The party’s journey through Mysterra led them to Dios, an ancient Milean
city dedicated to the thunder god Zeus. Seeking guidance to defeat the
legendary Kraken, they visited the grand Temple of Zeus. There, they met
High Priest Callimachus, a shrewd cleric who seamlessly blended attempts
to convert the party with aggressive requests for "divine donations."
Though tight-fisted, Callimachus directed them to the one man who had
slain the beast before: the hero Perseus, who was apparently quite
behind on his temple tithes.
They found Perseus a few blocks away on Pegasus
Street, charging tourists for embellished retellings of his past
glories. The legendary hero proved to be a pompous blowhard,
prioritizing fame and optics far above actual heroics. Recognizing a PR
opportunity, Perseus agreed to help, but immediately began re-branding
the party. He attempted to change their names to sound "more heroic" and
unilaterally dubbed the group "The Caprinauts." The GOATs firmly
declined, but Perseus ignored them, instructing his entourage of
personal bards and scribes to rewrite the narrative to his liking. His
team was exhaustive, complete with artists, cooks, attendants, and a
cadre of wizards whose sole job was to teleport the hero around so he
wouldn't have to endure the tedium of travel.
Over a lavish (and mandatory) wardrobe fitting and
portrait-painting session, Perseus outlined the itinerary: 1) Teleport
to the Gorgon’s Swamp to kill Medusa and take her head. 2) Visit
Vulcan’s Shore to ask the Stygian Hags where the "Old Man of the Sea"
lived. 3) Convince the Old Man to summon the Kraken. 4) Turn the beast
to stone.
Decked out in fine Greek attire, the
remonstatively-minted "Caprinauts" were teleported directly into the
murky depths of the Gorgon’s Swamp. Right outside Medusa's temple, they
were ambushed by Perseus's ancient rival, the exiled warlock Calibos.
Bursting from the muck atop Slogmoth, a gargantuan, epic-level hydra,
Calibos sought to end the hero's quest before it began. The battle was
fierce, but the party systematically dismantled the Swamp King and his
beast. Upon searching Calibos's corpse, they made an anticlimactic
discovery: the warlock had already raided the temple and killed Medusa,
keeping her severed head in a sack just to spite Perseus.
Quest step one skipped, the party cleaned the swamp
muck off their fine togas and were teleported to Vulcan’s Shore. There,
they found the Stygian Witches washing burial shrouds in the dark
waters. The hags demanded a toll in the form of personalized riddles,
poking at the deepest secrets and recent traumas of each party member.
The GOATs answered true, and the hags revealed the Old Man of the Sea
was living right where the party started: on the southern docks of Dion,
the port district of Dios.
During the exchange, one hag accidentally slipped
that the party was entitled to exactly three questions. Capitalizing on
the mistake, they asked about Merinka (the Silver Maiden from the
Dream). The hags cackled, revealing that she was the "Mother of All
Hags," Baba Yaga herself, and congratulated the party on unleashing her
back into Alluria. For their final question, they asked how the Anubis
Box functioned once opened. The hags warned that the Titans possess no
free will. To control them, the party members would each have to "adopt"
a Titan and act as its conscience. They added an ominous caveat: the
reigning Gods would despise this shift in power and would likely offer
godhood or massive bribes to stop the GOATs.
Teleporting back to the Dion docks, the party
(alongside a Perseus who had finally accepted the name "Feinting GOATs")
found the Old Man of the Sea (Nereus) sleeping on a pile of gnarled
nets. Upon waking, the eccentric hermit became immediately enamored with
the alien beauty of Cut-Cut. He agreed to summon the Kraken under one
condition: the Thri-Kreen had to spend the night in his shack.
Platonically, he assured them, perhaps with some cuddling. Cut-Cut
reluctantly agreed. The party spied from outside all night. A tense,
ten-minute window occurred where Bao Bao lost all psionic contact with
the monk, though visually everything seemed mundane. They waited it out.
Come morning, Nereus stood at the edge of the pier
and called the beast. The Kraken that answered was beyond comprehension;
a horrific, two-thousand-foot hybrid of crab and octopus that
obliterated half the docks simply by surfacing. The party severely
underestimated its reach, finding themselves immediately within striking
distance of its mountain-sized tentacles. A desperate tactical scramble
ensued. Korloth, Perseus, Cut-Cut, and Lenti (now shifted into a
massive, fungal battle-form) took the vanguard, weathering the crushing
blows, while the rest of the party provided critical support from the
absolute edge of the battlefield.
The crux of the battle relied on Lenti, who carried
the sack containing Medusa's head. Navigating the chaotic flurry of
tentacles and crashing waves, the fungal druid closed the distance.
After several harrowing attempts, Lenti thrust the Gorgon's gaze
directly into the Kraken's massive eye. The petrification was
instantaneous; the titanic beast seized, its flesh turning to solid
stone before crumbling into the boiling sea.
As the Anubis Box flared to life, a vortex of energy
began sucking the Kraken's essence inside. But just before the lid
snapped shut, the Old Man of the Sea turned to Cut-Cut, offered a cheeky
wink, and transformed into a blinding bolt of pure lightning that shot
directly into the Box. The realization hit the party like a thunderclap:
the "Old Man" had been Zeus in disguise, up to his old mythological
tricks, and he had just intentionally locked himself inside their
prison.
Oblivious to the cosmic implications of bagging the
King of the Gods, Perseus dusted off his toga, thanked the GOATs for a
wonderful adventure, and marched off with his entourage to begin
marketing his latest triumph. The party stood on the ruined pier,
holding a box that was suddenly far heavier than before.