[en] The Tavern at the Inn

[Dobber]

I don't know maybe you can decide that!

[Falke]

Hello, Falke! Your beer is served!:cheers:

Thanks Eric :cheers:

[monkeylover]

i'll havea pepsi to :cheers:

[Prince Eric of the Lorah Clan]

i'll havea pepsi to :cheers:

OK Here's your Pepsi. Enjoy!:cheers:

[Xuca]

Adventures of Xuca

22nd june

Sir Dobber lead the attack this morning, because I am still weak. We were victorious with minimal casualites. A man came in and said that there is a prisoner and asked me if I want to interogate him. I asked him if they found the King or Knez Vladislav, and he said that they haven't. Maybe the prisoner can give me vital informations...

Later that night

When the prisoner came in he looked very surprised: "L... L... Lord Xuca!? You are alive!?"
"Yes, I am alive. Unlike your master, whom I'll execute on sight!"
"Wh... What master?"
"Dont pretend you are a fool! You know well about whom I am talking!"
"I don't know what are you talking about, my Lord! I serve only our King, Vladis..."
"King Vladislav!? He proclaimed himself King!?"
"Yes, after yours and King Vladimir* death, he was the only one who could inherit the throne..."
Then, my heart froze - the King is dead. Then I stuttered: "He is dead?"
"Yes, you didn't know? He died from an unknown illness."
Knez Vladislav killed him! I was mad, but I was downhearted too. I felt my chest exploding, and I heard a voice: Lord Xuca? Are you allright? Help! Lord Xuca's going to faint!"

I woke up late in night in my tent with a man beside me. I asked him what happened, and he said:"rest now, we'll talk in the morning." I went back to sleep, and now when I feel a little better, I'll continue the questioning...

*Vladimir was only Knez of Duklja, and Bulgarian vassal. Serbia was under Bulgaria at those times.

[conquestare legionare]

a beer over here , seems like the most exciting parts from the story are comeing.

[Prince Eric of the Lorah Clan]

a beer over here...

Your beer is served! Enjoy!:cheers:

[the knightly sword]

just stoped work to come saying hi and drink a beer or 2 :cheers: :go: , cmon guys write somemore parts.

[Traveller]

Traveller's Log - June 19th
A history lesson

While I was in Ohrid, I took some time to speak with the chroniclers from Kliment's and Naum's monasteries. I transcribed and wrote all the information I collected about the Bulgarian recent history in hope of finding something that could help us in the war. "History is a door to the present and a window to the future", say the wise men. Now I'm re-writing my notes here, condensed in one book, with the most reliable information, starting with some background:
“Reasons for our current situation could be found whole the way back to the time after the death of our glorious leader - Tsar Simeon the Great. The politic he led was indeed a glorious one – all his enemies bowed down before him or were crushed, as in the battle at Aheloi (Anchialo). He also started a large spiritual and cultural revival program; many palaces, churches and monasteries were built, the Preslav literary and art school was well know across the world. After all, Simeon was a very bright man, he spent his childhood in the Magnaura School in Constantinople and Romans called him “demi-Greek”, referring to the ancient Hellenes. Under his rule Bulgaria became one of the three political and cultural centres in Europe. But all of this had a price – the economical and demographical resources of the country were exhausted.
In the year 927 after the birth of Christ his son, Tsar Peter, faced a hard situation by inheriting the throne. The same year he signed a 30-year peace treaty with the Romans, strengthened with his marriage with Roman Lakapin’s granddaughter Maria, renamed to Irina in honour of this peace. He thought that thus he has secured our southern borders and taken care of the biggest threat. But it wasn’t so… In 930 the Serbian prince Cheslav ran away from Preslav and with Romean help declared the independence of Zeta. In the same time a series of Magyar attacks started; supposedly aiming at Constantinople, but actually pillaging Bulgarian lands. Tsar Peter concluded a pact with the Empire against the Magyars, but no help came. Furthermore, the Romans used the intention of the Kievan knez (prince) Igor for a campaign against Tsarigrad (Byzantium, Byzantion and Tsarigrad are other names of Constantinople; Tsarigrad is its Slavic name, meaning “city of Tsars”, “city of Emperors”), by directing his intentions through Bulgarian lands. The campaign was finally thwarted, but knez Igor allowed his allies – the Pechenegs, to pillage the North-Eastern Bulgarian lands. The crisis led to the creation of the Bogomil heresy, whose followers are now infesting all over the civilized world under the names albigoans, katars and patarens. These heretics were (and still are) very dangerous not only because they deny the true Christianity and say that Satanail is the bigger brother of Jesus Christ and that he (Beelzebub) has created the human body and therefore men should not be “its slaves” (denying all normal human needs; even having children, because of the way they’re created), but especially because of their anti-government and anti-church teachings. As a result, many of the Bulgarian peasants grew anti-social and served a serious internal threat. But fate didn’t stop here! In the end of the 6th decade Emperor Nikifor Fokas undertook a decisive offensive against the Arabs in Asia Minor, thus securing the Empire’s positions to the East. In 967 the Bulgarian envoy in Constantinople not only did not receive the annual tribute, but was also shamefully chased away. With generous gifts the Kievan knez Svetoslav Igorevich was drawn as an ally against Bulgaria. Thus Nikifor Fokas drew the eventual strike of the Russes from the Roman city of Chersoneses in the Crimea to us.
Probably then the roots of the alliance of our current enemies have been sown, as in 968 knez Svetoslav debarked in the Danubian delta, leading an army of 60 000 Russes and Normans. He clashed there with the local 30 000 Bulgarian force, defeated it and chased it to the walls of Drustr. Hearing the news of this heavy defeat, Tsar Peter suffered an apoplectic stroke and withdrew to a monastery, where he died a year later. This disorganized the Bulgarian centralized power, because the heir to the throne Boris II was being held hostage in Byzantion. Svetoslav used this and captured 80 Bulgarian fortresses from Bulgaria-Beyond-Danube (between the rivers Dnepr and Dnestr). Luckily, our aristocracy managed to organize itself and directed the Pechenegs against the Kievan capital, forcing knez Svetoslav to withdraw. In the meantime help was asked from the Romeans, who freed Tsar Peter’s sons – Boris and Roman, due to problems with one of their spies in Kiev, who obviously planned to take the Romean throne himself. They signed a peace treaty with the new Bulgarian Tsar Boris II (who reigned only for two years – 969-971). The treaty was strengthened with the betrothing of two Bulgarian princesses with the juvenile heirs to the Romean throne Basil II and Constantine. However, the promised military help was not dispatched. In the meantime knez Svetoslav dealt with the Pechenegs and returned to Bulgaria in 969. A hard battle took place under the wall of Preslavec. The numerical superiority of the Russes proved to be decisive and the fortress was taken. The Kievans occupied all of North-Eastern Bulgaria with its most important cities – Great Preslav, Drustr, Preslavec and Pliska.
Aiming at Tsarigrad, Svetoslav had to improve his relations with us, so he formally kept the power of Tsar Boris II. Even the Christian temples were left unharmed by the pagan Russes. Svetoslav, himself, resided in Drustr. All of this brought a lot of confusion among the Bulgarian aristocracy. In 970, leading a huge force of Russes, Normans, Bulgarians and Pecheneg and Magyar mercenaries, knez Svetoslav invaded Thrace. In Philipopolis, whose population denied acknowledging the “alliance” with the Russes, he did some terrible atrocities. However, despite of his numerical superiority, he was defeated by the Romans, forced to seek truce, after which he retreated to Drustr.
In the beginning of 971 the new Emperor Ioan Zimisches (969-979) surprisingly crossed the undefended Balkan passes. He presented his campaign as a help to the Bulgarians against the Russian knez. This led to a voluntarily surrender of most of the Bulgarian fortresses to Ioan Zimisches and, as a result, Svetoslav was blocked in Drustr. The Bulgarians there revolted against the Russes and Svetoslav decapitated 300 Bulgarian bolyars. Survivors say that at the funeral of one Russian voevod there were also human sacrifices of Bulgarian children. All of this condemned Svetoslav to isolation even among his ex-allies. After a three month siege, he capitulated. He declined all his claims to Bulgaria and the Crimea, after which he was released. On his way back to Kiev knez Svetoslav was attacked and killed by the Pechenegs.”
The coalition between the Normans, Russes and Romeans quickly fell apart then, but, as we see, today it’s been renewed. But instead of Kievans there are Novgorodians this time. The Romans obviously didn’t like Svetoslav’s dreams for Tsarigrad…
“After the retreat of knez Svetoslav Ioan Zimisches enforced the Romean power over North-Eastern Bulgaria, including in the lands of Bulgaria-Beyond-Danube (the so called Western Mesopotamia). Boris II was captured and, at the hippodrome in Constantinople, he was de-crowned.
Exactly in those disturbing times the power in the free Bulgarian lands was taken by the sons of komit Nikola – the komitopuls David, Moisei, Aron and Samuil. They ruled as regents in the Western Bulgarian lands and in 973 they sent a mission to our German ally Oton I. Unfortunately, he couldn’t help us much, so, after the death of Emperor Ioan Zimisches in 976, the komitopuls started their military actions on their own. They fought numerous battles on a large front, but David was killed by Wlach rogues and Moisei died at Siar”…
I’ll continue with this “history lesson” later. There’s some disturbance in the camp, especially near Kuno’s tent, so I’ll go check what’s going on…


----------------------------
Ok, another part from me's ready! Eric, I'll have a beer, please! And btw since you, people, don't write in the "History" thread, I'll move the history in here. :wink:
Oh, it's also interesting how real history fits to our own story - all this that I wrote is from real history, including the attacks of Russians and Normans, which fit in the story perfectly...

[Prince Eric of the Lorah Clan]

just stoped work to come saying hi and drink a beer or 2 :cheers: :go:

Sure! Have a beer! Nice to see you!:cheers:

[Traveller]

Uhm... Eric, I'd like a beer, too! Saying/writing all of this story is getting my throat dry!

[Prince Eric of the Lorah Clan]

Uhm... Eric, I'd like a beer, too! Saying/writing all of this story is getting my throat dry!

Your beer is served! Enjoy!:cheers:

[Dobber]

June 25 - Dobber's Log

Commander Hawk_Knight and Sir Richard arrived in our camp today. Lord Xuca and I met with them and we decided to give their men a days rest and we would start our march to Adrianople to join with the Bulgarian/Mercian/Arab forces there. I wonder how long it will take to move 160,000 men that distance. I wonder if the lands can even support us. This better not grow into a prolonged campaign unless someone knows where we can find food enough for all these men. I wonder how dragon tastes.

[Dobber]

Okay Traveller and Angryminer, we are heading south to Adrianople to meet up with you guys. We cannot continue our end of the story until you guys are at Adrianople. Granted we are 5 days ahead of you in the story. Kuno is incapacitated and Sakim is waiting to find out info on the strength of the reinforcements before making his next move, so there are the two of you left to continue the story.

[Traveller]

Ok, I was planning to take Adrianople soon anyways, so... I'll edit this message when I'm finished.

Haha, btw I'm a real plagiat. I use so many things from other people - epics from the Russian-Turkish Liberation war, stories from the First Balkan war, my themes for the University history exam (aka "history lesson", which I'll continue later) and now I'll use a part from the trilogy "Samuil", book I - "Shields of Stone". It's exactly about the same time period, the same Tzar Samuil; and this exact scene - about his capture of Larissa. But here it'll be Adrianople:


Traveller's Log - June 20th
The Last Fortress

Yesterday, when I stopped my "history lesson", I went to see what's going on in Kuno's tent. It seems he's very ill and in unconsciousness. The doctor said he can't help him, he hasn't seen such an illness and we could only pray for him. And we will! I sure hope he'll be fine soon! But this thing reminds me too much about my previous experiences in Serbia. And we're so close to Constantinople and its assassins...

But at least I have also some good news - we finally took Adrianople. The city was already besieged when we arrived - our forces had already taken whole of Greece and Thrace and only Adrianople was standing on our way to Constantinople. The city was besieged from only a few weeks, but it was already broken. We hadn't tried to assault it, which might save our lives - walls are preserved for an eventual counter-attack. The besieging commander was hoping to take it only by hunger and for a short time. And to my surprise - he did. Or we did, I don't know... "It seems that right after the siege all of the city food supplies were gathered to one common depot. This was a common practice in such cases - you don't know how long this siege is going to last and food stocks should be distributed carefully. But soon after this a fire broke out in the depot and destroyed most of the supplies. Only a few remained - mostly those in store for the army, which were in a separate storehouse. As a result, hunger quickly took the entire city. The population was growing restless and wanted to surrender, but the commander of the garrison ordered his men to try to break the siege. He was a Bulgarian called Nikulitza, in service of the Emperor. The Romeans opened the gates and quickly formed their ranks in front of them with their general at the lead. "Now he'll stand against us with all the rage and hatred of a brother against brother", our commander said. The Romans fought fiercely, but they were too weakened from the hunger and were also outnumbered - some had already died, while some had fled to Constantinople before the siege. In the beginning they had the upper hand, because our men were gathered too much at one place (mainly at the southern gate) and this resulted in the lack of manoeuvre availability and our men couldn't swing their swords so easily in this dense formation. On the other hand, the enemy ranks were loose and they could manoeuvre as they like. Their general Nikulitza was riding near all of his troops, encouraging them to fight. He was wearing a goldened armour and shield and wherever he passed by, shouts and battle cries erupted. Then our commander also took out his sword and joined his ranks. The two armies charged and then stopped in one place, as two live walls entangled in one another. They pushed, they cutted, they stabbed each other, but they also melted and vanished. The sun was high in the sky and you could see where these two live walls pushed each other, how swords and spears, axes and maces, bows and arrows were flashing and shining, intertwining and untwining, raising and falling, striking and breaking. Every strike, every shout and groan melted into one common crash and rumble, which was becoming quiet, but denser, deeper, as if it was coming from under the ground. Then the Romeans started falling back to their walls. We attacked even more fiercely. Now the Romans were in our situation: they were too many, too dense in front of the gate itself, which couldn't take them at once. Then the gate began closing, which created even more panic among the Romeans. They were even stamping each other in their effort to run behind the gate. But some couldn't, the gate doors slammed and leaved its men outside to be slaughtered." That's what one of the soldiers told me later. The Romans had taken a lot of casualties and hunger was getting even worse. It seems this was almost a week ago. Since then, the local population was forced to eat whatever they could find - their domestic animals were already eaten and they started killing dogs, cats, even rats. Their situation was desperate, but they were still holding, in hope of help from Constantinople. Yesterday, when they saw our army in the distance, they cheered with their last strength. They couldn't even think our army could be something else than their reinforcements. But when we got near and they could see the banners of my men and the banners of Mercia and Sakim they realized the situation. We could easily take the city - the guards on the walls were powerless and demoralized. That's why soon after we joined forces with the besieging army a group of citizens opened the southern gate. The guards didn't stop them. Soon the citizens opened all the gates. We didn't hurry to take the city - they weren't going anywhere. I sent a herald to order all of the soldiers with their commanders to get out in front of the city walls and leave their arms near the gates. The soldiers were coming out silently, without complaining, and everyone was leaving his weapon near. Soon piles with all kind of arms were formed and the men were ranked in front of the wall. I, Angryminer, Sakim and the siege commander went to their lines. We asked first about Nikulitza. The strategus of Thrace heard us; he came and kneeled before us. He reached his hand to take his sword and to put it in front of our feet, an old custom from unwritten war laws as a sign of surrender. But I said:
- No. Keep your sword.
Nikulitza sighed and raised his eyes upon us.
- I heard you were holding the city for all this time and against the will of all in this city, and are you not a Bulgarian?
Nikulitza answered with a quiet voice:
- I took an oath to serve faithfully to the Emperor. Blood is another thing and is on second place. But what could I do alone... I stood alone against you.
- You fulfilled your oath and the Emperor has abandoned you. The oath is stronger when it is according to the voice of the blood. You think well, to whom you should serve from now on! We will wait for your answer until it is necessary.
Thus I hope we could gain the support of this man and all of the Slavs in this city, which aren't a few. I also ordered part of our army food stocks to be distributed among the population. The food convoy from the Lower Land (that's how present day Macedonia was called in those times) should arrive within three days. I only hope that the Fattimids won't come nearby until then. And if they do, then maybe this gesture could gain us some support from the city population... I've sent messengers to all the big cities to ask for supplies, but I don't know how many would react and how soon. I can do nothing else than to continue with my "history lesson". But before that, we'll gather with Angryminer and Sakim to discuss the situation...



Edit note: "...The strategus of Hellas heard us..." is corrected to "...The strategus of Thrace heard us..." Sorry, my mistake! As I said, I was using one epizode of a book, where Samuil took Larissa (which is in Hellas), but I forgot here we're taking Adrianople, which should be in Thrace (or Macedonia in some sources after the VIth century).

[Angryminer]

Angryminer's Tale
Chapter 25

We have to march against Adrianople. We can't wait any longer for the reinforcements of the mercian campaign. I don't think we can surprise the byzantines with our attack on Adrianople and we will propably have to besiege the city. Anyway, a victory is crucial to the morale of our soldiers before our attack on Constantinople.
Also Adrianople will be a good place to gather our forces and ready our army for the strike at the byzantine heart. Today I will talk with Sakim. His scouts travel great distances around our army and when he concentrates his actions on Adrianople will will propably be able to learn more about the kind of garrison, near forces and find strategically superior positions if we are to start an assault. Let's see what he will say about it.
On a sidenote: Kuno became seriously ill. I don't know what kind of sickness he has, but he is unconcious and will propably need a week to recover - so I estimate.
So then, forward to Adrianople.

Angryminer

[ This should be somewhere around the 19th of June. I leave this to Traveller, as he is also writing something. ]

[Traveller]

Ok, I'm ready. It didn't came out exactly as I was planning it, but in such a haste... :wink: :cheers:

[Angryminer]

Traveller, did you read this posts by Sakim?
15th of June (http://forum.sunflowers.de/showpost.php?p=109010&postcount=764)
According to this entry all supplies, soldiers and people have been moved to Constantinople. Scorched earth.

Angryminer

[Traveller]

Sakim wrote that he's sending a message, but:
1. It's seriously doubtful that a Romean (Byzantine) official (especially the strategus of Thrace) would agree to a foreigner he has never heard of (Sakim isn't officially Byzantine ally, cuz if he was we would easily know that).
2. It's impossible that in a few days the whole city together with all its stocks could be evacuated.
3. I wrote long ago that Adrianople has been besieged by the counter-attacking Bulgarian forces. So the only thing this could lead to, is that Sakim's messengers could've been caught and serve danger for Sakim's plans (he would have to shut their mouths somehow). Because the messenger couldn't enter the city - gates closed and under constant sight of Bulgarian soldiers. And even if they did manage to sneak in the city, nobody could run away pass the besieging army, especially with heavy stocks.

[Richard]

Knight Richard's adventure
Chap 20: Finally we unite.

June 25
It has been 4 days since i last wrote anything on my log as we had little rest to make haste and reunite with Dogger, whom I have heard great storys about his couage in the mercian campain and Xuca, whom I seems to be a great man as well. On the morning of the 22nd the sky cleared and we were able to continue our march, Sir Hawk suggested that we should try not to get to much rest in order to speed up our advancing. Then on the 23rd we encountered a small party of Serbian rebels, some 600 disorganized men of which we captured 400 after a short battle, about 50 got away but Hawk knights dragons catched most of them. The mens moral was busted which helped on mantaining the pase, and today during the early hours of noon we finally reached the forces of Sir Dogger and Sir Xuca. Dogger is a bald man on his early 40's, yet he seems to have the heart of an adolecent. Xuca, however was ill and I couldn't meet him, I hope he gets better soon. Sir Dogger had some worries thu, he pointed out that managing this great force of 160,000 men is going to be hard has food supplies will be extreamly scarse, and I agree. Maybe Hawk knight could help with this by bringing some supplys from Middrill, but it is going to be hard even with this supplies. The men will surley need to have strong ladders to mantain them from leaving the army, or worst reveling. I hope this campain doesn't take long, because if it those the poor peasants are going to pay the prize by paing higher taxes as the cost of manteining this great army for too long will be huge.
Sir Dogger suggested that we should begging our march south the 27 so our army can get a full days rest. This cerntanly brought some happy faces on the men.