Polycarpus gives you a good wind to sail to Venice in a hurry. You have the location or at least a hunch on the location of Onesimus Ex Verditius town house. It seems to be in the rich part of the town.
Atlas will stay below decks. He has his cloak of preternatural growth and shrinking to reduce him to a more normal size.
Should I assume that you visit Onesimus?
Upon arrival at the docks, Atlas will send a sailor or other runner to find Onesimus' townhouse and request an appointment with Atlas ex Tremere and Caput ex Flambeau to discuss some business. Atlas thinks arriving unanounced and expecting an audience would probably be unwise, and instead thinks providing some notice might be best.
Nestor sends his apprentice to the scribe to learn some Artes Liberales.
He tells his familiar to stay back, but the bird disobeys him and sneaks aboard. Each evening he calls his wife using his enchanted device.
In Venice, he does some mundane shopping for the covenant first (glassware, whatever), and also suggests visiting the merchant that wanted to trade with the covenant.
ooc: I don't want to derail the plot: The merchant can always be traveling...
The deal with Venice is in place and there is no possibility to find the “prince of gold” for the moment. Perhaps he will come back in a later story…
Onesimus servants at the townhouse books an appointment with you and you are lucky enough to receive a appointment later that day.
Onesimus townhouse is a gaudy one, the floor in the entrance is made out of marble and statues and decorations made out of gold are everywhere. There is also a large collection of fine fabrics but is seems as if the person who placed them there doesn’t have the ability to combine colours and art with taste. His manservant shows you into the studio that is located further inside the house, through an hallway adjacent to the entrance hall. The studio is guarded by a stout door with many strange markings upon it. Inside you find a chamber with twelve display cases and the chamber is illuminated by magical light (small spheres that float though the air above, near the ceiling). Near the entrance there is a group of comfortable chairs and a table on which it stands a bottle of vine, a few glasses and a tray with all sorts of delicious foodstuff.
Onesimius is a seemingly young man (either that or a great skill with corpus magic) with sharp features and jet black hair. He is dressed in garments made out of golden brocade and from his belt small metal objects hang. Welcome here visitors from far. I am Onesimius Ex Verditius and welcome here. Take a seat. He geastures towards the furniture and you can see that on his right hand he wears a large golden ring with an abundance of gemstones.
"I am Atlas of Tremere, filius of Iaeptus." Atlas is in his cloak and even if he was asked to give it has not, so I can fit comfortably in the chairs. "My sodalis here is Nestor ex Miscelanea. You have a lovely home, and most unusual, I can't see any examples of your specialty." Atlas regards the Verditius coolly, trying to give him as much opportunity to speak about himself as he can. I style myself a bit of a sculptor. If he shows any interest, we'll engage in smalltalk of one artist to another.
Nestor, dressed as a Magister for the occasion, greets the Verditius with a humble smile and a few admiring words about the beauty of the house in his impeccable Latin. He speaks after Atlas, and is proud that he remembered Onesimus name (so he uses the name rather more often than strictly necessary).
His familiar doesn't accompany him.
ooc: Did we pass any Aegis?
No aegis.
I work with metal but to forge weapons and other items. I keep my items in my sanctum at most times. I had not the time to bring them here but this pendant is one of my finer works. Onesimus looses as pendant from his neck and offer it to you. It is a golden pendant shaped like a disc, depicting Hades on his throne. Help yourself to something to eat. He takes a glass of vine and offers to pour for his visitors. What brings my visitors to Venice?
Atlas will gratefully accept some wine. He'll try and observe him, get a better sense of him.
OOC: do we know that Verditius think that they retain ownership of items that have been sold to people who have died?
Folk Ken 1 + 0 + Die Roll 0, with a 7 on the botch check. So Atlas will assume he's speaking at his word.
Nestor realizes that Atlas and he should have come up with a strategy before confronting the Venetian, but silently hopes that his sodalis will stick to the simple truth.
He doesn't speak up himself, because he knows that he is not from a highly regarded house.
ooc: pls Jonathan, don't start any intrigues. There is little to be gained by playing games with Onesimus and much to be lost.
I'm going to be blunt. I am on this story, because I couldn't see Atlas participating effectively in the spirit/demon story. I don't understand why Nestor is here at all, considering his desire to keep the woman safe (especially around Kalliste, regardless of any promise he thinks she might've made, it's a bit naive to expect it be kept) and secondly because Nestor knows DEO, which Atlas doesn't know at all. Is Nestor better built for urban adventures? Almost certainly. Did Atlas have anything to do in the spirit/demon adventure (not that I could see, I could be wrong). I am content to let JeanMichelle have this story, I'd either try and help out Kalliste, or at least do what I can to back her up, to the best of my ability. That Caput, Nestor and Atlas are in this story and Kalliste is back at the covenant by herself seems wrong somehow.
Given that Nestor is here now, I'll let JeanMichelle have this story, if it can be reasonably assumed that I can be with Kalliste to try and help her out. Otherwise, based on JeanMichelle's tone and telling me how to act, Atlas will excuse himself and return to the ship and wait it out.
And just to be blunt, I did have a general plan, and no, JM, I wasn't planning intrigues. I don't really have the skill. My intrigues with your character about the apprenticeship problem was quite accidental. I had thought that given your scholarly presentation that you'd planned to do some original research on teaching Arts to more than one student at a time. That you'd thought about handling two apprentices at one time, you know, ahead of time.
Nestor excuses himself, returns home, collects his family and travels to Britain to escape the evil spirit.
ooc: Yes that means I retire from the game. I like the way Max handles game-mastering, but I don't feel like fighting my co-players every step of the way.
What fighting? Yes, I got in a dig against your rationale of putting Nestor in this story, you got a dig against me for starting intrigues, and acting as if I didn't have a clue. Seriously, tell me who started this particular "fight." So, you have a disagreement with someone you're playing a game with, and the way you resovle that is to take your marbles and go home?
Really, all I wanted was to be out of this story, since you were here. Atlas wouldn't leave everything regarding the spirt hanging on Kalliste, capable though she might be. Atlas was here because he had no idea that Nestor would be here! If Max is fine with it, Atlas is out of this story, and it's you and Caput.
Heck, I'll even leave the game, because my intent was not to drive you off, but to understand your rationale for your character, as I was explaining Atlas's rationale.
Sending this as PM to JeanMichelle, as well.
Well, two weeks is more than sufficient, I haven't heard back from JeanMichelle one way or another.
Atlas says, "We found some items of your making. One is a box and the other a dagger. What can you tell me about these items?"