Episode 2.1.a
>Caecilius's Villa, Pompeii, Italy, 79 CE<
It is morning in Caecilius's villa. The sun is already climbing, and the kitchen smells like something just went wrong with breakfast.
Euphorbus the cook is beaming at the small table in the middle of the kitchen, holding out a small wooden bowl. In it are several pears. They are hard and noticeably green.
"The pears," he announces proudly, "are perfect today."
They are not perfect. They are not even close to ripe. Euphorbus seems deeply satisfied with them regardless.
He sets the bowl down and leans against the wall. "Sextus wants to see you. Didn't say why, but he was very clear it was important. It probably is. Everything with Sextus is important."
You make your way out into the streets of Pompeii. It is a busy morning: merchants calling out to each other, women at the fountain, a cart trying to force its way through a crowd that has no interest in moving. The sun is getting higher.
Sextus's villa is not far. He opens the door himself before you have finished knocking.
"Come in," he says. "I have something large to tell you today."
In the atrium he turns to face you. He is nitidus, as always: that quality of light around him that you have stopped trying to explain.
"Today," he says, "you will play the first Fabula Lapidis."
You look at him. Fabula Lapidis: a Story of the Stone. He reads the question on your face and reaches into his tunic. In his open palm is a small preparation, a medicāmen, and it catches the light the same way Sextus does.
"The Demiurge gives this to the Soldiers of the Lapis, the Milites Lapidis," he says. "You are Soldiers of the Lapis. It will keep you safe. You need to take it. Quickly, now."
You reach out and take the glowing medicāmen in your hand. You swallow the pill and suddenly everything around you begins to glow. Everything begins to come apart. Then there is nothing: empty space, dark as the inside of a closed fist.
>Unknown Location, Inside the Fabula Lapidis<
Light comes back slowly. Your Recentius is standing on open ground at the foot of an enormous cliff. Above it, a mountain. The scale of everything is wrong in a way that is hard to name.
A figure stands on the cliff. The area is vast and restless, with storm clouds gathering around him. He is laughing.
"That is Jupiter," Sextus says, "king of the gods." He is standing beside you at the base of the cliff, small and as calm as a peaceful summer morning. "You and I are down here. Jupiter is up there."
Far off, the sound of a battle reaches you. Not the sound of swords and shields: the sound of the universe breaking. The ground shakes under your feet. The sky tears open and heals itself.
"The Olympians are fighting the Titans," Sextus says. "This is the Titanomachy. You may take a side. Choose anyone you like, except Jupiter and Saturn. They are off limits."
Prompt: Choose any character at the Titanomachy except Jupiter and Saturn: another Olympian, a Titan, a monster, or even a bystander. Attack an appropriate opponent. Embellish freely.
