What if the Mission Succeeds?

The Latin leadership were desperately short. They had failed to raise any money in advance despite promising to pay the Venetians before they arrived. Boniface and the others reached deep into their own pockets, took out more loans and still came up about 34,000 marks short of what they owed. Enrico Dandolo was exasperated. The obvious solution from a Venetian point of view was to use the crusade to capture the city of Zara. This would clear the path for the invasion of Egypt and could be used to write off some of their debt. It writes itself.