Session 7: Not the Villain

After listening to Phineus’ warning about the Sirens, the Argonauts escorted the blind seer back to his home, then set sail once more. Soon the party heard unearthly voices drifting over the sea, singing in gorgeous harmony:

You who walk above and under
Hear us singing, each to each
You who seek to chain the thunder
And blow ships out of his reach
He is not the only danger
Gods keep secrets, gods tell lies
So listen to a singing stranger
And take a word from the wise:
We know the spinners' schemes and secrets
We know which way the wind will blow
And if you brave the waves to seek us
We'll tell you what we know...

Amara and Meredythe managed to resist the song’s enthralling effect, but Melantha and the rest of the Argonauts were entranced and insisted on hearing more. Melantha in particular believed that the Sirens had crucial information about their quest and tried to climb over the side of the ship to swim closer to them. Thinking quickly, Amara cast Sleep on Melantha, launched her octopus Doro at Jason to slow him down, and began to play a tune of her own composition on her flute-staff.
Amara’s song broke the enchantment long enough for the Argonauts to come up with a plan: they would use the resin stored below decks to make earplugs so they would not hear the Sirens’ song. Meanwhile, Melantha would be tied to the mast so she could hear the song and try to persuade the Sirens into telling her what they knew.
As the ship sailed by, the Sirens sang to Melantha directly, asking her if she wanted her doubts about Artemis and Iphigenia’s sacrifice to be laid to rest. Melantha’s first attempt to persuade them was unsuccessful, but then Amara’s song gave her a burst of Bardic Inspiration and, combined with a bit of flattery, Melantha was able to convince the Sirens to give up their information. They told her:

“Long ago, the Fates heard a prophecy that only three mortals—daughters of the sea, the forest, and the abyss—were capable of defeating and overthrowing the gods. But the Fates have not sent you down this path to bring justice or balance back to the world, nor do they truly believe in the free will they have reluctantly given you. As soon as you complete this task for them, they will find a way to discard you.
"They want a war amongst gods, a way to thin out the herd of rival powers. It was not Artemis who called for the sacrifice of the princess Iphigenia. The Trojan War was not Zeus’ doing; it was the Fates, sowing seeds of discord and doubt among the Olympians. Ask the daughter of the abyss about Ragnarök and listen to what she says.”

Once the Sirens were out of earshot, Melantha asked to speak privately with Amara and Meredythe. She relayed what the Sirens had told her, and when asked about Ragnarök, a horrified Meredythe told them:

“In the ancient myths of my people, it was said that there would come a time when...when gods and giants would meet in a mortal combat. And the gods would lose, and fall, and all whose lives depended on them—the universe itself—would collapse and die. Nothing would remain but nothingness itself. I'm talking about the complete and utter end of the world—of all worlds. I'm talking about a total-scale apocalypse.”
“That makes no sense,” Amara argued. “If the Fates destroy the world, there won’t be anything to be in charge of. Even if the Fates wanted to control some other world, why would they destroy this one? Can’t they just leave it? They’re gods.”
“It has been said that there would be… pairs of people left to repopulate the Earth,” Meredythe replied. “I don’t know how… how it ends in this universe. I’ve never seen a world end before.”
“If this is true, then we’re dealing with two contradictory plans. We know time isn’t moving properly, and that’s because of Zeus—but working for the Fates is wrong,” Amara said. “I don’t know who’s the villain anymore.”

Meredythe suggested making a sacrifice ploy—deliberately failing to defeat Zeus so that the Fates wouldn’t succeed, while invoking their Chthonic Protection to stay alive. Melantha brought up the possibility of getting all the gods to band together and help them fight the Fates. In response to Amara’s concerns about the Fates knowing and controlling everything and thus rendering their actions futile, Meredythe said, “In my experience, perhaps the stories we’ve been told and the stories we tell ourselves don’t have to be the be-all and end-all.”
The party discussed the possibility that the Fates who had been guiding them weren’t really the Fates at all, but saboteurs from Meredythe’s native mythos. Meredythe wondered if they could be the same cultist nuns who raised her—and revealed that those nuns had ritually sacrificed Meredythe’s wife.

“Maybe we’re going about this the wrong way,” Melantha said. “What if they’re not different Fates, but the same ones?”
“Interdimensional beings,” Meredythe said, wide-eyed.

The party members remembered that the prophecy the Sirens had told them about only mentioned that three mortals were capable of defeating the gods—it did not specify whether they were the mortals in question, whether they would succeed, or whether the gods mentioned were Zeus and the Olympians. The prophecy could very well refer to defeating the Fates, but the party didn’t know enough of the prophecy or its context for it to make any sense.

“We cannot draw any conclusions until we see that prophecy,” Amara said. “There might be information in it that we don’t know.”
“Are you saying we need to find Apollo?” Melantha asked.
Amara replied, “Yes. I think we do.”

The three adventurers decided to keep this revelation a secret from the Argonauts and to leave the crew once the ship arrived in Colchis. The party members brushed off the other Argonauts’ concerns and returned to their duties manning the ship, deeply rattled and wondering how exactly they could stand against the Fates.

Relations

Protagonists

Amara, Melantha, Meredythe Maegwund

Allies

Jason, Caeneus, Calais and Zetes, Atalanta

Neutrals/Bystanders

The Sirens

Adversaries

Show spoiler

The Fates

Plot type

Session