It was a typical warm day on Ino. The day of punishment for a foreigner from an unknown island came. "I will tell you the rules once more before you execution. No murder or rape! No robbery and do not endanger the honor of our families! You have committed rape on our island. Murder and rape is punished by beheading. You get no right to say any last words. My the death goddess punish your rotten soul." Esia said to the foreigner. She then quickly swung her scythe. The man fell over and his head fell off. "Give this man an unhonorable burial. Let the vultures eat from his corpse!" It was the first execution in two years. The village thought very highly of Esia. No one really knew how long she has been their protector or how old she was but she watched over the village as if she was one of the demigods. The villagers brought carts full of wheat into the village. They traded with merchants from the neighboring island. The merchants brought spices and hops and the village gave them some wheat and their crafted jewelry. Today was also the day of harvest, a festival the village and a village from the neighboring island celebrated together. The would drink and have fun together. They would celebrate the good harvest they had and the high fertility rate. Each woman in the village got 5 to 12 children each. Maybe sometime soon they would grow to a town or make more villages.
Esia dressed up for the evening. In her white dress with a white cloth choker that had black lines going around it, she seemed like a celestial being. A bronze chain hung down from the choker with beads on it. All the other women were getting dressed for the festival.

New developments: More robust weapons, construction cranes, woodwind instruments (including bagpipes), fishnets, tattoos and piercings.


Sunset came and the people had gathered. The people from the other island had brought a new instrument (aulos) and the art of tattoos with them. Music began to play and people were amusing themselves. Esia decided to get tattoos. The tattoo artist tattooed a tribal line at the top of each of Esias cheeks with a light blue ink. The night went long. After the celebration everyone went home. The next day Esia got her hair shaved to get her head tattooed. Her hair grew back and long quickly. With the acquirement of cranes the people built another village more towards the center of the island. They built a temple and a small palace with a council chamber. The villagers were welcome in the palace and were grateful that they had such a fair and kind chief. But soon Esia wasnt called chief anymore but guardian Esia. She made sure that the laws of the island were obeyed and that those would be punished for disobeying. A new milder punishment was made for robbery: Instead of death, the culprits got 20 whip strokes on first account and further robberies by the same person resulted in loosing a finger. Esia took care of the problems and would protect the island from invaders.

The dragon boats pull up to the southern island in the darkness of night. Deep in within the lead boat the Khadoran Khan prays to Lady Cryx to prepare a place in the Underworld for his men if this event comes to battle. He spends the rest of the night preparing for the next day. At dawn the next day the dragon boats land on the beach and before long the landing boards are in the sand and Khadoran warriors pour onto the beach. They form into ranks as the boats cargo is lowered to the ground in carts pulled by five men each. Once every thing is in order the Khan who was the first man on the beach points in the direction of the nearby settlement. "March there my warriors, now is the time for trade if possible. Or if we cannot do that then the taking of what we need for our people. Now form a shield wall, and advance." With that they begin to march toward the settlement.

Esia noticed the advancing troops from the roof of the newly built stone palace. Her men noticed to and were on alert. "No need to go with me. I will take care of these matter myself." She said. Esia walked down to the oncoming troops. "Welcome to my island. We call it Ino. What brings you here?" She asked holding her scythe in her hand. "So that you know I am the leader of this island. They called me guardian Esia."

The Khan at the head of his elite troops (from now on referred to as the Thyns) notices the strangely marked woman approach. He quickly appraises her, she carries a scythe in a manner that speaks of her knowledge of its use and not just for farming. When she speaks he does not quite understand her words but he realizes from her body language that she is not issuing a challenge. He turns to his Thyns and says, "Bring forth the carts." The Thyns step aside and the men pulling the carts to come to the front of the army. The Khan walks over to one of the carts and pulls a crate from it and brings it over to the strange woman. He sets it down and opens it to reveal iron knives. "We bring these," he snaps his fingers and a man runs over with a piece of wooden furniture, "and these to trade. So says I the Khan of Khador"

Developments: Simple chainmail, ale, wine, mead, hammers and axes for battle, oil

Esia kneeled down to look at the knives. She pointed at it and said in her tongue: "Knife" to show the word for it in her language. Esia took out a flute and played on it. It was abnormally loud but beautiful. A couple men and women came carrying wooden chests. They opened the chests. One chest had bronze jewelry and bronze ceremonial daggers in it. The next was full of olives. Then a man was carrying a barrel. He opened it and filled a cup with wine. A man stood next to Esia with a chainmail shirt and a battlehammer resting on his shoulder. Esia offered the foreigner some wine. "Here drink. Its wine." Esia said.

The Khan is impressed by the things the strange woman has brought before him. He is a little confused when she offers him a cup of the strange liquid. He calls over Zhorav the leader the the Thyns and tells him to take a sip of the strange liquid. Zhorav takes the drink and sips from it. "It is good my Khan," Zhorav responds, "weak compared to Orin's mead but good." The Khan takes the cup and drinks deeply from it. He enjoys the sweet taste of the beverage. He smiles and hands the cup back to the woman. He turns to his men and shouts, "They are touched by Orin's wisdom. May they live long and when their time comes may Lady Cryx smile upon them." His men all drop to their keens and shout, "Seyla." He turns back to the strange woman and says, "(pointing to himself) I am the Khan. (lowering his hand) May Orin protect you and Lady Cryx grant long life. (smiles) And let Gora grant you his sense of adventure, but not his mischief."

To her words Esia made fitting gestures: "As I said. My name is Esia. I am the guardian of Ino. Maybe you would like to stay for a night after your long trip. In the name of the highest goddess, death goddess Enesia and her kin, I welcome you to Ino." She then turned to her villagers: "Bring them to the main village and make sure they get some food and beds." She smiled at the Khan and waved him over to come with her to the small palace. She walked over to the palace which was next to the temple which looked like a very tall tower. On the front wall of the palace was an engraved picture of Enesia who somehow looked like Esia with a severed head in one hand and the light of life in the other. The rotting head of the rapist from days ago was mounted on a spear in front of the palace.

The Khan nods to his men to follow the people of the island to their homes. As he travels with the woman calling herself Esia he takes note of all the defensible locations in the village. As he approaches the palace he notices the skull on a spear. He walks over to it and takes it from its place. The Khan then pulls a long knife from his boot and begins to carve runes on the skull. "Lady Cryx judge this man true, be he a noble warrior, or man condemned to hell. Reveal to me the true course," He chants. He chants this three times, before he understands the crime this man had committed. He drops the skull to the ground shouting, "burn forever you worm." He raises his right foot over the skull and as he brings it down he cries, "Seyla." The skull shatters and the Khan begins grinding the shards to dust. Looking over at Esia he says, "Lady Cryx is pleased."