Session 47 - Here Comes the Sun doo doo do do

General Summary

Most of the things we wanted to do in Vas have been achieved! Now we want to take care of a few remaining threads, securing independence for Sideris, recommending tutors for Aristion, and appraising the war sentiment in the city after what we just did. Xanthos is unsure if he wants to spend time with Phaedra, he thinks she’s disappointed in him for changing his ways and not being a big zealot for justice. Kestor heads to the temple of Kaiotim to look for legal texts and immediately dissociates. He’s in a different library now, expansive, sprawling, though still dark. He looks around and sees things are written in Kossic, “HAPTIS” says a voice.
It’s a halfling man, I’m the same size, he’s got a scroll tucked under his arm. We look at it on a table, “I told you we’d find something about it here.” It describes an object that is familiar to Kestor, a powerful magical ember, and it’s listing properties of the ember. At the bottom of the scroll, “that’s the good thing about philosophers, they always sign their work.” Kestor doesn’t get a good look at the name because a guard comes around the corner and starts pursuing us, so we pack up the scroll and bolt. Kestor comes to mid-climb up a series of shelves, thinking he was climbing up a window. He writes down all the details he can remember and really doesn’t have any luck trying to go back to the legal texts.
Ionessa and Xanthos go to the gym to interrogate buff soldiers. You know what? I’m done describing rippling muscles and sweaty dudes. They pick a particularly buff goliath Called Argos. Some people were hoping Eurydia was going to start a conflict, but now that the storm has ended and the sun is back it seems things have calmed down. People can see that Eurydia did something that made the gods mad, but she also seems to have made amends. Xanthos tries to do a bench press but he can’t match the goliath, so he has to have weights taken off so he can lift it.
Ionessa bench presses a good amount for her strength level. The soldiers are preparing for war, there’s some kind of military intelligence that suggests Rheo is planning to invade, but Argos hasn’t heard of any plans to invade Rheo (but he’d do it if ordered ofc). Ionessa asks Argos if he would fight a god on Eurydia’s orders, he thinks he could take some demigods himself. He’d do it because he’d believe there was a good reason for the order. He would like to see Aristion training with the soldiers and not just staying inside all the time, but he’d be on board if Zole blessed him.
Neo goes looking around for a sense of people’s feelings about Eurydia. People are still pretty behind her, they’re not aware of the stubbornness behind the scenes, she parlayed with a god and brought the sun back. The fact that she had to apologize to make it happen hasn’t hurt her image. Kestor thinks the elders would know more, so he gathers the party and heads up that way to speak with Battus. There are no independent cities in Vas except Cherianto, which went against the wisdom of the elders, it was just Isadora’s deal with her friend, though it does require both Vasili to sign off on it.
We ask about the list of tutors for Aristion, they have some names ready. It looks like they’re considering Phaedra as well, Kestor suggests Lambros and Gylippus; they’re wary of bringing someone in from Rheo, but Gylippus is a huge deal and they’d love to have him. Xanthos asks if he can speak to Aristion to give an independent Sideris his blessing, Battus will advise him to do so per the words of the oracle. We go to find Eurydia, she’s in a phalanx, freaking typical. Xanthos asks her for Sideris’ independence, it’s his family’s land and he’s the only one trying to restore it, it can be beneficial to neighboring cities. She agrees but on the condition that Xanthos provide the hafts of 100 spears made of Sidero wood. She says she won’t promise not to use those spears against us, but she has no plans to invade any land right now; she believes any wars will be brought to her, and that maybe they’ll need them for the rot to come.
She believes Rheo is planning to invade because they’re uncomfortable with the land that Vas has and their way of life. We try to convince her that she should make peace with Rheo, she agrees to let us send word to Rheo that she means no harm, and gives us her seal to do so. The phalanx demonstration that follows shows that the shield formation is able to deflect, uh oh. We talk about which sides we’d take if war did break out, but obviously we don’t want war to happen. We decide to spend the night relaxing and drinking, we invite Phaedra and Argos out and go to a tavern where you can drink wine from an owlbear skull in competition with another patron. Ionessa is disturbed by the skull of an innocent creature.
Xanthos originally challenged Kestor but backs out because of the skull, he plans with Ionessa to steal it later to avenge the poor baby. Kestor challenges Phaedra instead and they both actually tie, faltering just before they can finish their second skull. It’s a fun pally moment. Xanthos arm-wrestles everyone in sight and actually wins! Kestor brings the party with his music and everyone dances; Ionessa asks if Xanthos will talk to Phaedra and he goes to do just that. He talks with her about his childhood, how they never spent any casual time together and that he’s not really living up to the expectations she had for him in terms of being a terminator for justice.
Phaedra never intended to be a parent, and she was raised by a lot of people by Vassic tradition and so never learned how to be a mother. She never really showed affection, and Xanthos felt like his whole childhood was a test where he had to earn her affection and he’d be judged for choosing wrong. She admits she didn’t really know what she was doing, but she tried her best; she was worried that if he didn’t do as she did that she was doing something wrong. She is proud of him though, even if she doesn’t agree with everything he does, and that means a lot to Xanthos. Awww
Ionessa and Xanthos get thieves tools from Ophia and try to break back into the tavern after the party is over. It’s an expert heist and goes smoothly, Ionessa has to cast silence on a guard dog that spots them but a single canine is no match for a 2nd level spell. They run off giggling and bury the skull on the city outskirts. They talk about Phaedra, she was an intimidating figure to be raised by, but he appreciates Ionessa standing up to her and Eurydia and Kairemos. They tell each other how great they are, yeah yeah we get it you’re in love! It’s actually a very sweet and encouraging scene, but there’s too much for me to write down each individual compliment and declaration of love.
Later, we discuss what we want to do next. We have a bunch of options but we decide to go visit Rheo to deliver this message. Rather than taking a boat all the way, we contact Learchos and let her know the urgency of our visit. She agrees to teleport us from Limpani, so we book passage on a boat to take us that way.
The end.

Notes

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Report Date

22 Oct 2023