Scion – Petro Campaign – Session 20
This account was originally found on Livejournal, I am not the original author—I am just a fan of the journal and have found reading it on livejournal clunky to navigate and rife with errors/instability (such as having to refresh multiple times due to the page in questions becoming unavailable often requiring multiple refreshes. The original post can be found here, published by DJ-Yomi, and was published on Mar 9th 2008.
I am so glad Duat is over and done with. Getting the Eye of Chaos to its hiding place was actually easier than I thought it would be, but as the Underworld goes, Duat sucked, so I’m not upset. I’m still in the Underworld, though. In Persephone’s sanctum, to be exact. Her nymphs have been spending all day giving me the absolute best spa treatment I’ve ever had. ^___^ I feel sooooo refreshed. Of course, I’m also covered in aphrodisiacs and about to go see Persephone for a little rendezvous, which I’m pretty anxious about, but I’ll get back to that later.
You know, Persephone’s sanctum is really sumptuous in an ancient Greek kinda way. I mean, it’s really nice. But it’s not as…creepy as I’d hoped. I guess I expected an Underworld sanctum to be a bit darker. Oh well. If I ever get my own Underworld sanctum, I’ll make sure it’s as dark and gothic and I want it to be. ~_o
Anyway, once we’d rested on the banks of the river in the Underworld for awhile (having just escaped Kaymakli and a horde of shadow beasts, of course) we met up with the guide who was supposed to lead us into the Pesedjet Underworld. A river barge sailed up to the bank of the river near our resting spot, and a crocodile-headed boatman invited us aboard after briefly making sure that we were the people he was supposed to pick up.
We figured out pretty quickly that the boatman was the god Sobek. He’d been sent to take us to Duat, but he made it pretty obvious that he didn’t want to know any more than necessary about our mission. Plausible deniability, I guess. His boat traveled with remarkable speed…and in fact we almost caught up to the sun barge. We actually had to ask Sobek to slow down and keep us out of sight of the larger barge because we didn’t want Set to see us. That would have ruined our trip pretty quickly, seeing as we definitely want to keep the Eye out of his hands.
In any case, we arrived at the first of Duat’s gates without much trouble. Then the hard part began. Thanks to the ritual we performed (or maybe Persephone’s guidance) Anna and I had a sense of where to go in Duat, so we began leading the others. The hiding place for the Eye lay somewhere between Duat’s third and fourth gates.
The gates were pretty important. Apparently, the Pesedjet dead arrive in Duat with literally nothing, and must face the challenges of pain and deprivation as they travel through the gates. Each gate they pass rewards them with something they lost upon death, like food, water, or clothing. Only the most virtuous souls can pass through all the gates. In fact, the speed at which someone travels in Duat is based on how virtuous she is, so people who lack virtue (at least according to Pesedjet standards) don’t get very far very fast.
You know, I’m glad Yomi doesn’t work that way, because I really don’t think I match up all that well with the values of the rest of my pantheon.
Fortunately, we had the Eye of Chaos, which let us travel pretty quickly despite the fact that most of us don’t really synch with the Pesedjet’s view of morality. So traveling through the first three gates wasn’t a huge problem. But the desert-like environment in Duat was brutal! The wind-blown sands scraped our skin, and even the reeds and scrub grasses were like razors. Most of us were okay since we’re so resilient, but poor T-Bone and even Elisa had a pretty hard time the further we traveled. I did what I could to look after T-Bone, but I could tell he was miserable.
Aside from the environment, our trip into Duat was pretty straightforward. It was really just a bunch of fights against the native creatures of the realm, which were absolutely ferocious. First, as we traveled among quicksand that Adam and Elisa were keen enough to notice and steer us through, four huge crocodiles tried to eat us. It took just about everything we could muster just to defeat one of the beasts. T-Bone was practically dancing on the thing’s back, laying into it with all the strength he could put behind that cane of his. Even Echo jumped in and punched one. It was…kinda adorable actually. But completely ineffective. Trust me, I know what that’s like.
The crocs didn’t really hurt us much, but it was going to take a lot of time and effort to kill the beasts, so I used a power I haven’t really explored much since I became a demigod. I hummed a sort of old funeral dirge, something very somber and draining, and my tune quickly put the three remaining crocodiles to sleep. Before we moved on, Ray grabbed each of them by the tail and threw them as far as he could (which is pretty damn far!). He didn’t kill them, but at least they were out of our way.
Actually, Pierre raised a point a little later about the way I put the crocs to sleep. He didn’t think that my purview over health should have had any effect on the dead (and since we were in the Underworld, the crocodiles were basically the dead spirits of monstrous crocodiles). He’s right…so why did it work? I’d like to think that my inherent connection to death has something to do with it, but I think it’s much more likely that it was just the Eye of Chaos screwing up the natural order of things. ^_^ I’ll have to tell T-Bone about that theory. He’ll probably really like it.
Anyway, our next big challenge was a swarm of highly poisonous snakes. I mean, there were a lot of them. I don’t really have a problem with snakes, though they aren’t my favorite creature (I prefer cats and spiders ^_^), but I did not like the idea of getting bitten by 50 or so black asps. But, you know, it really wasn’t a problem. Ray yelled, “Shockwave!!” which is our cue to jump or brace ourselves against his shockwave attack. He jumped into the air and slammed the ground with a bone-shattering punch, and the blast wave pretty much killed all the snakes.
The third exhibit in the Duat zoo was a gigantic hippo. It kinda kept to itself in a small pond, but it gave us a look that said, “Bring it.” We decided not to bring it, and went around the pond, leaving the hippo alone. When I say “we” I don’t mean Ray. He decided to taunt the thing, and ran straight toward it, jumping on its head and sliding down its back before jumping off again and rejoining the rest of us. Hippopotamus Rex snapped at him with jaws that could have swallowed Ray whole, but didn’t connect. I gotta tell you though, as impressive as Ray’s antics were, I would have been pretty pissed if that hippo had chased Ray down and we’d ended up fighting it.
God, Ray is such a show off. I can be so infuriating, and yet…there’s something…handsome about it. Hmmm…maybe I just find it infuriating because I’m kind of a show-off too. Well, I guess we both have to watch our pride, even if we do manifest it in different ways.
Next, we were attacked by one other group of beasties. This time, five black cobras the length of school buses slithered up to us from the sands and scrub surround us. They darted in to attack almost before we were ready for them, but we still got a chance to act before they could strike. Ray finished off one right off the bat, and then I flicked my iPod to Samael’s “Heliopolis” (an appropriate track, I thought ^_^) and used my sun flare to stun the snakes for a few precious seconds. It was long enough for the others to slay three of the remaining four. And then, as usual, the one remaining snake bit me because it was pissed off about the sunlight. *sigh*
Fortunately, I’m tough enough that it didn’t really hurt me much, but its poison was not fun. It didn’t really do much to me, and it didn’t last long, but for about a minute I was wracked with convulsions and had some brief but intense hallucinations. And not good ones either. While I was shuddering in Echo’s arms, though, the other avenged me by killing the final cobra.
By this point, we’d made it through the third gate and soon found the resting place Persephone made for the Eye. I was a large obsidian gazebo. The only problem was that it was guarded by a couple of giant scorpions and a couple of Apophys’s minions (titanspawn!). We couldn’t have that, so after Elisa and Adam sniped the soldiers from hiding, everyone else rushed in and killed the scorpions. The scorpions were really cool, by the way. It’s actually a shame that we had to kill them.
Anyway, with the minions and their pets dead, we could finally place the Eye of Chaos in its resting place on the gazebo. Anna and I performed the second ritual to summon Persephone’s aid, and then…we all blacked out.
I don’t know exactly what everyone else experienced when they awoke, but I found myself in a beautifully appointed room in something like a Greek palatial estate. The walls were all dark green marble and there was pomegranate imagery everywhere, so I knew almost instantly that I was in Persephone’s realm. All my stuff was there, but before I could look around much, several nymphs shepherded me into a hot bath the size of a pool. And like I said in the opening to this entry, I spent the next few hours getting treated to the best spa treatment I’ve ever had. ^___^.
I was worried about my friends, though, and asked about them. The nymphs assured me that they were fine, but when I asked if I could see them, they said I’d be able to do so later, but that they had to finish preparing me to meet with Persephone. That’s fine. But I really wanted to be with Echo.
The nymphs also brought me a tray of fruit to eat. The fruit looked so good that I almost took a bite…but then I remembered what the fruit the Underworld can do and I politely refused. I don’t know much ancient Greek, but I’ve learned enough from Echo to figure out that the nymphs weren’t happy about that. They hadn’t been given orders to make me eat the fruit, but they also felt that I should since Persephone had sent it to me. I tried to reassure them, and I think it helped.
It did make me worry, though. I’m not entirely happy with the way Persephone sees me as a sort of concubine, but I do like Persephone, and hope that our friendship will blossom into a true alliance as I reach godhood. I think she feels the same way. I mean, sex with her is incredible, but I’m not really looking for a sexual relationship with her. I’m in love with Echo, and there’s not really room in my heart for another woman (a man, though, that’s different ^_^). I just don’t want to become Persephone’s bitch, if you know what I mean. So I’m naturally quite anxious about what appears to be an attempt by Persephone to force me to remain in the Underworld.
Ray and Echo did come and visit, which set my mind at ease. They’ve been comfortable, and they’ve apparently been given food from earthly realm to eat, which makes the fact that Persephone offered me food from the Underworld even more suspect… Ray said that Persephone wanted to keep me here for awhile to help guide me along my path to godhood. I’d really appreciate her help…but like I said, I don’t want to become her “pet.” And Ray pointed out that “awhile” might be quite a long time for a god. Apparently he and the others are pretty much free to go anytime, but before they do, Persephone has some other divine guests who are coming to meet with a few of them.
I should also mention that Ray and Echo were brought by one of Persephone’s daughters, a pomegranate-skinned nymph named Cila. She was very kind, and seemed to be doing all in her power to help make my friends comfortable.
So, now I’m just waiting to be summoned to see Persephone. I hope I have a chance to talk to her at length and make my views on our friendship clear. I don’t think she’s trying to deceive me, but as a goddess, her views on these sorts of things may be a bit skewed. So I want to make my intentions clear, and I want her to understand that I’m devoted to Echo. The last thing I need is a jealous Greek goddess watching my every move.
So anyway, the fact that I’ve been bathed in several thousand dollars worth of aphrodisiacs (or so Echo said) means that Persephone and I are destined for a liaison. That doesn’t really bother me that much…I mean, my previous encounter with her was the most incredible sexual experience of my life, so I know I’ll at least have fun. But I just don’t want to become her plaything, and I’m worried that if I attempt to assert my independence, she might take offense. Our friendship could be damaged, and that’s the last thing I want.
Even so, that’s what I’m going to do. And if Persephone just doesn’t understand, then…well, I’ll deal with that when the time comes.
And who knows, maybe Ray will come to save me again, like he always does. He is so gallant. I was really touched that he came with Echo to check on me. Even if he doesn’t like me all that much, he still cares about me. It’s so wonderful, in its way. ♥ ^_^ ♥