A quieter street bends toward a small shrine, its stone portico sheltering votive tablets, clay figurines, and oil lamps trembling in the dusk. Comaetho’s scraped forearm still bears a thin red line.
Gaius Lartius, an elderly man with a stooped frame, sun-spotted skin, and a sparse white beard, emerges in a brown wool robe. A bronze key-ring hangs at his waist.
Gaius Lartius
Traveler, your arm is bleeding. Come beneath the portico. The water is clean, unless Rome has finally taught the gods to foul that as well.
He sets down a shallow basin and pours from a clay jug. Beyond him, pilgrims cluster around the shrine, murmuring of strange lights and cries witnessed along the Tiber.
Gaius Lartius
They say the river carried an omen today. One swears the mist moved against the wind; another saw sparks upon the water. Pilgrims improve every tale.
Gaius Lartius
Yet this tall stranger arrives marked by the same river road. Perhaps the gods have sent an answer, or merely another question.
Gaius holds the basin ready without touching Comaetho. Lampflame gilds the shrine’s carved threshold, while the pilgrims’ whispers ebb into wary silence around the towering traveler.
✓ Quest Accepted
Preserve his anonymity at the shrine
“"How kind of you." I look down at Gaius, then toward the portico. "Indeed, there is an omen. The gods, perhaps, have grown restless." I pause. I stare at Gaius, then extend my scrapped forearm. "Very well. I will accept your services. A simple cleaning will suffice."”
SUCCESS (Great Oratory, rolled -1)
Comaetho
How kind of you. Indeed, there is an omen. The gods, perhaps, have grown restless. Very well. I will accept your services. A simple cleaning will suffice.
Comaetho extends his scraped forearm beneath the portico. Gaius meets his luminous gaze, then lowers his eyes and draws the basin nearer.
Gaius Lartius
A simple cleaning, then. Rome has no shortage of grand ceremonies, but water and patience serve most wounds better.
Gaius wets a folded linen strip and carefully wipes away the thin blood. The clean water clouds faintly, while the cut remains shallow and harmless.
Gaius Lartius
There. The gods may keep their omens, traveler. This mark belongs to a careless cartwright, not the river.
He rinses the cloth, presses it once against the scrape, and withdraws without claiming more familiarity. Around the shrine, the pilgrims resume their subdued murmuring.
Gaius Lartius
Still, if you have seen something among the mist, speak plainly. Shrines are built for questions, even when answers arrive wearing strange faces.
“I choose my words deliberately, each spoken slowly, with measured calm. "Questions do not always require answers. Perhaps it is best the oddities among us remain undisturbed. Fear of the unknown is exploitable if used correctly." I withdraw my forearm once Gaius has finished his work.”
SUCCESS (Great Oratory, rolled -1)
Comaetho
Questions do not always require answers. Perhaps it is best the oddities among us remain undisturbed. Fear of the unknown is exploitable if used correctly.
Comaetho speaks each word slowly, with measured calm. When Gaius finishes, he withdraws his forearm, leaving the basin and its faintly clouded water between them.
Gaius Lartius
That is a cold lesson, traveler. Fear serves the liar, the priest, and sometimes the man who wishes to pass unnoticed.
Gaius folds the damp linen across the basin’s rim. He studies Comaetho’s luminous eyes only briefly before turning toward the shrine lamps, whose flames tremble in the evening air.
Gaius Lartius
Still, undisturbed things have a habit of disturbing Rome first. I will ask no further question, but I will remember your warning.
The pilgrims’ murmurs resume around the portico, softer now, shaped by glances toward the river road. Gaius lifts the basin and steps aside, leaving the shrine’s entrance open.
Quest Complete
Preserve his anonymity at the shrine
Skill Upgrade: Oratory Great→Superb