Strange Tides

The village of Ceii lay under low clouds that threatened rain but seemed unwilling or unable to disgorge their burden. Perhaps Gradivus was still pondering who his lightning bolts would strike, Hathi thought as she lay down the distaff with a huff. She did not really need to work thus at her age and due to being the headman's wife, but ever since the summer she had needed a distraction more than usual. Her little Semni was gone, following a fool's smile to the sea folk's city, and she knew not to what fate.

Then as though ‎Culsans himself had heard her thoughts and opened the way she heard raised voices outside: "The foreigners are coming, the foreigners are coming, under a branch of peace!" they called.

So it was under a green bough split in three, though it was not precisely foreigners at that. Semni had returned.

"What was that man thinking letting you go out so far when you are with child?" Hathi asked her daughter as soon as they were together.

The girl's eyes flashed with a familiar defiance: "Even my dear husband is not such a fool as to leave me locked inside like a sheep ready to drop a lamb, mother."

Hathi was at once happy to see the girl's spirit unbroken and worried about what it would mean for her in the future. Men did not love the sharpness of a woman's tongue, still less brash young men of the sort that acted with such folly as this Argurios had. "Well then what are you doing here? Surely it is not just to lighten an old woman's heart?"

"Not just that, but I would have found a way to come regardless once the little one is ready to travel," Semni replied, her mood changing at once to a sly smile. "I'm here to talk to peace and trade, of all the things Hyphyria has need of and how we and all our kinsmen might profit from those trades. Even their king admitted that I would be more skilled in speaking of such matters than my fool of a husband"

She had always been clever one, too clever maybe, the older woman thought. She just hoped her daughter would not outwit herself again. "The king. You aren't...?"

Semni recoiled as if struck. "I would never be such a fool as that, mother!"

"I'm sorry. I thought..." Hathi broke off, unsure of how to put her thought into words without being hurtful.

"That because I lay with one man who I thought myself wed to I would spread my legs for any other," her daughter finished bitterly. Then she sighed. "Come now, let us not quarrel. At least you asked it of me to my face and took my word for it when denied it. Tell me, what is the mood of the elders? Particularly cousin Fulni, his kinship to the Alvini will serve me well in this for Hyphyria needs far more trade than Ceii alone can provide, at least as it is now..."

And so they spoke, mother and daughter, not only of small and precious things, but of grand deeds such as might shift the fate of whole peoples inn due time.

Diplomacy Success: Relationship with the Mountain Shepard increased by 6, now at +1


Isidoros received the news of Semni's success among her people with a quiet sigh of relief. Whatever Argurios said about the strength and skill of the men who still dedicated their full might to the defense of Hyphyria, he was glad indeed not to have to fight, for his people were yet weary and heartsick and no walls guarded the fledgling city. This talk of trading not only with one village but many was pleasing to his ear for Hyphyria still had many needs yet unfulfilled. Better yet the shepherds were not the only folk who seemed great opportunity...

The more the king of Hyphyria learned of those called 'the Bull-men' by the captain who had found them the more he thought it a subtle blessing of Poseidon that a Hyphyrian ship had found them drawn up alongside the shore. They were a people more like onto the Helens than any others in these lands though cruder in manner and dress just as they were in the work of their hands. They supposedly dwelt in stone keeps and paid homage to a gathering of seven kings who quarreled and made pacts among themselves in a manner than was familiar indeed to Isidoros. There was much opportunity there, to trade perhaps even to forge alliances that would gain the city more than sheepskin and meat.

However, there was also peril, for the lands of the Sards as they called themselves had recently fallen under the shadow of ill omen. According to the slave that had been traded to Hyphyria. Not quite one generation past King Naha, a wicked and impious man who had been lord among the Balari who settled the middle of the island sought out rumored treasure that lay in a sealed tomb said to be the entrance to the underworld. Though the priests proclaimed that it would bring ruin upon them all, the king would not be dissuaded. Yet none could say if there was gold beyond and none would care, for what emerged from the depths was a giant, fearsome of mien and savage of nature who devoured the king and ruled over his kindred as the cruelest of tyrant. No blade could cut the giant's stony skin though they be wrought of finest bronze, and so it laughed at all its foes saying that it would rule over all the island as a god among men, but the true gods loved the monsters' pride no more than they did that of the fool Naha, so it is said they sent a blood-red star to fall from the sky to be an omen of its doom.

So it was that a boy called Itxaro, seemingly a common shepherd's son from among the Corsi who dwell in the north of the island, came to challenge the giant, but where all others had failed Itxaro succeeded, though none save he can say for certain how. Some say he did so in honorable battle, others speak of poison, and still others whisper of witchcraft.

What is known clear as day even onto one as lowly as the slave who now recounted the tale in halting Greek is that Itxaro proclaimed himself king of all the island standing upon the corpse of his defeated foe. His own folk bent the knee at once as did many of the Balari, grateful for the slaying of the giant, but the Ilienses of the south, rich in crops and skilled mariners both, had refused to give obeisance onto Itxaro whom they named sorcerer and ill-worker, and so there has been war in the lands of the Sards, with some of their fortresses changing hands as many as three times in a year.

Perhaps those men who had once fought for Orchomenos could find again rich pay in the employ of one side or the other of this war.

The time comes again to face the winter, mild though it may be in these lands Pick up to one personal action each.
[] Isidoros
[] Argurios
[] Semni

Available actions:

OOC: Some decent rolls this turn. The shepherds now actually like you ever so slightly.