, but due to the dense foliage surrounding Twinbriar Monastery prevented our full strength to be brought to bear. As such, me and the hurricanum, the Wildercorps and our auxiliary forces had to stay behind. While we secured camp, we heard the roars of great beasts and the clashing of steel from miles away. Yet onto us was left the agonizing fate of awaiting whether our leaders’ valour would triumph.
It was only when Ulgu descended upon Thyria that our allies returned. Stormcast and Lumineth returned, bloodied and grim. Both me, Sorceress Loviatar, and Runelord Lugash were summoned immediately to the tent of Rhun Anshe, Lord-Veritant of the Dawnbreakers. I will not hide my dread when we entered her presence, for the Lord-Veritants are the beings of unveiled truth, only interacting with the mortal sigmarites when secrets need to be pried out of someone. It was as if I entered the lair of a tiger. And I was indeed right; what transpired in the Lord-Veritant’s tent mortally struck my soul.
Inside the tent, Lord-Veritant Rhun was sitting with her hands upon her sword, her blinded face not facing our presence. Around her stood Executor Arsha, holding the infamous Lantern of Abjuration, together with a few Liberators and Vanari Bladelords, who followed our steps like hawks. We bowed to the Dawnbreakers and asked with both interest and dread what the outcome of the battle was and where Marshal Vytautas was so we could tend to him. Lord Rhun replied in a voice clear and cold as the winds of Andtor that the day was won, though at the highest cost. That Marshal Vytautas was slain alongside Traiden, Belkaria, An-Zashtra, and many others both mighty and meek. When I thought my blood had frozen in my veins, the words of Arsha, mercilessly clear, continued that we were summoned because the fight was nearly lost when Vytautas forsook Sigmar and gave himself and his cavaliers to the Forces of Ruin. It felt as if my spirit fell into the Krakensea as Arsha continued talking.
The forces of Torvil and the Sunspire Expedition force has encircled The Blazing Corruption, with Lysanthir leading the Vanari and Steelhelms on the left flank while Vytautas would charge in with the Cavaliers and the Glory Seeker. Yet, when the trap was sprung, it was revealed that the vile demons of Khorne had been able to summon K’Harzash, a monstrous Bloodthirster who was even amongst his violent kin known as a force of insatiable bloodshed. He towered over all, and with his gaze, the followers of Khorne fought with greater intensity, either out of zealotry or of the dread for their overlord’s ire.
When the Lumineth were spotted, K’Harzash roared and two of his fellow Bloodthirsters descended upon Lysanthir and his host of aelves and sigmarites. The arrows of the Aurelian Sentinels seemed to hinder them little as the greater demons struck upon their ranks, killing many as their savage blows ripped open the earth. Many a brave soldier was tossed aside as if they were but broken dolls, or were eviscerated by the gigantic axes and flails that smashed and cleaved through the tight ranks. Yet, Lysanthir and his companion Elladan stood defiant in this onslaught. Alongside the surviving Wardens and Sentinels, they struck fiercely back, and with the aid of the swift Gold-Blooded Squadron, they were able to even slay one of the Bloodthirsters, the light of Hysh driving it from this realm.
It was here that the charge was sounded from the east. Marshal Vytautas led his coursers from the thicket, supported by the surviving dawnriders who had used their magic to appear on their side. Upon seeing the charging sigmarites, Kromnund and Scezhan rallied their Bloodletters in a frenzied counter charge. At the forest’s edge, both forces clashed. Demonic blades and brass fangs met masterly forged weapons and iron-shod hooves. Many cavaliers fell, but the blockade was smashed, and the Dawn Heralds entered the courtyard, with Vytautas taking off into the skies again.
It was then that K’Harsash found it: the faultline of the Twinbriar Stormvault. With a mighty howl of fury, he drove his enormous axe into the faultline, shaking the surrounding land with violent tremors. The Blazing Corruption had found the exact location of Thyria’s Bane. Roaring triumphantly, he soared up, leading his warriors away from the battlefield.
It cannot be said for sure what broke Vytautas. He was a Marshal who was sent by his home city, threatened by the Plague warriors of Nurgle, to a warfront far out of his control. He had lost his fortress, many battles against the forces of chaos, and even the champions of Sigmar had shown themselves to have little mercy towards the mortal followers of Sigmar. Even the other cities deemed his arsenal outdated and in need of replacement. I think this accumulation led to him turning his griffon around. He flew over his men, shouting them to drop their banners of Sigmar. How He had abandoned the living, and was nothing but a tyrant. That they had carried the burden of the meek on their shoulders, so it should be they who rule over all instead of distant men in lone towers, that they should scour the plains of Ghyran of all decline, both Nurglite and Sigmarite. Vytautas had succumbed to the Vermindoom.
It has to be said that not all Cavaliers fell to despair, wroth, and greed. Traiden, the Cavalier-Marshal who had risen from the ranks, urged his fellow knights to not give into despair and uphold their tenants. As he rode to maintain his regiment, Vytautas’ steed dove at him. In front of his men, Vytautas practiced his barbaric law of strength, and butchered noble Traiden. Whatever soldier had not been tempted by Vytautas’ call, submitted to him out fear that they would share their Marshal’s fate.
These were the details that the Dawnriders of the Sunspire Expedition Force provided before they took off, their aelven steeds outpacing even a griffon.