Session 19 - Waiting for Ego

General Summary

We arrive in Bion’s manor! Hedylus is there and is really happy to see us, we have our old rooms back! Bion retires but if we need anything, he’s our man. Xanthos briefly considers going to find Kriton and scaring him into not dealing in demons anymore, but decides against it, and instead we all go to bed! The next day we awake to a grand breakfast and head out to the agora!
Kestor tries to buy a gilded skull to summon undead, for some reason he (me) did not even think for one second that this might be an issue with the god of hating undead hanging around. As they’re discussing the implications, he starts to experience an intense feeling of claustrophobia even in the agora, he’s surrounded on all sides by people, the walls of the building are pressing right up on one side while the people on the other side crowd him. He feels the need to get out of the area. He leaves and the emotions fade.
Neo buys a pan flute! We briefly start up a party sing-and-danceathon but Xanthos kills the vibe because he doesn’t know any songs. We wander around town and listen to some rumors. There is unrest to the north-east in Korymour, people are uneasy due to an independent place being conquered by Vas, which seems a worry for Cherianto, also an independent town! Xanthos overhears rumors that some folk don’t believe the story about King Bion’s death. A Vassic warrior with some sway has been reinforcing the rumor that the king died, and thus Vas should take back over Cherianto as per the compact. The soldier’s name is Nicocreon.
Turns out there’s a whole other summon spell that’s way more thematically appropriate for Kestor, and that spell requires a gem with tears inside! We go to see Eos at her jewelry and nick-nack shop and commission a citrine necklace with Kestor’s own tears inside so he can summon shadowspawn! We learn that Eos is getting more into carpentry and such, she wants to try building houses. Xanthos successfully recruits her to build the houses in his town! She’s never done it before but that’s probably fine!!! Neo commissions a couple of platinum rings, but he’s not planning to propose.
We chat with Eos for a while and get a sense of her deal, she’s kind of an eccentric inventor/crafter who has been toying around with building things since she was very young. She even chopped off her own horn to make it into a flute on a whim! Ionessa heads to the docks to send a message to her sister (more details later?)
We head back to Bion’s manor and he wants to speak with us. He’s spoken to the other philosophers on his list and they’re nervous about coming to Vas given all the political instability. The Merchant Republics are tricky because of Parmenion and Zenodoria. Kestor dissociates again because of course he does. He sees a different time! Bion is here and he’s younger, the party disappears. Between the two of us is a map, he’s shaking his head, “I don’t think I can agree to this.”
Kestor brings up the vision. Bion is visibly shaken by the fact that he can just conjure up this glimpse into the past. After the Wildfire he and Isadora had many discussions about where borders should be drawn, expanding into territory that had been left open for the taking after the war. Isadora had planned to take Sideris, but Bion was arguing against it because it had a good independent ruler.
Anyway it looks like the only really viable place to hold the conclave about the ember in Rheo. Kestor says he’ll be uncomfortable there but he’s willing to make the trip if that means getting something done about the ember. Ionessa is a little mad at Bion because he’s a stubborn philosopher and still isn’t considering all the options he should be. Bion asks Xanthos to stay behind to discuss his plans for Sideris. Given what happened at Korymour, Xanthos reclaiming his ancestral land is likely to trigger a series of others claiming their own independence. Vas is not going to want that to happen, so it’s likely they will take measures to stop him. He could make a deal with Vas, but if he agreed to be a territory of Vas then that’s all he’d ever be. That said, he does need the blessing of the Vasili or some other greater power, else he’s just a guy with a house.
Xanthos is worried about being a leader and being able to please everyone. Bion says you can’t make everyone happy. Xanthos wants to know if his parents did something to be disliked, but Bion dodges the question, he doesn’t know exactly what happened at Sideris. Ionessa speaks to Adelpha, she wants to become a gardener! Xanthos comes to Kestor to ask if there’s a way to change his eye color, and Kestor knows that there’s a community of transmutation specialists in Rheo who would probably be into that kind of magic. A less academic solution could be found in the wilderness practicing hedge magic. Kestor and Xanthos get drunk, Kestor is disguised as Xanthos but with light brown eyes.
Neo asks Bion about his staff, it turns out it might have come from some progenitor of a Sideris tree! The staff is likely very powerful, Bion thinks Neo should consult with him and perhaps lock it away even if it starts producing any changes. Ionessa goes to talk to Xanthos but finds a disguised Kestor, who pretends to be Xanthos for a while. This starts a really stupid gambit where Kestor questions Ionessa about her romantic interest in Xanthos, and scares her away from going to talk to him. She says he needs a friend more than anything.
Kestor gets the bright idea to disguise himself as Ionessa and go talk to Xanthos, asking him to come by and talk to her instead. This way they get to have their conversation and everything will be fine. The ruse is up pretty quickly as they’re both confused as to why they’re talking suddenly, but in the end they do talk about Xanthos’ worries in rebuilding his town and not being liked as a leader. He’s concerned that his parents had people who disliked them and he’s having a bit of a crisis, all of his memories of them are good and now they’re not perfect anymore.
Xanthos wants to lead the way his parents did: fair, kind, benefited the people. He wants to do the same and lead in a way that would make them proud. Ionessa brings up that things like justice are not always kind, and they’re not always pleasing to everyone. He’s afraid of ending up on the wrong side, that he’s not as good as he thought. Ionessa says he’s probably going to make mistakes, that some people probably will not like him, but he’s not evil. People are allowed to make mistakes. SHE SAYS HE’S PRETTY! She says some other stuff around that, that he’d be a good ruler, but that’s the main takeaway. Other people not liking you doesn’t mean you’re not a good person! He asks her how she feels about his eyes. When she looks at him she does not see a curse ;w;
They say goodnight, end of session! We have homework to decide what our characters are focusing on over the next week as we’ll have a timeskip.

Character(s) interacted with

King Bion
Eos!

Notes

It'll be too long between sessions for anyone to stay mad at me for my shenanigans >:D

Report Date

31 Oct 2022