Valeria carries her blunted sword beneath the Porticus Octaviae, accompanied by Marcus and Murmilla, who still holds Lucius Fabius’s sealed employment report. Claudia Varena and the witnesses remain behind with the amended contract.
Marcus Flavius
Before anyone alters another tablet, we verify the public record of your scheduled bout. Terms witnessed today are safer than terms remembered tomorrow.
At the eastern records stall, a young herald with close-cropped hair, a red-bordered tunic, and an ink-stained thumb searches the posted notices. Shelves of wax tablets crowd him on every side.
The Herald
Here is the official notice. Veteran Hoplomacha, blunted spear, and victory by clean concession or acknowledged defeat. No added demonstration is written.
Publius Varenus steps from between two bookmakers, his bright eyes fixed on the tablet. He carries a second wax copy, its laurel mark scraped almost smooth.
Publius Varenus
That is the public version. A second one is circulating among bookmakers, naming a different victory condition and an extra exchange after concession.
Murmilla
Then neither copy should travel farther until the difference is recorded. Valeria, you should see both versions before anyone asks you to accept the bout.
“She studies both copies.”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled -1)
Valeria studies both wax copies beneath the stall’s awning, keeping her cloth-bound palm clear of the tablets. She compares every line, seal, and correction.
Valeria Asiaticus
The public notice is clean; the scraped laurel mark belongs to a later copy.
The wording reveals the alteration: the bookmakers’ version adds an exchange after concession and changes victory into a condition requiring further combat. Its laurel impression was abraded and reapplied.
Publius Varenus
You have found the difference. The second tablet was copied from the public notice, then altered before it reached the betting tables.
The Herald
I can enter both texts in the eastern register, but the comparison has delayed the posting. The next notice will not be displayed until the clerk witnesses it.
The delay leaves Valeria certain which terms govern her bout, but not who scraped the laurel mark or ordered the false condition. Publius holds out his copy for sealing.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify who ordered the false bout condition
“"This laurel mark is the sign of Gaius Marcellus. Please, someone tell me he has nothing to do with this."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +0)
Valeria Asiaticus
This laurel mark is the sign of Gaius Marcellus. Please, someone tell me he has nothing to do with this.
Publius examines the scraped impression, then the altered wording. His expression settles into the careful honesty of a bookmaker protecting a lawful record.
Publius Varenus
I cannot tell you that. The mark connects this copy to Marcellus’s network, though it does not prove that Marcellus himself ordered the alteration.
The Herald
The register can record that distinction plainly: Marcellus’s mark appears, but no authorized instruction from him accompanies the tablet.
Publius places the wax copy beside the public notice. The abraded laurel and the added condition align with the same contractual pressure found at Marcellus’s training yard.
Publius Varenus
This was meant to make a concession insufficient, forcing another exchange and putting a fighter’s purse under someone else’s control. That is Marcellus’s familiar method.
Marcus Flavius
Then we record the connection without claiming more than the evidence proves. Your lawful bout remains governed by the clean public notice.
“"Mark the altered tablet void, and I will agree to the original one."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Politics, rolled +1)
Valeria Asiaticus
Mark the altered tablet void, and I agree to the original bout terms.
Valeria places the clean public notice beside the altered copy, keeping her cloth-bound palm clear. The eastern stall’s witnesses gather close as the comparison is entered.
The Herald
The altered copy is void. Its added exchange and changed victory condition have no standing. The original notice governs the bout.
Publius Varenus
I will record that agreement before the betting tables open. Veteran Hoplomacha, blunted spear, and victory by clean concession or acknowledged defeat.
The herald scores VOID across the scraped-laurel tablet, then seals the mark with the eastern register. He copies the lawful terms beneath it and adds the witnesses’ names.
Marcus Flavius
Good. You have accepted the contest without accepting someone else’s trap. Keep this copy with the contract, and let every official answer to the same words.
Publius receives the certified copy for the betting record, while the original remains secured with the exhibition contract. The false condition is publicly disarmed, though Marcellus’s connection remains recorded for inquiry.