....there was some considerable excitement at the waterfront early this morning when a large bang and a lot of smoke appeared from the Byzantion Naval Yard, sending every foreign spy scurrying half dressed down the Dockside Road (pursued by half the Harbour Gals, also semi dressed and wanting their money). The crowd was shoo'ed away once the Vardariots had feasted their eyes on the Gals.
Doctor Leonardo Pipette , the Imperial Chief Alchemist, was later seen wandering homewards a bit dazed , his new-fangled bi-focal glasses broken on his blackened face, muttering about how he loved the smell of Naphtha in the morning.
Capain Kostas Bravos, who we spoke to at the Golden Horn tavern, was sailing into the bay from an all night fishing trip, and said he was just putting a tack in when he saw a jet of flame, then a big explosion, then clouds of smoke, and then a Navy piquet hailed him and told him to move on, sharpish like....
(Inset - one of Dr Pipette's assistants seen just before the Big Bang)
"It is not necessary to hope in order to attempt, nor to succeed in order to persevere."
ReplyDeleteLong, so long ago, when Phil 'WRG' Barker was testing a set of Ancients campaign rules I was promoted to Emperor in Constantinople. Under my leadership the Eastern Roman Empire crumbled and fell in less than a campaign year. Two minor decisions of mine -without real impact on the overall outcome- your post make me remember: I alloted State funds to a 'research and development' project to study that mysterious black powder from the far East. And -arguing of a real historical precedent, the attempt by a -reputedly mad- Roman Emperor to resurrect Alexander's pike phalanx- to the raising of an Amazon Guard. But Phil wanted to keep his campaign strictly historical, so a whole wing of the Palace blew up (with costly collateral damages) and the Amazon Guard was characterized as a Palace unit forbidden to take the field.
ReplyDeleteWish New Byzantium better success with its endeavours in Applied Science: we live in the Age of Reason -and authentic old documents can be unearthed, if damaged and uncomplete.
Now, about this Amazon Guard...