A Few Exceptions

Last week I lamented the fact that there really didn't seem to be many longer, chaining missions to add depth to the massive world of ancient Greece in Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey.  As I've continued playing, I've stumbled across several that do add some interest to particular areas.  I somewhat bungled two of them and didn't get the exact outcome I was hoping for, but I was glad to finally have a break from my seemingly endless pursuit of discovering and conquering every place on the map.

For quite awhile I had a mission sitting in my log that required me to travel to the far flung corners of the ancient Greek world.  It was a request to travel to the island of Pephka to find an arena that sponsored fights between mercenaries.  I decided it was finally time to find this mysterious arena and see what it had to offer.  The arena is easy to find and offers up fights that include a few waves of mixed enemies (archers, brutes, spearmen, shield bearers, etc.) and then a final round against a "boss" type.  The "boss" can also fall within one of those enemy types and is essentially a bigger, badder version of fighting another mercenary.  I decided to complete two rounds of arena fighting--the initial fights were both well below my current level--and realized that one of the cultists fights in the arena.  So, the arena fighting scenario turned into a "two birds with one stone" kind of thing--I completed one of the five fights to establish myself as the "arena champion," and I killed off another cultist.  I desperately needed one more artifact fragment to level my spear up and unlock the third tier of talents, so it worked out perfectly.  I think there's one more fight within my current level range but that the final two fights will require some more levelling up.  (Spoilers for a set of side quests on Pephka ahead)

The lighting was nice in this location.  Of course I offered to help!

After I finished off my brief stint in the arena, I decided that it was time to explore the rest of the island and check off some location goals.  I made my way across the island and realized that I actually had another set of missions that started in the town of Lato.  These missions revolved around finding and fighting the Minotaur.  Upon arriving at the port in Lato, I was drawn to the enticing exclamation point of a new mission.  There was a kid who was offering tours related to the Minotaur--I decided to bite and take the tour.  Tour kid ran off and I followed--he proceeded to show me a large, half-completed statue of the Minotaur....but offered no real information about where to find the creature.  He then beckoned to follow him into the central market square of Lato and stopped next to a stall where he explained that true heroes might need some of his special "minotaur elixir" to give them some extra "oomph" to defeat it.  I was highly skeptical, but the kid was kind of cute and definitely had some entrepreneurial talents, so I paid 200 drachmae for a vial of the definitely fake elixir.

The tour proceeded and the kid ran off toward a cave near the market.  I followed him and discovered a cave with a large statue of a minotaur and some smaller paraphernalia.  The kid announced that this was the end of the tour and that the fee for his services needed to be paid--that's when two imposing looking brutes sidled in from out of the frame   The little turkey then announced that the price of his tour was 3000 drachmae and that I could either pay it or face his two hulking friends.  Fighting off his muscle wouldn't have been a problem, but I admired the racket that the kid had come up with, so I decided to pay him the money.  Sheesh, getting extorted in ancient Greece!

From here I headed out to the main square in Lato and found the mission target, a guy name Leiandros who was offering warriors a chance to find and fight the Minotaur.  But first....you had to complete a series of "pre-trials" to prove that you had the required skills.  Upon completing the trials, you would receive a token that you could give to Leiandros to prove that you succeeded.  I headed off toward the first task--a trial of strength--and found a burly man in a small fighting arena.  He offered to sell me his token rather than fight him, which seemed kind of odd.  I turned him down (partially because I had just been fleeced of 3000 drachmae by the kid) and faced the task of defeating him.  The fight was over in a matter of seconds and he handed over the token.

The next task, the trial of accuracy, looked like it was going to involve showing off my archery skills.  I mentally prepared myself for some fancy shooting and approached the mission target.  I was surprised when he started explaining the trial and then trailed off.  Instead of completing the trial he offered the chance to skip it if I would locate his three missing sons, who were "little shits" that refused to come home and were hiding on a neighboring farm.  I offered to wrangle the brats in exchange for the trial token and released Ikaros to get a fix on their exact location.  One son was crouched in the middle of a tall wheat field, another was atop a set of scaffolding that was currently surrounded by a group of wild boars, and the last was inside a structure on the farm.  Dispatching the boars was simple and breaking into the structure with the third son revealed a hidden snake that had him trapped inside.  I headed back to the frustrated father/really crappy trial giver and was showered with thanks for getting his kids to return.  He handed over the token and it was time to head to the last trial.

The last trial was to involve endurance and the instructions were to dive down into a large pool of water (that happened to be filled with sharks) and retrieve the token from a chest hidden in the bottom of the pool....or I could pay 1200 drachamae and skip it!  It didn't sound difficult, so I perched myself atop a conveniently protruding post and picked off the sharks using my archery abilities.  Then, I dove into the sinkhole and quickly found the chest with the token.  Possessing all three tokens meant that I could head back to Leiandros and finally receive instructions about where to locate the Minotaur.

I headed back to the main square and presented the tokens to Leiandros.  He promptly offered to sell them to me as souvenirs for 1200 drachmae!  What the hell?  I watched as Kassandra angrily told him to knock off the money grubbing nonsense and reveal the location of the Minotaur.  Leiandros shrunk back, but grudgingly revealed that the Minotaur could be found in a nearby cave known as the "cave of heroes."  Before I was to enter the cave, I was to meet two other warriors who were hoping to take on this legendary creature.  It looked like it was going to be a tough fight.

The fearsome "Minotaur."

I rode into Warrior's Rest and found the two warriors--they were squabbling over who would get to strike the killing blow on the beast and claim the glory.  I mostly ignored them as we mounted up and headed for the nearby cave.  Once inside the cave we started to see signs of what looked like many victims of the Minotaur's brutality--corpses and piles of skulls....but, we also started to hear some strange noises--someone who was yelling "growl!"  and "moo!"  The two warriors who were accompanying me were frightened and fled the cave.  As I proceeded further into the cave and began investigating the corpses, it was obvious that they hadn't been killed by a Minotaur (not that the human voice yelling "growl" and "moo" wasn't completely obvious).  In a large central chamber I finally got to confront the fearsome beast....which, turned out to be a guy in a bull-shaped headdress.   I prepared to attack the "beast" when three shadowy figures emerged from the corner of the cave to attack me.  The fight was quick and they were dead within less than a minute.  The "Minotaur" was cowering behind a fake throne, so I decided to confront him and find out the truth about what was going on.  As he removed his bull's head helmet, he revealed himself to be none other than Leiandros!  He apologized for his deceit and explained that a group of cultists had kidnapped his daughter and forced him to participate in their scheme to fleece and kill thousands of "warriors" who completed the trials.  He then asked if I would rescue his daughter from the cultists and offered up their location.  I convinced him that his daughter would appreciate her father more if he was the one to help rescue her and he agreed to continue his role as the Minotaur and participate in freeing her from the cultists.

From here, Leiandros urged me to follow him to some nearby ruins that were the base of operations for the cultists.  His daughter was being held in some caves below the base.  Leiandros offered to help, but didn't appear to have any actual combat abilities.  I convinced him to distract the guards by pretending to be the Minotaur while I sneaked through the camp and freed his daughter.  Of course there was lots of guard killing--the camp was crawling with guards!  I stealthily killed a few and then proceeded to be spotted by a pack of guards near the cave entrance.  Rather than run away and renew my stealthy approach, I decided to take them on directly and managed to kill almost all of them off.  The remaining few were far enough in the cave that they weren't alerted to my presence and could easily be assassinated.  I unlocked the cage and escorted Leiandroses daughter to a safe location on the outskirts of the camp.  Leiandros, in full Minotaur mode, approached and I forced him to reveal his role as the "Minotaur" to his daughter.  We returned to Lato where the entire family was happily reunited.

I appreciated this mission chain and found it to be funny and enjoyable.  It cracked me up that the entire island appeared to be a P.T. Barnum style humbug that was designed to fleece wannabe warriors from around ancient Greece.  It was nice to have a break from exploring and to have a fun story interjected.  I think a few more zones in Odyssey could benefit from chaining missions, especially the larger ones.  In a way, I have to eat my words from last week about there not really being any notable missions--there are some, and they definitely add something to the world.