Corinth’s market breathes salt and fear. Spear-armed guards watch the flow of merchants, and every eye drops when Ares passes.
Valintal keeps close, his hand on his sword hilt, his ruined body held together by sheer refusal.
At the muddy lip of the Spring of Peirene, Ares spots it again, an obsidian-black feather pinned in the wet earth.
Ares
Hades was here.
The feather’s path stops dead beside the spring stones. No footprints lead away, only a scuff, as if someone departed in a hurry or was dragged off.
Valintal
Then your uncle came hunting Thanatos, and someone stopped him. That makes this worse.
A nearby fishmonger stares at the feather, then looks away fast, swallowing hard. Beyond the crowd, a sealed civic notice flutters on a post, marked with Zeus’s thunderbolt.
✓ Quest Accepted
Find Hades' current trail
✓ Quest Accepted
Uncover who stopped Hades at the spring
“Does the feather belong to Thanatos’ wings?”
YES, BUT (VeryLikely, rolled 78)
Ares brushes the mud away, revealing the unmistakable, iridescent sheen of a wing feather belonging to the god of death. It is indeed Thanatos's plume, but the quill is snapped clean, and the dark energy radiating from it feels cold and wrong.
“No longer able to hide my worry, I finally confide in Valintal. “Zeus despises me. Mortals fear me. But Hades has always been like a father to me. He and Thanatos offered me guidance and patience, when the rest of the cosmos offered me nothing but insults.” I clench my fists. “When I find the bastards who did this, I will throw them into Tartarus piece by piece!””
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled -1)
Ares
Zeus despises me. Mortals fear me. But Hades has always been like a father to me. He and Thanatos gave me guidance and patience, when everyone else gave me insults.
Ares
When I find the ones behind this, I will throw them into Tartarus piece by piece.
Valintal
...Then I understand why you bare your teeth at the world. A man who has been denied mercy remembers the few who gave it.
Valintal
If Hades is in danger, I will keep walking beside you. I do not know the gods, but I know what it is to chase an ending.
The frost around the feather holds steady, but the cold in the mud is not natural. Beneath the broken quill, a thin line of hammered bronze shows through, stained with black wax.
Valintal kneels, careful not to touch the frost, and peels a flake of wax free. A thunderbolt seal is pressed into it, half-smeared, as if someone tried to tear the message away in haste.
Valintal
This was not lost. It was handled. Read it quickly, before the cold eats the rest.
Quest Complete
Find Hades' current trail
“I read the thunderbolt-sealed bronze tablet. It contains correspondence between Zeus and Hades about Thanatos’ disappearance, and names Sisyphus of Corinth as the condemned king Thanatos was sent after.”
SUCCESS (Poor Reasoning, rolled +2)
Ares lifts the bronze tablet free. Frost spiders off its edge as the black wax cracks under his thumb, and the thunderbolt seal glints in the market light.
The message is short, urgent. Zeus commands Hades to account for Thanatos at once, and names the mortal quarry tied to the summons, Sisyphus of Corinth.
The script leaves no room for doubt. Thanatos was sent after the king, and someone has torn at the order in haste.
Valintal
So the dead one is not merely missing. He was sent into a trap with a god's seal on it.
Valintal straightens from the mud, eyes fixed on the tablet, while the frost around the bronze spreads in a thin, bright rim.
Valintal
Sisyphus of Corinth. Then the trail has a face, not just a cold mark in the earth.
From the market edge, distant carts and voices blur under a rising hush, as if the square itself listens for the next move.
Quest Complete
Uncover who stopped Hades at the spring
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Superb→Legendary