M.I.S.T.Campaign: Session 42

Egypt certainly has their border security well in hand.  We’d barely arrived in Cairo when someone approached us, mentioned Andrew, and requested that we follow them.  Not just for me and Lexi; but Ken, Claire, and Cindy as well. 

We were lead to Andrew and a woman named Kahi, who is to be our contact while we’re in Egypt.  She’s a blunt, no-nonsense individual.  Which, frankly, I like.  I’ll take someone who’ll lay it all out there over someone who’ll dance around the subject any day.  She had a few mannerisms that seemed distinctly feline, too.  I’m guessing daughter of Sekhmet, though there are certainly other possibilities as well.

And I don’t think our Tuatha members’ trip to their High Court went well.  Because neither of them spoke of it, and Claire was in a particularly foul mood.  Which, unfortunately, she opted to take out on Kahi.  Which I really wish she hadn’t done.  While I think Kahi’s professional enough that it probably won’t come back to bite us…I sincerely doubt that it’ll help any.

Anyway, we’re off to Imhotep’s tomb.  The Psedjet are hoping that their greatest builder can help construct a defense to keep the Psedjet at bay.  Ordinarily they’d need Isis, Serket, Neith, and Nepthys to make contact with the guardians of the canopic jars to free him.  But since they’re needed to hold back the Psedjet the hope seems to be that the four demigoddesses in our band can take their place in the rituals.

It sounds like it’s either something that’ll work or fail spectacularly, hopefully the former.

And we’re taking six Psedjet Scions along with us, in case their perspective is needed at any point.  But there are also four females amongst them, so there’s a reason beyond our simple gender split that we’re being sent.  Either more powerful Scions are needed to have a chance to make the substitution…or there are going to be dangers beyond what they could handle on their own.  Which would indicate that we’ll have to watch them carefully during any fight that breaks out.

Speaking of, once we started approaching the tomb Ken noticed a handful of large beasts prowling the mountains.  That threw up a red flag immediately.  There aren’t really large creatures native to the desert, at least not mortal ones.  They tend to have too much trouble securing adequate amounts of water.  Which meant these creatures were almost certainly legendary ones, with a measure of divine endurance to help them go without water.

A suspicion that was proven correct shortly afterwards when a claw thrust up through the sands and all but snapped a packhorse in half.  Sometimes I hate being right.

M.I.S.T Campaign: Session 41

So...we returned to Midgard in Norway.  And found that the time that had passed for us whilst climbing Yggsdragsil and within Helheim didn’t quite line up with the time that had passed there.  There was a difference of oh…about three years.

Yeah, that…blindsided me.  Perhaps even more so than the conversation with my parents did.

Thankfully, in this particular instance I suppose, I don’t really have any mortals I’m real close to that would have worried too much about me.  I guess the studio that publishes my documentaries would a little, and a few old friends.  But someone had been around to spread the word that I was busy and out of touch for a while.  I guess I could release the footage I worked on before my journey to Helheim for an “explanation” of what I was up to, maybe.

But, of course, getting back in touch with mortals isn’t the big problem.  Things have gone downhill since we left.  Greece and the EU are at odds after Goras’s armies annexed Turkey.  And it’s clear enough to see that Goras is all too happy to be the second coming of Alexander the Great.  I knew that the way he was marching against Donny and Harmonia was a poorly-disguised land grab.

We’re not the only one who’s seen the pattern, either.  Egypt’s closed its borders, something I’m sure the Psedjet have a hand in.  They have no desire to be subjugated by Greek armies again.  And no one in the band seems all too keen on letting Goras run roughshod over Europe and Asia either.  So…we split up to recruit help.

Claire and Ken went to the High Court of the Tuatha de Danaan to try to get them involved.  Cindy made a personal stop at Avalon first, no doubt to speak with Bryn (she spent a while at the feast talking to the Valkyrie that was down there), and then she’s going to speak with the Amazons, I believe.  Andrew went to Egypt, he should be able to figure out what’s going on there and ensure we have a relatively warm welcome when we arrive in Cairo.

Lexi and I…we went to Iran to see if the Yazata will involve themselves.  Well, involve themselves now, I guess.  Alexander did conquer Persia in ages past, after all.  When we arrived, however, they had some of their ladies show Lexi around while I went to speak with their ambassador.  They don’t consider it a woman’s place to discuss war,  apparently.  Thank the gods Cindy wasn’t with me, it probably wouldn’t have been all that great if Claire was either.  But it was especially good that Cindy wasn’t there, as Utgard-Loki’s taint still hasn’t been cleansed…and the ambassador was Altair.

I can’t say that I was surprised, I guess…though I’d been hoping that they’d send someone else.  I can’t help but wonder if they sent him as a test.  Through my father they knew that I was the one coming, after all.

Thankfully, the meeting went cordially.  I certainly had no desire to antagonize him, or any of the Yazata.  And my reconciliation with my father seems to have improved Altair’s opinion of me.  As he put it, the instructions were to greet me with the honors due a “wayward son finding his path again.”  So I also think it’s known to the rest of the pantheon that Vayu still hopes that I’ll convert to the Yazata upon apotheosis.

But, most importantly, the negotiations went spectacularly well.  The incident in international waters that prompted Egypt to close their borders also left the Yazata firmly of the opinion that Goras and that faction of the Dodekatheon are a threat that needs to be addressed.  And when I mentioned that I thought the Yazata should throw their lot in with the Psedjet and stop the Dodekatheon advance in Egypt, before they ever get the chance to advance on Persia…well, I think I might actually have made Altair’s day.

Long story short, I’ll be their Ambassador in Egypt.  Hopefully setting up an alliance to check the Dodekatheon.  Which I have high hopes for.  Like I said, the Psedjet seem to be well aware of the looming threat the Greeks pose.  And you know what they say, any port in a storm…

M.I.S.T. Campaign: Downtime 6

The conversation with my parents was…thought-provoking to say the very least.

Snuffles crashing the feast at the end wasn’t even the most surprising part of it.  Though Hel seemed…upset that he chose to enter through the one wall that as still standing after the fight.  Literally through it, as in there are now no walls standing.  So yeah…I don’t think she’s going to be his biggest fan.

I’m also fairly certain that they did not, in fact, secretly betroth me to anyone.  Which is certainly something of a relief.  Though Hel did rather specifically deny having a list of “several fascinating potentials lined up for me to glance over at my whim to see if alliances could be brokered.”  Not that she’d tell me who any of them were, of course.

But the part that truly caught me off guard came earlier.  Both my parents need heirs.  And though I’m not either of their only, or eldest, child I am the only one born of two Death Gods.  Which, as Vayu put it, gives me the unique ability to resonate as the ruler of an Underworld someday.  And that’s what they both need in an heir.  Of course, I can’t exactly inherit both of their Underworlds.  And it might seem like which one I’ll be in line for is set in stone due to my ichor marking me as one of the Æsir.

But here’s the kicker.

A Scion can choose to align himself with whatever Pantheon he chooses upon his or her Apotheosis.

That’s the revelation that really blindsided me.

There’s more to it than just picking and choosing, of course.  But since both Yazata and Æsir ichor runs through me I can switch between the two of those relatively easily.  Which means that I’m going to have to make a choice, perhaps the most important one I’ll ever make.  The Yazata or the Æsir.  Helheim or Mord Keshvar.  The Pantheon that holds me in contempt because of my blood or the one that I’ve done almost nothing but clash with so far.

Everything…just seems to grow ever more complicated...

M.I.S.T. Campaign: Session 40

I’ve grown tougher as well since my visitation, gaining endurance as well as resilience.  I can go months without food, rest, or water.  I can go almost an entire day between breaths with no problem at all.  And Vayu can still snatch the breath of life from my lungs as easily as he could the mortal man he used to demonstrate his importance so long ago.  It was a display of power every bit as impressive, albeit not so visually striking, as what I witnessed between him and Njord those months ago.

Not that it was targeted at me, per se.  It appeared to be an indiscriminate effect; hitting everyone present, including Kur.  But likely due either to Vayu’s influence or Hel’s, we appeared to recover from it faster than the Titan.  Basically it was done to give Andrew and me a window of opportunity.  So we seized it, of course.  He was born aloft on owl’s wings, as I was on the winds themselves, and we began to wrap Kur in Gleipnir’s bonds.

The first loop was uneventful, relatively speaking that is.  Between that and the second Claire caused a giant skeleton Kur had summoned to grapple with the serpent.  Which, all told, made the flying a little bit trickier but I was still able to manage it well enough.  But Kur did manage to catch Andrew with a length of its coils.  And no matter how much it may have still been weakened by Vayu’s earlier show of power, or restricted by Gleipnir, that was a blow that was going to hurt.

He did manage to skin-shed away from the blow.  Which, while a good thing since it might well have saved his life, also meant that the end of Gleipnir he had been holding was falling freely to the ground below.  Thankfully Cindy managed to catch it.  And Lexi managed to distract Kur.  Both of which, in turn, allowed me to finish wrapping Kur in another loop.  That was a total of three which, theoretically, is enough to hold the beast securely.  At which point Andrew swopped back down to complete the binding, and that particular physical form of Kur dissolved into dust.  Then my Mother’s hall was peaceful once more, albeit in sore need of repairs.

Hel expressed her gratitude by...enhancing our divine proclivities, I guess.  In my case, specifically, I could feel how she helped settle the steadfast might of the earth and howling fury of the storms deeper into my bones.  Then Vayu sucked the life out of us all again, briefly, before slamming it right back in.  An act that finished the process I suspect binding the Titan Avatar started.  Blood thinned again, making way for the thickening of our ichor.  Another step along the path to godhood.

After that we had a feast before departing back to Midgard.  I had a…surprising conversation with my parents near the end of it.  It’s certainly one that’ll give me a lot to think about.  But that’s an entry for another time.