Session 39 - Preparations and Investigations
General Summary
From Kleeck's journal:
Having found what we were looking for in The Pantheon, we did our best to put things back to the way they were before our battle.
The statue made a low grinding sound as the hidden mechanisms beneath the floors rolled it back into place, covering the secret chamber beneath. Hassan did what he could with his magic to hide the scorch marks on the floor, reducing (but not erasing) the signs of our struggle. After putting the tapestry that hid the statue back in place, we slipped through the doors and out into the empty streets of Rome. When we came down to the common room of the Rover's Roost for breakfast the next morning, the place was abuzz with news of Africa. Enemy forces were on the move, advancing along the coast road from Aegyptus to Carthage, and had already made their way as far as Leptis. A quick look at our Mysterious Map from Lugdunum confirmed that Carthage was one of the marked cities that the enemy forces seemed to be targeting. Between the mysterious words of the inscription we discovered last night and the disturbing news of the war this morning, my mind was reeling and my heart was heavy with dread. After much planning and plotting we agreed upon a rough course of action. We would have to wait about a week until the reliquary I commissioned was ready, but believed we could make use of that time (and of the great resources of Rome) preparing for whatever lay ahead. Our ultimate objective was the circled location at the center of our mysterious map, though we readily admitted we did not know what we would find there. We would use the week to obtain whatever items and information we thought might aid us in our endeavor, and then make for the location of the circle, stopping only at Port Draconis to see if we could find another one of the inscriptions hidden in a temple there. The next few days we split up and spend our time in a variety of activities. Hassan mingled with other Ageptians in Rome, disguising his eyes and finding out what he could about the ongoing war in Africa. Hassan being Hassan, he also spent a fair amount of time courting and carousing with Chaedi, the grey elf he met at the tavern the night of our incursion into the Pantheon. I will never understand how he is able to go so quickly from moping about his mother Zialle to laughing and flirting with some random woman in some random tavern. But he has his own way of doing things, throwing himself at the world like a pair of dice and trusting that his luck that things will fall in his favour. Laura took some time to visit with Mkali outside of the walls of the city. I think she was happy to get away from the hustle and bustle of Rome, and given her rural upbringing I could understand why - all the noises, sounds, and smells of the city were a constant assault on the senses, and probably a far cry from the calm pastoral life she must be used to. She also joined Metia and me in the library, where we worked together to unravel the various mysteries we had unearthed in our adventures. My time was spent pouring over maps of the empire, trying to identify where the circle on our Lugdunum map actually fell. I was fairly certain the location indicated was somewhere within the Serpent's Teeth mountains, but could not pinpoint the exact spot. There was also a strange absence of information about those mountains in the library archives; strange enough that I wondered if important records had been purged back when Livy was executed. I also tried to research the blindfolded woman to identify who she may have been and whether she had any connection to Livy, but found nothing in either the library or the census records. When not researching I took some time sending to Tertia to convey to her the contents of the new inscription, and asked her to do what she could to help once she had joined up with Albinus and the 8th Legion. As much as I missed the reassuring presence of her sharp mind and strong arm, I was glad to have an ally out in the world fighting the same fight we were. I also sent to my sister Zeed and my uncle Heeck to make sure they were still safe and to get any updates they could provide on the war. In the evenings we would all gather at the Roost to talk and compare notes. Despite our best efforts we were no closer to understanding what was happening and where we were going. And as worried as we were about enemy armies sacking roman cities, we were becoming equally concerned about the conspiracy within the empire to hide the truth. Who were the people who keep hidden the statues and inscriptions? And were they allies to be reached out to, or enemies to be feared? Frustrated with our lack of progress, we decided that bold action was needed. It was the eve of the Festival of War. The morrow would be a holiday, with masked revelers roaming the streets and filling the stands at the track to watch the races, and a sacrifice made to Mars that morning on the steps of The Pantheon. We would use the opportunity to bait a proverbial trap at the hidden statue, in the hopes that whoever tended to it could be drawn out. We returned to the Pantheon in the dead of night, on the day before the Festival. Hassan teleported us into the empty building, and we quickly made our way to the statue behind the alcove. We left a message there, carefully perched on the outstretched finger of the statue, that simply read "TLP 5/15 at 9 PM" - a cryptic invitation we hoped might entice our quarry to reveal themselves. Leaving Noctua to make a kind of watch on the place, Hassan teleported us out again, and we slipped away into the night. In the morning we returned to the Pantheon and hid ourselves among the crowds gathered there to witness the sacrifice that was to take place on the steps. Early as it was there was already a great deal of hustle and bustle in the streets, as people made their way to the racetrack or to wherever they planned on celebrating for the holiday. Inside the temple two acolytes had discovered Noctua, and were attempting to drive him out with a broom as he stubbornly flitted from statue to statue. I instructed him to flee through the open doorway just as the Pontifica of Mars arrived. A fatted ox was led to the steps, oblivious to its fate. After the Pontifica made the proper supplications, it was slain, quickly and cleanly. The priests began dragging in the body into the temple to complete the ritual, and the crowd began to disperse. Hassan observed the priests remotely with scrying magic as they completed the ceremony at the foot of the Mars statue inside the Pantheon. The note remaining untouched and undiscovered in the hidden alcove. As the priests finished their work and left, we began to doubt the soundness of our plan. Just then our attention was caught by a pair of women entering the Pantheon. They were bearing some sort of offering, and dressed similarly to the ones I had witnessed tending to the hidden statue in Nemasus. By Apollo's divine gifts I was able to magically view them as they pulled back the tapestry and discovered the note we had left. They seemed perturbed by the discovery, and we followed them as they swiftly left the Pantheon and headed down the street. It was a good thing I was observing from the air and well out of earshot, for I gasped audibly as they reached their final destination - the College of Erudition...
Having found what we were looking for in The Pantheon, we did our best to put things back to the way they were before our battle.
The statue made a low grinding sound as the hidden mechanisms beneath the floors rolled it back into place, covering the secret chamber beneath. Hassan did what he could with his magic to hide the scorch marks on the floor, reducing (but not erasing) the signs of our struggle. After putting the tapestry that hid the statue back in place, we slipped through the doors and out into the empty streets of Rome. When we came down to the common room of the Rover's Roost for breakfast the next morning, the place was abuzz with news of Africa. Enemy forces were on the move, advancing along the coast road from Aegyptus to Carthage, and had already made their way as far as Leptis. A quick look at our Mysterious Map from Lugdunum confirmed that Carthage was one of the marked cities that the enemy forces seemed to be targeting. Between the mysterious words of the inscription we discovered last night and the disturbing news of the war this morning, my mind was reeling and my heart was heavy with dread. After much planning and plotting we agreed upon a rough course of action. We would have to wait about a week until the reliquary I commissioned was ready, but believed we could make use of that time (and of the great resources of Rome) preparing for whatever lay ahead. Our ultimate objective was the circled location at the center of our mysterious map, though we readily admitted we did not know what we would find there. We would use the week to obtain whatever items and information we thought might aid us in our endeavor, and then make for the location of the circle, stopping only at Port Draconis to see if we could find another one of the inscriptions hidden in a temple there. The next few days we split up and spend our time in a variety of activities. Hassan mingled with other Ageptians in Rome, disguising his eyes and finding out what he could about the ongoing war in Africa. Hassan being Hassan, he also spent a fair amount of time courting and carousing with Chaedi, the grey elf he met at the tavern the night of our incursion into the Pantheon. I will never understand how he is able to go so quickly from moping about his mother Zialle to laughing and flirting with some random woman in some random tavern. But he has his own way of doing things, throwing himself at the world like a pair of dice and trusting that his luck that things will fall in his favour. Laura took some time to visit with Mkali outside of the walls of the city. I think she was happy to get away from the hustle and bustle of Rome, and given her rural upbringing I could understand why - all the noises, sounds, and smells of the city were a constant assault on the senses, and probably a far cry from the calm pastoral life she must be used to. She also joined Metia and me in the library, where we worked together to unravel the various mysteries we had unearthed in our adventures. My time was spent pouring over maps of the empire, trying to identify where the circle on our Lugdunum map actually fell. I was fairly certain the location indicated was somewhere within the Serpent's Teeth mountains, but could not pinpoint the exact spot. There was also a strange absence of information about those mountains in the library archives; strange enough that I wondered if important records had been purged back when Livy was executed. I also tried to research the blindfolded woman to identify who she may have been and whether she had any connection to Livy, but found nothing in either the library or the census records. When not researching I took some time sending to Tertia to convey to her the contents of the new inscription, and asked her to do what she could to help once she had joined up with Albinus and the 8th Legion. As much as I missed the reassuring presence of her sharp mind and strong arm, I was glad to have an ally out in the world fighting the same fight we were. I also sent to my sister Zeed and my uncle Heeck to make sure they were still safe and to get any updates they could provide on the war. In the evenings we would all gather at the Roost to talk and compare notes. Despite our best efforts we were no closer to understanding what was happening and where we were going. And as worried as we were about enemy armies sacking roman cities, we were becoming equally concerned about the conspiracy within the empire to hide the truth. Who were the people who keep hidden the statues and inscriptions? And were they allies to be reached out to, or enemies to be feared? Frustrated with our lack of progress, we decided that bold action was needed. It was the eve of the Festival of War. The morrow would be a holiday, with masked revelers roaming the streets and filling the stands at the track to watch the races, and a sacrifice made to Mars that morning on the steps of The Pantheon. We would use the opportunity to bait a proverbial trap at the hidden statue, in the hopes that whoever tended to it could be drawn out. We returned to the Pantheon in the dead of night, on the day before the Festival. Hassan teleported us into the empty building, and we quickly made our way to the statue behind the alcove. We left a message there, carefully perched on the outstretched finger of the statue, that simply read "TLP 5/15 at 9 PM" - a cryptic invitation we hoped might entice our quarry to reveal themselves. Leaving Noctua to make a kind of watch on the place, Hassan teleported us out again, and we slipped away into the night. In the morning we returned to the Pantheon and hid ourselves among the crowds gathered there to witness the sacrifice that was to take place on the steps. Early as it was there was already a great deal of hustle and bustle in the streets, as people made their way to the racetrack or to wherever they planned on celebrating for the holiday. Inside the temple two acolytes had discovered Noctua, and were attempting to drive him out with a broom as he stubbornly flitted from statue to statue. I instructed him to flee through the open doorway just as the Pontifica of Mars arrived. A fatted ox was led to the steps, oblivious to its fate. After the Pontifica made the proper supplications, it was slain, quickly and cleanly. The priests began dragging in the body into the temple to complete the ritual, and the crowd began to disperse. Hassan observed the priests remotely with scrying magic as they completed the ceremony at the foot of the Mars statue inside the Pantheon. The note remaining untouched and undiscovered in the hidden alcove. As the priests finished their work and left, we began to doubt the soundness of our plan. Just then our attention was caught by a pair of women entering the Pantheon. They were bearing some sort of offering, and dressed similarly to the ones I had witnessed tending to the hidden statue in Nemasus. By Apollo's divine gifts I was able to magically view them as they pulled back the tapestry and discovered the note we had left. They seemed perturbed by the discovery, and we followed them as they swiftly left the Pantheon and headed down the street. It was a good thing I was observing from the air and well out of earshot, for I gasped audibly as they reached their final destination - the College of Erudition...
Character(s) interacted with
Chaedi, a grey elven woman.
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