Surprising Addition

Dom, Lucius and Subutai quickly headed towards the Heroes Hall, bypassing the other Warriors Halls that all seemed to now have some form of action taking place as different Warriors of Riverside appeared and headed to different areas that were prearranged. 

"What is left to do?" Subutai asked as he looked towards the sky and the sun that was now much higher than earlier.

"I believe it is time to spawn our next Hero." Dom replied, "Then we can do the Celebrations before departing tomorrow to spawn our new Towns."

"Are we planning to use the Family Orange Cube today as well?" Subutai asked, trying to work out how much work they had ahead of them.

"That is the plan, but we can always do that in the morning before we depart." Dom replied, not wanting to delay things too much.

"They will miss the Celebrations." Subutai replied with a shrug. "Which I think would be a shame"

"Let's see what we can do then." Dom stated, agreeing with Subutai's point but not wanting to delay any longer as he had already had a busy morning.

"We should definitely go by ship tomorrow." Lucius added, "It will be faster without tiring the horses, and it means we can do it all in one day. Leaving the last day to make sure that everything is set up for your departure."

"That's a good idea, Gan Ning would probably appreciate the involvement before he heads to the new Military Fort, I doubt we'll see much of him or Tomyris over the next couple of weeks." Subutai agreed.

They soon entered the Heroes Hall, which took Dom back to the first days of Riverside, where his Heroes relaxed on the variety of seats inside and chatted and enjoyed themselves. There were many times when he had found Lucius or Shang Yang sleeping. He also thought back to his first days when his first heroes of Riverside, Gan Ning and Tomyris, had joined and changed his whole outlook on this game. 

"System, do I have a spawn available?" Dom asked as he arrived, confident that he did.

[You currently have one spawn, however due to limited space in the Heroes Hall, you will only be able to draw one until the Heroes Hall has been upgraded.]

Dom was shocked by this, realising that he had just hit a cap in one of his spawns. The system hadn't told him what the caps were, but the Heroes Hall was currently at almost full capacity. Most of the Heroes had thankfully moved out and he suspected that if he moved out the remaining then the capacity would increase. He also thought back to how he had done his spawns, and most had come from Cubes and not the Heroes Hall.

"System, will I still be able to use Orange Cubes and Special Missions to get Heroes even if the Heroes Hall is full?" Dom asked, hoping that was the case.

[Correct, as they are Rewards and Purchases rather then Town related spawns.]

Dom only had one Wooden Token remaining, but he had given that to Hatshepsut earlier as he had promised it to Lucius for the Ox Animal Husbandry, which was a good idea as they needed more Animals for Agriculture, Transport and Food. An upgrade to the Heroes Hall however could increase his spawn count as well as capacity. He thought for a few more seconds, before deciding that it wasn't overly important as he already received Heroes from other routes on a much faster basis than the Heroes Hall that he had largely forgotten about bar for the housing of his Heroes due to it's slow spawn rate. For other Players the Heroes Hall was a necessity, but due to Dom's progress he felt he was far ahead, especially as he was technically still the number one Lord Class Player.

"System, please spawn me a Hero." Dom asked politely.

[Military or Domestic] 

Dom didn't take long to think about this, with the expansion of Riverside he would need more Domestic Heroes to help him manage the new locations. He currently had a large amount of Grade S Elite Villagers, but he was lower on numbers of Domestic Heroes. Crassus, Hatshepsut, Lucius, Shang Yang and Xun Yu were all key members of Riverside. Whilst Meritamen was his wife and wouldn't be able to move.

Some of his Military Heroes could also work in this area, as Tomyris had been a queen in her own right in history. Xun You who was their top strategist could also become a Governor. Even Gan Ning could govern an area if needed, but they all had important roles that couldn't be discounted.

"Domestic please." Dom stated, as Lucius and Subutai both took their usual seats and waited. Lucius grabbed a bowl of fruit and lay on his Chaise lounge, whilst Subutai was feeding Genghis his Eagle some strips of dried meat. 

[Maritime, Agriculture or Frontier]

Dom as usual was surprised by the choice, and his mind quickly tried to work out what would be the best option. He firstly ruled out Frontier, a Domestic Hero who was on the Frontier would be helpful if they had chosen either Red Leaf or Mountview, but as they had decided to build their cities in a row down the Calm River, he felt it was the wrong choice. He may have made a mistake, but he couldn't think of a reason to choose Frontier.

He then was stuck between Maritime and Agriculture. Maritime would be helpful with managing their Sea based City and hopefully bring in some more knowledge in the key area for Riverside's expansion, where as Agriculture was important to improve Riversides sustainability. Both were key and he was undecided.

"Our options are Maritime, Agriculture or Frontier." Dom explained to Subutai and Lucius. "I have ruled out Frontier."

"As you should." Subutai stated, "Domestically we need the other two a lot more. With our expansion plan, I think a Military related Hero could cover the Frontier just as well, however I could be wrong as I do not know who will arrive."

"I agree with Subutai. We do need one of the two, but I feel we have Agriculture covered." Lucius replied, "It's my strength and we have a lot of good farmers now from different cultures who have some amazing ideas, we just need more time and to spread out further now we have our plan."

"Maritime is our weakness." Subutai agreed. "Our expertise is Gan Ning, whilst Crassus has good understanding of Trade, we can't rely on either of them as they have so many roles to fulfil."

"Ok, Maritime it is then!" Dom replied, agreeing with their opinions. "System, please choose Maritime."

[Rolling for Domestic Hero...]

Dom waited patiently for the door to open and the system to update him, but nothing happened for a few seconds.

[System Error.....]

"What's happened?" Dom exclaimed.

[Rolling for Domestic Hero.....]

Dom waited again, unsure what was happening, until he heard shouting from outside. The three of them shared a look before running towards the door to the Heroes Hall. Dom ran through first and almost straight in to Gregorios who was stood on guard outside.

"What's happening?" Dom asked, as he saw some of his different Warriors running towards the River's edge. He was impressed to see that Chariovalda and his men had joined with some of the Female Horse Archers and were charging ahead of everyone on their Horses, even Percennius rode with them, having stolen a Red Hare Horse from someone.

"No idea my Lord, there was shouting coming from the River and then the alarm was raised." Gregorios replied. Torches had been lit on the walls of the Inner Wall, acknowledging a warning of danger. In the distance Dom could see his anchored Bireme that was further out of Riverside was now rowing towards the Docks beyond the wall.

"I think we best head that way!" Dom exclaimed, frustrated that he wasn't wearing his armour, but glad he had his new trusted sword by his waist. Whilst Dom was running, different Warriors joined him and his small group slowly swelled to over a hundred men. It seemed that everyone in Riverside was running towards the Calm River's edge.

He quickly ran through the Inner Gate, where the Guards were trying to stop the Civilians from running through, closely followed by his small mixed force of Legionaries, Hoplite and Forbidden Guard. He also noticed a couple of Balearic Slingers had joined them as they passed through the gate.

Dom soon saw the commotion as the Band of Thebes had blocked off the Docks as his small Navy surrounded a battered Trireme that seemed to be covered in arrows and deep gouge marks. In the distance Dom could see that the Galatea had pulled up alongside it and he wondered what was happening.

"Make way for Lord Lazarus!" Gregorios shouted loudly and proudly as the Band parted way and allowed Dom, Subutai and Lucius to pass through. His small group of Warriors quickly joining up with their units that were also coming in. Soon the Inner Wall of Riverside had over seven hundred Warriors in it, as well as over a thousand Civilians that were inside the walls at the time.

"What's happening?" Dom asked Helena who was stood on the dock, beside her were Himilco and Centurion Philip, the leader of the Band of Thebes. 

"This ship just appeared out of no where." Helena replied. Dom looked at her again and realised she was soaking wet, the splash from the spawning ship had covered her once again. Normally Himilco would joke with her, but he also had a worried look on his face.

"What's happening onboard it?" Dom asked, looking at the huge Trireme that towered over the Bireme's that now surrounded it, with only the Silver Galatea making it look less intimidating. Dom could see as he looked closer the level of damage the ship had, with arrows protruding from across it. It also had several deep gauges across the side facing Riverside and many of the oars of the Trireme were either cracked or damaged. He wondered if the rowers were inside, as most would have been killed when their oars broke in battle, crushed and cut as their oars snapped. On the side of the ship was the word Sibylla, which he assumed was the ships name. 

"Nothing." Philip replied seriously, "It's silent. Gan Ning has boarded the Trireme with some of the Spartans. We are ready to reinforce should the order come."

"How did he get onboard so fast?" Subutai asked, not seeing a clear way that Gan Ning and the Spartans had got onboard it.

"With the help of them." Philip explained, pointing at the head of one of the Titanaconda that had just appeared at the rear of the Sibylla, having somehow climbed onboard from the water below. "Two of them appeared from the other side of the Shipyard with Gan Ning and Hector riding them, they used them as a transport method to get the Spartan's onboard."

"That's one way of doing it." Subutai agreed. Dom looked around and saw there were many shocked faces looking at the two giant Snakes of Riverside.

"Hector seemed a natural." Philip praised, before smiling, "Commander Gan Ning however was shouting lots of profanities and didn't look overly comfortable."

[...Artemisia I of Caria]

Dom heard the system, and quickly asked for more information.

[Artemisia I of Caria

Hero Grade - Military - Naval B+, Domestic - B

Hero Strength - Strong Naval Commander and Courageous Queen

Artemisia was the Queen of Ancient City State of Halicarnassus, as well as some small surrounding Islands in the fifth century BC. She was courageous and respected by both her Allies and her Enemies. She was part Greek and was known for her beauty as well as her fierceness.

She had allied herself with the Achaemenid Empire under the King Xerxes against the Greeks during the Greco-Persian Wars of the Fifth Century BC. She was known to have brought a small contingent of powerful Trireme with her and given sound advice throughout the conflict. Xerxes had once stated that the 'Men had become Women and the Woman had become the Men' in reference to Her skills as a Naval Commander. She was intelligent and used different ruses to capture enemy cities and was loved by her own Citizens. 

During the Battle of Salamis, she was the only Commander to explain that they shouldn't attack the Greeks at that time and when the Persian forces were loosing, she rammed allied ships to escape, making the enemy believe she was a fellow Greek and therefore saving her own small force. The allied ships she took down were internal competition, using the best opportunity in a bad situation.]

"Stand down!" Dom heard Gan Ning shout as he appeared with a slender and toned Greek Woman with long black hair, olive skin and piercing black eyes. Dom could sense a lot of the male Warriors around him looking at her with interest and he couldn't disagree with their opinions.