A rumor heard from
Ramza brought us to a cave near Cerock castle to look for an owl. We stumbled
across some treasure, an old book in a hidden bedroom, and a third kraken,
named Yuporon. Deep inside the cave, we were surprised to find a lone zebra,
but even more surprised to find Octavia tending to it (it seems the heroes had
all forgotten that Octavia’s animal form was an owl). Octavia was furious with
us for invading her makeshift home and refused to listen when Royce tried to
patch things up (though Daisy wasn’t quite as magnanimous as he). Seeing no
other solution and unwilling to take action against her now, we left Octavia to
her hideout and continued our journey.
Our other animal
recruits were far quicker. An impossibly huge snake named Marco was brought
from the Aeltion castle sewers to patrol our castle grounds, and a fourth
kraken (Titanrina) was plucked from the depths of Red Lake to join her fellows.
We popped into Muse on a whim and obtained J. Collins’ autograph for his
trading book; he was gratified to find fans of his work. In Le Buque, Patricia
and Maximus had a touching reunion, which secured the loyalty of Maximus, his
partner Bertha, and the rest of the mantor riders to our cause. To finish, back
at Liberty Castle, we lured Lynn and Erica to the bar together and talked Lynn
into talking to Erica instead of just snooping on her. They soon realized that
they are in fact long-lost sisters, and we were all glad to finally be able to
bring a painful chapter of their young lives to a close.
Cooking game time! Hai
Yo was challenged by Masuno, the roaming chef of the island nations (like Mako Tsunami
but covered in fruit, with a thick Jamaican accent). The judges were as
follows:
The owner of the local
theater, Lydia here loves her food
with ‘chops.’ Get it? Get it?
It’s Blue Lightning Flik! He likes his meals traditional,
and by traditional, I mean traditional Chinese!
This elf loves his
veggies stir fried with olive oil. It’s Elmdor!
The best bud of Dr.
Kalas, it’s the founder of Cerock! Meet Roy!
Appetizer: Spicy Tofu
(tofu+hot sauce): Harold, Sciath: 8989
Main Course: Veggie
Stir Fry (veggie stir fry+no spice): Royce, Hai Yo: 10, 10, 10, 10
Dessert: Oreo
Cheesecake (cheesecake+chocolate sauce): Kuarjav, Daisy: 7777
Total: 102
Masuno: Chicken Soup
3333, Curry 6555, Hot Fudge Sundae 6666
Total: 57
Masuno gave us Recipe
#15 “Curry”, and took his leave.
In the war room, we got
a guest appearance from Hugo of the Grasslands and Hauser of Dunan, making their
alliances with the Union Army formal. Daisy declared that we should be able to
make our last push against Camaro’s holdings in Harmonian lands now, and Caesar
agreed, naming Coldwall as out next target. The plan for our second visit to
this Camaro holding (the first being the ill-fated raid that revealed Grant’s
treachery and prompted Pearl’s kidnapping) was simply to sneak in and blow the
place sky-high, using barrels of oil pulled from Gomez’s magic tesseract
storage system. Seeing the full range of destruction our plan would cause,
Daisy argued for delaying until we could find a way to turn back the hundreds,
if not thousands of Harmonian civilians transformed by Yuber back into human
beings. To her dismay, everyone seemed to disagree with her, Harold most vocally,
and once the legendary Shu showed up out of nowhere (sent from Dunan by Klaus) to
say we couldn’t hesitate to kill them, the plan was set in spite of her
objections.
We snuck in easily
enough, meeting minimal resistance from the guards due to our expertly planned
route, and laid down an obscene number of oil drums. A closed door in the inner
fortress yielded the voices of Rodin Relos, Grant, Felicia, and Henry deep in
scheming on the other side; seeing a golden opportunity, the team chose to
forgo a confrontation and instead set up so many barrels outside their door
that our foes would be in for a nasty surprise indeed. So we set our fires and
fled on dragonback, quietly bemoaning the loss of Camaro’s greatest
contribution to the continent: an ice cream parlor.
The war battle waiting
for us outside was inevitable, so we turned and fought against our hated rivals
once more. The four plotters emerged singed and angry but very much alive, so a
fight ensued in which Daisy finished off Grant, Viktor beat down Relos, Harold
thrashed Felicia, Geddoe drove off Henry, and Muku and Royce bashed dozens of
demons into the dirt. Caesar declared victory, and Coldwall and Fairfax were
won! The final remnants of Camaro’s invading force holed up in Ordin castle,
but no one waited to start the party. Alliances were set on paper, Hugo joined
the army, drinks were served… and Hikusaak and Bryce appeared, presenting
Kuarjav with official papers of surrender from Harmonia. The former emperor’s
only request was to be allowed to join Kuarjav’s army to fight for what’s left
of his people; he even kneeled before the old man to pledge to his blade to the
cause. Kuarjav accepted the offer, and now the ex-emperor and yet another
Priest General have been added to our ranks.
Recruited: Maximus,
Bertha, Hugo, Hikusaak, Bryce
(non-star recruits: Yuporon, Titanrina)
Investigations: Maximus,
Bertha, Hugo, Hikusaak, Bryce
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