Episode 6.3.b
>The Forum of Stabiae, Italy, August 79 CE<
The three arrows point to three corners of the forum. You go to each corner, and at each one you find a stone, hidden under the earth. On the back of each stone there are words.
Stone I:
We found the Lapis in Egypt. Cleopatra's ancestors gave the Lapis to her, and it delights the queen.
Stone II:
Are you looking for the Lapis? You have no sign, and you do not enter the chamber. Only the marked enter the chamber. We kill you, you who have no sign.
Stone III:
We live now in Egypt, under the earth. We came to Alexandria, and we found an ancient hollow. Long ago men set the Lapis in this place, and now we keep our power in the Lapis.
Then you hear a voice behind you. You know the voice. And again that bad feeling comes, the long sick sense of something falling.
"Don't tell me you're giving up? Good. This place is finished. Was it a sign you wanted? Haven't you done enough? You'll have to find Sinistrus in Britain."
It is Sinistrus. But Sextus does not see him. Sextus turns, looks around, sees no one.
Sinistrus is looking only at you. The smile on his face is not a charming one anymore.
"I told Caecilius: run. He didn't run."
Silence. Caecilius. Caecilius, who was pouring you wine an hour ago. Caecilius, who believed he was a servant of Caesar.
Then Sinistrus is gone.
[DEMIURGE ONLINE DEMIURGE ONLINE DEMIURGE ONLINE]
Operatives, Mission Control reports that error-state 1298B has returned, and that it is now much more destabilizing. Mission Control cannot see you on our tracking tool, but we also cannot extract you at this time. We are reasonably sure that if your Recentius should die in the eruption, we can resurrect him or her. Please stand by.
[DEMIURGE OFFLINE]
Ash is falling from the sky. Small stones are falling with it. The sky has gone black.
Sextus shouts. "To the shore! To the sea! Now!"
You run through the streets of Stabiae toward the water. When you reach the shore, an old man comes toward you through the smoke. There is a pillow tied on top of his head.
"What are you doing, you fools?" the old man shouts. "Come with me!"
He leads you to a place on the shore where other people are sitting. Every one of them has a pillow on their head. The old man gives pillows to you too, and you sit down with the others on the shore.
The old man can barely breathe. But he wants to speak.
"The Society... P-pote... Potentium..."
You listen.
"...tricked me... I came from Misenum. The Lapis..."
You want to take the old man by the shoulders and tell him not to die for your sake. You hold the urge down.
"The Lapis..."
It is rising again, though, that urge.
"The Lapis... to Egypt..."
He does not move again.
Prompt: Stand by.
