Episode 6.3.a
>Outside Stabiae, Italy, August 79 CE<
You are back in Sextus's villa, but Sextus is not smiling now. He is anxious.
"We have to go," he says.
"While you were asleep, I was reading. I found a book. Another of the Aemiliani wrote it, many years ago. Gaius Cilnius Maecenas sent men of the Society to Stabiae. Why? I don't know. Maybe there is another inscription at Stabiae. We have to go and look."
He stops, and he looks up at Vesuvius. You look too.
Vesuvius has stood quiet above Pompeii for as long as anyone can remember. It is not quiet now. Smoke is rising from the mountain into the sky, black and high.
"Pompeii is not safe any longer," says Sextus. "We have to get out of Pompeii. Right now."
You run through the streets of Pompeii with Sextus. People are shouting. Women are holding their children. Shopkeepers are shutting their stalls. Others just stand and stare at the mountain and do not move at all. The ground shakes under your feet.
Stabiae is a small town down by the sea. When you reach it, the forum is empty. The sailors have already fled. The forum lies open under Vesuvius, and the smoke now stands over everything.
Sextus unrolls his charta and sets it against the stones of the forum, matching it to the words of the Herculaneum inscription copied there. Then he shouts. "There!"
He calls you over and points to a place on the stone. You see a mark, gleaming, nitidus: a sign you have never seen the like of. Three arrows are cut into the stone. They all point down toward the earth, but each one points a different way.
Below the arrows is an inscription:
INFOROSTABIAENECESSEESTVOBISQUAERERE
Sextus is quiet. Then he speaks, and his voice is grave.
"It is a trap. The Societas Potentium wants nothing but harm. They hide the road to the Lapis, because they want power, and they want everyone to love power.
"Have you ever heard of the optimātēs and the populārēs? The optimātēs are the nobles and the rich, who would keep power in the hands of a few. The populārēs are friends of the people, who would give power to everyone. The Society hates the populārēs and loves the optimātēs.
"We have to strike at the Society. But be careful: they want to make us into copies of themselves. They want to pull us in."
Prompt: While you interpret the arrows, and attempt to follow their instructions, assure Sextus that you understand his concerns about the SP.
