Session 21: A weeping god

Thestia, 23rd of Anagrypnion

General Summary

Following the encounter with the Red Rabbit, the group continues down the path. The forest trail gets harder to travel and Lyra makes a couple of wrong turns causing some backtracking. Eventually the group decides to make camp, Lyra believes they're about 4 hours from the sanctum. Xandra and Kadmos start a fire and prepare the rabbits for roasting. Meanwhile, Nir asks Fennan to help her try to better understand her claw gauntlet. Kaliaros overheard the conversation, he shared that he was able to summon a cauldron (no one found this strange) which is able to decern the nature of magical items. Excited, Nir removes her claw and passes it to Kaliaros.
As soon as Kaliaros grabbed the claw, his consciousness was teleported to a void. The pressure and feeling was similar to when he has his lucid dreams. Here, floating in the void, he noticed he was naked and then the nightmare began. Tentacles from the void began to slowly peel his fur off, the pain was excruciating. Everyone else in the group just watched as Kaliaros was just standing in front of them holding the claw. After what seemed like close to an hour for Kaliaros, but in reality was about a minute, the tentacles finished removing all his fur and Kaliaros regains consciousness. Kaliaros, in shock from the pain, realizes he's back with the group, still with all his fur, and throws the claw into the cauldron.
As the claw enters the cauldron, the liquid begins to boil and there's a large explosion that forms a sphere of water in a 10ft radius. With little time to react, everyone but Fennan and Nir manages to dive out of the explosion's radius. Fennan and Nir are engulfed by the water for a second and then the sphere suddenly vanishes along with Fennan and Nir. The group slowly recovers and notices Fennan and Nir are missing. Kadmos and Krinos go off into the forest looking for signs of them while Kaliaros and Fyx try to figure out what happened.

At the same time, Nir and Fennan find themselves floating in space, surrounded by stars and constellations. They have a brief conversation discussing what happened when they both notice that something in the distance was blocking out stars. Paying close attention, it seemed like the shadow of a large serpent creature slowly navigating the stars and slowly approaching. Nir tries to communicate with it mentally and hears from the creature. The creature stated that Nir and Fennan weren't meant to be here, that this wasn't a place for mortals. The serpent approached further, grabbing Nir's arm and continued through the mental connection saying that the serpent sensed her sister's presence. As this was happening, Fennan noticed one of the constellations looked like it was getting closer, the constellation flared and it reminded Nir and Fennan of a wave. As that happened, the shadowy serpent released Nir and vanished into the stars. Booming around them, Fennan and Nir heard a female voice saying in a soothing tone that she was surprised to find Nir and Fennan here but that it was too soon and they weren't ready. The voice informed them that she would send them back but that they wouldn't recall what occurred. They would, however, leave with a feeling that they should seek out the temple of Thassa to learn more. With a bright flare from the constellation, both Fennan and Nir reappeared where the explosion occurred a couple of feet off the ground.
Nir landed on top of Fyx and Fennan face-first on the floor. The rest of the group wanted to know where they went but from Fennan and Nir's perspective, they didn't go anywhere: the explosion happened and they were thrown a couple of feet off the ground. Fennan and Nir shared with the group that they felt like they needed to visit the temple of Thassa. Without any other clue about what happened, the group decides to eat and then rest.

Early morning the group set out to the Sanctum of Winter. They quickly arrived at their destination. The area was cold and snowy, the entrance was an ice cave and outside were some guard buildings but there wasn't a soul in sight. Lyra and Xandra were alarmed as there was no way the Sanctum would be left unguarded. The council decides to ask Kira to fly in and scout. She does so and quickly returns reporting that everyone was gathered in a central area and there was something dressed like the cultists with them. The group, with Kaliaros' blessing from Nylea, sneaked into the sanctum. Inside, they quickly reached the main area, the Nexus, where they arrived in time to witness all the sanctum's denizens fall over in the centre and the cultist perform a ritual that absorbed the blood of the denizens into a blood-coloured crystal. As this was happening, Fyx tried to approach the invisible and noticed the figure resembled the man that was with Venat at Echo's statue which they recall was named Gaius. He was also close enough to see that the man was crying while performing the ritual.
As Gaius finishes the ritual, both Fyx and Nir try to cast a spell at him. Before they manage to finish casting, time slows down to a crawl and they're unable to act. Gaius slowly walks towards the entrance of the sanctum while commenting that he recognizes the council from when they were trying to sneak around Echo's statue. He also comments that he won't tolerate anyone getting in his way, the considers the council to be a waste of potential and no one will stop him from bringing back those who sacrificed everything for the current failed civilization. 

As he approaches the council on his way, he senses Kira in Nir's pouch. He calls her out but before he gets too close, Kira zooms out of the sanctum. Disappointed, Gaius shrugs and casts a spell on one of the corpses in the centre of the sanctum and continues walking out. The corpse slowly rises with dark goo leaking from it as it hovers.

Report Date

25 Jun 2022

Reputation with the gods

• Kadmos: 13 (+1)
• Nir: 14 (+1)
• Fennan: 13 (+1)
• Fyx: 12 (+1)
• Kaliaros: 12 (+1)

Quests

Odyssey Quests:

• The Corruption
• A Mysterious Stranger
• The Shortstride

Optional Adventures:

• The Fate of Kyrian
• A Strange Statue
• A Request From Setessa
• In Defense of Oreskos Savannah
• Justice in the Dunes
• The mysterious claw gauntlet (Updated)

Side Tasks:

• A Master Instrument
• Horns of Silence v2
• Andrios: The port town?
• Transmutation?
• The Missing Traders
• A Summons From Gaur
• Nyxsteel?