Comaetho arrives at the Tiber’s muddy bank without announcement. Ahead, overturned silk bales choke the path while a broad-shouldered middle-aged merchant struggles beneath two hired killers in stained wool tunics.
The Silk-Route Merchant
Take the bales, damn you, but leave me alive! The goods are worth more than my blood.
One assassin pins the merchant’s wrists against the mud. The other, a lean young man with a scarred cheek, crouches behind him, drawing a narrow knife toward his throat.
The Chained Debtor
Please! I have paid enough!
A thin, barefoot debtor, wrists linked by an iron chain, stumbles past the scattered bales toward the dark water. His escape draws no notice from the killers.
The Scarred Assassin
Hold still. This will be quick.
The Silk-Route Merchant
The river is behind me. No guard is coming.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the silk-route merchant's freedom
“I keep standing where I have appeared, watching from a distance I purposefully make conspicuous. I do not care if any of them see me. I will choose when to interfere.”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled -2)
Comaetho remains motionless above the muddy bank, his black toga stark against the gray riverlight. His golden, slit-pupiled eyes fix upon the struggle without concealment.
The Scarred Assassin
You there. Keep walking.
The scarred assassin glances toward him, knife paused at the merchant’s throat. In that instant, Comaetho reads the scene clearly: the bales are bait, and the merchant’s fear is genuine.
The Silk-Route Merchant
No, no, do not trouble him! Take what you came for!
The second killer tightens his grip and studies Comaetho’s towering silhouette. The debtor has reached the waterline, chain dragging loudly over stones, but no one watches him now.
The Scarred Assassin
He is not a guard. Then what kind of man stands there like a funeral statue?
By lingering, Comaetho catches the detail he sought: one silk bale bears a fresh wax seal unlike the others. Its markings remain unreadable at this distance, and the pause has given the debtor time to vanish into the river mist.
“I do not take my eyes off of the assassins or the silk-route merchant. If anything, I almost appear pleased that they've paused at my presence. I allow a purposeful pause to settle, then speak calmly. "Do you come to retrieve the merchant's supplies, or his corpse?"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Intimidation, rolled -1)
Comaetho
Do you come to retrieve the merchant's supplies, or his corpse?
The question settles over the riverbank with the weight of a sentence. Comaetho does not blink; his luminous eyes remain fixed upon both killers.
The Scarred Assassin
The supplies. The corpse was never part of the bargain.
His knife withdraws from the merchant’s throat. Beside him, the broad-shouldered killer releases the man’s wrists and rises, suddenly careful not to make any threatening gesture.
The Silk-Route Merchant
Then take them. Take every bale and leave me breathing.
The Second Killer
We take the marked bale only. The rest stays.
The scarred assassin reaches for the bale bearing the fresh wax seal, but keeps his attention on Comaetho. The merchant crawls backward through the mud, alive and unbound.
Quest Complete
Secure the silk-route merchant's freedom
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Great→Superb