Episode 10: Plain of Desolation
Having patched over the worst of the conflicts in Dance Academy, our princesses brought Hussar, Princess of Sabres and Tutu, Princess of Ballet down into the dungeon's second floor. This turned out to be an outdoor area, a vast desolate plain where small herds of visent preyed upon by worgs. The entrance was from a hugely tall tower, the only visible building. Investigating a pool of stagnant water, our heroines were confronted by a group of worgs. Clover engaged them in conversation and learned that they were led by a giant wolf simply called Alpha, and a princess called Astarte, who has an enemy named Lyra. A fight then broke out, and the wolves were chased off, bragging that they had picked up the scent of the princesses.
Following the retreating wolves, after quite a walk the princesses came to another pool, this one with some Grecian ruins near by. Nagalia tracked the wolves to a pool inside the ruins and said they had entered the pool, and so did our princesses.
Coming out of a similar pool, gravity having reversed in the passage, they was a huge Grecian hall with many, many similar pools. Mist limited visibility, and Clover heard scary hooting from above. These other pools gave views of other places, Tutu identified a spot near Princess Academy and Nagalia a spot near Qtopia. At this point the hooting manifested as a huge spectral owl that attacked Claire. Cloved distracted the monster, giving the party time to dive into the Qtopia pool. This turned out to be a one-way passage, the pool was not there on the Qtopia side.
The adventure finished with everyone relaxing at the beach and drinking pineapple coolers made by Clover. Talk went to the great hall, which both resembles and is different from the Teleportation Administration's gates.
Episode 12: Golden Wolf Dance
A dungeon entrance that spewed forth worgs opened near Qtopia. A meeting was arranged with Dance Academy at the stairs down from level 2 to 3, of the dungeon the Qtopia princesses went to clear their dungeon door. It turned out there are now two first level dungeon complexes. At the Qtopia dungeon door waited a posse of worgs. Nagalia squeezed their leader to submissions, and inside the monster worg there turned out to be an 'ordinary' worg that Nagalia took as a mount. The rest of level 1 and 2 contained no significant challenges.
At the stairway to level 3 the two kingdoms’ princesses met, along a total of four groups of followers, many riding worgs, an impressive assemblage. It turns out Dance Academy has a new princess, Celestia, Princess of Stars. She is junior to the other Dance Academy princesses, but she is able to get them to cooperate, reminding them of their positive traits. In the stairway down to the third level, Clover the Bunny Princess and Tutu, Princess of Ballet are delayed and get left behind. This allows Claire, Princess of Chains to do some observations. It seems that the third and fourth level of the dungeon is is a spherical pocket dimension. The upper half is a desolate savannah, with a sky constantly covered in cloud. The lower part of the sphere has gravity in the other direction, making the land a disc with opposite down directions on each side. The underside, which can be reached by the cave tunnel opposite the one one leading to the portal room (see episode 11), is a gloomy dusk world with bare earth, shrubs, and wind-warped trees. Grim trophies with skulls on them mark this as an utter desolation.
In the center of this lower level is a hill surrounded by a ring of natural stone blocks. Just inside the perimeter runs a steady stream of worgs. In the center is a golden statue of an Anubis-like wolf that appears extremely valuable - to the tune of 100 treasure! It is worked with gems and lapis-lazuli and it is obvious it would lose a lot of its value if broken up - but who can lay claim to such an amazing wonder? Surrounding the statue is a pile of wood, and hanging between two stakes in a princess Claire, Princess of Chains recognizes from her research, this is Lyra, the Princess of Moonlight. Lyra and Astarte, Princess of Wolves started a kingdom together, but mutual distrust caused the kingdom to fail and the two to become dire enemies. And here Lyra is, apparently a sacrifice to the wolves.
Clover, the Princess of Bunnies, leaps over the wood and lands one the wolf, gnawing off Lyra's restraints. Looking into her eyes, Clover is almost overcome by the hypnotic power of her gaze, only narrowly avoiding falling into a dream of being hunted by wolves. Claire the Princess of Chains is lifted up above Lyre by chains reaching into the sky, and lifts both Lyre and Clover to the safety of one of the boulders.
Meanwhile, Nagalia and all the others chase away the worgs with little trouble and disassemble the pyre to reveal the full majesty of the golden wolf statue. With the aid of logs from the pyre, Celestia leads the others in making the statue portable. There is a mix of jubilation, anticipation, and rapacity in the crowd. Astarte is nowhere to be found, and Nagalia and the explorers set out to find her, but the search is fruitless. Meanwhile, Clover and her worg companion bond, and Clover notices that Lyra is strangely responsive to this. Claire and Lyra have to back down from following the explorers on their hunt as Lyra is semi-conscious and needs Claire to take care of her.
It is finally decided to leave the wolf statue in the Chamber of Pools, with each side pledging to constantly have guardians here to prevent theft. With this the princesses return home, with Lyra going to Qtopia with Claire.
Episode 13: All for One. Season Finale
The princesses return to Qtopia with the rescued Lyra, Princess of Moonlight. Lyra is shocked and spends her time recuperating, but Clover, Princess of Bunnies, was suspicious. Lyra did not behave like a princess of moonlight, rather as a princess of wolves. Claire, Princess of Chains, verified this with magical divination devices. Realizing that this was Astarte, Princess of Wolves, with an illusory disguise typical of Lyra, they deduced that Lyra must be in the vicinity for her powers to be used like this. The obvious suspect was that Lyra was inside the golden wolf statue!
Sneaking out of Qtopia, the princesses went down to the Chamber of Pools without Lyra/Astarte noticing. Some princesses were already down there, and over time more and more came, until the entirety of the Qtopia, Dance Academy, tinker Tavern, and Bonsai Garden kingdoms, as well as the faction representatives of the Sparkle Union, Scarred Hearts, Royal Architects, and Guidiance Collective, many of them with groups of followers.
While Clover entertained all these people and united them in purpose, Claire and Nagalia cooperated with Aurora, Princess of Clockwork and Luna, Princess of Alchemy, both from Tinker Tavern, to find and free Lyra, who they found was indeed imprisoned inside the statue. Well, someone was in there. Aurora had a drill drone that made a small tunnel into the ceramic underside of the statue and the princesses could now look inside with a device Aurora called a periscope. It looked like there was a wolf inside! But it turned out to not be moving and it looked like it might even be tied up.
Nagalia transformed into her serpent form and slithered inside. She found Lyra, sewn into a worg hide, in a deep trance. Nagalia swallowed Lyra and the wolfskin both, and then took a diminution potion made by Luna. In this way she could easily get out of the inside of the statue.
By this time, Clover had brought the assembled princesses up to speed and explained that Astarte, Princess of wolves were back in Qtopia with a potential army of worgs, they should not alert Astarte by breaking Lyra's trance. Clover said the Qtopia princesses must now return to Qtopia and face down Astarte. The others agreed, on two conditions, that Reunion Finch, faction representative for the Scarred Hearts take care of Lyra, and that most of the other princesses join in the rush back to Qtopia. Clover was glad to agree and the small army rushed back to Qtopia.
Arriving in the kingdom, Astarte had grown suspicious of the disappearance of all princesses and gathered her worgs, but even so she was no match for the assembled princesses. The problem of the golden wolf statue had to be resolved. Celeste, Princess of Starts suggested that the three border kingdoms in union should git the statue to the Bonsai Garden kingdom, which was approved by acclamation. This greatly increased the prestige of Bonsai garden and the entire region.
Clover and a small company rode off to Dance Academy to make sure the worgs there did not wreak havoc, but they need not have worried, the worgs there were happily loitering.