Vivantha isn't terribly hard to find. After all, you see her go into the portal and a quick question to Elena reveals that she's at the memorial wall. When you arrive, you find her standing before Muirfinn's inscription, head bowed.
Calleigh buzzes up, all joy and cheer and trailing mist. "Hello!"
"Hm?" Vivantha asks, a musical sound from her practiced voice.
"Hi! You're Vivantha, right!? We wanted to check up on you because you looked sad when we were in Hades and even though it's Hades you shouldn't be sad because Hades isn't that bad and you shouldn't be sad at all 'cause you're a lillend and you're pretty everything is pretty great and stuff!" Calleigh rambles.
This draws a small, sad little smile from Vivantha. She reaches out to Muirfinn's name, hand hanging just before it. "Muirfinn meant to stop the Father. He understood it had to be stopped. But now that cup passes to us."
Calleigh blinks, then looks at the wall. "Ohhhh, what happened?"
"Muirfinn didn't come back from a mission. Hell holds his soul now," Vivantha says, "The risks that we all deal with came to ruin him. The Duke of Destiny took the field and overwhelmed Muirfinn and Lief, only Sylvie and Ithea were able to escape."
"Ohhh, yeah. Dying is scary. I've died before. Coming back isn't fun, but it happens. Was he a mortal?"
"It doesn't matter. He hasn't come back. Hell has him, in body or soul," Vivantha says, "You should already know this."
Calleigh shrugs slender shoulders. "Pale Night had a bunch of my brothers and sisters for a long time, and that didn't end up working out too bad. Took a while, though. And of course it matters if he was mortal! If he's not a mortal, his soul probably wasn't just stuffed into a lemure or something. I mean, that's not exactly a great prospect, but if he died and he was from another plane or something, he'd have reformed there, right?"
"He hasn't," Vivantha's voice is just a little short, "He would reform in Water and he has not."
"Okay, so we know he's not dead. That's...ehhh, good and bad. He didn't die, so we know they didn't kill him, and he didn't die, so he didn't get away. Oh my gosh! Do you know what this means!?" Calleigh looks at Vivantha with big excited courre eyes, hands clenched together under her chin.
Vivantha takes a long breath, softening before your eyes. "That I have a reason to pray each day?" she asks.
"No! Well, yes, but..." Calleigh leans in, whispering, "It means...rescue mission!"
Vivantha smiles - gently. "Oh child," she murmurs, "Lixer, the Duke of Destiny and the Lord of the Ninth all reside in Nessus. An attack on Nessus is suicide in both body and soul. If I felt we had any chance of success, I would have organized it myself. I have prayed and been touched by Selune. Muirfinn is held in places not even Aurora can reach."
Calleigh nods after a moment, "You're right. We'd probably need an army. And a bunch of adventurers besides. And divine aid."
"I fear an army would be naught but a memory by the time we reached Nessus." She turns to him, "Avernus has weathered the assault of the Abyss for as long as anyone can remember. Should we do what the demons have not, we still must proceed through 7 more layers before we reach Nessus. Adventurers..." Vivantha trails off and sighs, "There are precious few accounts of Nessus, and many are thought to be fakes. The rare few who make it to Nessus are never heard from again, with exceptionally rare exceptions."
Vivantha stops. She smiles softly and sadly, "Thank you, Calleigh. It's that only a miracle can save Muirfinn now. I have prayed, studied and called in every favor anyone owes me and all tell the same story: Nessus is nigh unassailable, be it to an army or individual forces."
"Well certainly not with that attitude! You asked Selune for help and she brushed it off? That doesn't sound like her, especially with so many of her worshippers here. You'd think that if he worshipped her, she'd do more than the oracular version of throwing up her hands in defeat." Calleigh looks puzzled.
"Less that and more that..." Vivantha reaches out, touching Muirfinn's name. A projection of him appears, Vivantha bowing her head. "If a miracle is to come, it will come. I will not stop praying for it as long as I live. Until that day, I can do more for him by honoring his memory and continuing the fight."
I give you a conversation hook and you ignore it. I swear.
"Of course not! You can't give up hope!"
I feel that way all the time as a DM, Yuth. I feel ya on that, she just wasn't going to take it there for a variety of reasons.
"I will continue to hope until I see him return," Vivantha agrees.
"That's good, but don't be sad at the same time! We'll get him back!"
"One day," Vivantha says, "One day."
Anything else you wanna say to her?
Nope, she didn't take the bait, so apparently Muirfinn is a lunatic now.
She didn't grasp that you came to that conclusion, Calleigh. Which is a mildly amusing misunderstanding, one supposes. Mother Ocean won't smite you for a misunderstanding, so it's all good.
Anything else you want to get done, Tryll and Calleigh?
Might do some shopping, but other than that, no.
Shop away and be ready! Locking this thread.