Miroslav overhears Loukas and grabs up a great pitcher of foaming mead and a few drinking horns and pours one for the younger man and one for himself. Handing the horn to Loukas he holds his high and toasts..."To your uncle!" he then throws back the horn and drains it in one long pull.

Taking the mead from Miroslav he grins and follows suit draining his own horn in a pull, albeit a rather longer one that the Rus's.

Filling their horns again he holds high the horn and toasts, "To our Captain and his Heart of Oak!", which he then drains similarly to the first.

After long moments the swirl clears from the mirror and Dyanna stares intently at the image it provides.  She watches a few moments, then releases the spell, closing her eyes a moment to allow her perceptions to return to the present.  After a moment she looks to A'kos and says, "You may find her on the shore, to the west of the city.  She sits alone upon the rocks and stares out to sea...I'm not sure to what purpose."

Smiling, she stands and lays a hand upon the big man's arms.

"Go and find her, Falcon..." she says gently.

Dobrynya sees Miroslav and Loukas toasting and cannot help but join in. He walks up between the two and lays a hand on each of their shoulders saying..."Surely you are not starting to drink without me! I may be a bit older, old enough to have fathered each in your party infact, but I can still out drink anyone here!"


Dobrynya grabs an empty horn from the table and holds it out to be filled by the first server he sees who is them promptly ordered to fill every mug, horn and tankard in sight..."To those who came witht eh Heart of Oak! Without you many more lives would have been wasted!"

A'kos reacts to the news somberly, and with a bit of confusion.

He shrugs and looks at Diana, nodding his thanks.

"If any should ask, I go to the shore," he says to her and Balthazar.  "I know not what turmoil she faces, but would not see her face it alone."

Turning, A'kos leaves to make his way to the stables where he finds Storm's Wind happily chewing his cud.

"C'mon, old man," he says to the horse, who snorts his annoyance and tries to bite him for his insolence.  This draws a laugh from the Falcon as he says, "Behave!  We go to find Jaleh."

This seems to calm the horse as he tolerates the blanket and saddle, bit and bridle that A'kos dons him with.  Mounting, he says, "Let's go, Wind.  Let's go find her..."

Kicking the mount he heads west toward the far end of the city where the sea laps the shore.

As Dobrynya is filling his own horn a thought catches Loukas. He glances back to Miroslav and then back to the new ruler of this city. He leans towards Miroslav as if to say something, but then Dobrynya shouts his toast,



Quaffing down his own mead, Loukas refills and steps forward again, "My Lord Regent, some might wonder why we chose to name our vessel such, but after these past weeks I think it is clear that there was no little destiny in what seemed at the time to be decision based upon vengeance alone. To wit...

They say that amongst the qualities of oak are stamina, will, presence, prosperity, liberation and longevity. And did we not prove the truth of this as members of the Heart of Oak? If you will give me the time, my friends, I shall explain!

Stamina: Before coming to the Knyaz we destroyed vile plot of the Baselious. Upon coming come to Khorsun some of us withstood the city's defenses, defeated its fleet and its awful sea fire the rest of us discovered and damaged the Aqueduct, ensuring its fall. Not terribly long after this we defended and repaired it. In the interim we took the gate from and then held it against the cretinous Percheneg. We confronted an entity of mythic and mystical powers, and with the inspiration of Sir Jean, protected the city from it. Then after a quick nap, and aided by old fashioned Rus cleverness, we went out and dealt those Perchenegs a quick, vicious payback!

Will: No enemy, be he Emperor or Barbarian, Priest or Magus, Present or Distant deters us. Whether it was at sea, upon the beach, at the Aqueduct, on the walls, or in the final ambush wherein we took vengeance not only for our brother, Conn the Scot, but for a city savaged by the Half-Orc barbarians that the treacherous and false-Basileus John employed to imprison, torture, and eat his own people, those who viewed us as conquerors might see us somewhat differently today.

Presence: On the subject of how we are seen... This may seem overly prideful, but hear me out! Singly we are each certainly noteworthy. We have each come from different lands, we each have talents that make both powerful and lesser men take notice, yet together, as a sum of our parts we are still greater. All of what I have described prove this.

Prosperity: The long and the short of it my friends, is that not only have we each become richer since becoming a crew, our powers joined and the wise leadership of our Captain will lead us to more!

Liberation: Tragically, it was treachery that brought us together. They say that every cloud has a silver lining, eh? Well, here is ours: through the events that followed our meeting we gained a ship. Few of us worship the same Gods, but the one thing we may all agree on is that they each move in mysterious ways! If our story is not evidence of this, I do not know what is, for if our Captain did not know the Knyaz, would we have ended up capturing, and in doing so saving this city from Half-Orc barbarians? Thus, the Heart of Oak not only gives us the liberty to go where we will, but it has permitted us to help bring freedom from the vileness of John of the Byzantines to Khorsun.

And, finally, Longevity: Recall, if you will where were not all that many days ago. There were barely enough of us to crew the Heart of Oak and despite what we had been through together there seemed to be as many opportunities to tear apart as there were to hold us together. Aye, I will take responsibility for my own mistakes in this matter, and apologize to you all here, but Sir Jean the Frank foremost, for hard and, perhaps, mistaken words. Nevertheless, we found other stout hearts to join us and through trial, tribulation, and trauma we have cleaved to each other, and are victors. If this is not a sign that whatever we are apart, if we stay together, through the Heart of Oak, we will resist our enemies; establish our renown; grow ever richer; decide for ourselves whom we shall serve; and we shall either go out in glory or as very old, very rich braggarts inspiring fear, loathing, and, perhaps, a bit of lust wherever we go?

To the Heart of Oak, Knyaz Sviatoslav and his Regent Dobryna, and Volos for permitting us to grasp his beard firmly and damn him if he thinks we shall give it up without a bloody fight!"

Finishing his toast he upends his horn and, once again, pours it down his throat only managing to spill a little of it down the front of his well-worn tunic.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:19, Sun 04 July 2010.

Dobrynya downs his own mead then stands slowly walking towards Loukas. Without warning he gives him a massive punch in the chest, sending the smaller man back but not down.

He glares at him for a moment then smiles broadly..."Ha! You are a true Rus after all! With the tongue of a bard as well! That was a fine toast boy. I only hope you are still around when I pass on so you may toast me in the same fashion!"

Miroslav slaps the wobbly form of Loukas soundly on the shoulder as the younger man recovers from the Regents blow. With mead still foaming on his lips he says..."Aye, a fine toast! You have made us all proud with your words!"

It does not take long for A'kos to find the spot that Dyanna saw her sitting. There she was seated upon a large rock by the shore, only now she was slumped slightly but A'kos can make out the rise and fall of her breath from behind. She is obvious sleeping.

As he's recovering from Dobyrnya's congratulatory "tap" and Miroslav's praise, Loukas smiles his appreciation signals to have his horn filled again and looks for a place to sit. He really needs to sit. Finding Zmija he joins him, takes a drink (actually, not much more than a sip) and with a slight wheeze in his voice asks, "I'm going to learn some trick from the Order to protect me from the approval of the Rus, no?"

Jean approaches Loukas and Zmija. Placing a hand on each of their shoulders he speaks in a friendly tone.

"Much respect is born of misunderstanding apparently Oarsman."

The inflection on the title that had set Loukas off so long ago made it clear the Knight was jesting.

"If it were not so, Sir Knight, I would have had a much shorter life and many fewer friends than I have."

The inflection of the title that Loukas had often used sarcastically in the past made the respect he held the Frank clear.

With a grin he continues, "So, join us and maybe you and Zmija can have an arm wrestling contest!"

Fermented mare's milk sprays from Zmija's mouth when Loukas suggests that he should arm wrestling the much much bigger Frank. He sets his tankard of kumiss down and says..."I have had enough of contesting with Sir Jean for a lifetime. I am afraid he would take my arm home to Frankland as a trophy if I were so daring to match strength against him!"

"As for learning to accept the rough and tumble nature of the Rus, well that is part of your training...embrace it!"

A'kos approaches and sits his horse, looking at his dimunitive woman for awhile.  Finally, he cleared his throat and said, "I was wondering, little Jaleh, where you'd gotten to."

Jaleh smiles as she turns to face A'kos. "I am sorry I vanished like that. THis all has been a great deal for me to take in. These last few days and sent me reeling. I just started with a simple walk and before i knew it I was out of the city."

"I did not mean to cause you or anyone concern, least of all you. I think i am ready to go back tot he city now and face my future." She holds up her hand for the Magyar to help her onto his horse.

Sviatoslav's heralds sound the battle trumpets and announce that the Knyaz will address the gathered troops and citizens within the half hour. All are to gather in the gardens of the Palace. The announcement is made in both the Rus and Greek languages.

A'kos grins, and pulls her up behind him.  When she's settled he says over his shoulder, "You have become part of me, Little One.  I will worry now forever, but such a price am I willing to pay."

Hearing the trumpet in the distance, he says, "I suppose we must see what these silly Rus are up to now..."

With that, he kicks Storm's Wind to a canter, and heads back to the city...

Loukas stands, "We are summoned, eh? Come, let us attend!"

The Knyaz waits until all are gathered in the garden of the palace. Dobrynya stands by his side as do his two oldest sons Yaropolk and Oleg. His youngest son Vladimir is in Kiev.

He steps forward and addresses the crowd in Greek..."We have struck a mighty blow to John of Byzantium! We have taken his northern most city of Khorsun this day! He will not regain control of it ever. This city shall remain Rus."

He points to Dobrynya and says..."Our great general Donbrynya and his men with the help of a small group of heroes were vital in the taking of the city, they will be well rewarded...Dobrynya will be the regent over the city in my stead. As we speak his family is being brought down from Novgorod. he will set up residency in the palace. As for the band of heroes...I would ask that you remain in Khorsun for a while longer or even permanently. You have your choice of estates here in the city."

He raises a horn of mead and says..."To all who fought and were victorious and for all that fell...this mead is for you! Slava!" he finishes with the Rus word for Glory.
You all discover though talk later that while Khorsun was being laid siege to that the Eastern holdings of the empire were under attack by the Persians who had been working in conjunction with the Rus. For now the Empire is weakened and Khorsun is safe for threat of recapture.

The next chapter of this game is set 6 months in the future so everyone age their character a year and make a post here about what you are doing over the course of these 6 months. I do believe it is possible to train and get XP for doing so...if you plan on having your character train let me know how much and at what. I will be working on xp rewards.

Dyanna attaches herself to Balthazar as a friend and mentor for the next six months, spending much of her time in seclusion wherever the Hedonite settles himself.  Understanding that her experiences leading up to and during the siege accelerated her learning, she takes this time to slow things down, and gain greater perspective and understanding of what she's acomplished.  Much time is spent communing with her mirror; therein she seeks answers to some of the Knyaz more difficult strategic questions - she also looks to answer some of her own private questions. 

Dyanna also studies much in relation to her disciplines in the mystical arts.  She proactively seeks any who might claim the title master or mistress in misdirection - these she questions almost as a child would a schoolmaster on a subject one loves.  She is diligent in maintaining an exercise regimen...often she seeks out the Knyaz best bowmen in order to practice her archery, a skill she does not take for granted.

In the blink of an eye six months passes, and she finds that the group has again begun to huddle together, wondering what fate has in store for all of them.  Whatever the challenge she welcomes it with open arms - she has grown bored with peace and wishes for some excitement.

Jaleh will spend the next 6 months recovering her houses lost heirlooms possibly either killing the owner or someone else if they don't return it.

She would also be learning how to be a noble lady, i.e. learning the social graces and etiquette so she can fit in with that class of people. She may even secretly be practicing her craft during those times too by killing people to get ahead either for her own benefit or that of a friend.

Without assumption A'kos seeks to bed down at Jaleh's estate.

From here he inspects the full run of the city to gain a better understanding of what makes a city tick.  Things he pays attention to are drainage and inflow of waste and water - the adventure at the aqueduct that cost them Conn fresh in his mind.  He looks at how the city was built, what are it's weaknesses and strengths, especially around the walls and gates, and how better to prepare a seige or an attack on a city of similar size.  To this affect he approaches the Knyaz's generals to improve his tactical reasoning as well as his strategic vision in warfare.

The Falcon also approaches Miroslav and Sir Jean to improve his weapon skill, specifically with the Long Sword.

Finally, he assists Jaleh with her goal of the reacquisition of her family's possessions during the daylight hours - if she's gone of an eve or two from time to time he does not question too closely as each has their own secrets to keep.

Oh, and I expect there's A LOT of cuddle time with Jaleh - fade to black!

;)

After finishing his horn of mead to the Knyaz Loukas has several more to celebrate their victory and what he feels has been a sort of homecoming. He spends the coming months continuing the training he began with Zmija. He asks his Master whether or not it was his intent to use the Sviatoslav's gift to set up a house of the Order of Volos in Khorsun. He suggests they take a property either near the market or the docks (where the Heart of Oak might dock as well), that may be used to support the merchant who will soon be streaming into the city. Indeed, it would be a facility to not only support visiting merchants, but to encourage them as the Order should not only be willing to provide a place of protection for their goods and business, but to keep the city itself safe, thus encouraging them in the idea that Khorsun is safe for business.

Balthazar enjoys Dyanna's company, but his main pursuit are spellbooks.  He searches across Europe for access to additional 3rd level spells.  Now that he has the raw ability to cast spells like fly, phantasmal force, and protection from normal missiles, he searches high and low for them.

Once he gets phantasmal force, he shows Dyanna what some of the special people in his life look like, including his wife.

If the 6 month period encompasses Christmas, he takes off (alone) for a rendezvous with his wife in Sicily.

Jean concentrates on getting his house in order. He will hire a staff including a group of dog trainers and a team of Grooms.

Thereafter he will concentrate on buying horses and training with A'kos (and anyone else who is interested).

Significantly Sir Jean will take an active hand in law enforcement in the area around his home. Harsh West Frankland justice will be visited upon anyone who harms the people he now sees as his neighbors (many of his household staff will be hired based on their ability to continue this activity after Jean's inevitable departure).