EARLIER PARTS OF THE STORY CAN BE FOUND HERE
Prophesy
With time to think we do that, between spending time at the gymnasium checking on our troops and the normal day to day requirements we talk about some options. First we wonder about some assassination of Sthenelus or other members of the spy ring but neither I nor Archi can think of any way to do this without implicating ourselves and then Chremonides. We even spent time on the streets trying to get a insight but failed to get any easy way to do this. So we went to Chremonides to talk with him about the issue. We talk about wanting to hurt Sthenelus he understands but says that politically we are now known to be attached to him so any action we do or is connected to us will also be on him. He leaves us to think upon the situation and see what we can do.
Month of Metageitnion week two, a prophecy from Media of Hera is announced ‘A twig from the tree of Macedon found in the Nile will be broken in Athens’. We are not sure what this means but as Media is linked to the spy ring it isn’t good. We wonder if it means that I am broken, after all I am a Macedonian from the Nile. The talk on the streets is that it is me who will be broken, a popular interpretation after Sthenelus tale about Aegina but there is also talk that it applies to Admiral Patroclus and that his fleet will be broken. Either way not helpful as both interpretations are anti Chremonides and pro Macedon. I try to convince myself that this can’t be the will of the gods but all I do is dent my faith in the gods, much to Archi’s amusement.
Divinations and riding into trouble
Jason decides to do his own divination to see if he can adjust Hera’s, from watching the birds, he knows Apollo can’t reverse Hera’s but maybe he can twist it in some way. He gets us and all the groups’ mercenaries together at the temple, and spends 200dr hiring people to hear his divination. [This is to reduce the cost in POW of his divination] He is given this insight ‘Telamon the twig of Macedon from the Nile will be broken but not killed by Athens in his moment of victory’.
This is followed by a second prophesy ‘By the bringing in of the harvest the Galatian de-filers and their allies will be struck by the arrows of Apollo’ This seems to indicate that the Galatians working with Macedon will be punished for their earlier defiling of temples.
Archi having watched the divinations with disgust decided to go to the Academy and research Piraeus, the port of Athens, as we are still thinking about freeing it from Macedonian control. He spends nine days looking through very old scrolls from when it was built. He finds 3 small bits of information. First that the long walls running from Athens to the port have small 2’ square tunnels within them which have been tile lined. Second that there is a small rowing boat sized sea gate in the north eastern harbour wall, the Munychia harbour. Third that there appears to have been a water supply which started as a spring between the long walls and then goes under ground to a well inside the port near to the old theatre. Again this seems to be along a manmade tunnel. These might be able to give us access to the port secretly.
While Archi was off digging in records Jason decided to go and scout out the port walls of Piraeus himself. Dressing in his old shepherd’s clothes he approaches dancing madly towards the gate. The walls are around 15’ high with a higher tower each side of the gateway. These towers look like they could hold artillery and rock and javelin defenders. The gates are shut with Galatian guards behind them.
I meanwhile take my Hippeis with me and go to scout out the Macedonian holding fore in the hills to see if maybe we could engage them and threaten the supply line of the Macedonian army around Corinth, we have heard that they are besieging Corinth. We take a couple of days supplies and ride out. By the afternoon of the first day we see enemy pickets, scouts, on the hills either side of the pass. We ride carefully forward, they see us and start to form up. At around 100m we stop and can see that they are Akon armed Psioli, we fall back from them and I decide to wait a while then ride through quickly to see if we can see what is behind the hills.
We ride past the scouts some of whom throw Akon’s at us but all miss. Behind the hills is a camp, large enough for around 4,000 men. I can also see a couple of big grey creatures towering above the camp, elephants I assume.
With a better idea of the force here we ride back through the pass. This time the guards are ready for us and Akons fly from all directions. I and my men manage to avoid by careful riding to avoid most of them. However one man, Demetrius, takes one in his leg, once we are clear I bind it up and we ride back to Athens the next day.
Jason and I then spend time at the temples him praying to Apollo for the return of his Power and I in thanks.
Month of Metageitnion week three, Archi and Jason work on an idea to make something he calls Caltrops, but although we can make an example we need to make it simple enough for it to be mass produced they need me to tell them how many they need. So we now have two ideas for our last effort in this campaigning session, try to dislodge the holding force and force the main Macedonian army to fall back or try to capture Piraeus and drive the Macedonian fleet from the gulf altogether. However first we head off to the gymnasium for our usual practise and exercise.
A Christian Warrior 