Episode 3.3.a
>Sextus's Villa, Pompeii, Italy, 79 CE<
The tablīnum comes back. Sextus is watching you with an expression of quiet satisfaction.
"Well done," he says. "Priamus is alive, and the Lapis is in good hands. Better than most, anyway." He pauses. "Hercules is difficult. I have always found Hercules difficult."
He stands and crosses to a small chest near the wall. He counts out coins and holds them toward you: twenty dēnāriī, the silver bright in the afternoon light.
"Your clothes are a disgrace," he says pleasantly, "and you are going to need proper equipment before long. Go to the forum. Buy what you need." He gestures toward the door. "Location V on your map. You know the way."
The streets of Pompeii are warm and unhurried. You are perhaps halfway to the forum when a man steps into your path and stops.
He is well-dressed, or was: the cloth is good, but there is blood on his tunic, dark and not entirely dry, spread across the left side in a way that is hard to account for from a fall. He is holding himself carefully. His eyes are clear and his voice is steady.
"Thank the gods," he says. "I'm a merchant. A farmhand attacked me out in the fields, no reason, just set on me. I need help."
He is watching your face while he speaks.
Prompt: Decide whether or not to help the merchant. Look at him carefully first: a man this bloodied, with this story, may not be telling you everything.
