Path To Godhood Session 3: The Starlit Desert

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

The Sealed Door

The gods continued to investigate the black door for clues as best they could, given it was night; Ajax looked for a "secret lever" but didn't find anything, then debated with the others whether the canyon they were standing in was the Starlit Desert, because it was physically below the door.  Considering that the door referred to numbers growing in darkness, Ursula looked around the ruins to see if anything had changed, but didn't notice anything.  Figuring this was a dead end for now, Suraki brought up one of his prophecies, which he thought would take place in Mantea proper:

In the Divided City He Shone Brighter than ever to banish the darknesss, but found Himself Consumed on His own pyre.

He was interpreting it as mostly literal, and so would need to go find flammable materials (trivial to acquire with Control Plants), then light himself on fire and use his Wild Talent to shine like the sun.  Having reminded himself that he could Control Plants, Suraki took a moment to see if he would be able to animate vines to pry open the door, but it was sitting perfectly flush so there were no openings.  Steidis went back to Mantea and used his fame from fixing the elevator to get some torches from patrolling guards, then came back to investigate the ruins with more light but still didn't find anything, so they broke for the night.

Ajax and Ursula made camp at the ruins in case something happened, and overnight Ajax had a vivid dream of a white orb moving through a black sky.  The next morning, the gods all reconvened at the ruins, and waited around until Atlas and the other scholars showed up.  Now looking more closely at random strangers, Suraki noticed that Atlas wore a pendant depicting an owl, and that a woman in white, possibly not affiliated with the scholars, was off on her own.  Ajax walked over and told Atlas their translation of the script on the door, and he muttered "that makes sense" before offering to aid the gods with his skills.

Ajax wanted to know about the door + riddle, and Atlas pulled him aside, to privately inform him that he believed the door to block the way to the Land of Death.  Ajax questioned if it was perhaps a metaphorical door, but Atlas pointed out that it looked pretty real to him.  They discussed whether Atlas would be interested in going inside, and it turned out that he would be reluctant.  While he was a devoted disciple of the Owl ("the knower of all things and the healer"), and therefore yearned to seek out all knowledge, there was supposedly no way back from the Starlit Desert.

Steidis asked after what "The Fall of the Divided City" meant, and Atlas confirmed that the word used in the ancient script referred to something literally falling.  Suraki wanted clarification on "banishing the darkness", and was told that "banishing the night" was also a potential translation, so it was also most likely literal.  Ursula wanted to know if Atlas had ever been to another ruin site, and described The Pit to the best of her knowledge.  It turned out he had, and directed them half a day's travel north through the canyon network.

Suraki went back to Mantea to look around for an elevated central spot to turn into his pyre that night and settled on a plinth with a ruined statue in the largest square on the main plateau.  Ajax asked Atlas if the language they were speaking was the same as the ancients would have used, and he believed that it was.  He then asked if he knew what the different colour robes were about, and was informed that "yellow is for scholars, black is for laborers, white I don't know, it's just something they do here".  Apparently the woman in white came by and had asked some questions about the Door of Eyes in the past, but he didn't know anything else about her.

The Second Moon

They discussed how to open the door some more, and Suraki suggested that after he died from burning himself on the pyre, he could open it from the inside.  Ursula went over to the woman, asked what she was doing here, and was told that she had to get through the Door of Eyes.  Ursula noted that she thought she'd heard the prophecy already, and recited the one from the Evenia candidate back to her; apparently it differed slightly, but was close enough that the woman in white was interested.

Suddenly worried, the woman in white questioned if Ursula was an Evenia candidate too, but was put at ease when she burst out in laughter and responded that, no, she was a candidate of Chelak.  Ursula stated that she had already solved the riddle, then paused, which prompted "Evenia 2" to ask if she was going to actually tell her the solution or not.  Ursula wanted assurance that she was the "real" Evenia, and, after a moment, was asked which city she was from.  It turned out that Evenia 2 was also from Metros, and had been the one who walked in at sunrise backlit by lanterns.

Ursula hadn't paid attention to her at the time, but conceded that she looked familiar, and her features were close to the average Metran, if a bit paler and softer.  Suraki joined the conversation and asked how Evenia 2's prophecy differed from Evenia 1's; hers only mentioned that she had to pass through the Door of Eyes in order to lift the curse affecting the Divided City, with no reference to the Still Harp.

Evenia 2 offered to aid them in exchange for their information regarding the Door of Eyes, but Ursula, doubting any Evenia candidate's abilities after Evenia 1 had proven little help, just asked what she would do if she had to survive being entrapped in a pit for 30 days.  With no hesitation, Evenia 2 suggested using her god powers to hibernate ("Chelak is the god of bears right?  So far, I've had luck using my god powers").  In exchange, Ursula told her she had to walk through with her eyes closed, so Evenia 2 did so, then returned.

She asked if anything felt different, and the gods agreed that nobody had noticed any changes.  Evenia 2 figured this meant that, for whatever reason, the prophecy hadn't been completed.  Suraki asked how many prophecies she'd completed, and learned that she had completed 2 others.  Ursula mentioned the Still Harp, and Evenia 2 thanked her and mentioned she'd look into it.  She then asked if their prophecies were all located here too; she'd already been here a while, and hadn't seen them until now.

Suraki responded that, no, theirs were scattered all over the place, and Ursula told her all that she knew of the Still Harp and Evenia 1 (Steidis: "No, she's going to go after my waifu!  I still have favours with her!").  They discussed what happened upon completing a prophecy, and her account matched theirs: golden light followed by regaining memories which were simultaneously alien and familiar.  Suraki and Ajax agreed that her appearance had also changed since they'd seen her in Metros; she was taller and more willowy than they remembered (not to mention more attractive, as one would expect from the goddess of beauty).

The Divided Palace

With that, she bid them farewell and headed back to Mantea.  As the others were still unsure of what to do next (or just unwilling), Steidis took the lead and the gods went back to Mantea to find whoever was in charge so that he could acquire resources to "construct the Underworld"; asking around quickly got them pointed to the two Matriarchs who ruled from The Divided Palace.  At the rear of the main plateau, The Divided Palace was easy to find, and even easier to understand why it was so named: a deep crack split the ceiling in two.

Inside, Steidis got the attention of one ancient woman from the sea of clerks, each wearing purple, and Intimidated her into bringing him before the Matriarchs.  The throne room was split along the floor as well as the ceiling, with the left half painted all white and the right all black; the two Matriarchs each sat in a throne, garbed in robes the opposite colour of their half of the chamber.  Steidis strutted in and tried to grow the flames of the sconces on the wall, but failed, and the white queen called for guards, who immediately levelled their spears at him.

The black queen asked who he was, and Steidis gave his divine name, then claimed to be there "to be a hero".  The white queen sighed dejectedly, while the black queen asked what exactly he was doing.  Steidis unhelpfully said that he would "save the city with the power of structural integrity", and would need metal, but neither Matriarch seemed to understand.  The white queen asked why they should give him anything, and when Steidis replied that he had fixed the elevator, the black queen was suddenly very enthusiastic and supportive, and asked to see his plans.

Having not come up with a plan, Steidis tried his best to improvise one on the spot, but the Matriarchs were unconvinced by his plan to build a great metal belt which would hold up the city "like pants" ("Okay so I'm going to build a lot of, uh... laffolds?  And then we're going to go down there and-" "Do you mean 'scaffolds'?" "Right, yeah").  As a last-ditch effort, Steidis claimed to be better at building than talking, but the white queen simply told him to go build something then, and if they were pleased, they would provide resources later.  Defeated, Steidis stormed off, while the other gods bowed and retreated in his wake.

Not sure of what to do next, the gods split up.  Ajax tried to track down the nobles that had stolen money for bridge reconstruction, and after trawling through merchant taverns learned that they'd fled to Urbos.  Suraki went to the river in the canyonbed and determined that he could use the flora there to make a suitable pyre.  Steidis examined the rope bridges connecting the plateaus, determined that fixing them would result in more fame, which he could leverage into metal to build his Underworld.

Suraki tried to learn if any other gods were active in Mantea and learned that, other than Steidis, there were two women trying to become Evenia; one was "overly friendly", while the other had seduced a dozen young men and was now dealing with the fallout of those suitors each trying to prove himself more worthy than the others.  The gods were unsure which was which.

The Pit

Against Ursula's protests, Ajax wanted to go to The Pit, and she ultimately agreed to come along, unconvincingly claiming to not be afraid, despite her prophecy which foretold that she would be entombed for 30 days and 30 nights.  Following Atlas' directions, they arrived at a dry step well which closely matched the description they had.  Halfway down a stone platform jutted out, and a closer look revealed that there was some sort of chamber built into the rock behind it, with windows looking out at the well.  Ajax shouted down to announce themselves in case anyone was around down below, but there was no response.

While the others dithered, Ursula walked down the stepwell to the main chamber, which was unlit.  There were doors left, right, and a double-door straight ahead, but otherwise the chamber was bare, so Ajax opened the left door, finding a room with only a bronze cauldron.  The walls were decorated with a variety of carved symbols, but the main recurring ones were a skull, and the three below, which always appeared in the same order:

Ajax was confident that the third one was the Drakkon they'd encountered in Eniad (ten legs, big teeth), while the other two were dubbed "headless chicken" and "skull".  They argued for a while over what the other two symbols meant; Ajax thought that the "headless chicken" would kill the Drakkon, while Ursula pointed out that it might read right to left, and so the Drakkon would kill the "headless chicken".  Steidis made copies as best he could, while Ursula decided to investigate the cauldron.

After confirming that the cauldron, when looked at from above, did not look like the "headless chicken", Ursula experimented by tossing various detritus (some leftover bread, some water) into the cauldron to see if anything happened, but nothing did.  Steidis asked if he could take the cauldron for raw materials (he was planning on bending it into a ball for easy carrying), but relented upon learning it was uncomfortably heavy.  Ursula went back to the main chamber and tried the double doors, at which point the ceiling collapsed, trapping her inside.

She accidentally dropped her torch and it went out, leaving her in total blackness.  On the other side of the collapse, the others debated what to do.  Ajax pointed out that Ursula's prophecy had involved being "Entombed in The Pit", and Suraki agreed, while Steidis felt driven to save her anyway.  He tried to clear the wreckage himself, but was incapable of moving them on his own.  Deciding against helping, Ajax went to the right door and found another small chamber, with decorated walls and a pillar in the middle supporting something metallic.

On closer inspection, it was a bronze sphere, punched with many regular-sized holes, attached by chain to a petrified wooden rod.  He inspected the walls and found that the reliefs depicted images of ruin.  The first, people lay dead in the streets of a major port, with many bodies in the water.  The second, a burning library.  The third, a split panel, with one half dark and the other light, each half showing one woman with horrible boils dressed in clothing of opposite colour to the background.

The darkness was clearly getting to Ursula, who wasn't sure whether it had been 30 seconds or 30 hours.  She thought to herself that she'd have to trust in her new friend, Evenia (even though she would probably betray her later) and desperately tried to use her god powers to enter hibernation.  Not wanting to risk failure, she drew in extremely hazardous amounts of energy, and briefly lit up the chamber she was in before she entered into a deep sleep.

Steidis tried to shout through the boulders to see if Ursula needed help, but got no response.  After some more fiddling with the ball and stick (which Ajax ended up taking), the un-entombed gods headed back to Mantea, arriving well after dark, so that Suraki could light himself on fire.

He Shone Brighter

Suraki put his plan into action, and used his ability to Control Plants to create kindling, which he brought to the broken statue he'd chosen to create his pyre.  Steidis was standing by to Control Fire in case it got out of hand, while Ajax held an urn of water.  Suraki channelled a bunch of extra energy, and night turned to day as he glowed like a star.  Ajax looked away, but Steidis refused to and was further blackened.  The pyre caught flame, and Suraki began to burn.

Even so, he didn't feel the usual rush of energy that accompanied fulfilling a prophecy, and Suraki knew that he needed to burn even brighter.  His will was iron, and he blazed like the sun, burning himself almost to death.  The stone of the square was scoured white by his light, except for the shadows left by objects (and people) in the way.  Finally, he felt the familiar rush of energy and new memories, then extinguished the light.  Ajax threw the water on him, to be safe, then dragged him from the embers.

When Suraki finally awoke, he, like Steidis, had forgotten his mortal name, and now went only by Neilos; further, he had gained a fear of the darkness, and no longer felt any emotions.  On the other hand, he now remembered how to create light and reveal the secrets of those around him.  Looking at his cactus-mace, he felt it was wrong somehow, and realized that he'd prefer a staff.

Ajax fetched a doctor for Suraki to aid his recovery, while Steidis went to get help for Ursula.  Before he could, though, he realized that using his fame and skills to help Ursula would mean that they wouldn't be available when it came time to fulfill his own prophecies, and his obsession with becoming a god overrode his selflessness.  He felt bad about it, though.

30 Days and 30 Nights

The gods had quite a bit of time while waiting for Ursula's prophecy to take place.  Neilos spent it all just recovering from his wounds and changing his mace into a staff, while Steidis repaired and upgraded the rope bridges, further establishing his reputation.  Ajax worked with Atlas to figure out how to open the black door, and they concluded that it should open when given the password "Death", though neither confirmed it.  He also asked about the ball and stick, but Atlas had no idea.

The Bear Freed

On the appointed day, the gods headed back to The Pit to see what, if anything, would happen, and were equal parts relieved and surprised when a giant bear burst out of the rubble that had buried Ursula.  It let out a roar, and then changed back into Ursula, though she was now a full foot taller and much heavier.  She looked around, near-feral, but the others were able to eventually calm her down; in addition to a quite understandable fear of enclosed spaces, she had apparently forgotten the events of the past 5 years.

In exchange for the lost memories, though, she had remembered how to transform into a massive bear, and to instantly impart knowledge of self-sufficiency to others.  As they brought her up to speed, they noted that the prophecy she had completed had changed on the piece of cloth where it was written: all male pronouns were now female.

The gods went back to the ruins, and Ajax stepped before the black door then stated "Death", and it parted.  Beyond the door was pure blackness, and neither Neilos nor Ursula were interested in going inside.  Neilos created a light which followed Ajax, and Ajax stepped forward, then halted.  The blackness had weight to it, and resisted him trying to move through it.  Forcing his way through, he made it to the other side.

The Land Of Death

Once on the other side, Ajax looked behind him, but all sign of the door was gone, as was Neilos' light.  The sky was black, except for a weak starlight, which barely illuminated the sand dunes stretching off in every direction.  Downhill from where he had entered, Ajax saw what looked like a city, and, after checking that he couldn't walk straight up or teleport or something in this strange place, set off towards it on foot.

Up close, the city was made of crumbling stone, and people walked the streets without purpose.  Ajax caught a glimpse of someone who looked like his younger sister, but ignored her, and observed the people more.  Though their movement at first seemed aimless, the mass of people were trending towards the far side of the city, and he followed this movement to the "docks" of this dry city, where skeletal boats sat on a river of sand.

The people who had made it to the docks were rotting, and showed patches of muscle and bone where the skin had sloughed away; Ajax inspected himself and was shocked to discover that he too was beginning to decompose.  With nowhere else to go, he followed the rotting parade for several days, before coming to a dull golden palace, around which the now-skeletal people detoured.  He decided to investigate, and strode up a colossal golden staircase to a great golden door, which he forced open.

Inside was a great hall, extending back as far as Ajax could see, and seated at a table which also stretched to the horizon were an endless procession of deceased and rotting gods, who as one turned to look at him.  The gods more or less matched the descriptions he'd seen at the Revelation in Metros, and he set off down the hall, hoping to reach the end and, possibly, the exit.  After an indeterminate amount of time, the end was no closer, and so he trekked back to the entrance to follow the skeletons further along the dry river.

Some time later, on the edge of collapse, Ajax arrived at the end of the journey.  Skeletons threw themselves into a great dry spring, clattering into a gargantuan pile of bones.  Sand dunes stretched off in every other direction.  Ajax tried to coalesce his godly memories into some kind of clue, and was able to gain some insight: the only way out would be through, which meant he would have to die, or at least come as close as possible to the razor's edge between life and death, and then pass through the spring.

The spring would have to be filled with liquid, though, as it was currently dry, and the only thing Ajax had available was his blood.  He bled himself almost dry with a knife, and then fell down into the pit.  Apparently his plan worked, because when he awoke he was back outside the black door in the ruins, and the other gods found him soon after (Atlas' group found him and told the others).  The price Ajax had paid would linger on, though, as he still felt on death's door despite being in the land of the living, and as he gained his godly memories, he realized that he had only two weeks to live.

Fortunately, his memories also imparted some useful abilities: he could kill with his sight, drain lifeforce from his enemies, and create diseases from thin air.  For some reason, though, he now believed that his face was "wrong".  According to Ajax, he should be much paler, and more gaunt.

Notes:

Prophecy Scoreboard:

Neilos    2

Ajax       1

Steidis    1

Ursula    1

Missing Memories:

Neilos     Family, Mortal Name

Ajax       Mortal Appearance

Steidis    Mortal Name

Ursula    The Last 5 Years

The whole "Evenia 1"/"Evenia 2" naming scheme was not something that came up in play, but it was required for clarity here.

Ursula's prophecy regarding The Pit:

She was Entombed in The Pit for 30 days and 30 nights.  Driven mad in the dark, She broke free, determined never to be caged again.

Ajax mentioned that it was good nobody else got trapped with Ursula, because that would mean they'd have died.  Ursula agreed, stating she would have eaten the others.

I had Ursula roll to use her power immediately, which meant that the players knew she would be fine and didn't feel as pressured to help.  In the future, I would hold off until the situation had been resolved.

Neilos failed an Obsession (Become a God) roll to put off lighting himself on fire, so he had to try it.  Fortunately, it worked out.

Steidis is at -1 to everything until he can make up for abandoning Ursula for breaking his Selflessness.

Ajax went into a prophecy knowing that he would have to "return from where there is no return" without a clue as to what that meant, and paid a hefty price as a result.  His player noted that there was no indication of which prophecies were more or less dangerous (after all, Neilos and Steidis had both been lit on fire and come out fine, while Ursula had been trapped for 30 days).  This is a fair point, but that's the way it goes.  Vague prophecies aren't always helpful for risk assessment.

Ajax made most of his skill rolls in the Starlit Desert, but failed the last one badly, as well as two out of four death checks for blood loss.  Rather than kill him off, I gave him Terminally Ill and reduced the time dependent on failures.  Luckily, he randomly rolled the Energy Drain power, so he can possibly extend his life until he can find a cure (if one is even available).