Blood and Laurels

This is a story made with Versu, a choice-based engine presenting play through interaction between player characters and non-player characters (NPCs); the social element of the gameplay results in something more akin to interactive drama than interactive fiction. It is primarily concerned with schemes and background power plays in the milieu of Imperial Rome, circa 68 A.D., at the end of Nero's reign. The player controls poet Marcus, who needs to satisfy a demand made of his patron Artus to consult an oracle. How he obtains the information sought by the patron, whose assistance he employs, and to what underhanded lengths he goes to achieve it -- not limited to blackmail, seduction, and outright violence.