Summary 36

The emissaries from Raska were determined to leave, but you managed to put the best possible slant on things and seemed to have placated Ronneby - at least partially.

News came of two murders - that of Nikolai and the assassination of Commissar Ioan Mehescu. The former's death seemed insoluble despite help from two new friends - Morgan and Kara. You surmised that he had probably fallen foul of one of the key underworld barons, who were trying to legitimise themselves and eliminate their competition. The latter was assassinated by an unemployed labourer, who was instructed by "the World machine" to commit the attack. Lothar slew him when attacked after he insulted the Machine.

For information, you identified the following 'kingpins':
Andron Zhestoky, linked to the Order of the Exaltation of the Teardrop [gambling, smuggling etc]
Tolbek Tolbekovich, now a 'respected' merchant [slaves/ girls, drink]
Sofia Zdvoroy [drugs, general black market]

News came through that a reinforcement convoy, consisting of Heidi Ubermann, Lanz Plarer (who had requested the assignment) and the Lorenzens had not reached its expected destination of Mishkapol. You set off in pursuit (at a rate of pay of 5/- per day) with a scout Dalmat Dalmatovich. Arriving at the village of Mitsensk, you discovered that Sigrid Lorenzen had deserted here with Plarer (un/willingly?) and headed south. Apparently Heidi had been adamant the two be caught and had demanded the village militia follow them, since she was obliged to continue. You ignored this lead and continued west, searching for the group.

You fought off an ambush by well concealed Hill Men (in which Dalmat did sterling service), rested in the burnt out village of Merv and carried on. You did discover some brand new 'Ostermark' swords with the Hill Men, Heidi's sword and her reading book (a bestiary). The next encounter was a lone female in horn scale armour, chased by another group of Hill Men. You bored the Hill men into walking off, and were lucky that the female could not understand Old Worlder, since she (mistakenly) believed that you had helped her. You could not understand her language, although it sounded vaguely familiar to Whys Parr. Her father swore "I am in your debt. You have saved my daughter from the Wind. My sword, by the Divine Sword, is yours til it is covered in blood." However, Lothar traded the debt for a warhorse.

You are currently in the ruins of Meshed village with the nomads and some Hill Men. According to them, the Lorenzens changed sides and Heidi is a prisoner in Pskov. From this and earlier conversations, you have ascertained the following local socio-political data:

Many local Hill Men tribes have been (forcibly) integrated into the Odrysian Kingdom, which has an alliance (of sorts) with assorted marauders and Ruthenia. Some Hill Men oppose the kingdom, though they might fight with them on occasion.

Hill Men tribes within the Kingdom include the Odrysai, Serdi, Edoni, Thyni
Opposed tribes include Maedi, Sordiski and Bessi.

Some Hill Men tribes also are part of 'Skudra', although not all these tribes are part of the alliance - or the Kingdom.

Finally, Ruthenia is part of the Alliance too.

At Meshed are the Marauder nomad Ant'sai tribe and some Bessi traders. The nomads are nominally your enemies since they helped sack the village and wintered over here to see what the year would bring. Aripharnes seemed put out that you valued his daughter, Pzyra, and his debt at a horse. Kara got on well with the Bessi in drinking, whilst Whys Parr was a disaster with his lute. A popular song was "We're going to hang up our washing by the Istros line". They all seem - for unknown reasons - to regard you as 'barbarians'.

Pskov is a flat-topped megalith with volcanic glass 'slag' for walls. It is easily defensible and currently has about 1500-2000 Hill Men there. Members of the Odrysai, Serdi, Edoni, Thyni and Sordiski tribes are there. Ruthenians are also there. All is not love and peace: the Thyni regard the village as theirs, whilst the Skordiski oppose the Kingdom. Your friends also tell you that the area has a number of small mines, cavern structures etc and a temple to "Zalmoxis" in the surrounding mountains.

Experience (including carried over)
Jakob  -
Wolf  37
Lazarus  120
Whys Parr  -
Lothar  - 
Kara  100
Morgan  100

Game Issues
By my calculation, you collected: 12 javelins, 5 heavy cloaks (lozenge and zig-zag patterned), 5 pairs of fawnskin boots (with flaps), 3 leather caps and two leather tunics (count as jacks; bloodied). These are in Kara's cart (except I think Morgan took a tunic and a cloak - he might also want boots too!).