View source for Road to Kiev, Chapter One

'''Shopping'''

Immediately after the party split up, [[Reynaldo]], [[Thorvald]], [[Wong]], [[Kai]], [[Thalia]], and [[Gunther]] went to buy stuff. After a lot of wheeling and dealing (but no stealing), they got a lot of needed goods for inflated prices. Goddamn war economy.


'''Offer'''

Afterwards, a Byzantine soldier came to us and asked us in Greek if we knew the languages of the North. The only two who knew Greek were [[Thorvald]] and [[Reynaldo]], and [[Thorvald]] decided to let the more intelligent [[Reynaldo]] do the talking.<br>
"That depends. Who are you?" Reynaldo asked.<br>
He explained that he was looking for a party that spoke both the language of this land (Greek) and the language of the North (possibly Norse, but probably Russian).<br>
[[Reynaldo]] said, "Sure, but I'm the only one who speaks Greek."<br>
"You might not be the party we're looking for then, but you'll have to do."<br>
He asked us to meet him at the soldiers' camp.


'''Decision'''

We all went there and met with [[Constantinus|Captain Constantinus]] (don't call him Constan-penis). He explained that the war going on right now for the empire was being lost by the loyalist army. He wanted someone to go to the Kingdom of [[Kiev]] and ask the King there to come help out the [[:Category:Byzantine Envoys|Byzantines]]. [[Reynaldo]] told him he had to talk it over with his co-leader, [[Gunther]]. [[Gunther]] was all for it, Reynaldo and Thorvald were totally against it, and everyone else hadn't taken up a position. [[Gunther]] wanted to lead the [[Kiev|Kievan]] armies against the zombie armies some of them had seen earlier when they sojourned through that land, [[Thorvald]] wanted nothing to do with the [[:Category:Undead|undead]] and was convinced that there was no more [[Kiev]] because the zombies had killed them all, and [[Reynaldo]] just wanted to get on with the mission they had already decided on (to get the Holy Grail). Then [[Constantinus]] told them they'd get 5000 gold each for coming back with a negative response, but substantially more for a positive one. [[Reynaldo]] and [[Wong]] were immediately sold, but [[Thorvald]] kept his ground. Zombies are icky and undead, after all. We got [[Constantinus]] to agree to give us more rations and horses for the trip.


'''Decision part II''' 

Next we had to decide on which route to take: the northern route, through the lands of the Bulgars and the Carpathian Mountains into [[Kiev]], or the southern route around the Euxine Sea and through the Turkish lands up into Kiev? After much deliberation (in which length of trip, enemy forces, languages, and vampires were discussed), the northern route won out.


'''Travel and Meeting'''

We started off and as night approached, we encountered two travelers along the way: [[Nicolae]], a gypsy, and [[Catarina]], a Venetian (sshhh! don't tell her we burned her city down). We camped with them and introduced ourselves. [[Catarina]] mentioned she sometimes sang and a contest was held between she and [[Reynaldo]]. [[Reynaldo]] won. Everyone went to bed.


'''Bulgar Offer'''

The next day we set out and were immediately set upon by a band of Bulgar bandits. They got us to agree to stop so that we could meet with one of them. They played the old "This land is full of bandits and you need to pay us for protection" routine. [[Gunther]] talked for the party and [[Reynaldo]] translated it into Greek for him. [[Reynaldo]] misheard [[Gunther]] once and said, "Okay, we'll give you a hundred gold per person." [[Gunther]] then corrected him and [[Reynaldo]] said, "Excuse me, I misheard my companion. He says that you will give us 100 gold per head and we will let all of you go." The bandit leader smiled and rode back to his party of 48 men, and we rode as fast as we could to the small oasis of sorts we had seen in the distance so that we had a better fighting position, while [[Catarina]] sang a song of courage and valor that seemed to inspire [[Thalia]].


'''Bulgar Battle'''

Arrows were shot back and forth, taking out perhaps three or four bandits before we got to the trees. Also, a curious thing happened: about seven of the bandits just stopped riding and fell off of their horses for no apparent reason. When we reached the trees, the [[:Category:Fighter|fighters]] immediately jumped off their horses and got ready to fight, while the magic users went in a little deeper and got off of theirs. [[Thorvald]], [[Gunther]], [[Thalia]], [[Wong]], and [[Kai]] fought against the bandits valiantly while [[Nicolae]] made many of them sleep. [[Catarina]] got off a few spells as well, while [[Reynaldo]] webbed some bandits attempting a pincer maneuver from behind. And still more men just fell as if unable to move, inexplicably. [[Wong]] decapitated a few bandits with her martial arts, [[Gunther]] engaged the leader in one-on-one combat, and the rest did all they could to stem the tide. Then, the bandits' magic user came out and cast fear, catching only [[Thorvald]], who began screaming and running around, finally cowering behind a tree.


'''Samaritan and End of Battle'''

A man in tattered clothing emerged from the wood and began fighting against the bandits, going after their magic user. The man and [[Kai]] took on the magic user, while [[Thalia]] helped [[Gunther]] take on the leader, and everyone else attempted to finish off the rest of the bandit party. The magic user fell and [[Kai]] went to help defeat the leader. The bandits' lieutenant came and took out [[Wong]] and [[Reynaldo]] before fleeing. After defeating the leader, [[Gunther]] and [[Thalia]] grabbed horses and rode the lieutenant down, shooting him full of arrows. [[Gunther]] bound him and they all returned to the forest, where [[Nicolae]], the mysterious new man, [[Kai]], and [[Catarina]] helped tie up all the bandits that were out, but not dead. The fear spell finally wore off of [[Thorvald]] and he looked sheepishly around for something to do. The man introduced himself as [[Edward|Edward the Penitent]], a man of the [[Christianity|Christian]] faith with God-granted powers. He was responsible for causing some of the bandits to stop moving.


'''Bandit's Story and Decision part III'''

When the lieutenant was brought back, he spoke with [[Reynaldo]]. He asked what we were planning on doing with them. [[Reynaldo]] replied, "Kill you, of course."<br>
"Please don't do that to me. I'm not actually one of them."<br>
"Well, you played the part pretty well."<br>
He went on to explain that the only reason he was around these men was because they had taken his daughter hostage and he was trying to find out where she was. As the leader of the bandits had already died (before we could gloat, unfortunately), we couldn't corroborate his story. As another day came to an end, the party was undecided as to what to do with the captured bandits. [[Reynaldo]], [[Wong]], and [[Thorvald]] seemed to be the only ones who wanted to kill them. After a heated debate between [[Gunther]] and [[Reynaldo]], [[Reynaldo]] said, "These are bandits. If you let them live, they will only prey on the weak again. This is what they do. You would unleash them again only to keep your hands clean of their blood. You are being selfish and naive, and are committing a greater evil by letting them go. Instead of their blood, you will have innocent blood on your hands." [[Gunther]] could only respond, "Cold-blooded murder is cold-blooded murder."


'''Drama'''

The decision has still not been made.


End Chapter One<br>[[Road to Kiev, Chapter Two|Next: Road to Kiev, Chapter Two]]