Tale of Brave Ulysses

Tales of Brave Ulysses

NOTE: These are adventure seeds and setting work for my own Hyperborea campaign inspired by the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerors of Hyperborea Gazetteer

The Hellenic people of Hyperborea have carved out small city-states amid this chaotic and eldritch land, but they have not forgotten their past and no legend has greater meaning to a people lost from old Earth than the tales of Ulysses. In the centuries since they crossed the seas and found themselves trapped in this cold hard country countless ships and sailors have been lost striving to find a way to return to their fair Mediterranean home.

Even today a great expedition is being prepared in the city of Ptolemides and adventurers and explorers from all over Hyperborea have come to join the legendary captain Eudoxus in this journey. Eudoxus has ventured further in his galleys than any other captain in Hyperborea, even the vaunted Norsemen of Vikland have not sailed as far... and returned.

Eudoxus is a popular man with the Hellenic people of Ptolemides as well as his crew, but he has never denied a place in his galley to any man who can prove his worth, Hellene or outsider. This expedition is no different and unlikely shipmates are to be found among his crew. Any man strong enough to pull an oar is welcome if the know the sea or the sword for Exodus brings with him a strong warband as well as his sailors. Woe betide the fate of any Viking raider, pirate or slaver who thinks to attack the Phlegethon, Eudoxus' two-decked galley, but the size of the vessel is unlikely to attract the wolves of the sea that so often prey upon the merchantmen of Hyperborea.

While the expedition is formidable and one which many think will finally overcome Eudoxus and his Phlegethon there is a steady stream of volunteers for his crew and many men of renown are said to have already signed aboard and sworn their oaths to Eudoxus. Though he still needs to fully crew his massive ship he has enough men to set out on a shorter journey, the location of which remains a secret known only to Eudoxus and the most loyal or experienced members of the expedition, he has never sailed out without returning with wealth and stories of heroic proportion as well tales of danger and sometimes the heads of his conquests to prove it. It will be only a handful of days before Eudoxus sets sail and those seeking gold and glory must make haste if they wish to sign aboard the Phlegethon and sail into legend.