Session 20 Recap: Befriending the Bear

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

Session 19 Recap: Tango with the Troops

Between this session and last, Harold and Xander followed Bryce and Hikusaak on an exhausting journey that ended up at Cerock castle, a haven for those who live outside of normal society. Albert Silverburg was spotted, and the pair learned that Hikusaak had been taken there in order to see one of the most well-respected doctors in Harmonia, a man named Roy (perhaps the same one whose father died in Sorrowyn to save our lives, and was formerly a student of Kuarjav’s?). Harold learned that Bryce is a well-known face at Cerock, though not necessarily as a priest general. Doctor Roy is admired and well-liked to the point of being considered by most to be the unofficial leader of the city, which he helped found way back when.

Back at Liberty Castle, we killed time until Harold reported back by checking up on a lot of random recruits, starting with Ramza. Daisy suggested that Ramza, who long ago became obscenely wealthy at the expense of others, use his money to help people like Dexter who are struggling to support their families while they fight for us. Ramza agreed, and decided to approach Caesar about setting up a war fund to help the families of soldiers.

Next we approached Nathan, who is obviously still troubled by Grant’s betrayal. He’s still angry that his former best friend could turn against him and can’t understand this betrayal of his trust, and none of us can think of any reason that could explain the behavior. Surprisingly, Wayne the kobold (played by Michael while Harold was away) theorized that Grant had turned against us precisely because of his separation from the rest of us; as the rune of friendship and betrayal, it’s possible that the rune felt “betrayed” by the distance between it and its fellows, and is somehow affecting his behavior now.

Wondering if removing Grant’s piece of the True Rune might make him go back to normal, we went to consult Leknaat on True Runes. She talked briefly about Luc’s fate in relation to True Runes (assisted by split-screen anime-style explanation by Harold), and eventually said it would be almost impossible to remove Grant’s True Rune piece against his will. Our next stop was asking Jeane the Runemaster (though we took note that Bryce’s True Domination Rune might ultimately be our best bet, if we can secure him as an ally). Jeane sold Royce a cool Dragon Fire Rune, but she wasn’t much help rune-wise, though she offered to see what she could do if we ever brought Grant to her. Daisy asked Jeane about herself (elf? True Rune? Relation to Faye?); Jeane said she was born in Harmonia in a little village that no longer exists, where her parents Jeane and Frank are now buried, and Faye was also from that village, but no specifics. Kuarjav asked what might happen to Grant’s piece if he died, and Jeane said it might go dormant or integrate its power into the rest of us… who knows?

We proceeded to the next item on our laundry list and checked out Monty’s shop to investigate the break-in he reported a little while back. Nothing was taken, but someone was obviously there during the night, and Monty recognized the fingerprints on the crystal balls that didn’t belong there (it was a very amateur job). Vasuki’s powerful nose followed a trail from the shop into a kobold part of town, straight into a female kobold’s house, whose reaction upon seeing us was, “Eep!” Royce told us why we’d come, and she soon broke down and confessed, explaining that she was too shy to tell Monty how much she admired him and just wanted to get to know him. Wayne ordered her to apologize, and Monty and his shy admirer ended up going on a date.

Down in the gambling hall, we talked June into coming with us (an awkward scene with Nathan preceded) and flew to Marid, where June’s family lived. June reluctantly agreed to enter the town as long as we promised let the issue drop from that day on. She had a reunion with her mom, who chided her for being gone so long. Before we left, June’s mom gave her a fancy, poofy dress (leaving the girl completely mortified). June gave us the ball gown after we left the town, and then June and Nathan went off on their own, the ice apparently cracked.

We took Marcus and Reuben with us to Lorin and paid Marcus’ family a visit. All ten of his kids came rushing out the moment we landed, equally fascinated by Wayne the “puppy” and Vasuki, who seems to love children. We all stayed for dinner, and Marcus’ wife gave us a Saint’s Cloak on our way out. Since we still had the two former priest generals with us, our next stop was the Hermitage, where Ramza had indicated we might find someone of interest this time. The eagle still sat outside the hug, but inside we now met a very old man drinking tea. Reuben recognized him at once as Lucius, greeting him warmly. Reuben says Lucius was a commanding officer of his when he was a young man (and Reuben is no spring chicken – Lucius is 94!). Lucius is long retired now and got away from it all because he couldn’t stop trying to help when people when he saw them in trouble, but when we told him Crystal Valley had fallen, he agreed to help us and come out of retirement, with some encouragement from Reuben.

On our next return to Liberty Castle, we decided to finally get down to details with the noblewoman and her friend who we’d saved from Yuber. We found them in Lorin. In response to Daisy’s nagging, Juliette finally admitted to being a former princess of a country that no longer exists, but would give no further details. She claimed that too many people had already died to keep her secrets. She would say no more about her daughter Patricia (a.k.a. Patty) either. Still, we offered to let them stay at our castle where it would be much safer than a refugee camp, and they readily agreed.

The next morning dawned over the diminished Camaro army at our gates; it was time to finish the battle at last. Caesar gave us an update on the Camaro progress, and Harold returned just in time to report his findings about Hikusaak and jump into the fray. To our intense relief, we found all of the enemy units working at less than full capacity (i.e. already one strike down) thanks to Leknaat’s banishing spell from the day before. The demons left a wide swath of the enchanted forest burned to a cinder in their wake and advanced right up to the castle. A slew of masterful magic and archery took Grant and Henry out of the fight first; Daisy and Viktor took down Yuber; Harold teleported behind Relos and forced him to flee; and the rest of the demons were dispatched without any casualties on our part. Seeing their forces broken and scattered, Windy and the Queen of Camaro retreated, presumably to regroup with their allies for another assault. For the moment, though, our castle is a safe haven again.

With our castle now at Level 3, it’s time to start our next recruitment drive. We quickly recruited Bethany the rancher and Lydia the stage manager from Belus, and our plan for next time is to start looking for the woman Ramza told us about who could speak with animals. Royce expressed his concern that he hasn’t seen Felicia in some time, and wondered what she’s been up to. The dragonrider still doesn’t know exactly how to deal with his dangerous nemesis, but he said in no uncertain terms that he hopes she’s still alive because he wants to be the one to kill her if it comes down to it. The rest of us were once again not convinced that Royce is not going to snap one day and kill us all in our sleep.

But most importantly, another trip to Lorin paid off handsomely when we came across Hai Yo, the famous chef! He was cooking for the refugees, as he was one himself. We convinced him that he could do wonderful and much-appreciated work for us back at Liberty Castle, and he accepted our invitation to become our head chef. Cooking battles are on the horizon!

Recruits : Lucius, Patricia, Juliette, Bethany, Lydia, Hai Yo

Investigations : Lucius, Patricia, Juliette, Caesar, Wayne

More updates!

Ok, most of the pages are updated! I still need to work out a few kinks here and there, but you have stars of destiny, your castle, investigations, war teams, NPC bonuss, newspaper, rumors, etc, are all updated. I am still working on the comment box, the old books at the library, and figuring out where to put stuff like the mini games like the cooking game, if anywhere. Ideas?

Session 18 Recap: End of an Era

With hastily-laid plans to distract the demon army and try to lure them into the elven forest with our main forces, the Unity Rune team teleported straight into the Crystal Valley to try and secure any True Runes we could find. We’d assigned other soldiers to evacuate as many people as we could, so we made a beeline for the One Temple library, where Harold had been before. Royce had intended to set fires to damage the demon army as we retreated afterwards, but the city was already engulfed in flames when we arrived. The Camaro demons had a head start on us; smoke and screams filled the air on all sides. The innumerable gargoyle-like monsters seemed to be out of control. Lucky for us, though, we found when we were forced to fight that Kuarjav’s Repent! spell did double damage to the unholy creatures.

Harold led us straight to the One Temple, the biggest center of learning in the Suikoden world, and claimed that he’d once been held and tortured there while searching for information on the True Runes some time ago. On the steps of the temple, we spotted Henry, Harold’s brother, somehow commanding a legion of the Camaro demons trying to break into the temple. Priest General Wanda, an elderly Harmonian witch, was holding them off as best she could, but her forces were being ripped apart. Harold and Daisy set about taunting Henry mercilessly while the others snuck around behind him, and a whirlwind battle ensued in which Sciath chain-spelled him into submission. Wanda informed us that the Order of God had gone inside to try and activate some sort of “secret weapon”, and it was her job to hold off the demons and keep up the barrier around the One Temple. Either convinced that we were Harmonian operatives or too desperate to care who we really were, she lowered the barrier just enough for us to run inside and find some way to help, or perhaps find an escape tunnel for everyone.

We found the One Temple still mercifully demon-free, but scores of civilians were huddled down every hallway and behind every stack, desperately hoping for rescue. They were so encouraged to see us that they gave us random supplies as we searched the place, like kraken plans #2, a Medicine Rune, a Noble hat, and a Strategist Diploma. Harold tried to direct us through the maze of rooms, but it seemed to have been a long time since his last visit. But finally, we found a secret passage guarded by a fellow without a head (seemingly beheaded by magic). He was stripped of a Goblin Tunic and we proceeded down the long, narrow passage, which went many floors down and was lined with far too many books for such a space. The rooms we passed along the way were packed tightly as well, full of books and notes about conspiracies, true histories, and the sort of Harmonian secrets that Lyn the Reporter would probably trade an arm for. In one of these rooms, we stumbled across a man named Brian who couldn’t decide which books to save. He stated in no uncertain terms that as the head librarian of the One Temple, he could not leave without his books. Daisy offered to help him carry as many of the most important books as we could, and that was enough to convince him to flee with us for his life. Luckily, Brian also had the keys to every room in the One Temple, which made our progress downwards much easier after that.

As we opened one door, who should come bursting out but Head Bishop Rodin Relos himself, trying to escape. When Daisy and the others grabbed him, he yelled something about the Order of God going crazy and trying to use the True Runes, and that he had to get out of there. We tried to question him further, but he wouldn’t even admit to having made the alliance with Camaro we’d seen on that fateful night, and seemed frantic to flee. He pulled out an escape talisman when we wouldn’t release him, and Daisy promptly broke his arm to make him drop it. He was still a powerful magic-user on his own, though, and used his fire magic to blast us away from him and escape, cursing us all the while.

There was no time to chase him, so we ran into the room he’d just vacated and found ourselves in the Rune Lab, which consisted of a long catwalk over 27 vats designed to hold each of the True Runes. Only one vat was occupied, that of the True Chronos Rune. Lying dead before it were the four charred bodies of the Order of God (Kuarjav recognized the robes). We wondered if Relos had murdered them, but since there seemed no way for us to remove the rune at present, we continued our search of the place. Daisy took note that the vat for the Night Rune was empty, and a note on the front said that their efforts to control the Star Dragon Sword thus far had failed, though there was no clue as to where the rune sword might be now. Harold, for his part, was overjoyed to find his old Rose Brooch at last, lying unnoticed in the very place where he had dropped it on his previous visit.

At the end of the long room, two men emerged from the door to the innermost chamber: Priest General Bryce, the possessor of the True Domination Rune, and a drowsy Hikusaak being carried in his arms. Bryce explained that Emperor Hikusaak had to be taken to safety, and Bryce’s rune could transfer the Chronos Rune to one of our weapons in order to provide enough distraction for the two of them to escape; he even said we could keep the True Chronos Rune as payment for saving the emperor’s life. We had a hurried discussion and agreed to affix the True Chronos Rune to Daisy’s sword, granting it powers as yet unknown. Bryce would not tell us where he and Hikusaak were going, so Harold and Xander snuck off to follow them while the rest of us went back out the front to cause a ruckus. (As a note, we also found Old Books Volume 10 and 2, a Wind God Robe, and an Earth God Robe, and got Volume 2 autographed by Hikuusak in his half-asleep state.)

As Bryce and Hikusaak escaped through a secret passage, followed by Harold and Xander in disguise and the civilians from the library, the rest of us marched upstairs to find the barrier dispelled and Wanda dead at Yuber’s sword. He spat insults at us like “True Rune bastards,” and Daisy said, “You don’t know how right you are!” as she lifted her powerful new weapon. He teleported away from her attack and claimed he didn’t have to fight us himself; his powers drew a terrified woman from the crowd onto his sword as a sacrifice and summoned a horrible Bone Dragon. Our attacks eventually bested it, ending with Daisy’s finishing cinematic blow, but Yuber only commented on Daisy’s interesting new weapon and selected a new sacrifice from the fleeing crowd. To the screaming of a young woman, he tried to pull her noble-looking companion onto his sword (“Her royal blood would make for a mighty sacrifice – a beast of such power even you can't defeat it!”), but before Daisy could save her a powerful lightning bolt struck Yuber’s back and sent him flying. The vampire Sierra showed up, telling Nash she’d arrived as soon as she could and rallied the townspeople against the demons. Daisy tried once again to strike Yuber, but he was gone in an instant again, apparently thinking better of taking on so many True Runes at once. With Sierra’s help, the team helped evacuate as many civilians as we could, including the “royal” woman and her companion, and fled on dragonback to Liberty Castle.

To our dismay, the demons followed and marched on Liberty Castle next, forcing us to begin evacuating our own civilians to the northern naval base. The forces that stayed behind prepared for an army battle where our chances of victory seemed dim. Our opponents were Yuber, Relos, Grant, Henry, Queen Diana, and Prime Minister Gail of Camaro, with Gregory and the other Camaro generals we’d seen before conspicuously absent. Gail declared that they fought for “the glory of Camaro;” oddly enough, the queen herself said nothing. As soon as the battle began, Gail used her Back Gate Rune to teleport Yuber right up to Kuarjav, but our noble leader and Flik’s forces managed to force Yuber into retreat. Our power seemed to surprise the Camaro forces, for we managed to win several notable encounters on the battlefield before we were forced to retreat back to the castle.

As we debated our next course of action and Ramza mentioned how Yuber’e demonic forces had been summoned and driven back in Toran once before, a blind seeress named Leknaat showed up and offered to help. According to her explanation, the Camaro Prime Minister, Gail, is actually her sister Windy, who has summoned Yuber before and holds the other half of Leknaat’s True Gate Rune (Leknaat has the Front, and Windy the Back). We all focused our minds and the power of the Unity Rune, and with the help of our power Leknaat was able to banish a large portion of the demon army, leaving us with an enemy that we might be able to challenge. Leknaat officially lent us her power and gave us the Tablet of Destiny, taking her place as a Star for the very first time.

To our surprise, when he learned what had happened to Hikusaak, Priest General Sasari said that “Harmonia is officially over” and “my duty is over”, then offered to join our forces. We agreed, of course, but there is still much to learn about many of our strange new allies and what it really means for Emperor Hikusaak to be awake for the first time in decades.

In the GM’s words:

Scene 1: Leknaat arrives

((The team had been talking of Windy/Gail, and how she had used her powers in the Toran war. Someone asked: how was she defeated?
Leknaat: "Perhaps that is my cue to speak."
Royce: Huh?
((Leknaat appears behind the team, teleporting in))
Leknaat: Forgive my intrusion, but I have come to help. I am Leknaant, a seer of Toran. Heroes of Destiny, children of the rune, you have been chosen to fight this fight, as have I. I should have warned your early of your destiny, done more to prepare you for the coming task.... but I was afraid. The enemy you face known as Gail is really my sister Windy. Her rune is responsible for much death, and the summoning of many demons here. I knew of her awakening, but I was too afraid to stop it. I hid. Even a seer who can foresee Destiny like I can be blind at times. I cannot run from my destiny anymore. It is my turn to fight.... and I will do so to stop my sister. If you will have me, I will join your army, and help you to defeat my sister and her summoned army."

(Leknaant joins!)

Leknaant: Let us dispel this army. Gather your power, your minds will, and your souls as once. Let us push back this evil with the purity of our hearts."

(Party agreed, and after the spell is cast, much of the demon army is sent back to the other world)

Scene 2: Sasari speaks

Sasari: How were things?
(Party explains all, including Hikusak being awake)
Sasari: So Hikusaak is awake... then Harmonia is truly finished.
Daisy: What do you mean?
Sasari: This land was made to bring order to the continent, using the power of Hikusaak's true rune, the Circle Rune. The plan worked well for years, and peace reigned on this continent for decades, maybe centuries. But the rune entered it's stagnation phase far too soon, and both the power of Hikusaak and the empire he created began to atrophy, to stagnate. Hikusaak lost strength, and rebellions and wars broke out across the empire. We have lost much of the last few years, but all the while we tried to save this empire by breaking the hold of the Circle Rune over Hikusaak. We hoped another true rune might have the power to break the Circle's rune's spells, so Harmonia tried everything to get true runes for that goal. But none ever worked. We could never free Hikusaak, and now it's too late. With the fall of the Crystal Valley, there is no Harmonia. There is nothing left to stagnate, and the spell on Hikusaak is broken. I don't know what will happen now, but one thing is clear to me. Harmonia is no more. Hikusaak is free from the spell of the Circle rune, as it's stagnation phase is now complete; it's taken all there is from this once mighty empire. A new order will need to be established here, and for better or for worse, it seems your Union Army must bear that burden. If you will have me, I will join your cause to build a better Harmonia. No, a better country. The empire may be gone, but the people are still here, and for them, I will fight."

(Sasari joins)

Hopefully that clears it up, but f not, i'll say it like this: The circle rune in it's 'order' phase made an empire of order, and in it's 'stagnation' phase, brought that empire to ruin. Harmonmia tried to stop this using true runes, but it's too late. Harmonia is no more, and so the circle rune's stagnation phase is now over. What hikusaak does now, is anyone's guess.

Sasari also explained the the order of god was using the Chronus Rune collectively to slow their aging, but none of them could master it to truly become ageless as true rune holders naturally are. This should explain why they were so old, and no one remembered when they took office.

Recruits: Leknaat, Sasari, Nash, Sierra, Brian

Investigations: Leknaat, Sasari, Nash, Sierra, Brian

The updates are coming!

Ok, so I am still working on updating things, but for now the Stars of destiny, Ramza's rumors, NPC stats, war battle stats, comment box, and the Investigations are all up. More to follow!

Session 17 Recap: Wrecking Witchport and Sasari's Story

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