Characters:
Ajax Karo - Gregarious Hunter and Aspiring Kostis, God of Death and PlaguesNeilos - Aspiring God of The Sun and Plants
Steidis - Aspiring God of Fire and Smiths
An Anonymous Marriage
The Syrinthan woman asked for clarificatoin on Steidis' proposed quid pro quo, while the Urbosan woman tensed up even further. Seeing her discomfort, Steidis asked if she'd like a glass of water, but she declined with a squeak. Neilos, still not sure if either of these women was actually the goddess Nephele, tried to detect some trace of divinity but unsurprisingly didn't notice anything. To "clarify" his intent, Steidis stated that he was "looking for love" and waited for the others to respond; the Syrinthan smiled, while the Urbosan gulped audibly.
Still taking the lead, the Syrinthan woman agreed that something could be arranged. The Urbosan, for her part, started sweating bullets and blushing, but stayed silent (Neilos: "These emotions confuse me"). While she understood that Steidis wanted to keep his secrets, the Syrinthan stated that she could be open about what she wanted aid with. You see, there was a fishing village one day north of the city (Neilos: "Now I gulp audibly").
A Merchant Prince had recently acquired the land and driven the villagers out to dig a mine, but the land needed to stay pristine so that a ritual could be carried out and a prophecy fulfilled. The Syrinthan needed them to remove the miners, soldiers, and anyone else who would defile the lands from the area, though she left the actual methods up to them. Steidis asked if she had already tried negotiating with the Prince, and she claimed that she had, though he wasn't convinced she was telling the truth. Now, Steidis clarified his intentions: he wanted to marry the Syrinthan woman.
Neilos chirped up, claiming that Steidis marrying her to complete a prophecy would help their odds with the Prince, and she agreed. Initially, Steidis was planning on waiting a few days so they could arrange a ceremony, but Ajax, ever feeling his life slipping away, wanted to work quickly, so Steidis rapidly forged a bronze ring, and they were married on the spot by Neilos. When it came time to give their names, she introduced herself as Phaedra.
The gods noted that, if she was a Nephele candidate, it was strange that she didn't give that as her name, but the marriage ceremony was seen through regardless. Despite Steidis' claim that Phaedra was "legally bound to hang out with [him] now", the two women left. After a moment, Ajax realized that they didn't actually know how to contact either of them, which meant they'd have to go through the Merchant Prince or wait to be contacted again. Neilos asked if Steidis had completed his prophecy, but he hadn't; he figured that he needed to get divorced and marry the Urbosan now.
Preserving the Land
The gods settled into a discussion of what to do about the mine, and quickly discarded a number of harebrained schemes (luring the hydra in, faking the beguiling lights, killing everyone, covering the area with anthrax, and trying to negotiate with the Prince of Lamps). They settled on a different harebrained scheme: Steidis would use his powers to turn the gold deposit into fool's gold. The gods walked north of town, where Neilos shaped grass and reeds into a small boat which could carry them, and Ajax rowed them north.
Two days later, they arrived just short of the former fishing village, then snuck up on the former fishing village. Petraeus had wasted no time, with 20 slaves and 5 overseers already setting up a camp for the mine. Steidis suggested they wait for the mine to be dug, as it would be easier for him if he was closer to the gold deposits, but Ajax was uncomfortable in the open and wasn't willing to lose several weeks. He tried to transmute the gold from where they were now, but failed; it was too far away.
They argued for a while, and came up with three options: spook the people at the camp bad enough that they'd leave and never return, negotiate with the Prince of Lamps, or mass murder. For now, they settled on negotiation, and Neilos rowed them back to Syrinth, where they arranged another meeting with Petraeus. Until then, Neilos killed time by helping people grow plants in an attempt to bolster his reputation. Ajax had a similar idea, but spooked the mortals he tried to speak with.
At the meeting, Neilos noticed that Ajax was looking at Petraeus like a fox looks at a chicken, which was pretty clearly unnerving him. As such, Neilos took the lead in the negotiations, and they tried to get him to relent on the mining operation by offering nebulous favours in the future. The Prince was annoyed; if they'd had concerns, why agree to this in the first place? Regardless, the mining operation was necessary. With the end of eternal night, lamps weren't as necessary, and he needed another source of coin.
Despite this, Neilos was able to convince the Prince of Lamps to postpone his mining for half a year, in exchange for a promised favour from Steidis (he was particular to note that only Steidis would be involved). That settled, they decided to search for Steidis' wife Phaedra, but Neilos was done dealing with mortals for the day, and headed back to their lodging to be alone. While they were chatting up locals, Steidis pointed out to Ajax that he was looking at them all as prey. He was surprised, but also unable to stop.
A Quick Divorce
Eventually, they got pointed towards a family home from which an Urbosan woman and Syrinthan woman had been seen coming and going. Ajax got halfway there when he was distracted by a street food vendor, which left Steidis all alone to confront his wife. He approached the home, and a young Syrinthan girl answered the door when he knocked. Steidis was able to talk his way past this stalwart guardian by declaring himself to be a god, and then asked the girl who was home while she led him to the head of the house.
As he realized that he had forgotten his wife's name, the girl listed off eight or nine people that didn't sound familiar. Shortly, they found an old woman leaning on a cane, who asked the girl, Ursula, who their guest was. She introduced him (Ursula: "This is Steidis, god of fire, he's got a magic arm" Ajax's player: "And the forge" Ursula: "And the forge"), and the old woman's expression changed, as though she'd made a mistake. Simultaneously, Steidis received the vision of rune-carved bones being tossed. She said he must be there for Phaedra, and went to find her.
Shortly, Phaedra and the Urbosan woman walked in, the latter expressing confusion about something, because Phaedra's grandmother was going to "perform the ceremony", but fell silent when she noticed Steidis. Phaedra was apparently caught off-guard by Steidis showing up when she hadn't told him where she lived, but quickly pivoted to ask why he had come. He claimed to just want to make small talk, and they chitchatted for a while before she asked after the gold mine.
Steidis confidently proclaimed himself to be "the lord of the deal", and informed her of the arrangement with Petraeus. Surprisingly, the Urbosan responded, if in a stutter, and bluntly said that six months wasn't good enough when it was supposed to be forever. Steidis tried to argue that, philosophically, what even was forever, and Phaedra appeared to agree, but he quickly realized that she was just humouring him. Figuring that wasn't good enough, Steidis offered to complete another favour (the other players: "NOOOOoooooooo!").
Phaedra offered up an exceedingly easy request: she claimed to need a scrying bowl, to use reflected starlight to see the future. It should be simple for him, as he could just make it out of bronze, and he'd done such a good job making her ring. Steidis realized something was up with Phaedra. Between her total disinterest in him, her veiled insults, and the way she was constantly with the Urbosan woman, he got the impression that she wanted him to divorce her and marry the Urbosan.
While he wasn't sure what to make of this, Steidis followed through with his original plan and blew up, claiming that asking him to make something so simple was an insult! Clearly this marriage wasn't going to work, so he would annul it with his authority as a god. Phaedra instantly agreed, and handed over the ring. With a remark that he hadn't known their love could be so flimsy (Phaedra: "We've only interacted for, what, five minutes?"), Steidis stormed out, maidenless once more.
A More Open Candidate
On his way back to their lodgings, Steidis was interrupted by a shapely woman in her mid-to-late 30s, Susaean going by her dark skin, when she walked right up to him and declared that he must be Steidis, right? Though confused, he played along, and she introduced herself as Nephele ("Goddess of oceans, prophecy, all that stuff"). Steidis demanded she prove it, and she asked that he follow her to the ocean. On the way, Nephele remarked that he was very much like "the other one", both willing to just take a woman at her word.
Once at the waterfront, she raised a hand, and water, in the shape of a dolphin, leapt up and down from the sea several times. Steidis acknowledged that to be enough, so Nephele informed him that she had learned from his late... competitor? Rival? That he needed to wed her. Now, he'd been auditioning women, and now she was auditioning men: what could Steidis bring to the table? He started by claiming to be the "chosen one", the only true Steidis, who had triumphed over his rival.
Nephele wasn't won over, noting that there had been at least two just a few days ago, and who was to say there weren't more? Steidis doubled down on the fact that he had clearly backed up his claim with force, and she asked him to, as he had said, "prove it" (Neilos' player, trying to avoid more favours: "She's asking for a fight, beat her up, now!"). One of her prophecies involved "calming the enraged sea", and she had determined that this referred to a great serpent that dwelled in the sea. Would he be willing to do that for her?
Steidis asked what was in it for him, and, clearly surprised, Nephele repeated that he would prove himself worth of marrying her, the mother of all gods. He was interested, and asked for her cooperation in the hunt for the sea serpent, but she deflected, claiming that the whole point of this exercise was to prove that he was strong enough to be worthy. He replied that, if the prophecy referred to her doing something, it might not work if he did it, but she could only be convinced to hang around for the killing blow, and would expect him do the brunt of the work.
He asked time to prepare and more information on the serpent, and Nephele informed him that it was a "normal" sea serpent, which meant that lightning flew from its maw, and, oh right, that it was immortal so long as it was in the ocean (Steidis: "Oh, come on!"). In response to Steidis' reaction, she lightly teased him while running a finger along his jaw, saying that she thought he'd claimed to be tough; surely he could handle a little immortal lightning-spitting sea snake.
With that, Steidis told her that he had to discuss this with his "boys", and Nephele nodded, saying she'd check in from time to time. He pointed out that she might have a hard time finding him, given that they were travelling far and wide, but she only chuckled, claimed that she definitely wouldn't, and sashayed off, waving him goodbye.
Regrouping
Steidis found the others and informed them of the evening's events. Neilos had doubts that they could do anything about the sea serpent without help from at least one Nephele candidate. After some discussion, Steidis decided that he possibly could try marrying Phaedra again to get her help. The next morning, the gods returned to his ex-wife's house, and Ursula again answered the door. She did her best to prevent him from entering now that he was no longer married to her aunt, but ultimately she was a child and was easily overpowered.
Neilos tried to argue with Ursula that he was only here to keep Steidis out of trouble, but she insisted that was already in trouble, so he should just leave. Steidis, forgetting his ex-wife's name, shouted out "ex-wife!" into the household, hoping she would show up. Instead, three men came into the entrance hall, and tried to get the gods to leave, chiding them for using their strength to overpower a child. Neilos was done, and Revealed Secrets to find out where Phaedra was, and learned that she was out in Syrinth.
Further questioning confirmed that a Nephele candidate did live there, and that the candidate in question was the old woman that Steidis had met the night before. Steidis intimidated them into rousing her from her sleep, and a short while later she was brought forth, still half asleep, leaning on her cane. The elderly Nephele was irritated by their rudely barging into her family's home, and their efforts at calming her down failed.
Steidis apologized, and asked when his ex-wife would be home, but received no answer other than another instance of the vision of rune-carved bones being tossed. He asked Nephele what these visions meant, and she asked what he meant. When he clarified, she grunted an acknowledgement and asked them to leave, but did not provide any explanation. Neilos chimed in to ask if she had any prophecies related to "calming the enraged sea", and while she declined to answer, she was clearly intrigued.
Notes:
Prophecy Scoreboard:
Neilos 4
Steidis 2Ajax 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: 41 days
Some Nephele lore: she is the head of the pantheon, considered the mother of all, and oversees marriages.
In trying to maintain secrecy, Steidis failed to actually find out which (if either) of Phaedra or the Urbosan woman were Nephele candidates.
Ajax is confident that Highlander rules apply and they have to kill all of the other candidates, but Neilos isn't convinced.
Despite Steidis having Honesty (follow the law) and Selflessness (help others no matter what), he is consistantly the most bloodthirsty of the crew and has never once failed a check.
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