Tales of Past Glories. Not Very Past, But Still Pretty Past.

Roman Summer

So, the summer pretty much flew. After the week of festivity, the first surprise was the Orphans of the night packing their collective shit and hauling ass. I think someone had a vision of just how badly it would turn out once the full attention of everyone was focused on making the Transtiber safe. At least that's the most likely option, as they were pretty dedicated to being a pain in my ass and showed no signs of slowing down. The second surprise is that my brothers aren't dead-dead; courtesy of our big sister Eletria. From what I understand, she was able to appeal to the Caesars' childe in some way. And she is thankfully training them in what they're gonna need to know to survive in a more relaxed environment, as opposed to my own "Get in, siddown, shut up and hold on" training. Which also helps me as my old disciplines have fully come back into their own, making me officially the more badass brother. As a side note, I do slightly regret not being able to share their wonder at seeing halos for the first time. But at the same time, the full telepathy is back up, and I can talk to, well, I haven't tested, but if memory holds I can get as far as Augsburg without too much trouble. That's going to be interesting if/when my brothers find out. That said, I have a standing invite to Eletrias' parties, of which there are many - my usual donation to the cause is a piece from my collection (and if that doesn't bring a moment of discombobulation, I'll let you think on it for another few moments) and my personality. A lot of the people at these things are merchant-class, not nobility. Which means I am networking like a madman, and getting more contacts for trade. Life is good.

Anyway, with the loss of the Orphans, the transtiber had nobody really taking care of the less-legal aspects of the city. It wasn't a hostile takeover by any means, they just started paying the Tiber Rose instead of the Rat King. Unfortunately I'm running into difficulties with the sewer system. To wit, there ain't one in the transtiber. The explorations were not fruitful. That said, I'm still gonna work on that, because the plague is a thing. Still, the statue collection has been parked offsite, which gave joy to the servants who were bumping into them. The lady of the house is now also under my purview of blood, as she was wailing a bit about my plan to open trade routes to Constantinople. I chilled her out, but she kinda sorta would like more "her time". Work, work, work. So I'm throwing coins at getting a boat to Ostia and use it as a centerpoint, and then also having to look at other opportunities for infrastructure investment.

But, with this comes that, and unfortunately, the pageant has in fact found my ass. They want me back. Badly, because something bad is coming. I, uh, kinda have to opt out. I have massive other plans, that don't involve the pageant. However, they're insistent. So...I contacted Astarte, and we made a deal. I get her a ring, and I get a year for me and Songul. Astarte is shockingly astute about my ambitions, and made no small comment regarding them, but, y'know. Stuff gonna happen sometimes. It was a crap deal on reflection, but it means I can bargain harder next round. In short, we're getting a ring. But noooo, it's not a milk run. It was presented to us as a shared dream from a horrifying D&D module from back in the day. Which frightens me to an unseemly degree, because I lost 4 elves, a dwarf, and a half-orc to that godless thing. Damnable thing. But once I got that little bit sorted, it was all about gearing up and getting intel. and some silver weapons. Fortunately I have silver in decent quantity because there's no damn banks.

So...we're geared, and hopefully I can get a few shots in before the plan goes to hell. And then I can lay ground-work for getting me, Songul, my princess, and my horse free. I like my horses, what of it?