Season 11, Episode 6: "Guys, Gals, and Nonbinary Pals" Report
General Summary
Stomaching the vision that had entered their minds (see Blown-out Joy From Heaven's Mercied Hole), the Dream Team healed up as much as they could on the way to the next door of the Rambling Road, leaving the dormant Ark Prime behind. Through a rickety elevator they entered a timeless place, the scene of an old trial of the Road featuring the reassembled mannequin of Roger Glipglorp (see S9E7: "The Eighth Avenue").
After barely failing the mark in a game of wit and trivia, the maniacal puppet dropped the crew into a darker phase of the Road, as eldritch powers began to pulse around them like a gathering storm. They landed in a place between time and shadows with no time to rest, and were shocked at the next combatants along their path:
The Starwatch, fresh out of Golarion through a deal with the Devil, contracted to kill the first mortals they saw upon their escape.
But as the Road and the Devil laughed at the Dream Team, a great sentiment of refusal built within the party. In a split second decision, Mist ducked away from Esmerelda's sword, and then the party invoked three separate Blessings of the Faded. Hoping to break free of the Road's influence before it could go too far, they decided to leave the Ruby Keys behind in hope for a better advantage.
One by one the heroes crumbled into ash, leaving the Material Plane behind — their fate now completely unknown.
MaMa woke first, struck by a flurry of messages from the System about failed quests and invalid endings, and the death of their G.O.L.A.R.I.O.N. party. She found herself in the Rookery, but the school was not nestled in the glade of Night, but now floating aimlessly in the Drift. Aggy pulled herself from the crust along the walls, now undead and missing her brain, and explained that she had killed the Regulus units in the library after they'd gone rogue. She'd placed the main unit's clockwork heart into herself, becoming capable of controlling the library, but her memories were as fractured as her psyche. With a little coaxing, MaMa was able to use the Rookery's systems to instate herself as headmaster, and then began exploring the libraries until she discovered a bound and bloodied Mist, tucked away into the dungeons. Aggy claimed that the Ysoki had separated her from her brain — a story that seemed to be corroborated by a wooden arrow piercing the organ to a nearby wall, but once free Mist quickly uncovered that the arrow was not one of his own. Unsure what had happened, the trio started exploring the Rookery in earnest, collecting the severed heads of Lockette and Isra before finding their bodies, which were reattached after the crew pulled Abelina from a stasis vat. In the interim they recovered the sentient chrome skeleton of TRAVIS from the cistern, somewhat lost without his ship, and Isra was able to use her abilities as a Transform to pull Flay from the in between. At the last leg of their exploration, they found a comatose Wyatt in the headmaster's chamber, woken only by a maiden's kiss. Of Anastasia and Masamune, there was no sign. But now somewhat reunited, the crew found they all shared a common story. A vision they could not remember, and then those imbued with Divinity and Enlightenment were taken over by Crow, and started attacking the rest of the party. Despite the supposedly fatal wounds they had woken here in the Rookery, their bodies nullified to the flow of magic and their powers, but once more able to reason for themselves. After Lockette was able to stitch Aggy's brain back together and return it to its resting place, the librarian pointed to a broken Alluvion visible through the windows, and that she was unsure of how to leave the Drift with the planes as broken as they were. Hoping to rely on her faithful powers over spacetime, Isra scanned for and discovered a Window in the center of the school, which manifested as opaque and milky white when imbued with power. The group chose Lockette to brave the divide, entering a plane full of Dragonglass clearly harmed by the Soul Divided's book, and the Dreamer's efforts to bind the party's fate. In order to restore the potential promised by this place Lockette fed bits of Dragonglass into the realm, and in return was granted visions of the present. She saw Hush imprisoned on Aucturn, Caesura and Helen climbing the ruins of nearby Alluvion, and a cleansed version of the vision granted by the Faded. The Saint had tried to provide the crew an answer to the Centurion's Riddle, but the sending appeared to have been corrupted by the Owls before it could reach them. Uncertain of her next steps, Lockette asked the strangely sentient realm for aid, and it hungrily demanded the rest of her Dragonglass. She agreed, pouring battles worth of power into the crystals, which repaired themselves in rapid succession, and then shunted the Android back from which she came. But they did not leave her with nothing, as a woman with raven-black hair now stood next to Lockette, and a powerful vision crashed into the Dream Team's psyche (see You Will // Be Mine).
MaMa woke first, struck by a flurry of messages from the System about failed quests and invalid endings, and the death of their G.O.L.A.R.I.O.N. party. She found herself in the Rookery, but the school was not nestled in the glade of Night, but now floating aimlessly in the Drift. Aggy pulled herself from the crust along the walls, now undead and missing her brain, and explained that she had killed the Regulus units in the library after they'd gone rogue. She'd placed the main unit's clockwork heart into herself, becoming capable of controlling the library, but her memories were as fractured as her psyche. With a little coaxing, MaMa was able to use the Rookery's systems to instate herself as headmaster, and then began exploring the libraries until she discovered a bound and bloodied Mist, tucked away into the dungeons. Aggy claimed that the Ysoki had separated her from her brain — a story that seemed to be corroborated by a wooden arrow piercing the organ to a nearby wall, but once free Mist quickly uncovered that the arrow was not one of his own. Unsure what had happened, the trio started exploring the Rookery in earnest, collecting the severed heads of Lockette and Isra before finding their bodies, which were reattached after the crew pulled Abelina from a stasis vat. In the interim they recovered the sentient chrome skeleton of TRAVIS from the cistern, somewhat lost without his ship, and Isra was able to use her abilities as a Transform to pull Flay from the in between. At the last leg of their exploration, they found a comatose Wyatt in the headmaster's chamber, woken only by a maiden's kiss. Of Anastasia and Masamune, there was no sign. But now somewhat reunited, the crew found they all shared a common story. A vision they could not remember, and then those imbued with Divinity and Enlightenment were taken over by Crow, and started attacking the rest of the party. Despite the supposedly fatal wounds they had woken here in the Rookery, their bodies nullified to the flow of magic and their powers, but once more able to reason for themselves. After Lockette was able to stitch Aggy's brain back together and return it to its resting place, the librarian pointed to a broken Alluvion visible through the windows, and that she was unsure of how to leave the Drift with the planes as broken as they were. Hoping to rely on her faithful powers over spacetime, Isra scanned for and discovered a Window in the center of the school, which manifested as opaque and milky white when imbued with power. The group chose Lockette to brave the divide, entering a plane full of Dragonglass clearly harmed by the Soul Divided's book, and the Dreamer's efforts to bind the party's fate. In order to restore the potential promised by this place Lockette fed bits of Dragonglass into the realm, and in return was granted visions of the present. She saw Hush imprisoned on Aucturn, Caesura and Helen climbing the ruins of nearby Alluvion, and a cleansed version of the vision granted by the Faded. The Saint had tried to provide the crew an answer to the Centurion's Riddle, but the sending appeared to have been corrupted by the Owls before it could reach them. Uncertain of her next steps, Lockette asked the strangely sentient realm for aid, and it hungrily demanded the rest of her Dragonglass. She agreed, pouring battles worth of power into the crystals, which repaired themselves in rapid succession, and then shunted the Android back from which she came. But they did not leave her with nothing, as a woman with raven-black hair now stood next to Lockette, and a powerful vision crashed into the Dream Team's psyche (see You Will // Be Mine).
Rewards Granted
Tarot Deck
- The party combined three Blessings of the Faded to escape the Rambling Road.
- The party doesn't have access to a bulk of their gear — either because it is missing or dormant — but it is unknown if this is an effect of the current timeline, or if those items are truly lost to them.
Created Content
New and updated articles for:
Notes
The term "going off the rails" does not do this episode justice. Insert Matthew Mercer ripping his notes meme here. However, because I am a veritable psychopath, I dusted off a trio of episodes that I thought for sure we'd never have to use.
Welcome to the darkest timeline. The end of the road. The intake of breath before the screaming.
Flame in the Night
Tesin Movahesh
Thunder in the Mist
Lockette Endrinmaster 12 2.0
Isra
Report Date
30 Apr 2023
Primary Location
Secondary Location
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