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 Lionesses
As the gods journeyed southwest with Keti in pursuit of the Ouranoi, Ajax hunted a deer and drained it. After several days of passing through farming villages and asking after the beast, they came to a wooden fort flying banners of a golden lioness on red (which Ajax determined was not the flag flown by Lady Pirrus in the highlands of Urbos), and gained entry by declaring their godhood to the women guarding it and Neilos making a promise of aid.
The gates opened, and one of the guards, a young Eniadnan woman, came down to escort them through the fort. On the inside, it was apparent that there were only perhaps 30 people, all Susaean, and that all of the women wore armour. As they walked to a central tent, Ajax observed that their escort had a back tattoo of a lion. They were introduced to Calypso, an old yet fit woman in a bright red tunic with ritual scars on her face, who still wore armour and had a spear in arms reach. She dismissed their escort, her "daughter", before welcoming the gods to their home.
When asked what aid they might want, Calypso, entreated the gods to make a deal with the three princes that had declared war on the king of Susae. The kings had often been at odds with the Lionesses, who claimed independence, but since the old king's death, they had reached an agreement, one of their number having become a concubine of the new king. The princes, however, didn't care, and had all but declared war on them, raiding them and the villages they protected for supplies before taking them back to their camp in the northwest.
Struggling to care about their plight, Neilos instead asked after the Ouranoi; Calypso knew that one lived due south, and had been harassing the villages there. To Steidis, Ajax snidely noted that they seemed to be doing a poor job of protecting their tributaries. Neilos then inquired as to the fort's name, and she explained that, according to legend, The Lion himself had come here and sired their bloodline. In tribute, they had named this place Lion's Rest. They had been proud warriors for as long as could be remembered, but things had taken a turn for the worse in her lifetime with the rise of the "tyranny" of Susae.
Neilos said that he very much intended to go have a word with these princes (he didn't), and Calypso asked whether they would like a Lioness to accompany them, but he declined. Though hesitant, she nonetheless stated that she trusted "The Sun" (and only him, the other three being suspect) to carry out this task. On their way out of the camp, the gods realized that it was large enough to hold many more people, and likely they had only left or been killed recently; they were so used to seeing the decayed and partially abandoned great cities that they hadn't noticed at first.
A second young Eniadnan woman, with a monkey riding her shoulder, approached them, and asked if they were going to kill the princes. Ajax turned to Keti, an Eniadnan herself, and asked if monkeys riding on people's shoulders was a common practice there. She shrugged, and bluntly stated that she'd seen monkeys before. Neilos said they would pursue diplomatic measures first, causing the woman to frown and walk away. Ignoring this, the gods left the Lion's Rest and headed south.
The Ouranoi
Several days later, in a small farming village, the gods learned that the beast they sought was lairing in a hillside a short distance away, and arrived outside soon after. A landing was 30 feet up a steep hill, so Neilos controlled a tree to lift people up, but they hesitated, wondering if it was safe. Keti was asked if she could cushion someone's fall, and wound up to throw something at Neilos. She failed to create a sufficiently strong blast of air, then shrugged and flew up on her own. Steidis refused the tree anyway, and carved a ladder into the stone.
The landing was stained with dried blood; nearby some shattered bones had been picked-clean, and deep peck marks peppered the ground. With the narrow cave-opening in front of them, Neilos created a light to see by, while Ajax' skeleton jumped out of his body (skeletons having no blood, it would be immune to the Ouranoi's blood-freezing gaze). Steidis and Neilos followed suit, turning their bodies to magma and plant-matter, respectively, and once Keti saw what they were doing, she, too, metamorphosized into a thunderstorm.
The gods lined up to enter the narrow entrance, with Steidis in the front and Ajax in the rear; Keti called Ajax a coward. Having to turn sideways to continue, the gods made it past and into a larger chamber, where the black-feathered beast lay. It fixed them with its terrible eyes which shone with a baleful light, then let out a horrid screech, but the gods were immune to its power and charged it with both mundane weapons and godly ones.
Between Steidis' hammer and flaming discs, Neilos' crook and beams of light, Keti's bow and lightning bolt, and Ajax's stylus and death rays, the beast was slain before it had a chance to harm them. Ajax surgically removed its liver, and put it in the "preservation box" with the Achaierus' spleen. Now that he was done, Neilos asked after the next step of Keti's prophecy, and she informed them that she had to crown the next king of Susae. Given that it was the next king, it couldn't be the current king, so Neilos surmised they would have to side with the rebel princes.
Civil War
When the other gods asked which candidate they should support, Keti gave them a rundown of her "research":
- Leonidas, the eldest, was an idiot layabout who was only capable of eating and drinking wine (Ajax: "Hey!")
- Marcos, the middle child, he liked the sea and seemed her favourite of the three
- Stavros, the youngest, was a loser who liked boring things like music and art
None of them sounded too easy to manipulate (no literal children, for instance). The gods debated just rolling up and taking out one or the other army, but it would be a longshot, so they went with a different plan: they would enlist with the rebel princes, and ensure the death of Ioannis IV. The princes would probably infight, and Keti would just crown the victor. In Keti's opinion, this was overcomplicating things, but since they were going to be helping it was okay.
They caught up to the rebel army easily enough, and scouts rode out to greet them and brought them to the princes, who were escorted by both a mounted court of nobles as well as a company of soldiers. Leonidas' armour was finely sculpted to resembles muscles, but his corpulent frame bulging around the sides undermined the illusion. Stavros stood out for his angular, attractive face, while Marcos sported a broken nose that had never set properly. Clearly not entirely trusting the gods, Marcos asked what their intentions were. When Ajax explained that they were backing their claim, the collected mortals let out a sigh of relief.
Over the rest of the journey, Ajax hobnobbed with the nobles and got the lay of the political landscape. Officially, the plan was for the rulership to be split, but in secret, each faction plotted the downfall of the others. Leonidas, who proved to be a buffoon, was unknowingly backed by a large group of nobles intent on exploiting his foolishness. Stavros had the support of the common soldiers and a reputation as a hero. Marcos was clearly the best-suited candidate to the throne, and had assembled an alliance of those whose loyalty was to Susae first and foremost.
Neilos, meanwhile, inflamed tensions, hoping that the factions would collapse to in-fighting immediately once the war was resolved; he had places to go. He didn't back any candidate in particular, and aspired towards pure chaos; to quote him: "I don't care what happens to Susae, I care about who is the easiest to knock out". A week or so of marching later, the Princes' army and the Kings' met, and, after several days of false-starts where both sides formed up but neither engaged, Marcos saw an opening, and they charged into battle.
Keti split off from the gods to search for Ioannis IV on her own, but they spotted him leading the cavalry before she did. From range, they murdered him (and anybody nearby) with their combined powers. Even though he was definitely dead, Keti hit the king with a bolt of lightning to make sure. Their leader dead in a spectacular display, the other army quickly broke, and the battle was over. Neilos made sure to rush in and grab the Orca Crown before anyone else could, stashing it in a sack, which they handed to Keti.
Succession Crisis
Following the battle, the gods were thanked for their assistance in sorting this out, and Neilos was questioned as to the whereabouts of the Crown. He proclaimed that it was being held in a safe place, as to bring it forth now would risk shattering the alliance of the Princes. The gods were invited to the victory banquet as guests of honour, where they sat back and waited for the chaos to unfold. Keti, meanwhile, went to try to safeguard Marcos, her preferred candidate. A platoon of soldiers quickly surrounded the feast, and Stavros declared that he would be ascending to kingship, alone. Just as suddenly, a second group of soldiers subdued the first! For his betrayal, Stavros was executed.
In an effort to project a united front, Marcos and Leonidas toasted each other, declaring their eternal friendship, and drank their wine. As it happened, Marcos' cup was poisoned, and Keti, helpless to do anything to stop this, shrugged and placed the Orca Crown on a bewildered Leonidas' head, declaring him the next King of Susae; apparently he hadn't been told of the plans to make him King, and he was genuinely upset to have lost three of his brothers the same day.
Keti basked in the golden glow that enveloped her, then glanced at her hand and questioned aloud if her skin had always been reddish; clearly she had forgotten her mortal appearance. When Ajax explained what must have happened, however, she seemed surprised. The other gods supposed that, without companions, one might not even realize they had lost their memories. For once, Keti seemed pensive.
Worried she might go off on her own and they wouldn't be able to find her, Neilos reminded her that she had agreed to help them, and would need to go to Mantea. After confirming this, she said that she'd travel there on her own, and left. After the short journey back to Susae, the gods boarded the God Galley and set sail for Mantea as well.
Mantea
The gods arrived and spotted Keti's characteristic thundercloud above the central plateau. As they rode the Elevator of Steidis, they spotted Evenia 1 (aka Punished Evenia). The potential goddess of beauty stood out in the crowd now due to the eyepatch she wore after having her eye gouged out during the fight with a rival Evenia where she'd lost the Still Harp. The gods tried to ignore her, but she noticed them (it's hard not to notice the man made of molten stone with a flaming crown) and came out of the gates with an idea to take down the Sussurus!
If they needed to stop the wind flowing through it, why not collapse a wall of the canyon onto it? Surely the dirt would silence the beast! Ajax explained that they already had a different plan they were working with, but Evenia was unconvinced and figured they were just trying to use her idea but refuse to help her in exchange. Neilos told Evenia that they had a goddess who could stop the wind outright.
Still, he took pity on his sister, and mentioned that she could perhaps help in other ways. For instance, could her powers be used to make a god fall in love? She stated that she could definitely make mortals fall in love, but she'd never tried on a god. They could test it right now, if the gods were willing, or, she mentioned with a sinister grin, they could go capture her rival and test it on her. Neilos waved her off and said that, if she helped them take down the Sussurus, they would help her in exchange.
The Sussurus
Once at the top of the elevator, the gods and Evenia found Keti lounging in a tavern empty other than herself and the proprietor; apparently she'd been there for six days already. With their party assembled, Neilos said it was time to go hunt the Ouranoi ("Are you sure that's what it's called?" *checks notes*) the Sussurus! The beast had moved well away from town, and even after a day's journey into the canyons they hadn't heard any trace of it.
Evenia claimed that, after night fell, she could use her powers to divine where it was, so the gods made camp. Whether she was lying or just incapable, however, Evenia failed to learn anything about their prey, which upset her greatly. The next morning, Neilos was able to question the local plantlife and learn what direction it had been moving in last time it came through the area only a few weeks prior, and they headed off. By the end of the day, they began to hear the faint keening noise that heralded the Sussurus' presence.
As they drew closer, Steidis made them earplugs, but Ajax, still fearful of the outdoors, found a crack in the canyon walls to camp in; he'd wait for their return. The sound got louder until it felt like their heads were about to burst, but the group pressed on until they gained sight of the beast ponderously dragging itself along by its forelimbs. Indeed, it looked like a headless great ape made of stone so porous one could see through in spots. Focusing, Keti stilled the air around the Sussurus, and it keeled over, dead.
Keti, apparently disappointed, asked if that was it, and Neilos claimed that it was much harder to deal with when one couldn't control the winds. Steidis, as the only one who didn't need to breathe, was sent in while Keti kept the air stilled, just in case, and he cracked it open with his hammer, then extracted a great crystalline heart from its body. With the Sussurus definitely dead, Keti stopped her powers, and Steidis fiddled with the stone shards. They chimed as they fell to the earth, which sounded like Singing Stone to him, so he picked them up for future use.
As Keti took to the skies to leave, Evenia called out to her, pleading for her aid. Blushing and avoiding eye contact, Keti turned and shyly agreed to help. It seemed like her powers did work on gods. The others were left wondering if she'd already tried to use her powers on them.
Notes:
Prophecy Scoreboard:
Steidis 6
Neilos 5
Ajax 3
Neilos struggled with his emotions a bit this session: on the one hand, he can feel no pleasure, but on the other, he prefers wanton cruelty. Reconciling the two isn't always easy.
Keti uses a bow in combat.
The Orca is the Susaean symbol for Nephele, and the Orca Crown is a physical manifestation of the bessing of the Queen Of The Gods and Mother Of All. They do not claim divine lineage, unlike nobility in other some cities.
Ajax is concerned one of his prophecies may be failed, because it takes place in Susae, and refers to "Three Warriors" who "become kings". What if the brothers were the Three Warriors?
Evenia 1 just can't get a win.
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