Tonight we finished an adventure in Atlantis, and, for the first time, saw the death of a hero. Here's last time.
Thanos, the Anubim magic-user and fervent freedom fighter, rides out to the Burning Pit. He arrives and finds the Magog tribe surrounding the pit, cutting their flesh and screaming for their nameless god, and he moves through the crowd carefully, cutting his own flesh and howling. The Magog, for the most part, don't pay him no mind, but as he gets closer to the pit, they start to notice the tail and yell at him. They warn that their god will eat him, and he ignores them, descending into the Pit.
He stops to look at the mysterious writing around the Pit, and realizes that it predates the Atlantean language - it might even predate Saurian. He roughly translates it as an exhortation to rejoice in one's imminent death and corruption at the hands(?) of the nameless god. With this cheerful notion in mind, he continues down.
He reaches a platform, and notices a symbol carved into the wall similar to the glyph commonly used for the Fire Atman. And then the whole platform bursts into flame! He soldiers on, though, charging through and shedding his burning clothes, and continues down into the dark.
He reaches the next platform, and hears the familiar sound of slaves being whipped. He sees Gallu and Khem slavedrivers beating people who are mining, maybe? Carving something into the wall? He doesn't stop to investigate, just summons up a stinging wind and sands and flays the flesh from the slavers' bodies. The grateful slaves surround him, grabbing at his fur and flesh, but he pushes through.
The next platform is narrow, and contains only a single rock, upon which sits...Set. Set tells him that he should go back, that he has no chance of succeeding in this quest, and besides, he's already failed one test. Thanos points out that Set should be happy to see him fail, and Set notes that he and Baal aren't really friends, and he doesn't want to see Baal consume Thanos' powerful soul, not when he (Set) should do it. Thanos tells him that he'll see one or both of them choke on his soul, and jumps into the Pit.
(Thanos doesn't know it, but this neatly bypasses the fourth test, which would have required him to jump off into the Pit.)
He lands in an ankle-deep pool of filth and corruption, and Baal Incarnate stands up out of it. Thanos forces himself to look upon the evil god, and while he does so without burning, he feels his resolve weaken.
Meanwhile, back at the camp, the other wake up to find Thanatos, Thanos' jackal, whining. The immediately realize what he's done, and Akala gives a loud screech to attract the attention of the tribesmen. She gives a rousing speech and rallies the Tribes of Zin to follow her to make war on the Magog, and they all ride out. They don't know it yet, but they are too late.
Back in the Pit, Baal mocks Thanos, telling him that he won't survive. He reaches into his gooshy head and pulls out a chunk of brain, and sticks it to the wall, telling Thanos that if he survives, he can learn the true nature of the tests and the Pit. And then he raises his hands and burns Thanos to a crisp with hellfire.
Thanos survives the blast, barely, and rushes past Baal. He grabs the brain off the wall and pops it in his mouth, and feels the power of the dark god coursing through him. He absorbs the power, just enough to make him strong and heal the damage, and summons up magic - he winnows away Baal's body, boils the sludge around him, and throws stinging sand at him.
But Baal takes this damage and retaliates, throwing fire, and then just touching Thanos' face and causing his flesh to boil. He drops Thanos to his knees, and implores him to just eat the chunk of Baal's flesh that he took - take the power into himself, survive, and become the slave-master that he was always meant to be. Thanos feels his Fate encroaching, knowing that forcing others into bondage would save him.
And he spits out the chunk of putrid god-flesh, and dies with honor.
Up at the surface, the heroes and their army arrive, but the Pit boils over with corruption and foul liquids. It flows out and consumes the Magog, skeletonizing them, and Baal steps forth. He throws Thanos broken body at the heroes' feet, and falls back into his Pit.
Imani rages, and begins to charge to the Pit, but the tribal elder of Elishah stops her. Is this the way a Queen should die? The Magog are gone, and while that isn't a victory, it's enough to ensure the tribes unite. Eithne asks Imani to come back and bury Thanos before doing anything rash, and she grudgingly agrees.
The peace holds with the tribes, and Queen Nyavinghi's mini-nation begins to take shape. Former slaves in Khem come together to build a tomb for Thanos, with carvings of broken shackles on top, and a relief of Thanatos outside. The heroes separate to mourn.
Akala goes south to the Broken City of Ankhat, and is present when it crashes to the ground. Many people die, but she is able to be of assistance, and more to the point, to learn from the tragedy.
Imani, too, suffers tragedy - her father Desu is killed in battle in Nubia. She travels there to bury and to mourn him.
Eithne goes back to Hesperia and her lover Sora, and for the next year takes on the life of a farmer, eschewing magic and heroism.
The heroes are apart for 16 months, and during that time hear rumors of a ghostly ship rising from the waves and drifting aimlessly around the Saharan Sea. What this means for them, if anything, remains to be seen on their next adventure.
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