Session 6: Sailing for Adventure

After sending Daedalus and Icarus off on a ship to Sicily, the party and Atalanta talked to Jason about the Argo’s mission to retrieve the Golden Fleece of Colchis. The four of them decided to join the crew of famous heroes. Jason told them that Calais and Zetes, the (Spaghetti Demon) twin sons of the North Wind, were also coming, and then he introduced Caeneus, a somewhat reserved swordsman. (He also mentioned that they had tried to recruit Heracles, who was busy, and Orpheus, whom he could not find. The party told him what became of Orpheus in a previous session.) The party noticed that Caeneus’ blade did not appear to hurt his leg, instead bouncing off his skin as if he were wearing armor.
The sun began to set, and the party decided to sleep on the deck of the ship in preparation to set sail the next morning. Meredythe helped herself to some of the Lesbian wine Jason had purchased for the crew (from Charaxos of Session 3, no less). Now inebriated, Meredythe bluntly asked Caeneus why he had blade-proof skin. Caeneus gave away little, only cryptically mentioning, “It was a package deal.” Melantha made a successful Insight check on the swordsman and was able to tell that Caeneus was uncomfortable around women.
Jason prayed to a statue of Hera that was carved into the mast of the ship. Melantha took out a small figurine off Artemis, contemplating whether her goddess would really demand the sacrifice of a young girl. The two talked about their respective goddesses before heading to bed.
As the party members slept, a shared dream came to each of them: the three Fates appeared, spinning and measuring a single thread in a vast, interconnected web, almost like a conspiracy string board. The Fates told them, “We gave you free will, and you’ve used it as we intended, up until now.” Upon further questioning, they revealed their meaning:

“The ships sailing for Troy… If Zeus hasn’t noticed you before, he’s certain to notice you now. The Trojan War was his design, to pull the gods into conflict and consolidate his power—as well as distract them from aiding you. He started it rather abruptly, all things considered… He didn’t even bother with the golden apple. We think he’s frightened.”

The Fates smiled in an eerie manner, reminiscent of spiders about to eat the prey caught in their webs. They praised the party for their success and warned them to be more careful “next time.”
The party awoke, disturbed by the vision they had received. To relax, Amara dove into the ocean with Doro to catch fish, waking Caeneus with a splash. Amara went ashore to cook the fish she caught, and Caeneus followed, explaining that he “just needed to get away from the sea.” Amara said she felt similarly about land. “I used to love it,” Caeneus said. When Amara asked what happened, Caeneus simply replied, “I made some bad decisions.”
The crew ate fish for breakfast, then set sail. Amara and Meredythe fit in immediately—leading a sea shanty and rowing, respectively—but Melantha felt seasick and admitted to Jason that she had never been on a ship before. He told her to keep her gaze on the horizon and act as their lookout. Shortly after, Melantha spotted an island with large birds of prey circling and swooping down over a particular spot. Calais and Zetes recognized the island as the home of their brother-in-law Phineus and, worried that he might be in trouble, they docked the ship and Jason ran headlong into the fray. Now that the crew was closer, they could see that the birds circling overhead were not birds at all, but harpies, monstrous creatures with the head and torso of women but wings and claws of predatory birds. Five harpies were tormenting Phineus, a blind man who was tied to his chair with a ravaged banquet on a table before him. Meredythe cut the blind man free, upon which harpy swooped down to attack her.
What followed was a 36-second battle of immense frustration and bad luck for the Argonauts, despite the eight Argonauts outnumbering the harpies by three. Caeneus injured himself from the recoil of his longbow. Jason swung a greatclub at a harpy and missed. Calais attempted a Ray of Frost and only managed a few snowflakes. Atalanta consistently rolled 2s.
Eventually, however, the tide of battle turned in their favor. Melantha shot a harpy out of the sky but was attacked by a difficult-to-injure harpy in retaliation. Zetes made a daring move to lure another harpy to the ground by using Misty Step to transport himself forty feet into the air, relying on his twin’s Feather-Fall spell to save his life. Amara and Doro took down a harpy by tentacle-grappling it and filling its mouth and lungs with the Create Water spell until it drowned. Meredythe threw her World-Render at another. Finally, Caeneus finished off the last monstrosity by decapitating it with his sword.
Phineus thanked the Argonauts for freeing him from his predicament. He explained that he was a seer who revealed a secret to mortals that the gods did not want revealed, and as punishment Zeus bound him here and commanded the harpies to steal most of his food, befoul what scraps remained, and thus slowly starve him to death. When asked what the secret was, Phineus said: “There is a group of mortals walking the earth that are capable of overthrowing the gods.”
Phineus also predicted that the next island the Argonauts would encounter would be the Island of the Sirens, bird-women whose song was so alluring it drew ships to dash themselves on the island’s rocks and sailors to drown themselves trying to reach the island. Phineus warned them that they would need a bard to play a song so beautiful it would distract the crew from the Sirens, but also that the singers had access to all sorts of secrets beyond mortal knowledge and may tempt the crew with “what you desperately need to hear.” The session concluded with those ominous words and the threat of the temptation lurking ahead.

Relations

Protagonists

Amara, Melantha, Meredythe Maegwund

Allies

Jason, Calais and Zetes, Caeneus, Atalanta, Phineus

Adversaries

Harpies

Plot type

Session