[OL-TC2A] Morituri te salutant

[Keymonus]

The Labyrinth, El Oleonda, May 624

Spoiler

Ghostly voices

Down below

A suspicious jungle stroll

The mouth of the Emperor

The City of the Dead

Shadows of a distant past

The Carnite guy, Konrad, spent two days between life and death. He didn't seem to have eaten or drunk anything in several days, and was feverish from an infected wound. Tristan had little hope for recovery, but the young man surprised everyone: his fever decreased, and he soon regained consciousness. After a few more days, he could even walk with a little help.
Despite the gratitude, Konrad remained extremely vague about the original purpose of his expedition. In return, he talked widely about the mysterious Chiffre: at first, the Carnites had mistaken it for a Lotii military cipher, but it was soon clear that the object was far more ancient and fascinating. Despite the appearance, that little gold cylinder was a sort of map of the New Haven Seas and beyond. The first and last disc seemed to represent the start and destination points; the ones in the middle indicated the relative distance and direction of the two points. Tristan was utterly impressed by the complexity of the mechanism, and even more by the level of knowledge owned by its mysterious builders.
Whoever had lived on El Oleonda, whoever had built the Labyrinth, had also traveled across the whole archipelago before disappearing from history: Tristan recognized clear references to Cascadia (the little jaguar) and Ile Dyonisus (the crocodile), but completely deciphering the object would have taken weeks. It was clear, however, that the cipher exceeded the Madrician knowledge of New Haven Seas, with several symbols falling East or South of Noveau Oleandia, far out of the most recent maps! Before trying to sail towards the Rising Sun, the Flower, or the Idol's Mask, however, Tristan and his men still had a little priority: leaving those damned ruins. Alive, if possible.

The last point, at the moment, didn't seem particularly easy: heading towards the Southern Coast, Tristan's unit had to cross a dangerous choke point between some cliffs and a large Daca village. One wrong move, and dozens of warriors would have soon come for their heads. The soldiers marched forward as quietly as they could, sometimes mumbling swift prayers to Artemis or Poseidon. None of the gods seemed particularly inclined to oblige, however, since a twice damned Lotii patrol suddenly appeared among the ruins.

The Lotii seemed as surprised as the Oleonese soldiers. For a moment, everybody froze. Tristan could almost hear the thoughts of the enemy commander: he knew, or imagined that the blue barbarians were probably in the Labyrinth for his same reason; he had met them as they were trying to leave the ruins, meaning that they had found what they were looking for; he knew he had to stop them, at any cost. But he also knew how close the Daca village was, and how bad could be facing dozens of their warriors. Indeed, nobody had shot his musket... not yet.

Tristan brought a finger to his lips, gesturing for silence. Then, he slowly put his pistol on the ground and unsheathed his sword. The Lotii commander nodded and did the same, soon imitated by the soldiers of both sides.
It would have ended that way, then. No muskets, cannons, or ordered formations: only sword against sword, warrior against warrior, as in the legends about the heroes of the past. Seen in that way, it didn't seem a bad conclusion for his story, if things had gone wrong.

Tristan looked around. If they had been in the Old World, that place could have been one of the ancient arenas, where prisoners were forced to fight for the amusement of the noblemen. Maybe it was something similar, or maybe not... but in a few steps, the Oleonese and the Lotii would have been at a sword distance, and the fight to the death would have begun. At this point, the ancient gladiators would have yelled "morituri te salutant" to the Emperor, right before trying to butcher one another.  That day there wouldn't have been any salute... but if the ancient inhabitants were still watching from the other side, they would have surely seen one last, glorious show. 

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Note: As my story gets closer and closer to its conclusion, also the time to the deadline is starting to run short. I hope you'll enjoy this part and the next one (that hopefully will be out tomorrow), even if I had to overpack them with way too much story for such small builds.
Just to clarify, "morituri te salutant" (meaning "those about to salute you) was the classic salute of gladiators to the organizer of their "games", even if it's more a historical fiction trope than a real thing. The idea of the silent fight that is going to happen here, instead, is a sort of reference to a similar scene of the movie Kingsmen: the Origins (where the problem is represented by WWI machine guns, and not by angry natives).

[NOD]

The building's architectural style could have been an arena. At the top is the grandstand and the gate was for the gladiators. I hope Tristan and his people win the fight and don't make too much noise so that the warriors come.

The Chiffre is an interesting and valuable discovery. Cascadia Zone 35 and Ile Dyonisus Zone 51. Once the map has been fully identified, it will be helpful in discovering new, previously unknown lands.

[Khorne]

Great job on the architecture and also on the purist tetsubo. Interesting build, haven't seen one made like that before.

[Ross Fisher]

I'm loving the way youre developing this storyline. I hope you can finish it in time!

[Keymonus]

On 8/7/2024 at 3:51 PM, NOD said:

The building's architectural style could have been an arena. At the top is the grandstand and the gate was for the gladiators. I hope Tristan and his people win the fight and don't make too much noise so that the warriors come.
The Chiffre is an interesting and valuable discovery. Cascadia Zone 35 and Ile Dyonisus Zone 51. Once the map has been fully identified, it will be helpful in discovering new, previously unknown lands.

Thank you! I managed to answer when my storyline was already completed, so you know how things have ended! Don't take the sea zones too literally, but I wanted places with highly recognizable symbols allowing to point to places out of the map... I have no clue whether these lands might exist, or if they are just blank spots in the MRCA map have been destroyed by the ancient cataclysims too.

On 8/10/2024 at 1:17 PM, Khorne said:

Great job on the architecture and also on the purist tetsubo. Interesting build, haven't seen one made like that before.

Thank you! An arena was in a corner of my mind since a long time, even if I had thought of placing it in New Oleon or in a nearby state... who knows, maybe in the future...

On 8/10/2024 at 1:48 PM, Ross Fisher said:

I'm loving the way youre developing this storyline. I hope you can finish it in time!

Thanks!