Ward orders dinner. There is no answer. He tries to order again. Still no answer. Frustrated, he heads down to the kitchen himself to find the castle chef loafing about. Ward steals the loaf and eats it.
Meanwhile... Pikachu pokes about the kitchen, looking for something good. Suddenly, one of the servants spots him and shouts, "A RAT!" Thinking quick, Pikachu hides under the hat of one of the French chefs and somehow controls the chef to make food by pulling on his hair. Pikachu starts working on creating a marvelous souffle, but just when he's almost finished, he sneezes and electrocutes the chef by accident. For whatever reason, a fried french chef means that Pikachu eats french fries. It sounded funny in my head.
Meanwhile... McGill finds his way to the stables and munches on hay until he's satisfied. A stableman spots him and shouts, "Hey!" McGill nods.
Meanwhile... Pete goes looking for Mrs. Muffet (she's been married since they last met), but stops outside the room of the royal librarian. He overhears her speaking with the royal janitor about how she'd like to run away with him, but must find a way to trick her husband, the royal picture-hanger. Across the hall, the royal bartender is scheming with the royal astrologist about a way to bilk the king out of all his money by blaming the royal plumber, who happens to be at home playing poker, even though he called in sick to work. Disgusted by all the lies, Pete slowly backs away, but the royal accountant sees him and decides to blame him for all the missing pencils he had been stealing. Oh no! Pete is caught in a web of deceit! Luckily, being a spider, he quickly escapes, and folds up the web in his pouch (spiders have pouches, right?) since it might come in handy later. (P.S. Everything else in this story is completely irrelevant and should be ignored. The king doesn't care and neither should you.)
Pete acquires a web of deceit.
That evening, everyone sleeps well. The next morning, they wake up feeling refreshed and slightly less achy (those who were injured). The king invites the party to a royal breakfast of sausage and egg Hot Pockets, which magically brings all the adventurers back to 75 fullness and 75 energy (McGill's udders still hurt a bit). He then takes you all to the zoo and advances the plot:
"Morning, travelers. I see there are five of you now. Super.
"Now that you've stayed at my place, you need to get this job done. All this land beyond the zoo is our game preserve. It stretches out almost 10 miles east and 20 miles north from our present location. I'm almost positive that our escaped animals are hiding in there. However, I let any of the animals get hurt, even those on the preserve, which is why I'll be lending you all with special equipment for this quest. You can't use weapons, only these felt nets that are made especially for animal capturing. You will find that everything on the preserve, no matter how aggressive at first, will become completely docile when captured. It will also be much easier to catch things with these nets than using your weapons. Just trust me on this one. Once captured, some creatures can be used for things. Hopefully, you'll figure it out. I also have some of my men to assist you in some regions. You'll meet them in the preserve.
"If you manage to return my escaped animals, I'll give you each 5 pounds (the official currency of Queens) per animal successfully captured. You can spend this money in the Queens mall or anywhere else that accepts them.
"Finally, I just want to let you know that this quest might take more than a few hours to complete. The game preserve is pretty big. I'm giving you each a bag lunch in case you get hungry. Now don't come back to my castle until you have my animals. I can't stand moochers. Good luck!"
The king's guards then open some huge gates and send you onto the preserve, closing the gates behind you. To the east lies a wooded region. To the north is a field. Farther north, you can see a flattened mountain rising in the distance.
Everyone gains a bag lunch and a felt net.
