[en] The Tavern at the Inn

[Xuca]

Thanks. Maybe we could do this throughout the story, using this map? I could be in charge, but since we all saw how good I am at this, maybe somebody else would want to do it?

[Dobber]

It is hard to do when you have misinformation from your storytellers, ie. Sakim's not knowing in which direction he moved!

[NaVatar]

How many are in this story now? I've forgot :blush:

[Dobber]

How many are in this story now? I've forgot :blush:

Angryminer, Traveller, Kuno, Sakim, Heretic, Navatar, The Knightly Sword, Richard, Hawk-Knight, Xuca and Dobber. Did I miss anyone? If not, then 11 and 2 have fallen.

[Richard]

Hmm I want my next entry to be that I meet with Hawk knight and the others, so how many days should I make it?

[Traveller]

Ok, now I'll turn my part of the story back, before we joined forces with Sakim and Kuno (I'm really confused btw).


Edit:
Traveller's Log - June 12th
"In peace sons burry their fathers, in war fathers burry their sons"

As my Tzar ordered me yesterday, I went to meet him in his palace this morning. He took me to the Royal garden for "a friendly walk". He really was acting strange! We walked silently, listening to the birds and enjoying the fresh morning air.
"It's strange how this world can keep so much beauty and in the same time - so much evil!", he said, as to himself. Then he turned to me: "For the past nearly 30 years I've fought battle after battle, a constant war with our enemy. Hundreds, thousands of people have died and for what? For the power and glory of a few men? For the might and hegemony of one kingdom?"
"No, Milord!", I said what I'be always been tought. "For the freedom of our people, for one Holy country. To show those Romeans that we're the true servants of Christ. And our victories prove this - God is on our side!"
"God? Does God support the killing of people? Let me tell you a story! Once, there was a man called Nikola. He was a Komita, a governor, of the Sredetz region, one of the one of the mightiest Komitas in Bulgaria. He had a beautiful wife, Ripsimia, and four sons from her: the Komitopuls David, Moses, Aron and Samuel. But then the Roman emperor Ioan Zimisches invaded with a large force the eastern part of Bulgaria and conquered it, capturing the members of the Royal dynasty. Sredetz was also taken and the Komita Nikola - slain. His four sons managed to escape to the still free western parts of Bulgaria, to Macedonia, where they began preparations to overthrow the Greek power and free all Bulgarian lands. When Ioan Zimisches died a few years after, the Bulgarians revolted and chose the four brothers to rule them until the Kings return. But their fate was not to be easy. The biggest brother David was killed by Wlach rogues. Death came also to Moses, during the siege of Seres. The third brother Aron aspired to a marriage with the sister of the Roman emperor Basil II. The emperor betrayed him and sent him the wife of one of his attendants. The deceit was uncovered, but Aron didn't broke his ties with Constantinopol. He even showed ambitions to take the full power and the crown of Bulgaria. That's why Samuil ordered his brother to be killed with his entire family, for betrayal of the country, to serve as a warning that nobody will be spared for betrayal. This was on June 14th, 976. Soon the Bulgarian princes Boris II and Roman escaped from Constantinopol. Boris II was killed by accident at the border, but Roman was saved. Samuil acknowledged him as a true heir to the throne, but Roman insisted that they act together. During his captivity, Roman had been castrated and could no longer have children, so he wanted Samuil to inherit him. This was the most logical thing to do in order to keep the country stable. In the next years Samuil proved as a good commander and won many great victories. Roman had been taken prisoner again and in 997 he died in the dungeons of Constantinopol. The great Krum dynasty had ended, but a new ruler sat on the throne.* War continued in a constant struggle at the Balkan passes. Messengers were sent to close and distant kingdoms, seeking brave men to Bulgaria's aid. The pressure of the Romans increased as they managed to land with their ships in Moesia. Hard battles took place and the Tzar's son, Gavril Radomir, was sent to lead the resistance. With him was the only son of Aron, Ivan Vladislav, that was still alive. When Samuil ordered Aron and his family to be killed, Gavril Radomir had insisted that his cousin's life must be spared. But then, during those battles, Ivan Vladislav betrayed his saviour and in the shadow of the night he treacherously stabbed the Tzar's only son with his spear. He was caught, but the evil could not be undone. In him, a letter was found, from emperor Basil II, which said: "Why don't you avenge the blood of your father? Accept from me gold and silver and be in peace with us, and take back your kingdom, which Samuil stole from you. And if you're stronger, kill his son Radomir, who will rule after him..."
I hadn't heard of the death of the prince, maybe even the guards didn't knew or they were ordered to remain silent, but this explains the behaviour of the Tzar. His only son, murdered by his own cousin, whose life he had saved... This could crumble every man down to ruins!
"But it is not this what I have called you for!", he continued. "The war goes on and I can't neglect the fate of my people, even in these times of mourning. I can't lead the armies myself for I will stay here to burry my son. But my armies are not ready yet for an all-scale attack on Constantinopol. This is why I decided to give you and our brave allies a force of 35 000. 15 000 under direct command of this Angryminer and 20 000 under command of a Bulgarian knight. My men have told me of your service under Lord Nike and of your deeds in Serbia. I'm sorry to hear that Commander Xuca has died by the hand of the foul Greeks, but we have our own worries now. I've already sent reinforcements to our Serbian allies and now I've decided, due to your previous service and deeds, that you should lead the troops to reinforce our Mercian allies. Therefore, from today you're officially a Bulgarian noble, a Komita, like my father. After the war is over, we'll see which lands we shall give to you to govern. I'm also sending three more nobles to help you and serve as your substitutes. They're well educated and trained and have their own corpus of heavily armoured horsemen. Such a corpus shall be appointed to you as well. Now, go and leave me with my grief! And may God guide you in your quest!"
Thus my meeting with the Tzar ended. I received more than I could've hoped, more than I could even dream of. Today I'll be inspecting my troops and assemble my own cavalry corpus and tomorrow... Tomorrow we march to unite with the Mercians and help our troops in the siege of Adrianople.


*Here I change the real story - eastern Bulgaria had remained under Byzantine control, Gavril Radomir inherited Samuil and was killed by Ivan Vladislav during a hunt an year after.

[Dobber]

Hmm I want my next entry to be that I meet with Hawk knight and the others, so how many days should I make it?

Take a look at the map Xuca has marked to see where that group is and determine where you are and estimate how long it would take to get there!

[Richard]

Knight Richard's adventure
Chap 17: Hard to say goodbye

June 14, 1005
Early this morning we prepared to march sound. After a long talk and hard goodbye I left th polish capital and with it my beloved. She was crying as she had a dream last night about me having a tragedy in the bysantine campain, but I can't let a simple dream stall me from helping our friends in the south. After almost half day some of my scouts returned with news about an army that had passed by not many days ago and that his ladder was Tsk. Maybe we can reach him if we speed up a little, though I don't want to force my men too much as they will need their streght for the battes ahead. I also sended a massanger with news of my arrival with 30,000 men, the polish king gave me 10,000 soldiers. If the days ahead are to be like this one we will surely be in the balkans in 2 to 5 days, but for now we rest. Tomorrow we march with dawn.

[Kuno of Gersenau]

I'm a bit confused about the dates now...about when will Sakim and I meet Angry and Traveller?

[the knightly sword]

i think its 14th june . we should have a main timeline now as we are gatherd togther to attack byzantines,

[Dobber]

I'm a bit confused about the dates now...about when will Sakim and I meet Angry and Traveller?

That is a bit hard to discern, being Angryminer does not date his entries.
But I do know that Sakim's last post was dated June 12th. And I left Angryminer and Traveller in the city of Ohrid on the night of June 11th, there is no way that Angryminer and Traveller could prepare their troops and have already met Sakim on June 12th. In Travellers last post dated June 12th, he states they will leave the next day(June 13th) to join up with the Mercians(Kuno's forces) and Sakim southwest of Adrianople(which is where you and Sakim are presently awaiting their arrival).

i think its 14th june . we should have a main timeline now as we are gatherd togther to attack byzantines,

TKS, we(you, me and hawk_knight) are still in Serbia preparing to help Xuca out with his problems in Serbia before marching on down to join Traveller, Angryminer, Kuno and Sakim. It will still be a week or so before we move on down to Adrianople to join the others, Traveller has asked us to let them free Adrianople before joining them.

[Traveller]

Bah, this is a real mess! Ok, let me see if I got things straight - Angryminer has writen that we join forces for the Adrianople expedition, but he didn't write when. So, I wrote something before his log took place, for some explanations and to announce my promotion. Then we see how much time do we need to reach Kuno and Sakim from Ohrid, add this time to 13th of June and voila! I'll try to make a sign for Ohrid on the map...

Edit: After a hard battle with Photoshop (I've gotta learn it better, cuz now I'm...) here is the situation for June 12th (http://img181.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tavernstorrymap12june1qp.jpg) .

[Richard]

I will make my next entry like june 19( that should be when I enter the region you guys are at). Also Hawk knight, TSK or Dogger should say something as I sended a massanger on june 14, should be there june 16 or so.

[Dobber]

June 15 - Dobber's Log

One of Lord Xuca's scouts rode into our camp with a message from Lord Xuca, yes a message from Lord Xuca, it appears he staged his assassination to draw out the insurgents. He has requested our assistance in ridding his empire once and for all of the insurgency. And he is not very far from our currrent location, we will be in conference with him before days end. We also received a message from the Traveller that they were going to attack Adrianople and for us to meet them there after we were through aiding Lord Xuca. The forces they have are more than enough to conquer the beleaguered city, the last outpost north of Constantinople. As I have only temporary command of Hawk_Knights cavalry, I must wait on him to issue the orders for the army to move onward to meet with Lord Xuca.
I wonder how my friends are, what anxieties they are facing on the eve of battle.
Oh to be by their side, but eh this is the life of a mercenary afterall, you never know where the winds of war will carry you. The man you stand by defending today could be the man you are facing tomorrow.

[hawk_knight]

Hawk_knights log june 16th

Sir dobber had told me about the messenger that was yesterday in the camp. And that Lord Xuca was in need of help and ask us to help him in battle. I said to him i had already had send a messaenger to lord Xuca that my army was comming to help him against his enemy's. Because when i got the news from bulgaria that they need our help later then i had already made my decison. Then another messenger came in the camp he is a messenger from my good friend sir Richard he told him that Richard and his army was not far away from here and that he wanna join us. I told the messenger to day to his commander that he is welcome to join my army. And i told him that we will march serbia because they need ourwer help. I had told my army about my plan and they said when will we march we will march on 20th of june then sir richard has already joined us and the he is also ready to march.
I said to Sir dobber that if he would he could go ahead with my 10000 horsemen ot help lord Xuca with them And is said to him that i will begin to march when sir Richard had joined us. So that we will have more men to help lord Xuca.

Bartender a XXXLL BEER PLZ :cheers: :cheers:

[Xuca]

Adventures of Xuca

17th june

It seems that I passed out last night. I was awoken by some stomping. I can't find my horse, and my chest hurts badly. By the noise, it seems that an army is coming, I must chek that out.

Few hours later

An army of 10000 horsemen is coming this way! And it's lead by Sire Dobber! I haven't seen him for months! I'll go and talk to him...

[Prince Eric of the Lorah Clan]

Bartender a XXXLL BEER PLZ :cheers: :cheers:

Your beer is served, Sir Knight! Enjoy!:cheers:

[conquestare legionare]

hello a beer here !! :cheers: . and may i join the story maybe i come too late ??

[NaVatar]

No problem conquestare :cheers:
Just jump in and make yourself at home :go:

Nice to see another Swedish join the forum :cheers:

[conquestare legionare]

Thank you navatar :cheers: tack för det varma välkommnandet