The Odyssey of Telamon and Friends Chapter 3 Part 6

EARLIER PARTS OF THE STORY CAN BE FOUND HERE 

To Aegina

 We have a restful night moving slowly at anchor in the slight swell of the sea in the bay, Archi spends some time meditating on the theory of life rebasing himself. Jason gets me to ask the admiral if he can give us some more arrows to replace those used up in the battle, he says that the fleet should be able to do that as it’s only a couple from each archer in the fleet. As we set sail in the morning Archi sleeps and I watch the site of over 70 ships moving in the morning light reflecting off the sea. The quite is broken by the sound of thousands of oars hitting the sea and the creak of the ships moving and the sound of the sea. By midday we are moving around the south of the island having initially heading south before moving east. By late afternoon we can see the city of Aegina ahead, we can see fishing boats heading back towards the harbour. I can also make out galleys heading north having left the city as we approached.

The admiral tells me he can land my force in two waves north and south of the city on the beaches. Then he will sail north to check for any Macedonian ships before circling around to the west and then south and back to Patroculus Island. He wants us to let him know when we have secured the island and then he will bring his fleet to base it there. He will send a patrol to keep contact and warn him if any Macedonians ships arrive. We will light a fire at Aphaia point once we have secured the island to let him know.

Landing will take an hour landing the Cretans and half the Thureophoui, then the other half and the Psiloi. Once the port is secured the Hippies and supplies will land there, then the admiral and the fleet will leave. I see enemy forces moving from the temple hill, to Apollo on the north of the beaches, they seem to be moving inland. I decide to let the admiral land as he said, although later I will realise that was a tactical mistake. The forces as they land will move into the city to secure the harbor area, Jason will go with the north landings and I will go with the south landings.

Once all our foot forces have landed the merchant ships dock in the harbor and the Hippeis disembark along with the supplies. Unfortunately as my men enter the city they start to loot and harass the locals. It seems it was started by the Athenian militia and the Cretans with Jason joining in; soon the whole force is at it. By evening I manage to get some control back, the Thureophoui are the first to be called back to order thanks to their commander Periander of Thermum working with me and the Hippeis. Then we slowly brought all our men out of the city and up to the temple of Apollo so by night fall I have them all there and quieted down. Jason tells them that they had better not mishandle the temple or the priests.

Next I turn to Jason and try to find out why this happened, why he and the others felt looting was the way to treat these people. Basically he says that I gave no order not to loot; and captured cities are normally looted. I try to point out that this was to be a friendly city for our allies and this will not help. Unfortunately as he did not disobey an order I can’t punish him or any other soldier. I will do better next time. The Athenian merchant Sthenelus has been seen loading fishing boats with a lot of loot and I can do nothing about it either. However I can and do make sure that all the men know how disappointed I am and that there will be no more looting unless ordered, I hope that that will do. Archi shames Jason into giving the sliver, 70dr, he looted to the temple which he does.

Next morning a group of city elders approach while Jason is taking part in the morning temple worship to Apollo, regaining his lost power. I meanwhile have made a small shrine to Heraclius and sacrifice to him to regain my power. The city elders want to know who we are and what we want, the people of the city are not happy at the behavior of your men. They raped, looted and harassed our people. Archi points out to them that they are Macedonian collaborators and weaponless now there Macedonian friends have left. They say we are not collaborators or friends of the Macedonians we just were occupied now it seems you, and we still do not know who you are, are taking their place. This went on back and forth for a while until I asked how much compensation they were asking for. They tell me that the material losses come to around 35 talents with most of the 2,000 homes losing around 100dr each to the looters. That doesn’t even take into account the personal loss some of our women took. I agree that if we beat the Macedonians we will give them the 35 talents from any loot we get from them. The elders seem happier about this although not ecstatic. They leave and I remember that we still haven’t told them who we are and why we are here, maybe later I can do that. However for now we need to plan for tracking down the enemy which the leaders told me are heading to the temple of Aphaia where the surplus food is kept.

The Odyssey of Telamon and Friends Chapter 3

Part 5

EARLIER PARTS OF THE STORY CAN BE FOUND HERE 

My biggest battle yet

I call on Hercules to help me with my stirring speech to the Thureophoui and boost their moral. Then Jason starts the Cretans singing the Hyporchnia which the Thureophoui join in. The enemy force joins in as well so for 10 minutes we sing, I think we sang better. With the singing over, the Enemy starts to move forward, closing the distance between us. With our Cretans on the rocky hills to our right and the Thureophoui standing some distance back from the pits with the beach on their left. The marsh, on the left, links the pits to the hills in front of us. Jason has the Cretans let lose at the enemy Psioli moving through the hills towards them, the arrows have little effect with the distance so great and the Psioli spread out in skirmish mode as well as having helms and shields. Then the enemy light horse, in skirmish mode race forward towards our Thureophoui, racing over the pits and taking damage from them as horses fell and the javelins of our Thureophoui. The enemy Thureophoui stop and watch while their Psioli keep advancing causing Jason to withdraw his Cretans, to keep the range open, while still letting arrows pepper the enemy.

The next few minutes see the enemy horse throw their javelins at our Thureophoui who return occasionally. I take direct command of the Thureophoui as their commander Theophrastus is being too cautious and as the Cretans are falling back and exposing the Thureophoui flank. I encourage the Thureophoui to keep throwing their Akon’s at the horse who soon fall into disarray and retire. As they retire the Psioli who have closed with the Cretans have lost enough men to make them unsteady, so Jason calls upon Apollo and leads his men into a charge which makes the Psioli break and run. Just in time as the enemy Thureophoui was using the gap in our line to move to threaten our Thureophoui flank.

A few more minutes and the whole enemy force retires, after around a third of an hour battle, leaving 45 bodies behind around 5% of their force where as we lost 7 badly injured who Archi manages to treat and keep alive even if out of action for at least a week. We have won again and again with no real loss other than a lot of arrows. I am glad we brought extra with us. Jason and I are both seen as being heroic by the admiral who praises our fight. As Archi does his healing bit Jason and I arrange a victory monument and offerings to the gods as we sing the epinkia, a song of victory. We do not have the time to deal with the enemy bodies so leave the Cretans to deal with them, they loot what they can, so we do not lose any Akon as they have lots on the enemy dead.

Once that is all done we continue to board the galleys and then set off for Agenia and our next combat. My men have tasted combat and won so that will make them better troops with higher moral.

The Odyssey of Telamon and Friends Chapter 3

Part 4

EARLIER PARTS OF THE STORY CAN BE FOUND HERE 

Strike force Leaving Athens

With all the main things sorted we just have a few more items to deal with before leaving. First we need to limit the number of slaves coming with us, we decide to limit it to 75, 10 to aid the mounted with their horses and the other 65 for the Thureophoui along with our 5 donkey carts will carry supplies and an extra 1500 Akon for the Thureophoui. Then we make sure they all know our march and battle order. March orderCretans ; Thureophoui with slaves carts; Psiloi ; Hippeis  Battle order – Cretans; Thureophoui; Psiloi with Hippeis in reserve.

With that sorted it’s time to go which we will do next day after the proper rites. Chremonides has arranged for the temple priests and priestess to lead a ritual to the gods of Athens, this goes well and we all feel inspired, well all except Archi of course. With libations and sacrifices prayers and singing we are ready to go with the gods supporting us. [PC’s get 2 extra luck points while Periander of Thermum the Thureophoui commander gets one. These will last for as long as the gods wish and do not recover]

So that afternoon we march out of Athens heading South East towards the hills around Mt Hymettos and then Zoster through the pass. This should take a couple of days maybe three if we are delayed for any reason. It’s a sunny warm late spring afternoon with a light breeze to help keep us from getting to hot a god given day. We march through farmland near the city still with farmers working the fields save this close to the city. As the afternoon moves on we get further from the city and closer to lands patrolled by the Macedonian garrison in the south. We make camp in the foot hills in sight of Mt Hymettos at over 1,000m tall it dominates the land. There are plenty of trees for firewood and soon the camp is full of noise and the smells of men cooking, resting and preparing. They are all happy at the moment, let’s hopes it continues. I make sure that we have proper guards around the camp.

Next morning is dry, sunny and warm again but with only the odd wisp of wind as we march out of camp. The first few hours are uneventful but around midmorning as we are heading down the pass between the sea and the foothills Jason with the Cretans at the front of the column spot some horse on the hills overlooking us. Jason sends a runner to me and I go and join them at the front.  It seems we have picked up a patrol of Macedonian horse. I ponder sending my horse to chase them away but realise that I might lose some if not all as they are outnumbered. I then wonder if it is worth sending them ahead to Zoster to alert the ships to have the fleet arrive early, but again I will risk losing my only mounted so don’t. As I ponder these things Jason gets annoyed at them hanging there between 100 and 200m away following out path but remaining in the hills and out of reach, he looks for the leader of the group. Then he grabs an arrow and puts it to his bow before I even notice.

I hear Jason call out to Apollo to speed and guide his arrow as he let it go after waiting for the leader of the enemy horse stop. Twang, the arrow leaves the bow and arcs through the air. It’s a long way to go about 186m to the officer. It seems ages but is only a few seconds and we see the arrow drop from the sky, will it even get close. It looks close enough and then a deep roar from our men as the arrow plunges into the eye of the officer and he falls from his horse. The shout of ‘JASON, JASON echoes around the camp. I raise my voice above the noise and give an encouraging speech, telling them with men like this under my command we are unstoppable. I know each of you will act with as much confidence as Jason over the next days.

As we continue our march the Macedonian horse full back further watching us from a distance in the hills. We notice that the force shadowing us keeps getting smaller as they send runners back to their base. We can expect trouble but will we get to Zoster and loaded on the ships before it comes. That is not in my hands but the hands of the gods. By the end of the day we have reached Zoster and signal to the two watching galleys just before they pull out for the night. Hopefully the fleet will turn up tomorrow. As we camp for the night Jason takes a file of Cretans to scout for the following horse. While Archi takes the slaves and prepares shallow pits with some, broken up, Akons used as spikes in them. He then covers them up himself to make sure that they are hard to spot. He can’t get many done as he has to cover over 150m of front from the marsh on our left to the rough hills on our right and the beach behind us.

Jason meanwhile has found the enemy camp; they have a fire and are chatting and eating with no guards out. The horses are picketed around the nearby trees. I suppose they think they are small enough force far enough from us to not worry, in this they are to find out they are wrong.  Again Jason takes his own initiative and decides to attack the 12 men round the fire, and moves his force to around 40m distance.  Aim, Lose, Lose as 26 arrows head towards the men around the fire, thud thud thud as they hit the men, all 12 men are hit and cry’s rend the evening. Lose shouts Jason and another 13 arrows thud into the men, none are now moving but some are still moaning in pain. Jason and his men loot the bodies finding 6 dead and 6 dying. They collect up the 12 horses and put the wounded on them and head back to camp to see if any can be saved and interrogated. Archi looks over the six prisoners, but can’t save any of them, are arrows did too good a job. The archers used 39 arrows and got 15 of them back in enough of a condition to repair and reuse.

Next morning after we have broken our fast and got everything ready we see ships on the horizon, the fleet has come for us. Now we just need to tryst the gods that we can load and go before our quests turn up. A small galley speeds towards the beach and the admiral hops ashore. We discuss the situation and he says he can bring in 6 ships at a time but that will be after the horse transport has come in first. It will take 30 ships to load all our men so 5 waves.  In all this will take about five hours and the admiral says we will anchor in the bay overnight and then sail to Aegina. He will also send three of his fives each side of the peninsula to provide artillery cover. Also the ten and 3 eights as beach cover with their artillery.

It takes another couple of hours before the fleet is in range of the beach area and the ships can start to come in to load. The horse transport comes in first and we slowly load our 11 horses and two of the donkeys, Jason’s Esmeralda and Archi’s, and 7 captured horses. We have to leave the other 3 donkeys, carts and 5 horses behind. All the Hippies and their slaves also board that ship. The next two waves of 6 ships come in and load the Athenian Psioli. By now it is midday, but we have loaded nearly half the force only a few more hours to go and it will all be done. Jason is with the Cretans who are acting as a forward screen and Archi was acting as beach load-master to make sure things are in the right order to load.

Just as the next six ships start to move in Jason sends a message to me that he can see dust approaching about 5 Stadia [1km] away. I agree with Jason to move the Cretans to the right into the hills while I order the Thureophoui to deploy behind the pits with the marsh on their left and the Cretans to their right. This gives them less that a Stadion to deploy in but will also limit the advancing forces frontage.  It looks like we will have to fight before we can finish the embarking on the ships. AT least we have the ship artillery to our flanks and rear. From the amount of dust behind the horse we can see approaching I suspect that we only have part of the southern garrison maybe a thousand men but we have the advantage of ground and they will be tired after marching all that way. So although they outnumber us we need to hold and throw back this force or end up defeated with part of our force already on ship.

The Odyssey of Telamon and Friends Chapter 3

Part 3

EARLIER PARTS OF THE STORY CAN BE FOUND HERE 

More Planning and information gathering

We need to find out about Aegina so we ask around, it is an island of 4 by 2 ½ Leagues [15 x 10 km] with a population of around 2,000 men in its main city Aegina and another 500 or so in its small town of Oea, plus various small farmsteads in the hills. The city is not fortified as they have worked on the assumption that if the enemy has landed they have enough ships to force surrender. They expect the garrison to be based in the city properly living with locals as the navy would be based there as well. While at the academy Archi spends some time trying to improve his oratory however he makes a fool of himself doing so when he takes on an Elder but it did teach him something. He also spent time improving his healing and mechanisms. We also find two old man, brothers, from the island who tell us some more about the area. The island lives on sea food with some wheat and olives, along with sheep and goats. Archi has to tell them about his home Rhodes in exchange. They say that the people adapt to differing situations so the architecture is mixed with Attica and the Peloponnese, the same is true of all things on the island a mix and they have learned to adapt to the circumstances of politics etc and so have varied outlooks. We also talk to some local seamen who tell us the best beaches are on the west side near the city and that Aphaea is the highest point and from the temple there you can see over the sea to Attica. You can even see Athens on a good day.

With this information we think more about our plans and I think that the garrison should be around Oea as that is more central. I then go to met the commanders of the two extra units Athens have lent me. Archi and I decide after talking with Periander of Thermum the Thureophoui commander and Sthenelus a merchant of Athens commander of the Psiloi unit that we have a mixed bag. Periander seems to be bold in action but cautious of losses to his men however he does seem efficient. Sthenelus on the other hand seems to be reckless in life as long as he is not put in danger and might be reckless of his men as well as he seems to be a seeker of fame. They both seem to be happy with the mission but Sthenelus feels he should be in command of a naval mission as he is from the great naval city of Athens; I gently inform him that while at sea the admiral is in charge and on land it is a joint command. I feel that Periander and I will be able to keep him in control. We decide on an order of unloading, we will go first with our archers, then Periander with his Thureophoui followed by Sthenelus and his light’s then the horses and supplies. Now we just need to do any offerings to the gods and divinations before we set out to meet the fleet.

The Odyssey of Telamon and Friends Chapter 3

Part 2

EARLIER PARTS OF THE STORY CAN BE FOUND HERE 

Planning and Praying

We spend some time over the next day’s planning and finalising our idea for taking Aegina, we decide we need at least a thousand men from Athens to do this. We think that will be a good force with our own archers and horse to take the island. We believe that the islands garrison will be the 500 mercenary Thureophoui we know of and maybe the marines etc of any of the fleet there at the time. We are not sure how happy Chremonides will be about giving us troops but we believe that taking Aegina will give Athens a victory boost which Chremonides could do with, it will also open up links with Sparta by sea and pin the Macedonian fleet into the area of Peiraeus so giving our fleet more freedom and maybe bringing on a fleet action.

We arrange a meeting with Chremonides to discuss our ideas and ask for men as well as updating him on the spy’s. We are told it will be a few days so I spend that time sacrificing to Hercules a boar to put me back into good terms with him after asking for his aid earlier, this costs me 100dr. Meanwhile Jason goes to the temple to pray to Apollo to regain his powers of oracle, this takes him a week.

Archi and I go to see Chremonides, we update him on the spy ring and our plans and convince him to support our action. He says that he can give us a unit of 500 mercenary Thureophoui and 500 Psiloi from the city militia. ‘That should give us what we need’ we say. We say that we want this operation to be known as we are hoping that the Macedonians will hear about it and the fact that the admiral will be landing marines and rowers and therefore they might catch our fleet at a disadvantage and come out to fight. A naval victory would open many more options for our side. Of course the admiral is not doing that but there is no reason the Macedonians will know this.

The Odyssey of Telamon and Friends Chapter 3

Part 1

EARLIER PARTS OF THE STORY CAN BE FOUND HERE 

Journey to Patroclus

With the letter to Sparta, asking them to move there army up to Megra on its way I head off to see Admiral Patroclus on Patroculus island. I take two of my Hippeis with me, Xenon and Lycastus with supplies and we head out as part of a guard for farmers working around land. Before I leave I tell the other Hippeis that they are to follow any orders from Archi and to help him as needed.

We ride to Anaphlystos, going carefully avoiding contact as much as we can. We are seen by what we take as a patrol but outpace and lose them. After just under two days we reach the large village and start to look for a fisherman, unfortunately everyone seeing us runs away. I realise that they are weary of armed and mounted warriors so we all dismount and I call out to them while waving. As that doesn’t have much effect I use my voice of command and order them to come to me. The two nearest locals come and fall at my feet, ‘yes master’ they say. ‘Do you know of a fisherman who could take me out please’ I ask. ‘My brother could do it for you I should think’ says one of them. I throw him a handful of sliver for his brother to row me out. The brother agrees but says he will need some help and will ask his cousin, his brother gives him some sliver. I reckon it is about half of what I threw the first man, but the brother only gives a little to his cousin as well.

I tell Xenon and Lycastus to stay out of sight while I am gone and wait 4 days, if I am not back by then to go back to Athens. Leaving late afternoon the two show me to a small fishing boat take the oars and start rowing once I have told them were we are going. The sea is clam as is the evening, which is good, however once we are out to sea and moving along the coast the cousin stops rowing and says he wants more sliver. His sister, the first man’s wife, told him how much her husband had got and had paid his brother. ‘I want the same as him’ he says pointing at his cousin. I say ‘I will reward you once we get there.’ So rowing continues as it gets dark.

The night is a strange place to be on a small boat, the moon catches the tops of waves with its weak light and the sound of the oars sounds like an army marching. The men do well and seem to know where they are going and just as dawn is coming we make the island, after rowing around it to the side were the beaches and the fleet are. I show the light from the lantern and start to row towards the ships. Soon two patrol galleys come up to us and ask our business. I explain that I have come from Athens to see the admiral as they do not recognise me, I must not have met them while with the fleet, they tell us to follow them into the harbour. I am taken to the admiral and when he tells the guards he knows me I get to see him. ‘I am sorry but I am busy at the moment’ he says ‘but let’s catch up over supper later’.

So I spend some time resting and looking around before I go to the admiral. Late that day I go to the admiral again and spend time over supper bringing him up to date with our actions. Then I explain our plan to take Aegina Island opening up fleet based communications between Sparta and Athens and their forces, while also allowing the fleet to work further forward and stopping the Macedonian fleet working in the gulf. We hope that this might lead to retaking Peiraeus the port of Athens, opening up food and military support for the city.  I manage to show that this is a good idea but fail to convince the admiral to commit his crews to helping us take Aegina, we will need to get Athenian military support instead, however he will pick up our force from the area of Zoster which should be outside of normal Macedonian navel patrols. He says he will leave a couple of fast galleys off that point to await us and they will go and get the fleet once we turn up. He will arrive a day later then load us and transport us to Aegina.

Next day I go back to my row boat to head back to Anaphlystos and my men, but one of the galley captains say the admiral says we are to drop you there along with your fishermen and their boat. By midday we have made the beach and disembarked, as the galley can’t get up the river we row up to the village again. There I find my men are unwell both throwing up etc., they seem to have eaten something which upset them both. This means we have to take a slow, with many stops, ride back to Athens. This slowness does help with being stealthy and although it takes 3 days to get to Athens we avoid all encounters. Next job find out what Archi and Jason have been up to and then report back to Chremonides and try to get him to provide some fighting men to support my force to retake the island.

Spies

Jason and Archi head to the gymnasium to talk to people and find out what they can about Phaido. When they arrive they ask a slave were they might find Phaido the Corinthian, ‘Dam fine man to know, go and talk to Pelasgon the trainer’ they are told.  Jason ask others around about, about Pelasgon, and Archi talks to any philosophers around, they find that he has links with Phaido and Lord Cleander as he trains them both. They go to see the trainer and watch him watching another person training with one of his slaves. Jason complements him on his teaching and style. Jason asks if he could teach Archi as he could do with it, Pelasgon says he always has space just turn up and we will fit you in as soon as we can no one books here. Pelasgon tells Jason and Archi to strip so he can see what they can do, they do and he tells them to fight the first lesion is free.

So Jason and Archi spar, Archi moves first and swings at Jason who steps aside, Archi tries again and as Jason also moves they run past each other arms swinging. Others are not watching this funny show. Jason ignores Archis next wide swing and then counters but Archi blocks the blow hits him in the chest and trips him. Jason looks up at the moon above him and they both laugh. They dress with some training remarks from Pelasgon in their ears and head to get a drink and listen and watch others.

Over the next four days Archi and Jason visit the gym again and ask around about Cleander and Phaido saying they are looking for investment opportunities.

They find out about Phaido Noble from Corinth, rich merchant. Hates Athens and does a lot of trade with Macedon which has been disrupted. Old, Fat, Arrogant; has a wife and two married daughters and a young son. He always walks with two slaves and two Thracian bodyguards. .He has these main contacts Nicander a philosopher; Iris a priestess of Athenia, related to Cleander; Media priestess of Hera, related to a friend of Phaido who seems to be trying to stop a prophesy of victory and turn it to a prophesy of victory for Macedon; Solon a merchant; Creon a ship owner; Cleander Athenian noble; Pelasgon a trainer at Gymnasium.

About Lord Cleaner they find, he is an Athenian noble who hates Chremonides, Cautious; in debt it is possible Phaido is paying it off for him, slowly, Commander of a file of Hippeis; supported by them and other nobles related to him. He always has two of his file with him as bodyguards. He has a noble wife with two sons. He has contacts with many other noble families some of which support in general his aims, to remove Chremonides; Pelasgon trainer at Gymnasium; Acastus a money leader; Ajax a noble; Amphitryon a noble; Clytus a Noble; Creon a noble.

Archi and Jason both think that Phaido is using his money to help stir up trouble for Chremonides and move Athens back towards Macedon as well as supplying information to the Macedonians. Taking them out will not be easy but a plan is needed.

The Odyssey of Telamon and Friends Chapter 2 Part 9

Success

EARLIER PARTS OF THE STORY CAN BE FOUND HERE 

With the sliver delivered we have completed the main part of our mission, now we need to think about what we might do next. Chremonides sends a message saying that we should rest after our journey and he will contact us when he needs us again but for now enjoy the city. So we go to explore Athens, after all as Archi tells us it’s the centre of philosophy, while for Jason and me it’s about being in a very old city which once dominated the Greek world. The city itself is a mix of old and newer styles with the temples in particular very old style, standing proud on the imposing Parthenon. There is a buzzle about the city as people go about their daily lives, even with the threat of Macedon coming back again. The city is full of many different accents and peoples from all over the Greek world so we do not stand out as strangers at all. One of the busiest areas is the state armoury with tradesmen busy preparing weapons for war. Over the next days we get more used to this old city as compared to the new Alexandria and also spend time at the Gymnasium training and sightseeing. Jason practices his oratory; athletics; endurance and his divination spending time at the temple of Apollo. Archi Spends time with others of his kind and learns more about engineering; healing; mechanisms; oratory and spends time on the practice range with his belly bow. I meanwhile spend time on the practise field training my Hippies and Psioli skills; athletics; oratory; and the skills and passions around being a military leader by talking with other leaders.

We hear from our archers that they have been taken into the Athenian garrison and used to boost their strength. Chremonides tells us it’s to make use of them and I suggest that they help guard the workers going out to bring in the spring harvest before the Macedonians turn up. Then the three of us spend time each day talking through our options to help this cities was effort. Over the next days we come up with many ideas but trim them down to a couple. We hope that with the aid of the fleet we could take Aegina island so opening up the way to retake the port of Piraeus, which at the moment is to tough, and open up supply to the city again.

Another option is to send messages to Sparta to move their army up to Megara to threaten the Macedonian’s flank if they invest Athens again. Once they are there we might be able to work together to do something else or help in freeing Piraeus. I know we need to talk with the admiral and that will require me getting down Attica close to the island and then finding a boat or swimming across. Then of course I will have to return as well. However I do believe that with the fleet and our force taking out the small force on Ageina is possible, and we will have something positive to show the prince when we get back to Alexandria.

After we are clear in our own minds I arrange to see Chremonides, he can see us tomorrow. He welcomes us and says ‘I have a problem that you can help with but first tell me what you wanted to see me about’. So we explain our thinking and ask his opinion. He think taking the island is a good plan as is bringing the Spartans closer, although with all their festivals religious and not it is hard to keep them far from home. He agrees to send a letter to Areus and I will add one from myself saying that we intend to bring the fleet closer and take Agina to open communications between Athens the fleet and his force in Megara and therefore giving us more combined power. He will also write a letter to the admiral encouraging him to take Agina with us and then putting pressure on the port.

After Archi and I have explained all of this and got his agreement we ask him what we can do to help him. – Chremonides has identified a possible spy, and wants us to follow him and break up any spy ring he might me linked to.        The possible spy is a Corinthian noble, Phaido, he says he is a refuge from the Macedonians. However we think that he is sending reports to Antigonusspy master Diomedes. We are sure there is a group with links into Athenian citizens we want you to follow and break it up. I do not want captives only a destroyed spy ring. As he is a noble it’s important this does not come back on the government in any way, also as newcomers we know you can be trusted and few others know you as yet giving you advantages in this. We agree to do this for him and Archi and I leave to re-join Jason.

We decided that while I try to get to the fleet Archi and Jason will deal with the spy issue after we have written the letters and seen of the ridders going to Sparta. We have a new plan and hope it works as well as the one getting us here did.

The Odyssey of Telamon and Friends Chapter 2 Part 8

EARLIER PARTS OF THE STORY CAN BE FOUND HERE 

Athens

On day 8 since the prophecy, our convoy sets out for Athens. We have two locals as guides the Hippies out as forward scouts and guards 2 in front, 2 each side and 2 behind all keeping in sight of us so only a few hundred metres away. The wagons are flanked by our archers with 5 files each side. It takes a while to get the whole thing sorted out and moving and after a couple of hours on the move we come to a stop as one of the wagons breaks a wheel. Luckily we had brought at least one spare with us, we move to a large olive grove with a stream running through it nearby and unload the cart so Archi and others can work on its repair. Archi says it will take some time to do and that we might as well stay here as it will be late when it’s done.

We all wonder if there is a village near buy were we could get another cart from and get moving quicker. The guides tell me that the villages tend to be off to the side of the main direction to Athens but there is one with in a league of us. So we send Jason, Orestes the Hippies and Chason a slave to get a cart if they can. We give Jason 150 dr to pay for it although it shouldn’t be much more than 100 Archi says.

Jason and crew get to a village surrounded by olive and orange trees and seeing some locals who are weary of the armed mounted group but point him to the local carter in the village. Jason goes up to the nervous man and asks for a cart, ‘well I do have some but they belong to farmers so I can’t really delay them’ he replies. Jason says, ‘I can make it worth your while and I will need a donkey as well to pull it’. The carter smiles and says ‘the only donkey I have is Esmeralda and she is special to me’. Jason offers 200dr for the cart and Esmeralda. The carter agrees as long as she is looked after, Orestes says, ‘the donkey is very fit and well looked after’, ‘I should hope so’ says the carter she pulls the cart to the farmer and then I ride her home the rest of the time she rests’.

So with a new donkey and cart they head back to the convoy they get there late afternoon and Archi finishes the repairs around the same time. Archi has a go at Jason for over paying no matter what the reason, and then we settle down for supper then sleep with plenty of men on guard. Our sleep is disturbed all night by blustery winds whipping through the trees rattling the branches however it does not rain which is good.

We wake next morning with us and the land covered in white. It isn’t snow! All the blossoms have come off the trees and covered the land and us. Well I suppose that means Jason’s divination has finished. After breakfast we order up the convoy and sending out the Hippies to cover us we move off again. Late that afternoon our Hippies in front of us signal that others are approaching; soon we are surrounded by over 50 horsemen. I wonder who they are, are they hostile? Four riders approach under a parley sign and I go with Archi to talk to them.

The leader is called Cadmus and asks who we are and what we are doing; I try not to give anything away while asking who they are. They claim to be an Athenian patrol but I am not sure about this. I say that we are trying to get to Athens and had sent riders ahead to let Chremonides know we are coming; Cadmus says he knows nothing of that and they could have been detained at the gates as spy’s or lost. ‘Did you send a letter with them?’ Cadmus asks. ‘No’ I say. ‘As it’s late’ Cadmus says, ‘you should camp here and we will guard you’. I agree but intend to have my own guards out as well to protect us from them. After all if they think we might be a Trojan horse so might they be to us. Cadmus sends some riders off to report I assume as we camp. I ask our guides about the accents of Cadmus’s force and they agree that they sound Athenian even if they speak differently to us rural folk. They also agree to stay on till we get to Athens rather than leave now. The night passes and we all head off next morning and are met by a large force coming from Athens around midday, horse and foot approach us. Is this trouble I wonder.

A group of riders approach us with Cadmus and I go to talk with them. ‘Telamon I assume’ says an older man’. ’Yes’ I reply. This is Chremonides of Athens as I find when he is introduced to me. We have made contact. We have a conversation and explain our mission from Prince Perseus of the Ptolemaic empire. Chremonides says we will talk more later when I introduce you to other at a supper in my home, for now let me take this sliver into the treasury and show you to your rooms. Cadmus will sort your men out with the garrison.  Archi makes sure our sliver comes to our rooms along with our own gear everything else goes with the Athenians.

That evening we are collected and led to Chremonides and the courtyard where we are to meet the rulers. There we met Chremonides again along with his military and civil leaders and discuss the situation. We have finished our initial mission to deliver sliver to Chremonides and now wonder where we can help. We talk about the balance of power and find out that Athens can’t risk facing the Macedonians by themselves and therefore trying to take out the southern fort or retake the port of Piraeus. Any move by the 6000 mobile force Chremonides has would risk being jumped on by the 14,000 army of Antigonus and as both garrisons have a couple of thousand men and artillery on the walls it would not be a given that they could take them before the main army turned up to relive them. The allied forces in the south under King Areus of Sparta number some 12,000 men and if they can join up with us would give a better chance. However they have to get past the same Macedon field army to do so and can’t unless they know we can join up with them to the north of Corinth.

The breakdown of forces as known to the Athenians –

Macedonian Forces

Antigonus King of Macedon

Field Army 14,000+ assembling at Thebes 

A few hundred Xyston Hippeis, 2 taxis of Macedonian pikes, around a thousand Akon Hippei, some thousands of Mercenary Thureophoui, couple of thousand Psiloi, thousands of Galatian mercenaries and 10 elephants.

Fleet of 30 consisting of 15 Fives and 15 twos around 6,000 rowers based in Piraeus and Aegina island with army support.

Piraeus Port = a total of some two thousands – Galatian’s, Mercenary Thureophoui marines; Psiloi marines; Art

Aegina garrison = some five hundred Mercenary Thureophoui the island has temples to Aphaia; a Mother Goddess who was worshipped exclusively at this sanctuary and another to Apollo

Sounion Fortress Commanded by Alexander of Macedon – around a thousand Mercenary Thureophoui; some 500 Psiloi; few hundred Light horse and Art. 

Allied Forces

Ptolemaic forces

Admiral Patroclus with 70 ships – 43 Ptolemaic ships, 1 Ten; 2 Eights; 30 Fives; 10 twos; 5 Corinthian Fives; 5 Threes from other cities.  With around 12,000 Egyptian, 1,400 Greek rowers and 3,000 Egyptian,  600 Greek marines

Greek Forces

Athens – Chremonides of Athens [Stoic] mobile force of 6,000

600 Psiloi, 300 noble Akon Hippeis, 4,000 mercenary Thureophoui; 1,000 Archers and Slinger; 600 Akon Hippeis plus Telamon’s force of 120 Cretan archers and 11 Hippeis Akon

Athenian city militia – around 5,000 Thureophoui, Psiloi and horse.

Areus King of Sparta some 12,000  assembling at Corinth

One taxis Spartan Hoplites, four taxis allied Hoplites, a lot of Psiloi

Plus allies – Around 3,000 Thureophoui, 3,000 Peltasts and Psiloi and 200 Hippeis

Athens and its port of Piraeus

The Odyssey of Telamon and Friends Chapter 2 Part 7

EARLIER PARTS OF THE STORY CAN BE FOUND HERE 

To Attica

After Jason’s prophecy we prepare to leave next day. However as we start to load the ships in the morning a wind picks up dark clouds are driven before it and the heavens open as rain hammered down. Zeus is throwing his lighting around and thundering around. Maybe we should have included him in our offerings as he is a zealous god. Is he for or against our venture? Or is this a intervention to protect us, only time will tell. For 3 days the storm rages and then the seas and the sky clear and normal spring calm resumes. During this time Jason prays to Apollo to start to regain his power of prophecy, depleted in his last use of it. With clear sky and calm seas we load up the fleet and sail south, away from Attica so watchers see us going that way. We reach Agios on this day stay overnight and then head northeast to Kea then west to Makronios. We are now in striking distance of our landing spot Paralia beach in western Attica.

We stay on Makronios for the night as galley drops of the scout file of Xenophon with Jason. They land just south of the beach area we are going to use.  From where they land they can just make out a village back from the beach by the odd light of a candle as people move around. They see no sign of any military force here, so Jason sets the men up to cover the southern route to the beach and settle down for dawn. Next morning we arrive off the landing beach having not been warned off by any fire arrow from Jason.

Severn days after Jason’s prophecy, the fleet appears off the beach and the ships carrying the horses and my men beach themselves covered by the rest of the fleet. The archer files are landed first and move up to the edge of the beach, stopping in the dunes to cover the unloading of the horses and equipment. Then the first Hippeis, Lycatus and Demetrius, were landed and set off to Athens. All goes well until Xenon’s horse is being unloaded, the last one to do so, the horse rears and catches its leg on the ramp. It limps ashore and Archi looks at it and says with Xenon’s slave that the horse will be lame for about three days before it will be able to be ridden again. Archi and I talk about what to do, oddly I have not seen or heard from Jason so far.

Late afternoon, Jason still watching to the south sees dust approaching from the west, the dust sent up by many horses. Jason sends one of the file with him to tell me of what he can see. Another messenger turns up a few minutes later to say that the horses are heading for the village. What village I thought no one has said there is a village nearby, what has Jason forgot to report? This second message also said that it looked like the mounted patrol had two mounted prisoners, who looked like our riders to Athens.  I scout forward past the dunes and can see a village about a sixth of a league from the beach I could see the riders in the centre of the village with villagers nearby and yes, they had my two riders. There seemed to be about 20 of them so I decided we needed to recover my men and take out the patrol. I went back to Archi on the beach to plan.

I make a plan in my head and go back to the beach and talk it through with Archi, then I send two files of archers with the two messengers to Jason with orders to get to the south of the village and attack when the rest of us do. My hope is that we will catch the horsemen between multiple attacks and arrow attacks with no were to run to. This gives Jason the files of Xenophon, Perseus and Megisthus. I leave the files of Jason and Ajax with Archi to guard the beach and the sliver. I take the other 5 files and the 7 remaining hippeis to circle round to the west and attack the village with the sun behind me.

It takes a while to circle round the village staying out of sight but we manage it without being seen. With the sun dropping down behind me we wait for it to get a bit lower before moving towards the village. However it seems that Jason isn’t waiting and starts his attack before I am quite ready. Battle has commenced.

Jason’s force advances towards the village and the enemy lunch a charge to hold them back, taking out one of his men.

Jason advances again and the enemy skirmish with him but are forced to fall back from the rain of arrows.

I order my force forward and between the two forces, the remaining enemy horse break scattering into 4 small groups to try and get away. With only 10 horsemen left I split my Hippeis and me up into four groups to chase them down. I manage to catch their leader and kill him and the two riders with him while my other groups ride down all but 3 of the enemy. Still unfortunately 3 have got away. Still a good victory and we have regained my captured men as well.

Our losses our two injured Hippeis both tended to by Archi and 3 archers all of whom die. Still, not to bad an outcome 17 enemies down for 3 of ours.  Jason and his men sing a song of victory having taken out most of the enemy. They are still doing this when I reach them to question Jason about his lack of reporting about the village and attacking too soon. We have captured 10 horses which will replace the injured one and give a few spares. I decide we will leave the injured horse with the village which will give us 9 spare horses for the 11 riders we have. S

I go into the village and find the one in charge an old man by the name of Chremonides, how strange. He isn’t happy even once we say who we are and why we are here, ‘our heads are now on the line, what do you think the garrison is going to do to us once they find out about this fight?’ I can see his point but have no real answer.  With some conversation with Archi and Chremonides I decide that we will send the bodies of the horsemen back to their fort with sliver for their burial rites and families. Archi says 3,000 drachma should cover it and the village will take the sliver and bodies back. This will take them a few days and the last enemy horsemen will not get home till tomorrow so we have a short window before we can expect more trouble.

So is that Jason’s divination done? We have given sliver to Chremonides before the blossoms fall. Archi as normal thinks we are all mad and that divination can always mean whatever we want it to.  Archi has a more practical idea, he wants to teach the whole command my combat signs so we can have better control, however he knows that will take time and we will have to wait until we get to Athens for that. Shame he didn’t think of it when we were traveling here. I also decide I want a couple of villagers to guide us to Athens, Chremonides says that should be doable, he has just the joung men to do that. I talk with the two rescued men and they tell me that the garrison isn’t very happy as they haven’t been paid over the winter. We wonder if we could buy them, after all we have a lot of sliver. In the end we decide that should a decision for Chremonides when we get to Athens. Once we have rested and slept I send our two riders off again with spare horses, they are to start out while it is still dark to try to clear any enemy scouts then leg it to Athens. Once they go I go to sleep.

The Odyssey of Telamon and Friends Chapter 2 Part 6

EARLIER PARTS OF THE STORY CAN BE FOUND HERE 

Patroklos Island

With time to rest and think we process our recent adventures for a few days then firm up our plan for next steps. We will land in East Attica at Paralia beach, landing the file of Xenophon the night before to scout out the area and use a fire arrow signal to tell us not to land. Next morning we will land the archers first to hold the beach then land two horses with Lycatus and Demetrius to ride to Athens to let them know we are on our way. Then we will unload everything else assemble the carts and load them with supplies and sliver. Once landed and loaded the Hippis will scout around the column with the archers either side of the carts. Jason will be 2^nd in command and in charge of the archers when I am not around. We spend some time over the next week practising loading and unloading to make the sailors happy with doing it and us knowing where we can help out. We use this time wo tell the file leaders and Hippis the plan we have and the order of march and battle line up if needed. The files of archers will form 2 to 3 deep in lose formation in this order; Jason, Ajax, Apollonius, Cadmus, Creon, Ioladus, Lycaon, Megisthus, Perseus, Xenophon, with the Hippis behind.

With the preparations dealt with we pour out libations to Poseidon, Hercules and Apollo and then Jason does a divination. He pronounces that ‘Telamon will give sliver to Chremonides before the blossoms fall’, around a week or two away.