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Alea Iacta Story Hour: A Mythic Rome Campaign (Baby Announcement: 8/17)
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<blockquote data-quote="Orichalcum" data-source="post: 1668062" data-attributes="member: 3722"><p><strong>Alea Iacta VII: Lux et Veritas Chp. 12: Oh, you mean _that_ scry sensor!</strong></p><p></p><p>Shast apologizes for the delay in publishing the serial of his pulp reminiscences, but Shast has been working on his great analysis of Roman social mores, based on his own recollections of the international brothel scene in the Empire, and feels that this is a much more important work for his career.</p><p> ***</p><p>Brief GM Sidebar Explaining why Cato is less eloquent than Shast: </p><p> Each of the <s>familiars</s> partners in Alea Iacta has his or her own special talent, above and beyond the normal D&D restrictions. Cato can maintain contact with Cornelia - and deliver touch spells - at indefinitely long range. Shast can read and write, neither of which are talents that Meloch possesses, and is also extraordinarily intelligent, and has a tail. Sapientia, Lucretius' elephant, who has so far only appeared in dreams, is, well, an elephant. This is balanced by my refusal to Poke-Paladin her and by my altering the Detect Evil power of Lucretius to Detect Pantheon (i.e. Celtic/Olympian/Hecate etc...). </p><p> Also, there were at that point 8 PCs in the game, and only one GM. Shast is much more eloquent in the SH than he usually was in game time, simply due to necessity.</p><p> ***</p><p>Returning to the adventure....</p><p></p><p> My disappointment at failing to eliminate my rival, the filthy owl, was not helped by the angry glares of my partner Meloch. Everyone except Metellus and Cornelia, who arrive dlater, adjourned to a local <em>vigiles</em> post to interrogate the Bull Chieftain. We had barely begun the interrogation, which was its usual mixture of Marcus and Meloch threatening torture at every opportunity and Metellus and Cornelia, once they came back from Lupina Silvana's, resolutely ignoring these suggestions. The Bull Chieftain kept looking anxiously around for some reason while refusing to talk, and finally, Wena followed the direction of his gaze, watching closely, and noticed a small floating shadowy eyeball, surrounded by a thin halo of black chains.</p><p></p><p> "We're being watched," she whispered to the rest of us.</p><p> "What?" said Metellus. "The Black Chain Philosopher can spy on us from a distance psionically? Why didn't you tell us before?"</p><p> "I didn't notice it before!"</p><p> "Well, were you looking?"</p><p> "Um....no...." </p><p></p><p>Silence falls as the humans all realize that they have been being watched for perhaps a very long time. Metellus blushes briefly, as does Cornelia. I decide not to mention that I've seen Cato happily munching on shadowy eyeballs once or twice, as I'm already currently in enough trouble.</p><p></p><p> "Well, what can we do about this? This is totally unacceptable," Marcus proclaims.</p><p> "Well, there are stories that lead can block psionic powers somehow," Wena offers, searching through her memories.</p><p> "The sewers!" Llyr, who has been exploring Roma assiduously, suggests gleefully.</p><p> "The sewers?" everyone else echoes with a mixture of horror and resignation.</p><p> "They're entirely lined with lead. Quite a feat of engineering, actually." Llyr points out.</p><p> </p><p>So, together with our bound barbarian Bull Chieftain, we all troop down the nearest marble-covered manhole to the Cloaca Maxima, Roma's largest - and therefore smelliest - sewer.</p><p> Once here, the sophisticated Romano-Britannian interrogation techniques quickly yield useful information.</p><p> </p><p> "What was all the Greek fire for?"</p><p> "To set fire to things!"</p><p> "What kinds of things?"</p><p> "The big cylindrical buildings. Sycorax said they'd go boom, like the village back home, and we'd avenge all the Ouenikones."</p><p> "When was this supposed to happen?"</p><p> "Tomorrow night."</p><p></p><p> "What were you supposed to do tomorrow?"</p><p> "Go play in the theater."</p><p> "What do you mean, go play in the theater?"</p><p> "They're going to be having kids' play-fights in the theater, Sycorax said. But we won't be playing like kids," the Bull Chieftain smiles and guffaws, now thoroughly charmed by Cornelia.</p><p> Marcus thinks for a second, then exclaims, "The Praetorians-Vigiles mock battle tomorrow!"</p><p> "Oh no," Cornelia says, "the Celts are planning to infiltrate the battle and actually kill people!"</p><p> "Well, to be fair," Llyr points out, "Some of us had been talking out sneaking into the mock battle to have fun beating up on Vigiles too."</p><p> Metellus glares. Llyr and Marcus look a bit crestfallen. Lucretius, ever practical, says, "I'll tell my Centurion about this. We can at least try and search all the combatants to make sure the weapons are properly blunted."</p><p> </p><p> "Were you planning on doing anything else tomorrow," Cornelia asks.</p><p> "Protect the little girls," the Bull Chieftain answers, surprisingly.</p><p> "What? Why do you need to protect the little girls?"</p><p> "They'll be running, and little girls aren't very good at protecting themselves."</p><p> "Where will they be running to?"</p><p> "Inside, to put out the flame. I can't go inside, though. I have to protect them outside," he confesses.</p><p> </p><p> Our skilled minds quickly put this together with the prophecy and realize that the Temple of Vesta, with its ever-burning flame that protects the city of Roma and maintains the sacred barrier of the pomerium, is in grave danger. </p><p> Meloch puts this together with the reports he's been hearing of a lot of Celtic families of slaves disappearing, and soberly explains, </p><p> "Only female virgins can enter the Temple of Vesta, where the sacred flame is. They must have recruited a bunch of young Celtic girls to run in with water tomorrow night and put out the fire." He resolves to go against his principles and expose some of the known runaway slave safehouses he's discovered tomorrow to the vigiles, on the grounds that the girls will be safer as slaves anyway than as Celtic Liberation Front puppets. </p><p></p><p> "Well, we'll just have to stop them and kill them before they get there," Lucretius responds. "We cannot let the flame of Vesta die."</p><p></p><p> "But," Heilyn remonstrates, "They're just innocent little girls, tricked into this. They don't know what they're doing."</p><p> "They're a threat to Roma," Marcus says, and Metellus nods in agreement.</p><p> </p><p>At this point, Wena remembers her young friend "Boadicea," the librarian's slave, and resolves to visit her tomorrow morning and get her out of this situation if necessary.</p><p> </p><p> The others decide to visit Cimbrus and the Vestals in the morning and inform them of the dire situation and in the meantime, begin making plans to defend the outside of the Temple of Vesta, which only one among them, Cornelia, can actually enter. Some of these plans, depending on who is designing them, are more lethal than others.</p><p></p><p>*Battle coming soon. Really! And if not, you can blame Meloch's player, because he's visiting us this weekend.*</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Orichalcum, post: 1668062, member: 3722"] [b]Alea Iacta VII: Lux et Veritas Chp. 12: Oh, you mean _that_ scry sensor![/b] Shast apologizes for the delay in publishing the serial of his pulp reminiscences, but Shast has been working on his great analysis of Roman social mores, based on his own recollections of the international brothel scene in the Empire, and feels that this is a much more important work for his career. *** Brief GM Sidebar Explaining why Cato is less eloquent than Shast: Each of the [S]familiars[/S] partners in Alea Iacta has his or her own special talent, above and beyond the normal D&D restrictions. Cato can maintain contact with Cornelia - and deliver touch spells - at indefinitely long range. Shast can read and write, neither of which are talents that Meloch possesses, and is also extraordinarily intelligent, and has a tail. Sapientia, Lucretius' elephant, who has so far only appeared in dreams, is, well, an elephant. This is balanced by my refusal to Poke-Paladin her and by my altering the Detect Evil power of Lucretius to Detect Pantheon (i.e. Celtic/Olympian/Hecate etc...). Also, there were at that point 8 PCs in the game, and only one GM. Shast is much more eloquent in the SH than he usually was in game time, simply due to necessity. *** Returning to the adventure.... My disappointment at failing to eliminate my rival, the filthy owl, was not helped by the angry glares of my partner Meloch. Everyone except Metellus and Cornelia, who arrive dlater, adjourned to a local [I]vigiles[/I] post to interrogate the Bull Chieftain. We had barely begun the interrogation, which was its usual mixture of Marcus and Meloch threatening torture at every opportunity and Metellus and Cornelia, once they came back from Lupina Silvana's, resolutely ignoring these suggestions. The Bull Chieftain kept looking anxiously around for some reason while refusing to talk, and finally, Wena followed the direction of his gaze, watching closely, and noticed a small floating shadowy eyeball, surrounded by a thin halo of black chains. "We're being watched," she whispered to the rest of us. "What?" said Metellus. "The Black Chain Philosopher can spy on us from a distance psionically? Why didn't you tell us before?" "I didn't notice it before!" "Well, were you looking?" "Um....no...." Silence falls as the humans all realize that they have been being watched for perhaps a very long time. Metellus blushes briefly, as does Cornelia. I decide not to mention that I've seen Cato happily munching on shadowy eyeballs once or twice, as I'm already currently in enough trouble. "Well, what can we do about this? This is totally unacceptable," Marcus proclaims. "Well, there are stories that lead can block psionic powers somehow," Wena offers, searching through her memories. "The sewers!" Llyr, who has been exploring Roma assiduously, suggests gleefully. "The sewers?" everyone else echoes with a mixture of horror and resignation. "They're entirely lined with lead. Quite a feat of engineering, actually." Llyr points out. So, together with our bound barbarian Bull Chieftain, we all troop down the nearest marble-covered manhole to the Cloaca Maxima, Roma's largest - and therefore smelliest - sewer. Once here, the sophisticated Romano-Britannian interrogation techniques quickly yield useful information. "What was all the Greek fire for?" "To set fire to things!" "What kinds of things?" "The big cylindrical buildings. Sycorax said they'd go boom, like the village back home, and we'd avenge all the Ouenikones." "When was this supposed to happen?" "Tomorrow night." "What were you supposed to do tomorrow?" "Go play in the theater." "What do you mean, go play in the theater?" "They're going to be having kids' play-fights in the theater, Sycorax said. But we won't be playing like kids," the Bull Chieftain smiles and guffaws, now thoroughly charmed by Cornelia. Marcus thinks for a second, then exclaims, "The Praetorians-Vigiles mock battle tomorrow!" "Oh no," Cornelia says, "the Celts are planning to infiltrate the battle and actually kill people!" "Well, to be fair," Llyr points out, "Some of us had been talking out sneaking into the mock battle to have fun beating up on Vigiles too." Metellus glares. Llyr and Marcus look a bit crestfallen. Lucretius, ever practical, says, "I'll tell my Centurion about this. We can at least try and search all the combatants to make sure the weapons are properly blunted." "Were you planning on doing anything else tomorrow," Cornelia asks. "Protect the little girls," the Bull Chieftain answers, surprisingly. "What? Why do you need to protect the little girls?" "They'll be running, and little girls aren't very good at protecting themselves." "Where will they be running to?" "Inside, to put out the flame. I can't go inside, though. I have to protect them outside," he confesses. Our skilled minds quickly put this together with the prophecy and realize that the Temple of Vesta, with its ever-burning flame that protects the city of Roma and maintains the sacred barrier of the pomerium, is in grave danger. Meloch puts this together with the reports he's been hearing of a lot of Celtic families of slaves disappearing, and soberly explains, "Only female virgins can enter the Temple of Vesta, where the sacred flame is. They must have recruited a bunch of young Celtic girls to run in with water tomorrow night and put out the fire." He resolves to go against his principles and expose some of the known runaway slave safehouses he's discovered tomorrow to the vigiles, on the grounds that the girls will be safer as slaves anyway than as Celtic Liberation Front puppets. "Well, we'll just have to stop them and kill them before they get there," Lucretius responds. "We cannot let the flame of Vesta die." "But," Heilyn remonstrates, "They're just innocent little girls, tricked into this. They don't know what they're doing." "They're a threat to Roma," Marcus says, and Metellus nods in agreement. At this point, Wena remembers her young friend "Boadicea," the librarian's slave, and resolves to visit her tomorrow morning and get her out of this situation if necessary. The others decide to visit Cimbrus and the Vestals in the morning and inform them of the dire situation and in the meantime, begin making plans to defend the outside of the Temple of Vesta, which only one among them, Cornelia, can actually enter. Some of these plans, depending on who is designing them, are more lethal than others. *Battle coming soon. Really! And if not, you can blame Meloch's player, because he's visiting us this weekend.* [/QUOTE]
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