Session 7c: The Tournament Continues

(I admit that this is sort of a continuation of a slide-show of Grace Rainsmith's story, which was on Powerpoint before I replaced my computer. I am a big fan of Alexander McCall Smith's biggest selling novels, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. It is about an African woman called Precious Ramotswe starting up a business as a private detective. Grace Rainsmith emulates Ramotswe and Penny the Li'l Mermaid pet[which I chose because not only does it have a couple of powerful spells that Grace should not have until Level 68, but this pet is also Storm-elemental and is a female humanoid, which makes it perfect for a 'secretary'] emulates Grace Makutsi, Ramotswe's personal secretary, who ends up helping out with some of the cases. I recommend you read the books if you aren't scared off by the culture. This is why Zafaria ends up being one of my favorite worlds, because I could understand some of the phrases used there. It will be no surprise that Sierra gets entrapped in Grace's detective adventures as I intend to keep these two as close in level as possible, unlike Chris and Mindy - Chris ended up two levels ahead of Mindy thanks to a stupid Azteca dungeon I will not name.)

(Enough of that. I will get Sierra back to Krokotopia but I want to finish off this mini-series. Also, I am going to be doing interlude 'badge runs' where I summarize my getting some of the more boring badges, aka the mass slaughter of enemies badges like Gobbler Gobbler. It'll be brief because one of my goals for this character was to get all of the badges she can possible get - if I do decide to go for the PvP Warlord and Pet Warlord, it'll be near the end of her career as I want to go through the worlds first. Anyways, let's get back to our girls!)

I met Grace at the entrance to Pegasus Place. "How did it go?"

"Easy as red bush tea, Mma!" said Penny with a grin.

"Let me tell the story, Penny," said Grace.

"We spoke to the three merchants who were swindled and asked if they had any customers. From just the first two merchants, we knew that Danetta Sunscroll had visited all the swindled merchants..."

"And by default, she was the thief!" said Penny with pride. "We confronted her and..."

"We did not confront her rudely, my secretary," scolded Grace. "We approached her discreetly - and I had to make sure you didn't yell at her."

"But she seemed scared and miserable, I didn't need to intimidate her at all," said Penny. "She confessed to the crime!"

I recalled Danetta, she was the one Grace had to compete against in her preliminary duel. "Well, she did cheat in your duel, I wouldn't be surprised if she was a crook too."

"Actually, she had found some fool's gold from the Hobgoblins and it corrupted her into using it," said Grace. "We took her to the merchants and she apologized and reimbursed them the money for the items she had bought, and they forgave her."

"That was not very exciting," sighed Penny.

"Well, we have enough excitement fighting Kroks and goblins," I giggled. "So what then?"

"We told Mma Crisp everything and she asked us to punish the Hobgoblins, whacking three of them for the mischief." Grace nodded.

"Four," corrected Penny. "One more for turning that student into a crook."

I grinned wickedly. "Need some help punishing them? I need to go up there myself."

"Yes, how did YOU fare?" asked Grace.

"Well," I related. "First off, I got the incantation from Hugo Chatterly, the librarian, and took it to Beatrice but she told me that since we were the only ones who were allowed into Pegasus Place, I had to do the ritual. This is nerve-wracking."

"Maybe we should speak with Rra Verne," said Grace. "While I do not disbelieve Mma Wildwind's knowledge of her own world, Verne may have some advice for us."


I was glad I followed my friend's advice and went to talk to the groundskeeper because he pointed out that we needed one more ingredient and we could get it by defeating this 'Lord Graustak', who was supposed the leader of the goblin hordes here.

"He is holed up in the Crystal Tower, at the end of the street," said Verne. "Once you get the soul stone, take the objects to the portal and perform the ritual. Good luck."

"Thanks, I think I will need it," I murmured.

The hobgoblins were as annoying as ever but we killed the ones we needed, then we fought Lord Graustark. He was VERY dangerous but I owe Grace my life! (And also Natalie Sparkle and Destiny Frostflame too for that hobgoblin fight.)

(Grace bought a couple of Thunderbirds, which is just a re-schooled Phoenix spell. A Prismed Cyclops weakened Graustak enough for the TC Thunderbird to finish him off.)

I also found the second wallflower near the Crystal Tower.

After collecting the soul stone, I found a book which read thusly:

"After his unceremonious dismissal from the Ravenwood School of Magic, Sir Bainbridge Pigswick devised a plan. He would create a school of his own, where his unorthodox and less-common philosophy of magic would be taught. Pigswick squandered his inheritance and purchased a deserted vine-covered city on the world of Wysteria. Where others saw a series of wrecked, vine-choked buildings, Pigswick saw a magnificent school of magical arts."

"Bah!" said Penny, spitting on the floor. "More like a mistake! His school is a sham!"

"Well, it's true his school is unconventional to ours," said Grace. "But we shouldn't be racist. We need to keep an open mind. Let's take the items and shut down the portal for good."

The ritual was a bit difficult for me but Grace helped out and we slammed shut the portal. While there were still goblins about, there would be no more. Verne was glad that we did it and we reported to Belladonna our success.

However, she was not amused and told us that it was time for the tournament to begin. (bleep)

Still, Grace raised a point - we were here to compete in a tournament, and we couldn't hold it off. We distributed rules flyers to the other contestants. However, we got distracted by having to recover Beatrice's diary and round up some truants that when we discovered the Spiral Cup missing, it shocked us more than it did the others.

Book #2: "Pigswick staffed his academy with instructors drawn from across the Spiral, hired for their willingness to relocate. Rather than the dusty, tried-and-true methods of teaching magic, Pigswick sought new and less traditional approaches. Pigswick's students were among the finest of those willing and able to afford the academy's exceptionally high tuition. With lenient entry requirements, Pigswick is the primary school for students lacking obvious magic ability."

(In other words, a school for Squibs. Trust me, you'll hate how badly this place rips off of Hogwarts when you read the last two books. I promise this will be the only set of books that I read to you guys as it's hilarious. Play the game if you want to read the other books.)

"Another mystery, a theft!" shouted Penny.

"It must be someone who wanted to discredit Pigswick," said Grace.

And later, someone disgraced me, as Benedict had found my Ravenwood ring at the scene of the crime! Belladonna said that Ambrose was desperate to get the Cup and I wanted to punch her teeth out so badly! Someone must have lifted it from the dresser - I knew it had to be that pig in a poke, Randolf. I knew he was a tricky sort. I told my suspicions.

"I knew that hog was up to no good," said Penny. "Let's confront him and expose him for---"

"EVEN if he WERE," said Grace. "We cannot prove it. Instead, let's focus on the tournament."

"Yeah," I said, glad they didn't cancel the tournament because one of the contestants was framed for the theft of the prize.

Benedict ushered me into the Hall of the Hydra to battle in my preliminary duel against Kisai Shugenja, the representative of Mooshu. He was pretty tough but his tricks were old hat to me, having fought those annoying hobgoblins. I summoned a pig warrior which defeated the cow.

Grace explained that her fight with Beatrice Wildwind was tough as she was Storm, but a quick Storm Prism fixed that problem!

(The screenshots are mixed up - you get the framing event after fighting Kisai and before the duel with Beatrice. As I said, this is artistic license. Also, Vengenance fail as it didn't trigger when the Otomo Fury hit, but I did enough. I really wish I could have said that Grace struggled with Beatrice... but...)

(Grace was lucky with the power pips. :p Sierra had the harder time as Bea put up a Myth Shield and forced me to summon a minion to deal with it and she threw a Kraken in her face. OW!)

"Don't worry, Mma," said Penny. "We will find out who framed you and punish them good!"

"Yes," said Grace. "They must pay for this frame-up - I think someone wants to discredit both of our schools... and..."

"I have found a clue..."

[To be continued...]