Heavy boots hammer past the storage room door, then fade. Marcus yanks Valeria through a narrow arch into the service tunnels, where damp stone sweats under torchlight and every breath tastes of mold and old smoke.
Marcus Flavius
Quiet. If they see your face, they do not ask twice.
He keeps one hand on her arm and points her low through the darkness. Ahead, a side passage bends toward the arena levels, but voices drift from that way too, clipped and searching.
Valeria Asiaticus
The patrol is split between the gallery and the tunnels.
Marcus Flavius
There, listen. If Messalina is hunting a missing gladiatrix, she will want proof more than blood. Stay hidden, or give her a shadow she can name.
At the junction, a drunken workman in a tunic of dust stumbles into torchlight, clutching a tablet seal and squinting at them with imperial fear. He freezes, realizing too late that two armed figures are staring back at him.
The Workman
I saw nothing, dominus, I swear it. The messenger asked for the lower routes, I only showed the way.
Marcus shifts in front of Valeria, ready to shove the man aside or buy his silence, while the sound of boots turns again somewhere behind them. The hunt is tightening, and her anonymity is no longer a hiding place so much as a wager.
✓ Quest Accepted
Slip past the patrol in the service tunnels
“"Marcus, take this man to the prisoner cells and lock him up. If I get through, I'll meet you outside." She hurries to reach the tunnel before the Praetorians do.”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled +0)