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>Day 2 (5 days left until arena match)
You awake just before dawn breaks and commence in your morning prayers. You hadn’t the time yesterday due to the abrupt nature of the call and amidst the day’s events, and your only moment of respite was by the end when you had your evening prayer. The barrack rooms are relatively quiet as you go through your devotions, aside from Lucian’s occasional snore and the rustle of sheets. A few other guardsmen waken throughout your prayers and make their way out into the yard to practise, but you pay them no heed and continue on.

Eventually the instructor bursts through the room, calling up all remaining guards and assembling them out in the field. Much like yesterday, the senior guards all disperse to perform their duties and you and the other four recruits run laps around the yard. However, your pace has decreased since your legs are still aching from yesterday’s exercises and spending the entire day patrolling the city. This fatigue is shared amongst you all and the sun had completely risen by the time you completed your required laps and enter the cantine for breakfast.

“I swear… I’m going to die if we have to keep this up every day.” Lucian complains between bated breaths of air and spoonfuls of porridge.
“Shut up, you’re just preaching to the choir here. If you have to complain go complain to the commander.” Junia replies, munching on her loaf of bread.
“I talked to some of the other guards; you’ll become accustomed to this eventually Julian.” Cornelia, who is also in the process of regaining her breath, adds.
“I agree with Junia, Lucian. Our exhaustion will only increase if we talk focus on it. Let’s finish up our breakfast and let the food work its way through our body.” You comment, although you understand Lucian’s sentiment. Especially so since he hasn’t worked a day in his life before yesterday, the boy was essentially thrown into the deep end in an attempt to teach him maturity. Titus is too absorbed into his meal to respond to your chatter and you all eventually finish your meals and re-enter the field where the instructor leads you to a rack of weapons.

“To become a proper soldier, you’ll need more than basic fitness. The rest of today you will be learning combat skills and how to handle a fight. To start off you’ll all select a weapon of choice and practise handling it.”
Which weapon do you choose to learn?
>Spear
>Sword and shield
>Daggers
>Bow and Arrow

>>1693264
>Spear

we are already pretty good with it.

>>1693308
>Spear

Writing

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>>1693308
>Spear

You take the weapon that served you in the arena. Its weight no longer surprises you and you carry it with a relative ease. The rest of the recruits pick out their own weapon and you all go to your respective areas to train. The instructor teaches you how to properly make a stance, grip your spear and thrust before leaving you in front of a wooden pole to train. Each strike makes a dull thud and sends a shock up through your arms. It becomes increasingly difficult to swing the spear back and forth but your force your arms to move. Your stance occasionally slips but you correct your feet and face your torso forwards every time. Eventually, you begin to get into a flow and the pain in your arms subside, you feel like you’ve gained valuable experience here that will definitely be useful in the arena.

>Gained Spear Proficiency 1
>+5 to every roll using a spear

Soon you’re stopped and reassembled with the other recruits.

“Next you’ll be learning hand-to-hand combat. First I’ll demonstrate the attack and then you’ll spar with each other.” The instructor goes through the formation of a fist and punches the air in front of him. You all follow suit in varying degrees of enthusiasm. Titus is almost bursting with energy despite the previous exercises, and commits to every strike taught. Cornelia is rigid and attacks with no wasted movements. Junia is fast and manages to keep her limbs steady as she launches them. Lucian is sloppy and barely keeps his arms in front of him to attack. As for yourself, you complete the attacks with an effort, no thanks to the accumulated weariness due to the previous exercises. The instructor goes through the rest of the strikes and some grappling moves as well

>Gained Hand-to-Hand Proficiency 1
>+5 to every roll of hand-to-hand combat

By the time you’ve completed the drills, the sun has risen into the sky and is beating down upon the barracks. You can feel the heat of the air on your skin and the sand sticks to your sweat. You’re given a well needed break that relieves you of some of your fatigue before you move onto sparring. Lucian is told to sit on the side to further rest as you pair up to being sparring.

Who do you choose as a sparring partner?
>Titus
>Cornelia
>Junia
>The Instructor

>>1693443
Junia

>>1693443
changing to Junia

>>1693475
>>1693471
>Junia

Writing

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>Junia

You and Junia walk to an empty space before you take you stances. Everything taught to you today has been new and you’re struggling to tick off all of the points that the instructor told you about before: legs bent and shoulder-length apart with one foot forward, arms up protecting chin and ribs and chin tucked in. This all feels unnatural to you as before 2 days ago you were an advocator of peace. In your childhood you had never entered a fight and knew when to leave before things got to that point.

“Don’t think you can go easy on me just because I’m a woman Cassius. Or because your religion is against violence or something.” She exclaims, taking her stance.
You stare Junia in the eye, she’s bouncing back and forth between her legs and watches you closely for any movements. This deadlock continues until gets bored and rushes forward; quickly bypassing your guard by getting under you, she thrusts her fist into your chest. You flinch at the incoming attack but remember to rotate your leg backwards to dodge in time. Safely out of the path of her punch, you counter with a punch to her stomach. This was the first time you have ever struck someone with your own hands and the feeling of flesh against flesh sends a shock much greater than the spear landing against wood.

You quickly reel back your hand in shock, and in doing so fail to notice that Junia wasn’t too affected by your strike. In your distraction you had given her a chance to swipe your foot from under you, staggering you and giving her a chance to grab your shirt and throw you down. As you fall she quickly jumps on top of you and rain down a barrage of blows to your head and torso. You put out your arms in an attempt to block, but her strikes snake around and hit you in the ribs. However, you see your opportunity when she raises her arm up, and move your arms you grab around her waist. You then throw her off to the side by twisting your body and kicking off of the ground. She rolls on the sand and quickly picks herself up. You push yourself off of the ground as well.

Both of your breaths are ragged but you’ve clearly taken more damage than her, your overall lack of fighting experience is probably to blame. In that short exchange you’ve managed to exhaust your body far more than the drills had done. Your arms are probably bruised and you might have a few scrapes from falling over.

How do you continue from here?
>Fight defensively and wear her out
>Fight offensively and beat her down
>Find an opportunity to grapple her and put her in a lock
>Write in

>>1693553
>Find an opportunity to grapple her and put her in a lock

>>1693553
Smack the shit out of her, offensive

>>1693553
>>Find an opportunity to grapple her and put her in a lock

>>1693587
Going for this too

>>1693586
>>Fight offensively and beat her down

>>1693609
>>1693587
>>1693563
>Find an opportunity to grapple her and put her in a lock

Calling for
>Find an opportunity to grapple her and put her in a lock
Writing

>Find an opportunity to grapple her and put her in a lock

You're not sure if you have the energy for an all-out slugfest, nor the endurance to continue being attacked. The only viable option you have left is to wait for her to over extend on an attack and utilise that to knock her over. An option that, considering how easy it was to side step her attack earlier, has a fairly good chance at happening. The only issue is of course hoping that your stamina doesn’t run out by then.

This time you move towards her and attempt to bait her with a few quick jabs and low kicks. She’s fighting more defensively this time around, opting to weave through your attacks and strike at already established wounds. Her jabs don’t have much force behind them, but the damage on your body continues to accumulate.

Eventually she makes a big movement to kick you in the chest. If you slide past this kick you will be able to throw her to the ground and lock her from there, and if you fail to move in time, then you doubt that you’ll be able to stand for a while.

ROLL 1D100 TO GRAPPLE BEST OF 3

Rolled 54 (1d100)

>>1693649

Rolled 20 (1d100)

>>1693649

Rolled 2 (1d100)

>>1693649

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>54+5 = 59
You attempt to slide past her leg but she notices what you’re doing and plants her foot down to move towards you. Before you can grapple her she ducks forward and slams her elbow into your face. Your head gets tilted back and Junia finishes the spar by smashing her fist into your chin. The world spins and you lose your consciousness for a second before the collide with the ground jolts your senses back into action.

Junia walks over towards you and extends an arm to pull you up, which you graciously accept. It takes a few more moments for the ringing to escape your ears but your balance doesn’t completely restore so you decide to rest by Lucian as you recover.

“That was a pretty good fight you put up against Junia back there.” He congratulates you as you walk over and sit beside him.

“She knows where to hurt, I can tell you that much.” You groan in return, nursing your bruised arms and ribs.

“She overexerts way too much though, it’s pretty obvious from back here.” Lucian states matter-of-factly before turning his head to watch Titus spar with Cornelia. Titus is faring pretty badly, with all of his attacks being deflected by Cornelia before she counters and moves away. He’s clearly agitated and only continues to chase after her, repeating the previous exchange. What intrigues you is Cornelia’s stance, instead of what the instructor taught you she seems to be using another, completely different one. If anything, it’d be more reminiscent of the oriental tiger-men that you fought the other day than anything the soldiers would teach.

You also find yourself being impressed by Titus. Despite his brash actions and reckless fighting, he continues to run at Cornelia, although you could easily be just as concerned over his lack of self-preservation.

“They’ve been going at it like that since you and Junia started you know? He’s got some serious stamina to keep that up for this long. I’m telling you, every Falco is a madman.” Lucian shakes his head in disapproval.

“Watching Titus and Cornelia spar? Might join you in on that too,” Junia says as she walks over to you and Lucian. “no hard feelings just because I won, right Cassius?”

“None at all, I’m actually impressed that you know how to fight like that.” You admit.

After resting for a while you’re ready to get back to sparring and leave Lucian to continue resting. The second match against Junia goes more or less the same, with her making wide attacks that you attempt to exploit but overall fail to. You do get close a few times where you manage to get her in a lock but she always slips out and finishes you off. You’re not sure when Lucian disappeared from your sight but when he returned he looks even more exhausted than before he rested.

“Must have been training with the instructor.” Junia quips.

Eventually the sun hits its peak, indicating that the morning training has ended and that it’s time to patrol the city. You all regroup, eat your midday meal and put on the uniform before deciding where to do.

“Well last time we went with Cornelia’s idea of going to the arena, so this time I say that it’s only fair we go to the market to heroically stop arguments from escalating into brawls through force.” Titus exclaims, showing no signs of fatigue from the hours of exercise.

“I’ll agree to going to another place, but seriously this time. Let’s just patrol a safe area where no one can get hurt, like the residential one.” Lucian sighs.

“How about the pubs? You’ll never know what happens there.” Junia chimes.


You look to Cornelia for her opinion, but she seems to agree to the notion of patrolling another area and seems content to let the four of you work out where to go today.

Which option do you support?
>The market
>Residential area
>Pubs

>>1693854
>>The market
That or the residential area offers far more opportunities to spread our faith than the center of sin that is the pub

>>1693862
>The market

Writing

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>The market

“I agree with Titus. The marketplace could give us some useful information and I’m sure that there’ll be other guards there Lucian. If something does happen then we’ll still be reasonably safe.” Lucian deflates from your comment but Titus takes it in stride that you’ll be patrolling his area. Junia shrugs and Cornelia is glad that the decision has been made.

“Think about it Lucian! If we perform enough feats of bravery, you’ll be able to shed your cowardice! It’s a win-win scenario!” Titus attempts to reassure Lucian but makes little progress. With your patrol area decided you all march out of the barracks and towards your destination.

“So last time we all learnt about my heritage, how about someone else share theirs this time around?” Lucian states as you begin your patrol. “to continue on that wonderful topic that we started yesterday. How about you, Junia? Since you were so eager to learn about me.”

“Me? Alright fine. I’m the daughter of a common smith. Growing up I had one expectation to achieve: to become wed and continue the family lineage. Obviously I rejected that expectation and ran away the moment I became eligible for marriage. I hightailed it away to the farthest city that my money could get me and sought employment there. Spent a couple of years there before moving on to find a more permanent place of residence before I came here. As it happens, the local garrison was the only place accepting a girl like me and here I am today. Pretty boring right?”

“You… you ran away from your family?” Titus’ mouth is agape and his eyes are almost bulging.

“Yeah I did. It’s pretty easy to live on your own once you know what to do.” Junia replies, her face is beaming and she clearly shows pride in her independence.

“When you were eligible for marriage… how old are you exactly?” Lucian asks.

“Is that really what you should be asking a lady like me for?” Junia makes a false display to be incredibly offended, but laughs it off.

You all eventually reach the marketplace and the murmurs of daily conversations and the rattling of coins begin to fill your ears. Various debates are going on about business, arguments over the prices are made and a few people were making bets on which gladiator would win their next bout. The bets being made remind you of Brius Faelan and but you shake your head. There’s no use worrying about something that’s currently out of your control. Instead, you decide to listen in on some of the local gossip and hope to learn some new information.

What do you want to focus your ears on?
>The business owners
>The people walking by
>The gamblers

>>1694028
>>The business owners

>>1694028
>The business owners

>>1694064
>>1694057
The business owners

Writing

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>The business owners

“How’s business my friend?”
“It’s doing well enough. Stock is coming in and enough customers are buying enough.”
“Have you gotten any of them yet?”
“Luckily no, after what happened they left me and my family alone.”
“Dangerous, the lot of them. I’m wondering what the guards are doing.”

“Anything special come in recently?”
“Not much to be honest. Wait! I do have one of those beads that those tiger-men from the arena were wearing. I hear it gives you good luck. Only 5 coppers.”
“Really? This better not be like those other good luck charms.”
“I assure you, this one is guaranteed to be real, Salvius himself checked them. Said they were full of mystical energies.”
“Salvius you say? Interesting.”

“The crop harvest went well this season. I’ll throw in a few extra bags free if you buy this bracelet.”
“Bracelet? What use would I have of a bracelet?”
“Not much I’d assume, but I really need to get rid of it. Your master would be proud of you for negotiating for so much extra food wouldn’t he?”
“Why would you want to get rid of a bracelet? Just give it to your wife or children.”
“Listen, just buy the damn thing or you’ll get nothing from here.”

“Every night I come home to the same thing. My wife is loveless, my children are disobedient and my servants are all incompetent. You’re the only one that understands my struggle.”
“I hear you friend, sometimes there’s not much else to do but let loose. How about we go get a drink tonight? On me.”
“You of all people should know that I’m in no condition to drink anymore.”
“What? How come?”
“It’s a new oath that the priest put me under. No drinking for the next 2 moons or something like that.”
“Priests? What do they know? I’m telling you, only one person in this whole city has spoken directly to the gods and their services don’t come cheap.”

“Friend! Where have you been all this time?”
“I was out working as a farmhand since I needed the money. You won’t believe what I went through, but now that I’ve got some coin in my pocket you’ll be sure that I won’t make the same mistakes again. That vixen, swindling me out of everything I own… I’ll choke her the moment I see her.”

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The conversations all fizzle out before you can identify the speakers and in the mass of people the location of a single voice is too hard to pinpoint. Although some of the discussions were clearly unsavoury, it looks like you’ll need more information before you can make any judgements.

Suddenly, you notice a train of people walking by. What strikes you is that they’re all connected by a chain that passes through their feet.

“Slaves.” Cornelia states upon seeing your shock. “Most likely captured from a battle or a siege. You shouldn’t think too hard about their fates.”

“I know, it’s just the act of seeing them treated like that that disgusts me.” You reply, holding in your spite.

“Your religion is fairly soft if its priest can’t even handle the sight of slaves.” She says bluntly. It sounds more like a question than an insult.

“We simply believe in the equality amongst all people, men and women.” You silently watch the slaves as they walk past. You had never seen any of them before, and it is unlikely that you will ever see them again. You offer them a silent prayer as they walk by, praying that they fall into the hands of a kind master. As you watch them disappear behind the crowds you are once again reminded of the disparity between the current state of the world and the ideal that your faith teaches.

>New Location:
>Slave market

The sun eventually sets, much to the dismay of Titus over not witnessing any disputes and you decide to walk back. A bit into your march however, Lucian instead decides to go off on his own.
“There’s no real curfew for us guards. So long as we’re awake by dawn we can do whatever we want.” He justifies before walking off into the darkness.

What do you do?
>Explore a place for yourself (Specify. This option will make you tired tomorrow, decreasing all rolls by 5)
>Go back to the barracks and sleep
>Randomly walk around

Explorable areas:
-Arena
-Residential areas
-Market place
-Pubs
-Slave market

>>1694229
>>Go back to the barracks and sleep
We need all the bonus to all the rolls we can get.

I'm reading up on the last thread,
I like it OP.

>>1694229
>Sleep

>>1694236
Glad you're enjoying it anon. It's been fun to write.

>>1694236
>>1694271
>Go back to the barracks and sleep

Writing

>>1694271
Supporting. Get those good sleeps

Sorry about the delay, I had gone to get some food.

>Go back to the barracks and sleep

You have no real business anywhere in the city at this time of the night and shrug to the others as you walk back to the barracks.

“Did any of you hear what some of the people were talking about back in the market?” You ask, both to burn some time and to gain clarity on the daily lives of the people in the city.

“I was keeping my ears peeled for some aggression between people but all I managed to hear was some shopkeeper forcing a servant boy to buy a bracelet. When he began yelling I was almost ready to leap onto the scene,” Titus mentions. “wasn’t even a pretty one, it looked like someone just took a stick and curled it into a ring.”

“What ended up happening?”

“Well I went up to ask them if anything was wrong, but the moment the shopkeeper saw me he denied anything even happened. He shooed the boy away and pretended that nothing had happened. Obviously suspicious, but no more than any other general everyday affair.”

“I overheard some gamblers making bets on gladiators. You’re quite the underdog, Cassius. How much do you know about the other fighters anyways?” Cornelia is next to speak.

“To be quite honest, I should know a lot more.”

“Oh, so this will be news to you. According to the men at the table, your next fight is up against a “Rufus”. It’ll be a hand-to-hand battle where the victor is the one who makes the other gladiator submit.”

“Hand-to-hand? You’ll need a lot more training to reliably win, considering what you showed me today.” Junia states. Perhaps you should focus on hand-to-hand combat instead of weaponed combat for the rest of the week then.

You eventually make your way back to the barracks and finish off your day with a dinner, a bath and your evening prayers. Luckily, this day had been relatively uneventful and as you crawl into your bed sleep lulls over you peacefully.

>Day 3 (4 days left until arena match)

You’re almost accustomed to the daily routine now. Waking up just before dawn, you make your morning prayers and then leave the rooms to be assembled at morning. Sometime during your sleep Lucian must have return, as you see him lined up a bit further away from where you stand. He looks a fatigued from his lack of rest, but aside from that acts relatively normal throughout your exercises. With the revelation of your arena match, you opt to focus on your hand to hand combat throughout the morning. This time you’re partnered up against Titus in your sparring match, and despite the experience you’ve accumulated over the past 3 days, promptly lose every one. Although, you’re definitely piecing together your own method of fighting as a result of all this.

>You gained experience in hand-to-hand combat

Then comes the decision of where to patrol today. The usual arguments are made, each person making their own arguments and creating yet another stalemate. Titus seems disillusioned from the previous day’s boring patrol and Cornelia leaves it up to you all to decide where to patrol once again.

“We should go to the pub, it’s just more interesting there.”

“Again, why would you want interesting? It could be potentially fatal there.”

“That’s part of the fun Lucian, come on!”

“You’re insane.”

Where do you want to patrol?
>The Pub
>The Residential area
>The Slave Market
>The Market
>The Arena

>>1694529
>The Pub

>>1694529
>The Residential area
Pub is not only asking for trouble but it also is home to a bunch of lowlifes and scumbags. Not the type of people we want to convert and represent our religion.

>>1694529
Change to Residential area

>>1694658
>>1694648
>Residential area

Writing

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>The Residential Area

“I agree with Lucian, maybe we should go to the Residential area today.”

“What? …alright fine whatever” Junia mumbles the last part and walks behind the group as you make it out of the barracks. As you begin to walk your curiosity finally wins out against you.

“So where’d you go off to last night Lucian?” You ask.

“I just had some business to attend to. Some old friends I knew were probably wondering why I went missing these past few days so I just went to tell them where I was. My dad just up and forced me to join the guardsmen under threat of being disowned and I never had any time to sort things out. Anyways, who’s going to tell us their life story today? Would the famed Titus reward these lowly peasants of his family heritage?”

“Of course I would! You only had to ask!” Titus exclaims. “I am a proud son of the Falco family, every single member has served this country and I am here today to begin my cause! And, like my brothers and my fathers I will become a gallant addition to my family!”

“He’s a laugh isn’t he?” Lucian snickers at you.

“Well at least he’s found something that he’s proud of.” Junia shoots back.

“I suppose that he could be a little less bombastic.” Cornerlia adds.

How do you respond?
>It’s honourable of him to have a conviction
>His lineage is honourable, there’s nothing to be ashamed of
>He shouldn’t be so focused on pride and heritage
>He shouldn’t be living vicariously through his family
>Write-in

>>1694778
>His lineage is honourable, there’s nothing to be ashamed of

>>1694778
>>It’s honourable of him to have a conviction

>>1694838
>>1694821
>His lineage is honourable, there’s nothing to be ashamed of
>It’s honourable of him to have a conviction

Writing

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>His lineage is honourable, there’s nothing to be ashamed of
>It’s honourable of him to have a conviction

“His family members were all held in high regard, there’s nothing wrong with him being proud of that fact. You should share his sentiment, considering that you father is so highly regarded himself.” You claim.

“Well yeah of course I’m proud of him, but I don’t necessarily go around parading that fact every second do I?” You sense a hint of hostility in his voice, but it quickly returns to normal and he hardens his face. There’s probably an unresolved issue to be found there.

“Anyways, it’s honourable for you to have a conviction Titus. As a man of faith, I can understand where you’re coming from when you’re firmly rooted in what you believe in.” You direct your words towards him, and see genuine joy reflected in his eyes.

“Y-yeah! It’s great to finally have someone who understands what it’s like to have a passion. You aren’t too bad yourself Cassius, it takes guts to have faith in the face of death like you do.”

As you arrive in the noble residential area, the first thing that you notice is the size of each house. Every single one of them is a grand display of architecture and prestige, and the wealth of each noble is clearly nothing to scoff at. You begin your patrol around the area, making your way around the perimeter of each house. The servants are bustling around you performing their daily duties and you exchange general pleasantries with them as you continue on your patrol.

“What was with the master this morning?”
“I’m not sure; he seemed distracted in the morning meetings.”
“He probably has a lot on his mind right now.”

As you pass one particular servant however, you hear a dull thud coming from behind. You instinctively turn around to see that the servant has disappeared behind a corner and left behind a book. Walking towards it, you turn the book over as you pick it up. Only to be confronted with a familiar symbol. This symbol is one that you’ve recognised ever since that fateful day of your life. Since that single moment this symbol has lead your life to where it stands, and one that you are certain the servant shouldn’t be accidentally dropping in public. Your instincts kick in and you quickly run towards the servant who dropped it. They’ve entered the garden of the houses and are facing you, motioning for you to walk over.

What do you do?
>Walk over to the servant
>Leave them alone
>Search for one of your fellow recruits and return
>Write in

>>1694997
>>Walk over to the servant

>>1695062
This

>>1695062
>>1695174

>>Walk over to the servant

Writing

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>>1694997
Whoops, it should say that a scroll was dropped, not a book.

>>1695174
>>1695062
>Walk over to the servant

Your curiosity suppresses any other question you have and you begin walking into the garden. The foliage brushes against your skin but your heart is pounding too hard for you to notice. Was it a trap to lure you into a private area? Was it a message from a fellow believer? Do they have any news of your congregation? These questions fly throughout your mind, screaming to be heard. The servant is wearing a beige hood, concealing any facial features that you would be able to identify. The robe furthermore obscures the presence of any weapons that they may be hiding. For a quick moment your senses return and you realise the danger that you could potentially be in, but before you make it all the way towards him however, he holds up his hand, signalling for you to stop.

You’re about 3 paces away from him, is it to create a safety net around him or you? You open your mouth to speak but he quickly hushes you and motions for you to follow him as he walks deeper and deeper into the garden. You’re no longer thinking of the consequences and begin to follow him, the plants and vines covering the exit behind you. If you hadn’t known any better you’d have thought that you entered into a deep forest instead of a noble’s garden.

Eventually you reach a small clearing, small enough that any movements will be clearly noticeable, but large enough for you to stand apart from one another. Once you enter it the servant takes a final look around before removing his hood.

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“My name is Brother Martin. I am a believer of the Faith, much like you are Cassius. You have become quite the figure these past few days, and someone for those of us in hiding to look up to rather dearly.” At the mention of those sentences, you feel relief wash over you, purging your doubts and fears. The knowledge of being with an ally overwhelms you and your mind bursts with a variety of emotions. Martin notices the change in your expression from caution to unburdened relief and smiles warmly.

“You must have had it hard these past days. It’s okay, there are many other believers hidden in this city. We preach by night in the slave market, please believe me when I say that you’re our only hope of being able to spread the Word by daylight. Please, I have a mission for you, and it is of vital importance. We need you to obtain scriptures from smugglers outside the city. We’ve manage to convert a few people in secret, but without the scripture itself we can do little to solidify their belief. The people need a symbol of our faith and the scripture is the perfect way to present them with one. All you need to do is “patrol” a certain area by night-time and meet with our smugglers. There, they’ll hand you the scrolls and you can in turn hand them over to me or the nobles directly. Please, if this succeeds you will be able to accelerate the progress tenfold. Please, Brother Cassius, accept our plea.”

How do you respond?
>Accept the scriptures and hand the scripture to Brother Martin
>Accept the scriptures and hand them to the nobles directly
>Refuse
>Write-in

>>1695341
I should really check the images that I'm saving before I post them.

>>1695341
>Accept the scriptures
Don't know if Martin, is either telling the truth, or want to take the scripture from the outside to get rid of them before the Nobles have them.
This is our faith we're talking about, people will be against it, willing to spy within our ranks. Accept the Scriptures for now, but deiced later on who to hand them too.

>>1695372
This

>>1695398
>>1695372
>Accept the scriptures but decide who to hand it to later on

Writing

>Accept the scriptures, but keep hold of them
There are still too many questions you have regarding Brother Martin. You would want nothing more than to trust him and believe what he is telling you is the truth, but you mustn’t forget to be alert when you are in the heart of those who persecute you. Your excitement from earlier has died down and you’re finally regaining your senses. You look at Brother Martin, his face alone seem genuine and he would not appear out of place in a gathering of adherents, and you are eternally grateful to him for granting you that window of respite and alleviation of fears.

However, you wouldn’t make such a decision without knowing all of the details first.

“Of course Brother Martin. I will gladly accept becoming the holder of the scriptures. I will tell your contact who I’ll send the scriptures to.”

“Thank you! Thank you Brother Cassius! You have done our faith a great service today! The smuggler will be waiting by the Southern Gate tonight. By the road and in a window, he’ll be dressed in the same robe as I and will patiently await your arrival. Bless you Brother Cassius.” With that Brother Martin puts his hood back over his head and walks out of the garden. You decide to wait a few moments before following him out. For the rest of the patrol you continue reminding yourself over and over of where to go, lest you forget accidentally. You eventually regroup with the other recruits and begin walking back towards the barracks.

“I tell you, those nobles have it way too easy, sitting in their giant houses. Let’s give them jobs as guardsmen for a week and see how that changes their attitudes!” Lucian complains, kicking rocks and spitting on the side of the road.

“Honestly, it was your own fault for crossing that noble.” Junia replies, stifling her own laughter at the memory.

“I crossed him? You saw exactly what happened! He-“

“Sorry, you guys go on ahead. I’ve got something to do here tonight.” You try to not sound too out of the ordinary and walk away from the group. The Southern Gate, surprisingly no guards are present as you arrive.

“Good evening Brother Cassius.” A shrill voice comes from behind. You instantly turn around to face the figure of another priest in a beige robe. “I thank you for your courage in doing this, here are the scriptures. If you are to hand these to Brother Martin, then you need only return to the garden. There, place the scriptures under the stone pile. He will check that area daily until otherwise notified. If you are to hand them to the nobles, then they will be waiting in the house closest to the garden. Now go, before the guards arrive.” The smuggler hands you various scrolls and quickly closes the windows shut. With that, you have completely accepted the contraband into your possessions. For now, you’ll need a safe place to store them, until you can discover whose hands are safe and whose hands will betray you.

You check the scriptures to see if they are legitimate as you begin walking back to the barracks, and don’t detect anything aside from the proper verses. For your journey back you decide to stick to the shadows and the lonelier roads to avoid detection from anyone that might question your actions. However, in your decision you had failed to account for the general dangers of the night, and find yourself being called out by the second shrill voice of the night. Sloping figures begin to unveil themselves from the darkness, each holding with them no sense of weight as they flow back and forth.

“Heyyy. Mr guardsman, those’re quite the fancy things you’re wearing. Could you care to hand them all over?”

There are few torches on this road, and the moonlight is hidden by the clouds. Every detail of your assaulters are obscured by the night, but you can count all 4 of them.

Well, shit.

End of Episode 2

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Thanks for playing, that’s the end of the second part! If you have any questions, concerns or things you didn’t quite like feel free to let me know and I’ll try to fix them for next time.

>>1695633
When will you do episode 3? Maybe the pacing is a bit slow, if we have to get through 98 victories, at the current rate it'll take 2 threads for 1 battle.

>>1695667
I might do episode 3 sometime next week. Once I've finished establishing the main factions in the story and the different characters, I'll probably skip through some generic days as to ease hasten the pace.

Also, for the 100 victories, while it is possible to go through the remaining 98 matches normally with the week system, there will be opportunities where you'll be able to shorten your sentence by getting to know the right people and performing certain actions.

>>1695704
Also if the quest last long enough or it get real popular, after we're a free man the quest can follow us in life outside being a gladiator.

>>1695743
I've considered that and will probably go for it.

I might give a choice between leaving the country for good, and ending the quest, or staying to convert the entire country / a new motive.

>>1695791
Nice thread op