"only a saytr would call drinking a sport" Soren replies, but returns the smile

"A sport? No! Drinking is a vocation my friend." Tisto replies "for as the greatest bard ever once said good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used"

"I guess that we will have time to drink later, let's try to speak with the High priest before he leaves. A direct approach may save us time." says Areus to the other party members. He will wait a few seconds and then he will slowly walk towards Leander.

As he and, hopefully the other party members, reach Leander, Areus will solemnly salute the High priest and say "Greetings High Priest, we are sorry to bother you after the sacrifice, but we were hoping that you may help us in our errand.", Areus, briefly shows the token to the High priest and then says, lowering his tone of voice, "We have been asked to retrieve the Ainoe Mask."

Soren, not knowing the proper etiquette freezes, then looks at Areus, and follow suit

Leander glances down at the token on Areus' hand.  

"The Twelve seek a mask? I will see if I can help with that. But I do not know every treasure in the temple. Let me take you to one of us who keeps track of these things."

He motions for you to follow and you enter the temple building. You pass through the hallways and enter the inner sanctum.

Ahead of you is the statue of Ephara that sits upon a plinth. Below it the following words are inscribed:

“Dedicated to the City of Meletis on this day, the blessing of her goddess’ new home.”

Before the statue stands another priest. Approaching him Leander introduces him.

"This is Astos and he is the curator of the artifacts found within the temple. He will aid you."

Turning to Astos,

"These men are here on business of The Twelve and seek a mask. Your knowlegde is needed."

Leander bids you farewell and moves away.

Astos seems to think for a few moments.

"A mask? What mask do you seek?"

You quickly inform him that you seek the Ainoe mask.

"Follow me."

You pass through a few hallways and come to a locked room that Astos opens with a key.

"I believe that this is what you seek."

He offers you a fragment of a mask that is white in color.

Tisto looks the priest up and down and then says "I have a joke for you. Where would you find a tortoise with no legs?" He waits for an answer and seeing that Astos maintains a dadpan face finally gives in and answers with"where you left it of course!" Tisto then turns to the party and says "my people are not known for looking for deeper meanings in anything but do you think that this has been a bit easy"  

Areus thanks the High priest for his help.  As Astos shows them the fragment of the mask, the warrior says "Are you sure that this is the Ainoe mask? We were not informed that the mask was broken."

After a few seconds of pause, Areus says again "We were told that this is an important relic, what is the story of this mask?"

"It is the only mask I know of that is within this temple that relates to the Ainoe mask.  I don't know the story well, Leander probably knows it better, as others in the city may.  Perhaps someone from The Twelve would know."  He thinks for a moment.  "What I know is this; Erebos created two masks to commemorate his lovers when they passed beyond his reach. Unable to even look at the artifacts afterwards, he broke one mask into pieces and scattered them across the world of Theros. The other mask resisted all efforts to break it.  The one not broken was taken to the temple of Ephara by the goddess herself.  But there is no whole mask that I know of within these walls.  You are welcome to search, but this is all I know of.  I believe this piece is part of the one mask that was broken, but I do not know enough about it to say more."  

Soren frowns. "if the mask was broken, what use could it be to the twelve?"

"I agree Soren, it seems a strange request" says Areus, "still if this is the only piece in this temple, our work here is done." Areus will carefully take the fragmented mask and wrap it in piece of cloth and place it in his bag. "Thank you for your time." says Areus to Astos.

"We should head back to the tavern, we have still 3 days before Melandra returns." says Areus to the rest of the group.

Soren is still confused. " I feel like we should do some more research into these masks. they were allegedly made by a god, and they could be dangerous."

"Nyklos, what do you think of this? You are god-touched, do you feel something strange or dangerous coming from this fragment?" says Areus to Nyklos.

As Areus holds the white mask he sees that it is a fragment of a full-face mask, made of marble with colored veins of mana. It feels warm to the touch, as if it’s been lying in the sun.

"god touched eh? there are many layers to this group, I think."

"It is strange, this mask feels warm. It is not a normal mask for sure." says Areus to the group.

Regarding Soren's comment, Areus says "Nyklos's story is an interesting one, but I will leave to him to tell it. Some people, like me are blessed by the gods, some people like Nyklos are touched by them." 

"I was blessed by Iroas when I was a little baby. Thanks to Iroas's blessing I do not get easily wounded and no swords or spears leave a scar on me. You could say that I have a stone skin, an useful trait for an hoplite like me." says Areus "The God of Victory gave me this blessing for a reason, I will not fail him."

"sounds interesting."

"I'm not sure, let me see it for a moment." Nyklos will take the mask fragment from Areus if offered, turning it over in the palm of his hand as he thinks on it. Recalling the sense of divine energy that flows through him whenever he channels the power of the storm god, he casts Detect Magic and studies the fragment after a quick glance across the rest of the room.

"The woman mentioned nothing of a fragment. She said a mask. I feel as though we should search the temple before leaving. I know not exactly how Ephara treats artifacts. But if it were Keranos, he would hide it behind a puzzle or challenge of some kind. Perhaps the temple is hiding a riddle of some kind."

On the discussion of their pasts, Nyklos will simply remark: "God-touched is a mild way of putting it I suppose. A story for another time, perhaps later tonight."

"Sometimes the gods like to help us and sometimes they like to trick us and make ours lives difficult. Not that much different from normal people really. I suspect that these masks - broke or not - will fall most definitely into the later group" Tisto comments. "Hey that reminds me of a joke 'what did Thassa say to the sea monster'?" He waits for an answer and then sighing continues "Why What's Kraken my man!"

As Nyklos handles the mask he senses the aura of magic as he casts his spell.  

"I guess that we could search the temple a bit more then" replies Areus to Nyklos "That priest mentioned that maybe the High Priest may know more about the story of this mask."