What one does after Rome

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Bolverk the General

So after being exiled from Rome, Erik wanted to take care of a few things before joining me on the 1st crusade. We moved north to Verona. Unfortunately the plague has moved ahead of us, Godiva or Lady Mortis as she is now called, has started to research the plague. She has a stable living space, as she was "forced" to live in the palace. I look forward to any details she finds, I will continue to keep contact up with her. At Verona I had the "pleasure" to meet the current Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. I thought I would awed or impressed by this great historical figure, but I wasn't. He is just a human, not even an impressive one at this point in his life. He has done some things that would be worthy of song, but not much, a person would tire easily from such a small selection of tales.

Erik handled him well, not unexpectedly, and got him motion. His plan was to wait and let the winter help decide the outcome. One thing I have noticed about Erik is for an elder of his age he is almost impatient when action is needed. He shamed him into motion and got his Dukes moving to attack. The target is Canossa Castle, home of Countess Matilda the leader of most of northern Italy.

Erik has decided to let me lead, this is not unexpected. As a Ventrue one of my skills of the time period is leading, both in peace and in war. As his childer and tool he needs to test and hone my skills. I wonder what Marcus Verus would think of my military skills, since he taught me what I came here with. His childer insisted that I understand cavalry and how it is deployed on the medieval battlefield, which thought was a waste of time, but I am using those skills now.

I was able to take a lot of the small fortresses through generally good military tactics and superior numbers. One of the large(ish) cities on the way to Mantua(I think?) decided not to surrender, Erik had me decide on how to take the city. I decided to start a plague, one strong enough to hurt the Kindred as well as mortals. This tactic changed the citizens minds and they surrendered the city. Only after using this tactic did I remember Uriel's words about my being the Horseman of Pestilence.