It's worth the stay just to poke around (or rather to have Ipek and the grogs poke around).
Scott
The monastery is austere, and the white robed monks seem hard at work in the fields outside it. After your initial welcome, they largely avoid speaking with you (or, indeed, each other that you see), although there usually is one or two of them in your vicinity - keeping an eye on you, perhaps? You are, however, invited to attend the services.
Viola shall attend the services with party in tow, though Calliope may absent herself is she's overly disturbed by it.
Scott
Unlike the rest of the monastery, the octagonal church is beautifully decorated. Viola's eyes are drawn to the underside of a dome, where a gleaming gold and glass mosaic depicts a regal Christ. Beneath him around the sides of the dome, alternating with windows, are 16 further mosaics - each showing a single figure carrying a scroll. Further mosaics under the dome and around the church show a variety of scenes, some of which Viola recognises as depicting parts of Christ's life. The overall effect is a massive contrast from the simplicity of the rest of the monastery, and the services led in it.
Calliope, who'd initially pled tiredness, changes her mind when she hears of it and attends the second service, where she spends most of it paying only scant attention to the speaker. Ipek, for her part, gets increasingly frustrated with monks whose only response to questions about it and its origins is to offer her a blessing whilst informing her that the Rule forbids them from talking to visitors.
Does either Calliope or Viola have any idea of something 16 scroll-carriers might signify? We'd ask the monks, but they aren't talking....
Otherwise, let's not stick around any longer than we have to, lest Ipek see a squirrel and wander off.
Scott
Viola would guess either biblical figures or saints, but neither she nor Calliope has the relevant experience to interpret any iconography.
The next morning, you leave the monastery as soon as you've broken your fast, and travel on to Eleusis. There a few houses and a small stream nestle in amid ancient ruins, overlooked by what appears to be an in-use watchtower.
Viola asks Calliope exactly what we need to do here.
And let's have the grogs and Constantine scout out the area. Most importantly, why is that watchtower manned? Isn't the temple nearly abandoned?
Scott
"Get Demeter's attention, somehow" Calliope replies. "We did rather gloss over exactly how. There's a good chance there's a regio around here somewhere, though, which feels like a good start."
The grogs and Constantine walk and flutter off, and Ipek heads off as well, her brother tailing after her. Returning a little later, Ipek reports "apparently there's absolutely nothing pagan about anything that goes on here - just pious people becoming confident of their place in heaven. They've told the bishop as much repeatedly - not that anyone here is involved in anything that might be considered even slightly heretical."
It's not entirely clear why the watchtower is manned, although it could just be that it's in a generally strategic position, on a hill a day's journey from Athens and overlooking the bay.
Viola turns to Calliope. "When would be the best time to look for a regio? Any particular time of the month, for example?" In any case, Viola and Constantine will explore the area, hoping to locate a regio boundary with Second Sight.
[Are we too late for the harvest?]
Scott
Calliope thinks. "Harvest does sound like a good time, given it's Demeter we're talking about."
A little investigation by the grogs is able to reveal that the villagers expect to start the olive harvest within the next week or two.
Investigating using Second Sight, Viola finds it clear and sharp; the gold and bronze cords linking her to Constantine plainly visible when she looks for them even in the middle of the village. However, exploring the great ruins where once stood the temple (larger, it appears, even than the Parthenon was) using it reveals no sign of a regio.
Viola is going with the variable aura theory...mostly because it's possibly the only game in town at this point (unless Demeter can appear without being linked to a regio--but that seems unlikely). So let's wait for the harvest, and in the meantime have Ipek spread her song to the villagers. How do they react?
While that's going on, let's explore the area to see if there's anything else of interest, and also to keep the magae away from the villagers.
Scott
There are a significant number of old ruins in Eleusis, including the remains of an old aqueduct a little distance off - it's clear that it was once a much larger and more important place. Exploring them, however, doesn't bring up anything of more than minor interest - those that aren't half buried have clearly been long picked over. One thing that does become apparent from your investigations is that the stream obviously has a tendency to flood - there are water marks on many of the low level buildings, and the modern houses are all built a little distance from it. Indeed, the weather takes a turn for the worse whilst you're waiting, and Viola is just starting to wonder whether the water level is beginning to rise - when it clears off abruptly in time for the harvest.
Ipek's song is greeted with a certain number of exchanged looks by the villagers. Ipek tells you that one woman later tried to interrogate her on exactly why they've come to the village, and especially what those creepy women are up to. "But I didn't like the look of her much, either, so I was non-committal," concludes Ipek.
Do these villagers have any interest in Demeter whatsoever? Even as a folk story?
The abrupt clearing of the weather is interesting, but Viola isn't sure where to look for a source. Does the village have a wise woman who might have tried to propitiate someone to accomplish that?
Scott
The villagers know of Demeter, and that her rites used to be celebrated here - and that in the days that they were, this was a significantly more important place. However, whilst a few of them may be somewhat wistful about the last point, you get the impression that it's largely ancient history to them - and that some of them would be quite happy if the pagan origins of the rites were forgotten and they were accepted as properly Christian by more people.
As far as wise women go; not officially, as such. Once she starts looking, however, Viola (and Ipek) start to discover odd things about the woman who was quizzing Ipek after the song. She seems to live on her own, without a husband. She disappeared for a few years when she was an adolescent, before walking back into the village one day refusing to explain where she'd been. The villagers reluctantly admit she's a very skilled farmer, but they tend to avoid her company. Apparently she's taken to reading in her cottage, who knows what.
Viola is going to try having Ipek get as much as possible out of her first--anything related to Demeter, the harvest, the weather, and so on. If Ipek lacks the technical grasp needed to ask the right questions, Viola will try it herself (with the aid of her talisman tablet, of course).
Scott
It's quickly apparent that Viola trying to talk to her will run into the problem that Viola doesn't speak Greek and the woman, at least as far as you can tell, doesn't speak any Latin.
Ipek's attempts to talk to her rapidly devolve into bargaining - Lydia, as her name turned out to be, wants to know who you are and why you're here before she'll tell you anything significant about herself - but Ipek isn't convinced she's going to come through even if you do.
Can Calliope give it a try? Viola isn't adverse to bargaining, if there's anything of value with which we can supply her.
Scott
The thing she's asking for, at least initially, is information - how much are you willing to have her be told?
Tell her we're trying to contact Demeter to get her to intervene on behalf of a wronged woman. We can give her more details about that story, omitting the bit about centuries having passed in the meantime. She also doesn't need to know about (and probably doesn't even care about) the lab.
Scott
Ipek returns looking pensive.
"She told me to come to a particular grove a little distance from the village two dawns from now. She said we should bring an offering - 5 pawns of vis, Creo or Herbam for preference, in a form pleasing to the goddess." She thinks for a moment, then continues on: "she also asked me if I was sure it was Demeter rather than Hera I wanted to speak to, given that the latter has dominion over women and children, and also vengeance, wheras Demeter is more concerned with crops and animals."