>>22174357
(2/2)

The room you had been renting erupts into chaos as one more assassin bursts in as well, stabbing their fellow, thinking it was you. Stabbing wildly, you have no time to use tactics or skill. There's only room for anger, and, at the end of your rage and the hostility you've kept contained, you prevail. You've been cut twice and stabbed once, but to your name you now have another two kills. You're about to start dressing, to go out the window and avoid any questions, when the Constantinople city watch burst into your room. You're buck naked, with six armed and armored men menacing you with spears.

>Play it politically. We don't need to cause an incident.
>Damn them, you're angry. Start yelling.
>Other, write-in.

>>22174450

[X] Play it politically. We don't need to cause an incident.

>>22174450
>Other, write-in.
We get assertive, we get a good minute or so of dumbfoundedness from the guards we can exploit before they start thinking politically. See if we can get an ID on our assailants before any official word comes down or they think better of anything. Seize the moment before they actually take in that a VIP is naked in front of them. Then once they start to clam up, then we go political.

File: 1356227224747.jpg-(29 KB, 450x312, Female Crusader.jpg)

>>22174514

"Hands in the air, messier!"

"No! YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR, GENTLEMEN! Do you know who I am?! NO! You don't! Calm your breasts before I'm forced to give each and everyone of you a thrashing! Your idiocy will NOT go unpunished! I'll flog you myself!" Your tirade doesn't go unnoticed, as their officer steps into the room. Raking you up and down with her eyes, causing you extreme discomfort. She's dressed and armored in a Western manner, leading you to surmise she's with the Emperor's Norman or Scottish mercenaries.

"Please, sir, refrain from threatening my men with flogging. Do so again, and no matter who you are, I shall have YOU flogged. I speak with the weight of the Emperor! You are but a Scottish dog!" Ah, so she's not one of the Scots. A Norman, then.

"I will have you know, I speak with the full authority of the Knights Hospitaller, an order recently granted rights within Constantinople by your Emperor! Cease thy prattle, fair knight!"

"You, sir, are a fool and a knave! I demand satisfaction!" You're about to throw down a glove you're not wearing, but holding, when you're halted by ANOTHER officer entering the room.

"Stop, stop, stop. Get some clothes on, MacMahon, we've got to take you down to the barracks for the usual processing and then questioning, seeing as two of the Emperor's citizens are dead."

>Get dressed and follow along quietly?
>Demand answers?
>Stand there belligerently and demand names?
>Other, write-in.

>>22175192

[X] Get dressed and follow along quietly.

Unrustle our jimmies for now; we can get some answers later on.

>>22175192

>Get Dressed

As much I want to continue blessing these fools with the gift that is the sight of our naked body, we have much to do. Clothes will help expedite things.

>Follow along

But not quietly, I want names, at the very least.

NOW I find the damn thread. Ok, reading up

>>22175192

[ ] Hip thrust

>>22175192
I see Ridire is up to his usual trollin'.

Get dressed and follow along, we know there's procedure to follow. But send a runner to our people, and maybe one to Apollo because he's the god of JUSTICE.

File: 1356230015050.jpg-(91 KB, 471x650, Female Royal 3.jpg)

>>22175192

>Get dressed, also names.

You place the pile of clothing you had been holding on the bed, and begin getting dressed. First the drawers, and then the braies. Belting those on, you throw your shirt on and then the gambeson. The chainmail comes next, and the finally your mantle and sword belt.

"All right. I'll come quietly, but I expect names from you two!" You punctuate this with a hip thrust, in order to get your point across.

"Uhm... I'm Henrietta de Acre, a Battle-Sister of the Knights Templar. My colleague that was threatening you with the sword is also a Battle-Sister of the Knights Templar, Anna de Acre.

>>22175824

Introduce ourselves and give a small apology for our behavior: they're just doing their jobs and anyone who woke up to an assassination attempt would have their jimmies rustled pretty badly.

File: 1356231068367.jpg-(297 KB, 501x825, FemaleRoyal6.jpg)

>>22175824
(2/2)

"Ah. So you're girls. We of the Knights Hospitaller are superior in that we don't allow women to be full Sisters, but that doesn't mean they're not allowed. Now, take me to the barracks so I can have my sword confiscated, returned, and then I intend on filing a complaint with the Emperor, the Grand-Master of the Templars, the Grand-Master of the Hospitallers, the Pope, and possibly the ruler of Acre. I forget his name because he's some backwater bumpkin." Ignoring Henrietta and Anna's glares and outrage, you order them to take you to their barracks, that you might have this farce of justice finished.

"Ignoring your clearly derogatory comments about our order and location of headquarters, MacMahon, at least we aren't Scottish curs, with no sense of the propriety of warfare." Anna must be referring to your selling of prisoners as galley slaves.

"Well, at least I'm not a wee little yapping dog that's good for nothing but gracing the portraits of unmanly men and women. I'd rather be a noble cur, good for anything my master deemed, than that."

"Well, MacMahon, at least we aren't Scottish."

"Well, ladies, I must apologize. This back and forth does nothing for our relationship. I am William MacMahon, Lord of Damascus, Knight Brother in the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. I beg your pardon for being unpleasant." They fall silent, and then the nine of you are arriving at the barracks, garrisoned by Byzantine troops, but commanded by Templars on loan to the Emperor.

You're frogmarched into the office of yet another Templar, yet another harried looking woman. Perhaps these were the dregs of the Templar barracks in Acre?

She introduces herself as Sarah, of the House of Lorraine-Acre, and apologizes for the inconvenience.

>Accept it and try to get everything straight?
>Still angry? Now's the time to rant at an officer.
>Other, write-in.

>>22176104
...Isn't our dad the governor of Acre? This was terrible trolling, Ridire. Terrible.

Wish the woman well, offer the support of the Hospitalliers in the city in future, cooperate, and send that runner to Apollo, god-dammit! He is practically the God of lawyers.

>>22176104

Accept it and try to get everything straight. Let's cooperate for now and see if they can find out who was trying to kill us.

>>22176151
this
>>22176195
and this

and send that messenger to our people and the emperor, too

>>22176151
Lol try again. It wasn't given to the Knights Hospitaller until 1229. You're thinking of Krak de Chevaliers.

>>22176235
No, man, Raymond du Puy de Provence was Governor of Acre in his lifetime and he only lived until 1160. Whether that was personal or under the order, he was its second Grandmaster and our character's father.

Ain't no thang, though, McMahon could just be self-trolling.

>>22176297
Wait, that's Ramond's father Hughes. If the governorship wasn't hereditary, then that ain't no thing; OP could rule however. Nevertheless, our grandfather was governor of Acre and I could've sworn that in a previous thread Raymond was mentioned as such as well.

Still, who gives a shit.

>>22176104
>>Accept it and try to get everything straight?

File: 1356232703120.jpg-(353 KB, 1000x731, Angel.jpg)

>>22176104
"I accept your apology, Madame Sarah. Now, may I send a runner?"

"Of course, Sir William. You can borrow my own. Boy!" A young boy enters the room, no more than ten, and bows.

"Run to the basement of the Hagia Sophia, boy, and once there, state aloud, 'MacMahon of Damascus requires aid.' Do so fast, and I'll give you a florin." He runs off, and while you wait, you think about your grandfather. Hughes du Puy, Governor of Acre, at least until he died. And then dad was going to take over, but then he got elected Grand-Master of the Hospitallers, leading to your eventual existence. Over all, you decide, you're glad grandfather died when he did.

After about an hour of awkward silence, broken only by irreverent small talk, the boy returns with a woman, carrying a set of tablets. Unsure of who she is, she takes you aside and introduces herself.

"Greetings, William of Damascus. You may know me as Athena; to the Byzantines, I'm Athene, a noted law scholar." Turning towards Sarah, she curtsies and then smiles charmingly.

(1/2)

>>22176523
Oh shit, we finally get to meet Athena. This is going to involve tribute and a tea-party of the gods, probably.

>>22176523

"Now, I'm very please to be able to help Sir William get this straightened out, Madame Sarah. Could you please inform me what city or national laws he's broken?"

"Well, it was more protective custody until we could ascertain who his assassins were, but the number he did on them precludes that. They weren't bearing any livery or identifying marks, but it seemed, Miss Athene, that their weapons, daggers, were supplied by a nobleman with connections to Persia. Given that that's half the noblemen and women in Constantinople, let alone Byzantium... You see your problem, no?"

>Let Athena handle this!
>Agree with Sarah.
>Disagree, we want the bastard that tried to kill us nailed to a wall and faeces flung at him.

>>22176601
"Considering that I have recently been a prominent figure in the city, and that the Emperor has declared me a friend to his nation, and all the rest...this may become a matter of the state if it is handled publicly. I would beg my wise councilor on legal matters to clear my name and have the matter referred to the appropriate channels so that the Emperor's court can assess whether or not it is being threatened by enemies, internal or external, and act in its own defense. It is certainly indicative of action being taken against the Crusaders on a large scale, which means that a plan to flank the Turk may be in the Empire's better interest now."

"Madame Sarah, even if our orders do not always rub shoulders so amicably, your bretheren are as threatened by overt action against a prominent crusading knight as any. Assassins at my throat today may mean killers in a Templar bedchamber tomorrow. I would suggest you consider working with my order to whatever extent you can, and tell your comrades in arms to do so also. This knife in my bedpost was forged in the Levant by a Turkic smith, or else in Baghdad by more distant puppetmasters, but it reached me across a sea."

>>22176675

This sounds pretty well-thought out.

File: 1356234148068.jpg-(146 KB, 992x725, Angel 2.jpg)

>>22176601

"Considering that I have recently been a prominent figure in the city, and that the Emperor has declared me a friend to his nation, and all the rest...this may become a matter of the state if it is handled publicly. I would beg my wise councilor on legal matters to clear my name and have the matter referred to the appropriate channels so that the Emperor's court can assess whether or not it is being threatened by enemies, internal or external, and act in its own defense. It is certainly indicative of action being taken against the Crusaders on a large scale, which means that a plan to flank the Turk may be in the Empire's better interest now."

"Madame Sarah, even if our orders do not always rub shoulders so amicably, your bretheren are as threatened by overt action against a prominent crusading knight as any. Assassins at my throat today may mean killers in a Templar bedchamber tomorrow. I would suggest you consider working with my order to whatever extent you can, and tell your comrades in arms to do so also. This knife in my bedpost was forged in the Levant by a Turkic smith, or else in Baghdad by more distant puppetmasters, but it reached me across a sea."

"I... I see. William, you and your counsel are free to go. Madame Athene, please return whenever you feel you have the time or inclination. Sir William, we'll do our best to find your would-be killer, but with Byzantine politics and corruption the way they are..."

"I understand, Madame Sarah. Please, just do your best." You and Athena leave, after paying the runner boy a florin, and find the day has dawned to a beautiful sun rise.

>Offer Athena breakfast?
>Thank her, leave.
>Other, write in. /tg/ can be brilliant, I know it. I've seen it!

>>22176882
Offer Athena breakfast in the greek district, preferably near the site of her former temple near the Hagia Sophia, and ask her if she can give you the sort of counsel that kept Odysseus from failing in his backbreaking journey and through the Trojan war, and what she can tell you about this mess among the Gods of the Levant.

Offer her your sword. At least she's less of an insane warrior-goddess, being that she knows tactics.

>>22176935
>breakfast in the greek district
> odysseys

The best wines of Corinth! The best lamb of Ithaca! The best Athenian play, put on by a decent playwright! We may be unable to give her real Olympian ambrosia, but a sacrifice is a sacrifice.

>>22176882

Offer Athena breakfast.

Oh yeah....breakfast time. Nothing like waking up to an assassination attempt to work up an appetite.

>>22176958
>a decent playwright
A decent company of actors, herp

>>22176882

"Pallas Athena Parthenos, would you take breakfast with me? I have enough money on me to hire a theater group and command their performance. We could make it a breakfast performance, as well, if you cared?"

"I would so care, Lord of Damascus. Could you sway the performers to put on a comedy? The tragedies bore me, after having seen so many of them lived out so many times over and again."

"Of course, Milady. 'twould be my pleasure. Can you tell me about what really happened before there was Christianity and Judaism?" She humors you, and as you hunt through the Greek district of the city, searching out a decent group of players to perform a comedy for Athena, you find a chef willing to cook breakfast for the two of you. You hire him to cook beef gyro, on panini bread. With the smell of roasting beef pervading the area, you find one of the amphitheaters built by the Romans, and set up.

The players start as the cook serves Athena, and then you, and you're slowly enraptured by the play of the light on her gray eyes, when something in the play reminds her, and she reaches into a hole in the air you knew wasn't there before she reached into it. She withdraws... a lamp.

"I have a gift for you, William! It's a lamp! You might need it. But for now, why don't you give it a rub?"

>Humor her. She's Pallas Athene, after all.
>Gracefully turn her attention back towards the performance you spent coin on for her.
>Other

>>22177396
Ask her if the lamp has the devil in it. Seriously, you don't fall for that more than once.

File: 1356236445292.gif-(785 KB, 300x225, BUTTONTIME.gif)

>>22177396

Humor her. She's Pallas Athene, after all.

>>22177396
>>Humor her. She's Pallas Athene, after all.
OOOH, does it glow?

>>22177396
Rub lamp.

File: 1356238245673.jpg-(226 KB, 850x1219, Genie.jpg)

>>22177396
>Humor her. She's Pallas Athene, after all.

You rub the lamp gently at first, and then a bit more vigorously. A thin trail of smoke emits from it, before finally a full sized woman appears before you, sitting next to Athena. Oh God.

"Oh! Pallas Athene, is this man my new master?"

"Yes, Hapibael. William MacMahon, Lord of Damascus, is your new master. Be warned, MacMahon. Abuse her or her power, and the consequences shall be grave. Now, this gyro is delicious, and I'm so glad you found Master Padapolous to cook for us."

Smiling awkwardly, you nod, and sit in silence as Athena and Hapibael discuss... Something, in a language older than Greek. Shrugging, you turn to enjoy the play, when you're tapped on the shoulder by an older, respectable looking man.

>Ask if it can wait until the play is over
>Address him. It might be important.
>Other

>>22177880
>Address him. It might be important.

>>22177880

[X] Address him. It might be important.

>>22177880
>[]Address him, it might be important.

File: 1356239250667.gif-(37 KB, 320x240, Hades.gif)

>>22177880

"Yes, sir? How may I help you?"

"Well, MacMahon, not really me. More my wife, Persephone. Y'see, she'd like to see Sicily, but seeing as how she doesn't have anyone to go with her.... You think you could do me that favor, MacMahon? I'll see to it your fledgling little nation down there in the Levant becomes rich, richer than it normally would." Oh. Persephone. This guy must be Hades, then.

"Of course, sir. It'd be my pleasure. I shall protect her with my life."

"Good son, good! I know you will! Now... I'll make sure you have a little gift known as 'the secret of Greek fire' waiting on you back in Damascus."

"Thank you, sir!"

And that concludes tonight's thread! Thank you for participating, I'm probably running Wednesday.

>>22178126
>Hades
>Athena

Wow. We rolling in connections

File: 1356239469389.jpg-(23 KB, 375x300, DataWin.jpg)

>>22178137

See you Wednesday, Ridire. Someone archive this!