[Ionia]

Based on the Quest: The Temple of Doom

Somewhere along the Xanth statue's line of sight, and hidden among ordinary, box-shaped-looking buildings, stood the office of the Voice of Xanth. It was an extravagant-looking thing, despite its humble size. Etched columns lined the sides of the building, and at the top of the pediment was the symbol of the Voice of Xanth---an encircled purple butterfly. Motifs of Elysia were engraved on each panel of the large, gilded doors.

Nia thought it was excessive. In fact, the entire Voice of Xanth was excessive. Elysians had lived without the Voice for centuries after the first incarnation had puttered out. If one really wanted to contact Xanth, they'd have better luck while hunting red imp dragons. However, the Voice was paying for her help, so Nia hadn't yet told the inhabitants of the building what she truly thought of them. They were 'granting' her access to that new temple in Zinovia, too. That was a whole other argument -- how could the temple belong to the Voice of Xanth when they weren't even aware of its existence? In Nia's books, it really belonged to Zinovia. But as long as she found something worthwhile in this expedition, she couldn't care less who'd eventually claim the temple.

During her debriefing, the High Wisdom's assistant---Nia had forgotten his name already---had shown her pictures of various Xanth-related relics, and instructed Nia to look for anything similar. All religious artifacts would belong to the Voice of Xanth, he'd said, but any treasure the expedition found would be theirs, as long as they could prove the temple was Xanth's. Nia already had mixed feelings about the trip, but she promised Trent that she'd give it a shot. If only to prove that Acantha hadn't sapped all the adventuring out of her.

Still seated on the front steps of the office entrance, Nia turned when she heard the wooden doors open. The priests had most likely finished talking to everybody and was ready to send them off with a blessing. Nia just hoped everyone would be able to take care of themselves.

((Feel free to add other NPCs too! I'm thinking a priest would probably tag along, as well as one or two more adventurers. You can also GM and time-skip them to Zinovia if you want. ))