The Last day of Constantinople 1453

Chapter Four: The last day of Constantinople

Background: Siege of the city was between 6 April – 29 May 1453 as Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire is attempting to complete his conquest of the Byzantium Empire and move further on into Europe. Constantinople had a population of 500,000 in 675AD. By the Siege of 1453 this was only 100,000 But was still one of the top 5 largest cities in 1453AD Europe.
The city in 1453 was made up of several village-like neighborhoods surrounded by fields of grass mixed with rumble, grain crops and vegetable plots within the outer city walls.

Mehmed brought 130,000-man army plus 200,00 slaves and retainers to do the job.

Up against this force manning the walls of Constantinople was:

13,000 Regular soldiers, the The Capital Legion (10,000 Imperial Byzantium Soldiers ) and

3,000 foreign mercenaries and

30,000+ Armed volunteers (Local citizenry along with adventurers seeking battle with the Muslim Heretics from across Christian Europe)

The City of Constantinople the on the evening of May 29th 1453

After days of fog, the skies are clear and the Sultan's cannons now have a clear view of the walls and their bombardment increases in tempo. By dinner time the wall covering the river Lyrus has a massive collapse causing flooding south of the exterior wall. It also provides a large entry ramp of passable ruble on the north side of the river.

The remaining people of Constantinople know now that their city is certainly doomed. The Sultan with his army of over three times the size of the defenders will be coming through in the next few hours. Some have a last meal/dinner like at Gina's House of Joy, others go into hiding in the city cisterns, while others head for the dicks where the Byzantine and Genoese ships are preparing to make a break for it.

The party, after spending the day of making arrangements and meetings at the Imperial Palace leaves Gina's at about 8pm, to man the defenses at the breach and await the Ottoman Assault.

The Ceremony of Azel's Bell... evening of May 29th 1453

After going down a long into darkness into the dark, the various party memebers reunite in a hugh cavern. They are greeted by The empress, Gina, her Handmaidens, Narl the Tick Tok Man in "Sphere mode" and close to 100 be robed individuals. The party is thanked for retreving the Emperor and he is taken from the group, with promises that "all will be healed". The party decides to play along.

The Cavern is very big, about 720' long, 240' wide, 120' high.

The Empress begins the ceremony by taking the Emperor's Rod of Rulership, of his regalia, and removing the eagle off the top, revealing a mouth peice, and attaching the Bell upside down onto the bottom of the Rod.

Then while all the robed people present chant she filled the Bell with a "stinky" weed like substance, and lit it a fire. She then instructed Emperor Constantine the XI to inhale deeply, which he does.

As the cavern quickly fills withcthe stinky smoke, all wounded included the Emperor are restored to 1 hit point.

Emperor Constantine the XI suddenly gets the munchies, and they pause the ceremony a minute or two while he devours a plate of Baklava.

Then Emperor Constantine the XI continues to inhale deeply, and when he finishes, he passes the Rod to his Empress and relaxes, crosses his arms and is turned to Marble.

The Wall behind the Altar disappears and becomes a gate to

the "Forgotten Realms"

Vlad Tempes and another person named Fenalik drop the hoods off their robes and move the Marble Emperor off the Altar, and place it off to the side. They then replace him with the struggling figure of Bishop Phocas onto the altar and ripe his throat out and drink his blood, then Fenalik cut opens his wrist so Vlad can complete his conversion into a Vampire.

Meanwhile an Earth Quake rocks Constantinople, and the western half of the Hagia Sophia collapses into the cavern turning area "9" into a rubble stair case up to the surrface.

Above, unknown to the party at the time, Cardinal Isadore has also opened a gate behind the Altar in the Hagia Sophia above and he and most of the congregation sheltering in the great church escape to Somewhere else....

And about 10,000 Ghouls...

After flooding the cavern with her troops, Tiamat turns to the party and asks

"Are you with me? Or will you defy me?"

At this very moment the Two Baroque Ghouls

arrive with 10,000 fellow ghouls, offering to help them escape. The party now has a choice, work with Tiamat or Oppose her.

They choose to Oppose her, and the ghouls get them safely away to the docks were the Genose Galley is awaiting them with 29 Merchant families they where able to convince to go to the docks as well.

As a bonus, as they climb aboard, and sail out of the chaos and mayhem of the Turks and Ghouls fighting a losing battle against Tiamat's hoards, they find that the Byzantium Secretary of State George Sphrantzes

Had transfered 90% of all the magic scrolls and tombs of the Imperial Library onto their ship... "For safe keeping, your friend George..."

The Lady's Request....

During their stops at the Place while working for the Secretary of State George Sphrantzes,

the Empress Mariya makes a strange request of the party...

"After all this mess with the Turks is dealt with, I want you to find thirteen objects for me...

Two I already have in my possession, one I will have soon. Here is the list:

Item Possible Location

Amulet of Pure Love Somewhere in Italy or somewhere in Europe

Bracelets of Binding The lady acquired them from Bishop Phocas

Celestial Planisphere Unknown

Codex of the Infinite Unknown

Crystal of Mu Somewhere in Far East Asia

(6) Daggers of Dimension Rending

The lady acquired one of these and it is employed by one of the Emperor's Guards

The other five could be anywhere on Earth.

Egg of the Abys Unknown

The Marble Emperor She will be acquiring it soon...

The Assault

After sunset of May 29th 1453

The Byzantine troops and their Mercenary allies will form a shield wall, which is a

a Greek Phalanx, with Heavy crossbowmen up on the walls of either side

of the breach.

Ottoman Turks attack in 3 Waves

1^st Wave:

Christian Shock troops, Romanians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Wallachians, ect... people the Ottomans had conquered in southern Euerope over the last 20 years as they tried to encircle Constantinople. Wearing little more than rags and carrying a scimitar, these men fight becasue if they don't they know their homes and villages will be burned.

30 mins combat then survivors are recalled by the Bashi-Bazouchs (Turkish regulars in charge of the conscripts/slave troopers, the name translates litterally to "Crazy Heads"), they cover their retreat as the next wave is prepped for 10minutes.

2^nd Wave:

Turkish Regulars (Akinji) march in multiple lines and at double time. They engage for a full hour as 3 lines of new troops set up behind them. After 60 mins they fall back and help cover the….

Turkish Arquebusiers 3 lines deep, 1 loading, and 1 positioning and 1 firing. They have 10 rounds each so there will be only be 3 minutes of gunfire, then they will withdraw with the Regulars.

3^rd Wave:

Turkish Janissaries march in multiple lines and at double time. Lead by Hassin, their commander, who will issue a challenge in Broken Greek to anyone who wants to fight him in 1 on 1 combat, Henrik of the Vangarians takes him up on it, but loses. After which the Janissaries begin their Assault. The Byzantine troops on the wall now launch their

“Greek Fire “ bombs they have been keeping in reserve, but to no avail, it’s a rout.

The Genoese’s mercenaries retreat to the harbor with their now mortally wounded General.

The three of the party are mortally wounded and retreat back to Gina's. Marco Jorgensen is badly burned BUT retrieves Henrik of the Vangarians magic 2 bladed Battle Axe, the Kiss of Thor.

Joseph the Barbarians is also mortally wounded, but they do save the Byzantine Emperor

Constantine (Also mortally wounded). At this point the party gets separated in the mayhem of the Janissaries renewed assault. Velez fights off 4 Janissaries, and is reduced to 0 Hit points but makes a Heroic Effort and keeps going, escaping with the Byzantine Emperor over his shoulder into the sewers, guided by a "Voice"

Stephanie of Danzig dragging Marco Jorgensen, still clutching the Kiss of Thor is close behind.

Gina's House of NO Joy...

Meanwhile Tristen the "Ta Bard" makes it through the chaos of looting, burning and rape that the Ottoman soldiers are conducting on Constantinople, while dragging Joseph the Barbarian with Sister Teresa to Gina's house of Joy.

There they find the brothel has been recently been sacked, and all the sex workers have already been carried off by the Sultan's men. They also find Manuel, the kind bouncer, behind the kicked in door. He was dying BUT "Ta Bard" and Sister Teresa stabilize him and he is able to tell them that Gina and her 12 Handmaidens escaped down a secret passage on the ground floor right here in the court yard, leaving Manuel and the others to be either killed, left for dead or dragged off by the Turks.

Realizing that the court yard of the brothel isn't a safe place, they use the same secret door to to escape a few dozen Turks returning from raping and killing upstairs...