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 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.
A Meeting
After they arrived and concealed the God Galley in the Antominian Swamp, Steidis and Ajax set off on foot with Firuz while Neilos teleported to the top of the imperial palace in a beam of light, and set off a multitude of decoy beams both to confuse the Emperor and to get Meda's attention. A while later, she appeared from nowhere, as she had before. Neilos started the conversation by mentioning a new offer she might be interested in, when she cut him off and asked if it would have anything to do with Firuz being kidnapped in broad daylight.
He confirmed her suspicions, and explained that they had Firuz to use as a potent bargaining chip with the Emperor. Alternatively, he could hand him over to her instead of completing her prophecy. Meda expressed preference for the former, so Neilos continued: if they could steal back a stolen part of the imperial regalia from another Meda candidate, they could hand it over at the meeting to stay in the Emperor's good graces. It would also, of course, put her even further ahead of her rivals. She assumed they'd want her to do the stealing, which he confirmed.
When asked if he knew where these other candidates were, Neilos then asked if she was living above an orphanage. Meda stated she wasn't, and he stated that one of the others must be, then. As there were only a handful of orphanages in the city, it should be trivial to find out which one was their target's. Neilos also gave over the intelligence he had on the locations of the other two; one a vagrant, the other moving around. After a moment's thought, Meda shook her head and said it was too risky. She didn't know what the other candidates were capable of, and as far as she was concerned, the biggest risk to a goddess was another goddess.
Instead, Meda wanted him to ask Firuz if there were any things the Emperor would definitely exchange for their meeting, and Neilos, having already asked that question, presented the options he had been given: Seyyed, the Emperor's heir, Adlai Charmchi, the Chancellor whose relation to the Emperor was unknown, and the complete elimination of all of one gods' candidates. The first and third seemed tricky to her, so she proposed they target Adlai.
They'd already kidnapped Firuz, and Adlai, an infamous partygoer, frequently ended up wandering home drunk late at night. Neilos pointed out that they wouldn't be able to enter the city covertly anymore, which would be restricting his options, but if Meda could do the groundwork, they could try a more obvious tactic. In turn, Meda grabbed a clump of loose partchment sheets from thin air, and began going over what were apparently quite extensive notes.
Eventually, she found what she was looking for and began reading off facts. Adlai was always escorted by guards, typically 6. Once a week, he attended a regular late-night meeting at the palace with the other advisors, and usually left very drunk. She also turned and pointed out the location of his home estate; far from the harbour, but his route would take him by several smaller canals. Neilos asked if she could use her powers to disguise their party, but Meda claimed she could only do so for one person.
They continued to work out a plan. Meda had found a passage that could get Adlai out of the city once he was incapacitated, assuming it hadn't been found and sealed up. Neilos, Ajax, and Steidis would have to teleport into the city ahead of time (especially Neilos, who could only do so during the day) and then rendezvous at a safehouse Meda had been using in an abandoned warehouse. If everything went according to plan, Adlai should walk right in front of the warehouse, then they would attack and subdue him and his guards, after which he would be thrown down into a boat in the canal where Meda would be waiting.
Neilos pointed out that he couldn't use his powers to leave the city at night, but Meda eyed him up and down and said he could probably get out the same way she would be taking Adlai, though he was a bit... round. When asked what was a good way to move around the city unnoticed, Meda flippantly responded that moving around the rooftops worked for her. With their plan as good as it was going to get, Neilos created a decoy lightshow and teleported back to the farmhouse.
Another Mannapping
Over the next four days before the abduction, Ajax got to spend some time in the village and was slightly discomfited to find them in despair at Neilos' cruelty. When the day came, Neilos was first into Eniad, as he had to teleport while the sun was still up. He relaxed on the dome of the imperial palace for the afternoon, and Meda came later to inform him that the secret passage was still open before disappearing again. Firuz was tied up (Keti: "I'm not a babysitter"), and come nightfall, Steidis created a fire and leapt through, while Ajax used his powers to summon a cloud of flies then walked into the portal.
Ajax emerged from a cloud of flies in an alley. Turning around to orient himself, he saw a pair of shocked city guards who had been beating a man in shabby clothes. Before they could react, he directed a crowd of rats to leap at their faces and mouths, which was more than enough of a distraction for him to escape. Steidis, meanwhile, crawled out of a small fire to find himself in a noble's bathroom, beside a bronze bathtub, from where a naked woman saw him and shrieked. He grabbed a chunk of metal out of the tub and bent it into a thin ladder which he used to abscond from the (third-floor) window.
The gods then snuck to the warehouse without incident; Ajax stuck to the shadows, and Steidis used his ladder to navigate the roof-tops and balconies. Neilos grew a tree up to him and had it lower him down to the gardens before using another to get over the walls and into the city streets. As he crept through alleys, he used his powers to create distractions and draw people away. When they all had arrived, Ajax was surprised that nobody had caused a bigger disturbance on their way, and the other two agreed they had been fortunate.
Several hours later, their target came into view, circled by six armed guards, exactly as Meda had predicted. The gods leapt from their hiding place and instantly disabled the guards with their powers; Ajax corroded their weapons into dust, Steidis clotheslined them his bronze "ladder", and Neilos grabbed those he missed with ivy from the side of the canal. Adlai was shoved into the canall where Meda was waiting, and Neilos joined her, turning his body to wheat in case anyone had seen him during their assault. Ajax and Steidis used their powers to leave through a portal of flies and a large fire, respectively.
Meda poled their boat through the narrow canals to the dock of a residence, and, with Neilos' help, led the oblivious Adlai into the basement. She turned a torch sconce on the wall, then pushed it open, revealing the secret passage. The tunnel narrowed as it wound through the darkness, and they were forced to go single file with their drunk prisoner. At the narrowest section, Neilos was able to squeeze through by again turning his body into plants, and they soon came to the end; Meda pushed open another false wall and they emerged on the outside of the city walls, hidden by a small bush.
Neilos explained their plan: he would teleport into the city and carve a message into the stone of the palace with light, saying that they had taken Adlai and were waiting to meet the Emperor outside. This way, they avoided the charms in the palace, and could keep anyone potentially trying to sneak up on them with a charm away. Meda agreed, and said she would come when it seemed like the Emperor was moving.
Notes:
Prophecy Scoreboard:
Steidis 6
Neilos 6
Ajax 4
Missing Memories:
Neilos Family, Mortal Name, The Last 5 Years, Childhood, Most Precious Memory (His Horse, Daisy), Mortal Appearance
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, Childhood
Steidis' player's computer died a while ago and he lost all of his notes, which is why he got the two bonus clues to compensate.
If Ursula does ever get cured of her ailment, she still won't be rejoining the party because her player's still out.
What the gods were told about the Emperor's mood specifically was that they had to "not piss him off".
It was revealed in this session that I have been using a secret "Fall In Love" mechanic, so it was possible for Neilos to actually fall in love with Meda on his own, but once he got Killjoy it became extremely unlikely. What used to require multiple reaction rolls of 12+ now required multiple rolls at 18+.
The reason it takes 7 days to travel from any city to any other by sea is definitely explainable by in-world metaphysics similar to the Pale from Disco Elysium, and not just because I'm lazy.
When Ajax asked what happens to the gods once they reach "endgame", I responded that they could start doing raids, ranked pvp, and other such MMO activities.
Meda had her warehouse safehouse due to a critical success on a preparedness roll.
Ajax's rat attack was basically this.
No comments:
Post a Comment