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, and thirteenth episodes!
We return to the land of Zood. After the horrifying battle beneath the sea, the crew of the Zephyr makes their way back to their legendary ship. Van’s prothesis burst during the battle, leaving her with an arm of three tentacles. While it doesn’t appear to be spreading, the possibility hangs over their heads. When she compares her new arm to the cultists, her new appendages appear to match.
Unable to come to any conclusions, they turn their attention to the golden engine, hoping to remove Torse’s heart to return it to the Zernian’s chest and awaken him again. At the same time, Olethra turns her attention to her grandmother, searching for any sign left behind and studying the stone vision of Comfrey. Meanwhile, Maxwell argues their focus needs to be on the Queen of Zern. Considering the portal appears to be a fracture of the Obtenebrant Biangle, the evidence that this was an attempt to allow Zern to invade is mounting.
A giant whale swims close, studying the group. Monty manages to communicate with it. The whale proclaims the cultists calf-killers, and Monty promises that they won’t let the Eyeless Hand harm any more of them. Suggesting that the statues commanded some protection of the sunken temple, the whale states that it will intervene and guard the temple.
Calling out, Van begs for answers from her dead family. With Olethra’s help, she hears her father, promising she’ll know when the time is right. He reassures her. Unfortunately, he leaves without really giving any usable information.
Maxwell finds a doorway downward into the temple. Marya excitedly tries to get it up and running as Olethra searches an office for signs of her grandmother. Ancient pictures depict Comfrey and potentially the Chapmans who were already called into service long ago. She looks relatively unchanged.
They also discover a ledger from Mordecestershire, suggesting that the Gotch family came into debt with the first bit coming a week before his grandfather’s death. His father refused to explain the sickness, scolding Maxwell for asking. Maxwell fears his father killed his grandfather. This growing realization brings Wealwell’s loyalty into question.
Confronting Wealwell doesn’t go well. When Marya accuses him of being jealous of Maxwell’s good looks, Wealwell tries to throw himself from the ship. The crew does learn that Longspot plotted with to defund Comfrey and push her to work with the Ministry of Deranged Science.
A Gathi ship appears on the horizon. Both callsigns of the ship are the Zephyr, startling the two. Comfrey emerges, and immediately, her and Daisuke reunite, kissing. Olethra hides, but Daisuke exposes her, and Maxwell reveals that they killed Mordecestershire. The professor dances around the topic until Monty loses his temper. He rails, startling everyone. Comfrey meets his rage. Their anger clashes until he walks away with Maxwell. Keeping an even tone, Van smacks some sense into Comfrey, peeling back the ego. Chided, Comfrey offers that they follow to the observatory.
Throughout the series, we’ve seen NPCs thinking they were the main character, and meeting Comfrey after that running joke underlines that while some have their moment believing that, Comfrey spent most if not all her life believing she was the one paving the path. Daisuke says she seemed worrisomely sky-eyed.
Once they arrive at the observatory, Monty greets Onion and Sylvio, helping to ensure that Courtney realizes that the crew of the Zephyr II isn’t a threat.
Unlike Comfrey, Onion and Sylvio admit that they were in desperate straits. They reveal that they’ve spent about ten years in Zood, bouncing back and forth five times so far. Onion explains that time isn’t stable when moving between realms. All the biangles move in straight lines through the tangles of time. Whenever they return to Gath, they return after the time they left; however, it is nearly impossible to control the time when reentering Zood.
While the groups reunite at the observatory, Marya avoids meeting Comfrey; instead, she helps Torse to repair himself. However, when he finds a picture of Lumila, he suddenly loses control, breaking the engine. As Marya tries to deal with this, Comfrey reveals that Lumila survived when she arrived in ancient Zern. She confirms that Lumila is the Queen of Zern as many have suspected.
Highlights
The Bert and Van relationship once again stole my heart. Van is so excited to have the chance to introduce the man she loves to her father, and Bert immediately accepts her arm’s transformation after she assures him that she isn’t hurt.
Final Score (4 out of 5 Stars)
This episode we confirmed a number of suspicions that have been floating around. Lumila is the Queen of Zern. Her control of Straka is a time loop in which she makes herself Bad Wolf style, and her picture alone allows her to control her subjects, projecting between Zern and Zood. Comfrey was responsible for the situation with the Chapman family to some degree, though the Lumila situation cuts off a more detailed explanation.
Comfrey’s myth became brittle in her introduction, but that’s honestly more realistic than her living up to the legend. Maxwell describes her best as running from one fire to another. A lot of her solutions to problems ultimately cause larger ones down the road. Just looking at her balloons, they’re so much more complicated than they need to be, having additional problems in making the air surrounding the balloons colder rather than making the air inside hotter.
Mix all that together with the reveal that Maxwell’s father likely killed his grandfather, and it’s absolute insanity as the secrets spill out. The remainder of this season will be seeing whether the crew will deal with Lumila as someone capable of being redeemed or someone who needs to be put out of her misery.
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
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.
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