SPQM c1s5: Threats and curses

Early Summer, 0 Twists

As they sit at the inn, the respectable but not luxuary one, in Cyprios they are approached by a well clothed but not spectacularily clothed mouse who presents him and asks if they're Gaius' patrol. They answer ''yes'' and he seems relieved and says that he has asked a few patrols already. He starts the conversation by asking if he should address the nobiles or the centurio, the patrol leader, first and they indicate the centurio. He continues by brining up that Gaius' siblings has got childrens. ''Well, yes that's natural.'' Gaius says. The mouse then continues ''It would be very un-natural if that was to be made undone''

Bam!

Gaius is standing up with his small stool in the hand and the muse is lying on the floor bleeding from the head and the whole inn falls silent and mice move away.

The patrol calms Gaius and says that he could have been there to warn them as well as threatening them. Dekia turns the mouse over so that he should not choke on his toungue or saliva where he lies but can't do much more for him. Instead she goes out to find someone from the city guard. After a while she finds a patrol and manage to get them to come over to the inn since it's quite a respectable place and because there's been fighting which might start wider unrestfulness.

When they arrive they and patrol, from an iron ring and a diploma like neck band, find out that the mouse is a freed mouse from a lesser nobiles family. The city guard immediately gets less interested since there's no concern for any citizens of Cyprios although they fine Gaius for disturbing the city peace, an action that _could_ have resulted in wider violence. By literally emptying their purses Gaius and Dekia manage to pay the fine. Lucius refuses to help Gaius pay the fine and consider it to be a private matter, not a guard matter (Reources Ob4, Succeed with Condition Resources Depletion, -1 Resources). The guard leaves them with the knocked down mouse leaving the care taking to them. They decide to sleep in the dining room that night in case he should wake up from the coma or if there could be anything they could do. In the morning he is dead, probably from internal mixing of body fluids. According to Dekia that's not at all uncommon when blows are dealt to the body.

The atmosphere is not that good in the morning, everyone is feeling a little worried about what the mouse meant and also what to do with him. In the end Gaius picks him up and disposes him in an alley. The worries are eating at the patrol althoug Lucius manage to shake off his worries. Gaius was directly aimed at as he experienced it and Dekia is really, really skeptical and anaslyses everything (Trait Skeptical) but in the end the analysis goes berserk and she comes up with a lot of new ways that her family might be threatened (Roll versus Deceiver 5D + Trait Calm 1D + Scary-wise 1D, Lucius Pass and Dekia and Gaius Fail and get Undiciplined (Angry) Dekia gets a Tie and uses her Trait Skeptical to Fail and get 2 extra Checks). They decide that they need some rest, food and try to find out if there's a tribunis in town (End of GM's Turn).

Dekia asks the owner of the inn if she knos if there's any tribunis in town. She says that there might be. She doesn't know but she got the impression that a guest at finer inn closer to the main agora was connected to The Pretorian Guard but he was living at a citizen's house and might have left now. Dekia decides to try to find out and hopefully find him and get a meeting. She finds the inn but no tribunis, hard without a name when the tribunis is there as a private person and not on duty. Politics! She return later without completing her task (Check; find tribunis, Circles Ob3, Failed with a Twist).

During this Lucius is sitting and memorizing and thinking about the strange ancient pictograms on the inner metal box that holds the very secret thing and Gaius takes it slow. They both later orders some extra food and drink to at get in balance again (2 Checks: Resources Ob 1; Lucius pass and Gaius pass). Later they gather and talk about the strange wax mouse inside the box. When Aeneas is told he gets very upset, maybe mot so much that someone might try to cast a curse on them as that someone in his workforce has betrayed him and put it there. He agrees on opening the outer box a little to get it out.

Dekia and the philosophers talk about what to do with and among other things point out a few important things; all real mouse material must be removed (whiskers, fur and so on), the miniature cloak should be lost somewhere in the wilderness where it will go back to the earth, the lead thread around the mouse shall be removed and melted and divided into several pieces and the mouse itself remolded and melted to wax with no similarity to a mouse. The last part is the most dangerous because that's when it's the biggest risk that any effects are transferred to a real mouse. The remolding should also be done at anti zenit as the philosophers call midnight. 

Sometime during the day a letter is delivered to them. In it someone explains that they now has to actually set their plans into action and that it's totally their own fault. This doesn't help Gaius to get less nervous,upset or angry (Check: Failed Will Ob 2, still Undisciplined).

Dekia is skilled in ceremonies and take on the task armed with the philosophers knowledge (Check: Passed Ceremony Master with Tool, philosophers' knowledge, Ob 4). When they melt the remodeled wax they all start to sweat, apparently there's still some connection between them and the wax.

In the morning, just before they leave the city, they go to a smith who melts the lead and divide it and then they chek the post office and set off towards Navalia.

illern (a) illertass.se