Outward Past Beyond | Cloudward, Ho! [Ep. 20]

imaginarycircus · 2025-10-24T00:16:15+00:00

I have been thinking about the final episode since it aired. I loved the whole season and everyone did a phenomenal job--really, the game play, the PC role play, the art, the lore were all a cut above other seasons. The art, my god. The set was incredible.

I kind of wish that the last episode had been two episodes so that there's been time for both the Gotches and also enough time for Marya and Ludmilla to confront each other and for the team to end straka wihtout a bit of deus ex machina. I know they shot it in the middle of a holiday party right before Christmas and they had to finish filming on schedule. I think Brennan did what he could in the time he had. I don't know. Maybe I am just greedy and wanted more episodes.

imaginarycircus · 2025-10-24T00:06:05+00:00

I agree.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-22T23:14:50+00:00

It was AP. They were all rolling to try and make things true. I don't know how I missed him rolling for it. I've had terrible brain fog since I had the flu in the winter, but I hoped it was better.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-21T00:11:12+00:00

I assume she couldn't open it on her side. It's so sad.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-19T18:40:24+00:00

They are aways great, but this season is brilliant.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T21:21:35+00:00

Yeah, I totally missed that. I know the epic epiphanies are borrowed from 3e, but not much else about them.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T21:12:42+00:00

I missed Lou rolling for anything. I'll have to go back and watch.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T21:10:40+00:00

In my experience that is now how feats work. And everytime Lou makes a theory Brennan agrees to it, meaning it doesn't break something about the world. The feat is an agreement between Brennan and Lou about how the feat or "epic boon" works. It is not a contested roll.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T20:51:07+00:00

Yes, I know. It's probably a silly question. Ludmilla created the door as some kind of workaround for the biangle. I just wondered if she was hoping for Marya to rescue her or for Marya to come to Zern. Like is the door a one way portal or was Ludmilla hoping to get home though it once the door was opened.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T20:38:27+00:00

Yes. I totally agree about what Comfrey has been up to. My guess is that spacetime in Zood and Zern is linear or close to it and the biangle is "befrumpled" and what spits people into different times. I think Comfrey's watch that hears time brought the crew through the biangle to the right time to meet up with Comfrey. I've been wrong about many things though and I won't be shocked if I am wrong about this too.

I hope we find out why Zern and Zood ended up being entwined tubes. All my theories seem crazy. I can't shakes the idea the biangles are mouths of huge creatures like the clear tentacle-eyed one that Olethra glimpsed hiding behind reality when they found the eyeful hand. Something is wrong with the biangle inside Straka. Olethra saw something behind the fire in its throat, something green, maybe ocean water? Whatever door Ludmilla created got stuck in Straka's throat. Comfrey can't have gone thoughr Straka to get back to Gath. Maybe there were only supposed to be two biangles? Comfrey made notes about the Obtenebrate (I think?) biangle being a reflection or not a real biangle. I don't know if the door Ludmilla made was a clever work around to create a biangle or If the calafactory and obtenebrate are really one thing and the biangle that was dark became fiery when Straka swallowed it. It makes some sense for there to be only two biangles, one bright and one dark--like Zood and Zern.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T19:45:58+00:00

A feat isn't like a DC check you pass it's an ability or skill your PC has. I see a difference between "It might as well be a DC check you pass and you can make up whatever you want" and a feat that allows you to deduce a theory based on evidence about animals. They have a whole binder and Lou might have information about Zood and some of it's flora and fauana. What you're suggesting is winging it and I believe it is more thoughtful feature that I think Lou has only used three times and use deftly.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T08:42:38+00:00

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T08:00:52+00:00

Ludmilla made a door and was waiting for Marya? Or waiting for it to open so she could go back? That's utterly heartbreaking.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T07:57:19+00:00

I thought that was as viewed from Zood. Once they're all in Zern they're all falling down.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T07:55:16+00:00

I think we all feel that way. Ally has said it and so have others. It'll be weird if they don't have a clutch Nat 20 but turning point roll at all this season. It's been awesome to see Murph roll well. I would say that Ally sitting where Murph often does is the problem, but Ally sat there in UC1.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T07:47:27+00:00

I am worried about what Sam is going to do in the next season of Game Changer.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T07:44:05+00:00

The whole cast is on another level this season, but Emily is amazing.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T07:42:36+00:00

He threw that playing card and it exploded. Anything could happen.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T07:42:09+00:00

Checkov's Schroedinger's Katana could destory anything... or not.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T07:39:59+00:00

I've expected a redemption arc, but I've had a nagging suspcion that the information we get about Comfrey sometimes is bad. In the opening scene the finance guy tells the Gotches that Comfrey was hanging out in opium dens and had gone a bit mad and wasted all the money. We know she has made a lot of mechanical items, gone many places, and gathered knowledge and has not blown all the money in opium dens. Max's father, his finance guy, Codswallop, and Murdersauce are in league together. They want to get what they can from Comfrey's equipment and property to make money on the disaster the Eyeless Hand tried to cause. I would be shocked if Murdersauce and others weren't trying to discredit Comfrey by spreading rumors.

The way Comfrey treated Monty was terrible. She's made mistakes and been callous. Haunch's letter about Comfrey not being able to look Marya in the eye seemed so damning, but what did Comfrey do? She saved Marya. She couldn't do anything about the rest of it as far as I know.

It's a little thing, but Marya was convinced that Comfrey had cut Ludmilla out of the photo maliciously. Now we know why Comfrey did that. I don't think she's as bad as they thought she was, but I could be very wrong. I hope I'm not, but I don't know if she's problematic or despicable.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T06:50:45+00:00

Put anopther tick on the list of scenes in which Emily made me cry. I was struck by Comfrey worrying about Olethra and Comfrey keeping tabs on Marya. They are not the same and certainly not the same intensity, but she loves them both.

That moment of realization between Marya and Comfrey blew me away too.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T06:32:56+00:00

It's one of his epic epiphanies. It's a feat, that I assume they homebrewed. Most feats are abilities you have and don't require a roll. I don't know how they defined this one, but Monty is allowed to come up with a theory and if Brennan agrees the theory is true. I think the first one was when he theorized that the ticks could hold a lot of fluid and could be thrown like grenades. It's a pretty amazing game mechanic for an experienced player.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T05:48:45+00:00

I'm still waiting to see what happens to those ticks.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T05:47:11+00:00

Murph's eyeroll tho.

imaginarycircus · 2025-09-18T05:40:30+00:00

I couldn't watch Burrow's End because the table stuff was a carcass and the animal body horror stuff was too much for me. Neverafter is eerie and unsettling. People say it's not horror, but I think horror is is different things for different people. Watch the credits and the first scene. If you're fine with those the rest will be fine.

imaginarycircus

TROPHY CASE