Though there was still much recruiting and exploring to do with our level three castle under our belts, everyone was feeling very tired and rather under the weather (or at least Daisy was), so we turned in for the night. The next morning, Daisy was alarmed to find herself no longer human. Her body was half-woman, half-bear, in seemingly random patches. (Jon immediately said “I guess you’re just gonna have to grin and bear it,” thus opening the floodgates of bad bear puns for the rest of the night.)
Daisy decided that she should probably alert the others, so she broke down Harold’s door and the two of them rounded up Kuarjav and Sciath (Harold said he’d sent Royce and Vasuki on a secret mission into some distant mountains to find a special feather for Harold’s hat). Kuarjav, in spite of his years of study in runes, had no explanation for Daisy’s plight, so the team relocated to the library. We ran into Viktor there, just awaking from a drunken haze and unaware of where he was, and very confused to see his daughter’s condition. Daisy sent him to go look for Jeane to get help, though he must have gotten lost or passed out somewhere along the way, because we didn’t see either one of them for the rest of the morning.
Kuarjav found a book in the library that referred briefly to people from the Beast Village losing control of their runes and experiencing semi-transformations such as Daisy’s, but there was no indication of how to regain control.
At that moment, a girl named Sophia stepped out from behind the stacks and admitted that she had been following Daisy since our first visit to the Beast Village, when we’d been unable to find anyone in human form. Sophia explained that there is a room under the Beast Village where people go to tame their runes, and that could be Daisy’s only way of learning to control her form. The trouble is, only Octavia has the key to the chamber, and everyone is afraid of Octavia, who usurped power in the village over twenty years ago. Octavia is the Beast Village shaman, whose role is supposed to be an advisory one; she refused to choose a new leader after the previous one died of old age, and has claimed control of the village as interim leader ever since. Though Sophia is Octavia’s daughter, there is no love lost between them – Sophia told us that her mother has tried to have her killed numerous times.
The team was unable to decide how best to approach Octavia, diplomatically or forcefully, so we opted to just go to the Beast Village with Sophia and play it by ear. Viki teleported us directly there, surprising the villagers in their human forms, who whispered and stared as we strolled in. Harold played herald as we marched into the center of town, where Octavia stood waiting for us with her guards. Daisy’s reasoning fell on deaf ears, as Octavia was nothing but hostile and turned downright violent when she spotted Sophia among Daisy’s companions. All three goons were harmlessly knocked out (two of them repenting their sins along the way), but Octavia still refused to cooperate.
Sophia stepped forward then and made an impassioned speech to rouse the villagers to action. They began to rally around us. Incensed, Octavia tried to blast Daisy with magic, leading Sophia to jump dramatically in slow motion and intercept the spell. The gloves came off, and Daisy charged Octavia with her sword, starting the real fight. Thanks to a nasty chain-spell from Sciath and some lucky rolls on all sides, Octavia recognized defeat at the tip of Daisy’s sword and took to the skies, leaving behind a key far too big for an owl to carry. (During this battle, Sciath was promoted to “Chief Wizard” by Kuarjav and The Twist was named our army’s official dance.)
Sophia was left in the care of the village doctor while the rest of us descended into the dungeon. Each room contained assorted treasures and cryptic tablets on the walls about meeting challenges. One chamber contained dozens of life-size animal statues, including a bear like Daisy’s, though the statue did not react to Daisy’s touch. We also blew through some bats. Our wanderings left us with time to chat about titles, earning Kuarjav the official title of “The Boss”; Daisy got “Beastmaster”; Harold is still “Fancypants”; Sciath is now the “Wiz Kid”; and Royce is“Psycho” (these may still be up for debate).
At last, we came upon a scary-looking magical pedestal with the body of a long-dead man in armor lying before it (we never figured out who he was, but we did take his helmet). Understanding what she must do, Daisy stepped onto the pedestal and immediately felt power emanating from her birth rune. When she closed her eyes, a voice sounded in her head, asking her what she wished for. Daisy said she wanted to be able to control her rune, at least as much as she had before, and was plunged into a one-on-one fight against a bear very much like her. Daisy won the fight in a few rounds and the voice told her that she could now control her rune transformation at will, which she gleefully demonstrated to her friends at once.
Our first move once we regained the surface was to have some of Steve’s delicious soup (we were all quite relieved to see that Octavia hadn’t killed him for talking to us last time). Daisy was cheered as the new leader of the village, but being less than enthusiastic about assuming that much responsibility, she appointed Sophia as the new village shaman and interim leader, promising to return when the time was right. In the words of our official army spokesman, “If forced to choose between the penitentiary and [politics], I would say the penitentiary, thank you.” So all in all, Daisy gained three things from her experience: the ability to change shape at will, the specter of future leadership and responsibility, and the right to truthfully tell a story that ends with “And then they made me their chief.” And possibly an unfortunate aversion to owls.
We returned to the castle in high spirits and filed into the kitchen for some tasty grub. To the surprise of no one who knows him, we found chef Hai Yo being confronted by Retso of the Black Dragon Group, who challenged him to a cooking battle. Daisy and the others encouraged Hai Yo to accept and promised to help out in the kitchen, so Retso called forth his wimpy apprentice Tenro to meet the challenge. Jeane was summoned as the first of our judges, but unfortunately, we were suddenly interrupted by both the GM’s computer overheating and Sarah’s health once more taking a turn for the worse. This means that next time, we will begin with the first cooking battle of the game: Hai Yo vs. Tenro! Someone call Fu Tan Chen!
Recruited: N/A
Investigations: Humphrey, Lorelai, Viki, Massa, Cyrus
Official Union Army Facts
Official Dance: The Twist
Official Titles: Kuarjav “The Boss”, Daisy “Beastmaster”, Harold “Fancypants”, Sciath “Wiz Kid”; Royce “Psycho”
Official Slogan: We Come, We See, We Bring Liberty
Official Motto: Liberty and Union
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