The City of Crossing (Ronin/Open)

[Norgarth]

Crossing started due to a simple fact. Lord Norgarth's lands were on he opposite side of the mighty Constantine river as the majority of the Ronin's lands. Deciding to forge a link to the Emperor's Highway stretching north from the Ronin City of Imhabia, Norgarth commisioned the building of a massive bridge across the river at a relatively narrow stretch (in this case 'narrow' covered a span of roughly 300 paces).

For many months, Norgarth's mages, carpenters and masons labored to create a brigde across the gap. A bridge strong enough to handle an army's passage. To guard what would become an important landmark a midsized keep was built to anchor each end of the span. From these twin keeps and the towns which formed to supply the builders, was born the growing city of Crossing.

The towns name was as unplanned as it's prosperity. When construction began it was simply called the crossing point, as Norgarth had not chosen a name for it, As time went on, the name was shortened to The crossing. Eventually it simply came to be known as Crossing.

The prosperity had come due to the fact that by the bridge allowed caravans to cut days or even weeks off of their travel times, rather than needing to travel much further north to find a safe way across the turbulent flow. Suddenly Crossing has become a crossroads for traders. The hamlet on the west bank has grown considerably, and now an equally large town sits upon the east bank. Trade and tolls for the bridge crossing has brought great wealth for this growing metropolis.

[Norgarth]

After the assassination attempt, the touneyment in Imhabia had broken up. Norgarth has not recieved word as to whether or not it would be resumed.

In the meantime, he has returned to his seat of power in Crossing. As always there is much to do, clearing the accumulated papers andproblems that cropped up while he was in Imhabia.

The contest had produced many interesting events in the Ronin capital. The presence of a traitor and assassin in the midst of the Ronin, the intriguing Lady diplomat and her escort, that (unusually) well behaved group of greenskins with the bowman, er, bowgoblin, the insane centaur, and more.

[Norgarth]

The rebuilding was coming along nicely. During the Ronin's recent assault on VeV and Progeny, one of the ferrets had struck back at Norgarth's lands, driving his forces back deep into his own territory, much of that land had now been reclaimed from the bandits that appeared after the enemy pulled back. Now the villages were rebuilt and the land prosperous again. It had helped that the Foret lordling had left without finishing the job. A failing that cost several of his fellows as the war continued, but that was in the past, now he looked to the future.

[ConcordantNexus]

Out of the miserable rain and wind rode a score or more of dejected riders...

:a sad excuse for soldiery,:thought the sergeant in charge of the Eastern Gate Guard. The guardsmen tensed, each wondering if the approaching horsearchers might be desperate bandits or maybe a group of the psychopathic so-called "Warrior Monks of Balance". But no, one of the men in the lead carried a sad looking horsetail tug standard and upon approaching the gates the 20 odd men halfheartedly settled into some semblance of military order.

The Sergeant spat in disgust. Once the approaching troop entered within bow range, the Crossing Guardsmen hailed them - voices almost drowned out by the rain.

In response, one rider trotted up on a genuine Karal horse. Karals are one of the favoured breed of horse amongst the RONIN, essentially a crossbreed of the hardy steppe ponies of the Ilkhiz plateaus and highlands with the hot-blooded racers of Arabic lands, with a bit of beefy destrier blood thrown in for good measure. The breed is fast, surefooted, reasonably intelligent and above all endowed with excellent endurance. Perfect for the type of hit-and-run, skirmishing, long distance campaigns that RONIN is famous for.

The horsearcher's officer had valid muster papers for an auxiliary troop of up to 100 riders. Seeing that everything was in as much order as one could expect on such a dreary, cold day, the Sergeant motionned for the troop to enter the gate.

The men were a mixed bag of the few remaining Ilkhizian nomads, Talingalese shepherds and huntsmen with a handful of Ronin regulars in the mix. Strange to see mongloid Ilkhiz men on their squat steppe ponies. Most of their people had left the banners of RONIN as it's power waned... Nonetheless here was a goodly dozen of them, mingling with Talingalese folk and Imhabian regulars...

[Norgarth]

The Ronin were on the march once more, joining the coalition against the Reavers. Norgarth's shadow agents came and went constantly from Crossing, locating Reaver kingdoms and updating scout reports. Norgarth's forces had been busy tonight, burning Foret temples in one of the Reaver's greatest raelms, opening the way for the sorcerous and military assault which destroyed the realm.

But suddenly Norgarth's realm came under attack, not by a Reaver, but from an unguilded Dardenite realm. The 'dardenite' declared and attacked without scouting, indeed he could not, as he had no scummers at all. Shortly before the attack, there had been a mystery visitor, identified only by the corpses of Norgarth's shadow-walkers left in it's wake. Few indeed were the ardenite realms that could have scouted Norgarth's realm with his large numbers of scummers thus, and most of those were focused elsewhere.

But the Reaver realms, bloated on ill-gotten lands, they would be able to do so. So it appeared that a Reaver scouted his realm and gave the information to a darden realm. Did they seek to break the alliance between Isonia and Darden through the appearance of treachery? Or was the Darden realm mearly a landfarm taking advantage of a weak defence. Or was it as some suggested, a spy sent to infiltrate the Darden councils and to report their movements to their corrupt masters.

Irregardless, Norgarth's realm survived, though greatly weakened. Hiring troops, Norgarth lead his troops out and struck at newly reformed Reaver kingdoms, taking back land to replace that which he'd lost.

[Norgarth]

Crossing was abuzz with rumors. Lord Norgarth was leaving for Imhabia with a large baggage train and heavy guard. Oddly, he was bringing all of his aides with him, rather than leaving one to lead the city in his stead.

Instead he had appointed a council. The highest ranking members of the Foot, Calvary, and Shadowwalkers represented the military, 3 prominent businessmen represented the local merchants and craftsmen, and 3 of the city's top priests (Including the leader of the area's Consortionist faithful)

Equally odd, rather than selecting specific units of Crossing's army to accompany him, his guard force, from the highest ranked officer to the merest trooper, had been hand selected. The remaining troops were shuffled around to fill the gaps made by this erratic selection process.

As Norgarth's column finished preparing for departure, astute observers began to note that none of the selected soldiers had wives or children. None had any sort of dependant at all. The same proved true of the priests and mages accompanying the Tsuki-nin on his journey.

As the column left the gates in the dawn's light, the rumors grew more, fed by a merchant caravan that had arrived late the night before bringing wild tales that the Ronin were to depart the lands of Maxim.

[Norgarth]

Crossing's towere were visible from several miles away. This was due both to their height and the fact that the forests had long ago been cleared back several miles. Much of that open land was now occupied by farm feilds.

As his forces came with in sight of the ramparts, Norgarth could tell there was a lot of activity there. He supposed it must be caused by the Ronin flag that flew at the head of the vanguard.

Norgarth was somewhat taken back by the sight he and his escort perceived as they entered Crossing's east gate. Just inside the gates of the town wall, on either side of the road, crowds had already begun to gather. As he passd through the gates, several people pointed at him and the hubbub of the crowd grew.

As the column wound through town to the Eastkeep and the fortress bridge proper, the crowds grew, and the sounds grew in volume, becoming a chant. Focusing on the massed voices Norgarth realized they were chanting two words. One was 'Ronin', the other, he was gratified to discover, was 'Norgarth'.

[Norgarth]

Crossing was currently prospering. After hard times durring the past few wars, the kingdom had begun to grow once more.

The new found wealth was allowing Norgarth to afford long over due maintenance on a large section of the Emperor's Highway. The highway streatches south to Imhabia and is the main road between the two cities. It was also the route traders took between the two cities, since the Constantine was unnavigatable this hare upstream due to several cataracts and a thirty foot waterfall.

The money also allowed him to hire more troops to sweep his territory of bandits and theives. And of course, a chunk of the money was put aside to help the community thru leaner times.

[Norgarth]

TH's counter attack had been brutal. Wave after wave of ferrets had washed across Norgarth's lands, eroding it away. His hordes of scummers, who had done so much scouting and burning in the begining had fled or been slain. But Crossing still stands, and the Ronin are not done yet.

[Norgarth]

In the wake of Silence and Reaver's deceit the Ronin as a whole had become demoralized. Norgarth's forces had retreated to Crossing. The disappearance of the Jo-nin Yoshimutsu and several other Ronin leaders only made the effect worse. For the time being, Norgarth's forces were content to patrol the territory around his city and along the Emperor's Highway to Imhabia.

[Lorianna]

Lorianna hurried down to the stables. Lord Norgarth had recieved a message from Lucien and she was to head to the home of Lady Lia to aid the sorceress Xyen. Her escort was nearly finished making ready for departure as she arrived and quickly loaded and mounted her steed. A brief nod to the captain of her guards and they departed, intent on making the best time they could.

[Norgarth]

Norgarth read through the day's reports is his office in Crossing. Both Crossing and Imhabia had made it through the great storm relatively intact, although several ships, including one of Norgarth's merchantmen, had been driven ashore and damaged. He'd also recieved word that Lorianna had arrived at Lia Moonflower's keep and was assisting Lady Xyen in Lia's recovery. Unfortunately his agents had yet to discover the fates of Yoshimutsu or the other missing Ronin.