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
Ashes
After bringing Steidis up to speed, Ajax got him to reforge his dagger into a metal stylus, which he was now more comfortable with, and then the gods walked back to the remains of Metros. Despite all of them having now forgotten their time there, the other gods had told Neilos of the philosopher in Susae before losing their memories, and he told them that they should seek him out for help with their prophecies, as there was now no reason for them to stay here.
On the second day of the journey, Steidis realized that his internal flame was burning out. Luckily, he had a way to keep it going: lighting himself on fire. This would keep him going a bit longer, but wasn't sustainable (he would eventually die from burn wounds), so the gods changed their objective to finding a Doros to heal him. At the outskirts of Metros, they came across the philosopher Kotum, badly burned and covered in soot, who prostrated himself in front of Steidis and blubbered out his thanks for listening to his prayers.
Kotum asked what he could do to repay Steidis' favour, and was told to build statues in his honour, and to "rebuild Metros as the town you'd like to see". He bowed as he walked away, then the gods continued on into what was left of the city. Large crowds of refugees crowded the docks, looking for a way out, while most ships had already left when the fire started. After yelling at one of the soot-covered survivors, Steidis tracked down Noble Doros, who was resting on a pile of blankets after spending the last few days treating the (many, many, many) wounded, with powers and without.
Not willing to wait, Steidis shook Doros awake and bluntly declared that he needed healing. Doros was standoffish, and declined offers of "a nice shack to live in" and "a medical shiv". When it was clear Steidis wasn't taking no for an answer, Doros made a suggestion: he could treat the wounded more successfully if he completed prophecies. One of his involved creating the greatest site of learning in the world, and, now that the Great Library was dust, the bar was a lot lower.
First off, Steidis would have to reconstruct the Great Library, then he'd have to fill it with knowledge. Fortunately, there was another, smaller, building very much like the library in the catacombs below the city, and it still had many intact tablets, scrolls, and even some books. Unfortunately, all of those were in the ancient script, so nobody could read them, which meant they'd also have to be translated. Neilos figured he could do that, given enough time. Hopefully he could do it before Steidis burned out.
Rebuilding
While Ajax went off to hunt a wild animal to Life Drain, Neilos convinced a crowd of citizens to help clear the ruins of the Great Library under the pretense of looking for wounded. While they did recover some slave clerks, Christina and most of the other higher-ups were confirmed dead. Working around the mortals still clearing the grounds, Steidis began building the new Library, which would double as a temple to Doros.
The mortals continued working without sleep, still trying to find more survivors, which worked perfectly well for the gods. Ajax, meanwhlie, went to the burial sites on the edge of Metros and animated a sizeable group of 70 skeletons. Steidis created a huge flame, then jumped in to keep his fire going. By the next day, the way down to the catacombs had been cleared, and Ajax and Neilos headed down.
The Undercity
This time, the ceiling of the catacombs had some holes in the ceiling where buildings had collapsed letting in a few stray beams of light. Neilos sought out some local plants to talk to, but neither of them could find any kind of life. They didn't know where they were going, so they just sort of wandered, figuring they'd find something as big as the Great Library eventually. They passed by houses and squares, all in immaculate condition, before arriving at what looked to be the docks.
Neilos shone a light down at the waterline, but there was no water. Instead, a few feet below, lower than what would be the lowest tide in Metros, there was a solid black plane. A skeleton was sent in carrying a sock from Ajax (for Steidis to look at later with his ability to observe a crafted object's history), and fell through the blackness without a ripple, vanishing completely. Neilos tried to Create Light under the darkness, but when he failed, the gods decided to leave for now.
Soon enough, they had found the library that Doros had described, and found that it was lit by flickering white torches that were cold to the touch. They examed the torches; Neilos couldn't figure out how they worked, and Aax discovered that they went out when removed from the temple. The texts Doros had told them of lined the walls, and Ajax realized it was odd that their were so many in perfect condition. Regardless, he had his skeletons grab as many as they could; in the end, it took them three trips.
Meanwhile, Steidis finished the Great Library 2.0, and the reaction of the populace was one of ambivalence. Why the Library, when so many other things had been destroyed, and so many were still in need of help? Ignoring that, Neilos got to work on translating the ancient texts. First things first, he created a primer, so that other educated people (mostly the slave clerks) could assist him. Then, he recruited the clerks by promising to grow crops and feed the survivors of the fire (a promise he never intended to keep). Finally, he got to work just grinding out translations.
Despite their odd location, the books were mundane, by and large. Nothing detailing the history of the undercity, or anything that would help in their prophecies, came up. Steidis used his new ability to teleport between any two flames to go to Mantea to recruit Atlas to come help translate. Though he'd since forgotten the scholar, Steidis was able to track down the "Susaean man with an owl pendant by the ruins" easily enough, and shouted threats at him until he boarded a ship bound for Metros.
Emerging from a cookfire in Metros, Steidis found the other gods and informed them of what he'd done. Naturally, the next day, they'd completed enough works to satisfy Doros' prophecy, so Atlas' didn't need to come at all, and Doros inspected Steidis to find out what was wrong with him. It was similar to the affliction that he'd cured Ajax of, but different in strange ways. The cure was simple enough with his powers, however, and Steidis was no longer slowly burning out. Ajax put his skeleton platoon back to rest.
Susae
Steidis built a self-rowing boat ("The God Galley"), and the gods set sail for to Susae. When they arrived a week later, they found the harbour backed up with dozens of other vessels. Neilos shouted to the captain of another ship what was going on, but he didn't know, so he then teleported over to the docks and found some clerks. Apparently, the king had fired the old harbourmaster, but no replacement had been appointed, so they were kind of stuck. Neilos convinced them to let the gods bypass the queue, then headed back to the others to bring the ship in.
As they wandered, looking for the "local smartman" (who they'd forgotten meeting), they noted the totemic objects of animals that the locals wore. Neilos asked after other gods present in the city, and was told of a goddess of storms and thunder. She must've been out of the city at the time, because the skies were clear. If she was around, they'd have no trouble finding her, but it was really better to avoid her. At the House of Wisdom, they found the philosopher, Koios, wearing his peculiar full-body garment that left only a slit for his eyes, in a shouting match with some Mantean woman on the nature of reality.
While it was so esoteric that it went over the heads of everyone else, Steidis realized that the woman was making the better argument. Koios, however, was clearly the more talented speaker, and claimed victory, banishing her from the schoolgrounds; the woman left in a rage. When she was gone, the gods approached, and they made their introductions. Koios claimed that many gods had come to him for assistance, and he was more than willing to assist, if they were up to it. Not everyone was able to withstand the power of facts and logic.
Ajax went first, and, after being berated, realized that the poisoning he would suffer in Eniad would affect his voice, suggesting it would have to be ingested, and corrosive, rather than strictly poisonous. After that, Steidis tried to argue with Koios, but was utterly destroyed and gained nothing. Fortunately for Koios, he was able to restrain his bad temper. Neilos was last, and, after being yelled at, determined that the "tome of the sun" was a chart that recorded it's position. How he'd get that from haruspexy, he wasn't quite sure, but it was enough to go on.
Neilos tried to ask about the totemic items, but Koios insisted he was too busy with his school, and sent the gods on their way. Kind of out of leads, Neilos sought out information on the Ouranoi, but it seemed that it lived so far away that Susaeans weren't sure if it was even real. Ajax was able to get some more info on the "Thunder Goddess". Apparently she was an incredibly aggressive giant, and was intimidating people to get what she wanted. She'd been in town a couple days ago, and would probably be back in a week or so.
That night, the gods, except for Ajax, who gave into his gluttony, tracked down the woman philosopher, Amalthea, to seek out her assistance. She started the conversation by derisively asking after their involvement with Koios and his academy, but Neilos smoothly claimed that Koios wasn't up to the task, and so they were seeking someone else. Amalthea was open to assist with what they needed, but in exchange she vaguely mentioned that Koios needed to be taught a lesson, and she made a point to mention that he would need physical reinforcement.
While Steidis didn't care to get involved, Neilos took the hint and went to the House of Wisdom. Finding the door locked, he simply parted the wooden walls with his ability to control plants, and strolled inside. Shortly, he found Koios' bedchamber, and used his shephard's crook to beat the terrified philosopher within an inch of his life. Returning to Amalthea, Neilos told her that it was done. She asked to have the chance to sleep of the wine and meet in the morning.
Neilos had no problems waiting, and sat in to stare at a wall ("I twiddle my thumbs until morning"). Sure enough, in the morning Amalthea came and helped them work through their prophecies. She and Neilos worked together to determine a type of haruspexy that would work with the crystal heart, but Ajax and Steidis had nothing she could help with.
Notes:
Prophecy Scoreboard:
Steidis 6
Neilos 5
Ajax 3
Missing Memories:
Neilos Family, Mortal Name, The Last 5 Years, Childhood, Most Precious Memory (His Horse, Daisy)
Steidis Mortal Name, Family, Childhood, Most Precious Memory (His Mentor), Mortal Appearance, The Last 5 Years
Ajax Mortal Appearance, Most Precious Memory (His First Hunt), The Last 5 Years
The city Kotum "wants to see" is going to be... interesting.
Fortunately, Doros didn't forget the last 5 years after completing his prophecy.
Now that they're running out of clues to receive, the players are having troubles with clue-givers. In this session, over half of the things they wanted to know weren't available from Koios or Amalthea, because they just have the wrong skills.
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