Eulogy: Relos

As always, these eulogies are told from the standpoint of the Ever Loving Harold

On Rodin Relos

Years from now
When we have turned to dust
When the histories record only the most basic of facts
When students consider our pains as wasteful
Relos will be among the few still remembered
His legacy being the reminder of how we all failed

All Seven Sins can be embodied by this devil
Gluttony? Shown by how he never aided any but himself
Sloth? He allowed his homeland to be annihilated
Envy? He always imprisoned those he felt greater than he
Lust? Make me not tell of his wicked heartless tales
Pride? Ask the thousands who lament the loss of their loved ones
Wrath? He was the living symbol of it
Greed? His relentless pursuit of power led to his downfall

Our generation then must not forget this demon
Our generation must not forget his sins
For if we do, we shall never succeed in overcoming all that he represents

We will persevere
We will fight
We will have liberty
And We will stay a Union
So say we all

Dedicated to the Leader Kuarjav

Brother

Bound by no limits
His sins outweigh his blessings
Hell waits no longer 

Dedicated to Anna Windamier, Countess of the Windamier Estate of the Lands Formerly Known as Harmonia and of the Dunan Republic

Session 28 Recap: Carousing in Camaro

Our intrepid adventurers began the day’s journey with one of our last cooking battles of the game, appropriately against Jinkai, the former head of the Black Dragon Group (an elite four-man group comprising the top chefs in the world, of which Hai Yo is a former member). The enormous Jinkai brought only his apprentice Anami to assist him, and the judges were called for this epic duel.

This aged General loves his food served with sake! It’s Reuben!

The crown princess of Tinto, its Lilly Pendragon! A proud patriot, she loves all her homemade Tinto food!

This wandering scroll maker couldn’t find his favorite foods if you drew him a map! It’s Percy!

Queen likes to act like royalty, eating only the finest French foods!

Appetizer: Steve’s Soup (Steve’s soup+no spice): Royce, Daisy: 10,10,10,10

Main Course: Tempura Don (Tempura+hot sauce): Harold, Hai Yo: 9999

Dessert: Red Velvet Cake (cake+salt): Sciath, Kuarjav: 7778

Total: 102

Anami’s Peking duck 6666; Jinkai’s Kaiseki Dinner 7777, Red Velvet Cake 8889

Total: 81

As you can see, Recipe #4 “Peking Duck” and Recipe #49 “Kaiseki Dinner” were our prizes, and the battle was won.

Back to business, Caesar outlined his plan of attack for our first offensive inside Camaro itself. He sent a decoy force against Fort Dorton in the north to distract Camaro while our real forces attacked Iron Beach in the South. First, some Duck Troops from the Grasslands created floods, and then we marched in against Hilda and Gears’ all-human forces and quickly wiped them out with the power of our True Runes. The slaughter may have seemed excessive, even cruel, but “war is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.” – William Tecumseh Sherman. Upon her surrender, Hilda explained that she’d had to fight for Camaro before because they had been occupying her hometown of Iron Beach, but now she would work for us as the new invaders. Not really the ideal reason for joining us, but hopefully she will come to see the benefit of allying with us. A quick exploration of Iron Beach after the battle netted us Hamasis, the final kraken sibling. We also found the play script “To Kill A Queen”.

We bowed to Lydia’s nagging in the comment box and decided to put on a play on her stage. Our first choice was Neclord’s End, the story of the Dunan heroes (including Daisy’s father Viktor!) finally beating the dreaded vampire Neclord once and for all. Daisy played her father of course; Kuarjav played Kahn the vampire hunter; Royce was Riou, the hero of Dunan; Sciath took on Sierra the coven mistress’ role; Sun Crystal and Vasuki shared the role of Lilly; and Harold donned the fancy cape of the evil vampire himself. The show was a great success (who knew that Kahn actually forced Neclord to Repent?), so as an encore we also put on the Battle of Chi Bi, with Kuarjav as Sun Quan, Harold as Zhou Yu, Royce as Huang Gai, Sciath as Cao Cao, Daisy as Zhuge Liang, and Sun Crystal playing the Narrator.

Daisy went to the infirmary to check up on Octavia, only to find that her condition was not improved. Roy said that she could slip away at any moment, so Daisy asked Royce and company to go fetch Octavia’s daughter Sophia while she spoke with her one last time. The two women talked a bit and were on fairly civil terms by the time Sophia arrived; mother and daughter were left alone together until the end, while Daisy stood guard outside. Sophia explained that they had come to some measure of peace, though they had spent many years hating each other. She took her mother’s body back to the Beast Village for burial, and that chapter of Daisy’s life came to a close.

The next morning, we awoke once again to the castle alarm and noticed at once that every dragon save Vasuki (who sleeps in Royce’s room) was missing. Milia and her frantic dragon riders couldn’t see any indication of how it had happened, or how all the guards had been knocked out during the night. However, Milia had the power to track down the dragons, and we followed them to the Deadlands in Camaro where we had to fight many vultures and other creatures. We also fought a lion, but Daisy took pity on it and healed it up after we fought, so it decided to join us. Inside one of the deepest caves, we found Felicia surrounded by the stolen dragons, who all looked very confused and befuddled. Felicia demanded that Milia hand over the True Dragon Rune, which wasn’t going to happen, so Royce instead challenged her to a duel one-on-one, rune for rune. Felicia lost badly, but when Royce asked Kuarjav to remove her Conqueror Rune, she tried to attack him and her dragon Felix stepped in to defend her. Milia then used her True Dragon Rune to release the captured dragons from Felicia’s spell and Felix stepped back, recognizing a hopeless situation. With the Conqueror Rune removed, Felicia was easily subdued and teleported back to the Dragon’s Den for her trial. As per Dragon Knight rules, Felicia was promptly executed for her crimes, and her dragon Felix was euthanized out of pity. Royce, meanwhile, was promoted from 4^th Knight to 3^rd Knight for bringing Felicia to justice and spent the duration of her public execution hitting on Milia’s daughter Sharon.

In Hai Yo’s famous kitchen, both Retso and Gyokuran of the Black Dragon group were ready to challenge Hai Yo in our penultimate cooking battle.

She’ll dance her way into your heart with her fair judging! It’s Amber!

Gabi and her pets come from Caleria, home of spices! Give her the hot stuff for a win!

This silent hero loves Gremio’s cooking best, but he’ll settle for something Italian! It’s McDohl!

This renowned cook only picks at food he hasn’t cooked himself, making him one of the hardest judges we have! It’s Gremio!

Appetizer: Garlic Bread (breadsticks+salt): Royce, Sciath: 10,10,10,9

Main Course: Tempura Don (Tempura+hot sauce): Harold, Hai Yo: 10,10,10,9

Dessert: Chocolate Chip Cookies (cookies+chocolate sauce): Daisy, Kuarjav: 7776

Total: 105

Squid 8887, Sashimi Combo 9998, Kid’s Bento Box 8887

Total: 101

The chefs bowed their heads in defeat and handed over their greatest recipes: Recipe #21 “Squid” and Recipe #48 “Sashimi Combo”.

We sped off on another tangent and tracked down a shop that had cheaper prices than May’s shop, a Medicine shop in Cerock castle. May rewarded us with any one item from her shop that we desire, which we have yet to choose. Our victory over Marcus in was of quite a different nature – we all teamed up against him in mock battle and just barely eked out a win – but the prize was the same. We still have two special items to choose for next time!

*****TWO free items to choose!

Recruited: Hilda, Gears

(non-star recruits): Hamasis

Investigations: Hilda, Gears, Fred, Rico, Zelda

Conversation 5: Daisy and her grandparents

Green: Daisy

GM: Black

Saint-Anicets

Daisy plodded down the steps and stopped when the Saint-Anicets' cell came into view. She leaned back against the wall for a moment and sighed. "What am I thinking?" she murmured. "Those people are monsters... Literally."

"We're monsters with really good hearing," the man (Trevor) says. "So if you have something to say, say it and be on your way. I have no desire to look at your face!" you hear him yell.

"That's too bad. I've always thought of myself as fairly pretty," Daisy said mildly, closing the rest of the distance between her and the cell. She faced them and folded her arms. "I talked to my daddy, Viktor. He says he thinks you're my grandparents. So should I put Grandpa Trevor on the prisoner manifest, or would just plain Gramps make you happier?"

"Say what you will, but I have no children, never mind grand children," the old woman says.

"Too true. Though the last one was quite delicious, wasn't he? Finally served a purpose, he did." The old man says, grinning wickedly.

"Yes, my love, he did." the woman replies. You hear her whisper, "Wonder what her flesh would taste like..."

Daisy was silent for a moment, trying to decide what to believe. "So... Did you really eat your son? My uncle, I guess? Or did he run off like my mom to get away from you, too?"

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH, FILTHY HUMAN!!!" The old man starts yelling. His voice is powered by something, magic or demonic power, you can't tell, but it makes your skin crawl.  "I NEVER HAD A DAUGHTER, AND I WILL NOT LISTEN TO YOUR LIES!!"

Daisy scratched her chin absently and tried not to show any discomfort. "I'd describe her to you if that would help us sort this all out, but I don't really know much about her. Name was Rose Saint-Anicet. Since it's all I had of hers, I took her last name to go with the first name my dad gave me. It'd be nice if you could tell me about her, since dad never wants to talk about it."

"I told you..." the man begins again.

"Enough," the woman says. "If I tell you what I know, will you release us from this prison? That is my price."

Daisy sighed. "If I let you out, what guarantee do I have that you're not gonna go kill a bunch of people? If you're working for Yuber, who's killed and twisted more people than I can count, then you're capable of anything. I want to know more about my mom, but not at that price. The most I can do is make you more comfortable here, bring you nicer bedding and stuff, good food."

The two look at each other, and the old man shrugs.

"Very well," the woman says. "Your mother, my would be daughter, was a disgrace from the moment she was born. She had the wrong color eyes, you see. Terrible it was, a shock to my poor heart. She continued to dissappoint, being rebellious, ignoring her studies, and always hanging out with the wrong crowd, like your filthy father. She got what she deserved, getting knocked up and abandoned by him. We cast her out, and washed our hands off her. What more is there to say? The less said of such a child, the better."

"Now, that's not exactly what I've heard," Daisy said calmly. "For one, I know my dad didn't abandon her. I heard they wanted to get married, but mom was scared of you, and they were gonna run away. But you kicked her out, huh? And she died out in the woods somewhere, alone, having a baby with those precious blue eyes you love so much?" The blue eyes in question gazed coolly at the elderly couple, and Daisy wondered once again what she'd hoped to accomplish down here in the monster pit.

"She got what she deserved," the woman replies again. "Marrying such an idiotic barbarian, with no money, no status? Death is preferable to such an existence."

"She dishonored, and she was banished. That is simple economics in Harmonia. You would know that if you were a true noble," Trevor says, practicing spitting the words. "But scum like you dishonor your noble name. You don't deserve it! You don't deserve it!" he yells, angrily.

"I'm no noble. I'm just a Saint-Anicet, like my mother," Daisy said icily. "I took the name for her, not for you. You let a good woman die for no reason and broke my daddy's heart. I went looking because I wanted to see what my mother's family is like, and what do I find? My grandparents are monsters, and part-demon now to boot. And here I thought old cousin Luca would always be the worst thing I was related to. I've got my answer."

Daisy took a step towards them, thick fur starting to ripple across her body, her nails elongating into wicked claws. "So I'll ask you one last time, just to be sure. Is your son dead? Are you the last of my so-called family? Give me the truth, and maybe, just MAYBE, I won't rip the flesh from your bones before you can scream."

The two back away from you, and transform into their demon form, hissing at you.

"Try it, you little bitch," the man says.

Daisy snarled and started towards them, intent on ripping the cell apart to reach the couple, but something stopped her short. She took several long, deep breaths, and slowly reverted forms. "Would you look at that," she panted, rubbing her knuckles. "Looks like I can stop it now. You two are lucky I've had so much personal growth lately."

She glanced back at her grandparents with disgust. "I'm not gonna murder two helpless prisoners under my care. You did cooperate a little, I guess, so I'll see if Wakai can send something down later. May you both rot here where you can't destroy any more lives," she said, and headed for the stairs.

You hear the man laugh as you start to leave. "Stupid little fool! We'll see who laughs last when Lord Yuber comes for us! This whole place will be reduced to nothing when..."

"Shut up!" the woman hits him.

Daisy looked back unconcernedly over her shoulder. "Is Yuber coming here? Let him. We've kicked his asses enough times for my taste, but I don't mind if he still wants more. If he is coming back to our castle, though, it won't be for the sake of scum like you. As if he even has the power to touch us now."

"We shall see, little one. We shall see," the woman laughs, as the old man just stares at you with hate in his eyes.

SECOND Bonus!

As promised via email, I have added five more investigations as a bonus! Enjoy!

First bonus!

As a bonus to you, I finished the comment box for this week by adding a comment for EVERYONE. Yes, everyone. Happy readings!

It's a Double Digit Eulogy!

As always, these eulogies are done from the perspective of Harold.

For Octavia
"Octavia, Octavia, ye of little and much faith
It was that Faith that sustained you, that faith that you your power, your wisdom, your might
It was that faith that led to your death
It was your faith that led to your Zebra crying out in the shadows alone
Its bellow echoing on the castle walls
Pounding the walls.  

There was always a way out for you
But you chose not that path.
There was always a way for peace
But you chose you not that path.
There was always a path to fire
And it was that path you took.

Let her death be a grave reminder once more
Of a lesson passed down from generation to generation
Never be too zealous for a cause
For it always leads to madness

But let our memories know this as well:
if you must go into the abyss of madness
Take friends with you.
For otherwise, ye shall be Octavia.
Ye of little and much faith"

Dedicated to Daisy.

For Felicia
"Felicia, oh Felicia, as Pearl's death was, you were such a tragic tale
Your silver eyes of rare beauty shall never again stare at your Royce
Your angelic wings shall never be seen by the lowly world again

Your spear, like that of the old dynasties, always seem so sure and pure
But its heart was as black as ash, its soul dirtied by the soil of the land

In a different time and place, your majestic grace, even if it was mad like a charging Holly Boy, would have been acknowledged, your followers bowing as if you were the last of the great Sindar gods
In a different world, you would be written of as though you had saved the world, as if you were the reincarnation of the greatest Wisemail of all

But you were bound by this one
You should have flown ever so high, so high that the angels themselves would be scared of you
But the pull of this world was too great

This violent world demanded the chaos embodied by Yuber
And your dragon simply was not powerful enough to soar above it all

In the end, you simply could not escape this world's gravity
And for that, dear Felicia, you became only the latest tale of woe"

Dedicated to Royce.

Most updates!

Hi all! I've posted most of the updates. Stars of destiny, detective investigation, war teams, NPC partners, Liberation ledger, Liberty Castle, Old books, mini games, bath scripts, ramza's rumors, the list of towns, and the Geography of Camaro have all been updated. I still need to do the comment box, and i will do that either tonight or tomorrow morning. Wait for it! ;)