OOC IX

[Alethan]

Agreed. Let's try the other directional options before trying to bash down a door.

[Wyzard]

I don't think we could break it down if we wanted to, short of bringing in a battering ram.

[thirdkingdom]

You guys should totally track down a rust monster.

[MonsterMash]

Maybe not with Thurgan in plate. Would Thurgan have a chance of identifying the fungus being a subterranean dweller.

Happy Thanksgiving (bit late) for you in the states. Just a normal weekend here in the UK, though black friday sales have started to take off.

[Koren n'Rhys]

Quint has knock memorized. Use it.

[phil285]

Aha, so we can at least see what's behind this door, then, before worrying about alternative routes.

[Wyzard]

Can anyone cast Knock?

Quint has knock memorized. Use it.

I am a genius.

[Atlictoatl]

Have fun! Do you mind telling us where you're going?

I will, thanks! While I'll still be working, I'm looking forward to the change in scenery and some more mental and creative space.

I'll be in Spain, not far from Granada, visiting close family.

So, the town I'm in, Salobreña, is part of Moorish Spain and was part of the Granada Emirate. It's a quaint little town of 20,000 people dominated by a castle on a rocky bluff over the town. I headed up there this morning, not expecting to be able to enter the castle because of construction being done on it and excavation within it. I was wrong.

The pictures I took didn't come out so well, mostly because there's a lot of construction going on. There are elements in the pictures that are interesting to me, but I have to assume they're less interesting to others. I uploaded a few shots, though, mostly depicting something that was of particular interest to me.

Which is the area surrounding the castle. The campo, or countryside, is right there. It's just so illustrative to me of the protective range of these castles. This is Andalucia, the fertile agricultural crescent of all of Spain. On the other side from the ocean are imposing mountains, and the whole valley is agriculture. To the East is a port town. To the West are more settlements and, barely within sight along the coastline, another area that was fortified 500 years ago. An hour North is the seat of the Emirate, Granada, and Spain's most famous Moorish castle, The Alhambra. To the South is Africa.

http://imgur.com/a/48XZs. The last shot is primarily of a big crack at the base of the tower. I'd hate to have to deal with that in the middle of a siege.

If you've never been to a Moorish castle, one of the most impressive bits to me is how they manage to make everything uphill for anyone entering the structure. Often steeply so; you should see the winding, insanely steep passageways to get to the main gate to this place. I'm also always fascinated by how they construct thing upon thing inside the walls of the fortress that allow defenders to fall back and continue having an upper hand in their defense of the place.

The white, village-looking structures in the third picture of the fields is a suburb of town called La Caleta, where the last sugar cane factory in all of Europe was until it got shut down in 2006. Now, it makes rum a few days a week.

What's missing from this album is a good shot of the castle sitting on its imposing rock structure above town, but there's a good picture of it here.

[Koren n'Rhys]

That sounds like an incredible place to visit. My wife and I plan to visit Europe someday, but it sure seems far off at this stage of our lives.

[thirdkingdom]

Yeah, those are some pretty fantastic photos.

[Atlictoatl]

That sounds like an incredible place to visit. My wife and I plan to visit Europe someday, but it sure seems far off at this stage of our lives.

I'm only able to be here at the largesse of my family. One of the appeals of Europe to a European-descended American, if you can ever swing it, is that it's foreign enough to make an impression without being too alien. And so much of our cultural heritage in America is derived from here.

Moorish Spain is especially fascinating to me, though it could in part be be because of my family connection to the region. As a fantasy gamer, though, with a hobbyist's interest in matters medieval, the history of the area is extremely compelling. In the States, we tend to think of Spain as one political entity, but up until the 16th century it was a broken assortment of kingdoms and for 700-800 years one of the largest was Muslim-ruled. There's a long history of Christians and Muslims vying for territory, with the Christians striving to get their territory back and multiple waves of different Muslim religious groups invading the area (even invading other Muslim-held territory) for control of the rich agricultural center. I suspect it would be fair to say that this region was among Europe's richest, up until the industrial revolution (ironically, as it's now depressed as 'just' an agricultural zone).

Granada's especially fascinating because it's the last of them, it had much internal strife in its last 100 years or so, and it survived for 200+ years after the fall of the other Muslim held territories as a vassal state of the Spanish Kingdom of Castile. Granada actually aided Castille in defeating other Muslim-held territories in Spain, and not so long before the Kingdoms of Aragon and Castile (under the Ferdinand and Isabella we know of for sponsoring Christopher Columbus) turned their attention on Granada.

I'm learning this trip that the Emir of Granada surrendered the city and territory in the beginning of 1492, and it makes me wonder if the timing of the discovery of the Americas is tied in any way to the final defeat of the Muslim-controlled territories and a return to Christian Spain. Had the Emirate held out longer, would the discovery of the Americas by the Spanish even occurred? Edit: I've just learned that it was the asset reclamation of the Spanish against the large Jewish population of Granada that funded Columbus' expedition. Upon the surrender of the city, the Jews were forced to leave and were only allowed to take with them that which they could carry. As a historical note, under the Muslims the Jewish population of Granada was so key to the city's culture and influence that the city's Arabic name included mention of the Jews.

In the late '90's, I tried to start up a PBeM supers + historical fantasy game set in the Spain of El Cid, back in the 11th century when the power blocks were in full swing and the borders full of conflict. It never really got off the ground, but the research for it was engaging and I continue to think it would be a great time period and setting for a politics and domain-conflict game.

Yeah, those are some pretty fantastic photos.

To be clear, the one that I put straight in the post of the castle over the city is stock from the internet, not one I took.

If there's interest, I'll post some photos from Granada. I'm staying in the shadow of the Alhambra fortress, and while I'm not going in this trip, the outside walls are fascinating to me. They're massive, and I stand outside of them and imagine being a soldier charged with the futility of storming them.

[Atlictoatl]

If you'll allow the indulgence, I'll briefly share a historical story from the Castillo de Salobrena, where I shot those earlier pictures.

The Chess Game

The Salobena castle served in the latter years of the Emirate as a royal prison, confining distinguished prisoners. One of these was the brother of an Emir, who was imprisoned in the castle for 16 years. From his deathbed, the Emir finally ordered the execution of his brother, and the envoy carrying this decree arrived at the castle while the condemned was playing a game of chess with the Governor of the city.

The prisoner, knowing that his brother the Emir was unwell and that he had some popular support among the populace of the kingdom, asked if he might be allowed some time to put his affairs in order. The envoy, seeing through this ploy, declined to allow the prisoner to leave the room. He had his orders, and they would be carried out.

As he was in the middle of a game of chess, the prisoner asked if he might be allowed to finish the game. Being a civilized man, the envoy agreed to these terms. The prisoner and the Governor then proceeded to stretch out the game of chess for an inordinately lengthy time, trying the patience of all assembled.

The ploy was successful, as before the interminable game concluded two new envoys burst breathless into the room, bringing news that the previous Emir had died and that the people back in the capital had insisted that the man who had been held prisoner for 16 years be instated as the new Emir.

The King's Game, indeed.

[MonsterMash]

I'm getting interested in Spanish history at the moment, particularly the Peninsular War of the Napoleonic period and the Reconqista (El Cid) in the middle ages. Luckily for me in London its only a few hours flying time away so I don't have to treat it with any urgency.

[Atlictoatl]

I'm getting interested in Spanish history at the moment, particularly the Peninsular War of the Napoleonic period and the Reconqista (El Cid) in the middle ages. Luckily for me in London its only a few hours flying time away so I don't have to treat it with any urgency.

Ah, you lucky bastard. I'm hearing that it's possible to go from London to the Costa del Sol for ~ 30 Euros. My family here knows a lot of expats who go back and forth between their properties up north and down here.

[phil285]

Right this minute, it's very tempting to head down to the south of the UK then across to a warmer bit of Europe!

[Atlictoatl]

We've got space for a round of missile fire, haven't we...?

I'm assuming we might be able to get a surprise round. We could use that to close and melee with them, but that would tactically even the battlefield for our opponents. If we can position ourselves well enough to all get a round of missile fire off, and concentrate fire, we could use surprise to our best advantage, and also force them to close with us.

They've been described as being slow, so dependent on how far they are from us when we initiate, we might even get two rounds of missile fire before they close.

In any event, we should close ranks before they engage us in melee, to protect our non-melee party members.

[Koren n'Rhys]

If they're essentially ogres, I'll likely only drop one, but Quint does still have his second sleep available. He and Severi could each drop one, and then we focus the missile fire on what's left standing after that.

[Wyzard]

Well, these things are probably Sleep-resistant the way the rest of the ur-orcs were. I'd rather fill them full of arrows and see how it goes than potentially waste a spell on one.

[Atlictoatl]

Aye, save the spells for emergency use.

[Koren n'Rhys]

Okie Dokie!