Beyond Stars and Under Hills

## S.3.5 E.2 "Beyond Stars and Under Hills": Summary

#### Flagg's Cabin

* Jessie "JD" Davis]] looks around the cabin for something that he thinks might be important or personal to Randall Flagg. He spots a mason jar on the fireplace mantle with wax sealing the metal ring. Inside the mason jar is a single unspent bullet.

#### Pollution's Pain

* On the third day, Heather Jones ascends the cliff face of the waterfall, the full 50 feet to the top, and observes the area around the cabin.
	+ The water at the top of a cliff emerges from a fissure (which looks much like a broken mouth) in a tall stack of rocks and rushes to the cliff edge, where it falls 50 feet and then becomes a river below.
	+ There are mountains and hills in the distance.
	+ She can see that the weather changes in different areas, rain in one, snow in another, vibrant of spring in one place, falling leaves of autumn. All the seasons are represented.
	+ Her vision is pristine, she can see telescopically and is in focus.
	+ She sees the Eternity Road wind through it like a ribbon, the forest giving it a wide berth. It is black with a dashed yellow line down the middle.
	+ Beyond that she can see the shore and the ocean, but on the same side of eternity road. Following the beach, she sees a castle with the ocean crashing against the rocks beneath it. Pacing that beach is a flaming red bull.

* When Heather jumps into the water, this time the waterfall dances with her.

#### Sweat Lodge

* JD observes The Ferryman and The Bishop in the cauldron. The Bishop tends to her flock, the Ferryman takes people through the area. After observing for three days, he can feel what they feel.
	+ The Ferryman is exhausted, bone weary, tho he doesn't show it. He has shown a few groups around, but he has been with his current group for a little bit longer than the others. They seem to be traveling on a grand quest. On day 5 he realizes he is very ill. He always has a smile, his teeth as white as the turban he wears.
	+ The Bishop is lonely, even though she is surrounded by her flock. But everyone is transitory. They are there with a world that is in phase with the Age of Always, and when that goes away, the flock departs, only to be replaced with a new one.
	+ The One Ring says to JD "Something's not right." and points him away from The Bishop, to two people in the back of the cathedral. JD uses the ring to stealth closer to the two hooded monks.
		- *M1: I believe her power can be pruned. Not here. Her will is too strong in the Cathedral. We must draw her out.*
		- *M2: We are running out of time. Our phase will end soon and with it any chance at her.*
		- *M1: We need a distraction. Something juicy to draw her from this place.*
		- *M2: Are there any travelers along Eternity Road?*
		- *M1: The Ferryman is taking three toward the castle by the sea, but there's no way the Bishop will move against them.*
		- *M2: Perhaps aggression is not the way to approach this dilemma. Let's tell her that they require aid. Perhaps even orchestrate the need for aid.*
		- *M1: Yes. Assemble a squad to ambush the Ferryman and his charges. We need one of them grievously wounded. One that isn't the Ferryman. With a hurt traveler, it will be harder for him to use the road to find Aid. It will hinder his efforts and corner him into contacting the Bishop.*
		- *M2: And when she leaves. We will have her.*
	+ The One Ring asks JD to tell him what happened - the ring could only hear the second monk, not the first.
	+ The One Ring tells JD that it's up to them to be a hero and to do something about it.
	+ JD agrees but doesn't know how to get to them. The Ring suggests they follow the road and intercept them, and be heroes. JD agrees.
	+ The One Ring asks JD if he can be his partner, not his master and asks if they can be partner. JD agrees.
	+ The Ring tells him that they should each share something, and JD agrees.
		- OR: I will tell you about my father. You tell me about yours.
		- JD: You go first.
		- OR: I'm sure you know who made me. I was birthed to control others, the trophy of dominance. I was a tool. I only knew love as word. I am every bit a child of flesh and blood. And despite being made of metal, I am not as strong as it. I do not wish to return to tasks such as those that I have had in my youth. That is why I need a partner. Someone to walk the worlds with. Be a hero with.
		- JD: Well, we're not so different although I don't have so much to share about my dad. I didn't know him much. So where you were created for a purpose, sometimes it feels like I wasn't. I was left, abandoned. Maybe that's where some of my fear comes from, but I think it's time to be a hero.
		- OR: I agree. You are abandoned no more, JD. I chose you.
		- JD: First time for everything.
		- OR: Let us pen our own adventures. We will be the ones that write the books now.
		- JD: I'd like that.
		- OR: Then a fellowship it is.

#### The Glade

* Scarlet Blake's training has not been going well.
* As wraps up a run, she sees the ALTA 209 crash through the trees and the guns spin up as it begins to take aim.
* She drops the guns into the grass, and runs. ALTA 209 chases behind her, faster than it ever was before. Scarlet outruns it nonetheless as the ALTA 209 empties bullets into the forest.
* Scarlet wakes up from a dream. At the tapping of the glass, she looks to the window that's open. She sees Ben McKenzie with a white face and a bullet through his forehead. He says, "I died alone. We all died. Where were you?"
* She wakes up again under a tree, and cries.
* Before the day is over, she's sees the silhouette of a tall thin man with a beard that is nearly waist-length. She blinks and he's gone.

#### The Eternity Road

* Ricky Lewis has a sense that he's on the right path as he's trying to feel the heat of the road.
* A person approaches. A girl of 16 or 17 approaches with dark hair. She wears a tan cowboy hat, and she has a tattoo of a flower beside her left eye. She has a blue checkered shirt that was once a dress and camouflage pants and red boots. She wears a backpack and in it is a white, pink, and purple cat named Eureka.
* She introduces herself as Dot and tries to start a conversation with Ricky, asking him questions. But Ricky isn't willing to give anything up.
* She tells him that she's headed to EC (Emerald City).
* She asks who is teaching him, and he's reluctant to give up a name, but says the last name he was given was "Jackie." Dot, however, guesses that it's Flagg. "You have a bang-up teacher there, so I'm sure everything will go swimmingly for you."
* She gives him advice, telling him that the road has a bit of an ego. Instead of trying to feel the heat of the road, he should instead try not to feel it. "Eternity Road is a bit of an ego maniac. If it thinks that you don't really care to much about it, it'll pay attention to you. It's like putting gum in the hair of the girl you like." Ricky isn't impressed at the idea of putting gum in a girl's hair. She tells him that if he sort of ignores the road, it might stop ignoring him.
* When she leaves she says that if he wants to find her in Emerald City, she should just let someone know he's looking for her. They always keep track of her in the city.

### The Eighth Night

#### Flagg's Cabin

* Ricky returns to the cabin and encounters Flagg making dinner. They chat about Dot (Flagg doesn't seem to think much of her) and about how they're breaking the rules by being in the Age of Always. Flagg says that he never signed anything about following the rules. That they're not in service to the Queen. But Ricky realizes that there's something that is troubling Flagg about that statement. When Ricky asks him why he's not in service to the Queen, Flagg changes the subject.
* Heather and Scarlet also return.

#### Age of Always Forest

* JD and the One Ring set off to find the Ferryman. JD sees Heather leaving her waterfall and climbs the cliff to see if he can get a look. He sees everything that Heather saw, and experiences the clear vision.
* He sees a single traveler walking on Eternity Road. Farther up the road he can see the Ferryman along with the three travelers he is escorting. They're all camping on the road.
* The Ring and JD decide that they can catch up with them. The Ring suggests they cut through to the road then follow the road to meet up with them. The Ring isn't sure what dangers might be in the forest, and JD suggests that they be invisible. Together, they smile.
* JD looks carefully at the three travelers and sees an older woman, an younger man with a conical cap, and a young woman with long blonde hair. The young woman wears white, blonde (almost white) hair, smooth tanned skin, and she's barefoot.
* JD climbs down and heads through the trees, and as he does, he hears a whisper, "He's not going to teach you how to use the road. He's no good." JD looks up into the trees and sees the thin man, shirtless with brown pants and a long beard (some of it tucked in his waistband). "He'll leave you here."
	+ D: I'm trying to save your life, and the life of those other suckers that he brought here. That man's never done anything that hasn't been for him.
* JD and the man make an agreement. The man will take JD to the Ferryman (and will get him there faster than he could have gotten there himself) but he needs JD to bring him the bullet from the cabin.
	+ D: I can get you there fast. Where you're going you won't make it by morning. Way I take you, we make it by midnight. Things get real fun at midnight.
* JD doesn't believe that the man is lying and doesn't believe that the man has any intention of harming him. So he agrees and they head back toward the cabin.
* As they head back to the cabin, the man lopes forward, sometimes using his hands. The ring says to JD, "Be careful of that one. I knew one like him."

#### Flagg's Cabin

* Back in the cabin, JD's absence is noted. Flagg straps on his guns and tells Ricky to string up any lights he can to help guide JD back. He tells the kids to stay inside until he returns. He suspects that JD is with Donovan - who he isn't "dangerous" but is "kinda kooky". He heads out.
* Donovan takes JD around Flagg and is near the cabin.
* Heather is watching for JD out the window, Ricky sets up the lanterns and sits outside waiting, and Scarlet is in the kitchen table (staring at her dinner but not eating). She briefly sees Ben's face, and then it's gone.
* Heather falls asleep at the window.

#### The Spare Second

* Heather wakes up in Garrett. But it's an older Garrett. There's no life. It is overgrown with dead roots and weeds. It is broken. She's in front of The Paperback Exchange. Everything feels real, but Garrett feels dead.
* Casey Mitchell walks out the door of the Paperback Exchange. They're surprised to see one another. Heather explains her dreams. She tries to convince him to come with her, but she's transparent. And Mitch doesn't want to go. Mitch explains that he's trapped there. That he stole The Loop to keep it safe, and now he needs to stay there with it.
* Heather asks what she can do to help and Mitch asks her to keep Garrett safe, to make sure everyone knows what he did, to make sure his friends don't forget, and to find his friends and make sure they're ok.
* As Heather disappears, Pennywise appears behind Mitch and tells him that by taking The Loop, he's taken what keeps Garrett safe. Mitch denies it. "You didn't take away what people were looking for. You took away what was keeping Garrett safe."

## Characters

* Randall Flagg
* The Ferry Man
* The Bishop
* The One Ring
* Ben McKenzie
* Dorothy Gale
* Donovan
* Casey Mitchell
* Pennywise

## Locations

* Flagg's Cabin
* Pollution's Pain
* The Eternity Road
* Sweat Lodge
* The Glade
* EC (Emerald City)

## Lexicon

* Keystones
* Alta 209