Talk:This is Madness! Chapter I: Roma Delenda Est (Map Game)/@comment-24521219-20200229075716

Queen Christina
November 1st, 476 AD: Something most strange has occurred. I retired to bed in the Tre Kronor Castle like always and I've woken up somewhere else. All I possess is this journal, ink and quill and the literature on mathematics and alchemy I've been studying. To my knowledge, the environment I've arrived in seems Mediterranean and I am to believe I may have been transported to a different time period, possibly to the time of the Roman Empire, judging by the archaic technology I have witnessed. This may be somewhere in Italy, but the people do not speak Latin, at least not most of them, my knowledge of the German language leads me to believe their tongue might be Germanic but I am unsure. I worry over the Kingdom, as I am not there to rule and I've ended up in this strange predicament before my plans of abdication could be fulfilled, hopefully cousin Charles will take matters into his own hands as I had planned. Now that I attempt to find more information, I do miss my dear Ebba, she will most definitely miss me.

November 6th, 476 AD: I seem to have managed to be able to speak to some of the locals using Latin, they have very much noticed my luxurious appearance and are most likely just as confused as I am. Though I have managed to figure out that I find myself in the city of Syracuse, currently ruled by someone by the name of "Gaiseric". I must have arrived here at some point before or after or possibly even during the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Though my skills of the local language is not that good as I am sometimes met with laughs or confused faces when speaking, I appear to have made friends with a few citizens. We are mostly only capable of speaking through bits of Latin and crude sign language although it seems to go rather well. I've tried explaining what I believe has occurred to me but to no real avail. It is however good that I have made these contacts, I am ever thankful for having a place to stay, especially as some of the locals have given hostile looks at me, I have a strange feeling they may think I am some Roman official due to my dress or perhaps they want to attack and steal from me as conversations I have had indicate that these people and their realm live at least partially off of piracy and other forms of raiding. I still worry over the conditions of Sweden without its queen, as well as the state of my near and dear, I am afraid I must accept that I live in the days after the fall of Rome from now on.

November 15th, 476 AD: By my personal accounts I have lived in Syracuse for two weeks now and I've built a bit of a reputation. I now know this Germanic tongue to a certain degree and have made contact with more individuals that I spend my days with regularly, however the rest of Syracuse constantly looks on at our group, especially myself, with suspicion. I am to believe that rumors are being spread and that my presence in Syracuse has been notified to King Gaiseric or at least to the capital of these people, whom I am believe to be known as "the Vandals". Nevertheless I have much interest in leaving soon enough, my mere presence seems to not be tolerated by some of the locals as well as the city garrison and I wish to travel to Rome. If I must live in this time period for the rest of my years, it doth as well be good if I see something with my own eyes.

December 4th, 476 AD: I have not written in the journal for a while. Currently I reside in a small village outside of what must be Palermo, it's quite the lengthy story of how I ended up here. Only five days had passed after my last entry when it happened, I and my group of acquaintances were simply out walking as usual in the square when we were approached by several members of the city garrison, they explained that I and several of the friends I was with were to be arrested and brought forth before Gaiseric to be prosecuted, I didn't exactly understand what the reasons for that was but I believe I caught the Vandal word for "witchcraft". Things went by incredibly quickly so I am incapable of recalling everything completely. Now I definitely had the interest to meet the king of these people himself but the look on the faces of the guards and their sharp hands ready to grip the weapons by their side at any point worried me. Wisimund, a smith who was one of the first people to take me in upon my arrival stood up to me and within the next few minutes there was a fight. I attempted to stay out of the hostilities but was forced to strike one guard who attempted to grab me by my shoulder. Our group overran the guards and we realized we had to flee. Wisimund guided us through alleyways out of the city, we had managed to escape, from what we saw not many would know where we went. Our group of 23, including me hid in an abandoned farmhouse for the following three days. It is here that we started discussing what to do next. A decision was made, with the Vandals looking for us, mainly myself, and my desire to visit Rome, we would attempt to flee there.

Out of us 23, only 14 agreed on this entire plan, others saw it as too risky and decided to stay behind. On the day that would be June 13th 1654 we left for a village close to Palermo, Wisimund explained that he knew of a man named Gunteric, a sailor and friend of his who might be able to help us in our escape to Rome. During the travels to Palermo Wisimund and the others spoke to me, about how if my explanation of this strange transportation through history was true, I had brought them knowledge and information about the future, which is obviously completely unknown to these people and thus we had potential to change the course of history itself. I was intrigued yet slightly worried at the same time, the events that now could unfold most likely has consequences on the future. Several scenarios flew through my mind, many of which pictured a world where my homeland would be decimated and plagued with extreme poverty and starvation or a world without Sweden at all. I still have much to learn however and my friends told me that due to being from "the future" so to speak and being a queen, I would lead this group. Amusingly they even had a faux-ceremony of declaring that I was their queen. Not long after this did we arrive in the village (otl Isnello) and since then we have been hiding as Wisimund has attempted to convince Gunteric to help us in this debacle. I still miss Ebba, as well do I also worry about the state of my realm now that I am not there, perhaps I will never know, which saddens me. I watch as the rain falls outside right now, hopefully we will succeed in arriving in Rome.