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Rolled 13, 14 = 27 (2d20)
You nervously edge across the walls of the fallen temple, giving the daimon a wide berth to retrieve the goats – it’s trivial for you to knock a pair of them unconscious with a measured blow, drape them across your broad shoulders and return to the altar.
Palamedes, to his credit, has regained his composure by the time you have returned. You place the goats atop the broad stone altar, and lift their necks one at a time. Palamedes, borrowing your Lebinthian knife, intones:
“Goddess of this temple, we honor you through the sacrifice of these goats, in remembrance of you. Eat of their substance – drink of their lifeblood. Honor us with safe passage from this place.” He deftly slits the throat of each animal, and the black blood of the beasts flows darkly across the surface of the altar, flooding onto the broken tiling below.
You expectantly turn to the shapeless cloud – and over long seconds, the mist condenses into the form of a slender girl of about twelve - or this is your best guess, because it’s difficult to say. The top half of the daimon head’s simply missing – smashed apart as if a tremendous mallet had crushed it. What looks like bone protrudes from the mangled skull, and from the broken flesh, a syrupy substance slowly bubbles, sublimating into a golden mist as it hits the air. Not blood – but the golden ichor of the gods.
Your mouth hangs open in shock.
The goddess-girl opens her mouth, and whispers softly:
“ शापमुक्ति “.
To your ears, they are nonsense syllables – completely without meaning. The goddess-girl repeats herself, and Palamedes starts - his mouth works momentarily before he can summon winged words. He speaks back to the daimon in some foreign tongue – you think Hittite?
“يا إلهة، من فضلك - يجب أن تتحدثي بب يا إلهة، من فضلك - يجب أن تتحدثي ببطء. أنا لا أعرف لسانك.”
“ मातापितृविहीन “, she replies.
The goddess-girl begins to wail – the dejected weeping of a child without hope. You are unsettled, to say the least - you cannot tear your eyes away from the crushed skull of the divinity. <span class="mu-i">What could do this? What could wound a goddess in this fashion?</span> The thought consumes you - you can think of nothing else.
She speaks again:
“ मेध्य “
Suddenly, Palamedes stands straighter – a fire burns in his eyes. He nods in your direction confidently, and speaks again:
“يا إلهي، أسمعك وأفهم. كيف يمكن أن نرضيك في هذا اليوم؟”.
>Okay, /qst/ - this should be interesting. We are rolling for Palamedes to interact with the goddess. I need TWO rolls of dice+1d20+6. Palamedes has Fresh Olympian Blood, and I am assigning another +3 bonus for the double goat sacrifice. His Literacy trait is making this social encounter possible, BTW – he’s practically the only person in TWQ who can do this.