We achieve the daedric forces across the Chasm only to arrive at a massive cemetery infested by a coven of thirsting vampires, bound in eternal servitude to Molag Bal by an artefact known as the Harvest Heart. A cemetery in Coldharbour, how the Lord of Brutality doth mock our mortality.

Vanus Galerion would have us destroy the heart by ritual, condemning the vampires to become but mindless beasts, and thus allowing our forces to pass uninhibited through the cemetery grounds. But the matriarch of the coven appears from the shadows to offer a bargain. Instead of battling through her horde, she proposes we assist her with her own ritual that will cut her covens ties to Molag Bal, for which she promises to let us pass through her home unmolested.

Before I joined the Imperial legions I believed that war was best waged with honour, and that battle could be won only by following the precepts of Stendarr. But I soon learnt that warfare was moreover won by deception, by doing what your enemy expects the least. The Lord of Brutality expects us to fight the moral fight against his immoral children, but by doing so we would risk losing all momentum and many lives.

I do not trust this ancient vampire, she is not in the least like honourable Ravenwatch. Given free chance her coven would make banquet of us all, but she fears an eternity of slavery; even monsters will make sacrifice for their own freedom. This may mean but a temporary truce, but is not the subduing of an enemy without fight the very kernel of Stendarr’s teachings. Besides, if we truly believe in the freedom we fight for, then surely we fight for the freedom of all, and by this precept shall we stand or fall.

S.K