Last night we tried out AGON, which we quite enjoyed! Here's the story. Sing O muse etc.
Our heroes are on their ship, lost amidst the fog and the islands, when a strong wind kicks up and catches the sails, nearly capsizing the ship. Many-Wayed Damon, the Scion of Aphrodite, rallies the sailors and directs them fastened the riggings and...do other sail-stuff, while the other heroes - Clear-Voiced Penelope, Forge-Master Kyra, and War-Leader Agathon support him. The sailors manage to right the ship, and Damon is clearly the Leader of the group, at least for the next island.
As they approach said island, they hear the sailors saying that Athena's wisdom and guidance helped them right the ship. They also see visions and portents - in the clearing mist, a tower crumbling, and the odor of the guilty roasting on a spit. Poseidon and Hera are sending wisdom, if the heroes can see it.
They put in to the bay of Fenios, and already there is chaos. The city is being ravaged by a golden boar, taller than a house, with numerous spears and weapons stuck in its back. It wears a golden mask, and it smashes buildings and tramples citizens. The heroes hear someone yell "Kapra the Usurper stole my mother's throne, but she won't steal her memory!" They realize that the boar is charging a marble statue of a woman, and a group of citizens stands around it in a ring, holding hands. The woman leading them looks a great deal like the woman depicted in the statue...
The heroes leap from the boat to defend these people, placing themselves in the path of the boar. It does not go well. The boar charges through them, knocking them to the side or trampling them underfoot, and smashes the statue to pebbles. It then turns and charges away as the heroes pick themselves up, humiliated.
The woman who was trying to protect the statue approaches them. Though she has a gash in her forehead, she remains steady and strong. She tells them that she appreciates their efforts, fruitless though they were, and says that she needs to return to her camp. The heroes linger, and Penelope ventures to what remains of the market. She helps an old man put his stall back up, and he tells her that the woman that they spoke with is Nassia, the daughter of the deposed Queen Isadora. Kapra was meant to be the Huntmaster, tasked with killing the Golden Boar, but instead she rode it to the palace of Ano Steni and ousted the queen.
Agathon finds some city guards and learns much the same thing. He chides the guards for hiding with the boar rampaged, and they reply that many have died in the hunt for the Golden Boar - it has been rampaging since the princess was born twenty years ago. Now Kapra controls it. Agathon notes that the boar's violence doesn't seem targeted, other than at the statue. The guard points, and Agathon sees the boar enter the palace on the hill.
The heroes discuss, and they decide to confront the Usurper Kapra directly. They walk up the hill and find their way blocked by the guards of Ano Steni, but Penelope shames them for their lack of hospitality and calls them out for the blasphemy they commit, and they let the heroes in. Kapra is seated on a throne not made for her, her weapons near to hand, wearing a golden mask similar to the boar's, and surrounded by a party of hunters. Penelope tells her that she is a usurper and a liar, readying himself for a battle, and she gets one!
Kapra descends from the throne and backhands Penelope to the ground. Her hunters rush in and pummel Damon, kicking him repeatedly, but then Forge-Master Kyra enters the fray, swinging her hammer and knocking the guards back! Agathon, for his part, strikes Kapra with the butt of his swords, knocking her down, and then continues beating her until she is bloodied and cowed, and her golden mask falls off. She asks for mercy (though Agathon gives her one more strike, just to drive the point home), and everyone trembles a bit as the palace rumbles. The boar smashes through an exterior wall, and heads for the forests.
Kapra claims that it was Queen Isadora who betrayed her people by lying about the Golden Boar, and that she had watched her fellow hunters be slaughtered for twenty years before finally having had enough. With the leadership of the island now uncertain and still more questions than answers, the heroes split up.
Penelope and Kyra go back down the hill to the camp that Queen Isadora and her daughter have established. They are admitted and given wine and allowed to clean their wounds, and then approached by Nassia. She listens to their offers of aid, but says that she has been betrayed by someone she loved and idolized (that'd be Kapra), and isn't much in the mood to make new friends. Clear-Voiced Penelope, however, wins her over, and she agrees to let the heroes stay and help. She says that Artemis gave her mother a prophecy, that the Golden Boar was a test for the greatest hunter of Fenios, but instead of killing it Kapra used some kind of magic to enslave it. Nassia is bitter about this; Kapra was her mentor and idol, and she was supposed to join Kapra's hunt this year.
Meanwhile, Damon and Agathon track the boar. It's not hard, the thing is huge and knocks over trees as it forages in the woods. It roots in the ground for food and rubs up against the largest trees, and the heroes watch it in awe, trying to think of a way to beat it. Damon wonders if letting it swallow one of them would allow them to attack its heart, or perhaps its food could be poisoned? They do not attack the boar directly, however, since it beat all four of the heroes once already.
At the camp, Penelope is similarly frustrated. Artemis is her divine parent (yes, Artemis is one of the virgin goddesses in classic myth, never mind that), and so prays for a vision. She sees a rabbit with fur of moonlight cross her path and chases it, hoping for a sign, but it is too swift and she tumbles down an embankment. Smarting and humiliated once again, she climbs back up and sees Agathon and Damon, and calls them to the camp.
Kyra, for her part, asks for audience with Queen Isadora. She gets it, and meets the deposed ruler, regal and beautiful even in exile. She is perhaps a little more blunt with the queen than she should be, telling her that Kapra said she lied about the boar, and Isadora has her removed from her tent.
The other three heroes come back and Kyra fills them in, and they decide to speak with the Queen again, but this time all together and with Damon leading the effort. Damon lays out the facts logically - the boar is killing people, and is now out of control. Isadora needs to be honest in order to protect her daughter. Isadora considers, and then tells them the truth. Artemis did give her a prophecy, but it was that the boar would take her daughter upon her twentieth year. She therefore lied to her people in an attempt to protect Nassia.
Damon asks for help in defeating the boar, and Isadora agrees, but only if the heroes agrees to keep the truth from Nassia and to help Isadora reclaim her throne. The heroes agree, and they and the Queen's Guard prepare for the hunt.
The hunt begins at dawn, and again, finding the Golden Boar isn't hard. They track the creature, and Penelope sees the ferocity of the creature and the wrath of Artemis behind it. The boar charges the camp, and the heroes spring into action...though tragically, they are not entirely successful.
The boar smashes through the camp, killing most of the queen's loyalists. Kyra, wishing to make up for her earlier rudeness, pulls the queen to safety, but Damon is unable to do so for Nassia, and the princess is thrown against a tree and killed! Isadora rushes to her daughter and wails, and War-Leader Agathon draws his swords and attempts to control the battlefield...but he cannot. Too much death, too much chaos, no advantage to be had.
The heroes rally and face the boar, prepared to die if this be their fate. Damon leaps on the boat and wraps his chain around its neck, pulling it and controlling its movement. Agathon tries to cut it down, but the boar kicks him and tramples him once again, but Kyra is ready and knocks the beast's legs out from under it with her hammer. Clear-Voiced Penelope strikes, and feels her mother's blessing - Nassia is dead, the prophecy is fulfilled, the Golden Boar can now die. She puts her spear through the monster's eye, finally killing it.
The victory is Pyrrhic, of course. Nassia is dead, and Isadora is heartbroken. Not only that, but much of her followers are gone, and Kapra is still alive and has her own supporters. The heroes leave Fenios in a state of burgeoning civil war, but they have done all they can, and further islands await.
