Play@YSDC

Forum Romanum- Rome, Italia
Mid-Morning, March 15, 44 BC

The sun was shining brightly on the great Forum of Rome. It felt like their heads had only hit their pillows a moment ago, yet here they were. Germanicus strode through the street, Claudius lapping at his heels like a faithful, ugly dog. Caelia Alba was here as well, as were Titus Iunius Philo, Decius Lupus, and Aricus Callidus Gladio. Septimus, the elderly augur, was there too. There were great crowds of people, but their faces seemed indistinct.

Caelia looks around and at herself. She is wearing a bright yellow stola and palla and a slightly ridiculous headress of yellow and gold flowers. She certainly stands out from the rest of the crowd. Caelia spots Septimus and Germanicus. "Septimus! You are well?" Caelia is amazed. "Quick, can I help you; we must hurry if we are to keep up with Germanicus!" She takes the old man by his arm and hurries after the striding senator. She keeps glancing at the old seer, wondering how he can look so hearty.

Titus has often had the experience of knowing that he is dreaming. He also knows that some dreams are meaningful and some are not. Whether this dream has passed through the gate of ivory or the gate of horn is difficult to say. In either case, the best thing to do would be to follow the wise Septimus and find out what he, or his dream image, has to say.

Claudius trots along after Germanicus, wondering where they are all going now. He picks up the anxious mood emanating from the other members of the party, and hopes that there won’t be trouble. Well, at least not for him.

"Look lively, Claudius, the Ides of March are upon us. Let's go to the Theatre of Pompey Magnus and meet with Caesar."


Germanicus strode on with the grace of his station and smiled benignly at the faceless crowds.

Septimus shuffled along as best he could, guided by Caelia. "This has happened before," he intoned. "It will happen again."

As the group approached the entrance to the Theatre of Pompey, several Senators fled from the building, clad in white togas with broad purple stripes. "Murder!" shouted one, a horrified expression on his face. "Caesar is slain!"

"Gods! No! Slain already? While I slept!" Caelia is mortified and falls to her knees. "We have failed. No wait, maybe I can do something." She leaps up and calls to the others, "Help me find Caesar; maybe he is only wounded - I can help him!"

Titus rushes to guide and aid Caelia as best as he can. If this is a true vision of the future, perhaps he can learn something to prevent it.

Titus and Caelia could not get through the rush of Senators and assorted others fleeing the Theatre of Pompey. Everyone was rushing in the other direction, and nobody else was trying to go towards it. "Stay back!" shouted one man as he barrelled past. "They have knives!"

"Not again," moaned Septimus, clutching his chest. "I have failed again. Why must I always fail?" Then his eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed.

Germanicus's heart sinks as he tries to navigate the throng of fleeing senators.
"Knives!? Weapons in the Senate! What is this barbary?"

Seeing his attempts to enter rather fruitless, he grabs the shoulder of a passing man.

"What is this talk of knives? Who is attacking Rome?"

"Titus, Help me!" Caelia reaches back for Septimus and tries to protect him from the trampling feet of the senetors as he falls. "Ye Gods, Septimus you silly old fool! Why didn't you stay in bed?" She exclaims angrily. "I can't understand why he's here, walking around; he nealy died from a heart attack yesterday. Actually no, he did die but then somehow he came back to life again; it was a miracle." She says to Titus.
"Two heart attacks in two days." She shakes her head. "Here, help me carry him to the side; Caesar will just have to wait a minute."

"I know not!" wailed the random man Germanicus had seized.

Titus helped Caelia move the fallen Septimus out of the rushing crowd. Once she had a chance to examine him, she could see that he was no longer breathing. His heart had stopped again.

Germanicus was unsure what frustrated him the most, that he could not advance to where he wanted to go, or that the cream of Rome was stampeding around like a horde of unkempt Germans. This was the cancer at the heart of the Republic. The senators were no longer decent men who respected and upheld the mos maiorum, the traditions of the ancestors, they were cowards and lickspittles.

Looking around for a moment, he walks up one step and then empowers his voice with the experience of his years of military command.

"I am senator Tiberius Germanicus of the Tulii. You will move out of my way and allow me passage into the Senate for I swear to the Furies that I will personally tear asunder any man that dares block my path. "

Persuade 60%,[dice]0[/dice]

Caelia attempted first aid on the old man but it didn't look hopeful.

firstaid,(70%) roll: 76

Nothing Caelia could do was any help to Septimus, though he did at least have a smile on his face and seemed at peace at long last. He was dead, and this time he remained that way.

Germanicus gave a stirring oration to the crowd, which stopped panicking and came to its senses, Senators and commoners alike. They scattered before him, but no sooner had they done so than another large group of Senators emerged from the Theatre of Pompey. There were more than twenty of them, and they walked slowly, deliberately. As they got closer, everyone could see that they had blood on their hands. "People of Rome!" they shouted. "We are once again free!" They were met with silence, for the crowd was now gone.

Germanicus stares aghast at the blood on the Senators' hands and for a moment he feels the world fall from under him.
It couldn't be, it shouldn't... and yet he knew it was. The Pillar of Rome had fallen. It was the end of the Republic.

He looks at the murderers' face, committing them to memory and is then seemingly startled by a strange sensation on his cheeks. He lifts his hands up to brush it off, only to look in awe at the tears sticking to his fingers.

"Claudius", he whispers. "Take Caelia Alba in via the maintenance entrance around back. See what can be done, and see that you get his body out of there."

He then takes a few steps towards the murderers and raises his right fist with extended index and little finger.
Looking at them with a cold hatred in his eyes, Germanicus his left hand to his mouth and bites it deeply, the blood on his lips and teeth as he speaks.

"By Juno, I curse you. While you live you will be haunted by the vileness of your deeds and will find peace no more in this life or hereafter. Fruit will wither where you walk and all things joyful to you will turn to ashes.
In death your names will live on in infamy and the centuries will remember you as the traitorous dogs who brought down the greatest man of these days. I curse you."

Without a word Claudius turns and makes his way back to Caelia. He doesn't relish leaving his master to face all those knives but he won't disobey an order.

He approaches Caelia as she kneels with Septimus. "Lady Caelia! Please... Maybe we can help Caesar!"

Titus rushes to see if he can learn anything from the dream-Caesar's wounds. If from an animal, why not a man, even if it is only an illusion?

Caelia gently closes Septimus' eyes, "At least you are free of pain now, Septimus." She whispers; she is glad to see the smile on his face. She stands as the hunchback scuttles up. "Yes, let us make haste, Claudius!" And she scurries with him into the building.

Claudius leads Celia to the back of the building, and through the maintenance entrance described by Germanicus. He hopes that there won’t be any more of Caesar’s assailants – perhaps all the attention will be directed to the front of the building. He keeps his dagger in hand, concealed in the folds of his cloak.

The assassins left the Forum, ignoring Germanicus.

The light faded, and it soon became clear that the sun had gone dark. Titus did not need to be an augur to know that it was a bad sign. Even the sun was in mourning for Caesar's death. A comet streaked across the sky, symbolism of Caesar's fall that he could not miss. Lightning struck nearby, though there was not a drop of rain. The statues of gods in the Forum appeared to weep. The signs could not be more clear.

Claudius led Caelia and Titus around to the rear of the Theatre of Pompey and into the maintenance entrance. As they made their way through the building, two slaves came out of hiding and tagged along with them, one of them lighting a candle with a flint to provide light. It did not take them long to find Caesar's body; the drips of blood on the ground showed them the way. Caesar lay in a side chamber, his body covered in stab wounds from which blood had spilled. It did not take an expert to know he was dead. Titus counted the wounds and saw that Caesar had been stabbed 23 times, which he knew to be an ill-omened number. There were so many bad omens that he could not tell anything specific. It was as though he was trying to make out visual details when the light was blazing.

OOC,[b]Caelia[/b], if you wish to examine the body, please roll Medicine.

Germanicus watches on angrily as the men disappear and turns to look at the gaping entrance of the Theatre of Pompey. He does not want to go in, reluctant to see confirmed what he already knows is true.
Forced in by the weight of the ominous portents, he strides in, his head held high and his heart steeled, or so he hopes, for what he is about to see.

Caelia Alba kneels down over the body of the great man, tears rolling down her cheeks, falling and mixing with the blood in his wounds. She sits for a moment and then, hearing the rasping breath of the hunchback behind her, she too takes a deep breath and tries to look clinically at Caesar. She opens his eyelids, checks his mouth and tongue and examines the wounds.

Medicine,(65%) roll: 58

Germanicus found the others just as Caelia finished examining Caesar's body.

"We should make a litter to carry him," one of the two slaves said to the other. "We can use one of the benches." The two of them set to work.

Caelia Alba,[b]Caelia[/b] could see that most of the stab wounds had done only superficial or minor damage. Only one of the wounds, which had struck him in the chest and punctured his aorta, had been lethal. [b]Caesar[/b] had died from loss of blood.

Caelia sits back on her heels, her bright yellow toga now flecked with red. "Senator Germanicus, Titus, look; this is the single stab wound that killed him - straight into the heart. All these others are superficial, almost half hearted. He died from blood loss. I can't tell what sort of dagger killed him, whether it was the dagger or not. Did you see Scaevola amongst the fleeing senators?" She only now realises it has gone dark outside. "What's happened to the sun?" She says in alarm.

Germanicus's gaze is fixed on the bloodied corpse of friend.

"I can not recall, Caelia Alba, just like the fading light of Sol, my gaze is shrouded the death of a friend and the Republic."



"We should bear his body outside and present it at the Temple of Venus Genetrix."

The slaves finished creating their makeshift litter, and they respectfully placed Caesar's body upon it. Claudius helped them to bear it without being asked. As they walked outside and made their way to the Temple of Venus, Caesar's arm slipped over the edge of the litter and dangled down.

Germanicus stops the litter bearers and takes Caesar's hand, he pauses for a moment, almost as if to assert that the body is indeed losing its warmth and then places Caesar's hand on his unbeating heart.

"Carry on!"

Titus ponders what the falling of Caesar's arm might portend.

Claudius is extremely nervous as he carries Caesar's litter with the other slaves. "This day is not going to end well" he thinks.

The entourage continued across the Forum to the Temple of Venus Genetrix. As they walked, Caesar's arm once again slipped off of his chest and dangled over the side of the improvised litter. Titus knew it had to be a bad sign, but only one among many. When they entered the temple, a woman of astounding beauty dressed in the garb of a priestess of Venus met them. She look crestfallen when she saw the body of Caesar. "Alas, the rumors were true!" she said, tears in her eyes. "Woe unto us all!"

As she walks beside the litter, Caelia searches the sky. "Where is the sun? I'm sure it is only morning. Has Scaevola's prediction come true already and this is the end of days? Thoth and the Sphinx will now rule the world?" She is brought out of her reverie by the woman's voice. "Is this his mistress?" she wonders and then notes the lady's garb. "Yes it has happened. And we did not prevent it. she says simply and sadly.

OOC,Everyone is moving to the thread linked below.

Nightmarr