We rejoin our heroes on the brink of the chasm which divides the broken lands. With all the broken machinery around, perhaps they can build something to cross the chasm? Luckily Dill has gotten his cell phone working and calls them: Desiree is able to gate him to where everyone is. Magda makes a halberd, Sidonie puts a doll back together, and Dill creates an automatic cable manufacturing machine. Then Desiree grows a large pair of wings (one raven-black, the other swan-white) and flies a strand across the chasm and back. Using Magda's mighty strength to haul the cable across, they are able to construct a bridge. Unfortunately the cable making machine attains sentience, but Victor is able to negotiate with it and they escape. Once out of the broken lands they notice that their feet are hurting the ground because of their innate earthliness.
They pass by the uncompleted and deserted Great Machine, which has been abandoned since a distant age. Dill decides it must be meant to collect dreams... from there they pass into a mountain and arrive at the sphinx gate. On the left, a female sphinx, on the right, a male. The sphinxes will not let them pass as long as they are contaminated with banality. After consulting with Victor, they get Sidonie to persuade the piece of the dreaming to coat their feet with dreaming-energy, and the sphinxes let them pass. They make camp in the field beyond.
This deep in the dreaming, everyone's natural tendencies are greatly enhanced. After dinner (roast of Winnebago) Miles and Desiree sneak off to finally go farther than flirting. Also during the night, Milton sneaks around and discovers that Victor got a puzzle ring from the snail graveyard (it's one that Desiree gave him). Victor throws it into the fire when everyone seems asleep, calling it "weakness", but Milton retrieves it and has Dill fix it up.
The next day they pass through marshes where realities mix, but manage to win through to what seems like a lesser gate of Arcadia. Nothing, however, is working to open the gate. Victor is about to give a speech when Desiree uses her magic to force him to sleep, perhaps fearing that he will persuade them to do something they don't want to do. Then Miles decides to invoke destiny magic, making sure that the Chosen One will take the piece of the dreaming and use it to open the gate. Unfortunately, he fails to specify which chosen one and why the gate is opened. Through a startling series of events Victor ends up with the piece of the dreaming (awake again, somehow) and uses it to open the gates.
Magda tries to kill Victor but Desiree gets in her way - at first seemingly unintentionally - and asks Victor why. Victor claims it is his destiny. From inside the gates an unseelie legion begins to ride out. Duke Ten tries to stand in their way but is trampled under their hooves. Milton, Sidonie, and Dill discover that they can use their banality to keep from being trampled (Milton takes off his dream-soled shoes) but not to turn back the tide.
Meanwhile Magda continues to try and kill Victor after throwing Desiree off, and pretty much does so before Desiree leaps on him again and uses her healing magic to prevent Magda from killing them both. Then while Magda is distracted for a moment Desiree gates herself and Victor away. Luckily Magda and Miles have pried the piece of the dreaming away by then.
Magda then calls on the Tenth Child, bringing it out of Hell to her hand once more, and calls up the army promised her by Arthur. The dead victims of the tenth child attack the unseelie sidhe horde. On one side, all of the elegant and terrible beauty of battle. On the other, the horror of war (and fighters who are already dead). Magda herself finishes the general of the host with her cursed blade.
Meanwhile, Miles takes the piece of the dreaming and uses it to power destiny magic and shape the future. The others will be safe, Magda will be kneeling over the broken Tenth Child, and the doors to Arcadia will be closing. He invokes powerful magic... The battle is over, with Magda's forces victorious. Milton and Dill have managed to get Duke Ten out of the fray and patch him up. Arthur comes to Magda, takes the Tenth Child, and breaks it over his knee. No one in history has carried the sword for so long only using it for the right reasons. With this final battle of all of its victims for a noble cause, its power is broken. Miles looks at the scene and realizes that someone will have to carry the piece of the dreaming into Arcadia. As the doors close, he pretends to throw the piece, but instead slips inside. The scene he fortold is complete - and just as he shaped it, he is nowhere in sight. The others try to get him out again, but to no avail - they must return home.
Meanwhile, Desiree and Victor have arrived in an old apartment they once shared. Desiree wants to know why he did what he did, and Victor talks of changing the real world in a way that mattered. Everyone else only wanted stability... at this point Desiree discovers the ring, which Milton slipped her during the fight. Victor looks at it and declares that he will no longer wear the face of weakness for his plans, since those plans are over and broken now. His gaze no longer holds any affection (was it real, or false?) for Desiree. He leaves to plot anew. "I'll stop you." vows Desiree. Then she too returns to Boston, to discover what has happened to her friends.
Player Notes:
And Madga got permission from Duke Ten to kill Victor on sight. Not for Desiree, the other traitor. Damn. -MIN
We also meet a pair of Raven pooka, apparantly friends of Victor. They harass Dill, who can speak their language. -ALH
Victor manages to not only wake up, but get free after Desiree had him bound and gagged...that wacky Destiny magic. -ALH
Dill's cell phone proves unable to connect to Arcadia--perhaps he
needs a better provider? :> -ALH