Path to Godhood Session 29: Ascension

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

Reunification

Having completed his work, Steidis gave Ajax his weapon: a finely-wrought stylus.  The others were stashed away for now, and they teleported back to the God Galley with their powers.  From there, the gods split up: Steidis wanted to wait for Neilos at the meeting point in the Antominian Swamp, while Ajax was anxious to finish his prophecies, and teleported to Susae.  From there, he headed out at night into the hinterlands to the fort of Pirus' Rest and the Lionesses.  The next morning, Neilos arrived by boat at the docks of Susae, where he resolved to wait for the others.  During his stay, ge would notice that the city seemed even more ill-managed than during their last visit.

During their last meeting, the gods had said they would go deal with the princes, but they had gone back on their word (in a sense they had kept it, because they ended the civil war in a roundabout way) and were last seen walking in an entirely different direction.  Once at the fort, Ajax turned into a rat to and infiltrated it through a crack in the wooden walls.  The Lionesses had been hit by his plague, with a trail that had seen obvious use out the north end towards a series of burial mounds.  Ajax spent the next day or so observing the fort, and was able to figure out the local political situation.

• The people with influence all wanted to achieve full independence from the Susaean royalty, though they disagreed about the means to use
• Calypso, the matriarch they'd met with last time, wanted to use diplomacy
• Themis, a huge older woman and stern traditionalist, suggested they strike while Susae was weak from plague and the civil war, burning any noble holdings in the region to ash
• Sophia, the Eniadnan woman with a pet monkey on her shoulder, sided with whatever suggestion would result in the most glorious battle
• Marietta, the other young Eniadnan woman with a back tattoo of a lion, wanted to recover the artifact known as the Fleece of the Lion (which, according to legend, made the bearer invincible) to strengthen their position before negotiations
• Theodora, who was far more richly dressed than the others and had the weakest support base, had taken on the role of a mediator, siding with one group and then the other as necessary to keep things from escalating

Path to Godhood Session 28: The First and Second Gods

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

Setting Up The Board

Before Neilos left with the unconscious Adlai, he asked Meda if she knew of the negative side effects of completing prophecies.  She joked that it made you get a little glowing orb that floated around your head, but he informed her that they were losing memories.  He only knew this because he had been travelling with companions, so as Meda was on her own, she may not have realized.  It was therefore very important to come up with some method of confirming that she owed him one in case she forgot recent history.

Neilos tried to convince her to finish his prophecy first, because that way it wouldn't be a problem, but she insisted that she would simply write a note to herself, and hold it in her hand when she completed the prophecy.  With that, she returned into the secret passage and closed it.  As Neilos moved across the open field outside of Eniad, some guards on the wall spotted him and ordered him to stop.  He did no such thing, but did change course to a different village for a while, to not give away where they were staying.

The gods regrouped at the farmhouse, with Ajax the last to arrive as he had to walk all the way from the swamp.  They spent the night planning who would go where, as Ajax wanted to use the distraction to go into the palace with Steidis and drink the acid he had brought for his prophecy while it would be largely empty.  When the sun rose, Firuz woke, and, upon seeing Adlai similarly tied up, asked if they would set him free now.  Ajax told himi it would be a bit longer, but he replied that he'd heard that before.

Path to Godhood Session 27: A Man to Trade

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 Oracle

With Ursula still not able to use her powers, Steidis thought about sacrificing 33 people to his temple's flame to complete his "bonus" prophecy he'd learned from the ghost of the other candidate.  Considering how close Evenia seemed to be to breaking their deal if they inconvenienced her, though, he asked Firuz how to cure Ursula, and he revealed that the shard she had been stabbed with needed to be touched by Evenia.  Unfortunately, that shard had been stolen in Mantea, so it was still off the table.

The gods decided to visit the Oracle while they were in Urbos, to get some hints and new knucklebones for Firuz.  On the way, Neilos suggested they might be able to just hand Firuz over to Meda instead of completing her prophecy.  Remembering Meda's hatred for nobles, they then thought over their past interactions with Firuz and decided that his lack of courtly manners meant he was not nobility.  Ajax noticed that the recruiters for the Pirrus candidates were nowhere to be seen, likely due to his plague.  At the temple, the gods were allowed straight through, but Firuz would have to wait in the antechamber.  This resulted in them going in one at a time to make sure he didn't leave or trick Steidis who is very gullible.

Steidis learned what things he had to forge for the Armoury of the Gods, and Neilos was told that the Emperor could accept Firuz in exchange for Meda fulfilling her prophecy, depending on his mood.  Ajax asked what would happen when a god finished all of their prophecies.  Simply put, they would ascend to godhood, causing all other candidates of the same god to fail, and would become immortal until they died.  They all inhaled the swirling vapours in the inner chamber, but Steidis got nothing.