In the original myth, the heroes of the Argo braved countless trials and finally reached the island of Colchis, where they sought the Golden Fleece from King Aeetes, Circe's brother.
Aeeteswas unwilling to give away such a treasure, yet he did not wish to offend the gods. So he used a common excuse, one that often appeared in Greek heroic tales: a trial.
Aeetes' trial was exceedingly difficult. The hero had to plow a field using fire-breathing oxen, sow dragon's teeth, defeat the warriors that sprouted from them, and finally take the Golden Fleece from the dragon that guarded it.
During this process, the heroes each displayed their strengths, leaving Aeetes with heavy losses, he even lost his own son and daughter.
Meanwhile, the heroes successfully obtained the Golden Fleece and fled without a trace.
If Alaric hadn't been aware of the gods' schemes, both Colchis and the Mystra Academy would have suffered great losses from this event.
Especially Aeetes' daughter, Medea, the princess of Colchis, who, under the power of the goddess of love, fell in love with Jason, betrayed her homeland, and fled with him.
It was precisely because of Medea's help that the heroes managed to seize the Golden Fleece.
Losing Medea alone was something Alaric could never accept.
After all, following Circe, Medea had become Hecate's second apprentice.
This innocent and gifted princess possessed even greater magical talent than Circe herself and was deeply favored by Hecate. Even Alaric adored the girl.
If he were to let that swine Jason steal her away, it would be an unforgivable disgrace to his identity as a world traveler.
Therefore, Alaric's plan was not to abandon the "trial" approach and confront the heroes directly, but rather to feign ignorance of the Olympian conspiracy.
He would quietly manipulate the trials so that the gods' pawns on earth would suffer defeat.
In short, the real plan would unfold on the island of Colchis.
However, that didn't mean Alaric wouldn't cause the heroes a bit of trouble on their way there.
Take, for example, the jagged, rocky island now before them, Lemnos.
In the distant past, every man on this island had been brutally slain by its women.
Because they had long neglected sacrifices to the gods, divine wrath befell them.
The gods cursed the men, causing them to despise their lawful wives and abandon them.
During their war against Thrace, they became consumed with lust for the captured Thracian women.
This betrayal enraged the Lemnian women. In a jealous frenzy, they slaughtered the men who had wronged them.
But after their rage subsided came regret, for though adultery was sinful, murder was an even greater crime.
Perhaps driven by the madness that had overtaken them, the women decided to eliminate all witnesses.
They killed every man on the island. Only Princess Hypsipyle secretly spared her father, King Thoas, and helped him escape.
From then on, the women of Lemnos had to live like men, herding cattle, farming the land, and wearing bronze armor for protection.
Yet they remained fearful: afraid that the Thracians or other enemies might invade, and terrified that their bloody secret would one day be exposed.
The Thracians never came, but the Argo did.
The women feared their secret being revealed, but they also yearned for the company of the ship's men.
At first, they planned to send the Argonauts away with fine food and wine, hoping to keep them from entering the city and discovering the truth.
But soon their leader, the former princess and now queen, Hypsipyle, conceived another plan.
She believed that without men, their nation had no future. If Thrace or another enemy attacked, who would protect them?
And even setting that aside, without men, there would be no new generation. Once the women aged, there would be no one left to care for them.
So Hypsipyle resolved to keep the men of the Argo.
She met with Jason, the leader of the crew, told him of Lemnos's plight, and lied that the men had been seduced by Thracian slave women and were now living with them in Thrace, leaving only the women behind.
Then she suggested that they "entertain" the Argonauts.
Jason, blinded by lust, saw no reason to question the obvious holes in her story.
Of course, he agreed.
And so the men of the Argo, captain included, each fell deeply into the soft, perfumed traps of the Lemnian women.
There were only fifty of them, after all, while the island was filled with women.
Only a few resisted the temptation.
One was Heracles, not out of prudish restraint (after all, though dependable, he was hardly a model of fidelity, and his lovers spanned all of Greece).
He abstained simply because he had brought his foster son, Hylas, and didn't want the boy to see that side of him.
The other man who stayed away was, of course, Alaric.
With the adorable Atalanta and Circe by his side every day, how could he possibly be interested in such mundane women?
As for Atalanta and Circe, needless to say, they were women themselves. It's not like they'd join in with the other women for… female companionship.
Incidentally, they both looked down on the so-called "great heroes" lost in the arms of Lemnian women.
Atalanta, in particular, seemed even more repulsed by men, except Alaric, of course, after witnessing this farce.
As for Alaric…
He was quite amused.
The gods' chosen pawns, the strongest mortals sent forth to fulfill a divine mission, had barely set out on their journey before getting ensnared in a nest of perfumed skirts.
If they lingered here and never resumed their voyage, the Olympians would become the laughingstock of the heavens.
Of course, Alaric didn't truly believe that would happen. Even if Jason entertained the thought, the gods would find some way to intervene.
But before that could happen, Alaric decided to add a little spice to the chaos.
One night, under the cover of darkness, he quietly cast a powerful legendary spell across the entire city.
It was a modified version of the legendary necromantic spell Rampant Plague, capable of unleashing a horrifying, highly contagious epidemic.
However, this version drew not upon the necromantic negative energies, but upon the divine power of Aphrodite herself. And the result… well, you can imagine.
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