Session 2: The Road to Enlightenment

General Summary

Kira suggests that we sacrifice the beast to The Gods or The Titans and Astraea is curious as to why we should waste the food of the boar. Artemios wants to know what the bare minimum requirement would be for a sacrifice. Artemios wants to take a tusk as a trophy. Astraea seems to be very confused by a sacrifice to the gods. Halcyon is arguing strongly for making a sacrifice. Artemios walks toward the cave and hears a loud booming voice coming from the cave calling us mortals and saying that we cannot atone for our sins and that no prophecy will save us when the darkness in the heart of the world awakens.
We decide to offer the corpse of the boar to Thylea, The Great Mother of All and The Hunter lights the corpse on fire with a firebolt. When the corpse goes up, we all receive a charm of vitality, which acts as a potion of vitality. In addition to this, all beasts of the forest will aid us.
The charms come over us like a warmth over our hearts. We have the effect, charm of vitality.
Artemios and The Hunter start to walk to the mouth of the cave. It is filled to the brim with pig shit and some carcasses. Artemios starts to casually call out to the voice of the cave. Astraea suggests that we should be more respectful. Artemios rolls incredibly well on perception and sees nothing worth investigating in the cave.
The party starts making their way back to The Sour Vintage. They receive a hero’s welcome, and their Fame Points increase by one. They spend about an hour basking in the praise and adoration of the patrons of the crowd in the tavern. The Hunter starts telling the story of killing the boar and he captures the attention and adoration of the crowd. Astraea has had a bit too much to drink and she starts to protest that it is not how the story went. But The Hunter just calls for revelry and says drinks are on Kira.   Throughout the night, an old man buys Halcyon  a drink and challenges her to a game. He has a game board of a beloved game in Thylea. It is called the royal game of Ur. Jack the DM has warned the party that he has been playing a lot and that they should probably familiarize themselves with it and learn to play.
Artemios is still hung up on Astraea saying that she is not accustomed to eating. Astraea is saying that of course she has eaten before, and Artemios just says that Astraea is weird.
We pass the night enjoying the company of the patrons of the tavern.
We sleep that night and we all level up to level 2.
People in Thylea who worship Sydon and Lutheria, typically observe a sacrifice at every new moon.
The people of the sour vintage encourage the party to go to bed and be refreshed to fulfill our duties as "the chosen ones."
The Hunter wakes up early and armors up and has a moment to himself where he ponders the reality of the gods perhaps?
Astraea is wondering how the party will get our food, but Kira says that they will be so revered that we should not worry about it.
Astraea asks Kira if she knows a lot about gods. Kira says that she doesn’t care as much about gods as she does about the exploits of heroes. She says that she has been withholding information, that there has been a problem with the Oracle, and that she just received word that the lights of the Temple of the Oracle are out. Kira worries that the Oracle might not be there.
Kira says that the Oracle is one of the most respected creatures of Thylea. She is respected by The Gods, The Titans and people alike. When she makes a prediction, it comes true, and no one's prophetic powers come even close to those of the Oracle.
Kira leads the party into a canyon where the Temple of the Oracle has been carved into the walls of the canyon. We walk into the canyon that is filled with a warm mist that makes us feel warm and comfortable.
Artemios is concerned that Kira might be leading them into a trap. He shares his concerns with The Hunter. The Hunter is unconcerned. He thinks that following a beautiful lady into a canyon is just fine.
Astraea is using her cartography tools and making a map.
The party finds themselves walking down a dark canyon or fissure in the rock. Kira lights a torch. Astraea starts muttering and affecting the flame of Kira’s torch. Kira flares the torch up brightly with a snap. The Hunter and Artemios are concerned with the light giving us away.
Astraea casts thaumaturgy and causes the ground to quake and the rocks to start to tremble.
They see a cloud of steam start to rise from the ground. The Hunter goes and tackles Kira and lands with her on top of him and says, “It’s me and you against the world, baby.”
Astraea makes the sound of swords drawing, and The Hunter jumps up and puts himself in between Kira and the sound. A small steam creature appears and taps on Artemios's ankle and then disappears into the stream, and appears on the other side. It begins to taunt Artemios and he throws a dagger at it. His daggers are some kind of smoky darkness that coalesces into two daggers.

Combat starts

Artemios shoots a crossbow bolt at the mephit, and another mephit appears downstream. The bolt misses.
Astraea runs downstream to the other mephit, and attacks it with a quarterstaff and an unarmed attack.
The Hunter still thinks there are people coming from deeper in the canyon and keeps himself in between Kira and the perceived attack, while hurling a firebolt at the closest steam mephit. The firebolt hits it.
Halcyon gives bardic inspiration to Artemios, and uses vicious mockery at the mephit.
The downstream mephit attacks with a steam cloud at Astrea, who is able to save against damage.
Astraea attacks the mephit, and it dissipates into steam, almost damaging Astraea, but she is able to avoid the damage.
Artemios jumps across the rocks in the stream to get to the other side. He then stabs the mephit with his other dagger, and shoots it with his crossbow. It dies and explodes in steam and Artemios avoids damage from the steam.
Astraea teleports across the stream and appears next to on of the other steam mephits who were lounging in the stream, and hits it with his quarterstaff.
The Hunter jumps across the stream and takes fire damage from the steam. He casts green flame blade and hits the same steam mephit, which causes fire to the other mephit.
Halcyon flies closer and casts vicious mockery on one of the mephits.
One of the steam mephits uses a cloud of steam on Orion and Astraea. They both make their saves and take only one damage.
The other mephit turns into mist and tries to escape. Astraea kills it with an opportunity attack.
Artemios runs across the entire map using his bonus action to dash and stabs the remaining steam mephit with his dagger.
Astraea walks over and hits the steam mephit with her quarterstaff. Then punches it. It dies. Astraea takes damage from the mephit as it explodes in steam. Artemios avoids taking damage.

Back on the trail

Kira says that we didn’t need to kill the mephits. But she is anxious to get moving back toward the temple.
The Hunter prays to the five gods and uses lay on hands to heal himself.
The party continues on and makes it to the temple.
They see a massive temple that is carved directly into the walls of the canyon.
As they approach from the shadows, they hear a loud slapping noise and a man’s screams.
The Hunter raises his shield and starts to swing his flail.
Halcyon suggests that they assess the situation first before we advance with arms raised.
Astraea uses thaumaturgy to emit a loud voice demanding to know who is there.
A woman walks out and says, “You’re here” and she says to someone inside the temple to dispose of the others and then to address these.
An acolyte of Sydon  comes out and says that she is going to take us to talk to lord Sidon. There is another acolyte who throws a body out of the temple and Astraea casts toll of the dead on him. He passes the save.
Halcyon starts passionately pleading for the fighting to stop and convinces the acolyte to let the party pass into the temple to hear the prophecy from the oracle before they make their decision about what to do.
Orion suggests an Oath of Peace to allow us to pass into the temple to hear the prophecy without fear of attack from her group.
We will discover next week what comes of the oath and what the group decides to do after hearing what the Oracle has to say.
The party voted to give Halcyon inspiration for next week.

Rewards Granted

Fame Points increased to 1.
The party gets a Charm of Vitality from Thylea, Great Mother of All for the sacrifice 
Halcyon  gains inspiration for next session

Character(s) interacted with

Kira
Brika

Report Date

23 Oct 2022

Primary Location

The Sour Vintage

Related Plots

• The Prophecy

Related Characters

• Artemios
• Astraea
• Halcyon
• Jack the DM
• Orion Castellanos