Title: Cloudward, Ho!
GM: Brennan Lee Mulligan
Players: Emily Axford (she/her) as Marya Junková (she/her). Zac Oyama (he/him) as Daisuke Bucklesby (he/him). Siobhan Thompson (she/her) as Vanellope ‘Van’ Chapman (she/her). Lou Wilson (he/him) as Montgomery ‘Monty’ LaMontgommery (he/him). Ally Beardsley (they/them) as Olethra MacLeod (she/her). Brian Murphy (he/him) as Maxwell Gotch (he/him).
Streaming Service: Dropout

If you missed them, catch up on our review of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth episodes!

We return this week into the dawning horror as Comfrey MacLeod reveals that Marya’s protege Lumila is the Queen of Zern. At the sight of Lumila’s old picture, Torse has lost control, and Marya struggles to stop him as the rest of the crew rushes to her, unaware that the worst has already happened.

Startled at the voice of someone she thought was dead, Marya calls out in confusion. She follows Torse, chasing the controlled automaton. Lumila does not have Torse attack directly, but there is clear confusion between two sides. Even when Lumila confirms her identity as the Queen of Zern through Torse, Marya cannot grasp how or even simply why the one who controls the Straka would send the monster after her earlier self.

When Maxwell almost grabs Torse, Straka arrives, pushing through the boundaries between realms. Daisuke shoots. His bullet pierces between worlds, but Torse falls through into the sky of Zern, vanishing beyond. He shoots again at Straka as Van redirects the ship toward the portal.

Catching the golden heart, Maxwell tosses it back to Comfrey, who catches and returns it to the ship as they cross into Zern. With the heart taken and with Maxwell saving Torse, Lumila targets Marya, calling out to her and her alone as she commands the automaton of Zern to strike.

The crew crashes toward the surface. Automaton race up, hollowed out and entirely under Lumila’s command as Straka rushes them from above. Olethra and Monty draw Straka’s attention, giving the crew time to land safely.

Seeing her granddaughter in danger, Comfrey loses some of her sky-eyedness. After the lack of consideration for the safety and wellbeing of others, the realization that she’s directly placed someone she loves in the line of fire seems to finally be dawning on her. A crazy first-time, frankly, considering the tales we’ve heard from her previous crew.

Getting close, Olethra and Monty notice mechanical parasites burrowed in Straka. Olethra does a medicine check, but she manages to heal a small construct freed from Straka’s beak. The little bot helps Daisuke, and when given the opportunity, starts to repair Torse.

Sandy explains that Lumila originally wanted to contain the Biangle to prevent it from hurting anyone; however, after years of waiting for Marya, she grew harsher.

Marya finally confronts Comfrey, asking why she didn’t save Lumila; however, Comfrey states that she couldn’t let her die, seeing her in the wake of the Straka’s destruction. Leaping into action, Comfrey moved on instinct. She admits she had no chance to think. As Lumila is Marya’s protege, Marya was Comfrey’s. Though Marya longs to run back to speak with Lumila, she fears dragging more people she loves into danger, and at Comfrey’s encouragement, she runs away alongside the rest of her group.

Unfortunately, the entirety of Zern is Lumila’s war machine. Fiery crucibles and giant cranes move at the queen’s command. Next week, our Intrepid Heroes face the might of Zern.

Highlights

Emily Axford throws her entire heart into Marya. The crack in her voice and the tears in her eyes bring to life the guilt that Marya feels. She would have happily died to save Lumila, and being unable to do so, she laments her own helplessness. Her wrath toward Straka twists with the new realization of Lumila’s part in her own fate.

This is made all the more emotional as Lumila seems so uncertain with how to react to Marya’s presence, avoiding directly attacking her and seeming to realize that her teacher was destroyed by what happened and had no idea she survived. For someone who has become a nightmare for an entire world, and rightly so based on her orders to the automatons, she toes the line. If she didn’t have centuries on Zern, Lumila’s actions would feel very emotionally driven. With the time that has passed, her manipulative words feel far more calculated, yet the difference in time scale between the two takes a fresh wound and makes it necrotic.

Final Score (5 out of 5 Stars)

This episode moved incredibly quickly, surrounding basically a single confrontation. While that made it incredibly exciting, it does open some questions about pacing. With how long last week’s episode felt, it might’ve been better to split about twenty minutes before the end of last week’s episode; however, then we wouldn’t have the tense cliff-hanger, and social media exploded with questions and guesses about what would happen, driving interactions and probably improving watch numbers and interactions on Dimension 20‘s accounts. Frankly, Comfrey’s return brought intense anger, giving Lou a turn to shine when showing Monty’s rage, so having that shift to extreme grief would’ve been a bit of a whiplash, so it’s better they cut it where they did.

The split between the two episodes also gives the illusion of more time between the sky-eyed, unrepentant Comfrey facing her heart-broken, grief-stricken protege Marya and the wrecked, sobered Comfrey recognizing that she has to confront the dangers which she subjected her loved ones to. It also makes the parallel between Marya’s relationship with Comfrey and Lumila’s relationship with Marya. Each moved without thinking when they saw their protege in danger. Comfrey saved Marya. Marya tried to save Lumila and then went mad with grief in her pursuit of Straka when she failed.

We’re headed into the last quarter of the series, and our Intrepid Heroes are behind enemy lines. Marya’s forgiveness and Comfrey’s apology may just leave them too soft to truly face the Queen of Zern, but with Brennan at the helm, it’s hard to tell whether the villain will be redeemable or not as they’re guaranteed to be well-rounded. If Lumila holds her punches after Marya ran away with the crew, maybe we can hope for a redemption moment if not an arc, but we’ll have to wait until next episode to find out.

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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The Boss Rush Podcast: The Flagship Podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network

The Boss Rush Podcast – The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network. Each week, Corey, Stephanie, LeRon, and their friends from around the internet come together with other creators, developers, and industry veterans to talk about games they’ve been playing, discuss video game and entertainment based topics, and answer questions solicited on social media and the community Discord. 

New episodes of The Boss Rush Podcast release every Monday morning on YouTube and all major podcast applications like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Patreon supporters gain one week early access. 

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