For an upcoming game, I'm considering an encounter with the legendary Calypso. The purpose of the adventure is to hint to the players that the pieces of the story that they're starting to uncover is really old. As in Greek myth old.
(In short, Calypso is the beautiful daughter of the titan Atlas, and takes the shipwrecked Odysseus onto her idyllic island because he's so manly. She keeps him as her prisoner / lover for 7 years, but Odysseus still pines for his wife. Zeus eventually sends Hermes to Calypso and orders her to release Odysseus because of his devotion. She reluctantly sets Odysseus up on a nice new ship with plenty of provisions and sends him on his way.)
I'm just not sure how to turn this into a story for the characters.
I'm thinking Calypso is a faerie who is tremendously lonely. Her island is so remote that she gets few visitors. I don't think there's any point in a traditional "everything is so beautiful and tempting, but you better not eat the food!" story... we've done that. But I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to turn this into something to challenge the players, which could have multiple outcomes based on decisions made, etc. Maybe it's to archetypical to do anything with.
Anyway, I offer this up for discussion, because many brains are better than one.
Calypso offered Odysseus immortality and eternal youth.
Maybe you can make up some temptation for the players with this and, put them in danger to loose their soul.
Or the lonely Calypso offers them (as she is not in love with the PCs like she was with Odysseus) some rewards for their company. If then the PCs accept and want to leave much too early (in the opinion of Calypso) she get's very upset.
Or is that also to classic for your taste
In some transmissions Calypso had two/three sons with Odysseus. Not sure how to turn that into a story ...
As a daughter of Atlas, Calypso should be from the Magic Realm rather the Faerie Realm although there is no reason a faerie might not have hijacked her story.
Her father Atlas is the personification of endurance, and Calypso herself represents the gift of immortality, which is what she offers Odysseus. Indeed, her daughters by him (Hesiod calls them Nausithoos and Nausinoos) bed mortal men and have immortal children by them. They therefore seem instrumental in becoming or being a Magic Human (perhaps via the Transformed Human Virtue). After all, as a Magic Human you are immune to aging, which is pretty much the definition of immortality.
So maybe some unscrupulous villain has kidnapped Nausithoos (or maybe Calypso herself) and is trying to force her to give up her secret of immortality. The characters come across her island Ogygia in a regio, but rather than an idyllic paradise it is a place of fading beauty without the presence of its guardian. Perhaps local creatures or guests which should be immortal are growing old and dying without the personification of immortality to keep them fresh. If the PCs are here for a reason (maybe to get info from one of Calypso's guests), then this is contingent on her return.
More of a free association than a story seed, but I hope it helps.
Tmk Nausithoos and Nausinoos from Hesiod's Theogony (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theogony#T ... generation ) are sons of Odysseus. Which makes their immortal children harder to trace :mrgreen: and easier to put into ArM sagas.
I see know that the "[goddesses]" in this excerpt refers to Kalypso and her ilk rather than the offspring. That's what comes of not reading the original source! (which I have, but not here...)
So your villain better should try to get hold of Kalypso for his dastardly plans. And if she is currently impersonated by a faerie, this faerie might even play along for some faerie children to spoil / warp / use for her game.
Working through some of the details tonight on this story.
Basic plot -- a cult that serve the Fae has kidnapped Kalypso, and are trying to get her to grant them immortality. I was thinking they would hold her within a faerie regio. However, what's the best way to keep this powerful magical being imprisoned? If, in the process of kidnapping her, her might pool was drained, then:
RoP:M pg 29 notes that beings can't regain might if they are experiencing what mortals would consider deprivation... So maybe she's being kept in an underwater prison by mermen?
I also seem to remember reading a flaw that doesn't allow beings to regain might unless they consume vis...but I can't find it.
Does a magic being suffer acclamation (RoP:M pg 52) if held in a faerie regio?
Another source to look up is one of the old Mythic Perspectives issues which details the island, regio and Calypso herself. Unfortunately I can't recall which # it is.
Having a mage's Mythic Blood be Calypso is a perfect reason to go there, and if they didn't realize they had mistaken their parentage, well, there could be a larger plot at play.
(Pardon me, I need to go add Mythic Blood of Calypso to the Mythic Blood series for the Africa issue.)
If you want to cut across some lines, that the magi are shipwrecked onto her island, though she has no inherent reason to help them other than to cure her loneliness. Play up the ideals of a person bereft of human companionship, you can also use her as a vehicle for other myth such as information to get past an obstacle while on the ocean, perhaps the magi will need some wisdom her father knows and will need to be lead by her to come upon his shoulders to answer. Another perfect tie in is that water often is a portal into the greek underworld, perhaps she can safely lead them through the gate to find whatever they are looking for, or to find things they didn't know they were looking for. Another thing you can play upon is her tempestuous nature, after something that reminds her of the loss of Odysseus she could terrorize the seas around her home, with impassable weather and seas until she can be mollified or appeased.
I used Odysseus and his whole return trip as a coded symbolic initiation path in an old saga.
Each trial he meets during his trip is to test his courage/determination/cunning. Some bringing enlightments.
The real Calypso encouter wiht Odysseus was in reality a master teaching a student. And what better master than a Titan's child ?
You could use some of Odysseus trials as guardian preventing him to reach the regio where Calypso wait to share her knowledge. Lotus eater, sirens, Charybde and Scylla... as many tests, each one bringing closer to the final regio.
