Characters:
Ajax Karo - Gregarious Hunter and Aspiring Kostis, God of Death and Plagues
Suraki Karo - Stinking Wagon Driver and Aspiring Neilos, God of The Sun and Plants
Steidis - Aspiring God of Fire and Smiths
Ursula Bearclaw - Klutzy Woodswoman and Aspiring Chelak, God of Bears and Independence
In His Light, They Were Fed
Looking to win the hunter-gatherers over to agriculture, Suraki focused on the foreign memories of how to use his latent godly powers. Golden light emanated out from him, and a few moments later a stretch of open land outside the village was suddenly flattened, plowed, and bearing a bountiful harvest. The villagers were awed, but confused. Euandros asked why Suraki wanted them to worship this god "Neilos", when clearly Suraki had been the one to carry out this blessing. After an explanation that he was going to be Neilos, but was travelling covertly because nobody would believe him, they settled into the village for the night.
The next morning, Suraki had regained some more godly memories, and remembered that he could now control plants, an ability which he used to aid the villagers in their first harvest. During the work, a chat with Kassandra about who the rest of them were took an odd turn whe Suraki introduced Ajax as his friend, and not his brother. Apparently, all Suraki's memories of his family members being actual family were gone, and when questioned about who he had been born to claimed to have emerged from the earth fully formed. Somewhat concerned, the party started the day-long walk back to Susae to look for "The Thunderclap", who Ursula believed had to shock her with lightning twice, and talk to Koios before heading elsewhere.
Destroyed By Facts and Logic
The party didn't make it back until after dark, and as they walked back to Koios' school, heard no thunder. While the rest of the city's denizens were crowding the taverns and pubs, the gods found Koios still in his "house of wisdom", alone; he disliked "pointless" socializing, and his only vice was knowledge. Ursula engaged him in debate about what it meant for her to be struck twice by lightning, where Koios was even more hostile than usual, demeaning her for foolishly thinking that a it meant being literally struck by lightning, when it was clearly a metaphor (Ursula: "Met-uh-for? Metal Foe?").
As he continued to demean Ursula as every misogynistic stereotype he could think of, Koios pointed out that the Eniadan Empire's flag depicts a lightning bolt, and they had launched a failed invasion of Syrinth 10 years before, so it clearly referred to a second invasion. For her part, Ursula suppressed her bloodlust and chose not to murder Koios. Suraki, on the other hand, had his literal interpretation of a prophecy about shining brightly to banish the darkness confirmed. After a small amount of discussion, they decided their most concrete leads were in Eniad, and they boarded a ship bound east.
The House Of The Tyrant
Eniad had a reputation for excess, and the gods' first view of the city didn't disappoint. Gold and silver decorated every wall, and thousands of banners depicting the emperor's lightning bolt fluttered in the breeze. Massive stone walls, dwarfing any other fortifications in the known world, enclosed the harbour and served as a physical reminder of the emperor's might. The city lay on a narrow isthmus between the ocean and an inland sea, and the port divided it in two, with dozens of gondola-filled canals spidering off.
The people of Eniad were red-skinned, and averaged half a foot taller than the peoples the gods were familiar with. As their vessel docked, Steidis felt something was off, and a magistrate backed by guards carrying cudgels declared that, by imperial decree, all metal and all weapons were banned within the city. Goods were confiscated, and several wooden weapons, including Suraki's mace, were thrown into the harbour. While the party debated their next move, they couldn't help but notice large crowds moving in one direction, and some quick questioning revealed that they were all heading to the gates of the imperial palace, where the emperor was granting any request asked of him!
From the way the people were speaking, it sounded as though they considered the emperor almost divine. The gods headed to the gates and struggled to see over the teeming crowd of giants each trying to jostle their way to the front. There was an orderly queue in the palace grounds, but those inside the gates were much more wealthy than the masses teeming in the square outside. Realizing that those inside were probably bribing their way past the guards, they thought of how to get money. Steidis suggested forging some, but it wouldn't be a sure thing, and ran a high risk.
As they discussed, Suraki's vision was superimposed with an image of a hand dropping a torrent of coins onto an earthen floor. Unsure how to interpret this, they doubled down on trying to find bribe money, and worked their way through the city, hunting down profitable rumours. Obviously, the main thing people were interested in was the emperor's wish-granting; they heard many stories, with the most common being that some beggars had walked out rich, while other petitioners had disappeared entirely.
The Antominian Swamp
After a while, though, they heard about some older news: livestock had started to show up dead in the marshes to the west, and the flora at the sites of the kills were always dead and grey. Several people had gone missing as well, most notably a merchant caravan a week ago. The gods headed out west, with Ajax and Ursula doing their best to find the missing caravan so they could loot it. Eventually, they found a site that had what looked like some traces of wrecked wagons, but nothing substantial, so they split up to look for more signs.
As Ursula picked her way through the reeds, some of them seemed to come alive, and she suddenly found herself staring down a reptillian monster with too many legs and needle-like fangs. It lunged at her and sank its fangs into her shoulder, sucking out torrents of blood. Ursula channelled her godly energy, taking in more than she could handle and burning herself, gaining superhuman strength which she used to throw the beast off, but it just went towards the others, taking a chunk of out Suraki before he could react.
Ajax attempted to kill it with his powers, but only burned himself due to taking in too much energy, and was likewise bitten and drained of blood before Steidis drove it off of him with a fiery beam from his eyes. That drew the beast's attention, and it targetted him, biting his torso with its needle-teeth before retreating off into the swamp. As best they could tell, it was missing some scales and bleeding slightly, but didn't seem seriously wounded. Whatever its blood touched withered and died, from plants to tadpoles and small fish.
Suraki recalled a legend of the Drakkon which very closely resembled the beast which had just nearly killed them. It drank blood to survive, drained the life from all things around it, and had a venomous bite. The venom wouldn't take hold for a while, and, fortunately, it wasn't supposed to be fatal. Poisoned, suffering from massive blood loss, and having used up their powers, the gods retreated back to Eniad to lick their wounds.
Rest
Ajax and Ursula ended up incapacitated by the poison, but Suraki and Steidis were able to get them lodgings where they could rest. The two able-bodied gods went to find a healer or herbalist, only to find that they, as well as alchemists and potion-makers, had all been banished two weeks ago by imperial decree. Strangely, they had been bought passage on ocean-going vessels, to be taken far away. Suraki went out into the swamps and found some bitter herbs that would aid their recovery using his newfound memories of plant knowledge.
Suraki then went to try to talk his way past the guards of the imperial palace, but was barely able to escape without being detained. While the others recovered, they tried to learn what they could of the palace. Two weeks ago, it had gone on lockdown, with not even servants allowed in or out; the only regular entrants were the queue of petitioners, and carts of food and drink which were closely inspected.
As the days passed, more rumours of the emperor's wish-granting swirled about town. More lower-class citizens had disappeared when they made outlandish requests. The nobility were just using this to make small requests in their favour, not willing to risk the emperor's wrath. The emperor was to wed a craftsman's daughter. From one tavern-owner, Steidis learned that someone else had been asking similar questions, and pointed him towards an orphanage.
A Meeting in the Imperial Palace
Steidis and Suraki investigated the orphanage, and did their best to discretely ask the orphans if they knew anything about cool crimes at the imperial palace. One seemed to know who they were asking after, and told them that that if they wanted to meet, "she should still be waiting on top of the imperial palace". After some heckling that people usually paid for information, Suraki gave the orphan a coin, which apparently wasn't good enough as the orphan bemoaned that foreign currency was impure and worthless. The gods took their leave.
After some time planning, and a failed attempt by Suraki to turn a tree into a ladder, Steidis stole some of the gold and silver embellishing a nearby building with his ability to work metal with his hands, and crafted a set of climbing gear. A few days of recovery later, Steidis was moving around at full speed, and climbed up the palace walls in the dead of night to meet their mysterious contact, but critically failed Stealth and was immediately spotted by 5 armed guards who detained him and brought him into the throne room, where he was placed kneeling before the emperor.
The emperor asked who had tried to break into his palace, and seemed unsurprised when this stranger referred to himself as Steidis, god of fire and the forge; instead, he merely nodded to an advisor nearby, who had a scorpion on his shoulder and fiddled with something in his right hand. Steidis asked who he was speaking to, and the emperor introduced himself as Daryus the Great, Emperor of Eniad. Daryus continued to lead the conversation, interrogating Steidis as to what he was doing in the city.
Steidis replied that he had simply been trying to meet with Daryus, and revealed that he was working with three other gods: Kostis, Neilos, and Chelak. Daryus asked after what specifically the meeting was about, but Steidis deflected and inquired as to why weapons were banned in the city. Predictably, Daryus declined to give his reasoning, but seemed surprised that Steidis didn't already know. The conversation continued, with Daryus looking to find out if they knew of any other gods in the area, or if they had broken into the palace before (no to both).
Seemingly satisfied, Daryus announced that Steidis' divine companions would be brought to the palace that night, their likenesses recorded by artists, and then banished from the city. As he was a generous emperor, he would even gift them with passage on a ship bound wherever they wished. Steidis was convinced of the emperor's intentions, and gave up the locations of his allies (not that he had much choice). Ursula put up token resistance out of principle, but ultimately they were all arrested without further incident.
The gods were brought to the imperial palace and given large spacious quarters for the night; again, Ursula raised a fuss and demanded to see the emperor, but nothing came of it. In the morning, their likenesses were recorded by artists, along with the images and location of their Metran tattoos; to the guards' chagrin, Ursula's was a felled tree on her rear, which meant they'd now be running the risk of strip-searching nobles who would make their lives a living hell.
The Canyon City
The gods asked for their ship to carry them to Mantea, as they had two leads to pursue there (The Azure City and The Pit). On the journey, Ursula went over her prophecies, and lamented that a legendary beast like the Drakkon may have been critical to one of them involving "wrestling the Wildest" in "The Realm of Storms", and had failed. They disembarked just shy of Mantea, and they began the trek through winding canyons to find the city that sat atop them. Now out of Eniad, Suraki made another "wooden" club from a cactus.
After some time, they came to one of the narrow switchback trails up the canyon walls and started up to the city that now sat above them, noticing a stone elevator nearby which lay ruined. When they were about 2/3 of the way up, they felt a rumbling and saw a landslide take out a different trail across the canyon, burying several people alive. At the peak, they found Mantea even more ruined than the other cities they'd been to.
Divided between three great plateaus, the city was connected by a series of rickety rope bridges which swayed in the wind, anchored on foundations which had surely once been mighty bridges of brown stone. Most buildings were crumbling, with some missing sections where the plateau had collapsed into the canyon below. Ursula noted it odd that a place so brown could be described as "The Azure City", but Ajax reminded her that it was so-described because of the winds, which were associated with the sky goddess Keti, who represented a blue sky. They soon noticed another point in this theory's favor: each citizen of the city had one blue eye and one of a different colour.
Ajax had the idea to ask around if there was a smartest man alive here too ("Preferably less sexist"), and was directed to a group of scholars working at a site down in the canyons. And so they headed back down the switchback path to the canyon floor, looking wistfully at the broken elevator, and north a ways until they arrived at the site. A handful of people in yellow robes and more in black worked around the ruined black stone pillars and walls. On closer examination, every surface of the ruins was engraved with the ancient script.
A large man in yellow robes accidentally broke something, and, while muttering that he screwed up again, noticed the gods and approached them to see if they, too, were interested in translating the ancient script. He introduced himself as Atlas, and given a chance to speak to a learned scholar on the ruins, Ajax asked if he knew whether or not the people currently living in the ruined cities were the original inhabitants. Atlas confirmed that, to the best of his knowledge, that was the case, but records only went back until literacy in the ancient script vanished along with the gods several hundred years ago. Even those were incomplete, as much was lost in the ensuing chaos.
Ajax then asked for the learned scholar to help him track down "The Lion", but Atlas would only help if they were able to help copy down sections of text from the ruins. Ajax, Suraki, and Ursula all tried, but their work was deemed insufficient. Steidis, meanwhile, negotiated aid in exchange for repairing the ruined elevator, and, after several hours, it was in full working order. Atlas used his linguistic talent to clarify a reference to "black gloss of the earth", directing him towards black metal ore. Supposedly, some ore fitting that description that "clings to itself" could be found in surface deposits north of Metros.
Returning back to Mantea, a giant crowd welcomed Steidis and cheered him for fixing the elevator. He made the most of his new reputation, collecting fruit baskets, kissing babies, and getting free drinks, when he was approached by a woman who claimed to have a friend who was interested in meeting with him. She was waiting at the edge of town, and he'd have to come alone. High on his victory, he agreed, though he was followed by Ajax and Ursula (who were so sneaky that neither noticed the other).
The Still Harp
Steidis was led to the meeting with this "friend", who was waiting on the edge of one of the ruined stone bridges, worrying at some piece of fabric in her hands. Clearly nervous, she introduced herself as a candidate of the goddess Evenia, and suggested they work together for mutual benefit. Steidis, "not wanting to give too much away", offered that he help her first. Slightly confused that he was offering assistance so easily, she agreed, and laid out her problem.
She needed to acquire something known as "the still harp". She was confident that it was in the ruins the scholars were working at down in the canyon, but they would have to "pass through the door of eyes unseen". Despite some flattery towards his intelligence, Steidis insisted that he didn't recognize any of these terms, but was willing to go investigate the ruins with her the next day. Steidis mentioned that he was travelling with other gods, and the Evenia candidate was insistent he tell her who, claiming that while she trusted him, not all gods were friendly.
He told her that the others were Kostis, Neilos, and Chelak, and she seemed content. She asked what assistance he would like, and Steidis asked if she knew about "The Windy Pit"; she hadn't heard of it, but she'd look into it. With that, they agreed to meet at the ruins the next day and parted ways. Meanwhile, Suraki had been asking around if any particular wickedness or darkness was blighting the city, and learned that a bunch of nobles had taken money to be used to rebuild one of the bridges and left town. Similarly, Ajax' asking after "the Lion" got him directed to the island of Urbos, where the mythical Typharean Lion was said to dwell.
The next day, the gods took the elevator down to the bottom of the canyon and walked to the ruins, where the Evenia candidate was waiting, though she was wearing a scarf wrapped around her head which obscured her face. She led them to the door of eyes, a black stone door with handle and many engraven triangles with eyes inside. Ursula said she had this, closed her eyes, opened the door, and walked in. Once inside, she opened her eyes, and saw a harp resting on a black stone plinth, which she took back outside.
Evenia, embarrassed, muttered that she felt like an idiot for not figuring it out. Suraki asked if she had needed to retreive it herself, but she stated that she only needed to "pluck the Still Harp, or else the Divided City would remain so". This triggered some conversation over whether this was actually the Divided City or not (Evenia was pretty sure, given that the Still Harp was here), and then Ursula tried to extort information on "Kerithmos" from Evenia. When it was clear she hadn't heard of it, Ursula handed her the harp, but claimed she "owed her one".
She tried to pluck at the strings, but they were frozen in place and made no sound. Suraki asked if she knew anything about a place that was darker than usual, and she said that Syrinth, where she came from, was trapped in eternal night. Steidis wanted to know if any of her prophecies mentioned "The Underworld", and she pulled out the scrap of fabric she'd been fidgeting with the night before and scanned over the list before shaking her head. Ajax pointed out that the "Divided City remain[ing] so" might be fulfilled by the city collapsing into the canyon, and Evenia agreed, admitting she'd never thought of that.
After a brief farewell in which she hoped to work together again, Evenia left the other gods to their prophecies. Steidis suggested looking for "The Pit", since both Ajax and Ursula had prophecies that referred to it, but Ajax didn't think he could pull his off yet, and Ursula's would require her to survive being "entrapped" for "30 days and 30 nights", which she wasn't up to. Steidis went over to the section of the ruins where the scholars were working and asked Atlas if the civilization that had lived in the ruins had anything to do with the Underworld.
Atlas informed him that the ruins were of a temple complex, so nobody may have lived in them. As for the Underworld, they'd copied some important-looking script down off of a prominent stone door built into the canyon walls in the main ruin section and perhaps if the gods translated that, they could find out if it was on the other side. Judging by his tone, he was just trying to get them to do some work for him, and actually had no idea. Despite this, the gods took his advice and actually succeeded at translating it. It read:
The Starlit Desert lies below,
In the Dark their numbers grow,
All will come, just one may go,
What is the fate that all will know?
The Black Door
One of Ajax's prophecies referred to descending into the Starlit Desert, and at first they thought that might also refer to the Underworld, until Steidis clarified that he was supposed to construct the Underworld himself. While they were going over their prophecies for the region, Ursula pointed out that Suraki's, which said that he had to shine bright to banish the darkness, may refer to something else coming out of the door.
They concluded that "just one may go" must refer to the temple being empty, so they waited until the scholars left for the day, and then the other gods walked 5 minutes away, leaving Ajax alone. He pushed the door to open it, but it did not give, so he went and grabbed the others, in case it took more of them to open, but that, too, failed. While they contemplated the mystery, Ursula looked around and found that there were only three doors: the "main door" (aka the "spooky door"), the "door of eyes", and a third, which was plain.
Ajax tried the door of eyes with his eyes open, and emerged into an empty, dusty room, with no plinth in the center.
Notes:
Prophecy Scoreboard:
Steidis 1
Suraki 1
Ajax 0
Ursula 0
Missing Mortal Memories:
Steidis Mortal Name
Suraki Family
This game has custom extra-effort rules, which may have ended up being too complicated in play. It's also possible that because this was the first time using them it went slow and will be better in the future. I'll bring it up at the next session and see what everyone else thinks.
The players are confident that Daryus the Great knows about the prophecies, but they don't know how much he knows, or his motivation. Ajax's player thinks he has his own prophecy to fulfill and is trying to bring about the circumstances which would fulfill it. Suraki's player thinks he might be trying to keep gods from running around and possibly wrecking his empire.
Evenia is the goddess of the moon, beauty, and love.
Suraki's player is so far the only one to put forth a theory for the Black Door's message. He thinks it might involve stars and the sun, and as there is no sun at the moment, it's not yet be possible.
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