Title: Misfits and Magic
GM: Aabria Iyengar
Players: Erika Ishii (she/they/any) as K (she/they/any). Lou Wilson (he/him) as Whitney Jammer (he/him). Danielle Radford (she/her) as Sam Black (she/her). Brennan Lee Mulligan (he/him) as Evan Kelmp (he/him).
Streaming Service: Dropout

If you missed them, check out our reviews for episodes one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine!

Landing on the island of the magic of Miskoro, our magical misfits discover a city built of earth, a hobbit-like hollowing of hills and loam. Everything is peaceful. All funnels lead to the Gowpenny, so they can find their way there from any of the islands, but for now, the group seeks to meet the beast Miskoro.

K scans the area, using her Weugan’s gifts to reach further through the village and the gentle hills. However, as they fly toward the funnel, people close their windows, sheltering as if nervous at the silhouette of Jammer’s winged form.

As they approach the funnel, they spy a monstrous form, but where the image of the bat Miskoro had a singular set of wings, the creature approaching them has six wings in total. As it injuries them in a sudden attack, the flying being that looks like a biblically accurate Criss Angel.

Jammer flies up, casting light behind Evan to project Evan’s shadow onto the multi-winged monstrosity. As Evan attacks, both he and the Mindfreak vanish. The two find themselves in a dark forest. Locked above the tree line of the Hell Evan once described, the pair continue to fight at each other. Evan goes full demon and greets his father. Opening his rib cage, Clint Kelmp appears, inviting Criss Angel to dance.

Evan tries to open himself to take in the piece of Miskoro in Criss Angel, but his father’s rib cage opens, it moves like a Venus Flytrap to digest Miskoro. With no other choice, Evan pushes forward and pulls his father into his chest. In doing so, he transports back to the island and his friends where he barfs up the bat-fish Miskoro

Jammer manages to catch the bat, comforting the horrified beast. Miskoro reveals Criss Angel ate him. As everyone makes their way to the ground, the fishbat fixes Jammer’s wings by transforming them to Peregrine falcon wings. Miskoro then aids Evan to digest his father and Criss Angel by transforming them into hamburgers inside Evan’s stomach.

The ground talk, and Evan asks Miskoro to alter the Orrery, so that there’s an off switch at the core of Gowpenny.

While the Qohlye was incredibly useful, Miskoro’s alteration was equally important. The Qohlye brought Evan back, and he ensured that they were on the right path, but without Miskoro, the misfits would have a much greater challenge to undo the damage of the Orrery which was placed by wizards likely far more knowledgeable than themselves who had purposefully trapped magic all those centuries ago.

Our magical misfits move through the funnel, guarded by their protective suits which K magically improved, making their way to the cistern. As big as a football field, the cistern is giant, but the bag containing Tabby almost gets pulled clear across the room. Jammer digs in his heels, holding his ground. Immediately, Sam jumps in to help him hold the bag back. K throws up a blockade between the wall and Tabby as Evan sends his shadow to find the secrets of the place.

Someone hides in shadow. A voice calls from within the bag, pleading for them to let Tabby go and rejoin the wall; however, rather than Tabby speaking for himself, Aabria speaks for him, which made me distrustful. Sam, K, and Jammer speak with Tabby, trying to figure out how to destroy the cistern without harming their friend who now pushes to be returned to the wall. Meanwhile, Evan focuses on the wizard who attacked them.

Evan tries to reason with Bombini, but the ancient wizard goes for the death blow, leading to Evan killing him. As the blood pools, K offers Tabby her magical shadow, asking if he can stay with them. At Tabby’s request, Jammer breaks Tabby, and that is where the episode ends.

Highlights

I love Aabria, but I don’t trust her as the voice of Tabby. There was a pretty dramatic scene involving Tabby pleading to not be returned to the wall, yet now, he wants to be put back, and the crash that feels like it should’ve been the prelude to the end of season epilogue has me all the more certain that these conversations are absolutely a trap. Would this be the first season where the little guy reveals himself to be a villain? Definitely not. We’ve had betrayals and two-faced allies turned enemies, so I won’t be Team Tabby until the story is over.

Final Score (4 out of 5 Stars)

The pacing felt a bit rushed this episode, and had it been the season finale, I would’ve almost understood it more as all the action crashed together to give us whatever answers remain unrevealed. Instead, we had too little time with Miskoro, who might just be my favorite representation of magic, and despite being an epic battle in Hell, I wanted more time with our fishbat friend.

Then the trip into the cistern revealed had the Tabby flip, which sent my distrust levels through the roof. All in all, it was a lot of drama and a lot of fast-paced back and forth that resolved almost too quickly.

With only one episode left in the season, there’s so much that remains unanswered. Let us know what you think in the comments below or go over to our Discord channel to join the conversation!

Featured Image: Dimension 20

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