Nero XXI
"He tells the truth. He also lies. The difficulty, as the party has learned, is that both arrive in the same voice."
"Ia berkata jujur. Ia juga berbohong. Masalahnya, seperti yang sudah dipelajari rombongan, keduanya datang dengan suara yang sama."
The Nero Line and the Great Flood of the Cicau
Garis Nero dan Banjir Besar Cicau
The Nero family is Scottish by origin: or rather, the family line is, which by the twenty-first generation may have become more a matter of record than of lived geography. A line of half-elves who managed, across twenty-one iterations, to keep the same name and very little else consistent. Each Nero before him was born into the same general context, contributed a numeral to the name, and continued the tradition with the reliable loyalty of a family that has decided, collectively and across generations, that one name is sufficient. Nero XXI was born elsewhere, which was already irregular. He also did not stay there, which was not his choice.
Keluarga Nero asalnya dari Skotlandia, atau lebih tepatnya garis keturunannya dari sana. Pada generasi ke-21, itu mungkin sudah lebih jadi urusan catatan daripada geografi yang benar-benar pernah dikunjungi. Garis setengah-elf ini berhasil, lewat dua puluh satu generasi, mempertahankan nama yang sama dan hampir tidak ada hal lain yang konsisten. Setiap Nero sebelumnya lahir dalam konteks yang sama, nambahkan angka ke nama, dan teruskan tradisi. Kesetiaan khas keluarga yang sudah memutuskan, bersama-sama dan lintas generasi, bahwa satu nama sudah cukup. Nero XXI lahir di tempat lain, yang sudah cukup tidak biasa. Ia juga tidak tinggal di sana. Dan itu bukan pilihannya.
What removed him from the expected path was an event recorded in local accounts as the Great Flood of the Cicau: a mass movement of water hyacinth through the waterways, carried on by the particular decisiveness of a natural disaster with no interest in individual circumstances. Nero XXI, who was not secured, was carried with it. He drifted, by the record's account, through one country and then further, until he arrived in what the people there call home and those who observe from outside call the land of bamboo.
Yang melemparnya dari jalur yang seharusnya adalah peristiwa yang dicatat sebagai Banjir Besar Cicau: eceng gondok bergerak massal lewat jalur air, dibawa oleh bencana alam yang memang tidak peduli dengan keadaan siapa pun. Nero XXI, yang tidak terikat ke apa pun, ikut terbawa. Ia hanyut melewati satu negeri, lalu lebih jauh lagi, sampai tiba di tempat yang orang-orangnya sebut rumah, dan yang dari luar disebut negeri bambu.
It was there that he found the monastery. Or the monastery found him. Or he found the monastery and quietly removed several things from it before the two arrived at a more formal arrangement. The details differ depending on who is telling the story. Nero XXI has been asked for the accurate version. He has provided a version. Whether it is the accurate one has not been confirmed.
Di situlah ia menemukan biara. Atau biara yang menemukannya. Atau ia menemukan biara, diam-diam mengambil beberapa hal darinya, lalu keduanya sampai pada semacam kesepakatan yang lebih resmi. Detailnya beda tergantung siapa yang cerita. Nero XXI sudah dimintai versi yang akurat. Ia sudah memberikan sebuah versi. Apakah itu yang akurat, belum dikonfirmasi.
The Twenty-First
Yang Ke Dua Puluh Satu
Twenty Neros preceded him. He does not speak of them in great detail, which the party has come to understand is not indifference but something more like privacy: the lineage belongs to him; the specifics do not belong to anyone else unless he decides otherwise. What the family name carries is clear enough without explanation. Twenty iterations of a tradition produce a certain weight. He wears it lightly, which is how he wears everything, but it is there.
Dua puluh Nero mendahuluinya. Ia tidak banyak bicara soal mereka. Yang rombongan pahami bukan sebagai ketidakpedulian, tapi sesuatu yang lebih mirip privasi. Silsilah itu miliknya. Detailnya bukan urusan orang lain, kecuali ia bilang sebaliknya. Apa yang dibawa nama keluarga itu sudah cukup jelas tanpa penjelasan. Dua puluh generasi menghasilkan beban tertentu. Ia membawanya dengan ringan, seperti cara ia membawa segalanya, tapi beban itu ada.
The monk's discipline came from the eastern monastery. The rogue's instincts came before that, from wherever the Nero line has always quietly learned to take what it needs. The two coexist in him with less tension than they should, which is perhaps the most Nero thing about him: he has made a working arrangement with his own contradictions, and he does not feel the need to explain it.
Disiplin bhiksu datang dari biara di timur. Naluri pencuri datang sebelum itu, dari mana pun garis Nero selalu diam-diam belajar mengambil apa yang dibutuhkan. Keduanya hidup berdampingan dalam dirinya dengan ketegangan yang lebih sedikit dari seharusnya. Mungkin ini yang paling Nero dari dirinya: ia punya pengaturan yang jalan dengan kontradiksinya sendiri, dan tidak merasa perlu menjelaskannya ke siapa pun.
The Party's Economy
Ekonomi Rombongan
The party does not have a treasurer. What the party has is Nero, which produces the same outcome by different means. He manages the group's wealth the way he manages everything else: with complete control, total opacity, and results that are difficult to argue with even when you are not entirely sure how they were achieved.
Rombongan tidak punya bendahara. Yang ada adalah Nero, yang menghasilkan hasil yang sama lewat cara yang berbeda. Ia mengelola kekayaan kelompok seperti ia mengelola segalanya: kendali penuh, kegelapan total, dan hasil yang sulit dibantah, meski kamu tidak yakin bagaimana caranya.
Anaik has, on more than one occasion, noted an item in a shop window and found it in his possession some hours later. He has not asked how it got there. Nero, when questioned about it by other party members, confirms nothing and denies nothing. The item is present. The situation is resolved. This is, in the Nero economy, a complete and satisfactory transaction.
Anaik, lebih dari sekali, melirik barang di jendela toko dan menemukannya di tangannya sendiri beberapa jam kemudian. Ia tidak bertanya bagaimana. Nero, kalau ditanya anggota lain, tidak mengkonfirmasi dan tidak menyangkal apa pun. Barangnya ada. Situasinya selesai. Dalam ekonomi Nero, itu transaksi yang lengkap dan memuaskan.
He is also, it should be noted for the record, reliably the first member of the party to express displeasure when a battle concludes and the looting begins without appropriate organization. He has strong opinions on the subject. He articulates them. He does not articulate them on the occasions when he is the one doing the taking, during which time he becomes very quiet and very fast, and the party's collective inventory has grown by a measurable amount before anyone thinks to take stock.
Perlu dicatat juga bahwa ia secara andal adalah anggota pertama yang komplain kalau sebuah pertempuran selesai dan penjarahan dimulai tanpa organisasi yang benar. Ia punya pendapat kuat soal ini. Ia sampaikan pendapatnya. Tapi tidak di saat-saat ketika ialah yang sedang mengambil. Di situlah ia jadi sangat diam dan sangat cepat, dan inventaris rombongan sudah bertambah dalam jumlah yang terukur sebelum siapa pun sempat periksa.
The Lightest Load
Beban Paling Ringan
He carries less than anyone else in the party, by visible measure. His pack sits easy. He moves without the sound that even careful people make. When the party navigates a space that requires silence, Nero is already on the other side of it, waiting, having arrived by a route nobody else identified.
Secara kasat mata, ia membawa paling sedikit dari semua orang di rombongan. Tasnya tampak ringan. Ia bergerak tanpa suara yang bahkan orang berhati-hati pun buat. Kalau rombongan melewati tempat yang butuh keheningan, Nero sudah ada di sisi lainnya, menunggu, tiba lewat rute yang tidak diidentifikasi siapa pun.
What his inventory actually contains is a separate matter. It is fuller than it appears. It is consistently fuller than it was at the start of any given excursion. The arithmetic of how a man carrying so little ends each day holding so much is not the kind of arithmetic Nero invites inspection of, and the party, over time, has understood that some questions are most usefully left unasked.
Isi inventarisnya itu soal lain. Selalu lebih penuh dari yang terlihat. Konsisten lebih penuh dari saat berangkat. Aritmatika soal bagaimana seseorang yang membawa sedikit bisa pulang dengan membawa banyak bukan jenis aritmatika yang Nero undang untuk diperiksa. Rombongan, seiring waktu, sudah paham bahwa beberapa pertanyaan paling baik dibiarkan tidak ditanyakan.
The Double Word
Kata yang Bermuka Dua
He says things and means things, and the two are connected, but not always identical. The party has learned this. They have not learned to reliably tell the difference. He has, on documented occasion, told the exact truth in a way that functioned as a complete misdirection, and told something technically false that turned out, structurally, to point at something real.
Ia bilang sesuatu dan memaksudkan sesuatu, keduanya terhubung, tapi tidak selalu identik. Rombongan sudah pelajari ini. Tapi mereka belum berhasil membedakannya dengan andal. Ia pernah, pada kesempatan yang terdokumentasi, bilang kebenaran persis sedemikian rupa sampai berfungsi sebagai pengalihan total. Dan pernah bilang sesuatu yang secara teknis salah yang ternyata, secara struktural, justru menunjuk ke sesuatu yang nyata.
This is not malice. Or at least, it is not always malice. It is closer to habit: the particular habit of a man who has spent long enough moving through spaces he was not supposed to be in that honesty and strategy have become the same skill. He is the most cunning member of this party. He is also, when he chooses to be, the most direct.
Ini bukan niat jahat. Atau setidaknya, tidak selalu. Ini lebih mirip kebiasaan, kebiasaan seorang pria yang cukup lama bergerak di ruang-ruang yang tidak seharusnya ia masuki sampai kejujuran dan strategi jadi keahlian yang sama. Ia adalah anggota paling licik dalam rombongan ini. Ia juga, kalau ia mau, yang paling langsung.
How He Fights
Cara Ia Bertarung
He does not believe in fair fights. This is not a philosophical position; it is a practical one, arrived at through what appears to be a sincere and long-standing commitment to being alive when the encounter ends. When a battle turns against the party, Nero turns with it: he withdraws, finds a new angle, and returns from the direction the enemy was not watching, which is usually directly behind them.
Ia tidak percaya pada pertarungan yang adil. Ini bukan posisi filosofis. Ini posisi praktis, hasil dari komitmen tulus dan sudah lama: tetap hidup di akhir pertempuran. Kalau pertempuran berbalik melawan rombongan, Nero ikut berbalik. Mundur, temukan sudut baru, dan kembali dari arah yang tidak dipantau musuh, yang biasanya langsung dari belakang mereka.
The monk's stillness and the rogue's opportunism have reached, somewhere inside him, a working arrangement that suits both. He does not explain this arrangement. He simply executes it, cleanly, from the angle of his choosing, without announcement.
Ketenangan bhiksu dan oportunisme pencuri sudah menemukan, di suatu tempat dalam dirinya, pengaturan yang cocok untuk keduanya. Ia tidak menjelaskan pengaturan ini. Ia hanya menjalankannya, dengan bersih, dari sudut pilihannya, tanpa pengumuman.
Nero and Traxex
Nero dan Traxex
His opinion of Traxex is not something he keeps to himself. He does not apply privacy to things he considers self-evident, and he considers his assessment of her to be in that category. She is reckless. She creates situations without thinking them through, departs the party's plans without notice, and then requires extraction from whatever she has walked into. This, in Nero's view, is not a character quirk. It is immaturity.
Pendapatnya soal Traxex bukan sesuatu yang ia simpan sendiri. Ia tidak menerapkan privasi untuk hal-hal yang ia anggap sudah jelas, dan penilaiannya tentang Traxex masuk kategori itu. Ceroboh. Menciptakan situasi tanpa dipikir matang, tinggalkan rencana rombongan tanpa pemberitahuan, lalu butuh diselamatkan dari apa pun yang ia masuki. Ini, menurut Nero, bukan keunikan karakter. Ini ketidakdewasaan.
He has said this. To her, not around her. More than once. She has returned it in kind. The animosity between them is mutual, consistent, and worn openly by both parties without apparent embarrassment. It does not prevent the machine from working. In the field, Nero's angles and Traxex's instincts are, despite everything, complementary. This is something neither of them has acknowledged out loud, and likely will not.
Ia sudah bilang itu. Langsung ke Traxex, bukan soal Traxex. Lebih dari sekali. Traxex membalasnya setimpal. Permusuhan di antara mereka timbal balik, konsisten, dan keduanya memakainya secara terbuka tanpa rasa malu yang terlihat. Ini tidak menghalangi mesin untuk jalan. Di lapangan, sudut Nero dan naluri Traxex ternyata, meskipun semua itu, saling melengkapi. Ini sesuatu yang tidak diakui keduanya secara lantang, dan kemungkinan tidak akan pernah.
Known Traits
Sifat yang Diketahui
- Rogue / Monk
- Half-Elf
- Fey Ancestry
- Cunning Action
- Sneak Attack
- Unarmored Defense
- Pickpocket
- Party EconomistEkonom Rombongan
- Never Plays FairTidak Pernah Adil
- Double WordKata Bermuka Dua
- XXI of the Nero Line
- Survivor of the Great FloodSelamat dari Banjir Besar
The Question This Chapter Must Answer
Pertanyaan yang Harus Dijawab Bab Ini
The question his chapter must answer is not whether he is capable. He is demonstrably capable. The question is what he is capable for: what, underneath the economy and the misdirection and the twenty generations of inherited name, Nero XXI is actually working toward.
Pertanyaan yang harus dijawab babnya bukan soal apakah ia mampu. Ia jelas mampu. Pertanyaannya: untuk apa ia mampu. Apa, di balik semua ekonomi dan pengalihan dan dua puluh generasi nama warisan, yang sebenarnya sedang ia kejar.
Bonds & Relationships
Ikatan & Hubungan
[Record Nero's relationships as the story unfolds.]
[Catat hubungan Nero seiring kisah berkembang.]
⚠ Sealed Record — Notable Moments & Revelations ⚠ Catatan Tersegel — Momen Penting & Pengungkapan
Notable Moments
Momen Penting
The Scroll. Session II. After the village entrance fight, while Nanang called about a basement and Traxex called about a gnome and the party attended to its competing priorities, Nero identified the actual problem. He went to town. He purchased a revival scroll. He returned and used it on Anaik. He did not announce this in advance. He simply resolved the situation in the order he had already decided was correct.
The Lever. Session II. Having positioned himself behind the windmill while the rest of the party fought, he turned off the mechanism. The gnome, attached to the arm, stopped. This was, considered narrowly, the favorable outcome. He then continued testing the lever. The windmill restarted. The windmill stopped. The gnome achieved velocity. His accounting, delivered through laughter: "I don't know, I don't know, I was just testing my thief skill on the lever." The chronicle has not found reason to disbelieve him, which is possibly the most unsettling conclusion.
The Calculation. Session II. Revived by Traxex's arrangement with the lich, he stood up. The first thing he did was identify that Traxex had taken six hundred gold from his chest despite having six hundred and forty-six of her own. He arrived at one hundred and thirty-six gold owed, wrote it down, and presented the paper to Traxex with sufficient persistence that the matter was eventually settled. The chronicle notes: he had just been dead.
The Scroll (Burning Hands). Session II. With the Warlord isolated on acid, Nero produced a scroll of burning hands: the correct tool, the right target, drawn with the efficiency of someone who has been cataloguing advantages since the opening exchange. He threw it at the Warlord. Nothing happened. Nanang, who was dying, laughed. The chronicle notes this not to diminish him. The same man who identified the scroll and its correct application simply could not make it work. Competence has limits. His are narrow and occasionally surprising.
The Strongbox. Session II. Last to leave the hill after the fight. Nanang had seen his hands near the strongbox the caravan members had been guarding. Nanang had not seen what followed. The chronicle also did not see what followed. This entry is recorded under the standing instruction on this page: note what he takes, what he says, and whether they match. The matching, here, remains open.
The Strongbox. Session III. Before anyone woke, Nero was gone. The strongbox was also gone. He returned from town with the empty box and no explanation. This is how the argument that consumed the morning began. He did not appear to find this unreasonable. The party has a phrase for the operating principle involved. The chronicle records it here and declines to editorialize: Nero giveth, and Nero taketh away.
The Chasm. Session III. Leading across a makeshift bridge in the criminal cavern, the barbarians cut the span beneath him and he fell. The party laughed. Sogong revived him. He was laughing by the time the account was reconciled. He fell into a chasm and returned, by all observable measures, unaltered. Whether this is resilience or simply a refusal to let the experience register as significant is a question the chronicle cannot resolve. The chronicle notes it either way.
The Deity. Session IV. While the party rested and Anaik sat on a bench in a sleep that was not sleep, Nero stole the statue of a deity from the Emerald Grove and sold it to a local before noon. The sum was good. The deity was not consulted. The transaction was completed with the operational efficiency that defines the Nero economy: assets identified, assets relocated, questions not entertained.
The Hag and the Palm. Session IV. In Ethel's lair, with the hag split into four copies, Nero charged ahead and found himself face to face with one of them. He knocked her down with his bare palms. The monk's stillness and the rogue's opportunism, arriving simultaneously in the same fist.
Gulungan. Sesi II. Setelah pertempuran di pintu masuk desa, sementara Nanang berteriak soal ruang bawah tanah dan Traxex soal gnome dan rombongan sibuk dengan prioritas yang saling bersaing, Nero mengidentifikasi masalah yang sebenarnya. Ia pergi ke kota. Ia beli gulungan kebangkitan. Ia kembali dan gunakannya untuk Anaik. Ia tidak umumkan ini sebelumnya. Ia hanya selesaikan situasi dalam urutan yang sudah ia putuskan benar.
Tuas. Sesi II. Setelah menempatkan diri di belakang kincir angin sementara rombongan bertarung, ia matikan mekanismenya. Gnome, yang terikat di lengan kincir, berhenti. Ini, dinilai secara sempit, adalah hasil yang menguntungkan. Lalu ia teruskan mencoba tuas itu. Kincir angin menyala lagi. Kincir angin berhenti. Gnome mencapai kecepatan. Penjelasannya, disampaikan sambil tertawa: "Tidak tahu, tidak tahu, aku cuma mencoba keahlian maling-ku di tuas." Kronik tidak menemukan alasan untuk tidak mempercayainya, yang mungkin adalah kesimpulan yang paling meresahkan.
Perhitungan. Sesi II. Dibangkitkan oleh kesepakatan Traxex dengan lich, ia berdiri. Hal pertama yang ia lakukan adalah mengidentifikasi bahwa Traxex sudah ambil enam ratus koin emas dari petinya meskipun Traxex sendiri punya enam ratus empat puluh enam. Ia sampai pada angka seratus tiga puluh enam koin emas yang terutang, tulis di kertas, dan serahkan kertas itu ke Traxex dengan keteguhan yang cukup sampai urusan itu akhirnya diselesaikan. Kronik mencatat: ia baru saja mati.
Gulungan (Burning Hands). Sesi II. Dengan Warlord terisolasi di atas asam, Nero mengeluarkan gulungan burning hands: alat yang tepat, target yang tepat, diambil dengan efisiensi seseorang yang sudah mengkatalog keunggulan sejak pertukaran pembuka. Ia lempar gulungan itu ke Warlord. Tidak ada yang terjadi. Nanang, yang sedang sekarat, tertawa. Kronik mencatat ini bukan untuk merendahkannya. Orang yang sama yang mengidentifikasi gulungan dan penerapannya yang benar hanya tidak bisa membuatnya bekerja. Kompetensi punya batas. Batas miliknya sempit dan sesekali mengejutkan.
Peti Besi. Sesi II. Orang terakhir yang meninggalkan bukit setelah pertempuran. Nanang sudah melihat tangannya di dekat peti besi yang dijaga anggota-anggota karavan. Nanang tidak melihat apa yang terjadi setelah itu. Kronik juga tidak melihat apa yang terjadi. Entri ini dicatat di bawah instruksi tetap di halaman ini: catat apa yang ia ambil, apa yang ia katakan, dan apakah keduanya cocok. Kesesuaiannya, di sini, masih terbuka.
Spoiler Notes
Catatan Spoiler
[Record revelations, major plot turns, and spoiler-tier observations here as the story progresses.]
[Catat pengungkapan, momen plot besar, dan observasi spoiler di sini seiring kisah berkembang.]