Path to Godhood Session 17: The Volcano Unerupted

Characters:

Ajax Karo   -   Gregarious Hunter and Aspiring Kostis, God of Death and Plagues
Neilos   -   Aspiring God of The Sun and Plants
Steidis   -   Aspiring God of Fire and Smiths

Conspiracy

The black queen's guard formed a tight circle around her at the sight of the bodies, while Neilos explained that they had attacked him and tried to free the prisoner.  She conceded that there did seem to be something untowards happening, which prompted Neilos to give her the list of co-conspirators they'd gained previously.  Fortunately, none of her personal guard were on the list, but many of the others were powerful Mantean nobles.  From there, they discussed what would happen to the surviving "assassins".

Regardless of the gods' divinity, if someone had tried to assassinate someone in the palace, that would be an affront to the authority of the queens, which would merit a death sentence.  Even if they were only there to free the prisoner, they had brought weapons into the palace, which was punishable by a period of enslavement.  Ajax asked if they might be able to mete out their own justice, as the authority of the gods superseded that of the queens.

The black queen agreed, and offered up three of the six survivors for them to do with as they wished, though she also pointed out that they were technically violating the prohibitions on weapons with their presence.  Regardless, she dropped the issue, and Ajax Life Drained one of the survivors to heal Neilos' wounds while making an extremely chilling declaration on the perils of defying the gods.  As that display concluded, the queen asked if they had any more evidence.  She trusted their word, of course, but something more concrete might sway those who doubted them.

Path to Godhood Session 16: The Royal Circle

Characters:

Ajax Karo   -   Gregarious Hunter and Aspiring Kostis, God of Death and Plagues
Neilos   -   Aspiring God of The Sun and Plants
Steidis   -   Aspiring God of Fire and Smiths

A Return to Mantea

The gods arrived at the coast near Mantea, and walked through the canyons to reach the city proper.  Just before boarding the Grand Elevator of Steidis, a piercing note echoed through the air, forcing everyone to cover their ears.  It slowly faded away to a just-audible tone over a minute, and Ajax asked a local whether this was normal.  The man informed them of the Whistling Rock which wandered the canyons, and figured that it must be closer to the city than usual.

As they rose into the city, they noticed that more of the "islands" seemed to have fallen away during their absence, and that the "Belt" that Steidis had almost finished was totally gone, the stone where it had been scorched black.  On their way to the Divided Palace to check in with the two queens, Steidis aggressively asked after any new god candidates, and learned that one of the Evenias had come out of hiding, though he wasn't able to figure out which one.  Additionaly, the other Chelak, Kostis, and Neilos had come back, but left shortly thereafter.

At the Palace, Ajax was able to arrange an audience with the queens through one of the purple-clad clerks, and they were led through.  On the way, they passed a man with a spectacular moustache sporting an ostentatious red robe.  Once in the throne room the usual formal introductions were made, then the white queen cooly welcomed them back after their long absence.  Steidis declared that he had finally killed his rival, which prompted the black queen to declare thta this explained why there had been only three when the other group had returned to Mantea.

Path to Godhood Session 15: The Colossus

Characters:

Ajax Karo   -   Gregarious Hunter and Aspiring Kostis, God of Death and Plagues
Neilos   -   Aspiring God of The Sun and Plants
Steidis   -   Aspiring God of Fire and Smiths

A Deliberate Error

Neilos was able to convince "Old Nephele" that they were willing to help (with a critical on Fast-Talk), and so she told them what she knew of Steidis' marriage prophecy.  Whichever Nephele candidate he proposed to first would immediately lose her powers, and no, Phaedra was not a candidate.  Her plan had been for Steidis to propose to the Urbosan woman (nicknamed "Shy Nephele") first, and then marry Old Nephele.  Neilos asked what she would gain from this, but other than having a powerful god for an ally, she would only gain peace of mind that she could no longer be de-powered.

The gods asked after the visions they'd been seeing, and Old Nephele informed them that each vision corresponded to one god candidate, and that it was easier to see them for her due to here affinity for prophecy.  The range at which they would receive one was fairly short, but variable.  Neilos wanted to know what visions she saw from them, and learned that his was a bright light, Steidis' was a raging flame consuming a man, and Ajax' was a skull with flies pouring out of one eye socket.

Old Nephele theorized that as they gained more divinity, they would see the visions more reliably, but when Neilos stated that Steidis had been seeing the most of them, she didn't have a response.  They moved to discussing the next course of action, and she wanted Steidis to go propose to Shy Nephele, but warned them that she had the same information on the prophecy, so she might try to stop him from doing so.

Path to Godhood Session 14: A Brief Marriage

Characters:

Ajax Karo   -   Gregarious Hunter and Aspiring Kostis, God of Death and Plagues
Neilos   -   Aspiring God of The Sun and Plants
Steidis   -   Aspiring God of Fire and Smiths

An Anonymous Marriage

The Syrinthan woman asked for clarificatoin on Steidis' proposed quid pro quo, while the Urbosan woman tensed up even further.  Seeing her discomfort, Steidis asked if she'd like a glass of water, but she declined with a squeak.  Neilos, still not sure if either of these women was actually the goddess Nephele, tried to detect some trace of divinity but unsurprisingly didn't notice anything.  To "clarify" his intent, Steidis stated that he was "looking for love" and waited for the others to respond; the Syrinthan smiled, while the Urbosan gulped audibly.

Still taking the lead, the Syrinthan woman agreed that something could be arranged.  The Urbosan, for her part, started sweating bullets and blushing, but stayed silent (Neilos: "These emotions confuse me").  While she understood that Steidis wanted to keep his secrets, the Syrinthan stated that she could be open about what she wanted aid with.  You see, there was a fishing village one day north of the city (Neilos: "Now I gulp audibly").

A Merchant Prince had recently acquired the land and driven the villagers out to dig a mine, but the land needed to stay pristine so that a ritual could be carried out and a prophecy fulfilled.  The Syrinthan needed them to remove the miners, soldiers, and anyone else who would defile the lands from the area, though she left the actual methods up to them.  Steidis asked if she had already tried negotiating with the Prince, and she claimed that she had, though he wasn't convinced she was telling the truth.  Now, Steidis clarified his intentions: he wanted to marry the Syrinthan woman.

Path to Godhood Session 13: A Feast of Souls

Characters:

Ajax Karo   -   Gregarious Hunter and Aspiring Kostis, God of Death and Plagues
Neilos   -   Aspiring God of The Sun and Plants
Steidis   -   Aspiring God of Fire and Smiths

The Dead God Speaks

The gods carried the deceased rival Steidis out into the swamps, away from any witnesses, and, after discussing whether their Steidis wanted to steal a replacement arm (he didn't, as it turned out), Ajax forced the corpse to answer their questions.  The dead god's eyes opened, but were clouded white despite dying extremely recently.  They asked after his prophecies, and though they were in present tense and second person, they mostly matched those that Steidis had been given.  There was one outlier: the other Steidis had one entirely different prophecy, which read "You offer thirty-three souls up to the purifying flame".

The different phrasing of the others were enough to give him some insights, however.  For one, a "twelve-legged lion" matched his need for golden hide, and likely referred to the legendary Fotian Lion, rumoured to live in the volcano above Urbos.  Second, the Edge of the World was identified as Metros, due to it being referred to as "the city of the library".  

Unfortunately, the other Steidis had apparently been a loner, and hadn't known anything as useful when it came to the prophecies of his companion gods.  The questioning continued for some time, and they gained some information:

Path to Godhood Session 12: A Flame Extinguished

Characters:

Ajax Karo   -   Gregarious Hunter and Aspiring Kostis, God of Death and Plagues
Neilos   -   Aspiring God of The Sun and Plants
Steidis   -   Aspiring God of Fire and Smiths

Reunion

Neilos woke up in a fancy bed in the Metaxas estate, and this time he got a slave put the shards of the mirror in a sack instead.  He checked in with Pan, then teleported back up to the sun and down to the outskirts of Syrinth; when he was in the sun, he felt a presence similar to his own.  Neilos then walked back into town and found the other gods at the place they'd been staying.  Happy they wouldn't have to wait a week, Ajax suggested they go find a smith to turn the mirror shards into weapons.

They found one easily, a woman named Lyssa who took care to stay clean despite the dirty work, and Neilos started the conversation oddly by reciting the Circle's End code phrase.  From her perspective, this man just seemed unhinged.  When she saw how careful they were with the shards, she asked what was going on, and Neilos informed her of their divinity (thought not which specific gods they were).  Lyssa agreed to make a backspike for Steidis' hammer, and told them it would be done in two days.  Neilos tried to volunteer Steidis to assist with her work, but he refused ("My honor!"), and she wasn't interested at any rate.

To prepare for dealing with the beguiling lights, Ajax and Neilos wanted Steidis to make a mirrored shield, in the hope that the lights' hypnotic power wouldn't work through a reflection.  He bought the required bronze, but failed to use his powers to create it instantly, and stopped when they realized it would take several days.

Path To Godhood Session 11: The Rekindled Sun

Characters:

Ajax Karo   -   Gregarious Hunter and Aspiring Kostis, God of Death and Plagues
Neilos   -   Aspiring God of The Sun and Plants
Steidis   -   Aspiring God of Fire and Smiths

The Missing Assistant

Ajax tried to pick up Rini's tracks, but it had been 3 days since she'd gone missing, there had been a heavy storm, and it was a swamp, so he found nothing.  The gods asked around Syrinth as to what might cause someone to go missing in the swamp.  Boring explanations like "if your light source goes out it's really easy to get turned around" weren't much help, but then they found a "swamp fisher" who claimed that there were beguiling lights out in the swamp that only showed up in pure darkness.  You're going to want to walk towards them, but you have to resist, because those who followed the lights were never seen again!

As the god of "the sun" (which is, allegedly, a bright light), Neilos wanted more information about the lights, and the swamp fisher told him what he knew, which wasn't much.  He'd once seen them while out harvesting swamp fish way into the darkness, with all his light sources turned off.  Ajax asked whether groups could be affected, and the fisher figured they probably had been, otherwise how would people know that the ones who'd followed the lights had never been seen again?

They discussed what to do with this information, and Ajax noted that Syrinth's unnatural darkness seemed to be more absolute than the starlit desert.  Neilos decided to ask around if there were any other gods in town, but didn't turn anything up.  While they were walking around the city, Steidis momentarily saw a vision of a cresting wave gently rolling into the shore in twilight.  He told the others of this, and put forth a theory: the swamp eats people and then moves the remains to the sea.