Stories Thread

[everyone]

Spring 259
Shipwreck
(part of event 2)

A storm brews. a small fleet of the finest Punic warships were sailing along the Campanian coast. the fleet in its former greatness had been reduced to a pathetic state after a defeat by pirates. They had been ordered south to Sicily from Corsica to defend the former in case the Senate and People of Rome decides to search for the sanctuary where Ceres resides on the island, in the process capturing it.

The tempest whips up fiercest of winds; the Punic sailors on board the fleet pray to the omnipotent Baal to protect them, but either the deity appears to be deaf, or that they have sinned greatly and therefore he sent the storm to punish them.

The fleet was tossed off course by the storm, and had crashed onto an area of the Campanian coast. Authorities had been informed and people restricted from the area from the fear that the ships may be looted. The crew has been arrested under the pretext of them being spies; for the cities of Rome and Carthage are at war.

Consul Manius Claudius, deciding this to be a major case to examine; rides from his office in the Campus Martius in Rome, south to the site of the wreck....