Session 15: A Meeting with Ares and the Gilded Carcanet Report

General Summary

Peter and Quinn were excited to meet Ares. They had a long conversation in which he revealed that the storms across the country had been caused by his father, Zeus. Zeus has been throwing a temper tantrum as he is upset that he seems to be losing some of his power. Zeus is attempting to make large displays of the power he still has to prevent doubt in him from spreading. Ares believes that Zeus is facing consequences from breaking his promise on the river Styx to never have children woth mortals. He broke this promise when he had Thalia, who became the tree at Haven. Zeus believes that Peter is a sign that Zeus' position will be challenged. Ares does not know what Peter can do to get back on Zeus' good side. He does not know how to get Peter back into Haven. Ares has heard that Dionysis is back in Haven but does not know anything about Jessica or Hazel's location. He agrees to keep an eye out for them. Ares does not believe that Peter is cursed and thinks that Peter's abilities simply offer him additional opportunities to prove himself in battle. Ares does not know anything about Veritas. He reveals that Alethea is a construct created by Prometheus rather than the daughter of Zeus. Ares never considered her to be someone powerful enough to worry about. He also revealed that one of the entrances to Olympus is at the top of the empire state building.     After speaking with Peter and Quinn, Ares stated that he had one more thing to teach Peter. He then struck peter in the face. Peter and Ares began to fight with Quinn standing by. Quinn tried to support Peter without interfering in the battle. Peter attempted several attacks which all seemed to have little to ne effect on Ares. Ares did large amounts of damage to Peter and appeared to be very clamly waiting for Peter to attempt to strike him. After Peter had survived four rounds of combat, Ares struck Peter's shield rather than Peter, and the helm of Ares carved into the shield glowed red. The combat had allowed Peter to attune to the Blessing of Ares on his shield. This blessing has granted Peter several new abilities. Peter and Quinn then noticed that the coin depicting the location of the next clue to the cryptex had revealed itself to be the statue of liberty. Ares informed them that the statue of liberty was currently under construction for repairs. He reminded them that summer was also drawing to a close and they would benefit greatly from returning to their normal lives until the start of next summer. The two take him up on his advice, heading separate ways until the next summer.     Duing their time apart, Quinn spends a lot of time with her dad. They grow closer, and he teaches her more about music. They also go on a trip to New Orleans, staying with Greg. Quinn returned to Marie Laveau's tomb and drew a circle around the x on her tomb to thank her for granting her wish of greater control over her wild magic. Quinn also returned to work at the spa, telling her coworkers that while she was in the hospital after the attack at the wedding, the doctors discovered that she had a rare illness that had frequent flare ups during the warm summer months causing her to need frequent treatments over the summer. She catches up with Jose and finds out that he is now dating Jackson. They still enjoy gossipping together at work. Quinn spends time studying magic and trying to discreetly find out more information about her mom. She is unsuccessful in finding information about her mom but is able to lear a lot about musical magic, allowing herself to multiclass as a bard. Quinn notices that a bluejay has made a nest outside of her bedroom window. One day, she notices him carrying some papers up to his nest rather than typical nesting materials. She takes the papers from the bird and finds that is contains a few wizard spells. She binds them together in a ritual casting book and learns to cast find familiar as well as identify. She casts find familiar and is shocked when her familiar takes the shape of a bluejay rather than the owl she attempted to summon. She names her familiar Blue K. She prays frequently to her mom for help finding Jessica and Hazel. She also returns to Haven and helps rebuild whatever she can. She notices that people are still very angry with Zeus and more appreciative of Dionysis than ever before. Quinn also spends some of her time with Peter, especially when they get together with Arthur and Monica. Quinn runs into a few monsters that she has to deal with, but it is nothing she can't handle.     Meanwhile, Peter spends a lot of time with his mom as the school year begins again. He tries to investigate the fire at Haven from afar. He finds that the fire creatures appear to have materialized directly outside of Haven. Peter also does research into other planes and Greek mythology. He frequently goes to the gym and looks for information on robberies. He only finds information on mundane robberies with no magic related to them. He tries to go to the office at his school to find information on Jessica. They do not know what happened to her. He is able to convince them to give him her emergency contact info but recognizes it as Hazel and Liam's information. Peter sends an edible arrangement covered in chocolate to Dionysis as thanks for his help in fighting the fire creatures outside of Haven. Peter does run into some monsters, one of which causes quite a bit of property damage to his room. While this was inconvenient, he did gain proficiency in using the haze after dealing with them. Peter also finds that he is no longer afraid of getting into fights with mortals. While he still tries to settle things with words, he is much more capable of standing up for himself and using his intimidation skill. This shift in attitude reflects his growing wisdom. He also notices that people often respect this, and he actually gets out of fighting much more easily. He finds that he can occasionally bend his own luck and the luck of others around him to his will. He has gained the lucky feat.     After their time apart, Peter and Quinn meet back up to go to the statue of liberty. They ask Seth, John, and Valerie if they would like to accompany them. The others turn Peter and Quinn down citing a possible lead on Jessica and Valerie's location. Peter and Quinn proceed to the statue of liberty alone. Once there, they are once again transported to another plane. This time, they are assisting a professor and his student in finding an artifact called the Gilded Carcanet. They have to solve several puzzles but eventually succeed in finding the artifact. Upon returning to their plane, they receive the final clue of the cryptex, sigma. The full code is delta, ksi, psi, omega, and sigma. They open the cryptex and find Charon's Scroll within. If they possess the scroll when the fail a third death save, they can present the scroll to Charon and be returned to the world of the living rather than be taken across the river styx. They will be returned to full health and healed as if a greater restoration had been performed on them. They will feel like they have had a long rest and a day has passed (resetting spell slots and abilities including those used by items). When they open the cryptex, Quinn notices a rush of magical energy and feels like the scroll is acting as a magical beacon attracting things to it. Both Peter and Quinn receive a text message. They hear a sound like stones grinding against eachother and feel the ground rumble as if something is approaching them.