A sharp wind tears across Asphodel, bending the grass low. The golden hush around Ares, Hades, and Linus shivers as a woman steps from the moving air, dark hair whipping like a banner in a storm.
Eris
Stillness suits you poorly, Ares. If you want Thanatos back, you will need more than patience.
Eris circles the glowing path with a grin, boots barely touching the meadow. Hades remains still, but his posture hardens, and Linus watches her with uneasy curiosity.
Eris
Burn the road open. Force the way through. Quiet has never rescued anyone.
Ares
The path is real. It points somewhere beyond Asphodel.
Hades
Eris, enough. If you are here to help, speak plainly. If not, do not meddle.
Eris lifts one shoulder, amused, as the meadow’s light flickers around her shadow. Linus shifts closer to Ares, and the new path gleams brighter between the blades of grass.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach Thanatos and rescue him from the root of the crisis
✓ Quest Accepted
Decide whether to follow Hades or Eris's path
“I demand that Eris explain herself, barely refraining from shouting or drawing a weapon so as not to frighten Linus or the other souls.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -1)
Ares
Speak plainly, Eris. Why are you here?
Ares keeps his weapon down. The words land cleanly, sharper than a shout, and the nearby grass does not tremble with them.
Eris
There, that is better. I am here because your little road is honest, and honest things can be used.
Hades
If you mean to use it, say how. If you mean to mislead him, leave.
Eris stops circling. Her grin thins into something appraising, and she flicks a glance from Hades to the bright seam in the meadow.
Eris
Hades offers you patience. I offer you motion. One path steadies, the other strikes. Ares, you will choose which family you serve by how you move next.
Linus looks between them, then to Ares. Behind the tension, the golden path keeps shining, waiting.
““Uncle, where is Thanatos?” If what Eris says is true, Thanatos may be in danger.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
Ares
Uncle, where is Thanatos?
The question leaves Ares steady, not loud. Hades turns at once, and the meadow seems to hold its breath around the bright path.
Hades
Held beneath the world's wound, where the deaths go unanswered. Sisyphus keeps him at the root of this trouble.
Linus
Thanatos is alive, then... but trapped.
Eris
There. Truth can be useful, when it points.
Hades does not look away from Ares. Pride and concern sit together in his face, while the golden seam in the grass burns brighter, as if answering the name.
Hades
If you go, go measured. If you strike blind, you serve her.
Linus shifts closer to Ares, hopeful and uncertain, and Eris waits with a thin smile, leaving the choice hanging between calm and chaos.
“Is Thanatos in immediate danger?”
YES, BUT (VeryLikely, rolled 79)
The golden path pulses with a rhythmic, frantic light, mirroring the instability of the realm. Thanatos is indeed in immediate danger, as the tether holding him at the root of the crisis begins to fray under the strain of the unnatural silence.
“Is Thanatos in immediate danger?”
NO (VeryLikely, rolled 95)
The frantic pulsing of the golden path abruptly settles into a steady, calm glow. Thanatos remains secure within his confinement, the tether holding firm against the pressure of the void.
““Who is Sisyphus?””
FAILURE (Mediocre Reasoning, rolled -2)
Ares
Who is Sisyphus?
The question lands in the meadow, plain and direct. The golden path holds its steady light, but Eris's smile sharpens at the name, as if she has been waiting for him to ask it.
Hades
A mortal king. Clever, proud, and desperate enough to wager against death itself.
Eris
He is the kind of man who makes a game of every chain. That is why the world remembers him.
Hades does not look away from the path when he speaks. Linus glances between them, uneasy but listening. The meadow stays calm, though the gold in the grass flickers once, like a held breath.
Hades
Thanatos is at Sisyphus's root, yes. But if you mean to reach him, know this, you do not pull a king apart with blind force and call it rescue.
Eris tilts her head, amused. The answer leaves Ares with a clear shape to the enemy now, and a harder choice still standing in front of him, patience at one side, chaos at the other.
“I ask Hades what Sisyphus wants”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Reasoning, rolled +0)
Ares
What does Sisyphus want?
Hades
Freedom from consequence. He wants death to obey him, and the world to remember his name for beating it.
Eris
He wants the thrill of forcing the impossible to kneel. That is what clever little kings always want, when they think they can bargain with the dark.
Hades’s answer lands cleanly, but it costs him a breath, and the gold in the grass trembles in sympathy. Linus stiffens at the edge of the light. Eris’s grin widens, as if she can already taste the conflict she has stirred.
The path brightens once, then divides its glow, one band steady and warm, the other sharp as struck flame. The meadow itself seems to wait.
Hades
Choose carefully, Ares. Patience leads to the root. Fury only advertises your arrival.
Eris lifts her chin toward the harsher light, inviting it without words, while Hades holds his ground beside the softer trail. The choice stands open, and this time the path will not wait forever.
“I follow Hades's path”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -1)
Ares steps onto the softer light. The warm band of the path gathers under his feet, and the volatile trail falls away behind him, denied.
Hades
Good. Stay with this road.
The meadow answers at once. The sharper glow thins, while the steady path deepens into a clear lane of gold that pulls forward through the grass.
Eris
How obedient. I wonder how long it lasts.
Linus watches Ares go, shoulders easing as the split light settles into one chosen route. Hades turns with firm approval, already moving to follow.
Ares
The safer path holds.
The path carries them onward, and Asphodel closes behind in quiet certainty. Ahead, the gold narrows toward whatever waits at its end.
Quest Complete
Decide whether to follow Hades or Eris's path
Fault Removed: Feared Reputation