Session 31 Recap: The AU Awakens

To keep the mood light before the final battle, our heroes decided to put on one final production. In our interpretation of King Lear, Kuarjav took the title role, the three daughters Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia were played by Royce, Sciath, and Daisy respectively, and the ever lovin’ Harold took on the role of the Narrator. The play was well-received, and we went to the war room in high spirits.

Caesar explained that only Windy and Yuber remained to stand against our army, and they still had control of Aldea, the capitol of Camaro. Our best option was to use our overwhelming force to march straight in, no need for funny stuff. In the army battle that ensued, Daisy got the finishing blow on Grant, Viktor drove Yuber back (he tried to teleport away, but was blocked by Leknaat), and Mukumuku and Daisy teamed up against Windy, with much support from our dozen True Runes and allies.

We drove all of them back into Aldea, but just when the battle seemed won, Windy used her second rune, the Rune of the End, to wipe out scores of our troops all at once, making it impossible to advance further. We regrouped at a safe distance and formed a plan to counter her devastating rune by sending in multiple small parties under Aldea’s defenses to destroy Windy face-to-face.

The Unity Rune heroes made up one team, along with their usual partners and Lydia, who knew Grant personally, and ran right in, dodging magic attacks and fighting past guards. Kuarjav actually succeeded in making one of the guards, Guard Gary, repent and join our forces. Inside the castle, we found lots of treasure and demons to fight for it, and, most importantly, the Golden Hammer inside a shining golden chest. (We gave the hammer to Massa later, of course – I hope he’ll finally get the confidence he needs!)

Near the top of the castle, we found Grant guarding a huge set of double doors. He wielded the King Dragon Sword once used by King Barbarossa of Toran, which is engraved with the Sovereign Rune, making him immune to the effects of all other runes. We tried to reason with him, but when that got us nowhere, Grant challenged Daisy to a duel instead. In her usual style, Daisy disarmed him and pinned him to the ground, sword at his throat. After much debate, we finally convinced him to join us again (and Daisy threatened to hit him until he did). Unfortunately, without the Sovereign Rune in his hand, his Unity Rune piece tried to kill him when he attempted to force it out of its Betrayal phase. Only the rest of us joining our Unity Rune pieces in Friendship saved his life and reconnected the spirits of our rune pieces, at which point group hugs ensued. As a sign of good faith (and to make sure his rune wouldn’t turn on him again), we let Grant keep the King Dragon Sword.

We passed through the now-unguarded doors and spotted Windy standing on a glass skylight on the roof above us, blasting magic in all directions. Yuber told her they had to run, but Windy’s eyes held only a crazed look, and she kept blasting without pause. She didn’t stop until we attacked; Harold’s fancy rose bit attack eventually finished off Yuber, and Daisy sent Windy sprawling back and crashing through the skylight. Yuber followed to try and use Windy’s teleporting, but Leknaat’s team arrived just in time to block her again.

Our allies came pouring in through every door. When Yuber and Windy tries to activate their runes again, all of the True Runes at our command joined forces to seal their magic away, rendering them utterly helpless. Kuarjav, as the leader of the army (and, in many eyes, the AU), officially sentenced the two lifelong criminals to death. We all agreed; without delay, Pesmerga beheaded Yuber, and Daisy plunged her sword into Windy’s heart.

We were left with three True Runes (not counting Windy’s half of the Gate Rune, which returned to Leknaat): the Eightfold Rune, Demon Rune, and Rune of the End. The Eightfold and Demon Runes were originally stolen by Yuber, so Pesmerga offered to return them to where they belonged. McDohl requested that Gremio be allowed to hold onto the King Dragon Sword because the Sovereign Rune it contained was the only thing that could contain McDohl’s cursed Soul Eater rune, allowing him to live near other people again for the first time in many years. We agreed to all of this and, seeing no use for it, we let the Rune of the End go dormant and fly off to find its own way in the world.

In the end, all that was left was to decide what would become of our new country, and what role each of us would have to play in it. Kuarjav offered to make Harold the official envoy to AU from Dunan, as Harold was never officially working with us (since he was employed by Dunan this whole time). Harold told Percy to figure out how much back pay Dunan owed him for fighting in this war. Daisy asked if she would be paid for the last few months, so Kuarjav gave her the Master at Arms position and asked her to travel the AU as a special government agent with a salary, helping people wherever she was needed. Royce was awarded the Defender of the Asgardian Union title, but he was always planning to return to the Dragon’s Den, where at least one big promotion was in his future. And Sciath, of course, with her devastating chain-spell powers, became the AU’s Head Magician.

For the complete account of what became of our heroes after the war, please refer to the Suikoden Endings page! 

http://suikodensix.blogspot.com/p/suikoden-endings.html

As for Grant, our unexpected ally in the end, our army spokesman had this to say: “Grant stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk, and now we stand by each other.” – William Tecumseh Sherman. Who knew?

Congratulations, heroes! See you next time!

(unofficial recruits: Guard Gary)

Session 15 Recap: Given Away by Grant

Obeying Caesar’s orders to infiltrate Falfax Fort dressed as Harmonian soldiers, much to Daisy’s obvious discomfort, our small group flew to Sanadia province and made our way through the sewers of the fort. There was treasure to claim and rats to fight (one big monster rat got away) in the very strangely designed sewers, until finally we spotted a ladder heading upwards and found ourselves up on the ramparts of the castle. Our intention was to sneak into the large central building and set fire to Camaro’s provisions before they could spot us. But to our surprise, there was a rather important meeting going on in the courtyard at that very moment.

General Gregory, Queen Diana, and a girl with a bow, a female dwarf, and a robot were assembled on one side, and on the other stood Rodin Relos himself, a priest general of Harmonia and Kuarjav’s personal enemy. We were unable to resist hiding in the shadow of the building and eavesdropping on their discussion, and we heard enough to learn that Relos was secretly plotting to aid Camaro’s attack against the Crystal Valley (whether he was really betraying Harmonia or just fooling Camaro for his own reasons is still unknown). It didn’t take long for one of the Camaro sentries to spot our little gang and sound the alarm, at which point most of the Camaro and Harmonian forces retreated in order to protect their respective leaders.

Our disguised party had a few frantic moments of debate as to whether we should still try to carry out our mission or just retreat, but in the end we decided to set everything on fire like we’d planned and then flee. Inside the main building, we found huge piles of supplies which Royce gleefully burned to a crisp while Daisy searched the side rooms to make sure no soldiers would die in the blaze. Harold ran into a man named Percy from Dunan, who was thoroughly lost and confused (he thought he was in Liberty Castle) but delighted to see his old friend Harold. While Daisy found treasures like Old Book Vol. 5, Harold quickly talked Percy into joining us and meeting up back at Liberty Castle.

To everyone’s surprise, the next person we stumbled across was Grant, the last member of our Unity Rune party. He explained that he (somehow) couldn’t find us after our first battle against Harmonia and thought we’d all been killed, so he had stayed with the Camaro Knights to help them conquer Harmonia completely. He refused to listen when we tried to explain what we were doing and even had a duel with Harold, who beat him soundly. Daisy argued with him and tried to convince him to come with us, fully intending to knock him out and carry him home if she had to, but he managed to run away. This was terrible news for us for more than one reason, and the repercussions of letting him get away would be felt far too soon. Grant had deserted the Union Army.

Our escape from the castle was hindered by only a few guards, as most of them had fled when the smoke began to billow, but the most dangerous were the Camaro soldiers Hilda the dwarf and her robot Gears. Harold loudly claimed to be his arrogant, racist brother Henry Windamier and we all joined in, still hoping to make them think that we were Harmonian soldiers, or even acting on Relos’ orders. Insults were exchanged and the Camaro pair mocked Sun Crystal’s construction, so it degenerated into a fight in which Daisy got inordinately pissed at Gears but Sciath and Sun Crystal ultimately got the finishing blows. The victory allowed us to escape while Hilda and Gears retreated, and once outside we teleported directly back to Liberty Castle.

There wasn’t much time to rest, so after a quick trip to the inn for some and the hot springs for others, we reported back to Caesar about the mission. While the supplies were destroyed as we’d planned, there was little chance that Grant wouldn’t reveal to everyone who we really were and blow away our plan to disguise it as a Harmonian attack. This could bring both Relos and the Camaro forces down onto the Union Army in a killing blow we could not yet withstand. Daisy resisted the urge to say “I told you so,” for it was obvious that hard times lay ahead for us now. The rest of that day was spent bolstering our castle’s defenses, with Daisy training recruits, Kuarjav directing the placement of medical supplies and Harold “supervising” from behind his rose teacup.

Unfortunately, our new defenses were put to the test all too soon. Alarms sounded in the middle of the night and we found ninjas attacking in every part of the castle. We saved Bernadette and Caesar and were about to split up to cover more ground when a scream shot out of the war room, where we found our leader Pearl being attacked by none other than Yuber himself, the legendary demon of war. Remembering that his services were currently in the employ of Camaro, our spirits sank even as we charged, for Camaro had made their statement plainly enough: they knew who and where we were, and our sabotage would not go unpunished. It was a very close fight, but thanks to everyone’s efforts and Kuarjav’s expert healing, we managed to best the monster. At which point he drove us all back with a mighty blast, knocked Pearl out with a punch to the gut, and disappeared with her.

Caesar was quick to discuss the consequences with us. Casualties from the midnight ninja raid were minimal; Yuber had made it plain that he only sought Pearl, our leader. Camaro and Harmonia would be forced to resume fighting each other thanks to Camaro’s weakened state, but losing our leader would deal an equally heavy blow to the Union Army. We would still operate democratically, of course, but there had to be someone at the top for the troops to look up to, someone to rally around. “An Army is a collection of armed men obliged to obey one man. Every change in the rules which impairs the principle weakens the army.” – William Tecumseh Sherman. It was unanimously decided to elect Kuarjav as the new temporary leader of the Union Army in Pearl’s absence, both because of his age and experience and because he is the only member of our inner circle who is actually a Harmonian citizen. (As for the rest of us, Harold turned down the job due to his status as a Dunan diplomat, Daisy would have gladly taken the role but felt Kuarjav might be a better fit, Sciath remained silent and we all agreed that Royce would probably get the castle burned down within the hour.)

With that matter settled, Caesar proposed a few different ways to proceed. Since we knew ninjas were now involved, he thought it wise to try and recruit some ninjas of our own from Rokkaku village in Toran (which will be a job for next time). Our mighty Silverberg also decided it was high time to approach the elves again and ask them to join us, so our little group teleported out to the elven village. This time, Harold introduced Kuarjav as the head of the Union Army and asked the elves to lend us their aid. Xavier said that Kuarjav had kind eyes that had seen much, and agreed to join us on one condition: we had to destroy a monster that had been terrorizing the elves for centuries. We agreed to his terms and an elf guided us to the Forest Temple but refused to go inside with us. Next time, we will be searching our first temple to hunt down the boss, and then perhaps it will be time for ninjas.

Recruited: Percy

Investigations: Bernadette, Serena, Dexter, Kuarjav