Quick facts
Type: Realm between life and death · Visited: C2 Sessions 30–32 · Guide: Sylas Riverstride
The in-between is a misty, water-logged realm where a soul pauses briefly after death before passing on. The FAM went there to bring Wilbur back after he was murdered.
Overview
According to Sylas Riverstride, the pause in the in-between is what makes resurrection possible. A soul can fail to come back for two reasons: something is blocking it, or it has chosen to pass on. A living person can enter the realm through a ritual, but it needs a very large diamond.
The realm is disorienting. Objects appear as misty silhouettes, and there is no sun and no stars.
History
Wilbur’s death (Session 30)
After Tobias Blackwood killed Wilbur, Kip used turnips in a ritual and learned that Wilbur was scared but willing to come back, so something was blocking him. Sylas said the party would have to go in. Catman got a diamond from a Velvet Truffle Company ship’s cargo, and Ellery, Escher, Nelda and Kip held hands in a circle while Sylas performed the ritual. Arghen went with them.
The tower (Session 31)
Wilbur arrived in the in-between with no peaceful afterlife, felt pulled toward a tower lit by green flames, and found Eldon Reed at the top. Reed had cursed his own killer to be brought here after death so he could take their “tether” back to the world of the living.
The party met strange things on the way: a singing woman who exploded into mist when startled, and three shadows attached to Kip that didn’t move in sync with him. At the tower they solved a puzzle of six magical orbs, one of which revealed glowing tethers leading upward. Then a skeletal gambler made them ante memories and skills to play cards for the right to pass:
- Escher lost memories of his home.
- Kip gave up his memories of his fiancée.
- Arghen lost his last memory of his mother.
- Ellery gave up her memories of, and the very idea of, Saiyan pride.
The Bloodhowler (Session 32)
At the top, Wilbur floated in a ring of fire. Ellery blasted a beam of purple lightning through Reed that destroyed the lightning rod powering the ritual, and Nelda cut off the Bloodhowler’s head with his own glaive. Everyone returned safely.
Sylas said it was his second trip into the in-between. The first, an attempt to save another adventuring group, had failed, and no one survived.
Lasting effects
The memories lost to the gambler mattered later. Alana was the fiancée Kip forgot, which is why he didn’t recognize her (Session 51). The goddess Cyrollellee returned those memories in Session 54, and Belle Pepper restored Escher’s in Session 67.