Pettonta Castle: The Pettonta Grail

[Year count: 138]  Up at Pettonta Castle the noble family is not as harmonic that one could wish, and you got it right - once again the problem to solve is named Maria. The ex-Countess lost status as her son, Count Junato, took over the countship, and now he reigns assisted by his lovely wife, Countess Constance. Maria broke traditions by refusing to pass on the Countess' white earrings to her daughter in law.

Baron Gustav and Lady Lincia are both kids, and Gustav is pushing teenhood already! They love playing with the chickens, and also they are as curious about their surroundings as kids should be. An old castle is such a fantastic playground. There is always some not yet discovered corner of the huge building where mysterious stuff might be going on...

Some time ago the castle cook was fired by Maria. Count Junato and Countess Constance decided to hire a butler instead. From the heap of applications, they picked Ms Rachelle Winter. She had good recommendations, and seemed like a skilled person with good manners. And those might be hard to find.

She will cook, clean and give a hand with the children, and of course also help organizing the household. Ms Rachelle Winter has already moved in, although Maria never approved.

You might recall that Maria was obsessed with having the Market of Old Town. She lost her case, the Market is now festival grounds, and Maria moved her focus to the City region instead. The Pettontas has of course ownership to some of the property in this region, and is very interested in a successful development. All lots along the Plaza are now completed. From the Pettonta Family Graves they can see most of the city builds.

Maria is already 96 years old, and she knows she would need help in order to stay around much longer. That's why she contacted her new pen pal Darth of Darthtopia, who might help Maria to regain youth (well, at least adulthood LOL).

Maria has heard about the old and mysterious Pettonta Gral, which is said to be hidden underneath the castle by the first Pettontas. A copy is exhibited at the Historical Museum, and a 2nd copy is used as a fountain in front of the Town Hall. There is a chance that ownership to the original Grail would reward her with eternal life, but she is too old and physically weak searching for it. So, her plan is to trick the kids into helping her.

Baron Gustav and Lady Lincia loves playing chess, and Gustav has already maxed the logic skill.

One day Constance discovered she could paint portraits, and she convinced Maria to pose. There was no painted portrait of Maria, solo, so how could she refuse. Constance did no attempt to get the painting good, in fact she made her mother in law look a little crazy...

But now, to politics...

The map above shows how Galucca is split into 5 regions. Old Town includes Ucca Island although at the moment nobody resides out there. The red buttons show where my 5 focus households are located (1=Pettonta, 2=Seylouse, 3=Moonster, 4=Malone, 5=Fogdale.

Each region elects 1 Council member and 1 back-up member, then the 5 Council members elects the Mayor from a list of candidates - first they choose 2 candidates for the final running, then vote for one of them. Anyone with a certain success factor can go for Mayor, and if a Council member is on that list, he will be replaced by the back-up member while the election is on.

The current Mayor is Mr. Erasmus Pearlton. The 5 Council members are Count Junato Pettonta (City region), Conrad Rivers (Old town region), Camille Kragger (Moon district), Davan Sculler (Gal district), and Jodriam von Salamand (Farmland district).

A new election is coming up soon!

The Pettontas were always strongly represented in politics as well as business. Count Junato isn't very interested, though. He has been a Council member for some time, but now that a new election period is up, Maria wants her son to go for Mayor!

Junato and Constance agree that the count should not also be the Mayor, but if Maria insists...?

The first TV-sets have reached Galucca! Naturally there is one at the castle in their daily section upstairs. Constance does not like to leave the children alone with the TV, so she watch while they do. Hm, 62ya there is probably not much kiddie stuff  broadcasted, anyway...

And there are certainly other "forces" that Constance should rather worry about...

Ex-countess Maria is getting impatient, and tonight she tricked the kids outside after dark, and forced them down to the underground tunnels, to search for the Pettonta Grail! Maria told the kids that if they returned without finding the grail, she would tell a certain pen pal to turn both Gustav and Lincia into toads!

Nice granny... not!

Baron Gustav and Lady Lincia got lost in the maze of stairs and tunnels. Will they dare to face grandmother without the grail?