After some debate, we finally agreed to follow Caesar’s plan to attack Witchport Castle. We snuck through some caves containing a multitude of pissed-off turtles and a random, placid hippopotamus, and ended up on a beach at the base of the castle walls. We began spreading the kraken aphrodisiac over the walls, and within half an hour the krakens were arriving in droves and laying siege to the castle. As they broke down the walls and made a path for us, we saw waves of soldiers fleeing and panicking before them, caught completely off guard.
The krakens wiped out the first wave, and then we took care of the second (generic soldiers), the third (soldiers and witches), and the fourth (soldiers, witches, and a commander named Douchebag Dave). With the peons out of the way, Priest General Faye appeared, cursing about our attacks coming from all sides, and already wounded herself. She was accompanied by Jeanne the famous Runemaster as well, and though we tried to talk them down, it seemed that combat was the inevitable outcome. However, we all managed to agree that whichever side lost the fight would have their forces stand down and surrender, thus minimizing the loss of life.
So Sciath chain-spelled the crap out of Faye, and Jeanne promptly surrendered when her friend went down. In exchange for sparing her people, Faye surrendered as the Priest Generals before her had, and her forces were added to ours. Caesar and the rest of our leadership met up with Faye, Jeanne, and Adaline, the leader of the Wingers, inside the captured city of Witchport.
Our victory opened up the city of Witchport for our exploration, and we picked up various items therein. As an epilogue to the battle, we stopped by the Rune shop and officially recruited Jeanne, who responded to Harold’s flirting with gentle mockery. And interestingly, we found a lone kraken hanging out around the hole in the wall where we broke through. Harold tried to talk to it and accidentally insulted it by calling it female when it was actually male. Daisy gave it a pat and got a hug, kraken plans #4, and the chance to recruit the kraken, whose name is Bazeroth. Turns out we stumbled across one of our monstrous stars of destiny!
Drawn by sounds of celebration, we flew to Wreckmar Village, the home of the wingers, to find everyone enjoying the party of a lifetime. They were thrilled with our victory in Witchport, which finally liberated them from Harmonia’s oppression in their region, and offered us all the free food and drinks we could want. On a random note, we found someone selling a piggy for 1000 potch; he offered it for free when he realized who we were, but we gave him 100 potch for it anyway. And we found the secret recipe for ice cream!
A winger named Natasha lived in a house on the edge of town. She asked if we’d come to be her dinner, and slightly alleviated our confusion when she explained that she’s a vampire. Daisy asked, “Oh, like Neclord? My daddy killed him.” Natasha said she’d heard of Neclord and the great Viktor, but claimed to be a good vampire who lived peacefully with the other wingers in the village. Mainly out of curiosity, Royce offered some of his blood but Natasha refused, saying she wasn’t hungry enough for that. Daisy offered next but Natasha said she doesn’t drink from women because their constitution is too weak, so Daisy got pissed at the insult. Natasha relented and said Daisy could come back after dark if she really wanted to try it.
Belus City was our next stop, a peaceful human town. After buying a green pepper seed, we met two people who were both too preoccupied to join us yet (Level 3 Castle required). One was a rancher named Bethany, and the other a girl named Lydia who runs a theatre. As a bonus, Lydia gave us a goblin cap from her collection of props and told us to come back later.
A stop at the lonely hermitage in the north produced no living things save for an eagle sitting outside the empty house. Daisy befriended the eagle, who seemed to be guarding two treasure chests, and we were allowed to open them (one contained a play script). The bear girl told the eagle it would have a perch at Liberty Castle if it ever wanted it, and with no indication that the eagle understood, the team departed. (Another Level 3 Castle recruit, perhaps.)
At Ramza’s suggestion, we took the kraken Bazeroth up to our secret naval base, which is looking much better than when we first found it and even has some ships now. When we approached the water, another kraken jumped out, greeted Bazeroth, and asked to join us, this one named Gigoro. This kraken is not a star of destiny, but rather one of several companions of Bazeroth’s, Muku-style.
Night had fallen by this time, so we returned to the winger village to fulfill our deal with Natasha. For some reason, we found her sleeping in the inn. She was promptly awoken by Daisy and explained that she likes being among the other wingers because it makes them so uncomfortable. Daisy offered her blood, not knowing what to expect, and Natasha drew some into herself using an unknown rune. When that was finished, Royce accidentally insulted Natasha and caused her to storm back to her house, but she came back out and apologized for her rudeness when Daisy calls her on her ingratitude. Natasha listened to our offer and said she’d consider joining us eventually; at that, she went back inside and shut the door in our faces, laughing.
With our explorations concluded, we returned to the castle to check in with Caesar and instead found two strangers seeking help, one badly wounded. They asked to see Lena Suphina, but as they were in such bad shape Daisy suggested that Kuarjav use his medical expertise. Upon hearing Kuarjav’s name, the men perked up and said that talking with the leader of the Union Army would be even better, as they had something urgent to discuss with him. Harold immediately recognized the more injured man as Priest General Sasari and drew Kuarjav aside before he could heal him to let him know. Kuarjav thanked Harold and took them inside to heal them anyway, more cautious now. They introduced themselves as Nash and Sasari after they’d healed, but made no move to attack us yet.
Sasari told of a huge battle between Camaro and Harmonia in Olmir (central Harmonia), where Harmonia was winning until suddenly a huge horde of demons appeared out of nowhere, outnumbering them at least 3-1. The carnage was great, leaving even the great Sasari with his magic exhausted and his body badly wounded; it became clear that nothing could stand against Camaro’s demons. Sasari would have died if Nash hadn’t come by and convinced him to flee with his life, so they came here where Nash had heard his aunt Lena was working. As far as the two survivors knew, the Camaro demonic forces had continued their march towards the Crystal Valley after the battle, intending to slaughter everything in their path, civilians included.
Much debate about our approach and responsibilities ensued. Sasari informed us that Harmonia would be very grateful if we could save the civilians, but we had to wonder how much the gratitude of a dying country is really worth to us. Harold pointed out that we need to take out as much of this demonic army as we can by burning down the Crystal Valley once the innocents are out, which we eventually agree with. We also decide that we can’t risk letting the collected True Runes of Harmonia fall into Camaro’s hands, not knowing what a queen who is willing to summon Yuber might do with such unfathomable power. And privately, Daisy was concerned that the family she’s been looking for might be living (and about to die) in the Crystal Valley without her ever getting a chance to meet them. Our forces will go down there next time to save as many people as they can and our “elite” team (i.e. us) will go in to secure the True Runes.
Recruited: Faye, Jeanne, Adaline, Bazeroth
Investigations: Faye, Vasuki, Sun Crystal, Adaline, Jeanne
Bonus Investigations from last week: Harold, Sciath, Royce, Flik, Viktor
