Characters:
Ajax Karo - Gregarious Hunter
Suraki Karo - Stinking Wagon Driver
Hamocrates - Honest Warrior
Ursula - Klutzy Woodswoman
Background
For generations, the world has wallowed in twilight. After the death of the gods, the sun and moon have vanished, the ocean has grown barren, and crop yields have plummetted. The once great cities of man have withered, and vast stretches of them lie ruined and uninhabited as their populations could no longer be supported. Most of the knowledge from this golden age has been lost, as literacy in the old script vanished as the gods did.
Prophecy
The city of Metros was pierced by shouts from the town crier: the scholars at the Great Library had decoded part of the Metros Tablet, and made a great discovery! The planets would soon come into alignment, and the time had come for the gods to be reborn! Before the next day, they would reveal themselves at the amphitheatre, and you shall know them by their signs! He then rambled on down a long list of prophecies for the pantheon of gods, and four people were drawn to some of his words.
Ajax, upon hearing of the death god Kostis, knew that he was his reincarnation, and his brother, Suraki, had the same reaction to hearing of Neilos, god of light and the harvest. Hamocrates realized that he was destined to be Steidis, god of fire and the forge, and Ursula believed herself to be Chelak, the bear god. One problem: Chelak's prophecy referred to a man, when she clearly was a woman, so someone must have made a mistake.
Postings of the signs of the gods had also been placed on a public board, which many people had crowded around, their skin bearing the typical tattoos most adults in Metros received upon entering adulthood. Some were clearly gripped by the fervor of becoming a god, while others were just curious. They each went to get a better look, and Ursula tore down Chelak's in fury.
KOSTIS, GOD OF DEATH AND PLAGUES
The god of the dead looks as his subjects
Where he goes, so go the vultures
CHELAK, GOD OF BEARS AND THE WILDERNESS
The god of the wilds is giant and unkempt
He is master of the bears by concord, never by force
STEIDIS, GOD OF SMITHS AND FIRE
The god of the forge has a head of fire, and skin black as coal
The lick of flame cannot touch him
NEILOS, GOD OF LIGHT AND THE HARVEST
The god of the harvest is jolly and round
Flowers spread in his footsteps
The board also had descriptions for the other 6 gods of the pantheon, but none of the four bothered looking at them, because they had less than a day to figure out how to fill their descriptions. Ajax and Suraki started brainstorming immediately, and were spotted by Hamocrates, who knew Suraki, and was interested in working together. Ursula, who had worked with Ajax in the past, joined them shortly.
Preparations
Suraki went to go pick as many wildflowers as he could, and got help from Hamocrates. He thought about riding his wagon into the amphitheatre, but decided to go on foot when he remembered that the description mentioned him leaving footsteps. While picking the flowers, he grabbed other foliage to stuff under a robe to make him look rounder than he was; hopefully that would be enough.
Ursula, after checking that Ajax didn't have any spare hides from a recent hunt, decided to go to the waste piles, where she found a number of ruined, reeking hides, which she draped around herself, and got plenty dirty and unkempt in the process. Meanwhile, Ajax went to a spot in the forest nearby, where he remembered seeing some powdery white stone, from which he made a paste to dye his hair ghostly white.
Done helping Suraki, Hamocrates went to a smithy and got some black ash to colour his skin, then purchased a length of red cloth and some candles for his "head of fire". Their preparations were interrupted when they noticed a crowd of people moving to the amphitheatre, and they joined in the throng. A woman in a flowing blue gown had walked up from the ocean, and was holding a baby. The crowd muttered that this must be Nephele, goddess of the ocean and prophecy, and mother of all.
The woman's attempt at seeming godly fell apart, however, when the baby started to cry, and she was unable to calm it. This was slightly overshadowed when a man in a white robe walked down towards the amphitheatre stage, carrying a staff with a living snake wrapped around it. He made it just to the podium, and moved to speak, only for the snake to bite him. The man panicked briefly before foaming at the mouth and dropping stone dead; an ironic fate for someone claiming to be Doros, god of healing and knowledge.
Now slightly warier of wild animals, Ajax went to go see an old hunter named Phyrros; they'd worked together in the past, and Phyrros was renowned for helping out his juniors. Ajax asked if he knew anyone with a trained vulture, and was introduced to a bird-trainer who was willing to lend out his pet vulture, "Skraw", for a day or two. Meanwhile, Ursula convinced her brother, Barris, and a posse of his woodsman friends to come be her "bears".
Another commotion arose from the amphitheatre; this time, a pale man trailed by two vultures presented himself as Kostis (Ajax: "Oh that son of a bitch"). One of the vultures flew away, while the other squawked three times before settling on a stone outcropping nearby. Hamocrates tried to find a candidate of Meda, goddess of trickery and thieves, but clearly they were too sneaky for him. Instead, he went to Antoninus, a nobleman who owed him a favor, and arranged to be lended a tough-looking slave for the day.
They went off to rehearse Hamocrates' plan: the slave would hold his hand over a candle flame for a moment, then recoil and state that it was too hot, at which point Hamocrates would put his hand over the flame and not react. Ursula asked if anyone knew someone who could train her to project her voice better, and Suraki put her in touch with the town crier, Timaeus. After he imparted what advice and training he could in a single day, he walked back to the amphitheatre, but then the rest of the party realized he could help them look legitimate by announcing their arrival..
They found him in the crowd, but Timaeus was reluctant: what if he helped them out, only to anger the other god of death? He had to think about his family, and couldn't afford to endanger them. While they tried to convince him, a woman in a black hood claiming to be Meda announced that she had stolen the jewelry off of several people's necks. The crowd cooed in awe at the feat, but then someone shouted "THIEF!" and a cluster of people rushed to restrain the would-be goddess, who ran away.
Attempting to say Timaeus, Ursula pointed out that, if even one of them became a god, they would be able to help him. Suraki leaned on their friendship, while Ajax and Hamocrates tried to threaten him ("When I become a god, if you didn't help me, I'll come back here and make you choose which of your kids I throw into a volcano"), and they "won him over". As they came to their "agreement", a large man with a beard walked onto the stage leading a bear on a rope.
The bear hesitated to look around and the man, clearly attempting to appear as Chelak, tugged on the rope. Annoyed, the bear struck the man and bit at his right arm, wounding him severely. Ursula, seeing a chance to enhance her claim, walked down and freed the bear from its bonds.
Revelation
After an elbow from Suraki, Timaeus shouted out "Ah, this woman must surely be Chelak, friend of the bears!", and the crowd murmured in approval. At that, Ursula gestured for her own posse of "bears" to come down, and led the real bear away so that it couldn't maul anybody else.
Suraki, with help from Ajax and Hamocrates, stuffed his robes with the various foliage to bulk up, and made sure to leave the flowers for last so that they dropped out as he walked, to the approval of the audience. While Hamocrates was blackening his skin, however, another man, with red hair and blackened skin, beat him to the punch, leading a pair of labourers who held a metal pot on poles. At his direction, the overturned the pot onto the stage, leaving a patch of fiery coals.
The man walked halfway across the coals, stone-faced, before yelping in pain and jumping off, holding his feet. Hamocrates finished his preparations and headed down, his skin darkened with charcoal and his head wrapped in red cloth which supported several lit candles. At the last second, however, he had a fit of Truthfulness, and waved off the slave; he could not deceive the people. He cried out "Flame cannot do harm against me!", grabbed one of the candles, and held a hand over it, inside the flame.
The palm of his hand was badly burned, and he cringed in pain but suppressed any scream ("Well, he's better than the last guy I guess"). Despite a gaze at the pile of coals, he decided against an attempt at crossing them, and just hoped that his display would be enough. Ajax decided to wait, hoping to capitalize on another candidate dying. While they waited, Suraki helped bandage the other Chelak candidate's wounds, and the man was appreciative, if gruff.
What little light there was faded away as night fell, and a short man, naked save for a loincloth and covered in red paint, lead three young men into the amphitheatre. On the stage, they readied swords and shields, and the red man lunged at the other three, fighting all of them at the same time; clearly this was Pirus, the god of war. Hamocrates recognized the three men as warriors, but the red man wasn't. He also realized that though the other three weren't giving it their all, the Pirus candidate was still abnormally skilled.
A while later, a fat man leading three children who threw flowers behind him walked down to the stage, clearly getting agitated as the children chattered and giggled. By the time he actually arrived, he broke down and shouted at them to behave and not ruin the biggest day of his life. The crowd murmured that he didn't seem very jolly, and that the first Neilos had been better.
Later still, the crowd spotted a woman, who had climbed on top of a 15' pedestal behind the amphitheatre (Ajax: "Oh no! I rub my hands in anticipation."). She jumped off and, with a shoulder roll, performed a perfect landing directly in front of the podium (Ajax: "Awww, she lived"). The crowd regaled her as Keti, goddess of the sky. Figuring he was running out of time, Ajax made his move.
With Skraw on his wrist and his hair dyed white, he entered the amphitheatre, and at first the crowd was unsure who to support, but thanks to their ringer, Timaeus, they were swayed to support Ajax as Kostis. As dawn began to break, a woman in a diaphanous silk gown sashayed in, trailed by people holding several dozen lanterns; an attempt to appear "in radiance" as prophecy had foretold Evenia, goddess of love and beauty.
Ascension
The new day dawned, and the crowd held their breath, unsure what was supposed to happen. The party, as well as several other candidates, began to glow with a warm light which gradually resolved into a halo around their bodies before settling into their skin. Each noticed a change in their minds: new, dreamlike memories that seemed just out of reach. Something should happen, if they just reach out and want it to happen. The party turned to each other, and noticed that their appearances had changed slightly; taller, and their faces had definitely changed shape.
The failed candidates stormed off in a huff, except for the other Chelak, who congratulated Ursula on her success and clapped her on the shoulder. Suraki tried to console the other Neilos, but the fat man burst into tears and cried that he had taken it from him. While the crowd cheered, a small group from the Great Library led by an ancient man with a mountain tattoo on his left cheek walked onto the stage.
He informed them that they had actually deciphered several other sections of the Metros Tablet, and determined that they should only give them to the new gods. His followers brought forth strips of cloth with the prophecies written on them, and the candidates all broke off to find out what they had to do next.
Finding A Clue
The party read through their prophecies and discovered that they were frustratingly vague, referring to places and people that they had never heard of. While each kept their prophecies secret, they cross-referenced the locations, and found that many of them shared references; they also noticed that Ursula's voice was noticably deeper.
Ultimately, they decided to track down "the Azure City", which was referred by both Ajax's and Suraki's prophecies, and headed to the Great Library to do research. A slave clerk greeted them, and went to fetch a scholar. The old man who had given them the prophecies arrived, congratulated them, and mentioned that they were here substantially later than the other gods. Ajax tried to ask after the other gods' activities, but the old man refused to give up such private information.
He pointed out that the party, as citizens of Metros, had free access to the wider library, and could perform their own research. They could also make specific requests to the scholars, but they were very busy, and wouldn't drop everything to fulfill the party's whims. The party lodged one request each: Ajax asked after the Azure City, Hamocrates The Sea of Ghosts, Ursula The Pit, and Suraki The Ruby Hills. The old man let them know that they could expect results in a month or two, and left them to their own devices.
Ajax and Suraki went to the library to try to figure out where the Azure City was, and determined (incorrectly, due to a critical failure) that it referred to Mantea. It was famed for its extremely strong winds, wind was associated with Keti, goddess of the sky, the sky is blue: bingo. Ursula and Hamocrates, meanwhile, failed to track down any leads.
Hoping to move their requests further up the queue, Suraki offered his wagon-driving services to any scholars who were interested, and as luck would have it, Kristina, a scholar wearing purple robes usually associated with high nobility, had to go out to receive a rare book from a wealthy donor who lived outside Metros. On the way, he mentioned that he was interested in information on the "Mountain of Tears".
Kristina chuckled, noted that he was lucky she enjoyed wagon rides, and explained that the Library had work that needed doing. A scholar, Dimitris, had gotten indebted to the Megal brothers (Dimitrios and Damokles), well-known criminals and loan sharks, while trying to acquire rare tomes. Kristina said that she and the others aligned with her would put their requests to the top of the queue if they could acquire the record of this debt, so that they could oust Dimitris. Suraki suggested that as a future god, he was capable of "many things" (Kristina: "...Such as?" Suraki: "Y'know, god things"), and accepted the job.
Getting the Ledger To Find A Clue
Hamocrates had known a man who got into too much debt with the Megals and had to sell himself into slavery, so he took the rest of the party to their place of business (Megal Bros. Financial Assistance). They observed the place for a while, and noticed three toughs who looked to be guarding the place, and only a few people entered the business in over an hour. As he had the fewest social disadvantages, Hamocrates was sent in on his own.
Inside, a well-dressed man stood behind a table, and asked how he could help today. Hamocrates explained he was after information, and asked which brother he was talking to. It turned out to be Dimitrios, who asked what specific info he was looking for. Hamocrates tried to get access to the ledger, but through negotiations, he agreed to do a favour first: a man had sold a building to the brothers, but now refused to leave. They weren't interested in the contents, so as the god of fire, surely he could just burn it down?
Removing The Squatter To Get The Ledger To Find A Clue
Suraki, who was Selfless, refused to burn the house and made the case that they should just get the man to leave and find him another place to live. They walked to the address they'd been given and knocked on the door. A minute or so later, a clearly drunk man holding a clay carafe opened the door and slurred his way through the question "Who are you and what do you want?".
Kostis tried to play up that they were gods, but the man had clearly been on a bender for several days and hadn't heard of what happened the day before, and went to close the door. Hamocrates grabbed the drunkard's shoulder, grunted "Gods don't negotiate", and then fire shot forth from his eyes, burning the drunk to ash in a flash of heat. Suraki screamed out in shock and horror, and Ursula was equally aghast.
An argument broke out about whether they should turn Hamocrates into the authorities, but several points were brought up on both sides. First, do laws even apply to gods? There wasn't exactly any precedent to go off of. Second, what proof is there? The only witnesses were the four of them, and the pile of ash wasn't necessarily convincing evidence. On the other side, it was noted that Hamocrates, renowned for being law-abiding and honest, had immediately gone mad with power and murdered a man for basically no reason.
In the end, Suraki and Ursula agreed not to arrest (or kill) Hamocrates then and there, but they weren't happy about it. Hamocrates took a fistful of the man's ashes, went back to Dimitrios and, after Dimitrios lightly taunted him for being unwilling to go through with it, slammed the ashes down on the table and said to remember the name Steidis, because the man would no longer be a problem. Dimitrios was caught off-guard by this savagery, but recovered, and offered a copy of the ledger, then said that he'd be more than happy to work with Steidis in the future.
They took the documents back to Kristina at the Great Library, and oh would you look at that, the queries they'd made would be ready in an hour. They sat in a lounge and were brought wine by slaves (except for Suraki, who refused) while they waited, until the results were brought in by another clerk.
Clues
The Ruby Hills likely referred to the mountain range north of Susae, which were said to sparkle crimson at dawn.
The Tyrant must be the Emperor of Eniad, and his House would surely be his palace in the capital city of the same name.
The Pit was a dry step-well at the bottom of a deep chasm, and there were many chasms and canyons around Mantea.
The Sea of Ghosts was very similar in name to the Bay of the Dead, a strait between the island of Urbos and the mainland. So named because so many people died sailing through due to a whirlpool and many rocks.
Setting Out
After some discussion, they flipped a coin and booked passage on a trireme to Susae to investigate the Ruby Hills and what they figured would be a pair of easy prophecies to fulfill. Suraki convinced Hamocrates to share their prophecies with the group:
NEILOS
In the twilight, the people of the Ruby Hills hungered, having forgotten His Ways.
Brought into His Light, they were fed.
STEIDIS
In the Ruby Hills did He discover the Great Forge, and fet it His Flesh willingly in payment.
As its flame was kindled, so too was his.
The people of Susae were famed for their generosity, but the city was in the middle of a brutal succession war after the old king had left his sons to figure out how to split up his land on their own. Some asking around revealed that the nobility of Susae had formal legal immunity, and could murder someone in broad daylight with no chance of facing justice.
After many uneventful days on the ship, crewed mostly by slaves, they pulled into the port of Susae, a collection of squat wooden buildings nestled in and around three gentle hills. As dawn broke, they marvelled at the Ruby Hills to the north as they sparkled crimson in the morning light. The people in the city were mostly dark-skinned, short, with grey-silver eyes, and all sported some prominent object bearing totemic images.
While waiting in the queue to dock, they heard a cry from an alley, where a noble stabbed a man repeatedly before getting up and just walking away. Suraki tried to use his powers to build a bridge from the wood of the trireme, but suddenly forgot how to use them entirely. By the time they'd finally docked, the victim was already dead, and Ajax decided it wasn't worth trying to use his powers to find his ghost.
Ajax looked around for someone to help give them the lay of the land, and approached a man with a pendant portraying an owl in flight who was just lounging around. He introduced himself as Pacchus, but didn't know anything about a great forge or any particular villages in the Ruby Hills (there are a lot). He pointed them towards Koios, who he proclaimed the smartest man alive and greatest philosopher in the world. In terms of recent news, there was the whole ongoing civil war, and a woman who shot lightning out of her hands had arrived in town recently.
Pacchus advised them to give her a wide berth ("Just listen for the thunderclaps and avoid them"); though she hadn't killed anyone yet, she was clearly dangerous. Suraki asked if she looked like the Keti candidate from Metros, but apparently this woman was a muscular giant, like a bigger Ursula. When asked what payment he wanted, Pacchus asked if they'd seen the Owl, a man who was supposed to be a great healer and know everything. They said they hadn't, and he asked them to let him know if they did.
The Smartest Man Alive
Hamocrates wanted to go talk to Koios to get some more clues, and they arrived at his academy in the middle of a lecture where he was describing how everything in the world was based on an ideal of that thing, but that the real versions were flawed. Rather than the brash celebrity they expected, Koios seemed very humble, and was covered in heavy cloth from head to toe except for a slit for his eyes.
Hamocrates asked him if he knew anything about the Great Forge, and Koios suggested they engage in a dialogue where Hamocrates presented what he knew, and Koios questioned him until he gained some insights ("You already know the answer, you just need someone a bit wiser to refine it out of you"). Once the dialogue began, Koios' personality changed entirely, and he savagely asked biting questions, subjecting Hamocrates to brutal public embarrassment and destroying him with facts and logic.
In spite of getting dumpstered, the dialogue actually helped Hamocrates to realize that the Great Forge would be a large temple, and so it should be easy to find just by asking around in the villages in the hills. Ajax, "aided" by a critical failure from Suraki, attempted to engage in a dialogue to learn some insight into who the Owl was, but became so flustered that it was all for naught. Ursula decided not to engage Koios ("Philosophy's not my forte. Plus, if I lost I might kill him"), and noticed that none of his several dozen students were women.
The Great Forge
They trekked out to the Ruby Hills, and as they went, Suraki tried to feel out what people in the region thought of Neilos. Noone in the farming villages knew who he was talking about, though they all recognized an important patron god known as the Sun who seemed to match. It took the better part of the day to track down the Great Forge, a stone temple fronted by a hammer and anvil frieze supported by many thick stone columns. Locals knew about it, but kept their distance.
Inside, the temple was overgrown and plain, with only a stone sculpture of hammer and anvil in front of a towering fireplace up a pair of steps, the lintel easily 10' off the ground. The fireplace was unlit, and attempts by Hamocrates and Ursula to start it with tinder and flint proved fruitless; inside the fireplace, not even a spark could form. Hamocrates tried to get one of the others to cut off one of his fingers, but nobody wanted to help (Ursula, still pissed from when he'd killed that squatter in Metros, offered to take off the whole hand).
Staring at the rest of the party, Hamocrates placed his right hand on the stone anvil and used his knife to cut his fourth finger off, never breaking eye contact. He tossed it into the fireplace and sure enough, the finger burst into a small flame, seemingly unaffected by the heat. It looked like it needed more fuel, but the kindling already in there still wasn't catching, so Hamocrates put his hand in and it, too, ignited. With a shout of "Look at me!", he stepped fully into the fireplace and was instantly covered in glorious flame as the forge was fully lit.
He stepped out of the flame, and revelled in the torrent of godly power flowing into him, even as the rest of the party recoiled from his now horrifically burned body. Some of the dreamlike memories he'd gained at The Revelation in Metros resolved themselves, and he remembered that he could now shape metal with his bare hands, control fire, and spontaneously craft gadgets, given appropriate tools. However, these memories came at a cost, as he could no longer remember his name. From then on, he would only be known as Steidis.
Steidis grabbed his severed finger, and ran a cord through it to make a necklace. Ajax asked if he remembered what the Great Forge was supposed to be used for, but Steidis still wasn't sure, and with that they moved on to try to find the village that had forgotten Neilos' ways. They journeyed through several more villages, but each revered the Sun, until well after dark, when they found a "village" of hide tents arrayed around a campfire on the edge of a forest.
The Hungering
The villagers were preparing wild game and what looked to be foraged vegetables and nuts, and clearly weren't in a talkative mood, but a frail adolescent girl, who introduced herself as Kassandra, came out to talk to the strangers. Suraki offered a "bribe" of city food they'd brought with them, and she seemed enthused by the novelty of something she rarely ate. He asked after what she thought of the god Neilos, but she had no idea what he was talking about, saying her favourite god was the Jackdaw, at which she held up a gold bracelet stamped with an icon of a bird.
Suraki continued on, questioning why their village didn't have any farms. Kassandra replied that they didn't need to farm, as they just got everything they needed out of the forest; besides, she'd seen those farmer people working, and it looked way harder and took all day, while it only took them a few hours. Why deal with all the hassle? The party took a closer look at the other villagers in the background and noticed that they were slightly underfed, but weren't starving or anything.
Despite her initial disinterest, Kassandra was gradually won over by the idea of more food like the kind they'd brought, and promised that she'd try to get the rest of the village on board ("I have a lot of power here, so I'm kind of a big deal"). As Kassandra limped back to go speak to the other villagers, an older man, who towered over all of them, a polished bronze button depicting a hammer prominently placed on his breast, walked over in a huff and demanded that they not pollute their village's youngsters minds with these ideas.
After all, they'd been foraging for generations, and if it was good enough for his father, and his father before him, then it was good enough for the rest of them, thank you very much. Ursula "politely" suggested the man reconsider before resorting to violence, and he clarified that he only wanted them to leave. Suraki raised his voice, making sure the villagers in the background heard him, and again stressed that he only wanted what was best for them, as their current practices were causing them harm.
Slightly before the man completely boiled over, a truly ancient village elder, skin caked heavily with dirt, walked over and convinced "Kastor" to go back with the others and help prepare the meal; he could take care of this. The ancient, Euandros, claimed to get what they were doing, but pointed out that there was obviously a lot of resistance to change. More importantly, he wanted to know what they were getting out of this.
Suraki bluffed that he just really cared about people and spreading the good word of Neilos, and apparently Euandros bought it. He then pointed out that, even if he and Kassandra were able to get most people on board with the vague concept of farming, the naysayers would ask for hard proof before signing on, and they wouldn't be willing to wait a year until harvest.
Notes:
Prophecy Scoreboard:
Steidis 1
Steidis 1
Ajax 0
Suraki 0
Ursula 0
There is widespread slavery in the setting, which mostly occurs when people sell themselves (and their descendents) for a time in order to pay off debt. Depending on the size of the debt, this may last anywhere from months to generations. They're treated as incredibly poor people.
In hindsight, I should have sent the party off to Mantea immediately. They had a false clue, but they shouldn't have known it wasn't legit.
There aren't dedicated "town guards". In Metros, law is enforced either by a posse of citizens (rarely) or private guards (often). This means that the law is almost always only enforced in favour of the wealthy.
While they were well down the chain of favours, Ajax suggested getting the help of another god candidate, but was talked down before they got into an even longer chain.
Koios (a reference to Plato) was put in as an easter-egg for Hamocrates' player, who is into philosopohy.
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