>>5590368>>5590382In the meantime, you’ve been hiking out in nature. You have not been able to do something like this since you were a boy, when you and your sister would explore the wilderness surrounding your rural estate for hours on end. The forests surrounding Lycomedes’s palace are practically untouched- he is not a hunter and has no poaching troubles.
It’s quiet and solemn. Such an atmosphere is vastly preferable to the activity inside of the palace. Only a few slaves, your tutor Iudas, and your mother and sister occupied your home estate. In comparison, Lycomedes has a wife, seven daughters, the disguised prince, and upwards of thirty slaves serving the palace’s needs in some capacity or another. The idle chatter of girls and enjoyment of delicacies are too rich for your social and gustatory tastes.
Yet, after two days of exploring the north of the island, it is high time that you go and climb the mountain to the south. One day you plan to summit Olympus itself, so this little peak will serve as good practice. You wear little- a chiton, sandals, a sword for safety, and a small pack with a wineskin and bread for provisions. You set out in the early morning.
For the first few hours, you encounter nothing of note. Once Dawn lays her lovely hands on the horizon the birds chirp more and the insects less, but otherwise nothing.
You reach the base of the mountain. Here the going gets much tougher. The gravel shifts under your weight, and the slopes become more comfortable for goats than men. Yet you did not come here for mere comfort. Conquering nature is a challenge like any other, and you are a competitor at heart.
There are no goats here. Exceedingly strange- this kind of barren landscape is where the wild variety of their kind thrives the best. The foothills of Olympus abound with them. The sky is also cloudy and gray, a change from the clarity of the morning sun earlier.
After an hour of hard climbing you feel it. There is something… off about the mountain. There is a light pressure on you to turn back, to not continue. A compulsion even. [Fresh Olympian Blood]. You do not care. Whatever magic is in place to keep men from moving on up, you have the personal divinity to push through it. And you will. The secrets of spirits are always worth pursuing. Yet you ware of what lays ahead.
…
After thirty more minutes of climbing, the pressure has mounted to a substantial push that requires a conscious will to move against. Yet you are so close to the peak, which is itself shrouded in a mist that even your eyes cannot penetrate. That is incredibly curious…
>Roll 1d20, will check, Bo3. Your Nepenthe is back at the palace, so you cannot autosucceed this roll. 