Episode 22 - A Seat at the Table

## Episode Synopsis

### Recap

Norman and Zippy were in the throne room of Veroulias where the king mediated a conversation between Zippy and the black bunny. After some mysterious and cryptic messages he learns only a few things and is left with more questions than answers. While they were talking, Norman was starting to lose control to Royce who was fixated on the crystal that housed the souls of people who had died. Dariun helped the Basement Broohahas win the Pyre Pitch championships, allowing them an audience with the King the next day. However, Zippy radioed to him, asking Dariun to come and help. Norman fought for control when Zippy used his dream powers to shrink the crystal however, Norman was not able to hold Royce back. Royce pummeled Zippy in search for the crystal and Dariun was just too late to do anything. Dariun was kicked back as Robin came into the room and, with Norman's consent, severed the tether between him and Royce. Leaving him with only his hollow self.

### Episode Summary

Dariun clutches his chest in pain at the entrance next to Robin. Norman is cradling Zippy's body in his arm, blood seeping from his mouth. These moments stand still for Norman. Zippy's head is unexpectedly heavy in his arm and his tattoos begin to glow and music begins to play. Norman is coming out of this numbing shock. His eyes are closed, the image burned into his mind forever. Dreading the moment he will have to talk to Dariun. Dariun, clutching his ribs, walks over to Zippy. He kneels down beside him and stretches out his hand and caresses the side of his head.

Dariun looks at Zippy, apologising to him. He couldn't save him on the beach and he couldn't save him now. He asks for Zippy to come back, they need him now. His eyes are closed and tears are streaming down his face. A white, pale blue colour envelopes his skin and his hair goes white as he transitions into winter. He then looks up and to Norman with pale blue eyes and stares at him. His anger can't be contained as he speaks to Norman and asks what he has done. Tells him to bring Zippy back. Norman gets up and turns away. Dariun ask how he could be so callous in this moment. Norman snaps back, saying being callous is the only way he can keep it together. Dariun doesn't care for his reasoning, saying the only right he has is to weep for his friend.

Norman explains they don't know yet if Zippy is truly gone and he is trying to do what their friend would want. They are in a land full of magic, there could be a chance. Norman tells him they have to be that hope because if they don't, Lou wins which would be the last thing Zippy would want. He tells Dariun they need each other now, especially Norman who is without Royce. Dariun starts to say how Norman has been hiding things from the team but Norman stops him, telling him he has been truthful. He didn't know that Royce was even capable of this, he has been truthful about who he is and reminds Dariun that if it wasn't for him, he and Zippy may not have made it out alive from the beach. He will spend the rest of his days making amends. Dariun starts to yell, saying Norman now trying to blame his own and Zippy's death on him. Norman tries to reason but Dariun stops him, not willing to hear anything else he has to say.

Randy runs into the throne room checking on Veroulias then seeing Zippy. His eyes go wide and asks what happens. Norman starts to explain and his hard exterior cracks and he shakily admits to killing Zippy. Norman tells him it wasn't truly him, he lost control. Randy decides to give him the benefit of the doubt here, expressing how much he dislikes Greeders backstabbing their own. Dariun does stick up for Norman here before Randy frantically asks what happened to the crystal. Norman recalls what he saw but before he can say anything, a group of wizard guards fly into the room.

They yell at the team on the ground and Norman casts calm emotions, only affecting two of the twelve wizards who were there. Some of the guards bring out their wands and they cast telekinesis on Norman. He gets thrown against at the wall and is suspended there. That's when the guards realise the crystal is gone and they all of the freak out. They hear stomping from the entrance as a large woman cyclops with a white cloak comes into the room. The guards call out to Madam Letisha, a wizard council member. She scans the room and starts to panic. Randy immediately looks at Dariun and tells him to protect Zippy before he stands in front and tells her to calm down.

Norman calls out and tells her someone ran away with it, a demon with lava pouring out of their skin. Letisha has a fire ball brewing in her hands and Randy continue his lie, saying he came here to help Veroulias. Norman continues, telling her they were sent by Coco but were too late. Meanwhile, Dariun leans down and picks up Zippy. Norman sees out of the corner of his eye the crystal sitting on a pool of water behind the throne. He can't get to it but Dariun is close. Norman keeps talking, saying that they are dealing with a bottomless bucket of emotions and hoping things will be crystal clear. He lays it on thick enough for Dariun to catch on and he looks over to Zippy's bucket. He spots a tiny crystal in the puddle.

Dariun lays Zippy down for a moment and he gets the crystal and slides it into one his pouches. He picks Zippy back up and also his bucket. Randy tells Letisha that the demon went off into the painted world and even killed one of their own. Dariun comes around the corner and shows her Zippy's body. Norman tries to explain that he is not Coco but tried to communicate across the planes. Dariun shoots Norman a look to drop it. Letisha seems to be calming down but suggests she probes their minds to confirm the truth. Randy looks at Norman and Dariun, and tells her he will do it. Letisha puts her hand on his head.

They stand there for a moment and she opens her eye. She backs off and then begrudgingly thanks them for their help. She tell them they will be looking for the crystal and Randy promises her that they will not leave here until the crystal is found. She tells the guards they will be doing everything, every spell until they find the crystal. The telekinesis is dropped and Norman is released. Dariun looks to Randy and they head back to the ship.

As they dock, they nod at James to take them back to their original parking space. Dariun asks Randy to go below deck right away. They place Zippy on his bed below deck and they all look at him. Bradley cries and Apophis has his head stooped. Even James' bottom lip is quivering and he asks Dariun what happened. Dariun puts his hand on his shoulder, telling him there will be time for mourning. Dariun looks at Randy and pulls out the crystal and frantically asks if they can put it in the pocket dimension will it be okay. The wizards are about to use a whole lot of spell to find it but they won't be able to if it is in another plane. Randy is extremely confused, asking why it's so small and Norman explains as he was losing control, he believes that Zippy used some powerful magic on the crystal.

Randy gets out his backpack and pulls out bubble wrap and other things to keep it safe. Norman asks if maybe is he swallows it, the souls will be safe in his hollow body. Dariun is wrapping it up and tells Norman they can't do that right now with the danger they are in. He will give Norman a chance to discuss this and why they needed to take the crystal in a moment. Dariun places the crystal in the bag of holding very gently. Randy asks why they didn't just give it to Letisha and Dariun turns to Norman for the explanation. While still in Zippy's room, Dariun promises the rest of the team an explanation soon. Bradley and Apophis are distraught, asking how this could ever happen.

Norman asks everyone to go back to their posts except Robin. Norman kneels down to her and tells her that she has information that could get her into trouble and he asks if he can change her memory from the past few moments. Robin backs away, frightened of Norman as she begs not for her memories to go. Dariun very firmly tells Norman he will not do this. He refrained from telling the crew how Zippy died only for now but believes they deserve to know eventually. Norman forgives Dariun's hostilities for now based on his grief and tells him and Randy he has information that could change everything now.

Norman believes Zippy's soul is in the crystal right now. He saw it flash and when he tried to cast speak with dead, it didn't work. Dariun asks why he would be there and Norman explains what he has learnt, about the souls going into the crystal as per Veroulias' wishes to find a new place for the souls of the dead to go that is not the Deep. Dariun thinks then if they can fix his body and get his soul out of there, then they can return the crystal to Jadu. Randy believes they need a necromancer.

Zippy feels cold. His eyes are closed. He feels weightless and floating. Suddenly, he hears crumbling and he can move him arm. More crumbling, as if he is coming out of a stone statue. He breaks free and he sees that he is within a hole in a mountain. He looks out to the open area, seeing more mountains and light pink clouds below. Above, the sky is an even lighter pink. Zippy sees that there are thin bridges connecting the mountains together. More crumbling from besides him and two bullywogs come out from their own stone encasings. They look around asking who Zippy is and he asks them back. They introduce themselves as Greg and Dwight, guards that were outside Veroulias' throne room.

Zippy questions if this is a dream and the guards both determine they can't be asleep on the job. Greg decides to jump out of the hole in the mountain in the aim to wake themselves up. Dwight isn't sure if it works and decides to also give is a go and jumps. Zippy thinks it would be a good idea to test if it is a dream by using his dream powers but they don't work. He has a moment of dread and looks down at the clouds below where Greg and Dwight jumped. Zippy then hears glass grinding and the cloud parts as a giant crystalline worn bursts through. Greg and Dwight are being carried on it and as they soar through the sky, the worm drops them onto the bridge in the distance. The worm continues on and disappears in the clouds beyond another mountain in the distance.

Zippy looks around for more information and can see that the mountain across from him has a gazebo like building at the top. Zippy doesn't know what to do. He sits down, trying to remember how he got here but the memory is foggy. As he sits, he sees a crystal mountain goat climbing up the side. Zippy calls out and the goat responds in a very strange tongue, one that Zippy can't understand. Zippy asks for help to try to get out of here to find Norman and Dariun. The goat bends down, allowing Zippy to get on.

Zippy on the crystal goat are traversing the mountain, getting closer to the bridge but as he gets closer, he realises the bridge is actually a table. A long, winding table. He sees that sitting at these chairs are bullywogs, teifllings, gnomes, elves, Jadu residents. Zippy gets closer to the table and instructs Jeremy, the goat, to move on forwards as he tries to talk to the people sitting at the table. He comes to a part of the table which looks to be the end. The people on the table do not respond to Zippy. He picks up a rock and throws it at the table and the table cloth goes off-kilter. The people move their arms to fix it but do not respond.

Jeremy jumps and lands on the table cloth and Zippy gets a better look at the people. They look like statues and Zippy even feels the urge to sit, tired from the thin air. Zippy looks down the sheer length of this table, extending to the peak of the next mountain. He instructs Jeremy to continue down the length of the table, riding for a while before he spots Dwight who is sitting at the table. Zippy calls out to him, asking how did it happen. Dwight seems drowsy and Zippy can't get any information out of him. Suddenly, there is a flash from a faraway place on the table.

Something is moving down the table very quickly. A red bullywog flying down the table wearing illustrious gowns lands in front of Zippy. The bullywog tells him that he is dead and is currently in the beyond crystal. Zippy doesn’t believe it, there's no way he could be. There's so much left to do. The bullywog puts his hand on Zippy's shoulder saying there's still hope and he just needs to be patient. Zippy doesn't want to be patient he needs to go back. The red bullywog tells Zippy he needs to take a seat and asks what position he held in Jadu. Zippy tells him he is just a tourist. The bullywog tells him this may be a bit more difficult and asks what level of wizard he was. Zippy tells him he is a druid and the bullywog becomes quiet.

Suddenly, the bullywog grabs him and starts flying away. He tells Zippy he has a seat at the table for unwanted visitors and people of Jadu. They drop Zippy and he falls, down through the clouds as he tries to call for his magic carpet but it doesn't come. He comes into the base of the mountains and lands in snow. It's freezing cold below and he sees little bumps along a snow covered table and Zippy calls out, asking if anyone is there. He hears shaking and he sees a human with a curly mustache and a suit. He realises the bumps are people.

The person speaks, saying that this is where the unwanted are put. The person asks what Zippy's name is and he tells the person in the snow and begins to tell him all about the Bramble Patch and the carrots. The snow person chuckles and says that he used to be confident like Zippy. Zippy asks what happened and he, along with the others in the snow, are part of the Dibs family. The person explains that Jadu tries to forget but they were once wizard hunters. The person asks if the people of Jadu are still waving their magic power is the faces of everyone. Zippy tells him yes and how they look down on Druids.

Mr. Dibs asks if his family are still fighting and Zippy tells him that he's never heard of any Dibs. Mr. Dibs tells him they don't all go under the same name and asks about Grippers, Yearwoods, Blongers or Smiths. Zippy's eyes go wide and he asks him to repeat. Zippy asks if he is related to the Blongers and Mr. Dibs tell him that they dislike those who shun their name but understand it is due to their history. Zippy tells him that the whole issue and conspiracy in Ome is because of a descendant of his, Lou Blonger. He tells Mr. Dibs about Lou wanting to take down the gods and other magic people.

Mr. Dibs tells him that would be good and he must be seeing things through a different lens. Zippy tries to tell Mr. Dibs that he is wrong and Lou is going about this all the wrong way. Mr. Dibs chuckles and tells him that his descendant may be his ticket out of here. Zippy asks for him to clarify.

Randy thinks about where they could go to find a necromancer and guesses Whimsy World may be the best place for some black market necromancy. Randy instructs Norman and Dariun to go there while he goes to throw Letisha off their scent. Before they go, Norman goes over to Apophis and Bradley, saying he is glad they are okay. He pulls out Alphonsos mechanical arm that Dariun had given him and gives to Apophis, feeling unworthy of the gift he was given. Norman goes over to Bradley, checking in on him too. He gives them a rockie walkie to keep.

Meanwhile, Dariun goes up to find Robin in the hull with James. He asks to speak with Robin alone and they head outside. He kneels down to her and apologises what she had to see and be a part of. He asks that the information she knows about Norman is kept to herself for now. She agrees and Dariun pats her paper boy hat as she goes back to James. Dariun and Norman meet back up and go to save Zippy.

## Quotations

* Norman "*Zippy… I'm sorry..*"

* Dariun "*I still can't help anybody and worst of all, I couldn't help you.*"

* Norman "*You don't have to like me and rest assured I don't like myself right now.*"

* Norman "*We can't control the past, it hurts too much to look at it right now anyways.*"

* Zippy "*There's no way Dariun or Norman could do it without me!*"

* Zippy "*I never even got to be king of Black Bunny castle! My ultimate goal!*"

* Dariun "*Let's go save Zippy.*"

## Featured Characters

### Main Cast

* Norman D
* Dariun Branch
* Zippy Westborrough

### Returning Characters

* Randy
* Robin
* James
* Apophis
* Bradley
* Pepper

### New Characters

* Madam Letisha
* Greg
* Dwight
* Jeremy (crystal mountain goat)
* Red Bullywog (conjuration magic expert)
* Mr Dibs

## Locations

* Jadu
* Beyond Crystal

## Trivia

### Dice Rolls

Norman D

Dariun Branch