He looks dubious. Viola's Faerie Lore roll tells her that while the conversation thus far makes him willing to consider it, she needs to either gain greater regard or sweeten the deal. It doesn't help that he seems to still consider her a Neptune-worshipping Roman, though she's not sure he would respond well to a Posiedon-worshipper, either.
"Who'd be coming on this little tour?"
Viola ponders a moment. "Whom would it amuse you to have come?"
Scott
He considers for a moment. "The thing that isn't a cat."
After a second's thought, he adds, "Or any warrior women you have with you. They may come, as well. By the looks of your soldiers, I assume none of them are parents." He nods to a group of lepers.
Viola laughs, "I think the mama cat actually is the only real parent we have here--she's been alive for centuries, and had thousands of children. And we don't have any warrior women. However, there is a man that I call 'Son', because I taught him."
Scott
"Would you die for him? Would you kill for him?"
Viola thinks on that for a little while. "Not by instinct, no, though I wouldn't say not, either. I suspect our relationship is closer than that between the cat and most of her kittens, though."
Scott
"Well, if you can talk the thing that isn't a cat into going with us, then I'll show you the rest of the way."
Viola looks confused at this: "Which thing that isn't a cat? The cat?"
Scott
He nods, trying to look sagely, but his horse-mouthed grin undoes his efforts.
I'll repost this as part of a larger description of the covenant grounds, but here is a description of the Neptune/Poseidon temple:
The temple to Posiedon (Neptune?) is located on the southeast edge of the clearing, nearly a dry creek bed that is nearly overgrown. This creek bed seemed to once feed into the temple, and was possibly man-made in ancient days. Like all of the other ruins, everything above ground level, and a bit below, has been deconstructed--dressed stone, after all, is useful for building--but the perimeter of the building is marked, not only by its foundations, but by the edge of a faerie aura of strength 4. From the temple courtyard (within the faerie aura), with its sacrificial altar and handful of crumbling benches, one originally entered the temple through a pair of bronze doors which also serve as the entrance to a regio. The doors are in bad shape, missing many of the gems once mounted in them, and seemingly immovable. The previous covenant had excavated the the temple interior, revealing a tile mosaic that made up its floor; this mosaic, three feet below the current ground level, is covered in a shallow pool of still but exceedingly clear water. From scattered evidence, it seems that rainfall which collects in the pool generates Rego vis, and there is currently 2 pawns waiting to be collected.
Edit: shifted temple closer to the river-that-was, and corrected some spelling errors.
"Mama Cat, or the Kitten, or both of them? I assure you, they are cats...well, something more than cats, but more cats than anything else."
Scott
He doesn't seem to care which.
Given the apparent preference for only one beast, Viola invites the Mama Cat, who has infinitely more wits about her than her daughter. She awaits the faerie's direction.
Scott
Mama Cat, like all cats, is curious about what's behind a shut door.
By the time your conversation is done, the horse has finished roasting, and the faerie you've been talking to has managed to obtain a large chunk of meat on some kind of bone. He's waiting for you by the door, which now has three gems embedded in it.
He opens the door, which should by all rights lead into the shallow pool with the vis in it, but now leads down four steps into the temple as it was. Large frescoes adorn the walls, praising the god of ocean and travel. An opening in the roof lets rain fall into the mosaic-tiled basin floor. Across this ankle-deep pool, at the far end of the temple, is a large statue of Poseidon, a fountain with water flowing out of empty eye sockets to form a waterfall which one must pass through to reach a set of downward stairs.
A half dozen statues are scattered about this level of the temple, placed haphazardly. The closest statue is at the foot of the short stairs into the basin. It depicts a terrified man, fallen to the floor, shielding his eyes as if from some bright light that was coming from the foot of the statue.
Mama Cat is eyeing the water distastefully.
Viola offers to carry the cat, under her cloak--it's undignified, but relatively dry.
She turns to her guide: "Who turned these people into stone?"
Scott
"Neptune is responsible for this curse."
Mama Cat considers this for a moment and then looks at you like you're crazy. She turns to human form and says, "Just...just give me something to dry my feet with when we get down the stairs."
(OOC: this'd probably be more fun if we got somebody else to play the cat)
"Why is that? I guess with his being gone, it's not something we have to worry about?"
Viola responds warmly, "You can wipe your feet on my cloak, but that will be easier in cat form."
Scott
He gestures for you to lead the way.
In that case, Viola leads the way down the stairs, cat in hand.
Scott