 On the road, Hercules is startled by terrible lightning; an eerily laughing blind seer says it announces much suffering trough pure evil, the doom of Hera s rage and comes along. In the largely deserted nearest town they find the boy Ixion, hiding for the storm demons, and fellow outcast orphan Jana, unwilling to tell what s wrong, unlike Broteas, leader of the recently arrived group of refugees from the fighting at Telyte; water turning to blood proves the curse is still active. Hercules stops Broteas sacrificing bread the hungry people crave for. In Hera s temple the seer learns the goddess annihilated people in the village after a thief took a golden chalice Hera got from Zeus, who fell for a local girl Hera transformed into a wolf-dog while damning the whole town. Hercules offers to guide everyone trough the Stymfalian swamp to Calydon, a curse-free city under Apollo s divine protection, which means braving a murderous winged monster- the people choose to follow him. From Hera s temple arise skeleton warriors, who track the pilgrims underground; a rock rain drives everyone for shelter into the Minoan caves. The skeletons, emerging to attack the pilgrims back on the road, are no match for Hercules, who smashes them into pieces. Now the seer says Hera has send them after the chalice-thief among them. Broteas convinces others Hera is only after Hercules and catches Jana going trough his things, but proves it s not in his pack and promises to sacrifice Jana in the next Hera-temple, which Hercules forbids. In the swamp, the dog trips Broteas- the chalice falls out of his robes; Hercules simultaneously fights the dragon and saves Ixion and Jana from quicksand, into which he then trows the chalice. The seer follows Hercules, as the pilgrims, arriving in Calydon, face less evil and suffering, and adopts the dog.