Path to Godhood Session 13: A Feast of Souls

Characters:

Ajax Karo   -   Gregarious Hunter and Aspiring Kostis, God of Death and Plagues
Neilos   -   Aspiring God of The Sun and Plants
Steidis   -   Aspiring God of Fire and Smiths

The Dead God Speaks

The gods carried the deceased rival Steidis out into the swamps, away from any witnesses, and, after discussing whether their Steidis wanted to steal a replacement arm (he didn't, as it turned out), Ajax forced the corpse to answer their questions.  The dead god's eyes opened, but were clouded white despite dying extremely recently.  They asked after his prophecies, and though they were in present tense and second person, they mostly matched those that Steidis had been given.  There was one outlier: the other Steidis had one entirely different prophecy, which read "You offer thirty-three souls up to the purifying flame".

The different phrasing of the others were enough to give him some insights, however.  For one, a "twelve-legged lion" matched his need for golden hide, and likely referred to the legendary Fotian Lion, rumoured to live in the volcano above Urbos.  Second, the Edge of the World was identified as Metros, due to it being referred to as "the city of the library".  

Unfortunately, the other Steidis had apparently been a loner, and hadn't known anything as useful when it came to the prophecies of his companion gods.  The questioning continued for some time, and they gained some information:

• The other Kostis had completed only a single prophecy, while Chelak, Neilos, and Steidis had solved two each.  
• The two prophecies that the other Steidis had completed were to dive into the Sea of Ghosts (which Steidis had already done), and to offer up souls to the purifying flame
• The dead Steidis' prophecy in Syrinth had instructed him to marry the goddess Nephele twice
• The other gods had personality quirks that could possibly be exploited: Neilos is a glutton, Chelak never misses a chance to help a person in need, and Kostis is a relentless killer
• They had no godly artifacts or anti-god weapons
• They hadn't run into any "god cults" until being worshipped in this city
• They hadn't heard of The Circle's End
• They hadn't been to Eniad or interacted with the Emperor
• They hadn't killed any other gods, and weren't even sure that they could

From there, they discussed what to do next.  Their run through the city carrying a dead god would definitely have left witnesses, and there weren't many one-armed men, so Steidis would be conspicious.  The hydra that Doros had wanted blood from was in the "deep swamps", about a day out, if they could find someone to tell them more precise directions.  The mountains, which Neilos wanted to go to for a prophecy, would be 7 days each way, but that was a problem because Ajax had only 8 days left to live.  The beguiling lights were also still out there, but nobody had any reason to hunt them.

In the end, they decided to go to the meeting arranged for the next day with Petraeus, Merchant Prince of Lamps, before coming to any decision.  To hide the body, they cut it up into pieces and threw them into the bog.  Not willing to risk the injury that came with handling the shards, they left them in the dead god's neck.

The Prince of Lamps

As they walked through Syrinth the next morning, the city was abuzz with news: the gods had vanished.  Less important, a group of hydra hunters had been slaughtered.  Most survivors had fled the city, with only two still hanging around.  For now, the gods ignored this, and had their meeting with Petraeus, who was wearing his finest.  The estate was filled with lamps, which would likely have been more impressive if the city was still under eternal night.  The merchant prince was obsequious, and intimated that he would like to know if they'd had anything to do with the sudden disappearance of the other gods.

Ajax ignored this, and expressed regret that the others had so rudely brought back the light without consulting with the princes, which of course had damaged their businesses.  He asked if there was anything that this group of gods could do to make up for their rivals' mistake.  After a false dismissal that Merchant Princes really needed nothing, the Prince of Lamps coyly suggested that he personally had a problem they could solve.  You see, recently he had purchased the rights to some coastal land which was rich with gold, but the people living in the fishing village currently there refused to leave!  

He would really appreciate it if the gods could convince the villagers to leave.  Neilos asked after how many people (especially children) there were in the village, but Petraeus had never been to the village himself, and knew only that there were "around forty" villagers.  Ajax asked why the prince couldn't take care of this on his own, and he complained that he had tried, and was hoping to avoid sending in a bunch of soldiers to forcibly evict the villagers.  Not only would that be thuggish, it would also be very expensive, and surely the gods would have an easy time convincing these people to leave.

The Village of Gold

The Prince of Lamps offered them use of a boat and a slave to sail it, so the gods set out.  The next day, they arrived at the protected cove which the fishing village was nestled into.  They instructed the slave to wait for them, and walked into town, where they found only men and children who eyed them suspiciously.  Neilos picked a man, and introduced themselves as gods looking to speak with the village leader.  The villager seemed disappointed when Ajax (Kostis) and Steidis introduced themselves, then responded that they were welcome to stay until the elder got back at nightfall.

While they waited, the gods came up with a plan: Neilos would tell the villagers that a horrible plague was coming that would wipe out the village and they had to leave, and to reinforce this, Ajax created a mild disease and let it spread, careful to make it not effect gods.  Partway through the afternoon, Neilos got a vision of rune-carved bones being tossed, but made nothing of it.  Near to sunset, the women returned on a flotilla of fishing boats, and Neilos found the elder out of the crowd.

A rotund woman with long hair, she asked what they wanted, and Neilos informed her of the (fake) plague ("first it's like the common cold, then you skeletize, it's horrible").  The elder was suspicious they were working for Petraeus, and asked how they knew this.  Neilos utterly failed to convince her of their good intentions, so Steidis just grabbed the Prince of Lamps' letter and handed it to her; she threw it into a fire.  

Steidis pointed out that the Prince had purchased the rights to the land, but the elder claimed that he had just made it up, and no such claim existed.  He retorted that a plague was coming regardless, and that the gods were the plague.  Other villagers moved to surround them, most holding hatchets, clubs, and other improvised weapons.  For the moment, the gods retreated to their boat, and had the slave take it several hundred feet out to sea, so they couldn't be ambushed in their sleep (Neilos would be awake anyway, as he has transcended the need for sleep).

In the middle of the night, a strong current began to move them further out to sea, and Neilos woke the others.  Though the wind was still, the sea grew choppy as though it were storming.  The slave tried to move left or right to escape the current, but to no avail, and they rode it out until it eventually stopped.  The coast was still barely visible by starlight, and so Neilos got to rowing while the others returned to sleep.  As the sun rose, they were close enough to the village to see that their fishing boats were all still docked.

Massacre

Concerned that another god was aiding the villagers, they decided to sneak in and kidnap someone, but were easily detected by the villagers, who were on high alert.  Giving up on subtelty, Ajax fired off death rays at anyone he could see, while Steidis shot beams of fire from his eyes and Neilos created blinding flashes (hoping to leave some alive for Ajax to life drain).  Despite their numbers, the villagers were utterly incapable of standing against the wrath of the gods and broke, fleeing into the wilderness.  

Neilos grabbed five of them, including three children (Ajax: "YES!"), with plants, and Ajax "gave a child the succ" (Ajax: "Please, phrasing").  He then drained the rest into Steidis and himself to regenerate their wounds/extend his life.  Neilos suggested that they burn down the village to make sure nobody returned, but Ajax figured that fear would been enough.  The gods returned to their vessel and returned back to Syrinth.

Petraeus, Prince of Lamps, was pleased to hear that the situation had been resolved, and in return, Steidis asked for the goddess Nephele to be "brought before him on a platter".  The prince frowned, and said that, as she was a goddess, he didn't exactly have that kind of power over her.  What he could do was reach out and arrange a meeting, but that might take a few days.  Steidis accepted this, and the gods left.  A quick discussion later, they figured they could look into the hydra hunters, but didn't have time to go to the mountains.

A Growing Reputation

They tracked down the last two survivors in Syrinth to a tavern, where Ajax gave into his gluttony and ate a revolting amount of food, leaving him out of the negotiations.  Neilos approached them, but the hunters weren't open to talking.  He lied, claiming that his brother was running off to fight the hydra, and he needed to know everything they did so he'd have a chance!  Unexpectedly, the survivors put down their mugs and stood, ready to go chase after the (fake) brother and stop him before he made a horrible mistake.

As they drunkenly donned their armour and weapons, they asked which way Neilos' brother had been going, but when he claimed not to know, they grew doubtful and stopped.  A bystander chimed in, pointing out that he recognized the one-armed man with charred skin as one of those who had murdered the god Steidis!  Steidis glared at the man, and ordered him to shut up, or else he would rip off one of his arms and graft it on as a replacement.  In terror, he sprinted off into the night.

Figuring they couldn't get any information out of the hunters now, the gods went off and purchased warm clothes, rope, and other gear they might need in the mountains.  To overcome the reputation of the one-armed man, Steidis crafted for himself a bronze prosthetic arm, and bought a long sleeve which obscured it.  From there, they settled in to wait for the meeting.  6 days later, they heard from the Prince of Lamps that the meeting was on for that day, and that Nephele would go to them.

The gods cleared out the place where they were staying in preparation, and that afternoon, a pair of young women showed up, one Syrinthan, the other with the amber eyes typical of Urbos.  Steidis welcomed them, and the Syrinthan took the lead, asking who they were speaking to.  She smiled to herself when he introduced himself as the god of fire and the forge, while the Urbosan woman looked nervous.  The Syrinthan asked what business he had, and he stated that he had a deal for her: he could help with one of her prophecies, and in return she could help with one of his (Steidis: "and 😉").

Notes:

Prophecy Scoreboard:

Neilos    4

Steidis    2

Ajax       2

Missing Memories:

Neilos     Family, Mortal Name, The Last 5 Years, Childhood

Steidis    Mortal Name, Family

Ajax       Mortal Appearance, Most Precious Memory (His First Hunt)

Ajax Life Expectancy: 46 days (New High Score!)

Steidis has both Seflessness and Honesty, but he consistently makes his rolls and is probably the most bloodthirsty of the gods.  Neilos doesn't care, and Ajax needs to murder to keep living.

I referred to Ajax as "the Jeffrey Epstein of death gods" because he keeps eating child souls.  Apparently he was planning on playing this character a different way, but has missed the mark due to his constant need of snackrifices.