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
Metros
The gods arrived in the early morning to find the city covered by a light mist. As they walked up from the docks, they overheard a nobleman, still drunk from the night before, complaining to his companion about a woman who had called him a drunkard. Figuring they didn't have enough knowledge to work towards any prophecy at the moment, the gods split up and asked questions around town. Neilos learned that no new gods had arrived in Metros recently, while Ajax discovered that "The Razored Tongue" in one of his prophecies was likely Melite Floros, a noblewoman who had apparently been (accurately) insulting other nobility at gatherings.
Steidis, meanwhile, went to his home to burn the bodies which Ajax assured him belonged to his family (for a prophecy, not out of sentiment), but they weren't there. He decided to just burn the building down in case that would work, but wasn't able to get it to catch. In an attempt to track down the bodies, Steidis then yelled at a random child in the street until he told him where the city burial sites were. Later, Ajax hunted a deer to Life Drain, while Neilos shut himself in a room in his family's home (not that he remembers them as such) when the sun set due to his fear of darkness.
The next morning, they tracked down the overseer of the burial sites, a wizened old crone with bedraggled, hip-length white hair named Athania. Neilos lied, claiming that Steidis had been out of town and wanted to visit his family's gravesites to pray to the god of death for them, and they were led to the site where the bodies had been buried. Athania started to scuttle off, but Steidis interrupted her to ask how they had died; she hadn't seen any wounds or signs of disease, and figured they were cursed.
After some discussion, Steidis changed his mind and decided to just burn down the whole city. Ajax realized that he might need to burn the Great Library, going by the triptych relief in The Pit, but asked Steidis to wait for now. Eventually, the others convinced him to hold off, and they went to the Great Library in search of clues for their other prophecies. Christina, the treasurer they'd helped back at the start of their journey, was now in charge of the Library, and directed slave clerks to assist the gods in their research. They learned the following:
- The "Lifebane" which Steidis required to forge the gods' armoury was the blood of the Drakkon from the swamps of Eniad, which was to be used to quench the metal.
- The Achaierus was a 10' tall bird with the head as part of the torso, which had white metallic plumage. The legs were a black metal. Its blood was a poisonous black smoke, which drove those who inhaled it mad. Rumoured to live in the ruins of Phocaea, north of Metros. The organ Neilos needed was its spleen.
- The "Blade" in "Sacred Blade" actually referred to a military formation, so Ajax wasn't looking for a weapon, but a group of warriors devoted to a god (likely Pirus). There were records of a band of warrior women from the hinterlands of Susae.
That done, Ajax remembered that he thought he had seen his youngest sister in the Starlit Desert, and went to his (and Neilos') family to ask if she had indeed passed away. His father confirmed that, yes, she had grown ill and died several months prior, but that tended to happen to children, so nobody was particularly upset ("We had 7 children survive childhood and lost 8, so, y'know, win some, lose some"). At Neilos' request, Steidis created three masks which would purify the black smoke of the Achaierus with a small flame just in front of the mouth.
The Lady of the House
The next morning, the gods decided to tackle the Razored Tongue. Ajax acquired more details about Melite Floros; she had a shaved head, was renowned for her rudeness, remarkably talented with the harp, and her tattoo was a sword on her tongue. Her father had recently passed away, leaving her in charge of their house. More well-armed, he and Neilos then went to the Floros estate to ask for a meeting with the lady of the house, and the household guard, with no uniform other than small patches with three purple circles, relayed the message.
After some time, the guard who had gone in initially came out with a different guard, still a teenager, who informed that they were to be banished from the Floros estate for so gravely insulting Patros Floros (who, it turned out, was very much still alive). The other guards cringed as they looked to the death god for his response. Ajax raised a hand, and warned that, if that was the case, then he would make sure that noone would ever set foot on this land again; a beam of purple energy shot from his fingertips and withered a nearby tree.
The teenager cringed, but found his courage, pounded the butt of his spear on the ground, and insisted that they leave. Neilos apologized for his companion's rudeness, and caused several nearby grapevines to bloom and ripen instantly. The teenager was about to respond, but was cut off by another guard who thanked him for his gift, and went inside. When he returned shortly, he told the gods that they would have their meeting in two days.
The Achaierus
Figuring that the journey to Phocaea was one day each way, they set off on a wagon (it was Neilos', though he didn't remember it, nor his horse, Daisy), driven by Neilos, to hunt the Achaierus before their meeting. While the walls were more or less intact, the city had been put to the torch, which had left the ground blackened and covered with rubble. As they moved through the city, it was utterly silent except for the echoes of their footsteps. Shortly, they came across a square littered with white, metallic feathers, and Neilos asked a weed growing between two pavings stones if it knew where the bird was.
Despite being a lowly weed, it responded with proper courtly ettiquette, and informed him that the birds, plural, lived in the temple to the north. They ate his brethren, and he warned the gods to beware the black smoke! The temple was easy to spot, one of very few buildings left standing, and as they approached a soft warbling grew louder. Deformed, twisted plants grew around it, apparently the results of plants "breathing" the black smoke. The gods put on their masks.
The stairs up to the temple were covered in a thick layer of the metallic feathers, and the gods entered to find six Achaieri relaxing. They weren't hostile, and Ajax didn't see any skeletons or other signs of dead prey (due to a crit fail), so the gods decided to attempt to lure one outside. Neilos grabbed one of the tumorous, misshapen plants, and was able to use it to bait an Achaierus away from the others without riling them up.
Between Ajax's death rays, Neilos' lasers and blinding light, Steidis' flaming discs, and their actual weapons, the Achaeirus was dispatched before it could retaliate. Neilos extracted the spleen with Ajax's help, then had him salt it to preserve it. Their work in Phocaea done, they rode the wagon back to Metros, Neilos again stopping once night fell due to his phobia. The next morning, more traffic joined them on the road, and they came across a filthy old man by the side of the road, who was calling out for assistance.
The Philosopher
Once they got closer, the gods recognized him as the philospher Kotum, who had been exiled the last time they were in Metros, and Steidis insisted that they help him. Apparently, all he wanted was to be smuggled into the city to get justice for "being framed", but Neilos wasn't buying it, and Revealed his Secrets. In reality, he hadn't been framed at all, but had been kicked out for spitting in a nobleman's face. Once in the city, he would burn down the noble's estate. Out of meaningful questions, Neilos asked after two missing fingers on Kotum's left hand; he'd accidentally cut them off while playing knife-games as a youth.
The gods hid the philospher under some burlap sacks in the wagon, made it into the city, then left him to his own devices. Ajax mentioned buying a cow to Life Drain, but Neilos told him to just take the horse instead. Tearfully, Ajax Life Drained Daisy, one of the last remnants of his brother's mortal life, then the gods headed off to the Floros estate for their meeting with Patros. Neilos really didn't feel like having to interact with mortals, but decided to go along with them rather than stare at the wall again.
The Razored Tongue
Once at the estate, they were brought in front of Patros, a pudgy man with short, greying hair, who bluntly asked what they wanted. Ajax explained that he had heard of Melite's talent with the harp, and wished to hear her play. Patros grumbled, but ordered a slave to go and fetch her. While they waited, he offered the gods some wine; only Ajax would partake. After a few minutes of near-silence with minimal comments on the wine, Melite arrived and, on seeing the gods, promptly fainted.
Ajax was concerned and asked to check if she was ill, but Patros refused, shuffled over to his daughter, checked she was breathing, and said to just give her a bit to recover. When she still wasn't awake after several minutes, Ajax once again asked if she needed assistance, and Patros again deflected, stating that if it was necessary, he'd go to Doros, the god of healing, before Kostis, the god of death. Melite finally regained consciousness, and now looked like she was struggling not to vomit. Still, she walked to where the harp sat, trembling as she went, and prepared to play.
Melite clearly wasn't fully-recovered, and the song she played was amateurish at best. When finished, she gave a small bow and began to leave, only for Neilos to use his powers to Reveal her Secrets, then ask why she was acting so strangely around the gods. Looking away from them, she responded that he was a murderer, who had killed so many that she couldn't count, then left. Patros immediately asked why Neilos had killed those people. The god tried to deflect, but Patros claimed that his daughter was never wrong about this kind of thing so lying was pointless.
Ajax redirected the conversation towards Melite's abilities, and Patros was surprised that they didn't know, as she was somewhat famous now. It seemed she could see someone's worst quality at a glance, something which had started a month or so after the revelation of the gods. Figuring that his odds of marrying her were now down the drain, especially if she was seeing the actions of the past incarnations of the gods, Ajax realized there was another option. He needed to "gain kinship from" Melite, so if he were to be adopted into the Floros family, that should result in the prophecy being fulfilled.
Not wasting any time, Ajax declared to Patros that he was looking to be adopted into a noble family of Metros, for several reasons. He was initially from Metros as a mortal, and wished to take care of it, and Metros' democracy would have its legitimacy enhanced if a god was involved. Tactfully, he declined to mention his prophecy. Patros rubbed his greying beard, sighed, and said that, since Melite wasn't interested in the wine trade, he would be willing to adopt an heir, but only one who would be an absolutely devoted vintner. Though he would of course be honoured to become family to a god, Ajax didn't exactly fit that description.
A second epiphany occurred to Ajax: Neilos was his brother, both as gods, and as mortals. If Neilos were adopted into the Floros family, that would probably, definitely count! He pitched the idea, and Patros remarked that Neilos hadn't taken the offered wine, which suggested he didn't care for it. Neilos shot back that if he had made the wine, everyone would be drinking it, and stated that he could have a batch ready for the next day given some land and grapes. Patros, his curiosity piqued, offered him a spare plot on the Floros vineyard outside Metros, and a full week to prepare the wine.
The gods were escorted by Patros' men to the plot, and Neilos immediately got to work. He planted the grapes, then caused them to Blossom instantly, but had to burn himself with divine energy to succeed after being forced to socialize. Ajax went and bought a cow, then Drained it into Neilos so that he could enact the second part of his plan: instantly fermenting the grapes into wine. By the time he was finished, the sun was setting, and the gods returned to the city; Steidis to burn it, Ajax and Neilos to keep the Floros estate intact.
The Fire Rises
On their way in, Ajax went to the burial grounds and animated 7 skeletons to act as a makeshift fire brigade. Steidis instead threw flames around his former family's grave, and watched them spread. Kotum had apparently been fantastically lucky in his arson, as the entire city was soon ablaze. Despite the efforts of the Doros candidates, the Great Library was burned to ash, along with the mortals within. Ajax and Neilos' family were likewise consumed by the flames.
The skeletal fire brigade were able to protect the Floros estate along with Neilos' help in animating wooden structures and flammable plants such that they "dodged" out of the way. As the first rays of sunlight filtered through the smoke, amidst the wails and moans of the dying, Steidis was filled with golden light. He remembered how to change his vision to view heat, and forgot how he had looked before becoming charred.
Though they were exhausted, Neilos brought his wine before Patros, as he had said he would. Patros asked if he'd had a part in the burning of the city, but Neilos convinced him he had not. As they looked out on the ashes of Metros, Patros sampled the wine, and decreed that it was acceptable. With a gesture towards the ruins and a remark that there wasn't much competition, he confirmed that Neilos would be adopted into the Floros family.
Apparently, this satisified the conditions for Ajax's prophecy, as he glowed with light; when it ceased, he recoiled in shock and demanded to know what had happened to Metros! Upon further discussion, his memory of the last 5 years was gone. In exchange, he now remembered how to cause objects to rot and decay, as well as how to lethally wield a stylus in combat. For the rest of the day, Ajax used his skeletons to assist the survivors, while Neilos walked through the streets chuckling at their misfortune, and Steidis meditated to recover.
Truemetal
Again, they travelled the day north to the ruins of Phocaea, but this time, their destination was the forge Steidis had constructed on the shores of the Green Lake. He kindled the forge, then opened up his arm and let a torrent of blood run down into the flames where it mingled with the "black gloss" he had brought here last time. This time, he finished the process without losing consciousness, and drew from the forge a bar of dark-grey "Truemetal".
His prophecy complete, Steidis glowed with golden light, and remembered how to teleport between any two flames, how to detect weaknesses in structures, and how to create metal, wood, and anything else he might need for his work. Steidis' blood, still dripping from his wound, was now golden, and a black metal crown dotted with rubies appeared on his brow. As he turned, the others saw that his eyes burned with flame, and yet Steidis was confused. He had forgotten the last 5 years, and most of his mortal life was only a haze.
Notes:
Prophecy Scoreboard:
Steidis 6
Neilos 5
Ajax 3
Missing Memories:
Neilos Family, Mortal Name, The Last 5 Years, Childhood, Most Precious Memory (His Horse, Daisy)
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
There was some discussion of burial practices in-setting: nobody really knows why they follow the rites that they do, they simply do. Ajax obviously has a slightly better idea of what happens after death.
At the Floros estate, Ajax was originally going to Death Ray a grape plant, but Neilos stepped in and told him not to attack one of his subjects. Trees are fine, so long as they don't grow fruit.
When they went for the actual meeting with Patros Floros, Neilos failed Loner, but asked if he could go anyway with a penalty. I gave him a -3, but he asked that it be changed to a -4 so it could be a round number. Sure!
The players found it funny that Melita had revealed their secrets.
Kotum, one of the very few who survived the fires, is now a fanatical follower of Steidis who believes his actions were blessed by the god of fire.
Pretty much every important NPC, except the Doros candidates, was incinerated due to random rolls. The intensity of the flame was a d6 with 1 being "barely spreads" and 6 being "apocalyptic". I rolled a 6.
Every god has now forgotten the last 5 years, which means that nobody recalls anything of Susae or Eniad, except for what has been mentioned to Neilos after he lost his memory. So they know they're banned from Eniad, that they fought a monster in the swamps, and that there was probably a candidate of Keti in Susae, but that's about it.
3 prophecies in one session is a new record. Things are starting to snowball as the gods gain more and more powers (as was the intent).
Melite's scenario was deliberately designed such that marrying her would be incredibly difficult if the gods did it later in the game, because there was a 0% chance that they wouldn't murder at least a few people.
Steidis failed 2 HT checks to avoid "death", which means he gets some "fun" side-effects. For context, Kostis' ticking clock was also the result of 2 failed HT checks.
No comments:
Post a Comment