THE PURSUIT OF LAPHERA

Zeus is an amorous fellow. One morning he was looking down fromthe heights of Olympos and happened to notice something in a remote corner of Hellas called Locrisia. There he spied a beautiful nymph sunning herself on a hillside. He looked for her again every dav after that, but he never saw her again. After several weeks he became re ally curious and decided to do something about it. Being Zeus, his intentions towards the nymph are fairly easy to guess. Since he does not like to lower himself to wanderingaround among men unless absolutely necessary, he will recruit the characters to do his legwork for him. He will give one ofthem a mirror with which to communicate with him (only if they find the nymph, otherwise he would rather not be bothered), and set them down on the borders of Locrisia. They are to locate the nymph, inform her of Isis interest, and then summon him whether she is interested or not.

An important side-plot to note here is that Hera may get wind of this and send interference, as she is very jealous of Zeus' extra-marital interests. She may anempt to subvert one of the characters to sabotage the mission, or she may send nasty monsters after the party, with the exact nature of her attack left up to the GM.

They will be transported to Locrisia directly through the power of Zeus. They will arrive in a rural area and will have to contact the local people and entities to locate the nymph within the specific area which has been indicated. Some of the beings which they may encounter are listed here with the information which they can convey. Locrisia is an area of grassy hills and wooded valleys with a fairly sparse human population.

Shepherds: They will probably arrive on a hillside covered with shee p and the ever present young, bemused shepherd. Now shepherds may be genuine curly-haired he-men, but they live with sheep, smell like sheep and tend to think like sheep. The young Adonis they find playing his syrinx should be about as capable of giving them directions as a block of wood, though he will go out of his way to be helpful. With luck he maybe able to get them to a village (full of shepherds, some of whom maybe older, but no wiser) or to the local river, the Khinos.

Centaurs: The woods in the area abound with strange creatures. As they begin to look around there is a fair chance that they will run into a group of 3 to 5 centaurs. These creatures are likely to be aloof at best and may well be hostile, with atendancy to rob and even kill small groups of humans or the equivalent which they can catch alone. The centaurs, if not hostile will gladly give complex and completely incorrect directions for finding the nymph.

Satyrs: These are wild creatures ofthe woods, great friends of the nymph. ihey are rather careless innocents, sometnnes randomly violent. They will gladly lead the characters to the nymph and tell them all about her, but they are her friends, and if they discover that the characters have been sent by Zeus they will lure them out into the deepest woods until they are lost and then abandon them to twisting trails andwild beasts. Alternatively they could lead them to the lair of the Great Beast of Locrisia, though this is a bit too subtle for them.

Khinos: At the river they may be able to contact the river god Khinos, a rather bad tempered old fellow who knows better than to give up something for nothing. He has had his eye on a young girl from the nearby village of Velios, and if they can convince or bribe the girl (who turns out to be a mercenary little chit) to become his mate he will tell them whereto findthe nymph in question. He has knowledge and authorityover all the water spirits in the area, including her. The description they have from Zeus is enough for him to identify her, and he doesn't care wht they do with her.

The nymph's name is Laphaera and she keeps a spring which is in a shallow cave in a hill above a bend in the river. She is unusually beautifiil as was indicated by Zeus. Male characters will have to make a 3REA% roll to avoid falling under her charm and wantingto keep her out of Zeus' nasty mits and get her into their own. She is charming and innocent, but has no desire to be Zeus' paramour, as those who fill that post have a istory of coming to nastylitends at the hands of Hera. She will not want to have anything to do with Zeus willingly, and they will have to confine her there or take her somewhere else until they can arrange of Zeus to be free to come and do his business. Ifthey take her in hand there are two possible problems. The first is that she cannot travel far from her spnng for too long, and the second is that Hera will have more time to interfere. At the point when thev have found Laphera and are goingto grab her, they can contact Zeus sparingly and he may find a free moment to come down and make their mission a success.

The major problem which they face if they try to coerce her is that in an adjoining cavern dwells the Great Beast of Locrisia, a huge man-eating lion which is gentle only around her and which, like the Satyr's is very loyal to Laphaera and will seek to protect her.

If they succeed, Zeus will reward them with a gift of Bonus Points to buy more levels of their powers (probably 15-25 SP each) . If they fail he will send them on some arduous and odious penance mission.