Session 12: Edges of a Prophecy

As dawn with her rosy red fingers streaked across the sky, each of the party members (except Aegis) rose and made her way to the Temple of Apollo—Meredythe rather reluctantly, as she had gotten thoroughly drunk the night before and needed to be splashed in the face with cold water by Callidora. Amara had an impromptu flute concert on the steps of the temple, which was interrupted by a distressed-looking young woman pushing her way through the crowd shouting, “It’s you! I knew you’d come!”
The young woman introduced herself as Cassandra and said she was a seer. The party was doubtful, reasoning that seers were generally well-respected members of the community. Cassandra then told them she was a princess and a cleric of Apollo, and that she had seen in a vision that they would arrive and that she must Commune with her deity so they could speak to the god of prophecy. She and Kallos had a brief bonding moment over both being clerics.
She led them inside the temple and began the spell, radiating sunlight from her head and hands. Soon enough, Apollo appeared, in the middle of composing a song on his topaz-studded lyre:

“Roses are red, but I haven’t got any
All of my lovers have turned into botany
Or they reject me, and now they’re accursed
Aphrodite must hate me, she’s really the—AAAAH!”

Upon seeing Cassandra, he asked if she had “reconsidered,” upon which Cassandra snorted and walked straight out of the temple, leaving the party alone with the god. They asked him about the prophecy they had heard so much about, and he said:

“This prophecy came to me when I was still young, when I had slain the great Pytho to claim the oracle at Delphi. As I stared into the eyes of the dying serpent, a vision overtook me—I know not whether it was Pytho’s prophecy or my own. I saw three shadowed figures standing triumphant over Zeus, who was in chains. And I heard a whispering voice say, “Daughter of the sea. Of the forest. Of the abyss. You are capable of overthrowing gods. The aegis stands ready for war. Calloused hands have forged your armor and your loyalty. So, make your choice. Make it now.”

Callidora expressed doubt that she could be the “daughter of the forest” in the prophecy, revealing that she was “just the daughter of ordinary merchants… who the whole village thought was cursed.” Apollo then probed a little into the backgrounds of the others, recognizing Callidora as a huntress of Artemis and Amara as a former huntress who left for “the reason all huntresses leave… I fell in love.” Apollo seemed to find this amusing, but he said nothing.
He then explained that the prophecy was so frightening to Zeus because all the Olympians had thought the prophecy already passed:

“When Poseidon, Athena, and Hera put Zeus in chains, the nymphs, nereids, and primordial deities—daughters of the forest, sea, and abyss—chose to aid Zeus by freeing Briareus, the hundred-handed giant. Athena bears the aegis and was ready to wage war against Zeus; it all made sense. Or at least, until mortal seers started having similar visions: Tiresias, Phineus, Cassandra…
“I am the god of prophecy, but I do not claim to understand it. My interpretation is this: everything in this prophecy points to a choice rather than a certainty. You are capable of overthrowing gods—but will you? Will you succeed? And which gods? The aegis stands ready for war—against whom? By the way, the voice in the prophecy pronounced it as ey-giss, not ee-jis, and it’s been bothering me for centuries. Anyway, then there’s make your choice. Make it now. It’s all about choices, and I think these choices are up to you.”

Kallos drew members of the party aside and told them that they should not tell Apollo about Aegis, since she was not at the temple. Apollo, hearing them perfectly, remarked, “I would not trust a child of Eris,” earning him a glare from Kallos.
Meredythe asked Apollo if she would ever return to her own place and time. Apollo expressed uncertainty, as Meredythe’s future was difficult to predict, but he seemed to receive some divine inspiration and began playing a song on his lyre—Ride of the Valkyries by Wagner—and passed along the words, “She will be with you soon.” Meredythe was deeply affected by this.
Apollo then announced that he wanted to give the party members a gift to protect them from the wrath of Helios, as he was “in human terms, Helios’ employer.” He plucked five topaz stones from his lyre and fused them into the rings Kallos made for the party members last session, transforming them into Rings of Resistance against radiant damage.
Kallos then confronted Apollo about Cassandra and whether or not he was harassing her. Apollo took offense at this, and after a brief staring match and a comment from Apollo that Kallos should respect him as a god of healing, Apollo vanished. The party left the temple and met up with Cassandra in the street, who told them her story: she had been wooed by Apollo and given the gift of prophecy in an attempt to win her over. She emphatically refused Apollo, as she was not interested in men, and the angry Apollo cursed her never to be believed (unless an outside party or direct observation corroborated her predictions). Kallos and Meredythe were both outraged, with Meredythe even offering to use her assassin training to kill the god, but Cassandra, Callidora, and Amara talked her down.
The party offered to let Cassandra travel with them, but Cassandra declined, stating that she had a mission to save Troy, and that she would do it or die trying. She explained that her brother Paris had carried off Helen, Queen of Sparta, and that Helen’s presence doomed the city, as she was the daughter of Nemesis, goddess of revenge. Amara remembered that Iphigenia had mentioned her aunt Helen in Session 5, as well as the fact that she “did not like men,” and wondered if Helen was being held captive. Cassandra responded that she seemed to be here of her own free will, but that she could be plotting something. She left shortly after.
The party decided to locate Helen and find out her intentions, but before they could do that, a veiled figure slipped among the group and said, “You were looking for me?” She mentioned that hearing Iphigenia’s name had piqued her interest and asked how her niece was faring. Upon being told about Agamemnon’s attempt to sacrifice his daughter, Helen was enraged and told them she was going to kill Agamemnon herself.
She told the party to meet her behind the palace granary so they could talk in private. Before she went, she unveiled her face, stunning the members of the party (except the asexual Callidora) with her beauty. Then she veiled her face again and disappeared into the crowd as silently and swiftly as she had appeared. And that was the party’s first meeting with the face that launched a thousand ships—Helen of Troy.

Relations

Protagonists

Amara, Callidora, Kallos, Meredythe Maegwund

Allies

Apollo, Cassandra

Neutrals/Bystanders

Helen of Troy

Plot type

Session