Session 45 - Blasphemy

General Summary

We start the session by doing exactly what Eurydia expects of us and head back to the Praxilid Acropolis to go to the temple of Zole. There are more soldiers stationed on the way up at a checkpoint, they’re questioning people going up to the elders. With some invisibility and Kestor disguised as a Zole pilgrim we manage to get past the checkpoint alright, though we learn that the security is here because Eurydia is in the Acropolis. We see Battus and Eurydia at the entrance, they’re arguing over whether she should be allowed inside to look for intruders, so far they’re keeping her outside unless they have the permission of Aristion. She mad.
But this is all blocking our way in, so we look for another and settle on having Xanthos and Neo climb and jump up to a window and go commune with Zole at the temple. It goes great! They make it to the temple and Neo beseeches Zole for help on Aristion’s behalf and rolls crazy high. Zole says, “I, Zole, God of warfare am beseeched on behalf of Vasili Aristion of the Praxilid. A good line of one of mine own chosen. You ask that he receive a trial that he might be a citizen in the pole built upon my name. Is that so?”
“If Aristion is to be proven as one of the Vassic people and be proven worthy to be my sword, then he must prove himself in body and mind. He must not permit himself to be weak of heart or weak of body. There is a conflict coming. One that will pit his people against the outside. If Aristion can prove himself a capable leader, one whose strategy can defeat his foes and protect his own people, he will have mine blessing and any who stand in his way will receive my displeasure. I would bid Aristion as I would bid all those who align themselves with Vas and the Praxilid to return mine blade that has been lost. It is beyond my grasp and my sight. The blade left Vassic land by boat in the hands of my last champion. It is in lands beyond my power and beyond my sight. I would have that rectified. I sense that my champion went to the land of curse, but there is little more I can say. You know where it has gone, this I can sense.”
People in the temple are amazed by this, there are witnesses to Zole’s decree. They go to spread the word of Zole, outside with Eurydia and Battus we hear a soldier giving them the news. It’s unclear what Eurydia is thinking when she hears, she wants to speak to the oracle but Battus won’t let her in. She mad. We manage to slip by and regroup with everyone. Neo asks for us to be let up to speak with Aristion to pass on the news, but they lead us off to talk with Battus instead. He wants to know what’s going on, Neo reveals that he is the oracle. He asks for the specific wording from Zole, Neo gives it to him and he promises to pass this on to Aristion. Ionessa challenges him, we should be the ones to pass on the message so it doesn’t get filtered by corrupt elders. Neo uses sending to contact Aristion directly, who agrees to send for us.
Battus is annoyed that we’re going over his head, and we make it clear that we’re annoyed with how he and the elders are dealing with the situation. We manage to convince him to back down a little and work with us. We all go to speak with Aristion together; he wants to know what the coming conflict is. We tell him Rheo is there, but there are other forces that are of concern. We tell him that if he wants to go down this road, he’d need to train physically and mentally, learn strategy and rhetoric and all kinds of things. He doesn’t want anyone to get hurt in a war. He wants to think about it; we remind him the conflict is coming one way or another, and maybe we can suggest some people he can talk to to teach him things. Ionessa suggests King Bion, Kestor thinks about Lambros for his rhetoric tutor, Battus can come up with a list too. We also make sure he gets someone who’s fun! He asks about how Neo can talk to gods, Neo explains without mentioning being the son of Acheric.
We head out and speak to Phaedra to give her an update on everything that’s happening. She wants to make sure Aristion is well trained, he’s not capable of preparing on his own. Xanthos says she can’t just make him in whatever image she wants, he needs to make the decision himself and he hasn’t decided yet if he wants to be trained in combat. We discuss how we want to approach Eurydia, a public confrontation where we reveal what happened at Korymour and that the storm was sent by Kairemos might be best, but we want to talk with her privately first to gauge what she’s like away from public pressure.
She’s still outside the Acropolis, so we head out to talk to her. She says she sent for us in Korymour and we fled instead, she wants to know why we are here. She claims we were not forced to speak with her, though her armed guards attacking us sort of tells a different story. She agrees to speak with us privately now, so we step aside with her. Ionessa asks why she went to Korymour, but she won’t tell us unless we reveal the same information. We tell her we’ve been sent by a god to make her repent, she seems unsurprised. She thinks she was 100% justified in killing that guy, she restored order. She thinks imprisoning him would have led to the same, she seems to think the gods are capricious and cruel ( :O ) and blames them for bringing the storm. I’m getting MAD BLASPHEMY vibes from her.
Ionessa asks if she thinks she can defeat the gods, she doesn’t answer but she totally does. She’s renouncing the gods, she’s going all in on blasphemy, she’s arrogant and she’d rather everyone drown than bow to the gods’ whims. Her ancestor Temoteus fought a host of spirits led by Zole. The battle was a stalemate and in acknowledging that her ancestor was his equal in warfare, Zole granted him the shield and the sword that her mother has lost. These are not trinkets gifted to mortals, but an acknowledgement of their equality with the gods. Vas will not stand by and let the gods kill their citizenry, it is the gods who have betrayed Vas, not the other way around. She is entitled to kill the corrupt, she is Vasili Eurydia of the Darid and she will protect her people from the tyranny of men and of gods.
Sorry I stopped taking good notes because there were so many good dunks that I was listening to. Neo accuses her of being just like Acheric, which makes her SUPER angry. Acheric was a pawn of the gods who waged a war of corruption upon Vas based upon the will of a being who does not value a single mortal life. Neo says she murders and lets her people die, how can she claim to value life? She gives them food and protection, nay says Neo! The farmers and builders do that, she just sits there taking credit. She makes sure the people get access to those things, unlike in capitalist states. She intends to install a dynasty to ensure fairness will reign for her people for all time. If Aristion can get his act together, he can come along too.
We’ve heard she’s planning to get rid of him, she says only if he’s a threat to her people. She actually just straight up says she’ll kill him if he continues to let the Elders deny her policy changes. She is trying to prove that Vas shall not be kicked around by the gods, she intends to wage war on the gods themselves. She’s going to kill Kairemos and use philosophers to wrestle back control over the various domains of the gods that try to stop her, such as controlling the weather should Kairemos perish. Ionessa asks if she’s even tried negotiating, but Eurydia will only do that if they meet with her as equals.
Kestor asks if she’s told everyone, only some undisclosed number of people know her true plans but she gives us permission to tell anyone we want. He asks what happened to make her feel this way, it was the wildfire, seeing the gods standing by while Acheric scorched the land; Kairemos’ rains that are drowning her city could have saved half the continent but where were they? It’s kind of a fair point but she’s a total psycho about how she should respond to the situation I.E., killing gods, killing kids, killing anyone she wants, getting everyone killed. We reveal the truth of the ROT to her and tell her that there are bigger problems in this world and she’s actually making everyone weaker with this, if she just apologized she could save her people and combat the real threat.
I’ll be honest this was a really long conversation but I think Kestor managed to reason with her more or less about her duty to her people and her role in the world. The gods aren’t going to change their minds, the storm will be there until Kairemos is appeased or dead, but Eurydia can swallow her pride and change her mind and save her people. The choice is hers! She leaves and we talk about what a crazy person she is, but hopefully we gave her food for thought. Next, we start making plans to rescue Neo’s family, but that’ll have to wait for next week.
The end.

Notes

(＃Д´)             凸(￣ヘ￣)

Report Date

09 Oct 2023