The sealed contract remains beside the lamp as Aurelia arranges their debts, dwindling grain, the oil jar, and the roof’s worst repairs across the table.
Nestor
The creditor’s figure includes interest twice. This line must be challenged before a single coin leaves our hands.
Nestor bends over the wax tablet, counting with one finger. Castor listens from one side of the table, Pollux from the other, both unusually silent.
Aurelia
Bread and oil carry us through the next weeks. The roof cannot wait forever, but neither can the men who hold our debts.
Castor and Pollux
How long until the first purse arrives?
Nestor
If the first bout pays as promised, the household may breathe. If it does not, every calculation becomes a warning.
No messenger comes from the palace, and no creditor crosses the threshold. The family waits around the figures, leaving the advance and its purpose open to Valeria’s judgment.
✓ Quest Accepted
Challenge the creditor’s doubled interest charge
“"Altering the terms of a debt contract without a signed agreement from both parties amounts to fraud. Any magistrate would release you from that obligation. Or I may take it up with the creditor myself, if I live long enough."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Oratory, rolled -1)
Valeria Asiaticus
Altering the terms of a debt contract without a signed agreement from both parties amounts to fraud. Any magistrate would release you from that obligation. Or I may take it up with the creditor myself, if I live long enough.
The room falls quiet. Nestor’s finger stops above the disputed line, while Aurelia turns toward the doorway and calls for the creditor to return.
The Creditor
You threaten legal action over a calculation? The debt existed before your exhibition, and my records are not casual household figures.
Nestor
Nor are they sacred tablets. The interest appears twice, and the alteration bears no second seal.
The creditor steps inside, glances at the wax tablet, and sees the contract advocate’s marks waiting beside Nestor’s account. His confidence thins beneath the household’s scrutiny.
The Creditor
The duplicate charge can be struck. I will present the corrected account before a magistrate, if you insist on making this public.
Aurelia
Then it will be corrected before any advance is surrendered. Our house will pay what it owes, not what fraud invents.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure a payment plan the household can afford
“"Trust me, I know a magistrate or two. There is no way this altered contract could pass their scrutiny."”
SUCCESS (Fair Politics, rolled -1)
Valeria Asiaticus
Trust me, I know a magistrate or two. There is no way this altered contract could pass their scrutiny.
Valeria names the magistrates who have heard her testimony before, and Nestor compares the disputed figures with the creditor’s seals. The legal weakness is plain.
The Creditor
You would carry a household debt into the Forum? That invites questions about every private bargain attached to your name.
Nestor
Then let the questions be asked. The duplicate interest has no second seal, and the correction is now witnessed by this household.
The creditor removes the altered tablet from the table and replaces it with a clean account. Valeria’s leverage succeeds, but the threat has made him suspicious of her connections.
Aurelia
We will pay the lawful debt. Nothing more. If he wants a magistrate’s judgment, he may explain this alteration before one.
The creditor accepts the corrected account in writing, but keeps the original disputed tablet under his cloak, carrying away both evidence and a sharpened grudge.
Quest Complete
Challenge the creditor’s doubled interest charge
Skill Upgrade: Politics Fair→Good