Monstrorum Misericordia Appendix

Monstrorum Misericordia

Unused Selections: Silent House

Years ago Septimus had served in the legions along the Rhine and Danube rivers, the border was long there and often times the legionaries were stretched thin especially at the border forts situated as much as a mile or more apart. Septimus had seen inexplicable things in his years of service and now he fears something similar had found its way in the Aventine. --- As Lucius Fulvius entered the Fortified Fornix alone Septimus Valens' prayers went with his commander, his friend and his adopted son.

The two men had known each other for ten years and while neither would admit to the other that their relationship was anything other than purely professional, they had weathered difficult times together in a dangerous vocation on the streets of a poor district.

Septimus wasn't sure to which of the gods he prayed, nor if they were even listening, they certainly hadn't answered his prays years ago as his family died around him of pox.

Unused Selection: The Killers

From the most dignified senator to the lowest laborer Romans as a whole despised the very idea of assassins. This was not due to pacifism because Roman culture was bellicose. A warrior people, Romans preferred a direct confrontation to skullduggery. However individual Romans often did stoop to employing hired killers to do their dirty work as long as the matter could be kept secret there would be no societal reprisal.

Roman assassins had existed since before the founding of the Republic, but an organized guild of assassins hadn't come into existence until after the First Servile War. In that struggle, the first of three wars triggered by slave uprisings, Rome was victorious, but survivors from amongst the rebellion founded a guild of assasins who slowly migrated from Sicily to Rome itself.

One hundred and fifty years later the philosophical decendants of those ancient slayers walked the streets of the capital city in comfortable anonymity - known now as the Brotherhood of the Blade.

Tonight three cells of the Brotherhood had been activated to eliminate multiple targets for a client of significant stature and wealth. Rapax, a rising star among the Brotherhood, had been chosen to lead the backup team to a more advanced cell who hid themselves among the water-boys upstairs. While outside a third cell of largely inexperienced killers were about to prove themselves by penning in anyone trying to escape the building and driving off any potential allies of the targets within the Fortified Fornix.

Besides Rapax the team consisted of three other assassins.

Rapax role as leader of her team was highly unusual in the male dominated Roman world. But the Brotherhood was willing to bend the rules for such an exceptional killer. Rapax had been born among the lowest classes of Roman society, but having lost her parents to one of Rome's many plagues she had been taken in as an apprentice to a local abortionist. There the girl learned the best herbs to end a unwanted pregnancy or the dosage necessary to eliminate an abusive husband. Rapax's mentor was often sought out as an herbalist and poisoner and that knowledge she passed onto her young heir. Unfortunately no-one asked Rapax what she desired and when she was old enough to realize that she would become the local dealer of abortifacients and laxatives she hatched a plot to murder her benefactor.

An agent of the Brotherhood who often did business with the poisoner took note of the old woman's untimely passing and understanding the circumstances invited Rapax to join the guild. A decade later the Brotherhood stood to collect significant profit from the services of a highly trained agent and a prospective leader for the guild in a brand new century.

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