Viola reaches out to hold Chryse, and then turns to the assembled fae. "Where is sibling? The one who's stone?"
Scott
Chryse is soaking wet, cold, and shuddering slightly, although Viola can't tell whether that last one is from the crying or shivering.
The children look at Viola and shrug, then look at their Ma. Halia looks pained. "Near the pool. And...Neptune".
The storm, which had largely been dying down, chooses that moment to let out a particularly threatening growl of thunder.
Viola pointedly refuses to look up at the sky. She merely heads off in the indicated direction (she's been there before), taking Chryse in hand. She turns and beckons, "Let's go."
Scott
Viola has indeed been there before, and the fact that that was through a labyrinth is less of a problem than it might be - where once stood a maze of twisty passages, there's now a rain-lashed field of barley. This doesn't mean that the journey there is easy - the barley is slippery, the wind is still blowing, if not as hard as previously, and several times someone nearly trips over bits of stalagmite which the plants have fragmented but not actually destroyed. More worryingly, whilst most of the statues that used to dot the labyrinth appear relatively unharmed, a few have fallen over, leading several to lose limbs or even, in one case, a head. Ipek, who has caught up with the party after having delayed following them initially, peers at the various statues in a contemplative fashion - particularly the statue of the minstrel that caught Viola's notice on a previous visit.
The area around the pool itself, when Viola gets there, is surprisingly unchanged. The pool is still, and much the same size as previously, despite the recent torrential rain. Its surface is unruffled. The tiled floor immediately around it is largely dry - such rain as does fall on it flowing away into the barley which surrounds but does not encroach upon the stone-tiled area. Indeed, the barley closest to the tiles appears to be stunted and weak.
Ipek peers upwards, and then asks "Is it just me, or is that storm cloud spawning all the others?"
Almost simultaneously, Keyx points at one of the statues - a youth in ancient clothing. "There's Pely!"
[Sorry, I've had a lot going on, including a full day of travel.]
I'm not sure anything could be done about the other statues, and it might not even be a good idea to do so, since a lot of them are likely dangerous characters, but could you remind me about the minstrel statue? Is there any indication of why Ipek finds it so fascinating? Viola is also a little worried about what will happen to the recumbent statue that's presumably Poseidon.
And if I dare ask, any idea what was keeping Ipek? You mean she was slow to leave the area of the encounter with Halia?
In any case, all that notwithstanding, Valia will shepherd Halia as quickly as possible to stand before Pely. She's not entirely sure how this is supposed to work, but hopefully just putting the actors in the right places will get things going.
That was probably it, yes - Viola was a bit busy keeping an eye on Chryse, Halia and the creek fae, whilst trying to pick her way through a rubblestrewn barley field in pouring rain, and as a result didn't pay quite as much attention to her as she possibly could have done - she just realised later that she hadn't been there all the time.
But she's here now, and really, how much trouble could she have caused in ~5 minutes?
Halia stares at Pely for a long moment. "Oh, my son. I'm sorry. You came to find me, to comfort me, and look what I did to you." She gives the statue a (slightly awkward) embrace, weeping as she does so - then she straightens up.
"What my curse did to you. Poseidon's curse. But no longer. For now I break this curse, as I break this snake!"
She takes the head of the single serpent still dangling from her brow, and smashes it against the head of the statue. There's a pause for a moment - and then Viola sees the stone transform into flesh, rippling out from the blood and brains of the snake. A few moments later, the youth stands depetrifyed, blinking for a moment before embracing his mother.
I suspect we're going to get a highly specific answer to that question very soon now.
That seems to be the success we were looking for, but Viola, for the moment, is going to observe and see what changes happen to the environment, and, in particular, with the statues.
Scott
Oh, ye of...a fair amount of experience?
Nothing immediately appears to be happening to the other statutes - in particular, the statue on the altar remains unmoving. The wind has largely died down, but the clouds continue to pour with rain, beating down but simultaneously being lapped up by the barley. Looking around, Viola realises that, however rude he may have been, Keyx had the kernal of a point - there is a conflict here between Demeter and Poseidon. It's unlikely to resolve itself on its own, but it could be tipped one way or the other - which is likely to be a lot easier if done immediately.
Of course, any choice is likely to have side-effects, but there's a good chance that leaving the regio in a state of tension will too.
Viola didn't get quite that point from what he said, but I suspect a modicum of Faerie Lore would suggest that the original story of lovers divided by seduction in disguise needs resolution.
Viola turns to Ipek, "How fast can you make a love song? Something about the girl who went unfaithful because they fooled her? Needs a happy ending for the lovers." She looks around at the statues again. "Might help if Poseidon takes pity on the poor villagers, too." She's not at all convinced this is a good idea from her personal perspective, especially safety-wise, but she also can't leave a bunch of innocents (as some at least of them are) eternally frozen if there's something that can be done about it--for those still intact, anyway. She does, however, take one more look at the figure on the altar, and adds, "No pity for Neptune."
(Also, I'm not sure why I personally missed this issue before, but I can't imagine Viola wouldn't have thought about it, as she's mulled the future state of the lab over the last couple of years. Maybe she thought all the statues would be glory-hunting "heroes".)
While waiting on Ipek, Viola will take out some of the parchment and paints she carries to depict destinations for Arcadian Travel, and starts to sketch out a picture of happy lovers, with the female modeled on Halia. Ipek's song will doubtless be more powerful, but Viola figures it can't hurt to add the power of her own Free Expression.
Scott
Viola thinks that reuniting Halia and Poseidon would be a way to turn the regio firmly back towards Poseidon - the water would flow from it once more, and the barley field would probably go away in some way or another.
Ipek frowns. "Plausibility might be a problem - Poseidon did turn Halia into a monster who petrified her own child. Presumably he thought he had cause, but that just means coming up with a reason for him to take back the woman who cheated on him as well as her taking back a man who cursed her."
She looks at the remains of the snake's head which Halia had smeared upon "Pely". "If you want the statues back, you could try smearing the blood on them too?"
[OOC: there are quite a lot of statues - even if this works, Viola thinks the head is unlikely to be enough for all of them.]
[I could have sworn I checked and didn't see any new posts. Weird.]
Viola nods, "Try it on your bard." After pausing, she returns to the first question. "In your story, how would it go?"
Scott
Ipek nods, and carefully collects the remains of the snake's head in a cloth. She then stands in thought for some minutes before suggesting tentatively:
"Maybe she personally takes some form of revenge against Neptune to fully repudiate him? Smashing his statue or something? Although something with a little more style would probably be better..."
[OOC: Depending on exactly what is done, there's a good chance doing things to the statue will have the side-effect of destroying the Perdo vis source. It might be replaced...or it might not.]
Viola wouldn't personally be that sad about losing a Perdo source....At any rate, though, her primary concern here is to get the water flowing again, because a lot of the elements of the lab hinge on that.
She replies to Ipek, "And is it good if she's with Poseidon again?" She pauses before continuing, "I think whatever, you have to convince her."
Scott
Ipek frowns.
"I think that depends a lot on what you mean by "good". For you? For her? I suppose I could argue that her children need a father - that would fit in with the theme of the story so far."
Viola is more pointed this time: "What does Ipek think is good?"
Scott
Ipek shrugs.
"I'd have her fully free herself from Poseidon, not reconcile with him. Poseidon turned her into a monster - and I think he's already married. But Neptune's no better."
"I'd say have her dedicate herself to Demeter in gratitude for her aid, and turn the regio over to her. The destruction of the fount of the storm clouds should be symbolic enough there. That is going to anger Poseidon - I don't know on what timescale but you'll need to be ready for it, but at least you'll have potential back-up."
"One other issue is that the plants are going to need water to grow. If there's a way to transfer control of the water here to one or more of Halia's children - they are children of a water god, after all - that would be better than simply destroying it."
[Jesus, I keep forgetting to post. Sorry.]
Viola fixes Ipek with a very serious stare. "I need running water. The rest is fine, you do it like you do it."
Scott
[I can't claim my own posting rate has been good. Will try to improve it.]
Ipek frowns and thinks for a moment, then heads over to where Halia and Pely are having their reunion. She spends some minutes in discussion with them, before taking Pely and starting to scramble over the remains of the the stalagmites away from the pool before passing out of visibility in the driving rain.
They return after a little while, and Ipek heads back to Viola.
"I can see how this works. Pelagios was the god of the stream that had flowed from the temple. When he turned to stone, the river became dust as well. When he was restored, his river should have been as well - but he was weak, and his source still contained a part of the curse.
Then the wise woman saw this, and spoke to Halia, telling her she must choose between her children and the gods who sired them. So Halia struck down the statue, and removed its pieces from the pool. Then the wise woman took the genesis of the storm, and placed it within the pool, so that the stream flowed from it once more."
Viola nods, seemingly satisfied, but then notices there's one detail that eludes her. "Genesis?"
Scott
Ipek points at the storm cloud above the pool, which is continuing to spawn other clouds.