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
The King
After thinking about who else might have information they needed, the gods decided to go visit the King Ioannis IV of Susae to see if he could tell them about the Ouranoi. They easily obtained a meeting, and found the palace in chaos. The king had just returned from the latest battle of the civil war, against the armies of his three younger brothers and their supporters. A hundred crises had exploded during his absence, and each needed his attention. When the gods found him, the King, wearing a plain crown depicting a seahorse, was looking over a map of the countryside while trying to determine which nobles were supplying the traitors with soldiers.
Ajax interrupted, and after introductions were made, asked after the Ouranoi. The King replied that it rang a bell, but he couldn't remember any details; he turned to his mob of advisors and one squawked that he would find the lore they sought. Apparently the information wasn't going to be free, as the King remarked that Susae could use the aid of powerful patrons. As the gods could surely tell by the fact that the Seahorse wasn't a god, the Orca Crown had been stolen ten days earlier, and he was having to make due. The lack of legitimacy that came from losing the crown, and the blessing of the Orca, queen of all the gods, was undermining his rule, and he'd appreciate if the gods could get it back.
The Thieves
While they had discovered who had taken the crown, the culprits had vanished, and their patron was a mystery. There were many possibilities; in addition to the nobles who had openly declared for his brothers, there were many more who might take this opportunity to try to gain more personal power. Further questions and Steidis' ability to see the past of objects pieced together how it had happened: while the king was on campaign, three soldiers guarding the throne room had beaten one of their compatriots unconscious, then grabbed the crown from where it and the rest of the royal jewels rested, before leaving the city by means unknown.
The gods went with a clerk to the home of one of the thieves to look for clues. On the way, Ajax got a vision of a magpie in flight. Figuring this only meant that a candidate of Meda, goddess of thieves was in the city, they ignored this. Sure enough, the home, a well-built dwelling in a good part of town, had been abandoned. Steidis used his power to see the past from the door's perspective, and found a conversation between one of the thieves (with a belt depicting a lion), his wife (with an armband depicting a bird of some sort), and a fancily-dressed Susaean man with a sun insignia on the back of a glove.
His power was visual only, so Steidis didn't know what they were talking about, but it seemed the fancy man was doing most of the talking. It was clear the thief wasn't being coerced, however, which made it likely they had been offered a better deal. Further looks into the past discovered that the thief had three children, and that they and his wife had left with all their belongings the day before the theft took place. Steidis then went out into the street and tried to track the fancy man's path by using his power on a variety of crafted objects with good sight-lines.
The man had taken a circuitous route through alleys, and knew what he was doing when it came to shaking tails, which suggested he wasn't a nobleman. Unfortunately, Steidis' powers ran out of juice before he could complete the trail. Thinking of what to do next, Ajax recalled that the old harbourmaster had been fired prior to the theft, meaning that they couldn't have fled by sea, so the gods decided to check at the city gates.
Neilos, using his waning knowledge of his mortal life as a wagon driver, was able to recall that one would need documents proving they had permission to leave or enter the city during wartime, and, after cross-referencing the logs of all the city's gates overnight, determined the culprit: carriages owned by the nobleman Nestor Makris had been going to and from the city clustered around the times that the thieves and their families disappeared.
The Wind
Rather than telling the king, the gods went straight to the Makris estate to "question" him. Just outside the estate, Steidis received a vision of a sail billowing in the wind. The gods looked around and spotted an obvious candidate of Keti, goddess of the wind: a muscular woman with knee-length hair blown by a non-existant wind was observing the area from an alley. She had to have noticed them (Steidis is made of molten stone and wears a flaming crown), but hadn't made any moves yet. Neilos moved to approach her, but the candidate spotted him and bolted.
He gave chase, but rounded a corner after her to find that she had vanished. Looking up, Neilos realized she had flown to the rooftops, so he sprinted out back into daylight and teleported beside her. Keti was surprised, but quickly recovered and asked why he hadn't just done that immediately when she ran. He explained that he was Neilos, god of the sun, and could only go where the sunlight was. She nodded, and stated that the other two must be Kostis and Steidis, then asked where Chelak was.
Now that he had a chance to get a better look, Neilos observed that Keti was well-muscled and tall, though not a giantess. She asked what he wanted, and he explained that he needed her assistance with a prophecy. Keti confirmed that it involved the Tome of the Sun, but after he confirmed, she declined, stating that she'd already offered to aid a different candidate and would not go back on her word. Now understanding how she had known all this information, Neilos asked where his rival candsidate was, but she declined to answer.
Not willing to accept that, Neilos revealed her secrets and asked again; Keti blurted out that they were in a boat stuck in the harbour queue. Before his power wore off, Neilos also learned that she'd agreed to help the other candidate hunt the Ouranoi, and that it had blood red eyes that could freeze a person's blood with a glance. Once she snapped out of it, Keti flew off towards the docks, and Neilos teleported back to the others to tell them to head to the docks for a god battle before teleporting there in advance to observe Keti when she arrived.
Ajax got a cramp from all the food he had been eating, and Steidis kept pace with him in case they got ambushed, somehow. Keti was apparently not foolish enough to fly out over the harbour, but Neilos caught a glimpse of her striding through the crowds before diving into the sea and swimming out. He watched her climb up onto a boat and talk to someone on the deck before jumping back into the water and coming ashore. The boat turned and began to leave, so Neilos waited for the others to show up before pursuing their target.
The Second God Battle
Steidis and Ajax arrived shortly, and they decided to go after their rival candidates. Neilos teleported to Urbos and back to pick up the rest of the shards of the twisted mirror, then they boarded the God Galley and set sail. Using his powers to stoke the fires that powered the galley, Steidis accelerated them to tremendous speed, and they easily caught up before ramming its metal prwo into their rivals' wooden ship, splintering it.
As before, Ajax and the other Kostis fired death rays, trying to overpower the other but only succeeding in cancelling them out. Steidis threw out his flaming discs while also creating fires on their rivals' boat. The other Neilos tried to control plants to separate the parts of the boat that were on fire and create shields, but Neilos scorched him with beams of concentrated light. The Chelak candidate jumped in front of the gods' attacks, but the deep wounds they gouged out of him sewed themselves shut almost as rapidly.
In the end, a disc from Steidis distracted the other Kostis enough that Ajax was able to overpower him and knock him unconscious. With their rivals outnumbered and on the back foot, the gods grabbed mirror shards and jumped aboard the raft the other Neilos had salvaged. Ajax and Neilos both successfully killed their rivals, but Steidis fumbled and cut himself on the shard, which gave the Chelak candidate time to turn his skin to iron and jump overboard, sinking to the bottom of the ocean and relative safety.
As had happened when Steidis had killed his counterpart, the blood of their victims flowed towards Ajax and Neilos, and both did nothing to stop it as it slithered up their bodies and into their mouths. After a brief celebration, they took the God Galley back to Susae, and, as was initially planned, went to go find Nestor Makris.
Stealing the Crown
The Makris estate was trivial to find, and the guards stationed outside were deferential towards the gods once they announced their presence. Unfortunately, they informed them that the Makris family were at their lakeside estate in the country, and even gave the gods directions. They offered to send a messenger if they urgently needed a meeting, but the gods declined. Instead, they left the city and started walking out to the Makris country estate.
Ajax was deeply unnerved by all the open space around him, and slowed their pace. On the first night on the road, a rainstorm suddenly descended upon them, and left just as quickly. They figured it must have been the Thunder Goddess, but decided not to try to find her. The rest of the journey was uneventful, and they found the estate, surrounded by a small fruit orchard, on the edge of a lake. Neilos went and asked an orange tree what it knew, and it suggested that maybe 20 people had shown up in the ten days or so.
A labourer came out to ask what they were doing in the orchard, and Neilos introduced himself. She didn't seem to know who he was, but recognized him as "The Sun" when he said he was the god of the sun and agriculture. Before she could continue, he turned and walked away, no longer in a talkative mood. Ajax tried to smooth things over, and stated that they were here to meet with Nestor Makris. The woman recognized Steidis as "The Hammer", and curtseyed, but didn't pick out Ajax as a god. With that, they took their leave, and went to the estate's guards to make formal introductions.
Ajax explained that they were here to talk to Nestor about "some jewelry", and they were led down to the lakeside, where a number of people were playing. Nestor himself was relaxing in a lounge chair, and warmly greeted the gods when they arrived. Steidis shook his hand, and then shouted at the bewildered nobleman, threatening death and worse unless he took them to the crown. He cracked under the pressure, and, trembling, led them to a spare bedroom in the estate.
As he led them, they passed the "fancy man" they had seen in the thief's house, who seemed confused but didn't oppose them. In the bedroom, Makris pushed aside a bed, lifted a false floorboard, and unlocked a chest with his signet ring before bringing forth the Orca Crown. His task done, Neilos immediately turned and left. Further questioning from the others determined that Nestor had been working alone, and was going to attempt to ransom the crown back to the king for personal gain. Figuring that they didn't actually need to bring Makris in to fulfill their deal with the king, they let him go.
The Thunderstorm
On the way back to Susae, Neilos opined that they should replace the Orca on the crown with images of the real gods, namely the three of them. Steidis shot back that he had better watch his words, as he was talking about his wife. Neilos replied that she was also his mom, which was weird, but Steidis pointed out that she was technically his mom too. With that, they decided to let it rest. As they approached the city, an incredibly small thunderstorm was hanging over part of the city.
Neilos headed after the thunderstorm, looking to meet the Keti candidate (henceforth Keti 2), and forbid Steidis from meeting her, though Ajax was allowed. While they were doing that, Steidis took the crown back to the king instead. The "Thunder Lady" was trivial to track down, and they soon enough they spotted her in a crowd, towering over the diminuitive Susaeans. Noting that she was clearly an Eniadnan by her size and reddish skin, Neilos called out a greeting, and she turned to look at them but said nothing.
Unphased, Neilos continued on, putting forth a proposal of mutual assistance. Keti 2 asked what he wanted help with, and upon hearing that he hunted the Sussurus in Mantea, brusquely declared that her task was harder, so they'd do it first; she needed the Orca Crown. Neilos asked her to hold on a second, then teleported as close to the palace garden and tried to stop Steidis from giving the crown back before it was too late.
By the time he found him, he discovered that Steidis had already handed it over, having pushed his way to the front of the crowd of clerks presenting various crises (apparnetly, the newly-appointed harbourmaster was an Eniadnan spy). The King hadn't had the information on the Ouranoia to hand, but had offered the gods guest chambers, and a scholar knowledgable about strange beasts would be sent there "soon" to teach them.
Neilos turned on his heel and left, teleporting back to Keti 2 as soon as he was able, to check if that was really the prophecy she wanted help with. She definitely did. Sighing, Neilos explained that it would take a while to get the crown, so she'd need to stay in town, which she agreed to, off-handedly mentioning that she'd only been out of Susae because looking for the crown. He asked where he could find her, but Keti 2 requested to know their lodging instead, and, once she had it, left.
While Neilos hatched some hare-brained scheme to steal the crown back, Ajax lounged about the palace. One day, he was approached by a young Urbosan woman wearing way too much jewelry, who asked if he was really the god Kostis. Apparently, he didn't look the way she expected. Ajax stated that he wasn't one to judge the tastes of mortals, but he was indeed the god of death. He tried to get a read on whether she was a god candidate or not, but came up empty.
The woman demanded a demonstration, and when pressed on why this was so important, stated that it was important because she wanted it. They chatted for a while, and Ajax learned that was from a cadet house of House Michelakis, and recalled that they'd had dealings with Lamia Michelakis, the Scion of Violence, back in Urbos. Eventually, she asked if he could animate the skeleton of the half-eaten chicken he had on his plate.
Figuring her to just be a bored noble, Ajax told her that his powers were too important to be wasted on such minor displays, and she sighed that it was too bad he couldn't do it. Forwning, Ajax plucked a flower from a vase and attempted to rot it, but it remained green and healthy. He tried to play this off as him just admiring the flower, but the woman wished him good luck with that before leaving.
On the Ouranoi
Neilos had come up with a plan: Steidis would make a duplicate crown, and then they'd (somehow) swap them. Noting that though he could create the requisite gold and gems, it would be difficult, Steidis did so anyway, and then assembled them into an exact replica of the Orca Crown over the next few hours. As he was finishing, an ancient man with a droopy face and giant furry eyebrows walked into their chambers and asked if this was the right room.
He asked if "The Sun" was here, but when Steidis told him he wasn't, he apologized and moved to leave. Steidis ordered him to stay right there, then walked through a nearby fireplace to one in the tavern where Neilos was staying, and brought him back to their palace chambers. After confirming that "The Sun" was present, he began a long lecture on what was known of the Ouranoi.
It lived in hills, to the far southwest; a 12', black bat-bird with an enormous stone maw, and blood-red eyes that froze men where they stood, turning their blood solid. Eventually they would recover, but typically it grabbed those it had frozen and flew off to devour them. Neilos asked if it had any weaknesses, and after a moment to consider, the scholar said he could tell them more strengths. It could fly, and though it hunted at night, it never slept! Nobody who had seen it had ever survived!
Neilos pressed him on the last point; if nobody had survived seeing it, how did he know what it looked like? The scholar conceded that, okay, some bystander must have survived. Ajax jumped in to ask if it could possible be a "Bringer of Toxin", but the scholar claimed it had no poison. Apparently it hunted livestock as well as humans, and though the name was plural, there were supposedly only two, and they were highly territorial. Neilos dismissed him, and the scholar gave a little bow before trundling off.
Stealing the Crown (Again)
Ajax got them a meeting with the king, only for Neilos to suddenly reverse course and refuse to talk to any mortals. With this wrench thrown into the works, the gods argued over what to do now that their initial plan of having Neilos tricking the king into giving them the real crown was dead in the water. Perhaps Neilos could animate a tree or flower to knock the crown off of his head? What if they got the Meda candidate they'd had a vision of to steal the crown for them in exchange for favours? Could they convince the king to take the new crown, with the blessing of three powerful gods?
In the end, Steidis just took the fake, found the king, knocked the crown off of his head, and swapped it with the fake in front of an army of clerks without anyone noticing! He returned to their chambers to hand it back to Neilos, who then took it to Keti 2. She bit into it to confirm it was real gold, then asked what he needed help with again. When he told her they'd be going to Mantea to hunt the Sussurus, she agreed, but said they'd come back here to finish the rest of her prophecy once they'd done so.
Neilos argued that he should get help with two things if she was, to which she agreed, and so they decided to head off to the southwest in pursuit of the Ouranoi first.
Notes:
Prophecy Scoreboard:
Steidis 6
Neilos 5
Ajax 3
I forgot to mention this in session, but the Seahorse Crown is traditionally worn by the Crown Prince of Susae, so Ioannis IV would have worn it until the old king died several months ago.
The mystery behind where the thieves were wasn't particularly difficult to solve, but that was intentional. Susae is in total disarray, and Makris took advantage of the opportunity that provided, but he's not a criminal mastermind.
I ran the mystery pretty poorly. The two main issues were that I gave out incorrect statements (specifically, initially saying that they didn't know who'd taken the crown, when I meant they didn't know who was behind the men who took the crown) and should have been more permissive with clues.
Ajax upon killing their rivals: "Those guys should have known better than to vandalize part of one of Steidis' prophecies one time".
Neilos' player realized I was pushing suspiciously hard to get Steidis to give the crown back simultaneously, but didn't persuade the others from going ahead.
Neilos, on the information from the Ouranoi scholar: "So no weaknesses, great".
Steidis made the DX-10 roll to swap the crowns with a natural 4.
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