Take the Lord's room.

As tempting as both the women are, you need time to clean yourself, rest and think. You push open the doors to the nobleman's room and enter a small waiting room with doors to the right, left and an open arched doorway leading to a bedroom.

The bed chamber is dominated by a massive four-post bed draped with a sky-blue silken canopy. A desk and chair are set against the wall to catch the light from the window and a rack filled with scrolls. Through the open doorway you see a balcony overlooking the atrium with a marble bench perfect for sitting and watching the sun set. Covering most of the floor is a mosaic of a giant bull, the artistry is outstanding, and the tiny tiles include back marble, gold and even two rubies for the eyes of the bull. The walls of the bedroom are covered with painted murals from ancient legends. Like the decorations you saw downstairs, the main themes all involve beautiful maidens in peril. Andromeda chained to the rock awaiting the sea monster, Europa with her tunic torn open and Zeus in bull form with a massive phallus standing over her and finally a long line of barely dressed women of Troy being led away in chains.

It is ironic to see this kind of artwork in a city that is soon to suffer a similar fate. The wives and maiden daughters of Athenapolis will soon fill many coffles just like the one in the mural.

Opening the door to the right, you see a tiled bathroom with water spewing from the mouth of a beautifully carved jade statue of a dryad. The dryad is nearly three feet tall and positioned on a marble pedestal, so the stream of water falls into the exact center of a very large basin set into the floor below.

Perfect - a chance to wash all the grime off. Stripping off the rest of your stinking armor and the sweat-stained linen undershirt and leggings you step into the basin and start scooping the cool water over your body. On a stand near the basin are several jars of soaps, scented oils and creams.

No wonder the men in this city can't fight worth a shit. If they spent as much effort getting sweaty as they did getting clean they might not have to depend on mercenaries to do their fighting; but for now, this does feel nice. Stepping out of the basin, you see a silken robe hanging by the door. A quick look behind the other door reveals a large closet with more tunics, robes and cloaks hanging neatly from racks than some of the stores you shop at. You ignore the selection of clothing and pull the robe onto your shoulders as you step into the main room.

Next to the bed is a cabinet fashioned of a dark, smooth-grained, exotic wood with a black marble top that is laced with veins of gold. Looks like a good place to keep valuables you think, but instead of the gold and silver you expect inside is a collection of whips, chains, and clamps as well as many other instruments that you do not recognize. A second look at the bed reveals heavy iron rings at each of the four corner posts and a few smaller ones hanging from the frame above the bed. A box in the bottom of the cabinet contains several small porcelain containers and over a dozen scrolls. Opening one of the scrolls at random you see graphic pictures of a barely dressed young woman chained to a tree being whipped by a muscular barbarian wearing only a loincloth. The text around the picture is the story of the misadventures of a princess who has been captured by bandits.

As you wonder about what type of man the lord of this house was you hear a quiet knock on the door.

What now, you wonder?