Session 41 - Of Gods and Titans
General Summary
I left the library in a daze, my mind abuzz with the implications of the information Metia had provided to us. I had taken it for granted that the protection of the Gods held strong over every Roman city and believed to my core that so long as the citizens of Rome kept faith with their gods this protection would be unbreakable. The idea that the Ritus Religati could undo this compact was deeply disturbing to me, and threatened to upend my whole worldview yet again, as learning of the titans already had.
I was snapped from my reverie by the sound of Hassan and Laura arguing (again) about what our next course of action should be.
We still had one more piece of business to attend to here in Rome - the appointment we had offered up as bait to draw out the mysterious conspirators who tended to the hidden statues. As always Hassan was ready to take bold action, wanting to confront anyone who showed up to the meeting and get information from them by use of his magic if necessary. Laura argued for caution, and seemed of half a mind to advocate for fleeing Rome this very minute. In the end we decided on using Noctua to set a watch on the Pantheon , and to be ready to respond if someone did indeed show up at the appointed time.
As we approached the Pantheon to deploy Noctua (currently in his spider form) we were met with an unnerving sight. Where normally there would be but two Praetorian guards posted at the entrance to the Pantheon , there were now almost a dozen, circling the building and posted on the roof. Slipping Noctua inside I saw another ten deployed within. I reported what I saw to the others, and we discussed the implications of the increased scrutiny on the Pantheon and what it meant for our plans. In the end we decided to proceed, with the added precaution of Hassan and Laura using their magic to help hide my movements when I approached the Pantheon that night to connect with Noctua.
In the evening we returned to the Pantheon just before the designated time. Laura and Hassan wove their magic around me, and suddenly I was invisible to the eye and all but silent in my movements. With Laura at my side to guide my steps while my senses were elsewhere, we moved cautiously to the edge of the grassy area around the Pantheon. Sensing I was within range of Noctua, I sent my senses out and into his body, to see what was happening inside the temple.
(I must admit it is always somewhat disorienting to share Noctua's senses when he is in his spider form; I have to adjust to seeing the world through his eight eyes, to say nothing of the strange sensation of 'hearing' through the filaments of his long spindly legs)
Inside the scene was the same as when we spied on them earlier that day. Guards were ranged around the room, ready and waiting. Just before the appointed time there was a changing of the guard, and a large goliath who seemed to be some kind of optio remained with the new shift. I overheard a snatch of conversation between him and another, something about being ready to arrest anyone who shows up. Half an hour passed without anything else happening. The invisibility was about to wear off, and it was becoming clear that no one was showing up to parlay with us. I signaled Laura and we retreated from the Pantheon, found the others, and headed back to the Roost.
In the morning we left Rome, feeling that we had exhausted all avenues of investigation, and wary of what trouble we may have stirred up in the process.
Our six day journey was uneventful. I used my sending spell to update Tertia on our activities and discoveries in Rome, and to reach out to my sister stationed in Nemasus. I bickered with Zeed of course, as we had done so often in our youth. I worry as always that her bravado and recklessness will get her killed in the line of duty, while unexpectedly having to deal with her envy of the action that my current adventure entails. It is ironic that my life is filled with the kind of danger she craves, while she is in Nemasus living the kind of uneventful life that I thought to make for myself.
Laura was clearly happy to be out of the city, and Mkali was equally happy to be back in her company. Bandua was Bandua, eating much and saying little, as always. Hassan spent much of the journey trying to emulate the sending spell I used. Even after travelling with him for some months now, I still found his powers to be strange and unpredictable, and I was genuinely surprised when he was unable to reach out as I do and speak with others far away. Even his magic had its limits, it would appear.
On our arrival at Port Draconis we quickly obtained rooms for ourselves at an inn known as the Brown Palace, run by a cheerful if somewhat gregarious grey elf. I was able to quickly ascertain via magical means that there was another hidden statue within the Temple of Neptune. A quick walk by the temple revealed that it had but two guards stationed at the front doors, a far cry from what we had seen at the Pantheon a week ago.
Deciding that time was of the essence Hassan opened a portal which brought him and I within the temple walls unseen. The mechanism to move the statue was the same as it had been in past temples, and we soon found ourselves in an underground chamber, copying out another inscription. As I copied, I wondered at how much I had changed since we discovered the first of these hidden inscriptions in the ruins of Lugdunum. At the time the discovery had turned my whole world upside down; now even the earth-shattering idea that Romulus and Remus carried divine blood was but another piece of the puzzle that ever occupied my thoughts.
We were about to complete our business in the chamber, when something caught my eye. One of the walls appeared to be crumbling slightly, and behind it I could see the faintest hint of light. Further investigation revealed that there was some kind of stairway going downwards beyond the wall. After a quick conference, we decided to bring in Laura and Banda from outside to join the investigation. Hassan messaged them while I used my magic to shape a small hole in the temple wall, just large enough for them to crawl through. They slipped quietly into the temple, and together we went to explore what lay beyond the crumbling wall.
Bandua was able to break down the wall without much difficulty, and we found ourselves descending down a long flight of stairs that eventually led to a chamber. There was a set of double doors on the far wall adorned with a pair of large dragon head reliefs facing each other. A pair of torches burned in sconces on the wall next to the doors. We approached the doors cautiously, with Bandua checking for traps and I for magic, but other than the sconces there were no enchantments about, and the doors were un-trapped and unlocked.
Beyond the doors was another chamber, with another pair of double doors with dragon reliefs on the far wall. In the center of the room was a raised dais, on which stood a pedestal. On the pedestal was a scale, the kind moneylenders used to check coins. One side of the scale held a set of ten coins, while the other was empty. When we moved closer to examine the coins, we found that they were made of platinum, and stamped with a dragon head on one side and a crown on the other. The doors on the far side of the room were locked, with no mechanism to open them that Bandua could detect despite his best efforts.
My companions quickly focused our attention on the scale, believing it to be the key to unlocking the door. As they took turns trying different positions and combinations of coins on the scale, I took some time to examine the dragon head motifs that decorated the doors.
The motifs seemed familiar, and I wracked my brain and poured through my notes trying to figure out why. Then it struck me - they matched the iconography of the statue we had seen in the necropolis, the one that had transformed Bandua to mist. Cross referencing this with the Canticle of the Titans gave me a name - Bahamut. The Canticle styled him as the 'Lord of Justice', but what could justice mean to the vile creatures we had battled? For a brief unsettling moment I considered the thought that, if Rome had obliterated their kingdoms and destroyed their gods, then the destruction of the Roman Empire was justice, at least from their perspective.
Maybe it was these thoughts that framed my thinking, but when I turned from my ruminations about the dragon motif to look at the scale in the center of the room, the solution came to me in a flash. A debt to be paid, scales to be balanced...justice.
I swiftly removed ten platinum pieces from my pouch and laid them on the scale, across from the ten that were already there. As the scale balanced itself, there was a faintly audible click from the far doors, as some hidden mechanism unlocked them.
Beyond the doors was a long chamber with pillars running its length on either side. At the far end of the room a tall statue of Bahamut stood, very much like the one we had encountered in the necropolis. Beneath it was a pedestal on which rested a platinum cornu, a curved horn shaped in a circle. Wary of traps and tricks, Bandua took some time to look for hidden pressure plates or trip wires, while I cast a spell to detect any magic or enchantment. When the spell took hold I looked into the room and was nearly blinded by the power radiating from the cornu. This was easily the most powerful magical item I had ever seen.
With no traps or other sources of magic detected, we cautiously approached the pedestal. A part of my mind worried about how long we had been down here, and whether the guards outside the temple might come inside and discover our presence, but this cornu was a mystery that needed immediate address. I spent time on another ritual, one that would identify what this strange artifact was. When the answer came, I was flabbergasted.
The Cornu of Bahamut. A horn that could grant a single, selfless wish. A powerful artifact for good, dedicated to one of these monstrous titans.
Hassan suggested that we take the item and make our way out of this place, and everyone readily agreed. He plucked it from the pedestal and stowed it away in the bag of holding. We turned and left the room, heading back up the stairs, through the temple, and into the streets through the hole in the wall, putting things back as we had found them on our way out.
I was lost in thought as we headed back to the inn, barely aware of my surroundings. Could a titan be...good? And if so, what does that make the gods that destroyed them?
Rewards Granted
- Minor Milestone - Arrive in Port Draconis
- Campaign Milestone - Find the 5th Stela and Scripture
- Campaign Milestone - Find the Cornu of Bahamut
Missions/Quests Completed
4,650 experience points.
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