Heroes of the Peloponnese Game Thread

[Karvon]

Leonaidas wasn't too excited about wandering around in the maze. Too many magical traps had been encountered and he couldn't see any of them. He'd resigned himself to loitering along in the back and shooting at whatever the party ran into. So far, they'd not seen any sign of bull man, but had run into a number of mages and warriors who tended to be a bit suicidal. He'd been given a rather sharp short sword but wasn't overly inclined to ever put it to the test in combat - at least not voluntarily.

[Vanya Mia]

Katamarene had spent her time on first watch duty, notably avoiding having to cook but almost as if waiting for something. At the end of her turn returned to the fire with a petulant frown. eating in a sullen silence, and only speaking when talk turned to the way ahead.

"Athena is known for her appreciation of wisdom, and her aspect of war is in protection not the seeking of conflict." Katamarene replied with a shake of her head, but her eyes sparkled a little. "Ares favours those who battle for it's glory alone. I'm also not sure all nature is wise by essence, considering the tendency of the sheep to get their head stuck between the slats of a fence just to eat grass they believe a little greener on the other side of it"

"I thought it revolved around our natures too," the girl added, and then sniffed. "When Andreas didn't seem to make whatever was in the book work against him I thought rigidity to a regime was important, but seems he just hadn't gone quite close enough to offend it's nature." She shook her head. "Perhaps it is more than one aspect of our nature that matters, but I'm not sure which now. Let me think... what was on that stele?"

"The gods watch over this place," she began to murmur, "When facing choices the wise one let's the heart be the guide. Athena has a heart of virtue, she can see through all obstacles. Demeter has a heart of balance, she is guided by nature's child. Areas has a heart of violence, his is the path of blood." Pursing her lips a little she frowned. "Perhaps it is less that someone is regulated in their approach and more that they have purity of purpose that is important to Athena when attempting to follow the paths past those obstacles? I agree with Damien over the uncaring attitude nature has to the philosophy of right and wrong, but I do not agree all combat is evil. Reveling in the love of battle against those prepared for and seeking it too is not the same as attacking a village by surprise. There is the love of battle and the love of slaughter, and they are not the same."

"I'm almost in favour of saying let us take the path of Ares." She tossed her head a little in annoyance at the statement. "It could be no worse than these ... tentacle things sucking the soul and dealing death, if we're right, because we didn't help clean up old man Dantes pig shed without wanting anything in exchange for it. It's not as if we burned it down out of spite when he just gave us one flask of sour wine for doing so."

[smartalec]

Polytropos sat, until he grew bored with counting the blocks in the walls around him.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Follow the stranger while the others were gabbing about supplies. He might have discovered a clue! Or found some trinket worth taking, or end up doing a heroic deed... really, the sky was the limit.

But somehow, things hadn't quite gone the way he'd intended. And now he was in this room, with only the metal curtain to distinguish any wall from another. He threw another pebble at the curtain, only to see it bounce off with an audible zap.

"Hello?!" he cried, again. "Is anyone out there?"

Had he just been left here to starve? Or to be minotaur-food? There had to be some way out of here. Hadn't there? Even if the way out was nothing more than sitting and waiting...

Gods, I hope not. He was running out of blocks.

[Shadani]

"We could, of course, test these hypotheses through rigorous experimentation," Eleni suggested. "Only, this testing would involve us getting violently flayed by evil tentacles, so, you know... the scientific method loses some of its usual appeal. Yet, an alternative has yet to present itself..."

The sorceress shrugged. "A better question might be how these cultists are moving through the labyrinth. Perhaps whoever leads them might have gained some control over this place, but I struggle to imagine how..."

[Vanya Mia]

"You know, I am thinking back to that first door," Kataramene spoke up again looking at Eleni. "Those tentacles didn't appear while Tel was near the door, they showed up when you walked over." She glanced at Telemachus. "He's always been too ready to help out people, where you have the same pragmatic approach I do, so maybe..." she looked at Eleni and lifted an eyebrow, "... we have our test?"

[Topato]

"This is a lot more philosophy than I bargained for. I never claimed to be a sage." grumbled Telemachus. "We seem to be working it out by trial and error though. We know Demeters doors don't like me (CG), Athenas don't like Eleni (TN?) or Andreas.(LN). But OK. I'll volunteer to try Athenas and Ares rooms if someone's willing to pull me out if it all goes wrong." He sighed, resigned to fate. "Someone has to do it."

[Lazybones]

+600xp for full-party IC posting this week.

IP is 108.211.33.179:5121
Pw is same as always.

[Gulfwulf]

Damian stood on the bank of the underground river and looked out at it for a few moments, lost in thought. Without turning around, he addressed the others: "As our friend said, we need to either rest or return to the city because we are in no shape to wage another battle against that mage. I'm for resting here and setting up an ambush for the returning fishermen. Maybe we'll take one prisoner by chance and find out what this cult is doing here. At the very least, we should be able to find the head of the snake so we can remove it. Whatever we decide, we'll need to do it soon." He stared down at the water and his shoulders slumped. As he started to sit, a cold, wet nose pressed itself into his backside. With a yelp, he quickly stood and spun around, his face breaking into a wide grin as he saw the perpetrator. "Aias! I thought I had lost you, my friend! Here, let me take a look at you!" He wrapped the bear in a bear hug before checking over his body for wounds. "You have a lot of dried blood, my friend, but I don't see any wounds on you. How you manage that, I don't know, but I'm glad you're back. Come, let's rest for a bit. I don't know about you, but I certainly need it."

[Vanya Mia]

"Yes, rest,"Katamarene replied, with a weary sigh, holding her side "but these soldiers need something to protect them with and I'm sure we found a batch of weapons and armour somewhere near by. If no one picked anything up," she looked around at the rest speculatively, "I suggest some of us head back there quickly with them and get what we can. That's extra arms for the cause when ... if whoever left returns."

"Plus are we sure the mage has gone?" She looked at Polytropos. "Perhaps we should try and see which way he went, as if he is looking for a great treasure he is unlikely to give up so readily. We're short of supplies, yes, but we may have to see what we can scrounge from these crates here. If we leave to re-supply and return, regardless of the fact that we have that key, he will doubtless have found a way past it."

[Topato]

"I picked up some weapons earlier, couple of Aspis, an odd curved sword, and a large sized axe. They might have belonged to the soldiers. They can use them, regardless."
Telemachus sighed as he sat down. "If I take any more trips to the Styx I'm going to need to buy my own boat."