Session 19: Ride of the Valkyries

The party continued the fight against the four remaining skeleton warriors, while Aegis ran as far away as possible, confusing her fellow party members. Callidora and Atalanta shot arrows from afar, while Calais and Zetes provided magical support. Amara made quick work of a skeleton she had knocked prone. Meredythe accidentally overshot one of her Eldritch Blasts, hitting one of the nobles in the audience. Caeneus did a cool Zorro-esque slicing move with his sword, finishing off one of the skeletons. Eventually, even the resilient “Skeleton Six” went down.   When all the skeletons were defeated, Amara launched Dóro at Aegis to snap her out of her state. Jason tried to reassure Aegis that everyone has a moment of panic in battle and tries to run away. Aegis took offense and vehemently insisted that she never ran away from battle. Jason, intimidated, backed off.   King Aeëtes congratulated the party on succeeding in the first and second trials and suggested that they may want to take the remainder of the day to eat and rest. Aegis devoured a plate, but the rest of the crew insisted that they take on the third task after only a short rest. Aeëtes led them to a field with a tree in the middle, the Golden Fleece hanging on a branch, and an enormous gold dragon coiled around the tree trunk, with a 20-foot radius of scorched earth surrounding it. Aeëtes offered them one last chance to turn back, then spoke to the dragon: “Dracarys.”   Once Aeëtes had left, the group began to form battle plans. Aegis, Kallos, Caeneus, and Jason would distract the dragon, while Amara made Callidora invisible. Callidora would grab the Fleece, assisted by Calais and Zetes, then everyone would run back to the ship.   However, plans quickly fell apart when the dragon exhaled fire in a 60-foot cone, causing everyone damage despite their fire-resistant ointment. Dóro the octopus was caught in the blast and vanished, causing emotional distress to everyone.   The twins used Mage Hand to grab the Fleece, while Aegis ran to the far corner of the field and taunted the dragon, successfully diverting its attention. Kallos quickly joined her. Amara cast Invisibility on Callidora. Atalanta shot a few arrows at the dragon, then Callidora snuck over to the Fleece and grabbed it. Caeneus joined the others in causing a distraction, but Jason decided to charge the dragon head-on. Aegis called out to stop him: “Jason, you idiot! Your dad is dying!” Jason promptly froze up and ran away as far as he could, too upset to attack, and Meredythe joined the fight.   So far, the plan seemed to be succeeding, but then the dragon turned to look directly at Callidora, having noticed her presence through its tremorsense. The dragon struck at Aegis and Kallos with its tail as it turned, injuring them. In desperation, Aegis pulled out the Drinking Horn of Valhalla that she had stolen from a shop in Troy and blew it.   Suddenly, streaming down from the sky came eight Valkyrie maidens, ready to fight on the party’s behalf. Stunned, Meredythe recognized her wife, Valentia, as one of them.  

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Valentia said. “This is not our world! What is this place? How did you get here?”   “It’s rather a long story,” Meredythe said, running over and kissing her wife while Amara watched in shock.

  Just then, Medea ran into the field, shouting, “What the hell happened to the plan?” She spoke to the dragon in Draconic and convinced it to stand down, then told the party (and the eight Valkyries) that they needed to run back to the ship and set sail before her father got there.   They ran through the streets and finally made it to the docks, only to find Aeëtes waiting for them on the deck of the Argo, alongside another, taller, brighter figure.   The children of Helios had red hair and golden eyes. Helios himself took this to its extreme—his hair was made of red-hot flames, and staring into his eyes burned like the sun. He stepped in front of his son. Kallos stepped in front of the whole party, readying herself for a fight.  

“We passed the trials and won the Golden Fleece, fair and square,” she told them. “Now let us leave.”   “My daughter helped you, that doesn’t count,” Aeëtes said smugly.   “That wasn’t in the rules!”   “You have humiliated me,” the Titan of the sun growled. “And you seek to exterminate my bloodline. You steal the Golden Fleece from my son, and you murder my daughter.”   “It was self-defense!”   “Do you really think I’m going to let you leave Colchis alive?” He shook his head. “I’m going to kill you. And don’t think Apollo will come to your rescue—he’s stuck up there in my chariot in the sky!”

  Helios cast Wall of Flames on the dock, causing it to burn up, and he and his son commandeered the Argo. Undeterred, the crew turned to the Valkyries and asked them to carry them over the flames and onto the ship. They were the Argonauts, they had won the Golden Fleece, and they were going to take their ship back from the sun.