Present Party: Aria (Avery), Claudia (Alex), and Steve (Hugo). Recall that all characters have been renamed by their new parents, Ike and Jin, (to the names in the parentheses) but I will still be referring to them by their real names.
Setting: Typical medieval fantasy world with various Greek elements, seen mostly in temples. The gods in this world are part of the Greek pantheon. Briefly, the island nation of Sinner's Den to the south, where their brother, Soren, and his husband Adonis are both kings. Other than that, the party stayed at their home in Blackpool.
Third Bracket, pt. 1: Ages 11 to 14
During this age bracket, the party was promised by Ike that they would be allowed to ride dragons. He kept his promise. Ike, Phoebe, and Achaeus turned into their dragon forms and flew them all around Blackpool.
The party also took a family trip to Sinner's Den for a party at the royal palace, where their older brother Soren and brother-in-law Adonis lived. The whole family went. Aria was actually able to invite one of her friends from school: a human named Gavin. Up to their usual mischief, the party remembered what Soren had told them about some of the nobility in Sinner's Den. They were the type of people that Ike would actually approve of them scamming out of their money. So, they fanned out, looking for heartstrings to pull and money to gain.
Steve was successful with his loaded dice against several noble drunks. Aria had managed to find a group of rather ditzy elven women and convince them that she was collecting donations for charity. Both of them had received 50 gold pieces each - their largest scam hauls yet.
Claudia didn't quite have the same luck. The only person that really stood out to her was a young elven girl, about her age, with long, curly, dark hair. She introduced herself as Remilia. Claudia taught her how to play cards.
The party reunited, Claudia bringing Remilia along, and Claudia used Suggestion to convince Aria to give her half of the gold she'd earned. This kicked off a series of illusion and enchantment spells on Aria's part, trying to get her gold back. Unfortunately, Claudia made every saving throw. Steve assisted for a while, but then decided to leave in favor of going shopping. Eventually, Aria got so fed up that she used Burning Hands on Claudia with the intention of burning her dress and embarrassing her. It had the intended effect... and also burned the nearby table and three nearby noblemen.
Ike intervened and fixed the damage done to anyone. Then, he took the two girls out of the party. He made Claudia apologize for stealing and return the gold to Aria. Then, he made Aria apologize to Claudia, the three noblemen that she'd burned, and Soren and Adonis for disrupting the party. Aria went back to spend time with her friend Gavin. The two of them hung out and danced for the rest of the night.
Steve bought supplies to construct a hammock. Adonis helped him put it up in the greenhouse, so he could be surrounded by beautiful plants and have a glass ceiling to look at the stars.
Claudia found some unattended glasses of alcohol and decided to try some. She went a little overboard, and was saved by Soren. He got her some water, and got her to bed. In the morning, he gave her some hot chocolate mixed with a magic potion to help her sober up.
~~~~~
The day after the party's 12th birthday, Ike came to them, and he said, "I'm going to bring you to the Family Room today."
The Family Room was a room in the basement of the house. The kids weren't allowed to go there unless they had an adult's permission. This would be their first time going. Before they did, however, Ike said to them all, very seriously, that they were not allowed to touch anything. What was in there was very fragile. After a few jokes, but then a solemn agreement, Ike led them to a room in the basement behind double doors with marble flooring and walls. He asked them all to sit, and they did. He stood before them and waved his hand. The party watched as these thin lines of blue arcane energy zapped across the room. Names began to appear on the wall - hundreds, maybe thousands - in blue and gray. They all collected on one wall, all connected by varying threads.
Ike sat with them. "This... is our family tree. Other than my still-living children, this is the thing that I treasure most in my entire life. There was a time, when I was mortal, when I was a very, very bad father. This, to me, represents everything that I am trying - and will forever be trying - to do to make up for that. I don't have a very good memory. I never did. Do you remember how I said that I used to have friends that I shared a body with?"
The party remembered.
"Some of it has to do with that, but otherwise I just... have a rotten memory. Not even godhood could fix that."
He pulled names from the tree, three of them. One was Soren, their brother. His name was colored bright blue. The other two were Carric and Varis, and they were gray. From the names came flashes of memories from Ike's perspective of the three boys growing up. The three of them looked very similar. They knew that Soren had been a triplet, but they'd never seen his brothers before. They learned that the blue names were for those who were living. The gray was for those who had passed.
"The magic that I used to make this tree is old. It comes to me from some of my divine powers. Because of that and because the tree is so big, if anyone who didn't know how to use this magic came down here and activated it... they could break it. If it breaks... many of these memories would be lost forever because... I can't remember them myself anymore."
Ike put the triplets' names away and pulled out four more: Avery, Alex, Amelia, and Hugo. From these names came flashes of memories from their childhoods so far. They saw their own accomplishments. They saw tender moments with their father, where he read them bedtime stories, kissed skinned knees better, and took care of them when they were sick. They could see it now, suddenly, how he saw them... and how proud he was of them.
Claudia asked, "What do you mean when you say you were a bad father?"
Ike sighed. "When I was mortal, far before I started adventuring, I'd married Jin. We lived here, in Blackpool. My whole extended family did. We had children together. The cult that we ended up fighting - the cult that had once worshipped the worst parts of your sister Nyx - killed them all. Decades before the Darkening. I was the only one left. I wandered the world, with my friends in my head to protect me, and we all kind of... fell into fighting the cult. I was nearing 60 then. In the time between, I'd... had a lot of children, and I'd left them. I left them with their other parents, I left them in temples, I left them with anyone who I thought would take care of them. I didn't acknowledge that I had children... until I met Phoebe and Achaeus, when they - much like I had multiple people in one body - were both in one body. It was them, and your long-dead sister Sorrow, and Soren along with his brothers, Carric and Varis, who... taught me the joys of being a father."
He looked at his memories of the party again, and then turned back to them.
"I'm telling you this because I love you, and because I believe that you're ready to hear it. When you love someone... you have to love every piece of them. Even the flawed pieces. Even the pieces that might not fit just right with yours. If you're going to love someone... you have to love all of them."
After some hugs, they asked whether or not anyone had ever come down here without permission and what had happened.
Ike admitted that it had happened only once, and that he didn't know where those people were now.
~~~~~
Getting closer to 13, the party had a sleepover with some of their closer friends, and played Truth or Dare with them, and a couple of their siblings.
There was some teasing on the part of Aria and Claudia. Aria had a crush on her friend Gavin that she wasn't quite willing to admit. Gavin had admitted, during the game, that he had a crush on someone in the room, but wouldn't say who. He wasn't comfortable, because he couldn't be sure yet. Claudia had also been asked about a crush, and she tried desperately to hide her feelings for her now pen-pal Remilia from Sinner's Den.
A few weeks later, the party was woken up in the early morning by the sound of running feet upstairs. Claudia investigated, opening the door to their room, and catching sight of Phoebe and Achaeus as they turned the corner to go downstairs. Looking down, into the foyer, she watched them sprint out the front door. Jin was by the door, and they watched them go. Ike came out from the downstairs hall and went to follow, but Jin stopped them. When Claudia could see his face, he looked distressed - more distressed and tired than she'd seen him. He was scared, and looked like he'd been crying. Jin told him to be careful, and he left.
Claudia went to see Jin, and asked what was going on.
Jin pulled her close. "Alex... We just found out that Adonis and your brother Soren have both just died."
~~~~~
Credit to @ijaymendell inspiring this awesome campaign!
Additionally, thank you to my friend @bandcat5313 - the original homebrewer and DM for the world of Eushora. This setting and some NPCs were inspired by hers.
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