Reunion

The gate is the tomb of a betrayed general, and the talisman has been screaming his name this whole time. Heart is his key. They set the stone in the door and something crawls out — an eye, a robe, a rhyming corpse called Der Tib who remembers being murdered and wants a crystal soul to reap. Beetle's mother is waiting on the other side with a knife at Heart's throat. The Rotgoons have one finale in them. Make it count.

Last chance to say goodbye. Gray hands Brog a rhythm bone to remember his daughter's laughter. Heart apologizes to Hollick with a sunflower seed. Talim plans a life after the gate in the land of Admari. Beetle gets a pocket elemental extracted from his skull. Then they walk toward the gate because the talisman is finally pointing somewhere.

Giant spiders chirping like birds. A nest that drops its catch and pulls them up half-alive to finish later. Heart gets cocooned. Beetle shoots him trying to save him. In the bones of a long-dead delver they find another dungeon-runner's pack — and a truth about Heart's father that the party has been skirting for months.

The caves on the far side of the ferry fold in on themselves. A kind old man at a cottage door turns out to be the tongue of a mimic. A room of disembodied hands demands their darkest secrets. Somewhere in the bends, the crew gets separated from the army marching behind them.

A ghost pipe almost brains Beetle. The river is a rollercoaster. On the far shore: Shum Town, a fey market run by the greatest NPC alive — Terry the fairy ferryman — who will take them across for a hundred gold a head. The goons kill rot-infested fairies in his streets and the price goes up anyway.