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[Spiderking50]

Borinus goes to the Scrinium Barbaorum to ask around about positions while his older brother tries to see if he can get reinstated into the Navy.

[Ghazkull]

Sidonius

[26-10 ugly] Indeed you can see the Megas Domestikos on the raised balconies for important imperial functionaries. As you approach him you come however into an altercation with two Suebis ending in a loud brawl between you and them. Before you know whats going on you suddenly find yourself in the middle of a Wagon Race Riot.

Reds are flooding all over the place fighting with the Personal Guards of the Emperor and the Higher Functionaries. A hit in the back of the had has you stumbling around dazed, blood running out of your nose...how...?

Fretum

You quickly leave the Hippodrome the moment you notice that the Reds are suddenly going wild. Even as you try to leave you can see that they have stormed the tracks and are falling over the blue and white drivers. Iesu Kristo...they are killing the men.

You storm out of the hippodrome and wait a few days...apparently the riot had been a minor one, but a sign of the pressure under which the City is.

Your brother makes his way to the Scrinium Barbaorum for a job. [74] And indeed they offer a job as agentes. They even allow him to choose a deployment Area of his choice.

[51+20 Old Hand] Meanwhile you have met with Kentarchos Decius, who after putting in a good word got you indeed a job, no two jobs in fact. Either Kentarchos on a Navy Ship or a Job as Kentarchos for a private shipping guild. Apparently the latter pays well and several very important people have money invested in that.

Ophidopherus

After having garnered the information you want, you leave the Hippodrome just as on the other side of the stadium you see people fighting each other...another riot.

[88+20 well connected] You request an audience with the Logothetes tou Stratiotikou and soon enough you are sitting in the waiting room before his office. And there you wait...almost an hour before you finally ask a secretary what is taking so long. The slave immediately goes to look for her master and opens the door to his room, screaming she stumbles out and you find yourself stumbling in. [75-20 Coward] You barely hold your place as you stare at the Logothetes hanging from the rafters where he has hanged himself. Barely able to get your reasoning together you send away the slave to get help.

You find a large number of reports strewn about the table. You should have about ten or fifteen minutes before somebody arrives.

___________________

[Ardas]

Blast! If there ever was a reason why Sidonius hated the Hippodrome, here it was. He could try to rally the rabble to give the guard a bloody nose in return, but it was not worth the arrest and torture later on, even a nobleman like himself could find himself a head shorter. It was time to squeeze out and leave.

An alternative was to speak to someone who was in charge of the money - if you want to get to the source, find the one who is paying everyone.

Visit Logothetes tou Stratiotikou in his office.

[Iituem]

"Oh shit."

Ioannes wastes half a minute staring at the gently rotating corpse hanging from the rafters before getting his wits together.  Crushed as it is by terror, the greedy heart of opportunity still beats.  He closes the office doors, shakily pours himself a heavy goblet of wine from the Logothete's decanter and drains it.  Then another.  Then half a third.  He grimaces.

By God, what on earth was he drinking?  Posca?  My ass drinks better than this, and he's dead!

Nevertheless, the shaking in his hands dies down.  He gathers the papers quickly on the desk, pulls up the Logothete's chair and assumes a position with the dead man above and behind him, in order to get the horrifying visage out of sight until a slave arrives to clear it.  He begins taking quick stock of the situation of the Stratiotikou until the door opens.

Sidonius, were he to open the door now, would be greeted by the sight of a grossly obese man sat on a creaking chair before a desk of neatly organised papers, a slightly less corpulent and black-faced man hanging from the rafters behind him.

Running on sheer nerve, Ioannes looks up with the calmest expression the two and a half cups of wine can afford him, trying to keep the tremor out of his voice.

"Good afternoon.  Do excuse the mess, recent change of position.  Basileos' disfavour and all that.  How can I help you today?"

[micelus]

((Oooh so events are progressing without me ))

If I'm able to do actions in the past:

Attempt to chat up the Metropolitan and imply that the Grafeas are willing to help the Metropolitan with anything he needs. Also imply that in return, we simply want any family members to be looked well upon by the church.

If not:

And of course, the Greeks once again ruin their own games. Bah!


Without many options, Zachary attempts to leave the Hippodrome, tailing the Metropolitan as he does so. If the clergyman gets into any trouble, try to defend him.

((would rp,but unsure if I'm able to do the first action))

[Ghazkull]

Grafeas

[30] As you try and engage the Metropolitan into a talk you are interrupted by the outbreak of the riot. In panic the man flees and you desperately try to follow him. [30 +10 Tall] Despite your far longer legs you lose him in the masses...these barbaric greeks.

[micelus]

A pittance.

The Greeks were...an interesting people. True, they were not the most...entertaining but to call them barbarians would be far too much of an insult. After all, they were fellow Christians (if the wrong kind) and surely followed similar customs pertaining to churches. As such, with all the dignity a gamber's grandson could muster, he fled to the Hagia Sofia to wait out the riot.

Flee to the Hagia Sofia and talk to anyone else taking refuge there. Try and see if there are any merchants/traders/Jews/important clergy around. If so, engage them in conversation about very recent (i.e the riots) events.

[Ardas]

Sidonius was left speechless and for a long moment stared at the fat man and the body that gently swayed from side to side as it swung on the rope.

"You... him.... what?"

This clearly was not a normal situation and anyone who was sane would run. As it happened, a temporary madness overtook Sidonius, who approached with quick steps to the table and looked at the man sitting in Logothete's chair.

"I need information on northern themes - Illyria, Thracia, what have you. Is there anything here, or should  I ignore that I was ever here and leave?"

[Iituem]

"Ah, of course.  Do excuse me, I've just been looking over the foreign reports.  This will just take a few minutes."

Rifle through the papers in search of information on Illyria, Thracia and so on.

[Iituem]

Ioannes stares at his papers in disbelief.  He turns around a map, where you can see Thracia has "Barbaroii" crudely drawn on it in crayon, and Cherson has a similar scrawl saying "Scythoii".

"Well, if he hadn't taken the liberty himself, I would have had my predecessor hanged for his incompetence.  He seems - sorry, seemed - to believe Illyria was part of Francia, despite that realm dissolving nearly a century ago." Ioannes massages his temples for a moment and drains the half-cup of posca.  "Well, until I send some men up there to investigate, the best I can tell you is that we don't own them."

[Ardas]

"You aren't really a new Logothetes, are you?"

This was an understatement, instead of a question, even if it was a rethorical one. Recent purges seemed to leave the entire system out of balance and if one could just wander in to become a Logothetes...

"It's probably not important anyway..." Sidonius stroked his beard for a brief moment, pondering what to do next - scarce time, a total stranger and a hanging imperial official, this was not an everyday chance.

"If there's a seal or a stamp somewhere, I'll need a letter for the northern and western themes - or whatever is left of them. I need authority for raising of levies, emergency taxes in kind and coin, the likes."

I doubt that any of the tagmata know what's happening outside of the capital, I doubt they will care until it gets to them...

[Ghazkull]

Just at this moment a Squad of Athanatoii and Varangians followed by a Doctor and the slave from earlier enter the room.

The Dctor declares the Logothetes dead and the Athanatoii start questioning you while the Varangians seem to keep an eye on the Athanatoii...very odd.

[Iituem]

Ioannes winks at Sidonius before the Varangians arrive. "Not in the slightest, I just found the man dead and started trying to get the information I was after myself.  I'm not sure he could even have granted you the permissions you needed." Ioannes looks up at the opening doors.

"Ah, about time."  Ioannes stands up and brushes his copious clothes off.  "The Logothetes has been murdered, and his slave will confirm my arrival after the fact.  If you examine the neck, here, you will find evidence of the assassin's attack, concealed by the rope.  I believe it to be the work of foreigners, and would very much like to know how said assassin crept in here right under your noses."

[Ghazkull]

The Athanatoii look up suddenly and very sharply at your comments. The Varangian Sergeant seems very intrigued by your comment.

After all the Athanatoii and the Frumentarii are in direct opposition.

"You and you. Both of you come with me." He points both at Sidonius and Ioannes. In short order you, the Athanatoii and the Varangians find themselves in the Throne Room of his Imperial Majesty.

The Varangian steps forward. "Your Highness it is indeed as you have said, there is scheming afoot. This one," he points at Ioannes. " can prove it."

Grafeas

[20] You hide in the Hagia Sophia but all you find are hundreds and thousands of people of common birth, it is night impossible to get past them and you spent the rest of the day in the massive Cathedral before you finally manage to get out again and home. By that time the riots have petered out.

[Iituem]

Ioannes performs suitably obsequious genuflections to the Emperor.

"Your Imperial Highness, I arrived for my appointment with the Logothetes to find him apparently hanged, a supposed suicide.  With no obvious second in command to delegate to, I took it upon myself to familiarise myself with his last work, to aid the transfer of responsibility to the next Logothetes.  The latest reports indicated significant hostile foreign activity to the far west, beyond Iberia, in addition to the typical hostilities surrounding our great and glorious Empire.  This raised suspicions on my part, and I realised that the Logothetes had been murdered by some sort of stone blade which left a chip in the wound, carefully concealed by the hanging.  I can infer that this must have happened between this morning and half an hour ago, as when I arranged my appointment he was still presumably alive to make it.  The lack of a good steel blade points to barbaroii, no doubt scrabbling for what weapons they can hack out of the dirt."