Thadeus - a common invading foot soldier looking for plunder

After the three day cease-fire, waiting like caged ferrets in your camp while the wealthy played their pointless games on the far side of the river, the moment has finally come. You are eager to crack open this oyster and start searching for pearls within its crumbled shell. The climb over the rubble is exhausting, your shield alone weighs two stone and limits the use of your left hand. The spear clutched in your right hand is made for thrusting, not throwing so it too is heavy and awkward.

However, you are glad of both when you near the top of the breach and your shield blocks the axe blow from a frantic man in silk robes. An upward thrust of the spear hits the man on his inner thigh and blood gushes from an artery. With a final push, you reach the top of the wall. Dead men lie all around you including your first kill of the day.

As the man in rich silks bleeds out on the rubble before you, you wonder how he got his hands on such a fine axe. Clearly, you think, this man had little or no training - it's a good thing too, a trained mercenary would have split your skull instead of hitting the shield. The axe blade pierced the shield completely, extending a finger's length through the other side. The axe is steel-bladed with gold inlay all along the smooth haft, it is the axe of a war captain, not a common man.

From the high wall you can see Athenapolis spread out before you like a four-copper whore. Broad boulevards lead deep into the center of the great city and the richest sections of the population. A few organized phalanxes are moving purposefully into the city, but for the most part there is no organized resistance except for the gleaming white citadel that dominates the center of the great city.

You run your fingers over the axe handle one more time as you try to determine the best course of action.